48.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard House Republicans, like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), say that the classified documents on the Taliban dont contain what the White House claims. Margaret Brennan tweeted: UPDATE: @RepLizCheney said in a House briefing today that she reviewed the classified documents related to the Trump-Taliban deal & that they "do not include in them the things that @SecPompeo said they would." HASC here: https://t.co/EjXqpPlbI0 https://t.co/3cazTLplz5 margaret brennan (@margbrennan) March 3, 2020 Video of Cheney: The Trump administration has been lying about the deal. Rep. Cheney said that the classified documents dont contain what Pompeo said they do. Cheney noted that there are secret documents that have not been released, and said that the United States does not have a verification agreement with the Taliban, and no renunciation of al-Qaeda. The surrender of Afghanistan that Trump handed the Taliban could be a much worse deal than anyone imagined. The deal is so bad that the administration looks to be hiding key pieces of it from Congress. Trump appears to be giving the Taliban everything that theyve ever wanted: Since Saturday, the Taliban got a televised handshake with a presidential envoy, a signed agreement with the U.S. promising eventual lifting of sanctions and now today a phone call from Trump. The Taliban are progressing toward their goal of international recognition. https://t.co/aSgVRj60iu Dan De Luce (@dandeluce) March 3, 2020 In exchange, the US has received nothing. The country has seen this pattern before in Trumps dealings with North Korea. The president surrenders Americas interests to the lowest of the international low and then lies to cover his tracks. Congress and the American people need to see whats really in Trumps deal with the Taliban. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The recent reports of crimes allegedly committed by Chinese nationals in the country are just "isolated incidents" and do not reflect the Philippines' relationship with China, the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said. "Individual illegal and criminal cases involving Chinese citizens are only isolated incidents and cannot represent the whole picture of China-Philippines relations," said the Embassy in a statement on Wednesay. This was in response to reported illicit incidents involving Chinese nationals, which senators said are linked to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators industry. The Embassy said it condemns "irresponsible remarks" and allegations on China based on politically-motivated fake news. The Chinese government is already working with Philippine officials on combating transnational crimes, it added. "The China-Philippines relations have maintained a good momentum of development, which serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples," said the Embassy. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Thursday will investigate large sums of cash, amounting to billions of pesos, brought to the Philippines mostly by Chinese visitors. Senator Richard Gordon said that this amount could have been used for money laundering given that authorities failed to track where the money went. Gordon also blamed the Duterte administration's "too soft" stance on China for the rise in incidents involving the Chinese. However, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo has maintained that the government does not give special treatment to Chinese nationals. Earlier, Senator Risa Hontiveros also revealed a scheme wherein Chinese nationals - including POGO workers - conspired with immigration employees to enter the country without undergoing screening procedures through a so-called "pastillas" scheme. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has dismissed Oleksiy Honcharuk from the post of Ukraine's prime minister. A total of 353 MPs voted for a respective draft resolution at a snap parliament meeting on Wednesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. After the vote, Honcharuk and the entire composition of the Cabinet of Ministers left the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada. Honcharuk tendered his resignation on March 3. Incumbent Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Communities and Territories Development Denys Shmyhal is to replace Honcharuk as Ukraine's prime minister. Honcharuk took up the prime minister's post on August 29, 2019. Prior to that, he headed the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO). On October 4, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved the government's program of activities proposed by Honcharuk. According to the law on the Cabinet of Ministers, after approval of the program of activities, the parliament cannot consider a motion of no confidence in the government and its dismissal for 12 months. The dismissal is possible only if the prime minister himself tenders his resignation. op HC junks plea by Nirbhaya case convict claiming he was not in Delhi at time of crime Pawan Guptas mercy plea rejected, Tihar to seek fresh death warrant from court India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Mar 04: The Tihar Jail authorities will move Patiala House court for fixing fresh date of execution of the four Nirbhaya case convicts after rejection of mercy plea of Pawan Gupta by President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday. "In view of the rejection of mercy petition of Pawan by the Hon'ble President of India, we will be approaching the Patiala House Court today for fixing a fresh date of execution of death warrant in respect of all the four convicts," Tihar spokesperson said. Meanwhile, lawyer of the parents of the December 2012 gangrape and murder victim, Advocate Seema Kushwaha said that they are moving an application seeking a fresh date for the execution of the four convicts. "We are moving a fresh application in Delhi court to fix a fresh date for the execution of the four convicts. All the convicts have exhausted their complete rights. The date which will be fixed now will be the final date," Kushwaha told ANI. Nirbhaya: No condemned convict should meet his creator with a grievance says Delhi court NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was taken for better medical treatment. A total of six people-Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile-were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student here. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 15:54 [IST] Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:37:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Argentina and Chile on Tuesday each reported their first confirmed case of COVID-19, as countries in Latin America took steps to curb potential outbreaks. Both patients had recently returned to South America from trips abroad. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera allayed fears of a widespread epidemic, saying his country has put in place all of the recommendations made by the World Health Organization (WHO) to head off an outbreak. "I want to deliver a message of tranquility to all of my compatriots," said Pinera, adding he had spoken earlier with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa Etienne. They have learned in detail the way in which Chile has faced this situation and they see Chile a true model for other countries, said Pinera. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez called on the population to be alert, but not alarmed by the emergence of the coronavirus. "We should not be alarmed, though we should be attentive," Fernandez told local media, following the announcement of the country's first case. In Ecuador's capital Quito, local authorities launched the process of disinfecting public transit systems used by some 650,000 passengers a day, including transportation units and stations. Authorities also installed anti-bacterial gel dispensers at stations and distributed face masks to related personnel. Ecuador has so far reported seven cases of the coronavirus. Chile's first COVID-19 patient is a 33-year-old man who recently traveled extensively through Asia and returned via Europe, according to the country's National Institute of Public Health. The patient spent almost a month visiting Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Maldives before traveling to Spain for his return trip to Chile on Feb. 25. By March 1, he began to have respiratory symptoms. After being tested for COVID-19, he was quarantined for treatment. Argentina's first case involves a man, 43, who returned to the capital city of Buenos Aires on Sunday from Italy. "The man was in several places in Europe, but mainly in Italy, in the north," Argentine Health Minister Gines Gonzalez told reporters at a press conference. The patient told healthcare workers that he lived alone and did not attend social events, so the chances of having infected others were low. In Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have also reported COVID-19 cases. Welsh Government announce 2.5 million support for businesses hit by flooding This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 The Welsh Government is making up to 2.5 million emergency funding available to support businesses severely impacted by floods caused by Storms Ciara and Dennis. Businesses recovering from the devastating effects of the floods, specifically small to medium sized enterprises, will be able to apply for a grant of up to 2,500 each to help get them fully functional as quickly as possible. The First Minister recently announced that up to 10 million is being made available for the initial response to the floods and todays announcement forms part of that support package. The fund will be administered by Business Wales and will support businesses with the immediate costs of recovery not covered by insurance, and to help meet the cost of renting alternative space and retaining staff. Further details on how to apply for the fund will be made available in the coming days through the Business Wales website and businesses can also contact the Business Wales helpline on 0300 060 3000. The 2.5 million fund is in addition to support the Welsh Government will provide for local authorities to meet the costs of discretionary business rates relief due to flooding for up to three months where a number of business premises are affected in a concentrated location. Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates said: Communities and business have suffered devastating and unprecedented effects from recent storms and subsequent flooding. I have seen, first hand, the great community response to help people in need as well as the work of volunteers. Today, the Welsh Government is announcing up to 2.5 million to support businesses, specifically SMEs, who have felt the full force of the floods. Each impacted business will be able to apply for up to 2,500 each to help get up and running again. This will be in addition to meeting Local Authorities eligible costs for the use of discretionary rates relief due to flooding. As a government, we continue to work closely with councils to get a clear picture of the scale of the damage. This will determine how much additional funding is needed and what financial support we would look for the UK Government to provide. As the Coronovirus pandemic takes hold across the UK, with 53 cases now reported by health authorities, the window of a medical equipment business in south London, a surgical mask is worn by a nurse's mannequin, on 4th March 2020, in London, England. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images) The coronavirus is the ripped from the headlines angle scammers are using to take advantage of the increased fears surrounding the virus, in order to solicit money and personal information from people. Criminals are using various platforms, including email and social media, in attempt to defraud victims. Here is a roundup of what to look out for from scams related to COVID-19. Phishing scams The World Health Organization issued a warning recently about fraudulent and malicious emails claiming to be from the organization in an attempt to steal money or sensitive information. The email will request the person give sensitive information, such as usernames or passwords, and will request them click on a malicious link and attachment. If the links are clicked, scammers are able to install malware or steal sensitive information. The WHO stresses they will: Never ask you to log in to view safety information Never send attachments via email that you didnt ask for Never ask you to visit a link outside of www.who.int Never charge money to apply for a job, register for a conference, or reserve a hotel Never conduct lotteries or offer prizes, grants, certificates or funding through email Never ask you to donate directly to emergency response plans or funding appeals The WHO also outlines other details to look out for if you believe youre being targeted by a cybercriminal who appears to be from the organization. You can report a suspected scam directly on the WHO website. Social media posts Be weary of posts on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, related to the coronavirus. The posts sometimes appear to promote tips on preventing the disease and include fake information about cases in your area. They may also solicit users for donations for victims, or emergency response plans. If you come across solicitations for donations, be sure to do your research first and verify its a credible charity or crowdfunding site. Avoiding clicking on links that dont appear to be from reputable sources. Story continues Fake products To date, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19, so any product claiming to do so is a scam. Avoid clicking on ads that purport to have prevention, treatment or cures for the virus. Products being advertised on a coronavirus Facebook page, suggesting that these products can help prevent COVID-19. (Facebook) Amazon recently banned more than 1 million items from its site, which falsely claimed to cure or protect against the coronavirus. Theyve also taken to task tens of thousands of merchants that have tried to price gouge customers on products like face masks and hand sanitizers. A search for coronavirus on the site now brings up survival manuals, as well as vitamin C immune boosters. There have been unfounded claims that taking the vitamin helps prevent infection of COVID-19. Banking sector saw signs of stability in 2019. The year saw the government announcing the biggest ever consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs), increased capital raising by private banks, peaking of bad loan provisioning, deterioration of asset quality and return to higher operating profits. It is in this backgdrop that Business Today-KPMG started the annual exercise of picking India's Best Banks and Fintechs. This six-month process started with knowledge partner KPMG studying annual reports of banks and reaching out to them for qualitative inputs in areas such as rural outreach, innovation and fintech engagement. The team also reached out to the fintech community in areas of Payments, Lending and Value Added Services to arrive at a list of best five in each category. The next step was to put the entire Best Banks and Fintech study before an external jury to decide the winners. The jury comprised Vinayak Bahuguna, MD & CEO, ARCIL India; Arun Purwar, Former Chairman, State Bank of India; Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman, Desai Haribhakti Group; Seshagiri Rao, Joint MD, JSW Steel; and Sandeep Chiber, India Head, FIS Global. The jury commended the inherent strengths of Indian banking. There was a lengthy discussion to decide the "Bank of the Year" where the jury gave a joint award to HDFC Bank and SBI. Apart from the financial performance of top banks in quantitative terms, the jury also looked at qualitative factors. The members deliberated on issues like succession and leadership. They also talked about governance issues. The trust factor was also touched upon in view of the recent debacle at some cooperative banks. The quality of banks' books and market perception also found mention in the deliberations. The jury was keen to cover microfinance in the financial inclusion awards, and as per its advice, the 'Financial Inclusion' nomenclature was changed to 'Best Bank in Rural Outreach.' The jury decided to give more weight to size and scale of rural outreach as the bulk of data points related to number of branches, business correspondents, Jhan Dhan accounts, Mudra loans and number of customers benefited. Here is the detailed methodology for the BT-KPMG Best Bank Survey 2019. Quantitative Rankings For rankings based on pure financial performance, data was taken from published annual reports of banks for FY16 to FY19. The survey covered 51 scheduled commercial banks that had put annual reports in public domain or provided their annual reports at the time of conducting the survey prior to December 31, 2019. Scheduled commercial banks with balance sheet of less than Rs 5,000 crore on March 31, 2019, were not considered. Also not covered were scheduled commercial banks whose financial statements were not available with us or which did not want to participate or which had not completed four years in India as on March 31, 2019, or were involved in mergers. The Ranking Process The banks were divided between 'Indian banks' (consisting of public and private sector banks) and 'Foreign banks' (branches of foreign banks in India). The banks in each of the above categories were further classified based on balance sheet size as on March 31, 2019. Group I: Indian banks with balance sheet size of more than or equal to Rs 3,00,000 crore; Group II: Indian banks with balance sheet size of more than Rs 1,00,000 crore and less than Rs a3,00,000 crore; Group III: Indian banks with balance sheet size of less than or equal to Rs 1,00,000 crore; Group IV: Foreign banks with balance sheet size of more than or equal to Rs 25,000 crore; and Group V: Foreign banks with balance sheet of more than Rs 5,000 crore and less than Rs 25,000 crore. Ranking Parameters The banks were adjudged on three parameters - Growth, Size and Strength - divided into 32 sub-parameters: A. Growth There were five sub-parameters in this category, which included growth over FY18 in deposits, alongside three-year compounded annual growth rate, or CAGR, of total deposits; growth over FY18 in loans and advances, alongside three-year CAGR in loans and advances; growth over FY18 in fee income (commission, exchange, brokerage plus miscellaneous income), alongside three-year CAGR (or less, as applicable) in fee income; growth over FY18 in operating profit, alongside three-year CAGR (or less, as applicable) in operating profit; and absolute increase in market share of deposits and current account savings account balances. B. Size There were three sub-parameters in this category, which included size of total deposits, size of operating profits and size of balance sheet for FY19. C. Strength There were four overarching sub-parameters in this category, each with further sub-divisions, as set out below: 1. Quality of assets: Total NPA growth ratio: Addition to NPAs during the year as percentage of average net advances; NPA coverage: provisioning for NPAs as percentage of gross NPA closing balance; net NPAs as ratio of net advances: gross NPAs net of provisioning expressed as percentage of net advances; divergence in gross NPAs: difference between gross NPAs as per the RBI rules and reported by the bank as percentage of addition to NPAs; divergence in provisioning for NPAs: difference in provisioning for NPAs as per the RBI and reported by the bank as percentage of reported profit before provisioning and contingencies; restructured assets as ratio of total average loans and advances (i.e. average of closing balance of FY18 and FY19); data for Bank of Maharashtra in the parameter "outstanding restructured assets as percentage of outstanding loans and advances" was not available. For rankings based on divergence in gross NPAs and divergence in provisioning for NPAs, banks having divergence of less than 15 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, were assigned the highest rank in that parameter. Further, for determining rankings based on the provision coverage ratio parameter, banks having zero NPAs and banks having a provision coverage ratio of 100 per cent were assigned the highest rank in that parameter. 2. Productivity and efficiency: Cost to income ratio: Operating expenditure as percentage of operating income; cost to average asset ratio: operating expenditure as percentage of average total assets; absolute increase in return on assets: basis points increase in return on assets (net profit over total average assets) from FY18 to FY19; percentage increase in ratio of operating profit to total income from FY18 to FY19. 3. Quality of Earnings: Things considered were return on assets: Ratio of net profit to average total assets; fee income as percentage of total income; return on capital employed: reported net profit divided by average net worth; net interest margin: total interest income minus total interest expenses as percentage of average interest earning assets; penalties imposed by RBI during the year. 4. Capital adequacy and liquidity coverage: Capital adequacy ratio: Capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio for FY19; Tier-I capital: total of equity capital and disclosed reserves; liquidity coverage ratio: ratio of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) to total net cash outflows over the following 30 calendar days. Final Scoring/Rating For each bank, a score was assigned for each of the 32 sub-parameters, based on its rank on those parameters. The score under each parameter was then multiplied by the parameters weight to arrive at the final score for a bank. The results were aggregated to arrive at the final rankings based on the total score. Qualitative Rankings Banks (Innovation and Best Rural Outreach Awards): The jury considered 'Qualitative Awards' to appreciate the initiatives in Innovation and Rural Outreach. The information was collated based on self-nomination. For the Innovation category, parameters such as area of innovation, adoption level, uniqueness of innovation and overall impact on customers were considered. The evaluation was conducted on the basis of banks' responses and secondary research to identify the uniqueness of each initiative. For the Best Rural Outreach category, in addition to banks' responses, information on customers on-boarded and customer outreach was gathered through banks' annual reports, RBI and other secondary research. Parameters such as Customer Outreach, Rural Penetration, Customers On-boarded under various government initiatives and technology initiatives to enhance rural outreach were considered for scoring. The banks who have defined a successful model for the innovation and Rural Outreach across these parameters were evaluated and ranked. Banks (Fintech Initiative) KPMG received responses from banks and analysed areas of fintech association, level of adoption, uniqueness and overall impact of the initiatives. KPMG's association with the fintech ecosystem and understanding of fintech nuances based on nomination details shared by banks was instrumental in evaluating the performance of banks across the parameters. Fintech (Lending, Payments, VAS) The total number of nominations sourced was 32 across categories of payments, lending and VAS. The key parameters considered for scoring were financial health, funding maturity, differentiation basis business model, technology, key focus and solutions, level of adoption across customers, geographies and industry, and business volumes of the company. We can go back and forth all night, Hickerson said. This is about the Second Amendment and asking the freeholders to stand with us for the Second Amendment. We are not the militia. We are law-abiding gun owners of Atlantic County and New Jersey. Opponents particularly objected to wording that suggested county funds may be used to fight state or federal laws. Part of the resolution states the county opposes, within the limits of the Constitution of the United States of America, any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights, and that the County will use such legal means at its disposal to protect the rights of the citizens to keep and bear arms. Some questioned who would decide what laws are unconstitutional, and the definition of legal means at its disposal. Republican Freeholder Amy Gatto said the freeholders have no ability to do anything other than pass resolutions and ordinances, and cannot spend money without the administration requesting it. Take it out! shouted someone in the audience, but the freeholders declined to do so. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with his wife Jill during a Super Tuesday election night rally in Los Angeles on March 3, 2020. Read more LEESBURG, Va. Bill Huss describes himself as Christian and conservative, but he doesnt like President Donald Trump. Hes not a nice person," said Huss, 66. So on Tuesday here, he hoped to pick a Democrat who could defeat Trump. But Huss wasnt sure what he would do if Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic nomination. If Bernie Sanders was the nominee, my God, I might have to vote for that idiot, Huss said, meaning Trump. He voted for Joe Biden on Tuesday. In this rapidly growing, wealthy suburb about 40 miles outside Washington, Huss represents the kind of voter who has become a critical piece of the Democratic coalition since Trumps election including in Pennsylvania. Voters like him played a major role in Bidens remarkable surge in Virginia and other Super Tuesday states across the country. READ MORE: The Joe Biden vs. Bernie Sanders show is coming to Pennsylvania Much like similar areas outside Philadelphia, affluent suburbs in Northern Virginia have increasingly become Democratic strongholds as they have grown more diverse, and as moderate voters recoiled from Trumps caustic persona. And as in Pennsylvania, Democrats have come to rely on those suburbs to offset Republicans growing strength in rural areas. Biden, who had massive support among African Americans, dominated D.C.'s Virginia suburbs Tuesday as turnout in the state almost doubled compared with the 2016 primary. His victory there raised questions about who can draw the broadest array of support, and whether Sanders calls for a grassroots revolution can truly expand the Democratic electorate, as he has claimed, or would instead repel a newly reliable piece of the partys support. Asim Shaikh, 55, said he considers himself an independent, and wants to see Trump defeated. But he wont support Sanders. I would never vote for him. His math doesnt add up, Shaikh said after voting for Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday in Ashburn, Va. Bloomberg dropped out of the race Wednesday and endorsed Biden, after more than $500 million in spending failed to translate into significant traction with voters. If its a choice between Sanders and Trump, I will vote for Trump, because I dont want socialism, Shaikh said. Sanders has built his electability argument around igniting a surge of liberal and working-class voters who would, in theory, reshape the political landscape. Yet while the enthusiasm of his supporters is unmistakable, so far, theres little evidence of a surge of new voters. First-time voters overwhelmingly favored Sanders on Tuesday, but made up only 13% of the electorate, according to NBC exit polls in nine of the 14 states that voted. READ MORE: Joe Biden scores big Super Tuesday wins as Bernie Sanders takes California Meanwhile Democrats actual political gains since 2016 have largely been fueled by moderate voters, especially suburban college-educated women, including in the Philadelphia suburbs. Both Leesburg and Ashburn lie in Virginias 10th Congressional District, the wealthiest in the country. In 2018, voters here elected a Democrat for the first time in about 40 years. Biden took 51% of the vote in the district Tuesday, while 24% backed Sanders. And in Virginia, 40% of first-time Democratic voters supported Biden, CNNs exit poll found, more than any other candidate. "The turnouts turned out for us, Biden said in his victory speech Tuesday night. Though Sanders actually performed slightly better in the Virginia suburbs than he did in its rural or urban areas, many suburban voters were driven more by distaste for Trumps behavior than by an ideological pull to the left. About 58% of the states Democratic electorate said their main motivation was to beat Trump, and 63% of those voters chose Biden, according to exit polls by CNN. Many of the states voters work in or around government in nearby Washington, making them part of the establishment class Trump and Sanders have vilified. Caitlin Manson, a health and wellness consultant in Ashburn, said most of her clients are Republicans who hate Trump, but they wont vote for Sanders. So while Manson, 24, preferred a more progressive option, she voted for Biden. Whoever can beat Trump is what I care about, she said. In nearby Leesburg, Darwin Hanna, 55, said Bidens plan to strengthen the Affordable Care Act was more realistic than Sanders Medicare for All plan, and less likely to harm other Democrats on the ballot. Im not sure how much support nationwide in a general election Sanders could get, said Hanna, another Biden voter. In interviews with about 30 voters, there was a consistent dividing line. Those whose top priority was just winning almost always picked Biden, and those who listed a specific issue as a top concern, such as health care or climate change, were usually with Sanders. Trump scares me to death and I dont see Bernie being much different, said Gary Shulz, 77. Im not looking for any kind of revolution. Im looking for someone to unite the country again. READ MORE: A progressive movement sweeping through counties Trump won in Pennsylvania could help Bernie Sanders win Yet while older and more affluent voters felt comfortable with Bidens promises to restore order, younger and working-class voters often want more drastic action. Many feel left behind by the Great Recession and political and economic elites, and fear the dangers of climate change. Scott Gauthier, 26, said he has been held back by the prospect of big medical bills as he gets tested for neurological problems that have caused a seizure and fainting. He has insurance but has to pay a large deductible. I want to move out and start my life independently and I feel like something so crucial is holding me back, said Gauthier, of Ashburn. We should be focusing on helping society, not a certain bracket." He supported Sanders. Declan T. Galvin, 24, said the gap between the upper class and working class is becoming unsustainable. Fiona Galvin, 26, his sister, said Sanders is the only candidate with the vision to meet the challenges presented by climate change and economic inequality. The two Leesburg voters were examples of the overwhelming support Sanders has with younger voters. Almost 60% of voters aged 18 to 29 across the country supported him Tuesday. Latino voters, a potentially powerful force in several key states, also strongly backed Sanders. You cannot beat Trump with the same old same old kind of politics, Sanders told supporters Tuesday night. What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement. Which brings young people into our political movement. Yet even some young voters worried about his path to victory. Devon Carter, 24, supported Sanders in 2016, but he backed Biden on Tuesday in Leesburg. Electability was my No. 1 [issue]. I just cant do another four years of Trump, Carter said. As for the more liberal options, Carter said: Theyre good, but theyre not going to pull anybody from the right or the middle. Former Vice President Joe Biden took home an early victory on Super Tuesday in Virginia. Minutes after the polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, he was projected to win the state by The Associated Press. Virginia offers 99 Democratic delegates. Voters across Massachusetts and 13 states, the District of Columbia and other territories head to the polls on Tuesday, March 3. 69 Election 2020: Super Tuesday in Massachusetts 1,357 delegates about a third of the 3,979 contested nationwide will be divided proportionally among candidates who earn at least 15% support. A candidate would need 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention. The Democratic nominee needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention to be held July 13-16 in Milwaukee. Hillary Clinton received the majority of votes during the 2016 Democratic primary. ONEIDA, N.Y. -- A Madison County landlord has been accused of discriminating against a resident with disabilities, according to federal officials. The charge stems from a case in July of 2015, in which a woman was kicked out of her apartment after refusing to pay a pet fee, according to a complaint filed with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The woman needed the pet, a dog, to cope with a psychiatric condition, the complaint said. The landlord, Milton James, has been accused of evicting the woman because of the pet, HUD said. The woman signed a lease beginning on Aug. 1, 2015, according to the complaint. The initial lease for an apartment at 303 Lenox Ave. waived a $50 pet fee because the woman required the pet to cope with a psychiatric condition, the complaint said. Within a few days James had the woman sign a second lease, which required that the woman to not talk about the accommodation and make sure the dog didnt bark too much, the complaint said. The woman began taking her dog to a friends house on weekdays, according to the complaint. After the woman was hired at a job, James tried to pull the waiver and make the woman pay the fee, the complaint said. The woman did not pay the fee, according to the complaint. James tried to evict the woman, texting the womans neighbor to tell her to leave the apartment, the complaint said. She eventually moved out of the apartment, according to the complaint. On Dec. 15, 2015, James sent the woman a letter, telling her that she owed him $926.50, the complaint said. James said he was owed a dog security deposit of $350 and four months in pet fees, which totaled $200, the complaint said. Those were included in the $926.50. In the letter, James wrote that he would countersue if the woman sued him and that problems with the dog were among the reasons the woman was forced from the apartment, the complaint said. An administrative law judge will hear the case and, if discrimination is found to have happened, the woman could be awarded damages, HUD said. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. The photo of Vice President Mike Pence and other Coronavirus task force team praying on February 26, was released at the White House and began to float on social media. Reverend Franklin Graham shared two pictures of Vice President, Mike Pence, and other TF team members praying on his Facebook page on Mar. 2. "A touching & powerful photo of Vice President Mike Pence and the President's Coronavirus Taskforce praying when they met last week in his office. Thank you VP Pence and each one who is serving. Let's join them in asking God for His wisdom, direction, & help in the response to this virus" said reverend Franklin on his twitter. A photo showing Vice President Mike Pence praying with members of the Coronavirus TF is a critical indication of the U.S. response to the deadly outbreak. Vice President Pence took over the U.S. Coronavirus task force in late February amid concerns over the government's different levels of involvement. The TF team was also expanded to include the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Dr Anthony S. Fauci, and AIDS researcher Dr Robert R. Redfield. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. A quiet Huawei Technologies Co.-led 5G revolution is unfolding at the heart of Europe -- in the bucolic Swiss hamlet of Taenikon. Far from President Donald Trumps campaign to stop the world from using the Chinese companys technology, cows in this northern Swiss village -- with its white-washed cottages and manicured fields -- wear Huaweis 5G-connected neck-straps instead of traditional flat bells. And in the villages Cistercian abbey, converted into a test farm, Switzerlands second-biggest telecommunications operator, Sunrise Communications Group AG, and Huawei test the next-generation 5G wireless network. You could call it a Fitbit for cows, said Alexander Lehrmann, Sunrises chief of new business development and internet of things, referring to Fitbit Inc.s fitness device. It allows farmers to get complete control and insight into their health conditions at any time and from any place. While countries in Europe are grappling with U.S. claims that Huaweis gear could open them up to Chinese spying, Switzerland is quietly building a network with the company. Flying under the radar, the Swiss have become world leaders in the rollout of 5G technology with the early sprouting of private and public networks. Entities from the Zurich airport, the national mail service and railways to food giant Nestle SA and Zurich Insurance Group AG either have or envisage private networks with Sunrise, whose exclusive supplier is Huawei. The Swiss government has done a very neutral and objective evaluation of Huawei and they have come to the conclusion that there is no significant other risks included in the technology and in Huawei as a company, Sunrise Chief Executive Officer Andre Krause said in an interview. (But) if the reputation of Huawei is continuously under pressure, that could also have an impact on us at some stage. The stakes are high as networks move toward the new-generation technology that promises faster connections, enabling uses such as autonomous vehicles, remote surgery and the transfer of data over a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. For now, much of whats happening with Huawei in Switzerland is the industrial use of 5G, or private networks, that draw less attention. But Switzerland is also the first country in Europe to start using a commercial 5G network for individuals in a limited way, amid opposition from environmental and health activists fighting antenna emissions. Read: Health Scares Slow the Rollout of 5G Cell Towers in Europe The U.S. has been frustrated by Europes refusal to accede to Trumps demands to keep Chinese tech companies out of advanced 5G networks. The U.K., France, and Germany are all looking to keep the door open to the Chinese telecom giant in some way, snubbing the U.S. view that Huawei could be a security risk. Italy, Croatia and Hungary, like Switzerland, have signed partnerships with Huawei. The Chinese company in February touted as many as 47 commercial contracts for 5G in Europe, more than in Asia. It claims to have 91 contracts, but did not respond to queries seeking details. Still, the European Union may force member states to eventually change some of the deals after the bloc published a series of security recommendations in its 5G toolbox that could keep non-European gear makers out of the network core, towers and towers bases. Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, doesnt face those constraints. Swiss insurers and pharmaceutical companies are testing Huaweis 5G networks. Huawei has also built a partnership with the Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd., which is seeking to offer industrial partners competitive 5G platforms. Sunrises Lehrmann said banks havent yet signed up. He said Sunrise is present in Swiss hospitals, where the use case is what can you do in order to improve the patient experience by connecting data. Swisscom, the former monopoly is also testing the industrial technology but wont disclose its gear maker. Salt, the Iliad SA-owned Swiss operator, is working with Nokia. Radio Network Antennas (the technical name for private networks) are inside offices, factory, hospitals, whatever it is, Duncan Stewart, Deloittes director of research in telecommunications, told reporters in Paris Feb. 4. The machinery in your factory, the robots, the sensors, the cameras, the turbines, all these IoT devices, will only work on the private 5G networks. Stewart forecast that by 2030 almost all companies with more than 10,000 employees may have private 5G networks. Some other European countries are also testing private networks. The Port of Rotterdam, Europes biggest, has tested the technology starting 2018 with the national telecom operator KPN in partnership with Huawei, according to KPNs website. Germany has prioritized the expansion of its industrial 5G application too, allowing companies to apply for private networks with gear makers, without necessarily going through a telecom operator. Companies including Bosh in partnership with Nokia, Siemens with Qualcomm Inc. and Volkswagen are building such networks. To Sunrises Lehrmann, the situation is simple. Customers are looking at 5G as a technology that allows them to drive new uses and new business cases, he said. On the test farm in Taenikon, meanwhile, cows eat, sleep and stroll under surveillance cameras. Their milk production, health and other data are transmitted at speeds about 100 times faster than current networks and processed in real-time. The test is meant to see how remote farms can function, information Sunrise and Huawei can use for other applications to boost factory output, enable big data usage in the finance sector or take health care in hospitals to a newer level. The Swiss population and economy depend on high-performance mobile communications, Sunrises Chief Administrative officer Marcel Huber said on his LinkedIn account in February. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Though butyl adhesives are particularly new technology, the demand for the market has demonstrated a significant pace of traction over the years. Market focused reports linked to the chemicals & materials industry among others of late have been made accessible by Market Research Future which issues reports on this industry. The market is anticipated to grow with an unmatched CAGR percentage in the duration of the forecast period. Growing butyl rubber in adhesive uses is one of the key causes of the copolymers progress. Furthermore, the emergent transportation sector and investments in construction are anticipated to grow its demand over the period of the next seven years and open up new prospects. Rising demand from packaging and paper industry for products such as cartons, tapes, bags, etc. have given way to the unparalleled growth of the industry while opening up new avenues for expansion. The superior properties of butyl adhesives such as exceptional resistance to high durability, weather and sunlight, resistance to aging and heat have made it suitable for end use in a number of industries. Industry Segments The Butyl Adhesive Market is segmented on the basis of end use industry and region. The end use industry has segmented the market into paper & packaging, woodworking, building & construction, automotive, and others. As butyl adhesives are resistant to air and water and highly resistant to alkali and UV rays, thus extensively used in the end use industries. By region, the market segmentation includes Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Detailed Regional Analysis The regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa are a part of the Butyl Adhesive Market globally. The Asia Pacific region is projected to develop at an incremental CAGR in the forecast period owing to mounting demand from end use industries such as woodworking, building & construction and automotive. The demand for Butyl Adhesive is expected to surge in emerging countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Japan owing to increasing construction activities and development of woodworking industry. China is anticipated to be a major market in terms of consumption. Moreover, cheap labor charge, ease of accessibility to raw material, and growing development strategies to achieve the demand for butyl adhesives due to the developing applications which are the vital factors for regional market growth. The Middle East & Africa region is projected to observe considerable growth in the forthcoming years. This factor is credited to the rising development activities in the commercial and residential sector together with the growing demand for VOC free adhesives, especially in countries such as United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. The North American market is likely to observe stable development in the use of butyl adhesive over the forecast period. The U.S. is foreseen to be the biggest butyl adhesive market in the region followed by Mexico and Canada. The Latin American countries like Argentina and Brazil, are also expected to observe stable growth owing to modest demand from packaging and woodworking industries. The European region is foreseen to be the second biggest market after the Asia Pacific region in the consumption of Butyl Adhesive. The European nations such as UK, France, Germany, and Italy are contributing to the regional market development owing to the occurrence of a large number of manufacturing companies in the region. Global Competitive Analysis The market has ushered in a new period of growth as the market is constantly in a state of mutability. The ripple effects of this growth have altered the competitive landscape of the market. Localization is among the more favored trends for expanding the market share of the competitors in the market. The potential strategy of each player in the market involves a certain degree of innovation in the product offerings to increase the possibilities for development, particularly in the forecast period. The chances for increasing revenue inflow in the business are expected to multiply through the forecast period. The intensifying interest in diversification within the business has indirectly allowed the businesses to utilize several situations obtainable in the market. The noteworthy competitors in the butyl adhesive market comprise of ADCO Global, Bostik SA, Vinati Organics Ltd., Royal General Sealants, Adhesives & Sealants, Anabond, and others. Access Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/butyl-adhesive-market-4164 10.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rachel Maddow praised voters in Super Tuesday states particularly Texas for waiting hours to cast their ballot in the Democratic primary, but she called it an outrage that its so hard to vote in America. The MSNBC host pinned the blame on Republicans for systematically creating obstacles for young people and minorities to cast their ballots. It is an outrage that it is this hard to cast a vote in this country, Maddow said. Its wrong and it should not take that much heroism and that much sacrifice to do your civic duty. Video: Rachel Maddow reacts to the long lines to vote in Texas, calling it an outrage that Republicans have made it harder for Americans to vote. #ctl #p2 #SuperTuesdayResults pic.twitter.com/rAe24AA4nV PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 4, 2020 Maddow said: It is an outrage that it is this hard to cast a vote in this country, and I know it is not only Texas but in Texas specifically over successive electoral cycles over the past ten years, the Republican-led government in Texas has made it harder and harder and harder to vote, not only in terms of the kind of documentation you have to show when you get there, but also, they have been closing precincts. They have been closing voting places. Systematically. Particularly, in places that have high minority, young people, and poor people turnout. And so some of this is deliberate. And I will say you see spikes in voter turnout some places and you get long lines and it is more inspiring than infuriating because nobody tried to make this situation happen. But in some places in the country, and I believe Texas is one of them, it is because the state government wants it to be hard to vote. And it is its wrong and it should not take that much heroism and that much sacrifice to do your civic duty. Republicans know they lose when more people vote Republicans have figured something out about American politics: The more people that are able to vote, the less likely the GOP is to win elections. So instead of appealing to a broader, diverse coalition of Americans, they have launched a crusade to make it harder for minorities, young people, and low-income folks to vote. Its inspiring to see voters wait in line for hours to cast their ballots, but it shouldnt have to be that hard to exercise your right to vote in the United States of America. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter Last month Olympia Valance's boyfriend Thomas Bellchambers unexpectedly revealed she will be joining the upcoming season of Australia's Got Talent. And on Wednesday, the 27-year-old former Neighbours star finally confirmed her exciting new Channel Seven gig in a post shared to her Instagram page. 'Cat is (officially) out of the bag!' she wrote besides a rolling eyes emoji, while tagging her AFL star partner. Exciting! Neighbours star Olympia Valance (pictured) finally confirmed she will be a judge on the upcoming season of Australia's Got Talent on Wednesday 'I cannot wait to be joining the judging panel,' she continued. 'It's Challengers & Champions this year so our Aussies will be taking on the best in the world!' she continued. She went on to reveal that auditions will be filmed at Sydney's Capitol Theatre later this month, before she encouraged her fans to part of the audience. Whoops! Last month Olympia Valance's boyfriend Thomas Bellchambers (left) unexpectedly revealed she will be joining the upcoming season of Australia's Got Talent Her boyfriend cheekily commented underneath the photo 'Old news,' along with a grimacing face emoji and face blowing a kiss. Last month, Thomas, 30, unexpectedly revealed information about Olympia's new gig during an interview with radio host Eddie McGuire. 'She's got some exciting things coming up in the next coming months, she'll be doing with Australia's Got Talent and Holey Moley, so that'll be good for her and keep her busy,' he said at the time. Oh dear! 'She's got some exciting things coming up in the next coming months, she'll be doing AGT and Holey Moley, so that'll be good for her and keep her busy,' he said at the time While Olympia's role on Holey Moley had previously been announced, Thomas' interview was the first time fans heard about her Australia's Got Talent gig. Olympia debuted her relationship with the Essendon Bomber's player last June. She will be joined by newcomer Sonia Kruger and returning judges Manu Feildel and Shane Jacobson. The upcoming season will also see Ricki-Lee Coulter return as host. NEW HAVEN Dr. John Nwangwu, a professor of public health at Southern Connecticut State University, is on-call 24/7 in case of a coronavirus emergency. If a country begins to experience an epidemic or disease such as COVID-19 that were dealing with, by their membership to the United Nations they can request technical expertise, said Nwangwu, who also is a consultant for the World Health Organization. Based on that, that request goes to the World Health Organization, and if its infectious diseases it goes to my boss and my boss determines who to give the mission or assignment to. If its me, I get the call saying I should take up this responsibility. If that were to happen, Nwangwu said he would have about six hours to put together a team before leaving to conduct an investigation and come up with control strategies to limit the transmission and continuation of a disease. As of March 3, the disease had been positively identified in 59 countries, infecting approximately 90,000 people worldwide. So far, the coronavirus has a fatality rate of about 2 percent. There have been no confirmed cases in Connecticut, but bordering states Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts all have recorded cases of the virus. Nwangwu said he cant make any conclusions about the inevitability of coronavirus because there is so much that is unknown. I wouldnt be so quick to say that well get over it very soon or that its not going to be a problem; it is also a possibility that after weve understood it and are able to put in the control measures we need that we may be successful, he said. We just dont know at this point. There are too many things we dont know about the virus. So far, Nwangwu said he has visited multiple countries in Asia for coronavirus, although he travels often. Before coronavirus became an area of concern, Nwangwus focus was on conducting a trial for a plasma transfusion in the Democratic Republic of Congo that potentially could help greatly with the eradication of ebola. The treatment trial didnt go so well, because patients were required to come into the clinic to get the plasma transfusion and there was a rebel upsurge, he said. The number of cases dwindled, but we havent been able to get enough numbers because in a trial what you want is to have a high number of samples in order to then analyze your data and come up with some conclusion. Nwangwu was part of a team from the World Health Organization in Guinea in 2014, where he helped advise affected governments trying to contain the ebola virus. Nwangwu has given presentations abroad as well as in Connecticut on emerging diseases and surveillance, infectious disease control in developing countries, and other topics. Nwangwu said the best thing laypeople can do to stop the transmission of coronavirus is to exercise basic hygiene. He said that likely would slow the virus while epidemiologists work to put controls into place. Basic hygiene includes effective hand washing, which would involve making sure they scrub in between their fingers with good soap, and to do it regularly and repeatedly, coughing into elbows away from other people, and limiting exposure to large crowds. If someone feels sick, they should stay home, he said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com A Vietnamese man has been caught carrying nearly 30 kilograms of suspected rhino horns after his flight from South Korea landed in Vietnam. The customs department at Can Tho International Airport, located in the namesake Mekong Delta city, confirmed on Tuesday they had booked Do Thanh Son, a 38-year-old Vietnamese citizen, for the violation. Son boarded a flight from South Korea to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday. However, the flight was redirected to Can Tho so that all passengers would be quarantined upon arrival as requested by Vietnamese authorities. The Vietnamese government previously announced that all people arriving from South Korea must be quarantined for 14 days given the rapid increase in cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the East Asian country. Spotting suspicious signs, customs officers at the Can Tho airdrome asked Son to open his luggage for hand inspection. The man refused to cooperate at first, explaining that the suitcases contained processed koi fish. Competent authorities were eventually able to examine the luggage and discovered 11 suspected rhino horns weighing 28.7 kilograms in total. The suspected wildlife parts have been confiscated for further investigation, while Son has been sent to a quarantine area in accordance with regulations. Transporting or trading wildlife parts is a criminal offense in Vietnam punishable by between six months and 12 years in prison, according to the countrys Penal Code. South Korea has confirmed over 5,300 COVID-19 infections and 32 deaths by the disease as of Wednesday afternoon, making it the biggest cluster outside of China, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. COVID-19, which first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 93,000 people and killed 3,202 globally, according to the same source. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Suyapa Reyes, right, carries her son Jeison, then 2, up to their room in the First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia on Sept. 4, 2018. The Reyes family began living in the church because they were at risk of being deported. Read more A Honduran migrant who avoided deportation by taking sanctuary with her four children in a Philadelphia church for 554 days will be able to leave and live legally in the United States, supporters said Tuesday night. I feel like a bird in the sky with my wings spread, Suyapa Reyes said in a statement provided by the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, which confirmed her pending departure from First United Methodist Church of Germantown. I am so happy that I won my freedom. A New Sanctuary Movement spokesperson said Reyes has received a grant of deferred action from federal immigration authorities. Those approvals typically allow undocumented families to live and work in the country without fear of deportation, usually for one or two years to start. Philadelphia has been a hub and focus of the sanctuary movement, with three immigrant families soon to be two living in churches to avoid removal from the United States. The Reyes family is planning a formal Walk to Freedom, accompanied by friends and supporters at 5 p.m. on March 12. The family will walk from First United Methodist Church of Germantown, 6001 Germantown Ave., to meet with Carmela Hernandez and her children, who in November marked two years in sanctuary at a different nearby church. Reyes took sanctuary with her children after a long-standing application for asylum was turned down. Her two youngest children are U.S. citizens. She has said returning to Honduras, from where thousands have fled crime and poverty, could get her killed. Whatever it takes, I will do for my children, she said as she entered sanctuary in September 2018. "I am father and mother to them, and I dont want them to be separated from me. Still living at FUMCOG, as the church is known, are Clive and Oneita Thompson, who lived in South Jersey after coming to the United States from Jamaica in 2004. They fled their homeland after being threatened with death by a gang. WASHINGTON She didnt win the election. But Jessica Cisneros, a 26-year-old Laredo immigration attorney, had a message for moderate Democrats like U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who beat her by about 3,000 votes in the hardest-fought campaign of his 15-year congressional career: This is just the beginning. We are going to keep fighting to create a more progressive and accountable Democratic party this year, Cisneros vowed during her concession speech on Wednesday. The fact that we were able to get within 3, 4 points just shows that theres so many people out there that share the same ideas and beliefs as we do. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Thats the message progressives up and down the ballot in Texas sent Tuesday. While they largely fell short on Super Tuesday especially in Houston, the states largest population center where moderates still reign they outperformed expectations in a state that has been a Republican stronghold for 25 years, where the conventional wisdom for Democrats has long been that a moderate message is best. "I think the notion that only moderates can be elected in Texas is on shaky ground," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political scientist. "That appetite is there." Bernie Sanders an avowed Democratic socialist pulled in 30 percent of the vote in the presidential primary and will leave Texas with a healthy chunk of its delegates. Longtime labor organizer Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, an unabashed progressive campaigning on Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, emerged from a crowded field of Democrats on Wednesday still locked in a tight race to make the runoff in the U.S. Senate primary. And two candidates running to the left of longtime state Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. forced him into an unexpected runoff to hold onto his Brownsville district. For subscribers: Emboldened Democrats say its a myth progressives cant take Texas There was an active sense that this was a heat check that was really amplified by the upswing in Sanders support that we saw in the run-up to the election, said Jim Henson, director of Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Its meaningful that Bernie Sanders got the significant share of the vote here that he did in a Democratic primary in a multi-candidate race, Henson said. And there is clearly a constituency that is growing in the Democratic party that requires a more sophisticated look at the Democratic electorate in Texas than most people have been taking for the last generation. As of February, just 27 percent of Democratic voters in Texas identified as moderate, according to University of Texas/Texas Tribune polling data that has been collected since 2008 when more than 50 percent considered themselves moderate. Meanwhile, younger Latinos are more likely to identify as progressive, and are more likely to say theyll support progressive candidates. A recent University of Houston/Univision poll found strong support among Latinos for key planks of the progressive movement, such as Medicare For All. A growing share of Latino respondents said they were "certain to vote," with 73 percent saying it was "more important" to vote in 2020 than it was in 2016. Sanders carried about 40 percent of the Latino vote in Texas, according to exit polls, and more than 60 percent of the youth vote. But voters under 30 were just 15 percent of those who turned out in the Democratic primary in Texas, according to those same polls. Progressives saw big boosts in some of the states biggest counties, including Travis and Bexar, both of which went for Sanders. But they still have at least one big problem: Houston, one of the states core economic engines, driven in large part by the oil and gas industry that progressive candidates have pitted themselves against. For subscribers: Who won and lost in Harris County elections on Super Tuesday 2020 Sanders, a Green New Deal supporter who has vowed to ban fracking, lost by nearly 10 percentage points to former Vice President Joe Biden in Harris County, where election day voting helped vault Biden beyond Sanders statewide. Moderates dominated the Senate race in Harris County, as well. Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar took the top spot, with the second place split by former Houston congressman Chris Bell and former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards both of whom took donations from the fossil fuel industry that they promised to work with, if elected. Tzintzun Ramirez, who campaigned on the Green New Deal, drew just 6 percent in Harris County. Her strong performance in Bexar and Travis counties, meanwhile, has her locked in a close race with longtime state Sen. Royce West for the second spot in a runoff with Hegar. Harris is so big and includes so much of a land mass that people see the need to moderate views because there are so many perspectives, Rottinghaus said. Its also a city that is driven primarily by industry and has a significant economic footprint in a bunch of different fields that needs to be part of how Democrats talk about Texas economic future, he said. Oil and gas is a big one. Theres also the possibility that with President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, some Democrats who might favor progressive policies were instead seeking a more moderate voice as the candidate most likely to beat Trump. I think theyre all running their own personal algorithms between those issues right now, said Sherri Greenberg, a former state representative and a professor at the University of Texas at Austins LBJ School of Public Affairs. Do I want a steady hand? Am I more concerned with a policy like health care? Do I want someone with a a history of getting things done? Still, progressives say the primary showed a path forward. There are hundreds of thousands of people who went to the polls in Texas yesterday and voted for populist progressives, said Zack Malitz, a Democratic consultant and veteran of Beto ORourkes 2018 Senate campaign, who advised Tzintzun Ramirezs campaign this cycle. They voted for the Green New Deal, they voted for Medicare For All, they voted to take on big banks. Its really clear that progressives both need to fight to win more voters, but also that, if youre a Democrat, a progressive Democrat, thinking about whether to primary your member of Congress or your city council member or run for an open seat theres clearly a constituency of Texas Democrats that will support you. ben.wermund@chron.com Seeking to allay fear among the citizens in the wake of Coronavirus scare, Karnataka Health Minister B Srirumulu on Wednesday made an appeal to the people not to pay heed to rumours spreading on social media. In a series of tweets, Sriramulu assured people that the government has taken adequate measures to ensure that the disease does not spread further. "Don't lend your ears to rumours about the Coronavirus in the social media. Rely only on the authentic information," he tweeted. The minister's tweet came as Bengaluru reported the first case, after a techie from the city with a travel history to Dubai and interaction with Hongkong-based people there, was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad. As panic gripped the city, Sriramulu said the apartment where the software engineer was staying has been sanitised. Besides, his 25 colleagues have been identified. One of them has been admitted to the hospital as a precautionary measure and his blood sample has been sent for lab test. "So far 40,207 people have been screened at the International airport. 251 blood tests have been done, of which 238 were found negative, while the rest of the reports are yet to come," Sriramulu tweeted. The health department said three people have been admitted to the isolation ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD). Meanwhile, a parent appealed to people not to panic about the Coronavirus in the techie's apartment, where his son too resides. "My son is from the same apartment.To update everyone, there is absolutely nothing wrong here. It was more of panic on social media that created this," he said in a message. He said that the man who is in Telengana and tested positive stayed in this building on February 21. "His roommate was taken to hospital and has tested negative," he said. It is been two weeks since the incident. The virus can survive only for 48 hours under optimal conditions, he noted. "Everyone in this building is safe. Please educate yourself. Refrain from spreading panic and misinformation." he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Enigmatic telco entrepreneur David Teoh has signalled a combined TPG Telecom-Vodafone will seek to use 5G fixed wireless services to take on the National Broadband Network in the residential internet market. Mr Teoh, executive chairman of TPG, is poised to become chairman of the merged company after the competition regulator said it wouldnt appeal a court ruling allowing the $15 billion tie-up to proceed. A great relief for all of us here, Mr Teoh said when asked about the news. The combined company's assets, including fibre links and spectrum, would put it on a strong footing to compete in both mobile and fixed-line markets, including potentially through the sale of wireless services that compete directly with the NBN, he said. Left to right: Vanessa Volz, Mary-dith Tuitt, and Arlene Violet Womens Fund of Rhode Island is holding its Women Leading Change Fundraiser on Thursday, April 30 at the Alpine Country Club in Cranston. The event is from 6 to 9 p.m. Early Bird tickets are available at a discounted rate from now until March 30. The event is expected to sell out quickly as it has in previous years. This is the Womens Fund of Rhode Islands premier fundraiser. It will feature a cash bar, a live and silent auction, a keynote address, awards, and a sit-down dinner. 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving some women the right to vote though it took much longer for all women in the U.S. to be able to exercise that right. The fundraiser celebrates milestones of womens civic engagement, recognizing the tremendous obstacles women have overcome while acknowledging that more needs to be done before true gender equity is achieved. This years Gender Equity Champion Speaker is Mary-dith Tuitt, a U.S. Navy veteran and a member of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women and an executive committee member of the National Association of Commissions on the Status of Women. Also, the following awards will be presented: The WFRI Leadership Award is being presented to Arlene Violet, former Attorney General, and activist The Susan Farmer Advocacy Award is being presented to Vanessa Volz, Executive Director of Sojourner House To obtain tickets visit, https://events.eventzilla.net/e/women-leading-change-our-voices-matter-2138763263 Womens Fund of Rhode Island Womens Fund of Rhode Island is a nonprofit organization located in Providence, Rhode Island. The mission of WFRI is to invest in women and girls in our community through research, advocacy, grantmaking, and strategic partnerships designed to advance gender equity through systemic change. For more information, visit wfri.org. Boris Johnson has insisted the coronavirus threat would not stop him greeting people with a handshake. The Prime Minister even said he had shaken the hands of everyone at a hospital where infected patients were being treated. He was speaking at the unveiling of the UKs battle plan to treat the virus. This included a warning that as many as one in five employees could be off work at the peak of the outbreak. France recommended last week that people do not shake hands to prevent the spread of the virus, while Switzerland has said its residents should consider dropping the everyday greeting of kissing each other on the cheek. Mr Johnson however, exhibited no such caution. Im shaking hands, Mr Johnson said when asked how he planned to handle visiting dignitaries. I was at a hospital the other night where I think a few there were actually coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, youll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 16:02 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683a3ea 1 Business Indonesia,PLN,capex,expansion,power-plants,power-grid,distribution,Airlangga-Hartarto,bonds Free State electricity company PLN will set aside Rp 90 trillion (US$6.3 billion) in capital expenditure (capex) in 2020 to finance the development of new electricity infrastructure, the companys top executive has said. PLN president director Zulkifli Zaini said in Jakarta on Tuesday that most of the funds would be used to finance the expansion of power grids and distribution networks and the construction of new power plants. It has been approved by the shareholders that our capex this year will be about Rp 90 trillion, Zulkifli told reporters after a meeting with Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto. According to a report submitted during a hearing with House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy on Feb. 5, PLN plans to build 19,069 kilometers of electricity transmission infrastructure by 2024, 4,459 kilometers of which will be built this year. As of 2019, the company has installed 60,102 kilometers of transmission network. The company also plans to build electricity substations with a total capacity of 38,607 mega volt amps (MVA) over the next four years, adding to the existing substations with a capacity of 151,136 MVA. For this year, the company plans to build about 37 percent of the planned substations with a total capacity of 14,247 MVA in 2020. Zulkifli said that he had discussed a number of financing alternatives, such as the issuance of bonds, to raise funds for the construction of electricity infrastructure during the meeting with Airlangga. PLN will need about Rp 400 trillion to finance its investments until 2024 or Rp 100 trillion every year, Zulkifli said, adding that new options for financing were needed to raise the required funds. In January of this year PLN raised a total of Rp 4.9 trillion from the issuance of conventional bonds and sukuk (sharia-compliant financial instruments) to finance its expansion. In addition to issuing domestic bonds, the largest electricity company in Indonesia has also issued a number of global bonds in previous years. In May 2019, PLN issued global bonds worth up to US$2 billion as a risk refinancing measure, as reported by tempo.com. In September of the same year, the company raised about 23.2 billion yen (US$215.5 million) through the issuance of yen-denominated bonds or the so-called samurai bonds. Among PLNs upcoming projects are the 500 kV Jawa Bali transmission to increase electricity distribution between Java and Bali, targeted to begin operation by 2023 or 2024, as well as the construction of 27,000 megawatts (MW) of power plant capacity by 2024. (ydp) A view of the Dixie Red Rock at Pioneer Park, above the city of St. George, Utah. (Mikayla Whitmore for The Post) The name abounds here, but that is slowly changing in the city of St. George though not without resistance. Deadly tornadoes knocked out polling places in Tennessee, fears over the coronavirus left some precincts short of election workers and long lines frustrated voters in California and Texas as Super Tuesday sent voters surging to the polls in 14 states. Scattered reports of polling places opening late, machines malfunctioning or voter rolls being down temporarily disrupted voting in some of the states voting Tuesday, but there were no widespread reports of voters being unable to cast a ballot or security breaches. Just hours before polls were set to open in Tennessee, tornadoes tore through parts of the state, killing at least 24. With more than a dozen polling sites in Nashville's Davidson County damaged, voters were sent to other locations, where some of them encountered long lines. The Tennessee Democratic Party and the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren successfully sued Davidson County election officials and the secretary of state's office to extend voting for three hours beyond the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time. Aside from the tornado-ravaged counties in the South, the two biggest Super Tuesday prizes of California and Texas appeared to have most of the voting-related problems. Voter file databases were down or excruciatingly slow in some counties in California and Texas. In Los Angeles County, electronic pollbooks that are connected to the state's voter database were operating slowly because of the high number of voters, County Registrar-Recorder spokesman Mike Sanchez said. The county brought in technicians and added devices in some polling places to move lines along. Even so, delays were two hours or longer in some locations. Beverly Hills City Councilman Julian Gold said waiting times there were 2 1/2 to 3 hours. He said he was told the delays were related to voter check-in. There's a lot of frustration (and) people walk away," he said. "I don't know if they'll come back. I hope they do. At a vote center in Silver Lake, near downtown Los Angeles, poll workers said computer network issues slowed the voter check-in process and made some machines unusable. About one-third of the approximately 40 machines were being used, and some had out of order signs taped to them. The resulting line meant it took about an hour for voters to cast their ballot. In Texas, elections officials in the Houston area were sending additional voting machines to polling places after people reported hourslong wait times. A voting-rights group said the problem seemed most acute in heavily black and Latino neighborhoods. Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, described problems with pollbooks around the country as intermittent I.T. issues that had since been resolved. "We're not aware of any persistent, long-term issues associated with the election infrastructure of the United States right now, he said. In Minnesota, a poll-finding tool on the secretary of state's website was briefly inaccessible on Tuesday. Republicans cried foul when visitors to the site were redirected to a left-leaning website that also supplied polling place information. Secretary of State Steve Simon said a staff member had linked to the partisan site in what he called a serious lapse of judgment. U.S. intelligence chiefs have warned that foreign interference remains a threat for the 2020 election, but the national agency that oversees election security said Tuesday it had not detected any notable uptick in either misinformation by foreign nations or targeted attacks on voting equipment. That doesn't mean Super Tuesday was free of mischief. The Texas Secretary of State's Office had reports that voters were receiving robocalls stating incorrectly that Republicans would vote on Tuesday while Democrats and independents would vote on Wednesday. Spokesman Stephen Chang said the office has the number from which the calls were made and has reported them to federal authorities. He said it was unclear who was responsible for the calls, which were made across the state. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Equal Protection Under Law, said her organization filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission about the robocalls. An official with the federal cybersecurity agency said they were aware of the Texas robocalls and were investigating. Fears of the coronavirus temporarily disrupted voting as the day began. In Travis County, Texas, home to Austin, many election workers did not show up, with some citing fears of contracting the virus, according to the county clerk's office. The election office said it implemented emergency procedures, with elections staff and other employees filling in as poll workers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has advised journalists to be objective and accurate in their reporting. The speaker stated this while responding to reports that he hosted a lavish 90th birthday party for his mother in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on tax payers funds. Sahara Reporters, an online newspaper, had reported that the speaker used public funds to take 300 guests on a jamboree to Dubai. While responding to a matter, the speaker said he did not know if the report on the Dubai Party was comical or tragic to him. He expressed that some media reports were capable of causing panic and instability. The same House they said has adjourned is currently sitting, he said, while speaking on the Dubai report. The speakers response is coming days after an affirmation by his spokesperson, Lanre Lasisi, that the party truly held. He, however, refuted the claim that the event was held on public funds. Mr Lasisi, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the speakers mother, Lateefat Gbajabiamila, on Monday, celebrated her 90th birthday in Dubai. It was strictly for family members and a few childhood friends for which no public funds were appropriated or expended, Mr Lasisi wrote in his statement. Indeed not a single politician nor a legislator was present at the event. Many Nigerians had expressed outrage at the speakers decision to celebrate his mothers birthday in Dubai. They took to social media to express their anger after the speakers aide confirmed the party, saying such actions make citizens lose trust in their government. In 2018, Mr Gbajabiamila received a similar criticism when he, apart from a one-day lavish party, gifted his wife, Salamatu Gbajabiamila, a Mercedes G-Wagon, reportedly priced at $300,000, with a number plate customised with the fond word ASSURANCE, for her 50th birthday. Bipartisan negotiators from the House and Senate agreed to an $8.3 billion emergency spending package to fight COVID-19 on Wednesday. The bill includes close to $7.8 billion for the federal agencies managing the coronavirus, which is more than the White House originally proposed, The New York Times reports. Another $500 million will go to Medicare providers to offer telehealth services to elderly patients at their homes, as older people are more likely to contract the virus. The House is reportedly planning to vote on the bill later Wednesday, per the Times. The deal will then have to pass the Senate and get President Trump's signature before going into effect. The U.S. counted at least 130 COVID-19 infections across 16 states as of Wednesday. Nine people in the U.S. with the virus have died. More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Senate sends $8.3 billion coronavirus spending package to Trump's desk Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism? AGRA The coronavirus scare has hit tourism trade in the Taj city, which has been pounded with mass cancellations of hotel bookings and tour packages. The tourism sector here is bound to see tough a time in the days ahead due to the onslaught of coronavirus in China, said experts in the hospitality industry. There is an impact on inflow of tourists. The footfall of visitors at Taj Mahal is lower in comparison to the previous week, observed an ASI official at Taj. Bookings are being cancelled in bulk after restrictions on tourists coming from China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan. Besides, Indian and foreign passengers arriving directly or indirectly from Macau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan have to undergo medical screening at the port of entry, said Rajeev Saxena, vice-president, Tourism Guild of Agra. Though tourist inflow usually decreases during this time of the year, coronavirus scare has further affected the numbers, he said. The tourism season is plagued by the onslaught of coronavirus in China and this has led to bulk cancellation of bookings. After six suspected cases were reported in Agra, inflow of both domestic and foreign tourists will be affected, stated Sandeep Arora, president, Agra Tourism Development Foundation. The government and Agra administration should ensure that panic is controlled, failing which tourism sector in Agra will have to bear the brunt, he added. There are moments every day when things get dull and slow, hope dwindles and energy is fading. Well, theres no need to despair - Coca-Colas delicious taste and ice-cold, bubbly energy is here to turn up your day! This new campaign takes an uplifting look at how these dull, lethargic moments are transformed into memorable and uplifting ones, simply when one reaches for an ice-cold Coke. After all, cracking open a Coke is often the first step to unleash the bubbly, energetic you! In the new TV commercial starring Coca-Cola brand ambassador and youth icon Ranbir Kapoor, four young girls are seen taking a break at 3 p.m. only to discover that they are not the only ones taking a break! Coca-Colas energizing upliftment enables youth to be in the moment, every single moment - to make the best of whatever life throws at them as opportunities through the day. Therefore, the campaign urges audiences to beat lethargic moments with an ice-cold Coca-Cola and infuse themselves and others with their positive energy. Commenting on the campaign, Shrenik Dasani, Vice President - Sparkling Category, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, The campaign is our attempt at encouraging people to reimagine what they could do to their daily dull moments with a Coke. Weve been inspired by how teens think about their daily lives and, often with a Coke, how they effortlessly transform even dull moments into epic ones. While the age-old norm has been to take a pause during idle time, todays teens are different. Theyre not looking to contemplate, theyre looking to participate. They dont want downtime, they want uptime. And rather than taking breaks once or twice a day, they are fluid, constantly on the move and shifting gears. All this of course needs a lot of positive energy... something a Coke can provide like no other! In addition to the TV commercials, the campaign will be supported by a robust integrated marketing campaign including Outdoor, Radio, Digital and Experiential events on-ground. Agency: McCann World Group Creative team: Ashish Chakravarty, Kapil Batra, Souvik Dutta, Anand Bhushan, Ashish Nath, Sameer Kumar Account Management team: Aditya Gupta Production House: Crazy Few Films Director: Anupam Mishra Executive Producer: Urfi Kazmi and Viraj Gawas DOP: K U Mohanan Music: Mikey McCleary Senator Bernie Sanders won Colorado while former vice president Joe Biden scored a victory in Oklahoma and Tennessee during Super Tuesdays Democratic presidential primaries as the 2020 nominating contest inches closer to becoming a two-man race. Biden added Oklahoma with its 37 pledged delegates to his list of wins Tuesday evening. The former national front runner has also won the Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee primaries. Sanders has also won his home state of Vermont as well as Colorado with its 67 pledged delegates. Voting is still occurring in Texas and California, the two most delegate-rich states that account for 415 and 228 delegates respectively. Sanders currently leads Biden by a sliver in national polls, 26 percent to Bidens 24 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. More from National Review Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Galang Island, Batam Wed, March 4, 2020 19:50 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206851260 1 National COVID-19,Indonesia,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Batam,quarantine,observation,hospital Free Following the confirmation of the first two COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, the government is making plans to transform a former camp for Vietnamese refugees on Galang Island, Batam, Riau Islands, into a hospital for COVID-19 patients. During a visit to assess the site, Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said Galang Island was chosen as the location for a COVID-19 hospital as several of the site's buildings still remained after being used as a refugee camp from 1979 to 1996. The site also has access to clean water and electricity, while the island is located 50 kilometers from Hang Nadim International Airport. Read also: 'Diamond Princess' evacuees to start separate quarantine on Sebaru island Hadi explained the hospital would treat infected patients and also function as a quarantine center. A coronavirus quarantine center was previously set up in Natuna, Riau Islands. We shall see if this is the right time to turn the location into a special hospital to treat patients infected with novel coronavirus. Hopefully, this plan will be realized soon and the hospital can be put to use immediately, especially if there are infected patients near Galang Island, Hadi said. The hospital, which is expected to be able to accommodate 1,000 patients, will be equipped with isolation rooms as well, which will take up 2 percent of the hospitals total capacity. We will prepare 50 isolation rooms as the World Health Organization's health protocol stipulates that 2 percent of the hospital's capacity must be isolation rooms, Hadi said. Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said construction would be completed within a month. We will not forget the locals' contribution here. The construction might not take long. The water source is already available, everything has been prepared according to the standards of the facilities in Natuna and Sebaru, Basuki said, adding that he did not know what the total budget for the project would be. Hadi and Basuki were also unable to say when construction would begin. Read also: Indonesia to test more people for COVID-19 Meanwhile, head of the Riau Islands Health Agency Tjeptjep Yudiana said the decision to set up the special hospital on Galang Island had not yet been made final. They have only come to assess the site. Galang is one option, but so far no decision has been made, Tjeptjep said. The field coordinator for the visit, Said Adnan, said the military had inspected a former hospital building, a logistics building and several religious buildings. We have been ordered to clean out the buildings and provide details on the condition of the buildings to the commander, Adnan said. (dpk) Description GIS - 04 March, 2020: The Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance and the Standard Chartered Bank PLC (SCB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), yesterday, at the Labourdonnais Hotel, Port Louis in view to devise a framework for sustainable financing. The framework will support the broader sustainability agenda contributing to the country achieving its sustainable development goals by 2030 and meet with the Paris Climate agreements commitments. The Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance and the Standard Chartered Bank The signatories were the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, and the Group Chairman of the SCB , Mr. Jose Vinals . In an address, Minister Seeruttun pointed out that the MoU is evidence of the contribution of policy makers and financers in tackling environmental and social challenges to keep th e planet liveable and also to leave a sustainable legacy for future, prosperous generations. This collaboration, he said, is a first of its kind and expressed the wish that it will be reproduced by financiers to place Africa on a better footing in the reali s ation of U nited N ations S ustainable D evelopment Goals as well as to generate sustainable economic growth across the continent. He further expressed his apprehensions about the future of the planet and dwelt on human actions to exploiting and pushing beyond limits both lands and oceans and the adverse effects of climate changes Hence, the need for collaborative agreement to promote sustainable development and deliver finance that drives positive social and economic impact , he stressed. Speaking on the Government Programme 2020 , he underlined that it lays emphasis on the need to ensure sustainability and responsible investment through a new development policy based on four pillars . They are: investment in clean energy; s hift to a cleaner and greener Mauritius; mitigate risks from climate change; and p rotect ing our marine resources. HANOI -- Vietnam plans to spend 27 trillion dong ($1.16 billion) to help businesses cope with the coronavirus epidemic and help the economy stick to its 6.8% growth target this year, state media said on Tuesday. The plan includes tax breaks, delayed tax payments and a reduction in land lease fees, Vietnam Television (VTV) quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as saying. The government would also speed up state spending on infrastructure projects, it added. Vietnams central bank ordered commercial banks on Feb. 24 to eliminate, cut or delay interest payments on loans to companies facing losses due to the coronavirus outbreak. Vietnams hardest-hit industries include tourism, transport, electronics, agriculture and insurance the government has said. The epidemic could wipe around $7 billion from Vietnams tourism earnings as international travellers stay away, state media has reported. Vietnam last week said all 16 people in the country infected with the coronavirus had been cured and released from hospitals, and there had been no new cases in the country since Feb. 13. President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has asked the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to immediately release the sum of N620m to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), an amount budgeted for emergency response to the Coronavirus (COVID 19) outbreak. Lawan made the call on Wednesday when the leadership of the Senate undertook a tour of Isolation Centres located at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada. The Senate President, while speaking to journalists after an inspection of two facilities, bemoaned the lack of preparedness and expressed frustration at the state of the isolation centres which were yet to be completed. Speaking on the findings of the Senate leadership, Lawan said, First of all, let me say that the representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the management of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital are in high spirits, looking determined to discharge their mandates and obligations. But from our inspection here, the temporary isolation centre is really not in good shape, it doesnt look ready to receive any patient, and I believe that this is something that we need to fix between now and tomorrow. We are in an emergency, even if we dont have people who are affected, we shouldnt just rest on our oars. We have to do everything and anything possible to fix that temporary isolation centre to be prepared to receive anyone who falls sick in this respect. I am sad, we are indeed actually sad, that of the N620 million that was supposed to be released to this place for fixing of everything here to NCDC, not a kobo has been released. We are going to get across to the Minister of Finance and all the other authorities that have anything to do with this to release this money latest between today and tomorrow. The Senate President, further lamented that Nigeria, despite being a country with the largest economy in Africa, is yet to have a completed Isolation Centre in any of the geo-political zones that would provide emergency response to disease outbreak in the country. He charged those saddled with leadership responsibilities in the country to live up to expectations through timely discharge of their mandates and duties. Theres no way that Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, with a population of two hundred million, and yet the Federal Capital and six surrounding states of the North Central, you dont have one room that you can call an isolation centre, where anyone who unfortunately falls into this crisis will be taken to. This is not acceptable. So, we are going to ensure that the money is released, we are not going to put pressure. This is what they are supposed to do, and they must do it. "I also believe that we should have a replication of the permanent site, we should be able to complete this and then have five others across the remaining geo-political zones of the country. Lets spend money for our people, we waste money for some things that are less important. This is about the health and lives of the people of this country, and therefore, no investment is too much. So, we should be prepared at all times. We had Ebola, SARS, now we have Coronavirus, we do not know what else will come, but we should be prepared and ready for any eventuality, and no investment is too much. The contractor said by the end of this month this should be ready, we pray it should be faster, but by the end of tomorrow, that temporary site must be ready. Theres no generator, no electricity, nothing. There were two or three air conditioners brought this morning, maybe because yesterday we said we were coming here. This is not acceptable. As leaders given responsibilities, we have to do what is right. This is unfortunate. So, the Ministry of Finance should release the N620 million between today and tomorrow. The Senate President assured Nigerians that the relevant committees of the Senate will carry out a follow-up on Thursday to ensure that work on the isolation centres begins and is completed. The Senate Committee on Health will come back tomorrow (Thursday), we want to see that temporary isolation centre fixed. We need to be committed, we need to be very serious, and this is the essence of our oversight, but because it is very important, we decided that the leadership of the Senate should lead this oversight, Lawan said. Signed: Ezrel Tabiowo Special Assistant (Press) to President of the Senate Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 revealed that the US CIA has hacked Chinese organizations in various sectors for the last 11 years . Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 is accusing that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of having hacked Chinese organizations for the last 11 years. According to the firm, the US cyber spies are targeting various industry sectors and government agencies. The Qihoo 360 experts claim that a CIA hacking unit tracked as APT-C-39 has hacked organizations in the aviation, scientific research, oil, technology industries, it also targeted government agencies. Qihoo 360 discovered and revealed cyber-attacks by the CIA hacking group (APT-C-39) which lasts for eleven years against China. reads the report published by the security firm. Several industry sectors have been targeted including aviation organizations, scientific research institutions, petroleum industry, Internet companies, and government agencies. The US-linked hackers targeted the Chinese organizations between September 2008 and June 2019. The experts claim that US intelligence has stolen classified business information from organizations worldwide for more than a decade, including Chinese companies. In fact, long-term and targeted intelligence-gathering with careful strategic deployment and large amount of resource investment are common activities of CIA . We speculate that in the past eleven years of infiltration attacks, CIA may have already grasped the most classified business information of China, even of many other countries in the world, reads the report published by Qihoo 360. It does not even rule out the possibility that now CIA is able to track down the real-time global flight status, passenger information, trade freight and other related information If the guess is true, what unexpected things will CIA do if it has such confidential and important information? Get important figures travel itinerary, and then pose political threats, or military suppression? Qihoo 360 was able to link the CIA to the NSA agency, and it identified the CIA former agent Joshua Adam Schulte as a key individual in the CIA operations. Experts noticed that some of the cyber weapons used by CIA agents belong to the arsenal of the NSA. Schulte worked for the NSA for five months in 2010 as a systems engineer, after this experience, he joined the CIA as a software engineer and he left the CIA in November 2016. Schulte was identified a few days after WikiLeaks started leaking the precious dumps. Schulte was arrested for possession of child pornography, he was charged on three counts of receipt, possession and transportation of child pornography in August 2017. The man was released in September 2017, but in December he was arrested again for violating the conditions of his release. In November 2018, Joshua Adam Schulte faced new charges included in a new indictment filed in Manhattan federal court, he was charged with the unlawful transmission and attempted unlawful transmission of national defense secrets from prison. Qihoo 360 said that the former CIA agent served at the National Clandestine Service (NCS) as a Directorate of Sience and Technology (DS&T) Intelligence Officer. The National Clandestine Service (NCS) or the Directorate of Operations (DO) serves as the clandestine arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the national authority for the coordination, de-confliction, and evaluation of clandestine operations across the Intelligence Community of the United States. In 2016, Joshua stole the classified documents of Vault 7 and passed them to WikiLeaks, which published the precious dump on Wikileaks in 2017. On February 4, 2020, at a public hearing in the federal court, the federal prosecutor confirmed that the man was responsible for the single biggest leak of classified national defense information in the history of CIA. Qihoo 360 said that leaked materials they collected reveal that Vault 7 was developed by Joshua and that APT-C -39 a CIA-linked hacking unit. The Chinese security firm also adds that the APT-C-39 hacking group employed several Vault 7 tools in its operations, including the Fluxwire backdoor, and the Grasshopper malware builder. Qihoo 360 reported that technical details of most implants used by the APT-C-39 are consistent with the ones described in the Vault 7 dump. Experts added that APT-C-39 used relevant cyber weapons against targets in China before the leak of Vault 7 documents. The Chinese researchers also discovered that the WISTFULTOOL data plugin was used in an attack against a large Internet company in China in 2011. Summarizing the evidence collected by the Chinese security firm: The related evidence is listed below: Evidence 1: APT-C-39 uses massive exclusive cyber weapons in the CIAs Vault 7 project Evidence 2: The technical details of most samples of the APT-C-39 are consistent with the ones described in the Vault 7 documents Evidence 3: Before the Vault 7 cyber weapon was disclosed by WikiLeaks, the APT-C-39 already used relevant cyber weapons against targets in China Evidence 4: Some attack weapons used by the APT-C-39 are associated with the NSA Evidence 5: APT-C-39 groups weapons compilation time is located in the U.S. time zone Qihoo 360 findings are consistent with the results of the analysis carried out by other cybersecurity firms, such as Kaspersky and Symantec, that tracked the CIA hacking unit as Lamberts and Longhorn, respectively. Pierluigi Paganini Marie D. De Jesus, Staff / Houston Chronicle A federal judge Tuesday approved the choice of a Duke University law professor to oversee Harris County's historic bail reform agreement that governs what happens to thousands of people arrested on low-level offenses. Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal ordered Brandon L. Garrett, from Dukes Center for Science and Justice, to serve as monitor for implementation of the seven-year consent decree. The judge also approved Sandra Guerra Thompson, a former New York prosecutor who teaches at University of Houston Law Center, as deputy monitor for the settlement. Ivanka Trump had a spring in her step as she bared her legs in a short black dress while leaving her Washington, D.C. home on Wednesday. The temperature was expected to hit 60 degrees by the afternoon, but when she headed to work in the morning, the first daughter kept warm in a $4,600 Alexander McQueen double-breasted coat with an asymmetrical hem. Ivanka, 38, wore the designer coat over her black dress and topped off her monochromatic look with a pair of $850 Jimmy Choo white leather pumps with black ankle straps. On the go: Ivanka Trump, 38, was seen leaving the front gate of her Washington, D.C. home on Wednesday morning Outfit of the day: The first daughter wore a $4,600 Alexander McQueen double-breasted coat with an asymmetrical hem over a short black dress Instead of wearing tights or one of the midi dresses she has come to favor, she opted to embrace the warm weather and leave her legs bare. The White House senior adviser had a smile on her face as she walked out of her front gate around 8:50 a.m. and she even gave a small wave. Ivanka carried a $2,590 black leather bag by Loewe and wore her blonde hair pulled back in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, revealing her large diamond earrings. She stuck to her tried-and-true beauty look and sported smokey eye makeup, bronzed cheeks, and a deep rose lipstick. When Ivanka splurges on designer pieces, she tends to wear them more than once and will typically try to create a new look with them. Added touches: Ivanka topped off her monochromatic look with a pair of $850 Jimmy Choo white leather pumps with black ankle straps and a black bag by Loewe Ready for spring: Instead of wearing tights, she opted to embrace the warm weather and leave her legs bare Updo: Ivanka wore her blonde hair pulled back in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, revealing her large diamond earrings She was seen wearing her Alexander McQueen coat over a white dress in February 2019, while she paired her Loewe handbag with an emerald pussy-bow blouse and a black pencil skirt in April 2019. Ivanka's husband, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, was also seen leaving the front gate of their home on Wednesday morning. The 39-year-old father of three stepped out the door around 7:40 a.m. about an hour before his wife left for the day. He had on one of his standard navy blue suits and a gray tie, but instead of carrying his black work bag, he held some folded papers and his cellphone in his hand. Happy: The first daughter had a smile on her face as she made her way to the Secret Service vehicle parked outside of her home Political couple: Ivanka's husband, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, was also seen leaving the front gate of their home on Wednesday morning. Early bird: The 39-year-old father of three stepped out the door in a navy suit around 7:40 a.m. about an hour before his wife left for the day Ivanka and Jared later reunited at the White House where they met with Kim Kardashian, who was there to discuss criminal justice reform with President Trump. Kim, 39, was joined by newly-released prisoners Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron, the three women she and Alice Johnson recommended for clemency. Alice, who was also there, was one of the first people freed as a result of the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person (FIRST STEP) Act. Ivanka and Jared posed for photos with the group, and she proudly shared them on her Instagram Stories. The first daughter has kept a relatively low profile this week and was seen leaving her home in a Secret Service vehicle straight from her garage on both Monday and Tuesday. All smiles: Later in the day, Ivanka and Jared met with Kim Kardashian and the three newly-released prisoners who were recently granted clemency by President Trump Reform: Alice Johnson, who was also there, was one of the first people freed as a result of the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act On Sunday, she kicked off the week by taking to Instagram to share a rare photo of herself relaxing at home. In the snapshot, she is lying in bed in a cozy blue sweatshirt and cuddling with her family's dog, Winter, whose head is resting underneath her chin. Ivanka revealed this week that she is officially a registered Republican for the first time after years of voting Democrat and supporting liberal causes. 'I am a proud Trump Republican,' Ivanka declared in a New York Times interview on Monday, revealing that she had registered red so she can vote for her father Donald Trump in the New York state primary next month. Ivanka and Jared were registered Democrats for years and known to donate to liberal candidates and causes. Story: In her Instagram Stories post, Ivanka explained that Kim and Alice recommended that Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron be granted clemency Say cheese: Ivanka also shared a photo of herself hugging Tynice She's been seen as a more moderate member of Team Trump, having been outspoken about her progressive views on issues such as gay rights, gun control, and climate change. But she now says that she is fully on the side of her father, whom she said has 'broadened the reach of the Republican Party, which is really important to me.' According to the New York City Board of Elections, Ivanka finally made the switch from blue to red in October 2018, right before the midterm elections. Neither Ivanka nor her brother Eric voted in the 2016 primary election because they failed to register as Republicans before the deadline. As she gears up to hit the trail for her father's re-election campaign, Ivanka sat down with the Times to explain her political evolution. Hiding out? Ivanka has kept a relatively low profile this week and was seen leaving her home in a Secret Service vehicle straight from her garage on both Monday and Tuesday (pictured) Relaxed: On Sunday, she shared a photo of herself lying in bed in a cozy blue sweatshirt and cuddling with her family's dog, Winter, whose head is resting underneath her chin 'I'm not going to speculate on the projections other people have cast upon me,' Ivanka said when asked about her conservative shift. 'In areas outside of my portfolio, I tend to agree more with the more conservative viewpoint more often than where the Democrats are today.' 'No one person or party has a monopoly on good ideas,' she added. Ivanka's husband revealed that he had changed his party affiliation to Republican late last year. 'I was not a Republican. Now I'm a Republican,' Jared told reporters in December. 'I think the Republican Party is growing now that people like me feel comfortable being part of it.' Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden speak during a break at the Democratic presidential primary debate at the Charleston Gaillard Center n Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25, 2020. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Biden Makes Comeback on Super Tuesday, Sanders Takes California Democratic candidate Joe Biden proved to be victorious across a half dozen southern states holding contests on Super Tuesday, just days after his campaign appeared to be in serious trouble. The former vice president won a majority in states across the South, Midwest, and New England as Americans in 14 states voted for a Democratic challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Biden grabbed highly significant victories in Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama, adding to his wins across Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. He also took Minnesota despite being third in the polls until Amy Klobuchar dropped out on Sunday. She endorsed Biden on Monday. The Democratic nominee also dealt a humiliating blow to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in her home state of Massachusetts, with initial results showing Biden with nearly 34 percent of the states vote, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in second with about 27 percent, and Warren trailing behind in third with roughly 20 percent. But Warren appeared set on remaining in the race, introducing herself to supporters in Detroit ahead of next weeks Michigan primary as the woman whos going to beat Donald Trump. She encouraged supporters to tune out the results and vote for the person they believed would be the best president, saying, Prediction has been a terrible business and the pundits have gotten it wrong over and over. You dont get what you dont fight for. I am in this fight, she added. Sen. Bernie Sanders seized perhaps the biggest victory of the night in California. His campaign filed an emergency injunction asking for polls in Los Angeles County to remain open an extra two hours, after reports of huge delays and long lines. According to the injunction, multiple polling locations in the county have experienced extreme wait times for individuals to vote, including wait times up to four hours to cast a ballot. Sanders also won in Colorado, Vermont, and Utah, but Biden made a surprise win in the race for Texas. The night proved disastrous for Mike Bloomberg and appeared to spell the end of his costly campaign. After reportedly spending over a billion on advertising, his only victory was in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. Bloomberg campaign officials said he would reassess whether to stay in the race on Wednesday, but that did not mean he would drop out. Reuters contributed to this article. New Delhi, March 4 : The Delhi Police on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to initiate contempt proceedings against social activist Harsh Mander, who delivered a speech instigating violence and "contemptuous" of the top court to a huge gathering of people outside Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019. "This clip is freely available on social media. Harsh Mander is known for taking contemptuous stand and bringing the judiciary as an institution and individual judges to disrepute," said the Delhi Police in a two-page affidavit and provided a copy of this speech in a pen drive to the top court. Mander had moved the top court seeking FIR against BJP leaders for making hate speeches and accused them of inciting riots. The police urged the top court to dismiss Mander's plea with exemplary costs and initiate contempt proceedings against him. "It is submitted that I have come across a video clip showing Harsh Mander delivering a speech which is not only instigating the violence, but is also seriously contemptuous as it makes derogatory remarks against the Supreme Court to a huge gathering of people," said the Delhi Police affidavit. According to the video clip from December 2019 in Jamia Millia Islamia, Mander is allegedly heard saying: "I have been observing the Supreme Court for some time...In its judgment in NRC, Ayodhya and Kashmir, the Supreme Court has failed to protect humanity, equality and secularism. "We can no longer bank on Supreme Court and Parliament. That is why all of you will have to come on the street. Ultimately you will get justice only on the street." Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, during the hearing on the Delhi riots matter, termed it as the "worst kind of hate speech" as "Mander is seen instigating citizens against the country's Supreme Court". The top court has asked Mehta to file an affidavit and agreed to take up the matter on Friday. A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant made it clear that Mander's plea against hate speech by BJP leaders will be taken up only after the issue pertaining to the video clip is decided. The top court made some sharp observations on the alleged video clip. The Chief Justice told Mander's lawyer Karuna Nandy: "If this is what he feels about the Supreme Court, why should we hear him at all?...This is what you think of this court...before we hear you , you go through the transcript and respond to these allegations." He also told Nandy: "If this is what you feel about the Supreme Court then we have to decide what to do with you." Nandy said: "He (Mander) has never said it. No copies given to me." At this, the Chief Justice asked the Solicitor General to give transcripts and documents to Mander to prepare a response to the allegations. The apex court also shot down Mander's counsel request to put off the case against him to a later day, as he was currently on a flight to the US, and would be back on Sunday. After a spurt of positive cases of coronavirus, the Rajasthan government on Wednesday issued directions to the collectors and chief medical health officers of Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur districts to take public health measures in the places visited by the group of Italian tourists. The group, that include the couple that has tested positive for the virus, travelled in these districts from February 21 to 28 and the officials have been asked to disinfect the rooms and the bus in which the group travelled from the time they arrived at IGI airport in New Delhi to the hotels they had stayed in across the state. The bus driver and cleaner will be home quarantined for 14 days. The officials have been asked to get detailed addresses of all who have stayed in these rooms and to do follow-up for health status and advice them for home quarantine for a total of 14 days, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health, Rohit Kumar Singh said. Tourist guides, helpers and hotel staff who had served or came in close contact with the group in any manner will also be home quarantined, he said. Rooms will be disinfected with a solution of 1 per cent sodium hypochlorite while total mopping of all areas, handles, chairs, tables, etc. will also be done, the senior official said. Also, the officers were asked to enhance surveillance in all the tourist spots/places visited by them including restaurants and to run awareness campaigns for coronavirus apart from setting up control rooms. CMHOs have been asked to set up outpatient departments (OPD) in all districts of the state for persons who will be immediately rushing for check-up. Apart from this, Singh said that the public will be educated on the usage of masks and availability of logistics at all levels will be ensured. The district-level officers will submit a compliance report by Wednesday evening, he pointed out. The Italian couple tested positive for the virus has been kept in isolation at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in the city. Pune-based National Institute of Virology has confirmed the coronavirus infection in the man while a report for his wife, who has been found positive in testing by SMS Medical College, is awaited later in the day. Officials have also been asked to conduct a survey of people living in the 3 km radius of the SMS Hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anti-virus fight: Iran doubles production of disinfectants, hygiene items Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 10:22 AM Iran says the production of disinfectants and hygiene products has at least doubled over the past two weeks as the country steps up the battle against a new coronavirus outbreak. Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani said Tuesday that the government had authorized relevant firms to increase the production of detergents, disinfectants and hygiene products. There has been a substantial increase in the production of items such as face masks, hand sanitizers and disposable gloves since early February, he added. Faced with a sudden surge in demand for disinfectant liquids and surgical masks following the outbreak, the country experienced an initial shortage of supplies but soon intensified efforts to satisfy the market need through increased domestic production as well as imports. 'Hoarders of medical supplies could face execution' Also speaking on Tuesday, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, the Iranian Judiciary's spokesman, gave news of multiple arrests in connection with the hoarding and smuggling of medical supplies, disinfectants, protective masks and gloves. The official explained that if convicted on the charge of of 'spreading corruption on earth,' these individuals could face the death penalty. Otherwise, they could be handed lengthy prison terms of between five and 20 years for disrupting the economy. Esmaili further assured that the prisoners incarcerated over security offenses are being kept in far better conditions compared to other inmates. He also rejected claims by the family of British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff that she had contracted coronavirus in jail. Esmaili noted that Zaghari was in good health and that she had contacted her family to assure them of her health condition. Zaghari is serving a five-year jail term in Tehran's Evin prison for espionage. The coronavirus named COVID-19 first emerged in China late last year and is now spreading in Europe and across the Middle East, sparking fears of a global pandemic. Since December 2019, over 91,300 people have been infected in several countries, with 3,120 deaths mostly in China. As of Tuesday, Iran's Health Ministry reported 77 deaths and 2,336 infections. Most of the infections have been reported in Tehran, Rasht as well as the city of Qom where the virus was first found. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By Tracy Rucinski CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Airlines Holdings Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp are cutting flights and implementing cost controls in the most drastic actions by U.S. airlines to get ahead of depressed travel demand due to the spreading coronavirus. The United measures, announced by executives in a letter to employees on Wednesday, include a 10% reduction in U.S. and Canadian flights and a 20% reduction in international flying in the month of April, with similar cuts planned in May. JetBlue said in a memo Wednesday seen by Reuters that it was cutting capacity by approximately 5% "in the near term to address the fall in demand" as a result of the coronavirus and said it assessing if more cuts are needed. JetBlue is taking other steps "aimed at preserving cash" including "delaying or canceling upcoming events and meetings" and "reducing hiring for frontline and support center positions." It is also considering voluntary time-off programs and is "limiting non-essential spending." United is freezing new hiring except for critical roles, delaying 2019 merit salary increases for management and administrative employees and offering all U.S.-based workers the option of a voluntary unpaid leave of absence. "We sincerely hope that these latest measures are enough, but the dynamic nature of this outbreak requires us to be nimble and flexible moving forward in how we respond," United CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby said in the letter. The coronavirus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has spread globally with more than 94,000 cases and 3,220 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. Conferences and gatherings around the world have been canceled, and companies have changed work and travel plans. Plane maker Boeing Co itself on Wednesday said it was taking precautions including restricting travel to essential trips. Story continues Chicago-based United's announcement followed a meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and the heads of major U.S. airlines at the White House where they discussed the effect of the virus on the industry and demand. Concerns over the effect of reduced travel demand on airlines have hit airline shares and stoked fears of a financial bailout for the sector, an idea that the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday moved quickly to dismiss. Trump also said on Wednesday that the airline executives had not asked for a bailout. After emerging from bankruptcy in the last decade and with new business models that include fees for everything from baggage to boarding, the U.S. airline majors are in a better financial position to weather a crisis, analysts have said. UNCHARTED TERRITORY The rapid, global spread of the virus has forced airlines to abandon their usual strategies for crisis management, which in the past have included lowering fares and redirecting flights to trouble-free areas. Until now, United and other U.S. carriers had only reduced flying to the areas most hit by coronavirus cases, though international rivals Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd <0293.HK> and British Airways recently announced broader reductions. Leaders of the unions representing United's pilots and flight attendants called the move a "responsible approach" to addressing the impact of COVID-19 on air travel. In one effort to win over hesitant travelers, U.S. airlines have suspended rebooking fees for new ticket reservations. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman) The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to invest up to USD 38 million over four years to build Ukraines cybersecurity capabilities, according to the U.S. Department of State. The first USD 8 million has already been provided to the Ukrainian side, the Department of State reported following the results of the third cyber dialogue in Kyiv on March 3, 2020. "As a demonstration of its continued commitment to supporting cybersecurity, the United States announced an additional USD 8 million from the Department of State in cybersecurity assistance on top of the USD 10 million pledged in 2017," the statement reads. Part of this funding will support the U.S. Agency for International Developments new cybersecurity project, which plans to invest up to USD 38 million over four years, to build Ukraines cybersecurity capabilities through support for legal and regulatory reform, cyber workforce development, and private sector engagement. Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation presented the National Police of Ukraine Cyber Police and the Prosecutor Generals Office of Ukraine with a Directors Certificate for their unrelenting efforts in conjunction with the FBI to arrest and extradite cybercriminals who operated freely in Ukraine for many years. During the meeting, representatives of the United States and Ukraine discussed recent national cybersecurity policy developments, 5G security concerns, cyber capacity building, and international cyber policy issues, including engagements in multilateral fora and policies around public attribution. The delegations reviewed ongoing and proposed U.S. cybersecurity assistance projects developed in concert with relevant Ukrainian agencies and stakeholders, including strengthening critical infrastructure cybersecurity; cyber strategy development and implementation; enhancing cyber defense, incident response, and information sharing capabilities; raising cybersecurity awareness for all stakeholders; and providing training on securing industrial control systems and digital forensics. These projects complement U.S.-Ukraine cooperation on other cybersecurity matters. ish Interest in CBD is rising, as is its list of potential benefits. Research shows CBD may improve a variety of conditions, both mentally and physically. The Cats Meow CBD offers full-spectrum and THC-free CBD products for the whole family. Healthcare professional owned, The Cats Meow CBD wants to help you experience all of the potential benefits that CBD has to offer in order to help you thrive. They offer a variety of absorption methods, so you can choose whats best for you. The Cats Meow CBD products are organic, non-GMO, non-psychoactive, and free from solvent and metals. Theyre also lab-tested, for quality and safety. Their all-natural line of wellness and beauty products aims to enhance the quality of life for you and your loved ones. The Cats Meow CBD is the purrfect blend of CBD wellness and beauty products. As a healthcare practitioner and chronic illness warrior, I know the value and importance of high quality products, says Heather Green, CEO of The Cats Meow CBD. Here at The Cats Meow CBD, we would never sell a product we would not use ourselves or for our family. Were always transparent with our lab work and pride ourselves on providing the best quality product. Thats why we partnered with AsSeenOnTV.pro and trust that doing so will help expand our audience even further. The Cats Meow CBD products are amazing, says Douglas Scott, Executive Producer at AsSeenOnTV.pro. Not only do they offer products for people and pets, but the education they provide their customers with really makes them stand out. . As part of its DRTV campaign with AsSeenOnTV.pro, The Cats Meow CBD has appeared in 60 second spots nationwide, featuring the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. AsSeenOnTV.pro is comprised of an award-winning team of producers, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the DRTV map. About AsSeenOnTV.pro Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements. About Kevin Harrington As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $4 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark. For more information on The Cats Meow CBD, please visit http://www.thecatsmeowcbd.com. As votes rolled in on Super Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told a crowd of supporters gathered in Vermont that he has absolute confidence he will win the partys nomination. Sanders noted that Tuesday marked the 31-year anniversary of his victory in the race for mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Everybody said it couldnt be done, the progressive Vermont senator recalled of his mayoral bid, paralleling it to the skepticism surrounding his 2020 presidential run. But tonight I tell you with absolute confidence, were going to win the Democratic nomination, Sanders told a crowd of supporters in Essex Junction, Vermont near his campaign headquarters. Sanders won his home state of Vermont as well as Colorado, California, and Utah on Tuesday, while his chief rival for the nomination, former vice president Joe Biden, secured victories in a slew of state including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Sanders took several thinly-veiled shots at Biden during his speech. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq. Youre looking at him, Sanders said. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. Biden voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution and was the chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations when Congress authorized it in 2002. Sanders also touted his record working to expand Social Security, leading the opposition to trade agreements that cost us millions of good-paying jobs, and fighting the disastrous bankruptcy bill. He said that another candidate has been on the floor of the Senate calling for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans programs, voted for the disastrous trade agreements and represented the credit card companies in voting for the bankruptcy bill. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics, Sanders said, adding a prediction that his movement of grassroots supporters will produce the highest voter turnout in American political history. More from National Review On December 7, 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of President Bidens Executive Order 14042 and the accompanying guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force as it relates to covered contracts, including the requirement that covered contractor employees be vaccinated. The injunction takes effect immediately and its scope is nationwide. The injunction prohibits the federal governments enforcement of the federal vaccine mandate pending the outcome of the ongoing legal challenge to the federal mandate. The injunction impacts the University community in a number of ways. As has been previously communicated, the federal vaccine mandate required the University of Georgia to identify covered contractor employees and notify them of the requirement under the federal mandate that they receive their final dose of vaccination by January 4, 2022. The federal mandate also required that the University of Georgia identify all covered contractor workplaces and take steps to enforce mask-wearing and physical distancing requirements in those workplaces. As a result of the injunction, these requirements are currently suspended until further notice. More Information Keith Arsenault was running an errand before starting his shift at work when he was fatally injured in a head-on crash in Auburn on Feb. 27. The 34-year-old man from Douglas and Woonsocket, Rhode Island was going to be married on Jan. 2. Just a few days before the crash he posted a message on Facebook. 3 more weeks and Ill be sitting on a beach in Ft Lauderdale shirtless with my toes in the sand with my soon to be wife, he wrote. Arsenault died Sunday, days after the crash at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. Maccarone has since been cited by Auburn police for motor vehicle homicide. He was also cited for negligent driving and a marked lanes violation in the crash. Arsenault leaves his mother Paula Arsenault; his sister, Susan Arsenault; his fiancee, Laura Knight; his maternal grandmother, Marjorie Mielnicki; and several relatives and friends. Arsenault and Knight planned to get married in January, according to a GoFundMe post created to help Arsenaults fiancee. Arsenault went to Douglas public schools and graduated from Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in 2003. He worked as an EMT for several companies and recently worked as a mental health associate at UMass Memorial Health Cares Psychiatric Treatment and Recovery Center in Worcester, according to Arsenaults obituary. Arsenault died just a few weeks shy of his birthday. In August 2015, he was on the ABC show Save My Life while working as an EMT. He and Laura were making plans for their future together along with their dogs, Vincent and Peyton, Arsenaults obituary reads. Arsenault was an avid bodybuilder, loved country music and going to sporting events. In the GoFundMe post, Arsenault was described as dedicated, reliable, compassionate" and a gentle giant. Arsenault and Knight had a fairytale wedding planned. We would love to ease any potential financial stressors for Laura and allow her to continue to pursue the dreams they shared without any excessive financial burden, the fund reads. We hope Laura is able to celebrate his life and continue encouraging others to Do the right thing, as Keith so often would say. According to records from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, Maccarone has been cited a handful of times for speeding in the past. A preliminary investigation shows Maccarone was driving eastbound on Route 20 in Auburn when he crossed into the westbound lane. He struck the Subaru driven by Arsenault head-on, police said. Arsenault tried to swerve but was unable to avoid the truck. Auburn police asked the state RMV to suspend Maccarones license. His license was suspended on Friday. A police statement of facts on filed in court associated with the negligent driving and marked lanes violation citations said Maccarone was standing outside of his truck and on the phone when officers arrived at the scene. Arsenault was found severely injured in his Subaru. Maccarone, according to the police statement, told Police Chief Andrew Sluckis Jr that his knee hit the steering wheel and that caused him to cross into the other lane. Sluckis asked Maccarone how fast he was driving at the time of the crash and Maccarone replied, 40-ish, according to the statement. Maccarone was cited for speeding on Route 20 just five minutes before the crash. He was driving 70 mph in a 40 mph zone about two miles from the crash, police said. As of Wednesday, Maccarone only had the negligent driving and marked lanes violations listed on a criminal complaint filed in Worcester District Court. His arraignment is scheduled for March 16. One judge stood out during the ruling on the application filed by Emeka Ihedioha, a former governor of Imo state. Ihedioha had asked t... One judge stood out during the ruling on the application filed by Emeka Ihedioha, a former governor of Imo state. Ihedioha had asked the apex court to review its judgement on his removal from office but while majority of the seven-man panel disagreed with him, Chima Nweze, found merit in the application. In his dissenting judgment, Nweze asked the court to set aside the January 14 judgment that removed Ihedioha from office, describing it as a nullity and in bad faith. He also nullified the declaration of Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor on account of wrong declaration and held that Uzodinma misled the court into unjust conclusion with the unverified votes in 388 polling units. This decision of the Supreme Court will continue to hunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come, he said. In my intimate reading of the January 14 judgment, the substance of Ihediohas matter was lost to time frame. This court once set aside its own earlier judgment and therefore cannot use time frame to extinguish the right of any person. This court has powers to over rule itself and can revisit any decision not in accordance with justice. This court has a duty of redeeming its image. I am of the view that this application should succeed. I hereby make an order setting aside the decision of this court made on January 14 and that the certificate of return issued to the appellant be returned to INEC. I also make an order restoring the respondents as winner of the March 9 governorship election. Nwexes position came as a surprise to those who expected the ruling to be unanimous as it is in most cases. Of the seven judges on the panel, he was the only one who was not on seat when the court sacked Ihedioha. At that time the verdict was unanimous. ATIKUS APPEAL IS WITHOUT MERIT Nweze was part of the supreme court panel that refused the request of Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, to inspect servers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). At the time, Atiku was challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the 2019 presidential election. I see no reason for departing from the reasoning of the lower court. I find that this appeal is without merit, and it is accordingly dismissed, Nweze had held in the ruling that was unanimous. Atiku finally lost the appeal. LEGAL CAREER In 2014, former President Goodluck Jonathan approved the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to appoint Nweze to the supreme court. Thereafter, he went through a screening at the senate and was confirmed as a judge of the apex court. Before then, Nweze served as a judge of the court of appeal. He had earlier served as judge of the high court of Enugu. Nweze Nweze was legal adviser to Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu state. The jurist, who was born on September 25, 1958, bagged all his degrees from bachelors to Ph.D from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). He attended St John Cross Seminary, Nsukka between 1972 and 1977. Nweze was called to the bar in 1984 and completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Bauchi in 1985. He has served as chairman, Ogun state governorship and legislative houses election petition tribunal in 1999; chairman, robbery and firearms tribunal, Nsukka, 1998 and 1999; and member, Ondo state local government election petition tribunal in 1999. One-time mining billionaire and racing giant Nathan Tinkler is adamant hes living in Coffs Harbour on New South Wales mid-north coast. But it's curious, considering your correspondents have spotted him in a Queensland hamlet where online bookie Dean Shannon is flogging his farm. Shannon, who made a motza at Ladbrokes and later at rival punting outfit Neds, has had his Sunshine Coast hinterland property Montana Park on the market for several years after buying it a decade ago for $7 million. In June, real estate agents slapped a sold sticker across the property. The local tabloid, the Sunshine Coast Daily, reported a "mystery horse racing identity" had splashed out for the 42-hectare spread. But almost a year later, the property is still in Shannon's name. And it is still under contract, with sources telling CBD that while a sizable deposit had been made, it was likely the balance was still owing. Photo credit: Chesnot - Getty Images From Men's Health Public health organizations and governments around the world are closely monitoring the outbreak of a novel coronavirus, which causes an upper respiratory illness known as COVID-19. As this is a developing situation, we'll be regularly updating this timeline with the latest news, including links to daily situation reports from the WHO. March 6: Global cases of the novel coronavirus have passed 100,000, and U.S. cases have passed 250, according to the New York Times. March 5: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, made these opening remarks when he briefed the media on the state of COVID-19. He called on countries to pull out all the stops to fight the spread of the virus. "This is not a drill," he said. "This is not the time to give up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops. Countries have been planning for scenarios like this for decades. Now is the time to act on those plans." March 4: New York officials report more cases of coronavirus Six people in New York have tested positive for coronavirus, including four family members in Westchester County, according to state officials. In a press conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said those infected include a 50-year-old attorney, his wife, their 22-year-old son (a student at Yeshiva University), and their 14-year-old daughter (who attends a Bronx private high school). The man has been hospitalized in serious condition, while the other family members are quarantined at their home in New Rochelle. The man's neighbor, who also tested positive, drove him to the hospital. The first reported coronavirus case in New York was a health care worker who was infected in Iran. She is currently isolated in her home. The woman's husband was also tested for the virus but the tests came back negative, Gov. Cuomo said. WHO says coronavirus is deadlier than seasonal flu, but doesn't transmit as easily Story continues Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said Tuesday that the global mortality rate for COVID-19 was 3.4 percent. That figure primarily reflects the outbreak in mainland China, where the vast majority of cases have been detected. In comparison, season flu typically kills fewer than 1 percent of those infected. D Dr. Margaret Harris, a W.H.O. spokeswoman, said the figure was expected to "change over time, and vary from place to place." As researchers and officials get a clearer picture of the scale of those infected, the mortality rate could become "considerably less than 1 percent," according to an editorial published by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The coronavirus does not transmit as efficiently as influenza but causes more severe disease, Dr. Tedros added. March 3 Eight countriesAndorra, Jordan, Latvia, Morocco, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, and Tunisiareport new cases of COVID-19. Globally, over 90,000 cases have been confirmed and 3,200 deaths have been reported, with the vast majority of both occurring in mainland China, according to the WHO. March 2 Six countriesArmenia, Czechia, Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, Iceland, and Indonesiareport new cases of COVID-19. A team of WHO experts arrive in Tehran, Iran in order to support the coronavirus response. March 1 Five countriesAzerbaijan, Ecuador, Ireland, Monaco, and Qatarreport new cases of COVID-19. The number of confirmed cases in Hubei province, China, increases for two successive days after a period of decline. February 29 Mexico and San Marino report new cases of COVID-19. The U.S. government announces it will suspend entry to foreign nationals who have been in Iran within the past 14 days. February 28 Five countriesBelarus, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Nigeriareport new cases of COVID-19. WHO increases their assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact to "very high" at the global level. There are now over 36,000 cases who have recovered from COVID-19 in China. The CDC issues notices elevating the situation to a Level 3 "Warning" in Italy and Level 3 "Warning" in Iran, and recommends that travelers should avoid all nonessential travel to those countries. February 27 Nine countriesBrazil, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Pakistan, Romania, and North Macedoniareport new cases of COVID-19. The CDC updates its criteria to guide evaluation of persons under investigation for COVID-19. February 26 Four countriesAlgeria, Austria, Croatia, and Switzerlandreport new cases of COVID-19. For the first time, since the onset of symptoms of the first identified case of COVID-19 on December 8, 2019, there are more new cases reported from countries outside of China than from China. February 25 Four countriesAfghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Omanreport new cases of COVID-19. WHO shares an online course for healthcare workers and public health professionals titled Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). February 24 Kuwait reports new cases of COVID-19. The CDC issues a notice elevating the situation to a Level 3 "Warning" in South Korea, and recommends travelers should avoid all nonessential travel to the country. February 23 No new countries report cases of COVID-19. February 22 Israel and Lebanon report new cases of COVID-19. The role of environmental contamination in the transmission of COVID-19 is not yet clear, according to WHO. February 21 No new countries report cases of COVID-19. February 20 Iran reports new cases of COVID-19. China revises their guidance on case classification for COVID-19, removing the classification of clinically diagnosed previously used for Hubei province, and retaining only suspected and confirmed for all areas, the latter requiring laboratory confirmation. February 19 No new countries report cases of COVID-19. The CDC issues notices for Japan and Hong Kong, elevating the former to Level 2 "Alert" and urging practicing enhanced precautions, while declaring a Level 1 "Watch" for Hong Kong, urging to practice usual precautions. February 16 A third death of a COVID-19 patient is reported outside of China. The individual was a tourist from China visiting France. February 15 Egypt reports its first confirmed case of COVID-19. In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak situation that WHO finds encouraging, and areas of concern. The U.S. prepares to evacuate its citizens from a cruise ship quarantined at a Japanese dock. France confirms the first death from COVID-19 in Europe. February 14 A second death is reported outside of China, in Japan. This individual did not have known travel history to China. February 11 WHO names the upper respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus "COVID-19." February 8 A U.S. citizen in Wuhan, China dies from the novel coronavirus, marking the first known fatality of a non-Chinese citizen. February 7 Whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, who raised the alarm regarding the Wuhan coronavirus, dies. January 30 WHO declares the outbreak to be a "public health emergency of international concern." The first two confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease are reported in Italy; both had travel history to Wuhan City. The first confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease are reported in Finland, India and Philippines; all had travel history to Wuhan City. January 21 The CDC confirms the first case of 2019-nCoV in the United States in the state of Washington. January 20 As of this date, 282 confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV are reported from four countries including China (278 cases), Thailand (2 cases), Japan (1 case) and the Republic of Korea (1 case). January 12 WHO receives further detailed information from the National Health Commission China that the outbreak is associated with exposures in one seafood market in Wuhan City. January 7 The Chinese authorities identify a new type of coronavirus and isolate it. January 3 By this date, a total of 44 case-patients with pneumonia of unknown etiology are reported to WHO by the national authorities in China. December 31 The WHO China Country Office is informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology (unknown cause) that are detected in Wuhan City, China. You Might Also Like The government on Wednesday asked Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom companies to pay remaining AGR dues as per the Supreme Court order, according to sources. The telecom department wrote to all the telcos asking them to pay balance dues "without delay" and also submit detailed bifurcation of payments (explanation of self assessed amounts), which are necessary for proper reconciliation of legitimate dues. The government has so far received about Rs 26,000 crore from AGR payments, including adhoc/ buffer amounts given by telcos to meet any reconciliation differences. However, the amounts paid by telcos is woefully lower than the DoT's Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) calculation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Con artists deceived a significant number of victims recently in Pearland, stealing identities and relying on counterfeit forms of payment, according to reports from the citys police department. Theft by fraud occurred Feb. 21 in the 6300 block of Laurie Street, according to a Feb. 24 police report. Police conducted a debit or credit-card abuse investigation Feb. 24 in the 2700 block of Pearland Parkway. Police charged a Houston woman, 36, with fraudulent use or possession of identifying information Feb. 24 in the 2200 block of Business Center Boulevard. A worthless check was passed Dec. 2 in the 1900 block of Main Street, according to a Feb. 25 police report. Identity fraud occurred between March 29, 2019 and Feb. 3, according to a police report filed Feb. 25 in the 2000 block of Deepbrook Drive. Police conducted a prescription fraud investigation Feb. 25 in the 12800 block of Broadway Street. Items were purchased with a counterfeit credit card between Nov. 18, 2019 and Feb. 26, according to a police report filed Feb. 26 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street. Forgery occurred between Feb. 10 and Feb. 18, according to a police report filed Feb. 27 in the 1800 block of Broadway Street. Identity information was stolen and used to open an account between June 29 and June 30, 2019, according to a police report filed Feb. 27 in the 4000 block of Lee Lane. Theft by fraud or deception occurred Feb. 27 in the 3100 block of Broadway Street, police said. A complainants bank account information was used fraudulently, according to a police report filed Feb. 27 in the 2500 block of Barry Rose Road. Theft by fraud or deception was reported Feb. 28 in the 2300 block of Marys Creek Court, police said. Identity theft occurred between Jan. 16 and Feb. 24, according to a police report filed Feb. 28 in the 1200 block of Broadway Street. Credit card abuse was reported Feb. 28 in the 2000 block of Business Center Drive, police said. A victims identity was used fraudulently to open an account between Nov. 26, 2019, and Feb. 24, according to a police report filed Feb. 28 in the 11400 block of Tara Place. Credit or debit-card abuse took place Feb. 29 in the 2000 block of Pleasant Springs Lane, police said. Police filed an identity fraud report March 1 in the 3000 block of Rocky Canyon Drive. Theft Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle occurred Feb. 23 in the 2900 block of Broadway Street, according to a Feb. 24 police report. Police charged a Houston man, 53, with theft and evading arrest Feb. 24 at Home Depot, 10111 Broadway Street. Equipment was reported stolen Feb. 25 in the 14300 block of Texas 288, police said. A Houston man, 47, was charged with theft Feb. 25 in the 10100 block of Broadway Street, police said. Employee theft occurred between Dec. 20, 2019, and Feb. 17 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, according to a Feb. 25 police report. Shoplifting was reported Feb. 25 in the 8400 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police filed a theft report Feb. 26 in the 2600 block of Dunsmore Oak Drive. Theft was reported Feb. 26 in the 1300 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police took a Spring man, 54, into custody on charges of theft and evading arrest Feb. 26 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive. A Houston man, 26, was charged with theft of a firearm, marijuana possession and unlawfully carrying a weapon Feb. 26 in the 1500 block of Main Street, police said. Vehicle theft was reported Feb. 28 in the 4100 block of Seminole Drive, police said. Police responded to a shoplifting report Feb. 28 in the 2500 block of Pearland Parkway. A Houston woman, 42, received a citation for shoplifting Feb. 28 at H-E-B, 2805 Business Center Drive, police said. Police charged a Houston man, 55, with theft and forgery Feb. 28 at Academy, 2804 Business Center Drive. A Houston man, 47, and two Houston women, 43 and 50, were charged with theft, police said. A male suspect stole items Feb. 29 from a store in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. A Houston man, 44, received a citation for shoplifting Feb. 29 in the 1700 block of Broadway Street, police said Shoplifting was reported Feb. 29 in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. Police filed a theft report Feb. 29 in the 1300 block of Broadway Street. Theft was reported Feb. 29 in the 15700 block of Texas 288, police said. A female suspect stole merchandise March 1 from Dicks Sporting Goods, 11200 Broadway St., police said. Police filed a theft report March 1 in the 1900 block of Main Street. Police charged an Alvin woman, 41, with shoplifting March 1 in the 1700 block of Broadway Street. A shoplifting incident March 1 in the 2700 block of Broadway Street led to a foot pursuit, police said. Robbery Robbery of a specialty store was attempted Feb. 24 in the 11000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. Robbery and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle were reported Feb. 29 in the 11900 block of Shadow Creek Parkway, police said. Burglary A residence was burglarized Feb. 22 in the 2700 block of Old Alvin Road, according to a Feb. 24 police report. Police conducted a vehicle burglary investigation Feb. 24 in the 13000 block of Shoalwater Lane. Vehicle burglary was reported Feb. 26 in the 13400 block of Hickory Springs Lane, police said. Burglary of a habitation occurred between Feb. 19 and Feb. 23, according to a police report filed Feb. 26 in the 500 block of Chickory Field Lane. Attempted burglary of a building was reported Feb. 29 in the 1800 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. Assault Police filed an assault report Feb. 24 in the 10100 block of Broadway Street. Family violence was reported Feb. 24 in the 1900 block of Plum Falls Lane, police said. Police conducted a family violence investigation Feb. 25 in the 4200 block of Pine Mill Court. Police filed an assault report Feb. 26 at Pearland Junior High West, 2337 N. Galveston Ave. A complainant reported involvement in a physical altercation Feb. 26 in the 2100 block of North Park Avenue, police said. Police conducted a family violence investigation Feb. 28 in the 1100 block of Chesterwood Drive. Police investigated a reported road rage incident Feb. 28 in the 2400 block of Business Center Drive. Assault was reported Feb. 28 in the 3500 block of Southdown Drive, police said. Police charged a Pearland man, 31, with assault, family violence Feb. 28 in the 3700 block of Ginger Lane. A 38-year-old Pearland woman was charged with assault, family violence Feb. 29 in the 3700 block of Sunset Meadows Drive, police said. Police charged a Pearland man, 32, with assault, family violence Feb. 29 in the 2400 block of Fastwater Creek Court. Assault occurred Feb. 29 in the 2700 block of Southdown Drive, police said. Assault and criminal mischief occurred March 1 in the 2300 block of Anthony Drive, police said. Threats, harassment An online threat was reported Feb. 24 in the 3700 block of Main Street, police said. Police filed a terroristic threat report Feb. 28 in the 4700 block of Bailey Road. Narcotics A 24-year-old Pearland man was charged with possession of a controlled substance Feb. 25 in the 2700 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. Police charged a Spring man, 26, with possession of a controlled substance Feb. 27 in the 11100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway. A 20-year-old Houston woman was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, police said. Police charged a Cypress man, 32, with marijuana possession and tampering with evidence Feb. 27 in the 3000 block of Business Center Drive. An Arlington man, 23, was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawfully carrying a weapon after a traffic stop Feb. 28 in the 5600 block of Broadway Street, police said. Police charged a 25-year-old Port Arthur woman with marijuana possession Feb. 28 in the 11000 block of Broadway Street. Driving while intoxicated Police charged a Pearland man, 52, with DWI Feb. 27 in the 12100 block of Shadow Creek Parkway. A Houston man, 62, was charged with DWI Feb. 28 in the 2100 block of Main Street, police said. Police charged a 22-year-old Channelview man with DWI Feb. 28 in the 11000 block of Shadow Creek Parkway. A Houston man, 30, was charged with DWI Feb. 29 in the 2600 block of Old Chocolate Bayou Road, police said. Police charged a Houston man, 39, with DWI Feb. 29 in the 15800 block of Texas 288. A 31-year-old Pearland man was charged with DWI March 1 in the 2500 block of Business Center Drive, police said. Disorderly conduct Police filed a disorderly conduct report Feb. 28 in the 11700 block of Broadway Street. A 17-year-old Manvel man, a 17-year-old Pearland man, three 18-year-old Pearland men and a 40-year-old Pearland man received citations for disorderly conduct after a fight Feb. 29 in the 3000 block of Norwich Street, police said. Criminal mischief Police filed a criminal mischief report Feb. 26 in the 2100 block of Kingsley Drive. Vehicles parked in the 4100 block of Bailey Road were reported damaged Feb. 29, police said. Police charged a 23-year-old Fresno man with criminal mischief March 1 in the 1900 block of Main Street. Other incidents A student disrupted class and cursed school administrators Feb. 24 in the 3300 block of Manvel Road, according to a Feb. 25 police report. Police charged a Houston woman, 27, with resisting arrest Feb. 26 in the 2500 block of Cullen Parkway. Possession of child pornography was reported Feb. 27 in the 12200 block of Bell Creek Drive, police said. Police charged a Pearland man, 23, with unlawfully carrying a weapon Feb. 28 in the 13900 block of Texas 288. Police filed a criminal trespass report March 1 in the 5900 block of Larrycrest Drive. Towards the very end of the novel The Kite Runner, a scene plays out where a man sees himself looking at the eyes of a young boy as he mouths a dialogue that has become one of the most quoted lines in literature. For you, a thousand times over, says Amir, the protagonist of author Khaled Hosseinis debut novel. Known for an emphatic tone that evokes emotions that tug at heartstrings, Hosseinis stories dig deep into the human psyche and sing of love, loss, betrayal, and redemption. Khaled Hosseini celebrates his birthday on March 4. Born in 1965 in Kabul, Hosseini moved to Paris with his family in 1976. They wanted to come back to Afghanistan in 1980 but the country saw the invasion by the Soviet Army then. The family was granted political asylum in the US. 1408850257, 1408844443 Here are some lesser known facts about him: Khaled Hosseini started to write his first novel The Kite Runner in March 2001 while he was practising medicine He was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in 2006 He established The Khaled Hosseini Foundation which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. The foundation came into being following his trip to Afghanistan. The Kite Runner was adapted on the big screen and Khaled Hosseini made a brief appearance in the end Encouraged and motivated by the success of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini switched to writing full-time in 2004 His second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007 and was inspired by his observation of women wearing burqas during his Afghanistan visit in 2003. Khaled Hosseinis third novel And the Mountains Echoed was published in 2013. It speaks about siblings getting separated when a sister is given up for adoption The author also penned an illustrated novel Sea Prayer, written in the form of a letter from father to son. Hosseini has a number of memorable quotes attributed to him. Here are some of them: -- But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie. -- I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us. -- And thats the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too. -- Marriage can wait, education cannot. -- One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls. -- Children arent coloring books. You dont get to fill them with your favorite colors. -- I will follow you to the ends of the world. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. New Delhi: India's defence industry received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $8.82 million during April 2000 and December 2019, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. In 2018-19, FDI in the sector was aggregated at $2.18 million, according to the data provided by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Foreign fund inflows in retail trading stood at $2 billion during April 2000 and December 2019, the data showed. The top countries from where India attracted maximum FDI during the period include Mauritius, Singapore, Japan, Netherlands, and the US. In a separate reply, the minister said total merchandise imports from China were $76.3 billion in 2017-18, which decreased to $70.3 billion in 2018-19. Total imports from China during 2019-20 (April-January) were $57.9 billion, he said. Trade remedial measures were taken against as many as 89 products like EVA sheets, electrical insulators and Flax yarn against China, the minister informed. Similarly, six countervailing measures and one safeguard steps have been taken against the neighbouring country. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Thu, March 5, 2020 04:40 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206855d7d 2 World #USA,#BarackObama,coronavirus,death-toll Free Former US president Barack Obama called Wednesday for people to take "common sense precautions" over the coronavirus outbreak -- advising them to follow hand-washing guidelines but not to wear masks. "Save the masks for health care workers. Let's stay calm, listen to the experts, and follow the science," tweeted Obama, who has kept a low public profile since leaving office in 2017. He said people should keep track of updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- and stay home if they are sick. The World Health Organization has said masks, goggles and other protective equipment used by health workers were in short supply due to "rising demand, hoarding and misuse." The death toll in the US from the virus rose to 11 on Wednesday, as lawmakers in Congress reached a deal to provide more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak. Nationwide, more than 130 people have so far been infected, with the virus detected in more than a dozen states. For nearly a decade, Gina Thomson and David Shafer have been working together. The owner of Nuido Embroidery, Thomson does all the embroidery work for Shafers own business, Flagtown Prints. But now the two friends and business partners are working on another project: a new development on South San Francisco Street. The $2.3 million project called Flagtown Lofts is filling the lot, which has been vacant for years across from the Sunshine Mission. It is slated for completion this summer. Thomson has owned the property since 2007 and Shafer had long told her she should do something with it. She had mentioned that she owned this piece of property downtown and I said, Gina, you should do something with it. And she said, David, I am too old to do something with it, Shafer said. Instead, Thomson always said she was just waiting until someone offered her a million dollars for the property. But that changed when an offer was finally made and a developer from Los Angeles offered her half a million dollars cash for the property. He was doing this wherever there was a university. He was buying up chunks of land and building stuff and making bongo bucks off the kids and I said, You know, I just dont want that to be what happens, Thomson said. Thomson said the experience made her start to think harder about what she wanted the future of the property to be. So three years ago, Thomson decided to sell Shafer half the property and begin the process of development. But both Thomson and Shafer said they want Flagtown Lofts to be an improvement for the community. Shafer said he and Thomson have lived in Flagstaff a long time. Shafers family in particular has been in the city since 1914 and his grandmother built a house on San Francisco Street, living in it most of her life. We have a long history in this community, and so when we decided to put the project together, its to benefit the community and everyone involved, Shafer said. And whats cool is were local people. Theres not a whole lot of local owners in this town and we feel fortunate. The 6,400-square-foot Flagtown Lofts development will be three stories in height. About 2,100 square feet of that is commercial space on the ground floor. The second and third floors will then contain six residential units, which they plan to rent as vacation rentals. Two of those units will be one bedroom, one bathroom while the four remaining units will have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, Shafer said. When it comes to the commercial space, Shafer said they dont have an occupant yet, but he would love to have it become a bodega or small grocer that could serve the neighborhood. But Shafer added he doesnt know if that will happen. Nonetheless, he said they have received quite a bit of interest and are meeting with two potential occupants next week. Shafer said he and Thomson are also doing much of the work to furnish the building themselves. Shafer is building the countertops and coffee tables and much of the furniture while Thomson is embroidering the bedding for the units. Love 22 Funny 5 Wow 3 Sad 3 Angry 30 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. HOBOKEN, N.J., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- eMazzanti Technologies, an award-winning NYC technology consultant, Microsoft Gold Partner and managed services provider (MSP) announced today that it will sponsor Align2020 an innovative breakfast forum that presents best practices for business owners and C-level executives as they face current marketplace challenges. Align2020 is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on April 1, 2020 at the Microsoft Technology Center in Iselin, New Jersey. A networking breakfast will kick off at 7:30 a.m. and a panel discussion with a buffet lunch will close the morning event. To register, visit www.emazzanti.net\align2020. Speakers include Carl Mazzanti, a network and cyber security expert at eMazzanti Technologies Corey Nachreiner, Chief Technology Officer at WatchGuard Technologies, and several other cyber security, business and technology experts. Mazzanti will discuss best practices for preventing cyber security breaches. Chris Shiffer, Weather Advisor at the Wealth Enhancement Group, will present Financial Planning Ideas for You and Your Business in 2020, including the impact of the new SECURE Act. In addition, luncheon panel discussion will focus on questions from the attendees. The key to being competitive in 2020 is anticipating what matters both inside and outside a business. Align2020 is designed to provide introductions to experienced advisors and mentors who can help build and secure the foundation of a business organization for the next decade. All the speakers/participating firms have long-standing success in their respective practice areas. Interested business leaders are invited to ramp up their knowledge about leading trends for 2020 as well as network with peers to communicate top of mind concerns. Click here for additional Align 2020 information. Have you read? eMazzanti to Repeat on NJBIZ Cyber Security Panel eMazzanti Technologies Recognized on CRN's 2020 MSP500 List About eMazzanti Technologies eMazzanti's team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver increased revenue growth, data security and productivity for clients ranging from law firms to high-end global retailers, providing advanced retail and payment technology, cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring and support. eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list eight consecutive years, is a 4X Microsoft Partner of the Year, the #1 ranked NYC area MSP and NJ Business of the Year! Contact: 1-866-362-9926, [email protected] or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies. SOURCE eMazzanti Technologies Related Links http://www.emazzanti.net Waterways Ireland has been urged to work with farmers who are facing serious flooding on the Shannon, as the agency initiates a new tourism masterplan for the river. IFA Connacht chair Pat Murphy said it would be a win, win for everyone if the State agency recognised that management of the river extended beyond the tourist market. He was responding to the opening of a public consultation by Waterways Ireland on a new Shannon draft tourism masterplan and associated environmental report. Waterways Ireland, Failte Ireland and 10 local authorities are involved in the plan, which aims to reposition the combined Shannon navigation and Shannon-Erne waterway as a key tourism destination within Irelands Hidden Heartlands, identifying world class visitor experiences based on the regions natural and cultural assets. The draft was commissioned from SLR Consulting and partners and consultation will also be held in Northern Ireland, with a closing date of April 22. Once the public consultation is complete, submissions will be reviewed and a final draft of the document issued, Waterways Ireland said. Mr Murphy said that the IFA respected Waterways Irelands role in tourism and has no issue with it, but emphasised that repeated flooding of the river is a serious issue for farmers and residents along its banks. We call for one single authority to be responsible for Shannon management - and to be held responsible," Mr Murphy said. We are not being listened to by State authorities, yet we have been calling for this for several decades. Mid-Shannon flood relief group chairman Michael Silke - whose own beef and sheep farm near Banagher on the Galway-Offaly border has been seriously flooded - said Waterways Ireland, the ESB and the Office of Public Works (OPW) need to accept the reality of a crisis. He said the agencies have to work together, and said this has to be an absolute priority for a new government. Outgoing Minister of State for the OPW Kevin Boxer Moran did his best, but this has to come from the top, Mr Silke said. Mr Silke has proposed that the river could be naturally diverted onto bogland which could provide a natural sponge, while work on several "pinch points" between Athlone and Meelick could make a difference. Mr Murphy said the IFA would not like to see farmland flooded but if bogs can be used, that could be an answer. Individual farmers are really suffering, and Athlone and Carrick on Shannon are at risk far more regularly, as is the environment, birds and wildlife, Mr Murphy said. Some south Galway, Clare and midland landowners have experienced flooding up to six times in the last 25 years, having been told back in the floods of 2009 that it was a one in a hundred year event. Waterways Ireland said it had no comment to make. The Waterways Ireland masterplan can be viewed at https://www.waterwaysireland.org/about-us/public-consultations. Hamas political Chief said Tuesday the Palestinian resistance movement had turned down an invitation by the Trump Administration for a secret meeting. Ismail Haniyeh in an interview with Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV indicated that the US is to spread the rumor that its recent Middle East peace plan was revealed following secret meetings with Palestinian groups, including Hamas. * Hamas and other Palestinian groups rejected the plan unveiled by the US President Donald Trump on Jan. 28. The plan dubbed Deal of the Century is touted to bring an end to decades-long conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. The deal, welcomed by Israel, recognizes Israels undivided sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem as its capital, as well as the Jewish states control of the West Bank. Palestinians are given a patchwork Palestinian state boxed in by illegal Israeli settlements. When HMD Global announced it was pulling out of Mobile World Congress amid coronavirus fears, it said it will be holding a series of Nokia Live events instead. And now, the Chief Product Officer of the company, Juho Sarvikas, has teased a replacement event. MWC has always been a key stage for the Finnish company to launch new products. However, out of concern for different stakeholders, HMD Global decided against attending MWC. Later on, the conference was canceled altogether. Sarvikas has now taken to Twitter to tease a new event. It will be held on March 19 in London. Chances are that the company will announce new phones during the event. Advertisement The teaser doesnt give any details. However, its heavy on the James Bond theme, implying that a collaboration is on the cards. The short video clip is accompanied by a caption that reads: No Time To Wait. We have something very special lined up for you. Apparently, Nokia is gearing up to release James Bond 007 edition Kevlar cases for its Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2 handsets. Advertisement The Hardcase back covers will be made of Kevlar, which is a material that is said to be a lot stronger than steel. And if you are wondering just how strong it is, it goes into the production of bullet-proof vests. The case will apparently cost around $28 and it will reportedly be available in Europe and Australia. Here Are All The Phones That HMD Global Will Likely Announce The new lineup will likely have something for all. Thats because HMD Global is tipped to launch one flagship and various mid-tier and entry-level handsets. That said, there is a possibility that the Nokia 9 PureView successor will not make it to the event. Thats apparently because the phone has been delayed so its underpinned by the Snapdragon 865 SoC. However, the company might reveal some details about it during the event. Advertisement Other than that, the company is also tipped to unveil the Nokia 8.2, both in LTE and 5G flavors. The mid-range 5G model will supposedly have the Snapdragon 765G chipset under the hood. The processor will presumably be mated with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. The phone will likely feature a 32-megapixel pop-up front camera. Moreover, the company is also tipped to launch the Nokia 5.2. The budget phone will likely be powered by the Snapdragon 632 and sport a 6.2-inche LCD screen with a notch. It will reportedly be available in 3GB and 4GB RAM options and 32GB and 64GB storage variants. The phone will apparently have a dual camera set up and will cost around $190. Advertisement The Nokia 1.3 might also make a debut during the event. Rumor has it that the phone will feature a 6-inch LCD screen. It will probably be fueled by a MediaTek chipset and offer 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. It will apparently run Android 10 Go Edition and will cost nearly $90 Additionally, a new range called Nokia Originals might also break cover. The company also recently filed for a new eSIM technology with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Thus, some of these phones might be eSIM compatible. Advertisement No Time To Wait. We have something very special lined up for you. #nokiamobilelive pic.twitter.com/xQAZWok0v6 Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) March 3, 2020 Two persons were on Wednesday admitted to separate hospitals in Odisha on suspicion of novel coronavirus, as the Chief Minister's Office reviewed the situation arising out of the outbreak of the disease, in the state. Two high-level meetings on the coronavirus situation were also held during the day as the total number of people under observation in the state increased to 121 with the hospitalisation of the two fresh suspects. Odisha Health Minister N K Das said so far no coronavirus case has been confirmed in the state though over 100 people, who returned to the state from COVID-19 hit countries, have been kept under observation. Sources in the health department said a youth from Sonepur district who returned from Dubai on February 27 was admitted to special ward at VIMSAR in Burla of Sambalpur district on Wednesday after he developed cold and fever. Another person of Keonjhar was admitted to the district headquarters hospital after showing similar symptoms. He had recently returned to Odisha from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The development comes a day after an Uttar Pradesh-based couple, who returned from China, was admitted at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for suspected novel coronavirus. A cargo ship with 23 crew members, including the couple, had come from China and reached Paradip Port on March 1 via Hong Kong and Singapore. While the chief medical officer reviewed the situation, Health and Family Welfare Department Secretary N B Dhal presided over another meeting attended by the Director Medical Education and Training (DMET) and other senior officials. "The Odisha health minister will soon write to the Union health minister seeking two coronavirus test facilities at RMRC in Bhubaneswar and SCB Hospital in Cuttack," an official said. Presently, the samples collected from suspected coronavirus cases are being sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for confirmation. As it requires at least three days to get test reports, the state immediately requires its own facility, he said. Meanwhile, the Odisha government has issued an advisory asking employees and people in general to avoid mass gathering and wash hands regularly. Updating on the condition of the couple, SCBMCH emergency services officer B N Maharana said, "The health condition of both the man and his wife is stable. We have collected the blood, swab and nasal liquid of the couple. The sample will be sent for examination and report is awaited in three days." "While the man, a marine engineer, has some symptoms, his wife is perfectly alright," he said. However, the samples have been collected from both of them and they have been put in the isolation ward meant for suspected coronavirus patients. After taking stock of the situation at Lok Seva Bhavan, Health and Family Welfare Department Secretary N B Dhal said the state government has taken all precautionary measures to tackle the situation. "We follow all the guidelines issued by the health ministry and WHO," he said. The state in its advisory to employees asked them to avoid hugging, shaking hands while greeting and keep their workplace clean to ward off coronavirus infection. It also issued workplace advisory based on the containment plan prepared by the health ministry to tackle COVID-19. "Surfaces (desks and tables) and objects (telephone, keyboards) need to be regularly wiped with disinfectant containing 70 per cent alcohol," it said. Soaps or sanitizing hand rub should be provided near wash basins and water supply should be ensured as frequent hand washing kills the virus and prevents spread of COVID-19, it said. The staff should be advised home isolation whenever they develop flu-like symptoms, the advisory said. "Please remember simple precautions and planning can make a big difference for containment of COVID-19. So it is the right time to prepare and protect all our countrymen," it added. Employees should be asked to avoid crowded places like malls, markets, stations unless required, and maintain a safe distance from any person having cough and running nose. The advisory also cautioned employers against sending employees to affected countries, unless urgent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Press Release 4 March 2020 LONDON - New research by leading hospitality company Hilton, has found 43% of working women would not feel confident asking their employer about flexible working. This is despite flexible working topping the most important things that women look for in a potential employer (62%), being valued above a high salary (54%) and holiday entitlement (51%). Advertisements Ahead of International Women's Day on 8 March, Hilton surveyed over 2,000 working women across industries to find that more than half (52%) think senior leaders should champion flexible working to encourage women to progress in their careers, with a better work-life balance (65%), more time to spend with family (46%), and benefits to mental health (40%) cited as the biggest positives that come with working flexibly. Hilton In terms of barriers faced, almost one-third (31%) of women believe that their employer would not be understanding if they opted for a flexible working pattern and almost two-fifths (37%) think their salary will be impacted. Women also experience a lack of inspiring senior women, with more than a quarter (27%) saying they do not have a single senior woman that they consider to be a role model within their business. To challenge the perception that only one-in-five (19%) women think that hospitality offers good opportunities for flexible working, the hospitality company has placed a spotlight on its female-led Hilton London Canary Wharf team. Over 50 talented women from Hilton were brought together to celebrate the hotel's ongoing commitment to nurture female talent to build long and successful careers and to inspire more women to join the industry. Watch the all-female team in action here. Stacey Boast, General Manager, Hilton London Canary Wharf, said: "For International Women's Day 2020 we wanted to take the opportunity to remind people of the fantastic female talent we have in our industry and the diversity of roles across hospitality. Hospitality is a 24/7 industry and being able to choose a working pattern that suits is hugely beneficial to working women and men and it's important that it isn't seen as a barrier to progression." General Manager roles at Hilton allow for flexible working, home working is encouraged in many departments, and the 24/7 nature of hospitality allows Team Members to work flexible shift patterns. Hilton is a headline signatory of the Women in Hospitality charter and is working with other companies across the industry to find solutions to some of the industry's challenges. Hilton was recognised by Great Place to Work last year as the #2 Best Place to Work for Women in the UK. Commenting on the findings, Lizzie Benton, Culture Consultant and the Founder of Liberty Mind, said: "Flexible working has the ability to bring more women back into the workplace and we need to start being realistic that the traditional working hours are no longer fit for modern life. And who said eight hours was productive anyway? This research shows time and time again that flexible working supports more people in the workplace and provides a better work-life balance for those who are sole carers." To start your career at Hilton, visit: jobs.hilton.com/emea/en Research methodology All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from Censuswide. Total sample size was 2,039 female working adults. Fieldwork was undertaken 19 February - 21 February 2020. The survey was carried out online. 04.03.2020 LISTEN It is said when education does not enter your mind and soul to change your world view about things, then that education is not different from the shirt you wear in the morning and remove in the evening. Dr. Okadigbo puts it more eloquently than I can ever muster, that if you are emotionally attached to your political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability to mankind. From the foregoing, it is undeniable that most Ghanaian youths have become a liability to the nation. We dont see beyond our political colouration. Indeed, the politically empowered powerlessness of our people is sickening and I am tired of engaging in arguments of what could have been. Tempted to mind my own business, the Ghanaian in me would not allow me. Fellow Ghanaians, this is an epistle from the independent-minded people. By independent-minded, I am referring to those who look at national issues beyond NDC and NPP. I mean those who reason beyond petty partisanship and discuss national issues dispassionately. Do I call them fanatics, foot soldiers, sympathizers or sycophants? Let me charitable with words. Ayekoo to all die in the wool supporters of NDC and NPP whose words do not wander far away from maiming, destroy and send to the cleaners at the least opposition to the party they support. How be the market? You, people, get the scholarship some? My sympathies to you all. On a more serious note, there is more to NDC-NPP politics than meet the eye. Without any shadow of doubt, many budding supporters of the NDC are disappointed that opportunities they sought after and did not get under their beloved NDCs tenure were rather ironically giving to people who are supposed to be in a rival party. Unbelievable! Right? Even more disappointing is the fact that the very people offered the opportunities could afford them with a chicken change and even sponsor others without trouble. Well, that is the nature of NDC-NPP politics which is sadly translating to Ghana politics. The reverse is true now that NPP has the power. Without any equivocation, some bigwigs in the NDC and their families are enjoying sumptuous contracts and scholarships they need after all. To paraphrase Mannaseh, some NDC bigwigs want Nana Addo reelected since it is only through his reelection that their bread can be buttered. In an earlier write-up, I indicated that the set-up of the NPP and NDC is a grand scheme to create, loot and share to the detriment of the suffering masses. The revelations by the auditor general about the dolling out of scholarships to people who should be granting scholarships to others vindicate this position. In my opinion, the NPP and NDC have never been rivals. The rivalry is about who should be in charge to do the distribution. That has always been the point of disagreement. But generally, in terms of aim and objectives, they both seek to do the same thing; to disguise their selfish interest as those of the national interest. The DNA of both parties is to create, loot and share. The point of departure, however, is who should be at the helm of affairs to cut and distribute the cake. At best, the NDC and NPP can be likened to two women in a polygamous marriage. Both women have children with the man. each of these women always wants to be in the kitchen so that her children can be well fed. This typifies the attitude of the NDC and NPP. So you who are so proud to be tagged as an NDC or NPP foot soldier, are you part of their sharing scheme? Beyond using you to perpetrate crimes, violence, mayhem and to insult perceived opponents, what do you mean to the NDC and NPP? From all indications, you dont feature in any of their plans beyond the dirty things you do for them. If you think I am lying, why are they giving scholarships to their rivals and their children and not you a party faithful? In the face of all these, why do you allow yourselves to be used as hooligans to perpetrate crimes for people who dont give a hoot about you? As a matter of fact, this revelation by the auditor general should be an eye-opener to every youth. In the eyes of the NPP and NDC, the youth are tools used to help in achieving their selfish desires. Instead of allowing ourselves to be used as agents of destruction, let us channel our energies into making ourselves better. History has shown that when people are organized on the basis of ideas, they can make demands and set the agenda. After all, most of the nationalist leaders were our age when they led the independence struggle even against imperial rule. How can it therefore be that we are being subjugated by our very own and all we can be are stooges to be used for own destruction. Arise Ghana youth for your country. What exactly was the purpose of these gifts some as large as $50,000 from a charitable account Mr. McCarrick controlled at the Washington Archdiocese? Who or what was the source of the money? A spokeswoman for the archdiocese, Paula Gwynn Grant, told Post reporters that Mr. McCarrick himself raised the money for the special fund and spent it as he chose. Therefore, any information needed about these donations, including the specific amount, must be asked of Mr. McCarrick, she said. Never mind that Mr. McCarrick has been squirrelled away to live at some undisclosed location. When we pressed for more information, Ms. Grant emailed that the money was used by IVE and its sister branch to support their mission to educate, house, care for and serve many of the most disadvantaged members of our community. She directed further questions to those religious orders. A contractor for the Pentagon has been charged with providing classified U.S. intelligence to a Lebanese national connected with terrorist group Hezbollah, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. The department alleges Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, began transmitting the classified intelligence around December 30, when Iraqi militiamen stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Thompson is a linguist who at the time was working at a U.S. special forces base in Erbil in northern Iraq. The classified files contained classified national defense information including true names, personal identification data, background information, and photographs of the human sources, as well as operations cables detailing information the human sources provided to the United States government, read an FBI affidavit filed in the case. Thompson was arrested on February 27, and was due to appear in court on Wednesday. On February 19 FBI agents searched Thompsons Erbil residence and discovered documents under her mattress with the names of three U.S. intelligence assets, as well as a warning for the target of one of those assets. By compromising the identities of these human assets, Thompson placed the lives of the human assets and U.S. military personnel in grave danger, the Justice Department wrote in a press release. The December 30 protests at the U.S. Embassy began after American airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Those airstrikes followed the killing of an American contractor by Iran-backed militias. On January 2 the protests at the embassy were called off. That same night, President Trump ordered the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. More from National Review A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced on Wednesday that it had staved off an attack on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea, Saudi news agency SPA reported. The attackers, spokesman Turki al-Malki allege, on Tuesday targeted an oil tanker sailing off Yemens Nishtun port with four boatsone of which was remotely controlled. According to the spokesman, the remote vessel was trying to explode the oil tanker. The spokesman stopped short of naming the attackers or their country of origin or the name of the oil tanker that was targeted. Yemen continues to be a rocked by fighting between the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia. On February 21, Houthi rebels launched a missile attack on Saudi Arabia, but the Saudis were able to intercept the missiles, according to Saudi Arabia. The Houthis claimed the attack, but offered a different version of events, claiming that it struck their objectiveswhich were sensitive targetswith high precision. Tuesdays events are just the latest development in a string of hostilities between the two opposing groups, with no end in sight. The Houthi rebels took responsibility for the September 14 attacks on Saudi Aramcos oil infrastructure that cost some 5.7 million bpd in lost oil production capacity last year. Both Riyadh and Washington blamed the attacks on Iran, which continues to deny any involvement. UN investigators last month determined that the Houthis did not, in fact, carry out the Saudi attack. The Yemeni war, which began in 2015, has led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at the moment, and there is no end in sight, with the fight between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition recently intensifying around the key port city of Hodeida. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: President Donald Trump continued his attack on Sen. Elizabeth Warren Wednesday morning, carrying it over from Tuesday night when he described the Democratic presidential candidate the loser of the night. So selfish for Elizabeth Warren to stay in the race. She has Zero chance of even coming close to winning, but hurts Bernie badly. So much for their wonderful liberal friendship. Will he ever speak to her again? She cost him Massachusetts (and came in third), he shouldnt! wrote the president on Twitter Wednesday morning. Warren didnt win any Super Tuesday states. Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden split all the wins between themselves, save for American Samoa, which went to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Also Read: Bloomberg Spokesperson Talks Up Campaign's Chances Despite Early Super Tuesday Losses (Video) Trump reveled in Warrens and Bloombergs disappointing results Tuesday night. The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg, Trump tweeted Tuesday night. His political consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike! Trump then shifted his attention to Warren, writing, Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer! The hashtag #WarrenDropOut trended on Twitter Wednesday morning, but the senator has not announced any intentions to do so. Read original story Trump Calls Elizabeth Warren Selfish for Staying in Race, Says Shes Hurting Bernie Sanders At TheWrap It was absolutely essential that the mobile communication between our three locations be protected and encrypted because of the very sensitive nature of the exercise. Secured Communications, LLC, the global leader in safeguarding corporate and agency communications, has been utilized for sensitive information sharing by Pacific Eclipse, a two-day immersive, international, multi-jurisdictional biosecurity simulation exercise involving high-profile experts from multiple countries. The event simulated a pathogenic pandemic, including possible regional and global impacts to health care, resource availability, government actions, travel, economic disruption and social responses poignantly similar to current events surrounding the Coronavirus epidemic. Secured Communications was selected for use because the exercise presented and shared highly sensitive information centered on the potential evolution, response and global impact of a hypothetical terrorist attack involving a bio-engineered infectious agent. During the two-day exercise, Secured Communications was used as the encrypted communications platform for live interactive messaging and information sharing to provide a fully encrypted, real-time information exchange for participants at all three exercise locations across six time zones. We were pleased that more than 33,000 messages exchanging highly sensitive information were shared among participants, presenters and speakers representing high-profile agencies and institutions from the US, Australia, UK, Canada and the European Union, stated Robert Wilson, CEO Secured Communications. Pacific Eclipse was an invitation only, immersive bio-threat simulation conducted simultaneously at three sites across the USA (Washington DC, Phoenix and Honolulu), with cooperation from the U.S. Defense Department, Indo-Pacific Command. The event was hosted and coordinated by the PLuS Alliance (UNSW Sydney, Arizona State University and Kings College London) and Stratium Global, and with the cooperation of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Pacific Eclipse was highly unique in that it focused on cross-disciplinary responses at global, national and local levels in several countries. Leading international experts in medicine, virology, epidemiology, infectious diseases, veterinary medicine, public health, emergency response management, public policy, national defense, law enforcement and related disciplines participated in the exercise, sharing research findings, recommendations and expertise as the table-top simulation progressed. Secured Communications worked phenomenally well for us during the two-day event. It was especially important for our speakers and participants to be able to share information in real-time as the simulation unfolded, but it was absolutely essential that the mobile communication between our three locations be protected and encrypted because of the very sensitive nature of the exercise, said Dr. Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity and NHMRC Principal Research Fellow at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, and organizer of Pacific Eclipse. The two-day, interactive tabletop exercise (TTX) involved a hypothetical unknown epidemic arising in the Pacific and focused on assessing inter-agency and international response to a pandemic disaster. The event challenged participants to think outside their own disciplines and jurisdictions and came to the event cold, with no prior briefing or preparation. Tensions between global, national and local priorities were tested using interactive polling and live decision making. Immediate feedback was provided on the impact of decisions about resources and operations using mathematical modelling of the epidemic and debriefing on identified gaps were integrated into the TTX. SACRAMENTO, Calif. The polls closed in California at 8 p.m. on Super Tuesday, but results were only beginning to trickle in as the votes continued to be counted. By Wednesday, the California Secretary of State's Office reported that all precincts were reporting in, though results are not yet considered official. For the much-anticipated "Super Tuesday" presidential primary, the state had 415 delegates at stake the biggest haul on the electoral map. BREAKING: Bernie Sanders wins Democratic presidential primary in California, claiming biggest prize on Super Tuesday. https://t.co/FZHkka7C1w The Associated Press (@AP) March 4, 2020 Aside from the Democratic Presidential primary that has quickly narrowed to a heated race between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, voters were weighing in on Proposition 13 a statewide measure aimed at funding improvements at education facilities in the state. RELATED: $15 billion bond measure for California public schools will be on Tuesday's ballot California statewide With only a fraction of precincts reporting, Sen. Sanders was the early leader in California, trailed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and then Biden. The Associated Press made an early projection that Sanders would win California. By Wednesday, Biden had pulled ahead of Bloomberg with nearly 25 percent of the vote. However, Sanders was the clear winner with 33.6 percent. It was one of only a few clear victories for Sanders on Super Tuesday after Biden made a surprising sweep of most of the states up for grabs. Meanwhile, Proposition 13 was roundly rejected by voters with the early results. Early in the night, more than 60 percent of voters were against the measure. That slipped to almost 56 percent by Wednesday, but still represents certain failure for the effort to fund improvements at public schools in the state. Proposition 13 would have authorized the state to sell $15 billion in general bonds to fund different school projects, including for community and state colleges. The state would take that $740 million from the general fund toward paying the bonds down each year, over the course of about 35 years. The bonds would also cost an estimated $11 billion in interest accumulated over time. The California Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that paying down the bonds would account for about one-half of one percent of the state's current budget. Siskiyou County In Siskiyou County, with about 35 percent of precincts reporting, almost 34 percent of Democratic voters chose Sanders, giving him a significant lead over the other candidates in the County. Though there were several other Republican candidates on the ballot in Siskiyou County, Donald Trump received a commanding 96 percent of votes. Siskiyou County voters approved Doug Lamalfa for U.S. Representative in California's 1st District. Voters chose Brian Dahle for state Senator, District 1 and his wife Megan Dahle for Assembly Member, District 1. Several candidates for Siskiyou County Supervisor saw clear leads in their separate races. Brandon Criss, Ed Valenzuela, and Nancy Ogren came out ahead in the preliminary results. Elaine Mellon saw significant support for director of the Hornbrook Community Services District, although the position allowed for two choices. Raegan Duncan was the person with the next most votes, narrowly edging out three other candidates. With all precincts reporting, Measure A a lodging tax intended to raise money for County infrastructure passed after receiving about 54 percent in favor and 46 percent against. Proposition 13 received a significant 67 percent "no" vote from Siskiyou County voters. This article will be updated with more definitive results once they come in from the California Secretary of State's Office. The tanker was heading towards the Aden port when it was targeted by four boats, Saudi-led coalition spokesman says. The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday that it foiled an imminent terrorist attack on an oil tanker off Yemens coast on the Arabian Sea. The tanker was sailing 90 nautical miles (167km) southeast of Yemens Nishtun port towards the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday when it was targeted by four boats, with one of the remotely controlled vessels attempting to explode it, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried on state news agency SPA. The statement did not say who was behind the attack or give details about the oil tanker. The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will continue to implement all necessary measures and procedures to neutralise and eliminate any naval threats, al-Malki added. Yemen lies along the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes for oil tankers heading from the Middle East to Europe. The military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has in the past accused Yemens Iran-aligned Houthi movement which it has been battling for five years of trying to attack vessels off the coast of Yemen with unmanned boats laden with explosives. Last month, the alliance said its naval forces destroyed a Houthi explosive-laden boat launched in the southern Red Sea from Hodeidah province in western Yemen. The Western-backed coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was ousted from power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014 by the Houthis, who now control most major urban centres. Tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, relief agencies say. The fighting has triggered what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and in need of aid. BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China will refine the coordination mechanisms for stable performance in six key areas, namely, stability in employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and market expectations, to promote both effective outbreak response and steady economic and social progress. The decisions were made at the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang Tuesday. "The coordination mechanisms for stable performance in the six key areas have, since their launch, played an important role in forging inter-agency synergy to keep major economic indicators within the proper range. This year we may face even greater challenges, hence there is a higher need to refine these mechanisms to make our work across the six areas better targeted," Li said. The meeting underlined the need to advance epidemic control and economic and social development in parallel. It urged targeted steps in ensuring stability in the six key areas to more effectively manage the impact of the outbreak on the economy. Inter-agency coordination on macroeconomic policies, foreign trade and investment, and financial stability must be fully leveraged to formulate strong and effective response measures to boost the internal dynamism of the economy and keep major economic indicators within the proper range for the whole year. "The most pressing task now is to manage the impacts of the epidemic. Maintaining stability in the six key areas will help keep capital flowing and the industrial chain running, and contribute to an economic performance within the proper range," Li said. The meeting also adopted a host of policies for facilitating the restart of business activities in the logistics sector from transportation, shipment to express delivery services to provide a strong underpinning for epidemic control, help smooth the flow of economic activity, and meet people's daily needs. The meeting called for following the region-specific, tiered and targeted approach to encourage businesses to resume operation in an orderly way. Any arbitrary requirements on the resumption of work must be lifted. Face masks and other needed protective gear should be made available through coordination. Sub-national authorities are required to provide equal convenience for both postal and courier services providers under all types of ownership. "A major obstacle in current outbreak response and production resumption lies in logistics. Undue restrictions should be removed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the operation of both industrial and supply chains will be hampered," Li said. Further tax and fee cuts will be made to logistics-related services. Insurance companies will be encouraged to lower or exempt premiums for commercial vehicles, ships and aircraft whose operations are suspended during the outbreak, by way of extension of insurance period and deduction of policy renewal fees. For toll-road operators encountering difficulty in repaying their financial debts as a result of the toll-free pass policy, financial institutions will be guided toward providing support to them through deferring interest payment, extending principal repayment and rolling over maturing loans. "It is important to further cut costs for logistics companies, deferring or exempting relevant payments as needed. Such steps should also enable truck and taxi drivers to get tangible benefits," Li said. "We must enhance preparedness in terms of policies and projects, do everything we can to keep economic development and employment stable, and work hard to meet this year's targets for economic and social development," Li said. FOUR-year-old Harlow Bergen will no longer have to travel out of province for tests on the heart she received via transplant, thanks to a new pediatric laboratory at Childrens Hospital of Winnipeg. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FOUR-year-old Harlow Bergen will no longer have to travel out of province for tests on the heart she received via transplant, thanks to a new pediatric laboratory at Childrens Hospital of Winnipeg. "The opening of this new catheterization lab with state-of-the-art equipment will ensure more children get the care they need closer to home," Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen said Tuesday at a news conference inside the $1-million facility thats been up and running for several weeks at Health Sciences Centre. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Heart transplant recipient Harlow Bergen, 4, with her parents Jason and Judy, will be able to have her testing done at a new pediatric laboratory at Childrens Hospital. The new technology allows specialists and doctors to visualize arteries and chambers of a childs heart to detect abnormalities. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Previously, families had to go to places like Edmonton and Vancouver to receive these kinds of services," said Friesen. Now, around 80 families a year wont have to make that trip out of province with a sick child and their doctor, he said. Dr. Reeni Soni, who heads the pediatric cardiology section at HSC Childrens, said patients such as Harlow require ongoing surveillance on a regular basis. Soni said the cameras in the new lab allow doctors to look at the heart from multiple dimensions. In Harlows case, they inject dye into various parts of her heart to check it, and take a piece of heart muscle to make sure theres no rejection. The cameras offer enhanced picture quality and 90 per cent less radiation exposure than previous generations of X-ray equipment, said Soni. For children who have to get an annual heart test from the time theyre born till theyre 20, the new pediatric cath lab could potentially prevent them from getting cancer from radiation exposure, she said. The million-dollar labs capital costs were paid for by donors through the Childrens Hospital Foundation of Manitoba, with donors Barb and Gerry Price donating $500,000 towards it, Shared Health said in a news release. The new lab is part of an overall campaign goal by the foundation to raise $10.9 million to build a new, state-of-the-art HSC Childrens Heart Centre. When complete, the new hub will include two additional examination rooms, four cardiologist offices and dedicated spaces for services such as ultrasound, EKG testing and counselling, Shared Health said. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca As the GTAs two biggest transit agencies beef up disinfecting efforts to stamp out the potential spread of the novel coronavirus, Metrolinx is taking the extra step of installing hand sanitizers in GO Transit stations and on its fleet of buses. Metrolinx has already ramped up the cleansing of buses, trains and stations with hospital-grade, anti-microbial coating. Were putting gel dispensers on buses, Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins told the Star on Wednesday. Every station now has gel that the public can access. Ive never seen that before. Those are new efforts. Aikins said trains will be excluded because of the logistic hurdles to installing sanitizers at all points of entry on each of the 12 cars. Metrolinx has already increased its public awareness campaign, reminding GO Transit riders to wash their hands and practise other infectious disease control measures. Because Metrolinx has never used this agent on its fleet, a third-party contractor was hired to apply the anti-microbial coating, she said. Its a one-time expense, but its something we feel is worth investing on, she said, adding that the final cost isnt clear yet. She said cleaning staff have been scrubbing down everything from hand rails, to door knobs, toilets and buttons pressed to access train cars. TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told the Star on Wednesday that the transit agency hasnt decided to install hand sanitizers across its much larger fleet and stations. We have thought about it, he said. Its not something were pursuing now. We have so many more places that we would need to do that, he said. We would need to do a deep analysis of where (on trains, stations and buses) we would put them. There is also the logistic challenge of refilling the sanitizers. Green said if Toronto Public Health called for that measure, the TTC would move to investigate how it could be done. The TTC has also been using anti-microbial coating, which is known to kill harmful germs and bacteria months after it has been applied to a surface. We still have to monitor (the anti-microbial coating) to make sure its staying on, Green said. He said the manufacturers say it can last for up to a year, but TTC testing indicated it wont last that long when its in contact from the 1.7 million riders using its service daily. Weve used it previously and our experience is that it lasted a while, but not a year, Green said. Its the kind of thing you would see hospitals using to keep germs at bay. Green said the TTC is sanitizing and disinfecting heavy-use touch points such as grab bars, straps, hand rails, escalator rails and elevator buttons. All of that now gets a daily wipe down, he said. Metrolinx started testing of the antimicrobial agent about three weeks ago, Aikens said. Thats now being used to cleanse everything, from the railings to the floors across the organization. You need to be ahead of it and thats what we did, she said of using the long-acting cleaner, which she said kills bacteria, mould, and viruses. She said its non-toxic, doesnt stain and is odourless. We piloted it on a GO Train and found the claims (of its cleaning ability) to be true, so we decided to expand the use of it. After a passenger infected with the virus known as COVID-19 travelled on a GO bus from Pearson airport to Richmond Hill last week, Aikens said the agent was used, and the decision was made to use it on all our trains and buses. First we did all our airport buses. The priority was to use it Tuesday night on the UP Express trains that head to the airport because coronavirus is travel-related, so we wanted to do those first, she said. Jason Miller is a breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic Read more about: Celebs Go Dating stars Joshua Ritchie and Olivia Bentley are in a secret romance despite looking for love on the reality show. MailOnline can reveal the Ex on the Beach heartthrob, 25, has been dating Made In Chelsea's Olivia, 24, for a number of weeks with insiders close to the pair saying they're already really serious about each other. Joshua's new relationship with Olivia comes after he admitted on Celebs Go Dating to 'still having a lot of love' for his ex-Charlotte Crosby, 29, who he split with in November. Lovers: Celebs Go Dating stars Joshua Ritchie and Olivia Bentley are in a secret 'serious' romance despite him saying he still has feelings for ex-Charlotte Crosby A source told MailOnline: 'Josh and Olivia have been getting on like a house on fire. 'They started seeing each other in secret at the beginning of February and their romance has really blossomed. 'Until recently they had really tried to keep their feelings for each other private for the sake of the show. 'But it was impossible for them not to be flirty and tactile in group situations with the rest of the cast, so it soon became common knowledge.' Joshua spoke of his feelings for Geordie Shore star Charlotte on Tuesday's episode of Celebs Go Dating. 'I care for her': Joshua's new relationship with Olivia comes after he admitted on Tuesday's episode of Celebs Go Dating that he still has feelings for his ex-Charlotte (pictured) New couple: Olivia and Joshua looked close during filming of the E4 show in the Dominican Republic last month During filming of the show in November, he said: 'I care for her, I still do have a lot of love for her and I respect her. 'The thing is, she wants to have a family, she wants children, which I understand. She wants to get married.' Charlotte was furious after discovering Joshua had signed up for the dating show, claiming she turned down the chance to be on the series out of respect to her ex. She raged: 'So a bit of a revelation today, I am shocked, shocked to say the least but when you're sitting in Dubai and you find out that your ex-boyfriend who you didn't think was like this at all, is going on Celebs Go Dating... Moved on: Charlotte most recently starred on the Australian version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! where she enjoyed a brief romance with co-star Ryan Gallagher 'I'm not going to f***ing lie right, at one point we were on the verge of getting back and I said "I've been asked to do Celebs Go Dating" but obviously I said "No I would never do that." 'I'll tell you what, don't f***ing mention my name once while you're on that show! Don't f***ing even speak about me you f***ing little toe rag!' Charlotte and Joshua dated for two years until going their separate ways in November with the Geordie star describing their end as a 'pretty bad breakup.' While appearing on the Australian version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in January Charlotte enjoyed a brief romance with fellow camp mate Ryan Gallagher. Speaking to Ryan about Josh, she said: 'I'd go to work every day, have late nights and travel around everywhere, and he would be sat playing on his PlayStation.' On the hunt: Made in Chelsea star Olivia (pictured) told the Celebs Go Dating agents she was looking for a 'rough and ready' suitor following her split from Digby Edgley last November Ups and downs: The former couple suffered a rocky relationship after breaking up and getting back together on more than one occasion (pictured with Digby) Joshua and Olivia aren't the first celebrities to fall for each other while looking for love with someone who isn't famous on the E4 dating show. Former cast members Megan Barton-Hanson and Demi Sims started dating after meeting during filming, as well as Stephanie Pratt and Joey Essex. On Tuesday night, stars of the show including Olivia and Josh enjoyed a meal out in London to celebrate another successful series. While at the dinner Olivia posted an Instagram story of her pictured with Josh, with him re-sharing the image alongside the caption: 'Why thank you @OliviaBentleyk much love.' A spokeswoman for Celebs Go Dating declined to comment. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The House of Representatives will finally hold on March 10 its first hearing on broadcast giant ABS-CBNs bid to get a fresh 25-year franchise. House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano announced Wednesday that the House Committee on Legislative Franchises will tackle the 11 bills on the broadcast giants franchise to show to the National Telecommunications Commission that Congress is acting on ABS-CBNs franchise and instruct it to grant provisional authority for the TV network to continue operating even after its franchise expires on May 4. ABS-CBNs top executives will not be invited to the hearing, Cayetano said. He added that the hearing is also to lay down the ground rules for future hearings on ABS-CBNs franchise and to once again call for position papers from camps for and against its renewal. Ayaw nating maging circus. Ayaw natin po na maging bull session ang hearing, ibig sabihin lahat ng may sama ng loob sa ABS[-CBN], yon ang gagawin. Ayaw din naman nating maging sipsipan forum na lahat ng magsasalita ay isa-isa lang sasabihin kung gaano kagaling, gaano kabango, gaano karaming nagawa ng ABS[-CBN], he said. [Translation: We dont want it to turn into a circus. We dont want the hearing to be a bull session, meaning all those with gripes against ABS-CBN will just air that. We also dont want it to turn into a forum for sucking up where people would just say how great, how good and how many things ABS-CBN has done.] Cayetano said it is likely that the second hearing on ABS-CBNs franchise would be scheduled after Congress resumes from its seven-week break on May 4, the same day that the TV networks franchise expires. The Speaker made the announcement as the Senate tackled resolutions on ABS-CBNs franchise. TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise Congress leaders insist that ABS-CBN can continue operating even after its franchise expires, citing previous cases wherein the NTC allowed TV networks with expired franchises to continue airing as long as Congress is still tackling their franchise renewal bids. The Justice Department also found no legal impediment for the NTC to issue ABS-CBN a provisional permit, but added that communications from Congress would give this move a stronger legal standing. A 1994 agreement between the House, the NTC, and the broadcasters group Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas also provides that the NTC "shall continue to issue and grant permits or authorizations to operate" for radio and TV stations for a two-year period as long as there is a pending bill seeking to renew its franchise. Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, however, has said that this could no longer be done, since a 2003 Supreme Court decision, which he himself penned, had ruled that there is a need for an existing license before a corporation can operate. This means the only way for ABS-CBN to stay on air is for Congress to finally renew its 25-year franchise; and a provisional permit from the NTC, even if allowed by Congress, would not be executory. CNN Philippines Correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. After two years of litigation, Apple has agreed to pay up to US$500 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it slowed down older iPhones in order to push consumers into buying its later, more expensive models. The devices covered in the agreement are iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and iPhone SE models that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later, and iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models that ran iOS 11.2 or later before Dec. 21, 2017. Consumers complained that their iPhones performance suffered after they installed the Apple software updates. This misled them into believing their phones were near the end of their lifecycles, requiring replacements or new batteries. Apple blamed the problems on temperature changes, high usage and other issues, and claimed its engineers worked quickly and successfully to address the problems. In December 2017 it slashed the price of iPhone replacement batteries from $79 to $29. It had planned to make the new pricing applicable in January but apparently in response to customer outrage, it moved up the date to December. The program ended Dec. 31, 2018. What the Settlement Entails The settlement, based upon a mediators proposal, was reached after extensive aggressive litigation and prolonged, well-informed and extensive arms-length negotiations, including several in-person mediation sessions and additional negotiations between experienced and knowledgeable counsel facilitated by mediator Judge Layn R. Phillips (Ret.) of Philips ADR. It provides for a non-reversionary minimum class settlement amount of $310 million in cash for the settlement class. Non-reversionary means excess funds will not revert back to Apple. The maximum class settlement amount is pegged at $500 million cash. The proposed settlement class consists of all former or current iPhone owners in the United States. Settlement class members could receive $25 for each iPhone owned. The actual amount they receive will depend on the amount of any attorneys fees and expenses, named plaintiff service awards, notice expenses, and the aggregate value of approved claims. If the $25 payout plus the cost of the other fees, expenses and awards does not come up to $310 million, the excess will be allocated according to the stipulation, including pro rata increased payments to settlement class members up to $500. If the payouts, expenses and costs exceed $500 million, however, the cash payment for each iPhone will be reduced on a pro rata basis. Class counsel will seek up to 30 percent of the minimum settlement amount, or $93 million, for attorneys fees, and up to $1.5 million for expenses. Named plaintiffs also will seek service awards ranging from $1,500 to $3,500 each. A D V E R T I S E M E N T The proposed settlement requires approval by Judge Edward Davila of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California in San Jose. Apple has denied wrongdoing, and has agreed to settle to avoid the burdens and costs of litigation. Views on the Proposed Settlement Good to see Apple correcting their wrong after denying it for a long time, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst at Constellation Research. However, the settlement comes cheap for Apple, as most customers bought new iPhones due to the throttling, he told TechNewsWorld. Loyalty in the Apple user base remains high no matter what the issues, none of which Apple has dealt with in an honest fashion, Mueller said. One can only hope Apple will be more upfront and honest with its customer base moving forward. That adherence to Apples products really is based on OS dependence, maintained Liz Miller, principal analyst at Constellation. Their households are connected through the OS from work to home to the sound bar someones husband just installed, she told TechNewsWorld. So they overlook the B.S. caused by operating system dependence. The mere thought of switching off iMessage sends shockwaves through my family and we know better. Loyalists are frustrated by the lack of transparency stemming from Apples arrogance, Miller said. It isnt the act of throttling thats the issue. Its the utter lack of authenticity and transparency that flies in the face of what people perceive to be the Apple brand. Milking the Cash Cow Apple treats its base like an owned asset to be mined for money, and this behavior is consistent with that, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. Recall they also throttled the Qualcomm-based versions of their phones to conceal the fact that the Intel-based versions were underperforming, he told TechNewsWorld. A D V E R T I S E M E N T Apples days of innovation appear to be over, along with their days of out-marketing everyone else, and their efforts appear to be mostly focused on driving down costs and finding ways to mine customers for more and more money, Enderle said. This isnt indefinitely sustainable, as IBM discovered in the 1980s when they almost went under. The Art of Control Apple has always taken a highly managed approach to contractors, customers and its supply chain, said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research. Consumers choose Apple for its user interface, operating system and apps store ecosystem, he told TechNewsWorld. On the corporate side, most surveys show that existing companies are wary of switching, Wang said. They have too much invested in the iOS ecosystem. The ecosystem is at the root of Apples difficulties, according to Larry Chiagouris, professor of marketing at Pace University. As Apple broadened its offerings from personal computers to smartphones to music content to tablets and now on to a wide variety of all kinds of content, the challenge to deliver to its loyal customer base has become more difficult, he told TechNewsWorld. Its customer base has broadened considerably on the one hand, and its competitive set has also broadened as well, noted Chiagouris. Clouds in the Future Apple has been fined in France and Italy for throttling iPhones. Meanwhile, Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung are challenging its dominance fiercely in overseas markets. Apple remains king of the hill, but many others are now shooting at them from several vantage points, and its hold on its leadership is now threatened more than ever before, remarked Chiagouris. Given that Apple uses a lock-in model, Enderle said, it will take a considerable effort by competitors or visible excess by Apple against its customers to induce significant numbers of them to consider other vendors smartphones. BELGRADE -- Having seemingly kept their country free of the new coronavirus so far, officials in Serbia have appeared more at pains to fight the "infodemic" that global health officials warn could worsen the COVID-19 problem. Over the course of several days last week, Serbia's president and foreign minister offered an uncorroborated conspiracy theory that the virus that has killed thousands around the world and infected nearly 91,000 is part of an economic "war" on China, and jokingly implied that drinking alcohol could prevent its spread. Roughly 3,000 Chinese have died of COVID-19's pneumonia-like symptoms and 80,000 have come down with the disease. The virus has also infected more than 10,000 people outside China -- including outbreaks that have killed dozens in Iran, Italy, and South Korea. Throughout the Balkans, Croatia reports nine confirmed COVID-19 cases, Greece eight, Bosnia-Herzegovina's predominantly Serb entity Republika Srpska two, and North Macedonia one, with no known deaths from the disease. Serbia has no confirmed cases. After a meeting with health specialists and epidemiologists on February 26, President Aleksandar Vucic seized on questions about the efficacy of alcohol applied externally to kill the virus to make a joke. "Once again, I joke on my own account," he said. "After they told me -- and now I see that Americans insist it's true -- that coronavirus doesn't grow wherever you put alcohol, I've now found myself an additional reason to drink one glass a day, so.... But it has nothing to do with that alcohol [liquor], I just made that up for you to know." The World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed that the external application of alcohol is not useful in killing viruses that are already inside the body. Then it was Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic's turn. On their return from a two-day visit to China that the ministry described as "in the midst of coronavirus epidemic...[as] a token of Serbia and its people's solidarity with China," Dacic and his entourage underwent special screening for the virus at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport on February 28. Then Dacic -- a former prime minister and onetime aide to Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who led their Social Democrats back into the political mainstream after the military conflicts of the 1990s -- twice went on Serbian television to suggest that the coronavirus was a foreign plot targeting the Chinese economy. "China is the second-largest economy in the world today, so it's not out of the question that [the coronavirus crisis] is part of a special war against China," Dacic first told privately owned Pink TV. He did not elaborate. Two days later, on March 1, Dacic told Serbia's public broadcaster: "China is a very cautious country. They're not coming out with it yet, they are testing, but I've heard information from them that they suspect that it is not of organic origin but rather was created in the laboratory and now needs to be further determined how it originated, why it originated, and how it got to China." Chinese officials have never publicly alleged that a foreign power was behind the outbreak, which is thought to have begun late last year in Wuhan, China. Huge swaths of China have been paralyzed by curfews, quarantines, and other efforts to stop the virus's spread, and many countries have suspended travel to China and other places. On March 4, Italy, one of the worst-hit European countries, announced it was closing all schools until mid-March. Economists around the world have lowered forecasts for growth as countermeasures and viral fears have taken hold. The International Monetary and Financial Committee that reports to the International Monetary Fund's leadership acknowledged on March 4 that "the economic and financial impact has...been felt globally, creating uncertainty and damaging near-term prospects." 'Massive Infodemic' Dragan Djukanovic, a political-science professor in Belgrade, warned that such insinuations of an "inserted virus" by a country's top diplomat "can contribute to...disrupting the country's relationship with other actors." WHO officials on the front lines of battling the outbreak around the world have repeatedly warned of "a massive 'infodemic' -- an overabundance of information -- some accurate and some not -- that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it." The organization even created a "WHO technical risk communication and social-media team" to track and counter "myths and rumors." "Due to the high demand for timely and trustworthy information about [COVID-19], the WHO technical risk communication and social-media teams have been working closely to track and respond to myths and rumors," the WHO announced weeks into the crisis. The Serbian Health Ministry has launched a special website that reports at least twice a day on testing and other coronavirus-related topics, and includes tips on how to reduce risks while avoiding panic. It confirmed early on March 4 that no one had tested positive for the coronavirus in Serbia. "The statement by the foreign minister is an irresponsible, political response," epidemiologist and retired professor Zoran Radovanovic told RFE/RL's Balkan Service. "This deviation from the actual situation is only detrimental," he said. "On the contrary, if such misinformation from the Internet is supplemented by statements made by experts or politicians from various press conferences who can only drive citizens crazy, then the effect is even more devastating." Serbian authorities have launched a possible criminal investigation into an anonymous, minute-long audio clip that has been circulating on the WhatsApp messaging service. In it, a female voice claims that a doctor from a Belgrade clinic for infectious and tropical diseases had called her to tell her that coronavirus had been confirmed in Serbia and that two people at the clinic had died. Doctors, the voice claimed, had been ordered not to share any information with the public. "Officers of the Ministry of the Interior's Department for fighting high-technology crime, on the basis of a warrant from the prosecutor's office in charge, are working intensively to identify the person who made this audiotape, because there are grounds to suspect that she committed a criminal act -- causing panic and disorder," the ministry said in a statement. Anonymous, highly active Twitter accounts in Serbian have meanwhile spread accusations that included a description of the new coronavirus as "the perfect tool for manipulating humanity, spreading fear, and destroying China. An artificial virus created in the UK kitchen...." A suspicious, mostly Serbian-language Facebook account linked to a conspiracy-theory website's article alleged cryptic connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the coronavirus outbreak (and others like Ebola and Zika). It was eventually flagged by Facebook's fact-checkers as "false information." OTTAWA - The Minister of Everything has one more hot potato on her plate. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Chrystia Freeland makes her way to a ceremony naming her Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland in Ottawa, Wednesday November 20, 2019. The Minister of Everything has one more hot potato on her plate. Justin Trudeau has tapped Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to chair a cabinet committee aimed at co-ordinating the federal government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - The Minister of Everything has one more hot potato on her plate. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tapped Chrystia Freeland to chair a cabinet committee aimed at co-ordinating the federal government's response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus that has now spread to dozens of countries around the world. That's on top of her duties as deputy prime minister, working closely with Trudeau to both set and fulfil the government's agenda, as he put it in her mandate letter. And it's on top of her job as minister of intergovernmental affairs, which has had her hopscotch around the country to meet with every provincial and territorial premier since she was sworn in last November and will see her effectively co-hosting with Trudeau a first ministers' meeting next week. Her mandate includes attempting to douse federal-provincial brush fires and develop common ground on some of the most divisive issues facing the country: climate change, resource development, western alienation, Indigenous reconciliation, health care, child care and gun control. Oh, and her new task is in addition to her job seeing the new North American free trade deal through to ratification. And overseeing Canada-U.S. relations in general. And chairing the cabinet committee on the economy and the environment. And sitting on the cabinet operations committee and vice-chairing the agenda, results and communications committee. And participating in meetings of the incident response group, an emergency ad hoc committee of relevant ministers to co-ordinate the federal response to various national crises. And chairing those meetings when Trudeau is out of the country, as he was late last month when blockades in support of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs fighting a pipeline in northern B.C. paralyzed rail traffic across the country. Until now, the incident response group has been dealing with the novel coronavirus, which can cause a respiratory illness called COVID-19. But Wednesday's creation of a special, more permanent COVID-19 committee was deemed necessary because the outbreak is clearly going to present challenges both for the health of Canadians and for the economy for some time to come. "This is a whole-of-government, indeed a whole-of-country, effort," Freeland told a news conference Wednesday to update Canadians on the outbreak, stressing the need for close federal-provincial collaboration. Freeland's newest job is to ensure a sort of Team Canada approach to COVID-19, much as she did as foreign affairs minister in navigating tumultuous negotiations with the United States on renewing the North American trade pact, while President Donald Trump threatened to shred the deal entirely. It was Freeland's success in getting Canada through those negotiations relatively unscathed that prompted Trudeau to turn to her after the October election to try to bridge the chasm between the federal Liberals and conservative governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where the Liberals were shut out. Freeland's Alberta roots factored into his decision as well. The role of deputy prime minister, which comes with no specific department to oversee, is not defined in Canada. Some have seemed little more than occasional stand-ins for the prime minister. Others, like Don Mazankowski during Brian Mulroney's Conservative regime, have essentially been the government's chief operating officer. Some prime ministers, including Trudeau himself during his first mandate, have not felt it necessary to have a deputy. John Manley, who served as deputy prime minister during the tail-end of Jean Chretien's Liberal government, says the role "is very much subject to what the prime minister wants the job to be." Manley twice turned down the role, having no desire to give up his job as foreign affairs minister for what he saw as just "a title." When he did finally acquiesce, Manley insisted on having some very specific assignments attached to the job: minister for infrastructure and Crown corporations, as well as the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. homeland security secretary, newly created at the time. Manley was also political minister for Ontario and chaired three cabinet committees. "All of that added up to more than a job," he said in an interview. Freeland also appears to have insisted that the role be more than just a title. The addition of responsibility for intergovernmental affairs puts her at the centre of any federal file that involves co-operation or collaboration with the provinces which covers pretty much all the major issues facing the country. However, Manley notes that unlike his assignments, which put him squarely in charge of specific files, Freeland's role primarily involves working with other ministers who are in charge of health, environment, natural resources and other departments. That makes her job "tricky," Manley says, requiring "dexterity" on Freeland's part and a willingness to co-operate with her on the part of other ministers, whose instinct may be to protect their turf. That might explain why, at Wednesday's news conference, Freeland took pains to recognize "the exceptional leadership of my colleague and friend," Health Minister Patty Hajdu, who sat smiling beside her. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Editor's Note: This article was updated on March 5 with the name of the dog at New Lotus Moon. The Woodlands resident Rebecca Schner poured her heart, soul and personal funds into her newly opened small business, New Lotus Moon, in November 2018. She opened the shop in part to sell fair trade arts, crafts, jewelry and other items to local residents in what was at the time a vibrant Grogans Mill shopping center. Business was good and she felt like she was making a positive impact on both the local economy and people whose crafts she sells. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Closure of Randalls in Woodlands stirs concerns for viability of 2 shopping centers All that changed on Feb. 15 when a nearby Randalls grocery store closed its doors for good, leaving the oldest village shopping center in The Woodlands without a main tenant to drive customer foot-traffic to other businesses. I sat here in tears on Saturday (Feb. 29) and didnt think it would be this bad, Schner said of the decline in both customers and sales. It is like a ghost town. I really did not think it would drop off this bad. It was dead (on Feb. 29) and it has only been two full business weeks (since Randalls closed). I thought (a decline) would be gradual, but it has been a big drop off. Coping with closure Schner is one of nearly a dozen business owners or managers in the Grogans Mill shopping center who recently formed a merchants association to strategize ways to cope with the Randalls closure, help local officials find a replacement business as quickly as possible and also pressure the owner of the building her store and others are located in to upgrade facilities and be more responsive to their repair concerns. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Randalls to close five grocery stores in Houston area The Grogans Mill shopping center has multiple businesses within its boundaries, however the Randalls store is still owned by parent company Albertsons and two adjacent strip center buildings are owned by a California-based businessman and managed locally by JBeard company. With no more customer foot-traffic coming from Randalls as in the past, small stores like Schners New Lotus Moon as well as SN Liquor, Brothers Pizza Express and Maine-ly Sandwiches have been struggling. Bruce Cunningham, a member of the Grogans Mill Village Association board and one of the founders of The Woodlands Farmers Market which is hosted in the centers parking lot each Saturday morning from 8 a.m. until noon, has been one of the most active advocates for the small businesses. Cunningham has been working overtime trying to connect developers, business owners and others in an effort to find a replacement for Randalls as soon as possible. He told members of the townships Ad Hoc Economic Development Committee on Feb. 25 that Schner had reported only $70 in sales for one business day and that the owner of Brothers Pizza, Manny Bekiri, had also said business was down. Sales slump Schner declined to offer specifics on her stores daily finances during an interview on March 3, but said Cunningham was accurate in describing the struggles she and other businesses now face. People drive up and think Randalls is still open. Then they see it is closed and they drive away, Schner said while holding her small dog, who is named Astrid, inside her store that has has the sweet scent of patchouli oil and incense, which she sells. It is a huge drag. I think from the numbers I had on Friday and Saturday (business is down) about 80 percent. I felt good as Id seen an upswing in business at Christmas. (After the Randalls closure) It just went down. The Villager also visited Maine-ly Sandwiches, a popular New England-style lobster roll and fried clam strips eatery in the center. At a normally busy dinner hour of 5 p.m., there was only one customer in the restaurant. In an effort to raise awareness of his business, owner Mehmet Ozpagda has lobbied officials at the farmers market to allow him to sell sandwiches. Nearby by Brothers Pizza Express has also seen a downturn in sales, said an on-duty shift supervisor who asked to not be named in this article. He said the popular pizza joint is still seeing decent sales of bulk orders for parties or business lunches, but that individual in-restaurant diners have been in short supply since Randalls closed more than two weeks ago. In a pre-emptive move, officials with Chef Chans Chinese restaurant decided in late January to open the restaurant on Sundays after learning of the impending closure of Randalls as a way to stimulate business. MORE FROM JEFF FORWARD: Woodlands business owners in Grogans Mill Shopping Center join forces to save their stores from demise Another store that has struggled is SN Liquor, a small business that sells beer, wine and other alcohol as well as Texas Lottery tickets and high-end cigars. During a visit on March 3 by The Villager staff, no customers entered the store over a nearly one-hour period of time. Elio Velasquez, the manager of SN Liquor, admitted that since Randalls closed on Feb. 15, business at the liquor outlet has been, a little slower, than usual. He also said there have been false rumors that the store is closed after one of his employees did not show up for work and the store did not open for several hours. The delay in opening, he said, caused some regular customers to think the business had closed like Randalls. Many of my (regular) customers, I have not seen them since Randalls closed, Velasquez said. Ive been having some more of the Woodlands Resorts guests walking over to buy liquor for their conference parties. Velasquez said he and the stores owner, whom he did not identify, were concerned about how long the empty space that housed the old Randalls would sit empty. He said a former Randalls located on on Texas 242 that closed several years ago has still not reopened with a new business, although he did acknowledge a movie theater is going to occupy that site. He said the store will not change its hours of business or the number of days open at this time, and he sees no need to reduce his staff. Alcohol does not go bad, as they say, and that is a pro for us, Velasquez added. Because we dont have many employees, that helps, too. Schner said one positive of the experience is the support she said she and other businesses have received from Cunningham, the Grogans Mill Village Association as well as Director Ann Snyder of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors. Snyder is the chairperson of the Economic Development Committee and been active behind the scenes trying to find a solution to the issue. Schner said Snyder personally visited New Lotus Moon and other businesses to hear firsthand about their woes and offer support. I felt represented and I felt heard, Schner said of Snyders in-person visit. I do understand the townships limitations, but it is nice to see they care. jeff.forward@chron.com Ikea is recalling 820,000 dressers at risk of tipping over and crushing small children, adding to the 17.3 million bureaus recalled by the furniture retail giant in 2016. The new recall, announced Wednesday by Ikea and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is for the company's three-drawer Kullen dresser. The CPSC urged those who own the Kullen dresser to immediately stop using it if it is not properly anchored to a wall. Consumers can order a wall anchoring kit from Ikea or return the dressers for a full refund, either by bringing them to the store or arranging a pickup by Ikea. IKEA has recalled the KULLEN 3-Drawer Chests Due to Tip-Over and Entrapment Hazards. Ikea dressers have been linked to the deaths of at least nine children and dozens of injuries. Ikea said Wednesday that it has received six reports of tip-overs involving the three-drawer Kullen chests, including two involving minor injuries. The announcement comes two months after Ikea agreed to pay $46 million to the parents of a California toddler who died in 2017 when one of the companys dressers tipped onto him. The family said it was unaware the dresser was recalled and, in their lawsuit, blamed Ikea for not doing more to raise awareness of the danger. The settlement was nearly three times the amount that Ikea paid to settle similar lawsuits in 2016 when $50 million was split among three families. Search more: Explore USA TODAY's database of consumer product recalls Virtually all dressers have the potential to tip, but those recalled by Ikea are particularly hazardous because they dont meet the minimum standard for safe design. That standard, when met, ensures dressers remain upright when 50 pounds, meant to simulate the pull of a child, is hung on an extended drawer. The safety standard is voluntary but embraced by many furniture makers. Ikea for years flooded the US market with furniture that did not comply. The company has said the recalled bureaus are only safe when attached to a wall, per the instructions. Ikea on Wednesday said the three-drawer Kullen dresser does not meet the standard, which was updated in 2019 so it applies to all dressers 27 inches and taller. It previously applied to those more than 30 inches tall. Story continues The Kullen dresser weighs about 45 pounds and is about 28.5 inches tall. Ikea said the dresser was sold from April 2005 to December 2019. Given the long lifespan of furniture, safety advocates worry that millions of recalled Ikea dressers are still in use today. Of the 17.3 million units recalled in 2016, 420,000 dressers have been returned to the store, Ikea U.S. corporate communications manager Tracey Kelly said in November. Kelly told USA TODAY that the company has provided an additional 1.05 million anchoring kits to consumers and that many more dressers were likely anchored at the time of purchase or have since been thrown out. Unsecured furniture has been an intractable danger for decades. A child dies, on average, once every two weeks when a piece of furniture, television or appliance falls forward on them, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 28,000 people are injured in tip-overs every year, more than half of them children. I own an Ikea dresser. Now what? Was my dresser part of the recall? If you own a Malm dresser sold between 2002 and mid-2016, there is a good chance it was recalled. But there are more than 100 other lines of Ikea dressers included as well. A full list of products, along with steps for taking part in the recall, is available at www.ikea-usa.com/saferhomestogether. I own a recalled dresser. Should I keep it or get rid of it? If it is not anchored, first make sure it cannot be reached by children. The recall allows people to keep or return the item, but safety advocates recommend that the dressers be removed from homes, because of the concern that they will not be anchored or they will later be used by someone unaware of the recall. Many of the recalled dressers can be returned for a full refund. Consumers can bring the dresser to the any Ikea retailer, or Ikea will come pick it up from your home, free of charge. I want to keep my Ikea dresser. What are my options? You should anchor it to the wall. You can request a free wall anchoring kit from Ikea and install it yourself, or Ikea will send someone to your home to attach it for you, free of charge. Do I need a receipt to take part in the recall? Typically a receipt is not required, but Ikea says that it can request a receipt based on the total number of dressers being returned by one customer. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ikea recalls Kullen dresser over danger it will tip onto children Prime Minister of The Bahamas, the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis, described the day as a wonderful one as the government's intention was never to hold on to the property but initially purchased it to save jobs of Grand Bahamians and businesses. "As we stated at the time, it was our intention to privatize the property as quickly as possible. "We wanted to ensure that we found the right buyer who shared our vision for the renewal of Grand Bahama. Our vision was the renewal and rebirth of Grand Bahama's tourism sector and product as an essential element in the restoration of this island's potential." The Prime Minister also noted that discussions are currently ongoing to determine the best way to redevelop the Grand Bahama International Airport, which will require a major investment. Minister of Tourism & Aviation, the Hon. Dionisio D'Aguilar, said, "I am extremely excited that the intended purchasers of this hotel are Royal Caribbean and the ITM Group. Between them they are well funded to bring to the table a great deal of experience in the tourism sector and have a proven track record of successful projects." The development projected for the Grand Lucayan will bring about a total transformation of the resort. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested into the property to refurbish, renovate, reconstruct 500 rooms in Phase One and another 500 rooms along with 500 villas in Phase Two. Additional features will include a new casino, a spectacular water theme park and a new shopping, restaurant and retail center. In addition, a new cruise port will be built in the Freeport Harbour to accommodate three ships in Phase One and up to seven ships in subsequent phases. As a result of the purchase 3,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created in construction as well as in employment at the hotel and cruise port. Minister of State for Grand Bahama, Senator the Hon. J. Kwasi Thompson, gave welcome remarks. Also giving remarks were Robert Shamosh, Chief Executive Officer, Holistica Destinations; Mauricio Hamui, Chief Executive Officer, ITM; and Michael Bayley, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. Also in attendance were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Peter Turnquest and other Ministers of Cabinet, Members of Parliament, Permanent Secretaries, Senior Government Officials, representatives from the business community, taxi drivers, and straw vendors. Immediately following the official ceremony, guests were treated to the pulsating sounds of a Junkanoo Rushout followed by a reception. PRESS INQUIRIES Robyn Adderley Bahamas Information Services Anita Johnson-Patty Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation [email protected] SOURCE Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation Violence against women and girls is still common, despite significant gains in education globally, a new UN report has shown. The report, launched on Wednesday, is in line with the Generation Equality campaign to open a global conversation for action and accountability on gender equality and to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), UN Women and Plan International, a non governmental organisation, shows that one in every 20 adolescent girls aged 1519 years has experienced forced sex. This is one of the most violent forms of sexual abuse women and girls can suffer. While there have been remarkable gains for girls in education, little headway has been made to help shape a more equal, less violent environment for them, according to the report titled A New Era for Girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress Twenty-five years ago, the worlds governments made a commitment to women and girls, but they have only made partial good on that promise. While the world has mustered the political will to send many girls to school, it has come up embarrassingly short on equipping them with the skills and support they need not only to shape their own destinies but to live in safety and dignity, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. Statistics According to the report, one in every 20 adolescent girls aged 1519 years around 13 million has experienced forced sex. Yet, very few of them seek professional help, preferring to keep their abuse secret. In Nigeria, only two percent of girls aged 1519 years who experienced forced sex sought help from professionals. On a positive note, the report shows that the number of out-of-school girls has dropped by 79 million in the last two decades worldwide. In fact, girls became more likely to be in secondary school than boys in the last decade. Yet, violence against women and girls is still common, the report shows. Girls today are at a startling risk of violence, whether it is in school, at home, or online as well as throughout their communities, which leads to physical, psychological and social consequences. A New Era for Girls also covers harmful practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), which continue to disrupt and damage the lives and potential of millions of girls around the world. According to the report, each year, 12 million girls are married in childhood, and four million are at risk of FGM. In Nigeria, about 19.9 million girls have experienced FGM. Forty-three per cent of girls are married before their 18th birthday and 17 per cent before they turn 15. Progress The report, however, said some remarkable gains have been made in the 25 years since the Beijing Declaration, despite ongoing violence. Globally, more girls are going to school and staying in school than ever before though, in Nigeria, there is still a long way to go to ensure equality of education for girls, especially in the north-east, where 60 percent of out-of-school girls in Nigeria are located. What should be done In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday, UNICEF warned that much more needs to be done to protect the rights of Nigerian girls, particularly from violence. Sadly, after 25 years, the world is still a very violent place for girls and women including in Nigeria, said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Nigeria Representative. Mr Hawkins said the country should invest in protection services to give survivors of violence opportunity to speak up. But there are things we can do to change this and we need to do them urgently. We need to invest in protection services and support programmes that give survivors of violence an opportunity to speak up and to heal. We need to work with local communities to change practices that make women and girls vulnerable to violence and abuse. And we need to speak to our children girls and boys to ensure they grow up knowing that such violence is unacceptable. Advertisements Together, we can end violence against women and girls, this is long overdue, Mr Hawkins said. (Natural News) The novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China has spread in other countries at an alarming rate. Now, health officials are urging Americans to prepare for the possibility of an outbreak as the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. begins to rise. Just last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned the public that the novel coronavirus is expected to spread at a community level at any given time. They asked people to prepare for possible school closures and remote work. According to Nancy Messonnier, director of CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, the virus has moved rapidly from country to country via community spread. As the number of cases around the world continues to rise, successful containment at U.S. borders becomes harder and harder. We want to make sure the American public is prepared, Messonnier told reporters. Community spread of COVID-19, first instance in Northern California Right on the heels of the public warning from CDC, reports emerged of an unusual case of COVID-19 infection in Northern California. The patient was confirmed to be a resident of Solano County and was diagnosed by clinicians in Sacramento. The patient had not traveled outside the U.S. and had no known contact with an infected person. In a statement, the CDC called the case a possible instance of community spread of COVID-19 the first to happen in the United States. The agency defines community spread as the spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. On the other hand, the CDC also acknowledged the possibility of the virus being transmitted by an infected return traveler. As of February 26, the agency has confirmed a total of 15 COVID-19 cases across the country. CDC warning becomes a reality Two days after the state of California confirmed its first likely case of community transmission, news of another case emerged about 90 miles away from Solano County. The infected individual was a 65-year-old resident of Santa Clara County, who, like the first patient, had not traveled or been in contact with a known case. On February 29, the Washington Post reported a similar case of infection in Washington County in the northwest part of Oregon. The unnamed individual was an employee of a local elementary school and tested positive for COVID-19. As of writing, the U.S. death toll has now risen to six, and the number of reported COVID-19 cases across 14 states has exceeded a hundred, reports the Washington Post. The states of Washington and Florida have also declared states of emergency. (Related: Why are so many new coronavirus cases emerging in Washington state? Because its been spreading there for SIX WEEKS.) Preparing for a possible outbreak In her statement last week, Messonnier said that the disruption the coronavirus outbreak would bring to everyday life might be severe. She urged businesses to start considering the options they can offer to their employees and advised parents to coordinate with their childrens schools in case school closure is unavoidable. In contrast, Bruce Aylward, a senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO), expressed confidence that the spread of the COVID-19 virus can be stopped as long as countries are willing to commit. The thing youve got to think is: If it hits us, were going to stop it. You have to think that way. I keep hearing, Oh, if it hits us we just have to accept it and its going to spread. Why? Youve lost before youve started, Aylward said during a briefing at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. As part of its preparation for a possible outbreak, the CDC is studying measures that can be used to stop the spread of the virus. These include social distancing strategies, voluntary home quarantines and methods for disinfecting surfaces. Messonnier also said that the agency is considering changing the case definition to improve the criteria for viral testing. With the threat of community spread of COVID-19, improvements in this area could facilitate early detection of the virus and those infected. Sources include: StatNews.com LiveScience.com 1 LiveScience.com 2 CDC.gov Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Shopping for a home? Dont wait until you have an accepted offer to shop for a home inspector. You want to allow time to interview several candidates so that you can be sure to hire an experienced professional. After all, a home inspection is your one opportunity to get a clear-eyed assessment about the true condition of something that, for many, is the most expensive purchase of a lifetime. Follow our advice for how to find good candidates and what to look for in an inspector. Beware the Real Estate Agent's Referral Your real estate agent might offer to give you some home inspectors names. He may be perfectly well-meaningor notbut the references present a conflict of interest. A real estate agent wants to close the deal, and that incentive may be at odds with that of the inspector, who gets paid for his report. If the report raises too many issues, or serious ones, it can be used to negotiate a lower price or even scuttle the deal. An inspector who has been referred by your agent may feel obligated to go easy on the inspection. Unless you deeply trust your agent, find your own inspector, says Kevin Brasler, executive editor of Consumers Checkbook, an independent nonprofit advocacy group that rates local services, and investigated home inspection services in 2018. Identify Qualified and Trusted Candidates To find a reputable inspector, first ask friends who have recently purchased a home whether they recommend the person they used. You can also find referrals through local online communities such as NextDoor or Patch, where members sometimes post their experiences. A crowdsourced directory such as Yelp, and home services sites such as Angies List and HomeAdvisor, may also be helpful. If you live in one of the seven metropolitan areas covered by Consumers Checkbook, you can check the organizations ratings of local home inspectors. It covers Boston, Chicago, the Delaware Valley (Pa.), Puget Sound (Wash.), the San Francisco Bay Area, the Twin Cities (Minn.), and Washington, D.C. Story continues Other resources to find inspectors include professional organizations such as the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), and the National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers, which certifies professional engineers and architects who perform home inspections. Some state organizations, such as the California Real Estate Inspection Association, also have a database of inspectors. Go to each groups website to find details about local member inspectors experience and professional certifications, and the services they provide. Once youve found a few candidates, search online to see whether there have been any complaints about them. Try doing a web search with the name of the company and such terms as complaints and reviews. Your local Better Business Bureau chapter may also may have information on the home inspector youre considering. Favor Credentials, but Know Their Limits Hiring someone whos certified by a professional organization can give you a bit more assurance that the inspector is knowledgeable. Among the requirements for certification from ASHI, for instance, candidates must pass an in-person National Home Inspector Examination and document that theyve done at least 250 paid home inspections. InterNACHIs certification requirements include having candidates pass its Online Inspector Examination and submit four mock or simulated inspection reports to the organization. Thirty-four states require inspectors to pass a written National Home Inspector Examination; find out here whether your state offers certification. If your state requires licensing for home inspectors, ask to see proof of licensing from the inspectors youre considering hiring. Keep in mind, though, that certification and licensing dont ensure a great inspection. In its 2018 undercover investigation, Consumers Checkbook hired 12 home inspectorsall state-licensed and certified by a professional groupto inspect a three-bedroom house with 28 known problems. None of the inspectors found all the problems, which included a leak under the kitchen sink, bad roof damage, and obvious signs of rodent infestation. By all accounts, the national exam is a rigorous test, and both professional groups do a pretty good job of ensuring their certified inspectors are knowledgeable, Brasler says. But being knowledgeable doesnt mean the inspector is going to be diligent or conscientious, and that he wont rush through the inspection. In the Consumers Checkbook investigation, he noted, one inspector rushed through the home in 1 hours, compared with the 2 to 4 hours most inspectors take. Compare Home Inspection Reports The best way to determine how thorough an inspector will beand how well he will communicate the problems he findsis to ask for a sample copy of an inspection he has done on a home like the one youre considering buying, Brasler says. The sample report will show how much work theyre going to do, he says. After comparing reports from several inspectors, youll begin to see which ones are detailed in their observations and which are just filling their reports with generic information such as the importance of sealing a wood deck or caulking around windows to improve energy efficiency. In Consumer Reports examination of reports from home inspectors across the country, we found that the typical report consists of a few dozen pages covering findings on all the major systems in the house, and includes photographs and descriptions of documented problems and maintenance suggestions. Some inspectors now post the reports online with videos. Consider Training and Experience In addition to professional certifications, look for someone who has been in the field inspecting homes for at least several years. Hes more likely to have seen a variety of home types and a broad range of home issues. Assuming he does four inspections a week over a five-year period, thats over 1,000 inspections, says Richard Haber, a home inspector and licensed architect based in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Especially if the home is older, look for an inspector with extra training or credentials, such as an architects or home engineers license. And be prepared to pay more. Edward Robinson, a professional engineer and president of Professional Engineering Inspections in Houston, estimates that the $600 to $800 he charges to inspect a typical three-bedroom home is about double what someone in the Houston area would pay for a non-engineers inspection. Ask What You Get for the Price Inspectors without specialized credentials typically charge around $300 to $1,000, depending on the homes location and size, the inspectors experience, and the scope of the inspection itself. Some inspectors will add free services not covered by a basic inspection, such as using a drone to view the roof or placing an infrared camera on walls, ceilings, and floors to measure temperature differences that suggest the presence of damaging moisture. Others will charge extra for those services. Still others will refer you to an outside expert to do that work. Be aware that you may have to pay extra for specialized tests that arent covered by the initial home inspection. Common risks that may need more testing include termites, radon, and mold. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2020, Consumer Reports, Inc. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 19:29:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China will further simplify approval proceedings and optimize services to encourage enterprises to resume work and production, according to the country's cabinet. More convenient services will be provided to firms resuming work and production in most regions across the country, said a circular unveiled Wednesday by the State Council. Measures will be taken to further streamline the approval process, including launching green channels of examination and approval for enterprises in key industries to raise the production resumption rate at a faster pace, said the circular. Online platforms will be further used to provide services for firms and promote the landing of enterprise-friendly policies, according to the circular. The circular stressed efforts to improve the service mechanism for enterprises to resume production, and to timely correct unreasonable management and control measures for both personnel and logistics. Local departments are also urged to strengthen supervision and control over epidemic prevention in enterprises resuming work and production, the circular said. Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive Greg Hallam threatened to bankrupt a mayoral candidate by spending $250,000 on a defamation action against him and has made similar threats online against others critical of local government in the state, an intergovernmental legislative review has been told. The claims have emerged as part of a review of defamation law in Australia and New Zealand by the Council of Attorneys-General, a grouping of the most senior government law officers from all Australian states and territories and New Zealands minister of justice. LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam. Credit:Dave Hunt/AAP The Review of Model Defamation Provisions, being administered for the CAG by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, has been prompted by rising calls for reform of Australias defamation laws, which critics say are outdated in an age of social media, routinely abused and give the rich and powerful too much power to silence critics. In November, the review published draft amendments to the existing laws for public consultation. It has received responses from media companies, consumer and civil rights groups, law firms and members of the public, among others. None of the LA cases are connected to community spread Today, California reported the first coronavirus death in the state, a resident of Placer County. Separately, L.A. County declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak. Placer County Public Health officials said a patient who previously tested positive for COVID-19 after they returned home from a cruise has died. The deceased was an elderly person with underlying health conditions, and they were the county's second confirmed case of COVID-19. People who were close contacts of the patient are being quarantined and monitored, officials said. From the Los Angeles Times: The individual's likely exposure occurred during international travel on a Princess cruise ship that departed Feb. 10 from San Francisco to Mexico and returned Feb. 21. Los Angeles County on Wednesday declared a health emergency as the number of coronavirus cases increased to seven, with six new cases in the county. None of the new cases are connected to "community spread," officials said. All individuals were exposed to COVID-19 through close contacts. The additional cases were confirmed Tuesday night. Officials said three of the new cases were travelers who had visited northern Italy, two were family members who had close contact with someone outside of the county who was infected, and one had a job that put them in contact with travelers. Read more at the Los Angeles Times. by Shafique Khokhar After the recent violence in Delhi, Card. Joseph Coutts and Fr. Saleh Diego ask the Indian government to protect all citizens. A Hindu is in danger of dying after saving his Muslim neighbors. Pakistani conservatives appreciate the Church's initiative. Hope for a better coexistence also in Pakistan. Karachi (AsiaNews) - The Archdiocese of Karachi and the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Pakistani Bishops' Conference ask all Christian faithful to fast on Friday, March 6, for Muslims and peace in India. Recent religious clashes in Delhi have shocked many and several Muslims in the Indian capital have been targeted by Hindu extremist groups: the current toll is around 40 dead and 300 injured. The Indian Islamic community is at loggerheads with the government of Narendra Modi, which has recently introduced a citizenship law that discriminates against the faithful of Islam. Card. Joseph Coutts, archbishop of Karachi, expresses serious concern about what is happening in India, and asks the Indian authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of all their citizens, regardless of the faith or caste they belong to. Saleh Diego, vicar general and member of the national commission for interreligious dialogue of the archdiocese of Karachi, is on the same wavelength. He appreciates the position of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who in a recent Twitter post promised to defend all minorities living in Pakistan: "Anyone who targets non-Muslims, and their places of prayer in our country, will be treated severely . Minorities have the same rights as all other citizens." Card. Coutts and Fr. Diego remembers the gestures of brotherhood and mercy of all those people of the heart - Catholics, Sikhs and even Hindus - who ran to the aid of the victims in Delhi. In particular, their thoughts turn to Premkant Baghel, a Hindu who is now in serious condition for saving six Muslim neighbors from the flames. Muslims in Pakistan have welcomed the Catholic world's stance against Modi's extremist policies. Acknowledgments came from a local fishermen's organization, but especially from Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic conservative party. One of its leaders, Yunus Khan, stresses that everyone in Pakistan, whether Muslim or Catholic, is united "for peace and harmony in the world". The hope is that the unity of purpose for what happened in India will translate into a more concrete commitment by the government of Islamabad and the Muslim majority in Pakistan in favor of peaceful coexistence with other confessions. The departure of longtime host Chris Matthews on Monday from MSNBC was overdue. The channel should have forced his retirement last month when he linked Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders socialism to the communism of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on one occasion and likened Sanders victory in the Nevada caucuses later in the month to the Nazi invasion of France in World War II. Factor in allegations of inappropriate comments to women and his confusing one African American politician with another on-air, and you wonder how Matthews lasted this long. Weep not for his departure. Cable TV news will be better for it. But theres a teachable moment here, and the lesson will only be learned if we understand the larger problem Matthews represents in this crucial election year: the failure of cable news to responsibly and intelligently help shape the national conversation about this election. As much as I have praised cable news for its commitment of airtime and resources in covering the election, I now denounce the ignorant, knee-jerk analyses and even bias that has characterized much of the coverage since Sanders moved to the front of the field following wins in New Hampshire and Nevada. By Mata Press Service Four identical articles on the web claiming that the Canadian government will welcome three million immigrants in 2020 is false, said an official from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The Facebook pages linked to the websites behind the articles are administered from Kosovo, reported AFP fact-checkers. Canada is going to take in more than 3 million new immigrants in this year, claims the headline of the article which has been shared more than 6,000 times. In 2020, Canada plans on welcoming about 341,000 immigrants, not 3,000,000, Remi Lariviere, a spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), told AFP in an email. IRCC, Canadas immigration agency, defined the target in its 2019-2021 plan, which called for a gradual increase in the number of accepted permanent residents from 310,000 in 2019, to 350,000 in 2021. The largest part of the increase will be granted to economic immigrants, including people who qualify for skilled worker programs, at around 72 percent, according to Lariviere. Other immigration categories focus on reuniting families and resettling refugees. In 2019, the set target for permanent residents was 330,000. The actual number ended up being 341,180. Permanent residency, Canadas green card equivalent, is granted to immigrants who will stay in Canada indefinitely, as opposed to seasonal labourers, students or tourists. The fake reports comes amidst warnings to be vigilant against immigration fraud by Marco Mendicino, Canadas Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. "Every year, millions of people apply to visit or immigrate to Canada to enjoy the many opportunities that our country has to offer, he said. "The vast majority of these applicants are genuine and wish to come to Canada in good faith. Unfortunately, there are some dishonest people who prey on these individuals, and the Government of Canada is committed to preventing applicants from becoming victims of fraud. "It's important to remember that no one can promise your application will be given special treatment or guarantee that it will be approved. All applications are assessed fairly and on the same merit. Meanwhile, Immigration Canada said it is working to accommodate visa applicants from China, Iran and South Korea as the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) causes service disruptions and travel restrictions. Nationals of these three countries who have applied for a Canadian visa, but who are unable to comply with certain requirements due to circumstances beyond their control, will be given more time to complete the necessary steps, such as providing their fingerprints and photo. Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expanded the special measures implemented for China, on February 7, to include citizens of Iran and South Korea on February 29. The IRCC webpage says that special measures apply to the following types of applicants: Chinese, Iranian, or South Korean Nationals; or those who are in China, Iran, or South Korea; and those who are affected by service disruptions or travel restrictions related to COVID-19 Disruptions may include any of the following: visa application centre closures; service disruptions; limited access to local government offices and businesses; and limited access to a panel physician who can do the immigration medical exam. IRCC will also be able to help those who need a permanent resident travel document to return to Canada. In addition, the immigration department will still accept incomplete applications from those who are applying for a visitor visa, work permit, study permit, or permanent residence. No application in progress will be closed or refused due to a lack of documentation, the IRCC webpage says. Well automatically give you an extra 90 days to complete these steps. Once youre able to, complete the steps as soon as possible to avoid delays. New data show the number of people immigrating to Canada increased by 26% between 2015 and 2019, and is projected to rise higher as the country seeks to overcome the aging of its workforce a serious problem in all Western nations. The big Canadian immigration news in 2019 was the number of Indians who became permanent residents in Canada increased from 39,340 in 2016 to 85,585 in 2019, a rise of more than 117%, according to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data. Canada is benefiting from a diversion of young Indian tech workers from U.S. destinations, largely because of the challenges of obtaining and renewing H-1B visas and finding a reliable route to U.S. permanent residence, said Peter Rekai, founder of the Toronto-based immigration law firm Rekai LLP, in an interview with CIC News. In 2019, India was the leading country of citizenship for immigrants to Canada, with more than twice as many immigrants as China, which had 30,260 immigrants in 2019, in second place. Third was the Philippines, with 27,815 immigrants. Nigeria was fourth, with 12,595, and the United States had the fifth most immigrants to Canada, with 10,800. As a percentage of each countrys population, Canada admits approximately three times as many immigrants as America. Trump administration-supported bills in Congress would have reduced legal immigration to the U.S. by up to 50%. with Agencies While politicians and punters choked Perth's Canning Highway celebrating the hard rock band that made the stretch of bitumen famous, a more restrained kind of crowd filled His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday to come face to face with a less dissonant part of the city's history. A centrepiece of this year's Perth Festival, the Black Swan and Malthouse theatres' co-production of Cloudstreet brings playwright Nick Enright and screenwriter Justin's Monjo's 2019 adaptation home where some would say it belongs. Fish Lamb (Benjamin Oakes) and Quick Lamb (Keegan Joyce) in the Black Swan State Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre's co-production of Cloudstreet at His Majesty's Theatre. Credit:Philip Gostelow And Cloudstreet, arguably Perth's most famous tale, is mostly about home. The story, which started out as an immensely popular novel by WA writer Tim Winton, is built on the framework of an old house at 1 Cloud Street and set in the decades following the end of World War II. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The mother of a lifetime sex offender was babysitting two young children at her home when her 50-year-old sex-offender son allegedly abused the kids while he was alone with them, cops say. As FOX56 reports, the incident with the children happened late last year in Pringle Borough, Luzerne County. Kingston police told the news station they were recently contacted by the childrens mother who told them her 11- and 9-year-old boy and girl were sexually abused while being babysat at the home of 50-year-old Raymond Skolodas mother. Skoloda is on the Pa. Megan's Law site as lifetime sexual offender with a 2007 jury conviction of molesting a child in 2006. Police now say he has admitted exposing his genitals to the 9-year-old girl because she asked. He also admitted to touching her inappropriately -- but denied engaging in sex, police tell FOX56, which adds: According to police, Skoloda ran his fingers through the 9-year-old girls hair and told her how beautiful she was. Police say 11-year-old boy stepped out of the room to use the bathroom and when he returned, Skoloda was allegedly lying on a bed with his genitals exposed. Skoloda also allegedly told the girl to touch his chest hair, freaking her out, police say. Skoloda sternly told the children not to tell anyone about the incident, which occurred as his mother was to be babysitting the children at her Pringle Borough home. The accusations came to a head after Skolodas mother again babysat the same children last month. But this time, the kids spoke up about the alleged abuse back in October, 2019, causing both the mother of the children and Skolodas mother to give statements to police The mother of the children, who was not named in the media reports, told police Raymond Skoloda was able to be alone with her kids during the October, 2019, incident, taking them upstairs to play video games -- before things escalated. Skolodas mother maintained nothing occurred during the February babysitting session. But after the kids spoke of the alleged abuse from back in October as she babysat them again in February, Skolodas mother said her son then admitted exposing himself to the children during that previous visit. Both children also were interviewed by police, describing the abuse in-detail. Skoloda now faces indecent assault, indecent exposure and corruption of minors charges. At last report, he was lodged in Luzerne County Prison. READ MORE: Man posing as cop accused of sexually assaulting Pa. college woman he escorted home Port-a-potty-jumping Pa. man faces charges for trashing toilet in viral video Dr. Cyril Wecht is fighting DUI-by-medical-marijuana charges against Pa. woman Pa. woman whose severed arm was found miles away from fatal hit and run is mourned: Why didnt you stop? Pa.s newest Chick-fil-A gets feathers ruffled as customer plows car into building Woman hit, killed by multiple cars on Pa. highway; none stopped, dragging her remains for miles Body found behind CoreLife restaurant is man, 22 House flippers in this Pa. city are pocketing biggest profits in U.S.: study Serial thief preying on Pa. university students: cops Panera Bread in Pa. cited for fly infestation: Uncontrolled pests in a food prep area Woman in BMW crashes into Pa. daycare during nap time; 4 injured, 1 critical Drunk Pa. man exposes himself after police are called to Ruby Tuesdays Pa. judge who called black juror Aunt Jemima made other racial comments, transcripts show Pa. couple accused of locking son, 9, in closet to go out to party: state cops Fostering Fortnight this year runs from March 2-15 and aims to raise awareness and provide information to those thinking of getting involved. The theme of Fostering Fortnight is Fostering Changes Lives. Fostering Fortnight is the annual awareness campaign of the Irish Foster Care Association. Foster Care is the backbone of the Irish Care System and it is important we recognise and celebrate all who are involved in foster care in Ireland. Fostering Fortnight is a chance for all those involved in fostering and the communities that support them to tell their stories and share their experiences. TUSLA Child and Family Agency are hosting a number of information coffee mornings across Leitrim during this period. If you have any questions about the fostering process or wish to speak with those involved to get more information on the service you are advised to come along and listen. The Breffni Family Resource, Carrick-on-Shannon will hold an information event this Thursday, March 5 from 11am to 1pm. You can drop into an event at Claudios Cafe and Coffee Shop in Kinlough on March 12 from 11am - 1pm. And finally Breffni Resource Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon will host another event on Thursday, April 2 from 7-8pm in the evening. For more information please contact the Foster Care Resource Service, Sligo/Leitrim/West Cavan on (071) 9149681. Also read: New study aims to explore the potential of North Leitrim woodland at Glenfarne A blockchain technology-based urban farming platform, Urbanbowl,developed by engineering students of SRM University,Andhra Pradesh,has won awards and rewards at an international US Blockchain Technology Hackathon ETHDenver. Koushik Bhargav, Pushyamitra, Srinivasa Teja and Rohit of SRM University, pursuing their third year in Computer Science and Engineering, developed Urbanbowl, a decentralised urban farming platform where people can lease out empty spaces like backyards or basements. The four students of SRM secured a reward of 3,000 USD besides the Community Prize for being in the top five, a university press release here said on Wednesday. Their project also satisfied five UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) End Hunger, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Reduction in Forest Loss and Land Degradation, Climate Action and Sustainable Production Pattern. The release said another project, SecureNote, developed by four other students of ECE and CSE, also received a reward of 2,000 USD. SecureNote platform ensures complaints made to police are digitised, leaving no scope for any alterations without the consent of the authorities concerned. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Wednesday permitted NRIs to own up to 100 per cent stake in disinvestment-bound Air India. The decision comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 per cent stake sale in the national carrier. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved allowing Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to hold up to 100 per cent stake in Air India. Allowing 100 per cent investment by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the carrier would also not be in violation of SOEC norms. NRI investments would be treated as domestic investments. Under the Substantial Ownership and Effective Control (SOEC) framework, which is followed in the airline industry globally, a carrier that flies overseas from a particular country should be substantially owned by that country''s government or its nationals. Currently, NRIs can acquire only 49 per cent in Air India. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the airline is also 49 per cent through the government approval route. As per the existing norms, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in scheduled domestic carriers, subject to certain conditions, including that it would not be applicable for overseas airlines. In the case of scheduled airlines, 49 per cent FDI is permitted through automatic approval route and any such investment beyond that level requires government nod. On January 27, the government came out witha Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for Air India disinvestment. It has proposed selling 100 per cent stake in Air India along with budget airline Air India Express and the national carrier''s 50 per cent stake in AISATS, an equal joint venture with Singapore Airlines. Under the latest disinvestment plan, the successful bidder would have to take over only debt worth Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction. This is the second attempt by the government in as many years to divest Air India, which has been in the red for long. Also Read: Supreme Court quashes RBI's ban on cryptocurrency Also Read: Toyota sales dip 70% in Feb in China due to coronavirus HOW DANGEROUS IS CORONAVIRUS? About 14 per cent of people who contract the COVID-19 coronavirus are taken to hospital with severe symptoms including breathing problems and pneumonia. About 5 per cent need intensive care. But the majority who get the virus suffer nothing more than a cough and may never know they are infected. So far, thousands of people around the world have already recovered from coronavirus and that just includes the numbers who received a diagnosis. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CORONAVIRUS? The first symptom is usually a dry cough or sore throat. This can be quickly followed by a fever and then, in some cases, fatigue. Some people develop shortness of breath around the sixth day after first starting to feel unwell. ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR? The course of the illness varies from one person to another, but other symptoms include headaches, dizziness and confusion, diarrhoea, difficulty walking, nausea or vomiting, as well as loss of appetite. In severe cases which are most common in the elderly and those with high blood pressure, heart and lung problems or diabetes it can cause pneumonia and kidney failure, and can kill. HOW MANY PEOPLE DIE? Officially, the death rate so far has been just over 3 per cent. But experts believe the true mortality rate is probably between 1 and 2 per cent. This is because most mild cases have not been picked up by doctors or reflected in the official numbers so the death rate is inflated. HOW DOES THIS COMPARE WITH OTHER DISEASES? A person wearing a hazmat suit and gas mask is pictured at Nike's headquarters in Sunderland, where offices have been closed for deep cleaning after the company said employees may have come into contact with people with the coronavirus Staff in hazmat suits are seen carrying out a deep clean at the Apple store in Belfast. There has been at least one case confirmed in the Northern Irish city Seasonal flu kills roughly 0.1 per cent of people. So Covid-19 is between 10 and 20 times more fatal. But it is far less dangerous than SARS the virus that ripped across China in 2003 which killed 10 per cent of patients. BUT DOESNT CORONAVIRUS SPREAD MORE EASILY? Yes, but not dramatically. The best estimates suggest every person with Covid-19 passes it on to 2.6 people, on average. For flu that number is 1.5. CAN IT BE SPREAD WITHOUT SYMPTOMS? Initially scientists feared carriers who had no symptoms could pass it on. That is now in doubt. What is likely, however, is those who have mild symptoms are putting it down to a cold and going about their normal lives which puts others at risk. HOW LONG IS IT BEFORE SYMPTOMS APPEAR? Again, unclear. Initially scientists said this could take up to two weeks. But recent evidence suggests the incubation period could be as long as a month particularly among children. The average, however, is much shorter. A Chinese study said the average period of symptom onset was 5.4 days for adults and 6.5 for children. WHO IS AT RISK? The virus can affect anyone with a study of the first 41 infected people revealing two thirds did not suffer from any pre-existing condition. But the middle-aged are most likely to get it 78 per cent of those infected in China have been aged 30 to 69. WHAT ABOUT THE OLD? Only 3 per cent of people infected so far have been over 80 but if they get it they are more vulnerable. Analysis of 72,000 cases in China suggests for over-80s the death rate is 15 per cent. For those in their 70s the death rate is 8 per cent and for those in their 60s, 4 per cent. WHO ELSE IS VULNERABLE? Those with other conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and kidney problems are likely to suffer severe complications if they become infected. WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN? Children seem to be low-risk. Less than 1 per cent of the Chinese cases have been under the age of ten and if children do get the virus its often a mild form. They do, however, retain the virus for longer than adults. A study last week found the virus was still present in the stools of some children for a month after they contracted it. DOES GENDER MATTER? Men are marginally more likely to get the virus than women. It is not clear why this is. A lone commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge (left) in the capital this morning, while a student at University College London (right( also chooses to cover her mouth Coronavirus fears have gripped Britain today, with one commuter pictured wearing a face mask as she waited to board a train on the London Underground HOW DO DOCTORS TEST FOR COVID-19? Anyone who has symptoms particularly if they have travelled to an at-risk area are told to report to A&E, where they are sent to an isolated pod. They are tested using a cheek swab which is sent off for analysis at one of 12 Public Health England labs, a process that takes between 24 and 48 hours. Any positive test is double-checked at the main PHE lab in Colindale. The government's battle plan has been divided into four stages 'Contain', 'delay', 'research' and 'mitigate' WHAT TREATMENT DO PATIENTS GET? There is little doctors can do to tackle the virus, but they can treat the symptoms such as fever and respiratory problems. Antivirals and antibiotics are also used, mainly to keep secondary problems at bay. In the most serious cases patients are put on life-support equipment. WHAT ABOUT A VACCINE? Even though the Wuhan virus appeared only a few weeks ago, 20 teams around the world are already manufacturing vaccines. Chinese authorities provided the DNA code for the virus early on in the outbreak, enabling scientists to get to work straight away. A team at Imperial College London is ready to start human trials within weeks. HOW BAD COULD IT GET? The Government said in a worst-case scenario, up to 80 per cent of the British population could become infected. Scientists predict the UK would see a coronavirus peak two to three months after sustained person-to-person transmission becomes established. There will then be two to three months of decline, meaning an outbreak could last up to six months. Scientists believe it will then become endemic returning every winter along with flu. After it was apparent that his dream of taking Super Tuesday by storm would never come to pass, Bloomberg refused to show disappointment. Heres what is clear: No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible, he told a crowd of about 1,000 after Biden had won Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. In just three months, weve gone from 1 percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is one of the highest-paid actors in the Hindi film industry. He is widely known for his action sequences. From acing comedic roles to intense ones, he has done it all. Therefore, we have compiled some of Akshay Kumars films which are highly rated on IMDb. Here are Akshay Kumars five top-rated movies on IMDb 1. Airlift Airlift stars Akshay Kumar alongside Nimrat Kaur, Purab Kohli and Kumud Mishra in pivotal roles. Helmed by Raja Krishna Menon, this film is set in Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq in 1990. Airlift portrays a successful Indian businessman Ranjit Katyal, who saves fellow Indians by putting his life at stake. This historical drama film has received numerous awards and is rated 8 on IMDb. 2. Baby Baby revolves around a counter-intelligence unit, which tries to search and capture terrorists and demolish their plans. Directed by Neeraj Pandey, this 2015 action-thriller film stars Akshay Kumar in the lead role alongside Taapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa and Madhurima Tuli in supporting roles. Baby garnered praises from the critics and the audience alike. This Akshay Kumars film is rated 8 on IMDb. 3. OMG: Oh My God! Oh My God is a remake of the 2001 Australian film The Man Who Sued God. Helmed by Umesh Shukla, this satirical comedy film features Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles. Oh My God also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Om Puri, Govind Namdeo and Mahesh Manjrekar in supporting characters. The movie revolves around a shopkeeper who sues god after his shop gets destructed because of an earthquake. Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumars chemistry garnered immense appreciation from the audience. This movie is rated 8.2 on IMDb. 4. Hera Pheri Hera Pheri stars Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Tabu in prominent roles. Directed by Priyadarshan, this film is an adaptation of the Malayalam flick, Ramji Rao Speaking. Hera Peri revolves around three unemployed men, who are in dire need of money. They are down and out before an opportunity arrives in the form of a phone call. They become greedy and plan to become the mediators between a kidnapper and the victim. However, things take a twisted turn ahead. This comedy flick is rated 8.2 on IMDb. Also read: Akshay Kumar Lists That 'one Place' Which Has Become A Must Visit For His Film Promotions Also read: Akshay Kumar Reveals Ajay Devgn Pushed Him Out Of 'Phool Aur Kaante'; Read Details 5. Good Newwz Good Newwz depicts the tale of two couples who opt for in vitro fertilization. Starring Kareena Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Diljit Dosanjh and Akshay Kumar in the lead roles, this comedy-drama film is filled with hilarious scenes. Good Newwz talks about a sensitive topic with light-hearted jokes. Helmed by Raj Mehta, this film has received 7.3 on IMDb. Also read: Akshay Kumar Has To Say THIS When Asked About 'Laxmmi Bomb' Clashing With Salman's 'Radhe' Also read: Akshay Kumar Reveals His Success Mantra, Says Bollywood Should Have More Multi-starrers Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. Prince Harry's long-standing wish of freedom and life away from the royal family have already been granted to him. However, he is also expected to crawl back soon and beg the monarchy to accept him again. Last January, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle dropped a bombshell announcement about their decision to step down from their position as senior royal members. It fueled the on-going rift between the Sussexes and the other members of the royal family. However, the abrupt exit could also make Harry return to the Firm again soon, according to analyst Daniel Wild. "Really, at the end of this, there's a lot of push back against celebrities being hypocrites on climate change, and there are no greater hypocrites than Harry and Meghan being the mouthpiece for it," the representative of the Institute of Public Affairs shared to Sky News Australia last week. This view caused Wild to think that Harry and Meghan will only last for a couple of years in the industry they want. In the end, the Duke of Sussex is expected to rejoin the royal family and carry out his duties as a royal instead. "Despite this tantrum, someone like Harry has been bred into duty," Sky News reporter Andrew Bolt said in return. Bolt went on and mentioned how Harry does not like being the second son and a spare to the heir and how Prince William is getting all the attention. Although it has been the reality since the two princes were born, Bolt still assured their viewers that Harry would miss the "sense of duty" despite all the issues he faced before. Even Arthur Edwards, a royal photographer, thought of the same thing. Edwards also shared with The Sun how he believes that Harry would go back to the royal fold soon since the Duke is definitely going to find life pretty tough. "He may wish he had never gone down that road, who knows," Edwards said, talking about the only-35-year-old royal. "But of course, it's what his wife wants, and I think what Meghan wants, as they say, Meghan gets." Prince Harry Wanted to Leave Royal Family Before? Even before he met Meghan, Harry has already talked about his plans and how much he found it hard to carry all the royal duties on his shoulders. Right after he returned at the U.K. from one of his royal tours in Afghanistan, he considered leaving the monarchy -- a time long before he married the "Dater's Handbook" actress. Moroever, in 2017 during his talk with Newsweek, Harry surprised royal fans when he revealed their role in the monarchy and how he wants to have another identity aside from being THE "Prince Harry" of the royal family. "We are involved in modernizing the British monarchy. We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people," Harry said before revealing that there was no one in the family who wants to reign the monarchy. Now, the 35-year-old royalty is finally making his dreams come true by asking the people to simply call him Harry. However, it remains to be seen if he can indeed live up to their promise of becoming financially independent without the help of the family. Galveston County Jail A former Clear Creek High School teacher has been sentenced to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, authorities said Tuesday. Kenneth John Fontenot of Dickinson was an AP English teacher at the school and had chaperoned students from the Clear Creek ISD on foreign trips not sponsored by the school, the Galveston County district attorneys office said in a news release. Voting in Tuolumne County View Photo Sonora, CA Some local election races in the Mother Lode appear headed for a runoff, while others have been won outright. Tuolumne County Elections Official Debi Bautista reports up to 4,000-5,000 ballots still need to be counted over the coming days. They were late arriving or are anticipated to arrive in the mail over the coming days. Voter turnout is currently at about 60-percent but that number will rise as more ballots are counted. It is clear that Laura Krieg will be a new Tuolumne County Superior Court judge after receiving 68-percent of the vote over David Beyersdorfs 31-percent. Krieg says, I am so grateful to the citizens of Tuolumne County for their confidence and their vote. It has been such an amazing experience and I have met some amazing people. In the District Four Tuolumne County Supervisor Race, Kathleen Haff will step into the role currently held by the soon to be retiring John Gray after receiving 63-percent of the vote. Dameion Renault was second with 31-percent. Haff has been busy attending various forums and events over recent months. She says, I spent a long time listening to what people had to say as far their concerns for the county, their concerns for the district, and what they would like to see changed. In District One it is David Goldemberg with 48-percent and Sherri Brennan with 37-percent. They appear headed for a runoff in November as neither is currently above the 50-percent threshold. Asked if he was at all surprised with the results, Goldemberg says, The amount of time that I had out canvassing, and talking to people, going door to door, I had a lot of positive conversations. I hoped that I would do very well, but you dont really know until you see the votes starting to come in. Meanwhile, District One incumbent Sherri Brennan says, Im looking forward, and hoping that we will have some real debates (ahead of November). Im looking forward to talking about the issues that we face. It is a similar case in District Five with Jaron Brandon at 48-percent and Karl Rodefer at 35-percent. Brandon responds, It is hard to describe. Im feeling great. There is so much positive energy. The race is anticipated to go to a November runoff. The top three vote-getters in the Sonora City Council race are Ann Segerstrom, Matt Hawkins and Mark Plummer. Both Tuolumne County tax measures failed to gain support. In the Calaveras Supervisor races, Gary Tofanelli and Jack Garamendi are projected winners with the race between Amanda Folendorf 51-percent and Dennis Mills 48-percent may still be too close to call. In the Congressional District Four race, the top two candidates regardless of party will move onto the November Election. They are Republican Tom McClintock who received 54-percent of the vote and Democrat Brynne Kennedy with 36-percent. Bernie Sanders led the way in the California Democratic Primary, statewide, receiving nearly 33-percent and Joe Biden was second with nearly 25-percent. The margin was closer in Tuolumne County with Sanders at 26-percent and Biden at 22-percent. In the Republican statewide Primary, incumbent Donald Trump easily won by receiving 92-percent of the vote, followed by Joe Walsh with 2.6-percent and Bill Weld with 2.5-percent. In Tuolumne County, Trump received 96-percent of the vote. Find the latest local results by clicking here. Israel's military and other security services undergo largest rearmament in years Spain PM calls for a debate to consider COVID-19 endemic disease Flyone Armenia and Pegasus receive permission for Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flights Pope condemns "baseless" ideological misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines Arab foreign ministers to visit Beijing Azerbaijanis stoned an Armenian car on the Stepanakert-Goris road Armenian FM has a phone call with his Polish counterpart Macron travels to French Riviera to discuss internal security issues Artsakh Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan's aggressive behavior aims to disrupt Russian peacekeepers' activities US COVID-19 cases reach 60 million European Parliament President hospitalized due to immune system dysfunction Washington and Ankara discuss normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey WHO excludes emergence of deltacron strain In Karabakh Azerbaijanis shelled tractor Indian Defense Minister tests positive for COVID-19 US-Russia talks on security guarantees lasting for seven hours already NEWS.am daily digest: 10.01.22 Pashinyan appoints Hayk Mkrtchyan as Deputy Governor of Kotayk province Blast in eastern Afghanistan kills nine children Pashinyan: One of key priorities of Armenia presidency at CSTO is strengthening of crisis response mechanisms Internet cut off in Kazakhstan Armenia, Kazakhstan ombudspersons confer on Armenian communitys rights Armenia, Russia defense ministers discuss Kazakhstan Turkey defense minister meets with their envoy in process of normalization of Armenia relations Iranian Foreign Ministry reports progress in Vienna negotiations Dollar continues going up in Armenia New attempt by migrants in Belarus to storm Poland border Skat Airlines resumes Yerevan-Aktau and Aktau-Yerevan flights New Covid-related restrictions to be introduced in Armenia Karabakh police: Firefighters also targeted by Azerbaijan shooting (PHOTOS) Artsakh Defense Army has not fired on Azerbaijan positions Azerbaijani military are protesting amid military awards deprivation Azerbaijanis open fire in Nagorno-Karabakh Karabakh MFA: Events in Kazakhstan are result of actions planned by Turkey Armenia army General Staff has new deputy chief Australia to buy US $ 2.5 billion of armored vehicles Artsakh emergency service: Search for soldiers remains continued during holidays Kazakh Colonel Nazanov dies after heart attack Australia begins to vaccinate children aged 5-11 with COVID-19 vaccine Putin: Peacekeeping contingent to stay in Kazakhstan for a limited period Armenia 2nd-President Kocharyan v. premier Pashinyan lawsuit court session is closed Azerbaijan commandos conduct military exercises Part of the Great Wall of China collapsed due to earthquake Armenia MP: Turkey, Azerbaijans regional calculations have mixed up Copper prices decline Armenia ex-President Kocharyan v. PM Pashinyan lawsuit trial resumes Gold is getting cheaper EU is ready to support in addressing Karabakh crisis 126 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Fire in residential building in New York leaves 19 people killed National Center for Infectious Diseases Yerevan branch employees protesting outside center Karabakh President: Radical Pan-Turkic circles are actively involved in process in Kazakhstan Oil is getting more expensive Mars helicopter Ingenuity preparing for difficult 19th flight Interior ministry: About 8,000 people detained in Kazakhstan Earthquake hits Armenia-Azerbaijan border zone Researchers create substitute for egg whites from fungus Kazakhstan official information channel removes message about 164 casualties EC says construction of new nuclear power plants in Europe will require 500 billion in investment Ghost ship that sank 343 years ago discovered in US Post-COVID-19 antibodies may attack healthy cells, scientists say Pope says he was praying for Kazakhstan Media: 164 people die in Kazakhstan during riots Peskov: CSTO session does not plan to sign documents yet Criminal cases launched after bomb threat in Armenian, Belarus embassies in Moscow Norwegian military surrender panties before demobilization Iranian MFA says Tehran is ready for talks on downed plane of UIA Ukraine Russian defense minister says information war is on all fronts Several strategic objects in Kazakhstan transferred to CSTO contingent under protection David Minasyan elected head of Armenia's Parakar community Bloomberg: US is considering issue of limiting supply of high-tech products to Russia Armenia reports 142 COVID-19 new cases Council of Elders meeting continues in Armenia's Parakar White House speaks on Blinken statement on Russian peacekeeping troops Armed people detained at border in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan talks stabilization of situation in all regions of country Azerbaijanis demand Armenian soldier change his faith by taking away his cross, Ombudsman says Armenian painter Mher Mansurian dies in France At least 17 killed in Egypt road accident NATO chief announces Russia forces continued buildup in Ukraine Armenian militarys transfer to Kazakhstan is completed Azerbaijan opens fire on military positions near Armenia village Unidentified persons report threat of explosion at Armenia, Belarus embassies in Moscow Putin confers with Pashinyan, Lukashenko on situation in Kazakhstan Zakharova: OSCE has not provided real assistance to reporters who were attacked in Kazakhstan Lukashenko, Putin discuss situation in CSTO member countries Russia's Putin has telephonic conversation with Kazakhstan's Tokayev Quake hits waters off Chile President Tokayev declares national mourning in Kazakhstan on January 10 US diplomats do not leave Kazakhstans Almaty yet 1 more person dies of coronavirus in Karabakh Artsakh resident, 91 found dead near village Russia MFA reacts to Blinken's words about Russian military in Kazakhstan 195 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Kazakhstan security committee ex-chief detained Kazakhstan interior ministry: There are foreigners among those detained in Almaty region Russia continues transporting its peacekeepers to Kazakhstan Kazakhstan launches investigation into 180 retailers of liquefied petroleum gas BMW introduces concept vehicle that can change colors Shootings continue in Kazakhstans Almaty By Fanny Potkin JAKARTA (Reuters) - Like millions of other Indonesians, Gandi Iswara had for years carried a wad of currency notes for dropping into donation boxes after prayers at mosques in suburban Jakarta. From late last year, though, the 35-year-old engineer switched to a more convenient option: whipping out his mobile phone, firing up a digital payment app from Google-backed GoPay and tapping the QR code stickers that are now affixed to the boxes. His digital conversion took some time, as Iswara initially held the view that all rewards and discounts offered by e-wallets conflicted with Islam. "At first, I thought e-wallets resulted in usury, which is forbidden by Islam. But after a while I found them convenient in daily life," he said. Winning over conservative Muslims like Iswara in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country is both a challenge and multi-billion dollar opportunity for fintech firms that are riding its mobile internet boom and aim to sell financial services. Of Indonesia's 270 million population, half lacks bank accounts but most now have mobile phones. Questions about compliance with Islamic law are a significant hurdle for the adoption of digital payments and other fintech services, industry executives say. Known as Sharia, the law strictly prohibits charging interest, or "riba", and clerics in Indonesia disagree on whether the popular cashback rebates and discounts given by digital wallets qualify. Social media videos in Indonesia on whether e-wallets are haram - prohibited by Islam - or incorporate "riba" rack up hundreds of thousands of views. Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body has even issued an edict deeming virtual money acceptable, as long it met specific conditions. To showcase the compliance of their services with Islam, fintech firms are organising forums with Islamic scholars and sponsoring religious festivals. Newer startups are tailoring services for Indonesia's growing body of "born-again" Muslims, known as the "hijrah" movement at home. Story continues GoPay, which is part of ride-hailing firm Gojek, has partnered with the Indonesian Mosque Council since November to enable digital donations, including "zakat", or compulsory alms giving, in its 800,000 mosques, CEO Aldi Haryopratomo said. "Zakat" alone amounts to over $500 million annually in Indonesia. "It has made it much easier for people to pay alms," said Budi, chief administrator of Jakarta's Istiqlal mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, referring to digital payments services. Rival LinkAja, which was formed by a consortium of Indonesia's top state-owned firms, has launched similar donation efforts. It is now readying LinkAja Sharia, which will offer a range of financial services specifically targeted at conservative Muslims and only accept money from Islamic banks. Backed by companies including telco Telkomsel and Bank Mandiri, LinkAja is currently seeking to raise $200 million in outside financing, sources told Reuters. The company declined to comment on its funding. BROADENING APPEAL The scale of 'sharia-fintech' in Indonesia is small, so far, with Islamic fintech startups disbursing about 1 trillion rupiah ($73.15 million) in sharia-compliant loans in 2019, a four-fold increase from 2018, according to the Indonesia Sharia Fintech Association. But with all forms of Islamic banking accounting for only 6% of Indonesia's $580 billion in banking assets, there is room for growth. The sector is also getting a policy push. The country's vice vice-president, cleric Ma'ruf Amin, took over Indonesia's National Islamic Finance Committee in January and has cited the growth of Islamic fintech as a key national priority. Some of the startups say they are finding their appeal extends beyond Muslims. One of them is peer-to-peer lender ALAMI, created by three ex-bankers, which has disbursed over $7.5 million in sharia-compliant financing to small and medium enterprises since May, and plans to become a digital bank. CEO Dima Djani said that although conservative Muslims are its main target, others also are choosing it as an ethical banking option. "They see the fact we are focused on sharia principles as a sign of integrity," he told Reuters. Muhamad Fajrin Rasyid, president of Bukalapak, one of Indonesia's top e-commerce companies which offers a sharia-compliant investing service, concurs. "Many of our customers are from other religions," he said. "Some people tell us that sharia is not only for Muslims, it represents ethical financing." (Reporting by Fanny Potkin; Additional reporting by Willy Kurniawan, Yousef Saba, Keira Wright, Gayatri Suroyo and Ed Davies; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Muralikumar Anantharaman) A Delhi court on Wednesday held seven persons, including expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger, guilty and acquitted four others over the custodial death of the father of Unnao rape victim. "Ashok Singh Bhadoria and Kamta Prasad Singh being seasoned police officials disobeyed the direction of law to protect the life and liberty of the victim when he as well Kishor Kumar Mishra was being beaten up by the co-accused persons," District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Rana said in the order, slating the arguments on quantum of sentence for March 12. The rape survivor's father died on April 9, 2018, in police custody. Among those convicted by the court are Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Jaideep Singh, Vineet Mishra, Birendra Singh, Shashi Pratap Singh, and police officers Ashok Singh Bhadoria and Kamta Prasad Singh. On the other hand, constable Amir Khan, Ram Sharan Singh, Sharadvir Singh, and Shailendra Singh were acquitted in the matter. Pronouncing the order, the court said it found the matter falls under the category of culpable homicide not amounting to the murder, observing that there was no intention to commit murder. Lauding the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over its investigation, the court said that the probe agency has done a splendid job while also observing that the deceased was taken to the police station and framed in a false case. The court also pulled up the doctors in the district and said that gross negligence on part of the doctors who carried out the post mortem was observed given that no X-Ray of the body was conducted. The CBI had on July 13, 2018, filed a chargesheet in the matter, according to which, an altercation took place between the rape survivor's father and one Shashi Pratap Singh on April 3, 2018, after which the latter called his associates and attacked the woman's father. Later, the survivor's father was taken to the police station, where he was arrested after an FIR was lodged against him. CBI, in its chargesheet, said that Sengar was in touch with the district police superintendent and police station's in-charge. On August 1 last year, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi. In December 2019, Sengar was convicted and jailed for life by a Delhi court for raping the girl, who was a minor at the time of the incident, at his residence in Unnao in June 2017, where she had gone seeking a job. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CADILLAC, MI A man is in jail after a Facebook argument turned into an in-person fight involving a gun. The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, on Lynn Street in Cadillac, according to a news release from the Cadillac Police Department. Cadillac police officers were dispatched to a reported fight with shots fired. A 36-year-old McBain man apparently didnt want to hide behind a keyboard. He drove to a Cadillac home to confront a 33-year-old male resident after an argument on Facebook, police said. After an initial confrontation, the suspect retrieved a handgun from his vehicle and began waving it around. The gun was then put away and the men fought. After the fight, the suspect got back in his vehicle to leave while the resident went into his home. The suspect then got out of his car and shot the tires on the victims car before fleeing the area. When Missaukee County Sheriffs deputies caught up with him in McBain, the suspect fled into the woods. He was taken into custody and transported to Wexford County Jail. Charges have not yet been filed in this case. The suspects name has not been released. READ MORE: Buffalo Wild Wings worker fights off assailant outside the restaurant in Saginaw County Married couple found dead in Sterling Heights home under suspicious circumstances Man struck, killed after exiting vehicle on Farmington Hills highway On Sunday, March 14 at 2 a.m., clocks in most parts of the country will spring forward one hour as daylight saving time (DST) begins, and it will run until Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. Even though this means losing one hour of sleep this weekend, you'll actually be gaining an extra hour of daylight in the evening. The first person to hint at this idea was U.S. Founding Father and scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1784. While working in Paris as an ambassador to the U.S. he wrote an essay titled "An Economical Project" to the editor of the Journal de Paris arguing that Parisians would save a lot of money on candles if they woke up at the time of sunrise and went to bed as the sun set. However, the concept of DST wasn't fully conceived until more than a century later. In 1895, New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson wrote a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour shift forward in October and a two-hour shift backward in March. Unfortunately, he was criticized and mocked for his proposal, as it was said to be confusing. (Pixabay/Ivan Ilijas) It wasn't until 1916, two years into the First World War, that DST was first implemented. Germany, one of the most powerful European countries at the time, decided to turn every clock in the country one hour ahead. The goal was to minimize the use of artificial lighting so that fuel could be saved for war efforts. Soon after, other European countries -- including Austria, France and the United Kingdom -- followed suit. In the U.S., however, this change took longer to arrive. In 1918, toward the end of the war, Pittsburgh-native Robert Garland introduced the idea after his visit to the U.K. After presenting the idea, it was signed and approved by President Wilson on March 8 of that same year. Only seven months later, as the war came to a close, DST was repealed and wouldn't make a return until the Second World War, when it was reintroduced. From the end of the war in 1945 up until 1966, there was no uniformity in the use of DST in the country, which caused quite a bit of confusion. Some major cities, like New York City, decided to keep DST while others stopped its use after the war. Story continues This confusion came to an end in 1966, when the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was implemented by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This Act mandates the official start and end dates of DST in the country as March through November, and divides the country into different time zones. Some states were not in favor of this law. Arizona -- with the exception of the Navajo territory -- and Hawaii opted out of DST. Not all states see DST in a negative light. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has introduced a bill, The Sunshine Protection Act, in attempts to make DST permanent. "Studies have shown many benefits of a year-round daylight saving time, which is why multiple states have followed Florida's lead in voting to make it permanent," Rubio said. "I will not let daylight fade on my Sunshine Protection Act." CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP The advantages of making DST permanent, according to a press release on Rubio's site, include a decrease in car crashes, a reduction in cardiac issues and seasonal depression, a reduction in the number of robberies by 27%, among several other benefits. States that have joined Florida in seeking to make DST permanent include Alabama, Arkansas, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. WASHINGTON The Trump administration has formally revised a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations, a measure that experts say amounts to one of the governments most far-reaching restrictions on science. The revisions made public Tuesday evening mean the Environmental Protection Agency would give preference to studies in which all underlying data is publicly available. That slightly relaxed restrictions in an earlier draft that would have flatly excluded any research that did not offer up its raw data, even if that data included medical information protected by privacy laws or confidentiality agreements. Even with the latest changes, scientists warned that the regulation would let the federal government dismiss or downplay some of the most important environmental research of the past decades. That includes research that definitively linked air pollution to premature deaths but relied on the personal health information of thousands of study subjects who had been guaranteed confidentiality. The proposal is one of dozens of environmental protection rollbacks that the Trump administration is scrambling to finalize before the presidential election in November. It caps more than three years of efforts to dilute scientific research, especially on climate change and air pollution, which has underpinned rules that the fossil fuel industry calls burdensome. Health authorities in Pennsylvania believe the coronavirus is spreading and its only a matter of time before it reaches us. In fact, it already could be here. Thats why its important to have a trusted source of information and not rely on social media rumors to determine how to respond. Dr. Frank Riedo, Medical Director of Infection Control, EvergreenHealth Hospital addresses a news conference at Public Health Seattle & King County Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Seattle. A man in his 50s with underlying health conditions became the first coronavirus death on U.S. soil. The man had underlying health conditions and no history of travel or contact with a known COVID-19 case, health officials in Washington state said. A spokesperson for EvergreenHealth Medical Center said the person died in the facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) APAP Reporters and editors at PennLive and The Patriot-News will keep our readers well informed about all developments with the coronavirus, and well only publish information from reliable health authorities we know we can trust. In these next days, theres likely to be all sorts of false, misleading or half-true reports being spread on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or on phony health internet sites. Do yourself a favor, ignore them. Check and recheck information you get about the virus and dont rely on word of mouth. Even text messages from friends should be checked and rechecked with relatable sources to make sure they are based on facts and not misinformation. Its worth watching the video PennLive has just produced explaining what we know right now: d The coronavirus is highly contagious and spreads with human contact. There is no vaccine or cure at this point. Doctors are urging people to regularly wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, taking care to get the backs of the hands and the fingernails. Hand sanitizer can be used if soap and water is not available. You should avoid touching your face with unwashed hands. Stay at least six feet away from people who appear to be sick. And if youre sick, dont play the martyr and go to work. Stay home and away from people. Get a flu shot. It will help doctors know if you have the flu or the coronavirus since symptoms can be similar. Stock up on food, medication and household item to try to avoid crowds where the disease can spread Get a supply of alcohol and wipes to wipe down surfaces and kill germs. And heres another thing medical experts are warning. Face masks may not keep you from getting the virus. But they should be worn by people who are sick to keep them from spreading disease. A CDC laboratory test kit for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). CDC is shipping the test kits to laboratories CDC has designated as qualified, including U.S. state and local public health laboratories, Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories and select international laboratories. The test kits are bolstering global laboratory capacity for detecting 2019-nCov. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/TNS)TNS Pennsylvanias Department of Health says the virus is now in New York and in several states close to Pennsylvania. The agency expects test kits to detect the virus will in Pennsylvania by next week. Until now, state authorities have been unable to conduct their own tests and have had to forward samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. If a case is confirmed here, PennLive and The Patriot-News will make sure our readers have all of the information they need to make informed decisions about how to respond. For now, we are urging our readers to watch the video and follow the prudent guidelines health authorities have provided to help us prepare. As in any emergency, the best advice we can provide our readers is to stay informed, stay alert and stay calm. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. And dont forget to subscribe to Battleground PA to stay abreast of the issues in the 2020 elections! Griffin intends to convert to a REIT Gordon DuGan to join Griffin as Chairman of the Board; Molly North appointed a Director Company plans to sell its multi-story office buildings NEW YORK, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Griffin Industrial Realty, Inc. (GRIF) (Griffin or the Company) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a series of actions that it believes will provide long term value to the Companys stockholders. In addition to the below, Griffin has issued two other press releases today to provide further information on todays announcements (Griffin Board Approves Plan to Pursue Conversion to a REIT and Griffin Appoints New Chairman and Additional Director) and provided an update to its investor presentation on its website ( www.griffinindustrial.com ) and in an exhibit to a Form 8-K filed today. Proposed Conversion to a REIT Griffins Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan for the Company to pursue conversion to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) for federal tax purposes. This decision is based on the Boards and managements consideration of ways to maximize stockholder value and generate growth opportunities as the Company continues to expand its industrial/warehouse property portfolio in select markets. Griffin, if successful in the conversion process, would plan to elect REIT status commencing with the taxable year beginning January 1, 2021. Griffin issued a separate press release to provide additional information on the proposed REIT conversion, Griffin Board Approves Plan to Pursue Conversion to a REIT. New Chairman and Additional Director Added to the Board of Directors Griffin has appointed Gordon F. DuGan as a Director and Non-executive Chairman of its Board of Directors and Molly North as Director effective March 3, 2020. Mr. DuGan is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gramercy Property Trust, an industrial-focused REIT. Ms. North is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Al. Neyer, LLC, a commercial real estate development and design-build construction firm. Frederick Mike Danziger, Griffins former Chairman, will continue to serve as a Director and Michael Gamzon will remain Griffins President and Chief Executive Officer, and a Director. Griffin issued a separate press release to provide additional information on Mr. DuGans and Ms. Norths appointments, Griffin Appoints New Chairman and Additional Director. Story continues Company Intends to Sell its Multi-Story Office Buildings With Griffins primary focus on its industrial/warehouse properties, the Company intends to sell its two multi-story office buildings (the Office Buildings) totaling approximately 161,000 square feet located in Griffin Center, in the greater Hartford, Connecticut area. Upon the completion of a sale of these Office Buildings, Griffins remaining office/flex portfolio would consist of ten single-story properties totaling approximately 272,000 square feet which are all located in the greater Hartford, Connecticut area. Griffin opportunistically may seek to sell its other office/flex properties over time. There can be no assurances that Griffin will be able to sell these Office Buildings, or any other office/flex properties, on favorable terms, or at all. About Griffin Griffin is a real estate business principally engaged in developing, acquiring, managing and leasing industrial/warehouse properties. Griffin currently owns 41 buildings totaling approximately 4.6 million square feet (approximately 4.1 million of which is industrial/warehouse space) in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida in addition to over 3,400 acres of undeveloped land. Forward-Looking Statements: This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include Griffins beliefs and expectations regarding future events or conditions including, without limitation, the statements regarding the potential sale of Griffins multi-story Office Buildings and other office/flex properties, closing of any contemplated sale transactions, Griffins plan to convert to a REIT and the anticipated timing of the conversion, expansion and growth scenarios, including the expansion of Griffins industrial/warehouse property portfolio in select markets, growing cash flow and increasing stockholder value, intentions, expectations, or prospective results of operations or financial position. Although Griffin believes that its plans, intentions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. The projected information disclosed herein is based on assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Griffin as of the date hereof, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of Griffin and which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Other important factors that could affect the outcome of the events set forth in these statements are described in Griffins Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the Business, Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements sections in Griffins Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2019. Griffin disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release except as required by law. CONTACT: Anthony Galici Chief Financial Officer (860) 286-1307 Local governments in Michigan wouldnt be able to buy firearms off of their residents under legislation passed in the Michigan House Wednesday. House Bill 5479, sponsored by Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, would ban local governments and law enforcement from conducting gun buyback or takeback programs that offer residents compensation for their unwanted firearms. Local law enforcement would still be able to accept and dispose of firearms dropped off voluntarily. Speaking in support of her bill on the House floor Wednesday, Glenn said its not the place of local governments to be buying firearms from residents - she said the buybacks unfairly compete with gun businesses and waste taxpayer dollars. While our state and federal constitution guarantees every citizen the right to keep and bear arms, no citizen has the right to sell old firearms to a unit of government at taxpayer expense, she said. The measure passed the House 58-49, with Rep. John Chirkun, D-Roseville, joining Republican lawmakers in support. It now heads to the Senate for further review and would need to pass the full Senate and be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law. House Democrats opposed the bill on grounds that it would interfere with efforts by local governments and law enforcement to keep their communities safe. Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit - a retired law enforcement officer - said gun buybacks are a resource for police to help fight crime in many communities. And Rep. Alex Garza, D-Taylor, said the legislation aims to exert state control over decisions best left to local governments. To tell our local governments in many ways that we as state representatives and state senators know whats best for their communities is simply not true, said Garza, a former member of the Taylor City Council. Several Michigan communities have hosted gun buyback events over the years, which are often marketed as a no questions asked way for people with illegal firearms to sell them without risking prosecution. Firearms collected at buyback events are typically destroyed, although some departments in Michigan have reportedly looked into the history of the guns to see if firearms reported stolen can be returned to the owner. Related coverage: Police hit ATMs after running out of cash at gun buyback event 9 shootings in 4 days sparks talk of engaged community, gun buy-back in Grand Rapids Guns for groceries event trades firearms for Meijer gift cards Should America try a buy-back program to reduce gun violence? Guns: An American Conversation Gun advocates outbid Detroit police for unwanted guns at buyback event Lansing police seeking additional donations to fund citys 2nd gun buyback No questions gun turn-in program to be held Saturday during Gun Safety Week 21 guns off the streets after latest Save Our Youth buyback event Kalamazoo police get dozens of guns off streets during Bronson Park event MOUNT PLEASANT Over the course of three days. Feb. 24-26, more than 1,200 Racine Unified School District juniors visited the Roma Lodge to get a look at their future with the help of Educators Credit Union. Students use Reality Check Day to practice managing finances after graduation. They use the Reality Check Day app called Bite of Reality to pick a career. They then get a monthly income based on regional incomes for their job and are randomly assigned a spouse, children, pets and a credit score. All of that information sets the stage for the simulation. Once their profile is set, students then start shopping. Students pick out transportation, housing, childcare, etc. They cant have a negative balance if they want to check out for the day. If they get to the end and need some money, theyll have to go back and make some changes, like selecting a two-bedroom apartment instead of a three-bedroom house. Students say the experience is preparing them to plan for life. You have to be able to save for your family, said Park High Schools Breeon Carothers. Take care of your priorities before your wants. Educators Credit Unions goal is for students to learn those lessons in a low-stakes environment. We want students to understand budgeting and what things cost in the real world, said Victor Frasher, Educators director of community engagement. Hopefully, they take away how important it is to make decisions based on your income and personal situation. Those arent lessons they can afford to learn in the real world, so we try to create a place for them to practice those skills safely. Reality Check Day has been a part of the Academies of Racine curriculum since 2018, but RUSD first partnered with Educators in the mid-2000s. Since then, the program has taught budgeting and money management to thousands of students. Educators Credit Union was recently awarded the 2019 Governors Financial Literacy Award for Reality Check Day. The honor is awarded based on whether the program included innovative implementation, demonstrated measurable results, showed collaboration with partners, and whether the effort focused on needs-based groups. It is the second Governors Financial Literacy Award Educators Credit Union has received in the last three years. The credit union was also awarded one for its use of the financial literacy program EVERFI in 2018. Mount Pleasant-based Educators Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial institution serving more than 195,000 members. Educators membership is open to anyone who lives or works in Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Dane, Green, Jefferson, Ozaukee, Rock or Washington counties. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Photo: The Canadian Press Emergency surgery has sidelined a four-time winner of Alaska's famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race days before he was set to compete in his 30th race. Jeff King withdrew Tuesday over concerns for his health, a spokeswoman for the Iditarod told The Associated Press. The race will start Sunday north of Anchorage. Messages left with King at the hospital and his cellphone were not immediately returned. The 64-year-old musher posted a picture of himself on Facebook in a hospital bed with the words, Curve ball. A separate Facebook posting from his kennel, Husky Homestead Tours, said King began to feel ill Monday night shortly after an Iditarod-affiliated event in Anchorage and went to a hospital with abdominal pain. He later underwent emergency surgery for a hernia and perforated intestine. Unfortunately, this does mean that Jeff will not be on the runners heading to Nome this year," the posting said. King has won the race four times, including in 1993 in only his fourth race. His other wins came in 1996, 1998 and 2006. King has finished 20 times in the top 10. King was leading the 2014 race until he got lost in a blizzard near the last checkpoint, just 22 miles from the end of the 1,000-mile race and had to scratch. Two years later, King was one of two competitors targeted by a man who drove a snowmobile into their dog teams. One of Kings dogs, Nash, was killed, and other dogs were injured near the checking point in the village of Nulato. The man ended up pleading guilty to felony criminal mischief and misdemeanour charges of assault, reckless endangerment and driving under the influence. He was given a six-month sentence. His total career earnings in the Iditarod are $967,789. When the race was experiencing financial problems in 2010, King donated $50,000 for the winners purse. EU commends Maldives' efforts to curb illegal fisheries by Ahmed Aiham March 04,2020 | Source: The Edition European Commission's Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fisheries Policy Unit on Tuesday, commended Maldives' efforts to combat illegal fisheries while concluding its fourth mission since 2015 to Maldives. The IUU delegation visited the country on a two-day mission on February 23, to assess the implementation of the EU "Regulation to deter Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing" and to provide feedback on ways to strengthen enforcement of the regulation in Maldives. During the technical evaluation, the delegation noted the efforts made by the Maldivian administration to bolster fisheries frameworks and collect baseline data on fish populations. In addition, the EU team recognized the administration's priority to enforce the regulations on a policy level, including the ratification of the Maldives Fisheries Bill in 2019. Moreover, the EU touched further upon the progress of the 'Fisheries Information System' and over the IUU's main component - the catch certification scheme where only certain products are made legal to be imported or exported to the EU. Under the 'National Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (NPOA-IUU)' a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture along with Maldives Customs Service to train officers to inspect both foreign fishing vessels and reefer vessels exporting Maldivian fish products abroad. The agreement will also facilitate regular exchange of information between the two stakeholders. The MoU is intended to ensure the issuance of inward and outward clearance for foreign fishing vessels docking in the country as well as the inspection procedure for such vessels adhere to international guidelines. The EU IUU Regulation is aimed to prevent illegally caught products from ending up on EU markets. Since its formulation in 2010, the IUU Commission has investigated over 200 vessels from 27 countries, imposing sanctions on over 50 vessels and fining a total of EUR 8 million on illegal fishing activities. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe An old, rundown shack in Potrero Hill just sold for $1.975 million. The 640-square-foot home, which was deemed unsafe to enter, comes with a demolition permit from the city. The seller worked with an architect to develop plans for a four-level, two-unit building with a main four-bedroom home and a separate two-bedroom unit. These have also been taken through the permitting process with the city. Since the approval process with the city can take anywhere from six months to years, depending on a number of factors, according to the city's Building Department, this is a significant head start for the buyers. RELATED: Julia Roberts buys $8.3 million San Francisco home Listing agent Anne Laury of Coldwell Banker told SFGATE last year that if the building were constructed, it could be worth $5 million to $6 million, depending on finishes. She also said her client estimated it will cost around $1.8 million to build. The building would have sweeping views, offering easy access to downtown, Caltrain and freeways. The property first went on the market in November 2018, but was quickly pulled due to lack of interest during a rainy winter. It was listed a second time in May 2019 for $2.5 million. Tessa McLean is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at tessa.mclean@sfgate.com or follow her on Twitter @mcleantessa. F rench "Spiderman" Alain Robert said he free climbed a 144-metre tall skyscraper in Barcelona to encourage people not to fear the coronavirus outbreak. The daredevil, who has climbed 165 building across the world without any safety equipment, told how he has been able to risk his life climbing buildings because he has "controlled his fear". Mr Robert, 57, said he wanted people to do the same over the virus spread, after he reached the top of Agbar Tower in the Catalonian city this morning. Speaking exclusively to the Evening Standard, Mr Robert expanded on his decision to scale the building as a protest against people panicking about the coronavirus, which has infected more than 90,000 people with upwards of 3,000 fatalities worldwide. Alain scaled the 144-metre tall skyscraper in Barcelona without ropes / Reuters Mr Robert said: "Fear is more contagious than the disease itself. "I wanted to make a statement on the coronavirus. I realised that over the past few days people have really started to freak out. They are really fearing the coronavirus. There is only about 100,000 people that are infected and there is 7 billion people on the planet and half of those people are freaking out." He also hit out at "fake news" raising concerns of the virus. "People are freaking out for something that they don't know what it is. There is a lot of fake news too and people are afraid of that," Mr Roberts said. "I am climbing buildings and mountains and I am not using safety devices. I can handle my fear. I would deeply encourage people to behave like that too." Alain Robert told how he scaled the skyscraper to send a message to the world that the coronavirus should not be feared / Reuters Mr Robert spoke of his fear that the virus outbreak could have a dent in the world economy if people isolate on a mass scale. "I think people are going to freak out and maybe live in bunkers," he said. "If people keep living this way, it is going to be the biggest economic crisis that the world has ever seen." Detailing his climb, Mr Robert was made more difficult as he had to scale back down the building again after reaching the top because there was no doors or windows at the top to allow him to get inside. Alain doesn't believe the coronavirus should be feared because 'it's just a strong flu which predominantly affects the elderly' / Reuters Photos from the scene show Mr Robert being led away by police after returning to the ground. He said he was taken to a police station for questioning and said officers asked him about his climb but did not press charges and released him. Mr Roberts comments about the virus comes as infectious disease expert Professor Neil Ferguson today said, that the world has "lost the battle to stop Covid-19'"spreading. So, let me get this straight. After a year of campaigning, discussion, and debate among the Democrats, as of early February the party had decided Joe Biden was the favorite for its presidential nomination: He led in 19 of the 21 national polls taken before the Iowa caucuses. Then people started to vote, and it turned out they didnt like Biden at all. He finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, and a distant second in Nevada. As of last week, the Democrats had decided to be an openly socialist party: Bernie Sanders led 20 consecutive national polls after Iowa, half of them by double digits. And then, this week, Democrats decided not to be socialist after all: They just gave Biden, the doddering avatar of the party establishment, a resounding Super Tuesday victory. Maybe the Democrats really have no actual policy except beating Donald Trump. Biden and Sanders havent been saying anything new this year. (Though its possible voters were unaware that Sanders was so extreme he would in 2020! go as far as publicly defending Fidel Castros Cuba in both a 60 Minutes segment and the South Carolina debate). The thing that has changed twice is voting momentum and its attendant publicity. Sanders rocketed up in the polls when he looked like a winner, and Biden surpassed him after building momentum from a blowout win in South Carolina. Mike Bloomberg looked like a loser from the moment Elizabeth Warren tenderized him in the Las Vegas debate, and today dropped out after spending $500 million to win American Samoa. Voting on perceived electability has left the Dems in a strange place, though. Joe Biden? Really? We know Joe Biden. He was in the Senate for 36 years. He ran for president in 1988, and again in 2008, before serving two terms as Barack Obamas vice president. There is no precedent for a career politicians reaching the top after such an extended period in the national spotlight. He doesnt inspire the kind of passion that Obama did and Bernie Sanders does. His appeal seems to rest almost completely on name recognition and his association with Obama. Despite heroic efforts by the media to absolve Biden of any wrongdoing when the Ukraine scandal revealed hed allowed family members to use his name to rake in huge amounts of money from foreign entities, recent polls put his unfavorable ratings at between 44 and 52 percent. Story continues Yes, Biden beats Trump regularly in head-to-head polls, but you can ask Hillary Clinton about how much beating Trump in early polls is worth. In just the past ten days, he has claimed half the population of the country died of gunshot wounds, forgotten what office he is running for, asked voters to support him on Super Thursday, and offered this precis of our nations founding principle: We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by you know, you know, the thing. Even at his best, Biden was notorious for being loopy, digressive, and sloppy, and hes long past his best. Clarence Thomas noted of Bidens line of questioning during his Senate confirmation hearings, You have to sit there and look attentively at people [who] you know have no idea what they are talking about. His bizarre 2012 debate with Paul Ryan consisted of bursts of strangely out-of-context laughter and boorish interruptions. His own aides panic every time he goes off-script, to such a degree that David Axelrod once quipped that Biden was being kept in a candidate-protection program. When he starts riffing, he is given to making false claims such as that he was arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison. His answer to all questions in debate is a subject, a verb, and Obama. Moreover, Biden looks moderate only in the context of the insanity that is gripping the Democratic Party, only by comparison to wackadoodles such as Warren and Sanders. He has so far escaped scrutiny for the implications of his policy proposals, such as a public option for health insurance that would inevitably destroy the private insurance market. He was specifically asked whether this could happen by the New York Times and replied, Bingo. . . . Sure they would. He blithely said that when employer-based private health insurance dies out, people could simply go on the Biden plan. His health-care policy is just a slo-mo version of Sanderss and Warrens policy. He has called for massive tax hikes, offered public health care for illegal immigrants, said such immigrants should not be deported if theyre convicted of drunk driving, and endorsed the $93 trillion boondoggle known as the Green New Deal. On top of all of this, Biden would be the oldest president ever hes older than the oldest boomer, and would be older on his first day in office than Ronald Reagan was on his last day. No one knows how mentally agile hell be tomorrow, much less in November. If a man who could come completely unglued on live television at any moment is your partys best hope, your party should be very, very nervous. More from National Review Xtalks Life Science Webinars By introducing efficient resource allocation and parallelization of operational activities, sponsors can significantly compress operational timelines, improve downstream quality and regulatory compliance, while speeding entry to market. Industry experts from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, ClinScape and Oracle Health Sciences will discuss: The need to make smarter decisions on insights derived from clinical trial data The identification of red flags and the importance of real-time metrics to drive timely interventions The need for industry benchmarking across trials and its inherent challenges How metrics provide the foundation for process optimization and play a key role in risk management and quality assessment planning Moving beyond benchmarking to gamification, efficient resource allocation and predictive analytics or forecasting You cant manage what you dont measure. Having technology which can automate or assist in the timely monitoring of trials is a huge improvement over the status quo of manual methods such as spreadsheets, which are cumbersome and erroneous, not to mention only provide a dated snapshot of trial performance. Granular real-time metrics provide operational insights that enable sponsors to take control of their studies by being proactive instead of reactive. Sponsors should focus their resources on bottlenecks and processes ripe for optimization to drive competitive performance and operational excellence. By introducing efficient resource allocation and parallelization of operational activities, sponsors can significantly compress operational timelines, improve downstream quality and regulatory compliance, while speeding entry to market. Join Barry Milton, Head of Business Operations, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Ken Light, CEO and Founder, ClinScape and Elvin Thalund, Director, Industry Strategy, Oracle Health Sciences in a live webinar on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 1pm EDT. For more information or to register for this event, visit Avoid Rescue Studies, Reduce Costs and Timelines & Accelerate Clinical Operations with Metrics. ABOUT XTALKS Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers. To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/ The Delhi High Court Wednesday granted time to former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti to respond to the Enforcement Directorate's plea challenging their anticipatory bail in the Aircel-Maxis case. Justice Anu Malhotra allowed the oral prayer of Chidambarams' counsel seeking more time to file the reply to ED's plea. The court directed the Chidambarams, represented through senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and lawyer Arshdeep Singh, to file their reply within three weeks and asked the ED to place on record its rejoinder, if any, two weeks thereafter. The court listed the matter for further hearing on May 12. Central government standing counsel Amit Mahajan and advocate Mallika Hiremath, representing the ED, submitted that the court had issued notice to Chidambaram and his son on October 11 last year to file response to the agency's plea, however, they have not yet done so. The ED had earlier contended that the special judge pronounced its order granting anticipatory bail to the Chidambarams on September 5, 2019 without considering the Supreme Court's order which had come on the same day in the INX Media case. The probe agency had said the trial court failed to appreciate that custodial interrogation of the accused was required and its finding the offence not grave enough was completely perverse and untenable in law. It had contended that in the Aircel-Maxis case, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) the approval sought was for Rs 3,500-crore which was beyond the jurisdiction of the finance minister, still it was approved by Chidambaram. It had said the father-son duo should not be granted pre-arrest bail as some witnesses are common in the Aircel-Maxis and the INX Media cases and the investigation could be hampered. The trial court had also granted anticipatory bail to them in the Aircel Maxis case filed by the CBI. The ED, in its plea, has contended that the pre-arrest bail in a case of economic offence was unwarranted and urged the high court to set aside the trial court's order granting relief to Chidambarams and cancel their anticipatory bail. It has claimed that the two remained evasive during the investigation and there is a likelihood that they could tamper with the evidence and influence witnesses. It has said the position of Chidambaram and his son that they are members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cannot be a legally tenable ground to grant them anticipatory bail. The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, being the finance minister in 2006, granted FIPB approval to a foreign firm, when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) was empowered to do it. The ED is probing a money laundering case in the Aircel-Maxis matter, in which the Chidambarams have been questioned by the agency. While granting anticipatory bail to the Chidambarams, the trial court had said the charges against them were not of grave magnitude as the alleged money laundered is a "paltry amount" of Rs 1.13 crore compared to the money purportedly received by accused already discharged in the cases. It had, however, directed the Chidambarams to join the probe in the cases lodged by the two agencies and said that in the event of arrest, they be released on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and one surety of like amount. In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as the finance minister. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case in this regard in 2017. Chidambaram has approached the Supreme Court seeking bail in the INX Media case lodged by CBI after the Delhi High Court on September 30, 2019, denied him the relief. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bahrain Technology Companies Society "BTECH" has announced the participation of "EDX Labs", a technology innovation company based in Bahrain, as an Innovation Partner at the Information and Communication Technology event "MEET ICT" and the Bahrain International Technology Exhibition "BITEX 2020". The conference is held under the patronage of Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation & Telecommunications, at the Gulf Convention Centre, from March 24 to 26. Mirza Asrar, CEO of "EDX Labs", said that during this participation the company will reveal its latest creations that keep pace with global trends in the field of technology innovation and the company endeavors to AI research and development in its mission to convert visionary ideas into fully functional platforms. The EDX Labs concept Build Locally, Scale Globally emerged from Bahrain and is working to support Bahrains vision towards building a digital economy within the framework of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is based on Bahrains 2030 vision, centreed on knowledge and innovation as a bases for launching towards modern technologies in the fields of Industrial intelligence, cybersecurity, robots, smart cities, the Internet of things and optimising these modern technologies while strengthening their pioneering role in supporting digital transformation and national plans, said Mirza. Urgency is needed to bridge the gap in the talents of information and communications technology, to encourage innovation, creativity and strengthen competitiveness in the technology sector. Societies should contribute to achieve digital transformation and economic growth, added Mirza. BTECH hailed the participation of EDX Labs as an innovation partner to this years conference because it reflects the support and interest of technical innovation companies in this conference which is considered as a pioneering event in the field of information and communications technology in Bahrain. This also comes in the framework of the societys attempt to adopt and encourage innovation and suggest the appropriate mechanisms to properly employ it to serve the business community in Bahrain and the rest of the Arab region, where innovation has become the main factor in the development of successful economies. This ICT event is being organised by Bahrain Technology Companies Society "BTECH" and "WorkSmart" for events management for the tenth year in a row which will be held this year under the theme Leading the Way to a Digital Economy through AI. -- Tradearabia News Service Kwaku Twumasi, a veteran actor and movie producer, has appealed to the membership of the Ghana Actors Guild (GAG) to consider setting up a welfare fund to assist actors in crisis. The appeal has come at a time a number of the countrys aged actors are struggling to raise money to take care of their health. Mr. Twumasi, who previously suffered from stroke, made the call when he was speaking on Angel FM about a GH200 and a Tecno phone gift he received from the GAG leadership at the time he was sick. We should make good use of the industry. The association can set up a welfare fund to assist members in crisis, he stated. I received support from a lot of people. The leadership of Ghana Actors Guild came to visit me and they gave me GH200 and a phone. Seriously, they did very well because not all industry players will get GH200 and a phone from the association. I was even lucky to have such kind gesture from the leadership, he added. But, according to him, he is trying very hard to convince the leadership of the industry to set up a fund to support members who are not doing well. Mr. Twumasi was reportedly bedridden for over four years; the reason has been missing in action for some time. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video On February 15, 2020, a woman works in a factory of printed circuit boards, a subsidiary of Taiwan PCB Techvest, in Suining, a city in southwest China's Sichuan province. Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images A new survey of 755 North American manufacturing companies found that the Covid-19 outbreak in Asia has started to impact manufacturing supply chains in the Western hemisphere. The survey, conducted by Thomas, a marketing and data platform for the manufacturing industry, found 60 percent of North American companies it surveyed are affected in some way by China's disrupted supply chains and limited production output. Nearly half have shipping disruptions. One-third experience delays. Of the companies surveyed, 24 percent have production facilities in China and 45 percent reported a disruption in shipping. Another 31 percent said they have been forced to delay or reject orders while they look for ways to adjust, 10 percent reported a decrease in demand for products and services, while 8 percent said the cost of goods has risen because of the coronavirus outbreak. "Ultimately, the coronavirus outbreak will cause a slowdown, especially for the automotive and tech sectors," said Thomas CEO Tony Uphoff. Businesses are encouraged to diversify supply chains. Uphoff recommends that businesses diversify their supply chains to meet demands and weather the slowdowns caused by the virus. Many of the manufacturers surveyed have done just that, with 28 percent having already started to look for alternative suppliers in the U.S., India, and Mexico. Meanwhile, another 27 percent reported no change in demand. Update: 04-03-2020 | 11:58:16 In order to understand the situation of enterprises (DN), the lives of workers affected, the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the provincial Labor Confederation has directed the union levels to proactively propose plans to take care of health, employment, wages and income ... From there, advising and proposing levels and functional sectors to take measures to remove and contribute to stabilizing the situation of employees as well as activities, production and business of enterprises. Enterprise measures employee's body temperature before entering the company to work Troubleshooting for workers In the recent days, the Covid-19 epidemic took place with a lot of information from the media and social networks. Among them, a lot of inaccurate information about the disease caused panic in public opinion. Workers in industrial zones are specialized in working shifts in factories, they need to have access to official and accurate information to prevent and control diseases. Facing the difficulties of employees, many businesses have timely solutions to help them feel secure to work, choose specific ways of propagation to provide accurate information about the disease to employees. Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet Nhung, President of the grassroots trade union of Yazaki Vietnam Co., Ltd., said that during this outbreak, the company conducted 24-hour temperature measurements and masks for all employees and suppliers. as well as customers entering the company when it comes to transactions or work. In case of illness, they will be checked, monitored and notified to the authorities. At the doors, the company arranged hand washing water to create favorable conditions for workers to disinfect hands to prevent and control Covid-19. As the Chairman of the Company's Trade Union, Mr. Hoang Minh Giang, King Jim Vietnam Co., Ltd. regularly shares information to inform employees on social networking sites such as Facebook, his personal Zalo, via That helps employees update information quickly and promptly. In addition, he also shared about the subjects who gave inaccurate information about how the disease is punished ... so that employees are cautious when accessing information online. From those posts on the Facebook page, the evening after finishing all work, or the breaks after work, all workers have time to access information carefully, helping them keep up. time to grasp disease movements and know how to prevent them. As a result, the ideological situation of the employees in the company is stable, helping them feel secure in production. Understanding the difficulties in arranging employees to look after the employees of the employees, the Trade Union and the Board of Directors of the company also made the adjustment of the working shifts for employees, when the workers wish, propose to change the shift to look after Children, the company is ready to create conditions for employees. Ms. Vu Thi Hanh Giang, Chairwoman of Trade Union of Trieu Phu Loc Company (Tan Uyen Town), said: The union has actively worked with business leaders to help employees with children of school age if they cannot afford to send their children, the company will allow annual leave or unpaid leave to stay. the house looks after the children. Sharing difficulties with businesses Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoang, Chairman of the Union of Shyang Hung Cheng Co., Ltd. (An Thanh Production Cluster, Thuan An City), said that at the company, the Chinese hold important positions so the impact is not small. to production of enterprises. However, the company has been proactive in quarantining and promoting propaganda so that employees can work safely and know how to prevent and control Covid-19 disease. Ms. Truong Thi Bich Hanh, Chairwoman of the provincial Federation of Labor said: At present, in the province, enterprises have announced all the raw materials and suspended production. In the coming time, if the epidemic continues to be complicated, it will be much more difficult, enterprises will run out of raw materials, workers will stop overtime or even businesses have to suspend operations. Therefore, the grassroots trade union must have a firm grasp of the situation of businesses and employees affected by the disease, especially health, employment, wages and income ... in order to promptly report, advise, propose levels and functional branches to promptly solve solutions, contributing to stabilizing the situation of labor workers, production and business activities of enterprises . Sharing this difficulty, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha, Chairwoman of the Union of Chi Hung Co., Ltd. (Tan Uyen Town), said that the enterprise has 57 experts who are Chinese. The company has taken isolation measures. So far, the time of isolation and health check has been very good. However, the current stockpile for production is running out. With the current situation, by mid-March, the company will stop overtime. This directly affects the income of employees. So workers are also worried about this issue, especially nearly 400 employees are raising children. Mr. Tran Cong Chanh, Vice Chairman of Trade Union of Thai Binh Investment Joint Stock Company also said that the company has strengthened its solutions to prevent and control Covid-19 disease. Not only strengthening the propaganda measures, but also promoting periodic total environmental sanitation, the company actively buys machinery, chemicals, training for employees to clean weekly. Reported by Kim Ha Thu Thao Translated by Vi Bao The world's tropical forests are rapidly losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from greenhouse gas emissions, with the Amazon rainforest at risk of turning from carbon sink to source within 15 years, researchers warned on Wednesday. Tropical forests provide humans with medicine, food, shelter and water and currently account for around half of all terrestrial carbon absorption. But they are rapidly getting saturated as manmade emissions continue to climb year on year. Forests act as a carbon sink when the amount of carbon retrieved through photosynthesis outweighs that emitted by tree loss -- be that through fire, drought or deforestation. But the rate of forest decline varies throughout the world, with the Amazon's absorption ability dropping far faster than the tropical forests of sub-Saharan Africa. A team of dozens of Europe- and Africa-based researchers monitored tree growth and mortality data from undisturbed forests across 11 countries in Africa stretching back over 50 years. They then compared that data with similar measurements taken across more than 300 plots of Amazon rainforest. They found that while there was some forest gain owing to increased CO2 levels -- since trees grow faster in carbon-rich environments -- the sink this provided was more than cancelled out by tree loss due to extreme heat and drought. The team extrapolated their data to model tree loss patterns over the next 20 years. Their paper, published in the journal Nature, estimated that the carbon sink capacity of the African forests studied will decline 14 per cent by 2030. In the Amazon, the forest's carbon sink capacity is predicted to reach zero by 2035. "This decrease is decades ahead of what even the most pessimistic climate models predicted," said Wannes Hubau, a forest ecosystems expert at Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa. "Mortality is a natural part of the cycle of forest trees. However, by pumping so much CO2 in the air, we have accelerated this cycle and blew its magnitude up to unknown proportions," he told AFP. Despite evidence that in particular the Amazon has been losing its carbon sink ability for decades, several of the emissions reductions scenarios envisioned in the Paris climate deal assume forests will be able to suck CO2 from the atmosphere over the long term. Several countries have announced plans to plant more trees and many larger companies plan mass-scale afforestation schemes to offset their carbon emissions. "We will have to rethink the climate models, but also climate mitigation strategies based on those models," said Hubau. Anja Rammig, from the Technical University of Munich's School of Life Sciences, said the study's findings should prompt a rethink in how much carbon mankind can emit and still meet the Paris goals of limiting warming to well below 2C. "As well as strong protection for intact tropical forest, even faster reductions of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions than those set out in the agreement will be needed to prevent catastrophic climate change," she wrote in an editorial on the research. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The good news is theres been an absolute renaissance in this country in the last 18 months, in observational documentary. In Free to Air Networks thats absolutely the case, says Nines Head of Content Production and Development, Adrian Swift. The bad news is we dont have any money .and we really like the observation documentaries that weve got. Speaking yesterday at the Australian International Documentary Conference, Swift told delegates Nine is particularly buoyed by Paramedics from WTFN and newcomer Taronga: Whos Who in the Zoo? from McAvoy Media. But Nine also has the long-running RBT plus Australian Crime Story, Bondi Vet: Coast to Coast, Desert Vet, and Monster Croc Wrangler, while Emergency is also due. I would have sat here two years ago and said Sorry, everything is either The Block or The Voice. But a big chunk of our schedule is good old fashioned -but innovatively made- observational documentary, he revealed. (Paramedics) is a mixture of fixed rig and off the shoulder shooting. We tried to give it a little bit of ER gloss in how we graded it, and it has a very short depth of field to give it a slightly different feel. Its not fundamentally different to ob docs as we know it, but we really think it tells a story and focuses particularly on the doctors, their roles and the toll on the doctors. In a world where there are no heroes anymore -we dont trust politicians, we dont trust the banks- frankly, were searching for people who are worthythe bushfires gave us a lot of those people. But these guys are genuine heroes. Its something thats not easy to watch, but its very engaging to watch. I think these are the kinds of shows that are going to become more important in everyones schedule. Swift also screened a moving scene from Taronga: Whos Who in the Zoo? where vets were unable to save a koala undergoing emergency surgery. He pointed to the vision which kept rolling, rather than avoiding the drama. Everyone thinks that at commercial networks its cut, cut, cut. But the joy (of that scene) is to keep rolling, he continued, I think the way observational documentary is going is capturing a genuine moment. As soon as you start cutting youre taken out of the moment. Just roll. And I would say that about Married at First Sight. We dont invent anything. Our great trick there is just keep rolling. Once you start franken-grabbing things, I think you lose the sense of the moment. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Legislators vote to remove scandal-hit Oleksiy Honcharuk, who is quickly replaced by his deputy Denys Shymgal. Kyiv, Ukraine Ukraines parliament has voted to accept the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk, the countrys youngest prime minister, who purportedly ridiculed President Volodymyr Zelenskyys views on the economy as primitive. Denys Shymgal, who was deputy prime minister in Honcharuks cabinet, will replace him and has promised to improve the economy by revising the 2020 budget and to cut ministers salaries. The dismissal of Honcharuk, a 35-year-old lawyer, could be a boost for Zelenskyy, a former comedian who won last years vote with populist pledges to upend the clout of regional oligarchs, crack down on corruption and reform an economy cratered by Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea and its backing of separatists in two southeastern provinces. In February, Zelenskyys ratings fell below 50 percent for the first time as the government has been criticised for inconsistent reforms and failed attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the separatists and Moscow. A scandal with leaked audio recordings of Honcharuks meeting with finance officials also hurt Zelenskyys popularity. Posted online in mid-January, the recordings are of a man whose voice resembles Honcharuks saying that the president has a very primitive understanding of the economy and describing himself as a layman in economic matters. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines lower house of parliament, is dominated by Zelenskyys Servant of the People party and voted Honcharuk out, with 353 legislators out of 411 present approving his resignation. Before the vote, Zelenskyy said: This is the first government where there is no high-level corruption. But not stealing is not enough. This is a government of new faces, but faces are not enough. New brains and new hearts are needed. According to Ukraines constitution, only a parliamentary vote can dismiss a prime minister, and the step entails the dismissal of the entire cabinet. Newly appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal delivers a speech during a parliamentary session in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 4, 2020 [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Shortly after dismissing Honcharuk, the parliament appointed Shmyhal as the new premiere. The 44-year-old used to head the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism and anti-Russian sentiments. Honcharuk ascribed his dismissal to the dirt in the media that followed his anti-corruption drive. We fought corruption in all areas, he told the parliament. We stopped many corruption schemes, and that is why in recent months, media poured tons of dirt on us. Observers, however, were less optimistic about his performance. The political credit on his personal card is over, Kyiv-based analyst Alexey Kushch told Al Jazeera, citing Honcharuks systemic miscalculations that contributed to rapid deindustrialisation of the economy and budget deficits. Honcharuks government has also faced two political crises. The first was the political quagmire stemming from United States President Donald Trumps attempts to pressure Zelenskyy into investigating Hunter Biden, the son of Trumps political rival, former US vice president Joe Biden. The White House briefly froze almost $400m in military aid in a move that could have reignited the separatist conflict that claimed more than 13,000 lives, but has largely been reduced to a smouldering, World War I-like trench war. The second is the January 8 downing of a Ukrainian commercial airliner by an Iranian missile, which resulted in the death of all 176 passengers and crew on board. Since 2014, Ukraine has become one of Europes poorest nations, suffering after a severe disruption of economic ties with Moscow. Millions of labour migrants flocked to the European Union or Russia, while Kyivs cash-strapped government is struggling to maintain its military fighting the separatists. Last year, Ukraines gross domestic product per capita was about $3,000, while neighbouring Polands was five times higher. We continue to get acquainted with new officials in the government of Denys Shmygal. Next up is the Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Finance in the new Cabinet is now headed by Ihor Umansky. Biography Ihor Umansky was born on January 9, 1975 in Prypyat, Kyiv region. In 1997 he graduated from Kyiv National Economic University with a degree in Economics of Enterprises. Umansky is Master of Business Administration and PhD in Economics. Over the years, he worked as an expert in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister of Economics, Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economics and European Integration, Deputy head of the board of Ukrtransnafta company, Deputy head of the State Agency for Investment and Innovation. From April 8, 2009 to March 11, 2010 he served as acting Minister of Finance of Ukraine. From October 2014 to December 2015 he was the first deputy head of the Ministry of Finance. Declaration of income According to the declaration for 2018, Igor Umansky is building a house in Kapustyane, Kyiv region. He also has a land plot. Umansky has 22 159 hryvnias (900 USD) in his accounts, he also has joint accounts with his wife, with 30 000 dollars and 17 000 euros. According to the documents, some real estate, as well as a car, is a property of his wife and daughter. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister have confirmed they will be cutting their St Patrick's week trip to the US short due to coronavirus. Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster were originally due to fly out on Sunday, however they will now leave on Tuesday so they can take part in an emergency Cobra meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior cabinet ministers on coronavirus on Monday. The news comes as two further coronavirus cases were confirmed in Northern Ireland, bring the total number of cases in the region to three. Economy Minister Diane Dodds will instead represent the Executive at a series of meetings with business and tourism leaders in New York. In Washington DC, Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill will host the NI Bureau breakfast event, attend the White House Reception, the Speaker's Lunch Event, and a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. Mrs Foster said the Executive is committed to strengthening Northern Ireland's relationship with the US. While there have been some necessary adjustments to our itinerary as we support efforts to ensure the containment of the coronavirus, we still have a packed programme of high level engagements in Washington with business and political leaders," she said. "We are looking forward to the opportunity to highlight the benefits of living, working and visiting here as part of our drive to secure inward investment and grow the economy. Michelle O'Neill said the decision to scale back the trip was necessary to balance public health responsibilities and efforts to attract inward investment. Our decision to join critical civil contingencies meetings requires us to remain in Belfast," she added. We will continue to work closely with ministers and health professionals to support their efforts to contain the virus here. "Preventing the spread of the virus is the best way to protect people and everyone should continue to follow public health advice from the medical professionals to help keep themselves and others safe. At a rally Tuesday afternoon, Tartine workers, San Francisco politicians and union organizers accused the owners of the famous Mission District bakery of interfering with the workers unionizing efforts and called on them to be neutral through the process. Hopefully theyre going to support their workers, the people they labor with every day, said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents District 9, which includes the Mission. Tartine workers started organizing almost a year ago to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the same union that Anchor Brewing workers joined last year. They want better pay and a voice at a company they argue is getting too corporate. The majority of employees at four Bay Area locations the original Tartine Bakery and Tartine Manufactory in the Mission, Tartine in the Inner Sunset and Tartine in Berkeley signed cards stating they support joining the union and submitted a letter to management in February requesting Tartine immediately recognize the effort. Management declined, leading to a formal election thats scheduled for next week. Tartine co-founder Elisabeth Prueitt said shes pro-union in many cases but wants to keep Tartine union-free, in part because she believes Tartine already provides fair wages and strong benefits. Despite Tartines recent expansion into markets in Korea and Los Angeles, she said those locations are funded by outside investment and dont have financial ties to the San Francisco locations, which have yet to turn a profit. Ask any restaurant owner theyve never contemplated being a union company, Prueitt said. In the weeks between the union announcement and the election, Tartine has scheduled a series of meetings for employees with consultants. Prueitt said the meetings are strictly informative, intended to ensure workers know their legal rights around organizing. But pro-union workers are billing them as whats known in unions as captive audience meetings, gatherings employees are required to attend because theyre during working hours where employers can spread an anti-union message. Its fear mongering and making people feel like theyll be punished if theyre unionized, said Tartine Manufactory barista Emily Haddad. The rally on Tuesday was held outside Tartine Manufactory, which was closed to make time for these meetings. On Wednesday, Tartine Bakery on Guerrero Street will be closed for the same reason. Its hard to get everyone together because of the nature of this business, so we decided to close for half a day so we could better address everybodys concerns, Prueitt said. We want to make sure our employees are fully aware of all of the steps. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Workers dont approve of the meeting plan. While Tartine pays employees normal salaries during the closure, the wait staff and other front-of-house workers wont get tips. According to ILWU organizer Agustin Ramirez, Tartine front-of-house staff typically get $10-$15 per hour in tips. Among the consultants Tartine hired is Lupe Cruz, a former organizer at the hotel and foodservice union Unite Here who also previously headed union-avoidance agency Cruz & Associates. Prueitt confirmed the hire. Cruz & Associates services including responding immediately and effectively to union activity, according to its now-defunct website dont come cheap. Grocery chain New Seasons Market, for example, paid Cruz $325,855 in 2017, while Williams-Sonoma paid Cruz $150,543 in 2016, according to federal records. Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker Hoboken residents will have to wait a bit longer to get their marijuana fix. Harmony Foundation, a Secaucus-based cannabis company, is postponing its application to open a medical marijuana dispensary at 95 Hudson St., after Mayor Ravi Bhalla vetoed an ordinance allowing medical cannabis sales in downtown Hoboken. Harmony has carried its site plan application to the next Planning Board meeting because Hoboken is currently revising the requirements governing the application process," Harmony CEO Shaya Brodchandel said in an emailed statement. "Harmony looks forward to completing its application in Hoboken as soon as possible. The vetoed ordinance would have paved the way for the sale of medicinal marijuana in Hobokens C-1 zone district a downtown area close to the PATH station. Harmony, which has a dispensary in Secaucus, applied to open a second facility in Hoboken after Gov. Phil Murphy loosened marijuana regulations. The patient community is growing very quickly in the state of New Jersey, Brodchandel said last month. This (location) will be much more accessible. But Bhallas veto has pushed back the possibility of a dispensary in the Mile Square City. I have no opposition to medical cannabis dispensaries in the C-1 district," Bhalla said in a veto statement. That being said, the reason for this veto is that (the ordinance) references compliance with two (2) sections of the Hoboken municipal code ... which are currently in a state of flux." Hoboken spokesman Vijay Chaudhuri said Hobokens government was still discussing laws surrounding who could obtain a license to sell cannabis and where. The number of licenses in the city, the maximum number of licenses per zone, where the borders of the zone are were all still under discussion, Chaudhuri said in an email. The City Council was also debating a municipal tax on cannabis sales, he said. In his veto statement, Bhalla floated the idea of legislation to answer all the open questions about marijuana. "My preferred approach is a package of amendments to the medical cannabis ordinances that comprehensively addresses all related matters, Bhalla wrote. Two senior civil servants at the Department for International Development are said to have been aware of bullying complaints against Priti Patel while she was head of the aid budget. Sir Mark Lowcock, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of the Department for International Development (Dfid) is understood by The Times to have personally witnessed bullying behaviour. Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark when he started a new role at the UN, was also allegedly made aware of complaints against Ms Patel. Sir Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaks at a press conference in December last year. Sir Mark, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of the Department for International Development (Dfid) said that he personally witnessed bullying behaviour Home Secretary Priti Patel arrives at The Home Office on Tuesday after attending a Cabinet Meeting Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark, told the Times that he was made aware of the bullying complaints against Ms Patel The Times Newspaper reported that Downing Street aides were also informed of the complaints made by civil servants working for Ms Patel. 'We certainly knew the relationship with her civil servants was not easy,' a special adviser in No 10 told the Times. 'There were concerns about her methods of working'. Allies of Priti Patel on Tuesday were said to have blamed her former top civil servant for dragging her into a row about an aide who took an overdose amid claims of bullying. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was 'ludicrous' to accuse her of being responsible for the woman's legal case against the Government, arguing that it had started long before Miss Patel took office. The MP has been under fire for weeks after being accused of bullying staff during her time as a minister and the Cabinet Office is leading an inquiry to 'establish the facts' over whether she breached the ministerial code in her dealings with aides. Miss Patel came under renewed pressure on Monday when it emerged that one of her former aides when she was employment minister took an overdose and received a 25,000 payout from the Government. Priti Patel arrives at Downing Street in London, Britain on February 13, 2020. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was 'ludicrous' to accuse her of being responsible for the woman's legal case against the Government, arguing that it had started long before Miss Patel took office Miss Patel had shouted at the woman in her private office and told her to 'get lost' and 'get out of her face', legal correspondence alleges. The minister is described in the woman's formal grievance complaint as having acted 'without warning' and with an 'unprovoked level of aggression', it was reported. The Department for Work and Pensions did not admit liability and the case did not come before a tribunal, the BBC reported. But yesterday Miss Patel's allies hit back. One said: 'It's ludicrous to drag Priti into this. 'This person only worked for Priti for two weeks and was already in the process of quitting when Priti took over as employment minister. 'The accusations of bullying were made against the department, not Priti, and the payout was made by the Civil Service which, by the way, mishandled her case entirely. It was nothing to do with Priti at all.' The allies blamed friends of Sir Philip Rutnam, the former top official at the Home Office, for spreading the 'false' allegations. A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain's former Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutman speaking before the Home Affairs Committee in Parliament, central London on February 27, 2019 Sir Philip resigned on Saturday following an extraordinary briefing row with Miss Patel after he accused her of belittling staff in the department. He said he had become the 'target of a vicious and orchestrated campaign against him', which he alleged she was involved in. But Miss Patel's friend said: 'It's actually very serious that a civil servant had mental health issues and attempted to take her own life because of the way she was treated by her civil service colleagues. 'And it's childish and stupid for anonymous friends of Philip Rutnam to push around false stories about civil service mistakes which she [Miss Patel] had nothing to do with.' The row came after Boris Johnson asked the Cabinet Office to 'establish the facts' around bullying claims. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the inquiry will examine all the complaints, although it is unclear if the Department for Work and Pensions claim is included. The PM has already offered Miss Patel his support, calling her a 'fantastic Home Secretary'. Yesterday, it emerged she has sent an internal email to staff saying she regretted Sir Philip's resignation and calling on her department to pull together. Asked yesterday if Mr Johnson knew about the DWP allegation, his official spokesman said: 'The Home Secretary denies any allegations of bullying and the PM has expressed full confidence in her. An inquiry is under way.' Sir Philip could not be reached for comment. A man who was on the run from police allegedly doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire at a school. The man is fighting for life in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. Police allege he ran away from officers in Granville, about 250km north of Brisbane, late on Tuesday night. When they found him again, he had entered the grounds of Granville State School and was carrying a jerry can and lighter. As officers approached and tried to reason with him, they allege he poured petrol all over himself and set himself alight. The man entered the grounds of Granville State School (pictured) and was carrying a jerry can and lighter before he set himself on fire He was flown to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition. A police spokesman said officers were called to a Granville park about 11pm on Tuesday. 'Officers attempted to communicate with the man, however the incident resulted in the male igniting,' the spokesperson said. The school released a statement to parents and families explaining an 'incident occurred on school grounds overnight'. 'Police will be in attendance all day,' the statement read. 'The school day will continue as per normal routine.' The incident is currently being investigated by the Ethical Standards Command. Lifeline - 13 11 14 Michael Bloomberg is expected to pull out of the Democratic presidential race after failing to win in any states on Super Tuesday despite spending more than half a billion dollars of his own money on campaign advertising. The billionaire former New York mayors only victory came in the tiny US territory of American Samoa, which earned him four delegates. He is on course to win no delegates in Virginia, where he invested heavily on flooding TV with advertisements, and finish third in other key target states Texas and Tennessee. Mr Bloomberg has spent an unprecedented $559m (437m) on campaign ads since announcing his candidacy in November. The former Republican, a wild card heading into the primaries, had skipped the first four contests and bombarded Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads. Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters He had been winning more than 15 per cent of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in Tennessee, Texas, Colorado, Utah, California and Arkansas, but his poll numbers slipped after he came under fire during Democratic debates for alleged sexism and racial discrimination. Mr Bloomberg was muscled aside on Super Tuesday by a resurgent Joe Biden, who consolidated support from moderates to turn the contest into a two-horse race against Bernie Sanders. The former vice-president pulled off his victories despite being vastly outspent on ads by Mr Bloomberg. Mr Bidens outlay on TV, radio and digital advertising amounted to $16m (13m) less than any other candidate still in the race as of 3 March. Bloomberg's 650 million bet looks like a complete failure at this point, said Saagar Enjeti, a political commentator and fellow at Washington DC think thank the Hudson Institute. The Wesleyan Media Project, which monitors campaign advertising spending, said we have never seen a candidate spend so much money as Mr Bloomberg, who is one of the richest people in world and has a net worth of $56bn (44bn.) Imagine how much voter suppression Mike Bloomberg could combat with the $559,000,000 he's spent on campaign ads, said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California in Berkley and former US labour secretary. Brian Klaas, a political scientist at University College London, said Mr Bloomberg should now pledge his billions to helping the Democratic nominee to defeat Trump rather than his own botched candidacy. Mr Bloomberg's press secretary, Julie Wood, said the campaign would "reassess after tonight" whether to continue, but denied that meant he would quit the race. But Politico cited several Bloomberg campaign sources as saying a decision to exit the race is all but certain. Mr Bloomberg struck a defiant tone on Tuesday evening, telling supporters in Florida's West Palm Beach: ""As the results come in, here's what is clear: No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible. "In just three months, we've gone from 1 per cent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president." The Bloomberg campaign hired thousands of staffers and mounted a vigorous national tour focused on Super Tuesday states. But he was was dogged by criticism of his past support as New York mayor of "stop and frisk," a policy that encouraged police to stop and search people and ensnared disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos. He was also strongly criticised in two Democratic debates for past sexist remarks. By PTI SILCHAR: A Silchar court has granted bail to a guest lecturer at a local college, who was arrested for posting alleged derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and the BJP on Facebook in wake of the violence in Delhi. The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Silchar, on Tuesday granted bail to Souradeep Sengupta on a surety of Rs 15,000 and on the condition that he would cooperate with the police, and not leave the town without the court's permission. Sengupta, a guest lecturer in the Physics department at Gurucharan College, was arrested from his residence in the Itkhola area on Friday night after a case was lodged against him based on a complaint filed by a student, they said. He was charged under sections of the IPC and IT Act for his alleged objectionable comments against the prime minister, the BJP, RSS and the Sanatan Dharma on Facebook. Sengupta's family had said that he had deleted his social media post and also issued an apology for his comments. After his education till the secondary level in Silchar, Sengupta did his BSc from Presidency College in Kolkata. He did his post-graduation from Delhi University and is currently doing PhD, his family said. Dozens of people are still missing in Tennessee after the second deadliest tornado in state history ripped through Nashville and nearby areas, leveling buildings and killing at least 24 people. In hard-hit Putnam County east of Nashville, where Monday night's twister left at least 18 dead and dozens injured, 38 people remained missing Tuesday evening, officials said in a statement. Among the missing are many couples, and the county is asking for public help. Elsewhere, in the Nashville suburb of Mt. Juliet in Wilson County, police are searching for Benjamin Fitch, 27. He was reported to have been walking outside about an hour before the tornado hit, waiting for a ride back to his home state of North Carolina, authorities said. Image: Cookeville Tennessee "Benjamin's ride arrived in Mt. Juliet to pick him up, but he was not located. He does not own a cell phone, and his family members are concerned about his well-being," Mt. Juliet police said in a tweet. It was unclear Wednesday morning if any people were missing in other areas hit by the tornado, including Davidson County. The number of missing in Putnam County was originally 77, but was lowered as officials went door to door searching for residents, NBC Nashville affiliate WSMV reported. At least 88 people in the county were treated at hospitals for their injuries, Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. "The damage is dramatic to see," Porter said after touring the county by helicopter. Tuesday's tornado was the second deadliest in Tennessee history, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. The most fatal was March 22, 1952, when twisters killed 38 people in the state. Another deadly tornado came Feb. 5, 2008, when 22 died, according to federal authorities. Country music stars such as Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves and Faith Hill, meanwhile, shared their concerns and personal accounts of the disaster. Underwood told "TODAY" that her husband was at their Nashville home with their two young children during the tornado and rushed to take shelter. "He said he had to go upstairs at like 2 a.m. and grab the boys and take them down to a little safe room in our house," she said. Musgraves tweeted Tuesday that, "Me and my fam are safe but many friends arent so lucky ... Im so nervous to find out who the fatalities are." She said she was going to help "in any way I can," an offer echoed by other stars like Hill. Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rebuked Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, Wednesday for saying that conservative judges 'won't know what hit them' if they vote to uphold abortion restrictions. Schumer led a protest outside the Supreme Court as the nine justices heard a case on abortion rights centered on a new Louisiana law - the first taken up since Donald Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Court. Louisiana's law mandates doctors in abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby; pro-choice groups say it is an attempt at restricting access to terminations. The Democrat said: 'I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. 'You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.' That earned a rare public statement from Roberts. 'Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest level of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,' he said in a statement released late in the afternoon. 'All members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.' 'You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.' Chuck Schumer's words at a protest outside the Supreme Court as it heard Target of 'threat': The abortion case in front of the Supreme Court is the first to be heard since Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch (left) and Brett Kavanaugh (right) as justices Hot tipping his hand: Chief Justice John Roberts was careful not to suggest his view on the case about new laws in Louisiana which say abortion clinic doctors must have admitting privileges at hospitals Schumer's spokesman told NBC News that he was referring to the political price Republicans would pay for 'for putting them on the court,' and 'warning that the justices will unleash major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision.' Roberts' rebuke is only his second to politicians in his time as Chief Justice. The first was to Donald Trump in November 2018, when the president tweeted and attack on 'Obama judges' for ruling against his administration's attempts at tough asylum policies. 'We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,' Roberts said. 'What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.' Trump hit back saying 'Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have 'Obama judges,' and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.' Roberts issued no statement last month when Trump assailed two liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg - and demanded they recuse themselves after Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent against a ruling in favor of restrictions at the southern border. The president said the justice was 'trying to shame people with perhaps a different view into voting her way and that's so inappropriate.' The source of his attack on Bader Ginsburg was not explained but stem from interviews in 2016 in which she said: 'I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president.' She also called him a 'faker' and said if he was alive her husband would have wanted to 'move to New Zealand.' Bader Gisnburg, now the oldest of the justices, apologized for her 'ill-advised' remarks, but Ginsburg has not recused herself from any Trump case so far. Roberts also said nothing when Trump lambasted the judge in the Roger Stone case as 'totally biased' last month. In court Wednesday, Roberts had carefully done nothing to tip his hand in court during an hour of spirited arguments. The court's election-year look at a Louisiana dispute could reveal how willing the more conservative court is to roll back abortion rights. A decision should come by late June. The outcome could have huge consequences at a time when several states have passed laws, being challenged in the courts, that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. The justices are weighing a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. A federal judge found that just one of Louisiana's three abortion clinics would remain open if the law is allowed to take effect. The federal appeals court in New Orleans, though, upheld the law, setting up the Supreme Court case. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted, as she had before, that 'among medical procedures, first trimester abortion is among the safest, far safer than childbirth.' The abortion clinic in Shreveport at the heart of the case reported transferring just four patients to a hospital out of roughly 70,000 it has treated over 23 years, Justice Elena Kagan noted. Justice Samuel Alito said the clinic had once had its license suspended, in 2010. Perhaps the biggest question is whether the court will overrule a 2016 decision in which it struck down a similar law in Texas. Since then, Trump was elected president and he appointed Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, who have shifted the court to the right. Even with those two additions to the court, Roberts almost certainly holds the deciding vote. When the justices temporarily blocked the Louisiana law from taking effect a year ago, Roberts joined the court's four liberal justices to put it on hold. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were among the four conservatives who would have allowed the law to take effect. Rebuke: John Roberts' intervention is a rare public intervention in politics by the Supreme Court's most senior judge Those preliminary votes do not bind the justices when they undertake a thorough review of an issue, but they often signal how a case will come out. In more than 14 years as chief justice, Roberts has generally voted to uphold abortion restrictions, including in the Texas case four years ago. It is for now unclear whether Roberts' outlook on the Louisiana case has been affected by his new role as the court's swing justice since Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement, his concern about the court being perceived as a partisan institution and his respect for a prior decision of the court, even one he disagreed with. One possible outcome is that Roberts and the other conservative justices could find a way to allow Louisiana to enforce the law, without overruling the decision from 2016 in which the court struck down a similar law in Texas. One avenue raised by lawyers for the state and the Trump administration is that the doctors didn't try hard enough to work out arrangements with the hospitals, even though the trial court found that doctors failed to secure admitting privileges at 15 hospitals over an 18-month period. That result would be a defeat for abortion rights advocates who have argued that the laws are virtually indistinguishable. But it would allow Roberts something of a middle ground between taking a big step to limit abortion access and reaffirming the court's abortion rulings. Roberts asked the same question, in slightly different form, to each of the three lawyers who argued before the court. The court in the Texas case found there was no benefit to the women the law was ostensibly intended to help and struck it down as an 'undue burden' on women's right to an abortion in violation of the Constitution. 'I understand the idea that the impact might be different in different places, but as far as the benefits of the law, that's going to be the same in each state, isn't it?' Roberts asked Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill. The Louisiana and Texas situations are not identical, Murrill told the court. 'The laws are different, the facts are different, the regulatory structures are different,' Murrill said. Roberts' inquiry seemed to dovetail with questions from Kavanaugh, whose interest was in discerning whether admitting privileges laws would still impose an 'undue burden' in a state that made it easy for abortion providers to get them. 'Could an admitting privileges law of this kind ever have a valid purpose, in your view?' Kavanaugh asked lawyer Julie Rikelman, representing the Shreveport clinic. Rikelman replied: 'No, Your Honor. The medical consensus against these laws is clear.' The court also has agreed to review whether abortion providers have the right to go into court to represent the interests of women seeking abortions. A ruling in favor of the state's argument that the providers lack the right to sue in these circumstances, known as third-party standing, would be a devastating blow to abortion rights advocates since doctors and clinics, not individual women who want abortions, file most challenges to abortion restrictions. But apart from Alito, the justices did not seem especially interested in resolving the case on the standing issue. Outside the court, protesters on both sides filled the sidewalks just as they have for earlier high court cases on abortion. Inside, Justice Stephen Breyer sought to capture searing debate over the issue. 'I understand there are good arguments on both sides. 'Indeed, in the country people have very strong feelings and a lot of people morally think it's wrong and a lot of people morally think the opposite is wrong,' Breyer said, though he left little doubt he would vote in favor of abortion rights. Following an announcement by the US Department of State of a $7 million reward to anyone that can provide credible information that will lead to the arrest of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, Nigerians seem to be very elated with the news. The Department, via a tweet posted by their official Twitter account on Wednesday, announced the bounty on the terrorist, who has wreaked havoc in Nigerias northeast in the last decade. Nigerians have taken to Twitter to express their optimism that the dreaded Shekau would finally be caught. Read Also: WANTED: US Places $7m Bounty On Boko Haram Leader, Shekau See some reactions below https://twitter.com/FBanks7/status/1235163818625568769?s=19 https://twitter.com/AfamDeluxo/status/1235152042382983169?s=19 Shekau is the number one terrorist in Africa. The United States placed $7 million reward on his head. Nnamdi Kanu is in America, moving around freely and attending Trumps rally. But to the typical Arewa person. Nnamdi Kanu is their problem. Terrorism doesnt bother them. ThankGod Ukachukwu (@kcnaija) March 4, 2020 Kylie wowed in a selection of swimsuits on her holiday. Photo: instagram/kyliejenner Kylie Jenner has been sizzling in string on her Bahamas getaway, but her latest snaps have taken the poolside looks to a whole other level. The mum turned heads with a very strange accessory worn with a Dior one-piece swimsuit overnight. Though the Kardashians sultry pose and generous curves may have some fans distracted, others couldnt look past a floor-length braid extending from the billionaires head that reminded more than one fan of a classic, if decreasingly popular hairdo from the golden age of braids. That is, a rats tail, most recently made infamous by one Shia LaBeouf. We have seen this look before. Photo: Getty Images Kylie has taken some time out from being the worlds youngest billionaire to escape to the Bahamas with her daughter Stormi and bestie Anastasia Karanikolaou. The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star didnt restrict her beachy content to the divisive braid, however, also turning heads in a series of unusually fresh-faced and stripped back looks. Kylie kept it natural with minimal makeup and beachy waves. Photo: Instagram/kyliejenner In one photo, the star poses in a brown bikini with a selection of more subtle braids accessorising her notably lighter hair. It was definitely the bolder hair look that grabbed fans attention, however. Fans divided over avatar hairdo Fans couldn't make up their minds about the trailing... tail? Photo: Instagram/kyliejenner Kylies 164 million followers were divided over the unusual hairdo, with some loving the extra-terrestrial look, and others finding less flattering comparisons. Die-hard fans compared the Kylie Cosmetics founder to iconic fantasy characters. Ok Rapunzel, one wrote. Avatar, another suggested. Others didnt mince their words, branding the look creepy. Eeeekk that braid just doesnt do it for me, one wrote. It kinda creeps me out, another agreed. Is this the new generations version of the classic rats tail? another wondered. If you were wondering where the excess hair came from, one fan has a theory that seems to hold up. All the hair she pulled out the drain, they suggested. Story continues Kylie has popularised unusual items like skin-tight jumpsuits and multi-coloured wigs. Photo: Instagram/kyliejenner Though the humble rats tail seemed to have died a squealing death, the Kardashians have an uncanny ability to drag controversial trends kicking and screaming into the mainstream. So get braiding ladies and gentlemen, because this is shaping up to be the new must-have beach accessory of 2020. Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com. DANBURY A Ridgefield man accused of shooting a teenage girl in the back during a botched car robbery nearly three years ago has pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge. Mauro Tropeano pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor Tuesday. He is due back in court June 9 for sentencing. It was a very difficult decision, Eugene Riccio, Tropeanos criminal defense attorney said Wednesday. My client wanted to move on with his life and accept a plea to a lesser charge. Tropeano, who owns the popular Stanziatos pizza restaurant in Danbury, was originally charged with second-degree assault and illegal discharge of a firearm in August 2017. Its very important to keep in mind that my client was home asleep in his bed at 3 a.m. when his property was invaded by a gang of at least five marauders, Riccio said. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Tropeano will receive a one year suspended sentence with three years of probation. During the three year probationary period, Tropeano will not be allowed to possess firearms, Riccio said. The 35-year-old will not serve any time in prison, Riccio said. Tropeano is still facing two drug-dealing charges, after police raided his house and turned up steroids, vaccuum-sealed bags of marijuana, and various types of steroids, according to the warrant for his arrest. The arrest came several months after police said the Hulda Lane homeowner fired at a group of teens trying to steal a Range Rover parked in his driveway. Days after the June 5 shooting, a 15-year-old girl from Waterbury told Ridgefield detectives she had traveled to Ridgefield with a group of friends in a stolen Kia to break into and steal cars, according to the warrant. The group tried to steal a Range Rover at Tropeanos Hulda Lane home, but were unable to put the car in reverse, she told police. The thieves eventually got the Range Rover moving, and crashed it in the front yard, Riccio said. While the girl was in the back of the Kia, the homeowner came out of the house and fired three shots at them. One of the bullets passed through the back of the car and struck her in the back, the girl told police. The teen was left at Waterbury Hospital by her friends, and originally told authorities she was shot on the street in Waterbury. She suffered non life-threatening injuries but the bullet lodged near the teens spine, so doctors were unable to remove it. Tropeano initially denied firing a gun that night when police interviewed him the day after the shooting. Weeks later, Tropeano provided a written statement to police through Riccio that he had fired his Glock 9mm pistol that night in defense of my person. Tropeano was also charged with possession of drugs with intent to sell, and possession of drugs with intent to sell by a non drug-dependent person, both felonies. Riccio said he was able to have the court separate those charges from those related to the shooting. Tropeano is due back in court on the drug charges March 30, Riccio said. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation announced today it has awarded nearly $150 million in grants across New York State. The grants are helping to fund more than 500 activities, programs, and initiatives in 2020 focused on improving the health and quality of life for low-income and underserved communities. "We are honored to support such a wide range of organizations doing critically important work to improve the lives of New York's most vulnerable communities," said Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Visa and Chair of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Board. Added Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, Chief Executive Officer of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation: "Mother Cabrini spent her life devoted to those who faced the greatest struggles, and the Foundation named in her honor is proudly carrying on her legacy. From supporting pediatric cardiac care units in children's hospitals to expanding mental health services to enhancing immigrants' access to services, our inaugural grants are already making a difference in communities across New York State." "It is a great start for the Foundation their initial grants promise to have a positive impact on the health and well-being of millions of New Yorkers, particularly the most needy," noted Anthony Shih, MD, President of United Hospital Fund. "We are excited to be among the Foundation's partners and look forward to honoring Mother Cabrini's legacy through our projects focused on the needs of poor and underserved young children and older adults." Said Rose Duhan, President and CEO of the Community Health Care Association of NYS (CHCANYS): "Attracting and maintaining a skilled workforce is one of the biggest challenges community health centers face and this grant will help CHCANYS in accomplishing our mission to champion community-centered primary care in New York State through leadership and support of Community Health Centers. CHCANYS is proud and grateful to be recognized by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for our work to improve the health and well-being of low-income and underserved communities." This is the first round of grants released by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the U.S. and the largest foundation focused exclusively on New York State. Its mission is to help address health and health-related needs of New Yorkers regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or background, as well as the social determinants of health that improve health outcomes, including nutrition, housing, education, and employment. The Foundation's first round of grants include: $57 million toward general services for low-income individuals and families, including grants to Harlem Children's Zone to support Healthy Harlem, a program to prevent and address childhood obesity in Central Harlem, and to the Hudson Headwaters Health Network to expand a program that provides fresh produce and nutritional counseling to rural communities in the Adirondack North Country region. including grants to Harlem Children's Zone to support Healthy Harlem, a program to prevent and address childhood obesity in Central Harlem, and to the Hudson Headwaters Health Network to expand a program that provides fresh produce and nutritional counseling to rural communities in the Adirondack North Country region. $25 million toward youth and young adults , including grants to the Greater New York Hospital Foundation to improve access to medication and treatment for patients grappling with opioid use disorder and to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County for opioid prevention education in local schools. , including grants to the Greater New York Hospital Foundation to improve access to medication and treatment for patients grappling with opioid use disorder and to Cornell Cooperative Extension of for opioid prevention education in local schools. $18 million toward programming, nursing, and caregiving services for older adults , including a grant to the JASA for Caring Link, an aging-in-place program that helps elders resolve daily living challenges, manage chronic disease, and reduce isolation and depression. , including a grant to the JASA for Caring Link, an aging-in-place program that helps elders resolve daily living challenges, manage chronic disease, and reduce isolation and depression. $18 million toward housing and services for persons with special needs , including a grant to New Yorkers For Children, in partnership with the New York City Administration for Children's Services, for a pilot program aimed at providing support for parents with intellectual or developmental disabilities involved in the New York City child welfare system. , including a grant to New Yorkers For Children, in partnership with the New York City Administration for Children's Services, for a pilot program aimed at providing support for parents with intellectual or developmental disabilities involved in the child welfare system. $10 million toward initiatives for immigrants and refugees, including a grant to the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights for child advocates to help unaccompanied minors. including a grant to the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights for child advocates to help unaccompanied minors. $7 million toward needs of young children, pregnant women, and new moms, including a grant to the United Hospital Fund of New York to increase the number of children receiving primary care interventions that promote healthy development, address unmet social needs, and strengthen families. including a grant to the United Hospital Fund of to increase the number of children receiving primary care interventions that promote healthy development, address unmet social needs, and strengthen families. $4 million toward opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, including a grant to the Center for Community Alternatives in Syracuse to support transitional housing for formerly incarcerated individuals returning to their communities. including a grant to the Center for Community Alternatives in to support transitional housing for formerly incarcerated individuals returning to their communities. $4 million toward programs at Federally Qualified Health Centers , including grants to CHCANYS benefitting over 70 community health centers that serve low-income New Yorkers statewide; the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in Queens for its bilingual smoking cessation and health programs; and the Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo for its Vive Shelter, which provides shelter, food, and legal services to asylum seekers. , including grants to CHCANYS benefitting over 70 community health centers that serve low-income New Yorkers statewide; the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in for its bilingual smoking cessation and health programs; and the Jericho Road Community Health Center in for its Vive Shelter, which provides shelter, food, and legal services to asylum seekers. $3 million toward support services for veterans, including a grant to the Veterans Outreach Center in Rochester for a new program to assist female veterans in their return to civilian life, including housing assistance for those at risk of homelessness. A list of grants is posted on the Foundation's website. The portfolio covers a range of nonprofits, from local community organizations to large-scale hospital systems, including 19 hospitals across New York State. The Foundation provides funding to a wide array of religiously affiliated organizations, including grants to Catholic Charities affiliates across the State supporting an extensive range of programs through a well-established infrastructure serving the needs of the poor and underserved of all faiths. Other grantees include Trinity Episcopal Church for housing and supportive services for women exiting Rikers Island, the UJA-Federation's Digital Pantry, the Coptic Orthodox Diocese's St. Abraam Program benefitting low-income individuals and families, and The Council of Peoples Organization's center serving Muslim South Asian seniors. Grantees are addressing New Yorkers' health needs, as well as the social determinants of health: from providing food, legal assistance, and mental health services to expanding dental care, supporting advancements in telehealth technology, and providing transportation to and from clinics. The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation was formed after the 2018 sale of Fidelis Care, a nonprofit health insurer created by the Catholic bishops of New York State. For more than 25 years, Fidelis Care expanded under the bishops' oversight to become one of the highest rated and most successful insurers operating in the State. The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization with the mission to improve the health and well-being of the vulnerable New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of targeted communities, eliminate barriers to care, and bridge gaps in health services. The Foundation which is named in memory of a tireless advocate for immigrants, children, and the poor provides flexible support for new and innovative approaches that enhance health and wellness across New York State. For more information, visit https://www.cabrinihealth.org/ Media Contact: Bob Varettoni, [email protected] ; (646) 980-3020 SOURCE Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Related Links https://www.cabrinihealth.org The novel coronavirus is continuing to spread worldwide, according to figures from around the globe, reports Khadija Elrabti The total number of confirmed patients infected with the novel coronavirus around the globe reached over 92,000 cases on Sunday. Around 12,000 of the total number of cases have been detected outside mainland China since the outbreak started increasing late last year, while the remaining 80,151 make up those confirmed inside China. It has been confirmed that the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has thus far been detected in about 60 countries around the world. So far, it is more highly concentrated in some areas of the globe than others, prompting some airlines to suspend or halt flights to various destinations in China where the virus was first detected. Flights to other hotspots such as Iran, South Korea and Italy have also been affected. Outside China, South Korea has the largest COVID-19 dispersal so far, where an additional 586 cases were confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total up to over 5,100 cases in the country. Most of the cases in South Korea are centred in Daegu, South Koreas fourth-largest city. The death toll has also risen to over 25 coronavirus-related deaths in the country. A leader of a religious sect in South Korea could face murder charges after being accused of failing to cooperate in efforts to contain the virus. According to the authorities, members of the Shincheonji church infected each other, and the virus spread from Daegu where the church is based. Meanwhile in the Middle East, Iran has become the epicentre of infections with the virus, where it has been rapidly spreading, with the death toll rising from 54 deaths to 77. The number of confirmed cases in Iran has risen by more than a half, taking the total up to over 2,300 more than double the number of reported infections in the past few days. Around170 infections were reported in Tehran, Irans capital. According to executive director of the World Health Organisations (WHO) emergencies programme Mike Ryan, the virus came unnoticed to Iran, and due to its initially being undetected, the extent of infection may be broader than what we may be seeing. Several Iranian officials have contracted COVID-19, and an 81-year-old official has passed away due to the virus. Iranian media outlets announced that the first Iranian ambassador to the Vatican, cleric Hadi Khosroshahi, had died shortly after contracting the virus and suffering from respiratory problems. Members of the countrys Revolutionary Guards announced in a televised news conference that mobile hospitals are to be set up and that flights departing from or arriving in Rasht, the capital of Irans northern Gilan province, have been suspended. This area has Irans highest number of infections. Other detected cases in the Middle East include over 21 confirmed cases each in Iraq and the UAE, as well as over 45 in Bahrain and over 55 in Kuwait. In the meantime, an upsurge of COVID-19 has spread through several countries in Europe. Italy has become the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe, with over 2,000 cases confirmed and around 52 deaths reported. The situation is, frankly, an emergency from the point of view of health system organisation, Director of Infectious Diseases at Milans Sacco Hospital Massimo Galli told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The US airline Delta Air has suspended flights to Milan until the beginning of May. Various events and public meetings in the city have been suspended along with the closing of the La Scala Opera House. Around 204 confirmed cases have been reported in France with four deaths. The Louvre Museum has been shut due to concerns at the coronavirus spreading further. The Louvre cannot open this Sunday. The museum staff met to discuss the health situation and the COVID-19 prevention measures taken by the museum following instructions from the competent authorities, a statement said from representatives of the worlds largest art museum at the weekend. Additionally, the country has banned crowds of more than 5,000 people meeting in cramped spaces. Earlier this month the WHO named the novel coronavirus COVID-19, where CO stands for corona, the VI stands for virus, D for disease and the 19 represents 2019. According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronaviruses are a family of viruses that are common in both humans and animals, from cattle and camels to cats or bats, but it is very rare that an animal coronavirus can infect people and spread. The COVID-19 virus is generally believed to have spread from a China-based wholesale market, where the pathogen may have jumped from bats to other animals and consequently to humans. In the latest Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report by the CDC, the linkage between the virus and the Wuhan food market in China is confirmed in a summary statement. Early on, many of the patients at the epicentre of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread, it said. Later, a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to animal markets, indicating person-to-person spread. Recently, it has been found that for the first time since the spread of the virus began that Chinas recovery rate has surpassed that of newly infected patients. According to the China Global Television Network (CGTN), there have been nearly 48,000 recoveries compared to 40,000 unsettled infections. According to Reuters, one of the coronavirus hospitals that were specially built to control the COVID-19 emergency outbreak in China has now been closed as it has discharged its last recovered patients and there has been a drop in the number of new cases. This has not stopped China from making changes and continuing to exercise caution, however. Chinese President Xi Jinping is looking into fixing the roots of the problem by improving the countrys health services, cracking down on the illegal trade in wildlife, and improving emergency preparations. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: After having had his candidacy written off as nothing but a vanity project for an ageing vice president just days ago, Joe Biden has turned his presidential prospects around with decisive wins across more than half a dozen states on Super Tuesday and cemented himself as Americas comeback kid (at least for moderate Democrats). The results out of Super Tuesday were no small feat for the 77-year-old: heading into Tuesday it was a pretty big unknown whether the roughly $500m Michael Bloomberg spent of his own money on adverts and staff might prove a satisfactory substitute to voters for the decades of public service Mr Biden and others had to offer. For a lot of pundits, it seemed like it might. The New York Times ran op-eds praising his time as mayor of New York City (even as he was bashed on the campaign trail and by that newspaper itself for the highly contentious policies like "stop-and-frisk" he championed that targeted black and brown men in the liberal city). Some pundits suggested having a guy who can throw billions down to beat Donald Trump might be the safest route forward. Polls showed him doing well across Super Tuesday states. But, in a country where money is often its own potent miracle-maker, Mr Biden managed to notch up wins in states he didnt even visit ahead of the Tuesday votes, and after months in which his campaign struggled with fundraising and infrastructure. Super Tuesday turned a fractious race into one in which Mr Biden and Bernie Sanders are virtually the only two candidates with any shot at the nomination. Apparently you cant use a virtually limitless fortune to just buy up adverts during the Super Bowl, field offices across the country, catered rallies and endorsements from local leaders whose causes youve underwritten, and then expect it to turn into wins. Well, unless youre only gunning for American Samoa. As results were tallied Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning showing Mr Biden winning at least eight of the 14 states, and Mr Sanders winning at least three that reality appeared to dawn on Mr Bloomberg as well. Reports indicated that he was planning on rethinking his campaign (translation: drop out?) on Wednesday, even as he claimed the over $500m he spent had helped his campaign to accomplish the impossible. As the results come in, heres what is clear: No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible. In just three months weve gone from 1 per cent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president, Mr Bloomberg told cheering staff and supporters. But the businessmans definition of defying the possible has cost him big. For 2020 candidates in general, including Mr Trump, Mr Bloomberg has spent the most, pulling from his vast personal fortune. "The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg. His 'political' consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike!" tweeted Mr Trump on Tuesday evening. While estimates have put the total at over $500m, an analysis by the Centre for Responsive Politics pegs the exact number at $464m. Mr Trump, in second, boasts having raised $218m. And beyond that, Mr Sanders has raised nearly $133m, making him the third highest fundraiser. Mr Biden, meanwhile, was fifth in fundraising, with just $68m available to his campaign, according to the analysis less than 1/7th the cash spent by Mr Bloomberg. Of course, that is all going to change for Mr Biden. Fundraisers are lining up to push him forward as he looks to take on Mr Sanders in what will undoubtedly be a long and vicious fight over the next few months. Instead of being the poor old vice president who maybe missed his chance, hell soon be the money-flushed candidate of the Democratic establishment. And, who knows, maybe if Mr Bloomberg ends his run hell throw the money he wanted to spend on his own race behind the freshly minted comeback kid of the 2020 race. Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are locating five people, including four foreigners, who were on the same flight as a Japanese national who has now tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Japanese passenger was on Vietnam Airlines flight VN814 from Siem Reap, Cambodia that landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City at 10:03 pm on Tuesday. The passenger boarded a connecting flight, VN340, to Nagoya, Japan that departed at 1:19 am on Wednesday and tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Japan with a fever. Among the 67 passengers on the Siem Reap - Ho Chi Minh City flight, 61 boarded connecting flights to other destinations while six entered the city. The six passengers include one Vietnamese, three French, one Australian, and one Filippino. The Filippino passenger already left Vietnam for their home country on Wednesday. The other five passengers remained unquarantined in Ho Chi Minh City as of Wednesday evening as quarantine units were working with airport authorities to locate their whereabouts, according to the citys Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We request that the five passengers contact local health authorities immediately to receive support and instructions on necessary preventive measures as per regulations, a CDC representative said on the same day. Meanwhile, at least 70 people including crew members, passengers, and ground staff of Vietnam Airlines flight VN341 which returned to Ho Chi Minh City from Nagoya at 1:55 pm on Wednesday after having transported the sick Japanese passenger have been placed in quarantine in the southern metropolis. Over 94,100 people have been infected and 3,219 killed globally by COVID-19, which first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. Over 1,000 infections have been confirmed in Japan, with 12 deaths, as of Wednesday. Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese. All of them have fully recovered and have been discharged from the hospital. The country has reported no new infections since February 13. Vietnam requires a compulsory 14-day quarantine period for anyone entering the country with a recent travel history to areas affected by COVID-19. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Severely ill patients needing to be placed on mechanical ventilators, but not all hospitals have them. Many rural hospitals in Texas, have none, for instance will have to be moved to hospitals with higher levels of care;, and that presents further challenges for ambulance operators and staff, Greene said. This is a rapidly evolving thing. In a matter of days you can go from 60 cases to many, many more, he said. Large hospitals are devising contingency plans for a growing outbreak, he said, but we want to see that level of urgency at the federal level as well. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Hong Kong Health Department confirmed on Wednesday the third Filipino who tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Philippine Consulate said. The consulate said the Filipino woman is now in isolation and undergoing tests in the hospital. The Consulate General just spoke to her and ascertained that she is healthy and presently not exhibiting any symptoms. She asked that her identity be kept secret, read the statement. The two other Filipinos who were also infected by COVID-19 have already recovered but still remains in the hospital for further tests, added the consulate. READ: Another Filipino in Hong Kong tests positive for coronavirus Consul General Raly Tejada is already in touch with the three Filipinos in Hong Kong and ready to provide them any necessary assistance. There are so far 101 confirmed cases in Hong Kong with two deaths recorded. There are now 90,870 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally. Trading in Africa's free trade area is scheduled to begin on 1 July. This ambitious initiative creates a single market for goods and services and a customs union with free movement of capital and business travelersthe world's largest given Africa's 1.2 billon population and combined GDP of over $2.5 trillion. A recent article by Landry Signe in Foreign Affairs titled How Africa Is Bucking the Isolationist Trend, noted that if the continental trade agreement is successfully implemented, Africa will have a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030. The stakes are high. The newly-appointed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, and his team must, by necessity, prioritize communication and advocacy. In recent months, decisions have been made at an unprecedented rate, meaning that many member states are yet to fully appreciate the implications of this mammoth project. Hence the need to inform and educate on what it entails. It is imperative that before 1 July 2020, there be strategic engagement with all Ministries of Finance, Trade/Industry and Immigration on the continent to arrive at a common understanding of what lies ahead. Africa has made tremendous strides in information and communication technologies (ICTs) having heavily invested in fibre optics that would be instrumental in developing an effective communications strategy. The AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana, should ensure that national budgets have provisions to cushion members from revenue losses from customs duties and other border taxes that will be the first casualties of the free trade area. They should candidly discuss the impending changes in power dynamics by addressing information gaps between policy makers and implementers of policy. It must also be the role of the AfCFTA Secretariat to help facilitate information among Africans to add value to materials produced on the continent. The nascent chocolate manufacturing industry in Kenya, for instance, finds it easier to import cocoa beans from Belgium than from West Africa, the main producer of the commodity. At the highest level, each member state should announce changes to immigration policies on free movement of Africans within the continent. Presidents of Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria publicly announced that no African will require a visa to enter their respective countries. Such proclamations are important quick wins as they avoid reputational risks when member states' actions or inactions are contrary to agreements reached at AU summits. Currently Africans do not need visas to enter at least 30 African countries, and there is optimism about the rollout of an African passport as agreed by heads of state and governments in July 2016. A few countries such as South Africa and Ethiopia are, however, hesitant to allow visa-free entry, given expected loss of revenue. There is also the possibility of criminals taking advantage of open borders to export mayhem. To mitigate this challenge, the AU must adopt biometric identity technology. To put intra-continental trade on track from the outset, the issue of origin of goods should be dealt with before the 1 July start date. Rules of origin have always been a problem in many trade agreements and AfCFTA will not be an exception. Minor conflicts around this often lead to enormous losses when non-tariff measures like administrative bottlenecks at border points are used to frustrate partners. Technology should inform the formulation of a comprehensive policy that outlines the application of these rules to limit their violation by member states. A blockchain technology-based electronic certificates of origin (eCOs) was successfully piloted and commercialized in Singapore. The technology issues export documents certifying the country of manufacture or shipment, and instantaneously reports to all interested parties. The digital records cannot be deleted or altered. Several other countries, including Kenya are using the same to modernize the issuance of these trade facilitation processes. Blockchain is immutable and promotes transparency a low hanging fruit that will bolster trust among member countries. There are other medium and long-term imperatives for realising Africa's dream: opening of African skies to facilitate cheaper air transport services; building of infrastructure (especially access to affordable broadband) and fighting corruption. In the long-term, focus must be on comprehensive infrastructure such as ports, roads and power supply. These are projects that, if packaged well, could attract investments. Togo, for example, has entered into public private partnership, carried out port reforms, and improved transit to connect with neighbouring landlocked countries, to become a major West Africa maritime hub. One of the greatest risks to the AfCFTA will be over-reliance on aid to finance its activities. If the Agreement is to succeed, Africa must mobilize its own resources to ensure the Secretariat's budget, and further build institutions that will guarantee AfCFTA's success. Other risks include diverse non-tariff barriers, and the lack of policy coherence and economic power symmetry between countries. And as 1 July nears, only 28 countries have ratified the agreement. It will require a majority of the 55 AU member states to assent to the Agreement for it to ensure meaningful free movement of goods and services the cornerstone of intra-Africa trade. Although the slow approach by some countries to the ratification of the Agreement could be related to fears of potential revenue loss and of foreign goods flooding domestic markets making it difficult for local industries to compete, mistrust is a key factor. There is always resistance to change, but with a proactive communication and advocacy strategy, using technology to build trusted systems and investment in infrastructure, the AfCFTA Secretariat should succeed in realizing, not just the world's largest economically and socially integrated block, but Africa's Agenda 2063 vision. The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi's School of Business https://www.un.org/africarenewal/ Even as awareness for insurance has increased in the country over the last one year, urban India continues to feel financially insecure, according to a survey. Max Life Insurance Company (Max Life) on Wednesday unveiled the findings of the second edition of its flagship survey 'Max Life India Protection Quotient' 2.0 in association with KANTAR. The sample size of the survey conducted between December 2019 to Januayr 2020 was 7,014, wherein 25 cities were covered -- 6 metros, 9 tier I and 10 tier II cities. Of the other parameters, the survey asked questionnaire from people (between 25-55 years) having annual household income of Rs 2 lakh and above, as well as those who were decisions makers or influencers of financial products. India Protection Quotient moved up by 2 points to 37, as per the survey. The survey witnessed an increase in India's level of term insurance awareness, term insurance ownership and protection quotient over the last 12 months. However, with a movement of 2 points on the protection quotient scale from 35 to 37, it indicated that urban India continues to feel financially insecure. The knowledge Index at 48, rose 9 points and life insurance ownership surged 500 bps to 70 per cent from last year. Term insurance ownership increased 700 bps to 28 per cent, whereas term awareness jumped 1,000 bps to 57 per cent. Also, the knowledge index across cities moved up by at least 6 points and Delhi continues to lead with protection quotient of 47. The study said that while South India continued to outperform other regions with protection quotient of 40 and life insurance ownership of 77 per cent, Western India witnessed the most significant growth of 7 points in life insurance ownership at 64 per cent. Delhi and Hyderabad led with the Protection Quotient of 47 and 46, respectively, while Ludhiana despite witnessing the maximum growth from last year, continued to have the lowest level of 27 this year. Chennai is the only city to witness a decline from last year on the quotient. Term insurance products witnessed the highest rise in awareness (1,000 bps to 57 per cent) and ownership (700 bps to 28 per cent) among different product categories such as market linked insurance and endowment products. Over the year, millennials have grown more anxious about financial security with their top anxieties being day to day medical expenses and sustaining lifestyle. When compared, women remained more anxious about financial security than men across several parameters. The survey also revealed that Tier II cities focus more on savings than protection, and demonstrated a preference of endowment polices over term insurance, as per the findings of the survey. "Outcomes of IPQ 2.0 gives me the confidence that Indian Life Insurance industry is moving in the right direction. Sharp increase in awareness and ownership of life insurance and term insurance can be seen as a precursor to higher protection quotient in the years to come," Max Life Managing Director & CEO Prashant Tripathy said. The survey also gave the industry some deep insights for future such as the growing reception towards health apps in return for discounted premiums that young India is reflecting preference for, return of premium as the key feature, continued preference for human sellers and growing awareness about insufficiency of cover among other such findings, he said. "It has been observed that Indians do not give much thought to this basic element of financial planning due to which awareness level about life insurance products for financial protection is low. Further to an insightful survey conducted last year... to uncover prevalent attitudes and behaviour that could help scale the overall adoption of life insurance, thereby building financial security of the nation," Soumya Mohanty, Managing Director and CCO, Kantar Insights, South Asia, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britains Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly told her grandson, Harry, that he is always welcome back as the Prince and his wife Meghan Markle take a formal step back from the royal frontline at the end of this month. During a four-hour-long heart to heart over lunch at Windsor Castle on Sunday, the 93-year-old monarch told the 35-year-old Duke of Sussex that he was a much loved member of her family and that he will be welcomed back with open arms if he changes his mind in future. She made it very clear to him that he and Meghan are always able to come back if they change their minds and she will welcome them with open arms, a royal source was quoted by The Sun said. Hopefully the chat cleared the air and the way forward is looking more positive. But she wanted to make certain Harry knew there were limits and the whole set-up is subject to a review after 12 months, the source was quoted as saying. Harry and Meghan, 38, are in the UK completing their final set of formal royal engagement before their exit kicks off a 12-month transition period on March 31. The source explained: The Queen had a lot to talk to Harry about and this was the ideal time for them to both say their piece. Sunday was the first time the Queen has had the chance to talk to Harry on his own and really find out what his plans are. It was a much more relaxed environment and they were both able to speak their mind. Harry is believed to have discreetly walked up from his Frogmore Cottage home near Windsor Castle to meet the Queen over a light lunch and tea. They are believed to have discussed a wide range of things, including Harry and Meghans nine-month-old baby son Archie. CLEVELAND, Ohio Detectives identified a Cleveland man as a masked gunmen who fatally shot a man during a home invasion in the Glenville neighborhood, according to court records. Maurice L. Chesney Jr., 20, is charged with aggravated murder in a Dec. 22 killing on Auburndale Avenue near Euclid Avenue, according to court records. The Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Chesney early Wednesday on Noble Road in Cleveland Heights, U.S. marshals said in a news release. He is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail until his arraignment in Cleveland Municipal Court. Several gunmen in ski masks barged into a home and shot two men during the incident, according to police reports. Detectives have not offered a motive for home invasion. Detectives identified Chesney, who is also known by the alias Wop, as the gunman who fatally shot Kevin K. King in the head and chest, according to court records. King, 39, died after an ambulance took him to University Hospitals. A 60-year-old man in the home also suffered gunshot wounds to both legs, according to police reports. An ambulance took him to the same hospital for treatment. Cleveland police officers were responding to a disturbance when a woman flagged them down to report the shooting. Officers learned multiple gunmen wearing ski masks barged into a home, according to a police report. Read more crime stories: Cleveland Police Chief issues no discipline to officer accused of wrongdoing in detaining Tamir Rices sister after deadly police shooting Robbers knocked on Cleveland womans door days before armed carjacking, report says Feds: 20 charged in Ohio in operation to move hundreds of pounds of drugs from Mexico to U.S. 87-year-old man carjacked at gunpoint at Cleveland Aldi 19-year-old Akron woman accused of killing her mother in apparent stabbing, police say President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his 83rd birthday, on March 5, congratulating him for a life of courage, dedication and service to Nigeria, Africa, and humanity in general. The Presidents congratulatory message was conveyed in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Wednesday. Mr Buhari joined family members, friends and associates of the former president in celebrating the milestone. The president said Mr Obasanjos commitment to Nigerian nationhood remains outstanding and commendable, while also underscoring his sacrifices for the continent, including standing up for democracy in many countries. He prayed that the almighty God would grant him long life, good health and strength to keep serving the nation and the continent. Also, the Northern Governors Forum, in a congratulatory message signed by its Chairman and Governor of Plateau, Simon Lalong, to Mr Obasanjo, praised the former president for his visionary and patriotic service to Nigeria, the African Continent and the world. In the message that was issued on Wednesday in Jos by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Makut Macham, Mr Lalong described Mr Obasanjo as a leader who had given his best to the nation and humanity in the various positions and responsibilities he held over the years. He also lauded Obasanjos commitment to the growth of democracy, good governance and human rights, which he had pursued in and out of office and under different platforms across the globe. The chairman urged the former president not to relent in offering his wealth of wisdom and experience to the present leaderships at all levels, especially as Nigeria continued its march toward consolidating democracy and the fight against corruption and insecurity. He wished him more years of good health, Gods wisdom and protection as he continued serving Nigeria, Africa and the world. Mr Obasanjo was born on March 5, 1937. He served as a military head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. In a statement by his media aide, Olisa Ifeajika, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, commended Mr Obasanjo for his patriotic and unrelenting service to the nation. He said Mr Obasanjos contributions to the peace and unity of Nigeria would remain laudable, and congratulated him for remaining an immutable voice in the affairs of the nation. The governor noted that Nigeria recorded the best economic reforms during the administration of Mr Obasanjo. Mr Okowa said the former president revolutionised the banking and communication sectors. He said Mr Obasanjo introduced banking consolidation and pension reforms and revitalised the telecoms industry through the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM). On the occasion of your 83rd birth anniversary on Thursday, March 5, 2020, I write to heartily rejoice with you and your family on behalf of the Government and people of Delta. In the past 83 years of a life of outstanding accomplishments and great personal fulfilment, you have served our nation at the highest levels with an uncommon sense of patriotism and unwavering dedication. You also ensured the peace and unity of our nation when you fought in the war to keep Nigeria one. Till date, you have continued to give yourself to the service of our fatherland through your nationalistic ideals. As a country, Nigeria benefited immensely from your leadership at various times as key infrastructure and economic reforms were the hallmarks of your administration. I join your family, friends and well-wishers to thank the Almighty God for your life and to pray that He continues to bless you with robust health and provide you with His guidance, protection and enduring provision. Advertisements I wish you, our dear father, a well-deserved 83rd birth anniversary celebration, he said. (NAN) Up to a fifth of the workforce could be off ill at the height of coronavirus, ministers said yesterday. They urged employers to prepare for mass absences with staff off for extended periods. The worst-case scenario figures would mean more than six million people being off sick at any one time. A 'battle plan' published by the Government said firms could be encouraged to allow staff to work from home if the virus takes hold in order to limit the spread. The plan warned workers to brace themselves for having to cover for sick colleagues over extended periods, adding: 'Everyone will face increased pressures at work, as well as potentially their own personal illness or caring responsibilities.' A man on the Jubilee line of the London Underground tube network wearing a protective face mask A member of staff at accountancy firm Deloitte (London office picture) tested positive for the virus after returning from Asia. Staff will be allowed to work from home while deep cleaning happens Coronavirus fears have gripped Britain, as a pedestrian is pictured wearing a protective facemask while taking a bus in Westminster, London Worst-case scenario figures would mean more than six million people being off sick at any one time if the virus spreads. Pictured: a woman wears a mask on a London bus A member of staff at accountancy firm Deloitte tested positive for the virus after returning from Asia. The Big Four company's London office on New Street Square, Holborn, is undergoing deep cleaning for fear of contamination and the patient is now in hospital. It is understood that while part of the office space is temporarily closed, staff will be allowed to work from home if they wish. Yesterday's plan left open the possibility of shutting schools for up to three months. But officials made clear they are wary of taking this step because of the potential impact on parents who may have to stay off work to care for their children, adding to staff absences. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night revealed that sick pay rules may be relaxed to help staff whose wages are cut off during the coronavirus outbreak. An easing of the laws is 'under review' to ensure that people who self-isolate are not denied sick pay by their employer, he said. He has come under pressure from opposition MPs who pointed out that workers who self-isolate should stay out of contact with others for 14 days but are entitled to sick pay for only half that time before they must see a doctor. The discrepancy is a significant flaw in the campaign to control the virus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night revealed that sick pay rules may be relaxed to help staff whose wages are cut off during the coronavirus outbreak The law says that those entitled to sick pay from their workplace can self-certificate for seven days, but after that they must produce confirmation from a doctor. The issue may affect not only employees who have full rights, but also the five million workers in the gig economy or self-employment who lack this protection. Business Secretary Alok Sharma told MPs yesterday that such workers could claim benefits either Universal Credit or disability benefits if they self-isolate or develop illness. Downing Street said ministers would also consider whether Universal Credit sanctions, which can see claimants lose their benefits if they fail to attend appointments, should be suspended. The Business Department is also said to be establishing a working group to help firms whose supply chains are disrupted. Ben Willmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development urged firms to be generous with staff. Face masks have become an increasingly common sight on the streets of London as concern about coronavirus rises He added: 'We think there may be a case for the Government to create some sort of compensation or hardship fund to help individuals such as the self-employed, temporary or low paid staff if they are not eligible for sick pay or paid leave.' Office staff are already being told to work from home, postpone meetings and cancel their travel plans as businesses try to slow the spread of the virus. Many are following Public Health England guidance, which says not to close down workplaces. BT, Glaxosmithkline, Astrazeneca, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser are among those to have told employees to cancel their travel plans. The UK-based companies employ hundreds of thousands of staff between them globally. Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have taken similar measures, as well as accountants EY and KPMG. Citigroup has banned staff from attending events or meetings with more than 25 attendees. Major retailers, including sandwich shop chain Greggs are emphasising handwashing procedures and one travel agent, Travel Republic, said it had closed its offices after a member of staff tested positive. There were also reports that some companies had banned 'hot desking'. Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More India has initiated a probe into an alleged increase in subsidised imports of soda ash, used in making detergents and soaps, from Turkey following complaints by domestic players. DCW Ltd, RSPL Ltd and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL) have filed an application before the commerce ministry's investigating arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) on behalf of the domestic industry for investigation of countervailing duty concerning imports of soda ash originating in or exported from Turkey. These applicants have alleged that material injury to the domestic industry is being caused due to subsidised imports from Turkey and they have requested for the imposition of countervailing duty on such imports. The DGTR in a notification has stated that on the basis of evidence submitted by the applicants, "the authority hereby initiates an investigation". In the probe, the directorate will determine the existence, degree and effect of alleged subsidisation and to recommend the amount of countervailing or anti-subsidy duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry. The period of investigation is April-December 2019. It would also cover the data of 2016-19. Countervailing duty is a country-specific duty imposed to safeguard domestic industry against unfair trade subsidies provided by the local governments of the exporting nations. India has already imposed countervailing duty as well as anti-dumping duties on various kinds of products from different countries to protect domestic players, which are facing problems. Dublin: Prince William has asked emergency workers if they thought coronavirus was being hyped up by the media during his first official visit to Ireland. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, are shown Bog Oak at the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, near Dublin, Ireland. Credit:Getty Images Chatting to them at a reception organised by the British ambassador at Dublin's Guinness brewery on Wednesday, William also joked that he and his wife Kate were spreading coronavirus. "I bet everyone's like: 'I've got coronavirus, I'm dying', and you're like 'no, you've just got a cough,'" William said to the emergency workers. In March 1770, 13 Trinity students founded the College Historical Society to practise oratory, debate and composition. They drew up democratic laws and elected officers. The case for the Hist was made to the Board by Michael Kearney, the seven times great- grand-uncle of Barack Obama. The Hist is the oldest student society in the world and is celebrating its 250th anniversary this week with a series of public events. The week was opened on Monday by President Michael D Higgins, who was himself a brilliant student debater and auditor of the Literary and Debating Society in NUI Galway. He will also present prizes to the winners of an international debate with competitors from the USA, France, Britain and Ireland. The theme of the week is challenges to democracy, with days devoted to the future of Ireland, the future of Europe and the future of our planet. Leo Varadkar, the first member of the Hist to hold the office of Taoiseach, will open the European day. When the Hist was founded, at a high point in the Enlightenment, the world was alight with discoveries, debates and discussions, and books to match. Within a few years, the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) would transform the basis of government and accelerate us on the paths to liberal democracy. Faith was challenged by reason, monarchy by democracy and dictatorial edicts were replaced by laws made by increasingly representative assemblies. In its 250 years, members of the Hist has taken part in these movements, sometimes as conservatives sometimes as radicals. Three revolutions were powerfully influenced by former members of the Hist, 1798 [Wolfe Tone], 1803 [Robert Emmet] and 1848 [Thomas Davis]. The Irish Parliamentary Party [1874] was founded by Isaac Butt, the Gaelic League by Douglas Hyde [1893] and the first signature to the Ulster Covenant in 1912 was Edward Carson. Great figures of the day spoke at the society while some of the members who debated with them went on to replace them. The Hist has been addressed by every leader of the Free State and the Republic of Ireland and by many leaders from Northern Ireland. In 1934, Eamon de Valera, then president of the executive council, who was as wary of Trinity as it was of him, chose to speak at the society. Three generations of the Churchill family spoke at the society too. Hist members spoke and later acted on opposite sides of big matters - Robert Emmet was defended by one Hist lawyer and prosecuted by another. Carson defended the Marquis of Queensberry when he was accused of libel by Oscar Wilde, who had been a fellow member of the Hist. Thomas Davis, who was auditor in 1839 and president in 1840 made the mistake of being a thinker, a poet and a writer who did not die for his country, but he left the most generous and constructive ideas for a new Ireland. The Young Irelanders grew out of the Hist, as did their paper 'The Nation' with its call "educate that you may be free". Even if we have often spoken or sung his poems 'The West's Awake' and 'A Nation Once Again', it took more than a century for us to take Davis's advice on education. The Hist was home to writers including Bram Stoker, Wilde and Samuel Beckett. Tom Moore was also a celebrated member, and his poems set to Beethoven's Irish airs, arranged by Tomas O Suilleabhain, will be sung next week. Micheal O'Siadhail has honoured the Hist in a poem commissioned for the anniversary. 'Hist' portrays the Society as he knew it in the 1960s, expressing his "lifelong gratitude". Mick O'Dea has painted Mary Harney, Frederick Boland, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Owen Sheehy Skeffington and Jaja Wachuku. And historian Patrick Geoghegan has written the first professional history of the society. Many people wonder what a university is for. Some wrongly think that students go to be taught. Others realise that they go to learn, and years after they have left, they realise that they learned at least as much by their own efforts and from their fellow students as they did in lectures or labs. The debating societies of our universities are in my experience the very best places to experiment with the skills of analysis, thoughtfulness, independence, synthesis and originality. I was fortunate to have spent more time in the Hist than anywhere else in college. Competing with students from the Literary and Debating Society in NUI Galway, the Philosophical Society in University College Cork, the Literary and Historical Society in University College Dublin and the Literary and Scientific Society at Queen's University Belfast at university interdebates, and in the 'Irish Times' Debating Competition and the 'Observer' Mace broadened my experiences in ways that could not otherwise have been fulfilled. These societies fulfilled the role that Davis envisaged when he spoke to the Hist on The Utility of Debating Societies in Remedying the Defects of a University Education. SPRINGFIELD A panel of state senators Tuesday approved legislation requiring public colleges and universities to add mental health contact information to the back of student identification cards. As a parent of a first-year college student, Villa Park Democratic Sen. Tom Cullerton said it is a trying and stressful time, as with any other parent who misses their child. But he said such situations are also difficult for the student, who may be away from home for the first time. His initiative would ensure phone numbers for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Crisis Text Line and the schools mental health counseling center are published on each students identification card. If an institution of higher education does not have such cards, the bill requires that information be published on its website instead. Students are constantly required to use their student ID card to access sporting events, dorm rooms or utilize their meal plan, Cullerton said. Ensuring these lifesaving helplines are easily accessible can be the difference between life and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 15-24 in 2017. Adding such mental health resources is a simple step universities and colleges can take to save lives, Cullerton said. Those public institutions in Illinois, though, asked that he amend the measure to postpone its effective date from July 1, 2021, due to financial concerns. Cullerton said he agreed, and plans to allow for universities and colleges to issue the identification cards with resource contact information with each new class, or when a student needs a new card after losing theirs. My goal is definitely not, with our budget crises in the last few years, to have this be an impediment, he said. Every university seems to be on board with it. Cullerton has a nearly identical bill for high school identification cards. It has not been assigned to a substantive committee. The legislation approved unanimously in the Senate Higher Education Committee Tuesday is Senate Bill 2495. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 From a musical to an art opening, there's plenty to enjoy in Long Beach this week. Read on for a rundown of ideas for how to fill your calendar. Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 'The Andrews Brothers' From the event description: When: Friday, March 6, 8 p.m. Where: Beverly O'Neill Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Price: $24.50 Click here for more details, and to get your tickets 'Noises Off' From the event description: When: Friday, March 6, 8 p.m. Where: Long Beach Playhouse MainStage, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Price: $10 Click here for more details, and to get your tickets Escape From The Zoo with Chris Murray and More From the event description: When: Friday, March 6, 7-11 p.m. Where: Toxic Toast Theatre, 755 Pine Ave. Admission: $10 Click here for more details, and to get your tickets March Pie Baking Class Dutch Apple Pie From the event description: When: Friday, March 6, 7-9 p.m. Where: The Pie Bar, 450 Pine Ave. Admission: $50 Click here for more details, and to get your tickets Exclusive Art Opening: 'Old Men Still Dream' by Ron Leiter From the event description: When: Saturday, March 7, 6-9 p.m. Where: Loiter Galleries., 180 E. Fourth St. Admission: Free Click here for more details, and to get your tickets This story was created automatically using local event data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Taxpayers face a hefty bill after British Steel was finally rescued by Chinese buyers 292 days after it collapsed. The company ran out of cash in May due to poor trading, rising costs and the weak pound. Since then it has been kept afloat, while losing an estimated 1million a day, by the Government while a buyer is sought. Yesterday China's Jingye, which has been in talks for months, confirmed it will take control of the company from Monday. British Steel ran out of cash in May due to poor trading, rising costs and the weak pound. Since then it has been kept afloat, while losing an estimated 1m a day But taxpayers face a bill for keeping it afloat since May possibly as much as 292million. That is after accounts showed British Steel made a loss of 371.6million in the year to March 31. Accountants at EY have reportedly been making 1million a week for running it on behalf of the Official Receiver, which claimed reports of losses of 1million a day were inaccurate, but declined to say how much the cost to taxpayers would be. The takeover saves around 3,700 jobs, with 400 roles axed. Jingye has vowed to pump in 1.2billion. LJUBLJANA, Slovenia - Police in Slovenia said Wednesday they discovered 30 migrants hidden in freight train wagons carrying clay. The migrants included 12 children and a pregnant woman, police said. They said they were from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. The train with 20 wagons was travelling from Serbia to Slovenia when police discovered the migrants at the Dobova border crossing with Croatia on Tuesday. Slovenian police said the migrants were covered in clay as they tried to cross illegally into the European Union country. Police said their lives were endangered because of a lack of oxygen and the clay thickening. Thousands of migrants stuck in the Balkans have been desperate to cross into the EU. Thousands more are trying to enter following Turkeys decision to open its borders with EU members Greece and Bulgaria. Countries in the Balkans and neighbouring EU nations have expressed concerns over a potential new migrant wave similar to the one in 2015-16 when hundreds of thousands passed through the region toward Western Europe. Slovenian police said three of the migrants discovered in the train have received medical care. The coronavirus is having an impact on our social etiquette (Getty) Since the coronavirus outbreak seems to have notched up a level, youve been doing your best to up your social etiquette game. Obediently coughing into tissues then binning them, trying not to touch your face, and washing your hands to the tune of Happy Birthday, twice, every time you breathe. But what if others arent also sticking to the coronavirus prevention rules? Are you within your rights to pull them up on it? Is it rude to refuse to shake someones hand if you suspect theyve been slacking in the hygiene department? This week, weve seen experts advise new measures in the battle against coronavirus, but it is a measure that has brought fresh suspicion on our social interactions. Dubbed social distancing, one expert recommends we keep a two-metre (6.5ft) space between a potential patient. Under the strategy, handshaking could also be discouraged, with other, less tactile forms of greeting, such as elbow bumping, taking its place. Read more: Coronavirus death rate higher than previously thought, WHO says Earlier this week when the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, extended her hand to her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, at a meeting, he refused to shake her hand, waving it away. Pre-coronavirus, his gesture would have been seen as the epitome of bad manners. But, with over 93,000 cases now confirmed globally, a smiling Merkel immediately held up her hands and said: That was the right thing to do. The fact is coronavirus is changing social interaction, and throwing us etiquette curveballs to deal with left, right and centre. But for us Brits, who pride ourselves on our impeccable manners, knowing the right and wrong way to behave isnt coming easy. Things are starting to ramp up and as a result were starting to question our normal codes of behaviour, particularly when it comes to social interactions and meeting and greeting, explains etiquette consultant, Jo Bryant. As a nation we like our personal space and we dont always greet with kisses and hugs like some of the European countries tend to do. Story continues Somebody shook my hand yesterday and it was the first time in my life I questioned it. So its fair to say it is on our radar. So, what alterations may we need to make to our various forms of social interaction? And can we pull someone up on their bad coronavirus etiquette? When greeting someone hello Sylvie Brand, the World Health Organisations director of pandemic disease, has endorsed some safer alternatives to shaking hands including the elbow bump, the foot-shake, waving and the wai, a Thai greeting involving a slight bow with the palms pressed together in prayer-like manner. But, isnt it rude to refuse to shake? Bryant suggests taking control of the situation by waving hello and removing the hand shake from the equation. Be very friendly with lovely open positive body language rather than being Im not shaking anyones hand, she says. According to Bryant it is all about context. If youre meeting someone one to one and youre suddenly getting your sanitising hand gel out and being very paranoid, at this stage it would possibly be seen as a bit extreme, she explains. However if youre at a conference or a business situation where there is lots and lots of hand shaking I think people would appreciate it if someone said shall we just not shake hands today? When we face any sort of awkward situation like this, the way to approach it is friendliness positivity and confidence, says Bryant. Its when people are unconfident or a bit uncharacteristically aggressive about it, maybe because theyre nervous about saying it, thats when people can take offence and it be rude, she explains. Bryant suggests that with friendly, British humour you can avoid any situation that you dont want to have, ie a handshake, quite politely and nicely. Read more: Could the coronavirus spread on public transport? To shake or not to shake? (Getty) When youre on the commute Its never pleasant sitting next to someone whos coughing, spluttering and liberally sneezing their way through the journey, but in these coronavirus-laced times sitting next to a mouth-breather takes on a whole new fear. So how do you deal with it? According to Bryant we should remember that it is a two way process. While we all have a greater responsibility not to spread germs and follow all the hygiene recommendations you also have a responsibility to yourself, she says. While its tempting to pull them up on their anti-social behaviour there and then, Bryant says its better to remove yourself from the situation. If youre in an uncomfortable situation the most polite thing to do, if possible, is to get up and move away, rather than confronting someone in public, she says. If youre in a packed tube and someone is hacking and coughing, try to turn your back, she continues. Alternatively if they are being outrageously germ-y it wouldnt necessarily be considered rude to bury your face in your scarf. Again it depends on context and degrees of behaviour, she adds. The best thing is not to cause more embarrassment and rudeness by confronting someone in the wrong way. If you can deal with it yourself it is a much better solution, turning back, moving away, trying to avoid it yourself, but equally people need to be really aware that they need to not spread their germs. Should you move away from someone sneezing on your commute? (Getty) When someone isnt sticking to hygiene protocol Not binning their tissues, not coughing into their elbows, is it ok to pull people up if theyre clearly flouting the coronavirus spreading rules? Again it depends on whos doing the flouting. If it is a stranger just out and about and you can move away theres no point, advises Bryant. If its a colleague in the office and you know them really well you could have a quiet word. If its someone you dont know very well you can always go to the powers that be and suggest some official guidelines or reminders are sent out across the board. Bryant says this is a far more diplomatic way to handle the situation, than stomping over to confront someone on their workplace hygiene. People dont generally take well to being pulled up on this stuff, particularly with the sort of atmosphere around coronavirus its quite an unusual sensitive thing for people. To be accused to being a potential spreader people arent likely to take to that too kindly, she adds. Read more: Can anti-bacterial hand sanitisers protect against the coronavirus? When youre about to be beaten to the last hand sanitiser in the supermarket With reports of people stockpiling loo roll, whats the etiquette if you and another shopper are confronted with the last packet of four? Bryant advises we try to behave like adults and not turn the weekly shop into a black Friday scrum. We shouldnt be barging people out of the way to grab the last hand sanitiser, she says. Social and public manners still count even at times of unprecedented desperation. Remember who you are and how you would normally behave and approach it sensibly. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ GUADALAJARA, Mexico, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) (the Company or GAP) announced preliminary terminal passenger traffic figures for the month of February 2020, compared to traffic figures for February 2019. During February 2020, total terminal passengers at GAPs 14 airports increased by 17.0%, compared to the same period of the previous year. Domestic passenger traffic increased by 16.6%, while international passenger traffic increased by 17.5%. It is important to mention that 2020 is a leap year, therefore there is one more day of operations. Domestic Terminal Passengers 13 airports (in thousands): Airport Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Guadalajara 734.9 844.3 14.9 % 1,538.1 1,722.3 12.0 % Tijuana* 409.8 490.9 19.8 % 865.1 1,001.6 15.8 % Puerto Vallarta 103.1 124.5 20.8 % 225.5 273.2 21.1 % Los Cabos 119.2 134.1 12.5 % 253.7 286.3 12.8 % Montego Bay 0.6 0.3 -44.3 % 1.2 0.9 -22.9 % Guanajuato 134.9 149.3 10.7 % 298.2 317.4 6.4 % Hermosillo 114.7 138.3 20.5 % 240.9 287.1 19.2 % Mexicali 77.4 91.2 17.9 % 169.7 201.7 18.8 % Morelia 33.2 43.5 31.1 % 71.8 92.2 28.3 % La Paz 63.1 73.7 16.8 % 135.2 153.0 13.1 % Aguascalientes 43.1 48.7 13.0 % 89.9 102.4 13.9 % Los Mochis 25.6 30.2 18.0 % 53.9 62.4 15.8 % Manzanillo 7.2 7.3 1.4 % 16.1 16.4 2.1 % Total 1,866.7 2,176.3 16.6 % 3,959.4 4,516.7 14.1 % International Terminal Passengers 13 airports (in thousands): Airport Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Guadalajara 279.7 312.3 11.6 % 661.8 736.0 11.2 % Tijuana* 175.7 232.0 32.0 % 435.1 532.4 22.4 % Puerto Vallarta 388.1 405.6 4.5 % 797.2 811.3 1.8 % Los Cabos 319.8 359.5 12.4 % 645.5 714.3 10.7 % Montego Bay 405.9 426.4 5.1 % 845.0 871.5 3.1 % Guanajuato 48.2 48.8 1.2 % 114.3 115.6 1.2 % Hermosillo 5.2 6.9 32.7 % 11.8 14.7 24.7 % Mexicali 0.4 0.4 -9.6 % 0.9 1.0 9.4 % Morelia 29.6 31.5 6.4 % 67.2 74.5 10.9 % La Paz 1.0 1.2 16.9 % 2.0 2.2 10.4 % Aguascalientes 12.7 15.9 24.8 % 30.4 37.1 22.2 % Los Mochis 0.5 0.4 -20.1 % 1.2 1.0 -14.5 % Manzanillo 12.3 10.1 -18.2 % 23.6 20.9 -11.5 % Total 1,679.2 1,850.8 10.2 % 3,635.8 3,932.6 8.2 % Total Terminal Passengers 13 airports (in thousands): Airport Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Guadalajara 1,014.6 1,156.6 14.0 % 2,199.9 2,458.3 11.7 % Tijuana* 585.6 722.9 23.5 % 1,300.2 1,534.0 18.0 % Puerto Vallarta 491.2 530.1 7.9 % 1,022.7 1,084.5 6.0 % Los Cabos 439.0 493.6 12.4 % 899.2 1,000.6 11.3 % Montego Bay 406.4 426.7 5.0 % 846.3 872.4 3.1 % Guanajuato 183.1 198.1 8.2 % 412.5 433.0 5.0 % Hermosillo 119.9 145.1 21.1 % 252.7 301.8 19.4 % Mexicali 77.8 91.6 17.7 % 170.6 202.6 18.8 % Morelia 62.8 75.0 19.5 % 139.0 166.6 19.9 % La Paz 64.0 74.8 16.8 % 137.2 155.2 13.1 % Aguascalientes 55.8 64.6 15.7 % 120.3 139.5 16.0 % Los Mochis 26.1 30.6 17.3 % 55.0 63.4 15.2 % Manzanillo 19.5 17.4 -11.0 % 39.7 37.4 -6.0 % Total 3,545.9 4,027.2 13.6 % 7,595.2 8,449.3 11.2 % *Passengers in Tijuana who use CBX in both directions are classified as international. CBX Users: Airport Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Tijuana 172.4 229.9 33.3 % 427.9 527.1 23.2 % Kingston Airport (in thousands): Passengers Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Domestic N/A 0.4 N/A N/A 1.1 N/A International N/A 122.2 N/A N/A 280.7 N/A Total N/A 122.6 N/A N/A 281.9 N/A Total Passengers 14 airports (in thousands): Passengers Feb-19 Feb-20 % Change Jan-Feb 19 Jan-Feb 20 % Change Domestic 1,866.7 2,176.7 16.6 % 3,959.4 4,517.8 14.1 % International 1,679.2 1,973.1 17.5 % 3,635.8 4,213.3 15.9 % Total 3,545.9 4,149.8 17.0 % 7,595.2 8,731.1 15.0 % Highlights for the Period: Seats and Load Factors: In February 2020, the number of seats available increased by 18.9% compared to February 2019; while load factor for the month decreased by 1.2 percentage points, from 81.0% in February 2019 to 79.8% in February 2020. In February 2020, the number of seats available increased by 18.9% compared to February 2019; while load factor for the month decreased by 1.2 percentage points, from 81.0% in February 2019 to 79.8% in February 2020. Kingston: The Company assumed control of the Kingston Airport on October 10, 2019. Historical figures are presented for comparison purposes, for a total of 122.6 thousand passengers at February 2020, a 10.8% increase compared to February 2019. Company Description Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexicos Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAPs shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PAC and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GAP. In April 2015, GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake in MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In October 2018, GAP entered into a concession agreement for the operation of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. In October 2018, GAP entered into a concession agreement for the operation of the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica and took control of the operation in October 2019. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are statements that are not historical facts, and are based on managements current view and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results. The words anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, plans and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements regarding the declaration or payment of dividends, the implementation of principal operating and financing strategies and capital expenditure plans, the direction of future operations and the factors or trends affecting financial condition, liquidity or results of operations are examples of forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee that the expected events, trends or results will actually occur. The statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, and operating factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. In accordance with Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and article 42 of the Ley del Mercado de Valores, GAP has implemented a whistleblower program, which allows complainants to anonymously and confidentially report suspected activities that may involve criminal conduct or violations. The telephone number in Mexico, facilitated by a third party that is in charge of collecting these complaints, is 01 800 563 00 47. The web site is www.lineadedenuncia.com/gap . GAPs Audit Committee will be notified of all complaints for immediate investigation. Anuraag Singh By Express News Service BHOPAL: In a late night development from Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Congress party has alleged that eight Congress and allied MLAs have been forcefully kept at a premier hotel in Gurugram by a powerful MP BJP leader. MP Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot alleged that eight Congress and allied MLAs (including 4-5 Congress MLAs) have been kept forcefully at the hotel in Gurugram. "One of our MLAs and former minister Bisahulal Singh rang us and informed that they have been forcefully kept at a hotel in Gurugram and are not being allowed to step out," alleged Bhanot. Bhanot further claimed that two ministers, including Urban Development minister Jaivardhan Singh and Higher Education Minister Jeetu Patwari, who went to the concerned hotel to meet the eight MLAs are not being allowed entry in the hotel. ALSO READ | Situation stable; one MLA held in hotel back, others to return soon: Digvijaya Singh on MP govt "Since Haryana has a BJP government, the state police, aided by former minister Narottam Mishra (alleged mastermind behind the entire operation) aren't allowing our two ministerial colleagues to meet the MLAs," said Bhanot. When state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal was contacted by The New Indian Express over the development, he refused to comment. This development, if true, has proved the claims of former CM and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh correct. A day before Singh said that BJP leaders, including ex-CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former minister Narottam Mishra, are engaging in horse-trading by making huge cash offers to Congress and allied MLAs to topple the Kamal Nath government. On Tuesday, Singh had tweeted that one of the MLAs Rambai Thakur (suspended from BSP) has been taken in a chartered plane to Delhi by former Home Minister Bhupendra Singh. The CM Kamal Nath too had seconded Singh's claims by saying that some Congress MLAs had received huge cash offers from BJP leaders, but still there is no threat to his government. Late in the evening, a Congress MLA Baijnath Kushwah too had told senior cabinet minister Dr Govind Singh, that a BJP leader from Bhind had offered him Rs 25 crore or ministership if he supported the formation of a BJP government in the state. Sources had confided to TNIE about a possible conspiracy by BJP to make 8-10 Congress and its allies to resign and topple the government. Needless to say, this will also influence the Rajya Sabha polls to be held on March 26. Congress has 114 MLAs in the 228-members strong Madhya Pradesh Assembly. It also enjoys the support of 7 MLAs, including two BSP, one SP and four independents. Meanwhile, BJP has 107 MLAs. Army Col. Scott Gerber said he had to pay out-of-pocket for an independent inspector to verify mold infestation and water damage in his home in an effort to get the attention of the private company running base housing at Fort Meade, Maryland. Military spouse Linda Gherdovich said she had similar problems with mold at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. "The only reason we knew [it was there] was because our kids were getting sick," she said. Gherdovich said she had to pay $2,700 to an outside inspector to verify her claims, and she's still fighting to get reimbursement. In testimony Tuesday before a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies, Gerber and Gherdovich echoed the demands of other military families for an expansion of the recently approved Tenant Bill of Rights to let them withhold rent in disputes over repairs and maintenance of privatized military housing. And in a following panel the same day, representatives from four military housing companies said that they supported giving that right to military families. They also expressed varying levels of regret for the military housing problems that have been detailed in numerous reports and hearings, including mold and pest infestation, poor performance on fulfilling work orders, and negligence in responding to tenants' complaints. In his prepared statement, Richard Taylor, president of Balfour Beatty Communities, said, "I would like to begin by saying that we sincerely apologize for having fallen short of the high standards our nation's military families deserve. "We fully accept that we must make improvements, and we are determined to regain the trust and confidence of our residents and our military partners," he added. Related: SecDef Signs Tenant Bill of Rights for Military Families On Feb. 25, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the secretaries of the service branches had signed the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Tenant Bill of Rights, which was included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. There were 15 provisions in the bill, including "the right to a written lease with clearly defined rental terms" and "the right to reside in a housing unit and a community that meets applicable health and environmental standards." The Pentagon's announcement acknowledged that three rights were missing from the list -- access for tenants to a maintenance history of their units, a detailed process for dispute resolution, and the withholding of rent until disputes are resolved. The military will work with the private companies and Congress to get those three provisions added to the list, the Pentagon said at the time. At the hearing, Gerber said the right to withhold rent is vital to leveling the playing field with the private companies. He said he and his wife, Sandy, "lived through two mold-infested homes," adding "our situation wasn't unique." Military families need "the ability to hold that contractor accountable. We need an easy mechanism to stop that [Basic Allowance for Housing]" from going to the private companies during disputes, Gerber said. In a separate panel at the hearing, representatives of four companies managing private housing on military bases said they are in favor of adding the ability to withhold rent and the other two missing provisions to the Tenant Bill of Rights. Denis Hickey, chief executive officer of Lendlease Americas, said under questioning, "We realize we can and must do more" to improve conditions. "Obviously, some of our families feel our company has come up short," said Jeff Guild, vice president of Lincoln Military Housing. The company is resolved to "repairing a culture of trust with our residents," he added. Heath Burleson, a senior vice president at Corvias Group, said the company had gotten away in the past from the "basic blocking and tackling" needed to keep homes in good repair. "I believe we're on the right path, but we're not done," he said. After listening to the company representatives, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, the subcommittee's chair, said, "all of your testimony is very nice now, [but] the system was set up as a gravy train for your companies." Theres no accountability to military families, she added. "It is outrageous," she said. The military contributed to the failures of the system through inattention and poor oversight of the performance of the private companies involved in military housing, said Pete Potochney, the acting assistant secretary of defense for sustainment. "The fact that we're having this hearing and others like it is saddening," Potchney said. "We simply took our eye off the ball" over the years in oversight of military housing. "We sure as hell didn't do a great job," he added. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Read more: Army and Marines to Arm Snipers with Special Operations Multi-Caliber Sniper Rifle Maharashtra public health minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the state government will use the prime-time television shows and cinema halls to spread awareness about COVID-19. Tope laid out the plan during a special discussion on coronavirus in the state legislative council here. "The state government is going to use prime-time television shows and cinema halls to spread awareness about the virus. Jingles and video messages will also be put out soon," he said. A meeting was held with the police department's cyber crime branch to zero in on people who are spreading misinformation, the minister said. "We will find people who are creating panic by spreading fake news," Tope said. As many as 28 COVID-19 cases are detected in India so far and six people are quarantined in Mumbai and Pune for possible coronavirus infection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 215 people came in contact with a group of 23 Italian tourists that visited various places in Rajasthan before a couple among them tested positive for coronavirus, the states Health Minister Raghu Sharma told the state assembly on Wednesday. He said swab samples of 93 people have been taken, of which 51 suspected patients have been tested negative, whereas report of 41 others is awaited. The driver of the bus the tourists hired, his helper and a guide were also with the tourists during their visit to Rajasthan. The Italians who landed in Delhi on February 21 had visited six districts in Rajasthan till February 28. The state government has directed the health department to procure additional 50,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kit; five lakh N-95 masks and five lakh triple layer masks. Fifty nine people in Jhunjhunu, 44 in Bikaner, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 6 in Udaipur and 78 people in Jaipur came in contact with the Italian tourists in the state, the minister told the assembly. He said the government began testing for coronavirus on Tuesday at the SMS Hospitals microbiology department. Till Wednesday, 113 samples have been tested of which 98 were found negative, one positive and another one tested positive in preliminary test, which has been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIC) laboratory in Pune for confirmation. The result of 13 samples is awaited. Health department sources said before March 2, 2020, in absence of testing facility in the state, five samples were sent to the NIV which were found negative. The minister informed that there are 30 isolation wards at SMS hospital in Jaipur for the treatment of suspected patients. Isolation wards are also available at all medical colleges and district hospitals. Till date, 89 passengers were admitted to respective medical colleges or district hospital for test and treatment. Sharma said from January 28, the medical staff comprising of five doctors and five nursing staff were deployed at the Jaipur airport for screening. Till date 26832 passengers have been screened. Seventy seven of the passengers had flown in from countries where coronvirus is prevalent. A total of nine were found with symptoms but tested negative. We will follow guidelines issued by the Centre and the WHO to decide the future course of action, Sharma said. He said that Italy is the third largest country in the world affected by the disease and tourists should have been screened. Sharma said that the tourists entered Rajasthan by road from Delhi and the government had not received any information about screening and travel plan of the tourists. He said that health department teams have been alerted to thoroughly screen passengers at airports. The government has also set up rapid response teams in medical colleges and associated hospitals. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said that the entire opposition was with the government and whatever precautions are required should be taken. He said that it is not the time to blame the government and administration. Kataria said that if there was any need to build isolation wards then land should be earmarked it. It is a problem and people of the state should together fight it. Fear and panic prevailing in the people should also be mitigated, the opposition leader said. No hoax: Simon Harriss Department of Health claimed the letter about the band practice was a fake. Picture: Gerry Mooney Health officials have begun tracing hundreds of airline passengers who shared a flight from Italy with a woman who has tested positive for the coronavirus. The woman, who is from the east of the country, is the second person to test positive for the virus in the Republic. Her infection is not linked to the case of a Dublin school pupil who also picked up the virus while in northern Italy. She is now believed to be in isolation in Dublin's Mater Hospital. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said tracing of her contacts was under way. The Department of Foreign Affairs updated its travel advice last night, urging people to avoid all non-essential travel to four regions in northern Italy - Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna. Meanwhile, major questions have emerged over the handling of the first person to have the coronavirus here after it was claimed he was at band practice in a community hall shortly before the positive test was announced. Anyone suspected of having the virus should be in self-isolation until their test result gives the all-clear. But the case of the school pupil who tested positive after a trip to Italy was thrown into confusion when a leaked HSE letter said he was at band practice between 6pm and 8pm on Saturday. The Department of Health announced the first confirmed case shortly before 9pm. Public health doctors, as per protocol, would advise the suspected case about the need to isolate themselves from others in their homes and observe strict guidelines on the sharing of any cutlery or bathroom facilities. The issue came to light yesterday after a letter from the HSE to the parents of teenagers in a local band, of which the pupil is a member, was leaked. It stated the other band members needed to go into self-isolation. The letter was written on Monday, although the pupil had been confirmed as having the virus on Saturday night, leading to a two-week closure of his school. Adding to the confusion, the Department of Health described the letter as a hoax yesterday morning, leading to an on-air apology from RTE. On its Twitter page the department said "we are aware of fake letter circulating regarding the confirmed case of Covid-19". But after the letter was proven to be true, the tweet was deleted. While the letter was later confirmed as genuine by the HSE, a spokesman refused to respond to further queries. The communications blunder between the HSE and the department has raised concerns about weaknesses in the national action plan to combat the spread of the virus at a time when clusters of the disease are being forecast. There were also questions being asked last night about how soon the community hall where the band practice took place was used afterwards. It is understood it was used for activities involving older people yesterday morning. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the coronavirus can potentially survive in the environment for several days. Irdai has instructed insurance companies to come out with policies to cover treatment costs for coronavirus infection, which has impacted thousands of people worldwide. Regulator Irdai on Wednesday asked insurers to expeditiously settle hospitalisation claims related to coronavirus disease under health policies. It also instructed insurance companies to come out with policies to cover treatment costs for coronavirus infection, which has impacted thousands of people worldwide. In order to provide need-based health insurance coverage, insurers are introducing products for various specific diseases, including vector borne diseases. "For the purpose of meeting health insurance requirements of various sections, insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus," Irdai said in a circular. There are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in India. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked insurers to expeditiously attend to claims for treatment of coronavirus. "Where hospitalisation is covered in a product, insurers shall ensure that the cases related to coronvirus disease (COVID-19) shall be expeditiously handled," it said. Also, the costs of admissible medical expenses during the course of treatment, including the treatment during quarantine period, should be settled in accordance to the applicable terms and conditions of policy contract and the extant regulatory framework. "All the claims reported under COVID-19 shall be thoroughly reviewed by review committee before repudiating the claims," the circular added. Over six lakh people have been screened for novel coronavirus at 21 airports. Also more than 10 lakh incoming people at India's open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have been screened as well. Commenting on the Irdai's ciruclar, Subramanyam Brahmajoysula, head (Underwriting and Reinsurance), SBI General Insurance said that claims due to coronavirus are payable provided the concerned person is hospitalised for at least 24 hours. "Most of the health insurance policies in India do not cover outpatient treatment. However, if corona virus is declared as a pandemic by WHO or Indian government, then claims might not be payable as such claims are excluded under many health insurance policies," Brahmajoysula said. Ashish Mehrotra, MD and CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance said that any policyholder hospitalised for coronavirus condition will be insured under "our hospitalisation policies" and company will expedite claims for the treatment. However, the insurers are silent on whether they would be settling claims if a patient is being quarantined. Patna (Bihar) [India], Mar 4 (ANI): Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Congress held a joint protest outside the Assembly on Wednesday demanding a CBI investigation into the alleged Bihar police examination paper leak. Speaking to ANI, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra said: "Under the Nitish Kumar government, examination papers for government jobs get leaked repeatedly. We are demanding CBI investigation into the Bihar police exam paper leak." "I think the government is involved in this. The government is ensuring that only their people secure these jobs. We will raise this issue in the House to pressurise the government for ordering a CBI investigation," he added. Examinations for recruitment to Bihar Police were conducted last year in December and the results were announced on Jan 28, 2020. (ANI) There are now 1700 people in Victoria who have been tested for the virus and returned a negative result, including a man who arrived on a plane at Avalon Airport on Tuesday. However, Premier Daniel Andrews warned coronavirus would soon reach pandemic levels. "Were still in the containment phase. It is highly likely that we will get to that pandemic phase at some point," he said. According to the World Health Organisation, a pandemic, colloquially, refers to a "new pathogen that spreads easily from person to person across the globe". The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia was 44 on Wednesday night. Queensland officials are desperately trying to track down plane passengers who sat near a 26-year-old man who has tested positive for coronavirus after travelling to Brisbane from Iran. He is the 11th person in Queensland to have been diagnosed with the illness. And Western Australia's Health Minister, Roger Cook, has vowed to open fever clinics next week after photos emerged of patients seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms in a makeshift quarantine zone in a hospital car park. Some passengers on a Virgin Melbourne-bound flight en route to Tasmania have also been told to "self-quarantine" for 14 days after sharing the plane with a man who later tested positive for coronavirus. The infected Australian man was on the flight from Iran to Launceston via Melbourne on Saturday. He travelled on flight VA-1368, which left Tullamarine airport at 1.10pm. The man went grocery shopping at a Woolworths store in Launceston when he was meant to be in self-isolation at home. He went to the supermarket for about 15 minutes on his way home after being tested in hospital. "The man visited the supermarket after being told of the requirements of self-quarantine," Tasmania's Public Health Director Mark Veitch said. "The risk to anyone who was in the supermarket at that time is very low. However, it is appropriate to fully inform staff and customers who were there." The Victorian government has foreshadowed delays to elective surgeries once the disease begins to spread more rapidly as hospitals will need to reserve capacity for fever clinics and isolated wards to treat infected patients. Loading Some Melbourne hospitals have started hiring coronavirus managers on short-term contracts as they assemble dedicated teams to respond to the spread of the disease. Late last week, Western Health advertised a minimum four-week role for a "COVID-19 taskforce medical officer" to be based at Sunshine Hospital. Western Health operates Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown hospitals, plus five other health services in Melbourne's western suburbs. The position, which comes "with the potential to extend", was open to doctors with general medical experience. Loading Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said stockpiling essential supplies including canned or dried food was a smart idea, but urged people to use common sense. "Make sure you have preparations around how you would look after yourself if you were ill at home and how you would look after a loved one," Dr Sutton told radio station 3AW. Dr Sutton said he understood the anxiety around coronavirus as dramatic scenes of the outbreak unfolded overseas, but consumers emptying supermarket shelves and buying months' worth of groceries or toilet paper in a day was unnecessary. "Nobody needs to do that because we aren't suddenly going to be in a situation tomorrow where we suddenly have 100 more cases," he said. "People can and should think about [buying] dry goods and other essential items every time they go shopping. We don't want people to run out of food if they have to be at home for two weeks and don't have a mechanism to have food delivered. We don't want them to run out of medicine or run out of pet food." A 53-year-old Sydney doctor became Australia's first locally contracted coronavirus case on Monday, having been in direct contact with patients before he became seriously unwell. A NSW woman also tested positive for the virus after contracting it from her brother who had recently visited Iran. Perth man James Kwan, 78, died at the weekend at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital after contracting the illness aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Google has cancelled I/O, its biggest event of the year. The conference usually serves as the company's launch for its new products and services, and sets the tone for the rest of the year. It also allows developers to meet up from across the world, with the hope of improving the products they make using Google's platforms. But this year the "physical" part of the event which was due to be held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in May has been cancelled, amid fears about the coronavirus. Google is just the latest tech firm to be hit by a cancellation of its big events. Summer usually sees tech companies such as Microsoft and Facebook host their annual conferences for developers and keynotes to announce new features to the public, but they have already been called off. Apple is yet to announce its annual WWDC event, or give any indication of whether it could be cancelled, but speculation is already mounting that it too could be hit by coronavirus fears. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty The company had made the decision "in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities", it said. Google suggested that it could still hold a virtual version of the event. "Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community," Google said. It did not give any information about the keynote presentation, which normally opens the event and serves as the introduction of new products to the public. Guests who had already purchased tickets will receive full refunds, the company said, and it asked people to get in touch if they did not receive them. People who were registered will also automatically get the option to buy a ticket next year, without having to go through the ballot. CAIRO - Egypt executed on Wednesday one of its most high-profile militant leaders, the military said, after his conviction for his role in planning scores of deadly attacks against the countrys security forces. Hisham el-Ashmawi, a former Egyptian special forces officer turned Islamic militant, was sentenced to death by a military court in November in two separate cases for his participation in scores of militant attacks on government targets. A civilian court also Monday sentenced him to death along with 36 other militants on terror-related charges. Col. Tamer el-Rifai, a military spokesman, said on his Facebook page that el-Ashmawi was executed Wednesday by hanging. He posted a photo of the militant in a long beard and wearing a bright orange jumpsuit that is usually worn by those sentenced to death. He said el-Ashmawi was convicted in 14 crimes including a 2014 ambush that killed 22 Egyptian military border guards near the border with Libya, and the 2013 assassination attempt against the interior minister at the time, Mohammed Ibrahim. El-Ashmawi was captured in October 2018 in the Libyan city of Derna, a longtime bastion of Islamic militants, by the forces of Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter, an Egyptian ally. He was handed over to Egypt in March. The militant leader has been a valuable target for Egyptian security forces eager to obtain valuable intelligence for its years-long fight against militants. Ashmawi helped found Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a jihadi organization based in Egypts northern Sinai province that has seen an insurgency waged there for years. His military expertise he left the Egyptian army in 2011 transformed the tiny group into a well-organized guerrilla band that later inflicted painful blows on security forces in Sinai. Beit al-Maqdis swore allegiance to the extremist Islamic State group in November 2014 and took to renaming itself as Welayet Sinai, or the province of Sinai. El-Ashmawi, however, did not declare his allegiance to IS, which was then at the peak of its power and controlled about a third of both Iraq and neighbouring Syria. In an audio recording released in 2015 that is believed to be authentic, el-Ashmawi allied himself with the Islamic State groups rival, al-Qaida, led by Egyptian militant Ayman al-Zawahri. After fleeing to Libya, he tried to establish himself among Islamic militants and extremists in the countrys east. He created al-Mourabitoun, a militant group blamed for most of the attacks in Egypts remote Western Desert, such as a 2017 ambush that killed nearly 30 Christian pilgrims on their way to a monastery. Such attacks have been part of an Islamic insurgency spearheaded by the IS affiliate. The insurgency gained strength after the 2013 military overthrow of a freely elected but divisive Muslim Brotherhood president. Egypt has granted police forces and courts sweeping powers in response to Islamic militant attacks. Human rights observers say the crackdown has resulted in an abandonment of due process and violations of international law. A day after a missing South Carolina womans body was found, a man has been charged in her death, the Charleston Police Department said Wednesday. Mark Dwayne Walton was charged with accessory to murder for his role in the death of Celia Marie Sweeney, police said in a news release. Information on the 36-year-old Charleston mans specific role in Sweeneys disappearance and death was not available. Walton was arrested Tuesday night and is being held at the Al Cannon Detention Center, jail records show. Police say hes scheduled to have a bond hearing Wednesday afternoon. Mark Dwayne Walton was charged with accessory after the fact of murder. Sweeney, 28, was found dead days after she was reported missing, police said. Her body was discovered in a Spartanburg County home, along with a dead man who was considered a person of interest in her disappearance, according to police. Police identified that man as Buddy Allen Carr, the resident of the Spartanburg County home. Sweeney was beaten to death, with Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger saying she was killed after suffering blunt force trauma to the head. The coroners office said an autopsy has not yet been performed on Carr, 32, and no preliminary cause of death was given. Information on how Sweeney, Carr and Walton knew each other was not available. Carrs Inman home is more than 200 miles away from where Sweeney was last seen. Sweeneys co-workers and friends reported her missing to Charleston police Feb. 28. The Charleston resident hadnt maintained contact with them, or showed up to work, which was out of the ordinary behavior for her, police spokesman Charles Francis told The State. Police said officers did a welfare check at Sweeneys residence and found she was missing along with her car, a 2010 dark colored Audi S5. The abandoned vehicle was located late Saturday night, according to police. Sweeneys death is still under investigation, police are asking anyone with information to call 843-743-7200, or Lowcountry CrimeStoppers at 843-554-1111. SAN FRANCISCO On a website called Azerbaijani Eagles, you can commission a murder for $5,000. The site Slayers Hitmen provides more options, with a beating going for $2,000. Death by torture costs $50,000. But dont expect someone to get the job done. Experts and law enforcers who have studied these sites almost all of them on the so-called dark web or dark net say they are scams. There has not been a known murder attributed to any of them. That doesnt mean the sites arent involved in a very dark trade. They have become catch points for real people who are looking to pay to have someone murdered. And a number of men and women are sitting in jail after paying one of these sites and getting caught by the police. In one of the most recent cases to make its way through the courts, a nurse from Illinois was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to sending $12,000 in Bitcoin to the site Sicilian Hitmen International Network. She had hoped to have the wife of her boyfriend killed. You've got a new place to add to your Harry Potter travel list. A magical bookstore in Porto, Portugal, called Livraria Lello seriously looks like every book-lover's dream. Not only is it absolutely gorgeous, but it also resembles the famous Hogwarts staircase in Harry Potter. According to AFP, J.K. Rowling would frequent the bookstore when she lived in the city from 1991 to 1993. A nearby cafe called Cafe Majestic is also where the author wrote her first draft of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Livraria Lello's stunning twisting staircase and stair bridge would look familiar to any Harry Potter fan. Customers have said that the bookstore even reminds them of Flourish and Blotts, where Harry and other students would get their reading materials for school. True or not, the bookstore is completely stunning either way. The stained-glass ceiling includes the Latin phrase Decus in Labore (sounds like a spell to us!), which translate to "Dignity in Work." Although admission to the bookstore costs three euros, the entrance fee is refunded if you purchase a book. University students also walk around in their traditional uniforms that feature black capes, making them look like Hogwarts students in their robes. See the photos ahead! - Additional reporting by Lauren Harano Related: Can You Name the Harry Potter Movie by Just One Photo? A flu virus expert has said that policymakers will have difficult decisions to make in relation to Covid-19 in the coming weeks. Dr Kim Roberts, influenza virus researcher and Assistant Professor of Virology at Trinity College Dublin, told Newstalk Breakfast that the country should expect more cases of the coronavirus. Her comment came as a second case of the virus was confirmed in the east of the country. The patient is a woman who recently travelled back from Italy. This case is not associated with the previously identified case. It was always a case that we would have another, we should expect more, in some other countries the numbers infected with the virus are going up, and quite quickly, Dr Roberts said. There is a balance that needs to be struck especially early on in an outbreak within a country, to make sure that information gets across in a way that can be absorbed and not create fear and panic. But we do need to explain to people that this situation is changing and that in all likelihood we will see more cases in Ireland, we will see clusters of cases probably within family groups, that's what's happening in other countries as well and we may see evidence of community transmission. If we can act swiftly and decisively with identified cases, with identified people infected with this virus and they self-isolate and take that self-isolation seriously, we can reduce the spread. We can slow down the transmission so that our health services are not overstretched and that's one of the key things. There's a lot of discussion about how serious this situation is, we can't give specifics about how many numbers it's going to affect, we can only give the data - what the data is suggesting, but we do need to take it seriously. Policymakers have difficult decisions to make, I think we should expect that policy will change swiftly over the next few weeks, depending on what the evidence is saying about community transmission in Ireland and the UK. Department of Health officials, who said last night that they expect the number of isolated confirmed cases will increase further, were informed around 6pm of the second case. Department of Health chief medical officer Tony Holohan later told reporters: Were confirming Ireland has diagnosed one new case of Covid-19. The case arises in a female in the east of the country and is associated with travel from northern Italy. We have now 397 people in total who have been tested as of Monday, March 2. The chair of the governments coronavirus advisory group, Dr Cillian de Gascun said that there is still no evidence of community transmission of the coronavirus in Ireland, but he warned that it is a rapidly evolving situation. Dr de Gascun told RTE radios Morning Ireland that two weeks ago there were only three cases in Italy, but in the space of 11 days, this had risen to 2,000. If Ireland were to see a similar rise in cases then plans would have to change, he said. The Irish hospital system is as prepared as it can be, but it is under pressure. However, he acknowledged that the significant containment efforts by China had helped give other countries time to plan and prepare. On the same programme, Tony Fitzpatrick of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) pointed out that the Irish health system is already under pressure and that it has been known since 2008 that there are not enough intensive care beds in the country. The health care system struggles every day. It is vital for Ireland to protect front line workers, the public and the economy. Italy two weeks ago was at the same stage where we are, the situation here could change significantly in the next two weeks, he warned. What the HSE is doing at the moment is good, he said. Everyone has a role to play. If the virus were to spread it would put significant pressure on the health system. HSE plans and algorithms in place to contain the virus are robust, he said, but the fact remained that there are not enough vital care beds or equipment. Mr Fitzpatrick claimed that the HSEs hiring practices meant there were ICU beds and units that could not be used because vacant posts had not been filled. A nurse is no good waiting for a start date, they should be working. PROSECUTORS have been given more time time to prepare their case against ISIS suspect Lisa Smith, after a court heard she was anxious to "prove her innocence." The former Irish army soldier who is accused of being a member of the terrorist group was remanded on continuing bail after Dublin District Court heard a book of evidence was not ready yet. Ms Smith (38) consented to a six-week adjournment but her lawyer again called for the case to be discontinued. She is charged with membership of a terrorist group outside the state between October 28, 2015 and December 1 last year. She denies the charge. The Co Louth mother-of-one, who left Ireland and married after converting to Islam, was returned here from Turkey last December after spending time in a Syrian refugee camp. Today, a state solicitor asked Judge Colin Daly to extend the time required to serve a book of evidence, which was not ready. The book is required before she can be sent for trial to a higher court. Defence solicitor Peter Corrigan said he had been told on the last day that the book would be ready. "She is on strict bail conditions and she is anxious that this matter is dealt with expeditiously," he said, adding that there were a number of points in relation to the charge preferred. The defence had on the last court date asked the DPP to look at the charge against the accused "very carefully" and Mr Corrigan said it was still his case that "the matter should be discontinued." Consenting to the six-week adjournment, he said it was with the caveat that she was anxious to have the matter is dealt with "so she can prove her innocence." In the interim, he said, the prosecution should again look at documentation provided. Judge Daly said this was a matter for the DPP and he did not have a function in it. The judge extended the time for the book, adjourning the case to April 17. Ms Smith, dressed in a hooded black winter coat over a black dress and maroon and black head scarf, stepped forward when her case was called but was not required to speak during the brief hearing. On the last court date in January, the state solicitor said it was a "complicated, substantial case." Information and statements had been recently received from outside the state and further charges were contemplated, the court heard on that date. It had been expected the investigation file would be received by the DPP shortly and the book would be ready by March. While the accused had consented to that adjournment, Mr Corrigan called on the DPP to review the case and discontinue the charge as he believed it "does not amount to evidence that gives a realistic prospect of a conviction." The charge alleges Ms Smith was "a member of a terrorist group styling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also known as Dawlat al-Iraq al-Islamiyya, Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Dawlat al Islamiya fi Iraq wa al Sham, otherwise known as 'Daesh' and the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham. She was arrested at Dublin Airport on December 1, later charged and denied bail at the district court before being granted it in the High Court. She remained in custody before taking up bail on December 31. Cobee, a Spanish fintech startup that has developed an employee benefit management app and accompanying card, has closed 2.1 million in "pre-Series A" funding. The round was co-led by Speedinvest and Target Global. Other backers include Chris Bouwer (an early employee of Adyen) and existing investors Encomenda Smart Capital, BStartup (Banco Sabadell), Lanai Partners and Abac Nest. Founded in 2018 by Borja Aranguren and Daniel Olea, Cobee aims to help employees "leverage better economic performance" from their salary via a range of employee benefits and discounts offered through the platform. These are managed within the Cobee app and redeemed through use of the Cobee payment card. The draw for companies signing up is that Cobee already claims its platform has higher engagement than many existing employee benefit programmes. And by being a fully digital and automated solution, there is considerably less administration needed to manage the programme. "We realized that there is an increasing number of solutions that are being sold as benefits or products to the end employees through their HR department (gyms, insurance products, perks, vouchers, salary sacrifice formulas, etc.)," Cobee co-founder and CEO Borja Aranguren tells TechCrunch. "This, on the one hand, means administrative hassle for the HR departments to manage all the different providers and processes and, most importantly, on the other hand, brings a totally fragmented and unclear value proposition for the employee". With this problem in mind, Aranguren and Olea set out to build Cobee, which the pair describe as a fintech HR solution that empowers employees to consume their compensation and benefits on-demand. "All our efforts are focused on making employees feel happy about their benefits, trying to unify the value proposition in an understandable and easy to use formula," Aranguren explains. "For the companies, we offer an easy-to-use SaaS platform to configure their benefit offering and upload their employees. For the employees, it is an app and a payment card to consumer those benefits as they like, with funds coming from a company subsidy or from their own salary". Story continues The current Cobee offering includes benefits like meals, transportation, childcare, health insurance and training courses. Additional options, such as gym membership, are said to be coming in the next few months. "Our product can cater for companies of all sizes, from SMEs or startups to large corporations of any sector," adds Aranguren. "However, our main target segment are those companies ranging between 50 to 5,000 employees. We have customers and users like Petronas, Avis Budget Group, Opinno, Glovo, and Willis Towers Watson". Meanwhile, Cobee says it will use the new funding to "scale up its business model" in Spain and expand into international markets. To support its mission to become a European category leader, the company plans to strengthen its team and enhance its platform by integrating new products and benefits. The business model is straightforward, too: Cobee charges companies a SaaS fee per active employee. "We follow a pure success-based approach and we only win if the employees win, which, after all, makes the companies win," says the Cobee CEO. "Besides that, we leverage purchasing volumes to build a marketplace that we can monetize and that also allows us to create savings that can be transferred to our end customers/employees." A few legislators from Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh are reportedly in the city, amid allegations of poaching attempts to destabilise Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government. Bengaluru: A few legislators from Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh are reportedly in the city, amid allegations of poaching attempts to destabilise Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government. According to sources, around three to four legislators are at a private place in the city's Whitefield area. One of them is said to be an Independent legislator. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. Kamal Nath, however, asserted there was no threat to his government, which came to power in December 2018 by ousting the BJP. Joe Biden powered to a dominating sweep of the South and surprisingly strong showings in New England and the Upper Midwest on Tuesday night, as he sought to seize control of the Democratic presidential race and overtake Sen. Bernie Sanders as the delegate leader. Sanders was holding on to a lead in California, the state with the biggest delegate haul of the Super Tuesday primaries, as votes were slowly counted there. But Biden's victories - he also had a narrow lead in Texas, a stunning recovery in that state - threatened to at minimum erase the lopsided delegate advantage Sanders hoped to gain from the day's voting. The results set up a more vigorous fight ahead that presents the party with divergent choices, between a pragmatist vowing a return to normalcy and a populist promising a revolution. Sanders easily won his home state, Vermont, and carried Colorado and Utah. But Biden's victories were significant and widespread, with a string of states across the South offering an early confirmation that his win three days earlier in South Carolina had swiftly and dramatically reshaped the presidential contest. With most precincts reporting, Biden was winning by double digits in the Super Tuesday states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama. He also won Minnesota, Oklahoma and - in an embarrassment to home-state Sen. Elizabeth Warren - Massachusetts. In states where he spent little money and no time, and had few field offices, he won as late-deciding voters rushed to support him. Even in a race that has been marked by volatility, the results capped a head-spinning 72 hours. Sanders just days ago appeared to be en route to a potentially insurmountable lead in delegates after a near-win in Iowa and victories in the second and third contests, New Hampshire and Nevada. Biden seemed on the verge of being forced from the race, after successive fourth-, fifth- and distant second-place showings. But after his mammoth victory in South Carolina, moderates rapidly coalesced behind the former vice president, rivals dropped out and endorsed him, and he racked up margins of victory so large that Tuesday's races were projected as victories immediately after polls closed. His win in Virginia testified to the rapid reversal of fortunes. Despite having held only one rally there - and opening only one field office and spending far less than some of his rivals - Biden was on course to win every congressional district and carry the state in a landslide. As soon as polls closed in North Carolina - a state with a strong dose of suburban women and African-American voters, both targets for the party and groups that lean toward Biden - he was declared the winner there as well. His quick wins in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee were also largely powered by big margins among women, black voters, moderates and those without college degrees. He also appeared to benefit from high turnout in the same kinds of suburban areas that helped Democrats win the House majority in the 2018 midterms, winning by massive margins in suburbs around Richmond, Virginia. Turnout in Virginia was almost double what it was in 2016 and also exceeded 2008 levels. Late deciders across the country broke in a major way for Biden. In Virginia, about half of Democratic primary voters said they made their decisions in the past few days, and Biden won about 6 in 10 of them, compared with about 1 in 6 for Sanders, according to preliminary network exit polls. In North Carolina, nearly a third of voters were late deciders, and more than half of them supported Biden, compared with Sanders who garnered about 2 in 10. In Tennessee, where almost 3 in 10 were late deciders, Biden carried more than 6 in 10 of them, compared with less than 2 in 10 for Sanders. Early results showed a dismal finish for Mike Bloomberg, who has poured some $500 million of his own money into trying to win over voters concerned about Biden's strength. His only win early in the night was in the caucuses in American Samoa, where he captured 50 percent of the vote. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, also won a delegate from the U.S. territory in the South Pacific, and under current rules that could allow her to qualify for debates, although the Democratic National Committee indicated it will soon increase the threshold. It was the most critical day so far for the Democratic nominating contest, with a third of the total pledged delegates up for grabs in 14 states spread around the country and the potential to offer a clarifying moment in a race marked by volatility. There were 1,357 delegates at stake as the race burst out of the first four states, where the candidates spent the bulk of their time over the past year, and became much more nationalized. Sanders, with a strong organization and significant financial resources, had been best positioned heading into the night and had been the polling leader in many of the states. But Biden came into Tuesday's voting amid the best stretch of his campaign and seemed to showcase an ability to leverage the familiarity he's earned over decades - particularly among older black voters - to overcome other shortcomings. On Saturday, he walloped Sanders in the South Carolina primary. On Sunday, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg, a rival of Biden's among moderates, dropped out of the race. The next day Buttigieg; fellow moderate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who also ended her presidential bid; and another former presidential contestant, onetime congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas, endorsed the former vice president. A host of other Democrats across the country followed suit. "It's still early, but things are looking awful, awful good," Biden told supporters in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. "For those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign." Noting that he had been counted out just days ago, he continued, "I'm here to report we are very much alive." The Sanders and Biden campaigns were bracing for a protracted fight that could extend to the party's convention in July, with both now jockeying for position ahead of critical contests over the next two weeks, including several key states in the Midwest. They disagree on the Iraq War - Biden supported it, Sanders opposed it - and trade deals that Biden has backed and Sanders has railed against. On a host of other issues, Biden holds views that he defines as more moderate and Sanders sees as too incremental. "Tonight I tell you with absolute confidence, we're going to win the Democratic nomination," Sanders told a boisterous crowd in Vermont as results came in, saying he was "cautiously optimistic" about a win in California. "And we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country." While he was trailing Biden in early results, putting him behind in the hunt for delegates, Sanders's advisers were confident that they would recoup any early losses with stronger returns in California. "People who go to sleep tonight at 10 p.m. are going to wake up tomorrow to a totally different race," said Sanders communications director Mike Casca. Complicating the one-on-one race between the two men has been the presence of Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor. He skipped the first four contests and appeared on the ballot for the first time Tuesday. Warren also stayed in the race, like Bloomberg asserting that she would remain a contender until the convention, when she hoped to exert pressure on the party platform, even if she were not the nominee. Bloomberg spent the day in Florida, a state that does not hold its primary until March 17 but where early voting has started. The former mayor, who less than two weeks ago seemed poised to be the savior for moderates concerned about Biden, refused to set a bar for his own performance in Tuesday's voting, saying he was not sure he would win any state. In an address to supporters Tuesday night, he showed no sign of dropping out. "Tonight we proved something very important: We proved we can win the voters who will decide the general election, and isn't that what this is all about?" he said, emphasizing that while other Democrats spent time in early states, he went to those that flipped in 2016. After voting at a precinct near her home in Massachusetts, Warren spent Tuesday night in Michigan, a state that will offer the biggest delegate prize next Tuesday. As she prepared to walk down her front steps, she could hear supporters chanting: "It's time. It's time. It's time for a woman in the White House." As she walked into a school to vote, children dropped red and white rose petals. "What I see happening is a lot of folks trying to turn voting into some complicated strategy," Warren later told several thousand supporters in Detroit. "They are playing games about prediction and strategy. Prediction has been a terrible business." But as returns came in, Warren lost her native Oklahoma and was in third place in Massachusetts, the state she has represented for eight years in the Senate. Early exit polling found that about half of Democratic primary voters in Virginia said Biden is the candidate who would have the best chance of beating Trump in November, while roughly 2 in 10 said Sanders is best positioned to beat Trump. There were similar patterns in three other states voting Tuesday: North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Klobuchar's departure from the race also seemed to have an impact in Minnesota, where almost 6 in 10 voters said they picked their candidate within the past few days, by far the highest proportion of voters across the nation on Tuesday, according to preliminary exit polls. Delegates are awarded based on performance statewide as well as in local contests, usually by congressional district. Candidates needed to win at least 15 percent of votes statewide and in any district to gain delegates. By most traditional measures of strength, Biden trailed badly in many Super Tuesday states. But he did have the less tangible but more forceful benefit of momentum, after his decisive win in South Carolina's primary drove the most rapid shifts of the contest so far. After their endorsements, he quickly recorded a video with Buttigieg and featured Klobuchar in a new ad that began airing in Minnesota. Both attempted to create a sense of inevitability and cast him as the only alternative to Sanders. But the ad buy was relatively small and came after many days of early voting. - - - The Washington Post's Michael Scherer in Miami, Sean Sullivan in Burlington, Vt., Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in Los Angeles and Annie Linskey in Cambridge, Mass., contributed to this report. GLEN CARBON The Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois decision to close all of its remaining camps by the end of the year has been met with some strife within the community. Last Thursday, the GSofSI Council announced it would close all of its remaining camps by Dec. 31, which would net $3.4 million. In turn, that money would be invested and part of it would be used to fund the Girl Scout Experience. At a six percent return, it is expected the funds would generate $200,000 annually for girls and troops to use for activities. On Monday, a notice posted on the councils Facebook page detailed an emergency town hall meeting Thursday at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Belleville from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The church is located at 1200 Moreland Drive. After hearing the news, Theresa Pitts-Wuebbels, a troop leader with a troop of 10 girls, started a petition on change.org and she met with the GSofSI CEO Saturday, Loretta Graham, to discuss the issue. To date, more than 4,700 signatures have been received. She is listening to us; she gave us our chance to speak, Pitts-Wuebbels said of the four-hour meeting. Pitts-Wuebbels said the girls and troop leaders complaints are two-fold. First, she said the council blindsided everyone Thursday with this information. Second, Graham told Pitts-Wuebbels and the others Saturday that the council ended last year $740,000 in debt and it has been in the red for at least the past decade. Graham confirmed that information by phone Tuesday. The council covers 40.5 counties across southern Illinois, from the Ohio River on the south to Edgar County in the northeast and Calhoun County in the northwest. Graham said via media release last week that operating and maintaining the GSofSI camps costs $375,000 annually which does not include deferred maintenance costs and the experiences provided are of the same types of experiences available at other locations throughout southern Illinois. The other part of this is to create the Girl Scout Experience Fund (the GSE Fund) to provide direct financial support for delivering the GSE. Her vision is to earn money off this [the sale] then give us the $200,000 to help us with the cost of camping at other locations, Pitts-Wuebbels explained. She added that the funds would have strict guidelines for their use but did not provide details. Pitts-Wuebbels had two questions regarding the GSE funds how can the council make it equitable and how can troop leaders ensure the funds are not being mismanaged. Graham describes the closure as a direct response to the experiences the girls said they are seeking after the long-range property task force met last year. Girls talk about experiences, not property, Graham said. Experiences can be had at our camps but experiences can also be had anywhere. The GSE is also designed to improve and enhance program services to girls. Pitts-Wuebbels said a GS Long-range Property Planning survey was sent to 450 people, and some results seem to contradict the rationale the council gives for the closing the camps. The bulk of respondents (86 percent) were Daisies (K and 1st grade) through Cadette (6-8 grades). Fifty-seven percent said camping gets them most excited; 55 percent have camped with their troop and loved it while 33 percent have not camped but would like to. At 21 percent, camping was the No. 1 best experience girls said they had in Girl Scouts. Of girls surveyed about how much they want to do assorted camping activities, the only two under the Love It! rating that came in with less than 50 percent were using a compass and using GPS. Seventy-six percent said they love cooking over a fire. Fifty-four percent of girls surveyed said they had gone to an overnight camp in the past two years. Fifty-one percent visited a day camp in the past two years. Forty-three percent went to a summer camp since 2017. One of the pre-submitted questions was, Will the decision be made to close any camp(s)? In a follow-up email Thursday, Kim Vrooman, director of communications for GSofSI, sent additional information. The survey and a plea to have girls complete the survey, as well as a follow-up survey and summaries of the surveys, went to all of our membership households via email (thousands of households), she said. We shared the survey and asked for participation on our web news. We shared it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We also shared as key news in our monthly Friends and Family eNewsletters and Volunteer eNewsletters during the time in question. Camp Whispering Oaks in Salem and Camp Cedar Point which was a leased camp in Makanda closed by 2018. Closing Cedar Point meant a two-hour trip for girls in the southernmost part of the council to access another Girl Scout camp. Pitts-Wuebbels said Graham told her that there is a perceived lack of unity between northern and southern parts of the council that dates back to when it was two separate councils River Bluff and Shagbark. Shagbark covered the southernmost counties while River Bluff comprised areas further north, including Madison County. The two merged in 2009. Camping at other area locations could include Boy Scout camps Camp Joy in Carlyle; Camp Vandeventer in Waterloo; Camp Warren Levis in Godfrey; Camp Pine Ridge in Makanda; and Camp Rhodes-France in Pana. However, camping in any of those places would defeat the purpose of a girl-led, girl-directed group, Pitts-Wuebbels said. Pitts-Wuebbels asked why all of the camps had to close. Graham said there is no easy way to close camps without the appearance of favoritism that would play into the disunity so to be fair, the council decided to close all four remaining camps. Everybody thinks their camp is the one that should be kept, Graham said. Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 18:17 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206849f77 4 World Australia,bushfire,Indonesia,TNI,Indonesian-Military,Garuda-Task-Force Free A special team, mostly consisting of Indonesian armed forces personnel, known as the Garuda Task Force, has returned to Indonesia after helping to fight recent bushfires in Australia, the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra stated on Wednesday. True friends not only help with words, but with real actions, said Brig. Gen. Michael Garraway, the commander of New South Wales under Joint Task Force (JTF) 1110, as quoted by antaranews.com on Wednesday. Garraway was repeating a message from Lt. Col. Renee Kidson from the Australian Defense Force (ADF) during a farewell ceremony at the Australian Air Force Base Richmond in New South Wales, Australia. The message was conveyed as a form of appreciation for the Garuda task force for aiding Australia in the Bushfires Assistance Operation. Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Kristiarto Legowo has handed over 41 certificates of merit to members of the Indonesian Military and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as a token of appreciation for their dedication. Read also: Indonesia, Australia offer each other disaster support The task force assisted the Australian government in clearing roads and train tracks, cleaning up the aftermath of the fires as well as reconstructing sanitary facilities around residents homes for one month. Garuda Task Force commander Lt. Col. Fauzi said he felt honored to be able to lead the task force. Previously, on Feb. 1, the Australian government sent its deepest regards to Indonesia for aiding the country by sending the task force to fight against the bushfires. The team consisted of 41 Indonesian Military personnel, two officers of the Foreign Ministry and an officer of the BNPB, according to kompas.com. As neighboring countries, Indonesia and Australia maintain a close relationship as comprehensive strategic partners, with a pact announced during Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisons visit to Indonesia in August 2018. (dpk) JAKARTA, March 4 (Reuters) - Indonesia will lower import duties for raw materials amid worries prices will rise due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, industry minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita told media on Wednesday. The official said he was in discussion with the governor of Bank Indonesia and with the state-owned enterprises minister on how to lower the cost of letters of credits for Indonesian firms which need raw materials. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Editing by Himani Sarkar) Kamal Haasan was questioned by Central Crime Branch officials at the Chennai Police Commissioner Officer for nearly two hours regarding the horrific Indian-2 accident which took the lives of three innocent workers. The official's filmed Kamal's statement on the accident. After the investigation, Kamal Haasan met the media and said that he has given his statement. "We should be careful enough to avoid such accidents in the future", said Haasan. Imagine you've separated from your partner. You cannot agree on the arrangements about your children. You may be the victim of violence in the relationship or you may be at risk of threatening your partner. You may not speak English well. One or both of you might have a mental illness, suffer from a chronic health condition or have problems caused by drug use. You cannot afford to pay a lawyer and may not be entitled to legal aid. You may not know how to find a duty lawyer in the court. Court can be a scary place. Credit:Jessica Shapiro You arrive at a Family Court and are confused, frightened or angry. You do not know where to go, who you should talk to or how long you may have to wait. You may be directed to a secure room in the court but may have to stay there on your own. Who can give you support in the secure room, or accompany you into court? Who can link you with other services that you need? Who can build your confidence so you can give evidence more effectively? Who can calm you down, so you do not threaten your former partner? Since 1990, volunteers trained by a non-government organisation called Court Network have been providing non-legal support in the family law system. Apart from bringing with them their rich life and professional experiences, Court Network volunteers are highly trained and skilled at assisting vulnerable court users, included those involved in family violence matters. Court Network volunteers are trained in identifying risk in family violence cases, helping victims keep safe and referring them to specialist services. These volunteers often make it easier for paid staff to do their job properly. Court security staff would not be able to handle the volume of people with security issues without Court Network. Court Networkers can take people to the safe room and let duty lawyers in and out of the safe room so that they can talk to their clients. Going to any court is often very stressful. That is why the Victorian government funds the Court Network to provide services in 26 courts in all jurisdictions across Victoria. But having to appear in the family law system is a particularly difficult and emotional process which cuts to the hearts of those involved. In 2018-2019, 47 per cent of all Court Network users said that family violence was involved. Many family law cases involve family violence, which reaches its peak during court proceedings. Even when violence is not involved, many people find their court experience distressing and frightening. While nations step-up preparedness against coronavirus, it is equally imperative for individuals to take preventive measures to keep the virus at bay. Children are susceptible to viral infections owing to their sensitive immune system, therefore, it is important to ensure that your young ones stay protected in the wake of the coronavirus scare. Here is what parents can do to ensure that children stay protected and what needs to be done in case symptoms arise. 1. Wash your hands frequently using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. Follow the same for children. 2. Protective masks should be used. Mouth and nose area should be covered when coughing or sneezing. 3. Dispose of the tissue into a closed bin if it has been used by a person with flu or cough. 4. Avoid close contact with anyone who has cold or flu-like symptoms. ALSO WATCH | Coronavirus: 28 positive cases in India; PM Modi to skip Holi Milan events 5. Seek medical care immediately after you or your child reports having fever, cough or difficulty in breathing. Also read: Kejriwal says coronavirus to be treated as an emergency 6. Keep your childs vaccinations up to date for protection against other viruses and bacteria. 7. In case you or your child show symptoms, try to avoid going to public places to prevent spread to others. 8. Hands should be washed often, especially before eating; after blowing nose, coughing, or sneezing; and going to the bathroom. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. 9. While travelling, parents should follow standard hygiene measures for themselves and their children 10. Clean your surroundings with a disinfecting wipe once inside an aircraft, vehicle or your accommodation. Also read: Coronavirus cases jump to 28, India to screen passengers from all nations Pregnancy, breastfeeding and coronavirus There isnt enough evidence supporting the transfer of the virus to the child in case of a pregnancy. According to the United Nations, the mother can continue to breastfeed, while applying all the necessary precautions considering the benefits of breastfeeding and the insignificant role of breastmilk in the transmission of other respiratory viruses. Symptomatic mothers should wear a mask when near a child (including during feeding) and must observe care and hygiene before and after contact with the child, UNICEF suggests in its release on coronavirus. Watch: World Health Organisation asks countries to stop hoarding masks If a mother is too ill, she should be encouraged to express milk and give it to the child via a clean cup and/or spoon all while following the same infection prevention methods, the UNICEF release read. The release also states that other than symptomatic children, other kids should continue to attend school. Coronavirus has claimed over 3,000 lives worldwide. In India, the number of positive cases has jumped to 28. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have had 'good discussions' today as Leo Varadkar re-emphasised his insistence that his party will not enter government. The talks, which were described as 'exploratory', saw both parties discuss "a range of important policy issues ". In a statement, the Fine Gael said their representatives "held good discussions today in a policy exchange with Fianna Fail. "Fine Gael discussed a range of important policy issues with their Fianna Fail counterparts. "Both parties agreed that the discussions were confidential. Meanwhile. Fianna Fail say they are ready to start talks on a programme for government as soon as possible after meeting Fine Gael for more than six hours today. Earlier: Mammoth Fine Gael-Fianna Fail 'exploratory talks' continue Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have been meeting for six hours to discuss policy as the wait for a government continues. Dara Calleary is the head of Fianna Fail's team at the exploratory talks Leo Varadkar has insisted this is not the first meeting in negotiations to enter government, but rather exploratory talks. Teams from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have been meeting since about 11am to discuss their policies on a number of areas including housing, health, the economy and Brexit. Simon Coveney is leading the Fine Gael delegation while Dara Calleary is at the head of Fianna Fail's team. Fine Gael insists they do not want to re-enter government, and these talks are just exploratory. But pressure is coming on for the pace of government formation talks to quicken as fears around the coronavirus escalate and Brexit trade negotiations heat up. It is as of yet unclear if any progress has been made by the two parties today. Meanwhile, Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin are due to speak in detail again in the coming days. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle BART was recovering from major delays Wednesday afternoon after fire department officials pulled a person out from underneath a train at the Glen Park station, authorities said. Transit officials said the delays started around 11:45 a.m. They affected the San Francisco Line in the SFO, Millbrae, Daly City and East Bay directions. MUNI was providing service between the Balboa Park and Embarcadero stations. The incident shut down the Glen Park station for about an hour. Amaravati, March 4 : A software engineer with suspected symptoms of coronavirus was admitted to government-run hospital in Kakinada town of Andhra Pradesh, doctors said on Wednesday. Within hours of the state government claiming that the state has no suspected cases of Covid-19, a techie, who had recently returned from South Korea, was admitted in Kakinada hospital in East Godavari district. Doctors said he was kept in isolation ward and his samples were sent to Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad. "It may take 24 to 48 hours to get the results. His condition is stable. He is suffering from cold but there are no other symptoms," a doctor said. The techie, working for a software company in Hyderabad, had reportedly returned from South Korea a week ago. After landing in Hyderabad, he reached his native village Vadapalem in East Godavari district. Officials in Hyderabad alerted East Godavari district collector Muralidhar Reddy about the techie. Health department personnel rushed to the Vadapalem but the techie had gone to another village to meet his relatives. The officials reached him and convinced him to get himself admitted to the hospital in Kakinada for necessary tests. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas said the state medical and health department was fully geared up to meet any eventuality. It has set up isolation wards, besides taking up mass awareness programme and training the staff. The minister said currently eight hospitals were equipped with isolation wards and as per the Central Government instructions. "We have also established isolation rooms in two hospitals and four more are going to be added," he said The minister said the awareness programme would be carried out in a big way with distribution of pamphlets on ados and don'ts' Aand display of publicity material at village secretariats which focus on hygiene and cleanliness. The state government has set up a dedicated call center for the public, which is connected to control rooms at the district level to alert the officials. People who are suspicious about the contact of the virus can contact the call center 0866-2410978. "Anyone with persistent fever, cough, cold or shortness of breath within 28 days must immediately visit the nearest government hospital wearing a mask. As of now, the State has 1,10,340 N-95 masks and over 12,000 personal protection masks," he said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has informed that the company has received a notice from International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on request for Arbitration from RUAG Aerospace Services GMBH. The company has initiated necessary action w.r.t. arbitration process. The amount in dispute partially quantified by the opponent party is US$ 21,872,500 (i.e. EUR 20,000,000) against alleged damages on breach of agreement regarding supply of structural parts for production of Dornier-228, by HAL. Newgen Software Technologies announced that the US Patent Office has issued a patent for its mark detection system and methodology. The mark detection system is used to identify marks, like tick and cross marks, on document images. Max Financial Services said the company will issue 7.54 crore shares to Mitsui Sumitomo at Rs 565.11 per share. Canara Bank said CARE Ratings has assigned 'AAA' rating (Credit watch with developing implications) to the bank's Tier-II bonds. HFCL said the company has received the purchase order worth Rs 196 crore from Larsen & Toubro for supply of Optical Fibre Cables (OFC) for construction of Telangana Fiber Grid (T-Fiber) by them under Bharat Net Phase-II Programme of the Government of India, in the State of Telangana. Tech Mahindra said the company's subsidiary Comviva Technologies has agreed to sell its 100% shareholding in Terra Payment Services (Netherlands) BV along with its subsidiaries. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reuters British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan will visit India this week to hold talks to try to deepen trade and economic ties as part of London's push in the Indo-Pacific region, her department said on Sunday. As part of a two-day visit to New Delhi, Trevelyan will hold bilateral talks with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday on green trade, the removal of market access barriers and other issues. They are also expected to confirm the launch of official negotiations on a new UK-India free trade deal, the trade department said in a statement. The workshop focused on the Electronic Records of Sales (EET), aiming to provide information and counselling about issues relevant to local laws and business environment to Vietnamese firms in the Czech Republic. The EET attracts great attention from the Vietnamese community there as the third and fourth phases of this law will be implemented on May 1 and cover more professions like lawyer, accountant, doctor, craftsman and taxi driver. The first and second phases of the EET has been carried out since it came into force on December 1, 2016, applicable to those doing business in the fields of restaurant, hotel, wholesale and retail. Deputy PM Schillerova stressed that the EET helps create a fair business environment and increase budget for the Czech Government. She also appreciated Vietnamese businesses cooperation with her countrys Finance Ministry in the EET enforcement since the law took effect, expressing her belief that they will be able to understand and apply the EET in its third and fourth phases soon. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Vietnamese Business Association in the Czech Republic Pham Thanh Long thanked the Czech Government, especially Deputy PM Schillerova, for giving practical support to Vietnamese firms in the country to better adapt to the local business climate. At the workshop, the Deputy PM and experts from the Czech Finance Ministry fielded questions about the EET from Vietnamese people. On this occasion, Schillerova also visited business facilities of Vietnamese people at the SAPA trading centre, where the event was held. The deputy PM noted the association of young Vietnamese entrepreneurs coordinated with the Czech Finance Ministry to provide translations of the EET and videos guiding the law application for Vietnamese firms. She highly valued the awareness and sense of responsibility of the Vietnamese community in her country, 90% of whom are doing business, in learning about and complying with the EET. New Delhi: 21 people have died due to floods caused by continuous rains in Brazil. The floods have devastated Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Many houses are ruined. 32 people have also been reported missing in Sao Paolo. Due to the recent strong storm, heavy rains caused havoc within a few hours. This wastage can be clearly seen on the southern coast of Sao Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro. Ruckus in Haryana politics regarding groundwater, opposition attacks Officials say the coastal cities of Santos, Sao Vicenta and Guaruja are badly affected by floods and landslides, while at least 16 people died in Sao Paolo on Tuesday. One of these victims was a relief worker who was killed in a landslide. Joao Doria, the governor of Sao Paulo, tweeted, "I am with the people affected by this disaster." Landslides and felling of trees have led to many highway jams. This natural disaster became a political issue when the city's Mayor Marcelo Crivella in Rio blamed the people there for the floods. Shivraj answers to Congress allegations, says, "What should we do if Kamal Nath government falls on its own" He said in a press conference that people throw garbage in the mountainous areas. In the middle of the press talk, mud was thrown on Crivella's face, whose video went viral on social media. 65-year-old Rio resident Evon Cardoso said, 'My kitchen, bathroom, bedroom are filled with dirty water everywhere. In January this year, more than 50 people died due to heavy rains in Minas Gerais, close to Sao Paolo. Income tax raid at Robert Vadra's close and former MLA residence The Delhi Police has registered 531 FIRs and arrested or detained 1,647 people in connection with the communal violence in northeast Delhi, an officer said on Wednesday. Forty-seven of the cases were registered under the Arms Act, the officer said. According to police, the police control room (PCR) did not receive any calls of rioting in the past seven days. The situation in the riot-affected areas was under control, the police said. On Tuesday, Mohammed Shahrukh, who was seen confronting an unarmed police personnel with gun during the violence at Maujpur last week, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:05:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Julia Pierrepont III LOS ANGELES, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Lines of voters, divided in opinions, stretched outside the polls at California's Democratic primary on Tuesday, waiting to cast a vote which they think will make an important difference. "I think it's 'Vote Blue No Matter Who' time," an African American voter who asked only to be identified as "Melissa B.," like many other interviewees who were unwilling to give their full names, told Xinhua. Having moved its primary up to Super Tuesday, California joined 13 other states nationwide that were holding primaries on the same day, in the hope that the results would shape the general picture of the presidential race. With 20.7 million registered voters, the Golden State has the largest electorate among all states in the country, with its 415 delegates -- less than a quarter of the 1,991 needed to win the Democratic nomination -- being critical in determining the final Democratic presidential candidate. The contest was quite intense, though the most recent poll by the Los Angeles Times and the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley predicted Senator Bernie Sanders would win the state by a 2-to-1 margin over his rivals. Many local voters polled by Xinhua prior to voting said they were still undecided about who they should vote for of the many candidates, including Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Senator Elizabeth Warren. "It's so hard to make a decision this time around," Sarah H. said. "Each candidate has some really good ideas and some not-so-good ones." While the Republican Party traditionally favors the privileged wealthy and white, the Democratic Party welcomes members from all walks of life, economic strata, races, genders and sexual orientations. This has often led to a divergence of opinion on policy issues among the Democratic party membership comprised of left-leaning progressives, centrists and fiscal-conservatives. "Every group has an agenda and there's no way they are always going to line up," said Mary from Sunland, California. "Everyone seems to want a different candidate." "I like Bernie," Asian American voter Sean W. told Xinhua. "He cares about the stuff I care about, like free college education and universal healthcare." He added, "Healthcare costs are out of control in this country and if other countries can give their citizens universal healthcare and not break the bank, why can't America? Are we less competent or just more unfair? " For Barbara T., Warren was her choice. "It's about time we had a woman president. (Warren) really cares about the American people and won't make the same mistakes that men make when their egos run over their common sense." But by far the most important standard that all voters seemed to agree on when casting their ballots was which candidate can beat President Donald Trump. "Bloomberg's the guy. He can win and he has the smarts and expertise to put this country back on track," Barney from New York said. "We need a president who is good with money and making international trade deals, like Bloomberg." Sue W., a female voter of Chinese descent, said, "Biden is experienced and I think he can beat Trump." Mark T. of Los Angeles, meanwhile, said he believes that race and gender will certainly play its part in the campaign. It's estimated that among the total 14.5 million voters in November's general election, 53.4 percent will be white, 25.6 percent Latino, 15.4 percent Asian American and 6.5 percent African American, according to a report by the University of California at Los Angeles released last month. Just before Israeli polling stations closed at 10:00 p.m. on March 2 and news networks released their exit poll results, Yaakov Bardugo, an Army Radio political pundit with close ties to the Likud, proclaimed that Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman no longer held the balance of power in the Knesset and that his party would almost certainly suffer a significant loss, after winning eight seats in the September 2019 election. The last polls before March 2 predicted a loss in strength for Liberman, after he sent the country into a tailspin in November 2018 by resigning as defense minister. With 92.5% of the votes counted, Yisrael Beitenu appears to have won seven seats. In other words, despite grim expectations and Bardugos prediction, Liberman only lost one seat, and that can be attributed to high voter turnout. It was premature to eulogize Yisrael Beitenu, which had managed to reinvent itself in 2019 by positioning itself as a secular alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc. Nevertheless, Netanyahu increasing Likud's seats by four, to 36 leaving him only two seats short of his coveted 61-seat majority coalition presents a challenge to Libermans status as the kingmaker who holds the balance of power. The modest press conference on election night at Yisrael Beitenu headquarters and Libermans tired face spoke for themselves. A senior member of Yisrael Beitenu told Al-Monitor that if, as it seems, the right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc holds steady at 59 or 60 seats, his party will no longer be able to block the formation of a new government. At the same time, he repeated Libermans pledge that he would not be part of a right-wing/ultra-Orthodox government, noting that the party has no problem sitting in opposition, as it has in the past. The new seating landscape appears to demand that Yisrael Beitenu reassess its position. A year ago, in the April 2019 election, Yisrael Beitenu only won five seats. Nevertheless, Liberman managed to extricate himself from this low point with a bold and unexpected move: He withdrew Yisrael Beitenu from the right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc and took an independent stand on matters of state and religion. It immediately made him a hot commodity in the political arena. Parties on the left, such as Meretz and Labor, as well as centrist parties, like Shinui and Yesh Atid, have over the years dealt with issues of state and religion to varying degrees. Nevertheless, it has been the rare occasion when it became a central issue, pushing security or socioeconomic issues aside on the national agenda. It seemed impossible to make state and religion a major campaign issue even as important as it is and as much as it impacts the day-to-day lives of Israelis but then Liberman came along and proved that the impossible is possible. Yisrael Beitenu, in its twenty years in the Knesset, never made any real progress on issues like civil marriage, public transportation on the Sabbath and a significant liberalizing of the conversion process. In September 2019, however, Liberman's anti-ultra-Orthodox campaign and his refusal to succumb to Netanyahus appeals to join his right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc won Yisrael Beitenu an additional three seats. Of note, Liberman did not for the most part pick up the new seats from Russian-speaking Israelis, who have been the backbone of Yisrael Beitenu. By then, his partys supporters were quite vocal in their assertions that Liberman should lead the State of Israel. The past few months have been chock full of political, security and diplomatic developments, including a remarkable report that the Israeli army had inflated the number of ultra-Orthodox men being recruited by the IDF when Liberman served as defense minister. Yet, it seemed like matters of state and religion were pushed aside for the main issue in the March election: Netanyahu. Libermans campaign slogan advocating secular, liberal government failed to gain steam this time around, perhaps because no one could see how such a government might actually be formed. The question now is what will happen after the dust settles. If there is no change in the breakdown of seats after all the votes are counted, Liberman will have the final say in who holds power. This, however, would present a dilemma. On the one hand, the chairman of Yisrael Beitenu promised that he would not sit in a right-wing/ultra-Orthodox government. On the other hand, he has also stated that he will not take part in a government that relies on any support, active or passive, from the Arab Joint List, which won an unprecedented 15 seats. If Liberman wont join a right-wing/ultra-Orthodox government headed by Netanyahu or a Gantz government supported from the outside by the Joint List, how does he plan to prevent a fourth round of elections? While speculative at the moment, new elections would not be good for Liberman, no matter what happens. When he first split with Netanyahu, he earned himself the reputation of being independent-minded and daring. Now, he could well be perceived as someone who cant decide to which bloc he actually belongs. If Netanyahu somehow manages to pluck the two Knesset members he needs from the other parties Blue and White, Labor, or Gesher and forms a narrow, right-wing government, Liberman will find himself in the opposition. Although he and the people closest to him say that he is not afraid of sitting on the opposition bench, he is well aware that it would not bode well for him or his party. His electorate appreciates his firm stand against Netanyahu, but it also expects progress on issues of state and religion, not to mention socioeconomic affairs. Liberman will have a hard time keeping the flame lit while in the opposition wilderness, especially when he will be forced to share that space with the Joint List. Libermans preferred option is, of course, a unity government with the Likud and Blue and White, with him serving as a patron of sorts. Given the current situation, however, that is not likely to happen. Netanyahu hardly wants a unity government and is set on forming his new coalition with the same old ultra-Orthodox and right-wing parties. Nevertheless, he may take steps to form a unity government if he realizes that he has no other choice. At that point, the final decision will be left to the Blue and White, not to Liberman. The chairman of Yisrael Beitenu knows how to reinvent himself. At one point, he called for the transfer of Israel's Arab population, and at another time, he protested the diktats of the ultra-Orthodox. He once relied exclusively on the votes of Russian speakers, but in the March election, he received widespread support from Israelis at-large. Liberman once teetered on the electoral threshold, but he has also toyed with the idea of leading the country. To survive the uncertainty that continues to be the only permanent fixture in Israeli politics, he will have to do the impossible and reinvent himself again. Without that, he will disappear from the political map. Politics never forgives anyone who falls asleep on its watch. Now Non-resident Indians (NRIs) can acquire 100 per cent stake in Air India from which the government is disinvesting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday announced after the meeting of the Union Cabinet. Earlier, the cap for the NRIs to acquire stake in the airlines was 49 per cent. "Regarding the strategic sale of Air India, now NRIs can acquire 100 per cent of stake in the airlines. Earlier it was 49 per cent," Javadekar said. The government has initiated the process of divesting its share from Air India and is looking for suitable bidders. Earlier attempts by the government at AI divestment had not elicited a response from the potential buyers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) London, March 4 : Dominic Raab is to press the Saudi Arabian government on its human rights record during his first visit to the country as British foreign secretary, officials said. The Foreign Office said Raab would "engage" with Saudi counterparts on the issue and other areas of "difference", the BBC reported on Wednesday. He will also discuss the "devastating" humanitarian situation in Yemen and efforts to end its long-running war. Labour has urged ministers to end all arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a major protagonist in the Yemeni conflict. Last summer, the UK promised to stop approving export licences for arms to Saudi Arabia which could potentially be used in the civil war following a legal challenge by campaigners. The UK and other Western powers are providing logistical support to a Saudi-led multinational coalition which is supporting the Yemeni government in its fight against the Iranian-backed rebel Houthi movement. The five-year conflict, seen as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, has devastated the country and, according to the UN, claimed the lives of at least 7,500 civilians. Ahead of his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Raab stressed its long-standing economic, security and intelligence ties with the UK but also the need for close co-operation on regional and global challenges. The foreign secretary will hold talks with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and the government's National Security Adviser Musaad Al Aiyban as well as the Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Officials said Raab would continue to "drive progress" on the Yemen peace process, following the recent surge in Houthi violence and constraints on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. Four-fifths of the Yemeni population -- 24 million people -- are in need of humanitarian assistance or protection, including ten million who rely on food aid to survive. tech2 News Staff Due to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers had to cancel Mobile World Congress 2020, which was scheduled to take place in Barcelona in February. Now Google I/O 2020, another major tech event, has been called off for the same reason. The Google event was slated to be held on 12-14 May in California. As per Google, "Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre." (Also read: Coronavirus outbreak FAQ: Face masks, safe meat, tips to stay safe from the deadly airborne infection) The website further adds that all the guests who purchased the tickets to the event will get their refunds by 13 March. They also won't have to apply for next year's tickets because Google will automatically grant them the option of purchasing an I/O 2021 ticket. Usually, Google announces new updates to its hardware, services and apps at this event. Google I/O 2020 and MWC 2020 aren't the only big tech event that got cancelled or postponed because of coronavirus spread, Facebook's F8 developer conference and Game Developer Conference are also on the list. Microsoft Build and Apple WWDC, events that happen around the same time, are likely also on the chopping block. To look at Russia means, in turn, to look at the wily career of Putin. In a way, the film is about the struggle between the two men, Gibney says. It is cobra versus mongoose: a fight to the death that is still going on. 'Of course, the people I serve ultimately are the viewers.' Alex Gibney The earlier history of Khodorkovskys rise to riches is a rattling yarn of greed, gangster capitalism and occasional assassinations. Young Mikhails father was a design engineer at a state factory, his mother was a technician. Professionals though they were, they were poor. When the communist system collapsed, the newly capitalist government gave everyone vouchers so they could start investing in the state-owned industries. But what did that mean? Shortages were rife and people desperate for money; soon, the baffling pieces of government paper were selling on the street for a fraction of their face value. That was the entree for the future oligarchs. Canny Khodorovsky accumulated a wad of vouchers and used this paper to buy up slices of state-owned industries. Oil was his biggest interest. A sham auction a few years later delivered him the oil company Yukos at a peppercorn price, a pattern repeated in all key industries. By 1996, seven men between them owned half of the Russian economy. It was only when he visited Russia and talked to people in the street, says Gibney, that he realised the depth of enduring hostility to Khodorkovsky, not only for his ill-gotten gains but also for his ruthlessness to those who stood in his way. Alex Gibney, director. Credit:AP It is accepted as fact that he ordered the execution of a mayor who tried to stop Citizen Ks mass sacking of workers at the towns oil refinery. Whether its manufactured or its a hangover from the way people really felt, in much of the country he is a reviled figure, says Gibney. He doesnt try to whitewash that past, but is convinced Khodorkovsky has changed. Prison will do some strange things to you, he says. For some people, it might have led them down the path to self-pity thats usually what happens to powerful people, even when theyre still in power. Khodorkovsky was different. Prison didnt break his spirit or fill him with a lust for revenge; instead, he seemed to find a sense of mission. He comes out of prison saying life is not about having, its about being. Its hard to imagine Trump or Putin saying that, Gibney says. I do think there was a change in terms of thinking about what is important in this society, whether human rights are important, whether an independent rule of law is important. I do believe in that change. It is inevitable, says Gibney, that he grows close to his subjects. Of course, the people I serve ultimately are the viewers. For that reason I must be critical which is hard, because over time you develop a sense of trust or affection for the subject, but you also have to be willing to have a distance. Loading Khodorkovsky was extremely reserved when they first met. He was also inclined towards abstraction. The hard part is to get him to speak in concrete ways, but when he does its kind of remarkable. I asked him what he thought Putins greatest nightmare is. I thought it was a metaphorical question, but he answered with great vividness. We hear him ask the question; Khodorovsky answers with alacrity. Putins nightmare would have him walking the corridors of the Kremlin, aware all the telephones are turned off, that nobody is answering him, knowing that his nemesis is finally coming for him. A city couple who were counting days to their big wedding day got the shock of their lives after they found out they were brother and sister. According to reports, the lovebirds had gone to visit the parents of the groom-to-be to announce their plans of settling down together. It was during the visit that they were informed that they are siblings. They were told the bridegrooms father had sired a daughter(bride-to-be) in his first marriage. The pair told Kameme TV that they met in the streets when the man was hawking shoes. A business relationship soon evolved into a love affair that was set to be formalised this year. They have since called off the engagement on the advice of their families. Kikuyu Elders were also consulted; asserting that marriages between siblings are a taboo. They said there was no need for ritual cleansing to ward off evil or a possible calamity given that the couple wasnt married yet. The elders advised couples planning to get married to first consult their families or do thorough research before settling down. They also implored parents to make sure that families meet during functions to avoid such cases. By Michael Arria March 04, 2020 " Information Clearing House " -For the last four years, theres been a national debate regarding the scope of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The issue might end up dominating discourse in 2020 as well. Last month, intelligence officials warned House members that Russia is allegedly meddling in an effort to get Trump reelected. Concerns about Putins impact on U.S. elections has generated countless articles and wall-to-wall cable news coverage. It also fueled an impeachment investigation. However, blatant election interference from other countries is certainly not treated in the same way. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter This contradiction was on display over the weekend, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed AIPACs annual policy conference via video feed. Netanyahu repeatedly referenced Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders, who skipped the conference and claimed that the lobbying group promotes bigotry. At the most recent Democratic debate, Sanders called Netanyahu a reactionary racist. We were all reminded a few days ago that there are forces who seek to break our alliance, said Netanyahu, Last year, those who came to AIPAC were accused of dual loyalty. This year, AIPAC was accused of providing a platform for bigotry. These libelous charges are outrageous. Netanyahu wasnt the only Israeli official to attack Sanders at the conference. Israels ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said, We dont want Sanders at AIPAC. We dont want him in Israel. Anyone who calls our prime minister a racist is either a liar, an ignorant fool or both. Responding to Danons comments on Face the Nation, Sanders said he was calling for a more evenhanded foreign policy. I am not anti-Israelbut what we need in this country is a foreign policy that not only protects Israel but deals with the suffering of the Palestinian people as well, said Sanders. This certainly isnt the first time that Netanyahu has intervened in United States politics. In 2015, the Prime Minister infamously visited Washington so that he could argue against former president Barack Obamas Iran Deal in congress. Obama was never consulted about the visit and the administration called it a departure from protocol. A bipartisan group of executive councillors and opposition lawmakers will meet with US officials in California this week, the first such delegation since the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act was signed into law in November amid accusations of meddling by Beijing. Four members of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngors Executive Council are expected to defend the citys handling of the months-long anti-government protests, while three pan-democrats will push for more details on the mechanisms of the new legislation, which raises the spectre of sanctions for officials deemed responsible for human rights violations. Exco convenor Bernard Chan and lawmakers Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan and Martin Liao Cheung-kong will make the trip alongside opposition lawmakers Jeremy Tam Man-ho, Kenneth Leung and Charles Mok. Pro-establishment lawmaker Regina Ip said she planned to offer her own view of the ongoing protest movement as a counterpoint to unfair international news coverage. Photo: Felix Wong The group will present their competing visions of Hong Kong to senior members of the US executive and legislative branches at a Thursday to Sunday World Affairs Council forum in San Francisco, according to the US Consulate Generals spokesman. The State Department is providing financial support for the trip. The objective is to deepen the mutual understanding and exchange that has long been a hallmark of US-Hong Kong ties, the spokesman said on Tuesday, adding a list of participants from the US side was pending. Tam told the Post that the consulates invitation specified the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would be on the agenda. The act, drafted during a period of unprecedented unrest in Hong Kong marked by violent clashes between anti-government protesters and police, was signed by US President Donald Trump despite multiple warnings from China. I want to know more about the mechanism and the procedure for initiating sanctions on Hong Kong, Tam said. Regarding the protests, I will talk about the loophole of the Independent Police Complaints Council and want to [discuss] how the US handled similar cases. Story continues Pro-democracy lawmakers have long argued that the IPCC lacks the power or capacity to effectively discipline police. Cheung, meanwhile, a vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he planned to give US officials at a true picture of Hong Kong at the event. We will tell US officials and politicians that freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong are not affected by the protests over the extradition bill, Cheung said. Opposition lawmaker Jeremy Tam told the Post he will push for more details of how sanctions might be initiated under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Photo: Sam Tsang He said the group was tentatively scheduled to meet Jonathan Fritz, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs responsible for China, Mongolia, and Taiwan coordination, during the tour, along with officials from the US Department of Commerce and staff from the House of Representatives. Asked if he was worried the US government would impose sanctions on Hong Kong in the near future, Cheung said: We cant worry too much as its something beyond our control. New Peoples Party chairwoman Regina Ip said she planned to offer her own views on the protests and the citys human rights status, a counterpoint to foreign media reports she believes have misrepresented the situation in Hong Kong. She said this weeks dialogue was part of the preparation work for a report on the implementation of the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act due to be handed over to Congress by the end of March. Lawmaker Regina Ip plans to offer her own view of the Hong Kong protest situation, a corrective, she believes, to unfairly skewed international media coverage. Photo: Jonathan Wong Ip also took part in last years US-Hong Kong Legislative Exchange, which was convened by the Mansfield Foundation in August in Montana. She and lawmaker Felix Chung Kwok-pan represented the pro-establishment camp while four pan-democrats also attended the event. Separately, the top Chinese envoy in Hong Kong on Tuesdayexpressed strong disapproval and firm opposition to comments made by two US Senate Foreign Relations Committee members over the recent arrest of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and two former pro-democracy lawmakers. In a statement posted on its official website, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry commissioners office in Hong Kong accused the relevant senators of glorifying Jimmy Lai and his ilk, adding that the senators calls for implementing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to levy sanctions equated to blatant interference in Hong Kong affairs and Chinas domestic affairs. While the commissioners office statement did not name the senators, but it followed a Monday statement by US Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez expressing concern over the arrests of Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Yeung Sum. This article Bipartisan delegation to offer competing visions of Hong Kong at forum with US officials in San Francisco this week first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. Modi government's flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri has helped in raising women's ownership of bank accounts from 43 per cent in 2014 to 77 per cent in 2017, according to a report. Consulting firm MicroSave Consulting (MSC) in a report titled 'The real story of women's financial inclusion in India' said the country has succeeded in reducing the gender gap in financial inclusion by 14 percentage points in three years (2014-17). "The Pradhan Mantri (PMJDY) raised women's ownership of bank accounts from 43 per cent in 2014 to an extraordinary 77 per cent in 2017," it said. Neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, are far behind with just 36 per cent and 7 per cent share in account ownership by women, respectively. The report, however, pointed out that some accounts are still inactive. MSC Group Managing Director Graham A N Wright said that there is need to understand the complex gender issues that often limit the use of these accounts. PMJDY, launched on August 27, 2014, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was aimed at providing financial services to the poor. These included opening bank accounts for the poor, giving them electronic means of payment (via RuPay cards), and placing them in a position to avail themselves of credit and insurance. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:45:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that some foreign media reports over the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country are aimed at creating distress among people, Press TV reported. Rouhani decried "certain" foreign media outlets for their attempts at causing public distress through dissemination of "false news" concerning the novel coronavirus outbreak, said the report. Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education is "fully transparent" in this regard and updates people about the ongoing situation of disease in the country, Rouhani was quoted as saying. He urged the foreign media to avoid using their platform as a propaganda machine against Iran. Iran announced the first cases of infection by the COVID-19 on Feb. 19. Since then the disease has affected 2,922 Iranians and has claimed the lives of 92. In less than a week, former Vice President Joe Biden went from never having won a presidential primary state to securing dominating wins across the country, clearing the field of moderate rivals and setting up a competitive showdown with Bernie Sanders in Michigan. Bidens prospects of securing the nomination were in doubt after losing the first three primary states but he decisively won South Carolina last weekend, kicking off a comeback tour that produced victories in nine of 14 states voting on Super Tuesday. Bidens resurgence reshapes the dynamics of Michigans March 10 primary, where Sanders had been expected to secure a repeat of his 2016 primary victory. David Dulio, head of the political science department at Oakland University, said theres no question that the Democratic primary, which had attracted nearly 30 candidates during the last year, has finally become a two-person race. Its a pretty stunning turnaround for the former vice president, Dulio said. He was pretty much left for dead." J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Michigan is a must-win for the Sanders campaign, which needs a big victory to keep Biden at bay. Sanders has two rallies planned in Detroit and Grand Rapids before voting begins next Tuesday, while Biden has yet to announce any campaign appearances. Elizabeth Warren pledged to continue her campaign at a rally Detroit and scheduled another gathering in Lansing, but she failed to win any states and finished third in her home state of Massachusetts. She deserves tremendous credit, said Abby Clark, president of progressive communications firm Athena Strategies. She has been the policy leader in this race, her candidacy is extremely meaningful to a lot of communities and women in particular. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the race after spending nearly $560 million on Super Tuesday states only to lose virtually everywhere. His campaign previously said the 100 staff he dispatched to Michigan will remain to support the Democratic nominee, regardless of who wins. Mike Bloomberg has spent a half a billion dollars and he won American Samoa, Dulio said. "He may as well have just lit it on fire. Michigan pollster Richard Czuba said voters are making up their mind based on who can beat President Donald Trump in November. Michigan played a key role in electing Trump four years ago, and the state is viewed as one of the top battlegrounds to decide the general elections outcome. Voters appear to be leaning toward Biden. Recent dropouts Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar tried to consolidate their supporters around the former vice president by offering their endorsements after leaving the race. Late deciders broke heavily for Biden, Dulio said. A new Detroit News/WDIV-TV survey of 600 likely Michigan Democratic primary voters found Biden ahead of Sanders by nearly 7 percentage points. The poll offers a sharp contrast to previous surveys of Michigan voters taken when the field was larger, which found Sanders with a similar lead over Biden. Glengariff Group conducted the poll by surveying a set of 150 voters each day from Feb. 28 to March 2, giving Czuba a look at how Michiganders began to swing toward Biden during the last few days. We were literally catching the wind as we did this survey, from the first night where we had Bernie Sanders leading, to Saturday, where we saw the race poll even, Czuba said. Then we just saw Biden surge, and we literally said, what the hell is going on here? It really was one of the most dramatic shifts Ive seen in such a short period of time. Czuba cautioned that the race remains fluid -- 35% percent of Biden and Sanders supporters said the could still change their minds -- but the recent shift is notable. I think its clearly a two-person race, Czuba said. Ive been watching Michigan for 37 years. Numbers dont change in a weekend. They dont change in a period of two days the way they have." Sanders campaign quickly launched new ads in Michigan and other states voting on March 10. One of the ads criticized Biden for being open to Social Security cuts, another features former President Barack Obama saying feel the Bern and the third focuses on Sanders joining the UAW picket line in Detroit. Voters overwhelmingly said selecting a Democratic nominee who can beat Trump is more important than finding a candidate who agrees with them on the issues. Democratic voters said they were more concerned about who can beat Trump by a margin of 49% to 28%, with older voters particularly putting a larger emphasis on ousting Trump. Czuba said Bidens new coalition in Michigan and other states depends on African Americans, people over 50 and suburban women. Biden is well-suited to make gains among what Czuba called the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer coalition; suburban women and college-educated Democrats. In 2016, that was a group that Sanders had some strength with, Coleman said. Sanders is still doing well in college areas, looking to next week I expect him to do well in places like Ann Arbor, but some of Sanders coalition that he had in suburban and rural parts of the state might be in trouble. Clark said those voters arent excited about Sanders promises of political revolution. Democratic voter are simply desperate to beat Trump, she said. I think those people want a democratically-elected president, Clark said. Revolution is not top of mind." Matt Grossman, director of Michigan State Universitys Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, said Biden appears to gain support as candidates exit the race. It seems to me more that Bernie has not expanded his coalition as much, Grossman said. To the extent that he has expanded it, hes basically lost rural white voters who didnt like Hillary Clinton, and hes gained Hispanics, and that is a bad trade for doing well in Michigan. The Glengariff poll also found 11% of Bidens supporters said they could not vote for Sanders. Biden, who easily won states with large concentrations of black voters, appears to have strong support among African American voters in Michigan. The Glengariff poll found Biden leading Sanders with black men by 28 percentage points and Biden leading with black women by 23 points. One major factor which could tip the scale for Biden is the new opportunity for voters to request an absentee ballot for any reason. People who vote by absentee are typically older, which benefits Biden more than Sanders. The Glengariff poll found Biden leads by 19 points among voters who have already cast a ballot. A comparatively small number of voters aged 18-29, a core part of Sanders base, plan to vote by absentee. Czuba said Biden could be walking into election day with a 150,000-vote cushion, and a staggering obstacle for the Sanders camp. I joke that last night was the revenge of the boomers, Czuba said. Whats shaping up in Michigan is the revenge of older voters. Theyre taking control of this process. Read more on MLive: Elizabeth Warren tells Michigan shes the woman to beat Donald Trump at Super Tuesday campaign rally Bloombergs Michigan agenda includes more funding for Great Lakes, roads and housing What happens if I voted for someone who dropped out of Michigans presidential primary? What Michigan voters need to know about absentee ballots for March 10 primary Bernie Sanders could seize second Michigan presidential primary win, this time as Democratic front-runner Gov. Kristi Noem drafts bill limiting 'action civics' This legislation prohibits colleges and schools from directing, requiring or compelling students to protest or lobby as part of a grade or a class. By Online Desk The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 28, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced on Wednesday. Twenty-two of these cases were confirmed today making it the biggest single-day spike since the outbreak was first reported. These cases include 16 Italian tourists who had travelled with their countryman, who initially tested positive. The Indian driver of the tourists has also tested positive. Addressing the media about the recent rise in the COVID-19 cases in India, the minister said, "From now on, all flights and passengers will be part of universal screening, not just those to the 12 countries which we had listed earlier." Six positive cases were reported in Agra. They are all relatives of the Delhi-based man who tested positive earlier and caught the infection from him. Meanwhile, tech giant Intel said one of its employees in Bengaluru had "potentially been exposed" to the coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. According to the Health Ministry, about 5,89,000 people were screened at airports and over 15,000 people at minor and major seaports and over 10 lakhs at the border of Nepal, till Tuesday. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala. All three patients have now recovered and were discharged from hospital. The Union Health Minister has requested all hospitals in Delhi to develop good quality isolation wards, in order to stay prepared for more coronavirus cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda are among leaders who have said they will not celebrate Holi or hold any Holi Milan function in view of the novel Coronavirus outbreak. Global deaths due to the coronavirus outbreak on Monday rose above 3,000 with the new count in China mainland rising to 2,912. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world. (With PTI, ANI, ENS inputs) (CNN) A reinvigorated Joe Biden has a nine state Super Tuesday victory haul, capped by topping Sen. Bernie Sanders for an upset victory in Texas after his comeback campaign transformed the Democratic presidential race. Just four days ago, the former vice president's White House hopes were fading fast. Now, he has hugely overperformed expectations on the most critical night of the 2020 race so far and the duel for the nomination is becoming a head-to-head with the democratic socialist from Vermont. Biden grabbed highly significant victories in Virginia and North Carolina early in the night that suggested he is building a robust coalition, and added wins across the South -- where his strength among African American voters is a big advantage -- in Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, according to CNN projections. But he also took chunks out of territory that had been expected to lean to Sanders. He won Minnesota, CNN projects, suggesting that home state Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who quit the race Monday and endorsed him, may have played a pivotal role. He also upset Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, a massive blow to Warren in her home state. And in a late developing story, Sanders and Biden are neck-and-neck in Texas with 60% of the vote counted. Even if Sanders hangs on to a state his campaign expected to win, owing to his strong ties to Hispanic voters, the tight nature of race means he will not get the wide advantage in the delegate count for which he had hoped. Sanders is leading in California -- the state with the most delegates on offer -- though both Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg could reach the viability threshold to win delegates and cut the size of his advantage. It all represents a stunning turnaround for a candidate who launched the first of his presidential campaigns 33 years ago but had to wait until Saturday night for a first career-saving victory in South Carolina, which appears to have unleashed a torrent of momentum rarely seen in any presidential cycle. "Folks, things are looking awful good. For those that have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign. Just a few days ago the press and the pundits declared the campaign dead!" a pumped-up Biden roared to a crowd in Los Angeles. "It's looking good, so I'm here to report we are very much alive. And make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing." Sanders held serve in his home state of Vermont and later added Colorado and Utah, and his aides are predicting that the picture will become rosier for the progressive champion as votes are counted in Texas and California -- the states with the biggest delegate hauls. CNN exit polls show Sanders is the early leader in the Golden State. Biden and Sanders are also locked in a tight race in Maine. Sanders told a raucous crowd in his home state that his campaign was still on a roll on a night when a third of all pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July are on the ballot in 14 states. "Tonight I tell you with absolute confidence we are going to win the Democratic nomination and we are going to defeat the most dangerous President in the history of this country," he said. Early Super Tuesday projections and results suggested a disappointing night could be in store for Bloomberg and Warren, who both need to make a statement to have a rationale for staying in the race. As votes are counted, both rivals were looking to vault the 15% threshold needed to win delegates in several states. Bloomberg got one piece of cheerful news, winning the territory of American Samoa to open his delegate count. Biden's big early wins enshrine one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern political history. A week ago, his campaign was running on empty after poor showings in the first three nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. But a massive win in Saturday's South Carolina primary now appears to have triggered a rebound that appears to be expanding in the 14 states that voted on Tuesday. Virginia was seen as a significant test of Biden's strength against former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is facing voters for the first time in the 14 nationwide primaries after a half-billion-dollar advertising blitz. The results in Alabama and North Carolina will confirm the former vice president's strength among African American and affluent suburban voters on whom he is basing his campaign. Sanders and Biden are the early leaders in Maine, and the two are also in the early lead in Massachusetts along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is hoping for a win in her home state. Late deciders and black voters break for Biden Since his thumping victory in South Carolina on Saturday, Biden has enjoyed one of the most impressive streaks by a modern presidential candidate. He's consolidated the center of his party after his sudden revival caused top rivals -- former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar -- to quit and endorse him. Establishment Democrats are rushing to endorse him and the once-dry fundraising spigot is suddenly gushing. From the moment polls closed on Tuesday, Biden began racking up wins. A mix of affluent suburban voters in the Washington suburbs and African American voters downstate was a good fit for Biden in Virginia, a battleground won twice by former President Barack Obama. But it was a state where Bloomberg had high hopes of making an impact, and Biden's success may be a bad omen for the financial data billionaire, whose entire campaign is premised on the idea that the former vice president cannot win the nomination. Biden's projected victory in North Carolina came from voters who decided in the last few days, black voters, and those who prefer a candidate who can beat Trump in November. According to early exit polls, around 3 in 10 Democratic voters in North Carolina decided who to vote for in the last few days. Almost 3 in 5 of those voters supported Biden -- suggesting that the departures of Buttigieg and Klobuchar helped consolidate voters behind the former vice president. Black voters voted for Biden in strong numbers in North Carolina, around 6 in 10. In Alabama, Biden carried black voters, moderates and voters whose priority is to beat Trump in 2020. Democratic black voters in Alabama, who made up almost half of the electorate, supported Biden in huge numbers, around 7 in 10, according to early exit polls. Sanders trailed behind with 1 in 7 black voters, and Mike Bloomberg won around 1 in 10. In Texas, the second biggest prize of the night, a quarter of Democratic primary voters only made up their minds in the last few days -- and Biden drew 2 in 5 of those voters. But three quarters of those Texas Democrats decided who to support much earlier, and a third of those supported Sanders, the most of any candidate. In Minnesota, half of late-deciding voters went for Biden. There are 1,300 delegates up for grabs on Tuesday, a third of the total delegates. A candidate needs 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination on a first convention ballot. There are no winner-take-all states and any candidate who receives more than 15% of the vote in a state will win delegates to July's convention in Milwaukee. Polls in the 14 states started closing at 7 p.m. ET. Voting in California continues until 11 p.m. ET. Given the vast geographic span of the Super Tuesday Election Day, it's unlikely there will be a total picture of the situation at the end of the night. The Golden State could, for instance, take days or even weeks to sort out its delegate allocation. Sanders ready for fight with party establishment Sanders reacted to Buttigieg and Klobuchar coalescing around Biden by suggesting that the "political establishment is getting nervous" while at a rally on Monday night on Klobuchar's home turf in Minnesota. While calling Biden a "decent guy" and a "friend," the Vermont senator savaged his former colleague's record on issues like China trade, bankruptcy laws, NAFTA and the war in Iraq. But Biden drove home his message that after a turbulent three years of Trump's administration, Americans are not looking for more disruption that he says would result from a Sanders win. "My message is people are not looking for revolution. They're looking for results. I have the most extensive, successful record of getting big things done and big things passed," Biden said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." But Warren warned that Biden's pitch was simply about restoring a political order that had spurned working class Americans. "Nominating someone who wants to restore the world before Donald Trump, when the status quo has been leaving more and more people behind for decades, is a big risk for our party and our country," Warren said at a rally in Los Angeles on Monday. As he waits to see how voters will embrace his campaign after skipping the first four nominating contests, Bloomberg took a shot at Warren, who blasted him in their debate encounters. "I didn't realize she's still in. Is she?" Bloomberg said to CNN's Cristina Alesci. Asked how he expected to perform on Tuesday night, he added, "I think we are going to do very well -- looking forward to it." Warren and Bloomberg look ahead on disappointing nights Warren and Bloomberg knew they had to have big nights to regain some momentum, but early returns from key states failed to give the news their campaigns needed. Still, both appeared set to keep pushing forward. Warren and her team knew they weren't having a good night, but a top Democrat close to the campaign said they are keeping their eyes -- and pinning their fading hopes -- on California. Two things will determine her future: whether she can be viable in Texas and whether she can show more strength in Massachusetts. Advisers told CNN she wants to stay in the race to be an alternative to Sanders and Biden, if this becomes a three-way contest. "She wants to be on the debate stage in Arizona as an alternative choice," the top Democrat close to the Warren campaign said, but added that the "delegate math is looking increasingly tough." Warren has no bundlers and big donors, so her advisers believe she is less beholden to calls to drop out. But she does need money, which will be difficult to raise if Tuesday is a major disappointment. Bloomberg took the stage for his first election night party of the 2020 cycle and quickly lowered expectations. "As the results come in, here is what is clear," he said. "No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible." He added: "In just three months, we have gone from 1% in the polls to be a contender for the Democratic nomination for President." The line from the former New York mayor reflects a reality setting in for Bloomberg's team: Tuesday night did not go as planned. This story has been updated with additional developments from Super Tuesday 2020. This story was first published on CNN.com. "Biden's surprise win in Texas caps historic Super Tuesday while Sanders turns to California." The government has detached gas utility GAIL India, explorer and other from a Supreme Court order that had led to Rs 1.47 lakh crore being sought from telecom firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in past dues, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Following the October 24 order of the Supreme Court asking inclusion of non-telecom revenues for calculating statutory dues such as license fee and spectrum charges of telecom firms, the Department of Telecommunications has sought a cumulative Rs 2.7 lakh crore from GAIL and other non-telecom The demand was challenged by state-owned firms. "Supreme Court has detached the public sector undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgment dated October 24, 2019, and directed them to seek relief from an appropriate forum," Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to a question in the Lower House of Parliament. The DoT had sought Rs 1.83 lakh crore from GAIL and Rs 48,489 crore from OIL by including their revenues from oil and gas business in calculating dues for leasing out surplus bandwidth capacity to third parties. Power Grid Corp was slapped with Rs 21,953.65 crore liability and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd faced Rs 15,019.97 crore demand. RailTel and Delhi Metro too faced similar demands. "Public sector undertakings such as GAIL, Oil India, etc represented to Department of Telecom that the AGR judgment is not applicable on them and therefore they do not owe any dues to the Department of Telecom," Dhotre said. The challenge to such demand was heard by the apex court last month. "After the Supreme Court order dated February 14, 2020, the government abides by the orders of Supreme Court," he said. On February 14, the Supreme Court had pulled up the DoT for not enforcing its October 24 order that gave telcos three months' time to pay dues. Hours later, the DoT sent notices to Airtel and Vodafone Idea asking them to clear dues immediately. To a separate question, Dhotre said the government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom towards AGR liabilities and Rs 1,30,440.4 crore remained to be paid. This number, however, does not seem to reflect the latest tranche of payment made by Bharti Airtel on February 29. Detailing out payments made by telecom to the DoT towards statutory dues, Dhotre informed that against the provisional total dues of Rs 1,46,336.9 crore, payment to the tune of Rs 15,896.5 crore has been received. Bharti Airtel paid Rs 10,000 crore, with Rs 27,740 crore balance remaining, he said, adding Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 49,538 crore remained due. Similarly, Tata Group paid Rs 2,197.3 crore, and Rs 11,625 crore remained due. OIL, the nation's second-biggest state-owned oil producer, holds a National Long Distance Service Licence (NLD) with primary objective of monitoring and operation of its pipeline network. The surplus bandwidth capacity available with the company was leased out to the telecom operators/other users, on which the company regularly paid the applicable license fee to the telecom department (DoT). But, after the October 24 Supreme Court ruling for including non-telecom revenues for calculating dues, the DoT included all revenues from oil and gas to seek Rs 48,489 crore from the company for the period from 2007-08 to 2018-19. In case of GAIL, which held a IP-II licence, the DoT assessed Rs 1,83,076 crore as outstanding after including interest and penalty computed on the entire revenue of the company. PowerGrid, which holds NLD and Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences, was asked to pay Rs 21,953.65crore (including interest and penalty) for FY 2012-13 to FY 2017-18 by adding revenue related to power transmission and consultancy as 'miscellaneous income' in adjusted grossrevenue, company sources said, adding the firm will approach the TDSAT in next few days. Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, which had a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and a Category 'A' ISP, was asked to pay Rs 15,019.97 crore for the financial year 2005-06 to 2018-19. HOUSTON, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tokio Marine HCC today announced it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire managing general agent GCube, a leading renewable energy risks specialist. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020. "We are pleased to acquire this outstanding underwriting organization and welcome the passion the GCube team of market-leading renewable energy professionals brings to the development of climate-friendly business models," said Susan Rivera, Tokio Marine HCC's Chief Executive Officer. GCube is one of the world's largest underwriters of renewable energy, covering wind, solar, bio, hydro, wave and tidal projects globally. The business writes global property and liability cover for renewable energy construction and operational risks in 40 countries around the world and is a significant capacity provider to this expanding and dynamic market. GCube employs approximately 50 people and is based in London with additional offices in Amsterdam, New York and Newport Beach, California. "This strategic investment underlines our commitment to the renewable energy insurance market and our desire to actively address the issues around sustainability, helping us move towards a safe, secure and sustainable future. GCube also adds significant weight to our existing classes of specialty insurance and is in line with our strategy of acquiring businesses which possess real market-leading expertise, complement our existing portfolio and offer opportunities for growth and diversification," stated Barry Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Tokio Marine HCC - International Group. Fraser McLachlan, GCube's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are delighted to become part of the Tokio Marine HCC family. The group's corporate social responsibility efforts, financial strength and global reach leave us ideally positioned to continue our expansion in one of the most vibrant and evolving sectors of the market." "We have worked closely with the GCube team for a number of years, and their addition to our group is a natural extension of this relationship. The renewable market offers significant opportunities for growth, and GCube's 25 years' experience as a global leader clearly positions Tokio Marine HCC as an important trading and innovation partner in this emerging field," added Simon Button, Chief Underwriting Officer - London Market division of Tokio Marine HCC - International Group. Tokio Marine HCC is a member of the Tokio Marine Group, a premier global company founded in 1879 with a market capitalization of $39 billion as of December 31, 2019. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Tokio Marine HCC is a leading specialty insurance group with offices in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Tokio Marine HCC's major domestic insurance companies have financial strength ratings of "A+. PUNE, India, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceramic Tiles Market Overview: The global Ceramic Tiles Market size is projected to reach USD 82.83 billion by 2026, attributable to the rise in construction activities worldwide. Ceramic tiles offer functions such as scratch-resistance, slip-resistance, cracking-resistance, and are appealing aesthetically. Fortune Business insights provide a comprehensive overview of the market in their recently published report titled "Ceramic Tiles Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Application Area (Floor, Walls, Others), By End-Use (Residential, Non-Residential), and Geography Forecast till 2026." As per this report, the market size was USD 57.26 billion in 2018 and will rise at a CAGR of 4.7% between 2019 to 2026. Ceramic Tiles Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 What is the Scope of the Report? The report discusses the ceramic tiles industry in detail, primarily focusing on key industry developments, major growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. It also throws light on key players operating in the market and discusses the strategies adopted by these players for gaining momentum in the market. Furthermore, the report provides a detailed table of segmentation based on factors such as application, end-use, and geographies and mentions the names of the leading segments and their future growth prospects. Current Ceramic Tiles Market trends are also presented in the report. For more information, one may log on to the company website. Request a Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 Key Drivers Government-supported Initiatives to Improve Existing Infrastructure will Bode Well for Market Increasing construction and renovation activities worldwide is a significant factor propelling the Ceramic Tiles Market growth. This, coupled with the rise in government initiatives to improve public recreational spaces such as hospitals, schools, and public transport, are likely to aid in the expansion of the market. Moreover, the rise in disposable incomes of people, coupled with the rapid industrialization and modernization, propelled people to renovate and reconstruct existing homes and commercial spaces. Furthermore, the advent and rising popularity of customizable and digitally printed ceramic tiles and the currently trending phase of interior decorations will further help the market generate high revenue in the forthcoming years. Regional Segmentation: Asia Pacific to Emerge Dominant Owing to Rapid Construction and Renovation Activities Geographically, Asia Pacific emerged as the largest Ceramic Tiles Market shareholder on account of the presence of the largest consumer and manufacturer in the region. Additionally, the rapidly evolving construction industry is also making a considerable contribution to the market in terms of the increasing trend for construction and renovation activities in the region. On the other side, the market in North America will witness significant growth in the forecast period owing to the rising trend of customization and personalization for households and commercial spaces in the developed nations of the region. In 2018, this region earned USD 4.00 billion. Furthermore, the increasing demand for energy-efficient and green buildings for utilization as government and business offices are likely to add impetus to the market in the coming years. Get Detail Market Insights of This Research with TOC: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 List of Leading Ceramic Tiles Market Manufacturers include; Kajaria Ceramics Limited Ceramic Industries Group Ceramica Carmelo Fior White Horse Ceramic MOHAWK INDUSTRIES INC. STN Ceramica Dynasty Ceramic Public Company Limited LASSELSBERGER Group Grupo Celima Trebol SCG CERAMICS Elizabeth Group PAMESA CERAMICA SL Grupo Cedasa Kale Group RAK CERAMICS PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk Vitromex USA , Inc. , Inc. Cersanit Group Grupo Lamosa Somany Ceramics Others Competitive Landscape: Players to Focus on Maintaining a Diverse Product Portfolio The market for ceramic tiles is highly fragmented in nature due to the presence of many players. Major companies operating in the market are focusing on the launch of innovative products differing in style, design, size, and every aspect from the others. Therefore, vendors are making massive investments for the same to stand out in the competition and attract substantial Ceramic Tiles Market revenues in the forecast period. Apart from this, companies are also trying to expand their geographical presence and are thus taking initiatives for the same. Order a Complete Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102377 Detailed Table of Content: 1. Introduction 1.1. Research Scope 1.2. Market Segmentation 1.3. Research Methodology 1.4. Definitions and Assumptions 2. Executive Summary 3. Market Dynamics 3.1. Market Drivers 3.2. Market Restraints 3.3. Market Opportunities 4. Key Insights 4.1. Key Emerging Trends For Major Countries 4.2. Key Developments: Mergers, Acquisition, Partnership, etc. 4.3. Latest Technological Advancement 4.4. Insights on Regulatory Scenario 4.5. Porters Five Forces Analysis 5. Global Ceramic Tiles Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 5.1. Key Findings / Summary 5.2. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Application Area 5.2.1. Floor 5.2.2. Walls 5.2.3. Others 5.3. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By End-Use 5.3.1. Residential 5.3.2. Non-Residential 5.4. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Region 5.4.1. North America 5.4.2. Europe 5.4.3. Asia pacific 5.4.4. South America 5.4.5. Middle East & Africa TOC Continued! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 Key Industry Developments of Ceramic Tiles Market Include; February 2020 One of the biggest tile showrooms was inaugurated in Hyderabad by Kajaria Ceramics Limited. The major objective behind this launch was to improve the distribution channel of the company all over India. October 2019 A new set of seven tile varieties were launched by Mohawk Industries Inc. under the name of Daltile. Each of these tiles differed in size, shape, design, style, and color, and this innovation in tile production is likely to create a diverse portfolio for the company. Have a Look at Related Market Insights: Ceramics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Traditional, Advanced), By Application (Tiles, Sanitary Wares, Abrasives, Pottery, Bricks & Pipes, Others), By End-Use Industry (Building & Construction, Industrial, Medical, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Paints and Coatings Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Resin (Epoxy, Acrylic, Polyester, Alkyd, PU, and Others), By Technology (Waterborne, Solvent Borne, Powder Coating, and Others) By Application (Architectural, Automotive OEM, Marine, Coil, General Industries, Protective Coatings, Automotive Refinish, Industrial Wood, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019 2026 Adhesives & Sealants Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Adhesive Technology (Water-Based, Solvent-Based, Hot-Melt, Reactive And Others), By Adhesive Application (Paper & Packaging, Building & Construction, Woodworking, Consumer/DIY, Automotive & Transportation, Leather & Footwear And Others), By Resin (Silicone, Polyurethane, Plastisol, Emulsion, Polysulfide, Butyl And Others), By Sealant Application (Building & Construction, Automotive & Transportation, Consumer And Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Plastics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polyvinyl Chloride, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, Polyamide, Polycarbonate, Polyurethane, Polystyrene, and Others), By End-Use Industry (Packaging, Automotive & Transportation, Infrastructure & Construction, Consumer Goods/Lifestyle, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Electrical & Electronics, Textile, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Composites Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Matrix (Polymer matrix composites, Ceramic matrix composites and Metal matrix composites), by Polymer matrix composites (Fiber {Glass, Carbon, Aramid} and Resin {Thermoset, Thermoplastics}), by Application, and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis By Product (Head Protection, Eye & Face Protection, Hearing Protection, Protective Clothing, Respiratory Protection, Fall Protection Protective Footwear, Hand Protection, and Others), By Application (Construction, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Chemical, Food, Pharmaceutical, Transportation, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Aramid Fiber Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Para, Meta and Others), By Application (Security & Protection, Frictional Materials, Rubber reinforcement, Optical fiber, Tire reinforcement, Electrical insulation, Aerospace and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Abrasives Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Materials (Natural and Synthetic), By Product (Bonded, Coated, and Super Abrasive), By Application (Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, Metal Fabrication, Machinery, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Bioplastics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Biodegradable and Non-biodegradable), By Application (Rigid Packaging, Flexible Packaging, Textiles, Automotive & Transportation, Agriculture & Horticulture, Consumer Goods, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 High Strength Steel Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA), Dual Phase (DP), Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP), Martensitic (MS), and Others), By Application (Automotive, Building & Construction, Mechanical & Heavy Equipment, Rail, Aviation & Marine, and Others), and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 Polyurethane Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product Type (Rigid Foam, Flexible Foam, Molded Foam, Elastomers, Adhesives & Sealants, Coatings, and Others), By Application (Furniture, Construction, Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, Packaging, Footwear, and Others), and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. 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Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US :+1-424-253-0390 UK : +44-2071-939123 APAC : +91-744-740-1245 Email: [email protected] Fortune Business Insights Linkedin | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release on Ceramic Tiles Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/ceramic-tiles-market-9632 SOURCE Fortune Business Insights Giving birth in the bush, being forced into prostitution, unable to go to school, struggling to take care of family women in Cameroon's Anglophone regions are suffering as the crisis continues, unabated, as women such as Pearl, 30, scramble to protect their families and survive during difficult times. There was shooting from morning until night, and we don't know who's shooting, says Pearl, who fled on December 10 with her husband and three children-- and the rest of Ekona village. It took three hours for the village to get to safety in the bush. She remembers the buildup of violence around the beginning of October, when she gave birth to her daughter in the local hospital. I was so stressed because I heard the gunshots, I couldn't nurse the baby for three days after I gave birth, she said. And she was one of the lucky ones. North-West and South-West regions erupted in violence in 2017 after a Francophone central government crackdown on peaceful protests. The repression against Anglophone teachers and lawyers rallying against alleged discrimination spurred an armed separatist movement and self-declaration of independence for so-called Ambazonia. This conflict has escalated between armed separatists, and the Cameroonian security forces in the villages and towns, as people flee both sides, not knowing if a stray bullet will kill their family members or themselves. The various armed groups are fighting against the Cameroonian military, specifically the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), the elite fighting unit accused of human rights abuses in the far north of the country. While the Anglophone crisis has escalated over the past three years, women who experienced major tragedy in one blow continue to suffer. Giving birth in the bush At Mount St. Mary hospital in Buea, General Supervisor Isadore Ngunyam reflects on the spike in cases of sexual violence, rape, and gunshot wounds. But pregnant women delivering babies in the bush has also increased, he says, because they are unable to access medical assistance. Just two days ago, a lady delivered somewhere in Munya. Because they were not able to get here or somewhere else nearby, they got here two days later. As soon as they arrived, unfortunately, we lost the child, he said. There are so many cases like this, we can't even count. Giving birth in the bush has become normalized, even for the international agencies and non-governmental organisations who are trying to help. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) works throughout Cameroon, where it handles social and reproductive health. Part of its work is providing kits, including rape kits, caesarian birth kits, and even bush kits for those who need them. Each bush kit contains the essential items for women who are giving birth in the bush -- a clean plastic sheet to give birth on, gloves, scissors to cut the cord, as well as diapers for the newborn. UNFPA has carried out bush kit distribution since 2018. Cameroon, unlike a number of other countries in Central Africa, was not a war-torn state. Cameroonians lived in relative peace in the Anglophone regions until three years ago. There was no need to flee to the bush; major attacks on civilians in the Anglophone regions were not commonplace before the separatists took up arms. We were taught in history class, that Cameroon, our country, is the most peaceful country in Africa, and the world, says Jacqueline, who works at the South-West/North-West Task Force, a civil society group that focuses on helping women. Everything is changing, and it is affecting women seriously because they have never experienced this kind of situation -- every day you learn a new strategy to deal with it. Every day. Women give birth in the bushes, there's gang rape, and women have been tortured -- it's terrible, she says. She speaks of a story of one woman in Bamenda, the biggest city in the Anglophone North-West region, who was raped and then shot in her vagina. I think every woman in Cameroon now, especially in the North-West and the South-West, feels useless. There's no point in giving birth to a child who could be killed at any time. There's no need to get pregnant, because you might end up in the bush, she adds. Vulnerable young women become prey The desperation of some families, who find themselves barely surviving, turn to vulnerable family members, creating a cycle of abuse. Joyce, 21, was in the lower sixth at school in Buea, the capital of the South-West region, where children can go to school, relatively out of harm from the separatists. Her parents were living in a nearby village until gunshots and arson by the military became a regular occurrence in their hamlet, and they fled to the jungle, along with most of the community. Joyce was visiting her family on school holiday, and ended up there too, unable to go to back to school. I met a guy in the bush and he said he was going to help me leave there and come to town in Kumba, says Joyce. Desperate to get back to school, she followed him. I got pregnant. Since then I haven't seen him, she says. Her nightmare continued after she moved in with her unmarried aunt, who rents a house in Kumba. Although Joyce's aunt sells food, she says it was not enough to pay the rent. She and other families in town struggle to pay their rent, an expense they did not have in the village when they were living in their own home before the crisis broke out. When she sells food, men and boys come and tell her they like me, so she tells them to pay her so I will go and sleep with them, says Joyce, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. She looks older than her 21 years, wearing a large, long brown dress and a youthful neon pink head wrap, the only sign betraying her true age. The men pay her aunt 2,000 Central African CFA Francs, the equivalent of three euros, every time she is forced to have sex with a man. I feel bad. It's not good. I'm not happy doing it, but I don't have anywhere to go, that's why, she says, her eyes brimming with tears. People laugh at me and they say I'm sleeping with men old enough to be my father. I don't care about them because I know deep in me, it's not what I want, she adds. Going back to the bush with her parents is not an option, because Joyce is still breastfeeding her 2-month old son. Fractured families trying to survive One casualty of the ongoing crisis is the family unit -- those who have not had a loved one killed or maimed in the fighting have lost touch with them in the scramble for safety during attacks by soldiers or the separatists. Twenty-year-old Chloe, from Berera village, lives with her parents and two-year-old child in Mamfe. They fled to the safety of town after her brother, Caius, was shot in the head and left for dead. He was walking to Mamfe and did not see who shot him. While Caius receives medical treatment in Douala, Chloe says her husband, Donald, fled to neighboring Nigeria after he witnessed the whole village burnt down and saw people killed. Chloe says life is expensive in Mamfe, but would she think of joining her husband in Nigeria? Nigeria is too stressful, she laughs nervously. Donald calls her from a refugee camp when he can. He tells me they have nothing to eat, that they are suffering. We say we're better here in Cameroon than in Nigeria. While Chloe speaks to her husband, Nora, 26, has no idea about the whereabouts of her partner, the father of five-month-old Hosea, asleep but breathing heavily in her arms. He has never seen Hosea. Everyone fled when the military burnt their house and killed her brother in a close-by village last May. We don't know if my husband's actually dead or if he ran to an area that has no [telephone] network, says Nora. She leaves Hosea with a neighbor and goes back to the village during the day to pick cassava to sell in town so she can pay the rent in Mamfe. Children desperate for education The majority of women with children say they left the village to escape the gunfire, but they also want to give their children an education. The crisis began in part due to the influx of Francophone teachers in to Anglophone classrooms in the North-West and South-West regions. The separatists have prevented children from going to school as part of their action against the government. Some children in the regions have not attended school for three years-- the schools in the villages located on the main road from Buea towards Kumba and further on to Mamfe are empty. Many of the bungalow cinderblock-built schools have been torched; others have sprouted vegetation growing in cracks in the walls; all are abandoned. In Buea, however, the seat of the South-West region, children are attending school in relative safety. The military remain a large, looming presence on the streets of the regional capital. Victorine, a 16-year-old student in Form 3, is currently living in Buea with her aunt. She excels at geography and hopes to become a doctor one day. I love schoolbut my four brothers and sisters are still suffering in the bush. There's malaria and a lot of insecurity and I worry about them, she says. I want them to have the opportunity to go to school and continue their study, she adds. Victorine attends classes with 13-year-olds, while her friends of the same age are in Form 5. She is behind because she did not attend school for three years. Relative safety, but daily life difficult Other families in town struggle to pay their rent, an expense they did not have in the village when they were living in their own home. Emily, 28, exhales loudly when asked when she left her village to come to Buea with her husband and four children. We came on August 16. They burned our house down, my children had not been going to school for two years, and we were living in the bush for six months before coming here, she says, looking spent after cataloguing the events in her life over the past year. Emily's brother-in-law is helping pay the school fees for her children, and the whole family lives with him, which can be difficult, she says. Jobs are scarce in the Anglophone areas, as Anglophones say government jobs frequently go to Francophones, one of the reasons for the start of protests in the first place. Emily, like other women, sells fried doughnuts, called 'gateaux' or 'puff-puff' on the street to make money for school fees, food and rent. Women say neither the military nor the Amba Boys separatists respect women and children, according to the numerous interviews carried out by RFI in the region. Women and children have been shot, killed, set on fire, just like the boys and men in the Anglophone regions. Agatha barely escaped with her life the day separatists surrounded the plantation she worked on. She had worked for the Cameroonian Development Company (CDC), the country's second-largest employer, for 28 years. The Anglophone separatists reportedly consider those who work for CDC, a parastatal company, as traitors, and attack workers, cutting off their fingers. As they rushed in, the workers, including Agatha, were bending back the metal fence to escape into the bush. The military were shooting and the Ambazonia forces were shooting all over the place, says Agatha. Her back is scarred from the metal fence that cut her as she fled. After four days in the bush, relatives sent her mobile money and she used that for herself and fellow workers to come to Buea. She also lives in Kumba and is struggling to feed her children. The stress of the situation has had a negative impact on her health. She collapsed one month after leaving the bush. They did tests and found out I have high blood pressure, says Agatha. An organisation with a vision The enormity of the crisis is not lost on Baudouin Akoh Ngah, the founder and head of Global Forum for the Defense of the Less Privileged (GFDLP) in Buea. Ngah's organization provides a number of services for the neediest, from providing legal aid, to helping re-register those who have lost their identification cards and birth certificates. But Ngah's biggest project to date is his plan to open a crisis centre for the most vulnerable Anglophones, with a focus on young women. A lot of them are victims of gender-based violence and young girls who have been displaced have health issues, he tells RFI, while standing on one hectare of land outside of Buea where he plans to build a facility that will incorporate job training, healthcare, and a small school. We would like to have part of the facility where visiting doctors can see patients, he says, pointing to an area covered in banana trees. Another section is earmarked for food processing training for young girls, which would be separate from the small school for displaced children that he envisions. The land is property of GFDLP -- now he needs partners to make his plans to come to fruition. The possibility of a place that could help the neediest is welcome for people like former CDC worker Agatha, who are barely surviving. Sister, for now, I get no hopes, she says in Pidgin English. Because when you get money or do something, you get hopes. But I don't do anything now, so I not got no hopes. *Names have been changed for the safety and security of those featured in this report Index 20, the largest global meeting place for the non-wovens market, schdeuled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 31 to April 3 has been postponed, organisers announced. Taking place once every three years, the expo provides a unique opportunity to explore the industrys latest innovations and connect with like-minded professionals. The show is now planned to be organised from October 20 to 23. "By ordinance entering into force on February 28, the Swiss Federal Council has prohibited all events bringing together more than 1,000 people. In the current circumstances, the situation is qualified as a force majeure event," said a notice on the Index website. The situation has recently significantly deteriorated with the appearance of the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in Switzerland. The organisers had no other choice than to review their assessment of the situation and to act in strict compliance with the ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council, it said. We sincerely regret this situation, as large numbers of people around the world have invested in ensuring that the event takes place. However, the well-being and health of all Index exhibitors, visitors, and exhibition staff, as well as their business needs and expectations, remain our highest priority. We trust that all participants will understand this forced decision, said Pierre Wiertz, EDANA General Manager. "The world continues to discover the important role of non-wovens in protecting healthcare staff and patients through medical devices and personal protective equipment, such as surgical masks, respirators, gowns, drapes and coveralls. It is unfortunate that the biggest non-wovens trade show ever, with over 730 exhibitors and covering 24,700 sq m, has had to be postponed because of the largest epidemic in decades," the notification said. - TradeArabia News Service Greece sent a navy ship to the island of Lesbos Wednesday to house hundreds of migrants who landed on the island in recent days, part of the ongoing surge from Turkey, officials said. A Greek defence ministry source said the migrants would stay on the transport ship until a new facility to accommodate them had been created on the mainland. Some 500 people, many of them families with small children, have been stranded at the harbour since arriving from Turkey over the weekend. Although the Greek vessel arrived at the port of Mytilene Wednesday morning, it was not until 4:00 pm (1600 GMT) that the first 15 migrants boarded, said an AFP photographer at the scene. But the atmosphere at the harbour was tense as the port police and security forces tried to stop two Greek photographers and a German journalist from taking pictures, pushing them back and trying to grab their cameras. A Greek military source said the migrants would stay on the ship, which normally had a capacity of 400, "as long as necessary". Astrid Castelein of the UN refugee agency on Lesbos said they and other aid groups would provide matresses and bedding, as this type of vessel was not normally meant to house people. - No asylum requests accepted - On Tuesday evening hundreds of migrants, earlier arrivals on Lesbos who have already filed asylum requests, headed down to the harbour in a bid to get a berth on the ship as news of its impending spread. After a few brief scuffles, police pushed them back. In an effort to curb the influx, which began after Ankara said last week it would no longer stop refugees from entering Europe, Athens has suspended asylum procedures and reinforced its borders. The weekend arrivals, who have not filed asylum requests, will get a place on the boat under this new regime, Fotis Garoufalias, president of the coastguard at Mytilene, told AFP. "The instructions are to register them, without the possibility of making an asylum request, and to take them on to the boat for them to be transferred," he said. That process should be finished by the end of the day, he added. The new arrivals have exacerbated an already combustible situation on the Greek islands in the Adriatic, off the Turkish coast. Lesbos hosts more than 19,000 refugees and migrants, crammed into squalid conditions around a camp built to house fewer than 3,000, a legacy of the 2015 migration crisis. Fed up with shouldering the burden of Europe's over-stretched asylum system, locals have protested against the presence of the migrants on their shores, saying they threaten safety, public health and a tourism-dependent economy. That anger has spilled over into violence in recent days, with an extremist minority accused of leading attacks on newly arrived migrants, intimidating journalists and targeting aid workers, according to several groups based on Lesbos. Locals are also angry about the government plans to build a new migrant centre on Lesbos and clashed with riot police last week. Greece sent a navy ship to house the most vulnerable newly arrived migrant families from Turkey Map of the Aegean locating the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos, which have been at the forefront of the migration crisis for the past five years Although the Greek navy vessel arrived at Lesbos Wednesday morning, it was not mid-afternoon that until the first 15 migrants boarded University of Ghana (UG) chapter of the Tertiary Students Confederation (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has organized a workshop to sensitize its members to the upcoming new voters' registration exercise to be conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC). Rockson Obeng, a member of UG TESCON, stated that the workshop was held at the instance of the 2015 BBC report which indicated that Ghana's electoral roll was bloated. Based on this, we decided to support the EC in its quest to conduct a new voter registration by educating our members on the exercise for them to carry the message across, he noted. Speaking to DAILY GUIDE after the workshop, Mr. Obeng said members of the UG TESCON fraternity were duly prepared to support the commission in whatever way possible for it to carry out its mandate. He, therefore, entreated all TESCON members across the country to get involved to make the commission's work successful. The Deputy National Communications Director of TESCON, Yaw Preko, who addressed the workshop, took participants through the importance of voting and why there was the need for NPP to support the EC Daily Guide The coronavirus outbreak will certainly have an effect on the global economy in the coming months. Vietnam, with its proximity and close trade and supply relationships with China, is no exception. A view of VSIP Quang Ngai Industrial Park The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement, which were ratified by the European Parliament last month, and the new coronavirus (Covid-19) will have mixed impacts on Vietnam industrial property this year, according to John Campbell, manager of industrial services, Savills Vietnam. Positive economic and FDI outlook Amid a global slowdown, 2019 was an exceptional year for Vietnams economic growth. In 2019, overall the countrys impressive macroeconomic indicators supported the strong performance of the real estate market, specifically the industrial real estate segment that received investments totaling US$24.56 billion, over 64.6% of total inflow. Vietnams economic outlook in the medium to long-term is mostly positive. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the World Bank forecast that real GDP growth will remain robust at 6.5% in 2020 and 2021. 2019 marked 10 consecutive years of increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in the country and by the end of the year, the manufacturing and processing industry attracted the highest. 2020 is also off to a positive start. In the first 20 days of January alone, Vietnam attracted substantial US$5.3 billion in FDI, representing a year-on-year rise of 179.5%, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Of this US$5.3 billion, US$4.5 billion was poured directly into new FDI projects. Most inflows were funneled in the production of electricity, water and gas sector. The manufacturing and processing sector took the second place, attracting US$856.33 million, or 16% of total inflows in the first month of the year. Vietnams recent FTAs and superior trade networks will continue to push the country as a key destination for FDI, although it will also make the country more vulnerable to future slowdown in global demand. EVFTA and its impacts on Vietnams industrial sector The European Parliament officially adopted the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement on February 12, raising hope for all of Vietnams economic sectors. Only one more step remains before the agreement comes into full effect the ratification by Vietnams National Assembly, which is expected to take place in May this year. The EVFTA, in particular, enables Vietnams economy to move away from exporting low-value products and inputs to higher-value goods in high-tech, electronics, vehicles, and medical devices. Global trade networks will give Vietnam access to a more diversified range of souring partners, allowing for cheaper imports of inputs or intermediate goods, which in turn will boost the competitiveness of Vietnams exports. In addition, through more partnerships with foreign companies, Vietnam can reap the benefits of knowledge and technology transfer that comes with such investments, John Campbell of Savills Vietnam commented. As Vietnam opens its doors to EU manufacturers in industries such as food and beverage, fertilizers, ceramics, and building materials, the tariff elimination will also benefit the countrys key export industries to the EU, including the manufacturing of electronics and smartphones, textiles and garments, and agricultural products. Since June 2019, more industrial developers in Vietnam are confident that the EVFTA will boost investment in manufacturing and diversify their occupiers base. With the agreement being ratified this year, the developers also expect to see a growing interest from European manufacturers in 2020 and 2021. As demand continues to outpace supply, particularly in key industrial provinces, with occupancy rates reaching 75% in operational industrial parks nationwide, the competition for well-located manufacturing plots near the countrys main cities and ports has increased. This, coupled with an influx of new international manufacturers, gives developers the right opportunity to strategically choose their occupiers and lease it to multinational companies in high-value added industries. The industrial sector is growing strongly with a tenfold increase in FDI over the last decade. Good land supply is facilitating upcoming manufacturing projects with a rise of rental options and many solutions. Covid-19s impact on Vietnam industrial sector Considering the sheer size of Chinas economy, the coronavirus outbreak will certainly have an effect on the global economy in Q1 and possibly even Q2/2020. Vietnam, with its proximity and close trade and supply relationships with China, is no exception. Although foreign investment into Vietnams industrial market will remain strong in 2020, the Covid 19 has raised concerns regarding labor shortages and disruptions in supply chains in the manufacturing sector for Q1/2020. Labor shortages in China with the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday (in addition to temporary factory closures) due to the Covid 19 pandemic means less production, which in turn can affect the numerous Vietnamese manufacturers with supply chain links to China, Campbell commented. According to official data, Vietnam's index of industrial production (IIP) declined 11.8% month-on-month and 5.5% year-on-year in January 2020, following a 6.2% increase in December 2019. This was the first drop in output since January 2017. The index attributes the drop-in output to the relatively early Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, reducing the number of working days. Therefore, its difficult to evaluate what proportion of this drop in industrial output is directly linked to the Covid 19. Binh An Sharp contraction in Vietnams manufacturing output amid COVID-19 disruption The Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell below the 50.0 no-change mark in February, signalling a deterioration in business conditions, a survey of IHS Markit and Nikkei released on Monday showed. Another five people in New York have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total to 11. They are the family of a friend of a lawyer who was diagnosed on Tuesday. He has also passed it on to his own relatives and a neighbor. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the new cases, none of whom have been hospitalized, at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. 'A friend of the lawyer's who he spent time with and in close proximity in a number of situations, that person also tested positive. 'We then tested that person's wife, two sons and daughter, and they all tested positive,' he said. The children attend Westchester Torah Academy, a school which Cuomo said had already decided to close until Friday as a precaution. The lawyer gave the virus to his own wife, son, daughter and neighbor. He has also given it to a friend who has now passed it on to his own family, bringing the total number of cases in New York to 11 Now, staff at the school are receiving further guidance on how to handle the outbreak. CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK Confirmed cases: 11 1) Manhattan lawyer 2) His wife 3) His 20-year-old son 4) His 14-year-old daughter 5) Neighbor who drove him to the hospital 6) Male friend who he'd come into contact with 7) The friend's wife 8), 9), 10)The friend's two sons and daughter 11) Healthcare worker, 39, who recently traveled back from Iran 1,000 told to self-quarantine - Eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville - Congregants of Young Israel of New Rochelle , the synagogue the lawyer attends - Students and staff at the SAR Academy in Riverdale, where the lawyer's 14-year-old daughter goes to school - Students at Yeshiva University, where the lawyer's 20-year-old son goes to school - Seven staff members and one intern at Lewis and Garbuz, the law firm where the family works. Governor Cuomo said the people will be contacted individually by health organizations. Advertisement One thousand people in Westchester, where the family live, and New York City will be contacted in the coming hours and days by health professionals to be advised to self-quarantine. 'They will be contacted; between county, state and private organizations, they'll be given information on what that means,' Cuomo said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. They are thought to include but are not limited to some 300 people from a New Rochelle synagogue the infected family attends, two people at the son's university, students at the daughter's school, seven employees and one intern at the Manhattan law firm and eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital. The son is a 20-year-old student from Yeshiva University. The daughter is 14 and attends SAR school in Riverdale. The man's wife's age is not yet known. Both the daughter and wife are asymptomatic, meaning they have no symptoms, whereas the son is symptomatic but is improving. All are in mandatory quarantine at home. The lawyer is in the ICU in a 'severe' condition' because, Cuomo said, he has pneumonia. In total, 11 people have now died across the US. Ten of those people are in Washington and are believed to be connected to a home for the elderly. The 11th person, whose death was confirmed on Wednesday, is in northern California and recently returned from a cruise. Anyone who has been diagnosed with the virus will be placed under a mandatory 14 day quarantine. The others in the 1,000 people to be contacted will be advised to self-quarantine. The lawyer's movements in the last few weeks are illustrated above. People in New York City and New Rochelle and Westchester are going to be tested There are now 152 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US. Eleven people have died New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that 1,000 people would be contacted and told to self-quarantine in the coming hours and days In New York City, there will be fines put in place for vendors seeking to take advantage of the crisis by hiking up the prices of face masks. Taxi drivers have been warned about adequately cleaning their vehicles or staying home if they feel they have symptoms, and schools have received CDC-approved cleaning supplies. Cuomo said that despite the escalating numbers of people being diagnosed, there was 'nothing to be afraid of'. 'There are going to be dozens and dozens and dozens of people,' he said, adding that the only people the virus is truly dangerous for are those with underlying health issues or weakened immune systems. Along with the lawyer, his family and his neighbor, a 39-year-old female healthworker has also tested positive. Cuomo said she is recovering well at home. Her husband, who she recently returned from Iran with, tested negative. Cuomo said that as a precaution, abroad students from SUNY and CUNY will be recalled on charter flights from China, Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea. They will then be quarantined for 14 days when they return. A student at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights (pictured) has tested positive for coronavirus Cuomo was emphatic about there being no need to panic despite the fast spread. 'The context is what is most important. Coronavirus fatality rate is THREE TIMES HIGHER than thought The strain of coronavirus behind the a growing global crisis kills 3.4 per cent of all patients, the World Health Organization has warned. Dr Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the UN body, said current figures show the infection is three times deadlier than flu. The WHO also warned supplies of face masks and other protective equipment are 'rapidly depleting' because of a 'severe disruption' to the global supply chain. Dr Tedros warned the shortages are leaving medics dangerously ill-equipped to care for patients with COVID-19, the disease which has struck 92,000 people worldwide. Up to 90million masks, 1.6million sets of goggles and 76million pairs of examination gloves are needed to protect health care workers, it is estimated. Shortages and supply hoarding have triggered huge price inflations on vital personal protective equipment (PPE). Face mask prices have surged by six-fold, the cost of gowns has doubled and prices for N95 respirators have tripled. 'Stocks are often sold to the highest bidder,' said Dr Tedros. 'We urgently need to increase production' of PPE, he warned. Manufacturing needs to be jump by 40 per cent to meet the growing demand, it is estimated. It's a pattern already emerging in the US, where more than 100 people are now infected. US consumers have been panic-buying PPE, canned food and cleaning supplies in fear that they might have to shelter at home if the coronavirus starts spreading in their community. Retailers - from local pharmacies to national chains - have reported shortages, and Amazon has been cracking down on price gouging for masks and other products. Dr Tedros pled with the public to stop hoarding and stockpiling as masks are not recommended for most people and contribute to governmental and hospital shortages. He also encouraged worldwide governments to incentivze increased manufacturing of protective gear. In the US, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar as estimated that US health care workers alone will need some 300 million masks amid the coronavirus outbreak. Already, a more active flu season than usual had strained the US hosptial system and health care supplies here. President Trump has repeatedly compared coronavirus and the flu, including during a Friday press briefing. Advertisement 'We have an epidemic that is caused by illness but we have a pandemic that is caused by fear. 'Now, what causes fear - only two things. 'People get afraid when they think they don't have the right information or they don't trust the information they're getting. 'Eighty percent of the people who get the virus will self-resolve. 'The other 20 percent may be medically ill,' Cuomo said, adding that people ought to 'do what you do if you get the flu' should they find themselves with symptoms. Questions remain over how far the lawyer was able to travel and if he was able to come into contact with anyone before being quarantined. He and his wife traveled to Bal Harbour, Florida, on February 15. Health officials on Tuesday directed the family's synagogue, Young Israel of Westchester, to halt services immediately. Congregants who attended February 22 services as well as a funeral and a bat mitzvah on February 23 were directed to quarantine themselves at least through Sunday. County officials warned they would mandate quarantines for those who did not comply. In an announcement on Wednesday, Yeshiva, the university which the lawyer's son attends, said: 'We have unfortunately received news this morning that our student has tested positive for COVID-19. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected. 'We are taking every precaution by canceling all classes on Wilf Campus in Washington Heights for Wednesday March 4, 2020. 'This includes all in-person graduate courses on that campus as well as at the boys high school.' More information about the virus and its impact in New York City is expected at a press conference on Wednesday. The lawyer, who is said to have an underlying respiratory condition, was initially hospitalized on Friday at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville. He was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan's Upper West Side on Monday when his condition worsened. The doctors and nurses who treated him at Lawrence Hospital are also being tested after being placed in quarantine. Authorities began an intense search on Tuesday to find anyone else who he and his family may have been in contact with, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters. The information is expected to be compiled by Wednesday morning and all those thought to be at risk will be informed. 'City and State disease detectives are working closely to identify close contacts and the appropriate next steps,' de Blasio said. Gov Cuomo said this second confirmed case was no cause for alarm and that community spreading in New York City is inevitable. 'The real issue is how many people will get seriously ill,' Cuomo said. 'How many people, God forbid, could lose their lives.' Additional officers were called to One Grand Central around 1.30 pm on Tuesday amid claims a virus victim worked there One of his clients, New Jersey resident Jason Fries, told The Post he was 'worried' by the news of his lawyer's diagnosis, even though the pair have not had physical contact in the past two weeks, which is considered the exposure window for the virus. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE 11 US PATIENTS WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS So far, 11 people have died of coronavirus in the US, federal and local health officials say. Ten of the deaths have occurred in Washington state - nine in King County and one of Snohomish County. Most came from Life Care Center, a long-term care facility in Kirkland. One deaths has occurred in Placer County, California. Here's what we currently know: 1. A man in his 50s was brought from Life Care Center to Harborview Medical Center on February 24. He died two days later and is the first death in the US from coronavirus 2. A man in his 50s from King County who had underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized and died at EvergreenHealth on February 29 3. A man in his 40s from Snohomish County who died after being hospitalized at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland on March 1 4. A woman in her 70s, who lived at Life Care and was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had pre-existing conditions, and died on March 1 5. A man in his 70s, linked to Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on February 29 and pre-existing conditions 6. A man in his 70s, who was also a resident of Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on March 1 and also had underlying health conditions 7. A woman in her 70s, who was a Life Care resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth and died on March 2 8. A woman in her 80s, who was linked to Life Care and was previously reported to be in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died on March 1 9. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care and was never hospitalized, died at her family home on February 26 10. A tenth death was confirmed on March 4, but Public Health - Seattle & King County has not yet released information about the latest death 11. An 69-year-old man died on March 4 in Placer County, California after likely becoming infected on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21 Advertisement 'It's distressing when one finds out that there are people we know who have come down with it,' Fries said. 'It's not an abstract anymore.' The lawyer is reportedly a regular worshiper at Young Israel synagogue in Westchester, which has since been ordered to halt all services immediately by Westchester County Health Commissioner Dr Sherlita Amler. He is believed to have attended services at the synagogue on February 22 and a funeral and bat mitzvah there on February 23. Young Israel congregants have been ordered to self-isolate until March 8 at the earliest if they visited the synagogue on either of those days. A second student at Yeshiva University has placed themselves into self-isolation as a precaution because of their contact with his law firm, school officials said. The university is not canceling any classes or events but is disinfecting all relevant common areas. Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) Academy on 254th Street in the Bronx, where his other son - who is not showing symptoms - attended, was closed on Tuesday. SAR High School a few blocks north was also shuttered as students may have been in contact with the son. Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck and the Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains also closed Tuesday as a precautionary measure. He and his wife have two other children who live in Israel. Officials said the man had not visited any areas linked to the coronavirus outbreak but had recently taken a trip to Miami. There are two confirmed cases in the state of Florida, but none in Miami. Florida Department of Health officials were angered after learning that he had visited the state via media reports. They are now looking into his travel history. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' spokeswoman Helen Ferre said New York officials were immediately contacted once the news of the man's travel reached them. 'New York state officials did not alert Florida officials,' Ferre said. 'DOH learned of this case when it was reported by the media.' It is not known if the man had displayed any symptoms when in Florida. New York's first case of the virus was a 39-year-old woman who checked herself in to Mount Sinai hospital on Sunday with her husband when they returned to New York City from Iran. Both healthcare workers, the couple self-isolated knowing the risk that they had contracted COVID-19 while traveling and the woman later tested positive. She remains quarantined in her Manhattan home and has not been hospitalized. Her symptoms are said to be 'mild'. Her husband's test is still pending but he is thought to be positive. The woman is not thought to have been contagious when in contact with the public but the car driver from their private car from the airport and the other passengers on their flight have been informed. In an unrelated case, Cuomo said that two families in Buffalo who recently traveled to Italy are being monitored for symptoms of coronavirus. De Blasio confirmed that ten people are been tested so far in New York, eight of whom tested negative. Subway riders have been told they do not need to wear masks unless they already have the coronavirus but many continue to take the precaution as the second New York state case was confirmed on Tuesday in Westchester County Passengers are seen wearing surgical masks on an MTA bus in Flushing, Queens, on Monday The New York state legislature on Monday approved a $40million emergency aid package to help track and fight the disease. Subway cars, stations and trains within the New York City transit system will now be cleaned at least every 72 hours as part of a new policy established by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to combat the spread of the coronavirus. How to avoid germs on the subway Immediately use alcohol-based hand sanitizer once getting off the subway or bus Wash your hands as soon as you can for at least 20 seconds using soap Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth before you've washed your hands Avoid using your phone Move away from other passengers who are coughing when possible Cover your sneeze or cough with a tissue and through it in the trash when possible Cough into your arm, not your hand, if you don't have a tissue Stay at home when you are sick If you are experiencing symptoms, call your healthcare provider before presenting yourself for treatment Avoid crowds and travel off-peak when possible Don't use your hand to push throug the turnstile Watch your bags and clean if they come into contact with the floor Don't eat or drink on the subway Advertisement The clean will focus on areas that are touched by commuters the most often, including subway turnstiles and handrails. The MTA is said to be working with the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as it stockpiles its hygienic and cleaning supplies. 'While there has been only one confirmed case of coronavirus in New York and it did not involve the mass transit system, we are committed to doing everything we can to keep in front of the situation and protect our customers and employees,' said MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye. 'Starting tonight we have enacted additional cleaning protocols designed to disinfect our stations, trains, buses, and Access-A-Ride vehicles. Working in coordination with the governor and state and federal health authorities, we continue to aggressively monitor the situation and take all necessary actions to ensure our system remains safe.' As of Monday, bus and subway screens will also deploy a safety messages warning passengers of the potential spread of the coronavirus and advising the best ways to avoid germs. This guidance is offered in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Korean. 'The safety of our customers and employees is our first priority as we continue to monitor the coronavirus,' added Patrick Warren, MTA Chief Safety Officer. 'The MTA is enhancing its cleaning regimen across all our operating agencies to ensure the system is safe for everyone. The best defense against COVID-19, according to the National Centers for Disease Control, continues to be good hygiene frequent hand washing and self-care.' The MTA has urged passengers to follow the recommendations from the CDC to prevent the spread of the virus and to avoid germs on the subway. Subway cars, stations and trains within the New York City transit system will now be cleaned at least every 72 hours as a second case is confirmed in a man who works in Manhattan Areas such as turnstiles which are touched more often will be cleaned daily New York City can now complete its own testing for the virus after being forced to complete the first tests in a lab in Albany. The testing requires an oral and nasal swab and can now be analyzed at the Health Department's Public Health Lab on First Avenue in Manhattan. Gov Cuomo on Monday said that the aim it to test 1,000 people a day by next week in an attempt to identify any outbreaks and place them into isolation to combat the spread but admitted that other confirmed cases in New York are likely. Mayor de Blasio added that the ability to test in the city means that cases can now be identified in a few hours. 'Same day service. That is going to allow us to very quickly figure out who has this disease and need particular care and support and who doesn't. A lot of people who think they may have it turn out not to have it. So this is really important,' De Blasio said. Cuomo has since called on New York health insurers to waive the costs associated with the testing after patients and cleared cases were hit with large medical bills in other states. He confirmed that those on Medicaid would not have a copay. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper discussed with his Estonian counterpart Juri Luik mutual security concerns, including Russia and Chinese 5G technologies, Pentagon Press Secretary Alyssa Farah said in a statement. "The leaders discussed their mutual interest in the future of NATO and security concerns, including Russia and the immediate threat it poses to the Baltic States," Farah said after the meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday. "They also addressed a broad range of defense issues, including the drawbacks associated with incorporating Chinese 5G technologies into the European telecom infrastructure, particularly in the Baltics. " Esper praised what the Pentagon described as "Estonia's steadfast commitment to deterring Russian aggression and bolstering the NATO alliance". He also commended Estonia for meeting the defense spending target of two percent of GDP. Moscow has repeatedly warned that NATO's military buildup on Russia's periphery will destabilize the region and increase the odds of confrontation. (Natural News) Even as the first American dies of the Wuhan coronavirus and the first U.S. state declares an emergency to prepare for what a much wider outbreak, the U.S. government has yet to declare a pandemic, but there could be significant financial reasons for that. As reported by MintPress News, theres a little-known specialized bond that was created in 2017 by the World Bank that could be behind the reason why the U.S. and other global health authorities refuse to use the p-word to describe the blossoming virus outbreak. The bonds, which are now often referred to as pandemic bonds, were reportedly intended to transfer potential pandemic risks in low-income nations to financial markets. But, despite the growing outbreak, as we have regularly reported, the investors who purchased those products could lose millions if global health authorities were to use that label in relation to the surge in global coronavirus cases, MPN noted further. Last week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that national health authorities are working with state officials to prepare for a potential pandemic of the virus, which originated in China in December, if it begins to spread across the country. As of Friday, the World Health Organization stated that more than 80,000 people around the world had contracted the virus; in China alone, more than 2,700 have died from it. Some are now saying that the CDCs concerns about a potential pandemic are too little, too late, and that the Trump administration should have leapt into action much sooner. For example, MPN noted, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said in an interview with The New York Times that the virus is very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic. In addition, former CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden added that it is increasingly unlikely that the virus can be contained. So what gives? Where is the designation? Well, recall that last week, after the CDC and others mentioned that yes, indeed, the U.S. could be looking at a pandemic soon, Wall Street tanked and lost nearly $1.7 trillion in value, or more than 12 percent of its value the biggest weekly loss since the 2008 Great Depression. A $425 million hit to investors? Also, as Natural News reported, the WHO has also held off calling the virus a pandemic, with its director, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus telling the press the virus wasnt a pandemic yet because the world hasnt seen large-scale deaths. Were not seeing an uncontained global spread, you see, and using the word pandemic does not fit the facts. We must focus on containment while preparing for a potential pandemic, he added. Right after those words, coronavirus began spreading around the world to more countries, including the U.S., where there has now been a virus-related death. This is where pandemic bonds come into play, MPN reports: Some analysts have argued that these pandemic bonds were never intended to aid low-income pandemic-stricken countries, but instead to enrich Wall Street investors. For instance, American economic forecaster Martin Armstrong has called the World Banks pandemic bonds a giant gamble in the global financial casino and a scheme like no other He adds that the bonds could become a structured derivative time bomb that blows up financial markets if the WHO declares a full-blown coronavirus pandemic. Armstrong noted further that it is in the global health organizations interest to make the declaration, but in doing so, bondholders would suffer significant losses. Whats important is to focus on who stands to benefit from this not being declared a pandemic, economic and business analyst and host of the podcast Quoth the Raven Chris Irons told MPN. WHO could have other reasons for not making the pandemic declaration, MPN noted, but the most obvious seems to be to avoid a $425 million pandemic bond payout by investors. Sources include: MintPressNews.com NaturalNews.com WSJ.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 06:59:14|Editor: ZD Video Player Close BELGRADE, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Metal sculptures, exhibited on Tuesday within the "HBIS Art" project in Belgrade, showed Serbian artists' reflection on the idea that the power of art can bend any material to deliver meanings and impressions. Art lovers here at the gallery of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade gathered to see 11 artworks produced by art students within the practical education project with HBIS Serbia. HBIS, or Hebei Iron and Steel, is one of the world's largest steelmakers based in northern China's Hebei Province. In 2016, HBIS Serbia took over a steel plant and its 5,000 employees in Smederevo, some 50 km southeast of Serbia's capital Belgrade. Sculpture "Fishes" captures summer memories of Katarina Boskovic, "Signum" of Filip Djukic represents a head of an eagle, "Thoughts" of Bogdan Djukanovic are large spikes of steel, while his "Emotions" are engraved balls of steel showing strength and fragility at the same time. These and other sculptures, together with a video and photos will be exhibited here until March 18. The project started only recently, with an agreement between the Faculty of Fine arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade and HBIS Serbia to launch a metal sculpture workshop, and since then, cooperation between the employees and artist has been flourishing. The exhibition here at the gallery in Belgrade, crowded by art students and art lovers includes photos of the working process at the steelworks, as well as a documentary film made by students. Bogdan Djukanovic, an art student who turned his "Thoughts" and "Emotions" into steel sculptures, shared his excitement with time spent at the steelworks in Smederevo. "The steel is very interesting, because it offers one a wide variety of possibilities to express his emotions. I tried to do just that, and I put my feelings inside these balls of steel, which represents a free shape that can transfer them to another person," he said. Djukanovic said that, although he prefers to keep emotions to himself, with his two sculptures here he invites audience to examine their own emotions and inner thoughts. Filip Djukic, another art student of the University of Belgrade, said that the several weeks at the steelworks helped him develop artistically, estimating the environment and atmosphere were inspiring to create art. "I have never experienced the atmosphere in a big factory, although I have seen them from distance. The impression is much different when one is able to go inside and talk to people, listen to the sounds of machinery, it's quite magical," he said. "Not many people can understand us artists, and the things we have in mind, on the other hand we have weak understanding of people behind giant machines. This project got us together and they helped us very much," he said. Miroslav Stokic, an HBIS employee who recently retired after 40 years of working in Smederevo, was in charge of students arriving to conduct their art projects, as their mentor and assistant. Stokic told Xinhua that the company recognized his work by including him in the HBIS Art project, and enable exchanges with art students. "For example, this eagle that you can see here, it was just a sketch, the size of a matchbox. We worked with the student to develop the idea, and now it is almost meter in length. I am still happy, even retired, to be a part of the team, and I hope they will need me," he said. Tatjana Bjelic, Director of public relations department at HBIS Serbia, said that the company decided to put some light into heavy industry and decided to bring their cooperation with art students to a higher level. "At their faculty, they didn't have to work with such expensive materials as metals, at the Smederevo steelworks they were like in heaven. It was very inspiring for them, and they also brought a new energy into our working environment, with artists and employees here exchanging their experiences," she said. We take an active role with non-core and distressed debt. ARC Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm focused on real estate, continues to demonstrate momentum in building a portfolio of nontraditional assets with the acquisition of W Hotel Bogota, the second transaction in partnership with Ithaca Capital, also based in South Florida. The deal expands ARC Partners footprint in Central and South America and marks a continuation of the firms fast-paced acquisition mode. Already, ARC has exceeded $1 billion in value through its investments in United States, Panama, India, Nigeria, and the Caribbean. ARC has been operating for 20 years and has a history of U.S. investments in first-lien and second-lien mortgages for commercial and residential assets. With a concentration in distressed debt and an expanding profile overseas, ARC Partners continues to look for new business opportunities domestically. We take an active role with non-core and distressed debt, said David Gordon, managing director at ARC Partners. We leverage our teams experience for success, and because distressed debt offers potentially high returns, we have expanded and will continue to do so. The companys direction in Central and South America is decidedly different. Its first transaction with Ithaca Partners was the acquisition of the JW Marriot in Panama, a high-profile hospitality property with international renown. The W Hotel Bogota likewise has an international following and represents ARCs continued willingness to embrace nontraditional assets. Our expanded scope has already shown itself to be a powerful and rapid method of growing value, so I fully anticipate continuing to seek nontraditional assets. Theres every reason to accelerate our buying in this space and repeat our successes, added Mr. Gordon. Our pipeline includes opportunities to purchase more commercial and residential distressed debt internationally, as well as here in the U.S. Yale Mortgage, also based in South Florida, serves as the mortgage originator for ARCs new originated hard-money loans for a broad spectrum of investors needs. Loan amounts range from $200,000 to $3M and provide competitive terms. Ithaca Capital has likewise recognized ARCs approach as a desirable strategy. We have found true partners in the ARC team, added Orestes Fintiklis, managing director of Ithaca Capital. We look forward to working with them on even more acquisitions of deep value alternative assets. In addition to its two joint ventures with Ithaca in the hospitality sector, ARC Partners acquired a solar farm in Central America in 2018 and expanded its footprint in other hospitality projects. In Nigeria, ARC invested in Africa Plus Partners, a fund that finances small-capped infrastructure and student housing. ARC also finalized its last round of capital funding for four toll road projects in India. Our recent acquisitions show we have a streamlined, scalable, and repeatable process that attracts banks, hedge funds, and brokers alike, said ARCs managing director John Olsen. They recognize we are fair with our pricing and can close very complex transactions quickly. Unlike most firms, ARC evaluates investment opportunities on individual merits, recognizing unique variables that can have a major impact on an investments potential or risk. This custom-tailored approach, along with its partners far-reaching experience in valuation, enables the firm to make investments in nontraditional asset classes with greater confidence than other firms. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Meieli Sawyer at 305-668-0070 or msawyer@weinbachgroup.com. About ARC Partners ARC is a private equity company run by John Olsen and David Gordon. With a flexible approach to investing, the company concentrates on nontraditional asset classes, as well as first- and second-lien mortgages for commercial and residential assets. ARC Partners is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and also has a team located in Panama City, Panama. Fishing is a common practice that is carried out for different purposes; people's (read: fishermen) livelihoods depend on it, some do it for fun as a hobby and some do it just because they live near water bodies. But this Australian man has shown us that fishing gear can be used for things other than fishing as well. According to a tweet posted from Victoria Police's official account, a man stole a Versace necklace from a high-end luxury store named, Lestyle, in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. They released CCTV footage of the 'fishy' robbery which showed the Caucasian man using a fishing rod to grab the necklace from a mannequin's neck. Twitter The police have made a statement that the thief put in efforts for over three and a half hours to carry out the robbery by making a hole in the store's display window without setting off the alarm. Lestyle store-owner, Steve Adigrati, told Nine News, "Three and a half hours, with two rods, trying to get this necklace, was amazing. Hook, line, and sinker, I guess. He did it." The police authorities have requested people to come forward to help them track down the culprit. From the video, it can be guessed that the man is about 40-50 years old and can be seen wearing a blue Lonsdale windbreaker and gray tracksuit pants. ABC Mr Adigrati also claimed that the thief was probably not aware of the value of the necklace, but turns out it is worth $799 only. He said, "This particular necklace looks a lot more expensive than what it is, so obviously the temptation was there: gold, bright, iconic Medusa head, so that would have been the temptation." ABC News Fishing for gold, eh? Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) based on data from the head-to-head OPTIMUM Phase 3 study, presented at the 35th Congress of The European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a member of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, have a revenue-sharing agreement in respect to ponesimod Allschwil, Switzerland - March 4, 2020 Idorsia Ltd (SIX: IDIA) today informed that the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson announced the submission of a MAA to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) seeking approval for ponesimod for the treatment of adult patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). For further details please read the full announcement available here: https://johnsonandjohnson.gcs-web.com/static-files/8444902a-4913-4258-bb4c-7d60f9db257f (https://johnsonandjohnson.gcs-web.com/static-files/8444902a-4913-4258-bb4c-7d60f9db257f) About the Revenue Sharing Agreement Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a member of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, have entered into the revenue-sharing agreement in respect to ponesimod. Under the terms of the revenue-sharing agreement, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd is entitled to receive quarterly payments of 8% of the net sales of ponesimod products from Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. ____ Notes to the editor About Idorsia Idorsia Ltd is reaching out for more - We have more ideas, we see more opportunities and we want to help more patients. In order to achieve this, we will develop Idorsia into one of Europe's leading biopharmaceutical companies, with a strong scientific core. Headquartered in Switzerland - a biotech-hub of Europe - Idorsia is specialized in the discovery and development of small molecules, to transform the horizon of therapeutic options. Idorsia has a broad portfolio of innovative drugs in the pipeline, an experienced team, a fully-functional research center, and a strong balance sheet - the ideal constellation to bringing R&D efforts to business success. Idorsia was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: IDIA) in June 2017 and has over 800 highly qualified specialists dedicated to realizing our ambitious targets. For further information, please contact Andrew C. Weiss Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hegenheimermattweg 91, CH-4123 Allschwil +41 58 844 10 10 www.idorsia.com (http://www.idorsia.com) The above information contains certain "forward-looking statements", relating to the company's business, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimates", "believes", "expects", "may", "are expected to", "will", "will continue", "should", "would be", "seeks", "pending" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Such statements include descriptions of the company's investment and research and development programs and anticipated expenditures in connection therewith, descriptions of new products expected to be introduced by the company and anticipated customer demand for such products and products in the company's existing portfolio. Such statements reflect the current views of the company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Attachment BAKU -- The parents of a journalist serving a long-term prison sentence in Azerbaijan allege that their son has been punished by the authorities for declining to vote in last months parliamentary elections. Bahruz Aliyevs parents say he was confined to a special punishment cell at Bakus Prison No. 13 for refusing to vote on February 9. The countrys penitentiary service denies the allegations. Aliyev, the founder of the Neutral Information Agency, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison on extortion charges. He rejected the accusations. The journalist's parents, Imamverdi Aliyev and Yegana Aliyeva, told RFE/RL that they learned of the alleged punishment when they went to the prison on March 3 but were not allowed to see their son. They said they had turned to the Red Cross for help. They also filed a complaint with Azerbaijans ombudsman and an appeal with the office of President Ilham Aliyev. Mehman Sadigov, head of the penitentiary systems public-relations department, told RFE/RL that the allegations of punishment were absurd. "Voting is voluntary. Who wants to, does; who doesnt want to, doesnt. Therefore, it is absurd to punish anyone, he said, adding that Aliyev was punished for repeatedly violating disciplinary rules at the prison. Aliyev was found guilty of allegedly soliciting money from people by threatening to disseminate information to discredit the purported victims. His father said he was prosecuted for writing articles about high-ranking officials, including the president of the state-owned oil company SOCAR. Aliyev's case is currently awaiting an appeal in the Supreme Court. The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party won 72 out of 125 seats in parliament in the February elections, which were marred by widespread reports of violations. Nearly all other seats went to small parties and independents loyal to President Aliyev, who has ruled the country since shortly before his father's death 17 years ago. Trade Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez Jr. said the COVID-19 outbreak has affected the Philippines supply chain. The countrys imports from Hubei, China, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, has been impacted by quarantine controls and lockdowns. Lopez added that the Philippines food exports to Hubei have also been affected. Nevertheless, the outbreak has minimal impact on the Philippine economy as the countrys food exports to the Chinese province is only one percent of the total trading activity of the Philippines with China. Given our estimated 6.5%, malakas pa rin ang growth ng Philippine economy (the growth of the Philippine economy remains high). In fact, sa mga trading economies, Pilipinas na lang at Vietnam ang malakas ang growth, (in fact, in trading economies, on the Philippines and Vietnam have [economic] growth) he said. The DTI Secretary also said the COVID-19 health scare has made countries realize the value of exploring other sources of vital products. In a way doon po pwedeng mag-benefit din ang Pilipinas. Nagkakaroon sila ng reconsideration sa Pilipinas as a site na maging supplier din tayo. (In a way, thats a way for the Philippines to benefit. They [countries] can reconsider the Philippines as a site to also become a supplier) Lopez said. However, he said the situation might change if the virus threat will continue for several more months.AAC (with reports from Rosalie Coz) The post COVID-19 has minimal impact on PH trade, economy DTI appeared first on UNTV News. SenScape Area luminaires are offered in 18" and 26" with three mounting types -- pole mount, post top and wall mount. Customers can call and describe their project parameters, and we can customize a solution that is unique to their application. Kenall Manufacturing has introduced the industrys first area lighting with embedded camera controls in a streamlined, but rugged, housing -- allowing medical, business and educational campuses, public parks, parking lots and other area lighting applications to inconspicuously add an extra element of safety and security for both people and property. 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The Punjab Education department has proposed to raise honorarium for mid-day meal workers from 1,700 to Rs 3,000 a month, minister Vijay Inder Singla informed the state assembly on Wednesday. Replying to a question of AAP MLA Aman Arora, Singla informed the House that a proposal for raising honorarium for cook-cum-helpers had been sent to the finance department for its approval. He further said that earlier it had been raised from 1,200 to 1,700 per month after the Congress government came to power in 2017. Singla informed the House that there were total 42,205 cook-cum-helpers working in schools in Punjab under the mid-day meal scheme, adding that it was a government of India scheme. These workers prepare and distribute meals for 15.85 lakh children. Aam Aadmi Party legislator Arora earlier pointed out that the mid-meal workers were being given pittance and asked, "Is it not a human rights violation?" In another question, social security minister Aruna Chaudhary informed the House that it was under consideration of the state government to raise pension amount under old age pension, widow, handicapped pension schemes from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 a month. She also took potshots at the previous SAD-BJP government for raising pension amount from Rs 250 to 500 in nine years. "We raised this amount to Rs 750 per month in 2017," she said, adding that the government would raise the pension amount to Rs 1,500 per month in its regime. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Wednesday accused the BJP of attempting to bring down its government in Madhya Pradesh using money and power, and said such conspiracies were a "blot on democracy". The opposition party also said it was hopeful the Supreme Court will take cognizance of the issue and that the BJP will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh in bringing down its government. BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government, Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari said. Patwari's statement came hours after Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said in a democracy it is the people who decide whose government is to be formed. "But you look at Gujarat, you look at Karnataka, Goa, Manipur or Meghalaya. Through demonetisation, BJP's coffers are filled with black money. They are using black money to bring down a government that has been chosen by the people," Gohil alleged. "This is being done on the orders of these two people (Modi-Shah). I have full confidence that they will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. He expressed hope that that the Supreme Court would pull up those indulging in such acts. "Constitutional Amendment was made that horse-trading does not take place, but Modi-Shah duo consider it their birthright to indulge in this," he said. "These conspiracies to bring down the government on the basis of money and misuse of power are a blot on democracy and they (BJP) will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. According to media reports, Digvijaya and his minister son Jaivardhan Singh also reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath told PTI, "Things are under control. There is nothing like that. The MLAs will come back". According to the Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who have been taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is independent while the rest of them are from the BSP and the SP. They said that woman BSP MLA Rambai was allegedly manhandled when Congress ministers reached the hotel to meet her. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW HAVEN A planned 30-minute meeting exceeded an hour Monday as Board of Education members expressed their anxieties about sending students on field trips and potentially exposing the youths to coronavirus. If you sound an alarm where there is an alarm, youre not an alarmist, said board member Ed Joyner, who repeatedly expressed disapproval for having students leave the district for fear of illness. Interim Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey suggested the meeting Friday as the virus continued to spread throughout the world and multiple planned overnight field trips approached. To date, there are nine domestic and six international overnight field trips approved by the school board this year that have yet to depart. The next one is scheduled to leave Clinton Avenue School for Vermont Tuesday with 20 students in seventh and eighth grades on a three-day trip to a leadership program. The flu-like virus, abbreviated as COVID-19, has been identified in 59 countries and has infected almost 90,000 people, with a death rate of about 2 percent. Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, a pediatrician, said information about the spread of the disease is spreading so rapidly that she feels insecure sending students on the trips. She said that, because many carriers of the virus dont display symptoms for a time, she worries that children may be at risk without knowing it. If one child succumbs, Im going to feel awful, she said. https://www.ctinsider.com/ctpost/item/Coronavirus-Updates-95020.php) Jackson-McArthur and Joyner ended up being the minority voices on the board, as the four other members present Monday said they believed it was fine to move forward with the field trips if they monitor local, state and federal health guidance. Ultimately, board members agreed unanimously on a proposal for the boards executive committee, President Yesenia Rivera, Vice President Matt Wilcox and Secretary Joyner, to have final authority to cancel field trips in consultation with Maritza Bond, the citys director of public health, throughout the remainder of the school year. I honestly would recommend we take into consideration the travel advisory, and also looking at the levels changing daily, Bond said. It might not come as a balm to some parents, who stand to lose money if they did not purchase travel insurance for field trips. District World Languages Supervisor Jessica Haxhi, who oversees overnight field trips in the district, said travel insurance is rolled into the cost of some field trips. For those where it is not, parents are given multiple warnings in writing about the potential repercussions of the decisions they are making. Wilcox came out as the clearest voice for moving forward with approved field trips, so long as the district be mindful of evolving health guidance. Theres probably more risk in traveling to the locations than in catching the virus while on the trip, he said. This is a great opportunity to explain to these students and to anyone else in the district the importance of hand washing. Goldson said he felt the debate was becoming paternalistic. Every day we walk out the door we dont know whats going to happen, Goldson said. We cant live in a plastic bubble. Although there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Connecticut, bordering state Rhode Island has had two cases so far apparently as a result of a high schools field trip to Italy, where there have been about 1,700 confirmed cases of the virus. Bordering states New York and Massachusetts each have had one confirmed case to date. Nationally, there have been over 80 confirmed cases in the United States, with two confirmed deaths in Washington state. A number of local universities including the University of New Haven, Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University ended study abroad programs in Italy prematurely after the coronavirus after a number of confirmed cases of coronavirus there. A cohort of Sound School students were scheduled to leave for Italy and Greece on April 10 for a weeklong trip. However, Haxhi reported the Italy portion of the trip had been canceled. Board members then voted on whether they would approve the next two domestic field trips on the list before their next board meeting next Monday: the Vermont trip and an in-state trip to Ivoryton. The trips passed board approval again, with only Joyner and Jackson-McArthur voting against them. Other field trips that have already been approved hang in the balance as officials promise to monitor spread of the virus. The second floor meeting room of 54 Meadow St., where the meeting was held, was unusually full with parents awaiting the decision on the field trips. Following the meeting, father Rob Vallombroso said he wasnt happy with the boards decision. Theres a lot invested in this, he said, in reference to a high school Spring Break trip to Costa Rica in April. He said the board was acting narrow-minded in its thinking. Its hard to listen to their rationale. Its thousands of dollars. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) has asked thousands of its U.S. employees to work from home for a day to test its contingency plans, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter. The test comes amid news of many companies around the world restricting employee travel and temporarily closing offices, as part of efforts to combat the rise in case of coronavirus. According to the reports, JPMorgan has requested 10% of its consumer banking employees to work from home for a day to test its plan, which was codenamed 'Project Kennedy.' The bank has also asked other divisions employees, including its investment bank, to work from home, the reports said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. New Delhi, March 4 : Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra on Wednesday chaired a crucial meeting callled to discuss ways to combat the deadly coronavirus, where it was decided to introduce universal screening at all international airports of the country. Wednesday's meeting was attended by the Cabinet Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Secretaries of Ministries of Health, Civil Aviation, Information and Broadcasting, Shipping, Tourism, Chairman (Airport Authority of India), Secretary (Border Management), MHA. Senior officials from defence forces, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Niti Ayog and the Prime Minister's Office also attended the meeting. Two major changes have been made to further enhance government's level of preparedness. These include introduction of universal screening at all international airports and sea-ports through use of thermal imagery equipment as well as mandatory filling of declaration forms of places visited by tourists and travellers returning from abroad. It was also decided to rapidly implement opening of proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country, down to the district level, in partnership with state governments. Ministries such as MHA, MoD, Railways and Labour would work with Ministry of Health through the use of their facilities and hospitals, it was decided in the meeting. While efforts to contain the spread of the virus were appreciated, it was decided at the meeting to further enhance the effectiveness of the steps taken by adopting a pan-government approach, in partnership with the states. The Ministry of Home Affairs was tasked to work closely with state governments, including relevant district administration officials, to ensure compliance with screening protocols at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs). The meeting took note of confusion among the people over lack of proper knowledge of the virus. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is entrusted with disseminating information to the general public in a timely manner, including relevant advisories and 'dos and don'ts'. "The Ministry of Health briefed the meeting on the positive impact of a 24-hour medical helpline, operational across the country since January 23 with ten dedicated telephone lines. These facilities have received over 6,000 phone calls," said a government release. Participation of communities and local bodies were also stressed in the meeting to combat the public health challenge posed by the virus. Earlier on Monday, PM Modi tweeted: "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme." On Tuesday, he urged people not to panic. Wednesday's meeting was the latest in a series of stock-taking meetings at the PMO, with the first held on January 25. The first case of coronavirus in Delhi was detected on Monday. Six suspected cases are also detected in Agra, who came in contact with the person from Delhi found to be infected. As of today, 28 cases of coronavirus have been reported across India including the Italian nationals who are now been quarantined. So far, 3,110 people have died across the globe due to the highly contagious virus. Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston What if you get stuck on the highway in a storm? Here are some tips In a major delight for film buffs the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has obtained a 1930 black-and-white-silent film, Madhabi Kankana, from the Cinematheque Francaise, Paris. Prakash Magdum, director, NFAI, said, This is the second silent film from the Madan Theatres that we have in our collection. The first one acquired in 2017 was Bilwamangal (1919). It is a rare discovery from early Indian cinema point of view. I am happy that NFAI has now discovered the film. This will be important for the film studies and research students. Madhabi Kankana was produced by Kolkata-based Madan Theatres Ltd in 1930. The historical film was directed by Jyotish Bannerjee starring Mumtaz Begum, Lalita Devi, Nawab, Bhanu Bannerjee, Leelavati, Jainarayan Mukherjee and Farida begum. The film was initially banned, re-censored and released in 1932. The film was shot by two foreign technicians Charles Creed and Marconi. Jyotish Bannerjee was one of the main filmmaker at Madan Studios in Kolkata. The studio was the biggest film company in silent era in India. After the discovery of Bilwamangal in 2017, we were searching further for Indian silent films worldwide and that is how we came to know of its existence in Paris. We are thankful to Cinematheque Francaise for providing the film. The footage which has survived is of 13 minutes and it has been digitized. It is an important footage due to the fact that it has been produced by Madan Theatres Ltd, who were one of the biggest production houses in silent film era in India, added Magdum. The Filmland magazine of 1933 makes note of the film and writes that, If not for any other merits, this picture certainly claims a high place for its superb locations. The main plot of the film revolves around the events in 17th century when Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan sons fight for the throne. The surviving footage has the character of Shuja and Jahan Ara along with Shah Jahan. One of the prominent silent film star Nawab plays the role of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz begum plays the role of Jahan Ara. The film does not have credits or inter-titles and we are taking help of film historians in this regard. We appeal all film lovers to come forward and help us in preserving the countrys cinematic heritage by submitting any such films, footages, posters, photographs and song booklets so that it can be saved for posterity, said Magdum who also said that about 1,300 silent films were made in India and very few films have survived, with the addition of Bilwamangal and Madhabi Kankana, NFAI has now footages of 31 Indian silent films. In black and white -The film is an adaptation of famous historical novel by RC Dutt and is believed to be based on the Bengali version of the novel. -The film is shot by two foreign technicians, Charles Creed and Marconi from Paris-based Cinematheque Francaise. -Madhabi Kankana aka slave girl of Agra was produced by Kolkata-based Madan Theatres Ltd in 1930. - The historical film was directed by Jyotish Bannerjee starring Mumtaz Begum, Lalita Devi, Nawab, Bhanu Bannerjee, Leelavati, Jainarayan Mukherjee and Farida Begum. -The main plot of the film revolves around the events in 17th century when Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan sons fight for the throne. A tornado swept through parts of the city of Nashville on Monday night. As a result, at least 24 people were killed, several others injured, and tens of thousands of households and businesses left without power. The death count is an accumulation of people in four counties, including Davidson (Nashville), Putnam, Benton and Wilson, according to NBC News. "We have had loss of life all across this state," Gov. Bill Lee, who declared a state of emergency, said. Besides those confirmed dead, some people are unaccounted for, he said. "There are folks missing." Lee said that the devastation he witnessed was "heartbreaking," but that he was proud of residents who helped each other in the aftermath. "In the worst of circumstances the best of people comes out, and that's what we're seeing here in Tennessee," Lee said. "It is as we would expect." This is the second most deadly tornado event in Tennessee history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center. Twisters killed 38 people in Tennessee on March 22, 1952, and 22 died in a tornado on Feb. 5, 2008, according to federal authorities. The carnage has not been unnoticed by many Christian artists. Matthew West expresses his concerns: "I can't believe the amount of destruction that tore through Nashville this morning. This city has been a great home to me and my family & seeing so much loss is heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with those who were directly impacted by the tornado." Kari Jobe writes: "My city... so devastated for so many friends and business owners today. We will rebuild. My phone is full of texts back and forth with friends checking on each other. So grateful for community. If you're in need of help- our church @thebelongingco is here for you. Email [email protected] praying for all who lost loved ones and homes. We are with you." Darlene Zschech expresses her prayers: "Praying for all affected by the tornado .. if you are local and need help... please call 1.615.800.8772." For King and Country writes: "Many of us were up through the night listening to sirens, searching for information on what was taking place around us, and checking in with loved ones around Nashville. By God's grace, we're all unharmed, but the same cannot be said for our city- which has taken quite a hit. Be praying for our community as it's been shocking to see all the devastation this morning." Natalie Grant shares, "Heartbroken for our city, pray for those facing devastation this morning because of the tornados." Steven Curtis Chapman finds comfort in Scripture, quoting Psalms 34:18, "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted & saves the crushed in spirit." Tags : tornado nashville Nashville city of nashville Kari Jobe Darlene Zschech Matthew West FOR KING AND COUNTRY Natalie Grant Steven Curtis Chapman If this year's Oscars ceremony was a little too subdued and lacking in tear gas for your liking, may we direct your attention to France's Cesar Awards where director Roman Polanski nabbed Best Director for his latest movie An Officer And A Spy. The win led to French actress Adele Haenel winning Outstanding Achievement in Not Giving A Fuck when she got up and walked out on the rest of the ceremony: This was then followed by a full-fledged riot in the streets of Paris because once again, despite what a bunch of old, tuxedo-wearing, French film nerds would have you believe, most of Europe hates Roman Polanski. Just to refresh your memory, in 1977 Roman Polanski was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles, but hightailed it to Europe before he could be sentenced. So a few nights ago, when he won a prestigious award, the atmosphere outside the theater was emotional. Tears were shed, and not just because the cops fired tear gas into the crowd to prevent them from storming the show's red carpet. A show that Polanski himself decided not to attend after realizing he'd be surrounded by at least a few people who frown upon child rape. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Not to mention that Polanski's movie, An Officer And A Spy, is about a man who serves a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit - a story that so closely resembles Polanski's own misguided sense of wrongful persecution that the plot description alone is reason enough to riot. Give him an award for it and you're basically lighting the Molotovs for the protesters. Gaumont Are we should this isn't about rival bellhops at a fancy hotel trying to see who can get the bigger tip? Continue Reading Below Advertisement It's nice knowing that here in America, despite how tame the Oscars can seem by comparison, they're still a fine and honorable award ceremony that would never ever honor Polanski after what he did ... except for when they gave him the award for Best Director in 2003 for The Pianist. Merde. Luis can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Check out his regular contributions to Macaulay Culkin's BunnyEars.com and his "Meditation Minute" segments on the Bunny Ears podcast. And now you can listen to the first episode on Youtube! Jeff Haynes was waiting for a letter that never came. When the Civics board president was called to a meeting with Rochester City Administrator Steve Rymer and City Attorney Jason Loos, he assumed written notice to seek the end of the citys lease with Rochester Civic Theatre was inevitable. "I was fully expecting to receive a letter there," he said of last weeks meeting. The letter was never produced. Instead, a conversation revolved around lease details and the organizations financial situation. "As we worked through the points in the lease, during the week that had passed, they had resolved many of them," Rymer said. ADVERTISEMENT As a result, Rymer said he opted against seeking to end the lease, which has been in place for approximately 70 years. The Rochester City Council authorized notifying the Civic Theatres board it would seek to end the lease last month. The next steps were expected to be the creation of a collaborative performing arts model to start after the Civics current season ends in May. Now, it appears the Civic could hold the stage for another season, if the City Council approves. "They need to have an answer from the council relatively quickly, if they are going to have that opportunity," Rymer said. Haynes said hes suggesting the Civic cut its traditional seven-production season to five, which could provide space in the schedule for other theater companies to stage performances. Its a concept proposal as the city looked to end the theaters lease, but how it would work with the Civic as chief tenant of the space remains to be seen. "This is very preliminary," Haynes said, pointing out the proposal hasnt been discussed with the full theater board. He said five shows have already been selected, based on their anticipated ability to draw audiences, and the Civic could consider extending performances or offering multiple shows to generate added revenue. ADVERTISEMENT "These are just things we are thinking about," he added, saying making it through the current season is the priority. He said hes also focused on fundraising efforts, which recently saw a second anonymous donor with a large contribution step forward. The theater is also seeking additional contributions in the coming weeks. With that, Haynes said the theater also needs the City Council to eventually provide access to the $150,000 in city funds the Civic returned earlier this year. On Monday, at least one council member said hes ready to say no. "The lease is very clear that we owe them nothing," council member Shaun Palmer said. "They should expect nothing from the City Council." Others said such a decision was premature. "I dont feel like this is well-enough throughout to be strategic," council member Michael Wojcik said, adding that he expects added financial details before city funds are released. "We have never seen a set of financial statements that are mathematically accurate," he said. ADVERTISEMENT The council ended the discussion with a decision to revisit it when more information is available. "Were expecting in the next couple weeks we will have updated cash flows," Rymer said. A new audited financial statement is unlikely however. Haynes said the theaters new audit remains in progress, with the hope of extending the examination through the end of the year. The Civics most-recent completed audit examined the nonprofits finances through July 2018. While the next audit is in the works, Haynes said the Civic board and staff continue working to overcome recent financial difficulties and reduce expenses. He said that will likely extend to planning next season without paid performers. "At this point, Im very determined to maintain a low-cost structure until we get on our feet," he added. Reed Saxon / Associated Press The Supreme Court this week decided to consider yet another assault on the Affordable Care Act this fall, prolonging the legal threat to the landmark law through the end of the presidential campaign. That leaves the ACA and more than 5 million Californians who depend on it with an unclear prognosis, but it also lends a certain clarity to the stakes of this campaign. Texas vs. California is the third and most absurd challenge to reach the high court in not quite a decade since Barack Obama signed his signature reform into law. The complaint at hand questions the ACAs mandate that individuals obtain health insurance, which was upheld as a tax penalty by an earlier Supreme Court decision. The tortured argument being advanced by Texas and other Republican-run states, with California leading the defense, is that the penalty ceased to be a tax when a Republican Congress zeroed it out in 2018. The effectively nonexistent mandate must therefore be struck down as unconstitutional, they contend, and with it the sprawling entirety of a law that reduced the ranks of the uninsured by more than 40%. New Delhi: Ahead of the March 26 Rajya Sabha biennial polls, Kamal Nath-led Madhya Pradesh government appears to be facing a political crisis with Congress party alleging that BJP leaders are hatching a conspiracy to topple the state government. Four Independent MLAs and four Congress MLAs are held hostage in Haryana, confirmed MP Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot. Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also told ANI that a senior leader of the BJP has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, and alleged that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in the state. Digvijaya Singh further alleged, "BJP's Rampal Singh, Narottam Mishra, Arvind Bhadauria, Sanjay Pathak were going to give them money. Had there been a raid, they would have been caught...We think 10-11 MLAs were there, only 4 are still with them now, they will also come back to us." "People with whom our contact was established were ready to come back to us. We were able to get in touch with Bisahulal Singh and Ramabai. Ramabai came back, even when BJP tried to stop her," he alleged. Madhya Pradesh Ministers, Jitu Patwari and Jaivardhan Singh, left from ITC Resort in Gurugram's Manesar, taking suspended BSP MLA Ramabai with them. Eight MLAs from MP were reportedly being held against their will by BJP at the hotel, Ramabai being one of them, alleged the Congress leaders. Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari also made a statement after Digvijaya Singh alleged that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. "Senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy," Jitu Patwari told PTI over phone, while alleging that "The MLAs told us that they were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders." He added, "We are trying to bring them back. Four of them have come back also but they have forcibly taken away tribal MLA Bisahulal Singh." Reports said that Digvijay and his minister son Jaivardhan Singh reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. The BJP, however, dismissed the claim of Madhya Pradesh's former chief minister and said his statement was aimed at ensuring his re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh scheduled on March 26. Shivraj Singh reportedly accused the Congress leader of making false statements and engaging in sensationalism. BJP vice-president and MLA Rameshwar Sharma told PTI that people dont take Digvijay Singh seriously. Notably, the faction-ridden MP Congress is a worried lot and wants it's MLAs to stay united for the Upper House polls. Earlier on Tuesday, two BJP MLAs Narayan Tripathi and Sharad Kol failed to turn up for a party meeting in Bhopal, setting off alarm bells in the BJP ahead of the March 26 biennial polls for three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. Both the MLAs were once in the Congress and are not getting along well with the BJP, sources close to them said. Tripathi, however, told PTI over the phone that he was too busy in Delhi and that's why couldnt make it to the meeting called by the state BJP in view of the upcoming RS polls. Madhya Pradesh BJP president V D Sharma could not be contacted for comments despite repeated calls. The state BJP leadership has reportedly told the party MLAs to stay alert and promptly inform them in case they are approached by the rival camp in connection with the RS polls. After losing the Lok Sabha polls to BJP MP Pragya Thakur from Bhopal last year, Singh is likely to seek re-election to the Upper House of Parliament. The ruling party may field Jyotiraditya Scindia in the RS elections, as Scindia, like Singh, had also lost general elections from Guna. The three RS seats, which are falling vacant, are currently held by Singh (Congress), Jatiya and Prabhat Jha (both from BJP). The BJP is making all-out efforts to retain the two seats, where Congress wants to take its tally to two from one as it has more MLAs this time around. In the 230-member Assembly, Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP (107), independents (4), while the simple majority mark is 116. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party (SP) are providing support to the Kamal Nath government. Two seats are vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. (With Agency Inputs) Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Kendallville, IN (46755) Today On and off snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low 9F. NNW winds shifting to E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 40%.. Tonight On and off snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low 9F. NNW winds shifting to E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Vietnamese authorities and military units have carried out a large-scale joint exercise to practice on necessary procedures to respond to different scenarios of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in the Southeast Asian country. The steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday organized the drill at the Vietnam Military Medical University, Hanoi Capital High Command, 1st Army Corps, 1st Army Officer School, and several other military units. The exercise was directed by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, National Defense Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich, and Colonel General Phan Van Giang, Deputy Minister of National Defense and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam Peoples Army. Delegates of the steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and the Ministry of National Defense observe an exercise for COVID-19 prevention at the headquarters of the defense ministry in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre The exercise on a unprecedented scale includes five scenarios based on five levels of severity of the epidemic. In the most serious scenario, there are more than 30,000 confirmed cases in the country and the virus has spread to several military units. Speaking at the event, Deputy PM Dam praised the militarys efforts in preventing of the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam. Colonel General Phan Van Giang, Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam Peoples Army, chairs an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre We must not get too comfortable. We will only be safe when the epidemic is completely eradicated, he remarked. Through the exercise, competent authorities evaluate the countrys capacity and resources in the prevention of COVID-19, before making necessary adjustments and improvement to the effort. An air force unit is in charge of transporting supplies during an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: D.A. / Tuoi Tre The novel coronavirus disease has killed 3,202 people and infected over 93,000 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health. Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese. All of them have fully recovered and have been discharged from the hospital. The country has reported no new infections since February 13. Doctors treat a patient at a makeshift hospital during an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre Medics carry out tests at a specialized facility during an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre Doctors treat a patient at a makeshift hospital during an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: D.A. / Tuoi Tre Doctors treat a patient at a makeshift hospital during an exercise for COVID-19 prevention in Hanoi, March 4, 2020. Photo: D.A. / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A day after a couple from Uttar Pradesh was put in the isolation ward of a government hospital in Cuttack city over suspected coronavirus infection, two more persons in Odisha were hospitalised over similar suspicions, officials said Wednesday. A youth of Sonepur district who returned from Dubai on February 27, was admitted to the special ward at VIMSAR medical college and hospital in Sambalpur after he complained of cold and fever. Another person of Keonjhar who had recently visited Andaman and Nicobar islands was admitted to hospital as he too showed symptoms of the virus infection. Swab samples of both have been sent for testing to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The total number of people testing positive for coronavirus in India rose to 28 on Wednesday. Amidst the coronavirus scare, Odisha Special Relief Commissioner on Wednesday issued an advisory for workplaces to prevent infection. The advisory enlisted precautionary measures such as washing of hands and avoiding handshakes, hugging and maintaining a safe distance at workplaces. Meanwhile, the Odisha government has urged the Centre for creation of two coronavirus test facilities in the state. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 07:04 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068128fc 2 World World-Bank,coronavirus,aid,COVID-19,Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak Free The World Bank unveiled a US$12 billion aid package on Tuesday that will provide fast-track funds to help countries combat the coronavirus outbreak. "The goal is to provide fast, effective action that responds to country needs," World Bank President David Malpass told reporters. He said it is critical to "recognize the extra burden on poor countries" least equipped in the struggle to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The funds, some of which are targeted to the world's poorest nations, can be used for medical equipment or health services and will include expertise and policy advice, the bank said in a statement. The virus that erupted in central China in December has killed more than 3,000 worldwide and infected over 90,000 people. Malpass said the money -- $8 billion of which is new -- will go to countries that request help. The bank has been in contact with many member nations, but he did not specify which are likely to be the first to receive aid. "The point is to move fast. Speed is needed to save lives," he said in a conference call. "We want to make the best use of the World Bank's extensive resources and global expertise and the historical knowledge of crises," he said, citing similar crisis funding to combat the Ebola and Zika outbreaks in recent years. An investigation is underway after a fatal shooting Tuesday night in Birmingham. The citys South Precinct officers responded just before 10 p.m. to a report from Shot Spotter. The gunfire detection system, said Sgt. Rod Mauldin, indicated four rounds had been fired in the area of 963 47th Street North. Once officers got on the scene, they found a victim on the ground and unresponsive. The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victim as Gussie Lee Tyus. He was 72 and lived in Birmingham but not at the address where he was killed. Tyus was pronounced dead on the scene at 10:05 p.m. Mauldin said details are limited in this investigation. There are no suspects in custody and no motive has been established. The deadly shooting is Birminghams third in just four days. Jerrell Moultrie, 28, was killed Friday night in the 4300 block of 12th Court North. Early Monday, 36-year-old Shontez Deon Rhodes was found shot to death outside of his car at Valley Road and Court I in Ensley. Authorities have not announced arrests in any of the slayings. The Tuesday-night homicide is the citys 18th so far this year in Birmingham. Of those four have been ruled justifiable and are not deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 29 homicides, including the 18 in Birmingham. Anyone with information in Tyus killing is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 03:14:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday urged the Higher Relief Committee for financial support to fighting against COVID-19, MTV local TV channel reported. Diab urged the committee to give more than 1 billion Lebanese pounds (about 660,502 U.S. dollars) to the health ministry to help contain the spread of coronavirus in the country. Lebanon currently does not have centers all over the country dedicated to the isolation of infected people or suspected cases, and it also lacks materials for preventing the spread of the virus. Earlier in the day, Lebanon's Parliament Health Committee urged the cabinet to give financial support to Rafic Hariri Hospital to enable it to fight effectively against COVID-19 in addition to adopting a unified strategy with the Health Ministry and private hospitals for this purpose. Enditem Viola Davis and Dame Helen Mirren teamed up in Beverly Hills on Tuesday to promote launch of L'Oreal Paris' Age Perfect Cosmetics while clad in a fabulous white dresses. The brand ambassadors - who are both a Grammy away from elite EGOT status - did the photo shoot six months after Helen had publicly told Viola she was 'really looking forward to us working together.' The London-born Brit easily defied her 74 years in a long-sleeved b&w-dotted midi-dress and black pumps selected by stylist Lee Harris. Twinning! Viola Davis (L) and Dame Helen Mirren (R) teamed up in Beverly Hills on Tuesday to promote launch of L'Oreal Paris' Age Perfect Cosmetics while clad in white dresses Both a Grammy away from elite EGOT status: The brand ambassadors did the shoot six months after Helen had told Viola she was 'really looking forward to us working together' Make-up artist Jo Strettell applied the Age Perfect mascara on Helen, whose sideswept white bob was coiffed by hairstylist Richard Collins. Mirren (born Mironoff) doesn't have a set beauty routine aside from daily moisturizer, but she told CNN on Tuesday that she likes 'to experiment' and 'spend many hours in the mirror finding the best ways to get into character.' The South Carolina-born beauty easily defied her 54 years in belted midi-shirt-dress and black pumps selected by stylist Elizabeth Stewart. Make-up artist Autumn Moultrie made sure Viola's complexion glowed and hairstylist Jamika Wilson coiffed her curly side-parted wig for the sun-filled shoot. Dotty: The London-born Brit easily defied her 74 years in a long-sleeved b&w-dotted midi-dress and black pumps selected by stylist Lee Harris Primping: Make-up artist Jo Strettell (L) applied the Age Perfect mascara on Helen, whose sideswept white bob was coiffed by hairstylist Richard Collins Mirren doesn't have a set beauty routine aside from daily moisturizer, but she told CNN on Tuesday that she likes 'to experiment' and 'spend many hours in the mirror finding the best ways to get into character.' Stair stunner: The South Carolina-born beauty easily defied her 54 years in belted midi-shirt-dress and black pumps selected by stylist Elizabeth Stewart 'It's like someone finally sees me. Many women get to a certain point in their lives and no one looks at them or values them anymore - as if they are invisible, you know? The fact is that beauty is not something that can just be defined by youth,' Davis told InStyle in January. 'I never used any products in my twenties. Now I have about 30 bottles of perfume alone; each one is for a different occasion. I feel more girlish and buoyant in my fifties than I ever have before. I've released my inner woman!' The Good Liar actress and the Troop Zero star appeared to have a blast starring together in the campaign specifically targeting women over age 50. Helen has worked for L'Oreal Paris for six years now while Viola just signed with the cosmetics company in September. 'It's like someone finally sees me': Make-up artist Autumn Moultrie (L) made sure Viola's complexion glowed and hairstylist Jamika Wilson coiffed her curly side-parted wig Davis told InStyle in January: 'I never used any products in my twenties. Now I have about 30 bottles of perfume alone; each one is for a different occasion. I feel more girlish and buoyant in my fifties than I ever have before. I've released my inner woman!' Fierce after 50! The Good Liar actress and the Troop Zero star appeared to have a blast starring together in the campaign specifically targeting women over age 50 Leo ladies! Helen has worked for L'Oreal Paris for six years now while Viola just signed with the cosmetics company in September Davis and her husband of 15 years and creative collaborator, Julius Tennon, adopted their nine-year-old daughter Genesis in 2011. 'I tell [Genesis] that she is starting with the most beautiful palette imaginable - herself,' the Julliard grad said of her child wearing make-up. 'To never cover or erase who she is. I want her to know that she is enough.' 'I want her to know that she is enough': Davis and her husband of 15 years and creative collaborator, Julius Tennon, adopted their nine-year-old daughter Genesis in 2011 Resumes April 2 on ABC! The Julliard grad next concludes her role producing and starring as defense attorney professor Annalise Keating in the sixth and final season of How to Get Away with Murder Viola concludes her role producing and starring as defense attorney professor Annalise Keating in the sixth and final season of How to Get Away with Murder, which resumes April 2 on ABC. Meanwhile, Mirren has two stepsons - Rio, 49; and Alexander, 41 - with her husband of 22 years, Oscar-winning director Taylor Hackford. The Hobbs & Shaw action star next reprises her role as Magdalene Shaw in the ninth Fast & Furious installment F9, which hits US/UK theaters May 22. 'With my husband and stepson Rio': Mirren has two stepsons - Rio, 49; and Alexander, 41 - with her husband of 22 years, Oscar-winning director Taylor Hackford (pictured in 2017) Hitting US/UK theaters May 22! The Hobbs & Shaw action star next reprises her role as Magdalene Shaw in the ninth Fast & Furious installment F9 Also at the L'Oreal launch was The Knight Before Christmas actress Kat Graham taking the plunge in a puffy-shoulder teal and black cocktail dress. The Swiss-born, LA-raised 30-year-old matched her vibrant eye shadow with her flirty frock. The biracial beauty was later seen applying a saucy red Age Perfect lipstick on her mother Natasha. Lounging: Also at the L'Oreal launch was The Knight Before Christmas actress Kat Graham taking the plunge in a puffy-shoulder teal and black cocktail dress Baby blues! The Swiss-born, LA-raised 30-year-old matched her vibrant eye shadow with her flirty frock About 7,067 Chinese nationals, 13,374 Indians and 4,340 foreigners (excluding Chinese) have come to India from China directly in the last one and half months (January 15 - March 2). During the same period, 3,783 foreigners excluding Chinese citizens, 10,942 Chinese nationals and 5,811 Indians have departed to China, as per the bureau of immigration data for travellers compiled by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So far over 3,000 have died and more than 80,000 are infected with the virus in China. India had airlifted about 645 passengers from Wuhan in China through special aircrafts and kept for 14 days in quarantine in the army camp, Manesar and Chhawla camp of ITBP. All these evacuees were discharged on 18th February, after the prescribed observation period. Meanwhile, 2,352 Indians, 996 Italians and 514 other foreigners have come to India from Italy during the same period. While 1,513 Indians, 722 Italians and 656 other nationals left for Italy. Coronavirus is spreading fast in Italy with 52 deaths and over 2,000 cases. As of now, 14 out of the 21 Italian nationals currently in India have been tested positive for the coronavirus. They have been sent to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police's (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said today. From Korea, where so far 28 have died and nearly 5000 are infected, 635 Indians, 854 Koreans and 303 other nationals visited India. Direct departure to Korea during the same period was 840 Indians, 1139 Koreans and 661 other nationals. Indirectly, 53 Indians and 26 foreigners landed in India, while four Indians, one Korean and six other nationals departed for Korea. Those departed to Japan, which has reported nearly 300 positive Corona cases, were 1,015 Indians, 3,576 Japanese nationals and 684 other foreginers. Indirectly, 39 Indians and 34 other nationals came from Japan during the same period. From Iran, 460 Indians, 340 Iranians and 20 other nationals have come to India during the same period. In India, screening is done at 21 airports, 12 major seaports and 65 minor seaports and land crossings, particularly bordering Nepal. Universal screening has been announced for all flights and passengers. As of second March, 57,4276 passengers travelling in 199 flights were screened. Total 5.7 lakh air passengers have been screened since 18th January. Since 27th January, 361 ships with 14,642 passengers were screened, says the health ministry data. As per the government's travel advisory, the existing visas (including eVisa already issued) are no longer valid for any foreign national travelling from China. Indians have been advised to avoid non-essential travel to Singapore, Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy and people coming from Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy or having such travel history since 10th February 2020 may be quarantined for 14 days on arrival to India. The facility of visa on arrival from Republic of Korea and Japan have also been suspended by India. ALSO READ: Coronavirus Live Updates: PM Modi dives into coronavirus battle, review meet at PMO Also Read: Coronavirus: Passengers from more countries to be screened at Indian airports Also Read: Coronavirus update: Who can enter India, who cannot? (Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. is testing a way for users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours -- similar to Stories products offered on rival social networks -- in a push to encourage people to share more often on its service. The San Francisco-based company calls these disappearing posts Fleets -- short for fleeting tweets -- and wants the tool to ease the pressure of online sharing. Similar to tweets, Fleets are text-first but videos, GIFs and photos can be added. Some of you tell us that youre uncomfortable to Tweet because Tweets are public, feel permanent, and have public counts, Twitter wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. We hope that people who dont usually feel comfortable Tweeting use Fleets to share musings about whats on their mind. The test is only available in Brazil. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is under threat from activist investment firm Elliott Management Group, which wants to push him out of the top job. Dorsey has two jobs -- he also runs payments company Square Inc. -- and Elliott thinks Twitter needs a full-time CEO. Twitter has also developed a reputation for moving slowly when it comes to launching new products and features. Its common for some ideas to percolate internally for years before they ever appear to Twitter users, a much slower cadence than other social media companies. Even expanding the length of tweets from 140 to 280 characters took years of debate and discussion inside the company. The Fleets test provides at least the perception that Twitter is moving forward. Disappearing posts have become a popular way to share on competing social sites, including Facebook Inc.s Instagram and Snap Inc.s Snapchat. More than 500 million people use Instagrams version of Stories, and Facebook executives have pointed to this as an important growth opportunity for the companys advertising business. Instagrams Stories feature already makes up about 10% of all ad spending on Facebook properties. Story continues Its too soon to say whether Fleets will provide a similar opportunity for Twitter. The company has started testing features in public in recent years, often asking for user feedback before rolling something out more broadly. Its one of the ways Twitter tries to be more thoughtful about what it launches, but also slows down the process. Instagram, by comparison, unveiled its version of Stories to all global users at the same time in 2016. To contact the reporter on this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. English French Paris (France) March 4, 2020 - At its meeting on March 4, 2020, the Board of Directors of Sanofi decided to propose, at the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for April 28, 2020, the appointment of two new independent directors, Rachel Duan and Lise Kingo, as well as the ratification of the appointment by co-optation of Paul Hudson and the reappointment of Laurent Attal, Carole Piwnica, Diane Souza and Thomas Sudhof. Claudie Haignere's term of office, which expires at the end of the next General Meeting after three full mandates, will not be renewed. In addition, Suet-Fern Lee, after serving on the Board of Directors for the last 9 years, has declared her intention to retire and as a consequence to resign from her directorship before the said meeting. Rachel Duan is currently Senior Vice President of GE and President & CEO of GE Global Markets, where she is responsible for driving GE's growth in China, Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Rachel Duan joined GEs Corporate Audit Staff in 1996. She then held several management positions, including Lean Six Sigma, sales and marketing at GE Plastics in China and the Asia-Pacific region. She became President & CEO of GE Advanced Materials China in 2006 and then of the Asia Pacific region in 2008. In 2010, Rachel Duan was appointed President & CEO of GE Healthcare China and President & CEO of GE China in 2014, becoming the first native Chinese woman to hold this position in GE's largest market outside the United States. She was promoted to her current role in January 2019. A native of Shanghai, Rachel Duan holds a bachelor's degree in economics and international business from Shanghai International Studies University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. Throughout her career, she has worked and lived in the United States, Japan and China. Lise Kingo is currently* CEO & Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, a position she has held since 2015. The UN Global Compact is the worlds largest corporate sustainability initiative uniting business to create a better world through universal principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Lise Kingo began her career in 1986 in business-to-business advertising at JP Bureau in Copenhagen and joined Novo Industries (now Novo Nordisk after the merger with Nordisk Gentofte) in 1988, where she remained for 26 years. She served as Chief of Staff, Executive Vice President and member of the Executive Management team since 2002, where she was instrumental in defining Novo Nordisk's sustainable business strategy. Prior to 2002, she held various positions in Novozymes, Novo Holding and Novo Nordisk, including internal audit, compliance, people & organization, branding and sustainability. A native of Denmark, Lise Kingo holds a bachelor's degree in Religions and Ancient Greek Art from the University of Aarhus in Denmark, a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Economics from the Copenhagen Business School and a master's degree in Responsibility & Business from the University of Bath in the UK. Lise Kingo is also certified as a director by INSEAD in France. Throughout her career, she has held positions in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States. * Lise Kingo will be stepping down from her post as CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact in June 2020. Assuming election to the Board, she will not sit at Board meetings until she has separated from the United Nations. The arrival of Rachel Duan and Lise Kingo allow to deepen the skills of the board of directors in the knowledge of emerging markets, especially China as well as in Social Responsibility. The Board of Directors is therefore continuing to adapt the profiles of its members in line with the Group's strategic needs. said Serge Weinberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors. The composition of the Board's specialized committees will be reviewed at the end of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for April 28, 2020. About Sanofi Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions. With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe. Sanofi, Empowering Life Media Relations Contact Quentin Vivant Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 46 46 mr@sanofi.com Investor Relations Contact Felix Lauscher Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 45 45 ir@sanofi.com Attachment Russian defence ministry spokesman as saying 'terrorist' fortifications had merged with Turkish outposts in Idlib, resulting in daily attacks on Russia's Hmeimim air base in Syria Russia: Russia accused Turkey on Wednesday of failing to meet its obligations under a pact to create a demilitarised zone in Syrias Idlib province and of helping militants instead. The RIA News Agency quoted a Russian defence ministry spokesman as saying terrorist fortifications had merged with Turkish outposts in Idlib, resulting in daily attacks on Russias Hmeimim air base in Syria. Turkey had amassed troop numbers in Idlib equal to a mechanised division, violating international law, the Russian spokesman said. Turkish military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. The Russian accusation came on the eve of a Thursday meeting in Moscow between President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. They are expected to try to de-escalate tensions that have brought Turkey and Russia dangerously close to direct military confrontation. In a historic judgement passed today, India's apex court on Wednesday lifted RBI's two-year-old ban on cryptocurrency trading in the country. Two years back in April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India had enforced a ban on cryptocurrency trading that stopped banks from facilitating any service in relation to virtual currencies. At the time, RBI had said the step was important to bridle ring-fencing of the countrys financial system. It had also argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot be treated as real currencies as they are not metallic or exist in physical form, nor do they have a government stamp. Many local startups and companies offering services to trade in cryptocurrency had panicked when the received a notice from the central bank back in 2018. Justice Rohinton F Nariman today overturned central banks circular on the grounds of disproportionality. A group of petitioners including trade body the Internet and Mobile Association of India (MOI) had called out central banks circular, in part, arguing that India should look at many other countries that are allowing cryptocurrency trading. Nitin Sharma, a tech investor, said the Supreme Court's ruling was historic as it finally brought some clarity in the matter. Historic day for Crypto in India. We can now innovate. The entire country can participate in the Blockchain revolution, said Nischal Shetty, founder and chief executive of Bitcoin exchange platform WazirX. A mother has defended herself from backlash after a photo of her punishing her son went viral. Last week, Molly Wooden, a mother of two, was shopping at a Hobby Lobby in Texas when she visited the restroom and saw another mother, Nicki Quinn, forcing her son to do push-ups as punishment for back talk. The encounter prompted Wooden to take a photo of the fellow mothers parenting and share it to Facebook, where she wrote: If my hands werent full of children I would have applauded you. As your son gave you the back talk of the century, you stayed calm and collected while adding 10 more push ups to his already growing number. We need more parents like you, who arent afraid to parent their own children because of what someone else might think. Shortly after recounting the incident, Woodens photo went viral and eventually captured the attention of Quinn, who reached out to thank the other mother for her praise. However, on social media, where the post was shared more than 43,000 times, not everyone was as supportive of Quinns choice of punishment. Some accused the mother of embarrassing and publicly humiliating her child and said Quinns parenting should not be applauded. Both mothers have since addressed the controversy during an interview with Today, where they defended the parenting tactic. The 10 best parenting books Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 best parenting books The 10 best parenting books 656151.bin The 10 best parenting books 656148.bin The 10 best parenting books 656144.bin The 10 best parenting books 656142.bin The 10 best parenting books 656147.bin The 10 best parenting books 656141.bin The 10 best parenting books 656149.bin The 10 best parenting books 656143.bin The 10 best parenting books 656146.bin The 10 best parenting books 656145.bin Im the person that has to teach them, Quinn said. I gotta do what I have to do to make sure my son is respectful to me, because when hes respectful to me, hes going to respect everyone else, like his teachers and fellow students. Wooden also reiterated her support of the fellow mum, telling the outlet when she first saw Quinns display of strong parenting she was in awe. I was like: Yes! You are amazing! she recalled. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Operation Spring Shield Idlib, one of the four de-escalation areas designated at the 4th Astana Meeting held on 4-5 May 2017, remains as the last one after the regime took control of Eastern Ghouta, Northern Homs and Daraa-Qunaitra in 2018. President Erdogan and the President of the RF met in Sochi on 17 September 2018 to discuss the situation in the Idlib De-Escalation Area. As a result, the "Memorandum on Stabilization of the Situation in the Idlib De-escalation Area" was signed between two countries. Iran, the third Astana guarantor, later announced its support to the Memorandum. Maintaining compliance with the Memorandum is critical to prevent escalation on the ground, a wave of irregular migration and humanitarian crisis as well as for the sustainability of the political process. Regime elements have increased their attacks on Idlib since May 2019 under the pretext of combating terrorism. Turkey emphasizes to the regimes guarantors its deep concern regarding the regime's targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as the risks those pose to Turkey. Turkeys expectation is the establishment of calm on the ground by fully implementing all agreements on Idlib, first and foremost the Memorandum of 17 September 2018. Turkey bet on cooperation with Russia in Syria. It lost this bet. The situation in Idlib escalated after the February 27 terrorists from the Khayyat Tahrir al-Sham group launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian army. Some 33 Turkish soldiers were killed as a result of an airstrike in the Syrian province of Idlib, Rahmi Dogan, the governor of the Hatay province, located close to the Turkish border with Syria, said 27 February 2020. The Associated Press called the Thursday attack "the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016," and "a major escalation in a conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces." The BBC reports "The air strike came after the opposition retook the key town of Saraqeb, north-east of Balyun." On 28 Febuary 2020, Turkey began Operation Spring Shield against regime. Operation Spring Shield is already yielding results according to Defence Minister Hulusi Akar. He said since the operation began on February 28, 1 UAV, 8 helicopters, 103 tanks, 72 guns/howitzers/CNRA, 3 air defence systems and 2,212 regime soldiers have already been eliminated. "We have no intention to confront Russia but we want to stop the Assad regime's massacre of civilians. Our target is only regime forces and elements attacking our troops," he added. Al-Hawwash, where these air strikes occurred on 27 February 2020, is only 40km away from Russia's Khmeimim Airbase. There isn't much buffer, and the proximity meant Russia would feel more threatened by Turkish UAVs overhead. The Russian Ministry of Defence later stated that the troops were among armed militants, who had been planning to launch a military offensive against the Syrian Army in the area. According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, members of the Russian Security Council are extremely concerned about the sharp escalation of the situation in northern Syria, which was led by increasing terrorist attacks against government forces. Participants in the meeting noted that the Turkish military in Idlib perished exclusively outside observation posts, a Kremlin spokesman said. The killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike conducted by the Russia-backed Assad regime gave Ankara another reason to suspect Moscow's intentions toward Turkey. The attack had thrown a spanner in almost all the diplomatic successes the two sides had achieved. The Russian Federation has shown its nefarious and ominous face, which has been obvious for us, exposing its brewing hidden enmity toward Turkey, said Devlet Bahceli, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader, who is an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In response to the attack, Syrian government targets have come and will continue to come under fire from the air and ground," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun. Turkey says it responded with drone and artillery attacks, state-run Anadolu Agency news reports today. According to Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, "Turkish forces destroyed five Syrian regime choppers, 23 tanks, 10 armored vehicles, 23 howitzers, five ammunition trucks, a SA-17, a SA-22 air defense system as well as three ammunition depots, two equipment depots, a headquarter[s] and 309 regime troops." The actual number of regime forces killed is 16, Agence France-Presse reports from Istanbul. (And Turkey shut off much of the country's internet after news of the 33 surfaced. The NATO Council met at Turkeys request to consult under Article 4 of NATOs founding Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria. The Allies offered their deepest condolences to Turkey and expressed solidarity, but stopped short from taking any more practical measures after the emergency meeting. The United States said that "we stand by our NATO ally Turkey" and demanded that Syria and Russia end their "despicable" offensive in Idlib. "We are looking at options on how we can best support Turkey in this crisis," a State Department spokeswoman said. Turkish media reported that hundreds of migrants were flocking to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria, after a senior official was quoted as saying Ankara had decided not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. It is unclear if Article 5 extends to NATO allies when they have effectively invaded a foreign entity. The state defending itself in this specific set of facts is Syria not Turkey. So Ankara cant call on NATO support under Article 5, which is self-protection, because theyre not being attacked, theyre in Syrian territory. That being said, Ankara has found a way to ensure that European nations do not flat-out ignore the situation. Just recently, Turkey reportedly opened up the Idlib border to allow an influx of Syrian refugees to flee to Europe, which will surely magnify regional tensions to a significant extent. Moscow has responded to the situation by highlighting Ankaras relationship with the various jihadist entities in Syria. According to Russias Defense Ministry, the airstrike was carried out when the Syrian Army was repelling an offensive by Syrias official al-Qaeda offshoot, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, inside the Idlib de-escalation zone. On 01 March 2020 Turkish drone strikes in Syria's Idlib province killed 19 regime soldiers, a war monitor reported, as tensions soared between Damascus and Ankara. The 19 died in strikes on a military convoy in the Jabal al Zawiya area and a base near Maaret al Numan city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The report came hours after Turkey shot down two Syrian regime warplanes, in an escalating offensive against the Damascus regime in the country's northwestern province of Idlib. This operation took the regime planners and their allies by surprise. They probably estimated that the Turkish leadership would think twice, shy away from further human losses, and potentially opt for disengagement from Idlib. However, the Turkish military response destroyed scores of Syrian military assets, including at least three fighter jets (comprising two Sukhoi SU-34 and one L-39), five helicopters, 100 tanks, howitzers, and radar installations, while neutralising hundreds of troops. It dealt a serious blow to the military capabilities of the Syrian army and its surrogates. While many pundits have touched upon the political and strategic ramifications of such developments, it is equally important to explore the military significance of the past weeks events, some of which will outlast the current conflict in Syria. It should be stated that this is the first time since 1982 that the Assad regime confronted this sort of sustained and significant challenge from a superior foe. This week, the intensity of the military onslaught against the Assad army brought the latter to an operational breaking point. Over the course of a week, from February 27 through March 5, Syrias Idlib province transitioned from being ground zero for a war between the Syrian army and allied forces, and heavily armed groups opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad, into a geopolitical powder keg that threatened to pull the Turkish and Russian militaries into direct conflict. One of the major reasons for the Turkish failure was the fact that Russia controlled the air space over Idlib, denying the Turks the use of aircraft, helicopters and (except for a single 48-hour period) drones, while apparently using their own aircraft, together with the Syrian Air Force, to pummel both the Turkish military and their allied anti-Assad forces. After five days of Turkey's Spring Shield military operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, regime forces paid a punishing price. Turkey's intervention has also allowed Syrian opposition forces to take up the offensive. Turkey neutralized Syrian regime's 2 aircraft, 2 drones, 8 choppers, 135 tanks, 5 air-defense systems, 2,557 elements so of 02 March 2020. This operation soon fizzled; not only was the Turkish advance halted in its tracks, but the Syrian Army, supported by Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militias, were able to recapture much of the territory lost in the earlier fighting. A new agreement with Russia on 05 March 2020 dispelled the specter of a major conflict arising from the recent escalation of tensions in Syria's Idlib. A heated standoff between the Syrian Army and Turkey seems to have been avoided. This was all thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Moscow and Ankara, which led to a new agreement on the troubled province following nearly six hours of negotiations. The conflict had threatened to spiral out of control at any minute, dragging both adversaries as well as Syria's allies in Moscow and possibly even Turkey's NATO partners into an all-out war. The deal appears to do even more than prevent a war, since pretty much every side involved in the latest flare-up achieved most of its goals, short-term ones, at least. For Moscow, averting the disaster was a victory in itself. Russia's primary goal was to put an end to the fighting and removing a threat of a major war that could break out between Damascus and Ankara, in which Russia could end up being involved. Turkey's commitment to fighting terrorists in Syria also plays into Moscow's hands since Ankara agrees to something that Russia has been calling for all along. The mere fact of such support imposes certain obligations on the Turkish side. Turkey also got what it wants: a northern Idlib buffer zone, where it can deal with internally displaced persons and refugees to make sure they're not crossing into its territory. The new ceasefire meant that the Syrian Army would not continue its offensive against the Turkish-backed militants, potentially pushing them away to the Turkish territory as well and Ankara does not need to intervene. Damascus, which was not part of the talks in Moscow, still had its interests preserved. The Syrian Army retained control over the territories it seized during the latest offensive, including the strategic M5 highway connecting the Syrian capital to the nation's second most populous city of Aleppo. Another strategic road the M4 highway linking Aleppo to the coastal province of Latakia would now be patrolled by Russian and Turkish forces, providing a way for its reopening as well. Reopening the M4 and M5 was basically envisioned by the 2018 agreement [between Moscow and Ankara], but it never happened, so now Russia finally pushed Turkey to accept that. The M4 highway would now be buffered by a 12-kilometer security zone (Six kilometers on each side), and will be jointly patrolled by Turkey and Russia, guaranteeing secure passage for commercial vehicle traffic. These patrols would begin on March 15, which meant the Turks had ten days to oversee the evacuation of anti-Assad forces from this corridor in effect, pushing them back north of the M4 highway, which was the goal of the Syrian offensive to begin with. The biggest threat in the region the terrorist groups, including an Al-Qaeda offshoot known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, former Al Nusra Front, are still not dealt with. And they could try and use the ceasefire to their own advantage. The most difficult aspect of this deal is that we didn't hear how exactly Turkey and Russia will deal with terrorists who are based in Idlib. Turkey might end up being tasked with separating the extremists from the "moderate" militants and pushing them out of its zone of control something Ankara previously failed to do, prompting the Syrian Army's offensive. It was still unclear how Turks would take part in the fight against terrorists. Turkey controls quite a number of what it calls "buffer zones" on Syrian territory, including those east of the Euphrates and north of the Aleppo province. Ankara has shown no willingness to give up control over them just yet. However, since Damascus plans to eventually regain control over all Syrian territories, these issues will ultimately have to be resolved, either bilaterally [between Moscow and Ankara] or even between Turkey and the Syrian government. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The 14-month-old precariously placed Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh appeared to face its first major threat to survival after the Congress on Wednesday alleged "poaching" bid on MLAs of the ruling party and its allies by the opposition BJP. High drama unfolded on Wednesday, a day which saw charges flying thick and fast between the Congress and the BJP, which denied any move to topple the Nath government and asked the ruling party to keep its own house in order. Senior Congress leaders accused the BJP of trying to bring down the party-led government, which is surviving on support of over half a dozen independent, SP and BSP MLAs. Putting up a brave face amid the political turmoil, which comes just days ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls on March 26, Chief Minister Kamal Nath asserted that there was no threat to his government. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. State minister Jitu Patwari said BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh took the eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Nath government. The BJP has denied the charge. Nath said his government, which came to power in December 2018 by ousting the BJP, has an absolute majority and it has proved this in the state Assembly on several occasions. He said the BJP "faced defeat every time" and this time also, its plans will prove to be like "Mungerilal's dream", referring to the famous fictional character from a television serial. Nath accused the BJP of plotting a conspiracy to come back to power in the state in an "undemocratic manner". Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia accused the BJP of orchestrating a move to "poach" the legislators of his party but asserted that the Congress government was "completely secure and stable". Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior BJP leader took a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that poaching attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs. "Senior BJP leaders, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others forcibly took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy," Patwari told PTI. "The MLAs told us that they were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders," he said. According to Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who were taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is an independent and the rest are from BSP and SP. They said BSP MLA Rambai was allegedly manhandled when Congress ministers reached the hotel to meet her. Digvijaya Singh had on Monday alleged his party MLAs were being offered a "huge amount of money" by BJP leaders as part of its attempts to destabilise the Nath government. Nath said the BJP "killed democracy and constitutional values" in many states, including Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, and it is trying to replicate the same in Madhya Pradesh. "We have full faith in all our MLAs, we have no doubt on their integrity, honesty. The truth of this black money earned from corruption and scams has been revealed and all BJP's conspiracies will fall flat on its face only," he added. On the alleged poaching episode, Scindia said, "This is 100 per cent an attempt to poach (MLAs). We are united and our government is stable. We have counted the numbers and there is no threat to the government (in Madhya Pradesh)." In a late evening development, a group of Congress, BSP and SP MLAs arrived in Bhopal in a special plane along with Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot. However, their exact number was not immediately known, a senior Congress leader said. In a related development, Madhya Pradesh minister and independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal on Wednesday said he is with Nath as long as the latter is in power, but all his options will be open in case his government falls. "Pradeep Jaiswal is with him (Nath) as long as Kamal Nath ji is there (in power). If the government falls in future, my options will be open for development of my area and I will act according to desire of the people of my constituency," the MLA from Waraseoni in Balaghat district, a former Congressman, told reporters. In the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. The BJP denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government. Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma said the allegations were unfortunate. "The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," Sharma told reporters here. Sharma said this is the Congress' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Nath and senior party leaders Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. The Congress is leveling allegations against the BJP as it is unable to manage its own MLAs, former chief minister Chouhan said. "We have been saying this from the beginning that we are not involved in any such (poaching) activity, but if the Congress government falls on its own, they will be responsible for it," Chouhan told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The digital age is now. The skills gap in South Africa is very evident, more specifically digital skills amongst women, which is why Elisja van Niekerk and Nelisa Ngqulana started Coding Mamas - a space where mothers can learn how to code in a safe environment and be able to bring their kids along. Elisja van Niekerk, co-founder of Coding Mamas Can you tell us a bit about Coding Mamas? When, how and why did you get started? I wanted to create a space where moms, like me, can learn how to code in a safe environment and be able to bring their kids along too. Through the Coding Mamas events and platforms, we aim to create a safe space and experiences that allow moms (and their kids) to prepare for the digital economy; by upskilling themselves, connecting with others and have access to the necessary resources - Nelisa Ngqulana What is the core function of Coding Mamas? What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome since starting out? What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs? What has been your proudest achievement thus far? What does the future of entrepreneurship look like to you? What would you like to see changed in the South African startup landscape? What do you believe are the traits an entrepreneur needs in order to succeed? Tell us about your biggest struggles as an entrepreneur, as well as some major highlights. Why would you encourage someone to become an entrepreneur? Where would you like to see Coding Mamas in the next 5 years? You're a finalist in the Woman of Stature Awards 2019 in the Woman in Technology category. How do you feel about this? We chat to Elisja van Niekerk, co-founder of Coding Mamas, who is also a finalist in the Woman in Technology category in the 6th Annual Woman of Stature Awards...We have a dream and that is to empower moms with the necessary skills to partake in this digital economy. By doing this we will close the skills gap in South Africa and inspire kids to follow in mom's footsteps.Coding Mamas teaches basic technical skills, coding, web design, app development, website building and empower moms with information about new trends, i.e Data Science, Artificial intelligence etc. via weekend face-to-face, or virtual workshops on weekends. We offer a safe environment where like-minded moms can meet-up and share their knowledge and ideas.Coding Mamas was co-founded by myself and Nelisa Ngqulana in 2018 who I met at the #ignitehack, a hackathon where we were both judges. I was busy planning a startup that would teach kids basic coding skills and Nelisa was doing the same but for moms. We then decided that it was a good idea to work together and co-founded the Coding Mamas.We want to empower moms to partake in the digital economy and to give them the ability to inspire their kids as well as support them in their own digital journeys. In this increasingly digital world, it is also important that our children are digitally literate in order to thrive.Teaching moms the necessary skills to partake in the digital economy and we offer these skills at no cost to moms.One of the biggest obstacles weve had to overcome was finding a venue with the facilities we need to teach i.e a boardroom with a projector, table and enough power for laptops, but it must also be a venue that is child-friendly because we want the moms to be able to bring their kids with them. We also teach the kids coding skills or robotics while the moms are busy. We have nannys that assists us with keeping the kids busy and teaching them age-appropriate coding skills.Another obstacle that we still need to overcome is that each mom that arrives needs to bring at least a laptop to work on. These laptops differ, so we spend a lot of time in the first hour of our workshop installing the programmes the moms need for the workshop.Although we do send instructions of what needs to be downloaded on the laptops, the moms dont always have data to downloads the programmes at home, so they wait until the workshop where we can share data or a hotspot on one of our phones. If we had our own laptops with pre-installed programmes that we can teach from we will save a lot of time.There are many other obstacles that we are still trying to overcome such as finding sponsorships and getting moms certified training. We are looking for sponsorships so that we can keep the training free for moms, but also a network data partner and equipment.Dont be afraid to start, just go for it! If you dont have everything you need now, start with what you have and build up from there. Start small and grow from there. Dont be afraid to ask for help or mentorship, there is always someone out there willing to help - all you have to do is ask.My proudest achievement thus far is that via our on-site and virtual workshops we have been able to educate and share our knowledge with so many moms and just inspire them not to be afraid of technology but to jump right in and do it.Seeing all of these moms grow and learn is my proudest moment. When they first arrive at the workshops they are shy and worried that they will disappoint, but during my post-workshop interviews they are excited and proud and leave with something new that they have learned.We want to continue passing on skills to moms and pass our entrepreneur skills onto moms so that they are able to work from home for example. With our training, we give moms skills like building a website or an app, as an example, that they can do from home. They can then use these skills to find paying customers and they can have flexible working hours and environments.From my personal experience, I found that the startup landscape is very focused on age. Young entrepreneurs find it easier to find funding for startups rather than older entrepreneurs. Incubators should consider looking at opportunity and abilities and not at age.You need to be a problem solver, you need to be able to network and build relationships, you need to be a go-getter, you need to think on your feet and not be afraid to start on your own.The biggest struggle has been finding sponsorship to hire a team that can help us grow and run the workshops. Right now, all "staff" are volunteers. We need to find a space where we can work from.A major highlight was that our idea found its place in the market and the market response to Coding Mamas has very good.There is a lot of satisfaction knowing that something you started is changing lives.An established player in the digital skills development space, not only in South Africa but globally.I am extremely honoured and proud to be a finalist in the Woman in Technology category and to be a part of the Woman of Stature Awards that celebrates women in South Africa who are change agents and making a positive impact in South African communities. I am looking forward to the awards ceremony on 8 March 2020. Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca), in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, has taken several preventive measures to stop the Coronavirus (COVID-19) at airports throughout the kingdom, said a report. These measures include allocating a medical team at the arrival ports throughout the kingdom's airports to examine all arriving passengers (through direct and indirect flights) from regions and countries where the Coronavirus is prevalent. Health precautions were implemented with suspected cases, in addition to sterilisation and continuous disinfection of all facilities, tools, as well as aircraft. Moreover, a health awareness campaign for all the travelling public was implemented, said a report in the Saudi Press Agency. Gaca has also issued several circulars to all air carriers operating in the kingdom to implement binding preventive measures on all air carriers arriving to the kingdom from countries where the COVID-19 is posing a threat. As part of preventive measures, after all passengers disembark from an aircraft, the plane is sterilised and disinfected, and when a case is suspected between the passengers, a safe route to transfer the case is then activated, the report said. Furthermore, with regard to the precautionary measures taken by the national carriers and ground services companies in preventing the spread of the new coronavirus, Saudi Arabian Airlines has coordinated with external sources in detecting symptoms of fever or any signs of illness displayed by travellers before boarding its flights. This is applied in all stations listed on the risk list for infection with the coronavirus. Suspected cases will not be allowed to board the plane. Furthermore, medical masks are provided to protect the airline staff, air crew, and passengers, at all stations listed where there is a risk from the virus. Moreover, Saudi Arabian Airlines will remove all aircraft arriving from stations where there is a risk of infection for deep cleansing and disinfecting. This is in addition to training the crew (Saudi Arabian Airlines) on how to deal with suspected cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) during the flight by using decontamination tools and isolation procedures and submitting reports to the Saudi Ministry of Health to obtain assistance upon the arrival of the aircraft, it said. Saudia has modified its services procedures on the aircraft, to include the usage of gloves and masks by its crew on routes where there is a danger of the coronavirus. Saudi Arabia Airlines will also provide medical masks, cleansing kits, and anti-bacterial wipes for passengers and crew onboard the flights. Gaca has provided many awareness campaigns at the kingdoms airports to educate travellers about ways to prevent the emerging coronavirus. Moreover, Gaca, in cooperation with the department of health monitoring centres, has held several workshops on the new coronavirus (COVID-19) to educate staff working in various sectors in the international airports, the report said. New Delhi, March 4 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said his government has set up a state-level task force to combat the coronavirus infection. "The Delhi government has constituted a state-level task force to deal with the infection of coronavirus. I am the chairman of this task force," Kejriwal told the media here. Besides Kejriwal, the task force also includes three municipal corporations, NDMC, Delhi Police and various departments of Delhi government. Kejriwal presided over the first meeting of the task force on Wednesday. At least 28 cases of new coronavirus have been reported from India. The virus has affected more than 60 countries across the globe. Symptoms of COVID-19 disease are cold, cough, pneumonia and shortness of breath. A person, who recently returned from Vienna, has been found to be suffering from coronavirus infection in Delhi. After returning to India, the infected person has been in contact with 88 other people so far. According to the Delhi government, all the persons who came in contact with this person are undergoing medical examination. However, no infection has been detected in anyone. "The officials of the three municipal corporations and NDMC in Delhi are going to the hotels in their respective areas to check the suspected spread of coronavirus," the Chief Minister said. "In the hotels, officials are trying to identify mainly those people who have a recent history of a visit to coronavirus-affected countries. The foreign tourists as well as the guests at Delhi hotels are being examined and screened," he said. The Chief Minister said two labs have been currently set up in the national capital for testing coronavirus samples. "One is in AIIMS, another and the other in NCDC. Both the labs can test around 250 samples daily," he said. "For now, these two labs should be able to handle the bulk of samples. However, another lab at Lady Hardinge Hospital would also be made functional from Wednesday evening. Also, if required, another lab could be set up at LNJP Hospital," Kejriwal said. He said thermal screening of every passenger arriving to the airport has been started. Earlier, thermal screening was being done only on passengers coming from countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. Kejriwal said at least 1,16,579 passengers have been screened at Delhi airport. The Chief Minister said 5,769 people -- all Delhi residents -- were screened for coronavirus on the basis of suspicion as they returned to India after visiting some of the countries badly hit by coronavirus. "None of them was found to be affected by coronavirus. But as we know, sometimes, coronavirus remains active even after 14 days. Hence, 4,445 of all these passengers were again examined. None of them is suffering from coronavirus. However, there are 1,324 people yet to contacted (for screening)," he said. Kejriwal said the Delhi government will contact all of them for re-examination. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The new lawsuit against the IGB comes three weeks after Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner filed a different lawsuit against the agency, alleging that an IGB employee intentionally and illegally leaked their personal and sensitive financial information as part of a data breach. The new lawsuit alleges that the IGB willfully and intentionally violated FOIA by failing to produce all non-exempt public records relating to three requests Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner submitted for information about the data breach and the IGB's unequal treatment of them compared to other licensees. The case was filed yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court. "The IGB has used FOIA as a sword to quickly disseminate harmful information about Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner, yet it hides behind the shield of extensions and thin assertions of exemptions when Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner seek legitimate information from the IGB via FOIA," the lawsuit states. According to the complaint, the IGB has engaged in a pattern of targeted actions against Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner, including unfairly contributing to negative media coverage of them, treating them differently compared to other licensees, and illegally disclosing sensitive personal information belonging to Mr. Heidner, his family, and business associates. In December 2019, the suit alleges, the IGB responded to a FOIA request by the Chicago Tribune by providing a copy of a disciplinary complaint against Gold Rush, which was not otherwise publicly available, "a mere 33 minutes" after the reporter's FOIA request was submitted. This occurred immediately after an IGB official allegedly tipped-off the reporter about the existence of the disciplinary complaint. The tip prompted the reporter to submit a FOIA request, followed by a text message to the official, confirming that the FOIA was submitted. The tip-off, the Tribune's FOIA request, and the IGB's response all occurred in rapid succession the day after the IGB initiated its disciplinary complaint. That unfounded complaint against Gold Rush seeks the severe penalty of revoking Gold Rush's license despite its well-established record of compliance. By inviting the Tribune's FOIA request, the IGB was complicit in ensuring that its disciplinary complaint quickly made news, and its conduct appears to conflict with its own policies governing investigation documents and media inquiries, according to the lawsuit. Less than a week later, counsel for Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner submitted a FOIA request for communications between the IGB and the Tribune to learn how information relating to the disciplinary complaint was shared, as well as communications between the IGB and five specific individuals with the Office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. However, that FOIA request did not receive the same expedited review and response by the IGB as the Tribune's request did the previous week. The IGB's slower, incomplete, and cavalier responses to the plaintiffs' FOIA requests have hindered the plaintiffs' ability to defend their reputations and Gold Rush's terminal operator license. "When the IGB ignores the mandates of FOIA, public access, government transparency, and accountability to the citizens of Illinoisthe core principles of FOIAare the real victims," the suit states. As part of its unfair treatment of Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner, the IGB has consistently responded to their legitimate FOIA requests by delaying responses, asserting inapplicable exemptions, and making incomplete productions. Two of the alleged FOIA violations relate to Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner's legitimate requests for information about how the IGB reviewed and handled a sale transaction involving one of its competitors. According to the lawsuit, the IGB responded by invoking an inapplicable exemption and refusing to provide any documents to the plaintiffs. In December 2019, Gold Rush reported to the IGB that a competitor had engaged in a sale transaction that constituted an illegal inducement under Illinois gaming laws and regulations. According to the lawsuit, Gold Rush had confirmed that a November 2018 deal involving Laredo Hospitality Ventures, LLC, a chain of video gaming establishments; Illinois Cafe and Service Company, LLC, another chain of establishments; and Midwest SRO, LLC, a competing video gaming terminal operator, was structured to facilitate Midwest's payment of millions of dollars to gaming establishment owners to become the terminal operator for their establishments. The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the IGB has violated FOIA, an injunction prohibiting the agency from withholding responsive public documents, an order directing the IGB to immediately produce responsive documents, as well as civil penalties and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. SOURCE Gold Rush Amusements, Inc. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in applauds as he gives a speech during a ceremony to mark the 101th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement Day in Seoul on March 1, 2020. A coalition of NGOs recently sent an open letter to South Korean President Moon Jae In, urging his administration to stop ignoring North Koreas human rights abuses. The letter, dated Feb. 21, was written by the International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea (INCK) on behalf of 69 organizations and seven concerned individuals from 23 countries. It said that the South Korean government should clarify and strengthen its position on promoting North Korean human rights. The letter criticized two specific decisions of the Moon government. In November, your government decided to withdraw from co-sponsoring a resolution in the UNGA [United Nations General Assembly] condemning the human rights situation in North Korea, despite supporting every past annual resolution since 2008, the letter said. The same month, your government made a decision to deport two North Korean fishermen accused of murder to face a substantive risk of torture and possible death in North Korea. Your government has not provided adequate explanations regarding either of these events, it added. The Moon government has been taking criticism not only for these actions, but also for not pressing North Korea on human rights issues in recent negotiations. A Financial Times report from Nov. 2018, shortly after the third inter-Korean summit that year, noted that critics thought Moon was focusing too much on trying to get North Korea to denuclearize and open up through normalization of relations and economic integration, and betraying his political convictions as a former human rights lawyer by ignoring ignoring the severe deprivation and abuse suffered by millions of North Korean citizens. Those voices have only gotten louder since 2018. The opposing view is that human rights abuses in North Korea must be downplayed in order to get Pyongyang to the negotiating table in the first place, and keep it there, but the NGOs feel this is the wrong approach. President Moon Jae-in and his government should stop appeasing Kim Jong Un with the unfounded expectation that it will induce him to engage in dialogue, said Eun-Kyoung Kwon, secretary general of ICNK, in a statement published Tuesday by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. Reducing the pressure on North Korea is a betrayal of the long-suffering North Korean people. The South Korean government needs to re-commit to promoting and protecting those most at risk in North Korea, Kwon added. In the open letter, the NGOs criticized a November statement from Seouls foreign ministry explaining why South Korea did not agree to sponsor the UNGA resolution, calling it troublingly innocuous. The ROK government will continue efforts to promote the human rights in the DPRK through peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, the ministry said in November. In our view, actual improvement of human rights cannot be accomplished just by promoting peace, dialogue, or development projects. Discussing North Koreas human rights record and pressuring the North Korean government to respect the freedom and dignity of all people in North Korea and fulfil its obligations as a member of the international community are necessary practical elements in negotiations, whether on economic issues, security matters, cultural exchanges, or any other matter, the NGOs said. The NGOs also noted that they were aware that North Korea becomes hostile when criticized on human rights issues, but said that removing pressure from the equation would likely do nothing to solve these issues. We urge you take corrective action and clarify what steps South Korea is taking to support protecting human rights in North Korea. We urge you to sponsor this years UN HRC resolution on North Korea in March, and re-join co-sponsoring states at the UNGA resolution on North Korea in November, the NGOs said. In your negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, we ask you to include discussions on human rights issues and call on his government to expand cooperation with UN mechanisms, including acknowledging the mandate of Tomas Ojea-Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, as well as that of the OHCHR [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights] Seoul office, In the HRW statement, HRWs deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said that not confronting North Korea on its human rights reputation was morally irresponsible and strategically unsound. Weakening pressure on Kim Jong Un only rewards his bad behavior and fails to improve the dismal human rights conditions in North Korea, Robertson added. HRW also quoted Christian Solidarity Worldwides Benedict Rogers, who said, True peace on the Korean peninsula can only come when the basic human rights of the North Korean people are respected, so it cant be in South Koreas interest to ignore the terrible crimes against humanity the North Korean regime committed. If he wants to achieve progress, President Moon should put North Koreas human rights crisis at the center of his diplomatic agenda and restart his work with the international community to end impunity and protect human rights. Among the 69 signatory organizations to the open letter were Human Rights Watch (HRW), The 88 Project, Amnesty International, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), and No Chain. Investing in technology is top of mind for small business owners with 44% saying they plan to invest in resources related to the Internet of Things, or IoT-connected devices, for their business in 2020, according to new research from the latest CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey. That's more than twice the number who say they plan to invest in cybersecurity software (20%). So should small business owners be doing more to make sure smart IoT technologies like thermostats, power strips and bar code readers don't get hacked as they invest in new IoT gadgets? "They're not mutually exclusive," says David Kramer, who serves small and midsize businesses as president and CEO of Domain Consulting Group and Domain Technology Group in Reading, Pennsylvania. "If you invest in IoT, it has to have a very serious component of cybersecurity. You don't want your devices hacked or infiltrated." Whether small business owners will act on plans to buy IoT devices remains to be seen. Although the survey found that many small business owners plan to, Dan Faggella, founder of Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research in Boston, says he believes investment in IoT is relevant for "a remarkably small number of smaller businesses. "To be honest, a lot of this is just knickknacks and toys," he says. "It's hype-y." Generally speaking, Faggella says, "It's safe to say that cybersecurity, in the growth of the business whether you are fixing HVAC systems or selling knives door-to-door is going to come first in your business strategy. Essentially, 100% of the time cybersecurity is going to come before some kind of fancy strategy for essentially any small business." But not all small businesses have a strategy in place. The Verizon 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses, with 52% of breaches coming from hacking. Shannon Stephenson, CEO of Cempa Community Care, has been selected as a featured speaker at multiple events in the first part of 2020."Ms. Stephenson, who has an extensive background in public health and safety, is a sought-after expert in the field of community medical outreach, including work with 340B covered entities," officials said. "Her leadership at the helm of Cempa is also a key factor in making her a desired speaker. Since she joined the organization in 2015, Cempa has continually expanded its footprint and mission to provide essential services to the greater Chattanooga community."Ms.Stephensons first appearance of the year was at the 340B Coalition Winter Conference held Feb. 1012 in San Diego. At this event, which featured more than 1,800 340B stakeholders, she shared her perspective and insight in two different sessions: Ryan White Compliance Session (Covered Entities Only), which focused on topics like audits and program costs, and Contract Pharmacy Considerations and Practices, which focused on legal and business considerations for contract pharmacy relationships.Her upcoming event participation will include two separate events the 5th Annual Covered Entities 340B Summit and SYNChronicity 2020.At the Covered Entities' 340B Summit in Philadelphia from April 30 to May 1, Ms. Stephenson will serve in dual roles: She has been named as chairperson for the summit, and she will also provide perspective in a session called Preparing for 340B Audits and Maintaining Compliance."The session will allow Ms. Stephenson to share unique insight garnered through years of helping Cempa successfully navigate 340B audits and remain in compliance with federal laws," officials said.Ms. Stephenson will also have a speaking role at SYNChronicity 2020. This conference brings together clinical professionals, service providers and government officials from the changing and dynamic health care landscape, with a focus on underserved racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ communities. SYNChronicity 2020 will be held in Washington, D.C., from May 10 to 12.It is always a privilege to be able to share some of our successes and knowledge in this field with other organizations that have similar missions, Ms. Stephenson says. These two conferences will provide an important opportunity to share and learn from other leaders within the healthcare space. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close As India reported 29 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday issued an advisory to all schools asking them to avoid any large gathering of students in premises. The ministry advised that any student or staff with travel history to any COVID-19 affected country or in contact with such persons in the last 28 days should be monitored and quarantined at home for 14 days. Class teachers have been asked to remain alert of any possible signs and symptoms among students like coughing, fever or difficulty in breathing and immediately inform the parents to get them tested. "Ask parents not to send child back to school till advised so by the treating doctor," the advisory said. It has also asked schools to place alcohol-based hand sanitiser at various spots and advised monitoring students staying in hostels. The ministry also asked them to ensure availability of soap and water in restrooms at all times. It also urged for maintaining simple public health measures of hand and respiratory hygiene like washing hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water and using alcohol-based hand sanitiser. "Everyone should cover their mouth with a tissue/handkerchief when they cough or sneeze and wash their hands afterwards. Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Everyone should throw away used tissues in a bin and wash their hands after contact with coughing or sneezing," said the advisory. The advisory further stated frequently touched surfaces like door knobs, switches, desktops, hand railing should be disinfected. It said that anybody having signs and symptoms (cough, fever, or difficulty in breathing) to contact the dedicated helpline numbers at 011-23978046 or visit public health facility with a mask or mouth covered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The energy alliance between Saudi Arabia and Russia will likely come under intense scrutiny this week, as delegates from some of the world's most powerful oil-producing nations discuss how best to cushion the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. OPEC and non-OPEC producers, such a Russia, sometimes referred to as OPEC+, will meet in Vienna, Austria on March 5-6. They are expected to agree on a deeper round of oil production cuts, in an effort to stabilize prices, although the scale of the reduction remains far from certain. Some key members of the group, most notably OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, are thought to be pushing for an output cut of up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd). That's significantly higher than the cut of 600,000 bpd initially proposed by OPEC's joint technical committee. However, non-OPEC leader Russia has yet to sign off on this strategy. Johannes Benigni, chairman of JBC Energy Group, told CNBC late last week that the problem for the Saudi-Russian alliance is that while Riyadh might have appetite for higher oil prices, Moscow is "perfectly happy" with crude futures between $50 and $60. "You can see cracks in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia," Benigni said, adding that while Saudi Arabia wants to have an "indefinite" cut arrangement, "the Russians will be hesitant even to take another three months out." International benchmark Brent crude traded at $52.44 Wednesday morning, up over 1%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $47.75, around 1.2% higher. Brent has fallen almost 25% since climbing to a peak in early January, with WTI down more than 30% over the same time period. Both benchmarks have been dragged lower by intensifying oil demand concerns as the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide. Saudi Arabia is seen 'upping the ante' This week's OPEC+ meeting had initially been expected to be brought forward to last month, after oil demand was hit by the coronavirus epidemic in China. But, Russia which has been cagey about its views on deeper production cuts said it needed more time. After several days of uncertainty, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in late February that the oil producers had developed a "common understanding" that there was no need for an emergency meeting. "Oil prices have been falling further as the epidemic spread all over the world and the voices of those who are forecasting no demand growth at all now are getting louder," Tamas Varga, senior analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said in a research note published Tuesday. "The oil group, led by Saudi Arabia is upping the ante accordingly and now a reduction of 1 million bpd is under consideration in the run up of the next producers' meeting this week." Furious parents have blasted Australian retailer Target after cancelling their orders for the new 'Bluey' merchandise without warning. The children's cartoon series, which follows the adventures of a Blue Heeler puppy named Bluey, has been a huge hit among families around the country. The retailer launched the highly-anticipated collection online after midnight on Sunday, which included kids' clothes, sleepwear and underwear. But despite paying for the items after hours of eagerly waiting for the release, many mothers are now in uproar after they were informed via email just days later they were getting a refund due to 'insufficient stock'. Australian retailer Target launched the new 'Bluey' range on its website over the weekend Despite paying for the items, many mothers are now in uproar after they were informed via email just days later they were getting a refund due to 'insufficient stock' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Target for comment. 'Not impressed that it has taken two days for you to realise you have insufficient stock and my Bluey order to be cancelled. Next time don't have click and collect,' one mother said on the retailer's Facebook page. Another mother said she was left 'upset' after discovering her order was cancelled despite recieving a confirmation email. 'I am so upset to find out that my Bluey order was cancelled without warning! I paid for it... and just to have it taken away, I'm so upset about it,' she said. 'I was away at the time and couldn't get to a target, did the online order, paid. And just to have my order cancelled without any communication about it. So upset.' One woman said she managed to purchase a Bluey top at an 'ungodly hour' only to receive an email that she can't receive her order because it's out of stock. 'I am so disappointed as I stayed up for this release as I didn't want my children to miss out. Now one child gets a top and the other likely won't,' she said. A Target spokesperson has since apologised to the shoppers following the growing number of complaints they received on Facebook Another disgruntled shopper said received two separate emails within 24 hours of purchase confirming more than half her order was cancelled due to insufficient stock. And one woman demanded the retailer to 'honour' the order after her order was also cancelled despite paying for it. 'Why would you allow the sale of an item to then refund stating "insufficient stock"?! An absolute joke of a system, once an order is confirmed, honour it,' she said. 'I wouldn't have mind having to wait longer to receive my item but to now not even be able to do that really annoys me. This does not make me want to purchase through you again in fear of what I purchase never actually going to be sent to me.' Despite the backlash, other parents who were lucky enough to get their hands on the items in stores revealed they were very impressed with the children's range. The retailer launched the highly-anticipated collection online after midnight on Sunday, which included kids' clothes, sleepwear and underwear A Target spokesperson has since apologised to the shoppers following the growing number of complaints they received on Facebook. The retailer confirmed it was forced to 'temporarily remove' most of the range from its website due to the 'staggering interest in the collection'. 'Bluey has been more popular than we expected and our systems could not cope with the unprecedented demand, meaning some orders unfortunately cannot be filled,' the spokesperson said to shoppers. 'But we are working hard to secure Bluey products in greater volumes in future, to avoid disappointing our valued customers. 'Any orders that have been short picked or cancelled due to insufficient stock are being refunded which can take one to seven business days depending on your financial institution. Apologies, and thank you for your understanding.' For anyone who missed out on the sellout items, Kmart and Big W will be releasing the Bluey clothing collection in its stores from next week. A ustralians are facing a national toilet paper shortage brought about by the coronavirus crisis. One of the first countries to take a hard line in tackling the epidemic, Australia imposed border controls a month ago on visitors from the epicentre of the outbreak in China. However Australia now has 44 cases, four of them involving people who caught the disease despite not having left the country. Despite having few sufferers compared to countries such as Iran and South Korea, social media has been awash in recent days with photographs and videos of people stockpiling goods, from staples to sanitisers. A notice stuck to a shelf instructing customers about a limit on toilet paper purchases in a Sydney supermarket (Maralinda Boyd via Reuters) / MARALINDA BOYD via REUTERS The demand for toilet paper, in particular, has sparked the trending hashtags #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis on Twitter, along with photographs of overloaded shopping trolleys, and calls for calm from baffled officials. "We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time," Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a parliamentary panel on Wednesday. The biggest grocery chain, Woolworths Group Ltd, limited sales to four packs a shopper, to keep up stock levels while suppliers ramp up production. The local arm of Costco Wholesale Corp limited buyers to one bulk buy pack each. (Maralinda Boyd via Reuters) / MARALINDA BOYD via REUTERS Even Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weighed in on a purchasing trend that appears to be at odds with other countries' stockpiling of items with a long shelf-life, such as tinned goods, telling the public major grocers had assured him they could meet any spike in demand. Police confirmed they were called to a supermarket in Sydney to deal with "a disturbance in an aisle", with media saying the authorities had cordoned off the toilet paper shelves as a result. Shoppers have swooped on other products also. Costco has put limits on purchases of milk, eggs, rice, disinfectants and soap. Prime Minister Scott Morrison even weighed in on the shortage / Getty Images While the bulk of Australia's virus victims caught it overseas, the two latest cases involve people who have not left the country. The most populous state of New South Wales said a female aged care worker had caught the virus, which has spread to at least one resident of the centre where she worked. It said an 82-year-old man was in hospital, while officials await results of a test on a 95-year-old woman who died on Tuesday after developing a respiratory illness. "Whether it was related to coronavirus, we don't know," state health minister Brad Hazzard told reporters about the death. State officials were already investigating how a 53-year-old doctor contracted the illness, despite having no infected patients. A fourth case, announced on Monday, involved a woman who could have caught it from her brother. Since February 1, Australia has banned foreigners who recently travelled through China, and extended its ban last week to arrivals from Iran, but cautioned it could no longer guarantee an infected person would not penetrate border checks. The HRD Ministry on Wednesday directed Chief Secretaries of all states and the Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) to spread awareness among students on basic protective measures against coronavirus. HRD Secretary Amit Khare said in a letter that "informed students can be agents of change for their family, community and beyond". "Central government has taken many steps to contain the spread of this virus but creating awareness amongst general public is extremely important to prevent and reduce transmission of the novel coronavirus. "In order to create awareness among students, preventive interventions such as frequent hand wash, respiratory etiquettes (using handkerchief over mouth while coughing or sneezing, use of tissue paper or using sleeve of shirt covering upper arm, staying away from school when sick, avoiding public gatherings) would help in preventing or reducing transformation of not only this disease but also a large number of other communicable diseases," Khare said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Abdul Kadir Jailani, Indonesian Ambassador to Canada, told Vietnam News Agency reporters that the FTA will bring benefits to all the involved parties, including Vietnam. Delegates at the workshop (Photo: VNA) The cooperation between ASEAN and Canada its dialogue partner since 1977 covers all the three pillars: economy, culture-society, and politics-security. Canadas trade and investment activities in the Southeast Asian market have developed rapidly in various fields such as oil and gas, mining, high technology, telecommunication, food processing, financial services, and aviation. Jean Charest, Honourary Chairman of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, said Canada could serve as a gateway for ASEAN businesses to access North American and European markets via the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada the the EU. Since 2017, Canada and ASEAN member countries have been conducting discussions on the possibility of a bilateral FTA. Canada hopes to launch FTA negotiations with ASEAN in 2020. Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./. An inmate at the federal prison at Lewisburg has been indicted by a grand jury for giving his cellmate a brutal beating which investigators say caused the mans death more than two years later. U.S. Attorney David Freed said Wednesday that Lorenzo Scott, 47, is charged with murder, assault to commit murder and assault to commit serious bodily injury. The grand jurys indictment states that Scott is accused of hitting and stomping Larry McCoullum on March 25, 2015. McCoullum died from complications of those injuries on May 21, 2017, investigators contend. Scott was charged for the death following an investigation by the FBI. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison, Freed said. Court records show that at the time of the alleged assault McCoullum had less than 10 years left to serve on a 20-year prison term for a drug dealing conviction out of Maine. WEST HAVEN The second annual Pizza Wars fundraising event is only a few weeks away and the famed Zuppardis Apizza has joined the field of contestants. Its definitely going to be interesting this year, said Silvana Apicella, Pizza Wars founder and chairwoman. Last year, the popular Zuppardis which in 2019 received a high score from Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy, receiving national attention had a scheduling conflict and couldnt participate. Many in the community commented on Facebook and other social media that if Zuppardis had been in the mix they would have knocked all the others out of the running. But according to pizza-making contestants contacted by the Register including Zuppardis while winning is nice, its not what matters anyway in West Haven, because its all about love of the community and the cause, not the trophy. Im all about peace and not war - its only pizza, said Lori Zuppardi, an owner of the legendary pizzeria. At the end of the day, does it really matter? This is not about winning. Zuppardi said people like different styles of pizza and what they like largely depends on which they grew up with. She also said it will be nice for pizzeria owners to see one another on that day. The best part, she said, is that the event will raise money for high school students. Mike Buonocore, whose Mikes Pizza & Restaurant took both top Pizza Wars awards last year, said hell be sporting my trophies at this years event and he believes competition is always good and winning is nice, but its not the point of the gathering. He and the Zuppardis are friends. We make the best, but I dont believe anyones better than the other - everybodys (pizza) is different, Buonocore said. It should be a nice event. Anybody can win - its up in the air. Apicella said she believes the contest between nine local pizza places is fair - even with Zuppardis in the mix. In all honesty, Mikes is great, then theres ReBar, Michaelangelos has a great pie Apicella said. You have the people who are so, Im only going to Zuppardis because theyre the best, but this gives people a chance to open their minds. The Pizza Wars will be held at the West Haven Italian-American Club from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 21. It will benefit the West Haven High School Italian studies scholarship fund, distributed by the West Haven Italian American Civic Association Ladies Auxiliary Fund. Last years Pizza Wars was a huge success and they were able to give out four scholarships and a donation to West Haven High Schools Up All Night program. The suggested donation is $5 for sampling all the pies, and there are two top awards: one judged by a panel and the other a popular choice. Last year, Buonocore, the only one who makes the dough in his restaurant, said after the win that their success with pizza is more about the little touches and knowing what to do and not do after 47 years. Aside from Zuppardis and Mikes, contestants this year will include: Lorenzos Ristorante Italiano, Cappettas Italian Imports and Pizza, ReBar Bar & Pizza, Full Circle Pizza, Pizza King & Kebab, Michaelangelos Pizza and Subs and Casa Bianca Pizza. Some participants from last year didnt return and four are new, including Zuppardis, ReBar, Casa Bianca and Pizza King & Kebab, a relatively new restaurant in West Haven that bills itself as having Italian and Turkish food. Apicella said she believes pizza is popular because its the one food that brings people together. Its shared and makes people happy, she said. Shawn Ed, a co-owner of Casa Bianca, said he didnt participate last year because he was in the middle of a political squabble, but chose to compete this year after learning it was a fundraiser. Were not worried about whether were winning or losing - we are just proud to support the community, he said. Ed said he and his brother took over the business in 2016 and have since opened restaurants in Ansonia and New Haven. He said the longtime business came with the pizza recipe, but they have added some creativity with specialty pizzas including a white pie with cherry peppers and chicken, as well as a pickle with fresh garlic pizza. He described their pizza as thin crust Italian/New York style. Donato Cappetta, co-owner of Capettas, placed second in the competition last year and said he does the competition for the community. The restaurants donate their time and product quite generously, Apicella said. Everyone has their unique ingredients or their take of what a pizza should be, Cappetta said. Michael DeNicola, co-owner with his father, Antonio, of Michaelangelos Apizza, agreed that everyone develops their own favorite pizza taste. You learn to get that taste that bursts in your mouth, DeNicola said. DeNicola said he believes in competition because it makes you better, and that theres enough business to go around. We all have a mutual respect for each other, he said of his pizza-making colleagues. Jefferson County will not see much change at the constable positions as three incumbents won their primaries Tuesday. Precinct 2 Constable Christopher Bates held off challenger Terry Tran with 68% of the vote. I believe voters responded to and saw the community involvement, Bates said. They saw that I was the best person to keep this position progressive in the community. Bates became the second youngest constable ever elected in Texas when he won in 2012 at age 27. One of the things Ive learned over this time is to be transparent, he said. Its important to have great integrity and character. I want to continue to make sure Im involved in the community and helping with the youth. We also want to try and educate people on the role of the constable and how my office works. Bates said he is relieved to not have a Republican opponent to face in November. Jevonne Pollard edged out Democratic primary opponent Donald Jackson with 53% of the vote. Im relieved, she said. This was my first primary election. When I ran in 2018, I ran on a special ballot and only had an opponent in the general election. Im excited how things turned out and I feel like I am better prepared for the general election after going through the primary this time around. Pollard has held the position since being elected in 2018, beating out Charlie Wiggins. The incumbent will face Mark Mann in the general election in November. Pollard said she will take a short break from campaigning. Ill probably take a small vacation with my family, she said. Then, its back to work. I know for the general, Ill need to have a better election-day plan and have more people at the polling sites. Precinct 8 Constable Eddie Collins beat out Gene Winston with 57% of the vote. Collins has held the position for more than 20 years. Joe QB Stevenson won over Dana Big Baker with 58% of the vote for Precinct 6 constable. Stevenson was indicted in 2018 on charges of campaign fund violations related to his 2016 run for Jefferson County sheriff. Stevenson lost to current sheriff Zena Stephens, who was also indicted along with her 2016 Republican opponent Ray Beck. All three pleaded not guilty. No candidate won a majority in the contest for Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1, Place 1. Naomi Doyle with 44% and George Milhouse with 33% were the top two vote getters. Cathy Dollinger drew 23%. In Hardin County, Kenny Davenport defeated incumbent Carlos Montalvo for Precinct 1 constable. Cory Jeffcoat defeated Kory Gerber in Precinct 4. Other races were too close to call as of deadline. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 06:46:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Maria van Kerkhove(R), technical lead for the Health Emergencies Program of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks at a daily briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 3, 2020. Having China share its experiences with other countries on containing the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is nothing short of excellence, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia) GENEVA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Having China share its experiences with other countries on containing the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is nothing short of excellence, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Maria van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said at a daily briefing that China's experience in fighting COVID-19 needs to be shared, referring to China's latest support in terms of experts and medical equipment to Iran. "This is an excellent example of peer-to-peer sharing what has been done, what can be done in other countries, and having direct interaction with another country," said Kerkhove. She underlined it's important for China to share experiences in cases and contacts finding, caring and management of patients, on how to ready hospitals and personal protective equipment, as well as in infection prevention and control. "That direct interaction is what we want to see more and more happen. So having China share its experience with other countries is nothing short of excellence," she added. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, said that experts from China and the WHO are at the time "probably sitting together to discuss" the COVID-19 situation in Iran. "The Iranian government is very keen that the Chinese expert team and the WHO team come together as happened in China," he said, adding that the experts will share experience, double their impact, and have a joint approach against the outbreak in Iran. A toddler who was said to have been psychologically injured when she saw her mother bleeding after walking into and shattering a pane of glass was offered a 19,000 settlement yesterday. The offer came on behalf of Terenure College Rugby Club and Panda Play Cafe Limited. When the Circuit Civil Court was told the child's mother thought the settlement should be closer to 60,000, Judge Kathryn Hutton told her the duty of the court was to protect the interests of the child and approved the 19,000 settlement. Judge Hutton heard that Jillian Johnson, of Station Road, Kesh, Co Fermanagh, had acc- identally walked into a pane of glass in the rugby club at Terenure and had been seen covered in blood by her two 15-month-old children, Willow and Jude Johnson-Rice, both of whom had suffered psycholo- gical injuries. Barrister Keith O'Grady, for Willow who is now aged six, told the court Ms Johnson had, since the December 2014 accident, accepted a settlement of 36,725 for her own personal injuries. In February last year the court had approved a 20,000 settlement for her son, Jude. "The court's duty in such cases is to protect the interests of the infant and it is a very generous offer," Judge Hutton said. China heightens alert for locusts China has been more watchful in case swarms of locusts that have laid waste to agricultural land in Pakistan, India and East Africa find their way across its borders, a government agency said Monday. "Although experts believe that the risk of swarms entering the country and causing disaster is relatively low, (China) will be hampered in tracking the locusts by a lack of monitoring techniques and little knowledge of migration patterns (if they do) invade," the National Forestry and Grassland Administration stated. Beijing has convened a task force to watch for, control andif possibleprevent the arrival of the voracious insects. The government also planned to hold a meeting of experts this month to discuss and coordinate nationwide swarm prevention efforts, including an emergency warning system. While the Chinese government said the locust threat was small, alerts have been stepped up since mid-February, when the agriculture ministry decided to track the locusts' movements and study ways of keeping them out. Agriculture in China had a difficult year in 2019, hit by the crop-gobbling fall army worms which spread across a million hectares of farmland, as well as African swine fever that halved the country's herd of 440 million pigs through preventive culling. A locust swarm could drag China's coronavirus-stricken economy down farther. More than 80,000 people have been infected with the virus which has killed more than 2,900, bringing many of the nation's industries to a near halt, Chinese authorities said on Monday. In 2018, agriculture contributed about 7.2% to China's total GDP, according to Statista, a German market and consumer data company. Desert locusts are one of the world's oldest and most destructive pests, causing damage to crops, pasture and bark. According to the UN, a swarm measuring a square kilometre can consume as much food in a day as 35,000 people. At the end of January, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation called for an international effort to deal with the worst outbreak of desert locusts in decades. The swarms in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia were of "unprecedented size and destructive potential", the agency said. The heaviest monsoon rains in 25 years across India and Pakistan last summer triggered explosive growth in vegetation, creating ample food for more of the insects. The UN warned that the swarm could lead to a crisis in world food security. Beijing said that if climate provided the right conditions, possible locust routes into China would be through Pakistan and India into Tibet, then into southwestern Yunnan province. Migration through Kazakhstan into neighbouring western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was also possible. In February, Zhang Zehua, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northern China could serve as a shield against the swarms. "It is extremely unlikely that desert locusts will directly migrate into China's inland areas, but if the overseas desert locust plague persists, the probability of locusts entering China in June or July will sharply increase," Zhang said. Last month, the agriculture ministry said that locusts were most active where temperatures reached around 40 degrees Celsius and humidity was about 60 to 70%, meaning it would be difficult for them to survive in southern Tibet. A Jacksonville man has been arrested in the weekend theft of a safe from The HandleBar Pizza and Pub on South Main Street. Jacksonville police arrested Austin D. Sims, 42, of 602 Jordan St. on a burglary charge. Sims was being held Wednesday in the Morgan County jail; bail had not been set. Cotonou, Benin (PANA) Benin's minister of Health, Benjamin Hounkpatin, has expressed concern about people arriving from countries affected by the coronavirus epidemic escaping measures set up to prevent the virus from affecting the West African country, according to a communique issued on Tuesday COLONIE Tiara Bush was remembered Wednesday in a private ceremony before being cremated as police and anguished relatives seek answers about the circumstances that ended the young mother's life. The 29-year-old, who worked part-time as a dancer at Shenanigan's Gentlemen's Club on Central Avenue, was pronounced dead at Ellis Hospital at 10:15 p.m. Sunday, according to her aunt Crystal Bellamy. A Colonie police spokesman said a Tuesday autopsy showed no bodily trauma but was "inconclusive" on an exact cause of death. Toxicology results are expected in a few weeks. In addition to working at Shenanigan's, Bush also worked at a Schenectady medical office for the past two months, her aunt and mother said in an emotional interview Tuesday. She had a 3-year-old son. Police have viewed surveillance footage from the club and questioned several people, including another dancer and Bushs boyfriend, according to Colonie police spokesman Lt. Robert Winn. That dancer could not be reached for comment and Bush's boyfriend did not answer calls to his cell phone Wednesday. His voicemail box was full. Bellamy said the dancer police interviewed was one of Bushs good friends, and said family members have spoken to the woman extensively about what occurred in the hours before Bush died. Bellamy said the dancer told the family that a male patron gave Bush, who was working early Sunday morning, two pills. The unidentified pills appeared to cause Bush to become drowsy and disoriented. Her friend took her to a locker area of the club to lie down on a couch. Winn said video footage from the club reviewed by police doesnt show anything being given without (Bush's) knowledge. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. It wasnt until Shenanigan's closed at 4 a.m. Sunday that the friend returned with a bouncer, who helped her load Bush into a car so she could be driven to her home in Rotterdam. Bush's boyfriend, who was staying with her, got her out of the car and took her inside, Bush's family members said. They said he called 911 several hours later. Responding paramedics were unable to revive Bush before she was taken to Ellis Hospital. On Tuesday, a bartender at Shenanigan's said the club's manager was out for a few days, but that she would text him a reporters contact information. He did not respond Wednesday. Bushs mother, Shenequa Lambert, acknowledged her daughter may have smoked marijuana but insisted Bush was "a hard-working mother. She had a life, she was doing the right thing in life, and she was loved, said Lambert, who lives in Georgia. Former West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell has faced court for the first time charged with a string offences against his partner. Troy Buswell's political life was marred by scandals. Credit:AAP Mr Buswell, whose political life was marred by scandals, is facing seven charges including aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm and unlawful damage. The violence allegedly happened between April 2015 and December last year in the Perth suburbs of Subiaco and Southern River, and in his former electorate in WA's South West. Mr Buswell faced Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday and only spoke to say he understood the charges. Priti Patels career is hanging by a thread after she was accused of bullying staff at a third government department. The home secretary is facing a tsunami of allegations that she humiliated civil servants in front of others and gave the impression that everyone is hopeless, while international development secretary. The claims are similar to those made by Philip Rutnam, who sensationally quit as the Home Offices top civil servant and is taking a constructive dismissal case to an employment tribunal. While Ms Patel was the work minister, an official in her private office allegedly tried to kill herself after being bullied and later received a 25,000 payout from the government. Crucially, the inquiry ordered by Boris Johnson into whether Ms Patel has breached the ministerial code will examine all complaints made against her in her various jobs. Recommended How Priti Patel might lose her job over bullying allegations Furthermore, the staff who have attacked her behaviour at the department for international development (DfID) are reported to be ready to give evidence at Sir Philips tribunal hearing. One cabinet minister told the BBCs Newsnight programme that it now threatened to turn into Armageddon for the prime minister who may himself be required to give evidence. Mr Johnson has stood by Ms Patel so far saying she is doing an outstanding job and that he has absolutely every confidence in her and values her backing from fellow hard Brexit-backers. The danger for him now is that both the tribunal and the inquiry being carried out by Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, establish a pattern of bullying behaviour. Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Show all 17 1 /17 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Sajid Javid Resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Javids departure comes just one month before a crucial budget, intended to chart the course for the new government and makes him the shortest-serving chancellor for more than 50 years Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Rishi Sunak Promoted from Chief Secretary to the Treasury to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the dramatic resignation of Sajid Javid Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Esther McVey Sacked as housing minister AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Andrea Leadsom Sacked as business secretary EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Alok Sharma Appointed business secretary (previously international development secretary). He has also been put in charge of the UKs COP26 climate change summit PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox Resigned as the government's most senior law officer AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Suella Braverman Appointed Attorney General and she will attend cabinet EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Theresa Villiers Sacked as environment secretary PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: George Eustice Appointed environment, food and rural affairs secretary. He was a farming and fisheries minister Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Anne-Marie Trevelyan Appointed international development secretary (previously parliamentary under-secretary for defence) Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Julian Smith Sacked as Northern Ireland secretary Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Brandon Lewis Appointed Secretary of Northern Ireland Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Stephen Barclay Appointed chief secretary to the Treasury PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Oliver Dowden Appointed culture secretary, succeeding Nicky Morgan Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Chris Skidmore Sacked as eucation minister Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Nus Ghani Sacked as transport minister Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: George Freeman Sacked as transport minister Getty Asked about the latest accusation, a Home Office spokesperson said: The home secretary categorically rejects all of these allegations. An unnamed Conservative Party source attempted to claim there was a deep conspiracy to oust her, which some Tory MPs have linked to her determination to take on the establishment. What we are seeing is a concerted effort by certain sections of the civil service to undermine a home secretary trying to deliver what people want on crime and immigration, the source told Newsnight. It is deeply disturbing that dark forces are trying to influence the findings of a Cabinet Office inquiry. The latest claims, in 2017, reportedly triggered advice from a senior DfID official that the previous Cabinet Secretary, the late Lord Heywood, should be informed. The official wanted the allegations to be lodged in the Whitehall system so that colleagues would be aware of allegations surrounding Ms Patel if, as expected, she returned to ministerial office. She was forced to quit as international development secretary, over her extraordinary plan to funnel UK foreign aid cash through the Israeli army but was brought back by Mr Johnson last summer. Tehran: Iran on Wednesday reported 15 new deaths from the novel coronavirus and 586 additional cases, bringing the overall toll to 92 dead and 2,922 infected. "The number of confirmed new cases in the past 24 hours is 586," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a televised news conference. "Fifteen (people) have unfortunately lost their lives." In a response to the outbreak, Iran has shut schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events, and cut back on work hours. US President Donald Trump had said Saturday he was ready to aid Iran with the virus outbreak if the Islamic republic asked for assistance. "Those who have deprived the people of even medicine and food through sanctions, who have done the most vicious things... they appear with a mask of sympathy and say that we want to help the nation of Iran," President Hassan Rouhani said, in a clear reference to the United States. "Our people know well that you are lying," he said in response, speaking at the weekly meeting of his cabinet in remarks aired on state television. Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran in 2018. Rouhani said the US must first lift sanctions blocking medicine purchases to prove its honest intent to help. "This is the first step... to free banking relations for purchasing medicine, transferring medicine and shipping medicine and food," he said. Click here to read the full article. Inspired by the victims of violent crackdowns by Chilean police, filmmaker Hernan Caffiero is looking to tell their story. Caffiero is currently developing two series about human rights crimes and the effects of police brutality in Chile, one a four-part documentary, the other a follow-up to his Intl. Emmy-winning The Suspended Mourning, a dramatized collection of haunting vignettes of the desaparecidos under Augusto Pinochet and the impact of their murder on loved ones. Were making a series about impunity in Chile, Caffiero told Variety. The Suspended Mourning Season 2 will focus on the victims of todays police violence triggered by protests that began in Chile in October. Just as the first season focused on crimes whose perpetrators were never brought to justice, Caffiero said so too would season two examine crimes committed by the current regime that will likely go unpunished. We know that in the next six months or one year, these kinds of cases, these crimes, will be made to disappear. The filmmaker is also working on a four-part investigative documentary series about police excessiveness, victims and the ongoing protests titled El estallido, which refers both to Chiles social explosion as well as to the globe ruptures experienced by the hundreds of victims who have had their eyes shot out. Caffiero is in Berlin meeting with potential international partners for the two projects. It is the responsibility of filmmakers to make these stories visible to everybody, he said. Chilean filmmakers and industry reps attending the European Film Market in Berlin on Sunday made an effort to do just that when they united in protest against the police brutality in their country that has left 445 people with severe eye injuries or blinded, many after being shot by police. Gathering on the stairs of the Martin Gropius Bau market venue, they held up signs calling for a new constitution, condemning the impunity with which they claim Chilean police have been carrying out their brutal crackdown, and covering one eye with their hands to symbolize the hundreds of victims who have been left blinded or with severe eye injuries by police. Story continues More than 40 people have been killed in the protests and, according to data from Chiles National Institute of Human Rights, some 3,800 injured, including 2,122 wounded by gun fire. The protests have led to many in the country demanding the resignation of billionaire President Sebastian Pineraa and a new constitution to replace the current one, which was adopted in 1980 under the Pinochet dictatorship. A national referendum scheduled for April 26 will ask Chilean voters if they want a new constitution. The atrocities committed by Pinochet still cast a long shadow over the country and the current actions by police are a stark reminder for many of the fragility of democracy, particularly under Pineras right-wing government. Citing Chilean academic and human rights activist Claudio Nash, Caffiero said such barbaric forms of punishment as taking out peoples eyes have not been carried out by civilizations in a 1,000 years. Sundays action followed similar protests against the Chilean government on Saturday by a group of anonymous activists who shouted, How can you celebrate Chile when Chile is killing its own people? while unfurling a large banner from one of the markets upper floors that read Chilean state rapes, tortures and murders its people. Chile is this years EFM Country in Focus. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Medics transport a man on a stretcher into an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, a long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases, in Kirkland, Washington, U.S. March 3, 2020. Lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled more than $8 billion in emergency funding to address the spread of the deadly coronavirus, as the death toll from the outbreak in the United States from the outbreak rose to 11 people. The House was expected to take up the supplemental spending proposal for a vote later in the day. Senate leaders hope to vote on the plan soon afterward. "Our goal would be to do it this week if we get cooperation," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. The $8.3 billion plan for the emergency was revealed as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 129 cases of coronavirus had been identified in the U.S. California on Wednesday reported the first death in that state from the virus. The other 10 deaths occurred in Washington state. The congressional spending proposal is more than three times the $2.5 billion the White House proposed last week devoting to the coronavirus effort. "This should not be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people from a potential pandemic," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., as he announced the deal in a press release after days of negotiations on Capitol Hill. "We worked together to craft an aggressive and comprehensive response that provides the resources the experts say they need to combat this crisis," Shelby said. "I thank my colleagues for their cooperation and appreciate President [Donald] Trump's eagerness to sign this legislation and get the funding out the door without delay." A House Democratic aide told CNBC that the proposal includes: More than $3 billion dedicated to the research and development of vaccines, as well as therapeutics and diagnostics; $2.2 billion in public health funding to aid in prevention, preparedness and response efforts including $950 million to support state and local agencies; Nearly $1 billion to go toward medical supplies, health-care preparedness, Community Health Centers and medical surge capacity, and $1.25 billion to address the coronavirus overseas. The plan also allows an estimated $7 billion in low-interest Small Business Administration loans to affected small businesses, the aide told CNBC. The House aide added that the emergency bill provides more than $300 million to "help ensure that, when a vaccine is developed, Americans can receive it regardless of their ability to pay." The question of affordability has reportedly been a sticking point in negotiations. And Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar came under fire last week after declining to guarantee to lawmakers that a vaccine would be affordable for all. The future of Senator Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign was in serious doubt after she finished a surprisingly weak third in Tuesday's Democratic primary in her home state of Massachusetts. The disappointing result in the state she represents and a decidedly underwhelming showing in other Super Tuesday contests she had built an impressive campaign infrastructure stretching across much of the country marked a striking collapse for the onetime darling of progressives who was known for having a plan for nearly everything. On top of mediocre showings in the first four contests she never finished higher than third place Warren trailed significantly in the delegate count. Tuesday's results could speed her exit from the race. Warren finished behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who won the Massachusetts primary, and fellow progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who attracted 10,000-plus people to a rally last weekend on Boston Common mere miles from Warren's home near Harvard University. Warren appeared set on remaining in the race, at least for now. Speaking to supporters in Detroit ahead of next week's Michigan primary, she introduced herself as "the woman who's going to beat Donald Trump." The senator encouraged supporters to tune out the results and vote for the person they believed would be the best president, saying: "Prediction has been a terrible business and the pundits have gotten it wrong over and over. You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight, she added. Warren's campaign had all the early markers of success robust poll numbers, impressive fundraising and a national organization -- but she was squeezed out by Sanders, who had an immovable base of support among progressives she needed to win over. Ahead of Tuesday's vote, Warren's campaign said it was betting on a contested convention though with a quickly consolidating field that was no sure bet, and she appeared set to enter that convention trailing significantly at least two candidates in the delegate count. Her lagging performance threatened to force out from the race its last major female contender. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar dropped out Monday, joining Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to endorse the surging candidacy of Biden. It marked an unexpected twist in a party that had used the votes and energy of women to retake control of the House, primarily with female candidates, just two years ago. Warren's campaign began with enormous promise that she could carry that momentum into the presidential race. Last summer, she drew tens of thousands of supporters to Manhattan's Washington Square Park, a scene that was repeated in places like Washington state and Minnesota. Warren, 70, appeared to hit her stride as she hammered the idea that more moderate Democratic candidates, including Biden, weren't ambitious enough to roll back Trump's policies and were too reliant on political consultants and fickle polling. But Warren was unable to consolidate the support of the Democratic Party's most liberal wing against the race's other top progressive, Sanders. Both support universal, government-sponsored health care, tuition-free public college and aggressive climate change fighting measures while forgoing big fundraisers in favour of small donations fuelled by the internet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A young British couple has shared the extraordinary money-saving journey that culminated in buying a house together after just six months. Best of all, they didnt borrow a cent from family or friends. Aged just 19 and 20, deputy manager Wiktoria Zaucha and customer service employee Joshua Shaw, both from Birmingham in England, set their sights on buying a home together. In January 2020, they signed the papers on their West Midlands home, making it official. In total, it took about 6 to 12 months to find the perfect place, said Shaw, as per The Mirror, adding, It came with sacrifices. The impetus to buy a home was fueled by learning that rental costs in their local area far surpassed what they would be expected to pay in monthly mortgage repayments. When you look at the cost of renting, it just made sense to invest in our own place, rather than someone elses, Shaw explained. Both Zaucha and Shaw were earning a salary of 18,000 pounds (US$23,066) at the time of applying for their mortgage. The thrifty couple decided to add to their existing savings by eliminating luxuries, nights out, restaurant meals, and holidays. The couple made the most of the hospitality of their friends by sofa-surfing, and Shaw even sold his car. Wed both been saving for a while, just not necessarily to buy a house, Shaw explained to the Daily Mail. If you go into employment after school, like we did, and are willing to sacrifice things like nights out, holidays, and takeaways for a little while, then its definitely possible. The industrious couple worked 16-hour days back to back, which was exhausting, but worth it, Shaw said. As per the Daily Mail, prior to saving, the couples combined outgoings totaled roughly 800 pounds (US$1,025) per month. Their cutbacks reaped immense financial rewards. Shaw advised to sock away 40 to 50 percent of all wages that are put into the bank and to forget about that liquidity as soon as possible. In just six months, the couple had saved over 6,000 pounds (US$7,689) each, totaling almost 13,000 pounds (US$16,659) to be used for a 5 percent down payment on their dream house with assistance from the U.K. governments Help to Buy program. We happened to visit a countryside development, Wards Keep, one evening and as soon as we did we knew that was the one, Shaw explained to the Daily Mail. Zaucha and Shaws chosen three-story home has a master bedroom with skylights and an en suite, and a fully open-plan ground floor. We were confident that a new build house was what we wanted, Shaw continued, mainly because they are lower maintenance than older homes. Neither of us have a lot of experience with DIY, so a new build just felt like the right fit for first time buyers like us. The U.K. governments Help to Buy requires potential homeowners to come up with a 5 percent deposit, in return offering a 20 percent loan, interest-free for five years, to cover the cost of the home down payment. [I]ts great to see younger couples like Joshua and Wiktoria break the rental cycle by taking advantage of the scheme, said Adam Daniels, a real estate agent at West Midlands Countryside Properties, as per The Mirror. Zaucha and Shaw, enjoying the environs of their brand-new three-bedroom abode, advised others that it is perfectly realistic to save for a house at such a young age. Some people may think that buying at our age is unrealistic, Shaw reflected. [B]ut my honest opinion is that buying at 19 and 20 is completely achievable, if thats genuinely what you want. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc [March 04, 2020] Hotels Maximize Event Revenue Potential with Oracle REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Event space rentals, planning and catering are critical to maximizing hotel revenue, but they are often managed by hotel sales and operations working in silos, creating inefficiencies and missed opportunities. With OPERA Sales and Event Management in the cloud, Oracle Hospitality is helping properties increase their event revenue by optimizing inventory, bookings, streamlining logistics and delighting hosts with standout execution. Oracle Hospitality OPERA Sales and Event Management Cloud Service (Oracle Hospitality OSEM) is a feature-rich sales and catering management application. Integrated with Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud Service, the offering is compliant across more than 200 countries and built on the Oracle Gen 2 Cloud for organizations committed to assuring high performance, security, reliability, and availability for their most important business applications. With it, hotels across the globe are able to easily streamline operations, increase communication and cooperation across departments, and respond faster to customers. "Whether they're booking a corporate function or planning a personal occasion, today's meeting planners and guests expect the same seamless experience and speed of service from hotel sales teams that they've come to expect in every other aspect of their lives," said Laura Calin, vice president of strategy, Oracle Hospitality. "Shifting sales and event management to the cloud gives hotel sales staff the agility and visibility to provide a better experience for customers while simplifying time-consuming back-office processes." With Oracle Hospitality OSEM in the cloud, hotels have a single view of all event booking details and revenue across rooms and event spaces for easier audit and analysis. With this, they can eliminate extra time spent on duplicate data entries into the property management system and allow hotels to realize operational efficiencies through increased productivity. It also allows for external API integrations to help hoteliers complete e-proposals and countless other applications. Hotel event and catering managers also have the freedom to do business from anywhere at any time They can take Oracle Hospitality OSEM with them to offsite customer visits or roam the property with prospects and event hosts during site inspections. They are also able to easily share available space options and setups, as well as check available inventory, create a room block, and make changes to or complete bookings, all while on the go. Hotels such as the Inn at Serenbe, Banff Park Lodge and The University Plaza Waterfront Hotel are among some of the early adopters already using Oracle Hospitality OSEM to better serve guests and groups. Banff Park Lodge Breaks Free from Mundane Tasks to Secure More Bookings Surrounded by the natural beauty of the Canadian Rockies, Banff Park Lodge Resort Hotel and Conference Centre is an international destination offering 19,000 square feet of conference space with 18 different room combinations ranging from boardrooms to ballrooms. After going live with OPERA Cloud, Banff Park added Oracle Hospitality OSEM in December 2019 to minimize administrative and manual work, allowing sales staff to break free from data entry and get out from behind their desks to serve clients and secure more bookings. "Now that we are live, our sales and events teams are no longer tasked with having to spend hours a day on manual data entry. And because OSEM is cloud based, we can access and more broadly share the Banff Park Lodge property anywhere via a mobile device," said David Spence, director of sales and marketing at Banff Park Lodge. "The future is truly exciting as we are now running on a secure platform that will never just sit on a shelf. With automatic updates via the cloud, we are able to continuously evolve to meet the changing needs of our clients and guests." Single Source of Information Streamlines Operations at University Plaza Waterfront Hotel With panoramic views of the city and the California Delta, The University Plaza Waterfront Hotel offers its guests luxurious accommodations with 15,000 square feet of meeting space, all conveniently located in the heart of the historic district of downtown Stockton. Being forced to move off its multiple legacy systems in under 90 days, University Plaza Waterfront turned to Oracle Hospitality to rapidly migrate to OPERA Cloud and Oracle Hospitality OSEM. After a successful implementation, the property was up and running in December 2019. The move is already paying dividends by giving front desk and sales staff access to the same real-time information from one system. "Previously we were tied to four separate systems that didn't speak to each other. It was a nightmare for staff to try to access real-time information because it just didn't exist. Our front desk staff had no visibility into what was going on with events and vice versa," said Rhona Miles, general manager, The University Plaza Waterfront Hotel. "Now that we are live on one, central system in the cloud our entire staff has visibility into everything from sales to front desk to reservations and housekeeping." Learn more about Oracle Hospitality OPERA Sales and Event Management Cloud Service here. About Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality brings over 40 years of experience in providing technology solutions to independent hoteliers, global and regional chains, gaming, and cruise lines. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to act on rich data insights that deliver personalized guest experiences, maximize profitability and encourage long-term loyalty. Our solutions include platforms for property management, point-of-sale, distribution, reporting and analytics all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. Oracle Hospitality's OPERA is recognized globally as the leading property management platform and continues to serve as a foundation for industry innovation. For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.oracle.com/Hospitality About Oracle The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hotels-maximize-event-revenue-potential-with-oracle-301015966.html SOURCE Oracle [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A new social dialogue between the government, business leaders and workers can only go ahead if the problems of low pay and insecure work are addressed, Labour leader hopeful Aodhan ORiordain has warned. Speaking ahead of the second Labour hustings for the partys new leadership, Mr ORiordain ruled out his party participating in any new talks with employers and the government on work practices and pay unless it helped workers. The Dublin Bay North TD and rival Alan Kelly will go head-to-head again tomorrow night, at the second of four hustings for the leadership contest taking place in north Dublin In advance of the event, Mr ORiordain said Labour should only back a return to a structured social dialogue in Ireland if it begins by tackling low pay and insecure work. He noted that employers group IBEC had placed a strong emphasis on incentives for business through tax cuts when discussing any new social partnership. Labour should support genuine social dialogue, which exists in some form in most European countries. But we cannot return to the model of social partnership, based on wage moderation and tax cuts, which vastly reduced the scope for investment in public services by running down the Irish tax base for over two decades. I will support a dialogue between government, unions, business and civil society if it genuinely addresses the huge burdens on workers, their families and their communities. Most of these problems like housing, affordable childcare, decent health services and sustainable public transport in cities, towns and rural areas require substantial state investment, which will never be possible if the priority is running down the tax base to incentivise business. The former junior minister said that real solutions could be found to helping the estimated 25% of Irish workers who are in low-paid jobs and the 40% of workers aged under 30 in insecure employment. Mr ORiordain has placed workers rights, including establishing a legal right to be represented by a trade union, at the centre of his policy platform for his Labour leadership campaign. As Labour leader, I will legislate to establish a right for all workers to be represented by a union. If this is deemed unconstitutional, we will build a movement in support of a referendum to give people the right to be represented by a trade union," he said. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg was leading three challengers in the Democratic primary Tuesday night, with more than two-thirds of votes counted. Ogg appeared well-positioned to secure the majority of votes needed to avoid a runoff. Audia Jones was in second place, followed by Todd Overstreet and Carvana Cloud. Mary Nan Huffman held a wide lead in the Republican primary field, ahead of Wayne Lloyd Oliver and Lori DeAngelo. Ogg declared victory just after 10 p.m, though less than a quarter of the Election Day vote had been tallied. Standing onstage with her son, State Sen. John Whitmire and former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford, Ogg thanked voters for putting her on the path to victory in November. Change is hard, she said. Change takes time. We are the agents of change. You have lifted me on your shoulders Houstonians, family, friends. Ogg, who is seeking a second term, has pushed back against charges from criminal justice reformers she is not progressive enough. She said her most significant accomplishments include mental health and marijuana diversion programs, which she said have allowed 40,000 people to avoid charges or convictions. Ogg said she has used discretion in only seeking the death penalty against one defendant in a county that historically leads Texas and the country in sentencing defendants to execution. Jones, a former prosecutor under Ogg, emerged as the most formidable challenger. She secured the endorsement of the Texas Organizing Project, which had thrown its weight behind Ogg in 2016. She thrilled her partys liberal faction with a pledge to stop prosecuting certain low-level offenses, included sex work and some drug charges. Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders also urged voters to pick Jones. It did not appear to be enough. At her campaigns watch party in Midtown, the room was buzzing with conversation and supporters wearing A DA for All and Bernie Sanders T-shirts. As 11 p.m. approached, Jones remained confident she could force a runoff. We have so many more numbers that will be coming in tonight, its ridiculous, Jones said, referencing polling locations that still had lines. Ogg was a better fit for the Democratic voters in Harris County, who tend to be more conservative than party members in other states, said University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus. There is a stickiness of her reputation of being a reformer, and that may not be far enough in some circles, Rottinghaus said. For others, it was just right. The progressive energy to replace her simply wasnt there. Ogg had a significant fundraising advantage and high name recognition among voters, Rottinghaus said. He added the incumbent also benefited from progressive voters splitting their votes between Jones and Cloud. Democrats have outnumbered Republicans in the past two Harris County general elections, a significant hurdle for any GOP candidate in November, even with the end of straight ticket voting in Texas. Huffman, general counsel for the Houston Police Officers Union, attributed her presumptive victory to her campaign out-hustling opponents. She pledged to restore competent leadership to the district attorneys office. Im going to hold criminals accountable and repair the relationship with law enforcement that Ogg has worked for four years to destroy, Huffman said. HPOU president Joe Gamaldi said the union was pleased Huffman appeared to have scored a decisive victory. We believe this is a real opportunity for Harris County to return to the rule of law and hold gun-toting felons accountable while also balancing second chances for people who commit minor crimes, Gamaldi said. Ogg was an early victor in the Democratic Partys takeover of Harris County when she defeated the Republican district attorney in 2016. Throughout her tenure, Ogg has found herself blasted by conservatives who claim she is too liberal and panned by progressives who argue she is insufficiently so. Ogg repeatedly has clashed with fellow Democrats on criminal justice issue. Her request last year for 100 additional prosecutors was rebuffed by the liberal majority on Commissioners Court. Oggs only support came from the two Republican members. The district attorney also opposed the countys landmark misdemeanor bail reform settlement, which allows about 85 percent of arrestees to be released without bond. Ogg said the reforms favor the convenience of defendants over the needs of victims and witnesses. The race embodied the old adage that there are no permanent friends nor enemies in politics. In her victory speech, Ogg asked her primary opponents and the progressive groups who had once supported her to help her re-election bid. Cloud and Jones had yet to endorse Ogg. Whether the Texas Organizing Project chooses to support Ogg in the general election also remains to be seen. TOP backed Ogg in the fall of 2016 after choosing another primary candidate. Brianna Brown, the groups deputy director, said its members may not make the same choice this time around. We didnt know how shed govern then, Brown said. Now we do. Samantha Ketterer, Emily Foxhall and Brittany Britto contributed reporting. zach.despart@chron.com At least 5,000 koalas died in the recent bushfires in Australia in the latest blow to the marsupials, conservationists have said. An assessment of the animals in New South Wales estimates that almost 12 per cent of the states population perished between October and January in the devastating fires, and warns that the real figure is likely to be higher. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) study also said that up to two-thirds of the koala population has been lost in the past three generations because of drought, bushfires and human activity. Wildlife campaigners described the situation as a koala emergency and have called for urgent protection measures for the species, which is considered to be vulnerable to extinction. They want New South Wales koalas to be given an emergency endangered listing to increase their protection. Animals rescued during Australia fires Show all 25 1 /25 Animals rescued during Australia fires Animals rescued during Australia fires Wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk is seen with a koala rescued at a burning forest near Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island, southwest of Adelaide AAP Image/Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighter Pat Smith pouring water onto a possum's feet with burns from fires on the outskirts of the town of Tumbarumba in New South Wales Greenpeace Australia-Pacific/AFP Animals rescued during Australia fires Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education volunteer and carer Tracy Dodd holds a kangaroo with burnt feet pads after being rescued from bushfires in Australia's Blue Mountains area Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Grey-headed Flying Fox bats prepared for a feeding at the Uralla, Australia, home of Jackie Maisey, a volunteer with Northern Tableands Wildlife Carers. The bats are swaddled in flannel wraps similar to those being made by thousands of crafters worldwide who are using their sewing, knitting and crocheting skills to make items for wildlife injured in the Australian brush fires Jackie Maisey/AP Animals rescued during Australia fires Sara Tilling takes care of a young injured Kangaroo which she and her partner Gary Henderson are nursing back to health in Cobargo EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Humane Society International Crisis Response Specialist, Kelly Donithan holds a baby Koala she just rescued on Kangaroo Island AFP via Getty Images Animals rescued during Australia fires Tracy Burgess holds a severely burnt brushtail possum Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Fire-impacted, orphaned pouch-rescued Eastern Grey Kangaroo joeys are seen at the property of WIRES Carers Kevin and Lorita Clapson in East Lynne, South of Sydney EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A koala receives water from a cyclist during a severe heatwave that hit the region, in Adelaide Instagram/BIKEBUG2019 via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires An orphaned Flying-Fox is fed at the property of WIRES Mid-South Coast Bat Coordinator, Janet Jones, in Tuross Head EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Humane Society International Crisis Response Specialist, Kelly Donithan checks an injured Koala she had just rescued on Kangaroo Island AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires A wallabie eating a carrot dropped by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife services over the bushfire affected areas along the South Coast for wallabies NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services Animals rescued during Australia fires A dehydrated and injured Koala receives treatment at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires Gary Henderson holds the young injured kangaroo he and his partner are nursing back to health EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A koala drinks water offered from a bottle by a firefighter during bushfires in Cudlee Creek, south Australia Oakbank Balhannah CFS via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires WIRES Mid South Coast wombat coordinator Tony De La Fosse with two orphaned pouch-rescued Wombats at his property in Malua Bay EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Qantas, an orphaned Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey whose feet were burned in recent bushfires, is held by WIRES Carer Kevin Clapson at his property in East Lynne EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Various completed animal pouches for animals affected by Australia bushfires hang on clothing racks in Regents Park, Queensland Kim Simeon via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires An orphaned pouch-rescued Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey hangs in a makeshift pouch at the property of WIRES EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A rescued koala injured in a bushfire in Kangaroo Island, South Australia Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park/AP Animals rescued during Australia fires WIRES Mid-South Coast Bat Coordinator Janet Jones weighs a rescued Grey-Headed Flying-Fox at her home in Tuross Head EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A weary kangaroo shelters on a patch of green grass surrounded by burnt bushland along the Princes Highway near in Milton Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Various animal wraps for bats affected by bushfires Simone Watts via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires A staff member moving a rescued koala to a temporary shelter at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney Taronga Zoo/AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires A kangaroo jumps in a field amidst smoke from a bushfire in Snowy Valley AFP via Getty Images Climate change and the resulting wildfires pose an immediate, ongoing and significant threat of extinction to the koala population in the state, the report argues. The bushfires burned 5.1 million hectares (12.6 million acres) of land in New South Wales. Josey Sharrad, IFAW campaigner, said: Koalas were already living on the brink before these fires, with populations declining in many areas due to excessive land clearing, disease and roadkill, and local extinctions already known to have occurred. This disaster and the ongoing nature of the threats could push koalas over the edge. This is a koala emergency. Koalas must be immediately uplisted to endangered on an emergency basis and a moratorium on all harmful activities impacting koalas enforced to allow surviving populations some breathing space while their capacity to recover is further assessed. The studys analysis covered 15 weeks from 1 October 2019 to 10 January 2020 and is described as a conservative estimate. The conservationists warned that further assessment, covering the month to 10 February, means the final figures are expected to be even worse. They also said that the hundreds of thousands of hectares of habitat that were not burnt but were rendered unsuitable for koalas as a result of dry conditions had not been taken into account. PA A court here on Tuesday sent Shahrukh Khan, who pointed a gun at a police head constable during the violence in northeast Delhi to policy custody. Assistant Commisioner of Police R.K. Ohja said that Shahrukh, who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly earlier in the day and produced before a court here, was sent to four days police custody. A video of Shahrukh brandishing gun at Delhi Police head constable Deepak Dahia went viral during the riots in northeast Delhi last month. He had been missing since then and the Delhi Police had then launched a manhunt to nab him. Police have now registered a case against Shahrukh under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. With 16 Italian tourists testing positive for coronavirus, Rajasthan Chief Minister on Wednesday said people need not be afraid as he reviewed arrangements to contain the spread of the infection. The chief minister assured that the state government was fully alert to tackle the problem and making all efforts to check its spread. "The public need not be afraid, the government will make all efforts to contain the disease," he said during a meeting at his official residence on Wednesday evening. Gehlot also appealed to people to follow the necessary precautions without fear or worry and advised them not to go to overcrowded places. The chief minister said if symptoms of the COVID-19 disease were found in any person, all necessary medical facilities should be provided to him along with the screening as per the guidelines issued by the Centre. Gehlot also instructed officials of the Medical and Health Department that the hotel staff and other people who came in contact with the Italian tourists should be screened. Earlier in the day, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma had told the assembly that at least 215 people came in contact with the Italian tourists who visited several places in the state from February 21 to 28. He said 59 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 78 in Jaipur came in contact of the Italian group. Sharma said swab samples of 93 people who came in touch with the tourists were collected, 51 of which were tested negative for the virus while reports of others were yet to arrive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) . . , ... More than 90,000 people have been infected with the deadly Covid-19 coronavirus, the chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed as nations turn to increasingly drastic measures to halt the spread of the virus. The coronavirus, which has continued its spread into more than 70 countries after emerging in China in December, has led to the deaths of 3.4 per cent of those confirmed to have contracted it according to the WHOs Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. However, while warning the virus was deadlier than the flu, which carries a fatality rate of less than 1 per cent, he told reporters in Geneva he believed the virus could still be contained. To summarise, Covid-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained, he said. In response the worlds worst afflicted regions have begun to consider even more drastic measures to contain the virus with officials in Iran temporarily freeing prisoners with sentences shorter than five years and considering the deployment of 300,000 militia members on a door-to-door sanitisation mission. Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Show all 16 1 /16 Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondoliers wait for customers in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondoliers wait for customers in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A man wearing a protective mask walks past the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge) in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A gondolier on the Grand Canal as the sun sets in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A local pulls a trolley as she leaves a street food market in Venice, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. A U.S. government advisory urging Americans to reconsider travel to Italy due to the spread of a new virus is the "final blow" to the nation's tourism industry, the head of Italy's hotel federation said Saturday. Venice, which was nearing recovery in the Carnival season following a tourist lull after record flooding in November, saw bookings drop immediately after regional officials canceled the final two days of celebrations this week, unprecedented in modern times. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Locals wait for a mass at the barely empty San Salvador church in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. A coughing Pope Francis told Italy, pilgrims gathered for the traditional Sunday blessing that he is canceling his participation at a week-long spiritual retreat in the Roman countryside because of a cold. It is the first time in his seven-year papacy that he has missed the spiritual exercises that he initiated early in his pontificate to mark the start of each Lenten season. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists wearing protective masks take photographs in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists wearing protective masks look at their smartphones as they have a break at the St. Mark's square in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A couple stand at the Rialto bridge during a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. Reuters Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty water bus after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists shelter against the rain with umbrellas as they walk in the empty St. Mark's Square during a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondolas are parked on a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks. AP Iran has repeatedly been criticised for its response to the virus amid accusations it has not fully revealed the number of people afflicted within its borders. So far the nation has announced 2,336 confirmed cases and 77 deaths although the real figure is suspected to be far higher. Cases have been linked back to Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates The illness has also managed to spread across the upper echelons of Iranian society. Among the infected are a number of senior officials including a vice president, the deputy health minister, the head of the emergency medical services, and 23 members of its 290-strong parliament. Recommended Ninth coronavirus death confirmed in Washington state Meanwhile 71-year-old Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a senior adviser to Irans octogenarian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni, is confirmed to have died after contracting the virus. In South Korea, the worst affected nation outside of China, president Moon Jae In said the entire country has entered a war against the virus as cases rose by 600 to nearly 5,000. Calling the outbreak a grave situation, Mr Moon added his government would inject 30 trillion South Korean won (19bn) to fund clinics and aid small businesses. Meanwhile in Italy, officials have considered increasing the scale of its quarantine as the outbreak in the north of the country saw the death toll more than double in the space of two days from 34 to 79. The Italian government set up two red-zones on 22 February - one centred on 10 towns in the region of Lombardy, southeast of the countrys financial capital Milan, and another, smaller one in the neighbouring region of Veneto. Since then, a growing number of cases have emerged near Bergamo, northeast of Milan with health chief Silvio Brusaferro confirming the government were considering the introduction of a quarantine in the city. The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Show all 11 1 /11 The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Visitors with suspected symptoms of the new coronavirus, inside of a car, bottom right, get virus test by members of medical team as others queue in their cars at a "drive-through" test facility at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Workers move equipment into containers set up as a makeshift medical facility to accommodate COVID-19 patients at a hospital's grounds in Daegu, South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea People wait in line to buy face masks in front of a store at Dongseongro shopping district in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical workers wearing protective gears comfort each other outside a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on 28 February 2020 REUTERS The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical staff in protective gears arrive for a duty shift at Dongsan Hospital in Daegu South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A man wears a mask and goggles as he waits in line to buy face masks from a post office near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea South Korean medical workers wearing protective gear visit a residence of people with suspected symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus to take samples, near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean army vehicle sprays disinfectant on a road to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea on Thursday 27 February 2020. AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Troops set up makeshift partitions and beds at the Armed Forces Hospital in Daegu South Korea 28 February 2020 EPA The three nations most severely affected outside of China, Iran, Italy and South Korea have been the subject of increasing restrictions from other countries including Shanghai, who have begun quarantining anyone entering the city from virus-stricken nations for 14 days. In the US, Donald Trump has said his administration may cut off travel to areas with high rates of coronavirus, but said officials were not considering any restrictions on domestic travel. So far Washington State has announced 27 cases of the virus, nine of which have proved fatal an increase of three in the space of 24 hours. In congress politicians came close to an agreement on a spending package with as much as $9bn of funding to tackle the virus however Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said a dispute over the cost of a potential future vaccine held up a deal. Democrats are understood to be insisting that the spending bill contain language stating that any coronavirus vaccine be priced at a fair and reasonable level. Democrats also want the government to help pay for vaccines to help those who might not be able to afford them. Leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate hoped to resolve the dispute and approve the emergency legislation by the end of this week. I am hearing personally from people across our state who are frustrated. They have been exposed. They are sick. They want to get tested. They have nowhere to go, said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington state. This is truly a serious crisis and we cannot respond on the cheap or at the last minute. Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a former Rochester woman working as a U.S. military linguist has been arrested and charged with sharing secret U.S. defense information with a possible terrorist. Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, was arrested on Feb. 27 in Erbil, Iraq, where she had worked as a contract linguist since mid-December 2019. She was charged with unlawfully retaining national defense information. The affidavit states that Thompson is accused of accessing 57 secret files related to national defense between Dec. 30, 2019, and Feb. 10. "These files contained classified national defense information including true names, personal identification data, background information and photographs of human sources, as well as operations cables detailing information the human sources provided to the United States government," according to the affidavit. Despite a lengthy career as a linguist for the U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, Thompson ran a business in Rochester for years called Marys Cleaning Service. She was active in local business networking groups. Thompson still owns a house in Northwest Rochester. ADVERTISEMENT Her LinkedIn page shows that she worked for WorldWide Language Resources in North Carolina. WorldWides website describes its business as "a leading international organization that has provided elite operational combat interpreters and translators to support US, Allied, and Coalition Forces for two decades." Thompsons LinkedIn page includes a "Letter of Endorsement" from former U.S. Gen. David Petraeus that described her as "a superb example of integrity, loyalty, and professionalism." He worked with her for more than three years in Iraq. Her LinkedIn page says she was awarded the "Global War on Terrorism Civilian Service Medal" as well as the "Hero of the Month" award "on several occasions in both Iraq and Afghanistan." Unlawful access Around Dec. 30, 2019, "audit logs show a notable shift in Thompsons network activity on networked Department of Defense systems accredited to process and store information up to a SECRET level," according to court documents. The start of the alleged unlawful access began around the time of a U.S. airstrike against Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and the day protesters stormed the U.S. embassy in Iraq to protest those strikes. Documents were discovered in Thompsons residence that appear to link her to a man affiliated with a terrorist organization, according to the affidavit. Following her arrest, Thompson gave a series of statements to the FBI and admitted to passing the national defense information to a co-conspirator, who is from Lebanon. Court documents described the man as a romantic interest of Thompsons with ties to the Ministry of the Interior in Lebanon. Thompson told FBI agents that she did not know with whom the man was affiliated. ADVERTISEMENT Investigators found evidence of at least two notes with true names of human assets as well as information on the technique an asset was using to gather information. In addition to information about sources working for the U.S., the leaked information also contained notes that specific targets should be warned, according to court records. "While in a war zone, the defendant allegedly gave sensitive national defense information, including the names of individuals helping the United States, to a Lebanese national located overseas," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. "If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished." "This case shows the value of cooperation across the U.S. government. Working closely with the Department of Defense, the FBI was able to investigate this willful disregard for keeping national defense information safe and partnered to bring the defendant to the United States from Iraq to face justice," said Acting Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division Robert Wells. "Todays announcement is a testament to the U.S. governments commitment to protecting the U.S. from the unauthorized disclosure of classified information that can put our country at serious risk of damage damage to people and damage to our countrys capabilities," Timothy R. Slater, assistant director in charge of the FBIs Washington Field Office, said in a news release. Thompson made her initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., federal court. CBS News reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cummings told Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather that Thompson remains a "grave threat" to national security and should remain in custody. Meriweather agreed, ordering her help pending a detention hearing on March 11. If convicted, Thompson faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Assetfair.com scored 41 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 26 Jun 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the assetfair homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the assetfair homepage on Twitter + the total number of assetfair followers (if assetfair has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the assetfair homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the assetfair homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if assetfair has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the assetfair homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE Barter, Trade & Exchange Assets and Property DESCRIPTION Barter, Exchange & Trade assets and property Internationally. A trading platform where members post assets & liabilities for bartering opportunities while diversifying their portfolios. KEYWORDS exchange, assets, trade, barter, property, asset, property, plane, yacht, antiques, art, aviation, boats, collectibles, commodities, real estate, stocks, bonds, vehicles, luxury apparel, jewelry, watches, musical instruments, inventories OTHER KEYWORDS exchange, asset, value, assetfair, equity, 00 exchange equity, 00 exchange CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Strict CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Microsoft-IIS/7.5 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 The language of assetfair.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for assetfair.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The URL of the found Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 19:09:27|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close MOSCOW, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday criticized Turkey for allegedly violating an agreement reached with Russia on the Idlib de-escalation zone in northwest Syria. Ankara's obligation, a key point of the agreement reached in Sochi in September 2018, was to oust terrorists from the external borders of the de-escalation zone to a depth of 15-20 km and withdraw heavy weapons from the area, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Almost 18 months after the Sochi agreement was made, UN-recognized terrorist groups have forced out all militants of the "moderate opposition" to the Turkish border in the north, Konashenkov said in a statement. "The fortified areas of the terrorists merged with the Turkish observation posts set up in accordance with the agreement," he added. The criticism of the Russian military came a day before talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on the heightened tensions in Idlib. CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Diversified Global Graphics Group (DG3), a leading provider of global print, technology, and visual communication services, today announced the acquisition of Ryan Edwards Communications, Inc. (REC). Founded in 2013, REC is a leading global supplier of outsourced graphic communications and print solutions to the cruise industry. Leading cruise lines partner with REC to deliver managed onshore and onboard printed communications. "We are pleased to welcome the Ryan Edwards team into the DG3 family," said DG3 President and CEO Steven Babat. "Ken and his team have built an entrepreneurially minded growth company and strong brand over the last eight years. The Ryan Edwards solutions to the cruise industry will be a great addition to the DG3's portfolio of Managed Services offerings." REC founder Ken Wahler will lead cruise line Managed Services for DG3. Mr. Wahler commented, "We have built our company to be a leading provider of managed services in our market and are excited about the next chapter of our growth. We are thrilled to join DG3 and leverage its support services and world class onshore printing capabilities to rapidly expand our services and client reach. Additionally, I admire how DG3 shares our singular focus for providing on-time, high quality services to our clients and look forward to continuing to provide outstanding service to the cruise industry on a much larger scale." Bassem Mansour, Co-CEO of Resilience Capital Partners, added "Steve and the entire team at DG3 have successfully grown the business and achieved very strong results. The addition of REC will enhance the continued growth of DG3 and we look forward to supporting the company and its strategic objectives." Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. About DG3: DG3, a Resilience Capital Partners portfolio company (www.resiliencecapital.com), is a global leader in print and communications services. DG3 delivers client-centric, globally integrated solutions to companies within numerous industries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.dg3.com. About Resilience Capital Partners: Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Resilience invests in niche-oriented manufacturing, value added distribution and business service companies with sustainable market positions. Resilience provides a flexible transaction approach to accommodate the needs of businesses and sellers. Since its founding in 2001, Resilience has invested in 81 companies under 40 platforms. Resilience manages in excess of $550 million for its global investor base which includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, fund of funds and family offices. For more information, please visit www.resiliencecapital.com. Contact: Bassem Mansour, Co-CEO Resilience Capital Partners 216.292.0200 SOURCE Resilience Capital Partners Related Links http://www.resiliencecapital.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:51:11|Editor: zyl Video Player Close EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles speaks at a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, March 4, 2020. Josep Borrell Fontelles stressed that Turkey and the EU should work to address common challenges over regional conflict, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua) ANKARA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that Turkey and the EU should work to address common challenges over regional conflict, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday. "Pressure and unilateral action are not an answer. We need to work hand in hand to address common challenges, for the benefit of both Turkey and the EU," Borrell said on his Twitter account after a meeting with the Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu in Ankara. Borrell and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Larencic paid a two-day visit to Turkey on March 3-4 to discuss the situation in Idlib in Syria, humanitarian consequences for the civilians there and Syrian refugees in Turkey. Borrell also met Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar to discuss the recent developments in Idlib where the Turkish army is in clashes with the Syrian government forces. "Humanitarian situation in Idlib is of extreme gravity. We need to promote de-escalation and have an in-depth discussion with Turkey on security and defence challenges," Borrell said on Twitter after meeting with the Turkish defense minister. The EU officials stepped up to have talks with Turkish authorities after Ankara decided to allow crossings of refugees in Turkey to Europe. The BJP on Wednesday denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, amidst the allegation that the saffron party has taken some MLAs to a hotel in Haryana Bhopal: The BJP on Wednesday denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, amidst the allegation that the saffron party has taken some MLAs to a hotel in Haryana. Terming the charge as "unfortunate", Madhya Pradesh BJP chief VD Sharma alleged that the Congress-led dispensation in the state was a "blackmail" government. His remarks came after Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari told PTI that some BJP leaders have allegedly taken eight MLAs from the state to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath government. "The allegations are very unfortunate. The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," Sharma told reporters, when asked about Congress' allegation of attempts to destabilise the state government. Sharma said this is the Congress' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. "The BJP has nothing to do with the entire episode... this is a blackmail government. This is a ragtag government," he added. Patwari alleged that senior BJP leaders, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others, have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy. "We are trying to bring them back. Four of them have come back also but they have forcibly taken away tribal MLA Bisahulal Singh," he said. Before Patwari's allegation against the BJP, Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight. He alleged that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP, however, dismissed the former chief minister's charge, saying his statement was aimed at ensuring his re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh scheduled on 26 March. Earlier, speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday, Digvijaya Singh alleged his party MLAs were being offered huge amount of money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron party's "poaching" attempts to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. Hitting back, Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements and engaging in sensationalism. Washington: US President Donald Trump hs spoken by telephone with chief Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar Akhund, the first known direct communication between a US leader and a top Taliban official, as a dispute over a prisoner release threatened a US-led effort to bring peace to Afghanistan. The telephone call, first announced on Twitter by a Taliban spokesman and then confirmed by Trump, came three days after Baradar and US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad signed an agreement for a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. US President Donald Trump spoke to the leader of the Taliban. Credit:AP That deal, an important step toward ending America's longest war, could help boost Trumps bid for a second term in the November election. It calls for a phased withdrawal of US-led international troops and the start on March 10 of talks between the Taliban and an Afghan delegation that would include government officials. SANAA, Yemen At a cafe in Sanaa the night of Feb. 27, a pharmacist sat at a table waiting for his order. He was wearing a mask over his mouth and nose. When asked why, he said it was a "precautionary measure" against coronavirus. Health officials aren't able to distribute masks, so they agreed on the narrative that Yemen has zero coronavirus cases, he said. To the right of the pharmacist, a construction worker, who requested not to be identified, made fun of our discussion about coronavirus. He kept calling the waiter coronavirus to order tea and extra bread. He said it was the first time he had heard of it. He said it sounded like "cholera, which means Yemenis will overcome it and will not panic in any way." As coronavirus cases spread dramatically in the Middle East, with the World Health Organization (WHO) announcing Feb. 28 that the virus has been found in at least 56 countries worldwide, Yemen seems to have so far been spared. Health officials from both Yemeni warring sides have bragged about taking precautionary measures, including repatriating Yemenis from China, where the virus was first identified. Houthi health official Abdul Hakim al-Kuhlani said Feb. 23 that 193 Yemenis had returned from China and had undergone temperature checks, testing negative for coronavirus. About 20,000 Yemenis live in China, with 187 Yemeni students and their families in Wuhan the Chinese city where the virus was first reported. The latter are stuck in Wuhan amid travel restrictions. Kuhlanis statements came a day after Yemen's ambassador to China, Ahmed Jaber, said that an evacuation of Yemeni students in Wuhan was underway, but that they had not yet been transported to the United Arab Emirates. According to a circular from Yemen's embassy in China, the evacuation of Yemenis living in Wuhan was to start Feb. 29. They were supposed to head to the UAE and be placed in quarantine, yet it's unclear if the plan is underway. So far, 193 people have tested negative, Kuhlani told Al-Monitor Feb. 26. He pointed out that he received these figures from WHO and the Civil Aviation that works in air, sea and land ports under the internationally-recognized government. Kuhlani said the Houthi-run Health Ministry in Sanaa receives figures on a daily basis from the Saudi-backed government in Aden and the Seiyun Airport in Hadhramaut, as well as from the Shahin and Serfeet land crossings on the border with Oman. He said, however, the cooperation between the Houthis and government is limited and indirect, as it is being conducted through a third party, namely the WHO. A Yemeni photographer published an image on Twitter Feb. 28 of a medical team at the Houthi-controlled Ufar land crossing testing travelers onboard buses. However, despite the Yemeni authorities both Houthi and from the Saudi-backed government assurances that coronavirus case has not been detected at the countrys ports, there have been concerns about the effectiveness of precautionary measures in a country where half of the population is vulnerable to such diseases. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that an estimated 19.7 million Yemenis lack access to basic healthcare. Meanwhile, CNN referred to a British study on coronavirus that stated, Temperature checks will fail to detect a coronavirus infection nearly half the time, raising the possibility that Yemen's fragile health care system cant detect the virus. The WHO office in Yemen downplayed the likelihood of a virus outbreak in Yemen, which is in line with the official Yemeni narrative that Yemen has no confirmed coronavirus cases. While the #2019nCoV virus spreads in some countries, the risk in #Yemen remains low," WHO in Yemen tweeted Feb. 9. "WHO Yemen is working closely with the health authorities and partners to ensure preparedness and readiness to respond if necessary. The UAE which confirmed its first coronavirus case Jan. 29 said in mid-February it would help evacuate Arab students from China, without naming Yemen. Meanwhile, Yemen's Foreign Ministry thanked the UAE Feb. 19 for its support in evacuating Yemenis from China. However, by Feb. 26, the evacuation process of Yemenis in Wuhan was not yet underway. Some of the students in Wuhan said they were impressed by Chinas actions to prevent it. China is making great efforts to confront this virus, Yemeni student Ammar Yaser said in a video published on the Chinese Embassy to Yemen Twitter account Feb. 12. China is doing a lot of things to keep citizens and foreigners safe. The government-affiliated Health Office in Aden announced Feb. 24 that it would suspend the establishment of quarantine zones at al-Sadaqa Hospital after the hospitals staff and locals rejected these measures in the populous neighborhood. However, other isolation centers have been established elsewhere, including at the Aden Airport, al-Jumhuri hospital and Saleh al-Din City as well as at Seiyun Airport. In a country that has been plagued by the worst cholera epidemic in recorded history, two quarantine centers were established at the Sanaa International Airport and the nearby Zayed Maternity and Children's Hospital. Although no passengers have passed through the Houthi-controlled Sanaa Airport, the UN staff who use it for humanitarian flights go through the precautionary measures, according Kuhlani. At the Zayed Maternity and Children's Hospital, a quarantine center funded by WHO and executed by the World Food Program was ready to receive infected people by Feb. 15. Al-Monitor visited the center before noon on Feb. 24. A bodyguard was lying on his back in the shadow of one of the center's one-story buildings with a handkerchief on his head masking his nose and mouth, in what appears to be a protective measure. No staff were seen or heard. Taking photographs of the center requires permission from the hospital's director, the bodyguard said. He later allowed us to take photos of the outside, with a media officer monitoring us. The staff is available on call, said the general director of the hospital, Riyadh al-Shami. Quarantine centers are established so when there are cases tested positive at land, sea or air ports, they can be transferred to this center for isolation, Shami told Al-Monitor. An outbreak of the coronavirus in Yemen is more likely with the return of Yemenis living in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. Such a scenario could bring Yemen's health system to the brink of collapse if the WHO or concerned health bodies are not on alert, as 80% of Yemen's 29 million residents are already in dire need of some form of humanitarian assistance. A Manhattan lawyer who was hospitalised suffering from coronavirus is in severe condition according to New York City health officials, as tests confirm his family have also tested positive. On Wednesday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the mans wife, son, daughter, and a neighbour in Westchester County have contracted the virus none are thought to be in a serious condition. This takes the total number of cases in New York to six. Authorities are rushing to contain the spread of coronavirus in both the state and the countrys largest city by tracking the movements of those they have identified. Governor Cuomo has appealed for calm but said that community spreading in New York City is inevitable. The real issue is how many people will get seriously ill. How many people, God forbid, could lose their lives, said Governor Cuomo. The New York Post identified the lawyer as Lawrence Garbuz of the firm Lewis & Garbuz, which he runs with his wife and where his son works as a paralegal. The firm employs seven lawyers, specialises in family law and is located across the street from Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street. Mr Garbuz and his wife commute to the office from their home in New Rochelle on Metro North Rail. Initially hospitalised on Friday at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, Mr Garbuz was transferred to NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Centre in Upper Manhattan on Monday when his condition worsened. He is being treated in the intensive care unit and is understood to have an underlying respiratory condition. The family is in quarantine at their home in Westchester. Medical staff who cared for Mr Garbuz at Lawrence Hospital are also quarantined and await their test results. Employees at the firm are considered at risk, having spent a prolonged period of time in close proximity to Mr Garbuz. New York City mayor Bill De Blasio told reporters that an intense search was underway to find anyone else who may have been in contact with the family. They will be informed as soon as a list has been compiled. In response to the sons diagnosis, Yeshiva University has cancelled all classes at its Washington Heights campus including both graduate courses and those at the boys high school. A second student who visited the law firms office has self-quarantined. Mr Garbuz regularly attends the Young Israel Synagogue in New Rochelle, and those who attended services on 22 and 23 February have been told to self-isolate until 8 March. The Garbuzs daughter, who does not have symptoms, attends Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy and High School in the Bronx, which along with two other schools has closed as a precautionary measure. In addition, Mr Garbuz is believed to have travelled to Miami, where Florida officials are looking into his travel history while in the state. A healthcare worker who had recently visited Iran was confirmed as New Yorks first case of coronavirus on Sunday. She has kept herself isolated and her husband was tested but the results were negative. A small molecule that inhibits energy production in immune T-cells allows some tumors to escape treatment with an immunotherapy called PD-1 blockade therapy, says a study in mice published today in eLife. Cancer therapies that help boost the immune system's defenses to tumor cells are a promising new approach to treatment. One such therapy blocks PD-1, a receptor on the surface of T-cells. Cancer cells express a protein that binds to this receptor and interferes with the T-cell's ability to kill tumor cells. But while drugs that block this receptor can reactivate the T-cells, they are not always effective and the results of the new study help explain why. "Despite the great success of PD-1 blockade therapy, we need to improve its efficacy because more than half of patients' tumors don't respond to it," says lead author Alok Kumar, a PhD student in the Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine at Kyoto University, Japan. To learn why so many tumors fail to respond to PD-1 blockade therapy, Kumar and his colleagues studied mice with two types of tumor cells: some that were sensitive to PD-1 blockade therapy and others that were not. This allowed the team to identify two different types of tumors that do not respond to PD-1. One type suppressed the immune system and caused even the PD-1-sensitive tumor cells to grow, while the other had no effect on PD-1-sensitive tumor cells. "We found that some human cancer cells release immunosuppressive molecules that inhibit the activity of energy-producing mitochondria in T-cells," Kumar explains. Treating the mice with a mitochondria-boosting compound reversed this effect in the immune-suppressing tumor. However, the treatment had no effect on the other type of tumor. Instead of impairing energy production in T-cells, the other tumor made itself invisible to the immune system by failing to produce a protein that helps immune cells recognize tumor cells. The identity of the molecule that helped the first type of tumor suppress mitochondria is currently unknown. The researchers hope that if they can find it, they can create drugs that hinder its activity. If we could identify these unknown factors and develop drugs that block them, we could save patients' lives by using the drugs alongside PD-1 blockade therapy to prevent tumors from defending themselves." Tasuku Honjo, senior author, Professor of Immunology and Genomic Medicine at Kyoto University DETROIT - General Motors, trying to refashion itself as a futuristic company with technology to compete against Tesla, rolled out plans Wednesday for 13 new electric vehicles during the next five years. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This photo provided by General Motors shows GM's all-new modular platform and battery system, Ultium, at the Design Dome on the GM Tech Center campus in Warren, Mich., on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. GM rolled out plans for 13 new electric vehicles during the next five years as it trying to refashion itself as a futuristic company with technology to compete against Tesla. The company on Wednesday touted an exclusive new battery technology that could propel some of the vehicles as far as 400 miles (644 kilometers) on a single charge. (Steve Fecht/General Motors via AP) DETROIT - General Motors, trying to refashion itself as a futuristic company with technology to compete against Tesla, rolled out plans Wednesday for 13 new electric vehicles during the next five years. The company touted an exclusive new battery technology that could propel some of the vehicles as far as 400 miles (644 kilometres) on a single charge as it tries to capture electric vehicle enthusiasm that has brought wild growth to rival Tesla's share price. At an event for investors, dealers and analysts at its sprawling technical centre in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan, GM executives said the new vehicles would be built using modular chassis and drive systems for manufacturing simplicity. GM will be able to build trucks, cars, SUVs and even an autonomous shuttle based on the new systems, the company said. The global vehicles will include affordable transportation, work trucks, luxury SUVs and performance vehicles. CEO Mary Barra said GM will be able to build at a large scale, similar to its profitable full-size truck business. We want to put everyone in an EV, and we have what it takes to do it, she said at a presentation for investors. Some of the new vehicles will be able to go from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometres per hour) in as little as three seconds performance that rivals electric vehicle sales leader Tesla Inc. New all-electric models will come from the Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands starting this year, beginning with the Cadillac Lyriq luxury SUV to be unveiled in April. A new Chevrolet Bolt small SUV comes in the summer of 2021. There's also the GMC Hummer EV pickup coming to dealers in the fall of 2021. GM also has plans for three more Cadillac SUVs, a midsize Chevrolet SUV, two Buick SUVs, a GMC Hummer SUV, a Chevrolet full-size pickup with 400 miles of range, a luxury Cadillac car and the Cruise Origin, an autonomous electric shuttle. With fewer parts than petroleum-powered vehicles, electric vehicles will be much cheaper and simpler to build, reducing manufacturing costs, GM said. The company plans 19 different battery and electric motor and transmission combinations, compared with 550 internal combustion powertrain combinations available today. The company said a joint venture with Korean battery maker LG Chem will use a low-cobalt chemistry to drive down battery costs to below $100 per kilowatt hour. Executives told the group that the next generation of GM's electric vehicles will be profitable. Barra said the new vehicles can increase sales and market share, and the batteries and drive units could be licensed to other companies to bring in more revenue. She said the company plans to sell more than 1 million electric vehicles in North America and China by the middle of the decade. To get there, GM will spend more than $20 billion developing the vehicles through 2025, she said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Electric vehicle sales will have to grow substantially both worldwide and in the U.S. for GM to meet its targets. Last year manufacturers sold just over 236,000 fully electric vehicles in the U.S., about 1.4% of total new vehicle sales, according to Autodata Corp. GM is making a huge investment ahead of consumer demand, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice-president of the consulting firm LMC Automotive. Theyre going to need to weather that, not only with investors, but just from an overall financial standpoint, he said. The announcement also comes at a time when the global economy is slowing, in part due to the coronavirus outbreak. LMC on Wednesday reduced its 2020 U.S. new vehicle sales forecast from 16.8 million to 16.5 million, according to Schuster. LMC expects automakers to sell 17 million fully electric vehicles by 2030, or about 16% of worldwide demand. It will be 25% to 30% of the market in Europe, 20% in China and 8% in the U.S., LMC estimated. Those numbers are smaller than what GM is predicting, but Schuster said sales could rise because GM has such a wide range of vehicles to offer. In order to have breakthroughs, you have to have investments, he said. Its going to bear fruit. Its just a question of how long its going to take. Thats unknown at this stage. (Alliance News) - Edinburgh Investment Trust PLC on Wednesday said it has named Majedie Asset Management Ltd as its investment manager effective immediately. The company in December had said it would oust its previous investment manager, Invesco. This was after Edinburgh Investment Trust reported a net asset value per share at September 30 of 660.16 pence, down 5.3% from six months prior. Shares in the company were 1.2% higher at 546.70 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. In the six months to the end of September, Edinburgh Investment Trust's NAV total return was negative 3.1%, significantly behind its benchmark - the FTSE All-Share - which rose 4.6% in the same period. In December, Edinburgh Investment Trust said that over the past three years, the trust has returned 1.6%, compared to the FTSE All Share rising 22%. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Roman Catholicism is deeply rooted in southern Kaduna state which is the mainstay of Christianity in Kaduna state. The catholic church from the word go right from the earliest interactions with the locals during the days of colonization and decolonization of Nigeria, has been a household name in much of southern Kaduna notably for been strong in the area of running efficient schools and hospitals. The entire southern Kaduna comes under the guidance of the diocese of Kafanchan which is found in Jemaa local government area of Kaduna state and home to millions of people of divergent ethnic origins. The indigenous natives of southern Kaduna have also embraced the Roman catholic church because of its holistic liberating tendencies in the areas of mass but qualitative education of the locals at minimal or no cost and affordable quality hospital services. The Roman Catholic church has also made massive constructive impacts in the area of vocational skills training for the rural youths. The Church seems to have realized on time that it is better to teach the poor man how to fish than to give him fish. Almost all the mission schools have well equipped vocational training departments to make the beneficiaries to become creators of wealth and not just gainfully employed but to become employers of labour. When yours faithfully grew up in Kafanchan, there were numerous schools and hospitals which were established by the Roman catholic church just as we came to realize that some of these iconic schools such as the Saint Peter Clever school and many other missionary schools which were set up by the catholic church at huge costs were taken over by the government. Most of us however drank from the fountains of wisdom erected by the Roman Catholic Church through its foray into the education sector. By all accounts, Kafanchan and southern Kaduna are strategic in the annals of our national history just as these towns in southern Kaduna such as Kafanchan, Kwoi, Kagoro, Zango Kataf, Saminaka, Kachia and numerous others have been home to millions of Nigerians from mostly the southern parts of the country and from the far north of Nigeria because of the remarkable virtue of hospitality of the indigenous natives. Many persons from far flung towns have had the privileges of gaining qualitative but virtually free primary and post primary education in southern Kaduna. The combination of the triple social services of education, health and evangelization adopted and enforced and reinforced by the Roman catholic church are to be applauded because it is a fact that a healthy mind can only be attained through very conscious efforts to thoroughly educate the young minds and provide qualitative healthcare to the population because only the living can praise God. The above summarizes the symbolic and strategic value of the event that had only just taken place in Kafanchan few days back which is the inauguration of the second ever head of the Roman Catholic Church in Kafanchan diocese. It would seem that the Holy See took a whole lot of time in search of a capable hand to step into the phenomenal shoe of the first bishop of Kafanchan who died only about two years back by name Bishop Joseph Bagobiri. Bagobiri who was the first bishop of Kafanchan left a lot of milestones and it would appear that the late bishop embraced educational empowerment of his people as his primary mission which explains the successes he recorded in the establishment of many top quality schools of both primary and post primary. Another remarkable achievement of the late bishop Bagobiri of kafanchan was the monumental investments he made in the area of spiritual and academic upgrading of his pastors which is why Kafanchan diocese can be likened to the academic capital of the Roman Catholic Church in Northern Nigeria. Bishop Bagobiri of the blessed memory was also very outspoken and was always there to speak for social justice; security and sustainable development of the people of southern Kaduna. His death brought huge pains to millions of people and for a ling time this powerful voice that echoes social justice as an essential ingredient for social peace will be missed. The good thing however is that the thorough search for the next bishop of Kafanchan has yielded a very big result in such a way that Kafanchan diocese now has a good shepherd who is capable of defending his people and leading them to the path of righteousness. The election of Monsignor Julius Yakubu Kundi, my classmate at the Kafanchan teachers college as the new bishop of Kafanchan diocese did not come as a shock to people going by his formidable profile that he has built over the years for himself. That he even wore a papal title of a Monsignor before his elevation to the Bishopric is a testament to his high level of passion for the gospels of Christ Jesus and his undying zeal and dedication to evangelize the people of God and lead them towards the path of goodness in all realms of human pursuits. The soft spoken bishop has a very wonderful objective which goes as follows: To win snore souls for Christ as his minister by demonstrating pastoral excellence and moral uprightness in my vocation in order to achieve this goal. These are the qualities that every Bishop should have in a rapidly evolving World. Born on February 15th1968 (a day after Saint Valentines Day), in Kubau local government area of Kaduna state, he became a deacon on September 21st 1996 and was ordained a priest on June 14th 1997 at the Saint Joseph cathedral Kaduna by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS are as follows-: In August 2005 June 2006: he was educated at the Catholic Institute of West Africa Port Harcourt, (STL, Moral Theology, CIWA, PORT HARCOURT) and in August 2003 June 2005: he was at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt.( M.TH , Moral Theology, UNICAL). In August 1992 June 1996: he enrolled at the St. Augustines Major Seminary, Jos. (DIP. REL. STUDIES, UNIBADAN, B.TH . ,UNIJOS) and between August 1988 1991: be was at the St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Makurdi (Internal Dip. In Philosophy). From 1985 1987: he was educated at the Kafanchan Teachers College. (Grade ll) Earlier from 1983 1984: he was schooled at the Religious Training Center, Rahama, Saminaka. 1982 - 1983: he was at Government Day Secondary School, Pambegua. 1976 1982: L.E.A. Primary School, Danladi (First School Leaving Certificate). PROJECTS/ LONG ESSAYS are as follows: BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM: Challenges and Dangers In Christendom; Thesis submitted, Jos, 1996; THE IMPACT OF ISLAM ON CHRISTIAN FAMILIES IN ZARIA DIOCESE, NIGERIA: A MORAL EVALUATION. Thesis submitted, Port Harcourt 2005; ECONOMIC MONOPOLIZATION AND THE RIGHTS OF FARMERS IN KADUNA SATE: AN ISSUE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE. Thesis submitted, Port Harcourt 2006. His WORKING EXPERIENCES are as follows: Associate Priest, St. Andrews Catholic Parish, Kaduna archdiocese, 1997- 1998; Parish Priest, St. Pauls Parish, Jalingo Diocese, 1998 2003; Parish Priest, St. Endas Parish Basawa, Zaria Diocese, 2006-2007; Vice Rector Academics, St. Josephs Minor Seminary, Basawa Zaria, 2006 2007; Vocations Director, Catholic Diocese of Zaria, 2006 -2007; Cathedral Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Zaria, 2007 -2010; Finance Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Zaria, 2007 -2010; Vicar General, Catholic Diocese of Zaria, 2009 -2010; Vice Rector and Formator, Good Shepherd Major Seminary, Kaduna, 2010- 2014; Acting Rector, Good Shepherd Major Seminary, Kaduna, 2014 2016; Acting Police Chaplain, St. Andrews Police chaplaincy, Zaria, 2016- 2017 and he was the Parish Priest, of St. Johns Parish, Muchia, Zaria Diocese. 2017- 2018 then a Parochial Vicar, Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Havasu City, Phoenix Diocese, 2018 till he was elevated to the rank of the Bishop of Kafanchan. Bishop Julius will need to get to work as quickly as possible and a major area of concern is for the bishop to fashion out measures to bring about inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogues for peace building. Kafanchan has had its own fair share of conflicts and currently, there is a groundswell of deep divisions between the two dominant religions in Nigeria. The new bishop of catholic diocese of Kafanchan whose hobby is to make friends, should step up efforts to restore lasting peace amongst all the religions and ethnicities living in Kafanchan. He should be the mouthpiece of the oppressed and the needy and he should build upon the legacies set aside by his predecessor. The new bishop of Kafanchan has also started well by emphasizing unity. He made the following speech: We should use this strength to unite ourselves and work together as one family, the family of God towards improving the lives of our people in education, agriculture, commerce, politics, healthcare, religion, social and cultural life. With faith let us cast our nets again in the deep for a greater catch. As you go back to your parishioners to render your services, do them with zeal and enthusiasm. But we will seek the face of God first in prayers for direction as we will observe the 6th of March for fasting and Holy hour Eucharistic adoration. The Bishop told the tumultuous crowds that watched his inauguration that: My appointment as the bishop of the Diocese of Kafanchan came while I was tending to the sheep of my father in faraway desert of the State of Arizona in the United States of America. Permit me then, to express my deepest respect and appreciation to Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and his auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares, both accepted me very well and treated me like a son. I also appreciate Fr. David Sanfillipo, the Vicar for the Clergy, all the priests and friends in the Diocese of Phoenix for the fraternity. Let me acknowledge particularly Fr. Chauncey Winkler, the pastor I worked with directly for 18 months and my beloved parishioners of Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Havasu City who opened their hearts and accepted me as their own and other priests from the Diocese of Zaria. Now, I am sure the Diocese of Kafanchan will also get a share of that blessing so that we too can send priests to work in Phoenix. Special thanks and blessings to my two Latino mothers: Dr. Sue Moravec and Paula Then (Que Dios te Bendiga). He then told them thus: May I conclude this speech by acknowledging my humble background from Danladi Village and my entire family. I thank you all for nurturing my faith and standing by me all these years to make me into what I am today. I appreciate my stepmother and siblings for being with us. Please pray for my late parents, Mr. Kundi Bisallah and Mrs. Hauwa Yelwa Bisallah. To all of you and by the grace of God, I am here as your humble servant. Please pray for me and ask Our Lady of Guadalupe to become the Mother and Patroness of this diocese with St. Peter Clavers, the Patron of our diocese. The Blessed Mother does not abandon her children. She leads us to Jesus Christ where we find peace, joy, and mercy. On her mantle Our Lady gives loving protection for all her faithful children. Pray to God also for the Diocese of Kafanchan and all the challenges that are affecting our people. Let us pray that God provide me with the wisdom, the patience, the courage and humility in order to serve faithfully. I pray the Holy Spirit to touch your hearts to support us in any way possible to do Gods work in the vineyard. Like Gaius Julius Ceaser the great Roman Statesman and General who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman empire, Bishop Julius (Ceaser) of Kafanchan wil bring functional evangelism to enable Kafanchan rise from the ashes of despair to that of monumental hopes. *Emmanuel Onwubiko is the Head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and [email protected] ; www.emmanuelonwubikocom; www.thenigerianinsidernews.com ; [email protected] By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, citing growing concerns about the fast-spreading coronavirus, on Tuesday said they will adopt a 'virtual format' for their Spring Meetings instead of convening in person in Washington. The institutions' Spring Meetings, scheduled this year for April 17-19, usually bring some 10,000 government officials, business people, civil society representatives and journalists from across the globe to a tightly packed, two-block area of downtown Washington that houses their headquarters By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, citing growing concerns about the fast-spreading coronavirus, on Tuesday said they will adopt a "virtual format" for their Spring Meetings instead of convening in person in Washington. The institutions' Spring Meetings, scheduled this year for April 17-19, usually bring some 10,000 government officials, business people, civil society representatives and journalists from across the globe to a tightly packed, two-block area of downtown Washington that houses their headquarters. Officials said the IMF will still release an updated World Economic Forecast that will likely include a downgrade of its global outlook due to the outbreak, which has taken a heavy toll on air travel, manufacturing and tourism around the globe. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last month said the virus outbreak would likely shave 0.1 percentage point from global growth. The institutions began considering the move as the disease continued to spread rapidly around the world after emerging in China in late December. There are now almost 91,000 cases globally, including 80,000 in China, and over 3,000 people have died. Infections have appeared in 77 countries and territories outside China, with Argentina the latest to report its first case. The coronavirus outbreak is plunging the world economy into its worst downturn since the global financial crisis more than 10 years ago, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Monday. Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass said in a joint statement that they were focused on ensuring the health and safety of participants and staff. An IMF official said that one possible exception to the virtual meetings shift is that the 24-member International Monetary and Financial Committee - the Fund's steering committee - may still meet face to face. Details for the meeting are still being worked out, the official said. The equivalent panel at the World Bank, the Development Committee, is planning to meet in a virtual format, a World Bank spokesman said. Some experts say the decision to make the spring meetings virtual could become permanent since it would save money, time and reduce the institutions' carbon footprint. Malpass told reporters the twice-yearly meetings were "sizeable affairs" and did not rule out a more permanent change. "Well have to look at the experience with the virtual meetings and see how it goes," he told a news conference. Scott Morris, a former U.S. Treasury official and now a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, said Malpass had long been critical of the events. "You sort of see this alliance forming of the younger generation, which is much more attuned to technology, climate impact and emissions associated with these meetings and David Malpass, who... sees them as a waste of time," Morris said. Physical gatherings, however, do offer smaller countries the opportunity to have bilateral meetings with a wide variety of other governments, he said. The rapid spread of the virus raised concerns inside the IMF and the World Bank that the close interactions among people from their 189 member countries at the Spring Meetings could inadvertently contribute to the problem. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the IMF and World Bank canceled their annual meetings scheduled for later that month in the U.S. capital. The meetings were reconvened in November 2001 in Ottawa, Canada. The by-laws of both institutions state that their annual meetings of boards of governors, normally held in the fall, must be held in person. The two institutions released a fact sheet about the decision. https://www.imf.org/en/About/FAQ/2020-spring-meetings#Q1 (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Franklin Paul, Sandra Maler and Dan Grebler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. A tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 2 triggered a storm in the digital space. Many interpreted the post as the PM contemplating giving up all his social media handles, perhaps permanently. A subsequent tweet by Modi cleared up the confusion. This Women's Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life & work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions. Are you such a woman or do you know such inspiring women? Share such stories using #SheInspiresUs, he wrote. Easily one of the most influential social media users worldwide with over 53 million followers on his own Twitter handle and more than 32 million on his official PMO handle, Modi has shown the way to most of his opponents in the art of communication. In fact, almost the entire government machinery relies heavily on social media and his ministers are prompt with their tweets to back the PM's speeches and policies. While the Congress is the main competition on social media, it still has a lot of catching up to do. There are glaring grey and dark areas. Just look at the following statistics. Look at two time periods January to May 2019 and October 2019 to February 2020. In the first, there were only 18 tweets daily by the opposition party while in the second there were only about 10 tweets a day. There have been only about 90 Congress campaigns covered by social media in the first period and 70 in the second. Both of course exclude the rallies by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, which obviously get covered extensively. Unlike the BJP, which is very aggressive on social media, the Congress had only about three exclusive videos per week in the first time period and one a week in the second. The problem is mainly of coordination. For the ruling BJP, the party and government decide the line to be pushed and everyone is given a brief. The leaders fall in line and send similar tweets which flood a users timeline and leads to the posts trending. The Congress faces a problem in this coordination. First, new social media head Rohan Gupta has taken over after a bitter parting of ways with his predecessor Divya Spandana. Divya was witty and her tweets got traction. But she wasnt politically savvy, which led to some bloopers, putting her party in a fix. For example, an alleged personal attack on Modi by ostensibly comparing him with bird droppings, or the pictures of Rahul Gandhi showing his many facets while travelling abroad that led to much trolling. The trouble was lack of coordination between the party media department and the social media wing. Problems arose when, for example, Rahul Gandhi decided to do press conferences and the social media department wasnt aware or didnt bother to publicise them enough to make them trend. In contrast, the build-up to the PM's speeches and rallies begin much earlier. The Congress is now trying to regain some lost ground. First, there is a WhatsApp group, which has influencers like Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Jaiveer Shergill, Sanjay Jha , Gaurav Gogoi, etc, who are very active on social media. But there are many who believe in Aekla cholo re (Walk alone). Some leaders prefer to push their own handles and, when big campaigns take place, barring a few, dont even bother to respond. This was particularly felt during the Lok Sabha polls when many Congress leaders wouldnt even bother to push or promote the partys campaigns. Says Rohan Gupta, We are reworking our strategy. Some of our campaigns are doing well. Like Desh ki baat. Its traction is amazing, going up to 2 crores. We are working on similar campaigns which will push the Congress ideology. The BJP has an edge over us when it comes to surrogate followers or trolls. We are working on it. A senior leader who has been associated with the strategy said, You need a politician to understand the campaign which needs to be pushed. The Congress has good social media players but there is no political direction. Young people being in charge is very good. They are talented, but it needs to be backed by political acumen. Very few of the seniors have understood or even accepted the power of the social media. Rahul Gandhi, Tharoor, Priyanka Vadra get good traction. Most others are catching up, but the senior leaders just dont want to get into it. You speak to them and they dismiss it as fluff and candy floss. And many arent even willing to take advice or tips from who they consider their juniors. But the reality is that Young India is hooked to TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and other such sites, and the Congress is letting go off a rich catchment area. And the reluctance of the veterans gives the BJP the edge. This along with the fact that better coordination within the party and support for the social media campaigns is lacking. AUBURN, Placer County A Placer County resident who may have contracted the new coronavirus while on a 10-day cruise from San Francisco died early Wednesday, and the ship on which hed been a passenger is now being held off the coast of California while public health officials determine if anyone on board has been infected. The death of the 71-year-old man is the first coronavirus fatality in California, and the 11th in the United States. After officials announced the death, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in California in response to the death, cruise ship situation and rising number of cases in the state. The Placer County man was probably exposed to the virus on the Grand Princess, a Princess Cruises ship that left its home port in San Francisco for a trip to Mexico on Feb. 11, and returned on Feb. 21. But he and another former passenger from Sonoma County did not get diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, until Monday, 10 days after they left the ship. By the time public health authorities made the connection between the two ill former passengers and the ship, the Grand Princess was at sea again with a new group of about 2,500 passengers. The ship left San Francisco for a 15-day trip to Hawaii about eight hours after it returned from the Mexico trip. Sixty-two of the current passengers had also been on the Mexico cruise. The ship was due back in San Francisco this Saturday but was called back early due to concerns over the coronavirus. At least 21 people currently on the Grand Princess have symptoms of COVID-19 and public health officials are planning to airlift test kits to the ship, which is being held about a days voyage off the coast, Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Newsoms emergency declaration is meant to help the state qualify for resources, including federal aid, to help combat the spread of the virus. In the Bay Area, 33 cases of COVID-19 have been reported, including 10 in Santa Clara County just this week. On Wednesday, the first cluster of COVID-19 was reported in Los Angeles County, with seven new cases. Statewide, 62 cases have been reported. Community spread is no longer just in the northern part of the state. Its now in Southern California, Newsom said. He said the state has entered the next phase of confronting the global coronavirus outbreak, and the emergency declaration is meant to rally more resources. The Grand Princess will remain at sea until public health officials determine whether there is an outbreak on board and where the passengers can safely disembark. The ship may still dock at the Port of San Francisco this week, Newsom said. Well provide as much time as needed to secure the safety of everyone on board, and more broadly the community that could be impacted by thousands of people disembarking, Newsom said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention learned this week of a small cluster of Northern California coronavirus cases that could be traced to the cruise ship. Sonoma County reported on Monday that a resident who had been on the Mexico cruise tested positive. The Placer County man also tested positive on Monday, and died Wednesday morning. There were about 2,500 passengers on the trip to Mexico with the Sonoma and Placer county residents, Newsom said. About half of those people live in California. Everyone who was on that cruise is being contacted by local, state or federal public health authorities. CDC officials said an undisclosed number of passengers from the Mexico cruise have symptoms of COVID-19 and are being tested. CDC officials noted that for passengers on the February trip, the 14-day incubation period will end on Friday. Those passengers are being asked to isolate themselves at home in the meantime and alert their doctors and local public health authorities if they have symptoms of COVID-19. The Placer County health officer said the man who died first developed symptoms Feb. 19 while on the ship, and was still symptomatic when he passed through the Port of San Francisco upon return two days later. Public health officials said that people who came into fleeting contact with the individual were not at risk of infection, but anyone who was in close contact within 6 feet, for extended periods of time could be. Another Princess Cruises ship the Diamond Princess had a large outbreak of coronavirus off the coast of Japan that ultimately infected more than 700 people out of about 4,000 passengers and staff who were on board at the time. Six people died in that outbreak. With the Diamond Princess, passengers were forced to remain on the ship for weeks while authorities determined how to safely off-board them without putting the local community at risk. Several hundred American passengers eventually were evacuated and flown back to the U.S., where they were placed under quarantine. Last month, the CDC began advising Americans to avoid travel on cruise ships in Asia; the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak is Wuhan, China. But investigators havent identified the source of the outbreak on the Grand Princess, said Dr. Christopher Braden, deputy director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases with the CDC. The Grand Princess made four stops in Mexico on the February trip and four stops in Hawaii on the current trip, according to itineraries posted online. Where this person actually was infected, what the exposure is, is not clear. Its certainly not clear that something in Mexico was the source of the illness, Braden said at a Wednesday news conference in Placer County. It may have been somebody else on the boat. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Newsom said about 200 test kits enough to test several hundred people would be airlifted to the ship right away. The tests will likely be processed at the state health lab in Richmond, he said, and results should be available within a few hours. Once the situation has been vetted on the ship, authorities with the CDC, the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Coast Guard will develop a plan for meeting the Grand Princess when it docks, Newsom said. Theyre not nearby, theyre not just right outside the Golden Gate, theyre not just sitting right off the pier, Newsom said. Theyre quite a distance off the coast. The Placer County man who died was a resident of Rocklin and had underlying health problems, officials said. He returned home from his cruise on Feb. 21, and called 911 last Thursday when his symptoms worsened. The man was taken by ambulance to Kaiser Permanente in Roseville and treated in isolation. He was tested for coronavirus on Sunday, two days after the CDC expanded testing criteria beyond people with a travel history to China or known exposure to someone who was infected. The positive result came back Monday. In the five days between returning to San Francisco and going to the hospital, the man had minimal community exposure, Sisson said. People who had contact with the patient include 10 Kaiser health care workers and five emergency responders. The man took a bus from San Francisco back home to Placer County after the Mexico cruise, and several passengers on that bus also are being monitored for potential illness, public health officials said. I no longer believe the risk to the general public from COVID-19 is low, said Dr. Aimee Sisson, Placer County health officer, at a news conference in Auburn. I urge Placer County residents to be vigilant and protect themselves from COVID-19. More than 150 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States as of Wednesday, according to the CDC. The worst U.S. outbreak is in Washington state, involving a long-term care facility near Seattle where 31 people have been infected and 10 have died. This death represents the first death in the state of California from COVID-19. It is a tragic milestone for our community, Sisson said. While we expected more COVID-19 cases and eventually deaths, this death in our community is a sobering reminder that while the vast majority of cases have been mild, older persons and persons with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk of serious disease. Erin Allday, Anna Bauman and Alexei Koseff are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com, anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com, alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday, @abauman2 mail, @akoseff But white women have grown accustomed to being held up as the default and the ideal, to such a degree that a black business owner wanting to serve as a role model and a success story for black girls feels, to some, like an affront. Like somethings being taken from them. When, in reality, something is simply being offered to even more people ... in addition to them. Gina Rinehart's fertiliser foray remains on track after an investor rebellion at British phosphate mining hopeful Sirius Minerals failed to derail a low-ball 405 million ($788 million) takeover bid from Anglo American on Wednesday morning Australian time. Investors who paid up to 25p for their shares during the boom times voted to accept the 5.5p a share cash offer. The risk of funding the multibillion-dollar potash mine deep beneath the North York Moors National Park now lies with Anglo American, which is run by its Australian chief executive Mark Cutifani. Gina Rinehart's potash ambitions with Sirius Minerals remain intact after investors approved a rescue by Anglo American. Credit:Greg McKenzie Sirius chairman and former Fortescue executive Russell Scrimshaw said investors' acceptance of the bid "secures a return for shareholders, and provides greater certainty in terms of safeguarding the project, protecting the jobs of our employees, and allowing the community, region and the UK to continue to benefit from the project. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. WASHINGTON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Below is a statement from Bryan K. Barnett, President of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) and Mayor of Rochester Hills, MI, on the reported bipartisan agreement Congress reached today on a package to combat the coronavirus. Earlier today, USCM sent a letter to both the House and Senate calling on lawmakers to prioritize the needs of cities as this crisis unfolds, including a request for $2 billion to reimburse states and localities for uncompensated care. "The nation's mayors are pleased that Congress understands the urgency of the situation and is acting quickly on an emergency supplemental appropriation package to address the coronavirus outbreak. Cites are going to be central to this response effort, and federal resources directed to the frontline local responders will be critical to safeguarding our citizens. "There is great potential when leaders on the local, state and federal levels can put aside differences and protect the well-being of all Americans. As this situation develops, mayors will continue to stress that Congress must provide direct resources to cities as we help ensure that our residents get the care and protections they need. We stand ready to work in close collaboration with Congress and the Administration to address this developing threat." About The United States Conference of Mayors -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors. SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors Related Links www.usmayors.org Former Vice President Joe Biden won the majority of the Super Tuesday states yesterday, capturing nine of the 14 states outrightAlabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won outright victories only in Colorado, Utah and Vermont. He had a significant lead in the largest state, California, but in Texas, the second largest state, his lead in the early vote disappeared as vote counting continued into the night. Biden also took a narrow lead in Maine, but the state was too close to call. The vote pattern in Texas was typical of many of the Super Tuesday states, in that Biden performed poorly in the early votes, but did much better in the votes actually cast at the polls on Tuesday. This reflects the impact of the campaign by the Democratic Party leadership over the past week to unite behind Biden as the right-wing anti-Sanders candidate. How the 1,350 delegates from the 14 states are to be divided will not be known for several days. California and Texas account for half of these delegates, and mail ballots in California could be delivered as late as Friday. But it seems possible that Biden will take the lead in convention delegates, as opposed to the projections as recently as last week that Sanders would emerge from Super Tuesday with a lead of several hundred. Sanders told a primary night crowd in Burlington, Vermont that he was doing well and expected to win the Democratic presidential nomination and defeat President Trump in November, but he made his appearance earlier than Biden, the traditional position for the election night loser. The outcome was a rebuff to Sanders claims that his campaign can transform the Democratic Party into an instrument for political revolution or significant social reform. Instead, the results demonstrate the opposite: the Democratic Party is a right-wing political formation, one of the twin parties of the American capitalist class, unbreakably tied to Wall Street and American imperialism. Rather than bow to Sanders apparent momentum after caucuses in Iowa and Nevada and the New Hampshire primary, the Democratic Party leadership intervened massively to bolster the faltering campaign of the most right-wing of the main contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. The first step was delivering Biden a victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, where the endorsement of black Congressman James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, played a critical role. This provided the template for Bidens victories Tuesday in the six states across the South, where he rolled up large majorities among African American voters, as high as 72 percent in Alabama. The next step was to induce two of Bidens rivals, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg to drop out. Former President Barack Obama called Buttigieg and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Klobuchar before each made their decision to endorse Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday. Klobuchars withdrawal helped deliver her home state of Minnesota to Biden, and the endorsements by Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Beto ORourke and a slew of other Democratic Party leaders boosted Biden in Massachusetts, Texas and the whole range of Super Tuesday states. This campaign to consolidate the Democratic Party behind Biden also had an effect on the campaigns of the remaining non-Sanders candidates. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, despite spending $500 million, failed to break the 15 percent threshold to obtain delegates in half the states that voted on Super Tuesday, although he did cross the threshold in California and Texas. Senator Elizabeth Warren had a particularly poor showing, finishing third in her home state of Massachusetts and qualifying for delegates in a half dozen smaller states, but apparently falling short in both Texas and California. Both Warren and Bloomberg were said to be discussing with campaign aides whether they should continue in the race. While no overall vote totals are available for all 14 states, given the long delays in California, voter turnout was high, an indication of the growing politicization of the American population and the widespread popular opposition to the right-wing policies of the Trump administration. Voter turnout in North Carolina, for example, rose significantly compared to 2016, when Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton, from under 1.1 million to more than 1.3 million. In Virginia, 1.2 million voted compared to only 781,000 in 2016. There were anecdotal accounts of long lines at polling places, both in areas where there was massive support for Sanders and in inner-city neighborhoods, where Biden won the bulk of the vote. But within the framework of the Democratic Party, the opposition to Trump is being diverted in a right-wing, pro-imperialist direction. The Democratic leadership wants to run the 2020 campaign as an extension of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment drive, portraying Trump as a Russian stooge and appealing for the support of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus for Trumps removal. Identity politics is playing the most pernicious role in this process, as Clyburn and other leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, representing a layer of upper-middle class and bourgeois blacks and directing their appeals to millions of poor working class blacks through the medium of the black churches, mobilized opposition to Sanders on the basis of racial solidarity (emphasizing Bidens association with Barack Obama) and hostility to socialism. This is an indictment of pseudoleft organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, the most fervent supporters of both Sanders and identity politics. They have been hoisted on their own petard. They glorify racial politics and uphold the authority of the black Democratic Party politicians, only to see them torpedo Sanders and throw their support behind former Vice President Biden. The New York Times wrote Tuesday in its analysis of the campaign, Top Democrats now believe that there are only two realistic paths forward in the presidential race: a dominant victory on Tuesday by Mr. Sanders that gives him a wide lead in the delegate count, or a battle for delegates over months of primary elections, that might allow Mr. Biden to pull ahead or force the nomination to be decided at the Milwaukee convention in July. It now appears that Biden will go into the next two weeks of primaries, in large states like Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Illinois, with a lead in delegates and the full support of the Democratic Party apparatus in those states, as well as a flood of campaign cash from big money Democratic donors who have been holding back, waiting for the emergence of a single right-wing candidate. The author also recommends: On the eve of Super Tuesday primaries: Democratic Party goes to war against Sanders [3 March 2020] Race vs. class in the South Carolina primary [2 March 2020] Joe Biden: A familiar face, a deeply reactionary record [23 September 2019] If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here "Schitt's Creek" star Emily Hampshire is set to star in Epix's series adaptation of horror master Stephen King's short story "Jerusalem's Lot". The actor, best known for playing Stevie Budd, the motel clerk in the Emmy-winning CBC series, joins already announced cast member Adrien Brody in the show. According to Variety, "Jerusalem's Lot" is a drama based on King's story set in the 1850s. It received a series order late last year. The series will follow Captain Charles Boone (Brody), who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher's Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea. However, Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family's sordid history, and fight to end the darkness that has plagued the Boones for generations. Hampshire will play the role of Rebecca Morgan, an ambitious woman who has returned to the town, her home, with an advance to write a story for a magazine. Her writer's block lifts when Boone arrives in town with his children, and despite her mother's protests, Rebecca applies to be governess of the infamous Chapelwaite manor and the Boone family in order to write about them. But Rebecca will not only craft the next great gothic novel, she will also unravel a mystery that has plagued her own family for years. "Jerusalem's Lot" will be executive produced by Donald De Line, alongside Jason Filardi and Peter Filardi, who are also serving as showrunners. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Major airlines are relaxing policies around flight change and cancellation fees and joining Chicagos airports in stepping up their cleaning efforts as coronavirus continues to spread. The global travel industry has taken a hit from the novel respiratory virus known as COVID-19, which has killed nine people in the U.S. and more than 3,000 globally. Companies are restricting travel and pulling out of conferences to protect employees, and airlines are canceling flights to a growing number of affected areas. Heres what to know if youre thinking about planning a trip: Some airlines are waiving fees for changing flights. United Airlines is waiving flight change fees for any domestic or international flight purchased between March 3 and 31. Passengers who decide to cancel a flight have one year from when they purchased the original ticket to apply its value to a new flight with no fee. No advance notice is required. American Airlines waived change fees on any tickets purchased between March 1 and 16. Passengers must cancel at least 14 days before their flight to avoid the fees. Delta Air Lines is letting travelers make a one-time change to any international flight booked between March 1 and 31 with no fee. Customers flying to Shanghai or Beijing in China; Seoul, South Korea; and all locations in Italy can make a change at no fee through April 30. JetBlue was the first to announce broad suspensions of fees for changing or canceling flights. The policy covers flights before June 1, booked between Feb. 27 and March 11. While authorities have not issued any travel restrictions to the locations we fly, we want to give our customers some peace of mind that we are ready to support them should the situation change, Joanna Geraghty, JetBlues president and chief operating officer, said last month. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends people avoid nonessential travel to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy, and advises older adults or people with chronic medical conditions to consider postponing travel to Japan. Insurance options are limited for recovering costs. If someone cancels a trip because theyre worried about being exposed to an illness, standard trip cancellation policies will rarely cover those losses. Travelers can upgrade to policies that let them cancel a trip for any reason, but premiums can be 40% greater than those on standard packages, and they often only cover about 75% of the persons losses. Cancel for any reason policies must be purchased at the time of booking or shortly thereafter. Chicagos airports are stepping up cleaning efforts. The Chicago Department of Aviation installed 109 new hand sanitizer stations in the citys airports, focusing on busy areas like food courts. Airport workers are also cleaning surfaces in high-traffic areas more frequently. The extra cleaning initially focused on OHare International Airports Terminal 5, which handles international flights. As of this week, its expanded to all of OHare and Midway Airport, McGrath said. Some airplanes are also getting a deep-clean. Airlines say their cleaning routines follow guidelines from health officials. Planes get cleaned to varying degrees between flights, but Southwest Airlines, United and Delta all said their aircraft get an end-of-day cleaning that includes wiping hard surfaces with disinfectant. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk of contracting an infection is low on an airplane but advises travelers to take precautions like avoiding contact with passengers who appear to be sick, washing hands frequently and using hand sanitizer. Some are adding extra measures, especially on flights from areas affected by the outbreak. Delta began using machines that spray aircraft arriving in the U.S. from Asia with disinfectant in February. The new procedure makes sure the disinfectant reaches more surfaces than hand-wiping the aircraft, said Delta spokeswoman Adrian Gee. Flights from Italy to New York and Atlanta also get the fogging treatment, and Delta said it is working to get additional machines to use on planes arriving from more cities outside Asia with reported cases of the coronavirus. Cutlery, glassware and dishes are being sanitized before theyre washed on Delta flights from Asia to the U.S., and linen and headphones are being cleaned separately from those on flights from other destinations. Delta also said it is stocking more hand sanitizer, gloves and surgical masks on flights in and out of Asia and giving all customers on long international flights amenity kits with hand sanitizer or cleansing towelettes. American is stocking extra hand sanitizer wipes at departure gates and in flight attendants service kits on flights to and from Asia. It is also allowing flight attendants to wear masks on certain flights if that makes them more comfortable, executives said in a Feb. 28 letter to employees. United said it is deep cleaning any aircraft that carried a passenger later diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus. A deep clean, which normally happens every 50 to 55 days, includes washing ceilings and overhead bins and scrubbing the planes interiors, said spokesman Charles Hobart. Global air transport industry is reeling under a massive impact led by the global outbreak of Coronavirus. As per the International Air Transport Association, the impact could amount to as much as USD 29 billion in revenue. If so, this would be the first time in over a decade that the global airlines would record a loss in revenue. IATA, a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945, cites two main reasons for this loss. It notes that the global Coronavirus scare has led to an overall decline in air travel demands. In addition, the shutdown of industries due to the scare has resulted in a long pause in corporate air travel. IATA further warns that this loss can far exceed this prediction if the virus spreads to more parts of the world. Majority of this impact would be experienced in the Asia-Pacific region, with IATA predicting a USD 12.8 billion loss in revenue for the Chinese airlines alone. A similar impact was seen during the outbreak of the SARS virus back in 2003. The Visible Impact Airlines have already cancelled more than 2 lakh flights in the wake of the Coronavirus scare. This was reflected in the NYSE Arca Airline Index, which tracks 16 carriers in North America and Latin America as well as European budget carrier Ryanair. The Index was down by 20% in the last week of February and was headed to a record percentage drop since 2008, as per a CNBC report. (Representative Image: Reuters) Singular impacts highlighted a 7.7% drop in shares of American Airlines, 2.4% drop for United Airlines and a 2.8% decline in Delta shares. The decline is likely to continue as further advisories are being issued to prevent non-essential travels by nations across the globe. Moreover, some countries are even banning the entry of foreigners to their land citing the scare. Saudi Arabia, for instance, recently announced a temporary suspension on the entry of foreigners for pilgrimage and tourism purposes. How The Airlines Are Reacting Being aware of the possible worsening of the situation, airlines have made huge cuts in their travel routes and capacities. A report by CNBC records that all the three major U.S. airlines have suspended flights to mainland China and Hong Kong. As for the flights still under operation, airlines are adhering to the guidelines by WHO in more than one ways. American Airlines, for instance, has started stocking hand sanitizer for crew, sanitizing wipes for the fliers and even face masks on some flights. (Representative Image: Reuters) Though not a single flight has been affected by a lack of crew, there are reports of even the pilots being fearful of flying to specific locations. No Time To Stop! Keeping the scare of the virus spread in mind, airlines are turning to their domestic markets for the upkeep of air travel demand. US Airlines, for instance, have always had domestic travel as a strong revenue stream. Amidst the fear of air travel due to Coronavirus, these airlines are now looking to double down on this domestic travel by waiving off cancellation and change fees. Similar deductions are also being made for travels to the countries affected with the Coronavirus, as demands for travels to these destinations diminish. These countries include China, South Korea and some European nations. Airlines globally are expected to come up with such discounts for the fliers till the Coronavirus scare haunts the world. A persistent air travel through these discounts combined with the falling prices of fuel is the biggest hope for airlines at the moment to cruise through these tough times. (Representative Image: Reuters) As IATAs CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, explains in a release, These are challenging times for the global air transport industry. Stopping the spread of the virus is the top priority. Airlines are following the guidance of the World Health Organization and other public health authorities to keep passengers safe, the world connected, and the virus contained. So for those looking to travel this spring and the following summer, the low air-fares might just prove to be their best chance to visit their dream destinations across the world, provided the Coronavirus scare is taken into consideration throughout the trip . With a 4:02 a.m. Wednesday timestamp, Harris County elections officials posted results from all 401 voting centers where ballots were cast in Super Tuesday's primary elections. The results are unofficial. Winding lines and a lack of voting machines at some sites meant a long night for Democratic voters and elections workers. While the polls officially closed at 7 p.m., some of those voters already in line at that time would end up waiting for hours to cast their ballots. Dozens were still standing in line after midnight. Some people gave up and left. Voters at one Texas Southern University cast ballots as late as 1:20 a.m. Earlier, Bryan Escobedo was among those who waited hours in line. This is the worst voting experience Ive ever had, he said. If its hard, that means you have to do it. They bank on people walking away. ALBANY Human remains in New York could literally be used for pushing up daisies under proposed legislation that would let corpses be used for composting. The measure, introduced in both the Assembly and the Senate, is already drawing the outrage of New Yorks Roman Catholic bishops, however. Their lobby organization, the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement Friday it strongly opposes the composting of human remains. The group said it is essential the body of a deceased person be treated with reverence and respect. A prime sponsor of the measure, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, said she was surprised by the bishops reaction. She noted she hopes to meet with the bishops soon to explain the proposal. We will see if they still have opposition once they have a clearer understanding of what this is, Paulin told CNHI. New York would become the nations second state to allow the composting of human remains should the measure be approved. In the state of Washington, the nations first human composting facility, dubbed Recompose, is slated to open in May. The company behind the operation describes the process as natural organic reduction, with bodies turned to soil in about 30 days after being covered with wood chips and aerated while inside a hexagonal recomposition vessel. Paulin said she believes many New Yorkers who favor environmental sustainability will want to consider composting as an alternative to traditional burials or cremations. This is cleaner and greener, and I think its in line with many religious practices, the veteran lawmaker said. The Catholic leaders disagreed that the public will accept the proposal. We understand that not everyone shares the Catholic Churchs teachings with regard to the reverence and respect for human remains, the Catholic Conference said. But we do not think the public, or at least the portion of the public that visits their deceased loved ones in cemeteries, are prepared for this proposed composting/fertilizing method. Advocates for human composting in Washington suggest the composting method is less energy intensive than cremation and avoids the potential impacts from burying embalmed corpses in wooden boxes. Recompose estimates the cost of composting a corpse will run about $5,500. The New York proposal would require that composting facilities be subject to inspections from the state Division of Cemeteries. Records would have to be maintained for each corpse transformed into compost, according to the measure. Love 5 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 12 LAVAL, QC and GOSSELIES, Belgium, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Nexelis, a portfolio company of Ampersand Capital Partners, and a leading provider of assay development and advanced laboratory testing is pleased to announce the signing of a definitive agreement, subject to conditions precedent, to acquire ImmunXperts. The closing of the transaction is expected by the end of March. Based in the Brussels South Charleroi Biopark within the town of Gosselies, ImmunXperts has developed and performs a full offering of immunogenicity and immuno-oncology in vitro functional and potency assays. These assays help pharmaceutical and biotech sponsors screen, select and optimize lead compounds before the initiation of in vivo trials. The company, whose CEO is Thibault Jonckheere, was co-created in 2014 by immunology expert Sofie Pattijn, who serves as ImmunXperts CTO, and investors including Sambrinvest. Both Dr Pattijn and Mr. Jonckheere will continue in senior leadership roles at Nexelis. "ImmunXperts' immunology testing expertise will help Nexelis more broadly serve the needs of our customers" said Benoit Bouche, Nexelis President and Chief Executive Officer. "Nexelis will now have an unrivaled ability to efficiently develop immunogenicity assays, qualify and validate them in a regulated environment, and then ultimately perform them utilizing our high-throughput platforms in support of clinical trials." Sofie Pattijn and Thibault Jonckheere added "We are proud of ImmunXperts' achievements over the past five years and are grateful for the support obtained from our investors and partners, our employees, and the Wallonia region. We are excited to continue our growth trajectory as part of Nexelis and serve as a European hub for the company." About Nexelis With unrivaled expertise in immunology on both sides of the client/CRO relationship, Nexelis is a leading provider of assay development and advanced laboratory testing. Our versatile team of scientists, working with our advanced technology platforms, were instrumental in the development, qualification, validation, and large-scale sample testing of assays that supported the FDA filing of almost 100 new molecular entities, including blockbuster vaccines and soluble large molecules. For more information, please visit www.nexelis.com About ImmunXperts ImmunXperts offers a wide range of in vitro immunology services with a strong focus on immunogenicity and immuno-oncology. The company helps biopharma companies select their best lead candidates by assessing all aspects of immune responses in donors and patients. Acting as a mobile development team, ImmunXperts complements its clients' expertise to deliver meaningful and potent screening tools. For more information, please visit www.immunxperts.com About Ampersand Capital Partners Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle-market private equity firm dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston and Amsterdam, Ampersand leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of our core healthcare sectors, including Brammer Bio, Confluent Medical, Genewiz, Genoptix, Talecris Biotherapeutics, and Viracor-IBT Laboratories. For more information, please visit www.ampersandcapital.com About Sambrinvest Sambrinvest is a risk capital actor in the region of Charleroi in Belgium, with the objective to support the development of SMEs. Thanks to its expertise, it advises entrepreneurs at every development stage of their projects whilst respecting their management autonomy. Sambrinvest has been active for more than 30 years, with a specific focus on Biotechnology and Digital. For more information, please visit www.sambrinvest.be SOURCE Nexelis Related Links http://www.nexelis.com DECATUR Deonta M. Merriweather was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday after apologizing in court to the family of the Decatur man he said he had to shoot to death to protect his own life. Merriweather, 23, had used a legally owned weapon in the Oct. 25 killing of Ernest L. Wren Jr., whom both Merriweather and witnesses said was armed with his own handgun as the two men fought in the 900 block of North Van Dyke Street. Wren, shot multiple times, died at the scene. Merriweather, who did not have a concealed carry permit, pleaded guilty to a single charge of the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Rising to speak, he said he was not the heartless killer described in recent media interviews in which Wrens family had asked why he wasnt being tried for murder. First of all, I would like to send my condolences to the family of the victim, he said. That was never my intention, he said of the killing. It was just an unfortunate situation where I was protecting my life, that is what it came down to. Ive seen the picture on the news and media ... thats not what I am, I am far from that. A sworn affidavit about the shooting from Decatur Police said Merriweather became caught up in an argument involving several men outside a car wash. Merriweather and Wren had begun fighting; both witnesses and Merriweather said Wren had asked another man, Christopher M. Hutton, to pass him a gun. Detective Jason Kuchelmeister said Wren was described as having racked the slide to chamber a round as if he was about to fire the weapon. (A witness) advised Mr. Merriweather then produced and discharged his firearm, striking/ killing (Wren), Kuchelmeister added. Hutton fled the scene but not before he had been shot in the left thigh and right foot, Kuchelmeister said. Hutton, 27, has pleaded not guilty to the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and his case has a status hearing set for March 16. Defending Merriweather, attorney Caleb Brown told Judge Jeffrey Geisler that his client had immediately confessed what happened to arriving police officers. Calling for a sentence of probation and 180 days in the Macon County Jail with credit for time already served in custody, Brown pointed to Merriweathers lack of a criminal record and the fact his gun was owned legally. Mr. Merriweather is not charged with acting aggressively or battering anyone by the use of a firearm or anything like that, Brown added. But Assistant Macon County States Attorney Timothy Tighe called for a maximum three-year sentence to act as a deterrent to others. We would ask the court to send a message that people who have no legal business carrying guns should not do that, that it is not OK, and settling disputes with shooting is not OK. Judge Geisler said he noted the circumstances of the case and Merriweathers clean record, but said gun violence could not be tolerated. There is a problem with guns in Macon County, that is more than clear, I see it on a regular basis in my courtroom, he added. But no matter what I sentence Mr. Merriweather to, it will not be enough for the family who has lost somebody, and I am very well aware of that, he said. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Indian Railways has issued directives to all its chief medical officers on prevention and care for coronavirus and said that every divisional, sub-divisional hospital of the zones should have isolation wards in their premises. It also instructed hospitals to treat fever-related cases with care separately from other patients. India has 28 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far. "Persons having fever should be separated from other patients, preferably there should be a separate counter/ward with specific signage for fever cases and medical staffs deployed at such areas should have proper protective gears. "Every divisional/sub-divisional/hospital of the zone should have isolation ward fever-related cases for treating suspected coronavirus cases with availability of necessary protective gears," it said. The central government as well as various state governments are conducting training programmes on prevention of coronavirus and railway doctors and paramedical staff should invariably be nominated for such courses, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Almost 3 in 10 Democratic primary voters in Super Tuesday states decided who to vote for in the last few days, according to early results from NBC News exit polls in 12 states. Ten percent of Democratic voters said they made their decisions on Tuesday, with another 19 percent deciding over the past few days. Twenty-seven percent said they made their decisions in the last month, while 42 percent made their minds up before then, according to the early data. And early exit poll results show that those late-deciding voters broke decisively for former Vice President Joe Biden: 47 percent of those who decided in the last few days chose Biden, compared to 18 percent who chose Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-t., 12 percent who chose Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and 15 percent who chose former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Sanders led among those who decided earlier than that. Thirty-seven percent backed him, compared to 26 percent for Biden, 13 percent for Warren and 12 percent for Bloomberg. Those results come on the heels of a flurry of activity in the nominating contest over the past several days. Follow live: Latest results, analysis from Super Tuesday Biden's commanding victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary prompted a flood of endorsements to come his way, two of them from former Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Biden's campaign was hoping that late movement would be enough to blunt the rise of Sanders, who came into Tuesday as the delegate leader and hoped to expand on that lead with strong showings in California and Texas. And Super Tuesday came with questions as to whether the big-spending Bloomberg would cut into Biden's vote share as they competed for moderate voters, considering the contests marked Bloomberg's first appearance on primary ballots. The former New York City mayor peeled off about 19 percent of moderate voters, exit polls show. But Biden still held a significant lead among moderate and conservative voters, winning 41 percent of them compared to Sanders' 20 percent and Bloomberg's 18 percent in Super Tuesday states. Story continues Results reported here reflect data combined from NBC News Exit Poll surveys in 12 of the 14 states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday (Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia). Results are weighted to reflect differences in the sizes of state electorates. The numbers will update as more exit poll data comes in. The early round of exit polls show that nonwhite voters make up almost 40 percent of the electorate across the 12 states white voters so far appear to be 61 percent of the electorate, while Hispanics make up 18 percent, black voters 14 percent and Asian voters 4 percent. Biden's success in the early evening the NBC News Decision Desk projected that Biden will win Virginia and North Carolina came thanks in part to black voters. Biden won 62 percent of black voters in North Carolina, compared to Sanders' 17 percent. In Virginia, the margin was 69 percent to 17 percent for Biden and Sanders respectively. Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts on the latest news But there are early signs that Biden's overwhelming edge with black voters isn't translating to states outside the South. While Biden has a 48-point edge over Sanders with black voters in Southern states (Alabama, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia), he has just an 11-point edge in other states voting on Super Tuesday. Almost two-thirds of the Super Tuesday electorate, 63 percent, are 45 and older. Thirty-seven percent are ages 18 to 44. While Sanders had a 15-point edge over Biden with first-time voters, those voters made up just 14 percent of the Super Tuesday electorate. With 6 in 10 voters prioritizing a candidate who can beat President Trump over one who agrees with them on the issues, Biden led with those voters by 12 points. Conversely, Sanders had an 18-point lead with those who want a candidate who agrees with them on issues. Liberal voters made up 61 percent of the electorate, with 25 percent of the total electorate identifying as very liberal and 36 percent identifying as somewhat liberal. Thirty-nine percent of the Super Tuesday electorate in the 12 states identify as moderate or conservative. As Democratic voters decide whether to anoint Sanders, a democratic socialist, as their standard-bearer, Democratic voters in California, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all view socialism more favorably than unfavorably. Health care remains the top issue for Democrats voting in the 12 states. Forty percent of Democratic Super Tuesday voters said health care was the most important issue to their vote, with climate change and income inequality at 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively, and race relations the top issue for 10 percent of the electorate. The Pharmacy Guild has warned Australians panic buying of medicines will only make existing supply issues for common drugs worse, as survivalists shift from bulk-buying toilet paper to buying up months worth of blood pressure tablets. The guild's Victorian president Anthony Tassone said pharmacists had seen "an increase in demand for all medications" in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, warning that stockpiling medicines was unnecessary and would only harm fellow patients. "We've received quite a few anecdotal reports from our members of patients seeking to get additional supplies of prescription and over-the-counter medicines," he said. Stop panic buying medicines, pharmacists have warned. Credit:Louie Douvis A Sydney woman who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had attempted to fill a blood pressure prescription at a pharmacy in Glebe on Monday only to be told that there was no stock available and that patients were buying six months worth of medicine at once. SAGINAW, MI As the new coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, Catholic dioceses across the United States and the globe, including the dioceses of Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Gaylord and the Archdiocese of Detroit, are taking steps to safeguard against it. The Most Rev. Robert D. Gruss, bishop of Saginaw, issued a letter to Saginaw-area Catholics addressing the global outbreak. In it, Gruss urges anyone with flu-like symptoms to stay home from Mass and instead watch via livestream at 10 a.m. on Sundays at saginaw.org/cathedral-live. In addition to avoiding Mass if one is ill, Gruss offered some temporary measures to protect peoples health, including bowing ones head and responding peace be with you during the sign of peace, refraining from hugging and shaking or holding hands during Mass and respecting others decision to not touch others, and choosing not to receive Holy Communion from the common cup. Gruss also urged extraordinary ministers of holy communion to wash their hands before and after Mass. Gruss said he will consult with pastors, directors of parish life, and priest celebrants to determine whether additional measures, such as suspending communion from the cup or removing holy water from baptismal and open fonts, should be taken. Gruss also shared a link to the Saginaw County Department of Public Healths website, which has a page dedicated to coronavirus. The world has seen more than 94,000 confirmed cases and 3,214 related deaths so far, according to the page. Read Gruss full letter to Saginaw-area Catholics here. In addition, the Detroit Free Press reports, the Archdiocese of Detroit is urging its 218 parishes and Catholic schools to consider taking certain precautions amidst this outbreak, including telling Catholics in southeastern Michigan to stay home from Mass if theyre sick, and that missing Mass isnt a sin. The Saginaw diocese covers 11 counties in Eastern mid-Michigan within the Roman Catholic Province of Detroit: Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac, and Tuscola. The diocese encompasses 6,955-square-miles of land and is home to 100,000 Catholics, according to the Saginaw dioceses website. The Archdiocese of Detroit encompasses Lapeer, St. Clair, Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Monroe counties. In southeast Michigan, there are about 1.3 million Catholics, 218 parishes, 86 Catholic schools, and five Catholic colleges and seminaries, according to the archdioceses website. Vicki Cessna, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo, said the diocese issued a communication on Monday, March 2, urging pastors, with their churches, to implement measures similar to what we do when theres a widespread flu. Those measures include practicing good hygiene and staying home from mass if ill. Its really just some logical preventative measures as we monitor whether or not we need to do anything greater, Cessna said. Mackenzie Ritchie, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Gaylord, said Bishop Steven J. Raica planned to issue a related communication to priests Wednesday, March 4. It will also be posted on the dioceses website. Annalise Laumeyer, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, said at this time, we are asking our parishes and our parishioners to follow our normal cold and flu season guidelines and that would includeadvising them to stay home if theyre sick. The dioceses cold and flu seasons guidelines also suggest frequent and proper hand washing and sneezing and coughing into ones sleeve or a tissue. Holding hands is not required during the Lords Prayer, nor is shaking hands during the sign of peace, according to the guidelines. Also, those who are ill are encouraged to receive Holy Communion in hand, rather than on the tongue, and to refrain from receiving Communion from the cup. John Fee, spokesman for the Diocese of Marquette, said the diocese has not issued any guidance during this years flu season. Many of the precautions that would be taken are already available at the discretion of pastors, he said. David Kerr, spokesman for the Diocese of Lansing, said diocese officials on Friday, Feb. 28, issued guidance from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to all parishes. That guidance included encouraging good hygiene and encouraging people who are ill to stay home from Mass. It also included precautionary measures that may be applied, such as suspending the sign of peace, or instructing that it be exchanged without physical contact, and suspending the distribution of holy communion via the common cup. And, in the event that the threat becomes dire, as it has in some places internationally, the diocesan bishop may also grant a general dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass and suspend public celebrations of the liturgy, including Mass. Gruss letter, dated Tuesday, March 3, also references a related statement issued Feb. 18 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It states, in part, Some dioceses across the United States and in other countries are issuing policies to safeguard against the coronavirus. We will need to remain vigilant in this matter. It is also important that all people remain aware of the guidance of national, state and county health officials in order to avoid highly contagious diseases. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Confirmed COVID-19 cases have ranged from mild illness to death. Symptoms, which may appear two to 14 days after exposure, include fever, cough and shortness of breath. The World Health Organization has not declared a pandemic, but WHO leaders say COVID-19 has the potential to become a pandemic and they are preparing for that possibility. In an attempt to debunk misinformation about the coronavirus disease, the World Health Organization maintains this COVID-19 myth busters page. Beyond Michigan in he Midwest, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and Catholic Diocese of Youngstown in Ohio have issued similar guidelines, as have others nationwide. Related news: 6 ways Michigan residents are already impacted by coronavirus Coronavirus Q&A, 15 things to know about COVID-19s spread No confirmed coronavirus cases in Michigan, but state prepares for likely spread Pfizer testing potential coronavirus treatments When president Donald Trump met with drug-company executives at the White House on Monday, one of the items on the agenda was the development of a vaccine to prevent infection with the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (the World Health Organizations designation for the virus). Weve asked them to accelerate work, the president told reporters. As the coronavirus outbreak accelerates, with cases now found on every continent except Antarctica, there is intense interest in the development of a vaccine, and several U.S. drugmakers have begun working on them, independently or with the National Institutes of Health. The media are hungry for claims about vaccines the more extravagant, the better. This was reported by Fox Business: We were able to rapidly construct our vaccine in a matter of about three hours once we had the DNA sequence from the virus available because of the power of our DNA medicine platform, Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovios [a Pennsylvania-based company] president and CEO, told FOX Business. Our goal is to start phase one human testing in the U.S. early this summer. Even more bullish was this statement, in a January 30 Wall Street Journal editorial: It took scientists 20 months to develop a SARS vaccine to test on humans, but the NIH hopes to have a vaccine ready for human trials by April. Once researchers have a candidate vaccine, the regulators at the Food and Drug Administration get into the act. And thats a significant obstacle an obstacle of which at least two of the Trump administrations senior officials should be well aware. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar was a senior executive at drug company Eli Lilly, and Joseph Grogan, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, was a senior official at two drug companies and also at the FDA. And yet, for whatever reason, the president seems not to have gotten the message. According to CNN, on Monday, President Trump was asked about a timeline for a vaccine during the Cabinet Room meeting with pharmaceutical executives and members of his task force. He responded: Story continues I dont know what the time will be. Ive heard very quick numbers, that of months. And Ive heard pretty much a year would be an outside number. So I think thats not a bad range. But if youre talking about three to four months in a couple of cases, a year in other cases. Dr. Antony Fauci, the long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, quickly corrected the president: Let me make sure you get the . . . information. A vaccine that you make and start testing in a year is not a vaccine thats deployable. Dr. Fauci knows well the vicissitudes of vaccine development, testing, and approval, including the FDAs significant role in a debacle surrounding a vaccine against swine flu virus almost a half century ago. Of the 45 million people vaccinated against the swine flu in 1976, 450 developed a serious adverse reaction the rare, paralytic Guillain-Barre syndrome. What made the situation even more unfortunate (for regulators) is that the predicted epidemic never materialized, so the vaccine wasnt needed. Once burned, twice shy, the old saying goes. Regulators have a long memory, so the FDAs regulation of vaccines is especially conservative (read: defensive). The bar has been very high for approval of vaccines that would be administered to large numbers of healthy people. For example, before approval, the first rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) was tested on 72,000 healthy infants; the first human papilloma virus vaccine (Gardasil) on more than 24,000 people; and the newest shingles vaccine (Shingrix) on about 29,000 subjects. The agency was woefully slow, lagging behind other countries, in approving the first vaccine against meningococcus B, a life-threatening bacterial infection. Just planning and getting clinical trials of that magnitude under way would be a major undertaking recruiting medical practitioners and research institutions and obtaining permission from local Institutional Review Boards, to say nothing of actually producing sufficient vaccine (under stringent Good Manufacturing Practices conditions) for the trials. Then comes the accumulation, organization, and analysis of the data, first by the sponsors of the vaccine, then by regulators. Moreover, to demonstrate efficacy the ability of the vaccine to actually prevent the coronavirus infection the trials would need to be done in places where the disease occurs in relatively large numbers. As things stand, that probably means China, where the apparatus for organizing and performing clinical trials is, shall we say, less than optimal. And by the way, the SARS vaccine mentioned above was never commercialized. The outbreak faded away, as a result of international cooperation and strict, tried-and-true public health measures such as isolation, quarantine, and contact tracing. A coronavirus vaccine in the foreseeable future? In spite of the rosy predictions by politicians and pundits, dont count on it. More from National Review Pradeep Rao (name changed) knows he is lucky. The second-year MBBS student at Hebei University in China was among the Indian students who returned home in January after the impact of the deadly coronavirus outbreak became public. But now a month later, Rao is again worried. He doesn't know when he can go back to the university and complete his degree. With every passing day, he fears about a delay. While he is back home in Vijaywada, there is no clarity on when he would be able to resume classes at the university. "There was a holiday for the Chinese New Year which has now been extended. I did receive a message from the university that 'we will meet soon'. However, when is the question, says Rao over the phone from his hometown Vijaywada. Track this blog for live updates on coronavirus While several Indian students from China are in India since they were on a new year break, a few were left back since they were either finishing a course or had internships. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Since then the outbreak seems to have slowed down in China, and is now spreading fast in countries such as Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan, for students there is little respite. Considering that March/April is when one semester ends and students break for the summers, suspension of classes across affected regions is a matter of concern. What happens to students in China? As far as China is concerned, several Indian students are part of the quarantine facility in China. Those students who have returned to India are unclear about when the academic session will start. But the situation is not as grim as it looks. Universities are fast catching on to the online education system to ensure that classes are continued, at least partially. Rao told Moneycontrol that his university started offering online classes for certain modules from March 2 onwards. Medical courses are the most popular in China. Almost 85 percent of the Indian students studying in China are enrolled into MBBS and allied programmes. The most popular institutes in China among Indians are Hebei University, Shihezi University, Shanghai University and Qingdao University. Classes have been suspended across universities in China till further notice from the government. A direct impact would be that the academic calendar would get stretched. This is because for courses like MBBS, large portion of the course programme involves practical training. This cannot be replaced by distance education. Overseas education firms are of the view that semester-end breaks would also be cancelled or cut short to make up for lost time. Moneycontrol sent an email to all the institutes mentioned above seeking clarity on the academic situation, but did not receive any response. Adarsh Khandelwal, co-founder of Study Abroad consulting firm said that China has responded admirably to the coronavirus outbreak and attempted to contain the casualties and infections in every possible manner. The overseas students studying at universities have been sent home. Thereby, students presently studying there have been affected with a likely extension in the duration of completion of their study programs. Universities are exploring options to strengthen qualitative online teaching in an attempt to fulfill their commitment to the students, he added. Sarvanan Krishnan, another Indian student from Tamil Nadu studying microbiology in Hong Kong said that there is no communication from either the government or the institutes on who are the persons affected and for how long classes will be suspended. "We interact with everyone from the librarian to the canteen supervisor to the head professor. Shouldn't there be clarity on if there any suspected carriers of the virus. Also, why not give a tentative deadline to help us understand when classes will resume," he added. His college friend Avantika Bansal was lucky. She was part of an exchange-programme of a Singapore-based institute, in China and Italy. However, this was immediately cancelled when COVID-19 started to spread and Bansal was able to leave on time. This module that was missed due to cancellation of the exchange programme could be taken in some other country. How will this impact China as an education destination? Khandelwal said that China is a highly preferred and acclaimed education hub for international students. There will be an impact on the foreign student inflow into China ahead of the peak season of March/April when students typically choose their study destination abroad. The coronavirus outbreak is likely to have a deterrent effect, especially since the choice of destination for studying overseas is strongly impacted by concerns regarding safety of the students, explained Khandelwal/ Among those who have applied, there seems to be some uncertainty. A Mumbai-based education consultant said that there are parents who want to withdraw applications sent to Chinese universities. We have asked individuals to wait till April before taking a decision to withdraw applications made for studying in China, he added. What about other countries? Among the affected regions of COVID-19, Italy is another popular education destination for students. An estimated 4,500 Indians are studying across various programmes in Italy with programmes like design, architecture and fine arts among the most common fields of study. A report stated that 85 Indian students are stranded in Italy and have sent an SOS to New Delhi. Srividya Shankar who is pursuing an architecture course from a leading institute in Pavia, Italy received news that classes have been suspended due to a possible infection in the region. However, she is now in a fix as Shankar is not sure whether to return to her hometown Chennai or stay back. We dont know how long the suspension of lectures would continue. Flights to India from here (one-way) are upwards of Rs 28,000. I am not too sure what to do, she said. Other institutes like Sapienza University of Rome has suspended classes for one particular course. This was after a students father tested positive. In an emailed response to Moneycontrol, the university said that it is implementing the protective measures issued by the Italian Health Authorities against the COVID-19. To date, it said that the competent authorities have not suspended services and educational activities. However from March 2, 2020, until further notice from competent authorities, Regione Lazio Health Department has suspended, as a precautionary measure, all the lectures/lessons of the Informatics Bachelors Programme (year one). One of the students enrolled in the course belongs to the family who is currently under observation at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome. The educational activities will continue at a later time following specific procedures that will be communicated to the students. The courses lecture room has been already sanitized, said the university in a response. Exchange programmes are either being deferred or cancelled. The National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) have suspended student exchanges to universities in Italy, due to the rise in COVID-19 cases there. Since the COVID-19 outbreak comes right ahead of the new academic year, a drastic change is expected in the way study destinations are chosen. COVID-19 nations are expected to fall out of the top 10 list of preferred countries. Among other countries, Japan, Iran and South Korea are popular destinations for student exchange programmes of South-East and European institutes. Due to the outbreak of the disease, these programmes have been deferred since this is considered 'non-essential travel'. Holi is more than just the most colourful festival out there. It officially marks the beginning of the Hindu festive calendar and is often seen as the second festival after Diwali which brings people from all sections of the country together, regardless of their caste, creed or religion. Reuters But earlier today the whos who of the Indian political scene decided to move away from Holi celebrations this year amid the Coronavirus outbreak in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah made the announcement hours ago via their official Twitter handles. BCCL Keeping his point forward, PM Modi said, Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 Amit Shah too announced that he wont be attending the annual Holi Milan celebration this year. Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal to everyone to avoid public gatherings and take good care of yourself & your family tweeted the Home Minister. BCCL Earlier today, talking about the cancellation of the Holi Milan programme, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Holi Milan program that was being organised at Miller School in Patna on 7th March, has been called off. In the wake of recent developments Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also decided to not celebrate Holi for the same reason, though he added that it is also because he is pained by the riot victims misfortune. I am also not celebrating Holi this year, because of this (Coronavirus) and the recent violence which took place in Delhi, in which many people lost their lives. People are in pain that is why neither I nor any minister or MLA will celebrate Holi, Kejriwal was quoted as saying by ANI. Twitter/IANS So far, Delhi has reported 28 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, while thousands across the country are still under observation over suspected infection. As per the latest Health ministry updates, close to 25 people with suspected coronavirus infection have been admitted at the Safdarjung Hospital, and four individuals have been kept in isolation at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi. Given the growing call to avoid Holi celebrations in the city, people are in two minds over what the possibility implies. Holi is celebrated across the country by one and all with much fervour but given the current scenario, the call to avoid mass gatherings in the form of Holi celebrations, seems like a rather logical idea. PxHere I say this because if we try to look beyond the trappings of culture and the tradition that Holi celebrations are tied to, well see that science and medicine is the only way out this fatal virus outbreak that is threatening our country right now. Experts have suggested that the Coronavirus is spread through close person-to-person contact within a range of 6 feet. The virus usually spreads via the aerial medium when an infected person sneezes or coughs, and the particles land on someones hands and nose causing them to contact the infection. It can also spread when someone touches an object or surface that is covered with the virus. Reuters Given this data, and the fact that large gatherings will expose people to the danger of contracting the infection, it seems like a fair move that PM Modi, CM Kejriwal and many other ministers are calling off mass Holi gatherings to celebrate the festival this year. Yes, we do not like how that sounds and what that means. But if we do not want an epidemic-like situation akin to China, where over 80,000 people have been infected and close to 3,000 people have died due to the infection, we must make this sacrifice for the greater good of our loved ones and the country at large. A motel manager who was criticised for charging a guest an additional $50 after she left a negative review online previously threatened to ban another person from Australia for the same reason. Mollymook Ocean View Motel managers Rachelle and Graham Fulton claim they were entitled to charge extra because of a contract clause regarding a 'damage fee'. They believe guest Sharon Graham's review - in which she rated her stay 6/10 but questioned the lack of a cleaning service - damaged their reputation. The owners said they spend hours trawling the reviews and responding to feedback, and said one bad response is detrimental to their small family-owned business. Mollymook Ocean View Motel management are accused of adding an extra $50 to a customer's bill because she left a negative review 'You will not be welcomed back to Australia': Management threatened to report one guest to immigration after he left a negative review Sharon Graham (pictured) claims she was asked to complete the review and believes she was fair and honest 'We have no options - if we tell someone who is having a party to be quiet, they get on and get 10 of their friends to write fake bad reviews. But if we don't tell them to be quiet, then the other guests complain,' Ms Fulton told the Illawarra Mercury. But other guests argue the responses they received for truthful reviews are unnecessary. In one case, Ms Fulton threatened to have a former guest banned from entering Australia. 'If you do not remove this review, your review will be recorded on your records and you will not be welcomed back in Australia,' she said. She also said she was planning on reporting the loud and disruptive behaviour of the night to immigration. In separate negative reviews, Ms Fulton accused guests of 'making up lies' and being 'the most disrespectful of guests.' On multiple occasions, she threatened legal action and demanded compensation. The motel has temporarily closed its doors in response to the backlash they received for the way they treated Ms Graham. Ms Graham travelled to Mollymook to help boost tourism in the bushfire ravaged community on the New South Wales south coast. When prompted by Booking.com, she left a review which stated the room was 'quite nice and served its purpose, but quite noisy'. In response, the manager of the business sent her an updated invoice for her stay - adding an additional $50 surcharge for her 'false review'. 'Social media Bookings fake review,' the description of the bill read. 'Social media Bookings fake review,' the description of the bill read. 'Will be refunded if you remove within 24 hours, if not it will go toward legal proceedings' The motel responded to the review with this answer - claiming the facilities were the 'best value for money' in the region 'Will be refunded if you remove within 24 hours, if not it will go toward legal proceedings,' the invoice read. Ms Graham contacted the booking agent, her bank and police after the incident, she claimed. The new invoice also included a $10 discount for opting out of housekeeping services, but Ms Graham believes this was also in response to her review. 'She didn't actually deduct $10 for no housekeeping,' she said. 'The first invoice didn't even mention that. It was only because I put in the review that she didn't do any housekeeping.' She described the entire ordeal as 'laughable' but said the motel manager had 'messed with the wrong person'. Ms Graham finally received a third bill which included a further $50 fee for administrative paperwork. The bank froze her credit card to stop the payment from processing and Booking.com were able to secure her a refund for the first $50 charge. Management often respond to negative reviews by suggesting they will take legal action Former guests rallied behind Ms Graham, with some claiming they had a similar experience at the motel. In reviews posted online, multiple people reported unauthorised charges coming out of their account after they left. 'I had been charged $50 extra for no reasons when called later he made false excuses. Will never stay there again,' one former guest wrote online. Another said: 'When I called and asked why I have been charged extra $50, he reacted aggressively and said it's Australia... Then he said we were charged because we broke curtains. I asked which room number and he said he doesn't know that. I didn't even finish talking and he just hung up on me.' Ms Fulton said they are well within their rights because there is no definition of what 'damage' they refer to in the contract. Local police agree, saying the contract's terms make the matter a civil one. Others claimed the motel capitalised on the devastating bushfires by hiking up the cost of rooms as evacuees desperately searched for places to stay, but management denied the claims. An additional $50 fee was added onto a third invoice - taking the total extras bill to $100 for 'administrative letter writing' South coast locals begged Ms Graham not to let the experience reflect poorly on the entire town. After bushfires ravaged the region, which relies on tourism during the summer months in particular, there was a push for Australians to support the community by visiting as it rebuilds. One man said there are plenty of great venues which would appreciate the support during the difficult period. 'Please come back. I promise we have some amazing accommodation spots and people that would love your business,' he wrote. 'We are really awesome people... great and accommodating.' Another said: 'So sorry you had to experience this, our beautiful town is not like that at all.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mollymook Ocean View Motel for comment. The government announced that it shall now start universal screening for all passengers flying into India from abroad. Tourists wear facemasks as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak at the Bangalore City Railway Station on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Twenty-three new, positive cases of the novel coronavirus have been found in India, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in India to 29. There is one patient in Delhi, one in Telangana and six in Agra who have tested positive for COVID-19. Apart from these, 16 Italian nationals have tested positive for the disease. The driver of the group of Italian nationals, who were touring in Jaipur, has also tested positive, said Mr Harsh Vardhan. As the Centre, the Delhi government and several state governments held a flurry of meetings, e-commerce payment system Paytm said an employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the coronavirus. A health ministry official confirmed this coronavirus case. In a statement on Wednesday night, the company said the infected employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, which is fast emerging as a hub for the outbreak after China. The government announced that it shall now start universal screening for all passengers flying into India from abroad. Earlier, only passengers coming in from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia were being checked. All government departments will consult the health ministry before organising conferences and international meets in the country in the coming days, it was decided on Wednesday at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the principal secretary to the Prime Minister. With Holi less than a week away on March 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said they would not celebrate the festival of colours or hold any Holi Milan gathering. President Ram Nath Kovinds office also said Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold any Holi gathering. Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself and your family (sic), Mr Shah tweeted. The 16 Italians and their Indian driver have been sent to Indo-Tibetan Border Polices (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla. One infected person is a 45-year-old man from Delhi who had recently gone to Italy, and the six fresh cases confirmed are his family members whom he had visited in Agra shortly after arriving from Vienna. All of them continue to be in isolation in New Delhis Safdarjung Hospital, said the minister. A Bengaluru-based techie in Hyderabad had tested positive on Monday. First three coronavirus patients in the country from Kerala, who contracted infection last month, have been cured. At the meeting, chaired by P.K. Mishra, the home ministry was tasked with working closely with state governments, including relevant district administration officials, to ensure compliance with screening protocols at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) on Indias land borders. Over 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports in two months, over 10 lakh screened at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 are currently under community surveillance, he added. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus. A taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection and there is no need to panic, he said at a press conference. A coronavirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, Mr Kejriwal said. There is no shortage of masks, the chief minister added. Municipal corporations in Delhi are contacting and screening tourists from four countries where most cases of the infection have come to light. The screening is being done at hotels and guesthouses in the city, he said. Isolation wards in 19 government and six private hospitals are being readied in case of need, Mr Kejriwal stated. Even though local administration has not asked any school to close down, three schools in the national capital and adjoining areas have announced holiday for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of coronavirus, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Delhi has asked parents to inform school authorities if anybody in the family or even relatives who frequently visit are suffering from cough and cold. Schools in the region have also suggested parents to not send their wards to attend classes even in case of mild cough or cold. (Photo : The Role of Firewalls in Network Cybersecurity) The term firewall might sound a bit dramatic considering it refers to something that can't be seen by humans. But it's actually pretty indicative of the role firewalls have when it comes to network security. Organizations around the world are literally under fire. Fraudsters, scammers, hackers, and other rogue agents want to acquire sensitive information by any means possible. This might be someone trying to steal credit card numbers from unsuspecting Internet surfers. Or, it could be a malicious organization trying to steal business or government secrets. No matter the situation, it's a no-brainer to recognize and prioritize digital security. A firewall is essentially a network's first line of defense in doing this. Imagine a castle without a wall or archers. Anyone could just walk in and pillage it for all it's worth. You don't want your personal or company data to be exposed like that. By using a combination of hardware and software, it's possible to build a defense system capable of deflecting incoming attacks. Why Is a Firewall Important for Enterprise Networks? There are a few reasons why it's especially important for enterprises to utilize firewalls on their networks. Network security has to be a top concern for all enterprises. There's simply too much important data flowing though these channels to do anything less than ensure total security. In fact, the biggest data breaches have been levered against enterprises (think Yahoo!, Facebook, and Marriott). The main reasons cited for these breaches have been hacking and poor security protocols. There's simply no excuse for enterprises to allow this kind of oversight when the dangers of online threats are so well known in today's world. So, what should enterprises do to ensure their firewalls stand up to the threats out in the wild? Here are a few ideas to boost that network security: Understand the top threats to your organization. Look at data and case studies surrounding other enterprises that have suffered due to breaches. Learning from the mistakes of others (or your own) will allow the enterprise to better prepare for future attacks. Utilize the best tools to do the job. Sometimes, you have to make do with what you have. But this shouldn't be the case when it comes to network security. Enterprises need to build a comprehensive network security infrastructure in order to defend against what's out there. Implementing SD-WAN security is one example of how enterprises can do this. Using SD-WAN allows enterprises to centrally control and monitor their networks and connected devices. Networks can be extremely complex for global enterprises, which is why it's essential to have an intuitive way to manage and secure them. Consider the benefits of hired network security. All enterprises need a dedicated IT department. But there are also benefits to using outside services to oversee and provide additional layers of protection to networks. Having comprehensive outside monitoring can help mitigate issues by identifying threats that might be missed by the in-house team. Should All Businesses Have a Firewall? Some people might argue that only large organizations need to worry about network security like this. But this isn't a fair assessment at all. Every business needs to take this seriously, regardless of size. Actually, about 43 percent of cyber threats attack small businesses. This underscores the need for a firewall. Having a firewall doesn't need to be a massive investment for small businesses and sole proprietors. There are plenty of affordable options out there for those who aren't yet pulling in massive revenue. The fact is that there are scammers looking to steal data from anyone who allows them to do it. While there's generally more at the enterprise level, it's often just as valuable when it comes from a small business. The bottom line is that firewalls are an important part of building a secure network. Failing to implement a firewall is just setting up a network to be infiltrated by dangerous parties. 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Nirbhaya convicts left no stone unturned to escape gallows, failed to get relief From Yakub Memon to Nirbhaya case convicts: Times when SC held post-midnight hearings Nirbhaya: Justice has prevailed, says PM Modi after convicts' hanging Squirmed for a bit before going still: The final moments of Nirbhayas killers Nirbhaya Fund: State wise list of allocation of funds in 2021 Nirbhaya case: President rejects mercy plea filed by convict Pawan Gupta India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Mar 04: President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts in the Delhi gangrape case. A Delhi court on Monday deferred till further order the hanging of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case. Hanging of the four convicts was scheduled for Tuesday at 6 am. Nirbhaya: SC rejects curative plea filed by Pawan Gupta NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana said the death sentence cannot be executed pending disposal of mercy petition of convict Pawan. The court passed the order on Pawan's plea seeking to stay the execution as he has filed a mercy petition before the President on Monday. A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya -- the fearless -- was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment. A total of six people -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student here. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term. I'm not gonna lie: This time of year is usually a bit of downer here in the land o' Android analysis. I've been tracking device-makers' speed at sending out Android operating system updates to their devices for quite a while now, y'see since somewhere around the early 1800s. And with rare exception, the results are pretty much always bad news. Calling it "bad news" is probably being generous: With almost every year in recent memory, we've seen upgrade delivery performance from most of the big Android device-makers get progressively worse, despite Google's ongoing efforts to make the process easier. Last year was a slight exception, with a couple of moderate improvements, but it was still a ridiculously depressing picture all in all with only two non-failing grades in a sea of cold indifference. And that was the first true test of Google's Project Treble, a massive effort to separate Android into multiple layers so that phone-makers could perform updates more quickly and efficiently, without having to mess with any lower-level code for every new Android version. It was the year everything was supposed to get meaningfully better. But it didn't at least nowhere near the level it should have. Well, this year, for the first time in as long as I can remember, there's cause for optimism. Only the slightest sliver of optimism, mind you, but hey it's something. And it's a pretty noticeable contrast to the typical feeling these results provide. [Get original Android analysis in your inbox every Friday with JR's Android Intelligence newsletter. Exclusive extras await!] So without further ado, now that we're six full months past the launch of Android 10, it's time to step back and look at who's making upgrades a priority and who's treating them as an afterthought. Get ready for some data-driven truths. (Want the full nitty-gritty on how these grades were calculated? You can find a detailed breakdown of the formula and every element taken into account at the very end of this article.) Google Length of time for upgrade to reach current flagship: 0 days (60/60 points) Length of time for upgrade to reach previous-gen flagship: 0 days (30/30 points) Communication: Excellent (10/10 points) Seeing Google at the top of the heap is probably no huge surprise, but believe it or not, this is only the second year Google has ever received a 100% score in this analysis. Up until last year, the company had always either faltered slightly with its previous-gen flagship, or at the very least had lost some points for leaving certain models of its phones hanging longer than others and then failing to communicate anything about its progress. With Android 10, though, there's really nothing to complain about and no points to dock. Google announced Android 10 and then started rolling the software out to its then-current-gen Pixel 3 flagship and its then-previous-gen Pixel 2 model on the very same day. (For the purposes of this analysis, it's the start of a rollout to a flagship phone model in the U.S. that counts, as you can read about in more detail here.) Google even delivered a little bonus and included its original 2016 Pixel phone, which is well out of its window of guaranteed updates, in the mix. And while the usual "rolling out in waves" asterisk applied to a certain degree, Android 10 made its way to all Pixel owners within a reasonable amount of time, without the need for any extra communication beyond the company's initial announcement. Pixel upgrades may not always be immediate, given that staged rollout process Google often likes to use, but they are always quite speedy and consistently in a league of their own. Sure, we could argue that Google has a unique advantage in that it's both the manufacturer of the devices and the maker of the software, but guess what? That's part of the package. And the results tell you all there is to know: Google's phones are without question the most reliable way to receive ongoing updates in a timely manner on Android. It's the only company that overtly makes a guarantee about that, let alone delivers on it and it's the only company that now offers such support for a full three years from a phone's launch date, compared to the typical two-year window, thereby giving its devices even greater long-term value. OnePlus Length of time for upgrade to reach current flagship: 18 days (58/60 points) Length of time for upgrade to reach previous-gen flagship: 93 days (24/30 points) Communication: Poor (3/10 points) Coming into second place for its third straight year now, OnePlus did admirably well with getting Android 10 onto all of its recent devices. The company's current pair of flagships, the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, saw their upgrades at the same time in late September an impressive 18 days after the software's release. The dual previous-gen flagships, meanwhile the OnePlus 6 and 6T were initially set to be upgraded in November but ended up being pushed back to early December due to some issues with the original rollout. That still puts them at just over 90 days from Android 10's launch date, which is by no means exemplary but also isn't awful, all considered. As has been the case in the past, OnePlus didn't do much in the way of communication with customers no official estimates, no promises, no meaningful updates or ETAs along the way. The company's communication is mostly limited to announcements in its forums when a rollout is beginning. It's more than some companies offer but still not enough; if you own a OnePlus device, all you really can do is wait blindly and hope the upgrade might show up on your phone sometime soon. Still, it's a commendable all-around performance, and it's heartening to see OnePlus continuing to steadily improve with each passing year. (While it did rather astonishingly hold the second place position the past two years, its scores for 2019 and 2018 were a 74% C and a 65% D, respectively not exactly what you'd expect to see in the silver-medal spot.) It'd sure be nice to see a couple more A-level scores in the mix, but a solid B-range performance isn't bad at all. Unfortunately, things get way, way worse from here. Samsung Length of time for upgrade to reach current flagship: 106 days (47/60 points) Length of time for upgrade to reach previous-gen flagship: 147 days (21/30 points) Communication: Poor (0/10 points) Samsung's gotten some serious props for improving its upgrade performance with this year's Android 10 rollout and it absolutely should! The company did better this go-round than it has in ages, with the first U.S. rollout of Android 10 reaching its current-gen Galaxy S10 flagship in mid-December and its current-gen Note 10 flagship just slightly later in the month. (Since Samsung treats its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note phones as co-flagships, I look at the delivery time to both devices and then average it to achieve a single score.) Still, we can't grade Samsung only relative to its own past letdowns. After all, when the bar's been set embarrassingly low for so long, "not entirely horrible" suddenly seems grand. But in and of itself, sending out an Android upgrade over a hundred days after its release is nothing to celebrate. And even in the Samsung-specific big picture, all this performance actually does is return the company to the level of adequacy it achieved five years ago, with 2014's Android 5.0 Lollipop rollout. The same can be said for Samsung's previous-gen flagship performance which, again, is a massive improvement over last year's embarrassing showing but still is ultimately just sending software to a top-dollar, one-year-old phone five months late. And, again, it still basically just puts Samsung back where it was with its then-underwhelming 2014 level of Android upgrade performance. Adding insult to injury, Samsung never makes any effort to communicate with customers about the process or what can be expected along the way. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Samsung can and should do better. Particularly for a company of its size and with its immense financial and engineering-related resources, not being able to deliver updates to people after all those months (now with the benefits of Google's Project Treble improvements in place, no less) comes down to one thing and one thing only: priorities. NEXT PAGE: The Hall of Shame "F" club and a few honorable mentions Key Companies Covered are Kajaria Ceramics Limited, Ceramic Industries Group, Ceramica Carmelo Fior, White Horse Ceramic, MOHAWK INDUSTRIES INC., STN Ceramica, Dynasty Ceramic Public Company Limited, LASSELSBERGER Group, Grupo Celima Trebol, SCG CERAMICS, Elizabeth Group, & more PUNE, India, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceramic Tiles Market Overview: The global Ceramic Tiles Market size is projected to reach USD 82.83 billion by 2026, attributable to the rise in construction activities worldwide. Ceramic tiles offer functions such as scratch-resistance, slip-resistance, cracking-resistance, and are appealing aesthetically. Fortune Business insights provide a comprehensive overview of the market in their recently published report titled "Ceramic Tiles Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Application Area (Floor, Walls, Others), By End-Use (Residential, Non-Residential), and Geography Forecast till 2026."As per this report, the market size was USD 57.26 billion in 2018 and will rise at a CAGR of 4.7% between 2019 to 2026. What is the Scope of the Report? The report discusses the ceramic tiles industry in detail, primarily focusing on key industry developments, major growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. It also throws light on key players operating in the market and discusses the strategies adopted by these players for gaining momentum in the market. Furthermore, the report provides a detailed table of segmentation based on factors such as application, end-use, and geographies and mentions the names of the leading segments and their future growth prospects. Current Ceramic Tiles Market trends are also presented in the report. For more information, one may log on to the company website. Request a Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 Key Drivers Government-supported Initiatives to Improve Existing Infrastructure will Bode Well for Market Increasing construction and renovation activities worldwide is a significant factor propelling the Ceramic Tiles Market growth. This, coupled with the rise in government initiatives to improve public recreational spaces such as hospitals, schools, and public transport, are likely to aid in the expansion of the market. Moreover, the rise in disposable incomes of people, coupled with the rapid industrialization and modernization, propelled people to renovate and reconstruct existing homes and commercial spaces. Furthermore, the advent and rising popularity of customizable and digitally printed ceramic tiles and the currently trending phase of interior decorations will further help the market generate high revenue in the forthcoming years. Regional Segmentation: Asia Pacific to Emerge Dominant Owing to Rapid Construction and Renovation Activities Geographically, Asia Pacific emerged as the largest Ceramic Tiles Market shareholder on account of the presence of the largest consumer and manufacturer in the region. Additionally, the rapidly evolving construction industry is also making a considerable contribution to the market in terms of the increasing trend for construction and renovation activities in the region. On the other side, the market in North America will witness significant growth in the forecast period owing to the rising trend of customization and personalization for households and commercial spaces in the developed nations of the region. In 2018, this region earned USD 4.00 billion. Furthermore, the increasing demand for energy-efficient and green buildings for utilization as government and business offices are likely to add impetus to the market in the coming years. Get Detail Market Insights of This Research with TOC: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 List of Leading Ceramic Tiles Market Manufacturers include; Kajaria Ceramics Limited Ceramic Industries Group Ceramica Carmelo Fior White Horse Ceramic MOHAWK INDUSTRIES INC. STN Ceramica Dynasty Ceramic Public Company Limited LASSELSBERGER Group Grupo Celima Trebol SCG CERAMICS Elizabeth Group PAMESA CERAMICA SL Grupo Cedasa Kale Group RAK CERAMICS PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk Vitromex USA , Inc. , Inc. Cersanit Group Grupo Lamosa Somany Ceramics Others Competitive Landscape: Players to Focus on Maintaining a Diverse Product Portfolio The market for ceramic tiles is highly fragmented in nature due to the presence of many players. Major companies operating in the market are focusing on the launch of innovative products differing in style, design, size, and every aspect from the others. Therefore, vendors are making massive investments for the same to stand out in the competition and attract substantial Ceramic Tiles Market revenues in the forecast period. Apart from this, companies are also trying to expand their geographical presence and are thus taking initiatives for the same. Order a Complete Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102377 Detailed Table of Content: 1.Introduction 1.1. Research Scope 1.2. Market Segmentation 1.3. Research Methodology 1.4. Definitions and Assumptions 2.Executive Summary 3.Market Dynamics 3.1. Market Drivers 3.2. Market Restraints 3.3. Market Opportunities 4.Key Insights 4.1. Key Emerging Trends - For Major Countries 4.2. Key Developments: Mergers, Acquisition, Partnership, etc. 4.3. Latest Technological Advancement 4.4. Insights on Regulatory Scenario 4.5. Porters Five Forces Analysis 5.Global Ceramic Tiles Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 5.1. Key Findings / Summary 5.2. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Application Area 5.2.1. Floor 5.2.2. Walls 5.2.3. Others 5.3. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By End-Use 5.3.1. Residential 5.3.2. Non-Residential 5.4. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Region 5.4.1.North America 5.4.2.Europe 5.4.3.Asia pacific 5.4.4.South America 5.4.5.Middle East & Africa TOC Continued! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/ceramic-tiles-market-102377 Key Industry Developments of Ceramic Tiles Market Include; February 2020 - One of the biggest tile showrooms was inaugurated in Hyderabad by Kajaria Ceramics Limited. The major objective behind this launch was to improve the distribution channel of the company all over India. October 2019 - A new set of seven tile varieties were launched by Mohawk Industries Inc. under the name of Daltile. Each of these tiles differed in size, shape, design, style, and color, and this innovation in tile production is likely to create a diverse portfolio for the company. Have a Look at Related Market Insights: Ceramics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Traditional, Advanced), By Application (Tiles, Sanitary Wares, Abrasives, Pottery, Bricks & Pipes, Others), By End-Use Industry (Building & Construction, Industrial, Medical, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Paints and Coatings Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Resin (Epoxy, Acrylic, Polyester, Alkyd, PU, and Others), By Technology (Waterborne, Solvent Borne, Powder Coating, and Others) By Application (Architectural, Automotive OEM, Marine, Coil, General Industries, Protective Coatings, Automotive Refinish, Industrial Wood, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019 - 2026 Adhesives & Sealants Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Adhesive Technology (Water-Based, Solvent-Based, Hot-Melt, Reactive And Others), By Adhesive Application (Paper & Packaging, Building & Construction, Woodworking, Consumer/DIY, Automotive & Transportation, Leather & Footwear And Others), By Resin (Silicone, Polyurethane, Plastisol, Emulsion, Polysulfide, Butyl And Others), By Sealant Application (Building & Construction, Automotive & Transportation, Consumer And Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Plastics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polyvinyl Chloride, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, Polyamide, Polycarbonate, Polyurethane, Polystyrene, and Others), By End-Use Industry (Packaging, Automotive & Transportation, Infrastructure & Construction, Consumer Goods/Lifestyle, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Electrical & Electronics, Textile, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Composites Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Matrix (Polymer matrix composites, Ceramic matrix composites and Metal matrix composites), by Polymer matrix composites (Fiber {Glass, Carbon, Aramid} and Resin {Thermoset, Thermoplastics}), by Application, and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis By Product (Head Protection, Eye & Face Protection, Hearing Protection, Protective Clothing, Respiratory Protection, Fall Protection Protective Footwear, Hand Protection, and Others), By Application (Construction, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Chemical, Food, Pharmaceutical, Transportation, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Aramid Fiber Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Para, Meta and Others), By Application (Security & Protection, Frictional Materials, Rubber reinforcement, Optical fiber, Tire reinforcement, Electrical insulation, Aerospace and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Abrasives Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Materials (Natural and Synthetic), By Product (Bonded, Coated, and Super Abrasive), By Application (Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, Metal Fabrication, Machinery, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Bioplastics Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Biodegradable and Non-biodegradable), By Application (Rigid Packaging, Flexible Packaging, Textiles, Automotive & Transportation, Agriculture & Horticulture, Consumer Goods, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 High Strength Steel Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA), Dual Phase (DP), Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP), Martensitic (MS), and Others), By Application (Automotive, Building & Construction, Mechanical & Heavy Equipment, Rail, Aviation & Marine, and Others), and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 Polyurethane Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product Type (Rigid Foam, Flexible Foam, Molded Foam, Elastomers, Adhesives & Sealants, Coatings, and Others), By Application (Furniture, Construction, Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, Packaging, Footwear, and Others), and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. 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Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US :+1-424-253-0390 UK: +44-2071-939123 APAC: +91-744-740-1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Fortune Business Insights Linkedin | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release on Ceramic Tiles Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/ceramic-tiles-market-9632 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099298/Ceramic_Tiles_Market.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/881202/Fortune_Business_Insights_Logo.jpg Colorado Springs City Council deadlocked Monday over the appointment of Stephannie Fortune to fill Councilman Richard Skorman's seat on the board. Who among the 7 finalists should be appointed? You voted: HARTFORD Even Joe Bidens biggest fan in Connecticut was surprised by the former vice presidents showing in Super Tuesdays 14-state showdown. Surveying the wreckage of other Democratic campaigns, including the withdrawal Wednesday morning of former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, Gov. Ned Lamont said he now expects Biden to make both fundraising visits and campaign stops in the run-up to the states April 28 primary. Hes a good man, Lamont told reporters in the Capitol. I supported him very early on because he gives us the best chance to unite the Democratic party. And more importantly he gives us the best chance to unite the country. Im very happy the way the last 72 hours has gone. Lamont last month campaigned for Biden in New Hampshire, more than two weeks before the win in the South Carolina primary turned Bidens campaign around. Biden won Texas, Tennessee and other southern states, solidifying a campaign that sputtered early, was the focus of attacks by President Donald Trump during the impeachment process in Washington, and lagged far behind U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who still won in California Tuesday night. I figured it was going to be an uphill climb, Lamont said. He was outspent by Bernie 25 to 1. Outspent by Mike 100 to 1 and people believed in him, and especially since South Carolina things took off. Lamont said he is negotiating with the Biden campaign on scheduling campaign stops and fundraisers before the April 28 Connecticut primary, when 60 state delegates are at stake. Donald Trump knows that this guy is a tough competitor because people believe in him, and he believes in them. He knows who they are and they know who he is. I think thats his big advantage. We thought, of my God hes been doing this forever thats a disadvantage. I think in this case people like the fact that he is someone they can trust. Bloombergs Connecticut campaign folded up his tent at about 10:30, when his state communications director released a statement supporting Biden. Im a believer in using data to inform decisions, Bloomberg said. After yesterdays results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible - and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. State Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, a Bloomberg supporter because of the former New York mayors national campaign for gun safety, said Wednesday that he is now in Bidens camp too. Hes the one we need to bring the nation back together, said Godfrey, a member of the General Assembly since 1989. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Francois-Philippe Champagne will arrive in Ukraine on an official visit today, March 4, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministrys press service. "On March 4-6, 2020, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Francois-Philippe Champagne will pay a working visit to Ukraine," reads the statement. On March 4, talks between the Ukrainian and Canadian ministers will be held at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. In particular, the agenda of the meeting includes the issues of Ukrainian-Canadian cooperation in the political, security, trade, economic, investment and humanitarian spheres. As expected, a joint press conference of the foreign ministers will take place on Wednesday. Also, the program of the visit also includes a visit to the Canadian military training mission UNIFIER (Yavoriv, Lviv region). iy Influencer YesJulz admitted she lied to an official about visiting France after she was pulled aside in customs for coughing amid coronavirus fears, before proceeding to blast officials for not thoroughly checking her passport and blamed them for contributing to the spread of the virus, according to a deleted tweet obtained by DailyMail.com. YesJulz, real name Julieanna Goddard, said she was pulled aside after landing at an airport in Lima, Peru, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She tweeted: 'I'm coughing at the airport and this dude is dead a** petitioning for me to be quarantined,' followed by crying emojis. The 30-year-old from Miami, Florida, proceeded to give her followers a play-by-play of being removed from the customs line and escorted to a specified health concerns area, adding she was 'literally going to lose my s**t'. When quizzed by an official in protective gear over places she had recently traveled to, Goddard said she hadn't been to France. But upon being released, she tweeted: 'If this lady woulda (sic) flipped one page in my passport she would've seen I just got back from Paris. No wonder why this s**t is spreading.' Influencer YesJulz admitted she lied to an official about visiting France after she was pulled aside from customs for coughing amid coronavirus fears, before proceeding to blast officials for not thoroughly checking her passport and blamed them for contributing to the spread of the virus, according to a deleted tweet obtained by DailyMail.com YesJulz, real name Julieanna Goddard, said she was pulled aside after landing at the airport in Lima, Peru, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She tweeted: 'I'm coughing at the airport and this dude is dead a** petitioning for me to be quarantined,' followed by crying emojis' When quizzed by an official in protective gear over places she had recently traveled to, Goddard said she hadn't been to France But upon being released, she tweeted: 'If this lady woulda (sic) flipped one page in my passport she would've seen I just got back from Paris. No wonder why this s**t is spreading.' Hours later, Goddard wiped the admission (pictured) from her Twitter page Hours later, Goddard wiped the admission from her Twitter page. YesJulz is a social media influencer and music manager, having worked with Kanye West, Travis Scott, Hailey Baldwin, Jordyn Woods, Migos, among several others. Goddard had tweeted on Saturday about her trip to Paris, saying: 'I really just flew to Paris for dinner and a night out. I'm literally insane.' She also shared photos of herself from the trip, wrapped in a fur coat, on her Instagram and Twitter, tagging the location as Paris, writing: 'When in Paris.' Before Goddard deleted the tweet about recently returning from France, some of her 180k followers chimed in. One tweeted at her: 'Nobody else think it's weird she bragging about lying in customs when she came from Paris?' Another said: 'Did you just lie about your travel moments to a doctor? Well that's a very cool thing to be doing right now.' Someone else added: 'Trashy. If you contaminate people and they die that's on you b.' 'So, either you lied about your little dinner trip to France to flex on Twitter or you lied to a doctor about possibly being contagious putting everyone you interact with at potential risk? And that's somehow funny?,' another added. Goddard had tweeted on Saturday about her trip to Paris, saying: 'I really just flew to Paris for dinner and a night out. I'm literally insane' She also shared photos of herself from the trip, wrapped in a fur coat, on her Instagram and Twitter, tagging the location as Paris, writing: 'When in Paris' Currently, there are nearly 95,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths. France has had more than 200 cases, with several deaths. French officials even closed the Louvre due to the outbreak. Peru currently has no record of coronavirus cases. Coughing is listed by the CDC as a symptom of the disease, as well as a fever and shortness of breath. Symptoms could appear within 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people's temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature). However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport. In the United States the number of cases have soared to more than 140 and nine people have now died from the disease in Washington state. New York cases rose to six on Wednesday after officials confirmed that the Manhattan attorney's wife, 20-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter and neighbor had all tested positive. Currently, there are nearly 95,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths. France has had more than 200 cases, with several deaths. French officials even closed the Louvre due to the outbreak. Peru currently has no record of coronavirus cases YesJulz (pictured left with Maxwell Osborne and Chelsea Clinton in 2017) is a social media influencer and music manager, having worked with Kanye West, Travis Scott, Hailey Baldwin, Jordyn Woods, Migos, among several others Pictured: YesJulz and Diddy partying together at E11EVEN MIAMI in 2018 in Miami The 50-year-old attorney, who lives in Westchester County and commutes to his midtown Manhattan law firm, was confirmed as the state's second case on Tuesday. And in Los Angeles, the city declared a local state of emergency with six new cases. An increase in testing for the coronavirus has started to shed light on how the illness has spread in the US with newly confirmed cases in New York, Georgia, Florida and New Hampshire. Florida declared a public health emergency after confirming its three cases. A man in his 60s with no recent travel history was diagnosed on Sunday with coronavirus. Meanwhile, a 29-year-old woman who had recently returned from Italy tested positive on Sunday before her sister became the third case on Tuesday. That woman claims she told the CDC of her symptoms after flying from Italy to New York on her way back to Florida. She claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa. She was tested for coronavirus after arriving back in Tampa last week. In suburban Seattle, 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the infected nursing home were tested for the virus on Tuesday using a drive-thru system set up in a hospital parking area. NEW SOUTH WALES: 61 January 25 Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China contracted the disease. Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China. They were treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital. January 27 A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW. The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms. March 1 A man in his 40s is confirmed as the fifth coronavirus case in the state and a woman in her 50s as the sixth. Both returned to Sydney from Iran. March 2 The 41-year-old sister of a man who had returned from Iran with the disease was one of three confirmed cases. The second locally-acquired case was a 53-year-old male health worker who hadn't travelled for many months. The other new case is a 31-year-old man who flew into Sydney on Saturday from Iran and developed symptoms 24 hours later. March 3 Six more cases are confirmed in NSW. They included a 39-year-old man who had flown in from Iran and a 53-year-old man who arrived from Singapore last Friday. It also included two women aged in their 60s who arrived in Sydney from South Korea and Japan respectively. A man in his 30s who returned from Malaysia to Sydney on Malindo Air flight OD171 on March 1 was also one of the six. A 50-year-old carer was the final of the day's six people diagnosed with coronavirus. The woman is a carer at a nursing home in Macquarie Park in Sydney's north. She had not been overseas and contracted the virus in Australia. March 4 A 95-year-old woman died at a Sydney hospital on Wednesday night after developing a respiratory illness from the coronavirus, bringing the death toll to two. A Macquarie University lecturer tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday after returning from Iran. A further six cases confirmed on Wednesday evening. They included an 82-year-old aged care resident from the Dorothy Henderson Lodge, where the 95-year-old woman was staying. The new cases include a female doctor who works at Liverpool hospital, a female patient from the Northern Beaches, a male from Cronulla, a woman who returned from the Phillippines and a woman in her 70s. March 5 A health care worker, who attended the same conference as the doctor from Ryde Hospital, also tests positive. A boy from Epping Boys High School is diagnosed with COVID-19 forcing the school to temporarily close. A Goulburn resident who had recently returned from Singapore and travelled on to Darwin was also diagnosed with the virus. A fourth resident, aged 94, from the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility in Macquarie Park was also diagnosed. March 6 Two more workers at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care centre are diagnosed with coronavirus. A 24-year-old female and 21-year-old male have now been confirmed as cases at the facility. An 18-year-old female has also been diagnosed. March 7 Six new cases are diagnosed. This includes a man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s, who are a close contact of a previously confirmed case. Also included was a man in his 40s and a woman in her 40s, both family members of a previously confirmed case. A man in his 20s, also a close contact of a previously confirmed case, was also included. A man in his 70s, who returned from Italy and who exhibited symptoms a day after returning. NSW Health is contacting flight passengers on flight number QR908 which left Doha on 1 March. A second male in his 40s, who is a known close contact of a previously confirmed case, is being tested. He travelled on two domestic flights on 28 February while symptomatic but before he had been identified as a close contact. Another man in his 60s who recently returned from Italy and a second man in his 40s who is a known close contact of a previously confirmed case, were confirmed late Saturday. NSW Health says the man in his 40s travelled on two domestic flights on 28 February while symptomatic. March 8 A female care worker in her 30s at Ryde Hospital is among new cases in New South Wales. She had been in contact with a case in Macquarie Park aged care facility which had already been confirmed. Another woman, in her 50s, was the other person confirmed to have caught the disease. She had also been in contact with a previous case. An 82-year-old man, who contracted the coronavirus from an infected aged care worker at BaptistCare's Dorothy Henderson Lodge in his Sydney, died on Sunday. A man in his 70s was diagnosed after presenting to Sydney's St Vincent Hospital on Friday. He hadn't recently travelled overseas and the source of his infection is not known. A man in his 40s who recently travelled overseas was confirmed on Sunday night as NSW's 40th case. No other details about the case are available. March 9 St Patricks Marist College in Sydney's north west is forced to close after two students in grade 10, one boy and one girl, are diagnosed with coronavirus. Both fathers of the year 10 students, aged in their 50s have also tested positive, including a third member of the ADF. The father of the male St Patricks Marist College student is diagnosed with coronavirus. He is also the third Australian Defence Force member to test positive. A grade 7 student at Willoughby Girls High School was another confirmed case on March 9. The girl's mother, who is Iranian, was also diagnosed. Woman aged in her 30s was diagnosed on Monday having recently returned from the Philippines. NSW Health is establishing her travel movements and identifying any contacts who may require self-isolation. March 10 Cases confirmed on Tuesday March 10 include a woman in her 20s who had contact with a previously confirmed case at Ryde Hospital and a woman in her 40s who recently returned from South Korea. NSW Health is separately working to establish how three others were infected: two women in their 30s and 40s and a man in his 70s. Two other cases are related to the outbreak at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge nursing home in Macquarie Park. Another case was confirmed. A man in his 70s, a woman in her 30s and a woman in her 40s test positive, as well as three other people. VICTORIA: 21 January 25 A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia. The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19. He was quarantined at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east. January 29 A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus. He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. January 30 A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus. She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family. She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital. February 1 A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus. February 22 Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive. February 25 Another passenger taken off the cruise ship tests positive. March 1 Victorian man confirmed to have coronavirus after the 78-year-old was evacuated to Melbourne from a Darwin quarantine centre. It is confirmed a Victorian woman in her 30s has tested positive for coronavirus after flying from Malaysia to Melbourne via Indonesia. March 4 Victorian man in his 30s confirmed to have coronavirus after returning from Iran. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the man was 'almost symptom-free' after self-isolating March 7 A doctor working at a clinic in Toorak, Melbourne has been confirmed to have coronavirus and is now in isolation at home after returning from a trip to the US. The doctor came into contact with around 70 patients who have been told to self isolate. March 8 A woman who arrived in the state from Indonesia has tested positive March 9 Authorities confirmed on Monday two new cases in returned travellers from the United States. A third case was diagnosed on Monday in a passenger who recently returned from Iran. One of the cases is a woman in her 50s who returned from Tehran via Kuala Lumpar on MH0149, arriving on March 6, and is in hospital in isolation being treated for pneumonia. March 10 A man in his 70s who returned to Melbourne from Singapore on March 6 at 12.15am on flight EK404 was confirmed to be carrying the disease. A Victorian man in his 20s who recently returned from Hong Kong was diagnosed. A teacher from Carey Baptist Grammer was diagnosed. The school will closed until next week while students are tested March 11 A male teacher at Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah college was diagnosed with coronavirus after arriving in Australia on a flight from Los Angeles on March 6. QUEENSLAND: 19 January 29 Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national was diagnosed with the virus. He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital. January 30 A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition. February 4 An eight-year-old boy was diagnosed with coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from. February 5 A 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast, also tested positive. February 6 A 37-year-old woman was diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27. February 21 Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment. A 57-year-old woman from Queensland also tested positive for the virus. February 28 A 63-year-old woman was confirmed to have the virus after returning to the Gold Coast from Iran. March 3 A 20-year-old man from China was confirmed as the tenth person to be infected by the coronavirus in Queensland. The man had travelled to Dubai for at least 14 days before entering Australia, via Brisbane on February 23. March 4 A 26-year-old man from Logan in Brisbane is diagnosed with coronavirus. He arrived back in Australia from Iran. March 5 An 81-year-old man who had returned to Brisbane from Thailand and a 29-year-old woman who had come via Singapore from London are diagnosed with coronavirus. March 6 A 28-year-old man in Brisbane was diagnosed after returning from Iran. March 8 A 38-year-old woman is confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus after returning to Australia from London via Dubai. March 10 A 42-year-old female is n the Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition. She is the partner of the 38-year-old woman, who travelled from London through Dubai. A 46-year-old female from Brisbane, who recently travelled to Austria and France, is confirmed to have contracted the illness. A 22-year-old male from Brisbane is in a stable condition in The Prince Charles Hospital. He recently travelled to Spain, Italy and France. March 11 A student at the University of Queensland was diagnosed with coronavirus. SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 7 February 1 A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus. A 24-year-old woman from South Australia was transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital. March 4 Mother, 40, is diagnosed after flying to Australia from Iran via Kuala Lumpur. Another 24-year-old woman, not related to the previous woman, was in a stable condition in Adelaide hospital after falling ill following overseas travel. March 5 The eight-month-old child of the 40-year-woman, diagnosed on March 4, is also diagnosed with coronavirus. Renowned Australian music composer Brett Dean, 58, who travelled to SA on March 3 from Taiwan also tests positive. He's receiving treatment in an Adelaide hospital. WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 6 February 21 A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. On February 28, he was taken into intensive care in a 'serious' condition and later died. His wife was also diagnosed with coronavirus. March 1 The elderly man died in the early hours of the morning from the virus at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. March 5 A woman in Perth is diagnosed with the virus after flying into the city from the UK, via Dubai March 8 A Perth woman, aged in her 70s, was confirmed as WAs fourth coronavirus diagnosis. She had been in Cuba in recent weeks had flown from London to Perth on a direct flight on March 5. The woman was tested for COVID-19 on Friday but didnt wait for the results before attending a the West Australian Symphony Orchestras Absolute Beethoven concert on Saturday night. March 9 A West Australian woman in her 60s contracted coronavirus from her husband after he returned from Iran, making her the state's first person-to-person transmission of COVID-19. TASMANIA: 2 March 2 The man who travelled from Iran to Australia on Saturday tested positive for COVID-19. March 7 A man in his 20s was diagnosed with coronavirus after returning to Tasmania from Nepal on February 26 and experiencing cold-like symptoms the next day. He is in the Royal Hobart Hospital in a satisfactory condition. NORTHERN TERRITORY: 1 March 4 A tourist in Darwin has tested positive for coronavirus in what is the first confirmed case in the Northern Territory. NT Health confirmed the 52-year-old man as the first case of COVID-19 in the community on Wednesday evening. The man recently arrived in Darwin via Sydney and has had limited contact with the local community, NT Health said in a statement. Nancy Pelosi has branded Donald Trump the most dangerous person in the history of America. In an interview with Variety, the Speaker of the House opened up about her hopes for the nomination process and her frustrations with the Trump administration. I have real problems with this president because he doesnt tell the truth, he doesnt honour the Constitution and hes harming children, Pelosi said. The greatness of America is such that we will withstand what [he] has done and move on from that. I feel confident about our ability to do that. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images Pelosi went on to say she wanted the Democrats to winnow down the field of candidates so they could focus on fighting Trump because the country cant withstand another four years. "We have the most dangerous person in the history of our country sitting in the White House, Pelosi said. Thats different from what happened in 2016. People thought Hillary would win so they didnt all turn out. Nobody could possibly think that somebody like Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States. But if you dont turn out, those who do turn out will call the shots. Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat, has publicly insisted the party would rally around any chosen nominee but has privately contended with concern within the party about Sanders radical agenda and its likely impact on congressional races. Saudi Arabia has today suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage over fears that coronavirus could spread to Islam's holiest cities. The umrah - which, unlike the hajj, can be undertaken at any time of year - draws millions of Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia every year. But the Gulf state has today decided to 'suspend umrah temporarily for citizens and residents in the kingdom', official media said. Visitors are also barred from 'visits to the Prophet's mosque in Medina', the foreign ministry said. A relatively small number of pilgrims pray around the Kaaba, the building at the centre of the Grand Mosque, in Mecca today. The umrah has now been suspended altogether Saudi Arabia on Monday confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus after one its citizens who had returned from virus hotspot Iran tested positive. Iran has refused to shut down the holy city of Qom at the centre of the outbreak - whereas Saudi authorities have now taken firmer action. Visas for the umrah had already been suspended last week amid growing fears over the spread of the virus in the Middle East. The ban's effect will be especially large at this time of year, because Ramadan starts in April and the holy month is considered a favourable period for the umrah. Citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council have also been banned from entering Mecca and Medina. The holy sites, which draw millions of pilgrims every year, are a key revenue earner for Saudi Arabia. Around a third of the 18.3million umrah participants in 2018 were visitors from abroad, according to government statistics. Sanitation workers clean the area outside Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca, with Saudi Arabia attempting to stop the holy sites from being infected It is unclear how the coronavirus will affect the hajj, due to start in late July. Some 2.5million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in 2019 to take part in hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. The event is a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities, with colossal crowds cramming into relatively small holy sites, making it vulnerable to contagion. Saudi Arabia's custodianship of Mecca and Medina - Islam's two holiest sites - is seen as the kingdom's most powerful source of political legitimacy. But a series of deadly disasters over the years has prompted criticism of the Sunni kingdom's management of the hajj. In September 2015, a stampede killed up to 2,300 worshippers in the worst disaster ever to strike the pilgrimage. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform plan seeks to decouple the kingdom's economy - the world's top crude exporter - from oil dependency towards other sources of revenue, including religious tourism. The government had hoped to welcome 30million pilgrims to the kingdom annually by 2030. In Shanghai, a municipal official told reporters the city will isolate at homes or hotels anyone who has arrived in Shanghai from hotbeds of coronavirus infections within the last 14 days. That includes visitors from Daegu or North Gyeongsang Province in Korea, where thousands of new infections have broken out. The ministry said officials could be sent to places where large numbers of Koreans are quarantined to check if they are well treated and offer support. Some 1,200 Koreans have been isolated in foreign countries amid the coronavirus scare, according to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. Most of them or about 960 are quarantined in China and some 270 in Vietnam, where they live or do business. India has canceled all entry visas issued for Koreans, Japanese, Italians and Iranians, although those who are already in India can continue to stay. Singapore has banned all travelers from Korea except permanent residents or those with long-term visas, who will have to quarantine themselves for two weeks on return to the city state. Moscow has also made it mandatory for all arrivals from Korea to quarantine themselves for two weeks. Nepal will stop issuing visas to travelers from Korea on March 10, while Brunei and Myanmar have also decided to quarantine travelers from Korea. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha talked with her counterparts in El Salvador, India, Indonesia and Iraq over the phone on Tuesday to ask them to minimize inconvenience for Korean travelers. She asked El Salvador's Foreign Minister Juana Alexandra Hill Tinoco to reconsider an entry ban for travelers who have been to Korea within the last 30 days. She also asked India and Iraq to lift the entry ban and asked her Indonesian counterpart, whose country has neither banned or restricted entry of travelers from Korea yet, to keep trusting in Korea's quarantine capabilities. Despite her efforts, the number of countries that ban or restrict travelers from Korea had mushroomed to 91 as of Tuesday. Last year's score of Ukraine in the "Freedom in the world" ranking has improved by several points compared to 2018. At the same time, this status does not reflect conditions in Crimea and Eastern Donbas occupied by Russia, Freedom House informs. Ukraine remains in the category of "partly free" countries. Its score has slightly increased compared to the 2018 report. Now Ukraine has 62 points out of possible 100 (worst possible score is 0), up two points compared to the previous period. Ukraine has enacted a number of positive reforms since the protest-driven ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. However, corruption remains endemic, and initiatives to combat it are only partially implemented, reads the report. As noted, the attacks against journalists, civil society activists, and members of minority groups are frequent, and police responses are often inadequate. Russia occupies the autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea, which it invaded in the aftermath of Yanukovychs ouster, and its military supports armed separatists in the eastern Donbas area. According to the human rights activists, the key developments in Ukraine in 2019 were the presidential and parliamentary elections generally recognized as "competitive and fair." Freedom House also praised the launch of long-awaited reform by the new government. Another important point, according to experts, is the start of operations of the new High Anti-Corruption Court, although it had not produced any convictions at years end. The reports on the occupied Crimea and Eastern Donbas were published separately. Human rights defenders identified these territories as "not free." ol D onald Trump has added to his growing list of invented words as he described launching "the great American comeback" with "vivor" during a major speech. The US president was speaking at the National Association of Counties legislative conference on Tuesday when he made the gaffe. He was referring to a State of Union Address which he delivered three years ago in which he said his government had launched the "great American comeback". Addressing the audience of local government officials Mr Trump said: "Can you believe it? But this was three years ago, we launched the great American comeback. And we really did. We launched it with a vivor [sic] and with a with a certain splash that nobody has seen in a long time." Social media users have since been using the word to mock the President. Many have used it in a hashtag to describe voting in the Democratic primaries Super Tuesday election. Others pointed out that the word "vivor" exists in the online Urban Dictionary as a description for a "survivor" of cancer from the children's novel 'I am a Vivor' by Leona Booms. Some used the Twitter moment to bring back the word Covfefe, a misspelling of the word coverage which appeared in a viral tweet of Trump's in 2017 and quickly became a meme. The new word was even referenced during New Zealand's number one breakfast radio show on Newstalk ZB. Mr Trump used the appearance to reassure state and county health chiefs that his administration would work closely with them to tackle coronavirus which has now killed six people in the US. The country now has the ninth highest number of coronavirus cases with a reported 128 people infected. Joe Biden Confuses His Wife And His Sister During Super Tuesday Speech The 77-year-old was left red-faced following the Super Tuesday election in which he is now predicted to have won 10 out of the 14 states taking part. Without looking at the two women who were stood behind him on stage, the former vice president grasped the hand of Jill his wife and declared "this is my little sister Valerie". Living up to its motto of 'service and loyalty', the CRPF stepped in to help its former jawan Aish Mohammed with a cheque of Rs 11 lakh after his house was damaged in communal clashes in the national capital recently. While handing over the cheque, Director General of CRPF A P Maheswari hugged an emotional Aish and said "this is your family". The house of Aish, who served the world's largest para-military force for 22 years before retiring as a head constable, was at Baghirathi Vihar in northeast Delhi. His house was "damaged and plundered by anti-social elements" during the riots on February 25, the CRPF said. "He (Aish) along his son somehow managed to escape to safety with the help of their neighbour". The officials of para-military force came to know about the plight of the jawan through media reports and a decision was taken to stand by its retired jawan who had served the country for 22 years. The cheque was handed over at a simple ceremony held at the CRPF headquarters here. "The CRPF stands committed for the welfare of its personnel and their families. This act is a gesture to say that all serving and retired personnel of the force are our family," CRPF spokesperson DIG Moses Dhinakaran said. A senior official said the assistance amount of Rs 11 lakh is drawn from the welfare fund of the force and it can be used to help both serving and former staffers. With about 3.25 lakh personnel in its ranks, the CRPF is the country's largest Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and is the lead national internal security force. In a similar manner, the Border Security Force (BSF) had on Monday handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to its jawan Mohammed Anees whose house in northeast Delhi was vandalised and burnt by rioters. The border guarding force has also pledged to re-build the house of Anees and hand it over to him as a "wedding gift" as he is scheduled to get married soon. Over 40 people have been killed and many injured in the communal clashes that took place on February 24-25. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) * OPEC delegates face strict instructions for meeting * Journalists barred from the OPEC headquarters * OPEC member Iran has been hit hard by the virus By Shadia Nasralla, Kirsti Knolle and Alex Lawler VIENNA, March 4 (Reuters) - When OPEC ministers descend on Vienna to decide oil production policy, their meetings are usually accompanied by displays of brotherhood between the men in charge of a third of global crude supplies. This time, as the world battles a coronavirus outbreak, they have been given strict instructions: no handshakes, don't hug and wash your hands frequently. "Avoid close contact," reads a poster that greets ministers and delegates as they enter the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the Austrian capital. "Avoid handshakes and hugs," it adds and, to prevent any misunderstanding, it also shows an image of two stickmen embracing with a large, red cross next to it. As an additional safeguard, the number of delegates attending the OPEC meeting has been restricted and journalists have been barred from the OPEC building. Outside the headquarters, the usual crowd of reporters clustering around ministers as they come and go from hotels have been noticeably smaller. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and several OPEC ministers and delegates had their temperature checked before entering the OPEC headquarters on Wednesday. "If someone arriving to OPEC has a temperature above 37.5 Celsius, an alert will be raised," a source, who was speaking from inside the OPEC headquarters, told Reuters. OPEC member Iran, some of whose officials have gone down with the virus as the country grapples to contain one of the worst outbreaks outside of China, South Korea and Italy, sent its minister, Bijan Zanganeh, to this week's meeting. A waitress at the Palais Kempinski where he and ministers from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Venezuela stay said she was following advice to keep her hands clean with regular washing or sanitiser. "That's all you can do," she said. Story continues A spokeswoman said her hotel was following the recommendations from the health authorities, adding: "We do not want to spread panic." Austria's airport authorities began mandatory temperature checks on Tuesday for passengers on direct flights from Iran, which has two such flights a week, and South Korea, which has three, according to a Vienna Airport spokesman. Health authorities in Lower Austria, the province where the airport is located, said temperatures of all passengers from Iran were checked on Wednesday and no cases were found. Not all officials followed the guidance on keeping a distance. OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo was shown in photos issued on Wednesday in a handshake for the camera with the Russian minister and Nigeria's Timipre Sylva. But others were more cautious. "I told people I wonat be shaking hands with them," said one OPEC delegate. (Additional reporting by Rania el Gamal and Francois Murphy; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Edmund Blair) Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Its been a little over three years since then-state Auditor Tim Keller announced New Mexico had the highest rate of untested rape kits in the country. There were 5,302 untested kits, some dating back to the 1980s, throughout the state. Almost 4,000 of them were in the Albuquerque area. Now, the city hopes to finish testing its remaining 20 or so backlogged kits within the next couple of months. But that doesnt mean the work will be over. Detectives have to investigate cases further and make arrests, the District Attorneys Office has to prosecute defendants, and those defendants have to go to trial, often with the help of a public defender. In a news conference Wednesday, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez said his office is getting ready for the influx. Torrez, Mayor Tim Keller and attorney Randi McGinn announced that about 40 private attorneys have volunteered to work for free as special prosecutors and help the District Attorneys Office prosecute suspects identified through the testing of the backlog. McGinn, a high-profile attorney, volunteered to lead the effort, called Project Predator. Torrez said 23 cases have already been assigned to the special prosecutors, and three men have been indicted and are awaiting trial. All three cases occurred in 2015, according to online court records. We anticipate over the next couple of years there will be a couple hundred of these SAKI (Sexual Assault Kit Initiative) backlog cases that will be coming through the District Attorneys Office, Torrez said. The participation and willingness to serve makes it easier for our attorneys and our prosecutors to move quickly through the other parts of the system. In addition to the special prosecutors, there are four prosecutors in the office who are funded through the SAKI grant to specifically work on backlog cases, according to a spokesman for the DAs Office. However, attorneys with the Law Office of the Public Defender, who are likely to represent many of the defendants charged in these cases, will not be receiving the same kind of grant funding and volunteer support as the prosecutors. These are among the most complex cases, even when they arent decades old, Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur said in a statement. The Public Defenders Office is ready to represent indigent defendants on these cases even though weve received no additional funding specifically to do so. As for staffing at APD, Deputy Chief of Police Arturo Gonzalez told the news conference that there are 10 sex crimes detectives and that they are investigating current cases as well as backlog cases. He said they have about 400 hits in the Combined DNA Index System now and expect that to increase. We feel confident with the people that we have over there, Gonzalez said. (They) are going to go ahead and do whats needed. Gonzalez said the detectives are basically redoing the original cases and re-interviewing victims and witnesses. Its a ton of work, Gonzalez said. But after the news conference, Torrez expressed some concerns about the workload for APD detectives when they have several hundred new cases to investigate. I think they are struggling to balance all their competing needs their investigative needs, their Department of Justice compliance its going to be increasingly difficult to keep up with the current workload and the investigative requirements of these cases as they come online, Torrez said. I know theyre stretched pretty thin. At the District Attorneys Office, the influx of special prosecutors will undergo training to get them up to speed on the offices protocols, Torrez said. This includes training on the case management order which imposes strict deadlines on cases as well as on supporting victims throughout the process. There may be some attorneys who have less experience interacting with victims who need specialized support so our victims advocates will be able to fill that in and work with these prosecutors, he said. McGinn actually worked in the District Attorneys Office at the beginning of her career, in the 1980s. More recently, she was appointed as a special prosecutor to prosecute Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, APD officers who shot and killed James Boyd, a homeless man, in the Sandia foothills. I think there are other members of the team that have direct prosecutorial experience, but my sense is that most do not, Torrez said. But what they do have is a lot of courtroom experience. They know how to try a case. McGinn said the attorneys, many of whom are members of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, have made careers defending underdogs. The trial lawyers association is about 600 lawyers from around the state who typically represent David or his wife against the Goliaths of this world, the big insurance companies or the big trucking companies when people get hurt, McGinn said. So it was a natural fit for them to step in and try to protect the women of Albuquerque. And Keller said the conversation on how to ultimately prosecute the cases has been ongoing for a while. In many ways, getting the backlog tested, thats probably the easiest part of this, Keller said. Were proud and honored to be able to do that as a city. But we need our community, the legal community, and the District Attorneys Office to see through that hard criminal justice process. A passenger wearing a facemask as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, interacts with her relatives upon her arrival at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport in Ahmedabad. PTI photo Akin to our military and para-military forces, Travel Security Force is the new terminology being implemented by National Agencies, Embassies and Authorities to tackle and keep Coronavirus off the country. With the news of the first case of corona-virus breaking out in India a call of action at the community level has already taken place. A group of ministers (GoM) sat together on Monday soon after the news broke out. The health minister said that while the Indian government has already suspended travel to China and Iran it will be suspending more travel visas to eliminate the probability of the outbreak. The minister further advised that Indians avoid non-essential travels or meet people from the outside world and should avoid participation in events of mass gatherings to eliminate the exposure to the deadly virus. The implementations by the Travel Security is vital and critical for India. As a country with impediments at every level we are not well prepared to tackle the epidemic of Coronavirus. When it comes to treating disease with mass proportions, we are archaic in terms of medical infrastructure, laboratory facilities and treatment and medicine accessibility. When it comes to fighting Coronavirus, precaution is best cure for India. Travel Security Forces across the World 83 countries and territories have imposed some form of travel restriction against China as of February 19. The various restrictions include: Border closures: Partial or total closure of a land border with China; this includes Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Indian territories Entry or exit bans, restricting the ability of citizens or foreigners to depart and arrive from their country for travel to China after traveling from or transiting through China; Visa restrictions, include total or partial visa suspensions or restrictions, such as halting visa-on-arrival programs, and Flight suspensions, where governments have imposed bans on flights to or from China Several countries are strictly monitoring this, as it is the first point of virus entry to their respective nations. High investment have been made to build infrastructure that will detect the virus infected suspects and their quarantine. Indias medical infrastructure China was highly praised by the WHO for its aggressive and quick approach to control 2019-nCoV. The country efficiently established a massive 645,000 sq. ft emergency hospital in the epicentre Wuhan within a span of mere 10 days. The two-storeyed hospital has 30 intensive care units (ICUs), over 1,000 beds and special corridors to restrict the patient-nurse contact. A second hospital is already in making. For India to build this infrastructure will take years to come up. Critical cases who have viral pneumonia will require supportive intensive care, including mechanical ventilation. While the Hospitals in the metro cities can still provide this, small towns and rural areas in most states will be ill-equipped to provide care. Our passive approach of medical infrastructure can be calculated by citing that in the year 2012, there was a proposal to set up 150 diagnostic and research laboratories equipped with virology-related expertise. Of these, only a mere 80 are operable now, and this number is far from adequate. These labs are stand alone and also not linked to the public health response system. India is completely of the tasks when handling a mass emergency and pursuing its priority research. This is one of the reasons why the Nipah virus reported 17 lives in Kerala in 2018. The shortage of study and research on virology and taxonomy on native bats made it difficult to understand the potency of the virus. Kerala has learnt the lesson and already declared 2019-nCoV a state calamity and has kept over 2,000 people under surveillance. A renowned school in Noida has been closed for three days already as the coronavirus scare spread a day after a students father was detected with the infection. The school is said to be undergoing fumigation and sanitisation to eliminate exposure. Implications on India If the virus does spreads in India in the same magnitude as in Wuhan, the impact on the economy, healthcare and public spirit could be calamitous. India has one of the world's highest population densities, especially when it comes to urban cities like Delhi and Mumbai. WHO recommends maintaining a 3 feet distance between individuals but this will be impossible to achieve, nor will a lockdown of the entire city be possible such as in Wuhan. We expect a shortage of food and medicines, depression, even theft, panic and misinformation. There are already some media reports of families returning to China being 'shunned'. We dont know the reality of it yet. India is among the Top 30 countries with the highest potential to get affected by this pandemic. We cannot afford to have a situation where our already overloaded hospitals are unable to provide treatment to and fight this disease. What we need to exercise is severe caution, awareness from credible sources and completely shutting away oneself from the events and occasions of mass gatherings. Participating in these will lead to exposure of contamination as the virus travels from one source to another and we never know that an affectionate or compassionate gesture may act as a catalyst to the spread. The article is authored by Mr. Michael Song, Chairman Topline India, Marketing & PR consulting firm Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Four more patients in Washington state died of coronavirus. A patient in San Antonio, Texas, was mistakenly released from isolation Saturday by the CDC before her lab results tested positive for coronavirus. She visited a mall and a hotel before she was quarantined again. And the World Health Organization reported that a dog in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus. They are urging those infected to restrict contact with pets and other animals. The Louvre in Paris has been closed due to coronavirus fears. A major car show in Geneva, Switzerland, has been canceled. Nike closed its European headquarters in the Netherlands after an employee was infected with coronavirus; the campus will be sanitized before reopening. Ive been studying pandemics from medical and historical perspectives. This morning, well look at some of what Ive discovered, then focus on a biblical principle of urgent significance today. The worldwide spread of a new disease The World Health Organization (WHO) describes a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a new disease. By this description, we are witnessing several pandemics today. The WHO estimates that there were 228 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2018, with 405,000 deaths. Almost half the worlds populationabout 3.2 billion peopleare at risk. The disease kills a child every two minutes. According to Dr. Christian W. McMillens excellent introduction to pandemics, cholera is in its seventh pandemic. It has lasted longer than any previous pandemic and shows no sign of easing. Researchers estimate that there are between 1.3 million and 4 million cases a year, with up to 143,000 deaths worldwide. Tuberculosis might be the oldest human disease, but this pandemic is still with us as well. Due to multidrug-resistant TB, extensively drug-resistant TB, poor infection control, and drug shortages, tuberculosis now kills more people than at any other time in history. And the AIDS pandemic has infected approximately 37.9 million people around the world, with 1.7 million new infections in 2018. According to the WHO, since the beginning of the epidemic, 75 million people have been infected with the HIV virus; about 32 million have died. Dr. McMillen notes that as commerce becomes more global, we can expect pandemics to rise. International trade networks and human migration via steamships and rail lines helped distribute the plague in the early twentieth century. The pandemic influenza spread of 1918 was made possible by newly built transportation and trade networks and the heightened mobility brought on by World War I. As our world becomes even more globally connected, we can expect to see more threats rise. One way Satan uses our faith against us By taking the time to read this article, you are likely a person who follows Jesus. In light of coronavirus and other pandemics, lets think about one way our enemy would use our commitment against us. Joseph was given dreams of great leadership and authority (Genesis 37:59) but found himself in slavery and then in prison before he rose to power. Daniel went from being distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps to being thrown into the lions den (Daniel 6:3, 16). Peter went from preaching at Pentecost (Acts 2) to being arrested (Acts 4:3) and beaten (Acts 5:40). Paul went from founding a church in Philippi to being beaten and jailed there (Acts 16:15, 23). Clearly, Gods people are as susceptible to pandemics and other suffering as anyone else. Heres my point. I assume that you are praying for protection from the coronavirus for yourself and your loved ones and friends. So am I. But we commit the sin of presumption when we assume that our faith obligates God to answer these prayers as we wish. It is an insidious strategy of Satan to lead us to trust our prayers more than the One to whom we pray. Rather, we should pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) but then trust our Father for what he knows is best. To you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love If anyone in the Bible could have trusted in his relationship with God more than in God, it would have been King David, the only person described by the Lord as a man after my own heart (Acts 13:22 NIV). And yet he testified, For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken (Psalm 62:12). David called his nation to join him in such dependence on God: Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us (v. 8). He knew that mortality comes to all: Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath (v. 9). And he knew not to trust material wealth: If riches increase, set not your heart on them (v. 10). He concluded: Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love (vv. 1112). As the coronavirus epidemic escalates, we can trust in our faith in God or we can trust in God, but we cannot do both. Which do you choose today? Originally posted at denisonforum.org Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is not allowing discussion in Parliament on the issue of recent violence in North-East Delhi. A statement by Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party said, "In both the Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the Mo-Sha (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) duo have given the direction to not let any discussion happen. They have been trying to kill every institution in this country. And now the attack is on the Parliament." "What is happening is unprecedented. Yesterday the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha said the Government is ready for a discussion. All the opposition parties are ready for a discussion. Floor leaders of the three largest opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha all gave notices today under 267. However, the subject was not readout," the statement said. The statement further said, "The Government does not want the subject to be readout. And now they have said that they will discuss it next week. The Home Minister was supposed to lay a paper on the table of the House. He ran away from that also. Instead, he got his junior to read and lay it." "Trinamool's notice today said the message of healing after the Delhi genocide has to go from Parliament. This is a sad state of affairs where Parliament is being treated like another back office of the BJP. But we will keep up the fight," it added. At least 47 people were killed and around 200 sustained injuries in the violence that hit North-East Delhi last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bord Gais Energy is lower its tariffs from the start of May, putting pressure on the rest of the providers to reduce costs. Electricity prices to be reduced by 4.5pc, and gas by 6.5pc, from May 1. This will save an average electricity user 37 a year, and 43 for a gas customer. Dual-fuel customers of Bord Gais will save 82 a year. The company is owned by Britains Centrica. Electric Ireland and PrePayPower have also announced small cuts. Energy experts said the reductions mean consumers were benefiting from what was called a long-overdue price way. But there was also disappointment that the cuts were not larger. This is because wholesale energy prices have fallen by 50pc in the past few months. Demand for energy is down sharply due to the coronavirus reducing demand in China. Wholesale gas prices in January were down 52pc when compared with the same month last year. However, the cuts for consumers come on the back of cumulative prices rises of between 20pc and 30pc from all the major suppliers from the middle of 2018 and early last year, according to Daragh Cassidy of product comparison site Bonkers.ie. Mr Cassidy said: For the past 15 months or so weve seen energy prices falling on wholesale markets so these decreases are long overdue. However, from mid 2018 until early 2019 we saw cumulative price increases of around 20pc to 30pc from all the major suppliers, so more decreases can be expected by consumers. There are 12 energy suppliers in the residential market. State-owned Electric Ireland is cutting its residential electricity prices by 2.5pc from April 1, and its gas prices by 11.5pc. The move will save the average electricity customer around 22 a year while the average gas customer will save around 78 on their annual bill. Dual-fuel customers of Electric Ireland will save 100 a year. And 200,000 electricity and gas customers of PrePayPower are to benefit as it is reducing its unit rate for electricity by 2.5pc from April 1, and its gas price will fall by 11.5pc. The changes will result in an average dual fuel customer realising savings of 97 a year. By Trend Azerbaijan's alternative energy potential is rather high, considering climatic conditions, Head of the Center of Economic Strategies of the New Society Institute in Russia, Dmitri Zavorotni told Trend. "The prevailing number of sunny days in summer season suggests high use efficiency of wind panels in Azerbaijan, and an average annual wind speed of 7-8 meters per second peculiar to the coast makes the development of wind energy economically profitable," he said. This seems to be apparent benefit, but we should note that for example, many European countries, actively developing wind and solar power generation, have much worse climatic conditions. The average annual wind speed in Denmark, which due to the wind provides already more than 40 percent of the total electricity supply, is noticeably lower than in Azerbaijan. Or Netherlands, being Europe's leading solar energy country, but can barely boast a large number of sunny days per year. And we know that the European green energy boom is largely provided by various types of state support. Therefore, Azerbaijan, due to its climate, has more favorable starting conditions. This is important, because alternative methods of generating energy still have a very high cost," said Zavorotni. Regarding the export of solar panels, the expert considers this a good idea, but notes that the specifics of these products should be taken into account. The price is a decisive factor here. This is important, because production equipment and components are manufactured in China or European countries. Perhaps the import costs can be covered by cheaper assembly of the equipment and components and then its quite realistic to fill a certain gap in foreign markets. Anyhow, the own production of panels should focus first of all on domestic market. This is also the launch of new generation capacities and, maybe, it is worth to consider creation of conditions for the sale of panels to the private sector," he said. Zavorotni said that alternative energy should not be either over- or underestimated. "Its main function today is to increase the efficiency of traditional energy. Wind and solar energy can save a lot on burning coal, fuel oil and gas. And due to savings, this raw material can be provided with flexible tariffs, which will allow the population and business to reduce utility costs and increase costs in other sectors of economy, being a good impetus for economic development," he said. He went on to add that hydropower sector in Azerbaijan should be modernized and developed. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz LOS ANGELES, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Gerald L. Marcus has once again been named to the "Nation's Top One Percent," a yearly list released by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel (NADC). As one of the awardees, he joins an exclusive group of attorneys from across the nation who have proven themselves effective in pre-trial negotiations and the courtroom alike. Mr. Marcus, who founded The Law Offices of Gerald L. Marcus in 1987, is pleased to once again receive recognition from the NADC. The "Nation's Top One Percent" is determined by a four-step evaluation process that begins with candidate nomination. Current NADC members may suggest high-performing attorneys for consideration, as can peers and former clients. Each nominee is evaluated on standards including education and additional training, experience levels, client outcomes and reviews, and other professional memberships or honors. Candidates must then pass two reviews: One performed by a blue-ribbon panel of attorneys selected for their high profile among other respected legal organizations, and the other by a judicial review panel that consists of former judges. The attorneys who show not only success, but also community leadership and a high standard of ethics, are included in the "Nation's Top One Percent" list of the year. Mr. Marcus' achievements include 15,000 clients represented and more than $200 million won for them. His firm consists not only of experienced attorneys, but also an investigator, a senior negotiator, and other support staff. He and his team have received recognitions including: Inclusion in the Super Lawyers list for Personal Injury Attorneys in Southern California An invitation to the Order of Distinguished Attorneys by the Beverly Hills Bar Association Named to the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers Named 2017's Best Law Firm of America The team is proud to announce this most recent honor and hopes you will join them in congratulating Mr. Marcus on his tradition of excellence. The Law Offices of Gerald L. Marcus has been representing injury victims in the Los Angeles area for over 30 years. In that time, the firm has recovered hundreds of millions for clients. Along with a robust team of personal injury litigators, The Law Offices of Gerald L. Marcus employs in-house investigators to help clarify the details of accidents and present them to judges and juries. The compassionate support injury victims receive is matched by fierce advocacy on their behalf. The Law Offices of Gerald L. Marcus offers big-firm resources that allow clients to take on big insurers and corporations and takes every case on a contingency basis. The firm can be found online at www.geraldmarcuslaw.com. SOURCE The Law Offices of Gerald L. Marcus Related Links http://www.geraldmarcuslaw.com Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth on Wednesday said that there has been no case of Covid-19 reported in Mauritius, following a meeting on the alarming situation of this disease which is spreading at a fast pace across around the world and its impact and gravity on both international and national fronts While schools try to inoculate their campuses from the threat, the emergency measures are taking an emotional toll on students who have to cut formative study aboard experiences short on little notice or miss out on exploring new countries all together. Its not clear when some of the programs will be rescheduled, if at all. German police have busted a Vietnamese migrant smuggling ring and arrested six suspects, the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany confirmed. The office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany (Photo: Steinach) Shortly after some German newspapers reported on German polices investigation into a network smuggling Vietnamese people into the country on March 3, the embassy liaised with the countrys federal police to learn about the issue. Accordingly, on early March 3, about 700 German police raided 32 sites in seven states of Germany, namely Berlin (22 sites), Hessen, Sachsen, Niedersachsen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The probe targets 13 suspects, and six key ones have been arrested. About 30 others were taken into temporary custody to verify their identities and residency status. Police also seized many evidences in the search, according to the embassy. The investigation has been conducted since June 2019 by the Berlin prosecution agency and Germanys federal police, with support from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) after German police found a truck carrying illegal Vietnamese migrants on the border with the Czech Republic in December 2018. The embassy also cited German police as saying that the ring brought at least 155 Vietnamese by road into Germany from other European countries. The smugglers charged each migrant 5,000-20,000 USD which was paid in Vietnam. The smuggling was arranged via travel, export-import and recruitment companies in Germany, Romania and Vietnam. The Vietnamese Embassy added it is contacting relevant agencies of Germany for further information about the Vietnamese and updates on the case. It also has asked local authorities to arrange visits to the Vietnamese nationals for the embassys representatives and discuss cooperation in illegal migration prevention./.VNA Essex lorry deaths: Ha Tinh police charge seven with organizing, brokering illegal emigration Police in the central province of Ha Tinh said on February 20 it has issued decisions to start criminal proceedings against seven suspects on the charge of organizing, brokering illegal emigration under Article 349 of the Penal Code. An 81-year-old woman was injured following a dog attack in League City Tuesday afternoon, according to a release from the League City Police Department. Officers were called to a scene around 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Newport Park located in the 1000 block of Newport Boulevard in League City. Witnesses said they saw two dogs that were loose in the area while the victim was walking her dog. The dogs reportedly attacked the victim's dog and then one of the dogs turned on the woman after she fell down, police said. A witness helped stopped the attack. New Zealand's deputy prime minister lashed out at Peter Dutton for 'disrespecting' Jacinda Ardern following her rant about the country's deportation laws. Winston Peters criticised Mr Dutton after the Australian Home Affairs Minister said the New Zealand Prime Minister's attack on Australia's deportation laws was a bid to gain support ahead of New Zealand's upcoming election. Ms Ardern used a joint press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week to attack the policy of deporting criminals from Australia after about 2,000 were sent back to New Zealand. 'Do not deport your people and your problems,' she said. Scroll down for video Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) was criticised by NZ deputy PM Winston Peters for his comments about Jacinda Ardern New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters (pictured) slammed Mr Dutton's comments that Ms Ardern was attacking Australia's deportation laws for political gain The Home Affairs Minister said her comments were 'regrettable' but he did not back down from the policy. 'I sleep well at night knowing that deporting pedophiles from our shores mean more Australian children won't fall victim to that pedophile,' Mr Dutton told The Australian on Tuesday. 'And I'd want to make sure that we have a great migration system.' Mr Peters rejected claims that Ms Ardern brought up the deportations for her own political gain. 'He's wrong...Of all countries, Australia should understand the unfairness of deportation for so-called crime reasons,' he told ABC radio. 'Australians believe in a fair go. And fair play. If they knew what was going on here, I think they wouldn't support it either. 'When you send back people who have been in Australia since year one or year two, you've lost the plot.' He then said New Zealanders didn't abuse Australia following the horrific Christchurch terrorist attack which saw 51 Muslims killed. However, Mr Dutton said Ms Ardern should focus on the interest of her people while he focuses on Australians. 'If you're born in Australia and you commit an offence in any part of the world, you can expect to be deported back to Australia, and that's the responsibility of any sovereign nation,' he said on Sky News. 'But for us, we have 99 per cent of people who come here who do the right thing. 'But if you're a non-citizen coming to our country and you're assaulting an Australian, you're breaking in, you're stealing... then you can expect to have your visa cancelled and be deported.' 04.03.2020 LISTEN That Ghana lacks money to fund the prevention and containment of COVID-19 is obvious to the whole world. For a well-endowed nation that is a real tragedy. We must definitely end the high-level corruption that enables a powerful and greedy few to siphon off trillions of cedis that could be used to prevent and contain such public health emergencies, into private pockets. The time has now come for Ghana's greedy vampire-elites to understand clearly that the era when they could get away with stealing trillions of cedis on a regular basis is over. For good. Full stop. Perhaps we can signal that by demanding that Airbus compensates Ghana to the tune of 5 million immediately to start a COVID-19 fund - for bribing Ghanaian officials: to enable Airbus' previous management sell three secondhand military transport planes (the total prices of which were padded) to our nation. The crime against humanity that high-level corruption represents is responsible for the situation in which as we speak millions of ordinary people across Ghana have no running water in their homes. That is no longer acceptable - as that makes regular hand-washing impracticable for many: a situation that puts their lives at risk during flu pandemics, for example. We must plan to become a well-ordered and disciplined society in which access to well-designed and well-built affordable-accommodation, is a basic human right guaranteed by the Constitution.The state must ensure that all Ghanaians can live in well-planned cutting-edge sustainable green cities, towns and villages nationwide - by making provision for them this decade. That should be our priority. Full stop. We can fund it by ending high-level corruption and making sure that the tax net is widened - by lowering it to the point where all working adults (in both the formal and informal sectors of our national economy) can easily afford to pay their fair share of personal income tax: and linking that to access to free senior high school, free high-quality healthcare and access to truly affordable well-designed and well-built accommodation in planned green communities. Simple. Sent from Samsung tablet. Amid another tumultuous day, Lok Sabha has passed the Vivad se Vishwas Bill, which aims to settle pending direct tax disputes in the country. The bill was passed with certain amendments before the Lower House was adjourned amid clamour over Delhi violence. The Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020, was tabled before Parliament on March 2. First proposed in Union Budget 2020, the Bill was approved by the Union Cabinet on February 12. It seeks to provide taxpayers a lucrative opportunity to settle direct tax disputes within the current financial year by waiving interest and penalty on their pending taxes. The Vivad se Vishwas Bill aims to resolve 4.83 lakh direct tax cases worth Rs 9.32 lakh crore that are currently locked up in various appellate forums such as Commissioner (Appeals), ITAT, High Courts, Supreme Court and Debt Recovery Tribunals. Also, once the Bill is passed by the Parliament, it can be availed in search and seizure operations with recoveries up to Rs 5 crore. Under the Vivad se Vishwas scheme, taxpayers willing to settle disputes shall be allowed a complete waiver of interest and penalty if they pay the entire amount of tax in dispute by March 31,2020. Beyond this date, a 10 per cent additional disputed tax shall have to be paid over and above the tax liability. Further, where arrears relate to disputed interest or penalty only, then 25 per cent of disputed penalty or interest shall have to be paid if the payment is made by March 31, 2020, beyond which the same shall be enhanced to 30 per cent. The Vivad se Vishwas scheme would remain open till June 30, 2020. ALSO READ: Over 4.78 lakh IT appeals pending at the end of FY 2018-19 ALSO READ: Direct tax collection stood at Rs 7.52 lakh crore in April-January ALSO READ: Budget session of parliament resumes today; key issues on agenda ALSO READ: Budget 2020: Vivad Se Vishwas Bill - moving towards a disputeless tax regime Year 9 students whose numeracy and literacy NAPLAN scores put them in the top band in the country, or who significantly improve on their year 7 scores, will this year be recognised with a certificate of achievement. Students in the top NAPLAN band will be rewarded with a certificate of excellence. Credit:Adam McLean The Andrews government will introduce the certificates this year in an attempt to give year 9 students a reason to care about NAPLAN and lift flagging results. Students are due to sit the NAPLAN test in May and receive their results in August and September. Certificates will be given to those whose results put them in band 10 the highest achievement band or who improve on their year 7 scores by at least two bands. Staff working at Crufts say they are astonished the event is going ahead amid the coronavirus outbreak. Workers fear the prestigious event, attended by 160,000 people from all over the world, will be the perfect breeding ground to spread the deadly Covid-19 bug. They are concerned that while smaller events across the country have been cancelled or postponed - yet organisers from Crufts want it to go ahead. So far 89 victims have been diagnosed and Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty suggesting that deaths are 'highly likely' in coming weeks. Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt walks with dogs at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre Birmingham, to launch the forthcoming Crufts Dog Show, which begins tomorrow The event will go ahead despite anger from staff that it hasn't been cancelled or postponed until later in the summer over fears so many people gathering may spread coronavirus Speaking to MailOnline, a contractor who will be exhibiting at the show, said: 'I don't know why it's still on. At a time when we're trying to stop coronavirus spreading, it seems highly illogical for an event with so many people from around the world to go ahead. 'I'm a fairly rational person who is not prone to bouts of panic but to me cancelling the event, or at least postponing it until the summer, seems the only sensible move. 'I realise this is last minute and not ideal and that people, who have already paid their registration fees, hotel bills and in some cases flights, will lose out financially but it isn't entirely without precedence. The Kennel Club postponed the 2001 Crufts due to an outbreak of foot and mouth.' They added: 'I will be going tomorrow because I feel like I don't really have much choice as my employer hasn't really taken much notice of the fears around Corona Virus. I suspect many people will be in the same position. 'That is why I believe The Kennel Club should be held to account. The risk to health really outweighs any other factors and Crufts simply should not be going ahead especially this weekend which is expected to be one of the coldest of the year.' Madeleine Fear has her work cut out as she prepares her adventurous, mud-loving bearded collie dog for Crufts. The show has 27,000 dogs in attendance, 366 of which will be from Italy A woman whose husband is reluctantly working at the show added: 'Why is it still going ahead when other events, like the London Book Fair, have been cancelled, I am assuming its financial reasons? 'My husband has no choice but to work at the show, if he contracts Covid-19 I will hold The Kennel Club personally responsible as I am sure will thousands of other people who involved with the event will. 'There are apparently around 300-registrations for Crufts from dog breeders in Italy, the country worst hit by the virus outside of China. 'Looking at social media, lots of people are now planning to stay away due to these fears. That could mean that companies spending thousands on exhibition stalls and putting staff up in hotels could actually lose money if footfall is drastically reduced.' The four-day Crufts show, a staple ingredient of British society since 1891, will see nearly 27,000 dogs from 200 breeds from around the world, including from countries more severely hit by the virus, gather at the NEC in Birmingham. Of the total number of dog entries, 3,000 come abroad with 366 of them coming from Italy, which has been the European epicentre of the virus outbreak with 79 deaths from 2,502 confirmed cases. Crufts hasn't been told to cancel the show by Public Health England despite the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rising to 89 in the UK. Pictured: Dylan sits with Kathleen Roosens The Kennel Club has said it has not been advised by Public Health England to cancel but there would be enhanced measures to protect the public including an additional 3,000 hand gels at the venue. On its official website the Kennel Club said in a statement: 'Public Health England has not advised us to cancel the event. We are looking forward to welcoming our exhibitors and visitors as usual.' Outlining additional special measures for sanitation, the organisers added: 'We are ensuring all exhibitors are aware of current travel restrictions and guidelines, and adhere to these. 'All individuals without exception are expected to abide by the advice of their relevant governments and national and international laws with regard to self-isolation and restrictions on travel.' The Kennel Club added that it was aware of speculation that a pet dog in Hong Kong had tested weak positive for Covid-19 but said: 'There are ongoing tests to determine whether this is due to environmental contamination and at this stage there is no change to the veterinary guidance.' The World Health Organisation says there is no evidence that companion pets such as dogs or cats can be infected with the new coronavirus. Organisers were reluctant to cancel this year's event at short notice with so many fans having paid for flights and hotels. Pictured: Ricky the poodle showing off with owner Jason Lynn Bill Lambert, health and welfare manager at The Kennel Club, said dogs from affected area like Italy and China will not be welcome at the event. Crufts will be aired on Channel 4 and offshoot More 4 over the four days. The coverage will again be hosted by Clare Balding while reality TV star Scarlett Moffat will present a new YouTube show called Crufts Extra. Businessman James Middleton, brother of Kate Middleton, will also be in attendance at this year's event presenting a 5,000 prize to the winner of the prestigious Friends for Life award. Other events have been hit by the Coronavirus outbreak. The London Book Fair, scheduled to take place between 10th and 12th of March at the Kensington Olympia and attended by up to 25,000 people, was cancelled after major publishers said they would not attend. Gandhinagar, March 5 : A young woman, suspected to be infected with coronavirus, was discharged from the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Wednesday after her reports came out clear. The 23-year-old Ahmedabad resident, came under suspicion of infection at the screening lounge at the Ahmedabad International Airport upon her return from Singapore. She was immediately rushed by the authorities to the Ahmedabad civil hospital, which has been been made a base hospital for suspected coronavirus patients. After keeping her under observation and after her diagnosis of her sample, she was found to be virus free as the reports were were negative. According to the sources, she was discharged from the hospital later in the evening. Boden, Sweden--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Hydro66 Holdings Corp. (CSE: SIX) (OTCQB: HYHDF) ("Hydro66" or the "Company"), the ultra-low emissions cloud infrastructure provider, is delighted to announce a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) cloud computing customer, offering services from their award-winning Boden data center. Puzl, an Estonia-based AI company brings a new technical and economic proposition to the AI community - container as a service cloud computing at a market beating price. Nik Paushkin, founder and CEO of Puzl said "It's increasingly obvious that all industries must take advantage of AI and ML (Machine Learning) or fall behind more nimble competitors. However, there are significant barriers for all except the most expert developers to do so. Puzl are democratising and simplifying the user experience with 'GPU as code', bringing a new price point and container-based functionality to the general developer community." Estonia is rapidly emerging as the AI centre of Europe with strategic government support and funding for numerous public and private sector initiatives. These include prediction modelling for road traffic, job seekers, healthcare needs and many more. David Rowe Hydro66 CEO said "Our Enterprise-grade facility in the north of Sweden is an ideal location for High Performance Computing activities with our combination of industry leading ultra-low carbon emissions and attractive pricing models. Puzl are a highly innovative AI infrastructure company that we believe are set to grow rapidly with their containerised software driven platform and an ideal fit for our hugely scalable facility in Boden." About Puzl Puzl is a new-generation Container as a Service platform, resulting from their vision on cloud computing. Puzl empowers a true cloud usage "pay only for running containers" model, without any VM layer or cluster administration, but with access to scale GPU clusters via Kubernetes API. With a few clicks in a simple GUI, developers can train and deploy AI and ML models using many popular frameworks such as TensorFlow, Pytorch or Keras. To learn more about Puzl, please visit https://puzl.ee/ or email contact@puzl.ee. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Paul Morrison Chief Commercial Officer, Hydro66 paul.morrison@hydro66.com Jason Atkinson Director, Corporate Development jason.atkinson@hydro66.com About Hydro66 Hydro66 owns and operates an award-winning colocation data center in Sweden specializing in High Performance Computing ("HPC") hosting. The Company hosts third party IT infrastructure, utilizing 100% green power, at amongst the EU's lowest power prices and within an ISO27001 accredited facility. Hydro66 is uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities in blockchain infrastructure as well as the traditional Enterprise colocation data center market. The Company provides truly green power at a leading price, purpose-built space and cooling, telecoms, IT support services and 24/7 physical security in their facility in Boden, Sweden. www.hydro66.com Forward-Looking Information Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53145 The United Nations Women (UN Women) have declared 2020 as a year for gender equality, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the global entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women stated. She said: the benefits of gender equality are not just for women and girls, but for everyone, whose lives will be changed by a fairer world that leaves no one behind. Its the year for what we call Generation Equality. With the leadership of civil society, were mobilising to realise womens rights, and to mark 25 years of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka stated in a document to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday stressing that; Generation Equality tackles issues of women across generations, from early to late years, with young women and girls at the centre. The UN Women Executive Director expressed concern that even though there were progress, no country had achieved gender equality. Our best hasn't been good enough. Challenges remain for all countries, although many of them are not insurmountable. Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka noted that, despite improved school enrolment, one-in-10 young women today are still unable to read and write. This has to change in order for girls to fully own their power, take their place in the world, and play their vital role in technology and innovation. Another priority target for our impatience is the lack of women at the tables of power. Three-quarters of all parliamentarians in the world are men. A proven solution is to introduce legally binding quotas for womens representation. The UN Women Executive Director stressed that nearly 80 countries had successfully done so and a few States had gender-balanced cabinets and explicitly feminist policies. This is a desirable trend that we need to see more of in both public and private sectors, where overall the proportion of women in managerial positions remains around 27 per cent, even as more women graduate from universities, she said. Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said the same went for women at the peace table, where the vast majority of the negotiators and signatories were men. We know womens involvement brings more lasting peace agreements, but women continue to be marginalised. Women groups and human rights defenders face persecution, yet were ready to do more. For this they desperately need increased security, funding and resources. Unmoving economic inequality is a bane to gender equality as women and girls use triple the time and energy of boys and men to look after the household that costs them equal opportunities in education, in the job market and in earning power, she lamented. Its a driver of repeating poverty. Young women raising families are 25 per cent more likely than men to live in extreme poverty, affecting millions of young children, with impacts that last into later life for both mother and child. The solution includes; good policies that promote more equality in childcare responsibilities and that provide state support to families, and those who work in the informal economy, she said. She said though we are radically impatient, we are not giving up and we are hopeful. We have growing support from allies and partners who are ready to tackle barriers against gender equality. Lessons learnt in the last 25 years have shown us what is needed to accelerate action for equality. Generation Equality is one of our answers and together, we are that generation. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday (March 3) handed over Rs 5 lakh cheque to CRPF jawan Bablu Santras family who was martyred in the Pulwama terror attack in 2019. Dhankar visited the residence of martyred CRPF hawaldar Bablu Santras family at Bauria in Howrah district of West Bengal. The Governor handed over the cheque from his discretionary fund to Mita Santra, wife of martyred jawan Santra. Santra was one of the 40 CRPF personnel martyred in the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019. Both the Governor and the first lady stayed for more than half an hour and spent time with the family members of Santra. It is our national duty to take care of the families of our martyrs who have laid their life for our safety and the countrys integrity. We must always salute them. I call upon people to be ever respectful to the family of our martyrs who have made supreme sacrifice for us and the nation, said Dhankhar. Later in the day, he attended a cultural programme at Chengail High School and interacted with the students and staff members. The First Lady handed over sanitary vending machines and incinerator to the school authorities. The Governor indicated that he would be visiting Nadia district of West Bengal on March 20, 2020 to present the cheque to the family of another Martyr jawan Sudip Biswas. A senior Republican senator has told Donald Trump to let the professionals do the talking after the president repeatedly contradicted medical experts in recent weeks. Mr Trump has sought to downplay the threat posed by coronavirus in the US, even as public health officials have warned of the potential for a serious outbreak. The president has said a vaccine for the virus could be available relatively soon, despite experts saying it will take at least a year to produce one, and last week suggested virus cases were going very substantially down, not up as officials recorded numbers increasing. Republican senator Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate health committee, has intervened to assert that nonpolitical public health officials should be leading the response to the virus. My advice to the president and the vice president is let the professionals do the talking, Mr Alexander said. Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have said Mr Trumps comments are undermining the work of his administrations medical experts. It is pretty extraordinary that we have to have our medicine and health professionals counter-messaging the president ... that they have to correct the record, Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, told a hearing on Tuesday. Earlier this week, Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, accused Mr Trump of downplaying the threat posed by the outbreak. Even now, President Trump seems to be spending more of his time blaming the media, and blaming the Democrats, than being constructive. In fact, he blames everyone not named Donald Trump, Mr Schumer said. We know the history of how these viruses spread and work. When you deny them, when you dont let people know whats happening and what to do about it, things get worse. Mr Trump casually described coronavirus as an issue that has got the world aflutter but insisted itll work out at a meeting of the National Association of Counties on Tuesday. However, the presidents optimism has not been backed up by his experts, such as Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Dr Fauci made it clear that neither coronavirus treatment nor a vaccine would be ready quickly, with potential treatment likely to come before a vaccine. He said the pharmaceutical company Gilead was testing a potential treatment but officials would only know in a few months if it was effective. Dr Fauci added data from China showed 80 per cent of people who get infected do really quite well and recover without any medical treatment, while 10 to 15 per cent get seriously ill, particularly those in high-risk groups such as the elderly or patients with other medical problems. He also reiterated a vaccine would take at least a year to a year and a half to be produced. Mr Alexander has argued it is better for senators to hear updates on the virus from public health officials to avoid partisan politics coming into play. The more we listen to the heads of those agencies, I think the better. Because if the administration talks too much people think that its taking credit, the Republican senator said. But if the Democrats talk too much theyll think theyre playing politics. US health officials have confirmed nine deaths from coronavirus, all in Washington state, and more than 100 cases across the country, as of Wednesday morning. Additional reporting by AP Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 13:01:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A technology and innovation center established by the University of Cambridge in China has donated 50,000 medical masks to aid the country's novel coronavirus combat. Those masks have been delivered to hospitals and epidemic prevention and control medical personnel, said the Cambridge University-Nanjing Center of Technology and Innovation. Located in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, the center donated most of the masks to hospitals including Jiangsu Province Hospital and a makeshift hospital in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus. "These supplies really came in time and filled the shortage of masks in the hospital," said Zhang Weizhong, department director with the Jiangsu Province Hospital, noting that the epidemic has led to a sharp increase of demand in medical supplies. "No one can be alone in the epidemic, and we should work with everyone to participate in this fight," said Chu Daping, a professor with the University of Cambridge and also head of the center. "As the University of Cambridge's first joint research institute in China, the center is not only a research institution with a global perspective but also a bridge of friendship between China and Britain," he added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Trevor Hunnicutt and John Whitesides (Reuters) Oakland, California Wed, March 4, 2020 06:18 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20680df12 2 World Joe-Biden,Super-Tuesday,US-presidential-election,US-presidential-race,Democratic-party,Donald-Trump Free US Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden took his resurgent campaign to California on Tuesday in a last-minute push to blunt front-runner Bernie Sanders' momentum as Americans voted in the largest round of state nominating contests. California, the most populous state, is a tantalizing prize in Super Tuesday elections in 14 states that are the first national test for candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Biden aims to muscle aside upstart Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, and consolidate support from moderates. He has been re-energized since a blowout win in South Carolina on Saturday, and polls show him gaining in some states on Sanders, a democratic socialist. Early exit polls by Edison Research showed relatively few voters in California and second-biggest state Texas, about two in 10, made up their minds in the last few days, which could minimize Biden's recent momentum. But in Virginia and Massachusetts, about half of voters decided recently while one third of voters in North Carolina decided in the last few days, the polls showed. Voting on Tuesday was taking place against the backdrop of an escalating political and economic crisis over the global outbreak of coronavirus, which has infected some 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,000, mostly in China. Super Tuesday voters named healthcare as their leading issues, and more than half support a government-run single-payer system, Sanders' signature proposal, the exit polling showed. While campaigning in a diner in Oakland, Calif., Biden told a voter that "hopes are high" that he would meet the 15% threshold needed to collect delegates in liberal California. Failure to do so could cement Sanders' lead in the race. Sanders, a US senator from Vermont who has vowed to make the wealthy and corporations assume a heavier tax burden, is hoping progressives, Latinos and young voters turn out to make his second bid for the Democratic nomination successful. But fewer than two of 10 voters in the Super Tuesday states are first-time primary voters, the polls showed. Sanders has argued his grassroots political revolution would ignite a surge of new voters. Sanders has heavily outspent Biden on ads and in building a campaign organization in the Golden State, where 415 delegates will be awarded. At least 1,991 delegates are needed to become the nominee at the party's convention in July. The rush of primary elections on Tuesday, in which one-third of the delegates are up for grabs, may provide some clarity in a muddled race with several candidates rising and falling, leaving many Democratic voters torn and uncertain. Biden, who was President Barack Obama's vice president, has emerged as a top threat since his South Carolina win on Saturday opened the floodgates on endorsements from Democratic officials worried that Sanders' proposals to restructure the economy would doom the party's prospects in November. Biden is trying to build a bridge between progressive Democrats' desire for big structural change and more moderate Democrats yearning for a candidate who will be able to win over enough independents and Republicans to oust Trump. That effort gained fresh momentum on the eve of Tuesday's voting as moderate presidential rivals Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, endorsed Biden after withdrawing from the race. Leslie Cohen, a retired teacher in Sacramento, California, said she had planned to support Buttigieg but would now vote for Biden. "Once he dropped out and Amy Klobuchar dropped out, my decision was made because I dont want Bernie Sanders. I dont think he can beat Trump, Cohen said. Siphoning votes Biden's goal on Tuesday will be to stay within reach of Sanders in the delegate count, giving him a chance to make up ground as the campaign possibly becomes a two-candidate race. Tennessee is one of the states where Biden hopes to do well on Tuesday. A powerful, killer tornado in the Nashville area delayed the opening of polls there by an hour, and forced officials to relocate some polling locations. The billionaire Bloomberg remains a wild card as he joins the competition for the first time. The moderate skipped the first four contests and spent more than $500 million of his own money to bombard Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads, but has seen his poll numbers slip after a poor first debate. Asked by a reporter in Miami if he thought he risked spoiling Bidens chances of winning the nomination, Bloomberg responded: You think Im going to siphon (votes) from him? Hes siphoning them from me." Jeff Sunderland, 39, of Arlington, Virginia, said he voted for Sanders because he believes more needs to be done to improve the plight of workers. I think that the working people of this country deserve better from our government," he said. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was briefly the front-runner in the race last year, also remains in the hunt and hopes to score a victory in her home state of Massachusetts. Opinion polls show her trailing in other states. The pace of the Democratic race begins to accelerate after Super Tuesday, with 11 more states voting by the end of March. By then, nearly two-thirds of the delegates will have been allotted. Sanders lead Sanders headed into Tuesday with 60 delegates to Biden's 54 in the state-by-state nominating fight. Sanders managed a virtual tie with Buttigieg in Iowa and wins in New Hampshire and Nevada. Besides leading in polls in California, Sanders also is ahead of Biden by a smaller margin in polls in Texas. Sanders' strength with Hispanics should pay dividends in that state, where Latinos comprise one-third of the Democratic electorate. Biden, whose South Carolina win affirmed his popularity with black voters, hopes to win five states where African Americans make up at least a quarter of the Democratic electorate: Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas. Other states voting on Tuesday are Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Utah. The US territory of American Samoa was holding a caucus contest, and Democrats living abroad began voting in a primary set to run until March 10. The first polls will close in Vermont and Virginia at 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT). The last will close in California at 8 p.m. PST (0400 GMT on Wednesday). The next contests, on March 10, will be in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington state. Toronto police are investigating after their two collision reporting centres were vandalized overnight, with one being forced to shut down until late Wednesday afternoon. Toronto firefighters responded to a fire at the East Collision Reporting Centre at 39 Howden Rd., near Lawrence Avenue East and Birchmount Road, in Scarborough at around 12:50 a.m. Wednesday. They were called following reports of alarms ringing. Once crews arrived on scene, they found the carpet inside the building on fire and the glass doors smashed. The fire was contained to the lobby area. Crews quickly put out the fire out and got rid of the smoke in the building, according to a Toronto Fire Services spokesperson. The centre wasnt opened until after 4 p.m. Wednesday. Toronto police also reported that the North Collision Reporting Centre at 113 Toryork Drive, near Weston Road and Finch Avenue West, was vandalized. A smashed window and an object doused with an accelerant inside the building was found at about 6 a.m., police said. But no fire erupted. Police would not say if the two cases were linked. Professional fire departments along the Texas-Mexico border region will be sharing $1 million in grant funding through the Border Zone Fire Department (BZFD) program, according to the office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The funds will provide specialized equipment, maintenance, and medical supplies to support emergency services associated with the execution of border security activities, including: Watercraft (boats) and related equipment (personal flotation devices, tow tethers, etc.) which allow fire departments to assist in border operations along the Rio Grande River; Extrication equipment (Jaws of Life cutter, spreader, ram) for vehicle accidents often related to high-speed pursuits involving human smuggling attempts; and Chemical detectors/identifiers and communications equipment for responding to cartel terrorism involving hazardous materials (HAZMAT) situations. Local jurisdictions receiving funding through the BZFD program include Brownsville, El Paso, Hidalgo, La Grulla, Laredo, Mercedes, Palmview, Rio Grande City, Robstown, Roma, San Juan and Jim Hogg County. The Governors Homeland Security Grants Division (HSGD) administers the state-funded Border Zone Fire Department program, which was created during the 86th Legislative Session. HSGD posted the request for applications under the BZFD last fall and completed its review of proposed projects after consulting with the Texas Commission on Fire Protection (TCFP) and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Rep. Oscar Longoria (District 35), vice-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was instrumental in securing funds for the BZFD. Topics Texas The General Department for Market Surveillance has recently set up a working team on e-commerce to deal with the increasing number of trade violations online. Hanoi market-watch team checks masks sold in a medicine wholesale market on Nguyen Huy Tuong Street. (Photo: cafef) The department, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the amount of banned goods, counterfeit goods, goods that infringe intellectual property rights, goods of unknown origin and poor-quality goods on e-commerce websites was alarming. It said that the illegal trading had affected the whole society and badly hurt consumer confidence. In 2019, market-watch teams found 2,213 violations when they checked 2,400 cases. They handed out fines worth more than 57 billion VND (2.45 million USD) for those cases and to websites which operated and processed the trading of violating goods. To better handle the violations, the departments director issued Decision No. 368/Q-TCQLTT on the establishment of the Working Team on E-commerce (Team 368) with the task of advising and assisting the director in e-commerce management. According to the decision, Team 368 will inspect, control and urge compliance with legal provisions on trade nationwide. It is also responsible for coordinating the inspection and handling of cases or transferring documents to agencies and functional forces to handle cases and violations related to activities of market management in e-commerce. Under cooperation with the Department of Electronic Commerce and Digital Economy to supervise the online stalls which sell face masks and hand sanitiser products that help protect people from the Covid-19 epidemic, the department checked 75,000 stalls on the e-commerce websites of Sendo.vn, Shopee.vn, Lazada.vn, Tiki.vn, chotot.com, vatgia.com, fado.vn. By March 2, they found and removed 8,900 sellers offering 23,000 violating products. According to data released by German market research firm Statista, in 2019, Vietnams e-commerce revenue reached more than 2.96 billion USD. The firm also estimated that the e-commerce this year could reach 3.385 billion USD. Vietnam was on the list of the six most developed e-commerce countries. Local data also showed that 85 percent of the Vietnamese population use the internet, ranking 13th among the 20 countries with the highest proportion of internet users in the world last year./.VNA Trade Ministry fines online sellers hiking prices of face masks and hand sanitiser Sellers hiking the prices of face masks and hand sanitiser on some e-commerce websites have been fined. Boris Johnson has refused to say if he was aware of bullying allegations against Priti Patel when he brought her back to the cabinet after a previous scandal. The prime minister ducked the question as Jeremy Corbyn condemned what he suggested appeared to be a shocking and unacceptable pattern of behaviour by the beleaguered home secretary. Sitting alongside Ms Patel, the prime minister instead offered her his staunch support, insisting she was doing an outstanding job and adding: I am sticking by her. The Labour leader seized on the revelation that Ms Patel has been accused of bullying staff at a third government department. On each occasion, tens of thousands of pounds of hard-earned taxpayers money has been spaffed up the wall to buy their silence, Mr Corbyn alleged. Was the prime minister aware of these allegations and, if he was, why did he appoint her? Mr Johnson swerved the question, saying: The home secretary is doing an outstanding job. If there are allegations, of course it is right that they should be properly investigated by the Cabinet Office and that is what has happened. Later, the prime minister declined to say whether Ms Patel would be expected to resign if the inquiry led by the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill finds that she has breached the ministerial code of conduct. Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Show all 17 1 /17 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Sajid Javid Resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Javids departure comes just one month before a crucial budget, intended to chart the course for the new government and makes him the shortest-serving chancellor for more than 50 years Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Rishi Sunak Promoted from Chief Secretary to the Treasury to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the dramatic resignation of Sajid Javid Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Esther McVey Sacked as housing minister AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Andrea Leadsom Sacked as business secretary EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Alok Sharma Appointed business secretary (previously international development secretary). He has also been put in charge of the UKs COP26 climate change summit PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox Resigned as the government's most senior law officer AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Suella Braverman Appointed Attorney General and she will attend cabinet EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Theresa Villiers Sacked as environment secretary PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: George Eustice Appointed environment, food and rural affairs secretary. He was a farming and fisheries minister Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Anne-Marie Trevelyan Appointed international development secretary (previously parliamentary under-secretary for defence) Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Julian Smith Sacked as Northern Ireland secretary Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Brandon Lewis Appointed Secretary of Northern Ireland Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Stephen Barclay Appointed chief secretary to the Treasury PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Oliver Dowden Appointed culture secretary, succeeding Nicky Morgan Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Chris Skidmore Sacked as eucation minister Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Nus Ghani Sacked as transport minister Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: George Freeman Sacked as transport minister Getty Instead, he said he would take no lessons from a Labour Party stained by the driving out of several MPs in the antisemitism scandal, while insisting that he loathed bullying. The dangers for Mr Johnson are rising, as the inquiry he has ordered will examine all complaints made against Ms Patel in her various jobs. Furthermore, the staff who have attacked her behaviour at the Department for International Development are reported to be ready to give evidence at Philip Rutnams tribunal hearing. One cabinet minister told the BBCs Newsnight programme that the situation threatened to turn into Armageddon for the prime minister who may himself be required to give evidence. Significantly, Mr Johnson stationed the home secretary alongside him on the Commons front bench and said: "She is keeping this country safe ... She is bringing in a system to tackle our migration crisis. Following the exchange in parliament, Labour said civil servants from the Home Office and other departments had approached Mr Corbyns office over the past 24 hours with new bullying allegations. These relate to Priti Patel and another former minister, the Labour leaders spokesperson said. These are bullying and harassment allegations from government staff. They simply build up the picture that has already accumulated over recent days, they said, while declining to reveal the details. Earlier, a Home Office spokesperson said: The home secretary categorically rejects all of these allegations. ALBANY Roughly 300 students and staff from the State University of New York and the City University of New York studying abroad in China, Italy, Iran, Japan and South Korea are being brought home immediately and the programs in those countries have been suspended in response to concerns about novel coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday morning. All five countries have either been issued a Level 2 or Level 3 travel notice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Upon their return to New York, the students and staff will begin a 14-day quarantine period as a precautionary measure, Cuomo said. "As we continue to see a rise in cases of novel coronavirus around the world, we are taking every precaution necessary and mobilizing our public health system to protect New Yorkers," Cuomo said at a press briefing. "It's important that facts outweigh fear, and the reality is we are getting the testing done, getting the information out and deploying healthcare resources to treat people who need it, so I am reminding New Yorkers that there is no reason for undue anxiety and the general risk remains low in New York." The decision was made based on recommendations from the state Department of Health and comes as New York announces four more confirmed cases of COVID-19, as the disease caused by the virus is known, bringing the number of those infected with the respiratory illness in the state to six. SUNY is currently arranging chartered flights from South Korea, Italy and Japan to New York Stewart International Airport in Newburgh in the coming days. Upon arrival and in accordance with DOH guidelines, local and state health representatives will screen passengers and SUNY will arrange their transportation to unoccupied SUNY campus dormitories in Utica, Rome, Long Island and Western, NY to begin the 14-day quarantines. SUNY and CUNY will work closely with campuses, the health department, and local health departments to provide medical monitoring, remote course study, and other resources during the quarantine period. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "With close coordination with the New York Department of Health and the safety and health of our students, faculty and staff overseas in mind, we are suspending study abroad programs in impacted countries and have directed our SUNY family to return home," SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson said. "We will provide students with financial and academic resources and work to minimize any disruption today's action may cause, while we work aggressively with all our partners at the local, state and federal level to protect our entire campus communities." SUNY and CUNY have canceled campus-sponsored travel outside of the United States to impacted countries for the spring semester. The university systems will continue to review CDC guidance and work closely with DOH to make additional determinations on upcoming travel. If the U.S. Air Force absolutely needs to use its new, but troubled KC-46 Pegasus tanker in a time of war, it will. But the aircraft won't really be ready for three or four more years, according to the service's top general. Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the Boeing-made tanker requires a "serious fix" to its Remote Vision System (RVS), a critical capability that permits the in-flight operator to view the refueling system below the tanker. The service is working with the company, "targeting the [2023/2024] timeframe to have a fix in place," he added. "If we were in a major contingency, every KC-46 would be put into the fight," Goldfein told lawmakers. "We're comfortable that it's capable of doing operations in a high-end fight -- even with the deficiency." He clarified, "I would not put it into day-to-day operations, but I would put it into a high-end fight." Related: Pentagon Should Explore Renting Refuelers Amid KC-46 Delays, General Says Goldfein's comments revealed that the tanker's expected readiness has been pushed back at least another year. Last year, Gen. Maryanne Miller, head of Air Mobility Command, said the tanker would likely be ready to deploy to a combat zone sometime in 2022. The KC-46's problems -- along with the retirement of aging KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender aircraft -- were a hot topic of discussion during the hearing, as lawmakers expressed concern that repairs to the plagued tanker are not happening fast enough. "Three or four years doesn't sound like time is of the essence to me," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire. The state is home to Pease Air National Guard Base, which hosts tankers. Furthermore, there could be a global gap in operationally available tankers if the Air Force retires its legacy refuelers faster than the KC-46 comes to flight lines, Shaheen and other lawmakers argued. "We are meeting every day on that topic," Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said. "It is really one of the highest priorities in the building." Tanker Gaps, More Foreign Object Debris Last month, the head of U.S. Transportation Command called on the Air Force to slow the retirement of more than 20 aerial refueling tankers slated to be cut in its fiscal 2021 budget request, saying doing so is necessary to reduce stress on overtasked aircrews while the service works with Boeing to fix the KC-46. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons told lawmakers that 13 KC-135 Stratotankers and 10 KC-10 Extenders "must be retained" out of the 29 tankers that the Air Force plans to cut. A House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday also focused on tanker retirements and potential availability gap. "Until the RVS challenge is fixed, the Air Force is not going to commit to using the KC-46A," said Rep. Kendra Horn, a Democrat from Oklahoma. "So I'm concerned about that readiness issue there." Oklahoma is home to Stratotankers and the KC-46 at Altus Air Force Base. The KC-46 has had many problems, including issues with how the boom connects and disconnects from specific aircraft; foreign object debris (FOD), such as trash, tools, nuts and bolts, found scattered inside multiple planes; a recently rectified problem with faulty cargo locks; and a glitch in its Remote Vision System software. Currently, the glitch in the Collins Aerospace-made system doesn't allow an airman to look at a clear, aligned visual of the boom connecting to another aircraft. The first tankers were delivered to the Air Force in 2019 despite that problem. "The longer we wait to get that aircraft operational, the longer we're having to extend KC-135s, KC-10s," Goldfein told the Senate committee Tuesday. In order to avoid tanker gaps, the Air Force hopes to better schedule crews operating in high-demand areas such as the Middle East, according to Miller. "We're using scheduling tools to try to be more efficient in the way we schedule tankers, downrange and even within the States," she told Military.com last week. The Air Force has accepted 31 tankers to date, she said. Miller described the ongoing discussions about the RVS with Boeing as "intense," but added there are still other errors, such as FOD. "As far as FOD, Boeing has improved, but they are not perfect yet," she said. "There's still small amounts of FOD that are getting through their process. "We monitor Boeing and their processes, and the amount of FOD has greatly decreased but it's still there," Miller said. As a result, the Air Force will withhold some funding to the company as long as the issue persists, she said. "It may take a couple years for their process to be clean, but it's much much better than what it was in the past," Miller added. Editor's note: Collins Aerospace makes cameras, sensors and displays for the Remote Vision System. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Read more: Army and Marines to Arm Snipers with Special Operations Multi-Caliber Sniper Rifle A small step for atoms, a giant leap for microelectronics HOUSTON - (March 4, 2020) - Step by step, scientists are figuring out new ways to extend Moore's Law. The latest reveals a path toward integrated circuits with two-dimensional transistors. A Rice University scientist and his collaborators in Taiwan and China reported in Nature today that they have successfully grown atom-thick sheets of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as two-inch diameter crystals across a wafer. Surprisingly, they achieved the long-sought goal of making perfectly ordered crystals of hBN, a wide band gap semiconductor, by taking advantage of disorder among the meandering steps on a copper substrate. The random steps keep the hBN in line. Set into chips as a dielectric between layers of nanoscale transistors, wafer-scale hBN would excel in damping electron scattering and trapping that limit the efficiency of an integrated circuit. But until now, nobody has been able to make perfectly ordered hBN crystals that are large enough -- in this case, on a wafer -- to be useful. Brown School of Engineering materials theorist Boris Yakobson is co-lead scientist on the study with Lain-Jong (Lance) Li of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and his team. Yakobson and Chih-Piao Chuu of TSMC performed theoretical analysis and first principles calculations to unravel the mechanisms of what their co-authors saw in experiments. As a proof of concept for manufacturing, experimentalists at TSMC and Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University grew a two-inch, 2D hBN film, transferred it to silicon and then placed a layer of field-effect transistors patterned onto 2D molybdenum disulfide atop the hBN. "The main discovery in this work is that a monocrystal across a wafer can be achieved, and then they can move it," Yakobson said. "Then they can make devices." "There is no existing method that can produce hBN monolayer dielectrics with extremely high reproducibility on a wafer, which is necessary for the electronics industry," Li added. "This paper reveals the scientific reasons why we can achieve this." Yakobson hopes the technique may also apply broadly to other 2D materials, with some trial and error. "I think the underlying physics is pretty general," he said. "Boron nitride is a big-deal material for dielectrics, but many desirable 2D materials, like the 50 or so transition metal dichalcogenides, have the same issues with growth and transfer, and may benefit from what we discovered." In 1975, Intel's Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every two years. But as integrated circuit architectures get smaller, with circuit lines down to a few nanometers, the pace of progress has been hard to maintain. The ability to stack 2D layers, each with millions of transistors, may overcome such limitations if they can be isolated from one other. Insulating hBN is a prime candidate for that purpose because of its wide band gap. Despite having "hexagonal" in its name, monolayers of hBN as seen from above appear as a superposition of two distinct triangular lattices of boron and nitrogen atoms. For the material to perform up to spec, hBN crystals must be perfect; that is, the triangles have to be connected and all point in the same direction. Non-perfect crystals have grain boundaries that degrade the material's electronic properties. For hBN to become perfect, its atoms have to precisely align with those on the substrate below. The researchers found that copper in a (111) arrangement -- the number refers to how the crystal surface is oriented -- does the job, but only after the copper is annealed at high temperature on a sapphire substrate and in the presence of hydrogen. Annealing eliminates grain boundaries in the copper, leaving a single crystal. Such a perfect surface would, however, be "way too smooth" to enforce the hBN orientation, Yakobson said. Yakobson reported on research last year to grow pristine borophene on silver (111), and also a theoretical prediction that copper can align hBN by virtue of the complementary steps on its surface. The copper surface was vicinal -- that is, slightly miscut to expose atomic steps between the expansive terraces. That paper caught the attention of industrial researchers in Taiwan, who approached the professor after a talk there last year. "They said, 'We read your paper,'" Yakobson recalled. "'We see something strange in our experiments. Can we talk?' That's how it started." Informed by his earlier experience, Yakobson suggested that thermal fluctuations allow copper (111) to retain step-like terraces across its surface, even when its own grain boundaries are eliminated. The atoms in these meandering "steps" present just the right interfacial energies to bind and constrain hBN, which then grows in one direction while it attaches to the copper plane via the very weak van der Waals force. "Every surface has steps, but in the prior work, the steps were on a hard-engineered vicinal surface, which means they all go down, or all up," he said. "But on copper (111), the steps are up and down, by just an atom or two randomly, offered by the fundamental thermodynamics." Because of the copper's orientation, the horizontal atomic planes are offset by a fraction to the lattice underneath. "The surface step-edges look the same, but they're not exact mirror-twins," Yakobson explained. "There's a larger overlap with the layer below on one side than on the opposite." That makes the binding energies on each side of the copper plateau different by a minute 0.23 electron volts (per every quarter-nanometer of contact), which is enough to force docking hBN nuclei to grow in the same direction, he said. The experimental team found the optimal copper thickness was 500 nanometers, enough to prevent its evaporation during hBN growth via chemical vapor deposition of ammonia borane on a copper (111)/sapphire substrate. ### Tse-An Chen of TSMC is co-lead author of the paper. Co-authors are Chien-Chih Tseng, Chao-Kai Wen, Wei-Chen Chueh and Wen-Hao Chang of Chiao Tung; H.-S. Philip Wong and Tsu-Ang Chao of TSMC; Shuangyuan Pan and Yanfeng Zhang of Peking University, China; Qiang Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China; and Rongtan Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry at Rice. Chang is a professor at Chiao Tung and director of the university's Center for Emergent Functional Matter Science. Li is Director, Corporate Research, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The research was supported by TSMC, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy. -30- Read the abstract at https:/ / www. nature. com/ articles/ s41586-020-2009-2 . This news release can be found online at https:/ / news. rice. edu/ 2020/ 03/ 04/ a-small-step-for-atoms-a-giant-leap-for-microelectronics/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Borophene on silver grows freely into an atomic 'skin': http://news. rice. edu/ 2019/ 09/ 30/ borophene-on-silver-grows-freely-into-an-atomic-skin-2/ Step right up for bigger 2D sheets: http://news. rice. edu/ 2019/ 03/ 04/ step-right-up-for-bigger-2d-sheets-2/ Yakobson Research Group: https:/ / biygroup. blogs. rice. edu Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: https:/ / msne. rice. edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https:/ / engineering. rice. edu Images for download: https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2020/ 03/ 0209_TRANSISTOR-1-web. jpg Scientists have achieved the long-sought goal of growing an ideal hexagonal boron nitride crystal by taking advantage of disorder among the meandering steps on a copper substrate, as reported in Nature. The random steps keep the hBN in line and make it useful as a dielectric for two-dimensional electronics. (Credit: Yakobson Research Group/Rice University) https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2020/ 03/ 0209_TRANSISTOR-2-web. jpg Researchers in Taiwan, China and at Rice University made wafer-sized, two-dimensional sheets of hexagonal boron nitride, as reported in Nature. The material may be removed from its copper substrate and used as a dielectric for two-dimensional electronics. https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2020/ 03/ 0209_TRANSISTOR-3-web. jpg Rice University materials theorist Boris Yakobson and a collaborator performed a theoretical analysis to unravel the mechanisms behind a technique to make large sheets of hexagonal boron nitride on a wafer. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Jeff Falk 713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu Mike Williams 713-348-6728 mikewilliams@rice.edu This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Whole Foods Market is voluntarily recalling tamales for undeclared milk, which could cause serious or life-threatening allergic reactions. The Green Chile Chicken Tamales were sold in 24 states, including Michigan, according to a recall alert issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They were sold in plastic containers and family meal kits with Whole Foods scale labels. They were also available from the self-serve hot bar and the chefs case. No allergic reactions have been reported, the alert said. The affected products were sold at Whole Foods stores in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, the alert said. There are seven Whole Foods stores in Michigan: Detroit, Birmingham, East Lansing, Rochester Hills, West Bloomfield and two in Ann Arbor. The following products are part of the recall: Green Chile Chicken Tamale family meal, product code beginning with 224401, and best by date of March 7. Green Chile Chicken Tamale from the chefs case, product codes beginning with 237593 and 272405, and best by date of March 7. Packaged Green Chile Chicken Tamale, product codes beginning with 237597, 272429 and 277626, and best by date of March 7. Frozen Green Chile Chicken Tamale, product code beginning with 272435, and best by date of March 31. Green Chile Chicken Tamale from the hot bar, no product code, and best by date of March 1. Customers who purchased these products can bring their receipt to a Whole Foods for a full refund. Additional questions should be directed to 844-936-8255 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central Standard Time, Monday through Friday or 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. READ MORE: Facebook argument becomes in-person fight with gun in Northern Michigan See Lake Eries ice houses frozen over after winter storm Pink unicorn caught on video snow blowing South Lyon driveway Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Wed, March 4, 2020 11:44 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20682c176 2 SE Asia Malaysia,Prime-Minister,Muhyiddin-Yassin,politics,parliament Free Malaysia's new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has postponed the start of parliamentary proceedings by two months, the speaker said on Wednesday, amid opposition efforts to challenge his government with a confidence vote. Muhyiddin was sworn in on Sunday after a week of political turmoil triggered by the abrupt resignation of 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad. King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah appointed Muhyiddin as the prime minister, saying he believed Muhyiddin possibly had the support of a majority in parliament. But Mahathir's coalition has said they have the majority and vowed to bring a confidence vote in parliament when it reconvened on March 9. Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md. Yusof said in a statement that he has received a letter from Muhyiddin stating the session will instead start on May 18. Muhyiddin, a former interior minister in Mahathir's cabinet, joined hands with the UMNO party - which lost federal power in the 2018 election - and Islamist party PAS to form a new coalition. His move came after the resignation of Mahathir, who then tried out to form a national unity government that would have given him greater powers but got little support from politicians. Mahathir went back to partner with his old rival Anwar Ibrahim to stop Muhyiddin but the king's decision to appoint the latter put an end to the efforts. A would-be robber went to the door of a Montgomery County home Friday wearing what appeared to be a delivery drivers uniform, authorities said. They said he also carried a box, which is common for delivery workers, and a pistol, which is not. The mother of crash victim Harry Dunn believes that Boris Johnson will not meet her family because he is frightened. Charlotte Charles has written to the Prime Minister asking for a meeting after the US refused to extradite Anne Sacoolas, 42, an American intelligence officers wife, over the death of motorcyclist Harry, 19, last August. She has admitted causing the accident after driving her SUV on the wrong side of the road outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, but claimed diplomatic immunity. Pictured left to right: Harry Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles, step father Bruce Charles, father Tim Dunn. Charlotte has written to the Prime Minister asking for a meeting after the US refused to extradite Anne Sacoolas, 42, an American intelligence officers wife, over the death of motorcyclist Harry, 19, last August Mr Dunn died in hospital after he was involved in a crash with a car owned by Mrs Sacoolas, while he was riding his motorbike, where her husband, Jonathan, was stationed. In a letter to Mr Johnson, Mrs Charles, 45, from Charlton, Northamptonshire, said: We think that what happened to Harry has highlighted a number of very serious problems which need to be fixed urgently. This is not just an issue of diplomatic immunity for the Foreign Office to address, as important as that is. In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured on Tuesday), Mrs Charles, 45, from Charlton, Northamptonshire, said: I dont know why you havent wanted to see us. Please dont be frightened' I dont know why you havent wanted to see us. Please dont be frightened. Please meet with us so we can talk about and address the issues. We mean no harm and just want to ensure that Harry did not die in vain. Downing Street has said Mr Johnson is committed to securing justice for Harrys family. Both and the appear to be sweating it out to keep their flock in Madhya Pradesh together before the next test of strength during the polls due this month. After former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh's allegations about leaders offering Rs 25 to 35 crore to MLAs and Rs 5 crore in advance and the remaining amounts in part, both parties have intensified efforts to keep the numbers intact. had on Monday put on record what was already in public domain since the past few months. The leaders have also said it in so many words that all they need is a signal from the top leaders to topple the government that is still short of a majority in the Assembly. His specific charge on Monday was against former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his senior colleague Narottam Mishra. For the seriousness of the charges, the BJP leaders' response was curiously casual. Mishra only said: "I would not like to take Digvijaya's charges seriously. He is known to be in the news through such tactics." Chouhan, in a tweet, said: "Telling lies to cause sensation is an old habit of He must have done it this time to pressure the government for some unfulfilled wish." BJP's new state President, V.D. Sharma, who is camping here since Monday, is contacting each party MLA. The war of words intensified after BJP MLAs Sharad Kol and Narayan Tripathi skipped a party meeting organised here during the day. The two legislators had earlier voted in favour of Kamal Nath's government, though the BJP did not take any action against them at the time. Both are former Congressmen who had switched to the BJP. Resentment is indeed brewing in the Many senior party MLAs have been openly demanding ministerial berths. The Jyotiraditya Scindia faction, which has at least nine MLAs, has been complaining about the overbearing attitude of the bureaucracy. In an embarrassing situation during the previous cabinet meeting, the government had to back out on expanding the liquor vend network in the city after several ministers shot it down. On Tuesday, accused the former Home Minister Bhupendra Singh if he had taken BSP MLA Rambai Singh to New Delhi in a chartered plane. Singh said the party was confident of BSP MLA's loyalty. Chief Minister said he has asked legislators of the ruling camp to take the money allegedly being offered by the BJP leadership in the state, if being given freely. "Our MLAs told me about money being offered, I am telling them 'phokat me mil raha hai, toh le lena'," Nath said. He also insisted that his government is secure. Congress MLA Baijnath Kushwaha said senior saffron camp functionaries, including Chouhan, have approached him with offers. Kushwaha is said to have told Minister Govind Singh about how Pramod Sharma from Bhind had met him on "behalf of some BJP leaders" a month ago and offered him Rs 25 crore or a ministerial post and Rs 5 crore. "It is not a big deal for me. I will turn down bigger offers and this is my decision. I had nothing, but I was made an MLA. What more do I need? I am with the Congress and I can't be bought at any cost," Kushwaha said. Govind Singh said Digvijaya Singh's charges of horse-trading are true and urged the BJP to stop daydreaming about forming a government in the state anytime soon. Congress General Secretary in-charge of MP Deepak Babaria held a meeting with the MP ministers on Tuesday. After the party meeting, former minister Rajendra Shukla said the Congress is in touch with BJP MLAs in the Vidhya region. Oil prices rose early on Wednesday as OPECs leader and top producer Saudi Arabia is looking to convince its key ally in the OPEC+ deal, Russia, to back a large collective production cut in Q2 in response to the slump in demand with the coronavirus outbreak. At 9:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday, WTI Crude was trading up 1.89 percent at $48.12, and Brent Crude was rising 1.81 percent at $52.79, as ministers began to arrive in Vienna for this weeks meeting. Prices were also supported by a Fed rate cut on Tuesday and hopes that more central banks will react to slowing economies by easing monetary conditions. Also on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated a smaller than anticipated crude oil inventory build of 1.7 million barrels for the week ending February 28, compared to analyst expectations of a 3.333-million-barrel build in inventory. Before the EIAs weekly inventory report on Wednesday, oil prices were trading up as the market recovers from last weeks carnage and hopes for a sizeable collective cut in Q2 from OPEC and its partners to support prices and try to prevent a global glut amid depressed oil demand. The energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Russia, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Alexander Novak, respectively, are meeting on Wednesday afternoon in Vienna. The Saudis and OPEC seek a massive collective cut of more than 1 million bpd, yet the challenge is still Russia, an OPEC source told Reuters. Saudi Arabia wants the OPEC+ coalition to agree to a collective cut of more than 1 million bpd, delegates told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Russia continues to refuse to officially announce its position regarding deeper cuts, but this weekend Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Moscow would continue to play ball and cooperate with OPEC, although it sees current oil prices as acceptable. The market has already priced in a cut of at least 600,000 bpd, so its in the best interest of both OPEC and Russia to come to some sort of an agreement of a large cut to prevent another oil price slump. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Kartik Aaryan arrived at a press conference for the IIFA Awards in Mumbai on Wednesday with an injured hand. The actor was all suited up for the event and had his bandaged hand in an arm sling. He was soon joined by Katrina Kaif who asked about his well being and was seen caressing his hand as the paparazzi clicked them. The actor was all smiles for the camera as he posed in a dark suit. Katrina, meanwhile, looked stunning in a black dress. Kartik Aaryan and Katrina Kaif at IIFA press conference on Wednesday. (Varinder Chawla) The fans of the two were delighted to see their chemistry and asked filmmakers to cast them together. A fan wrote on Instagram, OK cast them. Already they. Look Hella cute together . Another commented, Want these two in a movie please. One more wrote, They look good together. Kartik Aaryan at Hinduja hospital on Wednesday. (Varinder Chawla) Kartik had injured his hand during the promotions of his Valentines Day release, Love Aaj Kal. The actor was later spotted with a hand bandage on various occasions. He then flew to Jaipur to begin shooting for his upcoming film, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, with no time for the injury to heal. As per reports, he recently returned to Mumbai after wrapping up the Jaipur schedule and realised that it was a ligament tear and had to undergo a surgery at the Hinduja hospital. The actor reportedly got admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night and underwent a surgery on Wednesday morning. Kartik was spotted during the day at the Hinduja hospital with a bandaged hand and hours later attended the IIFA press conference. Also read: Baaghi 3 box office predictions: Tiger Shroff expected to kick up a storm, film may open at 22 crore Kartik will be seen pairing up with Kiara Advani for the first time in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. He recently shared a picture from the sets of the film in Jaipur. In the image, Kartik and Kiara can be seen looking at each other, while they are surrounded by members of the crew who have their faces covered with hair. He captioned the image: Pyaar mein itne bhi andhe mat ho jao, Ki Chudail bhi na dikhein... #BhoolBhulaiyaa2... (Dont be so blinded in love that you dont see the witch). Kiara Advani and Kartik Aaryan on sets of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is being directed by Anees Bazmee. The original Bhool Bhulaiyaa, directed by Priyadarshan, starred Akshay Kumar with Vidya Balan and Shiney Ahuja was released in 2007. The film was an official remake of the 1993 Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu. Follow @htshowbiz for more This aerial view shows the flooded Kawagoe Kings Garden nursing home besides the Oppegawa river in Saitama prefecture on October 13, 2019, one day after Typhoon Hagibis swept through central and eastern Japan. Photo by AFP. One of two Vietnamese sailors working on a Panama-flagged cargo ship that sank last October off Japan has been found dead inside the vessel. On Monday the wife of the victim, Nguyen Van Tri, said the owner of the ship, JIA DE, informed the company that sent her husband to work on board that Tri's body was found inside during the salvage of the vessel, Vietnam News Agency reported. Japanese authorities confirmed it after conducting DNA more than a week later, and she is completing procedures to bring her husbands ashes home on Wednesday, she said. The 1,925-ton ship was anchored in Tokyo Bay on October 12 last year when contact was lost at about 9:40 p.m. Hagibis, one of the strongest storms to hit Japan since 1958, struck at that time and caused widespread damage across the country, killing 74 people. There were 12 crew members on the ship, three from Myanmar, two from Vietnam and seven from China. On October 13 the Japanese Coast Guard said four sailors had been rescued, including the other Vietnamese crew member, Pham Van Duc, two Myanmarese and one Chinese. All the others have since been confirmed dead. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine The Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada has amended the law "On National Security of Ukraine" on the entry into force of provisions regarding the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, types and separate branches of armed forces. 292 MPs voted for the document. The online broadcast was conducted by the Rada television channel. The draft law was developed in connection with the need to ensure the implementation of defense reform and the introduction of a new unified system of command and control of defense forces with the aim of building the Armed Forces according to NATO standards. "The goals and objectives of the project are the urgent implementation of organizational measures in the Armed Forces of Ukraine aimed at transforming the military command and control bodies at all levels, as well as the introduction of separate posts of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," - the explanatory note says. The draft amends subparagraphs 2 and 3 of paragraph 1 of section VI "Final and transitional provisions" of the law "On National Security of Ukraine". They stipulate that the provisions of parts three to six of Article 16 (regarding the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, types and separate arms and forces, and subparagraph 3, subparagraphs b and c of subparagraph 4, subparagraph 5 of paragraph 4 of section VI " The final and transitional provisions "of this law are gaining force from March 1, 2020, and not from January 1, 2021, as provided for by the current edition. As we reported before, Ukraines parliament appointed Andriy Taran as new Minister of Defense of Ukraine as 112 Ukraine reported. 285 lawmakers supported the decision. KABUL - The U.S. conducted Wednesday its first airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan since signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group. U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the defensive strike was the first U.S. attack against the militants in 11 days. He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province. Leggett added that Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand. According to a spokesman for the provinces governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one other wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand. Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the peace agreement signed on Feb. 29 between their leaders and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first U.S. president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. The Afghan Interior Ministry says that four civilians and 11 troops were killed Wednesday in a wave of Taliban attacks across the country in the past 24 hours. According to ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, Afghan forces killed at least 17 Taliban during these clashes. The Afghan Defence Ministry earlier said that seven soldiers were killed when Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Kunduz province. Kandahar police spokesman Jamal Naser Barekzai told The Associated Press that a police officer was killed and one wounded in a string of Taliban attacks across the province. The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of these attacks so far or commented on the U.S. airstrike Wednesday. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP Wednesday that a week of reduction in violence that started midnight on Feb. 21 had ended. Based on the U.S.-Taliban deal, peace negotiations between the warring Afghan sides are supposed to begin on March 10. However, the Afghan government has already rejected releasing Taliban prisoners ahead of launching the talks, a precondition which the militants say was part of the U.S. agreement. Leggett said that U.S. forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies according to agreements between U.S. and Afghan governments. Jared Kushner briefed senators behind closed doors today on the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan, White House officials tell me. Where things stand: Palestinian leaders swiftly rejected the plan last month, as expected, but Kushner told a bipartisan group from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the international reaction was otherwise encouraging. His briefing was part of an effort to build support for the plan in Washington and overseas. Using a PowerPoint presentation, Kushner pointed to two factors making a solution harder to reach: increased dependence of Palestinian leaders on foreign aid and increasing expansion by Israeli leaders of settlements in the West Bank. Kushners message was that every time negotiations failed, the Palestinians got more money and Israel was able to keep expanding the settlements, but the peace process became a false notion and didnt solve anything. Both parties' leaderships just kept getting what they want without improving the lives of the people." Senior White House official The presentation was the same one Kushner used two weeks ago at a closed meeting of the UN Security Council. His main argument is that the status quo is broken and something else has to be tried. Kushner argued in his presentation that the lingering Israeli-Palestinian conflict is used as a pretext for more radicalization in the Middle East. He told senators that the White House wanted to use the plan not only to try to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also to bring Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds closer together. Kushner also presented the senators with a list of reforms he said the Palestinians must undertake to achieve statehood and reduce the risk of creating a failed state in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians consider the plan a nonstarter, but Kushner emphasized that there were indications it could still move forward. His case: The two main political leaders in Israel support the plan and it didnt become a controversial issue in the Israeli elections. There were several positive statements about the plan from Arab countries. The EU was not united in opposition to the plan. The Palestinians push against the plan stalled at the UN. A White House official slammed the Palestinian response to the plan, telling me: "They don't have a real detailed idea of what they want." "It has exposed the Palestinian leadership who is defending the status quo. We are moving the debate to discussing the technical challenges and the details as opposed to romanticizing about things that people know will never happen." The flipside: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, has denounced the plan as "an Israeli-American" effort to "put an end to the question of Palestine." View Kushner's presentation: For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. Greta Thunberg looked unimpressed today as she watched EU chiefs unveil a new climate law which she has already dismissed as 'surrender'. The 17-year-old Swedish activist was the star guest at a European Commission meeting in Brussels today where the new legislation was officially proposed. Thunberg today questioned the urgency of the commission and said: 'When your house is on fire, you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet this is what the Commission is proposing today.' The new law would commit the 27-member bloc to reaching zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and give Brussels new powers to impose emission targets. But the announcement has already fallen flat with environmental groups after Thunberg and dozens of her fellow activists declared the law inadequate. Underwhelmed: Climate activist Greta Thunberg (right) with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (left) at a meeting of the EU's executive arm today European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli (right) welcomes Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as she arrives at the European Parliament in Brussels today, ahead of the European Union unveiling a landmark law to achieve 'climate neutrality' by 2050 Greta Thunberg is welcomed to the European Parliament by its president, David Sassoli, as she visits Brussels to lobby for climate change action today Thunberg sat alongside Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during the meeting at the body's Brussels headquarters today. She has also met a committee of MEPs, after an exception was made to a coronavirus-related ban on visitors to the European Parliament. But she and 33 other youth climate activists have already condemned the EU's climate plans as insufficient in an open letter. 16-year-old Greta Thunberg makes an opening speech of an Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee meeting held at European Parliament in Brussels today Greta Thunberg addresses the environment committee at the European Parliament in Brussels today Greta Thunberg is pictured after arriving at European Parliament in Brussels today for a meeting to urge the EU to be more ambitious ahead of unveiling plans to be carbon neutral by 2050 'Net zero emissions by 2050 for the EU equals surrender. It means giving up,' the letter said. 'We don't just need goals for just 2030 or 2050. We, above all, need them for 2020 and every following month and year to come,' it said. Speaking to the MEP committee, Thunberg said: 'Here you are, trying to create laws and policies once again ignoring it. Pretending that your plan or policy disregarding the united science will somehow solve the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. 'The European Union must stop 'pretending that you can be a climate leader and still go on building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure. Greta Thunberg speaks to the press after the meeting in Brussels earlier today The 17-year-old Swedish climate activist sits at the meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels today where she watched EU chiefs unveil a law she has already declared inadequate Death stare: Greta Thunberg's unamused facial expression previously became a meme after she glared at Donald Trump at a United Nations summit last September 'We will not be satisfied with anything less than a science-based pathway which gives us the best possible chance to safeguard the future living conditions for humanity and life on earth as we know it,' Thunberg said. She also added that children had been 'sacrificing' their education for the cause for a year and a half. Thunberg's unamused facial expression previously became a meme after she glared at Donald Trump at a United Nations summit last September. At the same event, she memorably tore into world leaders for their inaction on climate change, asking them repeatedly: 'How dare you?'. Thunberg made an impassioned address on stage at the UN last September (pictured), tearing into world leaders for their inaction on climate change Ursula von der Leyen, the German former defence minister who became European Commission chief last year, speaks to Thunberg in Brussels today Thunberg arrives for the meeting today with Ursula von der Leyen and other EU officials including Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans (left) Handing more power to the commission, the EU's executive arm, faces almost certain opposition from national governments and the European Parliament. 'Member states and parliament will hate it,' said Quentin Genard of climate think tank E3G in a blog post. 'Even the more pro-European and pro-climate action countries want to keep oversight over climate policies.' The goal of climate neutrality was approved by EU leaders at a rocky summit in June with coal-dependent Poland the only holdout. The commission, which proposes EU law, has hailed the draft has the cornerstone of a European Green New Deal that also envisages a major investment drive to decarbonise the European economy. Greta Thunberg stands before a packed audience of Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee members at the European Parliament in Brussels today Greta Thunberg addresses the environment committee at the European Parliament in Brussels today Greta Thunberg chats with the media after her speech in Brussels today. Greta is in the Belgian capital for a protest on Friday Critics say the 2050 goal depends too deeply on technology that does not exist and creates a false hope that climate change can be fixed without fundamentally changing the economy or human behaviour. Also angering activists, the proposal steps back from the commission's original ambition to order countries to cut emissions by 50 per cent or even 55 per cent from 1990 levels by the end of this decade. Instead, the EU draft accepts that the existing goal to reduce pollution by at least 40 percent by 2030 will be revised by September. Ursula von der Leyen gets up from her seat during the Commission meeting today while Greta Thunberg stays sat down to her left European Parliament president David Maria Sassoli offers a handshake to Greta Thunberg That is only two months before the UN climate summit in November, when all parties to the Paris Agreement must make more ambitious pledges to put the world on track to limit global warming to 2.7F (1.5C). Twelve EU countries - including France, Italy and the Netherlands but not the EU's biggest emitter, Germany - want the Commission to revise the 2030 goal in June. They say that would leave enough time for the EU to adopt the new 2030 target and use it to pressure large emitters such as China to raise their climate pledges before the summit. 'Delaying discussions until September would crush the EU's ability to play a leading role in global climate talks,' Greenpeace climate policy adviser Sebastian Mang said. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium today The NGO projected an image of flames onto the European Commission building in Brussels on Tuesday, urging leaders to tackle climate change as urgently as if a house were on fire. Green members of the European Parliament accused von der Leyen of giving up her claim to lead in the global climate debate. 'In the face of Greta, she is breaking her promise to present ambitious climate targets for 2030,' Green lawmaker Michael Bloss said. TOKYO Zipper manufacturer YKK has become the latest signatory to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. It joins more than 100 firms in making this commitment, which aligns industry stakeholders in limiting the worlds temperature increase to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels. YKK has an assortment of zippers made from alternative materials including organic cotton, sugarcane molasses and most recently marine plastic waste, intercepted on the coastline of Sri Lanka. (Natural News) Attempts by administration officials to tamp down coronavirus fears dwindle on Tuesday as the United States coronavirus death toll rises to nine with other states confirming additional cases of infection. The development caused lawmakers to express doubts about how the government plans to ramp up their virus testing fast enough to deal with the ongoing crisis. All of the people who died are from Washington state, with a majority of them being residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. As of writing, Pandemic.news reports the total infection count in the United States has shot past 100, with cases spread out across 13 states. (Related: CDC finally reports possible outbreak of the coronavirus, urges Americans to prepare to deal with a community spread.) What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Messonnier noted that in China considered ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak older and sickly people are twice as likely to develop a more serious infection with the COVID-19 virus compared to those who are much younger and healthier. According to authorities, this particular nursing home outbreak started in North Carolina, where a Wake Country resident who had recently visited the nursing home tested positive for coronavirus. However, North Carolinas government officials claimed that the resident has decided to go into self-isolation at home and is doing well. Further, in suburban Seattle, the Associated Press reports that a group of 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the nursing home were tested for the virus on Tuesday. One of the firefighters, Kevin Grimstad, was among the 10 people from the Kirkland Fire Department who exhibited symptoms after dealing with calls from the nursing facility. Its crazy. A couple of weeks ago, it seemed like a foreign thing and now were getting tested, Grimstad said. If I was exposed a month ago, the problem is more widespread than we know. Online classes amid coronavirus scare After the recent announcement of the rising death toll, schools within the Seattle area started to consider teaching their students in online classes in the event of prolonged school closures due to the virus, as reported by the Associated Press. While local and state health officials claim that they did not recommend these schools to close down or cancel their planned activities, they still respected the decisions of the local school leaders. As tensions rise, the Eastside Preparatory private school in Kirkland claims that it plans to have their students stay at home and do their classes online in light of the ongoing virus outbreak. The school consisting of about 500 students from grades five through 12 reportedly has no known or suspected cases of COVID-19 but school officials claim that they do not feel it is prudent to wait until there is a known case to take action. The school plans to start their online class program on March 27. Meanwhile, the Northshore School District which has an estimated 22,000 students located just north of the Seattle area decided to close down on Tuesday so that their teachers could prepare themselves to teach remotely According to their Superintendent Michelle Reid, the district was also working on ways to help students who do not have access to computers or internet at home. What China shows is that early containment and identification of cases can work, but we now need to implement that in other countries, said Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, an infectious-diseases expert at Kings College London. As of writing, Natural News estimates more than 350,000 cases of COVID-19 virus infections worldwide, with about 35,000 dead from the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) also reports that the virus has spread to about 72 countries, with Andorra, Jordan, Latvia, Morocco, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Tunisia officially added within the past few days. Learn more about the ongoing outbreak at Pandemic.news. Sources include: APNews.com 1 APNews.com 2 WHO.int [PDF] Union Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said that a coordinated and collective effort in a mission mode is needed to combat the threat due to COVID-19 in the country. A press release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, "We have to work as a unit to combat the threat due to COVID-19 in the nation and a coordinated and collective effort in a mission mode is needed", said Vardhan. He said this while chairing the meeting with all the senior officials from Government of Delhi, and Directors/Medical Superintendents of government hospitals in Delhi, in the presence of Dr. Satyendra Jain, Minister of Health, Delhi Government. "Preeti Sudan, Secretary (HFW) apprised both the Ministers about the current evolving scenario, globally as well as nationally. She informed that 78 countries are affected by COVID-19 as on date. She stated that high level of vigil and alertness is being maintained by the states and the Centre in the prevention and management of COVID-19," the press release said. She also spoke about the revised travel advisory issued on Tuesday regarding revised travel restrictions, self-declaration and advice for avoiding non-essential travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and Japan and other COVID-19 affected countries. The Union Minister observed that while inter-sectoral coordination with the Central ministries/departments is being done, it was heartening to see that States/UTs are also responsive and putting their best efforts by taking appropriate actions and preparedness for COVID-19. He further added that need of this hour is to put a more strategic approach like Cluster Containment Strategy, making the District Collectors more accountable, contact tracing and strengthening State and District surveillance teams to avoid widespread community transmission and also breaking the chain of transmission, if found. "Harsh Vardhan urged the States/UTs to strengthen core capacities for disease preparedness and response like Surveillance, Laboratory Diagnosis, Hospital Preparedness, Logistic Management, Capacity Building and Risk Communication," the press release said. Harsh Vardhan also advised that States need to identify isolation facilities, to accommodate confirmed/suspected cases if and when identified in each district, as well as logistics requirements and to enhance community awareness through print, electronic and social media in local languages including utilising local cable TV channels, FM radio, etc. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Sources close to presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on Wednesday that she was taking the day to discuss with staffers what her next moves would be, and to reassess if there was a path forward for her within the Democratic Partys nomination proceedings. A senior campaign official speaking to The Hill stated that Warren is talking to her team to assess the path forward. Warren was banking on a better-than-expected night on Super Tuesday. However, of the 14 states up for grabs among Democratic candidates vying to be the partys nominee for president, Warren won none of them including losing her home state of Massachusetts. Projection: Elizabeth Warren will finish third in Massachusetts, behind Joe Biden (1st) and Bernie Sanders (2nd). Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 4, 2020 As of 11:00 a.m. Easter Time, Warren has only been awarded 36 delegates so far during the Democratic nominating season, including just 28 of the more than 1,300 up for grabs on Super Tuesday. Current polling numbers dont show much optimism for Warrens campaign, either. The latest Economist/YouGov poll, conducted during the first three days of March, showed her in third place, with 19 percent support among Democratic-leaning voters across the nation. JUST NOW: "Well, Senator Elizabeth Warren, I think that after looked like she finished third in Massachusetts. I would reassess if I were her as well. "@WhipClyburn gives a (more than a nudge) to @ewarren.pic.twitter.com/RjiE1kW8fD John Berman (@JohnBerman) March 4, 2020 Former Vice President Joe Biden was in first place in the poll, with 28 percent support, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) was in second place with 24 percent. Warren, one of the two main progressive candidates (along with Sanders) who entered the race months ago, is being encouraged by a slew of left-leaning voices to drop out in order to consolidate voters to get behind the Vermont senator, who appears to be more viable at this time. Rep. Ilhan Omar, for example, suggested on Wednesday morning that, after several former moderate candidates backed Biden over the weekend, Warren could do the same for Sanders in the upcoming contests. Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won? Thats what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost. https://t.co/lAj2mhI3GR Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 4, 2020 Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won? Omar wrote. Nathan Robinson, columnist at The Guardian, said the same thing. Biden would be confined to the South were it not for split in progressive vote, he wrote in a tweet. Map 1 is Sanders v Biden victories rn (Biden purple). Map 2 is if Warren had done what Amy/Pete did, dropped out and endorsed Bernie and 3/4 of her supporters had listened. Repeat this all over US. Biden would be confined to the South were it not for split in progressive vote. pic.twitter.com/10P4x95mIs Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) March 4, 2020 Its unclear, however, whether those criticisms are valid, especially since they dont take into account voters from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race after his poor showing on Tuesday. Bloomberg, the only remaining relevant centrist opponent to Biden, put his support behind the former vice president in an endorsement announcement on Wednesday. Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States, Bloomberg said of Biden in his statement. With Bloombergs voters likely going to back Biden, Warrens and Sanders totals may not have been enough to have won Super Tuesdays contests. As I said, one of the best parts of spring is getting outside and enjoying nature. Yes, I know there are plenty of people who do this year round. I met several at the first day hike at Wildcat Den. More power to them. I like my hiking weather to be about 72 and a nice breeze. The spring is a wonderful time to begin connecting with nature. There are plenty of stress relieving programs available and all of them would be rendered obsolete if people would just take 30 minutes a day to get out in the nice fresh air and clear their heads. As long as we are talking about turning over a new health leaf, another benefit of the spring is the spring produce. We live in Iowa and probably more than any other place in the country, we should enjoy the bounty of it. While the Muscatine Farmers Market doesnt start until later in the spring (May 1), it is still something to look forward to. I had only just arrived in Muscatine last fall as the market was closing for the year and I didnt get much of a chance to attend it. This year will be different. Look at it this way. Where else can you get Iowa fresh veggies at really great prices? I may learn to vacuum seal food this year. I truly hope someone around here grows some fresh strawberries or nice hot peppers they bring to the market. EPIC FIRE FIGHTER REAX!!! KCK firefighters battle fire at old church near 25th, Metropolitan Firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas, are battling a fire at an old church near 25th Street and Metropolitan Avenue.Fire crews were called at 5:15 p.m. to the old St. John the Divine Catholic Church. A large plume of smoke could be seen for miles.Fire crews had to rescue a family from a nearby building.There were no reports of injuries.The church had been vacant for years. BLAZE AFTERMATH KCK fire crews battle 133-year-old historic church fire KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) - Fire crews are fighting a large church fire Tuesday night. Kansas City, Kansas, fire crews are battling a historic church fire located at 2511 Metropolitan Avenue. According to the address, this building is the now closed St. John the Divine Catholic Church. KCK HISTORY BURNT DOWN!!! Fire engulfs 133-year-old KCK church listed on National Register of Historic Places KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A 133-year-old historic church in Kansas City, Kansas' Argentine neighborhood has been ravaged by a massive fire Tuesday evening. Video shows St. John the Divine Catholic Church, built in 1887, engulfed in flames, black smoke rising thick and high in the air. Here's tonight's roundup of the scene that dominated evening news coverage . . . It's worth noting that the structure was vacant like a great many places of worship in the metro.Developing . . . New Delhi, March 4 : India will set up testing lab for COVID 19 in Iran keeping in view of novel coronavirus outbreak and Indians stranded there, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed media on Wednesday. The minister said that one scientist from India has already left for Iran, more scientists will be leaving later in the day at 4 p.m. in the evening. "We have been communicating at all possible platforms with Iranian government. If the Iranian government gives consent, we will establish testing labs there. So that the Indians who are to be brought back can be screened and tested there itself before their return." The minister also said that at present there are 15 labs in India that are conducting tests of COVID-19. "We have directed 19 more labs to conduct the tests. Out of which 7 are already Afunctional, rest will start working today itself." In the view of containing the disease and as an anticipatory measure the Health Ministry said that all the foreign nationals will be screened for the disease at the airports from now irrespective of the fact whether they have come to India from COVID affected countries or not. At least 28 cases of new coronavirus have been reported from India. The virus has affected more than 60 countries across the globe. Symptoms of COVID-19 disease are cold, cough, pneumonia and shortness of breath. The minister said that simple hygiene practices can help fighting the disease. Google has cancelled its I/O developers conference for this year that was supposed to take place at Mountain View, California from May 12th to 14th due to coronavirus concerns. The company said that its sad that we wont be able to gather as a developer community but your health and safety is our priority. The company said that it is exploring new ways to connect and support the global developer community and will offer more details on google.com/io. We are exploring new ways to connect and support our global developer community. Stay tuned. More info soon https://t.co/mSTQKlTa90 (2/2) Google Developers (@googledevs) March 3, 2020 Also, guests who registered for the event will automatically enter the drawing for I/O 2021 tickets next year. Google has also announced that it will give $1 million to local small businesses and schools for STEM research and coronavirus protection. This is not the first global event that has been cancelled this year. MWC 2020 Barcelona, Facebooks F8 developers conference, Game Developers Conference were some of the events that have been cancelled. Even though the event has been cancelled, it will likely have online streaming explaining the new features that will be introduced in Android 11 along with the Beta 1 that is expected in May. We want to help businesses and schools impacted by COVID-19 stay connected: starting this week, well roll out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally. https://t.co/OWWF7s5jjR Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 3, 2020 In a related news, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that starting this week Google will roll out free access to its advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally to help businesses and schools impacted by coronavirus stay connected. The Toronto Catholic District School Board has cancelled all upcoming March Break and Easter trips to Europe as the novel coronavirus continues to spread in that continent. Our board does not allow travel to places that pose a risk to the health of our students, and we do not consider travel to these countries to be safe, read a statement sent Tuesday to trustees from the boards director of education Rory McGuckin. There exist concerns that our students and staff could be exposed to the virus in airports and other public spaces, while on tour, or potentially even endure lengthy quarantines. The decision impacts educational trips run by private tour companies that were planned at 12 Catholic high schools. Meanwhile, at the Toronto District School Board, there are 14 European trips planned for March Break, spokesperson Ryan Bird said. Staff are monitoring the situation closely and a final decision on whether these trips will proceed as planned will be made in the near future, Bird said. The announcement by the Catholic school board comes a day after the Canadian government upgraded the travel advisory for northern Italy, a hot spot for the virus called COVID-19. Officials now warn against all non-essential travel there. They advise travellers to take normal security precautions in the rest of the country. Theres been about 2,500 cases and 79 deaths in Italy so far. Most are concentrated around the northern region, which includes popular tourist destinations such as Milan and Venice. In the rest of the continent the situation is evolving rapidly. There have been almost 200 cases reported in Germany, about 150 in Spain and more than 200 in France. The daily reports of COVID-19 outbreaks in European countries have created a heightened sense of concern for the students and staff members from TCDSB schools travelling on school excursions with different tour providers, McGuckin said in the statement. The decision was made out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and staff, he wrote, adding he met with principals from affected schools on Monday and was told the majority of impacted students and families were hoping the tours would be cancelled. The note added that cancellation insurance provisions only take effect once the board cancels trips, and schools are not permitted to cancel on their own without suffering consequences from the insurance providers. The board did not immediately respond to a request for more details on how many trips are impacted. The educational excursions let students experience European history, art and architecture first-hand and, in some cases, practise their language skills. Catherine Cook purchased what was supposed to be a beautiful trip for her son, a student at Neil McNeil High School, months ago. The students, accompanied by staff chaperons, originally planned to fly into southern Italy and continue to Venice, Florence and Milan. Cooks son is left disappointed, although weve been kind of expecting that this was going to happen. Before the decision came down from the board, there was talk of possibly changing the itinerary to avoid the hot spots. What irritates me is that the board is stepping in and making a judgment based not on anything the government of Canada is issuing, she said. Oliver Mason said parents were informed Monday that a 10-day trip to Venice, Sicily and Rome for students at the TDSBs Harbord Collegiate Institute was cancelled. He agrees with the decision to put the safety of students and teachers first. But he said he was told families like his and the 13 others who didnt purchase travel insurance with the independent tour company BrightSpark Travel are left on the hook for all costs. The trip cost about $7,000 for his two daughters. The idea that a bunch of parents should subsidize a multimillion dollar travel company for their potential losses is a little much to me, he said. Justin Stepanowicz with BrightSpark Travel said the information presented at the meeting with parents at Harbord Collegiate was premature. The company will first focus on the vast majority of parents who purchased insurance, but will try to work something out with the board for families like the Masons. By AFP VILNIUS: Police in Lithuania intervened in a domestic dispute on Wednesday after a man locked his wife in the bathroom over fears that she may be carrying the coronavirus. "We got the report that a husband and two adult sons refused to let the woman out of the bathroom after she told them that she could have contracted the coronavirus," national police spokesman Ramunas Matonis told AFP. The woman reportedly told her husband she may have caught the disease new coronavirus when she spoke with a person who had arrived from abroad. "Police officers arrived, there was no violence, no complaint, therefore an ambulance was called," the police spokesman said. ALSO READ | Coronavirus: Italy closes schools as death toll hits 107 Local media reported that the woman tested negative for the presence of the new coronavirus, which has so far infected one person in Lithuania, an EU Baltic state of 2.8 million people. The 39-year-old male victim had recently returned from Verona in an area of northern Italy that has recorded Europe's highest number of deaths from the disease. The virus death toll in Italy passed 100 on Wednesday. Altogether the virus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide, most of them in China. A disagreement between roommates led to one cutting the other with a machete on the Northeast Side Tuesday night, officials say. San Antonio police responded to the 100 block of Ashland Drive around 11:30 p.m. for the altercation. They were told that the two roommates, both men in their 50s, got into an argument that ended with the suspect slashing the other with a machete, police said. By Laman Ismayilova An event dedicated to the poetry of prominent Azerbaijani poet Imadaddin Nasimi has been held at the UCLA Library in Los Angeles. The evening was co-organized by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles and the UCLA Library. The event brought together the Library leadership and staff, UCLA faculty and students, representatives of culture and science and other guests. In his speech, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and International Collaborations, Dr. Sharon Farb expressed his satisfaction in co-hosting a celebration in honor of Azerbaijani poet Nasimi. Speaking afterwards, Librarian for Slavic, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies Dr. Alena Aissing stressed the successful partnership between Azerbaijan and the UCLA Library. The Memorandum of Understanding between Azerbaijan National Library and the UCLA Library signed in 2018. The document allows to exchange experience of the two libraries on a regular basis. Dr. Alena Aissing also shared her impressions of Azerbaijan following her visit there last September to attend the 6th Baku International Book Fair. In his remarks, Azerbaijans Consul General Nasimi Aghayev emphasized that Nasimi is considered one of the greatest Sufi poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries and one of the most prominent early representatives of Azerbaijani and Turkic literature. "In his works, Nasimi promoted the ideas of unity, peace and tolerance among all people, without attaching any importance to differences between religions or ethnicities. In general, Azerbaijan was historically one of the major centers of Sufi movement that preached the same ideals of interfaith and intercultural understanding and peace," said Aghayev. "It is no coincidence therefore that for thousands of years different religions, cultures and civilizations have enjoyed peaceful coexistence in Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan which is a 95 percent majority-Muslim nation, is home to over half a million Christians of various denominations, 30,000 Jews, thousands of Bahais, Hare Krishnas and many others, who continue to live together with their Muslim brothers and sisters in harmony and mutual respect," he added. Consul General mentioned that last year Nasimis 650th birthday was celebrated all around the world, and that the year of 2019 was declared as Nasimi Year in Azerbaijan by the Order of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Following the speeches, Nasimi's poems were recited by renown American actors Lisa Cirincione and Satiar Pourvasei, wearing Azerbaijani traditional costumes. The actors were accompanied by renowned musicians Burak Besir and Dimitris Mahlis, who performed spiritual Sufi music. Moreover, "Nasimi" music piece by the world-famous British musician of Azerbaijani descent Sami Yusuf first performed in Baku last year was presented to the guests. The event was highly appreciated by the audience. The role of Nasimi was played by the young soloist of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Taleh Yakhyayev, who brilliantly demonstrated his vocal range. The performance totally captivated the audience. Seyyid Imadeddin Nasimi was a great Azerbaijani poet and eminent figure in the poetry and philosophical thought of the Orient. He was the founder of the school of philosophical poetry in the Azerbaijani language. The poet created myriads of works in Azerbaijani, Persian and Arabic. The poet wrote about 300 poems, including ghazals, gasidas ("lyrics"), and rubais (quatrains). Nasimis Turkic Divan is considered his most important work, which contains 250-300 ghazals and more than 150 rubais. His poetry is rooted in the social, political and cultural development of the countries of the Near and Middle East, and especially of his homeland, Azerbaijan. After his death, Nasimi's works continued to exercise a great influence on many Turkic language poets such as Fuzuli (14831556), Khatai (14871524). In connection with the 650th anniversary of the great Azerbaijani poet, President Ilham Aliyev declared 2019 the Year of Nasimi. Numerous scientific institutions, cultural centers, institutions and organizations are holding a series of events dedicated to the poet. The Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality was held for the second time from September 28 to October 1, 2019 in the country. The festival was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Culture. World-famous scholars and poets, philosophers, artists, music, dance and theater groups took part in the festival. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) maintained on Wednesday, March 4, that no active personnel has taken part in the smuggling of dirty money into the country. Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has informed them that those involved in the illegal activity are retired members of the military and the Philippine National Police who now work for private security agencies. These retired officers escort the individuals who bring in dirty money through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Arevalo said. Offhand, (based on their) their (BOC) raw information yung sumasalubong na ito ay retired members of the PNP and AFP that are now under the employ of security agencies. So malinaw po yan, Arevalo said. What we can assure our people, wala pong miyembro ng Armed Forces of the Philippines na bahagi nito at magiging bahagi nito. Hindi po natin sasayangin lahat yan, ang tiwala ng ating taumbayan, he added. Arevalo said they were coordinating with the BOC and the Department of Finance in investigating this illegal scheme. He warned that military personnel who will be proven to be involved in such illegal activities will undergo investigation and will face the weight of all our books, our regulation, and the military justice system. Meanwhile, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano has ordered the PNP to coordinate with the BOC to identify the policemen who are allegedly involved in the scheme. For his part, PNP Civil Security Group (CSG) Director Roberto Fajardo said he has yet to get information about the matter. Actually wala akong idea na ang PNP ay ginagamit mag-escort nitong dirty money pero baka merong mga enterprising na siguro hindi naka-duty or may barkadang pulis ito ginagamit nila which is a violation about VIP security kasi di pwede mag VIP security ang sinumang pulis without authority, he said. That is grave abuse of authority so dismissable yan, he added. Story continues Major General Fajardo said requests for police security escorts undergo threat assessment and verification and should be approved by the PNP chief. Following the revelations, he said he initiated the crackdown against illegal or "colorum" security providers who serve foreign nationals, especially Chinese. According to Fajardo, through a memorandum, he tasked the CSG units to coordinate with local PNP along with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Highway Patrol Group (HPG). He said that with the rising number of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) and influx of foreigners, the process to get escort and security should undergo a stringent process. Earlier, Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero reported that two suspected syndicates brought into the Philippines about P18.7 billion in foreign dirty money. Senator Richard Gordon, Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman, said in a privilege speech Tuesday that the money is possibly being used in criminal activities in the country. (SunStar Philippines) Joe Biden hailed Super Tuesday as a good night that was getting even better as he secured early wins over Bernie Sanders in the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Its a good night and it seems to be getting even better! They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing, he told cheering fans in Los Angeles. The former vice president built a lead as 14 states voted to pick the Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump, with seven projected wins against three for Sanders. Receives bids for 4.29 lakh shares The initial public offer (IPO) of Antony Waste Handling Cell received bids for 4.29 lakh shares today, 4 March 2020, as against 48.2 lakh shares on offer, as per the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) website data at 17:00 IST. The issue was subscribed 0.09 times. The issue opened for bidding on today, 4 March 2020 and it will close on Friday, 6 March 2020. The price band has been fixed at Rs 295 to Rs 300 per share. The company on 3 March 2020 raised Rs 60.94 crore from anchor investors, ahead of its initial share sale. The company allotted 20.65 lakh shares at a price of Rs 295 per share to a total of 3 anchor investors, viz. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vantage Equity Fund and 238 Plan Associates LLC, which received 65.6%, 18% and 16.4% of the total anchor portion, respectively. Incorporated in 2001, Antony Waste Handling Cell is one of the top five players in the Indian MSW (municipal solid waste) management industry with an established track record of 17 years, providing full spectrum of MSW services which includes solid waste collection, transportation, processing and disposal services across the country, primarily catering to Indian municipalities. It is among the key players in landfill construction and management sector with in-house expertise for landfill construction along with its management. The company has also entered into the waste-to-energy (WTE) segment which is at the top of the MSW value chain. The company is currently undertaking projects for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, the Thane Municipal Corporation, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, the Mangalore Municipal Corporation and the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority. It is also currently undertaking a project for Jaypee International Sports. As of 1 January 2020, its consolidated fleet consisted of 1,089 vehicles and 6,579 full-time employees. There were 17 ongoing projects. The IPO consists of two parts, i.e., offer for sale (OFS) of 57 lakh equity shares by existing share holders (private equity investors) and fresh issue of equity shares aggregating upto Rs 35 crore. The OFS of up to 57 lakh equity shares comprises up to 13,90,322 equity shares by Leeds (Mauritius); up to 20,85,502 equity shares by Tonbridge (Mauritius); up to 7,69,917 equity shares by Cambridge (Mauritius); and up to 14,54,259 equity shares by Guildford (Mauritius). The company proposes to utilize the net proceeds (from fresh issue of equity) towards reduction of the consolidated borrowings of the company by infusing debt in its subsidiary AG Enviro Infra Projects for repayment and prepayment of portion of their outstanding indebtedness to the extent of Rs 30 crore and general corporate purposes. Antony Waste Handling Cell reported net profit of Rs 27.78 crore and net sales of Rs 218.62 crore in the six-months ended September 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TOKYOThe best advice on novel coronavirus crisis management may come from an ancient Chinese philosophical treatise, The Tao Te Ching: A tree as great as a man's embrace springs from a small acorn, it tells us. That would certainly be an apt description of the spreading plague of COVID-19 over the last 10 weeks. And the Tao advises that trouble is most easily overcome before it starts: Set things in order before there is confusion. U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Keep Climbing. So Do Fears of Spread. What we have seen here in Japan and even moreso in the United States is the utter failure to apply that axiom. And at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo we have a microcosm of confusion that reflects those much bigger, and potentially fatal problems. Without leaving your hut, you can know the whole world, says the Tao, and in this case the hut is the big, forbidding block of glass and concrete that flies the American flag in the Akasaka neighborhood of Tokyo. The Daily Beast has learned that the embassy exposed at least five employees to fully virulent coronavirus sufferers from the cruise ship Diamond Princess last month, and when they all asked to be tested, the U.S Embassy Tokyo Deputy Consul General Timothy G. Smith not only refused to do so unless they exhibited symptoms, he strongly discouraged them from getting outside testing. Given mounting evidence that the disease can be transmitted by people with few or no symptoms, that would seem to be the height of folly. But in the mire of bureaucratic and political stubbornness, great plagues can grow. Our questions about this issue, when put to the embassy, were kicked to the State Department in Washington, which gave this response on Monday: Throughout this crisis, we have continuously worked hard to ensure the safety of our staff, including through training and the provision of appropriate personal protective equipment by U.S. Government medical professionals. All health and safety protocols have been strictly followed. Story continues Okay. But what about getting tested on their own? All health and safety protocols have been strictly followed in accordance with U.S. and local requirements and standards. If required, any testing would be done in coordination and consultation with health authorities. From such vague responses to specific questions its clear that, as our reporting shows, actual testing for infection is not part of the programunless there are symptoms. The United States would not be the first country to make this mistake. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan also refused initially to test the 90 officials and health-care workers who had been on the Diamond Princess, asserting that all safety protocols had been followed . Now 10 or more of them have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, after first returning to work. Is it a coverup, a fuckup, a compromise or just the way things are? Hard to say, but the Tokyo embassy scandal raises questions the entire United States and its public servants will be facing soon: Do we test first-responders for the virus? When do we test them? Do we test them only when theyre ill, thus ensuring the virus will spread, or do we test them routinely if they are in contact with the infected? Youd think the answers would be obvious, but the embassy example shows they are not. Furthermore, how do we quarantine these workers if they are positive? Do we treat U.S. State Department staff or military who get ill in their host countries while they are there? Or do we take them home and treat them in the USA? THE CDC/TRUMP CONTEXT Here is what happened in Japan, according to sources in Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; a temporary staffing agency; embassy officials; and the public affairs office of the U.S. State Department. You may recall that the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Japans Yokohama port on Feb. 3 and was quarantined. Ten people on board tested positive for the virus on Feb. 5. Now over 700 people have been infected with the coronavirus from the on-ship epidemic. Early on in the quarantine more than 30 Americans were hospitalized in Japan after developing the disease. On Feb. 10, embassy employees were sent to hospitals to visit infected American citizens as part of their welfare and whereabouts duties. The embassy representatives included local Japanese hires. At some of the hospitals, the U.S. embassy staff came within an arms length of the infected. Safety precautions such as a plate of glass, or a plastic curtain between the visitor and visited, were not taken. After witnessing the extreme illness of those infected, several staffers went to the medical unit at the embassy to ask to be tested for the virus but were turned away. They were told they can only get tested if they have full blown symptoms including a high fever. The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo is located on three acres close to the Prime Minister of Japans residence and many other embassies. The functional but old embassy building was constructed in 1976 and the ambassador's residence is also on the grounds. Most of the employees live in a nearby compound, which is an eight-minute walk from the embassy buildings. Within the embassy itself cubicles are in short supply and its sometimes likened to a crowded Toyio high school. Conditions for spreading the disease are similar to what you would find in any densely populated building, which is to say, good for the virus, not for the humans. The medical unit and consular management assured those exposed that the normal seasonal flu was a greater danger and that only old people die from the coronavirus and therefore they were in no danger. Of course, that isnt trueyoung people also die from the virus, as we now know, and the overall death rate has been reported consistently as about 2 percent, or 20 times higher than 0.1 percent for the flu. On Tuesday this week, the World Health Organization upped the estimated mortality rate to 3.4 percent. But the smug conclusion of the embassy hierarchy was essentially, You all are healthy, so youll be fine. At that point in mid-February, there were still questions about how virulent COVID-19 really was and the embassy and Centers for Disease Control lacked understanding of the still somewhat mysterious routes of infection. But in such cases, it would seem obvious one should err on the side of caution. This should also be seen in the context of messages coming out of the Trump White House. The president constantly sought to downplay the threat of the virus. As late as Feb. 26 he claimed the number of cases in the U.S. was declining when the opposite was true. He actually claimed the death rate was lower than for seasonal flu, which is patently false, and he insisted a vaccine was coming soon, when it likely wont be available until next year, at the earliest. Trump saw publicity about the virus as a ploy, if not a plot, by his critics. After Donald Trump Jr. went so far as to claim Democrats wanted to see millions of Americans die in order to hurt his father, and as some Americans did start to die, the president began to take a more sober approach. Even so, testing in the United States has lagged far behind some other affected countries, and testing kits have been flawed. YOU SHOULD BE OKAY In the meantime the staff at The Tokyo State Department High School were told everything was fine. Many were not convinced. And the consular briefing by the Centers for Disease Control on Feb. 13, didnt help matters. Barbara Knust, an epidemiologist in the Viral Special Pathogens branch at the CDC, informed the consular staff that under no circumstances should embassy personnel be in the same room as COVID-19 positive patients. Almost immediately there was a question from one of the embassy staff. We have been in the same room with the patients. Close enough to them to touch them. Are we okay? Knust then paused and said, You should be okay if you were wearing full protective gear. Its not clear that the protective gear was adequate; necks and arms were exposed. Some walked through possibly contaminated areas of the hospital before and after they donned the gear. As on the Diamond Princess itself, quarantine conditions seemed less than adequate. After this meeting, the embassys management decided to discontinue the welfare and whereabouts visits for those in medical care and to conduct the follow-up checks over the phone. However, the names of the individuals who had been exposed to infected patients had already become known in the embassy and colleagues began to avoid them. One embassy employee said, on condition of anonymity, It makes people nervous to know there may be infected co-workers walking around the embassy. We dont want to ostracize them but we keep hearing of people who tested negative, later turning out to be infected. These people havent even been tested, ever. The evacuation of American citizens from the Diamond Princess began on Feb. 16. The Japanese government had promised that all of those ready to evacuate were virus free but as the planes got ready to take off, it became apparent that Japans quarantines had failed. Many of the Diamond Princess cruise passengers who had been evacuated under the assumption that they were not infected were in fact carriers of the illness. That created more uneasiness within the embassy. The history of precautions taken overseasor notshould give you an idea of how stubbornly infectious the virus can be. Carl Goldman, one passenger evacuated from the ship who contracted the virus, has been in an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital since Feb. 17. He is in a room that has been made virtually airtight to prevent doctors from contracting the virus; the windows are double-pane thick glass. Around the time Goldman was sealed into his room, embassy staff contacted senior management asking for follow-up testing. According to a former employee of the embassy who left for the private sector last year but remains in close contact with his embassy colleagues, on the afternoon of Feb. 18, Deputy Consul General Smith held a meeting with staff who had visited the hospital and apologized for putting them in a precarious situation. Smith explained that when management had decided to send officers and staff to the hospitals, that they were following the guidance of the CDC. Unfortunately, he reportedly told them, two or three days later CDC changed their guidance. That was not foreseen. While addressing the officers and local staff requests for testing, Smith assured them that he had consulted with the CDC and there was little or no danger. He asserted that their recent exposure with the gear they had on renders concern negligible, concluding, Since you have no symptoms, no tests are needed. The staff was told several times that no one would be tested unless they displayed symptoms within a 14 day incubation period. When staff asked to have themselves tested on their own, they were strongly discouraged from doing so. During meetings, embassy officials told them verbally that if they independently sought tests at a hospital, it might bring unwanted attention to the recent embassy practice of exposing officers and staff to the virus. FEVER DREAMS On the evening of Feb. 18, Consul General Karin M. Lang would tell officers that actually no testing was available but the medical unit was giving out self-exam kits. The self-exam kits include a thermometer, a daily log, the recommended temperature for testing, and a medical mask that, in fact, is not designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. A day or two later, there was an embassy wide town hall and Deputy Chief of Mission Joseph M. Young thanked the staff for their hard work. At this town hall, Knust explained to them, We are still learning a lot about the virus, but could not provide the nervous embassy personnel with any more conclusive information. On Feb. 20, the media began reporting that the U.S. State Department flew coronavirus infected Americans from the ship back to the United States on a plane full of healthy people. The CDC had opposed this decision. The 14 infected passengers were put in seats behind 10-foot-high plastic walls on four sides. On Feb. 23, a new study suggested that the incubation period for coronavirus could be up to 27 days for some individuals. This means that without being tested, there is still a chance that the embassy employees could silently be dispersing the virus within the embassy walls and the compound where they live. Epidemiologist Kentaro Iwata said at a press conference on Feb. 20 that not testing those who have been exposed to those who have been infected raises the possibility of increasing the spread of the disease significantly. He emphasized that while early testing does produce false negatives, testing criteria shouldnt be so stringent as to only test after someone is visibly ill. Pre-emptive examinations were critical in preventing an outbreak, he said. THE DOUBLE BIND The Daily Beast reached out to several parties at the embassy. A list of questions were submitted to the embassy public affairs office in Tokyo. As noted, the questions were then kicked up to Washington D.C., where the Department of State spokesperson responded with anodyne assurances that, All health and safety protocols have been strictly followed. They would not discuss whether or not staff had been discouraged from seeking tests outside the embassy, nor explain why tests were not conducted. However, one senior State Department officer told The Daily Beast on conditions of anonymity there were two main reasons testing had not been done. The CDC information kept changing. We were told they didnt have enough testing kits and that effectively they were already conducting triage. Thus: no symptoms, no test, no problems. We reached out to the Japanese Ministry of Health and were more or less rebuffed. We were told that it would be awkward if we tested our employees while the Ministry of Health was refusing to test staff that had been involved in the quarantine. So far, none of the five who visited the sick patients from the Diamond Princess have shown symptoms, but without the tests, which still have not been carried out, it is impossible to say whether they might have carried the disease to others. And even then, results are not reliableonly better than nothing. A source at the ministry did confirm that there had been talks, but no formal request that the embassy suppress testing. Indeed, 90 Japan health ministry employees who had been working around the ship during the first two-week quarantine initially returned to their normal work duties without being tested for the virus. The ministry, too, refused to do testing, insisting that all proper health protocols had been followed. After several fell ill, the ministry reversed its decision and agreed to test 41 of them; then eventually decided to test all 90. Eleven of them were infected. The dilemma faced by those at the U.S. embassy will very soon face everyone working in the public service in the U.S. Do we test those at risk and treat them accordingly, or do we work not to know and let things go as they may? Knowing as early as possible would seem to be the best way to treat illness before it gets severe and stop infection before it spreads. So far, the Trump administration and the CDC have not followed the wise advice of Lao Tzu, the alleged author of the Tao Te Ching. The greatest problem could have been solved when it was small. What to do? Lao Tzu, was no prophet but he may have some post-crisis advice that we all should heed, now that the growing number of deaths in the United States appears to have focused the administrations attention: People usually fail when they are on the verge of success. So give as much care to the end as to the beginning; then there will be no failure. Unfortunately, we werent careful in the beginning. The acorn has become a tree and it will soon become a forest. The question is how we will conduct ourselves at the end to try to salvage success from failure. The full State Department statement on the situation at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo: The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens and our employees is the Department of States highest priority. We work around the clock to provide U.S. travelers with timely, accurate information regarding risks abroad, as well as to assist Americans in need. In the case of the Diamond Princess, our Embassy in Tokyo, with the full support of the State Department, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services, has made strenuous efforts on behalf of the U.S. citizens involved. Our team has assisted these citizens every step of the way, including working to ensure: that those on board had access to prescription medication and appropriate medical attention; that those who tested positive received appropriate medical care in Japan; and, that all were kept informed through daily updates. Of course, we also arranged charter flights to take U.S. citizens from the ship to the United States. We have and will continue to provide all appropriate consular assistance to the U.S. citizens involved, including those who remain in Japan. This assistance continues to include working closely with the cruise line, Japanese health authorities, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor treatment and quarantine of those still in Japan, and work to lift the Do Not Board restrictions as appropriate. Throughout this crisis, we have continuously worked hard to ensured the safety of our staff, including through training and the provision of appropriate personal protective equipment by U.S. Government medical professionals. All health and safety protocols have been strictly followed. We extend our thanks to the Government of Japan for its invaluable collaboration with us and for its commitment to protecting the welfare of our U.S. citizen community in Japan. We remain committed to working alongside Japan and all of our international partners to combat the outbreak. Are embassy staff free to get tested on their own, now that the Japanese government is offering such tests? All health and safety protocols have been strictly followed in accordance with U.S. and local requirements and standards. If required, any testing would be done in coordination and consultation with health authorities. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had "no reaction" to North Korea's projectile launches this week, calling them "short-term missiles" in an apparent bid to downplay the threat. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea's military, the first such launch in about three months. North Korean media later said it was a long-range artillery firing drill overseen by leader Kim Jong-un. "No, I have no reaction," Trump said in response to a reporter's question during a roundtable briefing on the coronavirus at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. "Short-term missiles. No. No. None." North Korea conducted similar weapons tests last year and each time the U.S. president dismissed them as unimportant because they involved short-range ballistic missiles, even though they are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions. Trump has instead taken credit for Pyongyang's suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests, which he says is a result of his diplomatic engagement with the regime. Trump and Kim have met three times to try to reach a deal on dismantling the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief and other concessions. Negotiations between the two countries have stalled since the pair's second summit in Vietnam in February 2019 ended abruptly over differences on how to match each side's steps. (Yonhap) "Serving in the military changes you. The shades and degrees of change vary for everyone, but no one is ever the same as... As part of the deal signed on Saturday, the US agreed its troops will begin withdrawing from the region in a bid to end the country's longest war with its once sworn enemy. The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths in 19 years of fierce fighting. Despite the agreement, the US military has confirmed that it has launched an air strike against Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, after claiming the group had been attacking an Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDF) checkpoint. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the peace signing ceremony with Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani / AP US military spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett wrote on Twitter: "The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our 1st strike against the Taliban in 11 days. "To be clear- we are committed to peace, however we have the responsibility to defend our #ANDSF partners. #Afghans & US have complied w/ our agreements; however, Talibs appear intent on squandering this opp. and ignoring the will of the people for #peace. #Showyourcommitment." He also called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the agreement signed on February 29 between their leaders and US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. He added US forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies, according to agreements between the US and Afghan governments. During Saturday's peace talks in Qatar's capital Doha, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met a 31-strong Taliban delegation and called it "a momentous day", as he issued a list of instructions to the Taliban to ensure the deal's success. US president Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he had spoken on the phone to a Taliban leader and had a "good talk" with the leader of the Taliban and they agreed there "is no violence" and that they "didn't want violence". Donald Trump said he had a "good chat" with the Taliban leader / Getty Images Mr Trump is the first US leader to speak with the militant group. The Afghan Defence Ministry said in another statement that a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in northern Kunduz province had resulted in the deaths of seven soldiers and 10 Taliban fighters. The peace deal, signed by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, confirms the complete withdrawal of US and NATO troops within 14 months. The US has also agreed to cease using force against Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs. It has also committed to seeking annual funds to train, advise and equip Afghan security forces. An illustration from a Columbia Basin Hydropower Powerpoint presentation shows the path of proposed pipes under the city of Grand Coulee, incorporating a new underground power plant with a 500-megawatt capacity. The 35-foot diameter penstocks would be 300 feet underground. A potential new, big hydro-electric project for the Coulee area, could be more likely to happen sooner than later if legislation being considered by the Senate in Washington D.C. passes. The $1.4 billion Banks Lake Pump Storage Project, proposed by Columbia Basin Hydropower, would bring in an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 workers to build a gravity-fed, pumped-storage system that would drain water from Banks Lake back down to Lake Roosevelt, turning generators in the process, and later pump the water back up to Banks Lake. Currently, the project would be under joint jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but if legislation being considered this week by the Senate passes, FERC would no longer be in the picture, and CBH would then apply to the Bureau for a "Lease of Power Privilege." Sen. Maria Cantwell describes the 555-page "American Energy Innovation Act" as a "bipartisan comprehensive energy modernization bill," which includes five of Cantwell's bills that focus on "modernizing the U.S. electricity grid, protecting the grid from cyber attacks, making our nation's buildings smarter and more efficient, creating new clean energy jobs, and facilitating a significant Eastern Washington energy storage project." The gravity-fed system would provide 500 megawatts total. Section 1302 of the proposed act, titled "Bureau of Reclamation Pumped Storage Hydropower Development," is described as something that would "pave the way for a large new pumped storage project in Eastern Washington, which could provide a critical new source of carbon-free capacity for the Pacific Northwest power grid. The project would help integrate intermittent renewable sources and offset retiring coal-fired generation. Specifically, the provision clarifies that the Banks Lake project only needs to work through the Bureau of Reclamation's permitting process and not also that of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission." The American Energy Innovation Act is expected to be voted on this week or next week, according to Ben Marvin-Vanderryn, Cantwell's press secretary. The project would put one or two penstocks (pipes) up to 35 feet in diameter 300 feet underground between the North Dam area on Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt underneath the city of Grand Coulee. Former manager of project development at CBH Tim Culbertson, now retired, told The Star in November that engineering and planning would likely take another two years, with ground possibly being broken in 2022 and the project finishing in 2026. Other problems that would need to be solved include where to house the 1,000-1,500 workers to build the project, 100-150 permanent workers and their families, and where to put the dirt dug out for the tunnels. Visitors wear protective masks in wake of the deadly novel coronavirus, at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (PTI photo) Telangana: The condition of the 24-year-old techie, who tested positive for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Hyderabad, is stable and the process of tracking people he came in contact with was on, Telangana Health Minister E Rajender said on Tuesday. The health condition of the man, who works in Bengaluru as a software professional, has, in fact, shown improvement since Monday" E Rajender, Telangana Health Minister Admitted to an isolation ward in the state-run Gandhi hospital here, the man is found to have come in contact with 88 people. Rajender said of these, 45 had been brought to the Gandhi hospital here and their test results awaited while test would be conducted for the remaining 43 also, he added. The 24-year-old man was in Dubai last month and worked with people from Hong Kong where he is suspected to have contracted the virus. from Dubai, he had returned to Bengaluru before travelling to Hyderabad in a bus. He took treatment at a private hospital in Hyderabad for fever and reported at the state-run hospital on Sunday evening as it did not subside. The minister spoke to reporters after a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee where measures to be taken to prevent the spread of the virus following detection of the positive case were discussed. The meeting was attended by other members of the cabinet sub-committee state municipal administration minister K T Rama Rao and panchayati raj minister E Dayakar Rao along with senior officials. Rajender also said the state government has set up isolation wards in five government hospitals and has identified altogether 3,000 beds, including 2,000 in different private medical colleges. The minister said he spoke to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Central officials and sought supply of masks which was accepted. Asked if the state government has enough doctors and other staff, he said 24 doctors have been allocated for handling the cases and another 20 have been identified. If more are required, the services of retired doctors and retired nursing staff would be utilised. E Rajender The state government would undertake a major campaign to spread awareness on COVID-19, including setting up of hoardings, publishing pamphlets and also through TV and other media, he said. A helpline '104' would be fully functional from Wednesday. NASA and a clutch of startup and established companies are moving forward with plans to transform mobility in urban environments through the Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge. If it's fully implemented, the new Urban Air Mobility system could enable air transit for things like package delivery, taxi services, expanded air medical services and cargo delivery to underserved or rural communities, the agency said in a statement. The Grand Challenge series brings together companies developing new transportation or airspace management technologies, the Agency said. With this step, were continuing to put the pieces together that we hope will soon make real the long-anticipated vision of smaller piloted and unpiloted vehicles providing a variety of services around cities and in rural areas, said Robert Pearce, NASAs associate administrator for aeronautics, in a statement. The idea is to bring companies to collaborate and also give regulatory agencies a window into the technologies and how they may work in concert to bring air mobility to the masses in the coming years. Our partnership with the FAA will be a key factor in the successful and safe outcomes for industry that we can expect from conducting these series of Grand Challenges during the coming years, Pearce said, in a statement. Getting the agreements signed are the first step in a multi-stage process that will culminate in the challenge's official competition in 2022. There are preliminary technological tests that will take place this year. We consider this work as a risk reduction step toward Grand Challenge 1, said Starr Ginn, NASAs Grand Challenge lead. It is designed to allow U.S. developed aircraft and airspace management service providers to essentially try out their systems with real-world operations in simulated environments that we also will be flight testing to gain experience. Partnerships for the challenge fall into three categories: Developmental Flight Testing: These are industry partners providing vehicles that will fly in the challenge. Story continues Developmental Airspace Simulation: Companies will test traffic management services in NASA-designed airspace simulations for urban air mobility. Vehicle Provider Information Exchange: These partners are also working closely with NASA to provide information about their vehicles so NASA can prep them for possible flight activities that will occur during the 2022 Grand Challenge. The Grand Challenge is managed through NASA's Advanced Air Mobility project, which was established in the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to coordinate urban air mobility activities. Companies participating in the challenge include: Hearing petitions seeking FIRs against BJP leaders for hate speech, the Supreme Court on Wednesday frowned upon the Delhi High Court's decision to defer the sensitive matter by a month. The apex court, however, did not see it fit to issue any other directions to the high court and referred all related petitions to it. Hearing petitions seeking FIRs against BJP leaders for hate speech, the Supreme Court on Wednesday frowned upon the Delhi High Court's decision to defer the sensitive matter by a month. The apex court, however, did not see it fit to issue any other directions to the high court and referred all related petitions to it. The court also observed that timing may not be "conducive" to arrest leaders for alleged hate speeches. A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant said, "The high court may explore the possibility of peaceful resolutions of the disputes." The apex court was hearing petitions demanding FIR against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma for their hate speeches. The above observation came after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the riot victims, told the bench that the Delhi High Court has deferred the pleas on Delhi violence for four weeks despite the fact that "people are still dying". "When people are still dying then why can't the high court hear it urgently," he had told the Supreme Court. Here is what the Supreme Court noted: On Delhi HC's long deferment of matter The Supreme Court termed the long delay in hearing the matter 'concerning'. "We aren't on the merits of the case but the long adjournment is something that concerns us. We aren't saying the HC doesn't have any reason but the period for which the hearing has been adjourned may not be good. We propose HC should hear this on Friday." The Supreme Court ruled that the the petition by the victims be transmitted to the Delhi High Court and directed it to hear this and other related cases as expeditiously as possible. It suggested that matters be taken up by the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on the coming Friday. "In riots, violence cannot be curbed by courts. But just because there is no violence, it doesn't mean courts should give such long adjournments...Chief justice of the HC should get all these cases together and hear them," the court said. Additionally, the court asked both sides to give names of people who could assist in restoring peace and communal harmony. "Delhi High Court may explore possibility of amicable resolution of the dispute. Peace is possible and we want some people to spread that message," the CJI said, asking all parties to give "names of some individuals who could assist." A bench of the Delhi High Court led by Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar had last week given the police four weeks to respond to petitions that hate speeches by some political leaders had incited the protesters, leading to the riots in the national capital. On FIRs against BJP leaders The Supreme Court refused to pass any orders on the subject but instead asked the high court to hear the matter 'expeditiously'. The court, however, observed that the arrest of leaders might inflame violence. "We don't want to assume jurisdiction when HC is seized of the matter but such matters should not be delayed for so long," the Supreme Court said. CJI Bobde asked Mehta if the situation was 'conducive' today to book the BJP leaders for the inflammatory speeches but Mehta claimed that although no riots have been reported for the past three days, registering FIRs now might affect the situation. "It should be left to appropriate authority," Mehta said. Gonsalves, however, pointed that the statements by BJP leaders inflamed sentiments and caused the riots. "Kapil Mishra raised provocative slogans and conducted marches. We did not understand the enormity of the statement then. Now such statements are being made across the country," Murali Krishnan quoted Gonsalves as saying. "Protests are causing blockade of roads, I agree. But not a single incident of violence by protesters. With DCP standing beside him, he gave an ultimatum to clear the blockade within a particular time or else he will take things into his hands. And after that violence started,"Gonsalves said adding that the speeches were not just inflammatory but also counted as calls for mobilisation and amounted to an attempt to murder. Mehta objected to this and said that 467 FIRs have been registered against various miscreants in connection of the riots but Gonsalves only wants FIR against three leaders. "It is fallacious to believe that one statement would have led to riots," Mehta claimed. CJI Bobde, meanwhile, said that it is not right to believe that riots will stop merely by arrest of a few leaders. "Your statement that when you arrest somebody it stops everything is not true. You know what happened in Bombay riots... When shakha pramukhs were arrested, it flared up," Bar & Bench quoted Bobde as saying. "We also have some experience of riots. There are times when the situation becomes worse when you arrest some leaders immediately. "We aren't condoning inflammatory speeches. All that we are saying that it differs from one situation to another," Bobde said. Retired soldier Dennis Hutchings has claimed that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has refused to back him in his bid to stop "discriminatory" prosecutions of Northern Ireland veterans. Mr Hutchings' non-jury criminal trial for the attempted murder and grievous bodily harm with intent of John Pat Cunningham in Armagh in June 1974 will begin on March 9. Mr Cunningham, who had learning difficulties, died after being shot in the back as he ran away from an army patrol. Previous investigations concluded that no action should be taken against Mr Hutchings. He denies the charge and is taking legal action against the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) "to end discriminatory prosecution of veterans in Northern Ieland". An MOD spokesperson said they could not support Mr Hutchings legal challenge as it "would see the Government using taxpayer's money to pay for legal action against itself". The case, alongside that of Soldier F, charged with two murders on Bloody Sunday, has attracted widespread attention, with campaigners claiming former soldiers should not face prosecution for carrying out their duties. Expand Close John Pat Cunningham Photopress Belfast / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John Pat Cunningham Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to end "vexatious" cases against former Northern Ireland veterans, making it part of the Conservative Party's 2019 General Election manifesto. In a statement issued through his solicitors McCue & Partners Mr Hutchings said that any legislation introduced by the Government will be "too late" with his trial set to begin next week. The 78-yar-old former member of the Life Guards regiment said he had "no faith" effective legislation would be introduced to protect veterans "given competing political agendas between Westminster and Stormont". Mr Hutchings claimed the Government had refused repeated requests to meet with him to explain what the proposed legislation would entail and to try and see a resolution without legal action. "Following the refusal from the MOD to back my challenge against the NIO, I feel totally let down yet again by the government," he said. "Any legislation, if it comes at all, will be too late for me but I will continue the fight to stop this political and vengeful vendetta against service veterans who were only serving their country having been sent by politicians to a job, which was to protect the public. "The time is now for the politicians to hang their heads in shame for how they are treating the veterans of this country. Matthew Jury from McCue & Partners said the NIO had funded a case against itself as recently as 2017. "With proper checks and balances, its not unreasonable to expect that the Government should back a case against one of its departments when that department is facing allegations of facilitating the vexatious prosecution of British Army veterans, something that is clearly against the public interest. "The fact is, any legislation will now come too late, if it comes at all, to protect Mr Hutchings. Nonetheless, Mr Hutchings intends to continue his campaign to ensure that other veterans are spared his ordeal. A UK Government spokesperson said they remained committed to ending the prosecution of veterans. "The Prime Minister has been clear we will end the vexatious prosecutions of veterans, including bringing forward legislation to address the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. As the PM has said, we will implement the Stormont House agreement in such a way as to provide certainty for veterans and justice for victims. It is understood the Government is still considering responses to a public consultation on dealing with the legacy of the Troubles. A New Zealand citizen who has recently returned from a trip to Italy has been confirmed as having coronavirus. The World Health Organisation says on its website that a second New Zealand case has been confirmed. The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the citizen is a woman in her 30s who had recently returned from a trip to Italy. The positive test result was formally reported to the ministry at about 6pm yesterday. At that point, health authorities began notifying the woman and her family and started the process of contact tracing. The woman returned on an Air New Zealand flight NZ0283, from Singapore to Auckland on 25 February. Ashley says anyone who was on that flight and is concerned or wants information should contact the Healthline number (0800 358 5453). The woman also took two domestic flights - one on 2 March from Auckland to Palmerston North (NZ5013), and on the same day from Palmerston North to Auckland (NZ8114). Ashley says the woman is self-isolating at home and is being monitored. She does not require hospitalisation. Her partner has also displayed symptoms and is being tested. Ashley says with continued vigilance, the chance of widespread community outbreak remains low. Contact is being made with the two medical centres where the woman sought advice and treatment to determine whether there is any risk to staff or other people who may have been at the centre at that time. Contact tracing and action will be taken as required. Two schools have also been notified about the positive test as there is a family member at each of those schools. These schools are Westlake Boys and Westlake Girls' High Schools. The family members who attend these schools are not symptomatic and are now at home in isolation. They did not travel to Italy, are both well and are being monitored. The Ministry of Health reportedly called the press conference after enquiries from RNZ's Checkpoint about a positive Covid-19 case. New Zealand's first case is a woman who had returned from Iran via Bali. She is recovering in hospital in Auckland. The ministry says 160 tests have been carried out. All the testing of New Zealanders for Covid-19 were being done in New Zealand. Air New Zealand says it is working closely with government agencies to identify and contact other passengers on board the international and domestic flights. The airline's chief medical officer Dr Ben Johnston says the three aircraft will undergo a deep clean using a disinfectant that kills viruses. Total infections worldwide have topped 90,000, with deaths now over 3100. Nearly all cases and deaths have been in China but the numbers in Iran, Italy and South Korea have continued to grow. Travel restrictions have been extended this week with people travelling via Italy and South Korea having to go into isolation for two weeks upon arrival. Visitors travelling from mainland China and Iran are already barred from entering the country, while citizens and permanent residents from those places are being asked to go into isolation. -RNZ A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others guilty for the custodial death of the Unnao rape survivors father. Aamir Khan, Tinku Singh, Sharadveer and Sonu have been acquitted. The sentencing will take place on March 12. The womans father died on April 9, 2018, in judicial custody. District judge Dharmesh Sharma said Sengar had no intention of killing the victims father. He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death, the judge said. The court further said that the deceased was taken to the police station and framed in a false case. The court came down heavily on the doctors at the district hospital, calling them butchers and accused them of gross negligence. The doctors at the district hospital are butchers. There was radiology but no X-ray was conducted, said the court. The Central Bureau of Investigation had examined 55 witnesses in support of the case and the defence examined nine witnesses. The court had recorded the statements of the rape survivors uncle, mother, sister and one of her fathers colleague who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident. The court had on December 20 last year sent Sengar to jail for remainder of his natural biological life for raping the woman in 2017 when she was a minor. Coronavirus has not had any effect on oil or gas production in Iran, the deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Wednesday, according to the Tasnim news agency. "The production and distribution of Iran's oil and gas is being carried out without any effect from the outbreak," Farokh Alikhani was quoted as saying. Iran's crude oil exports were slashed by more than 80% after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh ... As education and public health officials in the United States debate the pros and cons of shutting down schools to slow the spread of novel coronavirus, the Italian government on Wednesday joined the governments of Japan and Hong Kong in closing schools in response to the spread of COVID-19. Widespread school closures seem an unlikely scenario in the United States at this point, especially when decisions are left to local authorities and any moves to shutter schools for a prolonged period would bring some steep costs to communities. But what can research on previous pandemics tell school leaders and health authorities about what to do when weighing the costs and benefits of closing schools? A report on the local government response to the 1918 Spanish Flu holds valuable lessons, researchers at the University of Michigan Medical Schools Center for the History of Medicine say. See Also Responding to Coronavirus: A Downloadable Guide for Schools Closing American schools earlier and for a longer period of time blunted the impact of the Spanish Flu in 1918, said J. Alexander Navarro, a co-author of the 2007 study and assistant director of the center. In that global pandemic, at least 50 million people died worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Navarro and other scholars studied how 43 cities across the country responded to the Spanish Flu from 1918 to 1919. They found that cities that early on enacted non-pharmaceutical interventions, or NPIs, like school closures or bans on public gatherings, had a lower peak mortality and lower overall morbidity than cities that waited longer to do so. Most cities layered different interventions. For instance, the first line of defense was often self-isolation for infected people or a quarantine. School closure, Navarro said, usually only becomes necessary after it is impossible to track how each individual victim was infected. In total, 40 of the 43 cities closed schools at some point during the outbreak. School closures are one of the more useful NPIs a city can enact, he said. One reason is that people are already accustomed to schools periodically closing. People are used to having schools close for snow days for a couple of days, he said. Longer school closures can be problematic, but if you went immediately to public gathering bans...I think that would be too socially dislocating. In China, where COVID-19 was first detected, the government has enforced strict social-distancing policies such as shuttering schools, closing down businesses, and ordering residents to stay in their homes. Those measures, while drastic, are helping to drive down the numbers of new cases in China, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. The Delicate Balancing Act of Closing Schools But deciding to close schools is a delicate balancing act, Navarro said, more so now than it was 100 years ago when, for example, it was much less common for mothers to work outside the home. A huge number of students across the nation receive free or reduced-price lunches at school and so this is a major source of nutrition, as well as day care essentially, he said. If you take that away, how do you get meals to these kids? Navarro added. How do you give them a place where its safe and secure to be when public gatherings may not be safe from a public health standpoint? Prolonged closures would be a major disruptor to childrens learning, even in districts that may be equipped to deploy e-learning or remote-learning programs. Schools ideally could even close proactivelythat is, before a case is even reported among the student body, according to Nicholas Christakis, a professor of sociology at Yale University. Reactive school closure, while rational & helpful, is not enough, Christakis wrote on Twitter . In my view, schools should be closed *before* first case in a school, when cases appear in the community or in nearby areas. This is not without costs. But waiting reduces the benefits of #schoolclosure. Navarro agreed, but noted that closing a school proactively is a difficult thing to do. Its hard to tell a community that doesnt see cases or very few cases circulating in the wider community, perhaps none in schools, to say yeah, we need you to close, and were going to close down all these schools for a lengthy period of time, Navarro said. Its very disruptive to parents and children. Navarro noted some caveats to applying the lessons of 1918 directly to the present, including changes in American civic culture. Declining trust in the government and a partisan political process could contribute to people questioning the judgment of public health officials. Historical context also played a role, according to Navarro. One of the things its important to remember when talking about 1918 is that the United States was in the midst of the Great War, World War I, and so there was a tremendous sense of hyper-patriotism, Navarro said. There was this sense of, do everything you can for the war effort. And when the influenza pandemic struck, that kind of morphed into the pandemic effort as well. Moreover, there are now legal concerns over who has the authority to close schools. James G. Hodge, Jr., a professor at Arizona State University, said that the legal authority at the state level to close schools is ambiguous. I cant emphasize enough that closing schools is not like turning a light switch on or off, Hodge said in an earlier interview with Education Week. Still, Navarro stressed that in the wake of other diseases like the H1N1 flu in 2009, many school officials have given greater consideration to how to go about a widespread school closure. Its been done before, Navarro said. Its more problematic if its done on a wide scale for a longer time, but this is something that officials have definitely been thinking about. Pakistan says coronavirus cases on rise IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Islamabad, March 3, IRNA -- Pakistan's Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has confirmed Pakistan's fifth case of coronavirus. "We have now 5th confirmed case of COVID19 in federal areas," he said in a tweet on Tuesday. The patient is stable and being managed well, the minister added. Local media reported that the affected person is a 45 year old woman from Pakistan's northern Gilgit city. However, Dr. Zafar Mirza said that the lady has been quarantined in Islamabad and is in a stable condition. Earlier Pakistan had confirmed four cases of the virus, two in Karachi and two from the federal areas. Health authorities say that all the four virus patients are recovering and two of them will soon be discharged. Meanwhile, Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan for a week amid apprehensions of outbreak of coronavirus. The government of south western Balochistan province which borders Iran has announced a holiday for all educational institutions till March 15 amid panic and fear of the coronavirus. The educational institutions in northern Pakistan and Karachi have also been closed as a precautionary measure against the virus. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aisha Farooqui earlier had said that the country is actively engaged with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to deal with the spread of coronavirus and the evolving situation. She said that Pakistan fully supports the efforts of Iranian authorities in managing the outbreak of the virus. The virus has spread to more than 25 countries, killing over 2,835 and infecting 85,000, mostly in China. But new outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East and in Asia have fanned fears of the contagion taking hold worldwide. 272**1416 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- "Given the potential impacts of COVID-19 on global growth, we reaffirm our commitment to use all appropriate policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable growth and safeguard against downside risks," Group of Seven (G7) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors said in a joint statement Tuesday. A Houston man called 911 to turn himself in after shooting his cousins boyfriend Tuesday in South Park, police say. Police told the Houston Chronicle that the gunman, later identified as 49-year-old Michael Alexander Torres, drove his cousin to the mans home in the 5900 block of Doolittle shortly after 11 a.m. so she could pick up her stuff from his house. Thats when the 42-year-old boyfriend started to throw bricks at Torres, even causing heavy damage to the windshield on his SUV, police said. F ormer Labour MP Ian Austin launched an attack on the partys leadership hopefuls today, saying their debates are a joke. Mr Austin, who quit Labour over Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism, said they were not addressing the massive questions facing the UK. Writing in todays Standard, he said: The leadership debates are a joke. They blame their defeat on the media, attacks on Corbyn or even the voters. They seem to have spent longer debating trans rights than housing or jobs. Ive not heard a word about welfare reform or massive questions such as equipping Britain for artificial intelligence and globalisation. He warned that while Mr Corbyn is standing down, the extremists who joined to support him have not gone away. He also hit out at the frontrunner to replace Mr Corbyn, saying: Even Sir Keir Starmer supposedly the credible candidate loyally served in Corbyns top team, said he backed him 100 per cent, campaigned to make him prime minister and praised his radicalism. BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government, a Congress leader has alleged. Bhopal: BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government, a Congress leader has alleged. The statement of Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari came hours after Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. The Opposition BJP dismissed the claim of Madhya Pradesh's former chief minister and said his statement was aimed at ensuring his re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh scheduled on March 26. "Senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy," Patwari told PTI over phone. "The MLAs told us that they were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders," he alleged. "We are trying to bring them back. Four of them have come back also but they have forcibly taken away tribal MLA Bisahulal Singh," he alleged. According to media reports, Digvijay and his minister son Jaivardhan Singh also reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. Speaking to reporters on Monday at New Delhi, Digvijay alleged his party MLAs were being offered a huge amount of money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron party's "poaching" attempts to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. Hitting back, Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements and engaging in sensationalism. BJP vice-president and MLA Rameshwar Sharma told PTI that people dont take the Congress veteran seriously. The US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has delayed its visit to Vietnam to assess the country's food safety control system for Siluriformes fish order, mainly tra fish, for the second time, from March 2 to 13. Workers process tra fish for export at a local firm. The Food Safety and Inspection Service, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has delayed its reevaluation of Vietnamese tra fishs food safety control system Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, confirmed the information with the Saigon Times on March 3. Nam said the delay may be due to the spread of the coronavirus. Dr Michelle Catlin, an international coordination executive for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has also written to Nguyen Nhu Tiep, head of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, notifying him of the delay. Catlin stated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will arrange another visit to Vietnam soon but no further details on the timeline were provided. Earlier, Nafiqad Deputy Director Ngo Hong Phong noted that the department on January 20 had received FSIS announcement to send a working team to Vietnam to evaluate Vietnam's food safety control system for tra fish, which will be exported to the United States, for the second time, from March 2 to 13. The first evaluation of the countrys food safety control system for Siluriformes fish was conducted in May 2018. Accordingly, the working team launched on-site inspections of the food safety control systems of two central surveillance agencies, a testing room run by Nafiqad, eight tra fish processing factories and two tra fish farming facilities. FSIS hailed Vietnams efforts toward food safety control, especially its regulations and the enforcement of these regulations, but pointed out its shortcomings. Specifically, the results of the operational sanitation monitoring systems at all audited establishments were not fully documented and Nafiqad inspectors did not identify the failure to document these results. In addition, at two establishments, product washing machinery was constructed with piping that could not be disassembled for a full inspection to verify sanitation. Further, some equipment was in a deteriorating condition. Nafiqad later provided evidence demonstrating that these local establishments had addressed such shortcomings. On November 12 last year, FSIS recognized the compatibility of Vietnamese tra fishs food safety control system with its own standards but stated that it would conduct a reevaluation of the system to maintain Vietnams food safety control system for tra fish being exported stateside. SGT US food agency inspection an opportunity for Vietnamese catfish The ministry said Vietnam welcome the FSISs involvement to ensure Vietnamese tra fish hold up to the strictest of safety and quality standards. When the coronavirus hit the Bay Area, Novato mom Naomi Thorne pulled out all the hand sanitizer bottles she had. Shes avoiding indoor play areas and making sure to spray her 2-year-old Everetts hands even at outdoor parks. At a recent work event with a buffet, she was so nervous about using the utensils that she went to the bathroom to wash her hands afterward. She and her wife, Katherine, both real estate agents, decided to not shake hands with prospective buyers at house tours. Although she usually does so out of respect, shes ready to explain herself: I dont really care what reactions I get; I have a small child, she said. Thorne doesnt really know how worried she should be about the health risks. Shes been more immediately alarmed by the empty shelves at Trader Joes and the tumbling stock market. Bay Area parents and pregnant women are consuming coronavirus news with emotions somewhere on the range from apocalyptic isolation to shoulder-shrugging determination to carry on as usual. Questions and daily quandaries abound: Is my kid susceptible to the coronavirus? If Im pregnant, will my baby get it? Should I send my child to preschool? What about that trip to the play park? The primary message to parents is its appropriate to be cautious and alert to more information, but at this point, not alarmed, said Dr. Theodore Ruel, pediatric infectious disease specialist at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital . Although data are limited on the new coronavirus that causes respiratory illness, preliminary analysis suggests that children seem less likely to be infected and die. The World Health Organization said anyone can get the coronavirus. The most vulnerable categories of people include those who are older and have medical conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease. A Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention study in February of tens of thousands of patients found that most people infected were over the age of 30 and had mild symptoms, which commonly include fever, tiredness and coughing. Two percent of the cases were under the age of 19, with one death in that group and none under the age of 9. The death rate was highest (close to 15%) in those over the age of 80. Ruel said its not surprising because older adults are more likely to have other conditions and be more vulnerable to other viral infections. The situation is more uncertain, and could be riskier, for pregnant women, since pregnancy can make women more vulnerable to infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its not known how susceptible pregnant women are, but experts compare it to other respiratory illnesses like SARS. Like with SARS, pregnant women might be at risk for more severe illness or even death than the general population. Miscarriages, stillbirths and certain birth defects because of high fevers during the first trimester of pregnancy happened in previous outbreaks. Some adverse outcomes like preterm birth have been reported among coronavirus-infected mothers, but its not clear it was related to the infection, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A small sample study by Chinas Wuhan University found that nine pregnant patients infected with the coronavirus didnt seem to pass it on to their babies. Breastfeeeding moms are encouraged to keep doing so since limited evidence suggests the virus is not spread through breast milk, the CDC said. So what should parents do? Whatever you would for flu season: aggressive handwashing, protecting from coughing, avoiding touching eyes and taking extra precautions with very young infants. Be alert to how their children are doing; if it seems like a mild cold, it probably just is, Ruel said. If you feel sick, stay home and avoid public places with treatments such as rest, fluids and pain medication. If its more severe and you have concerns about having trouble breathing or a high fever lasting more than a few days, call ahead to a hospital to let them know youre coming in for treatment so they can isolate you if necessary. A private school in Atherton has closed after a staffers relative tested positive for the virus, with the closure remaining in effect through the weekend. But across the Bay Area, many parents are carrying on as usual just with extra precautions. Lafayette expectant mom Norah Woodsey is more worried for her husband, who works in tech and has a lung condition, and her two kids ages 5 and 3, than about herself. Theyve cut back on family outings in large crowds and havent been eating out as much. On top of minor stocking up on supplies, theyve been cleaning doorknobs, keys and cell phones every night with wipes. Encouraging toddlers to wash their hands has met with mixed results, Woodsey added. Oakland resident Max Montez said he hasnt been too concerned since, as the father of two kids under the age of 3, he washes his hands like 700 times a day for every other reason already. Maybe (were) just a little bit more aware of taking them out in public and making sure we clean up and wash everybodys hands and use hand sanitizer, not particularly different than that, he said. Theres really not that much more we can do. Hes on an email list with other preschool parents that encourages them to practice more caution than usual and keep kids home if they feel sick and even gave a recipe to make hand sanitizer. It definitely hasnt reached panic level, Montez said. It just seems like people are concerned, some more than others. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Local parents who work in health care said they try to rationalize their instinctive fears with scientific knowledge. Jamie Hillman, a Menlo Park mom whos expecting her fifth child in April, worked as a nurse, has two masters degrees and is getting her doctorate. After reading coronavirus statistics, shes simply giving her kids the usual health advice wash your hands and cough into your elbow. We havent changed anything, she said. We have talked to our kids about it, we know people are talking about it, we dont want them to feel anxious about it. Catherine Au, a Berkeley pharmacist with a 3-year-old who is 30 weeks pregnant with her second child, is trying to stay calm. Beyond basic precautions like handwashing and sanitizing, shes doing nothing completely extreme. Im trying to stay rational, Im trying to stay my course. Were not really doing anything, she said. But as a fifth-generation Chinese American, Aus biggest concern is xenophobia and misperceptions that the public will think she came from China, where the coronavirus originated. I think were fortunate to be in the Bay Area, but my fear is like its probably an irrational fear, its maybe the pregnancy hormones Im afraid of being attacked, she said. Shes concerned about someone causing harm to her husband, whos also Chinese American, can cough because of his asthma and commutes by bus every day. But shes not worried as much for her child in day care who she feels would bear less of the brunt of possible racism. When it comes to health risks, most experts advice is to keep calm and carry on. What we really need to do is reduce alarm, Ruel said, and use that caution to help us do good general precautions that will help prevent our kids from getting sick with a lot of viruses. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 05:31:18|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Illegal migrants walk toward Turkey's border with Greece in the province of Edirne, Turkey, on March 3, 2020. Thousands of illegal migrants are anxiously waiting to cross into Europe from Turkey's northwestern border with Greece. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui) EDIRNE, Turkey, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of illegal migrants are anxiously waiting to cross into Europe from Turkey's northwestern border with Greece. Migrants have been keeping pushing the Pazarkule border gate in the Edirne province to cross into Greece during the last five days. But they have mostly been facing severe intervention of Greek security forces, who have been trying to stop them by firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. Jafari, an Iranian migrant, arrived in the border zone from the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri five days ago. He was hit on his head by a tear gas capsule when he attempted to cross the border the last time. "There are four stitches on my head," he told Xinhua. So far, he has tried to sneak into Greece 10 times in vain. "I don't know for how long I will stay here, but I will keep forcing the border gate day and night," he said. Another Iranian migrant told Xinhua that he came to Pazarkule with a couple of friends on Friday after he heard from the television that Turkey would no longer stop refugees from going to Europe. He was also hit by a gas canister. As a result, his ears burned. "Everyone was crying, even children in the woods were badly affected as the wind carried the smoke," he explained the situation. Migrants have recently started to use the Evros River, separating the two countries, to cross to the Greek side by inflatable boats, rafts, or fishing boats. The Doyran village along the river shore has become a hot spot for them for a slightly higher success rate for crossing to the other side. Many refugees are now trying to set up tents there to spend the night in a warmer place as the temperature in the area has dropped to around one degree Celsius. Ramiz, a Syrian migrant on the shore, came from Turkey's southeastern province of Adana two days ago with borrowed money. "Now, we will wait and try to cross the border whenever possible," he told Xinhua. If he could not manage to go, then he would go back to Adana and pay his debt. Last week, Ankara opened its border gates to Europe for illegal migrants after the killing of at least 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria. Turkey is hosting over 3.7 million Syrians in its territory and more than 1.5 million others, fleeing from the war in Idlib, are waiting outside the Turkish border in Syria. The Turkish government announced earlier that it could no longer cope with a new flow of refugees alone. An expert in immunology, Prof Kingston Mills has called for more stringent measures to deal with the coronavirus and has asked if flights should still be going to Italy. Commenting on the Governments advice that people should only travel to Italy if their visit is essential, Prof Kingston asked what is essential? How does an individual judge? It comes as a second case of the virus was confirmed in the east of the country. The patient is a woman who recently travelled back from Italy. This case is not associated with the previously identified case. Department of Health officials, who said last night that they expect the number of isolated confirmed cases will increase further, were informed around 6pm of the second case. Department of Health chief medical officer Tony Holohan later told reporters: Were confirming Ireland has diagnosed one new case of Covid-19. The case arises in a female in the east of the country and is associated with travel from northern Italy. We have now 397 people in total who have been tested as of Monday, March 2. Speaking on RTE radios Today with Sean ORourke show, Prof Mills, the head of the centre for the study of immunology at Trinity College Dublin, also queried HSE information about the virus being transmitted only after 15 minutes in the company of an infected person. Im surprised at that 15 minutes figure. You could be infected in 10 seconds if a person (with the virus) sneezed on you. Prof Mills acknowledged that the longer a person spent in the company of an infected patient, the great risk of transmission. Fifteen minutes is an arbitrary figure. He warned that hand washing could give people a false sense of security. Hand washing is one way to stop the spread of the virus, but the biggest risk is from someone coughing and sneezing in your vicinity. Prof Mills said he would go further with travel restrictions. We need to look more seriously at means of curtailing travel to that region (in Italy). To date in Ireland, there was no evidence of local transmission and this was curtailing the spread of the virus, he said. Prof Mills agreed it might be a good idea for diplomatic channels to suggest to the Italian government that it ask its citizens not to travel to Ireland. It comes as Ryanair confirms "a notable drop" in flight bookings for the end of March and into next month. "We will proactively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. We will continue to comply fully with guidelines from National Governments, the WHO and EASA as they are updated on a regular basis, and will update the market in due course on any significant developments." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Paris, France Wed, March 4, 2020 07:09 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068132ee 2 Lifestyle France,Henri-Cartier-Bresson,Giambattista-Valli,Paris-Fashion-Week,fashion Free Giambattista Valli paid homage to the innate style and apparently effortless chic of the emblematic Parisian woman at his fashion show in the French capital on Monday, as the Italian designer celebrated his 15 years in the business. Valli, who lives in the city, said he was inspired by every day looks around him. He also turned to references such as the black and white pictures of 20th century photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson and the late French actress known as Arletty. The collection included little black dresses, black and white suits, pink chiffon nightgown-style dresses decorated with flowers and ostrich feathers - staples of "la Parisienne's" wardrobe. "I wanted to share the vision of the girl that I've seen these last 20 years that I've been living in Paris," Valli told Reuters after the show. "This boyish attitude, independent, unique and at the same time very seductive, very free." "La Parisienne can go out without make-up, without tights, wearing her boyfriend's loafers - she's very free," Valli added saying every look in the show was meant to embody different Parisian personalities. Italian model Bianca Brandolini, American designer Rick Owens and Francois-Henri Pinault, head of the Kering conglomerate as well as the Artemis group that owns the Valli brand, were among the guests at the Paris decorative arts museum. Read also: Valentino goes back to black at Paris Fashion Week French model Ines de la Fressange, who long walked the runway for Chanel and is known as a reference for French style, said slouchy evening trousers, embroidered with flowers motifs and sequins, were among her favorite looks. "It's elegant, there's a link to the past that I really like," she said of the show. Born in Rome 53 years ago, Giambattista Valli worked for Ungaro from 1998 to 2004, then launched his own label in 2005. Last autumn, he became one of the latest designers to create a collection in collaboration with high street chain H&M, which featured takes on the puffy, tulle dresses that have made him a red carpet hit. Paris Fashion Week, the last leg of the month-long catwalk season which began in New York before moving to London and Milan, ends on Tuesday. German protesters demand EU open borders to migrants Thousands of protesters gathered in Berlin in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's official residence to demand the opening of the border between Turkey and the European Union. Calling on the European Union to open its borders to migrants. Gathering at a large rally organized by the Seebrucke (Sea Bridge) movement, they criticized the EU's migration policy with slogans like "Open borders!" and "Save lives! "ACCEPT REFUGEES" The protesters also called on EU countries to accept refugees who are at the Greek border. More than 130,000 irregular migrants have crossed into Europe so far after Turkey opened its borders last week, accusing the EU of not fulfilling the promises it made as part of a 2015 agreement reached on the refugee crisis. Greeces response to irregular migrants and asylum seekers has been harsh, with many battered, tear-gassed and at least two killed by Greek security forces. TinyBuild has teamed up with HakJak to set up a new studio for the Guts & Glory developer in Boise, Idaho and is looking to staff up the new office. The studio aims to develop with a focus on emergent gameplay, and already has one yet-unannounced title based on an unnamed proven intellectual property in the works. In a press release, TinyBuild notes that the arrangement is the latest of several new studios it has quietly set up in recent memory, including a studio recently established for the Hello Neighbor dev team in the Netherlands. I'm extremely happy to have opportunities where we can build studios around talented individuals like HakJak, said TinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik in a statement. He's developed Guts & Glory all by himself, and it was his first game - I can't wait to tell everyone about what he's now working on, and it will be a great case study where multiple companies came together to do something great. People say "No act of kindness can go wasted, irrespective of how big or small it is". In our growing years, we were taught to be kind towards other and help whenever you can. We were taught how one small gesture can go a long way and be far greater than probably moving mountains. However, as we grew up most of us not only left our textbooks, but also left these virtues behind. But, not everyone is selfish these days. Not everyone thinks about helping people in expectations of getting something in return. Some people actually help others selflessly. This traffic cop working in the Mumbai police happens to be one of those people, who went out of his way to help a student reach her exam centre. Twitter Whether you studied the whole year or in the last few days, everyone needs a last minute revision before the exam. This student too was doing the same while anxiously waiting in a queue at Khar station, waiting for transport to reach her SSC board exam centre. This incident was shared on social media by a Twitter user @MisterRatty. He wrote, "Witnessed the sweetest, kindest act today. At Khat Station theres always a long queue for Rickshaws. A few students nervously waited while going through their notes. You know how last minute glances like these are important." Witnessed the sweetest, kindest act today. At Khat Station theres always a long queue for Rickshaws. A few students nervously waited while going through their notes. You know how last minute glances like these are important. ... Rahull Raut (@MisterRatty) March 3, 2020 He further wrote, "A @MumbaiPolice traffic cop noticed this and asked the student if she had exams today, the student promptly nodded. He asked her to step out of the line, stopped a rickshaw for her and sent her away with a Good luck for your exams! saving her valuable time." A @MumbaiPolice traffic cop noticed this and asked the student if she had exams today, the student promptly nodded. He asked her to step out of the line, stopped a rickshaw for her and sent her away with a Good luck for your exams! saving her valuable time. Rahull Raut (@MisterRatty) March 3, 2020 Mumbai Police too shared his tweet and wrote, "First day of exam has its own share of challenges. We are happy to have been able to help a student in overcoming at least one of them! Mumbai Police sends best wishes to all the students appearing for SSC Board Exams starting today." First day of exam has its own share of challenges. We are happy to have been able to help a student in overcoming at least one of them! Mumbai Police sends best wishes to all the students appearing for SSC Board Exams starting today. #AllTheBest #sscexams @MisterRatty pic.twitter.com/vBut2QVOkk Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) March 3, 2020 Did anyone ask him to help? No. Did he have to do it? No. Is it something extraordinary? Not really. But, it's still worth praising and that traffic cop is an unsung hero. No one asked him to help that student, he did what he thought was the right thing to do and is now getting lauded for his efforts on social media. Mumbai police always Rock's. Vik's (@vikash53_cool) March 4, 2020 Nowadays @MumbaiPolice seems to be more public-friendly... So let's take a moment and appreciate our cops and hope they continue to take such small initiatives and help to build our nation. Well done Mumbaikar Bhau (@MumbaikarB) March 3, 2020 Mumbai Police - expect such delightful gestures. LT (@LarchungT) March 3, 2020 Connecticut has no shortage of craft beer we even have a beer trail but if you want the best beer in the state, craftbeer.com says head up to Willimantic. Each year, craftBeer.com readers are asked to nominate their favorite craft beer bar in their state. The site's editors tally up the nominations to create the Great American Beer Bars list. In recent years, scientists have noticed an increased frequency of tornadoes in the Southeast, carving a deadly path in what's called Dixie Alley. This region includes portions of eastern Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Tornado Alley includes the area from central Texas stretching north to Iowa, and from central Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While Tornado Alley in the Great Plains still leads in the number of tornadoes, more are appearing in the South. And tornadoes shifting to this region can take a devastating toll. Dixie Alley tornadoes are harder to spot and often occur at night Unlike the Plains, where a tornado can be seen coming from miles away, the South has more rugged terrain and more trees, making it more difficult to spot a tornado. Many tornadoes that occur in this area are "rain-wrapped," so they are less visible to the naked eye, CNN meteorologists say. More heavily forested areas in the South leads to more trees being toppled by storms or turned into projectiles as well. Tornadoes in the South tend to stay on the ground longer and move faster. Many storms in Dixie Alley are pushed by a stronger jet stream, which results in faster-moving storms. It's not uncommon for a tornado in the Southeast to travel faster than 50 mph (80 kph). This puts more pressure on forecasters to get a tornado warning out in enough time for the public to react, CNN meteorologists say. Nashville residents had only minutes of lead time ahead of the deadly tornado that struck there Tuesday just after midnight. Many of the storms occur overnight, when most people are sleeping and unaware that a tornado is approaching. Many homes in the Southeast lack a basement or underground shelter. In 2008, the US Census Bureau reported that only 10% of new homes included a basement whereas 75% of new homes in the Northeast and Midwest had a basement. Parts of the Southeast are more densely populated, which means more deaths It's not an anomaly that tornadoes appear in the Southeast every year, but they present different vulnerabilities, Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, told CNN last year. "As you move east from Kansas to Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, the population density increases rapidly and we also have an issue in the Southeast of more mobile homes," he said. "If you get hit in a mobile home from a tornado, you're much more likely to be killed. You just have a really unique exposure and vulnerability problem." Gensini was co-author on a study that started tracking tornadoes in 1979 and they observed a shift towards the Southeast around 2008. Even though there are fewer tornadoes in Dixie Alley than in Tornado Alley, there have been more deaths in the Mid-South/Southeast region. That's because now they're occurring in more populated areas. The average tornado fatalities were highest in Alabama with 14 deaths per year followed by Missouri, eight, and Tennessee with six deaths per year, according to the National Weather Service data from 1985 to 2014. Although those states led in the average number of tornado fatalities, they were not the states with the most tornadoes. The highest annual average number of tornadoes were reported in Texas with 140, Kansas with 80, and Florida with 59, according to the weather service. Meanwhile, Alabama averaged about 42 tornadoes per year. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. When Wang, whom authorities have identified only by her family name, arrived in China, she was immediately put into quarantine. On Sunday, she tested positive for the novel coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19. Seven others who worked in the Bergamo restaurant and flew back home were diagnosed this week, the Qingtian government said on its WeChat social media account. Hong Kong: More fisheries sector subsidies The Government will provide subsidies to owners of fishing vessels or fish collector vessels with Mainland deckhands under the Anti-epidemic Fund, helping the fisheries industry to tackle financial difficulties arising from the COVID-19 outbreak. The subsidies will be $200,000 for each vessel of 25 meters or above in length and $80,000 for each vessel of less than 25 meters in length. Application forms are available on the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department's website. The application starting date is March 5. Completed application forms together with copies of the required documents should be submitted by mail to the Fisheries Enforcement & Special Projects Division of the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department at 8/F of Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices, 303 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon before April 17. They can also be submitted to drop-in boxes at the Aberdeen, Castle Peak, and Shau Kei Wan Wholesale Fish Markets under the Fish Marketing Organization. Vessel owners who are not in Hong Kong can authorise an agent to handle their applications. This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Dallas, Texas, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Microgrid Automation Market by Component (Inverter and Storage), Technology (Fuel Cell, CHP, and Others), Application (Commercial, Residential, and Defence), And Region, Global Forecast 2018 to 2025 study provides an elaborative view of historic, present and forecasted market estimates. The existing and future Microgrid automation market developments are defined to determine the attractiveness of the market. Key impacting factors highlight the microgrid automation market opportunities throughout the forecast period. Factors such as the growing adoption of digitization across numerous industries and an increase in the need to bring efficiency across energy transmission and distribution channels are driving the adoption of advanced and automation technologies in the energy sector. Moreover, an increase in demand from consumers for flexible and reliable distribution of energy is also fuelling the demand for microgrid automation. However, economic and technological barriers with the deployment of microgrid automation solutions are anticipated to hamper the market growth. Furthermore, the growing adoption of digital technologies by energy and utility industries in developing economies such as India, China, and Japan are anticipated to provide major growth opportunities for the market in the upcoming years. Request a pdf sample @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/1291 The global microgrid automation market size is expected to grow from over USD 3 billion in 2019 to over USD 8 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 17% during the forecast period. The grid comprises of a various number of microgrids, which further comprises small scale distributed energy resources such as renewable energy sources like solar plants, windmills, and others. The major differences between the smart microgrid and smart grid are the potential rate of change, their scale, and the types of decision-makers. In addition, the smart grid functions at the national grid level, which involves the huge distribution and lines. On the contrary, smart microgrids function at smaller scales but provide quick implementation and distribution. The microgrids basically supply local or small-scaled loads such as office parks, commercial buildings, homes, or a military base. The report also highlights numerous aspects of the global microgrid automation industry by evaluating the market through value chain analysis. In addition, the report covers numerous qualitative aspects of the microgrid automation industry in market drivers, restraints, and key industry opportunities. Furthermore, the report offers a comprehensive assessment of the market competition along with company profiling of local as well as global vendors. Direct purchase a single user copy @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/researchreport/purchase/1291 The global microgrid automation market has strong competition among the well-established as well as new emerging players. In addition, the microgrid automation industry players are targeting prospective markets to capture a competitive advantage over the other industry players by forming agreements, mergers & acquisitions, acquiring new startups & other companies, forming collaboration and partnerships, and expanding their business presence. On the basis of the application segment, the market is bifurcated into commercial, residential, and defense. In 2019, the commercial segment gathered the highest market revenue and it is anticipated to govern the microgrid automation market throughout the forecast period. The growth of this segment is mainly attributed to increase demand for constant power supply among manufacturing industries and IT organizations. On the contrary, the residential segment is projected to accumulate the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific dominated the global microgrid automation market in 2019 and is expected to dominate the market throughout the forecast period 20202025. The growth of this region is mainly accredited to the increasing smart city initiatives and growing spending by various governments on the energy & utility sector in this region. Also, the presence of conventional energy and grid infrastructure is also expected to provide market growth opportunities in the upcoming years in this region. Moreover, North America is anticipated to be the second major market shareholder during the forecast period due to the presence of major market players in the region. Browse the full report with Table of Contents and List of Figures @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/industry-reports/microgrid-automation-market The major players of the global microgrid automation market are ABB Group, AEG Power Solutions, Echelon Corporation, GE, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Phono Solar Technology Co., Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, and Wipro. Moreover, the other potential players in the microgrid automation market are Chevron Energy, Viridity Energy, Pareto Energy, Microgrid Energy, and Spirae. As of 2019, the Microgrid automation market is consolidated with the existence of well-known global and domestic players across the globe. In addition, the recognized companies are coming up with innovative and new microgrid automation technologies and solutions. For instance, In April 2019, ABB announced a partnership with Rolls-Royce on advanced automation and microgrid technology. With this partnership, both companies are planning to offer energy-efficient and innovative microgrid solutions for industrial, utility, and commercial sectors. Have any inquiries? Get in tiuch with us @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/1291 Major points from Table of Contents: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Research Methodology Chapter 3 Executive Summary Chapter 4 Market Outlook Chapter 5 Microgrid automation market by Component Chapter 6 Microgrid automation market by Technology Chapter 7 Microgrid automation market by Application Chapter 8 Microgrid automation market By Region Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Chapter 10 Company Profiles Access research repository of Upcoming Reports @ https://adroitmarketresearch.com/upcoming.html About Us: Adroit Market Research is a global business analytics and consulting company incorporated in 2018. Our target audience is a wide range of corporations, manufacturing companies, product/technology development institutions and industry associations that require understanding of a markets size, key trends, participants and future outlook of an industry. We intend to become our clients knowledge partner and provide them with valuable market insights to help create opportunities that increase their revenues. We follow a code Explore, Learn and Transform. At our core, we are curious people who love to identify and understand industry patterns, create an insightful study around our findings and churn out money-making roadmaps. - Carrico moved to the Chinese league for financial reasons from Sevilla - Sevilla confirmed his departure as he finally signed for Wuhan Zall - The club is based in Wuhan the city where the coronavirus is believed to have originated With the global scare over the deadly coronavirus, how far would you go for your job when it comes to securing employment elsewhere? For former Sevilla defender Daniel Carrico, it is all about getting rich or die trying as he sealed a shock move to a Wuhan-based club in China. READ ALSO: Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Coronavirus could force summer events to be postponed READ ALSO: Portsmouth vs Arsenal: Sokratis, Nketiah guide Gunners past Pompeys The Chinese league has been famous for recruiting big names who have seemingly outgrown local leagues in Europe or have simply decided to make a big-money move. Caricco, who was Sevilla vice-captain, called Spain his home for seven years until February 2020 when he sealed a KSh 220 million move to Wuhan Zall. READ ALSO: Cristiano Ronaldo leaves for Portugal to check on his mum who suffered stroke He first joined Sevilla in 2013, initially on loan from Reading. Prior to his move to China, he was Sevillas longest-serving player and won three Europa League titles. Further reports indicate the former Sporting CP man sealed the move to Wuhan for financial reasons. The Chinese Super League is known for its willingness to handle exorbitant demands of top foreign players, and Carricos addition is expected to be no different. He joins another former La Liga striker Leo Baptistao at Wuhan Zall. The question on many fans minds is obviously whether Carrico just signed his own death certificate by making the risky move to a club based on the city with the highest number of coronavirus cases. It should however be noted that Wuhan Zall players are not even in their home city as they were moved to Guangzhou, which is roughly 600 miles from Wuhan. Furthermore, the Chinese League was temporarily suspended ahead of the new season as a safety precaution against the virus. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly Kenyans weigh in on Coronavirus | Tuko TV: Source: TUKO.co.ke Dayton Hamvention officials keeping an eye on coronavirus situation ARRL reports with Dayton Hamvention 2020 a little more than 10 weeks away, Hamvention officials say they are closely following the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation The ARRL say: Show organizers will post updates as the May 15 17 event nears, but theyre optimistic that coronavirus will not be an issue. At this time, the Hamvention Executive Committee has been in contact with the Greene County Public Health Department, and we do not anticipate any impact because of this issue, a March 3 Hamvention statement said. The Greene County Public Health Department reports that no cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Ohio. Greene County Public Health is working closely with the Ohio Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and are prepared to respond, should there be a community spread of COVID-19, the Hamvention statement noted. The current risk to the general public is very low. Travel advisories are in effect, and can change anytime, so please see the CDC Travel Advisory webpage before traveling. Read the full story at http://www.arrl.org/news/dayton-hamvention-officials-keeping-an-eye-on-coronavirus-situation Wednesday, March 4th, 2020 (8:12 am) - Score 1,017 Sixty homes in the tiny rural Monmouthshire (Wales) village of Llanddewi Rhydderch have finally gone live on a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which has been installed by Broadway Partners (UK ISP Broadway Broadband) and is intended to complement their existing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) trial. The original wireless trial (here), which harnessed both 60GHz mesh radio technology and some of the lower 5GHz frequency band, formed part of the Governments wider 5G Rural Integrated Testbed (5GRIT) project and received a share of 3.5m in public funding (here). More recently Broadway Partners have also been busy building an FTTP based broadband network in the village too (here). At the time Barry Weaver, Broadways Operations Director, informed ISPreview.co.uk that the aim of this was to have a mix of different technologies and the customer can then choose what works best for their particular circumstances. The network itself, which has now been connected to 60 houses in the village, is capable of gigabit speeds, although at present most local residents are taking their entry-level Ultrafast 100Mbps service. One example speedtest.net test showed a ping of 24ms (higher than usual for FTTP we can get faster on FTTC), downloads of 115.54Mbps and uploads of just 14.56Mbps. NOTE: The entry level 100Mbps service comes with unlimited data and starts from just 24.99 a month on a 12-month contract. 300Mbps and 1Gbps tiers are available (99.99 and 199.99 respectively). Barry Weaver, COO at Broadway, said: We are very pleased to be building fibre networks in Monmouthshire, having been working closely for some time with Monmouthshire County Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), developing the business and commercial case for Full Fibre in even the remotest rural areas. This is just the beginning: full fibre is still only available across a fraction of Monmouthshire, Wales and the UK, and Broadways low cost, flexibility and speed of deployment put in a great position to help deliver the Governments ambitions for Gigabit Connectivity for all by 2025. Broadway claims that their 100Mbps service is also understood to be the cheapest Fibre-to-the-Premises deal currently on the market, although this is debatable since UK ISP Community Fibre can do a symmetric speed 50Mbps FTTP package for 20 per month and 150Mbps for 25. On the other hand any claim of being the cheapest is largely irrelevant due to the extremely limited coverage of both networks. Otherwise the operator is now proceeding to Phase 2 of their rollout, which aims to connect another 50 properties to the Full Fibre network (this is currently in the design stage, with build due to begin by the end of the month). After that theyve already pledged to deploy their FTTP network to a further 50 rural communities across Monmouthshire by the end of 2021 (here). Local communities are being urged to contact them on 0141 465 8500 or via email hello@broadwaybroadband.co.uk in order to express an interest. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Visitors brave enough to take a dip in the sea at Cleethorpes are unlikely to describe the experience as tropical. And certainly they won't see many palm trees on the town's beach. However, councillors have decided that a 72ft palm tree made out of steel is just what the Lincolnshire resort needs to entice families back. The tree will be higher than the Angel of the North sculpture which overlooks the A1 in the North East, and will be the centrepiece of a 600,000 regeneration scheme on the town's North Promenade. Local councillors have pushed ahead with plans to install a 72ft steel palm tree at Cleethorpes seaside resort in Lincolnshire, which will be taller than the Angle of the North German artist Wolfgang Weileder came up with the palm tree idea after being commissioned by North East Lincolnshire Council to design a landmark work of public art. Critics have laughed at the idea of such a tree in a resort that's hardly tropical, but Mr Weileder insisted: 'In the light of climate change there might be palm trees growing on our coasts soon anyway.' Pictured: poster produced for British Railways Eastern Region promoting Cleethorpes seaside resort The tree will be lit up at night and rubbish collected from beaches will be used to help make an artwork 'shadow' of the tree on paving under it. The project will include 'contemporary works of art' on the shutters of businesses along the prom to create an outdoor art gallery. There will also be 'dynamic swirling' lights and 'funky fitness furniture' to sit or exercise on. It is all being paid for by the Government's coastal communities fund. The scheme is designed to 'boost footfall' at the resort, which in its heyday was a hugely popular destination for holidaymakers from Yorkshire's industrial towns. Despite a mixed public reaction, the tree was approved yesterday by the council's planning committee. Stephen Harness, committee chairman, admitted he did not like the sculpture at first but added: 'Sometimes an idea has to sit for a period of time. This may encourage more people to come to the resort.' The steel palm tree will be the centrepiece of a 600,000 regeneration scheme on the town's North Promenade (pictured, Cleethorpes Rock Stall) The tree will be lit up at night and rubbish collected from beaches will be used to help make an artwork 'shadow' of the tree on paving under it (pictured, Cleethorpe beach promenade) Cleethorpes was a popular destination for holidaymakers from Yorkshire's industrial towns However councillor Tim Mickleburgh described the palm tree as 'barmy' and said: 'What on earth does a palm tree have to do with Cleethorpes?' The reaction was even less welcoming on a local news site's social media page. Rachel Nolloth said: 'Can't believe what I'm reading, I'll give it five days before its covered in graffiti and trashed.' Rick Oakes said: 'Perhaps try to get more visitors, with attractions and upgrades, not something that will just be laughed at!' Trooper Robert Tarleton was speaking to a motorist he pulled over on the highway when the truck ran off the right side of the road in the express lanes, hit a guardrail and slammed into a bridge abutment in Bridgewater around 3:35 p.m. Monday, according to State Police. "Youre good, get outta here, the trooper told the stopped driver after seeing the wreck. Tarleton rushed to the crash scene, radioed for emergency crews to respond and pulled up at the fiery wreck. As Tarleton sprinted to the truck, off-duty State Police Lt. Edward Ryer, who also spotted the crash while driving home, was already at the trucks cab. "Trooper Tarleton and Lieutenant Ryer then worked together to pull the driver from the burning cab, dragging him to safety, seconds before it exploded, the State Police said in a statement. The trucker suffered minor injuries and was taken to Morristown Medical Center for evaluation, police said. The cause of the crash remained under investigation. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. New Delhi: March 8 is celebrated as International Women's Day across the globe. In India, women are traditionally referred to as Lakshmi, the one who symbolises goodness, prosperity and infinite power. Though womanhood doesn't need a specific day for celebrations, March 8 asserts the importance of women in the world. Want to make the ladies you know feel special on this International Women's Day, we have collated some special messages that you can send to them. Check them out here and pick the ones that best suit your sentiments: - I can't really fathom life without you. Thank you for making me the person I am today. Here's wishing the most beautiful lady in my life a very Happy Women's Day. - You made me realise my own worth by adding values to my dreams and aspirations. I couldn't have asked for more. I thank God for making you a part of my life. A very Happy Women's Day to the feminine force that relentlessly nourishes me with goodness. - If ever I have hurt you with harsh words or bad behaviour, please accept my sincere apologies. When I look back, I realise what a waste my life could have been, had you not been there to pick me up from my slumber. Here's wishing my lifeline a very Happy Women's Day. - Dear women, you certainly are manifestations of the divine in human form. The way you effortlessly make even the toughest of jobs look like childs play, highlight your determination and will to overcome all odds no matter how adverse they are. Happy Women's Day to all of you. - I managed to exist until you walked into my life. I can't thank you enough for making me LIVE to the fullest. Here's wishing the soul of my life a very Happy Women's Day. - She plays a variety of roles in people's lives and leaves distinct indelible impressions. None can replace her or step into her shoes! As a mother, sister, daughter, friend, aunt, grandmother and wife, a woman excels in the wide spectrum of characters during her lifetime and each of them has a matchless appeal. Heres thanking all the wonderful women in my life very Happy Women's Day. - On this International Women's Day, I would like to thank God for blessing me immensely loveable ladies who have helped me shape my life beautifully. A very Happy Women's Day to the lovely women in my life. - I succeeded in my life because I had faith in your faith. You showed confidence in my abilities and it is you who has made by success possible. Though I can thank you until my last breath, here's taking a lovely opportunity to thank you on International Women's Day. - I draw inspiration from all to the women in my life who have relentlessly supported me in all my endeavours and helped me realise my dreams. Heres wishing all the adorable women a Happy Women's Day. "Today more than ever, our nation is reminded how crucial it is to have a president who believes in facts, science, and reason; who knows how to bring people together in times of crisis; and who can draw on a deep well of experience to revive the enterprising spirit and openness that has always kept this country safe and strong, Foster said. Shayene "shAy" Victorio. YouTube Shayene "shAy" Victorio is a Brazilian pro esports player turned influencer with tens of thousands of followers across social media. She was recently sentenced to 116 years in prison, according to a report on Tuesday from the Brazilian website Universo Online. Despite the 116-year sentence, prisoners in Brazil can serve no more than 30 years. She was convicted on fraud charges related to an online store she helped run from 2013 to 2017; more than 100 customers said they never received orders or refunds from the shop. Victorio and her lawyer say they are appealing the ruling, and she pointed to a former partner in the business as the responsible party. In the meantime, she's exited social media. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A Brazilian influencer who pivoted from a career in professional gaming has been sentenced to 116 years in prison "plus fines" because of fraud charges, the Brazilian website Universo Online reported Tuesday. Shayene "shAy" Victorio, who is known for her competitive background in "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and faces a 116-year prison sentence as a result. Despite the much longer sentence, the maximum prison term for a single crime under Brazilian law is 30 years. According to the report, Brazil's Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime carried out the investigation into accusations that Victorio as co-owner and operator of an online storefront from 2013 to 2017 sold goods that were never delivered or refunded. She denies the claims and points blame at her former partners in the venture. Victorio is also appealing the ruling. Shayene shAy Victorio YouTube "We will appeal against the sentence that we consider inhumane, awaiting a new decision and under the guise of the principle of innocence," her lawyer told Universo Online. On Tuesday, she issued a statement on her Instagram account in which she updated followers on her life: Story continues In the note, Victorio said she was free during the appeals process. "I am not arrested and I will not be arrested," she said in an attempt to push back on reports that she was a fugitive. Before becoming an influencer, Victorio had been well known within the Brazilian "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" competitive scene. She spent more than 10 years competing in the original "Counter-Strike" and a follow-up, "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." It was only last May that she left the world of esports to focus on a new career as a social media influencer. For now, however, Victorio says she's leaving social media "to take care of my sanity." Read the original article on Business Insider P osters advertising a pop-up drug den have been put up in west London by residents concerned over a rise in dealing in their area. The laminated flyers, which claim to offer a 10 per cent discount for new customers, even provide a phone number to pre-order drugs which in fact belongs to Ealings Safer Neighbourhoods team. They were created by members of Hanwell neighbourhood watch group, who want action taken against open-air drug dealing in Brent Meadow, a patch of grassland near Ealing Hospital. A resident, who gave her name as Miss Hutchinson, said she helped to distribute the posters. She told the Standard: The den has been up and running for the last two months and authorities have done nothing about it. So now the public has decided that they will. I have a six-year-old daughter who has been exposed to the well-known drug problem that Hanwell has. A large arrow on the posters directs prospective customers to the drug den in Brent Meadow, which is popular with families and dog walkers. A member of the neighbourhood watch, who wished to remain anonymous, said some users went to local shops to beg and shoplift after collecting drugs, adding: The number of addicts has skyrocketed. Something needs to be done. This situation cant be ignored by the authorities any longer. David Millican, a local councillor, tweeted a photograph of one of the posters yesterday, writing: Poster spotted this morning by St Georges Field Hanwell posted by residents frustrated at lack of action to rid the area of the scourge of drug dealing. The pictures were also uploaded to the Hanwell and Ealing Friends Facebook group, where residents have previously aired concerns about drug usage in the neighbourhood. Latest Met data shows in January this year there were 158 drugs offences in the Norwood Green policing ward, which covers Brent Meadow, compared to 125 in January 2018. On Monday, Norwood Green police tweeted that they had arrested a man for possession of heroin and crack cocaine after he tried to run into the canal at Brent Meadow. A personal trainer who beat up an elderly Uber driver before punching a female taxi driver in the face during a drunken Australia Day rampage won't spend a day in jail. Uber driver Kent Blyth, 64, picked Daniel Lee Richard Graeme Paul up in Palm Beach, south of Brisbane, in the early hours of January 27. Mr Blyth drove 40 metres before pulling over because of Paul's 'abusive' behaviour, Southport Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday. The New Zealand national then hit the driver in the face, put him in a headlock and fled the car, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported. Minutes later at 5.15am, Paul jumped in a taxi on the Gold Coast Highway where he tried to negotiate with driver Soonhee Ghim, 56, to be taken to Southport - more than 30 minutes away - for $10. When Ms Ghim refused, Paul began to 'verbally berate her,' police prosecutor Caitlin Usher told the court. He then elbowed and punched her in the face three or four times and Ms Ghim began to honk the horn in distress. As Paul fled, witnesses tried to chase him down. Blood smears were found on the taxi door. Police tracked Paul down through his Uber account. Defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum told the court Paul had been at an Australia Day party at Tallebudgera Creek before going to a friend's house. Paul then tried to break up a fight between two people before he was asked to leave. He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and assault of a person over 60. Paul was given a three-month suspended sentence and 180 hours community service. 'It boils down to you were very drunk and decided to take it out on these two people,' Magistrate Andrew Sinclair said. He moved to the Gold Coast from New Zealand four years ago and had no criminal history. LAKEVILLE, MN / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Caretaking during the last few months or weeks of a loved one's life isn't easy. That's particularly true when the patient is suffering from pain, discomfort, or limitations - no longer being able to eat or drink, for example - that greatly affects their quality of life, Ken Haglind explains. It will require a lot of strength, faith, and compassion to get you through this difficult stage, and you may feel as though you are all alone. That's where hospice care comes in. Ken Haglind, co-founder and president of Minnesota Hospice, discusses what hospice care is and how it helps patients and their families. What is Hospice Care, Exactly? At its heart, hospice is a holistic program that provides end-of-life care for terminally ill patients and their families. Among hospice care's goals are making the patient as comfortable as possible, easing their symptoms and pain, and helping their families cope with the emotional upheaval during this period. Hospice care focuses on patients who are expected to live for no more than six months. At this stage, Ken Haglind says, the individual's doctors and other health care providers may have ceased providing medical interventions. The goal is not to cure the patient or to seek remission of their disease, but to provide as much comfort as possible in all aspects of a person's well being. Hospice Care vs. Palliative Care According to Ken Haglind, many people are confused about the difference between hospice care and palliative care. It's easy to see why, as they are very similar concepts. The key distinction is that palliative care can take place at any time during a patient's treatment. Palliative care may be undertaken concurrently with curative efforts. In some cases, a medical team may make the decision to transition a patient from palliative to hospice care, but plenty of people who receive palliative care recover and go on to live full lives. So, while hospice is always palliative in nature, palliative care is not necessarily hospice. The Many Faces of Hospice Care Hospice care is holistic and comprehensive, explains Ken Haglind. It addresses the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs of the patient and their family. To that end, a hospice team may comprise doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, spiritual advisors or clergy members, and therapists or counselors who specialize in bereavement and grief. There may also be volunteers whose focus is on supporting the caregivers in addition to the patient, by taking care of practical matters or assisting in providing temporary respite. Together, this interdisciplinary approach is welcomed by families who are struggling to juggle every aspect of the patient's well-being. One important benefit of hospice care, explains Ken Haglind, is that it frees up family members so they can spend quality time with their loved one. Hospice Can Happen At Home Unlike many medical treatments, that must take place in a hospital or clinic, hospice care can take place wherever the patient is. This is a boon for those who wish to remain at home to be comforted by the familiar surroundings, Ken Haglind explains. Hospice care can also be administered in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. There are also some freestanding hospice centers, which can be a good choice if the patient's home isn't appropriate for one or more aspects of end-of-life treatment. There are, of course, many difficult decisions that must be made when a terminally ill patient is living out his or her last days - but the decision to ask for help from a qualified, compassionate hospice team is surely one of the easiest, Ken Haglind explains. CONTACT: Caroline Hunter Web Presence, LLC +1 7865519491 SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/579085/Kenneth-Haglind-Helps-With-Understanding-Hospice-Care-A-Guide-for-Patients-and-Their-Loved-Ones Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:28:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1,144 people in 962 cases had been prosecuted in China over criminal offenses related to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday. Prosecutors around the country engaged in the investigation and evidence collection of 6,428 epidemic-related criminal cases that concerned 8,595 people in total as of Tuesday, the SPP said. They intervened and handled 330 cases involving transmission of the novel coronavirus due to refusal to take preventive measures, 925 cases of manufacturing or selling fake or inferior products such as substandard medical equipment, 153 cases of illegal business operations including price gouging and 605 cases of damaging wildlife resources such as illegal hunting, killing or selling precious or endangered wild animals and their products. Other cases intervened and handled by prosecutors included crimes such as obstructing official duties, intentional injuries, fraud, fabricating and intentionally transmitting false information, the SPP said. Sam Brinton, a survivor of conversion therapy and the head of advocacy and government affairs for the Trevor Project, an L.G.B.T.Q. youth suicide prevention group, sees Virginias decision to ban the practice as a start for the South. The South is ready to end conversion therapy, said Brinton, who uses the pronoun they. We know and every major medical association has said that conversion therapy is potentially extremely harmful, they added. When a state like Virginia bans conversion therapy, we know that we can save lives from this dangerous practice. The state is affirming who they are and not trying to erase them. Conversion therapy can include bringing up past traumas that the therapist believes may have caused homosexuality, or aversion therapy, during which patients are made to feel disgusted when looking at L.G.B.T.Q. people, they said. It can also have religious elements, with patients being told that their god doesnt want them to be L.G.B.T.Q. According to the Trevor Projects National Survey on L.G.B.T.Q. Youth Mental Health, two in three L.G.B.T.Q. youth reported that someone tried to tell them that they should change their sexual orientation or gender identity, and those that had undergone conversion therapy were twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who had not. The conversion therapy bill is one of many that have been carried by Democrats in Virginia for years, but previously stalled in a Republican-controlled House or the Senate, said Scott Surovell, a Democratic state senator and vice chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. Nigerias former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has said that no individual, living or dead has dominated the nations political space like ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo. Abubakar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, commended the contributions of Obasanjo to the development of Nigeria, the African continent and humanity. He said that no individual living or dead had bestrode the Nigerian political space as positively and purposefully as Obasanjo had done, for good and better, in peacetime and war, in times of austerity, and times of prosperity. It is not an exaggeration to describe you as the preeminent political colossus in Nigeria, a nation that owes so much to you. Indeed, many Nigerians will read about your birthday on their GSM devices, which are one of your legacies to the Nigerian people. Your love for Nigeria and commitment to her unity, good governance and stability have prevented you from retiring, a sacrifice that my family and I deeply appreciate. From the Congo to South Africa to Angola to Liberia and Sao Tome and Principe, your democratic fingerprint on the African continent is indelible. You have served and still serve as a beacon of democracy and a guardian of constitutionality. Abubakar said Nigeria owes Obasanjo a debt that Nigerians could not pay. He said that the former president led Nigeria to pay its foreign debts that the citizens could not imagine paying. By that singular action, you planted trees for generations yet unborn. You hold the enviable and esteemed record of being the first African military ruler to have voluntarily, and without internal and external pressure, restored power to the government democratically elected by the Nigerian people. It was not your will to be in office, but it was your will to bequeath democracy to Nigeria. And after 21 years of the Fourth Republic, Nigeria has cause to celebrate your democratic credentials. Happy birthday President Obasanjo. You are beloved now and forever, said Abubakar. An Oxford historian, who was given bodyguards after threats from trans activists, has been barred from speaking at a feminist history event. Selina Todd, a professor in Modern History at St Hildas College, had been provided with security last month after allegedly making transphobic remarks. And in the latest twist, she was no platformed at an Oxford event about the womens liberation movement, due to criticism from trans opponents. Oxford historian Selina Todd, who was given bodyguards after threats from trans activists, has been barred from speaking at a feminist history event The prominent feminist historian had been accompanied to lectures by the two big burly guys after infuriating some trans-rights activists. She later warned that democracy is under threat due to the violent reaction of pro-trans activists when their beliefs are challenged. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has made protecting free speech on university campuses and stamping out no platforming one of his priorities Trans-rights campaigners were believed to have taken issue with her ties to the womens rights group Womans Place UK which some claim to be transphobic. And in a move that was strongly condemned by the university and met with outcry by many other feminists, the author was barred from Fridays event at Exeter College commemorating the 50th anniversary of Ruskin Colleges inaugural Womens Liberation Conference. In a statement addressing the cancellation Professor Todd said: I am shocked to have been no-platformed by this event, organised by Oxford International Womens Festival and hosted at Exeter College. I was asked to participate in October 2019, and I explained to the organisers that some trans activists may object to my being there, she said. I was then told that trans activists had already expressed hostility towards the event because they claimed second-wave feminism is inherently trans-exclusionary. Among those who spoke out against her exclusion was campaigner Julie Bindel, who told the organisers: You should hang your heads in shame for giving into this mob. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has made protecting free speech on university campuses and stamping out no platforming one of his priorities. Last night, the Times reported the Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh had lodged a complaint with the Universities Minister about suppression of free speech at the event. The Oxford University History Faculty also criticised the decision, saying: We cannot accept the exclusion of our respected colleague Professor Selina Todd from the event, and that means that we withdrew from the weekends celebration. We recognise that it is not always straightforward to balance the rights of women with the rights of trans people, but we believe that the way forward is for us all to talk to one another. Professor Todd denies holding discriminatory views against trans people. Exeter College said it was not responsible for her being banned. In a lengthy statement posted on Twitter, the Oxford International Womens Festival said it was not responsible for requesting Professor Selina Todd not to speak. The FBI is asking for assistance in identifying an armed woman who stole money from a New Orleans bank last month, according to a release Tuesday evening. The suspect went to the teller counter of Firemen's Credit Union, 5163 General De Gaulle Drive, with a handgun and demanded money around 9:35 a.m., Feb. 19. She left the Algiers bank on foot with an unknown amount of cash. Armed man who robbed New Orleans bank wanted by FBI; reward up to $2,500 The FBI New Orleans office is on the lookout for a man who robbed a Chase Bank at gunpoint Monday morning, according to authorities. Using the bank's camera footage, authorities said the woman they are looking for is black, around 5-foot-1 to 5-foot-5 and weighs between 125 to 160 pounds. During the armed robbery, she wore a blue hat, goggles and a black coat. The FBI said Crimestoppers GNO is offering a cash reward of up to $2,500 to those with information that lead's to the suspect's arrest. Tips should be called into the Federal Bureau of Investigation New Orleans Field Office at 504-816-3000 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111. From their earliest days, Cape Codders engaged in the enslavement of human beings. Cape ships and ship captains participated in the Triangular Trade which from the late 16th to early 19th centuries carried slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, the Caribbean, American colonies, and the European colonial powers. This commerce, along with shipping salted codfish to the Caribbean to feed the slaves, helped make New Englanders rich, according to James Coogan in Slavery and Indentured Servants on Cape Cod, a talk given on May 20, 2013. Northern colonists enslaved Native Americans before transitioning to the enslavement of Africans, though the practice never grew in the north as in the south due to the formers lack of an agricultural demand for workers. Slaverys development on the Cape was limited by the absence of wealthy landowners with large estates, so that most enslaved persons served as domestics for wealthy, educated residents. Despite Boston being a hub for the Abolitionist Movement, with William Lloyd Garrisons The Liberator one of its influential voices, for Cape Codders slavery was an accepted fact. Provided the enslaved were treated fairly, there was little concern for their plight. Early calls for slaverys end were opposed by leaders and common folk in many Cape towns. Coogan believes this resulted from a fear of freed slaves flooding the northern mill job market. Also, many sea captains went south in the winter, and southern plantation owners came north in the summer, leading to a cultural racism that made slavery a non-issue. Initially Cape Cods slaves were Native Americans. Tisquantum, or Squanto, who would serve as Wampanoag Sachem Massasoits go-between with (and possibly spy upon) the Pilgrim settlers, was enslaved as a boy and taken to Spain where monks gave him the education that would serve him later. However, enslaving Native Americans on Cape Cod was limited when compared to that described in Andres Resendezs The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. The book estimates that from 1492 and 1900, between 147,000 and 340,000 Native people were enslaved by the English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish in North America. However, it barely mentions its presence in New England. In addition, Josiah Paines A History of Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts makes no mention of Native American slaves, though the author does include a brief reference to African or Negro Slavery on the Cape. Henry C. Kittridges Cape Cod: Its People and Their History devotes a couple of pages to enslavement on the Cape, including that of Native Americans, Africans, and white men. Stories related to the enslavement of Native Americans on Cape Cod, however, are few. Slavery existed, and surviving records suggest that other than in response to the Pequot War and King Philips War (1636-1638), most were enslaved as payment of debts or punishment for crimes. There are a few reported instances of enslaved Native Americans being sold or inherited. Enslaving Native Americans was in time replaced by enslaving Africans on the Cape, but little is known about them as well. Paine writes, Not much is found of record regarding [Negro Slavery] but it is not to be doubted that many people before 1800 had slaves over which they exercised ownership, and which were bought and sold as personal property. Though there is evidence of early efforts by Cape Codders to end the practice in Massachusetts, anti-slavery activities on the Cape remained limited, most happening in Sandwich due to its Quaker population, and had little result. In 1780 the state Constitution officially ended slavery in the Commonwealth, and in 1783 the state Supreme Court abolished the practice of owning slaves. But it was not until 1788 that selling slaves in Boston was finally stopped and the shipping of African slaves continued into the 1800s. Raising the Abolitionist banner on Cape Cod was met with resistance from the leadership and people of the towns involved, often stemming from divisions within and between Cape churches over slavery, especially when they (or their members) benefited financially from the practice. However, Coogan said, overall attitudes began to change when Congress passed the Missouri Compromise of 1850 which strengthened the law requiring any fugitive slave to be returned to his or her owner. Bostonians fiercely resisted the Fugitive Slave Act, feelings that were heightened when in 1854 a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns was arrested. Burns' case attracted national publicity, including large demonstrations, protests, attacks, and violence. Federal troops were employed to ensure Burns was transported without interference to a ship headed back to Virginia. Later his freedom was purchased by Boston sympathizers. Some local anti-slavery sympathy was garnered by the experience of Captain Jonathan Walker of Harwich, a coastal trader who brought fugitive slaves north to freedom on his boat. When he was arrested and punished by having his hand branded in 1844, the people of Harwich gathered in support of his wife and seven children. In time he would become a featured speaker on the Abolition circuit. Nevertheless, Harwich was no friend of the Abolitionist Movement. An effort to hold an anti-slavery rally in The Grove in 1848 ended when the speakers were run out of town for criticizing the pro-slavery position of some Cape churches. Yet in January 1851, a meeting was held in its Union Hall to denounce the Fugitive Slave Law, and in September 1860, the Cape Cod Anti-Slavery Convention met in the Harwich Exchange with over a thousand in attendance. It called for immediate and unconditional Abolition while condemning Lincoln, who would soon be elected president, for being too soft on slavery. The Civil War ended this practice. There is no record of how many owners or enslaved persons lived on Cape Cod, and only a few anecdotal stories of slavery remain. But it is clear that Cape Codders were complicit in the enslavement of both Native Americans and Africans. Former Vice President Joe Biden won Oklahomas Democratic presidential primary on Super Tuesday, harnessing momentum from a dominant victory in South Carolina and a Monday night rally where two former opponents endorsed him. Bidens wife, Jill Biden, also made a last-minute campaign stop in Oklahoma City Tuesday morning, where she visited a local elementary school and met with African-American community leaders. I wasnt sure Joe was going to have the momentum, so I was holding off to see how things evolved, said Edmond business owner Vicki Toombs, 63, who voted for Biden Tuesday. As it turns out, he goes to South Carolina, and we were very excited about that. On the Republican side, President Donald Trump easily won a six-man GOP primary with more than 90% of the vote. Bernie Sanders had hoped Super Tuesday in Oklahoma would be a repeat of his performance four years ago, when he won Oklahomas Democratic primary. Sanders held a rally in Norman and visited a Comanche Nation powwow outside of Lawton in September. His wife, Jane Sanders, visited Tulsa and Tahlequah last week hoping to rally his base just days ahead of the primary. At a polling place Tuesday morning in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, James Dillon, 34, said Sanders was his choice. I think hes truly for the people, Dillon said. He wants to turn things around in the right direction, getting income equality. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg spent heavily on advertising and nearly two dozen field staffers in Oklahoma and made multiple campaign stops in the Sooner State. That included a January visit to Tulsas historic Greenwood District, where he outlined an racial economic equality proposal aimed at increasing the number of black-owned homes and businesses. We need somebody who is going to look at the facts, be data-driven, and get the right people in the room to solve problems in a pragmatic way, and also someone who is a good manager, said Keith McArtor, 61, a Tulsa attorney who cast his ballot for Bloomberg. Early Tuesday, President Donald Trump urged Oklahomans to not support Bloomberg, saying in a tweet that Bloomberg would kill your drilling, fracking and pipelines. Bloomberg and Biden both targeted the Democratic Partys moderate lane, especially after Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar suspended their campaigns in recent days. Buttigieg, who ended his campaign on Sunday, and Klobuchar, who dropped out Monday, both endorsed Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who grew up in Oklahoma City and held a December rally here, had hoped her roots in the state would help propel her to success in Oklahoma. Also on the ballot Tuesday in seven Oklahoma counties was a question on whether to allow liquor sales on Sunday. Coronavirus has spread to more than sixty countries since December, including India, and has claimed over 3000 victims in the past few months. The first case of Coronavirus in India was reported in Kerala, earlier this year and two more Indians were recently tested positive. However, what's deadlier is the pace at which people have been circulating false information related to the disease on social media. And this time too, like the SARS outbreak in 2003, non-vegetarians are facing undue flak. India on Monday reported two new cases of the novel coronavirus, including one from the national capital and the other in Telangana. Soon after, it was reported that a Noida school had been closed amid concerns that the Delhi resident who contracted coronavirus in Italy attended a birthday party last week in which his children as well as their schoolmates were present. Amidst all this, an alarming trend on Twitter, with the hashtag #NoMeatNoCoronavirus, launches an attack on the non-vegetarians in the country and blames them for "bringing" the disease to India. The trend also urges people to give up meat and go vegan if they want to survive the pandemic. Say what? Take a look at some of the tweets we came across: The only way to stop #CoronavirusOutbreak is to stop eating meat. #NoMeat_NoCoronaVirus Only true worship can save us from these viruses.Must watch pic.twitter.com/YzriKxsgCt (@kabirparmatma) March 2, 2020 #coronavirusindia#NoMeat_NoCoronaVirusBreaking God's commands leads to disasters and it's a plea to the entire world that please stop killing animals. They are also Children of God and if you will kill them he will punish you with such viruses. pic.twitter.com/BDnm0PV8aQ Manoj (@Manoj38599737) March 3, 2020 Birdflu= chicken (meat)Corona virus= animals (meat)Lassa fever= animals (meat)Ebola= animals. Seems the movement is boycott meat and eat fish! Seems seafood dont have any known viruses killing humans. None that i v heard of tho Asuzu Enyinnaya (@easuzu) January 30, 2020 #NoMeat_NoCoronaVirusDONT TAKE MEAT.....IF TAKEN CORONA VIRUS FEVER WILL ATTACK....Eating meat is sinful.We should not eat meat.@SantRampalJiMa8 pic.twitter.com/es1SiRAH7j Tanishk Verma (@TanishkVerma15) February 2, 2020 #NoMeat_NoCoronaVirus#GodMorningSaturdayA developed country is not one that has developed in science!It is one which has developed values.There is a request for all countries, including China, to renounce meat! pic.twitter.com/hXAIEeePCU Surendra Thakur (@SurendraDass10) February 29, 2020 In short, most of the tweets claim that the 2019 nCoV virus can be spread through eating meat, and that only meat-eaters would be affected by the disease. These claims revolve around the central idea that God did not intend for humans to be meat eaters, and therefore anyone who isn't a pure vegetarian is committing a sin. If you remember basic high school biology, you'll recall that that's not how any virus spreads. Whenever a virus enters the human body, it can get easily transmitted to another person and doesn't really depend on food consumption. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO explain that a person who has tested positive for coronavirus can transmit the disease to another person through respiratory droplets, which are usually released when the sick person sneezes or coughs. But this seems to be lost on Indians, who'd rather believe the absurd claims made by the Hindu Mahasabha. "Corona is not a virus, but avatar for the protection of poor creatures. They have come to give the message of death and punishment to the one who eats them," Swami Chakrapani, the National President of All India Hindu Mahasabha had said earlier this month. Even PETA drew much flak a few days ago when they tweeted that "Coronavirus" is just an anagram for "Carnivore" and that meat eaters were largely responsible for the outbreak. In all probability, this finger pointing at meat eaters originated when rumours suggested that a market in Wuhan selling live animals was Ground zero which eventually spread to the rest of the city. However, the CDC has clarified that Coronavirus, now, is spreading through person-to-person transmission. This is not the first time non-vegetarians have been blamed for "causing a disease", irrespective of how unscientific that may be. In 2002-2004, during the SARS outbreak which was also linked to animal flesh, meat-eaters were asked to refrain from consuming meat and were called "sinners." The call for ban on meat, henceforth, really makes no sense. A survey carried out a few years ago also revealed that at least seventy percent men and women in India eat meat. By that logic, more than half the population might end up contracting coronavirus simply because of their food choices - a ludicrous claim, to say the least! The WHO and the Government of India have released detailed advisories regarding precautionary measures and FAQs on coronavirus; as coronavirus creeps into the national capital, maybe it would do us all some good to dispel myths, and just rely on science to get us through the outbreak. New Delhi: The late legendary first female superstar of Indian cinema, Sridevi, 54, breathed her last on February 24, 2018, due to accidental drowning in a bathtub in Dubai. She had gone there to attend a family wedding. Marking her second death anniversary, a prayer meet was held in Chennai which was attended by husband Boney Kapoor, daughter Janhvi, family and friends. Janhvi and Boney Kapoor rushed to Chennai recently for Sridevi's prayer meet on March 4 which was marked as per the Hindu calendar. Janhvi took to her Instagram and shared a few pictures with family members with a heartwarming caption, "Wish u were here". She was dressed in traditional attire in pink and gold. Wore beautiful earrings and had flowers decorated in a gorgeous hairstyle. She looked like a typical South Indian girl dressed in a pretty outfit. On February 24 this year, marking Sridevi's second death anniversary, Janvhi had posted a throwback picture with mother. Several Bollywood personalities including family members took to social media and recalled the good times spent with the diva. None can ever reign the hearts of the masses and classes alike with sheer brilliance and superlative acting talent - a quality which Sridevi effortlessly portrayed on-screen. The void created by her absence can never be filled again. A mother and daughter accused of pushing an airline pilot to the floor before scratching and kicking him said they were acting in self-defence, a court heard. Henrietta Mitaire, 23, and Mary Roberts, 53, allegedly attacked Captain Guido Kee after their Swiss Air flight arrived at Heathrow Airport from Zurich, Switzerland, on May 2 last year - but the pair deny charges of assault by beating. Uxbridge Magistrates' Court previously heard that the altercation occurred following an argument before take-off with airport staff who told Mitaire, who had been travelling with her young daughter, to check a buggy into the planes hold. Mitaire said in a statement read to the court that she called the airline to complain and was told she was right in believing she could take the baby carrier on the aircraft. Mary Roberts, 53, (left) and her daughter Henrietta Mitaiare, 23, cover their heads as they leave Uxbridge Magistrates' Court / PA After landing, she claims she approached the head of cabin crew to discuss the matter further when the captain interrupted the conversation. Without any provocation from me, he made forceful contact with my shoulder with his hand, she said. Because he had been aggressive with me and was visibly angry, I was scared so I took my phone out and began recording him. This made him angry and he grabbed for my phone and tried to take it to the cockpit. She said the pair tussled, with the captain grabbing her and leaving a bruise. Mitaire, who declined to give live evidence to the trial, claimed the captain was pulling my hair and dragging me to the ground. I ended up on the floor with him kneeling on top of me with his full weight, she said, adding that she could not breathe properly. I was petrified, and thought I might lose consciousness, she claimed. In a desperate attempt to relieve the pressure so I could breathe, I used my teeth to try and get him off me. She added: All my actions during this altercation were in self-defence, most of them in a state of extreme fear. In an interview with police, Roberts said she tried to record the incident on her phone and claimed she witnessed the the captain dragging her daughter to the floor. She added: I have got one bit of myself in the cockpit and someone is pulling me and I am trying to stop this person from getting me because all I can see is, if this cockpit door shuts, my daughters life is in danger. James Nash, representing Roberts, challenged the diverging accounts of previous witnesses, saying she was acting in genuine defence of her daughter. The pair deny charges of assault by beating / PA The pair deny charges of assault by beating and are awaiting a judges verdict following a trial The captain was pinning her daughter, Henrietta, to the floor and Ms Roberts felt that she had to intervene, he said. Ben Summers, representing Mitaire, said she was the sort of person who does stand her ground and was demanding answers from staff, which was not the same as being aggressive. The prosecution offered no evidence for both defendants on charges of failing to obey the lawful commands of the aircrafts captain. In his earlier evidence, Friedrich Prieler, the co-pilot of the plane, made reference to the Tokyo Convention, which grants certain immunities for captains on their aircraft if they believe there is a threat to the safety of persons on board. Lawyers for both defendants highlighted that the trial had not heard from the captain about his actions. Mr Summers argued that the court has no basis upon which to conclude that whatever happened was in lawful pursuance of some power. He argued that the convention only applies when in flight. Mitaire, of Queens Gate Place, South Kensington, south-west London, and Roberts, of Elswick Street, Fulham, south-west London, were removed from the aircraft by police and arrested after the incident. District judge Deborah Wright is expected to deliver her verdict on Thursday. More than 40 Organizations Across 5G, AI, IoT, and Automotive Took Part Showing Trust and Security Dilemma Is of Critical Importance OneSpin Solutions, provider of certified IC integrity verification solutions for building functionally correct, safe, secure and trusted integrated circuits, today announced the three winners of its fourth annual holiday puzzle, held to highlight real-world problems of trust vulnerabilities in hardware designs and illuminate ways to avoid them. Participants from more than 40 organizations, including Xilinx, Intel, Fotonation, NXP, Nokia, AMD, Sensirion, and the OpenHW Group, worked to try to detect hardware Trojans inserted into two RTL designs. Winners Nithin Kumar Guggilla of Xilinx, Tero Kuusijarvi of NOKIA, and Wayne Yun of AMD found the Trojans in two RTL designs sourced from TrustHub and contributed their ideas and opinions. They receive Bose SoundSport wireless headphones. Hardware Trust and Security Dilemma The nature of today's complex electronics makes them extremely vulnerable to unintended or malicious attacks. A hardware Trojan is engineered to cause major damage in response to a trigger known by the attacker. It could expose "secure" data, cause serious product malfunction, or even destroy a chip. Modern, highly configurable hardware provides a favorable hiding place for backdoors, time bombs, performance degradation or kill switches. And the threat of Trojans being inserted into third-party IPs or during pre-silicon design implementation steps is of increasing concern to the hardware community. Everything from connected autonomous vehicles, medical devices, smartphones, defense and aerospace systems, nuclear power plants, 5G networks, IoT devices, and cloud computing are at risk. Companies have an obligation to ensure that these electronics are protected against attacks that could compromise safety and security. The OneSpin Hardware Trust and Security challenge illustrates how vulnerable designs are to Trojans that can hide throughout all the stages of IC development and how to combat them. "This challenge has confirmed that more and more companies now understand the importance of protecting their hardware designs against trust and security risks," commented Raik Brinkmann, President and CEO of OneSpin. "Leaving vulnerabilities in the design, whether unintentional or malicious, can have catastrophic consequences. Being able to exhaustively detect these 'holes' in the design is critical to delivering safe, trusted, and secure devices to the market. OneSpin is at the forefront of providing the technology assuring trust and security at the hardware level, as part of IC integrity." About the Hardware Trust and Security Puzzle The puzzle required participants to find Trojans in two RTL designs sourced from TrustHub and were allowed to use any tool available to them to reach a solution. Guidance was provided to them on how OneSpin solutions would allow the Trojans to be found in less than three minutes. Participants were required to submit waveforms of the traces that activate these Trojans. This challenge has delivered an increased awareness of the vulnerability risks associated with Trojans and suggests a path to automatic detection of these types of IC supply chain attacks. You can read about the winners' entries in OneSpin's March blog post at: https://www.onespin.com/resources/blog/details/keep-the-wooden-horse-out-of-your-chip About OneSpin Solutions OneSpin Solutions is a leading provider of certified IC integrity verification solutions for building functionally correct, safe, secure and trusted integrated circuits. These solutions are based on OneSpin's widely used formal verification technology and assure the integrity of SoCs, ASICs and FPGAs. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, OneSpin partners with leaders worldwide in automotive and industrial applications; defense; avionics; artificial intelligence and machine learning; consumer electronics; and communications. Its advanced solutions are well-suited for developing heterogeneous computing platforms, using programmable logic, and designing and integrating processor cores, such as RISC-V. OneSpin's customer-oriented commitment is fundamental to its growth and success. OneSpin: Assuring IC Integrity. Visit www.OneSpin.com to learn more. OneSpin, OneSpin Solutions and the OneSpin logo are trademarks of OneSpin Solutions GmbH. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005215/en/ Contacts: Connect with OneSpin: Twitter: @OneSpinSolution LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onespin-solutions Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneSpinSolutions Media contact US: Michelle Clancy, Cayenne Communication Tel: 503.702.4732, Michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com Media contact Europe: Annette Bley, Annette Bley PR Tel: +44 (0)7973 801132, annette@annettebleypr.com A Pakistani intelligence agent who had allegedly shared vital information with his handlers across the border was arrested on Wednesday here, police said. Pankaj Sharma, a resident of Tarore village in Samba, was arrested in an area under the jurisdiction of Trikuta Nagar Police Station on specific information, a police official said. He said Sharma was allegedly working as an operative of Pakistani intelligence agencies. The official said the accused was in touch with his handlers in Pakistan for the past few years and had sent "them photos and videos of vital areas and installations mostly in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts via social media platforms in lieu of monetary gains". During questioning, the official said, Sharma confessed he passed on crucial information about vital installations including sensitive bridges on national highways and in border areas. "Preliminary probe indicates some monetary transactions in two bank accounts of the accused," the official said. He said a case under relevant sections of law has been registered against the accused who has been handed over to Trikuta Nagar Police Station for further action. His bank accounts are being further analysed, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [March 04, 2020] Handheld Introduces the Nautiz X41, a Rugged Enterprise Tool for Increased Efficiency LIDKOPING, Sweden, March 4, 2020 /CNW/ -- Handheld Group , a leading manufacturer of rugged mobile computers, today announced the new NAUTIZ X41, a rugged Android device built for mobile workers in logistics, warehousing, utilities, field service, public transportation, security and public safety. With its extreme ruggedness, 1D/2D scanner and a physical keypad, the Nautiz X41 enables efficient and reliable data collection in the toughest of work environments. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8698051-handheld-introduces-nautiz-x41/. The multipurpose Nautiz X41 is a compact and light-weight rugged handheld designed for efficient field data collection and communication. Its IP65-rating means that it is watertight and fully dustproof. "While many Android devices on the market do not come with a keypad, the Nautiz X41 offers 23 physical keys, including programmable function keys and a physical scan button for fast and efficient data entry," says Johan Hed, Handheld Group director of product management. "And its choice of fast 1D scanner or 2D imager makes it a really reliable tool for all scan intensive applications." The ultra-rugged Nautiz X41 comes standard with: A powerful 8-core processor with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage Android 9.0 and Google GMS certification for full access all Google apps including Play Store and Google Maps Integrated high-speed 1D laser or 2D imager with High Density (HD) optics A physical 23-key keypad including programmable keys and dedicated scan button Built-in GPS receiver for navigation uing GPS, GLONASS, Galileo or BeiDou 4G/LTE Android phone functionality and high-speed data NFC, BT 5.0 LE and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/r/ac 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash A sunlight-readable, 4-inch capacitive display with Gorilla Glass, including rain and glove mode IP65-rating, MIL-STD-810G tested and operating in temperatures of -20C to 60C (-4F to 140F) Software utilities and accessories The Nautiz X41 comes with Handheld's free mobile device management software. The MaxGo software suite both provides quick application of universal settings to multiple devices, and allows custom application access. Additionally, the Nautiz X41 offers a wide range of Handheld accessories built specifically to enhance enterprise functionality and work efficiency. Availability Nautiz X41 orders can be placed immediately for shipment in April. Helpful links NAUTIZ X41 specifications Press images Product video Rugged computer accessories What is rugged? About Handheld About Handheld Handheld Group is a manufacturer and global supplier of rugged mobile computers, handhelds and tablets. Handheld and partners worldwide deliver mobility solutions to businesses within geomatics, logistics, forestry, public transportation, utilities, construction, maintenance, mining, military and security. Handheld Group, headquartered in Sweden, has subsidiaries in Finland, the U.K., the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and the USA. Learn more at www.handheldgroup.com . Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1096436/Handheld_Group_NAUTIZ_X41_Android.jpg View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/handheld-introduces-the-nautiz-x41-a-rugged-enterprise-tool-for-increased-efficiency-301015100.html SOURCE Handheld Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] MBABANE - The top 20 finalists of the MTN-Small Enterprises Development Company (SEDCO) Cija Ngebhizinisi seed capital competition have graduated after undergoing a rigorous one-week business training. The training was conducted by SEDCO at the Manzini estate. It began last week Monday and ended on Friday. Its aim was to equip the top 20 finalists with practical skills and provide a networking platform to share ideas, information and solutions. Speaking on behalf of the graduates, Marcia Vilane said the training was an eye-opener to them and a huge step towards professionalising their businesses. She said the training was one of the most informative, captivating and interactive lessons she had ever been part of. We had everything in the room and we will be walking out here with the objective of supporting one another, she said. During an interview prior to the graduation, Vilane said the MTN-SEDCO Cija business training was the best training she had ever attended. We have been in business for a while, but I discovered that we were not doing many things right - learning to know the tools and what to do and not to do, has given me a new sense of purpose. I am fired up and I look forward to pursuing the things we have learned from this training, she further stated. Another graduate, Sipho Dlamini who owns Smoke and Grill Restaurant at Mantenga Craft and Lifestyle Centre, was equally enthusiastic after completing the training. He said it was a unique and pleasant experience beyond all expectations. I gained valuable knowledge and skills. The training is one of the most transformative and enlightening experiences I have had, he said. He is a trained marketer, but he said his weakness had been on the financial side of things. I think I will forever be thankful for the practical financial lessons I have learned during this training, he said. The MTN-SEDCO Cija Ngebhizinisi radio business education programme ran for 18 weeks on Eswatini Broadcasting Information Services (EBIS 1). Its aim is to enhance start-ups and SMEs understanding on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. After the 18 weeks, followers of the programme were then invited to fill in application forms for the seed funding competition. Of the total number of applications received this year, 29 were eligible to go to the next stage of the competition which was site visits by the competition judges. The top 20 was drawn from entrants that were found to be implementing the key topics that were covered by the radio programme. Five start-ups from the top 20 finalists will win seed capital worth E10 000 each. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today: After years of false starts, the United States has signed a historic peace deal with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan. My colleague Mujib Mashal traveled to the front lines in Afghanistan and the signing ceremony in Doha to find out whether peace is actually possible. Its Friday, March 6. Mujib, what was the situation heading into this peace deal? mujib mashal This conflict has gone on for about 40 years. It kind of began with the Soviet invasion in the 70s, and it dragged on. It became a civil war. And the chaos of the civil war became a safe haven for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda that use it as launching grounds to attack the United States. And in retaliation, the United States invaded Afghanistan. And they toppled the Taliban government that was hosting Al Qaeda. So now weve got mostly three main players. One is the Taliban that feels that they are a government-in-waiting because they were toppled. And then its the U.S. military thats been on the ground for 18 years, and they want out. And so thats the second player. And the third player is the Afghan government that has been propped up by the United States over the past 18 years. And they are in the middle because they havent been part of the negotiations. So the effort to find a way out that can satisfy all the three players, its been a difficult process. michael barbaro Right. And Mujib, the last time you and I spoke, a peace deal was on the brink of happening. But the Taliban carried out an attack. It killed an American. President Trump, who was involved in those negotiations, was furious and at the last minute, called the talks off. mujib mashal Exactly. But that process was picked up again in recent months. And in the past few weeks, it finally felt like it was seriously coming together that we may have a way out of this conflict. [music] The way it happened is that they took the same deal that they almost finalized last September. They put a condition in front of it. The condition was that for seven days across Afghanistan, the violence level needed to be significantly reduced just to build some trust so ordinary Afghans could finally get to imagine what the dividends of peace could look like. And when that temporary truce started, the first thing that came to my mind was, what does it mean to the soldiers who have been fighting for years with no respite? So I thought of this guy I had sat next to on one of my flights, earlier flights, from southern Afghanistan. I had sat next to this guy, and I started making small talk with him. And he was like, yeah, Im a highway police commander, posted in this stretch of highway between Zabul and Kandahar provinces, both very, very badly hit areas of the war. And so I was like, hey, would it be OK for me to come visit you at some point? He was like, sure. So I got his number. And we were always nervous to go visit a place like that for security reasons. So when this truce went into effect, the first person that came to my mind was him. I want to go see what this would feel like for these guys who have constantly faced loss and fire. To go see, engage their emotions, and how they were experiencing this very rare breather from daily violence and daily attacks. michael barbaro So what did you do? mujib mashal So the photographer Kiana Hayeri and I, we flew to Kandahar. And from there, we found this old, really seasoned taxi driver who had done the road for about 40 years. And he drove us to the commander, to the base on the highway. And its a beautiful drive. But every couple miles of the drive getting to this commander, was seeing bridges blown up, the road blown up. So we arrived at this outpost on top of a hill, and were met by the commander. And he sort of oversees this 40, 50-mile stretch of the highway. ^mujib mashal ^: The one good thing he has is good weather. mujib mashal Hes got about 300 men spread out in a dozen outposts because what the Taliban do is plant a bomb when a convoy is driving. They blow up the bomb. And then once the convoy sort of gets disoriented with the explosion, they attack them from all corners. interposing voices [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal This is the main way the Taliban come here. mujib mashal So every morning, they come out, and they just patrol along the highway, look for any wires, look for any pieces of the asphalt dug up. mujib mashal This is where they get the kiana hayeri The mines. mujib mashal the mines. Thats the reason [INAUDIBLE]. kiana hayeri The actual mine or the cables? mujib mashal The cables. Thats how they dig it up. kiana hayeri OK. mujib mashal This is what they dig the cable with. mujib mashal And this commander something that really, really got to me in the sense of how bad theyve been suffering was, he was like, listen, Ive lost more men fetching water than I have in face-to-face fighting. michael barbaro Mm. mujib mashal My men come out, and they make their way down to get water in these buckets. And a sniper takes them out. michael barbaro Wow. mujib mashal So thats how badly theyve been surrounded. Thats the kind of fire they were receiving. And I asked him, I was like, how has it been this couple days of we visited them on day three, I think, of this violence reduction. And hes like, its been beautiful. interposing voices [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal These are the latest [INAUDIBLE]. interposing voices [SPEAKING PASHTO] [laughter] interposing voices [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal [LAUGHS] I was like, is that thing still packed? He was like, yeah, if I push it right now, its Im like, please dont. mujib mashal Seeing them walk around. Seeing them just some of them having their weapons down. mujib mashal Hes just been engaged three days ago. mujib mashal It felt like they were breathing a little relief. [walkie-talkie sound] mujib mashal And then he said, lets go for a drive. speaker Good? mujib mashal He was showing us a couple other outposts. mujib mashal Like, of the 300 other people he has, he probably doesnt have a single one who hasnt been wounded at some point during the war. mujib mashal And the amazing part was a lot of his fighters were really young 20, 22, 23, 25. A lot of them had started as child soldiers 14-, 15-year-olds. And many of them were really badly broken. Somebody was missing a finger. Somebody was missing a leg. Somebody was missing an eye. Some were wounded two, three times by the time theyre 24, 25 now. Lets see, there are these two brothers, actually three brothers. speaker Assalamu alaikum. mujib mashal The one was home, had already lost a leg. Their father had served in the police for a long time. And hed just died last year clearing roadside bombs. And so that job and been passed down to his sons. And both of them were in their early 20s. One was, I think, 21. The other one was 23. police officer [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal And one of them, his only interaction with the Taliban, was when he was detained by them for three days and tortured. And he still has the scars of that torture to show. police officer [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal The village they come from, in different neighboring province, it is entirely contested by the Taliban. So these brothers cant really go home often. One of them actually even arrived late to his own wedding because his family had prepared all the festivities. He tried to find the truck driver that could smuggle him to his own village for the wedding. By the time he got there, the festivities were over. So he missed his own wedding, basically. They are so young. And theyre so shaped by this war, that when I asked them even basic questions of what peace could mean to them, they would just smile and just grin. And they couldnt mentally get into the details of it. So I pushed them a little. I was like, listen, peace means that 50,000, 60,000 Taliban fighters out there, either laying down their arms or integrating into the army and the police, and basically sitting across from you, sharing this barrack with you. And one of them was like, I dont like them. I dont like the way they look. And I was like, well, thats what peace means. It means those Taliban fighters who need to be accommodated somehow. So he thought about it again. And he was like, well, peace is good, but well think about it. interposing voices [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal The commander is just 29 years old. But he seems so sort of seasoned and so experienced and so wise. And he got a little more reflective as we were driving between outposts. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal And one of the stories you told us as we were driving was, as an example of what pains him about this war. And he said, listen, I wish I was fighting people who were from a different country. The people were fighting, theyre not even from a different village. Theyre not even from a different district. And he told us the story of this local guy he said had come to his outpost for tea and for lunch with other elders maybe even a dozen times. And then they discovered him planting roadside bombs during one of their operations. And he didnt even know the guy was a Taliban. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal To him, that was a point of how localized, how interlinked and interwoven this conflict is. It almost seems that the easier part of the peace is between the Taliban and the Americans. But were talking about peace between people who are sharing the same stretch of the highway. michael barbaro And sharing tea, in fact. mujib mashal Or sharing tea. Yeah. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal And he said, the most basic thing, the most important thing in human life is freedom. And he said, life is nothing without freedom. And he said, the way we live, these targets on our back wherever we travel, constant fear of attacks and violence he said, this is not life. This is not life. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal [SPEAKING PASHTO] [music] mujib mashal As I was with them and hearing their stories, it was very clear that the truce was working. They hadnt faced any fire in several days. And the truce working meant the peace deal would go ahead and be signed between the U.S. and the Taliban in Doha. So we got back in our taxi, drove to Kandahar. We took a flight from Kandahar to Kabul. I spent the night in Kabul, and then from there, fly to Doha to make it in time for the signing. [music] mujib mashal Its the day before the agreement is supposed to be signed. And the dignitaries are arriving from around the world in the Sheraton Doha. It seems like its happening. michael barbaro Well be right back. mujib mashal Theyre putting final touches at the venue. michael barbaro So Mujib, you are in Doha getting ready to report on this historic peace agreement. What is the scene like there? mujib mashal So the event is supposed to happen at the Sheraton in Doha. mujib mashal Theres a podium where the signing is going to happen, and two sides are going to give speeches. mujib mashal And this ballroom is prepared. mujib mashal A kind of spotless red carpet. And red sort of velvety drapings behind the platform, and it says, The Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan. mujib mashal And people are slowly trickling in to find their way. [camera shuttering] The most high-profile guest is the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the emir of Qatar. chatter mujib mashal And then chatter mujib mashal dozens of Taliban started arriving for the occasion. chatter mujib mashal And a lot of more unusual noise and clamor than you would see at a normal diplomatic event, and because this wasnt a normal diplomatic event. It was an insurgency that was only known for blowing stuff up and fighting in the battlefield. And now sitting in the same room as the secretary of state and world leaders and getting ready to sign as equals with a world power. archived recording [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal Ceremony just gets underway. All the dignitaries have arrived. mujib mashal And then as the proceedings started, I found a seat in the balcony upstairs. archived recording (mike pompeo) Good afternoon. I want to start by thanking his highness, Sheikh Tamim for Cutters invaluable role as host for these historic talks. mujib mashal And Secretary of State Pompeo gets up, and he gives brief remarks. archived recording (mike pompeo) This effort only became real for the United States when the Taliban signaled interest in pursuing peace and ending their relationship with Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist groups. The agreement that we will sign today is the true test of this effort. michael barbaro So Mujib, whats actually in the agreement thats about to be signed? mujib mashal The most concrete thing in the agreement is an American commitment to start withdrawing the remaining of its troops. So right now, theres still about 12,000 American troops in Afghanistan. And the agreement lays out a 14-month timeline for a gradual withdrawal of those troops. archived recording (mike pompeo) Heres our take on what steps by the Taliban will make this agreement a success. mujib mashal There is some basic language of conditionality attached to it. archived recording (mike pompeo) First, keep your promises to cut ties with Al Qaeda and other terrorists. Keep up the fight to defeat ISIS. mujib mashal That in return, the Taliban are making some commitments that they would not allow terror groups, theyll not allow Al Qaeda. The other pieces are that the Americans will help release up to 5,000 of the Taliban prisoners who are in the Afghan government. And those prisoners will get released in the next couple weeks before the Taliban sit down for direct negotiations with the other Afghan side. archived recording (mike pompeo) And start the difficult conversations on a political roadmap for your country. mujib mashal And then in that future negotiations, at the top of the agenda, would be a comprehensive cease-fire. archived recording (mike pompeo) And for all of us here, and most importantly for the security of the American Afghan people, this must happen. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] mujib mashal And then. sheikh tamim [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal The Talibans deputy gets up. archived recording (deputy leader of the taliban) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal He seems nervous, and hes struggling to read the text. But he basically says the same thing that we want a peaceful future. We are committed to the agreement that well sign. archived recording [APPLAUSE] mujib mashal There is muted cries of allahu akbar from the Taliban guys, which is sort of victory cry. And then the deputy Taliban leader takes his place at the desk. And the American chief negotiator takes a seat next to him. The Taliban guy, hes watching closely to make sure the American envoy puts his signatures down first michael barbaro Wow. mujib mashal as if to make sure there isnt some sort of a last-minute trick. And after the American signs the first page, the Taliban opens his pen, and he starts signing also. archived recording [APPLAUSE] mujib mashal And that was it. They had signed an agreement that had taken a year and half of negotiations. And there was a sense of expectation that this momentous signing between the U.S. and the Taliban would open the way for peace. michael barbaro Mm-hm. mujib mashal But as soon as the two sides signed, the Taliban have started attacking again. archived recording 1 Now, remember that landmark deal between the U.S. and the Taliban at the weekend, well archived recording 2 Cracks are now starting to appear in the agreement. archived recording 3 Appears to be unraveling. archived recording 4 Its already unraveling just four days after it was signed. archived recording 5 New violence in Afghanistan just days after that landmark truce between the mujib mashal Back to Taliban launching attacks on Afghan outposts. Back to Taliban stopping people on the highways. archived recording 6 Afghan police say that at least three people have been killed earlier. mujib mashal Dozens dead every day since. archived recording 7 Separate attacks have left at least 19 people archived recording 8 20 Afghan soldiers archived recording 9 More than 20 Afghan soldiers archived recording 10 Dead. archived recording 11 33 attacks in 16 archived recording 12 Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned that violence will continue in Afghanistan. [music] michael barbaro Mujib, why would the Taliban begin launching attacks days, hours after signing a peace deal? mujib mashal The Taliban say the deal makes it clear their violence is only ending with the Americans. michael barbaro Mm. mujib mashal And theres nothing in the deal about reducing attacks on Afghan government, on Afghan security forces. And Ive posed this question to the Taliban. And I was like listen, so for 18, 19 years, youve been saying this is a jihad against foreigners, right? But the foreigners just signed with you. Theyre leaving. So how do you legitimize the shedding of Afghan blood now? michael barbaro Right. mujib mashal And he was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. Just because we got the foreigners to agree to leave doesnt mean we can give up already that the structure they created, the government they propped up, the system they put in place will inherit everything, and we will be left out here without correcting that system that is in Kabul to include our wishes also. So theyre very clear that theyre going to continue to use violence as leverage to bring political change also. michael barbaro So in their mind, they need to keep waging a war on these kind of extensions and projections of American power. And they are allowed to do it under this agreement because it only explicitly says you cannot attack U.S. forces. mujib mashal Precisely. So theres an interesting thing that happened just on Wednesday. After three days of violence, the U.S. military got back into action. They carried out an air strike against the Taliban. And the U.S. militarys justification was, listen, the agreement may have just ended the violence explicitly between us meaning, between the Taliban and the Americans but theres a sense in the agreement that if you all of a sudden start attacking the Afghan security forces, we, as the U.S. military, reserve the right to go to their defense. michael barbaro That feels like a very significant structural flaw in a peace deal to have left so much ambiguity that your former enemy can go on to destroy the government that the United States has built there. mujib mashal Theres a structure flaw in that for sure. But getting around that structure flaw, there were two possibilities. One was you can ensure that doesnt happen by getting the enemy to agree to a cease-fire, right? michael barbaro Mm-hm. mujib mashal The Taliban in no way were going agree to a cease-fire. So you either kept negotiating for months to try to force them to a cease-fire. Or they have agreed to this structurally flawed agreement, but hoping that because the U.S. reserves the right to carry out airstrikes, would mean the Taliban will carry out fewer attacks to risk being killed by American airstrikes. So what were seeing right now is the Taliban testing how much they can get away with in this ambiguous area of how far the U.S. will go to defend the Afghan government. But theyre also testing something else. So as part of the deal, the U.S has committed to helping release 5,000 of Taliban prisoners. And the Afghan government said, no way. Those are our prisoners. The U.S. doesnt have the right to commit to something like that. And the Taliban now are like, we dont care. U.S., you sort it out. You committed to us. But at the same time, it almost feels like theyre using violence to remind the Afghan government that if they drag their foot on the prisoners issue, the Taliban are still a reality in the battlefield. That they still have the same sort of firepower. [music] michael barbaro Mujib, I wonder if you have talked to those police officers that you had visited before the signing? [phone dialing] mujib mashal I did. automatic operator The number you are calling is not in service. mujib mashal I mean, it was a bit of a struggle to get back in touch with them, because that area where theyre serving what the Taliban do is they cut off cell towers, and you lose cell phone signal. [phone dialing] But when I got back in touch with them. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal They say theyve been facing fire for the past three consecutive nights. michael barbaro Wow. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal One of the outposts they showed us and I toured, they had two people wounded in that outpost. Their commander that we went to see, he was ambushed. So the commanders like, its back to the same levels as a attack for us. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal But he said something really interesting that I think summed up the mood after the recent Taliban attacks. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal He said, the one thing that is good about their attacks now is that it makes things clear. It makes our fight clear that until now, the Taliban were saying, oh, the foreigners are here. Were fighting the foreigners. And that kind of give their fight a little legitimacy, right? And they said now that theyve gotten their agreement with the foreigners, and theyre still deciding to attack us, we have a more open hand to return fire, as their attacks dont have that same legitimacy anymore. So its almost crystallized the fight for them a little bit. lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] mujib mashal But the fact that their daily reality after the signing has been no different from their reality before the signing seemed heavy on them, that they were back to the same being shot at and returning fire. mujib mashal [SPEAKING PASHTO] lt. col. musa-kalim rodwal (on the phone) [SPEAKING PASHTO] [music] michael barbaro It feels like nothing about this peace deal actually looks like peace to them. In fact, its just the beginning of a new phase of the war. mujib mashal At the moment, it doesnt. It actually feels like a continuation of the war they were fighting already. But one thing that came out of this peace deal was a brief pause, even if it was just for seven days. They felt and experienced a new reality. And maybe, maybe for a long time, they wont experience that again. Maybe their reality will be violence. But at least they have a reference point now. They can think back to seven days. And maybe that will serve as a reminder of what is still possible and what they could still get to. [music] michael barbaro Mujib, thank you very much. mujib mashal Thank you. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. Italy and Iran have ordered all schools and universities to close as the coronavirus sweeps across both countries. In Italy, around 150 people have died from the virus the highest number outside of China. While in Iran, there are now more than 3,500 infections. In the U.S., California has declared a state of emergency after an outbreak that has infected dozens of residents. And state officials said they were ordering a cruise ship to remain off the coast of San Francisco out of fear that the coronavirus may be spreading among its passengers. As of Wednesday evening, there were at least 211 infections in the U.S. And archived recording (elizabeth warren) I will not be running for president in 2020. But I guarantee I will stay in the fight for the hardworking folks across this country who have gotten the short end of the stick over and over. Thats been the fight of my life, and it will continue to be so. michael barbaro Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the Democratic race for president on Thursday, saying, that after a series of disappointing primaries, there was no longer a place for her in the race. archived recording (elizabeth warren) I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for, and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for. And theres no room for anyone else in this. I thought that wasnt right, but evidently I was wrong. michael barbaro Warren declined to endorse either Biden or Sanders for now. And during a news conference in front of her house, expressed regret that there was no longer a woman in the race. archived recording And I wonder what your message would to the women and girls who feel like were left with two white men to decide between. archived recording (elizabeth warren) I know. One of the hardest parts of this is all those pinkie promises, and all those little girls who were going to have to wait four more years. Thats going to be hard. michael barbaro - Most of the fish especially tilapia that is sold to consumers are found from fish cages which are privately owned by tycoons - Water pollution and other factors have made herrings to disappear forcing fishmongers to travel to Tanzania in search of Omena - The mongers said they incur a lot of expenses while transporting Omena from Tanzania to Homa Bay - The assistant director for fisheries department in the county said water with fertilizer contributes to the growth of hyacinth - The government has put in place a multi-disciplinary force which includes ensuring that water bounders are safe The pollution of Lake Victoria waters has brought misery to women dealing with Omena and fish business in Homa Bay pier beach. Waste from factories, hotels, and slaughterhouses among others which are dumped in the lake and water hyacinth has polluted it thus affecting the breeding of the fish in the lake. READ ALSO: Emotions run high in Congo as last Ebola patient is discharged from hospital Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original READ ALSO: Meet 22-year-old Miss Environment re-greening Bomet county A survey conducted by TUKO.co.ke along the Homa Bay pier revealed that most of the fish especially tilapia that is sold at the market is found from fish cages. The cages are privately owned by tycoons while Omena is sourced from as far as Sirare in Tanzania. According to Rose Langa who has been selling fish for the last 35 years, they are being forced to sell fish from pond and cages due to the reduction of fish in the lake. Although we are selling those fish from the fish cages, our customers do not like them because of the chemicals that are used in rearing them, Langa said. READ ALSO: Meet 58-year-old blind lawyer who has never lost case in court Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original The fishermen are selling to us the commodity at exorbitant prices because they face a lot of challenges while undertaking the work at night," he said. She further revealed they used to sell fish as little as KSh 50 compared to now where they are selling a piece between at KSh 300 to KSh 800 depending on the size. Langa who is also the pier chairperson said that they also experience resistance from the fishermen especially if they decline their sexual advances. If you refuse to meet their sexual desire they go to another buyer who is willing to cooperate with them or even sell to you the fish at a higher price, the chairperson said. READ ALSO: Help us: Nyeri family traverses town with donkeys carrying coffin to raise KSh 1.2m mortuary bill Most of the fish especially tilapia that are sold at the markets in Homa Bay are found from fish cages. photo: Naomi Akoth. Source: Original At the same time, she revealed that in the month of February and March, fish usually disappears in the waters of Lake Victoria forcing them to go for the commodity from ponds. The same sentiments were echoed by Julian Adhiambo who has been selling Omena at the pier beach for the past 20 years. She said that the beach used to have Omena before but the water pollution and other factors have made the food to disappear forcing them to travel as far as Sirare in Tanzania in search of the same. According to her, the commodity used to be in large quantity at Sukru and Mirunda highlands in Homa Bay before water hyacinth invaded the lake. READ ALSO: 4 Kenyan senators stranded in German following coronavirus lockdown Julia Adhiambo selling Omena to a customer at Homa Bay pier. Photo: Naomi Akoth. Source: Original The trader said that they are incurring a lot of expenses while transporting Omena from Sirare to Homa Bay driving them to loses. She also revealed that while at the border, they incur challenges of currency exchange and they also meet conmen who pretend to be willing to help them but are out to rob from them. However, she appreciated the business because it has enabled her to educate her children, being a widow, adding that the Omena business is everything to her. The fishmongers called on the government and other relevant stakeholders to come out and assist in cleaning of the lake to make their business sprout again. READ ALSO: Agony as family of eight mysteriously turn blind in Kisii Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original The assistant director for fisheries department in the county Michael Omondi said the running water which carries fertiliser is another factor that contributes to the growth of hyacinth. The hyacinth changes the water quality making the fish like tilapia, Omena and Nile perch that requires lots of oxygen to disappear and the ones that require less oxygen like catfish locally known as mumi and lung fish locally known as Kamongo to multiply," Omondi said And as we know that these species play a duo role in the society that is, it can be eaten and also be used as additive for making animal feeds...some times back we would close the lake for two seasons to allow them to multiply," he said Omondi said that Tilapia has been reducing drastically due to the fact that they have been overfished and that their breeding grounds have been destroyed. READ ALSO: Bungoma county government to reward mothers who deliver in hospitals Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original The officer revealed people have now ventured to importing fish from China to supplement the demand while investors have ventured into cage farming. Cage farming provides food security since the fish that require a lot of oxygen will disappear from the lake to cages and make it their breeding ground since the structures are secure. Omondi, however, noted the same cages are also potential pollutants because of the feeds and chemicals used in rearing the fish. Currently, cages produce more fish than the lake. READ ALSO: Coronavirus conundrum: Scientists puzzled by few cases of deadly disease in Africa Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original Omondi disclosed that they are some investors who have hundreds of cages in the county citing the Rio farms, Victory farms and View farms. He noted that cage farming may be the way to go in the near future as they manage the lake as a way of ensuring that there is fish for posterity. The government has put in place a multi-disciplinary force which includes a team headed by the military and other departmental agencies to ensure that water bounders are safe. Money is found in the concept called blue economy which includes fishing, mining, transport and tourism and other aspect which are obtained in water and if well kept, it can improve the economy of the country," Omondi said . READ ALSO: Kenyan graduate who made 200 job applications without success now earns KSh 1m monthly Fish shortage hits Homa Bay, prices soar as traders turn to Tanzania for Omena Source: Original Story by Naomi Akoth, TUKO.co.ke correspondent Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly Source: TUKO.co.ke HILLSBORO, OR / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Anyone who watches YouTube and has searched about the corona virus can tell you that the scenes in China were very disturbing to say the least. No matter what "your take' on it may be, when someone sees images and videos of entire cities with no people walking around or driving in a metropolitan area of 11 million people, it's very eerie. When Gene Anderson, CEO of Moto Sign and Media Corporation of Portland Oregon shared links/images with some of his friends about what's happening in China, he received every opinion you can imagine from "Its all a big conspiracy to change the election and its fake news" to "It's a man made bio weapon that's going to eventually kill us all"! Being the curious person Gene tends to be, he thought to himself, "if the virus became a big concern to people here in the USA, the first thing I would think would be effected was the respirator/mask industry". So after he heard that a few cases had made their way to America, Gene decided to see if masks were in fact selling well. What he was about to find out was hard to believe, but it's true. Even at a time when the State of Oregon had zero corona virus cases, all the paint masks, dust masks, respiratory masks, etc., were sold out in his local city, including all the big chain stores. Aside from the health issues he personally considered, as a businessman for over 30 years, Mr Anderson said, "I have learned that in any "out of norm' national or global event, there are financial winners and losers. Some companies will see gains in sales while others will suffer devastation. Supply and demand is what markets are all about." Then what happen next really opened his eyes. The same night after Gene found out that all the masks were gone in his relatively small city of about 100k people (where no corona virus cases in the entire state had been discovered yet), they announced that someone in his own city of Hillsboro Oregon had contracted the virus and they were now in his local hospital. Gene said, "That was really something. I figured it would not reach my home town for a long time but I was wrong." Now for the bad news. Human nature at its lowest? Not here! Never! The next day (last Saturday morning), while at a "major nationwide wholesale chain store' a friend of Mr. Anderson texted him the following. "Everyone this morning is going nuts! Lines to the back of the store in all directions! People are wearing masks and gloves and acting like madmen! I think people are freaking out!" With that being said, there are a few points that Mr. Anderson says will now become very relevant in the days, weeks, and months ahead. The top three are: *What are the products people should have on hand? (Toilet paper even ran out at the local chain stores!) *What should families do if someone has symptoms? (or not do!) *What things can families do to prepare now? After what Gene has now experienced, he says knowing the facts about virus's and pandemics before they arrive is a very intelligent thing to do. See www.Info-COVID-19.com Moto Sign and Media Corporation is proud to publish this informative interactive-booklet with "checklists' authored by a Medical-Author/MD and an Infectious Disease Specialist, CNS, RN, MSN, entitled "How to Protect your family during Pandemics". It provides a well-organized "How to" preparation guide for such a time as this. Contact: Debbie McGeorge Operations Officer Moto Sign and Media Corp 833-777-6686 SOURCE: Moto Sign and Media Corp View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/579071/Citizens-Reaction-to-First-Local-Corona-Virus-Case-From-Hillsboro-Oregon-USA Countries around the world are hoarding medical supplies in their latest effort to fend off coronavirus today as worried citizens face shortages and rising costs. Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic have all announced export bans on protective gear including masks and gloves, while India has restricted sales of paracetamol. Indonesian police have seized 600,000 face masks from a warehouse near Jakarta after the country's first cases sparked panic buying and sent prices soaring. Meanwhile South Korea has today declared 'war' on the virus as president Moon Jae-in apologised for face mask shortages and ordered them to be stockpiled. People line up to buy masks outside a department store in Seoul, South Korea, where the country's president has today ordered the stockpiling of masks A passenger on a Moscow metro train wears a mask yesterday with Russia today announcing an export ban to protect medical supplies Health experts are highly doubtful whether masks are actually any help to ordinary people, but people in many countries have hurried to stock up regardless and doctors need protective gear when treating patients. Germany's interior ministry announced an export ban today to ensure that health workers have enough equipment to deal with the outbreak. The ministry said it had published an order outlawing the 'export abroad of medical protective gear' including masks, gloves and protective suits. Exceptions can be made in some cases, for instance as part of 'international aid missions', it added. Some shops have already sold out of masks in Germany, where 240 infections have been confirmed so far. Russia's government today imposed a similar ban, with masks, respirators and anti-virus medicines ordered to stay in the country until at least June 1. The ministry for industry and trade said the move is intended to prevent an 'artificial deficit' of protective goods, which are being increasingly sold abroad. Russia has already shut border crossings with China in an effort to keep out the virus. The Czech government also said it is banning exports of respirators and will start regulating their sale at home. In Italy, a top civil protection official said the country, which does not make face masks, is getting 800,000 of them from South Africa but needs at least 10million more. France's president Emmanuel Macron has announced the government will take control of current and future stocks of face masks to ensure they could go to health workers and coronavirus patients. Macron's finance minister has warned that binge-shopping for household essentials could trigger shortages. Indonesian police have seized 600,000 face masks from a warehouse near Jakarta after the country's first cases sparked panic buying and sent prices soaring A sign showing that face masks are sold out at a shop in Berlin, where the German government has announced an export ban Elsewhere, South Korea's president Moon Jae-in today apologised for shortages of face masks in the worst-affected country outside China. South Korea has recorded more than 5,000 virus cases including 34 deaths, with most infections linked to a secretive religious sect based in Daegu. President Moon ordered masks to be stockpiled as a strategic item, meaning that suppliers can increase output without fear of wasting their money. 'The entire country has entered war against the infectious disease as the crisis in Daegu and Gyeongbuk province has reached the highest point,' he told a cabinet meeting, referring to the hardest-hit parts of the country. 'I am very sorry to the people that we are not able to supply masks swiftly and sufficiently, and have caused inconvenience.' There have been long queues outside retail stores and online suppliers have been selling out as soon as stock arrives. Lee Ji-eun, a 34-year-old doctor in Seoul, said her daily routine began with surfing the internet to try to find masks for her family. 'It is totally a lottery. I click buy'like crazy every morning, but I only succeeded in purchasing a few last week,' she said. 'There aren't enough even for doctors when treating patients.' In Daegu, people were today lining up at pharmacies to buy masks distributed by the government. People in Jakarta and its surrounding areas have been scooping up protective equipment such as masks and hand wash One man was caught lining up to buy a mask after testing positive for the virus, a police official said. Daegu's mayor told reporters he had asked the president for 3,000 more hospital rooms to cope with the rising number of the coronavirus patients. The leader of the Shincheonji sect and self-proclaimed messiah Lee Man-hee tested negative for the virus on Monday, having been threatened with arrest unless he agreed to be examined. He had earlier apologised for the sect's role in spreading the virus and called the epidemic a 'great calamity'. The church and Lee personally have come under intense scrutiny and growing public anger, and some politicians have reported them for prosecution. India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol. Officials said some of the medicines were being widely exported to Europe and the United States. 600,000 masks were seized at a warehouse in the satellite city of Tangerang, prices of the protective products have soared. People are seen above arriving at the Mass Rapid Transit station in Jakarta yesterday Meanwhile, Indonesian police seized 600,000 face masks from a Jakarta-area warehouse after the country's first confirmed cases of coronavirus sparked panic buying and sent prices for prevention products skyrocketing. 'Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public's expense,' a Jakarta police spokesman said. Authorities were questioning two people after the Tuesday evening raid at a warehouse in satellite city Tangerang. The owners did not have permission to distribute the masks, police said. Those convicted of hoarding masks could face up to five years in jail and hefty fines, police said. The warehouse raid came after hundreds of boxes of surgical masks were also seized yesterday at a Jakarta apartment. Separately, police said they had busted a factory allegedly making and distributing counterfeit masks that did not meet health standards. 'Those masks are useless,' a spokesman said. 'They won't protect people who use them.' The crackdown was ordered by Indonesian president Joko Widodo who has called on citizens to avoid panic buying, even as store shelves are cleared and prices soar for masks and hand sanitisers. On Monday, Indonesia confirmed its first coronavirus cases, saying a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, 31, tested positive. The World Health Organisation says healthy people do not need to wear masks unless they are caring for sick people. By Ofeliya Afandiyeva President Ilham Aliyev has said that he has allocated 10 million manats ($5.8m) for fight against the spread of coronavirus in the country, adding that the situation around the disease is under control and there are no reasons for concern. The president made the remarks while inaugurating Goranboy District Central Hospital on March 3 as part of his visit to the western part of the country. The situation is under control and a special operative headquarters has been created under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers upon my instruction. At the same time, I have instructed to allocate additional 10 million manats ($ 5,894,514) to ensure that the necessary measures will be taken more quickly, the head of the state said. I want to reassure the Azerbaijani community that the Azerbaijani government is taking all the necessary measures There is no serious cause for concern. Most of the quarantined citizens have not yet been diagnosed with the disease. If their health is normal, they will be sent home after a certain period, the president stressed. The president also said that work is underway to evacuate Azerbaijani citizens remaining in Iran. They will be provided both onshore and air transport to Azerbaijan. However, everyone must understand that they should be put in quarantine for a certain period in order to prevent spreading of the disease in Azerbaijan. Aliyev further said that Azerbaijan, like any other country, has not restricted cross-border cargo transportation. As you know, Azerbaijan is a transit country and we have been working for many years to expand our transit potential and we have succeeded in it. There are no restrictions on any transit goods. However, he said that there is police control of the cargoes crossing the border. There is an organized work on the delivery of the necessary goods, especially for the consumers in Azerbaijan and the neighboring countries, which come from the south. Special convoys consisting of relevant trucks are being formed and police escort is provided. At the same time, I have instructed to provide foreign drivers with meals so that they will not often get out of their cars and not go to public places. In other words, comprehensive step are being taken to protect the citizens from this disease. So far, all our steps have been successful. We are constantly in contact with the World Health Organization and work is being carried out to acquire tests to detect the disease and this issue is being addressed, Aliyev underlined. The president also noted that kindergartens, schools, universities have been temporarily suspended to protect children and teenagers from the disease. All necessary steps are being taken. According to current data, the probability of the disease spreading in Azerbaijan is not very high, Aliyev noted. Aliyev also touched upon the concerns over shortage of masks in the country. As I was informed, there has been a shortage of masks in pharmacies lately. There is no explanation for this since we have enough mask resources. It seems that some profiteers want to exploit this situation to increase their illegal income. All law enforcement agencies have been instructed that, if such cases are revealed, most severe penalties will be imposed on citizens who commit such violations. Because, those people, who intend to maximize their profit by exploiting this situation, must be given serious penalties, he said. Azerbaijan closed its border with Iran after three cases of coronavirus were registered in the country. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz : The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday decided to permit GMR Group to go ahead with the development of the Bhogapuram International Airport near Visakhapatnam. The state Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, approved a proposal to develop the Bhogapuram airport on public-private partnership mode and approved the 'highest bid' offered by GMR, according to Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani). "Initially, it was proposed to develop the airport on 2,703 acres of land but now we have decided to give only 2,200 acres to GMR for the purpose. The remaining part of the land will be developed by the state government, the Information Minister told reporters. He, however, did not divulge any details about the deal. He said the Cabinet decided to go ahead with GMR as it did not involve any monetary commitment on part of the government. As per the latest development model, GMR has offered to pay Rs 303 PPF (per passenger fee) to the government. As per projections, the number of passengers is expected to be 3.1 million by 2021 and nine million by the year 2036, sources in the AP Airports Development Corporation said. The development of a new international airport at Bhogapuram, 40 km northeast of Visakhapatnam, was first mooted in 2014 post-bifurcation of the state. For various reasons, the project did not take off for close to six years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Wednesday directed former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, serving life sentence in a case related to the 1984 anti-sikh riots, to appear before an AIIMS Board on Thursday to determine whether he needs to be hospitalised. A bench comprising chief justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant directed Kumar to appear before the board 10.30 am. The bench was hearing a bail application filed by Kumar on the ground of his medical condition. "It appears that there is a certificate by Dr Randhir Sud, Chairman, Institute of Digestive & Hepatobiliary Sciences, Medanta-The Medicity, to the effect that Sajjan Kumar, who is the appellant, needs to be examined in order to rule out major illnesses and that he needs institutional care," the court observed. It noted the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that Kumar was due for a medical examination at AIIMS according to the earlier report of AIIMS dated, December 10, 2019. "We, accordingly, direct that Kumar be produced before the AIIMS Board on March 5, 2020 at 10.30 a.m. After examination the AIIMS Board shall decide whether hospitalization is necessary and whether such hospitalization is necessary in a particular hospital. They may also determine the duration for which the hospitalization may be necessary," the bench said. It further directed that a report be submitted to the court within a period of one week from today. "In the meanwhile, if the AIIMS Board consider it necessary to hospitalize Kumar, they may do so after recording reasons," the court said. The bench had on February 14 refused to grant interim bail to Kumar and said it will hear his plea during the summer break. Kumar, who sought bail on health grounds, was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018 in the case. The top court had on November 6 last year directed that the former Congress leader be examined by a panel of AIIMS doctors and a report be submitted to it on his health conditions. On August 5, last year, the apex court said it would hear Kumar's bail plea in May 2020 as it was not an "ordinary case" and required detailed hearing before any order is passed. Kumar resigned from the Congress after he was convicted by the high court. The case in which he was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2 in 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II. Anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards. Kumar has also challenged in the apex court the Delhi High Court's verdict of December 17 last year that awarded him life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life" in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The high court had convicted him for the offences of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony and defiling and destruction of a gurdwara. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Spectrum says it is exceeding its requirement to expand high-speed broadband service in Upstate New York under last summers deal with state regulators allowing it to remain in New York. In a filing Monday with the New York State Public Service Commission, Charter Communications, Spectrums parent, said it had extended its cable network past 100,421 homes and businesses in Upstate New York as of Jan. 31, exceeding its required milestone of 87,934. Under a settlement reached with the commission in July, the company is required to extend its cable system and high-speed internet service to 145,000 homes and businesses, all in Upstate New York, by Sept. 30, 2021, with interim milestone requirements. A spokesperson for the commission said Wednesday that it has not yet verified the numbers included in the companys recent filing. The filing includes the addresses of the homes and businesses reached by the recent expansion, but Charter has requested that the commission keep the list confidential for competitive reasons. In 2016, the commission approved the merger of Charter with Time Warner Cable on the condition that it expand its high-speed internet service to 145,000 premises in underserved and unserved areas of the state. The merger made Spectrum the largest cable provider in New York and the second largest in the country. In 2018, the commission alleged the company had repeatedly failed to meet its interim build-out requirements by improperly including New York City, one of the most heavily wired cities in the nation, in its reports. Charter said the commissions merger approval contained no geographical restrictions. In July 2018, the commission took the unprecedented step of revoking its merger approval, a move effectively ordering the company out of the state. New York acts to boot Spectrum cable out of the state Charter sued to remain in New York. In July 2019, it reached a settlement with the commission that required the company to expand its system past 145,000 residences and businesses entirely in underserved and unserved areas of Upstate New York, with no expansions in New York City counting toward the goal. At the time, it had extended its network past 65,000 of the required 145,0000 premises. The commission estimated that Charter will have to invest $600 million to meet the build-out requirement. Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has finally opened up on whether the opposition party will take part in the upcoming voters' registration exercise fixed for April 18 by the Electoral Commission (EC). As a party, we are already preparing for the limited registration exercisewe will be ready but they (EC) will fail, the National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi said while contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show Kokrokoo Wednesday. The NDC and some other smaller political parties under the umbrella; Inter-Party Resisitaance against New Voters Register, have sworn to resist the Electoral Commissions decision to compile a new voters register. But the question most political pundits have been asking is whether the NDC will urge its members to participate in the registration exercise which is scheduled for April 18, 2020. In response to this, Sammy Gyamfi said: "We are already prepared...because by law the EC needs to conduct a limited registration exercise. So as a party we are already preparing for that exercise. If the EC says there will be no limited registration but rather wants to compile a new register, we will be ready but they will fail" Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the NDC has stated that the scheduled compilation of the new voters' register will not come off.If you doubt us that will be the first exposure about the lies they have been telling the nation. You are now in the process of procurement, we are in March so between today and 18th April you have to bring samples or prototype of your equipment to go and do pilot registration, train everybody before you come and start the registration. Unless they want to create confusion they will not even be in a position to begin the registration on the 18th. We dont believe they can, so the issue about what well be doing on the 18th does not arise at all," he said while addressing a press conference organized by the Inter-Party Resisitaance against New Voters Register on Tuesday. Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A second act for Henry VIIIs wives. Photo: Andrew Eccles What if, after all the divorces (or, technically, annulments), beheadings, and deaths, Henry VIIIs six wives got together in a kind of 16th-century version of VH1s Divas Afterlife? Thats the concept behind Six, a musical that imagines all the wives in a singing competition with six solos, three group numbers, and, of course, one megamix about who had the worst go of it. Six was created in 2017 by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss when they were Cambridge undergrads. They were always worried about the possibility that Six could be terrible given its audacious concept. But, says Marlow, Lucy was like, Maybe a way of not making it terrible is to give the show a sense of humor. And its definitely not terrible: It has already traveled to Londons West End, Chicago, Boston, Edmonton, Sydney, and several cruise ships. Now, its finally on Broadway. How exactly did history and diva worship coalesce into one remarkable show? Marlow, Moss, and the American cast walked us through the creation of the six queens of Six. 1. Catherine of Aragon Married 150933 Played by Adrianna Hicks Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: Daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and widow of Henrys brother, Arthur. Her only child to survive was Mary (later, Bloody Mary). He tried to dump her for Anne Boleyn, using her previous marriage to his brother as an excuse. But the pope wouldnt grant him an annulment. So Henry invented the Church of England in order to get one. As a diva: In Hickss interpretation, Catherine is a combination of J.Lo, Jennifer Hudson, and Lemonade-era Beyonce. Her song: No Way, an up-tempo kiss-off number. The first song has to be what the audience expects: Sit down, shut up, Im an independent woman, Moss says. Before you then do interesting stuff. (Note: Weve embedded links to the London cast recording for your reference and enjoyment.) Standout lyric: You say its a pity, cause quoting Leviticus, Ill end up kiddiless all my life, goes Moss and Marlows neat paraphrase of Henrys justification for annulment. Anne Boleyn Married 153336 Played by Andrea Macasaet Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: Henry had a crush on Anne, who was one of the queens ladies-in-waiting, but she insisted he put a ring on it. Even after he invented an entirely new church, still no male heirs. Their only surviving child became Queen Elizabeth I. In the end, Henry cooked up a pretext to have Anne beheaded so he could move on. She was often described as a seductress who flirted her way to the throne, so Moss wanted to take the piss out of that kind of historian by having Anne accidentally create chaos and respond to it with LOL, my bad. As a diva: Lily Allen meets Avril Lavigne meets all five Spice Girls. Her song: Dont Lose Ur Head, a rude, punky patter number. With over 18 million listens on Spotify, its the musicals most popular. Fans often show up dressed as Anne, with a Greensleeves-green dress and spiky buns. These young adults take the time to make their own costumes and show up to the show and patiently wait for me to make eye contact with them, Macasaet said. Standout lyric: Anne responds to Henrys excommunication with Everybody chill, its totes Gods will. 3. Jane Seymour Married 153637 Played by Abby Mueller Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: Days after Anne lost her head, Henry married another lady-in-waiting, Jane. She died shortly after giving birth to Henrys son, Edward VI. (She and Henry would eventually be buried next to each other.) As a diva: The mononymous pop balladeers Celine, Adele, Sia, and the more wistful side of Rihanna. Rihanna should do a cover!, Marlow jokes. Make it happen. Her song: Heart of Stone, a crescendoing series of vocal acrobatics built around her devotion to Henry. The idea was about the strength of choosing to love someone and committing to someone, Moss says, and that being an equally valid feminist experience. The Tone: Without a great deal of historical information about Jane, Marlow and Moss gave the character what Mueller knowingly calls dorky mom jokes. The historical stereotype is that shes the boring one, she says. I love that she gets to say, I wasnt stupid, I wasnt naive. Anne of Cleves Married 1540 Played by Brittney Mack Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: Next up: a strategic political marriage to one of the sisters of Germanys Duke of Cleves. Most famous for being rejected by Henry for not looking as good as her portrait (or so he claimed). Six months in, she accepted an annulment and a generous settlement. The show calls her Anna of Cleves. As a diva: The Feeling Myself vibe of Nicki Minaj and Beyonce, plus the wealth parody of Iggy Azalea and Charli XCXs Fancy and Lordes Royals. Her song: Get Down, in which Marlow and Moss reframe contemporary odes to opulence with brags about pheasant instead of Grey Goose, as Moss says. When you hear Get Down, immediately you want to get into this urban approach to her, Mack says. But as a black woman portraying this role, I dont want to do that. Mack cites the poise of Janet Jackson and Tina Turner as inspiration for her performance but notes that its so wonderful that in every production of Six, the character is not always played by a black actor. Standout Lyric: Okay, ladies, lets get in Reformation. Catherine Howard Married 154042 Played by Samantha Pauly Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: Henry became smitten by another of the queens ladies-in-waiting. They lasted a year or so, but then he had her beheaded for treason on the basis of adultery. Moss and Marlow conceived of her as the survivor of sexual abuse. The show spells her first name with a K. As a diva: An amalgam of young pop stars sexualized early on in their careers, as Marlow puts it, like Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and Ariana Grande (the inspiration for the queens ponytail). Her song: All You Wanna Do, in which Moss and Marlow use the earwormy hooks of a repeated chorus to emphasize the repetitive nature of the abuse she experienced. The tone: The dark core of the bubblegum-packaged song isnt necessarily apparent out of context. So the actress playing her has to bring out both sides of the music and lyrics. I have to stay in this pop-show mode, Pauly says. But I also have to make it clear things arent what they seem. It isnt until the end of the song that people are like, Ive been laughing the whole time; maybe I shouldnt. Catherine Parr Married 154347 Played by Anna Uzele Photo: Andrew Eccles IRL: The one who outlived him, marrying Henry after having several relationships of her own (she was a widow). Catherine pushed for women to be able to study the Bible unsupervised by men (a big step for the time). She got his daughters Mary and Elizabeth restored to the order of succession and acted as regent when Henry went to war with France. She survived him by a year and a half. As a diva: Emeli Sande, Alicia Keys, and the side of Beyonce when shes talking to the audience as if shes their best friend, according to Moss. Theres one point where I feel like I should pop a squat at the edge of the stage, maybe even play the piano myself, Uzele says. Were not going to do those actual things, but thats the vibe were going for. Her song: I Dont Need Your Love, a jazzy solo that starts as a letter to the man Catherine had to abandon for Henry and morphs into a group number directed at the king. The Tone: In a show of tricky tonal shifts, Sixs transition from the devastation at the end of All You Wanna Do to the rousing, girl-power spirit of I Dont Need Your Love might be the hardest to pull off without seeming glib. *This article appears in the March 2, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now! Fever, fatigue and dry cough. Headache, sore throat, diarrhea. Such are the symptoms of coronavirus. But in some cases, the disease can flow with weak symptoms or without any Coronavirus has reached Ukraine. The man from Chernivtsi city turned out to be infected with COVID-19. He returned from the trip to Italy with his wife. The man was hospitalized with fever and dry cough. The Health Minister of Ukraine Zoriana Skaletska noted that the man acted correctly: he minimized his contacts and turned for help immediately. The Health Ministry stress that a correct algorithm of actions will help prevent infection with the coronavirus. Step by step it is like this. Where to turn if there are symptoms of ARD? You should turn immediately to your family doctor informing if you were in countries with cases of coronavirus if you contacted people who returned from these countries. Taking to account this information and your symptoms, the doctor will recommend what to do next. Can I call the ambulance home? Yes. The Health Ministry assures that emergency medical brigades were informed on how to act in such situations. If a person has a high temperature and there is a suspected coronavirus, the ambulance has to arrive in such cases. Now the possibility of changes to the procedure of calling the ambulance and doctor for the period when the cases are expected is being reviewed now. It is so the doctor could come to a persons home instead of making the infected person travel the city, the Deputy Health Minister Dmytro Lufer said. Will the mask help? It is recommended to put the masks on only when you already have the symptoms of ARD. According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, healthy people do not need those. On the contrary, wearing the mask creates a false sense of safety, which can result in neglecting the first-priority safety measures. Will washing hands help? washing hands Open source Yes, you should wash your hands often and with soap for 20-40 seconds. If you do not have such an opportunity, medics advise using antiseptics. What is the safe distance from an infected person? The Health Ministry recommends keeping a 2-meter distance and avoiding places with many people. How long the virus lives on the surface and how to kill it? 3 hours. Usual disinfectants can kill it. How to go to school or kindergarten now? There are no reasons to cancel the learning process in schools and kindergartens, as the Health Ministry says. Anti-epidemic commissions were created in every region. They monitor the situation and give their recommendations. The Company announces the closure of two Canadian greenhouses, representing a significant step forward in aligning the Company's cultivation capacity with projected demand. Company expects to record estimated pre-tax charges of approximately $700-800MM in Q4 Fiscal 2020, as the Company completes its organizational & strategic review. SMITHS FALLS, ON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth" or the "Company") (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) announced today that the Company plans to close its facilities in Aldergrove and Delta, British Columbia, resulting in the elimination of approximately 500 positions. In addition, the Company no longer plans to bring a third greenhouse online in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. These actions are part of the Company's effort to align supply and demand while improving production efficiencies over time. The greenhouses in B.C. account for approximately 3 million square feet of licensed production space and were put into commission, beginning in February 2018, after a period of phased retrofitting to help Canopy Growth scale up to supply the new Canadian adult-use market. Nearly 17 months after the creation of the legal adult-use market, the Canadian recreational market has developed slower than anticipated, creating working capital and profitability challenges across the industry. Additionally, federal regulations permitting outdoor cultivation were introduced after the Company made significant investments in greenhouse production. The Company now operates an outdoor production site to allow for more cost-effective cultivation, which will play an important role in meeting demand on certain products that rely on cannabis extracts. Following an organizational strategic review of production capacity and forecasted demand, the Company announced today that these facilities in Aldergrove and Delta, British Columbia are no longer essential to its cultivation footprint. "When I joined Canopy Growth earlier this year, I committed to focusing the business and aligning its resources to meet the needs of our consumers," shared Canopy Growth CEO, David Klein. "Today's decision moves us in this direction, and although the decision to close these facilities was not taken lightly, we know this is a necessary step to ensure that we maintain our leadership position for the long-term. Along with the rest of the management team, I want to sincerely thank the members of the team affected by this decision for their work and commitment to building Canopy Growth." Along with this announcement, the Company expects, based upon information currently available to management, to record estimated pre-tax charges of approximately $700-800MM in the quarter ending March 31, 2020 reflecting today's announcement as well as additional changes related to its organizational and strategic review. All figures reported above with respect to the quarter ending March 31, 2020 are preliminary and are unaudited and subject to change and adjustment as the Company prepares its consolidated financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2020. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the foregoing information. The Company does not intend to provide preliminary results in the future. The preliminary results provided in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, are based on several assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. See "Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements". About Canopy Growth Corporation Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED,NYSE:CGC) is a world-leading diversified cannabis, hemp and cannabis device company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and Softgel capsule forms, as well as medical devices through Canopy Growth's subsidiary, Storz & Bickel GMbH & Co. KG. From product and process innovation to market execution, Canopy Growth is driven by a passion for leadership and a commitment to building a world-class cannabis company one product, site and country at a time. Canopy Growth has operations in over a dozen countries across five continents. Canopy Growth's medical division, Spectrum Therapeutics is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the public's understanding of cannabis, and has devoted millions of dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research and IP development. Spectrum Therapeutics sells a range of full-spectrum products using its colour-coded classification Spectrum system as well as single cannabinoid Dronabinol under the brand Bionorica Ethics. Canopy Growth operates retail stores across Canada under its award-winning Tweed and Tokyo Smoke banners. Tweed is a globally recognized cannabis brand which has built a large and loyal following by focusing on quality products and meaningful customer relationships. From our historic public listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange to our continued international expansion, pride in advancing shareholder value through leadership is engrained in all we do at Canopy Growth. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names including cannabis icons Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen, breeding legends DNA Genetics and Green House Seeds, and Fortune 500 alcohol leader Constellation Brands, to name but a few. Canopy Growth operates eleven licensed cannabis production sites with over 7.5 million square feet of production capacity, including over one million square feet of GMP certified production space. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. To the extent any forward-looking information in this news release constitutes "financial outlooks" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, such information is being provided as preliminary financial and operational results for the quarter ending March 31, 2020 and the reader is cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose and the reader should not place undue reliance on such financial outlooks. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy Growth or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release. Financial outlooks, as with forward-looking information generally, are, without limitation, based on the assumptions and subject to various risks as set out herein. Our actual financial position and results of operations may differ materially from management's current expectations and, as a result, our results may differ materially from the information provided in this news release. Examples of such statements include statements with respect to the Company's organizational and strategic review and forecast of demand; the Company's focus on aligning its resources to meet the needs of consumers; and the estimated pre-tax charges to impact the Company's financial position during the quarter ending March 31, 2020. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including preliminary financial results are subject to the completion of the Company's financial closing procedures and have not been audited or reviewed by the Company's independent registered public accounting firm; changes in cannabis industry growth and trends, including changes in the Company's forecasted demand for cannabis and associated changes in consumer preferences and demands; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; the global regulatory landscape and enforcement related to cannabis, including political risks and risks relating to regulatory change; compliance with extensive government regulation, including the Company's interpretation of such regulation; public opinion and perception of the cannabis industry; and such risks contained in the Company's annual information form dated June 25, 2019 and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information or forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events, including any preliminary financial results for the quarter ending March 31, 2020 will occur in the disclosed time frames or amounts or at all. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking information or forward-looking information to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE Canopy Growth Corporation Related Links canopygrowth.com US President Donald Trump has spoken with Egypts Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with regard to the ongoing dispute over the Grand Renaissance Dam being built in Ethiopia Washington has been hosting talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan but Ethiopia skipped the latest round of negotiations last week. The East African nation accused the US of overstepping its role as a neutral observer after the US said the dam should not be completed without an agreement. But its foreign minister said Ethiopia would continue to attend the talks. Upon completion, the dam will be Africas biggest hydroelectric power plant and provide Ethiopia and some neighbors with huge amounts of electricity and energy security. On Tuesday, during the phone conversation with Sisi, President Trump was quoted as saying he was hopeful that an agreement would be finalized soon and benefit all parties involved. The US says the dam should not be completed without agreement between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, which relies on the river Nile for 90% of its water. Egypt wants the filling of the dam to take place over a longer period so the river level does not suddenly drop dramatically. Ethiopia says it wants to start filling the dam in June. SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - An Amazon employee in Seattle has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to reports citing an internal memo sent by Amazon to its employees in Seattle and Bellevue. The employee, who reportedly works in the Brazil office building, located blocks away from the Amazon Spheres greenhouse domes in Seattle, Washington, went home on February 25 after feeling sick and has not returned to work since. On Tuesday, Amazon received information that the employee tested positive for COVID-19. The company is supporting the affected employee, who is currently in quarantine, according to reports. Amazon has also instructed all its employees who were in close contact with the sick employee to stay at home, watch for symptoms and seek medical attention if needed. It has more than 45,000 employees in Seattle and a coronavirus outbreak in could have serious consequences. Amazon is based in Seattle, Washington state. Washington state is currently grappling with a coronavirus outbreak and has reported nine deaths related to coronavirus, while the number of confirmed cases is now 27. All the nine casualties in state and in the U.S. were reported in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle in Washington. Several major U.S. companies are avoiding attending major events, or curbing travel plans of their employees amid worries about the global spread of the coronavirus. Twitter said Monday that is strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, Twitter suspended all non-critical business travel and events. Google has canceled its flagship I/O developers' conference, which was scheduled for May in Mountain View, California. The tech giant also has halted all international travel for its employees. Facebook too has called off its annual F8 developer conference to be held in May due to 'growing concerns around COVID-19.' The company said it plans to replace the in-person F8 event with locally hosted events, videos and live-streamed content. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de General Electric's cash flow hit from the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max jet is beginning to be resolved, GE's CEO, Larry Culp, told CNBC on Wednesday. Culp said GE has reached an agreement to be paid for both the engines it delivered in 2019 and those it plans to deliver this year. The agreement with Boeing was reached through GE's joint venture with French aerospace company Safran. The joint venture manufacturers the LEAP engines used on the 737 Max. "I think some of the uncertainty for us has been addressed," Culp said on "Squawk on the Street." In January, Culp forecast GE's first-quarter free cash flow at a negative $2 billion, attributed largely to complications with the 737 Max, which has been grounded worldwide for nearly a year after two deadly crashes. An issue with Boeing's software was implicated in the crashes, which killed 346 people. Culp said GE's agreement with Boeing "gives us an opportunity to catch up and be paid during the course of this year for the engines that we delivered." "That will be a good thing at a time of some volatility to assure folks with respect to our cash position," he said. Boeing halted production on the 737 Max in January as it awaits approval from federal regulators, who must certify the plane as safe to fly. Boeing has told airlines and suppliers it expects to receive approval in the middle of 2020. Culp said he believed in the timeline laid out by Boeing's new CEO, David Calhoun, who took over as chief executive in January. Calhoun worked at GE for 26 years. "Boeing, I think, has been crystal clear that the regulators are going to shape the timing of the return to service," Culp said. Shares of GE closed slightly positive at $10.95 on Wednesday. Earlier, Culp addressed investors on a call. Culp said the company's first-quarter cash flow would be reduced by $300 million to $500 million as a result of the coronavirus, but he maintained the company's full-year cash flow guidance. The stock reached an intraday high of $11.12, but then dropped below $11. GE hit a 52-week high of $13.26 per share on Feb. 12, but like the overall market, its stock has fallen in recent weeks as concerns about the coronavirus escalate. BRUSSELS The European Union still has nightmares about the mismanaged chaos of the 2015 influx of migrants and refugees, which produced horrible pictures of dead children, masses of unregistered people wandering the roads, political divisions and a significant boost to far-right populism across the Continent. Turkeys vow to let hundreds of thousands more leave for Europe has done more than revive those fears. It has exposed Europes failure to use the time bought since 2016, when it made a deal to pay Turkey to house migrants and refugees, to create a coherent migration or asylum policy. So Europe once again finds itself in a quandary, trying to tread a line between two NATO members, Turkey and Greece, one trying to push refugees forward, the other trying to keep them out. There is little doubt that Europe, beyond Greece, wants neither the migrants nor another crisis. European Union leaders made that clear enough this week, when they traveled to Greece to display solidarity with sometimes harsh Greek efforts by a new center-right government to keep any new migrants or refugees away. Canadian health-care officials are prescribing 14 days of self-quarantine for a person who been exposed to the novel coronavirus. But for some, taking that much time off work is next to impossible. Many people dont have sick days to cover the time and cant afford the financial hit. Advocates have been lobbying the government to put measures in place to protect workers like them as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase in the GTA and across Canada. The Star talked to people working a cross-section of jobs about what time off work would mean for their bottom line. Teddy Kassay, Parking attendant Average daily income: $112 The father of three kids, under the age of nine, dreads the very thought of having to be off from work. With little or no savings to fall back on, Kassay said being off sick would be a financial nightmare, as he doesnt get paid when hes off sick. His wife works part-time, with not much income, and they rent an apartment, he said. If Im off, I dont get nothing, he said. He tries to avoid contact with customers as much as possible, as a means of safeguarding himself. If I miss two weeks of pay, thats my rent, he said, while working the parking booth at a lot at Bay Street and Queens Quay. Kassay said while he doesnt have the luxury of staying home, he understands that forced quarantine, though difficult, is something that he would have to undergo. Nea Okada, Server Average daily income: $150-$200 The Humber College postgraduate student works about four days a week to lessen the need to take on additional debt to her already-ballooning student loans, which is currently $25,000. Some of the money Okada earns goes toward paying down her debt and covering the cost of her education so she doesnt have to keep borrowing. Taking two weeks off is not too bad, but it would hurt a bit because Im trying to save as much as I can to pay back my student loans, Okada said. It would suck because I would have to dip into my savings. Each day of missed work, means no pay for her as a part-time server at a downtown pub. Fortunately for her, she lives at home, which saves on rent and other living expenses like food. Humberto Nava, Uber Eats delivery Average daily income: $140 An international student from Mexico, Nava works in the gig economy, which means his daily income hinges heavily on his ability to ferry food around the city on his bike. If Im not at work I dont make anything, said the ILAC International College health-care administration student. I need this income to continue studying. His parents cover his tuition fees, which leaves his earnings for miscellaneous expenses, such as food and saving for travel. He pays $500 a month in rent. My family would help me, but I definitely need the money, he said. Boris Grbic, Sign installer Average daily income: $200 Grbic said he has up to seven sick days, but would have to burn his precious vacation time, or eat some of the overtime hours he has banked, to cover any time beyond that. That would be income loss, he said. His job is seasonal, which means overtime worked during peak times is crucial to cover slower periods during the year. He recalls getting the flu and having to be off work for more than a week, which leaves him wondering what kind of effect an even more debilitating illness like COVID-19 would have on his ability to return to working shape. His girlfriend works part-time as a server, which he said would put some of the weight on her if he had to be off for any longer than two weeks. We would just manage, he said, if he had to be off for more than seven days. Thats without a kid, and were looking to have a kid. The couple have tried to have at least two weeks wages saved up to cover emergency situations. Shelly Mochizuki asks Christians what makes Donald Trump a representative of our faith ("How does Trump represent your faith?" Feb. 26). Here is one Christians response. Like all of us, Donald Trump is a deeply flawed man. I didnt vote for him in 2016 because he represented my faith. I voted for him because he was the lesser of two evils and because I was not under any circumstances going to be part of the expected Hilary Clinton landslide. Democrats seem unwilling to acknowledge it, but she too was a deeply flawed candidate. By the way, I voted for McGovern in 1972 because I was not going to be part of a Nixon landslide, another deeply flawed man. There are other reasons why Christians might vote for Trump. Perhaps foremost among them is that Democrats have attempted to make it impossible for employers like The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose religious conscience forbids their subsidizing birth control to avoid doing so. Many believe that that flies in the face of the U.S. Constitutions separation of church and state. The Supreme Court will ultimately decide the question. Because its the Supremes who are the final arbiters of questions like this, many Christians voted for Trump because he promised to nominate conservative judges to the court. Now lets look at the upcoming election. There is much at stake, but it could be a pretty easy choice. Under Trumps and the Republican Congress leadership, the U.S. economy has boomed since he took office, largely as a result of the tax and regulatory changes. The biggest beneficiaries of these policies have been minorities. Specifically, black and Hispanic unemployment, as well as total unemployment, are now at the lowest levels ever recorded. Employers are having a very difficult time finding workers. The evidence of this to be found in the ads for jobs in shop windows all over Napa. Most of the Democrats seeking their partys nomination have promised to significantly raise taxes and to embrace vast spending programs that will crash the economy and the stock market. The Democrat most consider the most likely to win the nomination is an avowed Socialist. If Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders, I will again have to consider which candidate is the lesser of evils, a nasty man like Donald Trump or a man who would tank the economy with his programs in the short term and kill capitalism, the goose that laid the golden egg in this country since its inception. So if you want this Christian to vote Democrat in November, please give me a middle-of-the-road candidate like Klobuchar or Bloomberg. Better yet, put the two of them on the ticket together. If you do that, I promise to vote Democrat in November. Best of all, put Amy Klobuchar up for President. Its about time we had a woman in the Oval Office. So Ms. Mochizuki, its entirely up to you which way this dedicated Christian votes. Please give me a better choice than you gave me in 2016. Heres hoping you do so. Denny Olmsted Napa Editor's note: This letter was submitted before Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the presidential race. I love my daughter to death, but being in the same room that long, she is not a great conversationalist. FRANK WUCINSKI, an American evacuated from Wuhan, China, who underwent a two-week quarantine with his 3-year-old, Anabel, while his wife, who is not a U.S. citizen, stayed behind. An arborist who is volunteering to help rescue koalas on the severely bushfire-affected Kangaroo Island in South Australia has shared footage showing him plucking one of the marsupials from a tree on February 19. Kailas Wild shared footage of the rescue to Twitter, showing the koala clinging to a wobbling branch on what he described as burnt tree amid windy conditions. The koala initially resists help, but Wild quickly clutches the back of the koalas neck to bring it down to the ground. The last thing I ever want to do is interfere with wild koalas, Wild wrote in his tweet. I dont enjoy doing this. He added: This is the fastest, safest and least stressful way to catch one in a tree. The koala had some injuries when it was rescued and was sent to Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park to help it recover, Wild told Storyful. A February 28 report by Yahoo News Australia on Wilds work noted that, by that point, he had rescued 74 koalas on the island, and had developed a particular bond with an orphaned koala. Bushfires on Kangaroo Island resulted in the deaths of an estimated 250,000 koalas, with 200,000 hectares, or 45 percent, of the island burnt. Credit: Kailas Wild via Storyful A city council committee has voted in favour of a plan to amend land-use rules to allow development of land in the Polo Park area to develop multi-family buildings. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A city council committee has voted in favour of a plan to amend land-use rules to allow development of land in the Polo Park area to develop multi-family buildings. The Assiniboia community committee, including Couns. Kevin Klein, Scott Gillingham and Janice Lukes, voted Tuesday to back Cadillac Fairview and Shindicos plan to develop an 80-acre parcel of land surrounding the mall (from Portage to St. Matthews avenues, and St. James and Empress streets) with a series of highrise residential towers. The plan will move to the property and development committee. Klein, Gillingham and Lukes heard presentations from Cadillac Fairview and the Winnipeg Airports Authority (WAA), the latter of which opposes the development. The WAA argues that building residential spaces around the airport would make it more difficult for the airport to maintain its status as a 24-hour airport, in part due to noise levels. Conversation around building homes around airport have been years in the making, one of the reasons Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said it was time for council to make a decision. "We have before us an $800 million, probably more, investment opportunity," he said. "We cant base it just on that money alone, and we cant base it on just the property taxes that will come with that. We do have to look at it from the future because, I think we all will agree that for several years we didnt really consider the future in many the decisions that we made. "But we cannot, to councillor Lukes point, we can not continue to pass these things off any longer." Lukes (Waverley West) said "a decision needs to be made" and criticized WAA for what she called "lack of participation" in the conversation. "I think they need to be engaged, I think they need to be engaged more, and to bring forward the required information for this," she said. "And I think for the city too, I think the city needs to lead the charge in a more direct manner." Shindico / Cadillac Fairview Renderings show a residential housing development being proposed for an 80-acre parcel of land near Polo Park mall, which has drawn criticism from the Winnipeg Airports Authority. Gillingham (St. James) said there was a possibility to both encourage development in the area while still protecting the status of the airport. "We need to both protect the 24-hour operations, but I think there is an opportune time now to, in the right places, consider multi-family development in St. James, and I think both can be true, both can be had," he said. Cadillac Fairview planner Michelle Richard said the plans would not affect the growth of the airport. "There should be no restrictions of this development, because residential uses on the site would have no impact on current or reasonable future projection of airport success," she said. Cadillac Fairview development director Michael Peiser said the company was committed to protecting the citys "treaty of preservation and planting initiatives." "First and foremost, we are committed to protecting the 24-hour operations of Winnipeg Airport, and we will also continue to comply with transport Canada guidelines," he said. Airport planning expert Regine Weston spoke on behalf of Cadillac Fairview, who hired her to consult on the planning process, and noted noise complaints at the airport had declined in recent years, in part due to quieter aircraft. "All this noise that were talking about, and concerns about night noise, really are not connected because of the existing noise abatement program that the airport has in place, and Im certain that has helped them with their number of complaints," she said. WAA CEO Barry Rempel pushed back against criticism of inaction from the group, saying "the hyperbole around this that has been public has clearly got some very false components to it," and added that it did not change his concerns about the development. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Im telling you, as we sit here today, there is no better time to do the right thing, and from here on," he said. WAA vice-president of communications, Tyler MacAfee, argued that building residential spaces around the airport would make it more difficult for the airport to maintain its status as a 24-hour airport, in part due to noise levels. "A lot of airports are restricted in what they can do because of residential encroachment and noise concerns," he said. "Their teams spend endless hours dealing with complaints, citizens are upset, flood town hall meetings, council meetings, becomes ballot-box issues for politicians. But weve avoided that in Winnipeg." MacAfee suggested Cadillac Fairview was seeking this development because of the hit its retail stores have taken due to online shopping. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ This site is not available in your country Bernie Sanders has won Colorado, earning him his second victory among Super Tuesday states set to determine the Democratic nominee to face Donald Trump in November. The Vermont Senator secured the state in 2016, when he beat Hillary Clinton by 19 points. This year, the state moved from a caucus to an open primary system, aiming to cast a wider net among voters The state holds 67 delegates. Nearly 16 per cent of the state's voting population is Latino, and nearly half of those voters are millennials, who the Sanders campaign has relied on as it looks to the West. Colorado's Democratic Party estimates that Latinos could represent one out of every five voters. It's the first time in two decades that the state is not relying on a caucus system to select a candidate. Mail-in ballots for the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries were sent out last month and were due on Super Tuesday. With voting open for several weeks, last-minute dropouts from former contenders Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, as well as Tom Steyer, could affect the final tallies, as a final surge of voters drop off their votes before polls close in the state. Elsewhere, huge swaths of the Super Tuesday electorate have made their voting decision only recently, ultimately giving Joe Biden a boost. According to a NBC News Exit Poll, primary voters support an overhaul of the US economic system, with roughly half of state Democrats believing that it needs significant restructuring, and another 43 per cent saying it needs some change. Only 5 per cent of those polled say it works as-is One of China's most popular social media apps started to censor messages about the coronavirus a week before officials acknowledged the virus, it has been revealed. Toronto-based research group Citizen lab released a report yesterday, suggesting that WeChat started to block coronavirus-related content on January 1 and expanded the scope of censorship as the outbreak grew. But it wasn't until January 7 when the Chinese authorities announced they had identified a new virus. One of China's most popular social media app, Wechat, started to filter keywords about the coronavirus a week before the officials had acknowledged the virus, according to a new study The picture shows an overview of the temporary hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus A Chinese medical worker is pictured checking a patient infected by the novel coronavirus The report also found the censored messages included criticism of the government, information deemed as rumours as well as references to the Chinese whistle-blower doctor Li Wenliang. Some example keyword combinations contained 'Xi Jinping + Formalism + Epidemic prevention' and 'Local authorities + Epidemic + Central (government) + Cover-up'. The Canadian team created multiple WeChat accounts and scripted group chats to test if any keywords were being filtered. Researchers used one account to send messages with coronavirus-related content taken from news articles to test the censorship. The picture shows the scripted chats from Citizen Lab One of the test accounts, registered under a Chinese mobile number, didn't receive the messages as they contained the censored keywords. The illustration explains the process Researchers used one account to send messages with coronavirus-related content taken from news articles. One of the test accounts, registered under a Chinese mobile number, didn't receive the messages as they contained the censored keywords. A Chinese live-streaming site YY was also found to have added 45 coronavirus related words to its blacklist on December 31. Citizen Lab released a report yesterday suggesting WeChat started to block coronavirus-related content on January 1 and expanded the scope of censorship as the outbreak grew The health crisis in Shandong Province is up to 52 times worse than officials have admitted. The picture shows patients being treated in a temporary hospital in Wuhan, China Medics are seen with protective clothing carrying a patient to a hospital in Wuhan, China On the same day, China alerted the World Health Organisation to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan. The virus was unknown at the time. This came a day after Dr Li Wenliang tried to inform the public about the outbreak and was accused of spreading fake news. On January 7, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that they had identified the virus as belonging to the coronavirus family, which includes SARS and the common cold. It was named 2019-nCoV. It has remained unknown whether the censorship was an order sent down from the government to social media companies, according to Citizen Lab. Li Wenliang, 34, succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of February 7 local time, despite attempts to resuscitate him. The ophthalmologist caught the public's attention after he was reprimanded by police and accused of spreading 'fake news' for warning on social media of 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market'. His hospital initially denied reports of his death Mourners pay their respect to deceased Chinese doctor Li Wenliang during a vigil ceremony in Hong Kong on February 7. The public have accused Dr Li's hospital of trying to cover up truth But the study showed it could be the result of companies 'over-censoring in order to avoid official reprimands'. Hubei officials were also criticised for withholding information about the infection until the end of last year, despite knowing about the new illness weeks earlier. Shandong Province in eastern China was also accused of covering up the true scale of its coronavirus outbreak by seriously under-reporting the number of its daily cases. A report revealed the health crisis is up to 52 times worse than officials had admitted. A Chinese medical worker is pictured checking a patient infected by the novel coronavirus The coronavirus has killed at least 3,220 and infected over 94,100 people around the world, with the brunt of the cases in China. More than 80 nations are now battling the contagion, with South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran among the worst-affected. Venice has been left deserted by the coronavirus outbreak with tourists abandoning the usually overcrowded streets and plazas over health fears. Tehran announced total infections rose to 2,922 on Wednesday and it was said the country's most senior VP, Eshaq Jahangiri, was the latest high-profile figure to contract the disease. A woman is seen wearing a protective face mask while sitting on a London Underground train More than 80 nations are now battling the contagion, with South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran among the worst-affected. Italian soldiers are pictured patrolling in the streets of Milan Meanwhile South Korea has today declared 'war' on the virus as president Moon Jae-in apologised for face mask shortages and ordered them to be stockpiled. Confirmed cases in the UK rose to 51 and Boris Johnson unveiled his plan for dealing with the outbreak. This morning Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said an epidemic in the UK is now likely. French English INFORMATION ON THE CONDITIONS FOR THE DEPARTURE FROM OFFICE OF OLIVIER BRANDICOURT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Paris, March 4, 2020 Further to Olivier Brandicourts decision to claim his pension rights as of September 1, 2019 and to the preliminary information on the conditions for his departure from office disclosed on July 26, 2019 (as summarized below), the Board of Directors meeting of March 4, 2020, acting on the recommendation of the Compensation Committee, determined (i) the variable compensation of Olivier Brandicourt in respect of the 2019 financial year and (ii) the additional rights vesting through August 31, 2019 under the top-up pension plan, in accordance with the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer as approved by a vote at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders on April 30, 2019 and published in the Annual Report on Form 20-F: Variable compensation As a reminder, the variable compensation of Olivier Brandicourt varies between 0 and 250% of his fixed compensation, with a target of 150%. It is based both on financial indicators (40%) and on the attainment of individual objectives (60%) set by the Board of Directors on March 8, 2019. Olivier Brandicourts variable compensation for the period from January 1, 2019 through August 31, 2019 is set at 1,161,000 (amount apportioned on a time basis), representing 145.12% of his fixed compensation. In accordance with Article L. 225-100 II of the French Commercial Code, payment to Olivier Brandicourt of his variable compensation will be submitted to a vote at the Annual General Meeting called for April 28, 2020 to approve the 2019 financial statements. Supplementary pension under top-up pension plan As a reminder, the vesting of contingent rights under the top-up defined-benefit pension plan to which Olivier Brandicourt was entitled on retirement was subject to a performance condition related to the attainment level of the variable portion of the Chief Executive Officers compensation. The Board of Directors has ascertained whether the performance condition was met, and noted that the level of attainment for Olivier Brandicourts variable compensation for the 2019 financial year was 96.75%, i.e. 145.12% of his fixed compensation, which generates 0.9675% of additional rights for 2019. Consequently, the final amount of the top-up pension due to Olivier Brandicourt is 524,766 per year, or 21.5825% of his reference compensation (capped at 60 times the annual French social security ceiling, representing a cap of 2,431,440 in 20191). This pension is in addition to the pensions paid out under compulsory schemes. Because the vesting of contingent pension rights is linked to the variable compensation of the Chief Executive Officer, the top-up pension cannot be paid until after the approval of the Chief Executive Officers compensation package in respect of the 2019 financial year by our shareholders in an Ordinary General Meeting, on the terms stipulated in Article L. 225-100 II of the French Commercial Code. As a reminder, in accordance with the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer, payment of this top-up pension is separate from any other termination benefit or non-compete indemnity. For information, the following components of compensation were also announced on July 26, 2019: Fixed compensation The fixed compensation of Olivier Brandicourt in respect of the 2019 financial year amounted to 800,000. This amount was apportioned on a time basis from January 1, 2019 through August 31, 2019, the date of his departure from office as Chief Executive Officer. Outstanding equity-based compensation plans In accordance with the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer, which specifies that rights are retained on retirement, the Board of Directors confirmed that Olivier Brandicourt will retain his rights under those stock option and performance share plans that are still subject to vesting conditions. As a reminder, the stock options and performance shares initially awarded remain subject to the other plan conditions, including performance conditions and the non-compete undertaking. *** 1 Rights in respect of 2019 apportioned on a time basis for the period from January 1 through August 31, 2019. Attachment If I will die, let it ... By Park Yoon-bae Many people are asking the question: How come South Korea has become so vulnerable to the new coronavirus, despite its relatively well-established healthcare system? The question appears to be a tricky one. But actually the answer is quite simple: The country has failed in its response to the highly contagious virus. In other words, its quarantine network was porous since the first case of infection was reported on Jan. 20. It is regrettable to see Korea emerging as a new epicenter for COVID-19 which originated in Wuhan, the capital of China's central Hubei Province, in December. The health authorities here have been caught off guard since late February when the Shincheonji Church of Jesus became a hotbed for the virus in Daegu, the country's fourth-largest city. On Wednesday, the number of confirmed patients there surged to 4,006, accounting for 75 percent of total infections in the entire country. They should have monitored travelers coming from Wuhan more closely to contain the virus; but they only began to track Shincheonji members who had been dispatched to the Chinese city, after the 31st patient tested positive for the virus on Feb. 18. The church's effort to expand its presence in Wuhan has led to such unpredictable consequences, which is why its founder, Lee Man-hee, apologized Monday for the spread of the coronavirus. He also promised to cooperate fully with the authorities in the fight against COVID-19; but his apology is called into question, given what the church has done so far to evade its responsibility for the worsening situation. Seoul Metropolitan Government has filed a complaint with the prosecution against Lee and other church leaders for causing virus-related injuries and deaths. The Daegu municipal authorities have also lodged a complaint with the police against the church for providing false information about its members and disturbing disinfection and quarantine efforts. Shincheonji and its leaders should reflect on their mistakes sincerely and join the national campaign against the epidemic. They should realize that no religion is above the law, and that nothing is more pressing than virus containment at this point. There are other factors contributing to the upsurge in local infections. They include belated action, a lack of a sense of crisis and a complacent attitude. The Moon Jae-in administration belatedly raised the country's health alert to the highest level of "red" on Feb. 23 after the virus was already out of control. President Moon had ignored medical experts' repeated calls to do this. The late action belied his stress on pre-emptive steps to keep the virus in check. The country's entry ban on travelers only from Wuhan and other areas in Hubei Province is also controversial. Civic groups and opposition parties, particularly conservative ones, have continued to call for a ban on travelers from all of China. But the government is still against this total ban, arguing that it will do South Korea more harm than good. It is, to some degree, understandable that the government needs to consider ties with China, our country's largest trading partner. Yet Seoul seems to be too submissive to Beijing even when the virus is putting people's lives at risk. It would be wrong if Moon were going all-out to please Chinese President Xi Jinping so as to realize his visit to Seoul in the first half of the year. During a phone conversation, Moon told Xi that China's difficulties were the same as Korea's. He certainly meant to convey Seoul's support for and cooperation with Beijing in battling the coronavirus. But his goodwill gesture has yet to be reciprocated because Chinese provincial authorities are one after another putting Korean travelers under quarantine. It is frustrating to see China, ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak, treating Korean travelers as if they are potential spreaders of the disease. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha requested her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to ask his government to refrain from taking "excessive" measures against Korean visitors. But Beijing appeared to virtually snub her request by putting virus prevention before diplomacy. Rapid globalization has made it difficult to stop a contagious disease from spreading from one country to another. It is also difficult to create a perfect quarantine and healthcare system to fend off a potential virus attack. Partisan struggles and increasingly divisive politics also make matters worse. The rival parties here should refrain from playing politics and the "blame game" by using the COVID-19 issue to their advantage in the upcoming April 15 general election. All members of our society should make collective efforts to bring the virus under control. We also need to learn a lesson from this public health crisis: Prevention is better than cure. A more scientific and systematic approach is required to better protect people from epidemics. The writer (byb@koreatimes.co.kr) is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times. Update (11:32 a.m.) : Peter Anthony Gagliardo was located and the advisory has been canceled, according to the Michigan State Police. ST. JOSEPH, MI The Michigan State Police has issued a missing endangered advisory for a man who went missing after leaving a hospital in St. Joseph. Peter Anthony Gagliardo, 85, was last seen about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at Lakeland Hospital, 1234 Napier Drive, in St. Joseph, according to the MSP advisory that was issued on the morning of March 4. Gagliardo suffers from dementia, Lt. Doug Callahan of the Pokagon Tribal Police said. There is nothing suspicious about the missing person case, he said. Hes been gone overnight and he does suffer from dementia, Callahan said. Were assuming hes lost and were hoping people can help us locate him. Gagliardo was driving to his house at 54234 Twin Lakes Road in Dowagiac, according to police. His vehicle is a 2018 black Ford Escape with Michigan license plate 7J2050. The Michigan Department of Transportation also posted a message about the advisory: ENDANGERED PERSON BLACK FORD ESCAPE MI LICENSE 7J-2050 MDOT - Southwest (@MDOT_Southwest) March 4, 2020 Gagliardo is described as standing 5-7 tall, weighing 160 pounds, with grey hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a sweatshirt, blue jeans and brown zip-up shoes/boots when he was last seen, according to police. Police attached a photo of the missing man. Pokagon Tribal Police are investigating the case, according to the advisory. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Pokagon Tribal Police. Amid the coronavirus scare, the Maharashtra government issued a statement on Wednesday saying that except the medical staff treating the infection or those who have come in contact with patients, others need not use face masks. For those with other existing health conditions the use of a mask may create unintended complications, it added. With the virus spreading fast in many countries, people are flocking to medical stores to stock on hand sanitisers and face masks. There are reports of these products disappearing from stores in some places. In a statement titled "CORONA-KNOW IT TO FIGHT IT", the state health department said the general public need not use face masks. "General population can use folded cotton handkerchiefs for self-protection which can be reused by keeping in bleach solution or hot water for half hour followed by the thorough washing," it said. "For a person with an existing medical condition, wearing a mask may inadvertently complicate the situation," it added. N-95 masks which are sold in shops are meant only for medical staff treating patients, it said. The persons with a history of travel to COVID-19 affected areas or those having contact with infected persons showing symptoms of the COVID-19 should use the masks, it said. In Maharashtra, of the 167 travelers quarantined since January upon landing at the Mumbai airport, only nine are currently admitted to isolation wards. The state has not reported any confirmed case of virus infection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pune, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market size is prognosticated to reach USD 81.85 billion by 2026 attributable to the increasing number of the patient population and the rising prevalence of pulmonary disorders worldwide. This information is provided in a recently published report by Fortune Business Insights titled, Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Type (Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs), Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs), and Nebulizers), By Application (Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and Others), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, and Online Pharmacies) and Geography Forecast till 2026. As per the reports description, the market size was USD 46.34 billion in 2018 and is likely to exhibit a CAGR of 7.5% between 2019 to 2026. For more information in the analysis of this report, visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/nasal-drug-delivery-devices-market-100415 What are the Key Objectives of this Report? The report provides a comprehensive overview of the market for nasal drug delivery systems and its various growth parameters. These include factors driving, challenging, and providing opportunities to the market. Besides this, the report discusses the competitive landscape and lists the names of players operating in the market and the major strategies adopted by them. Adoption of different strategies will help key players to strive for the leading position in the market. It also discusses the key segments in the market based on factors such as type, application, end user, distribution channel, and others. Additionally, the report provides insights into the market, major industry developments, and current Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market trends. It is available for sale on the company website. Market Drivers: Rising Awareness About Nasal Spray and its Benefits Will Help Market Gain Impetus The increasing prevalence of respiratory disorders among people is a major factor boosting the Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market growth. Additionally, the increasing prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) cases is also aiding to the expansion of the market for pulmonary drug delivery devices. Besides this, analyst at Fortune Business Insights says, The increasing patient population and the rising demand for inhalers are encouraging companies to set up new manufacturing units. This is further expected to drive the overall market in the forecast period. On the flipside, lack of awareness about inhalers along with their usage, especially amongst the older population may cause hindrance to the overall market. Nevertheless, the rising awareness about the benefits of DPIs and MDIs is expected to help increase their popularity in the market. This, as a result, will give significant impetus to the market in the long run. Request a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/nasal-drug-delivery-devices-market-100415 Regional Analysis Europe to Dominate Owing to Rising Prevalence of Asthma Geographically, the global Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market is categorized into North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these, Europe is holding the largest share with a nasal drug delivery technology market revenue of USD 21.1 billion in 2018. This dominance is attributable to the increasing prevalence of asthma, coupled with the rise in awareness about nasal sprays and their benefits. Besides this, there is the rising popularity of inhalers in developing nations of this region, thereby boosting the regional market. Apart from this, Asia Pacific market share is likely to attract significant Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market share owing to the rise in awareness campaigns about the use of inhalers and its benefits. Moreover, biopharma companies are utilizing novel technologies for introducing MDI and DPI into the regional market for higher revenue generation during the forecast period. Competitive Landscape Demand for Nasal Drug Products to Fuel as Companies Focus on Launching Eco-friendly Inhalers Manufacturers of the intranasal drug delivery devices are focusing on new product launches to stand out in the market competition and are therefore investing huge sums into research and development for the same. In addition to this, companies are trying to launch environment-friendly inhalers for COPD and asthma patients. They are also promoting advanced technologies by introducing software and advanced services for enhanced user experience. Most of the startup companies in this market are trying to implement applications of agglomerated vesicle technology, particle engineering, nanotechnology, and others for delivering medications to COPD and asthma patients. List of Key Companies Operating in Nasal Drug Delivery Technology Market include: Consort Medical plc. (United Kingdom) Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. H&T Presspart Manufacturing Ltd. 3M GOFIRE INC. Nemera AptarGroup, Inc. (United States) Vectura Group plc (United Kingdom) Others Noteworthy Industry Development of Pulmonary Drug Delivery Devices Market Include: December 2019 An environment-friendly MDI inhaler was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference by Chiesi for COPD and Asthma patients. An investment plan worth USD 382.76 million was made by the company for five years to launch the new product in the market. The company also aims to reduce the overall carbon footprint of MDI by 90%. Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/nasal-drug-delivery-devices-market-100415 Detailed Table of Content: Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions Executive Summary Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Key Insights New Product Launch Pipeline Analysis Technological Advancements in the Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market Prevalence of Disease Indications Key Industry Developments - Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships Global Nasal Drug Delivery Devices Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Type Dry Powder Inhalers (DPI) Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) Nebulizers Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Application Asthma Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Distribution Channel Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Online Pharmacies Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Geography North America Europe Asia pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa TOC Continued.! Request for Customization: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/nasal-drug-delivery-devices-market-100415 Have a Look at Related Reports: Injectable Drug Delivery Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Device Type (Conventional Injectable, Pre-filled Syringes, Auto-injectors, Pen-injectors, Others), By Application (Autoimmune Disorders, Diabetes, Pain Management, Aesthetic Treatments, Others), By Route of Administration (Subcutaneous, Intravenous, Intramuscular, Others), By End-User (Hospitals, Home Care Settings, Clinics, Others) and Geography Forecast till 2026 Connected Drug Delivery Devices Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Injectable Devices and Inhalation Devices & Others) By Technology (Bluetooth, NFC, and Others) By End User (Homecare Settings and Hospitals) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Dermatitis Drugs Market Size, Share and Global Trend Product By Therapy (Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Targeted therapy) By Disease (Glioblastoma Multiforme, Anaplastic Astrocytoma, Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma) By End User(Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Cancer and Radiation Therapy Centers) and Geography Forecast to 2025 Antiviral Drugs Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Drug Class (Protease Inhibitors, Polymerase Inhibitors, Integrase Inhibitors, Combination Drugs, Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, and Others), By Disease Indication (Hepatitis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Influenza, and Others), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, and Online Channel) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Orphan Drugs Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Therapy Area (Oncology, Blood, CNS, Endocrine, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Immunomodulatory), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, Online Sales) and Regional Forecast, 2018 2025 Diabetes Drugs Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Drug Class (Insulin, DPP-4 Inhibitors, GLP-1 Receptor Agonists, SGLT2 Inhibitors), Diabetes Type (Type 1, Type 2), Route of Administration (Oral, Subcutaneous, Intravenous), Distribution Channel (Online pharmacies, Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies) & Regional Forecast 2019 2026 Hiv/Aids Drugs Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Drug Class (Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs), Integrase Inhibitors, Combination HIV Medicines, Others), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, Online Pharmacies, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Hemophilia Drugs Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Disease Indication (Hemophilia A, B & C), By Therapy Type (Recombinant Therapy, Plasma Therapy & Others), By Distribution Channels (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy), and Regional Forecast 2018-2025 Veterinary Drugs Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis by Product (Anti-infectives, Anti-inflammatory, Parasiticides, Others), By Animal (Companion, Livestock), By Route of Administration (Oral, Parenteral,Topical), Distribution Channel (Veterinary Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, Pharmacies & Drug Stores, Others,) and Regional Forecast, 2018 2025 Hepatitis C Drug Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product (NS5A Inhibitor (Protease Inhibitors), Fixed-dose Combination, Others), By Disease Type (Acute Hepatitis C, Chronic Hepatitis C), By Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, Online Pharmacies, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. 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Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US :+1 424 253 0390 UK : +44 2071 939123 APAC : +91 744 740 1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Press Release: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/nasal-drug-delivery-devices-market-9633 By Express News Service BENGALURU: With several people in India testing positive for coronavirus, Karnataka Minister for Health and Family Welfare B Sriramulu chaired a meeting with Department of Health and Family Welfare including Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar, Principal Secretary Jawaid Akhtar, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey and others. In a press meet following the internal meeting on Tuesday, Sriramulu appealed to people to not panic and said that all precautionary measures were being taken to combat the virus. He said that people who travelled on flights, buses or worked and lived with coronavirus patients, are being quarantined at home and no positive cases have been reported so far. The state has circulated guidelines to all district-level health authorities for prevention and control, with state and district rapid response teams on alert at state and district level involving medical colleges. Eight medical officers and 16 paramedical staff are present at Kempegowda International Airport. Ports of Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada district and port of Karwar, Uttara Kannada district are being monitored and screened. There are 50 designated hospitals for isolation and treatment of coronavirus patients in Karnataka, including 31 government and 19 private hospitals. There are 246 beds and 50 ventilators, 1,462 N95 masks and 646 personal protective equipment, the department said. Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar visited Bengaluru Medical College & Research Institute on Tuesday to review coronavirus preparedness. He inspected coronavirus blood testing facility and held a review of the preparedness of the institute to handle patients with symptoms of the virus. It's often been said that you're judged for the company you keep. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion It's often been said that you're judged for the company you keep. In the era of social media, perhaps it's more accurate to say you're judged for the company you appear to keep. After the news broke about a class-action lawsuit against Peter Nygard, alleging that he sexually assaulted 10 women (several under the age of 18) at his island estate in the Bahamas, many people mentioned being "not surprised." The disgraced fashion mogul has, over the years, been accused of abusive labour practices and sexual harassment. His exploits at his predatory playboy palace have been well-documented. Before this latest scandal, back when he and his Popeye biceps were, regrettably, the first things one saw when they arrived at Winnipeg's airport, Nygard, 78, was a local celebrity with a rags-to-riches story. As such, one doesn't have to look hard to find archival photos of him rubbing shoulders with the citys business elite and some of the provinces most influential people, past and present people who are now distancing themselves. A representative of one high-profile person proactively reached out to the Free Press, requesting we not print images of her with him. I'm not fan of the celeb grip and grin. For a long time, a big part of my job was interviewing famous people and spoiler alert they are just regular people. But I have had my photo taken with two celebrities: Martin Sheen and George Takei. I met Takei on assignment at WE Day in October 2017, which, you'll recall, is the exact month the #MeToo movement began and the Harvey Weinstein story broke. My interview with Takei was delightful, and I posted a photo to my personal Instagram. A few weeks later, Takei became one of many men accused of sexual misconduct. The accuser's story was weak and ever-changing, but still. I felt weird about the photo. I took it down. Concern about the optics of a photo isn't new; it served as the foundation for the entire tabloid industry. But now that social media has made gossip columnists out of all of us, photos have taken on a new life. Enterprising people can construct an entire public shaming campaign based on an old photo that "resurfaces." There's a reason screenshots are often referred to as "receipts." After the Weinstein allegations surfaced, some people held up the photos of actresses, Weinstein's arm encircled around their waists, as proof of tacit support and a blind eye. But what does a photo really say? Photos can tell you who runs in the same circles, who attends the kinds of galas that end up on newspaper social pages. A photo with someone famous can imply fandom, friendship, or at least conviviality. That's why people take photos with famous or powerful people, isn't it? The hope that a bit of shine rubs off on them. Like an autograph, it's a momento that says little more than, "I met this person." But photos with someone famous can also suggest approval or endorsement of that person and, by extension, their behaviour. And if you're photographed with a now-disgraced person, it can colour people's opinions of you. It can suggest guilt by association, or some kind of moral failure to be a "good judge of character." Or, worse, complicity. The allegations against Nygard are damning. Suddenly, a smiling photo looks like something more sinister. Still, without facts and context, viewers are simply pole-vaulting to conclusions. After all, there are also lots of banal reasons people smile for a camera decorum, mostly. Country star Tanya Tucker was photographed with Nygard on a red carpet. Does that make them BFFs? No more than I am BFFs with George Takei. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Nygard, for his part, appears to play fast and loose with the term "friends." If one were to believe the photo gallery titled "Peter Nygard and Friends" on his surprisingly primitive corporate website, he's "friends" with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, Criss Angel, Serena Williams and Fabio. However, one does have to wonder if the many prominent Manitobans who posed with Nygard over the years heard rumours about his alleged crimes. Maybe. Had the Hollywood elite who smiled alongside Weinstein heard whispers about his assaults and harassment of women? Most likely. Does that make them guilty of anything? Pressure from society to pose with powerful men. But just because someone once shook the hand of Nygard or had their photo taken with him doesn't mean they supported him then, and it doesn't mean they support him now. Nygard doesn't appear to have any friends, just people he surrounds himself with. He is, ultimately, a man on an island and the tide is rolling in. jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @JenZoratti Netflix India released the official trailer of its latest thriller titled She on Tuesday, March 3. The crime drama is penned by filmmaker Imtiaz Ali. The trailer was shared on Twitter with the caption, She's here, she's ready, she's only just begun. She, premieres 20th March (sic). The story revolves around a timid female police constable who is told to be an undercover agent by her senior cops to bust a drug ring. All the episodes from the series first season will release on March 20 on Netflix. She stars Aditi Pohankar as Bhumika Pardesi, a constable in Mumbai Police, and Gully Boy fame Vijay Varma as a narcotics dealer named Sasya. The trailer opens with the introduction of Sasya who agrees to spill the beans on narcotics deals only to Bhumika, who was sent to him as a sex worker. The trailer then focuses on Bhumika and her ability to prove herself as a successful and daring undercover agent, as her seniors cast doubts on her. The trailer of She further leads into a series of daunting incidents, where Bhumika sets out on the mission and her own department is unable to trace her. She promo unfolds how the policewoman empowers herself after realizing her potential in the most unexpected of ways. She is produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Tipping Point and Imtiaz. Follow @News18Movies for more Q. Where can I find information on Covid 19 in Ireland? A. First up, anyone with any queries or seeking information should check the official sites, which are regularly updated: hse.ie/coronavirus, hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/ and gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus. In addition, there are regular updates from the Chief Medical Officer. Q. What about people who have Covid 19? A. The epidemiological criteria are set out on the HSPC site, and begins with isolation in a single room, followed by risk assessment. Q. Is the current hospital framework up to the job? A. Dr Rory Dwyer, clinical lead of the Irish National Intensive Care Unit Audit, said last month that Intensive care units in public acute hospitals lack the resources to cope with a coronavirus epidemic. "You can cope with sporadic cases but if there is a large number we will struggle to cope and probably wont," he said. Dr Dwyer also pointed out that we have fewer ICU beds per head of population than countries such as Britain and our EU counterparts, and the system has already been under strain due to typical winter illnesses. However, the chair of the governments coronavirus advisory group, Dr Cillian de Gascun, said on RTEs Morning Ireland that the Irish hospital system is as prepared as it can be, but it is under pressure. On the same programme Tony Fitzpatrick of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said while efforts here so far were to be commended, it has been known since 2008 that there are not enough intensive care beds in the country. He also said the HSEs hiring practices meant there were ICU beds and units that could not be used because vacant posts had not been filled. Q. Does the patient end up in a single specialised room, or in their local hospital, or what? A. Unclear. The HPSC advice to medical practitioners for patients with Covid 19 refers to "ADVICE available from the National Isolation Unit (NIU) as required (adults)". But it doesnt indicate that patients would use the NIU. Special coronavirus pods are already in use in the North Q. Hang on, weve got an NIU? A. We do indeed. As per the last update to the website in February 2015, "the National Isolation Unit (NIU), for adult patients, is located at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin (St. Bernards Ward)". It was officially opened in December 2008, the self-contained unit has 12 beds including six lobbied, en-suite single rooms with negative pressure ventilation. Two of the isolation rooms are of high specification and are separate from the rest of the unit with different air-handling systems. Q. Has it ever been used? A. It has been used as a test run and staff preparation exercise during the global Ebola virus crisis in 2014. Since then, its uncertain; the HSE could not clarify as of now but said they would by Thursday. There are also isolation beds in other hospitals around the country. Iraq confirmed the first death from the novel coronavirus in the country, the total confirmed cases detected so far are 31 as per the media reports. The deceased was a 70-year-old man who was a religious preacher in the north-eastern city of Sulaimaniyah. He was quarantined after he tested positive to the coronavirus and succumbed to the worsening health conditions at a hospital early Wednesday, March 4. A health ministry spokesperson for the Northern Kurdish Autonomous Region informed a state-run agency that a Muslim cleric recently came in contact with the Iraqis who returned from neighbouring Iran and contracted the strain of the virus. He was isolated and was put under medical supervision, but he passed away suffering from the deadly disease. Iran has to date recorded the highest death toll from the outbreak outside of mainland China and is one of the high-risk countries for travel amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Most cases of coronavirus that emerged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, including one in Canada have all been linked with Iran which is now the second focal point of the global disease spread after China, suggest reports. Read: Israel Asks 1,150 Students To Self Quarantine As Coronavirus Cases Surge Read: Tasmania: Shoppers Warned After Coronavirus Patient Visits Supermarket State of panic Iraqis travel often to Iran crossing the frontier for trade, tourism, medical treatment, and religious studies. Iraq, however, in a drastic measure, has shut its borders with Iran restricting the entry of the Iraqis and other foreign nationals from entering its territory confirmed reports. Several countries including neighbouring Turkey, have also sealed their borders with Iran to stem the contagion spread of the ailment. According to the reports, there is a state of panic among the citizens of the Islamic republic who are of the opinion that their war-torn country was not prepared for a severe nationwide epidemic. They think that Iraqs health system was under-equipped and the government was inept for an adequate response to the outbreak. Many hospitals were in disrepair due to the successive conflicts and war in the region. Read: Screening 88 People Who Came In Contact With Delhi Coronavirus Patient: Kejriwal Read: Australians Panic Buy Toilet Paper Rolls Amid Coronavirus Dread, Netizens Confused Alabama Department of Corrections officials on Wednesday announced the arrests of four people including two employees on charges relating to promoting illegal contraband. Correctional Officer Terrence Tolbert, 39, of Brewton, was arrested on Feb. 24 after an ADOC Law Enforcement Services Division agent investigated an allegation of contraband possession at Fountain Correctional Facility. The agent discovered that Tolbert was in possession of marijuana, crystal methamphetamine, weapons, electronics, and alcohol. Tolbert was arrested on charges of trafficking, promoting prison contraband, possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful possession of marijuana. Tolbert was transported to Escambia County Jail. He immediately resigned his position following the arrest. Tenishia Michelle Witherspoon, 32, of Birmingham, a Correctional Cubicle Operator, was arrested Feb. 27 after an ADOC K9 alerted on her vehicle during a contraband interdiction detail in the Donaldson Correctional Facility parking lot. Witherspoon is facing unlawful possession of marijuana charges and has resigned her position with the department. Additionally, Jeffery Burton and Alicia Keaton, both of Kentucky, were arrested Feb. 22 at Tutwiler Prison for Women on charges of unlawful possession of marijuana after a K9 alerted on the vehicle driven by Burton. A search of the vehicle produced about one ounce of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Following their arrests, Burton and Alicia Keaton were transported to the Elmore County Jail. Let this serve as a stern warning to anyone considering conspiring with inmates to introduce contraband into our facilities you will be discovered, and you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, said ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn. In addition to being illegal, the introduction of contraband by internal or external parties is in direct conflict with my Departments commitment to reducing recidivism and promoting rehabilitation, and we will continue to take decisive and swift action against those responsible in order to promote the well-being and safety of our staff and inmates. Also Wednesday, ADOC released the results of a February prison raid designed to find and seize illegal contraband. Operation Restore Order launched about 4 a.m. Feb. 25 at Easterling Correctional Facility in Clio, which is in Barbour County. The lockup is a medium-security prison that houses about 1,200 inmates. More than 200 law enforcement officials from ADOC and assisting agencies took park in the raid. On Wednesday, they announced the results included the seizure of 120 makeshift weapons, 42 contraband cell phones, 482 grams of synthetic drugs, and 172 pills or suboxone strips. The operation, which took place over roughly nine hours, was the eighth conducted by the ADOCs Operations Division and Law Enforcement Services Division since early 2019. The success of the Operation Restore Order at Easterling Correctional Facility, in addition to several arrests made, reinforces my Departments unwavering commitment to eliminating illegal contraband and rooting out the sources of its entry into our facilities, Dunn said. The success of these crucial, ongoing operations is dependent upon collaborative preparation and effective execution by the Departments staff and partnering law enforcement agencies across the state. I am thankful for their hard work and dedication. The public should contact ADOCs Law Enforcement Services Division at 1-866-293-7799 with information that may lead to the arrest of anyone attempting to introduce illegal contraband into state prisons. The public may also report suspicious activity by going to the ADOC Website at http://www.doc.alabama.gov/investigationrequest. CAIRO - Egypt has executed Islamic terrorist Hisham el-Ashmawy, army spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said Wednesday. The man was arrested in October 2018 in Derna and sentenced to death for a car bomb attack that damaged the Italian consulate in July 2015. The spokesman said el-Ashmawy was hanged. The main attacks for which Ashmawy was convicted include one on a checkpoint in the desert in Farafra on July 2014 (22 border guards were killed) and a car bomb attack that killed Egyptian prosecutor general Hisham Barakat in Cairo in June the following year. According to the website of Egyptian daily El Shorouk, the explosion in front of the Italian consulate in Cairo was at the center of a trial in which 13 others, including 11 who were tried in absentia, were sentenced to death. Ashmawy was sentenced in absentia three years ago. The dynamite attack on July 11, 2015 outside the Italian consulate in Cairo killed a street vendor and wounded a dozen people. No Italian citizen was injured. The attack was immediately claimed by ISIS. The consulate was moved next to the Italian embassy after the attack. A group of U.S. senators wants to remove a preferred investment status for countries such as Britain that allow for the installation of Huawei Technologies Co. equipment in their 5G networks. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is set to introduce legislation as soon as Wednesday that would amend provisions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, which scrutinizes direct investments such as real estate and venture capital deals by foreign countries in the U.S. Certain allies -- the U.K., Australia and Canada -- are exempted from the investment screenings, but the proposed bill would end that exclusion for countries that install Chinese information and communications technology including for 5G and future networks. In January, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided that Huawei could have a partial role in its next-generation broadband networks. "The United States values its special relationship with the U.K., but allowing Huawei into Britain's 5G infrastructure will have consequences across several sectors," Cotton, one of the leading China hawks in Congress, said in a statement Tuesday. "Ultimately, protecting U.S. trade secrets from the Chinese Communist Party is our top priority." The U.K. was the biggest source of foreign direct investment in the U.S. in 2018, according to the Commerce Department. Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri are co-sponsors of the legislation and its scheduled introduction Wednesday coincides with a debate in the U.K. House of Commons on the security implications of Johnson's Huawei decision. There's broad and longstanding concern among lawmakers in Washington that Huawei, China's largest telecommunications equipment maker, is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party and that Beijing has the ability to use it to spy on Americans. Huawei has denied those allegations. Cotton's bill states that while the U.S. should remain committed to an open investment environment, "the national security landscape has shifted in recent years, and so has the nature of the investments that pose the greatest potential risk to national security." Trump administration officials said after Johnson's announcement in January that they were disappointed by the decision and have urged London to reverse it. The topic is likely to come up in bilateral trade talks that are set to begin in the coming weeks. "Boris Johnson seems to have misjudged how key members of Congress would react to his decision," said David Hanke, a partner at Arent Fox. "This bill may have legs and will certainly get the attention of London's financial district." The bill, titled the "Protecting America From Foreign Investors Compromised by the Chinese Communist Party Act of 2020," would also require the administration to produce a report on whether and how the U.S. government is coordinating with close trade and investment partners to develop alternatives to Chinese 5G vendors. South African Airways (SAA) has announced that it has extended its Change It Up Sale to even more major destinations across the world. The struggling state-owned airline is currently running a sale which offers discounts of up to 20% across numerous flights. In every business, there comes a time for change, SAA said. And at SAA were changing and that begins with our Change It Up Sale to give you better fares. Fly all-inclusive return to New York, Frankfurt, and London from R8,999, or Blantyre and Nairobi from R6,000. The airline said its sales have been bolstered by these discounts and the reinstatement of travel insurance consultants services, which provides protection for customers choosing to fly with SAA. Due to the tremendous response we received last week for our special offers, the sale is back by popular demand and we are extending it during this week, said SAA Chief Commercial Officer Philip Saunders. The extended sale includes destinations such as New York, London, Washington DC, Perth, Frankfurt, Blantyre, Dar es Salaam, Kinshasa, Harare, Lilongwe, Lagos, Lusaka, Livingstone, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Victoria Falls, and Windhoek. SAAs Change It Up discounts will last until 6 March 2020 and are available on the SAA website. Changing up the airline South African Airways is currently under business rescue, with its business rescue practitioners (BRPs) recently announcing widespread flight cuts at the state-owned airline. In line with SAAs commitment to take urgent action to conserve cash, and create a viable platform for a successful future, key measures need to be implemented now, the BRPs said. These measures include targeted changes to the route network, deployment of more fuel-efficient aircraft, optimisation of organisational structures and renegotiation of key contracts with suppliers. This change resulted in SAA cutting all of its domestic routes including Durban, East London, and Port Elizabeth except for Cape Town, which it will continue to serve on a reduced basis. The BRPs said a number of jobs will have to be cut as part of the airline restructuring, but that every effort is being taken to limit the impact of job losses in SAA and its subsidiaries. It is our intention to restructure the business in a manner that we can retain as many jobs as possible. This will help provide a platform to a viable and sustainable future, they said. Now read: R25 billion needed to rescue SAA Thiruvananthapuram, March 4 : The Congress in Kerala assembly on Wednesday cried foul over the alleged nexus between the tax department of the Kerala government and the traders selling gold. Senior Congress legislator V.D. Sateeshan sought adjournment motion to discuss this nexus when he pointed out that the Finance Minister Thomas Issac is feigning ignorance and allowing the traders to have a free run. "During the financial year 2016-17, when VAT was in force, the total taxes from gold was Rs 200 crore and today under GST what has been raised is a mere Rs 300 crore. Under VAT regime the tax on gold was 1.25 per cent, while its 3 per cent now. Added to the increase in rates, there has been a 50 per cent hike in the price of gold, but what came into government coffers was a mere increase of Rs 100 crore. This clearly shows that there is an unholy alliance," said Sateeshan. "Figures have shown that 30 per cent of the world trade in gold takes place in India, of which Kerala leads the rest of the country. Studies have shown that the per capita monthly expenditure on gold in Kerala stands at Rs 208 and next comes Goa, where it is just Rs 34. This itself shows the volume of trade in gold in our state and just see a mere Rs 300 crore has been collected as taxes," added Sateeshan. According to a study conducted by economist Mary George, the total taxes that can be collected from gold sales annually is as high as Rs 18,000 crore, but only a miniscule of it is collected. But Issac however said the biggest problem that the taxes department faces is lack of rules and regulations. "The Customs and Central Excise have enormous powers to raid the gold traders but such powers are not there with the state government GST officials. That's a major lacuna for effective surveillance. We have raised these issues in the GST Council. Moreover, we have now taken possession of the accounts of 75 gold traders in the state and has handed over to C-DAC for inspection. We have also decided to set up a cyber laboratory for inspection under the taxes department. We are in the process of plugging the leaks in tax collection and it has already begun," said Issac. Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that according to the figures, unaccounted annual sales of gold in the state is around Rs two lakh crore, including the widespread smuggling that takes place. "At least a minimum of Rs 6000 crore can alone be raised through taxes in gold sales and the sad thing is despite the big talks given by Issac, he has raised just Rs 300 crore. All the state's financial crunch could be erased and this is what is called prudent fiscal management. You are not doing your job the way it should be done," said Chennithala and walked out of the house, protesting the Speaker's decision not to allow a discussion on this. Susan Collins was absolutely right about this much: President Donald Trump has learned his lesson. And hes learned it by heart. Thanks to the Senates cowardly abdication of its responsibilities, the Republican president now feels absolutely emboldened to trample on what few constitutional norms remain standing in Washington, D.C. In the small amount of time that has elapsed since Maines senior senator and her fellow Republicans acquitted Trump on the two impeachment articles sent over from the U.S. House, the authoritarian-in-chief has purged the White House of perceived critics, demanded a reduced prison sentence for a crony, and declared he has a legal right to intervene in court cases. There has been considerable hyperventilation, some perhaps by me, about the grave harm Trump is doing to our democratic institutions, wrote Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, who added he wasnt hyperventilating now. Public faith in justice is a delicate, precious thing. Once squandered, it is incredibly hard to regain. Im not hyperventilating now either. There is a profound difference between the daily, schoolyard bullying thats sadly become a routine part of the former reality television stars administration, and his direct, incredibly damaging, and ongoing assault on the judiciary. Its already well-established that when Trump isnt treating the law like his personal plaything by issuing pardons to such friends and supporters as former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, hes insulting or undermining judges and courts he believes should bend to his will. That includes U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom Trump disparagingly referred to as Mexican in 2018, despite the fact that Curiel was born in Indiana. Trump has also used the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, as a personal punching bag because its dealt Trump a series of legal setbacks on some of his most radioactive proposals. I mean, its really sad when every single case filed against us is in the 9th Circuit, Trump told a gathering of governors at the White House in 2018, according to CNN. We lose, we lose, we lose, and then we do fine in the Supreme Court. But what does that tell you about our court system? Its a very, very sad thing. What it would tell anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of the judiciary is that the system is working. Courts follow law, and they follow precedent, not the political whims of whoevers sitting behind the Resolute Desk, or whichever party commands a majority on Capitol Hill. Thats why it was possible in 2008, for instance, for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to simultaneously declare that, while the U.S. Constitution provided for an individual right to bear arms, the government still had a compelling and legitimate role in regulating them. Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms, Scalia wrote in the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case. Scalia, an icon to conservatives who was appointed to the high court by President Ronald Reagan, also noted in his opinion that, like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. Thats being guided by the law. And it was a point amplified by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who in 2018 was compelled to publicly defend the judiciary when Trump derided yet another judge as an Obama judge. We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges, Roberts said in a statement. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. In that stirring defense, Roberts added that independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for. Thats the beauty and the sanctity of our system. And thats whats at risk when a president who already believes hes above the law has that delusion enforced by a legislative branch that refuses to live up to its constitutional duty to serve as a check on his excesses. Thats not hyperventilating. Thats a warning. You wont know how much youll miss a fair and impartial judiciary until its gone. John L. Micek is editor in chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg. He can be reached at jmicek@penncapital-star.com. It is the go-to Miami destination for A-listers including Drake, DJ Khaled, French Montana, and even his fiancee Jennifer Lopez. So no doubt Papi Steak was the first choice of venue to celebrate Alex Rodriguez's newest partnership. The New York Yankees legend toasted Presidente beer with Michael Bay at Miami's newest hotspot, Papi Steak, owned by restaurateur David Grutman and partner David 'Papi' Einhorn. Dynamic duo: Alex Rodriguez toasted Dominican Republic's Presidente beer with Michael Bay at Miami's newest hotspot Papi Steak owned by restaurateur David Grutman The two A-listers were just two of the stars in attendance during the night out on Saturday night celebrating Rodriguez's Presidente which is the top export beer from the Dominican Republic. Former World Champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko enjoyed the evening out at the stunning restaurant as Kardashian West's BFF 'Foodgod' Jonathan Cheban and Las Vegas showman Jeff Beacher were also in attendance. The eatery in Miami Beach's trendy South of Fifth neighborhood boasts red velvet booths and a bronze mirror strip that goes around the dining room as there are also gorgeous walls decorated with big colorful exotic floral prints which are drawn and painted by Candice Kaye. Tremendous trio: Rodriguez and Bay were joined by (pictured left to right) former World Champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko, Las Vegas showman Jeff Beacher, and a friend Proud: A-Rod shared this image of him with the filmmaker whom he called 'the great Michael Bay' Bottoms up: It was a star-studded attendance at party on Saturday night celebrating Rodriguez's El Presidente which is the top export beer from the Dominican Republic Several stars took to their Instagram Story to share videos of the epic meal enjoyed during the event including the signature 32-ounce Glatt Kosher Ribeye AKA Papi Steak which retails for $225. The restaurant has become the go-to destination for celebrities looking for a world-class meal as A-Rod's fiancee celebrated her film Hustlers there back in September. Drake, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, and French Montana attended the opening of Papi Steak just a month prior. 'One of our most prestigious brands': Rodriguez joined Dominican Republic's Presidente beer as chairman and co-owner last month Speaking of the Caribbean island, Rodriguez joined Dominican Republic's Presidente beer as chairman and co-owner last month. Describing the partnership, the former MLB all-star said: 'Presidente is one of the most prestigious brands in the entire country. 'Its what PepsiCo means to America. Its synonymous with our country, synonymous with our flag. Its unfortunate my father is not still here to watch this, but I think that he would be more proud of this partnership than my home runs.' Rodriguez has been dating A-lister Jennifer Lopez since February 2017 and they announced their engagement in March 2019. COLUMBUS, Ohio - David Martin was sentenced to die six years ago. But since late 2018, after the state Supreme Court upheld his sentence, the 35-year-old Ohio death row inmate has fallen through the cracks of the legal system. He hasnt had a lawyer for more than a year and he missed his chance to make a customary appeal to the federal courts, The Associated Press has learned. Martin was sentenced to die in 2014 for fatally shooting 21-year-old Jeremy Cole during a robbery in northeastern Ohio two years earlier. Martin also shot Coles girlfriend in the head, severely wounding her. When the state Supreme Court upholds a death sentence, it automatically sets an execution date, which in Martins case is May 26, 2021. Normally, attorneys representing inmates in their appeals ask the court to delay those dates while cases enter the federal system, a request the court automatically grants. Appeals often last years afterward. In Martins case, however, no attorney took over his case, the request wasnt made and his chance to appeal his death sentence was initially lost, said David Stebbins, a federal public defender in Columbus whose office is trying to represent him. In fact, Martin only got on that offices radar after he reached out to the AP in late January with questions about his upcoming 2021 execution, which prompted questions to Stebbins. Shortly after that, federal public defenders in Columbus asked a judge last month to appoint them to represent Martin in hopes of saving his federal court appeals. Its shocking to me that this fell through the cracks, that this could go a whole year and nobody could notice this guy didnt have a lawyer, Stebbins said. I thought we had better safeguards in place. Its unclear exactly how the system lost track of Martin. Attorney John Juhasz, who represented Martin in his appeal to the Supreme Court, said he sent a letter to the state public defenders office in January 2019 letting them know his involvement had ended. The state public defender tracks death penalty cases even if it doesnt represent all the inmates. Tim Young, the state public defender, doesnt dispute the letter was sent, but says his office has no record of the correspondence arriving. It doesnt exist in any form that we would have had it, Young said. Youngs office cant represent Martin in the federal courts since state public defenders represented him at trial. But Young said hell do whatever is needed to help Martin get back on track because of the importance of the federal review process. Complicating Martins situation, hes housed at the state supermax in Youngstown, away from other death row inmates who typically share information about legal developments, Stebbins said. Martin is housed at the supermax because he and two other prisoners took a guard hostage for five hours at Trumbull County Jail in April 2014, said prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. The Trumbull County Prosecutors office expressed little sympathy for Martins situation, noting that in addition to the hostage situation, he threatened the surviving victim at trial. David Martin has forfeited his right to live and we shouldnt be wasting time and resources on a guy this evil, said Chris Becker, first assistant prosecutor and lead prosecutor on Martins case. The attorney generals office, which typically challenges Ohio death row inmates claims in federal court, declined to comment. Stebbins, of the federal public defenders office, said Martins case should give pause to anyone who claims Ohios death penalty system works because all cases are adequately reviewed. Taking away a federal review means far less assurance to the citizens of Ohio that the system is working properly. Regardless of what happens, Martin is likely years from execution. The death penalty is on hold in Ohio because the state cant find a source of lethal drugs. Ohios last execution was carried out in July 2018. Coronavirus Diaries is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting peoples lives. For the latest public health information, please refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website. For Slates coronavirus coverage, click here. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with scientists Dave OConnor and Tom Friedrich, who research viral infections at the University of Wisconsin. OConnor and Friedrich formed a Slack channel on Jan. 22 to coordinate coronavirus research with scientists worldwide. The conversation has been transcribed and edited for clarity by Chloe Hadavas. Advertisement Dave OConnorCape Town, South Africa, Jan. 22 On Jan. 22, I was in Cape Town. Over the course of the day, while the impeachment trial was dominating U.S. news, the coronavirus was starting to dominate news coverage overseas. News stations in our hotel were broadcasting headlines about the coronavirus all the timefor about half an hour every hour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was there to meet the other members of an organizing committee for an international HIV prevention meeting that will be held in Cape Town later this year. During the pre-meeting, I asked some of my colleagues who research HIV what they were thinking about this coronavirus. A couple said they were starting to look into it, but no one had really advanced plans. Advertisement So in the evening, I called my wife, professor Shelby OConnor, whom I work with in the lab in Madison. I said, Hey Shelby, you study tuberculosis, and Tom [Friedrich] studies flu, and during the Zika outbreak you were all involved in sharing data in real time and bringing people together to work on the disease. Why not work on this coronavirus? And we basically said, You know what? Maybe we should create a group to talk about this. That led to a few initial direct messages in Slack between five or six of us at UWMadison, where we identified the scientists we would bring together. Before I went to bed, I created the Slack channelits a channel inside a Slack that we use for our labs at UWMadison, but we can invite scientists from outside of the university to participate. At that point, we named it the Wu-han Clan. (In January, the virus was still being referred to as the Wuhan coronavirus.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I fell asleep in Cape Town listening to Hang Up and Listen. Overnight, my colleagues in Madison started inviting people to the channel, which led to planning for our first teleconference. We held that the next day, with about 20 or 30 people. I took the call while sitting alone in a chaise by the hotel pool around 9 p.m. Tom FriedrichMadison, Wisconsin, Jan. 22 Advertisement Advertisement On this side of the planet, I had already been thinking it would be cool to study the coronavirus. My lab studies influenza, and we look at how avian influenza viruses evolved to become human influenza viruses. So the whole process of virus emergence and potentially pandemic spread is really interesting to my group, and I hoped we could contribute to knowing something about it. Advertisement Advertisement But then, I thought, Well, I havent studied SARS or MERS. I know the scientists who have worked on coronaviruses directly, and theyre almost certainly working on this right now. I probably shouldnt get involved. What more could I really do? So I made this decision to let it go. Jan. 22 was the first day I taught in the UWMadison spring semester. It was a regular dayI noted administrative stuff I had to respond to later on Slack and email. At noon, I had my first meeting for a graduate-level course on how to give a scientific presentation. Class ended at 1 p.m., and immediately after that I went to another meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I finished the next meeting, I looked at Slack and was surprised to find there were about 40 messages. The first one was from Dave, saying, Hey guys, do you think we should study this coronavirus? And then I flipped down and saw, Yeah lets do it! before I had a chance to even think about it. So I thought, Well if these guys want to do it, and theyve convinced themselves that its something that we should collectively do, then of course Im in too! We were able to hastily arrange a call with folks here in Madison and collaborators elsewhere within a day. Tom and DaveMadison, Wisconsin, Feb. 28 Advertisement Now the Slack channel has 69 members. (Well, 69 minus the people who cant figure out how to sign up for Slack with just one ID.) Most are in the U.S., but we also have scientists from, for example, Brazil, Australia, and Europe. Most study viral disease in some way, shape, or formwhether theyre researching the virus side or the host side, whether theyre studying it in animal models, humans, or cell cultures. These are people who are doing laboratory studies to understand how viruses cause disease and how they stimulate an immune response. Advertisement Advertisement Weve since changed the name of the channel. We originally liked the idea that the Wu-Tang Clan is a collective of artistssomething that was founded for mutual support and collaborationbut weve learned that names focusing on Wuhan are less appropriate and actually a little stigmatizing. So weve changed it for now to The CoV-Cove, but that probably wont stick because none of us really likes it. We use the channel constantly. This probably doesnt set a good example of work-life balance in the sciencesand it isnt like this all the timebut, for example, an hour ago we were at the gym together. While one of us was finishing his workout, the other was checking on what had happened in Slack while hed been swimming for the past hour. And Tom was actually responding to questions that people asked him in Slack in between weight sets! Advertisement So weve lost a little of our work-life balance, especially in such a fast-moving situation where things may happen every day that affect the direction of our own research, or that inform the design of experiments weve planned. We check Slack, the news, and science Twitter first thing in the morning and throughout the evening to see what the latest developments are. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not as active as it could be, because we learned during the Zika outbreak that theres such a thing as a Slack thats too busy. (When we did something similar during Zika, it was a free-for-all, with people posting 24 hours a day. It exhausted us all.) Weve tried to make sure people have conversations in threads, and we splintered off all media discussions about the virus into a separate channel. We have a higher signal-to-noise ratio: We focus on meeting announcements, meeting notes, and discussions of actual plans. Its a little bit more pragmatic and serious and lower traffic than what we had before. Advertisement The channel certainly has a more serious toneyou kind of have to if youre going to have a large number of people from different backgrounds participating. We learned with Zika that sometimes being too snarky in Slack and posting stuff thats way out there can come across as a little bit off-putting. That doesnt mean things dont get a little wild. A week or two ago, one of the craziest things that transpired from collaborating with other researchers via Slack was our realization, as noncoronavirologists, that the coronavirus is an unusual RNA virus. We already knew that coronaviruses use RNA instead of DNA as their genetic material, but most RNA viruses (like HIV, influenza, and Zika) are less stable and evolve really quickly, and they make a lot of errors when they make copies of themselves. Now we know that even though the coronavirus is an RNA virus, it has the ability to sort of proofread and fix the mistakes that happen when its replicating. Plus, we all have our own characteristic emojis. Dave is a thumbs-up guyhe uses that one maybe 80 percent of the time. Tom has recently discovered the Chefs Kiss emoji, and when he hears something he doesnt like he gives the Capt. Picard facepalm. The Success Kid is commonly used when someone does something good. Daves graduate student Amelia Haj is a savant at creating Slack emojiswe have more than 250 custom emojis, including a Dont Panic button from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and even specific virus ones. This is one message I will deliver to the approximately 700 males attending the seventh annual CPS Young Men of Color Summit at the University of Illinois at Chicago on March 13. Addressing the teacher shortage and strengthening the diversity pipeline without a specific focus on African American and Latino males will not bode well for young boys of color who could benefit from learning from men who look like them that high academic performance offers many rewards. As I have, many will discover that being part of the teaching profession itself can be one of those rewards. I think that there is a way in which we can uplift and celebrate the history of indigenous people without which I think what Ive heard from folks in the Italian community, they feel like their history has been erased and we cant do that either, Lightfoot said. This has got to be about addition, not subtraction. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 16:16 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683c667 1 National NGO,fisheries,KIARA,Walhi,environment,Maritime-Affairs-Investment-Coordinating-Ministry,Maritime-and-fisheries-ministry,Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan,Susi-Pudjiastuti,illegal-fishing Free Several nongovernmental organizations are joining forces to monitor the government's policies on the fisheries sector and to make sure they would not harm the security and ecological sustainability of fish stocks and of the livelihoods of traditional fishermen. To strengthen their bargaining power, the organizations set up the NGO Coalition for Fisheries and Maritime Sustainability (Koral). The new coalition aims to push for fisheries governance that prioritizes national sovereignty and justice in fisheries and marine resources management, and upholds scientific-based recommendations, information disclosure and public participation, according to its statement. The fisheries governance should also promote institutional effectiveness that supports the strengthening of independent management, people's welfare and the preservation of coastal and marine ecosystems, the coalition said. The coalition comprises the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice (Kiara), Greenpeace Indonesia, the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI), the EcoNusa Foundation, Pandu Laut Nusantara, Destructive Fishing Watch, Yayasan Terangi and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL). Among its programs, Koral would conduct studies and discussions, as well as provide policy recommendations to the government regarding issues in the fisheries sector to achieve sustainable and equitable maritime and fisheries governance. We set up a coalition so that at least President Joko Widodo and [Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister] Edhy Prabowo will listen to us, EcoNusa ocean program manager Wiro Wirandi said during a press conference on Tuesday. In addition, IOJI's enforcement support and stakeholder partnerships director, Fadilla Octaviani, highlighted the illegal fishing by foreign ships that still occurs in the countrys territory, citing the Chinese and Vietnamese fishing vessels that recently entered the North Natuna Sea. This is a serious threat to our sovereign rights in our exclusive economic zone and our fish resources, Fadilla said, adding that the government should strengthen law enforcement in the nation's waters. The standoffs in the Natuna Sea have prompted the government to increase its presence in the area by assigning the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) to lead fisheries and security efforts with fishing associations. Fadilla also reminded the government to streamline its law enforcement authority over the seas because many agencies, aside from Bakamla, also patrol the oceans, namely the Transportation Ministrys Coast and Sea Guard (KPLP), the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministrys sea patrol division, the Customs and Excise Agency and the National Polices Water and Air Police, as well as many provincial administrations that conduct their own coast guard patrols. This often causes confusion because of overlapping operations. She also noted that the recent omnibus bill on job creation formulated by the government eliminated the National Commission of Fish Resources Assessment and she said she feared that fisheries management would no longer be based on the best scientific evidence and fish stock availability. The coalition raised concern over the ecological sustainability of the oceans, citing the governments plan to export lobster seeds even though lobsters have been overexploited in all of the countrys fishing areas. Wiro noted the governments plan to revise fisheries regulations and once again allow cantrang (seine nets) to be used, after having been banned by the previous maritime affairs and fisheries minister, Susi Pudjiastuti. Despite experts warning that the cantrang were harmful to coral reefs and seabed ecosystems, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in January that his office and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry was conducting a study to address the concerns. Moreover, Destructive Fishing Watch national coordinator Moh. Abdi Suhufan highlighted the dire condition of the coral reefs in Indonesia as Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) research showed that 36.18 percent of them, 386 of a total of 1067 coral reefs, were in bad condition. Additionally, the group urged the government to protect the livelihoods of small and traditional fishermen. Walhi campaign coordinator Edo Rahman said the government should ensure that extractive industries would not threaten the livelihoods of people living in coastal areas and on small islands. We always push the government to ban extractive industries in the zero- to 4-nautical-mile radius, so that it would be allocated for traditional fishermen, he said. Furthermore, Kiara secretary general Susan Herawati criticized the omnibus bill on job creation that would require small fishermen to have permits and allow foreign vessels to fish in Indonesias exclusive economic zone. She added that port developments stipulated by the bill would only benefit large fishing vessels and leave the small ones behind. Traditional fishermen represent Indonesias identity as a maritime country. If they cease to exist, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry might as well change our identity to maritime country for foreign vessels, Susan said. (mfp) As India battles Coronavirus threat, BJP MP from Delhi Ramesh Bidhuri on Wednesday remarked that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too must go through due process of coronavirus quarantine and sample checking. Bidhuri added that PM Modi himself talked about coronavirus as it was a very serious situation with 28 positive cases now having been confirmed in India. 'I don't know if he was checked at the airport' "Rahul Gandhi recently came from Italy. I don't know if he was checked at the airport. He should also go through medical check-up to ensure that he is not infected with the deadly virus," Bidhuri said outside Parliament after Gandhi was seen with other Congress leaders at the Central Hall of Parliament earlier. 'India has a total of 28 cases, including 16 Italians' Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said total confirmed cases of coronavirus in India has surged to 28. He advised people not to panic. After convening the meeting with Delhi's ministers and health officials over coronavirus outbreak, Harsh Vardhan asked them to develop good quality isolation wards to stay prepared. "India has total 28 cases, including 16 Italians," the minister confirmed. He also said that all six patients in Agra have been tested positive for coronavirus. "Saliva is the primary carrier of infection followed by hand contact," the minister added. Speaking at the press conference, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that from now on, all passengers -- Indian or foreign -- arriving on international flights will have to undergo medical screening while entering India. This is a significant departure from the screening process as of Tuesday when only passengers arriving from 12 select countries were being screened at the airport. Dr Harsh Vardhan also said that so far, 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports, over 10 lakh screened at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance. READ | PM Modi to skip Holi milans; takes lead amid Coronavirus experts' 'no gatherings' advice READ | Coronavirus outbreak: 2,000 surgical masks stolen from French hospital PM Modi not to participate in Holi events Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he will not participate in Holi events this year in light of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme, PM Modi tweeted. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 READ | Republic TV hosts special session with doctors; answers all questions about Coronavirus WATCH | Stuart Broad offers mock handshake to unimpressed Joe Root amid Coronavirus threat (With agency inputs) Minsk discussed cooperation with NATO during Pompeo's visit and the Belarusian defense ministry has said it was considering joint military exercises with NATO. Belarus began holding joint military drills with 28 British Marines at a training ground in the north of the country this week at a time when relations with its traditional ally Russia are under strain. The Belarus defense ministry has stated that the drills, which will run from March 2-14, are similar to events that have been held regularly with Britain for the past two years, Reuters said. But they come as President Alexander Lukashenko has accused Moscow of trying to bully his country into merging with Russia by using oil supplies, loans and subsidies as leverage. The United States and the European Union have been frequent critics of Lukashenko's iron-fisted rule and human rights record in Belarus, where he has held power since 1994. Read alsoBelarus military officials say predicted war in Ukraine two years before it began But ties improved after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula that Belarus refused to recognize. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February became the most senior U.S. official to visit Belarus in more than two decades. The joint drills with Britain "cannot be considered outside of the political context," political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky said. "The Belarusian leadership knows how Moscow reacts painfully to such things." "Lukashenko is simply showing Moscow once again that there are plenty more fish in the sea and that he has alternatives." Tensions between Minsk and Moscow heightened since January 1, when they failed to agree on oil delivery terms and major Russian oil companies suspended pipeline supplies to Belarus. Lukashenko had been a critic of NATO for most of his rule until the Crimea annexation. Minsk discussed cooperation with NATO during Pompeo's visit and the Belarusian defense ministry has said it was considering joint military exercises with NATO. In December, Lukashenko even said that he hoped for NATO to intercede if Russia threatened the sovereignty of Belarus. "The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science celebrate the stellar early-career achievements of foreign-born scientists," said Jan Vilcek, chairman and CEO of the Vilcek Foundation. "Immigrant scientists have long contributed to the United States' position as a world leader in scientific research and discovery." Candidates must be independent researchers in the biomedical sciences who are directly responsible for the development and execution of work submitted for consideration: primary investigators, laboratory directors, or research directors; they should not be graduate students or postdoctoral fellows working under the supervision of a mentor. Eligible candidates should hold a full-time position within an academic institution or a research organization. To be eligible, applicants must have been born outside of the United States; be 38 years of age or younger as of December 31, 2020; and hold a doctoral degree (MD, PhD, or equivalent). Eligible candidates must submit an application form, a curriculum vitae, authored works, three short personal essays, and proof of immigration status. Recipients of DACA are welcome to apply. Applications will be accepted from March 2 to June 10, 2020, 5 p.m. EDT. The application and full eligibility requirements are available at the following link: https://vilcek.co/2021-science-app A panel of distinguished experts identified by the Vilcek Foundation will evaluate each applicant's accomplishments, including the quality and creativity of the work submitted, the clarity of each applicant's stated personal and professional purpose, and the potential for positive impact on the field of research and on society at large. The three winners selected will be notified in late summer 2020; announcements of the awards will be made in the fall of 2020, and honored at the Vilcek Foundation's annual awards gala in spring 2021. Three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise will also be awarded to immigrants in filmmaking. Since the inception of the Vilcek Foundation Prize Program, over $5 million has been awarded in prizes to immigrants from around the world. For more information about the Vilcek Foundation Prize Program, visit www.vilcek.org. The Vilcek Foundation The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation, to honor immigrant contributions to the United States, and more broadly, to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences, was inspired by the couple's respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over 5.1 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and supported organizations with over $5 million in grants. The Vilcek Foundation is a private operating foundation, a federally tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit vilcek.org. Contact: Elizabeth Boylan The Vilcek Foundation 212-472-2500 or [email protected] SOURCE The Vilcek Foundation Related Links http://www.vilcek.org Experts say that the coronavirus could be deadly for homeless people in Oregon and along the West Coast who already face higher health risks and have fewer ways to protect themselves from infection or to recuperate if infected. Already, Portland provides far fewer public hygiene facilities than people who need them, including stations for people to regularly wash their hands, shower and clean their clothes or tents. In addition, shelters, day centers and free meals are nearly all designed to serve lots of people in one large space -- a perfect way to transmit COVID-19. Brian Chan, a general internist at OHSU Hospital who works as a primary care physician at Central City Concern clinics, said many of his patients have the same medical issues as someone a decade or two older. Globally, coronavirus has largely killed people age 65 or older, yet homeless people are often considered to be geriatric patients -- regardless of their age -- because of the harsh conditions they live in. Chan is deeply worried that if coronavirus becomes widespread, his patients in particular would be hit hard. Its almost a given that theyve had a close contact with someone who is also feeling ill, Chan said. I think it would disproportionately affect this group. The conditions are ripe for that. Multnomah Countys public health department has already started to communicate with homeless services providers, hospitals and health clinics. While Oregons first coronavirus patient was diagnosed last Friday, county officials said they havent yet finalized their strategy on how to reach out to people living outside or in shelters, or how to contain an outbreak in that population if it occurs. They said they expected to nail down a plan by Tuesday, but had not yet provided it to The Oregonian/OregonLive by 5:30 p.m. Chan said communication between agencies and health care providers is good so far. Yet, likely thats not enough. Homeless people in Multnomah County have experienced a surge in shigella cases in recent years -- a possible example of what could happen with coronavirus. Luke Strnad, an OHSU infectious disease specialist, said that he saw a similar outbreak as an intern in San Francisco. Both cities have struggled to control the spread of what is typically a rare disease. Shigella is a bacterial diarrheal disease typically passed through oral-rectal contact, but it has exploded in the homeless community because of unsanitary living conditions and close quarters. In 2018 alone, Multnomah Countys homeless population saw a jump from an average of 20 cases a year to 95. Shigella is rarely deadly, but serves as an early warning sign that someone is at risk of HIV, which also has spiked in the West Coast homeless community. Once several people become infected, shigella has proven difficult to stop because there are few ways to effectively quarantine patients. The county has been seriously battling it since at least 2015. The lack of hygiene facilities in Portland has long been known as a problem. A Portland State University study in 2017 reported that 40% of homeless people developed staph infections, scabies, endocarditis and urinary tract infections because they didn't have a reliable way to stay clean. A place to quarantine Coronavirus also calls for severe quarantine measures. People who are infected or who have been exposed should be isolated with access to clean supplies, a place to wash their hands, rest and have caregivers help them meet their basic needs. But thats impossible for most homeless people. Many face mental health and addiction issues that make caring for their basic needs or observing quarantine procedures difficult. Strnad said that hasnt been done effectively for homeless populations here or in San Francisco, adding that he thinks thats why their public health departments have struggled to control shigella. From my perspective, he said, we have to be kind of clear-eyed about the limitations of what we can truly do when someone doesnt have a place to live. Those limitations could be dire. Homeless people are more likely to contract -- and die from -- infectious disease than people with access to stable housing. Depending on how widespread coronavirus becomes, Strnad said he suspects that could be the case in Portland. What were left with is How do we mitigate this as much as possible in a society that has chosen not to prepare for this? he said. And the impact might not be known right away. Enough hospital beds? People who live outside often avoid hospitals and clinics, where they face stigma or the prospect of medical bills. They are also used to coronavirus symptoms -- coughs, fevers and shortness of breath from illnesses that regularly sweep through camps and shelters. A lack of sleep can also make it hard to determine if someone is lethargic because of a virus. The coronavirus could incubate for weeks before people become concerned enough to see Chan at Central City Concern. If they do start coming in, Chan said he faces a new challenge. Upwards of 70% of people with coronavirus are well enough to recover at home. But hospitals that discharge a homeless person with coronavirus could be sentencing them to death, so he thinks the best quarantine and recovery method would be to keep them in the hospital. But that could overwhelm hospitals, depending on how hard the virus hits. After severe acute respiratory syndrome, commonly called SARS, moved into cities with large homeless populations, public health workers called for better guidelines on how to protect and treat people who cannot take the same measures as people with stable housing. A study in Toronto outlined many of the same issues Chan still sees in his work: a lack of resources to provide masks or other protective equipment, to shelter people so they arent in disease tinder boxes, or to identify and treat people who have been infected. Sometimes, Chan said, what works for a healthy housed population is really, really just challenging in an unhoused population. -- Molly Harbarger; mharbarger@oregonian.com ; 503-294-5923 ; @MollyHarbarger Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: He has apologised, pleaded guilty and says he "hates himself" but prosecutors want the man who murdered a mother in her own home to be jailed for the rest of his life. Scott Alan Murdoch, who repeatedly stabbed Kylie Blackwood in her Pakenham home on August 1, 2013, returned to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Kylie Blackwood, who was killed at her Pakenham home in 2013. Murdoch had shown some remorse over Ms Blackwoods death, according to defence counsel Jim Shaw, who read out a note from the killer which said: I hate myself for what has gone on. If I could take it back I would. I know I have destroyed her husbands and kids lives. I am sorry. Ms Blackwoods body was discovered by her twin daughters Mia and Holly, then 11, when they returned home from school. Little Fires Everywhere begins, as so many stories do these days, at the end. A stunned Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) watches as her family's home a stately brick Tudor in Shaker Heights, Ohio burns to the ground in 1997. You don't need a degree in TV to know that we'll spend the next eight episodes learning what led up to the fire but Hulu's sharp, soapy, and emotionally intense limited series is more than your standard suburban whodunit. Elena is the kind of woman who is never fully dressed without a string of pearls. She portions out her nightly glass of chardonnay in a Pyrex measuring cup and hands her four teenagers Moody (Gavin Lewis), Izzy (Megan Stott), Trip (Jordan Elsass), and Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn) color-coded lunch bags as they head off to school. When she spots Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) and her daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood), sleeping in their beat-up Chevette, Elena's first instinct is to call the police. But in a spasm of compassion and white-liberal guilt, she ends up renting Mia and Pearl an apartment. "You know what felt good?" Elena tells her family. "Helping." But is she? Helping, that is? More likely, Elena is acting out of something called "ambivalent prejudice," which Dr. Google describes as "the discomfort of recognizing your conflicting feelings about someone who is different from you." And in Little Fires (premiering March 18 on Hulu), this ambivalence goes both ways: Mia, an artist and part-time waitress, leads an itinerant life with Pearl, traveling from state to state as the muse moves her. Mia and Pearl always have enough to get by, but no more and it bothers Mia when Pearl begins hanging out with Moody and his siblings, kids who have never wanted for anything. But the life Mia has framed as a liberating, free-spirit adventure is based on a lie. As different as Mia and Elena are, they each have built their existence, and their concept of motherhood, around a choice they won't allow themselves to regret. For reasons that are far too complicated to explain here, Mia and Elena wind up on opposing sides of a custody battle between a Chinese immigrant (Huang Lu) and a wealthy Shaker Heights couple (Rosemarie DeWitt and Geoff Stults). The fragile peace between them explodes into open hostility. Story continues Witherspoon slips into Elena's twinsets with prim precision, punctuating her performance with small choices a pinched face here, a chilly hair-tuck there that are little masterpieces of passive aggression. Washington's Mia is a fierce and prickly protector, forever teetering on the edge of a rage breakdown. Watching the actresses face off in later episodes delivers all the giddy pleasure of a Krystle-Alexis showdown, minus the hair-pulling. Joshua Jackson, who has always excelled at playing well-meaning guys with above-average EQs, is superb as Bill Richardson, an old-school dad who manages his wife's anxieties with weary patience. There's also a rich and satisfying teen drama nestled inside Little Fires' saga of adult ennui. The young cast especially Stott as the angsty Izzy and Lewis as the lovelorn Moody is impressive. (Tiffany Boone, who plays young Mia in flashbacks, is uncannily Washington-esque.) Pearl's entanglement with the Richardson kids results in turmoil both urgent (Moody's unrequited crush) and existential (Lexie, desperate for a college-essay topic, envies Pearl's life of "hardship"). For Elena, loving her children means keeping them on a well-manicured path. "If you follow the rules, you'll succeed," she tells Izzy. The beauty of Little Fires Everywhere lies in the complicated, unexpected ways that life proves her wrong. Grade: A- Little Fires Everywhere premieres Wednesday, March 18, on Hulu. Related content: (CNN) -- Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign on Wednesday and endorsed Joe Biden, closing out a costly run that saw the former New York mayor spend hundreds of millions of his own money to fund his late entry bid. Bloomberg exits the race the day after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday that left him with only a single victory: American Samoa. "I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," he wrote in a press release. One thing set Bloomberg apart from the rest of the Democratic field: Money. The billionaire spent millions on television and digital ads to propel his campaign and quickly built a staff of more than 2,400 people by offering top dollar to a range of political operatives. The full extent of Bloomberg's spending likely won't be fully known for weeks. Bloomberg's campaign, based on its level of spending and support, was banking on strong showings in Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and parts of Texas, according to aides. But it was clear by the end of the night on Tuesday that the support they believed they had did not materialize. Bloomberg's decision to get out now is a boon for former Vice President Joe Biden, who was appealing to a similar range of moderate voters. It comes shortly after Biden received the endorsements of former South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both of whom ended their campaigns and quickly backed Biden, in attempts to start coalescing moderates behind one candidate. The coalescing was a significant blow to Bloomberg because it undermined a central argument to his campaign -- that there is no strong moderate candidate that the party can coalesce around to take on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The former New York mayor's decision to get out now is also an acknowledgement that his focus on Super Tuesday, as opposed to any of the early states, failed to work. Even with hundreds of millions spent to propel his campaign, Bloomberg was not able to overcome the operation and organization of Biden and Sanders. Bloomberg entered the 2020 race in November, far later than any of his competitors, and set about offering Democrats a more moderate option to counter the rise of Sanders. Bloomberg, by using the slogan "Mike Will Get It Done," ran on his business record, arguing that the best person to take on President Donald Trump is a wealthier New York business leader. Some top Democrats, many of whom were publicly worried about Biden's unsteady footing and Sanders' surge, endorsed Bloomberg's candidacy, believing the former Republican could be the best hope at defeating Trump. But intertwined with those endorsements was the hundreds of millions of dollars Bloomberg spent helping to elect Democrats in 2018 and earlier, including in some districts where local Democrats eventually backed the former mayor. Bloomberg's campaign operated in its own universe for the first couple months. By not running in the first four nominating states, Bloomberg was largely divorced from the other Democratic campaigns for months. And though he tried to solely focus his campaign on Trump -- setting up, in the eyes of voters, a general election matchup between the two -- he was not actually actively running against the Republican President. Even still, Bloomberg trained most of his rhetorical fire on Trump, hoping to draw the president into a fight that elevated his campaign. "We know many of the same people in NY," Bloomberg wrote on Twitter. "Behind your back they laugh at you & call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune & squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence. I have the record & the resources to defeat you. And I will. The attention from Bloomberg achieved its ultimate goal: getting under the President's skin. Trump, throughout Bloomberg's campaign, tweeted attacks aimed at the former New York mayor and used his weekly campaign rallies to rail against him. But even a frequent back-and-forth with the President wasn't enough to save Bloomberg's bid in the end. The seminal moment of Bloomberg's downfall was the first Democratic debate he qualified for, in Las Vegas. Bloomberg struggled on the debate stage, at times looking lost during the free-wheeling discussion. Compounding the problem was that he the former New York mayor, as the new candidate on the stage, took on a significant share of the attacks and was unable to defend himself. The most powerful of those attacks came from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who lambasted Bloomberg for lewd comments he allegedly made about women at his company in the 1980s and 1990s. The debate also highlighted issues with Bloomberg's history, including overseeing the controversial "stop and frisk" policing strategy in New York, which many civil rights activists have labeled racist. He was also called out for his defense of "redlining," the biased housing practice that stopped banks from providing mortgages in low-income, largely minority neighborhoods. He said the ending of the practice was to blame for the 2008 collapse. Bloomberg apologized for the policing tactic repeatedly and argued that the audio of him defending redlining was not an accurate reflection of his views, but the two issues hung over the former New York mayor's candidacy, especially with Democratic activists. "I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians.' And, no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg," Warren said, referring to quotes attributed to Bloomberg despite it not being clear he made those comments. Campaign aides, at the time, looked to spin the performance as the mayor just warming up indeed, Bloomberg's second debate was an improvement -- but the poor performance in Las Vegas removed some of the bravado the former New York mayor portrayed in his ads and raised questions in the minds of voters about how the person they saw on the debate stage would fare against Trump. And the greatest irony from Bloomberg's campaign is that his run, while aimed at thwarting Sanders, likely helped the senator's run his run. This primarily played out on the debate stage in Las Vegas, where Bloomberg took a great deal of the attacks, despite Sanders being the front-runner. Even more impactful, though, was how Bloomberg further fractured the anti-Sanders electorate, giving voters who did not want to support the Vermont senator another option. Bloomberg's decision to exit the race could reverse that reality, handing Biden a needed win to thwart the self-proclaimed democratic socialist. Bloomberg, a 77-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist, made his fortune creating technology that bankers and traders use to access market data. After building a successful financial information business, he turned to politics. He officially launched a bid to become mayor of New York in 2001. Despite running as a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Bloomberg won the election and was reelected twice. During this second term, he switched parties and became an independent -- only to re-register as a Democrat in 2018. This story is breaking and will be updated. German special police pose at their Federal Police Offices in Potsdam, Germany, May 15, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke. Authorities in Germany confirmed they had busted a large-scale ring that smuggled 155 Vietnamese into the country and arrested six suspects. On Monday, over 700 German police officers raided over 30 homes, nail parlors and restaurants across the country in an expanded investigation into the human trafficking ring, carried out from June last year, Vietnamese News Agency reported. The raids targeted 13 Vietnamese suspects, with six arrested Monday, federal police spokesman Axel Bernhardt said. They were alleged to have smuggled at least 155 Vietnamese by road into Germany from other European countries and charged each migrant $5,000-$20,000, paid in Vietnam. Smuggling occurred via travel, export-import and recruitment companies in Germany, Romania and Vietnam. Many illegal immigrants ended up in nail parlors, restaurants or sweat shops to pay back their debts, police said. The Vietnamese Embassy in Germany asked local authorities to provide the identities of all detained traffickers. Vietnam has recorded over 3,400 victims of human trafficking since 2013, officials said at a conference in November last year. Last October, 39 Vietnamese were found dead in a refrigerated container truck in Essex in a human tragedy that shocked the world. Last month, British police wrapped up post-mortems, revealing the provisional cause of death to be a combination of hypoxia and hyperthermia. YEREVAN. Immediately before its voting, co-author of the bill on energy and Armenias ruling My Step alliance MP Artak Manukyan called on his colleagues to vote against this bill. After that, he had to propose that the bill be returned to the first-reading mode for review. The deputies, following the advice of their colleague, did not approve the bill, and, at Manukyan's suggestion, National Assembly (NA) Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, in accordance with the NA Rules of Procedure, raised the matter of moving this bill to the phase of submitting written suggestions; this decision was approved by the parliamentarians. According to its authors, the essence of this bill submitted to parliament lies in the transparency and accountability of public resources. According to this draft law, the information on entities with more than 10 percent shares in Armenias electricity generating companies shall become transparent, and an extract shall be prepared containing information on the actual owners of these companies. AUBURN, Ala., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only southern inspired, fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today its continued development across Georgia with its newest restaurant in Cartersville. The Cartersville restaurant marks Chicken Salad Chick's second Georgia debut this month, following the launch of the Macon location this week and is the brand's 29th restaurant in the state. Located at 200 North Dixie Avenue, the Cartersville restaurant, which features a drive-thru, will celebrate its grand opening on March 18 and will offer free chicken salad for a year to the first 100 guests. During grand opening week, guests will experience the southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, with giveaways and specials that include: Wednesday, March 18 Free Chicken Salad for a Year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month.* Any guest not part of the first 100 in line can make a purchase and enter to win free chicken salad for a year.** Free Chicken Salad for a Year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month.* Any guest not part of the first 100 in line can make a purchase and enter to win free chicken salad for a year.** Thursday, March 19 The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick hat.*** The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick hat.*** Friday, March 20 The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick tumbler.*** The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick tumbler.*** Saturday, March 21 The first 50 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a free large Chick tote.*** The Cartersville restaurant is owned and operated by multi-unit franchise owners, Bob and Penny Wiggins of Wiggins Investment. The husband-and-wife team first encountered the brand in 2010 on a trip to Destin, Florida, where they met founder Stacy Brown and immediately felt a connection to Chicken Salad Chick's culture of spreading joy, enriching lives and serving others. Recognizing the potential behind the unique concept and with over two decades of restaurant experience to draw from, the Wiggins decided to open their first Chicken Salad Chick restaurant in Gainesville, Georgia in 2017. Just three years later, they're bringing the newest Chick in their portfolio to their hometown of Cartersville. "Coming from a large family of seven children with a 14th grandchild on the way, my husband and I felt a strong connection to Chicken Salad Chick's values and knew it was a natural fit for us," said Penny Wiggins. "For the past three years we've had the pleasure of serving the residents in Gainesville and have been eager to bring the brand's made-from-scratch menu items to our hometown of Cartersville. We've created so many memories here and we're proud we get to introduce Chicken Salad Chick to our friends and family, as we know they are going to fall in love with the brand just as much as we have." The Chicken Salad Chick concept was established in 2008 by founder, Stacy Brown. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu offers a variety of options suitable for any guest. Under the leadership of CEO Scott Deviney and the Chicken Salad Chick team, the company now has more than 150 restaurants currently open in 16 states and remains a standout brand within the fast casual segment. Chicken Salad Chick in Cartersville will be open Monday Saturday from 10:30a.m. 8p.m. For more information, visit www.chickensaladchick.com. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends. *Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, purchase a Chick Special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. Redemption will start 3/23. Not valid through drive-thru. ** Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, must purchase a Chick Special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. 10 winners will be announced at the end of the day. Redemption will start 3/23. Not valid through drive-thru. ***Not valid through drive-thru. For more information on giveaways and specials, visit https://www.facebook.com/chickensaladchickcartersville/ About Chicken Salad Chick Founded in Auburn, Alabama, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Today, the brand has more than 150 restaurants in 16 states and is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick has received numerous accolades including rankings in Franchise Times' Fast & Serious, Fast Casual.com's top Movers and Shakers and Entrepreneur's Top Food Franchises for the second consecutive year and QSR's Best Franchise Deals and Nation's Restaurant News' Next 15 in 2019. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information. Contact: Shana Rosenthal Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 [email protected] SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick Related Links http://www.chickensaladchick.com Arcadia University, which has routinely sent the majority of its students to study abroad at some point during their four years at the school, has shut down all global travel scheduled for spring break later this month due to the coronavirus. Its the first time in the programs 27-year history that such a step has been taken, the university said. More than a dozen trips were planned, some to countries not yet under alert for the virus. As we navigate the global disruption of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Arcadia University is taking the unprecedented step in suspending the travel portion of the spring 2020 preview courses, Jeff Rutenbeck, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement to the university community. ... This decision was made with thoughtful consideration and diligence to protect the health and safety of all members of the Arcadia community, which is always our first priority. Pennsylvania State University also announced Wednesday morning that it was canceling all university-affiliated spring break trips out of the country, for both embedded courses and student organizations. More than 800 students and faculty were scheduled travel to about 40 countries, a university spokesperson said. We understand that this decision is disappointing to many in our community, but it was not made lightly, said Nicholas P. Jones, executive vice president and provost. We made this decision out of an abundance of caution, understanding that things like quarantine requirements, available transportation options, and open and accessible public sites vary from location to location, and are changing daily. Some countries appear to be low risk right now, but that could change at any moment and there could be significant disruptions for our students while abroad and upon their return. Potential exposure to the virus also was a factor, he said. Penn State will work with students to reimburse their costs, the school said. The university also will help the students with housing over spring break. Rutgers University also this week announced the cancellation of all Rutgers-sponsored study-abroad semester programs, international spring break programs, and Rutgers faculty-sponsored study-abroad programs. We also recommend that Rutgers faculty and staff curtail Rutgers-sponsored international travel, particularly to those areas identified by the CDC as areas in which COVID-19 has been identified, president Robert Barchi said in a statement to the university community. About 200 students are currently involved in international study abroad, he said. At Arcadia, about 270 students were scheduled to travel, said Dan DiPrinzio, an Arcadia spokesperson. Places that were to be visited included Ireland, Italy, Vietnam, England, Oman, Japan, France, Costa Rica, South Korea, and China. READ MORE: Penn, Temple, Rowan among colleges canceling trips, programs abroad as coronavirus spreads A campus of 3,700 undergraduate and graduate students based in Glenside, Arcadia has topped the Institute for International Educations list of masters degree-granting institutions in the percentage of study-abroad experiences it offers students. Although current numbers werent available, in the past more than 80% of students traveled abroad at some point during their education. The university said students whose trips were canceled will have a chance to go abroad next academic year, and the money they paid will be applied to next years trip. Those who cannot travel next year will have their $595 fee refunded. Arcadia will provide housing to students who were scheduled to travel over spring break, the school said. Semester study-abroad programs in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa are continuing. We are seeking to balance our concerns for students health and well-being and their need to make academic progress, while responding thoughtfully to the dynamic challenges at hand, DiPrinzio said. READ MORE: As the coronavirus spreads to Europe, so does concern on local college campuses In the middle of a tragic global public health crisis, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that five Chinese media outlets will be required to reduce their total number of staff from 160 to 100. Although the journalists will not be forced to immediately leave the United States, their visas are tied to their employment, so they will have to come back to China. In other words, the US just made the decision to expel 60 Chinese media representatives from the country. What did they do wrong? Did they commit a crime? Did they offend the US nation? Did they threaten US national security? Of course not. They have to leave because they are Chinese citizens working for Chinese media. With this move against the Chinese media, the US is on a path of dangerous regression that needs to be condemned and stopped. Before the announcement concerning the 60 individuals, the United States had made the decision to treat five Chinese media entities as extensions of China's government, requiring them to comply with rules applying to foreign embassies and consulates. The US pretends that Chinese media "subverts" the US system. The objective is clear. There is no need to argue with the content anymore, no need to face its complexities and nuances. By disparaging the medium, the message is neutralized, if not discredited. The expulsion of 60 Chinese media employees is another step in a regressive trajectory, is not an effect of strength but, on the contrary, of weaknesses. It is becoming increasingly clear that Sinophobia in the 21st century is a manifestation of the Wests own insecurity. Would a cohesive and confident US have acted against Chinese media outlets in this way? The classification of the five Chinese media entities as extensions of China's government and the expulsion of 60 Chinese journalists simply shows the US is afraid of its own inadequacies. Battling a virus which threatens lives, mobilizing so it can avoid a global recession, the international community and the objective segments of US society will know what to make of the big regression of the US under the current administration. China will certainly find an appropriate answer to this new situation. Beyond, China will know how to display strategic patience, so Washington can recover strategic wisdom. The author is a Sinologist and founder of the Europe-China Forum. The views dont necessarily express those of China Daily. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Ways to make an ever-popular New Year's resolution a reality Getting started on a healthy program can be easy with some professional help. OMAHA (dpa-AFX) - Responding to media reports, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B) said Tuesday that it is not currently a shareholder of RB Brasil Re. It has never been a shareholder of IRB and it has no intention of becoming a shareholder of IRB. Separately, Berkshire Hathaway said it would hold its annual shareholder meeting on May 2 despite the coronavirus outbreak. 'The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting will be held on May 2, 2020 irrespective of conditions at that time. The scope of the meeting and associated activities may be modified by circumstances at the time, but we have no present plans to do so,' the company.posted on its website. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Dublin, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Shrimp Market by Export, Import, Production, Consumption, Countries, Species, Size, Product Form, Value Chain Analysis & Forecast" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. According to this research, the Global Shrimp Market is expected to be worth US$ 24.1 Billion by 2026. Growing income level and rising demand for shrimp products among consumers across the globe is driving its market. Governments in many countries are encouraging shrimp production by giving incentives to farmers and by offering fiscal reliefs. Globally, Ecuador is the Largest Exporter of Shrimp; besides China and Vietnam. Among consuming countries, the United States is the largest consumer of Shrimp. Global Shrimp aquaculture production by species L. vannamei, P. monodon, M.rosenbergii, and Others has also been covered in this report. Vietnam & China are the Leading Shrimp Producers The publisher has done a comprehensive assessment on the largest shrimp producing countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Ecuador. Ecuador, along with China and Vietnam, is the largest Shrimp producing countries. United States is the Largest Shrimp Consumer The publisher has completed insights on major shrimp consumer countries like Japan, France, Spain, United States, China and Europe. According to the research analysis, the United States is the largest shrimp consumer. Globally, Ecuador is Among the Largest Exporters of Shrimp This report covers the top shrimp exporting countries such as Thailand, Ecuador, Indonesia, India, China and Vietnam, along with their volume in metric tons. Ecuador is one of the largest shrimp exporters in the globe. Besides, we have also explained the core factors due to which they became a top shrimp exporting country. Key Topics Covered 1. Introductions 2. Research & Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Growth Drivers 4.2 Key Challenges 5. Global Shrimp Production 6. Global Shrimp Share Analysis 6.1 Consumption Share by Countries 6.2 Production Share by Countries 6.3 Export Share by Countries 7. Global Shrimp Market 8. Shrimp Producing Countries 8.1 India 8.2 China 8.3 Vietnam 8.4 Indonesia 8.5 Thailand 8.6 Ecuador 9. Shrimp Exporting Countries 9.1 India 9.2 Vietnam 9.3 Ecuador 9.4 Indonesia 9.5 China 9.6 Thailand 10. Shrimp Consuming Countries 10.1 United States 10.2 Europe 10.2.1 Spain 10.2.2 France 10.3 China 10.4 Japan 11. Global Shrimp Aquaculture Production by Species 11.1 L. vannamei 11.2 P. monodon 11.3 M. rosenbergii 11.4 Other 12. Global Volume of Shrimp Aquaculture Production by Size Categories 12.1 >70 12.2 61-70 12.3 51-60 12.4 41-50 12.5 31-40 12.6 26-30 12.7 21-25 12.8 15-20 12.9 < 15 13. Global Volume of Shrimp Aquaculture by Product 13.1 Other Forms 13.2 Breaded 13.3 Cooked 13.4 Peeled 13.5 Green / Head-off 13.6 Green / Head-on 14. Value Chain Analysis For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/aza5r0 Story continues Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 D etectives are investigating the death of a teenage boy whose beaten body was found on scrubland near a Docklands railway station. Commuters made the grim discovery in Atlantis Avenue outside Gallions Reach DLR station shortly after 8.30am yesterday. The Mets Specialist Crime Command are treating the death as suspicious because of the teenagers head injuries. His next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course. A cleaner at the station, Emiliano Cordona, 61, said: We are all shocked by this. The trains had to be suspended while the police investigated. We have no idea how the body got there. Its next to a busy road. We dont know if the poor boy was dumped there. Its just horrible. A DLR railway worker said: The police taped off the whole area and there were loads of them here. Commuters on their way to work saw it, a lot of people were upset. My thoughts go to the boys family. The area in Beckton is at the centre of major redevelopment with hundreds of new homes being built. A concierge at the nearby Gallions Point apartment block told the Standard: At around 10am I heard wailing, and crying. I saw a woman in tears and a man who was in tears, I think it was relatives. They were walking around on the phone outside and they looked completely broken. CCTV footage from the block shows a black car pull up outside the concierge desk about 1.40am yesterday, before driving off at approximately 3am. The concierge added: Its not normal for any car just to come and park there at this time in the morning whoever was working was doing a walk around the building at the time. A neighbour said of the victim: There was no reason for him to have been on that bit of land at that time of night. Part of the A1020 was closed off until yesterday evening as forensic officers searched for evidence. Scotland Yard said a formal identification had not yet been carried out but they believe they know the identity of the deceased. A spokesman said: Detectives are investigating following the discovery of a body in Newham. The male believed to be a 16-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene. He is thought to have suffered a head injury. The death is being treated as suspicious. The Specialist Crime Command have been informed and are being supported by colleagues from the North East Command Unit. Officers remain at the scene and enquiries continue. Honda is not yet ready to commit to Red Bull or Formula 1 beyond 2021. The Japanese marque's F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto told the Japanese media source As-Web: "We are still negotiating with (Helmut) Marko." But he also admitted that the talks are deeper than simply with Red Bull. Asked if Honda wants to stay in F1, Yamamoto answered: "It depends on the conditions. "After all, F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, where the automotive industry can challenge and refine its technology." He said it is possible Formula 1 will begin to lose that status as the new era begins from 2021, and there is also the threat posed by the future clampdowns on the sale of petrol and hybrid engines. "It is also important how the fans see what they are watching," Yamamoto said. "If they do not support anymore the fact that F1 is the best of motorsports, it will be less worthwhile for us to participate," said the Japanese. (GMM) Officials at a Northeast Portland high school discovered racist graffiti in a bathroom Tuesday threatening violence against black students. Grant High School Principal Carol Campbell said in a note to parents that administrators reported the threat to Portland police and the school districts central offices. Campbell wrote that there will be an increased police presence on campus Wednesday. This act is incredibly disturbing, Campbell wrote. Hate speech and threats of violence are not tolerated in our school or anywhere in our district. Campbell also indicated that administrators at Grant have noticed an uptick in graffiti on campus, both inside and outside the school building. In November, similar threats prompted police patrols as well. Grant High was extensively remodeled as part of a multimillion-dollar construction bond that voters approved in 2017. The new building opened this fall after students spent two years at a temporary campus on Southeast 92nd Avenue. The Portland school district has grappled with several racist incidents across the city in recent months. Last week, custodians found a noose on the roof of Benson High. In October, a middle schooler in Southwest Portland threatened to shoot his classmates of color. At Wilson High, racist incidents and microaggressions grew so pervasive that the schools Black Student Union began a series of race talks that launched late February in an effort to curb such behavior. Last year, the school was briefly placed on lockdown when a series of fights broke out after a Snapchat video of a white student calling a group of black boys a racial slur went viral. This story is developing and will be updated. : A letter threatening to harm Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been received by the state secretary of DYFI, the youth wing of the CPI(M). A A Rahim, said in his complaint to police that he had received the letter on March 3, saying his life would be in danger if he criticises Muslim outfits like the SDPI and Popular Front of India. Rahim had received threat letters earlier too. The DYFI leader said the letter also threatened to harm Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. City Police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay said the letter has been sent to the museum police station for necessary action and enquiry. "The letter was addressed to the DYFI state leader and not to the Chief Minister's Office. We have forwarded the letter to museum police station for taking necessary action and enquiry", he told PTI. The Chief Minister had last month cautioned against the infiltration of members of extremist outfits in the protests against the CAA in the state and said the Left government would not allow any attempt to create communal disharmony in society. Coming down on the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), he had said such "extremist" groups were trying to divide people and create law and order issues in some places under the garb of the protests. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW YORK, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Crown Castle International Corp. between February 26, 2018 and February 26, 2020, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Crown Castle investors under the federal securities laws. To join the Crown Castle class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-1790.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. AN INVESTOR'S ABILITY TO SHARE IN ANY POTENTIAL FUTURE RECOVERY IS NOT DEPENDENT UPON SERVING AS LEAD PLAINTIFF. According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Crown Castle's internal control over financial reporting and disclosures controls and procedures were ineffective and materially weak; (2) Crown Castle's financial accounting and reporting was not in accordance with GAAP; (3) Crown Castle's net income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted funds from operations were inflated; (4) Crown Castle would need to restate its financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, and unaudited financial information for the quarterly and year-to-date periods in the year ended December 31, 2018 and for the first three quarters in the year ended December 31, 2019; and (5) as a result, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than April 27, 2020. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. If you wish to join the litigation, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-1790.html or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim, Esq. of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 3 each year since 2013. Rosen Law Firm has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. Related Links http://www.rosenlegal.com/ China still has the conditions for a democratic revolution Before the outbreak worsened, my friends and I all thought that China was a digital totalitarian state that was invulnerable to attack. But all these halos were smashed because of the Chinese governments chaotic response to the pneumonia in Wuhan. For me, this crisis exposed the cowardice and recklessness of the bureaucracy of the Chinese government. At the same time, it demonstrated that, in the absence of the bureaucracy, the Chinese people retain strong capabilities to self-govern and self-organize on the grass-roots level. This leads me to believe that contemporary China still has the conditions for a democratic revolution. Adelaide, Australia My parents are deeply brainwashed by Chinese Communist Party propaganda As the Chinese Communist Party continuously uses authoritarian means to deal with matters, a humanitarian disaster is happening. I decided to drop everything and escape as soon as possible. But my parents are deeply brainwashed by Chinese Communist Party propaganda. They said that if they are going to die they would rather die here in this land, and live or die with the motherland. I felt frustrated by this, but at the same time I knew thats probably what the majority of Chinese people also think. I bought plane tickets and decided to leave with my 9-year-old daughter. My wifes passport is valid for less than six months, and the entry-exit department told us that theyve suspended all immigration services for Chinese citizens for the time being. So for now its just me and my daughter here in Thailand. This epidemic made me sense deeply the split within my family. This division derives from our different views of the C.C.P. Gao Enzhou, Bangkok One of the brides from this year's season of Married At First Sight Australia says she has been forced to take a job mixing concrete after leaving a high-powered job to film the show. Hayley Vernon, who made headlines when she admitted to a recent drug relapse after recovering from a meth addiction, has apparently taken up labouring work post-filming. According to the Daily Mail, Vernon has been working on a Melbourne building site mixing concrete since she finished up her stint on the show. The 32-year-old previously worked as a finance broker and reportedly earned an annual salary of AU$150,000, but walked away from it to take part in the reality TV 'social experiment'. Far from regretting her decision, a source told the Daily Mail Vernon was "in her element" working as a tradie, a sentiment she appeared to echo in a recently resurfaced Instagram story. "Have I told you the story of the girl that fell in love with being a trady [sic] and is considering getting in the tools full time!?" she captioned a selfie where she donned a high-vis hoodie. Vernon has also reportedly signed with a talent agent Max Markson, who has previously taken on several MAFS AU participants. SOURCE: Newshub's Monika Barton. A judge in New Orleans found that a serial rape suspect is mentally competent after the defendant was examined by two forensic doctors on Tuesday. A defense attorney raised questions last week about the fitness for trial of Navarri Henderson, a 22-year-old accused of two rapes in Algiers, pointing to a WWL-TV report that revealed he was hospitalized as a youth. Henderson was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his mother told the TV station. But two doctors who examined Henderson on Tuesday said he was competent to proceed to trial, noting that he is not on medication in the New Orleans jail. Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White agreed with the doctors. Henderson is accused of raping a jogger along the Mississippi River levee in Algiers Point on Dec. 28, 2016, and a pregnant woman after she was dropped off to her West Bank apartment in August 2018. If convicted on two counts of first-degree rape, Henderson would face mandatory life imprisonment. The suburbs of Charleston continue to add new rooftops, and retailers follow to supply products to new households. That's why a Florida-based grocery chain is moving forward with plans for its 16th supermarket in the Charleston area. Publix recently filed for permits from state environmental regulators to build a 51,454-square-foot store at 1612 Beech Hill Road across from the developing Summers Corner neighborhood south of Summerville. Lennar Homes paid at least $26.1 million in 2018 for the 6,500-acre Summers Corner tract in southern Dorchester County. Up to 8,000 homes could one day be built on the large parcel. Several hundred are already on the ground. Publix's notice to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control shows no affected wetlands on the 10.2-acre site targeted for the new supermarket, but it does include stormwater and wastewater permits that will be necessary. The Lakeland, Fla.-based food chain paid $3.05 million for the property in 2017. "At this time we do not have a confirmed opening date, but we are targeting 2021," a representative of Publix's real estate development office said in an email. "In perfect world conditions, it takes about nine months from start of construction to opening." The new store will come after the company opened four new food outlets in the Charleston area in 2019, including Publix's small-format specialty GreenWise Market in Mount Pleasant. Publix's new conventional supermarkets that opened last year included sites on Clements Ferry Road in Cainhoy Plantation in Berkeley County, on Folly Road on James Island and in the WestEdge development on the Charleston peninsula. New threads Weather has delayed the grand opening of a new retailer on King Street in Charleston. Columbus, Ga.-based Salt Life will host the grand opening of its new store on Friday. The event originally was announced for Thursday. Lifestyle brand Salt Life, which specializes in clothing and other merchandise aimed at ocean enthusiasts, debuted Monday but will officially launch during a savings event 5-7 p.m. Friday at 316-A King St. The space was formerly occupied by clothing store 319 Men. The King Street store is the ninth for the retailer that was acquired by Upstate-based Delta Apparel Inc. in 2013 for $22 million. Salt Life aims to open other brick-and-mortar retail stores over the next several years. Charlestons King Street is a retail and cultural hub of this historic city, and we feel that our popularity with the district residents is an obvious addition to our growing brick-and-mortar portfolio," said Jeff Stillwell, president. From its first offerings in 2003, Salt Life has grown with distribution in surf shops, specialty stores, department stores and sporting goods retailers. The brands other retail stores are in Huntington Beach and San Clemente, Calif.; Jacksonville Beach, Daytona Beach, Tampa, Key West and Orlando, Fla.; and Columbus, Ga. The new shop is open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. In the bank A salon venture launched 11 years ago will give a former bank building in Moncks Corner a makeover by mid-year, adding a sixth location in the Charleston region. Cirque Salon Studios will launch a new venue this summer at 337 E. Main St. in a building the firm bought that once housed SouthCoast Community Bank, according to managing partner David Manzi. After upgrades, Cirque Salon will occupy the second floor with 15 separate studios. The company currently has more than 165 salon professionals leasing individual spaces. Operators run their own businesses from five locations in downtown Charleston, Goose Creek, Mount Pleasant, Summerville and West Ashley. Driving in Land clearing has begun on Ladson Road for a new AutoZone automobile parts shop. The Memphis, Tenn.-based retailer applied in December for permits to add a 7,381-square-foot store next to an existing Spinx gas station and convenience store at 3665 Ladson Road. The corner site is on Palmetto Commerce Parkway across from Bojangles and the freshly opened Krispy Kreme. Coast Car Wash is being built next to the doughnut shop. Rising tide A Charleston-based beachwear shop is opening a fourth location this weekend. Las Olas will launch at 10 a.m. Saturday at 2040 South Blvd., Suite 1, in Charlotte. The 1,480-square-foot space is in the Edens Group-owned Atherton Mill, where Charleston restaurants Indaco and Oku have outposts. "Expanding to the Charlotte area has been a dream for many years now, where the demand for high-end mens and womens swimwear and comfortable sustainably-sourced clothing is very strong," said Daniel James, owner of Las Olas. Las Olas operates other shops in downtown Charleston, Mount Pleasant and on Kiawah Island. Sustainably sourced A North Carolina-based grocery chain wants its customers to know the seafood it sells comes from sustainable sources. Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion, part of Dutch firm Ahold Delhaize, recently joined the Ocean Disclosure Project, a global platform where retailers voluntarily share insight into their food-sourcing methods to ensure sustainability. All seafood products sold in the grocer's more than 1,000 stores are fully traceable to the wild fishery or farm. The ODP was created by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, a non-profit organization that works directly with the seafood industry to improve the sustainability of seafood. "Its important to us that our customers know where their seafood comes from, so it only makes sense to join the ODP and make public the origin of wild-caught seafood sold in our stores," Food Lion President Meg Ham said. Food Lion operates 11 stores in the Charleston region and 116 across South Carolina. Book sale delayed The Charleston Friends of the Library spring book sale that was set for Friday and Saturday at the Otranto Regional Library at 2261 Otranto Road in North Charleston has been moved to March 13-14 because of a staff-related issue. More than 10,000 books, DVDs and CDs will be available at prices starting at $1 for paperbacks and $4 for hardbacks. Organizers hope to surpass the $9,000 raised during last year's event. All proceeds support the county library system. The event runs 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. (Alliance News) - SDX Energy PLC on Wednesday said it encountered commercial gas in Morocco for both target horizons but well SD-6X in Egypt was not commercially viable. Oil & gas firm SDX, which focuses on the middle east and north Africa, said the play-opening BMK-1 well in Morocco was drilled to a depth of 1,551 metres and encountered commercial gas quantities in both target areas. Given this, and based on 3D seismic data, SDX opened a new play fairway and de-risked up to 20 billion cubic feet of near-by prospective resources for future drilling, with 10 billion cubic feet located in or near BMK-1. SDX said it estimates BMK-1 encountered 900 million cubic feet of gas in the Upper and Lower Guebbas targets, meeting pre-drill estimates. However, because of "down-hole issues", only the Upper Guebbas target could be wireline logged and will complete. The Lower Guebbas target, meanwhile, has an estimated 400 million cubic feet of gas recoverable, and "the gas in the Lower target will be recoverable during the development of the new play fairway de-risked by the OYF-2 and BMK-1 wells". The drill rig used for BMK-1 will now move to the Lalla Monouna concession, also in Morocco, in order to drill the LMS-2 well. In a more negative news, the SD-6X well at South Disouq in Egypt, where SDX holds a 55% interest and is operator, was drilled to 3,167 metres and encountered "sub-economic" levels of gas in two formations and low gas saturation in a third. "The thinner than expected gas columns in SD-6X encountered is attributable to the absence of a sealing mechanism in the stratigraphic traps being targeted by the well. The well results are currently being analysed," SDX explained. The rig which drilled SD-6X will move to drill another South Disqouq location, well SD-12X, which should spud in the next two or three weeks and is targeting around 33 billion cubic feet equivalent of gas. The SD-6X result "is not anticipated to have any technical read across to SD-12X". Chief Executive Mark Reid said: "The BMK-1 result in Morocco is excellent news, confirming that together with the OYF-2 discovery in January, we can now plan to develop a material and valuable new prospective area to the north of our existing infrastructure in a market where we are the only gas producer and where we receive gas prices of between USD10-12 per [million cubic feet]. An additional 20 billion cubic feet of P50 prospective resources has the potential to significantly extend reserve life and support lower CO2 emissions at our customers. "After the SD-6X well in Egypt, we can look forward to spudding the SD-12X well in the weeks ahead, where there is no expected technical read across from SD-6X." Shares in SDX Energy were flat at 18.50 pence in London in afternoon trading. By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. In San Antonio, Texas Federal health officials were planning to drop off some of the evacuated cruise ship passengers at a local shopping mall, after the coronavirus-exposed patients got out of a two-week quarantine at a Texas air base. This is one reason the city declared a public health emergency over COVID-19, said a city spokeswoman on Tuesday. San Antonio filed a lawsuit yesterday to stop the Trump administration's plan, after a woman was mistakenly released from quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base over the weekend despite testing positive for coronavirus. The woman had visited the North Star Mall, where the others were to be dropped off, before that mistake was discovered. The mall shut down for deep cleaning. From AP: Mayes said 122 passengers were released Tuesday, while seven remained in quarantine. Many passengers were bused to San Antonio International Airport, where they were escorted to ticket counters and through security. Others who live in Texas were escorted to car rental counters. Passenger Terri Feil of Houston said a CDC official told them in a conference call Sunday that the mall, about 17 miles (27 kilometers) from the base, was chosen to avoid the media. Feil said only people who were not going to the airport were to be dropped off at the mall. The Feils showed The Associated Press a text message they said was from the CDC indicating they were to be dropped off at the entrance by The Cheesecake Factory. "My husband was asking, 'who made this decision?'" said Feil, who added that the couple's son was driving from Houston to pick them up. More at The Associated Press. Coronavirus image: CDC (Alliance News) - The follow is a round-up of share dealings by UK company directors and managers announced on Wednesday and Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News: Plus500 Ltd - Co-Founder Alon Gonen, through investment vehicle Sparta 24 Ltd, buys 445,064 shares at GBP9.38. Alon Cohen Naznin, CEO of Plus500BOS EOOD, buys 2,600 shares at GBP9.80. Both on Monday and together worth GBP4.2 million. Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC - Chief Executive Officer Laxman Narasimhan buys 17,241 shares at GBP58.00, worth GBP999,978, on Tuesday. Purchase is his entire holding. Incoming Chief Financial Officer Jeff Carr buys 20,000 shares at GBP57.48, worth GBP1.1 million, on Monday. Carr joins on April 9, while Narasimhan joined back in July. Carr was the finance chief of Dutch supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize NV, while Narasimhan was global chief commercial officer for US snack and beverage maker PepsiCo Inc. CRH PLC - Chair Richard Boucher buys 5,500 shares at EUR31.05, worth EUR170,775, on Friday last week. Loungers PLC - Chair Alex Reilley buys 40,000 shares at 212.5p, worth GBP85,000, on Tuesday. Now holds 6.5 million shares, 7.1% stake. St Modwen Properties PLC - Chief Finance & Operations Officer Rob Hudson buys 17,012 shares at GBP4.81, worth GBP81,828, on Tuesday. Ibstock PLC - CFO Chris McLeish buys 30,311 shares at 246.16p, worth GBP74,565, on Wednesday. Berkeley Group Holdings PLC - Non-Executive Director Peter Vernon sells 1,391 shares at GBP47.89, worth GBP66,515, on Wednesday. Meggitt PLC - CFO Louisa Burdett buys 5,500 shares at GBP5.52, worth GBP30,360, on Tuesday. Purchase is her only holding. Weir Group PLC - Senior Independent Director Barbara Jeremiah buys 2,000 shares at GBP13, worth GBP26,000, on Wednesday. Hummingbird Resources PLC - CEO Daniel Betts buys 100,000 shares at 25.19p, worth GBP25,190, on Tuesday. Now holds 5.0 million shares, 1.4% of total. WPP PLC - Non-Executive Director Jasmine Whitbread buys 3,330 shares at average GBP7.42, worth GBP24,709, on Monday and Tuesday. The purchase is her only holding. Unite Group PLC - Non Executive Director Richard Akers buys 2,000 shares at GBP11.70, worth GBP23,398, on Wednesday. Legal & General Group PLC - Non-Executive Director Philip Broadley buys 7,550 shares at GBP2.62, worth GBP19,781, on Wednesday. Baring Emerging Europe PLC - Director Calum Thomson buys 1,308 shares at GBP7.60, worth GBP10,000, on Wednesday. By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) for donating N200 million to assist in combating Coronavirus in the country. The president recalled that the organisation had, in the past, donated N1 billion to tackle Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Africa. Hand in hand, standing shoulder to shoulder, we can confront our challenges as a country. This is a path for us all to follow as a people, Mr Buhari said, in a statement signed by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President, (Media and Publicity), on Wednesday. Mr Buhari also used the opportunity to reiterate his earlier charge that Nigerians should take the necessary hygiene precautions, rather than panic about the Covid-19, after discovery of the index case in the country last week. The president said, government, at various levels, is poised to ensure that the country and her people remain safe from the virus, which is spreading rapidly in many parts of the world. Nigeria last Thursday reported a confirmed case of COVID-19 which was detected in an Italian businessman who had flown into the country on business. Since then, the Italian has been quarantined, placed under treatment and people who have had contact with him, traced and put under supervised isolation. So far, Nigeria has not recorded any new case of coronavirus, which has caused over 3,000 deaths globally, the majority in China. Longtime Hollywood couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell dressed down in athleisure attire for lunch with their son Wyatt at celeb favorite Brentwood Country Mart in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The 74-year-old Oscar winner wore a straw visor over her signature flaxen locks and she wore grey leggings with a black hoodie, tank top, and sneakers. Valentine's Day marked 37 years of romance for Hawn and the 68-year-old Golden Globe nominee, who have co-starred in five films including this year's upcoming sequel to Netflix's 2018 festive flick The Christmas Chronicles. Family affair: Longtime couple Goldie Hawn (L) and Kurt Russell (M) dressed down in athleisure attire for lunch with their son Wyatt (R) at Brentwood Country Mart in LA on Tuesday Bonding: The 74-year-old Oscar winner wore a straw visor over her signature flaxen locks and she wore grey leggings with a black hoodie, tank top, and sneakers Goldie and Kurt originally met in 1967 on the set of Disney musical - The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. The Washington, D.C.-born blonde and the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor own homes in Vancouver, Snowmass, Manhattan, Brentwood, and Palm Desert The 33-year-old Lodge 49 actor next plays David Winters in Joe Wright's Rear Window-style thriller The Woman in the Window - hitting US/UK theaters May 15 - alongside Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. That same Super Tuesday, Goldie's daughter Kate Hudson (with ex-husband #2 Bill Hudson) proudly flaunted her 'I Voted' sticker at the polls. 'I'm still ringing Santa's jingle bells!' Valentine's Day marked 37 years of romance for Hawn and the 68-year-old Golden Globe nominee (R), who have co-starred in five films including this year's upcoming sequel to Netflix's 2018 festive flick The Christmas Chronicles Hitting US/UK theaters May 15! The 33-year-old Lodge 49 actor next plays David Winters opposite Amy Adams in Joe Wright's Rear Window-style thriller The Woman in the Window It was a month after the 40-year-old Oscar nominee and her big brother Oliver revealed they had both smoked marijuana with their famous parents on separate occasions. 'The last thing that Mom did that embarrassed me was [this weekend],' Kate groaned while on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 'She just talked about the first time I told her I had sex to someone in front of me. That was embarrassing for me. I was like, "Mom, you don't tell people about me losing my virginity."' 'Vote!' That same Super Tuesday, Goldie's daughter Kate Hudson (with ex-husband #2 Bill Hudson) proudly flaunted her 'I Voted' sticker at the polls Hippies: It was a month after the 40-year-old Oscar nominee (M) and her brother Oliver (L) revealed they had both smoked marijuana with their famous parents on separate occasions Hawn will soon reunite with her First Wives Club castmates - Oscar winner Diane Keaton and Bette Midler (who's an Oscar away from EGOT status) - to play women who were all married to the same man for Peter Hoare's Christmas comedy, Family Jewels. 'The chemistry of Diane, Bette, and Goldie is unmatched and irresistible,' producer Bradley Fischer said in a statement - according to Deadline. 'And I'm thrilled to help reunite them on screen for generations of fans.' Excited? The Washington, D.C.-born blonde will soon reunite with her First Wives Club castmates Diane Keaton (L) and Bette Midler (R) to play women who were all married to the same man for Peter Hoare's Christmas comedy, Family Jewels Panaji, March 4 : The AAP government in Delhi led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is responsible for the delay in the hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape-murder case, BJP Mahila Morcha president Vijaya Rahatkar alleged on Wednesday. She said that because of the delay in hanging the four convicts, the justice system in the country was being made fun of. "I would say that it is a sin of the Kejriwal government, because of the changes their government made in the jail manual. The changes now warrant that mercy petitions should not be bunched together, but be heard individually. Because of this the killers of Nirbhaya are not being hung yet," Rahatkar said. "In a way our justice system and the police mechanism are being made fun of by the accused, because they are finding ways to delay their hanging due to loopholes created by the changes in the jail manual. This is wrong and should not happen," she said. Of the millions of Americans who could have been the Democrat standard bearer this fall, were left with maybe three who are no better, no worse of those who have fallen behind. Super Tuesday was earlier this week when a plethora of the partys nominating convention delegates were selected. The field has been whittled even further. HANOI -- Budget carrier Vietjet Air will suspend flights to destinations in South Korea from Saturday over coronavirus concerns, the carrier said. Vietnam has suspended visa-free travel for South Koreans, and airlines Bamboo Airways and Vietnam Airlines have both suspended South Korea flights. Vietjet earlier scaled down the number of flights to South Korea, the carrier said on its website on Wednesday. The suspension is effective from March 7. Last week, Vietnam said its entire tally of 16 infected people had been cured and released from hospitals, with no new cases since Feb. 13. In the weeks since he left the race, the country has plunged into a national drama thats part soap opera, part psychoanalysis. Are the French becoming like Americans, who punish public officials for private sins? How did the attention-seeking Russian artist who released the tape manage to disrupt a French election? Whos the alluring 29-year-old woman at the center of the scandal, who seems to have bedded both the Russian and Mr. Griveaux? To answer these questions, magazines here have run soul-searching features on everything from possible Kremlin involvement (theres no proof of this) to the meaning of masturbation. They barely have the vocabulary to describe whats happening: Writers awkwardly describe enregistrements a caractere sexuel recordings of a sexual nature or use English terms like revenge porn and la sextape. The whole narrative scarcely makes sense: The artist, Pyotr Pavlensky, who specializes in political protest stunts like depositing himself naked and wrapped in barbed wire in front of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly (he titled the act Carcass), claims he wanted to expose the candidates hypocrisy. When Mr. Griveaux opened his bid for mayor, he posed for the magazine Paris Match with his pregnant wife, and later announced the babys birth on Twitter with the hashtag #happyfamily. But most French voters didnt actually think that meant Mr. Griveaux was a strict monogamist, nor were they outraged to discover he wasnt. The public is fascinated by court gossip (erections municipales, one headline joked) but allergic to moralizing. Here, the view has long been that all people even politicians were entitled to a walled-off, practically sacred part of their lives that may be full of contradictions. Breaching that wall is against the law here Mr. Pavlensky and his girlfriend face two years in prison and a 60,000 euro fine for infringement of privacy and distributing sexual images of someone without their consent. It also seems pointless to Americanize French morality when the United States has a president whose supporters shrug off his philandering. And the videos are an existential violation. (One analyst quoted the essayist Henry de Montherlant, who said One should never say everything, not even to a stone.) Even Mr. Griveauxs political enemies condemned the way he was brought down. (Photo : Unsplash) WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, has been censoring key phrases about coronavirus as early as Jan. 1, the research found. Popular Chinese live-streaming platform Y.Y. has been filtering out coronavirus content, too. The research organization Citizen Lab took keywords from news coverage and sent them in group chat conversations. The users despatched the messages to three WeChat accounts: two in Canada and one in China. The chat conversations consisted of article headlines and text. The group that is affiliated with the University of Toronto despatched them from one of the Canadian WeChat accounts to the Chinese one and determined which messages the Chinese report got. Around 132 keyword combinations have been censored in January; however, that number rose to 516 keywords by the second week of February. More than 300 new censored keywords in WeChat were added in two weeks in February Citizen Lab found 45 key phrases on Y.Y. - just like Twitch or Mixer - added to a blacklist on December 31, 2019; five of those keywords were removed on Feb. 10. Y.Y.'s blacklist is in the app itself, in contrast to WeChat's, which uses a far-flung server for censorship. Public health officers from China first informed the World Health Organization about the virus at the end of December. The censorship started since Jan. 1 and continued on through the outbreak. WeChat has a monthly active person base of over one billion people - this means that users might also have missed essential records about the coronavirus, and how to prevent the virus from spreading. Censored keywords blanketed factual information at the disease, references to the government's epidemic policies, and the name of Li Wenliang, a medical doctor who was a number of the earliest to warn the populace about the disease. Li got the condition while treating coronavirus sufferers and passed away on Feb. 7. His tale created a public outcry in opposition to the authorities' handling of the coronavirus. ALSO READ: Coronavirus isn't a Chinese bioweapon! Here Are The Most Popular Coronavirus Youtube Hoaxes, Rumors, and Lies You Should Ignore Companies yet to explain the censorship It's still unclear why the companies decided to censor key phrases about coronavirus. However, rumors have been circulating that the Chinese government ordered them to filter out the data. WeChat has close ties with the Chinese authorities, and the authorities have already used WeChat and Twitter to track down people Chinese officials assumed sharing harmful data about the coronavirus outbreak. Censorship is prevalent in China. Sites inclusive of Google and Wikipedia are banned - and it's not new for social media companies in China to remove content that is perceived to be threatening to social stability or the ruling Communist Party. The censorship is especially 'harmful' since the WeChat is a crucial part of many Chinese people's lives, David Jacobson, a professor of global business strategy at SMU's Cox School of Business and a touring professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told BuzzFeed News. He added one could stay live his or her life with social media. "You can pay for things. You can do so much more," Jacobson said. ALSO READ: This A.I. System Can Detect Possible Coronavirus Infection in Less Than A Blink of An Eye! 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Dominic Raab has been urged to insist Saudi Arabia fixes its abysmal human rights record and to ban arm sales from the UK as he embarks on his first official visit to the Gulf state. Campaigners urged the foreign secretary to call for an end to the ongoing conflict in Yemen and implement an immediate embargo on sales of British arms to Riyadh amid a deepening humanitarian crisis. Mr Raab is expected to hold talks on the conflict with Saudi leaders during his two-day visit, where he will also meet Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Hadi. It comes after international outrage over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents as well as the imprisonment of human rights activists. The Foreign Office said he would raise issues where there were differences between the UK and Saudi Arabia including on human rights and values during meetings with senior figures, including Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and national security adviser Dr Musaad Al Aiban. Recommended Truss cleared over breaches of ban on arms sales linked to Yemen war But campaigners said the foreign secretary lacked moral authority until the UK ends all arms sales to the Saudi administration, which is supporting the Yemeni government in its conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis. Andrew Smith, of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), said: Dominic Raab has said he will raise the crisis in Yemen, but talk is not enough. It is a crisis that has been fueled and exacerbated by UK arms sales. Neither Raab nor his colleagues can have any moral authority while they continue to arm and support the brutal Saudi dictatorship and its allies. These arms sales are immoral, and, as the Court of Appeal confirmed last year, they are also illegal. Mr Smith accused the government of showing a total disregard for the people of Yemen and said the only way to have a positive impact was to implement an immediate embargo on all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Arms sale licences cannot be granted in the UK if there is a risk that weapons are used in contravention of international law. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois PA UK news in pictures 6 January 2022 People walk through frost and mist alongside a frozen lake during sunrise in Bushy Park, London REUTERS UK news in pictures 5 January 2022 A skier jumps on the slopes at Allenheads in the Pennines to the north of Weardale in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 4 January 2022 Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque PA UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelseas Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge Liverpool FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 January 2022 New Years Eve Lasers, drones and fireworks illuminate the sky in front of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich shortly after midnight in London EPA UK news in pictures 31 December 2021 Competitors in fancy dress run across the Pennine tops near Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the annual Auld Lang Syne Fell race which attracts hundreds of runners every year PA UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana Getty UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow Manchester City/Getty UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as Storm Arwen triggered a rare red weather warning AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border PA UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel. AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London PA UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services PA Last year, the Court of Appeal ruled it was unlawful for the UK to sanction arms exports without assessing whether the war being waged by a Saudi-led coalition had broken international law. Liz Truss, the trade secretary responsible for export controls, admitted two inadvertent breaches only months after the ruling but an independent probe later cleared ministers of personal responsibility. The rules also allow the continuation of arms sales under existing licences. Polly Truscott, a foreign affairs expert at Amnesty International, urged Mr Raab to intervene for human rights activists, who faced pressure ahead of the G20 summit in Riyadh in November. She said: Mr Raab needs to be unequivocal in his call for the release of Loujain al-Hathloul [who defied the ban on women driving] and other brave womens rights activists. Recommended The UK is desperate for friends outside the EU Any discussion of the terrible situation in Yemen needs to confront the uncomfortable reality that Saudi Arabia and the UK are currently part of the problem Saudi Arabia with its indiscriminate airstrikes on civilians, the UK with its arms sales to Riyadh. For years, ministers have soft-pedalled on Saudi human rights issues, largely in deference to supposed strategic interests. Its time for Mr Raab to insist that the Saudi authorities fix their abysmal human rights record. Mr Raab is due to spend two days in Saudi Arabia after visits to Oman and Turkey earlier this week. Speaking ahead of his arrival, Mr Raab said: Saudi Arabia is one of our closest trade partners and plays an important role in keeping Britain safe. As a valued partner, we have to work closely together to tackle the crisis in Yemen, terrorism and climate change as well as pursuing reform and engaging on human rights issues. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) No active members of the military are involved in the smuggling of $370 million or around 18.74 billion last year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Wednesday. AFP Spokesperson BGen. Edgardo Arevalo told a media briefing that they asked the Bureau of Customs for clarification regarding its earlier statement that the couriers of dirty money "are able to escape detection because they are escorted by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or of the airport police department at the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA)." The Customs bureau clarified that the "raw information" they have now is that retired members of the PNP and the AFP, who are now employed by security agencies, are involved in the scheme, Arevalo said. He added that the bureau is now reviewing various CCTV footage to identify the suspects. "So malinaw po yan, wala pong miyembro ng AFP na active, and even retired is still being verified, [na involved]," Arevalo said. [Translation: So that is clear, no active member of the AFP is involved, and even the involvement of retired members is still being verified.] He added that the Armed Forces will continue looking into the matter to make sure that no soldier or enlisted personnel is aiding the smuggling of foreign currencies. "Should there be one or two or any number na mapatutunayan natin (that will be proved to be) based on our further and deeper investigation na meron nga, they do not deserve a second more in the Armed Forces," Arevalo said. The Department of Finance in a statement on Monday disclosed Customs' report that an estimated $370 million were sneaked into the country in 2019 by two suspected syndicates. A so-called "Rodriguez Group" brought in about $200.24 million or 10.18 billion, while the "Chinese Group" sneaked in $167.97 million, equivalent to about 8.54 billion. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has directed the Bureau of Customs to closely coordinate with the Anti-Money Laundering Council's investigation into the "unusual influx of foreign currencies." The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will also start a legislative inquiry into the issue on Thursday. Senator Richard Gordon, the committee chairman, was the first to reveal last week that Chinese nationals who arrived in the country from December 2019 to February this year alone brought in $180 million in cash, or about 9.1 billion. In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Gordon said 47 individuals, mostly Chinese, arrived in the Philippines carrying $447 million or 22.7 billion from September last year to February. He said the large sums of cash, which were declared as gambling and investment funds, are a red flag for possible money laundering. Customs Commissioner Rey Guerrero in his January 29 report to Dominguez that the country's laws make it easy to bring in foreign currencies. Unlike in the US where attempts to misdeclare or not declare these at all are considered bulk cash smuggling with severe penalties, the Philippines' laws are not categorical, and sanctions provided are not deterrent enough, he said. Oslo, 4 March 2020: Scatec Solar has completed the installation of a PV-diesel hybrid system to supply solar power to the UN House compound in Juba, which is housing peace keeping forces from around the world. The renewable energy provided to the compound will reduce the diesel fuel usage significantly. The system was inaugurated by UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) officials on 25 February. We are proud to deliver our first hybrid project to UNMISS operations. Scatec Solar is currently cooperating with United Nations organizations on three projects and we find it rewarding to help provide the UN operations in South Sudan with clean and cost-efficient energy, says CEO of Scatec Solar, Raymond Carlsen. Scatec Solar has constructed the hybrid system through the Kenyan Subcontractor Harmonic Systems. The system combines the output of more than 3,500 solar modules with a total capacity of 1 MW with the existing diesel generators. The installation significantly reduces diesel consumption, contributing to reductions in costs and CO2 emissions. Additionally, Scatec Solars contract with UNMISS includes constructing a PV-diesel hybrid system with a total capacity of 1.25 MW at a second UNMISS compound in Wau, South Sudan. This project is scheduled to be completed during the second quarter 2020. These two projects, together with the earlier announced contract with IOM, highlight the large potential for future cooperation to support the United Nations in reducing their dependence on fossil fuel and increase the share of renewable energy. Scatec Solar will be performing the maintenance tasks of the hybrid systems at both sites. For further information, please contact: Ingrid Aarsnes, VP Communication & IR, tel: +47 950 38 364 email: ingrid.aarsnes@scatecsolar.com About Scatec Solar Scatec Solar is an integrated independent solar power producer, delivering affordable, rapidly deployable and sustainable clean energy worldwide. A long- term player, Scatec Solar develops, builds, owns, operates and maintains solar power plants and has an installation track record of more than 1.5 GW. The company has a total of 1.9 GW in operation and under construction on four continents. Peter Bissell, of popular Australian clown duo Peebo & Dagwood, has died following a long battle with cancer and cystic fibrosis. The 46-year-old took his final breath in Brisbane on Wednesday with his twin brother David 'Dagwood' Bissell by his side. His grieving brother confirmed the tragic news to fans in a heartbreaking post on the clowns' Facebook page. 'It's with a broken heart & much sadness, to share with you, that my beloved beautiful twin brother 'Peebo' has passed away,' he said. Peter Bissell, of popular Australian clown duo Peebo & Dagwood, has died following a long battle with cancer and cystic fibrosis The 46-year-old passed away in Brisbane on Wednesday with his twin brother David 'Dagwood' Bissell by his side 'No more pain. No more suffering. He lived life, he loved life & he laughed. He has touched so many lives and inspired many. He made people laugh & smile. 'I love you bro & I miss you.' The brothers, who rose to fame performing at hospitals, birthday parties and television shows across Queensland over two decades, were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth and were told they would not live past the age of three. The incurable genetic disease causes a build-up of mucus in the airwaves, making it increasingly difficult to breathe over time. The clown duo were known for being open about their health battles, often speaking about them online and in interviews from their hospital beds. In the days leading up to Peebo's death, Dagwood had shared updates on social media regarding his brother, who had been suffering from a bowel blockage. The pair were both taken to hospital earlier last month, Peebo suffering complications from liver cancer, and Dagwood for other liver issues. The twin brothers were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth and were told they wouldn't make it past the age of three Peebo and Dagwood were known for being open about their health battles, often speaking about them online and in interviews from their hospital beds Dagwood confirmed the tragic news to fans in a heartbreaking post on the clowns' Facebook page 'What are the chances?' That we both are fighting for survival with similar liver trouble at the same time. Twin thing for sure,' Peebo said. The clown duo revealed their careers began by performing card tricks to entertain other patients during their own hospital stays as children He later revealed he wouldn't be treated with chemotherapy due to his failing kidneys and his recent lung transplant. Dagwood was sent home from hospital on February 11, but his brother's condition, unfortunately, continued to deteriorate. Hours before Peebo's death, Dagwood took to Facebook to warn fans 'the end is near' and shared a video saying his brother did not have much time left. 'Peebo said he's had enough and he has, what he's been through for the last three to four weeks, 10 people wouldn't have gone through in a lifetime, and he wants to live, he's got a lot to live for, but it's been hard to keep him comfortable,' Dagwood said. 'The end is near, he has started a morphine infusion, not sure how long he's got, but to be here with him is where I need to be.' The brothers had been inspired to get into the clowning business from their own hospital stints as children. They began performing card tricks to entertain other patients, and eventually began performing for children at birthdays and charities. Peebo had spoken on the prospect of death in an emotional interview with the ABC early last month. 'I've never been one to focus on crossing the bridge until it comes and it's coming pretty fast. But we just try and paint a bigger smile on that face,' he said. 'We've had an awesome opportunity in our lifetime to create something beautiful with our clown characters Peebo and Dagwood.' '[They're] a couple of clowns who have allowed us to engage in a lot people's lives and allow them to get around their worries and put smiles on people's faces.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:23:42|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Voters walk into a polling station during the Virginia primary in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, March 3, 2020. Polling stations opened on the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday morning, kicking off the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries of the 2020 presidential election. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) ARLINGTON, the United States, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Polling stations opened on the U.S. East Coast Tuesday morning, kicking off the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries of the 2020 presidential election. In Virginia, one of 14 U.S. states scheduled to hold votes this day, only candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the White House are on the ballot, as the state's Republican Party has canceled its primary to throw full support behind sitting President Donald Trump. Other states, including populous California and Texas, are scheduled to hold both Republican and Democratic primaries, some of which began hours later because of time differences. Trump, who's facing no major challenges in the Republican Party, is expected to win the GOP primaries, while on the Democratic side there are still five vying for the party's nomination to challenge the incumbent. After caucuses and primaries in four early voting states, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is currently leading in the Democratic field with the most pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), followed by former Vice President Joe Biden. At a polling place in Arlington, Max Blake told Xinhua that he voted for Sanders despite Biden's resurging momentum triggered by a big victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary several days ago. The Virginia voter also said he is aware of an ongoing tussle between the Democratic Party's progressive candidates and the moderate bloc but that he believes they will eventually unite for the race against Trump. Besides Sanders and Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are also in the Democratic primary race. Bloomberg, who is making his ballot debut on Tuesday, traded barbs with Trump on Twitter in the morning. On Super Tuesday, 1,357 pledged delegates to the DNC or a third of the total will be up for grabs. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the national convention: 1,991 delegates. In other words, the Super Tuesday primaries will not determine who will become the Democratic presidential nominee. However, Super Tuesday could offer indicators for how the rest of the primaries might play out. "This is the first time that a large number of states in different regions of the country all vote on the same day," Clay Ramsay, a senior research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland, told Xinhua. "The four previous state caucuses and primaries each had their own local flavor. They can't tell us what Democrats across America are thinking," Ramsay said. "Super Tuesday will get us much closer to seeing that." Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, called it "an enormous day in the presidential race." "A lot of questions will be answered in the next 36 hours," he added. Polls close between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time, depending on the state. Retired Nederland police veteran David Odom won the Republican primary race for Jefferson County sheriff with a decisive victory over Emil Serda in complete but unofficial results. Odom will face Democratic Sheriff Zena Stephens in the November general election. Neither Odom or Serda could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Odom, 52, told The Enterprise during the campaign that his priorities are to bring ethics and integrity back to the department. The Marine veteran worked for the Nederland Police Department for 25 years before retiring last year. There, he rose from patrolman to detective and patrol supervisor. He was a sergeant for 20 of his years with the department. Odom also said he supports a cite-and-release program for low-level marijuana arrests. My guess is that Texas will legalize it in the future, he said. In the Republican primary race for Orange County sheriff, Precinct 4 Constable Jimmy Mooney defeated Rob Strause, a deputy in the Sheriffs Office, in complete but unofficial returns. Mooney, 55, has served as constable since 2016. He also is a board member for the Vidor Chamber of Commerce, and volunteers for the Texas State Guard. Prior to the election, he said his advantage comes from his previous work in narcotics. The narcotics relate to just about every other crime we have, he told The Enterprise during a recent interview.Strause was an Orange County constable for precinct 2 from 2009 to 2012. Strause graduated from the LIT police academy. In a previous interview with the Enterptise, Strause said he would keep the commissioners apprised to what the office needs. He emphasized the need for a larger jail. Prior to his unsuccessful race for the GOP nomination in Jefferson County, Serda had stressed a desire to reduce crime in the area. The crime has gotten out of control, he told The Enterprise. chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/chris_moore09 Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen short of capturing the majority needed to form a government, final election results confirmed, deepening a year of political deadlock and dashing the long-serving leader's hopes for a decisive victory as his trial on corruption charges nears. In an angry tirade, Netanyahu conceded that he did not have the parliamentary support to form a new government right away. But he still tried to claim victory as he lashed out at his main opponent and disparaged the leading Arab party - the third largest in parliament - as irrelevant. "This is what the nation decided," he said. "The public gave me more votes than any other candidate for prime minister in the nation's history." After failing to form a government following two general elections last year and with his legal woes closing in, Netanyahu had been hoping for a clear win in Monday's vote. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Last month saw a number of airstrikes by Israel that targeted positions and sites used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah militia writes Sowt al-Asima. Israeli fighters conducted more than 20 airstrikes throughout February, hitting approximately 12 locations and military bases used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the capital Damascus and its countryside. On Feb. 6, 2020, Israeli fighters hit sites of the Syrian regime and Iranian militias in Jabal Qassioun, Damascus, with four airstrikes. This was followed by a strike on the 75th Brigade in the vicinity of the village of al-Muqaylabiyah, west of Damascus, and the Mezzeh Military Airport and the First Divisions 91st Brigade in the vicinity of al-Kaswa in the countryside Damascus. Regime media said that during the first attack the Marj al-Sultan area in eastern Ghouta was struck, as well as the Baghdad Bridge on the outskirts of Damascus in the direction of the Damascus-Palmyra road. Reports indicated that the raids hit arms shipments that were heading to the Iranian militias in Syria. A missile from regime air defenses fell in the industrial city of al-Tal area in the Damascus countryside, causing major material damage in the area. Military sources confirmed to Sowt al-Asima that the counter-missile had been launched from the Qassioun base, and deviated from its path and fallen in the industrial area. Another air defense missile fell between the towns of Taybeh and Zakia, west of Damascus. On Feb. 14, 2020, Israeli aircraft launched a series of raids hitting Damascus International Airport and its perimeter. They launched five successive airstrikes, and another one that hit the the First Divisions 91st Brigade in al-Kiswah, followed by large number of ambulances being seen in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport, al-Sayyeda Zainab Road and on the Damascus-Quneitra Highway. The Israeli raids continued for a quarter of an hour, interspersed with surface-to-air missiles launched by the regime from the base of Qasiyoun and the Saraya al-Sarah, Dimas and Yafur regiments. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with local radio in the city of Haifa declined to confirm or deny airstrikes hitting weapons depots in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport, commenting sarcastically: I dont know what happened, perhaps it was the Belgian Air Force. He added: I dont address specific things. We have a policy to confront Iran at all costs, and to systematically prevent it from developing. We do this in secret and in public. Pictures published by the Israeli satellite company, ImageSat, on Feb. 16, 2020, showed the extent of the destruction of regime and Iranian militia weapons stores as a result of the recent Israeli bombing, which targeted Damascus International Airport. The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said the photos showed extensive damage to a logistical site of the Iranian Quds Force. Over 2019, Sowt al-Asima documented more than 100 airstrikes by Israeli fighter planes, targeting approximately 40 positions and military bases of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the capital Damascus and its countryside. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. A worker at a Seattle-area physical therapy clinic, who has a history of chronic bronchitis, has documented how near-impossible it is to get tested for COVID-19. The woman who works with many vulnerable elderly people in the state - which had 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus by Wednesday morning and nine deaths initially called the coronavirus hotline but gave up after a long wait. After clueless employees in the medical industry passed the responsibility on from one agency to the next, she was finally told she didn't qualify for testing unless she developed 'pneumonia or bronchitis'. 'I live in Seattle, I have all symptoms of COVID-19 and have a history of chronic bronchitis. Since I work in a physical therapy clinic with many 65+ patients and those with chronic illnesses, I decided to be responsible and go to get tested,' she explained in a series of Twitter posts on Monday. A Seattle clinic worker with a history of bronchitis has said she has 'all symptoms of COVID-19' but cannot get tested for coronavirus because medical experts have no idea how to obtain the kits. In this file image, medics transport a man on a stretcher into an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, on March 3. The long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases She tweeted that she had a hard time getting through to the coronavius hotline but hospitals and GPs were no helpful in how to treat her concerns State and local authorities are now also stepping up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew to across the U.S., with new infections announced in California, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state 'I called the Corona hotline, was on hold for 40 minutes and gave up. So I looked at the CDC and Washington public health websites. They told me to see a primary care doctor, but there's no information about testing.' The government this week has said a million testing kits will be sent out across the country. 'I called 2 primary care doctors. One told me they don't know where to get testing, and that I should not to seek out testing,' the woman continued on social media Monday. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CORONAVIRUS? Like other coronaviruses, including those that cause the common cold and that triggered SARS, COVID-19 is a respiratory illness. The most common symptoms are: Fever Dry cough Shortness of breath Difficulty breathing Fatigue Although having a runny nose doesn't rule out coronavirus, it doesn't thus far appear to be a primary symptom. Most people only become mildly ill, but the infection can turn serious and even deadly, especially for those who are older or have underlying health conditions. In these cases, patients develop pneumonia, which can cause: Potentially with yellow, green or bloody mucus Fever, sweating and shaking chills Shortness of breath Rapid or shallow breathing Pain when breathing, especially when breathing deeply or coughing Low appetite, energy and fatigue Nausea and vomiting (more common in children) Confusion (more common in elderly people) Some patients have also reported diarrhea and kidney failure has occasionally been a complication. Avoid people with these symptoms. If you develop them, call your health care provider before going to the hospital or doctor, so they and you can prepare to minimize possible exposure if they suspect you have coronavirus. Advertisement 'The other one told me to go to an urgent care or ER. I called the Urgent Care, they also had no idea where tests are, but told me to call the hospital. The hospital told her they did not have tests, but transferred her to the COVID-19 hotline to get her questions answered and since she was transferred via a medical provider line, she finally got through. However she complained she was told she didn't qualify for testing, nor was she 'given a timeline or info on current resources'. In the Twitter rant, she claimed the only people who qualified were people who have been out of the country in the last 14 days or those who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus. The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS. COVID-19 is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Most people get only mild illnesses and many have recovered. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that if Americans suspect they are infected or have been in recent contact with an infected person, they should tell their healthcare professional who will then work with the state's public health department and the CDC to determine if they need to be tested for COVID-19. Nancy Foster, of the American Hospital Association, said the group recommends that people who have possible symptoms of the virus contact their doctor or hospital before visiting a clinic. That will enable staff to meet the person outside and take steps to prevent exposure to other patients. 'The only way I can get treated is if my symptoms get so bad I develop pneumonia or bronchitis, which is very likely in my case,' the clinic worker in Washington claimed in her tweets. 'Then I'll be in the ER and quarantined for several days while waiting for a test and for the results to come back.' She told Twitter followers it's 'scary to know that I won't be able to get help until I need life support'. Tuesday, Mike Pence had to clarify that any American qualifies for testing. 'When I talked to some state officials, there was a sense that the tests would not be administered to people that were mildly symptomatic. We're issuing clear guidance that subject to doctors' orders, any American can be tested' Health officials have been scrambling to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly. Whatever the reason for the earlier problem, only about a half dozen state and local public health labs had fully functional kits as of early last week. Late last week, the CDC said labs could go ahead and do testing with just two of the reagents. As of Tuesday, 54 state and local labs were able to do tests, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE 11 US PATIENTS WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS So far, 11 people have died of coronavirus in the US, federal and local health officials say. Ten of the deaths have occurred in Washington state - nine in King County and one of Snohomish County. Most came from Life Care Center, a long-term care facility in Kirkland. One deaths has occurred in Placer County, California. Here's what we currently know: 1. A man in his 50s was brought from Life Care Center to Harborview Medical Center on February 24. He died two days later and is the first death in the US from coronavirus 2. A man in his 50s from King County who had underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized and died at EvergreenHealth on February 29 3. A man in his 40s from Snohomish County who died after being hospitalized at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland on March 1 4. A woman in her 70s, who lived at Life Care and was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had pre-existing conditions, and died on March 1 5. A man in his 70s, linked to Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on February 29 and pre-existing conditions 6. A man in his 70s, who was also a resident of Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on March 1 and also had underlying health conditions 7. A woman in her 70s, who was a Life Care resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth and died on March 2 8. A woman in her 80s, who was linked to Life Care and was previously reported to be in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died on March 1 9. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care and was never hospitalized, died at her family home on February 26 10. A tenth death was confirmed on March 4, but Public Health - Seattle & King County has not yet released information about the latest death 11. An 69-year-old man died on March 4 in Placer County, California after likely becoming infected on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21 Advertisement State and local authorities are now also stepping up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew to across the U.S. on Monday, with new infections announced in California, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state. Globally, 94,102 people had been confirmed to be infected by Wednesday morning. Around the world there had been 3,220 deaths from the virus. Tuesday, Mike Pence had to clarify that any American qualifies for testing. 'When I talked to some state officials, there was a sense that the tests would not be administered to people that were mildly symptomatic,' Vice President Pence told reporters in a White House briefing. 'We're issuing clear guidance that subject to doctors' orders, any American can be tested.' Meanwhile, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told lawmakers Tuesday that the agency closed a facility in King County, Washington, because an employee became ill after visiting a family member at a Kirkland nursing home where five of the U.S. deaths occurred. He did not specify the type of facility or say how many employees work there. The employees were told to work from home for 14 days, and all were told to 'self-quarantine' during that time. The same day it was revealed that an Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters had tested positive for coronavirus - just 12 miles away from the nursing home where multiple infected patients have died. At least six deaths are linked to the Life Care Center of Kirkland - the long-term care facility near Seattle with an acute outbreak. The company informed staff in an internal email that the employee went home sick on February 25 and subsequently tested positive but has not returned to the offices since then, the Seattle Times reports. 'We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine,' an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to DailyMail.com. The worker was based in the company's Brazil office building at Ninth Avenue and Republican Street in South Lake Union. The internal email sent to Amazon employees in Seattle and nearby Bellvue said that any employees who had been 'in close contact' with the infected worker were notified separately. The email instructed employees experiencing symptoms to stay at home and seek medical attention. 'Your health is our top priority and we are continuing with enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization in the office,' the message said. Amazon has more than 50,000 employees in Seattle and more than 275,000 full-time workers across the U.S. Last week, Amazon became one of the first U.S. companies to crack down on employee travel due to the outbreak, banning all 'non-essential' work trips. The Seattle area has become an early coronavirus hot zone as the virus spreads in the U.S. The concern was noted in a hearing on Tuesday. King County officials stand next to one of 18 modular units that King County is using to house patients for treatment and isolation in relation to coronavirus in Seattle, Washington Tuesday Kevin Reeves, from Prime Electric, conducts an electrical inspection on the first of 18 modular units set up by King County that will house patients for treatment and isolation in response to COVID-19 in Seattle. Six to eight units, housing four to eight people, will be on this site south of Seattle. Portable hand-washing stations and restrooms will be provided until more permanent facilities are installed Tyler Goodwin, a utility service worker for King County Metro, deep cleans a metro bus as part of its usual cleaning routine at the King County Metro Atlantic/Central operating base on Tuesday in Seattle. Buses are deep cleaned every 30 days but later today Metro plans to ramp up their efforts to super clean buses to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus 'I'm hearing from people who are sick, who want to get tested, and don't know where to go,' Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told senior administration officials at the hearing. Murray called the situation 'unacceptable,' adding that 'families deserve to know when testing is going to scale up'. Delays and missteps have put the U.S. behind other nations conducting thousands of tests. The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn, responded that the FDA has been working with a private company to get as many as 2,500 test kits out to labs by the end of the week. Each kit should allow a lab to run about 500 tests, he said. That would work out to 1.25 million tests. But when senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee pressed on whether the government will meet its self-imposed deadline, health officials avoided making hard promises. 'I am optimistic but I want to remain humble,' said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Independent experts said they can't assess whether the Trump administration will meet its goal, but they commended health agencies for the effort. 'The U.S. public and private sectors have the capacity to produce and distribute a large volume of tests, and I hope they meet the goal,' said Dr. Tom Frieden, the former CDC chief and current president of Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit that works to prevent epidemics. The CDC is clearly moving in the right direction, said John Auerbach, president of the Trust for America's Health, calling the goal 'admirable and ambitious.' A pair of workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport wear masks Tuesday. Several residents with the coronavirus have died as health officials rush to test more suspected cases and communities brace for spread of the disease LOS ANGELESJoe Biden was in California, but the minds of the people waiting to get into his Super Tuesday party at the Baldwin Hills Recreation Center were turning eastward. As they stood in linejust around the corner from Obama Boulevard in a historically black neighborhoodan NBC reporter informed them that Biden had already won Virginia and North Carolina, and the crowd let out a loud roar. There did not appear to be a television for the public at the outdoor event, but news of Bidens early results traveled quickly. Im very excited that they called North Carolina and Virginia as soon as the polls closed, Dana Douglas told me as she stood in line. Im also excited that he appears to have exceeded the 15 percent threshold in Vermont and so hell get some of the delegates in Bernie Sanders Vermont. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The results kept coming across the South: Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, states that Democrats have not carried in decades, with Biden borne along by black voters as he had been in his dominant, campaign-turning victory in South Carolina on Saturday. The win in Virginia was particularly impressive with his vote share coming in at more than 50 percent, around 20 points ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders in second place. Sanders, whose front-runner status in this nomination fight had become seriously challenged in a few short days, claimed his own early victory in his home state of Vermont. His strongest states, though, had not yet finished voting and would report later in the night. Sanders campaign was eager to argue that the bias toward East Coast results might be exaggerating the strength of Bidens Super Tuesday. Indeed, Sanders was declared the winner in Utah and Colorado, where he appeared headed for an impressive double-digit victory in a state that again seemed to showcase his strength among Hispanic voters. Texas and California, two of the countrys biggest Electoral College prizes and two of Sanders strongest states in recent polls, hadnt been counted when Bidens string of victories was reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By the time that TV networks declared victory for Biden in Minnesota, a state that Sanders seemed to have a chance to win just a couple days ago but that pivoted hard after Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed the former vice president, it was clear that the Biden campaign would not be waiting for California or Texas to come in to claim the night as a win. Indeed, Biden came out to address the crowd in Baldwin Hills 30 minutes before polls even closed in California, selling his Super Tuesday victories as a comeback narrative. Its still early, but things are looking awful, awful good, Biden told his cheering supporters. For those have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign. Just a few days ago the press and the pundits had declared the campaign dead. And then came South Carolina and they had something to say about it. So Im here to report we are very much alive. Soon after his speech, Biden was declared a surprise winner in MassachusettsSanders neighboring state and Sen. Elizabeth Warrens home turf. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Californias polls closed not long after Bidens speech, though, the Associated Press immediately reported it in Sanders column. Sanders wantedand neededas large a margin in California as possible to make up for Bidens delegate haul in the Eastern and central states, and his campaign successfully petitioned a judge for polls to remain open late to allow voters who were stuck in long lines in Los Angeles to vote. And despite the voting issues, Sanders had a particularly dominant performance in the state among young Hispanic voters, as he had in Nevadas caucus. Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, Texas and Californias delegate hauls alone could keep Sanders in strong contention in the delegate and popular vote count, or even help him to maintain his lead in the former and move back ahead in the latter. Those final results were still being counted late into the night on Tuesday, though, and may not come until much later. Advertisement Advertisement In the meantime, Bidens crowd of several hundred supporters in Los Angeles was celebrating. Its been an incredible last 72 hours where he was to where he is now, said Ethan Titelman. I think the partys finally taking things really seriously and coalescing around what I think is the candidate with the greatest chance of winning the election in November. Titelman hadnt settled firmly on Biden until after South Carolina and said he liked nearly everyone in the race. I was at one point in time considering everybody except for Bernie Sanders, he said. I think that shows that he has the broadest coalition, Titelman said of Bidens victories in Massachusetts and Minnesota. Hes able to win Northern states, hes able to win Southern states. States with large minority populations and states without. Advertisement Advertisement He had just started volunteering for Biden, he said, but was struck by his lack of campaign structure in the Golden State. I started this weekend, after South Carolina, literally on Saturday, I saw that he was winning, how much he was winning, I went to the office, but nobody was there, it was pretty unorganized, Titelman said. So, Im hoping that this can help build his organization to the levelI mean, look at the attendance here, its probably 1 percent of what a Bernie rally would be? Advertisement Things seemed chaotic at points in the rally, with security seeming to be non-existent and two anti-dairy protesters crashing onto the stage near the start of Bidens speech and accosting his sister Valerie and his wife, Jill. Advertisement Its unclear whether Bidenwho has raised $15 million in the first few days of March alonewill begin to build the kind of campaign infrastructure that can compete with the well-funded Sanders campaign in the states ahead. Based on his results, it seemed he might not need it. Titelman even believed that Bidens most noticeable weaknesshis struggles crafting together coherent sentenceswould not actually hamper him in a race with Trump. Advertisement Advertisement I mean look, we have a president in the White House who can barely speak English as well, he said. So I think the old rules have changed. Tyrell Pickett, a younger voter who said he supported Biden for his work on Obamacare and LGBTQ issues during the Obama presidency, also suggested Biden compared favorably with Trump when it came to verbal miscues. Trumps mouth has no filter at all, Pickett said. Advertisement When asked about Bidens misstatement during last weeks debate that 150 million Americans had been killed by gun violence in recent years, Pickett said that he felt it spoke to a larger truth. Joe, he spoke the truth. Theres a lot of violence going on [and] something has to be done about it actually, he told me. Douglas, who is gay and said she supported Biden because he pushed Obama to be in favor of marriage equality, also offered another reason for supporting Biden that comes up a lot in conversation with his supporters. I think we need someone who can bring the country together and I think its a very bad idea to lurch forward from one extreme to the other where the winner tries to dominate the loser, Douglas told me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Titelman made the same argument. I see this election as sort of like hitting the reset button, and thats my issue with Bernie, its sort of seems like if he were going to win, it would be a hard turn and then its just going to turn the other way, the pendulums going to keep swinging, he said. Maybe Joe can help find a center in this country and start anew. Kidist Berhe, an Eritrean refugee who was at the Biden event with her baby, said something similar. She had not been active in politics in the past, but she said she was there to support Biden because she felt its important this time. She liked Biden because, having grown up with kind of mass war in her home country, the current instability in this country was upsetting to her and she was looking for something calmer. It bothers me, she said. I cant even listen to the news. President Trump, she concluded, has to be out. Sure, this is not exactly breaking news; decades of global environmental heedlessness paint a grim picture of modernitys responsiveness to scientific foreboding. But this novel coronavirus illustrates the problem more acutely. If it doesnt kill us it should at least shake us out of the delusion that we can keep ignoring the science and scientists who are warning about the long-term dangers to our way of life. Religious texts say that societies face destruction when they forget God. The coronavirus, like the accelerating climate-related disaster, shows what we face when we decide to blind ourselves to science. This is what happens when you ignore and silence front-line doctors who warn of impending disaster, as authorities in China did in the early days of the outbreak: a possible global epidemiological and economic catastrophe. This is what happens when you gut the United States pandemic-response infrastructure, as Donald Trump has spent the last few years doing: a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that botches the most basic defense against disease testing for it. I wish these were one-off errors that we could attribute to authoritarian Chinese Communism or routine Trumpian incompetence. But they point to an underlying global dysfunction, one that transcends political parties and styles of government. One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK. This is because this security in the Transportation - Airline space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective. This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board. This is arguably taking place in the Transportation - Airline space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 36 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there. Meanwhile, Alaska Air Group is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firms prospects in both the short and long term. Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price and Consensus Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price and Consensus Alaska Air Group, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alaska Air Group, Inc. Quote In fact, over the past month, current quarter estimates have risen from 30 cents per share to 33 cents per share, while current year estimates have risen from $7.10 per share to $7.17 per share. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which is also a favorable signal. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. So, if you are looking for a decent pick in a strong industry, consider Alaska Air Group. Not only is its industry currently in the top third, but it is seeing solid estimate revisions as of late, suggesting it could be a very interesting choice for investors seeking a name in this great industry segment. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. Story continues This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday signed into law a package of bills aimed at making medicine more affordable including a new limit on copays for insulin, a move designed to make it cheaper in New Mexico than in any other state, she said. Approval of the health care legislation was one of about 30 signings as Lujan Grisham enters the last week to act on bills approved in the 2020 legislative session. In a news conference Wednesday, the governor highlighted House Bill 292, which will cap the monthly cost of insulin for diabetes patients at $25, the lowest copay in the country, she said. She also signed legislation allowing the states health insurance exchange to require reduced out-of-pocket costs for patients, clearing the way for the importation of drugs from Canada and imposing new regulations on e-cigarettes and tobacco products. The bills, Lujan Grisham said, are intended to reduce costs and increase access to health care in New Mexico one of the poorest states in the nation. Helping diabetes patients is a priority, she said. Insulin prices nearly tripled over 10 years, the governor said, resulting in some diabetes patients rationing the amount of medicine they use and endangering their lives. Its an outrage, Lujan Grisham said, and this is a state that isnt going to let that happen. Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, a Mesilla Democrat and co-sponsor of the legislation, described the bill as a matter of life and death. The governor also signed dozens of other measures Wednesday including Senate Bill 64, making state settlement records public immediately, rather than after a six-month wait. She also signed House Bill 21, prohibiting nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has now signed 46 of the 88 bills passed by lawmakers. She hasnt vetoed any. Democrats hold majorities in both legislative chambers. In Wednesdays news conference at the Capitol, the governor joined supporters as she signed: House Bill 100, broadening the authority of New Mexicos health insurance exchange, partly to address the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Supporters said the bill will empower the exchange to establish standardized health plans that help limit out-of-pocket costs for New Mexicans. Senate Bill 1, allowing New Mexico to pursue the importation of prescription drugs from Canada. Senate Bill 131, imposing licensing and other requirements on the manufacture, distribution and sale of tobacco products. It raises the minimum age for purchasing e-cigarettes and tobacco from 18 to 21, matching a new federal law. Peter Bone in the Commons on Wednesday. (Parliamentlive.tv) A Tory MP has called for a new June bank holiday to celebrate the 2016 Brexit referendum. Peter Bone wants an annual United Kingdom Day on the Friday closest to 23 June, the day the European Union poll was held. He said the referendums anniversary should be officially marked as it invigorated the country, but added the government has been sniffy about the idea. The backbencher told the Commons on Wednesday: Of course, 23 June, 2016 is the day the UK voted on our membership of the EU. It was the largest democratic participation this country has ever seen, with 33,551,983 people voting in that referendum. Whether the people we met [while campaigning] were big Brexiteers or real Remainers, the public were energised. Fundamentally, the people of the UK were engaged. For the first time, many felt their vote really mattered. Whether they felt happy or sad about the outcome, nothing in history has invigorated the country as much as that political debate. He said other reasons to have a bank holiday in June include the Queens coronation and official birthday being in this month. Brexit briefing: 302 days until the end of the transition period The MP for Wellingborough also pointed to patriotic bank holidays in other countries, such as Bastille Day in France and Independence Day in the US. The UK currently has eight bank holidays a year, which Bone said is the 226th lowest of 246 countries worldwide. He compared that to countries such as Cyprus and Malta, which have 17 and 14 respectively. Bone told MPs: One very important thing the government should be looking at when enhancing workers rights are public holidays. It is time the government recognised the tremendous work carried out by British people. If we are serious about wanting enhanced workers rights, then lets at least create one extra bank holiday. Success of a business is down to the quality and productivity of their employees. Companies dont succeed by making workers work as many hours as possible. They succeed if their workers are happy and productive. Story continues The bill passed its first reading, though Bone didnt appear confident it would progress. He said the government has been quite sniffy about the idea, which has rather surprised and disappointed me. He complained: Why not mark this great democratic event? The June bank holiday bill is set to go through its second reading in the Commons in June. This is the second of 11 stages it must pass in order to gain Royal Assent and become law. How four years of utter Brexit chaos unfolded The third edition of the Summit will be held in Dubai on March 5, 2020 at The Oberoi After successful Global Summits in Dubai and the U.S., the WION Global Summit is back with a third edition. The WION Global Summit: Navigating and Negotiating Global Imperatives will be held in Dubai on 5th March, 2020 from 9.30 am onwards at The Oberoi. WION is India's first international news channel dedicated to putting forth India's perspective on impactful global issues. The WION Global Summit is a platform for global leaders to engage in dialogue on a common global agenda. Global Leaders like Ranil Wickremesinghe - the former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Her Excellency Dr Vaira Vike-Freiberga the first Female President of Latvia and former president of Club de Madrid, Aleqa Hammond The first female Prime Minister of Greenland and Her Excellency Mariya Didi the Honourable Minister of Defence of the Republic of Maldives are expected to attend and take part in engaging sessions and intensive conversations on topics of global importance. The welcome note at the WION Global Summit would be given by the Indian Ambassador to the U.A.E His Excellency Pavan Kapoor. The Summit would also be attended by Sudhir Chaudhary - The CEO & Editor in Chief of WION and the sessions would be moderated by Palki Sharma Upadhyay - The Executive Editor of WION and Riz Khan - an International journalist. This year, the summit intends to highlight the critical challenges of climate change, global governance, economic slowdown, and global crisis that threatens to become the new normal. The event would also see key Indian stalwarts from the armed forces and political parties, former ambassadors and diplomats, experts from the industry, academicians and climate activists taking part in well-curated sessions. WION recently won the coveted News Channel of the Year (The Jurys Choice) and International News Channel of the year while competing against several Indian and international channels at the Exchange4Media News Broadcasting Awards. WION is distinct in its outlook from other Indian news channels as it is clutter-free and focusses on stories that truly impact peoples lives The WION Global Summit will have four insightful sessions. The first will be on India and the Emerging World focusing on the dynamics between Nationalism, Multilateralism and Creative Diplomacy The second session will be on Balancing and Recalibrating Pakistans Diplomatic Strategy: Economy, Security, and Internal Political Stability. The third session will be on Climate change and the fourth session will be a Global Leaders forum The Summit will be broadcast on WION which is available across South Asia, Australasia, the Middle East, and Russia. It will also be live on wionews.com, its app and on its social media platforms on the 5th of March 2020 from 9.30 am onwards. For more information on the summit, you could visit : https://www.wionews.com/globalsummit/dubai-2020 Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) Islamic leaders in the predominantly Catholic Philippines welcomed the Manila police chiefs apology on Wednesday for a plan to collect the names of Muslim high school and university students in the capital area that critics had branded as religious profiling. Meeting with the congressional Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, police chief Brig. Gen. Bernabe Balba said there appeared to be a flaw in communication when he ordered police across Manila to check the backgrounds of Muslim students. Philippine media last month reported about a leaked copy of the Jan. 31 directive, triggering angry responses from Muslim legislators and human rights advocates, and leading police to recall it. We, at the Manila Police District, deeply regret this lapse in communication, Balba told the members of congress, promising that police would have to be more careful and more diligent in textualizing our message whether it be internal or external to avoid the same gap in the future. He denied allegations that police were engaged in profiling Muslim students and emphasized that the directive was to develop the necessary planning and preparations for conducting a series of seminars and an information campaign involving students. He said it was meant to boost the safety and security of our students on campuses across the metropolis. The directive called for police to collect statistical information on Muslim students enrolled in high schools and colleges in Metro Manila, the police chief told the committee. He said it was part of a police effort to improve relations in designated Muslim communities in the capital and to better safeguard against terrorism. Nowhere in the said format did the police ask for the identities of the Muslim students enrolled in these schools, nor the individual information or profile of these students, Balba said. In short, the subject of this memorandum failed to capture the righteous intent of the document, which is to merely collect the contact details of the educational institutions within the districts jurisdiction, he said. Muslim lawmaker offers support Mujiv Hataman, a Muslim congressman representing southern Basilan island, welcomed the apology. When he served as governor of a Muslim autonomous region in the south, Hataman said, he launched a program encouraging former militants to surrender in exchange for housing and employment. Nearly 300 extremists took part in the program. Hataman said he would be willing to work with police to develop a similar program for Muslim communities in Manila. We have a working example of how to prevent violent extremism, Hataman told BenarNews. What we have accomplished before in Basilan can be replicated elsewhere in the country. He thanked the chief for recalling the directive and said he had spoken with police officials about ways to improve relations with Manilas Muslim community. Hataman advised police to work closely with the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and other civic and religious organizations rather than taking steps to alienate the community. I believe there are better ways to prevent terrorism in the country, Hataman said. Since the directive went public, Muslims across the country have condemned it. This is wrong and instead of aiding our effort against violent extremism, it pushes people toward it, said lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, the local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the new autonomous region in the south. Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales in Cotabato, Philippines, contributed to this report. Jackie Malton, the inspiration behind the Helen Mirren drama Prime Suspect, features in a true crime series The Real Prime Suspect. Here she re-examines some of the most intriguing British and American murder cases. When a murder takes place, how do detectives find their Prime Suspect especially when the killer is more devious, determined and disciplined than any they have ever encountered before? Jackie will be the heart of this series allowing the audience to experience every step with her in the journey to capturing the prime suspect, gaining a conviction and providing closure to those who seek it. The grit, determination, and enquiring mind that saw her excel in her career will be on full show in this series as Jackie returns to her roots as a detective. Using Jackies unparalleled list of contacts, she will get exclusive access to case files, will have credible in-depth discussions with the police, detectives and other professionals who were at the heart of each investigation. This will give the audience a perspective on each case and crime like they have never experienced in True Crime programmes before all building up to the moment they find their Real Prime Suspect and they are brought to justice. Tuesday March 17 at 9.30pm on Crime & Investigation. Getty A Democratic primary marked by dramatic shifts in momentum took another one on Tuesday night, as former Vice President Joe Biden jumped out to quick, decisive victories in several major Super Tuesday states. The Associated Press reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was poised to notch victories in California, Colorado, Utah, and in his home state of Vermont. But the bigger surprise was that, as soon as the polls closed, Biden was declared the winner in Virginia, a state with a potentially large delegate haul that seemed more of a toss up just days prior. Then, 30 minutes later it happened again, this time in North Carolina where Biden had campaigned just hours before his massive South Carolina win on Saturday. After another 30 minutes, Alabama was added to Bidens column. Bidens strength in the south continued from there, with a win coming later in the evening in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, and finally, in Texas. On a stunning night, Bidens victories werent confined to the south. Minnesota, which was called for Biden shortly before 10 p.m, was the first state to show that the former VP was enjoying a breakthrough night. The state had switched from a caucus in 2016 to a primary in 2020 and results hurt Sanders, who had won 61.6 percent of the vote there when running against Hillary Clinton. Then came Massachusetts, which was called about an hour later, giving Biden a win in a state that Sanders seemed likely to prevail in and which was home turf to another rival, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The night wasnt a complete loss for Sanders, whose strengths were visible elsewhere on the map, starting with the biggest prize of all: California. The Vermont Independent claimed an early victory in Colorado, which returned to a primary system after 20 years of holding caucuses, giving him a potentially-large delegate haul. He scored a win in Utah as well. One feature that seemed likely to help Sanders in those two states was the fact that there was early voting, meaning that many ballots were cast prior to Bidens South Carolina win. All told, 14 states were voting with more than 1,300 delegates up for grabs. Story continues Just a few days ago, it seemed likely that Sanders would score major victories across the board on Tuesday and solidify his standing as the undisputed frontrunner in the race. But Bidens win in South Carolina and the subsequent decision of several other candidatesSen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN), and former Rep. Beto ORourke (D-TX)to suspend their campaigns and endorse him have altered the primarys dynamics. California Is the Ballgame for Joe Biden Now Sanders, well-funded and steady for months, built a strong infrastructure in several Super Tuesday statesmost notably in Texas and California. Biden, meanwhile, spent the last 48 hours playing catch-up, bolstered by the primary win, the endorsements, and an infusion of cash. As a result, it increasingly looks like Sanders and Biden will find themselves in a dogfight for delegates, potentially all the way up to the convention in Milwaukee this July. Biden and Sanders were not the only two candidates competing on Tuesday. Warrens camp fell silent after it emerged that she had suffered an embarrassing defeat in her home state of Massachusetts. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was competing in primaries for the first time this cycle, spent roughly half a billion dollars on his campaign, but conceded on Tuesday that he likely would not get to the convention with the majority of delegates. Instead, he said, a contested convention is the only way I can win. His only win on Tuesday night was the caucus in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. The former mayor, however, appears keen on continuing his campaign. An advertising buying firm reported that he had already placed new ads in states that vote soon, including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington. Angry Bloomberg Complains That Biden Is Taking His Votes Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Photo credit: Screenshot From Esquire The Dixie Chicks haven't released an album in 14 years, and yet, with the Wednesday release of "Gaslighter," the country trio has proven that time is only a construct. "Gaslighter," the first single off the upcoming album of the same name, brings the classic Dixie Chicks sound into 2020, baked in with heavy drums and a message that predictably speaks to our times. Oh, and the single absolutely slaps. The country music powerhouse worked with Jack Antonoff on the new album. Emily Robinson told Apple Music's Zane Lowe that "[Gaslighter] was the first song we wrote with Jack Antonoff. At the time we thought we thought we were gonna write with a bunch of different people and get different producers and we wrote with him and we're like, he needs to produce it and this needs to be the sound for this album." The band has effectively been on hiatus for nearly a decade and a half, save a reunion tour back in 2016. The three women tell Lowe that a big part of that was to spend time with their collective nine children. But when the music industry calls for a resurrection, the Dixie Chicks listen. In 2003, the band faced volatile backlash from conservative fans for saying they don't support the invasion of Iraq or President Busha mild political statement by 2020's standards. After a brief step back from the spotlight, the group returned in 2006 with the release of Taking the Long Way Around, which took home the Grammy for Album of the Year. After that album, the band went on what seemed to be a permanent-hiatus, only returning for a reunion tour in 2016. Gaslighter, due out May 1, will mark a new era for the trio, whose lead single seems to indicate that they won't be shying away from any controversy. The music video accompanying the single is a throwback to old school political propaganda, only adding to the message of "gaslighter," which the band defined on social media as "a psychological manipulator who seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a group, making them question their own memory, perception or sanity." Though the single explicitly skewers gender roles, the overtly liberal band's return comes as the country heads into a massive 2020 presidential election. If the news of politics and untruths are going to dominate headlines, it's nice to know that country's most rebellious trio is back to shed a bit of commentary on it. You Might Also Like In response to the increasing level of international alertness to the spread of Coronavirus referred to as COVID-19 several health organizations in Midland County are taking precautions to combat the threat of a potential outbreak. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 a virus closely related to the SARS virus. Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, and may appear two to 14 days after exposure. MidMichigan Health, in collaboration with national, state and local agencies, is continuing to review and reinforce processes for identifying and caring for patients with the virus in the event that it is required, a press release stated. MidMichigan Health is a non-profit health system headquartered at Midland. Sherry Anderson, MidMichigan Health regulatory compliance manager, stated while the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in the United States is currently low, infection prevention precautions and emergency response plans are in place at MidMichigan Health. Members of our infection prevention and employee health teams from across the health system are meeting regularly to discuss all possible scenarios and we are carefully monitoring the news as it evolves," Anderson said. "We are following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and working with state and local health care partners to make sure we are prepared for any possible threat to our community and our state. In January, MidMichigan Health announced that due to continued cases of the flu being reported and the heightened alert to COVID-19, travel screenings would continue to occur at patient registration areas and the previously implemented visitor restrictions would remain in place for the remainder of the flu season. The restrictions allow only those visitors who are healthy without symptoms of illnesses to visit patients at MidMichigans Medical Centers in Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Midland, Mount Pleasant and West Branch. General preparedness measures that have been completed, are in development and are ongoing at MidMichigan Health facilities include: Reinforcing patient travel screening and triage questions based on CDC recommendations for Emergency Departments, Ambulatory Care, physician offices and clinics, and inpatient settings. Updating the electronic medical record system with references/advisories for staff to identify patients who may be at risk for COVID-19 based on their travel history. Ensuring a process is in place to allow for safe and effective testing for patients meeting criteria. Following CDC guidelines for handling tested specimens. Outlining/mapping isolation procedures and areas. Sharing information on COVID-19 patient management with appropriate clinical staff. Equipping clinical areas with protective clothing and protective equipment to be used in the event of a suspected COVID-19 case. Following comprehensive procedures for disinfecting patient rooms and removing/disposing of linens and cubicle curtains. Preparing to safely disinfect patient treatment areas and necessary supplies used to treat COVID-19 patients. Preparing to communicate with state departments, employees and media in case of highly-suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19. Providing via the MidMichigan Health website CDC information on COVID-19, visitor policy information, and signs and symptoms of the flu. Coronavirus in the classroom Also taking precaution to stem the spread of illness is Midland Public Schools (MPS), a district comprised of 11 local schools. "Midland Public Schools is placing a special emphasis on how (COVID-19) may spread and impact schools," MPS superintendent Michael Sharrow said in a special edition communique sent to students and parents. MPS has followed guidance from the CDC on "common sense" strategies for schools to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, such as: Keeping distance from each other when ill. Parents need to keep children who exhibit cold and flu-like symptoms home and see a health professional. Encourage children/students to keep hands off mouth and eyes. Use anti-bacterial soap and wash hands frequently. Review proper hand washing techniques. Discouraging sharing of food and beverages. According to the communique, MPS has and will continue to increase its level of cleaning in schools and use products that are proven effective. Currently, there are no recommendations of closing schools from federal, state or local levels, Sharrow stated, but MPS will always keep the option open if confirmed cases occur on a state or local level. MPS monitors daily absence rates among its student for a variety of reasons, including an aim to be proactive if increased rates of illness are observed, the communique stated. As of the end of February, MPS has not seen any increased absence rates all schools within the district have maintained attendance rates of 90% or higher, which is normal for the month. "Evolving situation" As there have yet to be any cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, or the state Michigan as a whole, Midland County Health Department director Fred Yanoski said his department is in "preparation mode," closely monitoring COVID-19 updates on a national and international level and keeping track of the CDC's recommendations. "This is certainly an evolving situation at this point, we are largely monitoring the situation and trying to enhance the knowledge and preparedness of our local public and community partners if and when a (COVID-19) case would arrive," Yanoski said. "There is still so much (about COVID-19) that we don't know, so we are learning as well as we go along, because the extent of how virulent it is or how much mortality is changing how the disease may be spread is changing. We're monitoring everything about the disease, and as it progresses, public health professionals will learn more about it, and it will help us in our response at a later date." Department Medical Director Catherine Bodnar plays an integral part in spreading awareness about sicknesses facing the county, spearheading outreach efforts to local companies and non-profits answering questions and providing community partners with resources. Latest News CoreLogic data shows new listings on the rise in early 2022 First data of the year suggests supply is already entering back into the market, cooling hot property market Business NSW calls for support as pandemic bites Staff shortages and customer falls causing severe problems in recovery The Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) has announced the creation of a new role within its organisation, intended to bolster the support it provides to brokers across the country. Mark Windram has been appointed state manager for Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, effective March 30. According to FBAA managing director, Peter White AM, the association wants to arm brokers with access to assistance and professional development to prepare for the incoming regulatory changes. Mark fits our requirement of broker for broker through his extensive knowledge of both lender and broker businesses, and his understanding of what our members need, said White. Windram previously worked with Keystart Home Loans in Western Australia, where he gained a thorough knowledge of credit policy and how to effectively negotiate between brokers and credit departments. During this time, Windram also served a four-year term as a councillor for Town of Victoria Park in Western Australia. This helped Mark understand the needs of a community from individuals to large business, said White. The FBAA has used the appointment as an acknowledgement that brokers in all states need to be equally supported by the association; as such, Windram will assist members in some of the more regional and remote areas of Australia. As we enter this new decade, brokers need to be more vigilant, particularly in an era where consumer advocates and activists have agendas and many new brokers are joining the industry, said White. The FBAA also announced business development manager Leah Renwick will be transitioning into the new role of state manager for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as part of the shuffle. In a relief to the telecom industry, currently grappling with the adjusted gross revenue crisis, the government on Wednesday said that mobile service providers would be given the option to defer future spectrum auction payments. Considering the stress in the sector, the government has given an option to the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to defer payment of the spectrum auction instalments dues for 2020-21 and 2021-22, either for one or both years, Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre informed the Lok Sabha today. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Leader urges Iranians to heed official directives on coronavirus Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 11:37 AM Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called on all Iranians to help boost the country's battle to stem a growing coronavirus epidemic by paying close heed to the directives and guidelines issued by heath officials. Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks on Tuesday after he planted two saplings, an annual tradition in honor of National Arbor Day and Natural Resources Week. He once again thanked doctors, nurses and the country's entire medical community for their invaluable endeavors, saying they are "engaged in jihad on the path of God." The Leader also expressed his gratitude to the medics' families who are exercising patience while their loved ones are making round-the-clock efforts to rein in the disease. Ayatollah Khamenei laid emphasis on the need for public attention to guidelines issued by health authorities aimed at containing the coronavirus outbreak. "These orders should not at all be violated as God has obliged us to take responsibility for our own health and for that of others; therefore, anything that contributes to the society's health and helps prevent the spread of the disease is a virtue and, [on the contrary], whatever facilitates its spread is a sin." The Leader further assigned all government entities, his own office, as well as the Armed Forces with the task of fully cooperating with the Health Ministry, which is at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus. Ayatollah Khamenei gave assurances that the disaster was only transient and not of monumental dimension, and that it could be brought under control in due time. "Of course, I don't mean to underestimate the issue, but we should not also exaggerate it either. This issue will not last long and will pass, but the experience it brings as well as the efforts made by the people and institutions are like a collective exercise that could be used as an achievement," the Leader said. Ayatollah Khamenei also lauded the Iranian officials' "transparency and honesty" in disseminating information about the outbreak, whereas "there is a cover-up in certain other countries, where this disease is more severe and more widespread." As of Tuesday, Iran's Health Ministry reported 77 deaths and 2,336 infections. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address After the 2018 election, it took nearly a month for the winner to be determined in the Central Valley congressional race between T.J. Cox, the Democrat, and David Valadao, the incumbent Republican. Mr. Valadao eventually conceded. This time, California like the other 13 states, American Samoa and Democrats Abroad that voted on Tuesday will have to figure out which candidates won enough votes to cross the 15 percent threshold to accrue delegates. And California will have to do those calculations both statewide and in each of its 53 congressional districts. Of Californias 415 delegates, 144 will be allocated according to the statewide results so whichever candidates win at least 15 percent of the vote will get a share of those delegates. The remaining 271 delegates will be divided among the congressional districts. The more Democratic a congressional district is, the more delegates it has. Californias 12th and 13th districts in San Francisco and Oakland have seven delegates each, while the rest of the districts have four, five or six. NEW DELHI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- As many as 25 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in India since Tuesday, said the country's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday. Addressing to the media in New Delhi, the minister said the new cases included 16 Italian nationals and one Indian driver who accompanied them on a tour. All the Italian nationals found suffering from COVID-19 have been shifted to a camp set up in Delhi. "They wanted to go back to their home country, but they were refused to travel by the Italian government and asked to stay back in India. So we have kept them in isolation in a special camp set up in Delhi," said the health minister. He said the first three positive cases found in the southern state of Kerala had been successfully treated. "If they are added too, we can say that the total number of positive COVID-19 cases found in India till date is 28." The minister told the media after concluding an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation. The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has outlined new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus into the country. Mr. Manu, on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 briefed Parliamentarians on the state of the country's preparedness. The measures include the setting up of a 100-bed facility in a remote area to serve as a centre for quarantining persons with suspected coronavirus infection. The facility will be ready in two weeks. Dedicated contact lines have been given to the general public to report suspected cases of Covid-19. Phone lines are 0552222004, 0552222005, 05094977100, 0558439868 and 0800110555. These are all toll-free numbers. Alternatively, text messages can be sent to the shortcode 199. Mr. Speaker, so far, 5,000 PPEs have been procured and distributed to all regions, major health facilities, points of entry, teaching hospitals, treatment centres and selected health facilities, he said. For surveillance, we have inducted and circulated Covid-19 case definitions to regional and lower levels. We have also adopted a Cobid-19 investigation form which is currently in use. National rapid response team has been activated. The national-level training for rapid response teams and local health workers on severe respiratory illnesses has been done. Training of regional and district rapid response teams has been planned for execution. Ghanas preparedness Per Ghana's preparedness plan for an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, the state is operating along the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols. Alerts have been sent to all regions to update their respective preparedness plans and activate their respective public health management committees. Ghana is among 13 priority countries in Africa identified as being at high risk of getting the virus because of their established links with China. So far, the Ridge Hospital and the Tema General Hospital have been earmarked as case management centres. Four other facilities; the Ga East Hospital, the Police Hospital, the LEKMA Hospital and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have been identified as additional facilities to support case management. Technical support visits have also been undertaken by the Institutional Care Division (ICD) of Ghana Health Service and WHO to some designated facilities to assess preparedness. Staff at the two identified treatment centres have also been given preliminary training in case management. The country currently has testing capabilities for the virus at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research. The centres have handled 24 suspected cases so far. The United States government is, so far, also providing technical support and funding. The National Technical Coordinating Committee has met twice to coordinate national preparedness activities. Ghana's National Public Emergency Preparedness Plan has been updated and a draft COVID-19 preparedness plan has been developed. ---citinewsroom Billionaire Michael Bloomberg delivered an emotional farewell to his presidential campaign Wednesday even as he vowed to deploy his mammoth operation to keep hammering President Donald Trump. 'Today Im sorry we didnt win but its still the best day of my life and tomorrows going to be even better,' Bloomberg told cheering staff members at his Manhattan headquarters. His voice cracked at times as he recounted the efforts by his staff, who enjoyed pay and perks as they helped lift him up in the polls only to have former Vice President Joe Biden reemerge as the dominant Democratic candidate. An emotional Mike Bloomberg vowed to continue his efforts against Donald Trump as he got out of the race 'You devoted your days and nights doing the most important job in America defeating Donald Trump,' he told them. 'No campaign has ever achieved as much as you did in such a short period of time,' he told them, saying they got 2 million votes after knocking on millions of doors. His eyes moistened at the end of his remarks as he said he was 'amazed at how many people have stood with me shoulder to shoulder.' He endured a flurry of attacks late in his bid, both for being a billionaire rivals said was trying to 'buy' the election, and faced accusations of overseeing a hostile work environment towards women at the company he built. He was accused of overseeing a 'racist' stop and frisk policy as mayor in New York. The data-centric Bloomberg said there was no path to victory any more. 'I am clear eyed about our overriding objective, and that is victory in November. Not victory for me or our campaign but for our country,' he said. He said the goal was to defeat Trump and 'staying in would make it more difficult to achieve that goal.' It could have allowed him to split votes with Biden and give Bernie Sanders an expressway to the nomination. Bloomberg grew emotional when describing the efforts of his staff on behalf of his campaign The billionaire hired 2,000 staff and spent millions on the airwaves Former democratic presidential candidate and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks to supporters and stuff on March 4, 2020 in New York City. He reassured staff who joined his effort Bloomberg called Biden 'my friend and a great American Joe Biden' earning applause from his staff, following reports Tuesday his advisors were lobbying him to get out of the race. 'This really is the best, most creative, most hard-working campaign team ever assembled,' he said. 'And I have to say, there is no doubt in my mind we would've beaten Donald Trump in November. And you know who else knows that? Donald Trump. Hes been scared stiff of us and for good reason,' Bloomberg added. 'Because every time he hit us, we hit back twice as hard. And unlike his jabs, our punches packed the truth.' He spoke at his headquarters shortly after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders tore into Biden's voting records, indicating that the nomination fight is far from over. It remains to be seen exactly how Bloomberg will deploy his personnel and financial resources. Campaign finance laws prohibit coordinating with a campaign, but he is generally allowed to engage in his own efforts to back candidates or issues. Bloomberg dramatically quit the race Wednesday morning after a disastrous Super Tuesday and immediately backed Joe Biden. The billionaire gained just 44 delegates by 10.11am, the time he announced his departure - but ran up a bill of $1 billion. He immediately and whole-heartedly backed Biden, the night's big winner, hinting that his vast fortune is now at the former vice-president's disposal. 'I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it,' he said. 'After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. 'I've known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. 'Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States.' Manama His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa chaired the regular weekly Cabinet session, attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, at the Al-Sakhir Palace today. HM the King asserted that the citizens are the nations assets in facing all challenges thanks to their awareness and civilisational dealing with various global developments, thus reflecting the authentic Bahraini spirit proved by the firm stances showcased by Bahrainis throughout history, a post-statement by the Cabinet Secretary-General, Dr. Yasser bin Isa Al-Nasser, said. HM King Hamad stressed that Bahrain will remain, as it has always been, a land of love, where everybody enjoys security and harmony, noting that overcoming the Coronavirus (COVID-19 is not only a challenge that we face locally, but it also a crisis that the entire world is confronting. We are fully confident that the Kingdom of Bahrain, with the solidarity of its citizens, is capable of overcoming this challenge. HM the King was informed, through a presentation, about the efforts being exerted in the kingdom to address COVID-19. The presentation revealed that during the ongoing medical tests, a total of 2225 individuals had tested negative, while only two cases tested positive, to whom HM the King wished speedy recovery and wellness. HM King commended the close endeavours, as well as the national, humanitarian and noble efforts, led by HRH the Crown Prince and with the spirit of the united Bahrain team, including the Executive, the Legislature, the private sector institutions, the citizens and residents, to combat the virus. HM the King emphasised that the Bahrain team has proved its worth and outstanding ability to overcome the challenges faced by the kingdom, which consolidates the dedicated efforts that would preserve the health and safety of everyone, adding that he is looking forward to the continuity of HRH the Crown Princes efforts in order to achieve the expected goals. HM King Hamad expressed thanks and appreciation to the Bahrain Defence Force, Interior Ministry, Health Ministry, Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry, Information Affairs Ministry, the two endowment directorates, and whoever contributes to ensuring the safety of Bahrain and the health of its citizens and residents, as well as places the interests of the nation and its citizens above everything else. In another context, HM the King expressed Bahrains full support for the temporary precautionary measures taken by sisterly Saudi Arabia to protect Umrah pilgrims and visitors of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)s Mosque and prevent the spread of Coronavirus, calling for intensifying cooperation and coordination at the GCC, Arab and regional levels to take more efficient measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. HM King Hamad expressed sincere thanks and appreciation to Saudi Arabia, led by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and Crown Prince, Deputy Premier and Defence Minister, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, for its constant support for Bahrain. HM the King stressed the importance of the continuity of the states action march and programmes without delay due to the on-going global problem. HM King Hamad indicated that the general health situation in the kingdom is stable, noting that the nation will carry on undertaking its efforts, at all levels, to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, and expressing hope that it will be contained soon. HM the King gave directives to increase the capacity of treatment facilities, provide maximum comfort requirements and put in place the highest standards of quality health care for those receiving treatment so that they recover soon, praising the efficiency of the precautionary and preventive measures taken to fight COVID-19. HRH the Crown Prince extended deepest thanks and appreciation to HM King Hamad for his unwavering keenness on following up on the governments work, as well as on the measures it has taken to preserve the health and safety of the citizens and residents, through the efforts of the National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19). HRH the Crown Prince affirmed that the capacity of treatment facilities will be raised immediately by the relevant sides, and that efforts will be doubled, as required by national interests, to overcome all challenges and achieve national goals. The US-backed telecoms group Africell Holding has been asked to submit a bid for the fourth Angolan Unified Global operating licence. The government of Angola asked Africell to submit a formal technical and financial proposal for the licence, which permits infrastructure-based mobile, internet, fixed telephony and pay-TV services, after Africell turned out to be the sole licence applicant interested in formalising a bid. Two other companies South Africas MTN Group and Angolas BAI Investments had reportedly registered an interest in the fourth licence but that appears to have been as far as their involvement went. Local news agencies have reported that the preliminary stages of the fourth licence tender saw interest from a large number of major players, including Bharti Airtel, Maroc Telecom, Telkom South Africa, Orange Group and Vodafone Group 12 companies in all. Now Africell is set to join state-backed fixed line operator Angola Telecom, which holds the third Unified Global licence, as a new entrant in the mobile market. Angola Telecom is planning a mobile launch in partnership with Egyptian-backed Angorascom. Angolas mobile market is currently made up of only two mobile operators: Unitel and Movicel. With a population estimated at 29 million there certainly seems room for more players and the Africell group undoubtedly has experience of African markets. It operates mobile networks in Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and also provides internet, pay-TV and mobile money services. Bengaluru, March 4 : The Karnataka forest department has found three newborn leopard cubs without their mother in a sugar cane field at Tumbala village in T. Narasipur taluk, Mysuru district, a forest official said on Wednesday. "After the villagers alerted us, we found the cubs and rescued them on Tuesday," Mysuru Division Deputy Conservator of Forests, K.C. Prasanth Kumar, told IANS. However, Kumar also said that it was not right to remove the cubs from the place where the mother nestled them. "The cubs shouldn't have been rescued from the spot. I have instructed to leave the cubs in the same place because it is not correct to remove them from the place where the mother has kept them," he said. The Deputy Conservator of Forests said the department will return the cubs to the same spot for the next two days to enable the mother take them away. As the mother leopard generally comes in the night to take away the cubs, Kumar said he will review his decision after two days. He said the forest staff would place the cubs at the spot and hide somewhere nearby. "Usually, the mother remembers the place where it keeps her cubs. But now the mother would have been disturbed because of a lot movement," Kumar said. T. Narasipura Taluk is 145 km south-west of Bengaluru. (Newser) On Tuesday night, six new novel coronavirus cases were confirmed in Los Angeles County, bringing the total to seven. On Wednesday, the county declared an emergency, which the Los Angeles Times explains "is designed to better marshal resources from across government agencies and give the fight against the virus more focus." Indeed, at a news conference LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger reiterated that "this is not a response rooted in panic. We need every tool at our disposal." None of the six cases were incidents of "community transmission," local health officials explained, per the Long Beach Post, but rather had close contact with an infected person. story continues below Three had been to northern Italy, two had contact with a relative not from LA County who had the virus, and one's job involves interaction with travelers. All are quarantined at home except for one, who is in the hospital. Also Wednesday, California reported its first coronavirus death, though this was on the opposite end of the state in Placer County. The patient was elderly, had underlying health conditions, and had likely been exposed on a cruise, CNN reports. More developments: The WHO was out Wednesday with a new death-rate estimate, reports the AP: "Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The AP also reports that lawmakers have agreed upon $8.3 billion in spending to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak. The House passed the bipartisan measure Wednesday, with the Senate pushing to do the same this week, likely on Thursday. President Trump is expected to sign the measure, which includes $800 million for research related to vaccines, drugs, and tests; $1 billion for reimbursing state and local governments; and $500 million to purchase medical supplies like medication and masks. (Read more coronavirus stories.) A new study examined how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect unauthorized immigration from Mexico to the United States. Current U.S. policy bans people who are deported from receiving legal status for a period of time; this policy, called a legal entry ban, is designed to deter unauthorized immigration, but may not work for many Mexican immigrants. The study found that legal entry bans for deported individuals are ineffective at encouraging legal immigration, but increased legalization rates could reduce illegal immigration. The study also found that a temporary work visa program could deter illegal immigration without resulting in large increases in the number of migrants living in the United States. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is a working paper of the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Understanding the interactions between immigration enforcement and legal immigration policies is important for contemporary immigration policy debates," says Brian K. Kovak, assistant professor of economics and public policy at CMU's Heinz College, who led the study. "In certain contexts, temporary work visa programs may provide more feasible means of providing legal access to the U.S. labor market while still amplifying the deterrent effects of immigration enforcement policies." Since 2005, the U.S. workforce has included nearly 8 million unauthorized immigrants. U.S. employers demand these workers' services despite potential sanctions and significant barriers to employment facing unauthorized workers. Because U.S. immigration policy is restrictive, most potential immigrants can live and work legally in the United States only if they have a close family member who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. In this study, researchers looked at how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect the flow of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico to the United States. They used data from the Mexican Migration Project, a joint program of Princeton University and the University of Guadalajara, that surveys Mexican households. In all, they analyzed the international migration circumstances, decisions, and outcomes of 17,538 migrants (primarily male) ages 18 to 65 from 1997 to 2018. The researchers developed a model that considered the effects of changing enforcement policies and opportunities to obtain legal status using various counterfactual immigration policies and three different outcomes. Because many migrants move temporarily and repeatedly, the dynamic nature of the study's model helped the researchers understand the implications of migration policy for decisions about migration. The study found that deporting more migrants reduced the number of unauthorized migration to the United States and reduced the cumulative number of years a potential migrant spends living in the United States as an unauthorized immigrant. But even when increasing deportation rates, the policy of excluding those with prior deportations had little effect on rates of unauthorized migration because the likelihood of an unauthorized immigrant obtaining legal status is low. Only in instances where unauthorized immigrants were already likely to gain legal status did the legal entry ban policy reduce unauthorized migration. These findings confirm the value migrants place on having the opportunity to move to the United States legally. Although more chances to achieve legal status deter unauthorized immigration, they also increase the number of authorized immigrants living permanently in the United States. The study considered the effects of expanding access to temporary work visas, which allow migrants to work in the United States for a fixed period of time, after which they must return home. The study found that permanent legal status and temporary visas reduce unauthorized immigration--with temporary visas having less of an impact. This suggests that expanding the number of temporary work visas would help deter unauthorized migration without resulting in significant increases in the overall number of migrants living in the United States. The relationship between enforcement and legal immigration policy informs whether to enact different policies simultaneously or sequentially. Many of the comprehensive immigration reforms that have been proposed in the last 25 years include simultaneously increasing enforcement and expanding temporary worker programs. This study suggests that these policies would reinforce one another in reducing unauthorized immigration to the United States. However, another approach requires reductions in unauthorized migration prior to increasing the options for legal migration. This sequential approach is implemented either through the use of trigger clauses within a single piece of legislation or by legislation focused exclusively on enforcement. While there may be justifications for the sequential approach, they suggest that achieving a reduction in unauthorized migration will be more costly without increased legal access to the United States than when implementing both sets of policies simultaneously. "Our findings have important implications for structuring future immigration reforms," says Rebecca Lessem, assistant professor of economics in the Tepper School of Business at CMU, the study's coauthor. ### Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 15:16:19|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close QINGDAO, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Wei Xuexin, a 74-year-old farmer in east China's Shandong Province, is working in a "micro-factory" in his own courtyard. His only workmates are his wife and daughter-in-law. Packaging and labeling, the family is busy assembling fashion accessories for local factories in Ligezhuang Township in Jiaozhou city. "Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, we have stayed at home for more than one month and were increasingly concerned about our income," said Wei. "By assembling accessories at home, we three can now earn over 100 yuan (14 U.S. dollars) per day." Ligezhuang has over 80 fashion accessories and craft factories, exporting products to North America and Europe with an annual sales turnover of near 100 million U.S. dollars. Due to the outbreak, many have suspended production. To ensure the stability of local villagers' incomes and smooth resumption of local factories' production, the fashion accessories industry association decided to move factory workshops to the courtyards of villagers. Every day, the association delivers accessory parts to farmers and then collects the finished goods. "The assembling of accessories and crafts needs a tremendous amount of hand labor. Seeing many farmers stay at home without income during the epidemic, we came up with this idea," said Wei Zhaojiang, vice president of the association. There were fewer than 2,000 people working on accessories and crafts assembly at home in the township, but now the number has surpassed 5,000, according to Wei. "Their work efficiency at home is very high. The number of overseas orders has risen to the level of last year's same period," said Wei. "We are confident in pulling through." Zhang Shuiping, manager of a local craft company, said his company benefits a lot from the micro-factories. "Many workers from other provinces can't return to work. Local villagers working from home help us deliver products on time," Zhang said. In Puji Township in Jiaozhou, more than 20 villages also set up such micro-factories in farmers' courtyards to produce curtains and other products. In Li Danjun's home, eight villagers wearing masks are working on their sewing machines to make curtains for Australian customers. "I work eight hours each day and earn over 4,000 yuan a month," said Li. "I am happy and relieved to have a steady income without leaving home at this time." As the coronavirus threatens to upend the travel industry, executives of hotel, airline and cruise ship companies have been forced to confront sensitive questions of how to best protect their customers and employees. In the growing corner of the travel world occupied by Airbnb, those issues are being hashed out one home-sharing host and guest at a time. On an online message board for hosts, a man in Mumbai asked what he should do when he received an inquiry from a guest coming from China. "I am unsure if I confirm or cancel the booking," he wrote. A host from Tacoma, Wash., wrote on the same board that she's "wiping down all door knobs, handles, light switches, and anything else that may have been touched by the previous guests." In some cases, travelers of Asian descent have reported host cancellations they see as discriminatory. And in one posting, a host in Rome wrote that they had a guest check out "because next door there is a family from Asia." "Two days before the trip, I got a message through the Airbnb app that said ... 'Hey, sorry we are afraid of coronavirus,' " said Kavi Pandian, a Fulbright scholar from outside Atlanta who had his reservation for a German Airbnb canceled. "I got the impression ... that I might not have gotten that message if it weren't clear from my profile that I was someone from Asian background." The outbreak began late last year in China and has now spread to almost every continent, killing more than 3,000 people total, including at least nine in the United States. Global economic growth could be cut sharply as factories in China and elsewhere shut down, endangering supply lines. Travel and tourism might be hit especially hard as travel restrictions kick in and conventions and other large-scale gatherings are canceled. Airbnb spokeswoman Mattie Zazueta said she did not have information on whether home-sharing cancellations are up. But the spread of the disease comes at an inopportune moment for a company readying for an initial public offering. In a statement, Airbnb said, "(O)ur focus right now is on how we can best support our stakeholders as they are impacted by this global health challenge, including hosts, guests, employees and the communities in which we operate." The company, on its website, provides links to information about travel advisories and general information about the virus and urges people "to take necessary precautions to protect yourself when traveling or hosting." Airbnb's Zazueta said the company has also directly contacted hosts in some countries "to help them stay prepared and follow best practices." Depending on the timing of the booking, Airbnb said it would also allow guests and hosts to cancel without penalties if their booking is in mainland China or South Korea, or if guests are coming from those two locations. Usually, the host chooses a cancellation policy that sets limitations on how guests can receive a full refund. The full-refund "extenuating circumstances" policy also applies to anyone, worldwide, who needs to comply with "disease control restrictions implemented by relevant governmental or health authorities," as well as people "diagnosed or suspected of being infected with COVID-19 (the virus' official name) by a medical or health authority." That doesn't cover many people who are simply wary of getting on a crowded plane and traveling to other busy tourist destinations amid what may turn out to be a pandemic. Cancellations are hitting countries that haven't seen widespread reports of the virus. Bogdana Butnar, who helps her elderly parents run an Airbnb in a Romanian mountain village, said two guests have already canceled, saying they have been warned against unnecessary travel. "My expectation is this will impact this summer's booking severely," Butnar said in an email. "My parents are obviously disappointed (because) the extra income was nice and they loved having people staying at the house." On its website laying out the cancellation policy, Airbnb also asks "that all community members be mindful of respect, inclusion, and our nondiscrimination policy when interacting with other members of our community." Zazueta said Airbnb would "investigate all reports of discrimination and take appropriate action when necessary, including up to removal of users from the platform." Pandian said Airbnb was very helpful, got him a full refund and gave him additional money to pay for a new place to enjoy a German festival. But some guests consider the refund conditions arbitrary. For example, Airbnb's offer of a full refund applies to guests traveling to mainland China who are checking in April 1 or earlier. In South Korea, it applies to guests checking in March 9 or earlier. That leaves out people such as Kevin Huynh of Corona, Calif. The 46-year-old electrical engineer booked a place in South Korea for a June family trip with his wife and two children. Concerned, they've decided to stay home. He said Airbnb initially told him he could only receive a 50% refund, but after he pushed back the company eventually offered a 50% refund and a 50% credit to book another trip. He said he's holding out for a full refund because he doesn't want to deal with Airbnb again after fighting with their customer service representatives. Huynh's experience shows how Airbnb's business model can add complexity to resolving disputes at times such as this. In one message, an Airbnb rep told Huynh the company's hands were tied because the host was still willing to accommodate him and refused to agree to a refund. "Every cancellation, especially those which blocked the host's calendar dates for a few dates, are lost business opportunities (for the host)," the Airbnb employee wrote. "Therefore, your host is the best person to determine if this refund request is acceptable after taking business factors into consideration." The employee recommended that Huynh check the cancellation policy for future bookings, so "this kind of matter will be avoided in the future." Huynh replied: "Please tell me how I can avoid knowing in advance that a global virus outbreak will occur in the country that I will be traveling to. If you can I can definitely avoid this problem in the future." Zazueta, the Airbnb spokeswoman, said the company was sorry Huynh had a bad experience and noted it offered him a coupon as a "goodwill gesture." She said cut-off dates for full refunds will "updated as needed, as the situation evolves." There could be a silver lining for some domestic hosts. John Banczak runs TurnKey Vacation Rentals, which manages full-house vacation rentals in the United States on Airbnb and other websites. He said the company saw a large jump in bookings last week, something he attributes in part to coronavirus. "They may be backing off on international plans and they are looking for alternatives," Banczak said of vacationers. ___ (c)2020 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): CNS-CORONAVIRUS-AIRBNB Seattle, Washington At the centre of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States is a nursing home in Washington state where several people have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Four ambulances rushed to the Life Care Center in Kirkland, in the Seattle area, on Monday morning. As stretchers wheeled people from inside, nurses held up white sheets to block the view of several news crews standing on the street. By the end of the day, the virus national tally of victims had jumped from two to six. The tally rose again on Tuesday, with Washington state reporting nine deaths. Seven were tied to the Life Care Center, including first death that was reported last week. The virus is unlikely to be as deadly in the general population, but the nursing home in Washington state signals that it has been more widespread than previously thought. Scientists warn that long-term care facilities are an unfortunate overlap for two conditions viruses thrive on: close contact with a limited number of people and vulnerability of patients. These are circumstances where a respiratory disease that spreads from person-to-person contact can spread rapidly, infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University William Schaffner told Al Jazeera. This nursing home was just unlucky, Schaffner said. I dont think that nursing homes are categorically at increased risk at this time, but if a virus gets access to a nursing home, it will spread. Medics and other healthcare workers transfer a patient on a stretcher to an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, the long-term care facility linked to the two of three confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, in Kirkland [David Ryder/Reuters] The centre has been trying to reserve an open phone line for worried relatives who may want to call in, and contact with staff members has been limited to official statements. Long-term care facilities have been put on high alert and given new guidelines by the Center for Disease Control, the American Health Care Association, and AMDA The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. In general, these facilities know how to deal with a viral outbreak when it happens, because they prepare each year for the violent arrival of influenza viruses, said David Nace, the president-elect of AMDA. Each long-term care facility should have a plan to manage an influenza outbreak, but the Life Care Center, for example, was investigated in 2019, when it had two influenza outbreaks, for not meeting hygienic or ventilation protocol. In a statement on Monday, the facilitys director said residents and associates are being monitored closely and if they display an elevated temperature, cough and/or shortness of breath, they are put in isolation. We are also following infection control recommendations, including proper hand-washing techniques and wearing masks, gowns and gloves when caring for any symptomatic patients, Ellie Basham said. Like canaries in a coal mine Nursing homes and assisted living centres concentrate enough people that they often become a signal to epidemiologists when other viruses may be in the community. Long-term care facilities become like canaries in a coal mine where the community may be circulating the virus, Nace told Al Jazeera. If influenza strikes the general population in the US, roughly 0.1 percent of patients will die. In a long-term care facility, however, the mortality rate has been shown to be anywhere from 5 percent to 55 percent. Medics wait to enter the Life Care Center, a long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases, in Kirkland, Washington [David Ryder/Reuters] That makes this new coronavirus a much bigger threat to frail populations, especially if concentrated in a single building. Colleges and schools also stay in close contact and can be a cesspool for diseases, said Nace. Coronavirus is transmitted similarly to influenza viruses. Sharing fluids or coughing on others can exchange the virus that lives on the surface of water droplets. But the new coronavirus is different in two major ways: the up to 14-day incubation period is much longer than influenza, and when COVID-19 is contracted, the body can experience more severe symptoms. To protect against the virus spread in such close quarters, nursing home guidelines advise much the same as they would with influenza: clean surfaces and stop unnecessary interactions. Only the facility in the Seattle area is known to have sealed itself off so far. A few schools nearby told students to stay home, and two colleges closed for deep cleaning. Twenty-nine firefighters who responded to the Life Care Centers emergency remain in quarantine. The threat to nursing homes has made some citizens ask whether they should take their family members home as soon as possible. David Gifford, chief medical officer of the AHCA, says that is not a recommendation he would support. Moving someone who needs care can be very destructive and problematic, Gifford told reporters on a call, noting that if COVID-19 is in the community, then it could be more dangerous. Then, if COVID-19 is in the facility, then, it could be spreading to others outside, he said. So far, little is known about the novel coronavirus, particularly regarding its spread, incubation period, and what its disease COVID-19 does to humans. Well get an even better idea when we can test more widely, said Schaffner of Vanderbilt. Testing has been notably restricted so far in the US. Broader threat The threat to nursing homes is one that highlights the dangers of living in close quarters, but nursing homes are not the only ones at risk. Schools, colleges, prisons and homeless shelters can also be hotbeds for the spread. There has been a long history of outbreaks in closed settings, epidemiologist and professor of public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins University Chris Beyrer told Al Jazeera. In these settings, patients can be more vulnerable to viruses than the general population, because of low ventilation and poor nutrition often coupled with stress. The Diamond Princess cruise ships kept people in close quarters, and workers on cruise ships often live in places where infectious diseases can flourish. In the US, tens of thousands of immigrants are kept in detention centres. In a high-profile case last year, 16-year-old Guatemalan Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez was diagnosed with the flu and a 103-degree fever. He died overnight in the detention centre. If he had coronavirus, the person who saw him and everyone around him would be extremely vulnerable, Beyrer said. Were in the midst of a coronavirus crisis and an immigration crisis, he added. Its a very clear indicator. If you can die of Influenza A, then you can die of coronavirus. Though still in its infancy, the drone delivery business is set to take off in the coming years. Spurred by everything from environmental concerns to the desire to avoid congested roads, companies are developing, testing, and beginning to implement a wide array of drone delivery systems. A number of practicalities need to be worked out before drone delivery becomes an everyday occurrence including regulations and drone technology itself but its likely only a matter of time. Drone delivery has the potential to radically improve the way we live by making the things we need in a hurry available in just minutes, said Alexa Dennett, a spokesperson for Wing. As a faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly method of delivery, we believe drones will be commonplace in the near future, she told TechNewsWorld. Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, already has started making limited drone deliveries in three markets: Helsinki; Canberra, Australia; and Christiansburg, Virginia. Wing is not the only player in the market. UPS subsidiaryUPS Flight Forward recently received full Part 135 certification from the FAA. UC San Diego Health, in collaboration with UPS and Matternet, soon will pilot a program to deliver medical supplies and documents to several of its facilities. Zipline has been delivering medical supplies to remote locations in Rwanda for several years. Flytrex is testing food delivery in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Amazon Prime Air continues to develop its own drone delivery system. The Benefits of Going Drone Delivery by drone promises a variety of benefits, including reducing carbon emissions, increasing delivery speed, making deliveries more accessible, and spurring local economic opportunities. We believe that delivering goods by drones is faster, safer, more affordable, efficient and environmentally sustainable, compared to todays car and truck delivery systems, said Wings Dennett. Drone deliveries offer the potential to improve the way our cities operate by reducing road congestion and creating new economic opportunities for local businesses. Used instead of cars and trucks, drones could reduce greenhouse emissions drastically by up to 99 percent, according to an AlphaBeta study commissioned by Wing. Wing and Virginia Tech partnered to research the potential impacts of drone delivery. So far, this research suggests that in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg metropolitan area, drones possibly could take 3,385 cars off the road, save 40.2 tons of C02 each year, and save customers time worth US$46.6 million annually. A D V E R T I S E M E N T There are three primary benefits of drone delivery, noted Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg. It will drastically reduce the environmental impact that large trucks from warehouses or even smaller delivery vehicles produce, he told TechNewsWorld. The cost at least for ultra- fast deliveries will be far lower, as retailers wont have to worry about filling an entire vehicle. Another advantage is speed, Bloch said. It will allow retailers to more dependably provide fast deliveries. The Sky Ahead It wont be all smooth sailing or flying however. Drone delivery becoming commonplace relies on working out regulations as well as solving a variety of other technological, economic and cultural issues. Ensuring public and airway safety is a primary concern, and the industry is working closely with the FAA and other regulatory organizations to develop safe standards and practices. The whole development of the commercial drone industry revolves around safety, said Mike Hertzendorf, CEO of NUAIR. The United States has one of the most if not the most heavily trafficked airspaces in the world, he told TechNewsWorld. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems industry needs to do everything we can to make sure people in the air and on the ground remain safe, Hertzendorf added. Given all that must be done, its not likely that drone delivery will become commonplace in the near future particularly in cities, where air traffic is much higher than in rural areas. I believe we are still a ways away from routine drone deliveries in highly populated areas, said Hertzendorf. A D V E R T I S E M E N T The current regulation around drones from the FAA is called Part 107. A couple of the main regulations in Part 107 is the restriction of flying your drone farther than you can see it, and it prohibits flights over people. So again, all based around safety, he explained. NUAIR is a key industry leader helping to develop the standards and help define regulations to expand on Part 107, which will lead to advanced commercial drone operations like food, package and medical deliveries, Hertzendorf said. Industry groups like NUAIR are working with the FAA as it develops regulations to protect peoples safety, but the process likely will take some time. We are actively figuring out what regulations need to be in place to make sure those in the air and on the ground remain safe during routine drone operations, said Hertzendorf. The technology is there for these advanced drone operations. We just need to figure out and implement the appropriate performance requirements, rules and regulations that and the other multitude of issues, like flying beyond visual line of sight, weather impact on drones, and the different weather patterns inside city limits versus rural areas, he continued. Needless to say, there are many issues that need to be addressed before well see the sky filled with drones. In short, regular drone delivery of packages to doorsteps as appealing as it may be probably will not happen any time soon. There is a great deal of speculation regarding drone-based package delivery, said Henry Fletcher, a drone specialist a Cambridge Consultants. Forecasts predict anything from limited, premium deliveries and indirect contact with consumers to drone-based small parcel delivery becoming ubiquitous, enabled by cost reductions over conventional delivery from high levels of automation and lightweight last-mile transit, he told TechNewsWorld. The technology exists and is very capable, but as a whole, the industry needs to prove its safety credentials in a highly regulated area, Fletcher pointed out. This can only happen at a limited pace and will inevitably suffer setbacks along the way. The Future of Drones Even when drones become more commonplace, they likely will not replace other methods of transport and delivery. Rather, theyll be part of a mix of delivery methods, and the methods used in any given case will depend on the goods being delivered, location, distance, weight, and a variety of other factors. Delivery via drone will just be another economical tool for the delivery of certain products, much like there are still products being delivered via barges across the ocean or being hauled across the country via train, explained NUAIRs Hertzendorf. The advent of the airplane did not replace these delivery methods, he noted. The ability for any of these vehicles, including drones, to deliver a product relies on many of the same issues and limitations what is it, where is it going, and whats the most economical and logical way to get it there. I do not see routine deliveries via drones totally replacing current shipping methods. Theyre just another potential option for faster, more efficient deliveries of certain products. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:27:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Refugees from Syria are seen at a temporary settlement in Hatay, Turkey, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Feng) No more than 35,000 people, mainly families of militants, have left the war zones in Syria and moved to Turkey since the beginning of the year, Zhuravlyov said. MOSCOW, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Russian military on Tuesday rejected statements that Russia and Syria are responsible for a "humanitarian crisis" and "millions" of refugees from the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. "These statements are biased and completely untrue," said Oleg Zhuravlyov, head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria. The Russian center has carried out continuous monitoring of the humanitarian situation in Syria's northwestern regions over the past few years, using drones, telephone hotlines, social networks and direct contacts with local residents, he added. No more than 35,000 people, mainly families of militants, have left the war zones in Syria and moved to Turkey since the beginning of the year, Zhuravlyov said. He said up to 250,000 inhabitants, mainly Kurds, were forced to leave the territory as a result of Turkey's capture of Afrin district during the "Olive Branch" operation in 2018-2019. During Turkey's "Peace Spring" operation in October 2019, more than 135,000 people, mainly Kurds, were also forced to leave their residence, Zhuravlyov said. A shortage of face masks led doctors at Safdarjung Hospital, one of the two nodal centres in Delhi for isolating patients who have been infected by or show symptoms of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), to send a midnight missive to the medical superintendent, threatening to boycott work. Resident doctors said they would not treat patients at the hospitals out-patient clinics and emergency ward late on Tuesday night after a 45-year-old man from Mayur Vihar and six of his family members in Agra who tested positive for Covid-19 were moved to Safdarjung Hospital on Monday and Tuesday. The seven members of the family and 21 others are admitted to the two-floor isolation facility at the hospital. Seventeen of those admitted have tested negative and test reports on four others were awaited. In the wake of a possible novel coronavirus outbreak in the city, I want to draw your attention to the fact that resident doctors are working without any mask. Ideally, good quality protective equipment like N95 masks should be used but not even routine masks are available. Sir, we have arranged for temporary relief for a few hours. Kindly arrange N95 masks on most urgent basis, wrote Dr Manish Kumar, president of the Resident Doctors Association of the hospital, in a letter to the hospital administration late Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, N95 masks for those working in the emergency department and cloth masks for those working in other places reached the hospital. Anybody can walk into the emergency department. What if they are infected? Doctors and other staff members working in the emergency department at least should get proper N95 masks; otherwise they will be at a high risk of getting the disease, a doctor at the hospital said on condition of anonymity. Safdarjung Hospital authorities refused to comment on the matter. At Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, the other nodal centre in the city, doctors said they had received the masks. We were all give N95 masks a few days ago when the first suspected cases were reported in the city, a doctor at the hospital said on condition of anonymity. Healthcare workers treating Covid-19 patients should use gowns, gloves, medical masks, and eye protection because they have to touch and stay close to the patient, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Medical masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles should be used by staff physically examining any patient with respiratory symptoms. At the community level, people with respiratory symptoms and those caring for Covid-19 patients need medical masks. Healthy people should not use masks of any kind, the WHO guidelines state. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Kaos, the police dog that suffered a 12-centimetre stab wound to his chest during the arrest of two suspects in Brisbane's north, has been cleared by the vet to walk the beat once again. The seven-year-old German shepherd and his handler Senior Constable James Griffiths will now take a "well deserved break" after Kaos was injured during the pursuit in Gordon Park on Sunday, February 2. General-duties police dog Kaos will join his handler, Senior Constable James "Jimmy" Griffiths, on the job next weekend. Credit:Shane Prior - Queensland Police Union Police were called to Victoria Terrace about 1.30am after a suspicious vehicle was seen in the area. When the officers arrived, two men allegedly fled, while three other people were arrested. Kaos and his handler chased the two suspects and during the arrest, Kaos suffered a stab wound in the chest. Among the revered scientists, social activists, lawyers and civil servants who have contributed to Indias nation building in the 20th century, one striking name is that of the daring aviator, Biju Patnaik. There has been a steady stream of demands over the years to confer Indias highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, on him. His 104th birth anniversary today provides the perfect occasion to reiterate this demand to honour the former chief minister of Odisha. It was Patnaik as chief minister who recognised the value of Odishas 400-km coastline and maritime traditions by establishing, against all odds, the Paradip deep sea port. This enabled the state to tap vast reserves of iron and manganese ore and push ahead with industrial development. He founded the Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha in 1962 to create the necessary industrial infrastructure for the state. He also accelerated the completion of landmark projects such as the Rourkela steel plant and Hirakud dam, both of which continue to significantly impact Odishas economy. His vision for a new Odisha is the cornerstone of the states governance model to this day. Disillusioned with the Congress leadership, especially the autocratic ways of Indira Gandhi, he left the party to go his own way in 1969. He was one of the first leaders to be arrested during the Emergency in 1975. He re-emerged from those dark days to become chief minister for a second time in 1990. This time, he made social development and empowerment for women his focal points. He was instrumental in setting up a large number of womens schools and colleges, with special emphasis on science, skill development and vocational training. Subsequently, he announced 30% reservation for women in all government jobs. He also announced 33% reservation in panchayati raj institutions. This became a reality through the Odisha Zilla Parishad Act of 1991. However, Patnaiks legacy extends far beyond the realm of politics and governance. He played a major role in World War II and the Kashmir War of 1948 as a pilot in the Indian Air Force. In his versatile DC-3 Dakota transport plane, an iconic workhorse of pre-war vintage, he engaged in vital sorties for troops in Kashmir, and supervised the mass air evacuation of civilians from the area when hostilities broke out. As most roads were blocked by the invading forces, securing Srinagar airport and utilising it to supply troops and ammunitions proved to be the deciding factor in Kashmirs takeover by India. He also served as an adviser to the prime minister during the 1962 conflict the only civilian in such a position. Earlier, Patnaik had put his technical skills as a pilot to use in the service of Indias freedom struggle. He fearlessly undertook covert missions, ferrying freedom fighters to secret meetings with their supporters, and even airdropped leaflets in support of Netaji Subhas Chandra Boses Indian National Army. He was eventually punished by the British for his subversive activities, and imprisoned from 1942 to 1946. After Independence, he founded Kalinga Airlines in 1947, and became its chief pilot, taking the first steps towards air connectivity in Independent India. The airline was later merged into what would become the national carrier, Air India. He voluntarily undertook a risky mission, on then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehrus request, to fly the former Indonesian Prime Minister Sultan Sjahrir from a remote hideout to safety, away from the Dutch colonial rulers. For his contributions to Indonesian independence, the Indonesian government, in 1996, honoured him with the title of Bintang Jasu Utama for displaying exemplary courage in a time of adversity. Russia also honoured him for flying missions to resupply the Soviet Red Army in World War II during the pivotal battle with Germany at Stalingrad. But one cannot discuss the Bharat Ratna without addressing associated controversies. In the absence of a formal nomination process, the Union government has much discretion in granting this honour. This has led to a loss of objectivity. As a result, deserving individuals have not been given due recognition. Janata Dal (Secular) leader Danish Ali recently raised this issue, and asked why mass leaders like Patnaik and Kanshi Ram had been denied the honour so far. Patnaik made a significant impact on contemporary Indian history. He was, and still remains, an awe-inspiring figure. It was due to his own humility that the full breadth of his achievements is not more widely known. However, his influence in shaping both Odisha and India cannot be denied. It would be appropriate to confer a posthumous Bharat Ratna on this legendary leader. In order for this generation to be better informed about his life and achievements, an official biography for Patnaik ought to be commissioned by the government . This would be to do true justice to one of Indias greatest sons. Amar Patnaik is Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Biju Janata Dal, and the partys national spokesperson The views expressed are personal Click the photo to write a caption and have a chance to win a free subscription to the Norfolk Daily News. WA Health Minister Roger Cook has labelled the treatment of patients in a hospital carpark as "unacceptable" and apologised to those pictured on the front page of the state's daily newspaper. WA Health Minister Roger Cook has apologised to patients "quarantined" in a hospital carpark. Credit:Lauren Pilat Wednesday's The West Australian featured photos of patients seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms in a "makeshift quarantine zone" outside Rockingham Hospital. Mr Cook said he expected a "full report" from the South Metropolitan Health Service chief on the treatment of the patients in Perth's southern suburbs. Mr Cook confirmed on Wednesday the state government was set to roll out a coronavirus public awareness campaign imminently, with fever clinics expected to be operating from mid-next week. New Delhi, March 4 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday transferred the petition by Delhi riots victims to the Delhi High Court to explore possibility of an amicable resolution of the dispute. The top court also asked the High Court to list the matter on priority on Friday. A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant said: "We request the Delhi High Court to list the matter on Friday...as the long delay in the matter is not justified." The top court said the petition pertaining to riots be heard on Friday along with other relevant matters, and the High Court should hear it as expeditiously as possible. The Delhi High Court had listed the matter on Delhi riots on April 13. Affected by the delay, the victims' counsel had moved the top court. The Chief Justice said, "Peace is possible and we want some people to spread that message." He also suggested involving political leaders to achieve peace in the aftermath of riots, and asked all parties to give names of some individuals who could assist. "We have this in mind, the political leaders could get together and resolve this issue. Our political leaders should go and to talk to people...we are not ordering mediation, we want to see if peace is possible", said the Chief Justice. "Peace must prevail", the CJI said, adding the High Court must make all efforts. The top court also declined to hear social activist Harsh Mander today on his petition, connected with riots, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta adduces transcripts of his reported speech at a university, where he allegedly claimed there is no trust left in the courts and the ultimate justice has to be done on the streets. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Advertisement The working women of World War One can now be seen in captivating colour as they held together the factories, pits and railways and became the conflict's female heroes more than 100 years ago. Remarkable shots from over hundred years ago show a welder making micro adjustments to a vital component in a Midlands aircraft works. Munitions workers are seen carefully guiding huge missiles onto the factory floor ion the stunning collection of photographs. Offering a firsthand look at the intricacies of the war effort at home, viewers are granted a glimpse of woman cleaning the inside of a massive 15-inch cannon. As International Women's Day approaches on March 8, the snapshots starkly show how females across the country pitched in before even being given the right to vote in a general election. They stepped up to fill the gaping holes in various industries as vacancies shot up when their husbands, brothers, cousins and friends were conscripted. The employment of married women increased sharply - accounting for nearly 40 per cent of all women workers by 1918. Following the war's end, many women were laid off when soldiers returned from the blood-soaked battlefields on the continent. Those who stayed on were often expected to work for less money than their male counterparts despite doing the same job. Flagrant workplace discrimination continued until the Second World War, when women once again stepped in to fill the shoes of the men sent away to fight in another global conflict. Pictured: Female munitions workers guide 6-inch howitzer shells being lowered to the floor at the National Shell Filling Factory in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire in July 1917. By 1917 munitions factories, which primarily employed women workers, produced 80 per cent of the weapons and shells used by the British. Known as 'canaries' because they had to handle TNT which turned their skin yellow Pictured: Workers in a rubber factory in Lancashire, September 1918 as women across the country stepped up to fill the vacancies in vital industry due to the mass conscription of British men Pictured: A welder at work in an aircraft factory in the Midlands, September 1918, a whole decade before they were even able to vote. Cardiff electrician Royston Leonard colourised the photos and said he was shocked by the working conditions revealed in them. 'For the girls working in the armaments factory, it was a very hard job and a lot got ill from the chemicals used in the making of the shells,' he said Mr Leonard, 57, who has colourised the pictures, said: 'Women played a critical role in the UK's war effort, without them supplying the front line then no war could have been fought. 'I think that's why colouring photos is so useful, people are used to colour all the time these days and tend to think of black and white shots as "art" or something other than reality'. This shot shows female war workers feeding the charcoal kilns used for purifying sugar at the Glebe Sugar Refinery Co., Greenock Pictured: Female workers roll casks of beer across the floor at a brewery in Cheshire, September 1918 as they kept the country going while its men were at war on the continent Pictured: A fastidious female worker inspects Mills hand grenades in 1914 in a picture since colourised by Cardiff electrician Roy Leonard in a bid to bring home the reality of war As International Women's Day approaches, this colourised collection of pictures shows women planing propellers for fighter planes as they built the machines the nation's men would fly into battle Pictured: A war worker carefully paints the roundel on the wing of an SE5A aircraft at the Austin Motor Company factory in Birmingham, September 1918 Pictured: A group of women workers employed at a Brick Works in South Wales as the First World War left factories, pits and munitions factories without any staff Tragedy at Chilwell: Factory where 134 were killed The National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell began production on January 8, 1916. The facilities for employees included a Red Cross Hospital, a canteen, rest rooms, a recreation club and sports facilities. By September 1916, the factory had produced 1million shells. At its peak, the factory employed 6,000 men and 4.000 women. The explosion of eight tons of TNT on July 1, 1918 killed 134 workers, the majority of whom would never be identified, and wounded 250 others; five dying later of their injuries. The cause of the explosion was believed to have been accidental - with some saying it was triggered by hot weather. The explosion of eight tons of TNT at Chilwell (above) on July 1, 1918 killed 134 workers, the majority of whom would never be identified, and wounded 250 others; five dying later of their injuries. Advertisement Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), the party-list of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, said that House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetanos ouster of Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab from his committee post was an insult to the President. If anything, the removal was an insult and affront to the President and not the party, said HNP in a statement amid the alleged coup plot against Cayetano. Cayetano defended earlier that the ouster of Ungab and Rep. Salvador Leachon from their committee posts was because he wanted to have a good working relationship with his fellow congressmen in his 15- month stint as Speaker. Sid had his own ideas, own criticisms, so hindi siya naging team player, he said. Dito po sa 15 months na to, e kailangan ko ng working relationship na maganda. [Translation: Sid had his own ideas, own criticisms, so he didn't become a team player, he said. In my 15-months, I just wanted to have a good working relationship.] READ: 'Grossly unacceptable': Sara Duterte hits ally's removal from House post For HNP, the party is just emphasizing its support to their member. The party emphasized our support for the credibility and honor of our member. We are loyal to those who are loyal to the President, said HNP. It added, He was specifically chosen by President Duterte as chairman of the committee and the last time we checked, the President never ordered the removal of Ungab. The presidential daughters party endorsed Ungab as one of the candidates for speakership last year. With the ongoing drama inside the House of Representatives, HNP said that they dont have time to argue with Cayetano. HNP does not want to spar with Cayetano. We want to sit and watch his show. The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced one-rank promotion for 14 policemen, who displayed "historic valour" during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks to capture terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Home minister Anil Deshmukh made the announcement while speaking to reporters outside the state legislature here. "Tukaram Omble, who was martyred during the 26/11 attacks, and 14 other policemen had captured (terrorist) Ajmal Kasab alive. The government has decided to proffer one rank promotion to the 14 policemen for showing historic valour," he said. On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived in Mumbai by sea route and opened fire, killing 166 people, including 18 security personnel, besides damaging property worth crores. Kasab, who was the only terrorist to be captured alive, was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the gallery above, see the latest maps from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineerin tracking coronavirus spread around the globe. For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. As COVID-19 continues its march around the globe, scientists are trying to pin down the death rate, which will likely evolve in coming weeks and months. The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that based on the current numbers, the global mortality rate for the disease caused by a new coronavirus was 3.4%. It is more fatal than the common flu which kills less 1% of those infected. Death rates in outbreaks are likely to skew higher early on as health officials focus on finding severe and fatal cases, missing most milder cases. WHO says the majority of people with the new coronavirus experience only mild symptoms and do not require any treatment. That said, the figure was a bit of a surprise, since a study from the Chinese Center for Disease Control looking at 44,000 patients who tested positive estimated the death rate was 2.3%. "While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity; that means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization said. Ghebreyesus added that while COVID-19 isn't transmitted as easily as the flu, it "causes more severe disease." When the outbreak was concentrated in Wuhan, China, the origin of the disease, the WHO estimated the death rate inside Wuhan was somewhere between 2% and 4% and outside the city it was 0.7%. Dr. Lee Riley, a UC Berkeley professor and chair of the Division of Infectious Disease and Vaccinology, said mortality rate is frequently higher at the beginning of outbreaks because "we don't know how to deal with them." "We have vaccines for influenza so this contributes to its lower rate, but if we didn't have the vaccines, the mortality rates for influenza would be higher than 0.1%," said Riley. "Also, mortality rates for influenza varies according to the virus strain causing the epidemic, which changes every year. So, it's too simplistic to compare mortality rates of two very different types of virus infections." Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor of infectious disease at UC Berkeley, said the rate will likely drop. "I think the mortality rate will be much less when our testing becomes more robust," Swartzberg said. "Right now the bulk of the people being tested are those with symptoms or those with a known contact. ALSO: Are children at a higher risk for coronavirus complications and death? The new estimate is based on all cases tracked around the world with the largest numbers in China and growing numbers in Italy, South Korea and Iran. There are now more than 93,000 cases around the world and over 3,100 deaths. South Korea, Italy and Iran now account for 80% of the new virus cases outside China, according to the World Health Organization. South Korea reported 435 new infections Wednesday, far smaller than its high of 851 a day earlier. A total of 5,621 people in South Korea have contracted the virus and 32 have died. Iran reported 92 deaths among its 2,922 confirmed cases, the most of any country outside of China. Among the ill are members of the government, and the country canceled Friday prayers for the second week in a row. Deaths in Italy rose to 79. The outbreak in Italy has been concentrated in the northern region of Lombardy, but fears over how the virus is spreading inside and outside the country has prompted the government to consider whether to close all schools nationwide for two weeks, rather than just ones in the cluster regions. Education Minister Lucia Azzolina told reporters that a final decision hadnt been made yet. In the U.S., more than 120 cases have been reported. Nine people have died, all in and around Seattle. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: A full list of online coronavirus resources: Where to get your questions answered Live updates: A rundown of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area How to tell if you have a cold, the flu, or coronavirus 6 things travelers should know in the age of coronavirus The worst myths and misinformation about coronavirus Are the elderly at a greater risk for coronavirus complications? US Surgeon General: 'Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS' Bay Area company to expand coronavirus drug trials to other companies CDC warns men with beards amid coronavirus scare Eerie photos show empty streets in Italy amid coronavirus fears JetBlue waives all change, cancellation fees on new bookings due to coronavirus Pork exports from the UK broke new ground in 2019, smashing the half billion mark to reach 609 million, figures show. Total volumes of pig meat, including offal, surged past 378,000 tonnes for the full year 9 percent higher than 2018, analysis by the AHDB shows. Included in this figure is a 12 percent rise in chilled and frozen pork and 40,000 tonnes of processed pork products. Jonathan Eckley, AHDB's head of Asia Pacific, described this as a 'phenomenal result for pork exports'. "These strong figures have been rising gradually over the last few years, with total pig meat exports first breaking the 300,000 tonne barrier back in 2016," he said. "With a continued focus on exports, a near 20% increase in volume has been added over the past three years." Demand from Asia has been evident in recent years with strong growth being reported from across the region. This demand resulted in 50 percent of UK total pig meat exports being destined for third-country markets. However, 2019 saw unprecedented demand from China following the ASF outbreak in 2018 and a continued shortfall of domestically produced pork carried into 2019. As a result, UK total pig meat exports of China rose to 131,000 tonnes, up 61 percent on the year worth 191 million compared to 77 million the previous year. "The demand and particularly strong China prices in the Autumn resulted in shipments to some other Asian markets easing off, including the price sensitive Philippine market," Mr Eckley said. "However, the newly opened Taiwanese market added 6.1 million to UK exports in the first full year of trading following the market opening to UK pork late in 2018." But the Asia marketplace wasnt the only destination to boost pork figures. The USA finished the year as the second largest destination outside the EU for UK pork exporters, despite year-end volume falling below 2018 levels, Mr Eckley explained. While exports to non-EU countries rose in 2019, Europe is still an important destination for pork exports accounting for just half of the total value of shipments. Ireland remained the largest EU market for UK pork exports, despite a small overall decline in shipments, driven by lower bacon exports. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 13:20:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- As the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to spread, governments around the world are pooling wisdom to cope with the epidemic. While staying at home seems to be the optimum choice during the outbreak, some trips are just inevitable. How do you avoid getting infected while traveling by air, bus or other public transportation? Here are some tips offered by the Chinese government. Q: What are some prevention measures when traveling by air? -- Do not arrive excessively early. Getting to the airport five hours ahead of your flight will only increase your chances of contracting the virus. Wear a face mask during the entire journey. Avoid unnecessary conversations with strangers, and sit away from others when possible. Q: Can thermometers be brought onto the plane? -- Yes and no. A mercury thermometer is not allowed in your carry-on luggage, but you can bring a digital thermometer with you as long as the rated energy of the lithium battery does not exceed 100Wh or the lithium content does not exceed 2 grams. Still, as travelers are now normally required to have their temperatures taken before getting onto the plane, it is not necessary to bring a thermometer. Q: What are things I should keep in mind during a taxi ride? -- Both the driver and you should wear masks. Leave the door open for a few minutes before getting inside for ventilation. Open the window during the ride -- fresh air is better than air conditioning for ventilation purposes. Q: Is it riskier to take the subway or a cab? -- As long as you are in public space, there are risks of contracting the virus. So rather than worrying about the type of transportation you take, it is more important that you wear a mask at all times and wash hands as soon as you get home. Q: What are some tips for driving? -- Again ventilation is the key thing to keep in mind. Also, have some masks, hand disinfectants or disinfectant paper towels in your car. If you happened to give someone with symptoms a ride, make sure you disinfect door handles, seats and the steering wheel afterwards. Q: What about a long-haul bus? -- Sit away from others when you can. Ask the driver to stop at a service area every two hours so you can get fresh air. Q: What measures are taken to ensure the safety of inbound and outbound travelers? -- All entry and exit personnel must make health declarations. Customs will check whether they have symptoms and whether they have been to countries and regions where the epidemic occurred within 14 days. In China, the declaration card has been translated into more than 10 languages, and a mini-program for mobile devices has been developed to allow online declaration. A 73-year-old Silver Lake man convicted of molesting two child family members was sentenced to nearly six years in prison Tuesday. Verl Leroy Lee maintained his innocence during the hearing in the courtroom of the Cowlitz County Jail. He intends to appeal his trial, his attorney said. Im very sorry and ask for forgiveness for the things Ive done that have brought us to this grave situation, Verl Lee said before sentencing. I am not a child abuser, and I am not a threat to anyone. It took two trials for (the victims) to get their stories severe enough to get me convicted. ... I cannot prove that I did not abuse these girls, because that is impossible. So the only thing I have left is to ask for the mercy of this court. This is never going to be an easy case, said Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Patricia Fassett, who said she struggled in coming to the right sentence before deciding on 67 months. Prosecutors charged Lee with two counts of first-degree child molestation in June. The victims, neither of whom was more than 6 years old at the time, told authorities in April that Lee had inappropriately touched them multiple times, according to court documents. When deputies interviewed Lee, he admitted to patting them on the backside but said nothing sexual ever occurred. Lees first trial ended in November when jurors were unable to come to a decision after deliberating for six hours. A new jury convicted him in January after a second trial. This has been the deepest betrayal I have ever experienced, a family member said in a statement at Lees sentencing. (Lee) was patriarch of the family. We trusted him with everything, and with every aspect of our life. When CPS contacted us, we couldnt believe, and didnt believe the allegations could possible be true. But it became clear to us that the defendant did in fact sexually assault (the victims), she continued. How dare he. Lee groomed the victims and betrayed their trust, she said. We did not put the defendant into jail. He earned his way into jail. But Judge Fassett also received packets of letters from the community in support of Lee, and four people spoke on behalf of his character during sentencing. One man told Judge Fassett in court that Lee took him into his home for about five years during a rough period in his life, and he never saw anything like this during that time with Lee. Never once had I ever felt anything but love and compassion coming from him, a woman told the judge Tuesday. Lees standard sentencing range was 67 to 89 months. He had no prior criminal history, according to attorneys. Prosecutors asked for the highest sentence, which would have left him in prison for seven years and five months. This is not the first time where we have heard, I dont believe that somebody could have done this, because theyre a good Christian man, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nicole Hughes said. Lee will also have to register as a sex offender and stay 100 yards away from the victims under Fassetts sentence. In a pre-sentence interview, Lee told an investigator he was too free with the girls and admitted to wrestling, tickling and scratching their backs. He said he wished he had realized that his behavior was not appropriate, according to the investigation. Court records indicate the victims court-appointed guardians have also sued Lee in civil court. The lawsuit asks for compensation for counseling and health care expenses as well as damages for the suffering and emotional distress inflicted on the victims, all to be proved at trial. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 17 Angry 7 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Air cargo carrier signs multi-year deal with Accuity to optimise its sanctions compliance and export control programs Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, announced that it is working with Accuity, the leading global provider of financial crime compliance, payments and Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, to help automate and streamline its regulatory compliance screening operations, increase efficiency and improve the speed of service to its customers. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005162/en/ Left to right: Henrik Ambak (Senior Vice President, Cargo Operations Worldwide, Emirates), Daniel Hewitt (Regional Head MENA, Accuity), Trevor Howard (Manager, Standards Operational Safety, Emirates SkyCargo) (Photo: Business Wire) Emirates Sky Cargo has implemented Firco Trade Compliance, an Accuity solution that efficiently screens shipment documentation (such as airway bills) against sanctions, dual-use goods and regulatory watch lists, within a single interface. The new solution enhances Emirates SkyCargo's current process, enabling the business to automate approximately 6 million compliance checks each month. This will significantly improve efficiency, while enabling Emirates to uphold the extremely high compliance standards that sit at the heart of its ethos. Henrik Ambak, Emirates Senior Vice President, Cargo Operations Worldwide said, "Our top priority is to continue to adhere to regulatory requirements and manage our screening obligations accurately. Working with Accuity has enabled us to screen our very high volumes of shipments more efficiently ensuring that we comply with all international regulations." Firco Trade Compliance is an award-winning solution that was originally developed to enable banks to detect sanctions risks in trade finance transactions. Through collaborative innovation with clients, Accuity has adapted the offering to cater to the freight industry's large-scale and highly complex operational requirements. Cargo operators are responsible for conducting due diligence on the parties and items involved in every shipment they facilitate. This includes verifying the legitimacy of the sender and recipient, checking for dual-use or controlled goods (for example, those that could have a military purpose), and ensuring the shipment is not going to or coming from a prohibited location. Emirates will now be able to screen shipment documentation against a variety of regulatory lists, such as the OFAC sanctions list and the EU dual and controlled goods list. Firco Trade Compliance also allows the analysis of bespoke datasets so, for example, Emirates will be able to screen goods against an endangered wildlife list, all within the same system. "Emirates SkyCargo is firmly committed to the prevention of illegal wildlife trafficking and with the functionality of the Firco Trade Compliance system, we will now also be able to more effectively identify any wilful mis-declaration of wildlife goods that are shipped illegally," commented Ambak. Sophie Lagouanelle, Vice President of Financial Crime Screening at Accuity said, "This project marks a significant milestone for Accuity in our strategy to expand our screening offering to the cargo industry. By working in close partnership with Emirates SkyCargo, we are redefining best practice and setting a new standard of compliance for other cargo operators to follow." Notes to editors: About Emirates SkyCargo Emirates SkyCargo is the freight division of Emirates. With an unrivalled route network, we connect cargo customers to over 155 cities across six continents and operate in many of the world's fastest developing markets. Our cargo hold capacity comprises Emirates' fleet of over 270 aircraft, including 11 Boeing 777 freighters Emirates SkyCargo operates state-of-the-art cargo facilities at its dual hub locations in Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC) with cargo being moved 24/7 by truck between the two airports via a bonded virtual corridor. Emirates SkyCargo has developed transportation solutions for specific verticals including pharmaceuticals and perishables. More details at www.skycargo.com About Accuity Accuity offers a suite of innovative solutions for payments and compliance professionals, from comprehensive data and software that manage risk and compliance, to flexible tools that optimise payments pathways. With deep expertise and industry-leading data-enabled solutions from the Firco and Bankers Almanac brands, our portfolio delivers protection for individual and organisational reputations. Part of RELX, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries, Accuity has been delivering solutions to banks and businesses worldwide for 180 years. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005162/en/ Contacts: For more information: Imogen Nash, Accuity (London) imogen.nash@accuity.com Tel: +44 (0) 7789 924 920 Jon Schubin, Cognito (London) accuity@cognitomedia.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7426 9419 Trusting your administrators and outside consultants is a key part of the security process. But should you? I recently came across a story where an employee of a managed service provider (MSP) sold access to the client base. Years ago, a Microsoft security strategist, Steve Riley, asked attendees at the companys security conference if they trusted their administrators. Astoundingly, most people in the room indicated that they did not trust their administrators. As Riley stated at the time, If we cant trust the very people we hire to build and manage the mission-critical networks on which our business successes depend, we might as well unplug it all and revert to the days of stone knives and bearskins. Here are my suggestions for building trust in your internal and external admins. 1. Have an end-to-end process to manage and monitor Trusting administrators will always carry risk, but having a process for interviewing, investigating, hiring, monitoring and terminating any employee or consultant who has the role of administrator will minimize that risk. Review your consultants for their education and experience. Ask for references and review their education and credentials. Perform background checks on anyone you hire as an employee or consultant and have them sign a confidentiality agreement. Ensure that any consultant you hire abides by and is aware of any regulations of compliance mandates that you may have for your industry. 2. Dont forget third-party software with admin rights Theres another administrative role you need to monitor: third-party software that has service account rights. When setting up third-party software in your Office 365 deployment, review what rights that software requests and make sure it stores the information in a location that matches your mandates. For example, cloud backup processes might need to have a service account with specific rights to back up or monitor your cloud assets. You may need to set up exclusions to conditional access rules to properly set up the account. 3. Deploy, manage and monitor multi-factor authentication For all these roles, the ability to manage and audit access is key to ensuring that your network allows only appropriate users and administrators to have access and that its compliant with your policies. As you include multi-factor authentication (MFA) in the mix, the ability to manage and monitor the use of MFA is also key. In small businesses that outsource network management, a consultant often has multiple employees handle access for multiple clients. Administrator accounts for Office 365 do not require additional licensing. In a small network, you often do not need separation of administrative duties and can assign global administrator rights to multiple employees. In addition, MFA with the Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator can be installed on multiple phone devices. So, if the client prefers having only one global administrator, the access can be secured with MFA on several devices. Some consultants might say they cant implement MFA because they then couldnt share the credentials among their employees. Their inability to devise a workable solution to delegation of duties means that their client would be unnecessarily exposed to risk. While sharing credentials is not an ideal situation, neither is using it as an excuse to not enable MFA. Microsoft, in fact, is mandating the use of MFA for all partner accounts. Furthermore, Microsoft is changing the security defaults to mandate MFA for the following roles: global administrator, SharePoint administrator, Exchange administrator, conditional access administrator, security administrator, helpdesk administrator or password administrator, billing administrator, user administrator and authentication administrator. 4. Minimize the risk of sharing access While sharing access may be a less than ideal risk for small businesses, it isnt a good solution for large enterprises. Administrative and specifically global administrative access should be closely monitored and limited in scope. However, this access shouldnt be so limited as to restrict business processes. Asking an administrator to submit paperwork for access isnt an appropriate limitation of access and often causes more issues. Instead, set up processes for administrators to use. First make sure that they only log in from appropriate locations and with appropriate privileged access workstations. Then use the global administrator account sparingly. As Microsoft notes, set up no more than five global administrator accounts in your tenant. Then determine if you can have sub-administrator accounts that access specific areas. Microsoft is previewing the use of the Authentication Administrator. Users with this role can set or reset non-password credentials and can update passwords for all users. 5. Set up emergency accounts Of course, set up emergency accounts for access to Azure or Office 365 that do not have MFA enabled. Youll want to ensure that should something happen to Microsofts two-factor processes that you have a means to reset the subscription. Set up an administrative account that does not have MFA, is excluded from the policy, and has an extremely long password. Once you do that, set up monitoring to track the use of the account so that you get alerted when its used. Bottom line, not only should you trust your administrators, you should trust where they log in from and trust that they can only log in with MFA enabled. Dont forget to sign up for TechTalk, IDGs YouTube channel for tech news of the day. Ruckus prevailed in Haryana Assembly on Wednesday as the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress MLAs clashed during a discussion over drug abuse in the state. Opposition MLAs protested strongly when Home Minister Anil Vij referred to the arrest of a man who claimed that he was related to a Congress MLA. Congress members retaliated by naming a BJP MLA they claimed was seen with a drug trafficker. Listing out the steps taken by the state government to curb the menace, Vij said Haryana State Narcotics Control Bureau headed by an Additional Director General of Police rank officer will be set up. The state government will also be getting 64 sniffer dogs to detect if any drug makes it way into Haryana from other places through rail or road routes, he said. The minister also informed the House that anti-narcotics cells at state, range and district levels have been established, while an Interstate Drug Secretariat has been set up at State Crime Branch headquarters in Panchkula in order to coordinate and share intelligence with the neighbouring states over the issue. A toll free number has been circulated all over the state so that the general public could report such crimes freely and timely, Vij added. Even as the Haryana government underlined the measures taken to tackle drug abuse, opposition legislators claimed that drug use has spread to every district of the state and this cannot be possible without the cooperation and connivance of "police and administration". Congress MLA Surender Panwar alleged drugs are being openly sold within close radius of varsities in Sonipat district. Indian National Lok Dal's lone MLA Abhay Singh Chautala said children as young as 15 years of age were falling into drug trap, adding in his home district Sirsa the problem was rampant. He said in Sirsa alone the number of drug addicts reported to de-addiction centres has gone up from 1,405 in 2014 to nearly 30,000 currently. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress MLAs on Wednesday staged a brief walkout from the Gujarat Assembly in protest against the Speaker's decision to curtail a discussion on crop insurance following "disturbance" created by a party MLA. Unhappy over Speaker Rajendra Trivedi's decision to cut short the reply of Agriculture Minister R C Faldu on a query regarding pending crop insurance disbursement during Question Hour, around 70 legislators of the opposition party, led by senior leader Shailesh Parmar, walked out of the House. While leaving, the Opposition members raised slogans against the BJP government and also the Speaker. They returned after completion of the Question Hour. Responding to a question by Shiva Bhuria (Congress), Faldu told the House that 648 farmers of Banaskantha district were yet to be paid compensation under the crop insurance scheme. When Faldu was giving his answer, Lalit Kagathara (Congress) clapped in a satirical manner, which irked Trivedi. The Speaker asked the minister to stop reading his answer, saying he can not allow any "disturbance" during the Question Hour. He then moved to the next question, prompting Congress MLAs to leave the House in protest as they wanted to discuss the crop insurance issue in detail. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan will become the first Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a memorial Blue Plaque at her former central London home this year. The Blue Plaque scheme, run by the English Heritage charity, honours notable people and organisations who were based at particular buildings across London and Khan's plaque is set to go up at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where she lived as a secret agent during the war. "It will be the first Blue Plaque for a woman of Indian-origin in Britain and is a real honour," said Basu, who has been campaigning for the plaque since 2006 as the author of 'Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan' and Chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust (NIKMT). Taviton Street is close to Gordon Square, which the NIKMT chose for the installation of a memorial sculpture in 2012 of the spy, a descendant of the 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan. "Renowned for her service in the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, Khan was Britain's first Muslim war heroine and the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France," noted the English Heritage citation confirming the plaque. "Her blue plaque will mark the house in Bloomsbury that was her family home when she left for France in 1943 and where her family received the news that she was missing the following year. She ultimately lost her life at the hands of the Gestapo in 1944. Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949," it added. Khan was unveiled as among six women to be honoured with blue plaques during the course of 2020, in an effort to address a gender imbalance as only 14 per cent figure of around 950 London blue plaques celebrate women in the UK capital so far. The others on the list for new plaques include fellow SOE spy Christine Granville, 20th century sculptor Barbara Hepworth and one of the pioneers of the women's corps in the British military during World War I, Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan. "Our efforts to address the gender imbalance within the London Blue Plaques scheme are starting to yield some strong results and we are delighted to be able to announce these six new plaques," said Anna Eavis, Curatorial Director and Secretary of the English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel. "It is a long road but we are well on our way to receiving equal number of public nominations for men and women. There are now more women shortlisted than men, and 2020 will see more plaques to women than we have unveiled in 20 years," she said. Major Indian figures to be honoured with Blue Plaques in London include Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar, who spent time in the city during the Indian national movement against Britain's colonial rule. The confirmation of her blue plaque comes as new interactive digital exhibition is set to be unveiled to commemorate Noor Inayat Khan's life by the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation (CWGF) at Runnymede Air Forces Memorial in Surrey, south-east England, over the weekend to mark International Women's Day on Sunday. Born in September 1914 in Moscow to an Indian father and American mother, Khan was raised in both Paris and Britain. As a Sufi, she believed in non-violence and also supported the Indian Independence movement but she felt compelled to join the British war effort against fascism. She went on to become the first female radio operator to be infiltrated into occupied France, where she was tortured and killed by Nazis at Dachau concentration camp. The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 28, including 16 Italians touring through Rajasthan, the government announced on Wednesday as consternation bordering on panic over the contagious disease with flu like symptoms spread across the country. All international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide. Seventeen Indians abroad have been infected, 16 from a cruise ship in Japan "being treated at onshore medical facilities" and one from the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of External Affairs said. With Holi less than a week away on March 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said they would not celebrate the festival of colours or hold any Holi Milan gathering. President Ram Nath Kovind's office also said Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold any Holi gathering. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence this year, I have decided not to participate in any 'Holi milan' programme," the prime minister tweeted. Giving a break-up of the cases in the country, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said one patient is from Delhi, six more, his relatives, are from Agra, one is from Telangana and there are 16 Italians as well as their Indian driver in Rajasthan. The figure includes three earlier cases in Kerala who have been discharged. The minister said the government has adopted a cluster approach, as part of which health authorities will check and sensitise every household within a three kilometre radius of the house of the infected person. The government also intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so Indians there can be tested for possible exposure to the virus before being brought back, he said. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran. As Indians all over came to grips with the global epidemic, the health crisis was discussed at a meeting of the Union cabinet. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said over six lakh people had been screened for coronavirus symptoms in 21 airports. Briefing reporters, the Information and Broadcasting minister said more than 10 lakh people entering India from the open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have also been screened. While only the virology institute based in Pune is fit for conducting coronavirus tests, the government has now set up 15 more labs and is in the process of establishing 19 additional centres, he said. "The government is proactively engaged in dealing with coronavirus. The prime minister is monitoring the situation daily," he said. Several state governments, including in Rajasthan and Delhi, screened visitors and others for the disease in hotels and guesthouses. With 16 Italian tourists, who came to Rajasthan by road from Delhi, testing positive, the desert state swung into action to contain the infection. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said in the assembly that at least 215 people had come into contact with the group. These included 53 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 76 people in Jaipur. Swab samples of 93 people were taken with 51 suspected patients tested negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said. He said Italy has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world (more than 2,500) and the tourists should have been screened earlier. A 69-year-old man was the first one in the group to test positive for the disease. Subsequently, his wife, too, tested positive at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital, where the couple is now admitted. The other 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. In Delhi, Kejriwal said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus. Vardhan said the 45-year-old man from Mayur Vihar and six of his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited are being treated at the Safdarjung hospital. Kejriwal said a taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection. "We are concerned about situation but no need to panic," he said. A coronavirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, Kejriwal said. As the coronavirus came perilously close to home and dos and don'ts about the disease were circulated, some advocated that the Indian way of greeting, the Namaste, was the way to go. Many people went into panic mode and started stocking up on hand sanitisers and masks. Many shops, including in the national capital, said stocks of both had run out. However, Kejriwal said there is no shortage of masks. In Rajasthan, too, purchase orders have been given for 50,000 personal protective equipment kits and five lakh each of N95 and triple layer masks to deal with the problem, Rajasthan minister Sharma said. Many schools in the National Capital Region said they were fumigating and sanitising their premises. Three schools in Delhi and its adjoining suburbs announced holidays for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the disease while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MassMEDIC MedTech IGNITE is now accepting applications from medtech startup founders and CEOs for the 2020 Cohort. Apply by March 31st at https://www.ignitemedtech.com/ With a larger Steering Committee of industry leaders, additional faculty of experts and new training programs added, IGNITE 2020 will be a banner year for our program. IGNITE has consistently attracted the rising stars in MedTech and we encourage startup founders to apply and join the community. The Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) encourages medtech startup founders and CEOs to apply to the MedTech IGNITE programs 2020 IGNITE Cohort. The MedTech IGNITE Program is a virtual accelerator offering an experiential training, mentorship and networking curriculum to attract and nurture the next generation of medtech founders and entrepreneurs. IGNITE Cohort members get access to medtech, financial, business and legal experts and advisors to help them succeed. IGNITE was relaunched in 2019 with a cohort of 16 companies and support from a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. The 2019 Cohort includes MassChallenge winner Azadeh Khanicheh of Envision Endoscopy and BRIght Future Prize winner Natalie Artzi of BioDevek. Seven of the 16 founders in the 2019 Cohort founders were women With a larger Steering Committee of industry leaders, additional faculty of experts and new training programs added, IGNITE 2020 will be a banner year for our program, said Brian Johnson, President of MassMEDIC. IGNITE has consistently attracted the rising stars in MedTech and we encourage startup founders to apply and join the community. Benefits of participating in the 2020 IGNITE Cohort include: Potential prizes of up to $70,000 in cash and services to select 2020 Cohort members Unparalleled Master Classes and training sessions led by legal, financial, business, entrepreneurial, design and medtech experts and professors Exclusive pitch opportunity to senior leaders at MedTechs top companies Access to industry thought leaders in intimate, invite-only gatherings One on one industry expert mentoring Networking and introductions to strategics, mentors and advisors Complimentary membership to MassMEDIC for one year Discounted and complimentary access to premier medtech events Publicity and awareness for selected ventures Opportunity to present at DeviceTalks MedTech Showcase To join the MedTech IGNITE Community and to apply for the 2020 Cohort by the March 31st deadline, visit: https://www.ignitemedtech.com/ and click on Go to Challenge Britain's best kebab houses were revealed last night at an awards ceremony where Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was booed by some of the crowd. Thousands of members of the public voted for the 150 finalists to face the judges, who included the Labour MP Carolyn Harris, Conservative MP David Warburton, journalist Ash Sarkar, and Cobra beer sales director, Samson Sohail. Among the winners were vegan kebab chain What The Pitta, which scooped the award for best London takeaway. Mr Corbyn was jeered by some sections of the crowd when he was presenting the best kebab restaurant in north and west London award to Kabul City Restaurant. Ibrahim Dogus, Lambeth-based restaurateur and founder of the Kebab Awards said: 'The kebab is an unsung cornerstone of high streets across the country, and the simply superb quality of this year's entries shows that British small businesses can more than compete on a world stage of cuisine.' More than 1.3 million kebabs are sold across Britain every day, with the industry contributing 2.8 billion to the economy annually. Just East Best Delivery Winner: BBQ Grill Chatham The family-run eatery is owned by Mehmet Dogan who has been running the business for six years. Mr Dogan, who first moved to the UK 24 years ago, runs the business alongside his daughters Zelal, Ebru and Betul, as reported by Kent Online. Winner: Millenium Pizza and Kebab Highly Commended: Batman Grill The family-run eatery is owned by Mehmet Dogan who has been running the business for six years Ben and Jerry's Customer Satisfaction Winner: Mount Nemrut Turkish The Turkish eatery is based in Smethick and specialises in food cooked over an authentic coal grill. Highly Commended: Uni Kebab Highly Commended: Ruyam Turkish Restaurant The Turkish eatery is based in Smethick and specialises in food cooked over an authentic coal grill Alton & Co Best Value Restaurant Winner: Turknaz Restaurant The family business is a hit at the awards after last year being named the Best Kebab Shop in North England and then bagging an award again this year. Posting to their customers on Facebook, Turknaz wrote: 'We won!!! Fourth year in a row! Thank you all once again for your constant support. Without you all this couldn't be possible. Thank you.' Highly Commended: Melo Persian Restaurant The family business is a hit at the awards after last year being named the Best Kebab Shop in North England and then bagging an award again this year Cobra Beer Fine Dining Restaurant Winner: The Mantl Located in the heart of well-heeled Knightsbridge, the Turkish restaurant is known for its spectacular food. Located in the heart of well-heeled Knightsbridge, the Turkish restaurant is known for its spectacular food Best Kebab Restaurant in North and West London Winner: Kabul City Restaurant Highly Commended: Divan Restaurant Ocakbasi Kabul City Restaurant took home the award for the Best Kebab Restaurant in North and West London Best Kebab Restaurant in South and East London Winner: Cappadocia Restaurant The restaurant opened in 2001 in Kingston and has been thrilling customers with its traditional cuisine ever since. Highly Commended: The Ottoman Doner The restaurant opened in 2001 in Kingston and has been thrilling customers with its traditional cuisine ever since Big K Best Kebab Restaurant Regional Winner: Mosaic Grill On Facebook, the owners of the takeaway in Daventry, said: 'Thank you everyone! What a awesome night! There were 13 contenders in our category. Our category Best Kebab Restaurant Regional' 'Absolutely awesome and amazing for us to receive this Award! Thank you all once again for your support. We really do appreciate it.' On Facebook, the owners of the takeaway in Daventry, said: 'Thank you everyone! What a awesome night! There were 13 contenders in our category. Our category Best Kebab Restaurant Regional' Just East Best Takeaway Regional Winner: What The Pitta (Shoreditch) Co-founded by Cem Kaymaz-Yildiz and Roj Gul, it began selling at pop-ups around London in 2017 before opening a permanent store in Shoreditch. The menu is plant based, which means no dairy on meat in any of their kebabs. Highly Commended: The Charcoal Grill Plumstead Co-founded by Cem Kaymaz-Yildiz and Roj Gul, it began selling at pop-ups around London in 2017 before opening a permanent store in Shoreditch Ace4Kebabs Kebab Van of the Year Winner: Atalay's Kebab Van Highly Commended: Ahmed's Bar B-Q The best kebab van award was picked up by Atalay's Kebab Van Best Newcomer Restaurant Winner: German Doner Kebab (West Bromwich) Highly Commended: I Am Doner (Leeds City Centre) German Doner Kebab which has other outlets in the country, won best newcomer in West Bromwich Best Kebab House in Scotland Winner: Best Kebab and Pizza House (Arbroath) Highly Commended: The Frying Scotsman The Best Kebab and Pizza House in Arbroath, Scotland, is serving up the best kebabs to customers Best Kebab House in Northern Ireland Winner: Grab a Kebab Highly Commended: Chaska Enniskillen Best Kebab in Wales Winner: Sam's Grill House Booker Makro Chef of the Year Winner: Hamza Yalcin / Batman Grill Shortmp3.com scored 51 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 13 Jul 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the shortmp3 homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the shortmp3 homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if shortmp3 has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the shortmp3 homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the shortmp3 homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the shortmp3 homepage on Twitter + the total number of shortmp3 followers (if shortmp3 has a Twitter account). Basic Information PAGE TITLE ShortMp3.com DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.21 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 (PHP/5.2.17) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. The language of shortmp3.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for shortmp3.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The URL of the found Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The type of Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Two new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Majorca, according to IB-Salut. A man and a woman were admitted to isolation wards in Inca on Tuesday night and are reportedly part of the same family as the woman who tested positive after returning from Bergamo in Italy. The patients called the 061 Emergency personnel when they developed symptoms and biological tests on both came back positive for the Covid-19 virus. The General Directorate of Public Health & Participation has already started sifting through their contacts to track down anyone else who may be infected and advise them what action they should take. Cases in Mallorca Five people have now been diagnosed with coronavirus in Majorca. The first was a British Expat who lives in Marratxi and has already overcome the disease. A woman who tested positive after she returned from Italy is in an isolation ward at Son Espases Hospital and recovering well, and another woman who has coronavirus was admitted to Son Llatzer Hospital on Monday. Pride and Joy By U.S. Senator Deb Fischer In October 2016, I had the pleasure of visiting a new business in Northeast Omaha called North End Teleservices. At the time, the company, which provides contact center services for commercial organizations and government entities, had about 30 employees. It was exciting to see this budding start-up in an area of the city that is not typically known as a business corridor. A little over three years later, in early February, I returned to North End Teleservices for another visit and I was amazed at how quickly the company has grown in just three years. Its workforce expanded from 30 to 120 and plans are underway to grow up to 300 employees. Under the leadership of CEO Carmen Tapio, who started working at a call center when she was 18 and has 30 years of experience in the industry, today North End Teleservices is the largest business owned by a black woman in the state of Nebraska. According to the Nebraska Department of Labor, the state-wide unemployment rate is low at 3.1 percent. In Northeast Omaha, however, the rate is far higher, reported to be in the double digits. Thats why its so encouraging to see a business like North End Teleservices growing and thriving in this area. As California policy makers work out details for new legal regulations as part of a new Title 24 for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) with goals of reducing grower cost and energy consumption, the Resource Innovation Institute (RII/ ResourceInnovation.org.) convened the inaugural Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions (IAES) Conference in San Diego. The new regulations will affect lives and cause ripples for countries and states which consider California policies as a model for their own legislation. RII, is a non-profit formed to advance cannabis resource efficiency and has expertise in industry data and policy assessing environmental impacts and best practices associated with cultivation resource issues. It has also developed an energy efficiency template to provide states and federal governments regulatory options to reduce the energy intensity of cannabis cultivation. Founded in 2016 in Portland, Oregon, its distinguished Board of Directors includes the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a former Energy Policy Advisor to two Oregon governors, a former board member of the US Green Building Council and leading cannabis industry players. Its proprietary Cannabis PowerScore benchmarking survey is built on the foundation of the worlds largest dataset on cannabis energy use. Why Indoor? While Californians and residents of other temperate climates may wonder why indoor?, for the rest of our planet, indoor agriculture represents a solution to complex challenges including population growth and availability of arable land. The event arrived at a critical moment for CEA. The urban and vertical farming sector is scaling rapidly for a diverse range of crops and is being accelerated by cannabis legalization across North America. Additionally, urban areas and food deserts are evaluating indoor farming as a way to access locally grown produce efficiently and cost effectively. Story continues Key considerations are the carbon and energy implications of indoor controlled environments. Drawing from the experiences of early models, the conference objective was to explore energy solutions for all forms of indoor agriculture but a core focus for good reason was on the exponentially growing cannabis sector and the implications of increased energy demands and use. Growing indoors introduces the ability to a material extent, to have power over nature, and allows for cultivation anywhere, anytime. It allows for the control of climate, lighting and other variables. Control of such factors can provide consistent crop quality, high crop densities, increased yield and rate of growth, a fractionally smaller footprint (one square foot vertical can represent up to four square feet horizontal), easier management of pests and more efficient use of water, all of which can reduce waste. In effect, outputs are maximized, with inputs minimized. The players in this relatively new area include the three-legged stool of grower, consumer and government. Indoor agriculture is dependent upon creative and efficient horticulture approaches and the evolution and role of greenhouses and environmental control strategies. Technological developments have ranged from vertical stacking in warehouses to green roofs and walls in urban communities. A Brief Background We have come a long way from the days of hunter-gathers in prehistoric times collecting wild fruits and nuts in autumn and root and leafy vegetables in the spring. Approximately 10,000 years ago, agriculture was introduced and enabled for the first time a method and ability to select and expand food choices. Primitive methods of protecting crops began in the early twentieth century with small boxes having a glass top placed over crops, which evolved into the smart greenhouses of today. Scientists then started experimenting with variables that could be controlled such as temperature, soil replacement and carbon dioxide introduction. Advances in plant science led to realizations that control of the environment was more sustainable and realistic than controlling the plants themselves in a natural environment. It is believed that the beginning of modern indoor farming occurred in Syracuse, New York on a General Electric hydroponic farm funded by the US Department of Defense. Challenges, Hurdles And Complexities... It should not be surprising that the challenges of moving nature inside are multiple and complex. One of those greatest challenges is environmental: light, water, atmosphere, temperature, substrate, space, power and sensors. Equally important is the production-related challenges involving: labor, pruning, harvesting, trimming, drying, grinding and extraction. The greatest governmental hurdle is creating legal codes involving multiple stakeholder input that represents minimum efficiency requirements for plants instead of people. The US Department of Energy estimates that between 2010-2040 there will be an estimated $126 billion in in savings achieved as a result of these types of building codes. In practical terms this represents the energy equivalent of 245 coal-fired energy plants. Federal illegalization of cannabis has made the issue of sustainable agriculture with respect to cannabis increasingly challenging, as states and localities are put in the position of sole environmental oversight instead of having the federal government playing a patriarchal role of oversight as would occur in normalized circumstances relating to other plants. Core issues swirl around sustainability, climate change and utility programs. The conference connected policy makers, utility program managers, equipment manufacturers and suppliers, researchers, manufacturers, cultivators and investors for the purpose of taking part in the shaping of energy policies and utility programs. IAESs objective was to elevate innovative solutions related to energy access, efficiency and sustainability and to help shape the future of indoor agriculture. We have the opportunity to take the lessons learned from initial government, utility and non-profit responses addressing the energy and carbon impacts of regulated cannabis and apply them to the broader world of controlled environment agriculture, said Derek Smith, Executive Director of RII. These lessons will inform controlled environment agriculture broadly. Its time, Mr. Smith profoundly stated, for a Leeds for Weeds. Senator Jeffrey Markley of Oregon commended those playing a role in building a sustainable future for American agriculture in an opening statement: Not only does the climate crisis pose tremendous risks to the health, safety and security of our nation and global community, it also jeopardizes access to critical resources, like water that are vital to the agriculture industry. Agriculture is the lifeblood of countless rural economies and a reason I work to put innovative, sustainable technologies within reach. I am committed to fighting for the de-scheduling of cannabis to support communities and appreciate all the efforts being made on issues of agricultural sustainability. A Plethora Of Energy Thought Leadership Notable speakers and topics included: Lindsay Robinson, the Executive Director of the California Cannabis Industry Association presented a lively introductory panel focusing on federal drug policy a la the war on drugs and how it led to illicit indoor production with consequential adverse effects. Those effects included emissions and the misuse and waste of natural resources. Executive Director Robinson concluded with a powerful quote from Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: 10 years from now in 2030 we will either have written a positive story or be destined for self-destruction. Bryan Jungers a leading policy consultant, noted that information on the energy and carbon impacts of indoor cannabis cultivation, as a relatively new science with limited data, borders on end-of-world theories predicated on the work of Evan Mills whose 2012 study served as the industrys first call to action. Mills analyzed the carbon footprint of indoor cannabis production and his gloomy overview resulted in media frenzy. A new unreleased chapter of a new Mills edition provides even greater prediction of gloom and doom than the original emphasized by its title: Inconvenient Truths for Producers, Consumers and Policy Makers: Outside or bust... Prof. Ted Grantham of the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center provided an overview of water use and the deleterious effects of illegal diversion based on the 2015 research of Scott Bauer, who examined the impacts on aquatic habitats in four northwestern watersheds. It recognized seasonal patterns in water demand with the unfortunate environmental consequence demonstrating most growers lacked sufficient storage for the spring through winter months contrary to compliance requirements. Massachusetts Cannabis Commissioner Kaye Doyle explained the critical role of sustainability, which has made Massachusetts the envy of other states and the national environmental ratings leader. It created the worlds first comprehensive law focused on managing energy use within indoor grow environments. The Massachusetts Model is a blend of carrot and sticks focusing on the regulatory themes of efficiency, renewables and demand. Southern California Edisons Gary Corlett examined lessons learned from early, regulated markets, including limited and outdated infrastructure in many newly regulated cities. The most compelling lesson revealed the eyebrow-raising enormity of cannabis facility power which usage averages between one to five megawatts. That same amount of power is capable of providing power to 750 homes or three coal-powered plants, and reflects the dystopian stressors of power, traffic and combustion, to name a few, caused by putting agriculture in metropolitan manufacturing environments versus traditional rural areas. Kaitlin Urso, an environmental protection specialist at Colorados Department of Public Health & Environment, summarized what she believes to be the six core environmental impacts: energy required for lighting and HVAC; water issues including treatment, diversion, irrigation, run-off, erosion, and effluent; waste including plant, universal and hazardous, chemicals including pesticides, fertilizers and solvents; air emissions, especially terpenes (which as volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) react with nitrogen oxide in sunlight to create ground level ozone and ozone pre-cursers); processing: solvents (which also contribute to VOCs and carbon dioxide releases), cleaning products, and waste (both hazardous and plant); Dr. Nadia Sabeh, a passionate and leading energy efficiency expert known as Dr. Greenhouse, discussed climate-based optimization of grow facilities in any location. Her findings were in support of the general rule that with each one percent greater amount of light results in an equivalent one percent increase in yield, an overview of how air is the most important energy factor (HVAC uses 33%, air handling 15% and carbon dioxide burner 33%), and the efficiency and optimization of greenhouse glazing. An Example Where Great Minds Lead To Great Solutions A fascinating Colorado Project recently demonstrated how creativity can create a dramatic paradigm shift. In this particular example, worthless waste (actually, costly waste due to expense required for disposal) was converted into a valued commodity. A team of scientists from Earthly Labs collaborated with The Clinic cannabis company, Kaitlin Urso, and The Denver Beer Company (DBC and Colorados 7th largest brewery) supported (academically and not financially) by the State of Colorado. The combined team was able to capture and compress excess carbon dioxide created from the brewerys beer fermentation process. After doing so, it was transported and successfully released into The Clinics cannabis cultivation areas as a valuable input for photosynthesis. The transferred carbon dioxide was cleaner than carbon dioxide previously purchased from outside manufacturing sources. DBC has delivered an amazing five hundred pounds per week of excess carbon dioxide which otherwise would have been vented into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide was used by The Clinic in both vegetation and flower rooms housing a combined 2,500 plants. Commenting upon the success and ingenuity of this thoughtful project, Colorados Governor Jared Polis stated, the project has great potential to scale; with a thriving craft beer and cannabis industry in Colorado, this could be an economic win and serve to help climate issues. In the world of controlled agriculture, in and up are the new buzzwords. While an ongoing work in process with multiple stakeholders contributing time, resources and talent, it is refreshing to see the desire and commitment of industry professionals engaged to create innovative environmentally sustainable solutions. Who could have imagined that beer and cannabis could be one of the ways to save our planet? The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. MBABANE Why leave out Eswatini Mobile and EPTC? Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo directed this question to the Prime Minister (PM), Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, after the leader of government had left out the two other telecommunications service providers from his preamble. EPTC is an acronym for the Eswatini Post and Telecommunication Corporation. This was when the PM was making his remarks about the e-Government Unit under his office. The PM, in his written preamble, stated that the unit, in collaboration with other ministries had partnered with MTN Eswatini to introduce Mobile Money as another payment method for government services. Improve This initiative will reduce queues at revenue offices, improve the ease of doing business and also improve the revenue collection, said the PM. He said the testing of the prototype had already started. Once the testing is complete, the service will officially be launched, said Dlamini. The premier further stated that governmen,t in collaboration with MTN Eswatini, had also successfully introduced the use of Mobile Money for the payment of school fees. He said the initiative was piloted in six schools and was successful. The process of enrolling more schools to use this payment platform is ongoing between MTN and the schools, submitted Dlamini. He said there were currently 29 schools using the platform. He stated that 115 schools in total had already shown interest in enrolling with immediate effect. In his written speech, the PM only wrote about MTN Eswatini and then in vernacular, outside of his written presentation, he then said the initiative was not just for MTN Eswatini, but Eswatini Mobile and EPTC were also encouraged to participate and forward their proposals. MP Khumalo warned the PM that in future, he must also include the other service providers because if the written report got into the wrong hands, then it would raise suspicion on why the others had been left out. You have only mentioned them off your written speech and this may be viewed otherwise by other people, said the MP. This was during the annual budget performance debate of the Prime Ministers Office by the House of Assembly Portfolio Committee. Involved The PM, in response, said he was involved at the beginning of this programme while he was still the chief executive officer at MTN Eswatini. He said, however, this did not mean they did not encourage all industry players to participate. He said it was governments plan to digitalise all the services and they were doing this in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT). On a different note, the PM informed the MPs that through the technical support of EPTC, the Wi-Fi facility was now available in Parliament. He said, however, such a facility was accessed through a password to ensure that there were proper controls to avoid abuse. The control systems are imperative to ensure that the facility is sustainable and less costly, said Dlamini. He said the principal committee clerk and network engineer were responsible for issuing the passwords and managing the facility. Gilgal MP Sandla Fakudze said it was surprising that as MPs, they would only hear from the PM that there was now Wi-Fi in Parliament and that they had to go from office to office looking for whoever was responsible for issuing the passwords. Important Appointed MP Princess Phumelele said she had not heard anything about the Wi-Fi and that it was important that it was communicated to them, especially since they had to conduct research. Meanwhile, Shiselweni II MP Strydom Mpandza said it did not make sense for MPs to be walking around Parliament corridors looking for an officer who would give them the Wi-Fi password. I was further told that you can only access it along the passage and not even in the canteen so you expect us to cram the corridor, he said. The MPs said those tasked with giving them the Wi-Fi password should ensure that the MPs phones were automatically connected when they came to Parliament. The PM further told the MPs that there were technical glitches and teething problems which required long-term solutions. He further said Parliament was a very significant organ of the State and must radically transform and keep abreast with the fast moving Fourth Industrial Revolution characterised by digital migration and advanced use of technology. Dlamini said in that regard, the Legislature had developed an e-Parliament Policy and Digital Migration Policy whose ultimate objective was to introduce a paperless Parliament which used technology to disseminate information. Engaging The PM said they had since developed an action plan which would, among other factors, involve engaging officers from the ICT ministry and e-Government Unit to develop a comprehensive e-Parliament Police. He said they would also be developing a Parliament website in order to disseminate information and training of all parliamentarians in order to empower them to adapt to change towards a First World Parliament driven by technology. However, curbs on high-speed 3G and 4G Internet services have been extended till March 17. SRINAGAR: Exactly seven months after the government imposed a complete communication blackout as part of its security lockdown ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the bifurcation of the state of J&K, the authorities on Wednesday partially lifted the ban on the use of social media by people in what is now the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. However, curbs on high-speed 3G and 4G Internet services have been extended till March 17. As regards service to pre-paid SIMs card, service providers have been asked to provide access only after SIMs are verified as per norms applicable to post-paid connections. The 2G, synonymous with slow Internet, was earlier restricted to 1,674 white-listed websites approved by the government. Through a series of orders issued by the home department from time to time, service providers were not allowed access to any social media applications allowing peer-to-peer communication and Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications. There is no such mention in the latest order issued by principal secretary, home department, Shaleen Kabra, in winter capital Jammu on Wednesday. The order, however, says that in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State (read Union Territory) and for maintaining public order the Internet speed will continue to be restricted to 2G only. While the post-paid SIM card holders shall continue to be provided access to the Internet, these services shall not be made available on pre-paid SIM cards unless verified as per the norms applicable for post-paid connections, the order adds. It further says that Internet connectivity shall continue to be made available with Mac-binding on fixed line connections. Mr Kabra said that the access and communication facilities provided by the government through e-terminals and Internet kiosks apart from special arrangements for tourists, students and traders will also continue. He asserted that the fresh order has been issued upon regular assessment of impact of the directions for regulation of the telecom services on the overall security situation and maintenance of public order and-taking note of the position brought out in the reports of the law enforcement agencies, while keeping in view the aspects of reasonability of restrictions with regard to the principle of proportionality and consideration of available alternatives. The Jammu and Kashmir police had a couple of weeks ago launched a tough campaign against those using VPNs to access social media platforms to spread rumours, glorify terrorists and their activities and try to create law and order problems in the Union Territory and beyond. In fact, the police detained several people for questioning after they allegedly misused social media. The police sources had said that more than one thousand social media profiles were under scanner for spreading false information and propagating violence. The Cyber Cell of the J&K police had last month registered an open First Information Report (FIR) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against propagation of false information. Director general of police Dilbag Singh had issued a stern warning against those people using VPNs to access social media platforms to spread rumours and try to create law and order problems. People who are disseminating fake and false news and anti-India propaganda aimed at disturbing law and order and promoting terrorism will be taken to task soon, he had said. In its January 14 order, the J&K home department had imposed ban on all except (later raised to over 1,600) white-listed websites vetted by it after it restored the 2G internet services across the UT. But the diktat almost failed as a vast majority of the subscribers and other users were accessing also those websites which did not figure in the Home Departments white-list, mainly social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, through VPNs. The authorities had separately asked the telecom companies and other service providers to buy and install required equipment immediately to block the access by their subscribers to all those sites which do not figure in the Home Departments whitelist. The service providers had said that the process of installing firewalls is underway. The government had enforced a complete communication blackout across J&K as part a slew of stringent measures initiated ahead of its stripping the state of its special status and splitting it up into two UTs on August 5 last year. The ban on the use of phone and internet services was lifted gradually, however. In January this year, the government allowed mobile data services and internet access through fixed lines across the UT. Also the 2G mobile services were restored in the remaining eight districts of the Valley. This service was made available in the Valleys two districts-Kupwara and Bandipore- and also throughout the Jammu region of the UT earlier. However, as per an order issued by the UTs Home Department, the internet speed was restricted to 2G and limited only to the white-listed sites. The order said, Access will be limited only to white listed sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer to peer communication and Virtual Private Network applications. However, more and more people quickly switched to VPNs which not only allowed them to bypass censorship but also keep all online activities confidential and this in turn made a mockery of the official ban. A similar situation had surfaced in April 2017 when the government had imposed a blanket ban on 22 social media sites including Facebook, Twitter.com and WhatsApp in the Valley for a period of one month. Subsequently, the ban on these sites was lifted. A bench headed by Justice RF Nariman, Justice Rohinton Fali, Justice Ravindra Bhat responding to a case filed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is reported as having uplifted a key RBI circular that prohibits several crypto-currrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Tether, Ripple etc. New Delhi: Crypto-currency enthusiasts across the world can heave a sigh of relief with the Supreme Court of India turning down a major Reserve Bank of India directive. A detailed copy of the judgement is awaited while the bench has allowed filing of writ petitions. The RBI's circular dated April 6, 2018 discouraged financial organizations from supporting bitcoin and crypto-trading services. In the 2018 circlar, the Reserve Bank of India called crypto-currencies as "illegal" and prohibited "providing any service in relation to virtual currencies including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies". April 6, 2018 RBI circular banning cryptocurrency removed on the ground of "disproportionality": SC This means there were less invasive methods to curb/control the negative effects of crypto-currency. SC allows petitions challenging the RBI circular @the_hindu Krishnadas Rajagopal (@kdrajagopal) March 4, 2020 In less than a year, SC delivers a 2nd blow to RBI. In April 2019, J. Nariman-led Bench had quashed a Feb 12 RBI regulation giving lender banks 180-day deadline to either resolve stressed assets or proceed under Insolvency Code against defaulters in loans worth over Rs. 2k cr Krishnadas Rajagopal (@kdrajagopal) March 4, 2020 This is the second RBI circular within a year that the Supreme Court has turned down. A circular on NPA or bad-loan norms was struck down by the apex court in April 2019. Read that story here. Everyone wanted to see Mr. Ashim Sood who represented the Crypto side in the Court. Here is the pic on public demand. From right to left: Mr. Jaideep Reddy (@jrtechlaw), Mr. Ashim Sood, Mr. Harish (@bvharish - Unocoin) and Mr. Mohammed Danish (@DaniAdvocate- Crypto Kanoon). pic.twitter.com/h6vZq8Gd3y March 4, 2020 RBI restrictions gone. Lived the moment completely. #indiawinscrypto Mohammed Danish (@DaniAdvocate) March 4, 2020 With the RBI restriction reportedly gone, the crypto-world is excited on being able to resume trade, although a handful of traders point towards loss of opportunity. The price of a Bitcoin has gone up from $6498 (the day of RBI's circular) to $8813.90 (time of filing this story). Bitcoins struck an astronomical level of $19901 per coin on 17th December 2017. With the RBI circular diluted, the next pit-stop could be changing perceptions at the finance ministry which has usually likened crypto-currencies to a scam. For instance, Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his 2018 budget speech, said, "The government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these crypto assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system." Subhash Chandra Garg, the current advisor to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Jagan Reddy, likened Virtual currencies to "dabba-trading" [circuit trading]. He made the comments when he was the Chief Secretary for the department of Economic Affairs. In a written reply on use of bitcoins to the Lok Sabha, Arjun Ram Meghwal, the then MoS for Finance said, "Promotion of Digital economy is in integral part of Governments strategy to clean the system and weed out corruption and black money. The earlier initiatives of the Government to promote financial inclusion and the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity were important pre-curser. However, RBI has cautioned the users, holders and traders of Virtual Currencies (VCs), including Bitcoins about the potential financial, operational, legal customer protection and security related risks that they are exposing themselves to. The creation, trading or usage of VCs including Bitcoins, as a medium for payment have not been authorised by the Reserve Bank of India." The Finance Ministry in a 29th December 2017 release called out Virtual Currencies as Ponzi Schemes. The ministry's statement reads, "The users, holders and traders of VCs have already been cautioned three times, in December, 2013, February, 2017 and December, 2017, by Reserve Bank of India about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks that they are exposing themselves to by investing in Bitcoin and/ or other VCs. RBI has also clarified that it has not given any licence/ authorization to any entity/ company to operate such schemes or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency. The Government also makes it clear that VCs are not legal tender and such VCs do not have any regulatory permission or protection in India. The investors and other participants therefore deal with these VCs entirely at their risk and should best avoid participating therein." That detailed release is available here. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today: The results of Super Tuesday make clear that the Democratic race for president is increasingly a battle between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Alex Burns on how the biggest night of the primary unfolded. Its Wednesday, March 4. Alex, tonight were going to do things I guess I should say this morning we going to do things a little bit differently, given the tender hour. I believe the concept known to audio people is live to tape. So basically, Im going to ask you perfectly formed questions, and youre going to deliver perfectly formed answers. alex burns Thats the usual. Thats our usual routine. michael barbaro Exactly. Exactly. Ive never been edited, youve never been edited. alex burns No. michael barbaro OK. At this point, the results are in for I think about 11 of the 14 states. Were waiting on Maine. California has been called for Sanders, although I think about half the vote is still out. And in Texas, about 90 percent of the vote is in. So lets start with the big picture. What is the story that the results so far tell us about Super Tuesday? alex burns I think the very big picture of the results is that the Joe Biden comeback is very, very real. And that in the space of just a couple days, he put together a really powerful coalition that won him states in virtually every part of the country, in a way that just a week ago would have seemed almost unimaginable. michael barbaro In other words, the momentum that Biden started to pick up in South Carolina, that really carried through here. alex burns It really did. And he needed every bit of it, because we may be headed for something of an immovable object, unstoppable force situation with Biden building all his momentum and just colliding with the wall of support that Bernie Sanders has built for himself, that we saw on display in a pretty convincing way in a number of states as well, most importantly California. michael barbaro OK. So what is the big picture on Sanders? alex burns The big picture on Sanders is that his campaign had hoped that Super Tuesday would be the day that he achieved real dominance in the Democratic race, and that didnt happen. What did happen is that you saw his progressive coalition, and especially his support among Latino voters, really come to fruition in important ways in a number of states that is going to keep him very competitive with Biden in the delegate count. michael barbaro All right. Lets focus in on the Biden resurgence, the Biden comeback. I dont know what else youre calling it, but Bidens big moment. Which of his victories on Tuesday night stand out to you, and how did he pull them off? alex burns I think that early in the evening, we saw signs that this was going to be a pretty good night for Joe Biden when he carried Virginia and North Carolina, two of the first states to finish voting. They were called for him almost instantly. And its not just that he won those states, its that he won them by really big margins. michael barbaro How big? alex burns Virginia was about 30 points. It was about the same margin in Virginia as he won in South Carolina. A week or two ago, Virginia was a very, very close race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg. So the fact that you saw that enormous shift in his direction just at the very end is a testament to how Biden and other Democratic Party leaders, in these states and nationally, were able to rally together a coalition of black voters, moderate voters, suburban voters, and to say to them in these swing states, Joe Biden is your guy. michael barbaro And that coalition sounds a lot like the one you described as helping Joe Biden win in South Carolina the victory that probably helped propel him towards victories in North Carolina and Virginia. alex burns Thats right. And in some ways, its an even more diverse coalition in a number of respects, because these are states that have larger communities of affluent suburban voters. You have minority populations in a state like Virginia and North Carolina that are not as represented in South Carolina. Theyre bigger Hispanic and Asian-American communities, especially in Virginia. The fact that Joe Biden was able to run away with that state is a testament to the broad appeal that he was able to achieve at least on this one day. michael barbaro OK. So what about beyond those two states? alex burns I think when we really started to get the sense that this wasnt just quite a good night for Joe Biden, but really an exceptionally good night for Joe Biden, was when he pulled off a pair of upsets that I dont think was really on anybodys radar a couple of days ago. He won Minnesota, Amy Klobuchars home state of course, she dropped out of the race on Monday and endorsed him. But even with that late development, he was pretty clearly an underdog there going into voting, and he ended up beating out Bernie Sanders in the rest of the Democratic field. I dont know that we have seen that kind of late, drastic shift in a presidential race. michael barbaro Youre starting to hint at this, the power of some of these moderate candidates dropping out of the race, endorsing Joe Biden, what that meant for Super Tuesday. Weve been talking, you and I, for weeks now about this concept of the moderate split. This pattern whereby, whether it was Amy Klobuchar or Pete Buttigieg or Mike Bloomberg, they all seem to kind of trip all over Joe Biden, and no one could ever rise to the top of that pile. And of course, over the past few days, two of those candidates dropped out. They both endorsed Joe Biden, and they seem to be doing it quite deliberately to end that phenomenon of the moderate split, in the name of stopping Bernie Sanders. How powerful it was that in some of the states that youre mentioning here? alex burns I think theres no question that in a place like Minnesota, it was extremely powerful, and the fact that you even saw that phenomenon manifest itself in states where Biden didnt get some big, breakthrough, late endorsement. Look, Joe Biden is a guy who most Democratic voters like and have liked all along, and theyve just been really unsure about how strong he is as a candidate for a lot of pretty valid reasons. And to have the last few days before Super Tuesday defined by events that cast him as a big winner was clearly really valuable for him. This phenomenon was particularly evident in Texas, which was one of the most important states of the night the second largest number of delegates after California. This is a state that I think all the campaigns expected would be close in the end, wasnt clear whether it be close between two candidates or three candidates. This was a state where for a while Mike Bloomberg seemed to be doing fairly well. But, its also one of a couple states on the map that allows voters to cast their primary ballots early, so that you have plenty of Texans going and voting for primary candidates significantly before the actual day of the primary. And this allowed us to track, in a sort of unusual way, the late shift in support towards Joe Biden. When we started getting the first wave of election returns from Texas, they looked pretty good for Bernie Sanders. And they stayed pretty good for Bernie Sanders. But in those early results, we saw higher support for Mike Bloomberg, because those votes were cast when he was doing better as a candidate. We saw votes cast for candidates who are no longer in the race, because when some people went in to vote early, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were still running really active campaigns. Once the election day vote started to come in, we saw Joe Biden steadily rise and eventually overtake Bernie Sanders. Right now, hes ahead by a small but by a meaningful margin. And that really does capture how the vote moved towards him at the last minute, and especially after that big final rally that he held in Dallas on Monday. michael barbaro So this was tangible evidence that the victory in South Carolina, the endorsements, those had impact. Because you could literally see that there were a group of voters who probably cast their votes before those two events, and there was a group that cast them afterwards. alex burns Exactly, and if youre the Biden campaign, youre pretty happy with how Texas turned out. But you probably also wonder, how well can we have done in Texas if all those votes hadnt gone to Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bloomberg? If all of those people who were inclined to vote for a moderate in the early voting period had voted on election day, would we have gotten them too? michael barbaro So Alex, is Bidens performance tonight the story of the great moderate coalescence? Did this plan from the moderate candidates to basically plead with moderate voters to speak with one voice on Super Tuesday, did that work? alex burns I think it did. The only word that I might adjust there is plan. Right? That there was so much of this that seemed to come together on the fly and pretty organically after Bidens South Carolina landslide, that it sort of remains to be seen whether youre going to continue to have an effective, well-orchestrated coalescing of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. Or whether this is a phenomenon that we will have seen really take shape over a short period of time, and that Biden might then have difficulty replicating later on. michael barbaro OK. Lets turn to Bernie Sanders and how he did this evening. alex burns OK. Theyve just called Texas. michael barbaro Oh. So just for those who couldnt hear you, what just happened? alex burns They just called Texas. I just saw the push alert on my phone that we have now called Texas for Joe Biden. michael barbaro OK. So thats a big development. alex burns Thats a really big one, a Texas-sized developed. michael barbaro So perfectly timed, lets turn to Bernie Sanders and how he did tonight. alex burns Look, I think now, with the added context of Texas, thats really a disappointment for Bernie Sanders. That was a place where he really hoped he could show the strength of his coalition and his support among Latino voters. Its where he spent the night of his landslide victory in Nevada. He was in Texas trying to look forward to the next state on the calendar. So thats certainly a setback. But you saw Sanders hold his own in a number of the states that Joe Biden won. Its not as though he was getting completely crushed in states like Massachusetts or Minnesota. And you saw him win a number of important contests of his own, most importantly California, but also Colorado and Utah. And it does point to the possibility that as the political map changes, and on future primary days that might be a little bit less tilted towards the South and maybe a little more tilted towards the west, that you will see enduring support for Bernie Sanders in those places. michael barbaro Remind us why Bernie Sanders has such an appeal in the west. alex burns Well, we saw that he had real appeal in the west four years ago when he ran against Hillary Clinton, that there is a real strength to his outsider message, to his populist message, to just his general approach to politics. And in the intervening four years, he and his campaign have put an enormous amount of effort in reaching out to the Latino community. And you saw that pay off for him in a really big way, in California especially. michael barbaro How is it possible to win California and still have anything approaching a disappointing night, given the scale of the delegates there? alex burns Well, as a pure matter of delegate math, this might not be a bad night for Bernie Sanders. I dont think it is a bad night for Bernie Sanders. But if we were having this conversation on the day after the Nevada caucuses about what Super Tuesday might look like for Sanders, I dont think that we would have said that it would be a really big win for him to get just California and a couple other states, while Joe Biden reassembles this broad coalition across most of the rest of the country. Now, again, in fairness to Sanders, winning California is an enormous development for him. It may take us a little time to figure out exactly how important a development that is for him, because California does a lot of voting by mail. And there are many, many hundreds of thousands of ballots that is going to take a long time to count that will shape what the ultimate delegate picture is out of California. The difference between Bernie Sanders winning California by 15 points and winning California by 7 points will tell us a whole lot about who has an overall advantage in the delegate race, and were not even get to know the answer to that question for a while. The fact that Bernie Sanders came out as the number one candidate, though, is a real validation of the strategy he has taken in that state. It was a real bitter disappointment to his campaign four years ago when he did not defeat Hillary Clinton there. So it is something of, I think, a particularly important vindication for him. michael barbaro So what does Super Tuesday ultimately mean for Bernie Sanders? alex burns Well, it means that hes now one of two front-runners for the Democratic nomination. There are only two candidates in this race now who have a realistic path to winning a majority of the delegates needed to claim the nomination. Hes one of them. Joe Biden is the other one. The trickier thing for Sanders about Super Tuesday is that he has now seen what Joe Biden is capable of on a really good night. And I do think that it is something of a reality check for him and his campaign about just how difficult it might be for him to become the nominee and the scale of resistance that he might face. They were really hoping to be able to put in a much more dominant performance on Super Tuesday that would send a clear signal to reluctant Democratic Party leaders about his strength in this contest. If Bernie Sanders is going to be the Democratic nominee, it is pretty clear right now that it will only be after a very long fight. michael barbaro In which he has to somehow defeat, state after state after state, Joe Biden. alex burns Thats right. [music] archived recording (bernie sanders) You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics. alex burns And in his speech on primary night, you have already heard from Sanders what that case is going to sound like. archived recording (bernie sanders) One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq. Youre looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. alex burns It was a scathing critique of Bidens record and a real sign of just how intense and how confrontational this race may be about to get. archived recording (bernie sanders) One of us stood up for consumers and said we will not support a disastrous bankruptcy bill. And another candidate represented the credit card companies and voted for that disastrous bill. So here we are. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. There are two people we didnt talk all that much about tonight and that may be pretty telling. And that, of course, is Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren. What did we learn tonight about these candidacies? alex burns Well, I think for Elizabeth Warren, we saw a continuation of a lot of the disappointment that she has faced over the last month since the Iowa caucuses. She is going to come out of Super Tuesday with a whole bunch more delegates, but she will not have carried a single state, and she will have lost her home state of Massachusetts. michael barbaro Which is a pretty stinging defeat. alex burns And I think in some ways, all the more so, because the state ended up rallying at the last minute around Joe Biden, who was not working hard to win there. Mike Bloomberg is in a lot of ways a far more dramatic story. This was the first time that Bloombergs name was actually on a primary ballot anywhere. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars contesting these states after totally skipping the four early states in February. And in a lot of these places, he looked for weeks or months like he had a pretty decent shot of winning outright. michael barbaro Right. alex burns And the only contest he carried was the caucus in American Samoa. That is not typically seen as a bellwether for who is going to win the Democratic nomination. These states where he had been a pretty formidable contender places like Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, California he did not come in first in any of these places. He did not come in second in these places. He fell far, far short. And when you talk to people who are aligned with him and with his general wing of the party, there is just this consensus that, first, that debate with Elizabeth Warren hurt him badly. And that then, the last couple of days, probably nobody suffered more as a result of this late movement towards Joe Biden than Mike Bloomberg. That it turned out that a lot of those moderate voters, a lot of those African-American voters, who were intrigued by Bloomberg based on his advertising, ultimately reverted to Joe Biden. They were just more comfortable with him, and whatever bond they had formed with Mike Bloomberg was pretty fleeting. michael barbaro Theres word this morning that Bloombergs campaign is going to reassess whether they should stay in this race, which may mean hes going to drop out. Were not sure. If Bloomberg does drop out, does that, as youve suggested, just further benefit this coalescence around Biden, as he tries to capture more and more of the moderate vote? alex burns I think it does. The difference between how Bloomberg performed in early voting and how he performed on election day really does suggest that his support moved directly from him to Joe Biden for the most part. So going forward to other states that now will have the information that we have based on Super Tuesday, Bloomberg is probably going to face a very, very tough fight if he wants to hold onto even the support he has right now, let alone the support that he hoped he would have. michael barbaro And on the other hand, should we assume although we should never make any assumptions but should we assume that if Warren were to leave the race, that would help Sanders? alex burns You know, the Sanders campaign certainly thinks so. I am personally not as convinced about that, because while Elizabeth Warren is a liberal candidate, a progressive, a populist who shares a lot of ideas with Bernie Sanders, much of her support also comes from more educated voters who have tended to be wary of Bernie Sanders in the past. And much of her support also comes from progressive women specifically, who are motivated not just by pure matters of ideology, but by Warrens biography and identity and outlook on politics, and the specific policy concerns that shes speaking to that arent necessarily at the core of Bernie Sanderss daily message. So look, if Joe Biden is coalescing support from basically every important moderate constituency in the Democratic Party, there is going to be a great, great desire from the Sanders campaign to be able to do the same thing on the left. I dont know that they or anyone else is going to have too much leverage over Elizabeth Warren at this point, because she had been running this sort of underdog guerrilla campaign for a while now, and the friction that we have already seen between her and Bernie Sanders may make it pretty tough for them to put pressure on her. michael barbaro I have a bit of a cosmic question about the Biden resurgence phenomenon we saw tonight. How much of that is about Joe Biden, and how much of that is about many Democratic voters anxieties around Bernie Sanders? Its something we have talked about in this primary. alex burns I think its both, but I think that those fundamental strengths that Joe Biden has in this race didnt get him nearly as far as they suddenly have when they are being viewed by Democratic voters in light of their anxieties about Bernie Sanders. So when this was months ago and voting was a distant task, and Democrats were able to review a field that included not just the candidates were talking about tonight but people like Kamala Harris and Beto ORourke and Cory Booker, they were able to imagine a whole lot of alternatives to Joe Biden, who gave them a lot of reasons for concern. We have not seen Joe Biden suddenly become a really clear, crisp disciplined politician in debates and on the stump. We have not seen that his campaign organization has suddenly become incredibly sophisticated and operationalized all over the country in an impressive way. Weve not seen any of those things. What we have seen is that, as this field has narrowed and as Bernie Sanders has gotten stronger and stronger, a lot of Democrat voters are looking back at the things they essentially liked about Joe Biden all along. That they think hes a decent man, that they think hes a safe bet in the general election, and they associate him with the Obama administration. And when the choices have already narrowed to the point that they have now, those are pretty considerable assets in a Democratic primary, and in a Democratic primary electorate that is consumed more than anything else with the question of who can beat Donald Trump? michael barbaro Alex, as of tonight correct me if Im wrong about a third of the delegates will have been awarded in this nomination fight. How close are we now to actually having a nominee, beyond the obvious mathematical answer of were about a third of the way? alex burns I think were still a ways off. I have two big questions for the coming days. One is whether Biden can really sustain this moment, whether he can consistently go out there in front of the Democratic electorate and look as formidable as he has in the last couple of days. Because its one thing to look strong and impressive when you are delivering your victory speech, and its another thing to just do it day in, day out, in the ordinary experiences of being a presidential candidate. The other question for me is whether Bernie Sanders can expand his appeal beyond where it is so far. There was that moment after the Nevada caucuses, which he won by just an enormous margin, where it really looked like he had cracked the ceiling on his political support and maybe his coalition was about to get much larger than it had up to that point. We didnt see that happen on Super Tuesday. And in a contest between somebody who has a hardcore progressive coalition and somebody who has a looser but more diffuse moderate coalition in the Democratic Party, the moderate usually wins in the end. So if youre Bernie Sanders, you have to be looking at where you can reach people who arent with you already, and thats not something that weve seen him do a whole lot of in the last couple weeks. michael barbaro But he could. alex burns But he could. [music] michael barbaro Thank you, Alex. alex burns Thank you. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. The death toll from the coronavirus in Washington State, the site of the first major outbreak in the U.S., rose to nine on Tuesday, as authorities said that the virus may have been spreading there for longer than they had realized. In New York, officials identified a second infection, a man who was treated at a hospital just outside New York City for days before he was diagnosed. Health officials are now trying to track down doctors and nurses who the man may have infected. As of Tuesday night, there were at least 115 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. [music] Pilgrimage of the Animals to highlight extinction Pilgrimage of the Animals to highlight extinction On Easter Saturday (April 11) there will be a ritual procession through the heart of Norwich to honour the creatures that have become endangered, and remember some that have already been lost. Organisers Lezley and Hugh report. It will also raise awareness about the ecological catastrophe we face unless we take immediate action. The attention of our hearts will be on our kindred species whose lives have been wantonly put at risk. Everyone is invited to join the pilgrims, who will gather at 12 noon outside Norwich Cathedral (between the Erpingham Gate and the Cathedral). Pilgrims are encouraged to dress in black and, where possible, to walk from their homes to the gathering place. Each pilgrim will have chosen one endangered creature animal, bird, insect or fish. (For a list of creatures the website www.pilgrimageoftheanimals.com) Each pilgrim will carry a round shield (45cm / 18 inches diameter) bearing the name and a bold and vibrant image of their creature. Over the months preceding the pilgrimage there will be workshops in which artists will be available to help you decorate your shield. For more information visit the website. The procession will set off at a slow and solemn pace. Pilgrims will walk in silence. They will walk in pairs with their shields facing outwards. Drums will sound a slow rhythm. On the processional route there will be stations where the pilgrims will halt. At each station the silence will be broken and some of the endangered creatures will be loudly named. The procession will end between the Forum and St Peter Mancroft Church. There will be a culminating ritual. While the pilgrims sing a lament (which they will have learned when they first gather) the shields will be solemnly taken and hung from poles creating a ring of totem poles. After the culminating ritual the pilgrims will disperse and the totem poles will be displayed (in the Forum, in St Peter Mancroft, in the Cathedral, and other spaces). The chief medical officer has said that the St Patricks Day parade in Dublin on March 17 does not need to be cancelled, despite concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. There are now five Covid-19 cases on the island or Ireland three in Northern Ireland and two in the Republic. Tony Holohan, the chief medical officer at the Department of Health, insisted as things stand the parade can go ahead in a fortnight. Im going to be as clear as I can be about this because we have been asked it on a number of occasions. As things stand, and on the basis of our assessments on the risks to this country, we see no implications for the St Patricks Day parade. As things stand, we dont envisage that situation changing. On the other hand; this is a fast-moving national and international situation. Earlier: Dr Tony Holohan: Response to coronavirus must be 'proportionate' Ireland's Chief Medical Officer has said that fear and anxiety in relation to the coronavirus is understandable - and said that it is important that the public stay informed. After two people in the North tested positive for the disease, Dr Tony Holohan said that the response to the disease should be "proportionate" and "necessary", adding that travel into Ireland from impacted countries has not been restricted. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health on his way to brief the media on the confirmed case of Covid-19. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins We now understand there are three confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, five in total on the island of Ireland, Dr Holohan said. Given that Covid-19 is a new disease it is understandable that its emergence may give rise to anxiety and fear among the general public. These factors can also give rise to harmful stereotypes. "This virus knows no borders, or race. Restricting travel into Ireland does not form a component of our current response. We must continue to focus on ensuring that everyone is informed, and knows what to do in the event they develop symptoms "It is essential that any decisions regarding responses to Covid-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate. "The general public should continue to follow HSE.ie and Gov.ie/health for accurate and informative information regarding Irelands response to Covid-19. Earlier: Two people test positive for coronavirus in North Two further positive Covid-19 cases have been detected in Northern Ireland. One adult recently travelled from northern Italy. An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital. Picture: Michael Cooper / PA Wire The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive, Stormont health officials said. The results are being sent to England for verification. A UK Department of Health statement said: Testing of patients in Northern Ireland has resulted in two further presumptive positive results for coronavirus (Covid-19), bringing the total to three since testing began. In line with established protocols, these Northern Ireland test outcomes have been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification. The two cases are not connected. One individual recently travelled from Northern Italy. The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. Both patients are adults and are receiving appropriate care. Public Health Agency personnel are working rapidly to identify contacts they may have had, with the aim of preventing further spread. Last night there was a second confirmed case in the Republic as efforts are ongoing to trace the contacts of the woman in the east of the country. Health Minister Simon Harris says people who aren't contacted shouldn't worry. "Let's be really clear here, if you need to be contacted and the health service cannot contact you, we will issue a public health notice. "We will contact you, if you don't hear from the health service, you do not need to be worried," he said. In England, there have been confirmed cases in Trafford and Oldham, both in the Greater Manchester area. Meanwhile, the death toll in Italy from the coronavirus has risen again to 107. More than 2,700 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 276 patients have recovered. Schools and universities there are to close until the middle of March in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. - Additional reporting Joel Slattery Air New Zealand has plans to introduce sleeping pods in the form of bunk beds on long-haul economy class flights. The airline filed patent and trademark applications for its Economy Skynest sleeping arrangements last week, after three years of R&D. The prototype for Air New Zealands Economy Skynest consists of six full-length, lie-flat sleeping pods, arranged side by side as two sets of triple bunks. Each bed measures 200cm (6.6 feet) long and 58cm (1.9 feet) wide. It will come with a pillow, sheets and blanket, earplugs, privacy curtains, and lighting designed to encourage sleep. The airline is also exploring other features such as a separate reading light, personal device USB outlet, and ventilation outlet. The exact positioning of the Economy Skynest within the aircraft has yet to be confirmed, but it will be in the Economy cabin. The idea behind the Skynest is that passengers will have a normal Economy seat but can pay extra for a time slot in the sleeping pod, rather than booking a bunk for the entire flight. Of course, cabin crew will change the sheets between each occupant. Air New Zealand, which was named Best Airline for 2020, operates some of the worlds longest fights, including its upcoming Auckland-New York service that clocks in at 17 hours 40 minutes one-way. A clear pain point for economy travellers on long-haul flights is the inability to stretch out, said Air New Zealand Chief Marketing and Customer Officer Mike Tod. The development of the Economy Skynest is a direct response to that challenge. Back in 2011, Air New Zealand successfully introduced its Economy Skycouch concept, a row of three seats with footrests and armrests that can be folded to create a flat area of space resembling a couch. However, the airline admits that the scale of the challenge in developing the Economy Skynest and getting the project certified is immense when compared with Skycouch. The airline will make a final decision on whether to operate the Economy Skynest next year after it has assessed the performance of the new Auckland-New York flights. (Source: Air New Zealand, The Financial Times) 0 0 votes Article Rating SHARE I was doing a lot of driving around the country last week and there were more and more stretches of road with wind farms lining the fields. I quite like them in their majestic glory; turning relentlessly and steadily, giant white stately arms rotating in the air. Quite majestic really. Now, obviously I don't have to live under one, and I know there are lots of people who hate the things or are fearful of them and the noise they say is produced. But renewable energy is with us now and has to be for all our futures. And if it's one thing we have in abundance in this weather-benighted island stuck in the Atlantic, it's "grand drying weather" - and they are making a difference. About a third of our energy needs came from wind last year, and it has been steadily growing. Twenty-four new wind farms came on stream and that makes us the second highest producer in the EU. We're told there's now 4,100 megawatts of energy produced, with each mw enough to power 10,000 homes. That has to be good and supported, which of course we all do through our carbon taxes and PSO levies. We import all of our oil needs, so any way we can insulate ourselves from that inconsistent market has to be welcome. How ongoing climate change will help or hinder the process I'm not certain and I'm sure it's precious little use to anyone stuck knee deep in flood water watching windmills turning overhead thinking we're saving the environment. But perhaps along with the giant windmills and harnessing sea power or gas reserves, it might be the tiniest thing imaginable that will make the biggest difference. They say every catastrophe has a silver lining, and while panic over the Covid-19 virus continues unabated, one unintended consequence has been to halt the gallop of one of the biggest carbon emitters on the planet. China's virtual lockdown has cut global emissions by 400 million tonnes as factories close, flights are grounded and roads remain traffic free. Output is the lowest for five years with noxious NO2 air pollution said to be 35pc down on last year's levels. It seems a microscopic virus has managed to do more than even that other tiny ball of energy - Greta Thunberg - and all the combined political and scientific brains across the world in cleaning up our skies, albeit temporarily. A whopping 13,000 fewer flights a day are in the air, China being one of the world's biggest airline hubs, accounting for 15pc of all global travel, as people avoid the country. It will not be for long, I'm sure, but what a message we can learn from it. Satellite images can leave nobody in doubt, not least in that part of the world, about the intense effect of carbon fuels, smog, air quality and the resilience of a people able to get on with life regardless. What's in Storehouse for William and Kate We're all living in fear these days. Touching feet is the new embracing, holy communion is being placed into latex-gloved hands, there's not a face mask to be had and sanitising gel has gone the way of the dodo. So, let's hope handshakers-in-chief William and Kate don't go home from Ireland tomorrow with more than they arrived. The headlines would be dreadful, and here we are with our cead mile failte on open display. What are we doing with them? Newgrange? Book of Kells? The Burren? Glendalough? Of course not. Our glorious and magnificent heritage gets distilled, as it ever does for visiting dignitaries, into a bloody pint of Guinness in the Storehouse. [March 04, 2020] SciBite Announces New Advisory Board Member CAMBRIDGE, England, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SciBite today formally announced that Philippe Fauchet, OBE, has become the latest addition to its advisory board. Joining Alexander Karle and Diane Harbison, who initially formed the SciBite advisory board back in April 2019. "We are pleased to formally welcome Philippe to our advisory board," said CEO & President Rob Greenwood. "With vast corporate experience within the pharmaceutical space, SciBite will hugely benefit from his strong global senior leadership perspective." Philippe has spent 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, 20 of which he has spent in Japan, most of them as a General Manager of Sanofi-Aventis and then of GlaxoSmithKline groups in Japan. He was Head of Sanofi-Aventis Corporate Business Development before joining GlaxoSmithKline. Philippe is now providing consulting services to various ompanies within Japan. He is also a venture partner of an international venture capital firm and sits on the board of Japanese biotech start-ups. "SciBite has organically built a market-leading position in text analytics and clean data intelligence, it's an exciting time for the company as they near reaching the stage where they can see a case for raising investment," said Philippe Fauchet. "I look forward to bringing my corporate expertise to the board and being part of the continual rapid growth of SciBite." Philippe joins existing board members Alexander Karle and Diane Harbison. Alexander brings in-depth experience from the corporate business world. Having recently become CEO of social housing software provider Mobysoft Ltd, he was previously CEO of life sciences market intelligence provider Evaluate Ltd. Diane brings a wealth of scientific knowledge, she has a PhD in Molecular Biology and spent 10 years of her career at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Diane is currently CEO of start-up Decipher Analytics Ltd. "We are very fortunate to have such a high level of experience within our advisory board, ready to help strengthen our strategic positioning as we continue to support the delivery of our customer's data strategies with our innovative technology," said Rob Greenwood. "We are very excited to continue our growth journey and for the future direction of SciBite." About SciBite SciBite is an award-winning semantic software company offering an ontology-led approach to transforming unstructured content into machine-readable clean data. Supporting the top 20 pharma with use cases across life sciences, SciBite is headquartered in the UK with additional sites in the US and Japan. Find out more at www.scibite.com. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/617446/SciBite_Logo.jpg Press contact: Lauren Barham, Marketing Manager [email protected] +44 (0)1223 786 129 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A couple who used to feel trapped in the rat race have revealed they're finally content with their lives after moving to the countryside to run a brewery, despite still working long hours. Last night's Ben Fogle: Make A New Life in the Country followed former finance worker Hani and schoolteacher Sarah, who left their three bedroom, semi-detached house in Croydon and well-paid jobs, to start up a brewery in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. For Sarah, who oversees most of the work in the warehouse, the day starts at seven, ends late and is always busy as she brews up thousands of litres of beer a week. She told Ben that she is constantly torn between being a business owner and being a parent. While Hani and Sarah said they've managed to walk the line between 'crazy' and 'brave,' some viewers felt the couple had it harder in Worchestershire than in London. 'The couple in the Malvern Hills don't seem to have swapped their lives at all. The mum doesn't seem to see the kids first thing and they both work beyond 9pm,' one observed. Hani and Sarah pictured right) left their comfortable lives in South London in order to open a brewery near the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire and spend more time with their children. They feature in tonight's Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country The couple who are parents to two children under ten, Florence and Edward, were first filmed in the early days of the venture while Sarah experimented with different brews in the kitchen and Hani looked after the children and finances. In the second part of the Channel 5 show, Ben met Hani and Sarah three and a half years after they made the decision to leave the city. He found their brewery thriving, with Sarah brewing thousands of litres of beers a week by herself, while Hani helps her with the logistics and focuses on childcare. 'I am active all the time,' she admitted to Ben Fogle. 'My mind is round, really, because there is the kids as well at home,' she explained. 'What they're doing at school, what they need, what time they need picking up and all that kind of thing. Sarah (pictured) oversees the beer brewing process, after starting to experiment with recipes in the couple's kitchen after they made the big move 'That's the eternal problem of being a working mum,' she said, while filling beer barrels. 'You feel guilty if you're not working and you're feeling guilty if you're at work.' In order to cut costs, Sara does much of the warehouse work by herself, which includes brewing the beer from start to finish, finessing the concoctions by hand, filling 54kg barrels, and loading them out for delivery one by one. 'I don't say this lightly, there are lots of different tasks that have to be done,' an impressed Ben said. 'It's like a never ending job. 'I'm now genuinely struggling to work out how you have enough time to do everything.' Sitting down with Ben at the end of his stay with the couple, Hani and Sarah reflect on their decision to leave the city and 'step out into the unknown.' Three years after Hani and Sarah (right) move to the West Midlands, Ben comes to visit to witness how well their business is doing 'There's a fine line between brave and stupid but I think it's working out the right way,' Sarah joked. 'You have to have a lot of craziness to do something like that. 'I knew it was going to be hard-work but I never realised how much hard work and hours of hard work it was going to be. 'I don't think we'd still be here was it not for the welcome of the community,' she goes on. When the couple first arrived in Worcestershire, the mother-of-two had to come up with original brews she tested herself in their kitchen, while they waited for the building permission to turn the chicken shed they bought into a lucrative brewery. Sarah oversees the physical part of the work while Hnai looks after the finances and logistics involved (pictured at home) Through trial and error, Sarah managed to come up with three different brews that she hoped to sell on a larger scale down the line. A test taste with locals at a fair proved her concoction a success, however, when it became times to try and brew it on a larger scale, Sarah was nervous. 'My recipe works on a small kit, but I don't know how it's gonna do on a larger kit,' she said. In order to brew 700 bottles of her home beer, a friend of the couple welcomed Sarah in his medium scale brewery. She explained that for her brew to be a success, she needed to get her calculations exactly right. However, her hopes were crushed two weeks later when some of the beers in the test batch came back too fizzy to sell. The couple tell the presenter they managed to walk the line between crazy and brave by starting their business from scratch Hani is delighted by the fact he gets to spend more time with his children while Sarah is busy in the brewery 'Even if I open one and it's OK, I don't know which of those bottles are okay and which are not, so we can't sell any of it,' Sarah told the camera. In spite of pouring hundreds of pounds down the drain due to the failed experiment, she refused to be defeated and instead said: 'We've got to get ready to brew tonight.' While Sarah powered through her brewing process, overworked businessman Hani relished the time he got to spend with his children. The father-of-two explained he would rarely see his kids during the week in London due to his demanding job. He would go through 60 hours of week at a job so stressful, heart defibrillators could be found on each floor of his company's building. The couple said their business would not have worked without the support of their new community It was their love for their children that pushed Hani and Sarah to move to the countryside. 'I wouldn't see them at home from last thing Sunday night to first thing Saturday morning,' Hani said. But in Worcestershire, the happy dad delighted in the moments he got to spend with Florence and Edward, preparing them for the day and picking them from school before going on walks during the afternoon. Hani, enjoying a much more relaxed lifestyle in the West Midlands, told Ben that he and Sarah rotate duties during the week, and that he found that childcare had a 'terrific amount of value.' 'We're not without stress, but it's a completely different kind of stress,' he added. Some viewers felt that the couple's decision to move to the countryside was not that interesting. Viewers were split between praising Sarah and Hani for their hard work and saying they were just wealthy people who decided to move the countryside 'Wouldn't that be great if there was a telly show about poor people doing what they can for a better life as opposed to one about rich people "fed up" with their "very well paid" jobs,' one asked. 'I usually like your Channel 5 shows, but tonight could've been titled "lucky finance worker and family lead nice life in the country with brewery," the end,' another wrote. Others recognised that Sarah and Hani did hard work at the brewery, especially Sarah, who some called a 'machine. 'For the first time this series, I have zero jealousy. Their new life looked 100 times worse than their old one,' one said. 'Well done guys. Great show. Sarah, you're a machine,' one wrote. 'Whilst initially thinking "urgh, London people putting the prices up" it looks like this family have really made an effort to build their business, connect with the community and share the parenting,' another applauded. 'What a brave decision to leave successful jobs to open a brewery. Such a fabulously inspirational story. Well done you guys,' said another. Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country is available on My5. The financial crisis in Kerala has affected the various schemes being run for the backward communities in the state, said AK Balan, Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes on Wednesday. Balan's open admission came during the Question Hour of the state Assembly on Wednesday upon the Opposition members raising the issue of housing schemes under the proposed Ambedkar Rural Development Programme being stalled in various constituencies. "There is a financial crisis globally. In India and Kerala, the situation is the same. It is also felt in the SC/ST department. The shortage of funds is the reason for the delay in the development of Ambedkar colonies. I agree with the opposition on this, " Balan said. The Ambedkar Rural Development Programme envisages development works worth Rs 50 lakh each in two select colonies in all Assembly constituencies. Following the Minister's admission, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala intervened by saying, "The SC/ST department carries out welfare schemes for the most marginalised sections in the society. The minister should demand more funds to complete development of Ambedkar colonies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:10:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China honored its commitment to international cooperation in the fight against novel coronavirus in an open, transparent and responsible manner, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday. Zhao said China had been closely following the development of the COVID-19 epidemic around the world, with the determination to boost international cooperation, and the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity. The Foreign Ministry and the National Health Commission jointly held a video conference on Tuesday with health experts from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Turkmenistan and the secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Peking University First Hospital shared with the attendees China's experience in the prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19. They had in-depth discussions on prevention and control measures, diagnosis, screening and laboratory testing, and agreed on enhancing information exchange and coordinated actions, Zhao said. Earlier, China and the European Union also held two video conferences on the prevention and control of COVID-19. Nonetheless, Shropshire cautioned, eight months of continuous advertising, coupled with the opening of field offices in black communities, could have the intended effect of peeling off enough voters to improve his standing by a couple of points, while raising enough doubt about the Democratic nominee that other voters simply stay home, a la 2016. The prospect of such a setback, Shropshire noted, shifts the burden back onto Democratic donors and allied organizations to mount a full-court press on those who voted 3rd party or did not vote in 2016, in order to avoid a repeat of the election results that year. Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird, political scientists at Duke and Bowdoin and the authors of a new book Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, argue that Trumps efforts to win black support will be futile. In a February Atlantic essay, they write: Political solidarity has been a crucial political asset of black Americans during a long struggle against racial injustice, and a few symbolic gestures or policy initiatives wont win significant black support for Republicans. They make an intriguing and eminently reasonable case for the strategy Republicans should adopt if they are in fact serious about winning over African-American voters: If Republicans want black votes, their strategy should be simple: End racial segregation which not only leads to societal inequities that most African Americans strongly deplore, but also reinforces the social structures and conventions by which black adults encourage one another to vote Democratic. Continued segregation, they write, plays a crucial role in maintaining black loyalty to the Democratic Party: Racial segregation the very phenomenon that created a need for African-American political unity also allows the group to censure defectors. Because of spatial segregation, many African Americans have social relationships almost exclusively with other black people. As a result, these black individuals then find themselves compelled to either accept the dominant political beliefs of the racial group or risk loss of status within these largely black social networks. Vincent L. Hutchings, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, noted that the Trump campaign recognizes that no Democratic presidential candidate can win the White House without near unanimous support from blacks, coupled with relatively high turnout. As a result, the real issue is whether he can peel off enough to make a difference, or if he can diminish support for the Democratic nominee. While there are some things that the Trump administration can tout to potentially appeal to a critical slice of black voters, e.g., criminal justice reforms, low unemployment, etc., Hutchings argued these issues will not make much of a dent. Group loyalties, both partisan and racial, are far more important. And, these group loyalties particularly in a general election campaign are likely to encourage considerable, and enthusiastic, opposition to the Trump campaign. Pearl K. Dowe, professor of political science and African-American studies at Emory University, shares Hutchingss doubts. Trumps outreach is not about picking up a significant number of African-American voters but to message to black voters that Trump may not be as bad as they believe, Dowe wrote by email. The Trump campaign could succeed in influencing a few black voters who might decide to stay home if they feel there isnt a real option that could positively impact their lives. But, Dowe argued, the strong disdain black voters have for Trump will produce a higher turnout rate for African-American voters and an overwhelming support for the Democratic candidate regardless of who it is. Sekou Franklin, a political scientist at Middle Tennessee State University, is optimistic about Democratic prospects with black voters, but he added some significant caveats in his email: Blacks believe that this is a do or die election with high stakes, and many see Trump as threat to their long-term livelihood. This message will be reinforced by black leaders, civil rights groups, and opinion makers and these social pressures matter in terms of consolidating the black vote. However, Franklin noted, if Trump were to make inroads among black voters and this is a big IF it will be among black men versus black women. Black men voted for Trump at a higher rate than black women in 2016, and black women are the most committed Democratic Party voters. In addition, Franklin cautioned, If a civil war breaks out inside the Democratic Party between Bernie Sanderss supporters and another candidate the conflict could cause chaos such that young blacks could choose to stay home and not vote on Election Day, which would give Trump an advantage. Franklin predicted a replay of 2016 in the event that Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee, with the Trump campaign stressing Bidens vote for the 1994 crime bill. Both Franklin and Dowe agreed this line of attack was effective against Clinton in 2016, and both argued that it received strong reinforcement via Russian interference: In 2016, Trumps ads and Facebook posts were effective, but they were augmented by an even more effective foreign intervention according to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report, Franklin wrote. The Senate Intelligence Committee found that Russia engaged in a massive disinformation campaign, Franklin noted, and it was extraordinarily important in misleading blacks in order to convince them that there was no difference between Clinton and Trump. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that he would not celebrate Holi in wake of communal violence in northeast Delhi. Responding to a question at a press conference here, Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party national convener, said that he and his party MLAs would not celebrate Holi due to the riots. The communal violence in northeast Delhi which was sparked by protests over the amended Citizenship Act and has left 42 dead and over 200 injured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tihar Jail authorities on Wednesday moved a city court seeking a fresh date for the execution of four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case. Shortly after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, Tihar Jail authorities on Wednesday moved a city court seeking fresh date for the execution of four convicts. The court scheduled the hearing for 2 pm on Thursday. Additional Sessions Judge Dharemender Rana scheduled the matter for Thursday saying that under the principles of natural justice, the convicts and their counsel Advocate AP Singh need to be notified about the prison authorities' application. Judge Rana issued notice to the convicts and sought a response on the application. Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed informed the court that with the rejection of Gupta's mercy plea, the convicts had now exhausted all the legal option available to them. He told the court that the jail authorities had informed Gupta that his mercy petition had been rejected and asked the court to issue a fresh date for execution today itself. Earlier in the day, a Home Ministry official said that the president had rejected Gupta's mercy petition. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of the other three convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31). The trial court had on 17 February issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for 3 March at 6 am for the four convicts. However, the court had on 2 March stayed their hanging as Gupta's mercy petition was pending before the president. On 16 December , 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died after a fortnight. A total of six people - Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile - were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term. With inputs from PTI Republican Pierce Bush, a grandson of former President George HW Bush, failed to advance out of Tuesday's primary in his bid for a Houston congressional seat, becoming the first member of his family to lose a race in Texas in more than 40 years. Aside from the recognition of coming from America's most enduring Republican dynasty, Bush 34, was endorsed by the outgoing GOP incumbent, Rep. Pete Olson and raised more money than many of the other 14 candidates in the field. Troy Nehls and Kathaleen Wall, staunch defenders of President Donald Trump, advanced instead to the runoff. That raised questions about whether the Bush family's sharp personal clashes with the president in recent years turned off Republican voters. Although Pierce Bush, 34, made clear from the outset of his run in December that he was an ally of Trump, he didn't do so with zeal of rivals who promised fierce loyalty to the president if elected. It's the first time a Bush has lost an election in Texas since George W Bush failed in a bid for Congress a 1978. Since then, the family had won on the ballot in Texas in races for governor, president and, most recently, George P Bush's victories for state land commissioner in 2014 and 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Flash China's UN envoy on Tuesday called for a "good atmosphere" to be created for political dialogue and national reconciliation in Iraq. Speaking at a Security Council meeting on the unrest-torn country, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said as the internal political process in Iraq is at an important juncture, the international community should support Iraq in independently managing its own internal affairs and responding to the challenges by playing a constructive role and creating an enabling environment. "We are firmly against interference in Iraq's internal affairs," he said, adding any military action on Iraq's territory must be subject to the consent of the government of the country to avoid Iraq becoming a victim of geo-politics. He said engaging in peaceful and meaningful dialogue toward inclusive reconciliation and harmonious coexistence is in the fundamental interest of the Iraqi people. "We welcome further improvement of relations between the central government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government as well as their continuation of communication and dialogue on oil revenue sharing and security arrangements," he said. Moreover, Zhang urged the international community to consolidate the achievements in counterterrorism and safeguarding national security, noting Iraq has made great sacrifice for the international cause of counterterrorism. He warned that the threat of remnant forces of terrorism still remains and the disposal of foreign terrorist fighters and their families is in urgent need of support from more parties. In this regard, he called on international community to fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and jurisdiction, and support Iraq in bringing terrorists to justice and in preventing the return and spread of terrorist forces and activities. He said the world should support the UN investigative team to promote accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State. In addition, Zhang stressed the need to promote Iraq's economic recovery and accelerate its reconstruction, noting development is the fundamental guarantee for peace. In this light, he pointed out that speeding up economic reconstruction, augmenting public service capacity, improving people's livelihood and responding to people's aspirations are important tasks for Iraq. He urged the international community to support Iraq in exploring a development path that fits its own national conditions, and to fulfill its commitment to continuing support and assistance to Iraq. The Chinese envoy said China supports any effort that is conducive to maintaining stability and development in Iraq. "We will continue to work under the Belt and Road framework by actively participating in the reconstruction of Iraq's energy and infrastructure sectors among others." He said China will also continue to provide humanitarian and economic aid to Iraq and help the Iraqi people cope with various difficulties and challenges. Buniyadpur : , March 4 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday clarified that she had on Tuesday said migrants from East Paskistan or Bangladesh to India were Indian citizens in the spirit of the Liaquat-Nehru Pact of 1950 and Indira-Mujib Treaty of 1972 and warned the media she would take legal action if her words were adistorted. Addressing party workers in South Dinajpur district, Banerjee said till August 15, 1947, there was only one country, India. "After 1947, when people came as refugees to India, there was a Liaquat-Nehru Pact. According to that, those who came to India as refugees are Indian citizens," she said, referring to the understanding signed by the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistan counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan. She also referred to the The India-Bangladesh Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace signed in 1972 between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Bangladesh counterpart Mjibur Rahman months after Bangladesh emerged as a liberated nation. "I have only spoken in that light. Have I said anything wrong? If my words are distorted, law will take its course," she said. On Tuesday, addressing a meeting in Kaliaganj of North Dinajpur district, Banerjee had said: "All those who came to India from Bangladesh and voted in Indian elections were citizens of the country, and don't nead to apply afresh for citizenship. "Those people who have come to India from Bangladesh are all Indian citizens, they have citizenship. They have been voting in one election after another... electing prime ministers and chief ministers. "Now, they (BJP and Sangh Parivar) are saying you are not Indian citizens. Don't believe them. There is no need for you to apply for citizenship again," she said. Some American college students who are in study abroad programs in China say their education is in limbo as that nation grapples with the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 2,600 across the globe over the past three months. The students say their U.S. school programs have been unresponsive to their concerns and appear ill-equipped to handle the fallout from the spread of the virus, which can lead to the COVID-19 disease. For many, their classes in China have been postponed indefinitely or canceled altogether, and they have had to scramble to enroll in courses when they return to the United States. Los Angeles student Samson Adame, an alumnus of California State University, Northridge, has been studying at the Beijing Language and Culture University for over a year under the sponsorship of the Chinese Scholarship Council, which awards scholarships to international students to study in China. CSUN students and alumni are among those who are eligible to travel abroad through the program and attend Chinese universities. CSUN asked its students in China to return to the U.S. last month, but Adame was traveling for the Chinese New Year to visit his girlfriends family in a village in Shandong province, hundreds of miles from Beijing. Instead of returning, he decided to stay with his girlfriends family because he didn't think it was safe enough to return to Beijing. While he was in Shandong, CSUN informed him that his travel insurance had been revoked, briefly leaving him uninsured during the global epidemic that has sickened more than 76,000 people in China. My main concern was the virus, Adame said in a phone interview. I knew I was safe in the village, [but] I thought, What if some miracle happens and I contract it. I dont know what the hell is going to happen. Adame told school officials it would be difficult to return to Beijing and fly back to the U.S. because many major airlines halted their services to China, and transportation within the country was disrupted by city quarantines. Story continues I asked them, Is there any way I can possibly continue the insurance? and they said no, they just wanted me to come back home, he said. I said, Its not so easy. When his mother, Nancy Krank, learned about her sons situation, her heart sank. She couldnt understand how his college could revoke his insurance during such a critical time. I was home after a long day at work, just sitting there feeling hopeless, she said. He could tell that it was really bad and I was really upset. When Krank first reached out to the school for help, she said it wasn't responsive. She started sharing her sons story with local reporters, hoping media attention would help. CSUN said in a statement Feb. 14 that Adames insurance was reinstated. Due to Samson Adames specific circumstances and the current restrictions on travel in China, CSUN intervened to ensure that Adames travel insurance will be maintained effective throughout his stay in China and return to the United States, the university said. Tens of thousands of students in the U.S. study abroad every year, including 11,613 who studied in China during the 2017-18 school year, according to the Institute of International Educations annual Open Doors report. Asia ranked as the third most visited host region behind Europe and Latin America/Caribbean. Fine-tuning her language skills and immersing herself in Chinese culture are what drove St. Louis University sophomore Jennifer Cheun to travel to China for her study abroad. But after a few weeks, her program ended abruptly because of the outbreak. Image: Jennifer Cheun Cheun, 20, was part of a study abroad program operated through the Beijing Center, which canceled its program for the spring semester Jan. 28, according to its website. She is back in the U.S. but not attending classes because her academic advisers at SLU thought it would be too difficult to catch up. You take a semester off ... how does that impact their future? her father, Michael Cheun, said. We know the one thing you can't buy back is actual time. SLU said three of its students were enrolled in the Beijing Center program, and two enrolled in SLU classes when they returned to the U.S. Cheun said she would not have been able to maintain the requirements of her scholarship if she had taken online classes and independent study. It was such an overwhelming experience, Cheun said. I got no help. Other students who were part of the same program as Cheun had more luck getting into classes once they returned. But Mathew Trecek, a sophomore at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said he had a hard time readjusting because of the stigma associated with the coronavirus. There were some people who wouldn't want to be in the same room as me, and I get it, because they're scared, Trecek said. A student he studied with in China, Ben Guo, a sophomore at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus, said he and other classmates who had been to China were monitored by the student health center for 14 days, the incubation period for coronavirus. Image: Matthew Trecek Guo said he received support from some departments on campus, but he felt like he and other students were an "afterthought" for the study abroad office. I definitely thought that the study abroad office really didn't do a lot, he said. Fordham officials said in a statement that the school had seven students affected by the outbreak. Five returned to study in New York and two others "took advantage of other study abroad opportunities outside of China. "How to manage the safety and placement of Fordham's study abroad students was obviously a rapidly evolving issue," Fordham said in a statement. "Given the scale of the issue and the number of factors not under Fordham's control, it was inevitable that not every student would receive their ideal preferred placement, but the University took pains to ensure appropriate placements -- in New York or abroad -- for all of the affected students." Adame, the CSUN student still in China, said he wished his school could understand what it has been like for students on the ground facing a difficult situation that could affect their health, especially as travel has become increasingly more difficult. They don't understand the circumstances of what it's like over here, he said. Residents of a Japanese town that was subjected to evacuation orders following the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been allowed to return as officials partially lifted the entry ban. Futaba, located about 4km (2.4 miles) from the wrecked nuclear plant, was reopened on Wednesday ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. About 7,000 residents were forced to flee their homes on 11 March 2011 after the 9.1-magnitude Tohoku earthquake triggered the meltdown of three reactors. The lifting of the evacuation order comes weeks before the Olympic torch is due to arrive in another town in the Fukushima prefecture, and is expected to travel through Futaba on its relay journey. However, unrestricted access only applies to a one-square-mile area near Futaba's main train station, which is due to reopen later in March, reconnecting it with the rest of the region for the first time since the disaster. Futaba officials placed a signboard at their new town office after a checkpoint gate was opened at midnight on Tuesday. The town's mayor, Shiro Izawa, told reporters: Im overwhelmed with emotion as we finally bring part of our town operations back to our home town. I pledge to steadily push forward our recovery and reconstruction. Town officials said they hoped former residents of Futaba would return, but persistent worries around radiation may stop them from doing so. According to The Japan Times, many residents forged new lives elsewhere after being evacuated, with just 10 per cent saying they plan to return. The disaster at the Daiichi nuclear power plant prompted the Japanese government to declare a 20km-radius evacuation zone around the plant when it released massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. Evacuation orders will also be partially lifted for the towns of Okuma, on Wednesday, and Tomioka, on 10 March. All three towns were located in the seven municipalities where the government set out difficult-to-return zones following the accident. Japanese officials met in January to discuss the reopening of the towns. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he hoped that restoration in the prefecture would be accelerated in anticipation of an influx of visitors for the Olympics. he public message I have for all the citizens of Romania and for the state authorities is that I want in handcuffs all those who illegally log, illegally transport or steal from Romania's forests, warned on Wednesday, in a press conference, the proposed Minister of Environment, Water and Forestry Costel Alexe. "The public message that I have for all the citizens of Romania, for the authorities of the state that I hope will cooperate with those of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forestry, is that I, as a minister, want in handcuffs all those who illegally log, transport illegally or steal from the forests of Romania. We can no longer afford to have such practices that obviously lead us to the third world, in which we deforest, illegally log our forests for personal or group purposes," said the official.He revealed that, in Maramures County, a forest covering an area of 340 hectares was cleared in a common cooperation between citizens and local authorities.Asked who was the owner of that forest, Costel Alexe stressed that, initially, it belonged to the Romanian state, and later, after the appearance of a series of disputes, the forest area in question was left without security services.The proposed Minister of Environment, Waters and Forestry Costel Alexe held a press conference on Wednesday, which focused on the situation of illegal logging in Maramures County. A Vayapam scam whistleblower has released a purported video of a 'sting operation' involving senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra, and claimed that the former minister offered Rs 100 crore and ministerial posts to some Congress MLAs for toppling the Kamal Nath government. While the authenticity of the video has not yet been verified independently, the BJP dubbed it as "fake and misleading", and said it has been released to tarnish Mishra's image. Dr Anand Rai posted the video of the alleged sting operation, titled 'Horse Trading: BJP Exposed', on his Facebook account where he said, "The attempt to buy public opinion failed, Rs 100 crore and the greed of the ministerial post could not buy our faith." Rai, who earlier blew the lid off the Vyapam scam pertaining to irregularities in exams held by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, has shared the video at a time when the Congress has accused the BJP of trying to poach its MLAs to destabilise the state government. Claiming the video is authentic, Rai said he is ready to get the audio-visual content involving Mishra probed by any agency. Talking to PTI, Rai claimed, "This video was shot at a room in the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan located in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi which was recorded with an spy camera during my meeting with BJP leader Narottam Mishra last year." Without revealing names of the legislators concerned, Rai said, "There are four Congress MLAs in the state who are in touch with me. Each MLA was offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore each in four installments, besides a ministerial post. Mishra had met me in Delhi at the behest of the top leadership of his party to topple the Kamal Nath government." The whistleblower claimed he released the video of Mishra's alleged sting operation so that voters could know the truth that efforts to buy public mandate started immediately after the formation of the Kamal Nath-led government. However, state BJP spokesperson Umesh Sharma termed the video as "fake and misleading". "The video posted by Rai on social media is fake and misleading which has been released to damage the image of former minister Narottam Mishra," he said. Sharma alleged that Rai specialises in "political fraud" and is a master of "opportunism and shameless bargaining". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Basavaraj Bommai: Another leader with origins in Janata Parivar, who made it big outside the party No DCMs, no Vijayendra: What the Bommai Cabinet looks like The test for Bommai and the road ahead: A discussion with Dr. Shastri Coronavirus scare: Karnataka govt appeals to public not to believe in rumours India oi-PTI Bengaluru, Mar 04: Seeking to allay fear among the citizens in the wake of Coronavirus scare, Karnataka Health Minister B Srirumulu on Wednesday made an appeal to the people not to pay heed to rumours spreading on social media. In a series of tweets, Sriramulu assured people that the government has taken adequate measures to ensure that the disease does not spread further. "Don''t lend your ears to rumours about the Coronavirus in the social media. Rely only on the authentic information," he tweeted. The minister''s tweet came as Bengaluru reported the first case, after a techie from the city with a travel history to Dubai and interaction with Hongkong-based people there, was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad. Coronavirus: Govt releases 247 helpline number, email id to report any suspected cases As panic gripped the city, Sriramulu said the apartment where the software engineer was staying has been sanitised. Besides, his 25 colleagues have been identified. One of them has been admitted to the hospital as a precautionary measure and his blood sample has been sent for lab test. "So far 40,207 people have been screened at the International airport. 251 blood tests have been done, of which 238 were found negative, while the rest of the reports are yet to come," Sriramulu tweeted. The health department said three people have been admitted to the isolation ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD). Meanwhile, a parent appealed to people not to panic about the Coronavirus in the techie''s apartment, where his son too resides. An employee in Amazon US tests positive for Coronavirus NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 "My son is from the same apartment.To update everyone, there is absolutely nothing wrong here. It was more of panic on social media that created this," he said in a message. He said that the man who is in Telengana and tested positive stayed in this building on February 21. "His roommate was taken to hospital and has tested negative," he said. It is been two weeks since the incident. The virus can survive only for 48 hours under optimal conditions, he noted. "Everyone in this building is safe. Please educate yourself. Refrain from spreading panic and misinformation." he added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 10:20 [IST] End winner-take-all Re: Court upholds the winner-take-all system, Metro, Thursday: With so many states having a winner take all distribution of electoral votes, it is a wonder that many people bother to exercise that right. In no other race I can think of does this process loom over the results. I am willing to bet in so-called blue states, the Republicans feel the same. Why do we continue to allow this disenfranchisement and marginalization of our votes? The article, which reported that judges did find reason to reject this argument, is appalling. It is time for this outdated and onerous process to come to an end. Christine M. Crowley Truth seen as threat Either Mike Bloomberg or Joe Biden can unite the Democrats. Otherwise, Im not so sure. Isnt it obvious that Donald Trump and Russia are just salivating even while they plan to spread memes and pictures of Sen. Bernie Sanders comforting socialist Nicaragua and its President Daniel Ortega, or illegal migrant crimes and open borders, or even gay pride parades in the U.S.? Scary that in politics, emotion seems to beat rational logic every time. But lets be realistic the power of spinning the truth today is a growing and especially dangerous threat to democracy. Period. Personally, I like Bloomberg more with his long focus on the climate crisis and his ongoing support for San Antonios efforts. He can restore rationality. I also salivate thinking how Bloomberg could beat The Don. Bill Hurley On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: Mike Bloombergs technocratic threat Democracy slipping Sadly, we have a president who labels all news unfavorable to him as fake. He has made more than 16,000 false statements as president. He uses the Justice Department as his own personal legal service. He accepts Russian interference in our elections and purges government employees who are perceived as disloyal to him. Not to be left out, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-San Antonio, advocates Trumps impeachment be expunged from House records and, presumably, from the history books. At some point, one has to wonder if our democracy is slipping away right in front of us. Stephen Shackelford, Austin The Leicestershire police said on Wednesday it has charged Jigukumar Sorthi for the murder earlier this week of Bhavini Pravin, a resident of the east Midlands town of Leicester, which has a large community of Indian origin. Sorthi, 23, has been charged with murder and possession of a bladed/sharply pointed weapon. The police were called to a local address on Monday following a report that a woman had been seriously injured. Pravin, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene. The police said inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the death are continuing and officers have been in the area of the incident carrying out house-to-house inquiries and collecting CCTV as they piece together the moments leading up to Pravins death. Detective inspector Kenny Henry said: Our investigation into Bhavinis tragic death is ongoing and I continue to appeal to anyone who has any information about this incident to make contact with us. Her family are understandably devastated by her death and we owe it to them, and Bhavini, to determine exactly what happened. Bhavinis relatives have asked to be left alone at this difficult time to grieve and try to make sense of what has happened to their daughter. Pravins family release a tribute: As a family we could never have imagined that one day we would be issuing a tribute to Bhavini under such circumstances. Our world has been ripped apart by her death and we cant believe she has gone. A light has gone out in our lives. Bhavini was a devoted daughter and sister, loved by all who knew her. She was beautiful, kind and sweet. Our lives will never be the same without her. All we can hope for is Bhavini to be at peace and for our request for privacy to be respected. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Taliban carried out dozens of attacks on Afghan army bases, officials said Tuesday, hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin March 10 according to a US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on Saturday, but a dispute over a prisoner swap has raised questions about whether they will go ahead. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start. The row has highlighted the tough road ahead, with the Taliban's decision to end a partial truce Monday complicating matters further. In the last 24 hours the Taliban conducted 33 attacks in 16 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. "As a result, six civilians were killed and 14 wounded. Eight enemy were also killed, 15 wounded," he said on Twitter. Two soldiers were killed in one of the attacks in southern Kandahar province, a government statement said. An attack in Logar province near Kabul killed five security forces, the provincial governor's spokesman Didar Lawang told AFP. The halt to the limited truce, which began on February 22, ends what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have born the brunt of the deadly violence. But experts said the move was unsurprising as both sides seek to exploit whatever leverage they hold to force the other's hand. "Of course violence will go up, was bound to happen. no surprise Ghani balking on prisoner release: 1 of his few levers," Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, tweeted. Kabul-based analyst Ahmad Saeedi told AFP the uptick in attacks reflected the insurgents' belief that "they have to keep the battlefield hot to be able to win on the negotiating table, as they did with the Americans." - 'So far, so good' - Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open "initial contacts" with the insurgents but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives. Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a joint US-Afghan declaration released in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators. The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives. In a statement, the UN's Afghanistan mission called for "continued reduced violence to maintain & enhance an environment conducive to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations". Since the deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming "victory" over the US. Speaking to Fox News, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played down the militants' comments. "So I've seen lots of remarks. Just watch what really happens. Pay less attention to statements, pay less attention to things people say," Pompeo said. "Watch what happens on the ground. There's been a lot of work done at detailed levels about how this will proceed. So far, so good." Under the terms of the deal, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with Kabul. "After the US-Taliban deal, it is illogical to fight. It is time for peace," said Naqibullah, a 40-year-old government employee in Kabul, who uses only one name. "The Taliban can't take the whole nation hostage." Congratulations to Sanjana Vadlapatla, who won the Midland Reporter-Telegram Regional Spelling Bee. She captured the title this past weekend against the best spellers from Midland, Andrews, Monahans, Greenwood and Big Spring. After the contest, she said something interesting: Her motivation included bringing glory back to her school. You see, Vadlapatla is a seventh-grader at Young Womens Leadership Academy. The in-district charter is a Midland ISD school of choice. The school currently has sixth and seventh grades, but it will expand through the high school grades. This was a concept that I was excited about from the start. U.S. News & World Report ranks four womens academies among the top 20 public high schools in the state, and two of them are run by the same operator running Midlands school -- Young Women's Preparatory Network. Do I expect Midland ISDs version to one day be among the best in the state? Absolutely. And I dont shy away from a single-gender education model. I grew up in north Dallas, home to some of the premier single-gender preparatory schools in the state. And the concept can work in the public schools, as Dallas ISD found out. DISDs Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School is ranked sixth in the state. The charter operator is Young Women's Preparatory Network. I am excited to see a larger number of charter schools in Midland, specifically those that come with records of accomplishment. We see that in Young Women's Preparatory Network and IDEA Public Schools. That same record is not as obvious with Third Future schools, but charter officials have until MISDs March meeting to make their case to our community for why it should operate Sam Houston Collegiate Academy Prep. There are legitimate questions about the plan to transform this school of choice back to a neighborhood school and the operator seeking a five-year contract to oversee that transformation. My point here is that, indeed, great things are possible with in-district charters and charters in our community. Vadlapatla didnt have to win the spelling bee as evidence of a higher-performing school. My expectation is that when the Texas Education Agency measures performance of YWLA, it will be one of the top performing schools in Midland. Do you have an opinion about YWLA or other schools of choice? Midland ISD wants to hear them. There are two community meetings planned to allow for feedback about schools of choice, progress toward providing high-quality educational opportunities and the Apply Midland portal. Those meetings are set for 6-7 p.m. Thursday at the Carrasco Room at Midland College and 6-7 p.m. March 18 at the Bunche Elementary cafeteria. We hope all Midlanders who want better performance across the district make their voices heard. In the past, campuses such as South and Bush elementaries have shown that not all schools require an in-district option to become great performers; they just require great leadership. Midland ISD surely sees that. But from the first day of this transformational talk, the hope of many was that the struggling district would see what is working elsewhere and determine if that was a good fit in Midland. Thats all we can ask. Schools of choice, when done correctly, can provide more than change from the status quo. It can offer an opportunity for excellence. Midland ISD needs that opportunity as much as possible, no matter what road is traveled to get there. --Editor Stewart Doreen Fourteen of the 24 Italian nationals taken to the quarantine facility of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chhawla near Delhi, have tested positive for coronavirus, officials familiar with the matter said. An Indian is also among those who has tested positive, the officials further said. The 24 (21 Italian nationals and three Indians) tourists were in the same group as the Italian national who had tested positive of the virus earlier, the officials further said. The three Indians in the group are the guide, bus driver and helper of the tourists. The Italian tourist was the sixth confirmed case of coronavirus in India. The 69-year-old Italians wife also tested positive for the virus on Tuesday but her samples are being sent to Pune for another test. The couple has been kept in isolation at the Jaipurs Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital. Also Watch l Coronavirus: 28 positive cases in India; PM Modi to skip Holi Milan events As concerns over the spread of the virus mounted, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an extensive review on the preparedness on Tuesday. He urged the people not to panic and instead take basic protective measures. A man from Mayur Vihar in Delhi, who had travelled to Italy recently, had tested positive on Monday. He was shifted to a quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night. One of the schools in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi, where the Delhi mans son is a primary class student, said it will remain shut from March 4 to March 6, while the other said it will be closed till Saturday. Another school also shut down as a preventive measure against coronavirus. However, samples of six people from Noida, who came in contact with the Delhi resident, have tested negative for the virus. India has stepped up the screening process. The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issued a travel advisory suspending all regular visas/e-visas granted on or before March 3 to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan who have not yet entered India. The advisory also suspends visa on arrival (VoA) issued by March 3 to Japan and South Korea nationals who have not yet entered India. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Aghstafa for a visit. The head of state laid flowers at a statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the city of Aghstafa. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has visited the Aghstafa branch of Azerkhalcha Open Joint-Stock Company. Chairman of the Board of Azerkhalcha OJSC Vidadi Muradov informed the head of state of the conditions created at the enterprise. *** As part of his visit to Aghstafa, President of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of a military unit of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Minister of Internal Affairs Colonel General Vilayat Eyvazov reported to President, the Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. The head of state viewed conditions created at the military unit. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Aghstafa-Yenigun-Khatai-Gachag Karam-Poylu-Khilkhina highway after renovation and repair. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov informed the head of state of the work done. President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the road. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of 110/35/10 kV Aghstafa electrical substation after renovation. Chairman of Azerishig Open Joint Stock Company Vugar Ahmadov informed the head of state of the substation. President Ilham Aliyev launched the substation. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Aghstafa Agro-Industrial Complex. Chairman of the Supervisory Council of the complex Rasul Orujov informed the head of state of the conditions created at the enterprise. The head of state launched the complex. President Ilham Aliyev viewed products manufactured at the enterprise. President Ilham Aliyev then met with the staff of the enterprise. The head of state made a speech at the meeting. Speech of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev - Greetings! I am reviewing the operation of the Aghstafa agricultural estate for the third time. Every time I come here, I see innovation and development. I am glad that the agricultural estate has developed rapidly over these years, including my recommendations that were taken into account. So a modern production, commercial and trading complex has been created in Aghstafa district. I first came here in 2012. At that time, we celebrated the first stage in the establishment of the agricultural estate. After that, in 2016, the foundation was laid of the enterprise I have just reviewed. And I am here again in 2020. I am glad and want to say again that the agricultural estate is a large enterprise that plays a very important role in the agricultural and processing sector of Azerbaijan. And this is natural because there are excellent conditions for entrepreneurs and investors in Azerbaijan. They know that the state is behind them. They know that Azerbaijan will continue to follow the path of stability. And this is the key thing for investors. Every investor, foreign or local, will certainly take these factors into account when planning to invest. During meetings with many foreign investors, the main thing they tell me is that there is stability in Azerbaijan. This stability is already 27 years old, and no-one doubts the further successful development of the country. In addition, the infrastructure is available. If the state had not implemented infrastructure projects in the regions, investors would probably be looking for other places to invest. Huge work has been done in this area in Aghstafa district. During the opening of the new substation today, I was informed that the energy supply of Aghstafa district is at the level of 20 megawatts at present, but the potential is twice as high. So the creation of twice as many industrial enterprises and other facilities will be provided with existing energy capacities. Of course, a good level of energy supply is one of the key conditions for business. I should note that according to a report of the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijan ranks second in the world in terms of the availability of electricity. Gas supply level in Aghstafa district is 90 percent. The level of repair of roads is about 90 percent. In 2013, a drinking water project was completed and commissioned. In other words, all conditions have been created for investors. I am glad that investors of the Aghstafa agricultural estate have taken advantage of all these opportunities and invested heavily. I am told that funds worth nearly 80 million manats have been invested. And the invested funds are in full view. So I want to say again: this is my third visit here and the history of this agricultural park has evolved before my eyes. The agricultural estate will also provide tremendous support for the development of agriculture. I have asked the yield is above average. The average yield in grain production in the country is 32 quintals and you have 40-50 quintals. This is also very important because our sown area is somewhat limited. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to increasing yields. The state treats entrepreneurs with care and support. The state provided financial support for the creation of this agricultural estate, but investors have invested much more. However, by providing support, the state also provides political support. From now on, the development of entrepreneurship will become the main condition for the development of the country because the key infrastructure projects implemented by the state are close to completion. Therefore, improving the business environment, developing entrepreneurship and creating jobs all these are integral parts of our state policy. Investors, for their part, set an example for other entrepreneurs by creating such wonderful enterprises, as if saying to them invest. First of all, Azerbaijani investors should invest in Azerbaijan to make things better here. Our population is increasing. In the future, we must provide jobs for the population, which increases by 100,000 people annually. Therefore, economic development and investments should be ahead of demographic development. This is the main goal. Of course, those who have jobs should receive high salaries and their working conditions must be good. I have already said that there is an 8-hour working day and no-one should work more than that. At the same time, all employees must receive a formal salary. Shadow economy should not be allowed. Unofficial employment must not be allowed. There are no and cant be such facts at enterprises such as yours because you have an international approach, and I want all Azerbaijani enterprises to work on the basis of such principles. I have already spoken about this several times, but I want to tell employees again. Especially if we consider that the healthcare system in this region will be moving to compulsory health insurance in April, people should work officially to receive free medical services. Therefore, one of the methods to combat unofficial employment will be compulsory health insurance. Of course, if someone works unofficially, they will lose their pension in the future. In other words, the creation and development of such wonderful enterprises makes me very happy. In particular, I see a consistent policy on the example of this agricultural estate. Because sometimes an enterprise is built an I even participated in the opening of some of them but after a while it is shuts down. It means that the work process wasnt built correctly. Your enterprise is not only operational. In the eight years I have been coming here, I see development and renewal. I see that people are looked after well here. These conditions have been created with great taste. There is a market and a cafe. Everything is done for the people, so that the people of Azerbaijan live better and more comfortably. The Azerbaijani state has sufficient will and ability to ensure this, and the work done in Aghstafa district is a clear confirmation of this. I congratulate you once again and wish you continued success. I enquired and was informed that the third stage is the last one. But you have other plans too, and I hope that during the next meeting here you will report on new projects. Thank you! *** President of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of a military unit of the Ministry of Defense in Aghstafa. Defense Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov reported to President, Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. The head of state viewed conditions created at the military unit. A suspected internet fraudster, Azeez Adebowale, was recently caught with a mini coffin, which he claimed he uses it as a soap case. The 38-year-old suspect was arrested alongside five others by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, zonal office assigned to Oluyole and Alao-Akala estates in Ibadan, Oyo state during a raid. The names of the other five suspects are Toyinsola Bolumole, Ifelowo Ololade, Sonuyi Ayodeji, Folarin Olayinka, and Aluko Olawale. Read Also: If You Are In A Hurry To Get Married, Satan Will Send One His Cousins As Suitors To You Mike Bamiloye According to LIB, the anti-graft agencys acting spokesperson, Tony Orilade released a statement on Tuesday in which he said the operatives recovered the coffin from the suspects, including four cars, various brands of sophisticated phones and an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card. Mr Orilade said Mr Adebowale claimed to be using the coffin as a soap rack to hypnotise his victims. Turkey demanded European Union help on Wednesday for its mission in Syria as the price of resolving a fresh migrant crisis on its border with Greece, but rejected European accusations that it was blackmailing the bloc. Clashes have broken out between police and refugees at the Turkey-Greece border where thousands of migrants have gathered since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave them the green light to leave for Europe last week. Erdogans move came after Russian-backed Syrian forces killed 34 Turkish troops in northern Syria, prompting him to seek greater assistance from the international community. But EU leaders now fear a repeat of the migrant crisis of 2015-16, when more than one million migrants crossed into the EU. With mounting tensions around the border crossing at Pazarkule, a Turkish official claimed one migrant had been killed and five injured by live fire from the Greek side. Athens strongly denied the claim, but an AFP photographer earlier saw a migrant shot in the legit was not clear whether by a live round or a rubber bulletas a group of refugees tried to cut their way through fencing. The group then threw stones at the Greek police, who responded with tear gas, while multiple shots and cries could be heard. Athens released a video apparently showing Turkish police firing tear gas at Greek border guards, which could not be immediately verified. Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan said Europe had to support Turkeys political and humanitarian solutions in Syria if it wanted to resolve the situation. Government spokesman Ibrahim Kalin denied this was blackmail. Our objective by opening the doors was not to create an artificial crisis, to place political pressure or to serve our interests, he said, but Turkeys capacity has a limit. Turkey already hosts some four million refugees, most of them Syrians, and has been fighting the Syrian government in a bid to prevent another influx from Idlib, the jihadist-dominated region that has been under attack by Damascus since December. Story continues Close to one million people in Idlib have been displaced by the government assault, which is backed by Russian air power. Those fleeing are currently blocked from entering Turkey. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Council President Charles Michel met with Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, pledging an additional 170 million euros ($189 million) in aid for vulnerable groups in Syria. But Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin later on Wednesday urged the EU to produce a road map of the management of the funds. Borrell said the EU recognised the difficult situation Turkey is facing but that Turkeys green light to migrants could only make the situation worse. France took a firmer line. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the EUs borders were closed, and we will ensure they stay closed. Ceasefire? Despite being on opposing sides of the nine-year war in Syria, NATO-member Turkey and Russia have kept lines of communication open. But the relationship has been heavily strained, with more than 50 Turkish soldiers killed in Idlib in recent weeks, and three more reported deaths on Tuesday and Wednesday. Erdogan said he hoped a ceasefire would be "swiftly established" when he meets his counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. Ankara officially announced an offensive against Syrian forces over the weekend, demanding they pull back behind lines agreed under the 2018 Sochi deal with Russia. It killed nine government troops in drone strikes, a monitor said Wednesday. We expect Russia to fulfil its promises as a guarantor country and stop the regimes attacks and to use its influence to ensure the regime adheres to the Sochi deals borders, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, according to broadcaster NTV. But many say Russia is determined to see the Syrian government regain full control of its territory. There might be a ceasefire announced after the talks between Putin and Erdogan, but itll be for show, a Western diplomat told AFP. Mercy The EU has scrambled to respond to the surge of migrants at the Greek border, where authorities say some 24,000 were stopped from entering between Saturday and Monday. Turkey agreed in 2016 to stop the flow of refugees in exchange for billions of euros, but says the EU failed to honour other parts of the deal, such as visa liberalisation and an improved customs agreement. Erdogan criticised the Greek response, saying: The Greekswho are resorting to any means to stop refugees coming into their country, even drowning them or killing them with live ammunitionthey shouldnt forget they might need this same mercy one day. Meanwhile, Greece sent a navy ship to the island of Lesbos to house some 500 people, many of them families with small children, who managed to reach its shores over the weekend. (AFP) Yemen is Corona Free, Health Minister Announces Saudi Press Agency Tuesday 1441/7/8 - 2020/03/03 Aden, March 03, 2020, SPA -- Yemeni Minister of Health and Population Dr. Nasser Baoum affirmed today that Yemen is free of any infections or suspected cases of Coronavirus. In a statement to Yemen Official News Agency (SABA), he affirmed that the Yemeni ministry took all measures at air, land and sea inlets to examine arrivals and ensure that they are free of symptoms of the Coronavirus, pointing out that the Yemeni government, in cooperation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represented by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, is in direct coordination at the highest levels for urgent intervention. --SPA 19:45 LOCAL TIME 16:45 GMT 0033 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rice University announced Tuesday morning that it is suspending all university-sponsored student travel and spring break trips to foreign countries until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifts travel restrictions related to coronavirus. Sponsored travel for faculty to countries that are listed on the CDCs restricted list have also been suspended, according to a release sent by the universitys crisis management advisory committee. Rice created a travel registry that requires all students, faculty and staff who have gone outside the United States to document their international travel. The response comes as universities across the state and the country prepare campuses for the potential arrival or spread of the contagious virus. The CDC has already issued guidance for higher education institutions to plan, prepare and respond to COVID-19. A Rice university research staff member may have been exposed to the coronavirus while traveling overseas. The person was tested for the virus by Harris County public health authorities who overnighted the sample to the CDC, county health officials said Monday. Those test results are expected by the end of the week. Other Texas colleges have taken similar precautions restricting travel, suspending trips and requiring students and university employees to self-quarantine for two weeks before returning to campus after traveling to restricted countries or regions at risk. The University of St. Thomas in Houston canceled study abroad trips to Argentina and Jamaica, spokeswoman Sandra Soliz said Tuesday. The university will continue to monitor planned destinations for summer studies abroad, she said. A list of new restrictions on student-related foreign travel was issued by the Texas A&M University System on Monday, advising students, faculty, staff and visitors traveling from countries with high-risk levels to self-isolate. The A&M system will provide information and updates on its websites and social media, officials said, and has plans to create an expert medical response team. The University of Houston System has restricted all travel to China, Iran, Italy and South Korea as of Tuesday. The university system advised anyone considering international travel to monitor the CDCs website and to heed U.S. government warnings as they make travel plans. We will continue to keep our community informed as developments occur. To date, we have not identified any cases at our UH campuses, Vanessa Tilney, chief physician and executive director at UHs Student Health Center, wrote on Monday. However, as coronavirus has become much more prominent in the United States and has begun to spread more rapidly through parts of Europe and Asia, it is incumbent upon all of us to remain aware and vigilant of this potentially serious public health threat. The University of Texas System suspended all university-related undergraduate travel to countries affected by the virus and is now requiring graduate students, faculty and staff to apply for approval for travel to restricted regions. Those who have traveled to countries on the CDCs warning locations for coronavirus must also self-quarantine before returning to campus. The COVID-19 workgroup is continuously preparing to respond to changing events and to mitigate any public health threats to campus, the UT system website states. Students and university employees at Rice who are traveling or have traveled to any country listed with a level 2 or level 3 warning on the CDCs list must self-isolate and stay away from campus for the recommended two weeks once returning to the United States. Level 2 indicates that people should practice enhanced caution, and level 3 discourages all nonessential travel. Seventeen doctoral students, staff and faculty who had direct contact with the Rice researcher are self-quarantined away from campus. The university is working closely with them to ensure their well-being. According to the local health officials, the risk to the Rice campus is low at this time, officials stated in the release. brittany.britto@chron.com At some point, it seemed like a slow burner, gathering attention with each press release from the World Health Organisation. When talking about a threat, language is everything. With more cases of COVID-19 being identified, the panic that comes from paranoia, suspicion and good old distrust is beginning to thrive. The signs of this vary in nuance: full blown siren calls regarding health warnings to a conspicuous absence of certain food items in stores. Then come the gentle prods, such as that of Ian Goldin of Oxford University. The spread of coronavirus around the world is alarming, but not surprising, he observes from the pulpit of the Financial Times. Globalisation creates systemic risks. As trade, finance, travel, cyber and other networks grow in scale and interact, they become more complex and unstable. Goldin reminds us of chaos theory, and its father, Edward Lorenz, who postulated that a butterfly flapping its miniscule wings over Brazil might incite the violence of a tornado in Texas. Globalised diseases and epidemics are similarly instances of a butterfly effect, leaving authorities woefully unprepared. Less gentle are the screams and howls of social media networks. In 2013, New Zealand sociologist Robert Bartholomew likened the role of information sharing through social media networks as akin to the frightful gossip that led to the hanging of 19 people in the Salem Witch trials of 1692 and 1693. Bartholomew was focusing on a case at Danvers, where two dozen teenagers at the Essex Agricultural College claimed to be having mysterious vocal tics and hiccups. The result? Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), a form of conversion disorder that itself becomes a contagion. In all of this, warned Bartholomew, social media had played and would continue to play a role, agitating the spread. There was a potential for a far greater or global episode, unless we quickly understand how social media is, for the first time, acting as the primary vector or agent of spread for conversion disorder. His warnings were valid enough: epidemics might spread, but social media would fan the contagion, making it just a matter of time before we see outbreaks that are not just confined to a single school or factor or even region, but covering a disperse geographical area and causing real social and economic harm. The medium would itself become the means of transmission. Political and medical announcements, acting upon by media discussions and analysis, have also done their bit go give COVID-19 a rapid spread. The news site for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation persists in running a red banner like a gory tickertape, updating readers on the next identified case: Breaking News: A 10th person has tested positive for coronavirus, according to the states Health Minister. The Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter is sufficiently alarmed to contemplate bringing in the heaviest of responses, activating biosecurity laws that will serve as nasty measures of population control. The contagion, it seems, is spreading to the national security state itself. On March 3, Australias chief health officers met to consider social distancing restrictions, while Porter chewed over laws introduced in 2015 that would give the minister power to prevent people from attending mass gatherings, forcibly detain and decontaminate targeted individuals. The Attorney-General could not help but sound slightly sinister in addressing questions posed to him on RN Breakfast. Its very likely Australians will encounter practices and instructions and circumstances that they have not had to encounter before. With a totalitarian sensibility, Porter suggested that some of these measures will be, in some instances, strange and foreign to many Australians. But they will become very important, I suspect, over the next couple of months. Other suggestions, tips and responses have reached the level of the absurd. New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard (a name that could only be deemed unfortunate in these circumstances) has warned against shaking hands. At a time when we have a virus that appears to be reasonably active in its endeavours to get into our community it will be sensible not to be handshaking. Not that Australians could not kiss, but certainly you would be exercising a degree of care and caution whom you choose to kiss. Good for Hazzard to be discriminating in the matter. Such disease chat has had its rushing effect. Australians have engaged in a spree of panic buying, emptying supermarket shelves of toilet paper and other essentials. Infectious disease specialist Professor Peter Collignon is bemused by it all. By all means, have that supply of critical medicines and a decent stash of over-the-counter products. You dont need boxes and boxes of the stuff. As for food, Australia remained a net exporter of food. Youre not going to run out of food, you might not have same choice of foods but you wont be left without. Such talk seems eminently sensible, and is bound to end up in the bin of pointy-headed expertise. Consumers and citizens have succumbed to that other great and near incurable contagion: a loss of trust in information. Can the figures identifying the virus be trusted? Are the authorities engaged in their own sordid cover-up? Panic and anxiety, helped to giddying proportions by rumour, have done their best to destroy any reassurance. Even efforts to sound calm and measured risk upending apple carts. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gave an update on the spread of coronavirus in the European Union that did as much to disturb as inform. The ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) announced today that the risk level has risen from moderate to high for people in the European Union. In other words, the virus continues to spread. The degree of concern has risen as much due to speed as the number of cases. On Sunday, Italy registered a jump of some 50 percent of coronavirus cases. Across the EU, there are 2,100 confirmed cases across 18 member states. European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides notes the difficulties in responding to COVID-19 but suggests that all states work collectively to resolve it. Now is not the time for panic or misinformation, which fuels anxiety. We need to remain calm, focused and united. With each call for calm, anxiety is showing itself in different colours across the globe, becoming louder with each official statement. The butterflys wings continue to flap, and the tornadoes continue to come. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected] gettyimagesbank By Nam Hyun-woo eBay Korea CEO Byun Kwang-yun Recurrent, unplanned readmissions to the hospital -- which happen when patients return shortly after discharge and are readmitted for the same or a related condition -- are a challenge worldwide. Many researchers have examined how to predict them and how to understand the factors that contribute to them. A new study looked at how the risk of readmission progressed over multiple visits to emergency departments (EDs) in Israel by patients with chronic diseases. The study explored a way to identify distinct groups of patients who are more likely to be readmitted so medical professionals can intervene to prevent or reduce the possibility of future readmissions. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono, appears in MIS Quarterly. Understanding the differences in disease progression in people who have frequent hospital admissions and predicting the likelihood of their readmission as they move from ED visit to hospitalization are critical steps in developing policies and interventions to minimize adverse outcomes to patients and society." Rema Padman, professor of management science and healthcare informatics at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, coauthor of the study "Our goal was to see if we could predict each readmission to prevent future readmissions. We hope that if doctors had additional information early in the process, they could intervene earlier to avoid having patients return." Patients who have unplanned readmissions not just once or twice, but multiple times, are costly and challenging for the health care system. Many prior studies have looked at this issue by focusing on one condition, such as congestive heart failure. This study looked at the risk of readmission among patients with more than one chronic condition. Studies show that patients with multiple underlying chronic conditions are more likely to be readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge than those without chronic conditions. Most prior studies have also used information based on patients' most recent visit to the hospital or first readmission to predict the likelihood of a subsequent readmission. This study followed patients over multiple visits: To predict patients' risk of future readmission, researchers applied statistical and machine learning methods to information from the electronic health records of patients with multiple chronic conditions and frequent readmissions that began with a visit to the ED and continued from 2005 to 2008. Specifically, using information from 16,117 patients enrolled in a large Israeli Health Management Organization, the study sought to understand how the risk of readmission progressed over 5 to 12 separate visits to the ED by chronic patients who were readmitted 1 to 11 times. Researchers clustered patients into high-, medium-, and low-risk groups, and then generated predictions about their likelihood of subsequent readmissions based on a range of characteristics of each patient, such as age, gender, and number of chronic conditions and prior stays in the hospitals. The researchers found that tracking multiple readmissions over time can help to identify specific groups of patients early based on their patterns of seeking emergency care and being readmitted. The data led researchers to discover three distinct trajectories related to the progression of readmissions, with a small group of patients displaying increasing likelihood of readmission over time, a large group having low likelihood of readmission, and a third group showing varying likelihoods of readmission over time, which captured the heterogeneity of the patient population. The study also found that 30-day readmission rates differed significantly by age, gender, levels of creatinine (a waste product from wear and tear of muscles), chronic conditions, and length of stay, measured at each visit to the ED. This finding may allow earlier identification of patients who are more likely to be readmitted and this, in turn, could lead to targeted interventions and individualized post-discharge plans for these patients. "Based on the results of our study, high-risk patients can be identified earlier, which will result in better care in the ED, appropriate and timely interventions for coordinated and personalized care in inpatient and ambulatory settings, and better allocation of resources," suggests Ofir Ben-Assuli, senior lecturer at Ono Academic College, who coauthored the study. The authors acknowledge that their study was limited to patients with multiple chronic conditions, so additional research is needed to investigate multiple readmissions in patients without chronic conditions. In addition, lack of availability of data on patient mortality prevented investigation of this important outcome. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Kuyper College will freeze tuition for incoming full-time Fall 2020 students, officials say. The full-time tuition for 12 to 17 credit hours at the college for the 2020-2021 academic year will be $23,970. Thats up from $22,886 for the 2019-2020 school year. Incoming freshman will be guaranteed a tuition of $23,970 per year for four years and transfer students for up to four years. We are committed to helping our students and their families make a Kuyper College education as affordable as possible, said Kuyper College President Patricia Harris. This is the latest of several initiatives over the past few years that we have taken to increase affordability and access for our students. For example, Kuyper launched a four-year program last fall that guarantees on campus jobs for resident students. Students in the program are paid $15 per hour from which they receive a stipend with the balance applied to reduce tuition. Non-freshman students will also benefit from the tuition freeze, said Vice President for College Advancement Ken Capisciolto. He said sophomores and juniors will have the new tuition rate frozen for their remaining time at the college. For incoming seniors, the college plans to increase their institutional aid. The tuition freeze helps make financial planning for four years of college more predictable which is helpful to families, Capisciolto said. In addition, it makes a Kuyper education even more affordable over the students college time as they will not experience additional tuition increases. Capisciolto also said that the college is considering extending a tuition freeze to other incoming freshmen in the future. The school says that 100-percent of Kuyper students receive financial aid, which results in an average of $17,897 per year. The financial aid comes in the form of grants, scholarships, state and federal assistance programs. The Christian college, located at 3333 East Beltline Ave. NE, currently has about 150 total students, Capisciolto said. The school describes itself as being focused on effectively training students to make a difference in Gods world. It offers various undergraduate degrees with specializations in areas like Youth Ministry and Business Leadership, as well as one masters program in ministry. More From MLive: Look up Class of 2019 graduation rate for any Michigan high school Ex-offenders struggle to find housing in Grand Rapids hot market MichMash: The overlooked people struggling to find a place to live French country estate perched on Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids listed for $1.59M Tennessee tornado: Michael W. Smith joins thousands of volunteers in relief efforts Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Disaster relief is underway in Nashville and other parts of Tennessee following Tuesdays deadly tornado and storms that claimed at least 24 lives. Award-winning Christian artist Michael W. Smith is among many who are on the ground helping with recovery efforts. Disaster relief here in a devastated Nashville and middle Tennessee. But we are Nashville strong! Let the church rise up, Smith wrote on Instagram as he showed a photo of his family packing lunches for volunteers. On Wednesday morning, the artist was in Mt. Juliet with the evangelical aid organization Samaritans Purse, urging others to join the volunteer efforts. Its going to be a long road to recovery, he said. Gods going to bless all these efforts. The tornado devastated Middle Tennessee early Tuesday, destroying homes, businesses and churches. Over a dozen people were still missing Wednesday morning. Among those who were killed were several children, including a 2-year-old. Gov. Bill Lee said prayers are greatly needed for affected families but noted that he is proud of the response hes seen from the federal government down to the neighborhoods as neighbors help one another. Mayor John Cooper noted that the Hands On Nashville website crashed three times due to the incredible volume of people trying to sign up to volunteer to rebuild our community. He said more than 5,000 individuals had signed up online as of Tuesday. Some churches have opened their doors to provide shelter, including Victory Baptist Church, Mount Juliet, as reported by Baptist and Reflector. Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief has teams on the ground and Samaritans Purse deployed three disaster relief units with relief supplies. The charities are working with local emergency management personnel and churches to clear debris and offer support to the community. Convoy of Hope has also sent out a team with relief supplies. Though devastated, Nashville residents are optimistic as help pours in and neighbors offer a hand. Smith called on the Body of Christ to stand up and serve. Lets all come together and be the Hands and Feet, he urged. New Delhi. The crime case that has come up recently is from Kotla Mubarakpur area of South Delhi where the bodies of husband and wife have been found hanging. In this case, it has been told that even after the protests of the family, both had a love marriage 5 months ago and after the death of both, the police has not received any suicide note on the spot. The police is now investigating after keeping suicide in mind. Victim reached Station to file complaint of rape, Police said "Characterless" An inspector posted at Kotla Mubarakpur police station under the southern district has described the incident as correct and said, "The names of the victims are Tependra alias Bunty (20) and Bisna (19). Both were native to Nepal. Both are hired in Kotla Mubarakpur Living in a house. The couple came to Delhi 5 months ago." Along with this, he also told, 'Tependra used to do the cleaning work in the landlord's office itself and his wife Bisna was working in the houses to feed. Since this incident, the police have not been able to contact the family till now but Bunty's brother and maternal uncle live in Karol Bagh. Situation of Afganistan worsens after Taliban agreement As soon as the police got information about the matter, it arrived and they have sealed the dead bodies and kept them in the fronts of Safdarjung Hospital. The investigation of this case was handed over to the SDM Defense Colony along with the police because both had been married for only 5 months. In this case, the police say that till now the cause of these deaths has not been revealed. Love couple commit suicide in Shahjahanpur, dead bodies found in the room Adherents of Falun Gong reenact the forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience by the Chinese regime at a protest in Vienna, Austria on October 1, 2018. (Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images) It Will Make You Physically Sick: Professor Recounts Probe Into Organ Harvesting in China Imagine if the fridge at the local deli, along with chilled drinks and cured meats, displayed a new kind of product: human livers, kidneys, and corneas. As macabre as it may sound, this is how Arthur Waldron, China historian at the University of Pennsylvania, describes what the Chinese communist regime is doing todayits killing prisoners of conscience for their organs to sell in the transplant market. Theyre engaged in a very sinister commerce, which is commerce in the bodies of murdered Chinese citizens, Waldron told The Epoch Times in a 2019 interview. Most Westerners are not aware of this at all. The professor is now an expert on this grisly practice, after spending a year over 2018 to 2019 investigating the issue as a member of an independent panel, known as the China Tribunal. The panel was composed of six other members with backgrounds in international law, medicine, business, and international relations. After reviewing testimony from over 50 witnesses from two hearings in London, and large volumes of written and video evidence, the tribunal in June 2019 concludedbeyond reasonable doubtthat, in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims. The tribunals final judgment, a 160-page report (pdf), was released on March 1. Theres a certain kind of evil that passes just human [social] causes. The evil behind organ harvestingthats something else, Waldron said. The tribunal found that the organs were mainly sourced from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. Adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong have been subject to intense persecution by the Chinese regime since 1999, a campaign involving arbitrary detention, forced labor, brainwashing, torture, and even death. The London-based tribunal was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal. Two years ago, Waldron was asked by transplant ethics group and the organizer that initiated the tribunal, the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, to be the China expert on the panel. The Epoch Times in 2006 first reported on claims by whistleblowers that the Chinese regime was killing prisoners of conscience for their organs. The regime has consistently denied such allegations, saying that since 2015, all organ transplants have come from voluntary donors. Prior to that, the regime claimed organs for transplant surgeries came from executed prisoners. Harrowing Evidence The tribunal over two public hearings in December 2018 and April 2019 heard evidence from researchers, medical professionals, journalists, and survivors from Chinas detention system. The survivors who testified included Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned for their faith and Uyghur Muslims detained under the Chinese regimes purported campaign against extremism in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. They all shared graphic accounts of torture and abuse while in detention. One Falun Gong practitioner, Yu Ming, recounted how police placed books on his chest and back and then used hammers to smash them, causing internal wounds rather than injuries that could be seen on the surface. An Uyghur survivor, Mihrigul Tursun, told the tribunal that she was strapped into a chair with a helmet placed on her head and electrocuted. Alongside the torture, these witnesses uniformly spoke of being regularly blood tested and receiving other medical exams while incarcerated. These tests were consistent with testing for organ status, Nice said in London in June 2019 when delivering the tribunals findings. Non-Falun Gong prisoners were not tested, and medical results were never explained to inmates. The tribunal also received a personal account of organ harvesting from former surgeon Enver Tohti, who in 1995 was ordered to extract the liver and kidneys of a live prisoner in Urumqi City, Xinjiang. The death-row prisoner had been shot in the right side of his chest but was still alive. What I recall is, with my scalpel, I tried to cut into his skin, [and] there was blood to be seen. That indicates that the heart was still beating. At the same time, he was trying to resist my insertion, but he was too weak, Tohti said during tribunal hearings in December 2018. Being immersed in these kinds of accounts took a toll on Waldron, who said that after a day of listening to these witnesses, you will go back to your hotel room and youll just collapse. To hear these people talk, it will make your stomach turn. I mean it will make you physically sick, he added. And when you realize that this is not some crazy Hollywood movie that was invented by some sick Hollywood directors, but this [organ harvesting] is actually something that is really going on its a lot to ask you to bear psychologically. Witness testimony and undercover phone calls made by researchers to Chinese doctors revealed that extraordinarily short timeframes for organ transplantsas little as two weekswere promised by doctors and hospitals in China. Such brief wait times are completely impossible in typical organ donation systems, Nice said in June 2019. Statistical data based upon investigations by independent researchers painted a picture of the scale of the disturbing enterprise in China. In 2016, an in-depth report found a huge discrepancy between Chinas official transplantation figures and the number of transplants performed in the countrys hospitals. The report was conducted by Ethan Gutmann, China analyst and investigator; David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific); and David Matas, Canadian human rights lawyer. All three had spent more than a decade investigating this issue. These people have done a very, very thorough investigation, Waldron said of three researchers. By analyzing the public records of 712 Chinese hospitals that carry out liver and kidney transplants, the report showed that roughly 60,000 to 100,000 transplants were being conducted each year, far outstripping the officially reported number of 10,000 to 20,000 per year. Organ harvesting, Waldron said, has become extremely lucrative for cash-strapped hospitals in China. Hospitals with large transplant units, charging tens of thousands of dollars for each operation, can generate significant revenue. So there is a financial incentive to increase the scale of this business, he said. This is an industry with thousands of people involved in it, producing large amounts of money, and helping to keep hospitals afloat, as well as helping to make certain people very, very rich. Waldron added. No Stone Left Unturned Waldron said the tribunal made major efforts to obtain all relevant evidence, including contrary evidence, relating to organ harvesting. Every conceivable scrap of evidence was gathered, he said. He noted that the tribunal asked the Chinese embassy in London and health officials in China to provide contrary evidence, but no negative witnesses came forward. The inquiry, led by two experienced jurists, Nice and Hamid Sabi, a London-based lawyer and counsel for the tribunal, was conducted in a manner that was absolutely professional, Waldron said, adding that this was not amateur hour. The panelists thoroughly examined each piece of evidence. Even though some of us had prior knowledge, we approached it saying the evidence is all that counts forensically using the most rigorous legal standards, he said. And then once you have enough evidence, you start discussing what it means. In response to those who may still dispute the existence of forced organ harvesting in China, Waldron had the following message: Please do me the favor of reading the [previous reports on organ harvesting] and the final report of the tribunal. I want you to come back with errors and mistakes. I want the mistakes to be circled, and tell me which piece of evidence is wrong, he said. Going Mainstream Waldron believes the tribunal judgment will trigger wider discussion about this previously under-the-radar issue, and an eventual change in public policies. This will become mainstreamed, he said. He had already noticed this issue being brought up more often in casual conversations. A year ago I would not have heard them talking about organ harvesting, Waldron said. The issue has even found its way into popular culture. An October 2019 episode on the comedic cartoon show South Park satirizing the Chinese regimes repressive practices included a scene in which a character references allegations of organ harvesting. A scene from the 2019 movie The Laundromat directed by Steven Soderbergh also graphically depicts forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. Waldron said the matter will become a world concern, noting that governments, such as Israel, and Taiwan, have already banned their citizens from engaging in transplant tourism. Last September, Sabi presented the panels findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Sabi said that given the evidence, the council and U.N. member states now have a legal obligation to address Chinas criminal conduct. Waldron said given that the tribunal has concluded, beyond reasonable doubt, that the regime has committed crimes against humanity against Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs, the next step would be for a country to commence action against Beijing at the International Criminal Court. While the panel stopped short of concluding that genocide had been committed, it noted that nations nonetheless have a duty to investigate whether the crime has taken place. Growing international pressure will also force the Chinese regime to start answering questions about its organ harvesting practices, Waldron said. People will say I wonder why it is they [the regime] wont defend themselves. If this [organ harvesting] is all perfectly legitimate, then the simplest thing in the world should be to explain away all the problems, he said. The communist regime, the historian said, has in the past created an elaborate false narrative of Chinese history, and is now in a position of falsifying yet another aspect of reality. At a certain point if you falsify enough, the whole thing falls down, he said, adding that the regime is close to reaching this point. But, ultimately, the truth is going to come out, he said. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is dramatically spreading around the globe, raising concerns on its widespread threat. The number of total cases jumped to over 95,000, and 3,254 deaths. Now, Indonesia has reported its first cases of the coronavirus on Mar. 2, a 31-year-old woman and a 64-year-old woman from Depok, a city in West Java province in Jakarta. The mother and daughter had been in contact with an infected Japanese National who lived in Malaysia and had tested positive after returning from a trip to Indonesia. Image Credit: Pete Linforth / Pixabay Medical workers quarantined The patients are now hospitalized in Jakarta. However, the Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Depok had sent home about 70 medical workers after they had contact with the two patients during their previous treatment. The medical workers were sent home as a precautionary measure since they had interaction with the two patients when they were treated at the hospital on Feb. 27 with suspected bronchitis. The two patients left the hospital on Feb. 29 as they were referred to the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Jakarta. It was there where they tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The government is now trying to track all possible contacts of the two confirmed cases by way of the rapid response team of the West Java Health Service. Fears have increased since Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, next to China, India, and the United States. With the rapid spread of the virus, it can negatively impact the country. The government says it is exerting every effort to contain the spread of the virus. World Bank pledges emergency fund The World Bank has promised to provide $12 billion in an emergency fund to help fight the coronavirus disease. The committed fund of the bank will help developing countries combat the spread of the coronavirus. We are working to provide a fast, flexible response based on developing country needs in dealing with the spread of COVID-19, said World Bank Group President David Malpass. This includes emergency financing, policy advice, and technical assistance, building on the World Bank Group's existing instruments and expertise to help countries respond to the crisis." The financial package will provide grants and low-interest loans from IDA for low-income countries and loans from IBRD for middle-income countries, using all of the Banks operational instruments with processing accelerated on a fast track basis. International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Groups private sector arm, will provide its clients with the necessary support to continue operating and to sustain jobs. The World Bank support will cover a range of interventions to strengthen health services and primary health care, bolster disease monitoring and reporting, train front line health workers, encourage community engagement to maintain public trust, and improve access to treatment for the poorest patients. The Bank will also provide policy and technical advice to ensure countries can access global expertise. The countries who are poorest and those who are at the highest risk of the coronavirus effect will be prioritized. Hotspots Iran, Italy, and South Korea have been on the hotspot due to the rapid increase in cases and deaths. Iran has temporarily released more than 54,000 prisoners to halt the spread of the virus in its overcrowded jails. As of writing, Iran has 2,922 confirmed cases and 92 deaths. Italy has reported a spike in deaths in the past 48 hours, with a death toll of 107, and the number of cases increased to 3,089. South Korea has the highest number of confirmed cases outside China, with 5,621 cases and 35 deaths. Other countries have reported their first cases of the coronavirus disease, including Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Morocco, Latvia, Jordan, Andorra, Senegal, and Tunisia. Google cancels big event Google has canceled its biggest annual event because of the coronavirus threat. The 2020 edition of Google I/O, which is an annual developer conference to be held on May 12 to 14 at Googles Mountainview headquarters, will not push through this year. Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre, the tech giant posted on its website. The government has assured that local car dealers that they will not be left out in the cold when the ban on salvaged vehicles and used vehicles older than 10 years comes into full force . The Automobile Dealers Union Ghana is opposed to the governments new policy which will take effect with the passage of the Customs Amendment Bill. Concerns have also been raised about the potential job losses among second-hand car dealers as Ghana moves to the next stage of its Automotive Development Policy. Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the government has plans to make second-hand car dealers distributors of the cars assembled in Ghana by international automobile firms expected to begin work in 2020. We have an opportunity to explore ways of onboarding them to become the new dealers of these vehicles [assembled in Ghana] so, in the end, we are able to develop a local industry for cars manufactured here in Ghana, create jobs and create incomes and bring more safety on our roads, he explained. On the consumer side, the Minister also noted that the government will be keeping an eye on the prices of the cars that will be assembled in Ghana by the international automobile manufacturing firms. In the investment plan that they will bring, which we will approve, we will negotiate with them on the sales parameters and the sales prices so that we are assured that they are not pricing out the Ghanaian, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah assured. Ghana put in place the Automotive Development Policy to provide the necessary framework to establish assembly and manufacturing capacity in Ghana. Toyota, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Nissan and Sinotruk are among the major automobile companies with an interest in Ghana, with some set to begin operations in 2020. The Akufo-Addo administration wants the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Development Programme to boost employment and offer an import substitution and export promotion to improve the balance of payment. Potential losses According to the joint report of the joint committee on Finance and Trade, Industry and Tourism, the government has predicted an estimated revenue loss of GHS802 million over the next three years if the various bans are instituted. This was a point of concern for the MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, who called for the withdrawal of the Bill. This obviously will be too much for this country. For three years you are losing [almost GHS1 billion.]There is no guarantee that we will be able to reclaim this GHS1 billion through the employment that will be created, he argued in Parliament. citinewsroom NEW YORK, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- delivery.com, a leading destination for online ordering today announced that OntheGoDelivery.com, a food delivery service based in Louisiana, has joined the delivery.com network. OntheGoDelivery.com, which serves the Shreveport and Bossier City areas, is now operated by the delivery.com website and app. The OntheGoDelivery.com management and team will remain local and leverage their roots to take a local first approach to expanding online ordering and delivery services in their area. The announcement with OntheGoDelivery.com is part of a series of acquisitions and partnerships marking delivery.com's rapid expansion into new markets across the country. Customers who live in the Shreveport and Bossier City areas can continue to order from OntheGoDelivery.com's extensive local restaurant network, and will now have access to the delivery.com suite of offerings including: Best-in-class technology and mobile apps: Consumers can experience a frictionless, easy-to-use platform to order from their favorite neighborhood restaurants. Order tracking: After placing their order, customers receive a tracking link to follow the progress of their order and stay up-to-date on its ETA. Delivery Points: delivery.com's popular loyalty program allows customers to earn free food and other rewards. "As we continue to expand, delivery.com is looking for partners that share our 'local first' approach, making the best local restaurants and stores available for delivery to customers in the neighborhood. As part of the delivery.com network, OntheGoDelivery.com can now marry our best-in-class technology platform with their own local expertise. We're excited to offer customers, restaurants, drivers and other merchants a second-to-none ordering and delivery experience," said Jed Kleckner, CEO of delivery.com. Seth Manly and Lisa Reyenga, who own and operate OntheGoDelivery.com commented, "When we first heard of what delivery.com does with other verticals we were really excited." With the addition of OntheGoDelivery.com, delivery.com expands its regional presence into Louisiana and continues to grow nationwide. OntheGoDelivery.com plans to roll out a full set of delivery.com services in its markets, including Group Ordering and other office ordering features, as well as expanded offerings beyond food delivery. For a limited time, OntheGoDelivery.com is offering $15 off orders of $20 or more to first-time users of the delivery.com app. Simply download the app and enter code EATWELL. 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SOURCE delivery.com Related Links http://delivery.com Historians can now pore over secret files from the papacy of Pius XII, who has long faced accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser New light will be shed on one of the most controversial periods of Vatican history on Monday when the archives on Pope Pius XII accused by critics of being a Nazi sympathiser are unsealed. A year after Pope Francis announced the move, saying the church isnt afraid of history, the documents from Pius XIIs papacy, which began in 1939 on the brink of the second world war and ended in 1958, will be opened, initially to a small number of scholars, The Guardian writes in the article Unsealing of Vatican archives will finally reveal truth about Hitlers pope. Critics of Pius XII have accused him of remaining silent during the Holocaust, never publicly condemning the persecution and genocide of Jews and others. His defenders say that he quietly encouraged convents and other Catholic institutions to hide thousands of Jews, and that public criticism of the Nazis would have risked the lives of priests and nuns. The opening of the archives is decisive for the contemporary history of the church and the world, said Cardinal Jose Tolentino Calaca de Mendonca, the Vaticans archivist and librarian last week. Bishop Sergio Pagano, the prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, said scholars would have to make a historical judgment. He added: The good [that Pius did] was so great that it will dwarf the few shadows. Evaluating the millions of pages in the archives would take several years, he said. More than 150 people have applied to access the archives, although only 60 can be accommodated in the offices at one time. Among the first to view the documents will be representatives of the Jewish community in Rome, and scholars from Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust museum, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. David Kertzer, an American expert on the relationship between the Catholic church and fascism, who will begin examining the papers this week, said there were signs of nervousness at the Vatican about what would emerge from the archives. The Vatican archives would provide an immense amount of fresh material from many millions of pages, he told the Observer. On the big question, its clear: Pius XII never publicly criticised the Nazis for the mass murder they were committing of the Jews of Europe and he knew from the very beginning that mass murder was taking place. Various clerics and others were pressing him to speak out, and he declined to do so. Although there is a lot of testimony showing that the church did protect Jews in Rome, when more than 1,000 were rounded up on 16 October 1943 and held for two days adjacent to the Vatican [before deportation to the death camps], Pius decided not to publicly protest or even privately send a plea to Hitler not to send them to their deaths in Auschwitz. Hopefully, what well find from these archives is why he did what he did, and what discussions were going on behind the walls of the Vatican. Mary Vincent, professor of modern European history at Sheffield University, said that much of the criticism of Pius Xll lacked nuance. He was a careful, austere and quite unlikable man, trying to steer a path through almost impossible circumstances. He had clear views about what he saw as the threat of Soviet communism, and his view of Italian fascism was quite a bit softer. But categorising him as good or bad is not helpful its about the decisions he took, and the space he had to make those decisions. Pius whose birth name was Eugenio Pacelli was Vatican secretary of state under his predecessor, Pope Pius XI, and a former papal nuncio, or envoy, to Germany. In 1933, he negotiated a concordat between the Catholic church and Germany. After he was elected pope, six months before the outbreak of war, the Vatican maintained diplomatic relations with the Third Reich, and the new pontiff declined to condemn the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. In December 1942, Pius XII spoke out in general terms about the suffering of the Jews, although he had known for several months about the Nazi extermination plans. In 1943, he wrote to the bishop of Berlin, arguing that the church could not publicly condemn the Holocaust for fear of causing greater evils. Hitlers Pope, a controversial biography of Pius XII by British author John Cornwell, published in 1999, claimed the pope was an antisemite who failed to be gripped with moral outrage by the plight of the Jews. He was also narcissistic and determined to protect and advance the power of the papacy, the book argued. Pius XII was the ideal pope for Hitlers unspeakable plan. He was Hitlers pawn. He was Hitlers Pope. Cornwells claims were challenged by some scholars and authors. He later conceded that Pius XII had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, although the pontiff had never explained his stance. In 2012, Yad Vashem changed the wording on an exhibit on Pius XIIs papacy, from he did not intervene to he did not publicly protest. The new text acknowledged different assessments of the popes position and Yad Vashem said it look[ed] forward to the day when the Vatican archives will be open to researchers so that a clearer understanding of the events can be arrived at. Pope Benedict, Franciss predecessor, declared in 2009 that Pius XII had lived a life of heroic Christian virtue, a step towards possible sainthood. But in 2014, Francis said no miracle a prerequisite for beatification, the final step to canonisation had been identified. If there are no miracles, it cant go forward. Its blocked there, Francis said after visiting Yad Vashem. Last year, Francis said Pius XII had led the church during one of the saddest and darkest periods of the 20th century. He added that he was confident that serious and objective historical research will allow the evaluation [of Pius] in the correct light, including appropriate criticism. One thing to remember is we may see stronger visitor numbers from the domestic community this year because those who want to travel may be rethinking their international travel plans, Ferguson said. Were not being insensitive when we say D.C. is open for business, but D.C. is still a city thats open for business and we hope individuals will chose to come here. (TNS) Just two days before the 2018 election for governor, Republican Brian Kemp opened an explosive investigation , accusing the Democratic Party of Georgia of trying to hack voter registration systems.Kemp was Georgias secretary of state at the time, overseeing his own heated election for governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams.Sixteen months later, the attorney generals office released a report Tuesday finding no evidence of a hack and closing the investigation Kemp had launched.No election information was damaged, stolen or lost, according to the report, and there was no evidence of computer crimes.Democratic Party of Georgia Chairwoman Nikema Williams said Kemp created outright lies to attack his political opponents and help his election.Kemp went on to defeat Abrams by 55,000 votes, a margin of 1.4 percentage points.More than a year after the sitting secretary of state leveraged baseless accusations against his political opponents, were finally receiving closure on an investigation that has been a sham from the start, said Williams, a state senator from Atlanta. As we have since well before these outright lies came to light in the first place, Georgia Democrats will continue to do everything in our power to fight back against voter suppression.A spokeswoman for Kemp said his office did the right thing by asking law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and GBI, to investigate.We appreciate the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and attorney generals office for investigating a failed cyber intrusion before the November 2018 election, said Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Kemp. More importantly, we are grateful that the systems put in place by Brian Kemp as Georgias secretary of state kept voter data safe and secure.Abrams 2018 campaign manager said Kemp abused his power as secretary of state to help him win the governors office.This is Kemps playbook in his desperate attempt to keep his ever-loosening grasp on power, said Lauren Groh-Wargo, who is now the CEO for Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group. The motivation is clear: producing headlines while wasting the time and resources of individuals and groups who dared to challenge Kemp.The report from the office of Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, found that there were some vulnerabilities with the states online voter registration systems. Those issues, which were not identified, have been corrected.In addition, a cybersecurity contractor called Fortalice identified intrusions into the states network in October. But those intrusions were later found to be tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had been asked by the secretary of states office to do that kind of work.Theres no indication that the Democratic Party of Georgia probed the secretary of states websites for weaknesses.But the Democratic Party did bring potential vulnerabilities to the attention of election officials, only to find itself accused of tampering.Events unfolded quickly the weekend before the 2018 election.Richard Wright, a Georgia resident, logged into the states My Voter Page on the secretary of states website to check whether his registration information was up to date.Wright also said he discovered security flaws in the states voter registration system, according to an email he wrote to an attorney at the time.Wright alleged that anyone could download voter registration files, likely including personal information such as Social Security numbers and drivers license numbers, according to his email from Nov. 4, 2018. Wright also said anyone could download voter registration cards.Wright notified a volunteer for the Democratic Party and the attorney, David Cross, who is suing the state to force it to use paper ballots filled out by hand in elections. The Democratic Party informed two computer security experts, and Cross contacted the FBI and an attorney representing the secretary of states office.Soon afterward, Kemp turned the report into an all-caps election-year attack:AFTER FAILED HACKING ATTEMPT, SOS LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, said the press release posted on the secretary of states website.Broce, who was Kemps spokeswoman when he was secretary of state, said Wrights claims werent true.Wright was wrong when he claimed that election systems werent secure, Broce said. She said Wright refused to cooperate with the investigation.While the evidence in this case properly gave rise to concerns that were appropriately addressed by law enforcement, the investigation did not reveal any evidence to support the criminal prosecution of Mr. Wright, according to a memo from Senior Assistant Attorney General Laura Pfister. Therefore, I recommend closing the file at this time.Cross said it was clear from the start that Kemps accusations against the Democratic Party were false.I had a hard time believing that anyone else believed the Democratic Party was trying to hack an election, Cross said. The M.O. of this administration is to go on the offensive rather than take responsibility for the vulnerabilities. A ragged chase through the Loop followed, ending when Bauer, who happened to be leaving a police training session in the area, saw Legghette after hearing calls on his police radio and attempted to stop him near the Thompson Center. The pair tumbled into a stairwell, Legghette pulled a handgun and shot Bauer in what prosecutors have described as an execution. S ome supermarket shelves are being emptied as shoppers stockpile amid fears the coronavirus outbreak could force stores to limit their supplies. People have begun to stockpile items such as hand sanitiser and pasta due to the spread of the virus, despite authorities insisting it would not be necessary to do so. In Britain, where cases have surged to 51, the frenzy has seen empty shelves in some Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda branches for items including bottled water, pet food, toilet roll and milk. Some pharmacies have run out of ibuprofen and vitamins. The stockpiling has prompted some to take to the Facebook Marketplace to flog essentials for inflated prices, with one seller in Australia reportedly advertising a 24-pack of toilet roll for $24,000 (12,400), Australian broadcaster 7news reported. Shelves have emptied for toilet rolls in some supermarkets around the world / PA Others have reportedly taken to trade website Gumtree to offer a 34 pack of loo roll for a slightly more moderate $20 (10.30). Sharon Reilly photographed a shop in Massachusetts, United States, noting that toilet paper stocks were running low while all the bleach was gone too. She told the PA news agency: It did not make me feel like I needed to stockpile. It made me sad that people are clearly scared. Supermarkets also emptied in Australia, where one man has reportedly tried to flog toilet roll online for thousands of pounds / AMMY KWONG via REUTERS Meanwhile Franziska Heintel shared photos of empty supermarket shelves in Berlin. Im not sure if its an accurate representation and I dont want to make people panic even more, she said. I was just super shocked and surprised to see this when I was just doing some regular shopping. According to MailOnline, sales of hand sanitiser in British supermarkets hiked from 468,433 in February 2019 to 1,156,102 in the four weeks to February 23 2020. This comes after Public Health England advised Brits to wash their hands for 20 seconds to help contain the deadly illness. However, on Tuesday the UK Governments chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there was no need for Britons to be panic buying. I think the advice is that there is absolutely no reason to be doing any panic buying of any sort or going out and keeping large supplies of things, he told journalists. Clearly there will need to be measures in cases of household quarantine for making sure food is in the right place at the right time. We imagine that could be a rolling case of household quarantine if that measure becomes necessary, and clearly things will need to be in place for care homes and so on if that decision is made. Kevin Johnson of Starbucks speaks at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders at McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks said Wednesday that shareholders would not be able to attend its annual meeting in-person due to the coronavirus outbreak. The shareholders meeting, scheduled for March 18, will only be available via webcast. The event was slated to be held at Seattle's WAMU Theater, which has a seating capacity of up to 7,200 people. The change in venue comes as the coronavirus death toll in Washington state rose to nine people on Tuesday. The majority of Washington's cases are concentrated in the area surrounding Seattle. Starbucks also said that it has increased cleaning and sanitizing of company-owned cafes in North America, restricted all business travel through March 31 and will pause the use of reusable cups, including those brought in by customers. Other companies, like Target and Google, have also made events virtual only as concern about the coronavirus outbreak grows. Conferences like the Natural Products Expo West, a trade show for natural and organic products, have been postponed. Starbucks has already seen its business impacted by the virus. More than half of its cafes in China, its second-largest market behind the U.S., temporarily shuttered in response to the outbreak. The global coffee chain has since reopened most of those closed locations. Starbucks said in late January that it expects that the virus will "materially affect" its results for the fiscal second quarter and fiscal 2020. The EU has urged Turkey not to encourage the further movement of refugees and migrants to the EU borders and to fulfill its obligations under the 2016 deal, said head of the EU diplomacy Josep Borrell. He has visited Ankara together with the European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic. Borrell has noted the need for joint work and expressed understanding of the difficult situation for Turkey. However, current events do not lead to any solution and can only exacerbate problems. He said the EU was ready to consider working with Turkey on an approach that would offer a joint political path forward. We have a common interest and that is to end the conflict in Syria. Only in this way will we be able to bring to an end the suffering of the civilian population and contribute to address the most significant challenges Turkey is currently facing. Increased pressure at EU-Turkey border and unilateral actions will not provide answers. Josep Borrell said. Meghan McCain is the controversial conservative co-host on The View. Following Abby Huntsmans resignation at the beginning of the year, the Republican backer was left alone with the left-leaning panel. With a chair open for another lady to fill, producers might just be testing out new people. Meghan McCain | Lou Rocco/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Elisabeth Hasselbeck is set to co-host the daytime show on March 11 and McCain is extra excited for her return. At the top of the shows hour on Tuesday morning, Whoopi Goldberg sent out her thoughts to the former co-host. I need to start on a very serious note, Goldberg took the word after greeting the live audience. Last night, a number of tornadoes tore through Nashville and rural Tennessee claiming the lives of at least 19 people thus far. We are thinking about everyone dealing with this. Goldberg continued: Our friend Elisabeth lives there and I wanted to make sure she and her family were OK, and they are alright. Lissie, well see you next week when youre a guest co-host. After Goldberg mentioned Hasselbeck, McCain said a few kind words to The View alum. McCain even said that she would leave the chair for Hasselbeck. Shes the only woman I would give up my chair for, McCain chimed in. She can sit in the conservative chair anytime. Shes the OG. I love her. Meghan McCain is excited about Elisabeth Hasselbeck co-hosting #TheView pic.twitter.com/sJEzJd1s0o armando (@mialterego) March 4, 2020 Meghan McCain doesnt want to be a cliche McCain gets a lot of flack for being strong on her convictions. She is a woman that knows where she stands and fights her point of view. The passion in which she defends her political stances has only been rivaled by Hasselbeck. There have been many conservative women on the panel since the latter left the show, but McCain has been the one that has stayed the longest since. However, McCain doesnt want to be a cliche and leave the show one day talking bad about everyone. The gossip around her relationship with her co-hosts has been rampant, but McCain has been able to deal with it. Its weird for me because The View has a long history of 25 years and theres this inside the palace walls gossip and I just dont want to be like another cliche View-co-host thats bitter about their experience there, she said on Watch What Happens Live in January. Its been an incredible experience so far and Im not going anywhere, Im still there. Im a person and I have feelings and Im just trying to do a good job. Elisabeth Hasselbeck returns to The View Hasselbeck left The View in 2013 and recently returned to the show in 2019 where she talked about her time as a co-host. When you spend a decade with anyone I feel like I grew up here, I had babies here. Its like a family so this actually feels really good, she said sitting back at the Hot Topics table after six years gone. McCain told Hasselbeck that when she joined the talk show she tried to emulate her. How in Gods name did you do this for 10 years? Being the lone conservative on this show is Ive always had respect for you. When I first came on my first day I said, I wish to emulate Elisabeth, because you really were the OG of this seat, McCain said. Hasselbeck said that everyone at the table has unique voices. The trick is to hold your constitutional right to your beliefs and your religious freedom in one hand, and hold your friends hand in the other. The goal is to keep the conversation going because you have to come back the next day and have another one, Hasselbeck added. The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. CT/PT. The Arunachal Pradesh government on Wednesday informed the assembly that it has set up two committees to look into the issue of children of tribal mothers married to non-tribals getting ST certificates by using only their mothers maiden name. The government will decide on the matter after receiving recommendations of the committees, Social Justice Empowerment and Tribal Affairs (SJETA) Minister Alo Libang said. As soon as the government receives the recommendations, we will act accordingly for the welfare of the tribal communities of the state, Libang, who is also the chairman of one of the committees, said. Admitting that the issue is serious, the minister assured the members that their suggestions would be considered. Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte, who was in the chair, hoped that the issue would be brought in the next session in the form of a Bill. The issue was raised in the assembly by BJP MLA Nyamar Karbak. He pointed out that children of tribal women and non- tribal men easily get ST certificates and they are enjoying all benefits provided to the tribal communities, including jobs in government sector. Therefore the genuine tribal people are being deprived, Karbak said. Referring to a law in Meghalaya, where Khasi women marrying non-Khasi would lose her ST status, Karbak said that the government should ponder over the matter seriously and should evolve a mechanism to check it. Otherwise the indigenous tribal population of the state, in future, would be outnumbered like the indigenous tribals of Tripura. NPP member Tarin Dakpe suggested for compulsory marriage registration so that such cases could be recorded, while BJP MLA Lokam Tassar suggested that a mechanism should be evolved to restrict the issuance of ST certificates to such children. JD (U) member Hayeng Mangfi suggested that an assembly committee should be constituted to study the issue so that it could be brought as a legislation in the next session of the assembly, while Tanpho Wangnaw of the BJP urged the government to issue directives to the deputy commissioners of the districts so that they do not issue ST certificates to such children. Wangnaw also urged the gaon burhas and panchayat leaders not to recommend such children for getting ST certificates. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) American culture values the freedom to change and reinvent one's self. A new study, however, reveals that Americans who do change tend to report a lower sense of well-being. University of Georgia psychologists compared individual self-concepts between Americans and Japanese counterparts and uncovered this essential contradiction about the heroic myth of American individualism. The findings were published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. In Western and particularly American culture there is a notion that we have a lot of freedom, and that you can reinvent yourself and that's a positive thing. But when you apply it to one's self-concept and reinventing one's self, are they better off? Are they happier than people who do not change? We found that it's not the case." Brian Haas, associate professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of psychology and lead author on the new study The researchers sourced publicly available longitudinal self-reported personality data from the United States and Japan, and found that in the United States, any type of self-concept changes occurring over the course of several years tended to be associated with a marked decrease in well-being. Conversely Japanese respondents did not show a similar link between self-concept changes and decreased well-being. Self-concept refers to how individuals think about their identity. "One way to think about this is in political debates, where one of the worst things you can call somebody out on in the United States is being a flip-flopper," Haas said. "Changing your mind, and not being consistent, tends to be thought of as a very negative characteristic in the United States political culture. We found that when people change their identity and likely change their minds, there are many profound negative consequences in our culture." These notions contrast sharply with cultures such as Japan that tend to have an interdependent identity within a relatively collective culture. "Changes are perceived as being adaptable in an interdependent context. Social relationships are stronger, concrete, and don't change so quickly. And one way to ensure harmony in those strong social relationships is to be adaptable and flexible so you can make sure that the social relationship remains positive," Haas said. Individual liberty and self-reinvention may be promoted as a good thing in the U.S., but American people who change tend to be worse off than those that remain consistent. "In the United States, people who are being inconsistent, experience lower well-being, report that they are less happy, have less meaning in life and have poorer relationships with their family members." Self-reported emotions and emotional experience in Japan, their sense of value and meaning in life, and also the strength of relationships within families suggest that more stable Japanese culture can withstand changes in individual self-concept. Even Americans who were changing in a socially desirable direction - becoming, for example, more conscientious, or more extroverted - were not experiencing positive consequences in terms of their well-being. "It's all negative - any type of change in any direction in the U.S. tended to be linked to negative well-being," Haas said. Individualism is strongly characterized by behavior in social scenarios, with freedom to choose friends, romantic partners, and the freedom to leave our hometown and family. "That sense of freedom might mean we don't need to keep those relationships in check, and that's likely what is contributing to this effect. Americans do not need to be adaptable to be able keep their social relationships consistent and positive, because we can just start new relationships or opt out of them easily, we have the freedom to be able to do so," said Michelle vanDellen, associate professor and co-author of the study. "In the United States, we have a strong tendency to hold up on a pillar those that remain consistent and don't change their identity or minds. It's really something we hold as a high value here," Haas said. Will Kamal Nath, who was Congress' troubleshooter, finds 'Operation Lotus' difficult to fight? India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Mar 04: In a political drama that is taking place in Kamal Nath's turf, Madhya Pradesh ministers Jaivardhan Singh and Jeetu Patwari were recently seen leaving from a hotel in Gurugram with a BSP MLA. This has left the Congress allege that eight of its MLAs --Four from Congress and four Independent-- have been forcefully kept at the hotel in Haryana by the BJP. Kamal Nath, a nine-time MP from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh and State Chief Minister is now facing severe backlash from the BJP. Once called as a troubleshooter for his party and was on a speed-dial terms with top leaders across party lines, the Chief Minister is yet to face much more with Rajya Sabha election round the corner. Speaking to reporters, Kamal Nath had said. "Yes, I fully endorse Digvijay Singh's accusation of horse-trading against the BJP. Many Congress MLAs are telling me that they are being lured with offers of money. The BJP is frightened because the scams that took place in the 15 years of the party's government going to be exposed." Earlier, former chief minister Digvijay Singh had said that as he and his party leaders got to know about BJP's "horse-trading" move, they tried to bring back their MLAs but BJP constantly tried to stop them. Operation Lotus: Will Madhya Pradesh govt see the same fate as Karnataka politics? NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 On the other said, BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly, Gopal Bhargav said that Singh has constantly been insulting his MLAs by accusing them of being involved in bribery. It can be noted that these political developments in Madhya Pradesh is taking place while three of its Rajya Sabha MPs are said to get retired on April 9, 2020. Nonetheless, one should not forget that Kamal Nath was accused of 1984 Sikh riots. On November 1, 1984, a day after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, massive anti-Sikh riots took place where more than 3,000 people from the Sikh community were killed. Later, he was not charged of the incident as the investigation failed to submit enough evidence on Kamal Nath. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced a $50 billion aid package Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus. Georgieva said on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" that the money is available "immediately" and is for low-income and emerging market countries. Most of the money will be interest-free, and countries do not need to have a preexisting program with the IMF to participate, she said. "What we're doing right now is reviewing country by country what are the financial needs, and engaging with these countries to make sure they are aware of this resource and we can immediately respond to them," Georgieva said. "We're in an early stage of engagement, but I can assure you that we will act very quickly as requests come." There are more than 90,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus around the world, and the outbreak has spread to six continents. The epidemic has led to severe travel restrictions in key economic hubs in China and Italy. The IMF would like to see the money used first to bolster health-care systems and then for targeted fiscal stimulus programs and to help liquidity, Georgieva said. The organization is also working with the World Bank to help countries obtain some of the medical equipment, such as medical masks and respiratory equipment, that is used to combat the virus. The World Bank announced a $12 billion program on Monday to help poor nations deal with the health and economic consequences of the epidemic. Countries around the world should also consider creating measures to help the economy during an economic slowdown, such as offering lines of credit to smaller businesses and programs to pay workers who have to stay home. "We think it is now the time to put in place precautionary measures should the outbreak become more severe," Georgieva said. She said earlier Wednesday at an event in Washington, D.C., that, "We are faced with a generalized weakening in demand, and that goes through confidence and through spillover channels, including trade and tourism, commodity prices, tightened financial conditions. "They call for an additional policy response to support demand and ensure an adequate supply of credit," she added. The announcement comes amid coordinated action from global central banks. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced a 50 basis point cut Tuesday and the Bank of Canada followed up with a move of the same magnitude Wednesday. General Zaid Saleh has long been known for his loyalty to the regime and his brutality on the battlefield and has now been rewarded for this loyalty writes Pro-Justice. The Assad government has appointed Major General Ali Saleh as Chairman of the Security and Military Committee in Idleb Governorate, after previously being appointed as commander of the Fifth Corps. Who is Zaid Saleh When the protest movement broke out in Syria in March 2011, Zaid Salah was leading the 62nd Mechanized Brigade at the rank of brigadier general. He commanded a number of military operations in areas close to Qatana in the Damascus countryside, which led to the deaths of dozens of civilians and the arrest of an unknown number. This fighting resulted in regime forces taking control over the city of al-Sheikh Maskin in the northwestern Daraa countryside. Zaid Salah was rewarded for this accomplishment by being transferred to the Republican Guard, where he was promoted to the rank of major general and made head of the Republican Guard staff. He was also appointed commander of the Security and Military Committee in Aleppo in August 2016. He commanded Republican Guard formations in the city and had a major role in taking control of Aleppos eastern districts with help from Russian forces at the end of 2016. Major General Salah is considered to be directly responsible for the operations that killed about 1,370 civilians during the military campaign against Aleppos eastern districts between Nov. 15, 2016 and Dec. 12, 2016, in addition to the hundreds of civilians killed during the period he served as head of the Security and Military Committee in Aleppo city, as well as the expulsion of tens of thousands of the citys residents. At the end of December 2017, Bashar al-Assad issued a decision to form the Republican Guard 30th Division, including all forces operating in Aleppo. Major General Zaid Salah was named commander, and continued in his position until the end of October 2017. He was then appointed deputy commander of the Republican Guard under Major General Talal Makhlouf. At the start of 2018, a decision was issued to appoint Major General Zaid Salah as commander of the Fifth Assault Corps, which was overseen directly by Russia. Major General Salah has played a major role in expulsions, as he has overseen the conclusion of a number of agreements that resulted in civilians departing the eastern areas of Aleppo. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Early voting results released Tuesday night showed that San Mateo County voters were on track to approve a handful of bonds and measures benefiting local school districts. With 55 percent approval required to pass, 59.55 percent of voters in the Jefferson Union High School District voted to approve Measure J, which would allow the district to issue more than $28 million in bonds to fund repairs at Jefferson, Oceana, Terra Nova, Thornton, Westmoor and Adult-Ed high schools. Trustees of the Harlandale Independent School District voted 4-3 to sell the districts largest undeveloped tract of land to housing developer KB Home in hopes it will draw more families to the district. Zeke Mendoza, Juan Mancha and Christine Carrillo voted with board president Ricardo Moreno at a special meeting Tuesday night to approve the sale agreement with KB Home Lone Star Inc. Officials did not state the price of the 109 acres along Southeast Loop 410 and said KB Home has one year to finalize the sale. Morenos motion said the sale was to be executed by the board president subject to the terms discussed in closed session and contained in the agreement. Trustees Elaine Anaya-Ortiz, Liz Limon and Norma Anel Cavazos all serving in their first year on the board voted against the sale. Anaya-Ortiz proposed a delay until a regular called meeting, when more people could be present than on the Super Tuesday election day for party primaries. She also called for a study to compare how other districts have sold their land. I dont understand what the emergency is. If theres no legal ramifications for us to postpone for a little bit of time, why couldnt we do this on a regular called board meeting? she said. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox Moreno countered that the board, though the makeup of trustees has evolved, had been considering a land sale since 2016. Weve been very careful and considerate. Weve explored all options, Moreno said. I feel confident in that weve done our due diligence and weve done whats important for our students. Roy Aguillon, host of the local talk show The Carpenters Apprentice, and regular board critics Gina Castaneda, Corina Salcido and her husband, Victor Salcido, addressed the board and demanded more transparency before trustees went into closed session to discuss the sale. Aguillon, who graduated in 2010 from the School for Leadership and Public Service at McCollum High School, wore a customized shirt reading Save the 100 Acre Woods but told the board he wasnt for or against the planned sale because he doesnt know what the plan was. He urged trustees to make public terms of any proposed deal. I think a lot of you guys remember what it was like to sit out here and to just want somebody to listen to you for a second, and thats what Im trying to do, is give those people a forum to voice their opinion, Aguillon said. On ExpressNews.com: Harlandale ISD has land, wants students and mulls a possible swap Josie Scales, a former president of the districtwide Harlandale Council of PTAs, and Julie Gimbel, president of Harlandale Education Association, spoke in favor of the sale. We need to be proactive and have potential growth for (student enrollment) money and also for tax revenue. I think that will truly help for our district and our students and the employees, Gimbel said. The next step is for KB Home to finalize its decision to purchase land, which must be done within a year, Moreno said. If KB Homes does not close this transaction, the district will need to negotiate with other future and potential buyers, so any public release of its terms could compromise future negotiations, Moreno said. He said the terms of the contract are fair, reasonable and the consideration is more than the actual market value. He added that this is a benefit to the district, the students and the community. Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva The key is to remove barriers to low- and moderate-income savers. A lower-cost savings account is often tied to having a checking account. As the CFA points out, the typical monthly checking fee at large banks is $10 to $12. This monthly fee is generally waived if a customer maintains a certain balance and has a regular direct deposit, such as a payroll check. In the survey, most of the largest 30 banks set the minimum at either $300 or $500. Smaller banks and credit unions usually set these minimums at $250 or less, according to the report. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced today that the Cabinet has approved amalgamation of 10 public sector banks into four banks. Sitharaman also announced that 72 changes have been approved in Companies Act. Here are all the Live updates: 03:47 PM: Scheme of amalgamation for banks will be rolled out without affecting current operations, assures the FM. 03:45 PM: The average retail loan sanctioning time has come down from 23 to 11 days after amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, says the FM. 03:40 PM: We're exempting companies that have the obligation of spending Rs 50 lakh or less from the requirement of having a CSR committee, add the Finance Minister. 03:34 PM: Quantum of penalty reduced in 6 defaults decriminalised earlier, FM Sitharaman says. 03:33 PM: 5 offences will be dealth with under alternative frameworks, says the FM. 03:33 PM: We have limiting the punishment for 11 compoundable offences to only fine by removing imprisonment, says FM Sitharaman. 03:31 PM: We are omitting 7 compoundable offences altogether, says FM Sitharaman. 03:30 PM: We will recatrgorise 23 offences, out of 66 compoundable offences under the Act and they will be dealt with via an in-house adjudicating framework, says the Finance Minister. 03:28 PM: The major thrust, of course is at ease of doing business and decriminalising, says FM Sitharaman 03:26 PM: The priority is to decriminalise the Companies Act, says the Finance Minister 03:25 PM: FM Nirmala Sitharaman says that 72 changes to 65 sections of the Companies Act have been suggested 03:15 PM: Cabinet allows NRIs to invest upto 100 % in Air India as against 49%, says Prakash Javadekar Published on: 3 March 2020 Three arts programmes based at Queen Mary University of London have each been rated strong or outstanding by the Arts Council England in its 2020 Creative Case for Diversity Report. Three arts programmes based at Queen Mary University of London have each been rated strong or outstanding by the Arts Council England in its 2020 Creative Case for Diversity Report. The Creative Case for Diversity is a way of exploring how arts and cultural organisations and artists can enrich the work they do by embracing a wide range of influences and practices with the focus on increasing and promoting diversity. Wasifiri Magazine and Peoples Palace Projects both received a Strong rating from the Arts Council, and Project Phakama received the highest ranking awarded, an Outstanding commendation, for their commitment in leading on diversity through their activities. Project Phakama ranked as Outstanding Project Phakama is a participatory arts organisation that specialises in developing work with young people locally and internationally. It has been an arts organisation in residence at Queen Mary University of London, hosted by the School of English and Drama, since 2008. Phakama is a Xhosa word meaning stand up, elevate and empower yourself. Director of Project Phakama, Keiko Higashi said: We are proud to be part of the 5 per cent of National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) achieving Outstanding and representing the rich diversity of our local community. We are one of the smallest NPOs and are extremely grateful to be a company in resident at Queen Mary whose support helps us to continue championing the Creative Case for diversity and advocate for greater opportunities for young people to progress into the creative arts. We are fuelled by the great diversity of experiences and backgrounds of everyone we work with from participants, artists to our youth board and board, and hope this will become the norm rather than a rarity." Wasifiri ranked as Strong Queen Marys Wasafiri magazine is a publication for international contemporary writing, encouraging readers and writers to travel the world via the word and received a Strong rating from the Arts Council. Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri, Dr Malachi McIntosh said: Since our founding in 1984, Wasafiri has been committed to discovering the best new writing from Britain and the world and creating space for voices that have otherwise been marginalised. Were excited to be one of the top-performing NPOs when it comes to diversity, but were well aware that theres much more that we and our fellow NPOs can do. Queen Marys own goals in this area have made it a perfect partner, both supporting and advocating for our work, and its a special honour to be based here alongside the Peoples Palace Project and Phakama, to share thoughts and best practices and keep making the case for greater diversity. Last year Wasafiri Magazine celebrated its 35th anniversary, and tenth anniversary of the launch of its Wasafiri New Writing Prize. Peoples Palace Projects ranked as Strong Peoples Palace Projects, set up by Queen Marys School of English and Drama in 1996, received a Strong commendation for its work in diversity through its many cultural exchange programmes and creative projects which have sought to make a measurable impact on peoples lives. The Creative Case for Diversity was established to put focus on the need for groups and organisations in the arts to show how they contribute to diversity through the work they produce, present and distribute. These results from the report reflect on Queen Marys work in creating a truly inclusive environment, building on the cherished cultural diversity of our University, and engaging with our diverse communities locally and abroad. Last year Peoples Palace Projects was nominated for a Times Higher Education Award in the category of International Collaboration of the Year for research on indigenous people in Brazil. More information: Bolt Mobility, a Miami, Florida-based company dedicated to innovating transportation by providing safe and sustainable solutions, closed a Series A funding round bringing total investment to $30m at a $100m valuation. The round was led by Rokk3r Fuel ExO. The company intends to use the funds to both scale and bring its transport solutions globally. Founded in 2018 and led by CEO Julia Steyn, Bolt Mobility provides personal e-scooters at strategic locations in urban areas that allow for point-to-point travel. The companys technology is used by cities seeking to alleviate traffic congestion, helping municipalities transition infrastructure to a greener, more-efficient model. Bolts approach to working with cities is focused on partnership, inclusivity, and equity. They currently have permits to operate its e-scooters in multiple cities across the US & internationally. Bolt Mobility also announces Ed Welburn, former Vice President of General Motors Global Design, has joined the company as an Advisor. FinSMEs 04/03/2020 The home office of Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjans Chowdhurys official residence on central Delhis Humayun Road was vandalised on Tuesday evening by unidentified men when he was still in Parliament, an aide to the MP said. Chowdhury has been a vocal critic of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, and also attempted to corner the government over last weeks communal clashes in north-east Delhi. One of the relatives of the Berhampore member of Parliament (MP) was injured in the attack, the aide said. According to eyewitnesses, four men barged into his official residence around 5.30 p.m. and demanded to meet Chowdhury, who was still in Parliament. His staff told the men to leave their contact numbers, but that reportedly infuriated them and they became abusive and started vandalising the office. Watch: Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhurys Delhi house allegedly attacked The attackers also threatened Chowdhury with dire consequences before leaving. They vandalised the office and destroyed many files and important papers. One of the files of the Public Accounts Committee [PAC] was also destroyed, said Pradipto Rajpandit, Chowdhurys private secretary. Chowdhury, who has been representing the Berhampore Lok Sabha constituency since 1999, is the chairman of the PAC. Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said the incident took place at around 5.30 pm. A complaint has been received from the MPs private secretary,Pradipto Rajpandit. We are enquiring into the matter, said the officer. The identity of the vandals was yet to be ascertained. An FIR was lodged with the Tughlaq Road police station and a probe initiated. The incident comes amid the Congress taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the CAA, the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Delhi riots. The Congress leader didnt comment on the violence at his official residence. Just a day after having a telephonic conversation with US President Donald Trump, Taliban killed 20 Afghan army and police officials in a string of overnight attacks on March 3, a news agency reported quoting government officials. Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council in Afghanistan reportedly said that the Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night. In addition to that, the insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province yesterday night, governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi reportedly said. Read: Peace Deal With Taliban Is Conditions-based Agreement: US Defence Secretary Read: Taliban Ends Partial Truce Days After Peace Deal, To Resume Afghan 'operations' Good Call The attack came a day after Donald Trumps telephonic conversation with the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada In his call on March 2, Trump reportedly emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29. The president reportedly stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people. I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a very good talk. Trump later told international media in a statement. Read: Trump Holds Phone Call With Taliban Leader Baradar: Insurgents Read: Days After The Peace Deal, US President Donald Trump Had 'good Talk' With Taliban Leader Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - SKRR Exploration Inc. (TSXV: SKRR) ("SKRR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-arm's length option agreement (the "Option Agreement") to acquire 100% of the Ithingo Lake property (the "Property") from Edge Geological Consulting Inc. ("Edge"), a company owned and controlled by Ross McElroy, a director of SKRR. Edge holds 100% unencumbered title rights to 12 contiguous mineral claims encompassing approximately 2,849 ha. The Property is situated in the north-central region of the province of Saskatchewan, approximately 125 km northeast of the village of Buffalo Narrows and approximately 235 km to the northwest of the town of La Ronge, SK. Ithingo Lake Property Highlights Large Land Package with Demonstrated High-Grade Gold Mineralization: Ithingo Lake is a contiguous land package consisting of 2,849 ha. Previous explorers Claude Resources, Newmont Exploration of Canada and Pine Channel drilled 57 holes in over 5,200m of historic drilling. Main Zone drilling returned intersections up to 7.5m @ 11.5 g.t Au including 0.5m @ 138.97 g/t Au with visable gold in quartz veining (DDH 88-11). Ithingo Lake is a contiguous land package consisting of 2,849 ha. Previous explorers Claude Resources, Newmont Exploration of Canada and Pine Channel drilled 57 holes in over 5,200m of historic drilling. Main Zone drilling returned intersections up to 7.5m @ 11.5 g.t Au including 0.5m @ 138.97 g/t Au with visable gold in quartz veining (DDH 88-11). Strong Blue-Sky Potential: The Main Zone remains open along strike and at depth. Sterny and Sterny North Zones have potential for hosting significant high-grade gold. The Main Zone remains open along strike and at depth. Sterny and Sterny North Zones have potential for hosting significant high-grade gold. World-Class Jurisdiction : in 2019 Saskatchewan was ranked #11 mining investment attractiveness in the world by Fraser Institute. Located in one of the World's top mining jurisdictions, the shallow depth and favorable geology, means there is the potential to fast-track exploration and development activity. : in 2019 Saskatchewan was ranked #11 mining investment attractiveness in the world by Fraser Institute. Located in one of the World's top mining jurisdictions, the shallow depth and favorable geology, means there is the potential to fast-track exploration and development activity. Strong Market Fundamentals: Gold prices continue to remain strong and at or near multi-year highs. Recognition of the potential for gold at Ithingo Lake dates back to 1938, with the reported occurrence of gold associated with sulphide mineralization (pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and magnetite) in metavolcanics hosted quartz veins and in rusty silicified metavolcanics. The area remained relatively underexplored until the late 1980's when Claude Resources discovered high-grade gold mineralization in surface trenches with grab samples assays up to 27.37 g/t Au and channel sample composited intervals of 4.98 g/t Au over 6.1m and 9.33 g/t Au over 2.7m over what is now referred to as the Main Zone. Claude attracted Newmont to joint venture the Property in 1988 and in 1989 Pine Channel had an option to earn 60%. Between 1988-1989, three drill campaigns have been carried out in the vicinity of Ithingo Lake totaling 5,248.17m in 57 drill holes, 25 holes in 1988 and 32 holes in 1989: 1236.6m in 1988 by Newmont Mining and Claude Resources, 2563.4m in 1989 by Pine Channel Gold Corp and 1448.7m in 1989 by Pine Channel Gold Corp. The first diamond drilling campaign focused on the Main Zone. The second tested the Sterny, North Sterny, Ithingo Lake and Main Zones, while the third drill program tested the Main Zone including the Money Pit, Muskeg Pit and geophysical anomalies. The majority of the drilling (45 holes) was conducted on the Main Zone, which has been delineated over 500m along strike and locally to a depth of >80m, with the best intersection of 7.5m @ 11.5 g.t Au. The Main Zone is open along strike and at depth. Sherman Dah, CEO of SKRR Exploration, said, "We're very pleased with this deal, not only due to the caliber of the project but also because, with strong current gold prices, the timing is ideal." Geologic Particulars of the Property Geologically, the Ithingo Lake property lies within the Mudjatik Domain. The Mudjatic Domain is dominated by Archean rocks of gneissic felsic intrusive character. Overall, metamorphic grade is characterized by granulite facies; however, a strong amphibolite grade overprinting event has been noted. The local and regional geology of the area is favorable for hosting gold mineralization, though it is largely underexplored. In general, the style of gold mineralization at Ithingo Lake is primarily characterized by weakly to strongly mineralized quartz veins and pegmatite bodies up to 1.5m wide with associated pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite, minor biotite and rare k-spar. Silicified zones within the amphibolite showing similar mineralogy can also carry gold. Rare free gold has been observed within amphibolite with no apparent quartz veins or sulphides in two separate instances within drill core. The assay results reported in this press release are historic in nature and pre-date rules as per NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects but believed to be of good quality. SKRR has reviewed but not verified the assay results nor has SKRR done the drilling and sampling necessary to verify the assay results.. The Company's qualified person has not verified the exploration data disclosed in this news release, including geophysical, sampling, and assay information, and these data may not be accurate or complete. These data were previously disclosed within historical reports relating to Ithingo Property. Further work is required by SKRR in order to verify the historical work on the Ithingo Property. Rock sampling and assay methods from the 1988 field program comprised representative and measured chip / channel samples from across outcrop and drill core. Examples of drill core with visible gold were sent as whole samples so as to minimize nugget effects. Samples were sent to Eco Tech Laboratories (an independent laboratory) of Kamloops BC, initially analyzed using multi element ICP methods with gold determined on another subsample. Samples with Au over 1000 ppb were reanalyzed using fire assay. Assay methods from the 1989 drilling were reported as follows: Core was split lengthwise and except where noted, in drill logs, of the sample was sent for analysis. Samples were sent to Acme Analytical Laboratories of Vancouver, BC. Sulphide rich samples were tested by 30 element ICP. Gold was assayed by Fire Assay method. Terms of the Option Agreement Under the terms of the Option Agreement, SKRR may acquire a 100% interest in the Property by making certain cash payments and share payments of common shares in the capital of SKRR to Edge and the completion of certain expenditures on the Property. Cash payable: CAD$50,000 within five (5) days of receipt of TSX Venture Exchange ("Exchange") approval of the Option Agreement (the "Approval Date"); SKRR common shares: 2,000,000 common shares within thirty (30) days of the Approval Date; Net Smelter Returns Royalty ("NSR Royalty"): 2.0% NSR Royalty to Edge with SKRR's option to repurchase 1.0% NSR Royalty for CAD$1.0 million, leaving Edge with a 1% NSR Royalty; and Work Expenditures: $100,000 of expenditures on the Property on or before the 1st anniversary of the Option Agreement; $300,000 of cumulative expenditures on the Property on or before the 2nd anniversary of the Option Agreement; and $500,000 of cumulative (total) expenditures on the Property on or before the 3rd anniversary of the Option Agreement. The Option Agreement is not an "Arm's Length Transaction" as such term is defined in the Exchange's Policy 1.1 and therefore constituted a "related party transaction" as such term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Ross McElroy is a director of the Company and is also a director of Edge. In respect of the requirements of MI 61-101 and Exchange Policy 5.9, the Company relied on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval required under MI 61-101. The Company was exempt from the formal valuation requirement of MI 61-101 in reliance of sections 5.5(b) as no securities of the Company are listed on the specified markets outlined therein. Additionally, the Company was exempt from minority shareholder approval of MI 61-101 in reliance of section 5.7(1)(a) (fair market value not more than 25% of the Company's market capitalization). In accordance with the Exchange's Policy 5.3, the Option Agreement constitutes a "Reviewable Transaction", as such transaction involves a "Non-Arm's Length" party. The Option Agreement is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Ross McElroy P.Geol, a director of the Company and a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. About SKRR Exploration Inc.: SKRR is a Canadian-based precious metal explorer with properties in Saskatchewan - one of the world's highest ranked mining jurisdictions. The primary exploration focus is on the Trans-Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan in search of world class precious metal deposits. The Trans-Hudson Orogen - although extremely well known in geological terms has been significantly under-explored in Saskatchewan. SKRR is committed to all stakeholders including shareholders, all its partners and the environment in which it operates. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Sherman Dahl President & CEO Tel: 250-558-8340 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements that address the TSX Venture Exchange approval of the Option Agreement, conduct exploration work on the Ithingo Lake Project, other statements relating to the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its projects and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of metals, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather conditions, failure to maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), increase in costs, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53121 A 'strong German' backpacker desperate to find a job in Melbourne has attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Edward Schroter, 22, asked his fellow travellers for help to find employment in a Facebook group, but most people were more interested in the size of his muscles. 'Im Edward a 22 year old strong German from Berlin, currently on my second year in Australia,' he wrote on Monday. 'Im looking for any kind of jobs you guys can offer me. Long term or short term, I dont mind. I'm gonna be in Melbourne the whole year.' Edward Schroter, 22, (pictured) posted in a backpackers group asking for work but was bombarded with comments about his huge muscles The backpacker said he would be in Melbourne for the year and was asking for work Mr Schroter shared two photos of himself along with the post. 'Got a jar of jam Ive been trying to open for weeks here if you think you can help?' someone wrote. 'Thinking about moving house, you look like you could lift it for me,' another joked. 'Maybe apply to work at a gym?' a third commented. Many people commented asking if he could help move their house or open a jar for them 'Could replace a tractor at a farm,' one said. Others suggested he could work as a crane or a forklift due to his large muscles. 'Mate what job are you looking for one throwing bulldozers at buildings?' they wrote. 'You could work as a crane in the harbor or be a forklift in any warehouse...?' another commented. 'I remember my first protein shake,' one said. Luckily for Mr Schroter, a few people did suggest a real job for him during his stay in Melbourne. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], Mar 3 (ANI): Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on Tuesday said that if the coronavirus outbreak is not contained globally within three months it may lead to a worldwide economic crisis, the impact of which may be felt in the state. "With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the global economy is facing a threat... if the outbreak is not contained within three months, " said Thomas Isaac in Kerala Assembly on Tuesday. He further stated that the tourism industry in the state has already been adversely affected after coronavirus cases were reported in the region. "This season tourists kept away due to coronavirus outbreak. Also, other countries like Iran have been hit by coronavirus. Travel restrictions have been imposed by Saudi Arabia. If Gulf countries are affected, it will have its impact on Kerala as our economy is dependent on NRI remittances, " said Kerala Finance Minister. The Minister further claimed that the state government has been successful in containing the deadly virus while the other countries are struggling. "What an exemplary work Kerala has done!" he added. (ANI) In her first known official statement, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un leveled diatribes and insults against rival South Korea for protesting her country's latest live-fire exercises. Kim Yo Jong is in charge of propaganda affairs for North Korea and has frequently appeared at her brothers major public events including summits with President Donald Trump and other regional leaders. But her statement carried by state media was the first of its kind and indicated a further elevation of her political status. In the statement issued on Tuesday night, she criticized South Koreas presidential Blue House for expressing strong concerns over the North's firing drills and urging it to stop acts that don't help reduce military animosities. As far as I know, the South side is also fond of joint military exercises and it is preoccupied with all the disgusting acts like purchasing ultra-modern military hardware, Kim Yo Jong said. They meant they need to get militarily prepared but we should be discouraged from military exercises. Such a gangster-like assertion can never be expected from those with normal way of thinking. Describing the Blue House as a mere child and a burnt child dreading fire, she questioned how its words and actions could be "so perfectly foolish in detail. Kim Yo Jong didnt name liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whom she has met several times. She only said: The South side's response is so regretful and disappointing but it is somewhat fortunate that it was not direct statement of the president. South Koreas Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Wednesday it has no specific comment on Kim Yo Jong's statement. But spokesman Yoh Sang-key said the two Koreas should maintain mutual respect while working toward establishing a peace on the Korean Peninsula. Earlier Tuesday, state media said leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire rocket artillery exercise in an apparent reference to the two suspected short-range ballistic missile launches detected by South Koreas military a day earlier. On Saturday, North Korea said Kim Jong Un also guided an artillery drill aimed at testing the combat readiness of military units. Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Wednesday said 16 out of 24 people who were shifted to its quarantine facility in Chhawla have tested positive for Coronavirus. ITBP Spokesperson, Vivek Pandey told ANI: "16 out of 24 people who were shifted to ITBP quarantine facility have tested positive for Coronavirus. These people have been put in isolation. They are being monitored and their treatment is on." "The situation is under control and there is no need to panic. We are taking action as per the Health Ministry guidelines on dealing with COVID-19," he added. Yesterday, 24 people including three Indians and 21 Italian nationals residing in a hotel in South Delhi were shifted to the ITBP quarantine facility. ITBP further said that no fresh symptoms of Coronavirus were seen in 112 people who had earlier been brought into the quarantine facility in Chhawla. "Today is the 7th day of those people. The second test of them has been conducted and if no symptoms are seen, we will release them," Pandey said. Earlier today the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had said that there were 28 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country. Global deaths due to Coronavirus outbreak has crossed 3,000. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 90,000 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A family of four in Wuhan has secretly lived in a food market riddled with the novel coronavirus after the venue was shut by officials in January in the wake of a virus outbreak. Hazmat-clad officials yesterday found the family inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the epidemic was believed to have originated, according to a report. Authorities immediately arranged all members, including an elderly person and a child, to move into a hotel. None of them was said to be ill as of reporting. Scroll down for video A picture released by media purports to show three members of the family moving out of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, believed to be the origin of the coronavirus outbreak The once-popular trading destination was shut on January 1 after the epidemic emerged Workers discovered the family when they started to conduct the first round of thorough disinfection at the empty marketplace, according to Red Star News. A male member of the family refused to tell the news outlet why they had remained in the market. But an official in charge of the family's relocation claimed that they had been employees there. It is believed that they would be placed under quarantine in the hotel. Wuhan officials began a three-day disinfection process in the once-popular trading destination on Tuesday. Cleaners in protective suits are tasked to sanitise the interior and exterior of all stalls and safely dispose of the remaining stock, reported Beijing News. Previously, the city's authority had already removed wild animals and other related products from the place. The deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak began at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan (pictured), Chinese experts claimed after testing samples collected from the place Scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved humans caught it from animals at the market where customers chose from live animals that were slaughtered in front of them (picture purportedly shows skinned chicks at the market) Experts have suggested that the deadly disease may have originated in snakes, which are known carriers of coronaviruses (multiple reptiles at the market) Image shows what appears to be a beaver and a small deer caged at Huanan A list of prices for one of the businesses operating at the market showed 'live tree bears' which is the Chinese for 'koala' (circled above) The deadly new virus, known as COVID-19, has killed at least 3,220 people and infected more than 94,200 worldwide. According to public notices released by Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, the first coronavirus patient appeared on December 8 and most of the initial patients were linked to the market, which was shut on January 1 after the outbreak emerged. Scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have claimed that humans caught the COVID-19 virus from animals sold as food at the market. It is not clear which animal was carrying the virus but the market was home to stalls trading dozens of different species, including rats and wolf cubs. However, the BBC reported that the very first COVID-19 sufferer was a pensioner in his 70s with no relation to Huanan. The unnamed man fell ill on December 1 - a week earlier than officials' claims - and was bed-bound due to a stroke, a doctor told the BBC. Chinese workers wear protective masks and suits before entering the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan to carry out thorough disinfection works on March 4 A police officer wearing protective mask and suit is on duty during disinfection works at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on March 4 Hazmat-clad cleaners are tasked to sanitise stalls and safely dispose of the remaining stock According to public notices released by Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, the first coronavirus patient appeared on December 8 and most of the initial patients were linked to the market, which was shut on January 1 after the outbreak emerged Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University, speculated that the virus started to spread silently between residents of Wuhan as early as November. 'The virus came into that marketplace before it came out of that marketplace,' Lucey told Science Magazine. Several conspiracy theories have connected the novel coronavirus to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. One school of theories claim that the virus had been leaked from the lab either by accident or on purpose. The institute has repeatedly denied the allegations. Coronaviruses are so named because their structure has jagged edges which look like a royal crown - corona is crown in Latin (Pictured, an illustration of the COVID-19 virus released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) In the UK, 87 people have been confirmed to be infected with the novel coronavirus Shi Zhengli, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said last month: 'The 2019 novel coronavirus is nature's punishment for humans' uncivilised life habits. 'I, Shi Zhengli, use my life to guarantee, [the virus] has no relation with the lab.' She told Chinese news outlet Caixin: 'Conspiracy theorists don't believe in science. I hope our country's professional departments can come to investigate and prove our innocence.' More than 70 nations are now battling the contagion, with South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran among the worst-affected. According to scientists, the virus has mutated into at least two separate strains since the outbreak began. They say there are now two types of the same coronavirus infecting people and most people seem to have caught the most aggressive form of it. WASHINGTON - A seemingly divided Supreme Court struggled Wednesday with its first major abortion case of the Trump era, leaving Chief Justice John Roberts as the likely deciding vote. Roberts did not say enough to tip his hand in an hour of spirited arguments at the high court. The courts election-year look at a Louisiana dispute could reveal how willing the more conservative court is to roll back abortion rights. A decision should come by late June. The outcome could have huge consequences at a time when several states have passed laws, being challenged in the courts, that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. The justices are weighing a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. A federal judge found that just one of Louisianas three abortion clinics would remain open if the law is allowed to take effect. The federal appeals court in New Orleans, though, upheld the law, setting up the Supreme Court case. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted, as she had before, that among medical procedures, first trimester abortion is among the safest, far safer than childbirth. The abortion clinic in Shreveport at the heart of the case reported transferring just four patients to a hospital out of roughly 70,000 it has treated over 23 years, Justice Elena Kagan noted. Justice Samuel Alito said the clinic had once had its license suspended, in 2010. Perhaps the biggest question is whether the court will overrule a 2016 decision in which it struck down a similar law in Texas. Since then, Donald Trump was elected president and he appointed two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who have shifted the court to the right. Even with those two additions to the court, Roberts almost certainly holds the deciding vote. When the justices temporarily blocked the Louisiana law from taking effect a year ago, Roberts joined the courts four liberal justices to put it on hold. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were among the four conservatives who would have allowed the law to take effect. Those preliminary votes do not bind the justices when they undertake a thorough review of an issue, but they often signal how a case will come out. In more than 14 years as chief justice, Roberts has generally voted to uphold abortion restrictions, including in the Texas case four years ago. It is for now unclear whether Roberts outlook on the Louisiana case has been affected by his new role as the courts swing justice since Justice Anthony Kennedys retirement, his concern about the court being perceived as a partisan institution and his respect for a prior decision of the court, even one he disagreed with. One possible outcome is that Roberts and the other conservative justices could find a way to allow Louisiana to enforce the law, without overruling the decision from 2016 in which the court struck down a similar law in Texas. One avenue raised by lawyers for the state and the Trump administration is that the doctors didnt try hard enough to work out arrangements with the hospitals, even though the trial court found that doctors failed to secure admitting privileges at 15 hospitals over an 18-month period. That result would be a defeat for abortion rights advocates who have argued that the laws are virtually indistinguishable. But it would allow Roberts something of a middle ground between taking a big step to limit abortion access and reaffirming the courts abortion rulings. Roberts asked the same question, in slightly different form, to each of the three lawyers who argued before the court. The court in the Texas case found there was no benefit to the women the law was ostensibly intended to help and struck it down as an undue burden on womens right to an abortion in violation of the Constitution. I understand the idea that the impact might be different in different places, but as far as the benefits of the law, thats going to be the same in each state, isnt it? Roberts asked Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill. The Louisiana and Texas situations are not identical, Murrill told the court. The laws are different, the facts are different, the regulatory structures are different, Murrill said. Roberts inquiry seemed to dovetail with questions from Kavanaugh, whose interest was in discerning whether admitting privileges laws would still impose an undue burden in a state that made it easy for abortion providers to get them. Could an admitting privileges law of this kind ever have a valid purpose, in your view? Kavanaugh asked lawyer Julie Rikelman, representing the Shreveport clinic. Rikelman replied: No, Your Honor. The medical consensus against these laws is clear. The court also has agreed to review whether abortion providers have the right to go into court to represent the interests of women seeking abortions. A ruling in favour of the states argument that the providers lack the right to sue in these circumstances, known as third-party standing, would be a devastating blow to abortion rights advocates since doctors and clinics, not individual women who want abortions, file most challenges to abortion restrictions. But apart from Alito, the justices did not seem especially interested in resolving the case on the standing issue. Outside the court, protesters on both sides filled the sidewalks just as they have for earlier high court cases on abortion. Inside, Justice Stephen Breyer sought to capture searing debate over the issue. I understand there are good arguments on both sides. Indeed, in the country people have very strong feelings and a lot of people morally think its wrong and a lot of people morally think the opposite is wrong, Breyer said, though he left little doubt he would vote in favour of abortion rights. A college student in Ohio is making headlines for attending his sister's wedding with a llama dressed in a custom-made tuxedo. Mendl Weinstock, 21, shelled out $400 to hire the South American animal for sibling Riva's nuptials on Sunday - making good on a promise he made to her five years ago. At the time, the pair were driving from Ohio to Indiana when Riva began hypothesizing about her future wedding. 'She was talking about it... making plans almost as if it was going to happen the next day even though she wasn't dating anybody at the time,' Mendl explained to CNN. 'I said, "If you make me come to this wedding, I'm going to bring a llama with me". It was just the first thing that popped into my head.' Mendl Weinstock, 21, shelled out $400 to hire a llama for sister Riva's nuptials on Sunday - making good on a promise he made to her five years ago 'I said, 'If you make me come to this wedding, I'm going to bring a llama with me.' It was just the first thing that popped into my head,' Mendl told CNN about the pact he made five years ago The llama, named Shocky, wore a custom made yarmulke for the wedding Sure enough, Mendl kept his word and, when Riva became engaged last October, he quickly found a farm which would allow him to rent out a llama. Just an hour after Riva announced that she was tying the knot, her brother sent her a text message which confirmed he had put down a deposit on the rental. In in the intervening months, Mendl had a co-worker create a tuxedo and a yarmulke for the llama, named Shocky. 'When my brother puts his mind to something, he gets it done. So at some point I had to accept it and decide that it was easier to get in on the joke than to fight it,' the bride told CNN. On Sunday, Shocky was brought along to the wedding venue in his tailor-made tux and a reluctant Riva even posed for photos with the animal. 'My sister walked outside and had this humongous gaping looking on her face,' Mendl told BuzzFeed. Mendl had a co-worker create a tuxedo and a yarmulke for the llama, named Shocky 'My sister walked outside and had this humongous gaping looking on her face,' Mendl told BuzzFeed Riva certainly looked stunned as she walked outside and saw a very unusual wedding guest waiting to greet her 'There's nothing that can really prepare you for walking outside and seeing a llama.' And while the gag was designed to annoy his older sister, it turned out that it made her wedding day even more memorable. 'She might have been a little mad at first, but she was in on the joke and she definitely realized it was funny and she hasn't held a grudge or anything,' Weinstock told CNN. 'But she did say she'd get me back at some point in the future.' 'She might have been a little mad at first, but she was in on the joke and she definitely realized it was funny and she hasn't held a grudge or anything': Mendl and Riva share a close bond - and not even Shooky could ruin their sibling love A handler helped Mandl with the logistics on his sister's big day - keeping the animal calm as it waited outside the venue Mendl shared one of the photos to Reddit, and it became the site's most popular post of the week. As for the $400 rental fee, Mendl says he has no regrets. 'It was so worth it. I mean it was worth it just to see her reaction, but it's been more worth it now that I've gotten all this internet fame.' Shooky was certainly popular with other wedding guests, who got up close and personal with the well-dressed llama Radio presenter Chris Page has taken a savage swipe at rival Mike Carlton, suggesting his book could be used as toilet paper amid a looming shortage. The Triple M DJ tweeted a photo on Wednesday of 1980s 2UE host Carlton's biography, which is titled 'On Air'. Page captioned his tweet 'if youre hunting cheap toilet paper theres still plenty at Big W'. Radio presenter Chris Page (pictured center) has taken a savage swipe at former radio host Mike Carlton Page's attack struck a nerve with 74-year-old author Mike Carlton (pictured), who hit back at Page with an expletive laden attack Page compared Carlton's book to toilet paper amid coronavirus panic buying hysteria His savage swipe struck a nerve with the 74-year-old author, who hit back at Page with an expletive laden attack. 'You pathetic little f***wit,' Carlton retaliated. 'What are you rating now? Five per cent? With an audience of knuckle-dragging neanderthals. P*** off.' Their Twitter exchange drew supporters for both men, with some claiming the $4 price tag was too much for Carlton's story. 'It's still overpriced,' one response reads. Some called Page out for his cheap shot on the media commentator. 'Why be so polite? It is a cheap jibe from a pathetic man. But whatever,' one response reads. Others thought Carlton was being soft and couldn't handle a joke. 'Carlton ya big sookie la la,' one comment reads. 'You can dish it out but sure can't take it,' another post says. Page's savage swipe comes as coronavirus panic buying hysteria sweeps across the country. Increasing concerns about coronavirus have seen a spike in demand for everyday essentials - particularly toilet paper, which is racing off the shelves. The country's chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, told Parliament panic buying toilet paper wasn't a 'proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time'. Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Sir Walter Scott Recently, I was thumbing through some books in my apartment when I came across a couple of novels by Kenneth Roberts. Many years ago, I was obsessed for a while by Robertss historical sagas: Arundel, Oliver Wiswell, Northwest Passage, and other tales of Americas colonial and revolutionary period. Not only did I admire his style and storytelling skillshis knowledge of history was extensive, and he wrote as if he himself were living in the 18th centurybut those books also reinforced pride in my country. Kenneth Robertss Rabble in Arms. As I skimmed the pages of his Rabble in Arms, wondering whether someday my grandchildren might enjoy these sagas, I started thinking of other writers Id read who, like Roberts, celebrated America and patriotism. Celebrants of America Edward Everett Hales story The Man Without a Country leapt immediately to mind. In this 1863 short story, Army officer Philip Nolan, accused and convicted of treason, shouts: Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again! The court grants him his wish, sentencing him to live out his life on board different ships, where no one may speak to him of the United States or permit him to set foot on its shores. Edward Everett Hale, an American author, historian, and Unitarian clergyman, best known for his story The Man Without a Country. (Public Domain) When Nolan is an old man and dying, he invites a young officer to his quarters, which are decorated with all sorts of American memorabilia, and begs the man to take him through the history of his country since he first boarded a ship. The young man obliges. The last few passages of this story, particularly Nolans written request that his memorial marker bear this epitaphHe loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her handsleft me misty-eyed when I read those words in high school. A short list of other favorites would include the tale of Irish immigrants in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Thomas Wolfes fulsome descriptions of America in Of Time and the River, Michael Shaaras account of the Battle of Gettysburg in The Killer Angels, and Esther Forbess Johnny Tremain, one of the great historical novels written for the younger set. Artists other than writers have also saluted our country. What are the canvases of Norman Rockwell if not a scrapbook of his love for America and its people? The musical Yankee Doodle Dandy honors the life, patriotism, and music of early 20th-century composer, producer, and star of Broadway musicals George M. Cohan. George M. Cohan (James Cagney) in one of his musicals that lauded America. Here Betsy Ross is featured sewing the original American flag, in Yankee Doodle Dandy. (Warner Bros.) Films like Its a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Saving Private Ryan demonstrate American ideals: neighborliness, generosity, a fierce belief in democracy, and valor on the battlefield. Sculptures from the Lincoln Memorial to the statue of the Confederate soldier on the courthouse lawn here in Front Royal remind onlookers of the rich and complicated past of our country. Should We Be Ashamed to Love Our Country? Since the 1960s, our writers, artists, and cultural commentators have more often than not spent their energy and talent attacking America rather than praising it. They see its warts and blemishes, but rarely its beauty; they see America as a force of oppression rather than as a benefactor of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; they see its household as unexceptional, no different than any other in the world, and so are blind to the greatness of its estate, this extraordinary land where peoples from around the globe have gathered and thrived. For these critics, patriotism is a dirty word, implying jingoism and superiority. Perhaps worst of all, we who rise to our feet for the national anthem may have grown so accustomed to our unique country that we lack the eyes and wisdom to appreciate its many blessings. When we see the American flag flying from a pole in someones yard or from a public building, how many of us pause and offer thanks for our many freedoms? When we hear the anthem played at a ballgame, how many of us take a moment to think back on the American past, and to marvel at the creation of our liberties and the sacrifices of those who defended those liberties? How many of us feel shamed by the failings of our country, but forget to take pride in our successes and our attempts to rectify our flaws? Freedom of Speech, between 1941 and 1945, by Norman Rockwell. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (Public Domain) Has such indifference and overt hostility to America and its ideals affected todays arts and literature? Perhaps. We find snatches of the patriotic in such novels as Mark Helprins Freddy and Fredericka, particularly in the Prince of Waless speech to Americans near the end of the story. Country songwriters and pop musicians feel free to express patriotism in songs like Lee Greenwoods Proud to Be an American, Johnny Cashs Ragged Old Flag, and Jerrod Niemanns Old Glory. But if we look for examples of patriotism in the arts today, we have difficulty finding an Edward Everett Hale, a Norman Rockwell, or a George M. Cohan. Pride What happened? Maybe we grew up, became sophisticated, and left patriotism in the nursery. Or maybe not. Instead, maybe our pride in being Americans has gone missing from long neglect. Or maybe our cultural critics have made some of us fearful and ashamed to step out of the shadows, and declare ourselves grateful for this land where we live. Or maybe, just maybe, we still feel a deep love for our country and are looking for ways to express that affection. I offer as evidence of that last claim President Trumps massive political rallies with their loud and boisterous chants of USA! USA! In her online article After Attending a Trump Rally, I Realized Democrats Are Not Ready for 2020, Democrat Karlyn Borysenko writes of the Trump event that the atmosphere was jubilant and more like attending a rock concert than a political rally. This Democrat goes on to say, With Trump, there was a genuine feeling of pride in being an American. The Greatest Poem At my elbow as I write these words is a college textbook, Modern English Readings, used by my father in 1946 after he returned to Pennsylvania from fighting the Nazis in Italy. While browsing this book to see what Dad might have read long ago, I discovered an essay by Dorothy Thompson, once a famous journalist and a fervent opponent of fascism. The title of the essay is America, and though I have searched the internet, I find no trace of this piece there. This is too bad, for Thompsons article, originally a speech, is a brilliant reminder of who and what we are as a people. In one paragraph of America, she reminds us of our literary heritage: Always this country has had its poetsand epic poetsmoved by the grandeur of the country itself, its history, its possibilities, its titanism. Longfellow, who celebrated the trek of the Arcadians; the philosopher-poet Emerson, seeking to find this countrys over-soul; the anonymous ballad-makers of the ranges and mountains; Vachel Lindsay trying to catch this countrys broad rhythms and the titan of all of them Walt Whitman, who wrote: The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. America is still the greatest poem, waiting to be explored and venerated by artists, writers, and the rest of us who possess the heart and mind to read, understand, and appreciate its verse. Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog. A small company called Banjo is bringing pervasive AI surveillance to law enforcement throughout Utah, Motherboard reports. In July, Banjo signed a five-year, $20.7 million contract with Utah. The agreement gives the company real-time access to state traffic cameras, CCTV and public safety cameras, 911 emergency systems, location data for state-owned vehicles and more. In exchange, Banjo promises to alert law enforcement to "anomalies," aka crimes, but the arrangement raises all kinds of red flags. Banjo relies on info scraped from social media, satellite imaging data and the real-time info from law enforcement. Banjo claims its "Live Time Intelligence" AI can identify crimes -- everything from kidnappings to shootings and "opioid events" -- as they happen. Banjo presents many of the same concerns that similar companies have encountered. One of the strongest arguments against surveillance practices by Clearview AI has been that the company's data storage and security protocols were untested and unregulated. As Clearview AI proved earlier this month, that can lead to massive data leaks. According to Motherboard, Banjo says it removes all personal data from its system, but how and how well it does this remain unclear. There are also concerns about the lack of public oversight and rampant potential for abuse. Plus, facial recognition is still biased. It's not as good at interpreting black and brown faces as it is at interpreting white faces, and for that reason, some law enforcement companies have opted not to use it. The contract between Banjo and Utah says the technology will be deployed in all of Utah's 29 counties, its 13 largest cities and 10 other cities with "significant relevance," as well as the University of Utah. So far, Motherboard hasn't been able to track down a single case that Banjo's technology helped on, but that doesn't meant the tech hasn't been put to use. A nightmarish scene was presented to the world public at the Kastanies border crossing Tuesday. On the ground, Greek border police, supported by masked soldiers, brutally attacked unarmed refugees and forced them back with tear gas grenades, baton rounds and water cannons. From the air, a high-ranking European Union delegation, consisting of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council President Charles Michel, European Parliament President David Sassoli and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, accompanied by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, watched the martial spectacle. Up to 20,000 refugees, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are still waiting at the Greek-Turkish border, seeking protection in the EU. Many of them have been living for years under the most miserable conditions in Turkey, where they are not legally recognised as refugees but are, at best, tolerated. They had come to the Greek-Turkish border in the hope that the EU would take them in and that they could once again lead a dignified life. However, the EU is instead deepening its brutal war against the refugees. Von der Leyen thanked Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis for being our European shield in these times. Although border guards shot women and children with tear gas before her eyes, von der Leyen praised them for their tireless efforts. She declared that this border is not only a Greek border, but a European one. And I stand here at your side as a European. Those who want to test the unity of Europe will be disappointed. We will stay on course and maintain unity. She assured Mitsotakis that the Greek government would receive all necessary support to continue to repel the refugees. This included a rapid reaction force of the European border protection agency Frontex to support the Greek border guards. In addition, Frontex will provide a supply ship, six patrol boats, two helicopters, an aircraft and vehicles with thermal imaging cameras. The Greek government will receive 700 million in emergency aid to help strengthen border fortifications. A rally on Tuesday in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, in defence of the refugees at the Greek-Turkish border Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic also defended the merciless action of the border police, proclaiming, Greece is now the shield, the real external border of the European Union and the guarantee of European stability. During their visit, von der Leyen, Michel and Sassoli, the highest representatives of the EU, explicitly approved the Greek governments actionscontrary to international lawin suspending the right of asylum and imposing a one-month halt in granting any more asylum applications. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, strongly condemned this step, saying there was no basis for it in the Geneva Conventions or in EU law. Even persons who enter state territory irregularly should not be punished for applying for asylum to the authorities immediately. What the suspension of the right of asylum means has been experienced first-hand by the refugees who have reached one of the Aegean islands of Lesbos, Samos or Chios by rubber dinghy in the last few days, or who have managed to escape the Greek border guards. The camps on the islands were simply declared closed, new asylum applications were no longer accepted and the refugees were not even registered. The Greek government is not shying away from using sinister gestapo methods. According to news magazine Der Spiegel, refugees on Lesbos have been told to come to the harbour because a boat was waiting for them there. In fact, only the riot police were waiting, who then chased the refugees through the streets. The same police have given marauding right-wing thugs a largely free hand to push refugee boats back into the sea, to beat up journalists and refugee aid workers and to destroy and burn down aid organisations facilities. Britains Guardian reported that a group of doctors who flew to Lesbos to volunteer at the Moria migrant camp were forced to flee after being set upon by a 50-string mob wielding nail-encrusted cudgels. We left fearing for our lives, said Dr Victoria Bradley, an Irish GP. It was very, very frightening. Somehow we managed to drive back to the camp and seek refuge there, she added. Refugees were so kind, they brought us falafels and blankets. We stayed the night in a portable building. It was absolutely freezing. All I could think of was the people in the tents outside. Several aid organizations, including Medecins sans Frontieres, have announced that they will cease their involvement on Lesbos. The BBC also released a video showing the Greek coast guard firing live ammunition at an overcrowded inflatable boat and then forcibly pushing it away, as well as thugs beating up a reporter on Lesbos. On the islands, all newly arriving refugees can now expect to be immediately detained and taken to the mainland, where they will be put into fortified camps. From there, they are to be deported as quickly as possiblewithout ever having had a chance to apply for asylum. The same applies to refugees who have made it across the land border. If they are picked up by the Greek police, they are declared as illegal immigrants and threatened with up to four years imprisonment. The German government has only agreed to take in a few unaccompanied children who have been vegetating for months in appalling conditions in the hotspots on the Aegean islands. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer stressed that this could only be implemented by an alliance of EU states. Seehofer is pleading for the refugees to continue to be provided for in Turkey and for the EU borders to remain closed. If we do not achieve an orderly solution here, we will end up with disorder and loss of control, he told ARD television. Incessant talk of protecting the borders is grist for the mill of the extreme right. Moreover, the EU is putting into practice their fascist policy against refugees. It is no accident that the chairman of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Jorg Meuthen, could rejoice on his Facebook page, saying, The Greeks are doing it right. This is the way it is done! A few tens of thousands of refugees are being presented as a threat to Europe, a continent of 500 million inhabitants. The EUs unrelenting attitude towards the refugees on the Greek-Turkish border is supported by the supposedly liberal press. In the online edition of Die Zeit, Ulrich Ladurner defends the brutal actions of the border soldiers as representing the legitimate interests of the EU, which should not tolerate irregular migration. For Ladurner, the desperate people at the EUs external borders are part of a blackmail attempt by the Turkish government. Europeans should be grateful to the Greek government for rejecting [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogans blackmail attempt in the past few days at the border, he wrote. The mass of the population looks with disgust at the merciless war against refugees. On Tuesday, thousands demonstrated in front of the Federal Chancellery in Berlin for a humanitarian refugee policy and an opening up of the borders. But appeals to the government in this matter are completely futile. The war against refugees on Europes external borders is only the flip side of the growing right-wing extremist terror at hometwo sides of the same coin. The ruling class is pursuing an aggressive policy of rearmament and militarism in order to defend and increase its interests and wealth. To break the growing resistance against this, demands more and more openly on fascist violence and authoritarian forms of rule. See also: Stop the war on refugees at the Greek-Turkish border! Earlier this week, it looked as though the London fair might still go forward, even though major publishing companies, including Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, as well as Amazon and several literary agencies, pulled out. Reed Exhibitions, which organizes the event, announced its decision to cancel on Wednesday. The effects, actual and projected, of coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the U.K. and across the world, with many of our participants facing travel restrictions, Reed Exhibitions said in a statement. We have been following U.K. government guidelines and working with the rolling advice from the public health authorities and other organizations, and so it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this years event. The London fair typically hosts more than 25,000 authors, publishers, agents and other industry professionals, and has become a crucial international marketplace for the sale of foreign rights and other deals. Some other industry events are moving ahead this month. The Association of Writers & Writing Programs said on Monday that it would still hold its conference in San Antonio next week, despite the mayor declaring a public health emergency and some literary groups and presenters saying they would not attend. In a statement, the organization said it would be increasing the amount of hand sanitizer available, and also issued guidelines that this will be a handshake-free, hug-free conference. Even with those precautions, some writers and publishers were critical of its decision. The Forum for Actions on Inclusion, Transparency and Harmony (FAITH) in Ghana Alliance has introduced a framework called ETHICS against vigilantism which is aimed at educating and transforming ex-vigilantes and linking them to cash for work project. The project dubbed, Educating, Training and Healing Individuals, Community and Society (ETHICS), is geared towards the total eradication of vigilantism in Ghanaian politics, while safeguarding our political environment. FAITH platform is made up of various religious groups and faith based organizations such as the Office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI), the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission (AMM), the Marshallan Relief and Development Services (MAREDAS), the Federation of Muslim Womens Association in Ghana (FOMWAG) and the Christian Mothers Association (CMA). At the official launch of the ETHICS against vigilantism project in Accra, the spokesperson of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyau Shaibu said Vigilantism was something that we must fight with all our might and ensure that young people in this country were treated with respect. He said the youth must not be reduced from the top of their humanity to become tools for visiting violence against political opponent and this menace was something all must take seriously. Speaking with ardor, he revealed that We as religious people, also want to partner with all civil society organizations who share those common believes and values particularly in matters that has to do with the promotion of peace in the country to curb this menace of vigilantism from our system. We Christians and Muslims in this country, by our sacred text, are encouraged to care for the flock that we lead to guarantee their physical and spiritual peace and security. Adding his voice, the Executive Secretary of Caritas Ghana and Coordinator of FAITH in Ghana Alliance, Smuel Zan Akologo, said as faith base organizations, they thought the way young people were being used by some political parties and individual politicians was quite disgraceful and demeaning. We will intervene on the side of our youth by educating, training and healing them against these undignified practices and abuses. Adding, he said, We will also safeguard our political environment so that women and vulnerable persons can feel safe to participate in the electoral processes by turning out to cast their legitimate vote. The Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, George Amoh, in an address said mistrust of state institutions like the police and the Electoral Commission as well as unemployment of the youth were some of the causes of vigilantism. Head of programmes, Caritas Ghana, David Issaka, said FAITH would organize a dialogue session between political parties and religious leaders on vigilantism and they would support ex-vigilante members, educate them and take them through psychological counsel before liking them to an e-waste environmental project that would fetch them money. Present for the launch included Hajia Ayishetu Abdul Kadiri, chairperson FIATH in Ghana Alliance, Lucile Anan, Regional Director of NCCE, representatives of the various faith based organizations and others. Daily Guide Edinburgh Investment Trust Plc - Appointment of Investment Manager and Company Secretary The Edinburgh Investment Trust plc - Appointment of Investment Manager and Company Secretary The Board of The Edinburgh Investment Trust plc (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an investment management agreement with Majedie Asset Management Limited ("Majedie"), the Company's new Alternative Investment Fund Manager ("AIFM"), effective as of today, Wednesday 4 March 20201. The investment management agreement reflects the heads of terms announced on 11 December 2019. The Board is also pleased to announce that it has appointed PraxisIFM Fund Services (UK) Limited ("PraxisIFM") as the Company's new Company Secretary, following a competitive process. This appointment has also become effective as of today, Wednesday 4 March 2020. Invesco Fund Managers Limited's appointment as the Company's AIFM and Company Secretary has therefore terminated. There will be no other changes to the Company's service providers nor its gearing facilities.2 A further update on the Company's portfolio following its transition is expected to be published before the end of March. James de Uphaugh, the Company's portfolio manager, commented: "Majedie's investment process is founded on rigorous, bottom-up, fundamental research. We are confident that this approach is well suited to the next phase of the market cycle, particularly given the significant valuation opportunities available in UK equities. We are excited to take on the Edinburgh mandate and look forward to engaging further with shareholders as we implement our strategy." Glen Suarez, Chairman of the Company, commented: "We are delighted that Majedie has now taken over the portfolio. We believe James has the skills and experience, coupled with the right total returns approach, to capitalise on the great opportunities currently available in the market. Majedie's flexible investment approach and team culture, which clearly distinguished its offer during the selection process, should enable it to meet our objectives of capital appreciation and dividend growth over the long term." The Company wishes to again place on record its appreciation for the service provided by Invesco as AIFM and Company Secretary since 2008. Enquiries The Edinburgh Investment Trust plc Glen Suarez (Chairman) via Tulchan below Investec Bank plc Tom Skinner +44 20 7597 4000 Tulchan Group (Financial PR) Simon Pilkington +44 207 353 4200 Lisa Jarrett-Kerr EIT@tulchangroup.com Marta Parry-Jones 1 As required under the UK's AIFM rules, Majedie will notify the FCA promptly following its appointment as the Company's AIFM and has submitted its application to the FCA to vary its permission from being a small authorised AIFM to a full-scope AIFM. 2 The Company's website address remains edinburghinvestmenttrust.com. Notes to editors PraxisIFM PraxisIFM Fund Services (UK) Limited forms part of PraxisIFM Group Limited ("PraxisIFM"), an independently owned financial services group which listed on The International Stock Exchange on 12 April 2017. PraxisIFM currently employs over 550 staff across its office network providing a range of bespoke services to funds and management companies. For further information please visit the website: https://www.praxisifm.com/ Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Tuesday said the ministry of climate change (MoCC) would extend national Nature Internships for youth of the country to partake foreign funded projects aimed at environment conservation, wildlife protection and habitat restoration in the country ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Mar, 2020 ) :Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Tuesday said the ministry of climate change (MoCC) would extend national Nature Internships for youth of the country to partake foreign funded projects aimed at environment conservation, wildlife protection and habitat restoration in the country. Addressing a celebration in connection with the World Wildlife Day organized by MoCC, Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) and FAST National University as chief guest, he said Pakistan Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection programme (PSLEP) was among the three foreign funded projects that aimed at biodiversity and environment restoration in Pakistan. Amin said Pakistan was home to world's unique species of Snow Leopard that were facing serious existential threats due to multiple factors. However, PSLEP was not only focusing on preserving the wildlife rather its habitat as well. "The Nature internship programme will help the youth to join and learn from the foreign funded projects like PSLEP, Zero Emissions Metro Bus in Karachi and Climate Smart Agriculture. These projects are of high significance that will help increase their abilities and generate innovative ideas," the Adviser noted. The Ministry, he said, was also going to launch Green Youth Movement (GYM) that would be inaugurated by the Prime Minister. "GYM is going to establish specialized environmental clubs that will be used to garner green (nature based) and innovative ideas from youth to conserve depleting environment through technology and nature. The Ministry will commercialize those ideas into projects through the government funding. "An expert from Silicon Valley in Karachi has told me that the ideas taken by Pakistani youth had 80 percent success rate whereas those from the other parts of the world only managed to get 25 percent success rate. The GYM project will help in biodiversity and ecological conservation and the youth should participate in this programme," he added. Speaking on the occasion as the guest of honour Kyrgyz Ambassador Eric Beishemhiev said, "We have celebrated the World Wildlife Day 2020 as a tea, for sustaining all life on earth which is the theme for this years wildlife day." He said that high mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan were becoming highly vulnerable due to glacial melting and increasing global warming. However, millions of people living rely on the glaciers in these high altitudes whereas the wildlife and flora in these habitats were also a source of livelihood to many people. "In order to save the snow leopards and this majestic ecosystem the SLF and PSLEP are working out tirelessly to save it from extinction," he said. Kyrgyzstan government was taking climate change a serious threat to the country and had enacted a serious legislation to implement Paris Agreement's nationally determined commitments in its true perspective, the Kyrgyz ambassador informed the participants. He noted that Kyrgyzstan was the first country to hold international congress on snow leopard conservation in 2013 that became a starting point for the world to seriously work on snow leopard protection. "This has also helped in adopting Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) programme in the countries having snow leopard habitats and species," he added. The adviser and Kyrgyzstan Ambassador distributed mementos and certificates among the diplomats participating in the event and students FAST University who were the members of Generation FAST Snow Leopard Foundation. Moreover, documentaries highlighting the efforts made under PSLEP to protect snow leopard and its habitat were showed to the participants whereas a special documentary on the wildlife and tourism potential was also played during the ceremony. Former TOWIE star Chloe Lewis has revealed that her baby son Beau has suffered an allergic reaction to sun cream. The reality star, 28, took to Instagram Stories on Monday to reveal her her little boy's skin had flared up with a nasty rash, after she used the cream during a trip to Mauritius. In a lengthy post, Chloe warned other mums to be 'super cautious' when choosing which creams they should use to protect their babies from the sun, as she shared a snap of beau just before his allergic reaction. Scroll down for video Hard: Former TOWIE star Chloe Lewis has revealed that her baby son Beau has suffered an allergic reaction to sun cream Last week Chloe revealed that her son had suffered a reaction to the sun cream she used during the sunny break. She wrote: 'My Beau blue eyes, so excited to see you grow but at the same time want you to stay small forever. 'This was the last picture of him before he had an allergic reaction to sun cream (I feel like the worst mumma ever) 'Be super cautious of what your putting on your baby's skin it's so important, lesson learnt, now just trying to get my baby better lots of cuddles ' Romantic: The reality star had jetted to Mauritius with her boyfriend of two years Danny Flasher for a spot of sunshine Beach babe: Chloe later shared a snap in a black jumpsuit which showcased plenty of sideboob On Monday, Chloe then shared a video as she cradled her baby boy, and revealed that the reaction sparked a red rash around his eye. The reality star jetted to Mauritius to relax with boyfriend Danny, after they welcomed their son together in October. Chloe recently spoke about her pregnancy in a Q&A and said she gained 1.5stone in weight while expecting her first baby. The star admitted she was 'surprised' at her low weight gain and also shared she fell pregnant just a month into her family planning journey. Tough: Last week Chloe revealed that little beau had suffered a reaction to sun cream, as she posted the last snap before he suffered the reaction Important: She warned other mums to be 'super cautious' when choosing products to put on their baby's skin, adding that the reaction made her feel like ' the 'worst mumma ever' Hard: On Monday Chloe then shared a video of her baby boy, showing that the allergic reaction had caused a rash to flare up on his face New mum Chloe - who exercised while pregnant - detailed: 'I weighed myself towards the end, I was about 1 1/2 stone heavier. I really thought I was going to blow up pregnant but really surprised myself.' When asked whether she planned to start a family, the media personality said she 'felt the time was right' as she was content in her relationship with Danny Flasher. The blonde beauty shared: 'Yes we planned & fell the first month but everyone is different. I don't know if you ever feel the time is right. 'I just was very happy in my relationship & knew it was right & I've always wanted to be a mumma. 'Plus I had lots of practise with my sisters babies, the only difference is I got to give them back.' [sic] On the West Coast of the United States, the region with the most American infections so far, Los Angeles declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, advising parents to steel themselves for school closures in the nations second-largest public school district. Washington State, which has reported at least 10 deaths from the outbreak, has closed some schools, while on the other side of the country in New York, newly diagnosed cases have led to the closure of several schools as well. The speed and scale of the educational tumult which now affects 290.5 million students worldwide, the United Nations says has little parallel in modern history, educators and economists contend. Schools provide structure and support for families, communities and entire economies. The effect of closing them for days, weeks and sometimes even months could have untold repercussions for children and societies at large. Theyre always saying, When can we go out to play? When can we go to school? said Gao Mengxian, a security guard in Hong Kong whose two daughters have been stuck at home because school has been suspended since January. In some countries, older students have missed crucial study sessions for college admissions exams, while younger ones have risked falling behind in reading and math. Parents have lost wages, tried to work at home or scrambled to find child care. Some have moved children to new schools in areas unaffected by the coronavirus, and lost milestones like graduation ceremonies or last days of school. I dont have data to offer, but cant think of any instances in modern times where advanced economies shut down schools nationally for prolonged periods of time, said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. London: A few weeks ago, during the Sunday service in Eyam, a village in the English Peak District, a group of Chinese students shuffled into the pews at St Lawrence's Church. The students had arrived unexpectedly in a rented car from nearby Sheffield, having read about the heroic decision taken by Eyam villagers in the 17th century to quarantine themselves during an outbreak of bubonic plague. It's pretty enough today but 350 years ago Eyam was the village of the damned. With coronavirus engulfing the students' homeland and now spreading across the globe they wanted to join the village in prayers. Between 1665 and 1666, Eyam was the village of the damned. During 14 terrible months of self-imposed isolation, 260 villagers died out of a population of about 700. But the plague remained contained and the surrounding villages were spared. First lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo honored recipients of the 2020 International Women of Courage Award at a State Department ceremony Wednesday. The all-female award presented ahead of International Women's Day on Sunday recognizes women across the world who demonstrate "exceptional courage and leadership" in the face of adversity and who have made a positive impact on their communities. "It is an honor to be here again to celebrate these inspiring women and the incredible impacts they are making through the work they have dedicated themselves to all over the world," Trump began. "In my fourth year attending this ceremony, I continue to be inspired by the personal stories that accompany each of these extraordinary women. Some demonstrate raw courage in the face of terror." "As first lady of the United States, I'm proud of what this country continues to do for women," Trump continued, "and I'm honored to represent a nation that not only recognizes women around the world who are making a difference internationally but empowers and supports them in their endeavors so they can affect positive change for others." The first lady centered her remarks on courage and what the word means, including how it is related to other qualities like bravery and strength. "These women represent the strength of the female spirit," Trump said. "Each of them have demonstrated acts of courage and leadership, often at risk to their own personal safety." She went on to describe how U.S. women are "playing vital roles in society" as "mothers, wives, doctors, CEOs and elected officials," adding that the unemployment rate for women has reached record-low, and women filled over 70-percent of all the new jobs added to the U.S. workforce in 2019. The first lady explained how all of the award recipients are human rights advocates from "some of the most dangerous parts of the world" who have "pushed through gender-based stereotypes to help serve the greater good. Story continues "They are role models for the next generation," she said. 2020 award winners came from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe. They have faced everything from death threats to lawsuits to social media harassment while taking on their leadership positions and attempting to make positive change. Zarifa Ghafari, a 26-year-old award winner and the mayor of a conservative Afghanistan town, thanked the United States for being the global leader of women's empowerment while accepting her award. "It was not so long ago that most women were considered property, and sadly, in some parts of the world, it is still the same," Ghafari said. "Throughout the modern area, there has been one global leader in the fight for women's rights, and that's the United States of America. To the American people, to the American government, let me say: Thank you. Thank you for all you have done to improve conditions for women all around the world." "When I started my job, the men at the municipal office refused to acknowledge me and my authority. A mob came and chased me away. They thought that was the end of that. But I came back. I came back and stood my ground," she said. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS "Women of my generation have not forgotten the reign of the Taliban and we are as always worried for the future," she added. "Whatever we women of the world have achieved, we must not take it for granted. It can be taken back from if we are not diligent and strong." Read more about the awardees and their accomplishments here. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Related Articles Strike a royal pose! Kate Middleton stepped out on Wednesday evening in a vintage magenta dress by Oscar de la Renta that had a total 80s vibe with black polka dots and a ruffled collar. She paired the look with her signature black clutch, black heels and a pair of gold hoop earrings. Kate, who typically wears her hair down around her shoulders in her signature bouncy blowout, had her hair pulled back in a chic ponytail. The royal mom of three joined husband Prince William at a reception in Dublin held in their honor. The couple has just wrapped up day two of their three-day tour in Ireland. Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty Earlier in the day, Kate sported a few of her own vintage pieces: a cream coat by Reiss that she wore during her dating years with Prince William and a pair of riding boots that shes worn for over 15 years. Kate also paid tribute to her host country on day one of their tour by wearing two green outfits. She also wore silver dangle earrings by Daniella Draper in the shape of a shamrock. Shutterstock Kate Middleton Karwai Tang/WireImag Kate Middleton Samir Hussein/WireImage Kate Middleton Kate added another 80s touch to her tour style on Tuesday when she stepped out wearing a headband, which has quickly become one of her go-to styles when shes not rocking a tiara, of course. Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! William and Kate are set to embark on visits to the capital of Dublin, County Meath, County Kildare and Galway over a packed three-day tour, during which they will focus on the relationship between the two countries, and build on the theme of remembrance and reconciliation, Kensington Palace says. William and Kate are looking forward to building a lasting friendship with the Irish people. After the successful launch of the OnePlus TV Q1 series in the Indian market, OnePlus launched a first of its kind community initiative called OnePlus TV Product Ninjas Program. This India focused initiative extends OnePlus user co-creation spirit further towards OnePlus TV, inviting community members to contribute towards co-creating localized features with the OnePlus TV team. Similar to the popular OnePlus Open Ears Forum held by the leading premium smartphone brand for its community, OnePlus looks at replicating the smartphone product success with its newest member, the OnePlus TV in a similar format. With community serving as one of its key strengths, the brand is now looking at inviting community members who are keen to contribute creatively in the brands innovation efforts towards the Smart TV and IoT segment. Addressing the new OnePlus TV Product Ninjas program, Todd Wang, Product Manager for OnePlus TV, India shared, Ever since its launch in India, OnePlus TV has been garnering a lot of interest among our community and Indian users at large. By introducing the new community program, we hope to empower our community and play a more integral role in our product development efforts and help us set new benchmarks globally. Chosen members will work closely with the product team to design and develop new, customized features. Our community members will also gain an opportunity to witness their unique ideas come to life in the brands offerings. As a community-centric, brand we look forward to working with a whole new set of creative minds in the country, The program is also expected to offer a series of online activities and special community events involving exclusive OnePlus product experiences and community sessions to drive greater engagement and collaborative spirit. OnePlus India community members and smart tech enthusiasts are invited to apply and will be chosen through a special recruitment process starting today. OnePlus has been driving several community-led initiatives lately with large-scale events like OnePlus Music Festival and Concept One Tour for community wherein the brand has been offering unique experiences for community members across India. In addition, the brand also introduced Red Cable Club, celebrating a five million-strong India community. The Red Cable Club is an exclusive community of OnePlus users with access to amazing members-only perks and experiences. SAN JUAN CITY, Philippines Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III wants an investigation to determine if the management of Virra Mall in Greenhills and its security agency violated certain provisions of the Labor Code following the hostage taking incident involving the malls former security guard. Baka may criminal liability iyan kung totoo sinasabi ng gwardiya, (There may be some criminal liability there if theres any truth to the guards claims), Bello said. May criminal liability dyan pagka hindi mo ni-report ang worker mo, ang remittance ng premium. Kasi dine-deduct mo sa sweldo niya tapos hindi mo ibinibigay sa SSS, (Thats criminal liability if you do not report your workers remittance or premium because that is deducted from their salary and supposedly remitted to the SSS,) he added. Secretary Bello said they are also looking into a much deeper reason why Paray ended up taking hostages. We can never condone violence. But we also have to consider the responsibility of the (security) agency, he explained. It could have been the root cause of this behavior. Perhaps he was forced to do that because of what the management did, he added. On Monday (March 2), 40-year-old Alchie Paray held hostage some 50 personnel inside the mall at around 11:00 am. Paray complained of being unfairly treated and being a victim of palakasan that resulted in his reassignment. But his manning agency, Safeguard Armor Security Corporation (SASCOR) said the decision to reassign him was merely because of his weeks-long absence without leave. The hostage drama lasted for nine hours ending with all the hostages being set free and the hostage-taker arrested. MNP (with Rey Pelayo) The post DOLE to look into violations of Labor Code in V-Mall hostage drama appeared first on UNTV News. Labour councillor Tonia Ashikodi (pictured) lived in a council house while collecting rent from three properties A Labour politician who collected thousands of pounds in rent from three properties but lied so she could live in a council flat has been spared jail and will not have to pay back a penny. Greenwich councillor Tonia Ashikodi, 30, owned three homes which she rented out to private tenants. Ashikodi declared she had no other property in 2008 when she signed her council tenancy agreement then repeated the lie four years later. The councillor, who was elected to the Glydon Ward for Labour after a by-election in 2016, still lives at the council home in Plumstead with her father Tony Ashikodi, 50. This afternoon, Greenwich Council leader Dan Thorpe confirmed he had received an email from Ashikodi 'tendering her resignation as a councillor' with 'immediate effect'. Ashikodi denied two counts of fraud by false representation but was unanimously convicted by a jury of both charges after a one-week trial. The mother-of-three submitted a false document claiming she was only ever the legal owner, not the beneficiary of the properties, Inner London Crown Court heard. Judge Benedict Kelleher told Ashikodi: 'The borough has many more deserving people than it has houses to house them, and as a result of your action another family may have lived in temporary housing unnecessarily. 'You are the mother of three very young children. You are the primary carer of them. 'I accept that your husband has been diagnosed with diabetes type 2 and hypertension but I do not accept that he will not be able to assist you with them. 'The sentence that you will receive today will inevitably bring your appointment as counsellor to an end.' Ms Ashikodi denied two counts of fraud by false representation at Inner London Crown Court (pictured) butwas unanimously convicted by a jury of both charges after a one-week trial The judge added: 'From what the defence is saying there are no means for the confiscation order. 'I cannot make an order that you are realistically unable to pay.' Judge Kelleher sentenced her to 18 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered her to perform 250 hours unpaid work. Earlier Robert Fitt, prosecuting, told jurors: 'These were frauds by false representation because Ms Ashikodi told these lies to Royal Borough of Greenwich (RBG), knowing they were lies, in order to obtain a council house for herself without having to give up any of the three house she already owned. 'As you may well know, social housing is a scarce commodity in London. 'Waiting lists for social housing in London boroughs are very long - on the facts of this case alone you can see that it took three and a half years for RBG to find a suitable property to offer Ms Ashikodi. 'The reality is that by obtaining a council house that she didn't really need, Ms Ashikodi has prevented someone in real need being offered the tenancy at 13B Robert Street.' Pictured: The tower block in which Ms Ashikodi shares a council flat in Plumstead with her father Tony Ashikodi, 50 The councillor was alleged to have rented out a property in Valiant House (pictured) which is located in Charlton Ashikodi's barrister had suggested that his client had not lied because she was just looking after the properties for her father. But the original application for council housing Ashikodi filled out in 2008 claimed she had nowhere else to live. 'It may well be the case that she says she only owned the beneficial interest,' said Mr Fitt. 'The question only asked 'do you own any other residential property.' 'I suggested to you, ladies and gentlemen, an honest person filling out this form would have ticked the box that said yes and then would have explained 'I have properties in my name but I hold them on trust for my father', something along those lines. 'That is something an honest and decent person would have done.' Mr Fitt reminded the jury that they had heard evidence from the Housing Office confirming that had they known about the properties Ashikodi would not have been given the council flat. 'She got that property because of a lie she told in this form,' he said. Jurors heard that upon being given a council flat in 2012, Ashikodi signed a form claiming her housing circumstances had not changed. On the same day Ashikodi signed the acceptance for the council property, she signed an agreement to let out one of her properties. Mr Fitt said this showed her declaration that she had nowhere to live was 'simply untrue.' Pictured: The two properties in Thamesmead that Ms Ashikodi was alleged to have rented out after lying to council bosses about her need for a council house Ashikodi and her father were earlier cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice at the close of the prosecution case due to lack of evidence. Two of the properties are in Thamesmead and one is in Valiant House, overlooking the Valley, home of Charlton FC. Prithvijit Hoon, defending, had asked the judge to consider Ashikodi's financial circumstances and personal hardship by sparing her from jail and passing a community order. He said: 'She is currently living on benefits. 'She tells me that she would be able, and would be willing to undertake unpaid work. 'So far has her personal circumstances she has three children, one older, aged eight, and twins aged five. 'The eldest is disabled and requires speech therapy. Mr Hoon explained Ashikodi's ill husband was unable to work and her 10,000 counsellor allowance and a skincare business she ran at a loss made her the family 'breadwinner'. He said: 'She is the only person with regular income in her family although modest it may be. She is the only breadwinner in the family. 'She has now embarked on a modest skincare shop. 'She is the person responsible for running the shop, although it is currently running at a loss. '[Her husband] is unable to work, he has type 2 diabetes and hypertension'. After Mr Fitt suggested she should pay 67,470, in compensation and costs, Mr Hoon said: 'She has high liabilities in relation to the upkeep of her household and her children. She simply has no means to pay compensation or costs.' Ashikodi denied but was convicted of two counts of fraud by false representation. The U.S. Democratic Party finds itself at a crossroads at a critical time in the 2020 election cycle. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is the clear front-runner for the party nomination despite warnings from moderate Democrats that Sanders would lead the party to defeat in November against President Donald Trump. At the core of the Democrats dilemma is a sharp divide between the partys progressive wing and the moderates, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone. And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, as well as California, Utah and Colorado. Yet Biden scored wins in Warren's native Oklahoma and a swath of Southern states including Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, signaling he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. In a sign of his strength across the country, Biden also won Minnesota, a state Sanders had hoped to put in his column. Biden racked up the victories despite being dramatically outspent by moderate rival Bloomberg, who poured more than $19 million into television advertising in Virginia. Biden, meanwhile, spent less than $200,000. By Associated Press NEW YORK: Billionaire Mike Bloomberg ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. It was a stunning collapse for the former New York City mayor, who had his 2020 hopes on the Super Tuesday states and pumped more than $500 million of his own fortune into the campaign. Bloomberg announced his departure from the race after a disappointing finish on Super Tuesday in the slate of states that account for almost one-third of the total delegates available in the Democratic nominating contest. He won only the territory of American Samoa and picked up several dozen delegates elsewhere. Biden, meanwhile, won big in Southern states where Bloomberg had poured tens of millions of dollars and even cautiously hoped for a victory. Two of his former Democratic rivals, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden as the moderate alternative to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders just the day before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg ran an unprecedented campaign from the start. His late entrance into the race in November prompted him to skip campaigning in the first four voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He hung his success on Super Tuesday, spending at least $180 million on advertising in those states, but had planned to continue deep into the primary calendar, already spending millions on advertising in states like Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Before results poured in on Tuesday, he projected confidence while campaigning in Florida, only to have his aides say the campaign would reassess the next day. Voters ultimately rejected Bloomberg's argument that he was the candidate best poised to take on Republican President Donald Trump. The president, for his part, had paid close attention to the Democratic nominating contest and had been especially fixated on Bloomberg. Trump regularly railed against his fellow New Yorker on Twitter, mocking his short stature by calling him Mini Mike" and claiming Bloomberg was the candidate he wanted to run against. On Tuesday, he called the results a complete destruction of Bloomberg's reputation. Bloomberg, 78, is one of the world's richest men, worth an estimated $61 billion. His fortune flows from the financial data and media company that bears his name, which he started in the 1980s. In addition to serving 12 years as New York mayor, he endeared himself to progressive groups by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting climate change and curbing gun violence. In the early weeks of his campaign, he used his vast fortune to introduce himself to voters outside New York on his own terms, and his rivals accused him of trying to buy the party's nomination and the White House. As voting drew closer, the former Republican was forced to confront his Democratic rivals head on by appearing alongside them on a debate stage. His first performance was shaky and uneven and caused voters to view him with a more critical eye. He proved unable to overcome consistent criticism of New York's use of the stop-and-frisk police practice under his tenure as mayor, which disproportionately targeted young black and Latino men for searches aimed at finding weapons. The practice ended after a federal judge declared it unconstitutional, and Bloomberg apologized for using it weeks before announcing his presidential run. He similarly faced pointed criticism primarily from rival Elizabeth Warren about the treatment of women at his company, Bloomberg LP. Under pressure from Warren, he said in mid-February he would release three women who sued him for harassment or discrimination complaints from confidentiality agreements. Women who worked for Bloomberg were featured in a commercial praising Bloomberg's and the company's treatment of women, and his longtime partner Diana Taylor defended him as a champion of women. Bloomberg was dogged by accusations he was trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination. His vast fortune proved a perfect foil for Sanders, who has said billionaires should not exist at all. Indeed, Bloomberg had a vast circle of influence from his spending on key causes like gun control as well as his philanthropic efforts to boost American cities and provide leadership training for mayors. Dozens of prominent mayors rallied behind his candidacy. That, combined with Biden's resurgence in South Carolina and the rallying of the party's moderate wing behind him, doomed Bloomberg's case that he was the best candidate to take on both Sanders and Trump. What's next for Bloomberg is unclear. He'd pledged to keep campaign offices open in key general election battleground states to help the Democrats defeat Trump even if he lost the party's nomination. But Sanders' campaign has said they do not want the help. OTTAWAWho owns the land, really? That question is at the centre of the dispute over the Coastal GasLink pipeline: the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs say it cant pass through the nations territory without their permission, but Canadas legal framework does not acknowledge Wetsuweten ownership of the territory they claim. At least not yet. On Sunday, ministers from the British Columbia and federal governments stood with a Wetsuweten hereditary chief to hail a milestone proposal to recognize the nations title. The government has long said an important element of its reconciliation agenda is the recognition of land rights and title for all Indigenous nations that wish to pursue them. But what does that actually mean for the relationship between First Nations and the Crown? And how might it reshape how decisions are made on resource development and other issues across Canada? What, in other words, are we talking about when we talk about Aboriginal title? So, what does it mean to recognize Aboriginal title? Youre just returning or recognizing whats already theirs, said John Borrows, Canada research chair in Indigenous law at the University of Victoria. For millennia, Indigenous nations governed, traded, hunted, fought and travelled throughout the territory that is now called Canada. Then European colonizers arrived and declared themselves sovereign. Sometimes there were treaties to formalize this claim in which Indigenous peoples formally ceded territory but oftentimes the colonizers simply considered the land open for settlement. Just because the Crown asserted sovereignty, however, didnt mean it was necessarily so. According to Borrows, the courts have found that Indigenous land rights survived the assertion of sovereignty, and have not been subsequently wiped out by provincial or federal laws. The Crowns claim over large tracts of land in places like B.C. has been chipped away by a series of court cases that have gradually ruled Indigenous claims to the same land are not inferior to claims from the settler government, Borrows said. Those cases includes the landmark Tsilhqotin decision in 2014, in which the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed a B.C. Indigenous nations Aboriginal title for the first time. The idea here is that (title) is a pre-existing right that has not been extinguished, Borrows said. Does recognizing Aboriginal title make land into private property? No. Borrows explained that courts have outlined how Aboriginal title has an inherent limit. Because it refers to land that is owned collectively by an Indigenous nation, rather than individually, you have to preserve that land for future generations, he said. You cant sever the historic relationship with the land. Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, added that Aboriginal title land can only be transferred to the government not to individuals or a corporation. Otherwise, the concept of Aboriginal title which is enshrined in Section 35 of the Constitution is very much like the popular conception of private property, said Robert Janes, principal at JFK Law in Victoria, B.C. It means that they are entitled to the economic benefits of the land, and they are entitled to decide what happens to the land, Janes said. So, does recognizing title give Indigenous nations a veto over resource projects? No at least according to the most recent case law. In the Tsilqotin decision, the Supreme Court laid out rules for the government to justify overriding an Indigenous groups wishes for what happens on its land. To do so, it must show that it has followed its duty to consult and accommodate concerns of the Indigenous group; that the overriding of title was done for a compelling and substantial objective; and that it is consistent with the Crowns obligations to the Indigenous group. Incursions on Aboriginal title cannot be justified if they would substantially deprive future generations of the benefit of the land. Its a test that involves basically overriding a groups constitutionally protected rights, so its not an easy thing to do, said Kate Gunn, a lawyer with First Peoples Law in Vancouver, which works as legal counsel for the Unistoten clan of the Wetsuweten. Borrows added that as long as (the Crown) acts in an honourable way then its possible to put something on that land that the First Nation does not agree with. Lets say title has been recognized. Then what? The legitimate use of the land by governments and corporations becomes a complicated question with no easy answers, Kung said. Were all here, were not going anywhere, he said. This needs to be resolved. When you hear politicians like Justin Trudeau say reconciliation is hard work, this is what theyre talking about. If the Wetsuweten accept the governments proposed deal to recognize ownership of their traditional land, negotiations will begin over how that land will be governed. How, for instance, will an Indigenous nations laws work, and how will they be reconciled with provincial, federal and municipal laws within the territory. Questions of governance will also arise, Gunn says, when a nation that has a traditional leadership structure, like the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs, exists alongside the elected band councils created by the Indian Act. The bottom line is that, in places like Wetsuweten territory where the Indigenous nation never signed a treaty or ceded land to the Crown the underlying ownership of the land remains a complicated question, said Kung. US President Donald Trump spoke to deputy Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the White House has said, the first known call between an American president and the militant group. The historic telephonic conversation took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country, raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10. During the call on Tuesday, Trump "emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29," the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation. The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said. "He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war," the White House said. "I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a very good talk," Trump told reporters. After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months. In Doha in the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Baradar had signed the agreement with the US. Special US Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had signed the agreement on behalf of the United States. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin on March 10, according to the US-Taliban deal, but a dispute over prisoner swap has raised questions. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. However, President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do it before the negotiations begin. Under the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha, the US has agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 130 days and withdraw all its soldiers in 14 months. BYTON Announces Sales Strategy, Partners and Charging Solutions Launch plan for the BYTON MByte foresees the first wave markets in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, France, Netherlands, Sweden The company announces retail and service partners in respective markets with a holistic service approach Preorder in Europe starts in the second half of 2020 with a down payment of 500 Euro Partnership with Digital Charging Solutions for access to more than 150,000 public charging points in Europe, with up to 150 kW Fast Charging Capability First European BYTON Place to be opened in Zurich, Switzerland MUNICH - March 4, 2020: Prior to the Geneva Motor Show, BYTON the manufacturer of intelligent electric cars announces more details about the upcoming market launch of the BYTON M-Byte in Europe, including the site of its first flagship store. In addition to the first European countries in which the M-Byte will be delivered, BYTON also announced retail, service and charging partners. The BYTON M-Byte has raised enormous interest in Europe. Out of 65,000 reservations worldwide, 25,000 are in Europe alone. comments Dr. Daniel Kirchert, BYTON CEO. At the same time, we are aware that our European customers have high standards when it comes to technology, quality, safety and service. I am sure that together with our trade and service partners and the customer-friendly charging infrastructure, BYTON will convince the European Market." Market Rollout Plans for Europe The M-Byte is targeted to enter in the first European markets by the end of 2021. Based on vehicle reservations the M-Byte will roll-out in several waves in all European countries, the first wave markets being Switzerland, Germany, Norway, France, Netherlands and Sweden. Pre-Order Process for Europe BYTON will open the possibility of pre-orders in second half of 2020. This will require a fully refundable down payment of 500 Euro in order to hold an early position in the production. Reservation holders will have a priority timeframe for placing their pre-orders. The BYTON M-Byte is positioned in the premium segment with a very competitive entry price of 45,000 (excl. VAT and excl. possible government subsidies). The entry-level model with a 72 kWh battery and rear-mounted electric motor offers a peak output of 200 kW (272 hp) and a range of up to 360 kilometres or 224 miles (WLTP). The 4WD high-performance configuration of 300 kW (408 hp) equipped with a 95 kWh battery is designed for a possible range of 435 kilometres or 270 miles (WLTP); The 2WD version offers up to 460 kilometres or 286 miles (WLTP). Retail and Aftersales Services in European Markets BYTON will offer a premium Hybrid Sales Model (online-to-offline) providing a seamless customer journey, complementary sales channels and price transparency. Based on preferences, customers will be able to switch between channels while having a consistent experience. Service at your fingertips is our vision with integrated service offers in the BYTON App with benefits such as vehicle pickup and delivery and mobile service units for smaller repairs. Customer satisfaction and convenience are at the core: We will make sure that users always get a best-in-class sales experience, hassle-free service solutions and charging products. The handover decision is set to meet customers expectations even with delivery to your home says Dr. Andreas Schaaf. Retail and Service Partner BYTON is going through a deliberate process to screen and observe best options for its premium Hybrid Sales Model. Parallel to the upcoming sales launch in China, we have already found retail and service partners in our first wave European-markets says Dr. Andreas Schaaf, BYTON CCO. This is why BYTON decided to partner with the following retailers: Hedin Automotive signs a Retail and Service Partnership for BYTON in Norway and Sweden. The company started as a family business in 1985 followed by a steady growth, with currently about 125 facilities in Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland, in which nearly 32 car brands are represented. In Norway, EVs are the new normal as more than 50 % of all new cars sold are electric. And also the Swedish EV market is growing rapidly. says Anders Hedin, Owner and President. At Hedin, we are willing to shape the mobility of the future with innovative approaches and partners. The vehicle concept which BYTON is offering, developing a smart device on wheels, is not yet seen in the market. This future-proof approach with a highly professional team was so convincing for us that we decided to partner with BYTON. BYmyCAR will become BYTONs Retail and Service Partner in France. With almost 80,000 vehicles sold annually, BYmyCAR is one of Frances leading car distribution groups. True to its ambition to offer the widest choice, the group's 83 car dealerships cover a large territory. With our passionate and innovative way of living retail and service for premium brands in France, we have achieved a market-leading position comments Jean-Louis Mosca, President of BYmyCAR. BYTON and its customer-oriented hybrid sales and service model matches our vision of future retail. This common mindset gives us full confidence for the partnership providing mobility solutions for our customers. Louwman Group BYTONs Retail and Service Partner in the Netherlands is one of the largest automotive distributors in Europe. The Dutch family-owned Group consists of 69 self-owned outlets and service points for various brands. In addition, Louwman Group is active in retail, leasing and finance, parts supply and logistics. It's our vision to be iconic in mobility and BYTON's proposition to create a smart device on wheels fits seamlessly. says Eric Louwman, President of Louwman Group. Our DNA is to have focus on what moves the mobility customers of today and tomorrow. We really want to understand their needs and act on it. We strongly believe, together with BYTON, in a customer-centric digital integration of services which enables a new era of mobility. An era with ease of mind and hassle-free mobility. Modern Driving will be BYTONs Retail and Service Partner for Switzerland. With 40 dedicated service outlets, seven Test Drive Centers and two Mobile Pop Up Stores, Modern Driving will also be the first European Retail partner for BYTON`s Flagship Store in Zurich. BYTONs product concept is unique in the automotive industry and within the start-up scene. While developing the partnership with BYTON, we have created a future-oriented retail and service approach which is meeting and even exceeding customer expectations of today comments Kurt Egloff, Owner of Modern Driving. We are convinced, this partnership enables Modern Driving to offer a new service level for an advanced mobility not yet seen in the Swiss market adds Jean Sacchet, Owner of Modern Driving. In Germany BYTON has multiple options for partnerships, which will be communicated at a later point in time. Charging Partner and Experience BYTON signed a strategic partnership with Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) from Munich, the leading European e-mobility service provider (eMSP). BYTON and DCS will develop a fully integrated charging experience to enable customers hassle-free long-distance journeys in their all-electric BYTON. Key features of the charging service will include: Access to major charging networks in over 28 European countries via roaming, with 150,000 charging points for both AC and DCfast charging (including high-power charging) Access to charging stations of over 450 major chargepoint operators (CPOs) such as IONITY, FastNed, EnBW, Allego, Innogy, NewMotion, Izivia, Swisscharge and local utilities Fully integrated public charging in the BYTON App and BYTON Stage, the unique 48inch Display, allows users to start the charging station remotely, cashless payment via BYTON ID or RFID card, with one contract and one bill Transparent and fair pricing: pricing is determined by chargepoint operator (per minute / kWh / session) Smart route planner with charging station recommendations will help customers to find the best charging stations along the route Digital Charging Solutions was founded to give OEMs and fleet customer universal access to different charge point operators all over Europe by providing best in-class coverage, quality and customer experience. explains Markus Bartenschlager, Managing Director of Digital Charging Solutions GmbH. Hence we are excited to be partnering with an innovative EV start-up like BYTON to develop an intelligent charging service that lets drivers charge across borders with one single service, one payment account and highest data quality fully integrated in the BYTON sales system, app and navigation. Charging Solutions A comprehensive portfolio of physical and digital charging solutions for home, commercial and public charging, will be offered by BYTON: The 22 kW mobile charger, which is stored in the vehicle trunk for charging on-the-go and 22 kW connected wallbox, which can be installed at the customers home via a qualified installation partner. For commercial customers a AC charger as well as a 150 kW DC fast-charger will be offered with a charging time for the 95 kWh battery at 150 kW and around 35 minutes from 0 to 80 % State of Charge (SoC). The charging time for the 95 kWh model at 22 kW will be approximately four and a half hours (100 %). All charging devices will be connected via wireless connectivity (Bluetooth, Wifi and 4G) to a cloud-based back-end, providing an interface to the BYTON App and BYTON Stage display, enabling digital functions such as remote start-stop, metering and billing, and dynamic status information such as availability, price and power. BYTON M-Byte will be compatible with European AC and DC charging infrastructure based on the Combined Charging System (CCS2) standard. First European BYTON Place in Zurich The first European BYTON Place will open in Zurich, Switzerland in the second quarter of 2021. Switzerland is an important hub of Europe: A unique city-in-city concept called The Circle, which is a multi-purpose complex within the airport of Zurich will become home of the first European Flagship BYTON Place. This location will offer early test drives, host premiere events and several digital experiences. By the end of 2021 BYTON and Partners will open around 20 BYTON Places in key European cities that are characterized by vibrant environments and high interest in lifestyle like Oslo, Berlin, Amsterdam or Paris. BYTON Places are stores where users come back to learn about software updates and new products and services. The journey for BYTON users does not end after having purchased the vehicle. At all BYTON Places, users will have the possibility to test drive the M-Byte. *The M-Byte is not yet available for sale. Specifications are preliminary and may change without notice. The content herein is provided for informational purposes only. Prince George and Princess Charlotte could, in theory at least, now stay at the same independent school until they go to university, after it was revealed that their current prep plans to build a secondary school right next door. Thomass Battersea, which costs 19,000-a-year to attend, has snapped up the neighbouring Royal Academy of Dance building and could open its doors as a state-of-the-art 13 to 18 school as early as 2021. The private primary school has made the decision to become an all-through school, which would be housed at the site at 36 Battersea Square, after parents expressed a keen desire to keep their children within the popular independent school group. Scroll down for video Prince George, six, and Princess Charlotte, four, are both currently pupils at 19,000-a-year Thomass Battersea prep school, which looks set to open a secondary school on the site next door after buying the Royal Academy of Dance building Thomass Battersea has been open since 1990, with Prince George starting in 2017 and Princess Charlotte joining her older brother two years later in September 2019 South London's answer to Eton? The private primary school has made the decision to become an all-through school after requests from parents (Pictured: an artist's impression of what the school, set to be open by 2021, could look like) South London developer Avanton has agreed terms to sell the historic Royal Academy of Dance headquarters, publishing images of what the Battersea Square academic centre could look like on its website. The dance company will relocate to a 260million 70,000 sqft headquarters at Coda on York Road, designed by architects Patel Taylor. Both Prince George and Princess Charlotte are believed to be happy at the private primary school, where the motto is 'be kind'. The primary is owned by Thomass London Day Schools, a chain of prep schools with other educational establishments in Fulham, Clapham and Kensington. Twinkling fairy lights and a classic car in the car park: images released by South London developer Avanton, who has agreed terms to sell the historic Royal Academy of Dance headquarters, show a school that looks more like luxury apartments While it's expected Prince George will attend Eton, as his father and Prince Harry did, the new school could now see Princess Charlotte stay - children are currently only catered for until they reach 13. Pupils lucky enough to step foot in Thomass Battersea Square, as it will be known, will have mod-cons galore in the the 40,000 sq ft facility including a performance theatre, 28 classrooms, science laboratories, break-out spaces, a study centre, cafeteria and school dining hall. And perhaps there's a nod to the royals in the artist's impression of the new-build, with a classic MG - Kate and William enjoyed a ride in William's following their wedding in 2011, a Union Jack flag and strings of fairy lights all featuring. Is that a Bentley next to the MG? The car park for the new school, which will have a performance theatre, 28 classrooms, science laboratories, break-out spaces, a study centre, cafeteria and school dining hall Former Thomas pupils include celebrities Cara Delevingne, Florence Welch and Celine Buckens - but until now, pupils have had to find alternative secondary education Thomass Battersea has been open since 1990, with Prince George starting in 2017 and Princess Charlotte joining her older brother two years later in September 2019. Former Thomas pupils include celebrities Cara Delevingne, Florence Welch and Celine Buckens. Last week, it was announced that four pupils at Prince George and Princess Charlotte's school were put in self-isolation over fears they had contracted the coronavirus. Riyadh, March 4 : After banning Umra for foreigners, Saudi Arabian authorities have now suspended the optional pilgrimage to Makkah and Madinah for its own citizens and residents in a bid to stop spread of coronavirus, reports said on Wednesday. The decision was announced by the state media, the BBC reported, adding that it comes after the kingdom recorded its first coronavirus case this week - a Saudi man who had travelled to Iran, the epicentre of the disease in the region. Saudi authorities had banned foreign pilgrims on February 27 and two days later, extended the ban on nationals of Gulf countries too. Unlike the Haj, which is mandatory for those able and performed at a specific time, the Umra is optional, can be undertaken any time and includes only some of the rituals of the main pilgrimage. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex posted a bombshell announcement on social media in January that they planned to step back as senior members of the royal family and work to become financially independent. After the shock of those intentions were absorbed by members of the princes family, who werent notified in advance, the Sussexes future plans needed to be ironed out. Its been agreed that the couple will officially stop undertaking any royal duties after March 31. But that seems like the only thing that was agreed upon since there has been a bit of back and forth with Harrys grandmother that the pair wasnt expecting. Royal sources have claimed this is because Meghan, not Harry, is running the show. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Andrew Milligan WPA Pool/Getty Images Heres more on whats being referred to as a very dangerous game the duchess is playing and why she feels like shes being picked on by her husbands family now. Meghan is running the show, playing very dangerous game From the moment this announcement was made many royal watchers immediately thought it was more about what Meghan wanted than what Harry wanted. And after stating that they would still live part-time in England that possibility became unlikely when the former actress fired her whole royal household staff. It seems the final nail has been hammered in the separation of Prince Harry and his family thanks to the dismissals of their 15 staff members from the royal household who have been told they are no longer required, U.K.-based broadcaster Neil Sean said via Fox News. I have been told quite a few staff members had hoped or offered to transfer over to Canada to continue a working relationship [because of] the fact they all loved Prince Harry and working for him. But according to Seans sources, Markle is the one who took control of deciding the fate of the staff members. Insiders note that its Meghan that deals with this side of things and many believe its a simple case of her running the show and taking away any responsibility from Harry, Sean claimed. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Chris Jackson/Getty Images This goes with what some reports have stated about the former Suits star calling the shots and getting what she wants. But the family she and the duke are splitting from isnt just any family, so you would think she wouldnt want to make too many waves. A senior advisor told me, She is playing a very dangerous game as the royal family will only take so much,' Sean added. How much the royals take Members of the royal family rarely comment on rifts within and outside the firm, and Meghan is certainly aware of this. She and Harry kept with that protocol of silence when the duchess father and half-sister were running to the tabloids or going on talk shows and badmouthing them. This had led some to think that Meghan figured she can push for her new life and have everything exactly the way she wants with no public pushback from Harrys family. However, the queen stopped her granddaughter-in-law from doing whatever she pleases with sanctions. And now there are reports on how Meghan is feeling about that. The royal family | Chris Jackson/Getty Images The duchess feels picked on A source told the Daily Mail that the former actress feels like shes being picked on with all the sanctions coming from the Palace. That insider claimed that Meghan isnt happy they cant use their HRH titles and doesnt appreciate the insinuation that she and Harry would use the title for financial gain. The couple, in turn, released a statement saying that the queen doesnt own the word royal, however, they would not use it after they step down on March 31. But they reportedly managed to tick Her Majesty off again with that statement. Shes so disappointed that her own grandchild would heap so much embarrassment on the monarchy and bring all this unwanted attention on his family at the worst possible time, another source told Us Weekly. It seems that these last few months have really taken a toll on everyone involved and they would like nothing more than to be just be done with the drama. Well see if it all ceases on April 1. Read more: How Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have Been Enjoying Life Away From the Royal Family Amazon's Ring keeps a log of every single time one of its cameras, doorbells or apps is activated and used, it has been revealed. Events that are logged include motion detected by the cameras, a doorbell being activated or pressed by a visitor, or an action by the user to activate a live feed to converse with a visitor. The data recorded also includes exact GPS co-ordinates of the devices as well as the duration of each event in seconds. It has also been found that every time the Ring app is used by a customer, a permanent note of the device model and which network it uses is saved and recorded in a vast database. Experts have slammed the feature and said it poses a 'serious threat to people's privacy' and could easily be stolen or misused by criminals. Scroll down for video Every movement identified by Amazon's Ring devices is saved and recorded in vast databases, it has been revealed. It has also been found that every time the Ring app is used by a customer it makes a permanent note of the device model and which network it uses (file photo) David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, a cybersecurity firm, said: 'This development unfortunately doesn't surprise me. 'Home assistants and other smart technology - i.e. devices that have the power to monitor aspects of our everyday lives - gives huge companies access to lots of data, which is valuable even where that data is anonymised. 'However, they can be a serious threat to people's privacy consumers are handing valuable information over freely and often without realising it. 'In today's digital era, such information could be used by companies directly or shared with third parties, or stolen and misused by cybercriminals.' The BBC obtained the information via an information request to Ring for two devices under the data subject access request (DSAR) protocol that exists. This enables any user to access their own data via the Ring website to see what data the firm has access to. Amazon owns Ring and has a policy that no video clips older than 30 days are saved and are scrubbed from its servers. Customers that opt for its 'Ring Protect' system have videos recorded and stored for up to 30 days before they are automatically deleted. Users can log on and delete them manually beforehand, if they wish. Users that choose not to have the protect plan are only able to access the live stream and no videos are stored, according to Ring's protocols. A Ring spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Ring's Privacy Notice sets forth the type of information Ring collects and what Ring does with that information. Please refer to the Privacy page for more information.' Amazon owns Ring and the company has a policy that no video clips older than 30 days exist and must be scrubbed from the servers (file photo) According to the BBC investigation, which looked at two cameras over a 129-day span, almost 26,500 individual events were registered, with data pertaining to the user split over 11 databases. One database also included every interaction with Ring's apps and featured a separate call every time the app was opened, the feed was zoomed in and clocked when each call started and finished. The BBC found no evidence of videos being recorded. Mr Emm added: 'It's vital that companies selling such products are open and explicit about the data they collect, and how they will use it. 'People should also think carefully when they are considering buying smart devices. 'If they do purchase these products, they should always ensure that updates are available, create hard-to-guess passwords for the device, and disable any feature they do not intend to use, or which causes them any privacy concerns.' North Korean state media on Wednesday slammed South Korean movies and dramas for engaging in "anti-republic" propaganda with fakes and fabrication about the communist state. Uriminzokkiri did not specify its targets for criticism, but they might include such recent hits as TV drama "Crash Landing On You" and blockbuster movie "Ashfall." "Crash Landing On You" is a love story between a daughter of a South Korean business tycoon and a North Korean solider. It paints North Korea as a poor and economically backward country. "Ashfall" features two South and North Korean military officers' efforts to prevent a massive eruption of Mount Paekdu on the North's northern tip. It frequently shows severely devastated North Korean villages. "Recently, the South Korean authorities and movie producers are bent on strategic propaganda by circulating anti-republic movies and TV dramas full of fakes and fabrication," the website said in a commentary. "We cannot hide our shock to see South Korean authorities' circulation and praise of such disgusting anti-North Korea and confrontational movies aimed at passing the buck for the destruction of peace on the Korean Peninsula after spoiling inter-Korean relations through pro-U.S. submission and reckless behavior of military confrontation," it added. The propaganda website also noted that related makers and those who distribute such content would "pay the cost" for "completely" fabricating facts about the North and hurting the minds of their compatriots. (Yonhap) The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Aboagye says governments decision not to evacuate Ghanaians in China over the outbreak of coronavirus in that city was partly due to the disinterest of majority of the students there to return home. According to him, the government through intelligence and surveys gathered that most of the students in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started did not want to be evacuated. A significant number didnt want to come home. We did a survey, those who wanted to come home were few, he told Bernard Avle on the Point of View on Monday. We are talking about 162 students in Wuhan and the Ambassador [to China] was in touch with them every other day. We had information about the situation they were in and the number of those who really wanted to come back home. We also assessed whether the systems and protection that they were getting there [in China] was adequate, if it was inadequate we would have brought them, Dr. Aboagye noted. There have been divergent views on the evacuation of Ghanaian students living in Wuhan. The government announced in February that it was not ready to evacuate the students despite calls by some of the students and their parents that they needed to return to Ghana due to the risk they faced and challenges in accessing basic medical and food supplies. But the government shot down the idea. Dr. Aboagye said it was not best practice to heed the calls by the students especially because they were getting better care in China than they would if they were evacuated to Ghana. It is not the best practice as far as public health is concerned and WHO has even advised against such evacuationsOur position was that, because they were getting good care and support, we felt that there was no point in bringing them but we continue to watch the situation and as you can see the numbers are coming down in China, he said. He added that, even if you get the disease, you are probably better off in China because they have experience managing that kind of condition. Ghanaian authorities not aware of Wuhan students plights A former National Organizer of Ghanaian students in China, Daniel Nii Lartey, in an interview on Eyewitness News earlier in February said the Ministry of Healths decision not to evacuate students in Wuhan may be from a position of ignorance of their true state of desperation and challenges there. According to him, the donation of money to the students there does not mean much to the students as most grocery stores are locked up and the students are unable to access various other services. He insisted that evacuating the students will be the best thing to do to safeguard their health and ensure that they are psychologically sound to pursue their studies. Evacuations from Wuhan More than 14 countries have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan over the outbreak, adhering to strict World Health Organization protocols for evacuation including holding the evacuees in quarantine for two weeks before reintegrating them into society. Iran, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand, South Korea, India, Brazil among others have evacuated their citizens. South Africa recent agreed to evacuate its students although many argue it is too late to do so now. Source: citinewsroom Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video So all those years of studying Asian style has paid off. You made it through college, got married (or built a small empire on your own), and are about to buy a home. New homes offer the modernity of style and convenience, but some of us prefer a house with a distinct personality in a traditional neighborhood that has been around for decades. Older homes feel different. The trees are taller and provide more shade, because they have been there longer, and our neighbors are probably people that have lived in their houses for generations. If you do decide on an older style house with all of its uniqueness, here are three ways to protect your investment so that you can enjoy it for many years to come. Make Sure the Roof Is in Good Condition We walk into a house we want to buy, turn on the lights to see if there are any electrical problems, and turn on the shower to check out the water pressure. One thing that may not be so obvious is the condition of the roof. Over the years, the harsh elements of all four seasons can wear the top layer of a house down. When purchasing a home, make sure to take stock of the roof. Don't let a few shingles get in the way of celebrating Chuseok with the family in your beautiful new home. Those at http://www.dominionroofing.com/scarborough/ mention how important it is to check your roof on a regular basis, yourself, or ideally, by a professional. Gives Those Hard Wooden Floors a Touch-up Hardwood floors add a classical touch to any home. If you're lucky, the varnish still shines, there are no scuff marks, and the floors or stairs don't creak after all of those years of adults and children walking, running, and sliding over them. Depending on the state of the wood, you may want to have them restored, stained, or installed. There are many companies out there who can help restore floors and decks anywhere in your home. Dull wood can once again reflect the sunlight that touches them, giving your home that sense you find nowhere else. A Little Paint Goes a Long Way It's magical what a coat of paint can do for a home. It's like putting on a completely different outfit for a special occasion. Only the event is your entire residence. Maybe you want to try that sweet cantaloupe, sea blue, or olive green paint on a living room or bathroom wall. Perhaps you want to be edgy and try stripes. There are no ends to the creativity you can express in the color of the interior and exterior of your home. Paint also gives old rooms a fresh feeling. Even a coat of white paint can cover up any blemishes and make your vintage home feel sparkling new on the inside. Find a professional who can help you stay within a budget and meet all of your painting needs if you don't fancy doing it yourself. There Truly Is No Place Like Home Buying and restoring a house is one of the most significant investments in our lives. We cook our Christmas dinners in them. Our children grow up and play in them. We blow out candles and eat birthday cake in them. We raise our Soju glasses high in them. A home is our place of refuge and sanctuary. Many folks prefer long-standing neighborhoods rather than new ones. With a little bit of polish, color, and repairs, you can turn any old home into a unique experience for you and your family. The Karnataka government has constituted a competent authority for I Monetary Advisory (IMA) cases under the KPIDFE (Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments) Act, 2004, which is required to call claims from erstwhile depositors of the IMA group of entities under the provisions of the Act, said Harsh Gupta, Special Officer and Competent Authority for IMA cases. In order to ensure transparency and to avoid harassment to the claimants, an online application software has been developed for accepting claims from the depositors, Gupta stated. "The claim application can be filed from any of Banglore-1, Karnataka-1 and Seva-Sindhu Kendras of the state government in person or through online. The required documents can be submitted using e-attestation along with claims or at a later date, but prior to the claim settlement. The details of authorities for e-attestation will be informed later," the official stated. The claimants will have to provide Aadhaar authentication based identification or identification by the designated officer based on alternate documents; current mobile number and address among others. The details of the draft claim filing process has been put for public feedback on website 'imaclaims.karnataka.gov.in'. The depositors can give their feedback on the website, WhatsApp number or email, Gupta stated. Based on feedback received from the depositors, the claim process and the claim application software will be finalised, the official said and further informed that the start date for acceptance of claims will be informed through wide publicity at a later date. "There will be a total time period of 30 days for submission of the claims from the start date of acceptance of claims," Gupta said. An SIT was investigating the multi-crore IMA Jewels case, where the firm had allegedly cheated a large number of investors after promising them impressive returns on their deposits. The SIT has already arrested several government officials and questioned others including politicians in the matter. The prime accused and Managing Director of IMA Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who had fled the country after several complaints were registered against him in connection with the scam, has also been arrested. The state government had constituted an SIT to probe the scam when it first came to light in June earlier this year when more than 4,000 investors trooped outside the showroom after an audio clip purportedly recorded by Khan went viral. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored judicial inquiry into the Delhi riots that have claimed nearly 50 lives, left over 200 injured and property worth hundreds of crores damaged. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson also alleged that television channels were splashing the coronavirus outbreak in a bid to cover up the violence in the capital. Addressing a public meeting in Malda on Wednesday, the TMC chief said, In Bengal, for trivial issues, they (the Bharatiya Janata Party) demand a CBI inquiry. Why not in this case? We want a judicial inquiry under SC supervision in this case (the Delhi riots). The Bengal CM called the violence a planned genocide, likening it to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. This is nothing but the Gujarat model. They are claiming 40-50 people died but no one knows the actual figures, she said. Hitting out at the BJP for being non-apologetic over the Delhi riots, she said, There are some national channels who are screaming corona, corona to cover up the Delhi riots. I would like to tell them, people were burnt alive in Delhi. It was a planned genocide and instead of being apologetic they are raising goli maaro slogans. Just imagine the kind of hatred they have towards people. Hinting at possible legal action for alleged misquoting by the media, Banerjee on Wednesday clarified that she never said that all Bangladeshis who have been casting their votes are Indian citizens. During a rally at Buniadpur in South Dinajpur district, she said, I would like to tell those who misquoted me that my party records all my speeches. I didnt mean what has been reported in the media (on Bangladeshis). I actually meant that those who came to India during 1947 (Partition) and 1971 (Bangladesh liberation war) from Bangladesh are Indian citizens as per the agreement. There are people who misquoted me. I would like to tell them that there are laws to take care of such things. Law will take its own course. Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief minister took a dig at him over the issue of Indias revised citizenship rules. One of my party leaders told me that an RTI plea was filed to find out the citizenship proof of a senior BJP leader. You know what reply he (the person who filed the RTI) received? He is a citizen of India by birth in terms of Section 3 of The Citizenship Act, 1955 and as such the question of his having a citizenship certificate which is for citizenship by registration does not arise. I would like to ask why there is no question of him having a citizenship certificate and why it is must for common people? she said. Shillong, March 4 : With the situation improving, authorities in Meghalaya relaxed curfew for a few hours on Wednesday even as the security forces continue to maintain a strict vigil for the past six days in different areas of the hill state following clashes over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Inner Line Permit. East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Matsiewdor War Nongbri said that the curfew was relaxed for four hours from 12 p.m. on Wednesday. However, after the relaxation, the curfew was back and would continue till Thursday. "While there are no fresh incidents of violence, the curfew would continue as precautionary measures with some relaxations in different times in different areas depending on the situations," the DC said. Central paramilitary and state security forces since Friday continue to maintain a close watch in the sensitive and mixed population areas of the state capital and its outskirts, including main market places. On Friday and Saturday, three people were killed and many injured in ethnic clashes and attacks by rival groups in East Khasi Hills district and adjoining areas. The ethnic violence was triggered by the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act and the Inner Line Permit. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma ordered an inquiry into these incidents. "A magisterial inquiry has been ordered. The district and police administrations have ensured that enough security personnel were put in place in the affected areas," he said. The Meghalaya Assembly on December 19 last year had unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Centre to promulgate the ILP in the remaining areas of the state to keep the entire state out of the purview of the CAA, but the Union Home Ministry is yet to issue the statutory notification in this regard. The northeastern state had witnessed violence in December over the issue of CAA and ILP. Cathay Pacific Airways was today hit by a 500,000 fine by the UK regulator for a mass data breach that saw hackers steal passport numbers, emails and dates of birth from 9.4 million passengers including 111,000 Britons. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found the company had failed to protect the security of its customers' personal data because of its poorly-secured computer systems. Cathay Pacific was hit by a 'brute force' attack in March 2018, with numerous passwords submitted in the hope of eventually guessing correctly, prompting the firm to recruit a cyber-security consultant. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found Cathay Pacific had failed to protect the security of its customers' personal data because of its poorly-secured computer systems The Hong Kong flag carried also informed the ICO, which found that its systems had been entered via a server connected to the Internet, with malware installed to hoover up data. Regulators found a 'catalogue' of failings, including back-up files that were not password defended; vulnerable internet-facing servers; and operating systems that had inadequate virus protection and were no longer supported by the developer. Steve Eckersley, ICO Director of Investigations, said: 'People rightly expect when they provide their personal details to a company, that those details will be kept secure to ensure they are protected from any potential harm or fraud. That simply was not the case here. 'This breach was particularly concerning given the number of basic security inadequacies across Cathay Pacific's system, which gave easy access to the hackers. The multiple serious deficiencies we found fell well below the standard expected. Steve Eckersley, ICO Director of Investigations, said Cathay Pacific had failed to protect its customers 'At its most basic, the airline failed to satisfy four out of five of the National Cyber Security Centre's basic Cyber Essentials guidance. 'Under data protection law organisations must have appropriate security measures and robust procedures in place to ensure that any attempt to infiltrate computer systems is made as difficult as possible.' In July 2019, British Airways was issued with a landmark 183m fine from the ICO for a customer data breach the previous year. The airline reported that it had suffered a cyber attack on its systems in September 2018. The ICO were forced to investigate and found that 500,000 customers had been affected. Personal details, including payment data and addresses, were compromised by the hack, according to the ICO's findings. Part of the scam involved passengers being diverted to a fake website through which their details were harvested by the attackers. The airline began to contact affected customers last year but last year Mr Justice Warby last year granted a group litigation order at a hearing in London, paving the way for a mass legal action against BA. The company was hit by a 'brute force' attack in March 2018, with numerous passwords submitted in the hope of eventually guessing correctly A Cathay Pacific spokesman said: 'We have co-operated closely with the ICO and other relevant authorities in their investigations. Our investigation reveals that there is no evidence of any personal data being misused to date. 'However, we are aware that in todays world, as the sophistication of cyber attackers continues to increase, we need to and will continue to invest in and evolve our IT security systems. 'We will continue to co-operate with relevant authorities to demonstrate our compliance and our ongoing commitment to protecting personal data.' The United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, a U.S. forces spokesman said, the first such attack since a troop withdrawal agreement was signed between the two sides on Saturday. The Taliban fighters were "were actively attacking an (Afghan National Security Forces) checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," said Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan in a tweet. He said Washington was committed to peace but would defend Afghan forces if needed. "Taliban leadership promised the (international) community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments," he said. The airstrike was the first by the United States against the Taliban in 11 days, when a reduction in violence agreement had begun between the sides in the lead up to Saturday's pact. Since the signing, the Taliban had decided on Monday to resume normal operations against Afghan forces, though sources have said they would continue to hold back on attacks on foreign forces. Joe Biden finally added some start power to his ranks as he campaigned Tuesday in Los Angeles, with comedian Keegan-Michael Key saying he was 'all for Joe!' Biden linked up with Key at a Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles, where the comedian was eating said chicken and waffles and sporting a blue 'JOE' shirt. Key then dusted off his well-known impression of President Obama to tell voters, 'I'm all for Joe. Vote for Joe.' Comedian Keegan-Michael Key (left) said Tuesday that he was all in for Joe Biden (right), who he linked up with at a Los Angeles Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles Keegan-Michael Key (left) embraces Joe Biden (right) as the former vice president campaigned in Los Angeles in the hours before California's polls closed on Super Tuesday Joe BIden (left) walks into a Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles alongside Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (right) on Super Tuesday Actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key was eating some chicken and waffles and wearing a 'JOE' t-shirt when Joe Biden entered the Los Angeles restaurant Supporters of Joe Biden wait to get into his campaign rally Tuesday night in Los Angeles, at a venue located right off Obama Boulevard Biden and Key filmed a short video outside as the ex-veep told the comic, 'You're the best man, you are the best.' And Key was spotted at Biden's Super Tuesday rally at the Baldwin Hills Recreation Center - a venue likely picked for its location off of Obama Boulevard in Los Angeles. There's history between Key and the Obama-Biden administration as the comedian performed alongside President Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner. One of his famous bits from his Comedy Central show with Jordan Peele - aptly called 'Key & Peele' - was the character of 'Luther' who was President Obama's 'anger translator.' While Key does his own Obama impression, Peele played Obama in the skits. Biden has been riding a three-day wave that started when he clobbered Bernie Sanders in South Carolina. What happened was unprecedented in Democratic politics, with two of Biden's moderate rivals - Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar - dropping out and announcing endorsements of the former vice president Monday night in Dallas, Texas, on Super Tuesday eve. Voters in 14 states and American Samoa then headed to the polls the next day with a consolidated moderate lane and Sanders and Elizabeth Warren competing for the party's more liberal voters. When polls began closing on the east coast, Virginia and then North Carolina were quickly called for Biden. Sanders only sure win was his home state of Vermont. Sanders eventually added Colorado to his win column. Tennessee and Alabama also went for Biden, showing off the former vice president's strength in the south. He's been especially strong among black voters. By PTI NEW DELHI: Seventeen Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said 16 cases were reported from Japan on the cruise ship and one from the UAE. He said the 16 Indians in Japan are being treated at onshore medical facilities in that country. ALSO READ: 28 positive coronavirus cases confirmed, includes 16 Italian tourists He further said that the government evacuated a total of 766 persons -- 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners -- from China. Similarly, 119 Indians have been brought back to India from the cruise ship in Japan, Muraleedharan said. "Air India has raised a bill of Rs 5.98 crore for operating two special flights to China and an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan, China on its return journey," he said. Muraleedharan said an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan in China on its return journey. Expenditure details are yet to be received from Defence Ministry. "Expenditure details for the special flight from Japan to India - for evacuation is yet to be received from Air India," he said. A murder indictment has been handed down in connection with an inmates death following an assault at the federal prison in Lewisburg. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, 47-year-old Lorenzo Scott has been indicted by a federal grand jury for murder, assault with intent to commit murder and assault with intent to commit seriously bodily injury. Authorities say Scott was an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg on March 25, 2015 when he assaulted his cellmate. He is accused of striking, stomping and inflicting blunt-force trauma to his cellmates head, neck and face, resulting in life-threatening injuries. The cellmate died more than two years after the assault. The additional time in the five years between the incident and indictment was related to the investigation and charging considerations, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert OHara is prosecuting the case. This post has been updated with additional information. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his state's second confirmed COVID-19 case on Tuesday. The 50-year-old man had not traveled to China or other countries at the nexus of the coronavirus outbreak. "We should be paying less. The Fed rate is too high," Trump said in a speech to the National Association of Counties legislative conference followed the central bank's action. On Twitter, the president called for "more easing and cutting." The Fed's decision, however, did not assuage traders or President Donald Trump. After a brief spurt into positive territory, key stock market indexes again declined. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 788 points, a drop of nearly 3 percent. "We saw a risk to the outlook for the economy and chose to act," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in explaining the central bank's decision to chop a half of a percent off interest rates to a target range of 1.00 percent to 1.25 percent. Continued fears among investors about the economic impact of the coronavirus sent U.S. stock prices sharply lower on Tuesday -- even after the Federal Reserve announced an emergency rate cut. Trump is pushing for quick development and deployment of a vaccine, which he discussed Monday with pharmaceutical company executives who came to the White House. Deployment of such a vaccine is at least one year to a year-and-a-half away, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told U.S. senators on Tuesday. At the senate hearing, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said the FDA has been working with a private company to get as many as 2,500 test kits out to laboratories by the end of the week. Health professionals across the country have complained about a lack of adequate testing and missteps by federal authorities, including botching an initial diagnostic test and restricting widespread screening. "I am hearing from people who are sick, who want to get tested, and don't know where to go," said U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from the state of Washington, the location of all nine domestic deaths from the disease. Later in the day, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar explained that a manufacturing issue with the test kits was rectified within the past week. Azar spoke at a roundtable meeting with Trump at the National Institute of Health's Vaccine Research Center. Vice President Mike Pence was also supposed to attend that meeting. Trump said he told Pence to stay on Capitol Hill for the continuing discussions on supplemental funding -- expected to total about $8.5 billion -- for the government's response to the disease outbreak. "We're going to be looking at the uninsured to see if we can help them out," said the president. The top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, told reporters that lawmakers were making good progress and he believes "we will have a bill on the president's desk by the end of this week." Schumer added that a vaccine "should be cost-effective and not out of the reach of average folks." The coronavirus has infected more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,100. Bengaluru, March 4 : It is now a decade since India has been bleeding from a gash on its economys soft underbelly as a result of an avoidable high loss in precious forex earnings. The Karnataka government had in July 2010 put a blanket ban on exports of iron ore and iron ore pellets which was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court too. With this, Karnataka's economy began suffering and India's economic health too took a severe browbeating. According to estimates, in the last 10 years the total revenue loss to the Government is estimated to be over Rs 10,000 crore in the form of license fee, royalty, and duties. Closure of the 166 iron ore mines in Karnataka's Bellary, Chitradurga, and Tumkur districts since 2011 has affected 8 lakh people's jobs indirectly. If exports were to restart, the state can well ensure a creation of minimum 40,000 direct additional jobs in the state. Surely, a figure that today's economic situation in the country could hugely benefit from. The situation for forex earning potential is all the more worrying since the present ore prices are depressed as compared to what they were even six months ago. The prices have come down from $150 per tonne to around $105 per tonne now, which is almost by a third. Another brutal dent in the opportunity cost and a massive blow to the Karnataka miners and to the state's revenue too. The installed capacity of pellet plants in Karnataka is about 7 million tonnes per annum and 14 million tonnes of low-grade iron ore fines are in stock, all of which can be converted to pellets. Since the steel industry does not use low-grade iron ore fines, pellets post conversion of fines are good export potential. As a result of unfair policy-level restrictions, the sale of iron ore from Karnataka mines has fallen sharply, with domestic steel producers buying the commodity from Chhattisgarh and Odisha instead of sourcing iron ore from within Karnataka. Due to this, there is a huge pile-up of unsold stock of iron ore in Karnataka causing another major loss to the state directly. Karnataka is the only state in the country which bans iron ore exports and the miners are forced to sell only to a very few dominant customers who on the other hand are free to import iron ore or buy from other sources including from captive mines. The lifting of the ban will also greatly benefit the logistics and the transportation sector which have been suffering for these last 10 years. It may be recalled that the ban on exports among other severe mining restrictions imposed in Karnataka was first imposed by the Central government to rein in illegal miners and those flouting environmental norms. Lakhs of livelihoods have become deeply affected due to policies related to production cap, e-auction, and other such arbitrary restrictions which have achieved nothing but a continued and festering stagnation in the state's iron ore industry and an assault on its citizen's livelihoods. The outbreak of the highly-infectious COVID-19 coronavirus disease has led to the introduction of new innovations aimed at reducing human-to-human contacts as well as contact with potentially-infectious surfaces, especially in public spaces. In China, where the virus is known to have originated, engineers have developed a robot named Xiao Bao, which is remotely controlled by health workers to move around restricted wards at hospitals where suspected and infected patients are staying to deliver food and medicines while avoiding human contact. Previously trained in the field of nursing, Wendy Kessie, now a final year business student at Pentecost University College in Accra, has introduced 'Safe Girl,' a urinary device purposely designed to aid females to urinate while standing to avoid contact with toilet seats. According to the student entrepreneur, the decision to introduce the product into the Ghanaian market stems from careful observation and concerns about conditions at public washrooms in some of the busiest public facilities in Ghana which she found extremely alarming. She said, even though Ghanaian women stand the risk of contracting all types of dangerous diseases from using public toilets, her urinary device, presents the perfect hack, due to its simple, spill-proof, antibacterial and reusable qualities. She said, the purpose of her organisation, Memorata Ghana, is to empower young women to prioritise their personal health and safety needs while working to provide innovative solutions to some of the major health challenges in the country. She called on Ghanaian parents to encourage their daughters to venture into entrepreneurship, adding that it will boost their confidence to develop themselves and achieve financial freedom. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans long a reliable voting bloc for Democrats made up a disproportionately high 9 percent of the electorate in the Super Tuesday contests, and more than 40 percent of them voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. The poll, which was conducted in 12 of the 14 Super Tuesday states, found that slightly less than 1 of every 10 voters identified as "LGBT." In addition to the 42 percent of such voters who went for Sanders, I-Vt., 22 percent backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts meaning two-thirds of all LGBT votes went to the two most progressive Democrats on the ballot. The two most competitive centrists in the race, former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, got 19 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who had been the only openly gay candidate in the race, received 6 percent of the LGBT support, as he suspended his campaign Sunday after early voting had commenced in several states. Non-LGBT voters, on the other hand, backed Biden at 34 percent, Sanders at 31 percent, Warren at 13 percent and Bloomberg at 12 percent, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. (Note: The data in this story are current as of 12 a.m. ET. Additional results published later on Wednesday may cause the final NBC News Exit Poll numbers to shift.) Democrats: Historically 'more inclusive' LGBTQ voters lean heavily Democratic: In 2016, 78 percent backed Hillary Clinton for president, and in 2018, 82 percent voted for their districts' Democratic House candidates. Andrew Flores, a political science professor at American University, said there's an obvious reason: "The Democratic Party historically has been more inclusive than the Republican Party," particularly when it comes to "LGBT people and LGBT rights." Sanders, for instance, supported same-sex civil unions in Vermont when he was a member of Congress in 2000 when more than a dozen states still criminalized gay sex. Story continues Image: Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 The historical support for Democrats helps explain why, in 11 of the Super Tuesday states, LGBTQ voters turned out in the Democratic contests at roughly double their states' estimated LGBTQ populations. Overall, 9 percent of all Super Tuesday Democratic voters identified as LGBTQ in a country where less than half that, an estimated 4.5 percent, do so. Joanna Wuest, a Princeton University postdoctoral fellow researching politics, said it's "no surprise" that LGBTQ voters by and large chose the two most liberal Democratic candidates, in part because their young age as a cohort places them at a unique economic crossroad. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics "Due to the worsening economic status of many folks under 30 and the economic disparities that exist in the LGBTQ population across ages, it would be no surprise if these voters were working class or downwardly mobile professional types who have come to support redistributive policies like single-payer health care, a federal jobs guarantee or a student loan debt-forgiveness program," Wuest said. Toby Brooks, 30, a gay man who voted for Sanders in California's primary, said he is a bit of a "one track" voter and chose Sanders because of his view that Sanders has the best plan to address climate change. "When it comes to LGBT issues, his [pro-LGBTQ] record kind of makes questions of his queer policy nonexistent," Brooks added. "I don't really have to think about his support for queer people in any regard." Brooks said he thinks LGBTQ voters flocked to Sanders' revolutionary message because so many have had to "understand how to live within systems of oppression" because of the experience of homophobia. "You have no interest in upholding anything that intersects with the systems that oppressed you," Brooks said. Jeff Freitas, 49, president of the California Federation of Teachers and a gay supporter of Warren, said he likes the senator's "position on education, her position on labor and her position on LGBTQ issues," which he learned about from candidate questionnaires that are distributed through interest groups like unions. "She had the best responses," Freitas said, although he added that if she does not prevail, he will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is. "It will definitely be blue," he said of his presidential pick. Reggie Menenses, 51, a gay man from Fairfax County, Virginia, was among the 19 percent of LGBTQ people who backed Biden. Menenses said he remembered fondly when Biden came out for gay marriage in 2015, ahead of President Barack Obama. "He kind of spilled the beans," Menenses said. Menenses, originally a Buttigieg supporter, decided to back Biden after Buttigieg threw his support behind the former vice president. "I knew that he would be friends to LGBTQ causes and be a uniter and bring some unity back to a divided country," he added. LGBTQ voters: Younger and more liberal Reflecting changing generational attitudes about sexuality and gender identity, LGBTQ Democratic voters are substantially younger than today's electorate as a whole. Over a third of LGBTQ people voting on Super Tuesday are younger than 30, while 65 percent are under 45. As for non-LGBTQ Super Tuesday voters, 12 percent are younger than 30, while 36 percent are under 45. LGBTQ Super Tuesday Democratic voters are a strikingly liberal group: 48 percent identified as "very liberal," 31 percent as "somewhat liberal," 17 percent as "moderate" and just 4 percent as "conservative." Non-LGBTQ voters, on the other hand, identified most frequently as "somewhat liberal" (37 percent), followed by "moderate" (31 percent), "very liberal" (23 percent) and "conservative" (9 percent). Looking at the country as a whole, an estimated 9 million LGBTQ people are registered to vote in the 2020 election, according to a report published in October by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Of these voters, 50 percent, or 4.5 million, are registered Democrats, 15 percent are Republicans, 22 percent are independents and 13 percent are unsure. While Sanders has the lead among LGBTQ voters in the primary season so far, Flores said whoever the Democratic candidate is will likely get a boost from the community in November. "LGBT voters will skew young, will skew more progressive and also likely reflect a greater level of racial and ethnic diversity," he said all characteristics that suggest that a voter is more likely to vote for a Democrat. Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram Virus May Appear to Iranians to Be Divine Justice Commentary The virus could bring down the regime in Iran. Really. And it would be entirely in keeping with the countrys traditions. The Iranian people are used to being lied to, and the virus is only the most recent example. As of March 4, there are almost 3,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections in Iran, and the tempo of spread is increasing. The holy city of Qom is the hardest-hit, and demonstrations have been widespread, having reached medical centers. Twitter had several videos of people passing out in streets and stores, and there were reports of high-ranking officials diagnosed with the virus. The Trump administration offered medical treatment for infected persons in Iran, but the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dismissed the offer, claiming the disease didnt constitute a serious threat to public health, and then lying about U.S. sanctions. The claim to help Iran in dealing with corona from a country who with their economic terrorism has created widespread pressure for the people of Iran and even closed the paths for buying medicine and medical equipment, is a ridiculous claim and a political-psychological game, Abbas Mousavi, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, said. So the regime leaders lie about the disease, as they lie about everything else. Medical supplies have never been blocked by the Trump administration, and are not blocked today. A clinic in Bandar Abbas was torched, ostensibly because patients from Qom were being housed there. Two high-ranking officials of the regime have died of the virus, and a number of others are reported to have it. Over the weekend, the main international terminal in Tehran was empty. Throughout the Islamic Republic, armed forces were patrolling the streets, purportedly to stem the flow of disease, but in reality, they were putting down demonstrations against the failed state. The editors of the Free Iran Herald report (via Gateway Pundit) wrote: Suppressing the masses anger, rather than tending to public health, seems to be the only thing that Tehrans officials are doing. On Sunday, March 1, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basji units poured into the streets of Iranian cities, with trucks bearing water cannons, claiming that they were going to fight coronavirus and that they would not return to their bases until the epidemic had passed. Of course, everyday Iranians knew this was really done in order to prevent new anti-regime demonstrations from commencing. Its apparently just a matter of time before the Islamic Republic fades away. Or crashes. Only a few weeks ago, Iran was the dominant power in neighboring countries, but the virus is tearing apart these efforts. Tawfiq Allawi resigned as prime minister of Iraq, throwing the country into political chaos, and there were daily funerals for dead Hezbollahis in Lebanon. The editors of Free Iran Herald wrote: The regimes inattention to the peoples health stands in contrast to how well they treat their own. On Saturday, 10 clerics who had contracted coronavirus in Qom, where the outbreak is most intense (over 200 coronavirus deaths in Qom alone), were transported to the Towhid Clinic in Bandar Abbas, along the shores of the Persian Gulf, so that they could feel better by being in a warmer climate. Residents of Bandar Abbas, enraged not only by the fact that the clerics were taking needed hospital beds away from them, but also by the reality that bringing the clerics there increased their risk of becoming infected, took to the streets and set the clinic on fire. Khamenei swore that the regime had been candid about the virus from the beginning, and added that there were countries worse off than Iran, for which Iranians were praying. Iranian military forces were ordered to combat the virus, although it wasnt immediately obvious how military power could thwart a rapidly expanding pandemic. Nor was it obvious how the regime could prevent the pandemic. Prisoners were released on a temporary basis, under the pretext of containing the virus, but for the most part, this was done in exchange for cash. Given the regimes desperate need for money, and the prospect that such deals could be repeated as long as the families money held out, it made good sense for the captors to use any excuse to lay their hands on the victims savings. There was also widespread skepticism at official announcements of high-ranking victims of the coronavirus, as for example Ramezan Pourghassem, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Land Forces counterintelligence unit. The people of Iran suspect some of these people are well, but pretending to be ill so that they can stage a miraculous recovery, which would be evidence of divine favor. The regimes multiple schemes may well backfire. Should Khamenei contract the virus, the people may well read the event as divine revenge on a religious kleptocracy most Iranians despise. If that happens, the next wave of demonstrations may bring a new generation to power in Iran. Michael Ledeen is a freedom scholar at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has served as a consultant to the National Security Council and the departments of State and Defense, and as a special adviser to the secretary of state. He is the author of 35 books, most recently Field of Fight: How to Win the War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, co-authored with retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Dangelis Chambers, 29, of Urbana sits with his attorney during the first day of testimony in his trial on charges of first-degree murder Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at the Champaign County Courthouse in Urbana. A man who struck his girlfriends mother in the face during a late-night row has been sentenced to four months imprisonment. The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman, who is aged in her 60s, at her home on the southside of Limerick city in the early hours of February 17, 2018. Sergeant Michelle Leahy said gardai were alerted to a disturbance at 2.10am and that when they arrived at the womans house a short time later, she was bleeding from her mouth. The defendant, she added, was located a short time later hiding behind a wall at the rear of the property. Judge Mary Larkin was told the woman lost a number of teeth as a result of being struck and she commented that the contents of a victim impact statement which was submitted to the court made for difficult reading. Solicitor Tom Kiely said his client, who works as a labourer, has struggled with alcohol addiction and that he was intoxicated on the night having consumed eight cans and five pints. Read also: Man whose barring order from Limerick estate expired is jailed after returning and causing havoc Its a very unfortunate incident, he is ashamed and embarrassed, the solicitor told the court. Mr Kiely added that his client is no longer in a relationship with the womans daughter. Mr Kiely submitted that what happened occurred in a moment of stupidity and that he has not come to the attention of gardai since the incident. The 23-year-old, the court heard, has six previous convictions and was previously ordered to carry out community service having been convicted in relation to a separate assault incident. Imposing sentence, Judge Larkin described what happened as appalling and she commented that the defendant has not shown any remorse. What kind of person would strike an elderly woman in the mouth and knock her over? she asked at which point the accused man interjected while standing in the public gallery. Addressing the judge he insisted he had not punched the woman stating that she had fallen over when he pushed her. Referring to the contents of the victim impact statement, the judge noted that a lot of damage was inflicted and that the incident had caused the victim a lot of hurt and upset. She also commented that she was not impressed with the defendants attempt to justify his actions on the night. Leave to appeal the severity of the sentence was granted. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday asked fair trade regulator CCI to initiate again the probe against e-commerce major Flipkart for an alleged use of its dominant position. A three-member bench of the NCLAT headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has set aside the earlier order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in this regard. Earlier, the CCI had absolved e-commerce major Flipkart of unfair practices using its dominant position. The appellate tribunal has directed the CCI to ask its probe arm Director General (DG) to investigate into the allegations. "We set aside the order passed by CCI...," the bench said adding that the fair trade regulator "is directed to initiate probe againstFlipkart". The NCLAT said that the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has successfully made its case here. While, Flipkart said it was waiting for the copy of the order passed by the NCLAT. "We understand that the NCLAT has issued an order in relation to the AIOVA appeal. We are currently awaiting a copy of the order," a Flipkart spokesperson said. In November 2018, the AIOVA had approached the CCI alleging abuse of market dominance by e-commerce major. The AIOVA had alleged abuse of market dominance against Flipkart India Pvt Ltd, which is into wholesale trading/distribution of books, mobiles, computers and related accessories, and e-commerce marketplace Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd. It had alleged that small vendors have become allies of the big vendors and suppliers to leading sellers such as Cloudtail, WS Retail, etc on the Flipkart and Amazon platforms, rather than selling directly to consumers through the online e-commerce marketplace sites. However, passing an order on November 6, 2018, the CCI had held that the business practices of Flipkart and Amazon are not in violation of competition norms and rejected allegations of abuse of market dominance made by the AIOVA. The CCI had ruled that looking at the present market construct and structure of online marketplace platforms in India, "it does not appear that any one player in the market is commanding any dominant position at this stage of evolution of market". The AIOVA, as mentioned in the CCI order, is a group of over 2,000 sellers selling on e-commerce marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc. Earlier in February this year, in a different matter, the High Court of Karnataka had stayed the CCI investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour by two e-retailing majors Amazon and Flipkart for a period of eight weeks. The CCI had ordered a probe into Amazon Seller Services and Flipkart Internet, units of the two e-commerce marketplaces, on January 13 after receiving complaints from trader body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At 77, Amitabh Bachchan is super good-looking and fit. And that's because he looks after himself and religiously exercises and works out. And today, the actor revealed how he lifted a little more than he should have and thereby pushing himself a little too much. The actor took to Twitter to express what he had experienced in the gym in the form of a poem. Read it below. Aaj gym mein kuch zaroorat se zyada daba, chala, utha liya. Mann ne jo bola, himmat kar ke, use ek sthaan diya. Ab ratri bela mein kuch karvatein pad rahi hai aati dheeli. Pratah pata chalega kaun maanspeshiyaan pad gayi hai neeli" (During my gym session today, I stretched and walked, lifted a little too much. Went with my mood and did this with courage. Now, turning on the bed is a bit of an effort. We will know in the morning, which muscles have turned blue). T 3457 - gym , , , , (cont) https://t.co/LLBLMGr460 Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) March 2, 2020 One thing is for sure, Amitabh Bacchan does have a way with words because he can make something as basic as over-exercising in the gym full of nostalgia and relatability. And that's also why we will always be stalking his Twitter feed because hidden gems in the form of tweets are plenty. Survivors praise God after deadly tornado kills at least 23 in Alabama Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Survivors praised God following a powerful tornado in Alabama Sunday that left catastrophic damage, at least 23 dead and another 20 still missing as of Monday. Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said at a news conference Monday that most of the destruction is concentrated along Alabama Highway 51 in Beauregard that is about a half-mile wide. "It looks almost as like someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground. There are slabs where homes formerly stood," he told reporters. "Whole forested areas, trees are just snapped and lying on the ground." Delrico Eiland shared a video on Facebook of his 72-year-old aun, Earnestine Reese, after her house was destroyed along with her daughters trailer in Beauregard. In the video, according to CNN, Reese, who suffered a broken hip and will undergo surgery on Monday, tells her grandson, Kingston Frazier, via FaceTime, that she thanks God for sparing her life even though she lost her house. I thank the Lord. You tell God, Thank you, God. You hear me? You hear me? Tell God thank you. Tell God thank you, Reese tells her grandson. Another grandmother, who said she was home alone with her dog Ginger when the tornadoes hit, wept as she was reunited with her young granddaughter. Can you say Thank you God? she told her granddaughter in a touching video highlighted by CBS News. Its like a war zone. I knew it was bad but I just didnt know how bad. We sat in the closet for a long time. Didnt know cause when I went in, the door was open and then it was closed tight and I didnt have a roof. So I didnt know if I opened it what would fall, if anything would fall, the emotional woman told a reporter. Jones confirmed the latest death toll with WRBL-TV while noting that two people were in intensive care. "Unfortunately, our toll, as far as fatalities, does stand at 23 at the current time," Lee said. The countys coroner, Bill Harris, told AL.com that the ages of the dead range from children to the 80s. He also told CNN's New Day that more than a dozen people may not be accounted for. "We could have as many as 20 that may not be accounted for right now," he said Monday. Harris warned that this number could change, as it includes tornado victims who may have fled from the storm and just haven't been able to check in with family yet. A search for the missing is still underway. Jones told WRBL-TV on Sunday that families in the area had lost everything they ever had. Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, told Fox 5 that about 150 first responders had quickly jumped in to help search debris after the tornado hit Beauregard. Reacting to the devastation Sunday night, President Donald Trump wished the victims blessings from God. To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all! he said in a statement on Twitter. The Indonesian government on Wednesday ordered the closure of Adi Soemarmo International Airport in central Java after Mount Merapi erupted ashes up to 6 kilometers into the air a day before, a local official said. The eruption lasted about eight minutes, according to Indonesia's Geology and Volcanology Research Agency. Authorities here also warned people to not venture within three-kilometers radius around the volcano. The 2.930-metre mountain, located near the cities of Yogyakarta and Solo, is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its eruptions in 2010 killed over 350 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dr. Panossian moves into a new state of the art Pasadena office Andre Panossian MD Plastic Surgery has recently moved from its Beverly Hills office to a new surgical center in Pasadena. The state-of-the-art office is located on the top floor of a newly constructed building situated near the Huntington Memorial Hospital Campus. The facility is conveniently located in the same building as a brand new, fully-accredited surgical center staffed by licensed anesthesiologists and nurses. Dr. Panossian sees the move to the new Pasadena office as an opportunity to serve his patients more effectively and to allow for the best possible experience before, during, and after each procedure. Many out-of-town patients who see Dr. Panossian are able to return home or to their hotel on the same day as their procedure. However, an overnight stay at a nearby post-surgical recovery facility is sometimes advised. Dr. Panossian personally recommends Trinity Aftercare at the luxurious Langham Huntington Hotel when recovery assistance is needed. The facility is situated nearby in a beautiful suburb of Pasadena. Another option for patients who require post-surgical care is to have a nurse stay overnight in their home or hotel room. Dr. Panossian is also on staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where patients requiring close medical attention following surgery can be admitted. Dr. Andre Panossian is a board-certified and internationally-acclaimed LA plastic surgeon specializing in rhinoplasty, facial aesthetics, and body contouring. In addition to cosmetic surgery, he also treats a variety of medical conditions such as facial paralysis, neurofibromatosis, pediatric plastic surgery, and vascular birthmarks. With the new location, Dr. Panossian adds a licensed aesthetician to his roster and now offers high end non-invasive treatments such as Morpheus8, Forma RF skin remodeling, DiamondTome microdermabrasion, Lumecca IPL, VI Facial Peel, and spider vein laser treatments. A new signature facial is also offered, incorporating the very best skin products from the aesthetic industrys top performing manufacturers. The doctor has a deep passion for helping children with birth defects and works with charitable organizations to provide medical assistance and complex reconstructive surgery to underprivileged youth. He is on the Board of Directors for Mending Kids and the Gondobay Manga Foundation and works closely with Operation Smile. He has been featured as a Top Doctor in the US News and World Report, Los Angeles Magazine, and Pasadena Magazine. Dr. Panossian has also worked on several television shows, including The Doctors, Greys Anatomy, and Nip/Tuck as a medical consultant. For the past ten years, he has been nominated as a Super Doctor by his colleagues. Dr. Panossian belongs to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. He is also a member of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery. Andre Panossian MD Plastic Surgerys new Pasadena office is located at 39 Congress St #402, Pasadena, CA 91105. For more information, contact 800-958-3778 or visit https://drpanossian.com/. The mother of a terrorist who killed 14 people in a 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence by shredding a map her son may have used to plan the massacre. Rafia Sultana Shareef, 66, of Corona agreed to plead guilty to a charge of intending to impede a federal criminal investigation by altering, destroying and mutilating records, the US attorney's office announced Tuesday. The crime carries a potential 20-year federal prison sentence. But under the plea agreement, Shareef is expected to receive no more than 18 months when she is be sentenced in US District Court in Riverside. Shareef, also known as Rafia Farook, is the mother of Syed Rizwan Farook. He and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire with semiautomatic rifles on a Christmas party gathering of Farook's colleagues at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health on December 2, 2015,. They shot dead 14 people and wounded 22 others before fleeing the scene. They were killed hours later in a shootout with police. Rafia Sultana Shareef, 66, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence by shredding a map her son may used to plan his attack Syed Rizwan Farook (left) and his wife Tashfeen Malik (right) shot and killed 14 people during a Christmas party in San Bernardino on December 2, 2015 Farook and Malik fled the scene of the massacre and were killed hours later in a shootout with police. The SUV they were driving is pictured after the confrontation At the time, Shareef was sharing a Redlands home with her son, his wife and their 6-month-old daughter. On the morning of the shooting, Farook and Malik left the home, telling Shareef that they were going to a medical appointment, prosecutors said. Instead, they drove to the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino and attacked the party. After Shareef learned that law enforcement had identified her son as a suspect in the attack, she went into his bedroom, 'grabbed at least one document that appeared to be a map, and fed it into a shredder,' the US attorney's office said. 'Shareef admitted that she knew her son had produced the document, and she believed it was directly related to his planning of the IRC attack,' the statement said. San Bernardino County employees hold up photos of the shooting victims during a candlelight vigil on December 7, 2017 DailyMailTV obtained exclusive photos of Shareef back in December, just days after the four-year anniversary of the massacre DailyMailTV obtained exclusive photos of Shareef back in December, just days after the four-year anniversary of the massacre. She was seen arriving at a mosque in Corona with her other son Syed Raheel, 34, and her husband Syed Sr., 70, were there for afternoon prayers. Approached by DailyMailTV, Shareef refused to discuss her mass murderer son but said she was doing 'okay' four years on. The mother has always insisted that she did not notice Farook and Malik's increasing radicalization or have any idea of their plans - even though the couple built some of the small bombs later used in the massacre at the home. In addition to the destruction of evidence charge, Shareef was battling the Justice Department over Farook's $280,000 life insurance policy, of which she was the primary beneficiary. Insurers Minnesota Life Insurance paid out shortly after the attack but the funds were held by court after the Justice Department attempted to have the cash seized as proceeds of crime. She said that because she did not know her son was going to commit an act of terror, there is no reason for the money not to be paid. Meanwhile, Syed Raheel and his wife Tatiana are set to be sentenced later this year after pleading guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud in January 2017. They face a maximum sentence of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. The immigration convictions relate to a sham marriage arranged by Syed Raheel for his wife's sister Mariyah with terror accomplice Enrique Marquez Jr, 27. Marquez Jr is currently serving 25 years in federal prison after admitting to purchasing guns that were later used in the attack. Prominent business leaders are set to meet with students in an entrepreneurship program at Cayuga Community College. Middle and high school students from local school districts are involved in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a 30-week program in which the students have been preparing to begin their own businesses. A CEO roundtable event, which is open to the public, is being held Thursday in the student lounge in CCC's Auburn campus, according to a news release from the college. The idea behind the roundtable is to have students learn from local business people and "provide students with essential advice and experience," the news release said. Economic development group LOCATE Finger Lakes, which gave the students $1,000 scholarships, organized the event. Mike Nozzolio, a former state senator and chairman of the board of directors for LOCATE Finger Lakes, praised those involved with the roundtable in the news release. The greater Cayuga County business community is filled with bright, successful leaders with plenty of experience, and we appreciate our CEOs meeting with the YEA! students, Nozzolio said. I applaud Cayuga Community College President Dr. Brian Durant for his vision in recognizing the incredible potential of YEA!, and I thank Lyons National Bank Chairman of the Board and CEO Bob Schick for sponsoring our YEA! program. This spring, the students will pitch their ideas to possible investors for start-up funding and formally start their business ventures. The academy program began at the University of Rochester in 2004 to help students build entrepreneurial skills with the assistance of instructors and local business leaders, the release said. The students make their own proposals, do market research, create a business plan and present their plans to investors in the hopes of securing funding. The business people who will be featured in the roundtable are: Bruce Sherman, director of development for Sessler Wrecking Inc., who previously served as economic development specialist for the Cayuga County Development Agency. Paul Lattimore Jr., president of the Paul L. Lattimore Jr. Agency and a local business leader for more than 50 years. Joseph Calarco, regional sales coordinator for AFLAC Insurance and an active community member. Jerry Goodenough, vice president of development for Heorot Power Richard Ward, a certified public accountant with Cuddy & Ward. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A woman in her 30s who recently travelled to northern Italy has been confirmed as New Zealand's second case of coronavirus. The health ministry announced on Wednesday that the Auckland woman received a positive test for the virus, and is self-isolating in her home. The woman's partner has also displayed symptoms and is being tested. Scroll down for video Tourists wear medical face masks while visiting the Coliseum in Rome on March 2 Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the woman 'has been feeling unwell and has been largely at home'. 'What they need is support and understanding. Our task is to ensure they have all the support and health care they need,' Dr Bloomfield said. Health officials are now tracing the woman's movements and close contacts in a bid to prevent further spread of the rapidly-expanding virus. They have published the details of three recent flights the woman has taken and are attempting to contact fellow travellers on those flights. The woman has a family member at two north Auckland High Schools. They are not displaying symptoms but are also being isolated as a precaution. Nurses and doctors swab patients to run a saliva test on a possible infected patient for COIVD-19 RIVM in an isolation room in a hospital Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said public health officials had moved very quickly but she would 'absolutely understand' nervousness in the community. 'We have experienced these situations before, the last was in 2009, and we are equipped to deal with these situations,' she said. '(New Zealanders) have a role to play too. Good hygiene. Stay home when you're unwell. Wash your hands and catch your cough. That makes a difference.' New Zealand last month became the 48th country to record a case of the virus when an elderly person returned from Iran with the disease. They are in a stable and improving condition in an Auckland hospital. New Zealand is yet to have a case of community transmission, with health authorities saying that 'with continued vigilance the chance of widespread community outbreak is expected to remain low'. YEREVAN -- Armenia says it will extend the closure of its border with neighboring Iran, where an outbreak of the coronavirus has killed dozens of people. Speaking during a government meeting about coronavirus prevention on March 2, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said his country will also suspend its visa-free regime for Iranian citizens within the next five days. Pashinian did not say how long the measures will remain in place. The moves came a day after Armenia announced its first confirmed case of the virus, that of a 29-year-old man who recently returned with his wife from Iran. Armenia closed its border with Iran, a hotvspot for the coronavirus in the Middle East, on February 23. Iran's Health Ministry rtported 12 more deaths from the disease on March 2, bringing the total to 66 deaths, while the number of cases in the country has reached 1,501. Many critics and outside experts have expressed concerns that Tehran is severely underreporting the magnitude of the crisis in the country, allegations the government has vehemently denied. With reporting by Reuters HELSINKI, Finland, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amos Rex Art Museum in Helsinki has won the prestigious LCD (Leading Culture Destination) Award for New Cultural Destination of the Year - Europe. The awards, coined "the Oscars for Museums" by the international press, were presented at the annual LCD awards ceremony in Berlin on 4 March 2020. Since opening in August 2018, the Amos Rex Art Museum has made a big impact on the cultural scene in Helsinki, attracting over half a million visitors during its first year. Amos Rex is an art museum where the past, present and future meet. The iconic functionalist Lasipalatsi building (i.e. Glass Palace) and the new gallery spaces under its undulating square, provide 10 000 m2 for unique experiences both below and above ground, as well as on the silver screen of Bio Rex. Amos Rex's exhibition programme extends from the newest, often experimental, contemporary art to 20th-century modernism and ancient cultures. The new museum space was designed by Finnish architecture office JKMM. "We are extremely honoured at Amos Rex to receive the LCD Award for New Cultural Destination of the Year in Europe. It is a significant award for us, as we aim to serve the international public as an art museum, architectural attraction and urban meeting place. We are delighted to see how Amos Rex is contributing to Helsinki's appeal as a cultural city in Europe", says Kai Kartio, Museum Director of Amos Rex. Helsinki- a thriving city of arts and culture Feeding its lively cultural scene, Helsinki continues to position the culture amongst its core values, building on its reputation as an art, design and architecture capital. With residents visiting cultural institutions more than ever before, ambitious initiatives such as the 2018 Amos Rex Art Museum and Oodi Central Library openings demonstrate the city's forward-looking commitment to creativity. Championing local contemporary art and its relationship with the global community, the eagerly anticipated Helsinki Biennial 2020 draws on Helsinki's distinct characteristics and the surrounding archipelago, offering a unique contribution to the international art scene. "Helsinki believes in culture. The city is a diversified and internationally attractive city of arts and culture, with Amos Rex as one of the leading attractions. Working together with cultural institutions such as Amos Rex, the new central library Oodi and the upcoming international art event Helsinki Biennial, we are further strengthening Helsinki's position as a must-visit city of culture", continues Laura Aalto, CEO of Helsinki Marketing. For more information, please contact: Amos Rex Iia Palovaara, Communications Officer +358 50 544 3331 iia.palovaara@amosrex.fi Helsinki Marketing Laura Aalto, CEO +358 40 507 9660 laura.aalto@hel.fi This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/helsinki-marketing/r/amos-rex-in-helsinki-awarded-new-cultural-destination-of-the-year-in-europe-at-lcd-berlin-awards,c3052558 The following files are available for download: Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday accused the BJP of orchestrating a move to "poach" the legislators of his party in Madhya Pradesh, but asserted that Congress government in the state was "completely secure and stable". State minister Jitu Patwari has alleged that BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath government. The BJP has denied the charge. "This is 100 per cent an attempt to poach (MLAs). We are united and our government is stable. We have counted the numbers and there is no threat to the government (in Madhya Pradesh)," the Congress general secretary told PTI. The former Union minister said the incidents that took place late on Tuesday night in Gurgaon near the national capital, were "obviously orchestrated by the BJP." "I have been at work as I was in Gwalior yesterday (Tuesday)... but I can tell you that the government in the state is completely secure," he said. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Macquarie University lecturer has tested positive for coronavirus after returning from Iran. The staff member became ill after returning from the western Asian country. 'Our staff member has not been present at Macquarie University's campus since returning from Iran and has had no contact with either staff or students,' the university said in a statement. A Macquarie University lecturer has tested positive for coronavirus after returning from Iran (university pictured) 'There is no evidence to suggest the aged care worker from Baptist Aged Care who has contracted COVID-19 has done so as a result of contact with a member of the Macquarie University community.' It follows a 95-year-old woman testing positive for the virus earlier on Wednesday - with authorities investigating whether she contracted it from an infected nursing home carer. The elderly woman was living and being cared for at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge care facility at Macquarie Park in Sydney. Passengers in protective face masks to protect themselves from coronavirus at Brisbane International Airport in Brisbane on January 31. Wednesday's confirmed infections mean dozens of vulnerable people may have been exposed to the killer virus There are now fears dozens of vulnerable people may have been exposed to the killer virus. It would be the second death from coronavirus so far in Australia, after James Kwan, 78, from Perth contracted the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. More to come New York, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing Market, By Component, By Application Area, By Vertical By Company, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05843942/?utm_source=GNW ) By Company, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025 Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR of 27% until 2025, owing to the rising volume of data generated through big data analysis and business intelligence leading to collecting data that can optimise overall production systems and processes.Moreover, digital transformations in manufacturing due to new technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence and emergence of intelligent factories with machine-to-machine communications will drive the growth of the market. Based on components of the IoT in Manufacturing market, the services segment is expected to lead the market due to the application of managed services in deploying IoT based on consumer preferences. Based on the vertical, the energy and utilities segment is anticipated to hold the largest market share owing to applications like process optimization, plant automation, etc. Major players operating in Saudi Arabia IoT in manufacturing market include Saudi Business Machines Ltd. (SBM), Zain KSA, Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily), Saudi Telecom Company (STC), MachinesTalk, Cisco Saudi Arabia, Siemens KSA and others. Major companies are launching new services and solutions in order to stay competitive in the market. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2015 - 2018 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Period: 20212025 Objective of the Study: To analyze and forecast the market size of Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market, in terms of value. To classify and forecast Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market based on component, application area, vertical market and regional distribution. To identify drivers and challenges for Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players involved in the solutions and services of Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market. The analyst performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study.Initially, the analyst sourced a list of manufacturers across the globe. Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies.While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors. Through this technique, the analyst could include the service providers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The analyst examined the product types, distribution channels and presence of all major players across the country. The analyst calculated the market size of Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market using a bottom-up approach, wherein data for various end-user segments was recorded and forecast for the future years. The analyst sourced these values from the industry experts and company representatives and externally validated through analyzing historical data of these product types and applications for getting an appropriate, overall market size. Various secondary sources such as company websites, news articles, press releases, company annual reports, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied by the analyst. Key Target Audience: IoT Solution and Service Providers Application Providers and Managed Service Providers System Integrators Organizations, forums and alliances related to IoT in Manufacturing Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Market research and consulting firms The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as solution and service vendors, partners, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities. Report Scope: In this report, Saudi Arabia IoT in Manufacturing market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Market, By Component: Solutions Platforms Services Market, By Solution: Network Management Data Management Device Management Application Management Smart Surveillance Market, By Platform: Device Management Platform Application Management Platform Connectivity Management Platform Market, By Service: Managed Services Professional Services Market, By Application Area: Predictive Maintenance Business Process Optimization Asset Tracking and Management Logistics and Supply Chain Management Real-Time Workforce Tracking and Management Others Market, By Vertical: Energy and Utilities Automotive Food and Beverage Consumer Electronics Healthcare Others Market, by Region: Riyadh Mecca Eastern Province Others Competitive Landscape Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in IoT in Manufacturing Market. Available Customizations: With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: Company Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five). Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05843942/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ SofiaGlobe.comThe European Commission announced on March 4 a proposed action plan that it would put the same day to a special meeting of EU interior ministers, involving steps to be taken by the bloc and its member states to provide critical support to Greece in managing the extraordinary situation at the external borders.The announcement followed visits by EU leaders to the Greek-Turkish and Bulgarian-Turkish borders on March 3.Urgent action is needed to address the immediate challenges faced by Greece at both its land and sea borders with Turkey, and to monitor developments in Bulgaria and Cyprus, the European Commission said.At the same time, structural and sustainable solutions are needed for the EU as a whole. To this end, the Commission intends to soon present proposals for a New Pact on Migration and Asylum.The actions proposed to support Greece include:Member States to provide the assets needed for the launch of two rapid border intervention operations by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) at the land and sea borders between Greece and Turkey.Frontex to coordinate a new return programme for the quick return of persons without the right to stay to countries of origin from Greece.Financial assistance of up to 700 million euro to be provided to Greece. A total of 350 million euro is immediately available to support border and migration management, in particular to support increased reception capacity, voluntary returns and the infrastructure needed to carry out screening procedures for health and security. The Commission will propose an amending budget to make available a further 350 million euro.Member States to respond to the Civil Protection Mechanism call triggered by Greece to provide medical equipment, shelters, tents, blankets, and other necessary supplies.Member States to respond to the call by the European Asylum Support Office to provide 160 experts to be deployed in Greece.In addition, it is important to further strengthen regional and operational cooperation with our partners, the European Commission said.It said that the EU should further develop a co-ordination mechanism with the Western Balkans countries. Status Agreements to be concluded and fully implemented between the Western Balkans and Frontex.Moreover, resolute actions will be taken to step up the fight against smuggling.Separately, the EU announced on March 4 a sum of 170 million euro in humanitarian aid to continue assisting the most vulnerable people in Syria, including 60 million euro to address the humanitarian crisis in north-west Syria.The EU funding announced today will help Syrian population across the country with critical lifesaving assistance. The European Union urges all parties to the conflict to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to people most in need of assistance and to respect the rules and obligations of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, the Commission said.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic concluded their two-day visit to Ankara on Wednesday, where they discussed with Turkish partners the situation in North-West Syria and refugee flows to and from Turkey, the statement said.Borrell and Lenarcic held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vice-President Fuat Oktay.Borrell also met Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu.Lenarcic met Minister of Labour Zehra Zumrut Selcuk, with President of the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) Mehmet Gulluoglu, and with President of Turkish Red Crescent and Vice President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Kerem Kinik.The statement said that Borrell and Lenarcic discussed with the Turkish officials the humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, emphasising that the situation was critical and there was an urgent need to act to stop the military confrontations which are causing extensive humanitarian suffering.Almost one million people have fled their homes due to heavy fighting in north-west Syria. They are facing freezing temperatures with insufficient or no shelter. Civilians and civilian infrastructure such as schools, and hospitals are directly targeted by armed forces. Humanitarian access is urgently needed.Borrell declared readiness of the EU to consider working with Turkey on an approach that would offer a joint political way forward: We have a common interest and that is to end the conflict in Syria.Only in this way will we be able to bring to an end the suffering of the civilian population and contribute to address the most significant challenges Turkey is currently facing. Increased pressure at EU-Turkey border and unilateral actions will not provide answers, Borrell said. The Daily Beast Fox News White House correspondent and perpetual nemesis of Jen Psaki thought he had Joe Bidens press secretary cornered on Monday when he asked her why the president is still referring to COVID-19 as a pandemic of the unvaccinated when so many people are getting breakthrough infections. He was wrong.I understand that the science says that vaccines prevent death, Doocy began, before undercutting that basic truth. But Im triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. Youre triple-vaxxed, still got COVI Another season of school property tax increases is approaching in Pennsylvania, and you can bet that at least 95% of the 500 school districts will be raising taxes many of them above the useless Act 1 limit. Legislators would rather have you sing do that to me one more time, once is never enough while they raise your taxes with a smile on their face, letting the bully-thugocracy continue. The reality is that most state legislators like the system as it is. They enjoy having their campaigns generously financed by the labor unions and large amounts of uncoded contributions. All of this can be verified through FollowTheMoney. org. Just enter your legislators names and you can easily find how much they benefit at your expense. Many of them continue to cite the property tax as a stable way of financing the public schools while theres clear evidence of the opposite. Thousands of delinquent tax claims are filed annually in every county, and some schools cant afford basic essentials like paper. Thats exactly what happened at the Sto-Rox School District in western Pennsylvania. Imagine that, billions of dollars spent annually on public schools in Pennsylvania and yet there are poor struggling districts. Public school funding needs to be modernized by completely eliminating the property tax and removing the tax authority of the school districts, so all districts can be fully and fairly funded without forcing people out of their homes. Ed Kihm Quakertown Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Wednesday told provincial officials that the absence of an opposition party did not mean they could ignore serving the average Cambodian and they needed to address citizens needs. At the inauguration ceremony of a new governor in Kandal province, Sar Kheng said that all officials must maintain the ideals of serving the people and the nation, and to not take senior government roles only for personal benefits. "Dont prepare to position yourselves for opportunists [to take advantage], said Sar Kheng. Without the opposition, the officials could be riding horses freely and that would be a wrong idea, using a Khmer phrase for being lackadaisical. Following the 2017 commune elections, the government arrested opposition leader Kem Sokha and disbanded the CNRP, ensuring that more than 5,000 local opposition officials lost their commune positions. Also, the CPP won all 125 parliamentary seats in 2018 leaving no opposition in parliament. The crackdown was criticized by foreign governments and rights groups, with the European Union partially suspending trade privileges last month and the United States imposing targeted sanctions on Cambodian officials over the last two years. Meas Nee, a political analyst, said without checks and balances, such as a strong opposition, it was unlikely that government officials would find any need to change their outlook to public service. "I think that as long as the political system is still dominated by a top down system, where there is no difference between bureaucrats and politicians, it will be difficult to make the system work, he said. Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday the country was well prepared to contain the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus and that he would not participate in 'Holi Milan' function in the wake of the reports of outbreak of the virus in different places. Shah also appealed to everyone to take all important measures to check the spread of coronavirus. "Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself and your family (sic)," he tweeted. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he has decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme as experts have advised that mass gatherings must be reduced to avoid the spread of coronavirus. Following the prime minister's example, BJP president J P Nadda said he too will not celebrate Holi or hold any Holi Milan function. This year, Holi is on March 10. The home minister said India was well prepared and has taken all precautionary steps to contain the spread of coronavirus. "I request everyone to take all important measures to prevent this. Some basic self-preventive measures are as simple as washing your hands and practising good hygiene," he said. A total of 28 COVID-19 cases were detected in India so far. Among them, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. So far, 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports, over 10 lakh screened at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Received bids for 25.12 crore shares so far till 12:00 IST. The initial public offer (IPO) of SBI Cards and Payment Services received bids for 25.12 crore shares so far today, 3 March 2020, as against 10.02 crore shares on offer, as per the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) website data at 11:45 IST. The issue was subscribed 2.51 times. The issue opened for bidding on Monday, 2 March 2020. It will close for qualified institutional bidders (QIBs) on Wednesday, 4 March, while remaining open till 5 March for all other investors. The price band is Rs 750 to Rs 755 per share. The company on 28 February 2020 raised Rs 2,769 crore from anchor investors, ahead of its initial share sale. The company allotted 3.66 crore shares to a total of 74 anchor investors, including 12 mutual funds, through 48 schemes, at the upper end of the price band at Rs 755. SBI Cards and Payment Services is the second-largest credit card issuer in India with a 18.1% market share of the Indian credit card market in terms of the number of credit cards outstanding end November 2019 and 17.9% market share in total credit card spends in the eight months ended November 2019. The company offers an extensive credit card portfolio to individual cardholders and corporate clients, which includes lifestyle, rewards, travel and fuel, shopping, banking partnership cards and corporate cards covering all major cardholder segments in terms of income profiles and lifestyles. The issue consists of a fresh issue of equity shares (0.66 - 0.66 crore shares) aggregating up to Rs 500 crore and offer for sale of equity shares 13.05 crore equity shares aggregating up to Rs 9789.50-9854.80 crore. The offer for sale comprises 3.72 crore shares by the promoter selling shareholder and 9.32 crore share by the investor selling shareholder. The net proceeds of the fresh issue are proposed to be utilized for augmenting capital base to meet future capital requirements. The net proceeds of the fresh issue are proposed to be deployed in the FY2020. Further, there will be the benefits of listing of the equity shares on the stock exchanges, enhancement of the brand name and creation of a public market for equity shares in India. The offer comprises of employee reservation portion of up to 18,64,669 equity shares and SBI shareholders reservation portion up to 1,30,52,680 equity shares. A discount of Rs 75 per equity share is being offered to eligible employees bidding in the employee reservation portion. SBI Cards and Payment Services reported net profit of Rs 1161.21 crore and total income of Rs 7240.16 crore in the nine-months ended December 2019. Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) were down 1.78% to Rs 284.70. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pie Insurance, an insurtech offering workers compensation insurance to small businesses, has expanded its workers compensation insurance offering to Missouri. The addition increases Pies coverage area to 34 states and the District of Columbia. Pie works directly with small business owners to help them save up to 30%. With the addition of Missouri, the insurtech is on track to provide coast-to-coast coverage by the end of 2020. Pie Insurance provides workers compensation insurance directly to small businesses and also partners with local, regional, and national insurance agencies to provide coverage to their clients. The company began offering policies in 2018 with a goal of helping small businesses experience true savings and an unmatched level of service. Pie operates as a managing general agency for Sirius America Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Sirius Group, offering A.M. Best A (Excellent) rated workers compensation insurance. Pies investors include SVB Capital, Greycroft, Aspect Ventures, Sirius Group, Moxley Holdings, and Elefund. Topics Workers' Compensation Commercial Lines Business Insurance Missouri Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. New Delhi, March 4 : The BRICS Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BRICS CCI) has announced the launch of the BRICS CCI Women's Wing with focus on women empowerment initiatives and policies across geographies. The objective of the women's wing is to create an enabling support system for women entrepreneurs and professionals across geographies. Founded in 2012, BRICS CCI is empanelled with NITI Aayog and recognized by the United Nations. While the BRICS nations will remain at the centre of all activities, the chamber has taken in its credo to reach out to and enable young entrepreneurs from other friendly nations too and bring stakeholders associated with women entrepreneurship across key countries under one platform. The BRICS CCI Women's wing will be led by Shabana Nasim, Governing Body Member, BRICS CCI, Shormishtha Ghosh, Director -- Business Advisory, BRIC CCI and Ruby Sinha, Convenor, BRICS CCI Women's wing and Honourary Advisor BRICS CCI. One stop knowledge hub for women entrepreneurs globally, shetatwork.com will be the knowledge partner for the BRICS CCI Women's wing. An eminent advisory board comprising eminent women professionals from across countries is also being set up. Announcing the launch, Dr B.B.L. Madhukar, Director General, BRICS CCI, said, "We are very pleased to announce the launch of our exclusive wing for enterprising women entrepreneurs and professionals looking at creating a global presence through our advisory and support services. It will be our endeavour to create a supportive eco-system to enable women to realise their full potential which in turn will help in generating employment and growing the economy." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Labor Department will be scaling down deployment of workers to Kuwait over its requirement for expatriates from 10 countries, including the Philippines, to show proof that they are free of the coronavirus disease, officially known as COVID-19. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday that the government would be slowing down the issuance of overseas employment certificates by delaying its release by around a month in a bid to sway Filipino workers away from Kuwait. Its not a retaliatory order, its a practical order. They are requiring so many requirements for our workers, thats giving more burden to our workers. In order to prevent our workers from going there, they might as well go to other countries, Bello said in a press briefing. He said the "many requirements" result in added burden to Filipino workers, which effectively prevents them from going there. "They might as well go to other countries, Bello said. He added that deployment to Kuwait will be scaled back up again if the Middle Eastern country waives the medical clearance requirement. Bello, however, said he has spoken with Foreign Affairs officials to work out an arrangement with Kuwait for it to honor medical certificates from Department of Health hospitals and local health centers, which are issued for free. Kuwait, which has reported 56 cases of the novel coronavirus as of Wednesday morning, announced that expatriates who came from the Philippines, India, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon will need to present proof that they have not been infected with the virus. These certificates must come from health centers approved by Kuwaiti embassies or health authorities in countries covered by the rule. Should they fail to comply with the new procedure, the expatriates will be sent back to their country of origin without the state bearing any financial costs via the same air carrier. The airline company will also be fined for violating Kuwaits order. A partial deployment ban to Kuwait is still in place, with the Philippines only allowing skilled, semi-skilled and professional workers to go back to their employers. Assistance for OFWs The Labor Department, meanwhile, assured that overseas Filipino workers who might get laid off or would want to return home due to the coronavirus outbreak would get assistance from the government. Labor officials said they are seeking an additional 2-billion from the government to fund financial and livelihood assistance packages for returning Filipino workers. Bello said workers who return home from their work abroad would immediately receive 20,000 each. He added that if they stay in the Philippines for good, their children will receive scholarships from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). The OWWA told CNN Philippines that 35 Filipino workers have been terminated in Hong Kong due to the coronavirus outbreak. The semi-autonomous Chinese city has reported 100 cases of the virus and two deaths. The employers of 16 of them have left or are leaving Hong Kong, while the rest have issues regarding their rest days, OWWA said. But Bello downplayed these terminations, saying these are only isolated cases. Yong mga (Those) incidents of some of our workers losing their jobs is because yong mga (their) employers nila are not permanent residents in Hong Kong. So they have to let go of their workers. But its not very hard for them to find another employment, he said. Locally, the Labor Department is also bracing for a possible surge in coronavirus cases and is adopting measures to mitigate the effects of a prolonged outbreak, including encouraging establishments to adopt flexible work arrangements. The Philippines has reported three cases of COVID-19, all of them involving Chinese nationals from Wuhan. Two of them have recovered and returned to China, while one died the first death due to the viral infection outside of mainland China, CNN Philippines Multi-platform Writer Cath Modesto contributed to this report. The effect on the UKs artistic landscape is more worrying. For a European artist, it changes whether they decide to base themselves in the UK rather than just sometimes performing here. And then for UK-based companies regularly touring in Europe, it may be easier to employ EU artists for ease of touring rather than UK ones. The Stage Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Asahan, North Sumatra Wed, March 4, 2020 08:17 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206817de0 1 National scammers,scams,foreign-currency,North-Sumatra Free Two suspected members of a scam syndicate have been arrested by the crime unit of the Asahan precinct police in North Sumatra after allegedly pulling a foreign currency scam. The syndicate had allegedly been operating for years in several major cities in Indonesia. The two suspects, identified as ES and RS, were arrested in Soekarno Hatta Airport in Banten on Monday after allegedly pulling the scam in Asahan. ES, 43, is a resident of Metro Lampung, while RS, 51, lives in Jakarta. Head of the Asahan precinct police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Nugroho Dwi Karyanto, thanked the Banten Police general crime unit for helping apprehend the suspects. Nugroho said one victim, Rumondang, 61, who lives in Asahan, reported that she had lost more than Rp 132 million (US$9,247.50) to the scammers. The scam syndicate consists of four people, two have already been arrested. Another two, one of whom is a foreigner, are still at large, Nugroho told the press at the Asahan Police station on Tuesday. He went on to say that the suspected scammers had operated in seven provinces, adding that their modus operandi was promising victims significant profits if they did business with them. In one case, the scam syndicate allegedly convinced a victim to buy 65 bills of Brazilian real worth Rp 132 million plus several pieces of gold and diamond jewelry, said Nugroho. The syndicate scammed the victim by promising him that the Brazilian real bills were worth Rp 600 million. The alleged scam involved role playing. The scenario started with the foreign national, who is still at large, approaching the victim by asking him for directions to the nearest money changer. Shortly after, RS joined the conversation. The victim was then led by the two con artists to the money changer. In the middle of their trip, however, another scammer, ES, who pretended to be a banker, convinced the three to come with him instead, changing their destination from the initial money exchange to a bank, in which the crime took place. Nugroho said the suspects faced prosecution under Article 378 of the Criminal Code on scams, which carried a maximum punishment of four years' imprisonment. (gis) According to Putins press secretary, Russia has always questioned the objectivity of the investigation team Press secretary of Russias President Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had doubts about the objectivity of the investigation team involved in the investigation into the MH17 catastrophe. It was reported by RIA-Novosti. According to Peskov, Russia has always questioned the objectivity of the investigation team, since the Kremlin was denied the opportunity to participate in the investigation. "You know that we have always questioned the objectivity of the investigative team, because we were deprived of the opportunity to participate in it. Speaking on the courts decisions, we will not anticipate them, we will comment and analyze what happens, we will analyze the level of their proof, the evidence provided, etc.," Peskov said. As we reported earlier, the Netherlands decided to classify the names of 12 witnesses in the case of MH17 disaster. Another one's request was denied. Main Prosecutor of the Netherlands Fred Westerbeke claimed that the investigation left no doubts: the plane was hit by the missile fired from Buk M1, the Russian-made anti-aircraft missile launcher. KASTANIES, Greece Thousands of migrants and refugees searched for ways to cross Greeces border with Turkey on Tuesday, as Athens ramped up its diplomatic efforts for help from the European Union to seal off its eastern land and sea frontiers. Turkey has made good on a threat to open its borders for those seeking to cross into Europe. Many hoping to enter Greece, which has made clear its border is shut, were trying their luck by wading or rowing across the Evros River that runs along most of the land frontier. The action by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered days of violent clashes and scenes of chaos at the land border, while hundreds of others have headed to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast in dinghies. Greece has struggled to push back the wave of migrants, with its armed forces now leading the effort. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis toured the troubled border along with top EU officials, including European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. Mitsotakis said Turkey was breaching a 2016 agreement with the EU on migration and has systematically encouraged and assisted tens of thousands of refugees and migrants to illegally enter Greece. It has failed, and will continue to fail, should it continue to pursue this strategy. This is no longer a refugee problem. This is a blatant attempt by Turkey to use desperate people to promote its geopolitical agenda, he said. The government has called the situation a direct threat to Greeces national security and imposed emergency measures to carry out swift deportations and freeze asylum applications for one month. Migrants have been reporting being summarily pushed back across the border into Turkey. The Greek army and navy held live fire exercises across the eastern border areas for a second day Tuesday to reinforce the message of deterrence. Greek authorities said they had prevented 26,532 people from entering Greece between Saturday morning and Tuesday afternoon, and arrested 218. This is not only a Greek border but it is also a European border, and I stand here today as a European at your side, von der Leyen said. She said those at the borders had been lured by false promises into this desperate situation. The announcement on Turkeys opening of its borders upended Ankaras previous policy of containing refugees under a 2016 agreement with the European Union, in which the EU would provide billions of dollars in funding for the care of refugees within Turkey. Turkey, which hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, has long maintained the EU has not honored the deal. But European countries say thats not the case. Costas Kantouris and Elena Becatoros are Associated Press writers. Jason Fochtman, Staff photographer / Houston Chronicle Montgomery County Animal Control officers seized dozens of animals from a home in The Woodlands after serving a search warrant Tuesday following a report of poor living conditions for the dogs and cats. According to Montgomery County Animal Shelter Director Arron Johnson, 34 cats and seven dogs were seized from a home on Wind Whisper Court. Although an initial assessment showed the animals conditions were not critical, Johnson said the condition of the home was not fit for animals or humans. Washington: Billionaire American businessman Michael Bloomberg has dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party's nomination after spending an unprecedented amount of money on his primary campaign. Bloomberg spent at least $US620 million ($948 million) on his short-lived effort to win the nomination, but failed to win a majority of delegates in any of the Super Tuesday states. Michael Bloomberg is dropping out of the presidential race. Credit:AP The former New York City mayor promptly endorsed former vice-president Joe Biden as the Democrat best placed to take on President Donald Trump in November. "While I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life," Bloomberg said in a statement on Wednesday morning (Thursday AEDT). By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is optimistic it can reach agreement with the European Union over future fishing rights by July as it is not asking for anything extraordinary, environment minister George Eustice said on Wednesday. Britain left the bloc at the end of January and has begun negotiations on a trade deal to govern future ties. The British government wants a separate agreement on fishing which sets out a process for annual negotiations on total catch. The EU wants continued reciprocal access to British waters and longer-term stable fishing quotas, with a deal on fisheries by July 1. "I am optimistic," Eustice told a committee of members from parliament's House of Lords when asked about the prospects of reaching such a deal. "We are not asking for something extraordinary here - we are simply saying that we would like to become an independent coastal state such as Norway." "Access is a powerful card," he added. "Given the resources that are in our waters, we do have a very strong hand." Eustice said it could be possible to have a multi-year agreement on access but that annual negotiations were still "inevitable" because a key determinant in setting total allowable catch for any stock is up-to-date science. He said there would be "some reduction in access" for EU fishermen, particularly in the 6-12 mile zone which he said Britain wanted to reserve predominantly for its own vessels. Asked about the possibility of EU firms simply buying UK- flagged ships, Eustice said Britain planned to ensure foreign-owned, UK flagged vessels were required to land more of their catch in UK ports so the UK got more of the economic benefit. As Britain is prioritising autonomy over alignment, checks such as export health certificates and catch certificates will likely be required, he said. The EU has said access to British waters for EU fishing fleets will determine the shape of the trade agreement in goods but Eustice said the two were separate. Story continues He said that as many EU states are not dependent on access to UK waters it would be "quite a big ask" for those who are to jeopardise a trade deal which would impact countries such as Germany who want access to the UK market for industrial goods. "I am not sure it is sustainable for the EU to hold the position that some member states have been articulating," he said, and did not think it was necessary the talks be characterised by conflict and confrontation. "It is quite possible that we can come to sensible arrangement," he added. (Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Stephen Addison) Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harrys decision to step down as senior working members of the British royal family was very much centered around their unhappiness. It appeared that royal fans nor. U.K. citizens were ever satisfied with anything the Sussexes did. Additionally, the constant media intrusion in their lives got to be overwhelming. Though Megxit was very much a personal decision, it has deeply affected everyone within the British royal family, specifically Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. Since Megxit the Cambridges schedules have only gotten more hectic and theyve been further isolated from the Sussexes. Now, with news of a royal divorce amid Megxit, the Duchess of Cambridge is set to lose another close member of the royal family. Kate Middleton has been having a hard time with Megxit Though shes put on a brave face the Duchess of Cambridge has a lot more on her plate now that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arent shouldering the burden of royal duties. Kates in a panic and has been having bouts of anxiety, an insider told US Weekly. She barely has time to rest, and when she does try to sleep, her mind is constantly racing. Apparently, the duchess schedule is also extremely hectic with 18-hour workdays. William and Kate may have extra responsibilities in the wake of Harry and Meghans move to Canada but neither of them want that to be at the expense of their Foundation, an insider told The Sun. They both work very closely with the team and Kate is sitting in on more and more meetings so she can have an input in the work that is going on. Thankfully, Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex have stepped in to help. Kate Middleton feels like shes lost her friendship with Prince Harry Though Prince Harry and Prince Williams relationship has been strained in recent years, the duchess has always adored her brother-in-law. Now with Megxit, she fears they will never share a close bond again. She wishes she could speak to Harry. She misses him and fears shell never be close to him again, an insider told US Weekly. Unfortunately, because she and the Duchess of Sussex never truly got close, it doesnt look like they ever will. They couldnt be further apart, the source explained. Kate Middleton is losing another royal ally Along with Prince Harry, Middleton is losing another royal ally. Her good friend and cousin-in-law, Autumn Phillips, is divorcing the queens grandson, Peter Phillips. Kate was really good friends with Autumn, royal commentator Angela Mollard explained. In fact, she went to Autumns wedding as one of her first official engagements on her own in 2008 because Prince William was in Kenya. She sort of represented the couple and has been really good friends with Autumn ever since. Its very hard for someone like Kate. Youve got your own direct family and then youve got friends who you would trust, and I dont imagine thered be many of them. You have to know that anything you say doesnt get passed on. The special creed within the Royal Family of non-disclosure means that speaking to someone like Autumn with more depth is refreshing. They have so many shallow conversations every day, they have to speak so generically about everything, she has to think about what shes saying all the time. For Kate, properly talking to someone like Autumn must be incredibly valuable. Being in the Royal Family at times must be incredibly lonely, to have allies is very important. Elizabeth Warren suffered a disappointing night on Super Tuesday: 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved An aide to Elizabeth Warren has said Democratic presidential hopeful is 'talking to her team to assess the path forward', according to reports. Ms Warren is running to be the Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election and is meeting with her aides this morning to reassess her position, sources say. The 70-year-old suffered a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday coming third in the state of Massachusetts, where she serves as senator. Ms Warren has only amassed 50 delegates so far, which is far behind frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on 453 and 382 delegates respectively. In the days leading up to Tuesday, when 14 states including California and Texas hold primaries, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr Biden. These endorsements came after the former vice president came out on top in the South Carolina primary taking 39 delegates, while Mr Sanders took 15. Ms Warren didn't take any delegates from South Carolina, Nevada or New Hampshire and went into the primaries on Tuesday with only 8 delegates. NEWS: A Warren aide says she is "talking to her team to assess the path forward" Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 4, 2020 Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the race this morning after suffering a dismal evening, despite spending more than $500m on his campaign. Mr Bloomberg has since endorsed Joe Biden, adding more momentum to his campaign. The next primaries are on 10 March in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Washington, when the North Dakota Firehouse Caucus also takes place. Read more Why it's wrong to blame Warren for Bernie's Super Tuesday loss An Australian nurse has revealed the dos and don'ts when travelling overseas amid the coronavirus outbreak. Millions of people are heading abroad for their holidays despite travel warnings being issued for a growing number of countries hit by the fast-spreading virus. But if you practice good hygiene throughout your trip, the health care worker said you could protect yourself against COVID-19. From avoiding hand dryers in public bathrooms to keeping dirty clothes away from hotel beds, there are a series of precautions any traveller can take. 'I will admit I am a bit of a clean freak and germaphobe - you'd understand from seeing all the s*** in hospital... but I am a nurse and so hand hygiene is huge for me,' she said in a Facebook travel planning group. An Australian nurse has revealed the dos and don'ts when travelling overseas amid fears of a serious coronavirus outbreak. She warned travellers should never wear their dirty clothes on their hotel beds - and must take a shower immediately after a day of sightseeing (stock image) She warned travellers to never put handbags on beds because you just never know whats been on surfaces in public (stock image) HOTEL ROOMS Following a long day of sightseeing, the nurse - who's currently travelling around Japan with her fiance - said you should never go near the bed until after you have a 'good shower'. 'My dirty outdoor clothes and bags don't touch the bed,' she said. 'I don't get into bed without a good shower. This is also my own rule at home. Dirty clothes don't touch the bed. 'If I am bothered, I do wipe table tops down before I use it. If not, I just wouldn't be touching food or my face after I touched any surfaces.' PHONES AND PERSONAL BELONGINGS Before heading to bed, the nurse said she gives her ring a good clean (stock image) Not only is she cleaning her personal belongings on holiday, but the nurse - who splits her time between Australia and New Zealand - said she's been doing it at home as well for extra precaution. 'We are in the era where we don't ever put our phones down, naturally your phone is dirty and full of bacteria,' she warned. Before bedtime, she religiously cleans her personal items such as her phone and jewellery with alcohol swabs or disinfectant and antiseptic wipes. 'I clean my phone when I get back to the hotel room and it doesn't touch the bed until it is cleaned with the swabs,' she said. 'This goes for anything I'm taking into bed with me like my ring. I take it off and clean it with the swabs before I put it back on. 'Who knows what's been jammed in those little creases?' PUBLIC BATHROOMS She also warned against using hand dryers because it's a breeding ground for bacteria When travelling, the nurse warned not all public bathrooms provide cleaning agents for you to clean your toilet seats. 'When there is one I'd use it but if not, I clean the toilet seats with my own hand sanitisers - with the toilet paper,' she said. 'Most of the time I also put a layer of toilet paper on the seats before I sit down. Again, I'd be washing my hands before and after I go toilet.' She also warned against using hand dryers. 'Don't use them - bacteria thrives in those hand dryers because it contains moisture (water) and warmth. Always use hand towels if it;s there, if not, I just try to shake my hands dry and then use hand sanitiser again.' 'We are in the era where we don't ever put our phones down, naturally your phone is dirty and full of bacteria,' she warned. She advised cleaning phones with alcohol wipes (stock image) Coronavirus: What we know so far in Australia How many cases have been confirmed in Australia? As of March 4, there are 41 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. What is coronavirus (COVID-19)? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can make humans and animals sick. They cause illnesses that can range from the common cold to more severe diseases. Symptoms of coronavirus Symptoms can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly. People with coronavirus may experience: fever flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and fatigue shortness of breath How it spreads There is evidence that the virus spreads from person-to-person. The virus is most likely spread through: close contact with an infectious person contact with droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze touching objects or surfaces (like doorknobs or tables) that have cough or sneeze droplets from an infected person, and then touching your mouth or face How to prevent it Everyone should practice good hygiene to protect against infections. Good hygiene includes: washing your hands often with soap and water using a tissue and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze avoiding close contact with others, such as touching Advertisement HAND HYGIENE The nurse said she packed four tiny bottles of hand sanitisers for her trip - and then bought more in Japan after they ran out. 'We used it before and after toilets and eating mainly,' she said. 'There are many places in Japan now has bottles of hand sanitisers just sitting there for you to use. Being a nurse, I hand sanitise every time I see one, when I think my hands our dirty, before I touch my face, literally just... whenever.' HAND SANITISERS She said she ensures she has hand sanitiser in reaching distance at all times. 'I have two pockets [for drink bottles] on either side of my backpack - for me one side is for water, other side is for hand sanitisers,' she explained. 'It's really not hard to reach around to the side for hand sanitiser instead of going through the bag to find the bottles. Work around it. You'll find a way.' FACE MASKS Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning the use of a face mask alone is not adequate protection against coronavirus, the nurse said you should still consider wearing them, especially in busy areas. 'One per day. We wear it in train stations, on the trains, highly populated areas, indoor and enclosed settings with circulated air etc,' she said. 'When we don't wear it, we fold it to make sure the inside (side that's touching your face) isn't exposed to anything else. 'It can get warm when you're inside, but do you want to get someone else's germs or sacrifice a little and be safe?' She insisted travellers should always take extra precautions outdoors because there's potentially people - who are unaware they are carrying the virus - in public places not wearing a face mask. 'I understand that WHO has said to not wear masks if you are well - but if you are sick, wear the masks. First of all... does 100 per cent of the people on this planet follow the rules? No,' she said. 'Not everyone who's unwell will wear a mask. So yes, I'd still wear a mask around.' NASHVILLE, Tenn. Nashville-area residents are reeling after the second-deadliest tornado event in Tennessee history tore through their homes and killed at least 24 people early Tuesday. Corey Quinlan said in an interview that he, his wife and their son were barely able to find proper shelter before a tornado hit their house. Quinlan, who described himself as a lifelong worrywart, said he was sitting outside after the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch when he saw the wind pick up in the distance. He immediately yelled to his wife and went to find his son, Sid, so they could run into their basement for safety. "As we're running from his room to the basement, the roof is sucking up," Quinlan said. "So I'm looking at my son running towards me, and I'm looking behind him, and the roof is going in the sky and debris everywhere. I mean, I've never seen so much particles flying in the air." Together, the family huddled for about 20 minutes while the tornado passed over them. "All you could hear was crashing. You didn't know what it was, what was breaking, what was coming down. It was just loud," Quinlan said. "I mean, when we were walking down the stairs, I could feel the atmospheric pressure change. My ears popped." Image: Tennessee tornado Quinlan said that if he had waited just a few more seconds to alert his wife to the tornado, they might not have made it out alive. "I'm letting that sink in a little bit, but yeah," he said. "It definitely was a miracle, because, I mean, that's where we sleep. That's where he sleeps." The family is unsure what will happen in the coming days, but Quinlan is trying to stay positive knowing that his wife and son are alive. Everything else is replaceable, he said. Download the NBC News app for breaking news Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who declared a state of emergency Tuesday, called the devastation heartbreaking. But Lee also noted his pride in how survivors have banded together to help their fellow Tennesseans amid the destruction. Story continues "In the worst of circumstances, the best of people comes out, and that's what we're seeing here in Tennessee," Lee said at a news conference Tuesday. "It is as we would expect." Shani Nokes was lucky enough that her family's home wasn't terribly damaged. She decided to bring her 11-year-old son, Josiah, with her to help those who were less fortunate and clean up the wreckage in their neighborhood. "Well, we are firm believers in helping others and serving others, and the only way to get them used to doing it and making it part of their lives is to bring them out when they're young," Nokes said. It was sad to see their friends lose their homes, but Josiah said he was happy to help with the cleanup. "A good Samaritan, everybody helps you and you help everybody," Josiah said. Chris Folsom worked with a group of people in his neighborhood to help save an elderly couple who were trapped in their home. Folsom said they had to climb in through the couple's window after the devastation of their home left the door inaccessible. "There was debris all on the ground and insulation and into the bedroom, they're laying the elderly couple and the ceiling had fallen on top of them," Folsom said. "So they're just laying there with the ceiling on top of them." Folsom said he didn't even think before going to help the group of strangers extricate the couple. He's sure that the people who were helping had their own losses but still went out to lend a hand. "I mean, people just show up in your yard and start cleaning up debris and saws and, you know, just doing work," Folsom said. "They don't know you. They don't ask for thanks. They just do it." Looking at the destruction and wreckage is overwhelming, Folsom said. "You do have to take a step back and [say] 'OK, what's my next step?'" he said. "You know, but then you just make a plan. There's really no other choice. You just have to do it." Catie Beck reported from Nashville. Doha Madani and Natasha Roy reported from New York. Pune, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Vehicle Security Systems Market 2020Industry research report business development trends and selling channels square measure analyzed. From a global perspective, it also represents overall industry size by analyzing qualitative insights and historical data. The world Vehicle Security Systems Market report consists of an entire industry overview to provide consumers with a complete concept of the Vehicle Security Systems market situation and its trends. Get a sample copy of the report at -https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/request-sample/14477393 Vehicle Security Systems Market gives detailed information is based on current trends and historic milestones. This section also provides an analysis of the volume of production about the global market and also about each type from 2015 to 2026. This section mentions the volume of production by region from 2015 to 2026. Pricing analysis is included in the report according to each type from the year 2015 to 2026, manufacturer from 2015 to 2020, region from 2015 to 2020, and global price from 2015 to 2026.A thorough evaluation of the restrains included in the report portrays the contrast to drivers and gives room for strategic planning. Factors that overshadow the market growth are pivotal as they can be understood to devise different bends for getting hold of the lucrative opportunities that are present in the ever-growing market. Additionally, insights into market experts opinions have been taken to understand the market better. Drivers and Restrains of Vehicle Security Systems Market : The research report has incorporated the analysis of different factors that augment the markets growth. It constitutes trends, restraints, and drivers that transform the market in either a positive or negative manner. This section also provides the scope of different segments and applications that can potentially influence the market in the future. The detailed information is based on current trends and historic milestones. This section also provides an analysis of the volume of production about the global market and also about each type from 2015 to 2026. This section mentions the volume of production by region from 2015 to 2026. Pricing analysis is included in the report according to each type from the year 2015 to 2026, manufacturer from 2015 to 2020, region from 2015 to 2020, and global price from 2015 to 2026. List Of TOP KEY PLAYERS in Vehicle Security Systems Market Report are:- Continental AG (DE) Delphi Automotive (US) Denso Corporation (JP) Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co. (DE) Lear Corporation (US) Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (JP) Robert Bosch GmbH (DE) Tokai Rika Co., Ltd. (JP) Valeo SA (FR) ZF TRW Automotive Holdings Corporation (US) Enquire before purchasing this report - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/14477393 A thorough evaluation of the restrains included in the report portrays the contrast to drivers and gives room for strategic planning. Factors that overshadow the market growth are pivotal as they can be understood to devise different bends for getting hold of the lucrative opportunities that are present in the ever-growing market. Additionally, insights into market experts opinions have been taken to understand the market better. By the product type, the market is primarily split into Alarm Immobilizer Remote Keyless Entry Passive Keyless Entry Central Locking System By the end users/application, this report covers the following segments Passenger Car Commercial Vehicles Purchase this report (Price 2900 USD for a single-user license) - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/purchase/14477393 Market Segment Analysis : The research report includes specific segments by Type and by Application. Each type provides information about the production during the forecast period of 2015 to 2026. Application segment also provides consumption during the forecast period of 2015 to 2026. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. Global Vehicle Security Systems market 2020 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Global Vehicle Security Systems market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins. The study objectives of this report are: To study and analyze the global Vehicle Security Systems market size (value & volume) by company, key regions/countries, products and application, history data from 2014 to 2018, and forecast to 2026. To understand the structure of Vehicle Security Systems market by identifying its various subsegments. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks). Focuses on the key global Vehicle Security Systems manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years. To analyze the Vehicle Security Systems with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market. To project the value and volume of Vehicle Security Systems submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries). To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies. Major Points from Table of Contents: 1 Vehicle Security Systems Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Vehicle Security Systems 1.2 Vehicle Security Systems Segment by Type 1.2.1 Global Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate Comparison by Type 2020 VS 2026 1.2.2 Alarm 1.2.3 Immobilizer 1.2.4 Remote Keyless Entry 1.2.5 Passive Keyless Entry 1.2.6 Central Locking System 1.3 Vehicle Security Systems Segment by Application 1.3.1 Vehicle Security Systems Consumption Comparison by Application: 2020 VS 2026 1.3.2 Passenger Car 1.3.3 Commercial Vehicles 1.4 Global Vehicle Security Systems Market by Region 1.4.1 Global Vehicle Security Systems Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2020 VS 2026 1.4.2 North America Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.3 Europe Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.4 China Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.5 Japan Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.6 South Korea Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.7 India Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5 Global Vehicle Security Systems Growth Prospects 1.5.1 Global Vehicle Security Systems Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.2 Global Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.3 Global Vehicle Security Systems Production Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 2.1 Global Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.2 Global Vehicle Security Systems Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.3 Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) 2.4 Global Vehicle Security Systems Average Price by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.5 Manufacturers Vehicle Security Systems Production Sites, Area Served, Product Types 2.6 Vehicle Security Systems Market Competitive Situation and Trends 2.6.1 Vehicle Security Systems Market Concentration Rate 2.6.2 Global Top 3 and Top 5 Players Market Share by Revenue 2.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion 3 Production Capacity by Region 3.1 Global Production Capacity of Vehicle Security Systems Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.2 Global Vehicle Security Systems Revenue Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.3 Global Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.4 North America Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.4.1 North America Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.4.2 North America Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.5 Europe Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.5.1 Europe Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.5.2 Europe Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.6 China Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.6.1 China Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.6.2 China Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.7 Japan Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.7.1 Japan Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.7.2 Japan Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.8 South Korea Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.8.1 South Korea Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.8.2 South Korea Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.9 India Vehicle Security Systems Production 3.9.1 India Vehicle Security Systems Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.9.2 India Vehicle Security Systems Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) Continued... Browse complete table of contents at -https://www.marketreportsworld.com/TOC/14477393 About Us: Market Reports World is the Credible Source for Gaining the Market Reports that will Provide you with the Lead Your Business Needs. Market is changing rapidly with the ongoing expansion of the industry. Advancement in the technology has provided todays businesses with multifaceted advantages resulting in daily economic shifts. Thus, it is very important for a company to comprehend the patterns of the market movements in order to strategize better. An efficient strategy offers the companies with a head start in planning and an edge over the competitors. Our world has no dearth of complex networks -- from cellular networks in biology to intricate web networks in technology. These networks also form the basis of various applications in virtually all fields of science, and to analyze and manipulate these networks, specific "search" algorithms are required. But, conventional search algorithms are slow and, when dealing with large networks, require a long computational time. Recently, search algorithms based on the principles of quantum mechanics have been found to vastly outperform classical approaches. One such example is the "quantum walk" algorithm, which can be used to find a specific point or a "vertex" on a given N-site graph. Instead of simply going through neighboring vertices, the quantum walk approach employs probabilistic estimations based on the quantum mechanical theory, which drastically reduces the number of steps required to find the objective. To achieve this, before moving from one point to another, an operation called "oracle call" needs to be performed repeatedly to adjust the probability values in the quantum system representation. One main issue is to understand the relationship between the optimal computational time of the oracle call and the structure of the network, as this relationship is well understood for standard shapes and bodies, but it remains unclear for complex networks. In a new study published in Physical Review A, a team of scientists at Tokyo University of Science, led by Prof Tetsuro Nikuni, dug deeper into the intricacies of these networks in an effort to develop more efficient quantum algorithms. Prof Nikuni explains, "Many real-world systems, such as the World Wide Web and social/biological networks, exhibit complex structures. To fully explore the potential of these network systems, developing an efficient search algorithm is crucial." To begin with, the scientists looked into the "fractal properties" (geometrical properties of figures that seem to infinitely replicate their overall shape) of networks. The researchers focused on some basic fractal lattices (structures with a fractal network), such as "Sierpinski gasket," "Sierpinski tetrahedron," and "Sierpinski carpet," to try to find out the relationship between the number of vertices (nodes of the network) and the optimal computational time in a quantum walk search. To this end, they performed numerical simulations with over a million vertices and checked whether the results were in line with previous studies, which proposed a mathematical law or a "scaling law" to explain this relationship. The researchers found that the scaling law for some fractal lattices varied according to their spectral dimension, confirming the previous conjecture for other lattices. Surprisingly, they even found that the scaling law for another type of fractal lattice depends on a combination of its intrinsic characteristics, again showing that the previous conjecture on the optimal number of oracle calls might be accurate. Prof Nikuni says, "It may indeed be a fact that the quantum spatial search on fractal lattices is surprisingly subject to combinations of the characteristic quantities of the fractal geometry. It remains an open question as to why the scaling law for the number of oracle calls is given by such combinations." With this understanding, the team even proposed a new scaling hypothesis, which slightly differs from the ones proposed earlier, so as to gain more insight into different fractal geometries of networks. The research team hopes that, with their findings, quantum searches will become easier to analyze experimentally -- especially with recent experiments performing quantum walks on physical systems like optical lattices. The wide applicability of quantum algorithms on fractal lattices highlights the importance of this study. Owing to its exciting findings, this study was even selected as "Editor's suggestion" in the February 2020 issue of Physical Review A. Optimistic about the results and with future research directions laid out, Prof Nikuni concludes, "We hope that our study further promotes the interdisciplinary study of complex networks, mathematics, and quantum mechanics on fractal geometries." On Monday, Disney dropped the first trailer for Artemis Fowl, suddenly plunging millions of nostalgic twentysomethings across the globe back into its world of codes, elves, and farting dwarves. The movie, based on the bestselling fantasy book series by Irish author Eoin Colfer, has been in the works for almost two decades, and after multiple delays, it will finally be released on May 29. Kenneth Branagh is in the directors chair, while the cast includes the likes of Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Colin Farrell, and Hong Chau. Advertisement If youre a former fan struggling to remember the details of Artemis Fowl because its been so long since you first read the booksor if you were too old for the books when they were published and just missed the phenomenon altogetherheres what you need to know. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What is Artemis Fowl, and does it have anything to do with chickens? It does not. Artemis Fowl follows the travails of a 12-year-old criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl, who uncovers an underground world filled with militant elves, paranoid centaurs, goblin gangs, and an organization called the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance force, or LEPRecon (pun very much intended). There are eight novels total in the primary series, along with a companion guide, a stand-alone story, and a spinoff series that kicked off just last year. Advertisement Advertisement So its basically Harry Potter in a suit? Advertisement Not really, although due to the timing of the book releases, the audiences for the Harry Potter books and Artemis Fowl definitely overlapped. When the first Artemis book came out in 2001, people pointed out the similarities between the two seriesbut author Eoin Colfer rejected that comparison, preferring to think of his book as Die Hard with fairies. (This perhaps refers to the fact that Artemis kidnaps a major character for ransom.) Advertisement Unlike poor, abused Harry Potter, young Artemis starts off as the wealthy, ruthless head of a family criminal enterprise formerly run by his father, whos thought to be dead. With his bodyguard, Butler, Artemis slowly becomes more integrated into the fantasy world below, halting world-domination plans, learning family secrets, and gradually breaking out of his evil self-conception and becoming more inclined toward friendship and compassion and decency. Advertisement Advertisement How do you pronounce Eoin? Like Owen. Does Artemis have supernatural powers, or is he just a sort of precocious child-Batman? The latter. He does come into contact with more magical powers later in the series, but he is not born with them, nor does he attend Hogwarts. Who exactly is the villain here? It sounds like this Artemis maybe isnt such a good guy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, Artemis starts off as an antihero, cocky and devoted to his own interests (although, as is revealed in the first book, part of the reason he hatches his elaborate plot is to help out his mother). As the series goes on, he ends up having to ally with the elves he once tried to extort. The point: Heroes and villains are not always who you think they may be. Who is this series popular with? Young millennials? Gen Z? Both? The series has been popular with younger readers since the first novels initial publication in 2001, with 25 million copies sold, translated into 44 languages. Colfers firm, Artemis Fowl Ltd., continues to earn millions of euros in revenue every year. People like the books! Especially kids. I myself read the first five books, along with The Artemis Fowl Files, back in my middle school years, 200608. (Sorry to the Olds reading this.) Advertisement If the books are so popular, why did it take almost 20 years for Disney to make a movie? Miramax was interested in a film adaptation soon after the book came out, but that other fantasy series was becoming rapidly popular, which was not great timing for a series people kept calling the new Harry Potter. The project went through multiple prospective directors and writers before plunging into development hell. In 2013, Disney announced a production partnership with the Weinstein Company to finally get the film made, which was terminated after the accusations against Harvey Weinstein came to light. Disney then finalized casting in early 2018, and a teaser trailer dropped later that same year. The film was originally supposed to be released on Aug. 9 last year, but was then delayed again to the current release date. Will May 29 hold up? I guess well see! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking of trailers, was that Judi Dench I saw playing an alien? An elf? An alien elf? The fan site Artemis Fowl Confidential has a very thorough breakdown of the trailer for die-hards. For less meticulous newcomers, you need to know that Judi Dench stars as the character Commander Root, the elf who leads LEPRecon. In the books Commander Root is male; the gender swap for the movie was conceived of by Branagh and approved by Colfer. That one other character looks like Hagrid, except now Hagrid is played by Josh Gad? The Hagrid you speak of is the dwarf Mulch Diggums, and he is indeed played by Josh Gad. In the books, hes a memorable character, known for his ruthlessly efficient digging ability, his flatulence, and general good cheer. Advertisement Why do the heroes dress like theyre in Men in Black? The humans, Artemis and Butler, are all pretty schmancy, extremely upper-class guys who like to dress nicely, so that fashion choice is apt. But remember, the elf and dwarf heroes here have probably never heard of Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones, and thus do not attempt to replicate their style. How will the plot of the movie differ from the books? Advertisement Advertisement The movie is ostensibly an adaption of the first book, but there seems to be one key, significant difference. In Artemis Fowl, the protagonist starts out as a cunning little shit whos already well integrated into the criminal lifestyle. In the movie, it appears as though we will see Artemis character start out more innocent and gradually become that bad guy as Butler teaches him what his dad actually did for a living and Artemis comes to grips with the whole enterprise. Advertisement Should I recognize this kid playing Artemis Fowl from somewhere? Advertisement Advertisement No, since this is the first feature role listed for young Irish actor Ferdia Shaw, who is apparently nicknamed Da FerdZ. According to Artemis Fowl Confidential, the young lad has starred in a few short films, but this one seems poised to be his breakout. He does come from royal acting lineage, however: He is the grandson of Robert Shaw, who had prominent roles in classic films like From Russia With Love, The Sting, and Jaws, and was nominated for an Oscar for playing Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons. Should I be excited for Artemis Fowl? If you are a young child who loves fantasy or an adult who appreciates Kenneth Branaghs most recent output, then sure. Are you, a former Artemis Fowl reader and fan, excited for this movie? I have mixed feelings! The nostalgia trip is nice, but Im not sure itll capture the tough moral questions that were so compelling in the books. Still: farting dwarves. Youve got me there. When We All Vote announced Wednesday that Obama is scheduled to headline the free, ticketed event March 27 at University of Detroit Mercy. It's open to the organization's volunteers and partners, as well as educators, college students and high school students who are eligible to vote. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday asserted that there was no threat to his government. Nath's comments came when he was asked about reports of alleged 'poaching' attempts being made by the opposition BJP in the state. The legislators are telling me that they are being offered so much money. I am telling the MLAs to take it, if they are getting this free money, Nath told reporters here on the sidelines of a programme. Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Monday alleged that his party MLAs were being offered huge money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron party's poaching attempt to destablise the Kamal Nath government. When Nath was asked about any threat to the stability of his government in Madhya Pradesh, he said, There is nothing to worry about. Reacting to Nath's statement, state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI that his party has nothing to do with the allegations. In fact, these speculations and allegations are part of the internal bickering of among Congress leaders to get nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls, he said. After Digvijaya Singh's remarks on Monday, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements to create sensationalism. Speaking lies to create sensationalism is Digvijaya's habit. Probably some of his (Digivijaya's) works were not done and he wants to create pressure on the CM to get them done, Chouhan alleged. PARADISE, Calif. - The Paradise Irrigation District has completed its testing to all standing structures for possible water contamination. The Butte Strong Fund committee said they have approved several grants, including a tree removal grant to help residents who do not qualify for the government program. Statistics Update 834 Building Permit Applications Received 645 Building Permits issued 68 Homes Rebuilt (certificate of occupancy issued) 1,543 meters tested (completed) Other Updates Completed Water Testing: As mentioned above, the Paradise Irrigation District has completed testing standing structures for possible water contamination. Of the 1,543 meters tested, only a handful were determined to be contaminated. The district said they are expecting to finish repairs by the end of spring. As mentioned above, the Paradise Irrigation District has completed testing standing structures for possible water contamination. Of the 1,543 meters tested, only a handful were determined to be contaminated. The district said they are expecting to finish repairs by the end of spring. $50,000 for Tree Removal: The Butte Strong Fund committee announced it has approved several grants, including a $50,000 tree removal grant. The grant will help Paradise Alliance Church with a new service to help residents who do not qualify for the government program to remove trees. This program will partner with the Fuels Reduction Assistance Program. The Butte Strong Fund committee announced it has approved several grants, including a $50,000 tree removal grant. The grant will help Paradise Alliance Church with a new service to help residents who do not qualify for the government program to remove trees. This program will partner with the Fuels Reduction Assistance Program. Achieve Charter School Becomes California Distinguished School: On Friday, Achieve Charter School celebrated its recognition as a 2020 California Distinguished School, recognizing the schools that close the "achievement gap" between its high-income students and its low-income students. On Friday, Achieve Charter School celebrated its recognition as a 2020 California Distinguished School, recognizing the schools that close the "achievement gap" between its high-income students and its low-income students. Solving Reconstruction Pricing Disputes: Like the event in January, this will correct your insurance company's estimate to accurately reflect what you lost, learn how to obtain a dwelling estimate that is helpful in resolving your claim, reconcile your insurance company estimate with your contractor's estimate, have your reconstruction questions answered and find needed resources. This is a hands-on event and once you've registered, you will be let know what documents you'll need to bring. Staff and credentialed volunteers will be there to guide you through and answer questions. RSVP by emailing info@uphelp.org RELATED: Paradise Irrigation District finishes water sampling Rebuild Advocates: Rebuild advocates are available at the BRC to residents of the Town of Paradise and Butte County to help navigate the process of rebuilding and be on hand to help guide people through the rebuilding process. They can also help guide residents through the financial resources available to make rebuilding more affordable such as help people apply for loans and connect with contractors. You may call 530-872-6291 ext. 411 to schedule an appointment. Rebuild advocates are available at the BRC to residents of the Town of Paradise and Butte County to help navigate the process of rebuilding and be on hand to help guide people through the rebuilding process. They can also help guide residents through the financial resources available to make rebuilding more affordable such as help people apply for loans and connect with contractors. You may call 530-872-6291 ext. 411 to schedule an appointment. Accepting Donations for Community Development: The Butte Strong Fund says it is accepting inquiries from organizations seeking funding for community development projects in the Camp Fire burn area. Two funding cycles are planned in 2020. The first deadline to make a grant inquiry is March 15, the second and final deadline is Aug. 15. Only applications made via buttestrongfund.org will be considered. Examples of potential projects could include museums, community centers, historic landmarks, gathering spaces and projects that inspire hope or are central to recovery. For information on eligibility and selection criteria, and how to apply, please go to CLICK HERE . The Butte Strong Fund says it is accepting inquiries from organizations seeking funding for community development projects in the Camp Fire burn area. Two funding cycles are planned in 2020. The first deadline to make a grant inquiry is March 15, the second and final deadline is Aug. 15. Only applications made via buttestrongfund.org will be considered. Examples of potential projects could include museums, community centers, historic landmarks, gathering spaces and projects that inspire hope or are central to recovery. For information on eligibility and selection criteria, and how to apply, please go to . Housing Urgency Ordinance: After the fire, Paradise Town Council passed an urgency ordinance allowing displaced residents to temporarily live on their property in an RV. This urgency ordinance expires on December 31, 2020. Beginning January 1, 2021, you must have an active building permit to live on your property in an RV. After the fire, Paradise Town Council passed an urgency ordinance allowing displaced residents to temporarily live on their property in an RV. This urgency ordinance expires on December 31, 2020. Beginning January 1, 2021, you must have an active building permit to live on your property in an RV. Hazardous Tree Removal: Hazard trees that could fall on a public or private road are required to be removed. Property owners may enter the Government Tree Program to have the trees removed by the State at no out-of-pocket cost. Enrollment in the Government Tree Program requires a Right-of Entry form. Property owners may also identify and remove hazard trees themselves but must submit an inspection form so an inspector may verify the removal of the hazard trees from the property. Property owners may also call the Tree ROE Center directly at (530) 552-3030 or submit Tree ROEs by email at TreeROE@buttecounty.net. The Tree ROE is available for download online, HERE. ROE forms may also be picked up at the Tree ROE Center at the Building Resiliency Center at 6295 Skyway in Paradise. Upcoming Meetings & Events MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI A murder suspect from Wisconsin was tracked early Wednesday morning to a hotel near Muskegon. U.S. marshals apprehended Donley M. Carey, 34, on March 4 after pursuing leads that he had ties to the Muskegon area, said Sgt. Chad Melby with the Racine (Wisconsin) Police Department. Carey was arrested at the Quality Inn and Suites, 1675 E. Sherman Blvd. in Fruitport Township around 4:15 a.m., said Sgt. Andrew Hunt with the Fruitport Township Police Department. Making the arrest were the Michigan State Police and the U.S. Marshals Grand Rapids Fugitive Task Force, according to a press release issued by U.S. Marshals Service. Carey was wanted for the shooting death of 28-year-old Demarcus Anderson, who was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in a building on Racines South Memorial Drive, according to the Racine Police Department and Fox6Now television. The homicide occurred on Feb. 25, and shortly after, the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, based in Milwaukee, took the case, according to a press release. Read more on MLive: Wife admits to hiding MMA fighter accused of double murder Car dealer in Muskegon area faces fraud charges, potential victims sought Murder defendant faces new charges in prior shooting A Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) jawan was on Wednesday injured in an encounter with Naxals in Narayanpur district of the state, police said. The gun-battle took place at around 11 am when a joint team of security forces was was out on patrolling to ensure security to a road construction work under Chhotedongar police station area, located around 350 kms from capital Raipur, a police official told PTI. "The personnel belonging to the CAF and district force were involved in the operation launched from the police camp in Aamdai valley," he said. When the security forces were advancing through forest adjacent to Aamdai Ghati hill, an exchange of fire broke out between the two sides, he said. However, the ultras fled from the spot after a brief gun-battle, he added. "Head constable Anand Bhagat, belonging to CAF's 9th battalion, sustained bullet injuries in the gunfight", he added. The injured jawan was being airlifted to Raipur for treatment, the official said adding that a search operation was underway in the area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Their initial model, the Coolray, is seriously impressive in terms of initial quality, features, and performance, so much so that Japanese company Sojitz decided to be the distributor; a strange fact that's unheard of in our industry or even worldwide as far as we know. But one brand has really been impressive. Some would say that MG has been interesting because the company racked up significant sales in 2019 to break into the top 10 auto brands in terms of volume, but we're referring to another: Geely. By now, China's plans to conquer our auto industry is in full swing. Many brands are already here, bringing a variety of new models to the market with varying degrees of success, and there are more on the way. But one thing has been piquing our curiousity: what will the company launch next? A few weeks ago, we were able to get a peek at what will be Geely's next new model for the Philippine market: a stylish 5-seat crossover that's larger than the Coolray and packs even more features such as a mild hybrid system and massive moonroof that almost spans the, well, entire roof. In China, it's called the Geely Boyue Pro, but for the Philippine market, they'll call it the Geely Azkarra. We actually had to check if they will use that unusual name, and they confirmed it: the Geely Azkarra will be their next crossover model. After some checking, it seems one of their Middle East distributors (Geely Kuwait) also use the same name, so it stands to reason that this will be the international model. The Azkarra will have a 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine with a mild hybrid system. The features include a 7-speed dual clutch for the top spec model, an all-wheel drive system, a 12.3-inch audio system, wireless charging, and much more. In a previous report, we indicated that the model has a target price of about PhP 1.6 million for the top of the line model. It appears that there might be a lower grade model for less than that which has a 6-speed automatic instead of a dual clutch, but the final specifications are still unclear. The Azkarra will compete against models in the compact crossover class such as the Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson, Subaru Forester, so on and so forth. We'll release more of the information on the Azkarra as soon as the full specification sheet becomes available. Infosys Ltd is quoting at Rs 755.3, up 1.11% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 3.11% in last one year as compared to a 2.17% spurt in NIFTY and a 0.65% spurt in the Nifty IT index. Infosys Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 755.3, up 1.11% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.69% on the day, quoting at 11225.5. The Sensex is at 38271.49, down 0.91%. Infosys Ltd has slipped around 3.73% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty IT index of which Infosys Ltd is a constituent, has slipped around 4.15% in last one month and is currently quoting at 15723.2, up 0.27% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 58 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 59.6 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 753.65, up 0.51% on the day. Infosys Ltd is up 3.11% in last one year as compared to a 2.17% spurt in NIFTY and a 0.65% spurt in the Nifty IT index. The PE of the stock is 20.78 based on TTM earnings ending December 19. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Atlanta, GA, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ImagineX Consulting, an Atlanta based white glove technology consulting firm, celebrated the ribbon cutting of the new Verizon 5G Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub on Friday. This is the nations first 5G healthcare innovation lab and is located inside the firms new Headquarters in Sandy Springs, GA. The well attended partnership event took place at One Glenlake Parkway in Atlanta on Friday, February 28th, 2020. Executives from 11Ten, User Insight, Verizon, Emory and ImagineX Consulting showcased the new collaborative workspace decked out with 5G Ultra-Wideband Service. This technological advancement comes with incredible bandwidth, speed and low latency that will help us to push the boundaries of our transformative solutions for our customers says Vincent Picerno, ImagineX Senior Director. With a large development team on-site, the hub promises continued multi-industry growth and expansion for the firm, as well as strategic partner engagements within the healthcare industry. News of the Innovation Hub comes in tandem with the firms announcement that they have moved their headquarters to Atlanta. Today is just an incredibly exciting day, a proud CEO, Shaun Bank, had to say. To be one of the partners in this ecosystem, and exclusively the development partner for any of the use cases that are coming through this new 5G ecosystem. Were massively excited to be a part of this network of innovation. The partnership is lock and key in terms of its mission. ImagineX consulting provides first to market value with its client centered approach to project engagements; and so goes the leading endeavor for the healthcare industry in its continuous desire to drive value-based care. What an opportunity it is for us to be a part of utilizing our technical and consulting chops to deliver programs that can amount to improving patient experiences, healthcare improvements, as well as the potential of being a part of solutions that can save lives, says Bank. As part of the innovation partnership we are square in the middle of use cases around improving the logistics related to stroke victims; that time savings through our involvement in consultation and development can mean all the difference. ImagineX Consulting welcomes business leaders and organizations interested in partnership around this new capability and opportunity. To learn more about the firm, visit www.imaginexconsulting.com or contact Brittany Patten at Brittany.patten@imaginexconsulting.com . About ImagineX Consulting ImagineX Consulting is a technology consulting firm whose mission is to deliver value to clients through a unique blend of modern capabilities powered by progressive methods and old-fashioned work ethic. Our modern technology practices specialize in Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, Cloud, DevOps, Automation, Data Insights and Technology Consulting. The true exponential power of our capabilities exists at the intersection of these practices. When combined with our pragmatic and adaptive methods, our seasoned consultants deliver unprecedented value to the Digital Enterprise on the cutting edge of today's technology frontier. ImagineX Consulting is currently headquartered in Atlanta, GA with offices in Washington DC, Raleigh, New York, Denver and Toronto. Our Innovation and Development Labs are located in Toronto, Canada and our Cybersecurity Center is located in Tel Aviv, Israel. Contact Information: Increased demand for cloud-based services and rise in requirements for data backup among enterprises boost the growth of the market. Based on deployment models, the hybrid deployment model segment held the largest market share in 2017. Based on user type, the large enterprises segment contributed major market share in 2017. Based on industry vertical, the telecom & IT segment held the largest market share in 2017. Region wise, North America region have contributed the highest revenue share in 2017. Portland, OR, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report, the global cloud backup & recovery software market garnered $6.04 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $22.22 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 24.2% from 2017 to 2023. The report provides comprehensive analyses of the top investment pockets, key drivers & opportunities, major market segments, and competitive landscape. Augmented demand for cloud-based services and a rise in requirements for data backup among enterprises propel the growth of the market. However, delay in data retrieval & interruptions and storage management impede market growth. On the other hand, an increase in the adoption of smart devices & tablets and the advent of IaaS & on-demand cloud providers are expected to offer lucrative opportunities to the market. The global cloud backup & recovery market is segmented on the basis of the deployment model, user type, industry vertical, and region. Based on deployment models, the market is segmented into private, public, and hybrid. The hybrid deployment model segment contributed more than two-thirds of the total revenue share in 2017 and is expected to dominate throughout the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 25.1% from 2017 to 2023. Based on user type, the market is bifurcated into large enterprises and small & medium enterprises. The large enterprises segment contributed to more than half of the total market share in 2017. This segment is expected to lead in terms of revenue by 2023. However, small & medium enterprises would grow at the highest CAGR of 25.1% from 2017 to 2023. Story continues Get Sample Report for More Details at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4535 Based on industry vertical, the market is divided into BFSI, government, healthcare, telecom & IT, retail, manufacturing, and others. Telecom & IT segment accounted for nearly one-fourth of the total market revenue in 2017. However, the government segment would register the highest CAGR of 27.0% from 2017 to 2023. Based on geography, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA. The region across, North America contributed to the highest share in 2017, accounting for more than one-third of the total revenue. However, Asia-Pacific would register the highest CAGR of 26.1% from 2017 to 2023. Key market players analyzed in the research include Commvault, Dell EMC, IBM Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Veritas Technologies LLC, CA Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Veeam Software, Microsoft Corporation, and Actifio Inc. Inquire more about this report at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4535 Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as a single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter About Us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1?855?550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com School librarians want statutory protection after a survey found one in five schools cut funding for their library last year. They are preparing to lobby the government to require all schools to have a library and to ring-fence their income so money for books and librarians cannot be diverted to other things. President of the School Library Association Glenys Bichan says schools pay for their libraries from their operations grant and often they dipped into that money in order to pay for other costs. "If there's a problem, your school roll grows, you need extra staff, then in a sense the school library is the easy beat, we're an easy place to get money from. "You've got to have empathy with how schools are managed, but we just don't want schools' libraries touched." Glenys says the association was planning to lobby the government for changes. "We want a law to make our libraries essential in every school in New Zealand, we want a specialist, dedicated librarian in every school, and we want our funding ring-fenced so that funding goes straight to a library and it doesn't go through an ops grant so that school principals and boards of trustees can't touch funding that's allocated to a school library." Glenys says a survey of school librarians showed 22 per cent of school libraries suffered funding cuts last year. It also found most librarians felt underpaid, and showed a huge gap between rich and poor communities, with decile one schools spending an average of $9.98 per student on new library items last year compared with $19.69 at decile ten schools. Glenys says her own library, at Cambridge High School, was closed in the early 2000s but it reopened in 2005 and was flourishing with increasing student use. She says libraries are important for student success. "Kids who read flourish in science, they flourish in maths. Kids who read become school leaders, kids who read develop empathy." Glenys recently finished meetings with school librarians around the country. She says some are doing well, but others are not. "Sadly, there's a bunch that are suffering. For example, there's a high school where the budget has been slashed to $3000 a year for them to purchase books and it's got a roll of close to 1000, that is just ridiculous. You should be spending at least $16 per student." John Gerritsen/RNZ. WASHINGTON -- Freedom House has assailed crackdowns on protesters in "authoritarian states," such as Russia and Iran, but also criticized traditional defenders of democracy -- including the United States -- for turning their backs on traditional safeguard roles to pursue "populist agendas." In its annual report released on March 4, the Washington-based human rights watchdog also said that twice as many countries suffered setbacks relating to political rights and civil liberties in 2019 than those making gains, marking what it called the 14th consecutive year of deterioration in global freedom. The country-by-country review, titled A Leaderless Struggle For Democracy, said North Macedonia ranked among nations recording the biggest gains in scores for rights and liberties, and it also cited hopeful signs with new leaders in Ukraine and Armenia. It said, meanwhile, that of the 49 countries listed as not free, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan ranked among the 10 worst. Democracy is under assault around the globe, and the effects are evident not just in authoritarian states like China, Russia, and Iran, but also in countries with a long track record of upholding basic rights and freedoms, the report said. Dictators are toiling to stamp out the last vestiges of domestic dissent and spread their harmful influence to new corners of the world, it said. At the same time, many freely elected leaders are dramatically narrowing their concerns to a blinkered interpretation of the national interest. In fact, such leaders -- including the chief executives of the United States and India, the worlds two largest democracies -- are increasingly willing to break down institutional safeguards and disregard the rights of critics and minorities as they pursue their populist agendas. In Russia, the report said, the ruling United Russia party won all of the years gubernatorial elections, mainly by preventing viable opposition candidates from running. Even in the Moscow City Council elections, which featured a successful strategic-voting campaign organized by dissident leader Aleksei Navalny, the votes lost by United Russia largely went to Kremlin-approved alternatives, the report said. The report likewise faulted parliamentary elections in Belarus and Uzbekistan, saying they also shut out any genuine opposition." In Kazakhstan, it noted that longtime President Nursultan Nazarbaev transferred power but lamented that it went to a hand-picked successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, through a rigged election and that a violent crackdown occurred when protests broke out against the move. Freedom House also said that, in Montenegro and Serbia, "independent journalists, opposition figures, and other perceived foes of the government faced ongoing harassment, intimidation, and sometimes violence," moves leading to large protests in both countries. Still, the report cited some hopeful indications in the region and within the former Soviet sphere. It said that despite the grim picture overall, some positive signs were evident in several of the regions partly free environments. Newly elected leaders who came to office as reform candidates -- including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of Armenia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine took initial steps to uproot the kleptocratic forces that have long stymied their countries democratic aspirations, according to the report. In Iran, the report said security forces killed hundreds of people and arrested thousands in a bid to stamp out anti-government protests in November. It said authorities there set a worrying new precedent with a near-complete Internet shutdown that suppressed media coverage and ordinary communications during the crisis. Ethnic, religious, and other minority groups have borne the brunt of government abuses in both democracies and authoritarian states, the report said. It said the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken its Hindu nationalist agenda to a new level, affecting different segments of its Muslim population, threatening the democratic future of a country long seen as a potential bulwark of freedom in Asia and the world. It called Chinas treatment of its Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking indigenous people in Xinjiang Province one of the years most appalling examples of domestic repression, labeling it a campaign of cultural annihilation. The report criticized the United States, which it said democracy advocates have traditionally turned to for support. It said the administration of President Donald Trump has failed to exhibit consistent commitment to a foreign policy based on the principles of democracy and human rights. The report said that, while Trump has denounced authoritarian abuses in countries such as Iran and Venezuela, he has excused clear violations by traditional security partners such as Turkey and Egypt. He has also given a pass to tyrannical leaders whom he hopes to woo diplomatically, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong Un in North Korea. I really dont know what can be done or should be done about the unprepared pilgrims who get into trouble and perish or need to be rescued," he said in an email to The Associated Press. I have no objection to removing the bus, or building a bridge to it, if a persuasive argument can be made that doing either of these things would solve the problem. I am skeptical about the wisdom of either of these proposed measures, however. Anthony Fauci had Donald Trump's undivided attention - or appeared to. He even did something one rarely sees: He touched the president's arm to keep his attention about a potential coronavirus vaccine. The fascinating exchange came one day after Mr Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, broke into a Cabinet Room session observed by reporters between Mr Trump and pharmaceutical executives. They were there to talk about a possible vaccine to shield people from the virus, which has killed thousands of people around the globe and nine in the United States. Mr Trump on Monday kept latching on to the industry bigwig's forecasts of moving potential vaccines down the long and winding road of clinical trials in the next three or four months. It fell to Mr Fauci to make sure the president knew or to try his best that the drug makers were talking process, not final outcomes. "So you're talking over the next few months, you think you could have a vaccine," Mr Trump asked an industry executive on Monday. Confusing matters, Stephane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, shot back: "Correct. Correct. With phase two." Mr Fauci, sensing the president was misleading himself, quickly chimed in. "Yeah. You won't have a vaccine," he explained to Mr Trump, a sometimes-science skeptic. "You'll have a vaccine to go into testing." As the back-and-forth with the executives went on, the president kept clinging to his hope that a vaccine could be ready in, as he said at one point, "a couple of months." That's when Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar broke in and said: "It's not a completed vaccine." He meant after the first phase of testing. Mr Fauci, appearing to sense he and Mr Azar might not have gotten through to the president, tried to explain again on Tuesday when Mr Trump visited the National Institutes of Health near Washington, DC. The senior public health official clearly had briefed Mr Trump before. Multiple accounts from inside the Oval Office from former aides say the president prefers charts to thick briefing books. So Mr Fauci showed him a series of coronavirus-themed charts on a screen positioned directly in front of Mr Trump. One explained how vaccine development actually works. Mr Trump looked towards the screen and nodded for several minutes as his subordinate spoke. At one point, in a remarkable scene, Mr Fauci touched Mr Trump's right arm before saying: "Remember, that doesn't mean you have the vaccine." He had just walked the former reality television host and New York real estate executive through an explanation of the phases of testing, focusing on phase one. That's where possible coronavirus vaccines stand now: In the early days and weeks of testing. As they told Mr Trump on Monday, deploying a fully vetted drug to prevent contraction of the virus likely will take a full calendar year or possibly more. Mr Fauci told the president that the chart merely showed "the fastest that you go from the time you get a pathogen, and know what it is, until you do a phase one trial for safety." Fauci has served in government for decades, under Republican and Democratic presidents. The coronavirus has again shoved him into the public spotlight, just the kind of career civil servant that Mr Trump and his inner circle despise. Just last week, Mr Trump's acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said a second term priority would be to clean out the so-called "deep state" because it is not "fair" to the current president that some government employees allegedly worker "harder" for former President Barack Obama. Yet, Mr Fauci seems to have Mr Trump's attention and trust. "If Tony is involved, it'll be tomorrow morning. Right, Tony?" Mr Trump asked of one counter-virus measure being considered. It likely doesn't hurt that Mr Fauci was born and raised in, you guessed it, New York City and still has a Brooklyn accent. Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed his predecessor Barack Obama for the lack of tests to detect the coronavirus, which experts complain has set back the fight against the epidemic. President Trump, who has occupied the White House for three years, tried to deflect criticism of his administration's response to the disease by blaming Obama for a federal regulation that made it harder to enact widespread testing. 'The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing and we undid that decision a few days ago so that testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion,' Trump said at the White House during a coronavirus meeting with airline executives. 'That was a very big move,' he noted. 'It was something we had to do and we did it very quickly. And now we have tremendous flexibility, many many more sites, many many more people, and you couldn't have had that under the Obama rule and we ended that rule very quickly.' Donald Trump blamed Barack Obama for the lack of tests to detect the coronavirus Trump blamed Barack Obama for a federal regulation that made it harder to enact widespread testing He was asked to elaborate on what he meant. The lack of available test kits to detect the virus, which has a 14-day incubation period, has become a defensive point for the Trump White House. Health officials claim the lack of test kits have made it harder to identify who has the disease and who does not. The president deferred to Vice President Mike Pence for a more detailed answer. Trump appeared to be referring to a federal regulation that limited the ability of state laboratories, universities and private companies to conduct medical screenings not approved by the FDA. According the FDA, that rule was developed in 2014, which is when Obama was president. On Saturday FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn allowed those labs to use tests they developed before the FDA finished its review of those tests. Pence claimed the Obama administration enacted that FDA rule on the testing process, which caused a logjam. 'The last administration asserted FDA jurisdiction over testing test and the development of tests like this. The president changed that on Saturday. So now as I spoke to several governors this morning, states now have the ability to actually conduct the coronavirus test in state labs, university laboratories. And that's because of the change the president the offered. The changing jurisdiction has freed up more available testing,' he said. An employee of the Department of General Services Division of Consolidated Laboratories' Virginia Public Health Labratory adds chemicals to a testing a sample for the Coronavirus At a press briefing on the coronavirus on Tuesday, Pence announced more testing kits were on the way. 'We are addressing the testing issue in a variety of ways,' Pence said. He noted there would be 2,500 kits out by end of week, which would translate into 1.5 million tests that would mainly be for hospitals. Obama, meanwhile, took to Twitter to urge people to use safety precautions. 'Protect yourself and your community from coronavirus with common sense precautions: wash your hands, stay home when sick and listen to the @CDCgov and local health authorities. Save the masks for health care workers. Let's stay calm, listen to the experts, and follow the science,' he wrote. The Special Operations Team (SOT), LB Nagar Zone in assistance with the Saroornagar police nabbed a drug peddler and seized 160 kilograms of marijuana from his possession. "The accused, Jatavath Venkanna, was transporting the marijuana in his car, which was also seized," said Mahesh Bhagwat, Commissioner of Police (CP), Rachakonda. Police told that the accused used to purchase marijuana at a lesser price from sellers in the Visakhapatnam district and then used to sell them at a higher price in Maharashtra, a modus operandi which he had used multiple times in the past two years. The market value of the marijuana, the car and cash seized by the police is approximately around Rs 20 lakh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vietnam suspends visa exemptions for Italian citizens to halt the spread of COVID-19 At a recent meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the national steering committee for the prevention and control of the coronavirus, has provided numerous solutions to prevent the epidemic from spreading. The COVID-19 epidemic has appeared in more than 60 countries and territories, including South Korea, Iran, and Italy, meaning that Vietnam and other countries cannot apply a closed-door policy, but suspending visa exemptions can reduce travel and the spread of the virus. We must anticipate every situation so that we can respond to any turn of events. Any potential virus carriers must be quickly quarantined and treated promptly to keep it from spreading to the community, said DPM Dam. Therefore, "From March 3, 2020, Vietnam temporarily suspends visa exemptions for Italian citizens," the DPM added. Previously, Vietnam has also suspendedvisa exemptions for South Korean people from February 29 as a temporary solution to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading. Regarding Vietnamese people returning from South Korea, the DPM asked for strict quarantines. After gathering sufficient evidence confirming returnees did not contact, reside, or travel through the two main Korean epidemic regions of Daegu and North Gyeongsang, they can be quarantined in their homes. Emphasising the important role of local authorities, DPM Dam suggested they verify information with families and members returning from affected areas, as well as supervise and ensure strict quarantine regulations. For Koreans entering Vietnam, the DPM asked airlines to limit the number of flights to and from South Korea. In the near future, flights from South Korea to Vietnam will mainly serve Vietnamese people returning home. While Vietnam has had some early success in the battle against the COVID-19, the war is far from over and now is no time to relax, DPM Dam added. The steering committee said Vietnam has been controlling the epidemic well so far and that it has not detected new cases since February 13. Son Loi commune, Binh Xuyen district in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, which had the highest number of infections, has been quarantined for 20 days and is expected to return to normal on Wednesday. Currently, Vietnam has more than 10,000 people in quarantine. Early testing will ensure that the quarantined people and the community are more assured of the domestic epidemic situation. Reports of the Ministry of Health showed that by Monday, more than 89,000 people had been infected with COVID-19 in 67 countries and territories. More than 3,000 people have died of the disease, including more than 2,900 in China. According to the General Statistics Office, as many as 70,798 visitors arrived to Vietnam from Italy in 2019, up 8 per cent on-year, while this figure was 10,018 in January, a 97 per cent increase on -month and 14.6 per cent on-year, while it reduced to 6,200 arrivals in February. Italy is one of the countries where the epidemic spreads the fastest. The Italian Ministry of Health confirmed that the virus spreads at the same rate in Italy as in Asia's two largest epicentres, China and South Korea, with nearly 550 cases of new infection every day, with the total infection count reaching 1,688 cases, with 34 mortalities. Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia Andrea Wiktorin today told reporters that the Armenian authorities have a lot of work to do in the agriculture sector and, in this sense, the European Union is making efforts to improve phytosanitary conditions along with the government. She added that agriculture is one of Armenias major sectors and that the EU is actively working to achieve serious changes. As far as the EU Green Agriculture Initiative in Armenia is concerned, to implement the pilot project, the selected regions are regions in which the level of income of people is relatively low. The Initiative can help solve three issues, including the issues related to food safety, ecology and employment, Wiktorin stated. The 11.7-million Euro EU-GAIA Initaitive was launched in Armenia today, and the pilot project will be implemented in Armenias Tavush, Lori and Shirak Provinces. Toronto, Ontario, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new report released today by Mustel Group and Sothebys International Realty Canada uncovers trends related to aging and its impact on the housing aspirations, expectations and realities of baby boomers and older adults across the countrys major metropolitan real estate markets. The report also highlights the gap between this cohorts desire to age in place in their current homes, and their expectations and plans to sell and move to another primary home during their lifetime. Mustel Group and Sothebys International Realty Canadas 2020 Generational Real Estate Trends Report: Aging in Place revealed that while 86% of baby boomers/older adult homeowners in Canadas key metropolitan areas want to live in their current home for as long as possible, 36% are likely to sell their current home and move to a new primary residence within their lifetime. Amongst those planning to sell and move, 76% expect that they will buy a replacement primary residence, thereby reinvesting in the real estate market. 54% with plans to move to a new primary home expect to move into a condominium, surpassing the demand for other housing types. The first in a multi-part series focused on baby boomers and older adults over the age of 54, the report is based on findings from a survey of 1,764 homeowners ages 54 years or older in Canadas four largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs): Metro Vancouver, Greater Calgary, Greater Toronto and Greater Montreal. This is one of the first studies in Canada to focus on the housing aspirations, expectations and realities of the baby boomer generation, as well as those who are older, with findings based on homeowners already invested in the housing market, says Josh ONeill, General Manager of Mustel Group. Results from the survey reflect the latest trends within one of the countrys most influential demographic cohorts. Survey results also revealed that planning for aging and the impact on personal housing needs have been longstanding issues for a considerable percentage of Canadian baby boomer/older adult homeowners across the countrys four largest metropolitan areas. 46% considered their needs in aging prior to buying their current primary home. Of these, 45% considered safety as a key priority in their chosen neighbourhood, while features supporting single-level living factored the most heavily in their home selection. Condominium owners most commonly prioritized having an elevator, indoor fitness and wellness amenities and security services. By 2024, it is expected that one in five Canadians will be over the age of 65. This monumental shift in demographics is introducing new needs and demands relating to urban aging into Canadas largest metropolitan real estate markets, says Don Kottick, President and CEO, Sothebys International Realty Canada. Our research reinforces the fact that this generation will continue be a dominating influence in our countrys key markets, and that government, the real estate industry and individual homeowners will need to contend with increasing pressure to make homes, neighbourhoods and cities age-friendly for current and future generations of older people. Housing Planning for Aging: A Key Concern for Canadas Baby Boomers and Older Adults Since 2011, the first year that the baby boom generation began turning 65, the proportion of seniors in Canada has accelerated and is projected to rise rapidly as more from this significant generational cohort turn 65. By 2024, it is expected that one in five Canadians will be aged 65 and older. With these monumental demographic shifts, challenges and opportunities relating to urban aging have emerged in Canadas largest metropolitan real estate markets as government, developers and individual homeowners contend with the need to make homes, neighbourhoods and cities age-friendly for current and future generations of older people. According to Mustel Group/Sothebys International Realty Canadas survey findings, housing-related needs that come with aging have been longstanding concerns for a considerable percentage of urban Canadian baby boomer/older adult homeowners. 46% reported that advance planning for their needs as they age influenced the purchase of their current home. Safety, transit friendliness and proximity to a grocery store were the leading priorities for ensuring an age-friendly neighbourhood, reported by 45%, 37% and 34% respectively as being amongst their top aging-related considerations when buying their home. Priority home features to accommodate aging in place included having a full bathroom on the main level, single-level housing and having a main-level bedroom or room that can be used as a bedroom, cited by 35%, 27% and 26% respectively. For condominium owners, having an elevator, indoor fitness and wellness amenities and security service were the leading priorities when planning for their needs with aging, reported as key considerations by 68%, 41% and 33% respectively. Aging in Place: Desires vs. Expectations & Realities Results from the Mustel Group/Sothebys International Realty Canada survey reveal that while the vast majority of baby boomers/older homeowners in the countrys largest metropolitan areas have a desire to live in their current home and neighbourhood for as long as possible, they are more equally divided in terms of whether they expect to sell and move to a new primary home during their lifetimes. 86% agree that they want to live in their home for as long as they can, with 59% expressing strong agreement with this sentiment. Meanwhile, 88% agree that they want to live in their current neighbourhood for as long as they can, with 61% strongly agreeing with this sentiment. However, Mustel Group/Sothebys International Realty Canadas survey findings reveal that 36% of baby boomer/ older adult homeowners expect they will likely sell and move to a new home during their lifetime, with 14% expecting to move to a different city, 13% expecting to move to a different neighbourhood within their current city and 9% expecting to move to a different home within the same neighbourhood. 34% expect that they will stay in their current home and never move, while 30% are unsure. Those who plan to sell their home and move are most likely to be motivated by the desire to downsize into a smaller home due to concerns that their existing one will be too large as they age, with 54% reporting this as a key motivation, followed by concerns about needing to maintain their current home, as well as its physical layout. Notably, 25% reported that cashing out to allow for more lifestyle expenses would be one of their key motivations, while 12% indicated selling their home to support basic post-retirement costs of living would be a key factor. Enduring Demand for Primary Home Ownership Mustel Group/Sothebys International Realty Canadas survey results indicate that todays baby boomer/older adult homeowners are poised to remain influential real estate consumers in the coming years. 76% of those who expect that they will move from their current home plan on buying their replacement primary residence; 11% plan to rent, while 1% plan to move in with a family member. Prospective home sellers in Vancouver and Calgary plan to buy a replacement primary residence at rates of 87% and 82% respectively, compared to rates of 78% in Toronto and 63% in Montreal. Demand for Condominiums Surpasses Other Housing Types The impact of Canadas aging population on the condominium markets of the countrys major cities has been broadly reported, however, Mustel Group/Sothebys International Realty Canada survey results reveal new details. According to survey results, 54% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners with plans to sell their current home and move to a different primary residence expect to move into a condominium. 29% expect to move into a single family home while 18% expect to move into an attached or duplex/triplex unit. Condominium demand is strongest amongst those in Montreal, with 64% of those with plans to sell reporting that they are likely to move into a condo. Condominiums are also the predominant choice amongst baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary with plans to sell their primary home, with 52%, 51% and 45% reporting that they expect their replacement home to be condominium. Market Highlights Vancouver 50% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Vancouver reported that considerations regarding their future needs with aging influenced the purchase of their current home. For this group, the leading neighbourhood features prioritized to support their needs in aging included buying a home with a grocery store in close proximity, reported by 45% as a top priority, transit friendliness (42%), as well as neighbourhood safety (41%). Home features prioritized to support future needs with aging included having a full bathroom on the main level (34%), having a main-level bedroom or bedroom option (33%), and single-level housing (27%). Those who own a condominium reported that having an elevator (79%), communal outdoor space (36%) and security services (29%) were key aging-related considerations when buying their current home. Compared to their peers in Montreal and Toronto, baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Vancouver are less likely to express a desire to remain in their home or neighbourhood for as long as possible and are significantly more likely to anticipate selling their current home and purchasing a new primary residence during their lifetime. 55% of those in Vancouver strongly agree that they want to live in their current home for as long as they can, while an additional 28% somewhat agree; 59% agree strongly with wanting to live in their neighbourhood for as long as they can, while 27% somewhat agree. These sentiments have a notable impact on this cohorts expectations as to whether they expect to sell their current home and move. 40% of Vancouvers baby boomer/older adult homeowners expect to sell and move to another home during their lifetime. 16% expect to move to a different neighbourhood within their current city, while 10% expect to move within their current neighbourhood. 14% expect to move to a different city entirely. The desire to avoid the need to maintain or repair their current home is the most common reason for expecting a future sale and move, cited by 48%. 87% of those who plan to move to another primary home during their lifetime plan on purchasing their next residence. In this future home, the most sought-after features to support needs that come with aging relate to single-level living, cited by 47% as a top priority. Those who specifically expect to move to a condominium are most likely to prioritize having an elevator (73%), indoor fitness or wellness facility (54%) and communal outdoor space (41%). 52% of those who plan to sell and move to a new primary home report that they will likely move into a condominium, a trend that will support local demand. 25% plan to move to a single family home, while 24% plan to move to an attached home or duplex/triplex unit. Calgary Calgarys baby boomer/older adult homeowners are likely to have considered their future needs with aging when purchasing their current home: 49% indicated that these considerations influenced their home purchase. While safety was the leading neighbourhood feature prioritized to specifically support their needs in aging with 46% reporting it as a top priority, car friendliness emerged as a unique priority for Calgary, with 36% reporting it as a key consideration. 31% indicated that proximity to a grocery store was a key, aging-related factor in their home purchase. Home features prioritized to support future needs with aging include having a full bathroom and bedroom on the main level, reported by 42% and 37% respectively. Meanwhile, those who own a condominium reported that having an elevator (66%), communal outdoor spaces (50%) and indoor fitness and wellness facilities (35%) were key aging-related considerations for their current primary residence. 53% strongly agree that they want to live in their current home for as long as they can, while an additional 30% somewhat agree; 54% agree strongly with wanting to live in their neighbourhood for as long as they can, while 32% somewhat agree with this sentiment. At the same time, 43% of Calgarys baby boomer/older adult homeowners expect to sell and move to another primary home during their lifetime. They expect to move within the same city to a different neighbourhood, at a rate of 20%, while 9% expect to move within their current neighbourhood. 14% expect to move to a different city entirely. The most common motivation for wanting to sell and move is concern about the large size of their current home as they age, reported by 63%. 82% of those who plan to sell and move from their current home plan to purchase their replacement residence, suggesting that they will remain active and influential real estate consumers in upcoming years. As in the case of all other regions surveyed, the leading future home feature sought after to support aging-related needs is single- level leaving, cited by 60% in Calgary. Priorities for those who expect to move to a condominium include having an elevator (68%), indoor fitness or wellness facility (59%), and to a lesser extent, having communal outdoor space (34%). Condominiums are the predominant choice for baby boomer/older adult homeowners with plans to move: 45% report that they will likely move into a condominium. 33% expect to move into a single family home while 23% report they are likely to move into an attached home or duplex/triplex unit. Toronto 46% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Toronto considered their future needs with aging when purchasing their current home. As in the case of every metropolitan area surveyed, safety was the leading neighbourhood feature prioritized to specifically support these needs, with 43% reporting it as a top priority when buying their current home. Transit friendliness followed as a leading priority for the region, with 41% reporting it as a key consideration, while 34% indicated that proximity to family was a key aging-related consideration for their home purchase. When purchasing their current home, features prioritized to support potential needs with aging included having a full bathroom on the main level (31%), single-level living (27%) and having a security system (24%). Condominium owners reported having an elevator (65%) and indoor fitness and wellness facilities (64%) as key aging-related priorities. Those in Toronto were more likely than those in other metropolitan areas to report that having a concierge or doorman was a priority, at a rate of 45%. 60% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Toronto strongly agree that they want to live in their current home for as long as they can, and an additional 26% somewhat agree. 60% also agree strongly with wanting to live in their neighbourhood for as long as they can, while 28% somewhat agree with this sentiment. Meanwhile, 33% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners expect to sell and move to another primary home during their lifetime, the lowest rate of the metropolitan areas surveyed. 14% expect to move to a different city. 10% report that they are likely to move to a different neighbourhood within their current city; 8% expect to move within their current neighbourhood. For those in Toronto, concerns that the home will be too large as they age is the most common motivation for wanting to sell and move, reported by 52%. 78% of those in Toronto who expect to sell and move from their current home plan to buy their replacement residence, suggesting active demand from this cohort in the coming years. To support aging-related needs, single-level living is the top priority for their future home, reported by 53%. For those who expect to move to a condominium, top priorities include having an elevator (66%), indoor fitness or wellness facility (54%) and having communal outdoor space (45%). 51% of those with plans to move are likely to move into a condominium. 34% expect to move into a single family home while 16% report they will likely move into an attached home or duplex/ triplex unit. Montreal Baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Montreal reported that planning for their future needs with aging influenced the purchase of their current home at a rate of 42%. For those who took this into consideration, the key neighbourhood features prioritized to specifically support their needs in aging included safety, reported by 49% as a top priority, proximity to a grocery store (36%) and transit friendliness (33%). Property features prioritized to support future needs with aging include having a full bathroom on the main level (37%), single-level housing (28%) and having a multi-level home with as few stairs as possible (24%). Condominium owners prioritized having an having an elevator (67%), followed by having security services (28%). Both communal outdoor spaces and indoor fitness facilities were also priorities for condominium owners, prioritized by 24% respectively. 63% of baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Montreal strongly agree that they want to live in their current home for as long as possible and an additional 26% somewhat agree, while 66% agree strongly with wanting to live in their neighbourhood for as long as they can. An additional 24% somewhat agree to this sentiment. This implicit desire to age in place has a notable impact on this cohorts expectations as to whether they expect to sell and move from their current home. 35% of Montreals baby boomer/older adult homeowners expect to sell and move to another home during their lifetime. 14% expect to move to a different city, however, 12% expect to move to a different neighbourhood in their current city and 9% expect to move within their current neighbourhood. Concern about their current homes size is the leading motivation for a future move, reported by 58%. Montreals baby boomer/older adult homeowners are the least likely of the metropolitan areas surveyed to have plans to buy a replacement home if they expect to sell and move. 63% of those with plans to move to another primary home during their lifetime plan to buy their next residence. Those in Montreal are also more likely to report plans to rent their next primary home, at a rate of 21%. To support aging-related needs, their leading priorities for a future home relate to single-level living, cited by 42% as a top priority. Those who specifically expect to move to a condominium are most likely to prioritize having an elevator (77%), indoor fitness or wellness facility (62%) and security services (42%). Future demand for condominiums is strongest amongst baby boomer/older adult homeowners in Montreal. 64% of those who plan to sell their current home report that they are likely to move into a condominium, a trend that supports healthy demand for condominiums within the region. 22% expect to move into a single family home and 14% expect to move into an attached home or duplex/triplex unit. The report is based on findings from a survey of 1,764 homeowners ages 54 years or older in the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), using a disproportionate sampling method to enable analysis within each metropolitan area, as well as across the combined CMAs. The sample was weighted to match Statistics Canada census data on the basis of age, household income and home ownership within each CMA and to bring the total sample into proper proportion based on relative populations. While the panel sample is demographically representative, margins of error only apply to random probability samples. (The margin of error on a random probability sample of 1,764 respondents is 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and ranges from 4.38 to 4.9 points for 400-500 respondents). Data for this report series was gathered from August 716, 2019. About Mustel Group Mustel Group has been a leading market research and public opinion research firm in Canada for more than 30 years, trusted by a wide range of the countrys most esteemed public and private sector institutions to design and conduct qualitative research, quantitative research and omnibus surveys in order to understand the thoughts and motivations underlying people's emotions, opinions and behaviours. For further information, visit https://mustelgroup.com/ . About Sotheby's International Realty Canada Combining the world's most prestigious real estate brand with local market knowledge and specialized marketing expertise, Sotheby's International Realty Canada is the leading real estate sales and marketing company for the country's most exceptional properties. With offices in over 32 residential and resort markets nationwide, our professional associates provide the highest caliber of real estate service, unrivalled local and international marketing solutions and a global affiliate sales network of approximately 1,000 offices in 71 countries and territories to manage the real estate portfolios of discerning clients from around the world. For further information, visit www.sothebysrealty.ca. Disclaimer The information contained in this report references survey results, plus market data from MLS boards across Canada. Sothebys International Realty Canada cautions that MLS market data can be useful in establishing trends over time but does not indicate actual prices in widely divergent neighborhoods or account for price differentials within local markets. This report is published for general information only and not to be relied upon in any way. Although high standards have been used in the preparation of the information and analysis presented in this report, no responsibility or liability whatsoever can be accepted by Sothebys International Realty Canada, or Sothebys International Realty Affiliates or Mustel Group for any loss or damage resultant from any use of, reliance on or reference to the contents of this document. One in four people now say that none or few of their neighbours can be trusted Most people think their communities are in decline and many no longer trust their neighbours, a report found. Researchers also said the number of post offices, pubs and libraries has drastically fallen in the past few decades. Launching a cross-party review into community, Conservative think tank Onward said repairing the social fabric of our neighbourhoods is the 'defining challenge of this Parliament'. While well-being statistics are improving nationally, trust and life satisfaction is falling locally. Most people think their communities are in decline and many no longer trust their neighbours, a report found (stock image) One in four people now say that none or few of their neighbours can be trusted, up from one in seven in 2012. Over the same period, the share of people who feel their area has become a worse place to live has increased by nearly a third to a quarter. Polling by the think tank and PR firm Hanbury Strategy shows membership of local organisations has fallen from 61 per cent in 1993 to around 50 per cent today. Since 2001, the number of pubs has fallen from 52,500 to 38,850, a 26 per cent drop. Since 2005, libraries have gone from 4,392 to 3,187, a 27 per cent drop. And the number of post offices fell from 22,405 in 1982 to 11,547 in 2018, a 48 per cent drop. The research also found that the perception of community decline is most pronounced among younger generations. The largest fall in volunteering are among those aged between 16 and 34 years old. The greatest decline in local membership has been among 20-29 year-olds and 30-39 year-olds, decreasing by 17 and 18 percentage points, respectively since 1993 (compared to 11 percentage points on average). Researchers also said the number of post offices, pubs and libraries has drastically fallen in the past few decades (stock image) In 1992, two-thirds of 30-39 year-olds were a member of a local organisation (second only to those in their 40s). By 2017, this group showed the second-lowest rate of membership, down to 46per cent. The steering group will bring together politicians from across the political spectrum and civic leaders with deep expertise of strengthening communities on the ground. Members include Labour MP Jon Cruddas and Tory MP Danny Kruger. Will Tanner, Director of Onward, said: 'Last year's election was a ballot on belonging. Many of the Red Wall towns and working class voters who defied history to lend their votes were driven by the fraying social fabric of their place: the deteriorating high street, fragmenting community or disconnected neighbourhood. 'This makes repairing the social fabric of local communities the defining mission of this Parliament: unless politicians of all parties work to give voters back a sense of local identity and ownership, their votes will increasingly go elsewhere.' The 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers of Hunterdon County received a visit and more than a few licks from a four-legged friend on Friday. Barny, a 4-month-old golden Labrador retriever, trotted into the Hunterdon County Communications Center in Flemington last week to provide its public safety telecommunicators with an opportunity to destress from fielding calls from numerous police departments, fire companies, first aid squads and mobile intensive care units on an around-the-clock basis. Jim Curry, the division head of Communications for Hunterdon County, said that visits from puppies like Barny provide the dispatchers, numbering 27 in total at the center, a few minutes to blank out and forget about the last call they just took. The dispatchers have an incredibly stressful job. Theyre here for 12 hours a day, day after day, holidays, weekends, nights," Curry said. They hear some of the worst of the worst calls you can imagine, day in and day out, and they will receive about 100 to 150 9-1-1 calls a day on top of the administrative calls. And theyre confined to this building. Barny, a four-month old golden Labrador retriever, trotted into the Hunterdon County Communications Center in Flemington last week to provide its public safety telecommunicators with an opportunity to destress from fielding calls from numerous police departments, fire companies, first aid squads and mobile intensive care units on an around-the-clock basis.Caroline Fassett I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Curry said that the calls received by the dispatchers in 2019 amounted to over 41,000. While adding that this volume in calls has remained generally consistent in recent years, he emphasized that dispatchers task of fielding them has increased in complexity. The job itself is more complicated," Curry said. We do a lot more; were a support function for all the law enforcement agencies, all the fire departments, all the EMS agencies in the county. For that reason, Curry emphasized the importance of dogs like Barny visiting the center approximately once every month to offer the dispatchers a break from their regularly demanding routine. People just sort of relax for a couple minutes. And its different; its a change of pace for everybody," Curry said. The center is visited by dogs trained through either Puppies Behind Bars, based out of New York, or the Caring K9s program, headquartered in Florida. Barny was brought into the center on Friday afternoon by Puppies Behind Bars volunteer Larry Dawkins, who said what was meant to be a quick trip to a store prior to visiting the dispatchers was extended by half an hour or so because of his presence. Barny, a four-month old golden Labrador retriever, trotted into the Hunterdon County Communications Center in Flemington last week to provide its public safety telecommunicators with an opportunity to destress from fielding calls from numerous police departments, fire companies, first aid squads and mobile intensive care units on an around-the-clock basis.Caroline Fassett I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com When a dog walks into the room, their stress just seems to go away," Dawkins said. At the center, "we walk around so people in the back get a chance to say hello and it releases the tension. Its amazing how well it can do that. Through Puppies Behind Bars, inmates of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township raise dogs, including Barny, to act as companions to wounded war veterans or first responders, or become explosive-detection canines for law enforcement agencies. The more aggressive a puppy is, the more likely theyll be bomb sniffers or accelerant detection (canines). The ones that are more laid back would probably be better for a ... dog for a veteran or a First Responder," Dawkins said. Dawkins added that the program has had most of our success with Labradors like Barny, who will eventually become an explosive detection canine. He and the other dogs in the program enter the prison at roughly 8 weeks of age and live with inmates for a period of approximately 24 months. While emphasizing their utility to service units or retired soldiers as fully grown dogs, Dawkins underscored that the animals equally benefit the inmates of the facility -- whom have to pass several interview processes in order to raise the dog -- as maturing puppies. I can tell you hundreds of stories, Dawkins said. This gives (the inmates) skills, it gives them an opportunity to express themselves, (and) they get unconditional love from the dogs. Its a win-win situation. Separated from the inmate raising him for the afternoon, in her place Barny captured the affection of the dispatchers working at the center on Friday. Barny, a four-month old golden labrador retriever, trotted into the Hunterdon County Communications Center in Flemington last week to provide its public safety telecommunicators with an opportunity to destress from fielding calls from numerous police departments, fire companies, first aid squads and mobile intensive care units on an around-the-clock basis.Caroline Fassett I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Just being an animal lover, its a like a sense of relief that theyre here," dispatcher Joe Swaney said. "Its therapeutic; you get to interact with them or just watch them, and in a way it just takes your mind away from all the stuff thats going on. Im not a fan of dogs; you can ask anyone. But I love when he brings the dogs in here. Its really nice to see them," dispatcher Tammy Hoffman echoed. Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips The United States government has placed a $7 million (N2.5 billion) bounty for information that leads to the arrest of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the insurgent group, Boko Haram. This was announced via a tweet by the U.S Department Rewards for Justice Programme on Wednesday. The United States Department of State is offering a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the arrest to the terrorist Abubakar Shekau boss of #BokoHaram Le Departement dEtat des Etats-Unis offre une #recompense pouvant aller jusqua 7 millions de dollars pour des renseignements menant a larrestation du #terroriste Abubakar #Shekau, chef de #Boko_Haram.#Whatsapp: +1 202 975 9195#Telegram: @RFJ_Francais_bot pic.twitter.com/WPj00PPMsr Recompenses pour la Justice (@RFJ_Francais) March 3, 2020 Mr Shekau took over the leadership of the deadly group in 2010 following the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, its former leader. He garnered public attention in 2014 globally following the abduction of over 300 female schoolchildren from a school in the town of Chibok, in Borno State. The development later generated a social media outburst campaign across the world with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls among celebrities, activists and former US first lady Michelle Obama. I abducted your girls, he said. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will sell them off and marry them off. In June 2012, the United States Department of State designated Mr Shekau as a terrorist and effectively offering a reward of up to $7m (4.6m) for information about his location. On June 21, 2012, the country designated Shekau a specially designated global terrorist under executive order 13224. The Boko Haram group kicked off as a religious institution and a critic of the affairs of the government. In 2014, it regenerated to neighboring Chad basin countries in Niger, Cameroon and Chad. It has caused the death of over 35,000 persons in the ongoing crises in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states and other parts of Nigeria since the beginning of the conflict in 2009, according to the UN. 'We are in uncharted territory:' Coronavirus spreading faster outside China Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 8:59 AM The World Health Organization (WHO) says the new coronavirus afflicting the world has over the past 24 hours spread far more rapidly outside China than inside but its path is still unknown. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing in Geneva on Monday that almost eight times as many cases had been reported outside China as inside in the previous 24 hours. The never-before-seen virus, recently named COVID-19, has now infected more than 90,000 people in more than 70 countries and territories, and killed over 3,100 people the vast majority of them in mainland China. "The number of cases in China continues to decline," the WHO chief said. On Monday, China reported 125 new cases, which brought the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 80,151. Thirty one new deaths were also reported in mainland China, bringing the death toll there to 2,943. Outside China, a total of more than 8,700 confirmed cases and over 125 deaths have been reported. "We are in uncharted territory," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday. "We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission, but which can also be contained with the right measures." He said the epidemics in the Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran, and Japan were "our greatest concern." The four countries have reported either high confirmed infections or deaths outside China. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that with no cases in more than 130 countries, there was still a chance to contain the outbreak, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. South Korea says 'in war with COVID-19' The total cases in South Korea the most affected country outside China approached 5,000 on Tuesday. The country confirmed 600 new cases on Tuesday, with two more deaths, which took the death toll to 29, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Moon Jae-in said, "The entire country has entered a war with the infectious disease." He ordered all government agencies to operate around the clock and vowed to inject more than 25 billion dollars into the economy to address the "grave" situation caused by the outbreak. Deaths in US now at 6 Meanwhile, the death toll in the United States reached six, after the viral infection killed three more people near Seattle on Monday. The number of new infection cases also climbed to 100 across the US, mostly in Washington and California. Japan reports first case in Oita Japan reported a new case of infection in Oita Prefecture, on the southwestern island of Kyushu. The patient, a woman in her 30s, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that his government would promptly prepare a second package of emergency measures. Abe, who has come under fire for his handling of the crisis, has pledged to focus over the next couple of weeks on halting the spread of the virus in Japan. The total number of cases in Japan has reached almost 1,000, with 12 deaths reported so far. EU raises virus risk level to high The European Union (EU) raised the risk level of contracting the coronavirus from moderate to high, after the latest assessment by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control indicated the "virus is spreading very fast," said the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Italy, which has the third highest number of cases worldwide, said later in the day that its death toll from the epidemic had jumped from 18 to 52. According to official statistics, within the EU, the European economic area, and the UK, 2,199 people have so far contracted the virus. "While we should not give in to panic, the situation is likely to get worse," said the European commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address (Photo : Pixabay) NASA confirmed that an asteroid as big as a tower will dangerously hit Earth this week. According to the agency's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroid follows a dangerous orbit that is usually known to intersect Earth's course every now and then. The incoming asteroid has been dubbed as 2020 DA4. As indicated in CNEOS's database, this asteroid is presently moving toward Earth at a speed of almost 20,000 miles per hour. CNEOS said the near-earth object measures about 144 feet wide, which makes it barely shorter than the Chicago Water Tower. The asteroid is a member of the Apollo circle of relatives of asteroids. According to NASA, 2020, DA4 follows a wide path around the Sun, which extends between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. From time to time, 2020 DA4 crosses Earth's orbit because it travels around the massive star. ALSO READ: Are Aliens Behind the First US Coronavirus Confirmed Case of Unknown Origin? A Scientist Claim It's Possible! Could it end human civilization? If the asteroid collides with the planet for the duration of one of its near-Earth intersections, it most in all likelihood won't create an impact event on the ground. The asteroid will instead be burned in the atmosphere and create a powerful explosion in the sky. Based on the asteroid's size and current speed, the blast from its airburst ought to be like multiple atomic bombs, although most explosions could be directed in the direction of the Earth's atmosphere. The remaining energy might be sufficient enough to harm structures, shatter home windows, and injure people on the ground. ALSO READ: Is Earth's Doomsday Near? NASA Warns Killer Asteroid May Arrive on Earth in 5 Days When will it cross paths with Earth? The asteroid, at this rate, will go near Earth's path on April 29. As it crosses Earth's course, the asteroid is anticipated to be about 585,000 miles from the planet's center. Hence, the asteroid's distance will only be twice the gap between the Earth and the Moon in the course of its journey. This 2020 DA4 asteroid was first seen on February 27. CNEOS calculated its future near-Earth approaches after studying its trajectory. According to the agency, the asteroid is not predicted to return to Earth's neighborhood until May 31, 2022. ALSO READ: New Neighbor in Town: Earth Acquires a New But Temporary Mini-Moon Says NASA: How Long Will It Stay? One in 50,000 chance of hitting Earth Astronomers estimate such items have a one in 50,000 chance of hitting Earth every 100 years. If 2020 DA4 asteroid would directly hit the planet, the Planetary Society said global devastation and a possible crumble of civilization would happen. Dr. Bruce Betts from the international institution of astronomers said that small asteroids [often hit the Earth] and would dissipate the surroundings and do little damage. Larger asteroids, according to Betts, could cause local destruction. Betts said that Chelyabinsk size asteroids - around 59 feet and a mass of about 9,100 metric tons that hit in 2013 - could create shock waves that shatter windows and cause injuries. He added that Tunguska sized asteroids - which has a size of 157 to 360 feet that hit Siberia in 1908 - could completely destroy a city or create a tsunami. The destructive capacity of space rocks this large was also outlined in a 2018 report published by the United States National Science and Technology Council. ALSO READ: Chinese Space Mission Unveils How The Farside of The Moon Looks Like The National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy wrote: "Objects near and larger than one kilometer can motive damage on a global scale. Asteroids, according to National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy, can trigger earthquakes, tsunamis, and other secondary outcomes that extend far past the immediate impact area. For comparison, the asteroid that is believed to have killed the dinosaurs measured about six miles (10km) across. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Click here to read the full article. You dont have to look far to find cautionary tales about hair transplantsthose guys whose scalps look like Cabbage-Patch dolls instead of resembling authentic, home-grown heads of hair. But there are also plenty of stories about men whose transplants look really, really good: successful procedures that erased years from a hairline and gave the subject the youthful gusto to match. If youre considering hair restoration and want to look more like the second scenario than the first, you may be wondering what the most reliable hair transplant method is these days, and what emerging technologies we have to look forward to? (In other words, when the heck will stem cell transplants finally be available?) More from Robb Report For answers, we spoke with hair expert Dr. Ken Washenik. Hes a medical advisor for Hair Club, which advises guys nationwide on this very subject (and provides its clients with customized solutions). Washenik is also the medical director of Bosley Medical Groupa name you might recognize for its transformative advancements in hair restoration. beautiful young muscular guy in bathroom at morning. handsome caucasian half-naked man after shower. hygiene, people concept; Shutterstock ID 1660221193; Notes: RR digital The current gold standard for hair transplants is called Follicular Unit Extraction, says Washenik. FUE is an advanced surgical hair restoration technique. Its less invasive than traditional hair transplants. This surgical solution leaves no linear scar and requires no stitches. With FUE, one hair follicle at a time is extracted from your donor area. (Typically the rear of the head, where hair loss does not otherwise occur. It is then transplanted to your thinning or balding areas. FUE can be performed manually or via a robotic unit operated by your doctor. This is a one-day outpatient procedure so you can go home the same day as your surgery. Story continues The cost and length of FUE transplantsand any transplants, reallyare determined by how many follicular unit graphs are being moved. This depends on the coverage desired by the procedure. You can transplant a few thousand graphs in one five- to ten-hour session, which is pretty standard fare. Thinner and more recessed heads of hair will need multiple sessions. Your hair will grow exactly as it did from the donor site, and takes well to both the crown and the hairline. Transplanted hair doesnt know you moved it, Washenik says, stating that it will simply grow happily from its new home. He adds that it takes roughly one year before your hair is fully grown in and the transplants success is measured. Thats because the transplanted hair typically sheds itself entirely after a couple months, before regrowing from the new host site. This is natural, but it means that transplant recipients have to trust the procedure without enjoying the results for anywhere between six to 12 months. Procedure for stimulating hair growth mesotherapy. Hair transplant in men.; Shutterstock ID 1661503774; Notes: RR digital As for the future of the procedure, the rumors are true: Stem-cell hair transplants are in clinical studies, and Washenik suspects that theyll be available in the UK and Japan by 2022 or 2023, based on their research progress. The US had clinical trials underway, but not currently. Thus, theyll need to first resume clinical studies before they can make progress towards consumer availability. The procedure is being tested in various ways, but Washenik outlines the commonality between all methods: Tissue is taken from a patient by the hair surgeon, [and the best] cells of choice are then extracted offsite, at the companys facility. Cells are multiplied or used from early hair structure and these are sent back to the surgeon, who injects or implants them back into the patient. After six to 12 months, new hair is visible. Other studies are testing transplants using allogeneic cells, using cells from a different donor than the recipient. Washenik notes that steady progress is being made in this arena, too. (Though its only going to be desirable in specific cases, since someone with curly red hair probably wont want hair transplants from someone with straight brown hair.) But until stem cells are out of clinical trialsand until they prove to generate effective resultsFUE remains the consumers gold standard. Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In a telephone interview on Tuesday evening, Mr. Pietsch declined to provide further details on the book, such as its initial print run or how much Grand Central paid for it. And he declined to say anything further about the contents, beyond that it was the complete story of his life, from the beginning to the present moment, told in Woody Allens unmistakable voice. Mr. Pietsch said he had called Mr. Farrow on Monday after hearing from the authors agent that he was unhappy about the publication. And he reiterated what he said he had told Mr. Farrow: that a basic principle of publishing was that its divisions do not interfere editorially with each other. We do not allow anyones publishing program to interfere with anyone elses, he said, noting that Hachette publishes thousands of books a year. Each book has its own mission, he said. Our job as a publisher is to help the author achieve what they have set out to do in the creation of their book. Asked about the mission of Mr. Allens book, he paused. Grand Central publishing believes strongly that theres a large audience that wants to hear the story of Woody Allens life as told by Woody Allen himself, he said. Thats what theyve chosen to publish. Mr. Farrow declined to comment on his conversations with Mr. Pietsch or the publication of Mr. Allens book. Letty Aronson, Mr. Allens sister, said he had no comment. The announcement of the memoirs impending publication was a surprise twist in the literary fortunes of Mr. Allen, whose career has been stalled in the #MeToo era. In recent years, actors including Greta Gerwig and Timothee Chalamet have expressed regret about working with Mr. Allen. In 2018, Amazon Studios ended a multimovie distribution deal with the filmmaker, citing a renewed focus on the allegations against Mr. Allen, among other reasons. The decision was taken by the local prosecutor. Ex-Commander of the Aidar Battalion, former Member of Parliament of Ukraine Serhiy Melnychuk, who was detained by the Greek authorities on March 1 on the basis of an Interpol notice requested by the Russian Federation, has been released. "Melnychuk was released from custody in keeping with the prosecutor's decision on the basis of notification by the central authority of Interpol about the suspension of Russia's notice and its revision regarding Melnychuk's detention," Director of the Consular Service Department of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Serhiy Pohoreltsev said in a comment for UNIAN. Read alsoPrystaiko explains how Russia issued Interpol warrant for ex-battalion commander without Ukraine knowing As was reported earlier, Melnychuk said on Facebook that he had been detained on the Bulgarian-Greek border at Russia's request (a red notice of Interpol). He was accompanied by his pregnant wife and a nine-month-old son. Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov said that after the Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) in Ukraine had contacted the Interpol General Secretariat and the latter had decided to revise Russia's request for placing Melnychuk on the international wanted list. Morgan Stanley updated its oil demand forecast for this year, saying it expected it to be close to zero in China after the devastating coronavirus epidemic. We now expect Chinas oil demand growth in 2020 to be close to zero, from already low pre-Covid-19 growth expectations of 350 kb/d, the investment bank said in a note, as quoted by Reuters. As Covid-19 has been spreading globally, demand outside China is likely to slow further. So, thats a drop in demand growth of at least 350,000 bpd, which is generally in tune with the oil demand growth forecasts of the EIA, the IEA, and OPEC. All three last month revised their oil demand growth forecasts down, with the IEA being the most pessimistic, expecting a dip in oil demand in the first quarter, at 435,000 bpd, which would be the first demand contraction in a decade. The EIA was also pessimistic, revising its outlook for oil demand by 378,000 bpd, noting that in China, oil demand growth could fall by 190,000 bpd because of the outbreak. OPEC was most optimistic, expecting oil demand growth to be 230,000 bpd lower than its earlier forecast for 2020. Morgan Stanley said it expected global oil demand this year to grow by a modest 500,000 bpd, which is a revision from 800,000 bpd. On the positive side, the bank also said it expected OPEC to announce additional cuts of 1 million bpd at this weeks meeting in Vienna, which would raise the total to 2.7 million bpd, and extend the cuts to the end of the year. Unfortunately, even OPECs additional cuts wont do much for prices, according to Morgan Stanleys analysts, who said they expected Brent to stay range-bound within the $50s throughout the year. The news that OPEC was considering 1 million bpd in additional production cuts gave oil prices some relief but forecasts such as the one Morgan Stanley just released wont help as they all seem to agree that the market will remain oversupplied, discouraging a real price rally. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 4 more COVID-19 deaths reported in U.S. as confirmed total surpasses 90 People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 16:06, March 03, 2020 NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has climbed to at least 91, while four more deaths attributed to the virus were reported in the country, bringing the death toll to six, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Monday. All the six deaths have occurred in the northwestern state of Washington. Five of the victims were from the populous King county, and one was from neighboring Snohomish county. Four of the six fatalities are linked to an outbreak at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, local health officials said. One more case was confirmed on Monday in the midwestern state of Illinois, bringing the statewide total to three. The patient, a man in his 70s, is being treated at a hospital in Arlington Heights, a northwestern suburb of Chicago. His wife, also in her 70s, has tested positive for the disease. But the case is waiting to be confirmed by the CDC lab in Atlanta. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has asked hospitals across the state to implement additional testing to improve surveillance for COVID-19. He said two more labs in central and southern Illinois will be able to test specimens this week. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio jointly held a press conference Monday, providing more details on the state's first confirmed case diagnosed a day earlier. A 39-year-old woman, who had been working in Iran as a health worker, returned to New York City last Tuesday. She took a private car service to her home in Manhattan, said Cuomo. The woman has manifested respiratory illness but her condition is mild. She is under home isolation, said the governor. Officials believe the patient was not contagious on the plane or in the car from the airport. But the government will contact the people who were on the same flight and the driver of the car service, out of an abundance of caution. Officials said a community spread in the state is unavoidable as New York is "the gateway to the world," and to speed up testing is crucial. Cuomo said he expects the state could have a capacity of 1,000 tests per day. The state of Louisiana created COVID-19 Task Force to deal with the threat of the coronavirus on Monday. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said the task force is made up of state and federal officials from the Louisiana Department of Health, the Office of Public Health, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the Louisiana National Guard, the United States Coast Guard, Louisiana State Police, and several other agencies. Even though there are currently not any confirmed cases in the state, Edwards urged residents to remain vigilant against the threat of the coronavirus, avoid going out to public places if they are feeling sick and wash hands regularly. Also on Monday, Ron Nirenberg, mayor of San Antonio in the state of Texas, issued a local state of disaster and public health emergency, ordering that anyone quarantined for COVID-19 at designated facilities be prohibited from entering the city "until further notice." The proclamation would be in effect for seven days unless continued or renewed by the city council. Nirenberg said in a tweet that the declaration is "explicitly designed to ensure evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship cohort remain at Lackland AFB until further testing is completed," adding that "this is not to signify that the public is at any increased risk." On Sunday, the mayor said in a statement that it is "unacceptable" that the CDC allowed the public to be exposed to a patient who was with a positive COVID-19 reading. The CDC said that at the time of discharge on Saturday from a healthcare facility in San Antonio, the patient had no symptoms and met all criteria for release, including two negative test results. However, after the release, the results of a subsequent sample with weakly positive reading were received, prompting the CDC to bring the individual back into isolation. The CDC explained that there have been similar situations where test results alternate back and forth between negative and positive. The patient had some contact with others after discharge. Local public health officials are following up to trace possible exposures and notify them of the potential risk. Enditem NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Amid the speculation of a rift among the allies of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the implementation of 5 percent Muslim quota in education, BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said his party will support Shiv-Sena if the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress pulls out of the alliance. Mungantiwar's statement came after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that no decision has been taken on quota for backward Muslims in education as he had not received any such proposal. He said the decision on the matter is yet to be taken. Asked about Thackeray's statement, the BJP leader said: "I think Uddhav Ji has taken a very good stand. Our alliance with the Sena was based on ideology. The Sena should not worry if the Congress and NCP are pressurizing it on the issue." "Even if they leave the government, we will support the government within the limits of this subject," he added. The former Maharashtra finance minister asserted that the Constitution does not provide for reservation based on religion. "Why reservation is to be given on the basis of religion...what is the crime of Sikhs and Christians? The Union government has already carved out a 10 percent quota for the economically backward classes which covers Muslims and Christians too," he said. Thackeray said: "No proposal has come to me regarding Muslim reservation. We will check its validity once it comes to us. We have not taken any decision yet on it." "The Shiv Sena has not clarified its position yet. Let us see when the proposal comes up," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) LANSING, Mich. - A federal judge on Wednesday invalidated Michigans Medicaid work requirements, weeks after a U.S. appeals court affirmed his decision to strike down similar rules elsewhere. The short order came from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. He had earlier invalidated Arkansas requirement that low-income people work for government-provided health insurance, dealing a blow to the Trump administrations efforts to remake Medicaid. Four Michigan residents sued the federal government in November, with assistance from advocacy groups. Prior to the ruling, the state had been preparing to notify more than 80,000 enrollees in Michigans Medicaid expansion program that they did not comply with reporting requirements for January and would lose their coverage on May 31 if they did not report for February and March. The state had 674,000 expansion participants as of November. Boasberg cited the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmers administration had asked for a quick ruling, saying there was no dispute Michigans requirements are illegal, too. Many participants in Healthy Michigan the states Medicaid expansion program were exempt from the rules, which also do not apply to the more than 1.7 million state residents covered by the traditional Medicaid program. Starting Jan. 1, able-bodied adults ages 19 through 61 who want to maintain their benefits had to show workforce engagement averaging 80 hours a month under a 2018 law through work, school, job training or vocational training, an internship, substance abuse treatment or community service. Republican legislative leaders have defended the rules that were signed into law in 2018 by then-GOP Gov. Rick Snyder. House Speaker Lee Chatfield, of Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, of Clarklake, have said Michigan taxpayers expect able-bodied adults wanting cash assistance and subsidized health coverage to work part-time or at least prepare for a career. Though nine states have had Medicaid work requirement waivers approved by the Trump administration, Michigan was the only one with rules in effect. Boasberg previously blocked the requirements in Kentucky, Arkansas and New Hampshire; and two other states, Arizona and Indiana, have blocked enforcement or implementation, citing litigation. South Korea reported 516 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as thousands of sick people waited for hospital beds in Daegu, the city at the centre of the worst outbreak outside mainland China. The new cases bring South Koreas total to 5,328, with at least 32 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. Most cases were in and around Daegu, the countrys fourth largest city, where the flu-like virus has spread rapidly through members of a fringe Christian group. Health officials expect the number of new cases to be high for the near future as they complete the testing of more than 200,000 members of the Christian sect, as well as thousands of other suspected cases from smaller clusters. We need special measures in times of emergency, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a special cabinet meeting. In order to overcome COVID-19 as quickly as possible and minimise the impact on the economy, it is necessary to proactively inject all available resources. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the new coronavirus which emerged from central China late last year and has spread around the world. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has canceled his planned trip to the UAE, Egypt and Turkey in mid-March, due to the alarming spread of the disease at home, according to the presidential Blue House. Hospitals in South Koreas hardest hit areas were scrambling to accommodate the surge in new patients. In Daegu, 2,300 people were waiting to be admitted to hospitals and temporary medical facilities, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said. A 100-bed military hospital that had been handling many of the most serious cases was due to have 200 additional beds available by Thursday, he added. On Tuesday Moon declared war on the virus, apologised for shortages of face masks and promised support for virus-hit small businesses in Asias fourth-biggest economy. Ronen Tivony / Echoes WIre The shock hit right at 7 p.m., when the nets were calling Virginia for Joe Biden the instant the polls closed. Two days ago, Bernie Sanders led the state in fivethirtyeights averages by five points. I figured Biden might eke it out after South Carolina, but I did not figure on a top-of-the-hour insta-call, and a 30-point blowout win. Thirty points! Biden crushed Sanders in nearly every category. Black voters, of course, 71-16. But white voters, too, 49-24. Every age group except under 29s. And under 29s, by the way, constituted a paltry percentage of the overall turnoutjust 13 percent. Forty-five to 64s were 40 percent, and Biden won them 59-19. Virginia turnout was massive1.3 million, as opposed to 783,000 in 2016. In other words, there was a candidate who dramatically increased turnout. He just wasnt named Bernie Sanders. Biden Seizes Sanders Stronghold; Bernie Runs Wild Out West Im writing this before California is called, and Californiawhere exit polls showed Biden at just 5 percent among voters 29 and underwill change things in Sanders favor. But even there, if the evenings trends hold, Biden should top the 15 percent threshold to win delegates. And if he hits that, and especially if one or two others hit it too, then Sanders wont walk out of California with a plus-or-minus 300 delegate bulge. Weirdly, Mike Bloomberg, who got in the race in part to stop Sanders, may end up helping him there. Make no mistake, this was Bidens night in a huge way. Minnesota? He had no staff on the ground in the state! Sanders held several events there, and Bloomberg spent his usual millions. Nobody thought Biden would win there, including Biden. What happened here? The race turned upside down is what happened. Last week, all my conversations with people in Washington were, this things over, its Bernie. Now, it practically feels like its over in the other direction, and Bernie is done. Of course, its not that either; theres still a long way to go, and surprises are always possible. But this race changed with South Carolina in a way Ive never seen a race change. Polls had Biden up 5 percent there. He won by nearly 30. What the hell happened? Was it all Jim Clyburn? Story continues The South Carolina exit polls said it was half Clyburn. So it was half something else. What? Sanders people wont like this, but its pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that the voters who are the core of the Democratic Partyblack voters over 40 and professional women of all colorsdecided to stop the revolution. Sanders did terribly among women. According to the exit polls, across all the Super Tuesday states, he nipped Biden 36-35 among men. But Biden clubbed him 38-25 among women (Elizabeth Warren got 16 percent). Lets face it. All these results are not out of massive adoration for Biden. Its because a majority of Democratic primary voters evidently dont want Sanders to be their nominee. What dont they like? We dont know for sure. Maybe its because they disagree ideologically. Maybe they think he cant win a general election. Maybe they dont like the fact that hes not a Democrat. I cant help but notice that Democrat keeps creeping more and more into Bidens language, surrounded by words like proud and Roosevelt and Obama. Its probably some combination of all these factors, but its pretty clear they dont want him. I mean, a lot of them really dont want him. Biden won Massachusetts! He was close to single digits there last I looked. We have never seen voters decide so collectively and comprehensively and swiftly that they wanted to block a certain outcome. Sanders will now frame the race as him versus the establishmenthes already started doing it. I got an email earlier today from Our Revolution that read: Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O'Rourke have dropped out of the presidential primary race and endorsed Joe Biden. The billionaire-funded Democratic establishment has made their movenow we need to respond. That has it backwards. Theres no billionaire-funded establishment pulling their strings like puppets. There were, in the first place, voters. The voters spoke last Saturdayno, they screamedaffirming that they prefer Biden. Democrats stood athwart Bernies revolution, and yelled stop. Pete and Amy got the message that if they couldnt win black votes, they couldnt win. Winning large numbers of black votes is the only way for a Democrat to be elected president. And right now, theres only one candidate who can. Sanders speech, and its attacks on Biden and his 60 billionaire donors, showed that this is going to be a long and ugly fight. Sanders feels he had this thing in his hands and its now being ripped out of them. Hes right about that, but hes not right about the culprit. It wasnt the billionaires. It was voters. Mostly women voters and voters of color. And if you cant win them, youre not going to be the Democratic Partys presidential nominee. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Mike Moore, a leading figure in New Zealands 198490 Labour government, which initiated the pro-market assault on jobs, living standards and the social rights of the working class, died on February 2, aged 71. He had been in poor health since a stroke in 2015 when he was NZs ambassador in Washington. At his public funeral in Auckland on February 14, current Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern praised Moore as a working-class hero who had lived and breathed Labour all his working life. In parliament, MPs similarly lauded him as a true working-class prime minster. Conservative opposition National Party leader Simon Bridges declared he embodied the tradition of looking out for Kiwi battlers. Leader of the right-wing NZ First Party, Winston Peters, claimed Moore spent every day of his life trying to make things better for New Zealand and New Zealanders. Mike Moore Moores services to the corporate elite were extolled by New Zealand Herald business columnist Fran OSullivan, who said Moore, as World Trade Organisation (WTO) head from 19992002, had been a global public servant. The glorification of Moore as a working-class hero is a fraud. It is provoked by concerns across the political establishment, now entering an election countdown, over the broad popular alienation from both the Labour Party and the entire parliamentary set-up. Moore earned his plaudits, not because he fought for working people, but because of his pivotal role in defending the interests of big business and New Zealand imperialism. He was ranked third in Labours so-called fish and chip brigadethe cabinet cabal including Prime Minister David Lange, Finance Minister Roger Douglas and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Richard Prebble that was hailed internationally for its ruthless opening up of one of the worlds most protected and regulated economies to global market forces. Moore held a number of prominent posts including overseas trade minister and deputy finance minister. As the working class was subordinated to the sweeping requirements of international finance capital it suffered a social catastrophe. Douglas introduced a goods and services tax, imposed user pays policies in health and education, and destroyed over 60,000 jobs. The privatisation of public enterprises saw $8bn in assets sold. Inequality began to soarthe top 10 percent of earners rapidly increased its share of total income by 4 percent to 20 percent. However humble Moores early life may have beenhe grew up in poverty and quit school aged 14the Labour Party which he joined and championed was never a genuine party of the working class. Founded by the trade union bureaucracy in 1916, it was a pro-imperialist, racist, bourgeois party. At every critical turn, including in the world wars and 1930s' Depression when mass anger over inequality and war threatened to explode, Labour was brought forward to defend capitalism. In 1984, with finance capital demanding the liberalising of global markets, Labour came to power to impose the same program as Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the US. Moores role, while acting as the key spokesman for the free trade agenda, was to present a working class veneer to this onslaught. During the 1987 election, Labour faced a barely contained rebellion in the working class. Moore was dispatched to defend the partys record. At a meeting attended by this writer, he flatly denied that workers were being thrust into poverty, cynically remarking; There are people in this country so poor, they have to put the baby to bed in the box the video player came in. Moore was installed as prime minister just weeks before the 1990 general election in a bid, he told Radio NZ in 2017, to save the furniturethat is, contain the damage of the likely electoral disaster. He replaced Geoffrey Palmer who took over after Lange had resigned in the face of massive unrest, and with the party split following the breakaway of NewLabour. Moore was the third prime minister in 13 months, and lasted just 59 days before Labour lost the election in a landslide. Moore subsequently lost the leadership to Helen Clark, but stayed on for nine years in opposition. In 1999, he secured the position of director-general of the WTO after travelling the world campaigning for the job. Significantly he was backed by then conservative National Party Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, who recently remarked: Mike managed to transcend the line in political terms in his belief in market economies and won enthusiastic support from the left and the right. As WTO head, Moore presided over the Ministerial Conference of 1999, dubbed the Battle in Seattle. This was a reference not only to the anti-WTO protest outside the conference hall which was savagely attacked by 1,000 riot police, but to the conflicts taking place inside it. While the conferences stated aim was to set the agenda for the Millenium Round of trade liberalisation, delegates failed to reach agreement amid deep disagreements with developing countries and over agriculture, competition and investment policy, and the enforcement of so-called labour standards. The negotiations collapsed and were reconvened in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, where protests were outlawed. During Moores tenure the WTO expanded to include, among others, China. Richard Prebble, who is still widely reviled in the NZ working class for destroying most of the core public service, and who quit Labour in 1996 to join the far-right ACT Party founded by Douglas, claimed in a tribute to his lifelong friend Moore that the latters subsequent third great office was as NZ ambassador to the US. Moore was appointed to the role by Clark to continue her governments rapprochement with Washington. From 1999, Labour restored the ANZUS military alliance after the partial rift caused by NZs 1987 anti-nuclear legislation. Labour sent troops to the Bush administrations illegal invasion of Afghanistan and occupation of Iraq, and joined Australias neo-colonial interventions in East Timor and Solomon Islands. Moores ambassadorship was reconfirmed by National after it defeated Labour in the 2008 election. Prebble has described two visits to Washington during which Moore invited leading conservative thinkers to the embassy for dinner, including the arch-militarist John Bolton. The current US Ambassador to NZ, Scott Brown, a Trump appointee, asserted that the US-NZ friendship is deeper and stronger because of him [Moore]. Defending the free trade agenda in his 1990 book, Saving Globalisation, Moore claimed that global capitalism had produced more wealth in the past 60 years than the rest of history put together, with hundreds of millions purportedly lifted out of extreme poverty. In fact, globalisation rendered obsolete the reformist program of national economic regulation on which the Labour Party and the trade unions had for decades rested. Globalised production demanded nothing less than the unfettered operation of the market and with it, the relentless attacks on the social position of the international working class, which have produced staggering levels of social inequality and are still continuing. Labour unerringly adapted to capitalisms new reality. Ardern, while occasionally speaking out against the devastation produced by Rogernomics is full of praise for Moore, one of its chief architects. But as Douglas has pointed out, none of the Labourites who latterly criticised him have done anything to roll back his policies. That remains true of the current government. Amid a re-emergence of the international class struggle, the only alternative for working people is the program that Moore always bitterly opposed: the replacement of global capitalism with a planned world socialist economy that harnesses the immense resources produced by the working class for social need, not profit. Such a program is the only means for ending deepening social inequality, defending democratic rights and preventing war. WASHINGTON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo --the first abortion rights case to be heard under the current makeup of the Supreme Court. The case challenges a Louisiana law that would shut down every abortion clinic in the state except for one. The law (Act 620) bans doctors from providing abortion care unless they have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. In a 2016 case also brought and won by the Center Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt the Supreme Court struck down an identical law in Texas, finding that admitting privilege requirements pose an "undue burden" on the right to abortion and are medically unnecessary. In the courtroom today, Center for Reproductive Rights' Senior Litigation Director Julie Rikelman argued to the Justices that Act 620 should meet the same fate, as nothing has changed since 2016 that would justify a different outcome. Rikelman also argued that the law would close an even greater percentage of clinics in Louisiana than in Texas, and that the medical consensus opposing this kind of law has only grown stronger since 2016. The Center also argued against Louisiana's claim that abortion providers and clinics lack legal standing to fight for their patients' rights in court. Rikelman argued that the state's attack on standing contradicts 40 years of precedent, and is designed to insulate unconstitutional abortion restrictions from being challenged in court. Nearly all abortion cases today are brought by doctors and clinics. If they did not have third-party standing, patients would have to initiate court proceedings themselves and file a case while still pregnant, at the same time they are urgently seeking abortion care. Act 620 and the State's challenge to standing have been denounced by a coalition of leading voices in medicine, law, and public policy who joined with abortion patients and advocates to submit 27 amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in support of the Center's case. While the Supreme Court heard arguments, thousands of supporters gathered outside the courthouse to rally against a growing tide of political attacks on women's reproductive rights. More than 40 speakers addressed the crowd including: celebrities Elizabeth Banks and Busy Philipps; legislators such as Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Judy Chu (D-CA); abortion providers; faith leaders; and women who have had abortions and experienced first-hand the barriers created by anti-abortion laws. Said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights: "We should not have to refight legal battles that we've already won, but states like Louisiana are in open defiance of the Constitution and the Supreme Court's rulings. It's alarming and unacceptable that in 2020, some states are still hell-bent on denying women access to reproductive healthcare. Once again, the Court must step in to block these clinic shutdown laws and ensure that the promise of Roe v. Wade is realized for all women." Said Kathaleen Pittman, clinic administrator at Hope Medical Group (lead plaintiff): "Louisiana lawmakers have tried every which way to end abortion care in our state. This law is one of many attempts to shut us down and prevent our patients from accessing abortion services. I am optimistic that the Court will recognize Act 620 for what it is an attempt to regulate abortion care out of existence. This law would be devastating for the women in our state and would no doubt have repercussions nationwide." Said Julie Rikelman, Senior Director of US Litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights: "We are back at the Supreme Court today fighting a law identical to the one we defeated in 2016. We emphasized to the Justices today that nothing has changed in the last four years that would warrant a different ruling. In fact, the medical consensus has only grown stronger that admitting privileges are medically unnecessary and actually harm women by closing clinics and putting abortion out of reach. The Supreme Court declared Texas's law unconstitutional after it closed roughly half the clinics in that state. In Louisiana, the impact would be even more severe, closing all but one clinic. We are confident the Court will agree that a law it ruled unconstitutional four years ago cannot be constitutional today." To watch a live stream of the rally in Washington, D.C, click here . Case Information For more background and history on this case, click here . Case Caption: June Medical Services L.L.C. et al. v. Stephen Russo, Interim Secretary, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals - U.S. Supreme Court Case No. 18-1323 / No. 18-1460. The Center represents three plaintiffs: June Medical Services (the corporate name of the Center's longtime client Hope Medical Group, an independent abortion clinic in Louisiana), and two physicians (identified as "John Does" for their own protection) who provide abortion care. The defendant is Stephen Russo, the Interim Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Dr. Rebekah Gee, former Secretary of the State Department of Health and Hospitals, was listed as the respondent-cross-petitioner until early February 2020. We refer to the defendant as "Louisiana." Lead Counsel for the plaintiffs: Julie Rikelman and Travis J. Tu with the Center for Reproductive Rights, along with co-counsel O'Melveny & Myers LLP. SOURCE Center for Reproductive Rights Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The U.S. freestanding emergency department market size is expected to reach USD 5.0 billion by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., registering a 5.27% CAGR during the forecast period. The market is expected to grow owing to increasing consumerism in healthcare in terms of consumer-driven health plans, rising preference for convenience care, and increase in federal funding. In addition, increasing burden of patient population at hospital emergency departments for treating medical conditions like stroke and chest pain is likely to boost FSED settings over the coming years. The growth of the freestanding ED segment opens up opportunities for independent companies such as Adeptus and hospitals such as HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA); Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC); and Community Health Systems, Inc. (CYH). As the need for emergency room (ER) services grows, independent providers such as market leader Adeptus Health and numerous private equity-backed companies are contributing actively to the industry. Also, large acute care hospitals such as HCA, Tenet, and Community Health address this demand through buildout of freestanding ERs. FSEDs were first established in Texas. But now many facilities are being built in other states such as Arizona and Colorado and it is expected that more construction will take place in the next few years in other states as well. While large hospital systems are implementing their strategies for FSEDs, shifting of patient volume can be observed from smaller hospitals and those with extremely crowded EDs toward FSEDs. Further key findings from the study suggest: In 2018, the Hospital Outpatient Department (HOPD) segment dominated the market in terms of revenue. This is attributed to overcrowding of hospital ERs and availability of high reimbursement for treatment at HOPD when compared with Independent Freestanding Emergency Department (IFSED), where no reimbursement is available if the facility is not affiliated Laboratory service held the largest share in the U.S market due to increasing patient volume for immediate care at FSEDs and increased patient preference for walk-in clinics. Laboratory test results are important for any diagnostic procedure and inpatient management decisions and are a significant contributor to ED patient flow The U.S. market has witnessed facility expansion through mergers and acquisitions by key players, which combine various services together and thus increase the overall market revenue Key players operating in the U.S. Freestanding Emergency Department market include Adeptus Health Inc.; Tenet Healthcare Corporation; Universal Health Services, Inc.; HCA Healthcare, Inc.; Community Health Systems, Inc.; Ascension Health; Legacy Lifepoint Health, Inc.; Ardent Health Services; and Emerus. Grand View Research has segmented the U.S. Freestanding Emergency Department market based on ownership and service: U.S. FSED Ownership Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Off-Campus Emergency Departments (OCED) Independent Freestanding Emergency Department (IFSED) U.S. FSED Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Emergency Department Service Imaging Service Laboratory Service Access full research report on U.S. freestanding emergency department market: www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-freestanding-emergency-department-market Sister of Kangana Ranaut, Rangoli Chandel on Wednesday shared sneak-peek of Kangana Ranaut from the sets of her upcoming biographical drama 'Thalaivi' revealing that the actor has gained 20 kgs weight, ahead of the shooting of two movies titled 'Tejas' and 'Dhaakad.' Rangoli took to Twitter and shared a couple of pictures where Kangana is seen sporting a blue saree followed by a picture of the former Tamil Nadu minister Jayalalithaa. In the same post, Chandel shared two pictures of the 32-year-old actor where she is seen modelling for a photo shoot holding a glass in her hand flaunting the lean figure. In the last one, Kangana is seen posing flaunting the slim body. Chandel captioned the post as, "Only last schedule to go for #Thalaivi Kangana has gained 20 kgs weight, After 2 months she starts #Tejas & #Dhaakad.... will she be able to shed that weight, let's see." Earlier, Rangoli shared a glimpse of Kangana as 'Thalaivi' where the actor channelled the same look as the late minister. The national award-winning actor was seen in her Amma avatar, sans prosthetics. Dressed in a plain white saree with black and red stripes, her hair tied up in a bun, while she sported a round red bindi on her forehead and matching earrings. 'Thalaivi' has been written by 'Baahubali' and 'Manikarnika' writer KV Vijayendra Prasad and 'The Dirty Picture' and 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai' writer Rajat Arora. The movie is set to hit theatres on June 26, 2020. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) False rumours about the new coronavirus circulating in Russia are being directed from abroad, President Vladimir Putin claimed Wednesday at a government meeting. He told ministers the country's FSB security service had reported to him that false information was being planted to create panic, while in reality the situation is not critical. "As for these provocative fake stories, the FSB reports they're mainly organised from abroad... The aim of such fake stories is clear: to spread panic among the public." He said Russia had to fight this by releasing "timely, comprehensive and trustworthy information." "So far, thank God, nothing critical is happening in our country but people have to know about the real situation." Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova also spoke out against recent "fake posts" on social media about the new coronavirus. These posts have claimed there are "quite large numbers of sick people in Russia and that the official authorities are hiding this information," she said at the meeting. "I want to tell you once again that this doesn't correspond to reality." The official total of confirmed cases in Russia is six so far, she reiterated. Moscow's charges come after US State Department officials told AFP in February that thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts were being used to fuel alarm over the virus. Philip Reeker, the US acting Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, said in February that "Russian malign actors" were "spreading disinformation about coronavirus" and posing a threat to public safety. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by condemning his comments as a "deliberately false story". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Civic Chamber member proposes outright ban on production, sale of tobacco sucking packets flickr.com/ Lisa Risager 16:23 04/03/2020 MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) A member of the Civic Chamber Sultan Khamzayev on Wednesday proposed to draft a bill to utterly forbid production and sale of tobacco sucking packets (snus) in Russia. Earlier, there were proposals only to ban selling these non-smoking tobacco products, he said during public hearings. Citing the Chambers research results of 2019, Khamzayev said that 70% of young people aged 10 to 21 sampled snus just once in their life. In late 2019, a bill envisaging complete prohibition of retail and bulk sales of all non-smoking tobacco products was submitted to the State Duma. The authors of the initiative, lawmakers of the Stavropol Duma, proposed to sanction violations of legislation with fines of up to 60,000 rubles (about $1,000 at the current exchange rate). It was suggested to amend the current legislation aimed to protect citizens health from adverse effects and negative consequences of tobacco consumption to the effect that not only snus and dipping tobacco, but all non-smoking tobacco products are to be banned, whereas minors are to be prohibited to consume such products. At the same time, the bill introduces administrative responsibility for trade in non-smoking tobacco products. Citizens are to be fined from 2,000 to 4,000 rubles ($30 to $65), officials from 7,000 to 12,000 rubles ($100 to $200), legal entities from 40,000 to 60,000 rubles ($650 to $1,000). The authors of the bill explained their initiative by the fact that currently legal non-smoking tobacco products present no lesser health hazard than those already banned and equally result in nicotine addiction of consumers. 04.03.2020 LISTEN An extra 2 million dollars have been released in preparations for a possible outbreak of the Coronavirus in Ghana, the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu has disclosed. The minority and other stakeholders including WHO had questioned the adequacy of the 2.5 million cedis earlier allocated out of the required 35 million. In a contribution to a statement by Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, on Ghanas preparedness for the disease, minority spokesperson on health, Kwabena Mintah Akandor and Leader of the Minority, Haruna Iddrisu, argued that measures rolled out against the Covid-19 are inadequate. They once again raised concerns about the failure to evacuate Ghanaian students stranded in China as a result of the outbreak. But Agyeman Manu assured that the extra funds will go a long way to boost measures being rolled out. He added that supplies from the government have now made Ghanaian students stranded in Wuhan, China fairly comfortable now. Meanwhile, the Health Minister has also urged the public to avoid handshakes as a preventive measure for Coronavirus. He added that so far 40 suspected cases have all proven negative. Nigeria and Senegal are the only West African nations to confirm a case each of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, he assured the public that measures are in place to address the coronavirus scourge. Authorities have confirmed more than 92,000 cases of the virus worldwide of which more than 80,000 are in China. More than 3,000 people have died globally, the vast majority in China. New infections and deaths have been declining in recent weeks in China due to draconian quarantine measures. The country on Wednesday reported 38 more deaths but a fall in fresh cases for a third consecutive day. The worst-hit country outside China remains South Korea which on Wednesday reported 516 new confirmed infections, bringing the total to 5,328. The countrys death toll stands at 33. ---Starrfm.com.gh S ix days ago I stood in a room in Camden and found myself close to tears. We, a group of 80 strangers, were all there for the same reason. We were moments from becoming British citizens. So as someone who grew up in America, what Id like to come out of Super Tuesday is unity. I support the two most Left-leaning candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. I have no doubt that Warrens supporters would get behind whichever candidate received the nomination. I cannot say the same of Sanders or Biden supporters, but it is my deepest hope that I am proved wrong and that anyone who opposes Trump understands what a second term would mean for migrant children, women, and the millions in need of systemic changes to healthcare. I hope that the Left can believe in good faith that our goals are shared, though our strategies to achieve them differ, and that come November we remember: we are all there for the same reason. Arianna Reiche Editor's reply Dear Arianna Super Tuesday was created to achieve two things for the Democrats. First, to sew up the nomination for the frontrunner and bring unity. Last nights result didnt achieve that. Joe Bidens remarkable resurrection means we are now set for a long, bitter two-horse race between him and Bernie Sanders . Second, Super Tuesday was designed to help the most centrist, electable candidate emerge, because you need the backing of the party establishment to win a nationwide contest. On this it has partly worked. Biden is a moderate, and has now reclaimed the title of frontrunner. My observation, having met him a few times, is that he is best placed to beat Trump. Thats not to say it will be easy, as four fifths of sitting presidents are re-elected and Trump has done a better job than those who hate him acknowledge. But Biden is likeable and can relate, while Trump is divisive and coronavirus means the economy is not certain to be strong this autumn. At 77, Joe Biden might not be the Comeback Kid, but he could be the Comeback Grandpa. George Osborne, Editor of the Evening Standard Donald Trump / Getty Images Budgeting for social care The social care sector is a vital lifeline for millions, yet it has been deprioritised by successive governments and forced to survive on emergency cash injections while battling increasing pressures. With 79 per cent of older people worrying about affording decent care, government must address social care reform once and for all. However, our research shows the public are becoming more optimistic. Trust in government to deliver on social care reform has increased by seven per cent since the last election. The upcoming Budget is an opportunity to reassure the public their trust is not misplaced. Jane Ashcroft CBE, Chief executive, Anchor Hanover The joy of London is our differences I was saddened to hear of S Pathaks experience of racial abuse [The Reader, March 2 ]. I recently suffered two incidents of racist abuse and know the complex emotions that follow such assaults. British Transport and the Met Police pursued two successful prosecutions. As a white man of British origin and exceptional stature, to be assaulted for being English seems bizarre. Yet it also highlights the inane mindset of those who cannot embrace the joy of difference that we celebrate in London. Matthew Evan Smith This country has no airports policy The ruling of the Court of Appeal that the Government did not consider the UKs commitment to the Paris Agreement when legislating for Heathrow expansion means that temporarily at least this country has no airports policy. Put simply, the ruling could quite easily have applied to all airports that have growth ambitions. Sadiq Khan speaks outside the Royal Courts of Justice after a decision by the Court of Appeal on legal challenges to the UK government's approval of plans to expand capacity at Heathrow airport / AFP via Getty Images Over seven years since the Coalition government set up the Airports Commission to consider the acute shortage of airport capacity in the South East, we are still no nearer to getting spades in the ground, and our international competitiveness is steadily being eroded by the day. Last month, the UK aviation sector committed to delivering net zero emissions by 2050, and stressed that this can be achieved while accommodating expected demand for air travel. HONOLULU - Japan suspended its yearly funding for a giant telescope project in Hawaii, citing an ongoing stalemate over its construction. Japan is not completely pulling out of participation in the Thirty Meter Telescope project on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii Public Radio reported. An international consortium wants to build the telescope atop the states highest mountain on the Big Island. Japan supplies components for the telescope. Tomonori Usuda, telescope project manager for Japan, confirmed the Japanese government reduced funding for the project due to the situation on Mauna Kea. But Japan is still committed to Hawaii as the preferred site for the telescope, Usuda said. Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim announced a two-month moratorium on construction in late December. Kim said Monday he had not received a reply from telescope representatives to his February request for a two-month extension of the moratorium. We are not prepared to move forward with construction on Maunakea anytime soon, telescope spokesman Scott Ishikawa wrote in an email Monday. Some Native Hawaiians believe the project will desecrate sacred land and demonstrators blocked the access road to the construction site from July to December. Telescope opponents gathered at the Consulate-General of Japan in Honolulu Monday. Group leader Kaho?okahi Kanuha said, Were calling upon the Japanese people to recognize the kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) as a people with a living culture, history, language and spiritual/religious practices, who have a sacred and revered mountain in Mauna Kea as they do in Mount Fuji, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Copies of the letter in English and Japanese were presented to a representative of Consul General Koichi Ito outside the consulate. Japan and Canada are the only two countries in the consortium using public funds to finance the project. Former Tokyo resident Ikuko Kurata, who helped organize a meeting between telescope opponents and consulate staff, told Hawaii Public Radio that the project may not be known in Japan. Not many Japanese know about this issue, said Kurata. They dont know 135 million yen (in) tax money is being used for TMT. The current value of 135 million yen is about $1.2 million. CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) - Boeing Co. (BA) has unveiled its thrust-compounded helicopter for the U.S. Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program. Boeing said its design is set to meet the Army's current mission needs while evolving as technologies and missions change. The thrust compounded single-main rotor helicopter boasts a six-bladed rotor system, a single engine, tandem seating and a modular, state-of-the-art cockpit with a reconfigurable large area display and autonomous capabilities. 'We're offering more than a helicopter - we're offering an affordable and fully integrated system for the Army, the mission and the future. We've blended innovation, ingenuity and proven rotorcraft experience with extensive testing and advanced analysis to offer a very compelling solution,' said Mark Cherry, vice president and general manager of Boeing's Phantom Works. The U.S Army expects to award the contracts to two of the five competing teams at the end of March to build FARA prototypes for a competitive flyoff at the end of fiscal 2023. FARA is intended to replace Boeing AH-64E Apaches now used in the armed reconnaissance role, with the first unit scheduled to be equipped in 2028. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. A district court here sentenced a 32-year-old man to three years of rigorous imprisonment for abetting his wife's suicide. In an order issued on February 29, district judge R V Tamhankar sentenced Sanjay Tangade to three years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000. Tangade's sister-in-law, who is the second accused in the case, was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted by the court. Prosecutor Sandhya Mhatre informed the court that the accused, who is a resident of Murdha Khadi in Uttan town of Maharashtra, married the victim Monica in July 2016. Within a couple of months into the marriage, Tangade started harassing the victim, forcing her to go back to her parents' house, she said. Fed up of the constant harassment, the victim hanged herself on November 2016, she added. The court found the accused guilty under sections 498A (Husband or relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Emergency personnel work among destroyed homes, near Cookeville, Tennessee. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee shredding more than 140 buildings and burying people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. At least 23 people were killed. (Image: AP) The European Commission has recognised the Hungarian governments economic achievements, a state secretary of the innovation and technology ministry said, commenting on the ECs latest country report. Hungary is the EUs GDP growth champion, Laszlo Gyorgy said, arguing that Hungarys growth had come close to 5% last year, probably the second best figure in the bloc. He said that Ireland could have the highest growth, but added that the detailed figures were not yet available. In the 2013-2019 period Hungarys growth nearly doubled the average European rate, he said, adding that the government continued to aim at a growth rate two percentage points above the EU average in the medium term. He noted that Germanys economy was stagnating and growth in the euro zone was slowing. Gyorgy said that Hungarys net external debt had been reduced from 52.6% of GDP in 2008 to 8.4% last year, while the state debt had been reduced to 66.4%, by 12 percentage points. The forex share in the state debt has also been reduced from 44.7% to 17.4%, he said. While the budget deficit was 6.5% in 2008, it was 2.1% last year, and was expected to fall to 0.8% in 2020, the state secretary said. Gyorgy called it a misbelief that Hungarys economy could not be growing without EU funds, insisting that Hungarys economic achievements are recognised worldwide. A journalist reflects on what weeks of protests mean for the lands Indigenous and how it goes beyond just a pipeline. Alberta, Canada The past month has been strained, emotional, tense. Covering the Wetsuweten crisis as an Indigenous journalist has been a challenge. In British Columbia, the hereditary chiefs of the Wetsuweten tribe are opposing the construction of a natural gas pipeline through their traditional lands a protest that has sparked a David and Goliath-style battle with industry, governments and Canadian law enforcement. It set off an uprising of Indigenous peoples and their allies across Canada and beyond, inspiring many to stand in solidarity and uphold their own rights. In early February, thousands watched live feeds of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) moving in on Wetsuweten land defenders after the pipeline owner Coastal GasLink, now known as TC Energy directed police to enforce a court injunction allowing it to remove the obstacles and continue preconstruction work. The first arrests were made in the dark of night. We watched the next round happen during the day against the backdrop of snow-blanketed mountains. On the Morice River bridge the only access point to the construction pipeline land defenders hung red dresses a chilling symbol of the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Violence against Indigenous women has in part been linked to industrial activity. The dresses were later ripped down by Coastal GasLink workers when the land defenders were taken away a move that seemed symbolic of how dangerous it is for Indigenous women living near industrial developments. Beneath the Morice River bridge flows what Wetsuweten Hereditary Chief Namoks told me is untarnished water pristine enough that people can still drink straight from the river. The remote area is environmentally intact and untainted by human activity making it one of the last of its kind in the world. The land defenders were unarmed. The RCMP advanced with rifles and dogs. Days later, a video surfaced of young land defenders at the top of a wooden tower built near the Unistoten healing camp a Wetsuweten traditional healing centre as one of them yells at the officers that he is unarmed. In the distance, a sniper is seen pointing his gun at them. No relocation The RCMP blocked First Nations hereditary chiefs and some Wetsuweten members from accessing their unceded ancestral lands, while Coastal GasLink workers were escorted along the roads to make way for the pipeline. Indigenous peoples and their allies decried industry being given precedence over human rights. These are rights defined by Article 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which says in part that Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent. The UNDRIP is one of the most comprehensive international instruments defining the rights of Indigenous peoples and essentially the only safeguard that exists to uphold them. Not every state recognises it. Canada was finally set to implement the declaration into law, which would have reformed the way the government and the industry uphold Indigenous rights. But amidst the Wetsuweten crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stalled the adoption of the UNDRIP. Protesters rally in support of the Wetsuweten in downtown Ottawa on February 24, 2020 [File: Reuters] Sparks of hope ignite The Wetsuweten drama grew. It was chaotic, and unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. Journalists working to document the turbulent scenes were held back by police. Rail and port blockades sprung up at key infrastructure routes. Fires burned day and night at sites of protests in the mid-winter cold. The fires kept people warm and, in their alliance, they felt the sparks of hope ignite. Pressure built. Canadians started to notice. Many soon felt inconvenienced by the blockades and the hold-up of a pipeline that promises instant economic security. Indigenous peoples world view looks ahead for the wellbeing of the next seven generations: a future of clean land, air and water for our children and their children. In an era of extreme weather changes and a climate crisis, humanitys way of life is under threat and there is a need to protect and sustain what is left. Many Indigenous peoples are ready to defend Mother Earth to her end. But, in return, some are receiving death threats. Across the world, much has been taken from Indigenous peoples from colonisation to assimilation policies, to being entrapped in territories by governments. But the injustices have also unleashed a collective desire to rise. There is a belief among the Indigenous that our generation was foretold long ago on these very lands by our ancestors. That this generation would help bring back balance to a world ravaged by greed and industrialisation. We are their living prayers walking out an Indigenous renaissance. A cultural, artistic, political, and economic rebirth in which we are carrying the responsibility of revolutionary change. Nation-to-nation building A couple of weeks into the protests, Conservative politicians demanded that Trudeau take action to stop the land defenders because they said they were paralysing key infrastructure, railways and ports. But he held back, saying it was an opportunity for respectful dialogue with the hereditary chiefs and not a time for hastily made decisions. After all, his number one priority is to repair the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples here he has been touting this since he was first elected in 2015. I was there to witness an epic honouring ceremony held at the TsuuTina Nation near Calgary, Alberta in March 2016. Everyone was hopeful. There was an expectation that Trudeau would carry out his promises for nation-to-nation building and the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. PM Trudeau holding the hand of TsuuTina Chief Roy Whitney after his honouring ceremony [Brandi Morin/Al Jazeera] More than 100 elected chiefs from across Canada attended along with thousands of locals. TsuuTina Chief Roy Whitney called the event a Thunderbirds Awakening and encouraged Trudeau to seize the moment because it was important for the survival of First Nations. Trudeau was given an Indian name in the TsuuTina language, Gusmistiyi, meaning the one that keeps trying. I watched them crown him with a feathered war bonnet and he called the relationship with First Nations a sacred obligation. He joined hands with the chiefs and, with great celebration, danced around the room to the beat of roaring drums and tribal songs. Raid after raid Then on February 21, it seemed as though Trudeau stopped trying. He gave the go-ahead for police to enforce the removal of Indigenous land defenders and their allies at various blockades across the country. Police dispatched in the hundreds. Unarmed Mohawk allies in Tyendinaga, Ontario asserting their sovereignty on their own territories were forcefully removed by police officers. Not long after, Gitxsan Matriarchs and a hereditary chief were arrested on their own lands just down the highway from the Wetsuweten territory. Reports surfaced of raid after raid on Indigenous peoples and allies all over the country. We watched it through live feeds and replays on media outlets with a narrative from a predominantly non-Indigenous perspective. And our hearts bled. Elders sang prayer songs. Some cried. The youth drew more inspiration to stand against the status quo. Tug of war between two worlds Many Indigenous people in Canada and around the world are dying due to land loss, suicide, poverty, murder in part because of the racism and hatred that is rampant in some areas and systemically embedded into mainstream societies. Indigenous people living on the lands they have inhabited for thousands of years carry the most adverse statistics of incarceration rates, access to healthcare, housing, education and quality of life. There is a tug-of-war between two worlds pulsing through my veins. My Cree and Iroquois ancestors have walked these lands for time immemorial. Some of my French ancestors came here to make war with them. But I have the strength and blood of thousands of warriors carrying the songs of my ancestors, holding the dreams of both sides alive. Sometimes I feel like a bridge between the two worlds. We are living with a mess that desperately needs healing and reconciliation. Canada has a history of colonial violence against Indigenous peoples. But an Indigenous solidarity is unfolding because there is unity in a vision for liberation from oppression. This renaissance, this dawning of a new era of justice and hope, is not going anywhere. This is not about a pipeline. It is about way more than that. It is about Indigenous rights, sovereignty, protecting the environment and revolution. I am here to document it all. And the war cry for justice and a new way forward is spreading wildly. Voters leave after casting their ballots at the Mt. Moriah Primitive Baptist Church polling station during the North Carolina primary on Super Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. on Mar. 3, 2020. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images) Super Tuesday: Biden and Sanders Projected to Be Main Winners Fourteen states, one U.S. territory, and Democrats living abroad voted in primary elections and caucuses on a day that could majorly influence who will become the Democratic contender to challenge President Donald Trump in November for the presidency. Republicans also voted for their presidential nominee in most of the 14 states. Meanwhile, Alabama, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, and Texas are also holding other elections for both Republicans and Democrats, including Congressional primaries. Here was how the night unfolded: Biden Projected to Win Texas The Associated Press has called a victory for Biden for Texas, where 228 delegates were on offer. With 82 percent of votes in at 2 a.m. ET, poll results published by Real Clear Politics show Biden leading at 33.1 percent, followed by Sanders at 29.7 percent. So far Biden has been awarded 56 delegates, and Sanders has been awarded 50. Earlier wins or projected wins for Biden on the night include Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Sessions in Alabama Senate GOP Runoff Republican Jeff Sessions, a former attorney general under President Donald Trump, was headed to a likely runoff in Alabama as he sought on Tuesday to advance his bid to return to the U.S. Senate in a wave of congressional primaries. Jeff Sessions talks with the media after voting in Alabamas state primary, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt) Sessions, who in 2016 was the first Senate Republican to endorse Trump before joining his administration, is seeking his partys nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Doug Jones. He is to face first-time candidate Tommy Tuberville, the former head coach of the Auburn University football team, in a runoff on March 31. The two were essentially tied on Tuesday night, with 64 of 76 counties reporting. Trump has not endorsed any of the contenders. The president had forced Sessions out of the Justice Department after repeatedly criticizing his decision to recuse himself from the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Warrens Future Uncertain After Loss in Home State The future of Sen. Elizabeth Warrens presidential campaign was in serious doubt after she finished a weak third in Tuesdays Democratic primary in her home state of Massachusetts. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a primary election night rally, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at Eastern Market in Detroit. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Warren appeared set on remaining in the race, at least for now. Speaking to supporters in Detroit ahead of next weeks Michigan primary, she introduced herself as the woman whos going to beat Donald Trump. She encouraged supporters to tune out the results and vote for the person they believed would be the best president, saying: Prediction has been a terrible business and the pundits have gotten it wrong over and over. You dont get what you dont fight for. I am in this fight, she added. Biden, Sanders in Close Race in Texas Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders appear to be in a close race in Texas, where there are 228 delegates at stake. According to poll results from Real Clear Politics, with 52 percent of votes in, Biden is leading at 29.1 percent, followed by Sanders at 28.8 percent. Sanders Projected to Win California Bernie Sanders is projected to win California. Just minutes after 11 p.m. ET, The Associated Press called a win for Sanders in California, which has 415 delegates up for grabs. Sanders Seeks For Polls to Stay Open Longer in California The Sanders campaign filed an emergency injunction asking for polls in Los Angeles County to remain open an extra two hours, after reports of huge delays and long lines, Reuters reported. According to the injunction, multiple polling locations in the County have experienced extreme wait times for individuals to vote, including wait times up to four hours to cast a ballot. The legal filing says voter check-in stations and voting machines were not working at some polling places. It also alleged voting machines were rejecting ballots at one polling place Tuesday afternoon. Trump Wins Republican Presidential Primary in California The Associated Press has called a victory for the president in the Republican Presidential Primary in California. Sanders Projected to Win Utah The Associated Press has called a victory for Bernie Sanders in Utah. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane OMeara Sanders and other family members, speaks during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vt., on March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Biden: We are very much alive So far in the Super Tuesday Democratic primaries, Biden is projected to win Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden appears at his Super Tuesday night rally in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 3, 2020. (Reuters/Mike Blake) We are very much alive, the former vice president said to a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles. And make no mistake about it. This campaign will send Donald Trump packing. Biden is also projected to win in the states of Minnesota and Massachusetts. The Associated Press has called his victory for both states. Bidens speech was temporarily interrupted by a few people who rushed onto the stage shouting let dairy die to protest against the dairy industry. The protesters were from the group Direct Action Everywhere. Sanders: We are going to win the Democratic nomination Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Vermont late Tuesday, Bernie Sanders expressed confidence he will win the Democratic nomination. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his wife Jane as he arrives to speak at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, U.S., March 3, 2020. (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs) You know, its a funny thing, 31 years ago today we won the mayor race in Burlington, Vermont. And we won that race against all of the odds. Everybody said it couldnt be done. And when we began this race for the presidency, everybody said it couldnt be done. But tonight I tell you with absolute confidence, we are going to win the Democratic nomination. And we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of the country. Sanders is projected to win Colorado and Vermont in the Democratic presidential primary race. Biden Projected to Win Tennessee, Arkansas The Associated Press has called a win for Joe Biden in Tennessee and Arkansas in the Democratic presidential primary race. Polls Closing Times Polls were scheduled to close across the nation from 7 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET. Polls have closed in (all times ET): Vermont and Virginia at 7 p.m.; North Carolina at 7:30 p.m.; Maine, Texas, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma at 8 p.m.; Arkansas at 8:30 p.m.; and Minnesota, Colorado, and Tennessee at 9 p.m. Polls are scheduled to close in Utah at 10 p.m. and California at 11 p.m. Bloomberg Wins American Samoa Bloomberg scored a victory in American Samoa on Tuesday, taking up five of the six delegates on offer, while Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) took one. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg greets supporters during his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, March 3, 2020. (Reuters/Maria Alejandra Cardona) Bloomberg, who has yet to win any states, has spent $500 million of his own money on campaign advertising. No matter how many we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible, he said. The feat was rising from 1 percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president, Bloomberg said. Cunningham, Tillis to Face-Off in November Cal Cunningham has won the Democratic nomination for the Senate in North Carolina, setting the stage for a face-off in November against incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who was renominated. FILE In this Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, file photo, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham speaks during an interview in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) Cunningham is an Iraq War veteran. He also served in the North Carolina Senate from 2001 to 2003. It will be the first reelection bid for Tillis, who won his seat in 2014. Sanders Projected to Win Colorado, Biden Projected to Win Oklahoma In the Democratic presidential primary race, Bernie Sanders is projected to win Colorado while Joe Biden is projected to win Oklahoma. The Associated Press has called their victories for both states. Trump Wins GOP Presidential Primaries in Multiple States Trump has won the Republican Presidential Primary in multiple states including in Alabama, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The president has taken to Twitter to thank multiple states for his victory in the Republican primary race, including Vermont, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Maine, and Texas. Biden Projected to Win Democratic Presidential Primaries in North Carolina, Alabama Biden is projected to win the state of North Carolina and Alabama as polls closed at 7:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET, respectively. The Associated Press has called his win for both states. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Biden Projected to Win Virginia, Sanders Projected to Win Vermont Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the Virginia Democratic primary as the first polls close on Super Tuesday in Virginia and Vermont at 7 p.m. ET. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Saint Augustines University in Raleigh, N.C., on Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) Biden recently won South Carolinas primary on Saturday. He has received endorsements from former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Both had left the race in the run-up to Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Vermont. He has represented Vermont in the Senate since 2007. Sanders and his wife voted in Vermont earlier in the day. Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders departs after he and his wife Jane OMeara Sanders voted in the Vermont primary at their polling place in Burlington, Vermont, on March 3, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Healthcare is Top Concern For Many Voters: Edison Research Super Tuesday voters named healthcare as their leading issues, and more than half support a government-run single-payer system, early exit polls by Edison Research showed. Voters in five of the bigger states holding primary elections on Tuesdayat least seven out of 10 voters in California, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennesseealso said the coronavirus outbreak was a factor in their decision, the poll said. Those were the only states in which the question was put to voters. Super Tuesday Voting So Far Free of Cyber-Meddling, US Officials Say The Super Tuesday primary elections were so far free of any signs of interference, said national security professionals who gathered in Northern Virginia in an unprecedented monitoring effort to counter cyberattacks and foreign disinformation. On the specifics of today, we have not seen any acute increase in any misinformation, said Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Representatives from the Homeland Security Department, FBI, National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command were positioned at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to respond rapidly to any attacks on Tuesdays presidential primaries. State and local election officials spread across the country were also connected to the nerve center in Virginia in case of suspicious cyber incidents. In a joint statement on Monday, the heads of each participating agency warned of sharp consequences for foreign actors that attempt to meddle in the 2020 election. The level of coordination and communication between the federal government and state, local and private sector partners is stronger than its ever been, the statement read. Tennessee to Extend Voting Hours at Polling Sites After Storms Several Tennessee polling places will stay open at least an extra hour to allow Democratic primary voters on Super Tuesday to continue to cast ballots after the state was hit by deadly storms overnight, the states Democratic Party announced on Twitter. The party filed suit to extend hours and the decision was made by a judge after tornadoes rolled through the state capital, killing at least 22 and leaving a wide path of destruction. Whats At Stake on Super Tuesday Five candidates remain in the Democrat race: Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Over a third of delegates, or around 34 percent, will be awarded in Tuesdays Democrat nominating contests1,357 out of a total of 3,979 pledged delegates nationwide. In February, only less than 5 percent of delegates were up for grabs from four states voting. A poll worker drops in drive through ballots into a ballot box as fourteen states including California hold primaries on Super Tuesday in San Diego, California, U.S., March 3, 2020. (Mike Blake/Reuters) A candidate needs to win at least 1,991 delegates to win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot by the partys national convention in July. Democrat candidates must finish with at least 15 percent of the vote for them to win any delegates in a given stateeither in the statewide total or an individual congressional district. California and Texas, the two most populous states in the country, have the largest numbers of delegates up for grabs, at 415 and 228 respectively. Other Super Tuesday states are Alabama (52 delegates), Arkansas (31 delegates), Colorado (67 delegates), Maine (24 delegates), Massachusetts (91 delegates), Minnesota (75 delegates), North Carolina (110 delegates), Oklahoma (37 delegates), Tennessee (64 delegates), Utah (29 delegates), Vermont (16 delegates), and Virginia (99 delegates). American Samoa (6 delegates), a U.S. Pacific territory, is also participating. Lastly, Democrats Abroad (13 delegates), the overseas affiliate of the Democratic Party, has begun holding primary elections around the world. Republicans will be able to vote for their presidential nominee in most of the 14 abovementioned states. Trump needs 1,276 delegates out of 2,551 to win the Republican nomination. Virginia is the only state not to hold a presidential primary for a Republican nominee. WHSV reported that state Republicans will select a nominee at their convention. Alabama, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, and Texas are also holding other elections for both Republicans and Democrats, including Congressional primaries. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The government on Wednesday permitted NRIs to own up to 100 per cent stake in disinvestment-bound Air India. The decision comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 per cent stake sale in the national carrier. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved allowing Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to hold up to 100 per cent stake in Air India. Allowing 100 per cent investment by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the carrier would also not be in violation of SOEC norms. NRI investments would be treated as domestic investments. Under the Substantial Ownership and Effective Control (SOEC) framework, which is followed in the airline industry globally, a carrier that flies overseas from a particular country should be substantially owned by that country's government or its nationals. Currently, NRIs can acquire only 49 per cent in Air India. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the airline is also 49 per cent through the government approval route. As per the existing norms, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in scheduled domestic carriers, subject to certain conditions, including that it would not be applicable for overseas airlines. In the case of scheduled airlines, 49 per cent FDI is permitted through automatic approval route and any such investment beyond that level requires government nod. On January 27, the government came out witha Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for Air India disinvestment. It has proposed selling 100 per cent stake in Air India along with budget airline Air India Express and the national carrier's 50 per cent stake in AISATS, an equal joint venture with Singapore Airlines. Under the latest disinvestment plan, the successful bidder would have to take over only debt worth Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction. This is the second attempt by the government in as many years to divest Air India, which has been in the red for long. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After his last release from a Vietnamese jail, the priest has lived in Hue. He is one of many Vietnamese who believe that their government has not taken a firm stance in the controversy with Beijing over the South China Sea. Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies) Nguyen Van Ly, the Vietnamese priest who was tried and imprisoned several times for criticising Vietnams communist regime, is recovering from a heart attack. According to his nephew Nguyen Van Viet, also a Catholic priest, Fr Ly had a heart attack on 26 February in Hue, where he has lived since his release from prison in 2016 in a goodwill gesture ahead of a state visit to Vietnam by then US President Barack Obama. Although in poor health, Ly writes articles each week urging his fellow Vietnamese to resist the political and territorial encroachment by their powerful Chinese neighbour. He is one of many Vietnamese who believe that their government has not taken a firm stance against China over the South China Sea. Father Ly was imprisoned many times, starting with a year in jail in 1977-78, followed by another nine years in 1983-92 for what Vietnamese authorities deemed opposing the revolution and destroying the peoples unity. In 2001, the Catholic clergyman was arrested at his church and accused of abusing conditions of his probation. This led to a 15-year prison sentence that was later commuted. In 2004 he was placed under house arrest at the Archdiocese of Hue city. In April 2006, Ly joined a group of writers known as Bloc 8406 in signing a Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy in Vietnam. In 2007, he was convicted on charges of conducting propaganda against the state and sentenced to eight years in prison and five years on probation. During his trial, which was attended by foreign media, Ly began shouting Down with communism, but was silenced by a security officer who covered his mouth with a hand (pictured) in a televised image that became an icon for advocates of free expression. SALEM, Ore.-- Oregon's governor says the state needs 400,000 respirator masks, gowns and gloves, disposable protective suits and up to 100 ventilators in case the coronavirus continues to spread. In a tweet posted to her Twitter account, the Governor explains that she wrote a formal request to the White House asking for seven to 10 million dollars a month for those items. Brown explains those needs in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, who was appointed by the president to lead the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus outbreak. An update on the coronavirus situation in Oregon.https://t.co/ltxSTEUC0u Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) March 4, 2020 In the letter she also describes what the state is doing to combat the spread. Brown also asked for increased flexibility on criteria for testing for COVID-19 and additional test kits. Gov. Brown letter for coronavirus response help to Vice President... Oregon has three confirmed cases of the new virus. RELATED: OREGON SEES THIRD CORONAVIRUS CASE RELATED: PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCIES ADAPTING TO CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAKS IN US Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed strategic US-Egyptian relations in a telephone call Tuesday evening , Egyptian foreign ministry said. Shoukry received a call from Pompeo, during which the pair agreed to "continue consultation and coordination on a number of issues in the upcoming period", the ministry said, without elaborating. It added that the call is part of "close consultation" between the two sides on all issues. Earlier on Tuesday, US president Donald Trump called Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the two leaders discussed the latest developments of a disputed giant dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile, with Trump promising to continue efforts for a deal between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the project. Search Keywords: Short link: Midwives are to be told to stop refusing epidurals to women in labour after a government probe found that many are being denied pain relief despite asking for it. Epidurals should be given to women if they want them, guidelines from the NHS watchdog says, usually within an hour. But the inquiry by the Department of Health found that midwives and hospitals are breaching rules, meaning that mothers are forced to give birth in agony. Health minister Nadine Dorries has been prompted to write to all midwife heads and the directors of NHS trusts to remind them of guidelines. Staff shortages have been blamed, while women have complained they were being told 'it's not called labour for nothing it's meant to be hard work'. Clare Murphy, of the British Pregnancy Adivsory Service, said that women can 'suffer profoundly' when pain relief is treated as a 'nice extra'. And Maureen Treadwell of the Birth Trauma Association said that the failures of epidural services were 'inhumane and discriminatory'. Midwives are to be told to stop refusing epidurals to women in labour after a government investigation found that many are being denied pain relief despite asking for it The government inquiry, which was reported by The Guardian, also found mothers-to-be are not being told that if they want to give birth at home, they will have to be transferred to hospital if they want an epidural. An epidural is a pain-relieving spinal injection which, while effective, is not risk-free. It must be given by an anaesthetist on duty. National Institute of Care Excellence (NICE) state women should be communicated with throughout labour about how they feel and if they need pain relief. Women in labour can ask for epidurals at any time, including during the early stages of labour. Failing to make women aware of the possibility that pain relief can only be given in hospital - and not at a home birth - is a breach of the NICE guidelines. BPAS's Ms Murphy said: 'We have spoken with many women who have been so traumatised by their experience of childbirth that they are considering ending what would otherwise be wanted pregnancies. WHAT IS AN EPIDURAL? An epidural is a pain-relieving injection which is often given to women in childbirth. It is also given during and after some types of surgery. They are given by an anaesthetist, who uses a needle to insert a fine plastic tube called an epidural catheter between the bones in your back. The needle is then removed, leaving just the catheter in place. Pain relief drugs are then given through the catheter and they take up to 30 minutes to have an effect. While the epidural is in use, your chest, tummy and legs can feel numb, and your legs might not feel as strong as normal. Once an epidural is stopped, the numbness can last for a few hours before the effects wear off. While usually safe, there is a small risk of side effects. These can include: - low blood pressure, making you feel nauseous and lightheaded. - temporary loss of bladder control - itchy skin - feeling sick - headaches - nerve damage In rare cases, an epidural can also lead to permanent loss of feeling or movement in one or both legs. Other very rare complications include fits; severe breathing difficulties and even death. Source: NHS Advertisement 'Pain relief is sometimes treated as a "nice extra" rather than an integral part of maternity care, and women and their families can suffer profoundly as a result. 'NICE guidance is explicit that women's choices must be respected, including having access to an epidural early on in labour if that is what she requests. 'Where this is not happening we need to understand why staffing shortages may be an issue, but we also know women may experience gatekeeping by healthcare professionals and be told labour "is meant to be hard work".' She called on the Government to make sure that access to pain relief will feature in work to improve maternity care. Ms Treadwell said that pain in childbirth had been 'swept under the carpet' for 'too long'. 'The psychological impact from the distress caused by horrific pain, which is what some women endure, inadequate epidural services and misinformation about risks is simply inexcusable. 'It is both inhumane and discriminatory. Some of the accounts we hear are horrifying. 'Failure to provide pain relief can leave women with post-traumatic stress disorder, fear of future birth and affect their relationship in the long term.' A recent investigation by the Sunday Telegraph in January claimed that mothers are being denied epidurals because of a 'cult of natural childbirth' at some NHS Trusts. NICE says healthcare professionals should think about how their own values and beliefs about childbirth and ensure their care supports the woman's choice. The Sunday Telegraph investigation also identified six NHS trusts where women in labour pleading for pain relief were refused it. Women were often told that they could only have an epidural when their cervix is dilated between 4cm and 6cm, Dr David Bogod, of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said. But it is 'never too early and never too late' for an epidural if a woman wants one, he added, and the national standard is 'within 30 minutes to one hour of asking for it, except in exceptional circumstances'. Previous data from NHS Digital also showed that the proportion of women in labour given pain medication such as epidurals had fallen from 67 per cent in the year 2008-09 to 61 per cent in 2018-19. The Royal College of Midwives said anaesthetists were under pressure because of 'stretched resources' which they said meant that anaesthetists are 'not always available'. Chief executive Gill Walton said: 'Every woman who wants an epidural should be given one if it is safe for her to do so. 'NICE guidelines should be followed. Women should get pain relief when they ask. 'They should be making choices about their pain relief armed with the information they need to make an informed choice, so they get the pain relief that is right for them.' ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A plan to reroute Alaska highway traffic during summer construction is expected to cause disruptions that one official said will seem like a monster. Its going to be Carzilla, Alaska Department of Transportation Central Region Design Chief Jim Amundsen said during a town hall meeting Saturday in Chugiak. The state plans to reroute southbound Glenn Highway traffic onto the northbound Glenn Highway bridge across the Eagle River while a three-lane crossing is installed heading south, The Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. The project will likely cause delays for morning and afternoon commutes on the highway, which officials say currently handles about 55,000 cars per day. The Carzilla moniker was an attempt to put a lighthearted spin on what is likely going to be a summer of headaches for commuters passing through Eagle River on their way to and from Anchorage, Amundsen said. We figured we might as well get a laugh out of it, Amundsen said, adding that the name is a nod to a short-term road closure on the Glenn Highway in 2018 dubbed Bridgepocalypse by those caught in the massive traffic jam. This years construction will create two northbound and two southbound lanes of traffic sharing the northbound bridge and separated by a concrete divider. Work is expected to be completed by late 2020 on the project, which is officially called Phase II of the Glenn Highway Artillery to Hiland Capacity Improvement Project. Phase I included construction of the new northbound bridge across the Eagle River Valley and was completed in 2015. Construction on Phase II began last fall. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-03 03:30:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DUSHANBE, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Preliminary results show that Tajikistan's ruling People's Democratic Party won 50.4 percent of the vote in the parliamentary election, Bakhtiyor Khudoyorzoda, chairman of the Central Election Commission announced here on Monday. Along with the ruling party, six other parties took part in the elections. The Party of Economic Reforms grabbed 16.6 percent of the vote, the Agrarian Party at 16.5 percent, the Socialist Party at 5.15 percent, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan at 5.1 percent, the Communist party of Tajikistan, at 3.1 percent of the vote, the Social democratic party of Tajikistan at 0.3 percent. A total of 241 candidates from seven parties, including 48 women, have contested for 63 seats - 41 in single-mandate constituencies and 22 in general constituencies elected along party lines. Tajik MPs are elected every five years. The parties need to pass a five percent threshold to be elected to the parliament, while candidates in single-mandate constituencies must secure at least 50 percent of votes. According to the Central Election Commission, the People's Democratic Party led by President Emomali Rahmon, secured 12 out of 22 seats in general constituencies. A total of 236 international observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other foreign missions were monitoring the election. SCO Deputy Secretary General Nurlan Akkoshkarov said at a briefing in Dushanbe that the SCO recognizes the election as transparent, reliable and democratic. Over 86 percent of eligible voters -- some 4.3 million voters -- cast ballots in 3,412 polling stations across the country and 39 stations abroad on Sunday. Enditem There were a total of 646 incidents of ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pakistan International Border (IB) as well as the Line of Control (LoC) between January 1 and February 23 this year, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said on Wednesday. "There have been 27 encounters with terrorists in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) since August 5 last year to February 23 this year. Forty five terrorists were neutralised and 7 security force personnel were also martyred," the minister stated. On August 5 last year, the Central government had revoked Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and bifurcated the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. "In addition, 132 cases of cross border firing from August 5, 2019 to December 31, 2019 and 41 cases of cross border firing between January 1 and February 15 this year along the international border and LOC in union territory of J&K were committed," Naik stated. In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the minister said that during 2019, there were 1,586 incidents of ceasefire violations at the LoC and Indo-Pakistan international border. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) U S President Donald Trump mocked Michael Bloomberg as the billionaire dropped out of the race to become the Democratic presidential candidate. President Trump took to Twitter to make fun of Mr Bloomberg, drawing attention to his stature and the money he spent in his campaign. Mr Bloomberg is one of the world's richest people, with a net worth of an estimated $61 billion (48 billion). He spent at least half a billion dollars of his own money on his presidential bid. He ran his campaign from more than two hundred offices across the country and employed thousands of highly-paid members of staff. But he failed to win primaries in any state - only emerging victorious in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory. Michael Bloomberg / AP President Trump swiftly made fun of the campaign's failure, describing the bid as "the worst, and most embarrassing experience of his life" in a tweet. The president also mocked Mr Bloomberg's endorsement of former vice-president Joe Biden, calling him "Sleepy Joe" - another well-worn nickname. The president has directed many tweets at Mr Bloomberg since the former New York mayor entered the race in November. He claimed that his fellow New Yorker, is the Democratic candidate he'd prefer to run against. Mr Bloomberg responded to the president's posts with a light-hearted tweet of his own. Mr Biden emerged from Super Tuesday as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, after winning primaries in Texas and eight other primaries at the time of reporting. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders won four primaries, including California. The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has expressed regret over former president John Mahamas absence during President Akufo-Addos delivery of the 2020 State of the Nation Address. He said the people of Ghana will not forget about that incident. Making his concluding remarks on the debate on the 2020 State of the Nation Address, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu reminded the State of the Nation Address is an apolitical and constitutional activity hence, it was important that former leaders of the country be present. Citing previous examples of former leaders gracing such national events even when their political parties were not in government, he said: President Kufuor attended the swearing-in of President Mahama on January 7, 2013, in his capacity as a former president. NPPs boycott of State of Nation Address had legal basis Responding to criticisms that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus also boycotted John Mahamas State of the Nation Address in 2013, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame constituency said the caucus abstained from being present for the event because it was litigating the legitimacy of John Mahamas presidency. [It was because] the case had gone to court and settled in the second half of 2013 in favour of John Mahana, the NPP parliamentary group subsequently attended the 2014 event because at the time the case had been decided. Nana Akufo-Addo did not attend the 2014 event because at that time he had travelled outside the country. [But] in 2015, Nana Akufo-Addo had returned to the country and accordingly attended the event of President Mahamas delivery on the State of the Nation, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said. It is unfortunate that the president [John Mahama] did not attend this particular event. The people of Ghana will not forget this, he added. Minoritys boycott embarrassing Mr. Osei-Kyei-Mensah subsequently took on the Minority over their decision to boycott the 2020 State of the Nation Address, describing their conduct as embarrassing and regrettable. The Minority in Parliament, clad in black left the Chamber moments after President Akufo-Addo took his seat in Parliament to deliver the 2020 address. The caucus later explained that their walkout was in opposition to supposed threats against the democracy of the state and was to protest the rising state of impunity and injustice in the country. But Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu chastised the caucus, arguing that there was no basis for their boycott. As for the boycott staged by the minority and the rather flip flop rationalization they have given, the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians have submitted to them that their actions that day was unjustifiable, regrettable, lamentable, unfortunate, and embarrassing not only to themselves but the country as a whole. My hope is that the parliament of Ghana will never witness any such walkouts of boycotts predicated on such convoluted excuses. citinewsroom A large study published in the journal JAMA in March 2020 reports that large pharmaceutical companies make a much larger profit from their products than other large public companies. This is important because it indicates the potential to reduce drug prices while sustaining competitive and innovative drug development and marketing. Most new medicines have come from research conducted by for-profit pharmaceuticals, especially the large firms a whopping 73% of all approved drugs come from the top 25 drug companies in the US. While such companies need to maintain adequate profit margins to satisfy their stockholders, they should also ensure that patients can afford their medicines. Most people think that drug prices are high because of the high-profit margins. The current study was motivated by the need for evidence as to the actual profitability of the companies making most of the drugs in the country. The study Many pharmaceutical companies adopt the following drug pricing strategy: boost list prices discount drugs to compensate for a part of the increase position new drugs strategically by reducing prices of other possibly competing drugs, thus reducing the competition and increasing the market share increase sales volume However, patients get none of the discounts, and insurance co-payments are calculated based on the list price. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 35 large pharma companies. The aim was to compare their profits with that of almost 360 companies in the Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) Index from 2000 to 2018. The latter did not include companies specializing in financial development. They did include companies dealing with staple consumer items, materials and industrial equipment, and healthcare products, as well as technology, utilities, communications, and energy sectors. The data was retrieved from the annual reports. A study from the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University compares the annual profits of 35 pharmaceutical companies to 357 D&P 500 companies. The net income margin of pharmaceutical companies was larger than that of S&P 500 companies (median 13.8% vs 7.7%, p<.001) but similar to companies in certain industrial sectors. Image Credit: Bentley University The outcomes assessed included revenue, gross profit (that is, revenue less cost of goods sold); earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) which represents the profit from the core business activities before taxes; and net income, or earnings (difference between the sum of revenues and the sum of expenses). The researchers calculated the cumulative profit or the annual profit as a percentage of the revenue (the profit margin). The findings Both sets of companies had similar median annual revenues of $10.6 billion vs. $8.4 billion for pharma and other companies. The cumulative revenue from the large pharmaceutical companies over the study period was $11.5 trillion. The gross profit was $8.6 trillion, while the EBITDA was $3.7 trillion. The net income was $1.9 trillion. In comparison, the 357 S&P 500 companies had a cumulative revenue of $130.5 trillion, with a gross profit of $42.1 trillion, EBITDA of $22.8 trillion, and net income of $9.4 trillion. The net income margin and the median EBITDA was higher for pharmaceuticals compared to most of the other companies, including those in the healthcare sector, except for technology and other sectors. While the goods sold were less expensive for the pharmaceutical companies, they also spent more on research and development expenses (claimed to be anywhere between $985 million and $ 2.9 billion per new drug) as well as general and administrative expenses, as a percentage of revenue. The median annual gross profit margins were markedly higher for the big pharma companies compared to other companies. However, the latter includes technology giants Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Googles Alphabet, all of which have made successful forays into healthcare, returning high-profit margins. The split up is as follows, for pharmaceutical and other firms: gross profit margin approximately 77% and 37% EBITDA margin: 29.4%vs 19% net income margin: 13.8% vs 7.7% In other words, the median net income margin for the large pharma companies is nearly double that of the other companies. However, Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft have net profit margins of 22%, 20%, and 28%, respectively After adjusting for the size of the company and the year of calculation, and for companies that reported the expenditure on research and development, the gross profit margin continued to be higher, with a difference of 31% approximately between pharma and other companies (unadjusted difference, 39%), and a difference of 9% and 4% compared to the earlier 10% and 6% in the EBITDA and net income margins, respectively. Implications The study highlights the higher profitability of large, fully integrated pharmaceutical companies compared to other companies in the S &P 500 Index in the study period. The most marked difference was in the gross profit margin, but the EBITDA margin is also more significant for pharma companies. Accounting for interest payments, taxes, and other expenses, the net income margin was also significantly higher. This is the companys bottom line. However, the analytic results vary with time, company size, and whether research and development expenses are reported for both datasets. Profits went down for large pharmaceutical firms over the last five years, but it is not clear if this is a significant change. Drug prices do not directly reflect the list price (wholesale acquisition price) but are affected by the chain of distribution. The drug market in the US also accounts for much more of the global revenue from any given drug than the actual 47% of sales volume that it is responsible for. The study did not include smaller firms that are conducting research, often under loss conditions, into novel therapeutic avenues. Thus, this does not mean that all pharmaceuticals are hugely profitable. Many federal lawmakers have proposed various measures to establish ceilings for drug prices in the US. These include: importing drugs from Canada capping drug payments when they reach 120% of average drug prices in other countries setting a limit for out-of-pocket medication expenditure for older people at $2,000 prohibiting pay-for-delay deals - payments from branded medication manufacturers to generic biosimilar manufacturers to keep the latter out of the market and sustain their monopoly disclosing list prices in advertisements of drugs. Unfortunately, most have met with opposition and are unlikely to be passed. Given the extreme and, in the opinion of many experts, unjustifiable, increase in drug prices, class-action lawsuits have been filed against certain large manufacturers, including the company that produces the worlds number one selling drug. These legal challenges are often filed by the consumers who have to pay for the drugs, occurring when lawmakers seem to be either unwilling or unable to push through legislative measures to ensure fair drug pricing. This may mark a new era of a consumer-powered setting of drug prices. UPDATE: Jamett Antonio Rivera, 21, of Allentown, voluntarily surrendered to police the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4, 2020, to face homicide and related charges in the shooting death the prior day of Elijaah Rodriguez, 18, in Allentown, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Allentown Police Assistant Chief Stephen Vangelo announced. ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Allentown police have charged three people in the early Tuesday morning killing of an 18-year-old city man, and two of the suspects are in custody, authorities said late Tuesday night. Pedro Acevedo, 19, and Nikolas Acevedo, 21, were to be arraigned on charges of homicide, robbery and conspiracy in the gunfire death of Elijah Rodriguez just before 1:30 a.m. in the 1200 block of Turner Street, according to a news release emailed by Capt. Charles Roca. Court papers were not updated as of early Wednesday to indicate the arraignments were complete, but due to the homicide charge the pair would be held without bail. Jamett Antonio Rivera, 21, faces the same charges but was not in custody, police said. Addresses were not provided for any of the three suspects or the victim. Rodriguez died at 8:31 a.m. Tuesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township and Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich ruled the cause of death as homicide, police said. The news release said Rodriguez was shot in the head, although the coroners report earlier said it was a wound to the body. ALLENTOWN SHOOTING https://t.co/JufiApKXNb LVBN - Rich Rolen (@lvbnalerts) March 3, 2020 A WFMZ reporter was able to see surveillance video from the nearby A1 Gas and Mini Mart and it indicates a vehicle turned right onto Turner and stopped part way up the street, according to a post on the television stations website. Rodriguez was walking on the sidewalk as two people got out and shot him, WFMZ reported. They ran away, but returned to check Rodriguezs pulse, WFMZ said. City police are working with the county district attorneys offices Homicide Task Force as well as the coroners office, the news release said. Police declined further comment. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. 56.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Trump is trying to falsely blame former President Obama for the fact that he did not have testing kits ready for the coronavirus outbreak. At the White House Trump said, The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what were doing, and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place at a much more accurate and rapid fashion. That was a decision we disagreed with. I dont think we would have made it, but for some reason it was made. But weve undone that decision. Video: Trump on coronavirus testing: "The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing & we undid that decision a few days ago so that testing can take place in a much more accurate & rapid fashion" (what's he talking about?) pic.twitter.com/Z0UBaORIwI Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 4, 2020 Trump was lying. Obama made no changes to testing. Dan Diamond of Politico tweeted that there no regulatory changes to lab testing finalized under Obama: As Sarah rightly corrects me, the White House has been criticizing Obama-era regulatory jurisdiction over lab tests that was never actually finalized. FDA issued draft guidance, not regulation. https://t.co/UwwSWWMFTc Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 4, 2020 The delay in testing wasnt from an Obama regulation, but Trumps CDC: ICYMI: Health department to let hospitals develop their own coronavirus tests after CDCs stumbles. https://t.co/oMVfqVbpRj pic.twitter.com/evbpTOCrnq Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) February 28, 2020 Trump has concocted this mythology in his own mind that Obama left the country in shambles and he has fixed everything. The truth is that Trump blames Obama for his failures. Trump isnt going to make the criticism of his coronavirus response go away by blaming Obama. Donald Trump is running the administration that is responsible for withholding information and misleading on the coronavirus. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook By PTI BENGALURU: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday claimed students and girls were being used to create unrest in society besides rift between faiths and termed it as a larger part of a conspiracy hatched across the country. The minister was responding to questions about two women-Amulya Leona and Arudra- who were arrested recently in separate cases for raising pro-Pakistan slogans at an anti-CAA event and holding a "Kashmir Mukti (liberation), Dalit Mukti, Muslim Mukti" placard during a counter-protest in the city respectively. "You have noticed some new developments are taking place in the state. The same is happening across the country. This is a larger part of a conspiracy, where students and girls are especially used to create unrest in the society besides rift between faiths," Bommai told reporters at Davangere. While Amulya shouted 'Pakistan Zindabad' at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act rally in the presence of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in the city, Arudra displayed the placard at a programme organised by Hindu Jagaran Vedike demanding stern action against Amulya. The Home minister said the network of "anti-national forces" existing in the state would be uprooted. "There are forces ready to assist the anti-national forces and have made arrangements to provide legal aid. The girl (Amulya) had spoken about it in her (previous) video. We have taken a serious view of the matter. We will uproot these forces," he added. The minister said the state government has decided to keep a close watch on all such elements. In this regard, a meeting with senior police officials has been convened, he added. The police probing the matter relating to Amulya's pro-Pakistan slogans has summoned Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike corporator Imran Pasha to find out who invited her for the event. A PayTM employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, advising its employees to work from home for the next few days. Gurgaon: A PayTM employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, advising its employees to work from home for the next few days. It said the infected employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-affected countries. PayTM has advised all its employees to work from home for the next few days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised, the statement said, adding that its daily operations will not be impacted. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy post a vacation has sadly been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," a PayTM spokesperson said. "We have also advised all our colleagues to work from home for a couple of days while we get our offices sanitized. However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual," the spokesperson added. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:51:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ANKARA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Two Turkish soldiers were killed and six others wounded in Syrian's northwestern province of Idlib, Turkey's Defense Ministry said Wednesday. "As a result of the fire opened by the regime (Syrian government) to our elements in the Operation Spring Shield area, two of our hero gun mates were martyred and six were injured," said the ministry in a statement, noting that the Turkish attacks continue against the Syrian forces. Turkish army has "neutralized" 3,136 Syrian elements since the start of Operation Spring Shield in the Idlib region, said the statement. Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" to imply the people in question surrendered or were killed or captured. Three Syrian airplanes, eight helicopters, three drones, eight air defense systems, 151 tanks, 47 howitzers, two vehicles and 12 anti-tanks were destroyed. Turkey launched Operation Spring Shield in the wake of the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers by Syrian forces on Feb. 27, according to the Turkish defense ministry. Wednesday's incident brought to 59 the death toll of Turkish soldiers in Idlib since last month. Popular Nigerian actress, Regina Daniels finally returned to the movie scene shortly after the launch of her very own magazine in Abuja. The actress, who was spotted playing the role of a NYSC Corps member, donned the full regalia while on set of a movie. Daniels also shared videos of her on the movie set via Instagram and it appears she tried to conceal her growing baby bump by tying the NYSC jacket around her tummy. Read Also: Davido Caught In A Suggestive Position While On Tour In America (Photo) See the screenshots below: Then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks to supporters during a rally at Eastern Market as Super Tuesday results continue to come in, in Detroit, Michigan on March 3, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Biden Wins Massachusetts, Defeating Elizabeth Warren in Her Home State Former Vice President Joe Biden trumped Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in her home state on Super Tuesday, part of his recent string of wins. Biden, 77, had 448,225, or 33.6 percent, of the votes, as of Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 78, had 355,581, or 26.7 percent, of the votes. Warren, 70, managed only 282,037, or 21.2 percent, of the votes. At that count, Biden earned 34 delegates to Sanderss 26 and Warrens 17. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78, was fourth with about 12 percent of the votes. He earned no delegates. Bloomberg ended his campaign on Wednesday. Warren has won no states in 2020 primary, including none on Super Tuesday. She finished no better than third in any state on March 3, with third place finishes in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Virginia. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is joined by his family on stage during a rally in Essex Junction, Vermont at the Champlain Valley Expo on March 3, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles on March 3, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Warren now has 51 delegates to Sanderss 392 and Bidens 467, according to one tracker. The presidential candidate has so far refused to end her bid for the Democratic nomination. In an email sent late Tuesday, her campaign told supporters that results are still coming in from across the country. Delegates have to be counted and allocated by congressional district or state senate district, and that process takes time. But heres the bottom line: There are six more primaries just one week away, and we need your help to keep up the momentum, it said. Speaking to supporters in Detroit, Michigan Tuesday night, Warren introduced herself as the woman whos going to beat [President] Donald Trump. Im in this race because I believe I will be the best president of the United States of America, she added. And I want to tell you why: I was not born a politician, but I was born a fighter. A campaign aide told Reuters Wednesday that Warren was talking to her team to assess the path forward. Indeed, Jacksons most profound gift seems to be his capacity for not seeing the line between religion and politics. The Jesus found in these pages a selective sampling of those rare few sermons (six) or speeches (19) actually written down, compiled for the first time and edited by Grace Ji-Sun Kim, an associate professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion is a deeply personal Jesus, one Jackson seamlessly translates into one who knows the pain and struggle of whomever Jackson is preaching to. Jesus was the victim of the most horrific lynching on a tree, Jackson declared in an Easter sermon at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters in 2003. The cross was Romes electric chair, he says later in the same sermon, dissolving the line between persecutions ancient and current. A hot cup of tea, some warm clothes, giving someone a lift. These small acts of kindness towards people in need are increasingly being considered illegal in France and other European countries, according to a new report from rights group Amnesty International. Amnesty Internationals latest report called Punishing Compassion: solidarity on trial in fortress Europe attempts to uncover why and how more people and groups than ever before are being targeted, arrested and harassed by authorities for having helped refugees or asylum seekers in need. The report collected information from eight countries: Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, over the period 2017-2019. It looked at both internal border cases and cases concerning sea rescues at external borders. Through case studies, it shows an alarming trend in which governments are using counter-terrorism and immigration laws to crack down on human rights defenders (HRDs). This description is applied to individuals and groups who offer food, transport, shelter or advice to migrants, asylum seekers or other people in need. People who defend the human rights of others are protected under the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and it is this protection that Amnesty feels is not being respected. One of the regions Amnesty focused on was the border between France and Italy, in the Hautes-Alpes region, namely near the town of Briancon. A case in point is that of Pierre-Alain Mannoni, an engineer from Nice who in 2016 saw three women in distress at the side of the road in the Roya Valley near the Italian border. He stopped to help them because they were injured having crossed the mountains on foot. He took them to his house so they could get cleaned up and rest. He didnt think twice. Growing up he was taught that it was a duty to help someone in danger. He was arrested and convicted for facilitating the irregular circulation of foreign nationals. Story continues During his first court appearance, the case against Mannoni was dismissed, then appealed. The appeals court in Aix-en-Provence gave him a suspended two-month jail sentence. Mannoni told RFI that in the beginning he wasnt concerned at all, that the French authorities would see he was not a people-smuggler. These people were in distress and there was like an emergency and thats what I did. And even when I got arrested and I thought its going to be quickly solved, they will see that I am not a 'passeur' (smuggler), that I dont get paid to do that, that Im a standard citizenHowever I understood quickly that this has a political dimension. Mannoni challenged the outcome at the Constitutional Council which declared that his conviction was indeed an unfair ruling. The council declared that each person is free to act under the principle of fraternity that is, helping another person, regardless of their legal status. This lead to the case being overturned by France's highest appeals court, which ordered a new trial, now set for later this month. France needs to stop criminalising helpers Amnesty International believes that European laws designed to clamp down on people smuggling are too ambiguous and can be manipulated to paint citizens like Mannoni as criminals. Such legal actions reflect the EUs hardened stance towards migration since 2015, with the establishment of deals with Turkey and Libya to stem flows of people. According to Rym Khadhraoui, Europe researcher with Amnesty International, the number of cases of human rights defenders being prosecuted has gone up dramatically since the police enlarged the Franco-Italian border area to 20 kilometers wide, a zone in which they carry out random checks. When asked why the police presence had increased in the region, the Prefecture of police in the Hautes-Alpes said the strong migratory pressure on the border meant they were obliged to call in reinforcements. The interior ministry in April 2018 agreed to send in the CRS, part of the national police usually called in to maintain order at protests. Border control is not part of their mandate. Furthermore, Amnesty suggests that because the infrastructure is not adequate in this region to process asylum requests, people are forced to travel through the 20 kilometer zone where they are likely to be arrested, and sometimes sent back without anyone looking at their case. The right to seek and enjoy asylum, as per article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, requires that a person can leave and enter a state freely. Clearly in the case of the Franco-Italian border, migrants are forced to use an irregular route in order to reach a place where they can apply for asylum and this leaves them vulnerable in a hostile environment, often crossing snowy, dangerous terrain at night, at the mercy of the elements. For Pierre-Alain Mannoni, his experience has served as an eye-opener and he feels hopeful that his trial on 18 March will show that the state cant get away with unfairly punishing human rights defenders like himself. There are horrible things happening in France. I never thought some people could die next to where I live, and theyre dying because people dont help them or they are prosecuted by the police. I feel I will never see the world, and the situation like I did before, he told RFI. Amnesty International is calling on the French government to drop what they call the crime of solidarity. The authorities must stop treating human rights defenders as delinquents, concludes Elisa De Pieri, a Europe researcher at Amnesty International. History will not look back kindly on governments that consider saving lives a crime. Amnesty International is holding a rally and conference in support of human rights defenders on Saturday 7 March in collaboration with the NGO Tous Migrants, in Briancon. George Conway has proudly donated the maximum amount to Joe Biden's campaign in a move that could cost his wife her job down the line. The conservative lawyer, whose wife Kellyanne Conway is a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, touted his $2,800 donation in a tweet on Tuesday night as Biden celebrated a slew of early victories in several state primaries. George revealed that he had tried to donate $5,600, but Biden's campaign website wouldn't allow it as citizens are limited in how much they can donate to each candidate. He told reporters he is supporting Biden 'because the nation can't afford four more years with a megalomaniacal moron in the White House' - a not-so-subtle shot at his wife's boss. George Conway (left) donated the maximum amount to Joe Biden's campaign on Tuesday, just as the former vice president (right) celebrated early victories in several state primaries George tweeted a photo of his contribution Tuesday night. He said he tried to donate $5,600 but the site wouldn't let him because citizens are limited in how much they can give George told reporters he is supporting Biden 'because the nation can't afford four more years with a megalomaniacal moron in the White House' - a not-so-subtle shot at Donald Trump George supported Trump in the 2016 election but has since become one of his most outspoken critics. He has repeatedly trashed Trump on Twitter and in public appearances, repeatedly calling for his removal from office. His opinions of the president are starkly different from those of his wife Kellyanne, one of Trump's fiercest defenders. On multiple occasions the couple, who have been married since 2001 and have four children together, have made exact opposite comments about the same issues surrounding the president, such as impeachment. Kellyanne has previously defended her marriage by saying it's not a problem that she and her husband don't see eye-to-eye. George supported Trump in the 2016 election but has since become one of his most outspoken critics - despite the fact that his wife Kellyanne (above) is a senior presidential adviser Biden, the most moderate candidate in the Democratic field, has been working to attract middle-of-the-road conservatives and independents who are tired of Trump by contrasting himself from fellow frontrunner Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist. His strategy appeared to be paying off as polls projected him to win nine of 14 Super Tuesday states, including several Sanders won in 2016. Sanders is projected to win three states, keeping him ahead of Biden overall. Three other states are still up for grabs as results continue to roll in. Kellyanne and George Conway are pictured at Trump's inauguration in January 2017 Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. Dozens of Democratic voters were still waiting to cast ballots at midnight in Houston, turning Super Tuesday into a painful slog for some citizens amid questions about how the County Clerk's office had allocated its voting machines across the county. Janet Gonzalez left work early and at 5:30 p.m. checked a website the clerks office runs to show wait times at polling places. It seemed Texas Southern University had a short wait, but when she arrived she found a massive line. She waited an hour outside and three more inside before she finally cast her ballot. Officials with the clerk's office acknowledged the accuracy of the wait-times website is reliant on election workers manually updating the status of their polling places. Some people in line gave up and walked away, Gonzalez said. Others briefly sought refuge on a scattering of chairs before giving them up to others as the line inched forward. SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: Who won and lost in Harris County elections on Super Tuesday 2020 Polls closed at 7 p.m., but voters still can cast ballots as long as they stay in line. It was a challenge, Gonzalez said. You have to look around at the elderly people and overcome your own pain. Veronica DeBoerst joined the throngs of voters at TSU at 6:30 p.m. after visiting her sister at the hospital. One of my feet is telling me to go sit down, DeBoerst said. If I have to sit down and scoot my way in, Ill do it. Voter L. Wayne Ashley also said he was led astray by the county's wait-time website. Ashley works at the University of Houston and was planning to vote there, but saw the line and thought twice. Then he checked the county's online map and saw that TSU was the only nearby site still "green," indicating a short wait. He parked and walked in, only to discover his blunder. "You can't see the line from the parking lot, and there was obviously a ridiculous line," Ashley said. After waiting four hours to cast his own ballot at TSU, Bryan Escobedo walked outside to a crowd cheering his patience. He spoke of voters sharing painkillers and water to keep their neighbors engaged. This is the worst voting experience Ive ever had, he said. If its hard, that means you have to do it. They bank on people walking away. JOE TAKES TEXAS: Biden beats Sanders in tight Super Tuesday race in Texas Democratic County Clerk Diane Trautman and her staff said each of the countys 401 polling places started with between 16 and 48 machines, depending on anticipated turnout, but at each location the machines were divided equally between the Democrat and Republican primaries, regardless of whether the location heavily favored one party or the other. If we had given one five and one 10, and that other one had a line, they would say, You slighted us, Trautman said late Tuesday. So we wanted to be fair and equal and start at the same amount. Through the day, we have been sending out additional machines to the Democratic judges to the extent that we ran out. During Election Day the clerks office dispatched 68 extra voting machines to Democratic polls, including 14 to TSU, in response to election judges requests. Trautman added that some of the machines assigned to TSU to start the day had to be replaced after malfunctioning. Trautman said a joint primary which would have allowed both parties ballots to be loaded on each voting machine, rather than separating the equipment by party would have reduced the lines, but the GOP rejected the idea. That would be just one line, theres not a line for each party, so all the voters can use all the machines, she said. That would really have expedited this whole thing. Ill be pushing that for next time. County GOP chair Paul Simpson disagreed, saying he rejected that approach in part because he did not want his voters waiting in long lines created by the contested Democratic presidential primary. WHAT WE LEARNED: 5 takeaways from Super Tuesday in Texas If they had allocated the equipment properly they could probably would not have had long lines, Simpson said, but that the was the county clerks decision as to how to allocate the machines. County Democratic Party chair Lillie Schechter said her staff did not grasp until Tuesday that when Trautman spoke of allocating the machines equitably she meant dividing them equally at each polling site, rather than giving each party the same number of machines but concentrating most of them in areas known to be strongholds of each party. Were thrilled that turnout has been so high today and thats been super exciting, but I think the story with the voting machines goes a step farther back than just how the voting machines are allocated, she said. The machines are part of the problem but not the whole problem. In order to preserve citizens ability to vote at any polling place on Election Day a new policy under Trautman, and one GOP officials have opposed Schechter said the parties needed to agree on shared polling locations. That gave Republicans more power in the negotiation, she said, and resulted in more than 60 percent of Tuesdays polling sites being located in Republican-held county commissioner precincts, with less than 40 percent in commissioner precincts held by Democrats. ERICA GRIEDER: Joe Biden roars through Lone Star State on way to stunning Super Tuesday The nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project took issue with the delays, noting that many polling places with long waits were in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods. Once again, black and brown voters in Harris County are facing unacceptable wait times in polling locations in their communities, said the groups president, Mimi Marziani. Infuriatingly, we know that some voters have already given up and gone home. Even worse, we know that this is not the first time voters have faced this issue. We call upon Harris County leaders to come together and solve this problem before the general election. Joe Biden seized control of the Democratic presidential contest with a string of Super Tuesday victories over Bernie Sanders, as voters across the country cast their ballots determined to pick the candidate they believe stands the best chance of defeating President Donald Trump in November. Sanders captured the day's grand prize, California, on the strength of his performance among Latinos and younger voters. The senator also won Colorado and Utah as well as his home state of Vermont. Biden, who had been all but written off after a stumbling start in Iowa and New Hampshire, emphatically marked his comeback with victories - some by double digits - in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Most surprisingly, he also won Texas, the day's other prize. Maine remained too close to call. Former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars seeking a Super Tuesday breakthrough after skipping earlier contests, managed only a win in American Samoa. He scheduled a Wednesday morning call with campaign leaders amid signs he was reassessing his candidacy. ADVERTISEMENT From the hamlets of New England to the beach communities of Southern California, voters in 15 contests went to the polls in the campaign's largest single day of balloting. At stake was about a third of the pledged delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination at the party's July convention in Milwaukee. Biden staged his roaring comeback by rebuilding the coalition that delivered him to victory Saturday in South Carolina - a win that turned around his fortunes overnight. The former vice president garnered overwhelming support among black voters across the South - the bedrock of his campaign - and won handily among older voters and those who are politically more moderate. He also prevailed among the unusually large number of late deciders, who were evidently impressed by his crushing South Carolina victory. In North Carolina, nearly 6 in 10 voters made up their minds in recent days and most backed Biden, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for a consortium of TV networks. In Alabama, nearly 4 in 10 voters decided late and more than 60% backed him. Perhaps the greatest testament to Biden's remarkable resurgence was the support of voters who said their top priority was beating Trump, an obsession among the president's critics from the moment he took office. Biden's candidacy was predicated almost entirely on his claims of electability, which rang hollow after he finished far out of contention in the first two contests and a distant second in Nevada. But on Tuesday night, exit polls showed in state after state that most voters were focused less on ideology than defeating the president; they preferred Biden over Sanders - often by huge margins. "He's going to get the job done and he's gonna beat Donald Trump," Angeline Sanders, 74, said of Biden after voting for him at the Jordan Downs housing project community center near Watts Towers in South Los Angeles. "None of the rest of them can do it. And it sure isn't going to be Bernie Sanders." ADVERTISEMENT Even before the polls had closed in California, a joyful and energized Biden took the stage at a park in Los Angeles' Baldwin Hills section, telling hundreds of supporters, "It's a good night, and it seems to be getting even better. They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothin'!" Biden assailed critics who left his campaign for dead before he ran away with the contest in South Carolina. "I am here to report we are very much alive, and make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing!" said Biden, who was at a near-shout for much of his speech, in contrast to previous low-key election night appearances. He then previewed some of the issues he may highlight as he tries to outlast Sanders: "affordable and accessible" health care, lower drug prices and a promise to find cures for cancer and diabetes. He also cited gun control, more affordable college and a redoubled commitment to fighting climate change. Across the country, a combative Sanders jabbed at his suddenly ascendant rival and hinted at his own campaign agenda going forward. "One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq; you're looking at him," Sanders thundered at a boisterous Vermont rally, where he also questioned Biden's commitment to funding programs such as Social Security and Medicare. "One of us led the opposition to the disastrous trade agreement which cost us millions of good-paying jobs. And that's me. And another candidate voted for disastrous trade agreements. "If it comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, we're going to win that election," Sanders said. "And if we have another candidate who has received contributions from at least 60 billionaires, we're going to win that election." The other major contestant, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, addressed a crowd in Michigan, which votes next Tuesday, before the results came in showing her finishing third in her home state. She vowed to press on despite failing to win a single state since the voting began Feb. 3 in Iowa. ADVERTISEMENT "I'm the woman who's going to beat Donald Trump," she said. "The pundits have gotten it wrong over and over." The Super Tuesday competition amounted to a fight pitting Biden's momentum against Sanders' muscle and Bloomberg's money. Sanders, who waged a strong bid for the 2016 nomination, was the candidate with muscle, a powerful turnout operation financed by an enormous fundraising base and a national army of devoted fans. Ivan DePaz voted for the Vermont senator just as he did four years ago. "I love what he's done. I love that he stands by what he says, and he's been doing that since he started," the 55-year-old talent manager said after casting his ballot in Los Angeles. Biden, who staked his entire campaign on winning South Carolina, entered Super Tuesday badly lagging Bloomberg and Sanders in campaign money and on-the-ground organizing, two components that were considered vital to success in a such a large and sprawling contest. It didn't seem to matter. His powerful showing on Saturday was enough to bring Frank Anderson around, along with a great many others. The 74-year-old retired hospital administrator in Birmingham, Ala., had long considered himself a Biden man. But he began to worry after the former vice president slumped in Iowa and New Hampshire, finishing in fourth and fifth place, respectively. South Carolina alleviated Anderson's concerns. "Now I think he is the guy," he said. The candidate with money in staggering sums was Bloomberg. After two uninspiring debate performances, he braced for a poor showing despite lavishing more than $660 million on his candidacy, including more than $224 million on Super Tuesday advertising alone. Speaking to reporters at a Miami field office, Bloomberg said he wasn't counting on winning a single state and suggested his hopes rested on Democrats turning to him in the event of a deadlocked convention - the same scenario that Warren clings to. "You don't have to win states," Bloomberg said, "you have to win delegates." Even before Tuesday's first votes were counted, Bloomberg's campaign manager sounded as though his candidate was preparing a possible exit from the race. "We will find out how well he does tonight, and we'll find out whether Mike Bloomberg is on his way to becoming the candidate, or we will find out if Mike Bloomberg is going to be the most important person to whomever that candidate is," Kevin Sheekey told reporters ahead of a Florida campaign rally. Super Tuesday was so named because of the number of contests - 16, including Democrats abroad, who have a week to make their preferences known - and the 1,357 pledged delegates to be awarded. It takes 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination on the first round of balloting. If the fight goes to a second round at the convention, it takes 2,375.5, or the majority of those eligible to vote, which includes superdelegates - elected officials and other party leaders - or, as they're being called this election, "automatic" delegates. Sanders entered the day with a narrow lead over Biden in the pledged delegate count, according to The Associated Press, after a small fraction was awarded in the four earliest-voting states. Biden pulled ahead Tuesday night, but it will take some time before California and Texas divvy up their share, which together accounted for nearly half the delegates being awarded on Tuesday. Under rules established by the Democratic Party, delegates were allotted on a percentage basis, based on a candidate's performance at both the statewide and congressional district levels. In each, candidates needed to meet a 15% threshold of support. In Washington, Trump professed not to care whom Democrats choose. Though he continued his effort to sow discord, claiming the Democratic establishment is trying to steal the nomination from Sanders, Trump insisted, "Whoever it is, we will take them on. "The job we've done. We've rebuilt the military, we have the strongest economy we've ever had, all of the things we've done," he told reporters as he left the White House to visit the National Institutes of Health, a lead agency in combating the novel coronavirus. "I will take on anybody." --- (Times staff writers Noah Bierman in Washington, Jenny Jarvie in Birmingham, Michael Finnegan in Warren, Mich., and Melissa Gomez, Arit John, Seema Mehta and Matt Pearce in Los Angeles contributed to this report.) --- (c)2020 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ----- SAN DIEGO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Berger Montague, one of the nation's leading litigation firms, is representing California-based employers who were overcharged for premiums paid on workers' compensation insurance policies issued by California Insurance Company, an Applied Underwriters subsidiary, under the EquityComp, SolutionOne, or JumboGC programs at any time since 2008. Applied Underwriters marketed and sold the EquityComp, SolutionOne, and JumboGC programs to small and midsized employers and charged premiums based on rates and rating plans that were not filed with state insurance regulators. The California Department of Insurance has determined that Applied Underwriters' use of these unfiled rates violates the California Insurance Code. As a result, premiums based on these unfiled rates that exceed the amounts due under filed guaranteed cost workers' compensation policies issued by California Insurance Company should be refunded. "Applied Underwriters and California Insurance Company have been found to be using unfiled rates and rating plans to charge California businesses higher premiums than permitted by law," said Berger Montague Shareholder Glen L. Abramson. "We want to help get that money back." For the past three years, Berger Montague has represented California employers in a class action against Applied Underwriters and California Insurance Company in federal court in Sacramento. In 2019, however, the court declined to certify the class, holding the employers' individual claims were large and must be litigated separately. Accordingly, overcharged California employers must now file their own lawsuits or administrative actions to protect their rights and recover money owed to them by Applied Underwriters. Based on its extensive knowledge of Applied Underwriters' programs and analysis of thousands of documents obtained in the class action, Berger Montague has a deep understanding of Applied Underwriters' illegal practices, as well as the best approach to maximize individual employers' recoveries. California employers who participated in Applied Underwriters' EquityComp, SolutionOne, or JumboGC programs at any time since 2008 should contact Glen Abramson at [email protected] or 215-875-4683 or Michael Twersky at [email protected] or 215-875-3052 to discuss your rights and valuable recovery options. Berger Montague is a national class action and commercial litigation law firm with offices in San Diego, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. The Firm litigates complex civil cases and class actions in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The Firm has pioneered the use of class actions in America and recovered over $36 billion for clients and class members since its founding 50 years ago. Please Contact: Benjamin Galdston Shareholder Berger Montague (619) 489-0300 [email protected] Glen Abramson Shareholder Berger Montague 215-875-4683 [email protected] Michael Twersky Associate Berger Montague 215-875-3052 [email protected] Benjamin Galdston (CA Bar No. 211114) is responsible for the content of this advertisement ***Attorney Advertising*** SOURCE Berger Montague Related Links https://bergermontague.com The ownership group behind Lexingtons OHaras Public House is bringing a nighttime dessert bar to the citys Main Street. The group bought The Haven Coffee House in September and plan to bring its new evening service to the space starting on April 15. the coffee shop will keep running as is, while the dessert bar will go from 6 p.m. to midnight, from Wednesday through Saturday. The menu will feature a variety of desserts, red wines, dessert wines and cocktails, he explains. OHara describes one cocktail as a s'mores-emulating drink a chocolate martini with graham cracker and chocolate syrup on the rim, topped with a marshmallow. Hes uncertain whether the bar will offer beer. OHara says that Haven was initially run by a pastor and became a spot for bible study and church groups to meet. He hopes to maintain that aspect by only serving alcohol and the other dessert aspects during the evening hours. The group also plans to complement the new aspect with expanded offerings during the regular cafe hours, adding items like ice cream and donuts. Im kind of sensitive to not pulling the rug out from under what is the daily business, OHara details. Part of our objective is to maintain the feel and operation of The Haven Coffee House, while also bringing this dessert bar to Lexington. Havens changes mark another move in Lexingtons downtowns shift from lawyer office oasis to an emerging restaurant and retail area, a trend that OHara, whose Public House is part of that transition, is keen to keep going. Hes lived in the community for 20 years and says that the development of the Icehouse Amphitheater and surrounding eateries have boosted the area. OHara and his partners opened the Irish pub just less than two years ago its two-year anniversary is April 14 and he says it has been a success. He also details that the Public House is undergoing its own changes. Ahead of its St. Patricks Day celebration from March 12 to 21, the restaurant and bar is installing a roof on top of its deck. That opens up 1,000 extra square feet of usable space that will be usable in most weather, O'Hara reports. After that, the owners will turn their full attention to Haven. Located across the street from an empty lot that is set to become a hotel, OHara thinks the coffee shop/dessert cafe should fit in well. Were really committed to the future of downtown Lexington, especially Main Street, OHara concludes. I think this is a really complementary extension by what is being done by the town and the businesses. The forthcoming dessert bar was first announced on Monday through the pub's Facebook page. The Haven Coffee House is currently open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., while O'Hara's operates from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like? As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning. Samsung is planning to increase its foldable display production capacity to 1 million units per month by the end of the year, which is four times more than its current output. The Korean tech giant is currently pumping out 260,000 foldable displays per month with plans to reach 600,000 units per month by the end of May. The new report comes from ET News Korea which bases its estimates on data from industry representatives. According to their sources, Samsung Display is seeing increased demand from Chinese smartphone manufacturers for its flexible display solutions. The Korean tech conglomerate is also planning to expand its display production facilities in Vietnam to account for the added demand. In addition, Samsung has been rumored to launch a successor to the Galaxy Fold in the second half of the year. Demand for Samsungs latest foldable smartphone - the Galaxy Z Flip has been quite high and you can check out our detailed review to see why. Source | Via Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 04:34:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Argentinean Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia (C) attends a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 3, 2020. Argentinean authorities on Tuesday confirmed the country's first case of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Martin Zabala/Xinhua) BUENOS AIRES, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Argentinean authorities on Tuesday confirmed the country's first case of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The patient is a man, 43, who returned to the capital Buenos Aires on Sunday from a trip to Italy. "The man was in several places in Europe, but mainly in Italy, in the north," Health Minister Gines Gonzalez told reporters at a press conference. On his return flight, "he traveled in first class, which somewhat limits close contact" with others, said Gonzalez. The patient told healthcare workers that he lives alone and had not gone out socially, so the chances of having infected others were low. In Latin America, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have also reported cases of the new coronavirus. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global needle coke market size is projected to reach USD 5.4 billion by 2025, accelerating at a CAGR of 6.9% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Surging demand for needle coke in the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery is a key factor driving the industry growth. Needle coke is a primary element used in the manufacturing of graphite electrodes. The utilization of graphite in batteries has expanded at a robust pace over the past few years. It is the second heaviest component in lithium-ion batteries. These batteries require up to 10 to 20 times more graphite than lithium. Growth of steel industry along with increasing demand from lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles is likely to remain a key driving factor for market growth in this region. Rapid increase in demand for lithium-ion batteries from the automotive industry is expected to fuel the growth of needle coke industry. In addition, rising focus on the reduction of automobile weight to improve fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions is anticipated to drive the industry growth further. Graphite helps in providing substantial weight reduction and enhances the efficiency of batteries. ConocoPhillips, Asbury, Sumitomo Chemical Company, and Seadrift Coke are the major players in the market for needle coke. These companies have a strong customer base, differential product offerings, and a robust distribution network across the globe. The threat of new entrants in the market is low due to high initial investments required for setting up manufacturing units and stringent government regulations. Access Research Report of Needle Coke Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/needle-coke-market Further key findings from the report suggest: Premium-grade segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9%, in terms of revenue, from 2019 to 2025 owing to the rising installation of ultra-high power electrical arc furnaces (EAF) and growing requirement for graphite electrodes in steel industry Electrode was the dominant application segment in 2018 with over 64.0% of the volume share Asia Pacific was the major market for needle coke and accounted for 63.7% of the overall volume in 2018 Asbury Carbons Inc.; JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp.; China National Petroleum Corp.; Baosteel Group; Indian Oil Corporation Limited; Hongte Chemical Industry (Group) Co. Ltd.; Sojitz JECT Corp.; and Seadrift Coke L.P. are some of the key companies in the needle coke market In December 2018, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced plans to increase the production capacity at its Yokkaichi Plant. The plant produces electrodes that are used in lithium-ion batteries. Grand View Research has segmented the global needle coke market on the basis of grade, application, and region. Needle Coke Grade Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Super-premium Premium-grade Intermediate-grade Needle Coke Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Electrode Silicon metals & ferroalloys Carbon black Rubber compounds Others About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. MSNBC network chief Phil Griffin traveled to Washington D.C. to sit down with Chris Matthews and his family to convince the embattled host to call it quits, according to sources familiar with the fallout. Griffin made the trip over the weekend where he was met by a 'very resistant' Matthews who insisted that he stay on through the 2020 Presidential election, sources told the Daily Beast. Matthews finally settled on 'retiring,' allowing him some control over his abrupt resignation. Scroll down for video Chris Matthews pictured on Wednesday outside of his home in Washington DC speaking on a cellphone Phil Griffin made the trip to D.C. over the weekend where he was met by a 'very resistant' Chris Matthews who insisted that he stay on through the 2020 Presidential election Sources at MSNBC share that Kathleen Matthews, a failed Democratic House candidate and wife of 40 years to the Hardball host, had expressed worry to Griffin for months prior to her husband's exit. Sources at MSNBC share that Kathleen Matthews had expressed worry to Griffin for months prior to her husband's exit (the couple pictured in 2012 At the time, Kathleen worried that her husband's controversies and scandals would get more intense. She sought to have Matthews do less shows but the host quickly saw himself as one of the most prominent faces for the network as the election heated up. And Matthews would soon be heavily lambasted for comments he made about Senator Bernie Sanders' victory in Nevada and for a back and forth he had with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Soon others were harping on their history with Matthews, including a GQ columnist who wrote a scathing op-ed detailing allegations she made about the host in 2017. Matthews would resign on Monday, making his final announcement during the show. He was seen for the first time since his resignation on Wednesday outside of his home. Matthews resigned after he was heavily lambasted for comments he made about Senator Bernie Sanders' victory in Nevada and for a back and forth he had with Senator Elizabeth Warren 'After my conversation with MSNBC, I decided tonight will be my last Hardball,' Matthews said during the broadcast. 'So let me tell you why. The younger generations are ready to take the reins. 'We see them in politics, the media, and fighting for their causes. They're improving the workplace.' He offered a brief apology for having previously offered 'compliments on a woman's appearance some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK.' Several notable pundits have been speculated as potentially taking Matthews place, including Joy Reid and former Fox host Shepard Smith. Togos President Faure Gnassingbe has won re-election with 71% of the vote, final results from the constitutional court showed on Tuesday. Gnassingbes challenger Agbeyome Kodjo, who was shown with 19% of the vote, had also claimed victory. This proclamation is final and closes the debate on the presidential election of Feb. 22, the head of the court, Aboudou Assouma, said at a press conference. The result gives Gnassingbe five more years in power, a blow for opposition protesters who have taken to the streets in recent years, calling for him to step down. Archbishop Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro, the retired archbishop of Lome, called the re-election of Faure Gnassingbe a fabricated lie, claiming opposition candidate Agbeyome Kodjo is the legitimate winner of the poll. Kpodzro, who drew the ire of the Gnassingbe administration by actively campaigning for Kodjo, insisted he was waiting for the proclamation of the true results of that election. Kodjo, who had served as head of government under the current presidents father Gnassingbe Eyadema, has pledged to use every legal means to take back his stolen victory, calling the Feb. 22 vote, an electoral masquerade. Throughout his campaign, 53-year-old Gnassingbe had promised to fight poverty in the country through comprehensive reform programs. According to the World Bank, over half of the population of nearly 8 million people subsist on less than $1.90 (1.75) a day. Protests demanding the end to the Gnassingbe familys reign broke out in 2017 and 2018. Last year, the president instituted constitutional reforms that would allow him to rule until 2030. Witnessing a satisfying increase of 3 positions to 42 out of 129 nations/economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019, Vietnam is planning to put more focus on improving this rating via a series of practical activities. Vietnam has become an ideal destination for international technological businesses. (Photo: SGGP) Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) has just issued its action program for 2020 to accomplish its assigned missions in Resolution No.02/NQ-CP. In particular, MoST is going to continue monitoring the position of Vietnam in the GII, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); the Technology and Innovation Index in accordance with the report Readiness for the Future of Production by the World Economic Forum (WEF). To achieve this rating improvement, MoST will cooperate with related ministries, industries, and local authorities to boost sub-indices. Specifically, it will check and eliminate or simplify any unclear or unfeasible trading conditions. It will also update and publicize new administrative procedures related to business certificate issuing that have been applied since 2018 or 2019, along with a report on the effectiveness of these eliminations. Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac stated that to sustainably increase GII, Vietnam needs to pay more attention to innovation input, especially indices about IT infrastructure, IT application, business environment, legal regulations, and the workforce. In 2020, the Prime Minister has issued Instruction No.09/CT-TTg about facilitating innovative startup businesses. He also asked the Ministry of Education and Training to select potential technological startups in the higher education environment. Presently, 3 support centers for innovative startup have been built in 3 universities to develop the innovative startup ecosystem in education. Solutions and suggestions on boosting startup activities in universities and on connecting businesses and educational institutes have been proposed. One more practical action is the establishment of a capital transaction floor for startup entrepreneurs and a legal corridor for technological enterprises, specifically those in the fields of finance and banking. A mechanism of regulatory sandbox is researched and piloted so that businesses are able to develop and then experiment their new products or services. Obviously, GII 2019 shows that the effort of Vietnam last year, especially on innovation input and output, reached positive results. There was a rise of 5 positions and 8 positions in the total spending on research and development and the knowledge-based products, respectively. They reveal the effective leading role and logical solutions of the government in ensuring the economic balance and macro-economy, while still able to attract sufficient social resources for the development of science and technology. They also signal the correct direction of the state leaders in encouraging technology transfer among businesses, improving working performance and competitiveness. SGGP Vien Hong Vietnam collaborates with the world to support start-ups and innovation Viet Nam News talks to representatives of organisations and countries about start-up and innovation collaboration with Vietnam. Flybe aircraft grounded amid fears of collapse within hours Flybe has reportedly grounded a number of flights amid a possible collapse tonight. Passengers have reported being turned away at a number of airports including Glasgow. ITN correspondent Peter Smith has tweeted that a FlyBe aircraft has been seized at Glasgow Airport, with staff being "taken off their aircraft and being told the bad news". A FlyBe spokesman was unable to explain what was happening and has been referring inquiries to a third party PR agency. Energy FM News understands the airline is waiting for the last scheduled flight to land before going into administration. A formal announcement is likely to be made tomorrow morning. 49.4% of flights into and out of the Isle of Man are operated by Flybe. More to follow. BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- When talking about the development of intellectual property (IP) in China, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry said "it's a remarkable journey and a remarkable story." Born at the start of reform and opening-up, China's IP cause has taken only decades to accomplish what the western IP system took hundreds of years to develop. While developing and improving its IP system, China has been active in international cooperation to boost global IP governance. ACTIVE IN INT'L COOPERATION Starting from zero at the beginning of its reform and opening-up, China has established a relatively complete IP legal system in line with prevailing international rules, joined almost all major related international treaties, and developed cooperative relations with over 80 countries and international or regional organizations in a relatively short period of time. China has always been a follower, participant and upholder of the international rules of IP, Shen Changyu, commissioner of the National Intellectual Property Administration, told Xinhua in a recent interview. China is an active participant in multilateral and bilateral affairs within the framework of WIPO to promote and improve global IP governance, Shen added. In recent years, international cooperation with China on IP protection has has continuous innovative progress. IP cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has in particular achieved practical results. In 2019, China and the European Union (EU) completed an eight-year negotiation on an agreement to protect geographical indications (GI), which included 275 GI from each of the two sides in the appendix, such as EU's Irish whiskey and traditional Chinese Shaoxing wine. With the ratification of Indonesia on Jan. 28, the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances will take effect for its 30 contracting parties on April 28. The Beijing treaty, adopted by WIPO member states in 2012, fills a gap in the international treaty on the comprehensive protection of performers in audiovisual performance. PROTECTION WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION IP is not only an important strategic resource of a country, but also a booster of technological innovation and a bridge of trade globalization. China is a protector and creator of IP. Statistics show that by the end of 2019, China had led the world in patent and trademark applications for several years running. According to data from the WIPO for 2017 and 2018, China was the second largest applicant for international patent applications submitted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the third largest for trademark registration under the Madrid System. After about 40 years of development, China's IP governance capability is in line with that of the international community and its IP protection has reached the international standard, which is fully recognized by the world, said Shan Xiaoguang, dean of Shanghai International College of IP at Tongji University. In the process of advancing the development of its IP system, China has made great efforts to enhance protection and optimize policies, insisting on providing effective protection without discrimination for both domestic and foreign enterprises. Foreign plaintiffs are able to win and receive injunctions in patent infringement cases brought in China according to the law, Patently-O, a U.S. leading patent law blog, wrote, adding that China's IP protection practice is fair and just. China's effective protection brings huge benefits to foreign IP holders every year. Statistics show that the country paid 34 billion U.S. dollars for IP royalties in 2019. China has strengthened IP protection with an open attitude, making it a magnet for global trade and innovative activities. Global innovative activities occur mostly in metropolitan hotspots in China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United States, according to the 2019 edition of WIPO's "World Intellectual Property Report." According to Doing Business 2020, an annual report published by the World Bank, China jumped to 31st in its ranking for ease of doing business and is among the top 10 improvers for a second consecutive year. CHINESE WISDOM Advanced experience accumulated during the rapid growth of the IP cause in China over the past decades has attracted worldwide attention. China places IP at a strategic high level, pays attention to IP protection in all economic fields, and has shown its determination of long-term policy for decades, which set up examples for other countries, said Gurry. Renata Righetti Pelosi, president of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, pointed out two reasons for the rapid development of the IP cause in China. On the one hand, the needs of economic operators in China have increasingly overlapped with those in the world, and the two sides have reached more consensuses on IP protection, Pelosi said. On the other, China has many IP talents with a global vision, who are leading the rapid growth of this sector, she added. Through academic exchanges and personnel training, China is also actively contributing its wisdom to global IP governance and is more confident about joining global IP cooperation. The first batch of students from countries that joined the Belt and Road construction successfully graduated from China with master's degrees in IP in 2018, bringing the knowledge and experience of IP protection they learned from China to the world. As global IP governance is facing new challenges posed by a new phase of development and a new round of scientific and technological revolution has brought great changes to the industry, many industries spawned by new technologies have gone beyond the scope of protection of the original IP system. In the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, countries should learn from each other with a more open and inclusive attitude, said Shan, adding that China has led the world in such technological fields as artificial intelligence, big data and life science, and accumulated valuable experience on IP protection in related industries, which is conducive to solving global challenges. Press Release March 4, 2020 Drilon: PHL has become a laundromat for dirty money through POGOs Worried that the Philippines has become a laundromat for dirty money, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon reiterated his calls for the closure of Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs in the country. In an interview with radio stadio DzMM, Drilon expressed dismay that the Philippines is being used by organized syndicates as a "washing machine" to wash their dirty money despite the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) that has been in place since 2001 when he was Senate President. "Ginagawa tayong labandera. Yung ating banking system, financial system in general, ay ginagawang washing machine kung saan yung maruruming pera na kung saan-saang panig ng mundo nanggaling ay dinadala dito bansa at ipapasok sa casino o bangko o kung saan man at paglabas ay malinis na," Drilon said. Drilon made the remarks as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, is set to investigate on Thursday the influx of foreign cash brought to the country mostly by Chinese nationals. The minority leader said that the country's becoming a labanderaof dirty money has become possible because of the proliferation of POGOs in the country. "Sa akin po, hindi ba nag-umpisa ito lahat ng magtayo ng POGOs sa ating bansa? To me, the solution is we stop overseas gaming in the country. It does not bring us any substantial benefit," he stressed. During the session on Tuesday, Drilon urged his colleagues to examine the matter carefully and consider expressing the sentiment of the Senate that POGO operations should be stopped. "All of what you have exposed in this chamber, the shenanigans of what we se here, all happened because of the policy decision to allow overseas gaming operations in our country," Drilon pointed out, referring to Gordon's privilege speech on illicit activities connected to the operations of POGO industry. "This is about time that we should examine this policy. We are a policy-making body. Should we continue this policy of allowing overseas gaming in the country with all the illicit activities that come with it?" Drilon emphasized. "What is happening in our country is apparently rooted in the very presence of POGOs run by the Chinese. If there were no POGOs, all of these nefarious activities would have no purpose," Drilon said. He cited how the Chinese government has taken a very strong position on their citizens engaged in gambling and has taken a very strong campaign in that resulted in the closure of online gaming in Cambodia. SPRINGFIELD The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) on Tuesday recommended that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich be disbarred from the practice of law. In an order, the ARDC said Blagojevich has not acknowledged that his conduct was wrongful or expressed any remorse and that his failure to appear for his disciplinary hearing demonstrates a lack of respect for the disciplinary process and the legal profession. Blagojevich, of Chicago, received his law degree from Pepperdine University in California and was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois in 1984. A former state lawmaker and member of Congress, he was elected governor in 2002 and again in 2006. He was impeached and removed from office in January 2009. He was convicted in June 2011 on multiple federal charges of crimes committed while in office, including attempt to commit extortion, corrupt solicitation, conspiracy to commit extortion, conspiracy to commit corrupt solicitation, and making false statements to the FBI. Most notable of the charges was the allegation he tried to sell an appointment to then-President Barack Obamas former U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich served eight years of a 14-year federal prison sentence. President Donald Trump commuted his sentence on Feb. 19. Blagojevich has consistently maintained he did nothing wrong. In October 2011, the Illinois Supreme Court placed Blagojevich on interim suspension from practicing law. That suspension remains in effect. In August 2019, while Blagojevich was still in prison, the ARDC administrator filed a motion for further disciplinary action. The ARCD held a hearing on that motion Feb. 25, less than a week after Blagojevich had been released from prison. Blagojevich did not appear at the hearing. Although he was represented by counsel, the ARDC noted that he did not file an answer to the motion, comply with requests to produce information or appear for a deposition. In an email, an ARDC spokesman said Blagojevich has 21 days to appeal the finding. If he does, the case would go to a review board. If he does not appeal, however, the report will be sent to the Illinois Supreme Court, which has the final say in whether to revoke his law license. Teenage girl using smartphone at the street SINGAPORE A revised Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum will place greater focus on mental health and cyber wellness, both of which are closely related, said Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Wednesday (4 March). We will devote more time, and develop more (teaching) materials... so that students will learn to critically evaluate what they read online, be able to tell genuine news from falsehoods, and not rely on social media likes for validation, he said during his ministrys Committee of Supply debate. They need to be able to say no to bad influences, and protect themselves from cyber bullies and predators, he added. The new CCE curriculum will be progressively implemented from 2021 at all primary and secondary schools. Ong noted that the curriculum is being piloted at 11 secondary schools, including New Town Secondary, which he visited to observe a lesson on cyber bullying. Conducted via a video case study, students taking the class were asked to vote and decide on how the story would develop. They could see how their decisions led to different outcomes. I could tell the situation resonated with them, and they were very engaged, he said. Ong noted that the use of authentic scenarios, immersive modalities, and giving students more voice and agency were a means of bringing the CCE curriculum to life. This is not just for cyber wellness, but for all aspects of CCE, he added. Mental health education, building peer support Mental health education will also be included in the revised CCE curriculum for secondary schools to help students understand mental health issues, recognise their symptoms, know when to seek help, and to develop empathy for those facing difficulties in this area, said Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah. Similarly, the polytechnics and ITE have worked with the Health Promotion Board to develop mental health resources for their students, she added. The move would complement the ministrys earlier efforts to help students develop a resilience mindset and foster peer support cultures, said Indranee. Story continues Noting how schools should provide a positive learning environment for students, she said MOE would also be developing through its SkillsFuture for Educators scheme teachers competencies in establishing strong teacher-student relationships as well as providing a caring and enabling environment. Conversely, schools will take a serious view of teachers who act unprofessionally, such as by deliberately attacking a students self-esteem, and will intervene when necessary to safeguard students wellbeing. MOE is also aiming to establish peer support structures in every school by 2022. Our vision is for every student to be a peer supporter, forming a strong network of support in their class, CCA or peer group, where they can look out for each other, and seek guidance from teachers or counsellors where necessary. The Institutes of Higher Learning, or IHLs, have also put in place peer support programmes similar to those in schools, Indranee added. More support will also be given to students with mental health issues. Students who require help will be referred to counselling professionals in schools, while those assessed to have more serious issues will be referred to external parties for further clinical assessment and intervention. These external resources include the REACH (Response, Early Intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health) teams at hospitals, and the Institute of Mental Healths Community Health Assessment Team. Responding to a suggestion Nominated Member of Parliament Anthea Ong to raise the number of counsellors, Indranee said that MOE will review the issue regularly. For example, (institutions) with higher needs will be able to hire additional counsellors and are given the funding and manpower provisions to do so, she said, noting that counsellors are just one part of a wider mental wellbeing support ecosystem in schools and IHLs. On the issue of universal mental health screening, Indranee said that mass screening could also raise complex issues such as over-medicalising of behaviours in young persons, or negative labelling effects. We also need to evaluate the age appropriateness and effectiveness in the school context, she added. Focus on moral values, contemporary issues Ong also said that the new CCE curriculum will place an emphasis on the teaching of moral values with the bulk of CCE lessons for Primary 1 to 3 pupils being devoted to this subject. He added that many of these lessons would be taught in mother tongue languages for pupils from Primary 1 to 6. We will therefore better align the CCE and MTL lessons to ensure the standard of the language is appropriate, and engage students in more interesting ways, said Ong. The Form Teacher Guidance Period for pupils from Primary 4 to 6 will also be broadened to include National Education and citizenship issues. He noted that for these topics, it would be more meaningful to have a diverse class with students from all communities and to have such classes conducted in English. More effort will also be put into getting secondary school students engaged with contemporary issues such as climate change, race, religion and social inequality through CCE lessons. Ong said that the frequency of such classes will be increased to at least once a fortnight. While some of the topics may be sensitive, they are also important to help students better understand the complexities of our country and of life, he added. Ong said that the Ministry of Education (MOE) would develop the resources and methodologies for addressing such topics, and that teachers will guide students to listen actively, converse respectfully, and be open to differing perspectives. Noting that the expanded CCE curriculum would also require more time to teach it, he said CCE would be further integrated into school lessons and activities such as co-curricular activities, camps and cohort learning journeys. With these changes, every school experience can be a CCE lesson, and every teacher a CCE teacher. It should become a whole-school approach, said Ong, who added that the aim was to make learning intentional rather than incidental. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Parliament stories: All Secondary 1 students to have personal learning device by 2024: Ong Ye Kung 2 new initiatives to help students with special education needs: Indranee Rajah By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 25 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on March 4. The Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz NASA has opened applications for the next generation of astronauts that will travel to the Moon and Mars. Potential space farers have until the end of this month to submit their application to the US space agency, which says extensive travel may apply. New astronauts will have to undergo a two-year training and evaluation period and pass a series of physical requirements to be part of the Artemis programme. For the first time in its 61-year history, NASA is also requiring prospective astronauts to have a master's degree in a STEM-related field like maths or computer science. The space agency is preparing to send the first woman and next man to the Moon though its Artemis programme by 2024. Exploring the Moon during the 2020s will help prepare humanity to ultimately send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, NASA said. NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts acknowledge the audience during a graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, in January Aspiring space farers have until 11:59pm EDT Tuesday, March 31 (4:59am on Wednesday, April 1) to apply on the US government jobs website. America is closer than any other time in history since the Apollo program to returning astronauts to the Moon, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. We will send the first woman and next man to the lunar South Pole by 2024, and we need more astronauts to follow suit on the Moon, and then Mars. Were looking for talented men and women from diverse backgrounds and every walk of life to join us in this new era of human exploration that begins with the Artemis program to the Moon. If you have always dreamed of being an astronaut, apply now. NASA will select its final candidates who will make up the 23rd class of astronauts in the agency's 61 year history by mid-2021. The full-time, permanent position located in Houston, Texas will pay between $104,000 and $161,000 per year. For the first time in the agency's 61 year history, it will require prospective astronauts have a master's degree in a STEM-related field like math or computer science CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR NASA ASTRONAUTS - US Citizenship Required -Frequent travel will be required -Must complete a financial disclosure statement -Must meet all qualification/education and experience requirements by the closing date of the announcement. -Applicants may only select one discipline group to apply under. -Selectees will be designated Astronaut Candidates and will undergo a training and evaluation period lasting approximately two years -Applicants must submit ALL STEM related transcripts. For more information visit usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/561186900 Advertisement This equates to about 81,000 to 125,000 annually however, successful applicants have to be US citizens. Other requirements include a masters degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field, from an accredited institution. The masters degree requirement can also be met by two years of work towards a PhD programme in a related science, tech, engineering or maths field; a completed doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathic medicine degree; or a completed test pilot school programme. Candidates also must have at least two years of related progressively responsible experience or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. They must also complete the long duration space flight physical, which requires 20/20 vision in each eye and a standing height between 62 and 75 inches. For the first time, applicants will also be required to take an online assessment that will take up to two hours. After training the new astronauts could live and work on the International Space Station, 250 miles above Earth. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Since the 1960s, NASA has selected 350 people to train as astronaut candidates There they will take part in experiments that will help prepare NASA missions to the Moon and then Mars. They may launch on NASAs new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, docking in lunar orbit before boarding another vehicle to the Moons surface. After returning humans to the Moon in 2024, NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon once per year and establish lunar exploration by 2028. The program will lay the groundwork in NASA's plans to send crewed missions to the Red Planet in the 2030s. Security personnel walk with the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, that will be used for the Artemis 1 Mission Becoming an astronaut is no easy task, because being an astronaut is no easy task,' said Steve Koerner, NASAs director of flight operations and chair of the Astronaut Selection Board at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. Those who apply will likely be competing against thousands who have dreamed of and worked toward going to space for as long as they can remember. 'But somewhere among those applicants are our next astronauts, and we look forward to meeting you. When NASA last opened applications for astronaut candidates a record-breaking 18,300 people applied. Of that intake, 11 new astronauts graduated earlier this year in NASAs first public graduation ceremony. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 03:55:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, March 3 (Xinhua) -- German Federal Government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said on Tuesday that the way to the European Union (EU) from Turkey is not open for refugees and migrants. "At the moment we are experiencing an extremely worrying situation on the European Union's external borders with Turkey, on land and at sea. We are seeing refugees and migrants who are told by the Turkish side that the way to the EU is now open, and of course it is not," said Seibert, according to a report by the German Press Agency (dpa). Seibert said that Turkey's decision to open the border with the EU for refugees had put those people in an extremely difficult situation, and also has been presenting Greece with enormous challenges. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Tuesday warned that the situation on the Turkish-Greek border would be worse than that of the 2015 refugee crisis when over a million refugees entered the EU in the wake of the civil war in Syria. The German newspaper Die Welt reported that during a meeting of the German Union Party's parliamentary faction, Seehofer said as the situation is precarious, it is far from being correctable if mistakes are made now. Seehofer said that Germany has to get it under control, otherwise the 2015 refugee crisis would repeat. He also called for security of the EU's external border and made it clear that the EU's borders are not open. Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the border, after Ankara said it could no longer prevent them from reaching Europe's borders. Turkey decided to open its border gates for illegal migrants after at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold. Enditem Chinese students hold a memorial for Dr Li Wenliang, who was the whistleblower of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, and caused the doctor's death in that city, outside the UCLA campus in Westwood, Calif., on Feb. 15, 2020. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images) Chinese Teacher Loses License for Questioning Official Coronavirus Figures A Chinese primary school teacher spent 10 days in detention and had his teaching license revoked for spreading inappropriate remarks relating to the coronavirus outbreak. Song Junhong, 48, is a primary school teacher in Wudang, a district in the southern province of Guizhou. On Feb. 3, he wrote in a chat group on WeChat, one of the largest Chinese social media platforms, that he cant trust the coronavirus death numbers reported by Chinese authorities. Funeral homes in Wuhan, the outbreak epicenter, are running 24 hours non-stop to cremate bodies, he wrote in one message, adding, I dont dare to imagine the death toll. In another message, he accused authorities of underreporting death figures. The reported death toll is all fake. Every day, about 500 people die in Wuhan alone, not to mention the whole country, he wrote. He soon deleted the remarks. At about 11 p.m. that day, police summoned him to the local police station for interrogation, Song told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times in a phone interview on March 2. The police showed him a screenshot of his messages taken by another person in the chat group, and accused him of spreading rumors. He was then ordered to 10 days in administrative detention for fabricating facts to disrupt public order, according to a document provided by police upon Songs release. Notice to release Song from detention in Guizhou, China, on Feb. 14, 2020. (Provided by Song Junhong) Three days after his release, Song said he learned that the local education bureau had convened a meeting over his actions, during which they decided to strip him of his teaching license. He would be considered as a logistic worker rather than a professional technical employee, which will reduce his salary by 60,000 yuan ($8,618), according to Song. He was also publicly criticized in Wudang district and told he would be disqualified from this years professional assessment. A number of officials, including the Chinese Communist Party chief at the education bureau and the schools principal, either made self-criticisms or were reprimanded because of his messages, according to a screenshot of the meeting keynote Song provided to The Epoch Times. Key notes from the education bureau Party committee meeting over Songs remarks, in Guizhou, China, on Feb. 7, 2020. (Provided by Song Junhong) The Epoch Times talked to Song by phone on March 2, but the interview was cut short because of a police warning. A notice from the police just came. They wont allow me to be interviewed, he said before abruptly ending the call. Censorship Chinese authorities and state media have repeatedly warned that people could be punished for spreading outbreak-related rumors. Article 291 of Chinas criminal law states that people who spread fake information about disasters and epidemics on the internet or social media could face up to seven years in prison. On March 1, a new regulation from the Cyberspace Administration, the regimes chief office for internet censorship, came into effect, banning internet users from spreading anything that could endanger national security, disclose national secrets, subvert state power, and sabotage national unity. It further called for internet content producers to proactively resist inappropriate comments about catastrophes, including natural disasters and major accidents, as well as any other content that may have a negative impact on the internet ecosystem. These measures come amid the regime tightening control on information being shared about the coronavirus as it seeks to project an image that the outbreak is under control. Li Wenliang, one of the first doctors in the country to sound the alarm about the outbreak, was in January summoned by local police and made to sign a statement of admonition. He later died of the virus at the age of 33. At least three citizen journalists, Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi, and Li Zehua, have vanished in Wuhan after sharing on Chinese social media first-hand videos online documenting the crisis. There should be more than one voice in a healthy society, Li told Chinese media from his hospital bed shortly before his death in February. As of Feb. 15, Hubei Province, whose capital is Wuhan, had engaged at least 1,600 online censors, working 24/7 to erase sensitive information from the internet. Washington-based non-profit Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented 254 cases of arrests over the week from Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, in which Chinese citizens were punished in forms of fines, verbal warnings, forced confessions, or forced education for spreading rumors online about the coronavirus. Train conductors are seen as the train stops at the Wuhan railway station on March 4, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images) Underreporting Cases The Epoch Times has previously reported on evidence that authorities have underreported the number of coronavirus infections and deaths in several regions. A leaked document showed that authorities in the eastern province of Shandong had from Feb. 9 to Feb. 23 understated infection numbers by 1.36 times to 52 times. A senior official from a major crematorium in Wuhan in early February described a dramatic surge in their daily intake since Jan. 22. On Feb. 3, the same day Song was arrested, the funeral home received as many as 127 bodies, the official told The Epoch Times. He said that it was five times their normal workload. In Caidian Funeral Home, another funeral home in Wuhan, 90 percent of the workers had been working round the clock since Jan. 28, one employee said in a Feb. 4 interview. The worker, identified as Yun, said they need at least 100 body bags per day. Due to the high pressure, the staff could only sit on their chairs and nap whenever they could. All Wuhan cremation chambers are working 24 hours, Yun said at the time. A previous version of this article misstated a detail about how police arrested Song Junhong. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Hyderabad, March 4 : Telangana police on Wednesday began probe into a mysterious case in which 11 needles were found inside the body of a toddler in Wanaparthy district. On a complaint by the parents of the three-year-old, police were questioning two suspects. A police official said they were waiting for the reports from the doctors. The shocking incident came to light after doctors scanned the body of Loknath. They found needles under his waist and close to his kidneys. Some needles were seen protruding through his anus. Ashok and Annapurna, residents of Veepanagandla village, took their son to the doctors as he was not keeping good health for last few days and was also difficulty in walking. The child's mother said while giving him bath, she found a needle coming out of his muscle. The doctors were shocked to see the x-ray. They conducted the surgery to remove the needles. However, three needles are yet to be removed. Doctors at a private hospital in Wanaparthy said they need more time to remove the remaining needles as they are in a sensitive area. Police said they registered a case against two persons on a complaint by the child's parents. They said the suspects used to take their son with them. Police booked them under Section 324 of Indian Penal Code (causing hurt with dangerous weapons and means) and section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act (Punishment for cruelty to child). Locals suspect that this could be a case of black magic, which is common in some rural pockets of Telangana. While campaigning for re-election as prime minister, Justin Trudeau made a powerful pledge to reduce gun violence. We will ban military-style assault rifles and start a buy-back program of all military-brand weapons, he vowed. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. While campaigning for re-election as prime minister, Justin Trudeau made a powerful pledge to reduce gun violence. "We will ban military-style assault rifles and start a buy-back program of all military-brand weapons," he vowed. Five months later, his promise remains all talk and no action. The importance of the federal Liberal government living up to its commitment was underlined by a recent announcement from a Manitoba company that its offering for public sale a new product called the WS-MCR: a semi-automatic rifle with a pistol grip and an AR-15-type ammunition magazine that lets the shooter fire off dozens of rounds in a short period of time. Its available for $1,300 to anyone with a valid firearms licence. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair says the government is composing a list of which makes and models will be prohibited. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files) Its important to note the Manitoba firm Wolverine Supplies, based in Virden is doing nothing illegal. And therein lies the issue. Wolverine, which is one of Canadas largest gun distributors, is operating within the current law by developing and selling its latest model of semi-automatic rifle. The firm found commercial success with an earlier incarnation of the WS-MCR that became the countrys bestselling semi-automatic rifle. These made-in-Manitoba firearms are among the type the Liberals have called "military weapons designed to hunt people, and not animals." When asked for an update on the government pledge to ban semi-automatic assault rifles, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in December the government is composing a list of which makes and models will be prohibited. He has estimated the government will need to buy back about 250,000 guns that are now legally owned in Canada, at an approximate cost of $1,500 per gun. The importance of the Liberals acting promptly on this matter is underscored by Wolverine Supplies campaign to sell its new semi-automatic rifles before the government makes them illegal. The more of these guns that are sold, the more will need to be bought back by the government. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. When the government eventually delivers on its promise and introduces its ban-and-buy-back scheme, not all owners will be eager to surrender their weapons. A spokesman for Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, an industry group representing gun businesses, said, "Its hard to believe were going down this road." The National Firearms Association also objects to the governments plan to "target the rights and property of Canada," and has vowed legal challenges. Virden's Wolverine Supplies is selling the WS-MCR Rifle. Objections to the proposed legislation are also expected within the House of Commons. Conservatives are on the record as opposing a ban on military-style assault weapons because it would penalize law-abiding gun owners. In the current minority-government scenario, a forthcoming bill would obviously require the Liberals to enlist support from parties other than the Conservatives to pass gun-control legislation. All parties would do well to heed the advice of Canadas police chiefs, who are well acquainted with crime and guns. Since 1977, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has been urging politicians to classify semi-automatic assault rifles as restricted weapons. A resolution from the police chiefs says, "Semi-automatic firearms have no sporting use either in the cultural or recreational sense" and are "basically designed as an instrument of war." There are countries on Earth so dangerous that citizens feel the need to arm themselves with instruments of war. Canada is not one of those countries. Warrensburg Central School residents are invited to an open house on Saturday to show off the districts $11 million capital project. The work included converting the former cafeteria into a group instruction area, meeting space and auditorium, as well as safety upgrades, maintenance projects and energy-efficiency improvements. The event will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the high school. There will be guided tours. Storytellers sought The Hyde Collection and Art in the Public Eye are inviting students in sixth grade and up to participate in its Black Fly: KidsTales event on April 19. The Black Fly series gives members of the community the opportunity to share their stories. Participating students are expected to tell a true story from their lives in 10 minutes or less, from memory and without notes. Representatives from The Hyde Collection and APE will set appointments with selected students to help them prepare their stories for public presentation, according to a news release. Interested students should submit their stories that are no more than five pages to info@artinthepubliceye.org by 5 p.m. on March 13. Students will be contacted within a week with feedback on their stories and to schedule a rehearsal time at The Hyde Collection. Teachers, parents and students who would like more information can contact Erin Coon at Info@ArtinthePublicEye.org. Puppets in Education Students at Hartford Elementary School got to see a puppet show on Feb. 26 that dealt with helping children identify their feelings, get tips on how to deal with uncomfortable emotions and learn how to seek adults they can turn to in times of stress. The Vermont Family Networks Puppets in Education presented the program, thanks to a third year of funding from Ross Hometown Chevrolet. Students got to share emotions, including what they were thankful for and what they worried about, which included peer pressure and school work, according to a news release. In addition, Ross Hometown Chevrolet donated ten 25-inch puppets for the school so they can continue to role play problem-solving scenarios. Puppets in Education is in its 39th year serving over 10,000 children and adults annually with 21 programs addressing issues including bullying, abuse, cultural diversity, mental health, disability awareness, anxiety, drug use and other topics. Budding artists U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has announced the beginning of the 2020 Congressional Art Competition. The contest is open to all high school students in the NY-21 Congressional District, which encompasses all of Warren, Washington, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and portions of Saratoga and Herkimer counties. The winning artwork from each congressional district will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol and the House of Representatives Congressional Art Competition webpage. The winner will receive airfare for two to attend the formal Congressional Art Competition ceremony in June. The deadline is April 17 and artwork can be submitted at one of Stefaniks district offices in Glens Falls, Plattsburgh or Watertown. A list of rules and the submission form can be found at https://stefanik.house.gov/services/art-competition. Each year, it is a privilege to select artwork created by a talented young person from the North Country to be honored in the U.S. Capitol, Stefanik said in a news release. Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. (Newser) She's getting lost in the headlines, but Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is still running for the Democratic nomination. And on Tuesday, Gabbard won her very first delegate, from the territory of American Samoa, where she was born, reports the Washington Post. That lone delegate is no small thing: Unless the Democratic National Committee changes its debate qualification rules, Gabbard would qualify for the next one on March 15. However, the DNC might well tighten up those rules after Super Tuesday. What's more, Gabbard has previously complained about the debate qualification process and might not attend anyway. Gabbard's latest campaign target: Elizabeth Warren, notes the Hill. (Here is the bigger picture from Super Tuesday results.) To honor women's courage all over the world, first lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted the International Women of Courage Awards Wednesday morning, where they made physical contact with all the recipients. The duo shook hands, and even hugged, the worldwide recipients of the award as concerns over the spread of coronavirus continue to sweep the world and have now broken into the U.S. Although none of the 13 recipients of the award are from high-risk countries, health and immunologist specialists have advised U.S. citizens to stop physical contact with others in public and to instead greet each other using an elbow touch. Those receiving the award were mostly women from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The three high risk countries currently are China, where the virus originated, Italy and South Korea and none of the recipients were from those countries. First lady Melania Trump presented awards to a dozen women at the International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony Wednesday at the State Department Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) assisted in presenting the awards to the group of international women The first lady shook hands with all 12 recipients, and made physical contact in other way, like side hugs and shoulder touches, despite concerns of the coronavirus outbreak Each recipient shook hands with Pompeo and Trump, and then the first lady handed the award to the individuals This is the fourth year in a row that Trump has presented the awards at the International Women of Courage ceremony, and it was one of her first actions as first lady in 2017 after Donald Trump was inaugurated. 'As First Lady of the United States, I am proud of what this country continues to do for women, and I am honored to represent a nation that not only recognizes women around the world who are making a difference internationally, but empowers and supports them in their endeavors so they can affect positive change for others,' Trump said during her remarks at the State Department Wednesday. Trump also mentioned an award she received herself earlier this year. 'A few weeks ago, I was awarded the Women of Distinction Award at Palm Beach Atlantic University for the efforts surrounding my Be Best initiative,' she said, making referencing to her public awareness campaign centered around advocating against youth cyberbullying and drug use. The award ceremony in Washington D.C. Wednesday helps kick off Women's History Month, which is celebrated every March to highlight and celebrate women's contributions to history and modern society. The presentation of the awards also kicks of a trans-national tour where awardees will go on a 14-city expedition across the United States as part of celebrating their 'courage' and Women's History Month. Trump shaking hands and touching the women recipients defies government agencies advice her own husband's worries of spreading the outbreak. The physical contact defies concerns from government agencies' and health experts' advice and her own husband's concerns over the fast-spreading outbreak Donald Trump touted Wednesday that he has not touched his face in weeks, as health experts claim that is one of the main ways to stop the spread of the virus Donald Trump bashed billionaire Mike Bloomberg in a tweet Tuesday for licking his fingers, including a video of the former New York City mayor appearing to pick up food then put his fingers in his mouth. 'Mini Mike, don't lick your dirty fingers. Both unsanitary and dangerous to others and yourself!' Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Wednesday Bloomberg, a target of Trump's, dropped out of the presidential race after failing to win a single state in Super Tuesday, when 14 states cast their ballots in the Democratic primary. Trump also touted that he hasn't touched his face in weeks, claiming it was all in the name of preventing himself from contracting the fast-spreading respiratory virus. White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, who has frequent close contact with the president, attended the award ceremony, but was seated in the audience and did not appear to make any physical contact with anyone at the event. There have been nine coronavirus deaths in the U.S. all in Washington State and the top expert on infection diseases at the National Institute of Health said Monday that the levels of coronavirus spread have reached 'pandemic proportions.' Health officials and experts are telling people to maintain a healthy distance from people in public, not to shake hands, hug or otherwise touch strangers, to wash hands frequently and claim people should not touch their faces. From its 11th ranking last 2018, the Philippines climbed to fourth place in Kasperskys worldwide ranking of countries with the highest web threat detections from January to December 2019. Data from the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) for the past year showed the cybersecurity companys technologies monitored and prevented nearly 28 million internet-borne attacks against Kaspersky users in the Philippines. This accounts for 44.40% of Kaspersky users in the country that encountered web threats in 12 months in 2019, where 26.62% were individual users and 7.58% were business users. The Philippines trailed behind the top three countries namely, Nepal, Algeria and Albania. Top 10 countries, KSN January-December 2019 In Southeast Asia, the Philippines led the top three countries with the highest number of detections followed by Malaysia at 13th and Vietnam at 17th. Ranking of SEA countries, KSN January-December 2019 Common attacks via drive-by downloads and social engineering tactics Kaspersky said a browser attack is still the top method for infecting web surfers. Users in the Philippines continue to be attempted to be attacked by cybercriminals through popular attack techniques such as drive-by download and social engineering. Drive-by download happens when an Internet user visits a website that he/she didnt know is infected and installs malware directly onto the users computer. Vulnerable computers are those with operating systems, applications, or web browsers that are not updated which means these contain security flaws. Attempts to infect computers of Kaspersky users in the Philippines is done through social engineering where a cybercriminal exploits a users lack of knowledge. Disguising as friends, families or even as IT support personnel, cybercriminals convince a clueless user to disclose his/her confidential data. With the information, a cybercrook will gain access to multiple networks, infect the users computers with malware or prompt the user to open links to infected websites. Top 5 attack vectors Ways used by cybercriminals in the Southeast Asian region to install malware into a users computer include the following: Visiting an infected website or when an online advertisement performs unfair action, such as adware which collects information without the owners consent Unintentional downloads of certain programs or files from the Internet Downloading malicious attachments via email Browser extensions activity. Browser extensions are like plugins which add certain features and functions. Examples of extensions are used to block ads on web pages, translate text from one language to another, or add pages to a third-party bookmark services such as Evernote or Pocket. Downloading malicious components or communications with control & command (C&C), a server that helps an online fraudster control a botnet and sends malicious commands that eventually would install malware onto a users computer. Botnet, short for robot network, is a collection of compromised (hacked) computers running malicious programs that are remotely controlled by cybercriminals. Below are the most widespread web threats in SEA (based on Kasperskys web-antivirus detections, according to Kaspersky Security Network): Local threats, malicious hosts down in PH In the same report, Kaspersky products detected and blocked more than 47 million local incidents on computers of its users in the country. This has pushed the Philippines to slide down to 61st place in 2019 from its 65th place in 2018 in Kasperskys worldwide ranking among countries with the highest local infections. Local infections or threats results from malware spread through removable media such as USBs, CDs, DVDs, and other offline methods. Kaspersky said worms and file viruses, which are usually self-replicating, generally account for such incidents. Attempts of attacks were monitored and prevented against 52.73% of individual Internet users and 20.99% of business users in the Philippines. Meanwhile, there were only 1.5 million malicious hosting incidents monitored and blocked in Philippine-based servers in 2019 compared to two million in 2018 pulling the countrys global ranking from 35th to 37th. As far as web threats are concerned, among the noticeable changes weve seen in the region reflect the same scenario worldwide ---strong activity of web-miners in the beginning of the year followed by a dropdown. There was also a growth of online skimmers that weve recorded. In the case of local threats, the overall situation in SEA is the same --- theres a drop in the number of cryptocurrency miners and a slight decrease in crypto ransomware, said Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Kaspersky Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, we believe the stern warnings against the use of cryptocurrencies and the newly enacted law which imposes harsh penalties against bank account fraudsters and credit card skimmers, are among the possible reasons for the changes in numbers. Despite these though, we cant drop our guards and be complacent. The overall increase in awareness and level of security among individual Internet users and businesses only mean that typical attacks will be more difficult to carry out. And we see that cybercriminals will intensify their efforts towards social engineering tactics more and will veer away from PCs to focus on attacking mobile devices and other internet-connected hardware, he adds. In order to be secured against the evolving threats online and offline, Kaspersky security experts advise the following basic but important steps: For businesses: Secure internet access for your employees. Deploy solutions which can help provide multi-layered gateway level protection against the latest web-based threats and blocks them before they reach your end points. Such is part of Kaspersky Targeted Solutions portfolio. Raise your employees awareness of cybersecurity by educating them on good cyber hygiene. Awareness training can help develop cybersafe behavior by building your employees understanding of potential threats. Configure your OS to avoid running anything from USBs. For consumers: Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan believes that the future is bright for the students in the Cheshire School District, and he credits most of that to the faculty and staff he has working within it. This is perhaps my vision of the schools, but what we need to keep in mind is a lot of what you see here is built on the shoulders of a lot of hard working staff, he began. Whether it be the personalized learning task force or our faculty and staff, board members and our administrative team, a lot of people had a hand in this process and Id like to say this is our collective vision for how we see our schools. At the Board of Education Meeting on Feb. 20, Solan offered insight into his 2020 vision for the District, laying out what he sees as areas of progress and growth for the upcoming year. In previous years, Solan has been working to shift the Cheshire School System to focus on the social and emotional well-being of the child as a whole, and away from test scores, as an indicator of success and achievement. He believes this shift is responsible for the Districts high Smarter Balance Achievement Consortium and Next Generation Science Standards scores this year, in comparison to Cheshires District neighbors. The scores were some of the highest in the state, and while Solan admittedly doesnt believe focusing on test scores is productive, he did say acknowledge being incredibly proud of what our students were able to achieve and is convinced that this new shift is what sets the Cheshire School District apart from its surrounding competitors. Really, the goal at the end of the day is to try to give our kids the ability to achieve skills across disciplines and real world applications, he explained. We dont graduate transcripts, we graduate students. While Cheshires School system has always received high praise, Solan does admit there are problems that he and the rest of the District are working to address. "We are still dealing with issues regarding chronic absenteeism and we would like to see improved scores on the State Fitness tests, and we are working towards developing programs that will address these (goals), Solan stated. He also mentioned some of the initial findings of the School Modernization Committee, which has been conducting interviews and discussions with various school staff, in order to find out what, specifically, is needed to update the schools. We know that general HVAC issues are a huge problem, he pointed out. Its like going through a climate version of time-warps, and that's just the symptom of the age of our systems. Larger adaptable spaces for instruction are also a common request. Some rooms are just too difficult to move around (in) freely due to the design, and we also would like spaces to accommodate larger groups of people not just faculty and staff but pulling students together in breakout groups is difficult given the current configuration. Solan laid out different ideas he and his team have for outfitting classrooms in a way that allows the students to best use the technology available, including alternative seating arrangements, better quality science laboratories, and more hands-on, manipulative items. What conditions within a school facility best support collaborative and cooperative learning? he asked the Board. We know we want to focus on collaboration, we want to be able to design flexible grouping and lessons which support moving things around within the classroom. We want to see students constructing and deconstructing ideas, and tangible items. Solan also mentioned how he would like to see an expanded science program in general, perhaps one that is more closely aligned with Cheshires horticultural history. I always thought it was somewhat shameful that, in Cheshire, the bedding plant capital of Connecticut, that we dont have a more involved greenhouse program available, he added. Towards the end of his presentation, Solan shared a video, created and produced by Cheshire High School students and the AV department, which showcased the CHS Internship program and how it has benefited students searching for career experience before they enter the working world. The video highlighted the important, real-world application gained from programs offered at the school, and Solan announced that CHS is pushing for more students to take part in the internship program. North Chinas Tianjin and the city of Anyang in Central Chinas Henan province both reported two new cases of the highly transmissible omicron variant over the weekend. Both cities have launched new rounds of mass testing and designated more Covid-19 risk areas to control the spread of the virus Jan 10, 2022 06:18 PM Despite the risk of losing the money she has paid for airfares and accommodation, Perth mum Lily Pass is about to cancel her trip to Bali and miss out on a treasured holiday with her girlfriends as the coronavirus outbreak puts the brakes on WA's love affair with Bali. Bali, whose biggest markets are Australia and China, has already lost about one-third of its weekly foreign visitors since the travel ban to China was announced, Indonesia Institute president Ross Taylor said. Lily Pass (pictured with her son, 4) said she had been counting the days to her girls' trip. "I'm becoming more concerned about going over [to Bali]," Ms Pass, the 29-year-old mother of a four-year-old boy, said. Ms Pass, whose flight to Denpasar is due to leave on Friday, had planned to stay in the hipster enclave of Canggu with five of her best friends. Joseph LaForte of Par Funding Announces Expedited "No Document" Financial Solution for Small Businesses MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Par Funding's Joe LaForte has recently announced an expedited short-term financial solution for small businesses which will require no documents and no credit check. More information is available at www.parfunding.com. Joseph LaForte, of leading short-term capital provider Par Funding, has recently announced that the company will now be offering a unique financial product designed specifically for small businesses to help them with their cash flow problems. This new product will ensure that small business owners get access to working capital in the shortest possible time and in the most convenient way. Business owners will not have to go through the hassle of collecting documents or endure rigorous credit checks. Analysts say this is by far the most aggressive product introduced by Joseph LaForte and Par Funding to date. Par Funding is a company known for honest and transparent financial solutions that work. With a keen focus on small businesses, the company has achieved prominence due to its exceptional customer service that comes along with its convenient and affordable financial products. Joseph LaForte's aim is to find innovative ways to help businesses get the financial resources they need to focus on growth and success. "No Document" Fast Funding Solution One of the biggest struggles facing business owners even in a strong economy is cash flow hurdles. This problem is even more magnified for small businesses that already have a dearth of resources. Since most of the team members at Par Funding have extensive experience in small business operations, the company understands how important quick access to cash is for small businesses. As a result, Par Funding tries its best to help clients in a timely fashion. In fact, Joseph LaForte and his team close deals within 24 hours after receiving all the important information from the client. They also make sure that the client receives the funds in their account within one business day. Not only is Par Funding's new financial product the fastest and most aggressive one in the market to date, it is also the most convenient. Joseph LaForte has worked with hundreds of small business owners and is familiar with their lifestyle. He knows that small business owners already have a lot on their plate, which is why he believes that getting access to working capital should be as simple as possible. Par Funding's "No Document" solution follows this philosophy perfectly. Clients are not required to submit any complicated documents and can receive their funds in as fast as one business day. In addition to being fast and requiring no documents to get approved for this finance solution, Par Funding also saves clients from going through excruciating inspections that do little aside from taking up precious business time. There is no emphasis on credit checks or other reports. By circumventing such financial red tape, Joe LaForte and his team can effectively reduce turnaround time and make sure that their clients get working capital as quickly as possible. Designed Specifically for Small Businesses Small business owners have been looking for a financial product that is easy, convenient and fast. Unfortunately, no other product in the market was able to meet their demands and solve their problems. Joseph LaForte and his team at par Funding saw the unmet need and worked with his team to create a solution with the unique aim to support small businesses. Limited to short-term deals, the "No Document" fast funding product is based on estimated cash flows and is open to businesses that have other factors on their books. With the summer just around the corner, small businesses across the country are preparing for a strong spring and summer season. Higher sales means producing higher volumes, which often requires additional investment. Joseph LaForte believes that the new product by Par Funding is perfect for businesses that are facing short-term cash flow problems and want an affordable way out and need it quickly. Small business owners that want to buy new machinery or equipment to support the growth of their business and want working capital with a quick turnaround time will find this offering very useful. Businesses can plan for a booming summer without worrying about cash flow crunch or getting bank funding. Par Funding can take care of the financial side of things so business owners can focus on what they do best. Tailor-Made Solutions Par Funding has funded thousands of businesses with quick processing times and exceptional customer service. The company has received raving reviews and remarkable testimonials from clients who keep coming back. Team leader, Joseph LaForte, believes this is because the company provides customizable solutions for each of its clients. "Every small business is unique and has its own way of doing things," states Joe LaForte. "Therefore, every financial product should also be tailor-made to meet their unique needs of the business it aims to help. At Par Funding, we don't believe in the cookie-cutter approach. We make sure that our agents work closely with our clients to customize products in a way that serves the client's business and makes their life easier. We are dedicated to providing the best possible support for our clients and create innovative products that work best for small businesses." About Par Funding Par Funding is a leading provider of short-term capital to businesses in need and is known for quick turnaround time and exceptional customer service. The company was built on the foundation of helping small businesses gain access to funding solutions necessary for day-to-day operations and growth. The company offers honest and transparent financial options through an exceptional customer support platform. More information about the company can be found on https://www.parfunding.com/. About Joseph LaForte Joe has led Par Funding to unprecedented growth - through various market shifts and industry changes - and plays an integral role in the company working with mid-sized businesses to access working capital and alleviate cash flow. Joe and his team have successfully closed over $500 million in small business funding, his fast hands on approach with his team has earned him a reputation as the number one option for small business seeking short term cash flow solutions. Joseph LaForte has been featured in numerous financial and business publications including Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Foreign Policy, Small Business Magazine, Market Watch, Vermont Republic, City Biz List, Business.com, and The Start Up Magazine. For more information on Joseph LaForte please visit http://josephlaforte.com/. CONTACT: A. Brotsky 917-719-1726 SOURCE: Finance Media LLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/579068/Joseph-LaForte-of-Par-Funding-Announces-Expedited-No-Document-Financial-Solution-for-Small-Businesses You are the owner of this article. Addressing his first press conference in India, Mark Read, CEO, WPP, affirmed that WPP wants to put creativity at the heart of the business. He was present at the inauguration of the BAY99 Campus in Mumbai earlier this week. Highlighting the companys performance in the country, Read said, India is the 5th largest market for WPP in terms of revenue. India is very important for WPP, as one of our fastest-growing countries and a top-tier global market. Further talking about Indias positioning in the global market, Read said, We know India has been a tech leader and has an important role. We have seen strong growth in the world and India has been a standout market. Also read: WPP India ups the game to provide more agile client offerings & integrated teams Speaking on the occasion, Read also said, Creativity powered by technology is critical to meeting client needs and the demands of a dynamic marketplace. Our investment in our campuses supports WPPs new sense of purpose and enables us to instil a culture of creativity, collaboration and openness, while attracting and retaining the best people. Talking about the future of WPP in the realm of creativity, Read said, Creativity is our secret sauce. WPP is as much a tech company as it is a creative company. We are focused on making the company more client-centric. Read considers purpose as a critical aspect for WPP, as he said, WPP culture is open, optimistic and extraordinary in terms of the people we have. WPP has an open and collaborative culture. WPP has a media market share of 50%: CVL Srinivas Also addressing the media was CVL Srinivas, India Country Manager, WPP, who spoke about the internal evolution that WPP is going through in India. There is a real internal evolution thats ongoing at WPP in India in the way that our teams work. Our teams are now better integrated and working in close alignment to our clients. We are reinventing ourselves to respond to structural changes in our market and to capture the new opportunities for growth. Beyond that, we are also excited about the work that we are doing in sustainability and social purpose. He further claimed that WPP has a media marketing share close to 50 per cent and that the company has grown by 10 per cent. They are looking to have an 8,000-strong employee base by the end of 2020, with the setting up of their Gurugram office. Srinivas also spoke about WPPs focus on mobility, upskilling , hiring and retention, with the need to create more platforms like WPP Stream. He also stressed on creating an optimistic, extraordinary and open place to work for new and existing talent. Further talking about WPPs key focus areas, Srinivas spoke about talent and culture, client centricity, building data and technology, efficient and simpler organisation, and WPPs impact socially and in terms of sustainability. (Alliance News) - Predator Oil & Gas Holdings PLC on Wednesday said an environmental impact assessment for its 75%-owned Guercif permits has been approved by regulators in Morocco. Predator said the approval covers the drilling of exploration wells for petroleum exploration at the onshore permits in Morocco. The approval of the assessment, ratified by the Ministry of Energy & Mines & Environment, is valid for five years, with effect January 29. Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said: "The company has achieved another important step in progressing its drilling plans in Guercif with the approval of the EIA. Importantly there is scope for further drilling to rapidly follow-up a potentially successful initial campaign. Morocco represents an exciting opportunity for phased monetisation of gas combining near-term demand, supported by very attractive in-country gas prices, from large domestic industries desiring to switch to gas if available, and the medium-term ability to develop gas-to-power. New gas resources will carry a premium and may prove attractive to an acquirer. We look forward to updating the market on further progress." Morocco's National Office of Hydrocarbons & Mines holds the remaining 25% stake in the four Guercif permits. Shares in Predator Oil were 4.1% lower at 3.55 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Fire departments in the United States have supported the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for many years. In Lebanon, that connection took on more personal connection in 2017. Josh Roth had recently joined the department as a volunteer when he and his wife, Rhianna, learned that their daughter, Rialee, had cancer. Three years ago on March 23, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma, Rhianna Roth said. After extensive treatment, Rialee, who is now 11, was declared cancer-free. She is just a little over two years in remission now, Rhianna Roth said. Now shes their little mascot. Rialee and her younger brother Brantley, 7, took part in a fill-the-boot fundraiser on Saturday at a Lebanon Dutch Bros. The event was organized by the Lebanon Fire Department to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In February, the department also held a fundraising dance at the Lebanon Senior Center. The campaign will be capped off this weekend when a group of Lebanon firefighters travels to Seattle to take part in the 29th annual LLS Firefighter Stairclimb in Seattle. Eight or nine Lebanon firefighters are expected to participate. More than 2,000 firefighters from around the United States will climb the 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle. The event is a test of fitness, a fundraiser and a celebration of the partnership between firefighters and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Rialee, a fifth-grade student at Cascades Elementary, will be one of the honorees. She has a VIP pass for the event and will be waiting in the Sky View Observatory to greet members of the Lebanon team as they reach the top. Lebanon firefighter Jason Adamson is helping to organize the departments participation. This will be his fourth year taking part in the stairclimb. Adamson said that at first the departments participation was pretty casual. A long, long time ago, probably back in 2008, somebody around here heard about it. It sounded like something cool to do. A couple of them did it, Adamson said. At first, the participants didnt do a lot of fundraising for the event, but that commitment has grown in recent years. Adamson is hoping that the fundraising dance can grow into a larger community event in coming years. As for the climb itself, it is intended to be physically demanding. Each participant wears a full firefighter turnout, including breathing apparatus, gloves and the full coat, including the liner. By the time a person is done with it, their PPE (personal protective equipment) is soaked on the inside. Its like wearing a thermal blanket, Adamson said, estimating that the full suit and breathing apparatus weighs approximately 55 pounds. Last year, the winning time in the mens competition was just over 11 minutes and the top female time was 15 minutes. Some participants, however, took an hour to complete the course and the average time was 24 minutes. In past years, Adamson said he increased his workouts to prepare for the event. This year, he is a student in the Paramedic Program at Chemeketa Community College and has not done as much preparation. Im going to feel it, definitely, Adamson said. While Rialee is cancer free, there are lingering physical effects and she continues to receive medical care and support. Rhianna Roth said being part of the Lebanon Fire Department has made the entire experience a little easier. Its pretty cool. Just from a fire family perspective weve gained a lot of friends, Roth said. Watching them do this for her and other blood cancer survivors is pretty awesome. Event organizers have postponed this event due to coronavirus concerns. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. During a discussion on the package of reforms in the Judicial Code in the first reading in parliament today, deputy of the ruling My Step Alliance Suren Grigoryan said people in Armenia need to understand the times in which they are living and realize that the country is in a non-standard situation. Touching upon the issue of reducing the age limit for judges from 28 to 25, Grigoryan particularly stated that nobody says experience wont be taken into consideration and added that all attorneys say people will trust young judges more than judges of the elder generation. Based on the package of reforms in the Judicial Code proposed by the government, it is proposed to change the number of members of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee and accept up to 8 members. Moreover, two of them will be nominated by active NGOs in Armenia, but they need to be academic lawyers. In addition, it is assumed that there will be a five-member committee for assessing the activities of judges. Judges will have to take a psychological test before becoming judges, and alongside this, the minimum age limit will be reduced from 28 to 25. When introducing the proposed changes, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan assured that the reforms had been widely discussed and studied at the international level and had been approved by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. Rana El-Kaliouby is a pioneer in artificial intelligence. She is the co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based in the US. El-Kaliouby grew up in Cairo. After graduating from the American University in Cairo (AUC), El-Kaliouby earned a PhD from Cambridge University, before joining the MIT Media Lab as a research scientist, where she developed the application of emotion detection technology in a variety of fields, including mental health and autism. Forbes added El-Kaliouby to the lists of America's Top 50 Women in Tech and Fortune and 40 Under 40. El-Kaliouby shares her journey in the world of technology and entrepreneurship in her upcoming book Girl Decoded. El-Kaliouby talks to Ahram Online about her research in emotional AI and the endless applications of emotion recognition to enhance the quality of peoples lives. She also highlights the need for a societal discussion in Egypt about AI ethics and regulations. How do you interpret the controversy about the impact of AI on the future of jobs and the lack of policy measures for AI ethics? AI is an emerging technology thats progressing at a really rapid pace. Its exciting and has a lot of promise, but because of how quickly its taken off, there are a lot of misconceptions about what exactly AI is, how it will be used, what impact it will have on jobs and ultimately on peoples lives. Its up to people like me and other thought leaders to engage the public and address these concerns head-on. For example, at my company Affectiva were very outspoken about the ethical development and deployment of AI to ensure that the technology has a positive impact on people, and does not violate privacy or exacerbate biases. We also believe that there is a need for policies and thoughtful regulation to guide the development and deployment of AI. Those policies arent in place yet, but we need to get there. AI companies, governments, academia and other stakeholders must come together to shape that regulation. What is the concept of emotional AI technology and its current and future applications? In the last 10 years, I have worked with my team to define, name and seed the category of Emotion AI (artificial emotional intelligence) software that can understand nuanced human emotions and complex cognitive states from face and voice which is now on track to become a multi-billion-dollar industry. People express emotions beyond just their facial expressions. In fact, only seven percent of human communication is based in the words we say the rest is through non-verbal cues like facial expressions, vocal intonations and gestures. Thats why we take a multi-modal approach to Emotion AI. Our technology is already applied in the market. In automotive, Affectivas in-cabin sensing AI is enabling leading car manufacturers, fleet managers and ridesharing companies to build next-generation mobility that adapts to complex human states. This technology is also used by 25 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies to test consumer engagement with ads, videos and TV programming. There are also applications in healthcare, education and social robotics. How does Emotion AI recognise the differences in facial expressions and motions across ethnic groups, such as the head bobble in India, for example? This technology is built on deep learning, computer vision, speech science and massive amounts of real-world data. Weve analysed more than nine million faces in 87 countries around the world (all with opt-in and consent) to ensure we take a global approach that accounts for diversity. We use a portion of this data to train our AI algorithms, and a portion to validate them. This is where we account for cultural differences in emotional expression. We can train personalised models based on cultural differences to use your example, we could collect data based on head shakes in India and use that to train our models. In addition to our work with facial expressions, weve also developed and deployed in-market voice technology that analyses speech patterns, vocal intonations and the like. Were also broadening our technology beyond Emotion AI to a new area, Human Perception AI: software that can detect not only emotions and cognitive states, but also behaviours, activities, interactions and objects people use. What are the steps that should be adopted to establish an AI industry in Egypt? Its important to foster a strong pipeline of AI talent in Egypt. Interested groups should work with national universities, as well as those in our own backyard like AUC to ensure theres an AI curriculum and discipline in place. AUC is an interesting case because of its liberal arts curriculum and emphasis on humanities and topics like ethics. Thats exactly the kind of programme we need to develop AI talent. Its not just about teaching people technical skills, but also ensuring that up-and-coming AI experts have a well-rounded understanding of the technology and its implications, such as the business and ethics of AI. Arming the next generation of AI leaders with that perspective will be really important for moving AI forward in the region. Its also important for the government to support start-ups as entrepreneurs are getting started in AI. Specifically, there needs to be more organised support for emerging tech and AI companies to help entrepreneurs reach early milestones, after which they can start to raise funding and grow. But you cant raise funding based on an idea alone, so its crucial for entrepreneurs to have support as theyre starting out. What is your advice to young computer engineers and entrepreneurs? AI has a lot of potential to help people be happier, healthier and more productive. Its an exciting green field opportunity, and folks who get involved early on will be able to have a big impact. Thats one of the reasons why I really encourage aspiring technologists to get involved in AI to learn about it, build it and help shape its future. For people in Cairo specifically, Id recommend getting involved in the local startup ecosystem, which has really taken off in recent years. If you have an idea for a new company or tech innovation, get involved with initiatives like AUCs entrepreneurship programme and the RiseUp Summit, and check out accelerator programmes like Flat6Labs. Or, if youre just looking to learn more about AI, there are so many ways to get your feet wet. Consider online classes like those offered by Udacity or Coursera, and seek out AI meet-ups happening around you. My company is involved in hosting and organising AI meet-ups in Cairo and its always a great experience to be able to connect with others who are interested in AI and the future of technology. Search Keywords: Short link: Historic Nicholson Gin signs new Italian distribution deal The producer of Nicholson Gin has signed a new distribution deal - and renewed an old relationship - in the Italian market. J&W Nicholson and Co. has appointed Branca Group of Milan to distribute its products across Italy. The country is a natural home for the British spirit; its producers say it mixes well with Carpano's Antica Formula Vermouth and Carpano Bitters in a Negroni cocktail, which will be a main focus for its marketing to Italian consumers. Nicholas Browne, director of J&W Nicholson and Co., said: "We are delighted to re-establish the partnership between our two businesses, as it was Grupo Carpano of Turin, now part of Branca Group, which was the distributor for Nicholson Gin for much of the 20th century. We look forward to resuming a long and rewarding relationship." Tracing its origins back to 1736, Nicholson Gin was a pioneer of London dry gin. It began production in London's Clerkenwell, taking on an additional site in Bow in 1872, and was one of few spirits individually named in several notable cocktail anthologies in the 1920s and 1930s, including Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book the The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book. 4 March 2020 - Bethany Whymark Bernie Sanders has launched a barbed attack on new Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, accusing him of being bankrolled by the wealthy and incapable of being a president who put first the interests of the poor and working people. With election officials confirming Mr Sanders was set to win four of the Super Tuesday states compared to the ten bagged by the former vice president, the Vermont senator found himself on the back foot, fighting to keep his bid in the fight. Speaking to supporters in Burlington, Vermont, where he was elected mayor in 1981, Mr Sanders sought to pitch what has come down as a showdown between the two men as a question about which side are you on. Are you on the side of working people, and are you willing to stand up against the greed and corruption of the corporate elite, he said. Or are you on the side of the billionaires and corporations that are trying to buy the election? Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters Mr Sanders was apparently unaware that billionaire Michael Bloomberg had ended his $500m campaign for the nomination and endorsed Mr Biden. He said Joe would now be getting Mr Bloombergs support, another thing to distinguish it from his. There has never been a campaign in recent history which has taken on the entire political establishment, said Mr Sanders. That is an establishment that is working frantically to try to defeat us. Man dances live on Sky News during Super Tuesday segment Among the things he said were trying to defeat him was a super PAC, The Big Tent Project, that had been spending millions of dollars on political advertising aimed at him. Does anyone seriously believe that a president backed by the corporate world is going to bring about the changes in this country that working families and the middle class and lower-income people desperately need, he added. Mr Sanders also said he had spoken to Elizabeth Warren, who performed badly on Tuesday. There is widespread speculation she will soon leave the race, but there is much less clarity about which candidate she will endorse, if either. With Mr Biden now appearing to have the momentum ahead of a flurry of additional primary contests later this month, including Florida, an endorsement from Ms Warren might provide him a crucial lifeline. Yet he said it was right to respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision. AFPTV Tokyo worshippers participate in the annual ice water purification ritual at the Teppozu Inari Shrine, an event to pray for good health in the new year. The participants warm up by stretching their bodies and jump into a pool of cold water with huge ice blocks in it. The New Year event has nearly 70 years' history in the community. "I pray for the coronavirus pandemic to end soon," says 74-year-old Yoshiko Shibata, the oldest participant. Mumbai, March 4 : Amid a compounding threat of Covid-19, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday advised people to use clean handkerchiefs instead of face masks while assuring all that all necessary preparations were in place for any situation. Health Minister Rajesh Tope told the Maharashtra Legislature that the state is fully geared to tackle any crisis arising out of coronavirus, and there has not been a single positive case reported in the state so far. "There is no need for any panic. Worldwide, the incidence of deaths is around 2.5-3 per cent of those who are infected," he told the Assembly during a short discussion on the subject. Tope added that the government is taking all possible measures including setting up quarantine/isolation wards with 10 beds in five hospitals in Mumbai and the authorities are in constant touch with the Central government on the issue. These include Kasturba, Rajawadi, Kurla, Bandra and Jogeshwari civic-run hospitals in Mumbai and 10-bed quarantine wards at all district hospitals. Referring to rumor-mongers, Tope said that the state government will ask the Cyber Crime Cell to investigate cases of such elements indulging in spreading misinformation and creating fear among the masses and they will be dealt with strictly. His statements came against the backdrop of non-availability of masks and allegations of hoarding which has led to spiralling of the masks in some cities where the N-95 masks are sold for as high as Rs 250-300 a piece. Till date, as many as 65,121 passengers arriving in Mumbai by 555 flights have undergone thermal scanning and of the 401 passengers who arrived from the coronavirus affected countries, 152 were admitted to different hospitals and tested twice. The lab reports of 149 were found negative and 143 have been discharged while the remaining six are under observation - one each in Naidu and Mangeshkar hospitals in Pune, and two each at Kasturba and Hinduja Hospitals in Mumbai. Besides, 676 people arriving here by 30 ships are also undergoing thermal scanning at Mumbai Port and none have tested positive, as per the Centre's protocol. Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis and Leader of Opposition in Council Pravin Darekar said that both the Centre and state have initiated necessary measures to tackle the crises with adequate responses in place. Meanwhile, several public and private Holi celebrations in Mumbai and other cities have been cancelled in the wake of the emerging situation vis-a-vis what is termed as the biggest public health emergency in a decade. We have had conversations with the students and they have indicated they prefer to be in China at this moment because if they were to fall sick, there is already some treatment which has been applied which is successful. They are better off rather than coming here. We havent even tried any treatment at all, so they are better off in China at this very stage. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the Pasteur Foundation US honored three individuals with its prestigious awards during a special gala. Paul Stoffels, M.D., Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson, received the inaugural Louis Pasteur Leadership Award in Public Health. The Honorable Jane Hartley, former United States ambassador to France, was recognized with the Pasteur Foundation US Award. Janet Tobias, Emmy-award winning journalist and documentarian, was honored with the inaugural Pasteur Foundation US Award for Excellence in Public Health. Each year, inspired both by the current work conducted in biomedical research at the 130-year-old Institut Pasteur and by Louis Pasteur's continuing legacy, the Pasteur Foundation US recognizes individuals who have made outstanding efforts to improve public health research, education and information worldwide. The Pasteur Foundation Awards are a testament to the public-private partnership that improves global health. The Pasteur Foundation US Board of Directors selected Dr. Stoffels as the 2020 honoree for his long-standing commitment to harnessing innovation in science and technology to advance health for people around the globe. Dr. Stoffels is being honored for a lifetime of important contributions to global public health, including his decades-long work to advance novel treatments and solutions for HIV, leading Johnson & Johnson's efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine, and fueling collaboration and investment in new approaches to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis and mental health. The organization also recognized Dr. Stoffels' current work spearheading a multi-pronged response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the ongoing development of a potential vaccine candidate. The Honorable Jane Hartley was recognized for demonstrating outstanding Franco-American activities and exchange. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and on the Board of Overseers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is also a member of the Visiting Committee at the Kennedy School at Harvard University as well as the Executive Committee and the Dean's Council, and has previously provided analysis of key government policies affecting the global capital markets. Ms. Tobias, also a 2020 inaugural honoree, received the award for her leadership in public health journalism, covering international issues and global health pandemics. She was previously nominated for a Writers Guild award for both of her feature documentaries, No Place On Earth and Unseen Enemy. The event was held at 583 Park Avenue under the patronage of HE Philippe Etienne, Ambassador of France to the United States, and HE Anne-Claire Legendre, Consul General of France to New York. Francois Maisonrouge, Dr. Mireille Gillings and Pablo Legorreta were Dinner Chairs. About the Pasteur Foundation US The Pasteur Foundation is the US 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the world-renowned Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, whose mission is to improve public health by contributing to the prevention and treatment of disease. The proceeds of the March 3rd dinner will be used to further the Foundation's mission, which includes a series of programs to bring American scientists from undergraduates to senior post-doctoral scientists to carry out research in the Institut Pasteur's laboratories in France and international network of 33 sites on 5 continents. For information about the Pasteur Foundation US, please visit www.pasteurfoundation.org or contact Gregory A. Corsico, Executive Director, Pasteur Foundation, 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1654, New York, New York 10170. Tel: 212.599.2050. About Paul Stoffels, M.D. Paul Stoffels is a visionary leader who inspires and drives transformational innovation to bring years of life and quality of life to millions of people around the world. Paul spearheads the Johnson & Johnson research and product pipeline by leading teams across all sectors to set the companywide innovation agenda, discovering and developing transformational healthcare solutions. He also is responsible for the safety of all products of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies worldwide, and steers the company's global public health strategy to make innovative medicines and technologies accessible in the world's most vulnerable communities and resource-poor settings. Paul's commitment to fueling innovation and finding the best science, wherever it exists, is the driving force behind the launch of Johnson & Johnson Innovation in 2013, which he now leads to foster science and technology through strategic partnerships, licensing and acquisitions. Paul also oversees JJDC, the oldest corporate venture fund in the life science industry. Previously, in his role as Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Paul led the transformation of the pharmaceutical research and development pipeline for Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, driving a fundamental shift in the research and development (R&D) paradigm that is now a model in the industry for productivity and innovation. Under his leadership, Janssen rejuvenated its pipeline, launching multiple new medicines and making a difference for people all over the world. Prior to this, Paul held various R&D leadership roles within the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson. He joined Johnson & Johnson in 2002 with the acquisition of Virco and Tibotec, where he was Chief Executive Officer of Virco and Chairman of Tibotec, and led the development of several breakthrough products for the treatment of HIV that helped to transform this devastating disease from a death sentence to a chronic and treatable condition. Paul studied Medicine at the University of Diepenbeek and the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. He began his career as a physician in Africa, focusing on HIV and tropical diseases research. About Hon. Jane Hartley The Honorable Jane Hartley's career has garnered successes and accolades in both the public and private sectors. Hartley currently serves as a member of the Visiting Committee at the Kennedy School at Harvard University as well as the Executive Committee and the Dean's Council. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Board of Overseers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Most recently, Hartley served as Ambassador to the French Republic and the Principality of Monaco from 20142017. Prior to her ambassadorship, Hartley was Chief Executive Officer of the Observatory Group, an international economic and political advisory firm providing analysis of key government policies affecting the global capital markets. Hartley's career has always spanned the public and private sectors having served as a Vice President of both Universal (MCA) and Westinghouse Broadcasting, as well as having a post at the White House during the Carter Administration. In addition to her other board position, Hartley is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sesame Workshop (Sesame Street) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for American Progress. Hartley is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Hartley was awarded the Legion of Honour for her service as Ambassador in 2017. About Janet Tobias Ms. Tobias is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, producer, and writer with parallel careers in medicine/technology and film/television. In 2004 she founded Ikana Health & Media to focus on how health content, technology, and social networks affect health behavior. Ikana makes content, drives advocacy and designs solutions for global health. Tobias started her film and television career at CBS' 60 Minutes as Diane Sawyer's associate producer. She then worked as a producer at ABC News' Prime Time Live, and at Dateline NBC. She went on to serve as an executive producer at VNI (which is owned by the New York Times). After working in network television, she moved to PBS, creating and producing the Emmy-award winning PBS program Life 360. In 2012, Tobias' first feature documentary, No Place on Earth, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released both in North America and Europe. Her most recent feature documentaries are Unseen Enemy, about the 21st century threat of epidemics and pandemics, and Memory Games, about four of the world's best memory competitors. Both films have been broadcast/streamed around the world. She was nominated for a Writers Guild award for both No Place On Earth and Unseen Enemy. Tobias holds faculty positions at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Columbia University's School of International Affairs and Public Policy, and holds the title of Research Professor of Global Public Health in the NYU Global Institute of Public Health. Media contact: Gregory A. Corsico 212.599.2050 SOURCE Pasteur Foundation US Prime Minister says military is ready to back-fill civilian roles in coronavirus plan Hospitals have been told to see as many patients as they can via video calls because their beds will be needed to treat coronavirus sufferers. After the government published its plan for dealing with the virus, the NHS stepped up preparations, with hospitals told to convert wards to isolation units. Boris Johnson promised that Britain would get through coronavirus, and get through it in good shape as he pledged to do everything possible to fight what is now highly likely to be a widespread outbreak of the illness. The prime minister said that for the overwhelming majority of people who contract the virus, this will be a mild disease from which they will speedily and fully recover, as he laid out a plan to deal with disruption to daily life. The Times Johnson evokes Blitz spirit as he says coronavirus is national challenge The Sun Governments coronavirus action plan in detail Daily Telegraph British cases reach 51 as schools and businesses shut The Times Health chiefs say coronavirus is level four emergency Daily Mail One in five UK workers could be off during coronavirus peak weeks FT Businesses can claim compensation for virus, Government announces Daily Telegraph Latest advice HM Government >Today: ToryDiary: Coronavirus 1) We should ease the rules that restrict volunteering >Yesterday: Daniel Finkelstein: This crisis is a 9/11 moment for politics The coronavirus may prove to be a 9/11 moment, a moment where the hidden history and experiences of centuries suddenly become the subject of popular debate and urgent public policy-making. It is too early to say whether Covid-19 will prove to be the once-in-a-century pathogen weve been worried about as Bill Gates puts it. If it isnt, it just means that something else will be soon. And its impact on the public consciousness is likely, in any case, to be a game changer. Just as 9/11 made clear the threat of militant Islamism and failed states, and its long history, so this virus outbreak teaches our vulnerability to disease pandemics. Just as terrorist prevention since 9/11 has driven laws and wars, diplomacy and argument, so the same may be about to happen with public health. The Times Coronavirus crisis means No 10 can no longer fight the battles it craves Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian The big danger is that we panic ourselves into a greater crisis Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph Editorial: Johnson is successfully handling the coronavirus crisis The Sun >Today: Ryan Bournes column: Coronavirus 2) Beware it being used as a cover for promoting socialism and protectionism Patel overdose victim case was nothing to do with her, say allies The row over Priti Patel intensified on Tuesday as allies hit back against fresh bullying claims by a victim who they said had only worked for her for two weeks. Friends of the Home Secretary claimed it was ludicrous to drag her into alleged bullying of a junior staff member in her private office at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) who it is claimed took an overdose after clashing with her. This person at the DWP only worked for Priti for two weeks and was already in the process of quitting when Priti took over as employment minister, said a friend A senior official at the Department for International Development (DfID) also reported a tsunami of allegations of abuse by officials in her private office when she was secretary of state, BBC2s Newsnight reported on Tuesday night. Daily Telegraph Senior civil servant begins legal case The Guardian Top officials saw her bully civil servants The Times Patel bullied third civil servant so badly he signed off with stress The Sun Official inquiry launched to establish facts Daily Express Labour demands independent inquiry into Patel bullying claims The Guardian Concern Sedwill missed Home Office rift due to burden of keeping national security role FT Comment: Its wrong to assume a woman is a bully but also to assume she cant possibly be one Jane Moore, The Sun Editorial: Home Secretary is getting strong support, but it may not save her The Times >Today: John Redwood MP in Comment: Lessons for managing civil service obstruction from the Thatcher years. And my role as head of her Policy Unit. No 10 sacks aide who spoke out against unkind Cummings A special adviser sacked after she confronted Dominic Cummings over his unkindness is understood to be considering suing the government. Lynn Davidson, a former Sun journalist, lost her job this week, a fortnight after taking Mr Cummings to task for his treatment of staff. Ms Davidson, 41, challenged Boris Johnsons senior adviser on February 14 at a weekly meeting of ministerial aides claiming he had picked on aides to cabinet ministers who were due to be sacked. She told Mr Cummings he had been out of order and he had to show more consideration to people, many fairly young, who were doing their best in incredibly difficult circumstances Tory sources denied any connection between Ms Davidsons departure and her decision to challenge Mr Cummings. They claim that she had resisted a move from the Ministry of Defence to the Department of Health. The Times Ministers 1) Sunak ready to end freeze on fuel duty in Budget Chancellor Rishi Sunak will next week use his Budget to signal the end to a decade of freezes on fuel duty, as he announces a raft of measures intended to help Britain meet its climate change targets. As the first stage Mr Sunak will scrap the 2.4bn diesel subsidy for users of farming and construction vehicles part of what government officials say is a wider package of green taxes to help Britain achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But those close to the Budget preparations have not ruled out the possibility of Mr Sunak also ending the freeze on fuel duty for all motorists next week, or at least foreshadowing the end of a policy dating back to 2010. Conservative MPs have fiercely resisted an end to the freeze on fuel duty, but some admit the policy is nearing the end of its life. FT Chancellor forced to find emergency cash in the Budget to help fight coronavirus The Sun High street lobby appeals for reform of business rates FT Comment: Come on Chancellor, brew up a new pensioner bond Miles Dilworth, Daily Mail Heres how we can meet Net Zero without derailing the economy Owen Paterson MP, Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Tim Pitt in Comment: Sunak should walk in Howes footsteps and make the Conservative case for tax rises Ministers 2) Buckland wants victims of violent and sexual offences to be told when their offender leaves jail Victims of violent and sex offences are for the first time to get an automatic legal right to know when their attacker will be released from jail and what measures are in place to protect the public. The move will be included in a new victims law and aims to end scandals where families have been left in the dark only to subsequently discover the offender has been released or is about to be let out of jail as happened with black cab rapist John Worboys. Under the change proposed by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, victims will no longer have to opt into the so-called victim contact scheme but will automatically be included and then decide if they want to opt out. Daily Telegraph Ministers 3) Truss sets out Brexit vision in WTO speech Liz Truss declared Britain is back yesterday, as she made the first speech by a British minister at the World Trade Organisation since the UK became a member in its own right. The UK has re-taken it seat at the table of the international organisation following Brexit. In the historic speech the International Trade Secretary hit out at industrial subsidies and state-owned enterprises. Ms Truss vowed Britain will lead a global crackdown on unfair trade practices and protectionism. Announcing that Britain is back, the cabinet minister used the address to position the UK as a world leader in setting standards in areas such as services and digital, and ensuring the WTO takes advantage of the digital revolution powering the global economy. Daily Express Car manufacturers to demand compensation from Government for bad deal Daily Express Comment: Johnsons bluster on Brexit is about to face reality Rafael Behr, The Guardian Ministers 4) Trevelyan revives plan for DfID to pay for hospital ship The British government is exploring using its international aid budget to purchase a multimillion pound hospital ship that could be used for humanitarian relief and assisting military operations. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, minister for international development, has ordered officials to examine ways of broadening the use of her departments budget, which represents 0.7 per cent of national income, to better chime with the aims of Boris Johnsons Conservative government. One option officials are investigating is the purchase of a hospital ship to improve the UKs humanitarian relief capabilities, while also having the potential to assist the Royal Navy in military operations, according to one senior insider. FT MPs to call for Huawei deal to be dropped by 2023 MPs will call on the government to reduce Huaweis involvement in the UKs 5G infrastructure from 35 per cent to zero by 2023. A cross-party group of around 40 MPs want Boris Johnson to rethink the controversial decision to allow the state-subsidised Chinese firm to supply more than a third of the UKs fifth generation network equipment. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith will lead Wednesday mornings 9.30am Westminster Hall debate, amid growing fears Britains technology could be exploited for mass surveillance by the Chinese state. Mr Duncan Smiths Tory leadership rival, David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary is expected to be among the rebels, along with former First Secretary of State, Damian Green and Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee. Daily Telegraph Tory MP asks BT if using Huawei complies with anti-slavery policy The Guardian Comment: The Government is failing in its duty to keep Britain safe Iain Duncan Smith MP, Daily Telegraph Build on the green belt to give young people homes, says top adviser Britain needs to build on the green belt if ministers want to provide affordable homes, the governments infrastructure adviser says. Sir John Armitt, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, said ministers had put themselves in a corner by refusing to entertain the idea, and must be honest with voters about the responsibility to their children and grandchildren to provide homes. If councils are going to stop silly building on floodplains, the government must accept the need for large-scale housing on rural land, he said. The government is due to respond formally to Sir Johns assessment of infrastructure needs in the next 25 years and he said that they faced tough choices about the sacrifices needed now. The Times Building on the green belt judiciously is vital to provide more homes The Times Labour braced for one of its worst local election results in recent history Labour is preparing for one of its worst poll results in recent history, with hundreds of council seats expected to fall in the local elections in May, it has emerged. According to a document leaked on Tuesday, the party is braced to lose up to 315 seats, with internal polling pointing to substantial losses across the country. Just months after Labour slumped to its worst general election defeat since 1935, its own modelling suggests it will lose control of as many as 10 councils, including Sheffield, Plymouth, Crawley and Harlow. The analysis adds that the so-called red wall of traditional Labour areas, many of which fell to the Conservatives in December, is continuing to crumble. Daily Telegraph Corbyns successor in line for disaster Daily Express Labour faces one of its worst results in history The Sun More: Starmer challenged to publish all campaign donations The Guardian Peers demands could cause Parliaments renovation costs to spiral Costs for restoration works to the Houses of Parliament are feared to far exceed the 5.6billion estimate after it emerged peers have suggested completely overhauling their temporary accommodation, including plans for turning one of the floors into a catering suite with bars and restaurants While the refurbishment takes place, both chambers of the Commons will temporarily relocate, with peers moving to the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre located round the corner from Parliament. When the relocation was first announced, it was agreed the centre would undergo minimal refitting; but a leaked document shows peers want to radically overhaul the building. Daily Express News in Brief: One letter writer says that rodeos, while a reflection of the Western lifestyle, do more harm than good to the animals tasked with performing in them. That and more in this edition of Letters to the Editor. David Tennant's adoptive son has spoken of the moment he met him on the set of Doctor Who, aged five. Ty, 17, spoke of his close bond with the actor, 48, whom he calls his father, and why he would love to be the third Doctor in the family as he appeared on Lorraine on Wednesday. David met Ty's mum Georgia when she had a guest role in the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter- and it was then when Ty met his TV hero. David Tennant's adoptive son has spoken of the moment he met him on the set of Doctor Who, aged five, as he appeared on Lorraine on Wednesday 'It was great, I was five when I first met my dad, my mum was working on Doctor Who at the time,' Ty said. 'I watched him on TV as the hero, and it was crazy how much your life can change.' Ty has followed in his father and mother's footsteps, starring as Tom in H. G. Wells' War of The Worlds. The talented teenager has also appeared in Casualty, and made his big screen debut with the role of young Christopher Wisemanin 2019's Tolkien. Inspiration: Ty, 17, spoke of his close bond with the actor, 48, whom he calls his father, and why he would love to be the third Doctor in the family (David pictured as the Doctor) True love: David met Ty's mum Georgia when she had a guest role in the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter- and it was then when Ty met his TV hero (pictured March 2018) Doting dad: In 2012 (pictured) Scottish actor David revealed he had become a 'double dad' after adopting Tyler a year earlier, the same year he wed Ty's mother Georgia 'I never dreamed I'd be doing this', Ty told Lorraine, before admitting he 'would love to' play the third Doctor in the family. David played the doctor from 2005 to 2010, while Georgia's dad Peter Davison played the titular Time Lord between 1981 and 1984. When Lorraine asked if he wanted to pursue a singing career, the teen said: 'I don't think I'm at the point yet, I'm really into Led Zeplin, best band of all time. I don't know how it's not the big hit of this time.' Ty is fast approaching his 18th birthday and when the Scottish host asked what he was planning on doing for the milestone, Ty replied: 'I'm not too sure if I'll have a big party or just chill.' His hero: 'I watched him on TV as the hero, and it was crazy how much your life can change', Ty said Inspiration: The up and coming actor admitted he 'would love to' be the third Doctor in the family Happy: Ty appeared in high spirits as he left ITV studios Quirky: The teen showed off his quirky sense of style in a blue corduroy jacket and cargo trousers Third Doctor in the family? David played the doctor from 2005 to 2010, while Georgia's dad Peter Davison played the titular Time Lord between 1981 and 1984 Ty previously told MailOnline that he was eager to hone his craft, and was picking up on acting tips from everyone he knows, including his famous father. He explained: 'I'm so young in my career and I'm still learning a lot and I'm so lucky to have these people around me who know the industry very well. 'And they're just very inspirational so that's something I can really thrive on. Just having these people who know their stuff.' Tyler did, however, reveal that his father had imparted specific words of wisdom for how the aspiring star should conduct himself on film sets. 'Never be late. Always be on time. Don't skip the lunch queue so you don't look like a bit of an idiot, and just be kind and friendly and know your lines.' In March 2012 Scottish actor David revealed he had become a 'double dad' after adopting Tyler a year earlier. The former Doctor Who told Absolute Radio at the time: 'My baby is almost a year old and I adopted my wife's boy last year as well so I became a father twice in six months - that's got to be something of a record hasn't it?' Georgia gave birth to Tyler in 2002, when she was just 17. She brought him up alone and has never publicly revealed who the father is. David and Georgia wed in 2011 and went on to have children Olive, eight, Wilfred, six, Doris, four, and welcomed their fifth child together in October. Acting career: Ty has followed in his father and mother's footsteps, starring as Tom in H. G. Wells' War of The Worlds Last December, David Tennant has discussed becoming a father on Jonathan Ross show. The Broadchurch star gushed: '[I have] five [children now] its quite a lot, its a sofa full! It is great. Its a lot of work but theres nothing like it really. The thespian let slip their exciting pregnancy news whilst recording The Late Late Show with James Corden. Host James, 41, brought up the news on his show, saying to David: 'We were just talking backstage, this is blowing my mind. You have four children already, your oldest is 17. 'You just told me you and your wife, the lovely Georgia, are expecting your fifth child.' David then admitted their growing family has become cause for concern in Ty, who is now giving his parents 'lectures on birth control'. The Good Omens star said: 'I know! Five is a lot. What's really weird about it is we're now getting lectures on birth control from our 17-year-old son. And that's definitely meant to be the other way around. 'He's like "Come on, do I need to teach you the basics?" It's mental. It's a lot.' [March 04, 2020] Start the Rest of Your Life Today: Insight School of Minnesota Now Enrolling for 2020-2021 Students and families looking for a new approach to their education are invited to enroll at Insight School of Minnesota (ISMN) for the 2020-2021 school year. A public school program of the Brooklyn Center Community School District, ISMN provides students throughout the state in grades 6-12 with the opportunity to reach their academic goals while planning for the future in an online and blended education setting. With innovative technology and an interactive curriculum, ISMN combines online instruction with the support of state-licensed teachers to provide a personalized learning experience for its middle school and high school students. Graduates earn a high school diploma, and those who come to ISMN behind on credits can participate in the school's academic remediation programs. ISMN teachers facilitate lessons during live, interactive online classes, and students can receive support trough extended class sessions and with real-time help from teachers. The school offers students the opportunity to progress faster in subjects at which they excel and spend more time on those where they need additional help. "At ISMN our priority is to ensure the academic and personal success of each one of our students," said Head of School John Huber. "We recognize that means something different for everyone. Whether they are planning for college, careers, or anywhere in between, we look forward to welcoming new families into our learning community." ISMN offers a supportive online and blended learning community, where teachers regularly communicate with students and their families via email, phone and during one-on-one meetings. Virtual student clubs and in-person activities such as field trips and community service opportunities enhance the student experience. To learn more about ISMN and enrollment, visit mn.insightschools.net, or download the K12 mobile app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices. About Insight School of Minnesota Insight School of Minnesota (ISMN) is a tuition-free, full- and part-time online public school program of Brooklyn Center School District that serves students in grades 6 through 12. As part of the Minnesota public school system, ISMN is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of proprietary K-12 curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISMN, visit mn.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005208/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In response to concerns over novel coronavirus, or COVID-10, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday that the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New Yorks (CUNY) study abroad programs in China, Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea have been suspended effective immediately. The announcement comes after Cuomo said Wednesday there are four additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York State, bringing the total number of cases to six. SUNY and CUNY are making arrangements for the immediate return travel for about 300 students, as well as all faculty and staff currently studying or working in those countries. They will then begin a 14-day quarantine. All five countries have been either issued a level 2 (practice enhanced precautions) or level 3 (avoid all non-essential travel) travel notice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The decision -- which affects students at the College of Staten Island who are studying abroad in these five countries -- was made based on recommendations from the New York State Department of Health (DOH). Out of an abundance of caution, SUNY and CUNY study abroad programs in the highest impacted countries will be suspended effective immediately and all students and staff will return to New York and begin a 14-day quarantine," said Cuomo. "Its important that facts outweigh fear, and the reality is we are getting the testing done, getting the information out and deploying healthcare resources to treat people who need it, so I am reminding New Yorkers that there is no reason for undue anxiety and the general risk remains low in New York. Coronavirus: Full coverage on SILive.com For SUNY and CUNY students in impacted countries who havent yet returned to the United States, SUNY is currently arranging chartered flights from South Korea, Italy and Japan to New York Stewart International Airport in the coming days. Upon arrival and in accordance with DOH guidelines, local and state health representatives will screen passengers. SUNY will arrange transportation to designated SUNY campus dormitories to begin a 14-day quarantine. SUNY and CUNY will then work closely with campuses, the DOH, and local health departments to provide medical monitoring, remote course study, and various resources to help individuals during the quarantine period. Campus-sponsored travel outside the United States to impacted countries has also been canceled for the spring semester out of caution. The colleges will continue to review CDC guidance and work closely with DOH to make additional determinations on continuing or canceling upcoming travel at all other campus-sponsored international locations. STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS AT OTHER SCHOOLS St. Johns University, which has a campus on Grymes Hill, announced Sunday it has discontinued academic programs on its Rome, Italy, campus until further notice. The college said there have been no identified coronavirus cases in the St. Johns community, including the Rome campus, and locations in Paris, France, and Limerick, Ireland. As of Wednesday, Wagner College hasnt curtailed any study abroad, exchange programs or other college travel overseas, according to a spokesman. The New York City Department of Education (DOE) sent out an updated International Travel Trip Policy for Schools on Tuesday evening, which cancels school-based travel to certain countries based on guidance from the CDC and in consultation with the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Archdiocese of New York informed staff and students that anyone returning from international travel is required to submit written medical clearance before returning to the school or any administrative building -- in effect beginning Monday. CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK Three family members and a neighbor of the second confirmed case a Westchester man in his 50s who works at a small law firm located only hundreds of feet away from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan tested positive for coronavirus, Cuomo said, bringing the number of total cases to six in New York State. The mans wife, his 20-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter, and his neighbor, who initially drove the man to the hospital, all tested positive, Cuomo said. The schools the mans two children attend, SAR Academy and High School in the Bronx and Yeshiva University in Manhattan, have both been shut down for Wednesday, he said. The first confirmed case in the state was announced Sunday. A 39-year-old health care worker living in Manhattan who traveled to Iran was diagnosed with coronavirus, and officials said the woman has respiratory symptoms that are mild. CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Health Department tracking down possible contacts of second confirmed coronavirus case Coronavirus risk remains low in NYC; same-day testing now available, officials say Coronavirus: New cleaning protocols set for schools across New York Staten Island hospitals preparing for coronavirus; testing could be done on S.I. MTA to fully disinfect subways, buses every 72 hours to combat coronavirus FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Now will someone listen? Early voting is stupid. Under Californias new election protocols, as many as 40 percent of California voters voted early, either by mail or at voting centers, for Tuesdays primary. And what about those who cast ballots for Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg or Tom Steyer, all of whom announced in recent days they were dropping out? Their votes simply wont count. As the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday, almost half of the 20 Democrats whose names appear on the California primary ballot have pulled out of the race. But thats only the most obvious problem with this infernal fad that puts convenience above citizenship. Early voting also makes strategic voting more difficult. Say you voted for Elizabeth Warren a month ago, on the first day of early voting. Its not that you loved her. Its just that you thought shed be a better general election candidate. Well, shes now looking like such a long shot that a vote for Warren is likely to be a vote wasted and theres nothing you can do about it. Or lets say youre an anyone-but-Biden or anyone-but-Bernie voter. If you voted for someone who subsequently dropped out, you may have helped the candidate you were trying to thwart. >>> Vietnam abolishes visa exemption for Italian citizens in efforts to control Covid-19 >>> PM: no treatment discrimination but resolute quarantine against COVID-19 After 21 days of isolation, all of them were released in stable health with negative test results for the deadly virus. According to Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen, all citizens returning from Wuhan were in special isolation, with their health status monitored twice daily. The special isolation applied to citizens returning from the epidemic areas helps to prevent the risk of spreading the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to the community. Earlier, 30 Vietnamese citizens living and studying in Wuhan were flown home on a flight sent by the Vietnamese Government on February 10. After the flight, all 30 people, including six children and a pregnant woman, received 21 days of isolation at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases. The flight crew and doctors on board were also isolated for 14 days at the Hanoi-based hospital. All people returning Vietnam from epidemic areas must go into isolation areas under the regulations. Currently, there are 75 suspected cases in quarantine. In addition, 13,949 people who have had close contacts to the suspected cases and those returning home from the epidemic areas are under health monitoring. * On Monday afternoon, the Steering Committee for preventing and fighting Covid-19 in Vinh Phuc Province said that it would stop the isolation of Son Loi Commune in Binh Xuyen District from 0:00 on March 4. The commune was the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Vinh Phuc with six of the 11 confirmed cases in the province. Vinh Phuc Provinces health workers routinely spray disinfectants in local concentrated isolation areas. (Photo: NDO/Duc Tung) After nearly 20 days of isolation to control the epidemic, there is no source of Covid-19 in the commune and it is eligible to be free from isolation. The committee also informed that up until now, the concentrated isolation area at the provincial Military School (Regiment 834) has received 280 citizens from 26 provinces and cities returning from four foreign countries, with 269 of them from the Republic of Korea (RoK). * On March 2, the Department of Tropical Diseases (under the Vietnam-Czech Friendship Hospital) in Hai Phong City received four more cases showing signs of suspected Covid-19 infection, including three returning from the RoK and one who picked up a group of people returning from the country on February 28. There are currently seven suspected cases being closely monitored at the hospital. In the afternoon of the same day, Hoang Oanh Medical Equipment Company presented 15,000 medical masks to Hai Phongs health sector. Ninh Binh Province welcomes its residents returning from the Republic of Korea to the local medical isolated areas on March 2, 2020. (Photo: NDO/Le Hong) * On the same day, Ninh Binh Province received 98 people returning home from the RoK to the local isolated area located at a military unit of the Military Region 3 in Ninh Son Ward, Ninh Binh City. They are among the first overseas Vietnamese returning to Ninh Binh from the RoK. * On March 1, the functional units of Vinh Long Province received 241 people on two flights returning from the RoK to Vietnam via Can Tho Airport. Among them, there are six children, two pregnant women and four Koreans, who are being isolated at the provincial military school in Tam Binh District. Through initial examination and screening, all 241 people have shown no signs of fever nor cough. * On Monday morning, the Department of Health of Dak Lak Province announced that among seven cases of isolation in the local health facilities, six had negative test results for Covid-19. Currently, Dak Lak is isolating a total of 21 people against Covid-19 infection. Spraying disinfectants on an ambulance used to transport residents returning from the epidemic zones to the concentrated isolation areas in Thai Binh Province. (Photo: NDO/Mai Tu) * On Monday morning, the Centre for Disease Control in Thai Binh Province said that all 28 suspected patients for Covid-19 infection who returned home from the epidemic areas had negative medical test results. They have been released from isolation in normal health. Currently, Thai Binh is continuing well in implementing the centralised 14-day isolation for citizens returning from the epidemic areas. Thai Binh is currently isolating 159 citizens at a centralised isolation facility in Dong Phong Commune, Dong Hung District. * Also. on March 2, millions of students across the nation returned to school after nearly six weeks of absence due to Covid-19 prevention measures. Previously, local authorities and health agencies sprayed chemicals and disinfectants in local schools, while preparing rubbing alcohol, soap, hand-washing faucets and body temperature meters to monitor and ensure the health for students, teachers and staff. A health worker at the Nguyen Trai High School in Ninh Thuan Province measures the body temperature of students on their first day returning to the school after a long break due to Covid-19, March 2, 2020. (Photo: NDO) * The Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health (IPMPH) under the Hanoi Medical University has launched the Covid-19 Global Risk Warning System developed by Assoc. Prof. Tran Xuan Bach, Vice President of Vietnam Youth Federation cum General Secretary of the Global Young Vietnamese Intellectual Forum. Bach said that the system provides in-depth analysis of disease risk and ability to respond based on the capacity of each country. The analysis results are based on the findings of an international network of experts on epidemiology and global disease control. From this data, the system will issue a warning about the spread of the disease, leading to strategic assessments for optimal control of the Covid-19 epidemic. The IPMPH called on people all over the country to actively contribute to the system at http://info.covid19global.net by providing data and responding to epidemic information through objective observation at their residences. * According to Vietnams Disease Surveillance System, as of 7:30 on March 3, 90,916 cases of Covid-19 infection have been recorded worldwide across 68 countries and territories, of which 3,124 have died. The number of infected cases and fatalities is still most concentrated in mainland China (80,140 infections and 2,944 deaths), but the number of new infections is still tending to increase outside of China, such as in the RoK, Italy and Iran. Publicis Groupes specialised digital marketing and business transformation company, Indigo Consulting, has today announced that it has won the digital business for Bluehost India (www.bluehost.com), web & hosting solutions company trusted by millions of WordPress users. Indigo Consulting will handle Bluehosts digital communication, social media as well as ORM (Online Reputation Management) in India. Founded in 2003, Bluehost specializes in bringing simplified WordPress to the masses and powers over 2 million websites across the globe. It enables millions of users by providing comprehensive tools for getting on the web with a simplified consumer focused approach to web hosting. Bluehost India is a part of Endurance International Group, which provides small business owners with the tools they need to establish and build their web presence, get found in online search, and connect with customers through social media, email marketing, and more. Mitika Kulshreshtha, VP, APAC Marketing, Endurance International Group, said We want Bluehost to be a partner to the fast-growing WordPress user community in India, and enable them to succeed online through our products and services. Our teams are also excited to engage with the WordPress community to get feedback and continuously improve our products and solutions in order to simplify their need for online presence. Indigo will help us in our effort to scale social engagement. On winning the business, Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting said, We are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with a leading global brand like Bluehost. Its always special to launch global players in the Indian market and play towards the nuances that this geography has to offer. Partnering with Bluehost India only strengthens our B2B and B2C communication offering and our commitment to help brands grow. A 22-year-old Webster man was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of Michael Fontaine inside an Auburn warehouse in September. Yaimel Rosario-Rosado will be arraigned at a later date in Worcester Superior Court. Authorities were called to the New World Van Lines warehouse on St. Mark Street in Auburn on Sept. 9 for a report of an incident there. The Worcester District Attorneys office said Fontaine, of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, had been shot inside the warehouse. Fontaines family told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that Fontaine had been shot in the chest with a shotgun. The district attorneys office did not release any further details about the case. The indictment claims Rosario-Rosado did commit and unintentional and unlawful killing of Fontaine by wanton or reckless conduct. Deputy Chief Minister Meets Commonwealth Secretary General The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia has told the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, that Gibraltar is committed to the values of the Commonwealth and aims to develop further existing bonds with the organisation. This came about at a meeting this morning in Marlborough House, London, where the Commonwealth Secretariat is based. Baroness Scotland is no stranger to Gibraltar, having served as a Foreign Office Minister from 1999 until 2001. The participation of Gibraltar at the events taking place around the Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda was discussed. Dr Garcia reported that Gibraltar was making preparations to attend the Commonwealth Womens Forum, the Commonwealth Peoples Forum, the Commonwealth Youth Forum and the Commonwealth Business Forum. All of these meetings are scheduled to take place in the capital Kigali in June. Gibraltar first participated in these events two years ago when they were held in London. The Deputy Chief Minister set out the policy of the Government on closer engagement with the institutions and countries of the Commonwealth. He explained that the lowering of the EU flag in Gibraltar on 31 January and its replacement with the flag of the Commonwealth was a powerful symbolic gesture. Gibraltar already participates in a number of Commonwealth organisations like the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. Dr Garcia explained the work that Gibraltar does already in promoting the Commonwealth. He said that the Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Lord Marland, and the then Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Akbar Khan had both spoken at an event in Gibraltar in the recent past. Jarvis Mathias, his successor and Acting CPA Secretary General, had recently addressed Bayside and Westside Schools as part of this informational work. The Deputy Chief Minister said that the meeting with the Secretary General was positive and constructive and that a number of opportunities for young people and businesses from Gibraltar had been identified and discussed. NASSAU, Bahamas The former retail shop in the largest regional mall is shuttered, the lavish oceanfront property is all but abandoned and Peter Nygard hasnt been in the country for more than a year. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. NASSAU, Bahamas The former retail shop in the largest regional mall is shuttered, the lavish oceanfront property is all but abandoned and Peter Nygard hasnt been in the country for more than a year. But the effects of Nygards alleged reign of abuse in the developing island nation live on in the women who say he raped them. The Free Press has heard the stories of six Bahamian women this week who claim the Winnipeg fashion mogul, whose wealth is estimated at more than $900 million, sexually abused them. Five of the women were minors at the time of the alleged offences. Nygard, 78, maintains his innocence. The allegations have not been proven in court. As a class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 13 by 10 women who claim Nygard drugged, raped and sodomized them works its way through the U.S. courts, questions linger in the Bahamas about how the alleged sex-trafficking operation was allowed to go on unchecked for so many years. Last week, Nygard was front-page news in two prominent local daily newspapers. The issue is becoming politicized, with the governing Free National Movement seizing upon the accusations to claim the former Progressive Liberal Party government was corrupt and paid off by Nygard. The PLP says its being smeared by the FNM to distract from its declining popularity. Peter Nygard hosted several high-ranking Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) officials at his Nygard Cay property to celebrate the PLP election victory in 2012. Those in attendance included Minister of Housing & National Insurance, Shane Gibson; the Minister of Health, Dr. Perry Gomez; and the Director of Fertility, Dr. Wan Song. (Supplied) The FNM swept into power in the 2017 election. Soon after, the government began prosecuting several former officials of the previous PLP government for corruption-related charges. The countrys next election is set for 2022. Richette Ross, who worked at Nygard Cay the fashion moguls gated estatefrom 2009 to 2014, told the Free Press she routinely dropped off cash bribes to police and PLP politicians. In an interview, she also claims Nygard drugged and raped her in February 2014. "Concerning the allegation that police and politicians were bribed, thats a categorical, unequivocal denial. There would be no reason to bribe anybody," said Jay Prober, one of Nygards attorneys. Prober previously said Ross is a "malicious opportunist with a vivid imagination" and has "no credibility whatsoever." When reached for comment, a PLP spokesman directed the Free Press to past comments the party made in response to the allegations; the party denies having been bribed by Nygard. However, the party and Nygard did have a relationship. In the class-action lawsuit, there are photos of party members at his property. Multiple former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said high-ranking PLP politicians were frequent guests at his "pamper parties." Nygard also boasted he "initiated and helped to write the stem cell legislation" the country passed into law under the PLP government a claim the attorney general denied at the time. Nygard has long been known to have an interest in stem cell research for anti-aging purposes. He also donated at least $5 million to the PLP in advance of the 2012 election. There are no caps on political donations in the Bahamas. In addition, documents obtained by local newspaper The Tribune, indicate Nygard sent thousands of dollars per month to a bank account connected to former PLP cabinet minister Shane Gibson. One former employee of Nygard Cay, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Gibson was a common guest at "pamper parties." Gibson later admitted accepting the funds which totalled $94,000 from August 2011 to January 2013 saying they were campaign contributions. "I dont know anything about payments like that, but campaign contributions are not illegal and wouldnt constitute a bribe," Prober said. Shortly after the 2012 election, Prime Minister Perry Christie and several high-ranking Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) members visited Nygard at Nygard Cay. (Supplied) But there are also wider cultural issues at play that may have made the Bahamas fertile soil for a sex-trafficking ring such as the one the firm handling the class-action lawsuit has accused Nygard of running. Sandra Dean-Patterson, a leading womens advocate and the director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre, said she believes the Bahamas is facing a rape epidemic. She claims official police statistics do not accurately reflect the level of sexual violence taking place in the country. "I have always said that we are experiencing what you call a silent epidemic of rapes," Dean-Patterson told The Tribune in February 2019. Official police statistics indicate there were 55 rape cases in 2018, in addition to 113 cases where a youth was sexually abused. The number of rapes being reported to police has been on the decline in recent years and Dean-Patterson speculates this is due to victims not wanting to file reports. "Concerning the allegation that police and politicians were bribed, thats a categorical, unequivocal denial. There would be no reason to bribe anybody." Jay Prober, one of Nygards attorneys According to the 2017 census, there are roughly 395,000 people living in the country. "I think victims have lost confidence in the criminal justice system to protect them and get justice for them," she said. Solomon Cash, a spokesman for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, told the Free Press there is an active investigation into five women who say Nygard raped them when they were minors. "I can say that we are conducting an investigation surrounding alleged sexual misconduct by Mr. Nygard against five underage females. That investigation began late last year, into this year," Cash said. "I cannot say exactly how many people weve spoken to, but I can say we have five allegations. We dont give timelines on investigations, especially when were dealing with investigations of this magnitude." A 2017 survey commissioned by Transparency International and Citizens for a Better Bahamas found the police is considered the most corrupt institution in the country. The poll interviewed 1,000 Bahamians, with 28 per cent saying most or all police officers were corrupt. Marital rape is also not illegal in the Bahamas. The issue recently made news when the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Halson Moultire, said he was conflicted on the issue, leaning towards the view from a religious standpoint that a husband cannot rape his wife. The comments came after a report on marital rape was compiled by the Equality and Justice Alliance, which is working to promote progressive legal changes in the country. I dont know anything about payments like that, but campaign contributions are not illegal and wouldnt constitute a bribe. Jay Prober, one of Nygards attorneys "I wouldnt want a person to be able to abuse the privilege of being in a marital union to infringe on someones right to say no," he told the Nassau Guardian, a local newspaper. "But at the same time, when you compare that with the spiritual aspect of two becoming one and whenever a partner wishes to be accommodated sexually and so on, that the other partner really should comply." The report identified the Bahamas as one of four countries in the British commonwealth that doesnt have "adequate legislation criminalizing marital rape and intimate partner sexual violence." The country also doesnt have legal abortion. Anyone, including a pregnant woman, who "intentionally and unlawfully causes abortion or miscarriage shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years." Many of the local newspapers have long reported on Nygard, his highly publicized feud with his neighbour, American billionaire Louis Bacon, his efforts to establish a stem cell research facility on the island and his various lawsuits. While there are several active news outlets in the Bahamas, there is no freedom of information legislation on the books, which means many reporters are hamstrung when trying to hold the government, and powerful institutions and people, accountable. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Freedom of information legislation was drafted by the previous government in 2017, but was not enacted. Alleged corruption in public institutions, retrograde (by Canadian standards) laws on womens rights, and a press neutered by a lack of legislation enshrining its democratic mandate to hold power to account, helped create a situation where Nygard according to the firm handling the class-action lawsuit was able to run a sex-trafficking ring for decades. However, questions remain in other countries, as well. Greg Gutzler, co-counsel on the class-action lawsuit, says 50 women have approached the firm claiming Nygard raped them. Gutzler said he believes Nygards sexual abuse was an open secret for decades from Winnipeg to Toronto, from Los Angeles to New York fashion circles and in the Bahamas. ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe Crisis like outbreak of coronavirus provides an opportunity to revisit the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda for prevention of diseases through improved immunity and combine it with Western science for a holistic healthy living, according to global direct selling major Amway CEO Milind Pant. Amway, which counts China as its largest market and was allowed to run its factory in Guangzhou to produce its 'Nutrilite' health products although others in manufacturing sector such as cars and electronics have been shut, believes India could also consider building long-term immunity and a healthy society as the Chinese have done in the wake of the outbreak. Pant, the first non-family member to run the Amway business since its foundation in 1959, said the Ayurveda philosophy essentially talks about prevention. "This is the right time. When there's a high consciousness in society about healthy living and prevention. This is a good time for us to go back to our roots and see what strengths are there and combine it with efficacy and Western science. "Ayurveda is not about curation. It's about prevention and it's prevention with a holistic lifestyle. In some conceptual sense, Nutrilite philosophy, and philosophy of ayurveda are very similar," Pant added. He said Amway sees itself playing a role towards building a healthy society as through holistic wellness. "I think as the Indian society gets consciousness of ancient wisdom, and combine it with science and efficacy and Nutrilite we play a small role in it. I see that being a trend going forward," he added. Sharing the company's experience in China, the origin of coronavirus, he said, "We're an interesting business when such tough issues come in, like coronavirus, the consciousness of society about healthy living, and long term immunity increases". The government of China, while all factories were shut in China, during the Lunar New Year, from car manufacturing to electronics production, Pant said, "The government of Guangzhou gave us a special permission for the Amway factory to remain open". This was because "the government believes in China that Amway Nutrilite products are part of a long term immunity and health a society and it wants to encourage society through this crisis, to move to a long term health, consciousness", he added. "So we remain open. So one of our challenges, after we keep people safe and make sure they're well protected, is actually scramble to meet demand, higher demand for products in China, because the society, you know, slowly is realizing that prevention and long term prevention is probably the best route to such Black Swan events which have come up," Pant said. Amway has its largest team is based in China with almost 5,000 employees there, including manufacturing. He said, "everyone is safe. They've gone through personal hardship, everyone is safe. We've supported charities in Wuhan, the Red Cross. We've supported them with one a half million dollars and we continue to support local communities in different cities". He, however, said it is a "tough time" for employees and distributors in China and Korea. "They are continuing their entrepreneurship. They continue to do the business but they're doing it virtually. All business meetings are happening virtually, trading is happening virtually and selling is happening virtually," Pant said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KAMPALA Airtel Uganda Managing Director has resigned on Tuesday, February 3, 2020, less than three years into his job. The information was announced to staff members on Tuesday afternoon by Raghunath Venkateswarlu Mandava the Airtel Africa CEO, Mandava is a staff mailing list wrote that Mr. Somasekhar will remain in office until 31st March 2020. Resignation of V.G Somasekhar: Managing Director Uganda, Mr. Raghu wrote: VG Somasekhar (Soma), Managing Director of Airtel Uganda Limited has expressed his desire to move to India and as such resigned from his current job, but will be associated with the Bharti, Airtel Group on his return to India. Somasekhar re-joined Airtel Africa in August 2017, after an earlier stint in Uganda between 2010 and 2014. Soma has helped build Airtel Uganda Limited into a strong brand and into the company that it is today. He has been instrumental in rolling out our 4G across the country and has demonstrated great maturity in dealing with all stakeholders and provided robust leadership to the team in Uganda. Whilst we will miss him, we thank him for his enormous contribution and wish him the very best in his future endeavours. His successor will be announced in due course. Mr. VG Somasekhar replaced Anwar Soussa who resigned from his job after just one year in office, Somasekhar is especially remembered for leading Airtel Uganda from December 2010 to February 2014, during which period he oversaw the Airtel-Warid merger the first telecom merger in Uganda and the most successful one across Africa. Somasekhar began his career in Modi Xerox and he held various responsibilities across many geographies in India. Related Two men filmed licking holy shrines in Iran could be jailed and flogged for ignoring coronavirus health warnings. One of the video shows a man at the Masumeh shrine in the holy city of Qom, who says: Im licking this and I dont care whatever happens. Im not scared of coronavirus. In a different piece of footage, another man licks the rails of a tomb after saying: Im here to lick the tomb so that I can fall ill. This way, Ive removed the viruses. In response, Iranian MP Hasan Nowrozi said: "Those doing such unconventional acts are publishing fake and superstitious news against the officials in the country. "Such people would face two months to two years [in] jail and up to 74 lashes as punishment." Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist who shared the videos on Twitter, told the BBC: "Arresting these two people is not enough as the religious centres are still open in Qom and other cities where people are suffering from coronavirus. Although Iran has closed schools and universities to prevent the spread of coronavirus, major Shia shrines remain open. However, measures such as disinfecting the holy shrines have been taken to protect visitors. Millions of people travel to the shrines every year, with many kissing and touching them. The holy cities of Mashhad and Qom have been particularly badly affected by the illness. Recommended Number of UK coronavirus cases grows to 51 On Tuesday, Iranian health officials confirmed that 77 people have so far died from coronavirus and 2,336 people have been infected. Meanwhile, it was reported on Tuesday that the head of Irans emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand, has also contracted the disease. In a bid to tackle the growing crisis, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, has said that soldiers may be used to combat the spread of the virus. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, has made a strong case for Parliament to adopt and approve the new automotive policy that has been introduced by government as part of efforts to enhance industrial transformation agenda. According to him, Ghana currently imports over 100,000 vehicles every year, which amounts to an import bill of US$1.14 billion, representing 12 per cent of the nation's import bill, and noted that this was the leading single item of import in Ghana. Speaking on the Floor of Parliament in favour of the Custom (Amendment) Bill, 2020, yesterday, the minister said only 10,000 of the 100,000 imported vehicles were brand new. As a government that is seeking to enhance industrial transformation, based on our parallel strategy of export enhancement and import substitution, there could be no better testimony in implementing this policy than to be able to reduce the import of vehicles by producing substitutes locally, he argued. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) for Ho Central and Tamale Central, Benjamin Kpodo and Alhassan Fuseini Inusah, had suggested that the amendment bill ought to be put aside as it would push used vehicles dealers out of business. But the Trade Minister disagreed and said the MPs were making those suggestions because they had not yet considered the support given to existing local assembling companies and the benefits that would be enjoyed by used vehicle dealers. Why would we want to industrialize but at the same time want to create jobs for the automobile industry in other countries? he asked rhetorically, and stated that it was not by accident that all the leading economies in the world are countries with strong anchors in the automobile manufacturing industry. Potential job losses Mr Kyerematen said suggestion of job losses is not founded or based on evidence and disclosed that already the Kantanka Group and Neoplan Ghana Limited had been engaged in an extensive discussion by his ministry on how they could participate in this programme. A beneficiary of the policy is the Kantanka Group, he noted and added that the automotive policy would not only promote the assembling and manufacturing of vehicles, but create jobs, pointing out that the issue of job losses does not arise because the dealers will still deal in used vehicles which are not over 10 years. The new vehicles that will be assembled and manufactured will become potential candidate for the dealership community, he added. The minister said when a fully built unit was brought with the benefit of no taxes; obviously it becomes more affordable than otherwise would have been the case. We are making it less expensive for those who will like models either than used vehicles. The beneficiaries of this incentive can only activate that incentive on the basis on work they produce, he pointed out. Daily Guide USMs Elasri Honored by Mississippi Academy of Sciences Tue, 03/03/2020 - 16:41pm | By: David Tisdale Dr. Mo Elasri, second from left, a professor of microbiology at USM, is presented the Outstanding Contributions to Health Disparity and Diversity Research Award at the Mississippi Academy of Sciences (MAS) 84th annual meeting, held Feb. 20-21 in Biloxi. Presenting the award to Dr. Elasri is, from left, Dr. Alex Acholonu, chair of the MAS Health Disparities Committee; Dr. Ham Benghuzzi, MAS executive director; and Dr. Ken Butler, chair of the Awards Committee of MAS. The Mississippi Academy of Sciences (MAS) recently honored Dr. Mo Elasri, a professor of microbiology in The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) College of Arts and Sciences, with its Outstanding Contributions to Health Disparity and Diversity Research Award during its 84th annual meeting in Biloxi Feb. 20-21. Dr. Elasri, who joined the universitys faculty in 2002, is a T.W. Bennett Professor of Microbiology and director of the Mississippi INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, which is housed at USM. Mississippi INBRE is a network of colleges and universities designed to build a biomedical research infrastructure in Mississippi to improve the health of citizens throughout the state. Dr. Elasri and several other USM faculty members and students presented oral and poster presentations at the event, which drew hundreds of attendees representing all the states institutions of higher learning. I accepted this award on behalf of a great team of Mississippi INBRE researchers, who are dedicated to addressing health disparities in the state, Dr. Elasri said. We have two major initiatives that work closely with the African American and Native American communities to improve health outcomes for our citizens. These efforts are led by Dr. June Gipson and Dr. Jennifer Lemacks, who have done an outstanding job of building relationships with the community and developing cutting edge approaches that have already proven very effective. For information about the USM College of Arts and Sciences, visit https://www.usm.edu/arts-sciences/index.php. For information about Mississippi INBRE, visit https://msinbre.org/. For information about the MAS, visit http://msacad.org/. Everyone struggles from some form of a physical or mental ailment at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, side effects from traditional pharmaceuticals can heavily outweigh the benefits. 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Be Phenomenal Wellness Company is a trusted brand that people can count on for effective herbal products, says Douglas Scott, Executive Producer at AsSeenOnTV.pro. Their products are inspiring. When you use them, youll feel this optimism that tomorrow is going to be even better than today. As part of its DRTV campaign with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Be Phenomenal Wellness Company will be appearing in 60 second spots set to air nationwide and feature the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. AsSeenOnTV.pro is comprised of an award-winning team of producers, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the DRTV map. About AsSeenOnTV.pro Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements. About Kevin Harrington As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $4 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark. For more information on Be Phenomenal Wellness Company, please visit http://www.bephenomenalcbd.com. By Laman Ismayilova Famous Azerbaijani writer and poetess Narmina Mammadzadeh has been awarded with "Anton Chekhov 160 years" medal for her contribution to the Russian literature. Her story "The Door" entered the Anthology of Russian Prose 2019, Trend Life reported. The anthology of Russian prose is an annual multivolume book edition of the Russian Writers' Union. In 2019, Narmina Mammadzadeh received "Vladimir Mayakovsky 125 years" medal in special nomination for citizens of foreign countries. She was awarded for her merits in strengthening friendship between peoples, mutual enrichment of cultures and propaganda of the Russian language abroad. Narmina Mammadzade is a graduate of the faculty of international law of Baku State University. She is a member of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union. Narmina is a winner of the Golden Pen Award and the German international literary contest "Best Book of the Year". She is the author of the books "Four Seasons of One Soul", "Memoirs of Celsius", "Taroki", "The Seventh Doll of Doura", etc. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz A fishing boat catches fire in waters near the southern island of Jeju, South Korea, November 19, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Korea Jeju Coast Guard/via Vietnam News Agency. A search is underway for five Vietnamese fishermen and one South Korean after their vessel caught fire in waters off Jeju Island. Jeju Coast Guard said a fire broke out on the 29-ton ship at around 3:18 a.m. Wednesday in waters near Jeju Island, with eight fishermen onboard, including three South Koreans and five Vietnamese, Vietnam News Agency reported. Two South Koreans have been rescued so far, with search operations still underway. Adverse weather conditions have hampered efforts to put out the fire and find the missing, officials said. Vietnam Labor Management Board in South Korea confirmed the information, stating the youngest among the five missing Vietnamese is 23 and the oldest 45. Jeju Coast Guard subsequently provided the names and personal identification details of the fishermen to Vietnamese authorities. South Korea has emerged as one of the biggest markets for Vietnamese labor in recent years. There are around 48,000 Vietnamese working in South Korea. When the companys 10-year lease at Innovation Park in the village takes effect, Medline also plans to start work on an estimated $14 million in facility upgrades, according to the companys statement. Jesse Greenberg, public affairs director for Medline, said the business is looking to start operations at the new center before the end of the year. Construction giant John Holland is pushing back against a state government demand that it be financially liable for cost blowouts building the North East Link in a move that could sideline the construction company from Victoria's most expensive road project. In a bid to pressure the government to take on more financial risk on the $15.8 billion project, John Holland is planning to submit a non-compliant bid that rejects the projects risk allocation, a set of conditions that determines who has to pay the costs of unforeseen problems on the project. It is the latest stand-off between the state government and John Holland, with the builder halting works on the Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel amid disputes over cost blowouts and delays. Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan has announced the Victorian government will establish a state-owned company to collect tolls for the North East Link. Credit:Jason South Sources close to the builder said it wants the taxpayer to be on the hook financially for problems relating to the projects delivery time and budget and any problems arising from the projects design. Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP An Amazon employee in Seattle has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an internal message sent on Tuesday afternoon. The employee went home after feeling sick on 25 February, and has stayed out of the tech companys offices ever since, according to the message from Amazon Human Resources, which was sent to most Amazon employees in the area and obtained by the Guardian. The employee is currently in quarantine. All other employees who came in close contact with the individual have been notified, according to the message. The employee worked out of the Brazil building, which is located blocks away from the Amazon Spheres, the companys giant greenhouse domes in downtown Seattle. The company said it defined close contact as closer than 6ft/2 meters over a prolonged period of time. Related: Ninth person with coronavirus dies in Washington state as New York sees second case The mega corporation has over 45,000 employees in Seattle, so a coronavirus outbreak could hold potentially huge economic and social consequences for the city and state as a whole. Washington state is currently at the center of the US outbreak of the virus, with 27 confirmed cases of coronavirus by Tuesday afternoon, including nine deaths. The majority of the cases are in King county, which includes Seattle. Most coronavirus infections cause mild symptoms, but for some at a higher risk, including older people and those with chronic illness, it can cause more severe symptoms. Officials think the virus spreads mainly through coughs or sneezes. The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low, the Amazon note states. It instructs employees to stay home and seek medical attention if they have symptoms. Your health is our top priority and we are continuing with enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization in the office, the note states. Amazon has an internal website updated regularly that includes information related to the coronavirus for its employees. It explains to employees that if theyre feeling sick with cold or flu symptoms, but they dont know if they have coronavirus, they should talk with their manager and HR about making arrangements to work from home. It also says they should not come to work until theyre free of a fever for at least 24 hours. On Friday, the company put a hold on all non-essential travel in the US and abroad, according to Reuters, which also reported that two Amazon employees in Italy were confirmed to have the virus over the weekend. Amazon has also announced that it would conduct some of its recruiting interviews by video, instead of in-person. Other major tech companies are also implementing restrictions. On Monday, Twitters chief HR officer, Jennifer Christie, wrote in a blogpost that the company is encouraging all of its thousands of employees to work from home in an effort to keep the virus from spreading. Google has announced that its restricting all staff travel to South Korea, Iran, Japan and Italy, according to CNBC. And Facebook said it will not be holding its annual F8 developers conference, according to the Washington Post. Dr Gerry Waldron, Health Minister Robin Swann and Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride at the Department of Health briefing at Castle Buildings at Stormont. A Queen's University student is one of two new cases of the coronavirus diagnosed in Northern Ireland. Both patients are adults and the two cases are not connected. One individual recently travelled from northern Italy. The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive for the virus. The two new cases were confirmed by the Department of Health on Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, a QUB spokesperson said they are working with the Public Health Agency to identify anyone who has been in contact with the student infected. They said they are taking all appropriate steps to contain any further spread of the virus and protect the welfare of all those within the university community and the wider public. "The university remains open and is operating as normal. The university will continue to monitor the situation," the spokesperson added. "The university has provided online guidance for staff and students and encourages all members of the Queen's community to follow the latest official guidance from the Public Health Agency and other relevant authorities. "The university's Major Incident Team has been convened and is putting in place the appropriate contingency measures which will be communicated to staff and students when appropriate." The university remains open and is operating as normal. The university will continue to monitor the situation QUB Health Minister Robin Swann said both patients are now receiving appropriate care. He said Public Health Agency personnel are "working rapidly to identify contacts they may have had, with the aim of preventing further spread". The test outcomes have been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification. Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said Northern Ireland remained in the containment phase and the new cases had "no implications" for the Republic of Ireland and the second case had not resulted from "person to person contact within Northern Ireland". He said for the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland who contract the coronavirus it would be a mild to moderate illness and they would receive the care necessary. "What we are now doing is following up very detailed contact tracing, how that person travelled from northern Italy into Northern Ireland and taking appropriate steps so those who need a follow up will be contacted by our colleagues in the Public Health Agency," he said. Read More Over 150 people have been tested in Northern Ireland so far. Sinn Fein MLA Colm Gildernew, chair of Stormont's Health Committee, said the news is not surprising. "I want to wish the individuals concerned a speedy and full recovery," he added. "I welcome the fact that health advice was followed in both these cases and I would urge the public to continue to follow the advice of health authorities. "Our health services work best when it has the full support of the community. I want to extend my support to our healthcare workers and urge everyone to do the same. The two new cases bring the confirmed number of cases on the island of Ireland to nine after the first case was diagnosed in Northern Ireland last week, with four cases in the Republic of Ireland. Four new cases in the Republic of Ireland were confirmed on Wednesday night, in two men and two women in the west of the country. Over 100 people in Italy have now died as a result of the Coronavirus, with over 3,000 infected with the disease. Italy is shutting down all schools and universities until March 15 in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Expand Close A mock-up at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department demonstrating how members of the public can be assessed for Coronavirus by driving into the Ambulance Bay. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A mock-up at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department demonstrating how members of the public can be assessed for Coronavirus by driving into the Ambulance Bay. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye It comes as a demonstration on testing for the virus was held at Antrim Area Hospital on Wednesday. Members of the media were given a walk through of the process of how suspected coronavirus patients would be tested. Patients suspected of having the disease will be referred by their GP to the hybrid testing facility at Antrim Area Hospital. People can be tested in their car or in a special coronavirus assessment pod by medical staff wearing protective masks and clothing. Testing is currently taking place daily between 9 and 10am, with swabs taken from the patients nose and mouth and sent for testing, with results taking around five hours. Cleveland, Ohio Is Greed a satire? A comedy? A drama? An angry howl against the 1 percent? An expose of the fashion industrys abuse of third-world workers? The latest from Michael Winterbottom is a little of all of the above and not a very good film at all. One would expect more from the director of Wonderland and 24 Hour Party People and the fantastically droll Steve Coogan in the lead role as disgraced British billionaire Sir Richard McCreadie. But Winterbottom seems far to obsessed with advancing a political POV than making art. Its not that its not possible to make a seriously good satire about a serious topic. Think Dr. Strangelove or Bulworth or Idiocracy or The Death of Stalin and even Jojo Rabbit. Its just that Winterbottom is too caught up in hammering home his point to the point of listing various facts about the multibillion dollar fashion industry over the end credits than making a movie that could make its point more slyly and thus powerfully. Greed begins with McCreadie dealing with the fallout of a scandal. To try to save his empire, he decides to throw himself an enormous party on Mykonos, one so big that a new (cheaply constructed) Coliseum will be built, a gladiator will fight a lion and everyone has to dress as Roman slaves and minions to honor this modern day Caesar. A TV crew and investigative journalist are along for the ride, helping to tell the story of McCreadies rise from just pretty rich to billionaire. The journalist Nick (David Mitchell) is shocked at much of what he finds; the reality show TV crew resorts to using Syrian refugees on the beach as background props. When I first heard about Greed, I had assumed it was based on Richard Branson. A review of British tabloids makes it clear that Top Shop financier Sir Phillip Green, who went from throwing parties with Lionel Richie performing and Beyonce hanging out to having his Knighthood revoked, is the target. Coogan is pitch perfect as the soulless schemer toothier, tanner and slicker than his goodhearted schemer in 24 Hour Party People - as is a sharp Isla Fisher as his equally manipulative ex-wife and business partner. It would not be a problem that they are completely unlikable if everyone else in this cast wasnt, too. There are no empathetic character here; even journalist Nick sent to expose McCreadie gets passively sucked into his orbit. Since McCreadie made his fortune making cheap High Street fashion, there is much focus on sweatshops and the poor women of Sri Lanka forced to work for pennies an hour. Its terrible and depressing and truly jarring in a movie with so many other scenes played for laughs But not as terrible as the shocking ending. Those hoping for some kind of punchline or awareness reached by the characters will be sorely disappointed. Greeds ending is as disjointed and jarring as everything else about this well-meaning failure. All of its admirable politics cant save this fashion-dont. Greed Who: Directed by Michael Winterbottom. With Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher, David Mitchell, Shirley Henderson. Rated: R for pervasive language and brief drug use. Running time: 104 minutes When: Opens Friday Where: Cedar Lee Theatre Grade: C Are you interested in the weather? Would you like to know how much rain fell at your house? Do you stick a ruler in the snow to see how much fell during a winter storm? If so, an important volunteer weather observing program needs your help in Connecticut. The National Weather Service is looking for volunteers to report rain and snow totals through CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network. CoCoRaHS is a citizen-science network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure precipitation across the country. The observations are used by the National Weather Service, not only for listings in storm reports, but more importantly for water resource management. CoCoRaHS observers supplement precipitation reports from automated stations at airports and greatly improve the quality of monthly water resource summaries for Connecticut state officials. Today there are just under 150 active observers in Connecticut. More stations are needed to help measure and map precipitation throughout the state. The only requirements are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can impact our lives. Schools are also welcome to participate to help reinforce math and science skills. Reports from CoCoRaHS help us provide a clearer picture of rainfall patterns in southern New England, according to Nicole Belk, Hydrologist at the National Weather Services Boston office. Without the dedication of these volunteer observers it would be difficult to get an accurate assessment of rainfall distribution, which is critical to assess potential flood or drought conditions. To sign up, go to the CoCoRaHS website (www.cocorahs.org) and click on the Join CoCoRaHS orange box on the upper right side of the web page. After registering, take the simple online training, order a plastic rain gauge from the CoCoRaHS website, and start reporting. Resident Bailey Potter also was in support of the initiatives. "I would like a Y. They offer childcare, their schedule and hours seem to be like mine," she said outside of the Scott County Library. Outside of the Eldridge United Methodist Church, resident Cathy Owens also voted in favor of the two initiatives. "This city is growing. It's growing fast and a lot of young people are coming in," she said. Her grandson swam for Pleasant Valley, so she wants to let local swimmers have the chance to join a local swim team rather than have to travel outside of the North Scott School District. As for the tax increases that would come about if the vote passes, "I don't have grandchildren children here anymore," Owens said. "I don't have children in the school district, but I am a part of the community. I need to pay my fair share." What's next for the project With the votes in favor of the finances for the YMCA, the work continues. Stutting said up next is to finish a 28e agreement between the three entities and hire an architect to start working on the design for the project to bid out. He said the assumption is the process would continue into the fall, when they would likely go to bid in the fall or winter with an eye on breaking ground in spring 2021. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Trend Azerbaijan is expanding the economic ties with the Rostov region of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said. Jabbarov made the remark in Baku at the business forum on the development of trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Rostov region, Trend reports on March 4. "Azerbaijan is pursuing an open door policy for foreign investments, the minister said. Rostov region is a major goods manufacturer and a partner of Azerbaijan, working in the transport sector, the minister said. The volume of goods which are transported from Russia to Azerbaijan greatly increased thanks to the investments made in road infrastructure, which affected the throughput capacity of road transportation. Azerbaijan's economy fully recovered in 2019 and grew after the economic shock of 2015-2016, the minister said. The economy which completely recovered from the economic shock has been growing this year. Our main philosophy today is to increase the activity of existing enterprises, support their development using various tools, modernize the business environment and make business in the country more transparent. In conclusion, the minister called on businessmen from Rostov region to invest in the Azerbaijani economy while talking about the open door policy for making foreign investments. Caretaker Irish PM Varadkar warns Ireland to prepare for no-deal Brexit Indian-origin Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said he believes there is a growing possibility of a no-deal Brexit at the end of the year. Varadkar, who is acting as caretaker Taoiseach or prime minister until a government can be formed following Irelands hung parliamentary election in February, echoed comments from other senior EU figures. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia He disclosed that Irish ministers are ramping up preparations for Britain and the European Union to fail to reach an agreement on a post-Brexit free trade deal. We need to make sure we are fully prepared at our ports and airports to institute whatever checks are necessary, he said. Varadkar, who is acting as caretaker Taoiseach or prime minister until a government can be formed following Irelands hung parliamentary election in February, echoed comments from other senior EU figures. Frances European affairs minister Amelie de Montchalin, has said it is for the birds for United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to claim that Britain could as an alternative pursue an Australia-style trading relationship with the bloc. And she has suggested that the post-Brexit transition period could have to be extended for another six months, a step which has been firmly ruled out by the UK government. Despite Boris Johnson arguing that Britain could have an Australian-style trading relationship with the EU if the two sides cannot strike a deal by December 31, critics argue that would be tantamount to reverting to World Trade Organisation terms, which could require detailed checks on items heading from Great Britain to Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. After the two sides set out their opening positions in Brussels, the negotiating teams began the gruelling task on Tuesday of exploring the details of a potential trade deal. The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the talks were going well but stressed that the Brexit process was a school of patience. The High Court has been asked to extend by up to ten years the bankruptcy of Co Monaghan farmer whose cattle were shot by members of the defence Forces in 2016. The extension application has been made in respect of Mr John Hoey, from Carrickmacross, who opposes the application, and told the court that he remains "haunted " after witnessing the shooting of his cattle in July 2016. Mr Hoey was declared bankrupt on foot of a petition brought by John Kelly Fuels Ltd for 262,000. He was declared a bankrupt in February of 2016, and was due to exit the process 12 months later. However the official in charge of bankruptcy the Official Assignee Mr Chris Lehane claims Mr Hoey has failed to co-operate with the process, and in what have been lengthy proceedings has asked the High Court to extend Mr Hoey's bankruptcy. Mr Lehane claims that Mr Hoey has failed to co-operate by failing to provide a a Statement of Affairs detailing all of his assets. Mr Lehane claims that in attempting to recover Mr Hoey's assets that he has had to take various steps including issuing several warrants in 2016 allowing him to search a number of locations and seize items including farm machinery and vehicles belonging to Mr Hoey. Mr Lehane said that on two separate occasions cash, totaling 17,000 that was detected by sniffer dogs, was recovered following searches of Mr Hoey's property. The court also heard that Mr Lehane obtained freezing orders in respect of monies paid by cheques from a meat processor to Mr Hoey, and had to take steps using defence force marksmen to humanely destroy cattle on Mr Hoey's farm. In July 2016 five cattle on his farm were shot dead by members of the defence forces. Mr Lehane, said at the time that most of the herd was removed from the farm, but five animals proved difficult to catch. Represented by Bernard Dunleavy SC the Official Assignee is seeking an order under Section 85 of the 2015 Bankruptcy (Amendment) Act that the bankruptcy be extended by 10 years. The maximum period of extension that can be sought under the act is a 15 year extension from the date of the adjudication of bankruptcy. Mr Hoey, who is represented by Eanna Mulloy SC instructed by solicitor John Geary, strongly denies that he has not co-operated with the OA, and says that he furnished Mr Lehane with a statement of affairs. He says that between the date of his bankruptcy adjudication in February 2016, and May 2016 everything that he had worked for over 35 was "literally wiped out and destroyed" by Mr Lehane and his agents who he described as "a band of rented thugs." He said that was bullied and intimidated by an agent of the OAs. He rejects claims that his cattle were put down humanely, said he could have been contacted to remove them from the land and that they were shot without any warning to him. One of the heifers as it lay dying, he said, was shot twice in the head by one of the army shooters. There was nothing humane about the manner the animals were treated that day, Mr Hoey said. Mr Hoey also claims that assets in his estates have been sold at an undervalue, and that his reputation has been damaged by the OA and his agent's actions. As part of the application Mr Hoey's lawyers are cross-examining Mr Lehane on his bid to extend the bankruptcy. In reply to Mr Mulloy Mr Lehane said that he had attended Mr Hoey's farm after the bankruptcy adjudication with members of the Gardai, including garda in the Emergency Response Unit, but had done so on the advice of Gardai However he accepted that on that and other subsequent occasions that he attended at the farm he had not felt threatened by Mr Hoey. The application before Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington continues. Prior to the ruling, the state had been preparing to notify more than 80,000 enrollees in Michigan's Medicaid expansion program that they did not comply with reporting requirements for January and would lose their coverage on May 31 if they did not report for February and March. The state had 674,000 expansion participants as of November. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE U.S. TORONTO, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- G2 Goldfields Inc. (TSXV: GTWO) (the Company or G2) is pleased to announce new appointments made by the Board of Directors (the Board) will serve to strengthen the G2 Board and core management team. Please see the relevant positions and appointees below. Patrick Sheridan, Chairman of the Board, remarks: I am delighted to welcome new members of the Board and management team who each bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our operations. These changes to the G2 Gold Discovery Team will advance and greatly enhance G2 Goldfields work as we continue to discover high-grade gold in the Guiana Shield. Appointment of Boaz Wade to VP Exploration Guiana Shield. Mr. Wade (BSc Geological Engineering) has successfully managed projects at various stages of Exploration across Guyana, most recently leading the Mine Exploration Geology team at Guyana Goldfields Inc. He was a recognised senior member of the teams responsible for re-interpreting the first order mineralisation controls at the Aurora deposit and re-modelling the geology of the Karouni deposits in Guyana. Mr. Wade obtained a BSc in Geological Engineering from the University of Guyana. Appointment of Kieran Prashad to Board of Directors. Mr. Prashad has over 10 years of experience in capital markets and the mining industry. He has been involved in the acquisition, development and sale of various stage resource projects around the world and currently serves as Vice President Corporate Development for the Sheridan Platinum Group Ltd.; Trustee for Sheridan Brothers Trust; and CEO of Aurora Royalties Inc. Mr. Prashad is a graduate of the Lassonde Mineral Engineering Program at the University of Toronto. Appointment of Paul Murphy to CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Paul Murphy (B. Comm., FCPA) was a Partner and National Mining Leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP from 2004 to April 2010 and Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP since 1981. Throughout his career, Mr. Murphy has worked primarily in the resource sector, with a client list that includes major international oil and gas and mining companies. His professional experience includes financial reporting controls, operational effectiveness, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and SEC reporting issues, financing, valuation, and taxation as they pertain to the mining sector. Mr. Murphy is currently the Chairman of Alamos Gold and a Director of Continental Gold. He was Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Guyana Goldfields from 2010 to 2019 and Chief Financial Officer of Guyana Precious Metals from 2012 to 2018. Mr. Murphy obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queens University and obtained his Chartered Accountant designation in 1975. Appointment of Dan Noone to CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Mr. Noone (B.Sc. Geology, MBA) has more than 30 years of international mineral exploration and development experience ranging from implementing grass roots programs through to feasibility studies. He is currently the Chairman of GPM Metals Inc., as well as a Director of G2 Goldfields Inc. Previous roles include Executive Director and V.P. of Exploration of Guyana Goldfields, V.P. of Peruvian Operations for Aquiline Resources Inc. and the President and CEO of Absolut Resources Inc. Mr. Noone has held various roles managing projects in Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina. He holds a degree in geology from Ballarat University and an MBA from Melbourne University. He is a member of the Institute of Australian Geoscientists (AIG). The Company would like to thank Yajian Wang for her contribution as CFO since 2018. We are pleased that Ms. Wang will continue to support our various ongoing operations as the company continues to expand. About G2 Goldfields Inc. G2 Goldfields Inc. is focused on the discovery of large gold deposits in the Guiana Shield. The Company owns a 100% interest in two past gold producing mines, as well as a regional portfolio of highly prospective projects. For further information please contact: Dan Noone CEO + 1-416-628-5904 Email:d.noone@g2goldfields.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy and / or accuracy of this release. (UPDATED 4:18 p.m., March 4, with information from the school district.) TECUMSEH, MI A former Tecumseh High School choir teacher was caught in a police sting last month in Texas when he attempted to solicit sex from a minor, police said. Brett Yzquierdo was arrested, Feb. 26, after an undercover operation by the Tarrant County Sheriffs Office Human Trafficking Unit caught him trying to solicit sex from an officer posing as a 15-year-old boy, court records show. Days prior to his arrest, Yzquierdo, 29, connected with the undercover officers on the dating application Grindr where they exchanged photographs and eventually their conversation became sexual in nature, according to the Frisco Enterprise. Yzquierdo was charged with online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony in Texas. He worked as choir director for Tecumseh schools from 2017 to the summer of 2019. Yzquierdo has been working as a music teacher at Reedy High School in Frisco Texas, since August 2019, record show. We are aware of the information concerning the arrest of one of our former staff members, Tecumseh Public Schools Superintendent Richard Hilderley said. As of now, we have not been contacted by any authorities from Texas. Should we be contacted, we will cooperate fully. Yzquierdo was placed on administrative leave after school officials were informed of the allegations, according to The Dallas Morning News. More form The Ann Arbor News: Walmart Supercenter in Ypsilanti Township to close Ann Arbor-Detroit hourly bus service has launch date Ann Arbor officials recognize youth poet laureate, hear a poem Bed bug treatment temporarily closes Ypsilanti library PASSAIC, N.J. and CHESTER, N.J., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Orli Langer, MD, FACOG, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Achiever in the field of Medicine as the Owner and an OB/GYN specializing in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Perinatal Associates, LLC. Perinatal Associates is one of the top specialist obstetrics and gynecology offices in New Jersey. They serve both Passiac and Morris Counties, offering various services, such as obstetrical scans, viability/dating scans, cervical length studies, and placental checks. Patients that visit Dr. Langer's office have a need that is outside of the purview of a standard OB/GYN, including advanced maternal age, diabetes, hypertensive disorders, seizure disorders, autoimmune diseases, prior preterm birth, multiple gestation, fetal abnormalities, etc. Dr. Langer has been serving at her private practice for two years. Fluent in Hebrew and English, Dr. Langer has been leading an impressive career for eighteen years. She has extensive experience with ultrasounds and treating gestational diabetes and all high risk pregnancies. An academic, Dr. Langer earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She went on and attended Technion Israel Institute of Technology, receiving both a master's degree in interdisciplinary science and a medical degree. For post-education training, she worked as an intern and a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Beth Israel Medical Center. She then completed a fellowship at the New York University School of Medicine. To keep up with the latest developments in her field, Dr. Langer maintains memberships with the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine and the Association of International Ultrasound Medicine. She serves as a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and the Gynecology and American Board of Maternal Fetal Medicine, serving as a fellow of the American College of OB/GYN. Recognized for her success, Dr. Langer has been the recipient of many honors and accolades. These include being featured in NJ Monthly Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs in October of 2019, being profiled in NJ Biz in November of 2019, and receiving the Award of Research Excellence from the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine. She has shared her breadth of expertise in book chapters and numerous peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Langer dedicates this recognition in loving memory of her father Oded Langer, MD; he was a leader in maternal fetal medicine. For more information, please visit http://www.perinatalassociatesllc.com Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634 [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com New Delhi: The interlocutors, Sanjay Hegde and Sadhna Ramachandran, appointed by Supreme Court to mediate with Shaheen Bagh protesters were at the site of protest on Tuesday (March 3, 2020) for the second round of talks. In a statement released after their mediation, they requested the protesters that with the oncoming festival of Holi they should embrace positive solutions for the best interest of the country and the constitution. They urged the protestors to understand their role as responsible citizens under the Indian constitution and find solutions keeping in mind other fellow citizens. They said 'we interlocutors were not going to impose any decision on them, but rather expected solutions to emerge from their side', the statement read. On Sunday (March 1), authorities had imposed Section 144 in Shaheen Bagh along with a heavy deployment of police personnel. Joint Commissioner DC Srivastava said the move was a precautionary measure, and that their aim was to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident from occurring. The top court-appointed interlocutors had submitted their report in a sealed cover on Monday (February 24). Senior advocates Hegde and Ramachandran had engaged with the anti-CAA protestors for shifting the venue from Shaheen Bagh. The apex court will next hear the matter on March 23. Former bureaucrat and the third interlocutor, Wajahat Habibullah, in an affidavit to the apex court said that the Shahen Bagh protest is largely peaceful and blamed the police for the "unnecessarily blocking the roads". He also recommended that the government should speak to the protestors on CAA, NPR and NRC to sort out the issue. The matter reached the court after public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Nand Kishore Garg and Amit Sahni through their lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi, seeking appropriate directions to the Centre and others concerned for removal of protestors from the Shaheen Bagh. At Shaheen Bagh, a large number of Muslim women have been staging a sit-in protest against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) since mid-December last year. The housemate of a Chinese University of Queensland student who had lived with him in Brisbane does not have coronavirus after a shock negative test result, according to health authorities. It came after Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said it was "highly likely" the housemate had COVID-19 because of his symptoms and contact with the infected man. In a statement earlier this week, UQ said the roommate, who is also a student at the university, was "feeling well". Credit:Glenn Hunt The 20-year-old man, confirmed to have COVID-19 on Tuesday, is isolated in a stable condition in the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital and his housemate had an anxious day-long wait. However, Queensland Health confirmed on Wednesday night the test result was negative, but the housemate would return to his Toowong home to self-quarantine for 14 days. Michelle Bridges has enjoyed quality time with her four-year-old son Axel. The 49-year-old shared a photo to Instagram on Wednesday, of her bikini-clad self relaxing on an outdoor patio alongside the youngster. It comes after the celebrity trainer's drink driving charge and split from Axel's father, Steve 'Commando' Willis. Family: Michelle Bridges, 49, shared a photo with her four-year-old son Axel to Instagram on Wednesday, following her split from partner Steve 'Commando' Willis and drink driving charge In the photo, Michelle wore an abstract triangle bikini top and faded Daisy Dukes. She added an oversized hat and sunglasses to the look, and allowed her brunette locks to fall effortlessly around her shoulders. Michelle sat on a remnant of a boat with Axel, who wore swimmers and held onto a bucket and spade. Drink driving charge: On February 18, Michelle was fined $750 and had her licence disqualified for three months after pleading guilty to mid-range drink driving 'Just chillin (sic),' the former Biggest Loser trainer captioned the picture shared with her followers. On February 18, Michelle was fined $750 and had her licence disqualified for three months after pleading guilty to mid-range drink driving. She had tried to avoid a conviction by hiring a high-profile defence barrister, but wasn't granted any leniency by the judge. Statement: Outside court, a tearful Michelle said: 'I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep remorse, shame and humiliation [over] this incident and extreme lack of judgment' High-profile split: After she was charged on January 26, Michelle released a statement claiming she was going through a 'very difficult time' following her split from Steve (right), 43 Outside court, a tearful Michelle said: 'I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep remorse, shame and humiliation [over] this incident and extreme lack of judgment. 'I would like to apologise to my family, friends and community for this gross error in judgment and the consequences of these actions will haunt me forever. 'I ask for your forgiveness to my greater community and my family and I thank you for your support.' Michelle blew 0.086 when she was pulled over in her Range Rover with Axel in the car about 11.25am on Australia Day. Romance: Michelle and Steve met while filming The Biggest Loser in 2007, at a time when they were both in relationships with other people At the time, she was driving through Bellevue Hill, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. After she was charged on January 26, Michelle released a statement claiming she was going through a 'very difficult time' following her split from Steve, 43. Michelle and Steve met while filming The Biggest Loser in 2007, at a time when they were both in relationships with other people. They began dating in 2015, after splitting from their respective partners, and welcomed Axel in December that year. (Photo : Screenshot From S.E.T.I (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) Facebook Page) SETI 1.5 million days means more than 20 years. After this long period of time, the SETI@home or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is ready to come back home with a huge amount of data for scientists to analyze and show exactly what we know about extraterrestrial life. This huge amount of responsibility might require some time to analyze because 20 years of data is quite a lot for an instant interpretation. Starting Mar. 31, the project will halt sending out different tasks to users, but this is not the end of the public's engagement with the SETI research. For more than 20 years, SETI@home has sent radio telescope readings to volunteers' home computers to sift for potential signs of extraterrestrial life among the universe's roar of signals. By the end of this month, that distributed computing effort will cease. The project gets the majority of its data from the Arecibo radio telescope located in Puerto Rico, as well as the Green Bank Telescope, which is located in West Virginia. The software gets a lot of help The software runs on each participant's data. This helps speed up the process of identification for all. Each participant is able to send individual findings. The data is later on collected by the scientists to interpret the given data. Participants are even able to interpret their findings regarding the data collected, which helps everyone on board. Read Also: Scientists Found An Alien-Looking Parasite That Can Live Without Oxygen: Could This Mean Life in Space is Possible? The Arecibo telescope provides a huge amount of data There is a huge abundance of data to be processed as the Arecibo telescope alone provides about 35GB in a single day, which is then broken down to 0.25 MB units, the data is then sent over through the internet to the computers participating. Each work unit has about 107 seconds of about 10 kHz data slices that are then centered on a 1,420 MHz portion of a spectrum. The starting of the project The project's early days during 1999 were overseen by the Berkeley SETI Research Center, which has been managing many similar related initiatives, just like the Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions that is from a Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations or SERENDIP and also Astropulse. Is the project really shutting down? According to a computer scientist who is also a software architect, Mr. David P. Anderson, the co-founder of the SETI@home project, the entire project is not shutting down but rather shifting from data gathering into analyzing and creating write-ups about the data given by the SETI project. Read Also: [NEW VIDEO] NASA's Apollo 13 Space Journey to the Moon Recreated in 4K! SETI's massive data will take a while to interpret After 1.5 million days of computer time, the computation should be about 2.6 times 10 to the 23rd power of the operations to properly interpret the data. So far, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative or BLI has been looking to answer the biggest question ever "are we alone?" According to the findings of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the probability of the results are higher today than they were a few years ago, with the more recent data finally surfacing and being interpreted. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A French court sentenced three Romanians to four years in prison on Wednesday for stealing a million euros' worth of diamonds from a French jeweller and his Indian business partner. The suspected leader of the group was still on the run and the diamonds have never been found. The three Romanians, a woman and two men, were sentenced by a court in the city of Castres, in the Tarn department in southern France, after judges heard details of an elaborate swindle of a local jeweller and his business partner. The presumed leader of the group of thieves, a Serb who lived in the Paris region, was sentenced in absentia to five years in jail. The man's whereabouts are unknown and the court issued an international warrant for his arrest. Wealthy couple approaches vendors The scam began at a diamond trade fair in early 2017, when two of the Romanians posed as a wealthy couple and approached the French jeweller and his Indian business partner, Nishit Shah. The fake couple expressed interest in acquiring precious stones and met the two vendors twice over the following weeks at luxurious sites in Milan, Italy. The couple flashed 500-euro bills in apparent displays of wealth and expressed their wish to pay for the diamonds in cash. Smelling a rat, the French jeweller sought to withdraw from the deal, but Shah continued negotiations. Double-bottomed briefcase A third meeting took place in Mazamet, near Castres, during which Shah showed three authentic and certified diamonds. The buyers asked to have an independent expert examine the stones. The last meeting was at Mazamet in August 2017, between the fake couple, Shah and a third Romanian posing as an independent expert. Through the course of the talks, the false expert constantly left the room to use a telephone in order to mislead and lower the vigilance of the vendor, the presiding judge said. Having sealed a deal, Shah placed the diamonds in a briefcase provided by the fake expert. The briefcase had a double bottom that allowed the thieves to pilfer the diamonds. Shah left with the briefcase and a promise that he would receive a bank transfer of 1.1 million US dollars. When no transfer arrived by the following day, Shah opened the briefcase to find it empty. Sleight of hand in a briefcase with a double-bottomed box, long negotiations, a swindled victim, summarised prosecutors, who added the case was out of the ordinary for the little jurisdiction of Castres. 18 SIM cards Following the theft, the thieves set out for luxury hotels in Antibes, a town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera. Over the phone, they sought in vain to find buyers for the stones in Zurich and perhaps in Hong Kong. The trio was arrested two months later in possession of real and fake gems, luxury cars and watches and counterfeit cash. The diamonds were nowhere to be found and have not since been recovered. Regional radio station France Bleu reported the accused appeared in the courtroom wearing jogging pants and sweatshirts and claimed to live off French social benefits. Asked why they possessed a watch worth 36,000 euros, the trio told the court it was a gift. They provided no explanation about their five telephones and 18 SIM cards. Shah will never have the chance to see the precious stones again. He passed away after a heart attack in 2018. [March 04, 2020] 1Spatial Helps Customers Streamline Their Data Delivery Processes With the Release of 1Data Gateway CAMBRIDGE, England, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 1Spatial is pleased to announce the release of 1Data Gateway: an intuitive self-service web-portal for handling data validation, data processing and data enhancement. This product forms part of 1Spatial's Location Master Data Management (LMDM) suite of products which ensures spatial data quality and consistency across the enterprise. Available in the cloud or on-premise, 1Data Gateway offers internal and external users a secure, fully scalable and customisable product to handle spatial and non-spatial data files. Transportation and infrastructure companies, government agencies, and utility companies are among the types of organisation that can utilise 1Data Gateway to help improve productivity, lower costs and guaantee control, compliance and data governance, for their data supply chains. 1Data Gateway applies 1Spatial's renowned rules-based approach to help users manage their data. For organisations dealing with complex and varied supply chains, it ensures data is checked at source. Using the centralised management of suppliers, partners and rules to create a collaborative approach, it promotes efficiency in data capture and submission. Users simply upload their data files and 1Data Gateway applies the high-performance rules that have been pre-configured by an administrator in order to perform validation, correction or enhancement. This process means users do not require training and can get results within minutes. Once processed, results can be previewed on a map or downloaded into a local system. 1Data Gateway empowers administrators by providing analytics and dashboard capabilities to track and analyse the quality of the data that groups or organisations are submitting. Seb Lessware, CTO, 1Spatial said: "We believe 1Data Gateway has the power to transform the manipulation of spatial data. We're always driven by the needs of our customers, and in identifying the requirement for an easy to use, yet powerful portal for data quality and integration, we've developed 1Data Gateway. "Our customers need to unlock information contained within spatial data from multiple suppliers, in multiple formats, often submitted via different means. 1Data Gateway provides a single place for data submission, allowing the data to be validated, harmonised, cleaned and enhanced, making it fit for purpose and allowing the insight it can provide to be unlocked. It's an exciting update to our product range, and should help revolutionise the way organisations manage their data flow." Watch the video or find out more at: www.1spatial.com/1data-gateway/ Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1098918/1Spatial_Statistics_Dashboard.jpg Contact: Abbie Baggett Head of Marketing [email protected]?? +44(0)1223-420414 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Its going to be hard enough for Prince Harry to reinvent himself as just Harry in his new, royalty-free life with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. But the major detail thats intriguing everyone right now is how this couple plans to fund their expensive lifestyle and if its going to get even pricier without the British royal familys support. For example, Canada just announced they would not foot the bill for Harry and Meghans security. The couple also wont be receiving money from the Sovereign Grant, which allocates taxpayer funds for working royals. Plus, if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do move to North America, theyll have to navigate a whole new world of tax laws. Life could get complicated and more expensive for the rogue royals quickly. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Toby Melville WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have to file taxes no matter where they land Royal fans might be surprised to learn that Meghan didnt have to give up her United States citizenship to become a royal. When she married into the royal family, Meghan also applied for U.K. citizenship, but that process could take years. For now she is still a U.S. citizen. But the most fascinating fact of all is that even though Meghan is living abroad, shes still required to file tax returns in the United States regardless of where shes living. And if her income increases due to speaking engagements or whatever businesses she joins, shell have to pay taxes on all of it. It gets really tricky a lot of times when people make these life changes, they do it thinking theyre going to create some simplicity allowing them to step back and maybe simplify their life, Nathan Rigney, lead tax research analyst with H&R Blocks Tax Institute told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. But from a tax perspective, its going to get complicated. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Buying a home in California could come with a huge tax burden Theres a rumor going around that Harry and Meghan were scoping out a posh Malibu mansion. It makes logical sense that this pair would want to purchase a home in California its where Meghan grew up and where her mom, Doria Ragland, currently lives. Plus, the security teams there are very used to celebrities seeking privacy just like the Sussexes. But there are tax details this couple needs to keep in mind before deciding on California as their home. Notably, if either spouse is considered a California resident, they will have to report any income from out of state. California has the highest state income tax rate at 13.3%. What about Archie? Archie Mountbatten-Windsor | Toby Melville Pool/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose to move because they were being harassed by overly aggressive, allegedly unfair members of the press. But another huge motivation for them is their young son, Master Archie. They want to give Archie a normal upbringing far from the damaging glare of the cameras. From a financial standpoint, Archie can still receive gifts from his foreign family. So if his grandfather Prince Charles would bequeath him with stocks or properties, hed be eligible to receive those legally. But unlike in the past, Harry and Meghan could not secretly use those gifts to dodge paying taxes, which was a common tactic employed by wealthy people before the laws changed. The rule is that if your kids have unearned income like from this trust itll be taxed at the parents tax rate. It doesnt help them in that sense, Rigney explained. Where Harry and Meghan are getting their money from matters Rigney explained that income tax laws are tricky and vary based on subtle details, like origination of the funds. Something interesting in the U.S. law youre receiving money from these trusts, and [Harry and Meghan] are no longer receiving a stipend from the royal trust necessarily. But weve seen reports that theyre going to receive some distribution from Charles, he said. The tax for that is not that straightforward either. Depending on how the trust is set up, its either a taxable distribution or its a gift, and then the gift tax applies. He continued: For every little source of income, there are 20 questions. When asked if the Sussex family would be better off living in Canada or the United States, at least from a financial standpoint, Rigney said it was basically a crapshoot. Youd have to work the numbers, but there are benefits and negatives to both options. It just depends on how all those little details play out. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS WPA Pool/Getty Images The Sussexes will hire people to figure out their tax situation Even though theyre technically unemployed now, Harry and Meghan still have plenty of money to spend. Besides just maintaining their lifestyle, theyre also going to have to pay top dollar for tax experts to make sure theyre in compliance or theyll be facing huge penalties. Their tax professionals are clearly worth every penny spent! Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 03:09:54|Editor: zyl Video Player Close Photo taken on Feb. 29, 2020 shows former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (front, C) attending a "Women for Mike 2020" campaign event in McLean of Virginia, the United States. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that he's suspending his presidential campaign and is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that he's suspending his presidential campaign and is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. The announcement came after a disappointing finishing for Bloomberg in Super Tuesday's Democratic primaries, in which he only won American Samoa. "I'm a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible - and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists," Bloomberg said in a statement. The billionaire entrepreneur, who made a late entry into the presidential race and has spent over 500 million U.S. dollars on advertising, also said that he's glad to endorse Biden, a moderate political veteran who most of the 14 states voting on Tuesday. A champion of progressive policies, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont finished second but scored a major win in California, the state with the most pledged delegates to July's Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biden, in a tweet on Wednesday, thanked Bloomberg for his endorsement. "This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics," Biden added. David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, said Bloomberg's departure "was expected." "He's a flinty-eyed realist and the numbers weren't there," the former chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. "The big news was his quick pledge to back Biden, with all the material support that implies. It could turn out to be one of the most meaningful developments of 2020." Sitting President Donald Trump, who is projected to easily win the Republican Party's primaries on Tuesday, weighed in on Bloomberg's exit and lashed out at Biden with a series of tweets on Wednesday morning. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are still in the Democratic primary race, as a Biden-Sanders matchup took shape. "Before the pundits call it a day, the ST (Super Tuesday) results don't mean this competition is over," Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, tweeted on Wednesday. Sanders "has a substantial number of delegates, many important contests still ahead, and everyone should see by now that uncertainty is the only certainty," Zelizer stressed. The next Democratic primaries will take place on March 10 for voters of six states to cast ballot for their preferred presidential candidate this year. The Super Tuesday Democratic primary decided over 1,300 pledged delegates to the DNC or roughly a third of the total. Typically, a candidate is only eligible to receive a share of the pledged delegates at stake if they win at least 15 percent of votes cast in a primary or caucus. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the DNC, which election officials said must be at least 1,991 delegates. The Republican Party is expected to nominate Trump for a second term during August's national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2020 U.S. presidential election will take place on Nov. 3. A child has received 'horrendous abuse' at his school after it was closed when one of his relatives tested positive for coronavirus. Hilbre High School on the Wirral, Merseyside is one of several to send its pupils and teachers home amid an outbreak of the deadly disease across the country. It was closed for 'precautionary measures' on Tuesday, with the school stating a parent who tested positive for coronavirus had visited the grounds the day before. The statement was later corrected by the school, which confirmed that it was a different relative who had been infected. His mother revealed that the boy had only had brief contact with the family member, who he does not live with, but had still received abuse from fellow pupils. Hilbre High School on the Wirral, Merseyside is one of several to send its pupils and teachers home amid an outbreak of the deadly disease across the country She told The Times: 'He's really upset because of this - a thousand kids have gone home because of him. He doesn't need this and I have to protect him and my family. 'Even though Public Health England have said that he could go to school, people were being abusive.' The boy is currently in self-isolation and his mother is not going into work. On Wednesday, the school's headteacher Mark Bellamy admitted he defied Prime Minister Boris Jonson's orders to stay open unless told otherwise by health officials. The school's headteacher Mark Bellamy (pictured) admitted he defied Prime Minister Boris Jonson's orders to stay open unless told otherwise by health officials He said the case 'directly impacts his students and staff' and that the school would be disinfected and deep cleaned for two days before reopening on Friday. It comes as two universities cancelled their graduation ceremonies over coronavirus worries yesterday as more schools ignored official advice not to close. The University of London and the University of Buckingham scrapped the events despite neither institution having any cases of the virus. Both were set to host graduands and their relatives from around the world, prompting fears from organisers that the virus could be spread. Separately, Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, a faith school in Chigwell, Essex, told parents they were closing for 'at least' the rest of the week, despite no confirmed case. A PHE spokesman said: 'We are aware that some schools have taken a precautionary decision to close. 'Public Health England's advice to schools where there has been a suspected case of COVID-19 is that the school does not need to close, or send any staff or pupils home while waiting for the results of tests. Coronavirus fears have gripped Britain, as a pedestrian is pictured wearing a protective facemask while taking a bus in Westminster, London 'If a pupil, teacher or other member of staff in a school is confirmed as a case of novel coronavirus, Public Health England will work closely with them to undertake a risk assessment and take all necessary action including tracing close contacts of confirmed cases.' The University of Buckingham also announced it was cancelling its graduation ceremony, set for March 20 and 21, despite having no cases. Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor, told students: 'Any disappointment felt is entirely understandable but we truly believe this is the best decision for our students and their guests. 'Our hope is that by announcing this news as early as possible, those who need to invoke cancellation policies on travel or accommodation will still have time to do so.' The University of London's graduation ceremony for 'students of our distance and flexible learning programmes' which had been scheduled for yesterday was also cancelled, also without any cases of coronavirus being recorded. The event at the Barbican Centre in London had been expected to attract 4,000 people from over 100 countries, the university said. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI Muskegon County commissioners have tentatively agreed to moved forward with plans to purchase the former Nugent Sand mine property in Norton Shores that recently was appraised at nearly $15 million. Following a public hearing Tuesday, March 4, commissioners voted 8-1 to allow the county parks department to apply for a state grant that would cover 60 percent of the cost of purchasing the 377-acre property in order to create public recreation space. The property, located off of West Sherman Boulevard in Norton Shores, includes 1,917 feet of Lake Michigan frontage and two inland lakes. The remaining 40 percent cost of the property purchase would be covered by the property owner and a land conservancy, according to a representative of the owner. A majority, but not all, who spoke during the public hearing expressed support for plans to convert the property to recreational use. The sole vote against moving forward came from Commissioner Zach Lahring, who claimed that Muskegon County already has more parks than any other county in the state, and said that the land should be developed privately instead. The issue, voted by commissioners at their ways and means committee meeting, will now move to a second vote at the boards meeting on Tuesday, March 10. The grant application is due April 1. Prior to the hearing, Muskegon County Community Development Director Bob Lukens presented an appraisal commissioned by the county and conducted by Nordlund & Associates, a Ludington-based firm, that valued the land at $14.9 million. If approved, a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources trust fund would cover 60 percent of the purchasing costs, or about $8.94 million. The remaining 40 percent would come from a land value donation from the sand mining company and its owner, Robert Chandonnet, and the Land Conservancy of West Michigan. The two parties have not yet decided how much of that portion each would cover, according to Denny Cherette, founder of the Grand Haven-based Cherette Group real estate firm overseeing the propertys sale, who acts as a representative of the mines owner. The county would not pay for any portion of the purchase, commissioners said. According to the rules of applying for a DNR trust fund grant, the county would have to source at least 25 percent in matching funds. By providing 40 percent instead, the countys odds of winning the grant improve, said Joe Engel, executive director of the Land Conservancy of West Michigan, which intends to unofficially advise the county on securing the competitive grant. If the county is approved for the grant, the board would still have to decide whether to formally make an offer to the landowner. That wouldnt occur until December at the earliest, officials have said. The commission room was packed for the public hearing, during which 15 people spoke in favor of the county purchasing the property, and four people spoke against it. I am 100 percent behind this project, said Paul Baumgartner, a neighbor to the proposed park. I think people need to look at this as an investment to the Muskegon community, and I think its well worth the investment in the long run. Muskegon resident Kim Daniel said she thought a park of this size would help grow the countys tourism industry and attract young professionals to the area. Its great for the people and businesses of Muskegon County, she said. Sherri DeBoef Chandler said that she lives near the property, and that the project would offer children the same recreational opportunities that she had in the area as a child. As a child, there were woods all over that we could go explore, she said. Now, so much is owned or closed off to the children in Muskegon, and this is such a beautiful property I think it will benefit generations to come. Several of those who supported the plan referred to it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The land has been for sale for the last two years. Engel, who is also a Muskegon resident, summed up many supporters sentiment: I have both a professional and a personal interest in thinking that this is one of the best things that could possibly happen to Muskegon County and its people in a long gosh-darn time." Those opposed to turning the property into public land were largely concerned about costs. Im totally against Muskegon County purchasing this ground at this point in time, said Michael Delpercio of North Muskegon. He said the county would lose out on the tax revenue currently generated by the private owners. He also questioned the costs of starting up the project, as well as maintaining the park down the line. The cost of purchase is just the beginning of the project, Delpercio said. Lahring, the county commissioner who voted against the project, said he thought it would be better for the county if the land was developed privately in order to generate tax revenue. Cherette, the representative for the owner, said the land could be developed, but that our heart lies in trying to have this be a county asset. In terms of our other options, they are many, he said. In terms of what wed like to see happen, it is specific: this opportunity. He also said that the companys own studies suggested that it would be a draw for future development in the surrounding area. The county has not designed a master plan for recreational development of the property, but has floated a variety of options, including carving out walking and hiking trails, creating Lake Michigan beach access, and providing fishing areas and kayak launches. The Nugent Sand company mined Lake Michigan dune sand for over 100 years, beginning in 1912. The owners considered several private development proposals in the past, including a 2013 proposal to construct a $50 million gated residential community on 200 acres of the property. At a public meeting in Norton Shores in February, Cherette said that his firm had been involved in assessing that project, which ultimately failed due to lack of financing. Others failed due to environmental concerns over developing land that contains a critical dune and provides a stopover for migrating birds. Other former sand mines along Lake Michigan have been transformed into public parks in recent years, including in Ludington and Ottawa County. Engel referred to those projects when he voiced his and his organizations support for the proposed park on Tuesday. The opportunity to work with the county to create this type of a park we cant make any more beach, he said. You cant re-create this type of environment. Once you put up McMansions on all of this beachfront, its gone. Read more on MLive: Former Nugent Sand property eyed for park development by Muskegon County Proposed 377-acre Lake Michigan park near Muskegon gets support from packed crowd 353 acres of dune land near Lake Michigan opens to public next week The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has appointed Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba as Ukraine's foreign minister. A total of 288 MPs voted for such a decision at a snap parliament meeting on Wednesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. Earlier on Wednesday, March 4, President Volodymyr Zelensky tabled in the Verkhovna Rada a draft resolution on Kuleba's appointment as the country's foreign minister. Pursuant to Article 114 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the defense and foreign ministers are appointed by the Verkhovna Rada on a motion from the president. Other members of the Cabinet of Ministers are appointed by the Verkhovna Rada on a motion from the prime minister. Kuleba has been Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe since April 2016. In August 2019, he was appointed Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. op On March 4, the parliament appointed Denys Shmyhal the new prime minister of Ukraine and dismissed Oleksiy Honcharuk from this post. TORONTO, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attendance at the 88th Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2020 Convention totalled 23,144, highlighting the resilience and innovation of the international mineral exploration and mining sector. The annual PDAC Convention in Toronto is the worlds premier industry event, bringing together investors, analysts, mining executives, geologists, students, and government officials. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned, making him the first sitting prime minister to appear for two consecutive years. This is the must-attend event for anyone connected to the mineral and mining industry across the world, and marks my 33rd straight year, said PDAC President Felix Lee. The PDAC Conventions significance is now widely recognized by all levels of government who look forward to using it as an opportunity for announcementsincluding Prime Minister Trudeau. Programming focused on Capital Markets, Indigenous, Student and Early Career, Sustainability and Geoscience remain popular among attendees, as well as Short Courses and Presentation Rooms. Highlights from PDAC 2020 include: Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus ORegan, announced the next phase of the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP) Prime Minister Trudeau announced the federal government will be promoting the adoption of on-road to off-road electric vehicles, including vehicles used in mining applications Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Minister Greg Rickford announced Ontario will develop road access in northern Ontario to service First Nations communities and potentially develop the Ring of Fire project Catherine Raw, Chief Operating Officer at North America Barrick Gold Corporation, discussed the recent spate of M&A in the gold mining sector, how it differs from that of the past, and the potential implications this has on investment and growth in the future This convention is the culmination of advocacy efforts undertaken by PDAC throughout the year on behalf of its 7,500 members and the mineral exploration and development industry. We look forward to seeing you at the PDAC 2021 Convention in Toronto March 7 to 10, 2021. About the PDAC PDAC is the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community. With over 7,500 members around the world, PDACs mission is to promote a globally responsible, vibrant and sustainable mineral sector that encourages leading practices in technical, operational, environmental, safety and social performance. Please visit www.pdac.ca. Media contact Kristy Kenny +1 (416) 807-8214 kkenny@pdac.ca A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f5db280e-c459-43d1-a385-61b2ad7a7676 And his momentum may be even bigger than the Super Tuesday returns suggested, for three reasons. One, early voting in some states preceded his surge and probably didnt reflect it. Two, the coalescing of other Democrats around him is so new that it may not have fully registered with voters. Three, exit polls affirmed that Democratic voters care more about choosing the fiercest adversary for President Trump than about embracing a candidate whose positions they like best. Super Tuesday cast Biden as that adversary. It gave him that glow. So he could shine brighter still when another six states vote in a week. Thats especially true in light of what happened on Wednesday morning: Michael Bloomberg, who had an epically disappointing and decidedly un-super Tuesday, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Votes that would have gone to him are much more likely to go to Biden than to Sanders. Sanders could be in big trouble. Or not. Hes going to win California, the state with by far the greatest trove of delegates. And his impassioned supporters have already begun to portray Bidens Super Tuesday showing as the product of some Democratic establishment trickery. Who knows how this will play out? If 2016 and 2020 so far have taught us anything, its not to get ahead of ourselves. This much is safe to say: The landscape of the Democratic primary was messy, and now its clean. So is the choice. The contest for the partys presidential nomination comes down to two very distinct visions and two very different old men. So much for the most crowded field of Democratic aspirants in memory. So much for that fields diversity for the formidable women in the hunt, for the compelling candidates of color. President Trump said Wednesday that he hasn't touched his face in weeks as a safety precaution amid the Coronavirus outbreak even as photos reveal him doing just that in a meeting on the outbreak on Monday. I havent touched my face in weeks. In weeks. I miss it,' he said. The president made his comments when he stopped by a meeting Vice President Mike Pence was holding with airline CEOs at the White House regarding the coronavirus. But on Monday, during a meeting with the pharmaceutical executives about the outbreak, the president was seen with his hand on his chin. President Trump that he hasn't touched his face in weeks as a safety precaution amid the Coronavirus outbreak President Donald Trump with his hand on his chin during a meeting with the pharmaceutical executives on Monday Medical experts have advised people to wash their hands with soap for 20 seconds multiple times a day and not touch their face to help contain the spread of the disease. Coronavirus is spread via people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) or through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The president also offered reassurance on travel even as he warned more restrictions could be coming. 'In large portions of the world it is safe to fly,' Trump said during the meeting with eight airline CEOs. But he said additional international restrictions may be in order. The administration has implemented mandatory tests for those flights coming directly from Italy and South Korea, which have been hit heavily by the Coronavirus. 'As certain areas, get to be more of a problem we may close them up, as we have done with numerous areas. At this moment we think we have it very much in hand. We've closed certain areas down very strongly. In some cases, not all countries but certain areas within countries like in Italy. We are doing a very effective job in terms of that,' Trump said. He went on to say that not everyone who has the disease has it at the same level. The number of cases across the United States has soared to more than 140 and nine people have now died from the disease in Washington state. 'Some people have this at a very light level,' the president said. 'Young people seem to be, you cant say immune to it but certainly their numbers seem to be very small. And it does affect the elder people in the nursing home situation,' Trump said, referring to the nursing home in Washington state where nine people died from Coronavirus. Empty shelves alerting customers to limited sales of antibacterial hand washes and sanitizer gels, inside a Boots store in London, England, on March 3, 2020. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images) Supply for Hand Sanitizers Keeping Up With Demand: Purell Manufacturer Amid concerns over the new coronavirus outbreak, many Americans are buying and stocking up on hand sanitizers, leaving some store shelves bare. Many temporarily out of stock notices appear on a quick search for hand sanitizers at Target and CVS websites. GOJO Industries, a manufacturing company known for its Purell hand sanitizers, is keeping up with the increased demand. Samantha Williams, GOJOs Corporate Communications Senior Director, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times: We have a surge preparedness team that runs in the background all the time, who have been fully activated and are coordinating our response to the increase in demand. Williams also wrote GOJO maintains flexible production capacity and extra inventory able to meet increases in demand. With the high demand for hand sanitizers and recent news headlines on the topic, it may seem like there is a shortage. But thats not the case according to Alex Brown, spokesperson for Walgreens. Were currently maintaining supplies of hand sanitizers, said Brown to The Epoch Times. [Well] continue to work with our supplier partners to best meet the needs of our customers. Brown also clarified that Walgreens has never stated that there was going to be a shortage of hand sanitizers, referring to a CNN article. CVS had a similar message. We are working with our suppliers to meet customer demand for hand sanitizers, Joe Goode, senior director of Corporate Communications said in an email to The Epoch Times. This demand may cause temporary shortages of these products at some store locations and we are re-supplying those stores as quickly as possible. Sales of hand sanitizers have increased 202 percent year-on-year between January 2019 and January 2020 according to an Adweek article. Also, in January alone, online sales of hand sanitizers and disinfectants were more than any other month in the past year. Effectiveness of Hand Sanitizers According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), its recommended to use hand sanitizers with at least 60 percent alcohol content if soap and water are not available. Not all hand sanitizers work the same. Hand sanitizers without [ethyl] alcohol in them or they use other synthetic things like benzalkonium are not nearly as effective, said Emily Landon, executive medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Chicago Medicine, to The Epoch Times. The active ingredient in alcohol-free hand sanitizers is benzalkonium chloride, which is less effective in eliminating germs, bacteria, and viruses. Hand sanitizers with triclosan should not be used and are no longer recommended. Landon said triclosan is an antibiotic that can be absorbed through the skin and that you dont want low levels of random antibiotics floating around in your bloodstream and thats not going to kill the virus anyway. Triclosan is an antibacterial agent that is used in various products like hand sanitizers, toothpaste, soaps, certain clothes, and toys. It has also been used as a pesticide. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a rule in 2016 to stop the use of triclosan and triclocarban in soaps and body washes since manufacturers were not able to prove the chemicals safety and effectiveness. There were also concerns about potential antibiotic resistance and hormonal effects with long-term use of triclosan. As for triclosan in hand sanitizers, the FDA did not issue a final rule until April 2019. However, some manufacturers had already started phasing out triclosan from their hand sanitizers after the 2016 rule. Children wash their hands with soap in this file photo. Washing hands is advised to curb the spread of infectious diseases. (Thomas Lohnes/DDP/AFP via Getty Images) Proper Application Many hand sanitizer users may not be aware that they are not properly applying the sanitizer for it to optimally work. Applying a small amount and rubbing it on the palms of the hands, or wiping it off before it has dried, will not allow the sanitizer to do its job. You need to have enough of it, said Landon. You need to have enough that you need to rub your hands together for 15-20 seconds. And you want to get all the surfaces of your fingers, in between your fingers, your fingertips, and your thumbs. As convenient as hand sanitizers are, they should not be a replacement for washing your hands with soap and water. The CDC states that the most important hand hygiene technique to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Hand washing is recommended over hand sanitizers when hands are visibly soiled, greasy, have touched harmful chemicals, before eating, and after going to the restroom. The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) states that in the upcoming academic year, universities in Vietnam must stop using unsuitable subject combinations to accept new students. Students of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry learning in a lab. (Photo: SGGP) Neither can they lower admission grades to attract more people. Autonomy is encouraged among these educational institutes, as long as they are able to ensure admission and training quality. Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha affirmed in the meeting about university entrance tasks for the 2020 academic year that weaknesses existing in the previous year must be addressed thoroughly, especially those related to low admission grades and unsuitable subject combinations. In addition, universities should introduce majors that can answer practical needs of the market and avoid focusing on low-demand ones. Autonomy in entrance examination is encouraged (via competency assessment or skill test), yet it should observe regulations in the Law of Education (effective as of July 1, 2020) and Law of Higher Education (effective as of July 1, 2019). Results of the high school graduation examination can also be used, so universities themselves should devise the most appropriate admission plan to closely collaborate with high schools and gain the highest possible result. One novelty feature of this years entrance exam is that MoET has asked 20 experts in the field to prepare adjusted admission criteria for the high-quality program so that the passing score is equal or higher than that of the popular ones. In the meeting, representatives of some universities pointed out certain illogical details of those proposed criteria. Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City suggested to change the term passing score in the high-quality program to threshold to ensure quality, saying that a passing score is low or not depending on the number of registration. Since this special program has its own admission target and selection method, it will be extremely difficult to use the same score regulated by MoET for normal higher education programs. However, Deputy Director General of the Higher Education Department commented that universities must prepare to answer the governments question if there is a case when a high-quality program collects higher school fee yet issues a lower admission score than normal ones just because the quantity of registration is not large. According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, Director General of the Higher Education Department, only 64 percent of people satisfying the passing score of last years entrance exam actually signed up, while many disciplines encountered difficulties attracting sufficient learners as they were not in high demand. She said that the government should pay a special attention and place a clear training order for these disciplines. Regarding teacher training in the 2020 academic year, Dr. Phung stated that MoET should only hold a college-leveled program for kindergarten teachers. Universities that organize new disciplines should carefully consider their training ability and the practical demand of the corresponding industries, with the target of no more than 50 new students per one new discipline. Tourism and information technology are the two disciplines that have their own targets for universities which run training programs for two years and over. The new regulation asks that visiting lecturers must at least have a master degree of the field or a bachelor degree and three to five years of experience. The total proportion of visiting lecturers cannot surpass 40 percent of the full-time one. MoET will continue to identify the threshold to ensure quality in the teaching and medicine disciplines. However, this year, it will introduce the synchronous thresholds for different training modes. There are stricter regulations to fine people, both test takers, invigilators, and related officers, violating rules in the university entrance examination to better honor the national law in the autonomy process. SGGP Vien Hong Standard for university admission should be raised: Minister The standard for university admissions should be raised to ensure higher quality of training, said Phung Xuan Nha, Minister of Education and Training. Between the Pistol Whippin Party Penguins bluesy folk-rock and bluegrass sound, spattered with fiddle and mandolin, and the vibes from the musically saturated wood of the 107-year-old Oak Center General Store , this Saturday will be full of camaraderie, companionship, and cutting a rug. The Pistol Whippin Party Penguins seem to be more interested in partying than any mistreatment of our feathered friends. The band consists of Matt Walvatne (bass/vocals), Jake Manders (guitar/harmonica/vocals), Chris Pyle (lead guitar/vocals), Doug Canyon (mandolin /vocals), Pat Mavity (fiddle), and Daryn Christensen (percussion). Over time, the bands folksy sound has "evolved into something new." "I'd say the string band term was appropriate for us for the first ten years," Manders says, "But since the past year we've added Daryn on percussion and let Matt and Chris loose on electric instruments." Manders thinks the groups present music is some mix of rock, country, blues, folk, and bluegrass. The band started out in 2000 when Matt, Jake, Chris, and Doug met while attending college in Mankato. Now the band is based in Minneapolis. You might be wondering where that Pistol Whippin name comes from. Manders explains it like this: "One night at the Fine Line, in 2006, the four-piece were on stage looking for a band name when our good friend and train whistle player Terrance shouted out The Pistol Whippin' Party Penguins! We couldn't argue with that name, so we've used it ever since." ADVERTISEMENT Many of the Penguins hold down full-time jobs, are married, and have children. The band is sometimes a weekend project, so you can see it play Minnesotan venues like the 331 Club or events like the Pine City Trucker Fest. However, that doesnt keep the Pistol Whippers from traveling to do shows in places like Sioux Falls, SD or even further afield. Later this March, theyll be traveling to Montana to do their first show there at the Lewis and Clark Brewery in Helena. However, the Penguins have a soft spot in their hearts for the Oak Center General Store. Not that long ago, they were part of a fundraiser concert there along with Greg Brown and Erik Koskinen to help keep the store and organic farm repaired for what will hopefully be the next hundred years of its journey. "The Oak Center General Store is such an amazing and beautiful place," says Manders. "I think anyone that takes in a performance there or even wanders around and talks with Steven would all agree that it's a gem and an incredibly unique and special place. We've been lucky to have performed there for the last five or six years." At the show, you can expect to find wood-fueled stove fires warming the General Store, and a "farm-fresh meal" will be served that can be enjoyed with a cash donation. Popcorn, soda, water and beer are also available for sale, but be sure to bring cash or checks. There might also be a few feathered and furred friends underfoot during the show, but all that ambiance will be the perfect accompaniment for the Penguins on-stage shenanigans. {{tncms-inline content="

What: Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins

Where: Oak Center General Store/Earthen Path Organic Farm, 67011 Highway 63, Lake City

When: 8-11 p.m. Saturday, March 7

Cost: Tickets $15 in advance or $18 at the door, oakcentergeneralstore.com or 507-753-2080

" id="b1408d30-1d08-4504-b6d3-af4602230767" style-type="fact" title="If You Go" type="relcontent"}} What: Pistol Whippin Party Penguins Where: Oak Center General Store/Earthen Path Organic Farm, 67011 Highway 63, Lake City When: 8-11 p.m. Saturday, March 7 ADVERTISEMENT Cost: Tickets $15 in advance or $18 at the door, oakcentergeneralstore.com or 507-753-2080 The Congress has accused the BJP of holding eight of its MLAs captive at Gurugram in a bid to topple the government. There seems to be more to the troubles brewing for the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh than meets the eye. The Congress has accused the BJP of holding eight of its MLAs captive at Gurugram in a bid to topple the government. Recently, senior leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh also alleged that the BJP was trying to lure Congress legislators by offering them money. However, the controversy may be linked to the upcoming Rajya Sabha election and the competing claims of Congress leaders. Political commentator Rasheed Kidwai said that both Digvijaya and former Lok Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia may be angling for a Rajya Sabha berth, and the objective of the ongoing crisis may be to achieve political supremacy. The two leaders are also said to be competing for the post of the president of the party Congress committee. Both of them lost their constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Digvijaya is presently a member of the Rajya Sabha, but his term ends in March. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh forest minister Umang Singhar, a strong critic of Digvijaya, has also dubbed the attempts to "topple the government" as an insider job, and as an attempt by some party leaders to enter the Rajya Sabha. Ever since the Congress came to power in Madhya Pradesh, it has had to deal with not just opposition from the saffron party but also internal dissent. In fact, the party has not even elected a new state unit president Kamal Nath holds the post in addition to his responsibilities as chief minister. In contrast, the party is in a relatively stable condition in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has a wafer-thin majority, as it has 114 members as against the BJP's 107 members. Reasons behind the 'rebellion' The ongoing 'rebellion' in the Madhya Pradesh has been going on for quite some time. According to political pundits, the party is in disarray due to infighting and dynastic rivalries. A Congress member close to Scindia said, This kind of a rebellion was only to be expected. Each party faction wants its own members as ministers, and many senior MLAs have been sidelined. Scindiaji was the most capable leader to head the Congress party in the state, but Digvijaya Singh made all possible attempts to keep him away." Elections for three Rajya Sabha seats are due soon. While the Congress and BJP can win one seat each comfortably, the battle for the third seat could take an interesting turn. The Congress has an edge as it is in power in the state. In this context, Scindia recently hit the streets with his supporters, openly criticising the Kamal Nath government on the implementation of the farm loan waiver, as also its policy on transfers and postings. He also hit out at Digvijaya, who enjoys enormous clout and is believed in some circles of the Congress to be the de facto chief minister. Another cause for dissent in the Congress' state unit is the neglect of senior MLAs. Among the four Congress MLAs who were allegedly approached by the BJP, Bisahulal Singh and Hardeep Singh Dang are veterans and have served as ministers in the Digvijaya Singh-led government. A Congress source said, "While senior MLAs are being sides, younger legislators such as Digvijaya's son Jaivardhan Singh are getting more prominence. Some of these younger minister do not pay heed to MLAs, due to which there is much discontent." Unlike the BJP, the Congress is not a cadre-based party and lacks organisational discipline. As a result, many MLAs and other party leaders have been voicing their dissent against the party leadership from time to time. BJP denies Congress allegations Madhya Pradesh BJP president VD Sharma has termed the Congress' allegations on 'poaching' of its MLAs as unfortunate. He said, "The BJP has nothing to do with it. It is an internal tussle of the Congress." A member of the BJP in Bhopal said, "This may have been a drama staged by Digvijaya Singh, as he might have got an idea that he would not be nominated to the Rajya Sabha." The ongoing political developments are reminiscent of the 'resort politics' seen in Karnataka in 2019, when the BJP, Congress and JD(S) herded their MLAs in luxury hotels to prevent poaching attempts. The imbroglio culminated with HD Kumaraswamy failing to muster up the numbers, and BS Yediyurappa taking oath as chief minister. This was after 16 MLAs had resigned from the Assembly. UPDATE: Test results came back negative for the Philadelphia coronavirus case, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health announced. ORIGINAL ARTICLE: One person in Philadelphia is being tested for coronavirus, health officials said. The city hasnt had a confirmed case yet and the Philadelphia Health Department added that the risk of infection from COVID-19 to the average Philadelphian is very low. People who have recently traveled to China are at the greatest risk, Philadelphia health officials said in the statement. Additional information wasnt immediately available. Pennsylvania health officials announced Tuesday the state now has the ability to test for the coronavirus at a state lab. Last week the Philadelphia Health Department said in a statement, We believe that Philadelphians will get sick from COVID-19. The department stressed the usual precautions that should be taken - washing hands frequently, not sharing utensils or touching your face and staying away from sick people. As of Wednesday morning, the number of worldwide coronavirus cases has topped 94,000. There have been more than 3,200 deaths, mostly in China. In the U.S. there have been 128 people infected. Nine have died. There have been no confirmed cases in New Jersey. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Former Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dents late father always wanted him to become an engineer or a scientist. After a semester studying engineering at Penn State, Dent opted for another kind of science: political science. Nearly 40 years later, Dents father wouldve been proud as his son on Wednesday stood on the Center Valley campus of Penn State Lehigh Valley celebrating the groundbreaking of a $14.4 million campus expansion that includes the Charles W. Dent STEM -- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics -- wing. The projects a major milestone for a campus that didnt even exist 12 years ago. With a growing student body in 2009, Penn State Lehigh Valley relocated from Fogelsville to Upper Saucon Township. The three-story space was an upgrade from the Fogelsville location, but it lacked sufficient student gathering spaces or a dedicated dining facility. Students shouldnt have to sit on the floor of the lobby or microwave pizza every day for lunch, said Madlyn L. Hanes, Penn States vice president and executive chancellor of the commonwealth campuses. Hanes recalled attending the 2009 dedication, thinking one day the community would outgrow the space, and shes thrilled that day came so fast. Penn State University President Eric J. Baron said it is clear there is a real community on the campus, but it is hard to grow such a community without proper spaces to interact and collaborate. The three-story, 20,500-square-foot addition is slated for a January 2021 opening and includes a new dining facility on the first floor, student service spaces on the second and the STEM wing, including an organic chemistry lab, on the third floor. The STEM wing will support the campus current health degree programs, provide more undergrad research opportunities and allow the campus to grow an educational pipeline for the Lehigh Valleys robust health professional system, according to the school. With this important new addition to the campus, Penn State Lehigh Valley is answering the new challenge of training a skilled workforce and fueling the wave of innovation underway, Barron said. Given that healthcare is the largest employer in our region, the demand for workers with a background in science and technology is constant. For the past 108 years, Penn State has aligned its programs with the needs of the region, said Tina Q. Richardson, Penn State Lehigh Valley chancellor. The expansion aims to meet those demands while providing students a small classroom setting to tackle tough subjects, like organic chemistry, which can derail students from a career in the sciences, Richardson said. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. EPIC Abortion Argument Supreme Court set to argue important election-year abortion case The Supreme Court this week gets a fresh look at its recently decided ruling on abortion access, a challenge to a controversial Louisiana law that will now be decided anew in the middle of a presidential election year. What the justices say on the politically and socially charged issue could be the start of potential legal rollback of broader abortion rights. Prez Trump Promise At Stake Supreme Court abortion case tests Trump's campaign promise to overturn Roe v. Wade President Donald Trump pledged during his 2016 election campaign that he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would "automatically" overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision. Four years later, Trump is seeking reelection, and his two appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, will determine whether that promise is kept. Show-Me Waiting Game House Democrats file legislation opposing pelvic exams for women seeking abortions Three Missouri House Democrats have filed bills that would prevent physicians from performing "mandatory and invasive" medical exams. House Bill 2475 sponsored by Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-St. Louis, House Bill 2617 sponsored by Rep. Jon Carpenter, D-Kansas City and House Bill 2713 sponsored by Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, all have the same language and goal. Kansas Guv Kelly Champions Better Healthcare For Everybody But The Unborn Kansas Governor Kelly Ramps Up Campaign To Separate Abortion Politics From Medicaid Expansion TOPEKA, Kansas - A pressure campaign led by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly aims to force Republican Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle to drop her blockade of a vote to expand Medicaid. A majority of state senators back the plan, virtually assuring its passage if Wagle allowed a vote. Tragic Alternative Care The Radical Future of Self-Managed Abortion Is Already Here "I remember one woman who arrived and asked, 'Is this the clinic?' And we were like, 'What clinic?'" Lizy and the woman who helped her to end her pregnancy met at a Starbucks in Leon, the largest city in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Political Snark Fine, Let's Just Ban Masturbation, Too: Female Legislators' Recent Strategy for Fighting Abortion Laws As the Utah state senate advanced a law last week that could one day ban almost all abortions, one female legislator tried to slow its passage with an eleventh hour amendment: outlawing "a male from causing an ejaculation to occur outside of a vagina." Under the bill, most abortions would become illegal if Roe v. Ladies First June Medical Is Just One Battle in the Abortion Wars You Can Still Vote for Elizabeth Warren if You Think She'd Be the Best President What Happens to Early Votes Already Cast for Klobuchar and Buttigieg? Quick guide to 2020 culture war debate and legal challenges . . . We start with latest big stakes SCOTUS case and reference local lady rights, healthcare, and the most barbaric medical "procedure" in the history of Western Civilization for which all humanity might one day have to explain . . .Developing . . . Brazilian researchers show that if 25% of a one-hectare forest remnant is cut down, the impact on the local climate will be a temperature increase of 1 C; the study is published in PLOS ONE A study conducted in Brazil by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) shows that if 25% of an Atlantic rainforest fragment that is approximately 1 hectare is deforested, then the local temperature will increase by 1 C. Clear-cutting the entire fragment would increase the local temperature by as much as 4 C. The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE. "We were able to detect the warming effects of the climate due to the deforestation of Atlantic rainforest fragments, of which there are many in Southeast Brazil," Humberto Ribeiro da Rocha, principal investigator of the study, told. Rocha is a professor at the University of Sao Paulo Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG-USP). The investigation was conducted under the aegis of two projects supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP, one associated with its Research Program on Global Climate Change (RPGCC) and the other with its Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use (BIOTA-FAPESP). According to Rocha, scientific evidence is already available that shows that the destruction of tropical forests leads to warmer air at a local scale, but this evidence is based on measurements taken in large areas, mainly by research conducted in the Amazon. "No one had ever produced detailed information on the deforestation of small fragments or studies that take into account different levels of anthropization [transformation of the environment by human activity]," said Rocha, who is a member of the RPGCC's steering committee. To fill this research gap, researchers analyzed the relationship between the degree of deforestation and local temperature increases in Atlantic rainforest remnants located in Serra do Mar, a mountain range that stretches along the northern coast of Sao Paulo state. Land surface temperature (LST) was estimated using heat flux data continuously recorded around the globe by infrared optical sensors such as those on board NASA's Landsat Earth observation satellites. Based on these data, the researchers calculated an annual average LST for tens of thousands of Atlantic rainforest samples, each with an area of approximately 1 hectare. The forest cover in these areas ranged from the entirety of the area being covered to no area having forest cover (deforested). These areas also displayed different degrees of anthropization, with a 1% variation gradient. The calculations were performed during the PhD research of Raianny Leite do Nascimento Wanderley, under Rocha's supervision. They showed higher temperatures in less forested areas. Each 25% increase in the destruction of native vegetation resulted in an LST increase of 1 C; thus, total deforestation was correlated with a warming of 4 C. "This detected pattern is interpreted as characterizing the impact of forest cover loss on the microclimate," Rocha said. Impact on the forest According to the researchers, the Atlantic rainforest fragments they studied were located at relatively higher altitudes and had proportionately more carbon stored in the ground than those in the Amazon rainforest areas. Deforestation of Atlantic rainforest areas can therefore jeopardize the biome's carbon balance. "The Atlantic rainforest is currently in equilibrium and may even be marginally absorbing carbon from the atmosphere but could become a source of carbon emissions," said Carlos Joly (https://bv.fapesp.br/en/pesquisador/283/carlos-alfredo-joly/), a professor at UNICAMP and one of the authors of the study. Joly is a member of BIOTA-FAPESP's steering committee. Rising temperatures in these forest fragments affect plant respiration more than photosynthesis. This also contributes to the release of larger amounts of carbon from the forest into the atmosphere, Joly explained. "The two processes combined create a hazardous synergy that leads to a rise in carbon emissions from the forest to the atmosphere," he said. The effects of deforestation-driven warming in Atlantic rainforest fragments may vary from one tree species to another, he added. Pioneer species, which survive under adverse conditions owing to their high reproductive capacity, usually display greater resilience to temperature changes. "We don't have enough data yet to predict how long it will take, but in the long run, rising temperatures in Atlantic rainforest fragments due to deforestation could certainly influence the survival of tree species in the forest, albeit some species more than others," he said. "The proportion of typical mature forest species may diminish, while that of pioneer or initial secondary species, which are more plastic, could increase." Functions impaired Considered one of the world's richest and most endangered forests, the Atlantic rainforest occupies 15% of Brazil's land mass in an area that is home to 72% of the population. The biome decreased by 113 square kilometers between 2017 and 2018, according to recent data from the Atlas da Mata Atlantica based on continuous monitoring by NGO Fundacao SOS Mata Atlantica in partnership with the National Space Research Institute (INPE). In addition to the impact on biodiversity, the researchers stressed that even small-scale deforestation impairs important ecosystem services provided by the Atlantic rainforest, such as heat regulation. "The forest is extremely important to maintaining milder temperatures on the local and regional scale. Changes in its functioning could disrupt this type of ecosystem service," Joly said. Water supply may also be affected. The Atlantic rainforest is home to seven of Brazil's nine largest drainage basins, where rivers originate that flow into reservoirs that are responsible for almost 60% of the nation's hydroelectric power and supply water to 130 million people. "The Atlantic rainforest doesn't produce water but protects the springs and permits the storage of water in reservoirs for consumption, power generation, agricultural irrigation and fishing, among other activities," Joly said. Located in extremely rugged terrain, the Atlantic rainforest helps prevent landslides at times of heavy rain. "Destruction of these forest fragments or changes in their functioning could greatly diminish this protection," Joly said. Deforestation of the biome, now reduced to 12.4% of its original size, is more severe in Sao Paulo state than in other areas owing to the construction of roads, gas pipelines and other kinds of infrastructure, he added. This area has also suffered from urban expansion, including the construction of both shantytowns and high-income gated communities. As one of the most endangered biomes in South America, the Atlantic rainforest has been a focus for numerous studies regarding restoration in recent years. Most of the studies have been conducted by researchers affiliated with BIOTA-FAPESP, according to Joly. The largest initiative to restore the biome is governed by the Atlantic Rainforest Restoration Pact, launched in 2009 as a multi-stakeholder movement to restore 15 million hectares by 2050. "A great deal of knowledge has been acquired regarding restoration of the Atlantic rainforest. Evidently, we won't be able to replace everything that has been lost, but at least some of the biome's functions can be restored," Joly said. ### About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at http://www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe. Tiffani Young and her children from left, Tahiry Holbert, 6, Traevell Holbert, 7, and Taliah Holbert, 5 watch as her oldest son, Kaylin Bell, 12, cuts the ribbon on the inside of the front door of their new Habitat for Humanity house Monday, March 2, 2020, in Urbana. The home was funded by the University of Illinois campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the Urbana HOME Consortium. Tiffani put in over 250 work hours on her home and others' to qualify to buy a Habitat home. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Wednesday said smart classrooms will help improve the quality of in the state. Rio, while launching digital boards for 15 government colleges, said the initiative will make learning interactive and engaging. He said the technology will help teachers deliver dynamic and interactive lessons and aid distance learning. The chief minister said the state government has enabled geotagging of schools and posting of teachers has been made public. Minister for Higher and Tribal Affairs, Temjen Imna Along said Nagaland is the first state in the Northeast to implement the smart classroom concept in government colleges. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP MLAs on Wednesday staged a protest outside the Jharkhand Assembly demanding leader of opposition status for Babulal Marandi. Before the start of the Assembly proceedings, BJP MLAs staged a protest outside the House, holding placards against Soren government and reiterated their demand for seeking Leader of Opposition status for Marandi. Speaking to reporters BJP MLA Anant Ojha said that the House cannot be run without the leader of Opposition. "We have raised the issue in the House and also met Assembly Speaker to request an immediate decision on the issue," Ojha said. Babulal Marandi had recently merged his party Jharkhand Vikas Morcha with the Bharatiya Janata Party and was elected as the leader of BJP legislature party in Jharkhand Assembly on Feb 24. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Our eye movements help us retrieve memories, suggests a new Baycrest study In a recent study, scientists at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute (RRI) found that research participants moved their eyes to determine whether they had seen an image before, and that their eye movement patterns could predict mistakes in memory. They obtained these results using an innovative new eye tracking technique they developed. "Our findings indicate that eye movements play a functional role in memory retrieval," says Dr. Jennifer Ryan, senior scientist at the RRI and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory. "They can tell us a lot about someone's memory." This study builds on previous Baycrest research examining the link between eye movements and memory, including the role of our eye movements in memorization and the weakening connection between our eye movements and our brain activity as we age. "When we see a picture, a face or something else that we have already seen, our eyes tend to look at the same locations as they did the first time. The brain compares important characteristics of what we are seeing to a mental picture in our memory, and it identifies the two as the same," says Dr. Bradley Buchsbaum, senior scientist at the RRI. "The brain is pretty good at this, even in conditions of lower visibility." "If we see someone in the distance, or if their face is partially hidden by branches, our brain will compare the features that are visible to a mental picture to determine whether we know that person," says Jordana Wynn, lead researcher on this study, former PhD student at the RRI and current fellow at Harvard University. This phenomenon is called "pattern completion." When it goes wrong, we may end up mistakenly waving to a stranger if he or she has similar hair or a similar nose to someone we know. In this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), participants were first asked to memorize a series of 30 new images on a screen. Next, they viewed another series, this time containing both some of the previously seen images and some new-but-similar images. They were then asked to indicate whether they had seen each one before. Their eye movements were tracked during both stages. Each image was shown briefly, ranging from 250 milliseconds to 750 milliseconds, before the participants were instructed to visualize it while looking at a blank screen. Participants were highly accurate in identifying previously seen images as old, scoring almost 90%. They were more likely to be correct if their eye movements were the same as when they initially saw the image. On the other hand, they performed less well, at 70%, when faced with a new-but-similar image. In the latter case, the more participants repeated their initial viewing pattern instead of focusing on the different aspects of the image, the more likely they were to incorrectly identify the image as old. To emulate real-world situations where we don't have full information, the researchers also used incomplete, or "degraded," versions of images. This ranged from 0 to 80% degradation, in the form of grey squares covering parts of the image. Remarkably, even when the image was 80% degraded, performance was much better than pure guessing, reflecting the strength of pattern completion. "Using our eye tracking technique, we were able to map the participants' eye movements and observe that they were mentally picturing an image that they could not see," says Wynn. "They were using pattern completion." Many studies have examined pattern completion over the past decades, but with one critical weakness. "These studies have all been based on the untested assumption that we can infer pattern completion is happening when participants mistakenly 'recognize' images that they have not seen before," says Wynn. "Our study is the first to use eye movement analysis, rather than behaviour, to show that people are in fact retrieving a memory of an old image when they make this mistake." This study's findings have important implications in terms of assessing memory. "Some of the traditional tests used to diagnose memory impairments are quite verbal," says Dr. Ryan. "They often require good command of the English language, which can be a problem in a multicultural city like Toronto." "With eye tracking, you don't have to ask people what they remember. You can just look at their eyes. This gives us a lot more information about their memory than we thought," says Dr. Buchsbaum. This work was made possible with support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). With additional funding, the researchers could further examine the role of eye movements in memory retrieval. "This could lead to the development of better screening tools for dementia, which is the ultimate hope," says Dr. Ryan. ### About Baycrest Baycrest is a global leader in geriatric residential living, healthcare, research, innovation and education, with a special focus on brain health and aging. Baycrest is home to a robust research and innovation network, including one of the world's top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience, the Rotman Research Institute; the scientific headquarters of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, Canada's largest national dementia research initiative; and the Baycrest-powered Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, a solution accelerator focused on driving innovation in the aging and brain health sector. Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, Baycrest provides excellent care for older adults combined with an extensive clinical training program for the next generation of healthcare professionals. Through these initiatives, Baycrest has remained at the forefront of the fight to defeat dementia as our organization works to create a world where every older adult enjoys a life of purpose, inspiration and fulfilment. Founded in 1918 as the Toronto Jewish Old Folks Home, Baycrest continues to embrace the long-standing tradition of all great Jewish healthcare institutions to improve the well-being of people in their local communities and around the globe. For more information please visit: http://www. baycrest. org About Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute Now in its 31st year, the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest is a premier international centre for the study of human brain function. Through generous support from private donors and funding agencies, the institute is helping to illuminate the causes of cognitive decline in seniors, identify promising approaches to treatment and lifestyle practices that will protect brain health longer in the lifespan. For media inquiries: Michelle Petch Gotuzzo Baycrest 416-785-2500 ext. 6932 mpetchgotuzzo@baycrest.org This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. ELKO Could the second time be the charm for registered nurse Rowena Smith, who filed to run another campaign for the city council? Smith filed for one of the two open seats on the Elko City Council on Tuesday. She was the second candidate to register her name on the ballot, one day after incumbent Mandy Simons filed for a third term. Robert Schmidtlein currently holds the other seat that is up for election this year. In 2018, Smith ran for city council and came in third behind Chip Stone and Bill Hance by a margin of 147 votes. Smith said launching another campaign would give her another chance to represent the ordinary person in Elko. I believe I can be a spokesperson for all. I have the ability to speak to others without having them being afraid of leadership, she said. Smith, who is a registered nurse at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, explained that her background in the medical field and once owning and operating a skilled care facility gave her many abilities, including business management and leadership skills. It also gave her insight on how to support families with a loved one in their twilight years. Thats quite a sensitive and very serious matter. An immigrant from the Philippines, with a father who was in the military and a son who was an officer for the Las Vegas Metro police, Smith said she would advocate for the whole of Elko, including law enforcement and the military. In the two years since her first bid for office, Smith said her platform remains the same because that is me. I am very much a pro-lifer and pro-law enforcement, she said. My platform is to keep Elko safe as much as possible. I am a conservative in my values, but it is tempered with the great art of listening to others and their suffering. Regarding medical marijuana, Smith said she supported alternative therapies for patient comfort but would support fellow city council members and Mayor Reece Keener in any decision they make. I feel we do have a good mayor. He has done quite a bit in the short time that he has been mayor, so I very much respect him. Smith said she wanted the voters to know that she feels the responsibility and accountability of serving on the city council, and if elected, she will serve the entire community. Please, Elko citizens, feel free to know that I am very much approachable and that I will listen with a tender and sensitive ear to your needs. Elko County Commission Also, on Tuesday, mining safety trainer business owner Gary L. Evertsen filed to run for Elko County Commission. He will run against incumbent Rex Steninger, who announced last week his intention to campaign for re-election. Evertsen said his goal is to bring more representation of South Fork to the Commissioners. I dont think we have representation out in South Fork like we should, he said. He listed a few areas, such as roads and cleaning up properties, as some of the areas current priorities that he felt the county has overlooked. Junk buildings, houses and cars. Stuff I think needs to be cleaned up, Evertsen said. Theres a lot of people who come in from out of state and the city to go fishing at the lake and for recreation. Evertsen said as a volunteer firefighter, formerly serving with the Spring Creek Volunteer Fire Department, he was interested in the outcome of the Elko County Fire Protection District firefighters negotiations with the county but was willing to wait for the result. Thats close to my heart, whats going on with the Fire District, he said. Ill wait and see how it works out. He also restated his campaign promise, if elected, to not accept money for my time. I want to serve voluntarily without compensation, Evertsen said. Ill donate my money back to the county for the budget. Evertsen said he served in the U.S. Army for eight years, retiring as a sergeant first class. He enlisted in the Wyoming National Guard and then joined the Nevada Guard, serving for 11 years. His mining career spans about 44 years, where he was employed by Barrick Gold Corp. serving on a mine rescue crew. Since 2001, he has owned and operated his own business that specializes in safety training and Mine Safety and Health Administration regulations. Filing for city and county offices continues until March 13. Love 6 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Islamic clothing market size is expected to reach USD 88.35 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to register a CAGR of 5.0% over the forecast period. Increasing expenditure by Islamic population on lifestyle and apparels, especially among the wealthy, elite, and traditional Middle Eastern population is expected to propel the product demand. Major countries outside Western fashion industry contributing to a significant share include Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia, where the industry is highly lucrative. Controversies around losing the ethnic value of Muslim clothing due to its shift towards mainstream fashion industry is projected to hamper the growth. Initiation of various marketing campaigns by industry players in line with maintaining the very core of the Muslim percepts, Sharia, or the Islamic law is projected to propel growth of the Islamic clothing market. In addition, increasing demand for modest yet fashionable clothing, especially from young generation with high purchasing power is likely to complement market growth. Increasing reservations regarding over-commercialization of what is primarily meant to be a rigorous religious mandate can pose as a challenge to the market players. In addition, involvement of multinational fashion brands is projected to restrain growth of the small Islamic clothing companies. Access Research Report of Islamic Clothing Market : https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/islamic-clothing-market Further key findings from the report suggest: In 2017, ethnic wear accounted for 70.9% market share, in terms of revenue, owing to rising demand for the abayas and hijabs and thobes and jubbas in countries with a high Islamic population Burkha and naqaab segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2017 to 2025 owing to increasing demand from Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iraq Sustainable fashion is expected to register a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period on account of the shifting focus of the leading fashion brands towards the development of innovative clothing options for younger population Asia Pacific contributed to over 31.3% revenue share in 2017 owing to the presence of over 63% of global Muslim population in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Morocco Key players operating in the Islamic clothing market are House of Fraser, Marks & Spenser, Aab, H&M, and Mango among others. Leading companies cater to the rising demand for diverse options from different parts of the world. Few manufacturers are large-scale producers with a diverse product portfolio, which enables them to cater to the increasing demand Grand View Research has segmented the global Islamic clothing market on the basis of product and region: Islamic Clothing Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Ethnic and Womenswear Abayas & Hijabs Prayer Outfits Burkha & Naqaab Thobes & Jubbas Others Sustainable Fashion Sportswear Islamic Clothing Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America US. Europe Turkey Russia Asia Pacific Indonesia Malaysia Pakistan India Central & South America Middle East & Africa UAE Nigeria Saudi Arabia Egypt About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. The Eastern District of Tennessee will hold a Naturalization ceremony on Wednesday, March 11 at the Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences, 865 E 3rd St. in Chattanooga. The ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. United States District Judge Travis R. McDonough will preside over the ceremony. Former United States Senator Bob Corker will be the keynote speaker. Approximately 200 applicants are expected to take the Oath of Allegiance to become American citizens. The medical and psychological details of defence recruits are being held in a database that was shut down for 10 days over fears it was hacked. Defence has confirmed it was made aware of a potential breach of Defence Force Recruiting's outsourced electronic records system on January 24. The ADF's recruiting network was subject to a potential hack. Credit:iStock The fears about a potential hack come as it was revealed Australia's electronic security agency is receiving reports of a cyber crime every 10 minutes. The concerns about the ADF's recruiting system being compromised related to a vulnerability in software company Citrix's products, which was discovered in December last year. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:12:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Fights between the Democratic Party's progressive bloc and its moderate group have dominated primaries since the beginning. WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A two-way race between former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders is taking shape after the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries of the 2020 presidential election. Biden, after a strong comeback in South Carolina's Democratic primary late February that triggered a wave of big-name endorsements, rode on the momentum and has been projected to win the most states on Tuesday. Sanders also has gotten something to celebrate as he has been projected to win populous California, a state with the most pledged delegates to July's Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Voters line up to cast ballots at a polling station in Los Angeles, California, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ying) TWO-WAY RACE As a 77-year-old moderate political veteran, Biden has been seen as a winner in at least nine of 14 Super Tuesday states, according to projections by several U.S. media outlets. Biden's victories included Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Massachusetts, where he defeated Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren. "It's a good night," Biden triumphantly told supporters at a rally in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday night. "It seems to be getting better. They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing." David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, called it an "amazing night no one would have predicted even days ago" in a tweet. Axelrod attributed it to Biden's landslide victory in South Carolina, which was "intensified by timely exits and endorsements" of Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, former U.S. vice president, attends a caucus night rally with his wife Jill Biden at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, the United States, Feb. 3, 2020. (Photo by Joel Lerner/Xinhua) Sanders, a 78-year-old progressive and longtime Independent, has taken four states, including the biggest prize of the night in California. He also won Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont. Speaking to supporters in Vermont, Sanders said his campaign has been "taking on the political establishment." "We're going to win because the people understand it is our campaign, our movement," he said. "What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement." Projections of a winner for Maine have not been announced. "After Super Tuesday, we are likely to have a de facto two-person race between Biden and Sanders," Darrell West, director of governance studies at Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, told Xinhua. U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders attends a campaign rally in Springfield, Virginia, the United States, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) PROGRESSIVE-MODERATE TUSSLE Fights between the Democratic Party's progressive bloc and its moderate group have dominated primaries since the beginning. Even on Super Tuesday, voters remain divided. In Texas, Samantha Lynn Deal told Xinhua that she supports Sanders, a champion of the progressive Medicare for All plan, a single-payer, national health insurance program. "I think mostly because I really want an upheaval of the health care system," Deal said. "I don't believe that the system that we're currently using is going to work for the future. And I think that we need a major change." She also said she thinks the idea of making public colleges and universities tuition-free, another of Sanders's signature proposals, is "fantastic," but also admitted that she does not know "if that's going to be feasible." U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts speaking during an interview after the Democratic Party's ninth presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, Feb. 19, 2020. "Younger voters love Sanders," Christopher Galdieri, associate professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told Xinhua. "We've seen him moderate his tone somewhat lately," Galdieri said. "I think all of this is aimed at the broader Democratic electorate he'll need if he's the nominee." Clyde Fleet, a supporter of moderate Democrats, said that Sanders's proposals sound good but "the money has to come from somewhere." Nancy Cooney from Boston, Massachusetts, said that she supports Biden and that she feels like Biden is the "best person positioned to unite the Democratic Party." At a polling place in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday, Max Blake said that he was aware of an ongoing tussle between the two wings but believes they will eventually come together for the race against sitting President Donald Trump. Voters cast ballots at a polling station in Los Angeles, California, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ying) WHAT'S NEXT? Trump said he does not care who the Democratic nominee is, when asked which one he prefers to face. "Whoever it is, we will take them on," he said at the White House before leaving for an event on Tuesday. Faced with no major challengers in the Republican Party, Trump is expected to win the GOP primaries on Tuesday. In a series of tweets on Tuesday night, Trump celebrated his victory while lashing out at some of the Democratic presidential contenders, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, who has spent over 500 million U.S. dollars on advertising, has been projected to win only American Samoa in Super Tuesday's Democratic primaries, raising speculation that he will drop out. "If he got behind the party, rather than himself, he could become a game changer in November," tweeted Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, on Tuesday night. Warren, after losing her home state of Massachusetts to Biden, told supporters to look ahead in an email, as six other states will hold primaries on March 10. The Democratic primaries on Super Tuesday are deciding over 1,300 pledged delegates to the DNC or roughly a third of the total. Typically, a candidate is only eligible to receive a share of the pledged delegates at stake if they win at least 15 percent of the vote cast in a primary or caucus. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the national convention: 1,991 delegates. The Republican Party is expected to nominate Trump for a second term during August's national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2020 U.S. presidential election will take place on Nov. 3. (Video reporters: Sun Ding, Tan Yixiao, Jin Yuelei, Hu Yousong, Gao Lu; Video editor: Wu Yao) UAB Hospital said social media posts claiming coronavirus patients are being treated at the Birmingham facility are fake. In a Twitter message, the hospital said: UAB is aware of fake social media posts claiming that UAB Hospital is caring for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. While UAB is trained and prepared to safely isolate and care for patients with infectious diseases, there are no known cases of COVID-19 in Alabama at this time. UAB is aware of fake social media posts claiming that UAB Hospital is caring for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. While UAB is trained & prepared to safely isolate and care for patients with infectious diseases, there are no known cases of COVID-19 in Alabama at this time. UAB (@UABNews) March 4, 2020 There are no known coronavirus cases in Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is among the schools suspending university-sponsored travel to areas hard-hit by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, including China, South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy. The university is also recommended students and faculty follow safety procedures: Wash hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Avoid anyone who is sick. If you are sick, avoid others. Do not go to school or work if you are ill. Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands. Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or sleeve. Routinely clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces and objects. Protect against the flu by getting the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine does not protect against COVID-19, but the flu poses a more active health threat in Alabama at this time. Problems delay testing for coronavirus in Alabama, but fix coming Observation posts of the Turkish forces in Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone were located in the fortified areas of terrorist groups and practically merged with them, official spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov said. Konashenkov reminded that in accordance with the Sochi agreements from September 2018, Turkey pledged to oust terrorists with their heavy artillery for 15-20 km from the Idlib zone. However, instead, terrorist groups Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (also known as Jebhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia), Islamic Party of Turkestan (banned in Russia) and Hurras al-Din have been ousting militants from the "moderate opposition" to the Turkish border in the north for the last 18 months, he added. "Fortified areas of terrorists have practically merged with Turkish observation posts set up in accordance with the agreement," Konashenkov noted. He said that Russian air base in Hmeymim and Syrian cities have been subjected to daily shellings by militants because Turkey had not fulfilled its commitments on establishing a demilitarized area in the Idlib de-escalation zone. "Attacks and massive artillery shellings of neighboring peaceful settlements and of the Russian air base Hmeymim have turned from sporadic into daily," TASS cited him as sayig. Turkey has already transferred to Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone forces as large as a mechanized division but the West prefers not to notice Ankara's open violation of international law, Konashenkov added. "No one in the West notices the actions of the Turkish side which has already transferred to Syria's Idlib forces as large as a mechanized division in order to 'implement the Sochi agreements at any cost'," he conckuded. Turkey retaliates to attack by government forces in Idlib as clashes continue a day before Erdogan-Putin talks. The Turkish defence ministry says two of its soldiers have been killed in northwest Syria in an attack by Syrian government forces, as fighting in the war-torn countrys Idlib province continues on the eve of much-anticipated talks between the presidents of Turkey and Russia. Following Wednesdays attack, which also left six Turkish troops wounded, Ankaras forces retaliated by striking Syrian military targets, the defence ministry said in a statement. It came a day after another Turkish soldier was killed by Syrian fire and nine others were wounded. At least 59 Turkish soldiers have been killed in Idlib since Turkey began its military campaign in Syrias last rebel bastion, where a Russia-backed government offensive has forced nearly a million people to flee towards the shut Turkish border in search of safety. On Sunday, Turkey, which backs certain rebel groups in Idlib, officially declared the start of a full-scale military operation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces. Dubbed Spring Shield, the operation came in response to the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers in Syrian government air raids last week, the biggest casualties suffered by Turkeys armed forces in decades. Turkey has since downed three Syrian fighter jets and killed dozens of government soldiers and allied fighters mostly through drone attacks, according to monitors. 200302085502839 Turkey has sought to push back Syrian government forces behind lines agreed under a 2018 deal with Russia, which established 12 Turkish observation posts and created a de-escalation zone around the province, which is home to more than three million people. On Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the operation a historic struggle, adding that Ankara will not forsake oppressed Syrians. Al Jazeeras Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Cilvegozu on Turkish-Syrian border, said the Turkish government is becoming increasingly vocal about the necessity of its military campaign. Officials say that Turkey is in Syria to protect its borders and millions of innocent civilians suffering from the Syrian governments atrocities in the region, she said. Turkey, which already hosts some four million refugees, wants to prevent another influx from Idlib. It has pressured the European Union for greater assistance by announcing that migrants and refugees would no longer be prevented from trying to enter the bloc via the Greek border. A Turkish military convoy near the town of Batabu on the highway linking Idlib to the Syrian Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey [Aaref Watad/AFP] Key Moscow meeting On Thursday, Erdogan will try to reach a deal on a ceasefire over Idlib when he meets his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow. A day before the meeting, Russia, al-Assads main ally in Syrias long-running war, accused Turkey of breaching the 2018 agreement. 200303135102188 Its Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that fortified rebel positions in Idlib had merged with Turkish observation posts, and that artillery attacks on nearby civilian areas and Russias airbase in Syria had become a daily occurrence. Turkey has not yet commented on the Russian claims. Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen, reporting from Moscow, said the allegations were likely to increase tensions before the Thursdays talks. The statement is meant to position Russia a day before the meeting. It is taking a very hard position towards Turkey, she said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday the Kremlin hoped Putin and Erdogan would be able to agree on a set of joint measures in Idlib. Syrian government forces, supported by Russian airpower, have retaken swathes of territory since launching their offensive in December, killing hundreds of civilians and causing a massive wave of displacement. 200302085719576 The United Nations has described the situation in Idlib as the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century and called for an immediate ceasefire. Despite being on opposite sides of the war, Ankara and Moscow have kept lines of negotiation open. Advertisement Eighteen of the 24 people killed in the devastating tornadoes that ripped through Tennessee have been pictured. Early Tuesday, just after midnight, at least two tornadoes ripped through a 50-mile stretch in four counties, killing 24 people in the state. Putnam County suffered the greatest loss with 18 causalities and 88 injuries. On Wednesday Putnam County County Mayor Randy Porter released the names and details of the 18 victims, five of which were children. One of the deceased was identified as four-year-old Hattie Collins, the daughter of a Tennessee youth minister Matt Collins and his wife Macy who worked at the Collegeside Churches of Christ in Cookeville. Hattie 'passed from this world today into the loving arms of Jesus. Please continue to keep this family and all of the others affected by this tragedy in your prayers', the church said on its website. The Collins family said that the tornado ripped through their home in the early hours of March 3 and all four of their family members were injured. Matt, Macy, and their other infant child remain in the hospital, according to a GoFundMe page for the family's funeral and medical expenses. Tennessee officials have released the names of the 18 people who perished in Putnam County in Tuesday's tornadoes. Four-year-old Hattie Collins (pictured right) was among the dead. The rest of her family suffered injuries in the twister and are in the hospital Joshua Kimberlin, his wife Erin Kimberlin and their toddler son Sawyer were killed when the tornado hit their home in Cookeville Todd Koehler and his wife Sue Koehler, both in their 50s, lost their lives when the tornado hit Cookeville Terry Curtis, 54, (pictured left with his wife Jennifer) and his six-year-old son Dawson (center) also died in the devastating storm. Curtis ran a local business called Curtis Septic. Amanda Cole, a 34-year-old woman who worked as a live-in nanny for the family (right), also died in the twister In some cases, entire families died in the twister tragedy. Putnam County releases names of 18 tornado victims Stephanie Field - 30's female Harlan Marsh 4 to 5-year-old male Jessica Clark 30s female Amanda Cole 34-year-old female Hattie Collins 4-year-old female Dawson Curtis 6 to 7-year-old female Terry Curtis 54-year-old male Joshua Kimberlin male in his 30s Sawyer Kimberlin 2 to 3-year-old male Erin Kimberlin female in her 30s Todd Koehler male in his 50s Sue Koehler female in her 50s Patricia Lane 67-year-old female Leisha Littenberry 28-year-old female Bridgette (Ann Marie) McCormick 12 to 13-year-old female Keith Selby male Cathy Selby female Jamie Smith 30 to 35-year-old female Advertisement Joshua Kimberlin, his wife Erin Kimberlin and their toddler son Sawyer were killed when the tornado hit their home in Cookeville. 'Josh, Erin, and Sawyer are all in heaven together. Were devastated with this news. They were a beautiful family. Continue to pray for their loss and comfort for family left behind,' a friend posted on Facebook. Terry Curtis, 54, and his six-year-old son Dawson also died in the devastator storm. Curtis ran a local business called Curtis Septic. Amanda Cole, a 34-year-old woman who worked as a live-in nanny for the family, also died in the twister. 'Terry was an amazing father, husband, friend, business owner. He loved his wife and his family fiercely,' friend Parrish Burgess posted on Facebook. 'Dawson was only 6 years old. He was mean as a snake. But sweet as could be. He loved everyone.' According to the friend Terry's wife and other child are in the hospital following the storm. Todd Koehler and his wife Sue Koehler, both in their 50s, lost their lives when the tornado hit Cookeville. Tributes poured in for the couple on Facebook saying: 'They are loved and will be missed.' According to social media Sue worked as a Walmart store manager. Three deaths were reported in Wilson County, two in Davidson County and one in Benton. Metro Police identified the two Davidson County victims as Michael Dolfini, 36, and his girlfriend Albree Sexton, 33. The pair were killed by debris in East Nashville after leaving Attaboy lounge, where Dolfini worked. In Wilson County the victims were identified as James and Donna Eaton, 84 and 81, who were killed at their home on Catalpa Drive. Brandy Barker, 38, of Lebanon, also died at a CEVA warehouse where she was working as a security guard. Stephanie Field and her son Harlan Marsh (together left, Harlan right) were killed when the twisters ripped through Putnam County Harlan's stepmother shared this heartbroken post announcing his death: 'The exact spot where our son was taken from us. Please take care of your families...even as the sun rises today we still wish for yesterday' Keith and Cathy Selby perished with the tornado hit their Cookeville home on Tuesday Metro Police identified two of the victims as Michael Dolfini, 36, and his girlfriend Albree Sexton, 33, of Davidson County. The pair were killed by debris in East Nashville after leaving Attaboy lounge, where Dolfini worked In Wilson County James and Donna Eaton, 84 and 81, who were killed at their home on Catalpa Drive Barker was engaged and was a mother to two children. Mother-of-two Brandy Barker, 38, of Lebanon died while working as a security officer 'She spent her life building a future for her children and giving them the best life possible. She enjoyed exercising, cosmetology, and had a passion for softball much of her life. Spending time with her family and watching them grow kept her spirits high,' her obituary said. At least 11 are still missing, and hundreds of buildings are decimated in the devastating string of tornadoes that tore through Tennessee in the deadliest tornado outbreak in the state since 2011. At least two deadly twisters razed through the state after midnight on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning residents started to return to their disintegrated homes as tens of thousands are left without electric power, disrupted gas and waterlines and debris-filled roads. The National Guard aided the search for dozens of missing residents on Wednesday morning as rescue crews sifted through shredded neighborhoods, with officials warning the death toll may rise. 'There is a good possibility there may be more. It's early yet,' Governor Bill Lee said Wednesday. The tornadoes roared through Davidson, Putnam Benton and Wilson counties, killing at least 24 people in its path of destruction that stretched across 50 miles. Heartbroken resident sifted through the wreckage of their homes on Wednesday after surviving the violent tornadoes that whipped through Tennessee on Tuesday. Laura Cercone of Cookeville pictured taking a break from cleaning her friend's destroyed home Families pictured sorting through the debris to gather their possessions on Wednesday in Cookeville, Tennessee Troy Brawner of Cookeville pauses in his home on Wednesday after it was knocked from its foundation by the tornado Inside the ruins: Troy Brawner and his wife Diane Montgomery of Cookeville clean up their home that was torn apart in the twister A pickup truck stands destroyed by the tornado that razed through Cookeville earlier this week President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he will visit Tennessee on Friday to offer his support In Wilson County the victims were identified as James and Donna Eaton, 84 and 81, and Brandy Barker, 38, of Lebanon One of those twisters was an EF-3 tornado with winds up to 165mph that twisted through a 10-mile stretch Nashville, killing two people downtown and obliterating three dozen buildings including the tower and stained glass of a historic church, according to the National Weather Service. Another tornado damaged more than 100 structures along a two-mile path of destruction in Putnam County, lifting some homes from their foundations. On Tuesday the NWS said the damage survey teams will determine in the coming days the paths of the tornadoes and if the damage came from one monster twister or two separate ones. There are currently no tornado warnings in effect for Middle Tennessee as of Wednesday. Officials in Putnam County are now working to locate 11 people who are unaccounted for, officials said Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday night they released a missing persons list of 76 people. In hard-hit Cookeville, Tennessee couple Seth Wells and Danielle Theophile revealed they tried to seek shelter by hiding in their home's bathtub but the storm lifted the house and threw the residents more 50 yards away into nearby trees 'I got woke up at 1.50 from my phone with a tornado warning. And that's when I heard it. It was this deep, roar, rumbling sound that I had never heard before. We were flying in the air and into the trees back there. Once we hit those trees the house just exploded. It disintegrated,' Wells said. The couple's bathtub appears to be above The damage to Wells and Theophile's neighborhood in Cookeville, Tennessee pictured above Dozens of people are still missing in Tennessee after America's deadliest tornado outbreak in years. Officials say many of the victims were asleep in their beds when the storms hit. The storm killed at least 24 people. @DavidBegnaud reports from Cookeville, Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/a5N68Qt1bo CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) March 4, 2020 Two men look at the storms' damage in Cookeville, Tennessee that obliterated homes and lifted residents into the air The search for dozens of missing residents is ongoing as of Wednesday morning as rescue crews sift through shredded neighborhoods, with officials warning the death toll may rise. 'There is a good possibility there may be more. It's early yet,' Governor Bill Lee said Wednesday. A damaged home on Holly Street in East Nashville pictured Tuesday The damage inside the East End United Methodist Church in East Nashville pictured Tuesday in the wake of the storms A search for at least 11 people who went missing in Tennessee tornadoes continued on Wednesday. At least two tornadoes razed through a 50-mile stretch in four counties after midnight on Tuesday in Tennessee, killing 24 and decimated neighborhoods. A razed neighborhood in Nashville pictured Tuesday An aerial view of a hermitage neighborhood in Nashville shows the devastating damage of the twisters that ripped roofs off houses and toppled trees An aerial view of Mt. Juliet after a tornado ripped through Middle Tennessee pictured above on Tuesday At least 88 people in the county were treated at hospitals for their injuries, Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. Officials went door to door Tuesday searching 150 standing structures. 'The damage is dramatic to see,' Porter said to NBC after touring the county by helicopter. In hard-hit Cookeville, Tennessee, one couple revealed they tried to seek shelter by hiding in their home's bathtub but the storm lifted the house and threw the residents more 50 yards away into nearby trees. Though they escaped the tornado with minor injuries, their home was completely obliterated. 'This is where we hid in the bathtub,' Resident Seth Wells and Danielle Theophile said to CBS This Morning. 'I got woke up at 1.50 from my phone with a tornado warning. And that's when I heard it. It was this deep, roar, rumbling sound that I had never heard before,' Wells said. 'We were flying in the air and into the trees back there. Once we hit those trees the house just exploded. It disintegrated. 'I could feel myself lifting and flipping over,' Theophile said. 'I have no clue how we survived,' Wells said. 'Like Wizard of Oz.' Theophile said her head split open in the twister and she required 15 stitches to her forehead. The couple said after the ordeal they're not letting go of each other. 'Not after this. Not ever. We're not letting go,' Wells said. An aerial view of the Elizabeth Park neighborhood in Nashville shows how it was left in pieces following Tuesday's tornadoes The Nashville twister that struck on Tuesday ripped through the same paths of the infamous 1933 and 1998 tornadoes that destroyed the area An aerial view of John C. Tune Airport after a tornado ripped through the city pictured Tuesday An aerial view of Department of Human Services offices in Nashville picture with its roof ripped off and metal skeleton structure laid bare East Nashville residents had only a six-minute warning to try and find shelter, according to Davidson County. 'I got the warning and in less than 10 minutes you could just feel the pressure, my ears were popping we all ran downstairs and just huddled together,' Theophile said. At the peak of the power outages more than 50,000 homes and businesses were left int he dark. As of Tuesday evening some 38,000 customers were still without electricity, as per the Nashville Electric Service. The Nashville twister that struck on Tuesday ripped through the same paths of the infamous 1933 and 1998 tornadoes that destroyed the area, according to the Washington Post. On Tuesday distressed residents sifted through the wreckage to head to the polls to cast their Super Tuesday vote. 'East Nashville isnt letting a tornado stop us from participating in our democracy,' Nashville resident Lisa Estrada tweeted from her polling station. 'What's your excuse?' At least 15 precincts were relocated in the storm and some others were damaged or required a generator for the vote. More than 515,000 Tennessee voters cast their ballots in the Super Tuesday primary and Joe Biden won the majority. President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he will visit Tennessee on Friday. 'I will be going to the Great State of Tennessee on Friday. The USA stands with the people of Tennessee 100%, whatever they need! The tornadoes were of record size & velocity. God bless your loved ones & all of the families affected!' The tornadoes left a trail of devastation as it passed through Camden, Cookeville and Mt Juliet. Downtown Nashville was also severely damaged Officials assess the damage to a burger joint in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday Lee Tucker, left, and Sharlyn Spicer, right, longtime next door neighbors on Holly Street, embrace as they survey the damge done to their homes after a tornado struck East Nashville just after midnight on Tuesday n aerial view of East Nashville near the 5 Points area after a tornado ripped through the city An aerial view of the Stanford Estates neighborhood near Donelson Christian Academy after a tornado wreaked havoc An aerial view of the Stanford Estates neighborhood near Donelson Christian Academy after a tornado ripped through the city on Tuesday Parts of the old Tennessee State Prison were still standing after the tornado hit the state on Tuesday Terrifying moment Nashville crane operator helplessly watches as tornado spirals towards him while he is stuck in his cabin 375ft in the air Crane operator Jason Nash filmed the moment he got stuck 375ft in the air as a twister ripped through Nashville, Tennessee Terrifying video footage shows the moment a tower crane operator helplessly watches a Tennessee tornado spiral towards him as he's stuck over 300 feet in the air. Kentucky man Jason Nash was working in a high tower crane in Nashville on early Tuesday when a tornado appeared and started to tear through the city. Nash frantically recorded the moment he panicked as he was suspended 375 feet in the air in the crane cab as the winds began to roar and bright lights started to flash in the distance. 'Carla, There is a real tornado right there. Oh my god,' Nash says as he records the scene of downtown Nashville sprawled out below him. Fearing for his life he then tries to send a message of love to his family and friends. 'If something happens make sure everybody knows I love them, Carla,' he said. 'This is no joke. There's a real tornado right there, right f***ing there! Oh my God!' he added. Nash said he had just a two-minute warning about the tornado before the dangerous twister emerged. Nash frantically recorded the moment he panicked as he was suspended 375 feet in the air in the crane cab as the winds began to roar and bright lights started to flash in the distance 'Carla, There is a real tornado right there. Oh my god,' Nash says as he records the scene of downtown Nashville sprawled out below him. In the distance bright lights started to flash blue red and white He said it took him 15 minutes to climb down the crane and get to safety. Another video emerged showing the downtown Nashville skyline and a single crane tower all lit up. It's not clear if Nash was in that specific crane. At least two deadly twisters razed through the state after midnight on Tuesday. The tornadoes roared through Davidson, Putnam Benton and Wilson counties, killing at least 24 people in its path of destruction that stretched across 50 miles. Advertisement Nashville Mayor John Cooper said while the 'damage is devastating' residents are stepping up to aid the community. The website for Nashville volunteer organization Hands On Nashville crashed three times from so many people trying to sign up to volunteer. By Tuesday afternoon more than 5,000 had signed up. Celebrities and country music stars including Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift shared messages of support for the people of Tennessee in light of the monster storms. Underwood said she was in her Nashville home with her husband and two young children when the twister hit. 'He said he had to go upstairs at like 2 a.m. and grab the boys and take them down to a little safe room in our house,' she said on the Today show. Tuesday's tornado was the second deadliest in Tennessee history. The most fatal was on March 22, 1952 when twisters killed 38 people in the state. Another deadly tornado ripped through the area on February 2008, killing 22. Tuesday's twister was the deadliest the entire US since 23 people were killed last year in Lee County, Alabama on March 3, 2019. In 2011 the most catastrophic tornado outbreak was recorded hitting the Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern states including Tennessee. In total 360 tornadoes were confirmed in 21 states over the course of three days leading to 324 casualties. In Tennessee alone 35 people died in 53 tornadoes, as per WBIR. He said workers of different races clustered together in cliques. He noticed racist graffiti directed toward blacks on bathroom stalls and said a Hispanic employee refused to train him on how to use a machine that filled bottles with beer because he is black. He never filed any formal complaints with human resources personnel, he said, but he did complain verbally to them. Nothing was done, he said. Married At First Sight has racked up its fair share of editing fails this season. And on Tuesday, eagle-eyed viewers noticed another one when Cathy Evans and Josh Pihlak went on a date to try and 'spice up' their flagging relationship. After going trampolining, the couple went for dinner and cocktails at a Mexican restaurant in Sydney. Did you notice the editing fail? Married At First Sight viewers spotted a bizarre continuity error during Cathy Evans and Josh Pihlak's spicy date night on Tuesday Cathy was shown drinking a frozen margarita while encouraging her 'husband' to eat a chilli that had been used as a garnish on his drink. 'It's sweet chilli,' Cathy joked, before Josh started chewing it. As Josh coped with the surge of heat in his mouth, his 'wife' laughed hysterically. Meanwhile, the scene cut between reaction shots of the pair. Continuity error: The level of liquid in Cathy's drink shifted between each reaction shot and even changed colour at one point from pink to yellow But the level of liquid in Cathy's drink shifted between each cut and even changed colour at one point from pink to yellow. Furthermore, the drink in front of Josh disappeared and reappeared. These continuity errors suggest that Cathy and Josh's reactions were filmed several times before producers were happy with the shots. It's back! Furthermore, the drink in front of Josh disappeared and reappeared. These editing fails suggest that Cathy and Josh's reactions were filmed several times before producers were happy with the shots Of course, this isn't the first time Cathy and Josh have had different takes spliced together during their 'spontaneous' romantic moments. Last month, Cathy's hair switched from wet to dry and back again during the couple's spa date on their honeymoon in rural Victoria. Married At First Sight continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine Bloomberg reportedly spent half a billion dollars out of his own pocket but failed to make a mark in the Super Tuesday primaries Washington: Failing to mark in the Super Tuesday primaries after reportedly spending more than half a billion dollars from his own pocket, US media tycoon Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed former vice president Joe Biden's candidacy. "Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," Bloomberg said in a statement "I'm a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life," he said. Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York, immediately endorsed 77-year-old Biden who has emerged as the frontrunner among the Democratic presidential aspirants after the primaries in 14 states on 3 March. Biden won nine states, while Senator Bernie Sanders won four and the two are tied in the State of Maine. "I have always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said. In the last three days, Biden has earned the endorsements of three presidential aspirants. The two other being Senator Amy Klobuchar and former mayor Pete Buttigieg. Trump in a tweet said that by not joining the race, Bloomberg would have saved himself a billion dollars. Mini Mike Bloomberg just quit the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didnt have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joes campaign, hoping to save face. It wont work! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 Trump in a series of tweets also took a dig at other Democratic presidential candidates who performed badly on Super Tuesday. Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasnt in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states. Our modern day Pocahontas wont go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 Trump also alleged that the Democratic establishment is working against Sanders. As lawmakers consider the future ownership of Santee Cooper, they should first look to what its current owners South Carolinas citizens think about the utility. According to the widely respected, nonpartisan research firm MarketSearch, 93 percent of Santee Coopers residential customers say they are satisfied with the service they receive, with nearly 60 percent of them highly satisfied. There is no doubt that since its founding in 1934, Santee Cooper has had some challenges. The same could be said of any sizable entity that has been operating for nearly 100 years, even one that doesnt use large-scale, cutting-edge, constantly evolving technology to provide essential services to a diverse population of millions. Hindsight is always 20/20, but that hasnt stopped Santee Cooper from striving for continuous improvement to provide safer, cheaper and more efficient electricity to its 2 million customers. In July 2019, Santee Cooper demonstrated its commitment to continuous improvement and excellent service by tapping Mark Bonsall as its president and CEO. Bonsall is known in the public power community as a problem-solver and a proven leader. He has earned a reputation as a reformer who gets results, understands the benefits and the challenges of public power and knows how to improve a utilitys operations so that it can provide the safest, most reliable service at the lowest cost to its customers. Bonsalls acumen, leadership skills and knowledge of public power made him a successful CEO for the community-owned utility Salt River Project in Phoenix and a longtime member of the American Public Power Association Board of Directors. Less than one year into his tenure, Bonsall has already begun implementing significant reforms to reduce Santee Coopers debt and adding state-of-the-art solar energy sources to the utility. These kinds of solutions will enable Santee Cooper to continue to provide the kind of high-quality service ratepayers and taxpayers currently enjoy. It is because Santee Cooper operates under a not-for-profit, state-owned utility model that it can respond to the needs and concerns of the customers it serves. Unlike some utilities in the United States, Santee Cooper is wholly accountable to its customers: the people of South Carolina. This unique accountability is why so many communities across America operate public power utilities, and many have begun exploring a move to public power in recent years. From Fayetteville, N.C., to Nashville, Tenn., public power customers are enjoying the many benefits of public power. And in cities such as Boulder, Colo., and San Francisco, customers are making strides toward community-owned, not-for-profit power. This fundamental bond with its customers is why, despite a centurys worth of economic shift and technological innovation, Santee Cooper has been able to provide affordable and reliable electricity to residents of the Palmetto State, earning it the support and loyalty it enjoys today. South Carolinians have made it clear they are pleased with the service they receive from their not-for-profit public power provider. And Santee Cooper has the leadership and plan in place to continue to improve and remain accountable to the communities it serves. I hope South Carolina lawmakers respect the views of their constituents and place public interest first in their upcoming decisions about Santee Coopers future. Joy Ditto is president and CEO of the American Public Power Association, a trade organization that advocates for the nations 2,000 public power utilities. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks at an abortion rights rally outside of the Supreme Court as the justices hear oral arguments in the June Medical Services v. Russo case in Washington on March 4, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Schumer Appears to Threaten Supreme Court Justices Over Abortion Just as the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that would could affect abortion providers, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) appeared to threaten two of the courts justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, during a speech at a nearby pro-abortion rally. I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You wont know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions, Schumer said in the March 4 speech, pointing his finger toward the Supreme Court building behind him. Its not clear what price the justices would pay or what would hit them in the Senators view. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and have broad latitude to decide cases as they see fit. Schumers spokesman, Alex Nguyen, said that the senator was talking about Republicans. Its a reference to the political price [Republicans] will pay for putting [Gorsuch and Kavanaugh] on the court and a warning that the justices will unleash a major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision, he told The Epoch Times via email. Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. The case before the court was brought by black pro-life organizations arguing that unqualified and uncredentialed abortion providers have a long history of disproportionately harming black women. It stems from a Louisiana law enacted in 2014 that requires abortionists to have active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where the procedure takes place. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Louisiana law, which officials say might only lead to short delays at one of three abortion-providing clinics in the state. But the Supreme Court put enforcement of the law on hold last year. Chief Justice John Roberts, part of the conservative bloc on the court, joined with four liberal justices in that vote. A similar law in Texas was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2016. Experts testified to the court that most surgical abortion complications that require hospitalization occur in the days after the abortion, not on the spot, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his opinion on the case (pdf). The states lawyers couldnt provide the court any instances where the regulation would have helped even one woman obtain better treatment, Breyer said. Anti-abortion advocates have for decades looked for ways to restrict abortions, which have been significantly deregulated by the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. The efforts have gained momentum in recent years in light of President Donald Trumps appointment of conservative justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. With them, the court has a 5-4 conservative-leaning majority, raising pro-life advocates hopes that it may rule on abortion issues differently. Some states with Democrat-led legislatures have responded by working to relax their abortion regulations, including New York and Virginia. Chief Justice John Roberts responded to Schumers comments in a statement sent to The Epoch Times on March 4, calling the remarks inappropriate and dangerous. This morning, Senator Schumer spoke at a rally in front of the Supreme Court while a case was being argued inside. Senator Schumer referred to two Members of the Court by name and said he wanted to tell them that You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.' the chief justice wrote. Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter, he added. Matthew Vadum, Janita Kan, and Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report. This article has been updated with a statement from the Supreme Court. Ugandas Medical Doctor, Irene Kyamummi, a promoter of the Child Health Project (CHEP), which provides care for Kampalas most vulnerable children will Thursday be conferred with the Harambee 2020 award for the Promotion and Equality of African Women. English Africa Service Vatican City The award announcement about Doctor Kyamummis recognition for the Promotion and Equality of African Women was made in January, this year. Promotion and Equality of African Women Conferment of the Harambee 2020 Award Ceremony is, however, scheduled for Thursday 5 March 2020 in Madrid, Spain. The award acknowledges Doctor Kyamummis work as an ardent promoter of the Child Health Project (CHEP) which supports some of the most vulnerable children in Kampala, Uganda. Worked first in Kenya now Uganda Kyamummi studied medicine at Ugandas University of Makerere and then worked on projects in favour of low-income families, first in Kenya and then in Uganda. In particular, she has collaborated on initiatives that support children suffering from tuberculosis as well as improving the living conditions of over 5,000 sick children. With the Prize, sponsored by the Rene Furterer Laboratorios, Kyamummi will be able to contribute more to the reduction of child mortality in the suburbs of Kampala through targeted health care programs. Ugandas CHEP Project also involves schools and, through them, families, because education is seen as essential to preventing and ensuring a healthier life for Ugandans vulnerable children. Harambee Africa International Harambee Africa International has been carrying out development projects in the field of education and training in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2002. Harambee is also involved in information and awareness-raising initiatives to contribute to the diffusion of a more in-depth image of the African Continent, beyond stereotypes. Harambee committees operate in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Poland and the United States. The headquarters is in Rome. The Uttar Pradesh government in a single stroke sacked 1,300 Jal Nigam employees appointed during the previous Samajwadi Party regime on the ground of faulty selection process. Additional Chief Engineer of UP Jal Nigam, IK Srivastav, in an order issued on Monday dismissed 122 assistant engineers, 853 junior engineers and 325 clerks from the date of their appointment following inquiry by a special investigation team (SIT) and the department. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, now in jail in connection with a forgery case, was the minister of the department which looked after the Jal Nigam at the time of the recruitment in 2016-17. A senior government official said the recruitment has been set aside based on the departmental inquiry and a report from the SIT. The SIT was formed by the Yogi government in 2017 to investigate allegations of irregularities in the selection process. The SIT found that proper selection process was not adopted and pointed out faulty working of the Mumbai-based private firm, hired for conducting the examination for the recruitment. Soon after the completion of the selection process, several candidates had moved the court, alleging irregularities in selection. The assistant engineers were earlier dismissed by the Yogi government but they had got a reprieve from the Supreme Court. A fresh order to cancel their appointment has now been issued based on fresh reports, the official added. The official said action will also be taken against the Mumbai firm and the candidates who were illegally selected. The order issued by Srivastava said the salary and allowances etc will, however, not be recovered from the dismissed employees. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police remove barriers that has separated Son Loi Commune in Vinh Phuc Province in northern Vietnam from the outside world during a 20-day lockdown, March 3, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. The lockdown of Son Loi Commune in Vinh Phuc Province to contain the coronavirus was lifted on Tuesday night. The commune in Binh Xuyen District has not recorded any new cases of Covid-19 in the last 20 days, and so the lockdown has ceased, Bui Hong Do, chief of the province People's Committee office, announced. Son Loi had become the Covid-19 epicenter in Vietnam with seven confirmed cases, prompting authorities to completely isolate the 10,600 people living in its six villages from February 13. A 50-year-old man in the commune was diagnosed with the disease on that day, the 16th and last case detected in Vietnam thus far. He had contracted it from his 23-year-old daughter, who had returned from Chinas Wuhan City in January. He was discharged from hospital on February 26. Following the lockdown, 12 disease control checkpoints were set up around the commune and manned round the clock to check everyone going in or out. Son Loi authorities also had the area disinfected, informed residents about the new coronavirus and the disease it causes and prevented food, animals, plants, and other things potentially capable of spreading the virus from leaving the commune. Now, with the quarantine ending, they are wary and advising locals to restrict traveling and crowded places to prevent the disease from returning. Vinh Phuc recorded 11 cases in all, nine of them in Binh Xuyen District, all traced to a group of eight workers at a Japanese-owned company sent to Wuhan City in China where the first ever new coronavirus was detected in January. Locals response People attend an event to lift the lockdown in Son Loi Commune, Vinh Phuc Province, northern Vietnam, late on March 3, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Do Thi Tuyet took her two children to the office of the Son Loi Peoples Committee to attend an event held on Tuesday night to formally announce the end of the lockdown. Hundreds of people had gathered by 9 p.m., two hours before the event started. "It is so exciting, feels just like Tet," she said, referring to the Lunar New Year holiday, the biggest festival in Vietnam. For dinner that evening her family of six had two hotpots to celebrate the "victory" in the battle against the coronavirus. Tuyet said she was scared at first when the commune was locked down and did not feel comfortable, but later, when she followed the news regularly, she realized it had been necessary. "Now we can breathe a sigh of relief." Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, speaking at the event, was realistic: "This is the first success, but we cannot be complacent." He said the epidemic could spread far and wide across the community, and authorities now have to widen their monitoring to the entire community rather than just focus on a certain area. "Vinh Phucs experience in filtering, classifying and treating infected patients within the province should be used in other places to avoid overburdening central-level hospitals." All of Vietnams 16 novel coronavirus infections have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. The government has announced that everyone coming from South Korea, Iran, Italy, and mainland China will be quarantined for 14 days on arrival. In the case of arrivals from other countries, people from stricken areas are quarantined while the rest have to follow a health declaration protocol. The global death toll has reached 3,202, mostly in mainland China, followed by Italy (79), Iran (77) and South Korea (32). The U.S. has reported nine deaths and Japan 12, including six on a cruise ship. 4.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard During a campaign event hosted by former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening, while celebrating early returns from Super Tuesday election results, two protesters stormed the stage and interrupted his statements. The protesters appeared to be animal rights activists and started shouting, Let dairy die! while they were on the stage. They were immediately escorted off the platform with help from Dr. Jill Biden and senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders. According to reporting from The Independent, both Dr. Biden and Sanders jointly tackled one of the protesters, pushing them out of the way and directing them to leave the area. Sanders later tweeted about the situation, stating on Twitter that she broke a nail because of it. I broke a nail. #SuperTuesday Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) March 4, 2020 Many on social media celebrated the way in which Sanders and Biden handled themselves. YO, Jill Biden is FEARLESS. These two protesters rushed the stage, and Jill had her man's back. Nice to see that. You'll never see Melania do that. pic.twitter.com/wG0xHobFyk BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) March 4, 2020 I swear if these protesters don't stop rushing up on stage, Dr. Jill Biden is gonna clock them! Look at her! Ready to fight! #JoeBiden2020 #SuperTuesday pic.twitter.com/u2NeqQGS7B Ricardo Luke (@Lukericardo) March 4, 2020 In spite of the heroics displayed by both Sanders and Biden, others noted that the fact that protesters were able to get that close to a frontrunner candidate running for president was deeply disturbing. Former White House press secretary Robbie Gibbs, who served in the Obama administration, discussed the issue on MSNBC that evening, calling on some more protective measures to be taken by the federal government. He cited a separate but similar incident with protesters interrupting an event that involved Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this campaign season. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden need Secret Service protection. What happened tonight was nothing short of genuinely scary, Gibbs said. Fmr. Obama Press Sec. Robert Gibbs: "Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden need Secret Service protection. What happened tonight was nothing short of genuinely scary." pic.twitter.com/KUkl5FP3wp MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 4, 2020 Former Obama photographer Pete Souza echoed his sentiment in a tweet Wednesday morning. Kudos to @DrBiden and @SymoneDSanders but as @Robt_Gibbs said last night, both @JoeBiden and @BernieSanders need Secret Service protection ASAP, Souza said. The Secret Service itself does not determine which candidates for president receive the agencys protection. As noted on the Secret Service website, [m]ajor Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, as identified by the Secretary of Homeland Security, are eligible for Secret Service protection. NEW Delhi is Indias capital city. It is also an Indian state with its own government. On Feb. 8, the State of Delhi held elections. The main contestants were the Aam Admi (Common Man) Party (AAP), the state wing of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bhartiya Janata (Indian Peoples) Party (BJP) and the iconic Congress Party of India. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion NEW Delhi is Indias capital city. It is also an Indian state with its own government. On Feb. 8, the State of Delhi held elections. The main contestants were the Aam Admi (Common Man) Party (AAP), the state wing of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bhartiya Janata (Indian Peoples) Party (BJP) and the iconic Congress Party of India. As millions of Delhiites went out to cast ballots, the election became a referendum on Modis polarizing policies at the national level. Modis BJP is backed by and heavily influenced by Indias leading Hindu nationalist organizations; Shiv Sena (SS) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Some even argue the BJP is simply the political wing of these nationalist entities that are promoting and agitating for "Hindutva," whose proponents present it as a return to Indias natural state, featuring Hinduism at its core, while critics call it a hegemonic imposition of "Hindu-ness" on Indias cultural, social, religious and political systems. Delhi became a battleground and a test of the BJPs legislative initiatives, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CCA) and the National Citizens Register (NCR), which have been heavily criticized for being thinly veiled attempts to target Muslims as part of the BJPs Hindu-nationalist agenda. During the campaign, the incumbent AAP presented a platform for social development and unity, while the BJP and its allies tried to nationalize the campaign by invoking rival Pakistan and the "Muslim threat" faced by Indias Hindu population. At public rallies, the BJPs Kapil Mishra called AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal a traitor, and added that traitors deserved a bullet. The BJP made a grand wager by turning Delhis election into a debate on nationalism and betting that Indians would ignore bread-and-butter economic issues in favour of an emotional pull toward their religious core. The strategy seemed to have worked in the 2019 national election, which returned a massive BJP majority to office. But in Delhi, the BJPs big wager returned a resounding defeat, as Kejriwals AAP picked up 72 of 80 seats compared to the BJPs eight. While Delhiites soundly rejected the BJPs call to nationalist arms, the campaign exposed a perilously polarized and divided India. The BJP and its allies unleashed a divisive campaign that offered a Hindu India in which minorities, including Christians and Muslims, were presented as threats to Indias greater aspirations. Its campaign rhetoric became so vitriolic that even senior BJP leaders such as Manoj Tiwari later conceded that its defeat in Delhi could be attributed to divisive and communally charged speeches by some BJP leaders. As the plebiscite on Modis nationalist agenda played out in Delhi, secularist Indians came out to protest while incendiary comments by BJP leaders and surrogates appeared to bring violent BJP supporters into the mix. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student protesters became victims of an attack by masked men, while Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) students were shot at least twice by young men apparently responding to the call to shoot traitors. During a Jan. 5 mob attack at the JNU campus, three students Khushbu Sharma, Akshay Shete and Kaifi Ansari survived while masked men injured 39 of their fellow protestors, some seriously. They also watched campus police stand by and allow the attacks to occur. Sharma and Shete are high-caste Hindus and the latter is well familiar with the indoctrinating tactics of the RSS, once having been a youth field worker for the cause. Ansari is Muslim. All three consider the CAA and the NCR to be inherently anti-Muslim. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. For Ansari, the CAA, the NCR and the Delhi campaign are isolating and alienating; as an Indian who happens to practise Islam, being told to "Go back to Pakistan" is humiliating and deeply hurtful. In this environment, she admits to being made to feel "less Indian." Sharma and Shete see the CAA and the NCR as only the beginning. Their protest is not only for fellow Indians like Ansari, but also for Indias secular soul. They believe if Hindutva prevails, religious minorities wont be the only lesser Indians; given the countrys multi-layered social structure, they fear it wont be long before Hindutva will demand stratified rights based on caste differences, even amongst Hindus. As students like Ansari, Shete and Sharma protest to defend their rights, many of those whose rights are at risk support the BJPs vision of a Hindu India. Amongst the working class of Delhi, many from lower-caste Hindu families, there is a strong belief that the BJP is working on their behalf. When asked about the pending Delhi election, the driver from one of Delhis posh hotels frequented by foreigners responds, "The BJP should win." Asked if the AAP had done anything to help his family, he mentions the introduction of free education and health care for Delhiites. And then asked why he supported the BJP, he replies, "Someone has to deal with the desh drohis (enemies of the nation)." And that is the great Indian divide. While Ansari, Shete and Sharma fight for the drivers place in a future India, the driver sees them as enemies of the nation. Which view prevails will dictate Indias future. And there are countless battles yet to come before that future reveals itself. Sudhir Sandhu is chief executive officer of Manitoba Building Trades. He recently traveled to India, where he was born and resided until his mid-teens. A medical professional contracted to screen passengers traveling through Los Angeles International Airport last month tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday. The case was one of six newly confirmed cases that led Los Angeles County to declare a local state of emergency Wednesday after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped from one to seven in 48 hours. The state of emergency will allow the county, the most populous in the nation with ten million residents, to access extra federal and state funding to aid in the containment of current cases and prevent any further outbreak. The airport screener is said to have mild symptoms and is quarantined at home. People wear face masks at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) where a medical professional who screened passengers for the coronavirus has now tested positive Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks during a Los Angeles County Health Department press conference on the novel coronavirus on Wednesday declaring a state of emergency Los Angeles County, the country's most populous county with ten million residents, declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday amid coronavirus concerns and an increase in cases The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday the worker had last screened travelers traveling through Tom Bradley International Terminal for the virus on February 21 and had worn the correct protective clothing. Several direct flights from China arrived to the terminal between February 12 and February 21. Symptoms did not appear until a week after the person's final shift. The individual began to show symptoms on Saturday and presented themselves to a Primary Care Doctor on Sunday. 'DHS is happy to report that this individual was highly trained and did everything right both on the job and when they began to feel sick,' the DHS said. 'We are told the individual wore all the correct protective equipment and took necessary protections on the job. Additionally, as soon as the individual began to feel sick, they self-quarantined, saw a physician, and reported to the appropriate authorities and officials.' The individual and their family is under quarantine in their home. The patient is under medical supervision but symptoms are mild. The DHS is now working to establish the person's contacts and communicating wit their co-workers. 'At this time we do not know if this case is a result from community spread or through their work as a medical screener,' DHS said. 'There have been no positive COVID-19 detections reported from the LAX screened travelers. This is an evolving situation that the CDC, DHS and county public health officials continue to examine.' A coronavirus screener who worked at LAX tested positive for the virus on Tuesday The individual worked at Tom Bradley International Terminal and screened international passengers for the virus on February 21. They had worn the correct protective clothing On Wednesday Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, confirmed she signed a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in the county. 'I want to reiterate that this is not a response rooted in panic,' she said. The move came after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city had also declared a state of emergency. 'While there are only a few known active COVID-19 cases in the region, the declaration helps us access state and federal funding to strengthen and support our efforts to prepare our region and keep our communities safe,' he said. California has treated 51 people for the coronavirus, the most in any state. In Washington, where ten of the first eleven deaths were registered, 27 patients have been treated. The six new cases in LA County are linked to an 'an assumed known exposure' and health officials are preparing for more cases. 'We will ensure that people who test positive for the novel coronavirus and their close contacts are quickly identified and closely monitor and supported while they are in isolation and/or quarantined,' said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the County of Los Angeles Public Health Department. The news came as the first death in California death was reported. This was the first of the eleven national deaths confirmed so far to be registered outside of Washington and the Seattle area. The first death in California was in Placer County. He was an elderly adult with underlying respiratory issues and had been a passenger on the Princess Cruise ship. Los Angeles County Public Health director Barbara Ferrer (L) and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (R) Wednesday before a local state of emergency was declared for LA county Tents of the homeless line a streetcorner in Los Angeles County where the number of coronavirus cases jumped from one to seven in 48 hours and sparked a state of emergency The sleeping area of A Bridge Home interim housing for the homeless in Los Angeles Concerns are rising for the homeless population in both Southern California and King County, Washington, as numbers diagnosed in both areas begin to quickly rise. In Los Angeles County, Dr. Ferrer said that officials are working with agencies who aid the homeless to establish a plan if the outbreak should worsen. In 2019, homelessness in the county was up by 12 percent, according to the New York Times, with a population over 58,000. Los Angeles city's homeless population stood at 36,000 as of June 2019. Concerns are also growing for the homeless population in King County, Washington, which has the third highest number of homeless in the country and is currently looking to set up isolation units to prevent further spread. Nine coronavirus deaths occurred in the county as of Wednesday afternoon. County officials are said to be in 'final negotiations' to purchase an undisclosed motel to establish isolation units and they will also utilize unused modular housing units previously purchased to house the homeless. King County Executive Dow Constantine told King5.com the motel would be used for those needing isolation and recovery. The purchase is expected to be finalized by the end of the week. As of 2019 survey, 27% of the homeless population in Seattle identified as having a chronic health condition, a factor that will put them more at risk of the coronavirus A person walks along a street near the Union Gospel Mission in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle. There are around 5,000 homeless in King County Makeshift tent encampments sit under a highway in Seattle, Washington, as concerns grow about the homeless population amid the worsening coronavirus outbreak 'We have moved to a new stage in the fight to contain and mitigate this outbreak. King County is aligned and organized behind this common mission, with Public Health Seattle & King County as our lead agency,' Executive Constantine said. The county already owns 14 modular housing units which will be used to isolate patients who do not have a home address. 'Many of us can shelter in place, we can go home, we can even work remotely,' Constantine told the Seattle Times. 'That is not an option for people who are unhoused.' The homeless population in King County numbered at 5,000 as of 2019. The homeless are considered at higher risk to the coronavirus as many also suffer from chronic health conditions. As of a 2019 survey, 27% of the homeless population identified as such. The homeless also don't have ready access to facilities to engage in proper hygiene practices. Seattle's Navigation Team, a group of police officers and city staff charged with removing encampments and getting people into shelter, said Tuesday it was sharing hygiene guidelines and kits with the homeless. On Monday, the city's homeless shelters were close to full, the Seattle Times reported. The city with the highest homeless population is New York where cases also spiked to six on Wednesday. There the homeless population is more then 78,000. Amidst the cacophony of negative voices, I would like to send a word of support to Mr. Cummings and the parade committee for once again organizing and executing the best parade on Staten Island. Id also like to express admiration for sticking to your principles. It cannot be easy for the parade committee and AOH to continue to resist the relentless efforts by supporters of the Pride Center, politicians, businesses, and the Advance/SILive to bring them under heel. They certainly do make a lot of noise. So, I admire the committees fortitude and suspect other Staten Islanders do too but are just quiet about it (particularly so given the Advances decision to eliminate comments within the past 10 days). To those piling on the Parade Committee and AOH, you might do well to remember that you need to concern yourselves not only with the ones making a lot of noise but with the quiet ones, as well. The quiet ones also vote - both at the ballot box and with their feet and wallet. (Michael R. Waters is a Randall Manor resident.) Egypt on Wednesday executed Hisham Ashmawy, described as the countrys most dangerous Islamist militant Egyptian top militant Hisham Ashmawy was executed by hanging on Wednesday morning, after he was convicted of plotting several terror attacks, the military said in a statement. Ashmawy was captured in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in late 2018 and was handed over to Egypt by forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar in May last year. He's been described as the country's most dangerous terrorist. He was handed two death sentences after being convicted of orchestrating several deadly high-profile attacks against security forces. "This morning, the death sentence by hanging was carried out on terrorist defendant Hisham Ali Ashmawy," military spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said in an audio statement posted on Facebook. Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, led Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group. He broke off after the group swore allegiance to the Islamist State group in late 2014. He later sneaked into Libya to join the militant Ansar Al-Sharia group and later founded a new Al-Qaeda-aligned group called Al-Mourabitoun after switching his allegiance away from the Islamic State group. The army said Ashmawy was convicted in 14 crimes including a prominent 2014 ambush that killed 22 Egyptian military border guards near the frontier with Libya and a failed assassination attempt on a former interior minister in 2013. Other crimes listed include targeting ships in the Suez Canal and involvement in deadly assaults on security buildings and armoured vehicles. Ashmawy was sentenced to death by a military court in November 2019 over terrorism charges. Earlier this week, he was sentenced to death along with 36 others in another terrorism case after being convicted of their role in over 50 crimes including murder of policemen. #_ : / pic.twitter.com/1jnqJ8LFUF (@EgyArmySpox) March 4, 2020 Search Keywords: Short link: The largest deployment of troops across the Atlantic in 25 years entered its main phase last weekend within the framework of the Defender Europe 2020 exercise. The scale of NATO's provocative military exercise underscores how far advanced the preparations for war are 75 years after the end of World War II. The United States and 18 other countries are deploying large contingents of troops from America and Western Europe to the Russian border within a short period of time. In total, around 37,000 soldiers are participating in the exercise, which is to continue until June. Their objective is Poland and the Baltic states. The freight ship Endurance docked in Bremerhaven last week together with four other vessels carrying US tanks and other heavy military equipment. The US alone is deploying 20,000 troops and their armaments to Europe. U.S. Marines run to firing positions during live-fire training in Jordan [Credit: Marine Corps, Staff Sgt. Dengrier M. Baez] Stand-alone infrastructure is being established to facilitate the troop movements. The German army has established a central transport control centre, set up tent camps on military training grounds, and deployed mobile refuelling stations. Although the kilometres-long convoys are generally on the move during the night, they are causing significant disruption to transport. The German army has remained silent on the cost of the exercise. Referring to sources in the army, the Tagesspiegel newspaper estimates that the cost will be 2.5 million in Germany alone. This needs analysis by the parts of the armed forces involved based on the deployment of equipment and personnel, accommodation, and the provision of infrastructure. Additionally, further costs could arise, wrote the Tagesspiegel . A spokesman for the US military stated that the countries involved would invest in military infrastructure. As an example, he referred to Lithuania, which like Germany is investing in the expansion of its railway network for heavy cargo. Of the 37,000 soldiers from 19 countries involved in the exercise, more than half, 20,000, come from the United States. 4,000 German soldiers are taking part. In addition, police units are protecting the transportation of materials. Alongside around 33,000 vehicles and containers, some 450 tanks will deploy to the Russian border. Over 100 rail transportation trips will take place. Overall, the troops will move through seven countries and use 14 airports and ports. Germany is the main hub of the exercise. In the first phase, which runs until April, American weaponry and military equipment will be deployed in Germany, Belgium, and Poland. In stage two, which will run partially in parallel until May, troops will be deployed through Germany to Poland. In the final phase prior to the main exercise all remaining troops will be deployed from Germany to Poland and the Baltic states. The final exercise will take place in Bergen on the Luneburger moors, Germany, at the end of May, before the withdrawal of all forces is completed by the end of July. The manoeuvre builds on military exercises held well into the 1990s in Western Europe, some of which involved up to 130,000 troops. Now, for the first time, such a large-scale exercise is being carried out right up to the Russian border and on former Soviet territory. The manoeuvre is designed to send a message of deterrence, according to the German and US militaries. Lt. Gen. Martin Schelleis commented on this, The reality is that Russia, with its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, provoked this development. But Russia is not the pretext for the exercise; military capacity can only be rebuilt and maintained over an extended period of time. NATO's European supreme commander Gen. Tod D. Wolters described the exercise as a platform to strengthen the readiness and interoperability of allied forces. Like the Sabre Strike exercise in Lithuania in 2017 and Trident Juncture in 2018, the current manoeuvre aims to test the capacity to rapidly deploy combat-ready troops and equipment to the Russian border, before the alliance case is put to the test in a series of combat simulations. The advanced character of the preparations for war with Russia was underscored last week when US Defence Secretary Mark Esper participated in a war game at the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, during which the firing of nuclear weapons against Russia was simulated. The US military stated that the war game involved an unexpected incident in Europe during which a war is being waged on Russia, and Russia decides to fire a small-scale nuclear weapon on a location in NATO territory. Two exercises will take place in Latvia on the border with Russia during the early part of this year. A Swift Response Training involving Latvian and international troops will run between April and May. Military units from the United States, Britain, Italy, and Spain will practice aerial manoeuvres in case of a sudden threat. However, it is not only the Trump administration that is speaking the language of war. Germany and the European powers are attempting to emerge militarily from the shadow of the United States. This applies above all to Germany. In his speech at the recent Munich Security Conference, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier complained that Russia had annexed Crimea without any regard for international law. Moscow used military force and the violent redrawing of borders on the European continent as legitimate policy options. Observing is insufficient, declared Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany's defence minister, who spoke in Munich on the topic of Defending the West. On this issue, she stated her full agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron, who called at the Munich Security Conference for a more independent European military policy. The Europeans must not simply describe their weaknesses, comment on the actions of others or complain about them, but also conduct much more strategic dialogue in Europe and do something concrete for our security. Germany in particular is obliged to develop a greater capacity to act and a willingness to take action. All political parties in Germany support this drive to war. The formerly pacifist Greens are no exception to this. With their typical demagogy, they have sought to turn events on their head and present the current NATO exercise as a contribution to disarmament. Green party defence spokesman Tobias Lindner stated that one successful outcome of the exercise would be that a permanent stationing of more US troops in Germany and Europe would not be required. Russia, which was given the assurance 30 years ago when Germany was reunified that NATO would not expand into eastern Europe and certainly not onto former Soviet territory, has responded with alarm to the latest provocation. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov remarked, Of course we will respond. We can't ignore developments that cause us concern. But we will respond in a way that does not create any unnecessary risk. Despite recent comments by SpaceX founder Elon Musk that the fighter jet is technology from a bygone era, the aircraft will remain on flight lines for many years to come, according to top Air Force generals. Last week, Musk ruffled feathers when he told a room full of pilots at the Air Warfare Symposium in Florida that "locally autonomous drone warfare is where it's at, where the future will be." "It's not that I want the future to be this; that's just what the future will be. ... The fighter jet era has passed," he said, as reported by multiple news outlets Friday. "Yeah, the fighter jet era has passed. It's drones." While planning ahead for asymmetric warfare is a must, permanently parking fighters on the ramp isn't going to happen right now, said Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mike Holmes. Related: Air Force Takes First Step Toward Adding Flying Cars to Its Aircraft Inventory "For a long time, we're still going to need the manned aircraft on the fighter and bomber side," Holmes, an F-15 Eagle pilot, said Wednesday during the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference. "We will increasingly be experimenting with other options, [and] we're going to work together." He gave Musk the benefit of the doubt that the entrepreneur's comments were about "thinking about what comes next" -- dozens of years ahead, separate from the present battlefield landscape. The Air Force should also be thinking ahead, Holmes said, citing the service's fighter road map, which roughly outlines where its aircraft inventory and platforms should be by 2030 and beyond. "What we're trying to work through is to think about it as a capability road map to say, 'What is going to do the mission we've been doing with fighters?' [and] work [that idea] into the future," he said. "The answer to, 'Is it manned? Unmanned?' [is] yes." During the conference, Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, the Program Executive Officer for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office, said that, while he isn't "interested in engaging in the battle of words with Elon Musk," the Pentagon's newest stealth jet, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, will be around for the foreseeable future. "I'm happy to see what comes next, be it manned or unmanned, but the F-35 is going to be here for a long time," Fick said. Just how the service's fighter road map may develop is unknown. For example, aging F-15C models need to be replaced, Holmes said. As of today, the only aircraft that can fill its shoes are fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35 -- or possibly the F-22 Raptor, if the capacity is there, he added. The Air Force has said its older F-16 Fighting Falcon models will also be replaced by F-35s. However, Holmes hinted there may be some wiggle room as the service updates its assessments. "When they need to be replaced, what am I going to replace them with?" he said. "So I want to work to do the experimentation to answer that question, [which is] 'Will I still want to replace them all with F-35s? Or will I start cutting in something else like [Musk] talked about?" Holmes added that he and Dr. Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, are currently in discussions about what those options could be. In October, the service cut the ribbon on the "Program Executive Office for Advanced Aircraft" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The center is the first to be devoted to planning future fighters and what these jets -- which could incorporate a mix of drone sidekicks to augment the fighter -- might look like. "There may come a day that we don't need to have people in [the cockpit], but it's not yet," Holmes said. "We've done really well at teaching some artificial intelligence machines to play complicated games, but they're playing games where they know 100% of the information. "When you're playing in a game, where you have uncertainty, and you don't know everything, then there's still a role for people to play," he said. "And that's whether that's in the cockpit of a fighter or whether it's in the command-and-control center." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Read more: Air Force's Troubled Tanker Is Years Away from Use -- Unless Its Needed to Fight After being released by the NYPD despite charges of child rape and sexual abuse, an illegal immigrant has been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Monday, according to Fox Live News. On Feb. 27, NYPD arrested 20-year-old Guatemalan national Miguel Federico Ajqui-Ajtzalam and detained him. ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York's Criminal Alien Program submitted a detainer to the New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC). However, due New York City's sanctuary policies, the detainer was ignored and the perpetrator was subsequently arraigned and released from NYCDOC's custody. According to the ICE press release, Thomas R. Decker, field officer director for ERO New York, said it was "inconceivable" that Ajqui-Ajtzalam should be released back into the community instead of being transferred to ICE. "It's frightening that our detainer was ignored and he was released onto New York City streets to possibly re-offend," Decker added. "The safety of city residents, especially the more vulnerable, continues to be a priority for ICE enforcement." U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) first spotted Ajqui-Ajtzalam in September 2016 after illegally entering the U.S. without going through inspection, ICE said. He was processed as an unaccompanied alien child and was issued a Notice to Appear. After which, he was released from ICE custody in November that year on an Order of Recognizance (OREC) pending removal proceedings. As of writing, Ajqui-Ajtzalam is under ICE custody before he is set to appear before a federal immigration judge. Based on ICE's records, in 2019, the federal immigration authorities have removed or returned 267,000 illegal immigrants. Within that period, ERO has arrested 143,000 aliens, more than 86 percent of whom had been convicted or had pending criminal charges. By lodging detainers on individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges, other law enforcement agencies will be asked to notify ICE prior to their release and to detain the said individual for a brief period of time until ICE can take over the custody of that person in a safe and secure setting upon release from that law enforcement agency. However, when law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it compromises its ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission, and worse, presenting a potential public safety threat, according to the ICE press release. "Despite the severe challenges that local policies have created for ICE, we remain committed to our public safety mission and we will continue to do our sworn duty to seek out dangerous criminal aliens and other immigration violators," a statement by the agency. "ICE seeks straightforward cooperation with all local law enforcement and elected officials." According to an article by Latin Post, President Donald Trump has made it clear several times, that his administration aims to protect legal, law abiding, tax paying Americans first. To simply put it, failure to meet the central government's immigration requirements due to sanctuary policies questioned the Trump's administration and are deemed to face drastic consequences. This includes withholding the funds that are granted by jurisdiction to sanctuary cities that insist on protecting criminal, illegal immigrants from arrest and deportation. Alternative funding arrangements being considered as Ruabon station misses out on UK Government cash This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 Local politicians have expressed their disappointment after Ruabon Train Station missed out on UK Government funding. The station, along with Haverfordwest and Whitchurch (Shropshire), had been endorsed by the Welsh Government but failed to be selected by the UK Government in the final allocations for accessibility improvements, despite investment once being described as confirmed. Additional regional accessibility improvements at a further 30 stations were endorsed by the Welsh Government but declined by the UK Government. Ruabon councillor Dana Davies has been involved in the campaign for improved disabled access at Ruabon Station and has worked alongside the Friends of Ruabon and former MP Susan Elan Jones to fight for step-free access at both platforms. In 2017 our MP Susan Elan Jones presented a petition to Parliament on behalf of the Friends of Ruabon urging action from the UK Government, said Cllr Davies. Westminster is responsible for station infrastructure whether they like it or not, and we are fed-up of being short-changed. The hard work of campaigners appeared to have paid off in 2018 when the Welsh Government announced funding to carry out long-awaited work on step-free access at Ruabon. But the UK Government opted against investing in Ruabon. The Welsh Government then shortlisted Ruabon again but the DfT announcement saw the project dumped by Westminster for the second time. The UK Government needs to step up and stop giving our area a second-class service.Improving infrastructure and access at Welsh railway stations comes under the remit of the Tory Government at Westminster, but they have failed us time and time again. The fantastic Friends of Ruabon and the people of our area have called for better disabled access at the station for years, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The Welsh Government has since announced that it is in the early stages of considering alternative funding arrangements for stations that have not been selected. Ken Skates, Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister, commented: It is disappointing that the UK Government has decided to invest in just 4 of the 7 projects we had promoted and offered to match fund. I have therefore asked Transport for Wales and rail industry partners to urgently consider the scope for using the matched funding commitment we offered to progress step free access at the excluded stations, under our own direct investment. This is because of the U.K. Governments failure to deliver the investment they are responsible for. Stations with strong community support for step free upgrades have been excluded from funding. Unfortunately it is another example where passengers are set feel the effect of the UK Governments continuing underinvestment in Welsh railways. Meanwhile, I am pleased that work will go ahead at the four successful stations. Breathing propels everything we do--so its rhythm must be carefully organized by our brain cells, right? Wrong. Every breath we take arises from a disorderly group of neurons - each like a soloist belting out its song before uniting as a chorus to harmonize on a brand-new melody. Or, in this case, a fresh breath. That's the gist of a new UCLA study published in this week's online edition of Neuron. We were surprised to learn that how our brain cells work together to generate breathing rhythm is different every time we take a breath. Each breath is a like a new song with the same beat." Jack Feldman, senior author, professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute Feldman and his colleagues studied a small network of neurons called the preBotzinger Complex. Early in his career, he'd named the region after suggesting it was the chief driver of breathing rhythm in the brain. In 2015, Feldman's lab found that surprisingly low levels of activity in the preBotzinger Complex were driving breathing rhythm. The discovery left a riddle in its wake: how could such minor cues generate a foolproof breathing rhythm - whose failure means death? To answer that puzzle, the UCLA team studied slices of brain tissue from mice and meticulously isolated preBotzinger Complex neurons from the brainstem. By recording the cells' electrical activity in a dish, the team could eavesdrop on the neurons' conversations with their network neighbors. According to first author Sufyan Ashhad, the neurons' activity resembled a choir whose members are practicing and singing over each other without benefit of a conductor. "It's like each neuron is clearing its throat and rehearsing its tune off-key, so their collective sound does not make sense," said Ashhad, a postdoctoral researcher in Feldman's lab. "As the neurons interact, though, they quickly synchronize to sing in tune, transforming their individual solos from cacophony into harmony." Each breath begins as hundreds of individual neurons haphazardly fire at low levels, then quickly synchronize. The synchronized effort prompts a burst of activity that signals muscles in the diaphragm and chest to contract, causing the chest to expand. Air rushes in and fills the lungs for inhalation. As the signal subsides, the chest pushes air out of the lungs for exhalation. The cycle repeats, generating the rhythm of breathing. "Given the reliability of breathing, we were stunned to discover that how these neurons move to synchronize and generate rhythm is different in every breathing cycle," said Feldman. Why is this important? Consider all the times your breathing adjusts. It quickens when you are anxious or exercising, and slows as you fall sleep. "Breathing rhythm changes constantly--from when you rise from seated to standing and walk out of your house," said Feldman. "If your brain couldn't automatically adapt, you'd pass out from lack of oxygen before reaching the street." Breathing underlies all aspects of brain function, he added. The UCLA findings could suggest new approaches to treating breathing disorders in autistic children and sleep apnea. Understanding how breathing rhythm is generated may also help scientists combat the rising death rate from opioid use, which suppresses the brain's ability to regulate breathing. "Our take-home message is that it's important to study neurons' effect at the collective level, not just in individual cells," said Ashhad. "We're optimistic that this finding will open up new directions for research and resolve a question that's persisted for centuries." AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a- to SFM Mutual Insurance Co. and its affiliates, SFM Safe Insurance Co. and SFM Select Insurance Co., collectively known as SFM Companies (SFM) and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The outlook for the ratings is stable. SFM is a workers compensation insurer providing coverage primarily in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. A customer-owned mutual insurance company, the carrier was created as a result of legislation passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1983 in response to dire conditions in the states workers compensation market during the 1970s and 1980s. First named Minnesota State Workers Compensation Mutual Insurance Co., the insurer wrote its first policy on April 1, 1984. Although initially funded by a loan from the state of $5.7 million, the carrier was established to compete with the private workers comp market. SFM is now the largest workers comp carrier in Minnesota and insures 22,000 policyholders in the Midwest, according to information posted on the companys website. AM Bests Analysis AM Best said its ratings reflect SFMs balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorizes as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. SFMs risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), is categorized as strongest, and AM Best expects it to remain at a similar level in future years. The balance sheet strength assessment also considers the companys low reinsurance dependence, improving liquidity and elevated underwriting leverage ratios. SFM has generated an adequate level of operating performance, predominantly supported by moderate underwriting gains and a consistent stream of investment income. SFMs limited business profile is due to the group being monoline workers compensation insurers with modest geographic concentration. According to AM Best, SFMs limited geographic profile leaves it susceptible to potential legislative, regulatory or judicial changes in the workers compensation market. However, risk-management capabilities are considered appropriate for the risk profile of the group, AM Best said. Other SFM Subsidiaries and Affiliates SFM Risk Solutions, a subsidiary that provides claims administration to self-insured employers CompRehab Inc., a subsidiary that specializes in returning injured employees to work and providing access to rehabilitation specialists Lynn, Scharfenberg & Hollick (LSH), an in-house law firm that represents SFM policyholders in litigation Barrier Free Access, a company that specializes in the sale, servicing, design and installation of high quality safe patient handling products and equipment A servicing carrier for the Minnesota Workers Compensation Assigned Risk Plan, providing policy, claims and other services for employers insured through the plan SFM Foundation, a nonprofit that awards higher education scholarships to students whose parents were killed or seriously injured at work. Topics Carriers Workers' Compensation AM Best Minnesota President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group. Washington: President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. Trump said the United States has a shared interest with the Taliban, which harboured al-Qaida before the 9/11 attacks. We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it mended. I think we all have a very common interest, Trump said. We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban. The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement last Saturday calling for the withdrawal of American troops, allowing Trump to make progress on a key campaign pledge to extract the US from what he calls endless wars and paving the way for all-Afghan talks to begin on Tuesday. Trump suggested the phone call, which the Taliban said lasted 35 minutes, was not his first. Asked if Tuesday was his first conversation with a leader of the Taliban, Trump said, I don't want to say that. Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the president had spoken on the phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar. The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah, Trump said. We had a good long conversation today and, you know, they want to cease the violence. They'd like to cease violence also. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo witnessed the agreement, which was signed last Saturday in Doha, Qatar, by chief negotiators from the two sides. According to the deal, all 13,000 US troops will leave Afghanistan within 14 months if the Taliban meet their obligations to America. Those promises are tied to fighting terrorism, preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists, denouncing terrorist groups, severing past links with the likes of al-Qaida and helping fight the Islamic State group affiliate. It also envisioned talks between Afghans on both sides of the conflict starting March 10, most likely in Oslo, Norway. But so far there's no confirmation that important next step will take place. The US withdrawal is not tied to Afghanistan's warring sides figuring out how to talk to each other, let alone coming to an agreement on what peace among them will look like. Already there are hurdles. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which the agreement said would happen before the start of the so-called intra-Afghan negotiations next week. The Ghani administration claims those releases will be part of negotiations. The Taliban is to release up to 1,000 Afghan government and military captives. Trump said it's still unclear what the Afghans will do when and if they sit with the Taliban and attempt to draft a peaceful political future for the nation. The country really has to get it mended. We've been there for 20 years. Other presidents have tried and they were unsuccessful," he said. In addition to the tweet, the Afghan Taliban also released a statement, saying the phone call took place shortly after 9:30 am EST. SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications from militant organizations, said the Taliban statement claimed the call was held in the presence of a number of members of the Taliban negotiating committee and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who negotiated the deal. According to the statement, the phone conversation was about how both sides will implement the agreement. Baradar assured Trump that if the United States honoured the agreement, then the US and the Taliban will have positive bilateral relations," the statement said. The statement said the Taliban leader told Trump: "Mr President! Take determined actions in regards to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and do not allow anyone to take actions that violate the terms of the agreement thus embroiling you even further in this prolonged war." The White House provided no additional details about what was said on the call. In the past, people have wrongly believed that President Ronald Reagan had a meeting with the Taliban. In 1983, Reagan hosted five "Afghan freedom fighters in the Oval Office. At the time, the US. was backing these Afghan fighters battling the Soviet Union. The Taliban was not formed until the 1990s. In the 1980s, the US was among those who encouraged hundreds of Arab fighters to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Afghan mujahedeen, or holy warriors, against the Soviet Union's forces there. Today, many of those fighters make up the Taliban leadership, while others are in power in the US-backed Afghan government. As the war came to a close in 1988, many of the Arab fighters united to follow the wealthy Saudi leader Osama bin Laden to create al-Qaida, which orchestrated the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Tuesday said that a suspected case of coronavirus has come to their knowledge in the state. "It's not right to jump to conclusions. Tests will be done, factual position will be clear only after his (suspected patient's) reports come in. We have come to know that the person is from Bilaspur," Thakur said while speaking to the reporters. So far, six positive cases of deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in India, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan where an Italian has been found positive with the infection in Jaipur. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and discharged from hospital. The Health Ministry has also stated that six persons with suspected COVID-19 have heavy viral load and are being quarantined and are stable. Their samples have been sent for testing. Coronavirus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then spread to several countries across the world. The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an international health emergency. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:03:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close An Iraqi man is seen inside a sterilization room at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) "Great efforts have been made by the Chinese gov't in different aspects" to contain the outbreak of coronavirus, said an Iraqi expert, suggesting Iraq follow the Chinese experience as the situation in the country may become more serious. BAGHDAD, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi analysts said Iraq hopes to benefit from China's health experience in confronting the outbreak of COVID-19. "I believe that Iraq can benefit from the experience of China in its efforts to contain the outbreak of coronavirus," said Ibrahim al-Ameri, a political expert and teacher of politics at the University of Baghdad. "Great efforts have been made by the Chinese government in different aspects: treating infected people, reducing fatality rates, protecting social stability, and strengthening emergency medical supplies," al-Ameri said. He said that Iraq must take into account its own capabilities if it wants to follow the Chinese experience. As China considers the epidemic as "a big test," the situation in Iraq is expected to be more serious, al-Ameri explained, referring to growing number of COVID-19 cases amid a weak health system due to unrest and years of battles against the extremist Islamic State militant group. Al-Ameri stressed that Iraq must learn from the Chinese people who are showing "a great deal of determination and discipline" to help themselves and the world as well to contain further spread of the epidemic. "I think the world should be grateful for the sacrifices made by the Chinese people in battling the disease and preventing it from spreading," he added. For his part, Abbas Farhoud, head of Health Inspection Department of the Iraqi Health Ministry, told Xinhua that Iraq is trying hard to benefit from the Chinese experience in confronting the virus. He thought China is transparent in declaring the number of infected cases and has transferred its experience to the World Health Organization, so that other countries can make use of such experience. "There is a decrease in the number of cases in China because China took firm measures and allocated huge amount of resources to fight the epidemic," Farhoud added. On Monday, a positive step took place when the Chinese Ambassador to Iraq Zhang Tao held a meeting with Abdul Karim Mustafa, undersecretary for political affairs at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, where the two exchanged views on cooperation in combating the novel coronavirus. According to a statement by the Chinese Embassy in Iraq, Zhang said during the meeting that China will donate diagnostic kits to Iraq to help it fight the outbreak of the COVID-19. The donated kits from China will be enough to diagnose 1,000 suspected cases, the statement said. "The Chinese side is currently studying positively the possibility of donating other medical materials and providing technical support for Iraq," Zhang was quoted by the statement as saying. The two sides also discussed the beneficial experience China has gained in confronting and curbing the coronavirus, according to a separate statement by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. Late on Monday, the Iraqi Health Ministry announced that 26 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Iraq, with 13 of them in the capital Baghdad. An article from NPR stated that Google is the most recent company to postpone a large event and prevent employee travel. This is in response to the alarming spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The Decision to Cancel The large tech company had canceled its conference with flagship developers called I/O. The event was supposed to occur in May in Mountain View, California. Last year, its three-day event attracted 7,000 participants. According to Google, the decision to cancel the event is due to the increasing concern regarding the threats of the COVID-19. Their decision was also from the health advice provided by WHO, CDC, and other health authorities. It also announced that it will give 100% refunds to those who had already bought tickets to the event. Evolving the Event to Virtual Platforms According to the tech giant, it will be looking for other methods to "evolve" the event. They are suggesting the possibilities of streaming live the event or conducting remote sessions. Other companies like the IMF and World Banks had announced that it will conduct conferences and other gatherings through virtual means. Preventing Employees' International Travels Google had also announced that it will halt international employee travels. Google reported that one of its employees in its office in Zurich had tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. Other Companies Doing Similar Precautionary Measures Different businesses from various sectors are also restricting travel policies. Additionally, they are also avoiding conferences and other occasions. Other companies, for example, Twitter, is asking its employees to work from home. It is perceived that the restrictions being imposed by these companies will greatly impact the travel sector of the country. Also, the restrictions will affect the country's economy and local vendors in the places where the canceled events occur. Here are some of the companies planning to cancel events and travel: President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) continues to "desperately cling" to the power mechanisms and insists on thwarting reform initiatives; the President also stressed that 2020 is a decisive year. "The desperation with which the PSD continues to cling to the power mechanisms and insists on blocking all reform initiatives can only mean one thing, that things have started to slowly but surely return to normal. 2020 is a turning point. We must realize the importance of the political moment Romania is currently going through, that stability and predictability are essentially at stake in the coming years. And it's time to choose how we want our Romania to be. (...) Responsibility must permanently guide the political decisions, and my firm belief is that with good faith and wisdom we will find the best solutions and overcome any obstacle," Iohannis said at the Women in Economy 2020 Gala organized this evening at the Romanian Athenaeum.The President criticized the PSD governments and emphasized that in just a few months of governing, the National Liberal Party has initiated long-delayed reforms in priority areas such as infrastructure, energy, economy, labor, administration."If we look at what PSD has left behind, at the nefarious politics of the governments of the last years, which, although they styled themselves 'social', have neglected precisely solidarity and cohesion, we see increased inequalities, functional illiteracy, an unbalanced medical system, an often inefficient and opaque administration. These are just some of the reform challenges we must face together, but there are clear signs that give us hope and confidence in the future. The determination whereby, starting with last year, the Romanians have said 'No' to an anti-European political will and have thus demanded their right to be listened to and duly represented leaves no room for interpretation. I've said it and I repeat it, we need a restart for everything we begin building to last," said the head of the state.According to Iohannis, the spirit of entrepreneurship remains the most efficient driver of a dynamic, competitive and innovative economy."Normal Romania is a competitive Romania in a Europe of democratic values. The way we understand to pay attention to the importance of values and to the hierarchy thereof in society defines us not only as people, but as a country as well. We, Romanians, believe in the fundamental values of European civilization, in democracy and freedom, in justice, political pluralism, rule of law, integrity, equality before the law and more than anything, we believe in the freedom to choose for ourselves and to act according to the choices we make. I strongly believe that the economy of free initiative is the one that ensures sustainable prosperity and guarantees democratic stability, and that the entrepreneurial spirit remains the most efficient driver of a dynamic, competitive and innovative economy," said the President.He also pointed out that an important part of the activities during his first term were dedicated to supporting the entrepreneurial initiative and the values of market economy."During this second term I will remain just as dedicated to strengthening entrepreneurial Romania. Despite the opposition of those who are still anchored in the past, I will continue to use all the prerogatives of the presidential office to make sure that the entrepreneurial initiative remains one of the main pillars of Romania's development," said Iohannis.The President mentioned that according to statistics, the women's entrepreneurial involvement has increased worldwide and that Romania is above the global average in this regard, as almost 40 percent of the shareholders of Romania's current active companies are women."We must admit it, the creativity of women in the business area and not only, their entrepreneurial potential, their determination in getting involved, are far from being capitalized upon as they should, and I am referring also to the obstacles generated by the regional gaps and those between the urban and the rural environment. I say it openly, I support any program that aims to support the qualitative development of the economy, to stimulate competitiveness and innovation in the economy of our country. And the businesses developed by women are an integral part of entrepreneurial Romania, which I support with full confidence," Iohannis said.Acting Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, ministers, the ambassadors of Germany, France and the US were among the participants in the event. AGERPRES (Newser) Joe Biden ended a triumphant Super Tuesday with a narrow victory over Bernie Sanders in Texas, where Democrats are seeking a rare return to power in 2020. The former vice president's victory over the Vermont senator capped a string of victories across the South for Biden, who won at least nine states but none bigger or more symbolic than Texas. Just 24 hours earlier in Dallas, Biden mounted a display of force by the Democratic Party's moderate wingrevealing endorsements by former rivals Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O'Rourke. The primary put Texas' fast-changing politics to the test and delivered some surprises, the AP reports. For Republicans, that included a rare loss for the Bush brand in the Lone Star State after Pierce Bush, a grandson of former President George HW Bush, failed to even make a runoff in a bid for Congress. story continues below The last-minute gambit may have helped overtake Sanders, who had built a firm foothold in Texas just four years after badly losing the state to Hillary Clinton. Sanders was banking on young and Latino voters in booming Texas to accelerate his path to the nomination. His rise emboldened an unusual crop of liberal challengers in Texasand like Sanders, they were also running close into Wednesday. In Texas' Senate race, Democrat MJ Hegar awaited an opponent after advancing to a May runoff. Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was fighting to make the cut. The winner of the Democratic Senate runoff will try to unseat Republican incumbent John Cornyn, who is seen as a heavy favorite in a state where a Democrat hasn't won a Senate seat since the 1970s. (Read more Super Tuesday stories.) Robert Parker, left, and Brandon Jones, of the Philadelphia Anti-Drug Anti-Violence Network, talk outside of the 54 & Wyalusing Food Market. Two people were shot inside the store last night. Read more Almost a year after the owner of a West Philadelphia corner food store fatally shot a masked armed robber, the stores new owner and a customer were shot Monday night by two gunmen who targeted the customer, Philadelphia police said Tuesday. The gunfire erupted shortly before 7 p.m. at the 54 & Wyalusing Food Market, at 54th Street and Wyalusing Avenue. Two male suspects walked by the store, doubled back, looked through the glass door, went inside, and opened fire on an 18-year-old man, according to Capt. Frank Milillo, commanding officer of Southwest Detectives. We have no motive right now, but apparently it looks like this male may have been targeted, Milillo told reporters at an afternoon news conference. Were in the process of trying to ascertain and go through video so we can get some photos out. The 18-year-old man, hospitalized in critical but stable condition, was shot twice in the buttocks, once in the neck, and once in the left arm, Milillo said. The owner, Franklin Peralta, 38, received a graze wound to the lower left leg. Peralta, a married father of four and a native of the Dominican Republic, told a reporter Tuesday that he had been cooking a cheesesteak in the back of the store when a bullet passed through the cooler case that holds fruits, vegetables, and meats for slicing. He pulled up his pant leg and showed his wound. He was asked why he didnt take the day off. I have to pay the rent, he responded with a smile, speaking in Spanish while a friend translated. Im a little nervous. Both suspects are black men with beards, Milillo said. One had a black gun and wore a dark hoodie and dark pants; the other was thin and wore a hoodie and dark pants with a reflective patch on the bottom right leg. A block away, at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday, a man was shot in the groin at Pennsgrove and Conestoga Streets. He was hospitalized in stable condition. Of course were going to look into that, Milillo said. Its right in the vicinity. Its a block away from this shooting. Within an hour of Tuesdays shooting, two members of the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network were in front of the market handing out informational literature about the groups support and resource services. Brandon Jones, 34, who has worked with the group for six months, said he had served five years in prison for attempted murder after shooting a rival drug dealer in the early 2000s. These shootings are senseless, Jones said as he stood with Robert Parker in the afternoon drizzle. We say that black lives matter, but to young black people black lives dont matter across the street. We have to do different things to try to instill this in our young people. On March 14, 2019, the markets owner at the time, Elvis Nunez, shot a gunman who burst through the front door and took a shot at him. The shooting was ruled justifiable homicide by the District Attorneys Office. It was the only way I could stay alive with my family, Nunez said the day afterward. It was going to be me or the person. Nunez said he didnt want to have to carry a gun, but there are a lot of bad people in Philly and I have to protect my family and I have to protect myself. Tipsters in this weeks shootings should call Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3184 or 215-686-TIPS or TIPS@phillypolice.com. U.S. Forces to Hone Arctic Warfare Skills in Norway's High North in Exercise Cold Response 20 US Marine Corps News 3 Mar 2020 | Courtesy Story Marine Corps Forces Europe BOBLINGEN, Germany -- Nearly 1,500 U.S. service members are scheduled to take part in Exercise Cold Response 20 in Norway from March 9-18. The U.S. will be represented by service members from the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Army, and the United States Air Force who will join forces with Norway and eight other allied and partner nations. In total, some 15,000 personnel will take part in this large-scale, tactical field training exercise, which is being hosted by the Kingdom of Norway. Cold Response 20 is designed to enhance military capabilities and allied cooperation in high-intensity warfighting in a challenging Arctic environment with rugged terrain and extreme cold weather. This exercise will emphasize and test critical activities ranging from the reception of allied and partner reinforcements and command and control interoperability to combined joint combat operations, force sustainment, and combat logistics. The United States stands firm with its ally Norway and its allies and partners in Europe and looks forward to participating in this exercise in the strategically important arctic region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address imaginima/iStock(LOS ANGELES) -- Opening arguments will begin in Los Angeles Wednesday in the much-anticipated trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who is accused of killing his close friend Susan Berman. Berman's body was found in her home on Christmas Eve in 2000. She had been shot execution-style in the back of the head. Durst was arrested for Berman's murder in 2015 -- one day before the last episode aired of the HBO series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Prosecutors allege Durst wanted to silence Berman about the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst. Robert Durst was investigated but never charged in her death. Berman -- a close friend of Durst's since their UCLA days -- allegedly helped Durst with an alibi for when Kathleen Durst vanished. Berman was about to meet with investigators about the Kathleen Durst case when she was killed at her house in Beverly Hills. Durst's lawyers say he did not kill Berman and doesn't know who did. One piece of evidence revealed in the The Jinx was a letter producers found that Durst once wrote to Berman, in which "Beverly Hills" was misspelled as "Beverley." Police were led to the discovery of Berman's body back in 2000 because of a note with Berman's address and the word "cadaver" on it. That note to police had the same "Beverley" misspelling and both notes had nearly identical handwriting. This won't be Durst's first time on trial. Durst was charged in the 2001 killing of neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas, but Durst claimed he shot him in self-defense and was found not guilty. Durst admitted to chopping up Black's body and disposing of the pieces in the sea. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. A man police say ran down two judicial marshals outside the Manchester Superior Court in Connecticut Monday has been held on $1.5 million bail and charged with first-degree assault, according to the Hartford Courant. Police in Connecticut and Massachusetts conducted a search for 42-year-old Jose Antonio Lopez Monday after authorities say he fled the courthouse following an altercation inside where he was scheduled to appear in court on a sixth-degree larceny charge from December. While there he learned he was wanted on a warrant charging him with violation of probation, the Courant reported Monday. According to the Associated Press, one of the marshals remained in critical condition Wednesday at Hartford Hospital. The Courant identified that man as Martin Brown. The second marshal, Sgt. Michael West, has returned to work, the Associated Press reported. Police say Lopez left the courthouse and got into a car with Massachusetts plates, then accelerated and struck the two marshals as they attempted to confront him on Monday. According to the Courant, West yelled to Lopez it was only [violation of probation], dont make it worse, as Lopez tried to leave. Both marshals were knocked to the ground as Lopez allegedly accelerated at them. Lopez was arraigned in Superior Court in Hartford Wednesday. Authorities mounted a search for Lopez after he allegedly struck the two men. They announced at the time that he had ties to Springfield. On Monday Lopez was captured in Chicopee, according to Massachusetts State Police. Police said they found him in a room at the Motel 6 on Johnny Cake Hollow Road. He was taken into custody around 5:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Massachusetts State Police said in a statement. The Courant reports Lopez had his case continued to March 25 and that a large group of marshals were present at his arraignment. The market's swift decline from record highs sparked by the coronavirus outbreak has left investors wondering when the bleeding will stop. On Feb. 19, the S&P 500 hit an all-time high. Just a week later, the broad market average traded in a correction down more than 10% from those levels. It was the fastest drop from an all-time high into correction levels for the S&P 500 on record. Since then, stocks have tried to recover from the sell-off. The S&P 500 on Monday notched its biggest one-day gain since August 2011. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest one-day point gain ever that day. However, the week has been characterized by outsized gains and losses. Here's what the market is doing now. Strategists at RBC Capital Markets and Credit Suisse think some sentiment, technical and policy signals need to be triggered before a bottom can start forming. "The S&P 500's late-February drop was not accompanied by true capitulation by equity investors," said Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. "We haven't yet seen signs of extreme bearishness among institutional investors or retail investors." In an investor note, Calvasina said sentiment among asset managers remains in "euphoric territory," judging by positioning in U.S. equity futures that allow investors to buy and sell at specified targets. She added that similar positioning took place ahead of the sell-offs in the summer of 2019 and early 2018. This, Calvasina said, is a "testament to how extreme bullishness had become," suggesting a decline in positions that anticipate a rise in stocks is warranted for a meaningful market bottom to form. Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Hon. Inusah Fuseini, has disclosed that theres "no rational, logical and evidential basis to ban overage cars". According to him, this is a half-hearted attempt by the government just to score cheap political points. Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia program, the NDC MP called on government to reconsider its decision to pass the bill. He argued that some manufacturing and assembling companies have all folded up in this country because people could not afford to buy brand new cars. "As a country, we enacted a law to prevent people from importing overage cars, but people still go ahead to import those cars because there is a demand for it. "As a country, we need to look into the past to project the future. It is not that you want to score cheap political points so you will do anything that will affect the masses. "Those assembling companies have not started yet so prices of cars are generally going to go up because there will be high demand for cars in the system. How do you run a country to the disadvantage of the masses who are poor and cannot afford brand new cars?... "...I am pleading with the government to withdraw this bill from parliament with immediate effect," he stated. Parliament has adopted and approved the Joint Committees on Finance, Trade and Industry and Tourism report for amendments to be made in the Customs Act, 2015. The Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to amend the Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891) to provide incentives for automotive manufacturers and assemblers registered under the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Development Programme (GAMDP). It will prohibit the importation of salvaged motor vehicles comprising wrecked, destroyed, or physically damaged by collision, fire, water or other occurrences as well as specified motor vehicles over 10 years of age into the country. The Bill will also increase the import duty on specific motor vehicles and provide import duty exemptions for the security agencies and officers of the security agencies especially those who go on various assignments and peacekeeping in the security interest of Ghana. The government, in August 2019, launched the GAMDP to promote the manufacture of automobiles for both the domestic market and the West Africa sub-region. The program is part of the efforts by the government to develop some strategic anchor industries that will promote economic development in the country. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video United States President Donald Trump spoke to deputy Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the White House has said, the first known call between an American president and the militant group. IMAGE: US President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a business roundtable at Roosevelt House, the Ambassadors Residence in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI The historic telephonic conversation took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country, raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10. During the call on Tuesday, Trump "emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29," the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation. The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said. "He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war," the White House said. "I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a very good talk," Trump told reporters. After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months. In Doha in the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Baradar had signed the agreement with the US. Special US Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had signed the agreement on behalf of the United States. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin on March 10, according to the US-Taliban deal, but a dispute over prisoner swap has raised questions. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. However, President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do it before the negotiations begin. Under the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha, the US has agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 130 days and withdraw all its soldiers in 14 months. New Delhi: A court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape victim's father. District judge Dharmesh Sharma said Sengar had no intention of killing the victim's father. He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death, the judge said. The court had sent Sengar to jail on December 20 for the remainder of his natural biological life for raping the woman in 2017, when she was a minor. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had examined 55 witnesses in support of the case and the defence examined nine witnesses. The court had recorded the statements of the rape survivor's uncle, mother, sister and one of her father's colleague who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident. Charges were framed against Sengar, his brother Atul, Bhadauria, sub-inspector Kamta Prasad, constable Amir Khan and six others in the case. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1 last year. In July, 2019 a truck rammed into the car the rape victim was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer. Two of her aunts died in the incident. She was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow and to AIIMS in Delhi. The victim has been provided accommodation in Delhi and is under CRPF protection. But if Jenkins appointment was targeted on McAuliffes behalf, no one besides Stuart was willing to discuss it publicly. Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, DPrince William, who is also a member of the delegation, confirmed that Jenkins was the groups pick. And like her colleagues, she said she didnt know why Jenkins wasnt included in the final nomination resolution. Im not quite sure, she said. We have not spoken on it here on the House side. Lindsey, the House judiciary subcommittee chair, would only say in a brief interview that its not automatic that someone get nominated from a delegation and they become a person on the final resolution. It was just a situation where issues were brought forth as to whether she was an appropriate candidate and it was determined that she was not, he said. Jenkins said in a phone interview that her decision to sign the amicus brief was the only explanation she had been given for the decision to pull her nomination. I am stunned by this, pulling my name out, she said. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has approved the nomination of Waziri Bulama as the Partys Acting National Secretary. The NWC also approved the nominations of former Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi as the Deputy National Chairman (South) and Paul Chukwuma as the National Auditor following nominations from the respective zones. Lanre Issa-onilu, APC National Publicity Secretary in a statement on Wednesday said, the decision was reached on January 14, 2020 during the meeting of the NWC at the partys National Secretariat. Following the resignation of H.E. Mai Mala Buni as the Partys National Secretary in May 2019 prior to his election as the Governor of Yobe State, the party subsequently gave notice for a replacement from the zone, Issa-onilu. The appointment of Ajimobi is sequel to the resignation of the former Deputy National Chairman (South), Niyi Adebayo who has been appointed Minister while that of Chukwuma is due to the resignation of the immediate past National Auditor, George Moughalu who is now the Managing Director of Nigerian Inland Waterway Authority (NIWA). Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates The Aliko Dangote Foundation on Monday, March 2, 2020 pledged a whooping sum of N200million to support current effort of the Nigerian government towards curbing the spread of Corona Virus or Covid-19 in the country. ADFs intervention is considered the largest single donation by a corporate organization in the country to contain the spread of coronavirus since Nigeria recorded its first index case last month in Lagos, Nigeria. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation Ms. Zouera Youssoufou, represented by the Health and Nutrition Programme Officer Maryam Shehu-Buhari, at a donor coordinating meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 said the donation was part of the Foundations cardinal objective of partnering with governments at all levels against the dreaded disease in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. The Foundation is also the only Nigerian donor that attended the meeting and made monetary pledge. To this extent, she said the Aliko Dangote Foundation has earmarked N124million that will support facilities to help prevent, assess and respond to health events at Point of Entry to ensure National Health Security. Ms Youssoufou also highlighted other areas of intervention to include surveillance and epidemiology, where facilities worth N36million will be provided by the Foundation to support governments effort. According to her the ADF will also donate N48million for case management training of health workers. Speaking at the meeting facilitated by World Bank, the Country Director represented by the Operations Manager Ms. Kathleen Whimp identified four thematic areas to tackling the spread of COVID 19. These are: Regular communication with the public, contact tracing, training of volunteers and international co-operations. Speaking also, the Director, Health Emergency Preparedness and Response of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. John Oladejo said some of the challenges, going forwarded include lack of enough isolation centres, contact tracing, training of volunteers, international cooperation, fake news and panic, among others. Mr. Noel Chisaka of the Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement Project commended the Aliko Dangote Foundation for the contribution and encouraged others to join in the fight against Covid-19. Other donors invited to the meeting include: WHO, UNICEF, BMGF, RTSL, EU, USAID, US CDC, DFID, Public Health England, GIZ, JICA, Africa CDC, WAHO, PHI, MTN, Red Cross, IFRC and AFENET. According to reports there are a total of 90,936 confirmed cases worldwide although more than half of those (47,995) have already recovered. The biggest numbers are still by far in mainland China (80,151), followed by South Korea (4,812), Italy (2,036) and Iran (1,501). Japan has 274 confirmed cases, France 191, Germany 165, Spain 120, Singapore 108, US 106, and Hong Kong 100. There are also cases in South America, Africa and Australia. The total death toll stands at 3,117 with 2,936 of those coming from China. The countries with the next highest numbers are Iran (66), Italy (52) and South Korea (29).There have also been deaths in Japan, the US, France, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. It would be recalled that the Aliko Dangote foundation also committed N1billion in the fight against the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Africa, helping to build resilience and strengthen Nigerias health system in a manner expected to endure beyond the Ebola crisis period. The foundations support during the Ebola crisis ensured the establishment of the National Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC) in Yaba, Lagos; provision of 12 units of thermal cameras across Nigerias International Airports with training for 160 staff/personnel of the Federal Ministry of Health, Port Health Services Department, on the use of the thermal cameras; provision of W.H.O-certified Personal Protective Equipment, PPEs and comprehensive logistics support for the returnee volunteers on Ebola intervention across countries ravaged by Ebola. President Muhammadu Buhari had then commended Mr. Aliko Dangote for what he described as remarkable sacrifices in eradicating Ebola virus disease and polio in Nigeria. Jayanta Roy Chowdhury By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Despite the Supreme Court ruling allowing trading in crypto-currencies, neither North Bloc nor most bankers are enthused by the new beast on the street. A little over two years ago the government had warned citizens against investing in crypto-currencies terming them as `Ponzi schemes. That view seems intact in Finance Ministry where top officials still feel that virtual currencies issued by private firms are not legal tender and thus have no protection for investors if and when the bubble bursts. Officials said RBI will have to now frame rules on crypto-currency trading in light of the apex courts order passed on Wednesday. Those who wish to take the risk and trade in crypto-currencies can then play it just as they would play any other games of chance, said Sanjay Bhattacharyya, former Managing Director of State Bank of India. A top Department of Economic Affairs official pointed out these digital currencies are issued by private firms and not backed by any sovereign state. Their prices are arrived at through pure speculation and hence playing them will always remain akin to playing the Russian roulette. ALSO READ | SC allows trading in cryptocurrency, quashes RBI's 2018 ban In December 2017, the Ministry had through a statement warned there is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors (in virtual currencies), especially retail consumers losing their hard-earned money. Lobbyists for cryptocurrencies have long been seeking some form of legal recognition. However, a cautious North Bloc has stalled pointing out that investments in crypto-currencies could be used to launder illegal or undeclared wealth and are really mere speculative trading. Economists say to qualify as a `currency', whether issued on paper, coin or digitally, the money issued should represent a stable store of wealth, be backed by a Sovereign state which stands guarantor to its value and be generally acceptable. Digital currencies issued by private corporations fail on at least two counts by this definition point out analysts stable store of value and Sovereign guarantee. Other than sovereign states, one of the few corporations which has in historical times issued its own currency was the East India Company and it did so after it assumed the status of a Sovereign power by taking over rich territories in India. Economists point Even the Pacific island societies which issued cowry shell currencies in the past, issued them because a rudimentary state-backed those currencies. Sometime back an inter-ministerial committee, in a report had recommended banning all privately circulated cryptocurrencies and imposing heavy fines and even jail terms for those dealing with unauthorized digital currencies. The panel which included the then finance secretary S.C Garg however also asked the Government to keep an open mind on a possible official digital currency which could be launched by the Reserve Bank of India. The bookkeeper at an elementary school in north Alabama is accused of using the schools credit to spend thousands of dollars on personal purchases. Shelley Allison Rhodes, a 47-year-old from Decatur, is charged with first-degree theft, a felony thats punishable by up to 20 years in prison. She was being held in the Morgan County jail with bail set at $30,000, records show. Shelley Allison Rhodes is charged with a felony count of theft, according to the Morgan County sheriff's office. She was booked into the jail on March 4, 2020. Rhodes has resigned as a bookkeeper at West Morgan Elementary School in the tiny town of Trinity, the authorities said. A call seeking comment from the Morgan County school system wasnt immediately returned Wednesday afternoon. The Morgan County sheriffs office began investigating the case on Tuesday after being contacted by the school systems chief financial officer. Rhodes was accused of using the schools line of credit to make fraudulent or unauthorized purchases with the school boards tax identification, the authorities said. The purchases were for personal items that werent to be used by the school, said Mike Swafford, a spokesman for the sheriffs office. Its unclear whether Rhodes has an attorney to speak on her behalf. Further information wasnt immediately available. Google has sent out emails informing developers and attendees that it will be canceling the physical I/O event that was scheduled to take place on May 12 -14. With many companies canceling their events, it is possible that Apple could not hold a physical WWDC event this year as well. Google decided to cancel I/O 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities. It will be refunding money for I/O tickets by March 13. Below is Googles email in full: Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. All guests who have purchased tickets to I/O 2020 will receive a full refund by March 13, 2020. If you dont see the credit on your statement by then, please reach out to [email protected] Guests who have registered for I/O 2020 will not need to enter next years drawing and will be automatically granted the option of purchasing an I/O 2021 ticket. Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community. We will keep the Google I/O website updated with additional information. Will Apple Hold a Physical WWDC 2020 Event? Google canceling I/O 2020 does cast doubts on whether Apple will be holding a physical WWDC event this year or not. Google is not the only major tech giant that has canceled a major conference due to the virus. Facebook has canceled its F8 developer conference which was to be held in the first week of May. MWC 2020 in Barcelona was also canceled due to coronavirus. Apple usually tends to hold WWDC in June and this year, the event would most have most likely been held in the second week of June. The company typically announces dates for WWDC in the second or third week of March every year. While Apple does have some more time in its hand, it does look unlikely that the company will hold an in-person WWDC event this year especially after the virus outbreak in the United States. Since the number of reported cases in the United States keeps increasing, it is pretty much a given now that Apple will not be holding a physical launch event for the iPhone 9 and new MacBook Pro announcements later this month as well. The company will likely announce the products via a press release and be done with it. During the working visit of the delegation of Ukraines Defense Ministry to Finland, the Ukrainian and Finnish sides discussed bilateral cooperation for 2020. "Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alina Frolova held military and political consultations with Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Finland Jukka Juusti within the framework of the working visit of the delegation of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to Finland on March 4, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports. During the consultations, the parties discussed a plan for bilateral cooperation for 2020. Frolova noted that Ukraine was interested in sharing experience and developing such areas of cooperation as creation of military reserve, implementation of territorial defense measures, development of naval capabilities, including with the participation of Finlands defense complex. She also stressed the importance of organizing a visit of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Finland to Ukraine. According to the press service, the Ukrainian side also informed about the situation in eastern Ukraine and in the Azov-Black Sea region. ol Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:42:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close China has rolled out a suite of prevention and control measures based on counties and districts. This means the timing for companies to resume work and production depends on the severity of the epidemic in each county. In this way, the epidemic will be contained and society will be back on track. This is how China combats the coronavirus. BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China's prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic is showing preliminary effect. The numbers of new confirmed cases and deaths outside Hubei have decreased markedly. However, the severity of the epidemic varies from region to region, even in the same province. Therefore, China has rolled out a suite of prevention and control measures based on counties and districts, instead of provinces as they used to be. This means the timing for companies to resume work and production depends on which county or district they are located in, instead of province. China has more than 2,800 administrative units at the county and district level. Over 2,700 of these administrative units are those outside Hubei and Beijing, and they have been placed in low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk groups according to the population and severity of the epidemic. Low-risk areas are allowed to fully restore work and daily lives as long as they stop the infected from entering. These areas should: lift traffic restrictions; help enterprises solve problems in employment, raw materials supply, capital and equipment. No conditions should be set for companies to resume work and production. The medium-risk areas must prohibit entry of the infected, take strict measures to contain the spread of the virus within the areas, and restore work and life in a timely and orderly manner. In these areas, measures should be taken to help citizens return to work, supervise companies to strictly meet the requirements of disinfection, ventilation, temperature measurement and etc., reduce population density, and promote prevention and control along with resumption of work and production. High-risk areas must take tougher measures than the medium-risk ones. They should not only take a firm stance on epidemic prevention and control, but also ensure the normal operation of public utilities and enterprises vital to the economy and people's daily life. The risk-based grouping is updated in real time. Take Chongqing for an example, at first there were 6 low-risk, 26 medium-risk and 10 high-risk groups. A week later, it was adjusted to 13 low-risk, 20 medium-risk and 9 high-risk groups. By Feb. 26, 13 provincial-level regions in China have lowered their public health emergency responses. Six were adjusted from Level I to Level II, 7 from Level I to Level III. The timing for resuming work and production varies, depending on the severity of the epidemic in each county. In this way, the epidemic will be contained and society will be back on track. This is how China combats the coronavirus. Director: Shan Xu Executive Directors: Wang Ting, Zhang Xiaoxue, Feng Chun,Guan Hongfei Coordination: Yang Guang, Liu Pei Production: Jiang Yudong, Shang Junwei, Li Dongze Visual Design: Guo Chao, Wang Jiadong Scripts: Luo Zhen, Helen Bentley Voiceover: Bluiri Liaowang Institute Data Media Lab; Department of China News for Overseas Service Xinhua News Agency As many as 2,575 rape cases were registered in Chhattisgarh from January 1, 2019, to January 31, 2020, maximum of them in Raipur district, the state Assembly was informed on Wednesday. In a written reply to a question by the BJP's Brijmohan Agrawal, Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu said 17,009 cases of dacoity, rape, theft, murder and loot were registered in the state during this 13-month period. Maximum number of rape cases were reported in Raipur district (301), followed by Raigarh (196), Bilaspur (144), Surguja (139), Surajpur (132), Jashpur (123), Balodabazar (123) Bastar (115), Korea (114), Balrampur (112) and Korba (102), he said. During the same period, 984 cases of murder, 475 cases of loot, 12,913 cases of theft and 62 cases of dacoity were registered, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NC school district to investigate survey asking kids their sexual orientation, gender identity Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A school district in North Carolina announced that it will investigate how a controversial survey got distributed to kids asking them about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Earnest Winston told local media outlet WSOC Channel 9 that the school district was looking into who was responsible for the survey. I am very concerned with the timing and the way in which I was informed about the actual survey, said Winston to WSOC. It did not occur to the expectation that I have. I have expressed that to staff, and it is an active human resources matter. The questions on sexual orientation and gender identity were part of a Title IX survey and were pulled following outcry from several parents, according to WSOC. When asking for gender identity, the options included Male, Female, Non-Binary, and Gender-Fluid. The sexual orientation question included options like Pansexual, Asexual, and Questioning my sexual orientation. We want to be fully transparent about this process, added Winston. We are going to work as hard as we can to avoid a similar occurrence from happening in the future. We have an obligation to our families, to our students. We have an obligation to our staff and to our schools to communicate effectively to our families when dealing with sensitive matters such as these. The Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, saw this as proof that parents needed to pay attention and stay involved. Im sure many of these young students didnt even know the meaning of some of the orientation categories listed as optionsprobably some teachers didnt either, posted Graham to his Facebook page. A number of parents were upset, and Im glad that Superintendent Earnest Winston was quick to say he was going to get to the bottom of how it happened. Graham also stated that he believed whoever was responsible should be fired, dismissed, terminatedperiod. They obviously dont have discernment about what is the right thing to do for children. In 2016, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools attempted to implement a policy allowing students to use the public facilities of their chosen gender identity rather than their biological sex. Criticized by conservative groups, the measure went against state law on public restrooms and gender identity. In August 2016, the school district decided to backtrack on the policy. This is an opinion column. I voted Tuesday in a partisan state in a partisan primary but in a nonpartisan way on the only question that didnt require me picking a party. Everyone was polite and helpful, but no one quite knew what to do if I was a party pooper. The nonpartisan question Im referring to is Amendment One. The amendment which ultimately failed Tuesday would have replaced the states elected school board with a set of commissioners appointed by the governor. I had to cast a provisional ballot and jump through all the hoops that come with the provisional ballot process, such as providing my email address, the county and city in which I was born and the last address where I was registered to vote. Alexandria Stephens, the Jefferson County elections coordinator, later said in an email this is the correct process for voters who only want to vote for the amendment. It seems us nonpartisan folks will just have to jump through the hoops. Voting nonpartisan means casting a ballot without declaring as either a Republican or a Democrat something thats usually required when voting in primaries in Alabama. I did not want to declare a party mainly because Im a journalist. But, I also dont have a desire to be associated with a political party. I dont like the idea of being shoved into any partys corner, especially during this current political climate. When I arrived at my polling place around 8:50 a.m. Tuesday morning, I told the poll worker I only wanted to vote on Amendment 1 and did not want to declare a party. The poll worker quickly produced a ballot only for Amendment 1 and assured me that, yes, I could vote on the amendment without declaring a party. My polling place has iPads and ID scanners at the check-in desk. When I checked in, the poll worker scanned my ID and confirmed I was at the proper polling place, then spun the iPad to me so I could select a party. After reminding them I was not declaring a party, poll workers tried to bypass the party selection screen, but could not determine how to bypass it. By this point, multiple poll workers were standing around me, asking each other if they remembered any instruction about how to electronically check-in voters who didnt want to declare a party and only wanted to vote on Amendment 1. None of them could recall instructions on what to do. I was the first person at my polling place to try to cast an amendment-only ballot. Poll workers said I was the first voter to ask. Workers ended up on the phone with county officials, who said I would need to cast the provisional ballot. To cast a provisional ballot, the voter has to fill out a nearly page-long form, which asks all kinds of questions, including questions about the city, county and country in which you were born. I confess I had to think for a minute about the city where I was born. Its Sheffield, right? I asked myself. Though the poll workers were kind and helpful, I was beginning to feel frustrated. If I was an active voter and at the right polling place, why did I have to fill out this form? I thought about other voters, like me, who dont want to declare a party. Would they have stuck it out and finished this process, or would they have left frustrated? Or, would they have begrudgingly declared a party anyway. Does Alabama want voters like me? After completing the form and signing my name on the provisional ballot list, I was given a ballot, two envelopes and a Purell wipe, so I could seal the envelopes without having to lick anything. (Think coronavirus here.) I cast my vote, folded my ballot, placed it in one envelope and then put that envelope in another larger one, as I was instructed. After returning it to the poll workers, sealed tight with my Purell wipe, they wrote my name on the outside of the envelope. I felt like I was submitting crime scene evidence, with all the markings and seals that come with chain of custody requirements for such evidence. My double sealed ballot went into a bag fitted with an opening that only allowed ballots to go in. This process took around 25 minutes. I worried my ballot would stay in that bag forevermy vote not counted or even considered when the votes were tallied. After calling the Secretary of States office to inquire about this process, I received an email from Stephens. She assured my vote would be counted. She also explained why I had to go through this provisional process. The electronic poll books only allow voters to choose either Democratic or Republican. The Constitutional Amendment choice is not available on the electronic poll books for Primary Elections at this time; however, if there is an amendment in a primary in the future, this will be an option. For this election only, this is the proper procedure and the voters' ballots will be counted during provisional canvassing, she said in an email. But what about other Alabamians? Spending should focus on fighting epidemic The Moon Jae-in administration has come up with an extra budget bill worth 11.7 trillion won ($9.8 billion) to fight the new coronavirus more effectively and minimize economic damage from the epidemic. This spending plan is more than necessary to better cope with the worsening public health emergency. On Wednesday, the government approved the bill during a Cabinet meeting and plans to present it to the National Assembly on Thursday. The Assembly should take swift action to pass the bill. Any delay could derail efforts by the state and local authorities to contain COVID-19. The longer the virus persists, the harder people's lives and the economy will be hit. Of course, we do not expect any serious partisan dispute to take place at the Assembly over the much-needed extra budget. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and opposition parties, including the United Future Party (UFP), have already agreed on the bill. The rival parties must show bipartisanship to help the nation and the people overcome the virus-driven crisis. The supplementary budget is the largest-ever for the fight of an epidemic in Korea. The government drew up an extra budget of 4.2 trillion won to fight severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and another worth 11.6 trillion won to contain Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015. This demonstrates how serious the COVID-19 outbreak is. First of all, the budget, if approved, should be executed in good faith to help the country win the battle with the relentless coronavirus. The Moon administration plans to spend 2.3 trillion won on beefing up the quarantine and healthcare system, including the provision of more medical equipment, hospital beds and facilities for the treatment of the spiking number of patients. It is necessary for lawmakers of the rival parties to take a close look at the money allocated to the treatment and containment of the disease during the deliberation of the bill. They could raise the sum if necessary. In fact, the shortage of hospital beds and medical equipment is far acuter than had been previously thought. This problem will not be confined to the southeastern city of Daegu, a hotspot of the virus in Korea, if the epidemic spreads further across the country. About 6.2 trillion won, more than half of the planned budget, will be used to minimize the economic fallout from the virus outbreak. The money will be spent supporting small and medium businesses and the self-employed, helping regional economies recover from damage, stabilizing people's lives, and maintaining job security for low-income earners. In a nutshell, the outlays will be injected to boost consumption and maintain the momentum for economic growth. Most of the extra budget will be financed by issuing state bonds. This could raise concerns about the growing national debt and fiscal soundness. Thus, the Moon government needs to work out measures to achieve a balanced budget on a long-term basis. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Wednesday refuted allegations of Congress regarding horse-trading of MLAs in Madhya Pradesh and said the BJP doesn't indulge in such "We believe in the democratic process and don't indulge in this kind of BJP always thinks about the interests of people," Maurya told ANI. "Congress leaders are themselves confused. While former CM of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh is accusing BJP of giving Rs. 5 to 10 crore to Congress MLAs, his own party leader PL Punia is saying that we are offering Rs. 25 crore to each of them," he said. The remarks came after allegations were levelled against the BJP for reportedly holding Madhya Pradesh MLAs against their will at a Gurugram hotel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders both claimed victories in important contests on Super Tuesday, but one surprising winner emerged: Pennsylvania. No, Pennsylvania wasnt one of the 14 states with a primary contest Tuesday. But with Biden winning several states and Sanders securing big victories, it raises the odds that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination should continue when the Pennsylvania primary takes place April 28. Game on, said Christopher Borick, a political analyst for Muhlenberg College. Tonight has elevated the probability that were going to have a meaningful vote come the end of April, Borick said Tuesday night. "It looks like a two-person race. If its a Biden-Sanders race, and its going to be protracted, that puts us on the map for a change. Pennsylvanias primary is late on the election calendar, often making it largely irrelevant in presidential nomination battles. But Super Tuesday didnt decide the race for the nomination, and Sanders and Biden remain standing as the leading contenders. Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, ended his campaign and endorsed Biden Wednesday morning after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday. Bloomberg spent more than $500 million on the race thus far, shattering campaign spending records, but only managed a win in American Samoa on Super Tuesday. Bloombergs campaign was set to open a field office in Harrisburg later this week. Elizabeth Warren endured a sobering Super Tuesday, including a crushing loss in her home state of Massachusetts, where she finished third. She appeared set to pick up delegates but finished third or fourth in Tuesdays contests. Sanders entered Super Tuesday as the leader in the race for the nomination, with clear wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and finishing at or near the top in the Iowa caucus debacle. On Super Tuesday, he won California, the richest prize in delegates, and claimed victories in Colorado, Utah and Vermont. A week ago, it appeared Sanders was gearing up for a decisive win on Super Tuesday and separating himself from his Democratic rivals, perhaps for good. However, Bidens blowout win in South Carolina over the weekend buoyed the former vice presidents campaign. Biden scored victories across the southern states on Super Tuesday, including Texas, Virginia and North Carolina. His appeal with black voters carried him to convincing wins south of the Mason-Dixon line, analysts said. More surprisingly, Biden showed unexpected strength in the north, including wins in Massachusetts and Minnesota Tuesday. Ultimately, Biden won nine contests on Super Tuesday. There isnt any doubt that Bidens turnaround borders on being miraculous, said G. Terry Madonna, a political analyst at Franklin & Marshall College. With Biden reviving his campaign and Sanders still showing considerable strength, Pennsylvanias primary gains significance in determining the Democratic nominee, Madonna said. It raises the possibility that Pennsylvanias April 28 primary could matter, said Madonna. Assessing the race, Madonna said, Right now it looks like itll go on for weeks, if not months. Biden also secured late endorsements from candidates who were rivals just days ago. In the days after South Carolina, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Biden positioned himself as the best chance to reach moderate Democrats and independent voters in the fall. There are a number of contests before Pennsylvanias primary in late April. But the results on Super Tuesday bolstered the chances of a meaningful Pennsylvania primary. So who is poised to fare better in Pennsylvania? Biden is a native of Scranton. Hes familiar to Pennsylvania voters not only through his eight years as vice president but his decades representing the U.S. Senate in neighboring Delaware, where he received plenty of coverage from the Philadelphia media. Last week, a Muhlenberg College poll found Sanders narrowly leading President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, 49 percent to 46 percent, which is within the polls margin of error. The same poll found Biden tied in a head-to-head battle with Trump at 47 percent, and Bidens support had dropped in Pennsylvania over the last few months. The poll was conducted before the seismic events of Super Tuesday and South Carolina, Borick noted. But the survey also suggests Biden has plenty of work to do in Pennsylvania. Sanders enjoys one significant advantage with a core group of passionate, dedicated supporters. Hes got that base that doesnt move, Borick said, adding that some candidates have softer support. Sanders didnt get the knockout blow he wanted on Super Tuesday but he remains formidable, Borick and Madonna agreed. Hes still positioned himself well," Borick said of Sanders. Now its interesting to see if he has room to grow still. Pennsylvanias contest is part of what some have dubbed the Acela primary, as some neighboring northeastern states along the rail route hold their primaries that day. On Pennsylvanias primary day on April 28, voters will also go to the polls in New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. With Bloomberg out of the race and backing Biden, his money and manpower could add muscle to Bidens campaign. Biden could gain support from more moderate Democrats who may have been leaning to Bloomberg, analysts said. For Pennsylvanias political analysts such as Borick and Madonna, the growing likelihood of an important primary in the Keystone State is welcome news. Its going to be great for us, Borick said. Its a field day. Local Democrats undoubtedly want the chance to cast votes in a presidential primary thats not an afterthought. Rogette Harris, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Dauphin County, summed up the dilemma for Democrats last week. By the time our primary rolls around, most of the candidates have already dropped out," Harris said last week. Most of the time the decision is already made for us. This time, Pennsylvania Democrats may have a say in picking their nominee. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. More from PennLive More than 20,000 Pa. voters sign up to vote by mail With voting by mail in Pa. this year, election results may not be known for days, officials say Read PennLives latest coverage on the coronavirus Listen to the latest episode of PennLives political podcast, Battleground Pa., on your favorite app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Battleground Pa. examines the political climate across the Keystone State leading up to November. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser With only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases Egypt remains a low-risk country in terms of the global breakout Amid rising apprehensions of COVID-19 Egypts Ministry of Health is on the alert. This week a second case was confirmed and hundreds of suspects tested. The second confirmed case is a Canadian citizen working for a petroleum company. The Canadian was quarantined at Marsa Matrouh Al-Negila Hospital along with two others. Swabs taken during quarantine were tested and revealed the Canadian was positive and the two others negative. Some 1400 employees who work for the same company were placed under voluntary home quarantine. Khaled Megahed, official spokesman for the Ministry of Health, says the Canadian citizen has shown mild symptoms. He is currently receiving medical treatment and is in a stable condition. The ministry has been testing all contacts the Canadian made since arriving in Egypt on 19 February, said Megahed. Last week Egypts first positive case, also a foreign national, was released from quarantine after making a full recovery. In the meantime, several confirmed cases have been reported abroad of individuals who had returned from Egypt. France announced that two tourists returning from Egypt had tested positive for COVID-19, Canada that one of its citizens tested positive for the virus immediately after returning from a trip in Egypt, and Taiwan reported a similar case. The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement saying none of the confirmed cases among tourists to Egypt showed symptoms while passing through Egyptian entry points or during their stay in Egypt. WHO Representative to Egypt John Jabbour said that while Egypt performs tests on travellers entering the country from countries with high infection rates such as China, Iran, Italy and South Korea he would suggest Egypt perform examinations on travellers entering the country and those departing as well. The cases found among individuals returning from Egypt prompted the Qatari Civil Aviation Authority has instructed airports in Qatar not to accept travellers from Egypt due to coronavirus fears. Moreover, Kuwaits Health Ministry issued on the same day a directive to all the airlines currently working in Kuwait International Airport to impose precautionary procedures on all passengers arriving from Egypt. Cases among tourists returning from Egypt have triggered speculation that the government may not be disclosing the true number of local infections. Speaking on television, Health Minister Hala Zayed reassured the public that the government is being transparent. Neither the government nor anyone else has the ability to hide the existence of the virus, she said. According to Zayed, the ministry and WHO have received detailed data about infected tourists. We have tracked the people with whom they mingled and none of them have tested positive for the virus, she said. To confirm that a case was infected with the virus in a specific place the person must have spent at least 14 days in the country in question and have tested positive for the virus within 48 hours of their return. Neither of the two conditions apply to the tourists who were visiting Egypt, said Zayed, adding that the possibility of their contracting the virus while being in Egypt is low. She noted that until now there have been no positive cases from the places they visited of the people they met. Some Egyptians are taking the threat posed by COVID-19 lightly and even joking about it while others are panicking. In this regard, the Egyptian cabinets media centre said on Monday that Egypt launched a website to spread awareness among Egyptians about coronavirus. The website (www.care.gov.eg) provides public information about the virus, such as means of transmission, protective measures, and answers to the most frequently asked questions, in addition to the latest updates on the situation nationwide and worldwide in accordance with the World Health Organisation. Elham Al-Samman, a housewife and mother of three, worries that the Health Ministry is not admitting to the existence of cases in order not to scare people. I stopped sending my children to school. We heard about suspected cases in the school but the headmaster issued a blanket denial, she says. Zayed has repeatedly called on the public to trust government statements on the coronavirus and stressed that WHO closely monitors Egypts Health Ministry as well as the situation in the country. Alaa Eid, head of the Health Ministrys preventive medicine department, told Al-Ahram Weekly that preparations had been made for a possible outbreak of the virus in Egypt and noted that for the time being there is no need to panic The situation is under control, though if anyone does get a fever, runny nose or cough they should check with a doctor. People with flu should stay at home until they fully recover, he said. Stressing that until now Egypt is a low-risk zone, Eid added that we are ready for any scenario and regular workshops are carried out with the Ministries of Interior and Defence to implement Health Ministry and inform partners of the steps that should be taken in case of an epidemic. Zayed left for China earlier this week. The minister said she would deliver a message of solidarity from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to the Chinese people as well as learn from Chinas experience in dealing with COVID-19. During a press conference held on Monday at the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing on the fringe of her visit to China, Zayed said that China has provided Egypt with 1,000 thermal detectors along with the updated version of the technical documents illustrating the precautionary measures taken against the epidemic, which will be of great use to contain the virus spread. The minister added that her current visit coincided with President Al-Sisis decision to mark a number of Egyptian landmarks in the colors of the Chinese flag in a humanitarian gesture of solidarity with the Chinese people. A day earlier, a number of major Egyptian landmarks were lit up in red in solidarity with the Chinese people over the coronavirus epidemic. The landmarks included the Cairo Citadel, the Temple of Karnak in Luxor and Philae Temple in Aswan. Earlier in a joint press conference at Cairo International Airport given by Zayed and Chinas Ambassador to Egypt Liao Li Chang, Li Chang expressed his appreciation for Egypts support of China at this serious time. Egypt has sent China tons of medical equipment to help it in overcoming this crisis, said Li Chang. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the title: Avoiding panic Search Keywords: Short link: 'Only when they are in a group or in mobs, then they attack.' IMAGE: Security personnel patrol the Bhagirathi Vihar area of riot-affected north east Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Among those who refused to keep silent despite the threat to his life is the outspoken Goan author Damodar Mazuo. "If we keep quiet today, they will go all out to finish this tribe who write or speak against them," Mazuo tells Neeta Kolhatkar. Is there a culture of silence that is sweeping our society? There is a fear among people that they may have to pay a price if they speak, so it is best to keep quiet. Sometimes, most people are carried away by social media or what is being said by the regime through the mainstream media. Sane people must come out and speak. The problem is most of the media endorses the government's point of view. Very few have space for free speech. At least they voice a concern and allow others to write a contrarian view to that of the regime. Except for two, three channels, the rest of the media is with the government. Also, the moment someone speaks out, there is pressure exercised and that is the reason most stay away. Then you are labelled, pro and anti. There was a time till recently we had in Maharashtra free thinkers. We saw how they were murdered. You have spoken out against the targeting of freethinkers. I was always outspoken. In Goa we have lived in such harmony, living in coexistence. Now we find that fabric is torn apart. That pains us and being a Goan I feel it all the more. This change is felt more outside, but I feel shocked how people can tolerate it. I couldn't keep quiet. Writers have to speak up when something wrong is taking place. Should it not be natural for writers to speak against wrongs in society? See, there always were writers who had different ideologies, but nobody has come out like S L Bhyrappa. Laughs. He was subdued until U R Ananthamurthy passed away. But after that, he has spoken more and more under this current government. Under the Bharatiya Janata Party regime, many writers who did not have the courage to speak openly have spoken up. At the same time, many people who were earlier not open about their rightist ideology came out. Never before did even people who belonged to the RSS come out in the open. Why? Were they prevented or banned? Does today's writing reflect the grim reality of our society? In a way, they do have the pulse of the people, in a way. See, I belong to Goa and I write about my society. Yet, I don't think all Goans read me. But those who know me, they will be influenced to some extent by my thoughts. Even if they have some inhibitions, after reading, they will rethink, I believe in it. That is why writers have to be more responsible while speaking or coming out in the open. Just keeping quiet or saying, 'I'm not bothered, why should I speak?' is not the right attitude. I think writers do make a difference. There are people in society who may not follow their leaders, but they follow writers. Artists, film and theatre people, we should come out in the open. Particularly those who are respected by the people. People know, if a certain person speaks out, there has to be some truth in it. Now if you believe it, see the difference. I am very happy Shaheen Bagh is happening. People may criticise them, but it is a big achievement. Silently, quietly, it is something different. That is why the government is more bothered by them. IMAGE: Damodar Mauzo, the fearless Goan writer. Photograph: Kind courtesy Wikimedia Commons The government is extremely annoyed with peoples's protests. If we keep quiet today, they will go all out to finish this tribe who write or speak against them. They are not scared of Muslims or the Muslim leaders. They are more scared of liberal and secular people within the Hindus. When some maulana speaks up, members of the majority will say they are always like that. But if influential, secular, elements from within Hindus speak, they are more scared of them. Do you feel fear? Let me tell you, the perpetrators are timid. They are real cowards. Only when they are in a group or in mobs, then they attack. I am not scared of them or afraid of their people. I am fortunate because I am loved in Goa. They also know I don't criticise or name any individual. I speak only against an ideology. Millenials have shown the way, they are not scared of anyone. Can we rightly say they are our hope? Yes, that is true, they are not scared. That is precisely what is bothering the leaders and the fundamentalists. People are not with them, but they are scared. They are not coming out in the open. They know these leaders are vengeful, so that is why people fear they may cause some harm to their families, business or jobs. The young generation are bold, they are also inspired. You said the narrative need to be changed. But is that even possible, in the current circumstances? Secular people like me, who are rational thinkers, face a huge problem. I'm a non-believer and when I go out, I can't play to their tune. So there I fail. Whereas seasoned politicians like Arvind Kejriwal know how to appease them. He can go to a Hanuman temple with a purpose. I can't do that. I respect the faith of others, but I can't reach out because I don't believe in those rituals. I read that some college is organising a maha yagya to clean the minds of their students. It is shocking. When I spoke to some teachers, they said there is power in the mantras and the fumes can help. Educated people talk like this, it is a total failure. We have to counter it with people from their lot, but those who have a contrarian view. Swami Agnivesh was the right instrument to counter such narrative. We don't have people to counter such an ideology. "Biden will hold a community event at the National World War 1 Museum and Memorial. The event begins at 4:15 p.m." JOE IS BACK!!! Joe Biden takes aim at front-runner Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday Voting is taking place in 14 Super Tuesday states on the most crucial day yet in the 2020 election, a day that will go a long way toward showing whether surging former Vice President Joe Biden can slow the march of liberal front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Democratic presidential nomination. Right Wing Serves Salt Hannity rips 'Quid Pro Joe' Biden, 'Mini Mike' Bloomberg as Super Tuesday results come in Fox News host Sean Hannity tore into former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as results from Super Tuesday primary states continue to be tallied. Hannity first went after "Quid Pro Joe" over a recent gaffe he made at a rally on Monday where he botched the words of the Declaration of Independence and accidentally told voters that "tomorrow is Super Thursday." Community Backs Biden Black voters propel Biden to big wins in Virginia, NC, Alabama Former Vice President is off to a strong Super Tuesday start after he was declared the winner of the Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama primaries by networks immediately as polls closed in both states. Return Of The Joe How Biden engineered his astonishing comeback The ground started to shift in Joe Biden's favor even before his landslide win in South Carolina. Two days before the make-or-break primary, Monmouth University released a poll showing the former vice president with a staggering 20-point lead. That followed a critical endorsement from powerful congressional leader Jim Clyburn. Closer Look At The Veep Pretending Joe Biden Is Fine | National Review As what appears to be a willful act of national make-believe sweeps the Democratic primaries, Alexandra Petri has a funny sarcastic column in the Washington Post: "I just remembered Joe Biden is fine." She writes: Please don't show me any footage of Joe Biden saying or doing things. Social Media Silenced??? Twitter suspends liberal journalist for quoting Joe Biden gaffe A liberal journalist was hit with a temporary suspension on Twitter over a tweet quoting a gaffe from former Vice President Joe Biden. Prez Trump Talks Back Trump: Biden Would Be A Clueless TV Addict As President It had been a little while since we'd heard much from Republicans about "Sleepy" Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The former vice president had suffered a string of humiliating finishes to open up primary season, and with his campaign was on the ropes, Burisma no longer seemed like a priority for Republicans. He's the last hope of the Democratic Party establishment and he's on his way to drum up local support and give Democratic boomers a glimmer of hope . . .Deets and the visit to one of this town's favorite money losing structures . . .And this leads us to a quick consideration of his chances as the campaign shifts . . .Developing . . . Imports and exports of farm produce, especially fruit, to China in the next six to eight months will not be as high as in January 2019. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), China was the only market which witnessed farm produce export growth in January 2020, with the export turnover of $3.7 billion, an increase of 32.8 percent compared with the same period last year. However, the Covid-2019 outbreak, plus the drastic measures applied by the Chinese government to fight against the epidemic, have seriously affected Vietnams export to the vast market. The effects may last 6-8 months, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT). Cross-border trade has suffered most heavily from coronavirus epidemic. New orders have not come since Chinese businesspeople cannot come to Vietnam. The coffee consumption has decreased as Starbucks has suspended thousands of shops in China. The fillet catfish consumption has also decreased as McDonalds has closed hundreds of shops. The coffee consumption has decreased as Starbucks has suspended thousands of shops in China. The fillet catfish consumption has also decreased as McDonalds has closed hundreds of shops. Meanwhile, negotiations for opening farm produce markets are at a standstill because Chinese officials cannot come to Vietnam. The closing of border markets, at least until the end of February, has made the export activities under the mode of resident exchange interrupted. MOIT has persuaded goods owners to export products through official channels instead of the cross-border resident exchange mode in order to boost sale. However, it admitted that the results remain very modest. The ministry reported that the import/export turnover across land border gates is $7 billion, of which $3.7 billion is from exports through official channels. Goods owners dont want to export through official channels because they have to pay higher costs and have to satisfy strict requirements on packaging, labelling and traceability. Analysts said in order to find outlets for farm produce, Vietnam has to maintain the Chinese market and seek new markets. Meanwhile, farm exports have decreased sharply in nearly all major markets. According to GSO, Vietnams farm exports to the US decreased by 7.6 percent in January. The exports to the EU dropped by 30.8 percent, to Japan by 15.8 percent, South Korea 29.3 percent and ASEAN 34.8 percent. At present, nine products have received licenses to export to China through officials channels, namely dragon fruit, watermelon, litchi, longan, bananas, mango, jackfruit, rambutant and mangosteen. Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Vina T&T Group, said his company has increased the purchase of fruits, but only buys products from farmers who cooperate with the company to produce mango and dragon fruit meeting requirements. Enterprises with cold storage can preserve dragon fruit for 30 days and will go bankrupt if Chinese businesses do not collect fruit soon. Vietnams fresh fruit exports to China decreased by 10-15 percent in 2019. Linh Ha Socio-economic situation remains stable despite COVID-19 outbreak: PM Despite difficulties resulting from the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), Vietnams socio-economic situation in February basically remained stable, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. An asteroid measuring four kilometres wide and big enough to potentially end human civilisation is expected to pass close the Earth in April. According to the reports, NASA is closely monitoring the colossal rock, estimated to measure up to 2.5 miles (4.1 km) across, and has officially named it as 52768 (1998 OR2). The asteroid is projected to pass earth on April 29 at a speed of 31,320kmh and will be the closest at just 0.04205 astronomical units away from our planet. READ: Asteroid Larger Than World's Tallest Building Sails Past Earth: NASA According to the reports, 52768 (1998 OR2) will be just 3.9 million miles (6.29 million km) away at its nearest. According to the Planetary Society, an asteroid bigger than 0.6 miles (1km) across is big enough to threaten global destruction. READ: Asteroid That Struck Australia May Have Caused Climate Change: Scientists #FYI Scientists in the US have predicted that an asteroid is making its way to earth on 29 April 2020. The object, called 52768 (1998 OR2), is 1 to 2.5 miles wide and will pass within 3,908,791 miles, moving at 19,461 miles per hour. pic.twitter.com/T2vtY3ooWT Mpho Mathoho (@MaxMpho) March 4, 2020 Asteroid zoom past earth Meanwhile, a massive asteroid that is bigger than the world's tallest building sail past the Earth on February 15, according to NASA. The giant rock dubbed 163373 (2002 PZ39) measuring between 1,400 and 3,200 feet in diameter is based on the object's magnitude, as per the data from the space agency's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The scientists suggested that the asteroid would stand higher than Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, which is the tallest structure on Earth. 2002 PZ39 is about to make its close approach at 11:05am Universal Time (6:05 am EST) on February 15. READ: NASA Reveals 2,000ft Wide Asteroid Will Fly Past Earth On Dec 26 It zoom past the Earth at a distance of around 3.6 million miles i.e. 15 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. The asteroid crossed at a speed of nearly 34,000 miles per hour which is about 20 times as fast as an F-16 jet fighter flying at maximum velocity. In addition, the asteroid is defined as a "potentially hazardous" near-Earth object (NEO) by the CNEOS. READ: 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Will Narrowly Fly Past Earth Just After Christmas Tech giant Intel has said one of its employees in Bengaluru has "potentially been exposed" to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. The company also said it has implemented precautionary measures like travel restrictions, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions in India. "An Intel employee in Bangalore has potentially been exposed and is currently under quarantine in accordance with government requirements," Intel said in a late night statement on Tuesday. The company said it is monitoring the coronavirus situation closely and working to ensure that its employees have the information and resources they need to stay safe and informed. In India, we have implemented precautionary measures such as travel and event restrictions, visitor screenings at all our offices, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions," it said. The virus outbreak, which has seen cases being registered across the world including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan, has had a significant impact on businesses across industries. Microblogging platform Twitter has asked its employees to work from home while other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies instructed staff to avoid non-essential travel as IT firms put in place measures to safeguard workers against the deadly coronavirus. The coronavirus outbreak claimed over 3,000 lives globally, and fresh cases being reported in India. The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the virus outbreak whose epicentre was in China. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Businesses hope to boost export value by virtue of the EVFTA Tan Cang Waterway Transport JSC (a subsidiary of Saigon Newport Corporation) has just pressed into use the Hoang Anh-Lokaport inland clearance depot of over 6.8 hectares in total space in the northern province of Hai Duong. The new port has a designed capacity of 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) containers and one million tonnes of cargo in the first phase. Lokaport is the new destination on the north-south container route of Tan Cang Waterway Transport JSC. In the first phase, Tan Cang Waterway Transport will co-operate with Lokaport in investing and operating vehicles, including five barges from 74 to 96 TEUs with eight voyages per week to transport containers and two barges (1,200 tonnes) to transport steel, equipment, paper, animal feed, and raw materials for factories in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces. The service also covers transporting domestic and import-export cargo from northern key economic areas such as Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Hai Duong, and Hung Yen to ports in Haiphong and vice versa. In the case of Long An international seaport, according to chairwoman Pham Thi Bich Hue of Long An International Port Operation and Management JSC, the company expects posting breakthroughs in development this year. Along with this, right in the first days of 2020, the company hailed a super-long, heavy-lift vessel reaching 35,000DWT in gross tonnage. Simultaneously, the company has realised diverse ambitious investment plans. Along with this, Wharf No.3 has 90 per cent finished construction work and is slated to start operation early in the second quarter of this year. In the upcoming time, the company envisages kicking-off the construction of wharf No.7 having the capacity to receive ships of up to 70,000DWT and commence operation in the first quarter of 2021. Last year, Long An international port welcomed nearly 1,000 domestic and international ships and reached approximately one million tonnes of cargo, three times the number of ships called on the wharves and representing a 160 per cent jump in cargo volume compared to the year before. The EVFTA is an ambitious pact providing almost 99 per cent of elimination of custom duties between the EU and Vietnam. Meanwhile, G.C Food JSC based in the southern province of Dong Nai has recently brought its aloe processing plant in Ninh Thuan province into production. With a daily processing capacity reaching 200 tonnes of material, this is one of the largest aloe processing plants in Vietnam. The company has also been investing in a fruit tree farm of more than 43ha land in Ninh Thuan province to supply input materials for food and agricultural product processing plants. According to company director Nguyen Van Thu, G.C Food mainly engages in processing items from fresh agricultural materials such as aloe, pineapple, and coffee. As many of their customers come from Europe, he hopes the EVFTA would help boost the companys export value to this market and scale up production. The European Parliament on February 12 ratified the EVFTA and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement. The next step before the agreements can come into force is the ratification of the agreement by the National Assembly of Vietnam slated in May 2020. The EVFTA is an ambitious pact eliminating almost 99 per cent of customs duties between the EU and Vietnam. As per the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the deal is expected to help increase Vietnams GDP by 4.6 per cent and its exports to the EU by 42.7 per cent by 2025. Meanwhile, the European Commission has forecast to increase the EUs GDP by $29.5 billion by 2035. During a rally joined by thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, four demonstrators play in an action drama Taipei, Taiwan April 23, 2006 (Patrick Lin/AFP/Getty Images) Independent Tribunal Finds Chinese Regime Still Killing Prisoners of Conscience for Their Organs Governments and international bodies can no longer turn a blind eye to one of the worst atrocities committed in modern times, experts saidas the worlds first independent legal analysis of evidence regarding forced organ harvesting in China concluded that the grisly practice has continued unabated. An independent peoples tribunal, known as the China Tribunal, on March 1 released its full judgment after an 18-month investigation. Panel members reviewed written and oral evidence, including testimony from over 50 witnesses given over two public hearings in December 2018 and April 2019. Last June, the tribunal delivered its findings in London, concluding beyond a reasonable doubt that state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience had taken place for years in China on a significant scale, and is still taking place today. The main organ supply came from imprisoned practitioners of the persecuted spiritual group Falun Gong, according to the tribunal. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, which consists of meditative exercises and moral teachings centered around the tenets truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, has been subject to a brutal persecution by the Chinese communist regime for more than two decades. Hundreds of thousands of adherents have been thrown into prisons, labor camps, and brainwashing centers, where many have been tortured in an effort to force them to renounce their faith, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. The tribunal concluded that the Chinese regimes sustained campaign of forced organ harvesting constituted crimes against humanity. The conclusion shows that very many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason, that more may suffer in similar ways, and that all of us live on a planet where extreme wickedness may be found, it said in its final 160-page report (pdf), which included 300 pages of supplementary materials. The international panel was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal, and included six other experts, in law, transplant surgery, international politics, Chinese history, and business. Findings The tribunal considered a range of evidence in reaching its conclusion, such as hospitals offering extremely short wait timesfrom a few days to weeksfor organ transplants, widespread blood testing and other medical testing of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs, and previous research on the issue. Such short-time availability [of organs] could only occur if there was a bank of potential living donors who could be sacrificed to order, the judgment said. It found that blood testing and medical testing, including ultrasound, radiographic, and physical organ examinations, of Falun Gong and Uyghur prisonerswhich was not conducted on other prisonersis highly suggestive of methods used to assess organ function. The Tribunal must ask itself why a prison management system might test anyone in [such] ways when such testing was not required for the purposes of internment, it said. While the Tribunal could not definitively conclude that imprisoned Uyghurs were victims of forced organ harvesting, it said that the vulnerability of the group to being used as a bank of organs is obvious. Its estimated that up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in internment camps in the northwestern region of Xinjiang as part of the Chinese regimes purported crackdown on extremism. Chinese Officials One piece of evidence presented in the report directly implicated former regime leader Jiang Zemin, who directly ordered the harvesting of organs from Falun Gong adherents. Jiang issued the order [to take organs], said Bai Shuzhong, a former minister of health for Chinas military, when he was questioned by an investigator during an undercover phone call in 2014. Another piece of evidence of officials direct involvement in forced organ harvesting was revealed during an undercover phone call in 2016 with Zhu Jiabin, who was the head of the 610 Office in Mudanjiang, a city in Heilongjiang Province. The 610 Office is a Gestapo-like secret police force that was established expressly to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong adherents. I am called the butcher specializing in live organ harvesting. Its nothing, just like slaughtering pigs, Zhu said in the phone call, before adding, After scooping the organs out, I would sell them. All phone calls submitted to the China Tribunal and included within the report have been individually validated by independent investigators to ensure credibility [of] origin and content, according to the Tribunals press release. The tribunal also said in the report that it is convinced that official Chinese transplantation statistics have been falsified in order to cover up forced organ harvesting. In 2015, the Chinese regime said it would stop sourcing organs from executed prisoners and rely exclusively on a new voluntary donation system. In November last year, a study published in the scientific journal BMC Medical Ethics found that Beijings reported organ donation numbers dont stack up, and there is highly compelling evidence that they are being falsified. The study showed that official Chinese figures didnt appear to be real statistics from donations, but rather data generated using a mathematical equation. The Time for Ignoring the Issue Has Passed With the release of the tribunals comprehensive findings, advocates and experts urged governments and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and The Transplantation Society, to take action and hold the Chinese regime to account. The tribunals chair Nice said in a statement that the judgment confirms how all people or organizations interacting in any substantial way with the PRC [the Peoples Republic of China] should recognize that they are interacting with a criminal state. Susie Hughes, executive director of advocacy group International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, similarly said: It is no longer acceptable for governments, medical bodies, and leading human rights organizations to say there is not enough evidence. The enormous task of assessing all available evidence has now been completed and is available for all to see. Ethan Gutmann, a China analyst who has investigated organ harvesting for more than a decade, said the tribunals undertaking amounted to the most comprehensive inquiry yet into the issue. These people sat down and read everything. No one else could have claimed to have done that, Gutmann told The Epoch Times. He said that the judgments release, at a time when countries are working to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak that originated from central Chinawhich may have been prevented from spreading had the regime not initially covered up the severity of the outbreakprovided a good opportunity for the international community to take stock on who weve partnered with here. The Chinese Communist Party is not a reliable partner in any sense, Gutmann said. They should be blackballed from the medical world. They should not be coming to our conferences, they should not be publishing in our medical journals. They should be treated right now as pariahs. More than two dozen academic studies about transplanted organs written by researchers in China were retracted in 2019 after doctors couldnt prove that donors gave consent. Dr. Torsten Trey, executive director of Washington-based advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, called on the United Nations to investigate organ harvesting in China, given the tribunals conclusion that it amounted to crimes against humanity under international law. There is not something like a free pass for China that it can commit crimes against humanity or a genocide, without attracting the scrutiny of the world, Trey said in an email to The Epoch Times. David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific and another longtime researcher on the issue, told The Epoch Times that countries that have Magnitsky Actslegislation that sanctions human rights abusersshould target Chinese officials involved in organ harvesting. Their assets should be seized, and they should be denied entry visas, he said. We should show that we have some backbone on this issue, Kilgour said. Bhopal/New Delhi:The Congress party on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) accused the main opposition party BJP of poaching its MLAs to topple its government in Madhya Pradesh led by Chief Minister Kamal Nath. After a late night drama, the Congress claimed that the BJP took away eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath government. The Congress government later in the evening appeared to have survived the alleged poaching bid and asserted that there was no threat to its regime. State Minister Jitu Patwari, who was asked to trace and persuade the missing MLAS, said that BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh took the eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath-led government. CM Kamal Nath said that his government, which came to power in December 2018 by ousting the BJP, has an absolute majority and it has proved this in the state Assembly on several occasions. Nath said the BJP "faced defeat every time" and this time also, its plans will prove to be like "Mungerilal's dream", referring to the famous fictional character from a television serial. Congress leaders including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh, also accused the BJP of orchestrating a move to "poach" the legislators of his party in Madhya Pradesh. They, however, asserted that the Congress government in the state was "completely secure and stable". Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior BJP leader took a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that poaching attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. According to party sources, among the eight MLAs who were taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is an independent and the rest are from BSP and SP. The BJP denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Terming the charge as "unfortunate", Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma said the allegations were unfortunate. "The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," Sharma said, when asked about Congress' allegation of attempts to destabilise the state government. Sharma said this is the Congress' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. The Congress is leveling allegations against the BJP as it is unable to manage its own MLAs, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. "We have been saying this from the beginning that we are not involved in any such (poaching) activity, but if the Congress government falls on its own, they will be responsible for it," Chouhan told reporters. In Indore, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya denied his party's role in the alleged horse-trading of MLAs supporting the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government. He claimed that whatever is happening in the state's politics shows the frustration of the ruling Congress MLAs and their anger towards Kamal Nath. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. (With Agency Inputs) New Delhi, March 4 : The Congress has stepped up its demand for a discussion on Delhi riots in the Lok Sabha even though the government has promised such a debate after Holi. "We have already seen khoon-ki-Holi (bloodbath) in Delhi," said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress floor leader in the Lok Sabha. "We will not leave this issue (Delhi riots) and will continue to demand the resignation of the Home Minister," said Chowdhury. The Congress made it clear on Wednesday that it would not allow the Lok Sabha to function until the government allows a debate on Delhi riots. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led a team of party MPs to riot-hit areas and saw schools damaged by the rioters. The Congress team also met the affected families. "We have been demanding an open debate on Delhi violence for the last three days inside Parliament. We want to know who is behind the violence, what was the reason that led to the killing of around 50 people," said party MP Syed Naseer Hussain while talking to media in the Parliament premises. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted the Class 10 science examination on Wednesday. Here is what students said after coming out of the examination hall: Chandigarh Students who appeared in the examination from Chandigarh gave mixed reactions about the difficulty level of science paper on Wednesday. Suresh Sharma, a student who appeared at the government model senior secondary school sector 37 said, The paper was slightly difficult and a bit lengthy. I was able to complete it just two-three minutes before the exam was over. Ishu Gupta, a teacher of science told Hindustan Times, The paper covered the entire syllabus. The conceptual questions were time-consuming and not worded as exactly as given in NCERT. The one marker questions were also tricky but were based on the CBSE pattern and syllabus. Overall the paper was not very difficult, not very easy. Shubham Walia, another class 10 student said, Questions were not straight forward. Overall it was an average paper. I am not hopeful of a good score. Krishna Singh, a student at a private city-based school added, Question three and four were value-based questions, apart from these two questions I found the five marks and one marks questions easy. He added, Question number 13 and 14 were assertion and reasoning based questions, in section B there was a question related to the physiological process of Cheetah, which was a bit tricky. In question number 22, the question on the reflective indexes was asked which was again difficult, he adds. Read: CBSE Class 10 science exam 2020 question paper Prayagraj Students of CBSE Class 10 in Prayagraj found most of the questions of science paper as scoring except for a few questions from Chemistry. According to Akansha, a student at Ganga Gurukulm School, Prayagraj, the question paper was divided in three sections A, B and C. Questions from Light chapter besides ray diagrams on Reflection and refraction from Physics were easy to attempt. The section A of 20 marks was of scoring nature with fill in the blanks, one word answers and multiple choice questions. Some questions of Chemistry in section B were not so easy, she said. Shantanu, another student of Ganga Gurukulam school said overall Science question paper was scoring except for questions like reasoning from Biology in section C on the topic Veins have walls and arteries do not have walls besides in Chemistry on topics like molecular formula and metallurgy, etc. Hardik Singh of Maharishi Patanjali Vidya Mandir termed the Science paper scoring except for few question like giving name of Ore of Carbon Dioxide besides questions on Oxidation and chemical reactions. Anjali Bansal teaching Chemistry at Ganga Gurukulam school termed the question paper easy barring a few questions which were tricky in nature or were asked indirectly. Questions on Molecular formula and Metallurgy, oxidation, chemical reactions were a bit tricky and students who had indepth knowledge of the topics would have answered it well, she said. Anita Srivastava, teaching Biology at Ganga Gurukulam School informed that the questions were based in accordance to NCERT syllabus and were scoring. Similarly Shardha Gupta teaching Physics at Ganga Gurukulam School said regular studies and proper practice of previous year question papers of the Board was enough to score well in the examination. Lucknow A number of CBSE Class 10 students in Lucknow said that science examination was easy and on the expected lines. Bhuvi, a student of GD Goenka Public School Lucknow said, The paper was easier than we expected, there were less high order thinking questions. Practice of sample papers made the things very easy for us. Surya Shakti, a student of the same school said, The paper was lengthy; but I was able to finish it in time but could not revise it. Vanshikaof GD Goenka Public School said, I was apprehensive till the time I had not seen the paper. After that I found the questions easy except the one mark ones. Two other students of the same school Sana and Shivansh said, We found some questions little tricky, but overall it was a moderate paper. Sameer and Vedant of the same school said, Questions were application based, which required some time to solve and made the paper lengthy. The paper included several application-based questions and was pretty lengthy . Also the section A had several conceptual question, said Kriti Chandra, a Class 10-A student of DPS Jankipuram, Lucknow . The paper was mostly application based and lengthy.. Also some questions were tricky, said Sneha, a student of DPS Jankipuram. Bhubaneswar Kasturika Jena of KV No 1 in Bhubaneswar said, Todays science paper was quite hard. Questions were quite lengthy. I have given only two papers,so I cant tell about other remaining paper. If someone wants to score good he or she will have to read the whole book. Another student Amrita of the same school said, One mark questions were quite difficult to understand. Mayurakshi Pany, Sai International School, Bhubaneswar said science paper was a relief for her. After the pre-boards and Sahodaya papers, this paper brought happiness. The questions although were not repeated from the previous papers but were easy and nothing was out of course. The best part for me was no drawing a diagram of the brain . (With inputs from Kenneth John in Prayagraj, Srishti Jaswal in Chandigarh, Rajeev Mullick in Lucknow and Debabrata Mohanty in Bhubaneswar) GREENWOOD A lifelong passion for guns and a desire to fill a gap in the customized gun market created the foundation for a new business in Greenwood. Grant Schutter opened Custom Gun Solutions last summer, building super-customizable AR semiautomatic (also known as modern sporting) rifles and other types of guns. The business operates out of a shop building at his home at 347 East First Street in Greenwood. The idea for the business came from a desire to create a product that was unlike anything on the market. Everyone had cheap ARs that looked like junk, he said. On the other end of the price spectrum, the rifles were selling in the range of $1,000 to $3,000, Schutter said. So we wanted to be right in the middle, he added. Schutter learned about guns very early in his youth from family and friends. A neighbor, who was more like a grandfather, was a gun smith. I kind of grew up around guns, he said. By the age of 15, Schutter really wanted his own hunting rifle. By the age of 18, he went beyond that hunting rifle and started collecting guns. Italy's death toll from the new coronavirus passed 100 on Wednesday and the number of cases went over 3,000, leading the government to implement a closure of all schools and universities. Twenty-eight more people died in the past 24 hours, bringing the toll to 107 - the highest number of fatalities outside China - while the number of cases reached 3,089, official figures showed. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is also expected to release new rules which will tell the nation they cannot kiss because of the virus. As part of today's measures, schools and universities will be shuttered until mid-March, while the government is advising against kissing, hugging and shaking hands, ANSA reported. Two young people wearing protective face masks kiss in central Rome, Italy today Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte speaks during a press conference held at Rome's Chigi Palace, following the Ministers cabinet meeting dedicated to the coronavirus crisis today A schoolteacher looks at his shuttered workplace in the small town of Bareggio near Milan - it has been closed since last month but today the government has rolled out the strict measure to every school and university in the country until mid-March The guidance expected to be circulated nationwide later today also advises people to stand three feet apart at all times, even indoors, to protect against saliva droplets which can transmit the disease. The three northern regions in the 'red zone' - Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna - have already had their schools closed since last month. Ten per cent of virus patients in Italy were in intensive care with respiratory problems, the health chief of the Lombardy region in northern Italy has said. Giulio Gallera said that they were almost exclusively over 65 years old and asked all elderly people in the region to leave home as little as possible for the next two weeks. Giovanni Rezza, the head of the infectious diseases department at the national health institute, yesterday said that schools were a key area to keep control of the virus. 'Not because children are vulnerable - they don't suffer as much as adults - but they can transmit it to parents and grandparents,' he said. Revellers at the Venice Carnival last month kissing in the street. As of today Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is expected to advise against such affection over coronavirus fears Primary school pupils in the 'red zone' area of San Fiorano where schools have already been closed - the closures are now to be rolled out to all schools and universities nationwide to stop the spread of COVID-19 The Pope - who has tested negative for the virus after suffering cold-like symptoms - kissing a child in Bari, Italy, on February 23 He also had a warning for countries like the UK where the virus is starting to spread, saying: 'Be very careful and contain clusters as soon as possible.' Officials in Italy also said it could take up to two weeks to know whether measures including quarantines in 11 northern towns were working. Nearby in France the latest death was reported in the Oise department northeast of Paris, in the country's most significant cluster. With at least 212 cases, including 47 in the Oise, France is the third worst affected country in Europe after Italy and Germany. The Louvre in Paris, however, re-opened today after it was closed from Sunday because staff had walked out over fears of the coronavirus. In China, the number of new reported virus cases dropped again Tuesday, with just 125 new cases after a six-week low of 202 a day earlier. It's still by far the hardest-hit country, with 80,151 cases and 2,943 deaths. The virus has been detected in at least 70 countries with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths. The U.S.' count of COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 in 11 states. President Donald Trump and his Cabinet met with pharmaceutical executives Monday to discuss how to speed the search for a vaccine. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government is creating hype around novel coronavirus to divert attention from the Delhi riots, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed while addressing a gathering of party workers on Wednesday. No one knows how many actually died (in Delhi riots). And to make people forget the real corona (the virus), they are using the TV (channels) to create a hype around coronavirus. So that people do not ask how so many people died and how would there would be justice? Banerjee said in Malda district. They demand probes by CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) when a rat bites a person in Bengal. And here there is no judicial inquiry even after so many people were murdered. We demand a judicial probe to be led by a Supreme Court judge, she said. She said this after remarks at a rally in neighbouring South Dinajpur district that 700 people were still missing in Delhi following last weeks riots. The situation in Delhi is pathetic. There are heaps of bodies. So many people have become homeless. Bodies are being recovered from drains. Seven hundred people are still missing, she said. Banerjee also repeated her Mondays remarks that Delhi riots were genocide. It has been camouflaged as a riot but was genocide, she said and then told her supporters, Dont ever call it a riot. Campaign everywhere saying it was genocide. In an apparent jibe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah who had claimed at a rally in Kolkata that BJP would topple the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021. Manage Delhi first. Think of Bengal only after that, said the Banerjee. She reiterated her strong objection to the controversial goli maaro slogan shouted by a section of BJP supporters, first in Delhi, and later in Kolkata. How dare they shout goli maaro on the streets? she said, adding that many had been arrested. The police have so far arrested five persons in connection with the shouting of the controversial goli maro slogan. More than 800 guests are expected this evening at the Women in Economy 2020 Gala, an event that rewards business excellence. "The merits of the ladies who have changed the business world in Romania must be acknowledged. With a solid academic background, they succeeded in proving their worth in an extremely complicated environment. Indispensable in organisations, they sit on boards and even influence the destinies of the largest businesses operating in Romania. Moreover, with hard work and perseverance, those who have chosen the path of entrepreneurship have managed to find real recipes for success," organisers say in a press statement.According to Cristina Chiriac, chairman of the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurs, the CONAF 2020 Gala supports equal opportunities and gender equality, and the event will be attended by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, and the interim Prime Minister, Ludovic Orban.The Women in Economy 2020 Gala will bring to the attention of the relevant officials and the most important leaders of the Romanian business environment at the Romanian Athenaeum the results of the KeysFinn study in female entrepreneurship, a decade of challenges. Also unveiled will be the conclusions of a birth rate in Romania survey commissioned by CONAF and conducted by Dynamik HR,.More than 800 persons, business people from Romania and abroad, partners and leaders of organisations supporting the involvement and development of women's initiatives in business, society and culture were invited to the event.This is the event's second edition and continues the series of initiatives organized by CONAF to celebrate high performance without circumventing sensitive issues in the Romanian economy.CONAF is the only confederative entity in Romania whose main objective is to support and promote female entrepreneurship, being actively involved in various economic, social and cultural projects. Since the beginning of its efforts, permanently supported by the Presidential Administration, the confederation has advocated for a strong and internationally competitive economy, having entered a series of partnerships with other organisations at European level.Organisers of the Women in Economy 2020 Gala are the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurs (CONAF), the Federation of Female Entrepreneur Employers' Associations (FPFA) and the Female Entrepreneurs' Employers' Association (PFA), in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and National Identity. The COVID-19 virus (also known as coronavirus) has affected a lot of the tech industry on a global scale. We know these concerns caused the GSMA to cancel Mobile World Congress, a major tradeshow for the smartphone industry. The latest news comes from Google in a statement to The Verge which explained that its annual developer conference, set to be held on May 12-14, would no longer be held physically. Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Google Spokesperson Google has also sent a message to attendees of Google I/O as reported by Droid Life. Google explains that all attendees who paid to attend the developers event will be fully refunded by March 13. In addition, those who registered for this years drawing will need to register again for Google I/O 2020. Google uses I/O to announce what the company is working on in software advancements, new services, and improvements to existing Google products like Google Assistant, and Android. Google I/O is usually where features for the next version of Android are revealed. Google is still going to hold it usual announcements. The difference is that the events will be livestreamed instead of physically hosting reporters. Via 1 2 Sir John Redwood is MP for Wokingham, and is a former Secretary of State for Wales. Recent tensions between Ministers and civil servants have surfaced. The stories reveal Ministerial impatience that reforms promised in the election are not being pursued with vigour and energy by officials who seem to want to slow them or overwhelm them with objections. Pro-Brexit Ministers are understandably suspicious of the intents of the civil service at large, after the strong defence of the status quo that the civil service helped David Cameron and George Osborne mount during the EU referendum. It seemed that the civil service came close to losing its reputation for neutrality by enthusiastic and inaccurate forecasts and reports heralding big trouble were the public to vote to leave. This was followed by a long period of generating endless difficulties and obstacles to simply leaving, even after it was official Government policy to implement the wishes of the majority in the vote. There were no published papers or civil service leaks about all the opportunities Brexit would bring. I have often been asked how I helped Margaret Thatcher get through a radical programme of change and reform during the 1980s when I advised her first from outside government, and then as her Chief Policy Adviser inside 10 Downing Street. I have been reluctant to say much about that period as I am rooted in the present and passionate about the future, and am not ready to write up my reflections from the past. It is, however, possible to present some conclusions as to how we managed democratic decision-making, and how we secured implementation of policies in that tempestuous era that are relevant to where we now are. There were plenty ofYes Minister routines and scripts to live through then as now. I recall that when I first took over the Policy Unit the rest of the civil service decided to starve us of their papers to make our jobs difficult. I responded by telling them in that case I would still be submitting our view of how the Prime Minister should proceed on each subject heading on the agenda regardless of their advice, and would compete against their unseen proposition. They decided wisely that this would not be a good idea and could lose them more of their battles with the Prime Minister than they wished. They turned instead to sending us huge quantities of paper which overwhelmed us. I told them that was as bad as sending us nothing. What we needed to see was their advice on matters that warranted the Prime Ministers time, and particularly matters where she needed to decide or get the Cabinet to decide. I also pointed out that we had work to do putting manifesto and political priorities into the form of policies that could be implemented. We were happy to share our memos on these matters with them. The civil service then decided to co-operate, and we saw the papers we needed to see, and recommended the departmental or Cabinet Office answer when it made sense. The Policy Unit had ten members. We covered every Government subject apart from non-EU foreign affairs, where the PM had a separate adviser in Number 10. I supervised all briefs going to the Prime Minister, but each specialist usually signed their own work and had some access to the Prime Minister for themselves to keep them involved and committed to her. It included two career civil servants and three secondees from business. I met the Prime Minister once a week for a one to one review of the agenda for half an hour and usually saw her daily at meetings when she was working in London. I could attend most of the meetings in the diary if I wished. I asked all my colleagues to be polite and co-operative with the wider civil service, but to give them clear steers on what the Prime Ministers view was and what Number 10 was out to achieve whether they liked that view or not. We never wished the Government to operate outside the normal rules of procedure or to be cavalier with the law. I was also very conscious that we needed to help her foster better relations with her Cabinet colleagues. I persuaded the Prime Minister to follow a no shocks policy where possible. We invited in leading Cabinet members for one to one meetings when they could tell the Prime Minister what they were doing and what help they needed, and she could tell them what her priorities were and what she was looking for from their department. Margaret had a tendency to take criticisms or embarrassing facts about a department which we might supply and use them with gusto against a Minister in wider meetings, which made me increasingly careful about whether and how I offered such information. The big items on the agenda that often required counter-cultural actions by the civil service were privatisation and government reform. Many civil servants did not like the idea of transferring some 10 per cent of national output from the hands of the state into private hands through share and business sales in the privatisation programme. There was strong Labour Party and trade union resistance, as there was to council house sales, which informed efforts to slow the process down. We were made to take through separate legislation for each privatisation sale rather than putting through enabling legislation for the whole programme. Council house sales were tied up by various rules over sales proceeds and discounts. We managed the process by securing the buy-in of the chairmen of the nationalised Industries, who saw how it would solve their capital scarcity and modernisation problems. I got the Prime Minister to set up a special department for privatisation within the Treasury and make John Moore the first Minister in charge ot it. He and I then set out a programme for Cabinet consideration, and he recruited a group of volunteer Treasury officials who were good and keen on the topic to get it under way. Cabinet buy-in was secured by explaining the whole future programme to them and encouraging individual Ministers and departments to bid for early slots for sales. When it came to central government, we decided to make a bigger distinction between policy work and the administration of policy. The actual work of mending and managing the roads or administering grants could be done by an agency or executive quango. A senior civil servant or external chairman could take charge, be set targets, and report back as necessary. Failure to deliver would be mismanagement not a direct failing of the Minister. Policy work and work close to Ministers would be under the traditional rules where advisers advised and Ministers decided. Ministers were responsible, and managed the presentation of the Departments case. In some cases, such as the Property Services Agency responsible for various building task and maintenance, it was possible to go on from agency status to privatise the agency and give the public sector more choice for property work. Results from this reform were mixed. In some cases, it added to quality and efficiency by concentrating attention on what before had often been Cinderella parts of a department. In other cases, good leadership was not found and little changed. The civil service tried to water down the impact of managing to stated and clear targets by multiplying the number of such targets to the point where they were meaningless. RTHK: Toilet rolls rationed Down Under after panic buying Australia's biggest supermarket on Wednesday announced a limit on toilet paper purchases after the global spread of coronavirus sparked a spate of panic buying Down Under. Woolworths said the restriction of four packs of toilet paper per person would apply "to ensure more customers have access to the products". Hand sanitisers will also be sold from behind the service counter and restricted to two per person. "It will help shore up stock levels as suppliers ramp up local production and deliveries in response to higher-than-usual demand," the company said in a statement. Despite government assurances, there has been a run on some items at Australian supermarkets, with images on social media purportedly showing shelves stripped of goods and shoppers piling trolleys high with toilet paper. Police had to be called to a Sydney supermarket at lunchtime on Wednesday when a knife was drawn in a toilet paper aisle. New South Wales Police confirmed officers went to the western Sydney supermarket but said there were no arrests and no injuries. It is believed a knife was raised in the air by a startled hearing- and speech-impaired customer during a heated exchange over toilet rolls. Retailers have also experienced shortages of masks and hand sanitisers sparked by fears over the deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 90,000 people and killed more than 3,100 worldwide, . The vast majority of cases have been in China, but South Korea, Italy and Iran have also emerged as hotspots. Australia has reported 43 confirmed cases of the virus, including one death. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had spoken to the country's two major supermarket chains Woolworths and its rival Coles about their response to panic buying. "I can understand why people may be concerned, and go to supermarkets, and do those sorts of things. But the advice is that's not necessary," he told 2GB Radio on Wednesday. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. According to Coldwell Banker, smart homes have "network-connected products for controlling and automating functions such as lighting, security and temperature either remotely by a phone, tablet, computer or a separate system within the home itself." With a smart home, you can have wireless vacuum robots navigating row-by-row and room-by-room cleaning throughout your place, and cameras that throw treats to your dog. Considering these, having a smart home may seem to be the ultimate goal for modern households. But there are two sides to every coin, thus, smart technology may either facilitate your life and give you extra time to do other things or make you lazy. Smart home technologies have pros and cons and it is up to you to decide if you need to upgrade your living space into a smart home, according to an article by Be Latina. Advantages: 1. Convenience Among the advantages of having a smart home, convenience is on top of the list. In this fast-paced world, convenience is a luxury. Just connect the smart device to your smart phone other networked device and voila! Convenience at your fingertips. In the past, have you ever imagined how a push of a button and one device today can completely change the temperature of a room, turn on or off the lights, preheat an oven, turn on the washing machine, TV, and music? Welcome to the future. Instead of tiring yourself from manual, laborious chores, you can maximize productivity and spend more time bonding with your family. 2. Safety Another advantage of having a smart home is safety. You can upgrade your home security by simply installing cameras with motion sensors. Wherever you are in the world, as long as there is a stable internet connection, you can monitor your home and even interact with anyone trespassing in your property. You can also receive incentives from your home insurance company if you use smart devices, according to Encompass Agency. 3. Increased Home Value If you have smart features installed in your home, you can increase its market value. Planning to sell your property? According to the National Association of Realtors, 44 percent of millennial buyers admitted they are willing to spend an extra $3,000 or more for a home with smart features. Disadvantages: 1. Capital Outlay The high cost of setting up a fully functional smart home is one of the major smart home disadvantages. It is not surprising that smart technologies are quite expensive.Installing state-of-the-art facilities necessary to upgrade into a smart home is often overwhelming. According to Use Technology Wisely, the basic system consisting of a smart burglar alarm, thermostat, outdoor lighting and a backdoor lock costs as much as $2,500, whereas the advanced, high-end systems could cost you as much as $1.8 million. If you have a financially stable household, then you are most likely willing to spend thousands, even millions of dollars in upgrading into a smart home. On top of that, you will be confronted by power surges and an increase in your electrical bill. The Insurance Information Institute recommends the use of surge protection devices (SPDs) to "filter and dissipate damaging electrical discharges," therefore, avoiding damage to your electrical system. 2. Security Having a smart home for safety and security is both a blessing and a curse. Using smart home technologies makes your home vulnerable to hackers. According to an article by Dailymail, there have been reports on voice-assisted devices like the Amazon Alexa, spying and transcribing sensitive conversations without the authorization of the user. There were also other consumers who claimed their gadgets have been hacked. Just December last year, a family in Mississippi complained and shared a video of a hacker taunting their 8-year-old daughter through a Ring camera installed in her bedroom. This isn't the first time such incident occurred, according to Today. There were other reports across the United States which prompted the company to launch an investigation. "While we are still investigating this issue and are taking appropriate steps to protect our devices based on our investigation, we are able to confirm this incident is in no way related to a breach or compromise of Ring's security," said a company's executive to WMC. 3. Technology Learning Curve We have indeed reached the digital age, yet many people are still relatively unfamiliar with technology. It becomes a disadvantage considering of the major arguments of the proponents of smart homes is the convenience it offers for the elderly. But how is it supposed to help them if many of them don't even know how to utilize it? Smart home technology is also a hustle for those who may not be that old but not tech-savvy. That is why if one who isn't familiar with smart home technologies may think twice before upgrading their homes. Despite its disadvantages, the demand on smart home continues to surge. At the end of the day, it is up to you to always stay vigilant and wary of the risks while enjoying the benefits of smart home technologies. The much-anticipated movie Mayabazar 2016 starring Vasishta N. Simha, Raj B. Shetty, and Prakash Raj hit the silver screens last week to good reviews. The content-driven film based on the subject of demonetization has now has been leaked online by the infamous piracy website, Kannada rockers. The entire film was leaked within hours of its release and was available for HD downloads online by the notorious website. Subsequently, it was distributed on Telegram and other social media sites causing a major setback for the makers. And now, KB Puttaswamy, manager of PRK Productions, on behalf of producer Puneeth Rajkumar has lodged a formal complaint about alleged piracy against Kannada Rockers with the Sadashivnagar police in Bengaluru. For the uninitiated, Mayabazar is the second film of the Power Star Puneeth as a producer. It must also be recollected that this is the second big movie from the Sandalwood industry to have fallen prey to piracy in the last 6 months after Sudeep starrer Pailwan. The latter suffered huge losses due to large-scale piracy back in September 2019. Puttaswamy, in his, complain stated The online leak of Mayabazar has affected its screening at 40 cinema theatres. I want the police to take action against the accused. The police have registered a case under Sections 66 (c) and 66 (d) of the Information Technology Act 2000. Mayabazar 2016 is helmed by debutant Radhakrishna Reddy also features Achyuth Kumar, Sudharani and Chaitra Rao in pivotal roles and a special cameo by Puneeth Rajkumar himself. Mithun Mukundan has composed the music for the movie while the camera is cranked by Abhishek Kasargod. ALSO READ: Mayabazar Twitter Review: Heres What Audience Feel About The Puneet Rajkumar Movie ALSO READ: Director Radhakrishna Reddy Opens Up About His Upcoming Film Mayabazar 2016 Democratic presidential candidate former vice president Joe Biden, right, speaks next to his wife Jill during a primary election night rally Tuesday in Los Angeles. Bernie Sanders launched a series of withering personal attacks against his rivals Tuesday night after Joe Biden racked up multiple wins in Super Tuesday contests following endorsements from former contenders. Sanders only had two wins under his belt Colorado and his home state of Vermont when he spoke but he showed confidence he would prevail through the nomination process and beat President Donald Trump. Utah was called for him after he wrapped up his remarks. And his biggest win came later - California, the largest delegate prize in the Democratic presidential contest. Tonight I tell you with absolute confidence, we are going to win the Democratic nomination. And we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country, Sanders told a cheering crowd in Vermont. We are going to defeat Trump because we are putting together and unprecedented grass roots, multi-generational, multi-racial movement, he said. Bernie Sanders launched a series of personal attacks against his rivals in his Super Tuesday . night remarks Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders greet supporters during his rally in Essex Junction, Vt. He also got in a swipe at Biden. 'You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old type of politics,' he said. And Sanders' campaign argued the political scene could look different Wednesday morning when the final counts were done as opposed to the raw vote totals coming in Tuesday evening. Fourteen states and American Samoa voted on Super Tuesday, with around a third of delegates needed for the nomination up for grabs. Sanders' campaign focused on the biggest prizes of the night Texas and California. And he was pinning most of his hopes on the Golden State, which he ended up winning. The final allocation of the state's 415 delegates won't be known until later but Sanders will take the biggest chunk of them. But the Vermont senator also had his disappointments. He campaigned hard in Minnesota and had the endorsement of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar but Biden took that prize in a blow to the progressive Sanders. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the primary on Monday and threw her support to the former vice president, a move that likely handed him Minnesota as Klobuchar was expected to do well in her home state. Biden also took Massachusetts, a blow to Elizabeth Warren in her home state and to Sanders who represents the neighboring Vermont. The former vice president also took the delegate-rich state of Texas. Beto O'Rourke also endorsed Biden Monday, likely giving him a boost in the Lone Star State. Pete Buttigieg rounded out a trio of endorsements for the former vice president. Sanders led the delegate count going into Super Tuesday but Biden racked up win after win as the polls closed across the country, including North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arkansas. Even before all the contests were called Biden had the aura of a winner as Sanders argued there were votes yet to be counted. I don't know what's going to happen later tonight, we're doing well in Texas right now. We won Colorado. And I'm cautiously optimistic that later in the evening we can win the largest state in the country. State of California, Sanders said. Joe Biden racked up multiple wins after being endorsed by former rivals Elizabeth Warren was struggling in her home state of Massachusetts on Super Tuesday Michael Bloomberg was reported to be re-evaluating his campaign after his poor Super Tuesday showing The Vermont senator, in his eight minutes of remarks, also attacked his remaining Democratic rivals. He didnt mention them by name by his slams against Biden and Elizabeth Warren were clear. Warren stayed in the Democratic contest after contenders with better showings left the race. Some strategists believe she takes votes from Sanders as they both appeal to the party's left flank. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq. You're looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq,' he said in reference to Biden. One of us led the opposition to disaster trade agreements which cost us millions of good paying jobs. That's me. And another candidate voted for disastrous trade agreements,' he said. Warren voted for Trump's USMCA trade deal. 'One of us stood up for consumers and said we will not support a disastrous bankruptcy bill. And another candidate represented the credit card companies and voted for that disastrous pitch bill, he added of Warren. And he got in a dig at the billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spent over $400 million dollars in the hopes of a Super Tuesday sweep but - at that point - had only gained six delegates with a win in American Samoa. 'If there's another candidate in the race who is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, we're going to tell him in America you cannot buy elections,' Sanders said. No Democratic contender will come out of Tuesday's contest with enough delegates to claim the nomination but the front runner picture will be much clearer after all the contests wrap. And it could become a two-man race. Warren was running third in her home state of Massachusetts, an embarrassing placement for the senator. Bloomberg was reported to be re-evaluating his campaign after his poor showing. A Biden vs. Sanders contest would bring up echoes of the 2016 race, when many Democrats blamed Sanders' prolonged stay in the primary as weakening Hillary Clinton as she went into the general election against Trump. Some of the same dynamics are at play this cycle with the moderate Biden having the backing of the party elders and the progressive Sanders, a self-described Democratic-socialist, igniting the left. Michigan votes next week with five other states. Then Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Ohio vote on March 17. Sanders ended on a high note. I am excited about where we are. We have come a long, long way. And I want to once again thank the great state of Vermont. And all of the people in this state. Not only for the victory you gave our movement tonight. But for the years and years of love and support you have given me and my family. So Vermont, Vermont, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you all very much. Let's go onto the White House. Thank you!, he said. Bengaluru, India: India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including Paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The Indian government urged calm and said there were enough stocks to manufacture formulations for two to three months. India is a major world supplier of generic drugs. Credit:Bloomberg The government's list of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medicines accounts for 10 per cent of all Indian pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and vitamin B12. It was unclear how the restriction would impact the availability of these medicines in the countries that import from India and also depend on China. In the US, for instance, Indian imports accounted for 24 per cent of medicines and 31 per cent of medicine ingredients in 2018, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The creation of a new bank holiday to celebrate Brexit has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle. Pro-Brexit Tory backbencher Peter Bone has led calls for a United Kingdom Day in June to celebrate Brexit, the Union and the Queen. His proposed bank holiday would fall on the Friday nearest to June 23 - the date of the EU referendum in 2016 - and could also mark the Queen's birthday and coronation anniversary, both of which fall in June. The Wellingborough MP said an extra day off would boost workers' productivity as there is 'a long gap' between the late May and the late August bank holidays in England, Scotland and Wales. Peter Bone wants a new public day off in June for United Kingdom Day, marking the 2016 referendum as well as the Union and the Queen His June Bank Holiday (Creation) Bill, which would see it to fall on the closest Friday to June 23 - the date of the referendum - was introduced in the Commons today. But without Government support it is unlikely to pass when it is put to a vote in June Introducing his June Bank Holiday (Creation) Bill, Mr Bone said Boris Johnson's Government had been 'quite sniffy' about his proposals. He added: 'This has rather surprised and disappointed me. I can understand the former government having reservations, as they always saw the UK leaving the EU as a duty, not an opportunity. 'Whereas this Government wholeheartedly believes in it. So my question to them would be why not mark this great democratic event?' To his detractors, Mr Bone said: 'If there are a handful of people who reject all these things, well of course, they can always work on United Kingdom Day.' There are currently eight bank holidays a year in England and Wales, nine in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland. The Bill was introduced without a vote, with a second reading scheduled for June 26, which Mr Bone said would happen to be United Kingdom Day if it existed. It has little chance of making further progress in its current form without Government backing. The government on Wednesday launched the second phase of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), which has a total outlay of Rs 1,40,881 crore and is aimed at ensuring effective solid and liquid waste management in every panchayat. SBM (G) Phase-II will focus on sustaining the gains made in the first phase of the programme in the past five years in terms of toilet access and usage, and will ensure that no one is left behind, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said. He said the programme will be implemented from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025 in a mission mode with a total outlay of Rs 1,40,881 crore. "Phase II will ensure that effective solid and liquid waste management (SLWM) is instituted in every gram panchayat of the country," Shekhawat told reporters after the launch at the National Dissemination and Consultation Workshop on SBM (G) Phase-II. "This will be a novel model of convergence among different verticals of financing. Of this, Rs 52,497 crore will be allocated from the budget of department of drinking water and sanitation. The remaining amount will be dovetailed from the funds being released under the 15th finance commission, MGNREGS and revenue generation models particularly for SLWM," he said. On February 19, the cabinet approved the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project focussed on sustainability of ODF and management of solid and liquid waste. Since the launch of the mission in 2014, over 10 crore toilets have been built in rural areas, Shekhawat said, adding, "over 5.9 lakh villages in 699 districts of 35 states/UTs have declared themselves open defecation free (ODF)." The SLWM component of "ODF Plus" will be monitored on the basis of output-outcome indicators for four key areas: management of plastic wastes, bio-degradable solid wastes (including animal wastes), greywater and fecal sludge, he said. The SBM-II will continue to generate employment and provide impetus to the rural economy through construction of household and community toilets as well as infrastructure for SLWM like compost pits, soak pits, waste stabilisation ponds and material recovery facilities, he said. As part of the National Dissemination and Consultation Workshop on SBM (G) Phase-II, a survey report on the impact of the mission on convenience, safety and self respect of women in rural India was released. The report claimed 93 per cent women feel safer from assault by not going out in the open to defecate, 91 per cent women save up to one hour of their day earlier spent on walking to defecation sites and 88 per cent women are proud to own a toilet. Similarly 93 per cent women felt that they need not have to stop eating to control the urge to defecate anymore, 81 per cent women said they need not worry about privacy while changing menstrual hygiene material anymore, 93 per cent women no longer fear contracting infections by not going out in the open to defecate. The survey, done by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF during February, covered 6,993 women living in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ford Motor Co. will restrict air travel for most of this month after two employees in China contracted the coronavirus. The employees were quarantined after being diagnosed with the virus, officially named COVID-19, and theyre recovering, Anderson Chan, a Ford spokesman, said in an email. He declined to reveal the employees location, gender, ages or whether they were factory or office workers. Effective Tuesday, Ford curbed non-essential business travel both international and domestic until March 27. The U.S. automaker joins multinational companies including Nestle SA and LOreal SA in limiting business trips in hopes of guarding employees against exposure to the virus that is slowing economies and sending markets into a tailspin. Toyota Motor Corp. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV also are restricting travel for their employees. The virus has disrupted business by forcing closures of plants and showrooms, putting a major damper on sales and leading organizers of the Geneva motor show to cancel the annual expo scheduled for this week for the first time since the World War II era. Ford resumed production at its factories in China on Feb. 10 and asked employees in the country to work from home last month. Top executives are conducting daily meetings on the virus to keep production flowing and employees safe. Ford has six Chinese vehicle assembly joint ventures: one near Hangzhou, a pair in Nanchang and three in Changan, according to its website. All of the companys plants outside China have operated as planned. One of voters biggest concerns for Super Tuesday is that many states are still using aging, outdated election equipment, despite repeated warnings from the federal government. The Hearst Television National Investigative Unit was allowed restricted access inside the nation's cyber war room, monitoring any possible cyber threat that could interfere with the election process. The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency is home to the United States' top cyber cops and has been tasked with defending the Super Tuesday elections. They perform classified and unclassified missions to watch over the biggest day of elections in the 2020 primary season. From penetration attempts to spreading disinformation, the Department of Homeland Security's cyber team says bad actors are trying to influence the election process. Some counties still don't have a paper trail, so there's no backup if a hacker were able to break into those systems something the department warns against. One key part of resilience is having an audible paper trail so that results can be verified and voters will have confidence in the process, said Chad Wolf, acting secretary of Homeland Security. Top federal officials from the FBI, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security have issued a joint warning to countries and foreign actors that might interfere in today's primaries: Stay out or face sharp consequences." Tennessee and Texas are the biggest concerns, as they have the most counties using machines without a paper trail, which cybersecurity experts say is the "gold standard" to protect against any malfunctions or hacking attempts. The key priority of the new government should be to ensure macroeconomic stability, continue co-operation with the IMF, and boost FDI. Volodymyr Zelensky, the former comedian elected Ukraine's president last spring by a landslide, is seeking to push through a broad reshuffle of his government, including replacing the current prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. The shake-up is expected to be put to a parliamentary vote on Wednesday. Denys Shmyhal (also spelled as Shmygal), 44, who briefly headed one of Ukraine's western provinces before being appointed deputy prime minister last month, is to lead the new government should he be approved by parliament, several sources close to Mr. Zelensky told the Financial Times. Meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday evening with his Servant of the People party, Mr. Zelensky asked for Mr. Shmyhal and other new ministers to be swiftly voted in by the legislature, one MP said. The president's group holds an outright majority in parliament. The development follows weeks of speculation in domestic media that Mr. Zelensky had lost confidence in Mr. Honcharuk, 35, appointed Ukraine's youngest ever prime minister last summer. The surprise nomination of Mr. Shmyhal, a regional businessman largely unknown on the national political scene, comes days after Ukraine held talks with a visiting mission from the IMF on mustering board approval for a new $5.5bn loan programme. Financial backing from the fund along with billions of dollars of linked assistance from the EU and other western backers is crucial to helping the country recover economically amid a sixth year of war in its eastern regions with Russian-backed armed forces. Read alsoCabinet reshuffle: Not all candidacies for ministerial posts agreed yet, MP says But Ukraine has yet to meet a key IMF condition: adoption of bank solvency legislation that will prevent former owners of banks closed or nationalised as part of a clean-up of the sector from reclaiming the businesses or seeking compensation. People familiar with the matter say talks between Ukraine and the IMF on the banking legislation continued into this week. "There is no policy shift the reform agenda is going forward, including the IMF programme," a person close to Mr. Zelensky said about the government reshuffle. "Zelensky is a practical man He wants people who get results," the person said, while noting that the president had become frustrated with the pace of reforms under Mr. Honcharuk's government. Recent polls showed sharp drops in public approval for Mr. Zelensky, and even lower support for Mr. Honcharuk. In 2017-2019, Mr. Shmyhal worked as an executive at DTEK, an energy holding owned by Ukraine's richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov. Television channels owned by Mr. Akhmetov have in recent weeks provided friendly coverage to Mr. Zelensky's administration. Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said Mr. Shmyhal "was one of the most business-friendly governors" when he led the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine from last summer until he joined the Kyiv government in early 2020. "However, the timing of a government reshuffle couldn't have come at a worse moment for Ukraine, with the coronavirus outbreak, a global market downturn, no IMF deal, secondary market bondholders becoming itchy, and significant sovereign debt repayments due," Mr. Hunder said. Read alsoRuling faction in Ukraine announces "package" vote on new government "The key priority of the new government should be to ensure macroeconomic stability, continue co-operation with the IMF and boost FDI," he added. The chief of security for the Bayonne School District was charged Monday with defrauding a Superstorm Sandy relief fund, authorities said. Timothy Carey, 54, claimed that a property in Manahawkin that sustained storm damage was his primary residence when it is actually a vacation home, according to the state Attorney Generals office. Carey then filed for relief funds to address the damage and received two: one worth $10,000 and another worth $9,953. Careys primary residence at the time of the 2012 storm was in Lincroft, officials said. He faces charges of theft by deception and unsworn falsification, a spokesman for the state Attorney Generals office said. I am quite confident that this case will be resolved favorably in Mr. Careys favor and will not result in a conviction, said Daniel Welsh, Careys attorney. Carey is a retired Bayonne police detective. A message seeking comment from Superintendent John Niesz was not immediately returned. The New Jersey Attorney Generals Office has filed more than 100 similar charges since 2014. Patrick Yannotta of Seaside Heights became the first person to be acquitted of such charges last month. New Delhi, March 4 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, here on Wednesday, the changes approved by the Cabinet was aimed at de-criminalisation of provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and was in line with the intent to make doing business in the country easier. The amendments to the Act pertain to removal of sections that result in criminalisation. The Cabinet had suggested 72 changes to 65 sections of the Act with focus on decriminalising the law. Of the 66 compoundable offences, 23 have been decriminalised and the rest will be dealt with under an in-house adjudicating framework. Of these, 7 compoundable offences will be omitted and punishment for 11 other compoundable offences be limited to fine and no imprisonment. Five offences will now be dealt with under different alternative frameworks, according to the Finance Minister. She said the quantum of penalties for six defaults, decriminalised earlier, would also be reduced. The 'ease of doing business' in the country was the government's motto and the cabinet decision was aimed at that, she added. According to sources, the adjudicating framework has faceless and non-discriminatory approach, ruling out any bias. The cabinet has also exempted some companies from having the company social responsibility (CSR) panels. According to sources, 20,000 companies are taking part in CSR activities in India. Of this, 5,000 have CSR annual expenditures of Rs 50 lakh and account for 80 per cent of the CSR spend. The amendment to the Companies Act would affect 15,000 companies with below Rs 50 lakh CSR spending. The companies that spend over the obligated 2 per cent on the CSR in a particular year can carry forward as credit for fulfilment of the CSR obligations for the next few years as well. It will be the second amendment to the Companies Act in the past one year. The Act was amended last year to ensure strict implementation of the CSR norms. Contra Costa County Fire Protection District crews are at the scene of a 1-alarm fire at a home in Antioch early Wednesday morning, according to fire officials. The blaze was first reported at 4:03 a.m. at the home at 5468 Southwood Way, fire spokesperson Steve Hill said. With only 56 votes between the two top Democratic candidates, Boston was the most divided of all the major cities in Massachusetts on Super Tuesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden was able to ultimately win with 30.1% or 43,210 votes out of a total of 144,200 ballots in Boston on Super Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders trailed close behind with 30% or 43,154 votes. Sen. Elizabeth Warren followed in third with a respectable 27.3% or 39,188 of the votes. Sanders has made huge progress in Boston when compared to the 2016 primary in the city where Clinton picked up close to 20,000 votes over Sanders, an amount that was higher than her statewide margin of victory. "Every major figure in the state was for Clinton and ... there was certainly a strong effort in those places by the institutional Democratic Party," Maurice Cunningham, associate professor of political science at UMass Boston, said in 2016. In days before Super Tuesday, Bidens campaign highlighted dozens of endorsements in Massachusetts. Sanders held back-to-back rallies in Boston and Springfield the weekend prior, drawing thousands to his events. 33 Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' campaign rally in Springfield Republican Gov. Charlie Baker declined to share who he voted for on Tuesday. I said before I wasnt going to get into presidential politics and Im not going to do it tonight, Baker said after voting across the street from his home after a day of working on Beacon Hill on Tuesday. I said before that I didnt vote for President Trump last time and said I wasnt gonna vote for him this time either. Like in Springfield and Worcester, President Donald J. Trump won the vast majority of the Republican votes. Out of 7,997 ballots, 81.8% or 6,469 voted for the current president. Related Content: The number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the globe each day, but the popular party island Bali is still reportedly virus-free. While there have been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in Indonesia, a mother aged 64 and her 31-year-old daughter, they are in the nation's capital of Jakarta, more than 1,000km away. The holiday hotspot, which is visited by more than one million Australians each year, has had no recorded cases of the deadly virus, Indonesian officials say. The number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the globe each day, but the popular party island Bali is still completely virus-free (Denpasar pictured) An Indonesian health officials takes temperature readings of arriving passengers in Jakarta Despite scepticism of the official line, Australian National University's infectious diseases specialist, Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake said they probably have it right. But he told Nine News that some people may have been infected while travelling through Bali and not know it. 'I definitely agree that such a large country so close to China it is surprising, but it may well be that that's the case,' Associate Prof. Senanayake said. 'It is possible they're lucky, particularly if a large percentage of tourists are coming from Australia.' While there are no confirmed cases, 29 people have been tested for coronavirus in Bali, with 22 coming back as negative. The remaining seven people with symptoms of fever, cough and cold are still waiting for their tests results. The patients involve two Indonesians and five foreigners - a pair of Japanese tourists, two Danish tourists and a Russian. Assoc. Prof. Senanayake warned Australians with plans to travel to Bali to follow all government advice. Chinese tourists wearing facemasks arrive Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar on February 8 Indonesia's Smart Traveller page has been updated with a coronavirus warning since the two cases were confirmed on Monday. 'The Indonesian Government has confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Indonesia,' it reads. 'Australians should note the global situation with COVID-19 is changing very quickly.' Health officials confirmed 43 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Australia as of Wednesday afternoon. One man has died and a 95-year-old woman may have also died after coming into contact with an infected nursing home carer. "In response to the recent nationwide spread of COVID-19, we have decided not to go ahead with trips," said presidential blue house spokesman Kang Min-seok in a statement. South Korea reported 516 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, raising the country's total tally to 5,328. RIYADH (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) Almost every child in Yemen now needs humanitarian assistance, with the number of children requiring aid reaching some 11 million, UNICEF middle East and North Africa Chief of Communications Juliette Touma told Sputnik on the sidelines of the 2nd Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. "In Yemen, we have a true humanitarian catastrophe for children. We're talking about 11 million kids who are in need of assistance," Touma said. "This is almost every single child in the country needing assistance. And what we've been seeing in the past five years is also another crisis that has been going on for many, many years." Touma noted that the situation in Yemen is especially dire for children because the current conflict in the country comes on the heels of decades of economic stagnation and poverty. Prior to the start of the conflict in 2015, Yemen was already the poorest country in the Middle East and among the poorest countries in the world, she observed. "And so the need is huge," she said. "Whats very striking is malnutrition among children, that's very striking, you see it, I mean, the images continue to be in my head of even children who are not babies who are, you know, 10 or 11 years old who look malnourished, who look unhealthy. And so we have a chronic malnutrition problem." Touma emphasized that the UN efforts on the ground have helped to mitigate the situation, noting that Yemen is one of the world body's largest humanitarian operations. "All I would say is it could have been much, much, much worse if the UN was not on the ground delivering assistance to kids, the families, to old men, to old women, to men and women in general. The situation is quite desperate. It's really unacceptable that we have children dying of hunger in the 21st century," she said. Ultimately though, Touma said, children will remain in a vulnerable situation until the conflict is resolved. "It is time for the guns to go silent in Yemen , for Yemen to be able to get back on its feet, for Yemen to rebuild bit by bit for the sake of children in Yemen," she added. In the meantime, UNICEF is set to continue doing everything possible to assist those in need in the conflict-torn country, including through its cash assistance program, which helps children obtain food so they are no longer forced to work and can go to school. "This is the very minimum that we can do to help families keep their dignity at least. They have a little bit of a dignified life to the degree possible under the context, and under the circumstances," she said. Yemen has been facing a severe humanitarian crisis since 2015, caused by the ongoing military conflict between the government headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, which controls the country's north, including the capital of Sanaa. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 03:07:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RIYADH, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi Arabia Interior Ministry announced further measures against coronavirus on Tuesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The ministry revealed, in a statement, measures for individuals who have visited countries with the epidemic outbreak. The measures are also applied to individuals from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, said the statement. Saudi nationals or residents entering from any GCC country should inform the Saudi authorities of any travel outside the GCC in the preceding 14 days. If the GCC state citizens or residents want to enter the kingdom after returning from outside the region, they have to spend 14 days and show no coronavirus symptoms before being granted entry. The steps were announced one day after Saudi Arabia registered its first coronavirus case of a Saudi who came from Iran through Bahrain. The General Authority of Civil Aviation announced certain preventative measures at airports throughout the kingdom on Monday, including allocating medical teams at the airports to examine all arriving passengers from regions and countries where the virus is prevalent. Some of you were as mystified as we are about U.S. Rep. John Katkos invitation to controversial Rep. Devin Nunes to speak at a Katko fundraiser this week. We think Katkos reputation as a centrist runs contrary to the oddball crusades for which Nunes has become a national laughingstock. (See the editorial: Nunes wont help Katko appeal to the sensible center, March 1, 2020). Heres what you told us in comments you supplied about the editorial. A Liverpool reader notes that Nunes extreme partisanship is the opposite of everything Katko campaigns on. Rep. Katko should have declined, if he is the nonpartisan he claims to be, he wrote. Its a strange choice, agrees a Manlius reader who credits Katko with some moral stands as a congressman. Why, when there are more credible Republican members, would he take Nunes? Our editorial questioned why Katko was willing to invite someone whos been so critical of the Justice Department where Katko was a longtime prosecutor. Another reader agrees: How a former federal prosecutor can stomach these attacks is beyond me. But not everyone is scratching their head. One Manlius resident thinks the FBI and Justice Department deserves Nunes attacks. The California lawmaker is just being honest, he writes. Calling a dirty cop dirty isnt polarizing, its honesty, he wrote. We want to hear your opinions about our editorials. Make sure to respond in the form underneath each editorial. We read them all and will share some of the more interesting ideas with our readers. Chinese antivirus firm Qihoo 360 said CIA hackers have spent more than a decade breaking into the Chinese airline industry and other targets, a blunt allegation of American espionage from a Beijing-based firm. In a brief blog post http://blogs.360.cn/post/APT-C-39_CIA_EN.html published on Monday in English and Chinese, Qihoo said it discovered the spying campaign by comparing samples of malicious software it had discovered against a trove of CIA digital spy tools released by WikiLeaks in 2017. Qihoo - a major cybersecurity vendor whose research is generally followed for the insight it offers into Chinas digital security world - said the Central Intelligence Agency had targeted Chinas aviation and energy sectors, scientific research organizations, internet companies, and government agencies. It added that the hacking of aviation targets might have been aimed at tracking important figures travel itinerary. Qihoo published a catalogue of intercepted malicious software samples as well as an analysis of their creation times that suggested that whoever devised the tools did so during working hours on the U.S. East Coast. The CIA and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A message seeking additional comment from Qihoos chief security officer, Yuejin Du, was not immediately returned after business hours in Beijing. The United States - like China and other world powers - rarely comments when accused of cyberespionage. There has, however, long been evidence in the public domain - released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, in the U.S. case, or by U.S. prosecutors and private cybersecurity firms, in Chinas case - that both countries hack their opponents. The allegations leveled against Beijing by U.S. companies have for years been laid out in lengthy, data-heavy reports. More recently, Chinese companies have begun doing the same with respect to other foreign hacking groups. The timing of Qihoos most recent publication could be related to last months indictment of four Chinese military hackers over a massive breach at U.S. credit reporting agency Equifax, said Adam Segal, who studies China and cybersecurity issues at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He said outing CIA operations publicly could be a way of sending a message to Washington - while at the same time burnishing Qihoos reputation. This is great public relations for them, Segal said. Qihoos publication is the latest fallout from WikiLeaks release of CIA hacking tools in 2017. U.S. prosecutors have accused a disgruntled CIA coder, Joshua Schulte, of handing the digital espionage arsenal to WikiLeaks as revenge for a series of professional setbacks, calling the leak instantly devastating. Years of work and millions of dollars developing those tools went up in smoke, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton told a jury at Schultes trial in New York last month, according to a transcript https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6768406-20200204.html#document/p14/a549062 of his remarks. Schulte denies the allegation, saying he is being unfairly blamed for the breach because of his contentious relationship with his colleagues. The Manhattan jury in Schultes case is expected to begin its deliberations Tuesday. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The business owner of Silvia's Tacos in Groves will be returning for his business. A few months back, he had got into a deadly crash that almost took the life of his family. When Miguel Lerma and his family were on their way home after visiting Mexico for Thanksgiving, a drunk driver had hit the vehicle they were on. Closing the Restaurant The Silvia's Tacos opened on April 1, 2019. After the accident, their family business was left with no choice but to shut down momentarily. They closed the business so that they can pay for the medical expenses for their recovery from the accident. Lerma expressed his excitement for being able to serve the community again. Recovering from the Accident It's been more or less three months since the accident. Lerma said that he and his family are still recovering from the accident. He stated that it will take a long time before they can completely recover from the accident. Lerma's wife is still confined in their home. However, he is happy to report that his daughter Mia can walk again. Lerma shared that Mia was also able to attend her first school dance. The dance was held on Saturday. He said that she was excited about the dance. He expressed his joy as Mia was able to go and bond with her friends again. Lerma said that their doctors advised that she can go back to school in two weeks. Good News It is good news for the fans of their family business is that the Silvia's Tacos had reopened on Monday. After three months of waiting for the reopening of the restaurant that offers signature sizzling tacos. It will be serving delicious treats again in Taft Avenue and Groves' 32nd Street. An article from 12 News stated that the community had waited long for the reopening of the restaurant. Terra Green said that the restaurant was well missed. She shared how the restaurant was one of the top stops for many people in their community. According to Green, the restaurant opens early in the morning and that refinery workers loved to eat breakfast there. The traffic in their community is tiring and the restaurant soothes their bad experience with traffic. Lerma shared how a lot of people showed up on Monday. Most of the people did not ask about the business. They asked about the situation of his wife and his family after the accident. He appreciated the concern that their neighborhood has for his family. Lerma is confident that his family will recover from the accident. He said that the mental and emotional support given to them by their community helps him and his family recover. He expressed his gratitude for their community's support. The Food According to Lerma, their flour and corn tortillas are made from scratch. This is what makes their food special. They also use a secret seasoning for their dishes. Green said that she loves having breakfast and their special sauce offered in the restaurant. Silvia's Tacos opens from 5 am to 2 pm from Monday to Friday. Coronavirus Vaccine Faces Bumpy Road From Lab to Jab By Steve Baragona March 03, 2020 The first possible vaccine against coronavirus is on its way to human testing. Just six weeks elapsed between when Chinese scientists released the sequence of the novel virus and when biotech company Moderna shipped its vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to begin testing. It's a record-breaking pace for vaccine development. Seveal other companies also are working to get their vaccines into clinical trials. But testing a vaccine for safety and efficacy will take 12 to 18 months or more, officials say. Whatever product makes it through testing will face another hurdle: manufacturing and distributing enough vaccine to meet demand in what could be a global pandemic. Untested tech Moderna's vaccine is one of several candidates employing a new technology that has never been used in people. Every vaccine until now has contained parts of the germ in question. They alert the patient's immune system to be on the lookout for the germ. The latest vaccine from Moderna, contains only genetic instructions for those parts. The patient's own body translates those instructions into the germ parts that alert the immune system. This kind of genetic vaccine is much quicker to produce than traditional vaccines. All scientists need to know is the germ's genetic code, which was available for the coronavirus within weeks of its discovery. That's how Moderna can get a vaccine into clinical trials in record time. But the 10-year-old Massachusetts-based biotech company, has never brought a vaccine to market before. If its vaccine proves safe and effective, global demand could be in the hundreds of millions or even billions of doses. The company did not respond to questions about its manufacturing capacity. "Some of these very innovative techniques are done by very small companies who don't have experience manufacturing vaccines at the grand scale that you would need to immunize the world," said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "There will have to be some discussion about how we will develop the manufacturing capacity." Two other small biotech companies, U.S.-based Inovio and Germany-based CureVac, are also working on gene-based vaccines. Funders are "working to identify potential bulk manufacturers with whom to link our vaccine developers," according to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, an international public-private partnership founded in 2017 to spur vaccine development for emerging diseases. All three biotech companies received funding from CEPI. Risky business For the companies with large-scale manufacturing experience, producing an emergency vaccine is an unwelcome business risk, experts say. Companies "have to stop work on whatever they're working on," Adalja said. "We don't know how big the market is going to be. We don't know if (the outbreak) is going to go away (by the time a vaccine is ready) like it did with SARS. We don't know who's going to buy these vaccines." Governments and public-private partnerships have bought vaccines in some previous outbreaks, but every case is different, and not every scenario ends well. Several companies took financial hits while working to develop vaccines against Ebola during the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa. "There's no question that a lot of them lost a lot of money trying to produce an Ebola vaccine," said Ronald Klain, who coordinated the U.S. government's response to the outbreak under President Barack Obama. Klain was speaking at an Aspen Institute event in February. One Ebola vaccine has made it to the finish line, developed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Merck, with an estimated $175 million backing from the U.S. government. Health officials are using it to help contain the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vaccine maker Sanofi, meanwhile, has walked away from developing a Zika vaccine. The French company was in negotiations in 2017 to conduct clinical trials on a Zika vaccine that the U.S. Army had developed, and to manufacture it should the vaccine prove safe and effective. Sanofi wanted an exclusive license. But critics, including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, now a Democratic presidential candidate, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times that the license would give Sanofi monopoly power and the company "will be able to charge whatever astronomical price it wants for its vaccine." Since Sanofi had already received $43 million of U.S. taxpayer money and would receive millions more to distribute the vaccine if it worked, critics said the company should guarantee the shot would be affordable for everyone who needed it. Sanofi and the Army did not reach an agreement, and the vaccine remains undeveloped. Affordability and price controls Affordability issues have already come up regarding an eventual coronavirus vaccine. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress last week, "We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest." " The priority is to get vaccines and therapeutics," he added. "Price controls won't get us there." Azar reversed himself before Congress the next day. "I have directed my teams that if we do any joint venture with a private enterprise, that we're co-funding the research and development program, that we would ensure there's access to the fruits of that," he said. Even if companies and the U.S. government agree on price, the next question would be when and whether the rest of the world gets access. "Let's just say this vaccine is produced in the U.S.," said Seth Berkley, CEO at Gavi, the global public-private partnership that helps with access to vaccines in developing countries. "Are we going to make it available in other countries before we vaccinate the 350 million people in the U.S.? If it's in the E.U. it's going to be the same issue." "Let's say we now produce it in India for developing countries," he added during recent remarks at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Well, if India's got a big epidemic of COVID, are they going to make it available, or are they going to vaccinate their 1.3 billion people?" Of the big international vaccine companies, only Sanofi and U.S- based Johnson & Johnson are pursuing a coronavirus vaccine. British pharmaceutical company GSK is contributing an immune-boosting ingredient to a Chinese company's vaccine candidate. Sanofi aims to develop its product using the same system it currently uses to produce influenza vaccine and previously used to pursue a vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. "The advantage of this approach is, first of all, you have some evidence that it will work because of the work done with SARS," said Clement Lewin at the Sanofi department dealing with U.S. government collaborations. The company is already producing large amounts of flu vaccine, he added. "So, that means we don't have to scale up a new technology to produce (coronavirus vaccine)." It's too soon to say what it will take to get a vaccine to everyone who needs it. The race to get a shot through clinical testing is just beginning, and manufacturing is at least a year away. Where the epidemic will be by then is anyone's guess. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies are compelling subjects for Alex Tapscott. The author, public speaker and venture capital investors new book Financial Services Revolution, How Blockchain is Transforming Money, Markets and Banking, was co-authored with his father Don Tapscott. The Star spoke to the younger Tapscott recently about uses for blockchain, security concerns and possibility of the Bank of Canada introducing a digital loonie. Can you explain what blockchain is? Simply put, blockchain is the most important computer science innovation in a generation and its ushering in a new era for the internet an internet of value. You see, when you use the internet to send information youre sending a copy and retaining an original (think email). That works for information but not money, financial assets or anything that requires scarcity. So we still rely on middlemen. After all, when I send you money you need to know I dont still have a copy. Historically weve needed an intermediary to establish trust. Blockchain solves this problem. For the first time in human history we have a digital medium for value that will enable individuals to transact and store value in virtually every kind of asset peer to peer in a private, secure and trustless way without the need for middlemen like banks. What are the most promising uses of blockchain? Blockchain will do for capital and assets what the internet did for newspapers, film, and TV. It will force us to rethink the deep structure and workings of many industries, starting with finance. In this next shift, not only could the U.S. dollar be displaced by a synthetic alternative or a Chinese crypto-yuan, but virtually every marketplace from securities like stocks and bonds, to insurance, accounting, audit and venture capital, as well as new assets like our identities, never before owned and monetized as assets by individuals will be made virtually unrecognizable. Do you think Facebooks proposed currency Libra will materialize? When Facebook announced its plan to create digital money called Libra, incumbents immediately pushed back. Even though Facebook has marketed Libra mainly as a way to bank the unbanked a noble cause, to be sure it wants to deploy this coin across its platform, for use in all forms of commerce online and off, which would position Facebook as a powerful new player in the global financial system. It could change how, where, and with whom billions of people spend and save, borrow and loan, and otherwise finance and insure their lives and livelihoods and current legislators, regulators, and masters of the universe are having none of it. This is a watershed moment. Facebook is one of the largest landlords of our digital economy, and its actions are far-reaching. First, Facebook is placing itself in the crosshairs of lawmakers and regulators as they wrestle for control over finance, money, and influence among citizen users. Second, by wading into the massive, complex world of financial services, Facebook is pitting itself against big banks as well as bit tech. Does anyone expect Jeff Bezos to allow Libra on Amazon, without launching an alternative? Finally, Libra, like bitcoin, could forever alter the traditional role of fiat money in the global economy. Just as cellular technology allowed billions to leapfrog land lines, Libras blockchain-based platform has the potential to leapfrog the traditional banking infrastructure of today. In Financial Services Revolution, theres much discussion of international transfer of funds being deliberately and unnecessarily slow. How hard will it be for existing financial institutions to be convinced to give up their profit margins on these? With paradigm shifts, leaders of the old are often last to embrace the new, if they survive to embrace it at all. So why did Blockbuster not create Netflix, and why did Sears not create Amazon? One reason is the innovators dilemma, where disrupters of old paradigms have trouble disrupting themselves. But leaders of todays banking giants need to understand that theyre standing on a burning platform where the risk of taking a leap into the unknown is actually lower than the risk of staying put because eventually that platform will be engulfed and collapse. Do recent major hacks on digital currencies that use blockchain, including Ethereum Classic last year, pose a confidence problem? Blockchains are highly secure but they are not unhackable. If I say theyre unhackable Ill surely get hacked tomorrow! However, large established blockchains such as bitcoin, Hyperledger and even Ethereum have proven highly resilient to attack. Certainly they are far more secure than traditional methods for storing data, which have proven very vulnerable think Equifax, Target or the Democratic National Committee. Do you think there will ever be a digital loonie, as the Bank of Canada recently speculated? Yes. In fact the Bank of Canada has said if commercial currency initiatives like Facebooks Libra become more popular they will have no choice but to launch them. They shouldnt wait for someone else to do it first. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our central bank to show leadership in digital transformation. Processing speed is important in financial transactions but Blockchain-based transactions are slow. Will this be problematic? Not all blockchains are created equal. While its true that bitcoin is a heck of a lot slower than other payment systems like Visa or Mastercard, numerous new blockchains are stepping up to address these bottlenecks. The most promising one is Cosmos which allows different blockchains to interoperate, radically improving their scalability. (By the way, I should disclose that Im an investor in Cosmos.) Does the amount of energy usage required for mining bitcoin and other currencies using blockchain technology concern you? For bitcoin it is a valid concern, though I would point out that according to a recent study 74 per cent of bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy. However, we shouldnt view this as some reason blockchain or cryptocurrencies are a bad idea, but rather as an implementation challenge to be overcome. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to harness a radically powerful new technology to transform the economy as we know it and usher in a financial industry that is more resilient, private, efficient and secure. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Alex Tapscott is a speaker, writer and venture capital investor focused on the impact of emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He is the editor and co-author of the new book Financial Services Revolution: How Blockchain is Transforming Money, Markets and Banking and co-author (with Don Tapscott) of Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World . Read more about: Press Release Nokia and Marvell enter into partnership on silicon technology for 5G Nokia expands range of ReefShark chipsets with Marvell, improving performance and decreasing energy footprint of 5G networks 4 March 2020 Espoo, Finland and Santa Clara, Calif. Nokia and Marvell today announced that they are working together to develop leading 5G multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology) silicon innovations, including multiple generations of custom silicon and infrastructure processors to further expand the range of Nokia ReefShark chipsets available for 5G solutions. The two companies are developing a new generation of custom system-on-chip (SoC) and infrastructure processors combining Nokias differentiated wireless technology with Marvells industry-leading multi-core Arm processor platforms. These new chipsets are designed to be deployed in several building blocks of the Nokia AirScale radio access solution, as part of Nokias 5G Powered by ReefShark portfolio. By deploying ReefShark, these solutions will benefit from a reduction in size and power consumption, while also seeing a boost to capacity and overall performance. Marvells multi-core Arm processor technology builds on five previous generations and provides a combination of programmability and performance that represent a significant benefit for Nokia ReefShark chipsets. Nokia and Marvell will continue to work collaboratively to address the complex needs of 5G NR, 5G NSA, 5G SA and other evolving standards. Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: This important announcement highlights our continued commitment to expanding the variety and utilization of ReefShark chipsets in our portfolio. This ensures that our 5G solutions are equipped to deliver best-in-class performance to our customers. As service providers continue to evolve their 5G plans and support growing traffic and new vertical services, the infrastructure and components must evolve rapidly. Adopting the latest advancements in silicon technology is a critical step to better serve our customers needs. Matt Murphy, CEO and President of Marvell: Marvell is excited and honored to partner with Nokia to enable next-generation solutions for 5G networks. Our platform of semiconductor solutions for data infrastructure in combination with Nokias technology and market leadership will enable wireless networks of the future to deliver on the promise of 5G and open a world of new business opportunities. Resources: Web page: Nokia ReefShark About Marvell Marvell first revolutionized the digital storage industry by moving information at speeds never thought possible. Today, that same breakthrough innovation remains at the heart of the company's storage, processing, networking, security and connectivity solutions. With leading intellectual property and deep system-level knowledge, Marvell's infrastructure semiconductor solutions continue to transform the enterprise, cloud, automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. To learn more, visit: https://www.marvell.com/ About Nokia We create the technology to connect the world. Only Nokia offers a comprehensive portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing opportunities across the globe. With our commitment to innovation, driven by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, we are a leader in the development and deployment of 5G networks. Our communications service provider customers support more than 6.1 billion subscriptions with our radio networks, and our enterprise customers have deployed over 1,000 industrial networks worldwide. Adhering to the highest ethical standards, we transform how people live, work and communicate. For our latest updates, please visit us online www.nokia.com and follow us on Twitter @nokia. Media Inquiries: Nokia Communications Phone: +358 10 448 4900 Email: press.services@nokia.com CLEVELAND, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Aerospace Communications Facility (ACF) at the agency's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Wednesday, March 4. This image shows the architectural design of the new Aerospace Communications Facility. Credits: NASA/Ross Barney Architects "NASA Glenn continues to develop advanced radio frequency technology, enabling NASA's aeronautics, science and human exploration missions," said Joel Kearns, Glenn's director of Facilities, Test and Manufacturing. "The ACF positions us to further advance communication technology needed to meet the nation's space exploration and aviation goals, as well as enable commercial and defense communications." The new 54,000 square foot facility will be NASA's premier facility for radio frequency communications technology research and development. It will allow NASA and commercial partners to develop faster, higher capacity communications for future missions to the Moon and Mars. It will also house research in advanced communication for future urban air mobility and autonomous flying vehicles. In November, Glenn awarded a $33.8 million contract to The Austin Company in Cleveland to build the new Aerospace Communications Facility. The building will be certified in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Construction is expected to be complete by next winter, and full occupancy is scheduled for the fall of 2022. The facility is part of a series of improvements and new construction at Glenn's Lewis Field as part of the center's Master Plan. The Mission Integration Center opened in 2014, and a new Research Support Building is scheduled to open later this year. For a look at renderings of the new ACF, visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaglenn/albums/72157713357293218 SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov A pregnant woman was visited by a huge king cobra which superstitious locals believed it came to protect the baby. Nong Tanwapanich, 24, was terrified after she saw the snake in her backyard in Phattalung, southern Thailand on Tuesday (February 25) afternoon. She ran to her neighbour Wasan Plaokaew, 34, asking for help. He came to the house and found the 14ft long serpent hissing at him. He contacted the rescue team to handle the snake, but while waiting he approached the snake caught it by himself and tied it to a rubber tree. The rescuer team later came to capture the serpent to take it away. The brave neighbour said he was worried that the snake could attack them anytime so he caught it first. He said: "I was sitting on my front porch when I heard my neighbour screaming and I thought a thief had broken into her house. "I contacted the rescue foundation for her but I was scared by the snake because it was big and dangerous so I tried to catch it myself.'' Residents also came to witness the huge king cobra and among them there was a village elder who believed that the snake came for a reason. He said: "When I was young I was told that when a king cobra visited the house with a pregnant woman it meant that it came to help protect the baby." Aiming to double its sales in the next five years, Coca-Cola India has initiated a strategy to take its brands to people in semi-urban and rural markets in local languages for better penetration and began the journey with Bengali. Bengali is the pilot project before the beverage MNC decides to foray into other local languages of the country including Hindi, a senior company official said on Wednesday. Coca-Cola in Bangladesh uses Bengali language in branding its products and seems to have replicated that in at least some of its products in this side of the border. READ: Coca-Cola To Not Ditch Single-use Plastic Bottles In Near Future: Report "West Bengal has an independent supply chain of all products and the state is a key growth market for the company. This has encouraged us to pilot this hyper-local strategy from here," Coca-Cola India and South West Asia president T Krishnakumar said. In 2021, the company may take this hyper-local strategy with more languages including Hindi, he said. "We have been growing in India and continue to remain bullish about growth here as a market as it offers both horizontal and vertical growth," Krishnakumar said amid the threats of novel coronavirus and FMCG slowdown. The company has expanded its reach in 2 million additional outlets in the last two years. He said the company has segregated the market into three broad categories - rich, mid-segment and aspirational - and the company will cater to the entire spectrum. "We are strong in the mid segment and will require to put more efforts in the other two segments," Krishnakumar said when asked about expanding products portfolio. He rubbished the claim that carbonated drinks are shrinking in India, saying it is growing in double-digit, along with other categories such as fruit based drinks. West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha on Wednesday called on Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and discussed "a host of issues" including the SC-ST commission bill that has been pending with Raj Bhavan. After the meeting, Dhankhar said he has returned the file relating to the West Bengal State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019 which was passed by the state Assembly on August 30 last year. The governor, who had sought more inputs from the Trinamool Congress government for giving assent to the bill, said he would address the issue when he gets the file back. "Had an hour long interaction with Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha on host of issues including SC and ST Commission Bill. After interaction with him pending file of SC and ST Commission Bill has been returned and would issue (sic) be addressed after same is received from Government later," Dhankhar posted on his official twitter handle. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Education minister Partha Chatterjee, Sinha and Finance Minister Amit Mitra had separately met Dhankhar at different times last month in an apparent end to the frosty relationship between the governor and state government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) J&K: Cop, civilian killed in Sopore encounter; Two injured India oi-Madhuri Adnal Kashmir, Mar 04: One Special Police Officer (SPO) and one civilian was killed by terrorists in Warpora area of Sopore in north Kashmir on Wednesday late evening. Area cordoned off, search operation underway. According to reports, the terrorists opened fire upon the police party near Warpora police post. "In the incident an SPO Wajahat Ahmad died on the spot while as another policeman and a civilian also sustained bullet wounds and have been hospitalised." In 2014, Trunk Club was on pace to double its revenue to $100 million in sales when Nordstrom took notice and acquired the company, retaining then-CEO Brian Spaly. Nordstrom was looking to leverage its larger supply chains and infrastructure to grow the service even faster. Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor Najma Akhtar on Wednesday assured parents that the varsity administration was making all efforts to make the campus safe for students in the wake of coronavirus scare. The Faculty of Dentistry also organised a lecture titled 'Present scenario, strategies for prevention and control' by Pawan Kumar, additional director, DGHS & OSD to Delhi health minister. More such lectures are planned in the future. Akhtar said they are ensuring proper cleaning, fumigation and sanitisation of the school-buildings and the area surrounding them. She also urged the students to not panic. "Separate seating arrangements will be made for the examinees down with fever and breathing problems," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Global financial leaders vowed to ward off a widespread financial crisis threatened by the coronavirus Tuesday, after the UN health agency said the world has entered "uncharted territory" with the outbreak's rapid spread. The deadly virus has marched well beyond China's borders, spreading across Asia and Europe and into Latin America, Africa and the United States, where the number of deaths rose Monday. More than 90,000 people have been infected and 3,100 killed since the virus first emerged in China's Hubei province late last year. The vast majority of cases have been in China, but South Korea, Italy and Iran have all emerged as hotspots. There are now nine times as many new cases recorded outside China as inside, according to the World Health Organization. The World Helath Organization warned supplies of protective gear to fight virus were 'rapidly depleting' aruond the world. By JUSTIN TALLIS (AFP) Global bourses have seen dramatic swings over the past week as concerns mount that the outbreak could threaten global growth and drive some countries in to a recession. Leaders from Group of Seven countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- held emergency talks with central bank chiefs Tuesday, vowing to stem the outbreak's impact. "G7 finance ministers are ready to take actions, including fiscal measures where appropriate, to aid in the response to the virus and support the economy during this phase," the group said after the conference call. The US Federal Reserve announced a surprise rate cut Tuesday after the G7 talks -- which did not include specific measures to boost growth -- sending US and European markets surging. The market swings come after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Monday dropped its global GDP forecast to 2.4 percent, the lowest rate since the 2008-09 financial crisis. Uncharted territory Financial jitters followed a dire warning from the World Health Organization as the virus continued to expand its reach. Technical illustrations and artificially coloured handout images of the new coronavirus (formally known as SARS-CoV-2) which causes the disease known as COVID-19.. By John SAEKI (AFP) "We are in uncharted territory," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. "We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission, but which can also be contained with the right measures." Community transmission means infections within a population are not imported from another virus-hit area. Countries across the world have imposed extraordinary measures in a bid to contain the virus, with millions of people across large swathes of China forced into quarantine. Italy has also locked in entire regions, while countries across the world have imposed travel restrictions on visitors from badly hit nations. The WHO has warned that the world has entered uncharted territory in its fight against the deadly new coronavirus. By STR (AFP) Sports events, concerts and large gatherings of people have been cancelled or banned from France to Qatar and South Korea as governments scramble to beat back the outbreak. The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it was pushing ahead with plans for the Tokyo Olympics kicking off in July, ensuring it was "fully committed to" the event despite virus fears. The virus has infected at least 230 people across Japan and been linked to five deaths. 'At war' South Korea remains the biggest infection cluster outside China, confirming 851 new cases on Tuesday, its biggest daily increase. The virus has infected more than 90,000 people around the world. By Jewel SAMAD (AFP) It has clocked a total of more that 5,000 cases, with 28 deaths. "The entire country has entered a war with the infectious disease," South Korean President Moon Jae-in said. By contrast, China reported 125 new cases Tuesday -- its lowest daily increase in six weeks -- with all but 11 infections in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital. The nationwide death toll rose to 2,943 with 31 more deaths, with some 80,000 total cases. As China's cases steady, the US now faces a potential epidemic, with six people dying in the northwestern state of Washington, where officials warned residents the battle against the disease was shifting from containment to mitigation. The White House, which has been accused of downplaying the threat from the virus, struck a bullish tone. Fears about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak have spooked stock markets around the world. By Ulises Ruiz (AFP) Vice President Mike Pence declared that a treatment "could literally be available by this summer, or early fall". In Europe, attention turned to containment in several countries, including Switzerland where all soldiers were confined to their bases after a case of the virus was discovered in their ranks. France, which has more than 200 cases and four deaths, closed dozens of schools on Tuesday in several virus-stricken regions. President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday authorities would requisition all face mask stocks and production in the coming months in response to the outbreak. The announcement was followed by news that 2,000 surgical masks were stolen from a hospital in Marseille in France's southeast. The WHO also issued a warning Tuesday that supplies of protective gear to fight virus were "rapidly depleting" around the world. Iran -- which at 77 deaths has the second most fatalities outside China -- saw a further rise in cases Tuesday as it confirmed its emergency services chief was infected. Iran's deputy health minister was diagnosed with the virus last week. UN medical experts arrived in Iran on Monday to help tackle the outbreak after the country was accused of under-reporting deaths. Senegal confirmed a case on Monday -- the second in Sub Saharan Africa after Nigeria -- while Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic all have infections as well. burs-jv/jj Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riska Rahman, Adrian Wail Akhlas, Marchio Irfan Gorbiano and Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, March 5 2020 Superheroes against COVID-19: People wearing the costumes of local superhero Gundala (right) and Batman offer jamu (traditional Indonesian herbal drinks) to motorcyclists to encourage them to stay healthy and fight COVID-19 in Surakarta, Central Java, on Wednesday. The government reported its first confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday, after health officials in the world's fourth-most populous country hit back at questions over its apparent lack of infected people.(AFP/Anwar Mustofa) The government is working to finalize eight measures that will be incorporated in a second stimulus package aimed at easing rules for exports and imports as supply chains continue to be disrupted by the spread of coronavirus. Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the stimulus would be bigger than the first one. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login She's been open about her inability to find love, and KC Osborne's audition tape for Married At First Sight has given more insight into her single status. The 31-year-old's audition tape for the hit reality show was shared by 9Now on Wednesday, and in it KC confessed she had become cynical about finding love. 'You're just like, maybe it's just not in the cards for me... Maybe I'm just not meant to be that girl that gets love. It makes me sad,' she admitted. Flying solo: She's been open about her inability to find love, and KC Osborne's audition tape for Married At First Sight has given more insight into her single status She added: 'Of course I want someone.' After living in Los Angeles for 10 years, KC said she decided to return home to Sydney in a bid to find the love she craved. 'Dating over there is awful. I used to sit in the car and make videos for myself saying, "This is why you're leaving", just to remind myself that I didn't want to be there, and I knew I had made the right decision to come back to Australia,' she confessed. Looking for love: The 31-year-old's audition tape for the hit reality show was shared by 9Now on Wednesday, and in it KC confessed she had become cynical about finding love She explained she had a tendency to attract guys in LA who 'were wealthy and had access to whoever they wanted'. And as soon as things started going south in the relationship, KC said they would simply move on to the next person without ever attempting to work it out. When it came to the sort of guy she's interested in, KC said she's looking for someone with 'a good sense of humour' and said she's 'a bit cheeky' herself. 'You're just like, maybe it's just not in the cards for me... Maybe I'm just not meant to be that girl that gets love. It makes me sad,' she admitted 'I just want a fair weather person who just really cares about family and is a good-hearted person,' she added. 'No one too big, I don't like that roided [steroid] look, and no farmers. I do like someone in shape, with a nice face - like, nice eyes or nice teeth.' KC was matched with Drew Brauer, a 31-year-old musician and charity founder from Cairns, who she 'married' during Monday's episode. Arranged marriage: KC was matched with Drew Brauer, a 31-year-old musician and charity founder from Cairns, who she 'married' during Monday's episode 'Dreams do come true, I got my fairytale wedding,' she wrote on Instagram, shortly after their wedding aired. KC said she initially thought her casting on Married At First Sight was a joke, because she'd been talking to some friends about the show the night before she got the call and thought it all seemed a little too convenient. She also admitted that she'd be open to finding love with someone other than her partner on the show, but said she'd be open and honest about it if she did. Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine A man in China plunged his car into a river shortly after getting his driving licence. The incident took place when Zhang, the driver, was checking his phone while driving. He veered off his vehicle into the river when he looked up from his phone and found two people walking on a bridge, reported news.com.au. Zhang said that he tried to read some messages but he suddenly saw two people on the bridge, which did not have a guard rail, and got nervous. He dislocated his shoulder in the accident. Luckily, the car floated for a while. I couldnt open the drivers door so I had to kick open the door on the other side. Otherwise, I would have never have got out, he said. According to local media reports, residents of that area pulled him out of the water and provided him with some dry clothes. Police fished out the car with the help of a crane. However, there is no clarity whether the driver will face any penalty for driving irresponsibly. There is a fine of a maximum of 200 Chinese yuan and two points are deducted from the license, if a person is found using a phone while driving. The death of a woman in China last year in a road accident sparked calls for harsher punishment for traffic violations. The woman was reportedly using her phone as her car crashed at high speed. " " The amount of water emitted by Old Faithful ranges from 3,700 gallons (14,006 liters) for a short blow of 1.5 minutes to 8,400 gallons (31,797 liters) for a longer eruption of 4 to 4.5 minutes. yenwen/Getty Images Old Faithful used to have a less-than-modest nickname: "Eternity's Timepiece." Since at least the American Gilded Age (1860s-1900), this Wyoming cone geyser has wowed spectators with its predictable eruptions. You can see the landmark for yourself in Yellowstone National Park, home to around 4,500 bison, 714 bears and over 500 geysers. More than 150 of these water-spurting marvels including Old Faithful occupy the park's Upper Geyser Basin. Named in 1870 by the Washburn Langford-Doane Expedition because it "spouted at regular intervals," Old Faithful gets more fanfare than any other geothermal attraction in the world. Visited by presidents and immortalized by artists, the geyser spouts about 17 times a day. Countdown clocks tell gathering tourists when to ready their cameras for the next waterworks show. You see there's a simple formula rangers use to estimate how much time will likely elapse between any two eruptions of Old Faithful. "About 90 percent of [these] eruption predictions are accurate within a window of plus or minus 10 minutes," according to the National Park Service website. That's a solid track record, but Old Faithful still isn't something you'd want to set your watch by. Five decades of observation have revealed that the geyser is changing. Since 1959, the average interval between Old Faithfuls eruptions has gotten longer. And yet most of the actual eruptions which occurred back then were rather brief. This is no longer the case. Advertisement Geysers 101 Sin-Mei Wu is a geologist at the University of Utah who's studied the physics of geysers and related structures. "Geysers are rare because they require very unique geologic conditions: a persistent heat source ... abundant water supply from groundwater systems and a porous/fractured medium that allows fluid migration and heat transfer within," he tells us via email. Usually the heat comes from magma, liquid or semi-liquid rock found below the Earth's crust which is called "lava" when it bursts onto the surface. Yellowstone is positioned over two magma chambers including a nice long one that's just 3 to 10 miles (5 to 17 kilometers) underground. Their maker was a localized swell of abnormally hot material beneath the crust. Classified as a "mantle plume," it's the reason why Yellowstone has the world's largest geyser collection. The chambers warm up subterranean reservoirs of liquid groundwater. Although the physics here aren't entirely settled, we do know that some of this water gets superheated. That means its temperature climbs above and beyond H2O's normal boiling point. Since this water is held in tight corridors, it's got nowhere else to go at first. Bearing down on the superheated liquid is a combination of overhanging rock and colder water. Add cramped quarters to the mix and you've got a recipe for high pressure. But the pressure doesn't last forever. In a geyser like Old Faithful, hyperactive steam bubbles eventually push a small percentage of the groundwater through a narrow opening at the surface. Just like that, the pressure decreases and sets off an explosion of hot water and steam. Advertisement The Changing Schedule If you're wise, you'll give Old Faithful a wide berth. Visitors can safely watch the geyser erupt from a boardwalk maintained by Yellowstone. Venture off that path and you might be on the hook for six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Besides, getting too close to hydrothermal features like geysers or hot springs might have fatal consequences. When Old Faithful goes off, the water temperature around its vent can hit 204 degrees F (95.6 degrees C). Meanwhile the steam gets even hotter, sometimes exceeding 350 degrees F (176.6 degrees C). Viewed from an appropriate distance, Old Faithful's eruptions are thrilling spectacles. Even if you've seen one before, you might want to revisit the geyser someday. Because certain eruptions last longer than others do. "We think of Old Faithful [as] a predictable geyser, but it is not as regular as it seemed," says Wu. He tells us it has a "bimodal eruption interval." The gaps between its spouting sessions fall into two distinctive categories. So do the eruptions themselves. An eruption that begins and ends in under 2.5 minutes is considered "short." By the same token, "long" eruptions eat up more time. Wu explains it like this: After a short eruption, there'll be an intermission of 60 to 65 minutes before the geyser spouts again. Yet Old Faithful will reliably take a break of "around 92 minutes" once a long eruption subsides. Over the past 50 years, long eruptions at Old Faithful have become the norm. Short ones still occur but they're rarer than they used to be. "We don't know exactly what's the cause," Wu notes. While the mystery is unresolved, some geologists blame recent earthquakes for this changing schedule. Advertisement Steamboats and Reservoirs The geyser's source is another riddle. Scientists haven't determined where Old Faithful gets its water supply but in a 2017 study, Wu and five colleagues revealed an important clue. Using seismic wave sensors, they found a natural reservoir below the historic Old Faithful Inn which stands southwest of the geyser. "That body is interpreted to be a highly fractured and saturated area that we think provides fluids as a source to Old Faithful," he says. Plumbing questions and bimodal eruptions aside, Old Faithful is indeed more "faithful" than some of its counterparts. It's high time we introduced the Steamboat Geyser, another Yellowstone resident that happens to be the world's tallest active geyser, emitting 300 to 400-foot (91 to 122-meter) H2O jets into the sky above. But there's a catch. "It is very unpredictable and has gone decades between eruptions," says Wu. "The last eruption before March 2018 was in September 2014." However, the 2018 blow-up "began an unprecedented active phase ... [The Steamboat geyser] has erupted a total of 85 times since then with the last eruption occurring February 21 of this year [2020]." "We still don't know what initiates this active phase, what controls its eruptive behavior, and what [the geometry looks like]," Wu adds. So, keep an eye on the headlines. Perhaps we'll see some (ahem) heated arguments about these topics in the near future. Now That's Interesting Ear Spring another Yellowstone geyser launched nearly 100 coins into the air when it erupted in 2018. Aluminum cans, pieces of plastic and a hunk of concrete also came out of the vent area. Moral of the story: Don't litter in national parks. Or in geysers for sure. - Dr Da-Coster Dorkey, a medical doctor at the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua is in the news after he offered the Kangaroo Mothercare to a preterm baby - The baby had to be moved from an incubator to give access to other preterm babies but the little one's mother was sick - Dr Da-Coster Dorkey offered to assist and his kind gesture has received massive accolades on social media Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Dr Da-Coster Dorkey, a young medical doctor is driving positive change in the lives of patients in a hospital in Accra. The young doctor recently offered the Kangaroo Mothercare method to a baby born before the due date for one of his patients who was sick and was also being cared for by her mother. He held the baby under his clothing, upright and tightly on his chest while working. The baby was first transferred into a cot to give way for younger preterms to have access to the incubator. READ ALSO: Brilliant SHS graduate with 7As and no GETFund support 'begs' for help to pay university fees Dr Dorkey opted to offer his kindness to the baby and his colleague Dr Afua Dwamena, believed to be the boss at the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua shared an image of him on Monday, March 2, 2020. The act of kindness by the doctor which is rarely seen has generated massive response from Facebook users with many applauding the young doctor for his good. Some described Dr Dorkey as a ''true gem'' after Dr Afua Dwamena posted on social media. ''Today I feel proud as a doctor. I have a preterm on admission(premie A). Baby is not Sick but mother has not been well. Grandmother is with mother caring for her. As we needed the incubator for younger preterms who need the incubator more, we had to move premie A into a cot. Premie A needs mother to keep her warm but mother is not around. One of my younger doctors, decided to carry baby A on his bosom whilst still working. Today I am proud to have met this young man. Glad to have worked alongside with him. Ghananians are glad to have you with us. I told him I will get a 100 likes for him and premie A. Come on people, lets show him how we support the likes of him on these streets,'' she wrote on Facebook. ''Wonderful, dis is wat every health worker suppose to do, God bless u n gv u more knowledge,'' Francisca Arkoh said in response. Jennifer Mensah said: ''Some people were born to be doctors and I think this guy is one of them.'' ''Great! May God continue to bless you Dr. and your team to keep up the good work,'' Abdallah Safura wrote. In other stories, YEN.com.gh previously reported that an admirable photo of a boy who has a special skin condition has gained wide traction and generated stunning reactions on social media after the photos were splashed online. The little boys image has been widely circulated and has become an internet sensation. The photos show the little angel smile as he posed for the camera. While details of the toddler did not accompany the photo, the boy's enchanting image has erupted powerful conversations about his cuteness. READ ALSO: Brilliant SHS graduate with 7As and no GETFund support 'begs' for help to pay university fees Faces of Ghana: Ghanas 1st Female Police Bemoans High Rate of Police Indiscipline | #Yencomgh Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Goldsmiths College has confirmed a guest visiting their student accommodation has tested positive for coronavirus - but the institution will remain 'open as normal'. The case was discovered at one of its seven halls of residence, Chesterman House accommodation, on Tuesday. In a statement issued today Goldsmiths, which is part of the University of London and whose Chancellor is Princess Anne, said the student who the guest was visiting had been put into self-isolation as a precaution. The college in New Cross, south east London, said in a statement: 'A guest visiting a hall of residence used by Goldsmiths students has been diagnosed with coronavirus. 'Following advice from NHS 111, the Goldsmiths student they were staying with is self-isolating as a precautionary measure. In a statement issued today Goldsmiths, which is part of the University of London and whose Chancellor is Princess Anne, said the student who the guest was visiting had been put into self-isolation as a precaution (pictured: Goldsmiths) 'Everyone is being supported by accommodation staff and we are in contact with the other students in Chesterman. 'We are tracing movements of the person diagnosed with coronavirus and the student who has self-isolated. 'We will work with relevant departments at Goldsmiths and the local NHS health protection team to contact anyone who is considered at risk of contracting the virus from them. 'If you are concerned you have been in close contact with them call NHS 111 and follow their advice. The case was discovered at one of its seven halls of residence, Chesterman House accommodation, on Tuesday 'We are also working with Campus Living Villages who manage Chesterman House. 'We had already escalated Goldsmiths' response to coronavirus to the level of Business Continuity Planning. This included having a plan for a confirmed case in university accommodation which colleagues are working to. 'A Critical Incident Group of senior staff has been planning how to respond to the virus since January. 'They will continue to monitor the situation and make changes as needed. At this point, Goldsmiths buildings and services are open as normal. The college revealed that a guest who visited a hall of residence used by Goldsmiths was diagnosed with coronavirus 'We'll keep students and staff informed by email and this section of our website. 'We understand that this is a worrying time for those affected and for the whole Goldsmiths community. We will continue to consult closely with Public Health England and are taking all appropriate measures to protect our community.' The college - which originated as an art college - has 10,000 students - 20 per cent of which are foreign students. Alumni include artists Damien Hirst and Antony Gormley, and film director Steve McQueen who directed 12 Years a Slave. Kings College Hospital in south London has also confirmed that two recent patients had tested positive for Covid-19. 'The trust has had two recent patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 (Coronavirus),' a spokesman said. 'We have strict protocols in place to manage the control of infection and to reduce the possibility of cross-infection, and this includes restricting access for staff and visitors to the ward. 'Public Health England experts are carrying out contact tracing and will be in touch with individuals who may have been exposed to the virus to provide them with advice. 'For anyone who has symptoms of coronavirus, call 111 or visit here as the first port of call.' Students at Kings College London, where the hospital is based, have been warned after a recently confirmed case in their 'community'. (Bloomberg) -- A quiet Huawei Technologies Co.-led 5G revolution is unfolding at the heart of Europe -- in the bucolic Swiss hamlet of Taenikon. Far from President Donald Trumps campaign to stop the world from using the Chinese companys technology, cows in this northern Swiss village -- with its white-washed cottages and manicured fields -- wear Huaweis 5G-connected neck-straps instead of traditional flat bells. And in the villages Cistercian abbey, converted into a test farm, Switzerlands second-biggest telecommunications operator, Sunrise Communications Group AG, and Huawei test the next-generation 5G wireless network. You could call it a Fitbit for cows, said Alexander Lehrmann, Sunrises chief of new business development and internet of things, referring to Fitbit Inc.s fitness device. It allows farmers to get complete control and insight into their health conditions at any time and from any place. While countries in Europe are grappling with U.S. claims that Huaweis gear could open them up to Chinese spying, Switzerland is quietly building a network with the company. Flying under the radar, the Swiss have become world leaders in the rollout of 5G technology with the early sprouting of private and public networks. Entities from the Zurich airport, the national mail service and railways to food giant Nestle SA and Zurich Insurance Group AG either have or envisage private networks with Sunrise, whose exclusive supplier is Huawei. The Swiss government has done a very neutral and objective evaluation of Huawei and they have come to the conclusion that there is no significant other risks included in the technology and in Huawei as a company, Sunrise Chief Executive Officer Andre Krause said in an interview. (But) if the reputation of Huawei is continuously under pressure, that could also have an impact on us at some stage. The stakes are high as networks move toward the new-generation technology that promises faster connections, enabling uses such as autonomous vehicles, remote surgery and the transfer of data over a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Story continues For now, much of whats happening with Huawei in Switzerland is the industrial use of 5G, or private networks, that draws less attention. But Switzerland is also the first country in Europe to start using a commercial 5G network for individuals in a limited way, amid opposition from environmental and health activists fighting antenna emissions. Read: Health Scares Slow the Rollout of 5G Cell Towers in Europe The U.S. has been frustrated by Europes refusal to accede to Trumps demands to keep Chinese tech companies out of advanced 5G networks. The U.K., France, and Germany are all looking to keep the door open to the Chinese telecom giant in some way, snubbing the U.S. view that Huawei could be a security risk. Italy, Croatia and Hungary, like Switzerland, have signed partnerships with Huawei. The Chinese company in February touted as many as 47 commercial contracts for 5G in Europe, more than in Asia. It claims to have 91 contracts, but did not respond to queries seeking details. Still, the European Union may force member states to eventually change some of the deals after the bloc published a series of security recommendations in its 5G toolbox that could keep non-European gear makers out of the network core, towers and towers bases. Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, doesnt face those constraints. Swiss insurers and pharmaceutical companies are testing Huaweis 5G networks. Huawei has also built a partnership with the Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd., which is seeking to offer industrial partners competitive 5G platforms. Sunrises Lehrmann said banks havent yet signed up. He said Sunrise is present in Swiss hospitals, where the use case is what can you do in order to improve the patient experience by connecting data. Swisscom, the former monopoly is also testing the industrial technology but wont disclose its gear maker. Salt, the Iliad SA-owned Swiss operator, is working with Nokia. Radio Network Antennas (the technical name for private networks) are inside offices, factory, hospitals, whatever it is, Duncan Stewart, Deloittes director of research in telecommunications, told reporters in Paris Feb. 4. The machinery in your factory, the robots, the sensors, the cameras, the turbines, all these IoT devices, will only work on the private 5G networks. Stewart forecast that by 2030 almost all companies with more than 10,000 employees may have private 5G networks. Some other European countries are also testing private networks. The Port of Rotterdam, Europes biggest, has tested the technology starting 2018 with the national telecom operator KPN in partnership with Huawei, according to KPNs website. Germany has prioritized the expansion of its industrial 5G application too, allowing companies to apply for private networks with gear makers, without necessarily going through a telecom operator. Companies including Bosh in partnership with Nokia, Siemens with Qualcomm Inc. and Volkswagen are building such networks. To Sunrises Lehrmann, the situation is simple. Customers are looking at 5G as a technology that allows them to drive new uses and new business cases, he said. On the test farm in Taenikon, meanwhile, cows eat, sleep and stroll under surveillance cameras. Their milk production, health and other data are transmitted at speeds about 100 times faster than current networks and processed in real-time. The test is meant to see how remote farms can function, information Sunrise and Huawei can use for other applications to boost factory output, enable big data usage in the finance sector or take health care in hospitals to a newer level. The Swiss population and economy depend on high-performance mobile communications, Sunrises Chief Administrative officer Marcel Huber said on his LinkedIn account in February. --With assistance from Angelina Rascouet. To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net;Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at atorsoli@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Vidya Root For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. ST. LOUIS, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced today that its subsidiary Centurion has received notice from the Delaware Department of Correction of the Department's intent to award two contracts to Centurion for medical and behavioral health services. Both three-year contracts are expected to commence on April 1, 2020 and include two, two-year renewal options. Under the contracts, Centurion will provide medical services, behavioral healthcare, and substance abuse treatment within four prisons and six community corrections centers across the state. "Centurion is pleased to partner with the Delaware Department of Correction, and we are committed to working with the DOC to improve the medical and behavioral healthcare, and substance use disorder treatment for individuals under DOC custody," said Centurion CEO Steven H. Wheeler. "We look forward to bringing our innovative staffing and care solutions to Delaware's unified state correctional agency." Centurion is a leading national provider of healthcare and behavioral health services to justice-involved populations. About Centene Corporation Centene Corporation, a Fortune 100 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach with local brands and local teams - to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners. Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors. Forward-Looking Statements All statements, other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions (and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we) intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include, without limitation, statements about our future operating or financial performance, market opportunity, growth strategy, competition, expected activities in completed and future acquisitions, including statements about the impact of our recently completed acquisition (the WellCare Acquisition) of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WellCare), other recent and future acquisitions, investments and the adequacy of our available cash resources. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environments, future developments and other factors we believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory, competitive and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, variables and events including but not limited to: uncertainty as to our expected financial performance following completion of the WellCare Acquisition; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the WellCare Acquisition will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the integration of the WellCare Acquisition or that the integration of WellCare will be more difficult or time consuming than expected; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the WellCare Acquisition; the inability to retain key personnel; disruption from the completion of the WellCare Acquisition, including potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships with customers, employees, suppliers or regulators, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that, following the WellCare Acquisition, we may not be able to effectively manage our expanded operations; our ability to accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses and reserves; competition; membership and revenue declines or unexpected trends; changes in healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased healthcare costs; changes in economic, political or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, collectively referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and any regulations enacted thereunder that may result from changing political conditions or judicial actions, including the ultimate outcome in "Texas v. United States of America" regarding the constitutionality of the ACA; rate cuts or other payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; our ability to adequately price products on the Health Insurance Marketplaces and other commercial and Medicare products; tax matters; disasters or major epidemics; the outcome of legal and regulatory proceedings; changes in expected contract start dates; provider, state, federal and other contract changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments (including but not limited to Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE or other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of pending or future litigation or government investigations; challenges to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from acquired businesses, including, without limitation, the WellCare Acquisition, will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions; disruption caused by significant completed and pending acquisitions, including, among others, the WellCare Acquisition, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the completion and/or integration of acquisition transactions; changes in expected closing dates, estimated purchase price and accretion for acquisitions; the risk that acquired businesses, including WellCare, will not be integrated successfully; the risk that we may not be able to effectively manage our operations as they have expanded as a result of the WellCare Acquisition; restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can impact revenue and future growth; availability of debt and equity financing, on terms that are favorable to us; inflation; foreign currency fluctuations; and risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This list of important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may affect our business operations, financial condition and results of operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our future performance, including without limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our future medical and selling, general and administrative costs. SOURCE Centene Corporation Related Links http://www.centene.com Asia Kachin State Inks Border Business Park Deal With China-Myanmar Joint Venture The MOU signing ceremony to establish the Kanpiketi Business Park in the border town of Kanpiketi, Kachin state. / Ministry of Information YANGONThe Kachin State government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Chinese-backed company to develop a business park project in Kanpiketi, a border town in northern Myanmar, as part of Beijings ambitious grand infrastructure plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). On Wednesday, the MOU was signed by the state government and Myanmar Heng Ya Investment Development Company Ltd, a joint venture between Myanmars Kampaiti Development Company Ltd and Chinas Yunnan Tengying Trading Company Ltd. The Chinese company holds a 70-percent stake while the Myanmar company holds 30 percent. The signing ceremony was held at the Kachin State government office in Myitkyina, the state capital, witnessed by State Minister of Finance, Revenue, Planning and Economy U Wai Lin, State Minister for Electricity and Industry U Win Nyunt and other officials from both sides, according to a press release from the Myanmar Ministry of Information. At an estimated cost of US$22.4 million (31.85 billion kyats), the Kanpiketi Business Park will cover nearly 70 acres (28 hectares) in the border town in northern Kachin States Special Region 1. The area is controlled by the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDAK) militia, which is allied with the Myanmar military. According to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), the sons of NDAK militia founder Zahkung Ting Ying are the directors of the Kampaiti Development Company. The NDAK was converted into a Border Guard Force (BGF), a government-sponsored militia, in 2009 and still has significant influence in Special Region 1. Yunnan Tengying Trading Company Ltd is a subsidiary of Yunnan Baoshan Hengyi Industry Group. The Irrawaddy has learned that Baoshan Hengyi also operates in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina under the name Yunnan Tengchong Heng Young Investment Company (YTHYIC). The company signed an agreement with the Kachin State government in 2018 to develop the US$400-million Myitkyina Economic Zone on 4,700 acres of land along the historic Ledo Road. The project has drawn criticism for lacking transparency. According to U Wai Lin, the business park project includes plans to construct a South Asia-Southeast Asia Culture Park (Zone A) on 12.65 acres, two Trade and Logistics Zones (Zones B and D) on 8.8 acres and 12.7 acres, a Border Inspection Gate (Zone C) on 5.1 acres and a Business Shop (Zone E) on 1.65 acres. The joint venture company will implement Zone C first. It will include a border inspection gate, government staff housing, a waiting area and related facilities. The company plans to invite other investors to construct the other zones. At the signing ceremony, U Wai Lin promised that the government would implement the project with transparency. Myanmar and China will work together to promote cross-border trade, control illicit border trade and offer job opportunities to local people, he said. The Kachin parliament approved a proposal to implement the project last week. According to the Kachin government, local residents of the project area will be displaced but the number of people is still unknown. The Irrawaddy has learned that the government has yet to inform local people about the project. Local lawyer U Gannes Basnez, who works with local residents on land issues, told The Irrawaddy, The MOU should not have been signed until the state government explained the project to local people. They need to know the pros and cons of the project, U Gannes Basnez said. The government needs to publicize the MOU so we can learn the details. That would allow us to anticipate what issues we will be facing due to the project, he added. Myanmar became an official member country of the BRI after signing a 15-point MOU on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) in 2018. The business park is one of three cross-border economic cooperation zones under the CMEC agreement. The CMEC will reach from Chinas Yunnan Province to Mandalay in central Myanmar and then stretch south to Yangon and west to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State. The two sides agreed to build a number of cross-border zones along the countries shared border during a visit by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Beijing to attend a forum on the BRI in 2017. The Myanmar government approved three sites in Kachin and Shan states in 2018 at the first implementation meeting of the Economic Cooperation Zones Central Committee in Naypyitaw. The cross-border zones will be developed in Kanpiketi Town, Shan States Muse Township and Chinshwehaw in Shan States Laukkai Township, part the Kokang Self-Administered Zone. The Irrawaddy has also learned that the name of the Kanpiketi project was changed from a cross-border economic cooperation zone to the Kanpiketi Business Park Project during the central committee meeting last October in Myitkyina. Launched in 2013, the BRI is Chinese President Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy project. It aims to build and expand roads, rail lines and shipping lanes linking at least 70 countries from China to Europe through Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Russia to boost trade and investment. You may also like these stories: MNLA Attacks DKBA Splinter Group in Myanmars Karen State Ethnic Chin Oppose Plan for Statue of Myanmar Independence Hero Karenni Youth Jailed for Calling Govt Officials Criminals, Enemies of Ethnic Unity ALBANY A man from New York City's suburbs was hospitalized in serious condition with COVID-19 on Tuesday, a case that prompted school closings and quarantines for congregants of a now-shuttered synagogue. The state's second confirmed case also raised the possibility that the virus is spreading locally. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the 50-year-old lawyer from New Rochelle had no known travel history to countries where the outbreak of the new coronavirus has been sustained. But state and city officials said the man had done some traveling recently, including an early February trip to Miami. "You're going to see a continued spreading," the governor said. "That spreading is inevitable." The man, who commuted by train to work at a small Manhattan law firm and has children attending a school and college in New York City, had an underlying respiratory illness that potentially put him in more danger from the disease, officials said. The positive test prompted the closure of at least three schools, including a private school in the Bronx attended by a daughter of the man. The family was already quarantined at home. Health officials scrambled to map out family members' recent movements to find people with whom they may have come into prolonged contact. Officials were focusing on seven people at the law firm and looking into close contacts of the man's children at the Bronx school and Yeshiva University. The man's college-age son has symptoms, while the younger daughter does not, officials said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the patient had respiratory symptoms on-and-off for the last month, and it's not known when he contracted the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The man became ill Feb. 22, was admitted to a hospital in suburban Bronxville on Thursday, and was transferred Monday to a New York City hospital and tested for the virus, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a city deputy health commissioner. A 39-year-old health care worker who traveled to Iran became the first confirmed case of the virus in New York on Sunday. Officials said the woman has respiratory symptoms, but they are mild. Cuomo also said two Buffalo families who traveled to northern Italy are under quarantine in their homes as they await the results of testing. State University of New York schools plan to send home students who are studying abroad in countries with high prevalence of the virus, according to the governor's office. : The Kerala government on Wednesday issued order appointing widow of a senior journalist, who was killed after being hit by a car driven by IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman, at the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam university in Tirur. Jaseela, 32, a commerce graduate, would be posted as an assistant at the universty, the order stated. The state cabinet had earlier given the nod for the appointment which would be in accordance with her qualification. A financial aid of Rs 6 lakh had also been sanctioned to the family of K M Basheer. Basheer(35), the Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of Malayalam daily "Siraj" was killed on the spot when the luxury car driven by the IAS officer, allegedly in an inebriated condition, had hit him in the wee hours of August 3. Venkitaraman, who was serving as the survey director, was arrested hours after the mishap. He is presently under suspension. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe into the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Tuesday hit out at Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu over his statement that the previous Congress governments at the Centre had treated Northeast as a "money-minting machine". Terming the chief minister's statement as "one of the best jokes of the decade", the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) reminded Khandu that his father Dorjee Khandu had become a panchayat leader and later the chief minister of the state on a Congress ticket. The chief minister had made the statement at a party meeting in East Siang district on February 29. "Khandu's statement shows his insensitivity towards the Congress which groomed him to what he is today from a simple businessman. "Moreover, it is regrettable that he has been parroting the tone of the RSS, which has been remotely controlling the BJP-led government at the Centre," APCC spokesperson Chera Taya said in a statement here. Taya questioned why was no new scheme sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh if the Centre was concerned about the development of the state. "It is needless to mention that Holongi greenfield airport, Trans-Arunachal Highway, railway link to Naharlagun and Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science were sanctioned during UPA-2 regime led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Author Kate Watson-Smyth mixes standard design questions about rug size, curtain styles and paint colors along with more contemporary topics such as LED lights sustainability and technology in her new book, Mad About The House: 101 Interior Design Answers. Watson-Smyth is one of the U.K.s most popular design bloggers, drawing thousands of daily views to her website (madaboutthehouse.com) and keeping track of her 218,000 Instagram followers. Her new book complements her previous effort, Mad About the House: How To Decorate Your Home With Style (2018). Watson-Smyth, 53, stumbled into writing about homes as a new mom who opted to not return to a hard news beat. She decided to write as a freelancer and got a call from an editor who needed a home story in a hurry. She got it done and the assignments kept coming. She started her Mad About the House blog, and readers started asking for her help designing or staging their homes Watson-Smyth had a new career. 5 tips from Mad About the House 1. To make a small room look larger, consider picking a single color - please, not white - and use it on everything, even the trim. A monotone look will blur the edges and give the impression that walls are set back farther than they are. 2. Use what Watson-Syth calls "broken-plan" living to define smaller areas in a large open-concept space. Rugs can define each purpose by putting all living room furniture on one rug, a dining table and chairs on another. A kitchen might have a different type of flooring, such as porcelain tile, while other space have hardwood. 3. If you need help choosing colors for a room, look to your wardrobe. The colors you're most comfortable wearing are going to be colors you're comfortable living in, too. You can also look at fabric. 4. Expensive paint is nearly always worth the money. Those paints usually use pigments from natural sources and they'll look more complex and more deeply pigmented. As a result, your walls will look better. 5. Sliding, or barn-style, doors are big space savers. When a swing door requires a large space on a wall when it's open, that wall space becomes unusable. Pocket doors are more expensive, but completely vanish when not in use and don't use up much-needed space. See More Collapse Her new book is organized in a practical way, moving from layout and flooring to paint and decor, windows and doors and more. Questions and their answers are accompanied by illustrations not photos in hopes that illustrations wouldnt feel as dated as quickly as photos might. She took time recently to talk with the Houston Chronicle about the color gray, happy homes and her book. Q: How would you describe your own style at home? A: Im going to go with urban glamour. I like strong and dark colors, a bit of nice brass and velvet material and I have a lot of Persian rugs. Its quite luxurious but a little bit dilapidated because its an old Victorian house. Im sitting on my great-grandmothers couch that has been reupholstered several times. Q: Why did you write a Q&A book now? A: In eight years of blogging in the internet world thats a century the same questions come up a lot. This is an opportunity to address those questions. Its also a companion to my earlier book (Mad About the House: How To Decorate Your Home With Style) about how to find your style, deal with Pinterest and Instagram and things to look at to nail down your style. Its all based on the six questions we are taught in journalism school who, what, why, where, when and how. I realized when I was answering these questions, everything spun off of those. Who is going to be in that room? The reasons for a couple with a kid are different than the reasons for a couple of pensioners. What are they going to be doing? Is it for Netflix and popcorn or is it for playing games and having conversation? If you answer those questions, youll come up with a blueprint for what the room should look like. Q: Do you think people are using their homes differently today? A: I think we are finally becoming much more aware of furnishing houses in a sustainable way. That conversation has taken off in the last year or so. They always say when the world outside is scary and it really is at the moment we retreat into our homes. In the 1990s, it was buy a house and flip it. Now we want to properly create a home that tells the story of who lives there and how it reflects the people who live in it. The idea behind the book is how to get it right the first time so you dont have to do it a second time thats automatically more sustainable. How to buy vintage furniture and reupholster and update it. We are much more conscious of the world we live in and more conscious of our houses within that world. Q: Whats popular in the U.K. right now? A: We have been deep into Scandi in recent years, where it was a lot of clean minimal, pared back interiors and gray walls, but thats beginning to move over. I wouldnt say Scandi is dead because its classic. We are edging toward a maximalist style, and that has a lot to do with when the world outside is scary we want to make our homes cozy. Maximalist style is warm colors, lots of blush pink, burgundy, terracotta and velvet and rugs and cushions. Q: What are the most common questions you get? A: Its usually what color I paint the walls of my own sitting room, which is chocolate brown. On a more general note I am asked a lot about trends. Should I buy a kitchen in this color or is it just fashion? I dont advise people to follow trends but to ask themselves is this a trend that resonates with you? Start with your wardrobe. If youre comfortable wearing it, you will be comfortable living in it. That is a good place to look for color combinations. You can see that a professional designer has put colors together in a shirt or a dress, so can you translate that into your home? Q: What part of a home do you think people overlook? A: Lighting is the thing people overlook the most. Good lighting can hide a lot of cheap furniture. In this country, lighting is an afterthought, maybe in America, too. When you move into a house you kind of have the lighting that comes with the house. Its a big deal to pick out and relocate it. You can hire an electrician to lengthen the (cord) and put a hook somewhere else in the ceiling. In a bedroom the ceiling light is fixed in the middle of the ceiling, then you get in bed and all it does is light your feet. If you lengthen the flex and drape it over, you can have it by the side of bed or drape it in corner like a pretty decorative feature. Q: Do the questions change? A: I think there are more of the same. You just get new generations of people coming through to decorate. What I dont get asked any more is how to choose the right gray paint. I used to get asked that every day. For five years I could hit D on my keyboard and come up with (Farrow & Balls) Downpipe and didnt even need to type it in. Thats how often I said it. diane.cowen@chron.com Sign up for Cowens Access Design newsletter, delivered to your inbox Tuesdays, at houstonchronicle.com/accessdesign COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Moments after a tornado tore through his quiet Tennessee neighbourhood, Darrell Jennings walked out his front door and heard screaming. The house next door and many others had been levelled to its foundations. Somehow the Jennings house suffered only a few broken windows. It quickly became a shelter for those who were suddenly left with nothing. The next-door neighbours, who had miraculously survived, straggled over. Others joined them. Its like we were a beacon, Amy Jennings said an interview Wednesday. We had a house full of muddy people in their pyjamas. A lot of little babies were screaming. Our teenage kids were amazing. They went into action. They held those kids and got them calm. The monstrous tornado tore a 2-mile-long (3.2-kilometre-long) path through Putnam County early Tuesday, killing 18 people, including five children under 13. Another 88 were injured, some critically. The statewide death toll was 24, and authorities warned it could rise as crews examined debris piles. A tornado reaching EF-3 stage with winds up to 165 mph (266 kmh) had barrelled eastward along a 50-mile (80 kilometre) path from Nashville, where it killed two people and wrecked homes and businesses. It continued into nearby Wilson County, which saw three deaths, and into Smith County. Benton County, to the west of Nashville, also had one storm-related fatality. But no place saw more destruction than pockets of Putnam County, where the Jennings home and a few others left standing became impromptu support centres for neighbours left homeless. Darrell Jennings, a trained EMT and firefighter, had awakened his wife, Amy, and their three kids and hurried them into a hallway just before the tornado struck. It was over in seconds. When he ventured outside, Jennings expected to see a few downed trees and some scattered debris. He found total devastation. There were no houses left, he said. Sitting on their couch Wednesday afternoon, with destruction just outside their door, Darrell and Amy Jennings teared up as they recalled the immediate aftermath. Three of the children sheltering in their home had head injuries, Darrell Jennings said. With no power or cellphone service, he used his radio to call for help. I told them, Everything is destroyed around us. Send us everything youve got. Ive probably had about 30 firefighters tell me thats how they woke up. Because their road was impassible, first responders set up a base at a nearby church. Those who could walk made their way from the Jennings house through the darkness, stumbling over the remains of their homes and belongings in pouring rain and sleet. We gave away all our shoes, because everyone was barefoot, Amy Jennings said. One little girl said, I dont want to leave the house that stayed up. Some carried the children in their arms. Another neighbour drove his truck through yards and over fences to carry an older neighbour to the church. With the nearest neighbours safe, Darrell Jennings began searching the rubble for survivors. He said he pulled several people out. One of those he tried to help was a small girl who didnt survive. All the lives lost, its unbelievable, unfathomable. It was hard to sleep last night, thinking of them and their loss, he said. In his 32 years as a volunteer EMT and firefighter, Jennings said he had been to about 10 different tornado sites, and this is about the worst Ive ever seen. The neighbourhood was warm and sunny after the storm, filled with the sound of chainsaws as hundreds of volunteers worked to clear fallen trees and sort debris into piles. The Jennings home remained a support centre. A neighbours outbuilding lay on its side in the their driveway, someones cat was holed up in their bathroom, and cases of bottled water and snacks for neighbours and volunteers kept filling their porch. The Jennings children, two high school seniors and an eighth grader, sprang into action, Amy Jennings said: Theyre learning that they have the power to do good and help others, even in the midst of our crisis. Several neighbours said they arent going to rebuild because the memories are too terrible. Amy Jennings said shes been helping people recover what they can, meanwhile. The personal items shes found include stuffed animals that remained miraculously dry under a mattress and a statue of a husband and wife that looked totally unscathed. The little things I salvage from their past can help them build their future, she said. Japan's government is ramping up its battle against the coronavirus. The prime minister wants opposition leaders to back plans allowing him to declare a state of emergency should that become necessary. This comes as the number of infections reported in the nation climbs above 1,000... including over 700 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Shinzo Abe has met with leaders from five opposition parties. He wants their support to pass legislation giving him the option of declaring a state of emergency if the outbreak worsens. Should it be called, a state of emergency would give more power to Abe and governors in affected areas. They would be able to take steps such as curbing opening hours at department stores and movie theaters. Authorities would also be able to use buildings and land without the consent of owners for medical purposes. Abe said, " The coming one or two weeks are crucial time. We're doing all we can so that I don't have to declare an emergency." Meanwhile, schools across the country have been closed for lessons since Monday... but some are opening classrooms for students to use. At an elementary school in the central city of Nagoya, children have been doing homework and reading books. They've been told not to sit too close to each other and to wash their hands every hour. With school out, some teenagers are gathering at game centers, karaoke parlors and fast food outlets. A teenage girl in Tokyo said, " I am walking around doing some window-shopping, and I also did some karaoke." A teenage boy said, " I was told not to go outside, but it's boring to stay at home." Some amusement centers are turning teenagers away. Young people are being criticized on social media for ignoring advice to stay home. Other posts question whether school closures are necessary. Face masks have been in short supply across the country, despite round-the-clock production. More than 6,000 have been stolen from a warehouse near Tokyo. People in this welfare center, east of the capital, started making their own masks after the facility ran out of stock. Their handiwork has sparked orders from outside... and now they're making hundreds of sets to sell. A Florida woman who has since tested positive for coronavirus after a trip to Italy claims she told the CDC about her symptoms a week ago but they still allowed her to fly back anyway. The 29-year-old woman, who has not been identified, has been confirmed as one of Florida's three coronavirus cases. The woman tested positive after returning from a trip to Italy, which now has a CDC travel warning in place following the coronavirus outbreak there. She told Fox13 that she had started to feel sick on the last few days of her trip before boarding a flight back to Tampa, Florida with a layover in New York. The woman said her health gradually worsened and that she had a fever by the time she landed in New York. She said she called the CDC to inform them of her symptoms given she had just been in Italy. But the woman claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa. A Florida woman who has since tested positive for coronavirus after a trip to Italy claims she told the CDC about her symptoms a week ago but they still allowed her to fly back anyway. Pictured is a file photo from New York's LaGuardia Airport on Monday She was tested for coronavirus after arriving back in Tampa last week and has since remained in her home in self-quarantine. Her roommate, who is believed to have also traveled to Italy, is in isolation with her. It was revealed on Sunday that her results had come back positive for coronavirus. Health officials said on Tuesday that the woman's sister, who also traveled to Italy, has also since tested positive for the disease. 'I 1000 percent had symptoms when I landed in the states. I don't blame Tampa. We were coming in from another domestic flight,' she said. 'No one at the CDC sounded prepared or educated on what was going on. When talking about an outbreak in Milan, Italy, I think they should know what part of the country that's in.' The woman refused to say what flight she was on coming into New York or Tampa but said she had given those details to the CDC. A spokesperson for the Tampa International Airport confirmed that a woman in her 20s who has since tested positive for the disease flew through the airport. The woman claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa International Airport (above) despite her symptoms. She tested positive for coronavirus after arriving back in Florida WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS? The virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Advertisement The airport has since stepped up their cleaning and sanitation efforts. The number of infections in the US climbed past 100 on Tuesday with cases confirmed across 15 states. In total, there have been nine coronavirus deaths on US soil with all of them occurring in Washington state. At least six of them are linked to the Life Care Center of Kirkland - a long-term care facility near Seattle that has experienced an outbreak. It was revealed on Tuesday that the nursing home outbreak was also the source of the first case in North Carolina. A man in Wake County tested positive for the virus after visiting the care facility in Washington and then flying the 2,300 miles back home. The jump in the death toll and confirmed cases came as health officials promised to ramp up coronavirus testing across the US and vowed to test a million people by the end of the week. Officials have also revealed that at least a quarter of the cases across the country have been transferred through communities rather than travel. Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he expects community-related cases to grow in the coming weeks. 'My concern is as the next week or two or three go by, we're going to see a lot more community-related cases,' he said. 'That's of great concern.' The total number of cases in the US includes people who tested positive after returning from travel to outbreak areas in other parts of the world, their close contacts and infections that appear to be from community spread - people who did not travel or have known contact with other infected people. Dr Fauci, who is the top coronavirus expert in the country, said community spread made it almost impossible to predict how many cases there will be. 'The very fact that you have community spread the source of these infections are not entirely known. People are cropping up with infections and you can't trace where they got it,' Dr Fauci said. Chen Wei, academician at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Medical Sciences File Photo: Xinhua App A research team led by a Chinese military major general who is a veteran in fighting SARS and Ebola has achieved a major breakthrough in developing a vaccine to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Chinese military media reported on Tuesday. The military medical expert team has worked in Wuhan, the coronavirus epicenter, for more than a month, and the team led by Chen Wei, academician at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Medical Sciences, is seizing every minute and second and focusing all efforts on this emergency scientific research, js7tv.cn, a news website affiliated with the PLA, reported on Tuesday. Chen's team has achieved a key progress in developing a vaccine to the novel coronavirus, the report said. Chen, 53 who is also a PLA major general, used to develop the world's first gene-based vaccine on the Ebola in 2014. Chen was well-known for her efforts in combatting the SARS outbreak from 2002 to 2003, and her research on broad-spectrum antiviral drug had played a key role in fighting the disease, according to domestic industry news site sciencenet.cn. She also worked as the head of epidemic prevention and control work during the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and led the team in working on Ebola vaccine in 2014. The news soon made headlines on Tuesday night on Chinese social media, cheering Chinese netizens up amid the epidemic with many praising the effectiveness and sense of responsibility of the PLA researchers. Since January 24, the Chinese military sent out more than 4,000 medical workers to support Wuhan amid the outbreak and recorded zero infection and played active role in working on scientific research, according to a press conference on Monday. The work included joint research on nucleic acid testing kits for fast testing, medicine research, antibodies and vaccines research. In a CCTV news footage aired on Tuesday night, Chen said they have been encourage by the Chinese top leader's comments on accelerating scientific research and development (R&D) in combatting the deadly virus by coming up with more self-developed core technology products with the aim of safeguarding public health and security, especially making major breakthroughs in vaccine development. Chen was quoted as saying in the media report that vaccines are special products, which is highly critical for epidemic prevention and control work. "We must strive to bring the vaccine we are working on to clinical trial and application, providing strong technological support for winning this battle," she said. In an interview with the China Science Daily on January 30, Chen said that although scientists around the world are working painstakingly on developing vaccine against the COVID-19, it is unrealistic to create vaccines within one month as some media reported. "But some excellent teams may do better and faster. US President Donald Trump said in late January a vaccine could be developed within the next few months. I believe Chinese research fellow would not lag behind the US counterparts," Chen said. Even the virus mutates as time goes by, researchers can quickly improve vaccines by identifying unchanged target antigen and receptor via big data, according to Chen. Clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine could be just six weeks away, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox New Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures." However, Anthony Fauci, a top official at the National Institute of Health said last week that it would take between 12 and 18 months to create a vaccine that successfully treats COVID-19. Police in Indonesia have seized 600,000 face masks from a warehouse after the country's first coronavirus case sparked panic buying across the region. Prices of virus prevention products have soared after the country confirmed its first case on Monday. Authorities in the Jakarta area were questioning two people after the Tuesday evening raid at a warehouse in the satellite city of Tangerang, where nearly half a million surgical masks were found. Police said the owners did not have permission to distribute the masks. 600,000 masks were seized at a warehouse in the satellite city of Tangerang, prices of the protective products have soared. People are seen above arriving at the Mass Rapid Transit station in Jakarta yesterday 'Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public's expense,' Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP today. Those convicted of hoarding masks could face up to five years in jail and hefty fines, police said. The warehouse raid came after hundreds of boxes of surgical masks were also seized Tuesday at a Jakarta apartment. Police said they also busted a factory at the weekend allegedly making and distributing counterfeit masks that did not meet health standards, with Mr Yunus claiming the masks were 'useless' and 'won't protect people who use them'. Jakarta and its surrounding residents have been scooping up protective equipment such as masks and hand wash The crackdown was ordered by Indonesian president Joko Widodo who has called on citizens to avoid panic buying - even as store shelves are cleared and prices soar for masks and hand sanitisers. Major cities including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney have also seen panic buying sparked by the virus. Indonesians, meanwhile, are scooping up a traditional herbal tonic known as jamu and in one city sellers dressed as Batman and local superhero Gundala were handing out the drink to motorists. 'My sales have more than doubled since Monday,' said Nur Hidayati, 29, a jamu seller in Bogor near Jakarta. Street sellers are pictured above selling Jamu to motorists. People use the drink to stay healthy 'People tell me they want jamu to stay healthy and immune from the virus.' On Monday, Indonesia confirmed its first coronavirus cases, saying a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, 31, tested positive. A Japanese woman visited family friends in the nation's capital without realising she was infected. The 41-year-old woman was living in Malaysia but visited Jakarta in February, where she went out dancing with a 31-year-old local woman on Valentines Day, February 14. She began coughing the next day, and caught a flight home soon after. The woman took herself to hospital 11 days later because the cough had not eased, and was subsequently diagnosed with coronavirus. She phoned her family friend in Indonesia on February 28, who in turn was also tested for the deadly disease, Indonesian Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said on Tuesday. So far there have been over 90,000 coronavirus cases worldwide and over 3,000 deaths. But Indonesia - a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 260 million - had yet to report a confirmed case until this week. At a press conference on Monday President Joko Widodo announced the cases and has subsequently closed its doors to China. by Peter Machado Bangalore (AsiaNews) - A statue depicting Jesus was removed from the Mahima Betta cemetery in the village of Doddasagarahalli (Karnataka) yesterday. The archbishop of Bangalore, Peter Machado criticizes the local authorities for bowing to the claims of groups outside the village, who accuse the faithful of having made forced conversions. In reality, the people of the village confirmed that there is peace and friendship between Christians and other religious communities. We publish below the statement issued by the archbishop. In Karnataka there are more and more episodes of intolerance by Hindu fundamentalist groups. In recent months, radical groups demonstrated against another statue of Christ in Kanakapura. Mahima Betta in Doddasagarahalli Village, Devanahalli Taluka, is the burial place of Christians of the area, situated on 4.5 acres of land, allotted by the Government of Karnataka for burial. This place was graced with 12 feet Statue of Lord Jesus Christ and other smaller statues. During the weeks before Good Friday and Easter, the Christians have prayers and devotions called the Way of the Cross to meditate on the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and also conduct reconciliation prayers etc. These practices have been going on for the last 30 to 40 years without any difficulty. There is absolutely no problem from local people to our burials, nor our prayers and devotions on the hill. While the Christians attend these prayers and devotions, the others are not forbidden to visit this place. Since about a week, some people from outside have been creating tensions by spreading wrong rumors that the place is used for conversion, which is completely far from the truth. At the public meeting that was held in the presence of the Tahashildar and Police Officials, the local villagers have publicly said that the presence of Christians and their prayers are absolutely no problem for them and, this being the case, why should some outsiders come and disturb the harmony of the village. It is very sad, unfortunate and regrettable that the police, bowing to the pressure of a few outsiders, have forcefully removed the statue of Lord Jesus. It is a blow to the communal harmony of the people in our villages and also violation of the religious freedom guaranteed to us by the Indian Constitution. If there is an instance of forceful conversion, let the Government investigate and take action. But it will not bring credit to the Government and to the local authorities to unnecessarily interfere in the religious tenets and practices of Christians by yielding to the pressure of some groups. As everyone is quite aware that Christians are peace loving people, who obey the rules of the country. And they render their selfless service to the nation in the best possible ways, irrespective of caste, color or religion. The Christians of Bangalore consider the forceful removal of the statue of Lord Jesus at our legally allotted burial ground at Doddasagarahalli as unacceptable and are greatly shocked and we condemn this high handed action of the local authorities. The Christians want the Existing Statue of Jesus Christ that was unceremoniously removed to be reinstalled immediately. We firmly believe that the state government will instruct the local authorities to do this redressal act immediately. We request the authorities to take action against the perpetrators of such acts that have pained the community. As we are in the Holy Season of Lent, we pray for those who have done this discretion deed at Mahima Betta in Doddasagarahalli with the same word of Jesus Christ, who prayed from the Cross: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Machado Archbishop of Bangalore Texas offered a different test. The states Democratic electorate is a mix of African-Americans and more conservative and affluent white voters who tend to back Mr. Biden, and younger, urban and Latino voters who tend to back Mr. Sanders. According to the exit polls, Mr. Sanders won Latinos by a margin of 50 percent to 24 percent across the Super Tuesday states, with a margin of 41 percent to 24 percent in Texas. In an election night count that reflected the shift in the national political environment over the last week, Mr. Biden eventually overtook Mr. Sanders in the Texas returns, with a wide advantage among late-deciding voters who cast their ballots on Election Day. In a telling indication of how quickly moderate voters had coalesced behind Mr. Biden, the exit polls across the Super Tuesday states found that among voters who decided in just the last few days, Mr. Biden won by a margin of 48 percent to 21 percent. In North Carolina, which separates out early and Election Day results, Mr. Biden won just 28 percent among early voters but 41 percent of the vote statewide after winning 52 percent among Election Day voters. Mr. Bloomberg saw his support collapse in the Election Day vote. Mr. Sanders denied Mr. Biden a more sweeping victory with decisive wins of his own in the West, where Mr. Sanders can count on his strengths among Latinos, liberals and younger, urban voters without fully facing his weakness among African-American voters and conservative rural whites. The West also has the highest rate of early voting in the country, which helped blunt Mr. Bidens surge. Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar combined for 22 percent support in the exit poll in Colorado, where advance voters represented well over half of all voters the largest share of the vote of any state on Tuesday. Their support was not recorded in the election night tabulation because they withdrew from the race, but they routinely breached 10 percent in early voting elsewhere in the country, including California. The large early and absentee vote in some of the states most favorable to Mr. Sanders was enough to keep him close and competitive in the overall delegate count, despite 10 losses in 14 states. Over all, Mr. Biden holds only 45 percent of pledged delegates after Super Tuesday, according to preliminary Upshot estimates, while Mr. Sanders is expected to finish with around 39 percent. These tallies could change depending on the eventual result in California (which might not become official for weeks), but if they hold, Mr. Bidens delegate lead would be far from irreversible. In fact, Mr. Sanders would need to defeat Mr. Biden by only three points in the remaining two-thirds of the country to overtake him. A three-point deficit is not a daunting handicap, certainly not when Mr. Biden was polling 20 points lower just a few days ago. But the Super Tuesday results do not augur well for Mr. Sanderss odds of pulling it off. He remained so competitive on Super Tuesday in part because of the large number of early and absentee voters who cast ballots before it became apparent that Mr. Biden was the viable moderate candidate. US bans former Mexican governor from entering country Washington The United States government has banned the former governor of the state of Nayarit from entering the US due to his involvement in significant corruption cases. Former Nayarit governor Roberto Sandoval, along with his wife and children, are prohibited from entering the United States. The announcement came from the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who, on social media, wrote He improperly seized state assets and accepted bribes from drug traffickers, in reference to Sandoval. Sigal Mandelker, undersecretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, had already warned that the ex-president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and other corrupt officials would face serious consequences including isolation of the US financial system. Roberto Sandoval has not been arrested and his whereabouts are unknown despite being investigated for his links to organized crime by authorities in both Mexico and the United States. The Department of the Treasury, through the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets, froze Sandovals bank accounts after links were found between him and criminal organizations, mainly the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The US government investigation also includes a network of nine people and 10 companies used to launder illegal resources of the CJNG. Suspicions about Sandovals criminal conduct are not new with the Mexican justice system tracking his footsteps since 2017, when the wealth of the governor did not correspond to that of a public official of a state that does not have 2 million people. Officials like Roberto Sandoval are cruelly enriched at the expense of their fellow citizens, whether they are receiving bribes from drug trafficking organizations or participating in a variety of other illegal activities, said Mandelker. The United States has already crushed one of the most powerful criminal arms that the Mexican mafia had in the Nayarit government. In September, Edgar Veytia, the local prosecutor during Sandovals term, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a New York court room for drug trafficking. Sandoval goverened the state of Nayarit from 2011 to 2017. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Cruise Lines announces the grand opening of La Barca Cantina, New York's first and only floating Mexican restaurant, located on a three-story boat on New York's West Side on the Hudson River on Cinco de Mayo, May 5. La Barca Cantina will sail short cruises multiple times per day, five days a week, offering guests extraordinary views of the New York skyline, making it an ideal summer experience for cocktails at sunset, casual get-togethers with friends and group gatherings. La Barca Cantina offers a fun and festive experience inspired by the street food, cantinas and mezcalerias of Mexico. This further positions Pier 81 as the city's ultimate summertime destination for fun Hudson River dining, also home to the popular sister-restaurant North River Lobster Company, New York City's only floating lobster shack. "Mexico is one of the most exciting culinary destinations in the world with a rich and complex food culture and history," explains Craig Kanarick, Chief Executive Officer of New York Cruise Lines, whose travels to Mexico inform the restaurant from the menus to the decor. "Having spent the last three years learning everything I possibly can about agave-based spirits, including mezcal and tequila, it's a thrill to cast a spotlight on a beverage category that is just as diverse and terroir-driven, yet not as well-known, as wine. We are so excited to bring this culture to life this summer on the Hudson River." A Spirited Journey, From Mezcal to Michelada The focus of La Barca Cantina's beverage menu is agave-based spirits, such as mezcal, tequila, sotol and racilla, with a diverse bottle list and flights for sampling. The vibrant beverage line-up represents a thoughtful collaboration between Kanarick and Roman Tartakovsky, Beverage Director for New York Cruise Lines. The house cocktail, Drunken Rabbit Punch, highlights Oaxacan rum in a secret recipe containing passion fruit and other exotic ingredients. A traditional, but lesser known, distinctive tequila drink a Bandera offers a counterpoint to the classic shot experience. Meaning "flag" in Spanish, the drink is comprised of three parts, each served in its own shot glass, one with tequila, one with lime juice, and another with a spicy tomato juice called sangrita. Additional cocktail highlights include a classic margarita, served on the rocks or frozen, a paloma and a mezcal mule. Most are available in both individual and large format servings, making them perfect for dates or sharing among groups. Fun Tastes for Groups of All Sizes The heart of the food menu comprises a selection of tacos including classics such as chicken, shrimp and al pastor, as well as Tony's Campechano, a treasure discovered during Kanarick's explorations in Mexico City. Combining beef, pork and roasted scallions, Tony's Campechano pays homage to Tacos Tony, one of the best-known destinations for tacos in Mexico City. The Fiesta Platter is the must-order menu item for groups or a really hungry couple a giant boat filled with crispy, craveable finger-food dishes, including a whole Mexican fried chicken, onion rings, jalapeno poppers and corn chips, accompanied by a wide range of salsas. The menu is designed for snacking and sharing while sipping cocktails, mezcal or tequila. Guests can enjoy classics such as guacamole with fresh corn chips, a chicken quesadilla and queso fundido alongside new inspirations like the vegetarian nachos -- a mountain of tortilla chips, melted cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole -- made with a plant-based meat alternative. Mexican Art Framed with Skyline Views The three-level boat includes an expansive outdoor top deck with a bar and table seating; it also includes a bi-level interior space with two bars, table seating and booth-like tables, perfect for large groups. Renowned artist, Tlisza Jaurique, has been commissioned to create custom pieces for the floating restaurant. Working with a mixture of mediums, Jaurique was the first woman of Mexican-American descent to exhibit at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and has had multiple exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. La Barca Cantina, located at Pier 81, 41st Street and 12th Avenue, will be open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, with multiple sailings each day on the Hudson River (Wednesday and Thursday from 5:00pm-10:00pm; Friday from 3:00pm-10pm; Saturday and Sunday from 1:00pm-10:00pm). Patrons can purchase a Boarding Pass ($10), which is valid for sailings throughout the day, online or in-person at the box office at Pier 81. Reservations are accepted for groups of 15 or more. For more information on La Barca Cantina or to make a group reservation visit labarcacantina.com. Individual Boarding passes will be available for sale online starting mid-April. ABOUT NEW YORK CRUISE LINES New York Cruise Lines (NYCL) is the parent company of industry-leading travel, tourism, entertainment, and restaurant businesses that emphasize the ultimate in hospitality set to the beauty of the NYC skyline. NYCL owns and operates 24 ships, including the most extensive and modern fleet in the sightseeing industry. NYCL's most iconic brand, Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, is a fixture in global tourism, hosting more than 80 million passengers since 1945. Recognized as "America's Favorite Boat Ride," Circle Line is world-famous for sightseeing and special events including concerts and entertainment. Operating from Pier 83 in Hudson River Park at 42nd Street and 12th Avenue, (convenient to Times Square, The High Line and Hudson Yards) and Pier 16 near the South Street Seaport and the World Trade Center, Circle Line is the oldest and largest provider of sightseeing cruises using the most modern vessels. NYCL also operates the iconic New York Water Taxi transportation fleet, New York's only maritime thrill-ride, The Beast, New York's premier luxury-charter fleet, World Yacht, and innovative maritime restaurants, North River Lobster Company and La Barca Cantina. SOURCE La Barca Cantina Related Links http://labarcacantina.com (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak. 'Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community,' the company said (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak. "Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community," the company said. The company had said on Monday would move its annual cloud conference online. Google becomes the second FAANG member after Facebook Inc to cancel its conference as the virus, that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spreads globally. More new cases of the virus are now appearing outside China. There are almost 91,000 cases globally of which more than 80,000 are in the country. The event was to take place between May 12 and May 14 and is Google's most important event of the year, where it highlights new services and products. (Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shounak Dasgupta) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, has re-arraigned Ismaila Mustapha (aka Mompha), before Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria over alleged N32.9 billion fraud. The socialite was first arraigned alongside his company, Ismalob Ventures on November 25, 2019 on a 14-count charge bordering on fraud, money laundering and running a foreign exchange business without the authorisation of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail in the sum of N100 million with one surety in like sum. The prosecution subsequently opened its case and presented witnesses from the CBN and the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML. At the resumption of proceedings on Wednesday, EFCCs counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo obtained the courts approval to re-arraign the defendants on an amended 22-count charge. Mompha and his firm pleaded not guilty. His counsel, Gboyega Oyewole (SAN) informed the court that the amended charge was served on him and the defendants a few minutes before the court began sitting, praying for a short date to enable the defence teams to study the additional counts of the charge. Oyedepo did not oppose him. Justice Liman adjourned till March 18 and 20, for continuation of trial. In the amended charge, the EFCC alleged that Mompha procured Ismalob Global Investiment Ltd to retain N33.006, 026,806 billion between 2015 and 2018. He was also alleged to have failed to inform the anti-graft agency in writing within seven days before making various huge amounts of money to several people, including Ikechukwu Kingsley; Ojei Osemeke; one Onuskain; Okafor Ikenna; Ik Tony Global Communication; Ogbu C &C Ventures. NEW YORK Its been nearly 20 years since Mick Jagger last acted, but as the new film The Burnt Orange Heresy shows, his chops have gathered no moss. In the film, which Sony Pictures Classics will release Friday, Jagger co-stars alongside Claes Bang and Elizabeth Debicki as a devilish art collector who cunningly convinces an art journalist (Bang) to use a rare interview with a reclusive artist (Donald Sutherland) as an opportunity to steal one of his paintings. Its Jaggers first film since 2001s The Man From Elysian Fields. And, he says, it might be his last. I wish I had done a lot more acting. Ive just done bits and pieces here and there whenever Ive been able to, Jagger said in an interview by phone. Then he chuckles. You know, I have another job. I have several other jobs, really. When the 76-year-old hasnt been performing with the Rolling Stones, Jagger has carved out a peripatetic but adventurous career in movies. Hes favored more experimental filmmakers, working with Jean-Luc Godard, Nicolas Roeg and Werner Herzog. Acting a little less than David Bowie but more than Bob Dylan, Jaggers film career has been consistently intrepid. Hes a very good actor, even if his big-screen performances will always be dwarfed by the gyrating spectacle of his kinetic stage persona. I always liked the idea of it, Jagger, speaking by phone from France, says of acting. I enjoy the change of pace and the change of focus of your performance. When Im performing these days, its mostly in very large places in front of lots of people, whereas when youre on a small set, youre performing much more subtly and not such elaborate gestures. You have to really tone it down. Sometimes, fate (and tour scheduling) has intervened. Jaggers performance in Herzogs famously delirious Fitzcarraldo (1982) was cut because the original lead, Jason Robards, got sick. When shooting restarted in the Peruvian jungle, Jagger had a conflicting Stones tour. His part was cut and Klaus Kinski took over for Robards. Herzog has called Jaggers departure one of the biggest losses Ive ever experienced as a director. (Bits of Jaggers performance be seen in documentaries like Burden of Dreams and My Best Friend.) It was a pity about that. That was a shame, says Jagger. So Klaus Kinski did the job on that and did it better than I. Nevertheless, it was an experience. But the timing and the script lined up for The Burnt Orange Heresy. Its directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Capotondi, whose twisty 2009 debut film The Double Hour proved his talent for conjuring a noirish atmosphere of intrigue and mystery. The Burnt Orange Heresy, based on Charles B. Willefords 1971 novel, is an elegant, stylish kind of film seldom made anymore, with glamorous actors in a glamorous setting (Italys Lake Como). When Capotondi first met Jagger in London to discuss the part, he was struck by the rock stars humility. He said, Look, I havent done this in 20 years. I might be rusty,' recalled Capotondi. Jagger found ways to shape the character, giving him slicked-backed hair and a slightly menacing Chelsea accent from the 1960s. In the film, Jaggers art dealer presents Bangs writer with a kind of Faustian bargain, and things get darker from there. Capotondi considers the character a version of the devil an apropos role for the writer of Sympathy for the Devil. To play the devil is something that can appeal to most actors. Its such a serpentine character, says Capotondi. Given the Rolling Stones discovery, I think its quite fitting. Jagger is less sure about the connections between The Burnt Orange Heresy and the bands classic 1968 single, which was partially inspired by Mikhail Bulgakovs beloved Russian novel about Beelzebub in 1930s Moscow, The Master and Margarita, and a Baudelaire poem. But Jaggers art dealer is, for sure, a man of wealth of taste, and one that playfully trades on Jaggers demonic charisma. It was in my grasp to do this character. I thought it would be fun to do, says Jagger. He basically charms and threatens him to do what he wants. Its not a lot of screen time but hes the one who sets off the action. One of Jaggers first films remains one of his most celebrated: Roegs hallucinatory 1970 film Performance, in which he played a drug-addled, gender-bending rock star. Critically slammed upon release, its steadily grown a cult following with Jaggers performance often ranking among the best by a musician in a film. He played the title character in Tony Richardsons Ned Kelly, the bonejacker in Victor Vacendaks cyberpunk Freejack (1992) and a drag queen in Bent. He was an executive producer on the short-lived HBO series Vinyl, and produced the James Brown biopic Get on Up. And then there are the many documentaries that have indelibly captured the Stones, including Gimme Shelter, about the tragic 1969 Altamont concert; Martin Scorseses Shine a Light, Brett Morgans Crossfire Hurricane and Godards intimate but chaotic doc, Sympathy for the Devil. I used to say to Jean-Luc, Whats the rest of the movie like? Can you explain to me what the rest of the movie is like? And he really couldnt. I dont think he really knew. It was like: What a genius, says Jagger. When I was really young, I used to watch a lot of foreign cinema, he adds. I watched early Roman Polanski movies when I was a student and we used to think ourselves great intellectuals and just watch foreign films and New Wave. We were very into that. Jagger, who last year had heart surgery, is currently prepping the North American leg of the Rolling Stones No Filter tour this summer. His day job, again, calls. Jagger, of course, is certain to remain a regular soundtrack to cinema. The Stones remain an irresistible needle drop to countless filmmakers. (Most recently, Sweet Virginia lent a luminous lilt to the finale of Knives Out.) But Jagger acknowledges The Burnt Orange Heresy could be his big-screen swan song. If I dont get offered another decent role, it might be, Jagger says. Then he laughs. Its not planned. If someone offered me something to do in the autumn, Im sure Id do it if it was a good part. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP JERUSALEM After three brutal campaigns, three elections and three failed attempts at forming a government, Israel now finds itself right back where it was over a year ago: deadlocked over the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His devotees in Parliament still insist he should stay. They remain outnumbered by lawmakers who want him gone. But the outcome this time, after Mondays election, may be different. Mr. Netanyahus trial on bribery and other serious corruption charges starts in less than two weeks. His opponents appear wounded and exhausted after he outfought them to win a solid plurality for his right wing and religious coalition in this election. And no one in the country appears eager to contemplate a fourth. [Read: Netanyahus bold moves: Fighting a virus or risking democracy?] The prospect of yet another failure to form a government after more than a year of stalemate resurfaced troubling questions about Israeli democracy: Can a system that depends on a fractious jumble of political parties to come together to build a majority function in so polarized a country? March 03, 2020 News By Jim Garamone Defense.gov Africom's Exercise Flintlock 2020 Strengthens Partnerships, Security More than 1,600 service members from 30 African and Western nations celebrated the accomplishments of Exercise Flintlock 2020 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The African-led exercise is designed to strengthen the ability of key partner nations in the region to counter violent extremist organizations, protect their borders and provide security for their people. R. Clarke Cooper, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, called the exercise the sign of healthy partnerships. Cooper spoke in Mauritania at the ceremony concluding the exercise. The annual exercise is the U.S. Africa Command's premier and largest annual special operations forces exercise. Most of the exercise occurred in Mauritania and Senegal. The exercise looks to enhance capabilities in counterterrorism. It also looks to strengthen civil-military relations within the nations of the region and interoperability regionally and with Western allies. "But more than being an opportunity for us each to improve individually, Flintlock is an opportunity for all our nations to grow together, in a healthy partnership," Cooper said. "Not all partnerships are healthy," he continued. "But the one we celebrate here today is. How can I tell? Simple: Because it is a partnership based on mutual respect and shared values, not self-interest and exploitation. Because partnership contributes to self-sufficiency not lasting dependency and to sustainable capability not burdensome debt. Partnership is not just a means to an end, but a path which we value for the friendships it creates, and the lessons we all learn, side-by-side." That West African nations face challenges is nothing new. Boko Haram is a major terrorist group that poses threats across the region. The infrastructure within the region is inadequate to support the growing population. Desertification, drought, illiteracy and other issues make progress slow and complicate the security picture. But that security underpins progress. "Today our forces are engaged in the defeat of violent extremism from the shores of the Red Sea to the coast of the Atlantic," Cooper said. "Together, we are combating piracy and countering illicit trafficking from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Guinea; across the Sahel. We are cementing security, and pursuing peace." Flintlock is an example to the continent, Cooper said. The fact that 30 nations can work in partnership to address problems greater than any one nation can handle gives hope to the region and world for stability, security and lasting peace. "The United States has an unwavering and longstanding commitment to Africa," Cooper said. "We support good governance, security, the rule of law, opportunities for economic growth and anti-corruption efforts." The U.S. works along many paths with African allies opening markets, providing aid money, even helping combat the Ebola outbreak. "Our relationship is one of cooperation, mutual respect and transparency, and today no other nation can match the United States' commitment to the continent," Cooper said. This is because a secure, prosperous and stable African continent is an enduring global interest. Participating African nations include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Western partners include Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Technavio has been monitoring the smart railway systems market and it is poised to grow by USD 15.03 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 14% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005676/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Hitachi Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Nokia Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH and Siemens AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Adoption of advanced technologies has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Smart Railway Systems Market is segmented as below: Product Solutions Components Services Geographic segmentation APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40254 Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our smart railway systems market report covers the following areas: Smart Railway Systems Market Size Smart Railway Systems Market Trends Smart Railway Systems Market Industry Analysis This study identifies growing need for sustainable, clean, and high-speed transport as one of the prime reasons driving the smart railway systems market growth during the next few years. Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the smart railway systems market, including some of the vendors such as Hitachi Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Nokia Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH and Siemens AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the smart railway systems market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist smart railway systems market growth during the next five years Estimation of the smart railway systems market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the smart railway systems market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of smart railway systems market vendors Table of Content PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value Chain Analysis Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market Outlook Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT Market segmentation by product Comparison by product Solutions Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Components Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by product PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS IoT and big data to drive efficiency Need for sustainable, clean, and high-speed transport Growing consolidation in the railway industry PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors ABB Ltd. Alstom Holdings Bombardier Inc. Cisco Systems, Inc. General Electric Co. Hitachi Ltd. International Business Machines Corp. Nokia Corp. Robert Bosch GmbH Siemens AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005676/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ CLEVELAND, Ohio A Cleveland man will spend three years in prison for a high-speed drunken-driving crash in the early-morning hours after St. Patricks Day that left a tow-truck driver with injuries that required the amputation of his leg. Roy Hollingsworth, 36, apologized in court Wednesday during his sentencing for driving drunk and using cocaine on the night he crashed into Ronald Urbansky, the 54-year-old tow truck driver who now has a prosthetic right leg. I wanted to look you in the eye like a man and tell you I never meant to hurt you, Hollingsworth told Urbansky during Wednesdays sentencing hearing in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Deborah Turners court. Urbansky, sitting in the viewing gallery, responded: I believe you. Hollingsworth, who himself requires a wheelchair due to the injuries he suffered in the crash, said living with knowing the damage he caused to Urbansky has been a nightmare. This is not something that sits lightly with me, Hollingsworth said. Its a stain on my soul that will be with me the rest of his life. Urbansky said that he forgave Hollingsworth. This should be a cautionary tale, Urbansky said. Just call an Uber. Hollingsworth pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to aggravated vehicular assault, drug possession and driving under the influence. The crash happened about 3:30 a.m. March 18 on Lorain Road near West 204th Street in Fairview Park. Hollingsworth left the Islander Bar and Grille, where he worked and drank during St. Patricks Day celebrations, according to court records. Urbansky, working for Pattons Five Star Towing Company, was set to tow a car on the side of the road for Fairview Park police. Police dashcam showed the crash. Urbansky was beneath the car as he tried to hook it to his tow truck when Hollingsworth drove down the opposite side of the road. He traveled at over 60 mph as he veered across four lanes of traffic and smashed into Urbanskys truck. He never hit the brakes, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Kevin Bringman said. The impact pinned Urbanskys leg under the car. A video of the crash played in court resulted in an audible gasp from the court stenographer. Hollingsworth was severely intoxicated, Bringman said. A urine analysis after the crash showed Hollingsworth had .238 grams of alcohol in his urine, double the legal amount of .11 grams. Bringman said before the crash Urbansky enjoyed bike riding and fishing, but now finds it difficult to do either of those activities. Urbansky filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas court against Hollingsworth and the bar where he worked. That case is pending. Because of this, his life will never be the same, Bringman said. Read more from cleveland.com: Cleveland Police Chief issues no discipline to officer accused of wrongdoing in detaining Tamir Rices sister after deadly police shooting 87-year-old man carjacked at gunpoint at Cleveland Aldi Cleveland cop accused of stealing money from people during two arrests Abused inmates, convicted jail officers round out potential witnesses in trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director charged during rash of inmate deaths Woman who killed Garfield Heights man during robbery after meeting him on Plenty of Fish dating app sentenced to life in prison Global Homeopathy Product Market: Snapshot The medicinal services space, which incorporates treatments such as allopathy, invasive medications and alternative treatments, for instance, homeopathy is growing with the passage of new market players and the presentation of new treatment systems. The advances in medicinal services offices are likewise bolstered by the growing interest from patients and their capacity to progressively spend on social insurance between different treatment stages. It adds to the development of the social insurance industry and its patient pool. Request a Sample Copy of the Homeopathy Product Market Research Report: https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1679 Homeopathy cures medicinal services issues through different orally expended products and the topical utilization of fluids or balms, however requires delayed treatment and recuperation time. For instance, rheumatoid joint inflammation can be cured utilizing homeopathy meds, for instance, Natrum Muriaticum, Calcaria fluoride, Actea Spicata, and Rhus toxicodendron. Be that as it may, the recuperation time can reach out from a couple of months to even years. As this isnt a dangerous therapeutic condition and does not require a surgical intercession for recuperation, homeopathy can be effectively received as a drawn out treatment choice, and a lasting cure from this medicinal condition can be normal. Be that as it may, a homeopathy treatment isnt fitting for a medicinal condition, which orders a quick surgical intercession to spare a mans life. Homeopathy products are accessible in different plans and are popular because of their cost-adequacy and simple accessibility. Among the different definitions, tinctures and tablets are sought after, trailed by biochemics and treatments, as these are the essential details for almost all homeopathy products. Among the accessible homeopathy products, the corrective utilize products have a bigger market share, attributable to the more extensive applications in different treatment territories. Global Homeopathy Product Market: Overview Homeopathy is a medical practice and philosophy based on the principle that the human body has the innate ability to heal itself. Established in late 1700s in Germany and developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy has been widely practiced in Europe. Homeopathic medicines contain exceptionally dilute amounts of natural substances that aid in treating a wide range of ailments. Homeopathic medicines are manufactured by a process of succession and serial dilution. Check Discount at:https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1679 Global Homeopathy Product Market: Key Trends The global homeopathy product market is driven by factors such as rise in demand for suitable dosages of a variety of medicines, aversion to allopathic medicines, and growth in consumer confidence about alternate treatment methodologies. Plus, cost-effective homeopathy medicines are propelling the market growth. However, the market growth will be negatively impacted by the complete absence of quality control and regulations within the global homeopathy products market. Every manufacturing industry needs to follow certain manufacturing practices, but the global homeopathy products market is not following suit. To a great extent, this is invariably compromising the quality of medicines and creating negative consumer experiences and reducing demand. Global Homeopathy Product Market: Market Potential The benefits of homeopathy medicines are known worldwide and have managed to change the perception about alternative medicines. In a recent development, a research team led by Dr Kushal Banerjee and researchers from the University of Oxford, the Homeopathy Research Institute, London, and the Imperial College, London came together to test the effectiveness of homeopathy for the treatment of a condition called Allergic Rhinitis (AR). Affecting 500 million people globally, AR is being increasingly considered as a predecessor to the development of bronchial asthma. The symptoms of AR include blocked and running nose, sneezing, and watering and burning eyes. This condition is very common to those living in urban areas with high levels of pollution. By collecting the data from trials, the researchers came to a conclusion that homeopathic treatment can be used effectively for treating the symptoms of AR. GalphimiaGlauca a homeopathic medicine from the herb of the same name is effective in treatment of AR symptoms. A homeopathic nasal spray was also found to have some positive outcome. Global Homeopathy Product Market: Regional Outlook On account of escalating population and high demand for alternative low-cost medicines, Asia Pacific is expected to hold a significant share in the market during the forecast period. In addition, increasing sales of homeopathic products and stiff competition among homeopathic product manufacturers across key developing and developed countries in the region will supplement the demand growth. The Middle East and Africa will register a strong CAGR during the forecast period as over the last few years there has been a rise in disposable income and this has consequently led to a surge in the number of consumers able to pay for homeopathy product. Global Homeopathy Product Market: Competitive Analysis Standard Homeopathic Company (Hylands, Inc.), Homeocan inc., Boiron Group, A Nelson & Co Ltd, Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH, GMP Laboratories of America, Inc., Mediral International Inc., Washington Homeopathic Products, Inc., Hahnemann Laboratories, Inc., and Ainsworths Ltd are the leading players operating in the global homeopathy product market. There are other prominent vendors that are struggling to uphold their position in the market due to intense competition. Through strategies such as increased emphasis on strong promotional and marketing activities and optimum usage of highly persuasive e-commerce marketplace, players will gain increased traction in the global market. Request TOC of the Report for more Industry Insights @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1679 About TMR Research: TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Contact: TMR Research, 3739 Balboa St # 1097, San Francisco, CA 94121 United States Tel: +1-415-520-1050 Website : TMR Research Visit Blog : https://tmrresearchblog.com/ Only 30 of Richard Milles RM-030 Argentina watches, with their juice box-sized cases and vibrant blue Laffy Taffy-like bands, exist in the world. On a late November night in 2017, one of them was yanked from the arm of its owner, carried at a sprint down a sidewalk, then swerved through London traffic on the back of a moped. Security footage later showed that two people had allegedly stalked the watch as it traveled, on its owners wrist, through Londons upscale department store Harrods. Eventually one of the men split off, presumably to get the moped stationed. When the watchs owner stepped out onto the street with his wife and young daughter, the man still following him ran up, grabbed his arm, and made off with the $100,000 watch. The victim went through the typical post-robbery rigmarole. He reported the case to the policebut, without much to go on and no obvious suspects, the case was eventually closed. Like many people with very expensive watches, the victim had insurance for the piece, so he reported it stolen and eventually received a payout. He figured that was the end of it. Meanwhile, the Richard Mille began a journey around the world. Where it went immediately after London is hard to say, but the piece eventually ended up with a dealer in Hong Kong, and then a retailer in Dubai. A customer browsing the selection at Authentic Luxury Watches Trading in the United Arab Emirates would have had no idea the watch he was buying was hot. (Authentic Luxury Watches Trading did not respond to a request for comment.) So he bought it. Nearly a year and a half after the theft, he sent it to the local Richard Mille center in Dubai to be serviced. On January 15th, 2020, the watch arrived to be serviced, prompting a match on one of the various databases of missing timepieces maintained by the FBI, Interpol, insurance agencies, and nonprofit organizations like Artive. To handle the knotty recovery process, the insurance handler called in a ringer: Christopher Marinello, the founder and CEO of Art Recovery International. Story continues Marinello set about making the right connections. First, he alerted the London police to ensure they wouldnt have any qualms with him contacting the local force in the United Arab Emirates. Then he set about convincing the possessor that the watch needs to be returned, Marinello says. That person, under the impression they rightfully owned the RM-030 was justifiably incensed. He immediately demanded his purchase price back from the retailer who sold it to him, he says. (The retailer was more than happy to oblige, toobusinesses want to make sure that wasnt the last watch they sell to a customer. But the dominoes kept falling: the folks at that retailer went back to the dealer they bought it from to demand their money back.) After almost a year and a half, the watch is en route to London to be reunited with its rightful owner. Marinello is a one-time art student whose teachers and family members looked at his work and actively encouraged him to try a different career. He saw law as a way to remain involved with the subject he loved. He formed a legal practice to aid people with title disputes, and those hoping to retrieve stolen artworks. In the beginning, Art Recovery International mostly partnered with victims: people or families whose art had allegedly been stolen by Nazis in World War II. Eventually, though, Marinello started working with insurance companies on everything from watches to stolen cars. Large insurance companies like Axa, Chubb, and Travelers are in competition for the pool of one percenters who can afford these watches, and offering Marinellos help recovering stolen property is an irresistible perk. And Marinello has the reputation to match: hes currently tracking down the actual Aston Martin DB5 used in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. The car was taken from a storage facility and somehow made its way to Kuwait, where Marinello found it. But Im having some difficulty getting cooperation from the collectors out there, he says casually, like hes having difficulty ordering pizza delivery and not trying to negotiate James Bonds car out of Kuwait. So while Marinellos bread and butter is art, over the years he expanded his practice to cars and watches. Nobody's going to tell me that a stolen Ferrari isn't a work of art, he says. The same holds true for timepieces. Marinello worked his first watch case in 2007, and theres been a torrent of such thefts since. Cases like the one involving the RM-030 are increasingly common. In October of last year, a man visiting Paris went outside his hotel to smoke a cigarette when someone approached him asking if he could bum one off him. The thief took much more than a cigarette, though, running off with the mans $830,000 Richard Mille RM 51-02 Diamond Twister. (With a name like that, who could resist?) At the time, the report landed on top of a pile of 71 other stolen watch cases in Paris last year, according to CNN. Just a couple months earlier, a tourist in Ibiza was bullied out of his $1.3 million limited-edition Richard Mille RM 50-03. You can see the appeal to a thief: these items are valuable, easy to grab, and even easier to conceal. I mean, just look at these watches, Marinello says. They're big and they're bright. They stand out. Its not a coincidence that the number of thefts runs parallel with the popularity of watches in general, he says: Thieves know that these watches are hitting six figures and they steal them. When a watch goes missing, it often falls to Marinello to help get it back. His strategy is less globe-trotting hunter than it is cat-and-mouse plotter. He works with insurers and major watch brand service centers, notifying them when a watch has been stolen. Most customers who end up buying these watches arent aware theyre stolen, so they unwittingly send them in to receive routine service, setting off a match with a serial number corresponding to a stolen watch. On average, Marinello says, most cases take two years to resolvetwo years of quietly waiting after setting a trap. For cars or artworks, the process can differ slightly, depending on how motivated a person is to find their property. Marinello works with a host of private detectives who are capable of doing what he calls dirty work. One of those people is San Diego-based private investigator Mark Kochanski. Kochanski is absolutely sure about three things when it comes to his particular line of work. The first: This is not TV. It's not, you know, James Bond or Magnum PI, he repeatedly assures me. Kochanski has partnered with Art Recovery International on missing artworks, and while hes investigated stolen watches independently, he hasnt for Marinello. That work he does on his own. The process of finding a watch, an item so easily concealed, involves a lot of unglamorous workthe sort they montage over on TV. He calls, texts, and emails hundreds of dealers, auctions, and boutiques to ask about, and alert people to, certain pieces. Hell sometimes let things cool down for a couple months before restarting again. Covering that amount of ground requires a great amount of dedication. Thats the second thing Kochanski knows about the job: youve gotta have the stuffthe undefinable material buried deep down in someones gutrequired to be a private investigator. Kochanski started as a Homeland Security officer in San Diego but found he had the right stuff to make it as a private investigator. I have patience, I have diligence, tenacity, he says. Im not trying to pat myself on the back, but thats what it takes. The third thing Kochanski understands about this job is that all that calling and texting and emailing and tenacity can easily rile some people up. He gets plenty of doors slammed in his face. On a recent phone call, after he identified himself, the person on the other line responded, Oh, you're the pain in the ass, says Kochanski. But eventually, he says, someone will want to talk about an item thats missing. Who out there has a conscience? Who has some integrity? Whos got some morals? I mean, crooks, sociopathsthey dont have it, he says, sounding like the made-for-TV P.I. he insists hes not. The case teeters on the good nature of those peoplethey are the only thing separating cracked cases from uncracked ones. Hardboiled lines, cracked cases, aggrieved cursing suspects, and slammed doors: on second thought, maybe Kochanski isnt so sure about one thing. A lot of it is kinda like TV, he says. Marinello says that many of his watch clients are happy to wait for the process to play out without involving a private investigator like Kochanski, though. As victims are by definition people who can afford extremely expensive timepieces, more often than not they have more than one to wear. But when stolen watches do reappear, their owners, like the man who lost his outside Harrods, are steadfast in getting them back. Pleasing well-heeled customers is why Marinello is able to keep this watch arm of his business running in the first place. Often, prying very expensive watches from the people who end up with them isnt as difficult as one would imagine. Marinello says even when watches are recovered, tracking down the actual culprit never happens. Eventually because someone doesnt want to admit where they got a great deal on such-and-such Richard Mille or Patek Philippe. So they give the watch back because admitting who they bought it from would result in worse consequences. Its a Hollywood cliche that anyone who deals with crime, thieves, and Bad Guys has the one who got away, but its far from reality for Marinello. Instead, the strangest case Marinellos ever worked on came to him shortly before Christmas 2019, and involved a RM 011 stolen the previous summer. A man in the U.K. was clearing out his basement after it flooded. He kept the watch in a safe but, because the flood, fished it out of its typical resting place and placed it on a table in his back patio to dry. When he went to check on it later, the watch was missing. When the piece finally popped back up in Switzerland, where it was submitted for servicing, Marinello attempted to retrace its steps. It got to Switzerland via Hong Kong, where a retailer had purchased the watch from Dubai, which is where it went after the U.K. We often try to trace back from dealer to dealer: Where did you buy it from? And where did that person buy it from? And where did that person buy it from? Marinello says. In the case of this particular Richard Mille, Marinello was hoping the trail would lead him back to an unusual suspect. The man originally told the police that, because the fence in the backyard was impossible to climb and the house impenetrable, it left only one viable trespasser: a reindeer. The victim of the theft believed reindeers to be attracted to shiny objects, so that must have been itcase closed. Eventually, if everybody was honest with us, Marinello says, we would locate the piece or at least some guy who said, I was driving my car and I saw a reindeer and they had a watch in its mouth, so I went up to him and he dropped the watch and ran away. I never get to meet those people. Obviously, a reindeer didnt run off with the Richard Mille, but the victim may not have been far off in assessing the motives of whoever did steal from him. These high-end Richard Mille watches are very distinctive, they're very bright, they are large, Marinello says. Well-trained people can spot them quite a ways away. The thief, like the reindeer, is attracted to shiny objects. Its easy enough to find a rogue reindeer. Marinello, though, is after tougher game, and has accordingly become a more skilled hunter: patient, quiet, and able to track the glint of a watch as it roams to Hong Kong, Dubai, or Switzerland. He and the people he works with will say its not like the movies. But wouldnt you see the one about the guy with the stolen watch who cried reindeer? Originally Appeared on GQ Kim Fields has been cast in Wanda Sykes and Mike Epps The Upshaws Netflix series. Fields will play Regina Upshaw opposite Sykes and Epps, who also executive produce the multi-camera comedy, which centers on a working-class African American family in Indiana struggling to make it work and make it right without the blueprints to do it, according to Netflix. Fields Regina is the wife of Epps character, Bennie Upshaw and sister of Sykes character, Lucretia. Regina is described as Bennies high school sweetheart, now wife, and the mother of his three children. Regina works in medical billing at a local hospital and struggles to stay upbeat and keep her family happy and her husband in check while pursuing goals of her own. Also Read: Wanda Sykes, Mike Epps to Star in Netflix Comedy Series 'The Upshaws' Epps Bennie is described as the lovable, charming, thug-adjacent head of the Upshaw family. He runs a garage in Indianapolis and is constantly butting heads with his sister-in-law, Lucretia, who believes her sister could have and do better. As a husband and father of four children, he tries his best (not always successfully) to figure things out without a blueprint. Sykes, who also serves as co-showrunner in addition to starring and executive producing, stars as Lucretia, who collects disability after falling from a jetway at the airport. She is a real estate owner and silent partner in Bennies garage, only stomaching his antics for her sister. She will always believe its not too late for her sister to get out of her marriage, according to Netflix. Fields is known for starring in the long-running series Facts of Life on NBC and Living Single on Fox. She joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta for one season in 2015 and competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2016, finishing in eighth place. Regina Hicks (The LWord, Insecure) serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Sykes and Epps. Page Hurwitz (Wanda Sykes: Not Normal, Tiffany Haddish Presents They Ready) and Niles Kirchner (Only One Mike) also executive produce. The Upshaws is set to premiere later this year on Netflix. Read original story Kim Fields Joins Cast of Netflix Comedy Series The Upshaws At TheWrap 1:04 a.m. Now that Super Tuesday is What Just Happened Wednesday in Texas, heres what we know: Joe Biden had a good night, capped by a Texas victory. MJ Hegar will face someone in a runoff to challenge Sen. John Cornyn. Wesley Hunt lands a convincing win in the 7th Congressional District and heads to a November campaign against Rep. Lizzie Fletcher that looks to be one of the most hard-fought seats in Washington. Fort Bend County Sheriff Tory Nehls looks like hell face GOP mainstay Kathleen Wall for the chance to take on Sri Preston Kulkarni for the other closely-watched Congressional seat in the Houston area. Kulkarni was on track to avoid a runoff. Harris County incumbents will roll into November. Except County Attorney Vince Ryan. Harris County Republicans look likely to have a new leader, as party chairman Paul Simpson trails Keith Nielsen by 1 percent. Nielsen is holding onto 50.5 percent of the vote. The lasting story of the night, thought, might be the long lines people endured just to have their voice heard. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer For complete results and updated election info, go to the AP Texas Election results page. 12:54 a.m. Although it might be remembered for the long lines, Harris County also saw its voter counts surge. Democrats in Houston are bringing it. Four years ago Harris County had 223K voters in the Democratic Presidential Primary. This year? 276K. That is a 24% increase. And votes are still coming in. Jeremy Wallace (@JeremySWallace) March 4, 2020 The numbers were encouraging, but drew a lot of alarm from Democrat officials. We need major improvements across the board: more resources to assist county and state elections officials and increased access to voting," Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. "This year will see the highest turnout in Texas history with millions of new voters casting their ballots. We cannot have these long waits happen again in November." 12:50 a.m. The Democrat Senate primary is going to have a lot of math, down to the end. 12:47: It was a very long night for some Houston voters. Five hour waits are going to lead to a lot of questions. 12:43 a.m. State Rep. Harold Dutton doesn't appear to be free until November. .@RepHaroldDutton now in runoff territory in the #HD142 Dem primary w/48% of the vote. @JerryVDavis in 2nd w/24% thanks to his early vote performance. Natasha Ruiz, who never filed a campaign finance report or set up a campaign website, is beating Davis on Election Day. #txlege pic.twitter.com/n0v6066pxm Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) March 4, 2020 12:30 a.m. In one of the closest races in the region, it looks like Harris County Republican Party Chairman Paul Simpson will come up short. Harris County Clerk 12:22 a.m. The results are becoming clear and election watchers are starting to call Joe Biden the winner in Texas. Decision Desk HQ projects @JoeBiden Wins The Texas Democratic Presidential Primary pic.twitter.com/ywcVabYsWV Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) March 4, 2020 12:05 am It now looks like a question of whether Joe Biden can hang on and stay ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders, writes Jeremy Wallace. Unofficial results have Biden narrowly ahead of Sanders in Texas, thanks in large part to a dramatic turnabout on election day. During early voting, Sanders held a narrow lead. But on Tuesday, voters in Texas overwhelmingly shifted to Biden. After his weekend victory in South Carolina, Biden was hoping to carry the momentum over to Texas where he held two big rallies on Monday and gained key endorsements, including from former presidential contender Beto ORourke. As of 11:45 p.m., it was clear that Biden had a major reversal of fortunes over the last few days, particularly in Harris County, the states most populous county. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 11:43 p.m. If there is any consolation, Texas is not the only place where polling lines linger. 'This is like gridlock on the 405: Polls have closed, but hundreds still lined up to vote https://t.co/WM9KL1JkmL Shelby Grad (@shelbygrad) March 4, 2020 11:35 p.m. "I can remember when I did not have the right to vote," Nancy Glenn Griesinger said as she waited in line outside a polling site on the Texas Southern University campus. More than 100 Democratic voters were still waiting to cast ballots at 11 p.m. in Houston, turning Super Tuesday into a painful slog for some citizens amid questions about how the County Clerk's office had allocated its voting machines across the county. 11:18 p.m. Joe Biden, at 77, might be the comeback kid. With almost 40 percent of Texas polling stations reporting -- except of course Harris County and Dallas County -- Joe Biden has reclaimed the lead in Texas over Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden has 31 percent of the vote to Sanders' 27 percent. A win in Texas could add to a very good night for Biden. 11:12 p.m. Audia Jones is not giving up hope that she can take District Attorney Kim Ogg to a runoff. We have so many more numbers that will be coming in tonight, its ridiculous, Jones said, referencing polling locations that still had lines. Were in second place. Were still sitting in a good position where we could actually pull this thing out without a runoff," she said. The math is a serious disadvantage to her at this point. With early voting and 268 of 401 precincts reporting in Harris County, Ogg has 57.6 percent of the vote. 11:07: p.m. It is clear MJ Hegar will make the runoff for the Democrat spot on the November ballot, challenging Texas Sen. John Cornyn. We just don't know who Hegar will face, with about a third of the state's election results reported by the Texas Secretary of State. Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez had a slight edge over longtime state Sen. Royce West and former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, who were essentially tied. 11 p.m. A familiar face to voters is making a return. To every voter who trusted me with your vote, to every volunteer who knocked on doors, to every Texan who donated anything they could - Thank you. Im honored to be your nominee for U.S. Congress in #TX21 Now on to November! https://t.co/tYu8GJiOc4 Wendy Davis (@wendydavis) March 4, 2020 Davis, considered the Democrat's great hope against Gov. Greg Abbott only to fall far short in 2015, will face Rep. Chip Roy in November in what could be a pricey and fierce fight. 10:52 p.m. Even if Sima Ladjevardian can avoid a runoff, she faces a big challenge to unseat Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Ladjevardian led with 47.7 percent of the vote, according to the Harris County District Clerk's preliminary results. She led Navy veteran Elisa Cardnell and Travis Olsen, a lawyer. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 10:46 p.m. Getting to rematch against Rep. Michael McCaul might require a runoff for Mike Siegel. Siegel, the Austin attorney who nearly unseated McCaul in 2018, led a trio of Democrats vying to challenge the longtime Republican congressman in early voting results through the bulk of the district, though he was so far short of the 50-percent threshold needed to clinch the nomination. 10:40 p.m. Fort Bend Sheriff Troy Nehls isn't popular enough outside his county to avoid a runoff, it appears. 10:33 p.m. About 360 Harris County polling locations remained "open," officials told reporter Samantha Ketterer. In #TXGOP #TX22 #TexasPrimary #txlege@SheriffTNehls 44%@WallforTX 19%@PierceBush 14%@GregHillTX 14% Looks like Nehls is not performing well enough in Brazoria & Harris to avoid a runoff & it is almost a certainty Wall will be his May runoff rival. (with all EV & some ED) Mark P. Jones (@MarkPJonesTX) March 4, 2020 Jon Shapley/Staff photographer It doesnt mean people are still in line at all 360 the judges have to do paperwork and finalize other procedures. Another 442 polling locations are closed. The attention remains on the polling locations where there's still a line, such as Texas Southern University. 10:30 p.m. It might be tough to hear, but Texas wasn't the biggest prize tonight. Bernie Sanders just sewed that up. 10:28 p.m. This could be the end of the line for Elizabeth Warren, who at one time had huge momentum but on Tuesday could only come in third in her home state. 10:21 p.m. A tight race for railroad commissioner, according to those tracking the votes closely statewide. 10:13 p.m. Just throwing this out there, but Marianne Williamson is trailing John Delaney in the Harris County presidential voting. Williamson, an author and activist, was born in Houston. Delaney, a former Maryland Congressman, was born in Wood-Ridge, N.J. With about 13 percent of precincts reporting, Delaney had 200 votes. Williamson had 194. 10:10 p.m. Kim Ogg says it is "on to November," claiming victory in the Democrat primary for Harris County district attorney. 10:06 p.m. Looking more likely that a Hunt-Fletcher showdown looms for the CD-7 spot. 9:57 p.m. The line outside the Texas Southern University polling station is moving, but three hours after polls closed people are still casting ballots. 9:49 p.m. With 15 percent of precincts reporting, Texas Democratic presidential primary is shaping up to be Bernie Sanders versus Joe Biden. Sanders has a slight lead with 28.4 percent of the vote, to Biden's 24.2 percent, putting them in a tight contest down the stretch. Not included in the Secretary of State tally, however, are Texas' biggest counties. Neither Harris County nor Dallas County have any votes recorded so far. Biden is leading in Harris County with 28 percent of the vote, to Sanders' 25.8 percent, according to the latest figures from the Harris County Clerk's Office. 9:30 p.m. The race to lead the Harris County Republican Party is razor-thin, according to early results. Challenger Keith Nielsen leads by fewer than 100 votes in a race that's seen nearly 93,000 votes cast. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 9:23 p.m. Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman says despite larger expected numbers, Democrats had the same number of voting machines as the Republican primary. Harris County Clerk "We have whats called shared locations between the parties, and the parties had to agree on that," Trautman told reporter Samantha Ketterer. "If we had had a joint primary, each party could have used the same machines. But since it was a shared location, each party had to have their individual side of their machines and the party had to have the other side of the room for their machines, and each one is programmed just with the partys ballots so they cant be used for the other side." Technical problems also led to delays, especially at Texas Southern University. "Some of those machines actually went down. These are older machines, were talking about 20 year technology here, and I think they really got used hard today, so we did have to replace all the machines there." One possible solution Truatman floated is having the parties share the burden. "The only way to change this is to have a joint primary, and that would be just one line, theres not a line for each party, theres just one line so all the voters can use all the machines," she said. "That would really have expedited this whole thing. Going forward the next primary, I really really hope that we can convince the parties, both parties to go to a joint primary." 9:16 p.m. All signs are pointing to a very long night in Harris County. The primaries are the highest-turnout contest Trautman has overseen since taking office last year. She faces additional pressure to deliver as the states most populous county will have outsized influence on the winner of the Texas primary, a crucial source of delegates for Democratic presidential candidates. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 9:12 p.m. Problems continue at the polling location at Texas Southern University. 9:03 p.m. Michael Bloomberg's disappointing night has him reflecting, sources say. 8:55 p.m. A helpful reminder that some people are still waiting to vote while the results roll in. 8:53 p.m. Harris County District Attorney playing it cautious. 8:52 p.m. It looks like Air Force pilot MJ Hegar is flying to victory in the Democratic Senate primary, trailed by state Sen. Royce West. With early voting results reported in the states five largest counties Harris, Bexar, Travis, Dallas and Tarrant Hegar was in the lead, followed by West in a race almost certain to end in a runoff. The rest of the pack was further behind. The winner will face Sen. John Cornyn, who breezed to victory. 8:46 p.m. Here comes the ballot brigade! 8:43 p.m. There is a chance that the "other" Jerry Garcia could hash the mellow of the one leading the constable's race. Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press 8:28 p.m. There's optimism among Bernie Sanders supporters that he can eke out a victory in Texas, reporter Brittany Britto found. The first mobile ballot boxes are finally here at 8:42 p.m. Plenty more will be coming, but @HarrisVotes anticipates rush hour for their arrival after 9:30 or so. pic.twitter.com/eK1X5MiObz Samantha Ketterer (@sam_kett) March 4, 2020 Sporting a Sanders T-shirt, Bryan LaVergne, co-chair of the Houston Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, rallied the supporters together, referring to what he called promising results this far. LaVergne said the support for Sanders in Texas has shown that state residents are upset with how things are being run in the country and the left movement is gaining power. Who would have thought Texas would go strong for Bernie? LaVergne said. For Texas, its a different shade of red, and a sign of hard work. We worked for years on this kind of stuff, and it only makes me hopeful, because one day, were going to own it, LaVergne said. Were gonna win it at some point. With about 2 percent of precincts statewide reporting, Sanders had 28.7 percent of the vote, leading Joe Biden with 21.8 percent and Michael Bloomberg at 19 percent. Biden, however, is getting some key gains nationally. 8:21 p.m. The trend so far is it is good to be an incumbent in Harris County, as long as you're not County Attorney Vince Ryan. Ryan was trailing in early returns for his re-election bid, falling far behind Christian Menefee, a younger attorney who branded himself as a progressive advocate. Meanwhile, DA Kim Ogg, Precinct One Commisioner Rodney Ellis and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez looked safe. 8:16 p.m. In a crowded Republican race to challenge Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Wesley Hunt looks to have a commanding lead in early voting. Hunt, who campaigned on his military background and conservative policies, had 61 percent of the vote. Former Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel trailed Hunt with 28 percent, followed by four other candidates who came in at 5 percent or less. 8:13 p.m. With early results compiled, the likelihood of Troy Nehls and Kathleen Wall facing off appears likely. Nehls, the Fort Bend County Sheriff, is fending on a long list of challengers with deep ties and deep pockets. Wall, a longtime Republican donor, put at least $1.6 million of her own money into her bid. With Nehls and Wall leading that leaves Pierce Bush looking in from the outside. Bush, who leaned hard into his ties as a member of the Bush political dynasty, was in fourth place. Jill Karnicki, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 7:59 p.m. At the Audia Jones watch party, reporter Brittany Britto said the roughly 40 attendees were eagerly awaiting results. By Jones arrival at 7:50 p.m., the room was buzzing with conversations and supporters wearing A DA for All and Bernie Sanders T-shirts. Jones greeted guests and said she was feeling good despite a 12-hour day greeting people at the polls. Jones said she had yet to see any early voting results. Early returns did not look good for the camp. With only 22 percent of the vote in early results, Jones appeared in an uphill climb to get into a runoff with Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. 7:53 p.m. Though it was hardly a campaign as the incumbent, Donald Trump is leading in Texas for the Republican primary with 94.4 percent of the vote. "Uncommitted" is second at 3.6 percent, according to the Texas Secretary of State website. 7:49 p.m. As polling stations contend with long lines, Harris County District Clerk officials are sending out more machines. Reporter Samantha Ketterer said 68 machines are at or on their way to the following locations: 12 to Houston Community College Southeast, where there are still 350 people in line 14 to Texas Southern University Mario Tama, Staff / Getty Images 6 to Robert Frost Elementary 6 to Ripley House 6 to Acres Homes 6 to Northeast Multiservice 12 to Sunnyside 6 to Fallbrook 7:44 p.m. With 3 percent of results in, the Democratic presidential primary in Texas looks to be a close three-man race. Former VP Joe Biden has a slight lead with 25.6 percent of the vote, according to the Texas Secretary of State website. He's slightly ahead of former New York Mayor with 22.7 percent. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is third with 22.5 percent. Elizabeth Warren, who supporters hoped would surge to a strong-than-expected showing, was at 10 percent. 7:36 p.m. As a lot of observers pivot to the results, the process is still problematic, according to election watchers. The Texas Civil Rights Project, in a release, said reports of "excessively long wait times" is African-American and Latino communities in Harris County are troubling. Mimi Marziani, President of the Texas Civil Rights Project released the following statement: Once again, black and brown voters in Harris County are facing unacceptable wait times in polling locations in their communities. Infuriatingly, we know that some voters have already given up and gone home. Even worse, we know that this is not the first time voters have faced this issue. In fact, a pattern of long lines in communities of color has been a predictable trend in election after election in Harris County. Lines were common at many polling sites. 7:31 p.m. Harris County Republican Party Chairman Paul Simpson is now in a close race as opposed to overseeing one. Lately, the party has made more news for its infighting than its election plans. Texas House candidate Josh Flynn sued the local party after Simpson declared him ineligible for December's House District 138 primary. 7:23 p.m. Meanwhile, in what is likely to be the only reference to this race tonight, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is cruising to a primary win. 7:17 p.m. A race that drew attention for having two Jerry Garcias and for accusations of voter intimidation looks headed for a runoff. Jerry Garcia, the one that stayed in the race, is leading incumbent Chris Diaz in Harris County Pct. 2 constable race. 7:15 p.m. Less threatened is Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis. 7:13 p.m. Though left-leaning groups opted to endorse her challenger, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is out to a commanding lead. The early vote in #HarrisCounty #TX18 has @JacksonLeeTX18 (aka The Congresswoman) with 81.3% against 6 rivals. A bit surprising that someone (this year 6 someones) runs against her when the outcome is always so predictable. Mark P. Jones (@MarkPJonesTX) March 4, 2020 7:12 p.m. At the county level of the ballot, Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan is well behind Christian Menefee in the early voting results. James Nielsen, Staff / Houston Chronicle Menefee outraised Ryan in fundraising, a sign of an uphill fight for an incumbent. 7:05 p.m. See all the Harris County results here for the Democrats. And here for the Republicans 7:02 p.m. MJ Hegar is leading former Houston councilwoman Amanda Edwards in Harris County, with Chris Bell and Royce West trailing. 7:01 p.m. Biden, Sanders and Bloomberg all strong in first round of Harris County results. 7:01 p.m. Analysis of the Democrat primary by former George W. Bush spokesman. Notes that divide is between conservative Dems and more liberal ones. 6:58 p.m. If you are not running from your car right now, you can't vote. Polls are about to close. 6:54 p.m. With six minutes left for folks to get in line, Harris County is talking about having early results fast, but also reminding people wondering about the long Democrat lines that polling machines are fair game. 6:50 p.m. Here's a good look at that TSU line. 6:48 p.m. One of the things to watch is going to be how Harris County handles the huge line at Texas Southern University and lessons learned from the polling location there. Last year the Chronicle's Brittany Britto reported how the Harris County Clerks Office introduced three new early polling locations at the University of Houston, Texas Southern University and Houston Community Colleges West Loop campus in hopes of reaching at least 50,000 more voters, mostly students. The target included 40,000 new voters at UH alone, according to Michael Winn, administrator of elections for the Harris County Clerks office, which oversees elections. . My office proposed a joint primary election, which would have allowed voters to vote on any available machines. This was rejected by the parties, which means both parties have an equal allocation of machines for each polling location. https://t.co/sBQstYIWl0 https://t.co/4EZPvC25Vu Diane Trautman (@dtrautman) March 4, 2020 So who is standing in line and for how long during this heated primary might be one of the issues worth watching. 6:42 p.m. Michael Bloomberg picks up his first delegates. 6:40 p.m. Vanderbilt senior Henry Goldberg makes argument that the youth vote is not quite youthful enough. "Young people, aged 18 and under, comprise approximately a quarter of the United States population today, but we also represent 100 percent of its future. In Texas, children under 18 represent more than a quarter of the population. If elected officials know the worth of young people already, and investment in our youth has proven time and again to be one of the most effective paths to building a strong economy and a strong society, then why are issues affecting children often overlooked?" 6:34 p.m. Lost in a lot of the attention the Democratic primary will get is this very competitive race on the Republican side to replace Rep. Pete Olson. 6:30 p.m. Right when polls closed in the state, Biden is called the winner. 6:27 p.m. Sen. Bernie Sanders wins his home state of Vermont. 6:22 p.m. Unsurprisingly based on early voting and the top of the ticket race, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the early voting. Steve Helber, STF / Associated Press 6:17 p.m. As election watches await results and the first attempts to analyze the election, here are the key times, all Central time: 6:30: North Caroline polls close Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer 7:00: Most Texas polls close, along with Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts and Oklahoma. Early voting totals in Harris County, acc. to @HarrisVotes Democratic: 139,533 Republican: 104,909 Samantha Ketterer (@sam_kett) March 4, 2020 7:30: Arkansas polls close 8:00: Western Texas, Colorado and Minnesota polls close 9:00: Utah polls close 10: California polls close 6:13 p.m. Joe Biden claims the first prize of the night, winning Virginia. 6:09 p.m. It appears locally the 2020 election is going to be defined by the line. Some walked right in and voted, but others in various places needed reading material to pass the time. 5:53 p.m. More than 215,000 votes cast in Harris County with more than an hour to go. Then we wait... 5:51 p.m. Umm, maybe that map isn't a good guide after all. NEW: Long lines, lack of machines frustrate Harris County voters https://t.co/JLfhLOuOVR https://t.co/JDNtn8A2gb St. John Barned-Smith ? (@stjbs) March 3, 2020 5:47 p.m. Strong words from the executive director of Common Cause Texas, Anthony Guiterrez, as the advocacy group watches for issues across the state. Update - over 215,000 votes have been cast on #SuperTuesday in Harris County. Polls remain open until 7PM. Results will be posted on https://t.co/3Esd72POuu. Diane Trautman (@dtrautman) March 3, 2020 I would frankly chalk up most of the issues were seeing today to Texas being a state that doesnt prioritize voting. Problems like the Secretary of State website crashing and the widespread voting technology issues could have been easily avoided if the state allocated resources towards election infrastructure. In a release, Guiterrez said there have been problems with late openings for polling sites in Harris, Bexar, Dallas, Travis and Tarrant counties. Mechanical failures have occurred in Harris, Bexar and Dallas, and some polling location listed on the Texas Secretary of State election page were not open today. 5:36 p.m. A quick reminder of the rules: If you are in line by 7 p.m., you will be eligible to vote. If you are in Harris County, find a polling station here. 5:25 p.m. As workers file out, many are expecting those lines at Texas polling locations to swell. 5:16 p.m. A lot of eyes are on Texas, where pundits are closely watching the outcome for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. 5 p.m. You think long lines are a deterrent to voting? Try casting a ballot after a tornado flattened part of your city. The Tennessean is reporting some polling stations in Nashville will stay open until 10 p.m. after a judge stepped in at the request of the Democratic presidential campaigns. 4:50 p.m. Polls don't close for more than two hours, so don't believe everything you hear. Some are reporting robo-calls aiming to block the vote. Sanders' success in Texas, whatever Biden's rebound, is an expression of a real change that, given the very demographics Democrats have been anticipating for years, will continue to shape the partys electoral fortunes. More, w/ @JoshuaMBlank: https://t.co/9fkyhJnmaE #Tx2020 Jim Henson (@jamesrhenson) March 3, 2020 4:40 p.m. The Harris County Clerks office is still learning to add voting capabilities on area college campuses. Officials confirmed to reporter Samantha Ketterer that a full row of Democratic voting machines went down at Texas Southern University earlier Tuesday. Five of the machines were not working for between 30 and 45 minutes, spokeswoman Rosio Torres said, but another row of machines were operating. Because of the higher numbers of people voting in the Democratic primary, the clerks office also dispatched additional voting machines to TSU, Torres said. 4:30 p.m. The Harris County Clerk's office said as of 2 p.m., more than 120,000 people voted in primary elections across the county. One of the busier sites during the late morning and early afternoon was at Fiesta Mart on Kirby and Old Spanish Trial, reporter Hannah Dellinger wrote. There, 592 people had voted as of 11:30 a.m., according to signs posted at the market. Of those, 34 were Republicans. Shirley Bradford said shes feeling more confident after the last few days. Shes voting for former Vice President Joe Biden, who she says has the necessary experience. People gotta stop sitting at home complaining, she said. File image Former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh has posted a video titled "Tiger Zinda Hai!!" on Twitter, saying he is awaiting surgery in a Singapore hospital and would be back soon. There were rumours on some social media platforms on March 2 that Singh was dead. Scotching rumours of his death, Singh said though many of his "well-wishers" want him dead, he is alive, awaiting surgery. As compared to past medical issues, the present problem is nothing, he said in the video shot from his hospital bed. He said once the procedure is over, he hopes to return to India at the earliest. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says Chikwe Ihekweazu, its director-general, is under self-isolation and not being quarant... The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says Chikwe Ihekweazu, its director-general, is under self-isolation and not being quarantined. Writing via its Twitter handle on Tuesday, the NCDC also said Ihekweazu tested negative for coronavirus. The agency said this while reacting to the furore caused by the comment of Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, who said Ihekweazu was under quarantine after a trip to China. While updating the senate on the activities of his ministry to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country, the minister had said the NCDC DG was under quarantine as a standard procedure. He had said: We have already established rules here that anybody who has been to China will go into self-quarantine. Chikwe has gone and come back. He has done the test, he is negative but we have insisted he must undergo the 14 days quarantine which is why he is not here. He is not allowed to come out until after 14 days. Because if you make the rule, you must obey it which is to set the example in Nigeria. But writing via its Twitter handle, the NCDC clarified that Ihekweazu is under self-isolation and not under quarantine. The agency wrote: The news that Director General @Chikwe_I is in quarantine over #COVID19 is false. While he was part of @WHO high-level mission to China, he returned healthy, has tested negative and has no symptoms Hes in self-isolation for 14 days in accordance with NCDCs advisory. While he was part of Hes in self-isolation for 14 days in accordance with NCDCs advisory The news that Director General @Chikwe_I is in quarantine over #COVID19 is false.While he was part of @WHO high-level mission to China, he returned healthy, has tested negative and has no symptomsHes in self-isolation for 14 days in accordance with NCDCs advisory https://t.co/UyuFfGAyD5 March 3, 2020 The rumour that I am sick or in quarantine is obviously false. I look forward to returning to the office after 14 days of self-isolation I am well and have continued my duties from home since my return from China as part of the WHO-China Mission on #COVID19 The rumour that I am sick or in quarantine is obviously false.I look forward to returning to the office after 14 days of self-isolation pic.twitter.com/sigfoARVfK March 3, 2020 Chikwe also took to Twitter to say he is well, and is working from home pending the completion of his isolation. Coronavirus cases: Delhi Police warns of strict action against those not following COVID protocols on Holi Holi 2020: When, why is it celebrated in India India oi-Mousumi Dash New Delhi, Mar 04: The festival of vibrant colours, Holi, one of the ancient festivals of Hindu, but later became popular among all religions in India. This year, Holi falls on 10th March and the 'Holika Dahan' will be on 9th March. Mahurat of pooja: Purnima Tithi Begins -03:03 AM on Mar 09, 2020 Purnima Tithi Ends -11:17 PM on Mar 09, 2020 Holi heralds the arrival of spring after winter. It signifies the victory of good over evil and is celebrated as a day of spreading happiness and love. The festival is also celebrated as a thanksgiving for a good harvest. Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with 'Holika Dahan' (burning of demon Holika) or 'Chhoti Holi' and the following day as Holi, Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi, or Phagwah. Ranging from socio-cultural, religious to biological there many significant reasons why we must heartily celebrate Holi. Happy Holi: Interesting facts about festival of colours Holi is famous as 'Basant Utsav' in rural India as it falls in during the spring season. Being one of the major festivals in India and it is celebrated with extreme enthusiasm and joy. 'Gulal', 'abeer' and 'pichkaris' are synonymous with this festival. There are many interesting stories associated with the origin of Holi as one moves across the different states from North to South and East to West. The most significant one is the story of king Hiranyakashyap, the legend of demons, who wished to end his blessed son, Prahlad's life with the help of his sister Holika, as he worshiped Lord Vishnu instead of worshiping arrogant Hiranyakashyap. Holika was burnt in the fire and no harm was caused to Prahlad. Since then the day is celebrated in the victory of good over bad. In some states, the legend of Radha and Krishna is closely linked with this tradition of colors on Holi. Whereas, in Bengal Holi is celebrated as 'Basant Utsav', and the tradition was reintroduced by poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. However, the festival has various significance, names, and stories but it is celebrated with great fun and frolic across the country and also in other countries too. A boy stands near a US military armoured vehicle in the town of Tal Tamr along the M4 highway in the northeastern Syrian Hasakeh province, near the border with Turkey. AFP Photo Ankara: Turkey said that two more of its soldiers were killed Wednesday in a Syrian government attack in northwestern Syria, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties. Turkey has sent thousands of troops into the area to support Syrian insurgents holed up there, but hasn't been able to stop the Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to retake the Idlib province. Near the Turkish border, the Idlib area is the last rebel stronghold after nine years of war in Syria. The Turkish Defense Ministry's statement said that the latest Syrian attack on its troops also wounded six soldiers. It did not provide further details. The assault came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to depart for Moscow where he says he aims to broker a cease-fire in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces in northwestern Syria have killed more than 50 Turkish troops in the past month, including 33 soldiers killed Thursday in a single airstrike. Moscow has laid the blame for the escalation on Ankara, ahead of the summit between the two main power brokers in Syria. Russian officials have said they hold Turkey responsible for the collapse of a cease-fire agreement reached in Sochi, Russia in 2018. They say Ankara has failed to honor the deal and rein in militants who continued attacking Syrian and Russian targets. As neighborhood adversaries in Hulus Little Fires Everywhere, Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington engage in feverish confrontations that will stay with you for days. Like Witherspoons similarly female-centric drama Big Little Lies, this adaptation of Celeste Ngs bestselling novel serves up nuanced characters of varied ages and backgrounds, intriguing secrets, delicious twists and turns and plenty of impassioned dialogue. The eight-part series debuts March 18 on the streaming service. Thanks to ever-increasing streaming options, it is only one of many tantalizing newcomers available to viewers now and in the weeks and months ahead. Little Fires Everywheres leads are standouts in their clashes over their approaches to life and motherhood. Witherspoon (The Morning Show) is tightly wound suburban wife and mom Elena Richardson, and Washington (Scandal) is unconventional artist and mother Mia Warren. Offscreen, however, the actresses, who double as executive producers on Little Fires Everywhere, couldnt be more united in their appreciation of the material and each other. When Witherspoon discovered Ngs 2017 novel, she not only was determined to bring it to the screen but saw it as an opportunity to partner with Washington, whom she admired. When I read the book, it had so many themes in it that were very complex, and I knew whoever was going to be my partner I wanted to have many conversations (with), carry these performances together, she told TV critics at a recent Hulu press session. Hulu, Stringer / Getty Images for Hulu She instantly thought of Washington as someone who would show up and do the work. Everything she does she brings a grace to it, an intellectual aspect to it, and she deepens the conversation, she said of her co-star. The casting of Washington as Mia, who isnt a woman of color in the novel, added another dimension to an already diverse storyline. The book delves into class and kind of sociopolitical differences and cultural differences. So I think adding the layer of race to that really enriches the storytelling, Washington said. The story is set in the late 1990s in the planned and somewhat claustrophobic community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, which teeters between being progressive and provincial, a place where neighbors gossip and rules are plentiful. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio teen is new Netflix star If your lawn grows beyond the dictated length of 6 inches, for instance, you can expect a citation and fine. Elena is a big believer in rules. Her luxurious, carefully appointed home and all thats in it including her husband (Joshua Jackson) and four children must comply with her sense of order. The biggest disruption has been her non-conforming youngest daughter Izzy (Megan Stott), who is struggling to find her own identity, creatively and sexually. However, Elena soon discovers someone she believes to be an even bigger threat offbeat Mia, a multimedia artist who has moved to Shaker Heights with her teenage daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood). The two are nomadic, traveling from place to place, existing on a shoestring budget and landing temporarily wherever Mias inspiration takes her. Elena, whose own journalism ambitions were sacrificed to the needs of family, is initially fascinated by Mias fierce dedication to her art. It doesnt take long, however, before their worlds and philosophies collide. Their animosity deepens when Mia decides to help Bebe, a Chinese immigrant she works with, to find the baby shed left at a fire station in a desperate moment. After discovering the child was placed in the home of Elenas friends, who are on the verge of adopting her, Mia interferes and all hell breaks loose. Washington said she loved that the book does a beautiful job of stepping away from this binary idea we have of race in this country, of black and white because were also dealing with Asian identity and immigrant identity and again, class. This is a lot to unpack. Being a producer on Little Fires Everywhere helped Washington realize a bigger goal nurturing other women in the industry. One of the extraordinary impacts of the Times Up movement is that so many of us came together to try to advance the cause of equity and safety in the workplace, she said. In that sisterhood, we got to ask each other, How can we partner together? Thats been one of the exciting side results is weve been able to grow our friendships and also grow our professional relationships. As producers, we get to employ hundreds and hundreds of artists and activists. Little Fires Everywhere is an example of how much richer the material has become for women. These characters are women you know and you love or you hate or who make you feel closer to them because you are them, Washington said. Theyre so real and so rich. And we got to dive into that. Witherspoon agreed: To bring this all to audiences has just been the dream of a lifetime. Heres more about nine new streaming goodies, three that you can watch right now and six coming up: Hulu High Fidelity (Hulu): Twenty years after Nick Hornbys novel about an unlucky-in-love record store owner who revisits past relationships to find out why they failed became a feature film starring John Cusack, a romantic comedy has landed thats based on the same source material. Happily, the new half-hour doesnt seem the least bit dated thanks to vinyl making such a big comeback and a gender switch that casts the luminous Zoe Kravitz as lovelorn lead Rob. Hunters (Amazon Prime): Creator David Weil partners with executive producer Jordan Peele to present a post-Holocaust vigilante series set in 1977. The plot has Jewish survivors, their kin and other justice-seekers hunting down and punishing Nazis hiding in America. Pacino plays the millionaire bankroller of this band of avenging angels, and Logan Lerman is his newest recruit. Helping to make the grisly material palatable is a playful, over-the-top tone. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. She would tell me stories, Weil said. As a young kid hearing (them), they felt like the stuff of comic books and superheroes. Weils quest: To don that vigilante cape in the face of rising anti-Semitism in the world. Netflix Gentefied (Netflix): A Mexican-American family of cooks struggles to preserve their authentic taco restaurant in the face of growing gentrification and against the backdrop of the current immigration climate. The issues may be serious, but the lighthearted handling of the familys dilemma in this bilingual comedy from America Ferrera bring on plenty of smiles, too. Its likable characters particularly the bawdy bear of a grandpa, portrayed by wonderful actor Joaquin Cosio lift your spirits with every episode. Devs (FX on Hulu, Thursday): In this creepiest of thrillers from Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Parks and Recreation fans will have a hard time recognizing a much shaggier, not to mention uncharacteristically menacing, Nick Offerman as the unhinged CEO of a high-tech company. The series heart comes courtesy of young software designer Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizumo), whose boyfriend goes missing after being promoted to the companys secretive development division. When she learns of his horrendous death, she becomes convinced he was murdered and turns sleuth, only to unravel some truly chilling truths. Agatha Christies The Pale Horse (Amazon Prime, March 13): Rufus Sewell plays haunted hero Mark Easterbrook in this shivery two-part adaptation of one of Christies most baffling mysteries. When he discovers his name is on a list that police found in the shoe of a dead woman, he investigates. His poking leads him to The Pale Horse, home to three witches whom he suspects had a hand in the deaths of others on the list. Were their sudden demises indeed rooted in the supernatural or were they casualties of human greed? Photo courtesy of Apple TV+ Home Before Dark (Apple TV+, April 3): This is a different kind of true-crime mystery for viewers of all ages and its just whats needed at a time when the press is so maligned by the current administration. It pays tribute to the power of journalism from an unexpected perspective that of a determined pre-teen girl (Brooklynn Prince) who investigates a murder in a small town, publishes her findings in her own online newspaper. Undaunted by the cruel comments that follow, she keeps at it, unearthing a cold case in the process. The series was inspired by the real-life investigative reporting of Hilde Lysiak, who earned, at age 12, a junior version of the Zenger Award for Press Freedom in 2019. Deadwater Fell (Acorn TV, April 6): David Tennant of Broadchurch fame stars in this highly disturbing four-part mystery series. Set in a small, seaside town, the drama examines the communitys reaction to a home fire that takes the lives of a mom, who may have been suffering from post-partum depression, and her three children, but spares their dad, a respected doctor (Tennant). Mounting evidence suggests the tragedy wasnt an accident, and flashbacks start to uncover the hideous truth. FX Mrs. America (FX on Hulu, April 15): In her first regular role in an American series, Cate Blanchett turns in an effectively restrained, yet passionate, performance as staunch conservative Phyllis Schlafly, who successfully campaigned against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and helped give rise to the Moral Majority. The series also features a whos who of actresses as 70s feminists who fought for the amendment - including Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm and Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan. A Confession (Britbox, May 12): In this gripping at times, heartbreaking six-part murder drama, Martin Freeman (Sherlock) plays a version of real-life Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, whose work on a 2011 case involving two missing young women puts his career on the line and his personal life on the ropes. Freeman said he felt enormous sympathy for his character. Something pretty bad befell this guy, who was absolutely just trying to do his job and is the kind of cop who we all want in our police forces, someone who will go the extra mile to retrieve what may be your daughter or my daughter in the future. Jeanne Jakle is a freelance writer in San Antonio. Jose Mourinho has urged Troy Parrott to follow the Scott McTominay route to becoming a Premier League first-team player. Spurs manager Mourinho has given Parrott the same pep talk he gave McTominay before he blooded the Scottish midfielder in his first season in charge of Manchester United. Mourinho may be resisting the clamour to play talented teenager Parrott as much as Tottenham's supporters would like amid the club's striker shortage but The Special One still believes the 18 year-old is The Privileged One because, unlike most players of his age on the club's books, the Ireland wonderkid is part of the senior setup. Jose Mourinho has so far resisted the urge to start Troy Parrott despite his striker shortage The 18-year-old did make an appearance on Sunday but only in second-half stoppage time Mourinho has held Parrott back believing he still has an 'educational process' to go through as a young player and has urged him to remain grounded while adapting to changes on and off the pitch, such as being away from his Dublin-based family and needing to mature ahead of his time in order to be part of a first-team dressing room. The Portuguese, though, has been encouraged by what he has seen of late, not least in the example Parrott set in a scoring performance for Spurs's Under 23s against Wolves on Monday, 24 hours after a Premier League substitutes appearance against the same opponents. Mourinho said: 'I told him before the [u23s] game, every time you play with the kids of your age, you have to show your colleagues why you are the privileged one. 'I was not worried about scoring goals or not scoring goals. I was worried about attitude. What he can do. The way the other kids look at him. He has to go there and to show his attitude and professionalism and how privileged he is. He cannot go there with discontent - contempt. The Irish striker scored for Tottenham Under 23s against Wolves Under 23s on Monday night 'Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of "I shouldn't be here." Or, "I am too good to be here." Or, "It's not here that I want to play." And this is an educational process that comes.' McTominay, who made his Premier League debut in May 2017 against Arsenal, went through the same one en-route to becoming a key player at Old Trafford. Mourinho said: 'I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay. He was not loved in his age group because he was not with the right frame of mind. 'The moment we started changing that, lots of things started changing for him. And every time he was going to the team, he was the best in everything - attitude, character. Mourinho has compared the situation to when he blooded Scott McTominay at Manchester Utd 'This is the way you work with kids and if, in these generations, kids, they have things too easy in life, I think it's part of the education to also see the other side. 'I think Troy will come even stronger and stronger when everything happens step by step. And not immediately. Because he is not ready for immediately. So it is a process. 'If he plays [against Norwich] and he scores the winning goal, and he is the back page of your newspapers, nothing changes. The next week he goes again to play for the U23s. Everything is a process.' The Spurs boss has opted not to play Parrott despite injuries to Heung-min Son and Harry Kane Mourinho is attempting to handle Parrott's development with caution at a time when injuries to Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son have led to the obvious question being asked by supporters increasingly often and louder - why isn't the highly-rated young academy striker being picked? Mourinho said: 'This is a world where lots of people, they don't even know if Troy has long hair or short hair. Or is blond or is dark. 'They don't even know that and speak about: "Troy, Troy, Troy, Troy, he should play." There was a guy behind me on the bench the other day: "Play Troy, play Troy." I don't think he knows Troy.' The much-touted deal between the US and the Taliban already looks set to unravel. A big sign of it coming unstuck appeared on Wednesday, when US forces carried out air strikes on insurgents associated with the group in retaliation for attacks on Afghan forces in Helmand province a day before. Oddly enough, the US action came just hours after President Donald Trump said he had had a very good talk" with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political chief of the Taliban. The 29 February deal was aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan and thus helping the US extricate itself from a long and costly war that began in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. Many saw the deal as a US surrender, as it envisaged a phased withdrawal of American and allied forces over 14 months. Elements in the Taliban may even have celebrated the US exit as a victory. The air strikes were perhaps intended as a signal of Trumps resolve to stick it out in Afghanistan if the Taliban failed to keep their end of the bargain. The group has been at odds with the Afghan government over prisoner swaps. It may even want to regain control of the country. That would be terrible Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. A second person in Senegal has tested positive for coronavirus, the countrys health ministry confirms. It says the patient is an 80-year-old French national who arrived in the West African country on 29 February. He is being treated at the same hospital for infectious diseases in the capital city, Dakar, as another Frenchman who was hospitalised for coronavirus last week. News of this second confirmed case in Senegal brings the total number of confirmed cases on the African continent to 12. Other countries with patients who tested positive for the virus are: Algeria five people Egypt two people Morocco one person Nigeria one person Tunisia one person Senegal is one of the 33 sub-Saharan African nations with testing facilities for coronavirus. The authorities say they are well prepared to deal with the virus. On Monday the World Health Organization told the BBC it expects the remaining 12 sub-Saharan nations currently without testing equipment to gain facilities within a fortnight. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates T he lead architect on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment cannot remember considering how disabled residents would get out of the high-rise block in the event of fire, he told the inquiry today. Bruce Sounes, from Studio E Architects, said issues around escape routes and smoke ventilation had been prioritised over how fire might spread through the building during planning for the major revamp of the block in 2012. But questioned this morning, he conceded he cannot remember assessing how disabled residents would be able to flee the tower, which had a single narrow staircase as the escape route. A November 2012 email to Studio E colleagues working on the project had confirmed there would be no refuges for disabled people, and said: Mass evacuation is not part of the existing fire strategy. The Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 killed 72 people / Getty Images The email asserted: Generally people stay in their flat unless their flat is on fire. I assume the intention is for vulnerable people to refuge in other flats on the same floor before being evacuated by the fire brigade. Mr Sounes confirmed he would have received the email but told the inquiry: I cant remember any specific conversation or whether the topic ever came up. So I cant confirm or otherwise. Counsel to the inquiry, Kate Grange QC asked: Do you remember considering what was required by way of inclusive design to accommodate the evacuation of the disabled? Mr Sounes replied: No. He was shown documents, drafted by contractors Exova on fire safety, which assessed ventilation and evacuation routes in Grenfell but overlooked issues of how fire might spread inside and outside of the building. Mr Sounes who had expressed an early concern that Exovas fire safety assessment was embryonic - said he had not been concerned by the omissions at that stage of the planning, or the lack of reference to cladding the outside of the tower. The priority was understanding the escape and the ventilation, he said. In a fire safety report drawn up by Exova in 2012, it was stated proposed changes will have no adverse effect on the building in relation to external fire spread, adding that this position would be confirmed by an analysis in a future issue of this report. Mr Sounes told the inquiry he could not remember reading that line of the report and had not asked Exova for further explanation. Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. By PTI MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced one-rank promotion for 14 policemen, who displayed "historic valour" during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks to capture terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Home minister Anil Deshmukh made the announcement while speaking to reporters outside the state legislature here. "Tukaram Omble, who was martyred during the 26/11 attacks, and 14 other policemen had captured (terrorist) Ajmal Kasab alive. The government has decided to proffer one rank promotion to the 14 policemen for showing historic valour," he said. On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived in Mumbai by sea route and opened fire, killing 166 people, including 18 security personnel, besides damaging property worth crores. Kasab, who was the only terrorist to be captured alive, was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 17:34 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068439ad 1 National Tri-Rismaharini,COVID-19,surabaya Free As regions across the country are hit with shortages and the rising price of face masks following Indonesia's first confirmed COVID-19 cases, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini has admitted that her administration had been hoarding masks to be distributed when necessary. "Truthfully, I have been hoarding masks since January," she said at the Tropical Disease Center of Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com. She said she had instructed her staff to buy masks during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, without informing the public to avoid panic. Risma did not disclose just how many masks her administration had been hoarding, saying she would only distribute them when the impacts of COVID-19 were felt in the city. "Later, when we have to, we will distribute them," she said. The mayor added that only people who are sick coughing, showing flu symptoms and have difficulty breathing should wear masks but everyone should wash their hands frequently and immediately go to a hospital when experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Cities across Indonesia have had to deal with mask shortages for the past three weeks. Wahyu Handoko, the owner of a medical supplies store in Surakarta, Central Jakarta, said his store kept running out of masks and as a result, prices have spiked from Rp 20,000 (US$1.42) per box to around Rp 200,000. President Joko Jokowi Widodo has spoken out against hoarding as people across the country go on panic buying sprees, saying that the government and the private sector had enough food and non-food supplies, including around 50 million face masks, to meet public demand. The President has also instructed the National Police chief to crack down on individuals hoarding and reselling face masks. (ars) New Jerseys first Filipino-American Superior Court judge defended herself before the states top court Tuesday, arguing that she had not concealed her fugitive boyfriend from police years ago. A judicial ethics panel previously recommended Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Carlia Brady be fired. Brady told the state Supreme Court that she took full responsibility for unknowingly falling in love with a wanted man, and she acknowledged that she should have called a supervisor for advice after she found out her boyfriend was suspected of robbing a pharmacy. I ask this court for forgiveness for any lapse in judgement, she said. But Brady strongly defended what she told Woodbridge police at the time, and she accused the department of concealing her cooperation. Maureen Bauman, a lawyer representing the ethics panel, said the judge violated her oath and could no longer be trusted. Theres nothing else that would protect the public in this instance, short of removal, Bauman said. It is relatively rare for a judge to be kicked off the bench. The ethics panel only reports six since 2008, most of them from municipal courts. Bradys case has dragged on so long that one of her former attorneys, Walter Timpone, is now one of the Supreme Courts seven justices. Timpone left the courtroom before the hearing began, and was not present during arguments. His office did not immediately respond to a question about whether he had recused himself. Brady was first arrested in 2013, early in her tenure as a Superior court judge. Woodbridge police accused her of harboring her then live-in boyfriend, Jason Prontnicki. (Prontnicki is still behind bars on robbery and weapons charges, according to department of corrections records.) The state Supreme Court suspended her, and a grand jury later indicted her on three charges, including hindering an investigation. One charge was dismissed in 2017, and the rest were dropped in 2018 when an appeals court ruled that Prontnicki couldnt be forced to testify against her. Brady was reinstated in 2018, and she filed a lawsuit against Woodbridge police last year, arguing that their actions against her amounted to a racist and sexist witch hunt." Messages left with Woodbridge police were not immediately returned, and the lawsuit is ongoing. Despite the dropped charges, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct concluded that the judges actions were still wrong. Brady was dishonest with investigators, the committee wrote in a 58-page report, permanently hurting her credibility. The judge disputed many of the allegations, and Tuesdays hearing was specifically about Bradys request to have the committees recommendations thrown out. Brady said her boyfriend both called her and violently forced his way into her home while he was on the run, but she stressed she followed police instructions about how to report him. She said she left two voicemails with cops, and she accused officers of only releasing edited copies of those messages while improperly destroying the originals, which would have showed that she was helping locate Prontnicki. In response, Bauman said the released voicemails were not manipulated. When questioned about their authenticity, Bauman directed justices to an audio expert. Some justices appeared skeptical of both Bradys claim that she had done almost nothing wrong, and the committees recommendation to fire the judge. About a dozen of Bradys supporters sat quietly on one side of the courtroom during the hour-long hearing. Both Brady and Bauman declined comment afterward. No timeline was given for when justices will make a decision. Bradys term ends in one month, on April 5, and she will need to be re-nominated by the governor and approved by the state Senate to continue. Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The Democratic campaign for president took another wild and unexpected turn Tuesday night, dramatically lifting the candidacy of former vice president Joe Biden and suddenly putting the onus on Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to demonstrate that he can expand his base of support. The Democratic contest has been transformed almost overnight from one with many candidates and no clear alternative to Sanders into a head-to-head battle that pits a populist insurgent preaching revolution and democratic socialism against an establishment-backed politician calling for modest change and civility and claiming greater electability against President Donald Trump. There are few commodities more valuable in political campaigns than momentum, and, right now, Biden is blessed with it in abundance for the first time in his campaign. Biden had a noticeable deficit in money and organization in the Super Tuesday states, compared with the well-resourced and well-organized Sanders. The rapid consolidation around Biden's candidacy has given him what Sanders' money and ground game could not produce, and the results Tuesday put the former vice president in position to compete on at least an even basis with the senator from Vermont for supremacy in the contest to become the party's nominee. For the foreseeable future, the calendar will not get easier for Sanders. In coming weeks, the states holding contests, with some exceptions, were ones that he lost to Hillary Clinton four years ago. In some of the states he won in 2016, the shift from caucuses to primaries could hold down his delegate totals even if he were to win again. The prospect of Sanders emerging with a sizable lead in delegates after Tuesday's voting, something that had sparked fears among establishment Democrats that he could be on an unstoppable march to the nomination, began to melt away as the returns came in Tuesday night, with a growing possibility that Biden would be more than competitive by the time all votes were counted. Results from California, Super Tuesday's biggest prize with 415 delegates, were coming in slowly early Wednesday morning, with Sanders leading and Bloomberg and Biden trailing. That state, more than any other, was considered the key to Sanders's hopes of expanding his delegate total. Texas, where 228 delegates were at stake, was a state Sanders hoped to win, thanks to anticipated support among Latino voters. But after starting the night behind, Biden held a slender lead early Wednesday. The margin, however, remained close enough that the winning candidate would not be able to gain significantly more delegates than the second-place finisher. But results from across the country underscored how rapidly fortunes were moving against Sanders. In Vermont, where he won more than 85% of the vote in 2016, he was in the low 50s. In Colorado, he won the caucuses in 2016 with nearly 60% of the vote. On Tuesday, he was winning with less than 40%. Days ago, many people thought Sanders could win Minnesota over Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. On Tuesday, the state fell into Biden's column. Biden also won Massachusetts, a state thought to be in competition between Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Sanders sounded a defiant note when he addressed supporters in Burlington, Vermont, and pointed to Texas and California, which together have nearly half of the more than 1,300 delegates at stake, as the linchpins of his Tuesday strategy. He also vowed to wage a fierce fight for the nomination and predicted that he would prevail and go on to defeat Trump in November. Warren and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg remain in the race, but neither appeared to have a path to the nomination. Bloomberg spent roughly half a billion dollars with a plan to make his mark on Super Tuesday. Other than a victory in American Samoa, he was running poorly virtually everywhere and in some places with percentages so low that he would qualify for few delegates. That kind of performance will raise questions about how long he can sustain his candidacy. Warren hoped to win her home state of Massachusetts and pick up delegates elsewhere, but she, too, was struggling to hit the threshold to qualify for delegates, though she has pledged to continue her campaign through to the convention. It will take some time to know exactly how the delegates break down from the 14 states voting on Tuesday, but based on what was happening versus what was expected, this was Biden's night, and the final delegate numbers are certain to reflect the changed circumstances. Sanders' victory in Vermont was expected, even though he will not win all 16 delegates as he did four years ago. In addition to Colorado, he also won Utah. Biden's victory in Alabama was expected, based on his strength among African Americans, but his victories in Virginia and North Carolina were hardly a given just days ago. Sanders had competed hard in both states, and pre-weekend polls which lost their validity after South Carolina showed a potentially close outcome. Biden also took Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma, the latter a state Sanders won in 2016. South Carolina provided a shot in the arm for Biden's candidacy that no one could have predicted, shifting the terrain overnight. The results prompted Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg to end their campaigns, and their immediate endorsements of Biden accelerated the consolidation. There were other elected and former elected officials who joined the Biden team at the same time. Collectively, they sent a signal to the many voters who had decided not to support Sanders but were uncertain where to put their allegiance. Establishment Democrats who a week ago were worrying about how quickly the field might shrink rushed to embrace Biden. Both the Sanders and Biden campaigns were predicting just before Super Tuesday that the race would go far into the spring and possibly all the way to the July convention in Milwaukee. But the rapidly shifting terrain seen over the 48 hours before Tuesday's voting changed perceptions and expectations about the balance of strength between the two leading candidates and what it may foreshadow in the coming weeks and months. The true balance won't be known until there are complete counts from California, which could take more than a week, or anywhere else where there are questions about how many candidates met the threshold to qualify for delegates. But based on what was known Tuesday night, the race was in a far different place from what anyone expected less than a week ago. The marquee primary next week will be in Michigan. Sanders scored a major upset there four years ago against Clinton, though his victory margin was narrow. Also on the calendar next week is Missouri, a state Sanders lost by less than a percentage point and where the delegates split almost evenly. Missouri will provide another test of Biden's and Sanders' support among African Americans, who make up about a fifth of Democratic turnout in that state. Because Washington state has switched from a caucus to a primary, Sanders, though favored, will have a more difficult time piling up the kind of delegate margin he did in 2016. Meanwhile, Mississippi should be fertile ground for Biden because African Americans made up about 70% of the Democratic electorate there in 2016 even more than in South Carolina. The round of primaries on March 17 includes Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio. Sanders lost Florida badly to Clinton and will face serious resistance again this year because of qualms about his left-wing agenda. He also lost Arizona and Ohio decisively. Only Illinois was close, though Sanders was on the losing end there, as well. A week after that, on March 24, Georgia holds a stand-alone primary, and there again, Biden will be favored based on the size of the African American vote. No one thought this is where the campaign would be on the night of Super Tuesday. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has asked the Akufo-Addo government to use the macroeconomic gains it has chalked over the last three years to improve the living conditions of the ordinary Ghanaian. According to the TUC, the key highlights in macroeconomic indices and the positive outlook of Ghana's economy by international rating companies do not currently reflect in the pockets of ordinary Ghanaians. While declaring its position on the 2020 State of the Nation Address delivered by the President last month, TUC commended the government for its remarkable achievement in the economy. The General Secretary of the Union Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, commenting on the President's address said: We think it was very comprehensive. The President touched on all the important issues that are affecting this country. He highlighted the economy which is in order but we think that we have achieved some successes in the last three years and before. But we still do not think that what we have achieved is reflecting in the pockets of people and the theme of our paper was about that. We have a collective responsibility now to ensure that all the successes we are achieving in Ghana in our macro-economic management benefit everybody irrespective of where they are and their economic status. Dr. Yaw Baah also urged the government to support the local industry by making the current trade policy more favourable to Ghanaian businesses. He further called on the government to implement the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) law which prohibits foreigners from engaging in the retail business. We expect some very drastic policies here because why should we live in a country like Ghana where we have the freedom to impose tariffs on things that we can produce here like rice, poultry, tomatoes, and other things too but we still allow these items to come in at a very low tariff range. For example, rice is taxed at 20% but within the WCO rules we can tax rice and poultry at about 90% so why are we not doing it? And thats why we are saying that our trade policy is too liberal and you cannot industrialise on the back of such an over liberalized trade policy. No country has ever done that, he said. Background Before the mid-year budget review was read in 2019, the Trades Union Congress urged the government to announce policies that would effectively translate the gains in macroeconomic management into real and visible improvements in the living conditions of Ghanaians. In a statement after its annual General Council Meeting, the TUC said the apparent good sets of macroeconomic statistics were not adequately and visibly reflecting in the lives of the majority of Ghanaians. The TUC said whilst the economy was growing, real wages were declining and highlighted the need for an upward adjustment of wages in the budget review. ---citinewsroom Kolkata, March 4 : The total number of arrests in connection with the incendiary "goli maaro" slogan raised by a group of people going to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally here has risen to six with two more taken into custody from the city and an adjoining district, police said on Wednesday. "BJP worker Sandeep Sonkar was nabbed from Chetla in South Kolkata on Tuesday evening. Another person was arrested on Tuesday night from Ghola in North 24 Parganas district," a police official said. Both of them were seen shouting the provocative slogan calling for shooting the traitors while going in a procession towards the rally venue in central Kolkata on Sunday. "They were arrested after examining the video footage of the incident," the official said. While three people were arrested from the city's New Market police station area on Monday morning, later another person was rounded up from Ghola in 24 Parganas (North) district in the night. Cases under Sections 153 (Promoting enmity between different groups), 34 (common intent), 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code have been slapped against the accused. The three arrested from the city are Surendra Kumar Tiwary, Pankaj Prashad and Dhruba Basu. BJP leader Sujit Barua was nabbed during a joint operation by personnel of New Market and Ghola police stations. However, Basu was bailed out considering his advanced age. Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma in a statement on Monday said the arrests were made following a complaint lodged at the New Market police station that "some persons allegedly shouted provocative slogans having potential to disturb public tranquility from a procession while going to attend a political rally". The city police chief has instructed officers-in-charge of all police stations to initiate strong legal action against anybody trying to incite people. The slogan was first chanted at a public rally addressed by Union Minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur on January 27 in Delhi's Rithala area. Thakur had allegedly egged on his audience to respond to the slogan. Thakur was then barred from campaigning by the Election Commission for 72 hours in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 23:05:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Most fake news about the spread of the novel coronavirus in Russia come from abroad and are intended to sow panic among the Russian people, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. Putin made the remarks, quoting reports from Russia's Federal Security Service, at a government meeting after Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova slammed fake messages on social media accusing the Russian government of concealing the real number of COVID-19 infection cases. According to Golikova, only three cases have been confirmed in Russia, involving two Chinese nationals, who have already recovered, and one Russian national, who returned from Italy and is undergoing treatment. Three other Russian nationals evacuated from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan are also being treated in the city of Kazan, she said. At the government meeting, Putin called for timely, comprehensive and reliable information to counter fake news. Also on Wednesday, Russian mass media and telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor said it had begun restricting access to some fake reports on the coronavirus on social media, including Facebook and Russia's popular VK network. Boris Johnson today hinted at coronavirus curbs in Parliament to stop MPs becoming 'part of the problem'. Mr Johnson revealed announcements will be made soon after he was asked at PMQs whether politicians could spread the killer virus by constantly moving between their constituencies and Westminster. SNP MP Carol Monaghan suggested business should be done by video conference calls and electronic voting. Mr Johnson said Mr Monaghan had raised a 'very important point', adding that government would be setting out plans for avoiding contagion at Parliament and other 'large gatherings. The comments came after MailOnline learned Parliamentary officials have voiced alarm at the idea of temporarily shutting down the Palace of Westminster. Concerns were raised about the signal that would be sent by closing the doors during a meeting about the response to the disease yesterday. There were warnings that the rest of the country would 'take its lead' from the heart of British democracy. Boris Johnson has published the government's 'battle plan' for dealing with a major outbreak in the UK, which experts believe is increasingly likely. The measures include urging people to avoid social contact as much as possible for an estimated three months until the crisis peaks, with employees advised to work from home. Boris Johnson (pictured) revealed announcements will be made soon after he was asked at PMQs whether politicians could spread the killer virus Concerns were raised about the signal that would be sent by closing the doors at the Palace of Westminster during a meeting about the rising threat from the disease yesterday The PM stressed that the plans were 'reasonable' and would only be triggered if the situation escalates dramatically - a scenario where experts say one in five workers could be off sick. It emerged at the weekend that there had been discussion with the Commons authorities over a contingency plan where the government would use emergency powers to battle a pandemic, while MPs and peers are told to stay away. According to the Mail on Sunday. a Cabinet minister suggested it would be madness for MPs to continue to meet in such circumstances, describing them as potential 'virus super-spreaders' as they travelled to and from their constituencies. Thousands of staff, officials and reporters work on the Parliamentary estate alongside politicians. The European Parliament has already announced restrictions on its 'non-core' activities for three weeks - such as visits, events, hearings, and seminars. At the meeting to discuss the UK Parliamentary response yesterday, alarm was expressed at the idea of shutting the doors. Senior officials pointed out there was a 'different level of responsibility' for the Palace of Westminster compared to other workplaces. 'If Parliament were to shut the whole nation would take its lead from that and shut,' once source told MailOnline. 'Everybody has to consider the possibility that day might come. But we are a long way from it. 'Parliament needs to stick exactly in line with Public Health England guidance, because if it does anything that goes beyond that guidance everybody else will copy them.' It emerged last night that the NHS had declared a 'Level Four' incident, the highest level of alert, as officials brace for a surge in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. Hospitals have been advised to postpone treatment where possible and treat patients at home, or in the community to ease pressure on beds. Deirdre Clune MEP is calling on the European Commission to ensure more alternative, greener fuel options are available for the aviation industry in order to sustain it into the future, in respect of climate objectives. The Fine Gael Ireland South MEP Clune made the call to action at the high-level Aviation Summit in Brussels on Tuesday of this week. Over the past twenty years, we have been fortunate to have had enhanced connectivity, cheaper tickets and more flight options but we cannot ignore some of the environment and climate costs caused by flying. With air traffic set to further increase in the years to come, the environmental footprint of this particular sector will continue to increase in Europe", MEP Clune underlined as a Member of the European Parliament's Transport Committee. MEP Clune further told attendees that transport is the biggest source of emissions in the EU (27 percent) and 3.8pc of the EUs total emissions is from aviation - this has grown from 1.4pc in 1990. By 2035 aviation emissions are projected to increase by 50pc. We need to support the commercialisation and further development of sustainable, alternate aviation fuels. These fuels can lead to up to 80pc of emissions reductions in some cases yet are currently too expensive and production quantities are too low. Electric and hybrid flight technology wont work at the scale required for decades - we need more sustainable fuels in the meantime. Aviation is essential to peripheral countries and it is important that a sustainable future for the sector is secured, MEP Clune added. The Ireland South MEP also reflected on the recent General Election in Ireland in her remarks: "We have just had a recent election where a significant emphasis has been placed on climate change, people demand greater ambition on climate action and our EU policies have to match that ambition with practical support. Making alternative fuels more widely available would be one practical step in this context." Many international and regional airlines, EU policymakers and other stakeholders were in attendance at the Brussels Aviation Summit. The Gallipoli dawn service and other Anzac Day services around the world are under review amid the "rapidly developing" global coronavirus outbreak. The Morrison government is planning for the next month's services in Turkey and France to go ahead as planned - as well as services in Thailand, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea - but has conceded the final go-ahead for the events will rely on up-to-date expert medical advice. Australians and New Zealanders take part in a dawn service for Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli in 2012. Credit:AFP Turkish authorities have closed the border with Iran temporarily because of the COVID-19 outbreak, with a crackdown on travellers from China, Italy, South Korea and Iraq in the past 14 days. Federal Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester said Anzac Day services in Turkey and France held a "special significance" to many Australians who have relatives who fought and died there during World War I and Australian authorities were closely monitoring the situation. NFU Scotland has called for 100m of additional Scottish government funding each year to help the industry become greener. The Scottish government recently announced 40m funding to help farmers and crofters move toward climate-friendly practices. Announced last month, the Agricultural Transformation Programme aims to support the industry's contribution in meeting Scotlands climate change ambitions. The fund will support farmers in undertaking a range of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable farming and land use. But NFU Scotland has now said the funding levels need to be 'substantially above' the 40m initially announced. The union said the existing fund proposal could be "highly destabilising" for farmers in the country. NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick told BBC News: "Farmers and crofters must be incentivised to take up fundamental measures focusing on soils, input costs and emission reduction. "It is essential that such actions are taken up by a much wider swathe of Scottish agriculture and that all doing so are appropriately supported." The union added that the farming industry will play a "key role" in achieving the government's climate change goals. Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing said the Scottish government 'will do all it can to provide stability for farmers in the critical years ahead'. "Clearly there are wider matters to take on board including how we shift resource to support farmers to undertake activity which will allow them to play their part in cutting emissions and enhancing our natural environment," he said. It comes as the Scottish government recently-announced the Climate Change Bill, which aims to have all of Scotland's emissions offset by 2045. A Moscow court ruled on Tuesday that the city's facial recognition system does not violate the privacy of its citizens - a blow to activists who had hoped to ban the technology's use. City authorities are using facial recognition technology to ensure people ordered to remain at home or at their hotels under coronavirus quarantine do so. Lawyer and activist Alena Popova and opposition politician Vladimir Milov of the Solidarnost party had filed a case against Moscows Department of Technology (DIT), which manages the capitals video surveillance program, seeking to ban the technologys use at mass events and protests. Moscow completed its facial recognition rollout with the awarding of a small software contract in December, having already spent at least 3.3 billion roubles ($50 million) on hardware, and its system now boasts more than 105,000 surveillance cameras fitted with the technology. Scroll down for video A Moscow court ruled on Tuesday that the city's facial recognition system does not violate the privacy of its citizens -a blow to activists who had hoped to ban the technology's use 'This ruling shows there are no legal defenses for facial recognition complaints,' said Popova's lawyer, Kirill Koroteev. Popova also had a November lawsuit dismissed on the same grounds. The DIT did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. On its website, the DIT says it uses video surveillance in crowded areas to 'ensure safety,' and that video footage is deleted within five days of an incident, unless a request by the public or law enforcement is made. Russia has temporarily barred Chinese nationals from entering its boarders to curb the spread of the virus, but has welcomed Russians who return with an order to spend two weeks at home, even in the absence of symptoms. City authorities are using facial recognition technology to ensure people ordered to remain at home or at their hotels under coronavirus quarantine do so Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said some 2,500 people who had landed in the city from China had been ordered to go into quarantine. To prevent them leaving their apartments, the authorities are using facial recognition technology in the city to catch any offenders, he said. Compliance with the regime is constantly monitored, including with the help of facial recognition systems and other technical measures,' he wrote on his website. In one case described by Sobyanin, surveillance footage showed a woman who had returned from China leaving her apartment and meeting friends outside. The authorities were able to track down the taxi driver who had taken her home from the airport thanks to video footage, Sobyanin said. Sobyanin said the city was also forced to carry out raids against possible carriers of the virus, something he said was 'unpleasant but necessary.' Russia has temporarily barred Chinese nationals from entering its boarders to curb the spread of the virus, but has welcomed Russians who return with an order to spend two weeks at home, even in the absence of symptoms Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said some 2,500 people who had landed in the city from China had been ordered to go into quarantine. To prevent them leaving their apartments, the authorities are using facial recognition technology in the city to catch any offenders, he said (pictured is the current statistics of coronavirus around the world) The Moscow mayor's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Sobyanin said last month that the city had begun using facial recognition as part of its city security surveillance program. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen details of the actions being taken in Moscow but that measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus should not be discriminatory. The clamp down on quarantine rules comes after a woman in St. Petersburg staged an elaborate escape from a hospital where she said she was being kept against her will. The incident, which resulted in a court ordering her to return to the quarantine facility, raised questions about the robustness of Russia's coronavirus quarantine measures. Russia has reported two cases of the illness - two Chinese nationals who have since recovered and been released from hospital, according to the authorities. [March 04, 2020] Jay Goffman joins Rothschild & Co as Vice Chairman, Global Advisory North America Rothschild & Co today announced that Jay Goffman has joined its Global Advisory business in North America as Vice Chairman. Reporting to Jimmy Neissa, Mr. Goffman will advise clients across Global Advisory's Restructuring, Debt and M&A practices. He joins from the global law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and will be based in New York. "Jay is a global authority on restructuring and he is consistently recognised for his leadership in the industry. He is an innovative dealmaker and his experience and expertise will provide immense value to our clients as we continue to grow our business in North America," stated Jimmy Neissa, Head of Rothschild & Co North America. "Jay's proven ability to develop business-oriented solutions for clients and to create deep long-term relationships makes him a strong fit with our culture. We welcome Jay to the firm." Prior to joining Rothschild & Co, Mr. Goffman was the Global Co-Head of Skadden's Corporate Restructuring Group and has over 36 years of experience in restructuring and M&A. He has been named among The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers by The National Law Journal and has been recognised for his dealmaking ability by publications such as American Lawyer and Financial Times (News - Alert), where he was recognised as "pioneer" and a leader of out-of-court and pre-packaged restructurings. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal on several occasions, including his record-setting restructuring of Blue Bird Bus Co., which was completed in 32 hours. He was also responsible for engineering the quickest billion-dollar pre-packaged restructuring in history with his six-day process of Roust Inc. in 2016. Mr. Goffman holds a BS from The State University of New York at Binghamton and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his role as Vice Chairman, Global Advisory North America, Mr. Goffman will report to Mr. Neissa and will work closely with Homer Parkhill and Stephen Antinelli, Co-Heads of North America Restructuring. Mr. Goffman stated, "Having worked alongside Rothschild & Co throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to experience first-hand why they have a reputation for providing best-in-class advice to clients. I look forward to working closely with Jimmy, Homer, Steve and the rest of the leadership team to continue growing the firm's client base in North America." About Rothschild & Co, Global Advisory Rothschild & Co is family-controlled and independent and has been at the centre of the world's financial markets for over 200 years. With a team of c.3 500 talented financial services specialists on the ground in over 40 countries, Rothschild & Co's integrated global network of trusted professionals provide in-depth market intelligence and effective long-term solutions for our clients in Global Advisory, Wealth & Asset Management, and Merchant Banking. Global Advisory, a division of the Rothschild & Co group, designs and executes strategic M&A and financing solutions, providing impartial, expert advice to large and mid-sized corporations, private equity, families and entrepreneurs, and governments. Through its unrivalled network of 1,000 industry and financing specialists in over 40 countries, Rothschild & Co's Global Advisory business combines the breadth of its advisory offering with a high volume of transactions to achieve a unique understanding and perspective into markets and participants worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005405/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"): Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 4 March 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 24,874 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,436 pence 18.43 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,388 pence 17.82 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,418 pence 18.20 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 4 March 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 10,547 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 17.84 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 17.84 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 17.84 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 4 March 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 25,397 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 18.34 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 17.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 18.12 USD PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 25.04 USD 19.53 GBP which was calculated as of 29 February 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 202,906,657 Public Shares outstanding, or 208,574,677 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 8,050,093 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies. The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected. PSH also announces that it has published to its website, in accordance with the EU Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052, details of transactions in its own shares for the past week. Information is available at https://pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/other-materials/. About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005769/en/ Contacts: Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk Saudi Arabias newly established Ministry of Investment (formerly Sagia) has awarded a trade licence to Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO), thus marking a significant milestone for the California-based developer in its pursuit to commercialise the technology. The category leader in hyperloop development, VHO received the licence at the US-Saudi Arabia Business Forum held in Washington DC. This comes following a recent announcement by the Ministry of Transport and the Public Transport Authority in Saudi Arabia to conduct the worlds first hyperloop study on a national level. Under the agreement, VHO will examine viable routes, expected demand, anticipated costs and explore socio-economic impacts. In addition, hyperloop is expected to create jobs and add to the local GDP and furthers the exchange of specialized knowledge, while creating the infrastructure for a connected Saudi Arabia. The licence was presented by Dr Majed Al Qasabi, Minister of Commerce and Media, to Tim Wilkinson, executive director, Strategy and Growth at VHO in the presence of Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the US, John Abizaid, US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce. Commenting on the achievement, Wilkinson, said: "Receiving the trade licence from the Ministry of Investment, which has been a very smooth and swift process, marks a significant steppingstone in our commitment to Saudi Arabia." "From here we intend to establish a permanent presence that would better enable us to invest in resources in the region and run our local operations. The move marks important progress towards the commercialization of hyperloop technology and could propel the country to the forefront of hyperloop development worldwide," he stated. A year prior, King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and VHO unveiled results of a study to create a Virgin Hyperloop One Center of Excellence, which would include an integrated test track, and explored the feasibility of creating a manufacturing center and operating facility. The findings highlighted VHOs potential to drive domestic value by adding to the creation of more than 124,000 high-tech local jobs, further supporting the technology sector by incorporating advances in robotics and AI while driving an estimated $4 billion increase in Saudi Arabias GDP by 2030. In the same year, Saudi Arabias King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and VHO have partnered to spur the countrys technology and transport development. Signed at the 2019 Future Investment Initiative, the US hyperloop company and the kingdoms leading private research institution have committed to working together to further support the development of the countrys technology and transportation sector. VHO had in 2018 entered into a technology partnership with the MiSK Foundation, through which the company welcomed 20 Saudi students to its Los Angeles Innovation Campus,, said the statement from US group. The purpose of the partnership was to create a connection between VHO and young, aspiring Saudi students that will spur innovation, it added.-TradeArabia News Service Warning: Do not read until youve seen Season Finale The Timeless Children. The BBC this week confirmed a festive special for Doctor Who is coming later this year. This follows the cliffhanger ending to The Timeless Children episode. The one-off special, Revolution of the Daleks will see the return of a classic Who enemy. Showrunner Chris Chibnall says: We cant leave the Doctor there! On that cliffhanger! Well, we did. But rest assured, the Doctor and her friends will be back for a one-off extended special around Christmas and New Year. (I dont know when theyre going to put it on yet, otherwise wed tell you!). There will be Daleks. There will be exterminations. Thrills, laughter, tears. You know. The usual. See you at the end of the year. Charlotte Moore, Director BBC Content, says: I cant wait for the Doctor to go into battle with the ultimate enemy in this years Daleks festive special. There is also speculation Bradley Walsh (Graham) and Tosin Cole (Ryan) could be set to depart following the festive special, but possibly continuing in occasional appearances. Doctor Who season finale airs 8pm Thursday on ABC but has been available at iview since Monday. The former D.C. townhome of U.S. president John F. Kennedy has hit the market for $4.68 million. The former Washington D.C. townhome of U.S. president John F. Kennedy has hit the market for just under $4.68 million. Salon with fireplace TTR Sotheby's International Realty / Ryan Corey According to listing agent Christie-Anne Weiss of TRR Sotheby's International Realty, the president wasn't the only member of the Kennedy family that lived here. His sister Eunice also lived here with him from 1949-1951, she said. Gourmet kitchen TTR Sotheby's International Realty / Ryan Corey "There's a great photo of JFK and Eunice in the kitchen with the refrigerator door open," Weiss tells CNBC. This photograph, taken in the late 1940s, shows John F. Kennedy with his sister Eunice in front of the home's kitchen refrigerator. Bettmann The Georgetown residence, which according to its listing is located on a "picturesque cobblestone street," has three bedrooms, two full baths and two partial baths. The home's master bedroom features a fireplace. TTR Sotheby's International Realty / Ryan Corey The 4,659 square foot home was originally constructed around 1800 and recently underwent a complete renovation. Library TTR Sotheby's International Realty / Ryan Corey Outdoor space TTR Sotheby's International Realty / Ryan Corey The home's biggest selling points, according to Weiss, are its expansive entertaining spaces, proximity to Georgetown's restaurants and iconic monuments and the residence even has its own parking garage. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry reaffirmed Egypt's support for the stability of Gulf countries and its rejection of regional interference in Arab affairs during talks with Omani counterpart Yousuf bin Alawi, the Egyptian foreign ministry said. The two leaders met on the sidelines of an Arab League ministerial meeting in Cairo on Wednesday. During the talks, Shoukry underlined "Egypt's support for the security and stability of Arab Gulf countries as part of Egyptian and Arab security," the ministry said in a statement released on Facebook. He also reiterated his country's "rejection of regional interference in the affairs of Arab countries," and the importance of not allowing such interference to negatively affect the security and stability of the region, the statement added without elaborating. The two also discussed boosting bilateral cooperation. Their meeting also tackled mechanisms to support joint Arab action in light of Oman 's presidency of the 153rd session of the ministerial council of the Arab League. The meeting also tackled a number of regional issues, most notably the developments in the Palestinian issue and the situations in Libya and Syria. The results for JNVST - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Selection Test will be shortly released on the official website. As per reports, over thousand of students have given the test which was held on January 11 for admission in Class 6th across different centers in India. Aspirants have been asked to keep a check on the official website for results https://navdoaya.gov.in wikiepedia Those students who will qualify this phase 1 exam will have to appear for the phase II exam which will take place on April 11. This result for the second test will be out in the month of May. Here are the details that you will see in your result - Name, roll number, dob, category, gender, district, area (rural/urban), among others. navodaya.gov.in The cut off marks category wise would be General (73 per cent), OBC (69 per cent), SC and STs at (63 and 58 per cent respectively) and 5 per cent of seats divided in each district. This will be filled by candidates selected under rural quota, remaining seats will be filled by urban areas. The selection process of this institute JNVST is not easy. In the year 2018-19 the number of candidates who appeared for the examination were more than 19,00,000 out of which only 46, 600 got selected for admission to class 6th. The number of students for class 6th region wise: Bhopal - 7918 Shillong - 5840 Chandigarh - 3695 Hyderabad - 5821 Patna - 5749 Jaipur - 4236 Lucknow - 6598 List of documents you would require at the time of admission into NVS: 1. Date of Birth 2. Residence certificate - for NIOS candidates These two are mandatory, you would other normal documents as per guidelines. For JNVST Result 2020, you can visit the offices of the principles of Navodaya Schools, deputy commissioner of NVS, District Magistrate, District Education officer and on the official website as well. Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg makes a stop at one of his campaign offices in the Little Havana neighborhood on March 3, 2020 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty images He broke the bank, but he couldn't bring home the bacon. After dumping more than $500 million of his own fortune into the 2020 election, Mike Bloomberg, who's worth around $60 billion, failed to make a dent on Super Tuesday, the first time he appeared on any ballot in the 2020 Democratic primary race. He managed to clinch a victory only in the tiny U.S. territory of American Samoa, receiving at least four delegates there, according to an NBC News projection. Following the embarrassing Super Tuesday results, Bloomberg dropped out of the race and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. "Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," the former New York mayor said in a statement. "I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said. Democratic strategist Brad Bannon of polling and consulting firm Bannon Communications Research said Biden will certainly benefit from the campaign withdrawal of Bloomberg as well as that of former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. "With Bloomberg, Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar out of the race, it clears the path for Joe Biden to capture all of the moderate conservative votes, as well as all the black votes in the Democratic primary," Bannon said. Bloomberg was a late entrant in the race, announcing his campaign in November, which forced him to skip the first four nominating contests and instead appeal to voters in the 14 states and the territory of American Samoa up for grabs in the Super Tuesday primaries. The billionaire businessman spent liberally in hopes of catching up with front-runners Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who had already had months to build out their campaigns ahead of Bloomberg's entry. Bloomberg put most of his energy into preparing for Super Tuesday, coupling his hefty ad spend with a huge staff, hiring 500 staffers in more than 30 states in January ahead of the nominating contests. The efforts seemed to pay off in national polls, where he secured a third-place spot in recent weeks, behind only Biden and Sanders, according to a Real Clear Politics national polling average. He even started gaining traction in states including Florida and Texas, where he led Biden in some polls. HONOLULU A woman was expected to be sent from Hawaii to Idaho on Wednesday to face charges in the disappearance of her young son and teenage daughter. Lori Vallow was arrested last month in Hawaii on Idaho felony charges of child abandonment in a bizarre case that has attracted worldwide attention with revelations of her doomsday beliefs, a series of mysterious deaths and two children who have been missing for about six months. Vallow appeared briefly in a courtroom on the island of Kauai, where Kauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar told a judge that Idaho authorities would be returning her to the state later Wednesday. Defense attorney Craig De Costa said in court that Vallow should not be questioned without an attorney during the transit, while waiting for the plane, or when they land in Idaho. She is being held on $5 million bail, and her first court appearance in Idaho is Friday. Her children, 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, have not been seen since September. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they strongly believe that Joshua and Tylees lives are in danger. Police also have said Vallow, 46, and her husband, Chad Daybell, have lied about the childrens whereabouts. The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallows estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December. Vallow moved her family from Arizona to Idaho in August. In October, Chad Daybells wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy Daybells death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed. Test results on Daybells remains and toxicology results from Cox have not yet been released. Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview, the couple had left town. In December, Idaho authorities asked police in Hawaii for help finding the couple. On Jan. 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville. Vallow reportedly believes she is a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christs second coming in July 2020, according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death. She and Chad Daybell were involved in a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times. ___ Associated Press writer Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story. WASHINGTON Joe Bidens surprise victories on Super Tuesday were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. The late deciders helped Biden win Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, among several other states. In some states, they made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast surveys of voters in eight state primaries. And the surveys show they lined up behind the former vice president. In Virginia, where nearly half of the voters waited to make up their minds, Biden won two-thirds of the late deciders. The surveys show the power of a well-timed surge in a race that has been defined by a crowd of candidates and confused voters agonizing over the best challenger to President Donald Trump in November. Bidens big win in South Carolina on Saturday revived his struggling campaign and within 72 hours pushed three of his rivals toward the exit and swung the opinions of voters in distant states. Yet Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders found a way to blunt the impact. By organizing aggressively and banking early votes from his liberal, young and Latino coalition, Sanders won Colorado and California. About 80% of Sanders voters in California said they picked their candidate before the final stretch. Heres a snapshot of Democratic voters in Alabama, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia who they are and how they voted based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast surveys, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. BIDENS COMEBACK COALITION The former vice presidents coalition came into clear focus Tuesday. He did well with moderates and conservatives, voters older than 45 and African Americans. In many states, he enjoyed an advantage among women and college graduates. He ran strong with voters who attend church at least once a month. And he successfully channeled sentimental attachments to former President Barack Obama. About half of North Carolina voters, for example, wanted a president who would restore politics to a pre-Trump era and Biden won the majority of this group. Theres little doubt Bidens ties to black voters were critical to his rebound. Biden cleaned up in Alabama on Tuesday night by winning close to 70% of African Americans, a majority of Democratic voters in that state. Perceptions about electability may also be key to Bidens support. In Minnesota, for example, where Biden benefited from home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchars exit from the race, about 60% of voters said it would be harder for a nominee with strong liberal views to win in the general election. Even in his California loss, there were signs of newfound energy for Biden. Of voters there who picked their candidate in the last three days, Biden had a slight advantage. Biden also flashed some crossover appeal in places that matter. In Virginia, a state likely to be a top battleground in November, Biden won more than half of voters who say they voted in the 2016 Republican primary. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg won close to 20%. STICKING TO SANDERS The Vermont senator is holding on to his coalition of liberal voters, Latinos and voters under 30. In states with sizable populations of each, he fared well. In Virginia and North Carolina, where majorities were older and more likely to identify as moderate, Sanders came up short. Sanders strength with Latinos was clearest in California, where they made up about 30% of the vote. Sanders won close to half of that group in California roughly double Bidens share. Sanders has benefited from a youth movement. In California and Colorado, he won about 60% of voters under 30. His voters there are also somewhat more likely than Bidens to feel as though theyre falling behind financially. He won at least 40% of Texas and Minnesota voters who said that recent economic gains had bypassed them. Aside from their youth, Sanders supporters stand out for their skepticism of most other candidates in the race. At least half of his voters in North Carolina said they would be unhappy with Biden or Bloomberg as the nominee. Majorities of them in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia felt the same. BLOOMBERGS BUST More than $500 million in spending on ads could not buy much love for Bloomberg, who announced Wednesday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Biden. Bloomberg fared better among voters older than 65 compared with those younger, and similarly among those who think of themselves as moderate or conservative more so than liberals. But even among these groups, he was edged out by Biden. The former New York mayor was the Democrat voters were least enthusiastic about nominating. More than half of voters in Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts his birthplace said they would be dissatisfied if Bloomberg was the Democratic candidate. Roughly half in California, North Carolina and Virginia would also be displeased. By comparison, majorities in each of those states said they would be satisfied if Sanders was the nominee. Only in Alabama and Texas would a majority be satisfied by Bloomberg. LOOKING TOWARD NOVEMBER The Democratic contests do appear to be drawing some potential swing voters. Close to 20% of voters or more said they are waiting to see who wins the nomination before deciding how theyll vote in November. That was true in seven of the eight states AP surveyed. The share was somewhat smaller 15% in Minnesota, a state Trump is trying to flip. Most of this group identified as moderates or conservatives, a sign that they might be open to Trump or consider not voting for any candidate in November. Another closely watched group is suburbanites a constituency that could make up more than half the general election electorate. Sanders and Biden battled it out for those voters on Tuesday, neither jumping ahead with a clear advantage. ____ AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The surveys were conducted for seven days, concluding as polls closed. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Eldar Janashvili - Trend: As a part of Azerbaijans cooperation with Rostov region, according to the results of Business Forum, a working group will be organized to further deepen the relations, Azerbaijans Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov told reporters, Trend reports March 4. Safarov said that specific issues related to development of economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation have been discussed at the event. "The meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Rostov Region Governor Vasily Golubev set a new trend for development of cooperation in such areas as transport, agriculture, energy, alternative energy and the growth of human capital", he noted. The deputy minister also noted that the high potential of these relations, taking into account the dynamic economic development of both Azerbaijan and Rostov region, creates truly unlimited opportunities for developing the cooperation step by step and thoughtfully. "Therefore, we have reached an agreement not to put aside the issues with the development of our relations, and according to these decisions, according to the results of today's negotiations, a working group will be organized, the coordinator of which will be Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry," Safarov added. The business forum entitled "Days of the Rostov region in Azerbaijan" was held in Baku on March 4. Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov and other officials attended the event. Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday dismissed a US offer to help the Islamic republic fight its coronavirus outbreak, charging that "vicious" American sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. Iran has scrambled to halt the rapid spread of the virus that has claimed 92 lives out of 2,922 confirmed infections in the past two weeks. It has shut schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events, and cut back on work hours. "Those who have deprived the people of even medicine and food through sanctions, who have done the most vicious things... they appear with a mask of sympathy and say that we want to help the nation of Iran," Rouhani said, in a clear reference to the United States. US President Donald Trump had said Saturday he was ready to aid Iran with the virus outbreak if the Islamic republic asked for assistance. "Our people know well that you are lying," Rouhani said in response, speaking at the weekly meeting of his cabinet in remarks aired on state television. Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran in 2018. Humanitarian goods, especially medicine and medical equipment, are technically exempt. But international purchases of such supplies are forestalled by banks wary of conducting any business with Iran for fear of falling foul of the US sanctions. Rouhani said the US must first lift sanctions blocking medicine purchases to prove its honest intent to help. "This is the first step... to free banking relations for purchasing medicine, transferring medicine and shipping medicine and food," he said. The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has signed a book of condolence in Accra in memory of the former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak who died on February 25, 2020 in Cairo at the age 91. The visit by the Speaker to the residence of the Egyptian Ambassador in Accra was to sympathise with the people of Egypt over the death of their former Head of State. President Mubarak who was the fourth President of Egypt came into office on October 14th, 1981 and was overthrown through an uprising on February 11, 2011. The Speaker, Prof Oquaye was warmly received by Mr Emad Magdy Hanna, the Egyptian Ambassador to Ghana to his residence and ushered him into a hall to sign the book of condolence in memory of the former Egyptian President. Prof Oquaye speaking to the media after signing the book of condolence indicated that Ghana and Egypt were family and had long standing relations, which dated back many years. He said the last time he was invited to Egypt, he had the opportunity to discuss with Egyptian officials, Ghanas bid to host the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area in Accra. He said even though the Egyptians were also bidding for it, they eventually supported Ghana, which he described as a very vital sign of cooperation, which must be appreciated. Prof Oquaye also stated since the days of President Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana and Egypt have bonded, and have respected that rich relationship. He described the departed Egyptian President as a real African who supported the Organization of the African Union now the African Union and called for the need for Africans to acknowledge him. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video DULUTH -- A Duluth man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 37 years in prison for fatally stabbing his wife during an argument that came hours after she told him she wanted a divorce. Ryan Richard Jazdzewski, 40, pleaded guilty in January to intentional second-degree murder in the slaying of 41-year-old Nicole Ann Jazdzewski. The defendant admitted to stabbing his wife after a verbal altercation turned physical at the couple's home June 2. According to court documents, Nicole Jazdzewski had informed her husband earlier that day that she wanted a divorce. The 440-month sentence imposed by 6th Judicial District Judge Theresa Neo is more than 11 years beyond the term called for in state sentencing guidelines. Jazdzewski admitted at his plea hearing that there were two aggravating factors in the case: the presence of the couple's children and particular cruelty to the victim. According to court records, Jazdzewski told police he "lost it" and "just started stabbing" his wife during the incident. Duluth police responded to the couple's home after it was reported that their 7-year-old daughter was covered in blood and asking for help. ADVERTISEMENT Officers said they entered the residence and found Nicole Jazdzewski lying on her back in the kitchen. She appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso, and there was a "large amount of blood" throughout the kitchen, according to a criminal complaint. In a hospital interview, Ryan Jazdzewski detailed the incident to investigators, stating: "I killed her." He said he had spent most of the day drinking beer, doing artwork and playing with their kids while ignoring Nicole after she told him she wanted a divorce. The defendant told police that he was preparing to go to bed when they got into a verbal argument, according to the complaint. The incident "escalated," he reported, and Nicole grabbed a kitchen knife for self-defense. Ryan Jazdzewski stated he didn't believe his wife was going to use the knife, but he took it from her to prevent her from calling 911. He acknowledged stabbing his wife approximately 10 or 12 times, stopping only when the 7-year-old told him, "Don't kill Mom," according to the complaint. Nicole "Nikki" Jazdzewski was a registered nurse and mother of three young children. She graduated from Bemidji High School in 1995 and later earned degrees from Lake Superior College and the College of St. Scholastica, according to her obituary. She began her professional career at Essentia Health and worked throughout the United States for two years as a traveling nurse, according to the obit. She had worked at St. Luke's since 2009, starting in the cardiac unit and later transferring to the intensive care unit. The victim's father, Kenneth Hovland, said at the plea hearing that he was "disappointed" in the resolution, telling the judge he had not been provided sufficient information to believe that second-degree murder was the appropriate charge. Britons overwhelmingly support quarantining entire cities if it would halt the spread of coronavirus, a new poll reveals today. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of people thought that shutting off hundreds of thousands of people in the way that Wuhan has been isolated in China, would be a 'correct' move by the Government. Only 26 per cent thought that the step would be an 'over-reaction' according to a new poll by IpsosMori today. The findings are in line with other nations including the United States, Russia, Australia and Canada. However Italy, which has seen multiple deaths from the outbreak, saw the lowest support for quarantining. It came as England's Chief Medical Officer warned that the disease will kill more Britons and a UK epidemic was now 'highly likely'. Workers forced to quarantine themselves at home during the coronavirus outbreak will be able to claim sick pay from the first day of their illness, Boris Johnson confirmed today Wuhan plan: People wearing protective masks and suits carry rubbish bins during disinfection work at Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, today Professor Chris Whitty's chilling message for Britain's 66million residents came as the total number of UK cases rose to 53 today after two patients in Scotland one in Ayrshire and one in Grampian tested positive. It is looking less and less likely that the UK will replicate the isolation that has been seen in Wuhan. Because the disease is already in the country and would be hard to contain in one place at this stage, medics believe that the social and economic cost of quarantining thousands of people would far outstrip any benefit. Anna Quigley, research director at Ipsos Mori, said: 'These results clearly show that the UK public recognise the potential impact of the virus on the country, and support strong measures to deal with it. 'Perceptions of the governments response have worsened over the past two weeks and it will be interesting to see whether this shifts following the release of the Governments action plan. 'It is, however, encouraging that the public still believe health services are doing a good job.' Workers forced to quarantine themselves at home during the coronavirus outbreak will be able to claim sick pay from the first day of their illness, Boris Johnson confirmed today. The Prime Minister confirmed that the legal change would be among the first wave of emergency powers he will introduce to deal with the spread of the killer virus. Two more Turkish soldiers have been killed and six wounded in an attack by Syrian government forces in northwest Syrias Idlib region, the Turkish Defence Ministry said. Immediately after the Syrian forces opened fire, Turkish forces retaliated and continued to strike targets, the ministry said. The incident brought to 59 the death toll, including one on Tuesday, of Turkish forces in their Idlib operation which began last month, Reuters reported. OTTAWA - The case against Canada's chief military judge is back in limbo after a civilian judge refused to order one military judge to appoint another military judge to preside over the court martial of their commander. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Colonel Mario Dutil returns to the courtroom after a break during his court martial at the Asticou Centre in Gatineau, Que., on June 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA - The case against Canada's chief military judge is back in limbo after a civilian judge refused to order one military judge to appoint another military judge to preside over the court martial of their commander. Canada has only a handful of military judges and all the others who would ordinarily be eligible to handle Col. Mario Dutil's case can't do it, either. Dutil was charged under military discipline with fraud, making a false statement in a document and breaking rules through a personal relationship with a subordinate. Dutil's deputy presided over the case at first but eventually recused himself and refused to name another judge to take over because two of them have conflicts of interest and the third isn't bilingual enough. Now Justice Luc Martineau of the Federal Court has ruled that ordering one of them in would do irreparable damage to Dutil's constitutional right to a fair trial. Martineau says the tidiest solution would be to name an outside civilian judge to hear the case, but also that the real problem is that the law on military justice never contemplated a scenario where the military's top judge would face charges himself. Although Dutil isn't above the law, Martineau ruled, steamrolling all the problems with naming one of his colleagues to hear his case wouldn't be right. "Justice is not a Pandora's box that can be opened as desired to see what is hiding in it, nor a game of chance where the accused must play Russian roulette with the prosecution," Martineau's ruling says. "We are speaking of the career, the reputation, the freedom and the life in the future of an individual." This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2020. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (March 4) approved the mega consolidation of ten Public Sector Banks into four, including the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. The amalgamation would come into effect from April 1, 2020 and would result in the creation of seven large PSBs with scale and national reach with each amalgamated entity having a business of over Rupees Eight lakh crore. The consolidation of these banks would play an important role in creating banks with scale comparable to global banks and capable of competing effectively in India and globally. Greater scale and synergy through consolidation would lead to cost benefits which should enable the PSBs to enhance their competitiveness and positively impact the Indian banking system. The consolidation would also provide impetus to amalgamated entities by increasing their ability to support larger ticket-size lending and have competitive operations by virtue of greater financial capacity," said PIB in a statement. The adoption of best practices across amalgamating entities would enable the banks improve their cost efficiency and risk management, and also boost the goal of financial inclusion through wider reach, added the statement. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre has been in regular touch with these banks and there will be no regulatory issues. "The banks' merger is on course and decisions have already been taken by the respective bank boards," Sitharaman told the media. Tens of thousands of foreigners live in Wuhan, capital city of central Chinas Hubei province. Many of them have stayed there despite the pneumonia outbreak, and fought the war against the novel coronavirus together with the people of the city. A Bu from Iraq A Bu, a teacher at Wuhan University, has lived in the city for 16 years and is married to a local Chinese. According to A Bu, he and his wife cancelled their plans fort Spring Festival and tried to stay at home, or wore masks if they had to go out. Despite the reports by some foreign media, I choose to believe what I see, he said, pointing out that the Chinese government has taken effective measures to combat the epidemic and the medical workers are highly devoted and responsible. As the new semester starts, A Bu has started giving online lessons. Im confident that China will defeat the pneumonia and that Wuhan will restore its vitality, he said. Yi Bu from Yemen Yi Bu, a Yemini poet, decided to stay in Wuhan after the coronavirus broke out. I like the city and I want to fight against the coronavirus along with the Chinese people, he said. His eight-year-old son, who speaks fluent Chinese, has already started taking online lessons at home. As soon as the epidemic is over, I want to go back to school and hang out with my classmates, said his son. The neighbors are very friendly, and Wuhan is a city full of love, said Yi Bu. Right now, he is writing a poem for Wuhan, in which he expresses hope that the city will survive these dark times and eventually embrace the sunshine again. He Xiaona from Morocco He Xiaona, who comes from Morocco, has been in China for six years and is currently studying for her doctorate in Wuhan University. He Xiaona (Photo/CRI Online) Instead of leaving Wuhan after the pneumonia outbreak, she stayed at the university, which has been providing necessities for foreign students. Wuhan is my second home and I refuse to leave behind the Chinese people who have cared for me, she said. She has donated blood four or five times and 5,000 yuan to combat the epidemic. As long as Im needed, I will do much more, said the foreign student. For the past six years, she has shared stories about studying and living in China on her social media and inspired at least 500 people to learn Mandarin at the Confucius Institute in Morocco. Im not afraid of the coronavirus because I believe that a strong country like China can defeat it eventually, she said. Yang Kang from Afghanistan Yang Kang, an Afghan student at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), has also chosen to stay in the city together with the Chinese people. Yang has become a volunteer helping teachers in the university provide services for the 300 international students who are staying at the school. These tasks include ordering meals and daily necessities and distributing medical materials for them. We believe in the determination and capabilities of the Chinese government and that Wuhan will certainly get better, said Yang. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 05:00:44|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 3, 2020. Trump said Tuesday that he had spoken by phone with a senior Taliban leader, a phone call that came days after a U.S.-Taliban deal framing American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had spoken by phone with a senior Taliban leader, a phone call that came days after a U.S.-Taliban deal framing American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump told reporters at the White House that he had "a very good talk" with a senior Taliban leader without identifying the person. It was believed to be the first direct talks between an American president and a senior Taliban official. "We've agreed there's no violence. We don't want violence... They're dealing with Afghanistan. But we'll see what happens," Trump said. The U.S. president's remarks followed a Taliban announcement earlier in the day saying that Trump had talked over the phone with Taliban's top political leader and chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The United States signed a deal with Afghan militants over the weekend, framing American troops' future exit and intra-Afghan negotiations. While the agreement provides hope for lasting peace in the conflict-stricken country, Afghan officials said on Tuesday that at least 20 people, including militants, security personnel and civilians, have been killed over the past 24 hours by the Taliban outfit in the country. The Haryana Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill making use of Hindi must in working of subordinate courts and tribunals in the state. The assembly in the evening passed the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969. As per the Bill, which was introduced by Education minister Kanwar Pal, the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 was passed by the state legislature to provide for adoption of Hindi as the language to be used for official purposes of Haryana. The Act does not make any specific mention about use of Hindi in courts and tribunals subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, it states. Before the Bill was passed, there was a lengthy discussion on it as senior Congress leader B B Batra raised concern, saying the High Court Chief Justice should have been consulted before the Bill was brought. "I am not against Hindi, let me make it clear. But my question is why does the state government want to impose it in subordinate courts. The government should have consulted the High Court Chief Justice. Had they brought the Bill in the next session, we will have no objection. All proceedings in Hindi in subordinate courts will lead to complications," said the Rohtak MLA. The Bill states that in all the civil courts and criminal courts in Haryana subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, all revenue courts and rent tribunals or any other court or tribunal constituted by the state government, work shall be done in Hindi language. Responding to concerns raised by the Congress member, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said this Bill has been introduced after carefully considering all aspects. He said it will facilitate the common people to a great extent. "We have restricted this to subordinate courts, district courts. Some states have made use of Hindi in their high courts too. As far as implementing Hindi in high court work too, the Haryana governor has on the state government's request sent his recommendation to the president for his assent for directing High Court under Article 348 (2) to use Hindi," said Khattar in the House. As per the Bill, Haryana was carved out from the erstwhile state of Punjab in 1966 on linguistic basis as Hindi is the predominantly spoken language in the area. In 1969, as per the provision of section 3 of the Haryana Official Language Act, Hindi was declared the official language of Haryana. The Haryana government had also received a demand letter signed by 78 MLAs of Haryana, advocate general of Haryana and hundreds of advocates, wherein they have expressed their interest to get Hindi language authorised for use in the courts so that the citizens of Haryana can understand the entire justice process in their own language and can easily put their views before the courts, the Bill said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jaipur, March 4 : Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said in the Assembly, here on Wednesday, around 215 people came in contact with the 23-member Italian tourists' group, suspected to be coronavirus carriers, which visited 7 districts during February 21-29. Samples of 93 of these people had been collected, 51 of them tested negative and results of 42 were awaited, he said. Sharma said the Italian patient with 22 co-passengers arrived at New Delhi airport from Italy on February 21 and reached Mandawa (Jhunjhunu) Hotel Castle by bus the same day. On February 22, they reached Ganjakesari Hotel, Bikaner, then stayed at Rangmahal Hotel in Jaisalmer on February 23-24, Dal Hotel Jonpark, Jodhpur, on February 25, Hotel Trident Udaipur on February 26-28 and Hotel Ramada in Jaipur on February 28. On February 28, the patient was admitted to Fortis Hospital, Jaipur, due to health issues. He was examined on February 29 after being admitted to the isolation ward of SMS Hospital on suspicion of coronavirus infection. But he tested negative, the Minister said. However, in the seocnd examination he tested positive, Sharma added. Even the Institute of Virology, Pune, report confirmed the case of coronavirus. His wife's samples, which tested positive at the Jaipur lab on Tuesday, has been sent to Pune for cross-verification, according to the Minister. Samples of people who came in contact with these Italian travellers have also been collected and sent for testing. Of the 59 people who came in contact with them, 39 samples have been collected from Jhunjhunu, one each from Jodhpur and Udaipur, and samples of six staff of the Jaipur hotel. All these samples have been sent to SMS Hospital. At Fortis, the Italian man came in contact with 35 people. Of this, 9 samples have been collected along with 37 samples from SMS Hospital. In Bikaner, they came in contact with 44 people. But no one has been tested. Of the six people he came in contact in Udaipur, one has been tested. In Jaisalmer, he came in contact with 14 people, but no one has been tested. The Minister said the nodal officers of Udaipur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur and Jaipur districts, which the Italians visited, had been instructed to collect samples and also arrange for their isolation. Apres deux seances de suspension, le Leader de lOpposition sera de retour avec sa Private Notice Question qui va faire feu de tout bois et la suite sera les divers discours sur la motion de Tania Diolle 1. Announcements 2. Papers 3. Question 4. Motion The Honourable Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications, Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity That all the business on todays Order Paper be exempted from the provisions of paragraph (2) of Standing Order 10. 5. Statements by Ministers 6. Motion The Honourable Fourth Member for Belle Rose and Quatre Bornes (Mrs M. A. T. Diolle) That an Address be presented to the President of the Republic of Mauritius in the following terms We, the Members of the Mauritius National Assembly, here assembled, beg leave to offer our thanks to the President of the Republic of Mauritius for the Presentation of the Government Programme 2020-2024 on the occasion of the Opening of the First Session of the Seventh National Assembly. (Resumption of Debate) Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Californias lawmakers and citizens have been duped. When, in 2016, state legislators overwhelmingly approved AB2016, requiring the California Board of Educations Instructional Quality Commission to develop a model curriculum for use in high school ethnic studies courses, they had in mind the best interests of Californians and their kids. Consistent with the California History-Social Studies Framework referenced in the bills analysis, legislators envisioned courses that would teach students about the history, politics, culture, contributions, challenges and current status of ethnic groups in the United States, with a particular focus on California, the most ethnically diverse state in the nation. Noting that 92 languages other than English (are) spoken throughout the state, AB2016 aims at preparing pupils to be global citizens with an appreciation for the contributions of multiple cultures, a goal embraced by the vast majority of California taxpayers. However, the intent of legislators and the will of taxpayers were wholly subverted by members of the IQC-appointed model curriculum advisory committee. Last spring, commission members developed a draft curriculum that flatly rejected the bills understanding of ethnic studies and replaced it with a highly controversial approach serving to advance their own political goals. In stark contrast to AB2016s multicultural approach, which honors the states robust ethnic diversity and does not limit its focus to any particular identity groups, the draft model curriculum focused exclusively on four core groups African, Asian, Mexican/Latino and Native Americans and a few others favored by committee members. The draft curriculum also sharply diverged from the politically neutral AB2016 in its promotion of partisan political agendas and activism for instance equating capitalism with racism, lionizing revolutionary warriors, and advocating for student engagement in tactics of resistance and direct action such as protests against police brutality and anti-Israel boycotts. Not surprisingly, after the public learned of the drafts exclusionary focus on a handful of identity groups and its politically motivated and directed content, there was an explosion of outrage. Of the 20,000 public comments submitted to the Board of Education, over 19,000 were highly critical of the draft, including thousands from members of several ethnic groups who were infuriated at being excluded from the curriculum. State legislators were quick to acknowledge that the draft curriculum had gone dangerously astray. Luis Alejo, the former Assemblyman who sponsored AB2016, called the draft curriculum a setback in need of revision. Assemblyman Jose Medina, who had introduced legislation to make ethnic studies courses based on this new curriculum a high school graduation requirement, was one of 16 state legislators who signed a letter stating that they were strongly opposed to the draft curriculum moving forward without significant revisions. And Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed AB2016 into law, called the draft deeply offensive in so many ways and vowed it would never see the light of day. In response to the groundswell of criticism, California Board of Education President Linda Darling Hammond stated, The current draft curriculum falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, responding in particular to anger within the Jewish community over the exclusion of Jewish Americans, criticized the drafts limited focus and unequivocally stated that Jewish Americans must be included in the curriculum. Although it appeared that the original draft would be scrapped entirely or substantially revised to better align with AB2016s intent, recent statements by Board of Education officials indicate that most, if not all, of the controversial draft will remain unchanged and be used in Californias classrooms. At a January meeting of the Instructional Quality Commission, Manuel Rustin, head of the subcommittee tasked with making revisions to the draft, seemed unwilling to change the drafts ideological focus, emphasizing the importance of keeping things in line with the original principles ... (and) ideas created by the model curriculum advisory committee. And the following week, in a shocking about-face, Superintendent Thurman announced that his office would be recommending the curriculum limit its focus to the four foundational groups, doubling down on the exclusion of dozens of the states ethnic groups from the curriculum. Its time for action. California legislators must immediately demand that the Board of Education honor the letter and intent of the law and ensure that the draft model ethnic studies curriculum is revised accordingly. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the co-founder and director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California for 20 years. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Coronavirus is highly contagious and is spreading at a lightning speed around the world. The virus has already infected people in close to 70 countries. According to the World Health Organisation, there are 92,819 confirmed cases and 3,164 deaths reported globally. In India, total number of confirmed cases rose to 28 on Wednesday after an Italian tourist in Jaipur tested positive. So what is coronavirus and how can it be transmitted? Here is what you need to know: What is coronavirus? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to ... Equity market once again came under heavy selling pressure on Wednesday after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the number of confirmed cases in India have risen to 28. Reacting to this, benchmark indices tumbled around 2 per cent during the day; however, they witnessed sharp recovery towards the end of the session, but still ended in the negative territory. The S&P BSE Sensex settled at 38,409, down 214 points or 0.55 per cent. Of 30 stocks, 13 advanced while 17 declined. NSE's Nifty50 ended above 11,200 level at 11,251, down 52 points or 0.46 per cent. 28 out of 50 stocks ended in the red and rest 22 in the green. Fear guage India VIX closed at 24.23, down over 1 per cent. Market breadth remained in favour of sellers as out of 2,534 companies traded on the BSE, 1,706 declined and 696 gained while 132 remained unchanged. Broader market took deeper cuts. The S&P BSE MidCap index cracked 338 points or over 2 per cent to 14,425 while S&P BSE SmallCap ended at 13,427, down 346.5 points or 2.5 per cent. Sectorally, pharma stocks gained the most, followed by IT counters. However, bank, metals and media stocks slid. In the primary market, IPO of SBI Cards was subscribed 13.26 times till 3:45 pm. Today is the third of the offer. Another offer by Antony Waste Handling Cell was subscribed 7 per cent. The company, which is among India's top five municipal solid waste management players, plans to raise Rs 206 crore through the offer. Shares of aviation companies were under pressure on Wednesday, falling upto 8 per cent on the BSE, on concerns that the industry may face risks from the coronavirus outbreak. Global Asian shares struggled to find their footing on Wednesday and bonds held stunning gains, as an emergency rate cut from the US Federal Reserve seemed to stoke rather than soothe fears over the coronavirus widening global economic fallout. MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 per cent, though most of the gains were confined to South Korea where the government announced a big stimulus package. Japans Nikkei closed flat, while Australias S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.7 per cent. Stocks in Hong Kong and China traded either side of flat. In commodities, oil prices firmed on expectations of production cuts, with Brent rising 90 cents to $52.79 per barrel and US crude up 1.9 per cent at $48.06 a barrel. Gold rose 0.2 per cent to $1642.21 an ounce. Read by: Sukanya Roy Cramer & Anderson LLP has created the Henry Hank Anderson Memorial Scholarship in honor of the firms Founding Partner, who died in June at age 101. The New Milford-based law firm will award two scholarships of $500 each to graduating New Milford High School students. The first Henry Hank Anderson Memorial Scholarships will be presented by Cramer & Anderson Partners Art Weinshank and Randy DiBella at Senior Scholarship Night on May 27. The process requires students to submit a scholarship application and copy of their transcript, and write an essay on the topic: Describe areas in your life where you demonstrated leadership attributes to overcome one or more obstacles experienced in school, the community or family life. Were gratified to honor Hank Anderson and his legacy as a leader in the legal profession in Connecticut and beyond by creating scholarships that will assist New Milford High School students in their journey toward success, said Attorney Weinshank, senior partner of the firms Estate, Trust, Elder Law and Probate Administration Department. Its very fitting to celebrate through these scholarships Hank Andersons role as a wonderful mentor, said Attorney DiBella, a leader in Connecticut Municipal Law who has been New Milfords town attorney for nearly 17 years. Attorney DiBella was honored with a statewide Best Mentors award as part of the Connecticut Law Tribunes 2018 Professional Excellence Awards. Attorney Weinshank was joined by Attorney DiBella in speaking at a memorial service for Anderson in September 2019 at the First Congregational Church of New Milford, where both described being inspired by his professionalism, devotion to the law, polymathic range of interests, and heroism in World War II. Hank Anderson died at age 101 on June 22, 2019, at home in Brewster, Mass., where he lived with his wife. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut School of Law, he was a decorated Navy veteran who survived kamikaze attacks on two ships during World War II. The first was an attack by two kamikaze pilots on the USS Bunker Hill on May 11, 1945, as it supported the attack on Okinawa. Nearly 400 sailors were killed. The second came only days later, when the USS Enterprise was attacked by a kamikaze pilot, killing 14. Following the war, and after finishing his masters and law degreesgraduating from Wesleyan and UConn on the same dayAnderson came to western Connecticut to live and work, joining the firm of Attorney Harry Bradbury before partnering with Attorney Francis S. Ferriss to form the firm Ferriss and Anderson. After Attorney Ferriss died in 1957, Anderson and his friend Attorney Paul B. Altermatt formed Anderson and Altermatt. In 1962, they joined their firm with Cramer, Blick, Fitzgerald & Hume to create Cramer & Anderson, which was originally based in New Milford and Litchfield and has grown to include six offices in western Connecticut. Among his many state and national roles, Anderson served as president of the Litchfield County Bar Association, and was a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Association and American Bar Association. In addition to guiding Cramer & Anderson, he helped to shape the practice of law in Connecticut and beyond. Anderson was the recipient of numerous distinguished legal awards, a UConn Law story recounted. In 1989 he was voted Citizen of the Year by the State of Connecticut Courts of Probate. In 1990, The Connecticut Bar Association awarded him the John Eldred Shields Award for his professional services to the community at large over 900 hours of pro bono services. He was also voted Probate Attorney of the Year by the Connecticut Probate Assembly. In 2018, the Connecticut Law Tribune honored Anderson with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The passing of Hank Anderson was the end of an era, not only for Cramer & Anderson but for the Bar here in Connecticut, Attorney Weinshank said at the time of Andersons death. His personal accomplishments and prominence gave such stature to the firm and made us more than a local Litchfield County law firm. To learn more about Hank Anderson, see a story about his life published in the Greater New Milford Spectrum, and his obituary published in The News-Times. Photo credit: Naef & Joslin/Cleveland Memory Project From Popular Mechanics George Hulett didnt especially seem like the kind of person who could change the course of American history. The native of Conneaut, Ohioa Lake Erie town thats as far northeast as you can get and still be in the Buckeye Stateended his formal schooling at age 18. He worked in groceries, owning a store not far from his hometown, before branching into manufacturing, which was driving the economy of nearby Cleveland, where he moved in 1881. It seemed like an odd career change, but Hulett was an odd man. Author William D. Ellis , in his history of Clevelands infamous Cuyahoga River , described Hulett as a bullfrog in a baggy suit who wasnt above putting a plug of tobacco in his mouth while taking meetings with captains of industry. In those appointments, he talked as if he were still driving a team of draft horses back home on the farm. But Hulett had a farm boys ingenuityand he was in the right place to capitalize on it. Though its tough to imagine now, Cleveland at the end of the 19th century was the Silicon Valley of its day, with more patent applications than anywhere else in the nation. The city was booming, thanks to John D. Rockefeller and oil refining, as well as shipping and the nascent steel industry. Hulett watched the ships journey to Cleveland to docks on Lake Erieor along the Cuyahoga River, the crooked river that proved so difficult to navigate that a spot fraught with shipwrecks is still known as the collision bend. At the time, cargo was unloaded one wheelbarrow at a time, by workers who were paid 10 cents a ton to unload the ship. It took a crew of 100 workers five days to unload 300 tons of cargo from a ship. Time was money on the Great Lakes, which would freeze over in the winter, limiting the time it was navigable. There had to be a better way. Patent No. 652,313A Photo credit: USPTO/Public Domain Hulett, a 2006 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, received more than two dozen patents for various machines in his career. But his most important was Patent No. 652,313A in 1899, for a 92-foot-tall unloading apparatus that could scoop iron ore from a ships hold 10 tons at a timean almost unfathomable number back then, even though more than 13 million tons of ore were shipped on the Great Lakes that year. Story continues At first, the machine was merely theoretical. Hulett set a meeting with steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who wanted to see it work before buying one. Hulett got a Cleveland-based company to take the leap of faith and build the unloader at a cost of $45,000on spec. The following year, Carnegie and his sidekick, Charles Schwab, went to Huletts hometown for a demonstration of a prototype. Neither man was the type to be easily impressed. Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant whod risen from humble origins to one of the richest men in the world. While Schwabs ascent wasnt quite as meteoric, hed gone from engineer to president of Carnegies company at the age of 35. They saw the steam-powered machine, which was said to resemble a grasshopper arm, on a gantry built over railroad tracks. The machine lowered its armoverbalanced by 6,000 pounds so gravity powered its descentinto the ships hold. The bucket at the end of the arm had a clamshell opening, gobbling up tons of iron ore and bringing it up to deposit into waiting train cars. The entire process to grab and dump one 10-ton scoop of ore took about a minute. In repose, this monster is the ugliest, ungainliest machine ever made, Ellis wrote. In action, it is sheer poetry. Carnegie had seen the future. He promptly bought the unloaderand four more. The machine, to be known as the Hulett unloader, or simply a Hulett, would soon revolutionize steelmaking. If we didnt have the Huletts, says Ray Saikus, past president of the Cleveland Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), we wouldnt have been able to produce armaments that won World War I and II. By 1900, the Huletts were the kings of the Cuyahoga. And now theyre all gone. Rewriting the Story of Steel Photo credit: Cleveland Press Collection/Cleveland Memory Project The effects of the Hulett were instantaneous and far-reaching. The methods of loading and unloading were a transformative part of the Great Lakes, says Chris Gillcrist, director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo. And the Huletts had a lot to do with that. Ships could be unloaded with a crew of 25a far cry from the hundreds previously requiredand they worked the machine. One brave soul actually did the unloading, riding atop the arm that controlled its dip into the ships hold. What took a week could now be done in a day. Almost instantly, the cost of shipping iron ore decreased from 18 to six cents a ton. The Huletts changed the very form of the ships that sailed the Great Lakes. Prior to their invention, the big Great Lakes transporters were so-called whaleback ships, designed by Great Lakes ship captain Alexander McDougall, another native of Scotland. As their name implies, the freighters had curved hulls and, when fully laden, resembled a whale sailing the Great Lakes. New ships were built to accommodate the Huletts with great big cargo holds unencumbered by deck beams. The Huletts made whalebacks obsolete, Gillcrist says, noting theyd virtually vanished from the Great Lakes by the 1930s. Because they could be unloaded faster, ships could be made bigger. Great Lakes freighters grew by 100 feet in just the first decade after Hulett received his patent. The increase in size of lake ore carriers from 300 to 625 feet in length and from 3,000 to 13,000 tons in capacity in the past 30 years has been largely the result of improvements in unloading, wrote R.C. Allen of Oglebay Norton in 1923, on the occasion of Huletts death. Within a decade, Huletts could be found at every major port on Lake Erie. At their peak, there were 77 Huletts, almost all on the Great Lakes. There were a couple on the East Coast, but the Huletts, which couldn't be adjusted for ocean tides, were primarily tools for the Great Lakes. Ultimately, electricity replaced steam power and buckets got bigger, with the capability to take 17 tons per scoop per minute. But the same basic technology remained. They never wear out and nobodys ever designed or built a machine that will do the job better, faster, or more economically, Robert Anslow, the man who sold the Huletts, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1969. The first part was definitely true. But the technology that would supplant the Huletts was nearly as old as they were. It just took a half a century to perfect it. A Rapid Rise and Fall Photo credit: Naef & Joslin/Cleveland Memory Project In 1902four years after Hulett received his patent and three after the unloader was first demonstrated in Conneautthe Hennepin set out to sea, retrofitted as the first self-unloading ship. Launched as the George H. Dyer 14 years earlier, the 220-foot craft was already dwarfed by ships twice its size. It carved out a niche as a self-unloader for the next 25 years. Six years later after the Hennepin, the Wyandotte launched as the first ship built as a self-unloader. The Huletts efficiency ultimately helped contribute to their undoing. As they reduced unloading and transportation costs, they also reduced the cost of steel productionwhich could then be used to make bigger ships. In 1927, the Carl D. Bradley became the first self-unloader to take the Queen of the Lakes title as the Great Lakes longest ship, at 639 feet. Self-unloading ships have followed the same basic principle since their inception, with the ships hold funneling to a conveyor under it, which carries the ships cargo to another conveyor that brings it up on deck, where it can be delivered through another conveyor into nearby vehicles. Back then, it could work for soft coal and other material, but it wasnt able to successfully transport heavier cargo, like iron ore. But in the 1950s, engineers developed a process to form the iron ore into small concentrated pellets, which were easier to ship and unload with self-unloaders. The Huletts days were numbered. The mining industry itself had changed, Gillcrist says. Once that happened, all the boats started going toward self-unloaders, which made the Huletts obsolete. Now, you could unload cargo anywhere, and you didnt need a special crew to do it, which helped reduce expenses. The steel industry also faced tectonic shifts. The Great Lakes cities that were home to tremendous steel productionas well as cities like Pittsburgh and Youngstown, which werent on the Great Lakes, but were close enough to take advantage of their shipping capacitysaw mills close and companies fold. The Midwestern cities that were destinations for the train cars the Huletts loaded with ore no longer needed them. And so the Huletts, which had lifted more than 100 million tons of ore in roughly a century, were no longer needed. All That Remains Photo credit: Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Co./Cleveland Memory Project Huletts could be found throughout the lower Great Lakes, from Chicago to Buffalo. But if theres one city thats most closely associated with the giant unloaders, its Cleveland. The unloaders inventor and namesake spent most of his adult life there. Many of the unloaders were built by Wellman-Seaver Morgan in Cleveland. And boasting 14 unloaders at its peak, no city had more, making it the largest ore shipping center in the U.S. For generations, four of the massive unloaders stood like sentinels watching the Cleveland coastline as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad docks on Whiskey Island. In fact, if youve ever seen a Hulett, it was probably those four, which can be seen in the opening credits of Major League. After the Pennsylvania Railroads merger with the New York Central to form Penn Central (and that companys subsequent bankruptcy), the unloaders passed to Conrail, which had no need for them. By 1987, they were only unloading around 30 ships a yearjust 10 percent of what theyd done previouslyand the Huletts were finally decommissioned in 1992, the last of their kind on Lake Erie. (Two more on the Calumet River in Chicago lasted until 1999.) Conrail sought a permit to demolish the Huletts, but a historic preservation movement rose up in response. In 1998, ASME declared the Huletts a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, one of just 275 sites in the world to reserve such a designation. The Huletts are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ultimately, two of the four Cleveland Huletts were torn down for scrap, while the other two were disassembled and remain in pieces on Whiskey Island, which has become a popular recreation destination in Cleveland. The city remains a major port, with 13 million tons of cargo annually. But in a state where tourism is a multibillion-dollar industry, people are starting to see the value of the lakefront for recreation. Barges now share space on the Cuyahoga with high school crew teams. People now live in the Flats, with a variety of restaurants and bars on the waterfront. And that leads to the question of what to do with the remnants of the Huletts on Whiskey Island. Saikus says getting them rebuilt wouldnt be the problem, even with an estimated cost of $10 million. A lot of our members are corporate heads, he says. Money isnt the issue. Rather, he says, its getting local governmental entities on board. Its been a struggle for the last 20 years, but an answer could be at hand. The Cleveland Landmarks Commission approved using part of the Hulett for a display at North Coast Harbor, at the end of East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland. Using just a part, Saikus says, would be a betrayal of history. But its better than nothing. The Huletts were Clevelands unique contribution to American prosperity, he says. We have to take pride in that. You Might Also Like By Akbar Mammadov As part of the policy to develop entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan, enterpreneurs in the country will be given free legal assitance. Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMEs) under the Ministry of Economy and Collegium of Advocates signed an agreement to ensure entrepreneurs access to professional legal assistance during a conference on Opportunities for businesss access to approachable and professionals legal assistance held on March 3. Addressing the conference, Chairman of SMEs Board of Directors Orkhan Mammadov said that the protection of entrepreneurs interests and tackling their problems are among key directions of the activities of SMEs. The conference was dedicated to discussing partnership perspectives between Collegium of Advocates and SMEs on providing professional lawyers for the effective legal protection of entrepreneurs, expanding their opportunities for access to relevant services, and operative solution of issues they faced. To ensure that entrepreneurs are benefiting from legal services in the single location, attorney offices and cabinets can be created in SMEs houses operating in Baku and Khachmaz and will be set up in other districts, the chairman said. The measures to help entrepreneurs also envisage opening a database about lawyers to ensure easy access to professional legal assistance, support of Collegium of Advocates to enlighten entrepreneurs about legal issues, etc. The Chairman of Collegium of Advocates Anar Baghirov said that over 90 advocacy agencies are operating around all regions across the country. He further said that the number of lawyers has doubled thanks to the measures towards development of advocacy, mediation institute. -- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz In a swipe at the BJP at the Centre, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday wondered if demonetisation, which had an impact on the economy, shouldn't have found a mention in subsequent national budgets. He was speaking at the launch of a book written by his predecessor, Devendra Fadnavis, titled "Arthsankalp: Sopya Bhashet" (Budget Simplified). Assembly Speaker Nana Patole, Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Opposition Leader in Council Pravin Darekar and others were also present. During his speech which was peppered with wit, Thackeray said he hoped that Fadnavis keeps writing books on the budgets presented by the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government for a long time. "You have written a book on budget before we present our first budget. You should keep writing such books on our budgets for the next five-ten years. So we will come to know the deficiencies on our part (in budgets)," Thackeray said. In a barely-veiled swipe at the BJP-led Union government, he further said, "I always wonder, shouldn't note-ban have found mention in the (subsequent) budgets when when we mention even smaller things in the budget? I am not saying if (the decision of demonetisation) was good or bad. "But I don't know whether the ban on currency, on which the economy is dependent, shouldn't have had figured in the budget," Thackeray added. Several economists as well as opposition parties had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in 2016, blaming it for causing a huge disruption in the economy. Thackeray, however, had words of praise for Fadnavis, who is now Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Fadnavis has simplified the subject in his book for the benefit lay persons, he said. Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance portfolio, said that opposition leaders often create a ruckus when budgets are presented, and praised Fadnavis for being a patient listener instead. Fadnavis is also a "good litterateur" who should take up this role full-time, giving up politics, he said. "It will bring 'good days' for us," Pawar quipped. Fadnavis said even MLAs sometimes find budgets complicated. "This book is written for commoners," he said, adding he intends to bring out its English edition too. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington state has reported a 10th death from the new coronavirus and California announced its first. The person who died in Washington Tuesday was a woman in her 90s who had lived at the Life Care Center, the nursing facility that was home to six of the 10 Washington residents who have died from COVID-19. Health officials in Northern California say the elderly person who had other health conditions died Wednesday at a hospital in Roseville where they were in isolation. The person was likely exposed to the virus while they traveled in February on a Princess cruise ship from San Francisco to Mexico, officials said in a statement The Washington state Department of Health released updated figures Wednesday morning, showing that nine people had died in King County, the states most populous, and one person in Snohomish County. Washington state has now reported 39 COVID-19 cases, all in the greater Seattle area. Of the 10 new King County cases announced Wednesday, nine were connected to Life Care. Seven of those were residents of the center, while two others were associated with it, including a teenage girl who tested positive does not require hospitalization. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence COVID-19 may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected. If true, that could mean that there are hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. On the national front, President Donald Trump is putting a positive spin on the fallout from the coronavirus, saying a lot of people are staying in the United States and theyre shopping and staying in the hotels. Trump spoke with leaders of the airline industry on Wednesday at the White House. Southwest Airlines CEO and board chairman Gary Kelly said employees have stepped up efforts to make sure airplanes are clean and disinfected. United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said workers are doing what he called the corona bump, where they bump elbows as part of their greeting. Trump thanked the airlines and said theyve stepped up to stem the spread of the virus. Internationally, Italy has ordered schools to close nationwide through March 15 in a bid to contain the coronavirus, saying the prudent suspension was taken after a careful analysis of how the epidemic was spreading. Civil protection officials said Wednesday a total of 3,089 people have tested positive in Italy and 107 of them had died the largest number of deaths outside of China. Education Minister Lucia Azzolina announced the school suspensions, which start Thursday, saying she hoped schools would be able to continue with lessons via distance learning. Italy has seen its virus caseload explode since the first homegrown positive test was registered in northern Lombardy on Feb. 19. Italy had earlier closed schools in the hard-hit regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. -- The Associated Press Emergency services at the scene of an incident in the Bankhall Road area of Larne on Monday 2nd March 2020 (Photo: Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Police are waiting to question the mother of a toddler who died in a domestic incident, because she is still being treated for serious wounds in hospital. The woman, who is understood to be a nurse in her 30s, she was being treated at the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast following the incident in rural Co Antrim. Another child, a one-year-old baby, is also being treated in hospital for injuries. Police have now reopened the Bankhall Road in Magheramorne, near Larne, where the family home is situated. But the farmhouse where Monday's tragic events unfolded remained sealed off yesterday. Police are continuing their investigation into the shocking incident, which has left locals stunned. Reverend Dr Cecil Grant, of Magheramorne Presbyterian Church, said he had been offering comfort to those affected by the death of the youngster. "While we can't say exactly what and how this has happened, I have been in touch with the community this morning and everyone is united in their expression of shock and disbelief," said Dr Grant. "This is a very small, rural and closely knit community and this is something no one every imagined would happen in the neighbourhood. "They only moved in to the area in the last year, but the community still feels this very deeply. "People have been praying for the family. "There is a confusion as to the circumstances and the people here still don't really know or understand exactly what has happened. "That probably adds to the shock, the shock of not knowing. "No one that I have been in contact with since this happened really knew the family too well, but the sense of trying to come to terms with this is palpable. "We are here for prayer, people will have things they need to talk about, and we are here to support the community in whatever way we can. "That's what the church is for. I want people to see this church as a shelter and togetherness. It's what this community needs right now." Two older children are thought to have been at school at the time of the incident and the children's father was at work. It's believed police received a 999 call from the father after he rushed home to the scene. On Monday afternoon, police forensics teams removed a number of items from the family home, including an iPhone. Police said their investigation was "at an early stage" and would not be releasing any further information on the incident last night. Health official: 'Regardless of variant, the protective measures are the same' Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:19:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam said Wednesday that she is confident that Hong Kong can win the battle against the COVID-19. Lam made the remarks when inspecting a residential building in Tsing Yi area where a couple of confirmed cases were reported last month. The government evacuated dozens of households of the building in Cheung Hong Estate overnight in February after two dwellers there were diagnosed with the infection. Various government agencies made concerted efforts to transfer involved residents to quarantine centers, carry out thorough cleaning and disinfection, and repair the drainage system of the building. Lam said the government has been closely monitoring the development of the situation and has responded comprehensively with decisive and appropriate measures since the outbreak of the disease. She expressed gratitude to all the people involved for joining hands to enforce the relevant measures swiftly to safeguard public health and provide appropriate support to residents affected. During the inspection, Lam also chatted with security and cleaning workers, saying that the government will offer them monthly allowances to help them fight the COVID-19. 2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Joe Bidens dominance in southern states with high African American populations continued on Tuesday night with what is expected to be a resounding victory in Alabama. As the polls closed in the state, NBC News projected that the former vice president would finish first when all the votes are counted. The fact that Alabama was called so early for Biden indicates that, like in South Carolina, the former VPs margin of victory will likely be wide. His victory in the southern state follows two big wins for the former vice president in Virginia and North Carolina. Alabamas importance shouldnt be downplayed Joe Bidens victory in South Carolina turned the political world upside down and sent the former vice president into Super Tuesday with the wind at his back. While much attention was rightly paid to Bidens victory in the Palmetto State, Alabama seems to have gotten lost in a flurry of other states that are weighing in on Super Tuesday. But Alabamas importance shouldnt be downplayed. Not only are the demographics similar to South Carolinas, but the state is worth 52 delegates just two fewer than South Carolinas 54 delegates. Ultimately, Bidens victory in the state shows that what happened in South Carolina is no fluke. He continues to be dominant in southern states with a sizable percentage of African American voters. Bernie Sanders may downplay these folks, but they are the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and the Joe Biden comeback. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter Renting in Cuba: Illegal, No Guarantees, and Many Obstacles "The Government knows that it must turn a blind eye to this business." Dianelis and Laura are two young students looking for a long-term rental they can afford with the remittances that their respective families can send them each month. Originally from Cienfuegos, they are studying for degrees at the University of Havana. "Renting is an adventure fraught with obstacles for Cubans. Every day rents offering decent conditions are ever scarcer and more expensive. The option that remains is to give up your privacy and share with close friends, to minimize your expenses," said Laura, who works as a manicurist when she is not studying. "I don't think rents are expensive, but rather everything in the country suddenly became more expensive, and we are all caught in the same vicious circle: those who rent out, and those who rent. The reality is the same for everyone," Dianelis said. Both are in the third year of their studies. They pay $100 for a two-bedroom apartment in Nuevo Vedado. The price was $120, but they were recommended by friends of the landlady's family, and she agreed to 20 dollars less. Havana writer Jorge Enrique, meanwhile, has been fortunate. For almost two years he has been renting in the Los Sitios neighborhood, but the price he pays is high: $100 per month. "The space is quite small, only for one person, but it is independent, and for an indefinite period, which are always the most difficult rental conditions to find. Previously I was renting in three other places, for half of this price, but living with the owners, and only for four months," said Jorge Enrique, who has to "scrape" to pay the rent on time every month. Despite the almost family-like relationship he has with his landlady, Jorge Enrique is looking for a bigger place to settle with partner and son. "But finding a rental with two bedrooms, independent, for an indefinite period, with minimum conditions, and a rent under 100 dollars, is really difficult, if not impossible, today," he said. The minimum conditions for a rental include a refrigerator. Not all rentals guarantee this amenity, which is usually the most important, all the respondents agreed. "Without a refrigerator, your expenses double, because you can't store food, and can hardly plan your household budget," said Javier Castellanos, who rents a one-bedroom apartment in an El Cerro neighborhood along with his girlfriend. "We pay $80 per month, but without a refrigerator. The only good thing is that it is indefinite. For two years we had been struggling, with rentals for three-month periods, at most. Now we can buy our things, to start a family." Those who have to rent just temporarily are limited in terms of acquiring material goods. A move can cost between $30 and $40 for the truck, and $10 to $15 for the labor. "If every three or six months you have to pay that money, plus the inconvenience of each move, you prefer not to have anything of your own, and to look for rentals that have some minimal amenities, which is practically impossible to find for less than $100," said Katiuska Llerena, a young nurse who lost her room in Central Habana five years ago due to a landslide. In Katiuska's view, finding an indefinite rental is no guarantee either. As it is not a legal business (rental for Cubans), tenants are defenseless and unable to file suits; "not even for the theft of your belongings." "The housing situation is worsening, and many prefer to go hungry and pay rent rather than resort to a shelter. Thus, the prices soar, and if someone else shows up tomorrow, able to pay 30 dollars more, then the landlady throws you out," Katiuska added, who has experienced this twice. For her current place, in the Santo Suarez neighborhood, she pays $75 per month. It is a one-bedroom apartment, without a refrigerator, but for an indefinite period. Cheap rentals of between 30 and 40 dollars, with security and good conditions, hardly exist. In general, they are in very remote neighborhoods, and do not offer guarantees against theft "in cases of problematic neighborhoods" and because of "the conditions of the property themselves," said Gloria Valdes, who identifies herself as someone who many Cubans looking for rentals, of any type, contact. "They are almost always on lots with little privacy, and they are taken by people who are really desperate, or who come from the provinces to Havana, for various reasons." Asked about the licenses to rent to Cubans for long terms, or indefinitely, Gloria said, coinciding with all those consulted, that she did not know a single person with permission to do this. "The Government knows that it must turn a blind eye to this non-legal business. The housing situation is so tough, they can hardly go around supervising who rents to whom. The risk of renting to Cubans is a fine of 1,500 pesos, but they are rarely imposed. Its a business that harms no one," Gloria concluded. PIERRE, S.D. A South Dakota Senate committee on Tuesday advanced Gov. Kristi Noems proposal to revive the states riot laws with criminal and civil penalties for those who urge rioting. Native American groups opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline warned that the initiative would stoke tensions that could lead to situations similar to the stand-offs over the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. The bill will next be voted on by the full Senate. It has already passed the House. Candi Brings Plenty, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the bill sets the stage for a continuation of tensions. Many tribal members spoke of their experiences of demonstrations at Standing Rock and described how law enforcement used violence and threats of incitement to riot charges against them. They argued that the bill represents another step in longstanding oppression of Native American people since the violation of treaties dating back to the 1800s. Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, a Republican from Watertown, said that protesters also committed violence against law enforcement at Standing Rock. The Legislature passed a so-called riot boosting law last year that attempted to prevent a situation similar to those demonstrations. The Republican governor wanted to pursue groups that fund demonstrations with criminal and civil penalties. But a judge found parts of last years laws to be unconstitutional, in part because they were overly broad in limiting free speech and aimed specifically at demonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline. Noem came back this year with a bill that cleaned up the states criminal and civil penalties for riot and incitement to riot, arguing that she is making sure everyone stays safe in the state. She is also pushing civil penalties so that the state, counties or municipalities can recoup damages caused by riots. The governors staffers argued that the bill does not infringe on peoples rights to protest, but seeks to protect property and people from violence. Katie Hruska, a lawyer with Noems office, explained that the bill is designed to pass whats known as the Brandenburg test for free speech, which stipulates that authorities cant prosecute speech unless the speech is intended to cause force or violence, is likely to cause it, and the action is imminent. Law enforcement groups, including the South Dakota Police Chiefs Association and the Sheriffs Association, spoke in support of the bill. As long as people dont incite lawless action, there is nothing to fear from this bill, said Dick Tieszen, a lobbyist for the Sheriffs Association. Opponents of the bill spoke for over an hour and a half in often-charged testimony. Opponents stood at several times to express respect for speakers, and women let out trills, a way Lakota women praise courage. After the meeting ended, opponents sang a Lakota prayer song while lawmakers filed out of the room. They raised a host of concerns with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, saying that it threatens the health of the water and environment as well as people who would be put at increased risk of kidnapping, murder and sexual exploitation from the influx of temporary workers into small communities. Noem has argued that the bill is not designed solely for the pipeline project, but to establish protections for any demonstrations in the state. Opponents, and even some lawmakers who support the bill, disagreed with that argument. Its clear to me that the genesis of the bill has to do with the pipeline and what happened in North Dakota, said Sen. Lance Russell, a Hot Springs Republican who voted to approve the bill. The lone Democrat on the committee opposed the bill and warned that he thought it may be challenged in court again. Craig Kennedy, the Democrat from Yankton, said, Were going to deal with an unconstitutional bill that is designed for the sole purpose of protecting the pipeline project. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Mexico delivers man wanted in Texas homicide Mexico City, Mexico The Attorney Generals Office of the Republic (FGR), in compliance with the Extradition Treaty signed between Mexico and the United States, handed over a Mexican national who was wanted on criminal charges in the state of Texas. La Fiscalia General de la Republica (FGR) says they have completed the extradition of Ramon V, handing him over to US authorities for the crimes of interstate stalking and homicide. The FGR reported that Ramon V was wanted by a Federal Court in the state of Texas for his probable responsibility in the crimes of interstate stalking and criminal association to commit a homicide. According to investigations by the US authorities, in 2013 in Southlake, Texas, Ramon V is alleged to have participated in hire-for-murder, hiring people to carrying out the killing of another. The delivery of Ramon V to US authorities was made at the International Airport of Mexico City to the US agents designated for his final transfer to the US to face charges. Cherat Cement to receive gas for its captive power plant 04 March 2020 Cherat Cement Co Ltd (CHCC) has started receiving gas supply from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd, for its for its plant located at Nowshera in KPK province, Pakistan. This will help in reducing the production costs of the company, said the company's Executive Director Abid Wazir. According to the company's half-yearly report ending December 2019, to reduce its production costs, CHCC is also installing 12.3MW solar panels at the factory. Furthermore, it has signed a Wheeling Regime Energy Purchase Agreement with the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) for the supply of cheap electricity. The company's management expects that these measures will help in curtailing production costs. Earlier, CHCC added 10MWs of WHR with Kiln Line 3, coupled with 29MW dual-fired power plants. CHCC has been reliant on Pakistan's national grid and fuel oil for power generation. However, the new supply of gas would sustainably reduce power cost of the company, a research house said. In January 2019 the company successfully installed and commissioned the 6700tpd Kiln Line 3, along with a WHR plant. With this expansion, the production capacity of the company has increased to more than 4.5Mta. The project was completed well before the scheduled time. Published under Pope Francis coughs during the Angelus noon prayer he recited from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on March 1, 2020. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo) Vatican Says Pope Francis Suffering From a Cold The Vatican responded to questions and speculation about Pope Franciss health after the pontiff missed several events last week and appeared visibly ill in photos. In a Wednesday statement, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that Francis merely has a cold, not the COVID-19 coronavirus. Italian paper Il Messaggero reported that he tested negative for COVID-19, but the Vatican didnt mention this in its statement. His cold is running its course, without symptoms linked to other pathologies, the Vatican said in a statement to the Catholic News Agency. The Holy See added that Pope Francis has a common cold, and doesnt have symptoms caused by other diseases. Pope Francis celebrated daily mass and follows the spiritual exercises that are taking place at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, the Vatican said. Francis on Feb. 27 canceled visits with his larger audiences due to his health and worked in the Vaticans Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, according to reports. At the time, officials said he was suffering from a slight indisposition. He offered his early morning masses on Feb. 27 to Feb. 29 in Santa Marta, and on March 1, he led the weekly Angelus from a window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peters Square, pausing several times to cough. Unfortunately, a cold forces me not to participate this year: I will follow the meditations from here, he also said, according to the news agency. The development comes as Italy grapples with an outbreak of COVID-19 in several northern regions such as Lombardy and Veneto. On Wednesday, Italy announced it would close universities and schools after reporting some 2,500 cases and 52 deaths, according to reports. More than 86,000 people worldwide have been infected with the novel coronavirus and the global death toll is nearing 3,000. To try to prevent the spread of the virus, local governments have been closing tourist attractions that normally draw large crowds. World-famous destinations such as the Great Wall of China and the Venetian canals resemble ghost towns. As new coronavirus cases are confirmed daily, more closures and cancellations are expected. For the most up-to-date information on the status of an attraction or event, check the institution's or event's main web page. BEIJING'S FORBIDDEN CITY IMAGE: A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he stands near the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images The Forbidden City is normally crowded with tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, but the site was closed to prevent gatherings of large crowds that might help the novel coronavirus to spread. GREAT WALL OF CHINA IMAGE: People stand in front of the closed tickets office to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall, where a notice is seen saying that the place is closed to visitors for the safety concern following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, near Beijing, China. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters The high-traffic section of the Great Wall was shut down in late January to curb the spread of the virus. The Juyongguan section of the Great Wall has been closed, and the wall's temple fair was cancelled. BEIJING ZOO IMAGE: Men walk past a banner hung on the ticket office of the Beijing Zoo that is closed following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, in Beijing, China. The Chinese characters on the banner read, "Stay focused and united, have faith and confidence, with scientific prevention and control, we can beat the epidemic". Photograph: Tingshu Wang/Reuters The century-old zoo has been closed to the public since January 24, the beginning of the Spring Festival holiday, after health authorities advised the public to stay indoors amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. However, the zoo has been updating the daily lives of its animals on Chinese social media platforms, uploading articles, videos and loads of pictures of the animals' training and feeding. SHANGHAI DISNEYLAND IMAGE: The Disney Resort in Shanghai. Photograph: Visual China/Getty Images Shanghai Disney closed on January 24, it did not offer any information on its plans to reopen. With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases -- and deaths -- higher in China than anywhere else, it's unclear when Shanghai Disney will resume operations. The resort's website states the theme park is in close contact with health officials and the local government and will announce the reopening date once they've been advised it's safe to do so. ITALY IMAGE: A bicycle parked in Vittorio Veneto square is seen in Turin usually full of tourists as a coronavirus outbreak continues to grow in Italy. Photograph: Massimo Pinca/Reuters Several museums in Milan, Venice and other areas in northern Italy were closed temporarily and will reopen with new safety measures. Milan's Duomo and La Scala opera house closed to visitors on February 25. Schools, universities, theatres, and cinemas have also been shut in the city. IMAGE: Residents and tourists walk around the sparsely populated Duomo square due to the fear of most residents to leave their houses due to the coronavirus in Milan, Italy. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images The city is struggling with a tourism decline as more than 2,000 cases of coronavirus are confirmed across Italy. According to Italy's tourism federation, Assoturismo, 90 per cent of hotel and package holiday bookings in Rome this month have been cancelled. IMAGE: A woman wearing a face mask checks her phone outside the Teatro alla Scala, closed by authorities due to a coronavirus outbreak, in Milan, Italy. Photograph: Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters It isn't just Rome that is struggling - Sicily has also seen a cancellation rate of 80 per cent. IMAGE: Very few people are seen in the area surrounding the Colosseum, which would usually be full of tourists, in Rome, Italy. Italy's tourism industry has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters Venice, Florence and Turin, usually popular with tourists even at this time of year, are empty with just a few families wandering around. Venice has already struggled following the high levels of flooding last year, which saw bookings drop by 40 per cent in December - and is now facing more problems due to coronavirus. LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS IMAGE: A tourist wearing a mask walks away from the Louvre as the staff closed the museum during a staff meeting about the coronavirus outbreak, in Paris, France. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters France has 100 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, prompting the government to order the canceling of any public gatherings of more than 5,000 people. The Louvre Museum in Paris closed Sunday because of the coronavirus. GYEONGBOKGUNG PALACE, SEOUL IMAGE: People in traditional Korean clothes "Hanbok" dresses wear face masks as a precaution to protect them against the novel coronavirus at Gyeongbokgung Royal Palace in Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images One of South Korea's most popular tourist attractions, Gyeongbokgung Palace, has suspended all official guided tours "until further notice," according to the palace's website. Self-guided tours, however, are permitted. JAPAN IMAGE: People have their photograph taken beneath Hakone Jinjya Heiwa-no-Torii at Lake Ashi in Hakone, Japan. The hot springs resort town of Hakone, just 90 minutes from Tokyo and a longtime favourite destination for Chinese tourists, has seen visitor numbers plummet in recent weeks amid concerns and travel restrictions caused by coronavirus. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images In Japan, where the outbreak has escalated in recent weeks, both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea are closed and set to reopen March 16, and Universal Studios has announced it too will close its doors through March 15. Several museums in Japan have temporarily shuttered amid the virus outbreak. The Mori Art Museum, National Museum of Modern Art and the Kyoto National Museum are among the closures. Several major cherry blossom festivals have also been canceled, including Tokyo's Nakameguro Cherry Blossom Festival. SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Market estimated to grow by 7.7% CAGR during the forecast period of 2019-2024. The Coordinate Measuring Machine is an apparatus that gauges the geometry of bodily substances. It characteristically utilizes probes to sense the location of a point in space, gauging it on the basis of its distance as of a three-dimensional orientation spot. A Coordinate Measuring Machine is likewise utilized to assess and confirm a portion or assemblage to make sure that it cup tie the anticipated design. Mainly the Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) has four important mechanisms: probe non-contact or else contact, the system of computer control and software. Coordinate measuring machines have in point of fact set the standard for constancy and accuracy of checkup for the products through a number of sectors of manufacturing. The most important motivator for the development of the market for coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is growing necessity for dimensional authentication and precise geometric measurement in the manufacturing procedure of automotive, aerospace, military equipment and components, all over the world. Additional reasons those are expected to power the growth of the market for coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is the growing necessities of production nimbleness together with growing acceptance of portable coordinate measuring machine, considerable progresses taking place those are associated with the optical coordinate measuring machines and articulated arm machines. In addition to enormous investments done for the research & development and the presentation of sensors and the software for enriched accurate and sensitive measurements. Additionally, the expansion of the global coordinate measuring machine (CMM) industry can also be because of the augmented product usage in a number of end-user businesses, for example Power & Energy, Automotive, Electronics and Aerospace between others. One of the limitations to the development of the market is the greater price of the machinery. The greater percentage of asset income is too dropping the general transactions of the new-fangled machines. Therefore restrict the development of the global market. The global market for Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) can be classified by Application, Product, Type and Region. By Application, it can be classified as Electronics & Electricals, Defense & Aerospace, Power & Energy, and Automotive, Heavy Machinery, Inspection & Quality Control, Virtual Simulation, Reverse Engineering and Others. By Product, it can be classified as Stationary Coordinate Measuring Machine, Portable Coordinate Measuring Machine. By Type, it can be classified as Bridge, Articulated arm, Cantilever Gantry and Portable & Handheld. Download PDF to know more details about "Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Market" report 2024. By Region the global market of Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) can be classified as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa. The North America province is expected to grasp a substantial share in the market for coordinate measuring machine (CMM) during the forthcoming years. This can be credited to the increasing demand for the machine apparatus having greater performance, for example the series of coordinate measuring machines having greater accurateness. North America is likely to take a substantial share in the market. It is because of strong defense, automotive and aerospace industry within the region. The U.S.A is a center to aerospace manufacturing companies which comprises Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others. The demand for work with higher accuracy is too estimated to boost the market within the province. Likewise Europe is estimated to take a substantial CAGR. This is credited to strong industries of aerospace and automobiles within the province. The Asia Pacific market for coordinate measuring machine is expected to record the uppermost percentage of development within the approaching years. The prosperous situations of aerospace, automotive and defense sectors, within the Asia Pacific province, are expected to be a substantial development factor of this regional market during the period of upcoming years. Developing nations for example India and China and India, are expected to be the leading provincial sponsors. Some of the important companies for Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Market are: WENZEL Group GmbH & Co. KG, Nikon Metrology NV, Metro nor AS, Hexagon AB, Eley Metrology Ltd., Carl Zeiss AG, Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd., Mitutoyo Corporation, Keyence Corporation, FARO Technologies, Inc., Creaform Inc., and Aberlink Ltd. Additional notable companies are: DUKIN, TRIMEK, International Metrology Systems, COORD3, and Perceptron Inc. Acoordinate measuring machine is a device that measures the geometry of physical objects. It typically uses probes to sense the position of a point in space, measuring it based on its distance from a three-dimensional reference position. A CMM machine is also used to test and verify a part or assembly to ensure that it matches the intended design. The analysts forecast the global coordinate measuring machine market to exhibit a CAGR of 7.7% during the period 2019-2024. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global coordinate measuring machine for 2019-2024. To calculate the market size, the report considers the coordinate measuring machine sales volume and revenue. Access 119 page research report with TOC on "Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Market" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/coordinate-measuring-machine-cmm-market The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: regional markets, product, and application. Market Segmentation: -Geographically, the global coordinate measuring machine market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and South America. This report forecasts revenue growth at a global, regional & country level, and provides an analysis of the market trends in each of the sub-segments from 2019 to 2024. North America (U.S., Canada , Mexico , etc.) (U.S., , , etc.) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , Korea, Australia , Indonesia , Taiwan , Thailand , etc.) ( , , , Korea, , , , , etc.) Europe ( Germany , UK, France , Italy , Russia , Spain , etc.) ( , UK, , , , , etc.) Middle East & Africa ( Turkey , Saudi Arabia , Iran , Egypt , Nigeria , UAE, Israel , South Africa , etc.) & ( , , , , , UAE, , , etc.) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, etc.) -On the basis of product, the global coordinate measuring machine market is segmented into: Portable Coordinate Measuring Machine Stationary Coordinate Measuring Machine -Based on application, the coordinate measuring machine market is segmented into: Automotive Aerospace & Defense Energy & Power Electrical & Electronics The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. Some of the leading players in the global coordinate measuring machine market are: Aberlink Ltd. Carl Zeiss AG Creaform Inc. Eley Metrology Ltd. FARO Technologies, Inc. Hexagon AB Keyence Corporation Metronor AS Mitutoyo Corporation Nikon Metrology NV Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd. WENZEL Group GmbH & Co. KG request free sample to get a complete list of companies Objective of the study: To analyze and forecast the market size of global coordinate measuring machine market. To classify and forecast global coordinate measuring machine market based on region, product, and application. To identify drivers and challenges for global coordinate measuring machine market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in global coordinate measuring machine market. To conduct pricing analysis for global coordinate measuring machine market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in global coordinate measuring machine market The report is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as manufacturers and partners, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities. Key target audience are: Manufacturers of coordinate measuring machine Raw material suppliers Market research and consulting firms Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Organizations, forums and alliances related to coordinate measuring machine Browse reports of similar category available with Radiant Insights, Inc.: Machine Tool Bearing Market Carbonated Drink Machines Market Rotary Tattoo Machines Market Compression Molding Machine Market About Radiant Insights, Inc.: At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions. Contact: Michelle Thoras. Corporate Sales Specialist Radiant Insights, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744 Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com/ Blog: https://radiantinsightsinc.blogspot.com/ Health official: 'Regardless of variant, the protective measures are the same' local Dr Harsh Vardhan chairs multi-stakeholder consultation on prevention and control of deafness We have to work cohesively so that no child is left out for the screening and treatment related to hearing loss, as this is one of the key components of the vision of our Honble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji to make a healthy and new India by 2022, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan , as he chaired a high level multi-stakeholder consultation. 3 March is observed as World Hearing Day. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that there is a strong need to create awareness for early detection and treatment related to hearing loss. He also said that hearing loss is the fourth leading cause for "Years Lived with Disability' (YLD). Government of India has started the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) with focus on early identification, diagnosis and treatment of ear problems responsible forhearing loss and deafness. He further informed that the program is being implemented in 558 districts and total numbers of cases examined in the year 2019-20 (9months)with deafness are3,27,172 and total number of ENT surgeries performed are 18,745. The Union Health Minister also stated that the 13,411hearing aids have been fitted and the number of person referred for rehabilitation are 45,953 during the year 2019-20, so far. Dr. Harsh Vardhan advised that a more focused strategic approach is needed to implement this program in a mission mode. He stated that in order to strengthen the current program to achieve the goal, more brainstorming sessions, awareness camps, monitoring mechanisms etc., need to be started for the desired outcomes. The Union Health Minister also suggested finding out the possibilities to associate NPPCD along with other national programs/schemes related to mother and child care. He also added that there is a strong need to promote public awareness through appropriate and effective Information, Education & Communication (IEC) strategieswith special emphasis on prevention of deafness along with capacity building&development for prevention, early identification and management of hearing impaired and deafness cases. In addition, training would be provided from medical college level specialists (ENT and Audiology) to grassroot level workers. After Xiaomi and realme, Chinese smartphone maker Infinix has now called off the launch event of its flagship, S5 Pro slated for later this week here. The development comes at a time when 28 coronavirus cases have been reported in India and efforts are being ramped up to ensure safety of people. "In the wake of growing concern for the global outbreak of COVID-19...Infinix Mobile has decided to cancel the launch event of our most awaited device," Infinix Mobile CEO Anish Kapoor said in an emailed statement. He added that Infinix - which is part of China's Transsion Holdings - is closely monitoring the situation. "To prevent its (coronavirus) spread, we are not encouraging any on-ground events at present because of the possibility of further increasing the risk," he said. Last month, Mobile World Congress (MWC) - the biggest annual showcase for the telecom and technology industry held in Barcelona - was cancelled in view of the coronavirus outbreak whose epicentre was in China. The virus outbreak, which has seen cases being registered across the world including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan, has had a significant impact on supply chains and manufacturing given China is one of the biggest sources of components for products like electronics. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mogadishu/Xinhua/UNI: Somali government forces said they have arrested a senior al-Shabab fighter behind suicide bombings in the Horn of Africa nation. Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar Omar confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, saying Isack Nishow accused of planning terror bombings in Somalia was arrested in Baidoa in southwest part of the country on Tuesday. "Nishow was arrested in a security raid in Baidoa as Somali forces intensify operations in the region," said Omar, adding that security forces also recovered a suicide vest, AK47 and magazines of ammunition during the arrest. The government forces have been on major offensives against al-Shabab extremists in central and southern Somali regions, but the militants still hold swaths of territory in those regions, conducting ambushes and planting roadside bombs. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:40:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Hu Huaibang, ex-chairman of the China Development Bank (CDB), has been indicted on charges of taking bribes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday. Hu, also former secretary of the CDB committee of the Communist Party of China, was charged with abusing his various former positions to seek profits for others and accepting vast sums of money and gifts in return, the SPP said in a statement. Hu was also accused of using his power and status to seek illegitimate gains for others through other officials' work, said the statement. Hu's case was handed over to the Chengde Municipal People's Procuratorate in north China's Hebei Province for review and prosecution upon the designation of the SPP after the National Supervisory Commission concluded the investigation, it said. Hu will stand trial in the Chengde Intermediate People's Court, it added. The SPP said the prosecutors had informed the defendant of his litigation rights, interrogated him and listened to the defense counsel's opinions. The number of known coronavirus cases in the United States spiked during the weekend and into Monday, with dozens of new diagnoses bringing the total confirmations to more than 100. Public health officials reported that the virus was spreading among people with no history of overseas travel. Schools closed. Governors declared states of emergency. The New York Times has been tracking every case in the United States for more than a month and maintaining a database using information from federal, state and local officials to keep an accurate count. The number of patients treated in the United States remains a small fraction of those diagnosed overseas, where thousands of people have died and tens of thousands have been infected. Most states have not had any confirmed cases. But as concern about a broader outbreak spreads, here is what is known about the current cases. . Unexplained spread For weeks, nearly all the coronavirus cases in the United States could be directly connected to overseas travel or to close personal contact with someone who recently had returned from a trip. In recent days, that has started to change. Health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state have all reported incidents of the virus turning up in people with no high-risk travel history, suggesting that it could be spreading undetected in the United States. The toll has been especially severe at a nursing home in suburban Seattle. . Patients in 15 states While coronavirus has been diagnosed on both coasts and in the Midwest, it mostly has been concentrated in just a handful of states. Combined, California and Washington account for 60 of the cases. Those patients include a mix of people who contracted the illness locally, traveled in China or were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which docked in Japan after an outbreak on board. Doctors in Nebraska, where there is a hospital unit specializing in biocontainment, have treated 13 coronavirus patients, all of them former Diamond Princess passengers. Health officials in Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have all reported multiple cases of coronavirus. And individual patients, all of whom had a high-risk travel history, have been treated in Arizona, New Hampshire, New York, Utah and Wisconsin. . Overseas travel Though more and more unexplained cases have been identified, most people with coronavirus in the United States recently spent time in a country with a larger outbreak. A woman in Washington state who traveled to South Korea was diagnosed late last week. On Sunday, the first diagnosis in New York was announced, involving a woman who had traveled in Iran. And during the weekend, health officials in Rhode Island said two people, including a teenager who had returned from a school trip to Italy, were diagnosed with coronavirus. Others who went on that trip were being held out of class, and the school was closed for deep cleaning. . Several recovered Many people with coronavirus experience only minor symptoms, and some of the first patients in the United States have already recovered and returned to daily life. Those people include a man in Washington state, two people from China who were diagnosed while traveling in California, and a married couple in the Chicago area. They have now had multiple rounds of negative testing for the virus and are clinically well, Dr. Allison Arwady, the county public health commissioner in Chicago, said last month as the couple was released from isolation. They do not need to wear masks, and neither does anyone interacting with them. They have been cleared. Even though I agree with my good friend Roy about 90 percent of the time, I do have to slap him up the side of the head occasionally when he runs off the rails. Fleischman is an average Congressman at best, but he works hard for the benefit of our district. He has continuously obtained funding for the two largest federal projects in our district; the Locks at Chickamauga and Oak Ridge. He has never embarrassed us with any kind of scandal while in office. So to suggest he is the worst in Congress is quite a stretch considering some of his colleagues. Steve Cohen- while representing a district with a majority black population, he showed up at a Congressional hearing with a box of KFC. Since Memphis has been rated the worst city in the country, I would suggest this buffoon has more to worry about than KFC. Hank Johnson- 100 miles down the road in Atlanta is the immortal Hank Johnson, who once asked a Navy Admiral during a hearing if he thought there was any chance Guam would tip over if we stationed 25,000 navy personnel there. The Admiral said he would be glad to check on it. Katie Hill- former congresswoman from California who just resigned after admitting to sexual relations with a campaign and office staffer Sheila Jackson Lee- Texas congresswoman who said, "homicide is the leading cause of murder." You think? Maxine Waters- "We don't need to be having something like sequestration that's going to cause these job losses - over 170 million jobs that could be lost." Alexia Ocasio Cortez- "Owning guns is not a right, if it was it would be in the constitution. " Chuck may not be a superstar, but we could do a lot worse. Douglas Jones Ooltewah * * * I think it is unfortunate that the bar is set so low for our Representatives, as told by Mr. Jones. Shrugging your shoulders and going with, Well, it could be a lot worse. is just a sad commentary on what we expect from the people we elect to represent us and our interests. We should expect much more than fair to middling, and Chuck Fleischmann cannot even manage that much. I found it fascinating that while expounding on elected officials that are worse that Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Jones did not share any scandals or embarrassing issues from any Representatives from his party. Im sure that was an innocent oversight but, in any case, let me help him out: Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife were indicted in federal court on dozens of charges, including wire fraud and using campaign funds for personal use. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 3, 2019. Rep. Chris Collins was arrested by the FBI and charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, seven counts of securities fraud, and lying to the FBI, for tipping off his son and his daughter-in-laws father with insider trading information. Rep. Steve Stockman orchestrated a scheme to steal money from charitable foundations and the individuals who ran them. The funds were used to finance Stockman's campaigns and personal expenses. He was convicted on 23 felony counts of perjury, fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 10 years. Rep. Blake Farenthold resigned in the wake of reports he used public funds to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit and had created an intensely hostile work environment for women in his congressional office. Rep. Trent Franks from the 8th District abruptly resigned when confronted about sexual misconduct with his staff. Rep. Greg Gianforte body slammed reporter Ben Jacobs. Gianforte was then found guilty of assault and sentenced to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management, a 180-day deferred sentence, a $385 fine and court fee. Do I even need to go into the issues surrounding Scott DesJarlais? We need to demand so much more from the people that we elect. They work for us, not for corporations or special interests. Jennifer Bethwell BURLINGTON, Mass. and PLANO, Texas, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Keurig Dr Pepper (NYSE: KDP) (the "Company" or "KDP") announced today the commencement of a registered public secondary offering of 37.5 million shares of the Company's common stock, or approximately 2.6% of the Company's outstanding common stock. All of the shares sold in the offering will be sold by Maple Holdings B.V.("Maple") and by Mondelez International Holdings LLC. The selling stockholders also granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5.625 million shares of the Company's common stock. Maple has also indicated to the Company that its decision to commence the offering was motivated by a desire from KDP's management to provide additional liquidity to the market. Maple is a holding company majority-owned by JAB Holdings B.V. ("JAB"). JAB has indicated an interest in purchasing directly an aggregate of up to approximately 7.4 million shares of common stock in this offering at a price equal to the price paid for the common stock by the underwriter. JAB may also purchase additional shares if the underwriter exercises its option. The net impact of the offering is expected to increase the float by approximately 2%. The Company is not selling any shares of common stock and will not receive any proceeds from the proposed offering. Upon completion of the offering, assuming that the underwriter's option to purchase additional shares is not exercised and assuming JAB purchases 7.4 million shares of common stock in the offering, Maple and JAB will collectively beneficially own approximately 65% of the Company's outstanding common stock. Morgan Stanley is acting as underwriter for the proposed offering. The underwriter proposes to offer the shares of common stock from time to time to purchasers directly or through agents, or through brokers in brokerage transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, or to dealers in negotiated transactions or in a combination of such methods of sale, at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to such prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices, subject to its right to reject any order in whole or in part. The offering will be made only by means of an effective registration statement and a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the proposed offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley at 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the related prospectus may also be obtained free of charge from the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") at http://www.sec.gov. The Company has previously filed with the SEC a registration statement (including a prospectus) of Form S-3 (File No. 333-233477) as well as a prospectus supplement, each dated August 27, 2019, for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the issuer has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the issuer and this offering. Copies of the registration statement can be accessed through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Keurig Dr Pepper Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) is a leading beverage company in North America, with annual revenue in excess of $11 billion and 25,000 employees. KDP holds leadership positions in soft drinks, specialty coffee and tea, water, juice and juice drinks and mixers, and markets the #1 single serve coffee brewing system in the U.S. and Canada. The Company's portfolio of more than 125 owned, licensed and partner brands is designed to satisfy virtually any consumer need, any time, and includes Keurig, Dr Pepper, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Canada Dry, Snapple, Bai, Mott's, CORE and The Original Donut Shop. Through its powerful sales and distribution network, KDP can deliver its portfolio of hot and cold beverages to nearly every point of purchase for consumers. The Company is committed to sourcing, producing and distributing its beverages responsibly through its Drink Well. Do Good. corporate responsibility platform, including efforts around circular packaging, efficient natural resource use and supply chain sustainability. For more information, visit, www.keurigdrpepper.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "may," "might," "should," "could," "predict," "potential," "believe," "expect," "continue," "will," "anticipate," "seek," "estimate," "intend," "plan," and "would," or the negative version of those words or other comparable words or phrases of a future or forward-looking nature. These forward-looking statements have been based on the Company's current views with respect to future events and the timing of this secondary offering. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including prevailing market conditions, as well as other factors. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and the Company's other filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements represent the Company's estimates and assumptions only as of the date that they were made. The Company does not undertake any duty to update the forward-looking statements, and the estimates and assumptions associated with them, after the date of this release, except to the extent required by applicable law. Contact information Investors: Tyson Seely (781) 418-3352 t[email protected] Steve Alexander (972) 673-6769 [email protected] Media: Katie Gilroy (781) 418-3345 [email protected] SOURCE Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. Related Links http://www.keurigdrpepper.com Ukraine's course toward European integration and accession to NATO remains unchanged, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. "Separately, I want to address our international partners. We appreciate and are grateful for your support. And our course remains unchanged: European integration, joining NATO, ending the war in Donbas, and regaining all our territories. We will continue to move forward down the path of reform in all spheres. Ukraine's course is not a mistake. Some mistakes were made midcourse," Zelensky told the parliament on Wednesday. Navy Overhauling Education Strategy as US Advantages Erode PROVIDENCE, R.I.The U.S. Navy is overhauling its approach to education because the nation no longer has a massive economic and technological edge over potential adversaries, according to a strategy released on March 2. The Education for Seapower Strategy 2020, provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release, is the first unified, comprehensive education strategy for the Navy and Marine Corps, said John Kroger, who is implementing the strategy as the Navys first chief learning officer. Its very much a response to the nations geopolitical position in the world today, versus the advantages it had at the end of the Cold War, Kroger said, noting Chinas economic strength and investments in 5G networks, energy storage, and other major technologies that matter for war-fighting. The Navy wants to create a naval community college to provide associates degrees to tens of thousands of young sailors and Marines, at no cost to them. It plans to unify the schools within the existing naval university system, similar to a state university system, and invest in them, as well as enact new policies to encourage and reward those who pursue professional military and civilian education. In a world where potential adversaries are peers economically and technologically, how do you win? Kroger said in an interview. We think we can out-fight potential opponents because we can out-think them. In order to do that, we must have, by far, the best military education program in the world. Kroger came to the Navy from Harvard University, where he was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and leader in residence at the Kennedy School of Government. He was president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, from 2012 to 2018, and previously served as Oregons attorney general. Kroger served as a Marine from 1983 to 1986. Though the need to ensure an advantage in fighting wars is driving the reforms, Kroger said, the educational opportunities will change how and whom the Navy recruits. Its more challenging to recruit when theres relatively low unemployment, he said. The strategy doesnt specifically say how much the Navy is looking to spend on education or where the money will come from. Kroger said it will rely mostly on existing education funding that can be used in a more cost-effective way. About $109 million was transferred from other Navy programs this fiscal year to pay for immediate education needs, including startup costs for the community college. The Navy will ask Congress for more money for education beginning in the fiscal year 2022, but the numbers arent finalized, Kroger said. He estimated it will cost $40 million to $50 million annually for the community college, to educate about 40,000 people each year. There wont be a physical community college campus. Some general education classes would be provided online, but sailors and Marines would do the vast majority of their coursework online through civilian universities and community colleges that partner with the Navy. The Navy plans to seek approval from Congress this year and enroll the first students next year. For the existing naval schools, the Navy wants to do budgeting for the system as a whole and Kroger will review their curriculum to avoid unnecessary duplication. The schoolsthe Naval War College in Rhode Island, Marine Corps University in Virginia, Naval Postgraduate School in California, and the Naval Academy in Marylandwill be expected to align their plans with the strategy. To encourage service members to pursue educational opportunities, academic achievement will be rewarded by the boards that decide promotions and integrated into fitness reports and evaluations. Theres a close connection between a persons curiosity and aptitude for learning and their capacity to lead, the strategy states. When the United States entered World War II, almost all its admirals were Naval War College graduates. Now, less than a quarter of them are because the Navy hasnt stressed education as much, Kroger said. Its somewhat of a shift, I think, from ways people think about the effectiveness of the armed forces, he said. Were not talking here about how fast our jets are, how powerful our missiles are. Were talking about the brainpower of our team. By Jennifer McDermott By Javier Solana Late-deciders across the country broke in a major way for Biden. In Virginia, about half of Democratic primary voters said they made their decisions in the past few days, and Biden won about 6 in 10 of them, compared with about 1 in 6 for Sanders, according to preliminary network exit polls. In North Carolina, nearly a third of voters were late deciders, and more than half of them supported Biden, compared with Sanders who garnered about 2 in 10. In Tennessee, where almost 3 in 10 were late deciders, Biden carried more than 6 in 10 of them, compared with less than 2 in 10 for Sanders. Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul / Korea Times file By Kang Seung-woo The Moon Jae-in administration has once again reached out to North Korea for cooperation in healthcare and more joint activities. However, viability and practicality of the South's policies have been called into question, as the North responded with projectile firings and fresh condemnation of the Moon government. The Ministry of Unification unveiled its five policy plans for this year, Tuesday, and they included pushing ahead with individual tourism by South Koreans to North Korea and making joint efforts to hold the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul and Pyongyang in 2032. "It is not feasible, considering the current situation on the Korean Peninsula," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. "Little development in the South's drive for inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation is mainly due to the North disregarding and paying no attention to it." In fact, President Moon proposed the idea of the government allowing citizens to make individual tours to the North, including possible hometown visits by families separated by the Korean War, as part of efforts to expand cross-border exchanges which he hopes will also help improve relations between Pyongyang and Washington. However, the Kim Jong-un regime has remained unresponsive to the proposal, which may result in the South Korean government losing the confidence of the international community. In his March 1 speech, President Moon also proposed inter-Korean cooperation in healthcare and quarantine, especially to cope with the COVID-19 epidemic. South Korea is struggling to contain the coronavirus outbreak, and North Korea, although it claims it has no confirmed case, said nearly 7,000 people are under quarantine. But the proposal has also not received any response from the North. Instead, Pyongyang launched two projectiles the next day, which it described as an artillery exercise. Making the South's situation worse, Cheong Wa Dae then faced criticism from the North Korean dictator's sister who has risen to power of late. Regarding Cheong Wa Dae's expression of regret over the projectile firing, Kim Yo-jong, the first vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, said the response to its "routine" defense drill was "shocking." "After all, this means that they have to be prepared militarily, but we should not conduct military exercises," Kim Yo-jong said in a statement. "Who would treat people who make unreasonable arguments like this as a normal counterpart?" Considering the sister was a symbolic figure for inter-Korean relations, working as Kim Jong-un's special envoy during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, expectations are that the chill in relations is likely to continue for a while. Under these circumstances, it is unlikely that the Moon administration's proposals for cooperation will be accepted by the North or gain the South Korean public's support. "First of all, the coronavirus outbreak needs to abate. In addition, individual tourism is subject to international sanctions imposed on the North, meaning it requires an agreement between South Korea and the United States in advance amid different views on the project," Park said. "At this point, rather than the government offering projects to the North, the South would do better to explore ways to help the North fight the coronavirus through humanitarian aid, which is more conducive to managing the situation," the professor said. Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/04/2020 -- Advance Market Analytics released a new market study on Global Energy Cloud Market with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures spread through Pages and easy to understand detailed analysis. At present, the market is developing its presence. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the Market and contains a future trend, current growth factors, attentive opinions, facts, and industry validated market data. The research study provides estimates for Global Energy Cloud Forecast till 2025*. Some are the key players taken under coverage for this study are Accenture PLC,IBM Corporation,HCL Technologies,SAP SE,Cisco Systems, Inc.,Oracle Corporation,Capgemini,Microsoft Corporation,Brillio Energy cloud is a system which is derived from cloud computing services that replace the traditional grid architecture to give a range of commercial, environmental, and technical changes. It is a dynamic network that supports distributed energy resources (DER) with two-way energy flow. The needs of the companies to maintain a pool of energy resources in order to distribute it via the grids with a greater level of efficiency has driven demand within the global energy cloud market. Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/97355-global-energy-cloud-market Important Features that are under offering & key highlights of the report: 1) What all companies are currently profiled in the report? Following are list of players that are currently profiled in the report Accenture PLC,IBM Corporation,HCL Technologies,SAP SE,Cisco Systems, Inc.,Oracle Corporation,Capgemini,Microsoft Corporation,Brillio ** List of companies mentioned may vary in the final report subject to Name Change / Merger etc. 2) Can we add or profiled new company as per our need? Yes, we can add or profile new company as per client need in the report. Final confirmation to be provided by research team depending upon the difficulty of survey. ** Data availability will be confirmed by research in case of privately held company. Upto 3 players can be added at no added cost. 3) Can we get more level of segmentation to meet our market intelligence objective? Yes it can be provided, however ETA would vary and final confirmation would be given only after checking data in data repository. 4) Can inclusion of additional Segmentation / Market breakdown is possible? Yes, inclusion of additional segmentation / Market breakdown is possible subject to data availability and difficulty of survey. However a detailed requirement needs to be shared with our research before giving final confirmation to client. ** Depending upon the requirement the deliverable time and quote will vary. Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/97355-global-energy-cloud-market Market Drivers - Need To Access Real-Time Data by Utilizing Energy Sources - Increasing End-User Involvement in Generation, Distribution, Buying and Selling Of Electricity - Growing Grid Security Concerns and Growing Aging Infrastructure Market Trend - Increasing Need for Organizations to avail the Advantages of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Restraints - Stringent Government Regulation and Compliance Opportunities - Introduction of Big Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) in Cloud Computing Market To comprehend Global Energy Cloud market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Energy Cloud market is analyzed across major global regions. AMA also provides customized specific regional and country-level reports for the following areas. - North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico. - South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. - Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa. - Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia. - Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia. Get Reasonable Discount on This Premium Report @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/request-discount/97355-global-energy-cloud-market Try a limited scope research document specific to Country or Regional matching your objective. GET FULL COPY OF United States Global Energy Cloud market study @ --------- USD 2000 And, Europe Global Energy Cloud market study @ --------- USD 2500 Major Highlights of TOC: Chapter One: Market Overview Chapter Two: Executive Summary ---------- Free of Cost Chapter Three: Market Dynamics ------ USD400 Market Drivers, Market Challenges, Market Trends, Restraints & Opportunities Chapter Four: Market Factor Analysis ------ USD400 Supply/Value Chain, Porters Five Forces, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent & Trademark Analysis, Bargain Power Chapter Five: Global Energy Cloud, by Market Segmentation and Geography (value, volume**) (2013-2018) ------ USD1400 Global Energy Cloud By Type: Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud By Application: Professional Services, Managed Services Services : Professional Services, Managed Services Service Model : Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service Global Energy Cloud Region North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Nordic, Others) Asia-Pacific (Japan, China, Australia, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Middle East & Africa, Others) Chapter Six: Global Energy Cloud - Manufacturers/Players Analysis ------ USD1200 Competitive Landscape, Comparative Market Share Analysis (2017-2018), Peer Group Analysis (2018), BCG Matrix, Company Profile, Product/Service Offering Matrix Chapter Seven: Global Energy Cloud, by Market Segmentation and Region (value, volume**) (2019-2024) ------ USD1400 ------ Sections same as Chapter Five ------ Chapter Eight: Company profiles / Competitive Landscape [12 Players] ------ USD1250 Chapter Nine: Methodology/Research Approach, Data Source, Disclaimer ** If applicable Actual Numbers & In-Depth Analysis, Business opportunities, Market Size Estimation Available in Full Report. AMA also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research according to clientele objectives. Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report like North America, Europe or Asia. About Advance Market Analytics Advance Market Analytics is Global leaders of Market Research Industry provides the quantified B2B research to Fortune 500 companies on high growth emerging opportunities which will impact more than 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Our Analyst is tracking high growth study with detailed statistical and in-depth analysis of market trends & dynamics that provide a complete overview of the industry. We follow an extensive research methodology coupled with critical insights related industry factors and market forces to generate the best value for our clients. We Provides reliable primary and secondary data sources, our analysts and consultants derive informative and usable data suited for our clients business needs. The research study enable clients to meet varied market objectives a from global footprint expansion to supply chain optimization and from competitor profiling to M&As. Contact Us: Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager) AMA Research & Media LLP Unit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJ New Jersey USA 08837 Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218 sales@advancemarketanalytics.com Heres what travelers who have cruises booked for the next few months can expect. Can I cancel or delay? Cruise companies have typically had stringent cancellation fees and polices, but some companies are softening their stance as health conditions unfold. Many, including Viking River Cruises, Norwegian, MSC Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Seabourn are letting people delay their sailings, cancel within days of a trip or substitute another passenger for the one originally booked (usually a no-no). Policies vary by company and even by scheduled sailing, so travelers should contact their travel agent or cruise company. Princess Cruises, operator of the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, with hundreds on board sickened, and the Grand Princess, the ship being held off San Francisco, said on Thursday that it would allow people who had cruises booked in the coming weeks to cancel and receive a credit for a future cruise. Those who do not meet the current health criteria for boarding can cancel with no penalty, but a doctors note or other proof may be required. Ms. Fudge, the travel agent, said shes never seen this kind of relaxation of the rules in the cruise industry. I keep getting different notifications, extending final payment, allowing people to change dates, its all unprecedented, she said. Normally if you dont go you lose your money. What can I expect on embarkation? Member companies of the industry association CLIA are generally abiding by its evolving rules regarding who can and cant board one of their ships. Passengers and crew are to be kept on shore if they have visited or gone through airports in Iran, South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or parts of Italy within 14 days before embarkation; if they have cared for someone who has or might have Covid-19 disease; or if they have exhibited symptoms of the virus. Travelers turned away for these reasons will receive a full refund. Police Briefs The Selectboard of Croydon, New Hampshire, ruled unexpectedly on Feb. 18 that it would abolish the town police department and rely instead on the New Hampshire State Police for law enforcement, reported the Valley News. Croydon Police Chief Richard Lee, the sole member of the police department for almost 20 years, told the News he was asked to turn in his equipment, including his uniform, badges and the keys to his police cruiser, so at the meeting's conclusion, Lee faced the board president and "gave them my uniform shirt. I gave them my turtleneck, I gave them my ballistic vest. ... I sat down in the chair, took off my boots, took off my pants, put those in the chair, and put my boots back on, and walked out the door." Lee walked about a mile in 26-degree temperatures before his wife picked him up. The Selectboard released a statement saying the decision was "an action based upon value for the cost of the department." Resident Rick Sampson told reporters, "What kind of a town lets their chief of police walk out in a snowstorm in his underwear?" Oops An unnamed 33-year-old woman from Herminie, Pennsylvania, took an unconventional route home after a night out drinking on Feb. 16, according to City of Duquesne police. Driving a Mazda CX-5, the woman left a tavern and ended up in a rail yard near the Port Perry Railroad Bridge, a narrow span that carries one set of tracks over the Monongahela River. "The vehicle did quite well, considering it is not a locomotive," noted police, and the driver traveled a significant distance along the bridge before getting stuck. WPIX reported she called 911 for help at about 2:40 a.m., and Norfolk Southern stopped all rail traffic while the car was removed from the tracks. Police arrested the driver for DUI. The Passing Parade Three friends were wrapping up a night of dinner and drinking on Feb. 15 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when things got "a little out of control," according to a police report. As the night wore on, Kasey Margaret Westraad, 24, became increasingly amorous toward a resistant female friend, the friend told police, eventually escalating to the point that a naked Westraad pursued the woman outside, punching her several times in the face. Myrtlebeachonline.com reported Westraad was charged with third-degree assault and battery, damage to property and resisting arrest. The Smell Test Police in Speyer, Germany, gave chase after they were passed by a car driving at high speed with its lights off on Feb. 14. The suspect, a 26-year-old man, pulled over and ran from the car, leaving a trail of scent that was so distinct officers said they were able to follow it from the car to the man, who was hiding behind a hedge. "Due to the cloud of perfume that was detected inside the car and on the man," police said, "it was possible to identify him as the driver," the Associated Press reported. His breath didn't smell so good, though: He was far over the alcohol limit. Wait, What? The woman who attempted to board an airplane with her emotional support peacock made headlines, but in Port St. Lucie, Florida, one man is questioning why his particular support item has been banned from the dialysis center where he takes treatments three times a week. Nelson Gibson first brought an 8-by-10-inch photo of President Donald J. Trump to comfort him as he endured the 3 1/2-hour treatments, then exchanged that for a small cardboard cutout of himself standing next to a Trump photo. When he next arrived with a life-size cutout of the president, no one complained, Gibson told WPBF, but on Feb. 11, "they told me it was too much and it wasn't a rally." "It just feels like bringing something from home to make you comfortable," Gibson said, noting that others bring items, including one woman who pops bubble wrap during the entire treatment. "That's very nerve-wracking," he said. It's unclear whether Gibson will return to the center for treatments. Extreme Measures Tensions are running high in China, where the coronavirus has affected thousands of people and sparked instances of panic-buying. AFP reports that supermarkets have experienced runs on staples such as rice and pasta, but in Hong Kong, a gang of men wielding knives attacked a delivery driver in Mong Kok on Feb. 17, making off with hundreds of rolls of toilet paper worth about $130. Police said the missing rolls were recovered, and two suspects were arrested. Locals seemed baffled, with one woman telling a TV station, "I'd steal face masks, but not toilet roll." Government at Work Ontario's new license plates hit the roads on Feb. 1, sporting a pleasing color of blue with white numbers and letters. During the day. At night, all that's visible is a shiny blue rectangle, according to complaints on Twitter -- the numbers and letters disappear, which makes them a problem for law enforcement. "Did anyone consult with police before designing and manufacturing the new Ontario license plates?" wrote Kingston Police Sgt. Steve Koopman. "They're virtually unreadable at night." The CBC reported a government spokesperson saying authorities "are currently looking into this," but Lisa Thompson, Ontario's minister of government and consumer services, saw a political angle: "Sticking with the status quo Liberal plate that was peeling and flaking was not an option," she said. "We absolutely have confidence in our plates." Must-See TV Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, arrested Robert Lee Noye, 52, on Feb. 17 and charged him with first-degree harassment and false imprisonment after his victim told them Noye kidnapped her and forced her to watch the 1977 historical miniseries "Roots" "so she could better understand her racism," The Gazette reported. He allegedly told her if she did not sit for the entire nine-hour series about slavery, he would "kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago." Annals of Entitlement Seloni Khetarpal, 36, threw a tantrum worthy of the terrible twos on Feb. 13 when she "repeatedly" called 911 to report that her parents had shut off her cellphone, according to court documents. Khetarpal demanded that officers respond to her home in Jackson Township, Ohio, and was warned that she should only call 911 for a legitimate emergency. Several hours later, News5 Cleveland reported, she called back, became "belligerent" and told the dispatcher she thought it was a legitimate issue. She was arrested and charged with disrupting public services. Awesome! Hell, Michigan, is inviting 29 couples to "take the leap" and tie the knot in their fair city on Feb. 29, 2020 (Leap Day), all at no cost, MLive reported. Outside the tiny chapel there, at 2:29 p.m., Reverend Vonn will join the couples in a mass ceremony. "Imagine having only to remember your wedding anniversary every four years," said the reverend. "There are some couples that are paying officiant and chapel fees to be married in the chapel at different time slots. It is going to be one Helluva Day." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Amid coronavirus scare, the traders' association of Sarojini Nagar Market is planning to procure masks and distribute them to customers when they come to shop. Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar mini market traders' association, said they will also put up banners in the market informing people about various precautions to be taken in the wake of the current situation. "We will be distributing masks to customers who visit the market. We are planning to procure 1,000 to 2,000 masks in the next few days and will be distributing them to customers. "We will also be making arrangements for hand sanitisers so that when customers enter shops, they can use them," he told PTI. Randhawa also opined that the government should take steps to address coronavirus scare in the market areas since these are places that witness large gatherings. Atul Bhargava of the New Delhi Traders' Association (NDTA), under which the Connaught Place market comes, said he has been creating awareness among traders of the market by sending messages on two WhatsApp groups of their association. "We had also discussed about coronavirus scare in our executive committee meeting and I have been sending messages on dos and don'ts to create awareness," he said. The Khan Market sees a high footfall of foreign tourists. Sanjeev Mehra of the Khan Market Traders' Association said the tourists visiting the market themselves are quite aware and can be seen wearing masks. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said 28 positive cases of coronavirus have been detected so far in India and announced that all international flights and passengers will now have to undergo screening, and not just the 12 countries listed earlier. Giving a break-up of those who have tested positive for the virus, the minister said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person is from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [March 04, 2020] Suite 125 breaking into U.S. market with innovative technology QUEBEC, March 4, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) Information technology start-up Suite 125 has developed a novel IT solution that automates measurement-taking for clothing design. The Quebec SME wants to break into the U.S. market by marketing its MTM.DESIGN platform in the U.S. thanks to a recent Government of Canada investment. An innovative, promising product MTM.DESIGN was initially designed by Surmesur Inc.'s team of internal programmers, who received a repayable contribution of $50,000 from CED to begin developing the platform. In light of the enthusiasm the technology generated, Surmesur founded Suite 125 in 2018 to continue to develop and market it. This unique platform integrates the company's business intelligence and is founded on exclusive partnerships established around the world. It uses a database (big data) to collect information compiled over eight years from among 70,000 clients, gathering their measurements and preferences, as well as a range of 65,000 types of cloth. It is available to businesses working in the made-to-measure clothing industry, in particular traditional tailors and retailers also offering this type of design. The business will continue to develop its novel web platform, adapting it more to the U.S. market with the help of a repayable contribution of $132,500 announced today by Joel Lightound, Member of Parliament for Louis-Hebert and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. This announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for the six regional development agencies (RDAs), including CED. Quotes "It is a source of pride to have the Canadian government as a partner on our project. The financial assistance we have received is enabling us to accelerate our development and thus draw closer to our objective of revolutionizing the retail industry." Vincent Theriault, President, Suite 125 "We are supporting the growth of homegrown businesses bringing Canadian know-how to the world, just as Suite 125 is doing so well with its innovative platform. We must leverage our competitiveness and maximize our knowledge by boosting innovation. If our entrepreneurs are among the first to adopt certain technologies and the solutions they generate, this enhances the competitiveness of our industries and economic growth." Joel Lightbound, Member of Parliament for Louis-Hebert and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness "Enhancing the development and growth of innovative projects such as the one by Suite 125 is at the heart of our priorities. We will continue to help our entrepreneurs to develop new markets so that local expertise can radiate around the world. We are here to support projects that drive start-ups and foster the creation and marketing of innovative projects." The Honourable Melanie Joly, Member of Parliament for Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Minister responsible for CED Quick facts With its seven employees, Suite 125 has developed innovative functionalities with the assistance of the Centre en imagerie numerique et medias interactifs (CIMMI). CIMMI is a technology transfer centre specializing in the development of digital image processing technologies. Funds have been granted to Suite 125 under CED's Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program. This program targets entrepreneurs leveraging innovation to grow their businesses and enhance their competitiveness, as well as regional economic stakeholders helping to create an entrepreneurial environment conducive to innovation and growth for all. CED is a key federal partner in Quebec's regional economic development. With its 12 regional business offices, CED is accompanying Quebec businesses, supporting organizations and regions into tomorrow's economy. Stay connected Follow CED on social media Consult CED's news SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi: India's Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane on Wednesday (March 4) claimed that in future fighting wars will evolve faster and 'how wars will be fought' will also change. He also said, While the nature of war has not changed but the character of war has. The army chief was speaking at a seminar on land warfare in New Delhi. On Balakot strikes, he said that the airstrikes demonstrated that if one is skilful, escalation does not always lead to war. The Balakot airstrike took place on February 26 2019 when Indian warplanes crossed the border into Pakistan and dropped bombs near the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Talking about other issues like the changing of iconic warfare characters and rise of non-state actors like terrorist demands that victory in war is formulated in a nuanced manner. He also spoke about China's dominance in the South China Sea and how it achieved its aim in small steps without firing a single shot. Similarly, he said India was also focusing on dynamic response. "We are refining our capacities on both the western and northern borders. We are developing both kinetic and non-kinetic methods," he said. Commenting on the use of social media at war, he claimed that the ISIS was more adept in using it for devastating effects as compared to 21st-century armies of the US, UK. US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with chief Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar Akhund on Tuesday, the first known conversation between a US leader and a top Taliban official, as a dispute over a prisoner release threatened a US-led effort to bring peace to Afghanistan. The call announced on Twitter by a Taliban spokesman and then confirmed by Trump, came three days after Baradar and US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad signed an agreement in Qatar for a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. That deal, a step toward ending America`s longest war, could boost Trump`s bid for a second term in the Nov. 3 US election. Trump has made a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan a priority. The pact calls for a phased withdrawal of US-led foreign forces if the Taliban keeps its commitments and for the March 10 start of talks between the insurgents and an Afghan delegation on a political settlement to end decades of conflict. But the peace effort quickly hit an obstacle, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani refusing to implement a part of the accord to which his government was not a party - providing for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Ghani said the issue should be negotiated, but the Taliban demanded about 5,000 prisoners go free before peace talks begin. In a statement on the 35-minute Trump-Baradar conversation, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested Baradar gave no ground on the issue. "Baradar said to Trump,`It is the inherent right of the Afghans that all the points of this agreement are implemented as soon as possible so that peace may come to Afghanistan,`" Mujahid said. In an apparent reference to Ghani, Mujahid quoted Baradar as telling Trump, "Dont let anyone act against the signed agreement and keep you involved in the prolonged war." Trump told Baradar he would soon have US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speak to Ghani "so that the barriers against the inter-Afghan talks get removed," Mujahid said. `Very good` relationship with Mullah Speaking with reporters, Trump gave few details of the discussion but said he had a good relationship with Baradar. "We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today. They`re looking to get this ended, and we`re looking to get it ended... the relationship is very good that I have with the Mullah. We had a good, long conversation today." Trump declined to say if the call was his first with Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and its political chief. Pakistan released Baradar from prison in October 2018 to lead the Taliban negotiating team. The call was the first known conversation between a US president and a leader of the insurgent group overthrown in the 2001 US-led invasion for harbouring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden while he plotted the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. James Dobbins, a former US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he was confident no prior US president had such contact, which he chalked up to Trump`s "showmanship." "Talking to the president is a major deliverable. Prior administrations would consider this selling ones self cheaply, or selling a considerable asset at considerably below value," said Dobbins, a retired veteran US diplomat. More than 2,500 US troops have died in Afghanistan and more than 20,660 have been wounded, according to iCasualties, a website that tracks foreign troop casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump in September scotched a first bid to finalise a US-Taliban troop withdrawal deal, citing a US soldier`s death in a Taliban attack. Talks resumed in December and the pact was signed on Saturday after a seven-day reduction in violence. T ravellers are urged to purchase insurance as soon as they book their holiday, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across popular travel destinations, including Tenerife, Italy and Vietnam. The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan in China. However, the infection has since spread, affecting 81 countries and territories worldwide. Across the globe, the virus has infected more than 90,000 people and caused over 3,100 deaths. As the number of confirmed cases rises, we take a look at the official advice for those booking travel or going on holiday. A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station / AP When should I get travel insurance? According to Money Saving Expert's Martin Lewis, travellers should purchase cover as soon as they book their holiday. Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Mr Lewis said: This is the big warning. I do it every year - I talk about booking travel insurance ASAB - as soon as you book. Because if you dont and something happens in the meantime before you get travel insurance, youre not covered. What does my travel insurance cover? If you have travel insurance and the Foreign Office announces you can't travel, you will be covered for the cost of your flight cancellations. Martin Lewis warned: "Well, anyone who has booked a holiday now for this year, if you have not got travel insurance, if you get the travel insurance and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office then says you cant go to a country, youre covered. If the Foreign & Commonwealth Office rules out a country in future and you havent got travel insurance at that point, youre not covered. However, you will only be covered if the Foreign Office announces that you cannot travel. You will not be covered if you personally decide to rule out travelling due to a fear of becoming contaminated. Which countries have been affected by coronavirus? The UK Government said people returning from Hubei province in China, Iran, lockdown areas in northern Italy and special care zones in South Korea in the last 14 days should immediately self-isolate at home and call NHS 111. People returning from a number of other countries including the rest of China and Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore should self-isolate if they develop symptoms of cough or fever or shortness of breath. It also said those returning from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and northern Italy above Pisa should self-isolate if they show symptoms. Loading.... What is coronavirus? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars). The strain that has recently emerged is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. The respiratory disease it causes has been named Covid-19 by WHO. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people, the World Health Organisation says. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with the virus coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person and can be picked up other people touching them then touching their nose or mouth. Initial symptoms of the novel coronavirus include fever, cough, tightness of the chest, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. A similar plea is pending before the Delhi High Court, which will be taken up for next hearing on 13 April. On 27 February, the bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar deferred the hearing by four weeks based on the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Delhi Police. "We can't handle that," said Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, while hearing a plea demanding FIR against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma for their hate speeches. Asserting that the task to control violence during riots is that of the Executive and not the judiciary, Bobde said, "We cannot stop things from happening. We cannot give preventive reliefs. We feel a kind of pressure on us. We can only deal with the situation after it occurs, the kind of pressure on us, we cant handle that. Its like Court is responsible. We are reading newspapers, we know the kind of comments are made. Courts come on to the scene after the thing is done and courts have not been able to prevent such a thing." The Supreme Court agreed to hear the plea on today. Bobde further added that the apex court wishes for peace but has its own limitations, where it only comes into the picture when something has happened and can pass appropriate orders. The statements were made by the CJI on Monday when the Supreme Court agreed to hear plea by victims of Delhi violence, which led to the killing of 47 people. The petition sought immediate FIRs against BJP leaders who delivered hate speeches, which the petitioners have claimed added fuel to the Delhi riots which began on 23 February. Among other things, the petitioners have also demanded a Special Investigation Team be formed, with officers from outside Delhi to probe the riots, deployment of Army to maintain law and order and constitution of an Inquiry Committee headed by a retired judge to probe the alleged involvement of Delhi Police personnel in the violence. Other demands include: Award of exemplary compensation to all victims; Direction to make public the full list of persons detained by the police and paramilitary; Direction for ensuring that the State provide access for those detained to legal counsel; Directions to provide cooked food to affected families in riot-hit areas, and in hospitals and detention areas; Direction to preserve all CCTV footage of riot affected areas; Direction for the immediate release of postmortem reports; Direction for a probe by a retired judge into the communal riots, and for the identification of policemen involved in rioting and criminal conduct so that they may be dismissed from service in accordance with law. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, urged the Supreme Court bench to intervene in the matter without undue favour being meted out to "influential" persons, Bar and Bench reported. Gonsalves also told the bench that the Delhi High Court has deferred the pleas on Delhi violence for four weeks despite the fact that people are still dying. "When people are still dying then why can't the high court hear it urgently," he said, urging the apex court to list the plea for urgent hearing. 'Courts not equipped to control riots': CJI SA Bobde Replying to Gonsalves, CJI Bobde remarked that court wanted to broker peace even though there are limitations on its functioning. He said that the court's responsibility lies in passing appropriate orders once the event has happened. The CJI also sad that courts are not equipped to control riots and it is the job of the executive. Hearing the plea, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde remarked that the Supreme Court wishes for peace but has its own limitations, whereby it only comes into the picture when something has happened and passes appropriate orders. However, Gonsalves argued that the court can prevent the situation from deteriorating, Live Law reported. The plea also sought directions to make public the full list of persons detained by the police and paramilitary and preserve all CCTV footage of riot-affected areas besides the immediate release of postmortem reports of the deceased. 'Condition not conducive for FIRs': Delhi High Court A similar plea is pending before the Delhi High Court, which will be taken up for next hearing on 13 April. On 27 February, the bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar deferred the hearing by four weeks based on the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Delhi Police that the "situation was not conducive" for registration of FIR. Mehta was quoted as saying, "The condition is not conducive at this moment. FIRs will be registered at an appropriate time." However, the previous day on 26 February, another division bench comprising Justices Dr S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh had directed the Delhi Police to take a "conscious decision" within a day whether an FIR was to be filed with respect to inflammatory speeches allegedly made by BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. Day after the bench headed by Justice S Murlidhar castigated the Delhi Police for its 'inaction', the Centre on 27 February transferred the advocate to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, about two weeks after the recommendation by the Supreme Court collegium on 12 February. With inputs from PTI A Belfast man who lost his music loving wife to lung cancer is to honour her memory with a special event to raise vital funds for charity. Cathy McCrea, who was the mother of Megan (28), Connor (25) and 22-year-old twins Michael and Shea, passed away in October at the age of 54. Now on what would have been her 55th birthday, the family are bringing together some of Belfast's best musical talent at the Empire Music Hall next Monday (March 9). For husband Ross (60), the diagnosis and sudden nature of Cathy's deterioration last summer came as a shock. "She had been feeling a bit breathless and had been to her GP about it, but nothing ever came of it," said Ross. "Looking back now, she was also losing weight, but we didn't put it down to anything serious. Things took a turn for the worse when we were in London to see Bob Dylan last July. "We are both big music fans and our daughter had bought us concert tickets so we didn't want to miss it, but we ended up cutting the trip short as we knew Cath needed to get home. "We went straight to the hospital and she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and within a short period of time we knew it was terminal. "It happened so quickly and took us all by surprise how serious her illness became so suddenly. "All of her friends found her very inspiring, so it hit us all very hard when she was diagnosed." Ross first set eyes on Cathy when the pair met at the College of Business Studies in Belfast. An encounter a few years later led to an almost three decade-long life together. "I'm so grateful for the life we had. "Cath and I met when we were much younger, she was in her early 20s and I was in my mid-20s," he added. "We married on November 18, 1991 and had almost 28 wonderful years of journeying through life together and have four wonderful children. "Cath was a very positive person and so caring, giving quality time to everyone around her. "Time is precious and you won't get it back - have fun and make the most of it. Cath kept her sense of humour throughout; a terminal illness doesn't change people's personality." As a result of the "fantastic" care Cath received at the Marie Curie Hospice, the family decided to hold their musical fundraiser during the charity's Great Daffodil Appeal. "Cath spent her last three weeks at the Marie Curie Hospice in Belfast and all the staff were fantastic," Ross explained. "Our preferences were always considered, and they were good at having conversations about end of life. "Cath was trying to get everything in order herself and the hospice supported us through all that. "She was so brave and she didn't deny her situation, which also helped the whole family. "She didn't want to prolong things and limit her quality of life, she wanted to make the most of the time she had left. "As a family we decided we wanted to do something for Marie Curie to give back for the care that Cath had received, so that's why we're supporting the Great Daffodil Appeal." Tickets for Monday's special fundraising gig will be available on the door from 7pm and will be priced at 10, with money raised going to Marie Curie. Acts taking part include rock band Sit Tight, Marty Lundy & Katmandu and Willie Byrne. "The bands playing are all very familiar on the music scene around Belfast and they all came on board very quickly because they all knew Cath," added Ross. "She loved music and dance and always brought the fun -that's how we want her to be remembered." For more information visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil TO VIEW MORE NEWS STORY, PLEASE CLICK ON NEWS TAB ON MAIN MENU BAR Cristiano Ronaldo rushed to Madeira to be beside his stricken mother after she suffered a stroke. The 35-year-old skipped training with his club Juventus and flew to Madeira with his wife and one of his sons on Tuesday. According to the Diario de Noticias da Madeira, Ronaldo was expected to depart on Wednesday in time for the second leg of Juve's Italian Cup semi-final with AC Milan. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner, former star of Manchester United and Real Madrid and captain of Portugal asked for privacy on the matter. "Thank you for all your messages of support for my mum. She is currently stable and recovering in hospital," Ronaldo said. "Me and my family would like to thank the medical team looking after her, and kindly ask that we are all given some privacy at this time." Ronaldo's mother Dolores Aveiro suffered the stroke early Tuesday. The 65-year-old is now reportedly conscious and in a stable condition in a Funchal hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Newser) An investigation has linked the world's largest meat processing company to a farm run by a man accused of ordering a brutal massacre in Brazil. Valdelir Joao de Souza has been on the run since the April 2017 Colniza massacre, in which nine men were shot and stabbed in an apparent effort to take over their remote forest land in Mato Grosso. As residents register their own land in Brazil, that didn't stop de Souza from making claim to two farms, Tres Lagoas and Piracama, covering 2,600 acres of land the government had set aside for low-income agricultural workers in nearby Rondonia state in April 2018. A month later, those two farmsone of which showed signs of illegal deforestationsold 143 cattle to a farm owned by a man who worked at a sawmill owned by de Souza, the Guardian reports, via Reporter Brasil. Within minutes, the purchaser sold the same 143 cattle to meat processing company JBS. story continues below JBS and its rival Marfrig have said they will not buy from farms involved in illegal deforestation, land grabbing, or other rural conflicts. JBS even developed a complex system to monitor its suppliers after it was found to have purchased cattle from farms in illegally-deforested areas in 2016. But tracing indirect suppliers remains a huge problem. Indeed, Reporter Brasil found JBS and Marfrig in 2018 used a supplier that had bought 153 cattle from Tres Lagoas months earlier, in a process known as cattle laundering. In a statement, per the Guardian, JBS claims any attempt to link the company to de Souza, "who was never on its list of suppliers, is irresponsible." Meanwhile, Marfrig, which acknowledges that 53% of its Amazon cattle comes from indirect suppliers, says it is "fully aware of the challenges related to the livestock production chain" and is working with the World Wildlife Fund to improve its monitoring. (Read more Brazil stories.) Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday said state health officials are concerned they lack enough protective gear for medical workers and warned that rural communities believe they may have inadequate hospital staff if the coronavirus continues its spread. In a letter Tuesday to Vice President Mike Pence, Brown also asked for flexibility from federal guidance about who can be tested for the potentially deadly virus. The request "is a recognition that what we have in place may not be sufficient as the situation evolves, said Robb Cowie, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority. But state officials, who have acknowledged the total number of infections in Oregon already could be in the hundreds, wouldnt say what specific changes in testing criteria they want. Through Tuesday afternoon, the state had tested 32 people, with three people found to be infected by coronavirus and 29 people deemed negative. Samples from 18 others have been submitted to the state lab for analysis Wednesday. Browns letter to Pence comes a day after she and other governors held a conference call with the vice president. Pence asked states to follow-up in writing by outlining their requests to battle coronavirus, and he announced Tuesday that any American can get tested if a doctor suspects the virus. Brown didnt ask the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send more tests beyond the roughly 1,500 Oregon already has. But she did urge the release of protective equipment for health care workers from the federal governments strategic national stockpile. She called for release of 400,000 sets of specialized medical masks, gowns and gloves, plus an unspecified number of full-body Tyvek suits and disposable plastic linings for ambulances. She also requested 75 to 100 ventilators. The state could spend as much as $7 million to $10 million per month in state and federal money to battle coronavirus, Brown wrote, and requested that federal officials help backfill as much of those expenses as possible. Significant resources and funding will be needed in the days and months ahead to respond to and contain this outbreak," Brown wrote to Pence. As the situation evolves, so too do our needs. While state officials believe they currently have enough equipment, we are concerned that we do not have a sufficient supply if the virus spreads more widely. I want to make sure that our health professionals on the front lines have the equipment and personnel they need to treat individuals with the coronavirus, Brown said in a 4-minute online video. Browns letter also noted that officials have heard significant concerns from small rural hospitals and health practices about potential workforce shortages. Brown said state officials are separately identifying where they could quarantine" people who have no place to isolate themselves as the virus spreads. As for testing, state officials since Friday have been following CDC guidelines about who should be checked. Theyve tested individuals with symptoms who traveled to counties with outbreaks and individuals with symptoms who have been in close contact with someone already identified with COVID-19. The state also has tested people who have been hospitalized with severe respiratory illnesses but no confirmed diagnosis. Adding testing flexibility would allow state officials to better assess the burden of the disease" in Oregon, Brown wrote in her letter to Pence. Although the states own internal guidelines acknowledge the testing guidelines arent set in stone, they officially want flexibility. Cowie, the health authority spokesman, said state officials want the ability, as situations arise, in a local community, to do additional testing -- particularly when county health officials are calling for it. Although the state didnt provide specifics, such a scenario could conceivably include vulnerable populations who arent necessarily in a close, 6-foot proximity to an infected person, but nonetheless are in the general vicinity -- such as those living in a nursing home. As this situation develops," Brown said in her online video, we are also exploring options to make sure every Oregon who needs a COVID-19 test can be tested quickly. -- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Cellulose Nanofibers Market in Japan 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Strong government and industry funding has given Japan the world's largest cellulose nanofibers (CNF) industry with commercial production facilities operating across the country. Also, ambitious national targets for reducing CO2 emissions make nanocellulose particularly attractive for product development. Japan is by far the largest producer and consumer of CNF products. CNF research and development started in Japan around 2000, and more than 50 companies are seriously developing their manufacturing technologies and applications. Additional companies are also involved in government projects. These companies produce CNF on a pre-commercial and commercial scale and produce numerous products or supply to OEMs. Several CNF-based products have come onto the market in Japan including: Ballpoint pen ink gels Adult deodorizing products Audio equipment Hygiene wipes and other products Footwear Cosmetics Food additives Packaging additives Concrete additives Automotive composites Report contents include: Demand for CNF in Japan In-depth details on CNF production processes, materials development and products Production capacities for cellulose nanofiber in Japan End user markets in Japan Trends in cellulose nanofiber in Japan In-depth profiles of 54 CNF producers and product developers in Japan In-depth analysis of market by applications including estimated market size, penetration and growth Applications covered include: Polymer composite parts; Biodegradable and renewable nanocomposites; Automotive composites; Packaging films; Aerogels; Construction materials; Packaging fillers/additives; Paint and coatings additives; Deoderant sheets; Pharmaceutical additives; Renewable plastic parts/casings; Transparent films for electronics; Flexible and printed electronics; Batteries; Flexible and paper batteries; Filtration membranes Key Topics Covered 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Why Cellulose Nanofibers? 1.2 The Market in 2019 1.3 Future Global Market Outlook 1.4 Global Cellulose Nanofibers Production 1.4.1 Total Global Production Capacity 2019 for Cellulose Nanofibers 1.4.2 Market Demand for Cellulose Nanofibers in Japan 2017-2019 1.4.3 Cellulose Nanofibers (CNF) Production Capacities 2019, by Producer 1.4.4 Microfibrillated Cellulose (MFC) Production Capacities 2019 1.5 Market Challenges for Cellulose Nanofibers 1.6 Cellulose Nanofibers Commercial Products 2 Cellulose Nanofibers Supply Chain in Japan 3 Cellulose Nanofibers Pricing 4 Cellulose Nanofibers in Composites 4.1 Market Overview 4.2 Market Prospects 4.3 Market Assessment 4.4 Applications Map 4.5 Product Developer Profiles 5 Cellulose Nanofibers in Automotive 6 Cellulose Nanofibers in Construction 7 Cellulose Nanofibers in Paper & Board Packaging 8 Cellulose Nanofibers in Textiles & Apparel 9 Cellulose Nanofibers in Medicine & Healthcare 10 Cellulose Nanofibers in Paints & Coatings 11 Cellulose Nanofibers in Aerogels 12 Cellulose Nanofibers in Oil & Gas 13 Cellulose Nanofibers in Filtration 14 Cellulose Nanofibers in Rheology Modifiers for Cosmetics, Pharma and Food Additives 15 Other Markets for Cellulose Nanofibers in Japan 15.1 Printed, Stretchable and Flexible Electronics 15.1.1 Market Assessment 15.1.2 Product Developer Profiles 16 Japan Cellulose Nanofibers Producer Analysis 16.1 Target Markets, by Nanocellulose Producer 17 Japan Cellulose Nanofiber Company Profiles Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation Chuetsu Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. DIC DKS Co. Ltd. Daicel Corporation DaikyoNishikawa Corporation Daio Paper Corporation Daishowa Paper Products Denso Corporation Ehime Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Fillerbank Limited Fuji Pigment Co. Ltd. Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. GS Alliance Co. Ltd. Hattori Shoten K.K. Hokuetsu Corp. Japan Steel Works Ltd. KRI Inc. Kami Shoji Company Kao Corporation Kusano Sakko K.K. Maniwa Biochemical Marine Nanofiber Co. Ltd. Marusumi Paper Company Limited Masuko Sangyo Co. Ltd. Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited Mori Machinery Co. Ltd. Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd. Nippon Shizai Co. Ltd. Nissin Kogyo Co. Ltd. Oji Holdings Omura Paint Co. Ltd. Onkyo Corporation Osaka Gas Rengo Co. Ltd. Ripro Corporation Risho Kogyo Co. Ltd. Sanwa Kako Co. Ltd. Seiko PMC Sharp Chemical Ind. Co. Ltd. Shinwa Kako K.K. Starlite Co. Ltd. Sugino Machine Limited TS Tech Co. Ltd. Taiyo Holdings Co Ltd. Tentok Paper Co. Ltd. Tokushu Tokai Paper Co. Ltd. Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. Toray Industries Inc. Toyota Boshoku Corporation Ube Industries Ltd. Unitika Co. Ltd. Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. Yoshikawakuni Plastics Industries Co. Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4yo634 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. A central Pennsylvania man who was convicted of raping a sleeping pregnant woman could be spending up to a decade in state prison. Dauphin County Judge Richard A. Lewis hit 33-year-old William Romberger with a 5- to 10-year jail term during a hearing Wednesday morning. A county jury convicted Romberger, a Tower City resident, on charges of rape of an unconscious victim and indecent assault after a trial in December. Deputy District Attorney Katie Adam said Romberger committed the rape while he was a guest at the womans northern Dauphin County home in July 2018. She was asleep in bed and he climbed into bed and began having sex with her, Adam said. She woke up and immediately reported it to the police. We got DNA, the prosecutor added. The woman told Lewis the rape was detrimental to her mental health and her pregnancy. She continues to have issues sleeping and feels that her privacy was violated, Adam said. Once he gets out of prison, Romberger will have to register with state police for life as a sex offender, Adam said. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After Saudi Arabia, now Kuwait has issued fresh instructions regarding Indian nationals travelling to Kuwait from March 8th onwards in the wake of the spread of COVID -19. The instructions mandatorily require the passengers to undergo a complete medical examination and to obtain a certificate (PCR Certificate) from the health centres approved by the Kuwait Embassy in India to confirm that they are free from the Coronavirus before entering its territory. Earlier, Saudi Arabia had announced that passengers holding Umrah Visa and tourist Visa are not permitted to travel to Saudi. As per the recent update, Saudi Arabia is currently permitting passengers holding Visit /Family/Business Visa to travel to Dammam and Riyadh in addition to Resident Permit holders. Passengers other than Resident Permit holders must hold a return ticket. There are five health check-up centers at Kozhikode, five at Kochi and three centres at Mangalore for undergoing this medical check-up. In order to facilitate the compliance of this requirement, the Air India Express, Kochi headquartered low-cost arm of the national carrier, has decided to allow free date modification to passengers who are booked to fly to Kuwait between March 8 and 15. They can rebook for a date that falls within seven days of the original booking date. With India, Indonesia and Thailand confirming new cases of coronavirus, Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged the countries in its South-East Asia region to strengthen preparedness for all possible scenarios and ensure early containment measures. "Top priority of countries should be to be ready to roll out speedy response to the first case, first cluster, and the first evidence of community transmission. Early containment measures can help countries stop transmission," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia region. Singh added, "The risk of the new coronavirus is very high across the More cases can be expected. Rapidly identifying these cases, isolating them and following their contacts are important initiatives to help limit person to person transmission. The speed of our response is critical, which is only possible if we are prepared." She also added that there are three priorities for country readiness - protecting health workers, engaging with communities and empowering them with timely and accurate information to enable them take protective measures, especially those at highest risk; and doing our best to contain epidemics in the most vulnerable countries. Outlining preparedness and response measures and capacities in the WHO South-East Asia Region, Singh said: "WHO is assisting countries in preparedness and response planning, in coordination with other partner organization; as per updated global guidelines." She added, "All member countries have rolled out a series of measures to prevent the disease and protect their nationals." "Nine of the 11 countries now have capacities to test for COVID-19. WHO is supporting countries with supplies for laboratories. For countries unable to test, WHO is assisting in the shipping of their samples to global referral laboratories, three of them in the region - two in Thailand and one in India," WHO said in a release. It added that nearly 300, 000 pieces of personal protective equipment comprising of caps, goggles, surgical masks, gloves gowns etc, have been supplied to member countries, and nearly 200, 000 more pieces are being procured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The partner of a woman whose badly charred body was found inside a house more than 15 years ago was out buying drugs when the blaze started. Jason Minors jumped out of a car, screaming and yelling, when he realised the home where he had lived with April Bailey for about four years was on fire, a Brisbane court has heard. April and Ian Bailey, pictured with April's daughter. Credit:QPS Media Mr Minors said the fire was so ferocious that swings, which were located away from the house, melted. The badly charred bodies of 29-year-old Ms Bailey and her brother Ian Bailey, 31, were found inside the burnt-out house at Deception Bay, north of Brisbane, on May 28, 2004. On February 29, for the first time in nearly 500 years, a Catholic mass was held in the main church in Geneva the Protestant theologian John Calvins adopted home town. Its still not clear from news coverage whether Protestant worshippers were invited to receive communion. One report said that Protestants and Catholics alike would be invited to take communion while another denied this, insisting that: people of a faith other than Catholic will not be formally invited to Eucharist, the sharing of bread and wine. The event, and the confusion around it, highlights the problem of some Christians excluding other Christians from this central sacrament of the faith one that, rather than dividing Christians, ought to reconcile and unite. So, should and can Catholic doctrine change? An illusion in most religions is that their beliefs and rituals are unchanging and this is the same for most Christians. Instead of seeing the faith as dynamic, most Christians slip into thinking their particular focus of attention is not only immune to change but somehow perfect the last word to be said on a topic. Leonardo da Vinci One item of doctrine that has got stuck in this way by being repeated rather than reflected upon is the Catholic Churchs statement that only those they consider in doctrinal agreement about the Eucharist (otherwise labelled as, variously, Holy Communion, the Mass or the Lords Supper) can participate fully at its celebration. This is a ritual whose symbolic focus is that of people gathered around a common table, eating portions of a broken loaf and drinking from a common cup filled with wine. What each ritual element is taken to mean has been controversial for centuries but the basic set of symbols seen as linked to the Last Supper of Jesus is common to all the churches. The various meanings given to this meal make it more a moment of visible tension between churches rather than the moment of coming together they all claim they want it to be. Story continues Put crudely, this means that if you are a Protestant you are not invited to eat at a Catholic service. It also means that a Catholic, even if welcome at a Protestant Eucharist, should refuse to share fully in the meal by eating and drinking. This practice of keeping denominations separate was standard policy for centuries but, with the rise of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century, it began to seem out of place. Nonetheless, the Catholic Church while willing to talk about unity saw this step as impossible until there was unity of faith. By this the Catholics meant doctrinal uniformity: tantamount to a reversal of the Reformation and there is no chance that will happen. This no-go attitude on the Catholic side not only creates deep hurt in relations between church leaders, but it creates tensions in households every Sunday where partners want to worship together but one feels excluded if they are from differing churches. Things could be different This problem appeared to be easing after the Catholic Churchs Second Vatican Council (1962-5) which opened dialogues with the Reformed Churches to overcome inherited differences. But in recent decades, under two conservative papacies, the situation deteriorated again. In 1998 the Catholic bishops in Britain and Ireland issued (One Bread One Body) which effectively forbade any sharing of communion. Moreover, in a conservative climate it became clear there was serious resistance to discussion or research. This negative climate was changed suddenly in November 2015. To mark the beginning of 500th anniversary celebrations of Martin Luthers challenge to the papacy, Pope Francis visited Romes Lutheran Church . Afterwards, he took questions and this issue of intercommunion was, not surprisingly, raised. Rather than closing down the question, he opened up several new avenues of thinking which could lead to a change in Catholic law and practice. Francis used his familiar approach that the church is more a field-hospital for suffering humanity than an oracular lawgiver. What, he wondered, if communion was food for a journey needed by people, rather than a reward for being a good Christian? This new openness will not be welcomed by conservatives, but many see it as a new way forward in relations between the churches. Francis also called on theologians to explore this difficulty afresh. Here is the key statement: Instead on the journey, I wonder and I dont know how to answer, but I make your question my own I wonder: is the sharing of the Lords Supper the end of a journey or the viaticum [travellers food] to journey together? I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand. What would Jesus do? So can one create a theological rationale for change? Here is just one such argument. We humans need food but only through teamwork can we eat. We do not simply eat together, we share meals. Meal sharing is distinctively human and this sharing has an inherent structure. This has implications for the eucharist because its form is a meal commemorating Jesuss last supper. Can you be present and I refuse to share the food with you? Can I say that it is a meal of welcome and then not share with someone I call a sister or a brother because of Christian baptism, who asks for a share? Family meals must promote reconciliation by sharing or they are dishonest and so unworthy of worship. I have tried to take up Pope Franciss call to theologians and advanced nine different arguments for a change in Catholic practice in my book Eating Together, Becoming One. They have only one common element: fixing this ulcer of division means re-imagining the meal Jesus bids his followers to share in his memory. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The Conversation Thomas OLoughlins book Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Franciss Call to Theologians is published by Liturgical Press. The U.S. military conducted an airstrike against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the first strike in over a week. It came just days after the United States and the Taliban agreed on a peace deal. The strike was carried out early Wednesday against militants who were attacking an Afghan National Defense and Security Forces checkpoint in Helmand, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said. The preceding day, Taliban fighters conducted 43 attacks against checkpoints in Helmand. Taliban leadership promised the international community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required, Col. Sonny Leggett, the spokesman, said in a statement. The United States, he said, are committed to peace, but have a responsibility to defend their Afghan partners. Afghans and America have complied with agreements made with the Taliban but the militants appear intent on squandering this opportunity and ignoring the will of the people for peace, Leggett said. The United States and Taliban signed the peace agreement on Feb. 29 in Qatar, outlining a path that would see all U.S. troops withdrawn in 14 months if the Taliban followed through on its commitments. Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani came out against an aspect of the deal over the weekend. Afghanistan was asked to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 10, when intra-Afghanistan talks are slated to start, but Ghani said he would not. The request has been made by the United States for the release of prisoners, and it can be part of the negotiations, but it cannot be a precondition, said Ghani. The Taliban said Monday it wouldnt participate in negotiations with the government unless the prisoners are released. A spokesman also said the group would start attacking government forces again. Gen. Austin Miller, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that U.S. forces will defend Afghan forces. We have shown restraint, Miller told Tolo News, an Afghan outlet. The objective here is to lower violence on all sides. The lowering of violence is our expectation. Calling the peace deal fragile, Miller said the Taliban not reducing violence causes risk to it. The White House said President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke with Abdul Ghani Barader, deputy leader of the Taliban, to discuss progress toward peace in Afghanistan. Trump emphasized the need to continue the reduction in violence and urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the government of the country, according to a White House readout. Trump told reporters outside the White House in Washington that he and Barader agreed that neither side wants violence. He described the discussion as a very good talk. From The Epoch Times A fight broke out in the Turkish parliament between lawmakers from opposing parties Wednesday during a tense discussion about Turkey's military involvement in northwest Syria. Video images showed dozens of legislators from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party and from the main opposition party pushing each other. In the video, some are seen throwing punches while others try to pull the brawling legislators apart. Some lawmakers fell to the ground during the fray, Turkey's Haberturk television reported. Fighting is a frequent occurrence in Turkey's parliament. The clash on Wednesday started when Engin Ozkoc of the opposition Republican People's Party took the rostrum. During a conference shortly before, Ozkoc called Erdogan "dishonorable, ignoble, low and treacherous". He also accused the president of sending the children of Turkey's people to fight while Erdogan's own offspring allegedly avoided long-term military service. During a speech to members of his party, Erdogan himself had accused the opposition earlier of being "dishonorable, ignoble, low and treacherous" for questioning Turkey's military involvement in Syria's northwest Idlib province. Tensions are running high following the deaths of more than 50 Turkish soldiers in Idlib in the past month, including 33 who were killed in an attack on Thursday. Turkey sent thousands of troops to Syria to help prevent a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive to retake Idlib province and to support Syrian opposition fighters holed up there. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More With a swift rise in the number of coronavirus cases being reported, India's tech companies are taking measures to ensure work continuity by asking employees to log in from home, in addition to fumigating their campuses. The companies have gone on an overdrive since it emerged that one of the two cases reported on March 2, involved a techie. So far, 28 cases of COVID-19 has been confirmed in India. There are two confirmed cases in Bengaluru and Telangana, and two more are in quarantine, all of them techies. Track this blog for live updates on coronavirus On March 2, the news of a techie getting infected by the disease surfaced. The techie, who had travelled to Dubai for work, flew back to Bengaluru before taking the bus to Telangana. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Following this, the techie's roommate, who is from Intel, and his colleague were quarantined in Bengaluru, according to a CNN-News18 report. In a mailed response to Moneycontrol, Intel said: "An Intel employee in Bengaluru has potentially been exposed and is currently under quarantine in accordance with government requirements. In India, we have implemented precautionary measures such as travel and event restrictions, visitor screenings at all our offices, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions." According to media reports, employees working in Mindspace, an IT hub in Hyderabad, have been asked to work from home as the office building is being sanitised. This was done after an employee from DSM Shared Services in the was infected. Two of the DSM offices in Telangana have been closed until further notice and are being cleaned, the company said in an e-mail advisory to employees. The empoyees have been asked to work from home till the time they can re-enter the building. Similar steps are being taken across the IT landscape in several cities. Some of the employees are in panic mode. Pressing the panic button Media reports quoting C Nagaraja, director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, stated that so far close to 97 have to come for checkup voluntarily due to panic. The institute is testing people for coronavirus in Bengaluru. Arupa N*, a techie, who works out of an IT tech park in Bengaluru, refused go to work in the light of outbreak. "I saw health officials coming to our office building. But we are yet to get any official confirmation from company. Till that time I would rather not go to office though my manager might not be happy," Arupa added. Some of the companies have fumigated the floors to ensure safety. Nishad K*, another techie from Bengaluru, said one of the floors in the building has been fumigated. "My friend's office was fumigated but there was no information about my office being fumigated. So, I am not sure how effective this is going to be, Nishad added. Aravind S*, an IT employee from Chennai, said: "We had a team meeting yesterday where we were apprised of precautions we are supposed to take. Aravinds company had stocked up hand sanitisers and regular soaps are now replaced by medical soaps in washrooms. "Canteens have become cleaner too," he quipped. IT companies such as TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies have also sent advisories to employees to exercise caution. In a statement shared with Moneycontrol, Wipro said that the company has suspended travel and transit to mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. Employees have also been advised to avoid non critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Italy. "Specifically in Italy, as a precautionary measure we have implemented work from home and travel restrictions. This had also been put in place across some countries in Asia Pacific, and is being monitored and modified based on the situation in each location. The company is also working with its clients to co-ordinate any measures in the current situation," a TCS spokesperson said. HCL Technologies said that the company has put in place work from home and remote working options. The company has also formed a special global task force to actively monitor the situation and take necessary actions in consultation with external agencies. Tech major Google has rolled out free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities till July 1, to all G Suite customers globally to help students, educators and companies conduct video conferences in response to COVID-19. Jack Dorsey, co-founder, Twitter, in a tweet mentioned that the company has put in place precautions to contain COVID-19. This includes working remotely across the world and conducting meetings and interviews through video conferences only. *names have been changed to protect identity Dallas, Texas, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Conversational AI Platform Market by Technology (Machine Learning, Automated Speech Recognition, Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Generation, and Others), Type (Text-based and Voice-based), Application (IT Service, Customer Service, Administrative/Business Management, Marketing/Advertising, and Others), and By Region, Global Forecast 2018 to 2025 study provides an elaborative view of historic, present and forecasted market estimates. The global conversational AI platform market size is expected to surpass USD 17 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of ~30% during the forecast period. Conversational AI platform facilitates the communication between digital world and humans. In addition, with the help of chatbots businesses can rapidly provide customer support and solve their issues and concerns. Also, it can further help businesses in achieving their business goals by addressing the key issues faced by their customers. Request a pdf sample @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/1296 The existing and future conversational AI platform market developments are defined to determine the attractiveness of the market. Key impacting factors highlight the conversational AI platform market opportunities throughout the forecast period. Factors such as omnichannel deployment and reduced chatbot development costs are the key factors boosting the demand for conversational AI platform and its market growth. In addition, increasing the adoption of conversational platforms among numerous industry verticals is also fueling the market growth. Moreover, increasing the adoption of social media and messaging apps is also one of the key factors fueling the demand for conversational AI platform solutions. However, growing data privacy concerns among several enterprises are anticipated to hamper the market growth. Furthermore, technological advancements in conversational platforms can be opportunistic for the market growth in upcoming years. The report also highlights numerous aspects of the global conversational AI platform industry by evaluating the market through value chain analysis. In addition, the report covers numerous qualitative aspects of the conversational AI platform industry in market drivers, restraints, and key industry opportunities. Furthermore, the report offers a comprehensive assessment of the market competition along with company profiling of local as well as global vendors. Access the full report with Table of Contents and List of Figures @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/industry-reports/conversational-artificial-intelligence-platform-market The major players of the global Conversational AI platform market are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google (Alphabet, Inc.), IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Nuance Communication, Baidu, Jio Haptik, Facebook. Moreover, the other potential players in the Conversational AI platform market are DigitalGenius, Drift.com, Twyla GmbH, SnatchBot, Zendesk, and others. Currently, the conversational AI platform market is semi consolidated with the existence of well-known domestic as well as global players. In addition, the recognized companies are developing new innovative conversational AI platform technologies and solutions. For instance, In April 2019, Nuance Communications, partnered with Avaya, communication, and collaboration service provider to integrate Nuances Conversational AI technology into Avayas IX Contact Center solutions. The global conversational AI platform market has strong competition among the new emerging and well-established players. In addition, the conversational AI platform industry players are targeting prospective markets to get a competitive advantage over the other industry players by participating in agreements, mergers, and acquisitions, partnerships, collaboration, and expanding their businesses. Direct purchase the single user copy @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/researchreport/purchase/1296 On the basis of technology, the market is categorized into Machine Learning, Automated Speech Recognition, Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Generation, and others. Further, other technologies include natural language understanding and other language technologies. The Machine Learning segment is anticipated to dominate the market in forecast years. On the contrary, the Natural Language Processing segment is anticipated to accumulate the highest CAGR during the forecast period. North America is dominating the global conversational AI platform market in 2019 and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period 20202025. It is expected to have the largest market revenue with ~1 billion in 2019. The growth of this region is mainly accredited to the presence of major market players such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and others in this region. In addition, the rapid technological advancements and their adoption is also propelling the demand for conversational AI platforms in North America. However, the Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to hold the highest market growth during the forecast period. Have any inquiries on purchasing the report? If yes, then contact us @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/1296 Major points from Table of Contents: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Research Methodology Chapter 3 Executive Summary Chapter 4 Market Outlook Chapter 5 Conversational AI platform Market by Technology Chapter 6 Conversational AI platform Market by Type Chapter 7 Conversational AI platform Market by Application Chapter 8 Conversational AI platform Market By Region Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Chapter 10 Company Profiles Access research repository of Upcoming Reports @ https://adroitmarketresearch.com/upcoming.html About Us: Adroit Market Research is a global business analytics and consulting company incorporated in 2018. Our target audience is a wide range of corporations, manufacturing companies, product/technology development institutions and industry associations that require understanding of a markets size, key trends, participants and future outlook of an industry. We intend to become our clients knowledge partner and provide them with valuable market insights to help create opportunities that increase their revenues. We follow a code Explore, Learn and Transform. At our core, we are curious people who love to identify and understand industry patterns, create an insightful study around our findings and churn out money-making roadmaps. Iraq said a 70-year-old Muslim cleric died on Wednesday from the novel coronavirus, marking the first death from the outbreak in a country where 31 people have been infected. The preacher had been quarantined in the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah before his death, a spokesman for the northern Kurdish autonomous region's health authority said. According to local sources, he had recently met with Iraqis returning from neighbouring Iran, which has recorded the deadliest outbreak outside China, the epidemic's epicentre. The virus in the Islamic Republic has claimed 77 lives and infected more than 2,300 people. Iraq, where 31 cases of coronavirus have been reported, is one of Iran's largest export markets and a popular destination for Iranian pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. Many Iraqis also cross the frontier for business, tourism, medical treatment and religious studies. Iraqi authorities have closed land borders with Iran and banned the entry of foreign nationals travelling from there and other badly affected countries. Schools, universities, cinemas, cafes and other public places in Iraq have been ordered shut until March 7 to further contain the outbreak, but many continue to operate normally. The outbreak has fuelled public panic among Iraqis who say the war-ravaged country's healthcare system cannot handle the epidemic. Many hospitals in Iraq are poorly equipped or in disrepair after successive waves of conflict. According to the World Health Organization, there are fewer than 10 doctors for every 10,000 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) She is a trained chef herself. Bu former Top Chef host Katie Hill, who is expecting her first baby with her husband Ryan Biegel, loves to shout out other people's culinary skills too. She uploaded Insta Stories footage on Monday of her tucking into a scrumptious-looking slice of chocolate cake from New York's Sweet Corner Bakeshop. Chowing down: Katie Hill, who is expecting her first baby with her husband Ryan Biegel, loves to shout out other people's culinary skills too Katie posted a picture of herself with the dessert to her main Instagram page and revealed that she was celebrating a new work achievement. 'Yes, its 5pm and I just took my shower for the day. Yes, I am having a piece of chocolate cake before dinner. You know why?' she wrote in the caption. 'I JUST FINISHED MY 4th COOKBOOK,' she crowed. 'Turned in the manuscript to my editor and this is how I celebrate'. Katie, who fronted the first season of Top Chef before being replaced by Padma Lakshmi, wrote: 'Now starts the really fun part....editing'. Only the best: She uploaded Insta Stories footage on Monday of her tucking into a scrumptious-looking slice of chocolate cake from New York's Sweet Corner Bakeshop Source: She has credited the cake to Sweet Corner Bakeshop in the West Village, writing on her main Instagram page that she 'saw it here on the gram and it does not disappoint' She then credited the cake to Sweet Corner Bakeshop in the West Village, adding that she 'saw it here on the gram and it does not disappoint'. Her latest cookery volume, Katie Lee's Easy-Breezy Eats: The Endless Summer Cookbook, was released in April 2018. Katie announced her pregnancy last Wednesday with an Instagram snap where she showed off her burgeoning bump in a crop top. 'FINISHED MY 4th COOKBOOK': Katie posted a picture of herself with the dessert to her main Instagram page and revealed that she was celebrating a new work achievement She could be seen lifting a forkful of spaghetti toward her mouth and captioned that she was 'Eating for two,' adding: 'Baby Biegel is on the way!' The West Virginia native, who co-hosts The Kitchen on the Food Network and Beach Bites With Katie Lee on the Cooking Channel, has had fertility issues in the past. Last April she revealed she had unsuccessfully tried in vitro fertilization, writing on Instagram: 'When Ryan and I got married, our plan was to start a family right away.' 'Eating for two': Katie announced her pregnancy last Wednesday with an Instagram snap where she showed off her burgeoning bump in a crop top Hot couple: Katie is pictured on Siesta Key Beach with her TV producer husband, whom she married in 2018 on the Amalfi Coast Katie shared: 'My doctor advised us to try iVF. We just finished the intense process only to get zero healthy embryos.' She explained: 'Not only is iVF physically exhausting, the emotional toll is unparalleled. We were filled with hope and excitement only to be crushed.' Before tying the knot with Ryan in 2018 on the Amalfi Coast, Katie was married to singing legend Billy Joel from 2004 to 2009. SEPTA has recently had difficulty providing sufficient train capacity on the Market-Frankford Line (MFL), the busiest on its network. It has rebuilt some cars, reducing the number of seats to increase standing capacity. However, it has also downgraded the line from skip-stop with two A/B trains, each of which made different stops along the line to all-stop during travel peaks. That decision is a serious mistake that should be corrected by returning to accelerated skip-stop service. Skip-stop service is not as fast as express on four-track sections on the Broad Street Line. However, skip-stop is the only way to provide service significantly faster than all-stop on a two-track line. Although skip-stop lengthens headways (intervals between trains) at A and B stations, it provides higher average speed of all trains. Higher speed on transit lines trains and buses is extremely important because it attracts more passengers and reduces the number of trains required for any given headway. Attracting more passengers and reducing operating costs benefits the public and SEPTA. Since each train in skip-stop service has to make fewer stops than an all-stop train, its cycle (roundtrip) time is significantly shorter. That decreases the number of trains needed to provide a given headway. Thus, all-stop service on MFL takes longer travel times. All-stop service may be simpler to control, but it results in lower average speed, not greater line capacity. Even though SEPTA insists they can use the same amount, in reality, the change requires more trains to maintain service. This conclusion is supported by a comparison of skip-stop vs. all-stop transit operation, using the MLF as an example, which my research team at the University of Pennsylvania published in 1976. We found that the MFLs skip-stop trains, which then served six A/B station pairs, made a trip from 69th Street to the Frankford Transportation Center in about six minutes less than all-stop trains. That made cycle time for each train 12 minutes shorter. It also makes sense intuitively: All-stop service offers lower operating speed because it makes more stops. How can the capacity of MFL be increased overall? Some places to start: improving reliability of service and reducing average times between trains. Usually, the station with the longest dwell time is the critical element for line capacity. For the MFL, the 15th Street station is usually that critical element because it has the heaviest two-way passenger exchange. Commuter standing, in this case, takes very long because, at most doors, there are two standing persons, allowing only one to squeeze in or out through that narrow opening. Several measures, such as designating stopping locations more precisely, marking door locations on the platform, using a few officers to shepherd passengers during critical periods, and having more announcements not to stand blocking the doors could help. Shortening the dwell times at critical stations increases the capacity of the entire line. Replacing the skip-stop with less efficient all-stop service is a case where SEPTA adjusts service to make it easier for its operations, with more standardized train movement control, but less convenient for passengers. Other examples of that are found on SEPTAs Regional Rail System: its lines have mostly irregular and very long headways, and their clearly designated R-1, R-2, etc., have been replaced by random mixing of unnumbered lines between the east and west lines, converging to Center City Tunnel. Signs on the trains are poor, often nonexistent. READ MORE: Leslie Richards has taken over as SEPTAs general manager. Shes all ears. On the positive side, SEPTAs move to increase frequency of service on the MFL during evening hours is welcome for the city. Most rapid transit systems offer much shorter times between trains on their main lines than 10-15 minutes in off-peak hours and weekends. Such service makes a city more attractive and livable. SEPTA services represent the backbone of Philadelphia and its extensive suburbs. The current countrywide revival of cities, especially their central areas, needs not only maintenance of transit services, but also their expansion and modernization. Under the leadership of the new general manager, highly experienced transportation expert Leslie Richards, SEPTA should be assisted to respond to the regions need to become more livable in the coming years. Vukan R. Vuchic is professor emeritus of transportation engineering and city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Lawyer Leonid Maslov, who represents Andriy Antonenko, a suspect in the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet, is being searched. "Maslov is currently being searched. Reason: court decision (Kyiv's Pechersky District Court) on the investigator's corresponding petition because he allegedly logged into Antonenko's account and could delete the information," lawyer Masi Nayyem wrote on Facebook. The relevant court order was adopted on February 25, 2020, a photo of the document was published by the Free Riff community on Facebook. "Maslov Leonid Klavdiyovych, born March 3, 1967, for an unknown reason, logged into a page on the Vkontakte social network on January 4, 2020, which belongs to Antonenko, and could destroy or damage information that may be of interest on the above criminal proceedings. Maslov posted about this on Facebook. Therefore, Maslov may have access to social pages of Antonenko and other material evidence. He may destroy them or hide them from the investigation," the document said. As reported, journalist Sheremet was killed in a car explosion in central Kyiv on July 20, 2016. The explosion occurred when Sheremet was driving a vehicle that belonged to Ukrayinska Pravda co-founder Olena Prytula, who was not in it at the time. The journalist died at the scene shortly following the bomb blast. Three persons suspected of killing Sheremet: military nurse Yana Duhar, volunteer and children's physician Yulia Kuzmenko as well as musician and anti-terrorist operation veteran Andriy Antonenko. All have been detained. Spouses Vladyslav and Inna Hryshchenko, also members of the ATO, were detained in another case, but are defendants in the case of the murder of Sheremet. Author Dame Hillary Mantel has made further comments about the Duchess of Sussex, saying that abominable racism has been involved in the treatment of Meghan. The Wolf Hall author, whose comments about Meghans treatment and the objectionable perception of royal ladies as public property went viral, has also discussed the Duchess in a new interview with Harper's Bazaar. Calling Meghan a smiling face in a dull institution, she said, I think that Meghan was too good to be true. She was a smiling face in a dull institution, she cheered the nation up no end, or at least men and women of good will. I do think abominable racism has been involved. Getty Images People who say thats got nothing to do with it well, they need to check their privilege! she continued. Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they would be stepping down as senior royals in a landmark moment this year, with the pair set to formally step down on March 31 as they seek to become financially independent. Harpers Bazaar Mantel said, Im pleased that its the marriage thats surviving and the connection with the monarchy that has to go, because I think almost all of us would have bet that if she left, shed have to leave alone. Yesterday, Mantel said of Meghan to the BBC, "I hesitate to call her a victim. But I think there has been an element of racism in the invective against her." Getty Images "I think it's more deeply embedded in people's consciousness than any of us are willing to admit," she continued. Even early on into her relationship with Prince Harry, the response and coverage of the former Suits actress has been racially tinged - with one publication referring to her as a woman straight outta Compton despite not living in the area and Boris Johnsons sister publicly stating that the Duchess had rich and exotic DNA. Harper's Bazaar It prompted Prince Harry to release an unprecedented statement decrying the racial undertones of comment pieces and sexism and racism of social media trolls. Revisiting controversial comments she made about the Duchess of Cambridge in 2013, Mantel said, "There's an intense concentration on the bodies of royal women. If anyone doubts that, we only have to look at what happens when our royal ladies are pregnant and when they give birth. They are perceived as public property in the same way that Tudor women were perceived." (Getty Images) / getty images She added that it resulted in "simply turning the individual woman back into a breeder." The Sussexes revealed they intended to split their time between North America and the UK, with Prince Harry saying at a charity event that there was really was no other option for them than to step away. Harper's Bazaar However, their plans to set up a separate Sussex Royal foundation were been brought to a standstill as it was was ruled they would not be able to trademark the name. A spokesperson for Sussexes said, While The Duke and Duchess are focused on plans to establish a new non-profit organisation, given the specific UK government rules surrounding use of the word Royal, it has been therefore agreed that their non-profit organisation, when it is announced this Spring, will not be named Sussex Royal Foundation. The Suspects, Robert Sunday Olaoluwa, Obi Sobenna Jude Operatives of the Kaduna Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested one Obi Sobenna Jude and Robert Sunday Olaoluwa, for defrauding unsuspecting members of the public. The suspects allegedly defrauded their victims through job scam, by posing as foreigners working for American companies on the internet. According to the EFCC, the intelligence report was received and acted on by the Intelligence and Special Operations Section, ISOS, of the Kaduna zone. Upon receipt of the intel, operatives swung into action and stormed the residence of the suspects on February 29, 2020, at New GRA, Bayan Gida Yerima Gyade, Bauchi State where they were arrested. The EFCC said under cross-examination, they confessed to the fact that they had been using different techniques to defraud their victims, principally through the website: snagajob.com (a supposed job advert platform), where they posed as hiring managers of TTEC, reputable company in USA and paxful.com (another supposed platform) for trading bitcoins. This week is providing a rolling demonstration of the divide between U.S. and European-headquartered multinational oil giants when it comes to climate change. Driving the news: Chevron CEO Mike Wirth yesterday made the case for their posture, which eschews the deep, long-term, emissions-cutting targets of companies like BP and Shell. Chevron and ExxonMobil are also more cautious about spending on low-carbon technologies outside their core business than European majors. What they're saying: Certainly the European companies have made longer-term aspirational commitments," Wirth said yesterday at the company's annual meeting with analysts in New York. "What we have done is given you things that are very tangible here and now that we are doing today, Wirth said. Wirth and other Chevron officials touted steps like near-term efforts to cut the emissions intensity of its oil production by 5%10% by 2023. "Right now for us, renewables create the most value when we integrate them into our existing operations, but were mindful of the opportunity for new business models," he said. What's next: Exxon holds its annual investor day Thursday, where its approach which shares more with Chevron than European majors is bound to come up. The big picture: The two U.S. giants' annual presentations come on the heels of fresh climate pledges by their rivals across the Atlantic. BP last month pledged to become a "net-zero" emissions company by 2050, while last week Eni vowed an 80% cut in net emissions by then. European majors are setting targets around "Scope 3" emissions, that is, the pollution from use of their products in the economy. A good rundown of the plans comes via Reuters here. Shell, Total, and BP have also withdrawn from some trade associations over differences on climate, something the U.S. counterparts are not doing. Between the lines: A couple of things are worth noting here. One is that Exxon and Chevron have taken new or wider steps in recent years. Examples include Chevron's investments, via its VC arm, in companies like ChargePoint and Carbon Engineering, and both majors joining the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. And when comparing them to the European majors, it's important to remember that while the European players have been more active, spending on low-carbon tech remains a small fraction of everyone's budget. Go deeper: Big Oil lobby showing subtle shifts on climate change WASHINGTON - A linguist working for the U.S. military who kept a list of secret informants hidden under her mattress was charged with sharing the names with a romantic interest linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, appeared in Washingtons federal court on Wednesday to face charges in an espionage case that investigators said put at risk the lives of American military members and confidential sources and represented a significant breach of classified information. The criminal case accuses Thompson, a contract translator, of giving to the unidentified Lebanese man the names of U.S. government sources and the information they provided. That effort, according to the government, accelerated during a six-week period from the end of December, when U.S. airstrikes targeted Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and exacerbated relations between the two countries, through the middle of last month. Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the Justice Departments top national security official, called the alleged conduct a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished. Thompsons court appearance, on charges that could carry life in prison, was brief and ended with her being detained until a hearing next Wednesday. Her attorney did not return a phone message afterward. Thompson was arrested last week at the military facility in Erbil, Iraq, where prosecutors say she worked as a contract linguist. The Defence Department said it was aware of the arrest and was co-operating with the investigation. After the arrest, prosecutors say, Thompson acknowledged that she passed secret information to a man she was romantically interested in, but said she did not know that he had any affiliation with Hezbollah. She instead said she thought he might have been tied to the Amal political party in Lebanon, though she later said she considered the groups to be the same. No, I dont know about Hizbollah. I hate Hizbollah, Thompson told an agent, according to an affidavit unsealed Wednesday. She described members of the group, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, as terrorists and like the octopus. They can reach anybody. Thompson also told the agent that she passed along classified information by memorizing it, writing it down and transmitting it via the video feature of a secure messaging application on her cellphone. One screenshot of a video chat the FBI says it obtained showed Thompson displaying to the Lebanese man an Arabic note describing the technique an informant had used to collect information, according to the affidavit. Starting in late December, once the airstrikes began, Thompson repeatedly accessed about five dozen files with information on eight government informants, prosecutors said. Those files included the names of informants, their photographs and cables detailing the information that the sources provided to the U.S. government. Prosecutors said that when officials searched her living quarters, they found a handwritten note in Arabic concealed under her mattress with information about Defence Department computer systems and warning of a Defence Department target. ____ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter/com/etuckerAP The Central Electoral Commission of Armenia has examined the speech that Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Suren Papikyan gave in the National Assembly today and, in accordance with a particular article of the Electoral Code of Armenia, as an issue that requires an operational solution, immediately contacted the representative of the YES campaign headquarters for the referendum for constitutional amendments and Minister Suren Papikyan, drew his attention to the requirements in the part of a particular article of the Constitutional Law of Armenia On referendum and informed him that he has to strictly observe the requirements during the campaign for the referendum, as reported elections.am. In his speech, the minister had said that citizens of Armenia have the opportunity to vote according to their conscience on April 5 and that all citizens of Armenia are the beneficiaries of the changes expected in the Constitutional Court. Russian airstrikes have struck the village of al-Fuaa in northern Idleb and the town of Binnish, killing a number of civilians reports Zaman Al Wasl. At least ten civilians were killed on Monday in Russian airstrikes on northern Idleb province. The Russian warplanes carried out four raids on the rebel-held village of al-Fuaa in the northern countryside of Idleb, leaving nine people dead, according to Zaman al-Wasls reporter. One person was also killed in Russian airstrikes on the town of Binnish. In turn, the Syrian regime shelled the Turkish observation point at Taftanaz airbase, killing one Turkish soldier. Turkey has launched a military operation in Idleb after weeks of mounting tensions with the Syrian regime, which has pressed an offensive, backed by Russian air power, to retake the province. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans office confirmed he will hold a summit with Putin in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the escalating violence. I hope that he [Putin] will take the necessary measures there, such as a ceasefire, and that we will find a solution to this affair, Erdogan said in a televised speech. The Kremlin said cooperation with Turkey was a top priority. Our militaries are in constant contact. The main thing is that we now focus on negotiations between Putin and Erdogan, a spokesman said. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the state Legislative Assembly that a new policy on librarieswill be unveiled in the next legislature session. Higher and Technical Education MinisterUday Samant informed the Lower House that the new policywill give a boost to the movement of rural libraries in Maharashtra. At present there are 12,149 recognised public libraries in the state, he said, adding that since 2012-13, permission had not been given for newlibraries and upgradation of the existing libraries. "A committee was set up to formulate a policy for libraries regarding upgradation of the existing ones, provision of grants and recruitment of staff," he said. "The reporthas been given to the law and judiciary department and the new policy will be unveiled in the next session," the minister added. "In the last few years, permission was not given to open new government-aided libraries," he said, adding that the new policy will helpstrengthen the library movement at village level. The local authoritieswill be given powers to set up libraries in the villages, Samant said. The committee has also surveyed the existing libraries. Members cutting across the party lines stressed the need to encourage the library movement and inculcate reading habits among people, especially in view of the rising use of social media. The legislators also called for the need to digitise important manuscripts available in libraries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Riley, 54, said she came home after work and began to watch the Investigation Discovery channel. About 30 minutes later, she smelled smoke through her cracked window. She first checked her next-door neighbors house but didnt see anything, she said. Then she walked to the backyard and saw the reflection of flames in a window facing the house across the street. Arlene Foster may well be right when she says that there won't be a united Ireland in her lifetime. She may also be right when she says that there won't be a border poll in her lifetime either. Yet I worry that her response - and that of others within unionism - instils a sense of misplaced sanguinity, leading in turn to a reluctance to prepare for any and every eventuality. My view - one I have espoused for what seems like forever - is that unionism should always be ready for every challenge rather than simply replying on the Dickensean trope that "something will turn up". In other words, work from the assumption that a border poll, while not inevitable, is certainly a possibility; and consequently, like all possibilities, it should be prepared for. Say, for example, Sinn Fein does get a place in the next Irish Government and that the price for that place has already been named by Matt Carty TD: "... a junior minister for Irish unity. We will have a key unit in the Department of the Taoiseach and maybe a sub-committee, as well as an Oireachtas committee and a citizens' assembly". If that happens you can bet your bottom dollar that the unity debate will expand across sections within the Republic that haven't really been listening very much up to now. It will also expand across Northern Ireland if Sinn Fein's Executive team have a counterpart in the Irish Government. It may even spread to conversations, albeit below the radar, between the British and Irish Governments. Unionists, it seems, must put their trust in a Secretary of State, who in turn would be steered by a Prime Minister. I'm damn sure I wouldn't put too much faith in the present Prime Minister Is unionism prepared for any of those possibilities? I can understand why Foster and others don't want to have any formal, or even informal, conversations with those groups pushing for a united Ireland (not least because those groups are clearly working on the basis that unity is inevitable, which it isn't). But as the leader of the largest unionist party and de facto "leader of unionism", surely Foster has a responsibility to gather together all elements of the pro-Union community (and, just off the top of my head, that embraces a number of parties and fringe groups; the loyal orders; community organisations; Churches; loyalism; civic unionism and a myriad of offshoots) and do the spadework for the options and strategies required to meet and counter every new political and electoral challenge? Look, for example, at her response to a potential border poll: "There has to be evidence there. As you know, the test for a border poll is that people would vote in a majority (for a united Ireland). And there's no evidence of that. Yes, people can have different opinion polls, but there's no tangible evidence, if you look right across Northern Ireland." Yet too much of that response seems to rest on intangibles. How is "evidence" defined? In the Belfast Agreement paragraphs about a border poll there is no definition of the word "likely" (in the sense of "likely" to vote for a united Ireland). Unionists, it seems, must put their trust in a Secretary of State, who in turn would be steered by a Prime Minister. I'm damn sure I wouldn't put too much faith in the present Prime Minister. As for the "evidence", unionists don't have a majority in the Assembly. Unionists don't have a majority in Belfast City Council. In two of the last three elections the UUP has been outpolled by Alliance (a party now routinely described by unionists as not a unionist party). For the first time ever unionists represent a minority of the MPs returned from Northern Ireland. In a number of elections over the last few years the total unionist vote has hovered around 50% or so - hardly a thumping endorsement. So, start defining the term "likely" when weighed against that kind of "evidence". A man willing to smash to smithereens a number of promises he made in order to sign up to a border in the Irish Sea is a man who could, just as easily, be prepared to play the border poll card to suit his own interests I'm not arguing - mostly because I don't believe it to be true - that all of this means either a border poll or a united Ireland is hurtling down the track. But I am arguing that I can see how a strong case in favour of a poll could be made and accepted by people who don't believe they owe unionism any particular favours. A man willing to smash to smithereens a number of promises he made in order to sign up to a border in the Irish Sea is a man who could, just as easily, be prepared to play the border poll card to suit his own interests. Northern Ireland unionism has faced many challenges since 1921, most of them, though, stemming from the removal of the Stormont Parliament in 1972 and the emergence of mandatory power-sharing and an in-built "Irish dimension" in October of the same year. Those developments came as huge surprises, as did many other developments since then, most of which unionism wasn't prepared for. Some surprises can, eventually, be accommodated. But what happens if unionism is surprised by a border poll and isn't prepared for the subsequent debate? Whatever Foster thinks, whatever I think, whether we are right or wrong, all of it is to some extent irrelevant. The constitutional question is always going to be front and centre of political debate in Northern Ireland. As political and electoral dynamics have shifted and as increasing numbers of nationalists (small-'n' and big-'n') and some elements of unionism (though not on the scale I think, as Sinn Fein may imagine) have begun engaging in a debate about the potential of a united Ireland, the challenges facing the pro-Union side have continued to grow. And at some point one of those challenges may become an existential one. Are unionists ready for that moment? Are the arguments mustered and thought-through? Have we our core vote and newer, potential voters briefed and persuaded? Does party-political unionism (which embraces five parties and a number of fringe groups at the moment) have an agreed and singing-from-the-same-hymn sheet strategy and coherent, attractive message in place? Do we have "friends in high places" across the UK who will also champion our case? Do we know who within the pro-Union family here would take the lead in a border poll debate and campaign? Are we ready to deconstruct the arguments in favour of a united Ireland and present a case which would be appealing to the increasing numbers of people - particularly younger voters - who define themselves as "others"? Do we even agree among ourselves what we mean by unionism? I believe the next few years will present unionism with the greatest challenge of my lifetime. And it is, by the way, a challenge which was always coming, even if it may be true that Brexit pushed it up the agenda. Is the pro-Union community and party-political unionism ready for that challenge? Maybe that's the question which Foster and others need to focus upon. Advertisement If you're often running late for the school run, this is the perfect motor for you. Swedish hypercar builder Koenigsegg has released the four-seat Gemera - a model it has coined as the first 'Mega GT' plug-in hybrid that packs 1,700bhp, can accelerate from standstill to 62mph in 1.9 seconds and has a top speed of 248mph - and also the biggest pair of scissor doors we've ever seen. The only stumbling blocks are two small insignificant details: the price - which is expected to be in the region of 1.5million (1.7million) - and the fact just 300 are being made for the global market. World's first Mega GT: This is the Koenigsegg Gemera - the Swedish brand's first four-seater hypercar that has the biggest scissor doors we've ever seen First off, where does the name come from? According to CEO and founder Christian von Koenigsegg, it was suggested by his mother, with 'Ge' translating from Swedish as 'Give' and 'mera' meaning 'more'. The Gemera is powered by the brand's in-house developed hybrid powertrain - with a very modest petrol engine producing much of the power. There's no fire-breathing V12, rampaging V10 or gargling V8 motor. Instead, the unleaded powerplant is a 2.0-litre engine with just three cylinders. With the addition of two turbochargers, this relatively dinky mid-mounted motor - somehow - develops a massive 600bhp and 600Nm of torque. Koenigsegg has fondly dubbed it its 'Tiny Friendly Giant'. Cute. And it's not like your traditional petrol engine. It uses free-valve technology, which instead of using conventional direct injection and variable valve timing can independently open and close the valves depending on the driving conditions. In simple English, that means it can automatically switch from maximising performance to cutting emissions and improving fuel economy at the drop of a hat - or a right foot. The Gemera is a plug-in hybrid can accelerate from standstill to 62mph in 1.9 seconds and has a top speed of 248mph here's no fire-breathing V12, rampaging V10 or gargling V8. Instead, the unleaded powerplant is a 2.0-litre engine with just three cylinders. Koenigsegg has fondly dubbed it its 'Tiny Friendly Giant' With the dinky engine working in unison with a 16.6kWh battery pack and three electric motors - one for each rear wheel and one dedicated to the front axle - the maximum output it can achieve is a monumental 1,700bhp Working in unison with a 16.6kWh battery pack and three electric motors - one for each rear wheel and another dedicated to the front axle - the maximum output it can achieve is a monumental 1,700bhp. It also has the option of running in all-electric mode, which has a range of 31 miles (50km). With the engine in full fuel-sipping mode and the batteries fully charged, Koenigsegg claims a range of 621 miles (1,000km) when the 75 tank is brimmed. It tips the scales at just 1,850kg, which is incredibly lightweight for a plug-in hybrid. A Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid, for comparison, weighs close to 2.5 tonnes Kilogram-shaving design bods have demanded it use a single windscreen wiper blade instead of two The Mega GT has a pair of giant scissor doors. Well, the correct name is: Automated Twisted Synchrohelix Actuation Doors (KATSAD) Weight has kept to a minimum with the use of aluminium front and rear subframes linked to a carbon-fibre monocoque. Kilogram-shaving designers have even done away with traditional wing mirrors and replaced them with cameras on stalks mounted in their place. They've even demanded it use a single windscreen wiper blade instead of two. It tips the scales at just 1,850kg, which is incredibly lightweight for a plug-in hybrid four-seater. A Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid, by comparison, weighs close to 2.5 tonnes. The Swedish car maker has also fitted it with rear-wheel steering and all-wheel torque vectoring to mask its bulk to make it as agile and twitchy as a stripped-out track weapon. This new breed of Mega-GT also has four seats that will 'comfortably' sit four large adults and enough space for all of them to take their own 'carry-on luggage' - by which we assume means a tiny trolley bag each The interior of the show car is very patriotic, finished in Swedish yellow with the national flag emblazoned on the seat backrests Owners will get four cold and four warm cup holders, front and rear seat central infotainment displays, front and rear wireless phone chargers, four reading lights, memory foam heated seats, electric front seats and three-zone climate control But it's not only about warp-speed performance and knuckle-whitening grip... This new breed of Mega-GT also has four seats that will 'comfortably' sit four large adults with enough space for all of them to take their own 'carry-on luggage' - by which we assume means a tiny trolley bag each. The brand says the Gemera is for 'taking on long-range public roads' for 'family trips, in comfort, style and safety with never-before-experienced performance'. To make this a reality, it has loaded it with a raft of luxuries you wouldn't normally expect to see in a rip-roaring 1.5million lightweight hypercar. This includes four cold and four warm cup holders, front and rear seat central infotainment displays, front and rear wireless phone chargers, Apple CarPlay, on-board internet and Wi-Fi, an 11-speaker sound system, exterior and interior cameras, four reading lights, memory foam heated seats, electric front seats and three-zone climate control. In terms of safety, it gets six smart airbags, stability control, traction control, ABS braking and a semi-autonomous driving mode than can control acceleration, braking and steering. It even has Isofix points for child car seats in the back. You can't get all those features on the highest-spec Nissan Qashqai if you bargained with a salesman for a week. The Gemera does away with traditional wing mirrors and replaces them with these cameras on stalks mounted in their place A small screen on the A-pillar projects the image captured by the wing-mounted cameras on the outside The massive doors run almost the full length of the car, and when open give lots of access to the rear seats. We can't imagine they'll be much use in a multi-storey car park or anywhere with a low ceiling Despite all this, Koenigsegg assures us the Gemera retains all the brand's unapologetic design roots. For instance, it has the wrap-around jet fighter inspired windscreen and hidden A-pillars, short overhangs, large side air intakes and overall unfussy, aerodynamic, shape we've seen on previous models like the Regera and One1. What's most impressive to us, though, are the Mega GT's giant scissor doors. Well, the correct name is 'Koenigsegg Automated Twisted Synchrohelix Actuation Doors', or KATSAD for short. The massive doors run almost the full length of the car, and when open give lots of access to the rear seats. We can't imagine they'll be much use in a multi-storey car park or anywhere with a low ceiling, though. Koenigsegg wants to cement the title of 'World's fastest road car' with the arrival of this - the Jesko Absolut Flat out, the Swedish maker says the Jesko Absolut will do over 310mph. Whether it puts this statement to the official test, we will have to see Koenigsegg wants the 'fastest production car' crown back from Bugatti When Bugatti claimed to have set the first 300mph-plus top speed for a production car last year, Koenigsegg wasn't too happy. It held (and still holds) the official speed record of 277.87mph with the Koenigsegg Agera RS set in 2017 and, among others, argued that Bugatti's attempt didn't appease the rule books. That's because the 304.77mph achieved by the modified Chiron SuperSport 300+ in 2019 was only recorded while driving in one direction - and Guinness World Records demand the top speed is an average of two runs going in opposition directions. Now Koenigsegg wants to cement its title with the arrival of the new Jesko Absolut. While the name sounds like a potent Russian vodka, it will give you a hangover of a different kind if you floor the throttle. That's because, flat out, the Swedish maker says it will do over 310mph. Whether it puts this statement to the official test, we will have to wait and see. Bugatti has also released a new car. Well, not new, but another variant of the Chiron - the 2.6million Pur Sport edition Pur Sport is a lighter version of the Chrion that's been stripped right back, though has the same W16, quad-turbo engine producing 1,479bhp Because it weighs so much less than before, the French brand has had to restrict the top speed 217mph to ensure it doesn't take off As for Bugatti, it also released a new version of the Chiron this week - the 2.6million (3million) Pur Sport. It's a lighter model that's been stripped right back, though has the same W16, quad-turbo, engine producing 1,479bhp. But because it weighs so much less than before, the French brand has had to restrict the top speed 217mph to ensure it doesn't take off. Surely, with Bugatti making their latest models slower, this is an open door for Koenigsegg to take advantage and rubber-stamp its top speed crown? CHICAGO Having food stamps offers Richard Butler a stability hes rarely known in his 25 years. He was in state custody at age 2, spent his teen years at a Chicago boys home and jail for burglary, and has since struggled to find a permanent home. The $194 deposited monthly on his benefits card buys fresh produce and meat. It means the world to me, said Butler, who shares a one-bedroom apartment with two others. We can go without a lot of things, like phones and music. We cant go without eating. But that stability is being threatened for people like Butler, who are able-bodied, without dependents and between the ages 18 and 49. New Trump administration rules taking effect April 1 put hundreds of thousands of people in his situation at risk of losing their benefits. They hit particularly hard in places like Illinois, which also is dealing with a separate, similar change in the nations third-largest city. From Hawaii to Pennsylvania, states are scrambling to blunt the impact of the new rules, with roughly 700,000 people at risk of losing benefits unless they meet certain work, training or school requirements. Theyve filed a multi-state lawsuit, expanded publicly funded job training, developed pilot programs and doubled down efforts to reach vulnerable communities, including the homeless, rural residents and people of color. Social service agencies say they wont be able to fill the gap, making increased homelessness and more hospital visits among the biggest concerns. Experts say theyve already seen troubling signs in some states. This is a cascading effect, said Robert Campbell, managing director at Feeding America, a network of hundreds of food banks nationwide. It will increase demands on the emergency food system, food banks and pantries. Currently, work-eligible, able-bodied adults without dependents under 50 can receive monthly benefits if they meet a 20-hour weekly work, job training or school requirement. Those who dont are are limited to three months of food stamps over three years. However, states with high unemployment or few jobs have been able to waive time limits. Every state except Delaware has sought a waiver at some point, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The new rules make it harder to get waivers. Theyre the first of three changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which feeds 36 million people nationwide. The Trump administration has touted the change as a way to get people working and save $5.5 billion over five years. Able-bodied adults without dependents are 7% of SNAP recipients. But states fighting the change say that argument is misguided. Not everyone is in a position to get a job tomorrow, and taking away access to food is only going to make that more difficult, said Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller. Were going to have more hungry people in the state. Pennsylvania where as many as 100,000 people could be affected is working with social services groups to create 30 job training programs for SNAP recipients. However, experts say work opportunities are limited. More than half of SNAP recipients have a high school diploma, but about one-quarter have less, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Available jobs are more likely to have low pay, shifting schedules that might not offer enough qualifying hours and few benefits like paid sick leave. Work requirements really dont really do much to affect the rate at which people are working, said Elaine Waxman at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. If people can work and consistently, they pretty much are. Some states are focusing on rural areas, which have less access to transportation and services. Hawaii, for instance, wants to develop a pilot program to help 400 Molokai residents keep benefits. The rural island once had a waiver because of high unemployment, but the new rules assign Molokai to the same job market as nearby, more prosperous Maui, even though a 30-minute plane ride is the only way to travel between the islands. The program would use education, training and volunteering to fulfill the work requirement. Its modeled after similar programs used in remote Alaska, which is seeking waivers for less-populated areas. Roughly 5,000 in Alaska could lose benefits. Attorneys general in nearly 20 states and Washington, D.C., have sued to block the rules. They argue the changes will force people to divert their limited funds, leading to homelessness and health problems. People with food insecurity spend 45% more on medical care annually than those who are food secure, according to a 2018 report by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Experts say critics worries are founded and point to Kentucky as a case study. Like a handful of states, Kentucky has voluntarily instated time limits for SNAP benefits since 2017. More than 13,000 people in Kentucky lost benefits because they reached the three-month limit, according to a 2019 Urban Institute report. Anecdotally, theres been an increase in food pantry visits. In Fayette County, which lost its waiver in 2018, the average number of monthly household visits to food pantries jumped from 1,800 to 2,000, according Michael Halligan, CEO of Gods Pantry Food Bank in Lexington. Starving people does not help them get employment, said Mary Frances Charlton, a Chicago Coalition for the Homeless attorney. Its a double whammy for Illinois as Cook County lost its waiver this year because of low unemployment, something that has happened in other states as economic conditions improve. Roughly 90,000 statewide will be affected by the Trump rule change at the same time another approximately 58,000 will risk losing benefits in the Chicago area. For Charlton, its been worrisome as many of her clients lack access to mail and internet, and they might not find out until they go grocery shopping and discover a $0 balance on their Illinois Link cards. Shes working to get exemptions for as many as possible. For instance, Butler may qualify because of mental health issues that have made it difficult for him to keep a job. Hes among the residents affected by the county change, but would have faced the same fate under the Trump administration rules. In trying to deal with the volume of questions about the issue, Illinois has dedicated an email address just for the food stamps changes and hopes to add more job training. Inspiration Corporation, a nonprofit, runs a training kitchen and restaurant out of a converted Chicago warehouse. It has proposed increasing its number of spots for SNAP participants from 35 to 45. On a recent day, fractions used in measuring were scrawled on a white board near the kitchen, which serves Southern-inspired fare like grits. Trainee Anthony Redmond, 44, started receiving food stamps when he was released from prison last summer. With the help, he was able to leave a halfway house and find his own place. After the training, he hopes to find employment and keep his benefits. He dreams of opening a fleet of food trucks. If you take something that a person really needs and depends on and they dont have any other life skills to get a job, to benefit their family, he said, its just going to cause trouble. ___ Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report. Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: New York-based growth-focused private equity firm Bregal Sagemount has closed its Bregal Sagemount Fund III, at a hard cap of $1.5 billion, exceeding its $1.35 billion target. The prior fund, Bregal Sagemount Fund II, closed at $960 million in February 2017. Fund III is comprised of institutional investors with a long-term commitment to private equity, including endowments, pension funds, insurance companies, and principal advisory firms. Investors in the latest fund include the $54.2 billion Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, and the $31.9 billion Indiana Public Retirement System, Indianapolis. Gene Yoon, Founder and Managing Partner of Bregal Sagemount, said, "We are grateful for the support and trust from our existing investors and are pleased to welcome a select number of new top-tier institutions to the Sagemount partnership. We believe this group of limited partners is expressing confidence in Sagemount's differentiated approach to sourcing, disciplined investing strategy and significant value creation at our portfolio companies." The vehicle will continue the investment strategy Bregal Sagemount has pursued since its inception in 2012 and focus on providing flexible capital and strategic assistance to companies in high-growth sectors across a wide variety of transaction situations. Bregal Sagemount, with $3.5 billion in committed capital, invests $40 million to $150 million per transaction into both control and non-control positions and will make equity and/or junior debt investments. Hundreds of demonstrators rally as the nine justices hear arguments over restrictive new rules that could close clinics. Supporters of abortion rights voiced trepidation outside the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices weighed the fate of one of the numerous restrictive laws passed by conservative states which make access to the procedure more difficult. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied on a cool and sunny day in the US capital as the nine justices heard arguments in Shreveport abortion clinics appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld a restrictive Louisiana abortion law. Abortion rights supporters outnumbered opponents. Some carried signs saying Protect Safe, Legal Abortion and My Right, My Decision. I remember a time when abortion wasnt legal. It was illegal when I was a teenager. And we arent going back. Were just not going back, said demonstrator Bambi Nelms, 62, of Maryland. My mother had an illegal abortion before I was born coat hanger variety and it darned near killed her. She had me after that. Louisianas law, put on hold during the legal challenge, requires doctors who perform abortions to have a sometimes difficult-to-obtain arrangement called admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48km) of the abortion clinic. Abortion rights advocates have argued that restrictions such as admitting privileges are meant to limit access to abortion, not protect womens health as proponents say. Steffani Bangel, 30, who works at a Louisiana organisation that supports access to abortion clinics, noted that the Supreme Court in 2016 struck down a Texas abortion law that contained an admitting privileges mandate. Its frustrating to be back here after four years. We were just here four years ago, Bangel said. We believe the law is on our side, Bangel added. Today, SCOTUS is hearing a case on Louisianas clinic shutdown law. Today, we are reaffirming that abortion care IS healthcare. Every person, regardless of income, sexual orientation or gender, deserves equitable access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare #MyRightMyDecision pic.twitter.com/360k78yJgz Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) March 4, 2020 Activists who oppose abortion are hoping the Supreme Court, with a 5-4 conservative majority, will scale back or even overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide. Some anti-abortion demonstrators held flags emblazoned with Bible quotes and the image of a bald eagle a symbol of the US carrying a Christian cross. Others stood silently with red tape over their mouths with the word LIFE in black letters. Demonstrator Dennis McKirahan, 75, of Ohio said supporters of abortion rights were distorting what God intended. When that baby is a seed in the womb, scientifically, its going to be a baby. And you cant stop that or youre killing that baby, McKirahan said. God didnt intend us to stop our creation. Louisianas law is one of many passed in conservative states to restrict abortions. Others enacted in recent years bar abortions after a certain number of weeks of pregnancy, require ultrasound exams and state-mandated counselling for women, and impose waiting periods and compel parental consent for minors seeking the procedure. Lillian Kaminer, 69, of Virginia said she attended the rally because preserving access to abortion is her number one political cause. Women should have a choice about their health, their healthcare and their families, Kaminer said. The court on Wednesday heard about an hour of arguments in an appeal by Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women seeking to invalidate the 2014 law. Two of Louisianas three clinics that perform abortions would be forced to close if the law is allowed to take effect, according to lawyers for the clinic. Some conservative judges signalled sympathy towards Louisianas law. Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative considered the courts ideological centre and a potentially decisive vote, asked questions that seemed to focus on whether he felt bound by the courts 2016 ruling when it struck down similar restrictions in Texas. Roberts cast the deciding vote when the justices last year on a 5-4 vote blocked Louisianas law from taking effect while the litigation over its legality continued. That vote brings him into conflict with his position in the Texas case, when Roberts was among the three dissenting judges who concluded that an admitting privileges requirement did not represent an undue burden. Divisive social issue During Wednesdays arguments, his questions indicated that the chief justice may feel that he is bound by the 2016 courts finding that admitting privileges laws provide no health benefit. Two of the courts conservatives, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas, said nothing during the arguments. The liberal justices, including the three women on the court, appeared sceptical towards the admitting privileges provision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it was a mystery to me why a 30-mile limit was imposed if the intent of the law was to show that doctors were properly credentialled. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a similar point, noting that medical complications for women who undergo abortions generally occur at home, meaning that the fact the doctor has a relationship with a nearby hospital is irrelevant. Thats what I dont understand, Ginsburg said. A federal appeals court upheld the law. President Donald Trumps administration supports Louisiana in the case. The Supreme Court struck down a similar Texas admitting privileges requirement in 2016 when conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018, joined the four liberal judges to defend abortion rights. Trump has tightened the conservative grip on the court with his 2018 appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who replaced Kennedy, and his 2017 appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch. An anti-abortion demonstrator holding a mock human foetus outside the US Supreme Court during a protest on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC [Tom Brenner/Reuters] Neither Kavanaugh nor Kennedy ruled directly on abortion rights during their prior service as federal appellate judges. Trump promised during the 2016 presidential race to appoint justices who would overturn the Roe vs Wade ruling. The Supreme Court in 1992 reaffirmed Roe vs Wade in a ruling that prohibited laws that placed an undue burden on a womans ability to obtain an abortion. The Louisiana case will test the willingness of the court to uphold Republican-backed abortion restrictions being pursued in numerous conservative states. Baton Rouge-based US District Judge John deGravelles cited the undue burden precedent when he struck down Louisianas law in 2016, prompting the state to appeal to the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The 5th Circuit upheld the law despite the 2016 precedent, concluding there was no evidence any Louisiana clinic would close due to the admitting privileges requirement. Abortion remains one of the most divisive social issues in the US, with Christian conservatives an important constituency for Trump among those most opposed to it. A Supreme Court ruling in favour of Louisianas law could prompt other states to pass similar statutes. WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest on the Democratic presidential primary and Super Tuesday (all times local): 1:50 a.m. Joe Biden has won Texas' Democratic presidential primary. The state has 228 delegates at stake, the second biggest prize of the night. More than 2 million people had already voted in Texas even before polls opened for Tuesday's primary. The state, which has long been reliably Republican, is growing increasingly bluer amid a demographics change in Texas. Biden held a rally in Dallas on Monday night, where he showcased two of his newest supporters and former rivals, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke. Pete Buttigieg endorsed Biden earlier in the night in Dallas. Biden has also won Massachusetts, Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won California, Utah, Vermont and Colorado. __ Action News Now has live election results locally and statewide. View Here 11 p.m. Bernie Sanders has won California's Democratic presidential primary. Donald Trump wins Republican presidential primary in California. The state has 415 delegates at stake, the biggest haul on the electoral map. Sanders' campaign has long seen the nations most populous state as a critical early contest and has had droves of volunteers organizing events across the state. Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton and was hoping for a comeback that would be a capstone moment for the states progressive wing. Sanders has also won Utah, Vermont and Colorado. Joe Biden has won Massachusetts, Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. __ 10:50 p.m. Joe Biden has won Massachusetts' Democratic presidential primary. The state has 91 delegates at stake. Massachusetts was considered a must-win state for its home-state candidate, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and election officials predicted high turnout. Nearly 230,000 voters took advantage of early voting last week, the first time the state has allowed early voting in a presidential primary. Biden has won Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won Utah, Vermont and Colorado. __ 10:35 p.m. Protesters briefly interrupted Joe Biden's Super Tuesday celebratory remarks to supporters in Los Angeles. Women holding signs reading "Let Dairy Die" stormed the podium where Biden was giving remarks Tuesday night, flanked by his wife and sister. Biden moved to the side as security removed the women. Protesters from the animal rights group have interrupted recent campaign events in Nevada and California. Topless women with "Let Dairy Die" written on their chests protested a Bernie Sanders campaign event earlier this month. As soon as the women were removed, Biden resumed his remarks, seemingly unfazed. A winner has not yet been called in California. __ 10:30 p.m. Bernie Sanders has won Utah's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 29 delegates at stake. Sanders has a deep well of popularity with the state's left-leaning voters. The Democratic primary is open in Utah, so voters can cast a ballot regardless of party affiliation. Some in the Republican majority have not fully embraced President Donald Trump and moderates saw an opportunity to woo middle-of-the-road voters with a pitch that they offer the best chance to unseat the president. Sanders has also won Vermont and Colorado. Joe Biden has won Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. --- 10:20 p.m. Bernie Sanders is expressing absolute confidence that hell be victorious in his pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, despite losing many of the early Super Tuesday races to Joe Biden. Speaking to supporters in Essex Junction, Vermont, Sanders stuck to his standard criticisms of his Democratic rivals without naming them. He also promoted himself as putting together an unprecedented, grassroots, multigenerational, multi-racial movement. Thus far, Sanders had won two contests of the night: his home state of Vermont and Colorado. Referencing states yet to be counted, including delegate-rich Texas, Sanders said, I dont know whats going to happen later on tonight, noting he was cautiously optimistic he would win California. He ended by thanking Vermonters for their support through the years, closing with, Lets go on to the White House. 10:05 p.m. The man being credited with reinvigorating Joe Biden's presidential bid says his endorsement is having the positive effect he intended. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said on MSNBC Tuesday night that he was "trying to create a surge for Joe Biden" when he gave the former vice president his backing just before last Saturday's South Carolina primary. Clyburn says the result was just as he'd hoped: Biden won a decisive victory that translated into momentum to boost his campaign through the Super Tuesday contests. In the days that followed, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar ended their bids and backed Biden. Clyburn campaigned for Biden Sunday in North Carolina and says he recorded robocalls in states including Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas. Clyburn says he feels the people got the message. __ 9:52 p.m. Joe Biden has won Arkansas' Democratic presidential primary. The state has 31 delegates at stake. The solidly Republican state has seen intense interest from Democratic presidential hopefuls who have crowding airwaves with ads and lining up endorsements. Arkansas' Republican Legislature last year voted to move the state's primary in presidential years from May to March. Biden has also won Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won Vermont and Colorado. __ 9:50 p.m. Joe Biden has won Minnesota's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 75 delegates at stake. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race gave Bernie Sanders a sudden opportunity to lock up her home state on Super Tuesday. Instead, Biden won the state after receiving Klobuchar's endorsement. Sanders easily won Minnesota's caucuses in 2016 and has a large and motivated progressive base in the state, offsetting Klobuchar's presumed home-field advantage in a race that was increasingly seen as tight before she dropped out Monday. Biden has also won Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won Vermont and Colorado. __ 9:30 p.m. Joe Biden has won Tennessee's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 64 delegates at stake. Deadly overnight tornadoes delayed the start of Super Tuesday presidential primary voting in Nashville and another Tennessee county, spurring elections officials to redirect voters from some polling places to alternate locations. In a state where Republicans hold every major elected office, including seven of the nine congressional seats, the Democratic primary voting base has a history of being more moderate than that of other states. Biden has also won Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Virginia. Bernie Sanders has won Vermont and Colorado. __ 9:10 p.m. Joe Biden has won Oklahoma's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 37 delegates at stake. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won Oklahoma's Democratic primary in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. ___ 9 p.m. Bernie Sanders has won Colorado's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 67 delegates at stake. It was Colorado's first presidential primary in 20 years, and Sanders' victory shows how much the Democratic Party can attract independents, still the largest voting bloc in a state that's moved further left in recent elections. Colorado held presidential primaries from 1992 to 2000, then dropped them to save money. In 2016, voters approved reinstating primaries after complaining about the caucus system of thousands of precinct meetings to start choosing presidential candidates. Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the state's 2016 Democratic caucuses, and he has maintained an enthusiastic base in Colorado ever since. __ 8:40 p.m. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is focusing on the key swing state of Florida, even as the votes in Super Tuesdays contests are still being cast and counted. The billionaire who avoided the early nominating contests tells an enthusiastic crowd in West Palm Beach, Winning in November starts with Florida. That state's primary is March 17. Bloomberg scored a victory in American Samoa on Tuesday, though he has yet to win any states. He says, No matter how many we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible. He says that feat was rising from 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg has spent $500 million of his own money on campaign advertising. __ 8 p.m. Joe Biden has won Alabama's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 52 delegates at stake. Black voters hold sway in the state's Democratic electorate, and Biden and Mike Bloomberg split the endorsements of the state's largest black political coalitions. The Alabama New South Coalition backed Biden, and the Alabama Democratic Conference supported Bloomberg. Biden has also won Virginia and North Carolina, while Bernie Sanders has won the primary in his home state, Vermont. Voting is still underway elsewhere in the country, including California, the nights biggest prize. __ 7:57 p.m. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii have won their first delegates thanks to American Samoa. The island has six Democratic delegates and their caucus awarded five to Bloomberg and one to Gabbard, who hails from Hawaii. Bloomberg got nearly half the votes, followed by Gabbards 29%. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren all were below the 15% threshold, said island party executive director Andrew Bergquist. __ 7:50 p.m. An upbeat Elizabeth Warren is urging Democratic voters to cast ballots that will make them proud instead of listening to political pundits. At a rally in Detroit on Tuesday night, the Massachusetts senator says prediction has been a terrible business and is encouraging people to vote with their heart. Warren has had poor showings in recent contests dominated by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. People are still voting in many Super Tuesday states across the country. Michigans primary is next week, and Warren has scheduled a return trip for Friday. An undeterred Warren says she will defeat President Donald Trump and is still running because she believes she will make the best president. She says: You dont get what you dont fight for. I am in this fight. __ 7:46 p.m. Joe Biden has won North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary. The state has 110 delegates at stake and is one of the swing states for the 2020 election. Biden has also won Virginia's primary, while Bernie Sanders has won the primary in his home state, Vermont. Voting is still underway elsewhere in the country, including California, the nights biggest prize. __ 7:35 p.m. Joe Biden says hes optimistic in light of being projected the winner of the Virginia primary Tuesday. Campaigning in California at an impromptu stop at an East Los Angeles eatery, the former vice president tells reporters he feels good and were going to do well in some other states as well. Biden was projected to win Virginia, also expected to be a general election battleground, by a wide margin over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The victory in Virginia, where about a quarter of the electorate is African American, comes on the heels of Bidens commanding win in the primary Saturday in South Carolina, the first test of support among black voters. __ 7:18 p.m. Bernie Sanders has won Vermont's Democratic presidential primary. Vermont has 16 delegates at stake and is Sanders' home state. In 2016, Sanders won more than 85% of the Democratic primary vote in the race against Hillary Clinton. Sanders is holding an election night rally at the Champlain Valley fairgrounds in Essex Junction. __ 7 p.m. Joe Biden has won Virginia's Democratic presidential primary. His victory comes as polls began to close in some states on Super Tuesday. Voting is underway elsewhere in the country, including California, the nights biggest prize. Virginia has 99 delegates at stake. It has been considered a tossup state that is increasingly moving to the left. The results of the Democratic primary in Virginia, with its diverse electoral terrain of rural, urban, and suburban voters, could be a key indicator of which Democrat will be chosen to face President Donald Trump in the general election. VICTORIA - Three more cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in British Columbia, bringing the total number of people infected to 12 in the province. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. British Columbia has confirmed its ninth case of COVID-19 in a man who returned from Iran last week. Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, says the man in his 50s and began to feel ill after he returned home to the Fraser Health region, which is near Vancouver. Henry is shown in this January 28, 2020 file photo with British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward VICTORIA - Three more cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in British Columbia, bringing the total number of people infected to 12 in the province. Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, said a woman and a man in his 60s tested positive after returning from Iran, while another woman in her 30s developed symptoms in isolation. That woman had contact with the eighth confirmed case in B.C., which also involved travel to Iran, Henry told a news conference in Victoria Tuesday. Henry said the most important advice she can offer is for people to wash their hands to prevent infection as COVID-19 spreads around the world. "It's necessary," said Henry, adding thorough hand washing with plain soap and water works best. She also advised people not to touch their faces, to stay home from work and school if sick, to avoid large gatherings and not to visit others, especially the elderly, when feeling sick. Employers should consider limiting travel for employees and holding as many virtual meetings as possible, she said. It's not too early for community leaders to start preparing for more cases worldwide. There have been confirmed novel coronavirus cases in as many as 63 countries, said Henry. "This is affecting all of us in the global community," Henry said. "This is an extraordinary situation globally. This is the time for kindness. We're all in this together." Health Minister Adrian Dix said the first five cases in B.C. were linked to China, where COVID-19 originated, but the last seven are related to travel from Iran. "This is an evolving situation," he said. Among the cases linked to Iran, Henry said the people did not return to Canada on the same flight and were not known to be travelling together. She said people contract the virus through close contact, which could occur at family events, dinners and religious gatherings. Canada now has 33 cases of the new coronavirus, most of them in Ontario. Earlier Tuesday in Vancouver, Henry announced the ninth B.C. case of COVID-19 a man in his 50s who began to feel ill after he returned home from Iran last week to the Fraser Health region, which is near Vancouver. He is in isolation at home and Henry said his family and close contacts are being monitored. Officials in B.C. are asking travellers from China and Iran to isolate themselves for 14 days when they return home to Canada as the province expanded its advice on Tuesday to help prevent transmission of the novel coronavirus. "We know that we all have to be aware of mild respiratory symptoms and so I'm asking all British Columbians if you are sick, stay home, stay away from others," Henry told the news conference in Vancouver. With March break around the corner, Henry asked people to be aware of potential issues when they travel, such as getting access to health care and what they would do if caught in a quarantine while travelling during this "challenging time around the world." Those who have trips planned should monitor the federal government's travel advisories, she said. In a joint statement, Henry and Dix said employers should increase the availability of supplies used for cleaning and hand hygiene and think about how they would manage absenteeism by allowing employees to work remotely. "Schools should be increasing cleaning and hand hygiene, educating students on respiratory etiquette, in addition to putting mechanisms in place to support students who may be away for extended periods," the statement said. It also said event organizers should ask anyone who is sick, returning from an affected area or has underlying health conditions that may be affected by respiratory illness to stay away. "Gathering large numbers of people together can increase the risk of transmission," the statement said. Henry said people also need to have a plan ready "for the potential that we might have more transmission of this disease." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. While she advised against stockpiling supplies, she said everybody should be ready to look after themselves and people in the community. "Do we have the medications that we need, do we have contacts with friends and others who can assist us if we need to stay home, and can we do that for others?" More than 1,000 tests have been done and all novel coronavirus cases in B.C. have been successfully managed at home, she said, adding that no one has been severely ill. With files from Hina Alam in Vancouver. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2020. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said all three new cases involved travel to Iran. The heart may be a lonely hunter. He is an even lonelier voter. Thats what I thought as I stood in line outside my Heights polling location Tuesday morning, feeling strange about aligning myself with a political party for the first time in 26 years of voting. Before Tuesday, I had never voted in a primary. For most of my journalism career, Ive been on the news side of things, a place where youre taught to keep your opinions to yourself and express no political alignment whatsoever. Over the years Ive voted for Democrats and Republicans in the general election, always considering there are good candidates on both sides. This time, I had to make a choice and cross a threshold. The stakes were too high to sit this one out. Another Houston voter, Diane St. Yves, had the same feeling. A self-described Reagan Republican, she had consistently voted GOP for 40 years until Donald Trump came along. She posted on Facebook about being in tears as she voted for Joe Biden, crossing over to the blue side in a bright red sweater. While there were still good GOP candidates that she wanted to support, friends among them, she said she is ashamed the party has allowed the president to run roughshod over civility and integrity. She struggled until the last minute to decide which primary to vote in. Ultimately, she chose her conscience. She knew someday, shed need to explain to her grandkids how the Trump era happened. I want to say that I did not contribute, and I did my best, she wrote on Facebook. She later told me that we need a voice of unity to heal our divisions. I dont think its Joe, but its a start. Someone that can bring our country back to decency and kindness. Outside the middle school where I voted, Richard Brown had an easier time choosing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren: I voted for my hope, he said. But standing next to him, Lori Brown said she voted for Bernie Sanders only after she determined Warren was not viable. Once Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out, once they coalesced behind Biden, I went for Bernie, she said. All the voters I spoke with felt they were making a hard choice: the lifelong Democrat who thought the GOP was the party of big money and had it in for the little guy and who was voting for billionaire Michael Bloomberg; the lifelong Republican who felt abandoned by a party that had swung too the far right and was voting for Biden, the last viable centrist standing. On Facebook, Andy Johns, a friend of mine in Tennessee who had shifted support from Cory Booker to Klobuchar to Warren, wrote Monday that he was voting for the former vice president. While I like many things Elizabeth Warren and Bernie have to say, I believe strongly that Bernie as the nominee is more likely to keep Trump in the White House. Whatever my top issues are they all are significantly worse off if Trump gets re-elected. In a few hours, his post had 96 comments as people debated that central question again: head or heart, strategy or passion? Some commenters argued for not giving up on Warren, giving some variation of the meme that puts it as bluntly as can be: Shes electable if you fing vote for her. Others backed Biden, both as a rebuff to Sanders and as someone who could ably represent the United States and get the country back on track. On some level, all this engagement can read as excitement, that people are clearly energized, but when I asked voters about this, they made it clear something else was motivating them. Its nerve-wracking, St. Yves told me. Its fear, Lori Brown set me straight, adding that Trump was shredding norms and destroying trust in our institutions. We cannot afford four more years. I agree. So, as I stood in the voting booth, I joined with all those other voters across the country, facing a field of imperfect candidates and having to make a choice. Maybe my heart wasnt so lonely after all. Carrasco is an editorial writer and member of Houston Chronicles editorial board. Email him at luis.carrasco@chron.com. KC Parks department sifting thru 600+ MLK ideas KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Paseo road signs are going back up and the discussion of how Kansas City could further honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is just beginning. Update on local brainstorming session in honor of an iconic Civil Rights Era leader whose legacy has inspired citywide political division over the past 3 years. Read more: The tornadoes that tore through Tennessee this week, including neighborhoods in and around downtown Nashville, claimed at least 22 lives, ripped through scores of homes and businesses, and damaged many, many more. The unexpected storms were devastating by any measure. As people come to grips with the considerable human toll, real estate experts are just beginning to think about the longer-term impact on one of America's hottest real estate markets. After all, home prices in the 'it' city of the Southa favorite of country music lovers, bachelorettes, and techie hipsters alikehave been on an explosively wild ride in recent years. A tornado devastated some of Nashville's more desirable neighborhoods. At least 45 buildings downtown are no longer standing, and many others sustained substantial, possibly catastrophic, damage. "The areas it hit were extremely hot real estate markets with thriving community districts and were densely populated with homeowners," says real estate broker Brian Copeland of Doorbell Real Estate. Nonetheless, Copeland voices the consensus of most real estate experts: "But I just can't imagine it affecting the real estate values." A home is shown destroyed by high winds from one of several tornadoes. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images Indeed, the twister may wind up giving local property values a boost, some say. In the short term, unaffected areas could see home values edge up, as folks look for temporary housing. Over the long term, prices could also rise if neighborhoods are rebuilt better than before. Home prices in Nashville's metro area peaked in 2017. Since then, they've come downbut just a little. The dip is likely due to all the new construction that's been rising at a breakneck pace, easing the housing shortage as more out-of-towners settle in Nashville. (The median list price in the metro area, which includes the city and surrounding suburbs, was $369,000 in January, according to the most recent realtor.com data.) Disaster effect: Tornadoes aren't as bad as hurricanes Those prices aren't likely to fall much. "Tornadoes probably have the least impact on home prices of all disasters: earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides," says Chuck Watson, director of research and development at Enki Holdings. The Savannah, GAbased data and analytics firm looks at economic impacts from natural and human-made disasters. Twisters are "much more random," Watson says. It's not like moving a few miles inland in a coastal community if you're worried about hurricanes. There's no telling where a tornado will strike. "Where are you going to go?" Watson continues. "If you move 50 miles from Nashville, you still have the same tornado risk as you do in downtown Nashville." Still, this isn't the first time Nashville's seen tornadoes. In 1998, a twister pummeled many of the same downtown neighborhoods that were terrorized again this week. Some of these communities were also battered by terrible flooding in 2010. "Obviously, we bounced back quite nicely," says Copeland. "Nashville will be fine. We've proven this over and over again." And while it's rare that tornadoes strike big cities, they do happen, says Daniel Betten, principal research scientist at CoreLogic, a real estate data firm. The one that traveled through Dallas in October may have caused $2 billion in damages. "It does happen at least once a year that a major city is impacted," says Betten. Surviving Nashville's deadly tornado Residents of the Germantown neighborhood leave their apartments with their belongings following the devastating tornado. Jason Kempin/Getty Images The tornado went through neighborhoods in and around downtown Nashville, such as the up-and-coming Buchanan Arts District. Last year, folks could find a home in need of renovation there for $280,000, says Copeland. This year, they're more likely to be spending $420,000 for new construction. Upper-middle-class Germantown and the East End were also devastated as was more working- and middle-class Rosebank on the east side of the city. Suburbs such as Mt. Juliet were also affected. Anna Altic, 45, was asleep in Rosebank when a tornado warning on her phone woke her up just before 1 a.m. early Tuesday. The real estate broker hurried to get her 16-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son out of bed. They huddled in a hallway, Altic lying on top of them. Within just a few minutes, a tornado struck. "It was like a train sound, and the house was moving. You could feel this intense pressure," says Altic, a real estate broker at Parks Realty. "I was so focused on keeping my kids calm and telling them, 'It's OK, it's OK.'" Her carport was ripped apart and hurled onto her roof. One of her cars was tossed into the other one. The HVAC system was ripped off her house. "The roof is going to need to be replaced," she says. "[But] my house is still habitable. Most of my neighbors, most of their roofs and walls were blown in." "I still have a house, and I'm still here," says Altic. Some of the members of her community were trapped in their homes. Others, she believes, didn't survive. Why Nashville's real estate prices could rise in the wake of the tornado Buildings damaged by the storm in North Nashville Jason Kempin/Getty Images Homes that were damaged will probably be deeply discountedespecially if the new owners need to do costly work like putting in a new roof or a foundation, says national real estate appraiser Orell Anderson of Strategic Property Analytics. Buyers may ask for a 10% price cut in addition to deducting the cost of the repairs. Properties that were destroyed, of course, will be sold for whatever the land is worth. And that's when the investors are likely to swoop in. If they or the original homeowners put up nicer, newer homes in place of the older ones that are destroyed, that can give neighborhoods a boost. "Values can actually go up depending on what they're replaced with," says Enki's Watson. He's seen duplexes and apartment complexes rise in the place of single-family homes in some communities after disasters. "If it's a hot market [like this] ... it can actually push values up." Plus, the city has also been growing by leaps and boundswhich may help to cushion it after a disaster like this. Displaced residents are likely to find refuge, temporary or otherwise, in some of the new residences going up all over town. That supply of homes is likely to keep prices from spiking too high as folks look for housing. "We've seen a ton of new construction, almost a comical amount," says real estate agent Robby Stone. Out-of-towners often remark on the "overwhelming amount of cranes and construction." He and other real estate professionals aren't terribly worried about prices falling. "This is just kind of a fluke," says Altic. "Nashville [will] just continue to be a vibrant city." The post What Nashville's Tragic Tornado Could Mean for Its Real Estate Market appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Federal prosecutors say they initially tried to keep former Ayudando Guardians Inc. President Susan Harris in jail pending trial on charges that she and others stole millions of dollars from vulnerable clients arguing in part that she was a flight risk. Turns out they were right. Susan and William Harris failed to show up for sentencing Monday on a number of federal fraud and money laundering charges. She was facing the prospect of life in prison. He was looking at seven years. After leading a life of luxury financed with stolen client money, the couple remained in the wind late Tuesday, fugitives from the law. As the hunt for them continues, the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Mexico said Tuesday that its prosecutors sought pretrial detention after Susan Harris was first arrested in July 2017. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Yarbrough opted against pretrial detention and rejected another prosecution request to require Susan Harris to post cash bail as a condition of release. Instead, Yarbrough ruled that Harris and her husband could put up their Tanoan home in Albuquerque as security. He ordered Harris to surrender her U.S. passport, but no electronic monitoring was required, federal records show. Both Harris and her husband, who was a guardian at the firm, pleaded guilty in 2019 and were scheduled along with co-defendant Sharon Moore to be sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez. The hearing in Santa Fe was to include testimony from some of the nearly 1,000 victims of the almost decadelong embezzlement scheme who relied on the firm for guardianship, conservatorship or other financial services. Moore, Ayudandos former chief financial officer, was the only one of the three to show up and was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison. A fourth defendant, Harris son Craig Young, also a guardian at the now defunct firm, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy charges and is to be sentenced separately this spring. After issuing arrest warrants Monday morning for Susan and William Harris, Vazquez added electronic monitoring to Youngs conditions of release. Meanwhile, the U.S. Marshals Office, the FBI and other law enforcement agents joined forces to find the Harris couple. Susan Harris attorney, Bob Gorence, told the Journal on Tuesday, I was shocked she did not appear for her sentencing after she promised a federal judge at the time of the plea that she would and as she had for every other court hearing. He added, I have no idea where she is, but as a lawyer who respects the integrity of the judicial process, I hope she returns and the case can be concluded. Its rare for white-collar criminals not to return to court for hearings while on pretrial release, attorneys said. Gorence, a former federal prosecutor, said he fears that Susan Harris will hurt other defendants who request liberty until the time they are sentenced because the court inevitably will grow increasingly distrustful that people will keep their word and show up for their day of reckoning. Had they appeared for sentencing Monday, the Harris couple would have faced hours of emotional testimony from sometimes angry and tearful victims and family members who spoke of the harm Harris and her co-defendants inflicted. Robert Perry, the father of a 38-year-old mentally ill client whose Social Security benefits were stolen, looked at Moore and told her he hoped she would rot in prison. Its pretty sad when you take from someone and they dont have a clue about it, so you can go on cruises and buy nice houses, and you have to be vultures of other people, Perry testified. Guilty plea There were no signs of life in the two-story house in the exclusive, gated Tanoan community where Susan and William Harris have been living. That is the same house they put up as security as a condition of their release. No one answered the door, and neighbors who said they saw the Harrises last week said the house was dark on Monday night. Although the blinds were shut in nearly every window, an upright piano in one south-facing room had sheet music open halfway through a composition. On a nearby chair, a stack of papers sat in disarray under a throw pillow. Perhaps its no surprise that Susan Harris, 73, absconded. The penalty under federal guidelines for the crimes to which she pleaded guilty could have been 30 years to life. Even at the low range, she would have been over 100 years old when released from prison. Absconding could tack on another 10 years. At age 58, her husband had more to lose. The recommended sentence for his guilty plea to conspiracy was seven years meaning he could have been out of federal prison by age 65. In putting up their house as security for their release, they agreed the government could forfeit the home. But as part of Susan Harris plea agreement last July, she agreed to forfeit the home, along with another house in Tanoan, and three vehicles. Court records offer few details about the 30-minute hearing in which Yarbrough set release conditions for Susan Harris in July 2017. In response to questions from the Journal, Sean Sullivan, spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Mexico, said federal prosecutors asked Yarbrough to detain Mrs. Harris as a flight risk and a danger to the community, and over our objections, the judge agreed to her release. But two years later, as part of a plea agreement with Susan Harris, the U.S. Attorneys Office agreed not to seek her detention or any change in the Defendants conditions of release prior to sentencing in the absence of a material change in circumstances, such as a violation of her conditions of release. She pleaded guilty to 22 counts. Life of luxury Tipped off by several employees, federal auditors discovered that Harris, her family and chief financial officer Sharon Moore were living the life of luxury by stealing from the accounts of vulnerable clients who relied on the nonprofit company to handle their money and finances, according to testimony at Mondays sentencing hearing. The total amount siphoned rose to $11 million. That includes newly discovered losses of about $669,000 involving 81 additional victims in Mesa, Arizona, Vazquez said Monday. Ayudando Guardians held trust and retirement accounts, but also served as a guardian, conservator or representative payee to manage government benefits for vulnerable clients who had dementia, were developmentally disabled or otherwise couldnt handle their finances. The company was touted as a secure alternative to protect against financial exploitation by unscrupulous relatives or friends. One victim, Carol Winter, told the judge Monday that she hired Ayudando after a real estate agent advised her to put $89,000 in proceeds from the sale of her late mothers house into a trust fund. Winter, who said she is bipolar, found out her account had been pilfered and she ended up destitute. Sometimes I chose food and housing instead of medication, she said during Mondays hearing. They took my money; they took my life. I ended up in a mental hospital for 12 days because of major depression. A tearful Emily Montano testified that an attorney recommended she go to Ayudando after she received a $93,000 settlement from a car accident. Montano recalled how Moore, who ran the day-to-day operations, assured her the settlement proceeds would be safe with the company, but Montano pressed her further. I looked at her eye to eye and asked, What if you steal it?' And she told me, We would never do that, because we are here to help people. Like other victims, Montano said she could never get a financial statement from Ayudando to reconcile her account balance. Only after the criminal indictments did Montano learn she had nothing left. I couldnt even (afford to) bury my daughter when she died. Man, 60, arrested with 44kg of marijuana in parcel delivery from Bangkok PHUKET: A 60-year-old man has been arrested after he was founding picking up 44 kilograms of dried marijuana from the office of a parcel delivery company in Phuket. drugscrimepolice By The Phuket News Wednesday 4 March 2020, 08:58AM Wichit Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabodi and fellow offices present the 44kg of compressed, dried marijuana valued at about B400,000, all packed into one-kilo packages, to the press yesterday (Mar 3). Photo: Wichit Police Wichit Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabodi told a press conference yesterday (Mar 3) that his officers had received a tip-off that a large delivery of marijuana would arrive in Phuket through a parcel company last Saturday (Feb 29). Acting on the tip-off, his officers on Saturday arrived at the office of a private parcel delivery company in Soi Nasue, Wichit, and watched for any suspicious behaviour. The officers identified one man who was acting suspiciously, Col Sujin said, and they moved in and asked to examine a carton he was carrying. Inside the box, were 44 packs of dried marijuana, weighing one kilo each, Col Sujin added. Altogether, the seized marijuana was valued at about B400,000, he noted. The man was taken to Wichit Police Station, where he confessed to police that this was the fifth time that he had a delivery of marijuana, Col Sujin also explained. He said he was paid less than B1,000 each time for receiving the parcel and distributing to his network, he told the press. The man was charged with possession of a Category 5 drug with intent to sell, Col Sujin confirmed. Col Sujin declined to name the suspect arrest and the parcel-delivery company. Lt Col Chatchai Chunu, Chief of the Wichit Police Investigation Division, told The Phuket News that the box was sent from Bangkok. Police had checked the name of the sender, but the name given was not registered in the civil registration database, Lt Col Chatchai said. Also, the ID card number given to the parcel company contained only 12 digits, not 13, he added. Lt Col Chatchai said that police were continuing their investigation into who sent the parcel and who the marijuana was sold to in Phuket. Physical contact is an integral part of worship across many religions which is why concerns about the spread of novel coronavirus are complicating how congregations hold services. Various Capital Region churches, temples, synagogues and mosques are doing everything from supplying hand sanitizer before entering their sanctuaries, to asking members to not engage in the hand-shake greetings that are common during services. At Temple Beth Emeth in Albany, members Tuesday were sent a list of precautions that will be put in place the next few weeks among them that the rabbi and cantor will not be hugging, kissing or shaking hands with anyone, and that members will not be invited to hold hands during a service's conclusion or that members should not be greeting each other with a handshake or even a fist bump. "Please understand that while we strive to continue to be the warm, welcoming and loving congregation that we are known for, this precaution is in everyone's best interest and we will return to our normal practices when the situation allows," the email to members read. Complete coronavirus coverage The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany issued guidelines Wednesday for local parishes, which called for anyone with cold or flu symptoms to not take Communion from the chalice and should receive the host in the hand only. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The diocese also gave guidance on how ministers of the Eucharist should wash their hands at least 20 seconds with soap and water, before using "good quality" hand gel. "At this point, the Diocese considers the current status of concern to be Stage 1, meaning there are very few cases in United States and no known cases in local parishes," the diocese wrote in its statement. Members of the Islamic Center of the Capital District will be meeting Friday to discuss how to address concerns about the virus, which has impacted communities worldwide and has now resulted in six confirmed cases in New York state. Ayman Akari, coordinator at the center, said for the last couple of Fridays he has already seen members not doing the customary shaking of hands at the conclusion of services. "We'll do what we can and see what happens," Akari said. Law enforcement charged more than 400 defendants three in Connecticut in a nationwide sweep on elder fraud investigations that led to the launch of a hotline, officials said Tuesday. A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham indicated this was the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history. During a sweep in 2019, 260 people were charged. In each case, authorities said, offenders are accused of engaging in financial schemes that targeted or largely affected seniors. The total losses from these elder fraud schemes is allegedly more than $1 billion. Three of the people charged in this sweep were Connecticut residents. The investigation Melissa Meole led to her being charged with theft and embezzlement from a health care benefit program, wire fraud, bank fraud, health care fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the a criminal complaint dated Sept. 16, 2019, for Meole. U.S. Department of Labor Special Agent Lynn Allen said, who investigated Meole, said in the criminal complaint that Meole was an employee of the Bridgeport Health Care Center a nursing and rehabilitation facility in Bridgeport from early 2012 through about Oct. 31, 2018. Allen said Meole worked in the facilitys business office and oversaw payroll and the resident trust account of Bridgeport Manor. The facility created and maintained resident trust accounts when required by residents, per state law and federal regulations. Allen said Meole allegedly embezzled funds from the resident trust accounts. Lester Burroughs, a Torrington resident, was charged with wire fraud, according to a Dec. 4, 2019, criminal complaint. The complaint alleges that Burroughs was a registered securities broker and investment adviser representative as the owner of Burroughs Investment Group, a full-service financial consulting firm based in Torrington. From 2012 through 2019, the complaint alleges, Burroughs carried out a scheme to defraud his investment clients and to get money and property from those clients through fraudulent pretenses. Hebron resident Jennifer OBrien also known as Jennifer Brokaw was charged with three counts of willful failure to file a tax return, according to a Dec. 12, 2019, criminal complaint. The complaint alleges that in September 2012 OBrien became power of attorney for her mother and had control over assets to be used for her mothers benefit. Between 2012 and 2014, OBrien is accused of spending her mothers funds for the benefit of her mother as well as for her own personal benefit and for her childrens personal benefit, the complaint alleges. For those three years, the complaint alleges, those funds were consider income for OBrien. Also for those three years, it alleges, OBrien did not file individual income tax returns. These three cases are just a tiny fraction of the more than 400 charged nationwide. Despite all these cases, law enforcement went one step further and launched a National Elder Fraud Hotline, which will provide services to seniors who might be victims of financial fraud. The hotline will be staffed by experienced case managers who can provide personalized support to callers. The toll-free number is 833-372-8311. Kuwaiti officials have given the go-ahead for the construction of a new airport in the northern part of the country, said a media report. The establishment of the new airport comes in line with the proposals of the country's fourth structural plan. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - For half a billion dollars, Mike Bloomberg could have bought American Samoa outright. But Bloombergs lone win on Super Tuesday, in the U.S. territorys caucus, at least convinced the billionaire former mayor that you cant buy your way to the White House. So Bloomberg is out, and quickly threw his support to Joe Biden. The former vice president and the Democratic National Committee no doubt welcome Bloombergs billions to the cause, even as legions of Bloomberg campaign workers mourn the derailing of the gravy train. Defeating President Donald Trump, and short-circuiting Bernie Sanders socialist revolution, is top of mind for establishment Dems, hence the rush to back Biden, who was dead in the water a week ago. But Tuesday was a huge night for Biden, and a washout for Sanders. Even if the delegate math isnt all that daunting at the moment, and even though Sanders won California and other states, Biden racked up win after win all night. Thats the headline. Particularly damaging was Bidens win in Texas, a state which many had put in Sanders column. Biden also pushed Sanders around in the Vermont senators own backyard, winning Massachusetts and running neck-and-neck in Maine. It wasnt that long ago that Sanders was the front-runner, and looked on a glide path to the nomination. But Biden got a huge win in South Carolina last Saturday, which helped convince two of his main moderate competitors, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, to bail on the race. Very convenient for Biden. The only difference between now and 2016 is that the Dem establishment isnt hiding its machinations against Sanders this time around. And what of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whos shared the progressive lane with Sanders? She cant stay in the race after finishing third in her home state of Massachusetts. But she has to keep running if the Dems really want to bleed Sanders as dry as they can. Thats going to cost money. Maybe El Bloombito can help with that. Besides, if Biden is the nominee, hell need somebody from the progressive wing as his veep, and Warren fits the ideological and gender bill. Down-ballot Dems are breathing a sigh of relief after Tuesday as well. Theyll have a lot easier time campaigning with Biden at the top of the ticket than Sanders. The Dems chances of holding the House just improved a thousand percent. Expect some spending from Bloomberg on that effort as well. But Dems shouldnt get too comfortable. Biden is still far from the ideal candidate, even if he would have been more formidable against Trump in 2016 than Hillary Clinton. Bidens a shaky debate performer. He seems lost and confused sometimes. Hes got that whole Ukraine thing with his son, Hunter, to deal with. Hes a gaffe machine, and sometimes struggles to put two sentences together. Hes been accused of being handsy with the ladies. Hes a Beltway swamp rat to the bone. And while Bidens association with President Barack Obama is a plus in the primaries, Trump would weaponize it against him in the general election. Biden, by the way, only looks moderate when hes standing next to Sanders and Warren. Trump can easily paint Biden as the liberal lawmaker hes been for decades. Remember too that Biden wouldnt win all those Southern states he took on Tuesday night in the general election. And toss-up states could be a problem if Bernies irked supporters stay home or vote third-party, as they did four years ago. Biden still does have to beat Sanders the rest of the way. And if we know anything from 2016, its that Bernie and his bros are never-say-die bitter-enders. This thing aint over. The alleged mastermind behind the biggest real estate scam in Majorca has refused to testify in court. Carlos Garcia Roldan, whos also known as Charly is accused of a raft of charges, including aggravated fraud, document forgery and money laundering. His company allegedly ripped off hundreds of people by selling houses that didnt exist, through his company, Luxury Casa, scamming buyers out of between 4 million and 7 million euros. He fled to Colombia when complaints were filed in Majorca and despite changing his appearance, he was tracked down and arrested last year thanks to a joint operation between the Colombian Police and the Guardia Civil and extradited to Spain. Roldan's company Accountant told the court on Tuesday that Carlos Garcia Roldan handled all of the clients' money and that all orders were given by him. Prosecutors are demanding that Roldan be refused bail and be jailed for 23 years. By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) - A big victory by Bernie Sanders in Tuesday's contests for the Democratic presidential nomination could add volatility to a market already consumed by the spread of the coronavirus and its economic fallout, analysts and investors said. Some investors say the resurgence of former vice president Joe Biden in the race has been a positive factor for stocks, setting the stage for pressure should Sanders do better than expected on Super Tuesday, in which voters in 14 states are heading to the polls with delegate-rich California and Texas among those up for grabs. To be sure, investor attention is more focused on the spread of the coronavirus, with stocks fluctuating wildly on Tuesday as Wall Street tried to digest the implications of the Federal Reserve's emergency rate cut By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) - A big victory by Bernie Sanders in Tuesday's contests for the Democratic presidential nomination could add volatility to a market already consumed by the spread of the coronavirus and its economic fallout, analysts and investors said. Some investors say the resurgence of former vice president Joe Biden in the race has been a positive factor for stocks, setting the stage for pressure should Sanders do better than expected on Super Tuesday, in which voters in 14 states are heading to the polls with delegate-rich California and Texas among those up for grabs. To be sure, investor attention is more focused on the spread of the coronavirus, with stocks fluctuating wildly on Tuesday as Wall Street tried to digest the implications of the Federal Reserve's emergency rate cut. But the election remained at least a background risk, as investors put it, with a strong showing by Sanders, a democratic socialist, seen as possibly wounding stocks. If Sanders is a big winner...I think the market will take it negatively come tomorrow, said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey. Sanders' favored policies, including Medicare for All legislation that would essentially abolish private insurance as well as regulation in areas such as the environment and banking, appear particularly negative for sectors such as healthcare, energy and financials, according to a note on Tuesday from Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. A presidential victory in the Nov. 3 election by Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is seen by analysts at RBC Capital Markets as a bearish or very bearish outcome for 79% of the industries they cover, Calvasina said. By contrast, the election of Biden is seen as a neutral outcome by most investors surveyed by RBC, "though the percent that have seen him as a bullish outcome was actually on the rise in our December survey," Calvasina said. Betting odds have strengthened for Biden, according to online betting site PredictIt, after the former vice president's commanding win in the South Carolina primary over the weekend and endorsements from fellow moderates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar after they dropped out of the race. As of midday Tuesday, "Yes" bets for Biden on the question of "Who will win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination?" were trading at 51 cents on PredictIt, compared to 40 cents for Sanders. Sanders still leads Biden in polls for the nomination, 27% to 21.3%, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. "If Bidens current momentum...carries him through Super Tuesday, political risk premium in the markets should fall," strategists at Natwest Markets said in a note. Investors will be watching not only whether Sanders wins but how much support he gathers, given that some on Wall Street are skeptical he can gain enough backing to beat President Donald Trump in November, even if Sanders wins the nomination. "Strong wins with expanding polling levels to 35+% would be indicative of being a stronger general election candidate," Lance Wilkes, a healthcare analyst at Bernstein, said in a note. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf, editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Alistair Bell) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. KALAMAZOO, MI More than four months after 20-year-old Antonio Dewayne Reese-Manley was gunned down outside of Fox Ridge Apartments in Kalamazoo, his alleged killer was arraigned in Kalamazoo County District Court. Scott Kenneth Jones, 35, was charged March 4 by Kalamazoo County District Judge Kathleen Hemingway with open murder, being a felon in posession of a firearm and two counts of weapons felony firearm. Jones is due back in court March 25 for a preliminary hearing, at which time it will be determined whether there is probable cause to proceed with a case against him in circuit court. Jones, who had a warrant issued for his arrest on Sept. 26, five days after the shooting, dodged law enforcement agencies for four months before he was arrested Jan. 21 in Kane County, Illinois after a four-hour stand-off with police. Jones was recently extradited back to Michigan where he faces charges. In identifying Jones as the suspect, police used surveillance footage from an adjacent apartment building as well as eye witness reports, according to testimony provided by Kalamazoo Public Safety Detective Cory Ghiringhelli during Jones Sept. 26 probable cause hearing. Through that footage (officers) were able to see portions of the incident unfold, Ghiringhelli testified at the hearing. Detectives also interviewed eye witnesses at the scene who stated a male who was known them as Sleepy G came up on crutches and shot Antonio Reese-Manley for no reason after a brief conversation. Reese-Manley, who was shot multiple times in the torso around 7 a.m. Sept. 21, according to Ghiringhellis testimony, was transported by LIFE EMS to Bronson Methodist Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries later that morning. Former Kalamazoo Public Safety Capt. Brad Misner told MLive in December that the agency continued to receive a steady stream of tips on Jones whereabouts in the months following the shooting. To their understanding, Misner said, Jones had a practice of staying at a different place every night and had been bouncing between Chicago and Kalamazoo. At about 5 a.m. Jan. 21, officers from the Montgomery Police Department responded to a suburban Chicago home on a call of a domestic disturbance and soon after received information that Jones might be inside the home. Instead of attempting to arrest Jones, who was asleep at that time, responding officers backed out of the home and called in the Kane County SWAT team and a crisis negotiator, Kane County Undersheriff Pat Gengler told MLive in January. The SWAT team tried unsuccessfully for more than three hours to negotiate with the suspect from outside the residence, before going inside and making contact with Jones at about 8:50 a.m. Jones was arrested without incident once contact was made, Gengler said. The Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, of which the Kane County Sheriffs office is a part of, had been tracking Jones for months and working closely with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety on the case, Gengler said. Also on MLive: Kalamazoo homicide suspect arrested by SWAT team near Chicago Man charged in killing of young father, shooting officers, competent to stand trial Kalamazoo Countys 13 homicides in 2019 just above decade average Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have once again launched a scare campaign about internet paedophile networks to justify plans to formally allow the countrys electronic eavesdropping and cyber warfare agency to spy on people inside Australia. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) forms a key part of the global Five Eyes surveillance and cyber-attack network led by the US National Security Agency (NSA). The ASD also operates closely with the military within the Defence portfolio. It provides information to support military operations and conducts offensive operations to hack into or disrupt facilities in targeted countries such as China and Iran. Promoting the ASD proposal, Morrison said Australias crime and intelligence agencies would get what they need to protect kids from perverts operating on the dark web. This is just the latest invocation of on-line child sexual exploitation, which already is intensively monitored globally, to provide a pretext for the development of police-state surveillance. Currently, the ASD is legally barred from most domestic spying, but previous secret documents released by WikiLeaks and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden proved that this is a facade. The material showed that the ASD and its Five Eyes partners intercept the communications of millions of people around the globe, as well as rival governments, and freely exchange data about each others citizens. Giving the ASD domestic powers would allow it free rein to target people inside Australia with military-grade snooping and hacking capabilities, including malware that exploits vulnerabilities in applications and operating systems like Windows. The Liberal-National Coalition government is seeking to remove even the limited legal restrictions on these operations. At present, the ASDs supply of information to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the main domestic spy agency, is meant to require ministerial approval. Acutely aware of widespread opposition to the continual expansions of the powers of the police and intelligence apparatus, Morrison and Dutton have dressed up the proposal as being about cracking down on paedophiles and other criminal networks. Dutton raised the imaginary spectre of an encrypted server in Sydney with images of a five- or six-year-old child being sexually exploited and tortured. For years, the government has offered similar scenarios repeatedly to justify unprecedented expansions of surveillance over the population. This includes encryption-cracking powers and metadata-retention laws that compel telecommunications providers to store detailed data about every call or internet search their customers make. This latest proposal is another sham. The AFP already targets online child abuse through a Virtual Global Taskforce, which cooperates with INTERPOL, EUROPOL and other international enforcement agencies. In addition, the AFPs Cybercrime Investigation teams investigate cyber crimes. Moreover, the AFP and ASIO have vast resources and powers, including to access computers, emails, bank records and text messages. Both agencies have more than tripled in size since 2001, with successive governments pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into their budgets. Based on leaked documents, News Corp national political editor Annika Smethurst first reported in 2018 that the government was planning to increase the ASDs domestic powers. The government vehemently denied the report and then, last June, authorised the AFP to raid her Canberra home, hunting for evidence to prosecute the journalist and her sources. A day later, the AFP raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), confiscating 120 files. That was over another revealing exposure, about the protracted official cover-up of war crimes by Australian Special Forces units involved in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The precedent for this assault on the media and free speech was set by the April 11, 2019 British police arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He was dragged out of asylum in Ecuadors London embassy to face extradition to the US on manufactured charges of espionage for exposing war crimes, mass surveillance and other abuses by the US and its allies, including Australia. The connection to Assanges persecution was highlighted the day after the ABC raid. AFP acting chief Neil Gaughan said the raids purpose was to protect access to the Five Eyes network. Gaughans remark pointed to the pressure coming from the Trump administration to ensure that the public is kept in the dark about the increasingly aggressive activities of the US spy and military forces against China and other US rivals. Last month, a Federal Court judge bluntly dismissed an ABC legal challenge to the raid, declaring that the interests of national security overrode those of the publics right to information. Last week, the ABC announced that it would not appeal the ruling, thus giving the government a further green light to prosecute journalists and whistleblowers. To head off the continuing outcry among journalists and the public, the government and the AFP released a proposal to allow police to issue journalists and media outlets with Notices to Produce documents and the names of confidential sources, supposedly to avoid the need for police raids. Journalists, press freedom advocates and even the corporate media chiefs denounced the scheme as window dressing. It adds new police powers, while leaving in place the threat of raids being mounted if requested materials are not handed over. In addition, the government is proceeding with two trials, mostly to be conducted behind closed-doors, over leaks that exposed the criminality of the intelligence apparatus. In one, former military lawyer David McBride is accused of giving the ABC the Afghan Files on the Special Forces cover-up. In the other, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) officer, known only as Witness K, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery could be jailed for up to two years for exposing ASISs illegal bugging of East Timors cabinet office during oil and gas negotiations. Despite the public outcry over the police raids and trials, the Labor Party, which has a long record of commitment to the US military alliance, has backed bolstering the state apparatus. For years, Labor has joined hands with the Coalition to pass more than 75 pieces of legislation handing unprecedented powers to the police and intelligence agencies. This has included barrages of counter-terrorism laws, the 2015 metadata retention provisions, the 2018 encryption-cracking measures and the 2018 foreign interference legislation, which expanded the scope and penalties of the secrecy laws. Like the Coalition, Labor has backed the US vendetta against Assange from the outset. In 2010, Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard denounced Assange for publishing documents exposing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and its diplomatic conspiracies around the world. To this day, led by Anthony Albanese, Labor continues to support the US operation to extradite Assange, an Australian citizen, and condemn him to prison for life. Throughout the ongoing war on terrorism launched by Washington in 2001, Australian governments, both Coalition and Labor, have erected a repressive framework. These measures will be used to suppress dissent as opposition rises to the political and corporate elite over social inequality, environmental and health disasters, war preparations and the accompanying assault on basic legal and democratic rights. The oil industry and its Capitol Hill allies are pressing the Trump administration to defend its decision to exempt oil refineries from requirements they blend biofuels into gasoline and diesel. The administration has until the end of next Monday to request the full 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rehear a decision that threatens to curtail the use of waivers. Republican senators from states with large oil-refining interests, including Ted Cruz of Texas, John Barrasso of Wyoming and James Inhofe of Oklahoma have made entreaties to the White House or the Environmental Protection Agency in recent days, warning that if the decision is applied nationwide, it could strain refineries, hike gasoline prices and jeopardize jobs. The senators efforts were described by three people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named detailing private conversations. At issue are requirements to use renewable fuels, such as corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel. Although federal law authorizes the EPA to exempt small refineries facing an economic hardship, a January ruling by a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals throws into doubt the agencys ability to broadly issue those waivers. If the decision stands, it is believed only two small refineries would still be eligible for hardship relief, according to a letter 13 Republican senators, led by Barrasso, sent to President Donald Trump on Feb. 27. Since the Jan. 24 ruling, expectations the EPA will dramatically restrict waivers have driven a 152% surge in the cost of renewable identification numbers, the credits refiners use to prove they have complied with biofuel quotas. The EPA has the legal option to apply the court decision to refineries only in the six states covered by the 10th Circuit, but top agency officials view that as unworkable, according to two people familiar with the matter. Administration officials including White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow had tentatively decided to apply the ruling nationwide. Oil industry allies are hoping Trump will personally intervene and order a shift in course. Barrasso has spoken with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Kudlow, urging them to appeal the 10th Circuit decision, Sarah Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the senator, said by email. Representatives for Inhofe did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cruz spokesperson Lauren Blair Aronson said the senator has been reaching out to all stakeholders, including the administration. Failure to appeal the courts decision to invalidate hardship exemptions from refineries under RFS and apply that decision nationwide could put tens of thousands of blue-collar refinery jobs in jeopardy, Aronson said. Senator Cruz believes the administration has a critical role to play in ensuring this decision is reheard. Biofuel advocates also are pressing the administration on the issue. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said he had urged administration officials to follow the law and wants the ruling applied nationwide. Wheeler said Friday the agency is planning to make an announcement on its plans before the March 9 court deadline. Refiners are looking to see whether the Trump administration will stand up to protect small refineries and the jobs they support, said Chet Thompson, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association. If the administration hangs us out to dry on this and takes no other action to contain compliance costs, it will be a huge signal to our workforce. --With assistance from Mario Parker. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Catherine Triomphe and Sebastian Smith (Agence France-Presse) Burlington, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 07:57 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206815f8f 2 World #USA,#Elections,Democratic-party,Joe-Biden,Bernie-Sanders Free Former vice president Joe Biden was projected to win the key Virginia primary and leftist frontrunner Bernie Sanders triumphed in his home state of Vermont as polls closed in the first of 14 states voting Tuesday to pick a Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump. US networks predicted that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist on a mission to reshape America's economy, would win as expected in Vermont. However, the 77-year-old centrist Biden looked set to take the far bigger and more diverse Virginia, where polls also closed at 7:00 pm (0000 GMT Wednesday). From there, the action was to pick up speed, with polls closing across a slew of states in the following hours, before culminating in delegate-rich California at 11:00 pm (0400 GMT). The nominating contests across the country give the dwindling field of Democratic hopefuls a giant potential haul of delegates in their bid to win the nomination -- and begin campaigning in earnest against the Republican incumbent. Many in the Democratic Party are desperate to stop Sanders' strong showing in the delegate race, saying the senator will be destroyed in a general election where Trump has signaled he will brand him a socialist bent on ending the American way of life. Biden, counted out after a stumbling early campaign, suddenly rebounded with a landslide win in South Carolina a few days ago, followed by the coordinated decisions by two moderate candidates -- Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar -- to withdraw and endorse their former rival. But Sanders' enthusiastic base is convinced only he can take on Trump, who also defied his party's establishment and more moderate wing four years ago to claim a surprise victory against Democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton. "We need energy. We need excitement. I think our campaign is that campaign," said the 78-year-old Sanders. Sanders supporter Jamison Hanning, a 45-year-old plastics industry technician, said he was "pretty confident" despite the Biden pushback. "I mean it is just people in the establishment being afraid of things being shaken up," he said. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren were also on the ballot. Trump, who feels confident with a strong economy and the benefit of having campaigned for re-election since the day he took office, said he would be watching closely. "It's going to be a very interesting evening of television. It's going to really be something," he said. Asked whom he wanted to face, he answered: "Anybody." Two new national polls have shown Biden surging past Sanders. 'We're in it to win it' Bloomberg, 78, who has poured hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into the race but is not expected to win any states on Tuesday, rejected calls to follow Buttigieg and Klobuchar, clearing a path for Biden. "I have no intention of dropping out," the billionaire told reporters in Florida. "We're in it to win it." After disappointing finishes in the first three contests, Biden righted his listing campaign in South Carolina and is hoping the energy from that victory carries over into Tuesday's contests. A total of 1,357 delegates are at stake, and Biden needs another good performance to prevent Sanders from taking a potentially insurmountable lead into the party convention to be held in Milwaukee in July. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination outright and Bloomberg acknowledged his only hope may be a contested convention, where no single candidate arrives with the delegates needed to win on the first ballot. No 'revolution' Biden, who is making his third bid for the White House after failed runs in 1988 and 2008, appears reinvigorated by his recent successes and compared Buttigieg, 38, to his own son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015. "The fact that he's prepared to help me means a great deal to me," Biden said. "I don't think I've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau." Biden also sought to warn voters away from Sanders. "Most Americans don't want the promise of a revolution," Biden said. "They want results. They want a revival of decency, honor and character." The endorsements could be the start of Biden's last hope to seize the initiative. But Democrats will also be looking for turnout and other signs of enthusiasm in a country deeply divided by Trump. California voter Brian Waters, 43, a former English teacher who is now a brewer, said he voted for Sanders because of his position on universal health care. But he added: "I'd vote for a burning dumpster over Trump." Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:45:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WARSAW, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Poland's Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country on Wednesday. A man in the western town of Zielona Gora tested positive for the novel coronavirus, said Szumowski, adding that the patient has been hospitalized and is in good condition. All those who had contact with the patient have been quarantined, the minister said, without elaborating. Over 200 students and teachers from a school in the town of Police in northwestern Poland were quarantined on Tuesday, after two girls, who had spent their winter vacation in Italy, showed symptoms of possible coronavirus infection. Poland has ramped up measures to counter any possible outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, including opening a 24-hour hotline, conducting additional health checks at entry points and passing an emergency health bill. In his closing speech during a discussion on the draft law on making amendments to the Constitutional Law Judicial Code and the attached draft laws in parliament today, Minister of Justice of Armenia Rustam Badasyan stated that the draft laws will provide the opportunity to fight against corruption in the judiciary effectively and not undermine the independence of the judiciary at the same time. Touching upon the observation of head of Bright Armenia faction Edmon Marukyan and the factions MP Taron Simonyan that this draft law will lead to the creation of a judiciary dependent on the government, the minister asked the MPs to state which body the judiciary will be dependent on when judges comprise the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, the Supreme Judicial Council and other bodies. Badasyan addressed the opposition MPs and independent MP Arman Babajanyan and stated the following: During the first-second readings, bring a version that will solve the problems facing the judiciary better, and the ruling party will definitely accept it, but under the condition that it doesnt contradict the Constitution, Badasyan said. - The WHO had declared the outbreak a global health emergency because of fears that poorer countries may not be able to cope with the virus - A report released by The Lancet showed that several African countries have the highest importation risk and include Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia - Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya were identified as having a moderate importation risk - Specialists had speculated the very few cases of coronavirus could be because there was no much travel to the particular city of Wuhan in China from Afric Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Public health experts have warned that the coronavirus outbreak presents a unique public health threat to Africans but what puzzles them even more is the few cases recorded in the region. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had also declared the outbreak a global health emergency because of fears that poorer countries may not be able to cope with the virus. READ ALSO: Jesus carried their burden: Church clears KSh 4.6 billion medical bills for over 45k families There are only three cases of infection officially recorded in Africa, one in Egypt, one in Alhera and one in Nigeria. Photo: The New Humanitarian. Source: UGC READ ALSO: If China will just turn to Jesus, coronavirus crisis will end - US pastor As the rest of the world works around the clock to battle the scourge, The Lancet released a study ranking the vulnerability of African countries to the highly contagious respiratory disease. Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for Covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on February 22, 2020. "The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," he added. READ ALSO: Blessed with brains: Meet family of 5 sisters who are all doctors Ethiopian Airlines, the largest African airline has not suspended its flights to China since the epidemic began. Source: Getty Images With only three cases of infection officially recorded in Africa, it is a remarkably small number for a continent that has a weak health system to cater to nearly 1.3 billion inhabitants. The study models the risk of Covid-19 exposure based on air travel from areas in China with active transmissions, and the capacity of individual African countries to manage an outbreak. Air travel data alone suggests in order of decreasing likelihood that Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ethiopia have the highest importation risk. READ ALSO: Gire Ali: Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr wants suspended KQ employee promoted for brave act Cairo International Airport received the most travellers from areas with active transmission in China excluding Hubei province, the epicentre of the disease, from where flights are banned. Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana, and Kenya were identified as having a moderate importation risk, but with varying levels of health system preparedness to handle an outbreak. These countries are among the 13 nations with a high volume of travel to and from China, which the WHO has prioritised to receive support for added measures like improved airport screening. READ ALSO: Nairobi lawyer invites Kenyans to pray for end of Uhuru's leadership at Uhuru Park Thumbi Ndungu, director of a Durban-based infectious disease research centre, SANTHE, said that no one knows why Africa is unscathed. He speculated that it could be because there is not much travel to the particular city of Wuhan in China from Africa back and forth. This is despite Ethiopian Airlines, the largest African airline, having not suspended its flights to China since the epidemic began. READ ALSO: Wafuasi zaidi wa Nabii Owuor wadai miujiza yake ni feki China Southern Airlines also resumed its flights to Kenya on February 26, risking the spread of the disease as people carrying it could enter the country from any of the affected countries. But the decision was rescinded immediately following angry protests from Kenyans and a court order. Conspiracy theorists who claimed cases in Africa had been hidden were dismissed as infections of such nature would require exceptional management and cannot be hidden for too long. Favourable climate factors have also been raised as a possibility with unsubstantiated claims showing that Africas hot climate has the potential of warding off the virus. READ ALSO: Marsabit elders say locust invasion not new, sign of good fortune The hypothesis was rejected by Professor Rodney Adam who heads the infection control task force at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. "While it is true that for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility...there is no current evidence to that effect for Covid-19," he said. READ ALSO: Elon Musk throws weight behind Jack Dorsey after attempts to get him removed from office Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Yenkasa: Coronavirus: Is Ghana ready? | #Yencomgh Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: YEN.com.gh 19 States Sue Trump Administration Over Reallocation of Defense Funding to Border Wall A coalition of states is suing President Donald Trump and his administration over the decision to reallocate $3.8 billion of funding for the Pentagon to build the wall across the U.S.-Mexico border. In February, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that funding reallocated for building some 177 miles of fencing at the border is required to provide support for counter-drug activities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a request sent to Congress (pdf). The money was originally appropriated to DOD for resources and equipment for the department and National Guard and to the Pentagons Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 18 other attorneys general filed the lawsuit (pdf) in the U.S. District Court in Northern California challenging the administrations move, arguing that the reallocation of funds is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers and Congresss power of the purse. It also argued that the administration violates the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider the environmental impact of constructing the wall. The states also argue that the reallocation would significantly impact the capacity and capability of the National Guard Units across the country and put military construction projects at risk. Congress has repeatedly and explicitly rejected taxpayer funding for a wasteful Trump wall along the border, Becerra said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. Were going to courtonce againto remind Donald Trump that even the President is not above the law. Last year, a similar 16-state coalition filed a lawsuit in California against the Trump administration over its plan to reallocate funding towards the border. This case is pending on appeal before the 9th circuit. Trump declared a national emergency to address the humanitarian crisis on the southwest border and secure funds for border-wall construction in February last year. The emergency declaration was made at a time when the United States saw an influx of illegal immigrants entering the country across the southern border, overwhelming the immigration facilities and system. Meanwhile, drug smugglers and cartels were taking advantage of the porous border to smuggle vast amounts of drugs into the country, contributing to an already devastating opioid crisis. Building the border wall was one of Trumps key campaign promises. After the administration announced that it would shift nearly $4 billion toward the wall, several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle spoke out. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) accused Trump of being obsessed with fulfilling a campaign promise at the expense of our national security. Similarly, committee ranking member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said in a statement that he would be working with his colleagues to determine the appropriate steps to take. The reprogramming announced today is contrary to Congresss constitutional authority, and I believe that it requires Congress to take action, Thornberry said at the time. California is joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin in the lawsuit. Since taking office, the Trump administration has faced an unprecedented number of state lawsuits, mostly from Democratic-led states, against a number of the administrations key policies. As of Feb. 1, the administration has faced 103 lawsuits, according to data compiled by Dr. Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University. Comparatively, the Obama administration faced 25 lawsuits in its first term and 53 in its second term. Meanwhile, the Bush administration faced 35 lawsuits in its first term and 41 in its second term. Nolette also found that a majority of the multistate lawsuits are led by New York or California. The Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. Ivan Penchoukov and Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report. Former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand celebrated his birthday here on the day the Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging the High Court order that granted bail to him in the sexual exploitation case lodged by a law student. During events at his Mumukshu ashram, Chinmayanand met supporters, listened to a Ramayan recitation and praised those who agitated for a Ram temple in Ayodhya. According to ashram officials, a recitation of the 'Sundarkand' from Ramayan was held in the evening on Tuesday, when he turned 73. Visitors were given a special prasad made for the occasion. The BJP politician also participated in an event organised by the local Hindu Yuva Vahini unit at the ashram, where he praised kar sevaks who took part in the Ayodhya movement. After the Supreme Court's historic judgment on the Ayodhya dispute last year, a Ram temple is being built on the site where mobs brought down the Babri mosque in 1992. Chinmayanand did not directly make clear that he was referring to the demolition when he mentioned the kar sevaks. People who did kar seva in the Ayodhya matter are the real warriors, he said. He added that they should be honoured as a temple is now being constructed because of them. The Supreme Court had on Tuesday dismissed an appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to the former minister. Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the complainant studied, was arrested on September 20 last year under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape. The section is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to "induce or seduce" a woman to have sex with him. In a parallel case, the law student was charged with allegedly trying to extort money from Chinmayanand. The high court had granted her bail on December 4. The Supreme Court had stepped in after the 23-year-old woman went missing for a few days in August last year after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse. A special investigation team of Uttar Pradesh Police, formed on the directions of the apex court, arrested Chinmayanand about a month later. The SIT also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had tried to extort Rs five crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to make public videos showing her giving massages to him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) by Nirmala Carvalho A two-day national conference is underway at the pastoral centre in Bhopal. For Archbishop Leo Cornelio, its goal is to help people get together to find local solutions and adapt their traditional agricultural methods to climate change and lower land availability and resources. Mumbai (AsiaNews) A two-day national conference dedicated to farmers welfare is underway at the pastoral centre in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, with the participation of some 350 farmers, including women, from 17 Indian states. Inaugurated yesterday by Archbishop Leo Cornelio SVD of Bhopal, the meeting aims to give farmers the opportunity to harness their resources, work together and lobby the government for loans and exemptions, so as to guarantee their dignity and the sustainability of their work. The conference is the result of collaboration between the Catholic Bishops Conference of Madhya Pradesh, Caritas India, a local NGO, and Rahibai Popere, the 2020 Padma Shree recipient. The 350 farmers are mostly small producers, who are meeting to learn innovative methods of farming, optimise output, show their products and share knowledge. The national farmers conference is being held thanks to the collaboration of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Madhya Pradesh, Caritas, the Madhya Pradesh social service centre and the coordinator of the Pratibha Shrivasta project of Welthungerhilfe, said Mgr Leo Cornelio, speaking to AsiaNews. "The meeting is meant to raise awareness among farmers on how to become self-sufficient through proper cultivation, good seeds and seed banks, and to help them obtain higher yields. "The goal is also to help people get together to find local solutions and adapt their traditional agricultural methods to climate change and lower land availability and resources. Small and marginal farmers suffer from low crop yields, rising costs and unscientific farming methods, resulting in increased poverty, malnutrition, and sadly, at times, farmers' suicide. "Through this conference, with the help of experts and by sharing local knowledge, by joining together and with financial advice, we want to help them access government programmes, thus ensuring their livelihood. "Climate change, explains the prelate, represents a great challenge for our farmers. It is important that women farmers are present at this farmers' conference. This way we can increase access to, and the availability and diversity of nutritious food so as to fight serious conditions of malnutrition. Rahibai Popere, an important woman farmer popularly known as the Seed Mother of India, recipient of Indias fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, is taking part in the conference. She got the sobriquet Seed Mother for her vast knowledge of the different varieties of native seeds and crops and her countless efforts to save them. She is also an expert in subjects like agrobiodiversity and land conservation. She has also developed several innovative techniques in the cultivation of paddy fields, and can provide guidelines to farmers, especially women farmers. The Group deploys all needed capabilities and resources to enable the energy transition Submarine cable technologies are key to support the growth of renewable energy MILAN, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has been awarded a contract worth over 150 million by Reseau de Transport d'Electricite (RTE) for the development of two submarine and land export power cable systems to connect the offshore wind farm located in between the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier to the French mainland power grid. The offshore wind farm is being developed by the company Les Eoliennes en Mer d'Ile d'Yeu et Noirmoutier which was awarded around 500 MW capacity production by the French government. RTE, the French transmission system operator appointed by the French government, will design, build, maintain and operate the two 225 kV links (submarine and land) to connect the offshore wind farm to the grid. The offshore wind grid connection project will be able to export 500 MW of green and renewable energy, covering a submarine cable route of around 27 km and an underground cable route of around 30 km. Prysmian will provide its comprehensive turn-key approach for the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of two HVAC 225 kV three-core extruded export submarine cables with single-wire armouring which will reach the landfall area at La Barre-de-Monts beach. Prysmian will be also responsible for the supply and jointing of two HVAC 225 kV extruded land cables circuits that will link the landfall area to the substation at Soullans. Submarine cables will be produced at Prysmian's centres of excellence in Pikkala (Finland) and Arco Felice (Italy), while land cables will be manufactured in Gron (France). Installation operations will be performed by the Cable Enterprise, one of the three Group's state-of-the-art cable laying vessels. Delivery and commissioning are scheduled for 2023, conditional upon the receiving of the notice to proceed expected by March 2020 as regard the preliminary studies, and by June 2020 for the overall project. "We are proud to be contributing to the development of infrastructures of such great strategic importance," stated Hakan Ozmen, EVP, Projects Business Unit, Prysmian Group. "This contract not only consolidates our relationship with RTE, but also confirms Prysmian's worldwide leadership in addressing the increasing need for upgraded power grids to support the energy transition," concluded Ozmen. Prysmian is already playing an important role in providing RTE or other customers with efficient and sustainable power transmission solutions, having recently been involved in key projects in France like Fecamp, Courseulles-sur-Mer and St. Nazaire offshore wind farms and the Provence Grand Large floating offshore wind farm (awarded by EDF Renewables), in addition to the IFA2 interconnection linking the UK and France, the Piedmont-Savoy interconnection between Italy and France, and the INELFE interconnection linking Spain (Santa Llogaia) and France (Baixas). Prysmian Group Prysmian Group is world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry. With almost 140 years of experience, sales exceeding 11 billion, about 29,000 employees in over 50 countries and 112 plants, the Group is strongly positioned in high-tech markets and offers the widest possible range of products, services, technologies and know-how. It operates in the businesses of underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, of special cables for applications in many different industries and of medium and low voltage cables for the construction and infrastructure sectors. For the telecommunications industry, the Group manufactures cables and accessories for voice, video and data transmission, offering a comprehensive range of optical fibres, optical and copper cables and connectivity systems. Prysmian is a public company, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in the FTSE MIB index. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099476/Cable_Enterprise_vessel.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/888331/Prysmian_Group_Logo.jpg Media Relations Lorenzo Caruso Corporate and Business Communications Director Ph. +39-02-6449-1 lorenzo.caruso@prysmiangroup.com Investor Relations Cristina Bifulco Investor Relations Director Ph. +39-02-6449-1 mariacristina.bifulco@prysmiangroup.com YEREVAN, MARH 4, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan met on March 3 with Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatovic in Strasbourg, the Ombudsmans Office told Armenpress. Various issues relating to the prevention of torture, the rights of women and children in Armenia, the public awareness raising activities were discussed during the meeting. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, a centrist billionaire who launched a White House bid after years of flirting with a run, and pledged to use his vast resources to unite Democrats and moderate Republicans against President Donald Trump has suspended his campaign and is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. His campaign was shaken by Bidens resurgence and overwhelming victory in the South Carolina primary, which reignited the former vice president's bid and led other moderate candidates to drop out of the race end endorse him in an effort to consolidate the primary vote and prevent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders from clinching the partys nomination. By Super Tuesday, it was clear that Bloomberg's efforts to target the 15 contests in play in lieu of traditional campaigning methods of hitting the early voting states simply did not pay off in terms of netting the bulk of pledged delegates or the popular vote. Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," he wrote in a letter to supporters adding Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden." Biden, who has acknowledged his lackluster ground game, told ABC News that changes were coming to his campaign in terms of staffing. On Wednesday, he tweeted his thanks to Bloomberg whose endorsement could possibly help strengthen the former vice president's bid with a potential huge influx of cash and organization assistance. "@MikeBloomberg, I cant thank you enough for your supportand for your tireless work on everything from gun safety reform to climate change. This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics. Its about defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, were gonna do it, Biden tweeted. Story continues PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., March 3, 2020. (Marco Bello/Reuters) Despite ruling out a White House run last spring, Bloomberg reversed course in the fall and entered the race just before Thanksgiving, offering himself as a pragmatic problem solver with unlimited resources who could appeal to the middle of the country alienated by Trump and leading progressives, at a moment when former vice president Joe Biden faced questions about the strength of his campaign. Bloombergs campaign surged after Bidens disastrous fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, impressing voters and Democratic officials with the size and scale of his operation despite skipping the first four early primary contests, and seizing on concerns that Sanders nomination could endanger down-ballot Democrats across the country this fall. "Defeating Trump and rebuilding America is the most urgent and important fight of our lives. And Im going all in, Bloomberg said on his website at the time. In the first 100 days of his campaign, Bloomberg spent more than half a billion dollars of his estimated $60 billion fortune on his campaign, flooding airwaves around the country with ads, opening hundreds of offices across the country, and hiring more than 2,100 people to his team, building an operation from scratch that resembled a general election operation more than a primary campaign. (MORE: Steyer, Bloomberg's 2020 delegate gambit is an effort to change the political map) His was a novel gambit: throwing out the traditional primary rulebook altogether, bypassing the four early states altogether and focusing in on delegate-rich Super Tuesday spots like Texas, California and Florida. Moreover, he specifically homed in on the swing states Trump picked up in 2016 that Democrats should have won, like Ohio or Michigan. Bloombergs energetic efforts at outreach demonstrate an immense appetite for seeking voters where they live, and showing his commitment, especially visiting those areas off the beaten campaign trail during the early primary stages; as other candidates campaigned in Iowa with a weather eye towards March - Bloomberg was already all over the map. Moreover, he swiftly assembled a formidable ground game: field staff swelling to over 2,000 in 43 states and territories, including all Super Tuesday states; more than 400 in their headquarters. (MORE:Bloomberg to counterprogram Iowa caucus day with California delegate rush) On his massive operation, Bloomberg called it an investment in beating Trump. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg walks out before speaking at his Super Tuesday night event on March 03, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Some of these candidates criticize me for spending a lot of money, Bloomberg said at a December stump stop in Ohio. I think you want me to spend less to get rid of Donald Trump? I dont think so. Bloombergs campaign has said it would spend whatever it takes to remove Trump from office; he has left open the possibility that he could eventually put as much as a billion dollars into the race - even if it's not his to run - pledging to keep his operation open even if he is not the nominee - to help whoever does eventually win. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he would refuse Bloombergs help, should he win the nomination; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., though she said shed accept Bloombergs aid, also did not hold back: in turns accusing him of buying his way into the election, and that he was skipping the democracy part of the primary. Mike Bloomberg backs Biden: Ive had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States. https://t.co/tMkCNQDPX2 pic.twitter.com/Hd1qBY222S ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 4, 2020 He faced sharp rebuke from rivals who criticized his large ad buys and campaign strategy. Despite slick commercials that portrayed Bloomberg as an effective and decisive manager who rebuilt New York City after the September 11th terror attacks, Bloomberg, an uneven debater and retail politician, never recovered from a poor showing in his first primary debate, when he struggled to respond to attacks about his past as a Republican, his wealth and a series of nondisclosure agreements related to alleged comments towards women at his company, along with the controversial stop-and-frisk policing tactics used in the city during his tenure. (MORE: Bloomberg courting voters with letter to 2.5 million across every Super Tuesday state) Just before announcing his 2020 bid, Bloomberg made a very public apology for his support of stop and frisk - and continued to do so over the course of his campaign, touring through black and brown communities, meeting with leaders, and rolling out several criminal justice and economic policies specifically geared towards lifting up those communities most hurt by such divisive issues. (MORE: Bloomberg's sexist remarks fostered company culture that degraded women, lawsuits allege) His past treatment of women in his employ, as well as the culture at his eponymous company, has also faced intense scrutiny. ABC News breaking investigation in December explored the repeated occasions where Bloomberg had faced and fought allegations that he directed crude and sexist comments to women in his office, including a claim in the 1990s that he told an employee who had just announced she was pregnant to "kill it." Bloomberg has repeatedly denied making these and other comments. The nondisclosure agreements he has kept with many of his employees keep any of those on the receiving end of these comments from sharing their side. On the debate stage, Warren tore into Bloomberg, demanding as she had told ABC News for months that he release the women from their secrecy agreements. For his part, Bloomberg just days later announced that he would release three of those signatories from their agreement. Michael Bloomberg ends his presidential bid originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Joe Biden convincingly won the Alabama Democratic primary for president on Tuesday on a night he swept all the Southern states that cast ballots, according to preliminary results from the Associated Press. Joe Biden wins the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama, securing his third victory in the South on Super Tuesday. https://t.co/xdd5BzBAQC The Associated Press (@AP) March 4, 2020 With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Biden had 63 percent of the vote. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was in second with 16 percent, followed by ex-New York City Mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg with 12 percent and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 5 percent. Thank you, Alabama! https://t.co/TXjtTF8n9r Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 4, 2020 Tuesdays contests are dubbed Super Tuesday because of the large number of delegates at stake, although Alabama only has just nearly 4 percent of all delegates up for grabs Tuesday with 52 out of 1,357 delegates. The big prizes of the night are California and Texas with about half of all delegates at stake. The New York Times is projecting that Biden will be awarded 42 delegates in Alabama, Sanders with seven delegates and Bloomberg with three delegates. Warren is projected to not reach the 15 percent threshold either statewide or in Alabamas seven congressional district to be awarded delegates. According to CNN exit polling in Alabama, Biden was strongest among older and African-American voters. He won 76 percent of voters 65 and older and 72 percent of black voters, who represented 44 percent of Alabama Democratic primary voters. Biden also had the largest share of both white -- 51 percent -- and non-white -- 69 percent -- voters, and won every age group except younger voters. Sanders captured that age group with 60 percent to Bidens 21 percent. The former vice president also won majorities among all education levels. He won 62 percent among voters without a college degree, 63 percent who attended college but did not have a degree, 60 percent of voters with associates degrees, 51 percent among those with bachelors degrees and 61 percent with advanced degrees. Bidens victory in Alabama was his one of his five wins in a Southern state on Tuesday; he was also declared the winner in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The former vice president was victorious despite being vastly outspent in Alabama. Bloomberg blanketed the state with advertising to the tune of nearly $8 million while Biden spent $2.2 million on all 13 Super Tuesday states combined. Sanders and Warren also did not open up their wallets in Alabama. But Biden, whose campaign was invigorated with a resounding victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, enjoyed high-profile endorsements in Alabama, including Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. Bloomberg was backed by the Alabama Democratic Conference, the states largest black caucus within the Alabama Democratic Party and its leader, Joe Reed. While Republicans flocked to Alabama during the 2016 primary, the state had not been wooed as aggressively by the Democratic presidential candidates this year. But all the candidates save Sanders were in Selma on Thursday to mark the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In the final days of the race, former Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden went on the campaign trail on her husbands behalf in Montgomery and Bloomberg surrogate and ex-Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and former Birmingham Mayor William Bell did the same in Birmingham. In no surprise, President Trump won Alabamas Republican primary, easily fending off challenger and ex-Massachusetts Gov. William Weld and capturing 97 percent of the vote. A man is placing flowers beside a photo of the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang outside the Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 7, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Another Chinese Doctor, Supervisor of Wuhan Whistleblower, Dies From Coronavirus Another doctor in Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, has died from the deadly virus. Mei Zhongming was the supervisor of Li Wenliang, known as the whistleblower doctor who was among a group of medical professionals who published information about the outbreak ahead of official announcements and was punished for it. Lis death elicited an outpouring of grief and anger at Chinese officials for suppressing freedom of speech. Mei, the deputy director of the ophthalmology department at the Wuhan Central Hospital, died on March 3 at the Jinyintan Hospital, also in Wuhan, at the age of 57. As with Li, Mei was infected with the virus while treating patients, the hospital said. He is the latest doctor to have died of COVID-19 in the virus-stricken city. Mei was born and raised in Wuhan. After graduating from the Zhongshan School of Medicine at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong Province in 1986, Mei joined the ophthalmology department at the Wuhan Central Hospital, according to the hospitals statement. Li first posted on social media about a SARS-like outbreak in December 2019 but was later reprimanded by local police for rumor-mongering. Li later contracted the virus from a patient he was treating, and died from the COVID-19 disease in February, according to state media. He was 34. Doctors Who Died Jiang Xueqing, a surgeon specializing in thyroid and breast procedures at the Wuhan Central Hospital, died on March 1 from COVID-19. He also contracted it while treating patients at the hospital. He was 55. Jiang, Mei, Li, and their colleagues were reassigned to work at the hospitals respiratory department to assist with the large number of COVID-19 patients. Hu Weifeng, a urology surgeon at the Wuhan Central Hospital, was also infected with the virus and was reportedly in critical condition. On Feb. 16, many netizens shared a social media post by Hus wife, who said he had received emergency treatment just before midnight on Feb. 15 and needed plasma donations from people with Type O blood. The hospital hasnt confirmed whether he was cured or died; there have been no updates about Hus condition since then. In addition, the social media post by Hus wife was deleted. Other doctors in China who have died of the new virus include Peng Yinhua, a 29-year-old doctor at the Jiangxia district Peoples No. 1 Hospital in Wuhan, who died Feb. 20; Liu Zhiming, a 55-year-old neurologist and director at Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, who died Feb. 18; and Xia Sisi, a 29-year-old doctor at the Caidian Peoples Hospital in Wuhan, who died Feb. 23. That same day, Huang Wenjun, deputy chief physician of the respiratory department at the Xiaogan Central Hospital in Hubei Province, died at age 42. Du Xiansheng, a doctor from Hainan province, died from COVID-19 at age 55. Joe Biden laughed off the idea that his flurry of wins in South Carolina and then in 10 'Super Tuesday' states respresented the Democratic 'establishment' trying to crush Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign. 'The establishment are all those hard working middle class people, those African Americans, the single women in suburbia. Theyre the establishment,' Biden said as he left an event Wednesday in Los Angeles, where he gave a brief speech - and told reporters he wouldn't be answering their queries. Biden had gotten in front of the cameras to thank his supporters from Super Tuesday states, tout that he had his own 'movement' behind him and plead with the three Democratic hopefuls left in the race to not turn things ugly. Shortly after Biden made his remarks, Sanders shot back via tweet. 'No, Joe. The "establishment" are the 60 billionaires who are funding your campaign and the corporate-funded super PACs that are spending millions on negative ads attacking me,' Sanders said, highlighting a tweet that quoted Biden at the Los Angeles event. Vice President Joe Biden laughed off the idea that he represented the Democratic 'establishment' that's being blamed for ganging up and trying to take out Bernie Sanders' campaign Joe Biden ended up answering one question as he walked out of the room, when an NBC News reporter asked about Sanders claims that the Democratic establishment has ganged up against him Bernie Sanders indicated Wednesday that he planned to stay in the 2020 race. Sanders had all the momentum coming out of Nevada, but that was stopped with Joe Biden's win in South Carolina on Saturday and then a string of Biden Super Tuesday successes Bernie Sanders swiftly reacted to Joe Biden's comments, saying that he defines the 'establishment' as being Biden's billionaire backers 'that are spending millions on negative ads attacking me' Biden had gathered about a dozen supporters and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti - who campaigned alongside him as California voters headed to the polls for 'Super Tuesday' - to stand behind him for a seven-minute speech he read from two teleprompters. He reiterated many of the same points he's made since South Carolina's winning primary night on Saturday. 'This idea that we didn't have a movement,' Biden scoffed. 'Look who's showing up.' Biden won South Carolina with large swaths of the African-American vote, an important constituency for Democratic candidates, he also did well with the other groups that he mentioned. Sanders, so far, has attracted the youth vote - and done well with Latinos. Biden said his campaign respresented a 'positive, progressive vision.' And that he wanted to be president to finish the work he had started while serving as President Obama's vice president. 'Everything was just beginning,' he said of when he and Obama left office in early 2017, giving the Democratic administration credit for the growing economy. Sanders indicated earlier Wednesday that he would not be standing down. 'You know, what we can't let happen in the next few weeks is let the primary turn into a campaign of negative attacks,' Biden warned Wednesday. 'The only thing that can do is help Donald Trump and it doesn't do anything to help anyone on the campaigns, any of the campaigns.' 'And we need to keep the eye on the ball, and the eye on the ball is to reclaim the soul of this country,' he added, repeating what's been his campaign's motto. As Biden wound down his pitch, he told the reporters who made up the audience in the room that this was not a press conference. 'I want to thank you again. I'm not going to take any questions. I'm sure you all have thousands of them,' he said, adding that journalists would get a chance to ask them 'as we go along.' But NBC's Kristen Welker was able to get one in, asking about Sanders as the ex-veep was leaving the room. She got Biden to bite. The next set of Democratic primaries comes in six days, with voters from six more states heading to the polls on Tuesday. Low-cost European carrier Wizz Air has revealed plans to slash routes, cut costs and freeze recruitment as part of measures to offset plunging demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. The airline which focuses on the central and eastern European markets said it will reduce flights from March 11 to countries affected by the virus mostly to Italy and is looking at cutting capacity by about another 10% between April and June. Wizz Air said a task force has been set up to address the financial implications of Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak. Measures taken include significant cutting of cost overheads and discretionary spending, pausing recruitment and non-essential travel, and working with suppliers to make further savings. The London-listed Hungarian company did not estimate the size of the hit from the outbreak in the year to March 31, adding that it is difficult to predict the extent and the duration of the outbreak and the impact on the next financial year. Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: Our ever-disciplined attitude to cost enables Wizz Air to partly offset some of the headwinds due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which have driven a temporary decline in demand and an increase in the cost of disruption as we put the well-being of passengers and crew first. It comes after rivals have also cancelled flights and reined in routes in response to coronavirus. British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) said on Monday it was cancelling more than 400 flights, mostly on short-haul routes between Heathrow and Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. The airline had already suspended its flights serving mainland China and reduced the frequency of flights to northern Italy and Singapore. Ryanair also said on Monday it was cancelling up to one in four flights on some of its routes, particularly those serving Italian airports, while other measures include rolling schedule cuts, allocating leave or paid leave to pilots and cabin crew, working with suppliers to cut costs and freezing recruitment, promotion and pay across its network. EasyJet had announced last week that it was cancelling some flights because of the coronavirus. A racist threat prompted Portland police to patrol Northeast Portlands Grant High this week. Asian students experienced discrimination as local tension over the coronavirus pandemic stirred. And a noose was found on the roof of Benson High last week. These are just a few of the racist incidents Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero spoke out against during Tuesdays school board meeting. He called the events eerie, painful reminders of the acts of racial terror of our past and said theyre "indicative of the racial injustice our students, families and staff of color face today still. Guerrero typically delivers an update on happenings throughout the district during board meetings, often accompanied by a slideshow featuring student projects and school events. He contrasted Tuesdays speech with the one gave one week prior, during which Guerrero highlighted various Black History Month celebrations schools held throughout February. Its tough because Oregon and Portland have a unique history, he said. This district has a mixed track record in being able to deliver an educational experience that produces equitable outcomes for students of color. Its an environment, and particularly a moment in our country, where students of color continue to experience or be victim to hate incidents in our schools. The superintendent went on to say nooses continue to be found in our buildings, a nod to the incident at Benson, where three students confessed to placing on the roof earlier this week. The noose found on the Northeast Portland high schools roof was the districts most recent a Chapman Elementary custodian found a noose earlier this year and Cleveland High staff found one in that building in 2019. Guerrero also said disturbing imagery and racial slurs have been found on school walls. He also pointed to instances where students felt uncomfortable in school buildings. Our indigenous students have been traumatized by images that depict colonization, Guerrero said in an apparent nod to ongoing tensions at Grant High, where Native students have decried a mural in the auditorium that the schools alumni association has raised $200,000 to restore. The mural features imagery that shows Native Americans and settlers contentedly working side-by-side, which Native students say whitewashes the history of the region. Guerrero also said the districts Asian families have been victimized by fear and xenophobia as the coronavirus pandemic has reached Oregon. The outbreak began in Wuhan, China. Three Oregonians, including a Lake Oswego school employee and a casino worker, have tested positive for the disease and state public health officials have said hundreds of Oregon residents likely have it. The first positive test in Oregon prompted officials in Lake Oswego to close the elementary school where the staff member confirmed to have contracted the COVID-19 worked. Guerrero said district officials have spent the last four months studying racist patterns that show up over and over again and that some schools have begun working with their communities to address those issues. At Wilson High, for instance, older students have begun holding race talks with freshmen in hopes of heading off racist incidents like the ones that roiled the Southwest Portland school last year with the help of a program designed by the Anti Defamation League. They hope to offer those same discussions to eighth graders in neighboring middle schools at the end of the year. One school, one leader, one parent, one board member, one classroom cannot do this alone," Guerrero said. "To become more hopeful, more committed to living in a complex world, we have to do this together. Much of the half-empty board room gave the superintendent a standing ovation as the meeting neared the end of its third hour. After the applause settled down and board Chair Amy Kohnstamm began to move the meeting along, the lone person of color on the board offered a quiet interruption. You know what we call that in black church, dont you? We call it preach, Michelle DePass said. You can watch Guerreros speech below, starting at the 3:05 mark: Washington, US (PANA) - As COVID-19 reaches more than 60 countries, the World Bank Group is making available an initial package of up to $12 billion in immediate support to assist countries coping with the health and economic impacts of the global outbreak In the early days of this race, voters had a range of women to consider, some more conventionally qualified than others. There were four senators, a congresswoman and a self-help guru who varied in age, race, personal background and professional experience. They hailed from different regions, had different political styles and visions and espoused different policies. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Matthew Continetti writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Michelle Cottle examines two primary contests that will shake the parties well beyond the states in play. One by one, these candidates fizzled and fell away: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who had pitched herself as a champion of womens issues; Senator Kamala Harris of California, the tough talking former prosecutor; Marianne Williamson, with her premonitions of dark psychic forces; and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the Midwestern moderate who hit her high point with a third-place finish in New Hampshire. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is hanging on but has never been more than a curiosity (though she did come in second to Mr. Bloomberg in the caucuses in American Samoa on Tuesday). For a while last fall, Ms. Warren was the candidate with the mojo. But she came under heavy fire from her rivals, seemed to flip-flop on Medicare for all, stumbled and never recovered. Faring poorly in the early contests, she all but vanished from the discussion. Even before Tuesday, her campaign acknowledged that a path to the nomination would require her to somehow triumph at a brokered convention. Put more simply: Shes done. Its impossible to know the degree to which gender factors into a candidates political appeal, or lack thereof, especially at the presidential level. Man or woman, winning the presidency is not merely or even largely a question of merit. Americans are forever seeking that indefinable spark a secret blend of strength and likability, authority and relatability, a talent for inspiring and connecting with voters. Ms. Warren is thought to have struggled in part because she was too professorial too schoolmarmish, if you will to connect with anyone beyond white college-educated women like herself. But had she focused on her up-by-the-bootstraps biography, whos to say she wouldnt have been slammed as inauthentic or as trying too hard? As for complaints that she was too strident or shrill or hectoring or inflexible, have any of these critics seen Bernie Sanders? Come on. Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister, has denounced the "shocking" protest of the South Korean government and its "imbecile way of thinking" after the North's latest rocket launcher test. Her bilious attack came in a statement released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday night and was her first lead role in the screaming contest that is North Korea's preferred form of diplomacy. Kim Yo-jong played a more benign part in thawing cross-border relations when she visited South Korea to attend the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February 2018 at the head of a high-level delegation. In the statement she called Monday's test "the basic mission of the army... and an action for self-defense." "It is truly shocking to us that [South Korea] talked about 'strong regret' and 'demanded stop,'" she said. "It is really the height of folly that those keen on war exercises poke their noses to the military exercises conducted by the other." Rendered in the Martian English of North Korea's official translators, she added that what South Korea has done to the North is "just like the one done by a mere child. It is exactly the same way the U.S. does which is apt to making far-fetched assertions." She ended the statement by saying, "How come all its words and acts be so perfectly foolish in detail... It is a frightening dog barking noisier just like someone." We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Over a 1,000 riot-affected people moved into a Delhi government's relief camp in Mustafabad in the past 24 hours and they are being provided with all basic facilities New Delhi: Over a 1,000 riot-affected people moved into a Delhi government's relief camp in Mustafabad in the past 24 hours and they are being provided with all basic facilities, officials said on Tuesday. According to a statement, the relief camp has witnessed a massive response from the riot-affected victims from the adjacent areas. In this camp, the Delhi govt has set up all the essential facilities and providing doctors, medicines, food, clothing, bedding and toilet facilities, the statement said. "To provide medical treatment to the victims, the Delhi government and various NGOs have set up medical help desks with doctors and a full stock of medicines," it stated. "Over a 1,000 people moved to this Mustafabad relief camp in the last 24 hours from the areas like Shivpuri, Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar," it stated. The Delhi government has set up many help desks at the Mustafabad relief camp from where the families can get the compensations by filling a simple form, it said. "The Delhi government is also working to set up special help desks to make fresh documents and ID cards for the families who have lost their possessions and these desks will be set up within a day," the government statement said. Over the last several days, AAP volunteers, local MLAs and ministers have been working on the ground towards building trust and confidence among people affected by riots and to encourage them to avail facilities in government relief camps, it stated. Universal Windows Direct, the nations fastest-growing replacement window company, recently hired a new Director of Media. Christine Will brings a vast amount of media experience to the team, including working for WEWS TV5 and WKYC TV3 for 14 years combined. Wills experience is an essential addition to the corporate team at Universal Windows Direct as she oversees initiatives such as TV, radio, and other media. My goal is to change the media landscape for Universal Windows Direct across all markets, said Will. I look forward to the journey as we embark to bring all media in-house. Will was born and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, spending the majority of her life in Brecksville and Broadview Heights. She has a BBA in Marketing from Kent State University as well as a real estate license. Her well-rounded background and excitement for the Director of Media position made her the perfect candidate for the role. I was so excited and feel so blessed to have been chosen for the position of Director of Media, said Will. I took this job because I saw how this company was changing and growing, and I wanted to be a part of that growth and change. Universal Windows Direct is currently at spot number 10 in the nation on Qualified Remodelers Top 500. It also achieved spot number 870 on Inc.s 5000. The company experienced revenue growth of 489% over the last year and it opened numerous new locations around the country. The mission of Universal Windows Direct is constant and never-ending improvement, providing its employees with a challenging workplace to grow professionally and personally. On the customer side, the company provides exterior remodeling products that improve the quality of homes and lives, all at the best market prices. With a new Director of Media on staff, Universal Windows Direct looks forward to blazing trails in the industry throughout 2020 and beyond. About Universal Windows Direct Universal Windows Direct is an exterior renovation company based out of Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 2002 by William Barr and Michael Strmac, who had a mission to provide the highest quality home improvement products at the best market prices possible. Today, Universal Windows Direct is one of the fastest-growing home improvement companies in the country. The company offers exclusive UniShield replacement windows, UniShield vinyl siding, entry doors, and roofing. Harassment and bias have been hot topics within C-suites and corporate boards since the dawn of #MeToo in 2017 when high-profile cases started to hit the headlines. Despite lip service to the contrary, most business leaders only realize their workplace is toxic when they see their Glassdoor reviews, start to experience high turnover, get slapped with a lawsuit or even get fired. With this in mind, last year my company decided to embark on a benchmarking study that collected data from 40,000 employees at 125 healthy and unhealthy companies. This Workplace Culture Report 2020 allows companies to benchmark how they measure up to the best and worst cultures along six key indicators (including these four warning signs). Here are some of the very clear, data-driven signs your companys culture is infected and headed down an increasingly unhealthy road if untreated. Consider these the four deadly horsemen of a toxic workplace culture. 1. Unchecked power dynamics Power dynamics refers to the way people use or abuse their authority. Many managers are unaware of how their power impacts their social interactions with coworkers and how coworkers dont feel comfortable saying no to them. The result: Managers do not get the feedback they need when they misstep, and employees tolerate disrespectful behaviors they would not accept from others. For example, consider the scene from a harassment training video showing a manager who, at the end of a long stressful day at the office, asks a very visibly uncomfortable subordinate to walk on his back to massage out the stress. One in three of the employees who saw the video said they would still have trouble saying no to this clearly inappropriate request. According to recent data collected from 40,000 employees across 125 companies, more than one-third of employees (34 percent) report their managers are not aware that employees find it difficult to say no to them. In addition, 17 percent report they do not feel comfortable speaking up if they have a concern. 2. Too many people who feel they are part of an out group When certain groups are favored, theres power in belonging to an in group and disadvantages to being relegated to the unfavorable out group. Think of the office in a liberal-leaning city like San Francisco. An out-group employee could be someone with conservative political views. This type of employee feels less respect and empathy from coworkers, less confident that management will take a complaint seriously and is less likely to share corrective feedback with their colleagues. Or it could be a company comprised of mostly millennials as the in group, while those in the gen X/boomer demographic are in the out group. This is more than just a case of people not liking the cool kids. Out-group dynamics have a real impact on the workplace. Our research has found that out group members are less comfortable speaking up and less trusting that their colleagues will speak up for them if they are subject to offensive comments. Only 40 percent of out group members are confident that if they report a workplace incident, their manager will take them seriously. 3. Your employees dont believe the company is adequately addressing unconscious bias The more bias that exists in an organization, the more there will be in-group/out-group dynamics, which are negative in any workplace. In some cases, unconscious bias shows up right from the start of the hiring process. For example, often-cited research by the MIT Department of Economics showed that fictitious resumes sent to help wanted ads with white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews compared to the same resumes with African American sounding names. Race is just one of many factors that come into play. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that for every 1 percent increase in a womans body mass, there was a .6 percent decrease in family income. Sadly, despite the fact that we often encourage people to bring their whole selves to work, only 32 percent of employees strongly agree they can be their authentic self in the workplace, and about two-thirds of them say they dont actually see any processes in place at their workplace to minimize unconscious bias. Actions speak louder than words. And if employees dont see and believe that you are working to address bias, they wont care if you say its important. 4. Lack of commonly understood behavioral norms and practices Norms and practices define the way we do things here. Positive norms and practices, where peoples behavior is generally respectful, civil and inclusive, are widely recognized by employees who rate their organization as healthy. When there arent strong positive norms in an organization, significantly fewer employees rate their organization as healthy. Unhealthy organizations have a vacuum of norms and practices, which provides an opening for toxicity to enter the workplace. This matters because every workforce is going to bring employees with different mindsets. Without understood norms, problems fester. If you suspect these danger signs are present at your company, whats the solution? Well, we cant change what we dont measure. And yet, we spend $5 billion each year on harassment training for a problem we dont diagnose, measure or benchmark. Its not surprising, then, that were no closer to eliminating harassment and bias despite decades of effort. I hope these key insights (and the rest of the report) help entrepreneurs focus and prioritize resources more strategically and in a way that generates the best results for their organizations. Together, we can spare Gen Z from these workplace culture failures. Related: How Cityfurnish is Revolutionizing the Furniture Industry with Easy Monthly Rentals QuirkyByte Thrives on Witty Analyses of Fictional Characters from Movies and Television Series Industries Ready for Disruption, and the Leaders Disrupting Them Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved For Mr. Wrice, just having a jury come back and say, We believe you. We believe this happened to you in the basement of Area 2. We believe that Byrne and Dignan did this, ... is the most unbelievable feeling, because hes been called a liar for so many years, Bonjean said. I understand that people are upset, and they should be, said Small, who noted the valuation of one of his properties went up and the other went down. But just understand that it is the process and the (city) government didnt raise or lower your property values. ... Any fair-minded person would know (that) no matter who the mayor is, no matter who City Council is, those numbers were going to be the numbers. Murphy praises Atlantic City in State of the State speech TRENTON Atlantic City got a rare positive mention from the governor during his State of th In the meantime, property owners can schedule a meeting with the company that performed the revaluation, Professional Property Appraisers, to dispute the new assessment. The deadline for tax appeals has been extended to May 1 because of the revaluation, according to the county. The mayor hinted at an impending announcement of a development project in the South Inlet that would involve 400-plus homes (on) vacant beachfront. New commercial and residential development would increase the citys ratable base and, hopefully, offset any property tax increases. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said the state government is committed to resolving water scarcity in the state anddiscussions are underway on how to implement the proposed 'Marathwada water grid' envisaged by the previousregime. The Marathwada water grid wasconceptualised by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government in 2019, under whicharound 167 TMC water from Konkan region, which flows into the sea, will be lifted to Godavari basin, from where it will be taken to drought-prone Marathwada. The cost of the project was around Rs 20,000 crore. Pawar, who is also the state's finance minister, spoke about the issue in the Assembly during Question hour, when grid works in Osmanabad andLatur districts were discussed. The deputy chief minister said he has held discussions with state ministers Ashok Chavan and Amit Deshmukh, who belong to Marathwada. Some dams are full while some are not. Electricity will be neededto lift water from the Godavari basin to Marathwada, he said. "The question is, which cities will bear the cost of electricity. Similarly, the issue is whether to prioritise drinking water or water for agricultural use," he said. Pawar saidthe government will also study the feasibility of implementing the water grid project in phases. Earlier, Water Supply Minister Gulabrao Patil informed that tenders had been called for Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), worth Rs 3,122.48 crore, to set up water gridsin Osmanabad and Latur districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BANGALORE, India, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonata Software today announced signing of definitive agreements to acquire GAPbusters Limited (GBW), the Melbourne headquartered company that has been amongst pioneers in the CX domain, serving renowned brands globally for nearly thirty years. As companies are increasingly focusing on measuring and managing customer experience to stoke their growth, CX solutions are playing a significant part in most organizations' digital transformation initiatives. As per Fortune Business insights, "The demand for customer experience management systems is rising across various industries and its market is expected to gain significant traction owing to the recent technological advancements. According to a new study by Fortune Business Insights, the global customer experience management market is anticipated to be worth USD 23.9 Billion by 2026, as against USD 6.2 Billion in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 18.5%" GBW has for long been known for its Mystery shopping, Brand /Compliance Audits & Competitor benchmarking programs. Over the last few years, the company has taken a platform-based approach for its new solution offerings in employee survey, feedback management, voice of customer programs to widen its CX bouquet leveraging advanced AI & ML capabilities to deliver insightful & actionable recommendations for its clients with more evolved CX requirements. Commenting on the acquisition Mr. Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software, said, "This acquisition is exciting for Sonata as it is a reaffirmation of our Platformation led approach to digital transformation adding a major platform led customer experience offering to our current solutions, creating substantial value to our existing & prospective clients by providing a more comprehensive digital transformation offering covering 360 degrees of the customer journey, possibly making Sonata very unique in its ability to offer such a unified experience across the customer life cycle." Further elaborating Mr. Srikar Reddy said, "In fact, in the Retail, CPG, Service & Travel Verticals which has been one of our focus areas, given our own IP's, we will now be able to offer a one-stop-shop with the CX solution offering to go with the IP's & all our Clients and prospects who are constantly looking to monitor, measure, garner insights and improve their services need not go looking for proven, trustworthy & best in class CX solutions with deep industry insights as a big plus." The GBW acquisition, coming as it does on the back of a previous acquisition last year of Scalable Data Systems, a Brisbane-headquartered company, amongst the other acquisitions & investments that Sonata has made over the last 24 months, not just strengthens Sonata's footprint in Australia but also opens up new geographies in South East Asia & Europe where GBW has large clients in the QSR, retail, automotive and oil & gas space. Mr. Grant Salmon, CEO of GBW, commented, "We are excited being part of Sonata. We see an opportunity to differentiate ourselves through adopting the Platformation approach and to further enrich and enhance our offerings leveraging Sonata's world class capabilities in AI & other cutting edge technologies. Our existing clients too will be delighted as they will continue to get the high service quality they are used to, besides gaining access to a wider set of capabilities through the financial strength, stability and global footprint that Sonata brings. We would now, not only be able to invest quickly to scale our business in terms of reach, capability and service, but also leverage Sonata's global presence to access and service new markets. Our people will have opportunities for a more diverse choice of solutions and to develop their careers, while opening up the scope to extend these virtues to newer markets and geographies." The legal, regulatory & commercial aspects of the acquisition will be completed in due course. About GBW About Sonata Software For more information, press only : Nandita Venkatesh Sonata Software Limited CIN- L72200MH1994PLC082110 A.P.S. Trust Building, Bull Temple Road, N.R. Colony Bangalore 560019, India Tel: +91-80-67781999 Nandita.v@sonata-software.com Logo:https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099278/Sonata_Software_Logo.jpg Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Electricity is a commodity, flowing on and off the power grid with nothing to differentiate one electron from another. But retail electricity sellers typically sell a variety of brands, a marketing strategy that means they can offer something for everyone. For customers concerned about the environment, electricity sellers offer green energy plans. For those interested in tech, retail electric providers have plans that provide smart home devices. And for the penny pinchers, retail electricity providers have plans that sound discounted. New Delhi, March 4 : In a bid to help organisations invest and capitalize on the "social capital" within their premises, a startup called OrgLens has created a platform that is helping CEOs and CIOs unravel the informal networks within an organisation and go deep into the dynamics between people exploring trust in relationships. In every organisation, there is a formal hierarchy and reporting structure. But there also exists less structured relationships that contribute to the work getting done. How do you map the informal networks and dynamics in a company? "OrgLens helps understand the energy flow and acupressure points in organisations, particularly those with many degrees of complexity. Till now, other than the organisation structure and chart, we had no tool to visualise the complex adaptive organization," Santhosh Babu, Founder of OrgLens, told IANS. The OrgLens platform is designed to help leaders make effective decisions on strategy, execution, identification of talent, engagement and culture, etc. According to Dr Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder and Chairman, Harappa Education and, Founder, ISB and Ashoka University, if the formal structure is like the skeleton of an organisation, the informal networks are the central nervous system. "Mapping these networks can give invaluable insights on an organisation's ability to change, innovate and grow," explained Sinha who serves on the advisory board of OrgLens. Along with two IIM Ranchi graduates and senior consultants with 16 years of technology consulting experience at Infosys and Deloitte, he started building the platform three years ago. OrgLens platform has been used by companies like Fractal Analytics, Nestle, Carrier Midea, PropTiger and Tata Realty. This year, OrgLens is poised to take up assignments for Western Digital and Sterlite Power, informed the company. Cloud-based OrgLens has the capacity to map thousands of people in organisations. "We aspire to work with at least 100 organisations using the OrgLens tool in India this year and aims to reach 1,000 organisations globally in three years," said Babu. OrgLens looks at what is real, what is happening on ground and how things are really developing within an organisation. For example, engagement means how people connect with each other, engage with each other, who engages with whom, etc. The OrgLens tool has a potential of replacing a lot of traditional assessments that organisations use, said the company. SAGINAW, MI A Saginaw man has received a probationary sentence for trafficking in child pornography. Saginaw County Circuit Judge Janet M. Boes on Tuesday, March 3, sentenced Daniel L. Owens (alias Kayla Nutter), 29, to five years of probation. The first nine months of that, he is to be monitored via a Michigan Department of Corrections electronic tether. Boes also ordered Owens to pay $258 in fines and costs, as well as a $600 supervision fee, the last of which Owens can pay at $10 per month. Owens must also register as sex offender until Jan. 14, 2045, by which time hell be 54. Owens in January pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child sexually abusive material. The charge is a seven-year felony. In exchange for his plea, the prosecution dismissed five more counts three counts of using a computer to commit a crime and single counts of possessing child sexually abusive material and aggravated possessing child sexually abusive material. In December 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from Dropbox about the uploading of possible child pornography. The Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit began investigating and eventually linked Owens to the images, prosecutors allege. Investigators executed a search warrant on Owens home on April 18. Other search warrants were also executed throughout the investigation. Through their searches, investigators found Owens was in possession of child pornography, prosecutors allege. Related: Saginaw man pleads guilty to distributing child pornography Saginaw man accused of possessing, distributing child pornography FORT COLLINS, Colo. A controlled burn that became a wildfire in Colorado was the result of weather conditions that were underestimated by fire personnel, state officials said. The Colorado Department of Public Safety Compliance and Professional Standards Office issued the report Sunday about the October fire in northern Larimer County, The Coloradoan reported. The fire burned less than 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers) outside of the planned area but forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents in Glacier View, 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Fort Collins. No one was injured and one outbuilding was destroyed. The burn in complex terrain spread when weather conditions quickly turned drier, warmer and windier than anticipated, the states report said. The prescribed burn led by The Nature Conservancy on the private Ben Delatour Boy Scout Ranch was part of a forest restoration effort, the report said. Area residents were upset at the time that the prescribed burn was started despite the dry, windy conditions. What we found was that this escape was the result of a variety of complex factors some factors that are probably common at a lot of prescribed fires, but which compounded over a very short matter of time, said Bobbie Mooney, who oversaw the review. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a proposed $369,000 settlement with a freelance journalist whose home and office were raided by police last year. A resolution approving the settlement with Bryan Carmody was on the board's agenda Tuesday, but was referred to the board's Government and Audit Oversight Committee, according to a note on the agenda and according to a spokeswoman for the board's clerk. The committee has not yet set a hearing on the proposal, according to a staff member for Supervisor Gordon Mar, who chairs the committee. If approved by the board, the payment would settle an administrative claim Carmody filed against the city in connection with raids conducted by police last spring. Police were searching for evidence related to the alleged theft of a police report on the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi on Feb. 22, 2019. Carmody somehow obtained the report and sold it to three Bay Area news outlets. Carmody, his lawyers and press freedom groups claim the searches violated the California Shield Law, which protects journalists from being forced to reveal their sources or hand over any unpublished material to law enforcement. City Attorney's Office spokesman John Cote said, "We think this proposed settlement is an appropriate resolution given all of the circumstances and the inherent cost of further litigation." Thomas Burke, a lawyer who represented Carmody in a successful bid for the return of cameras, computers and other property seized in the searches, declined to comment, or to say whether he served as Carmody's lawyer in the settlement. "I'm not authorized to talk about that," he said. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. French health chiefs said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had reached 257 on Wednesday, many of which were concentrated in five cluster zones, The Local France reports. The number of coronavirus cases in France continued to rise as health authorities on Wednesday confirmed a total of 257 cases since the outbreak began in January - up by 45 since Tuesday's total of 212. Two new cluster zones (areas with a high concentration of cases) had been added on the Sante Publique France's website, raising the total number of cluster zones in France to five. Four of the five cluster zones are in the departements of Oise in the north, Morbihan in Brittany, Haute-Savoie in the Alps and Haut-Rhin in the east. Government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye said on Wednesday it "unfortunately seems unlikely" that France could avoid stage 3 - a full blown epidemic. Four people have so far died of the virus, with the latest case confirmed by health authorities on Tuesday - a 92-year-old man in Morbihan in Brittany. Measures to contain the virus in France were stepped up this week. Around 100 schools have been closed in the worst affected areas. For Womens History Month, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the countys first female county judge, had a straightforward message for the students at Lone Star College-North Harris: Be bold. Youre the ones that are going to achieve full equality for women, Hidalgo told students in attendance. Dont wait to do things. Its your turn to go and take it, whatever that is for you. Related: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo proposes legal defense fund for immigrants Hidalgo spoke about womens role in politics during a Lone Star College-North Harris event March 4 in observance of Womens History Month. Hidalgo said women did well up and down the ballot during Super Tuesday, and that women can now win when they run for public office. But too often, she said, they dont run. What keeps so many from wanting to take that step? Hidalgo asked. Related: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo to host early childhood listening session Becoming county judge wasnt part of Hidalgos plan, she said, as she had wanted to work on policy from the outside in for issues like healthcare and criminal justice. That changed following the 2016 election. I worked on so many of the issues I cared about and had a plan, but all of a sudden I felt this huge sense of urgency like things were getting so much worse before theyve gotten better, she said. There had been two 500-year floods in Harris County in two years before she declared her candidacy, Hidalgo said. She also noted the lack of mental health services in the county and said the county jail was the largest mental health facility in the state. I was the interpreter for folks who were being told it was easier for people to get treatment at the jail than through the hospital, she said. There came a point I had to stand up and make the biggest difference that I possibly could and that meant running for office. But every conversation she had when she was running, she said people would look at her like they were sorry for her, and ask why she was talking about criminal justice reform and the environment when the county judge is known for just handling the budget or the infrastructure. Even if you make it only about infrastructure, we obviously havent invested in flood protection as we should have, Hidalgo said. We know weve got a broken criminal justice system, which the county pays for. But Hidalgo said she trusted a Democrat could win the seat, as Harris County voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Once youve convinced yourself that you can do this and youve looked at the information, the insecurities others try to create in you should be a nonfactor, she said. Some issues she said the county is working on now since she took office include going after energy companies and suing them for injunctive relief, where courts can order companies to undergo more training or to allow inspectors inside facilities. She talked about how they are building a county-wide network of air monitors to find out the quality of the air. Hidalgo encouraged people to run for office regardless of political persuasion, and said the county especially needs womens voices in government. Because we bring diverse experiences that need to be heard and we need to have a voice in the decision-making process, Hidalgo said. Hidalgo said the county was also focusing on providing early childhood education to the county this year, as well as juvenile justice reform, while still focusing on safety and flood control. Some of those issues would never come up if you have the exact same voices at the table decade after decade, she said. Alondra Laparra was one student in attendance and called Hidalgos story of how she immigrated to the United States in her early teens after living in Colombia and Mexico inspiring. Looking at her background, where shes from, I think its really amazing that being a minority, the way she built her way up to where she is now, its really inspiring for us and we should follow her steps, and as she saidbe bold, Laparra said. paul.wedding@hcnonline.com Bitcoin The Supreme Court on March 4 allowed banks and financial institutions from providing services related to cryptocurrencies by setting aside the Reserve Bank of India's 2018 circular which had prohibited them. The order is likely to come as a big relief to virtual currency (VC) proponents in the country. Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of their units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice RF Nariman, said the RBI circular is liable to be set aside on the ground of "proportionality". "Accordingly, the writ petitions are allowed and the circular dated April 6, 2018, is set aside," said the bench, also comprising justices Aniruddha Bose and V Ramasubramanian. "When the consistent stand of RBI is that they have not banned VCs (virtual currencies) and when the Government of India is unable to take a call despite several committees coming up with several proposals including two draft bills, both of which advocated exactly opposite positions, it is not possible for us to hold that the impugned measure is proportionate," the bench said in its 180-page verdict. The apex court delivered the verdict on pleas challenging the RBI circular. According to the circular, the entities regulated by the RBI were prohibited from "providing any service in relation to virtual currencies including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies". The petitioner, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) had argued in the top court that the RBI had banned cryptocurrencies on "moral grounds" as no prior studies were conducted to analyse their effect on the economy. It had contended that the RBI barred all the entities regulated by it from providing services to any individual or business dealing in virtual currencies. In 2013, the RBI in an advisory cautioned users, holders, and traders of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection, and security-related risks that they were exposing themselves to. On July 3, 2018, while hearing IMAI's plea, the top court had refused to stay the RBI circular prohibiting banks and financial institutions from dealing with the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. It had sought response from the RBI, Finance Ministry and Union ministry of Information and Technology on the plea. The RBI had in an affidavit in January told the SC it "had not banned cryptocurrencies, but only ring-fenced regulated entities from associated risks." Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, on February 12 surged past $10,000 mark once again to touch a fresh high for CY20. It was trading at $8,821.07 at 11.05 am. The government had constituted an inter-ministerial committee in 2017 under the chairmanship of secretary, economic affairs, with Secy (MeiTY), Chairman (SEBI) and deputy governor, RBI as members, to study the issues related to virtual currencies and propose specific action to be taken in this matter. The draft of Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019 proposes 10-year jail for those who mine, generate, hold, sell, transfer, dispose of, issue or deal in cryptocurrencies directly or indirectly. In April 2018, the RBI gave a three-month notice to the banking sector to stop their involvement in any sort of cryptocurrency transactions and thousands of crypto-traders India faced a setback. In September 2018, Indias largest cryptocurrency exchange Zebpay shut down after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed an apparent ban on virtual currencies. Zebpay, founded in 2014, was primarily responsible for introducing cryptocurrency trading to thousands of people in India. Unocoin, another leading cryptocurrency trading platform in India, was laying off the majority of its staff amid regulatory uncertainty. The Bengaluru-based startup reportedly scaled down its team to merely 14 employees in April from over 100 people in February 2018. While the world has found renewed interest in cryptocurrencies after Facebook announced its cryptocurrency project Libra, the company ruled out an entry in India, with sources saying it would not be available in countries where cryptocurrencies are banned. By IANS VIJAYAWADA: A software engineer with suspected symptoms of coronavirus was admitted to government-run hospital in Kakinada town of Andhra Pradesh, doctors said on Wednesday. Within hours of the state government claiming that the state has no suspected cases of Covid-19, a techie, who had recently returned from South Korea, was admitted in Kakinada hospital in East Godavari district. Doctors said he was kept in isolation ward and his samples were sent to Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad. 'It may take 24 to 48 hours to get the results. His condition is stable. He is suffering from cold but there are no other symptoms,' a doctor said. ALSO READ | Relief as six who came in contact with coronavirus infected Delhi man test negative The techie, working for a software company in Hyderabad, had reportedly returned from South Korea a week ago. After landing in Hyderabad, he reached his native village Vadapalem in East Godavari district. Officials in Hyderabad alerted East Godavari district collector Muralidhar Reddy about the techie. Health department personnel rushed to the Vadapalem but the techie had gone to another village to meet his relatives. ALSO READ | Relief as six who came in contact with coronavirus infected Delhi man test negative The officials reached him and convinced him to get himself admitted to the hospital in Kakinada for necessary tests. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas said the state medical and health department was fully geared up to meet any eventuality. It has set up isolation wards, besides taking up mass awareness programme and training the staff. The minister said currently eight hospitals were equipped with isolation wards and as per the Central Government instructions. 'We have also established isolation rooms in two hospitals and four more are going to be added,' he said. The minister said the awareness programme would be carried out in a big way with distribution of pamphlets on ados and don'ts' Aand display of publicity material at village secretariats which focus on hygiene and cleanliness. ALSO READ | Indian couple aboard ship from China hospitalised in Odisha The state government has set up a dedicated call center for the public, which is connected to control rooms at the district level to alert the officials. People who are suspicious about the contact of the virus can contact the call center 0866-2410978. 'Anyone with persistent fever, cough, cold or shortness of breath within 28 days must immediately visit the nearest government hospital wearing a mask. As of now, the State has 1,10,340 N-95 masks and over 12,000 personal protection masks,' he said. Is that Blair Waldorf? Nope, it's just Kate Middleton take cues from the stylish Gossip Girl character. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge started their first official visit to Ireland while landing in Dublin. Kate was seen leaving an aircraft wearing a head-to-toe green outfit with an accessory that would make Blair Waldorf proud: a velvet headband. As soon as we saw her outfit, I could hear Kristen Bell's voice narrate "Spotted: Kate Middleton channeling our girl B." Was Kate just as excited about the show's reboot as we are and that's why she chose to wear this outfit? Probably not but the color was most definitely a nod to the country's colors. During the trip, the Duchess wore a bespoke double-breasted forest green coat by Catherine Walker over a green silk peplum dress by Alessandra Rich. To match off her all-green ensemble, she carried an L.K. Bennett suede clutch and wore a pair of heels by Emmy London. As for her accessories, Kate wore a pair of Asprey Daisy Earrings and a velvet Jane Taylor headband. Keep reading to shop out her outfit ahead. A trip for Members of Parliament who were set to attend a United Nations meeting on gender equality in New York has been cancelled. National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi said this is due to coronavirus fears. Muturi announced in Parliament Tuesday that invitations to the conference have now been limited to the countries with permanent missions at the UN headquarters in New York. A section of Kenyan women leaders was set to travel this weekend for the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 64). The annual two-week conference meant to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women is usually attended by thousands of people from around the world. On Monday, the United Nations scaled back the event to a one-day affair and advised countries against sending their delegations. I regret to inform the House that the scheduled travel by the representatives of the National Assembly is hereby cancelled with immediate effect owing to concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Muturi told the MPs. He further directed the parliamentarians to refund the per diem they had already received ahead of the trip. The 13-member delegation of nine women MPs and four Parliament staff had been allocated Sh2 million in travel allowances. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, is a relatively new form of treatment to this area, but it's actually been around since the 1960s. Though it was originally known as the primary form of treatment for deep sea divers suffering from "the bends," HBOT has been adapted to a variety of uses. For one Park Rapids, Minnesota, man, it meant the difference between an eventual, full healing and further amputation of a limb on which he already used a prosthetic. A resurgent Joe Biden used a come-from-behind surge in Texas and throughout the American South to further cement the race for the Democratic nomination for president as a two-person battle. Unofficial results have Biden beating Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Texas, thanks in large part to a dramatic turnabout on election day. During early voting, Sanders held a narrow lead. But on Tuesday, voters in Texas overwhelmingly shifted to Biden. After his weekend victory in South Carolina, Biden was hoping to carry the momentum over to Texas where he held two big rallies on Monday and gained key endorsements, including from former presidential contender Beto ORourke. SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: Who won and lost in Harris County elections on Super Tuesday 2020 As the Associated Press called the race for Biden at 1 a.m., it was clear that Biden had a major reversal of fortune over the last few days, particularly in Harris County, the states most populous county. Biden on Tuesday credited ORourke for helping him in Texas on election day and securing the biggest share of the state's 228 delegates. Were doing well in Texas because of Beto ORourke, Biden told his supporters during a speech in Los Angeles, as the votes were tallied. Sanders, meanwhile, was making a strong showing in California, with its 415 delegates, after winning in Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont. Still, Sanders and Biden are the clear winners of Super Tuesday, as 14 states voted. Biden posted a big win in Virginia where suburban demographics in some areas mirror those in Texas suburbs that have fueled Democratic optimism here for 2020. Biden also won Massachusetts the home state of Sen. Elizabeth Warren as well as North Carolina and Arkansas. JOE-MENTUM: Biden claims 9 Super Tuesday victories, including Texas Early voting in Texas bolstered Sanders, particularly in Austin, San Antonio, Laredo and along the Rio Grande Valley to help him contend with Biden, who did best in Harris County and Dallas County. The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democratic battle will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. The former vice president and the three-term senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders signature lines. And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont. SENATE RUN-OFF: MJ Hegar advances to runoff in U.S. Senate race as others vie for second You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Texas was a major disappointment for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who bet big on the state, sinking $57 million into TV ads and visiting Texas seven times since his campaign began in late November. But statewide, Bloomberg was back in third place behind both Biden and Sanders. Speaking in Florida, Bloomberg gave no hint that he was reconsidering his campaign after not winning any Super Tuesday states he invested in. Our campaign is a fight for Americas ideals and values," Bloomberg said. "Its a fight to build a better future, for everyone not to bring back a past that left so many out. Its a fight we cannot afford to lose. So I need your help and I need your vote. " It was shaping up as an even more disappointing evening for Elizabeth Warren, a former Texas resident who graduated from the University of Houston in 1970. She leaned on former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro in the closing weeks of the race to help her here. WHAT WE LEARNED: 5 takeaways from Super Tuesday in Texas Still, Warren gave no signs of dropping out despite her poor showing in Texas and elsewhere. At a rally in Michigan as results were coming in, Warren implored the crowd to ignore pundits and people strategizing about how to vote. "Here's my advice: cast a vote that will make you proud," she said. "Cast a vote from your heart and vote for the person you think will make the best president of the United States of America." Over the last 8 days, Texas has been visited by Sanders, Warren, Bloomberg and Biden, all of whom held rallies down the stretch and made appearances in Houston in the final week. For Biden, the final days were about shoring up votes in the black community in Houston. While speaking at a rally at Texas Southern University on Monday, he made clear his comeback in South Carolina was due to minority voters. I am very much alive because of you, he said. ERICA GRIEDER: Joe Biden roars through Lone Star State on way to stunning Super Tuesday That night, Biden traveled to Dallas picking up endorsements from ORourke, former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who dropped out of the race just minutes before Biden spoke in Houston. That appears to have helped Biden consolidate the vote among moderate Democrats in Texas. Sanders a week earlier made stops in San Antonio and Houston to shore up his support, repeating his pledges to push for Medicare for All, a higher minumum wage and eliminate college debt. While 14 states voted on Super Tuesday, Texas triggered outsized attention because its 228 delegates dwarf what most other states have to offer and public polling suggested it was anyones guess who would win. This story contains material from the Associated Press. jeremy.wallace@chron.com Marianne Williamson has called former Vice President Joe Bidens Super Tuesday win a Democrat coup after he won nine of the 14 states. The spiritual guru and book author once had a podium on the Democratic debate stage to vie for her own opportunity to become president, but she dropped out earlier this year after failing to compete with the frontrunners. In a now-deleted tweet, Ms Williamson, who has since put her support behind Bernie Sanders, expressed outrage over Mr Biden performing so well across America. Jake Tapper referred to the resurrection of Joe Bidens campaign, she wrote, referencing the CNN anchor. This was not a resurrection; it was a coup. Russiagate was not a coup. Mueller was not a coup. Impeachment was not a coup. What happened yesterday was a coup. And we will push back, she added. Her tweet was later deleted. Going into Super Tuesday, Mr Sanders was leading in the polls and expected to have an outstanding night with many predicting he would take the majority of delegates in states like Texas. But voters witnessed a huge rally behind Mr Biden in the last couple days, all of which started when the former vice president won the South Carolina primary. His win encouraged Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to both drop out of the race and endorse the moderate frontrunner. The endorsement of Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina also helped give Mr Biden a last minute boost before voters cast their ballot on Super Tuesday. Marianne Williamson, who now supports Bernie Sanders, called Joe Biden's surge on Super Tuesday a Democratic "coup" (AP) Frustrated Mr Sanders supporters have lashed out at the Democratic Party for what they believe is an attempt to stop the Vermont senator from taking the nomination. Votes are still coming in from states like California and Maine, but Mr Biden looks to be the new frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination. Nine of the 14 voting states were confirmed for Mr Biden on Wednesday morning, and he still has a chance to pick up Maine. His lead in the race could also increase significantly with the news Mike Bloomberg is dropping out and will endorse the vice president. Students from Santa Clara and San Jose State universities on Wednesday will show off their engineering projects aimed at solving environmental and social problems in Silicon Valley and the world. Projects will be unveiled starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Locatelli Student Activity Center at Santa Clara University, located at 500 El Camino Real in Santa Clara. The students' work make up the second annual Engineering Projects in Community Service Expo. The Santa Clara Public Health Department held a news conference Tuesday to share new guidance and information regarding COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus, in front of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. Dr. Sara Cody reiterated that those 50 years old or older are most vulnerable to the virus. She said the two new cases reported Tuesday were county residents whose status had just been confirmed. "In general, I want to just tell you that this is not exact and the risk occurs along a spectrum, so the risk increases with age, with the amount of time in close contact with a number of people who are together, and with how close people are to one another," Cody said. Cody said she did not have any other information regarding the new confirmed cases, including whether they were adults, male, female or otherwise. She also again stressed the importance of sanitization and said schools can make decisions on future plans on their own. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in locating a missing 9-year-old boy. Santiago Barros was reported missing by his father at 7 a.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of Marty Lane in unincorporated Petaluma, sheriff's officials said. Barros, last seen at 9:30 p.m. Monday, might be in the care of his mother, Autumn Stone, who sheriff's officials want to speak to. The county's search and rescue team is conducting an area search of Barros. Per sheriff's officials, Barros was last seen wearing blue and green pajamas. He is 4 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs around 70 pounds with long blonde hair and brown eyes. Anyone who sees Barros or Stone is asked to call 911 or the sheriff's office at (707) 565-2121. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a proposed $369,000 settlement with a freelance journalist whose home and office were raided by police last year. A resolution approving the settlement with Bryan Carmody was on the board's agenda Tuesday, but was referred to the board's Government and Audit Oversight Committee, according to a note on the agenda and according to a spokeswoman for the board's clerk. The committee has not yet set a hearing on the proposal, according to a staff member for Supervisor Gordon Mar, who chairs the committee. If approved by the board, the payment would settle an administrative claim Carmody filed against the city in connection with raids conducted by police last spring. Police were searching for evidence related to the alleged theft of a police report on the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi on Feb. 22, 2019. Carmody somehow obtained the report and sold it to three Bay Area news outlets. Officials with Contra Costa Health Services said Tuesday that a resident of Contra Costa County has COVID-19. This is the first case of coronavirus in the county, health officials said. The resident is being treated at a county hospital and does not have a travel history that would have put them at risk and did not have contact with a person with the disease. The resident was tested by staff of the county's public health lab and the test came back positive Tuesday afternoon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will check the test results. A new case surfaced Tuesday in Berkeley and two more cases were reported Tuesday in Santa Clara County. As of 10 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday, 43 people in California had tested positive for the virus, state health officials said. A two-alarm residential fire broke out Tuesday evening in Alameda, a fire captain said. The fire was reported at 7:08 p.m. in the 600 block of Pacific Avenue, Capt. Dave Port said. An engine of firefighters was on their way back to the station when they saw the fire and a few minutes later it had grown to two-alarms, Port said. No injuries have been reported. Port could not say whether anyone had been displaced. Oakland firefighters assisted with the response. The California Highway Patrol has identified a motorcycle rider who suffered major injuries in a crash Saturday as Douglas Lindt, 25, of Petaluma. Lindt was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital after he lost control of his motorcycle while riding east on Valley Ford Road in unincorporated Sonoma County around 5:40 p.m. The motorcycle went off the road, down a dirt and grass embankment and into a barbed wire fence, CHP Officer David deRutte said. Lindt's injuries were considered life threatening. Witnesses told the CHP that two men were riding motorcycles together. While CHP officers were investigating the crash, the other rider, Rocky Clark, 42, of Petaluma, drove to the scene and spoke with the officers, deRutte said. Clark showed signs and symptoms of intoxication and he was determined to be under the influence of alcohol, deRutte said. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI, and it's unknown if he saw Lindt crash, deRutte said. Wednesday will be partly cloudy in the morning, then becoming sunny. Highs will be in the 60s to lower 70s. Northeast winds of up to 5 mph will become west winds in the afternoon. Wednesday night will be mostly clear in the evening, then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows will be in the lower 50s. Southwest winds of up to 5 to 10 mph will increase to 10 to 20 mph after midnight. Thursday will be mostly cloudy. Highs will be in the upper 50s to mid 60s. Southwest winds will be 10 to 20 mph. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Should women who test positive for HIV be sterilised? It's an incredible question to be asking, but it seems there are some who believe that they definitely should. What's even more incredible is that some of the people who hold this opinion are the UN (United Nations) and the WHO (World Health Organisation). Before going any further, let's put a popular myth to bed by pointing out that HIV-positive women can have healthy babies. That's a fact, so if you think that sterilising them and therefore preventing children being born with a death sentence is a good reason for doing it, then you're simply wrong. A supposed UN "vaccine program" in Kenya at present is being denounced by doctors and Catholic bishops for deliberately sterilising millions of women. The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association ordered lab tests of tetanus vaccines being administered in Kenya by the WHO and UNICEF and found that the vaccine was laced with the sterilising agent Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG). According to the organisation and other medical experts, the HCG found in the UN tetanus vaccines causes women's bodies to develop an immune response to attack the hormone, which is essential to pregnancy. So, when a woman who has received the UN shots gets pregnant, her body fights the crucial HCG -- resulting in the death of the unborn child in the womb. Eventually, the supposed inoculations -- being given to Kenyan women by the UN under the guise of "preventing neo-natal tetanus" -- result in permanent sterility after multiple doses, and furthermore, none of the women given the shots are being informed of their contraceptive effects. Surprisingly, this has received minimal reporting in mainstream media - in fact, outside of Kenya it has hardly been reported at all. You'd have to wonder why? After all, the United Nation Humans Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has referred to the sterilisation of women without their consent as "a violation of the right to be free from torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment". All women have the right to free and informed choice before consenting to sterilisation including counselling on the possible consequences of choosing a permanent method of contraception. And yet it took a group of Catholic doctors, and Catholic Bishops, people who are often labelled misogynistic let's not forget, to expose this disgraceful situation. Sterilising young girls and women against their will, under the guise of giving them life-saving tetanus vaccines, is as serious a crime as any eugenics program perpetrated in the past by Hitler. And yet this forced sterilisation is being carried out by the very organisation that was set up post-WW2 to make sure it never happened again. The UN is a good organisation when it does its job honestly and fairly and in accordance with basic morality. It is failing badly in Kenya right now. In recent times here in Ireland we have been reminded of the shameful history of Magdalen Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes which destroyed the lives of hundreds of women and children. What's happening in Kenya is even worse, and nobody seems to care. Hyundai Card and Capital CEO Ted Chung / Courtesy of Hyundai CardHyundai Capital By Anna J. Park Hyundai Card and Capital CEO Ted Chung, 59, is stepping up the company's overseas expansion, aiming to make inroads into the less saturated foreign market for further growth. The Hyundai Motor Group's financial arm has recently inked a deal to acquire Sixt Leasing, a German auto-leasing company, by taking over a controlling stake for 155.6 million euros ($168 million). This is the first time that a Korean financial company has acquired a major global leasing company in Europe The deal is largely in line with the Hyundai Motor Group's "Smart Mobility Initiative" global strategy the conglomerate's plan to put an emphasis on global automotive business trends such as on-demand, high-tech electric, and short-term leased vehicles. Through the deal, Hyundai Capital is expected to significantly extend its advancement into the overseas market. Currently, the Korean auto-financing company operates 11 subsidiaries overseas, including in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Brazil, with over 5,300 employees. It is the largest overseas operation for a Korean finance company. Behind this global expansion is CEO Chung's keenness to diversify profit sources internationally. When Chung took the helm as the leader of both Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital in 2003, the two companies were suffering a combined operating loss of 834 billion won ($701 million). Hyundai Card in particular had only a 1.7 percent market share that year. An innovative and creative marketing strategy led by Chung is said to have been behind the then-turnaround of the company's performance. The firm was the second largest player in Korea's credit card industry in 2017. However, the card company has seen its operating profit decline in recent years, due to decreased credit card fees and other factors. Against this backdrop, Chung has chosen to focus on strategies of digitization and overseas expansion to generate additional profits in a larger market. In line with such strategies, Chung led the card company's acquisition of a 50 percent stake of Vietnamese consumer finance institution Finance Company Limited for Community (FCCOM) for 49 billion won ($42 million) in late October, hoping to reach further customers in the fast growing Southeast Asian markets. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 05:05:19|Editor: Liu Video Player Close A tour bus with a few tourists is seen on the street in Rome, Italy, on March 4, 2020. A total of 2,706 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy since the epidemic first broke out, up from 2,263 cases on Tuesday evening, the Civil Protection Department said Wednesday. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua) ROME, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 2,706 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy since the epidemic first broke out, up from 2,263 cases on Tuesday evening, the Civil Protection Department said Wednesday. In addition, there have been 107 deaths, up from 79 fatalities communicated Tuesday, while another 276 patients have recovered, up from 160 recoveries a day before, said Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli. "There are 1,346 patients hospitalized with symptoms, 295 are in intensive care, while 1,065 are in isolation at their homes," the Ministry of Health said in a statement. According to a Civil Protection Department breakdown, the majority of infections (1,497) and deaths (73) occurred in the northern Lombardy region, where the epidemic first broke out on Feb. 21. The northern Emilia-Romagna region was next in the official tally with 516 cases and 22 deaths, followed by Veneto at 345 cases and six deceased, according to the Civil Protection Department breakdown. Also on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina announced in a joint televised press conference that all schools and universities across Italy will be shut down until March 15. "Given that the epidemiological situation is changing rapidly, we have decided, as a precautionary measure, to suspend educational activities ...beginning tomorrow until March 15," said Azzolina. "This is because our national health system... risks becoming overloaded," Conte explained. Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the prime minister of Italy, announced on the same day that public guided tours of the palace are suspended starting March 4 until further notice. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is joined by his family on stage during a rally with at the Champlain Valley Expo March 03, 2020 in Essex Junction, Vermont. Bernie Sanders thinks Joe Biden is a "decent guy." He just believes the only person now capable of denying him the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is wrong about, well, a lot of things. After the Super Tuesday primary results set the Vermont senator and former vice president on a collision course in the race to take on President Donald Trump, Sanders contended Wednesday that Biden had much to "explain" to American voters. From trade deals to the Iraq War, the health-care system and the social safety net, Sanders aimed to draw distinctions between his record and Biden's. He framed the next phase of the Democratic primary as a fundamental question of, "which side are you on?" He cast Biden as beholden to billionaire donors, questioning whether a candidate backed by the "corporate world" would bring about changes working families "desperately need." "The American people have got to understand that this is a conflict about ideas, about a record, about a vision for where we go forward," he told reporters at his Vermont campaign headquarters. He insisted he does not want the campaign to "denigrate into a Trump-type effort" riddled with "personal attacks." Welcome to the new Democratic primary, the result of a whirlwind few days where Biden swiftly stacked up support as centrist alternatives to him fell to the wayside. As a two-person race develops, Biden has cast Sanders' sweeping proposals as too much of a risk for a party that has one chance to deny Trump a second term in the White House. Biden leapfrogged Sanders for the pledged delegate lead on Tuesday as he dominated in the South and won key states such as Texas, Massachusetts and Minnesota, according to NBC projections. Sanders kept pace by racking up an early delegate lead in California, though the most populous U.S. state's primary was still too early to call Wednesday afternoon. Biden held an overall 513 to 461 pledged delegate lead as remaining results trickled in Wednesday, according to NBC News. Avocados are being called by scientists as a 'superfood.' An article from DW stated that drug cartels in Mexico are in control of a billion-dollar 'superfood' trade and it is causing fears to the entire region. The Mexican Town: Uruapan A Mexican town is dubbed as the global capital of avocados. A town in central Mexico where 300,000 residents live. Uruapan is a site where elderly people can be seen as having chats near the local church in the area. Also, women can be spotted selling toys made of wood. However, this calm description does not represent the overall situation of the area. In the past few years, Uruapan has transformed into one of the most dangerous Mexican cities. The Inegi stats of Mexico had reported a total of 297 deaths in 2018 alone. This total is normally reached in places where war is occurring. Latest Killing Silvia Martinez (not her real name), an executive of one of the biggest avocado exporters in Mexico, knows the reason behind the current situation of Uruapan. His company ships loads of avocados to the United States every day. According to Martinez, the latest death the occurred in the area was two weeks ago. She reported that there was a distributor who was discovered dead near his vehicle. She was trying to fight her tears from falling with the memory. She expressed her fear for someone who might take her life. The Once Peaceful City in Michoacan, Mexico According to Martinez, her hometown was once a peaceful place. However, when the narcos entered and put control over the region, everything changed. She shared how the narcos would use force to eliminate those who go against them. The Mexican Avocado Industry's Statistics Michoacan, the state in Mexico where Uruapan is situated, contributes 40% of the total avocados grown worldwide. The majority of the products go to the United States. In 2018, Mexico exported avocados amounting to $2.7 billion to the United States of America alone. Currently, a kilogram of avocados is worth approximately $1.40 in Uruapan while in the United States it is $1.30 per avocado. Drug Cartels and the Bigtime Avocado Industry A political scientist from the national university of Mexico named Javier Oliva revealed that there is an increasing conflict in the state of Michoacan. The conflict rises between the Los Viagras and the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels. It is to be noted that these cartels are still primarily trading illegal drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. There is an inclining competition and the total criminal cartels had increased from four to 250 Mexican criminal units. Oliva stated that criminal activities include, human organ trade, robbery, oil theft, and prostitution. He also added avocados to the list. The Global Market of Avocados The avocado's recent reputation as a 'superfood' had allowed its market to grow in the past years. Its demand in Germany had increased from 2008 to 2018, says the National Statistics Office. Scientist claims that the avocado packs a lot of nutrients. It is also being seen as a protection from stroke and diabetes. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Market - Overview: According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global market of thermoplastic vulcanizates is prospering and expected to gain strong influence over the forecast period. The market is estimated to demonstrate a remarkable growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the forecasted period (2017 - 2023). Globally, the market for thermoplastic vulcanizates is driven by the region North America, owing to enactment of government based initiative such as Corporate Average Fuel economy to substitute metals with plastics in end-use industries. These materials are utilized in non-load bearing parts such as battery frames, car bumpers, and others. Additionally, the lightweight materials are also consumed in the medical applications such as gaskets, stoppers, and others due to advantages such as reliable, durable, and cost-effective nature offered by the product. Increasing demand for the product in applications such as air ducts, tubing, moulded seals, grommets, and others signifies the growth of automotive industries. Moreover, growing consumption of product due to unique features offered by the product such as efficient, superior performance provide a boost to the thermoplastic vulcanizates market growth. The global Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Market Share is growing with the instantaneous pace; mainly due to the burgeoning automotive industries. On the other hand, extensive use of reduced weight materials than metals in major industries is projected to propel the market growth during the forecast period. Thermoplastic vulcanizates are used in various end-use industries such as automotive, construction & buildings, marine, aerospace, energy, and others. They are also utilized in major sectors due to their ease of application, recyclable, and versatile nature. The growing demand of these polymers has prompted the manufacturers and investors to shift their focus from heavy substances to lightweight materials in end-use applications. Additionally, the growing research & development activities and innovations of the product in the established companies have resulted into a remarkable growth in the market during the forecast period. Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Market - Regional Analysis: Geographically, North America is leading the global thermoplastic vulcanizates market. The U.S. holds the major portion owing to rising infrastructure developments coupled with technological advancement in the major sector. Increasing consumption of thermoplastic vulcanizates in automotive, fluid handling, consumer goods, medical and others has boosted the market demand in Canada, and Mexico. Asia Pacific has witnessed a significant growth in the market owing to rapid consumption of thermoplastic polymers in end-use industries. A notable growth has been received by the European region due to implementation of strict rules and regulations to adopt eco-friendly products instead of heavy metals in major sectors. Additionally, the market is growing significantly in the Middle East & Africa and Latin America regions, due to rising adoption of polymers in end-use industries. Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Market- Competitive Landscape: The thermoplastic vulcanizates market appears to be competitive with the presence of several large and small players operating in manufacturing and development of product. These key players compete with each others on the basis of quality, price, production and innovation. Thermoplastic vulcanizates market is set to grow at a significant rate which is likely to attract many entrants to the market resulting into healthy competition in the future. Manufacturers operating in the thermoplastic vulcanizates market are striving their level best to respond to an increase in demand for the product from automotive, construction & buildings, aerospace, and other sectors attributed to growing production capacity in major sectors. They ensure to deliver the best quality products based on innovative technologies, solutions and best practices. Industry / Innovation / Related News: October 24, 2017 - Exxon Mobil Corporation (US), one of the leading producers of thermoplastic vulcanizates, declared that the company has decided to launch two grades of santoprene-brand thermoplastic vulcanizates by the end of 2017. These products have excellent friction performance, bonding strength with EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer (M-class) rubber). One of the sources of the company also announced that these products were developed to impart lightweight and cost-effective nature to the final product. Therefore, these factors are expected to drive the market over the assessment period. July 20, 2016 - Exxon Mobil Corporation (US), one of the prominent manufacturers of thermoplastic vulcanizates, declared that the company has decided to expand the production capacity of specialty elastomers plant by 25% in Newport, Wales. This process was initiated due to soaring demand for the product in various applications such as health care device, automotive seals, and others. Therefore, these factors are expected to drive the market over the assessment period. Access Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/thermoplastic-vulcanizates-market-4704 Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., the genetic vaccine company, hit a four-year high Wednesday, rising as much as 16% to $9.40 a share before subsiding in the afternoon after the Plymouth Meeting company laid out a faster timetable for rushing a vaccine to protect people against the COVID-19 coronavirus. If the DNA vaccine INO-4800, based on technology developed at David B. Weiners lab at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, passes animal and human trials, Inovio hopes to have a million doses delivered by the end of the year for further trials or emergency use. To do this, the company plans to finalize clinical trial designs this month and begin human trials in April with 30 U.S. volunteers. Trials will soon be expanded that month to a total of 3,000 patients, mostly in more hard-hit South Korea and China. The World Health Organization says more than 3,000 of the 95,000 people diagnosed with the contagious disease have died since it was identified in Wuhan, China, in December. The companys efforts to develop pandemic vaccines, delivered into skin cells by an electrified probe, for fearsome diseases including Ebola, HIV, and MERS, have not yet been rewarded with large sales, and the firm routinely spends more of its backers cash than it collects in revenues. So the promise of a spike in sales encouraged investors. The stock closed Wednesday at $8.02, up $0.57, or 7.72%. A Monday meeting with President Donald Trump and his aides included top executives from genetic drugmaker Regeneron, Johnson & Johnson, and other companies, as well as Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He gave a timeline of 12 to 18 months for the development of an effective vaccine, the Washington Post reported. Regeneron founder Leonard Schleifer said his company aimed to have 200,000 doses ready by August. That means youd be able to use the vaccine that early? asked the president, comparing the timetable favorably to another companys. No, the CEO responded, the treatment would need more testing at that point. Inovios speeded-up timeline was also presented at the White House meeting. Using our modern DNA medicines platform, we designed our DNA vaccine INO-4800 in three hours after the publication of the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus by China on Jan. 10, J. Joseph Kim, Inovio CEO, said in a statement Tuesday. We immediately began preclinical testing and small-scale manufacture, and have already shared data with public health officials and manufacturing partners, he added. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a Norway-based consortium, has pledged $9 million to Inovios effort in partnership with Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology Co. The consortium is backed by Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum, and the governments of Norway, Germany, Japan, and India. But, we will need additional resources to protect Americans, Kim added. Unlike traditional vaccines, which contain killed or weakened forms of the virus in question, genetic vaccines contain genes that instruct cells to make a protein that defends against that virus. There are other COVID-19 vaccines in the works, including one developed at a Johnson & Johnson lab in the Netherlands. Staff writer Tom Avril contributed to this article. In a landmark judgement, all non-consensual sex will now be treated as rape in Spain under the new 'Only yes means yes' laws approved by the government. This has come in the light of mass protests over the Wolf Pack case. The bill was approved by Spanish government on March 4 according to reports, fulfilling the election promises to strengthen laws in defense of women's rights. Reuters The law intends to establish specialised courts for dealing with sexual offences and round-the-clock recovery centres for victims. Under the new law, jail penalties for work-related sexual harassment will increase to up to two years and catcalling will also be a criminal offence. In the infamous Wolf Pack case in 2016, a woman was gangraped by five men. They were jailed for sexual abuse after raping the woman at Pamplona bull-running festival. Reuters Initially, they were cleared of more serious charges because there was no evidence violence was used. Under the previous law if the woman was in shock or too stunned to fight back the sex attacks would not have been considered rape. Under the new law, rape will be decided by the question of consent. Mass protests erupted against the judgement in 2019 in the wake of global #MeToo movement. An appeal was made in 2019 in which the Supreme Court ruled the men had committed rape. Reuters Spain will be a safer country for women with the approval of this law. Women's rights and sexual freedoms will never again be stranded down a blind alley, Equality Minister Irene Montero reportedly said at a news briefing. Other countries should take note of this landmark judgement. More often than not a woman who is being assaulted, harassed or raped is physically and mentally incapable to fight or respond. That CANNOT be treated as consent. President Donald J. Trump committed to donating his fourth-quarter salary to the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to help fight the coronavirus. Nine Americans have since died from the disease caused by the virus, known as COVID-19 all in Washington state. The majority of cases in the U.S. are clustered in California and Washington state. The announcement was made by the White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Twitter. President Donald Trump made a commitment to donate his salary while in office. Honoring that promise and to further protect the American people, said Grisham. He is donating his 2019 Q4 salary to HHSGov to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat Coronavirus. The president has come under scrutiny by Democrats for his handling of the outbreak. I was criticized by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommended. Saved many lives, tweeted Trump. Dems were working the Impeachment Hoax. They didnt have a clue! Now they are fear-mongering. Be calm & vigilant! In the third quarter, Trump donated his salary to combat the opioid crisis that paid the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, which oversees federal public health offices and programs, including the surgeon generals office. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page President @realDonaldTrump made a commitment to donate his salary while in office. Honoring that promise and to further protect the American people, he is donating his 2019 Q4 salary to @HHSGov to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/R6KUQmBRl1 Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) March 3, 2020 Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page. NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. The restaurants on North Avenue were nearly empty. The stores were out of spray disinfectant, rubbing alcohol and bleach. At a convenience store, the shopkeeper finished a transaction with a squirt of hand sanitizer, first for himself and then his customer. This was life in the latest ground zero for coronavirus in America, a small Westchester County city about five miles north of New York City, as it grappled with the revelation on Tuesday that one of its residents a lawyer who works in Manhattan had contracted the virus and may have exposed hundreds of others to it. By Wednesday, it was clear that the illness had spread: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced at a morning news conference that the mans wife, 20-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter all tested positive for the virus, as did a neighbor who drove him to the hospital last week. By days end, five more positive cases were disclosed: a man who was in close proximity with the Manhattan lawyer, as well as his wife and their three children. The worst progress has been made in the areas of Statistics and Information Sharing, Public Financial Management and Consumer Protection Last year, the parliament, the government and other executive authorities completed only 37% of the tasks set under the EU-Association Agreement, which is the lowest figure in recent years. This is evidenced by the Government's report on the implementation of the Agreement, which is at the disposal of the Yevropeiska Pravda (European Truth). The highest level of fulfillment shown by the government was 53% of the measures envisaged by the plan. The Verkhovna Rada fulfilled only 12% of tasks, other state authorities - 21%. "Over the course of 2019, 100% of the tasks in the fields of Political Dialogue, National Security and Defense, Education, Study, Youth, Financial Cooperation and Anti-Fraud, as well as Social Policy and Labor Relations have been completed," the report says. Ukraine has made the worst progress in the areas of Statistics and Information Sharing, Public Financial Management and Consumer Protection. As of January 1, 2020, the overall progress of the implementation of the Agreement for 2014-2024 was 43%. As we reported earlier, on January 29, the sixth meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council has ended in Brussels, resulting in a common statement. "The parties (Ukraine and the EU 112 international.) have discussed a number of important issues and adopted a common statement," the statement said. Cong accuses BJP of using Tek Fog app to propagate agenda on SM, seeks intervention by SC TMC's presence in Goa to help BJP in polls, claims Sanjay Raut BJP set to pull out all stops in UP, SP main contender UP Election 2022: BJP panel meet today to decide candidates for first phase No attempt being made to destabilise MP govt: BJP India oi-PTI Bhopal, Mar 04: The BJP on Wednesday denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, amidst the allegation that the saffron party has taken some MLAs to a hotel in Haryana. Terming the charge as "unfortunate", Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma alleged that the Congress-led dispensation in the state was a "blackmail" government. His remarks came after Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari told PTI that some BJP leaders have allegedly taken eight MLAs from the state to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath government. 'Not upset with Jyotiraditya Scindia': Kamal Nath amid cracks in Congress "The allegations are very unfortunate. The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," Sharma told reporters here, when asked about Congress'' allegation of attempts to destabilise the state government. Sharma said this is the Congress'' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. "The BJP has nothing to do with the entire episode... this is a blackmail government. This is a ragtag government," he added. Patwari alleged that senior BJP leaders, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others, have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy. "We are trying to bring them back. Four of them have come back also but they have forcibly taken away tribal MLA Bisahulal Singh," he said. Before Patwari''s allegation against the BJP, Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 He alleged that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP, however, dismissed the former chief minister''s charge, saying his statement was aimed at ensuring his re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh scheduled on March 26. Earlier, speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday, Digvijaya Singh alleged his party MLAs were being offered huge amount of money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron party''s "poaching" attempts to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. Hitting back, Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements and engaging in sensationalism. The Centre will consider airlifting essential raw material and components, including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), from China, only if the industry is willing to pay for it. The government has airlifted Indian citizens from Wuhan, and have even sent supplies to China. But airlifting components and APIs is another matter, as that will be seen as a commercial activity with the private sector. So it will only be considered if the private sector is willing to pay for the cost of such an undertaking, a top government official told Business Standard. Three weeks ago, ... A group of Baloch activists held a protest here asking the United Nations' Human Rights Council to intervene and stop the 'genocide' in The demonstration held during the ongoing 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council was organised by the Baloch Voice Association. The activists were seen holding banners with slogans--' is bleeding', 'Free Balochistan' and 'Stop enforced disappearances'. Neela Quadri Baloch, President of the World Baloch Women' Forum said, "It's almost 70 years is here, and it's almost 70 years that has occupied and they are responsible for our genocide." A large number of political activists, students and intellectuals have gone missing in Balochistan, allegedly abducted up by the security forces. Activists say many of those abducted were killed and their mutilated bodies were found in isolated places. "They are using rape as a tool of oppression. They are taking our women, they are torturing them. This is the time the UN should understand and feel a responsibility to come to Balochistan and intervene," Neela Quadri Baloch said. "UN should monitor what's going on in Balochistan. You can't walk in Balochistan ten meters without a check post. So, we are living in occupied land, we are living in a hell that is made by the state of There should be an intervention by the UN in Balochistan and there should be fact-finding missions because there are mass graves, more than 40,000 people are missing. Our whole nation is in Great Depression", said the woman activist. Munir Mengal, the president of the Baloch Voice Association said, "The people in Balochistan are being eliminated. We are receiving reports, we are receiving data which shows that the Pakistani state is eliminating Baloch people, approximately 8-10 people become victims of enforced disappearances every week. Some 3-4 people are being killed by Pakistani state forces, who were kidnapped". The Baloch have been fighting against the forceful occupation of their land by Mengal further said, "Since 1948, we have a political conflict with the state of Pakistan. We are against the annexation of our land by Pakistan on the basis of religion. So, the Baloch have stood for that and they are fighting over that". He laid stress on urgent intervention by the human rights body to save the lives of Baloch people. The Baloch Voice Association also held a discussion on the prevailing situation in Balochistan in which Baloch activists and human rights activists from Europe participated. ANN ARBOR, MI While a 10-story high-rise planned for Main Street received near-unanimous approval Monday night, some Ann Arbor council members still had mixed feelings. Though he joined the majority in voting 8-1 to OK the development March 2, Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward, said the project falls short when it comes to affordable housing and environmental sustainability goals. Im disappointed in the project, he said, adding its not the kind of building he wants built in 2020. Were tearing down a building that is younger than I am, he said of the DTE Energy office building at the southeast corner of Main and William streets, noting it won an award in 1984 for excellence in masonry design. We hear about the resources that we are consuming at an astronomical speed that we are a disposable society, we build things and then we tear them down in 30 years and this needs to be addressed. Council Member Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward, speaks at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting March 2, 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News The new high-rise with 218 apartments and 421 bedrooms will provide more housing downtown that will be less dependent on automobiles, Ramlawi acknowledged. It also includes more than 6,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. But when you look at the other environmental characteristics of this development, its just woeful, Ramlawi said, noting a rooftop solar array, measuring 1,250 square feet, is estimated to meet about 1% of the new buildings energy needs. We have heated patios for the pool, gas being burned for aesthetics. Its just decadence at the expense of the environment, Ramlawi said. The city recently declared a climate emergency, setting a 2030 goal to make the community carbon-neutral. Multiple council members said the citys values should be reflected in new developments. Georgia-based developer Landmark Properties has teamed up with Chicago-based Myefski Architects on the project, which is officially dubbed The Standard. Architect John Myefski said the building will achieve LEED Silver standards for energy efficiency and thats not easy to do. Despite the fact that only 1% of the building is going to be powered with solar, it could actually be substantially increased if the rules are changed and were allowed to actually put (solar panels) on top of the five-story portion, Myefski said. The city is looking at updating its code to exempt solar panels from building-height limits to encourage more rooftop arrays. That was a concern with the lower portion of The Standard, which is required to step down from 10 stories to five stories. John Myefski, architect for the 10-story high-rise project known as The Standard, speaks at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting March 2, 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News Council Member Jane Lumm, I-2nd Ward, said she has mixed feelings about the project. She observed it was first proposed under old zoning rules, so new rules incentivizing more affordable housing dont apply. Following the old rules, the developer is including two affordable housing units for people earning up to 80% of the area median income. A lot more affordable housing would be required under the new rules, City Planner Jeff Kahan said. Lumm agreed the developer shouldnt have to conform to rules implemented in the middle of the projects consideration, but she said that doesnt mean the city shouldnt work to improve the project so its at least closer to meeting them. She also expressed doubts that 102 parking spaces will be enough for a 421-bed building and shared concerns about traffic and access via a two-way public alley. Kahan said some downtown developments dont have the benefit of an adjacent alley and instead delivery trucks stop along the street and cause traffic problems. City officials said thats been an issue on Huron Street. We really do want to embrace the fact that there is an alley here, Kahan said, noting the developer has identified spaces for Uber and Lyft drop-offs and package deliveries. Kahan said its his understanding most of the apartments will be marketed toward University of Michigan students and young professionals. We are finding fewer and fewer students bringing vehicles to school, particularly if they are in close proximity to campus and other amenities, he said. Additionally, college students come and go at hours outside of weekday peak traffic periods, Kahan said. My guess is most will walk or take a bike to campus, he said, noting theres a new two-way bikeway along William Street leading to campus. A large crowd of residents, including several Ann Arbor firefighters, packed into the council chambers for the Ann Arbor City Council meeting March 2, 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News Scott Betzoldt, project engineer, estimates there will be less peak-hour traffic from the high-rise than there has been for the current office building, which has a roughly 40-space parking lot. Betzoldt said his team looked at traffic from The Yard, a 588-bed apartment building catering to UM students at 615 S. Main St. The Yard has an underground parking deck with just over 150 car parking spaces, with five still not leased, so its been enough to meet demand, according to the leasing office. Monitoring of peak-hour traffic there showed nine morning car trips and 17 afternoon car trips, Betzoldt said. These developments arent generating the traffic that a traditional use would, he said. Likely were just approving more student housing here, said Council Member Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward, who voted against the new high-rise. Hayner shared concerns about a lack of affordable housing and argued the two units set aside for people earning up to 80% of AMI is near-market-rate housing, not affordable. He also brought up the citys 2030 carbon-neutrality goal and agreed with Ramlawi the project falls short. Im seeing here that we still have gas lines and gas appliances going into this building, he said. I wish I could say this is the kind of building we used to build. Its not the kind of building we should be building now. On the issue of parking, Hayner suggested he would support future ordinance changes to establish parking maximums, rather than minimum requirements. In this case, city code requires at least 101 car parking spaces for the new high-rise. We need maxes for our parking if were really serious about our climate and getting people to not have vehicles downtown, Hayner said. Council Member Julie Grand, D-3rd Ward, said shed work with Hayner on that. Council Member Julie Grand, D-3rd Ward, speaks at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting March 2, 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News Grand said the new high-rise will bring much-needed housing downtown. Is this building everything that we would hope for given our current rules? No, she acknowledged. Kahan said stormwater detention vaults in the buildings basement will be a huge public benefit, and the developer is providing 84 bicycle parking spaces. The city also is excited about getting an extra 7.5 feet of sidewalk width along William Street, Kahan said, noting that will make the sidewalk 16 feet wide there. And we also really like the fact that it has a mixed-use component, which will help activate the south side of William and Main, Kahan said. There will be four electric vehicle charging stations and the building will be ready for more in the future, Myefski said. The developer also has agreed to make a $136,250 contribution to support city parks. A few residents spoke at a public hearing on the development Monday night one in favor and two with concerns. We had quite a public outreach process on this project, Myefski said, adding there were eight neighborhood meetings, three design review meetings, then Planning Commission. Landscaping in the alley was extremely important and we did provide a tremendous amount of that, he said, also mentioning the possibility of public art murals. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: Fired administrators attorney tells Ann Arbor council to cease and desist disparagement With dioxane legal case pending, Ann Arbor again delays Superfund action Ann Arbor council OKs plan for 10-story high-rise on Main Street Its time to move forward. Ann Arbor council appoints interim administrator Flydubai has reported a full-year profit of Dh198.2 million ($53.9 million) for 2019 compared to a loss of Dh159.8 million ($43.4 million) in 2018, helped by a compensation agreement with Boeing over the worldwide 737 MAX grounding. However, revenues dipped to Dh6 billion ($1.63 billion), down 2.6 per cent from Dh6.2 billion ($1.68 billion) in 2018. The total number of passengers carried also fell to 9.6 million, a decline of 12.7 per cent from 11 million in 2018. Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer at flydubai, said: We have had to manage a number of unprecedented issues faced by the aviation industry. Our results demonstrate that we have capitalised on the strong fundamentals in our business, but it is regrettable that our growth strategy has been significantly impacted by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX. Whilst 2019 has seen a return to profitability it does not reflect the loss of market position and the unfilled opportunities flydubai could have exploited. The airline was forced to ground 14 of its Max jets last year and 19 per cent of its flying schedule has been cancelled as a result of grounding. Al Ghaith confirmed that the airline has reached an interim agreement with Boeing for compensation, which helped boost the 2019 results. "We have concluded an interim settlement agreement with Boeing for certain compensation due to flydubai in relation to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX. The details of the interim settlement agreement remain confidential. This agreement has contributed towards this years results, but in no way can it compensate for the loss of business opportunity or market share experienced by the airline. Discussions are continuing between the parties regarding the ongoing impact of the grounding. Francois Oberholzer, chief financial officer at flydubai, said: We have had to be even more flexible with the abrupt interruption of our growth and fleet strategy. We have kept a firm grip on the business against the continued uncertainty created by the grounding. Direct operating costs reduced by 17.8 per cent, whilst we saw double digit growth in our yields minimising the reduction in revenue to 2.6 per cent compared to a fall in capacity of 15.8 per cent. Furthermore, we successfully refinanced our debut 2014 Sukuk during this financial year. Looking ahead, the outlook remains "challenging", given the uncertainty around the timetable for the return to service of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and the subsequent aircraft delivery schedule, the airline said. - TradeArabia News Service Australian police are searching for a man who used a fishing rod to steal a Versace necklace from a high-end fashion store in Melbourne. The robbery took place just after 2am on 24 February in the citys central business district, and took more than three hours to pull off. In footage released by police, the inner-city angler can be seen sliding the rod through a hole he had chipped in the stores window without setting off the alarm. He then used the rod to lift the necklace, believed to be valued at A$800 (414), from a mannequin inside. Steven Adigrati, owner of the Le Style boutique, described it as an outrageous and courageous theft. I couldnt believe it, Mr Adigrati told Nine News. Three-and-a-half hours, with two rods, trying to get this necklace, was amazing. Hook, line, and sinker, I guess. He did it. Mr Adigrati said the thief probably did not know the value of the necklace. This particular necklace looks a lot more expensive than what it is, so obviously the temptation was there: gold, bright, iconic Medusa head, so that would have been the temptation, he told ABC News. Police are appealing for more information on the man, who has yet to be identified. He is described as white, aged between 40 to 50 years old and about 5ft 9in. The thief left just one clue behind the hook from his fishing line. Senior constable Bede Whitty said he had never seen a crime quite like it before. Its fairly blatant and its quite bold as well, to have someone attend with a fishing rod in the middle of the night, he said. President Donald Trump and TV personality Kim Kardashian-West in the Oval Office in the White House, Washington, on May 30, 2018. (The White House) Kim Kardashian to Meet Trump On Criminal Justice Reform Kim Kardashian-West is set to visit the White House Wednesday to discuss criminal justice reform, the star announced on Twitter. The announcement came after President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of three prisoners last month, Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron, who were granted clemency due to reform. Kardashian-West will be joined by Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018. Kardashian-West has previously met several times with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushnerwho has led the White Houses criminal justice reform effortsurging Trump to pardon Johnson, sign the First Step Act, and reform the clemency process. The 39-year-old reality star and criminal justice activist took her story to social media, sharing with her nearly 64 million followers that she would be spending the day with three really deserving women. President Trump commuted the sentences of three really deserving women. I didnt hear much about it in the news so I wanted to share with you their stores! I have the pleasure of spending the day with these women today along with @AliceMarieFree who helped to pick these women Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 4, 2020 Today Alice, Crystal, Judith, Tynice and I, along with the @cut_50 team will be at the White House bringing light to these women and discuss more change that our justice system desperately needs! Kardashian-West tweeted on the morning of March 4 ahead of her meeting with Trump. Today Alice, Crystal, Judith, Tynice and I, along with the @cut_50 team will be at the White House bringing light to these women and discuss more change that our justice system desperately needs! Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 4, 2020 The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star also shared pictures and information about the women on Twitter. Crystal Munoz was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to posses and distribute marijuana. She left behind a 5-month-old baby and was pregnant, Kardashian-West wrote. Crystal was shackled by prison guards during the birth of her second daughter. Her case was highlighted in the First Step Act. Crystal case was highlighted in the First Step Act which banned the degrading and inhumane treatment of shackling female prisoners during childbirth. Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 4, 2020 Kardashian-West also shared a picture of Judith Negron, another released inmate. Judith Negron was sentenced to 35 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, the KKW Beauty founder wrote on Twitter. After trial she received the longest sentence ever given to a female for a white collar crime. A mother, she left behind two young sons. This was Judiths first ever offense. Finally, Kardashian-West shared the story of Tynice Hall, whose sentence was also commuted by Trump. Tynice Hall was sentenced to 35 years in prison for a first time non violent drug conspiracy, she wrote. Her boyfriend at the time used her house for his illegal drug activities. She was only 22 years old when she went to prison and left behind a 3-year-old son. The CNN Wire contributed to this report. His charm and great acting will melt your heart. Moreso, he was the first actor who donated secretly a big amount to aid against the Coronavirus outbreak. Even if the hit drama series ended - Hyun Bin made sure that his fans will always be proud of him. According to the reports, actor Hyun Bin had done a secret donation of 200 million won to Community Chest of Korea. This is a non-profit organization that launched in 1988. One of the largest welfare organization and government-sanctioned charity in Korea. He intended to aid the fight of his countrymen in dealing wth the Coronavirus that is now rapidly increasing in numbers. Hyun Bin from his past interviews shared that he always expresses his feelings in different ways and keeps his thoughts by himself. An article from The Korea Times narrate Hyun Bin as "an actor of a few words" wherein he prefers to stay hidden from the limelight. There is no wonder why he chose not to make a press release about his donation. Hyun Bin donates 200 million won but keeps it hidden from the management of his agency. He asked the Community Chest of Korea organizer to keep silent about it. A week after his letter of encouragement through Instagram own by the agency was the time he made the kind donation to the said organization. His letter content was his words wishing everyone to be on their best especially those affected by the virus. The letter that was written on the 21st of February read as: "You might be spending day after day anxious and worrying over the Coronavirus disease 2019 which is occurring all over the world and throughout Asia including China and Japan as well as Korea. I'd like to ask after your health at least by writing to express my worry over whether the place you are at is safe. As we've always overcome difficulties by cheering each other on despite difficult times, I hope the Coronavirus disease 2019 passes by as soon as possible. I also appreciate those working tirelessly day and night to eradicate the virus, and I will cheer them on until the end. Furthermore, I sincerely wish for the quick recovery of those suffering from its infection. Again, I hope all those reading this can maintain their safety and health from the virus and I will pray this incident safely passes by." Hyun Bin made his fans adored him for his humility and pure intentions. He always makes the effort to find the things he treasures the most. To note that he was making a lot of projects before but he enlisted in military services for 2 years. He is best known for his leading roles in the television dramas My Name is Kim Sam-soon, Worlds Within. Adding on like Secret Garden, Memories of the Alhambra. The latest hit Crash Landing on You as well. The films Confidential Assignment, The Swindlers, The Negotiation and Rampant. Researchers in China have found two different strains of Covid-19 (coronavirus) which could be causing infections worldwide, CNBC has reported. In a preliminary study published Tuesday, scientists at Peking Universitys School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai found that a more aggressive type of Covid-19 had accounted for about 70 per cent of analysed strains, while 30 per cent had been linked to a less aggressive type. The findings were published in the National Science Review, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to the researchers, the more aggressive type of the virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first detected in December. The scientists said the frequency of that type of virus has since decreased from early January. The researchers, however, cautioned that data examined in the study was still very limited. They said the results show that the new variations of the disease was likely caused by mutations and natural selection besides recombination. These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with COVID-19, they said. Travel restrictions The study comes shortly after the World Health Organisation confirmed the fast-spreading virus. As of Wednesday, more than 93,000 people worldwide have been infected, with at least 3,100 deaths. So far, over 80 countries have reported at least a case of the disease. Most of the cases have been reported in China, although the number of new daily infections outside now exceeded the Asian country. Four countries, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Germany have all recorded spikes in confirmed cases and these have been having a toll on the nations. While some sporting activities have been suspended in Italy, Iran has also temporarily freed about 54,000 prisoners as a means to contain the spread of the disease in the country. Also, many countries are imposing travel restrictions on virus-hit areas worldwide. Faith-Fueled Satellite TV Combats Coronavirus 'Wave of Fear' Targeting viewers in homes across Middle East and North Africa, broadcaster SAT-7 aims to 'calm fear with God's peace' COMBATING CORONAVIRUS 'WAVE OF FEAR': Speaking to viewers in homes across the Middle East and North Africa, pioneering satellite broadcaster SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) aims to "calm the wave of fear with God's peace" via real-time, faith-fueled programs, like SAT-7 KIDS' show Family of Jesus, that openly discuss the coronavirus crisis. NEWS PROVIDED BY SAT-7 March 4, 2020 EASTON, Md., March 4, 2020 /Standard Newswire/ -- As anxious families in the troubled Middle East and North Africa -- and especially Iran -- face the coronavirus epidemic, Christian broadcaster SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) today launched a new campaign to "calm the wave of fear with God's peace." With coronavirus -- known as COVID-19 -- threatening to become a global pandemic, more than 60 countries have confirmed cases, including Iran, Iraq, U.A.E, Lebanon and Egypt. COVID-19 has infected nearly 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,000, spreading fear around the world as scientists scramble to create a vaccine. In the Middle East and North Africa, SAT-7's satellite Christian programming speaks to viewers in their own homes via live, "real life" shows in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish languages, as well as a children's channel, showing viewers what it means to be a follower of Christ, especially in a crisis. In Iran -- one of the world's coronavirus hotspots where the official death toll has hit 77 -- worried viewers are tuning into the live, interactive Signal show to share their experiences and get advice from guest doctors. Television like SAT-7 is especially effective in communicating important information during the crisis, as more Iranians are likely staying in their homes, curtailing travel and daily routines. One viewer, Nadia -- a pharmacy technician -- said: "Iranians are very concerned about the coronavirus, myself included. Friends tell me to leave my job, which they say exposes me to the virus. I see the lack of services and (lack of) a proper response. But I have put away fear and trust the Lord for myself (and) my family. My hope is that I will wake up and find this nightmare is over." In Egypt, viewers are being encouraged to fight fear with faith. "When you're a member of the family of Jesus, you never have to be afraid of anything," presenter Melad Awad told viewers of SAT-7 KIDS' show Family of Jesus, broadcast in Egypt. "Don't be afraid of a virus, or anything that might happen, because Jesus himself is with us," Awad told his young audience. Fear & Courage Presenters are also combating fear-mongering about China, the source of the coronavirus outbreak, encouraging viewers to reject anger and racism -- and pointing to the courage of Chinese Christians. "People have been spreading rumors about China since the coronavirus crisis began, but we, the family of Jesus, cannot hate anyone," Awad told viewers during a recent live broadcast. "To all our friends in China, we want to tell you that we love you and encourage you not to fear. We are praying for you." Viewers were told that Chinese Christians in Wuhan, China -- where the outbreak began -- were handing out free surgical masks on the streets, and telling passers-by "Jesus loves them," even though sharing their faith is illegal in China, and the police could have arrested them. "These courageous Chinese believers are a powerful example of how to be a witness to Jesus during a crisis," said Dr. Rex Rogers, SAT-7 USA president. "That's what our presenters aim to show viewers across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as calming the wave of fear with God's peace." Coronavirus is spreading a lot of fear in the region, Rogers said. "But through live satellite television, we're able to bring real hope and real peace to millions of anxious viewers at this deeply troubling time." About SAT-7 Launched in 1996, SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) -- with its international headquarters in Cyprus -- broadcasts Christian and educational satellite television programs to more than 25 million people in the Middle East and North Africa. Its mission is to make the gospel available to everyone, and support the church in its life, work and witness for Jesus Christ. SAT-7 broadcasts 24/7 in Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Turkish, using multiple satellite channels and online services. SOURCE SAT-7 CONTACT: Matti Stevenson, 719-360-0586, mstevenson@inchristcommunications.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Department of Health said Wednesday more medical facilities could soon test patient samples for novel coronavirus infection or COVID-19. We are now expanding our testing capacity. We have subnational laboratories that are up for accreditation by Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a briefing. These are the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, Baguio General Hospital in Baguio City and the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City. He said the medical institutions might be accredited in eight weeks, adding he asked the RITM to shorten it by four weeks. RITM is currently the only accredited facility that could identify if suspected cases are positive for COVID-19. The results come out within 24 hours to 48 hours of receiving samples. They have tested more than 500 "patients under investigation" -- those who exhibit flu-like symptoms, as well as had history of travel to China or contact with confirmed cases. This was after the RITM recieved the test kits or "primers" ordered from Japan. Before the test kits arrived in late January, specimens had to be sent to a reference laboratory in Australia for confirmation. The top health official also responded to a criticism the confirmatory testing in the Philippines is slower compared to other countries such as South Korea. South Korea has more than 500 coronavirus testing sites, which have screened more than 100,000 people, CNN reported. It has also pioneered a testing station inspired by drive-through counters at McDonalds and Starbucks, CNN added. He then defended the time it takes to test patients for COVID-19 in the Philippines, saying the RITM does a far more tedious procedure to make sure they do not produce false negative results. The number of COVID-19 cases in the country remains at three, with one fatality. All of them are Chinese nationals from Wuhan China's city at the epicenter of the outbreak. SADC states developing joint strategy to combat IUU March 04,2020 | Source: SeafoodSource As campaigns against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continue in Africa, at least eight countries have resolved to develop a common strategy to counter the practice. The eight countries, all members of the Southern Africa Development Community an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana are drawing up a plan of action on monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) methods. Those methods are planned for both the marine and inland water fisheries in the country, with the intention of countering illicit activities such as illegal fish landings, transshipment at sea, violations of catch limits, and deployment of illegal equipment. The plan calls for a joint MCS that will strengthen the existing national methods by integrating them at the bilateral and regional levels by the end of 2030. According to a schedule from SADC, a complete final draft of the MCS strategy and plan of action which will be enacted over the next decade is expected by next June, paving the way for piloting sustainable fisheries operations that would ensure each of the SADC member countries achieve food security, increased income for fishing communities, reduction of unemployment, and additional foreign exchange earnings. Adoption of a common MCS strategy by SADC states would also assure more cost-effective management of the shared marine and inland water resources. The strategys adoption of a regional approach to dealing with IUU will also have the support of various stakeholders such as the World Bank, the European Union, FAO, Indian Ocean Commission, Sea Shepherd Global, Stop Illegal Fishing, SWIOFish1Project, WorldFish, and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Alongside the development of a regional MCS for SADC countries is the proposed establishment and operationalization of a Regional Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC), to be based in Mozambique. The center, to be established under the supervision of WWF, will serve as the nerve center for the coordination of the regions fisheries to eliminate any loopholes that would sustain illicit fishing operations. The establishment of the MCSCC was officially agreed upon by SADC States in 2017, building on a decision reached by leaders from the participating countries in 2001 when the SADC Protocol on Fisheries was approved. However, the implementation of the MCSCC has been delayed because of a number of factors, which could be attributed to the economic performance of some of the countries, and the changing political circumstances in others. In addition, because of either the economic or political factors, there has been a delay in the approval of the MCSCC by three additional SADC states. At least 11 countries of the regional inter-governmental organization need to ratify the proposal for setting up of the center. Already, Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia have ratified the proposal for the establishment of a MCSCC to effectively tackle challenges in the fisheries sector through strengthened regional collaboration and partnerships with relevant stakeholders so as to produce mitigating ecological and socio-economic impacts. The anticipated joint MCS and plan of action by SADC States comes at a time when the fisheries sector in Southern Africa is suffering from overfishing, negative ecosystem impacts, degradation of critical coastal habitats, climate change and IUU. It is the belief of the SADC leaders that if member states are to implement the protocol on fisheries successfully, these challenges have to be adequately addressed, SADC said. When the MCSCC becomes fully operational, it is expected to coordinate implementation of recommendations for the improvement of a sustainable fisheries sector in Southern Africa, including the acquisition and use of modern information technology tools to manage, enforce compliance, and assess the sectors risks by each of the SADC members. SADC members would also be supported to improve vessel records management structures, and regulations on authorization of domestic and foreign vessel operations especially in marine waters to achieve a higher level transparency in the fishing-licensing process. The current challenge of having many players in Southern Africas fisheries sector with little communication and coordination between them is expected to be addressed through the intervention of the MCSCC, as SADC countries would be expected to agree on fisheries information sharing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the MCSCC will also be critical in the implementation of the U.N.s Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) in Southern Africa. FAO adds that SADC and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) are likely to align the Regional Plan for Fisheries Surveillance (PRSP) with the SADCs regional monitoring, control, and surveillance processes including supporting implementation of actions under MCSCC for alignment with PRSP under the European Union (EU) funded EOFISH programme. 2020 Diversified Communications. All rights reserved. Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods. Six months ago, Hurricane Dorian, one of the most destructive storms in recorded history and the worst storm in the history of the Bahamas, turned lives upside down. The Category 5 behemoth wasn't just devastating because of its size, but also its slow-moving nature. The storm sat for nearly two full days over the northern part of the archipelago, moving at a glacial speed of 1.3 mph. All the while, it thrashed the islands with its extraordinary force. Dorian funneled a devastating storm surge over 20 feet high in spots and unleashed punishing winds with 200-mph gusts that wiped out thousands of homes and businesses. The official death toll stands at 74, but at least 280 people are still considered missing. AccuWeather estimated that the storm would be responsible for damages around $8-9 billion, with $5 billion of that in the Bahamas. Nearly two weeks after the storm's first landfall, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he'd "never seen such a level of systemic devastation" after visiting Abaco Island and referred to Dorian not as a Category 5 but rather "category hell." Abaco Bahamas Dorian damage UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres surveys the devastation on Abaco Island in the Bahamas about 10 days after Hurricane Dorian struck in September 2019. (United Nations) Today, some parts of the battered Bahamas are back and open for business and other areas still face a lengthy recovery. AccuWeather spoke to multiple relief organizations who have coordinated recovery and rebuilding operations in some of the most devastated areas to get a sense of what life is like half a year later. "Send help now" Matt Winslow, a resident of Rochester, New York, wasn't on the island during the storm's assault from Sept. 1-3, but he knew he had to help. His family owns Constellation Brands, a Fortune 500 company, and has been involved with previous disaster responses including in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Story continues Winslow, 44, had been closely monitoring the weather forecasts in the days prior to landfall, hoping a shift in the storm track would spare the barrier island of Elbow Cay, and the community of Hope Town, where his family had been building a vacation home. A damaged home in Elbow Cay. (Photo/Hope Town United) As it became evident that Elbow Cay would suffer a direct strike from the monstrous hurricane, Winslow communicated to several community members and let them know he and his family would help however they could. During the eye of the storm, Winslow received a call from the wife of one of the town's council members saying roads were destroyed, people were injured, the airport was underwater and there was no way off the island. "Send help now," she said. Bringing hope back to Hope Town Realizing the gravity of the situation, Winslow and a group of others from the U.S. and Canada that owned homes or had relatives on the island organized a conference call to coordinate a rescue effort. Among those was Brian Malone, a Tampa resident and native of the Bahamas who formerly served as Hope Town fire chief. Within a matter of days, the group managed to lead an evacuation of 250 Elbow Cay residents via ferry while also coordinating medical response, search and rescue efforts and deliveries of needed supplies. Several weeks later, the rescue effort evolved into Hope Town United (HTU), a community-led nonprofit organization. Since its creation, the group has led the charge to rebuild the island and remove more than 12,300 cubic tons of debris while also best positioning the island for resiliency against future storms. Winslow, HTU's co-founder, said he has visited the island four times since Dorian struck. The island still doesn't have electricity, he said, and there is a real need for temporary housing, skilled labor and reconstruction. About 70 percent of the homes were lost and many residents are living in homes powered by diesel generators or in houses owned by people who own multiple residences. Even with the debris cleaned up, piles of wreckage sit in three large staging areas and need to be hauled away by barges. It's unclear when the boats will arrive. "The devastation was unlike anything anyone had ever seen," Winslow told AccuWeather in a phone interview. Hope Town United recently announced it was shifting the focus of its recovery from cleaning up debris to building five "priority projects" which include rebuilding the Hope Town Primary School, constructing new public docks and establishing a new medical clinic. To date, HTU has raised more than $3 million through private donations and is aiming for a goal of $15 million as it ramps up the recovery effort. "From a new school and clinic to utilities, housing and public docks, these projects will help the Hope Town community return, grow, and thrive," Malone, Hope Town United's executive director, said in a statement. Winslow praised the work of fellow relief organization Samaritan's Purse. The non-government organization has been an "amazing partner," he said, and has been entrenched on Elbow Cay since the beginning, bringing in heavy machinery and assisting with debris removal and rebuilding homes. "Those types of things are just enormously helpful," Winslow. HTU is hoping to serve as a model for storm recovery for other small islands that may suffer from future natural disasters. The group says it's working to build lasting solutions like solar power, microturbine power generation and waste-to-energy technologies. "What began as an emergency response has truly evolved into a major community effort that will restore this island that we love so deeply, while paving the way for other communities to benefit from the solutions we're developing," said Malone. "If you had told me we'd have this much momentum only six months after Hurricane Dorian, I never would not have believed it." Making health a priority Eric Jovan, a member of the Americares team performs a visit and damage assessment at Abaco Island. (Photo/Alejandro Granadillo/Americares) Very few buildings were left unscathed from Dorian's damage on Abaco. Among the damaged buildings were five Ministry of Health clinics and three community-supported clinics. That's produced a substantial challenge for those in need of medical care and clinicians tasked with delivering health services. Americares has been one of the numerous relief organizations distributing aid. The non-profit, which is working directly alongside the Bahamas Ministry of Health, specializes in delivering essential health services for people affected by disaster. Americares volunteers and staff members arrived in the country on Sept. 4, as many evacuations were still underway. The team initially set up in the capital of Nassau, treating evacuated storm victims from Grand Bahama and Abaco. Their medical team, now headquartered on Abaco, is providing primary care as well as mental health and psychosocial services, Cora Nally, team leader in the Bahamas for Americares, told AccuWeather in an email. The biggest ongoing health issue is patients going without care, she explained. "Often hurricane survivors don't have transportation to get to a health center or pharmacy," Nally said. "Many cars in Abaco were flooded in the hurricane and have not been replaced. And public transportation has not been restored." Americares teams have been going out through the communities telling residents about the free health services being offered via mobile clinics. But for storm victims who have lost everything, seeing a doctor may not be the first priority. "Making health a priority is difficult when hurricane survivors are spending most of their time and energy and looking for work and rebuilding their homes," Nally said. Going forward, the biggest challenge ahead is ensuring patients with chronic conditions receive the necessary treatment, Nally explained. In some cases, diabetic patients are rationing insulin and patients with hypertension are going without blood pressure medication. Last month, Americares announced it would be expanding its access to critical primary care and mental health services and lengthening its stay through June. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Signs of progress, but much still to be done Earlier in February, the Bahamas government said it had restored the normal water supply to a number of settlements on mainland Abaco, but a number of challenges to water supply systems persisted elsewhere. Temporary housing units in the form of domes continue to be erected across Abaco and Grand Bahama. In the meantime, government officials say they will continue to research "the best affordable permanent solution" for residents whose homes were impacted. Nally said after more than 1,200 people were staying in the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium -- the largest shelter in Nassau -- at the onset of the recovery, but since then, the shelter has closed as the affected residents have been able to find more suitable housing arrangements. "In Abaco, families are beginning to rebuild, but many businesses, resorts and restaurants are still closed, and many people are out of work," Nally said. The American Red Cross also remains in the Bahamas. The Red Cross has helped manage shelters, hand out basic aid items such as blankets and hygiene kits and distribute millions in financial aid. Katie Wilkes, a Red Cross spokesperson, recently appeared on the AccuWeather TV Network to discuss the storm's aftermath. "I've seen many families start to go back home to Abaco, to Grand Bahama," Wilkes said. "Many are still restarting their lives here on Nassau after the storm." Wilkes said it is a "monumental" recovery process, and some people are still traumatized. "They are still trying to go through the motions of everyday life, and part of The Red Cross' role here is to be right by their side," she said. As Bahamians steadily rebuild, they're particularly mindful of future storms, with the start of the next hurricane season less than three months away. "Everybody here is still thinking about hurricane season, which does start early June," Wilkes said, referring to how the people in the Bahamas are coping after the storm. "Something on everybody's minds is still to be prepared for what's to come." "As much as people really need that tangible relief, they also need somebody to remind them that's it's going to be OK," she said. "At this point, many may feel forgotten. They've gone through so much the past six months reliving that unimaginable nightmare from the hurricane. Many Bahamians state that they are just 'thankful to be alive' after the storm." Additional reporting by Doug Hicks. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Study will evaluate the effectiveness of TCM in reducing re-hospitalizations and promote widespread use of the program in a number of health systems PHILADELPHIA (March 4, 2020) - A $6 million grant from Arnold Ventures will support replication and rigorous study of the outcomes of the Transitional Care Model (TCM) in four U.S. health care systems. Designed by a team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), the TCM has been proven in multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to improve health outcomes, reduce rehospitalizations and decrease total health care costs among the growing population of Medicare beneficiaries. "To achieve positive outcomes for older adults with complex health and social needs, an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) collaborates with patients, their family caregivers, and healthcare teams to design and implement individualized plans of care that extend from hospital to home," explained the project's lead, Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and the Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. Naylor is the architect of the TCM at Penn Nursing. The study will evaluate the effects of the TCM in nine hospitals located in five states which are part of Swedish Health Services, Trinity Health, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Health, and the Veterans Health Administration. Together, these systems will recruit 1,600 Medicare patients to participate in this RCT. Mathematica will conduct an independent evaluation, led by Randall Brown, PhD and Arka Ghosh, PhD. "TCM has very promising evidence of sizable reductions in rehospitalizations and net healthcare costs among Medicare beneficiaries," says Erin Crossett, Evidence-Based Policy Manager of Arnold Ventures that awarded the grant. The grant is part of the organization's Moving the Needle initiative to expand delivery of programs that have been rigorously shown to improve important life outcomes, ensuring significant headway against U.S. social problems. "The successful replication of TCM would provide convincing evidence that TCM could be used in hospitals nationwide to improve patient health and generate major healthcare savings" said Crossett. When the trial is launched, the Penn Nursing team (led by Naylor) will coordinate the initiative, providing participating sites with the training and support essential to implement the TCM as designed. The overall goal of the study is to determine if the health and economic benefits demonstrated by the TCM in NIH-funded RCTs conducted in Pennsylvania can be replicated both within and across health systems spread throughout the U.S. "If the TCM's effects can be reproduced, participating health systems are committed to spread the model, accelerating their ongoing efforts to improve the care and outcomes of the growing population of older adults living with complex needs. Evidence that the TCM is generalizable also will encourage voluntary adoption among other health systems," says Naylor. The Penn team also will examine factors that may influence the implementation and, if successful, health systems' expansion of the TCM. "With a diverse set of hospitals in terms of size, geographic location, patient population, and post-acute and community-based service partners, the RCT findings will provide an actionable path for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other payers to reduce healthcare costs among Medicare beneficiaries, while maintaining high quality care," says Naylor. ### MEDIA CONTACTS Ed Federico Penn Nursing 215.746.3562 efed@upenn.edu David Hebert Arnold Ventures 713.554.1967 dhebert@arnoldventures.org Amy Berridge Mathematica 609.945.3378 aberridge@mathematica-mpr.com Scott Maier University of California San Francisco scott.maier@ucsf.edu Amy Middleton IHA (Trinity Health) 734.327.0877 Amy_Middleton@ihacares.com About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the fourth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing, for the third consecutive year. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram. About Arnold Ventures Arnold Ventures' core objective is to maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. We are a philanthropy dedicated to tackling some of the most pressing problems in the United States. Arnold Ventures invests in sustainable change, building it from the ground up based on research, deep thinking and a strong foundation of evidence. We drive public conversation, craft policy and inspire action through education and advocacy. For more information on Arnold Ventures and its healthcare work, visit http://www.arnoldventures.org. About Mathematica Mathematica applies expertise at the intersection of data, methods, policy, and practice to improve well-being around the world. We collaborate closely with public- and private-sector partners to translate big questions into deep insights that improve programs, refine strategies, and enhance understanding About IHA (Trinity Health) Established in 1994 and lead by physicians, IHA is one of the largest multi-specialty medical groups in Southeast Michigan, practicing based on the guiding principle: our family caring for yours. IHA is committed to providing the best care with the best outcomes for every patient and an exceptional work experience for every provider and employee. IHA offers patients from infancy through senior years, access to convenient, quality health care with extended office hours and urgent care services, online patient diagnosis, treatment and appointment access tools. Based in Ann Arbor, IHA employs more than 3,000 staff and providers in more than 100 practices. IHA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saint Joseph Mercy Health System and a member of Trinity Health. To learn more about IHA, visit ihacares.com. About Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (Trinity Health) Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS) is a health care organization serving seven counties in southeast Michigan including Livingston, Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Jackson, and Lenawee. It includes 548-bed St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, 497-bed St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, 304-bed St. Mary Mercy Livonia, 66-bed St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Howell, and 133-bed St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea. Combined, the five hospitals are licensed for 1,548 beds, have five outpatient health centers, six urgent care facilities, more than 25 specialty centers; employ more than 15,300 individuals and have a medical staff of nearly 2,700 physicians. SJMHS has annual operating revenues of about $2 billion and returns about $115 million to its communities annually through charity care and community benefit programs. SJMHS is a member of Trinity Health, a leading Catholic health care system based in Livonia, Mich. Trinity Health operates in 22 states, employs about 133,000 colleagues, has annual operating revenues of $17.6 billion and assets of about $24.7 billion. Additionally, the organization returns almost $1.1 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. For more information on health services offered at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, please visit http://www.stjoeshealth.org The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have arraigned two women before a Kano Division of the Federal High Court for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting job seekers with promises of job placement into the National Task Force. The suspects, Comfort Obayemi and Lydia John, were both arraigned before Justice S. I. Mark on a six-count charge, the EFCC said in a statement on Wednesday. The Commission said investigation revealed that the accused collected monies from some citizens under the pretext of getting them employment into the National Task Force. The NATFORCE, launched in 2016, aims to combat illegal importation/smuggling of arms, ammunition, light and chemical weapons in the country. According to the statement, the EFCC said they committed the crime in February 2017. The Commission added that their offences for obtaining money under false pretenses was contrary to section 8(a) and punishable under section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006. Court Session The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In view of the plea of the defendants, the prosecution counsel, Odibo Gift, requested the court for a trial date. Counsel representing the defendants, Tajuddeen Shitu, applied to move a bail motion for the defendants but the prosecution counsel objected to three paragraphs contained in the motion. Consequently, the defence counsel applied to strike out the paragraphs, but the judge asked him to do so formally. Justice Mark adjourned the matter to March 9, for hearing of the bail application and remanded the defendants in Kano Correctional Home (Prison). Shanghai (Gasgoo)- After conveying the determination to bolster auto consumption, Guangzhou municipal government rapidly honored its promise by launching a set of materialized policies. From March to December 2020, the consumers who buy new energy vehicles will be given the combined subsidy of RMB10,000 per car, the government stated in an official file issued on March 1. To promote the vehicle upgrading and replacement, the consumers who replace or scrap used cars and the locally registered auto sales companies that purchase new vehicles befitting the China emission standard will be granted subsidy of RMB3,000 per car. The epidemic may trigger rising demands of private cars as consumers consider that driving their self-owned cars will be much safer than using public transportation tools like bus and subway. For that reason, Guangzhou authorities will put forth greater efforts to digest the car license plate quota newly added in last June and is likely to further increase the quota as appropriate. As a response to a state government's call to ease vehicle purchase restriction for boost auto sales, authorities in Guangzhou announced in last June the plan to increase the quota of car license plates by 100,000 from June 2019 to December 2020, with half for auction by potential petrol car buyers, and the other half for lottery by potential new-energy vehicle buyers. Before that, it capped the quota at 120,000 per year. Guangzhou's announcement came after Foshan's decision to materialize the policy for boosting auto sales. Local government of the prefecture-level city claimed that the consumer who buy vehicles that meet the China emission standard would be offered subsidy of RMB2,000-5,000 per car. After curbing entry of foreigners, Saudi Arabia has temporarily halted a non-compulsory religious pilgrimage for its citizens and residents as well in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak on March 4. The kingdom hosts Sunni Islam's holiest sites, however, this rare step was reportedly taken to expand its restrictions introduced for Muslim pilgrimages from foreign countries making the religious trip and also to limit the entry of tourists. The latest measures concern the Umrah pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca and visits to a site in Medina. The state-run agency quoted the Saudi Interior Interior Ministry official said that the decision will be under constant review and added that it will be reversed soon. The kingdom has not put restrictions in place for the obligatory and better known Hajj pilgrimage which will begin at the end of July. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has also reportedly confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 infection, health ministry confirmed to a state-run agency. The citizen that contracted the disease entered the Gulf country from Iran via Bahrain and did not confirm his travel itinerary at the border checkpoint, confirmed agency report. Read - Saudis Ban Muslim Pilgrimage In Mecca Over Fears About Virus Read - Saudi Arabia Suspends Entry Of Citizens From Gulf Cooperation Council Denied entry of citizens In a statement that was published earlier by Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry, the country had decided to temporarily suspend the entry of all citizens from the Gulf Cooperation Council member states to Mecca and Medina. The statement also clarified that the decision will exclude all citizens from Gulf Cooperation Council member states that were already in Saudi Arabia for more than 14 continuous days and didn't show any symptoms of the novel coronavirus. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across more than 70 countries since December 2019. The total number of confirmed cases within China has reportedly hit 80,282 and more than 94,000 worldwide. According to reports, the death toll in China has also surpassed 2,900 and the National Health Commission also confirmed more than 119 new cases. The death toll due to the deadly virus across the world also mounted to 3,221. Read - Pilgrims Continue To Worship At Mecca In Saudi Arabia Despite Coronavirus Fears Read - WWE Super ShowDown: Bayley Becomes First Women's Champion To Defend Title In Saudi Arabia Accusing Rahul Gandhi of playing "divisive politics", the BJP on Wednesday said it is "shameful and highly reprehensible" that the Congress leader is busy indulging in "vote bank politics" when the northeast Delhi is struck by violence. BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao's sharp attack against Gandhi came after the opposition leader led a delegation of Congress leaders to the riot-hit area, and said of division harms 'Bharat Mata' and India's reputation in the world has taken a hit due to these incidents of violence. The delegation had visited Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School and a mosque, both of which were vandalised during the riots. In a statement, Rao said Gandhi by visiting a mosque visibly conveyed a message that the Muslim community was the victim and Hindus were to be "blamed" for the violence. Gandhi had no time to visit the residence of the martyred head constable Ratan Lal or IB officer Ankit Sharma, killed by rioters, or even express condolences, Rao said and added this shows Congress' utter disregard for "the sacrifices and tribulations suffered by police and security forces". "Rather than maintain utmost neutrality and exhort peace to all sections, Rahul Gandhi chose to play divisive aimed at consolidating a vote bank. By visiting a mosque, he visibly conveyed a message that the Muslim community was the victim thus tacitly conveying a message that Hindus were to be blamed for the violence," Rao said in a statement. He also said,"it is shameful that at a time when the northeast Delhi was struck by violence, Rahul Gandhi is busy indulging in vote bank This is highly reprehensible and condemnable." The BJP spokesperson also alleged that thoughout the anti-CAA protests, "it is highly regrettable that the Congress chose to side with the perpetrators" of violence and not the security forces which quelled violence even as they suffered a huge toll. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At Greenberg Traurig each of our attorneys -- no matter whether they are here now or were previously with the firm -- is an important part of our history and our future, said Brian L. Duffy, Greenberg Traurig Chief Executive Officer. Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, with 2200 attorneys across 41 offices in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, has launched an Alumni Network portal at https://alumni.gtlaw.com. The site will serve as a hub with members-only access for current and former attorneys to connect across the globe. At Greenberg Traurig each of our attorneys -- no matter whether they are here now or were previously with the firm -- is an important part of our history and our future, said Brian L. Duffy, Greenberg Traurig Chief Executive Officer. Many of our former attorneys have gone on to pursue careers in law, government, business, and academia. Our alumni routinely make their mark at organizations worldwide. We are very proud to have called them ours and excited to reconnect. The firm notes that several studies show that corporate alumni programs provide a meaningful impact and are an important factor in driving a firms strategic initiatives. The enhanced alumni program allows us to extend our relationships with former attorneys by engaging them for life. The alumni portal is just one of the many ways -- but a critical one in which we can continue to expand our alumni initiatives and outreach to these key members of the firm family, Duffy said. To join, Greenberg Traurig former or current attorneys can simply click here or visit https://alumni.gtlaw.com. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2,200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of ASAN Hyat complex in Tovuz. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the complex. Assistant to the President - Head of the Department for Work with Law Enforcement Bodies of the Presidential Administration Fuad Alasgarov and Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ulvi Mehdiyev informed President Ilham Aliyev of the complex. The head of state launched the complex. President Ilham Aliyev viewed the innovations at the complex. After reviewing the complex, the head of state met with ASAN xidmt employees and volunteers. Objecting to the fact that a special chair was put for him, President Ilham Aliyev said: - You have put such a special chair for me, but isnt there a simple one? Take it away. Such things are unacceptable. Categorically! The head of state addressed the meeting. Speech of President Ilham Aliyev - Dear young people, it is a pleasure to see you. It is the opening of the ASAN Hyat Center in Tovuz. Congratulations on this occasion! While reviewing the center, I feel very happy because it is a reflection of many signs of our policy. ASAN xidmt is our intellectual product. The 18th center is starting to operate, and I personally attended the opening of all of them. Each time I am informed about new plans, new programs, new projects, including today. ASAN xidmt is expanding its activities. Both the geographical coverage and the number of services are expanding. When we opened the first center, the number of services was fairly limited. Today, a total of 320 services are provided here in the ASAN Hyat Center in Tovuz, and the number of applications is gradually growing. In February, I participated in the opening of the ASAN Hyat Center in Kurdamir and at that time there were 36 million applications. It is the beginning of March now and the number of applications reached 37 million. In other words, the number of applications has increased by one million in less than a month. You are also well aware that the approval rating is 99.4 percent. I believe that this is the maximum possible result, and no other service can enjoy such approval. Why? I repeat because ASAN xidmt is a reflection of our policy. The instructions I once gave are being rigorously fulfilled. The vast majority of employees at ASAN xidmt are young people, representatives of a new generation. Here they provide services with a new outlook, new thinking, new culture. This is why ASAN xidmt is a very successful project, and this success is underpinned by both a sound policy and the effective work of those who organized this work. In a short time, we were able to create a revolution in the area of public services. Public services are always very problematic. There were many complaints related to this area back in the Soviet times. During the years of independence, too, bureaucracy, corruption and bribery in the field of public services were perceived as an everyday occurrence and, unfortunately, many people got used to that. Therefore, the launch of ASAN xidmt inspired great hopes. At the same time, it was somewhat surprising because this was really an innovation. Now that the 18th center is beginning to operate, I think everyone can see that this is not some kind of a private project. It is a new approach, a way of thinking, it is our policy. The transparency and culture of ASAN must be applied everywhere else. So ASAN xidmt has become an example for many areas. It is no coincidence that a similar project is being implemented in the field of social security DOST centers are beginning to operate, which, like ASAN xidmt, will cover our entire country. We have a fairly broad program related to ASAN xidmt centers. As I have already said, this is the 18th center, but their number will reach 27 in the near future. Centers will be built in Aghjabadi, Balakan, Nakhchivan, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Salyan, and two more in Baku. Of course, this process will be continued. Thus, people will be provided with better services. This center covers several districts with a population of 700,000 people. This is the second center in the western zone the first, as I said, was opened in Ganja. The third center will also be opened in Ganja because there is a need for that. One of the advantages of ASAN xidmt is that there are no lines here. However, the demand in Baku is so high that we decided to open two more centers. In Ganja and Sumgayit, too, there is a need for a second center. I should also note that other countries are studying our experience. ASAN xidmt has already been launched under the name ASAN in other countries. This was our condition because it is our brand, our intellectual product. Of course, we are ready to share our experience with any country and are doing that. Of course, we are glad that other countries are also using our experience. International organizations are giving a high assessment to ASAN. The UN has acknowledged and awarded ASAN. All this, of course, is the result of the work done. In this center, more than 200 jobs were created and a further 50 jobs for volunteers in ASAN xidmt alone. At the same time, 50 jobs were created at the ABAD factory at the first stage. By expanding its operations, ASAN also expands its functions. These centers are already functioning in the regions as community centers cafes, discos, outdoor stages, cinemas. For example, there was no cinema in Tovuz before, i.e. in our time. And today there are two cinemas. All opportunities are available for young people to spend their leisure effectively. Of course, the volunteer movement in Azerbaijan began with ASAN xidmt. Today, this movement covers other areas too. I have ordered to set up volunteer groups in state bodies. Volunteer groups have already been established in some ministries. Volunteers did a great job at the international events we hosted the European and Islamic Games. But it was established at ASAN. Thousands of volunteers have already passed this school and taken a worthy place in life. I am sure that the youth working at ASAN xidmt, including volunteers, will have a bright future, as they are already engaged in very benevolent deed. This is multifaceted work involving direct contact with people, provision of assistance and service. At the same time, the centers have very progressive experience in terms of innovation. Therefore, I believe that this experience is indispensable for our youth to be able to build their lives in the future. ASAN xidmt also has qualities inherent in our people. Our people have always been hospitable. And those applying here are guests. We have always treated our guests with great respect. The younger generation should also be brought up on these national values. The rules of cultured conduct, cultured treatment, cultured services all this has deep roots in Azerbaijan. All this is reflected in ASAN xidmt in an organized form today. This generally has a positive effect on public relations. I am absolutely convinced that everyone who comes to this center will leave it with a feeling of satisfaction because, first of all, the building is beautiful, secondly, the conditions available, the workers smiling, the level of services provided, the efficiency, time saving and zero tolerance to corruption and bribery in ASAN xidmt. This should be the case everywhere. ASAN xidmt plays a special role in the fight against bribery and corruption in Azerbaijan because the services provided in these centers do not leave room for corruption and bribery. Therefore, we must fight this evil with the help of many tools of course, administrative measures and penalties. The operational measures that have recently been brought to the attention of all citizens, the exposure of corrupt officials, their unsightly acts all this shows that measures to combat corruption and bribery are of systemic nature. If someone doesnt understand this, they should: the fight will be continued. Penalties must be applied in relation to criminals. At the same time, there should be systemic measures too. One of them, perhaps even the first, is the rules created in ASAN xidmt. There are no opportunities for that here. Young people are already being raised in this spirit. To be honest, friendly and always ready to help all these are very important factors for the formation of people. Therefore, when speaking of ASAN xidmt, we should not be limited to the provision of services to people. This is a very serious movement that has a deeper and broader meaning, a movement that reflects our policy. I have already said this but I want to say it again: when the first centers were opened, someone might have though that these were just public service centers. This is not true. Our intentions were completely different. It was an initiative that introduced novelty into our society, and it is already reflected in our lives. Azerbaijan is a leader in this area. The creation and exportation of intellectual products is already a reality today. Of course, I want to reiterate this: having gone through an excellent school here, young people will occupy a worthy place in life and will make every effort to further develop our country. In order to achieve this, you must first of all be educated, competent and patriotic. I believe that these three main factors will protect Azerbaijan from all the troubles in the future, just as they are protecting us today. The developments in the world are unfolding right before our eyes these days. New hotbeds of conflict, new hotbeds of war, new waves of migrants, standoffs, protests, police arbitrariness, violence against peaceful demonstrators, arrests of thousands of demonstrators, their killing all this is happening before our eyes in developed countries, not in some backward ones. There are reasons for this. This is caused by public discontent. This, too, has its own reasons. It is not only about material factors. Injustice, the gap between the government and the people, stratification, unresolved social problems there are many factors. I do not want to list all of them. But the fact is that all this is a reality today. Against the background of this picture, there is calm, stability and development in Azerbaijan. Of course, these are our greatest assets and we won them ourselves, no-one helped us. In the most difficult days, no-one extended us a helping hand. I want young people to know this. We achieved everything on our own, thanks to our own courage and talent. There was a time when we did not have money. Then, in the early 1990s, the population of Azerbaijan was 8 million, of which 1 million were refugees and IDPs. There was no money, the economy was crippled and the industry was paralyzed. Tent camps, IDPs living in railway wagons, underneath them. We survived all this. But have a look! Today, thanks to our sound policies and stability, Azerbaijan occupies one of the leading places on a global scale in terms of development. Stability, calm, positive attitude in society all these are Azerbaijani realities. There is regional development. Tovuz is far from Baku. But we see development in its example. Notice that gas supply rate today is 90 percent. The level of renovated roads is 90 percent. Drinking water has always been a major problem. For several years now, the problem of drinking water has been resolved in Tovuz. A modern hospital, modern dialysis and diagnostic centers, sports centers, parks, industrial enterprises. Today I attended the opening of the State Museum of Ashiq Art and the Carpet Factory. All this suggests that the regions of our country are developing. Young people must work hard in the future so that this development is sustainable and so that our independence is eternal. Therefore, I want to say once again: much as we repeat this, there is no harm knowledge, literacy, patriotism, attachment to the motherland and national values should be above everything else. Our values have protected us as a people, as a nation from assimilation for centuries. The native language, our literature, art and national consciousness. We must not lose that under any circumstances, no way! As long as I am president, I will strive to fully establish these values, and for young people too. Because young people of today are naturally different from the older generation. And their interests are different. They have other methods of obtaining information. Many young people do not watch television. They have telephones in their hands and they get all the information from there. Sometimes young people live in a virtual space and remain a little aloof from real life. All this is natural, a picture of the present times, so to speak. But despite all this, our youngsters must be raised in the national spirit. They should know that they must be patriotic so that we continue to live as an independent country. Every young person must hold the flag of our country high, must respect national attributes and not fall under anyones influence. For centuries, our people were part of other countries, empires, were denied independence, freedom, lived under the dictate of others. We have been living as an independent country for about 30 years and should live forever. We should never be a colony in the future. To do this, we must have economic strength, military prowess, moral power and values. This is and must be above everything else. Therefore, they are trying to do this today in different ways and under various disguises they used to call it globalization, but this word has also been removed from dictionaries. Perhaps 10 years ago there was a tendency towards globalization, there was a popular belief that globalization would overcome borders, remove frontiers between nations, everyone would speak the same language and all people would have one mindset. A detrimental policy was pursued towards destroying national characteristics. It is still being pursued today, but under different names. Today, sometimes under the pretext of democracy, they try to subordinate countries. And this is done by countries that flagrantly violate democracy and human rights themselves, arrest journalists, make unreasonable charges, suppress and kill demonstrators, set dogs against them, trample people with horses, fire rubber bullets, hollow out eyes, use tear gas, and all this is obvious. This is being done by those trying to teach us a lesson in democracy. Speaking under the banner of democracy, they are trying to subordinate peoples and states, including us. Therefore, we are faced with pressure, slander and dirty campaigns because we do not bow our heads to anyone and never will. Our national pride and dignity are above everything else. Therefore, they are trying everything to lead young people astray because they know that young people are not shaped up yet, they are more demanding and intolerant of violations. And this is natural. This should be the case, but only for the benefit of the people and state, not for those sitting in another capital. Therefore, young people should know and correctly analyze all this. You should know that our main task is to strengthen independence, increase the power of the Azerbaijani state and preserve national qualities. It is in this spirit that those working at ASAN xidmt centers, including volunteers, are brought up. This is why I go back to the activities of ASAN xidmt centers, which are so highly praised by the people. Once again, I congratulate you on the opening of the center and wish you success. Thank you! In the latest chapter of Ethiopian intransigence in negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project, the Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs and irrigation released a statement harshly condemning their Ethiopian counterparts for their statement on the last round of negotiations in Washington on 27-28 February. Ethiopia had not even attended that round, with the express purpose of obstructing the negotiating process. Such behaviour is incompatible with Washingtons persistent efforts to bring the concerned parties together and bridge their differences. Ethiopia actually said it needed more time to think about this vital issue, as though Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa had not already spent a full five years in negotiations covering every detail. It is patently obvious to the international community that Addis Ababa is set on distorting the facts and spreading falsehoods in order to shirk its obligations under international law and the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles that it had signed on 23 March 2015. Ethiopia even reiterated its commitment to these principles during previous negotiating rounds, including the ones it attended in Washington. Yet now it plans to proceed with the filling of GERD in tandem with the ongoing construction of the dam, regardless of its previous agreements with Egypt and Sudan, and in violation of Article 5 of the Declaration of Principles. It should be recalled that the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles underscores the need to reach an agreement on the guidelines and rules for the first filling and initial operation of GERD that observe the principle of avoidance of harm to downstream nations. The signatories agreed to take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm in utilising the Blue/Main Nile. Egypt has repeatedly insisted on the need for a just and equitable agreement. The US and the World Bank tried to advance such agreement in the course of negotiating rounds Washington sponsored during the four past months, and until recently Ethiopia even seemed to agree to the draft provisions that Washington helped formulate. In its last statement (28 February), the US Treasury Department expressed its appreciation for Egypts constructive behaviour in the negotiations and its commitment to a consensual solution that doesnt cause harm to any party. Speaking from Washington, Egypts foreign minister affirmed that the draft agreement that had been worked out in Washington would resolve all outstanding issues and realise the interest of all three countries if they all continue to work in good faith and Ethiopia adheres to its repeated pledges not to harm the interests of Egypt. This is why Egypt, in its last statement, said: Ethiopias ownership of GERD does not give it the right to violate the principles of international law and Ethiopian commitments to the Declaration of Principles or to infringe on the rights and interests of other countries that share the Nile. The Abiy Ahmed government believes that the Nile belongs to Ethiopia alone and that it has the right to act unilaterally. In addition, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry rejected the US Treasury Department statement that stresses that final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement. Ethiopias last act of evasiveness and intransigence marks a dangerous turn in the course of the negotiating process because it constitutes a clear violation of international conventions on transborder watercourses and threatens the principle source of life for the Egyptian people. If the Eastern Nile Basin is pushed over the brink to a protracted conflict, Ethiopia will be solely to blame because of irresponsible behaviour that flies in the face of the spirit of mutual interest and cooperation which Egypt has consistently demonstrated along with development programmes in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian sides claim to need more time for consultations until after parliamentary elections is a feeble pretext and does nothing to justify such irresponsible behaviour. The vital question of Nile waters cannot tolerate such petty manoeuvrings which only serve to escalate the crisis to dangerous thresholds, which Egypt has long been working to avert through its efforts to promote an agreement that realises the interests of all concerned. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: A failing "democratic socialist" pol, known as Denver's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wannabe, is trying to extricate herself from political fallout that's come from her encouraging the spread of coronavirus at Trump rallies. Denver city council member Candi CdeBaca (I wrote about her here earlier) retweeted some leftist lunatic's vow to do that with manic, emoji-infused cheerleading. According to Denver's Fox31 News: CdeBaca quoted a tweet that said, "For the record, if I do get the coronavirus I'm attending every MAGA rally I can." CdeBaca responded and quoted the tweet by saying, "#solidarity Yaaaas!!" Here's a muddy screen shot of the tweet, the Daniel section having been since deleted, but not CdeBaca's retweet. So let's get this straight here: leftist pol styling herself as Denver's answer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threatens to spread coronavirus, a deadly disease for many, targeting Trump rallies, and does so using manic low-intelligence, emoji-filled laughter. People spend weeks in isolation just based on exposure to prevent its spread to others. Whole economies are going down in East Asia because of it. She knows that the disease is extremely contagious as well as deadly for the vulnerable, such as older people and people with compromised immune systems, but since she's none of that, she'll gladly spread it to people whose politics dissent from her own. The Colorado GOP has called on her to resign but she hasn't even apologized. This kind of talk is perfectly redolent of the kind of garbage coming out of other democratic socialists these days, such as the Iowa-based creep exposed by undercover investigative reporter James O'Keefe, leading any normal person to conclude: But just because she refuses to apologize, that doesn't mean she isn't trying to run out on her tab, evade consequences, and extricate herself from the inevitable fallout from this sick threat she ought to be arrested for given the weaponization of disease she's threatening. According to Denverite: As of Tuesday at about 10 a.m., CdeBaca's retweet, which included the hashtag #solidarity, "Yaaaas!!" and some laughing emojis, has been shared about 350 times and liked about 204 times. The comments keep piling one, mostly, it seems, from conservative Twitter users calling for her resignation. Lisa Calderon, CdeBaca's chief of staff, sent us this statement about the tweet: "Councilwoman CdeBaca made a sarcastic tweet on Twitter to call attention to the Trump administration's downplaying of the Coronavirus outbreak as a 'hoax' no more dangerous than the common flu. Rather than conservative outlets making a four-day-old Tweet their focus on Super Tuesday, they should focus their energy on demanding a competent Federal response to this public health crisis instead." Mayor Michael Hancock has opted to stay out of the fray. Mike Strott, a spokesperson with the mayor's office, said it wouldn't be commenting on the tweet. "We're focused on the work of ensuring public health and safety. The public health challenges of this virus are very real and our goal is to minimize the risks for everyone, politics doesn't factor into this." That explanation is grotesque, a piece of work. She claims she was being sarcastic, not understanding the meaning of the word, therefore it was fine. She compounds the effort by spreading lies (when she can't spread disease, lies will have to do) by falsely claiming that President Trump called the whole epidemic "a hoax," something that landed many a media hound in trouble for spreading that themselves. Trump called the Democratic narrative that he wasn't doing anything about the epidemic their "hoax," which would make her a hoaxster, given that she's jumping right in even after the claim has been discredited. Trump, in fact, has been praised by public health officials for his decisive coronavirus response, rendering her claim that nothing is being done extremely dishonest. And why the heck would that justify killing others by spreading a deadly disease? She compounds the problems in her explanation even further by attacking Republicans by saying Republicans are focused on "a four-day old tweet" as if the days past make it all right to tweet sick threats. Lastly, no apology she's not sorry in the least. Any disgust with the sick tweet she put out was on us, not her. It's the sort of thing that would make you think she might really be willing to spread the coronavirus as a political weapon against dissidents. The Democrats have done nothing about this, but it's not going well for her. A look at her YouTube shows nothing but dislikes and negative comments, plus a mere dozen or so followers. That doesn't sound like someone who's a rising power. Worse still, the Colorado Sun reports that she billed herself as Ms. Clean to voters but has rapidly been caught up in scandal in Denver, attempting to place her "wife" on the city payroll, a bona fide conflict of interest, which definitely disgusted this writer. Now she's calling for the weaponization of disease to advance her policy prescriptions. She needs a visit from the Secret Service as well as full financial responsibility if any of her Bernie Bros takes her recommendation to heart. Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of YouTube screen shot and Pixabay public domain image. NEW HAVEN An elderly Branford man who had been charged with attempted murder three years ago for allegedly trying to stab his 74-year-old wife with a kitchen knife has had the charge dismissed as a result of his recent death. Anthony DeLucia, 83, also had been charged with second-degree assault on an elderly victim and second-degree breach of peace after he was arrested outside his home Oct. 5, 2017. Branford police said they responded to a 911 call reporting a screaming woman being chased by a man carrying a knife. They said they found him in a grassy area of the parking lot, struggling on the ground with the woman and attempting to stab her. He immediately was subdued by one of the officers. The victim was treated at the scene for lacerations to her hands, arms, neck and face, then taken to a medical facility for further treatment. DeLucia, who was held in lieu of $500,000 bail, had a series of competency hearings in Superior Court in New Haven in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Judge Patrick J. Clifford heard testimony by experts from Connecticut Valley Hospitals Whiting Forensics Institute who described DeLucias fragile mental health. Clifford repeatedly ruled DeLucia was incompetent to stand trial because he could not assist in his own defense and could not understand the court proceedings. When DeLucia was brought into court by judicial marshals in March 2018 for a competency hearing, he used a walker, spoke not a word and showed no emotion while his mental health was being discussed. During the earliest competency hearings, Clifford stated he believed there was a substantial probability DeLucia could be restored to competency if he were given proper evaluation and treatment. But on Jan. 15, 2019, and Oct. 17, 2019, when Clifford again found DeLucia not competent, he deemed him not restorable. At the hearing last October, Clifford did order periodic evaluations of DeLucia and scheduled another court appearance for April 15, 2021. But court documents showed a motion filed Feb. 7 by DeLucias attorney, William Dow III: The defendant respectfully moves this court to dismiss all charges, as he passed away on Jan. 22, 2020. Clifford granted the motion Feb. 26. DeLucia had been moved to an assisted living unit last year after Dow successfully argued his bail should be reduced. Dow this week said he did not wish to comment about the case. According to DeLucias death notice in the New Haven Register, he studied in China as a Fulbright Scholar and received fellowship grants enabling him to study at more than 20 colleges and universities, including Yale. Later he was an adjunct instructor at Southern Connecticut State University, a supervisor at Quinnipiac University and a consultant to the New Haven school district. Teaching was his passion, his calling, the notice said. He wanted to have a positive impact on his students so that they would be happier, better people and lead more productive, fulfilling lives. DeLucia also taught social studies in the North Haven school district and was voted Teacher of the Year by his colleagues. The notice quoted him telling his family: When I am gone, I do not want anyone to feel sad. I have had a good life, surrounded by family and friends. I have been rich for all the love and support I have been given. This is what was most important in my life: to love and be loved, to care and be cared for. randall.beach@hearstmediact.com BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks rose on Wednesday to extend gains from the previous session after a measure of Eurozone business activity grew at the fastest pace in six months in February. IHS Markit's Composite Purchasing Managers' Index nudged up to 51.6 from 51.3 in January. That matched an earlier flash reading. Another report showed that German retail sales grew 0.9 percent on a monthly basis in January, in contrast to a 2 percent decrease in December. Nonetheless, this was slightly slower than the expected growth of 1 percent. On a yearly basis, retail sales growth increased marginally to 1.8 percent from 1.7 percent in December. The annual growth exceeded the 1.5 percent rise economists had forecast. Meanwhile, the Fed's surprise move to lower rates stirred speculation that the European Central Bank will cut rates next week. Elsewhere in Italy, health authorities said they may set up a new quarantine red zone to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Over 2,500 people have been reported to be infected with the novel coronavirus in Italy - the most of any country in Europe. The benchmark DAX was up 85 points, or 0.71 percent, at 12,069 after rising 1.1 percent the previous day. Volkswagen rose over 1 percent after unveiling the first look of its new all-electric compact SUV ID.4, a near production concept car. Dialog Semiconductor surged nearly 4 percent. The Anglo-German chip designer said it expects the chip supply chain and contract manufacturers to return to normal in the second quarter. Specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries jumped more than 3 percent after its fourth-quarter net income significantly increased to 160 million euros from 4 million euros in the previous year. Chemical and ingredients distributor Brenntag climbed 3.8 percent after reporting a rise in its fiscal 2019 profit. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Haiti - Mexic o: More than 4,300 Haitians in Baja California deprived of access to medical care The cancellation of the popular insurance leaves more than 4,300 Haitians without access to medical care in Baja California, warns Wilner Metelus, Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans, who stresses that the situation is severely affecting sick people. He recalls that the Government of Mexico does not immediately grant permanent residence to Haitians, forcing them to use a humanitarian visa which does not give them access to all services... Recall that currently in Baja California, there are approximately 4,300 Haitians who have expressed their interest in staying live there and contributing to the economy of Mexico and who ask for the support of the authorities to speed up their immigration procedures. In addition, Metelus deplores the recent death of 2 Haitians in Tijuana : one caused by an alleged "negligence" of a municipal police officer and the other murdered and asks the local authorities to clarify the facts to bring justice to the two victims. S/ HaitiLibre SPRINGFIELD Local officials, workers and residents gathered Wednesday to watch as a steel beam was hoisted to the top of the new Brightwood-Lincoln Elementary School in the North End, celebrating another milestone for the $82 million project. Those gathered for the "topping off ceremony praised the ongoing project, which is set to replace two outdated school buildings in that neighborhood. This is a project we are all going to be proud of, Superintendent of Schools Daniel J. Warwick said. And our kids, our future, are going to benefit from this project. Im just so grateful to everyone. The existing schools were built more than a century ago, and lacked gymnasiums and cafeterias, Warwick said. The new school will offer some shared major facilities but will have separate classrooms and entrances. Construction workers on the project and taking part in the ceremony included Iron Workers Local 7. City and school officials thanked the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which contributed $49 million in state funding for the project. Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said it was a glorious day in Springfield as the project took another step toward completion. The beam was signed by many people in attendance, and was topped with an American flag and a sapling a Scandinavian tradition when structures were made of wood and the small tree was intended to appease the wood god, said Jack McCarthy, chairman of the state building authority. The topping off ceremony follows a groundbreaking ceremony in September that marked the start of construction. The project is slated to be done in September 2021. McCarthy praised city and school officials for making it easy to be partners in such school construction projects. Springfield has seen money from the authority aide more than $600 million in new schools and school renovations the most in the state, officials said. School Committee member Maria Perez said the entire community is celebrating the project, and she thanked Sarno, Warwick the School Committee and the state authority for helping to make it a reality. When we come together, we see progress, Perez said. This has been a long dream come true for the residents of the North End, said Jose Claudio, director of the New North Citizens Council. In reality, this never could have been done without the community and without them being involved. Ward 1 City Councilor Adam Gomez said he attended the Brightwood school and his sister had attended Liberty. Now, his own daughter will be able to attend the combined Brightwood-Lincoln school, he said. He said the school is part of a Ward 1 renaissance that includes building a new tunnel to connect the Gerena School and the Brightwood and Memorial Square neighborhoods. Other speakers included Peter Garvey, the citys director of capital asset construction and Norman Roldan, chairman of the School Building Commission. I'm a long time reader, sometime commentator. I returned from Asia (Vietnam and Malaysia) late last Friday after traveling during the month of February. My flight itinerary took me through Hong Kong both directions on Cathay Pacific Airways. I'd been to North Vietnam six years ago, but hadn't spent much time in Ho Chi Minh City; and I'd never visited Malaysia before. As you can imagine, the news of COVID-19 affected almost every aspect of the trip in both good and bad ways. Thomas Blakeney, an SFGATE reader and frequent traveler from San Francisco, wrote this post. My initial SFO-HKG flight departed late on Feb. 3. The plane was filled to about a quarter of capacity -- just like "the good ole" days' before full flights became the norm. This worked out great for the passengers, as everyone had the opportunity to stretch out over an entire row. I slept great -- about six hours solid (with the help of an Ambien tablet). Immigration wasn't difficult since the flight originated in the United States, but I noticed that almost everyone was wearing surgical masks -- even more than is usual for an Asian country. (Be sure to see the slideshow at the top of this post for a look inside Blakeney's trip.) I was originally scheduled to spend a two-hour layover in Hong Kong, before flying to Saigon. But Vietnamese authorities had stopped all flights originating in China and Hong Kong that past weekend, so I was bumped to a later flight while they cleared the backlog of passengers. By chance, I met a cyclist from Spain while I was waiting at the airport. He was planning to bike from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City, but had to cancel his adventure after the border to Vietnam was closed due to health concerns. DON'T MISS: 6 things travelers should know in the age of coronavirus contagion Back in February, it was still early in the coronavirus or COVID-19 scare, and the Vietnamese authorities were proactive in their efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. All government employees and anyone working in the tourism sector were ordered to wear masks and take appropriate hygienic precautions. I was turned away from a temple in Ho Chi Minh, because I had left my face mask at the hotel. Most taxi drivers and restaurant and hotel workers wore masks, as did many of the locals and foreign tourists. By the time I got to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the panic on the ground had died down considerably. One reason was that Malaysia had relatively few instances of COVID-19. But the tourism industry was reeling from cancellations from the Chinese market. Hotel bookings were way down, and group tours so popular with Chinese visitors were dropped entirely. Thomas Blakeney I soon learned that my return flights were affected by the outbreak. Cathay Dragon used to fly twice daily from Penang to Hong Kong, but lack of demand forced them to reduce the schedule and consolidate all passengers on a single morning departure. Even then, the flight operated at barely 20 percent capacity. Likewise, for my HKG-SFO leg, I was originally booked on the midday departure. But when that flight and the evening departure were both canceled, we all were put on the single remaining flight that left after midnight. My original two-hour wait time ballooned to a six-hour delay, then to a full 12-hour layover! Since I was flying on a ticket paid for with Avios points, I called British Airways to investigate my options. The short answer was that there was no alternative routing on partner airlines that would reduce my travel time. Flights on Qatar, Singapore, and Malaysian Airlines required awkward connections; so I was stuck with the consequences. Fortunately, the phone rep helping me volunteered that I would be able to claim compensation from British Airways for my expenses due to the flight cancellations and delays. Long story short, I booked a 10-hour slot at the Plaza Premium First Lounge at Hong Kong International. I enjoyed an invigorating massage, a long hot shower, two full meals with decent wine, and high-speed Wi-Fi all in a relaxing, quiet atmosphere. Not a bad way to turn lemons into lemonade, and much better than a beer and Burger King. Now all I have to do is get British Airways to pick up the bill ($150) for the lounge fee. I'll let you know if they keep up their end of the bargain. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: A full list of online coronavirus resources: Where to get your questions answered Live updates: A rundown of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area How coronavirus compares to epidemics of the past How to tell if you have a cold, the flu, or coronavirus 6 things travelers should know in the age of coronavirus The worst myths and misinformation about coronavirus Are children at a lower risk for coronavirus complications? Are the elderly at a greater risk for coronavirus complications? US Surgeon General: 'Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS' CDC warns men with beards amid coronavirus scare Eerie photos show empty streets in Italy amid coronavirus fears Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates! SFGATE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. WASHINGTON - His front-runner status slipping, Bernie Sanders refocused his Democratic presidential campaign on surging rival Joe Biden as the Vermont senators allies grappled with the fallout from a Super Tuesday stumble that raised internal concerns about the direction of his White House bid. Sanders targeted Bidens record on trade, Social Security and fundraising just hours after billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his campaign and Elizabeth Warren confirmed she was privately reassessing her future in the race. The dramatic shifts Wednesday signalled that the Democrats once-crowded nomination fight had effectively come down to a two-man race for the right to face President Donald Trump in November. Sanders declared himself neck and neck with Biden as he faced reporters in his home state, Vermont, one of just four states he captured on the most consequential day of voting in the partys 2020 primary season. Biden won 10 states, assembling victories that transcended geography, race and class. What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is, Which side are you on? Sanders said. The progressive candidate lobbed familiar attacks against the former vice-presidents record but ignored supporters calls to be more aggressive and insisted his campaign would avoid any Trump-type effort that included personal criticism. I like Joe. I think hes a decent human being, Sanders said. Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country. Biden told reporters he would unify the country and, without naming Sanders, knocked the senators frequent contention that he is beholden to an elite party establishment. The establishment are all those hard-working people who voted on Tuesday, Biden told reporters in West Hollywood, California. Elected officials and leading donors rallied around Biden after his Super Tuesday romp. Top Democrats have long been skeptical of the 77-year-old lifelong politicians political strength but raced to unite behind him to blunt Sanders rise. After suspending his campaign, Bloomberg became the fourth failed Democratic presidential contender this week to endorse Biden. Like the growing chorus of Democratic officials, Bloomberg called Biden the best chance to defeat Trump in the general election. Warrens future was uncertain. Sanders confirmed that he spoke to his progressive ally earlier in the day, though it was unclear whether she would endorse him or anyone else should she leave the race. Warren didnt win a single state on Super Tuesday and finished in third place in her home state of Massachusetts. A resurgent Biden, meanwhile, was poised to finish Super Tuesday with more delegates than Sanders a stunning shift. Sanders team had hoped he would finish the night more than 100 delegates ahead of his next closest competitor. Hell likely finish dozens of delegates behind once all the votes are counted. Bidens allies sought to quickly capitalize on his success and take on Sanders. Biden campaign co-chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, blasted Sanders for suggesting that the Democratic establishment was colluding against him. Richmond said Biden is earning his votes. I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment, the Louisiana Democrat said, noting that Bidens overwhelming support among black voters gave him wide delegate gains in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia, among other states. The Sanders campaign announced it would begin airing three new campaign ads across states holding the next series of primary contests on March 10 and March 17: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington state. One new ad features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. Its a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Bidens frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama. Despite the aggressive ad buy, there was new evidence of internal frustration with Sanders strategy, which some believe has not been tough enough in courting high-profile endorsements or attacking Biden. Sanders prefers to focus his criticism on the former vice-presidents record on key issues, declining to lean into more divisive attacks that will almost certainly come up in a prospective general election match-up against Trump. For example, there has been internal discussion about highlighting Bidens role in the 1991 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy. As the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden allowed an all-male Senate panel to grill Anita Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Sanders has largely avoided the subject. Roseann DeMoro, a key Sanders ally and a former president of National Nurses United, said Bidens strong showing on Super Tuesday caught people off guard. Sanders struggle, she said, was likely tied to his gentle approach. Is Bernie too gentle on the Democratic Party? I think hes a gentleman, and they are not, DeMoro said. Bernies a statesman, and hes up against sharks. He needs to call people out for who they are. Moumita Ahmed, co-founder of the independent group Millennials for Bernie, was also disappointed in Tuesdays outcome. I was thinking Bernie would do way better, she said, adding that the campaign needs a more effective strategy to connect with African Americans. I would like to see a reassessment of how the campaign is run. From his social media platform, Trump worked to fan the flames of growing frustration within Sanders camp. The president amplified his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination. The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Trump tweeted. He also called Warren selfish for staying in the race because it hurts Bernie badly. Bidens strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories in 10 states that cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. The former vice-president showed strength in the Northeast with victories in Massachusetts and Maine. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders scored the nights biggest delegate-prize in California but won just three other states: his home state of Vermont, as well as Utah and Colorado. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. His moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 566 delegates to Biden, 501 to Sanders and 61 to Warren. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. ___ Barrow reported from Los Angeles. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. Italy Shuts Down All Schools Over Coronavirus Outbreak Officials Say People Should Avoid Kissing Italys government announced it will close all schools and universities across the country to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus after thousands have cases have been reported in more than a week. All schools are slated to be closed starting Thursday, March 5, and will be shut down until Saturday, March 15, according to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Education Minister Lucia Azzolina. The move will affect about 8 million students in the country. I hope pupils can return to school as soon as possible my commitment is to ensure that the essential public service, albeit from a distance, is provided to all our students, Azzolina said in a news conference. Italy already suspended school in the northern part of the country, the site of a COVID-19 outbreak. Overall, more than 3,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed in the countrythe most in Europealong with 107 deaths, the countrys health agency said. Were focused on adopting all measures to contain or slow down the virus, because we have a health-care system that, however good and efficient it may be, risks being overloaded, Conte said, according to the Wall Street Journal. Passengers wearing masks arrive on a flight from Italy at Guarulhos International Airport, in Guarulhos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on March 2, 2020. (Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images) A number of towns and villages in the outbreak epicenter have been sealed off by police and army roadblocks, namely in an area near Milan. Children could amplify the epidemic, and carry the disease to their grandparents. Paradoxically, school closures help protect the elderly, said Giovanni Rezza, who heads the infectious-disease department at Italys National Health Institute, in a news conference. I hope pupils can return to school as soon as possible my commitment is to ensure that the essential public service, albeit from a distance, is provided to all our students, Azzolina said. The move, she added, that closing down universities and schools wasnt a simple decision after they heard the opinion from health officials. An Italian army soldier blocks off a road leading to the village of VoEuganeo, in Italys northern Veneto region, on Feb. 28, 2020. (Claudio Fulan/LaPresse via AP) We decided to suspend teaching activities from tomorrow till 15 March. It is a decision of impact; I hope the pupils will return to school as soon as possible, she said, according to The Guardian. Health officials have already given guidance to people not to use the traditional Italian greeting of kissing on the cheek and hugging. They have also been encouraged to avoid public and crowded areas and keep a distance of two meters (about 6.5 feet) from each other. Meanwhile, individuals over the age of 65 have been encouraged to stay at home, as they are the group that is most at risk of succumbing to the virus, said officials. The Department of Health for Northern Ireland has confirmed that two more patients have tested positive for Coronavirus (Covid-19). In a statement, the Department said: Testing of patients in Northern Ireland has resulted in two further presumptive positive results for coronavirus (Covid-19), bringing the total to three since testing began. In line with established protocols, these Northern Ireland test outcomes have been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification. The two cases are not connected. One individual recently travelled from Northern Italy. The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. Both patients are adults and are receiving appropriate care. Public Health Agency personnel are working rapidly to identify contacts they may have had, with the aim of preventing further spread. Health Minister Swann said: As Ive said from the beginning it was a matter of when, not if that we have cases in NI. I would stress that Northern Ireland remains in containment phase. With two cases confirmed in the Republic, it brings the total number of cases across the island to five. WASHINGTON - Got whiplash yet? This race looks nothing like it did a week ago. It is no longer Bernie Sanders versus a muddled mess of candidates in the moderate middle. Joe Biden emerged from Super Tuesday as the clear counterweight to Sanders. And he emerged strong. Biden's last-minute surge appeared potent enough to keep Sanders from gaining an insurmountable lead toward the nomination. With several states still outstanding, it was possible that Biden could end the night with more delegates than Sanders, a result that was the longest of long shots a few days ago. Once polls closed, Biden quickly notched decisive victories in three big Southern states: Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. Then he kept going. He was projected to win Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Minnesota and Massachusetts, and was leading in several other states. ADVERTISEMENT So what are the top takeaways from the 14 contests on Super Tuesday, the biggest day on the Democrats' primary calendar? --- THE ESTABLISHMENT STRIKES BACK Biden looked like a goner for much of February. He got creamed in Iowa, was creamed again in New Hampshire, and hobbled out of Nevada a distant second. His vast lead in the polls at the start of the race seemingly had vanished. He looked tired at events, overwhelmed on the debate stage, and meandering in the field. Then came his sweeping victory Saturday in South Carolina. And on Tuesday he plowed through the South thanks to overwhelming support from African American voters and a big shift his way in the suburbs. He won or was leading in states where he was barely on the radar last week. What happened? The establishment fell into line. Big donors grabbed their checkbooks. Democratic heavyweights such as former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got off the sidelines and endorsed. Voters who had considered billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg moved to Biden en masse Tuesday. But the race still has a long way to go. Will donors dig deep enough to help Biden compete with Sanders' huge war chest? Will the organizational chaos in the Biden campaign ease now that the establishment cavalry is invested in boosting him toward the nomination? Will Biden finally stick to a coherent message on the campaign trail and stop wandering into gaffes and goofy non sequiturs? ADVERTISEMENT --- THE BERNIE BOOM IS FAR FROM OVER Sure, it was better for the Sanders campaign when the opposition was splintered and aimless. It is now him against a mostly united establishment. But betting against his movement is a big risk. It is still strong. Sanders won in Colorado and his home state of Vermont, and was leading in delegate-rich California and Texas, the night's biggest prizes. But his drubbing in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia reflects the same weakness he faced in 2016, when much of the South did not buy what he was selling. He has had particular difficulty appealing to African American voters in the Sun Belt. But he also entered Super Tuesday poised to clean up in California, the largest state, thanks in large part to the inroads with Latino voters, who also propelled his win last month in Nevada. Sanders' prospects also looked good in Texas, the second-largest state voting Tuesday. Even if he does not win Texas outright, he could vacuum up many delegates. Again, the appeal of Sanders to Latinos is playing big. Those successes strengthen the Sanders argument that he is best equipped to beat President Donald Trump. A robust Latino turnout is crucial to that effort. With small donors pouring millions of dollars into the Sanders campaign, the self-declared democratic socialist has built a formidable machine, one positioned to barrel over any number of obstacles - possibly including the Democratic Party establishment. --- ADVERTISEMENT MIKE DIDN'T GET IT DONE Former New York Mayor Bloomberg spent more than half a billion dollars and won ... American Samoa. The poor billionaires. They have been beat up and battered throughout this contest. Usually by the left. But Bloomberg is finding the mainstream isn't thrilled to have him around either. Bloomberg went from establishment savior to spoiler and now punch line. His entire case for running was built around Biden's weakness, not his stunning comeback. Bloomberg spent with abandon to make the case that he was the only moderate who could best Sanders for the nomination. Voters roundly rejected him Tuesday. Bloomberg's case collapsed once America saw not just his ubiquitous ads but the man behind them. He face-planted in his first debate. He was less a disaster in the second debate, but he did little to reassure voters who chiefly want someone who can trounce Trump. Now, voters have delivered their verdict and Bloomberg is under pressure to get out of the way and clear a path for Biden. Both men are in their late 70s, have made voters cringe while onstage, and often seem out of step with this generation's electorate. But Biden, who spent next to nothing, will emerge from Super Tuesday with a sizable bounty of delegates. Bloomberg, who spent more than any candidate in history, won but a smattering. A month ago, with centrists splintering the vote and no clear counterweight to Sanders emerging, the billionaire's timing looked impeccable. Now he is looking more like a nuisance. --- WARREN WON'T GIVE UP THE WAR - YET This race looks increasingly hopeless for Warren. The left has largely coalesced around Sanders. Moderates are spooked by her far-reaching plans. She has underperformed in state after state. A weak showing in Massachusetts is yet more dismal optics for this candidate. She has no clear path to the nomination. Yet, she pushes on. As long as this race could lead to a contested convention, the Warren campaign sees a place for her in it. And so do some very wealthy backers, who are plowing millions into a super PAC aimed at keeping her a visible presence in the field (notwithstanding her pledge earlier in the campaign to disavow any such outside money during the primary). Warren supporters argue she can rack up enough delegates to play an influential role at the party's convention in Milwaukee - or even emerge as a compromise candidate. Beyond that, they just like having her voice in the race. She is a fierce presence on the debate stage. Warren's broadsides arguably sank Bloomberg in the debates. She is an effective champion for equal rights, and makes a persuasive case for big economic change and expansive social programs to audiences that Sanders is not reaching. As long as donors like what Warren is saying and continue to give, she will have the resources to stay in the field - even if nowhere near the front of it. --- THIS WILL GET UGLIER A lot happened on Super Tuesday. But one thing that did not happen was any movement toward reconciliation between these warring wings of the party. The ideological battle lines have only hardened. Sanders ticked off his litany of grievances with Biden in an angry, finger-wagging election night speech. Biden has been unrestrained in ripping into the democratic socialist agenda that Sanders is promoting. Now that the nomination battle has narrowed down to these two, all signs suggest it will get more personal and the jabs will be more pointed. Will they come together once a nominee is chosen? Perhaps. But there is also the potential for lasting damage to the party at a time it is desperate for unity. --- (c)2020 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, has revealed that he recently visited the People's Republic of China. His revelation on Metro TV's 'Good Morning Ghana' show, drew a sharp response from the host Mr. Randy Abbey, who wanted to know if he has been quarantined following the recent outbreak of Coronavirus in China. Mr. Pratt, however, responded in the negative stating that he was in China last two months and returned to Ghana long before reports of the epidemic went viral. In an interview monitored by ghbeyondpolitics.com, he assured the host and Ghanaians that he has not contracted the virus after his short visit to China. In December 2019, a cluster of respiratory illness, originating in Hubei, China, had health officials on high alert around the world. In January, the causative agent of the disease was found to be a novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes was given a name: COVID-19 (for "coronavirus disease 2019"). It has proven to be particularly infectious and claimed about 3,000 lives in around three months. Source: ghbeyondpolitics.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A hospital in the North is planning to send Covid-19 patients to England for treatment. Antrim Area Hospital is ready for drive-through testing for the virus and expects patients will receive results within four hours. They will be swabbed in the nose and mouth then told to go home and self-isolate while awaiting the outcome. Doctors are attempting to contain the spread of the virus until the summer, when it will be easier for hard-pressed health services to manage and the infection could go dormant. Dr Seamus OReilly, medical director for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said: If the test comes back positive there is a very well-rehearsed process that we do in conjunction with our colleagues in England. We identify an infectious diseases bed in England, if possible, to transfer the patient to. If we cannot transfer the patient across for whatever reason, the infectious diseases beds in the Royal (The Royal Victoria in west Belfast) will be used for that purpose, that is ward 7A. Tests are analysed in Belfasts virology lab and the number which can be conducted has been increased. Results will be ready within four hours, Dr OReilly added. One person in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with the condition so far. Meanwhile, Stormonts First and Deputy First Ministers have scaled back a US investment trip to take part in emergency meetings on Covid-19. Arlene Foster said the infection is the top priority of ministers in Belfast. She and Michelle ONeill cancelled plans for the New York leg of their itinerary at the start of next week. Economy Minister Diane Dodds will be fulfilling engagements in New York instead. Tehran, March 4 : Iran has temporarily set free over 54,000 prisoners to combat the spread of coronavirus. The inmates being freed are those who have tested negative for the virus and posted bail. It does not include 'security prisoners' jailed for more than five years. Multiple outlets reported that the inmates were allowed out of prison after they tested negative for Covid-19 and posted bail. Prisoners who were sentenced to more than five years, called "security prisoners," will not be freed. The death toll in Iran has now risen to 92, while 586 new cases were reported on Tuesday, which brings the total up to 2,922 in the country. Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have all reported cases with links to the Iranian city of Qom, a popular tourist site. The Iranian government said Wednesday that those in Qom showing signs of the virus will be immediately quarantined. Medical teams will also be taking temperatures of anyone attempting to leave the city. As of Wednesday, there have been at least 94,250 confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, with 80,270 of those cases in mainland China where the virus originated, recent data from Johns Hopkins University shows. BENZIE COUNTY -- On March 10, Benzie County voters will have to decide on three ballot items during the Primary Election. Two of the items are county-wide. One is for renewing the operating millage for the Benzie Bus. If approved by voters, the millage will levy a 0.4901 mill for five years to raise money for the continued operations of the bus system. The Benzie Bus millage was originally approved in 2006 and renewed by voters in 2011 and 2015. If approved, it will raise $643,126 in its first year. Most of the operating expenses of the Benzie Bus are related to labor, which is little over $1 million of the budget. Other expenses include health and retirement benefits, board compensation, service expenses, fuel and lubricants, other expenses and utilities and business insurance. Another county-wide ballot item is the renewal of a 911 surcharge. The surcharge, up to $3, has been charged monthly since the ballot measure was last approved in 2015. The rate is set every year by the Benzie County Board of Commissioners. The period the surcharge would be in effect would be for five years, from 2021 through 2025. The surcharge would be assessed on all landline, mobile and VOIP users within Benzie County for 911 services. The money collected from the surcharge makes up the majority of the central dispatch budget. Central dispatch includes 911 services and communications for Benzie County first response organizations such as EMS, law enforcement and fire departments. Finally, Crystal Lake Township voters will revisit a proposed ban on recreational marijuana establishments. The simple ballot item states the proposal would "Prohibit all marihuana establishments, as defined by the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act, within Crystal Lake Township." It also would require the township to establish penalties for violating the ordinance. The proposed ban is the result of a successful petition drive started by a group of residents opposed to marijuana establishments in the township after the township, and the State of Michigan, voted to decriminalize marijuana in 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:32:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close People wearing masks walk on street in Bangkok, Thailand, March 5, 2020. Thailand is manufacturing as many as 50 million cloth masks which will be provided for people nationwide to wear against the COVID-19 outbreak, confirmed Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak) BANGKOK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is manufacturing as many as 50 million cloth masks which will be provided for people nationwide to wear against the COVID-19 outbreak, confirmed Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda on Wednesday. To assure no shortage in health masks for all people against the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has assigned all local administrative organizations under the care of the Ministry of Interior throughout the country to manufacture some 50 million cloth masks beginning this week, according to the interior minister. They are expected to be available for distribution to the people nationwide from next week, he said. Meanwhile, all Thai nationals who are returning home from Daegu city and Gyeongsang province in South Korea will be quarantined at specific places after they have arrived in Thailand for 14 days though they may not be found to have a fever or be infected with the COVID-19 at airports, said Disease Control Department Director General Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai. Those who may come from South Korea's cities or provinces other than Daegu and Gyeongsang will not be quarantined under care of authorities and will be allowed to go home where they will constantly watch themselves for 14 days, the director general said. He said 19 Thai nationals who came from South Korea on Monday and Tuesday were found to have had a fever and are currently quarantined. As many as 5,000 Thais are expected to return home shortly from South Korea in the face of the pandemic. More than 22,000 Thais are currently employed in that country, either legally or illegally. BOSTON -- A Haitian national convicted of forcing four victims into prostitution was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to serve 21 years and 10 months in prison. Reginald Abraham, 51, who lived in Dracut and Malden, was also ordered to pay $728,000 in restitution to his victims and ordered to serve 15 years of supervised release once he completes his prison sentence by U.S. District Judge William G. Young. He also will face deportation upon completion of his sentence, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Andrew Lellings office. A federal grand jury in July found Abraham guilty of four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He has been held in federal custody since being arrested on Sept. 6, 2017, the statement said. Abraham originally met his victims, who are all from Maine, through social media. He eventually convinced them to live with him and picked them up from their homes and forced them into prostitution during a four-year period between 2012 and 2016, the statement said. Abraham forced the women into prostitution throughout New England. He maintained his control over these victims through the use of physical violence, threats, rape, and giving and withholding drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine, according to the statement. The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance of FBI agents in Maine and police departments in Dracut and Portland, according to the statement. The spread of coronavirus in some cases can be recognized as force majeure, the consequences of which did not allow fulfillment of obligations under economic contracts, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine (CCI) Hennadiy Chyzhykov has said. "The CCI of Ukraine receives a large number of requests regarding the recognition of the spread of coronavirus as force majeure. The CCI very carefully approaches this issue and relies on international practice and the legal framework," he told Interfax-Ukraine. At the same time, Chyzhykov said that in general "coronavirus, like flu, is not a basis for evidence of force majeure." According to him, the basis for evidence of force majeure is the presence of one or more circumstances stipulated by law. Among them are such circumstances, including an epidemic. In addition, force majeure circumstances may be determined by the parties in the text of the contracts. "The presence of force majeure circumstances in the contracts such as an epidemic, an emergency situation in the healthcare sector or restrictive actions of the authorities, strengthens the position on the recognition of facts that do not allow the fulfillment of relevant obligations. But it is always necessary to provide evidence that it is coronavirus or measures to combat its spread that are circumstances that could cause the inability to fulfill obligations," Chyzhykov said. He also said that a party that refers to force majeure circumstances should contact the competent authority (the chamber of commerce and industry) of the country where these circumstances arose, and obtain the appropriate document (certificate), so that it can be presented to the counterparty according to terms of the contract. The opening of the latest James Bond movie "No Time To Die" has been delayed, scrapping its original April release date until November in response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a statement issued by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli on Wednesday. Why it matters: It's the first major Hollywood movie to push back its global rollout amid virus concerns. The film is now expected to hit theaters in the United Kingdom on Nov. 12 and the United States on Nov. 25. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Daniel Craig, it was set for release in early April following a March 31 world premiere in London. The big picture: MGM is not the only production company taking precautionary measures. Disney also delayed the release of the live-action remake of "Mulan" in China indefinitely as national officials closed thousands of movie theaters to prevent the spread of the virus. Go deeper: Coronavirus scare hits media, advertising industries Now, in 2020, people of color often is used to refer to the collective group of non-white Americans. It is offensive to single blacks out as colored. That, in part, is because of the painful segregationist history associated with the term prior to the mid-1960s. Colored-only restrooms and water fountains are examples of harmful relics of the Jim Crow South that black people had to fight, and die, to remove from American culture. Around 5,000 Taliban prisoners will be released immediately; like the 1,000 held by the Taliban. The last helicopter is a term often used to symbolise the departure of a foreign force from an occupied land. How that helicopter departs actually denotes the status and future prospects of peace in a zone wracked by war and instability. The Afghanistan peace deal, long in the making, gives no indication that the last helicopter of the US and its allies will leave Afghanistan in peace and tranquility. The deal is, of course, welcome but the uncertainties inspire little confidence and thus the cautious Indian reaction is quite natural. The few details available need brief reiteration. Thirteen thousand American and other troops are to draw down to 8,500 in 135 days, while working towards full withdrawal in 14 months. The Taliban has promised not to allow territories held by it to be used by terror groups to target foreign troops. Around 5,000 Taliban prisoners will be released immediately; like the 1,000 held by the Taliban. The US is to work with the UN Security Council to remove sanctions on Taliban leaders, as the Taliban and the Afghan government negotiate a ceasefire and political settlement. How this deal was reached is a different matter, its the workability that is in question. It seems less a deal and more a compromise. Indias demand that any solution be an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and an Afghan-controlled process hardly seems relevant in the emerging scene. President Ashraf Ghanis National Unity Government has reportedly agreed to negotiate a ceasefire and engage in an intra-Afghan dialogue with the Taliban. However, some reports say a prisoner exchange is not acceptable to the government, the first hiccup within 24 hours. The immediate release of prisoners will lead to a surge in the Talibans strength. What is still not clear is why the Taliban was reluctant about the Afghan governments presence in the talks, and how serious the Taliban will now be in engaging with it for a ceasefire and political settlement? The US too would have benefited from Mr Ghanis presence; the subsequent ownership of the deal would then be unquestioned. The feasibility of the Taliban seeing the back of the last helicopter and then reneging on the deal through a renewed full military solution can only be ignored at great risk. The US agreed to negotiate with the Taliban and accepted its demand that the Ghani government be kept out of the negotiations. Now to expect the Ghani government to accept verbatim what has been negotiated may also not be fair or prudent. The prisoner exchange is just the first of the bumps on the not so smooth road towards implementation. That President Trump was agreeable to a time-bound drawdown was not surprising as he has an electorate to appeal to in eight months time. But the US strategic community was critical of the same assurance when then President Barack Obama made a similar announcement. With no laid-down linkages to the situation on ground or the fulfillment of conditions, the US could get itself into a trap. Yet, no one expects that such a deal will have everything built into it to the last point. That is why continuity in engagement is so essential. Will the Ghani government now be represented in the engagement that the US should be continuously involved in? Interestingly, the Agreement for bringing Peace to Afghanistan somewhat awkwardly states that it is with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a term the Taliban should be reasonably delighted with because it accords to it a certain legitimacy that eluded it for long. Peace deals are not always neat arrangements, especially when they are against renegade non-state organisations like the Taliban, but such deals are usually preceded by a decision on the rules of engagement for a negotiated ceasefire. In this case, many things about the end state seem to have been outlined without the takeoff point of the ceasefire being defined. The Taliban occupies a major part of Afghanistan and would not like to lose the military initiative; it will demand a ceasefire on its terms which will per force have a linkage to the other provision, the need for it to prevent the use of its territory for the targeting of foreign troops. These two issues will go hand in hand as the process proceeds ahead; a ceasefire and means of credibly monitoring it will need to be established early if anything is to be achieved. If neat lines are to be expected, the Afghan National Army, all of 180,000 strong, should see a partial demobilization, with a merger of some Taliban forces. In the tribal and ideological complexity that makes up Afghanistan, such an arrangement is considered utopian. This is where the next bump in the road will appear. Demobilisation and rehabilitation are again complex and expensive exercises which the United Nations is adept at. Will the UN and its subsidiaries find a place in the processes which will emerge soon? The Taliban can easily play out 14 months with full cooperation to see the last US helicopter leave before it initiates civil war-like conditions to meet its aim. The party which benefits the most will obviously be Pakistan, which has been the key interlocutor, but a relationship with the Taliban can be tricky. No doubt it will hold the key for the international communitys hopes for a full implementation of the peace deal. Although India was invited for the signing ceremony, it now has to tread a careful path. If it wishes to continue playing a role, engagement with the Taliban will need initiation, something Pakistan will ensure it scuttles before it reaches any realisation stage. Indias soft power efforts in the past have been appreciated by the Afghan people and the international community, but these also ensured that Indian consulates exist at Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat, through which direct engagement could be carried out along with easy visa management for travel by Afghans to India. For Pakistan this is anathema, and some pressure to wind up the consulates can be expected. The fear in India that the deal will provide enough resources for re-initiation of a hybrid conflict in Kashmir may be unfounded, on the basic premise that 30 years after the first such initiation India is a vastly different country. For US President Donald Trump, of course, the deal comes as a boost for his electoral prospects. Yet equally the chances of the deal failing and the likely endangerment of American troops in that eventuality could be his worst nightmare. Popular Nigerian media personality, Daddy Freeze, has warned his followers not to be deceived by motivational speakers who tell them its better to own a business than to work for someone else. The On-Air Personality said business acumen is a gift and people need to know if they have this gift first before diving into it. Recall that Reno Omokri had earlier pointed out the disadvantages of relying solely on ones salary. READ ALSO Daddy Freeze Slams Christians Who Travel For Church Services He also pointed out that there are salary earners who earn way more than business owners. See His Post Here: Saudi Arabia is urging OPEC+ to agree to an oil-output cut of more than 1 million barrels a day to compensate for the hit to demand from the global spread of the coronavirus. Options discussed by ministers in Vienna on Wednesday included a reduction as big as 1.5 million barrels a day, but the talks were still underway and there was no agreement yet, said delegates, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. To secure a supply curb that could support prices, the Saudis must first overcome Russian resistance. The kingdoms push reflects mounting concern that growth in fuel consumption could be wiped out this year as the outbreak wreaks havoc on the world economy. Following oils biggest weekly slump since the 2008 financial crisis, ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies must overcome their differences to forge a deal, while also grappling with the risks of bringing together delegations from 23 nations as the deadly disease continues to spread. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, whose country is enduring a severe coronavirus outbreak, arrived in the Austrian capital on Wednesday without his usual cohort of government officials. He refused to be drawn on the possible extent of production curbs, and said Russia is likely to wait until the last moment to make any decision. The cut under discussion in the Austrian capital is larger than that put forward by the groups technical committee on Tuesday. The panel recommended a 600,000 to 1 million-barrel-a-day reduction in the second quarter, more ambitious than curbs mooted in February but still short of some estimates of the demand loss. Equatorial Guineas Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy Gabriel Obiang Lima told reporters that he supports a cut at the higher end of that range. Crude jumped as much as 2.6% in New York and traded at $48 a barrel as of 10:36 a.m. Prices slumped 16% last week, and remain too low for most OPEC+ members to balance their budgets. Delayed start With flights canceled in Europe, schools closed in Japan, towns quarantined in Italy and a rising death toll from Iran to Washington state, the coronavirus crisis has gone global, and with it, its impact on energy demand. For only the fourth time in almost 40 years, oil consumption may not grow at all in 2020, according to a growing minority of traders, investors and analysts. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday became the first major Wall Street Bank to forecast a contraction in demand this year. This is a sudden, instant demand shock, said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit Ltd. The scale of the decline is unprecedented. In an effort to limit potential contagion as officials arrived in Vienna, OPEC said medical advisers would conduct screenings to detect staff or delegates who might have high temperatures. Some employees will be told to work from home. OPEC told national delegations to limit their size to the bare minimum, pressing ahead with the meeting even as conferences across the globe were canceled. Amid the difficult circumstances, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak sought a moment of levity, posting on Twitter a video of themselves performing a handshake with their feet, in keeping with guidelines to avoid bodily contact that could spread the virus. OPEC has taken the unprecedented step of blocking journalists from entering its headquarters, and has also scrapped the final press conference in favor of a webinar. The cartels gatherings typically attract a contingent of hundreds of officials, reporters, TV crews, analysts and consultants from around the world. The OPEC+ alliance was formed in late 2016, and has been struggling to manage the price impact from the U.S. shale boom ever since. It kicked off a new round of supply curbs at the start of this year, removing about 2.1 million barrels a day from the market. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: The EnterpriseAzerbaijan.com website, together with Australias University of Newcastle, carries out activities within the Creative Spark project with the aim of developing entrepreneurial education in Azerbaijan and supporting startups, a source in the Azerbaijani Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication told Trend. The president always focuses on the startup movement in Azerbaijan, the source said. According to the Tax Code, startups, which are small enterprises and legal entities in Azerbaijan, are exempted from taxation for three years from the date of getting the Startap certificate. "There are more than 20 incubation and accreditation centers in Azerbaijan, the source said. Among them are the centers created by the state and the private sector. There are also organizations working within the public-private partnership. The State Employment Service under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population has begun to support innovative and non-traditional projects as part of the self-employment program since 2020, the source added. To increase the potential of startups included in EnterpriseAzerbaijan.com and the level of self-employment in the country, the website entered into partnership with the State Employment Service. "For the first time in Azerbaijan, EnterpriseAzerbaijan.com offers crowdfunding opportunities to local innovative startups and small business owners, the source said. The Coronavirus outbreak is a global emergency, in the last hours Iran is one of the countries with the highest number of infections and Wikipedia Farsi was blocked as fears spread. The NetBlocks internet observatory, which tracks disruptions and shutdowns, revealed that Iran has blocked access to the Farsi (Persian) language edition of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia since March 2nd, 2020. All other language editions were available in the country, except the Hebrew that was blocked in the past. It seems that only the mobile version was reachable by Iranian users. The restrictions were implemented for some 24 hours and the government removed them in the afternoon of March 3rd, 2010. Network data confirm that the blocks are technically consistent with known techniques used to restrict online platforms in Iran, with SNI filtering and DNS poisoning in place to prevent the website from loading. reported NetBlocks . Confirmed: #Wikipedia Farsi has been blocked in #Iran; real-time network data confirm the Iranian web edition of the online encyclopedia is now blocked by means of SNI filtering as fears over #coronavirus crisis spread online; incident ongoing https://t.co/Xs2kb80gat pic.twitter.com/tiEJKBMPv7 NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) March 3, 2020 The restrictions were implemented with the same mechanism used to block access to social media platforms in the country, such as Twitter and Facebook. Iran us facing a growing crisis due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the government will temporarily release 54,000 people from prisons as officials struggle to contain the rapid spread of the epidemic. Iran has already reported more than 2,300 positive cases. According to the experts, the Iranian government aims at fighting misinformation about the Coronavirus epidemic and criticism over its way of managing the crisis. It seems that the restriction took place as global news media reported the death of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a prominent advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, caused by the Coronavirus . Anyway, Wikipedia has not removed articles related to Irans handling of the Coronavirus epidemic and remains the articles open for editing. Additional technical details on how is the access to Wikipedia being restricted were reported in the post published by Netblocks. Pierluigi Paganini ( SecurityAffairs coronavirus, Iran) Share this... Linkedin Share this: Twitter Print LinkedIn Facebook More Tumblr Pocket Share On Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:07:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BRUSSELS, March 4 (Xinhua)-- Belgium confirmed on Wednesday 10 new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 23, according to a press release issued by the Federal Public Health Service. The reference laboratory of the KU Leuven, a research university in the Dutch-speaking town of Leuven in Flanders, Belgium, carried out 495 new tests for COVID-19 on Tuesday and ten people tested positive. Of these ten, nine had returned from a trip to northern Italy. They developed a respiratory tract infection and a relatively mild flu. These nine patients are in quarantine at home. The other one, however, developed a more severe respiratory infection and was admitted to Saint-Pierre Hospital in Brussels. Further investigation by the medical teams and hygiene inspectors revealed that this patient had been in contact with a patient carrying coronavirus after his trip to Veneto in northeastern Italy. Also on Wednesday, news site Euractiv reported that a EU staffer tested positive for the novel coronavirus after returning to Brussels from Italy. The report said the unnamed official works in the European Defence Agency, and as a result all meetings to be held at its premises until March 13 have been cancelled as a precautionary measure. The authorities said he is among the 23 confirmed cases. Belgium reported the first case of COVID-19 early February, when one of the nine returnees from Wuhan, China, tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Belgian was discharged from the Saint-Pierre Hospital in Brussels on Feb. 15 after tests turned negative. Environment minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday visited the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi's Babarpur and interacted with the locals. The minister, who is an MLA from the Babarpur constituency, directed officials concerned to provide all necessary facilities in the area. According to a statement, Rai visited Kabir Nagar, Kardampuri, Jyoti Nagar, Vijay Park Subhash Mohalla and North Ghonda areas and met the families affected by the communal violence. "The work of providing relief to the people affected by the riots is going on. Food, water, toilets and medical facilities are being provided by the government for the riot-affected people. "Wherever there is a need, a relief camp will be set up by the government," Rai was quoted as saying in the statement. He said sub-divisional magistrate and other officials along with volunteers are ensuring full support and relief work in the riot-affected areas. Officers are visiting the homes of those people whose houses, shops, vehicles have been burnt or damaged during the violence and of those who have been injured or died, he said. Meanwhile, in another statement, the government said the peacekeeping efforts of the Delhi government with displaced victims of Old Garhi Mandu village in northeast Delhi have yielded results. "Many people returned to their houses through this peace initiative. The police along with the district administration have assured safe passage to the displaced victims. The necessary arrangements in their houses like cleaning were also made on Wednesday. The initiative witnessed participation of the local people from the village as well," it stated. To make peace initiative long-lasting, locals have formed an Aman (peace) Committee for the village on Wednesday with members from some communities, which will meet on a fortnightly basis. The committee will also ensure that no rumours are spread in the area and communal peace is maintained, it added. The communal violence in northeast Delhi, which was sparked by protests over the amended Citizenship Act, and has left 42 dead and over 200 injured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amy Klobuchar was the second to last speaker at the South Carolina Democratic Party Candidates Dinner, held the Monday before that states primary in late-February. The event ran long, with all the major presidential candidates speaking over the loud clinking of forks and glasses. In the midst of Klobuchars standard stump speech, the house lights at the Charleston Marriotts Crystal Ballroom went up, seemingly signaling the end of the evening. But gamely, if a little flustered, the Minnesota senator persisted, until the lights slowly dimmed again, showing the night was not, in fact, over just yet. She came in sixth place in the Palmetto State, and with her money running dry, the lights eventually came up on Klobuchars whole campaign. On Monday she announced she was dropping out of the race and endorsing Joe Biden. But Klobuchar has left her mark. Her campaign has raised the flag for common sense practicality in an age of extremism and hyper-partisanship. While Donald Trump self-inflates and Bernie Sanders talks of revolution, Klobuchar keeps to a middle lane, including on the big tech issues of the day. From election security to privacy to transparency in online ads, Klobuchar is a practical legislator in a political environment that at times has seemed chaotic. Related: Yang 2020 and the Search for the Next Crypto Candidate Unlike Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Yang, Klobuchar has said little about cryptocurrencies, except to express wariness for them. At a congressional hearing on money laundering and the financing of terrorism in late-2017, she made a reference to crypto that is in line with her background as a prosecutor. Is this transition were seeing from cash to digital going to make it easier or harder for law enforcement to track these money laundering cases, and do you think these drug cartels are going to start going cash free, and what do you do about it?, she asked. This seemingly hints at some skepticism of the idea of digital currencies, even if thats not necessarily reflected among her own supporters. Story continues Jen Gibson, a Democrat running for South Carolina state legislature who attended Amy Klobuchars post-debate rally at Founders Hall in Charleston, says the world of digital currencies is coming, whether we like it or not. Related: Why Arent the Candidates Talking About Digital Currency? Its a global environment, Gibson said. Its a global economy and this idea that a few countries are going to control the currency, thats changing, and is a conversation we are going to have to have. Another voter I spoke with, who supported Klobuchar based on her legislative record and her record in Minnesota of bringing in votes from moderate Republicans, was also open to the idea of a digital dollar. With Facebook proposing Libra, and the Chinese taking steps towards digitizing their own national currency, she expressed openness at the idea of the U.S. doing the same. Id be open to it, Id have to learn more about it though, and also see some regulation, she said. Id definitely trust it more than what Facebook is doing. Other voters admitted they just didnt have enough knowledge about cryptocurrencies to offer thoughts on it, however. That being said, the fact that in some cases the general public, and local legislators in South Carolina, are interested in learning more about digital currencies or actively considering its implications as parts of their platforms suggests candidates should be offering at least some thoughts on it. Election security was a signature issue Klobuchar has long been interested in digital security, particularly when it comes to elections, according to those who have known her for years. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, who served in the state legislature, remembers that when Klobuchar was a county attorney in the early 2000s, she pushed him to put forward a bill on the then-novel phenomenon of phishing. She brought that to my attention initially, he said. I was a first-term legislator, and I got that a provision addressing phishing into the public safety bill. So she showed an early fascination with and commitment to security and cybersecurity issues. Klobuchar took the the lead on the Election Security Act, which was aimed at making elections more secure as well as preventing foreign interference. And a significant part of her platform dealt with the growing issue of foreign interference, from infrastructure to elections. Her campaign said that if elected president, she would have issued an executive order launching multiple cybersecurity initiatives, and introduce legislation to boost election security funding, mandate back up paper ballots and force campaigns to report foreign interference to the Feds. We have overwhelming evidence that foreign adversaries are interfering in our elections, but we continue to do nothing to protect the integrity of our democracy. Election security is national security, and it is past time for congress to take action, Klobuchar said in a statement upon introducing the Elections Security Act. In Minnesota, the funding she helped secure through State Election Security Grants has been used to upgrade cybersecurity protections for election systems, according to Secretary Simon. But there is a need for continued work and dedication to election security, given that the threats to it arent going away. Secretary Simon works closely with the United States intelligence agencies to conduct analysis of the states election systems, after which the agencies provide recommendations for the state to pursue. The recommendations are very expensive, says Secretary Simon. They have very big price tags that outpace the ability of state budgets on a consistent basis to address. And so federal partnership on an ongoing basis is really, really important because turning back the bad guys is going to cost a lot of money. He said Klobuchars willingness to ensure things get done, and do the necessary work outside of the spotlight, is something that sticks out to him from working with her in the past. She is tenacious, results oriented, committed and hardworking, he says. Those are just the things that come to my mind, right away about her. She really does care about getting things done and thats quite impressive to me. Honest ads Another tenet of her work around elections is the goal of limiting not just direct foreign interference with election systems, but also through disinformation and opaque ads that run on social media platforms. Remember, its the companies that are making money off this that are basically going to have to put in place these safeguards to safeguard our democracy. And then if they dont do it and complaints are being made, just like everything else, as the money is gravitating into these online ads, they have to be regulated. So I dont foresee some massive bureaucracy. I just see people doing the same thing that they do right now when complaints are brought to them about broadcast. Senator Amy Klobuchar on NPRs Morning Edition in October of 2017. She sponsored the Honest Ads Act, which would force social media companies to disclose who paid for ads run on their platforms. This requires the social media companies to do the same thing that the newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations already have to do, John Bessler, Senator Klobuchars husband, told me in South Carolina They have to keep their ads on file and show who paid for them. And I dont know why the social media companies would resist that. But some of them have been. And this is where youre seeing a lot of mischief in terms of foreign countries, for example, buying ads in rubles. When asked whether he believed that tech companies deserved greater scrutiny when it came to elections, Bessler said they should, because they are a part of our democracy. The tech companies have a responsibility as part of our democracy to make sure that our elections dont turn into a bunch of bots attacking people online, he says. There should be real people having an honest discussion and debate about the issues. Weve got to make sure that they play by the same rules that the newspapers do and, and the TV stations do. A long record on privacy legislation Klobuchar has also given legislative scrutiny to digital privacy. We need to put some digital rules of the road into law when it comes to privacy, she said in the snow-bound speech launching her campaign in 2019. For too long the big tech companies have been telling you, Dont worry, weve got your back while your identities in fact are being stolen and your data is being mined. Our laws need to be as sophisticated as the people who are breaking them. The bill Klobuchar introduced, the Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act of 2019, would require social media companies to inform users, prior to them even creating an account, that their personal data will be collected and used by both the operator and third parties. It would allow people to request what data companies had on them, who it has been shared with, and allow people to opt out of their data being collected. Late in 2019, she also co-sponsored the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA), which would give people greater control over their personal data. It would do this by stopping companies from collecting sensitive covered data without first getting explicit permission set up strict standards around the collection and sharing of data, penalize companies who violate these standards and codify the rights of individuals to pursue claims against entities that violate their data privacy rights. It also would mandate each company subject to it to appoint a privacy officer and a data security officer, which would be charged with performing annual data security checks. Companies continue to profit off of the personal data they collect from Americans, but they leave consumers completely in the dark about how their personal information is being used, Klobuchar said in a statement accompanying the bills release. Consumers have a right to know if their personal data is being sold and to easily see what data has already been distributed. Our legislation establishes digital rules of the road for companies, ensures that consumers have the right to access and control how their personal data is being used, and gives the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the tools they need to hold big tech companies accountable. Its time for Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation. Senator Amy Klobuchar in a November 2019 statement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the bill a strong step forward in the national conversation over how government should protect us from businesses that harvest and monetize our personal information. Klobuchar also proposed the idea of a tax on large tech firms who traffic in data and make money off the ad targeting such detailed data allows. Were their commodity, and were not getting anything out of it, she said in an interview on the RECODE podcast in March of 2019. When they sell our data to someone else, well, maybe theyre gonna have to tell us so we can put some kind of a tax on it, just like we do with other businesses. If you go on a truck, if you send stuff on rail, you have to pay for the roads and you have to pay for the rail, and maybe theres some way we can do that with large sets of data. In South Carolina, tech issues didnt figure much in Klobuchars stump speech, which focused on her electability, track record on legislation, and infrastructure, among other issues. But in her plan for her first 100 days in office, she makes clear that privacy wont be an afterthought. Senator Klobuchar will propose landmark legislation to take on monopoly power, empower our workers, and protect consumers privacy and health data privacy, it reads. While Klobuchar has folded her bid for the White House, her campaign has helped put issues like digital privacy and internet user rights higher up on the agenda. Related Stories The Bombay high court has restrained Thane police from taking any coercive action against an absconding politician from Mira Road, who is accused of rape and atrocities under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, till March 20. The politician had approached the court for quashing of an FIR against him on February 28 on the grounds that the complaint was motivated as he had supported the candidate who stood against the complainant in the Mira Bhayandar civic elections and the complainant lost. Accuseds counsel further submitted that he was married to the complainant for 20 years and hence the belated complaint of rape was frivolous and hence should be quashed. The division bench of acting chief justice B P Dharmadhikari and justice Nitin Borkar, while hearing the application filed by the accused was informed by senior counsel Aabad Ponda that the complainant had contested an election but lost to a candidate supported by the accused. Ponda further submitted that the accused had married the complainant in 1999 and they had a son. However, as the accused had supported the winning candidate, the complaint of rape was lodged against him. In light of these submissions, Ponda sought interim relief from arrest for the accused till his petition for quashing of the FIR was heard. However, complainants lawyer, advocate Rizwan Merchant, opposed the plea and said that the accused had married her in 1999 but had restrained her from disclosing their relationship. In this way, Merchant said, the accused exploited the complainant under the false assurance that he would come clean on the relationship once his political career took off. Merchant submitted that this was a clear case of luring her under a false promise and hence the rape case was valid. Merchant added that the atrocities complaint was also valid as the accused had passed casteist remarks against the complainant last year. International pressures on India are mounting. It is possible that external factors, including ones that nobody can predict such as impacts of the coronavirus may play a significant part in determining the fate and future of our country. Joining the Dots is a weekly column by author and journalist Samrat in which he connects events to ideas, often through analysis, but occasionally through satire *** The title itself is a mouthful: Agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America. The date takes three lines to mention: February 29, 2020, which corresponds to Rajab 5, 1441 on the Hijri Lunar calendar and Hoot 10, 1398 on the Hijri Solar calendar. The agreement has four parts of which the first two are guarantees from the Taliban that Afghan soil will not be used against the security of the USA and its allies, and by the US of the announcement of a timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. The negotiations between the Taliban and the official government of Afghanistan, which is not a party to this agreement, will start after the guarantee of withdrawal of foreign troops. A comprehensive ceasefire will be on the agenda of those subsequent talks if they take place. In other words, after 19 years, 2,500 American soldiers lives, and $2 trillion thats $20,00,00,00,00,000 wasted, the US under Donald Trump is in a hurry to cut its losses and run. It is handing over the country on a platter to the Taliban, who already control about two-thirds of the territory anyway. The official government of President Ashraf Ghani, whose survival without the foreign troops is doubtful, is riven by a deep divide between him and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who was Chief Executive of the Unity Government of Afghanistan until last month, when results of an election in which he had challenged Ghani were declared. Abdullah has rejected the results, which declared Ghani winner, alleging ballot-stuffing. The US has already begun withdrawing troops. Ashraf Ghani has already tried to put a spanner in the works by refusing to release 5,000 Taliban fighters, former terrorists already elevated in the accord to the status of political prisoners now, as agreed between the US and the Taliban. The Taliban has responded by promising to resume attacks. Meanwhile, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani Network and deputy leader of the Taliban, who is an international terrorist on the FBIs Most Wanted list with a prize of $5 million for information leading to his arrest, is now penning sagacious Op-Eds in The New York Times. In a piece published on February 20, he wrote, Reports about foreign groups in Afghanistan are politically motivated exaggerations by the warmongering players on all sides of the war. It is not in the interest of any Afghan to allow such groups to hijack our country and turn it into a battleground." The word hijack coming from a Taliban leader, especially someone like Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one that has special connotations in India. General (Retired) John R Allen, now President of the Brookings Institution, responded to the NYT piece by writing, When I was commander of all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network ranked among the deadliest threats to our mission there, and to the people of Afghanistan. This organization was and continues to be a central component of the Taliban, a major connecting file into al-Qaida, and a darling of Pakistans ISI. Haqqanis sudden rise to respectability is raising eyebrows in India as well. I am worried about the mainstreaming of the Haqqani Network given that they would re-establish themselves in Loya Paktia (a region bordering Pakistan) which is where a lot of India-directed training camps existed," says former R&AW Special Secretary Anand Arni. He was part of the team that went to Kandahar to negotiate the release of IC-814 with the Taliban. Prospects of the Taliban and their ISI allies coming back to power in Afghanistan appear imminent. Meanwhile, India is busy dealing with internal turmoil created by a series of political moves that are not in the national interest. As a result, the National Security Advisor is walking around Delhi doing the thanedaars job while the Home Minister continues jetting around giving election speeches. The entire political class in Kashmir has been imprisoned by the Union government following the sudden, unilateral and secretive abrogation of Article 370. Therefore, a total political vacuum exists in the valley. Winter snows will start to melt in a few months. The false peace in Kashmir will probably be tested then. Azaadi slogans used to be heard only in Kashmir. Now they are heard everywhere. The rest of the country is more deeply divided today than at any time since the late 1980s and early 1990s. The National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act have managed to mobilise into protest the countrys 20 crore Muslims who were otherwise living peacefully, and quietly stomaching the daily insults heaped on them by bigots in politics and the media. Riots in Delhi have further deepened divides. Across in the Northeast of the country, where both the NRC and the CAA have their origins, every major community is agitated. The first protests against the CAA erupted in Assam. That is also where the NRC and detention camps have pushed millions of people to the wall. Not a single group is happy with the outcome of the NRC or the CAA. Meanwhile, there is total silence on the Naga peace talks, which were supposed to be concluded last October. Indias problems in the Northeast extend beyond its borders. BJP leaders have long been going around the country giving speeches against alleged Bangladeshi immigrants, although in practice this usually turns into discrimination on the basis of language and ethnicity all Bengalis, especially if Muslim, become suspect. This affects West Bengal and Indias relations with Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country with which India shares a land border of 4,156 km. It is arguably the country of greatest importance to Indias Northeast. Peace returned to the Northeast mainly because of a change in government in Bangladesh in 2008-09 that brought Sheikh Hasina to power. Hasina, who has been ruling the country with an iron fist, is now facing street protests because of a planned visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka. The protesters have demanded that Modis invitation should be cancelled in light of the attacks on minorities here. It's not as if only Muslims are unhappy with India. Nepal was for long the only Hindu rashtra in the world. It is now secular, and increasingly an ally of China. The turn began with what Nepalis describe as an undeclared blockade of the land-locked country by India in 2015. Demonetisation made things worse. Since then, Nepal has moved steadily to open up to its northern neighbour, China. It has joined Chinas Belt and Road Initiative and that is only one of many signs of changing equations. International pressures on India are mounting. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who has probably understood the chronology in relation to NRC has filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court of India against the Citizenship Amendment Act. This is unprecedented in Indias diplomatic history. The versatile geniuses running India have managed to run a healthy economy into the ground, destroy the existing peace in society, erode public trust in every public institution, turn friendly neighbours hostile, and damage Indias global image and standing. Now, it is possible that external factors, including ones that nobody can predict such as impacts of the coronavirus may play a significant part in determining the fate and future of our country. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4 Trend: Ceasefire monitoring on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenia troops held on March 4 in the direction of Fuzuli district in accordance with the mandate of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, ended without incident, Trend reports with reference to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The Personal Representative's field assistants of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ghenadie Petrica and Simon Tiller carried out the monitoring exercise on the Azerbaijani side. The Personal Representatives field assistants of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Mihail Olaru and Martin Schuster carried out the monitoring on the Azerbaijani territories occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. LIVONIA, MICH. - Madonna University students will be in northern Michigan later this year to compare methods of enhancing bloody fingerprints and other impressions recovered from human skin while the body decomposes, thanks to a grant the Forensic Science department received from the National Institute of Justice. The $253,010 grant, to be used from now through December 2021, will fund a team of eight Madonna University undergraduate forensic science students and faculty members Jessica Zarate, M.S., assistant professor, and Jodi Lynn Barta, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Forensic Science program to travel to Northern Michigan Universitys FROST (Forensic Research Outdoor Station) this July and December to collaborate with FROST Director Jane (Wankmiller) Harris, Ph.D., and her student researchers. The research will further explore the utility of the Zar-Pro Fluorescent Lifters, which are used to successfully recover bloody fingerprint impressions from a deceased persons skin. The research will also compare traditional chemical enhancement methods over a two-week interval, with the goal of optimizing procedures to collect this vital evidence and to eventually have these methods adopted into casework. Zarate, who is also the inventor of Zar-Pro Fluorescent Lifters, explains the team wants to debunk preconceived notions that blood impressions are not stable enough on the skin of decedents (deceased people) to be recovered. Preliminary trials using Zar-Pro Fluorescent Lifters have enhanced and recovered impressions from decedent skin after five days of decomposition, with the impressions having identifiable ridge details that can be used as evidence in case of a crime. This grant project is also part of the NIJ Future-Focused Workforce Initiative, Zarate stated. Providing a unique opportunity for student-researchers to be employed by the Madonna University Forensic Science Research Facility (MUFSRF) while being exposed to laboratory practices and hands-on field work using novel methods in forensic science. Not only will students obtain hands-on experience enhancing and lifting impressions in the field, they will also gain valuable laboratory experience. Students can continue to do assessments on the recovered impressions to see how they age over time, explained Dr. Barta. Thats the beauty of these grants, Dr. Barta says. We are grateful that we can develop so much research data, which allows us to carry on projects for years for students. There is so much research potential. This grant, Assessing Methods to Enhance and Preserve Proteinaceous Impressions from the Skin of Decedents during the Early Stages of Decomposition while Examining Environmental Variations across Seasons, was only one of two in its category awarded to a university in Michigan this year. As detailed in the grant, human skin is the most likely surface on which blood and other body fluids will end up during a violent crime, but it is one of the least studied surfaces for recovering impressions. If the victim dies, the body is often moved to a medical facility before impressions can be enhanced, which decreases the chances of recovering quality impressions. While methods such as Zar-Pro Fluorescent Lifters and traditional chemical enhancement methods such as dye stains to enhance blood impressions have been previously used on human skin, a comparative analysis between these methods has not been conducted to date, according to the grant. When the students research is complete, the optimized method will be field-tested by the Wayne County Medical Examiners Office in an effort to better recover impression-based evidence from decedent skin. The research and implementation of this project has the potential to increase the recovery of evidence associated with violent crimes from human skin, according to the grant. Learn more about the grant and the National Institute of Justice here. Photo 1: Professor Jessica Zarate leads Forensic Science students in a classroom exercise. Photo 2: Dr. Jodi Lynn Barta Photo 3: Image of bloody fingerprint on human skin; lift of bloody fingerprint on Zar-Pro under normal lighting conditions; lift of bloody fingerprint on Zar-Pro fluoresced under alternate lighting conditions. The Senate on Tuesday introduced a bill that will compel the president to reflect federal character in the appointments of service chiefs. The bill, titled Armed Forces Service Commission (Est, etc) Bill, 2020, is sponsored by the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe. It is aimed at ensuring that no part of Nigeria is left out or ignored in the appointment of service chiefs. It also proposes that the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Director of Military Intelligence and the heads of other arm-bearing security agencies shall be appointed subject to recommendations by the Senate. The bill comes amidst criticism of the presidents choice of appointments for the service chiefs. Many have accused Mr Buhari of nepotism as most of the service chiefs are from the north. The bill seeks the establishment of an Armed Forces Service Commission, which shall have the power and authority to ensure that the composition and appointment of service chiefs of the Armed Forces of the Federation reflects federal character of Nigeria in the manner prescribed in section 217 (3) of the 1999 Constitution in accordance with section 219 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). The Federal Character Commission, as one of the Federal Executive Bodies established under section 153(1) of the 1999 Constitution, also has the constitutional mandate in Paragraph 8, Part 1 of the 3rd schedule to the Constitution to ensure compliance with the Federal Character principle provided for in section 14 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution, and shall work Out an equitable formula subject to the approval of the National Assembly for the distribution of all cadres of posts in the public service of the Federation, and of the States, the Armed Forces, the Nigerian police Force and Other government Security Agencies, government owned companies and parastatals. The bill in detail Long title A bill for an Act to establish Armed Forces Commission and Other Related Matter 2020 Enacted Pursuant to section 219 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Establishment and composition * The Commission shall be a corporate body with the power to sue and be sued in its corporate name. * The administrative headquarters of the Commission shall be in the Federal Capital Territory and the Commission may when practicable establish zonal offices. * The Commission shall have a seal, stamp and any other mark bearing its name and logo as symbol of authority and as approved by the Management. * The management board of the Commission shall be the final and highest decision making of the Commission and all management/administrative decision(s) shall be reached by consensus of all members present at such sitting. * The Board shall meet regularly as the chairman in consultation with the secretary may deem fit, but not less than ten times in a year. Powers and functions of the commission 1. The Commission shall have the power and authority pursuant to section 219 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to ensure that the composition/appointment of Service Chiefs of the Armed Forces of the Federation reflects federal character of Nigeria in the manner prescribed in section 217 (3) of the 1999 Constitution. 2. The Commission shall ensure that the functions specified in section 217 of the 1999 Constitution; and the powers exercisable by the President in the appointment of Service Chiefs and Officers Corps and other Ranks of the Armed Forces of the Federation in section 218 of the 1999 constitution reflects Federal Character of Nigeria. 3. As from the date of commencement of this Act, the Commission shall have the power to recommend to the President from among the best and most qualified, most educated and most experienced members of the Armed Forces of the Federation for appointment as (a) Chief of Defence Staff (b) Chief of Army Staff (c) Chief of Air Staff (d) Chief of Naval Staff (e) Director of Military intelligence; And Heads of other Arm-bearing Security Agencies and ensure that such appointments reflects federal character principle of Nigeria. 4. Recommend to the President the removal from office as Service Chiefs and Head of other Arm-bearing Security Agencies on ground of misconduct, abuse of office, breach of any section of the Constitution, the Armed Forces Act or any other Act of the National Assembly. 5. The Commission shall have the power to approve promotion from among the best, most competent and qualified officers as Heads of Military formations/branches such as General Officers Commanding Divisions of the Nigerian Army and their equivalent in the Navy and Air Force. Provided that in making such recommendations the Commission shall observe the Federal Character principle and adopt an equitable template to spread the offices of the Service Chiefs, and Officers Corps and other Ranks of the Armed Forces of the Federation among the six geo-politicai zones of the Country. Advertisements 6. Subject to the provisions of section 215(1) and 216(2) of the 1999 Constitution on the powers of the Nigerian Police Council to advise the President on the appointment of Inspector General of Police, and notwithstanding any other provision in any other law establishing any other security agency. * The Commission shall have the power to recommend to the President from among the best and most qualified, most educated and most experienced officers of the Nigerian Police Force, State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence (NIA), Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA), and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigerian Custom Service, Nigerian Immigration service and Nigerian correctional service; * The Commission shall also have the power to recommend to the President persons for appointment as Inspector General of Police, Director General of SSS, Director General NIA, Director General ONSA, and Commandant General of NSCDC, Comptroller General of Customs, Comptroller General of Immigration, Comptroller General of Immigration, Comptroller General of Prisons, and Head of the Federal Fire Service. Provided that in making such recommendations, the Commission shall take into cognizance the federal character principle and the geo-political zones of the country that produced the four Service Chiefs provided in this section, and ensure that the Heads of other Security Agencies provided in this sub section spread equitably among the six geo-political zones of the country. 7. The Commission shall have power to make regulations in the performance of its functions to ensure that each zone of the Federation is equitably represented in the appointments of Service Chiefs and Officers Corps and other Ranks of the Armed Forces of the Federation and Heads of other Security and paramilitary and armed-bearing security agencies of the Federation, and ensuring that the most competent and qualified person from each zone is appointed at all times. 8. Notwithstanding the provision in any other law establishing the Armed Forces, Nigerian Police Force and other security/para military agencies, the Commission shall supervise and approve Upon certifying that Federal Character provided in this Act has been duly observed, all promotions in the Armed Forces of the Federation, Nigerian Police Force and other Security and para~ military and Armed-bearing security agencies of the Federation 7. Where the number of available positions cannot go round the six geopolitical zones of the Federation, the distribution of appointments shall be done between equally between the North and South. And for the avoidance of doubt, the zones referred to in this Act are: (a) North central comprising of Benue state, Federal Capital Territory, Kogi State, Kwara State, Nassarawa state, Niger state, and plateau state. (b) North east zone, comprising of Adamawa state, Bauchi state, Brono state, Gombe state, Taraba state and Yobe State. (c) North west zone comprising of Jigawa State, Kaduna State, Kano State, Katsina State, Kebi State, Sokoto State, Zamfara State. (d) South east zone comprising of Abia State, Anambra State, Ebonyi State, Enugu State, Imo State. (e) South west zone comprising of Ekiti State, Lagos State, Ogun State, Osun State, Oyo State. (f) South-south zone comprising of Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Cross Rivers State, Delta State, Edo State and Rivers State. General duties of the commission 8. The general duty of the Commission is to ensure that promotions/appointments into leadership positions and officers corps and other ranks in the Armed Forces of the Federation, police and other security agencies equitably reflects federal character of Nigeria pursuant to sections 217 (3) and 219 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). 9. The commission shall investigate all reported cases of breach of federal character principle under this Act and shall have the power to prosecute the head of the government agency that was responsible for the breach for the offence of: breach of equitable formula, which threatens the peace and good governance, unity and peace of the federation and likely to cause disloyalty, disaffection and disunity among Nigerians. 10. In case of a person serving as President with constitutional immunity, such prosecution will commence upon the expiration of the office that conferred him immunity. 11. The Offence created under sub section (9) this section shall be punishable with one-year imprisonment or fine of ten million naira or both. 12. Where a person has been found guilty of breach under this Act the Office he previously held and the appointment so made while in office shall be deemed nullified and the person(s) who held that nullified position/appointment will be deemed not to have held same and no such recognition or privileged shall be accorded to him. (TNS) Robots delivering food and other consumer items could be coming to a St. Louis sidewalk near you.Following the lead of a handful of other states, Missouri lawmakers are considering new guidelines that would regulate autonomous delivery devices.The proposed law could help companies begin rolling out the small, cooler-sized delivery units to drop off late-night snacks, packages or other sundry items in St. Louis and other Missouri municipalities. And, the rules could help pedestrians and motorists who will be sharing city streets and sidewalks with the robots.The marketplace is changing very swiftly and we just want to make sure our policies are up to date, said Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, who is sponsoring the legislation.Others states, including Washington, Idaho and Wisconsin, already have put similar laws on their books as robots perform more and more jobs once done by humans .Fitzwaters plan would limit the robots weight to 200 pounds, excluding the cargo.The machine also must be capable of navigating a sidewalk without the intervention of a person.The measure would allow a device to operate on sidewalks, but also on roads as long as it does not interfere with a motor vehicle. The maximum speed would be 10 mph.The proposal also requires operators to maintain insurance policies of at least $100,000 for damages.The proposed rules in Missouri are less stringent than those in some other states. In Washington, for example, the top speed is 6 mph and the top weight is 120 pounds.Fitzwater said he expects his proposal to be altered as it moves through the legislative process.Its just a first step, he said.Amazon, which already employs robots in its warehouses, has tested a device called Scout that has been compared to a cooler with wheels.Other companies, such as Starship Technologies, have operated pilot projects, primarily on university campuses.In 2019, the company deployed two dozen robots on the campus of George Mason University in Virginia to cart food to hungry students at a cost of $1.99 per delivery.Supporters say robots will reduce congestion and pollution by removing cars, trucks and vans from the delivery process.The legislation marks the second futuristic bill sponsored by Fitzwater this year.Earlier this month, he successfully shepherded a plan through the House aimed at convincing developers to build a high-speed transportation system test track in Missouri.This is an opportunity for our state to be innovative and forward-thinking on transportation, Fitzwater said at the time.The measure adds tube transport systems, a concept developed by the company Virgin Hyperloop One, to the list of projects that could be financed through public-private partnerships.Although the long-term goal is to connect St. Louis and Kansas City with a pneumatic tube that could transport passengers across the state in 30 minutes, a recent study recommends the state first should build a 15-mile track to test the feasibility of the concept. The superintendent of the Brandon School Division told the Sun that it is too early to determine how much of a delay the cessation of work at Maryland Park School will cause. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A construction worker holds a piece of scaffolding at the site of the Maryland Park School last year. (File) The superintendent of the Brandon School Division told the Sun that it is too early to determine how much of a delay the cessation of work at Maryland Park School will cause. "We will provide further updates about the direction of Maryland Park School when we have had time to review matters with our partners," Supt. Marc Casavant said in an email. He added that the school will be meeting with the province, its legal counsel, architects and bonding service to create a revised construction plan. The Sun asked if the division had a backup plan in case the school is not ready to open as planned this September, but did not receive a response. As of January, 354 students had registered to attend the new school. Work on the in-progress school stopped on Monday after Winnipeg-based contractor Fresh Projects, who was the lead contractor on the project, filed for bankruptcy. The companys social media accounts, except for on Facebook, and its website have been removed from the internet and calls to the companys office were not answered on Monday or Tuesday. Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson told the Sun by phone that the issue was a hot topic of discussion in Winnipeg on Monday and Tuesday as the Legislative Assembly prepared for the new session starting today. "It was a big surprise," Isleifson said. "Its certainly unfortunate that it happened ... being something that we really need, I really hope that we can come to some sort of solution to get things back on track so we can open on time." Jerry Brandt, owner of Jerrys Concrete in Winnipeg, said that Fresh Projects still owes his company $25,000 for work done on another project approximately one year ago. He said that he was on his way to the companys Winnipeg office on Monday to discuss the money owed when he received a text message informing him that Fresh Projects had filed for bankruptcy. When he arrived at the office at approximately 1:30 p.m., the doors were locked and no one responded to him knocking on the door. A representative from Education Minister Kelvin Goertzens office told the Sun on Tuesday that there are bonds in place to protect Brandon School Division and subcontractors on the project financially. The subcontractor responsible for electrical work at the construction site said his company can handle a short delay. Blair Smith, owner of GR Smith and Sons, said that his workers found out about Fresh Projects going bankrupt on Monday when they were told they suddenly had to stop work and leave the site. "We were simply told we all had to leave the job site, collect our personal tools," he said. He said that electrical work on the project is ahead of schedule, so a weeks delay shouldnt hurt too much, although delays are not going to be beneficial to a project like this with a tight turnaround. The Sun also reached out to other subcontractors involved with the project. Kevin Lumb of Tasmanian Gravel said that his companys work on-site wrapped up in January. However, he said that they are still awaiting payment for their services. Brandon Heating and Plumbing declined to comment on the situation. Alternative Excavation said that only their owners could comment on the situation, but they are currently unavailable. Denis Labossiere, secretary-treasurer for the Brandon School Division, sent out the following statement regarding affected subcontractors on Tuesday: "Brandon School Division is concerned for the former staff of Fresh Projects as well as the sub-trades and suppliers involved in this project and will be coordinating a meeting of all parties in the very near future." cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark The new Algerian leadership, which continues to be contested by the mass protesters, is on track of its predecessor in inciting hostility towards Morocco and its strategic interest. This could be predicted from previous statements of the new President Abdelmjid Tebboune, who reiterated on multiple occasions during his electoral campaign to the Presidency that he will keep borders shut with Morocco. His choice for a foreign minister, an ardent defender of the separatist Polisario militia in the African Union, confirms the prophecies of those who describe the new Algerian administration as a new wine in old bottle. Never has Algeria been so blunt in its desperate diplomatic attacks as it is now. Moroccos Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita revealed the hostility of Algeria to Morocco once more by showing written notes sent by the Algerian foreign ministry to African states urging them not to open consulates in the Sahara, to refrain from supporting Morocco and abstain from taking part at the international Crans Montana forum annually held in Dakhla in the Sahara region. This comes amid a wave of African states that took concrete measures to show support for Moroccos territorial integrity by opening consulates in Laayoune and Dakhla. Djibouti and Burundi were the latest in a series of African countries that opened consular services in the Saharan cities of Laayoune or Dakhla, on the footsteps of Cote dIvoire, the Comoros, Gabon, Central African Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Gambia and Guinea. History is full of cases of the Algerian regimes betrayal of Moroccos good will starting from turning the back to Moroccos border grievances by a military junta that hijacked power overturning a civilian government after independence. Other major historical events that validate the anti-Moroccan doctrine within the Algerian regime dates back to 1972. When former president Boumediene was in Rabat to sign a border demarcation treaty, Algeria was training leftist Moroccans in military bases to overthrow the regime in Morocco. They will go down in history later as the events of 1973, where leftists armed by Algeria attempted a failed armed uprising in Morocco. The expulsion in humiliating conditions of over 350,000 Moroccans and the confiscation of their property in Algeria in response to Moroccos green march to recover its southern provinces and the continued military and diplomatic support for separatism while blocking any effort towards a political solution are other stark cases of the endemic anti-Moroccan sentiment within the ruling elites in Algeria. As Morocco keeps an outstretched arms policy towards Algeria urging the neighboring country to start a new chapter of regional integration, such calls have regrettably fell on deaf Algerian ears bogged down in a cold-war mentality. As long as Algeria keeps its doctrine based on anti-Moroccan interests, relations may further worsen. SBI Life Insurance on Wednesday said it has re-appointed Sanjeev Nautiyal as managing director and chief executive officer of the company. The Board of Directors of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited at their meeting held on March 4, 2020 has approved the re-appointment of Sanjeev Nautiyal as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of the company with effect from March 10, 2020, it said in a regulatory filing. The re-appointment is subject to approval of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and members of the company. Nautiyal has more than 32 years of experience in the field of banking. Presently, he holds the grade of Deputy Managing Director at State Bank of India and is deputed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the SBI Life since March 10, 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) T he Whitney Houston hologram tour is coming to London on March 10, and its set to be one of the most oddly fascinating concert experiences of the year. An Evening with Whitney is the product of Base Hologram Productions, which in the past has worked on digital resurrections of Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. This latest innovation tackling an artist who, many would argue, was among the greatest vocalists of the 20th century is the most high-profile yet. People need to understand, no-one is trying to recreate our Whitney, said Pat Houston, the stars former manager and sister-in-law, who also heads up the Whitney Houston estate. This is a show to celebrate her music and introduce her to people who never got to see her live. The UK leg of the tour rolls into town this week, and whether youve already booked your seat, or youre in the market for a ticket, this is what you need to know. What will the show itself be like? The hologram itself is a moving 2D projection, based on the movements of a Houston body double rather than actual archive footage. The vocals are digitally remastered recordings of live shows from back in the day, while real-life dancers and musicians will perform alongside the hologram. It will be dynamic in some ways the hologram will go through multiple costume changes throughout the course of the show but due to technical limitations, it will stay pretty much rooted to the spot, apart from a few dance moves and hand waves. Judging by reports from previous gigs on the tour, the audience reactions have been mixed. Some fans are said to have got up from their seats and sang along, while others have stayed firmly sat down. Which songs will be on the setlist? As would be expected, the setlist on the tour so far has pretty much been a greatest hits collection Higher Love, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing and Im Every Woman are among those to get an airing. Check out the setlist from the holograms Sheffield show for an idea of whats to come: Higher Love Saving All My Love For You All The Man I Need I Have Nothing I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) It's Not Right But It's Okay I Believe In You And Me Run To You My Love Is Your Love The Greatest Love Of All Exhale (Shoop Shoop) I Will Always Love You Queen Of The Night I'm Every Woman What have the reviews been like so far? The verdict has not been kind so far. The BBCs Will Gompertz described the on-stage avatar as horribly computerised, turning a performer who was once so full of life into a dead-eyed automation from a 1990s sci-fi B-movie. The Guardians Dave Simpson decried the eerily realistic hologram as a ghoulish cash in, adding: Far from celebrating Houston, the hologram tour is a reminder of tragedy, and the enormity of what was lost. Writing in The Times, Will Hodgkinson called it oddly captivating and said the show proved something that should give hope for humanity: the robots havent won yet. A hologram is no substitute for the real thing. The Standard will be at the London gig next week. Check back then to see what our critic makes of it all. How can I get tickets for the Eventim Apollo show? 4 ways Christians can make sense of coronavirus in a fallen world Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Theologian John Piper has offered Christians four ways they can biblically understand the coronavirus, which has infected about 87,000 so far and killed more than 3,000 people. The family of viruses known as coronaviruses infects mostly bats, pigs and small mammals, but they mutate easily and can jump from animals to humans, and from one human to another, as The Wall Street Journal explained recently, adding that the mortality rate has ranged between 2 percent and about 3.4 percent as of now. More than 50 countries have reported cases of coronavirus and the World Health Organization has upgraded the global risk of the outbreak to very high. Amid the outbreak, Piper said in his Ask Pastor John podcast that the coronavirus, which originated in China last year, is not stronger than Jesus. Jesus has all knowledge and all authority over the natural and supernatural forces of this world. He knows exactly where the virus started, and where its going next. He has complete power to restrain it or not, he said. He shared four biblical realities that could be used as building blocks in developing an understanding and making sense of it. 1. Sin subjected the world to futility Quoting Romans 8:2023, Piper pointed out that when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, God ordained that the created order, including our physical bodies, as persons created in His image, would experience corruption and futility, and that all living things would die. However, Christians, who trust Christ, do not experience this corruption as condemnation, as their pain for us is purifying, not punitive. We die of disease like all men, not necessarily because of any particular sin We die of disease like all people because of the fall, he explained. 2. Sometimes sickness is Gods mercy Some Christians can die of illnesses so that we may not be condemned along with the world, Piper said. The pastor said his view is based on 1 Corinthians 11:2932, which deals with misusing the Lords Supper. But the principle is broader, he underlined. The Lord Jesus takes the life of His loved ones through weakness and illness the very same words, by the way, used to describe the weaknesses and illnesses that Jesus heals in His earthly life (Matthew 4:23; 8:17; 14:14) and brings them to Heaven. He brings them to Heaven because of the trajectory of their sin that he was cutting off and saving them from not to punish them, but to save them, he explained. 3. Sickness could come as judgment God sometimes uses disease to bring particular judgments upon those who reject him and give themselves over to sin, Piper said. Referring to Acts 12, the pastor cited the example of King Herod who exalted himself in being called a god. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. He said God can and does use illnesses to bring judgment sometimes upon those who reject Him and His way. 4. Gods thunderclap Quoting Luke 13:15, Piper said all natural disasters are a thunderclap of divine mercy in the midst of judgment, calling all people everywhere to repent and realign their lives, by grace, with the infinite worth of the glory of God. He concluded that thats the message of Jesus to the world at this moment in history, under the coronavirus a message to every single human being, saying, Repent. There is no federal law requiring employers to provide paid, job-protected sick leave; 59 percent of small business employees have it. Ten states, 20 cities and three counties mandate it, though it would still be difficult for small employers to pay for days off for many workers at once, or to replace them. Workers without sick leave, or without enough of it, risk spreading the disease or staying home and losing their job. (The Family and Medical Leave Act provides unpaid, job-protected leave, but only at companies with 50 or more employees.) Three Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill to provide interest-free loans of up to $2 million to businesses affected by the outbreak. Others have proposed more expansive paid leave to protect workers and businesses. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a coronavirus response plan that would, among other things, establish a federal fund to reimburse workers for lost wages if they missed work because of coronavirus symptoms. Other lawmakers have long proposed a national approach to sick leave. The Healthy Families Act would require employers to pay for sick leave. But that bill might not work well for the coronavirus outbreak, since workers would earn sick time over the course of the year, up to 56 hours. Eileen Appelbaum, the co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, which has studied the effects of two local sick leave mandates, said a disease like coronavirus might require a different response from what states have tried so far. If someone gets the coronavirus, and they are out of work for two to three weeks or they are quarantined, thats a place for the government to do something, she said. The National Federation of Independent Business, a business trade group that has often supported lower taxes and deregulation, is not calling for any changes to current policy. Holly Wade, the groups director of research, said the organization opposed any mandated sick leave policies, and does not see a need for targeted loans for small business, given current low costs of borrowing. A woman who underwent a preventative double mastectomy after inheriting the BRCA2 gene from her father has regained sensation in her breasts thanks to pioneering reconstruction surgery. Serafina Nance, 26, an astrophysics PhD student from California, discovered she had an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. Rather than go through regular MRI scans and the agony of constantly waiting for test results, she decided to have a mastectomy. While researching the surgery she said she was 'shocked' to discover women having the operation should expect to lose sensation in their breasts. Serafina Nance, 26, an astrophysics PhD student from California, discovered she had an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime and decided to get a mastectomy Serafina came across the work of San Francisco-based surgeon Dr Anne Peled, who is pioneering a new technique called nerve preservation, where painstaking care is taken to maintain sensation in the breasts. Now, nearly five months on from her operation performed by Dr Peled, Serafina can feel '100 per cent' of her right breast and three quarters of her left. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she explained: 'On my right side, with nerve preservation, I honestly can feel 100 per cent of my breast. 'The nipple part and the areola part are a bit numb still, but the rest of the breast feels totally normal. Serafina came across the work of San Francisco-based surgeon Dr Anne Peled (pictured right), who is pioneering a new technique called nerve preservation, where painstaking care is taken to maintain sensation in the breasts 'On my left side it's about three quarters of the way there. The way nerves regenerate and heal, we expect for that sensation to continue to come back with time, typically over the timescale of about a year.' Serafina's father was diagnosed with prostate cancer when she was 23, and genetic testing revealed he carried the BRCA2 gene. His oncologist suggested his daughter get checked, and it came back positive. When she was 25, Serafina began getting routine screenings and MRIs - and after her first scan, they found something. What is the BRCA gene and how does it affect people's risk of cancer? Having a mutated BRCA gene - as famously carried by Angelina Jolie - dramatically increases the chance a woman will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, from 12 per cent to 90 per cent. Between one in 800 and one in 1,000 women carry a BRCA gene mutation, which increases the chances of breast and ovarian cancer. Both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that produce proteins to suppress tumours. When these are mutated, DNA damage can be caused and cells are more likely to become cancerous. The mutations are usually inherited and increase the risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer significantly. When a child has a parent who carries a mutation in one of these genes they have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the mutations. About 1.3 per cent of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer, this increase to 44 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation. Advertisement 'It was benign, but the stress of having to undergo those MRIs every six months and waiting for test results, waiting for this inevitable breast cancer, I decided basically shortly afterwards that it was time for me to move forward and go ahead and get a mastectomy,' she told Woman's Hour host Jenni Murray. Dr Ayesha Khan, a breast surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, who also appeared on Woman's Hour this morning, explained that there are two distinct cohorts of women having mastectomies and reconstruction. The first are those with an established cancer diagnosis, where it's imperative the cancer is removed as well as a margin around it, and the second are people like Serafina, who don't have a cancer diagnosis but have a very high risk of developing the disease. When Serafina began researching what type of reconstruction she wanted and the process, she couldn't believe that the inevitable loss of sensation is not more widely discussed and publicised. She sought surgeons who are working towards addressing the issue and found Dr Peled. 'She is a uniquely trained surgeon in that she does both the mastectomy aspect of the surgery and the reconstruction,' Serafina explained. 'Typically they're two separate surgeons that perform both surgeries. Because she has a unique training, during the mastectomy's portion she does something called nerve preservation.' Dr Khan explained that when a surgeon is performing a mastectomy, they remove all the breast tissue. On top of the breast tissue is a layer of fat before the skin, throughout which the sensation nerves run. It's not always possible to leave that layer of fat completely intact while removing the tissue, especially if the patient has cancer. When she was 25, Serafina began getting routine screenings and MRIs - and after her first scan, they found something. Rather than go through regular testing and scans, she decided to have a prophylactic double mascetomy. Pictured during her healing 'When patients come to clinic they ask how their breasts are going to look, will they be symmetrical,' Dr Khan said. 'We talk about sensation loss, and a lot of women accept that as part of their cancer treatment. But five or ten years later when they go on to live beyond their cancer, it then occurs to them, "I'm back to a normal life, my reconstruction looks good, but my sensation is not coming back".' Serafina told how Dr Peled - also a breast cancer survivor - is highly conscious of preserving the nerves in the layer of fat to the extent that she can. Dr Peled told the BBC: 'When I had my own diagnosis... I had a really, really difficult time making a choice, because I felt like it was so daunting to consider at age 37, having no sensation in my chest for the rest of my life.' If nerves are unable to be preserved, during the reconstruction surgery Dr Peled works with a nerve surgeon - coincidentally her husband - and they do nerve grafting, where they actually reconnect the nerves. Now, nearly five months on from her operation performed by Dr Peled, Serafina can feel '100 per cent' of her right breast and three quarters of her left - which is expected to improve within a year 'For me personally, one side has nerve preservation and the other side has nerve grafting,' Serafina said. Asked how likely it is for a woman in the UK to have this type of surgery, Dr Khan the main step towards trying to preserve sensation has been a shift towards trying to do nipple sparing mastectomies. 'That procedure alone seems to improve a woman's sensation after surgery,' she said. 'We did a study at the Royal Marsden a few years ago looking at breast sensation and mastectomy after reconstruction, and this was without any form of nerve repair being performed, and we found that in up to 57 per cent of women, approximately three years down the line they had normal sensation in at least one quadrant of the breast.' She added that Serafina's nerve grafting implant reconstruction surgery is 'very, very new' and there's currently only one published study reporting on it. For more information about Dr Peled's work visit https://www.annepeledmd.com/ People walk the streets of Tehran, Iran, wearing facemasks over coronavirus fears. (AP) Iran has taken steps to battle a spread of coronavirus in crowded jails by temporarily releasing 54,000 prisoners. There has beeve nearly 3,000 cases of the virus, known as Covid-19, recorded in Iran, with 92 deaths marking it among the worst-hit countries outside of China. The countrys judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, told reporters today that inmates who tested negative and posted bail were being were allowed out of prison. However, security prisoners" sentenced to more than five years will not be let out, the spokesman added. An Iranian man checks the temperature of a person entering an office building in Tehran. (Getty) Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran since 2016, may be among those granted a temporary release following an outbreak of coronavirus in the prison where she is being held, her local constituency MP has said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be released on furlough from the country's notorious Evin prison in Tehran, according to Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq. Read more: World Health Organisation issues warning over new coronavirus scam The MP tweeted on Tuesday morning: "News from Iranian Ambassador that my constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be released on furlough today or tomorrow from prison in Iran. "If this is true, Nazanin would welcome leaving Evin jail, but we've been here before. She added: "If this furlough happens, the British government has an obligation to make it permanent, and not let her be used as a bargaining chip in the weeks to come. "I remain concerned that Nazanin has told her family that she has still not been tested for coronavirus. Read more: Plan for suspected coronavirus patients to see their GP by video link Meanwhile, Friday prayers in Iran have been cancelled across all provincial capitals amid the country's growing coronavirus, state television said. Friday is the main congregational day of prayer in Islam, and traditionally an important event for Iran's clerical rulers. There are hopes that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be released from prison in Iran. (Getty) The report on Wednesday comes as Tehran and other areas cancelled Friday prayers last week over the outbreak. Story continues Read more: Professor warns people to stop kissing in public to prevent coronavirus Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced the new figures at a news conference in Tehran, raising Iran's death toll from the new illness to higher than Italy's, where there has also been a serious spike in infections. Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 90,000 people and caused over 3,100 deaths. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Shoppers at the UK's 'big four' supermarkets have posted revolting pictures of 'foul' green chicken meat inside their roasts. The 'chemical-looking' tinge has been reported online in chickens sold by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. Various photos posted on social media show the meat tainted with a putrid, green stain that runs deep into the flesh, that has left several customer feeling sick and sparked a flurry of complaints. The meat's green appearance is thought to be the result of a disease called Deep Pectoral Myopathy or Green Muscle Disease. It occurs when birds flap their wings too vigorously, resulting in muscle fibres being starved of oxygen and turning the muscle green. It is more common in broiler birds, any poultry raised specifically for their meat, who are kept inactive for long periods of time, as their circulatory systems cannot cope with short bursts of exercise. It is unclear whether the birds all come from the same supplier and supermarkets have told Mail Online they have now opened an investigation into the cause of the discolouration. Customers took to social media to complain about the 'bright green' chicken meat The meat is still safe to eat, but results in the unpleasant green colouring which is only discovered when the bird is cooked and cut into. What is Deep Pectoral Myopathy (DPM) or Green Muscle Disease? Deep pectoral myopathy (DPM) or Green Muscle Dieseas is a degenerative muscle disease of chickens and turkeys. The disease cannot currently be detected until the chicken is cut open and poultry show no outward symptoms of the disease. The disease is not caused by an infection but by excessive wing movement in birds that are usually inactive. During wing exertion, bird's muscles usually expand by as much as 20 per cent due to an increase in blood circulation to the muscle. This creates an oxygen deficiency and causes necrosis, or the localised death of cells and tissues through interruption of the blood supply. If the muscles are unable to expand due to being trapped between the sternum and the bird's tough membranes, the increase in weight exerts pressure within the minor pectoral muscles, restricting the blood supply to the muscle or stopping it altogether. This causes DPM's characteristic necrosis and atrophy of the deep pectoral muscle and its green discolouration. DPM is not a new phenomenon, but it is becoming increasingly more common as it affects heavy broiler chickens and turkeys bred for higher meat yields. The condition is a major challenge to the poultry industry, in part because it does not appear to have an impact on bird health and is therefore only noticed when after the birds are slaughtered. DPM is also seen in free-range poultry. Advertisement Supermarkets insist the meat is safe but customers have been left sickened by the discovery. Among them is Tesco customer Kelly Smith from Yateley, Hampshire. The mum took to social media to warn others on Monday (2nd March), posting photos of her green chicken with the caption: 'Everyone be careful eating chicken from Tesco! 'I've just cooked this and when I cut into it I found this! It's bright green looks like a chemical in the meat!' Kelly's post sparked disgust among social media users. Beckie Kirk replied: 'That's enough to put anyone off cooking a chicken or even eating it.' Leisa Farrell added: 'My good god whatever is it [vomiting emoji] let us know what they say it is I've never seen anything like it.' Natasha Probert, who bought a cooked chicken from the deli at her local Sainsbury's in Biddulph, Stafforshire also reported a similar problem. She posted images of the 5.50 chicken urging Sainsbury's to get in touch, saying: 'My rotisserie chicken is green!' Twitter user @Gilly45 complained of the same issue. She tweeted a photo of her chicken purchased last month. Sainsbury's customer service team apologised to Gilly, saying: 'Sorry about the green chicken! 'Green muscle meat is not harmful but certainly not appealing and is off putting' and promised to look into her complaint. Morrison's customer Amber North was left 'feeling sick' after cooking her roast chicken only to cut into it and find the meat tinged with green. She wrote on Twitter: 'The smell made me feel so sick! Lucky our children didn't eat any before we realised it was green.' Sam Mundell from Gosport, Hampshire also spotted green flesh in her Asda chicken purchased on 15 February. The meat's green appearance is thought to be the result of a disease called Deep Pectoral Myopathy or Green Muscle Disease caused by short bursts of activity not infection Mail Online has reached out to all four supermarkets for comment. A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: 'We have apologised to Natasha and Gilly for this rare, unpleasant find and are investigating with our supplier.' A Tesco spokesperson said: 'We're sorry to hear about this. We want to ensure the highest standards for all of our food. We would ask the customer to return the product to her nearest large store so we can investigate this further and arrange a full refund for her.' Sainsbury's customer service was quick to assure their customers that the green meat wasn't dangerous, however, customers thought the discolouration was still off-putting Customers of the 'big four' supermarkets shared images on social media of chicken they had bought which had green muscle meat. The discoloration can only be seen inside the bird Tesco added: 'This is most likely to be Oregon's disease (another name for Deep Pectoral Myopathy) which is very rare and although not pleasant to find it poses no health risk to the customer. However, we cannot confirm this unless the customer returns the product to us for testing.' A Morrisons spokesperson said: 'We are sorry to hear about this. We are yet to receive the chicken back from the customer so are unable to confirm exactly what has caused it. We have apologised for the inconvenience, offered her a full refund and offered her some More points as a goodwill gesture.' Asda have yet to respond. Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the NSW Nationals will support Mark Latham's bill to allow nuclear power in NSW, in a move likely to cause a split in the junior Coalition party. In his strongest comments yet, Mr Barilaro, a long-time supporter of nuclear power, said the government should "lift the ban on nuclear energy" and confirmed his party would support it. But the position has not been taken to the Nationals' party room, and several MPs said there would be serious concern among some members, including those who hold coastal seats. NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the Nationals will support One Nation's nuclear power bill. Credit:AAP A report into Mr Latham's bill was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, recommending the state government support repealing laws that ban uranium mining and nuclear facilities. Kabul: The Taliban killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP, hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin March 10 according to a US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on Saturday, but a dispute over a prisoner swap has raised questions about whether they will go ahead. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. US President Donald Trump spoke to deputy Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the White House has said, the first known call between an American president and the militant group. The historic telephonic conversation took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country, raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10. During the call on Tuesday, Trump emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29, the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation. The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said. He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war, the White House said. I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a very good talk, Trump told reporters. After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months. Kareena Kapoor On Angrezi Medium: Was Greedy About Working With Irrfan, Having Worked With All Other Khans questions coronavirus weddings As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic, tens of thousands of couples marrying this spring and their many respective vendors have scrambled in the last month to find alternative dates and solutions ahead. Official health organizations like the CDC have issued guidance on taking preventative measures against the coronavirus, related to protecting your health and traveling. In an effort to further contain the virus, the federal government has issued a guidance limiting group gatherings, resulting in the mass postponement of events to later, safer dates leading past the fall. If youre currently wedding planning or youre attending a wedding this year, you might be asking yourself questions about how the coronavirus pandemic could potentially impact nuptial-related events. Below, weve addressed primary concerns couples are now facing with the mounting conversations about coronavirus as they plan their weddings ahead. Weddings blank wedding space decor (Credit: Shutterstock) What do I do now about my wedding (both destination and domestic)? If you have a planner, talk to them regularly as new information is constantly available from authorities, including the CDC, the WHO and local governments, all of which continue to monitor the spread of coronavirus. Your top priority should be the safety of you and your guests. Check out our article for how to shift your wedding timeline based on your original date. In an abundance of caution, we took the initiative to contact all couples, venues and vendors on behalf of each client to explore backup dates, place holds and establish deadlines for making decisions, says New York-based event planner Amy Shey Jacobs of Chandelier Events. The goal is to mitigate the financial damage and give our clients well-thought-out strategies for rescheduling their event date. It is a giant game of chess. Couples planning weddings in the U.S. are now facing immense challenges, especially with spring events across all 50 states. Keep yourselves informed by health organizations and government mandates. Its important to prioritize that first. Its a moment to be careful and listen to the authorities, says Giovana Duailibe, founder and CEO of Belief Wedding Creators, an international community for wedding planners. The situation is real, and we need to be open to changes, and to offer [utmost] customer service to clients. Story continues In addition, certain countries and respective corporations have enforced travel restrictions and bans. Entire countries are on lockdown and the U.S. has banned travel from Europe as of March 13. In reverse, travel precautions are in place in heavily impacted areas like New York City, Seattle and beyond. In total, follow your local governments guidelines as theyre ever-evolving. Im stressed. How should I approach my vendors? Your vendors are likely in the same state as you. Be assured that alternative solutions and options are possible, just as long as you are willing to be flexible. Theres quite a bit of confusion and stress happening amongst our couples, says wedding planner Stefanie Cove. Monitor the ongoing situation for the best way to move forward. The healthiest possible way to approach the situation is to calmly broach the topic with your vendors with solutions in mind. Contact your venue and vendors to see when you have a backup date that works, Jacobs advises. And [check to see if theres] a deadline for when you need to decide by. Now is the time to be extra vigilant about paperwork. Get this all in writing and calendar when you need to make decisions, the founder of Chandelier Events continues. Put down deposits if needed to hold backup dates that can be applied to current events or postponed events. For couples who are directly impacted (whether they had weddings or site visits abroad), Duailibe similarly provides a practical set of tips for how to proceed with destination weddings. Pay close attention to ongoing changes as some regions and countries are on complete lockdown. To keep your meeting schedule on time, switch to online meetings. You dont need to stay behind on your planning timeline. Instead of [outright] cancelling your wedding, talk to your vendors and postpone the date. Wedding professionals have been super flexible to match their agenda with clients new dates. Deciding to postpone and keep the same vendors team that you already chose will save you a lot of money and time. What the government is doing now is for prevention. [If you still want a destination wedding], you will eventually have amazing vendors full of energy to give you their best. If you have already sent invitations or save-the-dates to your guests, make sure to communicate with them clearly, explaining the situation. You can also send them a note card or designate someone to call the guests. What Do I Do If My Backup Date Isnt Available? As more couples continue to postpone weddings, the best next step is to select a date with your chosen venue, even if its an unexpected day of the week. Many planners have suggested couples be open to alternative dates. Mondays are especially recommended as the majority of vendors will be available on that particular day of the week over, say, a Saturday. Plus, its right off the tail of a weekend so your guests will be able to partake in welcome festivities leading up to the nuptials without having to take additional time off. Overall: considering weekdays allows for more flexibility with your chosen original pro team, as they can help fully execute your planned wedding visioneven if the first date didnt pan out as planned. Your guests will likely be more flexible too. Understanding the many challenges that have accompanied spring 2020 weddings, most will be relieved to have something to look forward to this year regardless of the day of the week. Finally, some couples are opting to marry in a small civil ceremony, just themselves, in this time of social distancing, and opting for a larger celebration down the line. In 2019, The Knot introduced a trending concept known as sequel weddings, where a couple hosts multiple weddings. Flexibility with the types of weddings your hosting will make it easier for all involved as well. For more details there, we outline examples and more details here. How do I communicate with my guests? If youve postponed your wedding or will likely postpone (even without a new date locked in), sending a change-the-date to your loved ones is proper etiquette considering its a stressful time for many. Let your family members and friends know that they are still cared for by communicating this scheduling adjustment to all. Ensure that everyone has been accounted for, whether its via text, a phone convo or email. (After all, you dont want someone to show up to your April wedding when its been postponed!) Be as gracious as possible to your loved ones as they might also be grappling with feelings of fear or disappointment. If it becomes overwhelming, ask a friend or a wedding pro to help funnel communication during this time. What do I do about my registry? In this time of social distancing, you may learn what items you need most in your householdand which products are better left off your registry. Given how the circumstances are ever-evolving, consider updating your registry or better yet, starting it if you havent already. For example, your honeymoon plans might have changed, in which case, youll want to re-allocate those cash funds to something, perhaps, closer to home. Travel couple honeymoon (Credit: Shutterstock) What about my bach party? If your bachelor or bachelorette party is scheduled through June, we recommend taking all necessary precautions to communicate next steps, which will likely either involve postponing or finding alternative ways to celebrate your impending marriage. In reverse, if your friends bach party got canceled in light of the pandemic, there are ways to support them during this time. We get it: you wanted to celebrate en masse with your besties by doing what you love mostwhether thats singing along to the Jonas Brothers in Vegas, hitting the club scene in Miami, or leading a meditation in Joshua Tree National Park. However, the safety of you and your best friends is priority. If your bachelorette was postponed, some hotels are offering flexible change dates. Airbnb has offered refunds related to COVID-19 cancellations too. Finally, consider an online hangout. Options include having a professional chef walk you and your besties through a tasting menu or throwing a digital dance party. There are plenty of ways to celebrate over the screen too. Will my honeymoon be impacted? The short answer is, again, possibly. Do your research prior to booking any trip, especially if its in a region impacted by coronavirus. Make sure to read up on U.S. travel advisories for specific regions. (As of now, the U.S. State Department has issued advisories for Italy, South Korea, China and Japan. All travel from Europe has been banned through mid-April.) If youve already booked your honeymoon in a location with coronavirus or you are hesitant to travel overall, discuss alternative bookings and options with your travel agent or airlines. Several airlines like Delta have already alerted travelers about grace periods with flight changes, considering the global scale of the coronavirus. What about refunds and travel insurance? Whatever your situation, you should read up on your respective rights. Some airlines are already offering full refunds (especially those with layovers or direct flights to impacted countries). Others are allowing flight changes to a later date without added fees. Talk to your credit card companies too. Travel insurance plans, however, differ, which means its up to the couple to research their options. Experts recommend couples explore the Cancel for Any Reason option with most insurance plans. Traditional travel insurance costs about 10 percent of the total trip value, whereas the CFAR plan can cost upwards of 50 percent of the total trip cost. There are no special considerations for destination weddings and honeymoons with respect to the coronavirus, says TravelInsurance.com co-founder Stan Sandberg. Unfortunately, an outbreak of a virus/disease is not covered for reasons under [the majority of] travel insurance plans for trip cancellation purposes. For those who purchased a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) optional upgrade, however, some measure of trip cancellation protection may be available. Finally, destination weddings and events are usually not covered under travel insurance plans. Travel insurance wont cover the costs of the event, Sanberg notes. Event coverage is typically handled by different policies. What if Im scheduled to travel abroad for another vacation? Exercise your best judgment. The State Department has advised U.S. citizens to avoid international travel with a possibility that regional travel restrictions will also be enacted to contain the coronavirus. Do your research first as the situation is evolving daily. Then, talk to your airline and travel agent. Keep in mind that the U.S. and other countries have enabled quarantine rules for those who have recently traveled to regions impacted by the coronavirus. If youre returning from a hot zone, you will be quarantined for 14 days. As of March 13, travel from Europe has been banned, give or take extenuating circumstances. Airlines have also reduced its number of flights. Attire Will my wedding dress be impacted? It depends. Many designers and boutiques source their fabrics (think, silk and other raw materials) from China. Due to quarantines in some regions, some shops and manufacturers may have been impacted by the pandemic. But, its a case-by-case basis, especially since manufacturers and bridal salons are still holding virtual appointments, fulfilling orders and more. The best possible route is to speak directly with your local retailer or the designer. Each brand and shop will have honest conversations with their current clients, and even potential future clients, especially regarding fulfillment orders, production estimates and scheduling concerns. Also use this time to study your ideal gown and set a budget. If your vision is very specific, research the boutiques in your area for when social distancing measures are lifted. That way, you can stop by these boutiques with your loved ones after and share the experience of seeing your ideal gown come to life. What do I do if theres a definite delay in my gowns delivery and I need it very soon? We recommend looking into possible alternatives. Again, talk to your shop and/or the designer directly. If youre concerned it wont work out (or theres a definite chance it wont work out), we highly recommend looking into backup options. Talk to your salon about the backup options and possible alternatives they can provide given the circumstances. But its not an issue since most salon owners are intent on making everything happen to get gowns in the hands of clients. Remember: These unusual circumstances will only impact a very small group of brides who are either in the final fitting stages or have dealt with global delays in shipment. Overall, we understand how this could be a stressful time for you and your partner, or if youre a wedding guest or a loved one. However, its important to prioritize your health and keep a watchful eye on daily alerts. What about my tux and/or other rentals? If you didnt go the route of a bespoke experience or you didnt purchase your suit or tux, know that rental companies are providing solutions at this time. Most already have a process in place to help you navigate this tricky scenario, especially if you were originally scheduled to have a spring wedding. Talk it out directly with your team and see whether they will have inventory of tuxes and/or bridesmaid dresses for your new scheduled date. Published March 4, 2020. Updated April 8, 2020. Related Articles LONDON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) today marked its new 100MW hyperscale data centre in Mumbai at a ground-breaking ceremony. Powered by renewable energy, the facility will be one of the largest hyperscale data centres in India, complementing Colt DCS' dedicated commitment towards its international hyperscale offerings in 2020. "India is going through an unprecedented growth in mobile internet and data consumption, and we have a unique opportunity to support this rapid digital transformation," said Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO, Colt DCS. "Data consumption is rising at an exponential rate, with many businesses and consumers demanding a reliable data and network infrastructure. Colt DCS will play a key role in offering services to deliver fast connectivity and on-demand services." Supporting international enterprises scale up their businesses globally is a key focus for Colt DCS. The provider's hyperscale offerings are specifically designed to ensure secure and robust data and network support as businesses expand internationally. Colt DCS can help eliminate any concerns around connectivity, so companies can focus on what matters most - growth. Through the new Mumbai data centre, Colt DCS will support various digital initiatives, such as Smart Cities and Digital India, driven by the Indian government. In recent years, the country has seen key industries such as financial services, e-commerce, telecom and manufacturing, experiencing rapid digital growth. India's speculated personal data protection bill is also expected to drive further demand for data storage capabilities, if passed through. Colt DCS is dedicated to providing a reliable data and network infrastructure to support the country and its growing data generation of consumers and digital businesses. "In recent years, we are seeing more cloud service providers from around the world expanding into India, driving further demand for hyperscale data centres," said Sujeet Deshpande, Country Head in India at Colt DCS. "This is a very positive outlook for the Indian economy, and we are here to help both international and local businesses scale to their full potential. Our Mumbai facility is designed and built to the specification of hyperscalers worldwide, and our team of experts are experienced in working with global brands, but also have a solid understanding of the local market to provide the best of both worlds for our customers." For more details, please visit our website: https://www.coltdatacentres.net/en-GB/our-locations/data-centre-locations-asia/mumbai About Colt DCS Colt Data Centre Services provide true service and operational excellence in the design, build, delivery and operational management of hyperscale data centres and hybrid cloud solutions to our customers across Europe and Asia pacific. We have over 25 years of experience in operating 21 state-of-the-art carrier neutral data centres across 18 cities, offering 24/7 security and local language support. Our connectivity and colocation solutions allow our customers freedom to plan effectively for the growth of their business, knowing that their data centre strategy is ready for the demands of tomorrow. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/821066/Colt_Data_Centre_Services_Logo.jpg After a disastrous set of results on Super Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren is facing mounting pressure from her progressive backers to step aside and throw her support behind Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Once leading in the polls and considered a frontrunner at debates, Ms Warrens campaign for the Democrat nomination was in tatters on Wednesday morning as partial results showed she had failed to win the primary in her home state of Massachusetts, trailing to Joe Biden. Across the 15 states and territories voting on Super Tuesday, Ms Warren was projected to have won just seven delegates, compared to at least 178 for Mr Biden and at least 153 for Mr Sanders. Mike Bloomberg, who has spent the better part of half a billion dollars on his campaign, was also struggling on eight delegates. The disappointing Super Tuesday results come after Ms Warren failed to finish higher than third in any of the first four contests - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Ms Warren and Mr Sanders have both campaigned on progressive policies and providing universal public healthcare, but the long-time friends have clashed publicly in their respective drives to be named the leading candidate of the Democrat left. Speaking to Politico before the Super Tuesday results came out, Aimee Allison, founder of the progressive organisation She the People, noted that after the drop-outs of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, the moderates had coalesced behind one candidate in Mr Biden. If a candidate pulls ahead after [Tuesday], we need to put aside our differences and unite on behalf of economic and racial justice, Ms Allison said in reference to Ms Warren and Mr Sanders. The country is ready for new ideas, and we have two leading progressive campaigns that have so much to offer millions of Democrats. The moderates are playing to win. Its time we rose up as a movement to play to win as well. Evan Weber, director of the Sunrise Movement which has been actively pro-Mr Sanders, said the two progressives should publicly commit to grouping their delegates together at the convention in order to ensure that a progressive can win against the establishment. And Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the left-wing group Justice Democrats, accused Ms Warren of attacking Mr Sanders and urged her to give her delegates to him if he has more votes to ensure a progressive wins the nomination. With Super Tuesday's results unfolding, there were mounting calls on social media for Ms Warren to step aside - and criticism of her failure to do so previously. But Ashlee Marie Preston, the prominent trans rights activist and Warren campaign surrogate, wrote on Twitter: Stop saying Warren shouldve dropped out for Bernie. He could have done the same when she was leading and he saw her robust plans/body of work she brought. If he supposedly encouraged her to runhe should have dropped out & supported her knowing she could materialize his vision. In spite of the latest poor results, Ms Warren appeared set on remaining in the race, at least for now. Speaking to supporters in Detroit ahead of next week's Michigan primary, she introduced herself as "the woman who's going to beat Donald Trump." The senator encouraged supporters to tune out the results and vote for the person they believed would be the best president, saying: Prediction has been a terrible business and the pundits have gotten it wrong over and over. You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight, she said. The Post story focused on the saga of Kevin Euceda, a Honduran who was 17 when he arrived in the United States in 2017 and was placed in a shelter for immigrant children. In a required meeting with a therapist, he disclosed that he had been forcibly recruited into a gang when he was 12 years old. He thought the session was confidential, but his words were soon shared with ICE and have been used in repeated court hearings to argue for his detention and deportation. He has been detained for nearly three years. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the agency in charge of immigrant-child shelters, said what happened to Euceda shouldnt be happening going forward, even as ICE took a step that will keep Euceda in detention indefinitely. TORONTO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today bluboho fine jewelry introduces the One of a Kind Unnamed Collection, a never before seen collection of engagement rings which the company describes as "rings all about you." One of a kind sapphire engagement ring to be named by the lucky couple who acquires this stunning ring. This is a completely unique sapphire engagement ring. It will be named by the couple. A name that resonates with their love story. The collection is designed around self-expression and centered on a curated engagement ring experience. Featuring a limited run of ten unique rings, bluboho plans to work with individual clients to create a bespoke name and story for each piece based on the true love story the ring will be used to commemorate. Couples have the option to share their story on the bluboho Instagram account . Truly one of a kind, our stunning engagement rings are as unique as your love story. New engagement ring experience through custom name + story Having gained a cult following for the poignant and expressive "stories" that accompany each of their jewelry pieces, bluboho is taking a new approach to connecting clients to their perfect forever rings. None of the ten rings in the collection have been given names; rather, clients will work with bluboho specialists to dream up the ideal name and story for their one of a kind ring based on their one of a kind love. Bluboho co-founder Maggie Aurocco explains, "A name can be our greatest connection to something. For a person, their name is a means for them to connect to their individuality and a form of unspoken self-expression." As such, bluboho hopes to work with clients to choose a ring, create a name, and tell a story that acts as a "complete reflection of who you both are." The One of a Kind Unnamed Collection is also aimed at those who love the idea of a customized ring but want support in that process. Each limited-edition piece can be paired with wedding bands or stacks of various rings to help them reach their story-telling potential. One of a kind and ethically sourced Montana sapphires The collection features a stunning range of "artist-cut" sapphires sourced from the United States. Procured raw from Montana, these gems have been refined by a master lapidarist in innovative and contemporary cut styles. His creative process is said to delicately uplift the depth of color and sparkle in these dazzling gifts of the earth, and also ensures that rings in this collection will look unlike any other in their class. Bluboho's team of in-house designers and local artisans have then taken these sapphires and crafted custom ring designs that feature recycled yellow gold and a range of brilliant white diamonds, used to perfectly frame and complement the centerpiece sapphires. And to truly make each piece stand out from the rest, they have been given a number from one to ten, which is delicately engraved on the inside of each hand-crafted band. ABOUT BLUBOHO bluboho is a Canadian-based fine jewelry company founded by two best friends. The company is led by women and noted for its collection of ethically sourced, raw and refined pieces. In 2011, the bluboho flagship store in Oakville opened, followed by two Toronto locations in 2013 and 2016, respectively: Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., and Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. Whether your moments take you near or far, bluboho's one of a kind engagement pieces are the beautiful milestone that brings your love story into the future. Visit https://www.bluboho.com/ or follow us on bluboho Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bluboho/ for more information. CONTACT Maggie Aurocco, [email protected] 647-988-2646 SOURCE bluboho Related Links https://www.bluboho.com By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: Haridasan, a native of Pallippad who was subjected to severe torture by his employer in Malaysia, was rescued following the intervention of the state government and the Indian Embassy. He reached Chennai and left for Coimbatore by noon and will reach home on Wednesday morning, according to sources. Haridasan, of Valeth, Neendoor, Pallippad, had faced severe torture at the hands of his employer. Haridasans brother Vinod S said the former had contacted him on Tuesday morning from Chennai and informed that he would reach home by Wednesday morning. He contacted us using the mobile phone of a taxi driver, but there was no communication from him afterwards. However, we expect he will arrive home by Wednesday morning, Vinod said. Rajasree, wife of Haridasan, had filed a complaint with NORKA-ROOTS and the police seeking measures to rescue her husband from Malaysia. Rajasree said that she could not contact her husband, a hairdresser, for the past several days. In the complaint, she said her husband had been allegedly trapped and subjected to mental and physical abuse by his employer in Malaysia. Haridasan went to Malaysia four years ago with the help of an agent at Chingoli. He used to call regularly and send money every six months. However, the employer recently stopped paying him and subjected him to extreme physical abuse. His friends had sent photos of him under house arrest. The photographs show burn injuries and wounds all over Haridasans body. Haridasans passport and all other documents have been surrendered to the employer. Following the wifes complaint, Embassy officials contacted him and took steps to rescue him on Monday. The government intervened and the Indian Embassy took initiatives to rescue him from the employer. He will arrive in the state by Wednesday morning, NORKA CEO Harikrishnan Nampoothiri said. Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates: A day after a couple tested positive for novel coronavirus infection in Pune, city Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and said the civic body is all prepared to handle the situation. Mohol asked people not to celebrate Holi at the places where a large gathering is expected. Auto refresh feeds Mainland China had 19 new cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, down from 40 cases a day earlier. Of the new cases, 17 were in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei which is under lockdown. The one case of Beijing was contracted from a traveller from Britiain and one other case in Guangdong came from a person from Spain. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,754. For the third consecutive day, mainland China reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases outside of Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. US President Donald Trump has not been tested for the coronavirus, the White House said on Monday, though at least two lawmakers with whom he has recently come into contact have announced they were self-quarantining after attending a conference with a person who had tested positive for the virus. The staff in question, representing more than a third of the Life Care Centers 180 employees, are out sick with symptoms consistent with coronavirus, and a federal strike team of nurses and doctors is helping to care for 53 patients remaining in the center. We would like more kits to test employees, Life Care Center spokesman Tim Killian told Reuters, adding he did not know why they had not been forthcoming. Weve been asking the various government agencies that have been supplying us with test kits. The Seattle-area nursing home at the epicenter of one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the United States said on Monday it had no kits to test 65 employees showing symptoms of the respiratory illness that has killed at least 13 patients at the long-term care center. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases climbed to 46 as two Pune residents, who had returned from Dubai on 1 MArch, were tested positive. A three-year-old child from Kerala, and one person each from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Amritsar and Jammu also tested positive on Monday. Forty-three cases are currently active while three have been been treated. The city has the bulk of the countrys more than 80,000 confirmed cases, and authorities sent thousands of medical workers and built several prefabricated isolation wards to deal with its mass of COVID-19 patients. Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his first visit to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Xi will inspect the epidemic prevention and control work and visit medical workers, community volunteers, patients and others on the front lines, state media said. More than 113,000 people have been infected with the virus, and more than 4,000 have died of the COVID-19 illness it causes. More than 63,000 people have already recovered. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against coronavirus soon becoming a pandemic. Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real, he said. The great advantage we have is the decisions we all make as governments, businesses, communities, families and individuals can influence the trajectory of this epidemic. At least 2,000 Indians currently live in Iran, according to a report . External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked the Indian Embassy in Iran, the medical team working there and the IAF for ensuring the returns of Indians. They will be quarantined at a facility at Hondin, ANI reported. A batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back to the country from Iran, one of the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak. The Indian Air Force's C-17 Globemaster flew the pilgrims to the Hindon Air Force base this morning. "We all should take utmost care and avoid going to the crowded places," he said. The couple, who had returned from Dubai, became first the first case of COVID-19 from Maharashtra. A day after a couple tested positive for novel coronavirus infection in Pune, city Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and said the civic body is all prepared to handle the situation. Mohol asked people not to celebrate Holi at the places where a large gathering is expected. And the wild ride is likely to continue as the world tries to contain COVID-19 and grapple with its fallout. The virus has infected more than 110,000 worldwide and is present on every continent except Antarctica. Containment is proving difficult and concerns are growing that it will cripple the global economy. Its hard to sit tight during uncertain times. But when it comes to long-term investing, it's the best time to do just that.US stock markets have plunged due to a combination of falling oil prices and worsening coronavirus fears. The rout on Monday knocked 7.6 percent off the S&P 500 index, which is now down 18.9 percent from its record peak reached just last month. Northern Cyprus is only recognised by Turkey. The internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government in the islands south reported its first two confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday. A German woman on holiday in northern Cyprus has been diagnosed with coronavirus, Turkeys state-owned Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday, the first recorded case in the breakaway state. The city has the bulk of the countrys more than 80,000 confirmed cases, and authorities sent thousands of medical workers and built several prefabricated isolation wards to deal with its mass of COVID-19 patients. Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his first visit to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Xi will inspect the epidemic prevention and control work and visit medical workers, community volunteers, patients and others on the front lines, state media said. More than 113,000 people have been infected with the virus, and more than 4,000 have died of the COVID-19 illness it causes. More than 63,000 people have already recovered. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against coronavirus soon becoming a pandemic. Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real, he said. The great advantage we have is the decisions we all make as governments, businesses, communities, families and individuals can influence the trajectory of this epidemic. The website, developed by Avi Schiffman, automatically scrapes data from reliable sources, including government websites and news outlets, from all over the world to report coronavirus cases in real time. The site also hosts an interactive Google map, a Twitter feed, travel advisories, information on the disease and its prevention, as well as tips for preparing for quarantine situations. A teenager from Seattle, the city which is at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in the US, has built a website that updates the deaths, infections and recoveries from all over the world every minute. The website, ncov2019.live , has been visited by 7 million people since it launched in late December. At least 2,000 Indians currently live in Iran, according to a report . External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked the Indian Embassy in Iran, the medical team working there and the IAF for ensuring the returns of Indians. They will be quarantined at a facility at Hondin, ANI reported. A batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back to the country from Iran, one of the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak. The Indian Air Force's C-17 Globemaster flew the pilgrims to the Hindon Air Force base this morning. #WATCH Mumbai: An effigy based on the theme of #CoronaVirus that was put up in Worli was burned as a part of Holika Dahan, a ritual that takes on the eve of #Holi festival. (09.03.2020) pic.twitter.com/1qUKvl1erd While observing the ritual of Holika Dahan ahead of Holi celebrations, residents of Mumbai's Worli area burnt an effigy of coronavirus. Manipur CM N. Biren Singh: In view of the possible threat of transmission of #Coronavirus / COVID-19, the international border with Myanmar has been closed including gate no 1 and 2 in Moreh until further orders. pic.twitter.com/KTNm69mTyp On Monday, Arunachal Pradesh had banned the entry of foreigners in the state. In view of the spike in coronavirus cases in the country and amid fears of transmission of the virus across the border, the Manipur administration sealed the India-Myanmar border. The biggest rebellion began on Sunday in a prison in the northern town of Modena. Three prisoners died there, and another four in prisons where they were moved after the violence started, a prison administration official at the justice ministry, said. Seven prisoners have died as riots spread through crowded jails across Italy over measures imposed to contain the coronavirus. Inmates, many angered by restrictions on family visits, went on the rampage and started fires from Sunday into Monday, authorities said. In one prison, inmates took guards hostage and in another some escaped. "We all should take utmost care and avoid going to the crowded places," he said. The couple, who had returned from Dubai, became first the first case of COVID-19 from Maharashtra. A day after a couple tested positive for novel coronavirus infection in Pune, city Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and said the civic body is all prepared to handle the situation. Mohol asked people not to celebrate Holi at the places where a large gathering is expected. And the wild ride is likely to continue as the world tries to contain COVID-19 and grapple with its fallout. The virus has infected more than 110,000 worldwide and is present on every continent except Antarctica. Containment is proving difficult and concerns are growing that it will cripple the global economy. Its hard to sit tight during uncertain times. But when it comes to long-term investing, it's the best time to do just that.US stock markets have plunged due to a combination of falling oil prices and worsening coronavirus fears. The rout on Monday knocked 7.6 percent off the S&P 500 index, which is now down 18.9 percent from its record peak reached just last month. Northern Cyprus is only recognised by Turkey. The internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government in the islands south reported its first two confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday. A German woman on holiday in northern Cyprus has been diagnosed with coronavirus, Turkeys state-owned Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday, the first recorded case in the breakaway state. Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: A day after a couple tested positive for novel coronavirus infection in Pune, city Mayor Murlidhar Mohol on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and said the civic body is all prepared to handle the situation. Mohol asked people not to celebrate Holi at the places where a large gathering is expected. A batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back to the country from Iran, one of the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against coronavirus soon becoming a pandemic. Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real, he said. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his first visit to Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak in the province. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases climbed to 46 as two Pune residents, who had returned from Dubai on 1 March, were tested positive. US President Donald Trump has not been tested for the coronavirus, the White House said, though at least two lawmakers with whom he has recently come into contact have announced they were self-quarantining after attending a conference with a person who had tested positive for the virus. The Seattle-area nursing home at the epicenter of one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the United States said on Monday it had no kits to test 65 employees showing symptoms of the respiratory illness The Gujarat Congress on Monday said it had postponed the 386-kilometre-long 'Gandhi Sandesh Yatra' aimed at highlighting the current situation of the country through a symbolic Dandi March, PTI reported. Starting from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, the yatra was supposed to trace the route of Gandhiji's historic Salt March and cover a distance of 386 kilometres in 26 days between 12 March and 6 April. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to take part in the yatra from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on 12 March, while its interim chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were expected to be present at its conclusion in Dandi in Navsari district on 6 April. Karnataka recorded its first confirmed case of coronavirus on Monday after a man who returned from the United States tested positive for the disease. "The wife and child of the coronavirus patient in Bengaluru have been quarantined. He returned to Bengaluru from the US on 1 March, and developed symptoms on 5 March. A colleague who was travelling with him has also been quarantined," Karnataka minister Dr K Sudhakar said. Reports on Monday said that the Ministry of External Affairs said that the Centre had received a formal notification from Bangladesh regarding the deferment of events organised to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman due to the spread of global coronavirus. "The impact of this deferment applies also to the large gathering planned for 17 March, at which the Prime Minister of India was invited. The Government of Bangladesh has advised us that fresh dates for these commemorative events will be conveyed later," a notification issued by the MEA said. "In this context, Prime Minister's visit to Bangladesh next week at the invitation of HE Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is being deferred. While expressing understanding of the circumstances that necessitates this deferment, India is ready to work with Bangladesh, as partners, to combat the spread of this disease in our shared neighbourhood," it added. The Centre is planning to use the IAF's C-17 globemaster aircraft to evacuate Indians from Iran, amid the coronavirus outbreak, India Today reported. Amid over 3,000 casualties due to the coronavirus outbreak worldwide, US president Donald Trump on Monday said that the situation was being "inflamed" beyond the facts by the Democratic party and the "Fake News Media". Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also said that the WINGS India 2020, an event of the civil aviation sector, which was scheduled between 12 to 15 March, will be held on "a truncated basis". "Large public gatherings will be avoided. The local representatives will be attending the event. Video conferencing is being planned with the delegates outside India," he said. The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday said that 6.5 lakh passengers have been screened at 30 airports for coronavirus, as part of the government's measures to contain the spread of the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives worldwide. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Union Minister Harshdeep Singh Puri said that screening of passengers coming from all parts of the world is currently being carried on at 30 Indian airports and 6,49,452 passengers have been screened. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan outlined the various measures that are being taken by the states and Centre to prevent the disease's spread. "We took preventive measures on time, which is why the disease is contained compared to other countries," he said, adding that this was not a cue to become "composite". "While screening of passengers from all foreign locations is being undertaken at airports across the country, over 3,000 people have been placed on surveillance for risk of the disease," he said. According to official sources, the government has evacuated some of the Kashmiri students stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran. S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, who visited Srinagar on Monday assured assistance to the parents of Kashmiri students stranded in Iran where 194 people have died due to the epidemic. As of Monday, 43 cases of coronavirus have been reported, out of which 40 are active cases of COVID-19. Three positive cases from Kerala are now discharged. 8,74,708 international passengers from 8,255 flights were screened at airports and 1,921 passengers identified as symptomatic. Total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus now stand at 42, with one case each reported from Delhi, Agra and Jammu and Kashmir. Paracetamol, antibiotics, HIV and antivirals drugs, a combination of which is being used to treat COVID-19, are widely available in India, according to Indias largest chemist lobby, the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), The Print reported. A 63-year-old woman tested positive for coronavirus, making her the first confirmed case in Jammu and Kashmir. Prime Minister is unlikely to visit Dhaka on 17 March for the Mujib Year celebrations amid the coronavirus outbreak, ANI reported. A three-year-old boy in Kochi has contracted the coronavirus infection, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 40. The family of the child had recently returned from Italy to Kochi on 7 March. During universal screening at the airport, it was found that the child has fever, following which the child was admitted to the Ernakulam Medical College hospital and samples taken. The samples returned positive on Monday. According to The News Minute, the child is currently stable. Qatar has temporarily barred travellers from 14 countries, including China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said smoking or vaping makes people more vulnerable to becoming infected with the coronavirus. A diabetic man died in the isolation ward of a hospital in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, a day after he was admitted there with suspected symptoms of coronavirus following his return from Saudi Arabia. In view of the novel coronavirus outbreak worldwide and detection of a few positive cases in neighbouring states, the Karnataka government has ordered holidays for children in lower and upper kindergarten classes in Bengaluru. The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom has risen to 273, the Department of Health and Social Care said, up from 209 a day earlier, and the biggest one-day increase so far. Twenty-seven people, who came into contact with a 45-year-old coronavirus patient in Tamil Nadu, have been placed under home surveillance, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said on Sunday. China on Sunday reported 27 new deaths from coronavirus, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a month, taking the death toll to 3,097, while the COVID-19 infections for the first time fell below 50 since the disease surfaced in Hubei province in January. All the 27 deaths occurred in the virus-hit central Hubei province, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said. Taking a serious view of three fresh coronavirus patients not disclosing their Italy visit, the Kerala government warned of strict action, including prosecution, against those hiding such travel to affected countries and symptoms of the infection. The health department said failure to inform authorities about travel history and symptoms would be considered a crime, while the state police separately said it was "illegal and punishable" if anyone hid such information. Italy's Rai state TV said the governor of Piedmont in northern Italy has the coronavirus. On Saturday, the governor of Lazio, the region including Rome, announced that he was staying in quarantine because he had been told he had tested positive for the virus. Bangladesh confirmed its first three cases of coronavirus in the country, Reuters reported quoting the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).The affected people are aged between 20 and 35 and two of them returned from Italy recently, IEDCR Director Meerjady Sabrina told reporters Italy has imposed a virtual lockdown across a wide swathe of its wealthy north, including the financial capital Milan, in its latest attempt to contain a growing outbreak of coronavirus. The decree issued by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte applies to region of Lombardy and the provinces of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro, Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Vercelli, Padua, Treviso and Venice having a combined population of 16 million people. Ten people have died in the collapse of a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Sunday. The state media said the hotel was being used to quarantine individuals under observation for the novel coronavirus. The facility began to collapse on Saturday evening. "Authorities had retrieved 48 individuals from the site of the collapse," the ministry said. "Of the total, 10 have been confirmed dead, with the rest being treated in hospitals," it said. After it was reported that five fresh cases of coronavirus were reported in Kerala, state health minister KK Shailaja tweeted the details of flights on which the patients had travelled. In the advisory, the ones travelling in the same flight were asked to contact the authorities. Five more people in Kerala have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 39, according to media reports. Three of five who tested positive had recently returned to Pathanamthitta from Italy while, the other two are their family members who came in contact with them. Chinas new confirmed case count of the COVID-19 fell by roughly one half, according to official data, as the disease continues to subside in Hubei, the epicenter of outbreak. The National Health Commission (NHC) on Sunday reported 44 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 as at the end of 7 March, a decline from 99 the previous day. The fall comes as Chinese cities gradually relax quarantine measures put in place over a month ago, while authorities keep a close watch on the virus spread overseas. Four people have died in the collapse of a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou which was being used as a quarantine facility for patients tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, a 64-year-old man died in Argentina as a result of the new coronavirus, the first such death in Latin America. About 70 people were trapped in a collapsed hotel in the city of Quanzhou, in China's southeastern Fujian Province, the city government said on its website. The collapsed hotel is used for coronavirus quarantine, according to the official Peoples Daily. The governor of Italy's Lazio region is the latest official to test positive for the coronavirus in the country. Nicola Zingaretti, who is also head of the Democratic Party, announced his diagnosis on Facebook on Saturday, saying, I am well, so it was decided I will be isolated at home. Three more patients tested positive for COVID19, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 34, said Sanjeeva Kumar,Special Secretary (Health) in the Union health ministry While two cases were from Ladakh with travel history to Iran, one was from Tamil Nadu with travel history to Oman, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the coronavirus situation in the country at a meeting with officials on Saturday and directed them to identify locations for sufficient quarantine facilities and make provisions for critical care in case the disease spreads further. The meeting was attended by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, his deputy Ashwini Kumar Choubey, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Niti Ayog member Vinod Paul, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, and secretaries of health, pharma, civil aviation, MEA, health research, home, shipping, NDMA and others The number of deaths caused by coronavirus infections in Iran rose by 21 over the past 24 hours to reach 145 on Saturday, a health ministry official said. Two persons from Hoshiarpur tested positive for COVID-19 at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar, reports ANI. According to Medical Superintendent of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Raman Sharma both these patients came to Amritsar from Italy on 3 March. Fatemeh Rahbar, a conservative lawmaker from Tehran, died from the coronavirus infection on Friday, Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim reported. It did not say if she was included in the countrys official toll of 124 deaths from the virus, given on Friday. In the wake of 31 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far, the Union health ministry has made functional 52 laboratories for testing samples while 57 labs have been designated for helping in sample collection. The number of infections climbed past 7,300 in Europe on Friday more than doubling in just three days. France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and others each recorded their biggest one-day increases in cases. India's ambassador to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin tweeted on Saturday saying the Indian greeting tradition has gained ground at United Nations as people started to adopt 'Namaste'. Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also endorsed the Indian greeting. "Social behaviors are being curtailed amid the coronavirus outbreak, as people avoid hand-shaking or kissing to greet one another. It is the apt time to greet everyone with 'Namaste," Modi said. One of 2,400 passengers on board the Grand Princess cruise ship stranded off the Californian coast is a retiree with stage-4 cancer. Kari Kolstoe, 60, from North Dakota told Reuters she and her husband, Paul, 61, had looked forward to the Grand Princess cruise to Hawaii as a brief, badly needed respite from the grind of medical intervention she has endured for the past 18 months. Now facing the prospect of a two-week quarantine far from their home in Grand Forks, she worries their getaway cruise will end up causing a fateful delay in her next round of chemotherapy, scheduled to begin early next week. Its very unsettling, she said in a cellphone interview from the ship on Friday. Its still a worry that Im going to not get back. In South Korea, authorities reported 483 new cases of infections on Saturday, bringing the nation's total number of infections to 6,767. Most of the new cases have been reported from southeastern city of Daegu, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in South Korea. So far, 44 people, mostly elderly patients with underlying illnesses, have died in South Korea from the respiratory virus that emerged in China late last year, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. Speaking on the rapid spread of novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged citizens to stay calm and refrain from believing rumours. Asking people to avoid panicking, Modi said it was best to follow advise of doctors in this time. "I request people to not believe in hearsay and rumours on what to do and what not to do on coronavirus, whatever doubts you have please consult your doctor," said Modi. The prime minister further said at-risk people should take precautions against the disease. The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed around the world passed 100,000 on Friday as the rapid spread of the epidemic hit a milestone, according to Johns Hopkins University. The virus that first emerged in China in December, 2019, has spread to 97 countries and has infected over 80,000 people in the country. The government also reported 99 new confirmed cases on 6 March, down from 143 the previous day, with a total of 80,651 cases nationwide. Most of the new cases and deaths were from Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak in China. Meanwhile on Friday, China's health agency reported that at least 53,726 people have recovered and have been discharged from hospital. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written to the chief ministers of all states ruled by the party, instructing them to put in place effective response measures to deal with the spread of coronavirus and lend all possible support to public healthcare responders. So far, 31 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been detected in India. "It is critical for the State Government to put in place effective response and preparedness measures. The capacity of public healthcare facilities must be augmented to respond to any potential outbreak," Gandhi said in the letter to chief ministers of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry and Chhattisgarh. India has limited integration with the global value chain, which "insulates" its economy from the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday. Britain confirmed its first casualty Friday, after blood reports of an elderly woman who died Thursday posthumously confirmed she had contracted the deadly infection. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said anganwadis have been closed in view of the coronavirus scare. Meanwhile, Amritsar authoritie have barred public presence t Atari-Wagah border where 20 to 30,000 people gather each day at sunset to witness the Beating Retreat ceremony. The Netherlands confirmed its first fatality due to coronavirus today. An 86-year-year old man died in hospital in the port city of Rotterdam. The global march of the new virus triggered a vigorous appeal Thursday from the WHO for governments to pull out all the stops to slow the epidemic, as it drained color from India's spring festivities, closed Bethlehem's Nativity Church and blocked Italians from visiting elderly relatives in nursing homes. Serbia has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, its Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said on Friday. He told reporters that a 43-year-old man, who traveled to Budapest, was diagnosed with virus and that he feels well. Cameroon has confirmed its first case of coronavirus after a 58-year-old French citizen tested positive to COVID-19. The health ministry said the man, who arrived in the capital Yaounde on 24 February, has been quarantined in the city's central hospital. The Vatican on Friday reported that a patient in its health services had tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reported. "First flight from Iran will carry around 300 swabs of Indians suspected of having coronavirus," a government official was quoted by PTI as saying. The flight is expected to land on Friday. Iran will operate special flights on Friday between Tehran and New Delhi for evacuating the stranded passengers. Iranian airline Mahan Air would operate the flight to Delhi and would carry Iranians back in the return flight. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is spending Rs 3 lakh daily to house people in its recently set up quarantine facility in Delhi, The Times of India reported. Currently there are 112 people, who were evacuated on 27 February from China's epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak Wuhan, put up in the camp. The first batch of Indian evacuees from China arrived in Delhi on 1 February and since then Rs 85 lakh has been spent on running the facility. Another person in Delhi tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, taking the cumulative figure of confirmed cases to 31, News18 reported. According to the report, the patient had recently travelled to Thailand and Malaysia. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) temple management in Vrindavan has banned the entry of foreigners in temple, as per media reports. The move comes after 23 people, including six from Agra, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Besides, the famous Holi celebrations or Gaura Purnima festival by the widows in Vrindavan, scheduled for 7 March, have also been cancelled. Iskcon Mathura spokesperson Rajiv Lochan was by TOI as saying, Due to the rapid spread of the virus across the globe, the temple management has decided not to allow foreigners inside the premises as a precautionary measure. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has reported its first case of the coronavirus after a US tourist tested positive, the Prime Minister Lotay Tshering said on Friday. The tiny, land-locked country, famous for measuring Gross National Happiness has emerged as a popular tourist destination in recent years. But the government immediately shut borders to foreign visitors for two weeks in an effort to limit the impact of a disease that has wreaked havoc in more developed countries around the world. The 76-year-old man arrived in Bhutan from India on 2 March and was admitted to hospital on 5 March with a fever, where he tested positive for COVID-19, the prime minister's office said in a Facebook post. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, Sikkim has decided to ban entry of foreigners to insulate itself from the novel coronavirus, The Times of India reported. The preventive measure has led to wide-spread fears among travel and tour operators and hoteliers in Darjeeling that bookings would be canceled. A blanket ban has also been issued for permits to visit the Nathula pass that borders China. "Darjeeling and Sikkim are inter-linked tourist destinations. Overseas tourists usually spend four-and-a-half days in Sikkim and two-and-a-half days in Darjeeling. Now that they will not be able to travel to Sikkim, they are most likely to cancel the Darjeeling leg of their visits and go elsewhere for week-long holidays," said Amit Periwal, the proprietor of Clubside Tours & Travel, was quoted as saying. A man from Ghaziabad with a recent travel history to Iran has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the country to 30 and seven in Uttar Pradesh as the Central Government on Thursday asked states to form rapid response teams at district, block and village levels. The test reports of 68 people who had come in contact with the Italian couple, who tested positive for the new coronavirus earlier this week, have come out negative, a senior health department official said on Thursday. Test results of eight more people are awaited, the official said. As many as 229 people were found to have come in contact with the Italian tourists who visited Jaipur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jhunjhunu and Jaipur. Of them, samples were collected from 76 people. "Sixty-eight have tested negative and test reports of eight samples are yet to come," said Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health, Rohit Kumar Singh. He said 247 samples have been collected in the state so far and 239 samples have been tested. Barring the Italian couple, the test reports of all others (except 8 which are under process) are negative, he added. The New York Times reported that sweeping shutdown of schools in Italy, a suspension of classes in New Delhi and warnings of school closures in the United States, mandated by the virus outbreak, have intensified the educational upheaval of nearly 300 million students globally. Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh on Thursday said 175 people have been tested so far for coronavirus in the state with 157 of them showing no sign of the infection. Of the remaining 18 tested, six are from Agra and one from Ghaziabad, he said, referring to the seven cases which have tested positive. Palestinian authorities said the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built atop the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born, will close indefinitely due to coronavirus concerns. Meanwhile, politicians in India appealed to the Hindu population to scale back on their Holi celebration as the festival of colour can result in unguarded close human contact and exposure to virus. The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 86 countries and territories around the world as the outbreak slows within China but picks up speed across the world. A pharmacy student from Kerala who was studying in Bengaluru has been quarantined after she showed symptoms similar to that exhibited by Coronavirus cases, reports said. Manish Sisodia has said that all schools in Delhi up to class 5 will remain shut till 31 March after one more case of coronavirus was reported from NCR region. One more case of novel coronavirus was reported in Ghaziabad in the national capital region, taking the total number in the country to 30 so far, official sources said on Thursday. The patient is a middle-aged man with a recent travel history to Iran, reports said. A 16-year-old Indian girl here has tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed infection cases in the UAE to 28. The Indian High School in Dubai will be closed from Thursday as a precautionary measure. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that the country's researchers are studying the use of stem cell technology in the treatment of people critically ill with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It quoted a science journal to report that four COVID-19 patients who received stem cell treatment while in a serious condition have recovered. Amid concerns over the health of over 1,200 Indian nationals stuck in Iran the second country after China to report highest number of casualties the government offered some hope for their families. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed via Twitter that India was ready to set up its first screening clinic in Iran at Qom by today evening. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, on Thursday, informed the Lok Sabha that the Indian government was closel working with Iranian authorities to bring back Indian nationals stuck in the country. The health minister also said that there was no need to panic. The trade impact of the coronavirus epidemic for India is estimated to be about 348 million dollars and the country figures among the top 15 economies most affected as slowdown of manufacturing in China disrupts world trade, according to a UN report. Issuing a travel advisory, health minister Harsh Vardhan said that citizens are advised to refrain from traveling to virus affected-areas of China, Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran. He said directions have also been issued for all international passengers in India. "As of 4 March, a total of 28,529 persons were brought under community surveillance and are being monitored," Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said as he detailed the evacuation of of Indians by Air India and IAF. In a first reported case of human-to-animal transmission of coronavirus, the pet dog of a positive-tested patient in Hong Kong has been confirmed to be infected with a 'low level" of the virus. Tests confirmed the virus in the pets nasal and oral cavities, "which indicates a low-level of infection," Hong Kongs agricultural and fisheries department said in statement late Wednesday. The impact of the coronavirus epidemic for India on trade is estimated to be about $348 million and the country figures among the top 15 economies most affected as slowdown of manufacturing in China disrupts world trade, according to a UN report. Estimates published by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Wednesday said that the slowdown of manufacturing in China due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is disrupting world trade and could result in a $50 billion decrease in exports across global value chains. The most affected sectors include precision instruments, machinery, automotive and communication equipment. Among the most affected economies are the European Union ($15.6 billion), the United States ($5.8 billion), Japan ($5.2 billion), South Korea ($3.8 billion), Taiwan Province of China ($2.6 billion) and Vietnam ($2.3 billion). India is among the 15 most affected economies due to the coronavirus epidemic and slow down in production in China, with a trade impact of $ 348 million. The trade impact for India is less as compared to other economies such as EU, the US, Japan and South Korea. A Paytm employee in Gurugram has tested positive for novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Students appearing for class 10 and 12 board examination will be allowed to carry masks and hand sanitisers in the exam centre in view of coronavirus scare, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Wednesday. The Railway ministry issued an advisory stating that material with information about coronavirus should be displayed "prominently" to increase awareness among the public regarding the disease. 25 confirmed cases were reported in India on Wednesday. "..need for signages and separate counters being set up for fever cases," The Indian Express reported, adding, "Railway staff would also be trained on prevention of the spread of virus and the statement added that in case any suspicious case is detected, it should be reported to the Railway Hospital." Higher Education secretary Amit Khare on Wednesday wrote to all the state chief secretaries and the CBSE board directing them to spread awareness about precautionary measures regarding coronavirus in schools, reports said. Even as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Japan topped the 1,000 mark on Wednesday, mostly from the Diamond Princess cruise liner, the Japanese government reiterated that plans to host the Tokyo Olympics in July remained on track. We would steadily proceed with our preparations while closely coordinating with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the organising committee, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference, amid speculation that the Games could be postponed because of the coronavirus threat. The Olympics are scheduled to open in less than five months and IOC head Thomas Bach reiterated his backing for this summers Games despite the coronavirus threat, urging athletes to prepare full steam. Home Minister Amit Shah's public rally in Hyderabad, scheduled for 15 March has been postponed in light of the coronavirus outbreak, reports said. In Hyderabad, a man tested positive for the novel virus on Tuesday, and two other suspected cases were reported on Wednesday. Telangana BJP chief K Krishna Saagar Rao was quoted by The Indian Express as saying that the decision was taken with the aim of reducing mass physical contact of people. On Wednesday, Shah also announced that he wouldn't participate in 'Holi milan' on 10 March as a way to take precautions against the virus. "I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself and your family," he said. Six cases with "high viral load" have been found while sample testing in Uttar Pradesh's Agra, The Indian Express reported. The report said that the suspected patients came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus in Delhi. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune. Extending the morning losses, equity indices crashed by afternoon after 28 new suspected coronavirus cases were tested positive in the country on Wednesday. Benchmark Sensex tanked over 650 points while the broader Nifty was down 188 points at around 1.30 pm. Sensex was trading 659.38 points or 1.71 percent, lower at 37,964.32 while Nifty slipped 188.45 points or 1.67 percent to 11,114.85. After Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the country was well prepared to contain the spread of COVID-19 novel coronavirus and that he would not participate in 'Holi Milan' function in the wake of the reports of the outbreak of the virus in different places.' From now on, all flights and passengers will be part of universal screening, not just the 12 countries which we had listed earlier,' said Dr Health Minister Harsh Vardhan during media presser today. Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told media reporters that on conducting contact tracing of the person tested positive in Delhi, it was found out that the patient infected six members of his family who are in Agra. All six members have tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in India to 28. where 3 have already recovered. Tech giant Intel has said one of its employees in Bengaluru has "potentially been exposed" to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. The company also said it has implemented precautionary measures like travel restrictions, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions in India. Seeking to allay fear among the citizens in the wake of coronavirus scare, Karnataka Health Minister B Srirumulu on Wednesday made an appeal to the people not to pay heed to rumours spreading on social media. As more cases of coronavirus are confirmed in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he will not be participating this year in the Holi Milan programme. He said, 'world experts have been issuing warnings against unnecessary social contact, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.' As many as 15 tourists from Italy were tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total positive cases in India to 21. The development was confirmed after 21 Italian nationals reached ITBP quarantine centre in Delhi. The Rajasthan Health Department has issued directives to the districts where the Italian group of tourists, 15 of whom have tested positive for coronavirus had travelled. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will brief the media on the coronavirus outbreak in India at 3 pm. He will also take a meeting with senior officials from the Delhi government to discuss the management and preparedness in light of the virus' spread in India. The total confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in India stood at six on Tuesday after an Italian tourist tested positive for the novel virus in Jaipur, and authorities like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several state governments doubled down on facilities to treat patients and precautionary measures. The disease has now spread to over 60 countries and has claimed over 3,100 lives worldwide, PTI reported. The report said that the sample of the Italian tourist, which was sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, was found to be positive after the first two tests gave contradictory results. The 69-year-old man, part of a group of 20 tourists, is admitted at an isolation ward of the SMS Hospital. His wife also tested positive for the virus, PTI reported, however, the Rajasthan government said that her sample is being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for another test. Rajasthan health minister Dr Raghu Sharma on Tuesday instructed health officials to screen all those people who had come in contact with the Italian tourist who tested positive for coronavirus. Asking to step up vigil, the minister also asked officials to send a rapid response team of the Medical Education and Health Department to the places visited by the patient, along with 19 others from Italy. The team, including senior professors and epidemiologists, will inspect hotels and excursions in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Mandawa (Jhunjhunu) and Jaisalmer. The Centre on Tuesday also extended the suspension of existing visas given to nationals from Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan on or before 3 March and who have not yet arrived in India. The move came a month after India cancelled the visas for Chinese nationals and those who had visited China in January, after the outbreak of the disease in December. Over 90,000 have been infected globally so far. Meanwhile, the coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward West Asia, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses. Washington state has reported a seventh death from coronavirus. All of the COVID-19 deaths in the United States so far have been in the Seattle area. A spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle said the patient died on 26 February. She said the person had been a resident at a suburban Seattle care facility that has reported multiple virus cases and deaths. The spokeswoman said some hospital staff may have been exposed while treating the patient but officials don't believe other patients were. The hospital staff are being monitored and screened daily. Deaths in Italy surged to 79, making it the deadliest reported outbreak outside China. Twenty-three members of Iran's Parliament and the head of the country's emergency services were reported infected. South Korea expanded drive-thru testing and confirmed hundreds of new cases. And in Spain's Basque region, at least five doctors and nurses were infected and nearly 100 health care workers were being held in isolation. The mushrooming outbreaks contrasted with optimism in China, where thousands of recovered patients were going home and the number of new infections has been dropping. Worldwide, more than 93,000 people have been infected and over 3,100 have died, the vast majority of them in China. The number of countries hit by the virus exceeded 70, with Ukraine and Morocco reporting their first cases. Are you lost in the wild? Sorry, but the page you're looking for has not been found Try checking the URL for errors, goto home or try to search below. US President Donald Trumps 2020 campaign sued Washington Post on March 3, a news agency reported. Alleging defamation, it asserted that two opinion articles published in 2019 falsely claimed that that campaign conspired with Russia. This comes as the US Presidential election is scheduled to take place in November this year. 'False and Defamatory' The lawsuit cites a June 13 opinion piece by Greg Sargent that said Trump tried to conspire with a sweeping and systematic attack by Russia against the 2016 US presidential election. It also cites a June 20 opinion piece by Paul Waldman. Waldman in his op-ed wrote, Who knows what sort of aid Russia and North Korea will give to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their assistance? Jenna Ellis, a senior legal advisor to the Trump campaign told international media that the statements were and are 100 per cent false and defamatory. Read: Donald Trump Campaign Sues US Daily Over 2019 Opinion Piece On Russia This comes days after the campaign escalated its feud with media organisations by filing a libel lawsuit in New York State court in Manhattan against The New York Times for a 2019 opinion piece. In an Op-Ed published on March 27, 2019, Max Frankel wrote an article on alleged collusion between Trump and Russia which titled The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo. Read: Days After The Peace Deal, US President Donald Trump Had 'good Talk' With Taliban Leader In the article, the author alleged that rather than detailed electoral collusion, the Trump campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putins emissaries had an overarching deal in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential elections. The quid of help in the campaign against Hillary Clinton for the quo of a new pro-Russian foreign policy, wrote Frankel, a former executive editor of The Times. Trumps re-election campaign sued the English daily alleging that the Op-Ed article carried by The Times falsely asserted a quid pro quo and knowingly published false and defamatory statements. Read: Trump Holds Phone Call With Taliban Leader Baradar: Insurgents Read: Days After The Peace Deal, US President Donald Trump Had 'good Talk' With Taliban Leader (With inputs from agencies) Joe Biden has won Minnesota, edging out a narrow victory against Bernie Sanders in the state as both Democratic candidates compete on Super Tuesday for the party's presidential nomination. After dropping out of the race, the state's senator Amy Klobuchar backed the former vice president on Monday. "We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar", the former vice president told supporters in Los Angeles. The state holds 75 delegates. According to exit polls, nine out of 10 primary voters in the state are white, and a majority believed they needed to select a candidate they best believe can defeat Donald Trump in November, which they ranked as more important than electing a candidate for their policies. The state has an open primary that's not dependent on voters' party registrations. Early projections show the former vice president and Mr Sanders neck in neck in the county that houses Minneapolis, represented by star Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who backed the Vermont Senator. He won the state in a decisive victory in 2016, beating Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points in a 61.6 per cent to 36.4 per cent vote. Minnesota voters reportedly overwhelmed caucus sites in 2016, prompting the state legislature passed legislation to turn the contest into a primary. Though the state is frequently a Democratic stronghold, it became somewhat a battleground in the general election in 2016, when Ms Clinton beat the president by less than two points. The father of an Australian man involved in a scooter accident in Bali has issued a warning to tourists after his son was slapped with a $35,000 hospital bill despite being insured. Cameron Johnson, 25, from Bathurst, NSW, suffered severe facial injuries after crashing his scooter while on holiday in Kuta on February 20. He was rushed to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to insert three titanium plates in his face after fracturing his eye socket in several places. His father, Andrew Johnson, immediately contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs upon learning about his son's accident and was by his side within 24 hours. But when he arrived, he learned the hospital had been charging a $3,000-a-day fee during Cameron's stay, in addition to the surgery costs. Cameron Johnson, 25, was involved in a scooter accident while he was on holiday in Kuta, Bali last month The Bathurst, NSW, man suffered severe injuries to his face, including fractures around his eye socket 'It's a parent's worst nightmare, really,' Mr Johnson told Daily Mail Australia. 'The option to fly [him home] was completely ruled out because of the air pockets in and around the eye socket. The surgeon said if you put him on a plane he will die.' Prior to his trip, Cameron had taken a out a travel insurance policy with Commonwealth Bank and expected to have the hefty medical bill covered. The surgery itself was around $18,000 to $20,000 but the hospital charged another $3,000 for each day Cameron was there after 10am. 'As far he was concerned he had taken out the appropriate insurance. He even went to the bank the day after and when the [day] got closer he confirmed with whoever he had spoken to at the branch, "I want to know that I'm 100 per cent covered for everything and anything,"' Mr Johnson said. 'And the answer he got back was yes.' In the wake of the accident, Cameron contacted the insurance company in a stupor to file a claim, but wasn't immediately told whether it had been processed. 'It wasn't until the following Wednesday that he was out of hospital that I got him to ring them and give me the authority to speak on his behalf,' Mr Johnson said. 'They still said to me that they hadn't made their decision. 'I said quite simply, "What was my son supposed to do between Thursday and Wednesday? Was he supposed to sit in a hospital in the current condition and die?"' Mr Johnson said his son's surgery was around $18,000 to $20,000 but the hospital charged another $3,000 for each day Cameron was there after 10am. Pictured right: An X-ray image of Cameron's injuries to his eye socket Concerned over the rising costs, Mr Johnson checked his son out of the hospital on the Sunday and rented a villa instead, where he looked after him. It was there where that the father and son were informed their insurance claim had been denied and they would have to foot the bill in full. 'The only reason they gave us was that anything over a 49CC motorcycle wasn't covered under their policy,' Mr Johnson said. At the time of the accident, Cameron was riding a motorcycle with an engine capacity of 125CC. The rejection also came as a shock, Mr Johnson said, because Cameron had done his 'due diligence' and confirmed with representatives that he would be covered for 'everything'. An insurance prompt seen by Daily Mail Australia showed exclusions are in place for motorcross, and you must have an eligible licence and be wearing a helmet. A Commonwealth Bank spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the company makes sure to provide clear information to customers regarding what is included and excluded in each policy. At the time of the accident, Cameron was riding a motorcycle with an engine capacity of 125CC, which is apparently not covered by the policy 'We do this both on our website, where we outline what is included and excluded, as well as what additional cover can be purchased to cover activities such as motorcycle or moped riding,' the spokesman said. 'We also include clear information and prompts during the insurance activation explicitly asking whether extra cover is required for motorcycle or moped riding.' He said when customers are purchasing their insurance they are are given the option to select additional coverage, including that of motorbikes. 'It is not possible to complete a travel insurance activation without confirming this step,' he said. But Mr Johnson claimed he had previously taken out the same insurance policy as his son and was only offered extra coverage for smartphones, not motorcycles. 'The biggest thing that stuck out in my mind is when I actually spoke to the representatives of the insurance company, it was impersonal, it was robotic, there was no humanity in any of the conversations,' he said. 'There are hundreds of thousands of Australians that go to Bali, Indonesia, and wherever else around the world. 'They may well have fallen into the same trap thinking that they're covered and it's really not worth the paper it's printed on - so that would be my warning. 'Cameron did his due diligence and questioned it in person, that's obviously not enough.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:50:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speaks during a meeting with the heads of right-wing parties in Jerusalem on March 4, 2020. The bloc of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is three seats short of a majority coalition in the 120-seat parliament, the latest figures showed Wednesday after 99 percent of the votes have been counted. (JINI/Handout via Xinhua) JERUSALEM, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The bloc of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is three seats short of a majority coalition in the 120-seat parliament, the latest figures showed Wednesday after 99 percent of the votes have been counted. The Central Elections Committee, which oversees the parliament election, said Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party gained 36 seats, while its main rival, Benny Gantz's Blue and White centrist party garnered 33. Likud and its allies, a bloc of a pro-settler party and two Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties, won 58 seats. Israelis were following closely the updates of the election as slight changes could determine whether the country's longest-serving leader could form a government coalition. Netanyahu already claimed victory late on Monday night, after exit polls indicated a firm majority by his right-wing party over Blue and White. Gantz, Israel's former military chief, has not conceded defeat yet, who said on Tuesday that he was waiting for the final results as the election could once again hit a deadlock. On Monday, Israelis went to cast their ballots in the unprecedented third parliamentary election in fewer than a year, after the previous two rounds in September and April yielded inconclusive results as no party was able to form a coalition. It is worth noting that Netanyahu is facing a corruption trial scheduled to begin on March 17, in which he is indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Should Netanyahu establish a new government, he will become the first incumbent prime minister under a criminal trial in the history of Israel. Kathmandu, March 4 District to central level leaders of the Ram Chandra Paudel-led faction in the Nepali Congress have decided to boycott a training session that the party has scheduled for vice-presidents of the district committees. They say they will not participate in the scheduled session as the partys establishment faction led by president Sher Bahadur Deuba recently formed various party departments without their consent and the training session is also targeted at occupying the party leadership to be elected in the national general convention. The party had scheduled the session for the district vice-presidents for this afternoon in Kathmandu. But since the dates for the 14th general convention have already been fixed, the election code of conduct is in effect in the party, a pro-Paudel leader Prakash Man Singh says, The party should not be involved in any activity that would influence the general convention. The leaders of the dissident faction had held a meeting at Singhs residence in Chaksibari of Kathmandu this morning to discuss their strategies. Prince William attempted to make a joke about the coronavirus and it didnt go over so well with royal fans, to say the least. During Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridges visit to Dublin, Ireland, he awkwardly made light of the Coronavirus threat, a topic that has many people anxious and on edge. Kate Middleton and Prince William | Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince William and Kate visit Ireland Prince William and Kate are currently on a three-day royal tour of Ireland and stopped at a reception hosted by the British Ambassador to Ireland at the Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin. I bet everyones like Ive got Coronavirus, Im dying, and youre like no, youve just got a cough, Prince William said to Joe Mooney, an advanced paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, at the reception. Does it seem quite dramatic about Coronavirus at the moment? Is it being a little bit hyped up do you think in the media?, he asked. He joked about spreading the virus, noting, By the way, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spreading Coronavirus, sorry. He added, Were keeping an eye on that, so do tell us if we need to stop! Fans werent amused It wasnt surprising to see that royal fans werent happy with Prince Williams jokes and many took to Twitter to share how disappointed they were by his insensitive remarks. One fan tweeted: How pathetic. It is not surprising that Prince William is so out of touch and ridiculous to joke about something that has killed so many. Not long ago, Kate Middleton had a laugh at a homeless shelter. Today Prince William scoffs at people panicking as a result of the melodramatic rhetoric about coronavirus. What a charming couple, tweeted another. Another fan pointed out how this would have been received differently if it was Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex making the joke: If #PrinceHarry, OR #MeghanMarkle had made this joke that philandering #PrinceWilliam made today about the #Coronavirus, they would have been viciously EVISCERATED in print, on television, and online FOR DAYS. The world sees you for who and what you are #BritishMedia. Prince William addressed the crowd During the event, Prince William shared how he was retracing the queens footsteps. Catherine and I are delighted to be here tonight and are both very grateful to Robin for his generous words, he began. Ireland is a country that we have both heard so much about, so we are really excited to be here with you to see it first-hand for ourselves. He added: In coming to the Guinness Storehouse, we are retracing the footsteps of my grandmother, who was shown how to pour the perfect pint here in 2011. Ladies and Gentlemen let me tell you it is not often that I find myself following the queen to a pub. But I am looking forward to testing for myself the theory that Guinness tastes even better in Ireland than overseas, he added. The Cambridges visit is short but impactful The Cambridges may only be in Ireland for a short time, but their tour will highlight the many strong links between the UK and Ireland, according to a statement from Kensington Palace. From its thriving cities to rural communities, the programme will take in Irelands rich culture, its impactful community initiatives and spectacular scenery, the statement noted. Following Her Majesty The Queens historic visit in 2011, the visit will also focus on the relationship between the two countries, and build on the theme of remembrance and reconciliation. EAST GREENBUSH The Town Board will hold a public hearing Wednesday, March 11, to listen to residents in neighborhoods bordering the Dunn Landfill that have been adversely impacted by the dump. Odors, debris, windows grimy from dirt blowing off the construction debris landfill, and people with breathing problems in fear of going outside are some of the issues, town officials said. People in East Greenbush are having problems. We have no jurisdiction. Were trying to do something, Supervisor Jack Conway said Wednesday. It definitely is a quality of life issue. Long term, its a public health issue. East Greenbush hasnt had a say in the S.A. Dunn Landfill, which is just across the border in the city of Rensselaer and near the Rensselaer City School District campus. The dump has been fought by residents from both communities and attracted the attention of state and local officials. The complaints Town Board members are hearing are similar to those made by Rensselaer city residents. The only missing element is the heavy truck traffic that rumbles through city street to reach the landfill. There are no roads directly from the town into the landfill site. This thing needed to be closed yesterday, Conway said. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The town is looking toward 2022 when the state permit for the Dunn Landfill expires to see if it can take action. It is the largest construction debris landfill in the state. Before tha, the site was a gravel mine. The town is mailing a flier to all town residents announcing the hearing, set for 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 225 Columbia Turnpike. The hearing will be livestreamed on Facebook.com/TownofEG and TownHallStreams.com/towns/eastgreenbushny for residents who cannot attend in person. Last October, the state Department of Environmental Conservation ordered the Texas-based Waster Connections to upgrade the landfill's gas collection system designed to keep hydrogen sulfide odors from escaping. The company and DEC also were working on construction of a berm designed to assist in containment efforts. The berm is projected to cost $1.5 million to $2 million to build. Wentler said Doyenne leaders plan to go to Stevens Point and Green Bay in the coming months to meet with entrepreneurs and community leaders to see how Doyenne can be involved or provide support. The organization is not planning to open new hubs as it has in Milwaukee, where a director was hired a week before Gannon died, Wentler said. What the (WEDC grant) does is it makes it so we can continue to have a statewide touch point without having to have Doyenne physically in the different cities, Wentler said. Wentler isnt leading Doyenne alone. Jasmine Timmons, director of programming for Doyenne in Madison, worked with Wentler and Gannon last year to develop a strategic plan for the organization. Doyenne is delaying some initiatives following Gannons death, Wentler said, but those initiatives had not been publicly announced. Wentler said shes still inspired by Gannon and refers back to her mantras, or Amy-isms, some of which have been posted on a wall in Doyennes office as a memorial. Three in particular became key to Doyenne: Stop apologizing, Women arent broken and Entrepreneurship happens within a life, not the other way around. Officials did not release details about when or if the event would be rescheduled. Dance Marathon is a seminal experience for hundreds of Northwestern students, who work for much of the year to raise money for the charities and then stay up all night, dancing in a tent on campus, in a final effort to boost donations. Last years event raised more than $1 million, according to a NU news release. New Delhi: Since reports of a confirmed Coronavirus case in the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday held a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and other officials on the preparations undertaken by the state for the prevention of an outbreak. Addressing a press conference at the media centre, Sisodia said that on Tuesday there was a meeting with Chief Minister on the coronavirus. "All conditions were reviewed. A case has turned positive in Delhi. The matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister. Coronavirus is a new virus. There is no specific cure for it right now... but there is no need to panic about it. Some measures are being taken by the government," he said. "Coronavirus screening facility is currently available at only 12 locations across the country. We are trying to arrange for the facility in Delhi as soon as possible. The way preparations were made during swine flu, preparations are being done in 25 hospitals in Delhi," he added. He said that the Kejriwal was apprised of the situation and that as many as 25 hospitals in Delhi have been kept ready for patients, of which 19 beds are in state-run hospitals while 6 are at private hospitals. Isolation facilities have been provided in these hospitals. For this, 230 beds have been arranged, which will also be given for doctors and other staff members being treated in the hospital. Also, the Delhi government has made arrangements to distribute more than 3.50 lakh N95 masks. Sisodia said that only one case has come up in Delhi, the affected person has been admitted in Safdarjung Hospital, his family is also kept in the same Hospital. He suggested the need to be careful and assured that precaution has been taken all over Delhi and that no one needs to panic. The AAP leader said that information and caution against the virus is the biggest defence, he cautioned people to make a habit of washing hands repeatedly for 30 to 40 seconds. While talking to others, try to avoid shaking hands. Always keep in mind that without washing, do not apply anything by hand or nose. This is how the infection of the coronavirus spreads. While the state health minister Satendra Jain said, "There is no specific medicine to treat the patient suffering from this. The most important thing that people should keep in mind is that it is a flu-transmitted disease. There is a possibility of spreading it when coming in contact with a person suffering from this disease. The simplest way to avoid this is to touch your mouth, eyes and nose only after washing your hands thoroughly. This is the most basic way to protect against viruses. Never get too close to the person suffering from it. Maintain a distance of at least two to two and a half feet. If someone suffers or sneezes, put a handkerchief on the nose and mouth. Otherwise, it is likely to spread," So far six positive cases of deadly coronavirus have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. Apart from the three new cases reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan, last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and been discharged from the hospital. He added, "Not nervous at all. Right now only one case has been reported from Delhi. There have been only three or four cases in the whole country. Need to be careful." In wake of the rising cases of coronavirus in the country, the government of India issued a new travel advisory and suspended all visas and e-visas granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan with immediate effect. Here's the travel advisory: 1. All regular (sticker) Visas/e-Visa (including VoA for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and issued on or before 03.03.2020 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect. Those requiring to travel to India due to compelling reasons, may seek fresh visa from the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. new travel advisory 2. Regular (sticker) visa / e-Visa granted to nationals of Peoples Republic of China, issued on or before 05.02.2020 were suspended earlier. It shall remain in force. Those needing to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for fresh visa to nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. 3. Regular (sticker) visas/e-Visas granted to all foreign nationals who have travelled to Peoples Republic of China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan on or after 01.02.2020, and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect. Those requiring to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for fresh visa to nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. 4. Diplomats, officials of UN and other international bodies, OCI cardholders and Aircrew from above countries are exempted from such restriction on entry. However, their medical screening is compulsory. 5. Passengers of all international flights entering into India from any port are required to furnish duly filled self declaration form (including personal particulars i.e. phone no. and address in India) and travel history, to Health Officials and Immigration officials at all ports. 6. Passengers (foreign and Indian) other than those restricted, arriving directly or indirectly from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan must undergo medical screening at port of entry. 7. Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19 affected countries. Zee News is playing its part to fight the coronavirus scare, it has launched "Fight against coronavirus" campaign and has issued preventive measures with which one can avoid getting affected with the deadly disease. Read the preventive measures here Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign today. He has endorsed Joe Biden. The lesson many will draw from Bloombergs failure to win any primary other than the one in American Samoa is that its foolish to skip the early contests. To be sure, skipping the early contests isnt generally a recommended strategy, but I dont think it was foolish in Bloombergs case. His downfall was his debate performance, not his timing. Its true that Bloomberg might have debated better if he had been campaigning all along. But one can essentially skip the early contests and still participate in debates. If memory serves, Rudy Giuliani did this in 2008. Unfortunately for Giuliani, he didnt have anything like Bloombergs ability to mass advertise. The other problem for Bloomberg was Joe Bidens revival. It destroyed Bloombergs core claim that only he stood between Bernie Sanders and the nomination. Imagine a scenario in which Bloomberg debates well and Biden doesnt revive. In this scenario, Bloomberg would not have flopped on Super Tuesday and might well have a shot at winning the nomination despite skipping the early contests. Disappointing though it was, Bloombergs Super Tuesday performance bettered that of Elizabeth Warren. Why, then, is Warren still in the race? Last night, as she was getting trounced in state after state, including Massachusetts, she sent a message to her supporters. It stated that we might not know the results the full results from states like Texas, California, and Colorado for a few days. True. We know, however, that Warren lost each of these states and lost each big. Warren continued: Heres the bottom line. There are six more primaries just a week away, and we need your help to keep up the momentum. Momentum? Is Warren delusional? Yesterday, I disputed the notion that Bernie Sanders is the victim of a conspiracy by the establishment. I found scant evidence to support such a claim. If there is such evidence, its Elizabeth Warrens continued presence in the race. However, I think her continued presence is due to a personality defect, not an establishment conspiracy to deny Sanders leftist votes. The concrete and current case of this famous phrase is the emphasis and insistence of the Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei on the truthfulness and transparency of the states information system: Iran has been one of the most transparent countries in the field of the coronavirus. Unlike some of the countries that put political, economic and expeditions ahead of their own people, we did not act like them. (Governments news website, dolat.ir, 2 March 2020) Now after the two weeks and while the situation in Iran has become critical, most of the Iranian people and the Internet activists, testify that in the concept of transparency and veracity, there is no trust on you This new claim of Ali Rabiei, like all others boasted by the regime in the past 41 years, has been mocked by the Iranian people and the countries involved with the coronavirus. Some years ago, former Iranian President Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani once described the bloody censorship of the press and writers and dissidents, the brutal suppression of women, the massacres of thousands of people, and state-sponsored terrorism of Khomeini as the unparalleled democracy of the world. This is the same bastion of democracy against which the UN has repeatedly issued condemnation resolutions over its extra-democratic services to the continued human rights abuses. The UN has condemned the regime 66 times with the majority of the international community votes. Its enough to refer to the state media to see how ridiculous Rabieis speeches and claims are, that even the regimes official couldnt prevent themselves to laugh at him: In the recent period, the authorities lied enough to the public The person who broadcasts the exact news on the internet is being arrested. Some officials believe that the lack of public awareness is in the countrys interest. Be honest with people once and for all. The people are exploding. (Jahan Sanat Daily, 1 March 2020) The statistics released by the official tribunes are vastly different from the statistics of international sources. The disease has had a 2% mortality rate worldwide, and even in Wuhan, the center of coronavirus in the world, but official statistics in Iran show nearly 8% mortality. (Hamdeli Daily, 1 March 2020) What threatens our society more than the coronavirus is the risk of mistrust, mental turmoil, and feelings of helplessness and self-determination. (Arman Daily, 1 March 2020) Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, 29 February 2020: According to the latest official statistics, 867 people have been confirmed to have the virus. Deputy Minister of Health Qasim Janbabai on 29 February 2020 pointed out that the number of infected is about 60,000 people. Most governments media have acknowledged that the virus had entered Iran in 21 and 22 January, but the government didnt announce it, because of the ceremony of the anniversary of the Iranian revolution in 1979. This government press repeatedly wrote that, despite warnings, the Mahan air owned by IRGC did not suspend flights to China even once. The head of the medical department at the University of Gilan announced that we had repeatedly observed coronavirus symptoms, but they (the government) did not pay attention and suddenly told us you were in the center of the coronavirus. This is the case of the regimes truthfulness, and it is clear that the main victims of these lies are the people. The translation of Ali Rabieis words, of course, found its true example in todays situation in Iran, when the regime surprised the Iranian people with its transparency and the sudden announcement of the coronavirus outbreak on 20 February. This blow of this transparency now is not just for the Iranian people; while most countries with the coronavirus say that Iran is the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis. Read More: Iran Admits to More Coronavirus Cases but Still Undercuts the Number STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Over 900 high schoolers had a chance to dream about their futures at the 6th Annual Staten Island CareerCon on Tuesday. CareerCon is an event that invites local high schoolers to meet with potential employers, hear from students and professionals on panels, and learn about college opportunities. The event also provides business owners a chance to meet Staten Islands up and coming workforce. CareerCon has been held at the Grymes Hills campus of St. Johns University or four years The event started in 2014 and was initiated by Staten Island Technical High School. The high school had created an event to bring technical education programs and businesses on Staten Island together. When the Department of Education and Chamber of Commerce got involved, the event became much larger and was open to high schools around the island. Outside of just being a networking opportunity, CareerCon reminds Staten Island students that they dont have to leave the borough for a career. This is important to remind people of the jobs that exist on Staten Island," said Linda Baran, President of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. "Everybody thinks they have to leave the island and go to Manhattan or New Jersey, but theres something in their industry right here in their home town. The event featured a large career fair inside of the Campus Center Gym, where students could meet with potential employers. Across the rest of the campus, there were various panels and workshops. Workshops at this years event gave students the chance to create resumes, learn about careers in STEM, professionalism, and other career-related topics. College and career readiness is our universitys goal, and we could not ask for better partners in these endeavors, said Dr. James OKeefe, Vice Provost of St. Johns University, Staten Island. We look forward to seeing the next generation of accomplished Staten Islanders visit our beautiful campus. The Carl V Bini Memorial Fund sponsored CareerCon. The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, the College of Staten Island, St. Johns University (Staten Island Campus), 30,000 Degrees, the NYC Department of Educations Staten Island Field Office, and the NYC DOE Transition College Access Center partnered for the event. Were just really trying to encourage young people to start thinking about their career path and going to college at an early age, said Baran. This event is something that is really important to Staten Island. TYSONS CORNER, Va., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cordia Partners (CORDIA) is proud to announce the appointments of Michael Cippel, Abraham Gogel, and Veronica Vannoy as Principals. These promotions recognize three outstanding leaders for their commitment to the firm and its clients while further enhancing the firms' leadership team. Michael Cippel, CPA and Principal, has been with the firm for over eight years and served as a Director in our Government Contracting practice. He oversees the outsourced accounting operations for many of the firm's small to mid-market government contractors. "Mike's commitment to the growth of his client's business and the development of his staff are second to none. We are proud to recognize his contributions and look forward to working together for many more years," said Brigitta Scott, Partner. Abraham Gogel, CPA and Principal, joined Cordia 10 years ago and served as a Director, primarily providing accounting systems and business process support to not-for-profits and professional services organizations. "Abe has been instrumental in growing our Sage Intacct technology consulting practice into one of the nation's leading consulting firms. His work ethic along with his strategic leadership style have led to many successes thus far," stated Mitchell Weintraub, Managing Partner. Veronica Vannoy, Principal, Marketing and Communications joined Cordia in 2018 and served as Director of Marketing and Communications. She will continue to lead the Marketing and Communications department and to drive new sales enablement initiatives, as well as support internal communication efforts. "Veronica has been a gamechanger for Cordia. Under her leadership, we have repositioned our brand, increased brand awareness, aligned sales and marketing, and enabled us to gain marketing share in the region," shared Managing Partners, Mitchell Weintraub and Joe Greeves. About Cordia Cordia is a professional services company with a robust platform of services designed to support organizations through every stage of business growth. We are a leading provider of outsourced accounting, technology consulting, executive search, recruiting & staffing, and technical accounting services in the Washington, DC region. Our team of experts has more than 20 years of deep accounting, finance, technology, human resources, and recruiting expertise enabling us to support businesses across multiple industries including, commercial, not-for-profit, government contracting, professional services, and more. Learn more at www.cordia-us.com. Media Contact: Veronica Vannoy Principal, Marketing & Communications Cordia 8330 Boone Boulevard, Suite 350 Vienna, VA 22182 703-962-9575 [email protected] SOURCE Cordia Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 06:22 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20680e9b9 1 National BPJS-Kesehatan,JKN,KIP,ICW,corruption,deficit,health-insurance Free The Central Information Commission (KIP) has ordered the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) to disclose its audit report on the Health Care and Social Security Agencys (BPJS Kesehatan) deficit. The order was stipulated in the commissions ruling in favor of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), which demanded that the comptroller open its report to the public after the BPKP rejected the watchdogs initial request. The ruling was read by KIP commissioner Cecep Suryadi during a hearing in Jakarta on Tuesday. Cecep said the audit report did not have elements of confidentiality as regulated under articles 6 and 17 of Law No. 14/2008 on public information, which has given liability to any public agencies in central government and local administration to provide open access to public information. Read also: BPJS Kesehatan books deficit below 50% of 2019 projection According to the Public Information Law, the defendant is required to provide public access to the audit report, the existence of which was mentioned during a public meeting, because it contains no confidential elements, another KIP commissioner, Arif Kuswardono, said. ICW researcher Egi Primayogha said he appreciated the ruling and requested the BPKP make the BPJS Kesehatan audit report available to the public as soon as possible. "The audit report will probably be beneficial to the public as it might show the problems of the BPJS," Egi said after the hearing. The ICW had filed a lawsuit against the BPKP after the comptroller refused to provide the audit report to the graft watchdog, which was planning to look into issues surrounding BPJS Kesehatans national health insurance (JKN) program. Read also: Can BPJS Kesehatan survive? An assessment after drastic premium hikes According to the graft watchdog, the government had allocated at least Rp 22.1 trillion (US$1.5 billion) to the agency to subsidize the premium payments of low-income participants. However, BPJS Kesehatan still recorded a deficit of Rp 15.5 trillion as of December last year, the ICW said. "The amount is certainly not small. That's why the BPKP's audit report must be known widely by the public. The public as taxpayers and the compulsory members of the JKN program must know every problem within its operations," Egi said. A BPKP legal team member, who refused to be named, said he would coordinate with the agency in regard to the ruling. (ars) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Buenos Aires, Argentina Wed, March 4, 2020 06:42 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20681173d 2 World Argentina,Chile,coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak,health Free Argentina and Chile both said on Tuesday they had confirmed their first case of the novel coronavirus in patients who recently returned from travels. A 43-year-old infected Argentine man had returned from Italy on March 1, while a 33-year-old Chilean man had spent a month in southeast Asia. Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said the Argentine patient has been in isolation since presenting himself to a private health clinic in Buenos Aires the day he returned. "We've identified a first case. It's a patient who came from Italy" but had also traveled around other parts of Europe, said Gonzalez Garcia. The minister, who added that "fortunately the case is not complicated," said Argentina was prepared to tackle the virus. "There are countries that have managed to prevent the spread and other countries that haven't," said Gonzalez Garcia. "I have every hope and belief that this will be contained." Chile's Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the 33-year-old patient had been taken to a hospital in the city of Talca, around 350 kilometers to the south of the capital Santiago. He had mainly spent time in Singapore and arrived back in Chile on February 25. The Talca hospital's director, Alfredo Donoso, said the patient only started exhibiting coronavirus symptoms a week after returning to Chile, although those were "quite light." "He was admitted with a high fever, but then that became normal and he is now totally free of symptoms here in the Talca hospital and is in isolation," said Donoso. The patient is due to undergo some tests before being allowed to go home. The two new cases brings the total number in Latin America to 17, with Ecuador (seven) and Mexico (five) the worst affected countries. Health officials have been scrambling to contain the spread of the virus that first erupted in China and has so far killed more than 3,000 people worldwide. Mainland China alone has recorded more than 80,000 cases and 2,943 deaths alone. Elsewhere, the main countries affected are South Korea (5,186 cases, 28 deaths), Italy (2,502 cases, 79 deaths) and Iran (2,336 cases, 77 deaths). (Updates delegate totals) By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden won at least nine states in a strong showing on Super Tuesday while his main rival Bernie Sanders was on pace to pick up four, including California. With partial results in from all 14 Super Tuesday states and one U.S. territory, Biden was forecast to win at least 380 delegates, with Sanders getting at least 328, Elizabeth Warren 28, Michael Bloomberg 12, and Tulsi Gabbard one. In many states, only a fraction of the delegates have been assigned. Here is a quick look at what happened in the voting to choose a Democratic challenger to Republican President Donald Trump on Nov. 3. CALIFORNIA Delegate count: 415 Media reports projected Sanders would win the most populous state. He had 33.6% support with returns in from 87% of precincts, and Biden was in second place with 24.9%. Of the 219 California delegates already assigned, Sanders had 135, Biden 83 and Warren one. Sanders had been widely expected to win in California and hoped to run up a big lead in delegates, while Biden was hoping to remain close enough to prevent a blowout. The results showed Biden doing much better than expected. TEXAS Delegate count: 228 Biden beat Sanders by 34% to 30% in Texas in the biggest surprise of Super Tuesday. Of the 82 delegates already assigned, Biden had 42, Sanders 38, Bloomberg one and Warren one. Sanders had been widely favored to win Texas, and possibly by a big margin, but Biden enjoyed a late surge in support as other moderate candidates pulled out of the race. Former New York Mayor Bloomberg also spent massively in Texas and had about 15% support. While Bloomberg took some moderate votes away from Biden, Sanders saw his share of the vote undermined by Warren, a fellow liberal senator, who had about 11% support. NORTH CAROLINA Delegate count: 110 Biden won the state comfortably. With 50 of its delegates assigned, he had 35 delegates and Sanders had 15. Story continues Biden's victory was largely fueled by his overwhelming advantage among black voters. VIRGINIA Delegate count: 99 Biden easily won and secured at least 66 of its 99 delegates. Sanders will win at least 30 delegates and Warren will take at least one. The state has been trending more liberal in recent elections, and Democrats in November took control of both chambers of the state house for the first time in a quarter-century. Bloomberg invested heavily there, flooding television with advertisements. But Biden benefited from voters who decided only in the last few days. MASSACHUSETTS Delegate count: 91 Biden won and is projected to secure at least 32 delegates, with Sanders getting at least 27 and Warren 17. Warren had once been considered the favorite in the state she represents in the U.S. Senate. Sanders was considered her biggest threat. But Biden's surprise victory - after spending no money there nor deploying any staff - solidified his big night. MINNESOTA Delegate count: 75 Biden won and will pick up at least 36 delegates, with Sanders winning at least 26 and Warren five. Senator Amy Klobuchar had been favored to win Minnesota, her home state. But on Monday she ended her campaign and threw her support behind Biden. COLORADO Delegate count: 67 Sanders won the state comfortably. Of the 26 delegates assigned so far, Sanders had 13, Biden and Bloomberg both had five and Warren three. After Biden outperformed him in the South, Sanders was hoping states like Colorado would fuel a Super Tuesday advantage. TENNESSEE Delegate count: 64 Biden won Tennessee and had 21 of the 31 delegates assigned so far. Sanders had the other 10. With no opinion polls assessing the Democratic primary in the state, campaigns were banking on trying to capture a surprise win there. Bloomberg invested heavily in time and resources, while Biden hoped his support among African Americans would carry him to victory. ALABAMA Delegate count: 52 Biden won easily and will secure at least 25 delegates. Sanders will win at least three. Biden continued his Deep South wins. His advantage among black voters, who make up much of the state's Democratic electorate, propelled him to the victory. OKLAHOMA Delegate count: 37 Biden won and will get at least 11 delegates, with Sanders getting at least six. Oklahoma is Warren's birthplace, but early results found her well behind. ARKANSAS Delegate count: 31 Biden won the state and will secure at least 12 delegates. Sanders will win at least five delegates and Bloomberg at least two. Bloomberg made one of his first campaign appearances in Arkansas and picked up endorsements from elected officials there, but appears likely to finish in third place behind Biden and Sanders. UTAH Delegate count: 29 Sanders was projected to win the state. With 32% of precincts reporting, Sanders had 34.6% of the vote, against 17% for both Biden and Bloomberg and 15% for Warren. Only three delegates had been assigned, all of them to Sanders. The Western state has traditionally been conservative, but liberal pockets in places like Salt Lake City and Park City proved beneficial to Sanders. MAINE Delegate count: 24 The day after polls closed, the New England state was still too close to call. With results in from 79% of precincts, Biden had 34% of the vote and Sanders had 33%. Both men will win at least seven Maine delegates. Sanders is well known to Maine voters as a senator for nearby Vermont and had been the favorite going into Super Tuesday. VERMONT Delegate count: 16 Sanders won Vermont and secured at least 10 of its delegates, with Biden winning at least five. Sanders has represented the state in Congress for decades and was expected to win easily. AMERICAN SAMOA Delegate count: 6 Bloomberg won American Samoa and will secure at least four delegates. U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii won a single delegate, her first in the primary contest. The U.S. Pacific Ocean territory held a single caucus to allocate its delegates. DEMOCRATS ABROAD Delegate count: 13 This new contest allows Democrats living abroad, many of them who relocated permanently or work for the State Department, to have a voice in the nominating contest. Voting began on Tuesday and will continue for a week. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Peter Graff, Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis) Advertisement A couple living in Bali have shared their tips for enjoying a hassle-free holiday on the idyllic Indonesian party island. American expat Jimmy, and his Thai girlfriend Tah, flagged some of the dos and don'ts with their 200,000 followers on YouTube. They explained that it was best to avoid drinking super cheap cocktails in clubs as many mixed drinks contain spirits such as arak or Balinese wine. Some of these strong drinks are 50 per cent alcohol and have been known to cause blindness and even death. The young couple also told holidaymakers to watch out for stepping on or over Canang Sari, the locals' daily offerings made to thank God. These tributes often take the form of flower displays and disturbing them can cause great offence. The couple also visitors not to touch drugs, hire a motorbike or get cross if a local driver honks their horn. While visitors are welcome to enjoy Bali's many palm-fringed beaches and beach clubs the couple warned tourists not to visit the monkey forest as some of the primates could have rabies. Don't drink mixed spirits at clubs The couple advised against buying cheap cocktails during happy hour which can see holidaymakers pay less than five dollars for a drink. 'Don't go crazy with drinking super, super cheap cocktails. Most of them contain arak or Balinese wine or Balinese liqueur,' Jimmy told the couple's subscribers. Spirit bottles are often tainted with methanol on the island as it is found in locally-made spirits such as arak, which has been known to make partygoers go blind or even kill them. 'By no means are we telling you to avoid taking advantage of this amazing happy hour, but just don't go too crazy on it, especially if you're a first timer,' the US expat said. The couple said there's still a number of bottled drinks that revellers can safely drink on the holiday island, such as Smirnoff Ice, Blackjack, beer, cider and wine. American national Jimmy and his Thai partner Tah, who have been travelling the world since 2017, shared their biggest don'ts for visitors Don't take or get involved with drugs The couple advised tourists to resist the temptation to take illicit substances in Bali, or attempt to traffic drugs into the island. Jimmy and Tah referenced the infamous Bali Nine case, which saw nine Australians either locked up for life or executed over a thwarted heroin smuggling plot. Ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were convicted of attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia and into Australia in 2005, and were executed in 2015. Six other members were sentenced to life imprisonment in the country's hellish jails, while Renee Lawrence - the gang's only woman - was given a 20-year sentence. They referenced the infamous Bali Nine (pictured), which saw nine Australians either locked up for life or executed for a thwarted heroin smuggling plot Don't step on Canang Sari (locals' daily offerings made to thank God) The couple strongly warned tourists against stepping on or over Canang Sari, a small religious offering locals leave outside their homes and shopfronts. 'It is the icon of Bali,' Tah said. 'It is the offering that you see a lot on the street, in front of restaurants right at the door. 'There is nothing more disrespectful than stepping on something meant for God. The Balinese are highly spiritual and these offerings are part of religious beliefs.' Jimmy advised tourists to be careful where they step when leaving a shop or restaurant. 'Just make sure you realise where you're walking and step over it or walk around it,' he added. 'Bali's culture is very rich... they are very, very strict with their culture, beliefs and prayers.' Don't believe locals when they say a tour is free Jimmy and Tah warned unsuspecting travellers they may fall victim to tourist traps when visiting temples. 'When you go to a temple in Bali, particularly places like Goa Gajah and Ubud, you might encounter some locals that offer free services or tours,' Jimmy said. '[If you go on the tour] at the end they will ask you for some money or a form of donation.' Jimmy instead advised tourists to do their own research to avoid being asked for money. 'If you're a very strict budget-backpacker, you can just look up the history yourself on your phone so you don't get to that awkward moment at the end,' he said. 'Kindly decline it at the beginning if you know you don't have any cash.' Don't get confused with zeros on Indonesian Rupiah Jimmy and Tah warned tourists to make sure to correctly count their notes, and not hand over more than they need to when buying something. 'When you go to a restaurant you might see 30, 50 or 100... but remember that 30 is actually 30,000 [rupiah],' he said. The couple wanted tourists to pay attention to prices at restaurants, as they often leave off a few zeros, making food appear cheaper. 'My trick is to remember the colour of the note instead of looking for the zeros,' Tah told viewers. 'When I went to the local market, I accidentally handed them a 100,000 rupiah bill when it was meant to be 10,000 rupiah.' Jimmy and Tah warned tourists to make sure to correctly count their notes, and not hand over more than they need to when buying something Tah told viewers she accidentally handed a market owner a 100,000 rupiah bill instead of a 10,000 note (pictured: Tah at the local food markets) Don't ride a motorbike Jimmy and Tah advised tourists to avoid renting their own scooters, and instead download the apps Gojek and Grab to hire a motorbike rider to take them to their destination. 'The driver will arrive, give you a helmet, and he will get you there the fastest,' Jimmy said. Because Bali's roads are so congested, the couple said scooter riders often ride along the footpath to overtake traffic. 'When I first got to Bali I thought "how is this even allowed?",' Jimmy said. Jimmy and Tah advised tourists to avoid renting their own scooters, and instead download the apps Gojek and Grab to hire a motorbike rider to take them to their destination Don't get mad when local drivers honk at you The couple pointed out that honking is just a normal part of driving in Bali, and tourists shouldn't be offended if they are beeped at. 'Don't get mad if they honk at you while riding a scooter, because this is very, very common,' Jimmy said. 'There's no road rage, really, in Bali. It's not like the US. Honking in Bali is the polite way to let somebody know that you are overtaking or going around blind corners or intersections. 'If you're going around a corner and you hear a honk, they're just warning you that they're coming around the corner and they can't see anybody coming. 'Everybody uses this as a gentle gesture to communicate something.' Don't think the whole island of Bali is the same Jimmy and Tah encouraged tourists to do their research to find out which parts of the island most appeal to them. 'The biggest misconception in Bali is that it's a small island,' Jimmy told viewers. 'Every area is very, very different. It's better to get to know the areas first before booking rooms. 'If you love culture and art, you're going to love Ubud, which will give you the feel of the traditional Balinese lifestyle. 'Kuta is well known for being a party area; full of beaches and lots and lots of nightlife. Jimmy said tourists looking for a more relaxed 'hippie-vibe' should head to Canggu. Jimmy and Tah met in August 2015 in South Korea, and kicked off travelling in September 2017 with $4000 in savings Don't visit the monkey forest Despite the monkey forest in Ubub being a favourite among many travellers, Jimmy and Tah said the seemingly innocent creatures are known to get aggressive and even steal from tourists. 'They may look cute and cuddly but they can become territorial and be very, very aggressive,' Jimmy said. 'It's really hard to distinguish when they feel aggressive and when they feel calm. We never know from their face,' Tah added. The couple warned that if travellers get bitten by monkeys in the forest tour, they are required to receive four rounds of rabies shots. They advised against buying bananas to feed to monkeys, as they often times steal tourists' sunglasses. Federal Judge Sandy Mattice on Wednesday found all five defendants in the "Cream Scheme" case guilty on some of the 178 counts charged by prosecutors. Sentencing will be June 8 for Wayne Wilkerson, Michael Chatfield, Kasey Nicholson, Billy Hindmon and Jayson Montgomery. They remain free on bond. Wilkerson, Chatfield and Hindmon were found guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, while Ms. Nicholson and Montgomery were not guilty. However, the judge found Ms. Nicholson and Montgomery guilty on some other charges in the very lengthy indictment. Prosecutor Perry Piper said the government will be asking for forfeitures of illicit earnings from the defendants in the case in which individuals were recruited to order creams that were billed to insurance at rates up to $15,000 a jar. Prosecutors said Wilkerson made over $14 million from the scheme and Chatfield raked in $5.4 million. In addition, Wilkerson made $400,000 in charges to the Hamilton County Schools for creams billed at exorbitant prices. Prosecutors Piper and Franklin Clark said Chatfield also got $1.5 million for passing on his "book of business" to Jimmy Collins. Collins and his wife, Ashley, formerly lived at Birchwood, but moved to San Diego. They were also arrested in the healthcare fraud and are awaiting trial. Ashley Collins asked to be tried separately, but that motion was denied. They said insurance companies and Tricare paid a total of roughly $35 million for the compounded medications in the locally-based scheme. Private insurance paid roughly $22 million for prescriptions written by Candace Michele Craven, Toni Dobson, and Suzy Vergot. Of this number for private insurance, Ms. Craven was responsible for roughly $21 million. She has been scheduled to be sentenced in San Diego on Friday. However, it was delayed until June 12. Attorneys said they wanted to wait until the cases of co-defendants had been settled. Likewise, Tricare (the health agency for the military) was billed roughly $13.8 million for prescriptions written by Ms. Craven, Ms. Dobson, and Ms. Vergot as part of the scheme, it was stated. They said Wilkerson (through his Top Tier corporation) made roughly $13 million in commissions from four pharmacies: Willow, Central Rexall, Florida Pharmacy Solution and Soothe. They said, "This number did not include the commission paid by Hamilton County Schools on the $954,000 that was billed to them." Chatfield made $5,400,000 through his corporation Top Shelf, the government said. Ms. Nicholsons commissions were $938,740, of which she paid $204,000 to Matthew Perkins. Hindmons commissions were $1,031,296, and Jayson Montgomerys commissions were listed at $337,068.17. Wilkerson was also found guilty of 21 counts of wire fraud, and Chatfield was ruled guilty of 21 counts of wire fraud as well. Ms. Nicholson was found guilty of seven counts of wire fraud, while Hindmon was found guilty of 22 counts of wire fraud. Montgomery was found not guilty of all the wire fraud counts. Wilkerson was found guilty of five counts of mail fraud, while Chatfield was found guilty of eight counts of mail fraud. Ms. Nicholson was found not guilty on mail fraud charges. Hindmon was found guilty of a single mail fraud charge. Wilkerson, Chatfield, Ms. Nicholson and Hindmon were found guilty of healthcare fraud, and Montgomery was ruled not guilty of healthcare fraud. Wilkerson and Chatfield were both found guilty of five counts of payment of illegal remuneration. Ms. Nicholson was found guilty of three counts of payment of illegal remuneration, and Hindmon was found guilty of two counts of payment of illegal remuneration. Wilkerson was ruled guilty of three counts of receipt of illegal remuneration. Chatfield was found guilty of one count of receipt of illegal remuneration. Ms. Nicholson was found guilty of two counts of receipt of illegal remuneration. Hindmon was found guilty of two counts of receipt of illegal remuneration. Montgomery was found guilty of two counts of receipt of illegal remuneration - his only convictions. Wilkerson was found guilty of one count of money laundering, while Chatfield was found guilty of five counts of money laundering. Press Release March 4, 2020 Dispatch from Crame No. 729: Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the Adoption of Senate Resolution No. 337 3/4/2020 I support the move of Senate President Sotto, as backed up by a majority vote of the Senate, to bring before the Supreme Court the matter of requiring Senate concurrence in the abrogation of treaties and international agreements. Although SP Sotto's Resolution does not categorically express the position that Senate concurrence is necessary in the abrogation of treaties, the mere fact that it is elevating the issue to the SC necessarily implies that at least a majority of the Senate intends to defend the power and prerogative of the body on matters relating to the termination of treaties and international agreements. Personally, I would have preferred that what was adopted was the Drilon Resolution (Proposed Senate Res. No. 305) which I co-authored, a stronger version which expresses the sense of the Senate that the termination of, or withdrawal from treaties and international agreements concurred in by the Senate shall be valid and effective only upon concurrence of the Senate. Nevertheless, the adoption of the Sotto Resolution, Res. No. 337, is sufficient enough as an expression of this desire to challenge the President's authoritarian interpretation of the Constitution when it comes to laying down foreign policy and articulating the national interest in international affairs. It has always been my position that the Senate, as an institution consisting of the direct representatives of the people elected nationally, is constitutionally mandated to actively lay down foreign policy as the expression of the national interest in international affairs. The very design and spirit of the 1987 Constitution that favors checks and balances over concentration of power is clear on this. While the President is indeed the chief architect of foreign policy, he designs this in partnership with the Senate. It is a shared power. Once foreign policy is jointly acted upon by the President and the Senate in the form of a treaty or international agreement, this becomes the law of the land, and the Executive cannot unilaterally reverse, modify, annul, or repeal this law unless concurred in by the Senate, or another law is passed by Congress as a whole. Foreign policy expressed in treaties and international agreements forms part of Philippine law. Only with Senate concurrence or an act of Congress can treaties and international agreements be thereafter repealed, reversed, modified, annulled, or otherwise terminated. Malacanang's unilateral act of treaty abrogation therefore puts the President above the law. But no one is above the law, not even Duterte, no matter how much we allowed him to be in the past. Another key point, and something Sen. Hontiveros and I stressed in our Joint Memorandum filed in the case questioning Duterte's unilateral withdrawal from the Rome Statute/ICC, is this. More than an Executive or a Legislative act, treaty-making, and, thus, treaty-unmaking, is a sovereign act of the Filipino people acting through the joint actions of two branches of government. Two branches, not one. For one branch to undo what the sovereign Filipino people have done through their representatives would be a usurpation of the sovereign prerogative. The President is not sovereign. He is not king. He is but a representative and, in the case of treaties, he possesses no monopolistic claim of representation. He shares it with the Senate. It offends both reason and the intent of the Constitution to hold that while two keys are needed to secure a treaty, only one is needed to disturb or abandon it. Finally, we cannot and should not allow the repudiation of a treaty based on the personal hostility, whims, caprices and self-serving interests of one individual, that of an unstable Head of State. Senate must step in to check on his abuses. And the Supreme Court, both in the earlier Petition on the ICC withdrawal and now, in the proper case soon to be filed on the VFA abrogation, must allow the Senate to do so. ### (Access the handwritten version of Dispatch from Crame No. 729, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._729) TORONTO, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust ("ERES REIT") (ERE-UN.V) announced today it will issue its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 after markets close on: Tuesday, May 5, 2020 A conference call hosted by Phillip Burns, Chief Executive Officer and the ERES REIT management team to discuss the results will be held on: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 9:00 am ET The telephone numbers for the conference call are: Local / International: (416) 340-2216 North American Toll Free: (800) 377-0758 A slide presentation to accompany managements comments during the conference call will be available an hour and a half prior to the conference call. To view the slides, access the ERES REIT website at www.eresreit.com click on Investor Relations and follow the link at the top of the page. Please log on at least 15 minutes before the call commences. The telephone numbers to listen to the call after it is completed (Instant Replay) are local / international (905) 694-9451 or North American toll free (800) 408-3053. The Passcode for the Instant Replay is 9844056#. The Instant Replay will be available until midnight, June 6, 2020. The call and accompanying slides will also be archived on the ERES REIT website at www.eresreit.com. For more information about ERES REIT, its business and its investment highlights, please refer to our website at www.eresreit.com. 2019 ANNUAL UNITHOLDERS MEETING ERES REIT will hold its 2019 Annual Unitholders Meeting on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 10.00 am at Stikeman Elliot LLP, 5300 Commerce Court West, 199 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario. ABOUT ERES REIT ERES REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. ERES REIT's Units are listed on the TSX-V under the symbol ERE.UN. ERES REIT is Canada's only European-focused multi-residential REIT, with an initial focus on investing in high-quality multi-residential real estate properties in the Netherlands. ERES REIT currently owns a portfolio of 131 multi-residential properties, comprised of 5,632 suites and ancillary retail space located in the Netherlands, and owns one office property in Germany and one office property in Belgium. Togo's Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected opposition claims of electoral fraud and declared Faure Gnassingbe the winner with more than 70 percent of the February vote and president for a fourth term. In the final tally, the incumbent garnered 70.78 percent of the ballots while opposition leader and former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjodes took 19.46 percent, the court said "Having obtained the absolute majority of votes in the first round of the ballot, Mr Faure Gnassingbe has to be declared elected president of the Republic," announced Aboudou Assouma, president of the court. A petition filed by Kodjo, who heads the Movement of Patriots for Democracy and Development, was annulled by the court which found it "lacked evidence likely to support the allegations." "I dispute with all my strength these results," Kodjo, who had declared himself the winner before provisional results were released, told AFP. "I consider that I am the legitimate victor in this election. I will continue to claim my victory," he added. The former prime minister, alleged "serious irregularities" in voting, including ballot stuffing and the use of fake polling stations. Togo's bishops, who back Kodjo's movement, on Monday put out a statement critical of the election noting it took place "in a relatively calm climate" but "as far as transparency and fairness go the same cannot be said". Neither colonial power France nor the European Union has commented on the outcome of the ballot which keeps the Gnassingbe dynasty in power for more than half a century. The United States voiced concern over the limited checks on voting and urged the Electoral Commission to publish results polling station by polling station for greater transparency. Some 300 international observers were deployed, mainly from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union, with many African states supporting the incumbent. Gnassingbe, 53, has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years. The electoral commission said turnout was over 76 percent. Gnassingbe's tally was by far the biggest of all the successive elections he has won. The president has insisted his continuing rule for five more years was central to ensuring security in Togo and preventing jihadist violence spilling over from Burkina Faso to the north. Advertisement Italy closed all schools and universities and prepared other emergency measures on Wednesday to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Europe's worst-hit country as the death toll and number of cases jumped. The total number of dead in Italy rose to 107 after 28 people died of the highly contagious virus over the past 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government released a decree this afternoon which told the nation, among other restrictions, that the public should refrain from the traditional Italian greeting of kissing each other on the cheek. A later announcement confirmed that all sporting events will take place without fans present for at least the next month due to the virus outbreak. A female tourist covers her face as she walks around the Colosseum in Rome, Italy today. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is expected to release new rules today which will tell the nation they cannot kiss because of the virus Operators of 'Napoli Servizi' sanitize the San Paolo stadium in Naples to prevent the dangers of contagion of Coronavirus, Naples, Italy today High containment ambulances are pictured being taken to the emergency room of the Cotugno hospital in Naples where a patient is suffering from the coronavirus today Revellers at the Venice Carnival last month kissing in the street. As of today Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government is expected to advise against such affection over coronavirus fears Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, left, and Italy's Public Education Minister Lucia Azzolina speak during a press conference held at Rome's Chigi Palace, following the Ministers cabinet meeting dedicated to the corinavirus crisis today High bio-containment ambulances are pictured carrying victims from the emergency room of the Cotugno hospital in Naples where the patient suffering from Coronavirus COVID 19 virus, of Brescia origin, was transported to Ischia Among the PM's rules are the closure of cinemas and theatres, and telling Italians not to shake hands or hug each other and to avoid 'direct physical contact with all people.' Conte last night said the measures were needed to stop its health service from crumbling amid warnings the toll is more severe than currently known. He said: We are focused on taking all measures for direct containment or delaying the spread of the virus. The health system risks going into overload, and we will have a problem with intensive care if an exponential crisis continues. Cases from Italy have been reported across the world. And yesterday two groups of Italian tourists, totalling 15 people, were being held in isolation in India after testing positive for the virus. The Netherlands last night became the latest country to advise against travelling to the worst affected areas of Italy, while Tunisia stopped ferry services. Authorities in Rome have created two red zones affecting 11 towns with 50,000 people in the wealthy Lombardy and Veneto regions in the north of the country. They are considering extending the zone to the city of Bergamo after a cluster of cases there. Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said schools and universities all over the country would be closed from Thursday until at least March 15. Only those in the northern regions most heavily affected by the epidemic have been closed so far. The number of cases since the outbreak surfaced 13 days ago rose to 3,089 from 2,502 on Tuesday. Of those who contracted the disease, about 3.5 per cent had died, the head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, said. A man looks at Raphael's oil on wood panel, Madonna con il Bambino (Virgin with the Child), in Rome today An elderly woman wears a face mask as she walks in central Rome today. The coronavirus is expected to cost Italy's tourism sector 6.4billion in losses in the upcoming trimester Two women aboard a bus wear face masks amid coronavirus fears in Rome, Italy today. Giovanni Rezza, the head of the infectious diseases department at the national health institute, yesterday said that schools were a key area to keep control of the virus Mr Conte's rules also order all major sporting events, including top flight Serie A soccer matches, to be played in empty stadiums. All sporting events throughout the country must take place behind closed doors until April 3. Schools and universities have been ordered to close until March 15. That calls into question Italy's Six Nations rugby match against England in Rome on March 14. That match will either have to go ahead behind closed doors or be postponed. Italy's match against Ireland, which was scheduled for March 7, had already been postponed. A man in a Milan store keeps a distance of one metre after the Italian government announced people should refrain from kissing, hugging, and shaking hands in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic A student of the Milan's Politecnico University studies wearing a protective in the university library, Milan, Italy today An empty water bus after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy today The entrance of the Vatican Museums is deserted due to the coronavirus emergency, Rome, Italy today St. Peter's Square at the Vatican is almost deserted due to the coronavirus emergency in Rome today The Pope - who has tested negative for the virus after suffering cold-like symptoms - kissing a child in Bari, Italy, on February 23 The Italian soccer league's governing body has yet to release a revised schedule but reports say the six Serie A soccer matches that were postponed last week will now be played this weekend. That includes one of the biggest matches of the season - the Juventus-Inter game, known as the 'Derby d'Italia' or Italy's derby. The school closures, however, caused jubilation among some children and mixed reactions from parents. 'I hoped for this decree because I feared an outbreak at school,' said Massimiliano Del Ninno, father of a Rome primary school student. 'Even if we are dealing with an age group that doesn't seem to be at risk, they could have been carriers.' Two young people wearing protective face masks kiss in central Rome today. The president of Italy's higher health institute has advised people to stop the traditional greeting of kissing on the cheek as a part of an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Hugs should be suspended during social interactions for the time being, too. He also said people should frequently wash their hands, avoid crowded places and keep a distance of one to two metres from other people. People with respiratory conditions have been advised to stay at home A man wearing a protective face mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus walks past the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy today Men keep their distance whilst talking on the street in Milan, Italy, March 4, 2020. Giovanni Rezza, the head of the infectious diseases department at the national health institute, yesterday said that schools were a key area to keep control of the virus A schoolteacher looks at his shuttered workplace in the small town of Bareggio near Milan - it has been closed since last month but today the government has rolled out the strict measure to every school and university in the country until mid-March Clarissa Mazzei, a 30-year-old mother of three, called it 'tragic ... for the students, and also for the parents.' Deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said the government was aware of the problems it would cause families and was preparing a directive to allow a parent to stay home from work to look after children. The virus outbreak remains centred on the wealthy and populous region of Lombardy, around Milan, and the neighbouring regions of Veneto and Emilia Romagna, but cases are spreading around the whole of the Italian peninsula and Sicily. Rome's Spallanzani infections diseases hospital said it had 20 coronavirus patients, while others were being treated at home in and around Italy's capital and largest city. A woman wearing a protective face mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus rides her bicycle in Milan, Italy today Primary school pupils in the 'red zone' area of San Fiorano where schools have already been closed - the closures are now to be rolled out to all schools and universities nationwide to stop the spread of COVID-19 A woman wearing a protective face mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus enters a subway station in Milan, Italy today A healthcare professional wearing protective suit and healthcare mask checks the temperature on incoming people at the entrance of the Maugeri hospital in Pavia, northern Italy today Emilia Romagna's regional government said on Wednesday two of its members had tested positive and Industry Minister Stefano Patuanelli is in self-imposed isolation after coming into contact with a patient, though he himself had tested negative. The outbreak has heavily disrupted daily life in the north, with cinemas and museums closed in some regions and many events cancelled including fashion shows and trade fairs. On Wednesday, the government instructed public sector managers to reorganise offices to help staff work from home. Healthcare professionals wearing protective suits and healthcare masks check the temperature of people at the entrance of the Maugeri hospital in Pavia, northern Italy today A view of a nearly-deserted Navona Square as fewer tourists than usual are seen in downtown Rome, Italy today. Italian authorities have mandated the closure of all schools and learning centers until mid-March in a bid to contain the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, which is gripping the country with over 3,000 infections and at least 100 deaths People and tourists wear protective face masks in downtown Rome, Italy today. The president of Italy's higher health institute has advised people to stop the traditional Italian greeting of kissing on the cheek as a part of the effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus Italy's chronically weak economic growth looks sure to suffer, with the tourist sector taking a huge hit from a wave of cancellations. Industry lobby Confindustria said the country was in recession, forecasting a fall in gross domestic product in both the first and second quarters of this year. Confturismo, the tourist industry's confederation, said the sector was 'on its knees.' It forecast a drop of some 32 million in the number of Italian and foreign tourists in March-to-May, with a loss to the industry of about 7.4 billion euros ($8.23 billion). The Pope tests negative for coronavirus Pope Francis has tested negative for coronavirus after he was forced to cancel a series of engagements last week due to illness. The 83-year-old pontiff was given a 'routine' test after falling ill on Ash Wednesday with symptoms of a cold including a cough, fever, chills and sore throat. He was given a swab test as a precaution but the results have come back negative, according to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. Medics have not said what the Pope is suffering from, but he previously described it as 'a cold'. Francis's last full day of public engagements was on Ash Wednesday, when he appeared ill while taking part in an evening Mass. He was seen coughing, sneezing and appeared tired during the ceremony, before cancelling an engagement the following morning. He then disappeared from public view for the next four days while he recovered. Advertisement Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri has promised tax breaks and other measures for the affected sectors worth 3.6 billion euros (3.1billion). A government source told Reuters on Wednesday this may be raised to 4.5 billion (3.5billion), or 0.25 per cent of GDP. The three northern regions in the 'red zone' - Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna - have already had their schools closed since last month. Ten percent of virus patients in Italy were in intensive care with respiratory problems, the health chief of the Lombardy region in northern Italy has said. Giulio Gallera said that they were almost exclusively over 65 years old and asked all elderly people in the region to leave home as little as possible for the next two weeks. Giovanni Rezza, the head of the infectious diseases department at the national health institute, yesterday said that schools were a key area to keep control of the virus. 'Not because children are vulnerable - they don't suffer as much as adults - but they can transmit it to parents and grandparents,' he said. He also had a warning for countries like the UK where the virus is starting to spread, saying: 'Be very careful and contain clusters as soon as possible.' Officials in Italy also said it could take up to two weeks to know whether measures including quarantines in 11 northern towns were working. Nearby in France the latest death was reported in the Oise department northeast of Paris, in the country's most significant cluster. With at least 212 cases, including 47 in the Oise, France is the third worst affected country in Europe after Italy and Germany. The Louvre in Paris, however, re-opened today after it was closed from Sunday because staff had walked out over fears of the coronavirus. In China, the number of new reported virus cases dropped again Tuesday, with just 125 new cases after a six-week low of 202 a day earlier. It's still by far the hardest-hit country, with 80,151 cases and 2,943 deaths. The virus has been detected in at least 70 countries with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths. The U.S.' count of COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 in 11 states. President Donald Trump and his Cabinet met with pharmaceutical executives Monday to discuss how to speed the search for a vaccine. Next year's event is scheduled to go ahead as planned, the organisers said. One of the world's biggest publishing trade fairs, the London Book Fair, has been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, its organisers said on Wednesday. Reed Exhibitions said many international exhibitors and visitors to the fair, which was scheduled to take place from March 10 to 12, were facing travel restrictions as the effects of the virus took hold. "We have been following UK government guidelines and working with the rolling advice from the public health authorities and other organisations, and so it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this year's event," it said. Next year's event is scheduled to go ahead as planned, the organisers said. Some 25,000 people had been due to attend the fair at the Olympia London exhibition and conference centre in west London. Trade magazine The Bookseller reported last week that a number of major UK publishers had pulled out of the event, including Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. British government advice has not included cancellation of major events, but under to a contingency plan published on Tuesday, "large-scale gatherings" could be scaled back if cases spiral. On Tuesday, Disney pulled a planned launch event in London for its new streaming channel, citing international travel difficulties and cancellations by attendees. Search Keywords: Short link: Reno Omokri has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) to desist from heralding President Muhammadu Buhari as the brain responsible for Nigerias re-emergence as Africas largest economy. Recall that on Tuesday, it was reported that Nigeria is now the largest economy in Africa. Also Read: Salary Brings Calamity Instead Of Stability Reno Omokri Reacting to this development, Reno, a staunch critic of the APC led administration, expressed that the supposed good work of President Buhari is not responsible for this feat. He went on to explain that South Africas entry into recession spurred the development. See his tweet below: Police have released CCTV images of four men wanted over a coronavirus hate attack after a student, 22, from Singapore was punched in the face and kicked on Oxford Street. Detectives probing the 'racially aggravated' assault of 23-year-old Jonathan Mok in central London, today issued a series of images of the suspects. The victim said he was walking near Tottenham Court Road station at around 9.15pm on the evening of Monday February 24th when he heard shouts of 'coronavirus'. Police want to speak to these two men in connection with a coronavirus hate attack after a 22-year-old was attacked Officers released CCTV footage (above) showing these two men, who they want to speak to about the attack The University College London student said they told him 'I don't want your coronavirus in my country' before attacking him. Mr Mok, who included pictures of his injuries in a Facebook post that went viral, wrote: 'All of a sudden, the first punch was swung at my face and took me by surprise.' He was left with a fractured face after he confronted thugs in London who punched him after they said 'coronavirus' to him. Now Scotland Yard has issued images of four men they wish to speak to in connection with the incident. Mr Mok has lived in the capital for the last two years and claims he had already suffered racist abuse before the virus. It comes after it was revealed that a woman in Birmingham was attacked after she confronted a man who racially-abused her friend, telling her to 'take your f****** coronavirus back home'. Meera Solanki stood up for Mandy Huang but the man pushed her in the head and she was knocked unconscious, The Independent reported. Another student Wenbin Wu, was also targeted in Kent because of his race. Mr Wu who is studying at university in London, was on a day-trip to Margate in Kent when three teens fake sneezed and shouted 'coronavirus' as he walked past. Jonathan Mok was left with a swollen eye and a bloodied nose after he was attacked on Oxford Street PhD student Wenbin Wu, 27, was on a day-trip to Margate when three teens fake sneezed and shouted 'coronavirus' as he walked past The 27-year-old, who studies computer science and finance at King's College London, said one tried to pick a fight and followed him and his two companions until he started taking photos and recording them. He said it was the first time in three years he has spent living in the UK that he felt singled out or abused for his race. After the incident he said he asked the teenager to repeat what he had said to him, but they refused and just laughed. Mr Mok has branded the attackers as 'cowards' and told them to 'grow a pair'. Mr Mok had been walking along Oxford Street (pictured above) when he was set upon Mr Mok detailed the attack in a Facebook post where he shared the incident with his followers He posted to social media last night: 'I walked past a group of young men, when one of them said something to me. I could make out the word 'coronavirus'.' After Mr Mok turned and confronted the group he was set upon. 'All of a sudden, the first punch was swung at my face and took me by surprise. When I was still shocked by the first hit, the guy delivered the second sucker punch. By then, a few passers-by had stopped and one of them tried to reason with them that 4 on 1 was not fair. 'The guy who tried to kick me then said, 'I don't want your coronavirus in my country', before swinging another sucker punch at me, which resulted in my face exploding with blood (from my nose), where the blood was splattered all across the pavement.' Mr Mok added to the end of his post: 'To the group of guys who saw fit to attack me because of my skin colour: here's something for you- I stood up to you because I wasn't afraid, I've faced far more intimidating characters in my life. 'And if you think ganging up on someone who is sizeably smaller than you makes you a big man - it doesn't. It only makes every single one of you a coward who doesn't have the balls to take someone on 1 on 1. Grow a pair.' He also posted images of himself shortly after the attack where his face can be seen to be splattered with blood. In a more recent image, his eye has just about swollen shut and remains badly bruised. Facebook users have wished Mr Mok a speedy recovery following the horrible attack and hope his attackers are brought to justice. Social media users wished Mr Mok a speedy recovery and slammed those who attacked him Danny Kim said: 'Horrible, I hope you recover well and those pieces of s*** get caught and pay the price. I hope they catch the virus for being a******** too.' Julia Ju Hee Kang commented: 'I'm so sorry this happened to you.' Darrick Americano posted: 'A country and its citizens' character truly shows during time of crisis. I hope the people that attacked you are brought to justice.' A spokesman for Met Police said that the 'racially aggravated assault' happened in Oxford Street near Tottenham Court Road station at around 9.15pm on Feb 24. The police said no arrest has been made, but they are currently trying to identify the suspects through inquiries and available closed-circuit television footage. A UCL spokesperson said: 'We are horrified to hear about this unprovoked racially-motivated attack on a member of our community. We thoroughly condemn this attack and are offering our full support to the student at this time. We condemn racism, bullying and harassment of any kind. 'Should any student feel they have been subjected to such behaviour, we would encourage them to report any incident to the police in the first instance and to the university by speaking to a tutor, a member of UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Team, or use our online 'Report + Support' tool, which has an anonymous reporting function. 'Students who are living in UCL-managed accommodation have additional support from a team of Wardens and Student Residence Advisers. UCL also has a range of support services for students including 24/7 counselling services for anyone affected.' The government has detached gas utility GAIL India, explorer Oil India and other PSUs from a Supreme Court order that had led to Rs 1.47 lakh crore being sought from telecom firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in past dues, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday New Delhi: The government has detached gas utility GAIL India, explorer Oil India and other PSUs from a Supreme Court order that had led to Rs 1.47 lakh crore being sought from telecom firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in past dues, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Following the 24 October order of the Supreme Court asking inclusion of non-telecom revenues for calculating statutory dues such as license fee and spectrum charges of telecom firms, the Department of Telecommunications has sought a cumulative Rs 2.7 lakh crore from GAIL and other non-telecom PSUs. The demand was challenged by state-owned firms. "Supreme Court has detached the public sector undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgment dated 24 October, 2019, and directed them to seek relief from an appropriate forum," Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to a question in the Lower House of Parliament. The DoT had sought Rs 1.83 lakh crore from GAIL and Rs 48,489 crore from OIL by including their revenues from oil and gas business in calculating dues for leasing out surplus bandwidth capacity to third parties. Power Grid Corp was slapped with Rs 21,953.65 crore liability and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd faced Rs 15,019.97 crore demand. RailTel and Delhi Metro too faced similar demands. "Public sector undertakings such as GAIL, Oil India, etc represented to Department of Telecom that the AGR judgment is not applicable on them and therefore they do not owe any dues to the Department of Telecom," Dhotre said. The challenge to such demand was heard by the apex court last month. "After the Supreme Court order dated 14 February, 2020, the government abides by the orders of Supreme Court," he said. On 14 February, the Supreme Court had pulled up the DoT for not enforcing its 24 October order that gave telcos three months' time to pay dues. Hours later, the DoT sent notices to Airtel and Vodafone Idea asking them to clear dues immediately. To a separate question, Dhotre said the government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom companies towards AGR liabilities and Rs 1,30,440.4 crore remained to be paid. This number, however, does not seem to reflect the latest tranche of payment made by Bharti Airtel on 29 February. Detailing out payments made by telecom companies to the DoT towards statutory dues, Dhotre informed that against the provisional total dues of Rs 1,46,336.9 crore, payment to the tune of Rs 15,896.5 crore has been received. Bharti Airtel paid Rs 10,000 crore, with Rs 27,740 crore balance remaining, he said, adding Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 49,538 crore remained due. Similarly, Tata Group paid Rs 2,197.3 crore, and Rs 11,625 crore remained due. OIL, the nation's second-biggest state-owned oil producer, holds a National Long Distance Service Licence (NLD) with primary objective of monitoring and operation of its pipeline network. The surplus bandwidth capacity available with the company was leased out to the telecom operators/other users, on which the company regularly paid the applicable license fee to the telecom department (DoT). But, after the October 24 Supreme Court ruling for including non-telecom revenues for calculating dues, the DoT included all revenues from oil and gas to seek Rs 48,489 crore from the company for the period from 2007-08 to 2018-19. In case of GAIL, which held a IP-II licence, the DoT assessed Rs 1,83,076 crore as outstanding after including interest and penalty computed on the entire revenue of the company. PowerGrid, which holds NLD and Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences, was asked to pay Rs 21,953.65 crore (including interest and penalty) for FY 2012-13 to FY 2017-18 by adding revenue related to power transmission and consultancy as 'miscellaneous income' in adjusted gross revenue, company sources said, adding the firm will approach the TDSAT in next few days. Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, which had a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and a Category 'A' ISP, was asked to pay Rs 15,019.97 crore for the financial year 2005-06 to 2018-19. Considered one of the greatest directors of the twentieth century, Woody Allen has made over 50 films including Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Mighty Aphrodite and the Oscar-winning Annie Hall. Woody Allen | Evan Agostini/Getty Images Allegations of sexual misconduct by his former partner, Mia Farrow, and daughter, Dylan, brought his career to a crawl in the 1990s. Still, he has continued making films and now has announced the imminent publication of his memoir. Heres his net worth, plus his familys response to his soon-to-be-published book. Allen just announced his memoir is publishing in April Fans of the Radio Days director are both delighted and shocked that his memoir is finally seeing publication. For a long while, it seemed that no publisher would touch it or even consider it, in light of #metoo and sexual allegations against him by his daughter Dylan Farrow in the early 1990s. Woody Allen, Mia Farrow with their family in 1986 | The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images His publisher, Grand Central Publishing, said in a statement this week, The book is a comprehensive account of [Woody Allens] life, both personal and professional, and describes his work in films, theater, television, nightclubs, and print. Allen also writes of his relationships with family, friends, and the loves of his life. His adoptive daughters reaction to his memoir As much as Allens fans may be anticipating his book, one person who is understandably not is his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. After allegedly enduring sexual abuse by him, Dylan, whom Allen adopted with former partner, Mia Farrow, in 1985 is horrified that any publisher would give credence or a voice to the filmmaker. She released a statement yesterday to that effect. My statement on the disappointing and, frankly shocking, news from @HachetteUS today. pic.twitter.com/h0zuAi0T7l Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) March 3, 2020 She tweeted yesterday saying, Hachettes publishing of Woody Allens memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally . . . For the record, I was never contacted by any fact checkers to verify the information in this memoir, demonstrating an egregious abdication of Hachettes most basic responsibility. . . This provides yet another example of the profound privilege that power, money, and notoriety affords. Hachettes complicity in this should be called out for what it is and they should have to answer for it. Woody Allens net worth Born in 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, Woody Allens net worth is a staggering $80 million. In 2018, Amazon backed out of a $68 million movie deal with Allen because of new attention on sexual misconduct allegations against the director, and thanks to his own comments, and the increasing refusal of top talent to work with or be associated with him in any way, all of which have frustrated the purpose of the agreement. Woody Allen | John Minihan/Evening Standard/Getty Images Amazon felt that Allens comments about the #metoo movement that he should be the poster face for the movement basically ruined any promotions for his movies and caused several actors to not want to be connected with him. The filmmaker responded months later with a lawsuit against Amazon for going back on their contract with him. His legal team said at the time, Amazon has tried to excuse its action by referencing a 25-year-old, baseless allegation against Mr. Allen, but that allegation was already well-known to Amazon (and the public) before Amazon entered into four separate deals with Mr. Allenand, in any event, it does not provide a basis for Amazon to terminate the contract. As of Nov. 2019, Amazon and Allen reached an undisclosed, out-of-court settlement. [March 04, 2020] Insight School of Washington Ready to Help Families Enroll for the 2020-2021 School Year Insight School of Washington (ISWA), an online public-school serving students in grades 9-12 throughout the state, is ready to welcome students to enroll for the 2020-2021 school year beginning February 27. ISWA gives your student a personalized learning experience designed to assist those who seek alternative pathways to education. They also offer opportunities for credit recovery, which enables students to concentrate on courses in a condensed schedule (typically a nine-week period) to help students get back on track and graduate high school on time. With over 13 years as a trusted education program, ISWA is a tuition-free high school option for all students who reside in Washington state. Authorized by the Quillayute Valley School District and delivered entirely online, ISWA combines online instruction, rigorous curriculum and the support of state-licensed teachers to support high standards of learning for each student who enrolls. In addition to working towards their high school diplomas, ISWA students can participate in the Destinations Career Academy at Insight Washington, which allows them to discover exciting options for their future in career fields like Business and IT. These career pathways include options to earn local community college credit, participate in work-based learning, and qualify for industry-recognized certifications for platforms like Microsoft (News - Alert) Office and the Adobe suite. 'With college costs spiraling out of control nationwide, it's smart for students to explore all the options available after high school. Our career readiness program lets students try new things, educates them about careers and work opportunities in their local area, and helps prepare them for many avenues to a successful career after graduation," says Head of School, Cecily Kiester. Overall, ISWA offers challenging academic curriculum and focuses on preparing a student for whatever avenues they choose to pursue after high school. Students take a full course load in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, and history. Electives include world languages, as well as art and career and technical education offerings. ISWA also offers student clubs like DECA, online student groups, and social gatherings to foster a sense of school community. Virtual classes are taught by Washington-certificated teachers who provide instruction during live online class sessions, and are available to students via phone, email and one-to-one meetings. Students choose online school for a variety of reasons including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs. ISWA's online platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment and at an appropriate pace for their learning style. ISWA is now accepting enrollments for the 2020-2021 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online or in-person information session hosted by the school. More information on ISWA, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events can be found at https://wa.insightschools.net/. About Insight School of Washington Insight School of Washington (ISWA) is a full-time online public-school program of the Quillayute Valley School District serving Washington students in grades 9-12. As a public school, ISWA is tuition-free and gives families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISWA, visit http://wa.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005010/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] More than 10,000 face masks have been stolen from hospitals in France. (Getty) More than 10,000 masks have been stolen from hospitals in France amid the coronavirus outbreak. Paris hospitals said 8,300 surgical masks had disappeared from several sites, while Conception hospital in Marseille reported it was missing 2,000 of them. Officials said 1,200 bottles of hand sanitiser gel had also been taken from locations in the capital. The masks in Marseille were stolen on Tuesday from a location in the hospital that is accessible only to staff and patients who have undergone surgery, officials said. French president Emmanuel Macron (second right) with health officials. (Getty) Marseille hospitals authority (AP-HM) said: "The AP-HM immediately launched an internal investigation to find the culprits. It said the hospital had enough masks to continue operations as normal, but that it had ordered more and taken steps to secure its stocks. Read more: Hunt for men who allegedly shouted 'coronavirus' during racist attack President Emmanuel Macron has announced that authorities will requisition all face mask stocks and production in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Macron said they would be reserved for coronavirus patients and health professionals. On Tuesday, France had 212 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, up from 191 on Monday. In total four people have died from the infection in the country. The fourth victim was a 92-year-old man in the Morbihan department in the western region of Brittany. Read more: Coronavirus: Italy 'considering closing all schools and universities until mid-March' Countries with confirmed cases of coronavirus (Picture: PA) In total, 85 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK. As of Wednesday, a total of 16,659 people in the UK have been tested. Government scientific experts predict the UKs coronavirus outbreak could last around four to six months. Globally, there are now more than 90,000 cases worldwide, with more than 3,000 deaths. Thieves in Japan reportedly made off with around 6,000 masks from a hospital in the western city of Kobe in mid-February. Not even the Houston Rodeo is immune from concern about the coronavirus. On the first day of the three-week festival, there was no sign of face masks or bottles of hand sanitizer strewn throughout the festival grounds at NRG Park. But rodeo organizers were going to extra lengths to ensure the festival, which attracts roughly 2.5 million people annually, would not be the scene of an outbreak of the respiratory disease. The Rodeos on top of it, I can tell you that much, said Brett Sarver, chairman of the rodeos international committee, which organizes and conducts activities for foreign visitors. Sarver pointed out that in previous years, the rodeo would have open containers of popcorn and peanuts for international guests, as well as pre-poured soft drinks, all of which have ceased in the wake of the coronavirus scare. We have spray bottles with vinegar, which is supposed to be better at killing bacteria than Lysol or Clorox, Sarver said. Weve had meetings, emails, conference calls for the last two weeks. Were trying to do our part to prevent it, but still welcoming all of our guests. That includes guests like Susan Burke, who came from Tipperary, Ireland to visit her daughter and grandson in Houston and attend the rodeo. Burke had just washed her hands at the Great American Petting Farm, a main attraction at the rodeo where attendees can get their tactile farm animal fix. Burke was not overly concerned about international travel in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Any minor reservations were allayed when she arrived at Bush International Airport and found nobody screening international arrivals for potential infection. We flew from Ireland to England and then out to Houston, Burke said. Billions of people in the world, what do you want them to do? Stand still? Not all international guests are going to be treated the same, however. Any registered attendees from the five countries under travel warnings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea will be screened by rodeo staff with a questionnaire. Sarver said its possible that attendees from those countries are already in Texas. Its 50/50 that they show up, Sarver said. Were screening them, if they show up. Still, among festivalgoers there was a heightened awareness of the global virus panic, even as Texas has recorded only a small handful of infected people. There were 11 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, in Texas, as of Monday; all contracted the disease overseas and are quarantined at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Pamela Jaeger, the administrative coordinator for the Great American Petting Farm, said interest in it had not noticeably waned, but she made sure to note that the animals had all been groomed and bathed beforehand. More Information The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo runs from March 3 to March 22. For information, visit: www.rodeohouston.com See More Collapse Coronavirus is not from animals, so that wouldnt be a concern, Jaeger said. I havent heard anything like that. Eric Minnick, a manager at the New Braunfels Smokehouse, which set up in one of the outdoor food courts, said staff are washing their hands more frequently but shrugged when asked if he was concerned about getting a viral infection. No more than I am (worried about) any other disease, I guess, Minnick said. Julie Trabue, a curriculum coordinator for Kids R Kids, a preschool in Sienna Plantation, monitored her group of about two-dozen 4- and 5-year olds eating lunch in one of the outdoor food courts on the rodeo grounds. Trabue said her field trips chaperones were all going to extra lengths to ensure the children were as sanitary as possible. We brought our own water bottles for each child. We brought extra hand sanitizer. We made sure that we had on our itinerary about four or five stops where were washing our hands, Trabue said. But we did our homework as well, we read up on it. I know there was something put out by the rodeo about putting out more hand-sanitizing stations. Indeed, the rodeo increased the number of hand-sanitizer stations throughout AgVenture, The Junction and in the food tents. Hand-sanitizer stations are also located throughout the carnival. Additionally, there are hand-washing stations near the petting zoo and pony rides and outdoors near Fun on the Farm and Mutton Bustin. There are also hand-washing instructions in the bathrooms, and additional signage reminding guests to wash their hands has been added near the restrooms and the livestock stalling area. Guests are encouraged to wash hands before eating or drinking and after touching animals or anything in surrounding environments. A page offering health tips on visiting the rodeo, along with links to the Houston Health Department and CDCs websites on coronavirus, have been added to the official site. Foot traffic early Tuesday was mostly restricted to school groups. Judging by the hoards of kids swarming the Great American Petting Farm, hugging baby goats and lambs and petting calves, it was clear any virus concern hadnt dampened their youthful enthusiasm. Theres no stopping the rodeo, Trabue said. Staff writer Joey Guerra contributed reporting. nick.powell@chron.com "If the state is not willing to encourage agriculture, then we will do it ourselves." While smoking a cigarette in the shade of an olive tree in his parents' property in Ras Masqa near the city of Tripoli, Tamim Abdo talks about the challenging project that he launched with a handful of activists from northern Lebanon. The 30-year-old man is the co-founder of Habaq (basil); an initiative which aims at returning to ones land, given the difficult times Lebanon is currently facing. How do they intend to achieve this project? Habaq promotes an economy based on solidarity and participation, with the aim of setting up an economic system based on local and sustainable development, replies the young man. We have chosen to take charge of boosting agri-food production in public spaces in an attempt to revitalize the agricultural sector. Since mid-December, Tamim Abdo, Murad Ayache and Ahmad Kabbara got into the habit of keeping a shovel and a hay fork in the trunk of their cars. "We are not farmers, said Ayache, a 30-year-old engineer. But we are learning to become one. Ever since the Habaq project was launched, the three activists have been learning by trial and error. Sitting on his knees, Abdo excitedly points at their first cultivated onion. In the field at Ras Masqa, the activists plant a wide variety of vegetables, all organic, provided that the crop does not harm the already present olive trees. "Among other things, we plant lettuce, cauliflowers, broccoli, onions, and of course basil, he said, a mischievous smile on his face. The trio is impatiently awaiting the harvest, which they are planning to share with the most vulnerable communities of the region. Creating a nationwide network For Murad Ayache, one of the main objectives of this project is to create a popular network that would protect the farmers, the consumers and all those who work in the agribusiness. "We have a seed storage where we keep a wide variety of seeds, said engineer Ahmad Kabbara. In the future, seeds will be produced from cultivated plants. This process will free the farmers from dominance of seed production and distribution companies, and will ultimately ensure their autonomy. Where did the idea of this project come from? Kabbara explained that the idea of cultivating a piece of land came to them when the three activists were sitting on the balcony of his house. "Inspired by the view of the plants on my balcony, we started talking about compost and agriculture. This is when the idea of cultivating a land came to mind, said the young man, wearing a gray t-shirt despite the February cold weather. This idea gave way to the three young mens first initiative, which originally saw the day at Abdel Hamid Karamehs square (al-Noor square), the hotbed of Tripolis protests. Last December, barely two months after the popular uprising started, Abdo, who is a professional chef, came up with the idea of cooking at al-Noors square. "Preparing meals and sharing food in this location was not a charity initiative, said Abdo, who believes that charity initiatives would build a fence between those who organize them and those who benefit from them. "The idea was to build bridges between people, who did not know each other, by sharing a meal, he explained. It was Murad Ayache who had the idea to start producing the ingredients as they do for the ready meals. "So, we took a shovel, and started to plow the soil in al-Noor square" to plant vegetables, he recalled with enthusiasm. "Within few minutes, everyone wanted to give us advice and guidance and to help! To the three activists, the main idea of the project is sharing and solidarity. Because of the ongoing socio-economic crisis in Lebanon, they seek to reshape the system, as well as the citizens different social roles. The spirit of the October 17 revolution In one of the tents at al-Noor square, the three young men are organizing interactive sessions on the basics of agriculture. As a result, some young people are starting to follow suit, notably in the region of Akkar. They are not claiming that their project alone can fix the flaws of an entire system. "We produce very little, and we do not produce everything that is needed, admits Kabbara. "It is not self-sufficiency that we are aiming for, but interaction and sharing. One day I would like to call a farmer from the Beqaa region and ask him to send me radishes, because I dont produce them, and to offer to send him what he does not cultivate in his land. Asked whether this project could have seen the light before October 17, knowing that the agricultural sector has been abandoned by the state for a long time, Abdo said: "Yes, it could have, but the popular uprising has turned everything upside down. Today, the Lebanese are rethinking their way of life, their means of survival, and they are communicating with each other like never before. And I hope that all those who feel aggrieved by the Lebanese state, its policies and its politicians, can work together in order to find adequate solutions. "We are the state, said Kabbara, who does not mince words. Standing next to him, Ayache retorts: "We are not the state, and we do not aspire to replace such a state, because we want a different state, a different society, and a totally new economic and social system." However, to end the debate, Abdo concluded:" How can we claim taking the place of a state that does not even exist? A Lebanese State? You have to build it. (This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 22nd of February) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Definition: Monochloroacetic Acid (MCAA) Market is having a prolific run at present and can expect a safe passage growth-wise is owing to its popularity in the agricultural sector. Monochloroacetic acid is a specialty organochlorine compound that is colorless, crystalline structured mass, and highly soluble in water. The product is becoming widely popular in all the major agricultural countries where the cultivability and infertility of land are perturbing issues. The component is also required in the production of carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC), a necessary water retention agent and viscosity modifier for oil drilling activities. The global monochloroacetic acid market is expecting robust growth with which it can exceed the expected market valuation during the forecast period (2020-2023), explains Market Research Future (MRFR). This extensively studied report encompasses segmental analysis depending on various parameters, drivers that can impact the global market significantly in the coming years, and the latest updates of different market players. Get a Free Sample of This Reports @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5991 Market Scenario and Growth Factors: Monochloroacetic Acid Market Report is becoming popular among pharmaceutical manufacturers where its use as a component in the production of maleates, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium, n-glycine, and others. Personal care and cosmetics industry is also having significant use of the component as a thickener. In the production of PVC resins, the component is gaining traction as well. As a by-product of monochloroacetic acid, sodium chloroacetate is garnering accolades as herbicide which can propel the monochloroacetic acid market growth. In the textile industry, monochloroacetic acid finds use as an intermediate in the production of indigo dyes. The demand is burgeoning as the fashion industry is finding it challenging to maintain the pace with the constantly changing trends of fashion. But the monochloroacetic acid market can find it difficult to stay apace as the price of the raw materials fluctuates quite often. Competitive Analysis: Notable players of the Monochloroacetic Acid Market as profiled in the report of MRFR are: Akzo Nobel N.V. (Netherlands) The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.) CABB GmbH (Germany), Denak Co., Ltd (Japan) Daicel Corporation (Japan) PCC SE (Germany) Niacet (U.S.) Xuchang Dongfang Chemical Co. Ltd. (China) Shiv Chem Industries (India) Abhishek Impex (India) Shandong Minji Chemical Co., Ltd. (China) Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd. (India) Merck KGaA (Germany) Alfa Aesar, Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.) Anugrah IN-ORG (P) LIMITED (India). In 2020, PCC SE declared their plan to expand their monochloroacetic acid plant in Poland to keep up with the demand generated by various end-user industries. The production capacity would increase from 42,000 metric tons to 100,000 metric tons. AkzoNobel and Atul agreed on setting up a production unit in Gujarat in 2020. AkzoNobel plans to expand their incremental investments through this tie-up. Both the companies would benefit from their plans. Atuls growing popularity would be substantiated by the production. Segmentation: MRFR segments the Monochloroacetic Acid Market Size by form, application, and end-use industry for a better understanding of the market prospect in the coming years. Based on the form, the monochloroacetic acid market can be segmented into crystalline, liquid, powdered, and flakes. Based on the application, the monochloroacetic acid market includes carboxyl methyl cellulose, thioglycolic acid, thickening agent, surfactants, intermediates, and others. As a thickening agent, its utility in food & beverage industry is quite substantial. The end-user segment of the monochloroacetic acid market comprises agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic & Personal care, textiles, plastics, oil & gas, and others. The component is witnessing significant traction from the agrochemicals sector and having a great run in the pharmaceuticals. Regional Analysis: MRFR report region-specifically segments the monochloroacetic acid market into North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). Growing demand from agriculture, textile, and pharmaceuticals are boosting the APAC market, riding on which the region is fetching the maximum market share. Furthermore, a lot of major companies are based out of India, China, and Japan which is substantially assisting the market in having unprecedented growth. North America has the second largest market. The regional market is getting driven by the pharmaceutical industry and the personal care & cosmetic industry. Europe and Latin America are also going to register a significant hike in terms of revenue. Browse Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/monochloroacetic-acid-market-5991 An attorney's computer program offers to screen potential jurors based on their ethnicity, political views and occupation to find a jury most favorable to a defense lawyer's case. Momus Analytics, the company was founded by attorney Alex Alvarez, trawls potential jurors' social media accounts and uses the findings to predict whether or not they should be chosen. The program includes a racially-biased algorithm that suggests Asian, Central American, and South American people are more likely to be leaders - a quality the program appears to prize. People who described their race as 'other' were found to be likely to be leaders. Alvarez, who worked with Texas-based software designer Frogslayer to develop the program, has a pending patent application for the program. A new computer program aims to help overworked lawyers screen potential jurors for their cases by analyzing data from their various social media profiles The system will then assign numerical scores to the potential juror in three prospective categories: leadership, social responsibility, and personal responsibility. The program will use information like a person's occupation, political affiliation, education level, and even their ethnicity to determine values for each category, according to a report in Vice. The system can also scan for potential discrepancies in data between a person's different social media accounts as a indicator they might be unreliable. Alvarez says the idea first came to him after a jury ruled against one of his clients in what he had thought would a straightforward personal injury suit. 'If the reason I win or lose, or any lawyer wins or loses, is based on his skill level, then why did this happen?' he said in a short promotional video explaining the project. 'And that started me on a quest to find out why jurors decide cases and how juries are deciding cases in America.' Alex Alvarez founded Momus Analytics after a jury ruled against one his clients in a personal injury case he thought was simple and straightforward Juries are selected through a process called voir dire, giving both prosecutors and defense attorneys an opportunity to evaluate jurors. Alvarez believes that an additional analytical tool to help attorneys make better use of their limited time with jurors during voir dire could lead to better outcomes. 'The voir dire system can be challenging given the very short time frame in which an attorney has to interview the jurors,' Momus's patent application argues. Attorneys are allowed to question potential jurors before a trial in a process called voir dire, but they're only allowed to reject a limited number of jurors and often times aren't given enough time to research the backgrounds of the potential jurors WHAT IS VOIR DIRE? Voir dire is a process used to select jurors before a jury trial. The term combines two French words, for 'see' and 'speak,' which colloquially means 'to speak the truth.' Both prosecutors are allowed to question potential jurors to try and select candidates that they believe will be most suitable. Depending on the state both prosecutors and defense attorneys are allowed to automatically disqualify a set number of jurors for any reason they like. The number of times they are allowed to do this is generally limited to ensure the process doesn't become interminable. 'You're looking for people who need to be removed (from the jury pool) and your questions should be designed to uncover those who should be removed,' attorney and jury expert Jeffery T. Frederick says of the process. Advertisement 'Attorneys are often given as little as thirty minutes or less to conduct the voir dire process. Challenges are available to each party in order to disqualify a juror, either for cause or without cause, depending on the biases the juror revealsbut no matter the number they are typically finite.' 'Accordingly, a method or system to quickly evaluate a juror's background for possible biases, within the short timeframe provided for voir dire, would be beneficial to an attorney seeking to select a favorable jury panel with a limited number of challenges available.' Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at American University, cautions that the company's approach may introduce its own set of unexamined biases, which could violate the law's prohibition of race and gender discrimination in jury selection. 'The idea that the algorithm is going to weight race or gender or other protected classes in a way that could be outcome determinative,' he told Vice, 'that's a problem, because then you're kind of tech-washing your racialized assumption of individuals,' No confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus so far have been reported in either Lake or Porter counties or anywhere in the state but health officials in both counties are preparing in case COVID-19 pops up in Northwest Indiana. Dr. Chandana Vavilala, Lake County's health officer, told the county commissioners Wednesday that while "things are changing pretty quickly" in regard to coronavirus guidance, her department is working "very closely with the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as well as with the state Department of Health." In particular, Vavilala said the state health department recently asked Lake County to keep tabs on eight people it believed had contact with individuals who recently traveled from China, Italy and South Korea, where coronavirus is more prevalent. She said her office determined seven of the eight had no actual contact with anyone coming from the foreign countries, while the eighth was monitored for three days and ultimately showed no coronavirus symptoms. Vavilala explained that as of Tuesday, the State Department of Health can test for coronavirus if a medical professional suspects a patient has the virus. As he explains his administration's approach to containing the new coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomos thoughts turn to wristwatches. It is not the hands that make a clock tick, he said, but the pieces inside. And like the jewel regulating the gears inside a watch movement, the three-term governor finds purpose moving the gears of government forward. Whether it is limiting the spread of an infectious disease, allocating education funding or taking any other action as governor, it all comes down to the same thing, according to Cuomo. This is all about government performance, he told City & State in an interview inside his Capitol office last week. Thats why its liberating in some ways because its devoid of politics. The governor had just finished a Monday afternoon meeting in the adjacent Red Room with 20 top state officials on the states response to COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019. Much of it consisted of Cuomo pushing staff to find answers to hard questions. Just hours before, the governor had announced a goal to increase testing capacity for the virus to 1,000 people per day but at the moment the state only had 1,000 test kits on hand. The necessary chemicals were increasingly scarce. Efforts would have to be made to keep too many people from requesting tests. Legal frameworks were needed for quarantining people. What if the feds say: Sorry, I cant help you? Cuomo asked at one point, suggesting the state may be on its own. Just assume nobody does anything for you except you. Mobilizing resources in a state of 20 million people is no easy task. Yet after weeks of preparation, and just six hours after the governor announced the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in the state, New Yorks response was taking shape. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye left the meeting tasked with exploring electrostatic sprayers to disinfect New York City subways. State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell was assigned the overnight goal of expanding the states paid sick leave program to cover people who would be quarantined in the future. It was 4 p.m. and there were plenty of working hours ahead. As state officials left to tackle their assignments, Cuomos other moves on the coronavirus started ticking. He wrangled state lawmakers into passing a bill that gave him $40 million in emergency funding to combat the disease, as well as a controversial expansion of executive power in response to a range of emergencies including the coronavirus. His media blitz continued in the following days with state and national media spreading the message that New York had a sophisticated and largely apolitical response to a disease that has infected dozens inside New York and killed thousands across the world in recent weeks. The number of confirmed cases has multiplied in recent days, and state efforts have ramped up accordingly, with the state recommending that at least 4,000 people isolate themselves to limit the spread of the disease. Hundreds of SUNY and CUNY students who were studying in China, Italy, South Korea and Iran have been called back to the U.S. At a Thursday press conference in the state Capitol, Cuomo said that while more cases are to be expected, only a fraction of infected people require serious medical attention, especially the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. What am I worried about as governor? he said. Im worried about undue fear and anxiety. Im worried about nursing homes, senior care facilities any senior congregate setting. On Monday, shortly after his meeting with his deputies in the Capitol, Cuomo demanded that lawmakers act on a $40 million emergency funding proposal he first floated last week to fund more health care training, medical supplies and quarantine spaces. State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker quickly huddled with lawmakers. The state Senate reconvened Monday evening at Cuomos behest after adjourning for the day hours before. I did not think when we gaveled out that we would be gaveling back in, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters on Tuesday as Cuomo signed the bill into law. This was a first for me as a leader. Passing a bill with a few hours notice also requires what is called a message of necessity from the governor to waive the three-day waiting period mandated by the state constitution for new legislation. But Cuomo got it done, despite some objections from lawmakers. A controversial provision in the legislation expanded the governors power to issue directives through executive order during emergency situations as varied as infectious diseases, hurricanes and volcanoes. Such authorizations would come 30 days at a time under the legislation, which expires in April 2021. Lawmakers could also pass a resolution to override a gubernatorial directive. Maybe it will all be fine, said Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, who voted against the legislation. Maybe nothing bad will happen. But nothing bad will happen if we take a day or two to think about it and we may avoid something we may regret for years. While lawmakers from both parties called the bill a Cuomo power grab, only a dozen voted against it in the Assembly and just a handful in the Senate. Some lawmakers grumbled on the floors of the legislative chambers that there was little they could do besides vote in favor of the emergency funding bill. There were political concerns to take into account. Constituents might hold a no vote against incumbents, whether or not they were voting for a greater principle. The threat of the coronavirus also weighed heavily on the minds of lawmakers who saw a need to empower the governor at a time of potential crisis. I hope all of us can support this so we speak as one voice, Republican state Sen. Kenneth LaValle said on the Senate floor. The final vote in the state Senate was 53-4. The law grants Cuomo new legal tools for implementing any future quarantine actions, school closing or public transit restrictions, Cuomo told reporters during a press conference last week. The suspension of existing law means I'm removing an impediment from an agency, Cuomo said. But it doesn't give you the ability to affirmatively do anything, and in this situation, the government has to act. If lawmakers were going to expand gubernatorial powers to deal with the coronavirus, then they had to do the same with all the other types of emergencies that were already written into state law, Cuomo argued. Lets see where it is next April, he said of the possibility of renewing the law. Only time will tell if Cuomos approach to the coronavirus is effective, but he has earned praise from public health experts for how he has mobilized state government, including a tweak to state insurance rules waiving patient costs for coronavirus testing. The administration has isolated the dozens of New Yorkers who have been infected so far, stockpiled supplies and coordinated state agencies in anticipation of a surge of cases in the coming weeks. Administration officials at the Monday meeting with the governor discussed geolocating state equipment and whether the National Guard has ambulances on hand. Can government keep people isolated for the two weeks it takes for the virus to come and go? The governor had his doubts. Those are the kinds of things that you want people to be thinking about, said Stanley Perlman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa who specializes in diseases like the coronavirus. (You) need to be cautious and proactive, not have a huge fear factor, which only makes things worse. Maintaining public calm has been a point raised by Cuomo at recent meetings, both public and private. The disease is more deadly than the flu, but its fatality rate is in the very low single digits. Four out of five people dont even get visibly sick, Cuomo has noted. The fear factor has to be managed as much as the reality of the situation, he said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN. People just don't believe the facts that government is telling them, and that's unfortunate for a much broader set of reasons. The tools Cuomo has used in recent days to confront the disease have included the Legislature, state agencies and his own executive power. Considering the fact that the governor has made multiple broadcast appearances and hosted multiple Capitol press conferences since last week (including the first joint appearance of the year with the two state legislative leaders), it is fair to assume that the news media has an important role of its own in the governors political toolkit. The coronavirus has given Cuomo another opportunity to cultivate an image as a leader who takes charge in a time of crisis. His success in winning lawmakers to his cause this week has strengthened his hand. While his immediate goal in recent days has been to respond to the looming crisis, his media appearances have presented him as a problem-solver on a national stage. People are so distrustful of government now and it's so hyperpoliticized, he told CNN. People don't even know what to believe anymore. Promoting New York as a national leader is a matter of great personal pride for the governor. If the virus continues to spread in New York, he will have his chance to make his case on a matter of life and death. The benefits of both managing a public health threat to millions of people and doing so in a way that appears competent are obvious at a time when the response from the Trump administration has been uneven. For the past few days, such goals have become an obsession for Cuomo. Its showing what makes him tick. Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of state Sen. Kenneth LaValle. TORONTO - A group of Canadian women who suffered ill-effects from implantation of a medical device called transvaginal mesh will receive a total of $21.5 million in compensation under a proposed class-action settlement, court records show. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - A group of Canadian women who suffered ill-effects from implantation of a medical device called transvaginal mesh will receive a total of $21.5 million in compensation under a proposed class-action settlement, court records show. The settlement, between the women and Boston Scientific, involves about 325 women who received the implants. Their share of the money would depend on the severity of their medical issues. In approving the class definition and method for reaching out to class members, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell noted the settlement is similar to another recently approved class action involving the mesh. Final approval of the current action is expected in June. The net-like implants are used to treat conditions such as stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. The implants are designed to reinforce a weak vaginal wall or support the urethra or bladder neck. The polypropylene mesh is widely used. However, many recipients have had an array of serious side effects. Boston Scientific is the Canadian subsidiary of its Delaware-based parent and is the sole distributor of the company's transvaginal mesh devices in Canada. The product has been implanted in thousands of Canadian women. The lead plaintiff in the class action, Susan Vester, suffered painful complications from her implant. Court documents show she was given the device in January 2010 as a way to prevent incontinence an operation about 25,000 women a year have in Canada. Among other complications, Vester said she suffered urinary problems, difficulty walking, emotional stress and pain during sexual intercourse. She argued she was unaware of the risks before the surgery and would have refused the procedure had she known. Vester and her husband sued Boston Scientific, alleging the devices were defective and unsafe. Among other things, they argued the mesh was negligently designed and sold, and that recipients had required intensive surgical interventions to try to alleviate the side-effects. The company maintained her complaints were the result of pre-existing medical conditions, not the mesh. It denied the product caused the problems about which the women complained. After initially refusing to do so in 2015, Perell certified the lawsuit as a class action in February 2017. "There is some basis in fact that the polypropylene mesh in each of Boston Scientific's transvaginal devices has a clinically significant deficiency," Perell wrote at the time. "Boston Scientific's arguments based on an alleged multiplicity of differences between the products, patients, and the complications, do not negate the commonality of the proposed common issues." The settlement also applies to about 20 or so women who've had the implants since the action was certified, and they have 60 days to opt out. Boston stopped selling the devices for treating pelvic organ prolapse last July. Daniel Bach, the Vesters' lawyer, said his clients were happy with the settlement, in which Boston Scientific admits no liability. "This agreement will enable members of the class to receive compensation for the injuries they allege," Bach said. In an earnings call last month, the U.S. company's chief financial officer said Boston was working to resolve litigation over the mesh. More than 95 per cent of known claims were settled or were in the final stages of settlement, Dan Brennan said. He said the company expected to pay US$115 million into settlement funds this year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 4, 2020. Three-quarters of people who were employed before joining Ontarios ill-fated basic income pilot project continued to work while receiving the no-strings-attached monthly stipend, according to a new study. And more than one-third of those low-wage workers were able to move to higher paying and more secure jobs, according to the study by McMaster University researchers being released Wednesday. The findings shatter the belief among skeptics that basic income discourages people from working. It also appears to contradict the Ford governments charge that the experiment was failing before it was cancelled in July 2018, the report argues. Based on a survey of 217 former participants in the Hamilton-Brantford area and 40 in-depth interviews, the report also found those receiving basic income had better mental and physical health, fewer hospital emergency visits, more stable housing and an improved sense of well-being. These findings show that despite its premature cancellation by an incoming government that reneged on its electoral promise to see the pilot through to its end, basic income recipients in the Hamilton-Brantford pilot site benefited in a range of ways, the report says. In this sense, the pilot was nothing short of successful. The findings are particularly surprising since most respondents received basic income for less than 17 months, including nearly one-third who got it for less than 13 months, it adds. The $150 million provincial experiment was expected to last three years. The report, funded by the Hamilton Community Foundation, McMaster University and the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, acknowledges it cant fill the research gap created when the project was cancelled. The results do, however, dispel some of the fears of the opponents of basic income including that it will lead to a wholesale abandonment of paid employment, it says. For those who were working before the pilot project, the basic income meant they could take chances on a new job or career, according to the researchers, who conducted a 70-question online survey from January to August last year. Several respondents became self-employed. Others were able to leave a bad job and search for something better or upgrade their skills. And some used their basic income benefits to spend more time with family members or children who may have special needs, the report says. Respondent James Collura says his $900 monthly basic income benefit gave him the courage to ditch a dead-end, part-time job as a bank teller in Hamilton for more fulfilling employment at a float-therapy business. With basic income, taking a leap from a secure job suddenly became something I was more comfortable with, he says. Although Collura, 29, took a slight pay cut and lost his benefit package when he left the bank, he says his new job has enriched him in other ways. It has given me the space and the freedom to explore who I am and what I would like to contribute to the world, he says. In addition to sparking a new entrepreneurial spirit, Collura says the change has also spurred an interest in volunteering. I was more willing to give to my community because I felt that my community was giving to me, he says. McMaster economics professor Wayne Lewchuk, who led the research, says respondents motivation to find better jobs seemed to come from improved self-confidence as well as their better state of physical and mental health. It would be interesting to know if in the long-term, these people actually ended up better, Lewchuk says. Unfortunately, since the pilot was cancelled, we dont have any data to speak to that. Several examples cited in the report include a 24-year-old man with mental health issues who worked several part-time jobs before basic income, but often experienced discrimination because of his condition. Basic income made him feel much more motivated to get a university education so he could find a job with better wages and working conditions, the study says. For many participants, basic income proved to be transformational, fundamentally reshaping their living standards as well as their sense of self-worth and hope for a better future, it adds. Concern that basic income would give people more money to feed bad habits was also dispelled by the research. For example, over half of respondents who smoked tobacco and just under half of those who drank alcohol said they either cut down or quit. Only a few individuals said they smoked or drank more. One woman said she entered a treatment program for alcoholism and has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings ever since, the report says. Basic income also had a noticeable impact on the use of health services, with many survey respondents reporting fewer visits to health practitioners and hospital emergency rooms, according to the report. The results strongly suggest that basic income has the potential to improve the physical and mental health of participants and reduce their demands on public health resources, the report says. They also show the stability basic income provides can help recipients move to better paying employment and to play a fuller role as citizens in society. Former conservative senator Hugh Segal who helped Ontarios former Liberal government design the basic income pilot project, says the study confirms findings from a mid-1970s experiment with basic income in Dauphin, Man. The way basic income stabilizes individuals and reduces costs to social services like health and psychiatric care is the same in a big city (like Hamilton) as it was in rural Dauphin, he says. That is very encouraging and important. The employment findings also mirror what happened in Dauphin where labour force participation remained the same except for young single men who were able to quit their jobs to complete high school and for mothers who were able to look after young children, he adds. What would have been available The numbers behind Ontario's ill-fated basic income pilot, which was axed by the Doug Ford government in July 2018. $150 million How much money was allocated to the pilot, over three years. $17,000 The maximum amount a single person would have received in one year under the pilot. $24,000 The maximum amount a couple would have received in one year under the pilot. The McMaster study results will be helpful for legislators in P.E.I. and British Columbia who are considering basic income projects in those provinces, Segal says. The Ford government should also heed the study findings, he adds. Hopefully the government will give some thought before its budget, and before it puts together its next set of (welfare) programs and do something that is much more constructive and that is actually progressive conservative as opposed to just small-minded conservative, Segal says. Under Ontarios pilot, launched by the Wynne government in April 2017, single people received annual payments of up to $17,000 about twice as much as someone on welfare. Couples got up to $24,000 and those with disabilities received a $6,000 top-up. People who worked saw their basic income reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned until their income reached $34,000 for singles and about $48,000 for couples. The projects goal was to determine whether regular, unconditional payments improved housing, health, education, employment and social outcomes for people living on social assistance or low-wage jobs in an efficient and non-stigmatizing way. About 4,000 people in three test sites Hamilton-Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay received the basic income as part of the experiment while about 2,000 people were to be studied as a control group. Before it was prematurely scrapped, it was the largest, longest-running pilot of basic income in North America. It was cancelled before any government research could be conducted. An online survey of 424 basic income recipients conducted from mid-December 2018 to mid-January 2019, by the grassroots Basic Income Canada Network, found similar improvements in participants health and well-being, but did not focus as deeply on employment outcomes as the McMaster research. Former participants launched a class-action lawsuit in March 2019 against the Ford government for breach of contract. Another day, another Kardashian controversy. After the success of Kanye's Yeezy Season 8 fashion show in Paris last March 2, the Wests, as usual, made the headlines. It was when rapper and fashion designer, Kanye's 6-year-old daughter, stole the show and surprised the audience with her rapping debut. Like father, like daughter as the proud dad joined North West on stage. However, things went out a little different for the West matriarch. Kim K Slammed for "Cultural Appropriation" Kim Kardashian is on the hot seat once again after being accused of "cultural appropriation." The SKIMS founder shared a series of photos of herself sporting her extremely long braids while donning a Yeezy taupe jacket over a plunging beige crop top. She topped the look with baggy high-waisted grey trousers and strappy nude high heels. Her eldest daughter was also seen wearing the same hairstyle. Instead of getting prase from his 63 million Twitter followers though, Kim K received heavy backlash for her satorial choice. One online user called out Kim and said: "you are not black this s**t is so racist. PLEASE listen to the Black people telling you that this is cultural appropriation & not okay. Black people face legal discrimination simply because of their hair and you get to just wear it for fun. do recognize how privileged this is?" Another user replied to the reality star's tweet: "How does she keep getting away with it'; 'not this again'; 'YOU ARE NOT BLACK'; 'Bruh why do you keep doing this? You think she'd learn. Put your hair up in a high pony and go to the fashion show like everyone else." Not Once, But Twice This is not the first time the KKW Beauty mogul has been criticized for the same issue. Just recently, the millionaire entrepreneur was slammed for blackfishing and cultural appropriation and was accused of "refusing to be white." The 39-year-old Armenian-American star mentioned in one of her videos that she uses her KKW Beauty products to darken her "too pale" hands. "KKW Beauty Body Make Up is perfect for hands because my hands are always pale, and our formula is waterproof so you can wash your hands," Kim said in one of her recent makeup tutorials. Netizens lambasted Kim for what she did and for promoting the wrong values, with one even emphasizing that she is not white. The Twitter user also called out the 39-year-old reality TV star for "promoting unrealistic beauty/body standards." In 2019, Kim Kardashian also faced the same fate when she posed for the cover of 7Hollywood magazine to pay tribute to businesswoman, humanitarian and Old Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor. Kim rocked the 1950's vibe as she showed off a bobbed wig and wore a cat-eye makeup. According to her, it was a "dream come true" to recreate the look of the British-American icon. The shoot was directed by French fashion designer, Manfred Thierry Mugler. Iran is continuing efforts to encourage anti-Americanism in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, to secure its own influence and interests. Dozens of Iran-aligned Muslim scholars from several countries, mainly in the Middle East, gathered Feb. 21 in Baghdad to participate in a forum of the fourth International Conference of Resistance Axis Scholars, an organization that brings together Muslim academics, both Shiite and Sunni, who believe in the goals of the Axis of Resistance led by Iran. Unsurprisingly, anti-American sentiment dominated the forum. One slogan displayed behind the speakers read, The exit of American forces is inevitable." The meeting focused on several issues: Iraq's sovereignty and the presence of US forces, the state of the Muslim community in general and the Palestinian struggle. A poster displayed asked the scholars to help rally Iraq to expel US forces from its land as well as from other Islamic and Arab countries, using "all available methods" implying violence is acceptable. Among the speakers was Mujtaba al-Husseini, representing Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Husseini read a message from Khamenei to the delegates that emphasized that they should "always be aware of the enemys movements and resist its injustice and tyranny. Husseini also mentioned Qasem Soleimani, the late commander of Irans elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who commanded Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). Both men were killed in an American drone strike Jan. 3 in Baghdad. Husseini said, We saw how all the people embraced the two martyrs and condemned US policies." Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi also attended. Masjedi, a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who became a politician, had played a key role in assisting Soleimani with implementing Irans plans in Iraq. These efforts are part of a campaign to reduce pressure on Iran in Iraq and the wider region. Soleimani's loss has had a grave impact on Iran's ability to advance its plans. Iran tried to compensate for that impact by attacking military bases in Iraq that hosted US forces, but the subsequent downing of a Ukrainian airliner by an IRGC anti-aircraft system brought the regime a great deal of discredit among its public. The attack killed 176 people. Now Iran is pursuing a policy to expel all US troops from the region to maintain its own stance in the Middle East in the face of US President Donald Trumps policy of maximum pressure." Irans influence in Iraq seems strained. A public protest movement that strongly rejects Tehrans interference in the country shows no signs of waning. The void left by Muhandis death has especially put Iran in a difficult position in Iraq. Finding a successor has been problematic, leaving the PMU factions without a unifying figure who can convey Irans instructions to Iraqi commanders. On Feb. 20, the PMU appointed Abdulaziz al-Mohammadawi as its new chief of staff. Mohammadawi is a commander in Kataib Hezbollah, the most secretive Shiite militia in Iraq, which has very close ties to the IRGC and the Lebanese Hezbollah. It took only two days for the four so-called shrine units of the PMU powerful nationalist factions aligned with Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq to express their deep dissatisfaction with this appointment. These factions are known for their opposition to foreign influence, including Iran's. In their joint statement issued Feb. 22, the shrine units the Abbas Combat Division, Imam Ali Combat Division, Ali Akbar Brigade and al-Marjaya Brigade stated, This appointment needs to be done in accordance with the due legal processes currently unavailable, due to the fact that the incumbent government is a caretaker one and that the new Cabinet has not been appointed yet." Hassan al-Hajjaj, head of the Basra Center for Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor the shrine units threatened to withdraw from the PMU if Mohammadawi's appointment stands. Hajjaj, who is close to the shrine units, said, The prospect of the Sistani-aligned units leaving the organization threatened to undermine the legitimacy and consequently the existence of the PMU, leading to great pressure on Mohammadawi to abandon his plans to become the chief staff of the paramilitary force." In this environment, Iran is trying to exploit its relations with the clergy in Iraq and beyond to divert pressure onto the United States. Tehran knows well that in a conservative country such as Iraq, public leaders turn to the clergy for advice. Iran is hoping the men of faith can provoke people and organizations to demand the departure of US forces. But this strategy seems doomed to fail without Sunni support. Iran's Sunni population faces a great deal of discrimination, so any Sunni cleric in Iraq that aligns himself with Iran loses his credibility to a great extent. Sunni clerics that have forged ties with Iran are not among those revered by the wider Sunni population. None of the major Sunni religious institutions in the region have ever had friendly relationships with Iran. As for the Shiite clergy, Sistani's position as the most revered Shiite cleric has been clear since 2003, the year Saddam Hussein was toppled and Iran started its strategy to increase its influence in the country. He has repeatedly expressed his discontent with any foreign interference, and it is very unlikely that lesser-known clerics can persuade a large Shiite population to abandon Sistanis advice. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-03 23:50:35|Editor: zyl Video Player Close A man walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain, on March 3, 2020. The impact of coronavirus on British economy could "prove large but will ultimately be temporary", Mark Carney, governor of Bank of England (BoE) said Tuesday. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) LONDON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The impact of coronavirus on British economy could "prove large but will ultimately be temporary", Mark Carney, governor of Bank of England (BoE) said Tuesday. "The Bank of England's role is to help UK businesses and households manage through an economic shock that could prove large but will ultimately be temporary," Carney told the Treasury Select Committee. The committee is appointed by the House of Commons (lower house of the British parliament) to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of Treasury, Revenue & Customs, and associated public bodies, including the BoE and the Financial Conduct Authority. Carney said the bank will "take all necessary steps" to support the British economy and financial system consistent with its statutory responsibilities, and the bank is monitoring the situation closely and ensuring all necessary contingency plans are in place. Studying supply chain disruptions, addressing possible constraints on financing to British businesses and households and reviewing the contingency plans of banks, insurers and financial market infrastructure are some of the work the bank has focused on, according to Carney. The bank is in frequent contact with international peers, including at the Group of Seven (G7), the Group of 20 (G20) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the governor added. Britain has 51 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it is highly likely that there will be a growing number of cases in the coming days. If the disease becomes established in Britain, government "will need to consider further measures to reduce the rate and extent of its spread", according to the newly unveiled coronavirus "battle plan". Actions that would be considered could include population distancing strategies, such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large scale gatherings, to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population, while ensuring the country's ability to continue to run as normally as possible, according to the action plan. Amid the outbreak of COVID-19, sales of hand sanitizer in Britain increased by 255 percent in February year-on-year. Meanwhile, British shoppers were buying 7 percent more liquid hand soaps and spent 10 percent more on household cleaners compared to February 2019, a survey from research firm Kantar revealed Tuesday. Samsung SDI's battery cell manufacturing plant in Ulsan. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI By Baek Byung-yeul With the automotive industry pivoting to electric vehicles (EVs), Samsung SDI is increasingly investing in local battery material and equipment firms in an apparent move to secure a stable supply of battery cell sources, according to industry officials Wednesday. While the EV battery business would clearly become Samsung's next primary revenue source along with its memory chip business, given the conglomerate's steady investment in that the move is interpreted as the group's strategy to avoid possible technology leakage to Chinese rivals, they said. Samsung SDI is one of the world's leading EV battery cell makers. According to market researcher SNE Research, the company had the fourth-largest share of the EV battery cell industry as of January, following Panasonic of Japan, LG Chem and CATL of China. The company recently said it would set up a joint venture with local battery material maker EcoPro BM to produce next-generation cathode materials from 2022. This will allow Samsung SDI to secure a stable supply of core materials. Given the firm is also reportedly seeking to invest in a local battery equipment maker, Samsung SDI is building a supply chain platform through the partnerships, a company official said. "As the global EV battery market is estimated to have a size of $167 billion in 2025, slightly bigger than the memory chip business, securing a stable supply chain for battery materials and equipment is essential for EV battery manufacturers," the official said. "In that sense, Samsung SDI plans to set up more joint companies with local manufacturers as it also helps nurture the country's battery business ecosystem as well as helps it avoid possible leakage of its state-of-the-art technology." Samsung appears to have learned a valuable lesson from recent technology leakage to China. In 2018, prosecutors indicted executives and employees of Toptec, a display panel supplier to Samsung Display, for allegedly selling technology and equipment to Samsung's Chinese rivals that enabled the competitors to produce flexible OLED panels. According to the prosecution, Toptec allegedly made 15.5 billion won by leaking Samsung's edge panel-making technology and selling a 3D laminating machine, core equipment for the production of curved displays. Due to the leakage, Samsung Display lost 6.5 trillion won in revenue and 1 trillion won in operating profit, the prosecutors said. Samsung's attempts to stop leakages are slightly different from its local rivals LG Chem and SK Innovation, which are increasingly trying to forge joint companies with global automotive firms. LG Chem announced two joint venture (JV) deals in 2019 with GM and Geely. Forging JVs with top automotive firms in the United States and China is expected to give LG an advantage in securing buyers for its battery cells. SK is also reportedly in talks with Volkswagen to set up a JV in Hungary. An industry source said the strategies each have their own benefits. "Establishing JVs with domestic battery component makers will help Samsung SDI have an increasing number of battery cell supply contracts with a wide range of companies, as the company is free from being subordinated to specific companies," the source said. "In contrast, battery makers can have a win-win effect by making JVs with global automotive firms because carmakers can source battery cells stably and battery producers also can have a reliable market for their battery cells." Coronation Street bid a fond farewell to Bethany Platt on Wednesday night, after she ended her relationship with Daniel Osborne following his disastrous proposal. In heart-wrenching scenes, Bethany said goodbye to her loved ones as she headed to London to accept an internship at a magazine, leaving Daniel devastated after she rejected his drunken proposal. Bethany's exit also sparked a vast reaction from many fans, who were quick to compare Daniel's proposal to an iconic Friends moment, when he accidentally said the name of his late wife Sinead when he popped the question. Scroll down for video She's off! Coronation Street bid a fond farewell to Bethany Platt on Wednesday night, after she ended her relationship with Daniel Osborne following his disastrous proposal As a new day dawned on Weatherfield, Bethany (played by Lucy Fallon) remained conflicted about whether to move to London with Daniel and his son Bertie, as she feared that he was still grieving for Sinead, who died of cervical cancer in October. While she continued to lament the decision, Daniel (Rob Mallard) drowned his sorrows with nephew Adam in the Rovers Return, and soon made the bombshell decision to prove his love for Bethany by popping the question. But his plan backfired as he got down on one knee outside Bethany's window, and chose to propose with Sinead's ring. Oh dear! In a toe-curling scene, Daniel accidentally said the name of his late wife Sinead when he popped the question, affirming to Bethany that their relationship was over Shocked: Bethany was stunned by Daniel's drunken proposal, given that she had already doubted whether he could commit to their relationship as he continued to grieve for his wife Things went from bad to even worse when he asked Sinead to marry him instead of Bethany, leaving her running back into the house in floods of tears. Fans were quick to compare the moment to the iconic Friends scene, when Ross Gellar said the name of his ex Rachel Green as he stood at the altar ready to marry Emily Waltham. One wrote: 'Did Daniel just have a 'Ross' moment??' and another added: 'That was even worse than the Friends scene.' A third also tweeted: 'Daniel saying his ex's name when proposing... straight out of Friends with Ross saying Rachel at his wedding to Emily #Corrie.' Hilarious: Many fans took to Twitter following the toe-curling scenes, to compare it to the iconic Friends moment that Ross Gellar said the names of ex Rachel Green at his wedding Tragic: In a heart-wrenching scene, Bethany insisted that she had to leave for London alone, despite Daniel's claims that he never used her as a stand-in for his late wife Hard: Things had already gone from bad to worse, as Daniel dropped Sinead's ring meaning that it was run over by a car The proposal seemed to be the final straw for Bethany, who then told Daniel that she would be leaving for London alone as she knew she couldn't be a stand-in for his late wife. Daniel was devastated by her decision to end their relationship and begged her for another chance, even after dropping Sinead's ring which led to the piece being run over by a car. In emotional scenes, Bethany then said goodbye to her family which included a sweet farewell to her friend Craig Tinker, who had been a huge support during her horrific grooming ordeal years earlier. Farewell! Bethany said goodbye to her friends and loved ones as she prepared to a new life in London Farewell! Following her final scenes, actress Lucy took to Twitter to thank fans for their support during her five years on the soap Daniel made a final attempt to convinced Bethany to let him join her in London, but as she noted the presence of his wedding ring, it became clear that they should go their separate ways. Following her final scenes, actress Lucy took to Twitter to thank fans for their support during her five years on the soap, and hinted that she wouldn't rule out heading back to the cobbles in the future. She posted: 'Ahh. What an amazing 5 years I have had eh??? Thank you so much for all of the love and support Bethany and I have received over the past 5 years. 'I'm gunna miss her. Not goodbye, just see ya later. I love you guys.' Coronation Street continues on Friday at 7:30pm and 8:30pm on ITV. New Delhi: The Canadian city of Calgary on Monday invited Indian business to invest in Canadas third largest city, which has a substantial population of South Asians, towards contributing to the growing volume of bilateral trade between India and Canada. The call to Indian business to invest in Calgary was made by the city's Indian-origin Mayor Naheed Nenshi at a roundtable here organized by industry chamber CII. Nenshi is on a visit to India as the head of a Canadian business delegation. Pointing out that Calgary's strengths include the energy, financial technology (fintech) and "creative industry" sectors, the Mayor said that with Canada having a trade deficit with India, his mission is help to Indian companies locate in Calgary which has the expertise to help Indian firms grow their business. "In a world increasingly defined by closure, we are defiantly open to the best talent in the world. The H-1B visa (US) has become almost impossible to get, whereas the same kind of visa can be got for Canada in 10 days," Nenshi said. Noting that the Economist has ranked Calgary as the western hemisphere's best city to live in, he said that Calgary is looking to intensify trade relations at the state level in India. His delegation is also scheduled to visit Mumbai and Bengaluru. "Calgary wants to be the destination of choice for the best innovators and entrepreneurs in order to solve the hardest problems like the climate change issue, as well as the most difficult one of how different peoples can live togetherto build a community in these dark and divided times," the Mayor said. "When you ask how all this is linked to business, the question for us is how to be able to succeed both socially and economically," he said, adding that "the South Asian community has been in Calgary since the beginning." More than 25 per cent of Calgary's population belongs to a visible minority group, of whom South Asians comprise 7.5 per cent, followed by the Chinese (6.8 per cent) and Filipinos (4.4 per cent). A delegation member, Calgary Economic Development Commissioner of Film and Creative Industries Luke Azevedo, said that they were looking to expand cooperation with the Mumbai film industry as well as with regional cinema, particularly from south India. A CII statement said that India-Canada trade has been steadily increasing over the last two decades, and in 2018, imports from India were the "Canadian market's fastest-growing (non-US) source at a 30 per cent increase from the previous year". Bilateral trade in 2017-18 was worth $7.23 billion. The number of Indians studying in Canada has also grown phenomenally to around 2 lakh students. Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by Cmdr. Damon Loveless From Popular Mechanics The U.S. military has canceled two overseas exercises due to the spread of the coronavirus, and may cancel more. At the same time, an important exercise in Thailand and an aircraft carrier port visit will go on. As the virus continues to spread, countries hosting exercises could become reluctant to temporarily hosting thousands of troops, especially those based in other countries hard-hit by the virus. The U.S. Military is canceling military exercises around the world due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The cancelled exercises so far include U.S. forces in South Korea and Italy, though the Pentagon says more cancelations could be forthcoming. The U.S. military has canceled at least two exercises. One was scheduled to take place last week in South Korea, which is experiencing one of the largest outbreaks outside of China. South Korea is reporting more than 5,800 cases, including at least 13 cases of the coronavirus diagnosed among South Korean military personnel. One U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea and one U.S. military dependent have come down with the coronavirus. Another exercise that was canceled involved paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The brigade, based in Italy, sent approximately 300 soldiers to Israel for the Eagle Genesis joint exercises with the Israeli Defense Forces. According to Stars and Stripes , Israeli measures to contain the virus spread lead to the exercises cancelation. Italy, with 2,502 cases of the coronavirus, is experiencing the largest outbreak in Europe. Israel currently has twelve cases of the disease. Meanwhile the U.S. military has no plans to cancel the ongoing Cobra Gold exercises. Cobra Gold, held every year in Thailand, is designed to forge ties between the United States and Southeast Asia. China is also trying to make inroads in Thailand, making the exercises politically important. Thailand has so far seen 43 cases of the coronavirus. Photo credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Hannah Hall Cobra Gold is also well known as an important jungle warfare training exercise, where U.S. soldiers typically have the opportunity to indulge in unique opportunities, including famously drinking king cobra snake blood as part of survival training. Story continues The U.S. Navy is also sending the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (above) later this week on a visit to Vietnam. Vietnam, which borders China, is a potential ally against Beijings expansionism in the South China Sea. Although Hanoi reported one of the first person-to-person cases of the coronavirus outside of China it has so far reported only sixteen cases. The U.S. military exercises with the armed forces of foreign countries every day, and the exercises in South Korea and Israel are just two of literally dozens. However, as the coronavirus spreads worldwide the Pentagon could see further cancelations. In some cases, countries may be reluctant to host dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of foreign nationals, some of whom might be carrying the disease. In others, the Pentagon could be reluctant to send healthy soldiers to areas hard-hit by the outbreak. You Might Also Like BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: Azerbaijan is expanding the economic ties with the Rostov region of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said. Jabbarov made the remark in Baku at the business forum on the development of trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Rostov region, Trend reports on March 4. "Azerbaijan is pursuing an open door policy for foreign investments, the minister said. Rostov region is a major goods manufacturer and a partner of Azerbaijan, working in the transport sector, the minister said. The volume of goods which are transported from Russia to Azerbaijan greatly increased thanks to the investments made in road infrastructure, which affected the throughput capacity of road transportation. Azerbaijan's economy fully recovered in 2019 and grew after the economic shock of 2015-2016, the minister said. The economy which completely recovered from the economic shock has been growing this year. Our main philosophy today is to increase the activity of existing enterprises, support their development using various tools, modernize the business environment and make business in the country more transparent. In conclusion, the minister called on businessmen from Rostov region to invest in the Azerbaijani economy while talking about the open door policy for making foreign investments. Shmyhal says payments to ministers, members of supervisory boards should be reduced Denys Shmyhal, the newly appointed prime minister of Ukraine, advocates a reduction in salaries to ministers and members of the supervisory boards of state-owned companies. "There are expenses that we must reduce: this concerns salaries and bonuses of officials, including ministers of the new government, members of a number of supervisory boards and other officials," he said, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada. Before that, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the need to review the salaries for members of the supervisory boards of state-owned companies. House Democrats requested Secret Service protection Wednesday for presidential candidates amid security concerns after a group of protesters stormed the stage at a Joe Biden campaign event on Tuesday. "I urge you to immediately initiate the consultation process to determine whether to provide USSS protection to certain major Democratic presidential candidates," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a letter Wednesday that specifically mentions Biden and Bernie Sanders. The letter is addressed to Acting Department Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and members of a special congressional "Candidate Protection Advisory Committee" made up of the top Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate. An official familiar with that special committee said such decisions are made by the top four Senate and House leaders in consultation with the DHS secretary and the Secret Service. The official said candidates or their campaigns must request protection unless they already have residual protection as former first lady Hillary Clinton did in 2016. There have been no such requests made yet, said the person. Earlier, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a co-chair of the campaign and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said on a press call hosted by Biden's campaign that the "Democratic Congress is worried about" the candidates' safety. Richmond said the request asks the agency to give "all the presidential candidates Secret Service protection through the end of the campaign," he said, suggesting that it would also apply to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, if they stay in the race despite being far behind in the delegate count. On Tuesday night, four protesters from the group Direct Action Everywhere approached the stage in Los Angeles where Biden was delivering his post-Super Tuesday victory speech. Two were stopped before they could get on stage but two got within inches of Biden before being pushed away by his wife, Jill Biden, and senior adviser Symone Sanders with help from a campaign security guard and a handful of other campaign staffers. Even before Tuesday's incident, Biden's public appearances had since his South Carolina win begun to feel less safe to his traveling aides, with renewed enthusiasm for his candidacy and increased media attention. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Biden campaign declined to comment. Biden was entitled to Secret Service protection for six months after he left office as vice president. Presidential and vice presidential candidates are eligible for Secret Service within 120 days of the general election. But some candidates get protection earlier in their campaigns, Barack Obama got a Secret Service detail in mid-2007, while Donald Trump received one about a year before the election. Migrants: EU Commission launches European plan to aid Greece Frontex assets mobilised and 350 mn euros allocated (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MARCH 4 - The European Commission on Thursday adopted an action plan to support Greece that will include the rapid mobilisation of coast guard and European border agency Frontex assets, including the arrival of 100 new units; the coordination of a new programme for repatriation of migrants who do not have the right to remain in Europe; and the immediate allocation of 350 million euros to support border management. The plan will now be put forward at an extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels. "Greece is facing an incredibly difficult, unprecedented challenge, and this difficult task cannot fall on the country's shoulders alone," said Margaritis Schinas, the EC vice president responsible for the dossier. The EC executive also activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, following a request by Greek authorities, to provide assistance in terms of medical supplies, tents, blankets, and other materials. The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) was asked to "accelerate" the deployment of about 160 workers on the ground. (ANSAmed). Job Title: Research Officer Organization: Uganda Free Zones Authority (UFZA) Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda Reports to: Research and Planning Executive Scale: UF5 Vacancy About US: The Free Zones Act, 2014 was duly enacted by the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda and assented to by H. E. the President of the Republic of Uganda on the 2nd February, 2014. This law provides for the Legal and Institutional Frameworks governing Free Zones and related activities in Uganda. The Uganda Free Zones Authority (UFZA) is mandated to establish, develop, manage, market, maintain, supervise, control and to provide for other related matters of Free Zones in Uganda, as outlined in section 13 of the Free Zones Act, 2014. Free Zones are economic development tools that many Governments have used to stimulate manufacturing for export. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Conduct comparative studies on best practices for incentive provision and tax regimes; Prepare statistical profiles on various regions across the country Prepare policy briefs; Build database for Free Zone activity reports; Produce research papers on Ugandas investment performance and investment opportunities; Maintenance of market intelligence service in support of all operating departments. Perform any other duties assigned from time to time. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: The ideal candidate must hold a Bachelors degree in Economics, Statistics, Management or any related field. At least three years experience of work in research from a reputable organisation. Strong research and planning skills; Strong analytical skills; Good organisation skills; Strong computer skills; Strong communication skills. How to Apply: All interested and qualified candidates please submit your application enclosing detailed curriculum vitae giving three references, copies of academic and professional certificates, postal address and daytime telephone . Addressed to: The Managing Director, ABS Consulting Group Workers House, 1 Pilkington Road, 9th Floor, Southern Wing P.O. Box 29526, Kampala, Uganda Please indicate the position applied for on the envelope (Application for the position of.) Deadline: 16th March 2020 by 5:00 pm For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline INDIANA, Pa., March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Commonwealth Bank has been recognized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) Money Smart Success Stories-Winter 2020 edition for having the Impactful Money Smart for Adults Partnership of the Year. First Commonwealth was one of only four institutions nationwide recognized by the FDIC for their work to expand financial education and support healthy banking relationships. First Commonwealth partnered with Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania to provide financial education for participants in Goodwill's Community Reintegration program. This program enables nonviolent offenders to resume their careers and return to the workforce while getting help reintegrating into the community. We appreciate the FDICs recognition of our partnership with Goodwill and our efforts to promote financial literacy, as we fulfill our mission to improve the financial lives of our neighbors and their businesses, remarked First Commonwealth Banks Financial Literacy Program Coordinator, Anna Frank. The timing of this acknowledgement is especially gratifying as it falls during our participation in America Saves Week , Frank added. As of December 2019, First Commonwealth has taught 22 sessions to more than 220 participants in this specific program. More information on the program and First Commonwealth Banks partnership with Goodwill, in addition to other Success Stories, can be found here on the FDICs website. Under the direction of a dedicated Financial Literacy Program Coordinator, First Commonwealth offers financial literacy workshops and participates in national, regional and local financial education initiatives. During 2019, First Commonwealth conducted 716 educational sessions reaching over 15,000 individuals. About First Commonwealth Financial Corporation First Commonwealth Financial Corporation (FCF), headquartered in Indiana, Pennsylvania, is a financial services company with 147 community banking offices in 28 counties throughout western and central Pennsylvania and throughout Ohio, as well as business banking operations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Canton, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. The company also operates mortgage offices in Wexford, Pennsylvania, as well as Hudson and Lewis Center, Ohio. First Commonwealth provides a full range of commercial banking, consumer banking, mortgage, wealth management and insurance products and services through its subsidiaries First Commonwealth Bank and First Commonwealth Insurance Agency. For more information about First Commonwealth or to open an account today, please visit www.fcbanking.com . Media Contact: Jonathan Longwill 724-463-6806 JLongwill@fcbanking.com A 35-year-old New York City man was caught taking photographs of another man who was using the bathroom at a Wegmans supermarket in Hanover, New Jersey, last week, authorities said. Allan Jones, of the Bronx, was arrested and charged with invasion of privacy on Feb. 26, Hanover police said Monday. The victim told police he entered a stall, sat on the toilet and then noticed a phone pointing down at him. A responding officer found Jones in the same bathroom and arrested him, authorities said. Jones was given a summons and released. In July, a 33-year-old man was arrested after police said he walked around the same Wegmans in N.J. and took upskirt photos of women as they shopped. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters A West Bengal resident was shocked to see a dogs photo instead of his own on his voter ID card and has decided to file a defamation suit against the Election Commission of India (ECI). North Bengal resident Sunil Karmakar received his corrected voter ID card on Tuesday. But instead of his own visage, he found himself staring at that of a hairy pooch. There were some errors in my voter ID card so I had applied for a correction. When the corrected card came, the information was correct, but my photo had been replaced, the irate 64-year-old voter of Bewa IIs Ramnagar village in Bengals Murshidabad said. Watch: West Bengal resident issued voter ID with a dogs picture, set to sue EC Karmakar feels the error was intentional and intended to humiliate him in public. People who saw my card, mocked it publicly. I will drag the Election Commission of India (ECI) to court, he said. A government official involved in correcting voter ID card errors said that the mistake had, indeed, been spotted earlier, but that he had no idea how it remained uncorrected. We noticed the dogs picture after the publication of the draft voters list. I rushed to Karmakars residence and brought back a picture of the man. But I am clueless as to how the card got printed with the dogs photo anyway, he said. The mistake may have occurred due to the large-scale panic across Bengal over a possible citizenship screening exercise. Over the past few months, more than 0.83 million peoole including 0.24 million new voters from 22 Assembly segments in Murshidabad district, scrambled to apply for fresh voter IDs and rectifications of errors in existing ones. The district administration had cancelled leave for all government employees to ensure an error free voters list. Rajarshi Chakraborty, the block development officer of Farakka, said that the administration will investigate Karmakars charge that the error was intentional. He will be given a new voter ID card in April. Meanwhile, government employees involved in the process are being asked to show cause, Chakraborty said. New Delhi, March 4 : With Indians fast cancelling summer holiday trips and companies telling employees to work from home amid the growing coronavirus outbreak in the country, grandparents can't hide smiles as they will have the opportunity to spend more time with their grandchildren and extended families at home. Although anxious about theirs as well as their kids' health as the number of coronavirus cases rise in the country, senior adults find solace in the fact that the family is around and they can plan better safety measures at home than when the family members are travelling or out of the country. "I am happy that my kids who stay in Delhi will come home this summer as they have cancelled their holiday plans for June due to the new virus scare. Any travel is risky at this point of time and this is a godsend for parents like us who stay away from their grandkids," Veena Mohan, a retired school principal in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, told IANS. At least 25 new coronavirus cases have been reported from India in the past three days. The virus has affected more than 60 countries across the globe. More than 92,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and the number of deaths from the new virus has reached 3,110 globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). G. Rohini, a retired banker who stays in Bengaluru, has told his son in Delhi to move with her till the time the panic settles down. "Staying together helps as we can monitor each other well and practice the hygiene routine more sincerely. Travel is a strict no no at the moment and home is where the thrill is," said Rohini. According to health experts, curb travel, avoid large gatherings, wash hands at regular intervals and visit a physician the moment early symptoms show up. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with hot water, especially when you return home from being in public. According to Kamna Chhibber, Clinical Psychologist and Head of Department at Fortis Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences, people should capitalise on the free time by utilising it to spend more time with friends and family, doing activities at home and indoors. "View this as an opportunity to be able to go back to your hobbies, engage in self care and maintain the overall well-being as well," said Chhibber. Vishal, 30, who works in a software company in Noida, has cancelled his summer holiday trip abroad and instead plans to take his family to his hometown in Indore -- after a gap of two years. "My parents are thrilled to see us soon. The coronavirus outbreak has given us an opportunity to stay back in the country this summer during the school breaks," Vishal said. There is no vaccine yet to tackle the new virus and pharmaceutical giants have scrambled to develop one soon. "No illness is ever a blessing. But yes, the coronavirus epidemic is allowing people to take comfort in their own homes and curb their anxiety regarding the epidemic by engaging in activities which they draw strength from," Chhibber told IANS. According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, "COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, and transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, while in the case of influenza, people who are infected but not yet sick are major drivers of transmission." "It is important to understand that an illness like the one being caused by coronavirus brings with it immense anxiety for many. Everyone should take extra precaution at this moment," Chhibber noted. Greece sent a navy ship to the island of Lesbos Wednesday to house hundreds of migrants who landed on the island in recent days, part of the ongoing surge from Turkey, officials said. A Greek defence ministry source said the migrants would stay on the transport ship until a new facility to accommodate them had been created on the mainland. Some 500 people, many of them families with small children, have been stranded at the harbour since arriving from Turkey over the weekend. Although the Greek vessel arrived at the port of Mytilene Wednesday morning, it was not until 4:00 pm (1600 GMT) that the first 15 migrants boarded, said an AFP photographer at the scene. But the atmosphere at the harbour was tense as the port police and security forces tried to stop two Greek photographers and a German journalist from taking pictures, pushing them back and trying to grab their cameras. A Greek military source said the migrants would stay on the ship, which normally had a capacity of 400, "as long as necessary". Astrid Castelein of the UN refugee agency on Lesbos said they and other aid groups would provide matresses and bedding, as this type of vessel was not normally meant to house people. - No asylum requests accepted - On Tuesday evening hundreds of migrants, earlier arrivals on Lesbos who have already filed asylum requests, headed down to the harbour in a bid to get a berth on the ship as news of its impending spread. After a few brief scuffles, police pushed them back. In an effort to curb the influx, which began after Ankara said last week it would no longer stop refugees from entering Europe, Athens has suspended asylum procedures and reinforced its borders. The weekend arrivals, who have not filed asylum requests, will get a place on the boat under this new regime, Fotis Garoufalias, president of the coastguard at Mytilene, told AFP. "The instructions are to register them, without the possibility of making an asylum request, and to take them on to the boat for them to be transferred," he said. That process should be finished by the end of the day, he added. The new arrivals have exacerbated an already combustible situation on the Greek islands in the Adriatic, off the Turkish coast. Lesbos hosts more than 19,000 refugees and migrants, crammed into squalid conditions around a camp built to house fewer than 3,000, a legacy of the 2015 migration crisis. Fed up with shouldering the burden of Europe's over-stretched asylum system, locals have protested against the presence of the migrants on their shores, saying they threaten safety, public health and a tourism-dependent economy. That anger has spilled over into violence in recent days, with an extremist minority accused of leading attacks on newly arrived migrants, intimidating journalists and targeting aid workers, according to several groups based on Lesbos. Locals are also angry about the government plans to build a new migrant centre on Lesbos and clashed with riot police last week. Enoc Misr, a joint venture between Proserv Group and the UAEs Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc), signed a memorandum of understanding with local lubricant manufacturers to evaluate blending and manufacturing of Enoc lubricants in Egypt. The move comes as part of Enoc Misrs ambitious plans to maximise operational efficiency and ensure product availability in the local market. The agreement will also enable Enoc Misr to strengthen its presence in the Egyptian market and offers an alternate supply option to neighboring countries. Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO of Enoc, said: The Egyptian market is one of the largest in Africa, contributing to the continents lubricants consumption. With a population of almost 100 million and an estimated growth rate of 2.2%, comes a consistent increase in demand for lubricant products and solutions. This, coupled with the countrys large refineries and government investment strategy has encouraged key industry players to continue investing in the lubricants industry in Egypt. The decision to strengthen our local presence through the set-up of blending and manufacturing operations in Egypt demonstrates our commitment to establish key infrastructure projects needed to drive the countrys socio-economic growth. Enoc Misr will continue to gear its efforts towards expanding its operations nationwide. The company operates through a network of 40 local distributors; focusing on the distribution of Enocs flagship petrol and diesel engine oil brands within Egypt, Protec and Vulcan lubricants; as well as the provision of a wide range of multi and mono-grade products in the Egyptian market to meet vehicle requirements of petrol, motor oil and heavy-duty diesel engine oils. Enocs product portfolio includes a diverse offering of lubricants services and products, in addition to jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), lubricants, bulk fuel, aviation, marine and alternative fuel such as compressed natural gas (CNG). The Groups products are distributed in over 60 Markets in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, South & Central Asia and Africa. Enoc Group will also leverage its diverse product portfolio that caters to the entire energy value chain on the back of its existing lubricants and aviation fuel business in Egypt, with the potential to additionally serve other projects across key sectors in Egypt and other countries in the future. - TradeArabia News Service Women entrepreneurs are raising more money than ever. That should be good news, and in some ways, it is. In advance of International Women's Day on March 8, Crunchbase has released a slew of data about women and venture capital during the past decade. While women raised more money, they don't appear to be making much progress when compared with their male peers. Here are six takeaways from the findings. The share of venture money for women remains virtually unchanged. From 2010 to 2019, the amount of money raised by all-female teams grew to about $6 billion from $1 billion, while all-male teams saw funding soar to $195 billion from $31 billion. The takeaway: On a percentage basis, all-female teams remain stuck, raising just two to three percent of the total venture capital in eight of the past 10 years. Women are opening businesses at a much faster rate. During roughly the same time period, the share of businesses owned by women increased dramatically. According to a report from American Express, women-owned businesses accounted for 40 percent of all U.S. businesses in 2018, up from 29 percent in 2007. While only a small percentage of businesses are candidates for venture capital, the American Express data shows women have become increasingly entrepreneurial even as their share of venture capital has stagnated compared with men's. Mixed-gender teams are becoming more common, raising more money. In 2019, 20 percent of global startups raising their first round had a female founder or co-founder. That's double the share that had a female founder in 2009. During the same time frame, mixed-gender teams increased their share of venture funding, from 6 percent to 9 percent. More funds are starting to focus on women founders. In the past decade, nearly 80 funds have been started specifically to invest in women founders, as catalogued in Inc.'s Fundery. But, collectively, those funds probably control only about $2 billion, which will be put to work over about 10 years. Women-owned businesses are finding parity in early rounds. Ten years ago, when women did raise early rounds, they tended to get significantly less money than men. But, over the past decade, some of those numbers have moved closer to parity. In 2010, the average seed round was $350,000 for women and $650,000 for men. By 2019, it was $1.2 million for women and $1.35 million for men. When it comes to A rounds, the numbers grew for both men and women. But the percentage difference between them stayed roughly the same. From 2010 to 2019, the average A round grew from $4.5 million to $8.1 million for women, and $5.1 million to $9.4 million for men. When it comes to big deals, women founders have a long way to go. In calculating these numbers, Crunchbase excludes seed rounds of more than $20 million and A rounds of more than $50 million, because just a few large deals can skew the averages upward. But that decision probably makes the genders look closer to parity than they really are, because most of the really large rounds have been raised by all-male teams. Talk about getting off to a flying start on Super Tuesday, the polls in Virginia havent been closed for even hour and only a small fraction of the vote has been counted. Yet, Joe Biden has already been declared the winner of the Commonwealths primary. African-American voters are a key element of the Democratic demographic in Virginia. However, that demographic is considerably more diverse than South Carolinas. A big Biden win in Virginia, and thats what we may be looking at, would be a great sign for a campaign that seemed moribund just a week or two ago. Mike Bloomberg, by the way, looks to be running poorly in Virginia. Hes projected to win only about 10 percent of the vote in a state where he advertised heavily. Bernie Sanders, to no ones surprise, is the projected winner in Vermont, the state that foisted the socialist on an unsuspecting American public all those years ago. UPDATE: As Virginia goes, so goes North Carolina. Not so much in general elections, but probably true in Democratic primaries. Indeed, exit polling indicates that Biden will carry North Carolina. However, there have been problems at some polling stations, apparently, so they remain open after the scheduled closing time. Thus, the race cant be called yet. AND BLOOMBERG IS ON THE BOARD: He reportedly carries American Samoa. Money talked there, if nowhere else. He wins four delegates, I think. Tulsi Gabbard reportedly finished second. I think shell get one delegate. If so, shes have one more than Tom Steyer, and at a much lower price. BIDEN KILLED IT IN VIRGINIA: With more than half of the vote in, hes at 55 percent. Sanders is second with 22 percent. Usually, Fairfax County, near D.C., reports late. It has a smaller percentage of black voters than the state as a whole, I think, so Bidens lead might decrease a little. But he still has a chance at another 30 point victory. BIDEN WINS IN ALABAMA: This was expected. A NEW BATCH OF STATES IS REPORTING: Im watching Massachusetts. This might be an interesting three-way race, with Sanders, Biden, and Elizabeth Warren (for once) in contention. BIDEN WON NORTH CAROLINA, BUT NOT BIG: Hes about 10 points up on Sanders, with Bloomberg running a relatively strong third. All three figure to win delegates in the Tar Heel State. Probably none of Warren, though. Shes just below 10 percent, statewide. Buttigieg is at about 7 percent in North Carolina. If he had withdrawn earlier, Bidens margin of victory might be a bit larger. UPDATE ON NORTH CAROLINA: Bidens lead over Sanders is now about 8 points. Bloomberg has slipped a little. Warren has moved up to almost 12 percent but still runs fourth. OKLAHOMA is the first of the states the closed this hour (8:00 in the East) to count 10 percent of the vote. Its Biden (28.5), Sanders (22.8), Bloomberg (17.3), and Warren (13.5). UPDATE: Biden wins Oklahoma. COLORADO has gone for Sanders, a predictable outcome in light of Sanderss big win in Nevada. Less predictable was the fact that Bloomberg is in second place a few points ahead of Biden (although this could change). Colorado is a state in which Bloombergs presence split the non-socialist vote more or less in half. Well see how the delegate count shakes out. PUT TENNESSEE IN BIDENS COLUMN: Bloomberg is running a strong third. All three leading candidates will pick up delegates. Warren will probably be shut out. LETS RETURN TO MASSACHUSETTS: With about 20 percent of the vote in, the race is tight between Biden and Sanders. Warren is in third place in her home state. Those Massachusetts-based readers who told me how awful a candidate she is, and how even in Massachusetts shes not all that popular, knew what they were talking about. Warren is at around 20 percent, so at least shell pick up some delegates. Surely, Liz has to drop out after her awful showing throughout the county today. For all that Warren kicked Bloomberg around in the two debates, the billionaire is having a better night than she is. NATE SILVER MAKES A SHREWD OBSERVATION: Turnout in Virginia up from ~800K in 2016 to ~1.3M this year. It doesnt seem great for Sanderss electability narrative that turnout seems to be increasing more in states where he isnt doing as well. WHAT ABOUT MINNESOTA? Biden is looking good there. Hes ahead of Sanders by 4 points. Only about 20 percent of the vote is in, but The Upshot projects Biden as the likely winner. A week ago, this looked like a close race between Sanders and Klobuchar. But Bidens nationwide surge, coupled with Klobuchars endorsement, turned things around, perhaps completely. Klobuchar wasnt lying when she bragged constantly about what a force she is in Minnesota politics. Unfortunately for her, her force was confined to that state. It didnt even carry over to Iowa. MINNESOTA UPDATE: AP has called the race for Biden. The former VP has also won in Arkansas. Sanders and Bloomberg are basically tied for second with about 20 percent of the vote in. OKAY, WE HAVE SOME TEXAS RETURNS: With 10 percent of the Texas vote in, Sanders has a six point lead over Biden, with Bloomberg five points behind Biden. This might be another state that Sanders wins because Biden and Bloomberg split the non-socialist vote. However, I dont where the counted votes have come from and to what extent these are early votes. All night, Sanders has been doing well among those who voted early, while Biden is generally doing great among those who voted today. SANDERS IS LOOKING GOOD IN UTAH: Hes out to a big lead. I dont see anyone catching. Bloomberg is in second place. Biden is a very distant third, with only 12 percent of the vote. Utah seems to be about a month behind the times as far as this race is concerned. BLOOMBERG REPORTEDLY REASSESSING: I wouldnt call this a terrible night for Mike Bloomberg. He has a second place finish in Colorado and probably will have one in Utah. Hes run ahead of Warren in most states. Hes been around 20 percent in several. He might show well in California. However, with Biden doing so well, I dont see a path to the nomination for Bloomberg. He may not, either. Reportedly, Bloomberg is reassessing his candidacy. WHY DONT WE HAVE MORE RETURNS FROM MASSACHUSETTS AND MAINE? The polls closed in these two New England states hours ago. Yet neither seems to have reported results from even half of its precincts. In Maine, Sanders and Biden are virtually tied. In Massachusetts, Biden remains a few points ahead of Sanders with Warren well back in third place. MASSACHUSETTS UPDATE: Some are now projecting Biden as the winner, which looks reasonable as I read the vote totals. I have pointed to a few states where Bloombergs candidacy may have helped Sanders by taking votes from Biden. Massachusetts is one state where Warrens candidacy made a Biden win possible by taking votes from Sanders. Minnesota may be another. SANDERS CONTINUES TO LEAD IN TEXAS: But its close. The margin, with 30 percent of the vote in, is 3.5 percent. Ill guess that the delegate split between Sanders and Biden will be pretty even, with Bloomberg picking up a few. CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN CALLED FOR SANDERS: Politico has that check mark next to his name. Only about six percent of the vote has been counted, so this must be a projection. It appears that the early voting carried Sanders to his victory in California. According to FiveThirtyEight, polling indicates that Sanders crushed Biden 41 percent to 18 percent among early deciders, but Biden actually won late deciders 40 percent to 29 percent. I wouldnt be surprised if Bloomberg ran ahead of Biden with early deciders. Thus, while Sanderss win in California takes some of the edge off of a disappointing night, the fact (if its true) that even in California Biden won handsomely among those who decided late suggests that Sanders is in trouble. SIGNING OFF: The delegate breakdowns in California and Texas are going to be very interesting and rather important. However, I dont think well know what they are any time soon certainly not in California. Therefore, Im going to call it a night. And what a night it was for Joe Biden. Failing to mark in the Super Tuesday primaries after reportedly spending more than half a billion dollars from his own pocket, United States media tycoon Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden's candidacy. 'Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult,' Bloomberg said in a statement 'I'm a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible -- and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life,' he said. Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York, immediately endorsed 77-year-old Biden who has emerged as the frontrunner among the Democratic presidential aspirants after the primaries in 14 states on March 3. Biden won nine states, while Senator Bernie Sanders won four and the two are tied in the State of Maine. 'I have always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden,' Bloomberg said. In the last three days, Biden has earned the endorsements of three presidential aspirants. The two other being Senator Amy Klobuchar and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Trump in a tweet said that by not joining the race, Bloomberg would have saved himself a billion dollars. 'Mini Mike Bloomberg just 'quit' the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didn't have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe's campaign, hoping to save face. It won't work!' he said. Trump in a series of tweets also took a dig at other Democratic presidential candidates who performed badly on Super Tuesday. 'Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasn't in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states. Our modern day Pocahontas won't go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER!' he said. Trump also alleged that the Democratic establishment is working against Sanders. 'The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Even the fact that Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race was devastating to Bernie and allowed Sleepy Joe to unthinkably win Massachusetts. It was a perfect storm, with many good states remaining for Joe!' Trump tweeted. Australias biggest grocers put strict limits on purchases of toilet paper on Wednesday after a rush of panic buying related to coronavirus fears emptied shelves as the country recorded its third case of local transmission of the disease. Australia was one of the first countries to take a hard line on tackling the outbreak, imposing border controls on visitors from the epidemics epicentre in China a month ago. The country has at least 39 cases, four of them involving people who caught the disease despite not having left Australia. Still, social media has been awash in recent days with photos and video of people stockpiling goods, including sanitising products and staples like rice and eggs. The run on toilet paper, in particular, has sparked the trending hashtags #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis on Twitter, along with photos of overloaded shopping trolleys, and calls for calm from baffled officials. We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isnt a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time, Australias Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. Woolworths Group Ltd, the countrys biggest grocery chain, restricted sales of the essential product to four packs per shopper to help shore up stock levels while suppliers ramp up local production. The local arm of Costco Wholesale Corp limited its bulk-buy packs to one per customer. Even Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weighed in on a purchasing trend that appears to be at odds with stockpiling of long-lasting food like tinned goods in other countries, telling the public he had been assured by the largest grocers they could meet any spike in demand. Police confirmed they were called to a supermarket in Sydney to deal with a disturbance in an aisle, with local media reporting the authorities had cordoned off the toilet paper shelves as a result. Other products have also been scooped up by shoppers. Costco has put limits on purchases of milk, eggs, rice and disinfecting and soap products. Coles Group Ltd began posting signs in stores advising shoppers about shortages of hand and laundry sanitiser a few weeks ago. Coles said it was working with its suppliers and transport partners to improve the availability of popular products, although it did not confirm whether it was also rationing sales of certain items. We have increased deliveries from our distribution centres and our teams are working hard to fill the shelves as quickly as possible, it said in an emailed statement. German-owned discounter Aldi Inc and US-listed Kimberly-Clark Corp, which makes toilet paper for the Australian market via local subsidiaries, were not immediately available for comment. Travel bans Australias latest confirmed coronavirus case, a 50-year-old woman, is the third person to have contracted the illness without travelling overseas, stoking fears the virus will spread more quickly through the community. Officials said the woman worked at a seniors care home in New South Wales (NSW) state where two elderly residents at the facility were also tested for the virus. One has been hospitalised while the other, a 95-year old woman, has died. Whether or not it was related to coronavirus, we dont know at this point, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters about the death. Officials in NSW, the countrys most populous state, were already investigating the case of a 53-year doctor who contracted the virus but had not treated any known infected patients. Australia has banned arrivals of foreigners who recently travelled through China since February 1. Last week, it extended that ban to people arriving from Iran but cautioned it could no longer guarantee an infected person would not get through its border quarantine checks. The government on Wednesday confirmed a man who had recently returned from Iran has contracted the virus, prompting officials to order anyone who has arrived in Australia from Iran since February 19 to self-isolate for two weeks. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL March 4, 2020 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Ryanair Holdings RYAAY, LATAM Airlines LTM, United Airlines UAL, Delta Air Lines DAL and American Airlines AAL. Here are highlights from Tuesdays Analyst Blog: IATA Request Spells Further Challenges for Coronavirus-Hit Airlines The rapid spread of the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) rattled the airline industry significantly by crippling air-travel demand. This is evident from the International Air Transport Associations (IATA) last-month projection, which suggested that airline revenues for 2020 might be hurt in excess of $29 billion due to this adversity. Per this research firms latest commentary, it requested an immediate suspension of rules governing the usage of airport slots. This statement further adds to the gloomy scenario. Alarmingly, the coronavirus outbreak is now no longer restricted to its country of origin, China. The health scare spread it tentacles fast to every continent barring Antarctica ever since it was first detected late last year. The contagious disease already registered a death toll of above 3,000 people apart from infecting more than 88,000, globally. As a result of this health peril, the Zacks Airline industry has declined 21.9% in the past month as it grapples with dwindling demand for international travel. The S&P 500 Index has also shed 10.3% of value in the same time frame. Against this backdrop, the IATAs request to aviation regulators worldwide for suspension of slot-use rules for the entire season (through Oct 2020) is fully understandable. Delving Deeper Currently, around 43% passengers depart from more than 200 slot-coordinated airports, globally. Per the existing rules for slot allocation, the concerned carrier under normal circumstances needs to operate at least 80% of the slots allocated to it. In the event of non-compliance, the airline has to give up its right to the slot in the next equivalent season. The concerned regulator can relax the above rule under special circumstances. Story continues Why the Request? Various airlines across the globe are trimming their capacity as the coronavirus outbreak is speedily becoming a full-blown pandemic from an epidemic. Reportedly, the European low-cost carrier Ryanair Holdings decided to reduce flights to/from Italy by 25% for three weeks. The decision to cut capacity in its largest market followed a significant decline in bookings due to this health hazard. According to a Reuters report, Latin American carrier LATAM Airlines also planned to cancel its daily flight from Sao Paulo to the Italian destination, Milan, through Apr 16 due to coronavirus-induced tepid demand. LATAMs U.S. counterparts, namely United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines also decided to slash flight frequency in a bid to combat the sharp drop in air traffic. For instance, Delta and American Airlines recently chose to suspend some flights connecting the United States with Milan. Moreover, United Airlines cut back flights to Japan, South Korea and Singapore due to substantially weak demand on these routes. Additionally, this Chicago-based airline, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), is offering travel waivers to Italy. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Going by IATA, many carriers are reporting 50% no-shows across several markets. With airlines across the world swinging into action to tackle this tepid demand caused by the health threat as highlighted by the above evidences, the current scenario certainly qualifies as an exceptional circumstance. Therefore, it is widely perceived that the existing slot-allocation rule that requires the concerned carrier to operate minimum 80% of its allocated slots should be made flexible. This, in turn, will allow airlines to adjust their schedules to suit the current situation of low air-traffic. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LTM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Uche Nancy Nigerian film maker, Uche Nancy has kicked off her birthday celebration in style after acquiring a brand new Lexus SUV. She took to her social media page to share photos as she celebrated her birthday, writing: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME?? God, thank you for giving me the unique opportunity to see today in good health and happiness. I pray that You will continue to bestow blessings of health and joy on my life. Thank you. My phenomenal Creator, you make every day of my life so wonderfully beautiful, as only You can.? The United States is planning to appoint a special envoy for the Sahel crisis amid fears that the jihadist threat is spreading, a senior official said Tuesday. "That is one area where the situation is getting much worse by the day," said Tibor Nagy, the top US diplomat for Africa. "We are definitely looking at having a special envoy for the Sahel," he said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "There are certain situations that are so complicated and require so much coordination that a special envoy makes sense," he said, without naming an individual or timeframe for an appointment. Thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have died and more than one million people have been displaced in a jihadist conflict that erupted in 2012 in northern Mali and has spread to its neighbors. Nagy voiced concern about the "potential for link-ups" between extremists in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin -- the convergence of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria -- where a group affiliated with the so-called Islamic State has been stepping up a campaign. "It is a monumental effort, but it also requires very close coordination," Nagy said of the campaigns against the militants. France has deployed 5,100 soldiers in Operation Barkhane to roll back jihadists and has repeatedly told the United States that the situation is urgent. The Pentagon nonetheless is looking at cutting African operations as part of a refocus against China and Russia, prompting French warnings that the US move would hamper international efforts against extremism. Nagy said the State Department was not curbing its involvement. "We are definitely not pulling back in the Sahel," he said. Days after terming the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, divisive in the House of Lords, the Boris Johnson government told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the communal riots in north-east Delhi that killed 47 people and left hundreds injured were very concerning, assuring MPs it was watching the situation closely. Elizabeth Sugg, minister in the foreign office, told the House of Lords last week that the CAA has clearly been divisive, while Nigel Adams, minister for Asia, told MPs that the situation is still tense, adding that London had conveyed its concerns to New Delhi in recent days. Labour MPs Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Preet Kaur Gill recalled the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi, and asked Adams what steps the UK government was taking to ensure that religious minorities in India could feel safe. Some MPs also mentioned recent developments in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir during the debate on Recent violence in India. Adams said: The British high commission in New Delhi and our extensive diplomatic network of deputy high commissions across India are monitoring closely the recent violence in India and developments around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019. The events in Delhi last week were very concerning, and the situation is still tense. The death of one protester is one too many. We urge restraint from all parties and trust that the Indian Government will address the concerns of people of all religions in India. Protests against the CAA and in favour of the amended law took a communal turn on February 23, and led to widespread violence in north-east Delhi on the following two days. The CAA, passed in December, seeks to fast-track the grant of Indian citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from the Moslem-majority nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and has been attacked by critics on grounds that it goes against Indias secular ethos. India has a proud history of inclusive government and religious tolerance. Its secular Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law, has been an exemplar of inclusive democracy. After his re-election, I note that Prime Minister {Narendra} Modi promised to continue this under the guiding principles of together with all, development for all and trust for all. Bob Blackman (Conservative) noted that Hindus have also been killed as part of the riots, and told the house that the Delhi police had organised 330 separate meetings with different communities to bring them together and calm down the situation. Alison Thewliss of the Scottish National Party said many of her constituents had raised concerns over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, and called for updating the Home Offices assessment while dealing with cases who have been through religious persecution already. Adams responded: We regularly update our advice on Kashmir via the FCO website and we encourage people to take close notice of that. I am sure that my colleagues in the Home Office will have noted the Hon. Ladys question and will make sure she gets a follow-up. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The recent peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban aims to end Washingtons longest war. Author Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, believes this deal provides a real opportunity for peace in the region. Now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington, Haqqani argues that the Afghan government and the Taliban along with its main backer, Pakistan have to realize that the war cannot have a single winner and it is time to end the conflict through constructive dialogue. Radio Mashaal: Does this deal between the United States and the Taliban mean a beginning of the end of the war in Afghanistan? Hussain Haqqani: I have consistently said that this deal is aimed at facilitating an American withdrawal. It is not a peace deal. The war in Afghanistan started well before the Americans arrived, and I don't think that making it all about the presence of American troops will solve any of Afghanistans problems. The fact remains that the Taliban represent a totalitarian ideology. They want to dominate Afghanistan. They found the Americans a bigger and more formidable enemy, so they want that bigger enemy to leave so they can deal with what they consider the smaller enemy, which is the people of Afghanistan and the various factions therein. Radio Mashaal: Do you think this U.S.-Taliban deal can remain intact, or will it fall apart? Haqqani: The American part of the deal will stay intact because the Americans really want to get out of Afghanistan. That is what, fortunately, President [Donald] Trump has committed to his people and so he will do exactly that: try and reduce the American presence there. That said, the problem that caused America to go to Afghanistan [in the first place] was the intransigent Taliban, who are limited by their vision and ideology, which is still the same. Soon we will witness the Taliban atrocities that might change Americas view. Radio Mashaal: Trump has said that they should leave regional countries do the job of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. Some Afghans believe this is leaving Afghanistan to its neighbors. Do you have the same concern? Haqqani: I think from Trumps perspective it may be reasonable because the way he views everything he looks at it in dollars and cents and he sees America spending a lot of money in a country that he knows nothing about and certainly does not care much about. However, the reason that the Americans went to Afghanistan is that there were all kinds of terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan. And Afghanistan is not the only country that had terror safe havens. Iran and Pakistan also have terrorists. So, withdrawing [troops] from Afghanistan will not end the worlds terror problem, and asking neighbors who themselves have huge terrorist safe havens to take care of Afghanistan will certainly not bring peace to the region. Radio Mashaal: You mentioned Pakistan, which says it is working for peace in the region. They are indirectly taking credit for facilitating U.S.-Taliban talks. How do you see Pakistans role in the future? Haqqani: It is interesting that for years Pakistan has said it is not responsible in any way for what the Taliban do in Afghanistan and yet when the Taliban finally come to negotiate with the Americans it is Pakistan taking credit. This basically proves that the Taliban would not have become the big problem they have become if they did not enjoy a safe haven in Pakistan. In the end, Pakistan has to normalize relations with its neighbors India, Iran, and Afghanistan. Pakistan still looks at its region from the perspective of the British colonial masters. I don't think it has the means to be able to pursue that vision except through militancy and subconventional warfare, which the rest of the world consider terrorism. Pakistan will eventually have to change its outlook, and triumphalism is certainly not going to endear it to the Afghan people. Radio Mashaal: What is your proposal for ending the war in this region? What do you suggest? Haqqani: The people of Afghanistan, as well as the neighbors of Afghanistan, have to come to terms with the fact that the Taliban are not a force for good or a positive force. Afghans can talk to their co-nationals Taliban and figure out how to make them part of Afghanistans political system. But if the Taliban still want to be the lords and masters of all of Afghanistan then there is no choice for the people of Afghanistan but to resist. Feminists accuse India PM of publicity stunt after he decides to hand over social media accounts to inspiring women. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of publicity stunt after the Hindu nationalist leader announced he will hand over his social media accounts to inspiring women on International Womens Day on Sunday. This Womens Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life and work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions, Modi, who has a combined following of 130 million on major social media platforms, wrote on Twitter. Are you such a woman or do you know such inspiring women. Share such stories using #SheInspiresUS? The hashtag trended briefly after the 69-year-old leader, who has more than 55 million Twitter followers, posted it on the micro-blogging site. Activists and feminists said the move was a distraction from the recent deadly violence in the capital, New Delhi. At least 47 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in religious violence last week. The police, controlled by the government of Prime Minister Modi rather than the state government in Delhi, has been criticised for doing little to prevent the violence and many times accused of siding with the Hindu mob. Gimmick Modi called for calm in a Twitter post but has not spoken on the deadly violence in public gatherings. Such a gimmick is an attempt by Modi to make himself the story again - at a time when it is his government's complicity in a communal pogrom and in draconian citizenship laws that is the story Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association Such a gimmick is an attempt by Modi to make himself the story again at a time when it is his governments complicity in a communal pogrom and in draconian citizenship laws that is the story, said Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Womens Association. Will the woman who takes over his account finally unfollow the accounts that regularly make rape and death threats, and vile communal hashtags? Many social media handles that follow Modi have been accused of issuing death and rape threats to opponents and feminists in the past. Rana Ayyub, a columnist with The Washington Post newspaper, suggested that Modi should hand over his Twitter handle to Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was among 69 killed in a housing society in Modis home state of Gujarat in 2002. Modi was the chief minister of the state when the violence killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Journalist Revati Laul in a post on her Facebook page criticised Modis move as patronising. I have fought patriarchy my entire life. In my family and outside it. The last thing I want is to be patronised and told that you are gifting me your social media account, she wrote referring to Modis offer to hand over his social media handles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to women. Violence against women Since coming to power in 2014, Modi launched a number of programmes for women safety and their empowerment, but violence against women remains a reality in the country. In 2015, Modi launched Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save daughters, educate daughters) campaign to improve sex ratio in a country with high female foeticide rate. The PM is doing what he and his party is good at, doing publicity and no work. Look at the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, most of the money has been spent on publicity and advertising, feminist Vani Subramanian told Al Jazeera. His support for the March 8 event came after he faced criticism for failing to check violence against women following a series of rape cases late last year that triggered mass protests. In November, a 27-year-old vet was raped, suffocated and her body set alight on the outskirts of the southern city of Hyderabad. Another rape victim was set on fire and killed by a gang of men, including her alleged rapists, in December. In the same month, a court sentenced a former legislator from Modis Bharatiya Janata Party to life imprisonment for raping a teenager. Many BJP leaders supported former minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand after he was arrested in an alleged rape case. He was granted bail by a court in northern Uttar Pradesh state earlier this month. These cases highlight Indias grim record of sexual violence against women despite enacting some of the worlds toughest laws after the gang rape of a Delhi student on a bus in December 2012, which sparked global outrage. One woman reported a rape every 15 minutes on average in India in 2018, according to government data released in January. The governing party leaders have also attacked female protesters staging sit-ins across the country against a new citizenship law that fast-tracks citizenship of minorities from neighbouring countries except Muslims. Despite repeated attempts by Al Jazeera, BJP spokespersons could not be reached for comment. Additional reporting by Bilal Kuchay from New Delhi The Capital Hotels and Apartments Johannesburg, Sandton, R 17000 - R 20000 per month 3 days ago WASHINGTON A resurgent Joe Biden scored sweeping victories across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition and progressive rival Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesdays biggest prize with a win in California as the Democratic Partys once-crowded presidential field suddenly transformed into a two-man contest. The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for Americas future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys 2020 presidential nomination fight. The winner will take on President Trump in the November general election. The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half billion dollars to score a single victory in American Samoa. The new contours of a nomination fight pitting Biden against Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, were crystallizing by days end as the former vice president and the three-term senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders signature lines. And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vt. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Sanders, a Vermont senator, opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, as well as California, Utah and Colorado. Yet Biden scored wins in Warrens native Oklahoma and a swath of Southern states including Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, signaling he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. In a sign of his strength across the country, Biden also won Minnesota, a state Sanders had hoped to put in his column. Texas and Maine remained too close to call. A key to Bidens success: black voters. Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obamas vice president, won 60% of the black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate on Tuesday. Bloomberg earned 25%, and Sanders won about 10% of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate. The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns and endorsed Biden. Bidens win in South Carolina, his first in the 2020 election season, rescued his campaign from the brink after three consecutive weak finishes last month. Sanders had predicted victory in California, the days largest delegate prize. The state, like delegate-rich Texas, plays to his strengths, given its significant factions of liberal whites, large urban areas with younger voters and strong Latino populations. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against President Trump in November. Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his partys far-left flank that embraces his decades-long fight to transform the nations political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his partys Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change. Across the Super Tuesday states there were early questions about Sanders claims that he is growing his support from his 2016 bid. Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. And in Virginia, where Democratic turnout surpassed 2016 by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders vote share dropped significantly. Steve Peoples and Will Weissert are Associated Press writers. The tragic circumstances of a young girl abused by her "swinger" parents have been heard in a Perth court, with documents revealing child protection services repeatedly tried to intervene in the years before the abuse was eventually discovered. The girl's biological mother and stepfather, who cannot be named to protect the identities of the children, were handed some of the harshest penalties ever seen in a West Australian child sex abuse case in the District Court on Tuesday, sentenced to 28 and 26 years imprisonment respectively. Detectives arrested the couple in 2018. Credit:WA Police In a case Justice Bruce Goetze called "horrendous, depraved and perverted", the court heard the horrific details of how the mother and her partner subjected her son and daughter - then aged four and five - to drug-fuelled abuse at the hands of both them and two different men. In sentencing the woman it was revealed the sexual abuse of the young girl had started when she was just three months old, at the hands of her own mother's first partner. Helen Raikes has filed to run for the legislative seat in District 23, which includes Saunders, Butler and Colfax counties. Raikes, who lives near Ashland, is a registered independent in the nonpartisan race. She is challenging incumbent Bruce Bostelman. I am the independent voice for property tax relief and opportunities for agriculture and small business," Raikes said. "I am involved in farming, small business and education. I believe I am the right voice for rural communities and that I can be effective in making the changes we need in the Legislature." She is retiring from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an early childhood education professor in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies. She and her husband, the late Sen. Ron Raikes, set into motion several of Nebraskas early childhood programs, she said. Ron Raikes, who was a member of the Legislature from 1998 to 2008 representing District 25 and chair of the Education Committee for eight years, died in 2009 in a farming accident. Helen Raikes said she conducted 12 listening sessions with more than 100 people in Ashland, Ceresco, Wahoo, Rising City, David City, Brainard and Schuyler, and decided it was the right time to seek the seat. The issues I heard from my listening sessions are well-aligned with the needs of the 23rd District, and Im ready to make a real difference for my neighbors, she said. The Raikes family has been farming in Saunders County for more than 100 years and operates Raikes Beef in Ashland. Helen Raikes grew up and contributed to her parents farm in rural Iowa, she said, and has stayed close to agriculture as part of Raikes Family Enterprises. "The current property tax situation in Nebraska's leading industry agriculture is unconscionable," she said. "Its time for the Legislature to step up and fix this structural inequity." She is a longtime advocate for quality and equitable education, Raikes said. She attended a consolidated school in a small rural community and Iowa State University. I will protect schools in rural communities and will stand up for equitable and workable statutes to ensure quality education," Raikes said in a news release. "I will also be an advocate for early childhood education and career education. Helping our students pursue higher education or find good-paying jobs with benefits in the trades right out of high school is essential to keeping our communities thriving. The Raikes are parents of three children and have five grandchildren. Reach the writer at 402-473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSLegislature Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Delhi, March 4 : There are at least 25 positive cases of COVID-19 in India at present, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed on Wednesday during a press conference here. "There are at least 28 confirmed cases of the coronavirus that have been reported so far in India. Out of which three patients, who were earlier infected in Kerala, have been cured from the disease," said the minister. According to the Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, at present at least 9 Indian nationals and 16 foreign nationals are infected with the disease. "There is one patient in Delhi, one in Telangana and six in Agra who have tested positive for COVID-19. The driver of the group of Italian nationals, who were touring in Jaipur, has also tested positive. Apart from these, 16 Italian nationals have tested positive for the disease," said Harsh Vardhan during the presser. Talking about the potential of the spread of the disease, the minister said that One person in Delhi infected six of his his own family members in Agra. In Italian national's case the tourist infected his wife also and thus other group members. According to the health minister, the government of Italy has asked the Italian nationals to stay in India only for the time being therefore all of them have been currently quaranitined at ITBP isolation facility in Chhawla. "We had to trace at least 66 people's contact in view of one positive case. In Telangana, at least 88 contacts were traced," the minister told media here, adding "people should avoid public gathering during this time. Even the Prime Minister has cancelled his Holi Milan programmes in view of coronavirus. In a statement released earlier by the health ministry, it said: "24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (bus driver, conductor and tourist guide) have been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Depending on the result, future course of action will be taken." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The ability of the world's tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years, published today in Nature. The global scientific collaboration, led by the University of Leeds, reveals that a feared switch of the world's undisturbed tropical forests from a carbon sink to a carbon source has begun. Intact tropical forests are well-known as a crucial global carbon sink, slowing climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, a process known as carbon sequestration. Climate models typically predict that this tropical forest carbon sink will continue for decades. However, the new analysis of three decades of tree growth and death from 565 undisturbed tropical forests across Africa and the Amazon has found that the overall uptake of carbon into Earth's intact tropical forests peaked in the 1990s. By the 2010s, on average, the ability of a tropical forest to absorb carbon had dropped by one-third. The switch is largely driven by carbon losses from trees dying. The study by almost 100 institutions provides the first large-scale evidence that carbon uptake by the world's tropical forests has already started a worrying downward trend. Study lead author Dr Wannes Hubau, a former post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leeds now based at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, said: "We show that peak carbon uptake into intact tropical forests occurred in the 1990s. "By combining data from Africa and the Amazon we began to understand why these forests are changing, with carbon dioxide levels, temperature, drought, and forest dynamics being key." "Extra carbon dioxide boosts tree growth, but every year this effect is being increasingly countered by the negative impacts of higher temperatures and droughts which slow growth and can kill trees. "Our modelling of these factors shows a long-term future decline in the African sink and that the Amazonian sink will continue to rapidly weaken, which we predict to become a carbon source in the mid-2030s." In the 1990s intact tropical forests removed roughly 46 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, declining to an estimated 25 billion tonnes in the 2010s. The lost sink capacity in the 2010s compared to the 1990s is 21 billion tonnes carbon dioxide, equivalent to a decade of fossil fuel emissions from the UK, Germany, France and Canada combined. Overall, intact tropical forests removed 17% of human-made carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s, reduced to just 6% in the 2010s. This decline is because these forests were less able to absorb carbon by 33% and the area of intact forest declined by 19%, while global carbon dioxide emissions soared by 46%. Senior author Professor Simon Lewis, from the School of Geography at Leeds, said: "Intact tropical forests remain a vital carbon sink but this research reveals that unless policies are put in place to stabilise Earth's climate it is only a matter of time until they are no longer able to sequester carbon. "One big concern for the future of humanity is when carbon-cycle feedbacks really kick in, with nature switching from slowing climate change to accelerating it. "After years of work deep in the Congo and Amazon rainforests we've found that one of the most worrying impacts of climate change has already begun. This is decades ahead of even the most pessimistic climate models. "There is no time to lose in terms of tackling climate change." To calculate changes in carbon storage the scientists measured the diameter and estimated the height of every individual tree in 565 patches of forest, returning every few years to re-measure them. By calculating the carbon stored in the trees that survived and those that died, the researchers tracked the changes in carbon storage over time. After the final re-measurement, the study authors used a statistical model and trends in carbon dioxide emissions, temperature and rainfall to estimate changes in forest carbon storage until 2040. By combining data from two large research networks of forests observations across Africa (AfriTRON) and Amazonia (RAINFOR) the authors show that the Amazon sink began weakening first, starting in the mid-1990s, followed by a waning of the African sink about 15 years later. The continental difference arises from a combination of Amazon forests being more dynamic than those in Africa, and Amazon forests facing stronger climate impacts. Typical Amazonian forests are exposed to higher temperatures, faster temperature increases and more regular and severe droughts, than African forests. Dr Hubau, Professor Lewis and their colleagues have spent years travelling to numerous remote field sites, including spending a week in a dug-out canoe to reach Salonga National Park in central Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr Hubau said: "The ability of forests to slow climate change is a crucial element of understanding how the Earth system functions - particularly how much carbon is absorbed by the Earth and how much is released into the atmosphere. "Continued on-the-ground monitoring of intact tropical forests is required to track the effects of accelerating environmental change. We need this more than ever, as our planet's last great tropical forests are threatened as never before." The authors also highlight that tropical forests are still huge reservoirs of carbon, storing 250 billion tonnes of carbon in their trees alone. This storage is equivalent to 90 years of global fossil fuel emissions at today's level. Study author Professor Bonaventure Sonke from the University of Yaounde I in Cameroon said: "The speed and magnitude of change in these forests suggests that climate impacts in the tropics may become more severe than predicted. "African countries and the international community will need to seriously invest in preparation for ongoing climate change impacts in tropical regions." Study author Professor Oliver Phillips, from University of Leeds, added "For too long the skills and potential of African and Amazonian scientists have been undervalued. We need to change this by ensuring their work is properly supported. It will fall to the next generation of African and Amazonian scientists to monitor these remarkable forests to help manage and protect them". As tropical forests are likely to sequester less carbon than predicted, carbon budgets and emissions targets may need reassessing to account for this. Professor Lewis said: "The immediate threats to tropical forests are deforestation, logging and fires. These require urgent action. "In addition, stabilising Earth's climate is necessary to stabilise the carbon balance of intact tropical forests. By driving carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero even faster than currently envisaged, it would be possible to avoid intact tropical forests becoming a large source of carbon to the atmosphere. But that window of possibility is closing fast." ### Notes to editors Carbon uptake is expressed in units of carbon in the Nature paper and as carbon dioxide here. Multiply carbon values in the paper by 3.667 to obtain the mass of carbon dioxide given above. In the 2000s intact tropical forest sequestered 36 billion tonnes carbon dioxide, equivalent to 9% of human-made carbon dioxide emissions. Further information Video and images, along with captions and credits are available for download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ebnNhWqAh2SN85AIJIi_y9zh3_KMfhZW To request additional information please contact the University of Leeds Media Relations office via +44 (0)113 343 4031 or a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk French language version of the press release available on request. The paper 'Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation in African and Amazonian Tropical Forests' is published in Nature on 4 March 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2035-0 ; URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2035-0 The paper was funded by over 50 grants over two decades, including a European Research Council grant, Tropical forests and the changing Earth system, T-FORCES, to Oliver Phillips and Simon Lewis. University of Leeds, UK The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2020. Professor Simon Lewis is listed as one of the world's most highly cited scientists in 2019 (highlycited.com). The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk Follow University of Leeds or tag us in to coverage: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium The Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum) is a centre for knowledge and resources on Africa in a historical, contemporary and global context. The museum exhibits unique collections, including the World's most important collection of African wood samples, with more than 80,000 specimens belonging to 13,000 different species. The core endeavours of this Africa-oriented institution consist of conducting scientific research, implementing the results of this research, disseminating knowledge, and mounting selected exhibitions of its collections. Apart from fostering understanding of and interest in Central Africa among the public at large, the museum aims at contributing substantially to Africa's sustainable development through partnerships and research collaborations. In 2019, the AfricaMuseum hosted and supported more than 100 African trainees, MsC and PhD students, and visiting researchers, including by launching a new wood biology laboratory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Located in the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve it will be used by Congolese and international scientists to conduct world-leading research on wood anatomy and dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) to better understand forests' contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The new AfricaMuseum opened its doors on 9 December 2018, and received more than 350,000 visitors in the course of 2019. Forest ecosystem services and the carbon balance in Central Africa are showcased in the zone dedicated to biodiversity and the "resource paradox". http://www.africamuseum.be/en/home Photo credit: Trevor Raab From Bicycling The North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), an international convention for bike makers from around the world, has been postponed because of coronavirus precautions and will be moved from its originally scheduled March dates to August 21 through August 23 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. Don Walker, NAHBS founder and president, released a letter on Tuesday that announced the postponement. As a global show that attracts people from all parts of the world, and in evaluating the current variables and public health risks, I feel this is in everyones best interest, Walker wrote. Though Dallas is not one of the so-labeled hot spots for the coronavirus, its a show attended by international vendors. Last year, the sold-out event was held in Sacramento and featured close to 210 exhibitors, some of whom were from Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan, and welcomed thousands of attendees. This was an extremely hard decision to make, as I know weve all been preparing throughout the winter and early spring for this gathering of our industry, Walker wrote. I understand all of the sacrifices and expenses that have been incurred and understand the inconvenience of this situation for everyone. But my primary priority is to protect the health and safety of our amazing community and feel postponing the show is in our best interest. The coronaviruswhich has officially been named COVID-19has reached a global death toll of more than 3,000 people, including the several people from Washington state. Though NAHBS is a very cool and highly anticipated event, in the interest of public health this feels like the right call. Other events like the UAE Tour have been canceled after six people involved with the Tour tested positive for the virus. You Might Also Like A Connecticut man was arrested after allegedly threatening to kill a woman who was not interested in having a romantic releationship with him. Daniel Scott, of Norwich, is charged in a federal criminal complaint with making threatening communications. On Monday, law enforcement received information from a woman in the Bronx, New York, that Scott had made threatening calls and sent threatening texts to her after she had communicated to Scott that she was not interested in having a romantic relationship with him. Texts and voicemails reviewed by investigators contained specific threats to harm the victim. One text included a promise by Scott that, on March 2, he would travel to the gym where she was employed and shoot tha whole gym up an end all of us. a release from the Connecticut office of U.S. Attorney John Durham stated. On Monday, Scott appeared at the victims workplace in the Bronx. The victim called 9-1-1 and Scott was arrested by the New York Police Department. Scott is currently detained in New York on domestic violence-related charges. Scott has two prior federal convictions for narcotics distribution offenses, and he is currently on federal supervised release. The charge of making threatening communications carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years. This investigation is being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with the assistance of the New York Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito. TOWSON, Md., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PM Consulting Group (PMCG), an SBA-certified 8(a), HUBZone, and MDOT-certified MBE firm that delivers professional and management consulting solutions to federal and state government clients, is pleased to announce several new contracts and certifications in addition to new office space in Washington D.C. During 2019, PMCG signed new contracts with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. This adds to its deep experience supporting federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs and several others. PMCG was also recently awarded the GSA IT Schedule 70 contract to provide IT services to government agencies. In November 2019, PMCG was appraised at a Level 3 by the prestigious CMMI Institute. CMMI is a capability framework that provides organizations with the essentials of effective processes that improve performance. These new contracts and certifications come at a time of explosive growth for PMCG. The company increased from 60 employees in 2018 to 85 at the end of 2019. In addition, revenues for 2019 more than doubled over 2018. This momentum helped PMCG make the 2019 Inc. 5000 list and to be named a Top 100 MBE by The Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council. PMCG was also named the 33rd fastest growing private company in the Washington D.C. region by Inc. 5000. To better serve its expanding federal client base, the company will move into new Washington D.C. office space in the Ronald Reagan Building in April 2020. PMCG will keep its headquarters in Towson, Maryland. The last few years have been marked by increased growth and opportunities, said Walter Barnes III, president of PM Consulting Group. We view this as a testament to our industry knowledge, expertise and unmatched client service. Our progress in 2019 strengthened the foundation of the company and will allow our offerings to be widely leveraged across the federal space. About PM Consulting Group PM Consulting Group (PMCG) is an SBA-certified 8(a), Hubzone, and MDOT-certified MBE firm that delivers professional and management consulting solutions to federal and state government clients. Established in 2008, PMCG specializes in program and project management support for various types of projects/acquisitions. Its focused approach to project management enables the flexibility required to successfully deliver projects on schedule and within budget. Visit PMCG at www.pmconsultinggroupllc.com or 410-512-6557. PMCG is listed under the GSA IT Schedule 70 under contract number 47QTCA20D002J : In view of the spread of coronavirus in the country, the Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi would not hold open house sessions, meetings of the visitors and public appointments in her office for two weeks. While official sources said this has become necessary in view of the reports of coronavirus occurring in different parts of the country, a press release from Raj Nivas, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor, said Bedi has suspended for two weeks all programmes. "To comply with the public health safety guidelines, the office of the Lieutenant Governor has suspended for two weeks all programmes to meet the people, visitors and hold open house sessions for two weeks," the release said. Those intending to submit petitions to Bedi could drop them in a special box at the main entrance of Raj Nivas, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Newser) The Chinese premiere of the upcoming James Bond flick was already canceled due to the coronavirus outbreakbut now the film is being delayed everywhere. No Time to Die, the 25th film in the franchise and Daniel Craig's last outing as 007, was scheduled for an April 10 release in North America, but producers announced Wednesday that will be pushed to November 25, per the Hollywood Reporter. The planned world premiere, previously set for March 31 in London, will now be November 12. Publicity tours in China, South Korea, and Japan had already been canceled ahead of the announcement. (You can still, however, listen to Billie Eilish's theme song for the movie.) The first death warrant for their execution was for January 22, second for February 1 and the latest was for March 3. On Wednesday, soon after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), one of the four convicts, the Delhi government approached the sessions court to issue fresh death warrants against the convicts. NEW DELHI: After exhausting almost all legal remedies, a Delhi court is all set to sign the final death warrant for the execution of all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. On Wednesday, soon after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), one of the four convicts, the Delhi government approached the sessions court to issue fresh death warrants against the convicts. This will be the fourth time that the court will be issuing death warrants against the convicts. The first death warrant for their execution was for January 22, second for February 1 and the latest was for March 3. The case which shook the conscience of the nation was tried in a fast-track court. Ater the trial proceedings, the case again hogged the limelight after Nirbhayas family and social activists accused the convicts of using legal provisions merely to delay their hanging. But the courts maintained they cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict, including death row convict, in pursuit of his or her legal remedies, by turning a Nelsons eye towards them. Now, the only legal option left with Pawan is to challenge the Presidents order on his mercy petition before the Supreme Court, which had earlier rejected similar pleas by the other three convicts Akshay Thakur (31), Vinay Sharma (26) and Mukesh Singh (32). Once the President rejects a mercy petition, the convicts are to be given at least 14 days time before hanging to make their last wish. Nirbhayas parents said they were now hopeful that the convicts would be hanged this month and justice would be finally delivered to them after a long wait. Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the National Human Rights Commission to intervene and enquire into the mental and physical state of the four convicts. The High Court said the petition was not maintainable as it should have been first filed in the NHRC. Once the fresh death warrants are issued, the convicts will be provided all the details about the court order exact time and date of their execution. On the day of hanging, the jail superintendent generally wakes up the convicts at about 3 am and then asks the convicts to freshen up. Prisoners will be allowed to take a bath if they want they will be provided hot water. Then, they will be served their favourite breakfast. The convicts are also allowed some time alone so that they can remember their family members and closed ones. If desired by the convicts, they will be provided with some religious books and allowed to recite prayers. Following a routine protocol, the convicts will be examined by a doctor. They will then be asked to change their clothes and be in plain cotton attire. The hands of the convicts will then be tied at their back and their faces covered with a black cotton hood or cloth. They will not be allowed to watch their hanging gallows. The convicts will then be escorted to the noose and placed under the beam, following which they will be handed over to the hangman, who will tie their legs together. The rope will be placed around their necks and the executioner will draw the bolt. Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency named Kim Bo-sung an honorary officer in October 2019. Korea Times file By Lee Gyu-lee Actor Kim Bo-sung visited Daegu, the epicenter of coronavirus in Korea, and donated more than 5000 masks in person to residents, Sunday. Kim, 53, told news outlet Star News on Monday that he wanted to express support for Daegu residents. The city has confirmed more than 3,600 coronavirus cases, as of Tuesday morning. "It was devastating to see people waiting in line to buy masks at the pharmacy because of the shortage," he explained, adding that he is currently in self-quarantine after returning home. His good deed was publicized through the Daegu community's social media page. The account uploaded pictures of the actor with boxes of masks on Facebook and wrote: "Kim Bo-sung is driving around Daegu, handing out masks and giving encouraging messages now." The actor hands out masks and gives messages of support to people in Daegu. Screen capture from Facebook Directed by Clint Eastwood; written by Billy Ray Clint Eastwoods latest film, Richard Jewell, is a drama rooted in the victimization of security guard Richard Jewell (1962-2007) in regard to the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The actual perpetrator of the crime proved to be far-right terrorist Eric Rudolph. Scripted by Billy Ray, the movie is based on Marie Brenners February 1997 Vanity Fair article American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell. Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwens book Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middlewas also used as source material. Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates and Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell Richard Jewell is forthright in its condemnation of the role of the FBI and the media, which combined to pursue and malign Jewell for weeks on end during the summer of 1996. The film shows these forces eviscerating a human being without the slightest concern for democratic principles or elementary truth. Eastwood, now nearing 90, is a highly contradictory figure. He has directed nearly 40 films, of which some are very good and others very poor. The first category includes, prominently, True Crime (1999), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Sully (2016) . Other efforts have been seriously misguided or disoriented, promoting a rancid misanthropy or vigilantism, including Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004) and American Sniper (2014). Eastwood evinces a type of latter-day rugged individualism which drags him all over the political and ideological map. The title character in his new film, Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser), is an overweight man in his mid-thirties who lives with his mother Bobi (Kathy Bates) in Atlanta and wholeheartedly believes in the agencies of law enforcement. He imagines himself to be preparing for a future in law enforcementAPD [Atlanta Police Department], FBI, maybe Secret Service. Olivia Wilde in Richard Jewell Ten years before the bombing, Richard is working as a supply clerk for the Small Business Administration. There he meets lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), who although caustic and irascible, treats Richard with a degree of respect and even friendliness. Watson nicknames the socially awkward man Radar, after the character in Robert Altmans MASH (who anticipates his commanders orders before he issues them), a far cry from what is typical for Richardsome variation on the derisive Pillsbury Doughboy. When Richard leaves to take a job as a campus rent-a-cop for a college, Watson warns him that a little power can turn a person into a monster. In fact, Jewell thoughtlessly and high-handedly wields his authority against misbehaving students, leading to his dismissal. On July 27, 1996, Atlanta is hosting the Summer Olympics at Centennial Park where Richard is now employed by AT&T as a security guard (to protect its five-story sound and light tower). He spots an unattended backpack beneath a bench during a concert. Richard persuades authorities to follow protocol and push the crowd back. Shortly after an expert identifies a bomb in the backpack, the device filled with nails explodes, killing two people (one directly, the other as a the result of a heart attack) and injuring 110. Despite the casualties, Richards vigilance has saved an untold number of lives. Jewell becomes an overnight celebrity, appearing on nationwide television shows and sought after by book publishers. Mother Bobi could not be prouder. But the FBI and agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) are busy creating a different scenario: Richard Jewell, 33, a former law enforcement officer, fits the profile of the lone bomber. This profile generally includes a frustrated white man who is a former police officer, member of the military, or police wannabe who seeks to become a hero. Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell Aggressive journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution ( AJC ) approaches Shaw and offers sex in exchange for the name of the individual the FBI suspects. Scruggs convinces her editor at the AJC to publish a front-page story fingering Jewell (FBI suspects hero guard may have planted bomb). The story instantly becomes national and international news. The witch-hunt begins, as a series of scurrilous headlines (Saint or Savage?, Bubba the Bomber, etc.) appear in the tabloid press. When it finally dawns on Richard that he is being railroaded by the FBI, he engages the iconoclastic Watson as his legal counsel. The latter tries, at every juncture, to pound into Richards head that the government agency and the media are his mortal enemies. For nearly three months, the FBI and the media do their best to grind Richard and Bobis lives to pulp. Richard Jewell has numerous positive features. Hauser is truly remarkable as the lumbering, overzealous, yet endearing Richarda nuanced portrayal that avoids caricature. The superficially affable Hamms FBI agent Shaw is appropriately cold and myopic, steadfastly denying the facts in front of his nose. To the bitter end, Shaw/Hamm still maintains Richard is guilty as hell. In one of the movies most moving scenes, Watson introduces Bobi at a press conference as the 113th victim of the Centennial bombing. He explains, Her sons accusers are two of the most powerful forces in the world today. The United States government and the media. For the past four weeks, these horrific forces have combined to make her daily existence a living hell. Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell Bobis public indictment of her familys tormentors is gut-wrenching: I am so very drained. I hope and pray to God that nobody ever has to go through this again. I do not think any of you can even begin to imagine what our lives are like. The media has portrayed my son as the person who has committed this crime. They watch and photograph everything we do. Like the media, the FBI follows his every move and watches my home constantly. And why? My son My son is innocent. Richard is not the Olympic Park bomber. Richard is not a murderer. He saved peoples lives. Please hear me, Mr. President, and help me. You have the power to end this nightmare. It is Watson/Rockwell, above all, who provides the movies anti-authoritarian edge. Rockwell is an outstanding performer whose witty jabs generally find appropriate targets. When he sees Richards extensive gun collection, Watson quips: Were you expecting a zombie invasion or something? More importantly, he constantly reminds Richard, who respects authority far too much, Son, authoritys whats outside that window looking to eat you alive. The film draws heavily on these exceptional performances. Richard Jewell concerns itself with a generally despised portion of the populationlower middle class or working class whites from the South. Figures such as Jewell are usually either the subject of ridicule or portrayed as mindless, racist brutes (the sort of role Hauser played in Spike Lees BlackkKlansman ). Eastwood has not always shown humanity, or has too often been selective about whom he chooses to sympathize with, but here he summons up something important: sympathy for a despised and persecuted individual. Moreover, the movies entirely legitimate premise is that one ought to be perpetually suspicious of governmental power and law enforcement, as there is every reason to assume they are up to no good. This particular drama brings out the best in Eastwood, who has always represented something in American cinema, for better or worse. He grew up in Oakland during the Depression, the child of itinerant workers. The actor came to international prominence in a number of films directed by Sergio Leone, starting with A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. He was also associated with a number of films directed by Don Siegel (including Coogans Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz ). He directed his first film, Play Misty For Me, in 1971. Richard Jewell has not made certain people happy, although it received generally favorable, if not enthusiastic reviews. The film came out, after all, in the midst of the Democratic Party anti-Russia campaign, which celebrates the FBI and CIA as the great defenders of American democracy. Numerous critics were clearly made uncomfortable by Eastwoods critique of these hallowed institutions. Moreover, the portrayal of real-life Kathy Scruggs, the unscrupulous Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter (extremely well played by Wilde), has also ruffled feathers. The filmmakers have been accused of slut shaming because of the scene in which Scruggs is willing to trade sex for a scoop. In fact, the similarities between the attempted media destruction of Richard Jewell and the #MeToo campaign, which also specializes in character assassination, unsubstantiated claims and anonymous leaks to the press to ruin lives and careers overnight, are obvious to those with eyes. (Bizarrely, the New Yorker s Richard Brodyin a comment that was positive by and largesuggested that Eastwoods scathing criticism of Scruggs was perhaps unintentionally aimed at another ultra-competent and accomplished woman, Hillary Clinton. Brody indicated he had seen suggestions that Richard Jewell was Trumpist propaganda. It has reached the point on the intellectual left in America that any defense of a white working class man is viewed with the utmost distrust and even hostility.) The venal American medias standard operating procedure is on display in Richard Jewell: Scruggs, the AJC and the rest, who can turn on a dime, cynically seek to manipulate public opinion. They demonized Richard Jewell as they demonize leaders of foreign countries the US government wants to bomb or invade. One day Jewell is on the Today Show, and the next, being vilified by Tom Brokaw (that nonentity in the service of wealth and power, as the WSWS described him in 2004). Screenwriter Billy Ray has provided a fierce defense of the movie against the current posturing by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as the supposed defenders of Scruggss good name. In an interview with Deadline, Ray explained that the movie was about an individual whose life was completely destroyed by myths created by the FBI and the media, specifically the AJC The AJC hung Richard Jewell, in public. After noting that the newspaper editorialized wildly and printed assumptions as facts and compared Jewell to mass murderer Wayne Williams, the screenwriter continued, Now a movie comes along 23 years later, a perfect chance for the AJC to atone for what they did. Instead, Ray points out, the Journal-Constitution is seeking to deflect and distort. They focus solely on one single minute in a movie thats 129 minutes long, opting to challenge one assertion in the movie rather than accepting their own role in destroying the life of a good man. And by the way, I will stand by every word and assertion in the script. For whatever reason, Eastwoods film fails to indicate anything about the actual bomber, Eric Rudolph. Often presented as a mere backwoods Christian fanatic, Rudolph was a ferocious anti-communist ideologue, who described abortion as the product of a rotten feast of materialism and self-indulgence and who once explained that I really prefer Nietzsche to the Bible. In his own statement about his motivations for the bombing at the Olympics, Rudolph wrote that in July 1996, millions of people came to celebrate the ideals of global socialism and that the conception and the purpose of the so-called Olympic movement is to promote the values of global socialism as perfectly expressed in the song Imagine by John Lennon. The Atlanta bombing occurred only 15 months after the Oklahoma City bombing carried out by right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh. It is legitimate to ask whether the FBIs persecution of Jewell was merely the result of incompetence and face-saving, or part of a larger effort to divert attention from the growth of domestic fascist elements, with extensive ties to the Republican Party, the military and law enforcement. In any event, as far as it goes, Eastwoods film is a serious, humane and sincere artistic and social accomplishment. After the final season of the beloved Canadian TV comedy series Schitt's Creek concludes, fans can see the Rose family one last time ... just not if you're in Texas. The show that has taken the TV world by storm follows the story of a filthy rich family that has fallen from grace and ends up in Schitt's Creek a small town they once bought as a joke as they navigate life in a small town without the money they once had. From iconic memes and top hits on Spotify, the show has inspired pop culture and has a massive cult following. SPRINGFIELD A state Senate panel Tuesday advanced legislation requiring public colleges and universities to add mental health contact information to the back of student identification cards. Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, said it is a trying and stressful time for parents when a child goes off to college, but its also difficult for students. His initiative would ensure phone numbers for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Crisis Text Line and the schools mental health counseling center are published on each students identification card. If an institution of higher education does not have such cards, the bill requires that information be published on its website. Students are constantly required to use their student ID card to access sporting events, dorm rooms or utilize their meal plan, Cullerton said. Ensuring these lifesaving helplines are easily accessible can be the difference between life and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 15-24 in 2017. Public institutions in Illinois have asked that Cullerton amend his proposal, Senate Bill 2495, to postpone its effective date from July 1, 2021, due to financial concerns. Instead, Cullertons plan will allow universities and colleges to issue the identification cards with resource contact information with each new class, or when a student needs a new card after losing theirs. Cullerton has a nearly identical bill for high school identification cards that has not been assigned to a committee. Mumbai, March 4 : Virtually spelling doom for various Indian public sector banks, the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai, has ordered the liquidation of absconding diamantaire Nirav Modis group company, Firestar Diamond International Pvt. Ltd. (FDIPL). The ruling to liquidate Modi's scam-scarred company FDIPL was delivered last week by a Mumbai NCLT bench comprising (Mrs) Suchitra Kanuparthi (Member-Judicial) and V. Nallasenapathy (Member-Technical). Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are accused of masterminding one of the biggest banking frauds amounting to around Rs 14,000 crore, which was first admitted by Punjab National Bank (PNB) in February 2018, followed by other public sector banks. This is said to be the first-ever liquidation order for any company embroiled in the fraud schemed by the Modi-Choksi before they fled the country, according to experts and officials. Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, left, and Joe Biden, right, during the presidential primary debate in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25, 2020. Read more To cover how Pennsylvania is shaping the 2020 election, The Philadelphia Inquirer has launched a new email newsletter. Every Wednesday, youll get reporting from counties across the state, insight into issues that impact you, fact checks on what candidates are saying, and more. You can sign up to get it in your inbox here. You can also view the web version of this email. Welcome to our Pennsylvania 2020 newsletter debut! Heres hoping it lasts longer than Mike Bloombergs campaign. If Super Tuesday told us anything, its that this Democratic primary aint over yet. Pennsylvanias primary is less than eight weeks away and shaping up to be a big moment. In fact, its arguably one of the most important states left on the primary calendar (more on that to come). Pennsylvania is also among the most critical states in the general election, one of three that effectively decided 2016 by the narrowest of margins and will likely do so again. Thats what this newsletter is about. We'll take you with us as we travel this large and diverse state. For example, Andrew is in Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton right now, where President Trump is holding a town hall tomorrow. Throughout the campaign, we'll talk to voters, bring you news, and yes, have fun along the way. Email us your questions, suggestions, and tips at election@inquirer.com. And don't forget to pass the newsletter along. Julia Terruso (@JuliaTerruso) & Andrew Seidman (@AndrewSeidman) The Pa. primary is looking more important than ever Weve been saying for months not to count out the importance of Pennsylvanias April 28 primary. Well, one Iowa caucus meltdown and a major Joe Biden comeback later, and were looking more important than ever. Im very excited about it," Dwight Evans, a Democratic congressman from Philadelphia, told Julia last night. "For the people of Pennsylvania, its been a long time since weve participated in this kind of a process." Super Tuesday was huge for Biden, and brutal for Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren, leading Bloomberg to drop out today. He spent about $21 million on advertising in Pennsylvania before the race even got here. We wont know exactly how many delegates Bernie Sanders won in California for a little while. Either way, its effectively a two-person race now: Bernie vs. Biden. But even though there may only be two candidates left by the time they get to Pennsylvania, it'll be a race, the first with such high stakes since the 2008 primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And consider this: Pennsylvania will award the third-most delegates toward the nomination (186) of the states left, after New York (274) and Florida (219). Of the three so-called blue wall states, the states that always went blue in presidential elections for years before Trump, Pennsylvania has the most delegates: Michigan gives out 125 and Wisconsin has 84. That means its the biggest test of Democratic preferences in a critical swing state. Were really just getting started," Helen Gym, a member of Philadelphia City Council and a Sanders backer, told Julia last night. "States like Pennsylvania are going to have a role to play." Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat from outside Pittsburgh who's staying neutral in the primary, painted a bleak general election picture for Democrats when he and Andrew spoke last week in Fetterman's Braddock home: "Wisconsin seems like it's already lost. Ohio, lost. Florida, more than likely lost. So Pennsylvania is only continuing to grow in its import." 54 days until the primary. 243 days until Election Day. Here we go. Topic of the week: Delegates What are delegates? The Democratic presidential nomination isnt decided by votes, its decided by delegates, which are awarded in each state proportionally to the vote share in that state and its congressional districts (so its not winner-take-all). Who gets to be a delegate? Pennsylvania will send 210 delegates and 16 alternate delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. Of those, 125 will be people who have pledged support to a presidential candidate and ran for delegate slots in the primary in their congressional districts. Presidential candidates must win at least 15% of the vote in a given district for their delegates there to advance to the convention. Other delegate spots are doled out based on statewide results, or given to the states top elected officials, DNC members, and others, some of whom are the so-called superdelegates. At the convention, all pledged delegates are bound to vote for their candidates on the first ballot. If no candidate wins a majority of delegates on the first ballot, the superdelegates come into play, and all delegates are free to vote however they want on the second ballot. Sean Collins Walsh What were paying attention to Overheard on the campaign trail I never saw anything like what Ive seen over the last 72 hours. In my entire career, Ive never seen a shift thats occurred this fast. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, a Biden supporter, on Bidens political comeback from South Carolina to Super Tuesday. Mailbag Q: If you vote early via mail and your candidate drops out before Election Day, can you vote again for a new candidate in person? Lauren Rinaldi, Twitter A: Unlike in the past, a new election law in Pennsylvania means any voter who has sent in an absentee or mail-in ballot cant then vote in person. Our colleague Jonathan Lai has been way out in front on covering the implications of the states new election law which, among other things, could mean waiting for days before a winner is called. Read more here, and send us your questions. [March 04, 2020] New Autobiography About Dyslexic Dropout/Garbage Collector Who Earned Ph.D. to Become Presidential Advisor, Attracting National Attention Washington, D.C., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Autobiography About Dyslexic Dropout/Garbage Collector Who Earned Ph.D. to Become Presidential Advisor, Attracting National Attention Michael P. Balzano, Autobiography Author and Advisor to Six Presidents, Featured on WebAble TV , Internet TV Channel for Community of People with Disabilities, as He Outreaches to Parents of Dyslexic, Learning-Disabled Children Through Press and Media For Immediate Release Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Contact: Dave Gardy Executive Producer WebAble TV, a Channel on the TV Worldwide Network (703) 961-9250 ext. 221 [email protected] www.VentureCapitalTV.com www.TVWorldwide.com Contact to schedule interviews with Mr. Balzano: Susan Schwartzman Office: 845-493-0559 [email protected] www.susanschwartzmanpublicity.com Washington D.C., March 4, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) WebAble TV an Internet TV Channel for the community of people with disabilities on the TV Worldwide Network released a video interview and Video News Release (VNR) with Michael P. Balzano on his autobiography Dyslexic: My Journey, a new book that is attracting national attention. Dyslexic: My Journey documents the remarkable life of Balzano, a troubled youth dropout and loner known in his neighborhood as Crazy Mikey with undiagnosed Dyslexia and learning disabilities, who, after being employed as a garbage collector, turned his life around by starting an apprenticeship to become a master craftsman as a lens grinder/optical technician. With the discipline and coping mechanisms that he gained from this apprenticeship, Balzano went back to high school to get his diploma, enrolled and graduated from college Magna Cum Laude, and then wen on to earn a Ph.D. at Georgetown University. After a Washington newspaper featured Balzano in a Garbage Collector Earns Georgetown Ph.D. feature, President Nixon invited Balzano into the administration as a presidential advisor on labor issues. Balzano went on to serve six presidents as an advisor on workforce development and built a successful consulting practice that serves Fortune 100 executives. https://we.tl/t-qdtJn9ldhW ABOUT MICHAEL P. BALZANO About WebAble.TV and TV Worldwide Founded in 1999, TV Worldwide.com, Inc. (t/a TV Worldwide, Inc., www.TVWorldwide.com) is a veteran-owned Internet TV solutions company that developed the first network of community-based Internet TV channels including www.WebAble.TV , primarily targeting niche enterprise/professional audiences ranging from the maritime industry to the telecom and federal/public sectors. Known by many in the industry as "Intelligent Internet TV," Fortune 500 companies, 35 federal government agencies, and numerous associations including the National Association of Broadcasters have partnered with TV Worldwide to utilize TV Worldwide's live and on-demand state-of-the art video streaming content applications and Internet TV channels. In recognition of the company's pioneering unique achievements in new media solutions and content development, TV Worldwide has been selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) to webcast past Daytime Emmy Awards and the Emmy awards for Technology and Engineering. TV Worldwide Chairman and CEO Dave Gardy, has been honored by Streaming Media Magazine as one of the 25 Most Influential People in Streaming Media. Mr. Gardy also has served as the President of the International Webcasting Association (IWA) and as a member of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Corporate Council. ### Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images From Good Housekeeping Kate Middleton ended her first day in Ireland wearing the most glitzy of dresses to an evening reception at Guinness Storehouse's Gravity Bar. The Duchess of Cambridge chose a piece by The Vampire's Wife. The metallic emerald dress is roughly $2,000 (1,595.00). Kate wore her hair down for the night, accessorizing with pumps and dangle earrings. Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images Kate's evening look comes after the Duchess arrived at Dublin Airport wearing an emerald Catherine Walker coat with a lime green Alessandra Rich print dress. She accessorized with a black padded headband. Photo credit: Karwai Tang - Getty Images Kate and William are in Ireland from March 3 to 5 on their royal tour. Ahead of their visit, the Palace announced their trip will "focus on the relationship between [the UK and Ireland], and build on the theme of remembrance and reconciliation." The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be visiting Dublin, County Meath, County Kildare, and Galway during their stay. Once they return to London, Kate and William will be out again with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on Monday. The four will attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey with the Queen and other senior royal family members. This week will be busy for Meghan and Harry too, who are back in England doing their last engagements as full-time working royal family members. Their transition out of their senior royal family roles will begin on March 31. The couple will likely continue to attend major family events such as Trooping the Colour (the Queen's birthday celebration) and Princess Beatrice's wedding in May. You Might Also Like WASHINGTON (AP) A resurgent Joe Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. But his rival Bernie Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California that ensured he and his embrace of democratic socialism would drive the Democrats' nomination fight for the foreseeable future. And suddenly, the Democratic Partys presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest. Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for Americas future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys 2020 presidential nomination fight. It could take weeks or months for the party to pick one of them to take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines. Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Biden's victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45. Sanders success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decades-long political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast. The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half-billion dollars to score one victory in American Samoa. The balance of Super Tuesday's battlefield with Biden winning at least eight states and Sanders four raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a victory in Massachusetts. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. The Democratic race has shifted dramatically as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump. Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his partys far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nations political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his partys Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change. Across the Super Tuesday states, there were early questions about Sanders claims that he is growing his support from his failed 2016 presidential bid. Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016's numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders' raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago. Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country. "We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016, Bloomberg said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida. The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Warren was also fighting to be optimistic. Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan before news of her disappointing home-state finish was announced, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist shes willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesnt claim an outright victory anywhere. Heres my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart, Warren declared. She added: You dont get what you dont fight for. I am in this fight. With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 453 delegates to Biden, 382 to Sanders, 50 to Warren, 44 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. READ MORE: Biden campaign says Massachusetts sent message to country after Super Tuesday win Written by Steve Peoples and Will Weissert. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Brian Slodysko in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:56:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MUMBAI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China will emerge stronger from the coronavirus challenge, experts said at a seminar here on Tuesday, while lauding China's efforts to stem the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Speaking at the seminar titled "Combatting Coronavirus," Sumit Mullick, chief information commissioner of India's southwestern state of Maharashtra, said that China has created a new benchmark in addressing a health issue by quarantining Wuhan, the epicenter city of the virus outbreak. "It (the coronavirus) does not understand and respect borders, does not need a visa or passport," Mullick said. "Challenges are truly in global in nature." However, Chinese labs have quickly deciphered the genetic sequence of the coronavirus and shared it with the world, which is now working on a new vaccine, he said. From an economic perspective, experts believe China would recover from the crisis and emerge stronger. R.N.Bhaskar, a senior journalist and consulting editor with Indian English newspaper Free Press Journal, said that China is doing all it can to both contain the spread of the virus and create a vaccine. "As a very big player in the global economy, there will be negative impact on the Chinese economy for a temporary period. However, thanks to the swift responses to the virus outbreak, the Chinese economy will overcome this crisis and emerge stronger," he added. Except in Wuhan, businesses in the rest of China are operational and trying to return to normal, said Zheng Bin, CEO of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in India. Health officials at the panel discussion also enumerated the steps taken to fight the virus and shared their experiences in countering misinformation and creating awareness among the public at large. The event was jointly organized by the Observer Research Foundation, a think-tank body, along with the Chinese Consulate General in Mumbai. Congress MLA Pargat Singh and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday demanded quick action on the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private players in the state. Pargat, who was the first to raise the issue during the zero hour, suggested a House Committee to find out how the contentious agreements were signed. He said governments were known to constitute committees and sub-committees or come up with white paper and then do nothing. He said those during whose tenure the agreements were signed were now demanding an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A House committee should be set up to find out in a time-bound manner who was involved in signing the power purchase pacts with private companies so that action could be taken. It should be asked to give its report in three weeks and tell us who did what, the Congress MLA said. Referring to the Behbal Kalan police firing case, he said charges had not been framed even after five years. He urged speaker Rana KP Singh as the custodian of the House to find a way to ensure action in the matter. Later, AAP member Aman Arora, while raking up the power pacts issue, took a dig at chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh saying he (CM) brought the white paper on PPAs to the House on Tuesday, but took it back with him without sharing its contents with the members. We (AAP) have prepared our own white paper on the issue and given a way to reduce electricity rates by 3 to 4 per unit, he said, seeking permission from the speaker to table it in the assembly. When the speaker refused permission, AAP members entered the well of the House, raising anti-government slogans. The speaker expunged their slogans from the proceedings. The protesting members then staged a symbolic walkout. The state government has been under pressure from its own ministers and MLAs as well as the opposition AAP to scrap the faulty PPAs, which are being blamed for putting a colossal burden on Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) on account of fixed cost and coal washing charges and making power costlier in the state. RECOVER ROOM RENT FROM CHIEF SECY, AG Raising the issue of status of lawmakers and reservation of rooms and house allotment for them, Congress MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra said steps should be taken to ensure accountability of the state bureaucracy. He said the chief secretary and advocate general (AG) had been given permanent rooms at Punjab Bhawan, but MLAs were being ignored. The rent for these permanent rooms should be recovered from them, he said even as several members of the ruling party and the opposition AAP thumped their desks to show their support. The MLA also said that legislators should be allotted the vacant houses in Sector 39, Chandigarh, as it was a question of their dignity. Speaker Rana KP Singh said he had called the chief secretary on the room booking issue, but he had gone for a hearing in the Supreme Court. Leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema raised the issue of alleged irregularities in purchase of interlocking tiles used in the construction of roads and lanes, saying the government was paying 13 for a tile that costs 5. Slamming publisher Hachette for acquiring Woody Allen's memoir "Apropos of Nothing", journalist and director Woody Allen's estranged son Ronan Farrow has announced that he is ending his association with the company. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, acquired the memoir a year ago and will bring it out on April 7, the company said earlier this week. It was reported last year that Allen was pitching his memoir to several publishers but but was rebuffed in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The multi-hyphenate director has become a subject of discussion over the resurfacing of the sexual assault allegations levelled against him by his step-daughter Dylan Farrow, Ronan Farrow's sister, which caught steam in the wake of the #MeToo uprising. He has repeatedly denied the accusations. Incidentally, Hachette's division Little, Brown and Company published "Catch and Kill", by Ronan Farrow in 2019, in which he wrote about his reporting during the #MeToo movement that led to the downfall of many powerful Hollywood executives, including Harvey Weinstein, over sexual abuse allegations. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 reporting at the New Yorker on Weinstein. Ronan Farrow said he was "disappointed" to find out that Hachette not only went ahead with the acquisition of Allen's book but also "concealed" the decision. "I was disappointed to learn through press reports that Hachette, my publisher, acquired Woody Allen's memoir after other major publishers refused to do so and concealed the decision from me and its own employees while we were working on 'Catch and Kill' - a book about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse," he said in a statement posted on Twitter Tuesday. Alleging that Hachette had not fact-checked the book, Ronan Farrow added no one contacted his sister for her side of the story. He said the publisher had displayed a "wildly unprofessional" approach, which also "shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse". "My sister Dylan has never been contacted to respond to any denial or mischaracterization of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Woody Allen - a credible allegation, maintained for almost three decades, backed up by contemporaneous accounts and evidence. "It's wildly unprofessional in multiple obvious directions for directions for Hachette to behave this way. But it also shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse, regardless of any personal connection or breach of trust here." Ronan Farrow further said he had urged Hachette to conduct a fact check on Allen's account. "I've also Hachette that a publisher that would conduct itself in this way is one I can't work with in good conscience," he said. Dylan on Monday took to Twitter to slam the company for betraying her brother with their decision to publish Allen's memoir. "Hachette's publishing of Woody Allen's memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally and an utter betrayal of my brother whose brave reporting, capitalised on by Hachette, gave voice to numerous survivors of sexual assault by powerful men. "For the record, I was never contacted by any fact checkers to verify the information in this 'memoir', demonstrating an egregious abdication of Hachette's most basic responsibility," she said in a statement posted on the microblogging site. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, March 4 : Working Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava on Wednesday said that the force was on top of the situation in the national capital and urged the people not to create unnecessary controversy over Delhi Police "rescuing" suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain. His remarks came after he along with Special CP Satish Golcha briefed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the current situation in the capital. The meeting of the police officers with Shah at his chamber in Parliament was also attended by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla that lasted about 15 minutes. Speaking to media, Shrivatsava said, "The situation in Delhi is under control and normal. We are on top of the situation." When asked further about the meeting called by the Home Minister, the Commissioner replied that it was a "normal" meeting. About the controversy over the Delhi Police's denial about rescuing Tahir Hussain from his home during the violence, he said, "There is no confusion and we have clarified about it yesterday (Tuesday)." "There is absolutely no confusion. Delhi Police explained on this and everything is mentioned on the tweet," he said, adding, "we should not create unnecessary controversy over it." Northeast Deputy Commissioner of Police from its official twitter handle on Tuesday said, "A section of media has reported that Tahir Hussain was rescued by Delhi Police. The facts are that on intervening night of Feb 24/25, some public men had informed the police deployed at Chand Bagh that Tahir Hussain was trapped as crowd had surrounded his house. "The police verified the same to be incorrect and Tahir Hussain was found available in his house. It is further added that he was named as accused on 26/2/2010 upon recovery of the body of Ankit Sharma (Intelligence Bureau staffer). His house was searched and he was absconding." The Delhi Police retweeted the Northeast DCP's tweets from its official twitter handle. Shrivastava was summoned by the Home Ministry. Shah wanted an update about law and order situation in northeast Delhi which faced the deadly violence from February 23 to February 25 that left 46 people dead and over 200 injured. Laura Weiss / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo The Fairfield University Bookstore in downtown Fairfield is welcoming back Fairfield/Trumbull School of Music student musicians, as well as a few cuddly friends from Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo, in a free afternoon childrens event on Saturday, March 28. Bookstore community partners, Dan and Tracy Carlucci of Fairfield/Trumbull School of Music and Jim Knox, curator of education at Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, are teaming to host Zoo Music Story Time, geared for ages 3 and older. NJ State Police remove Sue Altman, state director, New Jersey Working Families before George E. Norcross III (left) testifies in front of the N.J. Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth Strategies about his role in the controversial state tax incentive program in Trenton on Nov. 18, 2019. Read more State troopers are not to blame for forcibly removing Sue Altman from a hearing room in the New Jersey Statehouse in November, according to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. The State Troopers who removed Ms. Altman did so because they believed that she was being disruptive during the hearing and refusing to respond to the instructions of law enforcement, Grewal wrote in a letter Tuesday to members of a joint commission that oversees state capitol facilities. The incident in question happened when George E. Norcross III, the South Jersey power broker, went to Trenton to testify about a controversial tax-incentive program he has been accused of manipulating. He has denied wrongdoing. Altman, his most vocal critic, went with a cadre of supporters to confront him. After the hearing started, boos erupted and State Sen. Bob Smith (D., Middlesex) ordered troopers to deal with the distraction. Altman said she wasnt making any noise and was unfairly targeted. Troopers dragged her out of the hearing room and issued her a citation. Reporters captured it all in photos and video, and the incident reverberated across New Jersey political circles and on social media. Progressive activists speculated that Norcross, often described as the most powerful unelected person in New Jersey, played a role in her ejection. But in the letter, first obtained by Politico, Grewal said Altman was refusing to submit to a lawful request by law enforcement, and indicated outside influence wasnt behind her removal. There is no credible evidence to indicate that the State Troopers involved in the removal were motivated by political considerations or were acting at the behest of actors opposed to Ms. Altmans political views," Grewal said. Altman, head of New Jerseys Working Families Alliance, took issue with the attorney generals conclusion. I think influence can be exercised in much quieter ways," Altman told The Inquirer on Wednesday. I think this entire question of how the Senate resources and power were used to create a curated hearing experience for Mr. Norcross is still unresolved. Grewal instructed Mercer County prosecutors to dismiss the disorderly conduct citation issued to Altman. The Attorney Generals Office initially said it would not publicly disclose its findings, but reversed course after public pressure mounted. This case implicates significant public interests," Grewal said, in no small part because it raises questions about when and how our states residents may exercise their right to petition inside the State House Annex. The attorney general acknowledged that the confusion surrounding Altmans removal needs to be resolved. The State capitol complex lacks clear, well-defined rules about what actions constitute disorderly or disruptive conduct during Committee hearings, Grewal wrote. Although our State Troopers try their best to maintain order during hearings, they have not been provided clear guidelines about when to remove individuals who present security risks, leaving them to exercise their discretion on a case-by-case basis. He also acknowledged that New Jersey activist groups feel a lack of trust with security personnel at the Statehouse complex, which needs to be repaired, and recommended that New Jersey State Police affirmatively engage with those individuals and organizations who most frequently attend events and protests at the complex, opening lines of communication that can help defuse tension in the long term. The last thing we want to be doing is to try to turn on the water when we have run out of our deep water supply, Hughes said. We would have to figure out where the well would go based on the growth of the community. Its not something we can order off the shelf and get it in. We dont have a lot of time to make a decision." Ping An Insurance (Group), China's largest insurer by market cap, will increase its annual investment in technology by about 20 per cent this year to 12 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion), co-chief executive Jessica Tan Sin-yin said. The company budgets 1 per cent of the previous year's revenue for investment in technology for the following year. Its revenue rose by about 18 per cent to 1.27 trillion yuan in 2019. The increase in investment is aimed at boosting cross-selling between Ping An's different business lines, such as insurance, health care and financial technology, Tan told the South China Morning Post in a telephone interview. "Health care has been one of the major focuses of the development of Ping An in recent years. We have three health care companies already. The next step forward is to invest more in technology to bundle our insurance products together with our health care services," she said. "We will invest in the technology of our core business to enhance productivity and reduce costs. We will also invest more in the area of health tech and fintech in several of our platforms." The group, founded by chairman Peter Ma Mingzhe in Shenzhen three decades ago as a life insurance company, has diversified into a financial conglomerate with interests in banking, securities, online medical services, fintech and virtual banks. It now wants customers using its health care apps or online consultation services to be able to easily buy its insurance products online. Those who have bought its medical insurance will also be able to get claims quickly by using the group's health care testing labs. Jessica Tan Sin-yin, the co-chief executive of Ping An Insurance (Group). Photo: Jonathan Wong The company said the outbreak of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus thought to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has had a mixed impact on its businesses. The outbreak has hurt sales of life insurance products, as it has restricted travel by Ping An's more than a million agents. The sales of life and medical policies in January declined by 15 per cent year on year to 26.54 billion yuan, according to a stock exchange filing on February 20. The fall can also be attributed to Lunar New Year, which fell in January this year as opposed to February in 2019. Story continues The company's online health care and fintech businesses have, however, seen stronger demand amid the outbreak. Its internet platforms, including health care platform Ping An Good Doctor, as well as financial platforms Lufax Holding, OneConnect and Autohome, have 515 million users. "We have used our health care technology platform, Ping An Good Doctor, to provide online medical consultation services. Other health care units have also helped improve the management of clinics and hospitals," Tan said. Use of the Ping An Good Doctor apps increased 10-fold during the outbreak to 1.11 billion accumulative visits in January. Ping An Smart Healthcare, another unit, launched a Covid-19 smart image reading system on February 19. It uses artificial intelligence to assist doctors in quickly diagnosing the disease. "Fintech demand has increased during the epidemic, too. OneConnect, which is a platform for banks and financial firms, has supported financial institutions' business via digital channels," Tan said. She said the platform had supported 19 banks, which had used voice robots instead of human employees to answer questions by customers. This led to savings of 57 per cent and enhanced efficiency by 50 per cent. The company also offers platforms that allow students and adults to study online during the outbreak, she added. "The Covid-19 outbreak will affect the sales of insurance businesses in the near term. However ... it will also encourage more people to buy medical and life insurance in the longer term, which will benefit Ping An," said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, securities strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Researchers from NYU Tandon and Canada develop a machine learning model that allows robots to safely treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other neurological movement disorders BROOKLYN, New York, Wednesday, March 4, 2020 - Robots hold promise for a large number of people with neurological movement disorders severely affecting the quality of their lives. Now researchers have tapped artificial intelligence techniques to build an algorithmic model that will make the robots more accurate, faster, and safer when battling hand tremors. Their model, which is ready for others to deploy, appears this month in Scientific Reports, an online journal of Nature. The international team reports the most robust techniques to date to characterize pathological hand tremors symptomatic of the common and debilitating motor problems affecting a large number of aging adults. One million people throughout the world have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, just one of the neurodegenerative diseases that can cause hand tremors. While technology such as sophisticated wearable exoskeleton suits and neurorehabilitative robots could help people offset some involuntary movements, these robotic assistants need to precisely predict involuntary movements in real-time - a lag of merely 10 or 20 milliseconds can thwart effective compensation by the machine and in some cases may even jeopardize safety. Enter the big dataset collected at the London (Ontario) Movement Disorders Centre and the team's pioneering machine learning model, which they named PHTNet, for "Pathological Hand Tremors using Recurrent Neural Networks". Using small sensors, they analyzed the hand motions of 81 patients in their 60s and 70s, then applied a novel data-driven deep neural network modeling technique to extract predictive information applicable to all patients. Their paper details the artificial intelligence model and training, and reports a 95% confidence rate over 24,300 samples. "Our model is already at the ready-to-use stage, available to neurologists, researchers, and assistive technology developers," said co-author S. Farokh Atashzar, who is now an NYU Tandon assistant professor and who began exploring the use of robots coupled with artificial intelligence while conducting doctoral and post-doctoral research in Canada. "It requires substantial computational power, so we plan to develop a low-power, cloud-computing approach that will allow wearable robots and exoskeletons to operate in patients' homes. We also hope to develop models that require less computational power and add other biological factors to the inputs." ### "PHTNet: Characterization and Deep Mining of Involuntary Pathological Hand Tremor Using Recurrent Neural Network Models" is available at http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58912-9. The collaboration began in 2014 with researchers from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Lawson Health Research Institute, and the London Health Sciences Centre; others from Concordia University in Montreal subsequently joined. Along with Atashzar, co-authors of this paper include corresponding author Arash Mohammadi, a Concordia University professor; Rajni Patel, a University of Western Ontario professor and director of engineering at Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR); and Mandar Jog, a University of Western Ontario professor, director of the Parkinson's Foundation Centre of Excellence in Movement Disorders, and a neurologist at the London Movement Disorders Centre. Soroosh Shahtalebi, a Concordia University doctoral student, is the first author of the paper. Doctoral student Olivia Samotus of the London Movement Disorders Centre and the University of Western Ontario collected the hand tremor data and is also a co-author of the paper. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada provided financial support for the research. Atashzar holds appointments in NYU Tandon's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and is on the faculty of the NYU WIRELESS research center. About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country's foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu. About NYU WIRELESS NYU WIRELESS is a vibrant academic research center that is pushing the boundaries of wireless communications, sensing, networking, and devices. Centered at NYU Tandon and involving leaders from industry, faculty, and students throughout the entire NYU community, NYU WIRELESS offers its industrial affiliates, students, and faculty members a world-class research environment that is creating fundamental knowledge, theories, and techniques for future mass-deployable wireless devices across a wide range of applications and markets. Every April, NYU WIRELESS hosts a major invitation-only wireless summit, in cooperation with Nokia Bell Laboratories, for the center's industrial affiliates and thought leaders throughout the global telecommunications industry. For more information, visit wireless.engineering.nyu.edu. New Delhi: Amid the ongoing subscription for the initial public offering (IPO) of SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd, a second public offer has opened for investors today. Antony Waste Handling Cell has launched its IPO in order to raise around Rs 203 crore. Antony Waste is an emerging player providing a full spectrum of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management services and is one of the top five players in the Indian industry. The issue consists of a fresh issuance of shares worth of Rs 35 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 57 lakh equity shares by investors Leeds (Mauritius), Tonbridge (Mauritius), Cambridge (Mauritius) and Guildford (Mauritius). The price band of the Antony Waste Handling Cell IPO has been set at Rs 295-300 per share, while the lot size has been fixed at 50 equity shares. The company successfully raised Rs 60.94 crore from three anchor investors on 3 March at a price of Rs 295 per share. If you are also planning to subscribe to the Antony Waste IPO, heres a look at what brokerages are suggesting: Samco Securities says Avoid Antony Waste Handling Cell is a comparatively smaller IPO compared to the behemoth SBI Cards and due to the time clash, we feel that Antony Wastes IPO will not get traction. Fundamentally too, this company has delivered poor growth in the past three years. To add to it, it is completely dependent on the government for its revenues as top five of its clients contribute over 90% of its revenue. Hence it faces high concentration risk, Nirali Shah, senior research analyst at Samco Securities, told Moneycontrol. Investors can keep this stock in their watchlist and take positions depending on the companys performance in the future. Hence, Antony Waste Handling is an unsubscribe at the moment, she added. Prabhudas Lilladher says Avoid Brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher also recommended an avoid rating on Antony Waste IPO given factors such as low growth in revenue (around 7.7% compounded annual growth rate, or CAGR) and profit after tax (16.5% CAGR) over FY16-19, highly competitive local markets, national and international players, large dependency on projects from state government authorities primarily municipal corporations (unstable allocation of municipal solid waste management) and rich valuation. Choice Broking says Avoid Despite the sectors favourable outlook, the performance of Antony Waste is not encouraging, which has been marred by stagnant growth and higher receivables. The issue size is below Rs 250 crore, so the listing will take place in 'T' group, thereby eliminating any speculating bets post-listing. Thus, we feel that valuation is stretched and assign an avoid rating for the issue, said Choice Broking. Angel Broking stays Neutral Antony Waste was unable to perform on topline and bottomline fronts over FY17-19, said Angel Broking. Hence the brokerage believes that concerns regarding the company's financials exist. Further, the business involves working capital and receivables risk from municipalities, which restricts future growth opportunities. Despite the lower pre-issue P/E at 10.1x 1HFY2020 annualised earnings (at the upper end of the issue price band), we recommend a neutral rating on the issue, said Angel. Geojit Securities says Subscribe Geojit Securities is the only brokerage that advised subscribing to the issue, only with a long-term perspective, given the positive industry outlook and uptick in revenues from FY20. At the upper price band of Rs 300, Antony Waste is available at P/E of 10x FY20 (annualised). Valuation looks justified, considering the expected growth in earnings over the next few years, it said, adding that the long-term nature of projects (ranging from 5-25 years) gives visibility for consistent revenue generation in future. Britons are being urged to wash their hands throughout the day for 20 seconds at a time as part of a major coronavirus awareness campaign. Adverts are going up at bus stops and on billboards and social media sites stressing the importance of frequent handwashing. They will also appear in newspapers and on radio stations. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said simply washing your hands with soap and water was the 'single most important thing' Britons could do to protect themselves. But the expanded advertising campaign is being launched amid widespread confusion over whether the public should abandon shaking hands for fear of spreading germs. The official advice on handshaking is far less clear. Boris Johnson said yesterday that he was still shaking hands with 'everybody' including with staff in hospitals where patients were being treated for coronavirus despite politicians around the world ceasing the practice. The Prime Minister shared a picture of himself washing his hands to his Instagram account, after telling Britons to rinse with hot water and soap at the press conference Adverts are going up at bus stops and on billboards and social media sites stressing the importance of frequent handwashing The Queen appeared to be taking precautions against coronavirus yesterday when she wore gloves during an investiture ceremony in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace Mr Hancock, meanwhile, stressed that the risks of handshaking were 'negligible', especially if everyone washed their hands more often. However, the Queen appeared to be taking precautions against coronavirus yesterday when she wore gloves during an investiture ceremony in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace. Observers suggested the elegant white pair she chose to present awards appeared much longer than those she routinely wears when meeting the public on official engagements. It is the first time the Queen has been pictured wearing gloves at such a ceremony in the past decade. Traditionally she hands out honours without gloves, which could hinder the fiddly task of fastening medals to a recipient's lapel. At 93, she is in one of the groups most at risk if they contract the disease. Each investiture ceremony sees at least 60 people presented with awards. Traditionally the monarch hands out honours without gloves (left, knighting Sir Archibald Tunnock in November) , which could hinder the fiddly task of fastening medals to a recipient's lapel (right, with Harry Billinge MBE today) Buckingham Palace yesterday refused to be drawn on whether the Queen's move was designed to protect her health. A spokesman said only: 'It is not unusual for the Queen to wear gloves on a public engagement.' The handwashing adverts begin with the stark message: 'Coronavirus, protect yourselves and others.' They feature an image of germ-ridden door handle with the warning: 'Viruses can live on some surfaces for hours. Wash your hands more often.' The adverts tell patients: 'Use soap and water for 20 seconds or hand sanitiser.' The adverts also urge the public to wash their hands when they arrive at work or at home in the evening. They must do the same before preparing or eating food, including snacks. Mr Hancock said: 'We all have a role to play in stopping this disease. Washing hands regularly is the single most important thing that an individual can do. Public safety remains our top priority.' Subscribe to Inc. This Morning, a daily news digest curated for those passionate about entrepreneurship. There appears to be a national shortage of Purell, due to coronavirus-related fears. The high demand, even in the current circumstances, is a testament to the brand's clever business strategy in its early days. On Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the hand sanitizer brand--developed and owned by Ohio-based Gojo Industries, a privately held skin care product manufacturer--has flown off the shelves at grocers, department stores, and pharmacies. Gojo did not provide the Inquirer with a timeline for when Purell supply might return to normal levels, but a spokeswoman noted that the company's "surge preparedness team" has been "coordinating our response to the increase in demand." In 2013, The New Yorker published a story about the success of Purell that took me by surprise--because despite the product's current ubiquity, Gojo really struggled to get it off the ground. In many ways, it's a classic tale of moxie, hard work, and just the right amount of luck. In particular, the Purell story carries three useful lessons for any business owner: First, be persistent. When Gojo first launched Purell in 1988, it was impossible to sell: There were no comparable products on the market, so nobody really knew what it was for. But CEO Joe Kanfer believed in the product so much that he made it 25 percent of his salespeople's annual sales targets--and years later, the product finally began gaining traction. Second, meet your customers or clients where they are. Gojo tailors the positioning and appearance of Purell dispensers to the venue. In grocery stores, you'll usually find hand sanitizer stations near the entrances and exits. Hospitals? Strategically placed bottles so doctors and nurses can clean their hands while walking to their next patient. On military bases, bottles look like small green hand grenades to better blend in with soldiers' uniforms and fit in uniform pockets. Phuket hospital chief responds to formal complaint over virus-protection measures PHUKET: Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol yesterday (Mar 3) took reporters on a tour of the facilities at the hospital in response to a formal complaint accusing the hospital director of not taking appropriate measures to counter the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. healthCOVID-19Coronavirus By The Phuket News Wednesday 4 March 2020, 11:34AM Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol yesterday (Mar 3) escorted the press to one isolation room in particular, and even opened the door so the press could see the patient inside for themselves. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot The complaint was filed by two doctors, including one who works at the hospital. Dr Chalermpong yesterday explained that the complaint was reported by the Thai-language Facebook page The Reporters on Monday. (See post here.) The post said the complaint was filed with Phuket City Police on Sunday, a fact confirmed to The Phuket News by Phuket City Police Chief Col Teerawat Liamsuwan. Col Teerawat declined to confirm any other details of the complaint, including the name of the doctors who filed the complaint. He also declined to present to The Phuket News a copy of the complaint. However, Col Teerawat did volunteer, This case also has been reported to the National Anti-Corruption Commission [NACC]. At the press tour yesterday, Dr Chalermpong read out the complaint as posted on The Reporters Facebook page, which said that a doctor at the hospital had already filed a complaint to the Director and Deputy Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital. The way they are working risks harm to the public. Also the way are working is inappropriate, the complaint said. The director and deputy director doctor of Vachira Phuket Hospital are not taking appropriate steps to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19, the complaint read. The complaint also alleged that the measures being taken at the hospital were more aimed at preserving the careers of certain people at the hospital, not for public safety. This risks harm to the public and it is unfair to the people, the complaint said. The complaint listed six main points, including that patients suspected of being infected with the virus were not kept in isolation. These patients must have a separate room in the ICU at a private hospital. Currently they use shared rooms in various parts of the hospital that uses the same air conditioning as the rest of the hospital, the complaint read. The complaint also claimed that staff at the hospital were not adequately protected. There are no tests to check whether the staff are infected with COVID-19 in order to prevent the spread of the disease at the hospital. This is important in preventing the spread of serious contagious diseases in any community, it added. The complaint also called for patients suspected of being infected to be kept at just one hospital, not spread out in many hospitals across Phuket. The complaint was sent to Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana last week but there had been no response, the complaint noted. On Monday (Mar 2), a copy of the same complaint was sent to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, and to Ministry of Public Health Permanent Secretary Dr Kanchana Sutthakitparn, the complaint noted. Dr Chalermpong yesterday told reporters that patients were kept in separate, isolated rooms. He escorted the press to one room in particular, and even opened the door so the press could see the patient inside for themselves. He also confirmed that one of the doctors who filed the complaint does work at Vachira Phuket Hospital. He declined to reveal where the other doctor worked. Vachira Phuket Hospital is well-equipped for treatment by experts. We have enough rooms. We also have the ability to take care more severe symptoms. Currently, all three hospitals [in Phuket] help each other in receiving PUI [patient under isolation] cases and we are still managing well, Dr Chalermpong said. If the number PUI cases becomes serious at any particular hospital, the patient will be transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital, he added. Dr Chalermpong also assured that staff at the hospital were adequately protected. I confirm that we have enough protective equipment for medical stuff through support from the Smart Health Service under Ministry of Health office in Surat Thani province, he said. Quarantine areas at Phukets main government hospitals will be expanded, Dr Chalermpong added. We have plan to expand quarantine wards at the Thalang, Patong and Phuket Provincial Hospital, and at the Phuket Provincial Community Hall, altogether accounting for about 277 beds, he said. Dr Chalermpong yesterday specifically declined to answer questions from the press as to whether any persons in Phuket had ever been confirmed as infected with COVID-19. It will come as no surprise to government IT managers that the number of ransomware attacks is growing, especially among local governments and school districts entities often least equipped to protect or defend themselves, according to the latest version of CrowdStrikes annual global threat report. Starting in spring 2019, municipalities and local governments became popular targets as attackers succeeded in squeezing payments out of more than a handful of cities. By summer, criminals turned ransomware on public school systems in the U.S., with attacks building during the back-to-school season and continuing intermittently through the end of the year, the report said. Previously, hacking groups would tack on a ransomware component to other attacks in the hopes of squeezing out a few hundred dollars in profit, but now they increasingly see ransomware as a main attack vector to steal data, make big money and take advantage of "the operational necessity to be up and running," CrowdStrikes Vice President of Threat Intelligence Adam Meyers said. "If you look at the history of how ransomware evolved, a few years ago it was a side hustle," he said. "What it shows is that threat actors realize they were squandering opportunities with one-off attacks, now they've figured out how to make the most of these activities." Some criminals use their ransomware payments to finance attacks on additional governments and businesses, while others offer ransomware-as-a-service, taking a share of profits collected by affiliates. In 2019, enterprise-scale ransomware operations had the biggest payoff for attackers who demanded ransoms reaching into the millions, the report said. Additionally, CrowdStrike said it is looking into possible collaboration between sophisticated e-Crime adversaries and state-sponsored targeted intrusions, with initial evidence suggesting some tool overlaps and/or cooperation with intelligence services in DPRK and Russia. State-sponsored cyber intrusions were primarily motivated by intelligence gathering and espionage, according to CrowdStrike, which found that Advanced Persistent Threat groups heavily targeting governments, military sectors as well as their defense industrial base of contractors. Chinese-aligned groups focused on the telecommunications sector in particular, which CrowdStrike said it believes could support both signals intelligence and upstream surveillance activities. Hacking groups tied to China tended to use open source tools and tactics in an effort to mask and cover their tracks. Attackers with ties to Iran spent much of their time targeting the defense and government sectors in the U.S. and elsewhere, and the firm said it tracked a noticeable shift in emphasis to the United States around the same time as the 2019 Gulf of Oman incident, when three oil tankers and a bunkering ship were damaged with explosives, with U.S. officials blaming Iran. Defense contractors also came into the crosshairs of groups tied to Tehran that created spoofed job postings to catch individuals who might hold sensitive military secrets. "What we've observed is them actively targeting defense industrial base, members of the military who are moving into civilian jobs, and using that transitional point to target individuals, get access to individuals and pivot into their networks," Meyers said. Agencies like CISA have expressed concern about the potential for ransomware and other attacks to target voter registration systems or jam up the IT systems of local governments ahead of Election Day. However, Meyers said his firm has yet to observe activity or evidence to indicate these concerns are anything more than hypothetical at this point. Instead, he said he believes the easiest way to undermine a U.S. election is through disinformation. "I've been saying since 2016 is that the most effective way to attack an election is to make people question the results," Meyers said. "We're seeing a lot more tension there, and a threat actor can effectively leverage that with an influence operation to cause them to question the process. That's the most concerning thing for me." This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN. His Excellency Lieutenant General, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health, confirmed that the national team to tackle Corona Virus as a Cofeed 19, and under the guidance of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander, First Deputy Prime Minister May God protect him, to continue the efforts that seek to address to ensure the safety and health of citizens and residents, noting the many initiatives and measures undertaken by the Kingdom, the most important of which is the establishment of an operation room to follow up on developments in dealing with the virus, and the allocation of places for examination, stone, treatment, and isolation, and work is underway to raise the basic capacity Iebah centers for inspection and quarantine, isolation and treatment. This came upon the reception of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health, and His Excellency Professor Faiqa Bint Saeed Al-Saleh, Minister of Health at the Crown Prince Center for Training and Medical Research in the Military Hospital this morning (Monday) to His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Al-Manzari, Regional Director of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean On the occasion of his visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The President of the Supreme Council of Health and the Minister of Health welcomed the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa provided an explanation of the latest developments regarding the Corona virus (Covid 19) and the precautionary and preventive measures implemented in this regard. His Excellency the President of the Supreme Council of Health and His Excellency the Minister of Health confirmed that the Kingdom of Bahrain continues its sincere national efforts to combat the Corona Virus (Covid 19) with the participation of teams and specialized medical cadres, where the national team in direct coordination with all the official authorities concerned to stop trips to and from the endemic areas and develop a plan To deal with cases coming from the airport, to develop plans for land and sea ports and to assign a team to follow up and monitor supplies and equipment. The team also developed medical plans to deal with cases, set up and activated the electronic registration service via the link www.moh.gov.bh/444 and hotline 444, and promoted direct communication with the community through the media, the press, communication sites, places of worship and various institutions, in nine languages Different. Then Dr. Mohamed Al-Shaaban from the Supreme Council of Health gave a presentation on the latest developments in the Kingdom of Bahrain in terms of numbers, statistics and measures taken in this regard. The World Health Organization has praised the role of the Kingdom of Bahrain in dealing with the Corona Virus (Covid 19) and working to contain it and prevent its spread by taking all preventive measures, early preparations and applying the necessary measures in line with international standards and recommendations of the World Health Organization. During the meeting, Dr. Al-Manzari praised the preventive and control measures taken by the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the field of enhancing ways to address this virus and follow-up surveillance and commitment to implement the instructions and awareness instructions issued, based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization and in the framework of coordination and cooperation to preserve the health of citizens and residents in the Kingdom. The Regional Director of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean, His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Al-Manzari praised the efforts of the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain on the sidelines of the visit of the World Health Organization delegation to follow up the Kingdom of Bahrain's actions in this regard on the efforts made by the Kingdom in implementing the recommendations of the organization regarding the spread of Corona virus (Covid 19). The team discussed the developments of the framework of cooperation with countries that have announced recovery cases for the treatment protocol and the strengthening of cooperation between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the World Health Organization in confronting this virus. He thanked the Government of Bahrain for its tireless work to respond to the outbreak of this disease in accordance with WHO regulations, by strengthening its basic capabilities, including early detection of public health events and timely response. He pointed out that the organization is constantly following up with the competent authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain and in all countries of the region and the world and with specialists the latest developments in the spread of the virus according to credible data to take the appropriate decision. At the end of the meeting, His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Al-Manzari thanked and appreciated the President of the Supreme Council of Health and the Minister of Health for the good reception, confirming the continuation of cooperation and joint coordination between the two sides to review all current developments. Known for its theatrical costumes and gender-bending decadence, Spanish menswear label Palomo Spain is fast becoming one of fashion's most important brands to watch. The romantic, more-is-more approach led by founder and designer Alejandro G. Palomo has been embraced by everyone from Beyonce to Harry Styles. The Spring 2020 collection, which showed in Paris last fall and is available to shop now on the brand's e-commerce site, features plenty of the maximalist motifs Palomo is known for, from long crochet fringed tops to chantilly lace dresses. (Its title, Pompeii, refers to the ancient city buried under ash in AD 79.) These were captured in the accompanying campaign lensed by Pablo Zamora, with the images and models exuding an air of innocence and softness not typically associated with Palomo's proclivity for excess. "We always do campaigns with a lot of production and a very extensive casting, but this time I really wanted to do something more real, more concise and intimate," Palomo said in a statement. See, below, for the complete Palomo Spain Spring 2020 campaign. Seventeen Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday New Delhi: Seventeen Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said 16 cases were reported from Japan on the cruise ship and one from the UAE. He said the 16 Indians in Japan are being treated at onshore medical facilities in that country. He further said that the government evacuated a total of 766 persons 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners from China. Similarly, 119 Indians have been brought back to India from the cruise ship in Japan, Muraleedharan said. Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak "Air India has raised a bill of Rs 5.98 crore for operating two special flights to China and an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan, China on its return journey," he said. Muraleedharan said an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan in China on its return journey. Expenditure details are yet to be received from Defence Ministry. "Expenditure details for the special flight Japan to India - for evacuation is yet to be received from Air India," he said. The government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom companies towards AGR liabilities, placing the remaining dues at Rs 1,30,440.4 crore, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. To another question on whether the government intends to propose a plan for future development in the telecom sector in view of the huge Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) fees required to be paid by telcos, Minister of State for Communications, Sanjay Dhotre said there is "no such plan at present". On speculations regarding shutting down of Vodafone Idea, Dhotre said no such information is available with the government. On whether the government proposes to initiate any action over non-compliance of order on payment of dues by telcos, Dhotre pointed out that the Centre had directed the licensees to make the payments in accordance with October 24 order of the Supreme Court. "As per license agreement, the Government takes action against licensees including Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) over non-compliance of Supreme Court order dated October 24, 2019 on payment of dues of Department of Telecommunication," he said. Detailing out payments made by telecom companies to the DoT towards statutory dues, Dhotre informed that against the provisional total dues of Rs 1,46,336.9 crore, payment to the tune of Rs 15,896.5 crore have been received. The balance dues are about Rs 1,30,440.47 crore, the minister said. However, the number does not appear to reflect the latest tranche of payment made by Bharti Airtel on February 29. It has placed Bharti Airtel's payments (including Telenor) at Rs 10,000 crore, with balance dues at Rs 27,740 crore. As per the data available, Reliance Communication/Reliance Telecommunication have made payment of Rs 3.96 crore, with remaining dues pegged at Rs 21,135.6 crore. Giving out TSPs-wise payments and provisional balance dues, Dhotre informed that Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore, putting the balance dues at Rs 49,538 crore. The due amounts may be revised once AGR figures are finalised and assessments are accordingly done and also subject to C&AG Audit/Special Audit, it said. According to the information presented, Tata Group has paid Rs 2,197.3 crore, and its balance dues are at Rs 11,625 crore. In case of Reliance Jio, the payment of Rs 195.18 crore received and exceeded dues of Rs 60.52 crore, the information showed. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mananagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have not made any payments towards their liabilities. The balance dues of BSNL remains at Rs 4,989.4 crore and of MTNL at Rs 3,122.8 crore. Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) such as GAIL, Oil India and others represented to Department of Telecom that the AGR judgment is not applicable on them and therefore they do not owe any dues to the department. The minister also noted that the Supreme Court has detached the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgement of October, 2019 and directed them to seek relief from appropriate forum. "After the Supreme Court order dated 14.02.2020, the Government abides by the orders of Supreme Court," Dhotre said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged people not to talk about transmitting the coronavirus because it 'assigns blame' to those who may be carrying it in a woke message for medical staff. In its most recent advice for those concerned about the risks of the deadly virus, the group aimed to tackle the so-called 'social stigma' around the disease. It highlighted why COVID-19 is causing stigma and discouraged people from adding countries or ethnicities when talking about transmission. Posting its new guidance to social media WHO said: 'DO - talk about people "acquiring" or "contracting" #COVID19 'DON'T - talk about people "transmitting COVID-19", "infecting others" or "spreading the virus" as it implies intentional transmission and assigns blame.' New advice issued by WHO asked people to not talk about the 'transmission' of the disease'. Pictured above is the director general of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus The message from the WHO that states people should not talk about 'infecting others' as it could 'assign blame' In its new online guide it also said that 'words matter' and added that some language may have a negative meaning for some which may 'fuel stigmatized attitudes'. 'They can perpetuate existing negative stereotypes or assumptions, strengthen false associations between the disease and other factors, create widespread fear, or dehumanise those who have the disease'. The guidance comes as several people of Asian decent were attacked by people who claimed to have targeted them because they believed they were carrying coronavirus. Social media users were outraged that the World Health Organization was asking people not to talk about certain elements of the disease Many on social media have branded the new WHO guidelines as 'woke' and questioned why they had to be worried about the feelings of others during what some have labelled as a 'health crisis'. One social media user joked: 'Oh good please tell us more words we can say to stay safe', while another added: 'Is this a joke? WHO tells us we are supposed to care about hurt feelings in the middle of a pandemic..#COVID19.' This is while another decided to re-write WHO's original post and said: 'Hey @WHO: DO - Transmit all relevant information so the public can make up their own minds. 'DON'T - tell people how to think or act. DON'T - let careless/negligent people escape valid criticism because of PC wokeness'. Social media users accused WHO of being 'woke' and 'politically correct' for its new guidelines Another added: 'Nah. Its not your place to be policing language, Mr. Governmental organization who totally has only our best interests in mind. Just give us the facts and have a nice day'. One chimed in: 'What a load of PC claptrap!' As part of the guide it also urges people to 'do your part' and has created a whole section on how people should prevent stigma in their communities. It states: 'Governments, citizens, media, key influencers and communities have an important role to play in preventing and stopping stigma surrounding people from China and Asia in general. We all need to be intentional and thoughtful when communicating on social media and other communication platforms, showing supportive behaviors around the new coronavirus disease.' It then gives communication tips and messages to prevent misinformation about the condition. So far there have been over 90,000 coronavirus cases worldwide and over 3,000 deaths. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday said that the board has approached the Delhi Police against fake news and rumours being spread about examination paper leak. It also urged public not to believe or involve in the fake, unverified news about the ongoing examinations. The board said that several security initiatives have been taken to conduct the examinations in a smooth manner, but many anti-social elements are uploading fake messages, like providing CBSE question papers and asking candidates to make payment posting, fake videos about leakage of CBSE questions papers on YouTube. CBSE further said that the board is trying to identify such people and has initiated action against those spreading fake news and rumours. So far action has been initiated against uses of various social media platforms and also individuals who are making false and baseless complaints. CBSE has written to Delhi Police Special Cell (MAC) to take stern action against persons involved in circulating fake news about CBSE exam paper leaks on social media platforms and for creating panic amongst students and general public. The Board has written to Delhi Police to lodge FIR under various provisions of IPC and IT Act and initiate action against these perpetrators. CBSE is also trying to ascertain the genuineness of information being received by tracing and contacting individuals making such complaints and has taken follow-up action for security of ongoing exams, the board said in a release. The Board will continue to locate and identify more links and uploads on YouTube and other social media platforms falsely claiming to be in possession of Boards question papers and file complaints with Delhi Police to take suitable and strict action against miscreants, the release further said. The CBSE has also released a list of links of some fake videos on YouTube about leakage of CBSE questions papers. The Nigeria Police on Wednesday afternoon surrounded the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) after a Federal High Court in Abuja affirmed the suspension of the APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, ordering him to stop parading himself as APC chairman. Report indicated that the presence of policemen who arrived the secretariat in four patrol vehicles were noticed as the police surround the APC National Secretariat. Their mandate could not be ascertained. It was not clear whether they were there to prevent Oshiomhole from gaining access to the Secretariat, or perhaps, to forestall invasion of the secretariat by thugs. The disposition of the Police, however, showed that they were there to prevent breakdown of law and order as the APC crisis escalates. PV: 0 It doesnt look like too many are getting this thing. (Stock picture) Google Dublin is re-open its doors on Thursday to almost 8,000 workers after an employee who had reported flu-like symptoms tested negative for the Covid-19 Coronavirus. The company, which is Dublins largest multinational tech employer, had told the majority of its 8,000 workers to work from home for two days. It also said that the episode would be used as a trial to test remote working capabilities. Meanwhile, around 1,000 Dublin-based staff at recruitment firm Indeed have been told to stay away from their office amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus. The company said it does not have any confirmed cases of employees with the virus, but that precautions were necessary. In a statement to employees, Indeed said: As the COVID-19 coronavirus evolves into a global health concern, we have made the decision to ask all employees to work from home until further notice. Read More Our goal is to minimize the risk to employees and help to lower the probability of the spread of the virus to you, your families and the communities where we operate. Indeed has also decided to halt all business travel and to cancel all near-term Indeed-hosted events. While we recognize these measures will be inconvenient for some, we will do our best to support you. We feel it is the right action to safeguard the health and well-being of our employees while still enabling us to continue to fulfill our mission of helping people get jobs, the company said to staff. Indeed was previously the first multi-nation in Ireland to shut due to the outbreak, when it last month closed its office in Dublin for a week, with staff working from home. The company may again be followed by its peers. It comes after Twitter told over 200 workers in its Dublin offices to work at home if they could. Facebook, which has almost 4,000 Irish workers, has cancelled all social visits to its Dublin office, but remains open for business otherwise. One of Britain's largest shopping centre operators may be forced to sell-off some of its well-known malls to tackle its huge 4.5billion pile of debt, analysts say. Intu reveled today it has ended its attempts to raise equity to combat its poor finances, causing its share price to nosedive 34 per cent. The company which runs 14 shopping centres across the UK, had been looking to raise between 1billion and 1.5billion in from investors in order to deal with its balance sheet issues. However, the board said that uncertainty in the equity and retail property investment markets has put off some investors from pledging their capital. Trafford Centre (above) owner Intu has 5billion in debts and a share price Intu chief executive Matthew Roberts attributed the failed equity raise to 'extreme market conditions,' but remarked that the firm is exploring numerous alternative options which 'have presented themselves during the process.' The firm had announced plans to raise the money in the middle of January. Hong Kong-based property investment trust Link had been named as a possible funder, but they pulled out only a day after Intu publicised that they were interested. It has struggled financially in recent years as a result of lower footfall, huge debts, which currently stand at around 5billion, higher business rates and Brexit-related uncertainty. Five years ago, the Trafford Centre owner's share price was touching 350p. But its value has been slowly deteriorating ever since, and the announcement this morning caused its value to plunge 28 per cent to 7.65p. It has been beset by an increasing number of administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) in the last year, which they say has been caused by declining consumer sentiment and political uncertainty. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: 'Intu is now feeling this pain as it abandons plans to raise at least 1billion on the stock market.' 'Sentiment was already weak towards the business thanks to ongoing woes in the retail market and falling retail property valuations. Therefore Intu's equity raise was always going to be a tough one, potentially resulting in new shares being issued at a very large discount to the market price as a way of compensating investors for the risks they would be taking on.' 'The fact that the equity raise has been scrapped altogether leaves Intu in a very difficult situation,' Mould continued. 'There is no solid plan B and so the market will now be asking big questions as to how Intu might be able to crawl out from under the significant weight of its 4.5 billion net debt position.' 'Intu's only plausible solution is to sell more assets but that may simply tide it over temporarily rather than create a long-lasting fix to its sticky situation. Its future is looking far from bright.' Struggling shopping centre owner Intu owns the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex To help pay off its outstanding arrears, it has sold 600million of its assets, including the 405million sale of its Intu Puerto outlet in the Spanish city of Zaragoza, the country's largest shopping centre, and held off dividend payments. It plans to sell its intu Puerto Venecia store in April for 201million and recently got rid of its Asturias mall for 123million. Chief market analyst for Markets.com Neil Wilson says the failed equity raise is indicative of the predicament facing shopping centres across the UK and has also put the company's future in serious doubt. Hammerson, Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre proprietor has sold off over 750million in assets since July 2018 to combat its large liabilities Other shopping centre owners have faced immense economic struggles in the last decade as, among other reasons, more customers buy their shopping online. Net rental income at Hammerson declined 11.2 per cent to 308.5million in 2019. The company also reduced its dividend payment by nearly half. Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre proprietor has sold off over 750million in assets since July 2018 to combat its large liabilities, including the recent disposal of nine retail parks for 455million. Its CEO David Atkins remarked that 'a challenged retail and investment backdrop' forced them to make the disposals, and would enable the firm to 'create a more concentrated portfolio of flagship venues, premium outlets and city quarters.' ISIS suspect Lisa Smiths wants her trial dealt with quickly so she can prove her innocence, a court has heard. After a trek from war-torn Syria to Turkey with her daughter, aged two, the former Irish Defence Forces member was brought back to Ireland on December 1 when she was arrested. The mother-of-one, aged 38, from Co. Louth, was questioned for three days before she was charged with being a member of ISIS from 2015 to 2019. After a three week stint in custody on remand, she was released on bail by the High Court which ordered her to abide by a list of strict conditions including an internet and social media ban. In January, her lawyers pleaded on her behalf with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to drop the case due to lack of evidence. She appeared again before Judge Colin Daly at Dublin District Court yesterday/today (wed) to be served with a book of evidence by the prosecution. Ms Smith, dressed in black overcoat and maroon headscarf, stood silently at the side of the courtroom, as a solicitor for the DPP solicitor explained that the book of evidence was not ready. Six weeks was needed to finalise it, he explained. Defence solicitor Peter Corrigan said on the last date the case was in court, January 8, his client was told she would be served with the book of evidence today. Mr Corrigan said Ms Smith was on strict bail conditions and anxious that matters be dealt with expeditiously. There were a number of points in relation to the charge brought and he urged the prosecution to look at them very carefully, adding: It is the case that this matter should be discontinued. He wanted the prosecution to again look at documentation provided. The judge replied that this was a matter for the DPP and he did not have a function in relation to that issue. Mr Corrigan consented to the six-week adjournment but told the court that was with the caveat that the matter be dealt with expeditiously. Ms Smith was anxious to have her matter dealt with so she can prove her innocence", he said. Judge Daly ordered her to appear again on April 17 next. She had been refused bail on December 4 when she first appeared at Dublin District Court, three days after she returned to Ireland. However she brought a fresh bail application to the High Court on December 19 which was successful despite Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU) objections. She was ordered to obey a list of strict conditions, and to lodge 500. A further 1,000 out of 5,000 independent surety had to be put paid. Smith managed to take it up on December 31 and was let out. Lisa Smith. Photo: Collins Her charges sheet states: "That you the said Lisa Marie Smith between October, 28 2015 and December 1, 2019, both dates inclusive, outside the State, did commit an act which if committed in the State would constitute an offence under Section 21 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939, as amended by Section 5 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005, in that you were a member of a terrorist group which is an unlawful organisation, to wit an organisation styling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also known as Dawlat al-Iraq al-Islamiyya, Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Dawlat al Islamiya fi Iraq wa al Sham, otherwise known as 'Daesh' and the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham." It is an offence contrary to the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences). It can carry a ten-year sentence. The High Court ordered that the address where she has been residing cannot be published but the media can report that she is living in the north east of the country. Mr Justice Robert Eagar made an order restricting the publication of evidence in support of the objection to bail to protect the integrity of the jury system. Smith joined the Irish defence forces after leaving school in 2000 and also served with the Air Corps on the government jet. At her High Court bail hearing, Mr Michael OHiggins SC submitted that risk of flight was low. She has a child here, her immediate concern of for her child, and this is a very strong anchor. She also agreed to abide by bail terms. In his ruling, Mr Justice Eagar had said Ms Smith was accused of membership of a terrorist organisation but was entitled to the presumption of innocence and the presumption of bail. The High Court was satisfied that no warrants had been issued for the accused and she had no prior convictions. He held that refusal of bail was not necessary but a number of conditions were attached. She was warned that breaching the terms would result in going back into custody. She must reside at an address in the north east, sign on at a Garda station twice daily from 10am 1pm and 3pm 6pm. She was ordered to obey a curfew. She had to remain indoors from 8pm and not leave until 7am. She cannot leave the jurisdiction or apply for new travel documentation, having already lost her passport. She had to provide gardai with a contact mobile phone number and was warned she must answer it if rung by gardai, failing to do so would be a breach of bail. Ms Smith has been banned from going on the internet or using any social media and she must not have contact with any non-Garda witnesses in the case. At her first hearing on December 4, her solicitor had pleaded for bail telling the district court his had come back to Ireland after walking with her toddler daughter, through bombs, poverty, and cesspit camps, and desert, to come to her country of origin. A Belfast restaurateur says he has not yet felt any negative impact from the Covid-19 virus, however he expressed fears over its effect on summer tourism. Michael Deane, who has six venues in the city, said that they have only had one cancellation so far as a result of coronavirus, as some guests expected from Asia had not been able to travel. But he added: "Our bookings in general are pretty healthy. In this wee village here, I am quite confident things will stay the way they are. Deanes will always be open. People forget how resilient we are in Belfast and there has been far worse than this." Mr Deane said that while suppliers are nervous, he has not experienced any difference in his supply chain. However, he expresssed concern about the summer and the impact on major attractions. "How is somewhere like Titanic Belfast going to cope? Thousands of Japanese and Chinese tourists are coming through and we also get them coming through the door. I would be unsure if the same numbers will be coming now." Meanwhile, trade body Hospitality Ulster met Economy Minister Diane Dodds yesterday to discuss the potential impact of coronavirus. Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill said: "There are several barriers to growth hanging over the hospitality sector such as the out-of-kilter rates system, access to labour post-Brexit, and a competitive disadvantage on hospitality VAT, which has now all been compounded by the concerns over coronavirus. "We reiterated to the minister that the hospitality industry is taking nothing for granted and carrying out all the preventative measures it can. "We also updated the minister that we have issued guidance which will be updated as the situation develops and that we continues to operate high standards of hygiene and cleanliness, encouraging our members to reinforce those standards at all times. Now is the time we need the most support from government to see us through this concerning period." He said pubs, restaurants and hotels were susceptible to the risk of people decided not to go out. "We have already seen a number of impacts on the sector in Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland and we are right to be worried about what the next number of weeks and months might hold." Peter McAlindon, director at Direct Wine Shipments, said it had not yet had an impact on business, including any effect on imports of wines from Italy. "We did receive notification from a the general manager from Hunter's Wines in New Zealand who was due in the UK and Ireland in April," he said. "This overseas trip has now been postponed." Mr McAlindon added Prowein, the world's biggest wine show, which has visitors from all over the globe and was to take place in Dusseldorf in a few weeks, has now been cancelled. Military management has said there are no issues over discipline within the Defence Forces after it emerged that the main prosecutorial role in courts-martial was only filled last month after the vacancy existed for more than a year. The Department of Defence said the role of Director of Military Prosecutions became vacant in December 2018 and was filled in February this year. The Director is the main prosecutor in cases deemed serious enough to warrant a court-martial. Management stressed that while the position had gone unfilled for a time, most disciplinary matters are dealt with at unit level and any backlog of more serious cases will now be tackled. A military spokesman said: The Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP) is the military equivalent of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Cases are prosecuted on the direction of the DMP and so this could not happen while the office was vacant. On a practical level, the Director appoints prosecutors and may give directions during the course of a court-martial, and so such activities were not possible in the absence of a Director. The spokesman said there are currently five courts-martial and five appeals pending with the Court Martial Administrator, involving a wide variety of charges and alternative charges. While we do not comment on any individual cases, soldiers, like all citizens, enjoy the presumption of innocence, the spokesman said. However, the military chain of command can and does take appropriate action where necessary to properly protect the rights and/or safety of all parties concerned. The Department of Defence said: "The previous Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP) voluntarily retired from the Permanent Defence Force on November 3, 2018. "Formal sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was sought and approved to fill the position of DMP for the Defence Forces, on a full-time basis by open competition. A competition was duly held and following interviews by a Selection Committee of eligible candidates, a suitable candidate was nominated for appointment. The Minister with Responsibility for Defence accepted the recommendation of the Committee and submitted a proposal to Government, recommending the appointment. The DMP was subsequently appointed on February 18 2020." Most recent annual figures show that five members faced either summary or limited courts-martial in 2018, while three other members brought appeals against earlier decisions. In one of those summary court-martial trials, a private who was facing a number of charges of negligent performance of a duty and ill-discipline was discharged from the Defence Forces prior to the trial date and left the jurisdiction. Other recent years have seen higher numbers of courts-martial, with assault and sexual assault among the more serious cases dealt with. The Agona West Parliamentary Candidate aspirant for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Evans Addison Coleman, has urged party members to abide by the decisions and directives of the party hierarchy. He said the party had stood the test of time and been successful in its governance due to its strict adherence of its rank and file to the principles of loyalty and commitment to the tenets of the party. Briefing journalists on his vision for the area in Accra yesterday, Mr Coleman, aka Onoma, said he was committed to the wellbeing of the people in his area as well as the country. He further urged the party faithful to remain committed to the cause of the NPP, show respect and honour for party leadership and government appointees. Questions Answering questions on allegations that he organised a demonstration against lawful authority in 2017, he said: I wish to emphatically state that I neither engaged, neither did I partake, in the planning; nor admonished party sympathisers or party faithful to stage a demonstration whatsoever against the decision not to appoint me as the Municipal Chief Executive for the Agona West Municipality. Mr Coleman said as a dyed-in-the-wool NPP member, he had always respected decisions of the party and abided by them because such decisions were in the best interest of the party and government and that no parochial interest was supreme. I emphatically dissociate my good self from such negative behaviour and condemn same, as such those actions do not reflect my intuition, thoughts and beliefs in addressing grievances whatsoever, he said. I believe the choice of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was, and is, in the best interest of all residents of the Agona West Municipality and the New Patriotic Party at large, he said, adding that any benefit that was allegedly directed to me was by this notice strongly disclaimed and denounced at all levels of this demonstration and its consequential effects. Peace He charged Ghanaians to be security conscious and expose deviants who intended to plunge the country into chaos. He said with the level of development, coupled with the promising nature of the advancement of the burgeoning democracy, it was necessary for all to be vigilant and protect the nation from deterioration. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Bengaluru: Film actress Bhumika S has lodged a police complaint against multiple TikTok account holders who were allegedly trolling her with vulgar messages. Bhumika has acted in about 15 Kannada, Tamil and Tulu movies including the super hit Apthamitra and several TV serials. In the complaint she lodged at the Cyber Economic Offences and Narcotics Crime police station on Wednesday, the actress said, TikTok account holders have defamed me and have made an attempt to post my animated picture in their registered TikTok accounts. The trolls allegedly targeted her dressing style and made vulgar comments on it. An investigation is on. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Maggy Donaldson (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 17:04 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206841db8 2 People architecture,awards,Ireland,Women,Pritzker-prize Free Dublin-based Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were awarded the Pritzker prize on Tuesday -- the first time a female duo has scooped architecture's most prestigious award. The pair gained international fame for their brutalist-inspired structures, pairing strong, heavy materials like stark concrete with delicate human-scale detail like lookout points, meeting places and spots to loiter. The pair met at university in 1974, and went on to found their firm Grafton Architects in 1978 in Dublin, where they have worked together for four decades. McNamara, 68, and Farrell, 69, are the first female duo to win a Pritzker, and the first architects from Ireland to be awarded the prize. "Pioneers in a field that has traditionally been and still is a male-dominated profession, they are also beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path," read the jury citation. Just three women have won Pritzkers before them: Zaha Hadid in 2004, Kazuyo Sejima in 2010 (with Ryue Nishizawa) and Carme Pigem in 2017 (with Ramon Vilalta and Rafael Aranda). In announcing their selection, the jury cited Farrell and McNamara's "integrity" and "generosity towards their colleagues" -- both continue to teach, rare for architects of their repute. The judges also praised their "unceasing commitment to excellence in architecture, their responsible attitude toward the environment, their ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work." The pair say Ireland informed their focus on geography and shifts in climate, resulting in buildings that celebrate detail while remaining modest. "What we try to do in our work is to be aware of the various levels of citizenship and try to find an architecture that deals with overlap, that heightens your relationship to one another," the Pritzker committee quoted Farrell as saying. Read also: Love buildings? Here are 7 cities for architecture fans 'Earth as client' In 2008, Farrell and McNamara's celebrated Grafton Building at Milan's Bocconi University was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, a prize that thrust the pair onto the international stage. The past four decades have seen them complete projects in Ireland as well as Britain, France, Italy and Peru -- notably designing many educational and civic buildings -- all with nuanced sensitivity to a site's natural elements and needs. "The collaboration between Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara represents a veritable interconnectedness between equal counterparts," said Tom Pritzker, chairman of the foundation that sponsors the award. "They demonstrate incredible strength in their architecture, show deep relation to the local situation in all regards, establish different responses to each commission while maintaining the honesty of their work, and exceed the requirements of the field through responsibility and community." In 2018, Farrell and McNamara curated that year's Venice Architecture Biennale, entitled "Freespace," which they defined as "a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture's agenda." "We are interested in going beyond the visual, emphasizing the role of architecture in the choreography of daily life," they said in their Biennale announcement. "We see the Earth as client. This brings with it long-lasting responsibilities." In 2016, their firm won the inaugural RIBA International Prize, for their University of Engineering and Technology building in Peru, which the judges called a "modern-day Machu Picchu" for its verticality and mix of open and enclosed spaces. Though acclaimed, the pair have cautioned against the "starchitect" phenomenon that celebrates eye candy and celebrity over structural needs. Farrell, speaking to Spain's IE University in 2015, instead likened architects to translators, saying "we translate people's needs and their dreams into reality." "We make the space in which life happens, and I think our profession needs to expand to embrace all the other disciplines of environmental sustainability, of making, of the crisis, of changing people's attitude." Some samples of biological material are in the reference laboratory of the Public Health Center. Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister Viktor Liashko has said another six Ukrainians are being tested for the novel coronavirus. "As of now, there are six suspected cases of coronavirus infection in Ukraine. These people have also been isolated, while samples of biological material have been received by the reference lab of the Public Health Center, and some will be delivered today," the official told a Kyiv briefing on Wednesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read also"Sooner or later": Ukraine's senior health official says coronavirus spread in Ukraine not ruled out As UNIAN reported earlier, the first case of Covid-19 coronavirus was confirmed in Ukraine on Tuesday. The patient earlier returned with his wife from Italy to the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Medics hospitalized the man, while his wife stayed at home. Later, she agreed to undergo observation amid tensions with neighbors. Enhanced coordination between Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh coupled with a thrust on developmental work holds the key to sharpening anti-Maoist operations in the region, a top central official said on Wednesday. Taking stock of the security scenario and Maoist activities at a meeting with senior officials of the two states, Senior Security Adviser in the Home Ministry K Vijay Kumar said coordination among different security agencies should improve further to intensify the anti-naxal drive. The meeting was attended among others by senior police officials of bordering districts Kalahandi, Nuapada and Bolangir of Odisha and Mahasamund, Gariabundh and Dhamteri of Chhattisgarh. Among others, commandants of two 211 CRPF battalions, SPs of the six districts and intelligence officials attended in the review meeting held by Kumar, a former director general of the CRPF. "Coordination among different security agencies such as the CRPF and police is satisfactory but it needs to be improved further in order to make anti-Maoist operation more effective," he told reporters. Apart from intensifying operations by security, there is a need to take up more developmental works in the Maoist- affected areas, Kumar said. The present situation in the region is better than what it was a couple of years ago, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/04/2020 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Mindy Shiben has explained why she defended Zach Justice during what was supposed to be a friendly gathering at her apartment with her friends.During a recent episode of Season 10, Mindy invited Zach over to her place when she had some friends over for wine and a good time.But instead of the relaxed and fun atmosphere Mindy had been hoping for, one of her bridesmaids put Zach on the spot and began questioning him about why he had chosen not to move in with Mindy to the neutral apartment in Washington, D.C. the show had provided for them as newlyweds.During a February 26 appearance on : Unfiltered, Mindy watched back a clip in which she had gently told her friends off in defense of Zach, who clearly appeared uncomfortable in the situation."Guys, okay. I've got to tell my friends that I love how much you care about me and I appreciate you coming over and having wine, but I don't want this to be about grilling Zach," Mindy admitted in the footage.Unfiltered host Jamie Otis pointed out Mindy seemed to get frustrated with her friends in this scene."What is it that's making you come to Zach's defense?" Jamie asked."I just want to encourage the behavior," Mindy said of Zach's decision to join her little get-together."He didn't have to come over that day, and he was showing that he -- I know it's a small, little step -- but he was taking time to put a small amount of effort in."Mindy therefore reasoned, "If we're doing nothing but attacking him when he's doing the small thing right, you know, he's just going to turn around and not want to be around me."Zach told the cameras on 's tenth season he didn't want to move in with Mindy just to "put on a show" when their dynamic was awkward and uncomfortable, but Mindy had said on the February 12 episode of Unfiltered there was "no indication" Zach was taking their marriage seriously Mindy therefore felt thankful and pleased whenever Zach would be open to spending time with her, especially since she had felt pretty rejected by her husband on their honeymoon in Panama.Mindy was still reeling from the fact Zach had told her multiple times he wasn't attracted to her.Mindy said their kiss on the honeymoon felt "forced" and she and Zach were not remotely close to consummating their marriage."It's really hard to be open and affectionate with him if he's not showing me any affection either -- so [intimacy] is missing," Mindy explained later in the Unfiltered broadcast.But in addition to Zach's presence at Mindy's wine night, he also met her friends at a game bar and later went to her apartment alone to play some cards and do some face masks together.The pair ended up exchanging a few laughs, and both parties could admit they were having fun together.Earlier in the Unfiltered broadcast, expert Dr. Viviana Coles also said she believes Zach's refusal to move in with Mindy didn't make any sense and he owed Mindy an explanation."I don't think he knows what is happening," Viviana said."He would have shared, I would hope, if he had good reasoning behind it. Because all of us are really flummoxed by this. I think it doesn't make sense.""Whatever logic is there, he hasn't shared it," Viviana pointed out. "Share it! Help your wife understand.""You don't owe it to us [the experts] -- I mean, [he does] a little bit," Viviana joked. "I do want to know, but you definitely owe it to your wife to explain what is happening."Jamie then chimed in and said, "I totally agree."'s tenth season currently airs on Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on LifetimeIn addition to Mindy and Zach, the tenth season also stars Derek Sherman and Katie Conrad Meka Jones and Michael Watson Taylor Dunklin and Brandon Reid , and Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group As fears over the coronavirus transmission rise, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Rajasthan and Gujarat governments are keeping a close watch on the developing situations as well as ensuring measures to deal with the deadly virus. The authorities in the respective states have also released helpline numbers for taking queries. Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba who held a review meeting with the concerned state authorities asked them to impose travel restrictions and monitor the airport management in states. Rajasthan: The Rajasthan government has put its medical staff on alert after an Italian tourist was tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19). The wife of the Italian tourist could also be tested positive for the deadly virus. The state government announced that the newly-inaugurated hospital at Rajasthan University of Health Sciences in Jaipur will have a quarantine ward and has also directed sanitisation of hotels where the group of tourists including the Italian couple stayed. It also instructed authorities to screen the places they visited as well as the people who came in contact with them. The Italian couple was a part of a 23-member group that visited places across Rajasthan. The couple is currently undergoing treatment as SMS hospital in Jaipur. The Rajasthan government in its medical bulletin released on Tuesday said that 13 patients with symptoms of coronavirus were admitted in Jaipur with one confirmed case being reported from Rajasthan. Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma also took stock of the preparations to check further transmission of the deadly virus. Also Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: PM Modi not to participate in 'Holi Milan' events over COVID-19 outbreak Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had earlier held a meeting with senior officials about the preparedness to handle the situation. Rohit Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary, health told India Today that he has directed collectors to ensure adequate supply of medicines and equipment and also keep a check on any price hike. Uttar Pradesh: Hotels and tourists sites in Agra have been instructed to inform the office of the Chief Medical Officer as soon as visitors from Italy, Iran or China arrive, so that they can be screened for coronavirus infection, an official said on Tuesday. As soon as any information is received, a team of doctors will be dispatched to examine the visitors for symptoms of COVID-19, Chief Medical Officer of Agra Dr Mukesh Vats told PTI. "We have issued instructions to all hotels in the city that if any person is coming from Italy, Iran or China, they should inform us. As soon as the hotel informs us, a team of doctors goes to the hotel, and examines them for symptoms of coronavirus. All the tourist sites have been told to inform the 24-hour control about visitors from countries where coronavirus outbreak has been reported," Vats said. Asked whether symptoms of coronavirus have been found in any visitor in Agra, he said, "The group of 19 tourists who had come from Jaipur were staying in Crystal Sarovar, and had arrived day before yesterday (Sunday) at 2.00 pm. Next (Monday) morning at around 8.00 am, they left for Delhi." "After this, another batch of 18-19 tourists were staying at the Taj Convention Hotel. They have been tested and have not been found symptomatic. The history of the tourists was scanned, and symptoms searched. All of them are normal. The second batch was tested yesterday in the afternoon," Vats said. The Uttar Pradesh government had on January 27 directed officials to set up 10-bed isolation wards in every district hospital and medical college of the state as a precautionary measure to deal with any suspected case of coronavirus. The directive came during a review meeting of the Health Department chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Also Read: Coronavirus update: Who can enter India, who cannot? The CM directed that special vigil be maintained at airports and on the Indo-Nepal border. He further instructed Health Department officials to take necessary steps in coordination with the Union Health Ministry. Directions were also issued to spread awareness about the virus and precautionary steps.' Agra District Magistrate appealed people to avoid public gatherings or be a part of crowded areas. The DM also urged people not to shake hands, rather offer namaste Meanwhile, following the shutting down of two schools in Noida over fears of coronavirus transmission, the Noida administration on Tuesday held a press conference amidst panic and fear. District Magistrate (DM) BN Singh along with Chief Medical Officer Dr Anurag Bhargava requested people not to panic and believe any rumours concerning the coronavirus outbreak in Delhi-NCR. Issuing helpline numbers for citizen related queries (8076623612 / 6396776904) Singh said that the UP government is taking all necessary precautions to deal with the coronavirus scare in Noida. "The situation is very much in our control and no need to be panic...our hospitals, doctors and health department are ready. We are totally equipped -- we have testing facilities in Lucknow, Pune and Delhi," he said. "Till now only one case has been reported as positive -- the final report is yet to come," Singh clarified. He said that samples of six people who came in touch with the Delhi coronavirus patient have been sent for testing. Also Read: Delhi coronavirus patient attended birthday party; many children present Singh also elucidated that no official order has been given to close schools in Noida. "Only one school is being sanitised and rest can operate on their own. The other has taken the decision as a precautionary measure," the Noida DM said. "The board exams, scheduled to take place in that school will now take place at St Joseph School in Greater Noida," he added. Two popular schools in Noida have been shut over the fear of coronavirus, while a high-end hotel in Delhi has asked its staff to undergo self-quarantine. The decision to shut the schools was taken after a student's father was detected with the virus. The individual is said to have attended a birthday party along with his child and mingled with other children, parents and teachers as well. Gujarat: The Gujarat government has decided to open isolation ward in each of the 33 districts for the treatment of any suspected novel coronavirus case, while 87 people, who recently returned from the virus-hit Iran, have been kept under observation, said officials on Tuesday. The state government is taking precautionary steps after two new positive cases of the deadly infection came to light in the country, they said. Moreover, 87 people, who had recently returned from Iran, where the deadly virus has claimed 77 lives so far, were kept under home quarantine, said Commissioner of Health, Jai Prakash Shivahare. "As a precautionary measure, these 87 persons were kept under observation at their respective homes in different parts of the state. To tackle any emergency situation, we have decided to open one isolation ward in each of the districts. At present, such wards have been set up in some civil hospitals," Shivahare said. Also Read: Coronavirus in Noida: 40 students sent to isolation for a month Screening of passengers at the airport here for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is also going on, Shivahare said. Six cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country so far. Three of the patients have recovered. The coronavirus, which was first detected in China in late December, has now spread to 60 nations in Europe, the US, Latin America and other parts of Asia. More than 3,100 people have died, most of them in China, and over 90,000 have been infected worldwide by the virus. CROMWELL Round Room LLC, the nations largest Verizon Authorized Retailer, recently announced that all 542 of its TCC stores donated school supply packs to more than 5,500 teachers across the U.S. The companys seventh annual Teachers Rock Supply Giveaway was held the week of Feb. 10. Since 2014, TCC has donated more than 35,000 supply packs to deserving teachers across the country. Each participating TCC store partnered with a local, deserving school to donate the supply packsvalued at $77 each. The supply packs include pencils, pens, dry erase markers, erasers, glue sticks, paper, tissue boxes, sticky notes and more, and enable each teacher to impact an average of 30 students. Local schools that received the supply packs from TCC included Edna C. Stevens Elementary School i Cromwell and East Shoreline Catholic Academy in Branford. The U.S. Department of Education reports that teachers spend an average of $480 out of their own pockets to pay for school supplies each year, said Scott Moorehead, CEO of Round Room, parent company of TCC. Its such an honor to be able to give back to educators across the country for the seventh year running. We want to show our deep appreciation for their hard work, and our Teachers Rock Supply Giveaway has been a great way to demonstrate how much we care. More information about the Teachers Rock Supply Giveaway is available at www.TCCRocks.com. Supporters of the campaign are encouraged to use hashtags #TeachersRock2020 and #BetterTogether on Instagram and Twitter to help spread the word. Goff House seeks sponsors for concert series EAST HAMPTON The board of directors of the Joseph N. Goff House Museum recently announced the band lineup for the 21st annual Joseph N. Goff House Gazebo Concert Series. Held at the Center School Gazebo on Summit Street in the historic East Hampton Village Center, this year's performers will include The Leaf Jumpers on June 25 with music from the 1990s to 2000s; the East Hampton High School Jazz Band on July 2; Flamingo Big Band, a 14-piece, all female group offering swing era music with a sprinkling of rock and roll, pop and rhythm and blues on July 16; Mick and Vic acoustic duo with music from the 1950s to present on July 23; Center Line, with rock, country and blues on July 30 and the Foundry Saxophone Quartet, a mix of classical, jazz, folk, and ragtime on Aug. 6. The free Thursday night concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. Listeners of all ages welcome to bring blankets, chairs, picnics and friends! Rain location will be in the Congregational Church of East Hampton Community Hall. Concert sponsors are needed. Contact Dean Markham at 860-918-4400 or mail your concert sponsor donations to Goff House Concerts c/o Melissa Pionzio, 61 Smith St., East Hampton, CT 06424; or visit http://goffhouseehct.blogspot.com/ for additional information. Society to hold antique appraisal day The Chatham Historical Society will host its 25th annual Antique Appraisal Day Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the East Hampton Library Community Room, 105 Main Street. There will be four appraisers on site. Verbal appraisals will be given on furniture, artwork, toys, glassware, china, musical instruments, military pieces, dolls, jewelry, quilts, as well European, Asian and Island items, and more. There is a suggested donation of $6 per item for this event. This is a major fundraiser for the continual upkeep of the society's two museum buildings and 1840 one room schoolhouse on Bevin Boulevard. Light refreshments will be available. For more information call 860 267-8953. State police seek women troopers MERIDEN: The Connecticut State Police will be holding a Womens Forum for those who may be interested in becoming Troopers. This is an event for potential female applicants to meet with those women already serving in the Connecticut State Police in traditional and non-traditional roles. Connecticut State Police will hold two forums in hopes of attracting more women to the many opportunities within the agency: 3-5 p.m., March 8, and 6-8 p.m. March 9, at the Connecticut Police Academy, 285 Preston Ave., Meriden. Students holding Mothers Day Craft Fair HEBRON RHAM High School Student Council will be hosting a Mother's Day Craft Fair from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. April 25, at Hebron Elementary School. Students are are accepting applications for crafters/vendors to set up a booth (8x10 space). Spaces are $45 (if extra space is needed - add $20 for each additional space), $10 if electrical access is needed. Student Council members will have crafts for children to make for Mother's Day gifts. Contact Nancy Gorman at nancy.gorman@rhamschools.org for an application to be considered in the craft fair. Art exhibit honors womens suffrage HARTFORD The year 2020 marks 100 years of women securing the right to vote in America. State Rep. Christie Carpino has announced an art exhibit for residents, groups, and organizations of Cromwell and Portland to participate in, commemorating the centennial anniversary of women's suffrage. Submissions for the exhibit will be accepted from March 2 to May 4. Submissions will be displayed at the State Capitol Complex at the end of May. Art: Artists will submit a painting, drawing, or combination no larger than 18" X 12" canvas or poster board. The imagery should represent how the artist's view of the suffrage movement. Submission: Residents can drop off submissions to Cromwell Town Hall with Town Clerk, JoAnn Doyle, and Portland Town Hall with Town Clerk, Ryan Curley. Submission Forms can be accessed by clicking here. Carpino will conclude the exhibit with a public viewing at the Legislative Office Building on Thursday, May 28 from 5-6:30 p.m. Contestants will be able to view the submissions and have the opportunity to take their pieces home at the conclusion of the reception. To learn more about the exhibit, e-mail Rep. Carpino at Christie.Carpino@housegop.ct.gov. Winning the backing of Warren, who began the race as a leader of the party's liberal wing but later positioned herself as a uniter, would be a coup for either Sanders or Biden. For Sanders, it could help unify the liberal faction and signal that he is very much still in the race; for Biden, it would extend the recent rush of party leaders who have rallied around him. LOS ANGELES (AP) New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reassessing her candidacy Wednesday as the winnowing process in the Democrats 2020 nomination fight lurched forward after a consequential Super Tuesday. Bloomberg quit the race just over 100 days after entering despite pouring more than $500 million of his personal fortune into his campaign. The massive investment netted him a sole win in American Samoa. Bloomberg became the third failed Democratic presidential contender to exit the race in three days. Like the others, he endorsed Biden, calling him the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump in November. The developments came just hours after a resurgent Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. The former vice president was declared the winner of his 10th Super Tuesday state, Maine, by Wednesday afternoon. Biden's rival Bernie Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California that ensured he and his embrace of democratic socialism would drive the Democrats' nomination fight for the foreseeable future. Warren, Sanders' progressive ally, was huddling with advisers on Wednesday to determine if there was a reason to stay in the race after her Super Tuesday wipe-out. She didn't win a single state and finished in third place, after Biden and Sanders, in her own home state of Massachusetts. And suddenly, the Democratic Partys presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest. Both men are expected to begin receiving Secret Service protection, according to Biden campaign chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, who said Wednesday that the House Homeland Security Committee has asked the Secret Service to provide protection to all remaining major presidential candidates. Biden and Sanders already have Secret Service code names: Biden's is "Celtic" and Bernie's is Intrepid Biden's campaign is embracing his renewed status as a Democratic front-runner and is going on the offensive against Sanders. Richmond blasted the Vermont senator for suggesting that the Democratic establishment is colluding against the progressive's White House bid. Richmond said Biden is earning his votes. "I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment," Richmond said, noting that Biden's overwhelming support among black voters gave him wide delegate gains in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia, among other states. African American voters, he continued, understand the importance of nominating a person that they know, nominating a person that can win. Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for Americas future, were locked in a delegate fight a day after 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys presidential primary. With votes still being counted, it was becoming more likely that Biden might finish Super Tuesday with more delegates than Sanders. Sanders' team was expecting to finish the day with a significant delegate advantage. It could take weeks or months for Democrats to pick one nominee to take on Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines. Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. The Sanders campaign announced Wednesday that it would begin airing three new campaign ads in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, states that hold primaries March 10 and March 17. One of the new ads features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. It's a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Biden's frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama. Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to call Biden's strong Super Tuesday showing a perfect storm and amplify his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination. The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Trump tweeted. Trump also called Warren selfish for staying in the race because it hurts Bernie badly. Biden's victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45. Sanders' success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decadeslong political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast. Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with victories in Massachusetts and Maine. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and hoped to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. That didn't happen. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he won just three other states: his home state of Vermont, Utah and Colorado. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. In a statement announcing his departure, Bloomberg vowed to stay engaged in the 2020 election and his ultimate goal to ensure Trump is defeated this fall. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden." Biden aides said they didn't immediately know what to expect out of Bloomberg's endorsement moving forward. The former New York mayor has committed to turning his massive campaign operation toward the Democrats larger goal of defeating Trump this fall. It was not immediately clear if Bloomberg would use his resources and organization to help Biden in his nominating fight against Sanders. Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said Biden is "thrilled" to have Bloomberg's support. But she said conversations about what Bloomberg's endorsement means in practice are ongoing. With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 553 delegates to Biden, 488 to Sanders and 61 to Warren. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. YEREVAN. The criminal proceedings against former Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan and Arsen Lalayants, head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development at Yerevan Municipality, has been suspended. The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia has reported this in response to a request by Armenian News-NEWS.am. In particular, it is noted that during the investigation of this criminal case it was established that Zakharyan and Lalayants had committed the criminal acts envisaged by the Criminal Code. That is to say, as a result of the actions of these officials, a plot of land not subject to being sold was sold to a private company. The aforementioned persons appealed to the investigating body and stated that they did not object to the termination of their prosecution due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, so the SIS investigator decided to terminate the criminal proceedings against them based on the said grounds. But the SIS informed that the criminal investigation is still in progress to determine the legality of allocating land for construction of houses in the areas adjacent to Victory Park, and some other circumstances. The criminal case on the alienation of 10,000 square meters of land nearby Victory Park by the decision of then mayor Yervand Zakharyan was launched in September 2019. At end of the same month, Zakharyan and Lalayants were charged with abuse of official power which led to grave consequences. Coronavirus Threat: Competent Updates Needed to Keep Canadians Informed Commentary So this coronavirus threat is real. Not apocalyptic, apparently. But real. And Canadas doing who knows? Not us, and if our government knows, its not telling. As usual. The Canadian government has become deplorably adept at dispensing content-free pseudo-information. Like published Itineraries for our prime minister that, in the name of open government, tell us nothing whatsoever. At least not on purpose. Saturdays said tersely Private. Which accidentally blurted out that Justin Trudeau didnt think anything was happening sufficiently serious to go into the office, like say blockades or this virus thing. Except it might have been untrue, like Mondays Private meetings, when in fact he was flying to Toronto to give a public speech to a Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention, trailing CO2 and three ministers. As for the Wuhan virus specifically, Private meetings would be an improvement. Im still on the Parliamentary Press Gallery distribution list, despite constantly mocking the rubbish that gets sent out. And there was one notice Monday that on Tuesday the Chief Public Health Officer and her deputy will hold a media availability to provide an update on coronavirus disease. But mostly it was the usual prattle about MP Jaime Battiste to make an announcement regarding Cape Bretons growing digital sector and Government of Canada financial support will enable Bas-Saint-Laurent hotel establishment to modernize its rooms. (Real examples from Tuesday.) Which might accurately reflect what our government is thinking about. They may be telling us nothing about COVID-19 and our preparations for it because they know nothing and arent even curious. Which brings me to Anne Applebaums recent observation in The Atlantic that Epidemics, like disasters, have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact. Naturally it turned out to be mostly that right wing is bad and left wing is good. Except, to her credit, that The Chinese have already paid a high price for the secretiveness of their system, and for the top-down bureaucratic culture that led many, initially, to conceal the disease. Ah yes, a high price for secretiveness. And Canadas government, while no tyranny, has taken very much to heart Sir Arnold Robinsons classic Yes Minister line that in government, If no one knows what youre doing, then no one knows what youre doing wrong. Unfortunately, if you consistently mislead people they stop trusting you, and you yourself start having trouble telling fact from fiction. Ask Brezhnevs ghost. (Or as Hungarian philosopher Anthony de Jasay put it: The right mix of truth, falsehood and silence looks very difficult to achieve even the Soviet Union, which chooses its preferred mix more freely than most other states, seems to have mixed itself a poisonous brew.) And if you consistently keep citizens uninformed, they either start believing wild rumours or else just get used to being uninformed and complacent about it. In democracies as in dictatorships. Yes Minister is meant to be satire, not an operating handbook. Or rather, like Machiavellis much-misunderstood The Prince, it is meant to be an operating handbook for critics of government, not practitioners. Who I doubt in Canada are sufficiently self-aware to be doing it on purpose. But they have mixed themselves a poisonously soporific brew of empty verbiage on all controversial issues to the point that theyve forgotten how to communicate clearly or why, thus cutting themselves off from useful feedback about preventing problems from spinning into crises. There is another way. In Saturdays National Post, my colleague Matt Gurney (also my editor and ex officio, an exceptionally wise and splendid chap) wrote a wistful piece about those much-mocked Cold War explanations of what happens in the event of a nuclear attack. For instance, that you die. No, really. He cited a 1961 American recording available online called If the Bomb Falls, apparently private but adapted from government publications, that said: We might label our nuclear weapons instant death. Theres no doubt about it if you live within a few miles of where one of these bombs strike, youll die. Instantly. Youll also die if you live downwind from where the bomb falls, even a few hundred miles away. It may be a slow and lingering death, but Youll die unless you have shelter. Not what you want to hear, especially in a chilling monotone. But useful if true. Including practical advice about checking local building codes before burying a bus full of tinned food in your backyard, and an actual shopping list of nourishing non-perishable food. Which Gurney contrasts with the U.S. governments overly soothing overflow of unhelpful burble on COVID-19. Well, try the Canadian response. If you can find it. A medical entrepreneur in Tuesdays National Post warned that our hospitals are already stretched past capacity and would be overwhelmed by a lot of people requiring urgent respiratory care. Which is an open secret anyway. But from our government? They announced a press conference. To be fair, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu suggested last week that people stockpile food and medicine. But in the vaguest possible way, accompanied by noncommittal rhetoric about being prepared for anything, that cancelling events due to the Wuhan virus was up to some other jurisdiction, that its in a lot of countries and hard to contain but possibly contained, that governments are very carefully monitoring the situation, and that Its really about, first of all, making sure that you do have enough supplies so if someone in your family becomes ill, if you yourself become ill, that you have what you need to survive for a week or so without going outside. She also said keep your prescriptions filled, wash your hands, stay home if youre sick, get your flu shot so you dont clutter up a hospital, and blah blah blah. Which we should all do anyway so in the event of any disaster we do not immediately become an urgent part of the problem. But she was nagging us, not providing information about what the government was doing about COVID-19 or thought was happening. It didnt even come with a shopping list for surviving a week holed up in your home. She did gesticulate vaguely toward the Public Safety website but these arent new things, theyre not special things. No indeed. When it comes to actual information, you dont need to know what we know or whether we do. For instance, I dont even know why there are so many cases in Iran. Is it because of the link between the Chinese communists and Irans theocratic dictatorial regime? Global News actually found someone to blame the Iranian outbreak on U.S. sanctions, which seemed an information-free Blame America First response. But about the only policy our government seems to have is to avoid mentioning that a lot of Chinese people have a disease that originated in China lest an epidemic of bigotry should cause Canadians to start foaming at the mouth. Which, again accidentally, reminds us that our government has a very low opinion of our morals as well as our intelligence. In Washington State and Oregon officials are closing and attempting to sanitize schools in the wake of several deaths. It might be an overreaction. But its a reaction were aware of so we can debate it. Meanwhile hows Canada doing? We dont know enough to judge. Which is another way of saying were doing very badly. John Robson is a documentary filmmaker, National Post columnist, contributing editor to the Dorchester Review, and executive director of the Climate Discussion Nexus. His most recent documentary is The Environment: A True Story. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 09:52:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SAO PAULO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people are dead and 33 missing following flooding and mudslides caused by heavy rains in southeast Brazil, local authorities said Tuesday. The coastal cities of Santos, Guaruja and Sao Vicente, which are popular tourism destinations in the state of Sao Paulo, sustained most of the damage. Two firefighters were killed while trying to rescue residents of the Morro dos Macacos favela in Guaruja, according to a statement from the local government. Most of the missing are residents of another favela, Vila Baiana, where ramshackle houses on the hillside fell apart under the force of mud and rain. Sao Paulo state and southeast Brazil in general have seen record rainfall in recent weeks. Two EU officials have tested positive for coronavirus in Brussels, it emerged today, in the first cases to strike the bloc's institutions. One patient, a European Defence Agency staffer, had recently returned from Italy and tested positive after feeling ill at the weekend. Meetings at the headquarters of the Brussels-based defence agency have been cancelled until March 13 as a result. The second virus patient works in a security unit of the European Council and is believed to have been in contact with a previous case in Belgium, an EU official said. An EU official has tested positive for coronavirus in Brussels after returning from Italy , it emerged today, in the first case to strike the bloc's institutions (file photo) The European Defence Agency staffer returned from Italy on February 23, started feeling sick on Saturday and subsequently tested positive. 'We have confirmation of the case,' European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant said. EDA spokeswoman Elisabeth Schoeffmann denied a report that the man had attended a four-hour meeting with 30 other officials before he was diagnosed. The report by Euractiv had claimed that one of those other officials was already being tested for coronavirus. The European Parliament has already limited public access to its buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg, amid fears that large gatherings could hasten the spread of the global outbreak. But by Wednesday this rule was already under fire after an exception was made for teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who is in Brussels to lobby for more determined climate action. The Belgian health ministry said that any case reported in the EU Brussels agencies would be counted in the Belgian figures as they track the spread of the virus. That also includes the second EU case, who is thought to have been in contact with another patient in Belgium. There have been at least 23 cases in Belgium, 10 of them reported within the last 24 hours. Nine of the 10 new cases represent victims who have recently returned from Italy, the worst hit so far of European nations. Belgian media today reported the first case which had been transmitted on Belgian soil, rather than brought home from abroad. Climate activist Greta Thunberg (right) with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (left) at a meeting of the EU's executive arm today European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this week that the EU's disease prevention agency ECDC had raised the risk level 'from moderate to high'. 'In other words, the virus continues to spread,' she told reporters. To coordinate the EU reaction to the outbreak, EU health ministers will gather in Brussels on Friday for an extraordinary meeting, the second this year to address the coronavirus crisis. The health council could be held in parallel with an extraordinary meeting of EU migration ministers, an official said. EU experts have so far agreed that turning people potentially infected with the virus back at borders could help spread the disease, but this position is subject to weekly reviews. Closing Schengen's internal borders on health grounds would be unprecedented. Strengthens Testing Solution Offerings with Addition of Innovative Crowdtesting Capability BUFFALO, N.Y., March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CTG (CTG), a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions and services in North America and Western Europe, today announced it has acquired StarDust, a leader in testing and quality assurance for digital services based in Marseille, France, and with operations in Montreal, Canada. Highlights of the Transaction: Increases CTGs presence in the high-growth global testing market; Crowdtesting capability provides a faster, more flexible testing solution that CTG can leverage to expand its existing client base; Establishes foothold in Frances testing market and extends testing capabilities to the United States and Canada; and Adds approximately $7 million in annualized revenue; expected to be immediately accretive to operating results, excluding customary acquisition-related expenses. StarDust, a pure-play testing company, promotes digital quality in France and Canada. The company offers a complete range of testing services, including functional, multilingual, operational, environmental, regression, and application benchmarking, and utilizes a flexible service approach that includes in-lab testers, on-site testers, crowd testers, or a hybrid approach combination. StarDusts offerings cover digital services and test websites, software, mobile applications, and the Internet of Things (IoT)/connected objects. The company has served over 200 clients across a variety of industries in its nine-year history, and is focused on reducing business risk for its clients and maximizing end-user satisfaction. StarDusts suite of testing solutions complements CTGs current testing offerings and allows expansion of our portfolio of services offered to clients who are experiencing complex testing requirements. This acquisition supports CTGs strategy to expand our Global Testing solutions presence, not only in France, but also in Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and North America. Specific to France, StarDust will enable CTG to accelerate growth in the area of testing for mobile development, a current focus area for CTG France. Additionally, StarDusts current client companies complement CTGs existing base with virtually no overlap, providing significant cross-selling opportunities, said CTG President and Chief Executive Officer Filip Gyde. Most importantly, CTG will now have crowdtesting capabilities that allow us 24X7 access to testers around the world who bring a broad diversity of testing skills, languages, and experience with a range of testing devices and configurations, while also minimizing our upfront investment in this area. Crowdtesting will meaningfully differentiate CTG from many of our larger competitors, as we will now be able to provide faster turnaround and offer more flexible and cost-effective testing solutions to our clients. Story continues Gyde continued, Important contributors to CTGs growth strategy include increasing our share of the testing market in Europe as well as strengthening our presence in the North American market, where we recently commenced our first testing engagement. We recently appointed a global director of testing, Pieter Vanhaecke, to lead this effort. As part of the StarDust integration, we will utilize our Testing Delivery Center in France to further improve the efficiency of our sales and delivery efforts across the organization. Following todays closing, StarDusts founders and management team will remain with CTG to ensure continuity of client service. They will also work closely with the management teams in both Europe and North America to seamlessly integrate the business into CTGs operations. This important step in StarDusts history opens up many new opportunities for our company and its employees, our crowd of testers, and our customers. Our hybrid testing approach that includes in-lab, on-site, and crowdtesting, combined with CTGs Testing Solutions vision, offer so many exciting possibilities for expanding the business, said Delphine GuyotGiler, StarDust CEO, Canada, and Co-founder. I am excited about the opportunity to work with the CTG team to deploy our services at a group level to many more industries and markets, said Francois Joseph Viallon, StarDust CEO, France, and Co-founder. The all-cash transaction is valued at approximately $4.85 million, not including net cash at closing and potential future earn outs, for StarDusts estimated $7 million in annualized revenue. CTG funded the purchase price through a drawdown of capital from the Companys revolving credit facility. StarDust marks our third acquisition that expands and strengthens the services we provide to our clients. Going forward, small acquisitions that offer deeper penetration of new or existing markets in North America and Europe will continue to be part of CTGs broader growth strategy, Gyde concluded. About CTG CTG has established a reputation for responsiveness and reliabilitytraits that our clients say set us apartsince our founding in 1966. Today, we provide comprehensive information, technology, and business solutions that address critical challenges for clients in high-growth industries in North America and Western Europe. Backed by a proven track record of reliable delivery, CTG fosters long-term client relationships and trust, which allows us to develop strategic insights that maximize client investments and competitive advantage. CTG has operations in North America, Western Europe, and India. The Company regularly posts news and other important information online at www.ctg.com . About StarDust StarDust is a leader in Crowdtesting and Quality Assurance for digital services that is headquartered in France and has operations in Montreal, Canada. The Company offers Quality Assurance (QA) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) services designed to launch digital services and improved user experience. These services are delivered by in-lab, on-site, and crowdsourced testers. StarDusts offerings cover digital services and test websites, software, connected objects, and mobile applications. Their service portfolio includes Advisory Services, Functional Testing, Operational Testing, Environmental Testing, Regression Testing, Multilingual Testing, Benchmarking Applications, Organizing Functional Bug Bounties, and Accessibility Testing. More information about StarDust can be found online at www.stardust-testing.com . Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable federal securities law, and generally includes words such as believes, expects, intends, anticipates, estimates and similar expressions. The Company can give no assurance that any actual or future results or events discussed in these statements will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements represent the Companys views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing the Companys views as of any subsequent date. Actual results could differ materially from the outlook, guidance, expectations, and other forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including among others, the availability to the Company of qualified professional staff, domestic and foreign industry competition for clients and talent, including technical, sales and management personnel, increased bargaining power of large clients, the Companys ability to protect confidential client data, the partial or complete loss of the revenue the Company generates from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and/or SDI International (SDI), the ability to integrate businesses when acquired and retain their clients while achieving cost reduction targets, the uncertainty of clients implementations of cost reduction projects, the effect of healthcare reform and initiatives, the mix of work between staffing and solutions, currency exchange risks, risks associated with operating in foreign jurisdictions, renegotiations, nullification, or breaches of contracts with clients, vendors, subcontractors or other parties, the change in valuation of capitalized software balances, the impact of current and future laws and government regulation, as well as repeal or modification of such, affecting the information technology (IT) solutions and staffing industry, taxes and the Companys operations in particular, industry and economic conditions, including fluctuations in demand for IT services, consolidation among the Companys competitors or clients, the need to supplement or change our IT services in response to new offerings in the industry or changes in client requirements for IT products and solutions, the risks associated with acquisitions, the negative effects of actions of activist shareholders and other factors that involve risk and uncertainty including those listed in the Companys reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as of the date of this document. Such forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the Companys disclosures set forth in the Companys 2018 Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference, and other reports that may be filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this release. Investors: John M. Laubacker, Chief Financial Officer (716) 887-7368 Media: Amanda C. LeBlanc, CMO and Vice President, Marketing (225) 772-8865 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre on Wednesday challenged columnist Ramon Tulfo to present hard evidence that would link him to the controversial pastillas scheme. As a matter of fact, maglabas ng ebidensiya na meron akong kinalaman diyan (show me evidence that I had something to do with that), Aguirre, whom Tulfo earlier tagged as the protector of the airport payoff scheme, told CNN Philippines The Source. Aguirre said authorities could have looked into his alleged involvement last year, when an initial investigation on the issue commenced. Dapat sana ang ginawa ng Malacanang ay inutusan itong PACC (Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission) para imbestigahan yan. In other words, nag-expose siya nang walang evidence at hand, nang walang hawak, he added. [Translation: Malacanang could have tasked the PACC to investigate it. In other words, his expose was done without any evidence on hand.] Tulfo first revealed irregularities within the bureau in an April 2019 column. In a recent article, he also claimed the former justice chief received kickbacks from the scheme via a chartered helicopter which had been flying twice a month from Manila to Aguirres hometown in Mulanay, Quezon. Aguirre, however, called this a stupid allegation, saying there was no way for the money plot to be concealed in a small town. He said if the claims were indeed true, he could have just received the money in Manila without having to pay for the helicopter rides. Local politics involved? Aguirre claimed the allegations are just a product of the personal vendetta of Tulfo as well as his political rivals in Quezon. These are all fabrications ni Mon Tulfo together with his friends in Quezon, 'yung mga kalaban ko sa pulitika (my political rivals) in Quezon, Aguirre said. The pastillas scheme, which allows Chinese nationals easy access to the country, first came to light in a previous Senate committee hearing in February. The illegal plot supposedly lets the foreign nationals pay a 10,000 service fee or grease money to immigration officers, with a special treatment expected in return. The operation was dubbed as "pastillas" as money was previously concealed in a rolled bond paper, similar to that of a milk candy wrapper. READ: Removal of overtime pay of Immigration officers led to 'pastillas' scheme Other immigration officers have also denied knowledge and involvement in the scandal. Aguirre earlier said he plans to file more libel charges against Tulfo. The former justice secretary likewise tagged the latters sister, Wanda Tulfo-Teo, as one of the promoters of the visa upon arrival policy for Chinese nationals. Rafael Cancel Miranda, the last survivor among the four revolutionaries who shot up the United States Capitol on March 1, 1954, in the name of independence for Puerto Rico, died on Monday at his home in San Juan, the islands capital. He was 89. His family announced his death in a statement, which said he had been hospitalized for several weeks with multiple health problems. Mr. Cancel Miranda, a hero to many who favor independence for Puerto Rico but a terrorist to many others, was 23 when he and three companions attacked the Capitol, spraying gunfire from the gallery into the House chamber and injuring five congressmen as 243 House members were debating a bill involving migrant workers from Mexico. The four the others were Lolita Lebron, Irvin Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero were not satisfied with the agreement that had made Puerto Rico a United States commonwealth in 1952, believing that it was a sham and that the island essentially remained an occupied colony. President Hassan Rouhani said that the country will succeed in controlling the outbreak of the new coronavirus in the shortest time possible, reports Mehr. I promise our dear people that based on the expertise and determination of our doctors and nurses and sacrifices of all people, we will get through this problem with the minimum fatalities in the shortest possible time, said Rouhani in Wednesday's cabinet session. He went on to appreciate the efforts put by the medical staff across the country to contain the virus, describing them as those on the frontline of the fight. Rouhani also lashed at enemies who are taking advantage of the outbreak to disrupt peoples peace and trust by publishing fake news and claims regarding the status of the disease in Iran. They announce false figures and publish false remarks; they claim that realities are not being told to people while from the very first day that we felt the entrance of the virus, the Health Ministry was tasked to inform people with statistics and data so that people would know who many have been infected or lost their lives or what measures are being carried out. The president also lashed out at Washingtons claims of readiness to help Iran with the outbreak. Unfortunately those who have put sanctions against peoples food and medicine and have carried out the most vicious acts against the Iranian nation in the past two years are now wearing a sympathy mask, claiming that they seek to help. If you are honest, at least remove sanctions on medicine; this is the first step. According to the latest reports on Wednesday, the number of coronavirus cases in Iran has hit 2,822 while the death toll has increased to 92. BAKU -- As the European Union and Azerbaijan are discussing closer ties, Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the bloc to press the South Caucasus countrys leadership to genuinely start respecting rights. The New York-based watchdog issued the call on March 3, ahead of the annual EU-Azerbaijan consultation on human rights to be held in Brussels this week. The talks will follow the February 9 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, which were marred by widespread reports of violations. Leading opposition figures were barred from running. And days after the vote, police in Baku detained dozens of activists, as well as opposition and independent candidates, ahead and during protests against the election results. The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party won 72 out of 125 seats in parliament, according to election authorities. Nearly all other seats went to small parties and independents loyal to President Ilham Aliyev, who has ruled the country since shortly before his father's death 17 years ago. In a statement, Philippe Dam, advocacy director at HRWs Europe and Central Asia Division, said Azerbaijani laws are among the most restrictive in the region and make it almost impossible for independent groups to receive foreign funding -- even from EU sources -- to carry out their work. Azerbaijan also stifles critical media, blocks prominent independent websites, and interferes with the work of independent lawyers by initiating disciplinary sanctions or disbarring them, Dam said. The release a year ago of some 50 unjustly detained activists may have led some people to believe that Azerbaijans government was ready for reform. But this wasnt the case: dozens of journalists and members of the political opposition remain jailed on politically motivated charges, he said. Others, like investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, continue to face arbitrary and disproportionate travel bans. The release of several political detainees last year shows that pressure can work, according to Dam. He said Azerbaijani authorities should start by releasing unjustly and arbitrarily detained critics, lifting travel bans, and letting independent groups operate freely, adding: Thats the message that many Azerbaijanis want to hear from the EU. She recently split from on/off boyfriend Sam Gowland again. Yet Chloe Ferry took her mind off her heartbreak as she treated herself to a spa day with Geordie Shore co-star Bethan Kershaw. The reality star, 24, left little to the imagination in a series of steamy snaps that showed off her surgically enhanced assets. Rub a dub dub: Chloe Ferry took her mind off her heartbreak as she treated herself to a spa day with Geordie Shore co-star Bethan Kershaw Chloe showed off her ample assets in a tiny neon green bikini top with clear straps that flashed her underboob. She teamed the garment with a pair of high-waisted thong style briefs that offered a peek at her peachy derriere. Chloe kept her jewellery on as she enjoyed a dip in the hot tub, accessorising with a chunky gold necklace and belly bar. Chloe was joined on her spa day by Bethan, 25, who also looked sensational in a hot pink two-piece. Sizzling: The reality star, 24, left little to the imagination in a series of steamy snaps that showed off her surgically enhanced assets Peek-a-boob! Chloe showed off her ample assets in a tiny neon green bikini top with clear straps that flashed her underboob. She teamed the garment with a pair of thong style briefs Chloe's girly day out came after she split from on/off beau Sam, 24, again - despite having just rekindled their romance over the New Year. The couple have had their fair share of break ups since their romance first went public back in 2017. The pair split in May last year after Chloe accused Sam of cheating with Love Island beauty Amber Davies - something he vehemently denied. Sam hit back by claiming that Chloe was the one who had been unfaithful, and thus a war of words between the pair ensued. Two's company: Chloe was joined on her spa day by Bethan, 25, who also looked sensational in a hot pink two-piece Despite this, the couple appeared to have patched things up by November, with rumours circulating that Sam had moved back into the home they share in Newcastle. After reuniting on a trip to Thailand in December, things fell apart for the couple yet again last month. A source revealed to The Sun: 'Chloe's finally cut ties with Sam and is moving on by herself. Today is Chloe's official moving day and she's so excited for the fresh start. 'It feels like the dawn of a new beginning for Chloe. No more Sam riding on her coat tails or trying to muscle in on what is hers.' BART riders have many, many questions about the beleaguered public transit system. Fortunately, Lateefah Simon, the relatively newly selected president of the BART Board of Directors, has some answers. Shed better. Not only is she tasked with guiding the love-it-or-hate-it system into a brighter future, but she also depends on it every day. The 43-year-old single mother is legally blind and cannot drive. She depends on BART to get from her home in Richmond, the end of the line in western Contra Costa County, to just about anywhere she needs to be. It was slow today, she said with a sigh after disembarking at Powell Street Station to record a San Francisco City Insider podcast episode at the Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets. She said that shes increasingly recognized on BART and that her fellow passengers have a lot of things to say. Thats the cool thing about being an actual consumer of the institution you are representing, she said. I need the system to work, not just for me but for everybody whos sitting and standing around me. She fielded questions from me and from a host of BART riders who responded to a query on Twitter about what I should ask her. Here are some highlights: On homelessness on the trains: In a region with spiking homeless numbers, rampant income inequality, a housing shortage and far too few shelter beds, its no surprise homeless people are using the trains to sleep and the station hallways to rest. I have a lot of very strong views about homelessness, Simon said. My dad died in a homeless hotel in San Francisco four years ago. He was a man of great dignity and fell on hard times. In that dignity, he didnt want to infringe upon anyone in the family. I think about him every single time we have these conversations in the abstract. She said its not humane for people to live in a tunnel or sleep on a train. But she said its also not humane for BART police officers to merely remove them from the stations with nowhere to go and theyll probably just head back into the station anyway. She said solving the homeless crisis is not BARTs job, and that leaders of Bay Area cities and counties have to move faster to house and provide drug treatment on demand for people who are having the roughest times of their lives. Folks deserve treatment, and they deserve beds, and BARTs not going to provide that, Simon said. She said theres a state of emergency when it comes to homelessness in the Bay Area, and that cities should adopt right-to-shelter laws that obligate them to provide a shelter space for every homeless person. A state right-to-shelter law is being considered in Sacramento this year and is backed by the co-chairs of Gov. Gavin Newsoms homelessness task force. New York City has such a law, which is one reason homeless people are less visible there than they are in San Francisco, though homeless advocates say the quality of the shelters there is often miserable. Mayor London Breed has pledged to open 1,000 shelter beds by the end of this year, but even as more come on line, the waiting list for cots each night hovers stubbornly at around 1,000 people. This week, 927 people waited for a shelter bed in San Francisco, one of the richest cities in the world. No. 135 was 84 years old. On fare evasion: This is one of the most contentious issues for the public transit system. BART says people jumping over the gates without paying costs the agency an estimated $15 million to $25 million a year. The agency aims to replace current fare gates with new, harder-to-jump gates but that will cost an eye-popping $150 million. The agency has also stepped up the presence of fare inspectors. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Simon said she would prefer doing away with discussions about fare gates and fare inspectors and making the whole system free, but that would take $500 million in revenue the agency simply doesnt have. But that doesnt mean that Im going to stop trying, she said. In the meantime, BART is launching a program this spring to make fares 20% cheaper for those who qualify for government assistance such as Section 8 housing or food stamps. But, meanwhile, fares in general are steep. Simon gets free rides as a BART director, but said its not uncommon for people to spend $20 a day on BART. On the new ambassador program: BART riders have increasingly complained about not feeling safe on trains, and the board voted unanimously in January to pilot a six-month ambassador program. Currently, 10 uniformed personnel who dont have a gun or a police badge walk the trains in teams of two, providing extra eyes and ears and help for riders who need it. Ambassadors are present in the system from 2 p.m. to midnight seven days a week, focusing on the stations from Civic Center to 12th Street in Oakland. Simon pushed for the creation of the program and said shes thrilled when she spots ambassadors on trains. I get really excited, like, Hello! Of course, theyre like, Who are you? she said with a laugh. Theyre sharp, and theyre smart, and I hope we can expand the program. To hear more from Simon including the fate of BART escalators, her views of drug use on trains, and whether BART or Muni is better listen to our entire conversation at sfchronicle.com/insider. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight usually appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf Who is an American? What happens when your country decides some people arent as American as others? Oregon Childrens Theatres latest production, The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, portrays the impact on one Japanese American family forced into a concentration camp during World War II. Yes, concentration camp. Director Dmae Roberts says the term internment camp is a euphemism that doesnt convey the reality of the forced removal and incarceration of some 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559 uses the same words President Franklin D. Roosevelt did: concentration camp. Ben Uchida is 12 years old when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Soon, neighbors turn against neighbors, and his family is forced from their home in San Francisco and imprisoned in a camp for the duration of the war. Roberts, executive producer of the Asian American/Pacific Islander company Theatre Diaspora, has told this story with care and authenticity, bringing in cultural consultants including the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. Its a story thats personal for several of the actors. Jenna Yokoyama, who plays sister Naomi Uchida, is a fourth-generation Japanese American whose grandparents were incarcerated in California as teens. Actor David Loftus, whose mother was imprisoned in a camp as a girl, plays Bens father. Ive lived with this story a long time, he said. And yet the story now has a lot more resonance because I see racism and people wanting to say, Were Americans and theyre not. It is, unfortunately, a timely issue. The hourlong show comes with an online study guide for teachers and parents to facilitate discussions around prejudice and injustice. After the evening performances on March 6 and 13, the theater will host post-show discussion panels with local camp survivors and their descendants. There's a decided avoidance of this topic in our history, and that's one of the reasons I feel a lot of importance doing this, said Sumi Wu, who plays Bens mother, Lily. Many Americans didnt learn about this period of history, or fully understand what happened, until they were adults. When you learn something as a child, it becomes part of the truth of how you understand your country, Wu said. Whereas, we have to kind of reorganize our ideas if we learned it as an adult. A kids point of view: Because this show is aimed at children, Alayna Vo, a big theater fan, joined me for this review. At 9, shes a few months younger than the recommended audience group, but her mother reviewed the shows content warnings and thought it was an important production for her to see. The show contains indirect references to suicide and, in one school-yard bully scene, racial slurs against Asian Americans. Alayna, whos in the fourth grade, had read about Pearl Harbor in school. She said a friend told her about the camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned. She didnt tell me much, but she told me if the Japanese camps were still going, she would be there, Alayna said. And shes really nice and really funny. I know that (sending people to camps) was a really bad decision that people made. I asked Alayna what she thought of a scene in which Bens former friend taunts him and calls him names. There are sometimes people that will tease you about where your family is from, if your parents werent born in America, Alayna said. My dad was born in Vietnam, so that makes me a little Vietnamese, and sometimes there are kids at school who tease me about it, but I dont let that get me down because I know theyre wrong. Strengths: Chisao Hata, who served as choreographer and cultural consultant for the show, and scenic designer John Kashiwabara have created a beautiful setting for this story in stage design and movement. I thought the newspaper part was really cool, Alayna adds, describing a scene in which characters read a barrage of headlines from the unfolding war, raising newspapers almost as if they were paper fans. Weaknesses: Depicting an on-stage suicide for a young audience is challenging, and this production addresses it artistically but perhaps too vaguely. Were it not for the content warning stating the play contained visual imagery and indirect references to suicide, wed be left questioning how one key character dies. I thought it was really confusing, Alayna said. I was like, what happened? I thought he died of a sickness. Maybe thats not all bad. This gives parents and educators a wide berth to discuss the topic on their terms with young audiences. Takeaway: Kids will understand the broader messages of the play, even if younger children lack the language to fully talk about it. The production isnt too scary for younger kids, but it may be too abstract. Middle and high school audiences will be better able to grapple with the social and political issues raised by the story. I feel like its important for people to see, Alayna said. But just dont take a 3-year-old, they probably wouldnt even know what was happening. I recommend 9-and-a-half and up, because Im 9-and-a-half and I understood some of it, but some of it was confusing. Also, dont feel you need a child to take in this important story. This is not a childrens show, or at least, its much more than a childrens show. The artistic design and solid performances make this just as powerful for adults to appreciate. The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559 When: 2 and 5 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 22; 7 p.m. Fridays March 6 and 13 Where: Winningstad Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway Ave. Tickets: $15-32, octc.org or 503-228-9571 -- Samantha Swindler; sswindler@oregonian.com; @editorswindler Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the country has attained food security following the closure of land borders across the country. This was part of his remarks while meeting with Bashir Mamman Ifo, the outgoing president of the ECOWAS Bank for investment and development (EBID) and George Nana Donkor, his successor. We have saved millions of dollars. We have realised that we dont have to import rice. We have achieved food security, NAN quoted him to have said. We have curtailed the importation of drugs and proliferation of small arms which threaten our country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using an algorithm in 2013 that recommends or denies the release of those arrested for immigration violations and a new lawsuit claims the technology is rigged. Filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Bronx Defenders, the allegations say ICE officials in New York City tampered with the software to eliminate the release option. The plaintiffs, which are referring to the complaint as the 'no-release policy', are pointing fingers at changes made in the risk-assessment algorithm that occurred in 2017. The lawsuit states that from 2013 to June 2017, ICE's New York division released approximately 47 percent of detainees deemed low risk to be released, but changes to the system saw that rate drop to just three percent from June 2017 to September 2019. Scroll down for videos Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using an algorithm in 2013 that recommends or denies the release of those arrested for immigration violations and a new lawsuit claims the technology is rigged Amy Belsher, a staff attorney at the NYCLU told Politico: 'ICE has secretly decided to detain thousands of New Yorkers unlawfully, inflicting enormous and entirely unnecessary harms.' The law requires that ICE makes an individualized assessment based on the person's family ties, how long they have been in the country and criminal history to determine if they are a flight risk or threat to society and the algorithm is used to provide a recommendation. The lawsuit states that ICE changed the technology to prevent it from recommending that people be released on bond or their own recognizance. Instead, they rigged the algorithm in a way that would detain the individual without bond or shift the final decision to an ICE supervisor, 'who in ICE's New York Field Office, will almost inevitably order the person detained without bond,' the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit states that from 2013 to June 2017, ICE's New York division released approximately 47 percent of detainees deemed low risk to be released, but changes to the system saw that rate drop to just three percent from June 2017 to September 2019 'Once denied release under the new policy, people remain unnecessarily incarcerated in local jails for weeks or even months before they have a meaningful opportunity to seek release in a hearing before an Immigration Judge,' the lawsuit states. 'While waiting for those hearings, those detained suffer under harsh conditions of confinement akin to criminal incarceration.' In 2017, ICE spokesman Matthew Bourke did say the agency removed the 'release' recommendation, but he noted that ICE personnel can override it. The document also names one of the petitioner-plaintiffs, Jose Velesaca, who was incarcerated for weeks before being allowed to see an immigration judge. Velesaca was first detained on January 30, 2020, without bond, and now resides at the Orange County Correctional Facility, where ICE rents bed space. ICE increased its efforts to seek out and arrest large numbers of people that may have violated immigration laws under the crackdown imposed by the Trump administration. Greg Chen, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association told Reuters: 'There has been a noticeable change since the administration took over of greater reluctance, if not outright unwillingness, by ICE to entertain or grant bond.' The number of detained immigrants requesting bond hearings in immigration court their only option if ICE denies them bond when they are arrested surged 38 percent during the first year of the Trump administration from the previous year to 73,000, a two-decade high, a Reuters analysis of EOIR data shows. Incumbent Justin Rodriguez fended off challenger Queta Rodriguez in the Democratic primary for a seat on Bexar County Commissioners Court. Justin Rodriguez, a former state representative, was appointed to the Precinct 2 commissioners seat in 2019 after the death of longtime commissioner Paul Elizondo. He won the primary with 59 percent of the vote compared to 41 percent for Queta Rodriguez. In all, Justin Rodriguez received 22,308 votes, while Queta Rodriguez got 15,511 votes. No Republican filed to run for the Precinct 2 seat, so the winner of the Democratic primary will run unopposed in the November general election. Precinct 2 encompasses part of the citys north and west sides and a broad swath of western Bexar County. Right now, we feel really good in terms of where we are at. We are holding steady and feel pretty confident, Justin Rodriguez said Tuesday night from his watch party at a Mexican restaurant on the citys West Side. On ExpressNews.com: State lawmaker expected to fill Elizondos seat Rodriguez, 45, a father of three, was a city councilman from 2007 to 2011 and before that sat on the board of the San Antonio Independent School District. He also was a juvenile court prosecutor in the Bexar County District Attorneys Office. Most recently, he served three terms in the Texas House, representing House District 125. He left the Legislature in January 2019 when Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff tapped him to replace Elizondo, who had died the month before at age 83. On ExpressNews.com: Rodriguez versus Rodriguez compete for Bexar County Commissioner Queta Rodriguez, 49, a mother of four, served two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence analyst and manpower officer, supporting forces in the Pacific and the Middle East. After retiring from the Marines, she took over Bexar Countys veterans office and won plaudits for improving the countys support for veterans transitioning into civilian life. In 2018, she made a run for the Precinct 2 seat against Elizondo, who had held the seat for three decades. Elizondo was reelected, but by the narrowest margin of his career. On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County Commissioner Paul Elizondo is dead at age 83 Queta Rodriguez (no relation to her primary opponent) was among those who sought to be appointed to the vacant seat after Elizondos death. When Wolff chose Justin Rodriguez instead, she said it was insulting that the county judge had passed over many capable and competent female candidates. The appointment was made with zero community inputs, Queta Rodriguez said. I believe in democracy. The community didnt get a voice. The five-member court has been an all-male body since 2001. Only two women have ever served on the court. Heading into Tuesdays primary, Justin Rodriguez said voters would have the chance to pass judgment on his performance. This is a way for (voters) to say, Hey, you are doing good. Or Youre not, he said. They see what I can do. I dont have any fear of asking for their approval or disapproval at the ballot box. I embrace it. Accusing the BJP of trying to destabilise the Kamal Nath-led government in Madhya Pradesh, minister on Wednesday said the saffron party's behaviour was more worrying than and that the Congress was trying to find an antibiotic for it. The Congress leader also said that despite the BJP's attempts to poach MLAs, there was no threat to the government as Kamal Nath was a "very able" chief minister. BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar hit back at Chavan saying it does not behove a leader of his stature to make such "frivolous" comments. He also said that his party does not indulge in horse-rading. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. Doing a wordplay as he hit out at the BJP over the alleged "Operation Lotus" (poaching of MLAs) in Madhya Pradesh, Chavan told reporters outside the state legislature building complex here, "The BJP's behaviour is more worrying than Hence, precaution must be taken. We are trying to find an antibiotic for it." Chavan also said that 'Operation Lotus' has become a "routine affair" now and that non-BJP parties have grown accustomed to it. He added that there is no threat to the Congress government in "The BJP tries to poach MLAs in the states where it is not in power. But Kamal Nath is a very able chief minister and there is no threat to Congress government in Madhya Pradesh," he added. Hitting back, Mungantiwar said it does not behove a leader of the former's stature to make such comments. "If that is the case, then the word begins with letter 'c' and so does the word 'Congress'...a provision needs to be made in the budget to train leaders (on what to speak)," Mungantiwar said, noting the budget session in the state is on. He said the BJP never indulges in horse-trading to form the government. The former state minister said it is not the BJP's fault if the Congress MLAs want to leave their party. "So, I think, the government of those who make frivolous government should come down," Mungantiwar said. A group of Canadian women who suffered ill-effects from implantation of a medical device called transvaginal mesh will receive a total of $21.5 million in compensation under a proposed class-action settlement, court records show. The settlement, between the women and Boston Scientific, involves about 325 women who received the implants. Their share of the money would depend on the severity of their medical issues. In approving the class definition and method for reaching out to class members, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell noted the settlement is similar to another recently approved class action involving the mesh. Final approval of the current action is expected in June. The net-like implants are used to treat conditions such as stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. The implants are designed to reinforce a weak vaginal wall or support the urethra or bladder neck. The polypropylene mesh is widely used. However, many recipients have had an array of serious side effects. Boston Scientific is the Canadian subsidiary of its Delaware-based parent and is the sole distributor of the companys transvaginal mesh devices in Canada. The product has been implanted in thousands of Canadian women. The lead plaintiff in the class action, Susan Vester, suffered painful complications from her implant. Court documents show she was given the device in January 2010 as a way to prevent incontinence an operation about 25,000 women a year have in Canada. Among other complications, Vester said she suffered urinary problems, difficulty walking, emotional stress and pain during sexual intercourse. She argued she was unaware of the risks before the surgery and would have refused the procedure had she known. Vester and her husband sued Boston Scientific, alleging the devices were defective and unsafe. Among other things, they argued the mesh was negligently designed and sold, and that recipients had required intensive surgical interventions to try to alleviate the side-effects. The company maintained her complaints were the result of pre-existing medical conditions, not the mesh. It denied the product caused the problems about which the women complained. After initially refusing to do so in 2015, Perell certified the lawsuit as a class action in February 2017. There is some basis in fact that the polypropylene mesh in each of Boston Scientifics transvaginal devices has a clinically significant deficiency, Perell wrote at the time. Boston Scientifics arguments based on an alleged multiplicity of differences between the products, patients, and the complications, do not negate the commonality of the proposed common issues. The settlement also applies to about 20 or so women whove had the implants since the action was certified, and they have 60 days to opt out. Boston stopped selling the devices for treating pelvic organ prolapse last July. Daniel Bach, the Vesters lawyer, said his clients were happy with the settlement, in which Boston Scientific admits no liability. This agreement will enable members of the class to receive compensation for the injuries they allege, Bach said. In an earnings call last month, the U.S. companys chief financial officer said Boston was working to resolve litigation over the mesh. More than 95 per cent of known claims were settled or were in the final stages of settlement, Dan Brennan said. He said the company expected to pay $115 million (U.S.) into settlement funds this year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 13:25 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206833c53 1 Art & Culture #art,#culture,#artists,#women,#Indonesia,#science,#technology,#visual Free Women millennial artists in Indonesia are entering the domain of science and technology with confidence and a whisk of female energy, breaking through the long-held assumption that scitech is a mans world. This was particularly evident at the recent international media art festivals Instrumenta #2 Machine/Magic and Wave of Tomorrow, in which they took part with their male counterparts. Some of these young women artists displayed their artwork along such greats as the famous Cyprus-born, Australia-based performance artist Stelarc, whose works focus heavily on extending human capabilities, while others mingled in all-women shows such as Into the Future, which featured the works of 21 artists. 'A Perfect Marriage' by Irene Agrivina (Courtesy of Irene Agrivina/-) Of early note is Irene Agrivina who, besides cofounding the XXLab women's collective that produces fashion and electricity from tofu residue, shines individually with works that focus on the intimate symbiotic relationship between Azolla, a tiny aquatic fern, and the filamentous, microscopic blue-green alga Anabaena, which she called A Perfect Marriage. Irene also applied a biological process aided by open-source software and hardware to convert porridge into cellulose. Combining this with several bacterial species, including vaginal flora, to produce women's underwear that protects the female genital tract against harmful pollutants. Different and more abstract are the works of Farhanaz Rupaidha, who creates video installations and algorithmic/generative art through channel amalgamation to express her concerns about the future of human existence. Farhanaz created Ground for Instrumenta #2, through which she lays bare the fact that advanced digital technology has merely shifted data to become just a part of the data stored on various devices. She also exhibited the interactive piece titled Re-imagining Tribhuwana in Wave of Tomorrow, derived from researching the history of the Majapahit era. Farhanaz was surprised to learn that, aside from the oft-mentioned King Hayam Wuruk, another prominent figure of the empire was Queen Tribhuwana, who undertook expansive journeys from Aceh to Bali. Using three interactive panels, Farhanaz illustrates the queen's daring expeditions, the figure representing the queen sliding like a phantom across maps of the archipelago to trace her journey. Sound machine: Artist Monica Hapsari explores spiritual beliefs and teachings through her 'Kechari' installation art. (Courtesy of Monica Hapsari /.) Starting from the very personal, Monica Hapsari sought her inner self by exploring religious teachings, including ancient beliefs, folklore and mysticism. She finally found her way at a Himalayan Buddhist temple, where she had an auditory experience that ancient teachings believed to be the first human sense of sound. From this basis she explored Kimatika (cymatics), a study of vibrational phenomena and frequencies that are thought to have psychological and spiritual effects on a person, and which is sometimes referred to as "scientific sorcery". During her research, Monica found evidence of the phenomenon in Buddhist chants, Islamic zikir, Christian litanies and the like. She expresses her findings in the Instrumenta exhibition with Kechari, a sound installation designed as a kind of cymatic machine. Made of steel slabs arranged in a hexagonal shape on the floor, the machine forms part of a mandala made of yellow desert sand. By sprinkling the yellow sand, visitors are able to evoke the sound waves and frequencies of a recording of two of the oldest musical instruments: the human uvula and vocal cords. 'Multiverse' by Nindya Nareswari and Maulana Ahmad (Courtesy of Nindya Naresware and Maulana Ahmad/.) Another engaging work is Multiverse, created by Berlin-based lighting designer and artist Nindya Nareswari and Bandung-based designer Maulana Ahmad, who explore the heights of human imagination through a portal that connects our world with imagined parallel universes, presented as a projection of abstract moving images intended to conjure up an imaginary, utopian world. The germination of the artwork stems from Nindyas experiments with light. I wanted to capture the polarity of light through a special filter, she explained. Using several kinds of plastic, she found that each type of plastic produced a unique color when viewed through the filter, while different angles produced a variety of colors. In a future project, she imagines connecting experiential lighting with individual human emotions, infused with quality of life as an addition, particularly when the sensor is planted in the human body. Meanwhile, Natasha Tontey continues her speculations on a future in which humans will no longer be the center of life. In her From Pest to Power video installation and performance in 2019, which recently received an award, she declared that the cockroach the only species to survive the Earth's many extinction events and epochal transformations was the key to environmental sustainability. She is now exploring stones as yet another key to sustaining life into the future for her upcoming video for Amsterdam's Other Futures Festival in April 2020. Stones existed before anything else on earth, and has an interiority equal to other living creatures, says Natasha. 'If We Were XYZ' by Melati Suryodarmo (Courtesy of Melati Suryodarmo/-) How women artists will evolve alongside technological advancements can only be imagined at this stage. But it is telling that even the celebrated durational performance artist Melati Suryodarmo recently looked to technology in devising her "Sleep Laboratory" to explore the subconscious during sleep. The Sleep Laboratory documented her and others' dreams through complex audio recordings that also measured brainwaves, which she interpreted by drawing on Javanese mysticism to determine the colors of each dream. Melati, whose latest exhibition Why Let the Chicken Run just opened at Museum MACAN in Jakarta, collaborated with technologist Antonius Oki Wiriadjaja to decipher the lab's data. She then turned the dreamscapes into the 3- hour performance If We Were XYZ, which was presented in October 2019 at the Asia Society Museum in New York. (ste) Stories of people irresponsibly coming in contact with wild animals in zoos aren't unheard of. The latest horror story is of a man from Ranchi who lost his life after falling into tigress Anushka's cage. Twitter According to Zee News, a 22-year-old man jumped into the big cat's cage in Ormanjhi zoo in Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park after climbing a tree close to the zoo's wall. Zookeeper Ramjeet stated that once the man was inside the cage, he was immediately attacked by the tigress. His carelessness led him to lose his life in a way no one could even imagine. Inshorts Reports add that zoo authorities tried their best to rescue the youth but in vain. The identity of the man is yet to be determined as no other details about him are available. The police are investigating his unfortunate death by going through the CCTV footage of the zoo to find out whether he was alone or accompanied by a group. Last year, a 21-year-old man had climbed into a lion enclosure in a zoo in Delhi and had spent several moments sitting close to the king of the jungle before he was fortunately rescued by the zoo authorities. He was claimed to be mentally unstable which led him to carry out such a dangerous stunt. Luckily for him, he came out completely unharmed. Twitter Cages and enclosures exist for a reason, even though the reasons are a problem on their own because they restrict the animal from living its life. That aside, as long as these zoos exist, following their rules is a smart idea if you value your life. Maharashtra NCP chief and state minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday took a dig at BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar saying that he keeps dreaming about being in power although his party is in the opposition. He said Mungantiwar was dreaming like Mungerilal, a fictional character from Doordarshan series 'Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne', who daydreams and lands in comic situations. Patil's remarks came a day after former state minister Mungantiwar said his party would support the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government if the NCP and Congress tried to pressurise the Sena to grant Muslim quota by pulling out. However, Mungantiwar hit back at him saying that even in his dreams, Patil sees his party losing power and that he was afraid of what would happen to the NCP in case the Shiv Sena and BJP came together. The NCP and Congress have said the government will provide five per cent quota to Muslims in education. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Tuesday that he has not received any proposal about the reservation and that the government is yet to take any decision on it. Patil said a book titled 'Mungantiwar Ke Haseen Sapne' will be released after five years (when the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress completes its tenure). "We all know about 'Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne'. Similarly, Mungantiwar's dreams have become known to Maharashtra. He gave only dreams as a finance minister to the people of Maharashtra. Nothing of it was realised," Patil told reporters outside state legislature building complex. "Now, he is in the opposition and dreaming daily that he will be in power. Daily, he is dreaming about Muslim quota or some other issue driving the two (Congress and NCP) away from the government," he said. In his response, Mungantiwar said, "Jayant Patil's blood pressure and sugar level shoot up even if we see dreams." "He is afraid of what will happen to his party in case the two friends (Shiv Sena and BJP) come together. Even in his dreams, Patil sees that his party has lost power. Hence, he says that we (the BJP) should not see dreams," Mungantiwar said. Mungantiwar reiterated that the BJP will stand with the Shiv Sena on the issue if Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray decides to oppose the quota citing the Constitution. Meanwhile, when asked about Mungantiwar's comment that the BJP would support the Sena on the quota issue, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis responded saying, "Definitely. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Restriction on imports from China, amid the severe Covid-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak in the country, has cost the hosiery industry in Ludhiana dear as the availability of limited stock has jacked up the prices of fabric and accessories. The crisis is expected to worsen in the near future, say experts. Hazuri Road Hosiery Association president Harkirat Singh Rana said retailers were selling accessories such as buttons and needles at a higher price. A box of buttons that would earlier cost 100 is now being sold for 125. Similarly, the price of 100 needles from China has shot up from 1,500 to 2,200. Earlier, wholesalers would themselves travel to China to buy these items. As they are no longer able to do so, they are stockpiling the goods. This is causing an increase in prices due to limited availability of stock, he said, adding that the price of machine accessories that were imported from China had also increased. Bahadur Ke Road Textile Association president Tarun Jain Bawa said, We are largely dependent on China for cheap accessories. If the situation does not improve soon, the crisis will worsen in a month. Members of Dyers Association also said there was a shortage of chemicals in the market. Earlier, garment manufacturers had raised concerns over lack of imports from China that had caused the price of accessories to increase by nearly 25%. The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday ordered closure of an iron ore mine owned by BJP MLA and mining baron Sanjay Pathak, said to be a key figure in the poaching row in the Congress-ruled state. The administration in Jabalpur district, where the mine is located, ordered closure of the facility for allegedly violating a Supreme Court ruling, officials said. The mine belongs to M/s Nirmala Minerals, a company owned by Pathak, a former Congressman who joined the BJP and served as a minister in the erstwhile Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. "Yes I have passed the order banning M/s Nirmala Minerals's operations in two areas in Sehora with immediate effect, Jabalpur Collector Bharat Yadav told PTI. The mine is spread over Agariya and Dubiyara villages in Sihora tehsil, some 50km from district headquarters. "The lease holder (the mining firm) of khasra (survey) No 1093 and khasra No 628/1 has failed to prove in last six months that an order passed by the Supreme Court on March 3, 2019, banning mining on (forest) land, does not apply to his operational area," another official said. "So the collector today banned Nirmala Minerals from carrying out mining operations," he said and confirmed the mine in question belongs to Pathak. The BJP MLA has named the company after his mother Nirmala, he said. Following the SC order, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), on whose jurisdiction the mining area falls, on June 7, 2019, approached the Jabalpur district collector for its implementation. Three days later, the district collector banned mining operations of Nirmala Minerals in Sihora, the officer said. But on August 13, 2019, the collector stayed his own order on advice of the state advocate general following a review application received in the matter, the said. Attempts to contact Pathak did not yield any result. In a late-night political drama, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. The BJP has denied the Congress charge that it was attempting to poach MLAs to topple the Kamal Nath government. According to sources in the Congress, Pathak was one of the key figures allegedly involved in efforts to convince a section of MLAs to change sides. Pathak, son of former Congress leader Satyendra Pathak, is the MLA from Vijayraghogarh in Katni district. He was the richest candidate during the 2013 Assembly elections with declared assets worth over Rs 226 crore. They said Pathak has good rapport with several Congress MLAs, including cabinet ministers who were once his colleagues in the now ruling party. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 107. The simple majority mark in the house is 116. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party are providing crucial support to the Congress government. Two seats are currently vacant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Vice President Joe Biden told supporters in Los Angeles on Tuesday night that his campaign is proof that in politics, anything can happen. "It's a good night," Biden declared. "Things are looking awful, awful good." After dismal showings in the early primaries, Biden's luck turned around this weekend in South Carolina, where he easily won the primary. By the time Biden took the stage in Los Angeles, he was the projected winner of seven Super Tuesday primaries. "For those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign," he said. "Just a few days ago, the press and the pundits had declared the campaign dead and then came South Carolina, and they had something to say about it. And we're told well, when we get to Super Tuesday, it's over. It may be over for the other guy. Tell that to the folks in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota, and maybe even Massachusetts, where it's too close to call." Biden declared that he was there to report "we are very much alive," and it's his campaign that will "send Donald Trump packing." He promised to tackle climate change, improve the quality of education in the United States, and fight for the middle class. "We want a nominee who will beat Donald Trump but also keep Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House and win back the United States Senate. If that's what you want, join us. If you want a nominee who is a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a proud Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat, join us." More stories from theweek.com Trump is now trying to blame Obama for his coronavirus response It's 2020 and women are exhausted Medical screener at Los Angeles International Airport tests positive for coronavirus As concerns persist over youth vaping, legal attacks on leading e-cigarette company Juul have intensified. Last month, Attorney General Josh Shapiro added Pennsylvania to the growing list of states suing Juul. The lawsuit claims Juul misled consumers about the health risks of nicotine vaping and improperly marketed the products to youths, and calls for a statewide ban on the companys products, including tobacco-flavored ones. By the end of February, a group of 39 state attorneys general, led by Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas, announced an investigation into Juuls marketing practices. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and other flavored tobacco. Proponents of legal action against Juul suggests its necessary to hold the e-cigarette makers accountable for what the Food and Drug Administration declared an epidemic of teen vaping, with over five million teen users in the U.S. But critics worry that resulting restrictions or bans on e-cigarette sales will interfere with Juul use by adults who rely on the product to quit cigarettes, which are worse for health. The Inquirer turned to a lawyer who has gone head-to-head with Juul, and the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, to ask: Are these lawsuits a good idea? Yes: They should tackle Juul, and go a step farther to tobacco companies. By Neil Makhija In just three years, the e-cigarette company Juuls combination of fruity flavors, highly addictive nicotine salts, and Fyre Festival-style influencer marketing have put six million American children at risk of lifelong nicotine addiction. State attorneys general, counties, and individuals are now filing hundreds of lawsuits against Juul. Last month, one such lawsuit was filed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Shapiro is right to hold Juul accountable but, like Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma, Juul may well go bankrupt, having already lost $24 billion, or two-thirds of its value. Pennsylvanians would be unlikely to receive treatment anytime soon via lawsuits against Juul alone, and Juuls chief investors would still make away with billions of dollars. In order to protect kids and achieve any justice, state attorneys general have to look beyond Juul to the Big Tobacco companies that fueled Juuls rise. State attorneys general have a powerful tool at their disposal none of them has yet used in this case. In the 1990s, 46 state attorneys general sued Big Tobacco companies and settled the $246 billion Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). The MSA, still in effect, prohibits leading cigarette manufacturers from taking any action that directly or indirectly targets youth. The MSA also restricts companies from sharing cigarette formulas unless the recipient also abides by the agreement. The MSA was strikingly effective at reducing nicotine use among teens until Juul came along and evaded regulations. Juul, founded as Ploom in 2007, never signed the MSA. But two of Juuls largest investors did: Japan Tobacco International, one of the worlds largest tobacco companies and owner of the Winston and Camel brands, and Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris. A third MSA signatory, R.J. Reynolds, is reported to have supplied scientific research to Juul through consultants. When Plooms first vaporizer product flopped, Japan Tobacco International, through its Swiss-based entity, came to the rescue with a cash infusion and access to floors of scientists. R.J. Reynolds devised the potent nicotine formulation that ended up in Juuls product. With Big Tobaccos resources, Ploom became Juul and created a high school sensation. Once the masses were hooked, Altria invested $12.8 billion and agreed to give Juuls flavored e-cigarettes prime shelf space at convenience stores, a common location for kids to buy them. Juul served as a vessel for Big Tobacco to hook new kids. State attorneys general can take legal action to hold these Big Tobacco companies accountable for their support of Juul, which patently designed and marketed a product for children. In 2005, Californias attorney general successfully invoked the MSA and a related agreement to sue R.J. Reynolds for advertising in magazines read by kids. State attorneys general should try a similar approach in order to make Big Tobacco pay for addiction treatment that millions of families cannot afford. State attorneys general can take legal action to hold these Big Tobacco companies accountable for their support of Juul. Neil Makhija Advocates who claim Juul is a harm reduction geared toward helping cigarette smokers quit disregard that Juuls chief investor is the maker of Marlboro. Even if the FDA bans flavored e-cigarettes tomorrow, six million children vaping will be at risk of taking up cigarettes. For the first time in decades, Big Tobacco companies have a new customer base, thanks to their support of Juul. In a world where addiction treatment is inaccessible and health care unaffordable, the least we can do is hold Big Tobacco accountable and prevent future conduct that targets kids. Neil Makhija is a consumer protection lawyer and lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He represented children in the first class-action lawsuit against Juul Labs Inc. @NeilMakhija No: Lawsuits could hinder Juul as a useful tool to get people off cigarettes. By Ethan Nadelmann Juul committed two great sins: It created a nicotine delivery device of great appeal not just to adults but to young people and sold 35% of itself to Big Tobacco. As a result, Juul is being pilloried by politicians, parents, and media, sued by assorted governments, and its products, alongside competing brands, banned around the country. But Juul did something else: Millions of Americans already have quit smoking by switching to vaping, some with cartridge-based systems like Juul, some with open systems that allow consumers to mix their own flavors. Juuls product, now being adapted by other manufacturers, may be the most effective of all. If the roughly two million Pennsylvanians who smoke cigarettes switched to vaping e-cigarettes, that would represent one of the greatest public health advances in state history even if some young people became regular vapers. Lets start with the facts: Vaping e-cigarettes is safer than smoking cigarettes much safer, according to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and approximately 95% safer, according to the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England. E-cigarettes are a prime example of a harm reduction, akin to needle exchange programs to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, supervised injection facilities to eliminate overdose fatalities, and methadone to help people dependent on illicit street opioids lead safer, healthier lives. Harm reduction makes sense for tobacco because, as Michael Russell, the father of tobacco harm reduction, stated: People smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar. Many people find nicotine hard to quit once theyve started using regularly, but it alone causes relatively little harm to health. Thats why the FDA recently approved an oral tobacco pouch, snus, for harm reduction, and why theyve allowed the sale of heat-not-burn tobacco devices like IQOS. Restrictions on Juul would likely drive consumers to more dangerous products like lower-quality e-cigarettes or combustible cigarettes. Ethan Nadelmann Snus and IQOS arent 100% without risk, but they are, like e-cigarettes, much safer than combustible cigarettes, which prematurely kill half of all long-term smokers. They also help people quit smoking. A randomized trial found e-cigarettes almost twice as effective as gums, patches, and other nicotine replacement therapies. Smokers trying to quit reportedly find it easier to do so with the same nontobacco flavors young people like. Seven years ago, more Americans than not correctly perceived vaping as safer than smoking. Now polls find most Americans incorrectly thinking the opposite, and blaming nicotine vaping for the 2,807 hospitalizations and 68 deaths linked to e-cigarettes since last year when the actual cause was illegal, tainted THC (i.e., marijuana) vape cartridges. Such misperceptions are deadly, potentially deterring millions of smokers from switching to vaping and even moving some vapers back to smoking. While Juul should be held accountable for marketing directed at young people who were not already using more dangerous tobacco products, lawsuits dont seem the right approach. Company executives, eager to placate the FDA, already halted marketing and the sale of flavors that could be construed as targeting young people and reportedly have designed a version with an age-proof lock. Meanwhile, restrictions on Juul resulting from legal action and the ban Attorney General Shapiro calls for would likely drive consumers to more dangerous products like lower-quality e-cigarettes and/or combustible cigarettes. If theres a silver lining to lawsuits, its that judges typically abide by higher evidentiary standards than governors and legislators. Late last year, judges in New York and Massachusetts blocked vaping bans rashly ordered by governors. Sometimes theres no better check on a moral panic than a court compelled to review the evidence in an objective manner. Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and former executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. (Photo : Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images | via Tiziana Celine) A powerful tornado tore through Nashville in Tennessee and its surrounding counties Monday evening. Part of the damages included partner facilities working for Dell, which runs corporate offices and manages multiple fulfillment centers for the region. The Verge reported that several of Dell's partner centers had sustained damage from the storm, while the laptop maker's own offices in Nashville remain intact. Dell, according to The Verge, sympathized with the Nashville community and Dell team members in the area as the people begin to cope with the aftermath of the devastating storm. "While we can confirm the Dell facility in the area is intact, we're aware of Dell partner facilities that sustained visible damage, and we've reached out to offer our support." ALSO READ: Superfish-Like Security Flaw Found On Dell Laptops Multiple tech facilities also damaged; may affect Dell's workflow Apart from Dell's facilities, anecdotal reports suggest that a couple of fulfillment centers have sustained massive damages. An informant in Nashville informed The Verge that a facility run by FedEx, which manages the employer's Custom Factory Integration services and houses Dell retail inventory, was heavily damaged by the storm. The source additionally said the tornado damaged more than one fulfillment facilities run with the aid of Ceva Logistics. If valid, this may present a massive responsibility to Dell's supply chain and might bring a great deal of its retail extent being routed to different cities. FedEx also sympathized with the Nashville community, according to The Verge. "The safety and well-being of our team members are our [primary] concern --- we have some reports of team member injuries related to the storm." The international logistics provider said it continues to assess facility damage and operational impact in the area. The National Weather Service said that Mount Juliet, where several Dell's centers are located, noticed winds over 155 miles per hour. ALSO READ: Dell Announces Google Chromebook For Corporate Users How Dell paved the way for Nashville's exploding tech sector Several of Dell's corporate providers are placed in the Nashville region, and the organization works closely with nearby vendors. Dell, while the company's jobs impact has fallen short of its target and of local government leaders' lofty expectations, has made its mark as the city's first and critical foray into the tech industry that has since thrived in Nashville, especially in recent years. Eric Coffey, a vice president and executive site manager of the Nashville office who started with Dell in Nashville in 2001, said the computer maker is fundamentally the only significant-tech footprint in Middle Tennessee. He added tech business in the region is booming 20 years after it was established in the area. Mayor David Briley's workplace praised the employer's contributions to the Nashville network and underscored the role the agency played in the beyond 20 years of enterprise development. Briley's spokesperson, Thomas Mulgrew, said Dell was one of the first - if not the first - important international groups to wager on Nashville's success, bringing huge jobs and investment to the city. "They helped set the stage for what our financial system is today - a diverse, thriving region for agencies ranging from tech to manufacturing and more," he added. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. LEXINGTON A former Lexington man accused of sexually assaulting a child at a Lexington day care pleaded guilty Monday. Lane Wecker, 21, of Vermillion, S.D., pleaded guilty in Dawson County District Court to felony attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child. Court records indicate the charge was reduced from felony first-degree sexual assault of a child in a plea Monday. Sentencing will be April 20. Wecker faces up to 20 years in prison. Court records outline the case against Wecker: Wecker, formerly of Lexington, was accused of sexually penetrating a 4-year-old girl while he was watching her at an in-home day care between September 2018 and October 2018. The incident was reported to law enforcement in August 2019. Wecker had moved to South Dakota after the incident. He was arrested in August and since has been incarcerated at the Dawson County Jail on a $100,000 bond. President Trump's faith adviser, Rev. Paula White-Cain, appeared on Fox & Friends Sunday on March 1 and answered a question that befuddles NeverTrumpe and many in the media: why do evangelical Christian voters still support the president? The NeverTrumps point to this thing the president said, or that thing the president tweeted, to justify their own continuing and ever more irrelevant opposition to the president. They also use those side issues to shame and pull evangelical Christians away from the 45th president. It isn't working. At the height of impeachment, no voter group stuck with President Trump more strongly than white evangelicals. Fully 99% of them opposed impeaching and removing the president from office. His tweets and more controversial comments seem to have no effect on their support. If anything, evangelicals support Trump more strongly now than in 2016. To the president's faith adviser, Paula White-Cain, the rock-solid evangelical support for Trump is no mystery: he has done what he promised and promises to do more on policies and priorities that are important to evangelicals. "President Trump has made promises and kept those," White told Fox & Friends. "He is the most pro-life president, as he has stood so strong for life. Being the first president at the March for Life. [Strengthening] the Mexico City [policy], that's almost $9 billion of foreign aid that our tax dollars were paying for abortionists." White continued: "We look at the Supreme Court. And we see that there's almost 200 nominees to all the courts, lower courts and Supreme Court." Notably, President Trump has nominated and the Senate has confirmed judges who have tilted two of the nation's most notoriously left-wing courts, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California, to the center-right. In past decades, the left used these courts and others to enact their preferred legislative priorities from the bench and thwart conservative causes that had clear majority support. Trump's judicial picks have helped restore the courts to their constitutional role of reviewing legislation, not legislating based on the opinions of unelected judges. White-Cain also pointed out that while President Trump is strongly pro-life, the Democrats "are so indebted to the abortion industry they would not even sign on to the live birth [pledge] protecting a child even after it has come out of the mother's womb." "The country is wising up and saying 'That's not protection of life. That's not protection of anything,'" White-Cain added. Beyond the judicial picks and life policies, Trump has delivered more than he promised on regulation. Candidate Trump promised to roll back two federal regulations for every one his administration imposed. One of his first executive orders put this promise in writing. Trump has delivered on this promise times four removing more than eight regulations for every new one, according to a White House statement. The president is also said to be working on a new effort that will seek input from outside Washington to further cut into federal rules and regulations. White-Cain also pointed to President Trump's strong support for Israel and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. His clear support for America's only democratic ally in the Middle East stands in sharp contrast to the Democrats, who under President Barack Obama drifted away from Israel. In the years since, the Democrats have elevated openly anti-Israel leaders in Congress including the so-called "Squad," Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ihlan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). These four have put a hateful, even anti-Semitic, face on the Democratic Party at the same time Trump has stood unwaveringly by Israel's side. Evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Israel, from its right to exist to its right of self-defense, leaving Trump their clear and only choice. The Squad and many prominent Democrats also attack America itself, focusing on everything from American history to our capitalist, free-market economic system. The Democrats are poised to nominate an open socialist for the presidency, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Evangelical voters are overwhelmingly patriotic capitalists, as is President Trump. The Democrats' shift toward anti-American rhetoric and policy priorities including the Green New Deal, which Trump and most Americans oppose as an assault on freedom, will further cement evangelicals to support the president's re-election. White-Cain also highlighted Trump's "deliverables." "He has delivered on the economy. He has delivered on religious liberty. He has delivered on the courts. He has delivered in prison reform. He has delivered with women. He has delivered with all people, veterans, military." White summed it up: "He is a businessman that is a great fighter for this country." Pastor Greg Young is host of the nationally syndicated Chosen Generation Radio Show, which airs Monday through Friday on stations coast to coast. He served as a Russian linguist is the USAF. Discover more at chosengenerationradio.com. Image: Fox News via YouTube. As the cannabis sector gained popularity with investors back in 2018, the Canadian stocks garnered far more interest from investors than their U.S. counterparts. The ability of Canadian companies to list on major stock exchanges and their grand global aspirations sent those stock prices soaring. Even after a year of disappointments in Canada, the U.S. stocks still offer far better values for new investors. For 2020, analysts forecast the U.S. cannabis space to dominate the global cannabis markets in term of revenues. More than 50% of the global sales will occur in the U.S. with expectations for the country generating up to $17 billion in sales this year while Canadian sales may only reach $2.5 billion after a December where the monthly total was only $109 million (C$146 million). The real question here is whether international locations including Canada can reach these aggressive targets. The U.S. is set to continue to generate substantial revenue growth even with the federal government not approving cannabis. Federal approval of cannabis offers another bonus to investors in the U.S. market. A lot of the multi-state operators (MSOs) in the U.S havent garnered the same investor attention as the large Canadian LPs, but these secondary MSOs are now generating annual sales above $100 million. In addition, most MSOs have built in growth drivers as medical cannabis states approve recreational such as Illinois starting January 1, 2020. Other promising states for the next few years include Arizona, Florida, Ohio and New York. Weve delved into three stocks providing clear signs the U.S. cannabis space remains even more attractive in 2020. Using TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the trio alongside each other to get the lowdown on what the near-term holds for these cannabis players. Acreage Holdings (ACRGF) The prime example of the value in the U.S. MSO space in Acreage Holdings. The stock trades below $4 now while having an established right for Canopy Growth to acquire the company at a far higher price. Story continues For Q4, Acreage reported $43.6 million in revenues. Revenues were up 90% from last year, but the company still reported a quarterly EBITDA loss of $14.6 million. The revenue number was only up slightly from the Q3 total of $42.2 million. Unlike a lot of the large Canadian LPs that grabbed the stock markets attention last year, the U.S. MSO has the ability to simply expand via opening new stores. The company has the plans to open 10 to 15 new retail dispensaries during the year to bring total dispensaries to 45 and operations in 20 states. The stock will become far more appealing with or without Canopy Growth, if the company can achieve adjusted EBITDA positive goals in the 2H of the year. Acreage plans to cut $7 million in general and administrative costs this year while growing the company via the additional retail store openings and a larger shift into the wholesale market. The good news for investors is the Canopy Growth deal provides investors the right to 0.5818 shares of the Canadian LP when a triggering event occurs allowing the cannabis giant to acquire the company. Canopy Growth currently trades at $17.50 providing for a deal price of $10.18 or approaching 200% upside. What does the Street think? Looking at the consensus breakdown, opinions from analysts are spread out. 2 Buys and 1 Hold add up to a Moderate Buy consensus. In addition, the $11.50 average price target indicates over 220% upside potential. (See Acreage's price targets and analyst ratings on TipRanks) AYR Strategies (AYRSF) AYR Strategies is probably the least known vertically-integrated cannabis MSO. The stock has a market value of only $250 million despite just reporting a quarter with $32.3 million in sales and a positive EBITDA of $9.2 million. The company is a leading MSO with anchor operations in Massachusetts and Nevada. In Nevada, the company has dispensaries averaging an incredible $17 million in annual sales. While the stock has a market cap of only ~$250 million, AYR Strategies forecast 2020 revenues topping $207 million and reaching up to $227 million based on organic growth of 67% to 83%. The company even forecasts an incredible adjusted EBITDA in the range of $100 million. Despite all of these positive numbers, the stock trades down at $9 and far closer to the lows than the highs of nearly $20. The stock trades at only 2.5x EBITDA forecasts while most Canadian stocks trade at far higher multiples of sales while still losing substantial amounts of money. Over the past 3 month, "buy" ratings have outnumbered "holds" two-to-one on AYR Strategies, and the average price target cross all analysts surveyed by TipRanks stands at $15.39. Assuming they're right about that, investors in AYR Strategies today stand to rake in nearly 78% profit over the next year. (See AYR's price targets and analyst ratings on TipRanks) Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF) Last week, Green Thumb Industries opened a sixth retail dispensary in Illinois to sell recreational cannabis. The state had $40 million in sales during the first month of adult-use sales in January and alone will come close to matching current sales levels in Canada that only reached $109 million in December. Green Thumb now has over 40 retail stores, 13 manufacturing facilities and licenses for 96 retail stores in 12 U.S. states. The company reported Q3 revenues of $68 million already placing the company on a revenue path approaching $300 million before even including the potential sales from Illinois. In addition, the company has promising operations in Florida, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania where future approval of adult-use cannabis will boost sales without the company having to build out new stores or operations. The stock has a market value of $1.5 billion and trades near the yearly lows of the last few years. Green Thump traded as high as $20 all the way back in 2017. Analysts have sales reaching $460 million in 2020 and nearly $700 million in 2021. The stock has far too many catalysts to trade at 2x sales while the Canadian LPs trade at much higher valuations. If these valuations were to remain, the Canadian companies will ultimate look to the U.S. MSOs to acquire businesses once the Federal government approves cannabis in the country. Based on all the above factors, Wall Street also has high hopes for Green Thumb. As 4 Buy ratings were assigned in the last three months compared to single Hold, the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. To top it all off, its $17.18 average price target puts the potential twelve-month gain at a whopping 163%. (See Green Thumb's stock-price forecast and analyst ratings) HOUSTON, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tokio Marine HCC today announced it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire managing general agent GCube, a leading renewable energy risks specialist. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020. "We are pleased to acquire this outstanding underwriting organization and welcome the passion the GCube team of market-leading renewable energy professionals brings to the development of climate-friendly business models," said Susan Rivera, Tokio Marine HCCs Chief Executive Officer. GCube is one of the worlds largest underwriters of renewable energy, covering wind, solar, bio, hydro, wave and tidal projects globally. The business writes global property and liability cover for renewable energy construction and operational risks in 40 countries around the world and is a significant capacity provider to this expanding and dynamic market. GCube employs approximately 50 people and is based in London with additional offices in Amsterdam, New York and Newport Beach, California. "This strategic investment underlines our commitment to the renewable energy insurance market and our desire to actively address the issues around sustainability, helping us move towards a safe, secure and sustainable future. GCube also adds significant weight to our existing classes of specialty insurance and is in line with our strategy of acquiring businesses which possess real market-leading expertise, complement our existing portfolio and offer opportunities for growth and diversification," stated Barry Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Tokio Marine HCC International Group. Fraser McLachlan, GCubes Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are delighted to become part of the Tokio Marine HCC family. The groups corporate social responsibility efforts, financial strength and global reach leave us ideally positioned to continue our expansion in one of the most vibrant and evolving sectors of the market." We have worked closely with the GCube team for a number of years, and their addition to our group is a natural extension of this relationship. The renewable market offers significant opportunities for growth, and GCubes 25 years experience as a global leader clearly positions Tokio Marine HCC as an important trading and innovation partner in this emerging field, added Simon Button, Chief Underwriting Officer London Market division of Tokio Marine HCC International Group. Tokio Marine HCC is a member of the Tokio Marine Group, a premier global company founded in 1879 with a market capitalization of $39 billion as of December 31, 2019. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Tokio Marine HCC is a leading specialty insurance group with offices in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Tokio Marine HCCs major domestic insurance companies have financial strength ratings of A+ (Strong) from S&P Global Ratings, A++ (Superior) from A.M. Best, and AA- (Very Strong) from Fitch Ratings; its major international insurance companies have financial strength ratings of A+ (Strong) from S&P Global Ratings. Tokio Marine HCC is the marketing name used to describe the affiliated companies under the common ownership of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc., a Delaware-incorporated insurance holding company. For more information about Tokio Marine HCC, please visit www.tokiomarinehcc.com. As many as 161 travelers admitted to isolation wards of hospitals in tested negative for the (COVID-19), and currently only nine persons are quarantined in the state, the Health Department said on Wednesday. The state has not reported any confirmed case of the novel A total of 167 travelers were quarantined in since January when the outbreak of the virus was reported from China's Wuhan city. Of them, nine are currently under observation at hospitals -- seven in Mumbai and one each at Nashik and Nanded. While three of these quarantined persons tested negative for the infection, reports of six were awaited. So far 66,977 passengers have been screened upon arrival at the Mumbai International Airport since mid-January. Passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Italy, Iran and Malaysia are being screened at the airport. All travelers from Wuhan are being isolated and tested, whether they show any symptoms are not. Travelers from other affected countries (who do not exhibit symptoms of the illness at the airport) are asked to observe home isolation for two weeks from their date of departure from the affected country. Local health authorities follow up their health daily during this period. Christian college recruiter fired for lining students up by skin color, 'nappiest' hair Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An admissions counselor for Oklahoma Christian University was fired after allegedly forcing 11th-grade students at a preparatory school in Oklahoma City to line up according to skin color and nappiest hair during a gym assembly visit. Students, parents, and officials at Harding Charter Preparatory High School spoke out to local NBC affiliate KFOR about how an OCU recruiter later named as Cedric Sunray instructed prospective students to engage in a racially insensitive recruitment exercise during a visit last Monday. Students involved in the exercise, Korey Todd and Rio Brown, described the incident. He was like, 'Let's play a little game,' Todd said. "He said, 'OK, everyone now line up from darkest to lightest skin complexion.' The juniors were then told to shuffle again. According to Brown, the man told the students to line up with the nappiest hair in the back and straighter hair in the front. Todd said that at that point, he felt uncomfortable. Brown explained that teachers grew disgusted. I know they had a talk with him after, like, 'That's not OK, Brown said. After students came forward to the media outlet, Harding Principal Steven Stefanick released a public statement, confirming the accusations that an OCU representative led an activity with students that involved inappropriate and hurtful statements. The principal went on to say how the preparatory school does not approve of the recruiters behavior and values diversity and inclusion. In a statement released to News 4, Oklahoma Christian University explained that the recruiter was fired shortly after his visit. The OC admissions counselor who visited Harding Charter Preparatory Academy on Monday is no longer an Oklahoma Christian University employee, the school said. OC admissions leadership did not approve the inappropriate activity in advance and has communicated closely with Harding administration since the visit. OCU admissions staff are scheduled to visit Harding on Monday to apologize formally to students and staff. Stefanick explained in his statement that OCU administrators were quick to react after they were told of the allegations. The sequence of events are that the staff members of Harding Charter Preparatory, stunned and distraught with the students, were quick to react by going to school administration immediately while some staff remained with the students, he said. Within the next hour, communication was made with Oklahoma Christian University officials. We then learned that the recruiter was no longer employed at the university. Stefanick praised OCU, saying that the school has maintained a strong relationship with the university and have never encountered events as such. As a school community, we are proud of our students and staff members for taking a stand on this issue and showcasing our community values of diversity, inclusion, and a safe and supportive learning environment, the principal wrote. OCU, founded in 1950 as Central Christian College, has about 2,200 students and is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. But students of all beliefs are welcome. With roots in the Restoration Movement, it is our goal to define our values and behavior by the Bible, rather than by the culture that surrounds us, the universitys website reads. OCU President John deSteiguer held a meeting Sunday on OCUs Edmond campus to inform OCU students about the incident, according to the student newspaper Talon.News. The school newspaper reports that deSteiguer named Sunray as the accused former employee in question. The president explained that Sunray was already under an internal investigation for a similar activity he led during an on-campus event on Feb. 13. Talon.News reports that school officials learned over the weekend that Sunray was alleged to have led a similar exercise at another high school in northwest Oklahoma. We need to do better, deSteiguer was quoted as saying, adding that university failed miserably because the recruiter should have been sidelined. He should not have been going and making presentations during the investigation, deSteiguer admitted. OCU will roll out new programs and mandatory cultural sensitivity training for its employees, according to deSteiguer. "God instructs us to love one another and that everyone, and I mean everyone, is valued, deSteiguer was quoted as saying. "We will learn and we will redouble our efforts to do better." Veteran political consultant James Carville has said Bernie Sanders should drop out of the Democratic presidential primary, arguing that the senator and his supporters are out of step with the rest of the partys base. Interviewed on MSNBC in the aftermath of Super Tuesday, Mr Carville was asked why Joe Biden did not understand that the Sanders movement does sincerely want a political revolution. In reply, he said that their priorities were more marginal than they realised. I understand that you do, you just dont have a majority of the Democrats that are in on your revolution. And Im sure that theyll continue, but I think youre gonna see a lot of people saying why are we doing this? To what purpose? Elaborating, Carville explained that the narrowness of the Sanders campaigns revolutionary message would make it harder for the Democrats to defeat Donald Trump should Mr Sanders become the nominee. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images Mr Carville was one of the architects of Bill Clintons first election campaign in 1992, which gave the Democrats their first presidential victory since 1976. He has since then advised a number of presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton. Speaking of the Sanders campaign, he dismissed the idea that calls for a revolution resonate with the electorate at large. I travel round the country, I speak to people. And Democrats are not interested in a revolution. Theyre interested in getting this guy out of power just as fast as they possibly can. Let Senator Sanders run, he ran in 2016. But I think youre going to start seeing some backlash here. Mr Carvilles words echo those of Joe Biden, who recently told CNN that the American people are not looking for a revolution, theyre looking for results. Super Tuesday saw Mr Biden defeat Mr Sanders in all but a few states, proving that his campaign has returned to health after nearly being written off just weeks before. He and Mr Sanders are now considered the only two viable potential nominees. Crimean Server Mustafayev, a member of the second Bakhchisaray Hizb ut-Tahrir case, a Crimean citizen, illegally detained in a Russian pretrial detention center, complains about violation of his rights, inadequate conditions of detention, food and refusal of medical assistance to other persons involved in the case, said Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Liudmyla Denisova. "He reports a systematic deprivation of the right to a defense and proper preparation for the lawsuit due to the excessive frequency of the hearings. Server Mustafayev also complains about the inadequate conditions of detention in the detention facility of Russia in the Rostov Region," namely the refusal to provide medical care, restrictions in receiving parcels, depriving them of the opportunity to take a shower, take walks in the fresh air," Denisova wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday. Mustafayev also complains about the lack of proper nutrition. According to him, during the transfer of Ukrainian citizens from the pretrial detention center to the court they are not provided with food products of adequate quality, which in fact leads them to forced starvation. "In his appeal, he noted that the court during the hearings did not respond to the repeated requests of citizens of Ukraine Server Zekiryaev and Timur Ibragimov to provide them with medical care due to poor health," said Denisova. "I demand from the Human Rights Ombudsman in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova the appropriate reaction and help ensure that Ukrainian citizens receive conditions of detention in accordance with international standards, as well as conduct a medical examination of Server Zekiryaev and Timur Ibragimov and provide them with qualified medical care," Denisova said. Ex-Russian penitentiary official convicted of graft seeks for parole flickr.com/ changTing 11:44 04/03/2020 ST. PETERSBURG, March 4 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) - Ex-deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Nikolay Barinov convicted of taking about 110 million rubles (about $2 million) in bribes during a detention center construction has filed a petition for parole with the Kolpinsky District Court of St. Petersburg, according to the United press service of St. Petersburg courts. According to his defense, Barinov repented, paid a fine imposed on him and bears himself well in jail. In June 2019, Barinov was convicted and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and a 950,000-ruble ($15,000) fine. The trial of ex-FSIN deputy director was held under a special procedure without examining evidence because the defendant has signed a plea deal and has cooperated with investigators in a prison hospital because of his poor health. In January, his sentence came into force. According to investigators, between May 2007 and December 2012, Barinov acting as the FSIN deputy director and supervisor of building a detention facility in St. Petersburg, regularly received bribes from top managers of firms engaged in the construction. In particular, he promised two businessmen, Ruslan Khamkhokov and Viktor Kudrin, to assist in the execution of necessary documents on rendered services for the money reward in the amount of not less than 12% of each funds transfer of funds allocated for the work performance to the companies accounts. The construction companies heads transferred the money through ex-deputy chief of the FSIN St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region directorate Sergey Moiseyenko. Allegedly, Barinov received around 110 million rubles in total. Khamkhokov and Kudrin, who stand charged with corruption and economic crimes, as well as Moiseyenko charged with bribery and murder organization, have been earlier put in detention. Dearborn Public Schools middle and high school students and their parents are invited to a lively presentation from a nationally known speaker connecting the dots between education and career success. The talk, titled Why Should We Hire You? Turn Learning Into Earning! helps draw connections between decisions students make today and their college and career success tomorrow. The presentation will be held on Thursday, March 12, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Edsel Ford High School, 20601 Rotunda. Brooks Harpers high-energy, amusing presentation has made him one of the top career readiness speakers in the country. The talk will look at why every day is an interview and an opportunity to turn learning into earning. The presentation also will encourage students to discover, develop, network and sell their skills and abilities and to show that they can bring tangible value to the workplace. Other themes include discovering the power of gratitude and learning to manage stress and avoid burnout. The presentation is being sponsored by the Academies of Dearborn. All three traditional high schools in Dearborn Schools now use the academies model to encourage students to start exploring career fields while still in high school. The Academies of Fordson started a few years ago, and Edsel Ford and Dearborn High started their programs with this years freshmen class. The talk is open to all Dearborn Public Schools high school and middle school students and their parents or guardians. Edsel Ford High School is providing a school bus to transport students and parents from Salina Intermediate at 5:30 p.m. to the high school for the program and back to Salina at 7:30 p.m. Source: Dearborn Public Schools Lucknow, March 4 : Continuing his "zero tolerance policy" against corruption, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sacked 1,300 employees of the Jal Nigam in a single stroke. All the sacked employees were appointed by then minister and now MP Mohd Azam Khan in the previous Samajwadi Party regime. The appointments were said to be made through a faulty selection process. Azam Khan, now in jail in connection with a forgery case, was the Urban Development Minister in the Samajwadi regime and head of the Jal Nigam at the time of the recruitment in 2016-17. Additional Chief Engineer of UP Jal Nigam, I.K. Srivastava, in an order issued on Monday, dismissed 122 assistant engineers, 853 junior engineers and 325 clerks from the date of their appointment following inquiry by a special investigation team (SIT) and the department. A senior government official said the recruitment has been set aside based on the departmental inquiry and a report from the SIT. The SIT, formed by the Yogi government in 2017 to investigate allegations of irregularities in the selection process, found that proper selection process was not adopted and pointed out faulty working of the Mumbai-based private firm, hired for conducting the examination for the recruitment. Soon after the completion of the selection process, several candidates had moved the court, alleging irregularities in selection. The assistant engineers were earlier dismissed by the Yogi government but they had got a reprieve from the Supreme Court. A new order has now been issued to cancel their appointments, based on fresh reports, the official stated. The official said action will also be taken against the Mumbai firm and the candidates who were illegally selected. The order, however, gives reprieve to the sacked employees because it does seek the recovery of salary and allowances from them. Thailand threw possibly tens of thousands of holiday plans into confusion after the health minister ordered any new arrivals from eight countries to undergo quarantine for the coronavirus, before swiftly reversing the decision. Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted an announcement Tuesday saying travellers from affected countries would be subjected to a 14-day quarantine "without exceptions". The countries were China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Singapore, Italy and Iran. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were also included on the list. The post was removed hours later, and his official Facebook page was taken down. Anutin is no stranger to gaffes. Last month he lashed out at "Western" tourists for not wearing face masks, suggesting they should be expelled for putting others at risk. He later apologised on his Facebook page. Tourism is a lynchpin of Thailand's economy, but the government has struggled to balance health concerns and virus control with salvaging flagging growth as Chinese visitors have evaporated. The beginning of 2020 was supposed to bring seven million tourists to Thailand, but numbers have tumbled in the wake of the epidemic. Anutin's apparent moment of indecision -- which fanned waves of concern on Twitter among Thais and foreign travellers -- was played down Wednesday by a ministry spokesman. "We have to wait which country would designated as a risk country," said spokesman Taweesin Visanuyothin during a daily press briefing, explaining that Anutin needed the list to be "reviewed". Similar uncertainty pervades the government's handling of the return of some 5,000 undocumented Thai labourers -- nicknamed "little ghosts" -- working in South Korea. Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Wednesday the workers who came from Korea's two hardest-hit areas -- Daegu and neighbouring North Gyeongsang province -- would be subjected to quarantine. "This will make people feel more at ease," he said. The others will return to their hometown where provincial health officers will monitor them daily, said an official from the Department of Disease Control. South Korea has reported than 5,300 cases and 28 fatalities. The Thai government's lack of monitoring of the returnees has spurred growing public anger after various accounts showed haphazard screening at Bangkok's airports. Thailand has reported 43 confirmed infections and and one fatality linked to the virus. Foreign tourists take pictures next to Thai commuters with face masks as they wait for a canal boat in BangkokA Thai man has died from complications doctors say were due to the deadly coronavirus, though health officials were reluctant on March 2 to conclusively confirm the cause of his death. Aurora, IL, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (CCMP) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.44 per share ($1.76 per share on an annualized basis) on the company's common stock, an increase of approximately five percent over the most recent quarterly dividend, which was paid on or about January 30, 2020. The dividend will be payable on or about April 24, 2020 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 24, 2020. The company also is providing the following commentary on its second quarter of fiscal 2020 guidance: At present, we have not seen a significant impact from the COVID-19 on our global supply chain or operations, and based on currently available information, our expectations for revenue for our second fiscal quarter appear to be trending in-line with the guidance provided during our first fiscal quarter earnings call on February 6; however, the environment is rapidly evolving and we will continue to monitor developments as related to our business, said David Li, President and CEO of Cabot Microelectronics Corporation. The companys Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held at 8:00 a.m. Central Time on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, at the companys global headquarters located at 870 N. Commons Drive, Aurora, Illinois. Dial-in information: United States: (844) 524-4837 International: (647) 689-6864 Conference code: 5892765 A transcript of the formal comments made during the Annual Meeting will be available in the Investor Relations section of the companys website, ir.cabotcmp.com. ABOUT CABOT MICROELECTRONICS CORPORATION Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is a leading global supplier of consumable materials to semiconductor manufacturers and pipeline companies. The companys products play a critical role in the production of advanced semiconductor devices, helping to enable the manufacture of smaller, faster and more complex devices by its customers. Cabot Microelectronics Corporation is also a leading provider of performance materials to pipeline operators. The company's mission is to create value by delivering high-performing and innovative solutions that solve its customers challenges. The company has approximately 2,000 employees globally. For more information about Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, visit www.cabotcmp.com, or contact Colleen Mumford, Vice President, Communications and Marketing, at 630-499-2600. Story continues SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT This press release contains forward-looking statements, which address a variety of subjects including, for example, future sales and operating results; growth or contraction, and trends in the industry and markets in which the Company participates; the acquisition of, investment in, or collaboration with other entities, including the Companys acquisition of KMG Chemicals, Inc. (KMG), and the expected benefits and synergies of such acquisition; divestment or disposition, or cessation of investment in certain, of the Companys businesses; new product introductions; development of new products, technologies and markets; product performance; the financial conditions of the Company's customers; competitive landscape; the Company's supply chain; natural disasters; various economic or political factors and international or national events, including related to global public health crises and the enactment of trade sanctions, tariffs, or other similar matters; the generation, protection and acquisition of intellectual property, and litigation related to such intellectual property or third party intellectual property; environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, and related compliance; the operation of facilities by Cabot Microelectronics; the Company's management; foreign exchange fluctuation; the Company's current or future tax rate, including the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the United States (Tax Act); cybersecurity threats; financing facilities and related debt, pay off or payment of principal and interest, and compliance with covenants and other terms; and, uses and investment of the Company's cash balance, including dividends and share repurchases, which may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason by the Company, based on a variety of factors. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Cabot Microelectronics beliefs, plans and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations of Cabot Microelectronics management and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Cabot Microelectronics filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the risk factors contained in Cabot Microelectronics Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019. Except as required by law, Cabot Microelectronics undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements made by it to reflect new information, subsequent events or circumstances. Colleen Mumford Vice President, Communications and Marketing Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (630) 499-2600 Jason Statham has pulled out of his new action-comedy with Kevin Hart just weeks before it was set to start shooting. Statham was all set to make The Man From Toronto with the Jumanji star, but sources tell Deadline that he has quit the production just four week ahead of cameras rolling. The Expendables 3 and The Hitman's Bodyguard director Patrick Hughes is helming the project, and seemingly now has a Stath-sized hole to fill. Jason Statham attends the "Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw" Special Screening at The Curzon Mayfair on July 23, 2019. (Mike Marsland/WireImage) According to the report, Statham had issues with the studio wishing to make a PG-13 movie with a release planned in the run-up to Thanksgiving in the US, rather than an adult R-rating. Read more: Jackman celebrates Logan anniversary with shirtless throwback It's hoped that Sony Pictures can replace Statham while still keeping Hart involved in the project. Deadline also reports that Statham has quit his agency, WME, which he signed to last year, in the wake of the departure from the movie. Kevin Hart (Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) In the movie, Statham was set to play the world's deadliest assassin the titular 'Man from Toronto' who is involved in a case of mistaken identity with Harts character, described as New York's biggest screw up', involving a bungled Airbnb booking. Read more: Spielberg wont direct Indy 5 The plot had the the odd couple teaming up for clearly not as violent a caper as Statham was hoping for. The British hardman also has another movie in the offing, however, which teamed him with long-time collaborator Guy Ritchie. Heist-actioner Cash Truck, a remake of the 2004 French movie Le Convoyeur, also stars Scott Eastwood and Josh Hartnett, and is currently in post-production ahead of release in January, 2021. New Delhi, March 4 : A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted expelled BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother and acquitted four others in a case pertaining to alleged custodial death of father of a girl who he raped in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district three years ago. While pronouncing the judgement, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma observed that the case shows how strings are pulled when a powerful person is involved. "It shows how our system works," he said. Senger has been convicted under Section 304 part 2 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which pertains to act done knowing it may cause death, but without any intention to cause death. "Sengar had no intention of killing rape victim's father. He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death," the court said. The judge further stated, "Police officer should have intervened and tried to save the person. There was gross medical negligence. Doctors acted like butchers." "As there were eighteen injuries on his body but you took him to police station and implicated him in a false case," the judge further said. The case pertains the death of rape survivor's father in custody on April 9, 2018. The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. The court had, on December 20 last year, sent him to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping the girl. The rape complaint, however, was registered only after she attempted to immolate herself outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's official residence in Lucknow. She took the extreme step after her father was thrashed by Sengar's brother, Atul Sengar. According to a charge sheet in July 2018, survivor's father and his co-worker were returning to their village when they asked for lift from one Shashi Pratap Singh. He denied it which then led to altercation. Singh then called his associates, including Sengar's brother -- Atul and others who beat up the survivor's father. He was taken to jail instead of the hospital even though he was grievously injured and died two days later in police custody. The matter came to light after a video clip showing Atul beating the father went viral on the social media. The court had earlier framed charges against Sengar, his brother, police station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria, Sub Inspector Kamta Prasad, Constable Amir Khan and six others in the case. Kuldeep Singh Sengar was recently disqualified from the membership of the UP assembly, following his conviction in the rape case. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Seventeen Indians living abroad have tested positive for novel coronavirus, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan responding to a question in Lok Sabha said 16 cases were reported from onboard cruise ship Diamond Princess -- and are now being treated at a medical facility in Japan, while one Indian tested positive in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The minister further informed that the government evacuated a total of 766 people -- including 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners from China -- the epicentre of the outbreak. In addition, a total of 119 Indians have been brought back to India from Diamond Princess, the minister said. "Air India has raised a bill of Rs. 5,98,90,352/- for operating two special flights to China," the response read, adding, "Expenditure details for the special flight - Japan to India - for evacuation is yet to be received from Air India." The luxury ship had been quarantined off the coast of Japan on February 5 after one of the passengers was tested positive for novel coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eight Australian Border Force officials have executed a search warrant at the home of a man whose partner returned from South Korea and has been self-quarantined. Border Force began investigating Brent Hazleton, from Albion Park, south of Wollongong, this year, after a package arrived in Australia in December that allegedly contained a child-like sex doll. Albion Park man Brent Hazleton. Credit:Instagram The package was "described as containing a clothing display model", Border Force said in a statement on Thursday. Mr Hazleton was stopped by Border Force officials at Sydney Airport when he returned from an overseas holiday on February 22. He was interviewed but not arrested, and was allowed to leave after his phone was seized. Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. Look, #WeBackOwen is probably over the top, but might I tempt you to share this newsletter with a friend? Should Jack Dorsey still be running Twitter? Its a near perennial question that dates back to the earliest days of the business, when it struggled to simply display tweets and hungry acquirers like Facebook circled the company. Co-founder Ev Williams fired Dorsey in 2008 and replaced him. For years afterward, Dorsey plotted his return. Drew Angerer/Getty Images After a brief stint as interim CEO, Dorsey became Twitters permanent CEO in October 2015, while still running payments company Square. Remarkably, he managed this even after Twitters board put out a statement saying that CEO of Twitter was a full-time job. He remains CEO of both companies to this day. Paul Jones of Elliott Management, a hedge fund and hence already drawing hisses in Silicon Valley boardrooms, is reportedly pushing for changes at Twitter, seeking to place his own slate of directors on the board and replace Dorsey. Hindustan Times/Hindustan Times via Getty Images The response from Twitters employees was prompt, and involves a hashtag: #WeBackJack. This may be the biggest obstacle to a boardroom putsch, and a reason that hedge funds seldom get very far in tech takeovers. It is easy for employees to just move on rather than stay to see how a hedge-fund-backed replacement CEO plays out. The question in my mind is whether Dorsey wants to keep running Twitter. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2012 There is, first and foremost, his announcement that he wants to spend much of this year living in Africa. There is an argument to be made that spending time amid a set of future users will educate Dorsey in ways that are useful to both his companies. (Africa is seen as a long-term growth market for internet businesses.) But theres also an argument that it seems like a distracting lark the kind of thing, like the sewing classes Dorsey took during his first run as Twitter CEO, that rather annoyed Williams, who was then Twitters largest shareholder. Theres also a question of whether Dorseys Africa plan violates Twitters new ban on non-critical business travel; asked for comment, a company spokeswoman said the company had no updates on Dorseys intentions. Christina Koci Hernandez / The Chronicle 2007 It is convenient that Dorsey has been an advocate for remote work especially now, when remote work seems to be in everyones near-term future. But legitimate coronavirus concerns aside, Dorseys talk of making Twitter an all-remote company seems more about avoiding face-to-face conversation, and confrontation, at a time his company needs it. And him. Owen Thomas, othomas@sfchronicle.com Quote of the week Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes A lot of these companies, Atrium included, did not figure out how to make a dent in operational efficiency. Atrium CEO Justin Kan, to TechCrunch on the failure of his legal-services startup to be any better than a regular law firm Coming up Zoom, the San Jose video conferencing company, announces earnings Wednesday. It may need to boost bandwidth to its earnings conference call, given the enthusiasm shareholders have shown for the stock recently. (Its seen as a play on growth in remote work.) What Im reading Alex Heath on the major changes Facebook is contemplating for its Libra cryptocurrency project. (The Information) Carolyn Said on how a surge in doomsday prepper buying is putting couriers on the coronavirus front line. (San Francisco Chronicle) Teddy Schleifer on why Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has sworn off contributions to political candidates. (Recode) Tech Chronicle is a thrice-weekly newsletter from Owen Thomas, The Chronicles business editor, and the rest of the tech team. Follow along on Twitter: @techchronicle and Instagram: @techchronicle Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 3) - The government task force in infectious diseases has agreed to withhold new travel bans on other countries despite the rapid worldwide spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Tuesday said the decision by the inter-agency task force (IATF) was guided by the health security risk assessment matrix, which evaluates risks with the outbreak. The IATF has also agreed that there are to be no new imposition of travel restrictions or lifting of the same as regards other countries or jurisdictions. The IATF assures that the review concerning travel restrictions and protocols to and from the Philippines shall be regularly conducted by it, said Panelo in a statement. The country has so far imposed restrictions on mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and in North Gyeongsang province, South Korea, with the exemption of overseas Filipino Workers, permanent residents, and students. The government has also raised the possibility of imposing travel bans in Japan, Iran, and Italy. There is no local transmission as yet, but there are confirmed infection of Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. IAEA releases report on Iran's JCPOA commitments IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency London, March 3, IRNA -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a report on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) verifying the country's voluntary implementation of the document. The report stated that in addition to the reserves, the level of uranium enriched by Iran is well beyond the agreement reached in JCPOA. Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Kazem Gharibabadi on Tuesday referred to the report released by IAEA on the verification of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and said IAEA is to continue supervision and verification in Iran. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kazem Gharibabadi said the report reaffirms that the IAEA's verification activities on the JCPOA have been ongoing since January 16, 2016. According to the agency's report, Iran's enriched uranium reserves amounted to 1021 kg, well above the agreed-upon ceiling of 201.8 kg in the JCPOA.The report also adds that Iran's activities related to UF6 enrichment at Fordow have been continued and Iran's enrichment level is up to 4.5 percent. Iran's Permanent Representative also highlighted that according to the report, Iran's reserves of enriched uranium have been declared at 1020.9 kg as of February 19 of this year. The IAEA report also acknowledges that Iran has also installed new centrifuges on its own announcement. It also said that that Iran's enriched reserves are fivefold the limit set by the nuclear deal Gharibabadi also noted that the report emphasizes that Iran continues to voluntarily and temporarily implement the Additional Protocol and verification the non-diversion of declared materials and activities in Iran will be continued. 9455**1424 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lawmakers on Wednesday sought Secret Service protection for Democratic presidential candidates, after Joe Biden's wife and a senior staffer had to protect the former vice president from 'let dairy die' protesters during a victory speech. Biden's victory speech in Los Angeles was interrupted on Super Tuesday when a pair of protesters leapt onto the stage, before Jill Biden and senior adviser Symone Sanders charged them and ushered them off the stage. 'We're OK,' Biden said after the incident, which highlighted a glaring hole in security for Biden and other top contenders seeking the Democratic nomination to take on President Donald Trump on Nov. 3. 'The Democratic Congress is worried,' Biden supporter Representative Cedric Richmond told reporters on a conference call. Saved by Jill: Joe Biden's wife turned round and wrestled the unnamed anti-dairy activist who rushed the stage after a first protester was removed When a second protester leaped on stage, Biden's wife Jill wrestled the woman off-stage The presidential hopeful was addressing crowds in Los Angeles, when a protester for California-based animal rights group 'Direct Action Everywhere' leaped on stage shouting 'Let dairy die!' The request for protection was sent to acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf. The activists opposed the dairy industry and protesters with the same agenda have also disrupted events with Biden rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Homeland Security made the request for Secret Service protection for both Biden and Sanders. The Secret Service provides security for the president and his family, including lifetime support for former occupants of the Oval Office and routinely provides security for high-profile presidential candidates. The Bidens however are not automatically protected. Federal law authorizes Secret Service protection for vice presidents and their families for up to six months after they leave office. The decision on whether to give the Bidens protection lies with the 'Big Four' of Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell as the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, and their minority equivalents, Kevin McCarthy and Chuck Schumer. None of the Democratic candidates currently have Secret Service protection. In 2016, Donald Trump gained it long before the primaries, while Hillary Clinton's status as a former first lady meant she had it from time she left the White House. The group who stormed the stage are part of a militant animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere. They have previously targeted Elizabeth Warren and the California Milk Advisory Board. The group boasted on their Facebook page about disrupting Biden. It was not clear if the two women had been detained by police after Jill Biden and Sanders wrestled them off stage. The incident occurred as Biden swept nine of 14 primaries on Super Tuesday The first woman was quickly removed by security after taking the former vice-president and his wife by surprise The second woman being taken away by security - after Jill Biden beat them to saving the day. It's not the first time Jill Biden has acted as security at her husband's events. On the eve of the first primary in New Hampshire last month, she helped remove a heckler An activist from the California-based animal rights group 'Direct Action Everywhere' leaped on stage shouting 'Let dairy die!' The woman was quickly removed from the stage only to be replaced by a second who jumped up waving a sign with the same slogan and shouting. The first protester clearly took the presidential candidate's wife Jill by surprise as she jumped out of the way, grabbing her husband by the arm. But, when the second fancied their chances, she stepped into action, wrestling the activist away. Biden's senior adviser Symone Sanders also rushed up to grab the woman, who was then escorted away by security. It's not the first time Jill Biden has acted as security at her husband's events. On the eve of the first primary in New Hampshire last month, a man was heckling her husband and recording it on his cellphone Again, it was Jill who saved the day and beat security to the heckler, hopping up from her seat and keeping him at bay before he could be removed. After the event, she joked to reporters that: 'I'm a good Philly girl.' NoBroker.com, Indias largest peer-to-peer real estate platform has recently launched a multicity campaign to highlight its strength in buy/sell category after having established its leadership in the rental space. Conceptualised and created by BlueBot films, the TVC breaks the perception that NoBroker is just a rental platform by positioning it as a first choice for buying a home. As much as INR 1,20,000 crores is spent as real estate brokerage in India every year. NoBroker enables better matchmaking between prospective buyers and sellers to drive significant savings in terms of time, money, and effort. As per NoBroker.coms latest real estate report, as many as 64% tenants are looking to buy a house in 2020. Launched across the cities- Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR, the ad campaign targets buyers through multiple mediums. The campaign would be seen across National and Regional GEC, News and Movies. To augment the efficacy, the films are dubbed into respective vernacular languages for regional markets. The campaign would get amplified on digital and social platforms through multiple short format films and creatives. The campaigns hashtag is #BuyBinaBrokerage. Commenting on the latest campaign, Saurabh Garg, co-founder and CBO of Nobroker.com said, " NoBroker helps save over INR 1200 crores in brokerage annually. It sells over 1500 properties a month. We are already leaders in rental category across cities where we are present. This campaign would position us as a leader in the buy/sell space as well." Siva Prasad, Director Marketing at NoBroker.com said, This campaign is designed to break the perception that NoBroker is just a rental platform by positioning it as a first choice for buying a home. We are targeting buyers who are financially smart and appreciate a more autonomous and brokerage-free process of buying a property. NoBroker.com is a one stop shop for home buying and associated needs such as home-loans, legal advice and interiors. In a short span since its launch, NoBroker.com has disrupted the Indian residential and commercial real estate markets through its innovative peer-to-peer approach. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies and AI-assisted tools, the platform eliminates brokers from the property search and discovery value chain to facilitate direct connections between property owners and property seekers. The platform has also introduced several unique features to address information asymmetry and to deliver end-to-end real estate solutions to its customers. The platform has been consistently featured amongst the most disruptive tech start-ups in India. New Delhi: Former 'Bigg Boss' contestant and actress Sana Khaan has lately been in news for her much-talked-about break-up with choreographer boyfriend Melvin Louis. After opening up on her relationship failure and how the man cheated on her, the actress has now made startling revelations about her ex. In an interview with BollywoodHungama.com, Sana has been quoted as saying, You fall in love, things begin...and the person is forcing you, 'put our relationship on Instagram, let people know'...and I was like, it's just a month. Should I put? Of course, I like you and everything is there, but I don't know if I am ready in a month. He said, 'no no, you have to put'. Ok, chalo, you literally force somebody emotionally to post the pictures. After that, when I come back and have my other interviews, (he said), 'no no, you talk about it, talk about us, otherwise, if people see you with other guys, they're going to link you up with them. She added, In the initial six months of our relationship, this guy did not let me meet anyone alone. If this (the interview) was my first six months, he would be sitting here. I thought this was possessiveness. Sana added that it was much later that she realised, Melvin did all of this to make sure that people don't reveal stuff about him. Sana first made headlines when she featured in a commercial which invited a ban for being too provocative. Later, she was seen as a popular contestant inside reality show 'Bigg Boss' season 6. She has worked in several movies, television shows and featured in advertisements too. An 82-year-old man in Vizcaya (Basque Country) is the second person in Spain to have died after having become positive for coronavirus. The health ministry in the Basque Country reports that he had been suffering from chronic complaints. The first person to die was in Valencia. A 69-year-old man, who had travelled to Nepal, died of pneumonia on 13 February; it was subsequently found that he had coronavirus. The director of the Centre of Coordination for Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simon, said on Wednesday that there are 183 cases of coronavirus in Spain. The most affected region is Madrid with seventy. Facebook Inc. and its partners are considering redesigning the Libra cryptocurrency project so that the network accepts multiple coins, including those issued by central banks, in an effort to woo reluctant global regulators and rebuild momentum for the plan. When Facebook unveiled Libra, it said it intended to create a single global digital currency. Anyone, especially the 1.7 billion people who have no bank account, could send money anywhere in the world at little cost, as easily as sending a text. Eight months later, after the idea ran into a wall of opposition, Facebook and the Libra Association, the consortium behind the digital currency, are looking at a revamp, said three people familiar with the matter. They are weighing a recast of Libra as mostly a payments network that could operate with multiple coins, two of the people said. The coins could include those issued by central banks and backed by the U.S. dollar, the euro or other currencies, the people said. The association will re-introduce Libra soon, said the people, who asked not to be named because the redesign remains in flux and the plan could change. The dream of a single global coin isnt dead, said one of the people familiar with the overhaul. The new plan could expand, not pull back from, the original vision, that person said. But if the revamped Libra becomes more of a payments network than a single, global cryptocurrency, the average U.S. consumer might not see much difference between Libra and existing payments systems run by PayPal Holdings Inc. or numerous fintech startups that aim to seamlessly move funds around the globe. The Libra Association has not altered its goal of building a regulatory compliant global payment network, and the basic design principles that support that goal have not been changed, said Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications for the Libra Association, in a statement. Facebook said it remains fully committed to the project. What happened to Libra since its June 2019 unveiling is a story of hubris, wary lawmakers, protective regulators and partners fearful of the risks involved. Facebook and 27 other companies announced the project as a way to connect the globe while also circumventing the financial system and reduce the cost of sending money, especially for unbanked populations. The projects members included Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and other large companies that would be Facebooks partners in governing the system. As originally envisioned, the Libra coin would be created from a basket of relatively stable assets, such as U.S. dollars and government bonds, euros, Singapore dollars, U.K. pounds and Japanese yen. A Libra Reserve made up of those currencies and debt instruments would support the token, whose value would adjust along with the underlying assets market value. But the plan almost immediately ran aground. U.S. lawmakers said they didnt trust Facebook to manage a financial network after the companys high-profile missteps in other areas, especially its repeated failures to protect user data. Officials at some central banks said the new digital coin could undermine the sovereignty of their own currencies, while finance ministers worried that it could enable money laundering. Some European regulators vowed the project would never win approval. As the Geneva-based Libra Association tried to formalize its membership in October, many of its most prominent members, including Visa and Mastercard, dropped out. The project now has 20 of the original 28 members, though it recently added two others cloud-based commerce company Shopify Inc. and cryptocurrency trading platform Tagomi Trading LLC. Even as some left the project for dead, representatives of Facebook and the association have continued to meet with officials at the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other U.S. regulators to address their criticisms, the people familiar with the matter said. Treasury officials, in particular, have continued to focus on how the project will ensure the payments network isnt used for money laundering, one of the people said. Some people connected to the Libra project worry that the SEC could rule that a coin backed by a basket of currencies is a security, which is a tradeable financial asset like a stock or a bond. Such a determination would subject the Libra to a slew of disclosure requirements and impose the same tight restrictions that the regulator places on stock offerings, undermining the coins usability. Central bank officials have also said that if Libra issues a coin backed by multiple currencies, it would undermine their ability to manage their own currencies. Since Facebook announced the Libra project, several central banks, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, have said they are exploring their own digital currencies. The overhaul is intended to ensure that the new payments network would be compatible, rather than in competition, with those projects, the people said. Libra and Facebook officials have spent the past few months traveling the world to speak at conferences, making the case that a payments network such as Libra could lower the cost of money transfers. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Facebook executive and Libra co-founder David Marcus emphasized that the Libra network wouldnt preclude central bank projects. I want to really make that distinction between the network and the assets that are running on top of the network, which I think could be issued by many different entities whether its central banks or the private sector, Marcus said, signaling that Libras new form could host multiple digital coins. We think theres a lot of momentum building, said Jennifer Campbell, the founder of Tagomi, one of the new members of the consortium. She said Libra is definitely first and foremost a payment system. Within that theres definitely also a coin thats part of that strategy. Libra could still face hurdles. Congressional staff and officials associated with Libra have said the project might be defined as systemically important, people familiar with the matter said. Should that happen, Libra could get yet another layer of regulation by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which would mean following its rules on equity capital and stress testing. The Libra Association originally planned to launch its cryptocurrency this year, and Campbell said the technology is already being tested. But solving the regulatory challenges could take much longer, and Facebook has vowed that it wont stay in the project without U.S. approval. Seventeen Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said 16 cases were reported from Japan on the cruise ship and one from the UAE. He further said that the government evacuated a total of 766 persons -- 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners -- from China. Similarly, 119 Indians have been brought back to India from the cruise ship in Japan, Muraleedharan said. "Air India has raised a bill of Rs 5.98 crore for operating two special flights to China and an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan, China on its return journey," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) DES MOINES -- Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday signaled her willingness to sign legislation that would require felons to fully pay any court-ordered debts to victims before having their voting rights restored. Reynolds has been advocating for an amendment to the state constitution that would automatically restore voting rights to felons who complete their sentences. Iowa is the only state that requires felons to petition the governor to have their voting rights restored. Some state lawmakers have expressed support for Reynolds' proposal, but Republicans in the Iowa Senate have insisted any automatic restoration must include restitution requirements. "The felon is not the victim in this," said Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, floor manager of Senate File 2348, which passed on a 37-11 vote Tuesday. Six Democrats joined 31 Republicans in passing the measure while 11 Democrats opposed it. The Senate legislation would define that restitution: before having their voting rights restored, felons would be required to complete their sentence - including probation and parole - and pay all damages to victims or their families. Roughly one-fourth of felony convictions were assessed restitution over the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years in Iowa. The average amount of restitution assessed in both years was more than $11,000, although those averages include high-dollar fines for prisoners who are serving life sentences and thus would not be eligible for automatic voting rights restoration. The Senate proposal does not require felons to be fully paid on court fees and fines. Offenders convicted of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and other forms of homicide would be ineligible to automatically regain their voting rights but instead still would have to apply individually to the governor's office to regain their rights. The same would hold for felons required to register as sex offenders in Iowa. Reynolds has said she does not want any changes to make the process harder than it already is. Although felons must apply to the governor to have their voting rights restored, they are required only to show they are making progress toward having their court-ordered debts fully paid. The Senate proposal requires those debts to be fully paid. Reynolds on Tuesday told reporters she is willing to approve the Senate proposal in the spirit of compromise in order to ensure the passage of the constitutional amendment. "I've said before that I didn't want to make it more complicated. They really tied the restitution to victims, and we should never ever lose sight of victims," Reynolds said. "Compromise is part of how we get things done. When you show no willingness to compromise, then nothing ever happens. So we'll continue to work with them and see what happens. ... "That's what it takes to get things to done. We have to be willing to take a look and listen at what both sides are saying." The restitution requirements would be placed under state law, while the voting rights restoration is covered by a proposed constitutional amendment. An amendment to the state constitution must be approved during two sessions of the Iowa Legislature separated by an election, then by a statewide public vote. A federal appeals court this past month upheld a lower court ruling that restitution requirements passed in Florida and similar to Iowa's were unconstitutional. "(Iowa state lawmakers) are taking that into consideration as they move it through the legislative process," Reynolds said. "I think they really didn't want to go through what Florida did. So (they're) trying to be more prescriptive on the front end, and then we'll see." Previous Iowa governors changed felon voting rights via executive order. Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack, in 2005, issued an executive order automatically restoring the voting rights of felons who complete their sentences. Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, shortly after being elected in 2010, erased Vilsack's order, creating the current process. Reynolds was Branstad's lieutenant governor and replaced him in 2017 when he became U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds has said she advocates for the constitutional amendment because it is more difficult to alter than an executive order. Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, said he would like to see Reynolds take executive action, but in that absence offered tepid support for the Senate Republicans' restitution proposal. "Is this the bill that I would have drafted? No, but it certainly seems to be the only way we're going to get this moving," Boulton said. "So I think we're going to see concerns raised by Democrats in the debate, but what's the most important thing is to make sure people who are being denied the right to vote are getting the right to vote. And if it helps more than a few, that's the right approach." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 New Delhi/Bhopal, March 4 : The Congress is facing an uphill task of holding its flock of legislators together to keep the Madhya Pradesh government. Independent MLAs, supporting the Kamal Nath government, have added to the party's problems. Pradeep Jaiswal, an Independent MLA and Minister, said, "I am with Kamal Nath, but if the government falls all the options are open." The Congress has charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with horse-trading. "To come to power, the BJP has come to be known for horse-trading and use of money," said Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill. Jaivardhan Singh, another Minister, alleged that Mahesh Parmar, Congress MLA from Ujjain, had been offered Rs 35 crore and cabinet berth, in case the BJP was able to cobble a majority and form a government. Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh, and the Chief Minister are fighting to keep the government safe. While the Congress has managed to "bring home" six party and one BSP rebel MLAs, six supporting legislators -- four Independents, two from the BSP and one from the Samajwadi Party -- are not traceable. The 228-member MP Assembly's current strength is 226. The Congress has 114 and the BJP 107 members in the House. The Nath government is being supported by four Independents, two BSP members (one of them rebel) and one SP MLA. If the seven MLAs, who are untraceable, switched sides then the Congress will be in trouble. But if they resign from the House, like in Karnataka, then the Congress will be safe. However, the time is ticking fast. Dr. Carl Kesselman, pioneer of grid computing, has been recognized with the 2020 Harry H. Goode Memorial Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Kesselman received the award with Dr. Ian T. Foster, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago and director of the Data Science and Learning Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Kesselman is a Dean's Professor in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and a professor of Computer Science and Preventative Medicine at Keck School of Medicine. He is a USC Information Sciences Institute Fellow, where he directs the Informatics Systems Research Division, and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Discovery Informatics in the Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences. He will receive the bronze medal with Foster at the IEEE's annual awards dinner in McLean, Virginia, on May 27, 2020. The honor recognizes Kesselman and Foster's "sustained contributions to high-performance computing and distributed systems at the highest level." The IEEE's Goode Award is given to individuals for achievements in the information processing field, whether a single contribution of theory, design, or technique of outstanding significance, or the accumulation of important contributions throughout their career. Kesselman and Foster join a distinguished list of computer scientists and engineers including the creators of the first electronic digital computers, the Internet, and pioneers in integrated circuit design. Kesselman said he was honored to be recognized by the IEEE. "I've always been excited about our research and its contributions to other scientific results across many disciplines," he said. "I'm a second generation IEEE member and recognition for this work by my peers is incredibly gratifying." Kesselman joined USC in 1997. The Globus software that he co-invented with Foster and Steve Tuecke is widely used in national and international cyberinfrastructure and science projects. His current research focuses on creating sociotechnical systems that leverage distributed and data-centered computing to accelerate discovery by collaborative teams solving societally important problems. Kesselman is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and British Computing Society. His previous honors include the Lovelace Medal from the British Computing Society and an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam. Kesselman received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. ### AS VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDA (Registration No. 4000 3031 676, legal address: Cempu iela 13, Valmiera, LV-4201) (hereinafter, the Company) would like to announce that P-D VALMIERA GLASS USA Corp. (hereinafter, the US Subsidiary) has signed an Asset Purchase Agreement (hereinafter, the APA) with Saint-Gobain Adfors America, Inc. to sell substantially all Assets of its Phase I and Phase II operations in Dublin, Georgia, USA, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the APA. The total cash purchase price is Seventeen Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars (USD 17,500,000), plus additional consideration as set forth in the APA. The APA is still subject to approval of Bankruptcy Court overseeing the US Subsidiarys Bankruptcy Case (Case No. 19-59440-pwb). The Company already announced, that due to significant unexpected losses during the extended start-up phase of US Subsidiary Phase II operations, the US Subsidiary was forced to stop its Phase II Fiberglass furnace operation effective immediately on June 17th at 2.30 pm EDT. In addition, the US Subsidiary filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia on June 17, 2020. Please see the announcement here. More information concerning the Chapter 11 case may be obtained here. The US Subsidiary continues to operate its Phase I Needle Mat division in the ordinary course of business. The Company will provide further updates about significant developments as they occur in the Chapter 11 case of its US Subsidiary. Additional information: AS VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA Tel.: +371 6420 2216 E-mail: latvia@valmiera-glass.com www.valmiera-glass.com Ukraine's Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has resignation to the parliament, the Servant of the People faction has agreed to replace him with his Deputy Denys Shmyhal. "Honcharuk wrote the letter and passed it to the parliament, our faction has now voted to accept it. He is no longer prime minister," Oleksandr Dubinsky, a member of the Servant of the People faction, told journalists on Tuesday evening. Another parliamentarian, Mykhailo Radutsky, confirmed this information, noting that Honcharuk's letter of resignation was written as far back as January. Where Candidates Won So Far Source: Election results from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Notes: Gray areas were won by candidates who dropped out. Data as of 5 a.m. Wednesday. Joseph R. Biden Jr. won in states where he didnt campaign. He won in states where he didnt have offices. He won in states where he was overwhelmingly outspent in advertising. He won in states where rivals had a better organization. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing! the former vice president roared in an energetic Los Angeles speech that capped the most consequential day yet in the 2020 primary. The results, from Maine to California, clarified the reality of the race going forward: It is now a two-man contest between Mr. Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. They were on pace to win the lions share of Super Tuesdays delegates. See full results from Super Tuesday here. Mr. Biden won big across the South Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and made surprise incursions in the Northeast, beating Senator Elizabeth Warren on her turf of Massachusetts and even wresting some delegates from Mr. Sanders in his home state of Vermont, where four years ago Mr. Sanders pulled off a clean sweep. Mr. Bidens rise coincided with the collapse of Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who spent a half-billion dollars and came away with just one outright victory in American Samoa. Mr. Bloomberg announced he was suspending his campaign early Wednesday and endorsed Mr. Biden. But if Mr. Biden was the big story, Mr. Sanders carried the biggest prize and trove of delegates, California, which The Associated Press called just after polls closed. The disparate political coalitions the two septuagenarian politicians have assembled suggest a long and protracted fight ahead. Here are five takeaways from the biggest day of primary voting and a look at what it means going forward: Black voters power a resurgent Biden. Even Mr. Biden seemed taken aback by the breadth of victories that would have seemed nearly unimaginable a few days ago. He won in Minnesota, where barely 36 hours earlier the home-state senator had been strongly favored and where Mr. Biden was not even seriously contesting. Who Won in Super Tuesday States Races in Maine and California have not been called. Biden Sanders Source: Election results from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Notes: Michael R. Bloomberg won American Samoa. Data as of 5 a.m. Wednesday. On Mr. Bidens own website, his find a field office page featured only eight offices in the 14 states that voted on Tuesday. (An aide said the total was actually nine.) But if black voters in South Carolina first fueled Mr. Bidens recovery over the weekend, they propelled many of his margins on Tuesday. In Alabama, where black voters made up just under half the electorate, he thumped Mr. Sanders among them by more than 60 percentage points, handing him a delegate landslide. He won black voters by more than 50 percentage points in Virginia, and by more than 40 points in Texas a large enough margin to compensate for Mr. Sanderss winning margins among white and Hispanic voters, according to the exit polls. Buoying Mr. Bidens case against Mr. Sanders is that some of his bigger victories came in states where turnout surged Texas and Virginia despite the Vermont senators assertion that a tide of younger voters and an expanded electorate would power his revolution. In a race where voters have obsessed about electability, Mr. Bidens South Carolina victory and concerns about a surging Mr. Sanders drove voters and the political establishment to the seeming safe haven of a two-term vice president under Barack Obama. Senator Sanders talks about needing a candidate who can generate the enthusiasm and turnout we need to beat Trump this fall, said Anita Dunn, a top adviser to the former vice president. Senator Sanders, meet Joe Biden. Sanders retains strong support. And the race could soon be a slog. Super Tuesday was a remarkable comeback for Mr. Biden and comedown from expectations for Mr. Sanders. But that does not mean the race is close to being decided. As of early Wednesday morning, he and Mr. Sanders were both projected to win a similar number of delegates, with the final results from California days or even weeks away. Who Won the Most Delegates So Far Delegates won in Super Tuesday states are outlined in black. Source: Election results from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Notes: Candidates in gray have dropped out. Data as of 5 a.m. Wednesday. Mr. Sanders, who has raised far more money than Mr. Biden throughout the contest, continues to have a loyal following among several important constituencies: younger voters, liberal voters and Latino voters, in particular. (The Biden coalition appears strongest among older voters, African-Americans and moderates.) It is no accident that Mr. Sanderss support tended to be stronger in the West, which became evident as later results trickled in from states where the electorates are increasingly Hispanic. One warning sign for Mr. Sanders was that the western states where he was most successful California, Utah and Colorado all relied heavily on vote-by-mail balloting that would have blunted Mr. Bidens late gains. For Mr. Sanders, the urgent task of halting Mr. Bidens momentum begins now, and perhaps the biggest test will come next week in Michigan. It is a state that Mr. Sanders carried four years ago against Mrs. Clinton, and a general election battleground that has loomed particularly large for a Democratic Party electorate obsessed with electability and beating President Trump. Plus, the contest could soon see more departures. Ms. Warren has still not finished above third place after 18 states have voted. Progressives are already pressuring her to leave the race to consolidate support for Mr. Sanders. Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won? Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a top Sanders surrogate, wrote on Twitter. Thats what we should be analyzing. Momentum, not political organization or money, is what mattered. Mr. Bidens incredible 72 hours between his victory in South Carolina and the first poll closings on Super Tuesday exerted a kind of gravitational pull rarely seen in politics. Three opponents dropped out (Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer) and then three former rivals endorsed him in dramatic fashion on Monday in Dallas (Mr. Buttigieg, Ms. Klobuchar and Beto ORourke). Political operatives marveled at the thoroughness and speed of his consolidation of support. Kevin Cate, a former adviser to Mr. Steyer, noted that the cumulative value of Mr. Bidens final three days of almost pure positive media coverage amounted to a staggering $72 million, according to Critical Mention, a monitoring company. The question remained: Would there be enough time for all that to sink in and affect the Super Tuesday results? The resounding answer was yes. For all of Mr. Bloombergs money he spent more than $100 for every $1 that Mr. Biden invested on television in Super Tuesday states and the organizational advantages that he and Mr. Sanders had, the momentum and free media attention proved far more important. In Texas, which Mr. Biden won, he captured half of those who decided on primary day or the last few days well more than double Mr. Sanders, who drew more support among those who decided earlier. It was the same story in Massachusetts. And Maine. And Virginia. Just about everywhere. How Groups Voted, Based on Timing of Their Decision States are closer to the corner of the candidate that received the most support. Source: Exit polls from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Note: Polls were not conducted in all Super Tuesday states. In some states, sample sizes for some groups were too small to report. The result left the practitioners of politics agonizing over what it meant for their very profession. Its a bizarre feeling to realize that all the things I obsess over in politics fund-raising, technology, advertising, field, digital did not seem to matter very much at all, was how Shomik Dutta, a veteran of the Obama campaigns and the co-founder of Higher Ground Labs, a group that invests in new progressive technology, put it on Twitter. Warren and Bloomberg fade. She was once among the front-runners. He was recently ascendant and spending his way into serious contention. But on Super Tuesday both Ms. Warren and Mr. Bloomberg badly underperformed. As of early Wednesday morning, Ms. Warren had cracked 20 percent in only a single state, Massachusetts, where she still finished a disappointing third. And Mr. Bloomberg was above 20 percent only in Colorado, where vote-by-mail balloting had insulated him somewhat from the late electoral stampede toward Mr. Biden. The path forward is uncertain for both candidates. Ms. Warren, bracing for a rough night, did not plan a prime-time speech and has no public events scheduled yet on Wednesday. (She has more later in the week.) Mr. Bloomberg, in his speech, spoke about his data-centric approach to governance but in a way that could apply to the brutal delegate math he now faces, saying he always would respect data and tell the truth. Bright spots were hard to find for the two candidates. Even places that Mr. Bloombergs orbit had been more hopeful about, such as Tennessee and Oklahoma, quickly faded from the campaigns grasp as the night wore on. Ms. Warrens defeat in her home state of Massachusetts was particularly rough, as exit polls showed her finishing in third among women, third in every region of the state and second among liberals. Her best demographic looked like her: college-educated white women. The results exposed the partys generational divide. One of the biggest fissures in the upcoming battles between Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders will be generational: Mr. Biden wins older voters by a lot; Mr. Sanders wins younger voters by a lot; they are going to fight fiercely for everyone in between. How Different Age Groups Voted States are closer to the corner of the candidate that received the most support from the group. Source: Exit polls from National Election Pool/Edison Research | Note: Polls were not conducted in all Super Tuesday states. In some states, sample sizes for some groups were too small to report. In Alabama the state where Mr. Sanders performed worst on Tuesday he still won younger voters (those under 30) by a sizable margin, carrying about 45 percent of them, compared with 32 percent for Mr. Biden, exit polls showed. And in Vermont, Mr. Biden nearly matched Mr. Sanders among those aged 65 or older, while nearly seven in ten voters under 40 went with Mr. Sanders. The demographic recipe for a Sanders success was winning the next generation in a landslide. In California, Mr. Sanders carried those under 30 with 72 percent, compared with a paltry 5 percent for Mr. Biden, the exit polls there showed. Mr. Sanders actually won an outright majority of Californians under 44 and battled Mr. Biden to a draw among voters 45 to 64 years old. It was a similar coalition that led to his sweeping victory in Nevada in late February. For Mr. Biden, winning typically involved strongly consolidating the oldest voters (he won three-quarters of those above 65 in Virginia, for instance) while limiting Mr. Sanderss gains among those under 30. Going forward, the primary seems likeliest to be eventually determined by whoever can capture those between 40 and 65. A St Patrick's week trip to the US by Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill is to be shortened due to the coronavirus outbreak. Stormont sources on Tuesday night said the First Minister's and Deputy First Minister's New York engagements had been cancelled. They will now attend only events in Washington. Rather than leave for the US this Sunday, they will fly out on Tuesday so they can take part in an emergency Cobra meeting with the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers on coronavirus on Monday. Health Minister Robin Swann, who had no plans to go to the US, will also join the meeting. Economy Minister Diane Dodds will represent the Executive at the New York engagements. She will also attend the Washington engagements. Asked about Mrs Foster's and Ms O'Neill's travel arrangements, an Executive Office spokeswoman said: "Ministers plan to travel to the US next week to meet political and business leaders. The precise arrangements will be dependent on their broader ministerial responsibilities including Executive preparations to combat Covid-19. Further details of the visit will be provided in due course." The First and Deputy First Minister are still on course to meet politicians on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and to attend a White House reception hosted by President Trump. Meanwhile Mary Lou McDonald is due to return to the Dail tomorrow. Two of the Sinn Fein president's children had been put into precautionary quarantine along with the rest of their school due to a person contracting coronavirus. "My children are well and I have been advised there is no reason for me to stay away," Ms McDonald told RTE. The Dail business committee must decide whether or not there will be a second vote for Taoiseach tomorrow. Beijing, March 4 : The Chinese health authorities now recommend the use of Roche's drug for rheumatoid arthritis, Actemra, in the treatment of serious novel coronavirus patients, the media reported. China's National Health Commission made the recommendation in the updated treatment guidelines for COVID-19 released on Wednesday, pharma industry news site FiercePharma reported. The decision was taken after seeing promising results in clinical practice. The Swiss drugmaker donated nearly $2 million worth of Actemra to China, its local operations said in a blog post on Monday. The donation was made last week after a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that promising results had been observed in 14 serious and critically ill patients treated with existing medicines at a hospital affiliated with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). As per the revelations made by USTC, the regimen includes Actemra. A randomized clinical trial evaluating the drug's application has already been started there. Actemra is known as an inhibitor of the receptor of interleukin 6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine. A research team consisting of respiratory specialists from the Wuhan-based Tongji Hospital, central China's Hubei province, found that critically ill patients had the most interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in their serum, while the patients with mild pneumonia had the least, which showed that the severity of the disease is positively correlated with the expression levels of the two serum cytokines. The national diagnosis and treatment plan for COVID-19 unveiled by the Chinese health authorities on Wednesday includes the results of autopsies of COVID-19 victims and pathological observation based on needle biopsies, Xinhua reported. China has added the antibody diagnosis method for COVID-19 and its relevant criteria in the country's latest diagnosis and treatment scheme, which also includes warning against transmission of the novel coronavirus via aerosol or contact due to environmental pollution caused by the excrement and urine of patients. Roche's Actemra drug was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010. The member representing Ndokwa West Constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Charles Emetulu, has expressed confidence that a lot would be learnt from this year's edition of Maris Annual Public Service Lecture, which is focused on effective tax administration. Speaking in Asaba, the Delta State capital on Wednesday, Hon. Emetulu observed that *taxation* remains a rare but valuable topic for public discussion and that the organisers of Maris annual public service lecture would avail the public of good opportunity to know a lot about *taxation* especially by the topic for discussion, "Effective Tax Administration In The Delivery of Democratic Dividends". According to him, the guest speaker, Chief Monday Onyeme, who is Chairman, Delta State Board of Internal Revenue (DBIR), is also a well-known tax administrator and the people would certainly learn much from his wealth of knowledge. Emetulu said, "Last year, shortly after the general elections and before the inauguration of a new government in the country, we were at the Maris Lecture where experts brainstormed on managing post-election challenges using Nigeria as case study. This year, you have chosen a known financial expert, Chief Monday Onyeme to talk about tax administration in the delivery of democratic dividends. "As a supporter of positive activities that will engender an egalitarian society, I commend Maris Trust Council for chosing this topic for discussion and the choice of the guest speaker as well; and, by God's grace, we will be there to listen, make our contributions and learn more. "It is also, heartwarming that you have experts in related fields to discuss the topic. Hon. Anthony Elekeokwuri who is the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, is a financial expert. You have also reached out to the Executive Chairman, Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, Mr Emeka Odo, the Accountant-General of Lagos State, Dr. Shefiu Abiodun Muritala, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Delta State, Mr Peter Mrakpor, and our own Hon. (Barr.) Orezi Esievo, Executive Secretary, Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprise Development Agency (DEMSA), as discussants at the lecture which has Dr. Kemi Emina as Moderator. "This is a good contribution to the growth of the society and I am confident that financial and administrative managers from the public and private sectors from different parts of the world will attend this lecture as there is a lot to be learnt from what we can see so far. "Again, the choice of date, Wednesday, April 8, 2020 just before Easter will give a lot of persons something to reminisce about during the Easter celebration; holding the lecture at 12 noon too would afford some persons the opportunity to fly in for the lecture and leave in time through the Asaba International Airport. I am aware that there are regular flights now to and from the airport on different routes across the country. "I will urge the management of Maris Trust Council to carry on with the good work and continually take Asaba as the venue of the lecture, which is projecting our State in good light." Oman budget carrier SalamAir has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Manpower to provide travel services, reservations, dedicated personnel and 24-hour services for the Ministry. This cooperation comes within the initiatives offered by SalamAir to cooperate with the government sector. The agreement was signed by Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Bakri, minister of Manpower and Dr Anwar Al Rawas, chairman of SalamAir. Captain Mohamed Ahmed, CEO of SalamAir, said: We are happy to start this new relation with the Ministry of Manpower as we continue our commitment to cooperate closely with the government sector. We hope that by signing this agreement we can provide support to the Ministry of Manpower with services related to travel, reservations and offer 24-hour service by having dedicated personnel. This reflects the airlines incessant dedication in preserving its position as being an active member of the Omani society. SalamAir currently operates three Airbus A320 aircraft and five Airbus A320Neo aircraft making it the first Omani carrier to utilise the highest rated single-aisle aircraft. SalamAir flies to domestic destinations including Muscat, Salalah and Suhar and international destinations to Abu Dubai, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Doha, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Tehran, Shiraz, Istanbul, Alexandria, Khartoum, Multan, Sialkot, Karachi, Dhaka, Chattogram, Kathmandu, Colombo and Phuket. Additional passenger services to compliment the customer experience on the home-grown airline include options for extra luggage, seat and meal selection. - TradeArabia News Service National Guard stumble upon napping man, find 380 kilos of drugs Chihuahua Elements of the National Guard arrested one male suspect after the vehicle in which he was found sleeping was discovered with 380 kilos of marijuana. The arrest happened when surveying National Guard members came upon a parked van with state of Durango plates along the Chihuahua-Ciudad Juarez federal highway. When they approached the van, they detected the smell of marijuana and saw one man inside the van laying down sleeping. After a review of the vehicle, they found cardboard boxes concealing 84 packages of varying sizes of marijuana. The driver was arrested and his van and drugs seized for the Federal Public Ministry. Mumbai, March 4 : Dibakar Banerjee's next release "Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar" has its lead actors Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor on the run, in the trailer that was unveiled on Wednesday. The much-delayed film was originally slated to release in 2018. It has now finally been locked for on March 20. Watch the trailer In the trailer, Parineeti is introduced as Sandeep, and Arjun as Pinky. The trailer begins with Sandeep running towards Pinky, who is sitting in his car. She asks him to help her run away and is willing to pay him any amount. Soon, they come across a group of people firing bullets at each other. An angry Pinky confronts Sandeep regarding what trouble she is in. Later, they escape to a hill station where they meet an aged couple, played by Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav. "Celebrated storyteller #DibakarBanerjee returns to the big screen with another intriguing tale, #SandeepAurPinkyFaraar Releasing on 20th March, 2020! @arjunk26 @ParineetiChopra @SAPFTheFilm," Yash Raj Films tweeted on Wednesday along with a trailer. Parineeti and Arjun had earlier featured together in "Ishaqzaade" and "Namaste England". -- Syndicated from IANS Bengaluru: Anant Nag is among the few who can speak from experience on what it is like to be an actor and a politician. Apart from being a versatile actor across all media, he was a minister during the tenure of J H Patel as Karnataka chief minister. So during an interactive session at the 12th edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) on Tuesday, Anant Nag was asked which role was more difficult, acting the role of a politician or a being a politician. It is very easy to act the role of a politician on screen, said the veteran actor of Ankur. But only after I got into politics I realized how difficult it is to be a politician.'' You cannot do what you want in politics. I failed to make an impact as we were not allowed to work the way we wished. --Anant Nag, veteran actor So why did he go there? Anant Nag had always been politically conscious. The wars of 1962, 1965 and 1972 affected him deeply and he went on to be a part of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement. He went on to become an MLC, an MLA and then a minister in the Janata Party government. Having been an intense actor in the parallel cinema, he missed acting while in the government. Chief minister Patel told him to stop acting as long as he was in power. "That was when I realized how badly I missed cinema," the actor said. Asked why Kannada film-makers dont make movies on political issues, Anant Nag said: "Of the 6.5 crore Kannadigas, only 1.25 crore watch movies and the rest prefer reading, which isn't the case with other languages like Telugu where, nearly 10 crore out of 12 crore watch movies." Anant Nag grew up in a mutt at Bhatkal and moved to Bombay in 1961. He had no dreams of being an actor. "I had been good at studies in primary school but all that changed after I went to Bombay. I failed 10th standard. So as I had the NCC and ACC certificates I tried to get into the services. The Air Force rejected me for my poor eyesight and the army rejected me for being underweight," he revealed as the audience broke into laughter. With life heading nowhere, I got an offer to act in plays, and then from theatre I jumped to movies and realized that if I can be good at anything at al, then it must be acting, Anant Nag said. A Dean Koontz thriller novel about a killer virus that started in Wuhan has become a bestseller amid rising fears over the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Fans of the author insisted that his 1981 work The Eyes of Darkness, which describes a virus named 'Wuhan-400' after the Chinese city it originated in, predicted the outbreak of COVID-19, which was first identified in the same city. Now the Amazon Charts for the week of March 1, 2020 show Koontz's nearly 40-year-old book as the number three most sold book of the week, behind Alex North's The Whisper Man and Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. In The Eyes Of Darkness, Wuhan-400 is a bioweapon virus that has a fatality rate of 100 percent within 12 hours. The characters explain that the Chinese intended to use it 'to wipe out a city or a country' without the need for 'expensive decontamination'. One character in the novel says: 'They call the stuff ''Wuhan-400'' because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan.' Twitter user Nick Hinton, who first posted a screenshot of the passage from the novel earlier this month, said: 'A Dean Koontz novel written in 1981 predicted the outbreak of the coronavirus!' Dean Koontz wrote The Eyes Of Darkness in 1981, describing the 'Wuhan-400' virus Now the Amazon Charts for the week of March 1, 2020 show Koontz's nearly 40-year-old book as the number three most sold book of the week, behind Alex North's The Whisper Man and Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light Twitter user Nick Hinton kicked off a frenzy on Twitter by posting the above passage One reviewer on Amazon writes: 'Following Coronavirus I found snippets from this book on Facebook. 'Intrigued so I bought it. Wow! I had goosebumps for most of it, well written fiction but the fact that the Virus was mentioned in this 1981 publication had me gripped to the end. 'Haven't read a book for over 20 years - more Dean Koontz please.' Although coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, there is not yet scientific consensus about how and where it jumped to humans. Initial theories suggested that it jumped to humans from exotic animals in a Wuhan 'wet market.' Others have suggested, so far without proof, that the pathogen may have escaped from the Wuhan Virology Lab, China's only biosafety-level four facility. Other than the city of origin, however, there is little similarity between the fictional Wuhan-400 and the real coronavirus. Medical staff checking notes in an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 coronavirus patients at a hospital in Wuhan, February 22 Differences between Wuhan-400 and coronavirus Despite the surface similarity, there are big differences between Koontz's fictional virus and the real coronavirus: Fictional Wuhan-400 Origin: Wuhan, China Incubation period: Four hours Symptoms: 'Literally eats away brain tissue like battery acid dissolving cheesecloth' Mortality rate: 100% Coronavirus/COVID-19 Origin: Wuhan, China Incubation period: Several days to two weeks Symptoms: Fever, Cough, Shortness of breath Mortality rate: Estimated 2-3% Advertisement One character in Koontz's book says: 'Wuhan-400 is a perfect weapon. It afflicts only human beings. No other living creature can carry it. And like syphilis, Wuhan-400 can't survive outside a living human body for longer than a minute, which means it can't permanently contaminate objects or entire places the way anthrax and other virulent microorganisms can.' Coronavirus however has an estimated mortality rate of just 2 to 3 percent. It can survive on surfaces for much longer than a minute, possibly hours or days, though scientists are working now to determine such properties with more precision. Says one character in the novel: 'They call the stuff 'Wuhan-400' because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan' In the Koontz novel, the Wuhan-400 attacks the brain. As one character describes it: 'The virus migrates to the brain stem, and there it begins secreting a toxin that literally eats away brain tissue like battery acid dissolving cheesecloth. It destroys the part of the brain that controls all of the body's automatic functions.' Coronavirus, on the other hand, primarily affects the respiratory system, in severe cases resulting in pneumonia. The primary symptoms are fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. The book also describes a virus that has an incubation period of just four hours, whereas coronavirus incubates for several days to two weeks. Finally, to the disappointment of conspiracy theorists, it turns out that in the first edition of The Eyes Of Darkness, the virus was originally called 'Gorki-400', after the Russian city where Koontz originally wrote the bioweapons lab. After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Koontz apparently changed later editions to make China the villain. Job Title: Loans Officers (10 Job Vacancies) Organization: Platinum Credit (U) Ltd Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda About US: Platinum credit is a leading Regional Micro Finance Company providing emergency loans to employed individuals in Eastern Africa. We have a wide spread branch network in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Platinum Credit (U) Ltd has introduced a new product available to formally employed persons working in the Private Sector. Platinum Credit (U) Ltd is a subsidiary of Platcorp Holdings Ltd. Job Summary: The Loans Officer will procure sales on behalf of the company Key Duties and Responsibilities: Present and sell company products and services to potential clients. Establish and maintain client relationships. Respond to and follow up sales inquiries using appropriate methods. Develop and maintain current product knowledge. Identify and resolve client concerns. Participate in marketing events. Communicate new product and service opportunities and provide feedback gathered through field activity to appropriate company staff. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: The ideal candidate must hold a Degree or Diploma in a relevant field. At least two years experience preferably in a financial institution Excellent numerical and analytical skills Excellent interpersonal and communication skills Age between 25-35yrs Applicants must be corporately dressed How to Apply: All interested and qualified candidates please submit your application, detailed CV (in Ms Word format) and testimonials (in PDF format) to the address below; (total email size should not exceed 2MB) or hand deliver to Spear House 2nd Floor. Send your application by Email to: omwambari@platinumcredit.co.ug or deliver it to our Sales Offices on 2nd Floor, Spear House, Building Former WBS. Deadline: 14th March 2020 For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline The U.S. Army's top officer told Congress on Tuesday that the service has ramped up its coronavirus testing effort to prevent the deadly outbreak from spreading through the force. A week has passed since an American soldier serving in South Korea tested positive for the novel coronavirus -- officially known as COVID-19 -- prompting the Pentagon to postpone annual military drills in the country. Since then, the Army has increased its efforts to contain the potential spread of infection, such as ordering that every soldier returning from deployments in the region undergo screenings to see whether they have been exposed to the virus. "Every soldier is being screened at multiple times during the redeployment to make sure that they don't have a problem with that," Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told members of the House Armed Services Committee. Related: South Korea, US Postpone Annual Military Drills Due to Virus "We have screening that we are doing for all of our soldiers coming back from Korea. We just had the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division come back, and they are getting screened all along the way." Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, wanted to know more about how the Army is prepared to conduct testing on a large scale, pointing out that the service has about 190,000 soldiers deployed around the world. "Sitting here today, are you comfortable that the Army has sufficient coronavirus test kits, medical supplies, and the training to ... address the threat?" he asked. McConville said he isn't satisfied yet, but the Army's medical experts are working to rapidly develop test kits that can handle large groups of soldiers at one time. "We can do it in small numbers now -- 50-60, so many a day -- but we need to get up to 1,000 so we can really turn these," he said. "We are going to great lengths to mitigate the risks for all of our soldiers. ... We want to make sure that our soldiers and families have every capability to protect them against this virus if it comes their way." Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told lawmakers that the service has "extraordinary people" within its medical research and development community who are working with the National Institutes of Health on a vaccine for COVID-19. "We are working on the vaccine," McCarthy said. "They are testing on animals right now and will ultimately get to a human sample within a couple of months." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Read More: The Army Is Working Overtime to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine SBS has announced a swag of April premieres for new and returning international dramas. War of the Worlds 8:30pm Thursday April 2 on SBS Party of Five 8:30pm Friday April 10 on SBS VICELAND (full season drop at SBS on Demand) The Good Fight 9:30pm Thursday April 16 on SBS Reprisal 9:20pm Tuesday 21 April on SBS VICELAND 8:30pm Wednesday April 22 on SBS (full season drop at SBS on Demand) Fargo 8:30pm Wednesday 22 April on SBS Peter Andrews, SBS Head of Network Programming, said: As the home of world-class drama, SBS has scoured the globe to bring the latest suite of acclaimed drama to Australia. These five series represent a diverse and entertaining mix of new and returning dramas from around the world. Therell be something for every viewer, and we look forward to sharing this collection with local audiences. War of the Worlds Starring Gabriel Byrne (ZeroZeroZero), Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Cold Feet), War of the Worlds is a bold, contemporary reimagining of H.G Wells classic novel. Set in present-day Europe, War of the Worlds is an eight-part series that follows pockets of survivors forced to team up after an apocalyptic extra-terrestrial strike. War of the Worlds is written and created by the BAFTA award winner Howard Overman (Misfits, Crazyhead, Merlin) and has received rave reviews internationally. Collider praises the premiere episode, calling it a must-watch for the sheer panic-attack hysteria of the invasion itself. Its a rapid-cut, sweat-inducing freakout on a large scale pulled off to perfection. War of the Worlds will air weekly on SBS from 8:30pm Thursday 2 April. Episodes will be available on SBS On Demand each week on the same day as broadcast. The series will be subtitled in Simplified Chinese and Arabic for SBS On Demand, available immediately following its premiere on SBS. Party of Five Party of Five is a reimagining of the original cult classic from the 1990s starring Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt. In this new iteration by original series creators Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser, this beloved story of a young family bound by adversity will be retold through the lens of current-day themes and cultural conversations. Party of Five follows the five Acosta children Emilio, Lucia, Beto, Valentina and baby Rafa as they navigate daily life struggles to survive as a family unit after their parents are suddenly deported to Mexico. Starring Brandon Larracuente, Emily Tosta, Niko Guardado and Elle Paris Legaspi, Vulture praised the series because it humanizes the political and makes the audience see the deeply personal impact that the decisions made by the administration have on the lives of young people who are trying their best to do the right thing every day. Party of Five will air weekly on SBS VICELAND from 8:30pm Friday 10 April. The entire season will drop on SBS On Demand on Friday 10 April. The Good Fight Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) returns in the critically acclaimed series The Good Fight. The fourth season finds Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart navigating a very different landscape. After they lost their biggest client, Chumhum, and their founding partners name was tarnished, Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart was forced to accept an offer by a huge multi-national law firm, STR Laurie, to become a small subsidiary. While STR Laurie initially seem like benevolent overlords, Diane Lockhart and her colleagues are chafing at their loss of independence. The Good Fight also stars Cush Jumbo, Audra McDonald, Sarah Steele, Michael Boatman, Nyambi Nyambi, Zach Grenier, John Larroquette and Delroy Lindo. Hugh Dancy has joined season four in a recurring role. Season four of The Good Fight will air weekly on SBS from 9:30pm Thursday 16 April. Episodes will be available on SBS On Demand each week after broadcast. Language Reprisal Described by The Hollywood Reporter as hyperactive, colourful, pulpy and crazy, a thing in which no comparison exactly does it justice, revenge noir thriller Reprisal stars Abigail Spencer (Greys Anatomy, Suits) and Australian actor Rhys Wakefield (The Black Balloon, True Detective). Years after being dragged behind a truck and left for dead by her brother and his gang, Katherine Harlow (Abigail Spencer), sets out to take revenge. She re-emerges as Doris Quinn and begins her journey of vengeance against the powerful gang that tried to kill her. Reprisal also stars Rodrigo Santoro, Mena Massoud and Madison Davenport. Updated: Reprisal will premiere with a double episode 8:30pm Wednesday April 22 on SBS. The entire season will drop on SBS On Demand on Tuesday 21 April. Fargo Comedian Chris Rock joins the fourth season of Emmy-winning anthology series Fargo. Returning with a brand-new storyline and a brand-new cast, Fargo is set in Kansas City Missouri, and will follow two criminal syndicates that have struck an uneasy peace. One Italian, one African American. Together they control an alternate economy of exploitation and drugs. To cement their peace, the heads of both families trade their eldest sons. Fargo also stars Jack Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Ben Whishaw, Jessie Buckley and Salvatore Esposito. Fargo season four will premiere with a double episode on SBS at 8:30pm Wednesday 22 April. Episodes will be available on SBS On Demand each week at 4pm on the day of broadcast. Update: War of the Worlds, Fargo and The Good Fight will be rescheduled by SBS at a later date. Burma Myanmar Garment Factory Closes As COVID-19 Cuts Supplies The Hua Meng Garment Factory in Kangyidaunt Township, Ayeyarwady Region. / Salai Thant Zin / The Irrawaddy PATHEIN, Ayeyarwady RegionThe coronavirus outbreak in China has forced a garment factory in Ayeyarwady Region to close suddenly, leaving all its workers jobless. A few months ago, the factory was busy and the employees complained about forced overtime on weekends and public holidays. Nearly 1,000 employees at Hua Meng Garment Factory in Kangyidaunt Township were made redundant at the end of February as the factory has run out of raw materials for clothing and still cannot import materials from China. The factory management announced on Feb. 28 that the factory will close on Feb. 29. Nearly 1,000 workers at the factory have lost their jobs, imposing hardship on workers, Ma Su Pone Chit, secretary of Hua Meng Factorys Labor Union, told The Irrawaddy. The factory has reportedly given redundancy and compensation payments as required by labor law. The factory will close temporarily (for an indefinite period) as of 29.2.2020, the managements announcement on Feb. 28 read, over a shortage of raw materials as textiles cant be imported due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China. The Irrawaddy was unable to reach the factory management for further comment. Over 800 employees accepted the redundancy payment. But some 200 others refused the payment, partly because the factory closed without notice, and partly because they feel as though they were fired. When we asked the HR manager, she said the factory would reopen, but everyone who has received redundancy payments will have to apply for their jobs again when the factory reopens, and we may or may not get our jobs back then. Around 200 workers are not happy with it and thus refused to accept compensation, said Ma Su Pone Chit. We understand the difficulties of the employer, she added. He does not need to give us a lot of compensation. We would be more than satisfied if he could tell us how long the closure will last and pay just half of our salaries. We are willing to wait together with the employer until the factory reopens. Ayeyarwady Region Chief Minister U Hla Moe Aung met with the labor union leaders at Hua Meng Factory on Tuesday following the employees complaint over the closure. In December, workers at Hua Meng Factory staged a sit-in protest over working conditions and payment. They complained that they were forced to work overtime on Sundays and public holidays. There are only nine garment factories in Ayeyarwady Region, including Hua Meng. The eight others are located in an industrial zone in the regional capital of Pathein and are all still operating. We have raw materials which we have stored over time and we are managing to operate with the existing stocks, said Ko Thet Naing, manager of Myanmar Knitting Garment Factory, the biggest garment factory in Pathein Industrial Zone. We are concerned that factory workers will suffer if the factory closes. For the time being, we have no plan to close. Over 120,000 people are employed at the eight garment factories in Pathein Industrial Zone, the biggest industrial zone in the region. Garment factories in Yangon have also reduced working hours. Many of them are now only working four days a week due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on imports of raw materials from China, which supplies up to 90 percent of clothing materials to Myanmars garment industry. According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus has killed 3,131 people around the world as of Tuesday and spread globally across 78 countries. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. You may also like these stories: Myanmar-China Border Trade Drops US$200 M Amid Coronavirus Outbreak Myanmar Evacuates 59 Students From Virus-Hit Wuhan, China China Reports 5,000 New Coronavirus Cases as Death Toll Hits 1,380 M ove over Love Island, weve found a new dating show to obsess over If youre yet to binge-watch Netflixs addictive new dating show Love Is Blind, then you are seriously missing out. Part The Circle, part Married At First Sight and part Love Island, Love Is Blind sees a series of singles date one another in secluded pods where they cant see the face of who they are talking to. If a pair think theyve found The One, they get engaged, and then must see if their love can last in the real world going on holiday, moving in together and meeting each others families before choosing whether to tie the knot at the end of the three week period. Wild ride: Love Is Blind sees people move from being strangers to couples in recorded time / Netflix The internet has become obsessed with keeping up-to-date with some of the car-crash couples, with some of the shows maddest moments (Couples getting engaged after four days? Arguments over who is having the best sex of their life? A woman literally feeding wine to her dog?) setting Twitter ablaze with memes. Weve rounded up some of the funniest reactions to Netflixs most bonkers dating show. When the pod dating was quite literally speed dating The Love is Blind contestants seemed to miss the whole point of your dates not being able to see you... When Jessica was fooling absolutely no-one When Mark just wouldnt give up We get it Amber, youre one of the guys Round of applause for Kellys mum who was the most relatable woman in the show Never forget Gigis most jaw-dropping line Yet were still shaken that Damian said no When *this* was the Love Is Blind moment we couldnt stop thinking about Cameron and Lauren have convinced everyone that love actually can be blind Bring. On. The. Reunion. Will there be a second series of Love is Blind? With the show having only been released last month, were yet to find out whether we will get a second series but the endless buzz around the programme can only be good news. Creator Chris Coelen is also hoping the show will return, telling OprahMag.com theres 100 per cent the possibility of more series. I want to see a season two or a season 12, don't you?" he said, adding the shows compelling format could see it go on for "15 or 20 seasons". For those who just cannot wait for more Love Is Blind, a series one reunion will drop on Netflixs YouTube channel on Thursday March 5, with all six couples returning to talk about their time on the show. Could there be a British Love Is Blind? Again, while nothing is confirmed, Coelen is keen to do a British equivalent. Absolutely! he told Metro.co.uk. 100 percent yes. Lets make it happen, Id love it. BELGRADE - The defense ministry in Serbia has filed a criminal complaint against Bosko Obradovic, an opposition leader accused of calling for a violent coup. Obradovic is accused of saying that President ''Aleksandar Vucic needs to be urgently isolated'' and that ''the army and police need to take power'' in the country. Vucic reacted to the alleged statements, describing them as a classic example of someone who is calling for a coup. Speaking to private television Pink, the president said no other member of Alliance for Serbia (SzS) - the main opposition bloc of which Obradovic is one of the leaders - has so far reacted nor condemned his statements. Cookie Preferences Cookie List Cookie List A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website when visited by a user asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting for our advertising and marketing efforts. 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Meghan Markle 'was a smiling face in a dull institution' and 'too good to be true' for the monarchy, according to novelist Dame Hilary Mantel. The British Booker Prize-winning author, 67, spoke with Harper's Bazaar to celebrate the publication of the final installment of her bestselling Tudor trilogy, The Mirror & the Light. Photographed at Hampton Court Palace, the author said she was pleased that Meghans marriage to Prince Harry had survived the couples decision to stand down as senior royals. Dame Hilary explained: 'Im pleased that its the marriage thats surviving and the connection with the monarchy that has to go because I think almost all of us would have bet that if she [the Duchess of Sussex] left, shed have to leave alone.' Dame Hilary Mantel, 67, called Meghan Markle, 38, a 'smiling face in a dull institution' as she said she feared the Duchess would be forced to leave the royal family alone The British Booker Prize-winning author suggested 'abominable racism' was involved in the Duchess of Sussex's decision to leave the UK (pictured, the Duchess on her final royal engagement before announcing her plans to step back from the family in January) She added: 'Though, none of us know the details of how this is going to work out.' 'I think that Meghan was too good to be true,' Hilary admitted. 'She was a smiling face in a dull institution, she cheered the nation up no end, or at least men and women of good will.' Harry and Meghan rocked the Royal Family in January when they announced they would step down as senior royals, less than two years after their marriage. They intend to split their time between the UK and Canada. Speaking about the treatment of Meghan, Hilary insisted: 'I do think abominable racism has been involved. People who say that's got nothing to do with it well, they need to check their privilege!' The author (pictured) spoke with Harper's Bazaar to celebrate the publication of the final instalment of her bestselling Tudor trilogy, The Mirror & the Light Talking to the BBC this week, Hilary reiterated her belief that racism had played a part in the criticism aimed at the Duchess. The author said: 'I hesitate to call her a victim. But I think there has been an element of racism in the invective against her. I think it's more deeply embedded in people's consciousness than any of us are willing to admit.' She added: 'There's an intense concentration on the bodies of royal women. If anyone doubts that, we only have to look at what happens when our royal ladies are pregnant and when they give birth. 'They are perceived as public property in the same way that Tudor women were perceived.' Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan (pictured) rocked the Royal Family in January when they announced they would step down as senior royals, less than two years after their marriage The treatment of royal women was 'sad' and 'objectionable', she said, because 'it is simply turning the individual woman back into a breeder'. Asked about the duchess, she said that scrutiny of royal bodies 'does include the skin'. In 2016, Harry said media coverage of Meghan had 'racial undertones' and novelist Sir Philip Pullman claimed Meghan 'is attacked by the British press because she's black'. In 2013 Dame Hilary came under fire for likening the Duchess of Cambridge to a shop window mannequin who would become a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung. The April issue of Harper's Bazaar (pictured) is on sale from 04 March 2020 The comments were condemned by then prime minister David Cameron as completely misguided, although she said her words had been taken out of context. Despite Hilary winning a Booker Prize for both her first and second novel in her series about Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII, she says it never matters at the time of writing. She explained to Harper's Bazaar: 'I'm keeping my eye on the content of the book, and asking, "Does that succeed with readers?" 'The whole issue of prizes, bestseller lists and so on is out of my hands. When you're actually writing day-by-day, I don't find any of that matters.' She also revealed how it felt writing her protagonist Thomas Cromwell's death, admitting she broke down into tears. 'Actually, it's really embarrassing, this, but when it came into my head how it must go, I was in Sainsbury's at the checkout,' she recalled. 'My hands were packing and tears were falling really, really fast onto my hands. And by the time I got into the car park, I'd done it. It was emotionally processed.' The Mirror & the Light (25, Fourth Estate) is published on 5 March. The April issue of Harper's Bazaar is on sale from 04 March 2020. Oil slipped amid a split between Saudi Arabia and Russia over whether deeper production cuts are required to offset the demand hit from the coronavirus epidemic. Futures fell 0.9% in New York Wednesday. The first day of OPEC+s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting culminated in Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak leaving the gathering amid disagreement on the scope of proposed oil production curbs. Riyadh has pushed for a supply reduction as big as 1.5 million barrels a day, while Moscow favors maintaining output at current levels through to the end of the second quarter. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the committee made a wonderful recommendation but declined to provide details. OPEC+ ministers will discuss the recommendation at talks in Vienna on Thursday and Friday. PREVIOUSLY: Oil jumps for a second day on OPEC recommendation OPECs meeting falling apart hurt the momentum oil had built, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. The market is going to need production cuts if it is ever going to stabilize. The coronavirus outbreak has worsened since the Joint Technical Committee first recommended a production cut of 600,000 barrels a day in February. OPEC and its allies are widely expected to agree on deeper output cuts, but its not clear whether that will be enough to bolster oil. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and two consultants said they expect demand to shrink in 2020 for only the fourth time in nearly 40 years. Italy announced a nationwide closing of its schools until March 15 in an effort to curb the worst outbreak in Europe while, in the U.S., Los Angeles County reported six new cases. Total coronavirus cases globally topped 93,000. FUEL FIX: Our energy news. Your inbox. A perfect combination. Meanwhile, government data showed that U.S. oil stockpiles rose by 784,000 barrels last week, well below the 3 million barrel forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. U.S. crude oil production hit an all-time high at 13.1 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The market also got some support from the bigger-than-expected draws in gasoline and diesel stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate futures for April delivery fell 40 cents to settle at $46.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent futures for May fell 73 cents to $51.13 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, putting its premium over WTI at $4.18. The markets structure remains weak and options pricing is at its most bearish since June. --With assistance from Alex Longley and Sharon Cho. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Mike Bloomberg waves to supporters: AP Michael Bloomberg is expected to pull out of the Democratic presidential race after failing to win in any states on Super Tuesday despite spending more than half a billion dollars of his own money on campaign advertising. The billionaire former New York mayors only victory came in the tiny US territory of American Samoa, which earned him four delegates. He is on course to win no delegates in Virginia, where he invested heavily on flooding TV with advertisements, and finish third in other key target states Texas and Tennessee. Mr Bloomberg has spent an unprecedented $559m (437m) on campaign ads since announcing his candidacy in November. The former Republican, a wild card heading into the primaries, had skipped the first four contests and bombarded Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads. He had been winning more than 15 per cent of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in Tennessee, Texas, Colorado, Utah, California and Arkansas, but his poll numbers slipped after he came under fire during Democratic debates for alleged sexism and racial discrimination. Mr Bloomberg was muscled aside on Super Tuesday by a resurgent Joe Biden, who consolidated support from moderates to turn the contest into a two-horse race against Bernie Sanders. The former vice-president pulled off his victories despite being vastly outspent on ads by Mr Bloomberg. Mr Bidens outlay on TV, radio and digital advertising amounted to $16m (13m) less than any other candidate still in the race as of 3 March. Bloomberg's 650 million bet looks like a complete failure at this point, said Saagar Enjeti, a political commentator and fellow at Washington DC think thank the Hudson Institute. The Wesleyan Media Project, which monitors campaign advertising spending, said we have never seen a candidate spend so much money as Mr Bloomberg, who is one of the richest people in world and has a net worth of $56bn (44bn.) Imagine how much voter suppression Mike Bloomberg could combat with the $559,000,000 he's spent on campaign ads, said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California in Berkley and former US labour secretary. Story continues Brian Klaas, a political scientist at University College London, said Mr Bloomberg should now pledge his billions to helping the Democratic nominee to defeat Trump rather than his own botched candidacy. Mr Bloomberg's press secretary, Julie Wood, said the campaign would "reassess after tonight" whether to continue, but denied that meant he would quit the race. But Politico cited several Bloomberg campaign sources as saying a decision to exit the race is all but certain. Mr Bloomberg struck a defiant tone on Tuesday evening, telling supporters in Florida's West Palm Beach: ""As the results come in, here's what is clear: No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible. "In just three months, we've gone from 1 per cent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president." The Bloomberg campaign hired thousands of staffers and mounted a vigorous national tour focused on Super Tuesday states. But he was was dogged by criticism of his past support as New York mayor of "stop and frisk," a policy that encouraged police to stop and search people and ensnared disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos. He was also strongly criticised in two Democratic debates for past sexist remarks. Read more Money can't buy love? We've learned it can't alone buy elections Trump mocks Bloomberg as he 'considers dropping out' Bloomberg celebrates after winning delegates in American Samoa By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Chief Medical Writer Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someones body for the first time, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA to treat diseases. A patient recently had it done at OHSUs Casey Eye Institute in Portland for an inherited form of blindness, the companies that make the treatment announced Wednesday. They would not give details on the patient or when the surgery occurred. It may take up to a month to see if it worked to restore vision. If the first few attempts seem safe, doctors plan to test it on 18 children and adults. "We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see," said Charles Albright, chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company developing the treatment with Dublin-based Allergan. "We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA." Dr. Jason Comander, an eye surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, another hospital that plans to enroll patients in the study, said it marks "a new era in medicine" using a technology that "makes editing DNA much easier and much more effective." Doctors first tried in-the-body gene editing in 2017 for a different inherited disease using a tool called zinc fingers. Many scientists believe CRISPR is a much easier tool for locating and cutting DNA at a specific spot, so interest in the new research is very high. The people in this study have Leber congenital amaurosis, caused by a gene mutation that keeps the body from making a protein needed to convert light into signals to the brain, which enables sight. They're often born with little vision and can lose even that within a few years. Scientists can't treat it with standard gene therapy -- supplying a replacement gene -- because the one needed is too big to fit inside the disabled viruses that are used to ferry it into cells. So they're aiming to edit, or delete the mutation by making two cuts on either side of it. The hope is that the ends of DNA will reconnect and allow the gene to work as it should. It's done in an hour-long surgery under general anesthesia. Through a tube the width of a hair, doctors drip three drops of fluid containing the gene editing machinery just beneath the retina, the lining at the back of the eye that contains the light-sensing cells. "Once the cell is edited, it's permanent and that cell will persist hopefully for the life of the patient," because these cells don't divide, said one study leader not involved in this first case, Dr. Eric Pierce at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Doctors think they need to fix one tenth to one third of the cells to restore vision. In animal tests, scientists were able to correct half of the cells with the treatment, Albright said. The eye surgery itself poses little risk, doctors say. Infections and bleeding are relatively rare complications. One of the biggest potential risks from gene editing is that CRISPR could make unintended changes in other genes, but the companies have done a lot to minimize that and to ensure that the treatment cuts only where it's intended to, Pierce said. He has consulted for Editas and helped test a gene therapy, Luxturna, that's sold for a different type of inherited blindness. Some independent experts were optimistic about the new study. "The gene editing approach is really exciting. We need technology that will be able to deal with problems like these large genes," said Dr. Jean Bennett, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who helped test Luxturna at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In one day, she had three calls from families seeking solutions to inherited blindness. "It's a terrible disease," she said. "Right now they have nothing." Dr. Kiran Musunuru, another gene editing expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said the treatment seems likely to work, based on tests in human tissue, mice and monkeys. The gene editing tool stays in the eye and does not travel to other parts of the body, so "if something goes wrong, the chance of harm is very small," he said. "It makes for a good first step for doing gene editing in the body." Although the new study is the first to use CRISPR to edit a gene inside the body, another company, Sangamo Therapeutics, has been testing zinc finger gene editing to treat metabolic diseases. Other scientists are using CRISPR to edit cells outside the body to try to treat cancer, sickle cell and some other diseases. All of these studies have been done in the open, with government regulators' approval, unlike a Chinese scientist's work that brought international scorn in 2018. He Jiankui used CRISPR to edit embryos at the time of conception to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Changes to embryos' DNA can pass to future generations, unlike the work being done now in adults to treat diseases. ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. The Congress said on Wednesday it would continue with its protests till the government agrees to debate Delhi riots in Parliament. The Congress has been demanding that the issue of communal riots in Delhi be debated in Parliament and proceedings of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been disrupted over the issue. Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party has been demanding that there should be a discussion in Parliament on the recent riots in Delhi. "The government should accept its responsibility and the perpetrators of the violence should be punished. We have been asking the government repeatedly to debate on the issue," he said. The government has said that the matter will be taken up after Holi, but the opposition is of the view that an important matter like this cannot wait. "Today also, we protested inside the House. Till the time a debate on Delhi riots is allowed in Parliament, our protest both inside and outside will continue," Chowdhury told reporters outside Parliament. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Budweiser is moving Irish production from the Dublin home of Guinness to Scotland in a new deal with Bulmers cider maker C&C. Budweiser is moving Irish production from the Dublin home of Guinness to the UK as part of a new distribution deal with Bulmers cider maker C&C. C&C said it was acquiring rights to market the Budweiser Brewing Groups two key assets in Ireland - Budweiser and Bud Light - from Guinness parent Diageo. Terms were not disclosed but the deal becomes effective July 1. This means, starting in July, C&C will be responsible for distributing Bud and Bud Light across Ireland. Production of the two brands will cease at St Jamess Gate brewery in Dublin. Budweiser said production of both brands for the Irish market will be transferred to two breweries in Magor, South Wales and Samlesbury, Lancashire in England. Both facilities are operated by Buds parent, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and alerady brew Bud and Bud Light for the British market. C&C said its facility in Clonmel, Co Tipperary - where it chiefly makes Bulmers cider - would be responsible for kegging Bud imported from the UK. Budweiser said most, if not all, would come from the Welsh brewery. Jobs implications at Diageo and C&C were not immediately clear. A C&C spokesman said the Clonmel site had sufficient capacity to take on additional production, so an expansion of the work force there was not required. A Diageo spokesman said it did not anticipate job losses in Dublin as the brewery pivots to increased production of other lager brands. Bud's departure from Dublin "will present an opportunity for Diageo to focus on growing our own newer wholly owned brands, such as Rockshore and Hop House 13, whilst also focusing on our important business with Carlsberg", the spokesman said. C&C since 2009 has brewed, distributed and marketed part of the Budweiser Brewing Groups wider portfolio - including Stella Artois, Becks, Corona, Leffe and Hoegaarden - in the UK, and some of that production already had been imported to Ireland over the past decade. This deal, part of our wider expansion strategy, will utilise C&Cs expertise across Ireland to bring our loved brands - now under one unified portfolio - to even more customers and consumers, said Paula Lindenberg, president of the Budweiser Brewing Group. Well be working closely to ensure a smooth transition to our customers. We are hugely grateful to Diageo for a positive working relationship over the years. Tom McCusker, managing director of C&C Group Ireland, said it had gained a portfolio of some of the worlds most iconic beer brands. We look forward to optimising the portfolio and distribution strengths of our two businesses for the benefit of our mutual customers across Ireland. Diageo has brewed Bud at its St Jamess Gate brewery for more than two decades. During of the Celtic Tiger, Bud grew to represent a fifth of the Irish lager market, but it has slid in popularity amid greater competition from microbrews and new market entrants, including C&Cs Five Lamps brand. Budweiser Brewing Group and their team have been fantastic partners over the years and I am proud of the work we have done together to build Budweiser into one of the most successful beer brands in Ireland, said Diageo Ireland country director Oliver Loomes. We will of course continue to brew, market and distribute Budweiser until the end of June and wish the team at Budweiser Brewing Group the very best in the future as they forge ahead. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:40:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUNMING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have captured a suspect and seized 13 kg of drugs in a drug trafficking case, local authorities said Wednesday. After receiving a tip-off that a drug gang was planning to transport drugs into China on Feb. 28, police in Fengqing County, the China-Myanmar border city of Lincang, sent a task force to investigate the case. Police caught a suspect on a highway in Lincang at around 12:20 p.m. on the same day, with 17 pieces of methamphetamine and two pieces of heroin seized. The suspect has been put under criminal detention, according to the Office of Yunnan Provincial Narcotics Control Commission. Adams Oshiomhole A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Jabi, Abuja today ordered Adams Oshiomhole to henceforth stop parading himself as the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The judge ordered the party not to allow Oshimhole access to the secretariat. Justice Danlami Senchi, in a ruling on Wednesday, restrain Oshiomhole from acting as the APC chairman pending the hearing and determination a suit by six members of the party, led by Mustapha Salihu. The ruling was on an application of interlocutory injunction filed by the plaintiffs, and in which they prayed the court to suspend Oshiomhole in view of his earlier suspension as a member of the APC in his Etsako Ward 10 in Edo State. In the suit filed for the plaintiffs by their lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi, Oshiomhole is listed as the first respondent, while the APC is named as the second respondent. Justice Senchi held that Oshiomhole had been wrongfully kept as the APC National Chairman after his suspension. The judge ordered Oshiomole to stop parading himself as the Chairman of the party. He equally directed the APC to desist from acknowledging him as the chairman of the party The judge further ordered APC not to grant Oshiomole access to the party Secretariat. Justice Senchi held that political parties must be bound by their constitution. He was of the view that, since Oshiomhole had been evidently suspended by his ward and the suspension not challenged, he has no basis to parade himself as the APC National Chairman. The plaintiffs had noted, in the application that Oshiomhole had been suspended by the party and that he has not challenged the suspension. They arhed that Oshiomholes rights as a member of the party has ceased and that he could not continue to act as the partys Chairman. He argued that Oshiomhole cannot continue to enjoy benefits from the APC in view of his suspension as a member of the party. Hearing of the substantive suit has been fixed for April 7, 2020. 500,000 Danes in peril of COVID-19 infection in worst-case scenario: health authorities People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 13:16, March 03, 2020 COPENHAGEN, March 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 500,000 Danes could be infected with the novel coronavirus in months in the worst-case scenario, Danish health authorities warned Monday when the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to four. The National Board of Health and the Danish Patient Safety Authority made the remarks at a joint press conference on Monday after two more cases were confirmed over the weekend, bringing the total in Denmark to four. Soren Brostrom, director of the National Board of Health, said Denmark should be prepared for a potential steep increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. "We can easily see that 10-15 percent (or 580,000-870,000) of the Danish population could be infected with coronavirus," said the director. Anette Lykke Petri, a unit manager from the Danish Patient Safety Authority, said that the agency is making every effort to avoid such an eventuality and contain the epidemic. "Up to 122 healthy Danes are currently in home quarantine. 108 of those in quarantine are related to the four Danes infected with the coronavirus. And the other 14 are in quarantine after being in contact with infected persons abroad," Petri said. Meanwhile, Bolette Soborg, consultant to the National Board of Health, dismissed the notion that the novel coronavirus is spreading within communities in the country, saying "there is nothing to indicate that there are infected people in Denmark who do not have a connection to the risk areas outside of Denmark." During the press conference, the National Board of Health representatives also revealed that they were considering further strategies to contain the virus such as discouraging large assemblies, encouraging people to work form home, closing workplaces and extending public holidays, just like what China has done. "However, the measures I have mentioned are not something we (can) decide with the health authorities. It requires political decisions," Brostrom said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WAYNE, Pa., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Judge Group today announces the celebration of their 50th anniversary. Its a significant milestone for the professional services firm that started in March 1970 in Northeast Philadelphia. Founded by Martin E. Judge, Jr. with a $2,000 personal loan, The Judge Group has grown into a $500MM leading professional services firm operating across North America and Asia Pacific. Weve spent 50 years impacting peoples lives, said Martin E. Judge, Jr. Founder and Chairman of The Judge Group. I am humbled and honored to have reached this milestone and for the opportunity to work with so many passionate and driven professionals over the years. Judge has spent 50 years making people and organizations better; and thats just not possible without employees, clients, and consultants trusting us and committing their personal and professional lives to helping us do great things. Among the more notable milestones along their half-century journey are: 1978 Opened the Boston location as the first office outside the Greater Philadelphia Area 1980 Expanded the business into the southeast by opening the Tampa branch office 1986 Launched Judge Technical Services to deliver contract technical and engineering staffing 1996 - Acquired Berkley Training, now Judge Learning 2004 Started Judge Healthcare to deliver staffing solutions to the growing healthcare market 2006 Launched Judge Consulting to deliver business and technology project services 2011 International expansion into Canadian market 2016 Expanded into the Asian Pacific market with Judge India along with offshore support for US based operations Today, The Judge Group operates from more than 30 locations and counts more than 50 of the Fortune 100 as clients. Theyve placed over 70,000 people in career roles over the past 20 years, delivered over 30,000 learning programs in many languages and countries, and routinely deliver business and technology projects to hundreds of clients around the globe. Not lost on The Judge Group is their role as a corporate citizen. Theyre active in the communities where their employees and customers live and work; raising money to support the fight against cancer; hosting local food, toy, and blood drives; volunteering locally; supporting charitable passion projects of its employees; and living the corporate core value to Get Through Giving. We are excited to be celebrating our 50th year of service, said Martin E. Judge III, CEO of The Judge Group. I am very proud of the work that we have done and look forward to building on a foundation of success. Our focus is on the experience for our clients and the talent we place. Throughout our 50th year, we will be rolling out a variety of programs to improve on the candidate experience, to make a positive impact on the lives of our employees, and to over deliver for our clients. The organization is already hard at work building for the next 50 years, bolstering their industry-leading applicant tracking system, launching a new website with enhanced features and functionality, adding new skill-enhancement programs for their career candidates, and broadening the services and reach of their consulting, learning, and offshore operations. The Judge Group, headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, is located at 151 South Warner Road, Wayne, PA 19087. The office can be reached at 1-800-650-0035. To learn more, visit www.judge.com . About The Judge Group The Judge Group, celebrating 50 years of service, is a leading professional services firm specializing in consulting, learning, and talent solutions. Our services are successfully delivered through a network of more than 30 offices in the United States, Canada, and India. The Judge Group serves more than 50 of the Fortune 100 and is responsible for over 9,000 professionals on assignment annually across a wide range of industries. Working at the crossroads of people and transformative technologies, The Judge Group delivers innovative business solutions powered by top talent to help organizations reach their strategic goals and realize opportunities now and in the future. Sudan Lifts Restrictions on Aid Agencies By Naba Mohiedeen March 03, 2020 Sudan's transitional government has removed laws, rules and procedures that hampered the ability of humanitarian relief organizations to operate in the country. The move is being welcomed by relief agencies that say humanitarian aid access is needed to restore life to normal in the war-scarred Darfur region. Sudanese authorities say that all obstacles the ousted government of Omar al-Bashir put in place to obstruct the work of humanitarian organizations and United Nations agencies have been removed. In a statement Friday, the head of Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission, Abbas Fadlallah, said "Sudan has opened the door wide for the return of all international humanitarian organizations that were expelled during the era of the former regime." They include organizations like the World Food Program and the World Health Organization. Under the new rules, international aid agencies no longer have to get permission from the General Intelligence Service (GIS) and military intelligence to operate in the country. Notifying the Humanitarian Aid Commission is sufficient. Authorities will also halt their inspections of aid agency operations. Ayman al-Badry, director of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Sudan, says he is happy to see the restrictions lifted. He says it is so important and a turning point, especially in observing and following up field work. He says organizations have funds from donors who want to see where the money is spent and who's benefiting it, and that can only be implement through access to these locations. Previously, many organizations relied on Sudan's government reports or executive agencies, which had a lack of credibility. He says now there's a chance for more credibility. Aid agencies are especially eager to access Darfur, where the Bashir government fought rebel groups for years. At one time, more than 2 million people were displaced from their homes. Twenty-three-year-old Mawada Yaqoup lives in the Zamzam camp for displaced people. She says the return of aid agencies will make a difference. Mawada says getting non-governmental organizations back to work in Darfur is so important for internally displaced people like her, especially in the camp she lives in where previously aid workers were harassed by the former regime and NGOs couldn't work well. Now if they come back, people will have the humanitarian aid needed. Officials say the decision is part of ongoing peace talks between the transitional government and rebel groups in South Sudan's capital, Juba. The sides are hoping to reach a final peace agreement to stabilize Sudan and allow the country to access international funding for the first time in years. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By Trend So far, new cases of coronavirus (COVID 19) infection have been confirmed in 28 out of Iran's 31 provinces, Trend reports citing Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. The ministry says that 5,737 people have undergone coronavirus testing. Row Name of the province Infected people 1 Qom 253 2 Tehran 1078 3 Gilan 218 4 Markazi 141 5 Isfahan 120 6 Alborz 93 7 Mazandaran 62 8 Khuzestan 35 9 East Azerbaijan 66 10 Qazvin 55 11 Razavi Xorasan 28 12 Fars 35 13 Golestan 24 14 Semnan 30 15 Lorestan 14 16 Hormozgan 11 17 Ardabil 12 18 Yazd 7 19 Kermanshah 7 20 South Khorasan 6 21 Kurdistan 8 22 Sistan and Baluchestan 6 23 West Azerbaijan 5 24 Hamadan 10 25 Kerman 4 26 Ilam 4 27 Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad 2 28 Zanjan 2 Iran is one of the recent countries, affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 2,300 people have been infected, 77 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 400 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The disease in the Islamic Republic has spread to nearly all 31 of Iran's provinces. Following the reports of coronavirus spread in the Islamic Republic, several countries have taken measures, including closing borders and banning flights. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Voting lines stretched long outside Californian polling stations on Super Tuesday as Bernie Sanders' campaign went to court to ask for them to be kept open. His campaign requested an emergency injunction on Tuesday asking for polls in Los Angeles County to stay open for an extra two hours after reports of delays and long lines. The county is one of several big jurisdictions in California that used new voting machines and procedures in the 14-state Super Tuesday primary, a day when millions turned out to vote. Some California voters waited in long lines because of technical glitches connecting to the statewide voter database or, in the case of the nation's most populous county, too many users trying to cast ballots at once through a new election system that had raised concerns about technical and security defects. Election workers in 15 counties, including Fresno, Napa and Sacramento, could not connect to the statewide voter registration database, said Sam Mahood, spokesman for the secretary of state's office. He said there was no evidence of malicious activity but did not explain what caused the failure. Mahood also said the secretary of state's website experienced intermittent outages due to higher-than-normal traffic and that technicians added server capacity. 'This should not (have) prevented any voters from casting a ballot, as counties have contingency procedures in place to check-in voters. If a voter left without casting a ballot, we encourage them to go back to the polls before 8 p.m.,' Mahood said. California is among 14 states holding presidential primary contests on Super Tuesday, and voters in the nation's most populous state also are weighing in on congressional races, legislative seats and a statewide school bond. In Los Angeles County, which has more than a quarter of the state's 20 million registered voters and a new $300 million voting system, electronic pollbooks were operating slowly because so many voters were trying to use them at the same time, said Mike Sanchez, spokesman for the county registrar-recorder's office. This was the scene in Downtown Los Angeles an hour and a half after polls were due to close at 8pm PST Lines here: There was a two hour wait at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, a county which was hit by problems with a new database Get in line: Voters faced a long wait at the University of Southern California, as problems with voting swept the nation's largest state Problems: One out of order device was a problem at at an early polling station at the Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in the Panorama City section of Los Angeles Delays were up to two hours in some locations, including at the University of Southern California. Students said the delays appeared to be at check-in, where voters either needed to register for the first time or get a provisional ballot to vote because they live outside Los Angeles County. Jimmy Huber, 22, of Whittier in LA County, said there werent enough workers checking in voters. He waited about 90 minutes. 'After that, you could go straight to any of the machines,' he said. 'It goes quickly once the human parts done.' Richard Gonzalez, 20, of Tracy in San Joaquin County, said poll workers began handing out pink provisional ballot forms while he was in line, which sped up the process once he got inside. Technicians have added more devices in some polling places to speed up lines, said Sanchez from the registrar's office. There had been no indication of security breaches with the pollbooks, which are hooked up to the state's voter database, he said. The state certified LA County's new elections system despite serious technical and security defects identified in testing. That includes the ability of an attacker to bypass seals, locks and sensors and boot from a USB port, which could allow election data to be modified. Testers also found the machines were susceptible to paper jams at five times the acceptable rate. Election integrity activists had warned that the system was bound to experience serious failures and should never have been certified for use. The conditional certification was contingent on several defects being remedied - after Tuesday's primary. Long lines also were reported in Beverly Hills, which has sued Los Angeles County over the new voting system's user interface, calling it severely flawed. Beverly Hills spokesman Keith Sterling estimated people were waiting about 90 minutes in the city of 35,000. One possible explanation for long lines at some places is that the new system allows people, for the first time, to vote wherever they like in Los Angeles County. 'There's a lot of frustration, (and) people walk away. I don't know if they'll come back. I hope they do,' Beverly Hills City Council member Julian Gold said. Causing problems: A 'Sorry, out of order,' sign at the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles Contra Costa County near San Francisco was having problems into the evening, said Scott Konopasek, assistant registrar of voters. The slow connection to the state database added an extra five to 10 minutes to each transaction. 'Nobodys leaving,' he said. 'Its more of an annoyance and an inconvenience for everybody.' Officials believe the problems could be tied to a number of changes aimed at expanding voter participation. The state also moved up its primary from June to March so voters could weigh in earlier. New this year, Californians are able to register to vote through 8 p.m. Tuesday at any location where ballots are accepted, which could tie up lines as people fill out paperwork. Results may be delayed because provisional ballots take longer to count. Also, 15 counties representing more than half the state's voters replaced traditional neighborhood polling places with a smaller number of multipurpose vote centers where people can register and vote. The new centers are designed to make voting more convenient but may confuse people accustomed to visiting their local polling place. Konopasek of Contra Costa County suspects the massive increase in vote centers is slowing the system. Sacramento County, one of the 15 that uses vote centers, was among those affected by the voter registration database issue for about an hour mid-morning. Officials treated everyone as a new voter and had them fill out a conditional voter registration form, spokeswoman Janna Haynes said. Then poll workers called their main office with the person's address to determine which precinct's ballot each voter needed and printed it out. 'Fortunately, it was short-lived and didn't impact us all day,' Haynes said. Houston Police Department Houston police are searching for a woman last seen in Near Northside early Wednesday. Rebecca Trujillo, 66, suffers from dementia, police said, and also goes by Becca. She was last seen at her home in the 4400 block of Fulton around 7 a.m. wearing a blue tie-dye Superman T-shirt and yellow shorts. No confirmed novel coronavirus case has been reported so far in Madhya Pradesh, where the government has taken all steps to deal with any situation in the wake of reports of outbreak of the disease in different parts of the country, a health department official said on Wednesday. The department has advised people to shun large social gatherings and exercise caution while playing Holi. Due to suspected exposure to the coronavirus (COVID- 19), the blood and swab samples of 14 persons were sent to two laboratories for examination, Principal Secretary, Health, Pallavi Jain Govil, told reporters here. Of these, examination reports of 13 persons have been received and none of them tested positive (for the virus). Report of one person is awaited, she said. No confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, whose outbreak was first reported from China in December-end, has been reported so far in Madhya Pradesh, she said. Govil informed that 420 people, who had come to the state recently from the coronavirus-affected countries, were kept in isolation as a precautionary measure. Of these, 319 were kept in home isolation for 14 to 28 days under medical supervision, the senior bureaucrat said. Those coming from the coronavirus-hit countries have been quarantined in compliance with guidelines set by the Centre, she said. A list of such people is being provided by the Union health ministry in consultation with the external affairs ministry, the principal secretary said. Govil said the health department has taken all precautions to monitor such people. The official also urged people to be cautious while playing Holi this year. There is a need for behavioural change to contain this disease. We request people to be cautious while playing Holi or participating in social gatherings, she said. Govil informed that along with arrangements at every district hospital, the health department is also in contact with various military hospitals to create quarantine facilities to house suspected cases. The state government has set up a toll-free number 104 - for citizens to report matters related to the virus and suspected cases. A total of 28 COVID-19 cases have been detected in India so far. Among them, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala, the Centre has said. Symptoms of COVID-19, which may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure to the virus, include fever, cough and difficulty in breathing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) USS Ross Departs Black Sea Navy News Service Story Number: NNS200303-02 Release Date: 3/3/2020 8:37:00 AM BLACK SEA (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) began its south-bound international strait transit en route to the Mediterranean Sea March 3, after conducting maritime security operations intended to enhance regional maritime stability, combined readiness, and naval capability with our NATO allies and partners in the region. This is the first time a U.S. Navy ship has visited the Black Sea in 2020. Ross was also the last ship to visit the Black Sea in 2019, marking the 8th visit by a U.S Navy ship last year. "Our time in the Black Sea was extremely productive, allowing us to train with regional partners to enhance our collective readiness and work towards our shared goals of peace and stability," said Cmdr. John John, commanding officer of Ross. Prior to entering the Black Sea, Ross operated with the French aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle (R 91) as part of Combined Task Force 473 in the Mediterranean during FOCH, a major French naval deployment. While in the Black Sea, Ross conducted several multinational exercises with local partners, to include Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, enhancing interoperability through tactical training events. Ross visited Varna, Bulgaria, for a two day port visit. In Varna, the ship hosted various Bulgarian media representatives for tours and a press event, and John met with the city mayor and the Bulgarian chief of naval operations. The ship's operations in the Black Sea strengthen interoperability with NATO allies and partners and demonstrate collective resolve to security under Operation Atlantic Resolve. Ross, forward-deployed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe on a routine patrol. The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with international law, including the Montreux Convention. U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ford Werke GmbH, Ford Motor Company, Ltd and Anders Hedin Invest have entered into an agreement whereby Anders Hedin Invest AB is appointed as an Importer of Ford products and services in Sweden. In addition, the parties signed a MoU on the planned takeover of Ford's National Sales Company in Sweden with Target date for completion of the transaction is August 1st, 2020 pending approval by the relevant authorities. The automotive industry faces numerous trends and developments which will eventually have great impact on the mobility of individuals and the way they are used to purchase and use cars. This requires the automotive distribution to reconsider their value to customers and rethink their current business model. To find the right answer to these developments, automotive retailers are looking for new knowledge and complementary competencies. Anders Hedin Invest is in the forefront of technology and will positively contribute to the success of Ford products and services in Sweden. "We started working with Ford in 2016 and have since then seen a steady growth of the brand within our portfolio. We are continuously investing in Ford and see a substantial potential for the brand in the Swedish market. The introduction of electrified cars and commercial vehicles will together with the well-established and professional dealer network increase Ford's presence in the Swedish market," says Anders Hedin, owner and CEO Hedin Automotive AB. Anders Hedin Invest AB CONTACT: For further information: Anders Hedin, CEO Anders Hedin Invest AB, anders.hedin@hedinbil.se Media: press@hedinbil.se Michael Baumann, Exec. Director Communications and Public Affairs Ford of Europe, mbauman9@ford.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/anders-hedin-invest-ab/r/anders-hedin-invest-ab--through-its-affiliated-company-hedin-automotive-ab--has-signed-an-importer-a,c3052453 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/16284/3052453/1205646.pdf Anders Hedin Invest AB, through its affiliated company Hedin Automotive AB, has signed an importer agreement with Ford for the Swedish market SOURCE Anders Hedin Invest AB Amid the threat of an outbreak of coronavirus, the Varanasi airport administration has ordered all employees to wear masks during duty hours. An alert was issued in Varanasi after a patient tested positive for coronavirus in the capital Delhi. The Health Department conducted an emergency meeting on Tuesday at the Lal Bahadur Shastri airport in which officials from the Airports Authority, major airlines, CISF and medical team among other agencies participated. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said that till now there are 28 cases of coronavirus in the country and added that universal screening of all international flights will begin to control the spread of the deadly virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In theory, a face mask can help you avoid catching the new coronavirus. Yet doctors and public health officials insist that, for the average person, theyll do more harm than good. They say the average person doesnt know how to correctly wear a mask, undermining its ability to block the virus. And the average person isnt used to wearing one and will find it uncomfortable. That will lead to frequent adjusting and touching of the mask and face, giving the virus an easy path to the most vulnerable parts of the body. Hand washing and avoiding touching your face are much more effective interventions, said Dr. Graham Snyder, the medical director of infection prevention for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Countless public health officials have said the same. But that hasnt prevented a run on face masks which has made them scarce even at paint and hardware stores, creating a shortage for people such as drywall and insulation installers who need them to safely do their jobs. There are reports of bare shelves at drug stores and other retailers across the country. Online retailer Amazon said this week it would boot sellers offering items such as face masks and hand sanitizer at jacked up prices. The shortage began building in January, when people in the U.S. with relatives in China began buying masks in bulk and shipping them there. More recently, people in the U.S. have reportedly been shipping them to locations of more recent outbreaks, such as Italy. It has led to fears of shortages for two groups who truly need them: health care workers and people diagnosed with the coronavirus, who are urged to wear them to prevent spread. This week, the situation prompted a Tweet from Dr. Jerome Adams, the U.S Surgeon General: Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers cant get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk! https://t.co/UxZRwxxKL9 U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) February 29, 2020 Meanwhile, face mask manufacturers have long warned they couldnt keep up with demand during a pandemic, according to Quartz. Federal officials recently told Congress the government had 30 million masks stockpiled and estimated health care workers would need 300 million, according to Newsweek. The federal government has said it plans to buy 500 million masks and promised manufacturers it will buy excess inventory, so they dont have to worry about excess inventory after ramping up production. A 3M facility in South Dakota had begun producing face masks seven days a week, according to Quartz. At UPMC, which has hospitals and medical offices across much of Pennsylvania including seven hospitals in the Harrisburg region, officials say they have stockpiles, but are monitoring the supply and urging employees to conserve. However, Tami Minnier, the chief quality officer, said UPMC, which has hospitals in three states and international hospitals, has a strong supply chain and no immediate concerns about a shortage. Forty trucks and tractors have blocked a central street in Werribee as hundreds of residents gathered to oppose a controversial plan to use a Wyndham Vale rail yard as a dumping ground for the West Gate Tunnels contaminated soil. Residents, farmers and trades workers gathered at Station Place on Tuesday night, holding signs with images of their local MP and Treasurer Tim Pallas and the phrase toxic Tim Pallas, while chanting: "Pallas soils Wyndham" and "dump Pallas, not soil". Trucks block central Werribee in demonstration against a plan to dump contaminated soil near homes. Credit:Joe Armao The protest comes weeks after The Age revealed an Andrews government proposal to use a Wyndham Vale rail yard as a temporary back-up site for some of the projects soil, which is laced with asbestos and potential carcinogens, PFAS. The rail yard is just 70 metres away from housing, and abuts four planned schools. Labor MP Joanne Ryan, whose Lalor electorate takes in Wyndham Vale told the swelling crowd that Transurban was the decision maker in the proposed soil dump and the plan should not go ahead. Cold air mass with Front 42 on its way to Cancun, Riviera Maya Cancun, Riviera Maya, Q.R. A forecast by the National Meteorological Service warns of another cold air mass, which they say, is due to arrive in the Cancun, Riviera Maya region Thursday. It will be the tenth winter storm of the year, arriving in the northeast after blanketing a large portion of the northwest with snow. Numerous regions of northern Mexico were covered with snow as the system made its way across the top portion of the country. The state of Chihuahua was one of the hardest hit with highways in higher elevations being closed. Chihuahua March 3, 2020 While snow is not obviously forecast for the northeast, strong winds and a decrease in temperatures are, with Servicio Meteorologico Nacional (SMN) warning that Cold Front No. 42 will bring rain in the north, northeast and east of the country along with very cold temperatures and strong wind gusts exceeding 50 km/h along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Isthmus, Gulf of Tehuantepec and Yucatan Peninsula. During Thursday and Friday, the 42nd front will cross the southeast of the country and the Yucatan Peninsula causing heavy to very heavy rains in the east and southeast, while its mass of cold air will cause a continued decrease in temperatures. On Saturday, the front will extend over the Caribbean Sea ceasing to affect Mexico, however, it will continue to affect temperatures during the morning. Its effects will diminish as of Sunday. The passing of Cold Front No. 42 does not mean winter for the Mexican Caribbean is over with SMN forecasting four more cold fronts for March, six for April and four for the month of May, some of which are likely to reach the Cancun, Riviera Maya region before the winter season officially ends. The model developed by Lobachevsky University scientists can provide a tool for quantitative prediction of photodamage and development of adaptive changes of the plant photosynthetic apparatus under variations in lighting intensity Light is the main source of energy for photosynthesis, it underlies the production process in plants. At the same time, excessive lighting can lead to photodamage of the photosynthetic apparatus and, indirectly, of other structures of the plant cell. In order to avoid such damage, plants have developed a number of protective mechanisms, including the so-called non-photochemical fluorescence quenching. Non-photochemical fluorescence quenching develops under the action of high intensity lighting and other stressors, which leads to a decrease in the light flux absorbed by the photosynthetic apparatus. According to Vladimir Sukhov, Head of the Laboratory of Plant Electrophysiology at the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine of Lobachevsky University, non-photochemical quenching plays a key role in protecting plants from adverse lighting conditions, and the research in this field is very important in plant physiology and agricultural sciences. "The development of mathematical models of non-photochemical quenching is of special importance, as such models allow us to predict photodamage and adaptive changes in plant resistance under certain lighting modes without additional experimental research", Vladimir Sukhov notes. The forecasts obtained by Lobachevsky University researchers can be used both for solving fundamental scientific problems and for applied purposes (for example, when developing new modes of artificial illumination of plants in greenhouses or for forecasting plant damage under certain weather conditions). The article of Ekaterina Sukhova, post-graduate student of the Lobachevsky University Department of Biophysics, published with co-authors in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Bioenergetics, one of the leading journals in the field of photosynthesis research, focuses on the development of a mathematical model of non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence in plants and describes the peculiarities of such quenching under fluctuations of lighting intensity. The proposed model describes the transitions between "open" (those that have not received a quantum of light) and "closed" (those that have received a quantum of light) reaction centers of photosystem II and the subsequent activation of the nonphotochemical quenching component by closed reaction centers. "The peculiarity of the model is the description of photosystem II activation in the light and its inactivation in the dark, which was implemented in one of the versions of our model. This description significantly expands the applicability of the proposed model. In particular, it became possible to use the model to predict the effect of rapid light intensity changes on plants", explains Ekaterina Sukhova. The model was verified on the basis of experimental data obtained using the modern method of photosynthesis research - PAM-fluorometry (pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry). The verification showed that the model allows an accurate prediction of the development of non-photochemical quenching and photodamage in plants under fluctuating light intensity, including alternating periods of darkness and periods of plant illumination. "From the practical point of view, the proposed model should become a tool enabling quantitative prediction of photodamage and the development of adaptive changes in plant photosynthetic apparatus under fluctuations in light intensity", concludes Ekaterina Sukhova. Lobachevsky University researchers have identified only some areas for potential application of this new and important tool: prediction of light damage to plants under specific weather conditions in the field (i.e., at certain intensity and fluctuations of natural lighting). accelerated search for the most effective additional lighting modes in mixed plant lighting greenhouses (natural light plus additional artificial lighting). theoretical search for lighting modes that provide additional resistance of the photosynthetic apparatus to stressors of different nature. ### The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Project 18-34-00644 mol_a (headed by E.M. Sukhova) and Project 18-44-520009 (headed by V.S. Sukhov). Coming out of left field, the 2020 election has produced the ultimate odd couple: Bernie Sanders and the Latinos. How important were Latinos to Sanders victories this week on Super Tuesday? Well, he triumphed in states with significant numbers of Latinos prevailing in Utah (14.2 percent) and Colorado (21.7 percent), and taking the biggest prize of all, California (39.3 percent). As usual, the trickster was Texas (39.6 percent Latino). The purple state usually confounds the experts and keeps political observers guessing. For most of the night, Sanders and Joe Biden were neck and neck in the Lone Star State, separated by less than a single percentage point. The state eventually went to Biden, thanks in large measure to his steadfast support from African American voters and the fact that Tejanos (or Texas Latinos) tend to be more conservative than their counterparts in other states in the Southwest. Even so, according to exit polls, Sanders beat Biden the new front-runner by 20 points among Latinos in Texas. So, Mr. Sanders and the Latinos. Thats a thing now? You bet. Who could have imagined that a 78-year-old white democratic socialist with a history of opposing legal status for undocumented immigrants to protect U.S. workers from the nuisance of competing with them would owe much of his electoral success to a tribe of Democrats who respect immigrants for doing the kinds of crummy jobs that Americans dont want to do anyway, tend to be drawn to youthful candidates and often despise socialism for destroying the Latin American countries their ancestors fled? Before Bernie the Explorer discovered the heavily Latino (read: Mexican American) Southwest first Nevada, where the senator dominated the caucuses, and then the Super Tuesday states Sanders interest in all things Latino seemed limited to whatever was on the No. 3 plate at his favorite pseudo-Mexican restaurant in Vermont. Suddenly, the two are inseparable. But, honestly, I dont even know how they found each another. They come from different worlds, believe different things and live in different parts of the United States. They have different opinions about protectionism, nativism and socialism. They also seem to have different work ethics. The Vermont senator has avoided the private sector like the plague and cashed government checks for 40 years. In 1971, according to various accounts, he was kicked out of a hippie commune in Vermont for spending his time talking politics instead of doing chores. Latinos start more businesses than any other ethnic group. And they not only do their chores, but when you count immigrants everyone elses. Sanders and Latinos certainly seem to be living in different Americas. The senator seems to think our countrys best days are behind her and the United States is a corrupt oligarchy where those who control the wealth also control everything else. Why, you can imagine him saying, America is no better than Cuba. Latinos are natural optimists, convinced that its OK if today isnt great because tomorrow can always be better. And the 4 percent of Latinos of Cuban descent know an absurd comparison when they hear one. Latinos are also different from one another. Were not a monolithic bloc, and we never have been. Were divided by age, income, education level and country of origin. We lock horns over whether were rural vs. urban, white collar vs. blue collar, partisan vs. independent, immigrant vs. native. Some of us identify with Mexico or Puerto Rico or El Salvador, while others consider ourselves first and foremost Americans. And in this election, some of us want the kind of complete socioeconomic transformation that Sanders promises, while others just want to send Donald Trump into retirement. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gave Sanders the blessing early on in this campaign and christened him Tio Bernie. It was clever branding. Latinos expect their uncles to be a little loco, but we love them anyway. The Sanders campaign was also pretty smart. Throughout the Southwest, it spent its money not only on TV ads but also on setting up an effective and well-organized ground game. In Nevada, the Sanderistas marched in six months before the caucuses and sent volunteers to knock on doors in Latino neighborhoods. The direct marketing approach paid off. According to entrance polls in the Silver State, Sanders won 51 percent of the Latino vote. And the duel in the desert was just a warm-up to Super Tuesday. This election year, Latino voters are the engine powering The Bernie Express. That may not be easy to understand, but its impossible to deny. ruben@rubennavarrette.com EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Council candidate Mansell Baker was accused of inappropriately touching a co-worker while working for the city of East Cleveland, and was required to receive sexual harassment training, according to a document on file with the city. The document, addressed to Baker and entitled employee written warning letter, states that an employee had reported being inappropriately touched by Baker on several different occasions in June 2011 and that the city had investigated the allegation. During the course of the investigation you indicated you may have touched an employee to inquire on their well being as well as having held conversations of a more personal nature with some of the employees that included joking and teasing, the letter states. In closing, the one-page letter states that Baker must receive training coordinated by the Human Resources Department, and that any re-occurrence of this type of unacceptable behavior could result in termination of employment at the sole discretion of the City. Contacted for comment this week, Baker denied being investigated for sexual harassment while serving as an executive assistant in the administration of then-East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton. He described the letter as a made up document that could have been slipped into his unlocked personnel file. He said the signature acknowledging his receipt of the letter is a forgery. A copy of the warning letter, dated June 28, 2011, was sent to cleveland.com last week. The news outlet obtained an identical copy from East Cleveland City Hall through a public records request. See the entire letter at the end of this story. Contacted by cleveland.com, former East Cleveland Human Resources Director Annamaria Smith, whose name appears at the bottom of the letter, said that any document bearing her signature and contained in East Cleveland personnel files, is legitimate. Baker is a former East Cleveland City Council member who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of the suburb. He is now challenging incumbent County Council member Cheryl Stephens in the March 17 Democratic primary. The race between Baker and Stephens heated up last month, when a mailer attacking the incumbent was sent to people in her council district, which encompasses Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, University Heights and parts of Cleveland. The mailer blames Stephens, in her former role as a director at the Cuyahoga Land Bank, for the controversial Arco dump that caught fire three years ago in East Cleveland and required millions of dollars from the state to clean up. Stephens called the mailer a smear document that misrepresents her involvement with Arco while serving as director of acquisition, disposition and development for the land bank, formally known as the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation. BJP state president Chandrakant Patil has stated in the letters that both the party workers showed indiscipline by voting against CAA Mumbai: The Maharashtra BJP has suspended the chairperson of a party-ruled municipal council and deputy head of another local body which recently passed resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye posted the suspension letters on his Twitter handle on Wednesday. As per the letters, issued on Tuesday, the Parbhani-based Selu Municipal Council's chairperson Vinod Borade and Palam Municipal Council's deputy chairperson Balasaheb Rokade have been suspended by the party. BJP state president Chandrakant Patil has stated in the letters that both the party workers showed indiscipline by voting against the CAA, hence they have been suspended from the party. The letters did not specify the period of suspension. The Selu Municipal Council is ruled by the BJP. The CAA, which was passed by Parliament in December last year, grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had settled in India before 31 December, 2014. The new Citizenship law triggered protests in many parts of the country since then despite the repeated claims made by the ruling BJP that it will not take away anybody's citizenship. Newsfrom Japan Lausanne, Switzerland, March 3 (Jiji Press)--The International Olympic Committee executive board issued a statement Tuesday reiterating their commitment to holding the Tokyo Summer Olympics as scheduled, hoping to dispel concerns over a potential postponement or suspension amid the coronavirus scare. The IOC expressed "full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, taking place from July 24 to Aug. 9," the statement read. The release followed an executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. IOC President Thomas Bach reiterated the position to the press the same day, saying, "The IOC remains fully committed to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020." According to the IOC, a joint task force comprising members from the Tokyo Games organizing committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government, the Japanese government and the World Health Organization was created in mid-February. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the committee is also working with international organizations including the United Nations. He said, "All the advice we've been given is that (the Olympics) can go ahead." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] By Richard Read, Soumya Karlamangla, Colleen Shalby and Noah Bierman - Los Angeles Times (TNS) KIRKLAND, Wash. As three more deaths in the United States were linked to the coronavirus Tuesday, World Health Organization officials warned the virus could be far more dangerous than the flu, with a mortality rate of 3.4%. During an off-camera news conference at the White House with the task force charged with overseeing the federal governments response, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered a message to the American public: I want them to be prepared for the reality that they, there are going to be more cases in the community, he said. But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families. Redfield said scientists do not have the data to predict the future spread. What we do know for sure that in the right setting, it does have the potential to move quickly, Redfield said. When you think that just a couple of weeks ago there were less than three cases in Korea, now theres 2,500. Public health officials confirmed a nursing home patient in Washington state was admitted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Feb. 24 and died two days later. The patient, a 54-year-old man who had underlying medical conditions, was transported from Life Care Center of Kirkland and died days before several other patients at the nursing home were linked to the coronavirus, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. The Seattle and King County Public Health Department on Tuesday reported two additional deaths from COVID-19, bringing the King County total to eight. The other person who died was from Snohomish County, health officials said. A North Carolina resident who visited the Kirkland facility has since tested positive for the virus, becoming that states first case of COVID-19, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday. Health department officials in North Carolina are working to identify anyone else who may have come in contact with the individual. I know that people are worried about this virus and I want to assure North Carolinians our state is prepared, Cooper said in a statement, noting that the person represents an isolated case. New York City confirmed its first case of community spread coronavirus the second case of the virus in the state. The individual is a man in his 50s who lives in Westchester County but works at a law firm in Manhattan. The man is hospitalized and in severe condition. The global mortality rate which includes more than 3,000 deaths is many times higher than the mortality rate of the flu, which is less than 1%. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it. Still, Tedros reiterated the WHOs belief that containment was still within reach. We dont even talk about containment for seasonal flu, Tedros said. Its just not possible, but its possible for COVID-19. Officials say they have learned the coronavirus is less transmissible than the flu, which is often spread by people who are infected yet dont have symptoms. That doesnt seem to be the case for COVID-19, he said. There are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, which is why we must do everything we can to contain it. Mike Ryan, who runs the agencys emergencies program, pushed back against officials who wanted to wave the white flag and surrender to the diseases hold. China took drastic steps to fight the virus, he said, and case numbers are now on the decline there. Countries such as China and South Korea implemented very, very strong measures that have affected their own economies and their own societies, Ryan said. Its really a duty of others to use the time that has been bought. That is not a reverse you can achieve with influenza. If that is a failure, well have slowed down the virus. There can be a big benefit in slowing the virus arrival in a country for a few months, Ryan said. Many countries, including the U.S, are in the middle of flu season, so large numbers of coronavirus cases would overwhelm the health system. In Italy, COVID-19 patients and flu patients are already stretching hospitals and healthcare facilities, he said. Tedros said hes concerned by shortages of masks, gowns and other equipment needed by healthcare workers to stop the spread of disease caused by rising demands and hoarding and misuse. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers, said Tedros, noting that prices of surgical masks have increased sixfold. Current information suggests that most COVID-19 cases are mild, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. According to a report out of China, the most serious illnesses occur in 16% of cases, she said, and older people and those with underlying health conditions are twice as likely to develop serious outcomes. Speaking during a media briefing Tuesday, Messonnier said that cases similar to those reported abroad were now appearing in the United States. The CDC is relying on local health clinicians to determine testing needs. In addition to CDC test kits, commercial manufacturers overseen by the Food and Drug Administration are providing tests directly to states. These types of tests are typically what are on the front lines in the United States, Messonnier said. Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that 77 cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in the U.S. That number excludes the 45 people who were passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and were repatriated to America, which brings the total to more than 120. Pence said that a task force will issue new guidance from the CDC to make it clear that any American can be tested for the virus and no restrictions subject to doctors orders. Commercial laboratories are expected to have 2,500 test kits available to provide 1.5 million tests. And the Office of Management and Budget will direct all federal government agencies to review internal travel and adhere to State Department guidance. The threat of the coronavirus to the American pubic remains low, Pence said. Pence also said that chief executives of all major airlines are expected to meet at the White House Wednesday to discuss contact tracing data for the coronavirus. The West Coast continues to bear the brunt of the illnesses in the U.S., with the focus on Northern California and Washington. At least five Northern California counties reported new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. On Tuesday, the city of Berkeley reported its first case after an individual visited a country with an outbreak. That individual has remained at home in a self-imposed quarantine since returning. While the risk of infection remains low, the expanded presence of the virus in our community is a reality we should all prepare for, said Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez. There are steps that all of us in the community can take now to improve basic hygiene and also prepare for a wider spread in the future. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the California Department of Public Health received approval from the CDC and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to dip into its emergency planning reserves of 21 million N-95 face masks for medical workers on the front lines. Although the flurry of positive test results in recent days does signal that the virus is circulating within the U.S., experts advised the public to avoid reading too much into those numbers. Until late last week, federal officials were not allowing widespread testing for the virus, so many people who were already sick are only now being diagnosed, said Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch. Some of the numbers are changing because new things are happening, but a lot of the numbers are changing because were discovering things that have already happened, Lipsitch said in a forum Monday hosted by Harvards public health school. Its really important to distinguish Oh, goodness, theres a new cluster from Oh, goodness, we just discovered that theres a cluster thats been there for some time. As the virus spreads, officials are trying to push back against Asian American bias and misinformation surrounding the outbreak. Amid signs that some are staying away from Chinatowns and other Asian communities in the U.S., Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sharply criticized the xenophobia that had been displayed toward ethnic communities. Weve also seen a rise in racism toward Asian Americans because the virus is associated with China, she said. This is unconscionable, and its not the American way. People of all ages, races and ethnicities are susceptible to this disease. Bigotry toward any one group for a virus they have nothing to do with makes no sense. Several areas in California have declared local emergencies amid the outbreak. Sonoma County on Monday issued a declaration after announcing two people had been diagnosed with the virus. One infected person returned from a cruise to Mexico 10 days ago and was hospitalized, but the case is a cause for concern, said county health officer Dr. Celeste Philip. Declaring a state of emergency will allow the county to respond properly to the outbreak as well as work in tandem with our cities and healthcare providers to ensure we are prepared to combat an outbreak of COVID-19 in our communities, Philip said in a statement. Meanwhile, more COVID-19 cases were reported in Santa Clara County, bringing its total to 11 the most of any California county. The source of infection for the latest two cases, reported Tuesday, is still under investigation. Many initial reports of COVID-19 have been among healthcare workers, who are likely to encounter sick patients. Hundreds of healthcare workers in California have already been asked to stay home because of contact with patients diagnosed with the disease over the last few weeks. On Monday, Placer County reported a confirmed case of COVID-19 in a healthcare worker at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, where a COVID-19 patient had been admitted. County spokeswoman Katie Combs Prichard said the medical worker, who lives in Placer County, came into contact with that patient and was likely infected by her. Contact: Tom Antion Ofc. 757-431-1366 Cell 301-346-7403 Tom@IMTCVA.org Princess Anne High School Student Wins $19,100 Scholarship VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. March 4, 2020 When 17-year-old Moises Rodrigues Calderon of Virginia Beach returns from his third mission trip to Honduras, he'll be starting his next challenge this summer; helping his father open a restaurant. Moises, who will be a senior at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, will receive a full $19,100 scholarship to The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia and begin his training July 14. He submitted the winning essay on what a full scholarship to the school would mean to him and his family. "I'm excited to learn Internet marketing skills because every single business needs help online, plus I can earn money while still going to high school and help my father fulfill his dream of owning his own Puerto Rican restaurant," Moises said. The family is from Puerto Rico and his father is currently cooking for the juvenile detention center in Virginia Beach. Moises, who is active in The First Hispanic Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, has been participating in Bible studies and construction work for the underprivileged in Honduras. School founder and Internet multimillionaire Tom Antion said the school has helped other students earn money even before graduating by handling social media and other online marketing for small businesses that struggle to keep up with the changes that are constant on the web. "This wonderful young man will be able to do his studies fully online any time day or night so it won't interfere with his senior year at Princess Anne," Antion said. The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia located at 498 S. Independence Blvd, in Virginia Beach is the only dedicated and licensed Internet Marketing School in the country. Certified to operate by SCHEV The State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. With the emergence of social media and the increased demand for digital know-how, the Internet Marketing Training Center of VA satisfies this need by offering both an affordable and top-level Internet marketing education. It extensively covers every facet of Internet marketing, from social media to tactics for attracting qualified traffic to a website. The curriculum is updated weekly and entails hands-on learning that produces skills that students can put into effect immediately. Students can complete all the online studies and earn a certificate from the school in as little as six months. Courses, now in Phase 1, are distance learning only. Phase 2 will hold in-house classes in the main branch in Virginia Beach, Va., and Phase 3 will roll out satellite sites for in-house studies in major cities around the US. The program is geared toward: High school students and other young people who are seeking a nontraditional yet highly marketable skill-based education. Individuals who have been displaced from their current employment and need a marketable set of skills quickly. Small business owners who want to expand their web presence by cost effectively training their IT and marketing staff and bringing their web operation in house. Military Spouses through the Department of Defense MyCAA scholarship program no longer have to take substandard jobs every few years. They can keep their Internet work going wherever they happened to be stationed. All military, first responders, and law enforcement personnel and their immediate families get large scholarships from the founder of the school. Antion says, "I founded the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, because I wanted to pass on the invaluable and indispensable knowledge I've gained from over 26 years working online. "I wanted to make this valuable training available to the masses." About the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia The Internet Marketing Training Center certificate courses are designed to prepare students for jobs in the e-commerce industry and also to build their own profitable online business if they wish. Online students can work at their own pace. Dedicated online students can complete their training in as little as six months. Students will enjoy the state-of-the-art combination of course assignments, interaction with both students and teachers via blog, email, Text, Skype, Zoom, telephone, discussion forums, text messaging, teleclasses and various audio/visual media. To learn more about the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, visit http://www.IMTCVA.org About Tom Antion Founder Tom Antion has been selling on the commercial Internet since its beginning circa 1994. Since then, Antion has made himself an Internet multi-millionaire and helped hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs earn full- and part-time incomes on the Internet. Many have taken what they have learned and used it on a consulting basis to help other businesses thrive on the web. Many have bolstered their positions in their jobs by bringing great value and return on investment to the companies where they work. One of Antion's proteges, Ilya Pozin recently sold his third company Pluto.tv to Viacom for $340 Million. Antion has personally trained over 1700 consulting clients and is asked frequently to speak on the topic of Internet marketing at conferences around the world. This school is an effort to make his training available to a much wider audience and at a much more affordable investment. Mr. Antion is the subject of the soon to be released Hollywood Documentary "The American Entrepreneur" produced by Reel Mountain Pictures. The trailer can be seen at https://www.Facebook.com/AmericanEntrepreneurFilm Tom also produces "Screw the Commute" entrepreneurial podcast based on the fact he's never had a job. https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/ ### Editors: Moises is available for interviews. Call (757) 785-6915. Moises Rodriquez Calderon and Rodriguez family receive his $19,100 scholarship certificate to the Internet Marketing Training Center in Virginia Beach, From left, father Nelson,sister Sinai, brother Jezreel, brother Natanael, mother Sonia. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 01:15:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAIRO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed over the phone the latest developments in resolving the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). During the conversation, Trump expressed his appreciation that Egypt signed initials of the agreement that resulted from the rounds of negotiations on the GERD during the past months, Egyptian Presidency's spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement. Trump noted that the agreement is comprehensive, fair and balanced, stressing that signing the agreement reflects Egypt's goodwill and sincere political will. Trump also stressed that the U.S. administration will continue its efforts to coordinate with Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on this issue, until the three countries sign the agreement. For his part, Sisi expressed appreciation for the role the U.S. administration is playing in sponsoring the tripartite negotiations on the dam. Sisi affirmed that Egypt will continue to give this issue the utmost attention as the North African country is keen to defend the interests, capabilities and future of the Egyptian people. Egypt said on Saturday it has signed a U.S.-brokered deal regarding the rules of filling and operation of the GERD, while urging Ethiopia and Sudan to follow suit. However, Ethiopia said on Saturday that it had notified Egypt, Sudan and the U.S. that it needed more time to deliberate on the process. It added that it will commence the first filling of the GERD in parallel with the construction of the dam, in accordance with the principles of equitable and reasonable utilization, and causing no significant harm. Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Ethiopia cannot start filling the GERD until "an agreement is reached with the downstream countries." "Egypt desires to see Ethiopia follow the path of negotiations," Shoukry said in an interview with the Egyptian TV Program "9 O'clock PM" on Monday night. He explained that Ethiopia pledged in the Declaration of Principles, signed by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in March 2015, not to start filling the dam until an agreement is reached on the operation rules. He highlighted that no side, based on the rules of international law and the Declaration of Principles, is allowed to take unilateral decisions regarding transboundary rivers. Ethiopia, an upstream Nile Basin country, started building the GERD in 2011 on the Blue Nile, while downstream Egypt is concerned that the dam might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of Nile water. Filling the reservoir, whose total capacity is 74 billion cubic meters, may take several years. Egypt seeks to prolong the period to avoid the negative effects of water shortage, which is a main point of the talks. The GERD is expected to produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa's largest hydropower dam upon completion. Book publisher Hachette is under fire from Woody Allens children Dylan and Ronan Farrow for acquiring the rights to Allens memoirs Apropos of Nothing. An email, sent by her brother Ronan to Hachette (who he has been published by in the past), accused the group of being asked to assist in efforts by abusive men to whitewash their crimes and demanded: Imagine if this was your sister. He has also severed ties with the publishing house, writing that he "can't in good conscience work with [Hachette] anymore." Dylan, who has maintained for three decades that her father sexually abused her as a child, said it was an utter betrayal and that the publishers fact checkers had not contacted her about the memoir - calling it an egregious abdication of Hachetes most basic responsibility. Mia and Dylan Farrow / Getty Images Allen has continually denied Dylans allegations. The book is set to be published on April 7 and a Grand Central press release stated the book was a comprehensive account of [Allens] life, both personal and professional. It stated that Allen also writes of his relationships with family, friends and the loves of his life. Dylan was the first to release a statement on Twitter, calling the announcement disappointing and, frankly shocking, news. She wrote, Hachettes publishing of Woody Allens memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally and an utter betrayal of my brother whose brave reporting, capitalised on by Hachette, gave voice to numerous survivors of sexual assault by powerful men. Ronans book, Catch and Kill, was published by Hachette last year and was a deep dive into Ronans landmark investigation into sexual abuse allegations against convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Ronans reporting on Weinstein, along with journalists Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey, helped kickstart the Times Up movement. It also touched on allegations against other men accused of sexual abuse, including his father Allen. Apropos of Nothing is set to be published by Grand Central Publishing, one of Hachettes imprints which has also published Un-Trumping America by Dan Pfeiffer - who is a co-host on the podcast Pod Save America, which Ronans fiance Jon Lovett also works on. Dylan continued, For the record, I was never contacted by any fact checkers to verify the information in this memoir, demonstrating an egregious abdication of Hachettes most basic responsibility. On the other hand, my story has undergone endless scrutiny and has never been published without extensive fact checking. Ronan Farrow / Getty Images This provides yet another example of the profound privilege that power, money, and notoriety affords, she continued. Hachettes complicity in this should be called out for what it is and they should have to answer for it. The New York Times also acquired an email that Ronan sent to Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch following the announcement, which read, Your policy of editorial independence among your imprints does not relieve you of your moral and professional obligations as the publisher of Catch and Kill, and as the leader of a company being asked to assist in efforts by abusive men to whitewash their crimes. He also severed ties with the publishing house, writing, Obviously I cant in good conscience work with you any more. Imagine this were your sister. Woody Allen in 1992 speaking after a pre-trial hearing / Getty Images Pietsch told the New York Times that he had called Ronan after the journalists agent had revealed he was "unhappy about the publication." He said, We do not allow anyones publishing program to interfere with anyone elses. Each book has its own mission. Our job as a publisher is to help the author achieve what they have set out to do in the creation of their book. Grand Central publishing believes strongly that theres a large audience that wants to hear the story of Woody Allens life as told by Woody Allen himself. Thats what theyve chosen to publish, he continued. He also declined to share information regarding how much Allen was paid for the book. Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow, Mia Farrow and Ronan Farrow in 1988 / Photoreporters/Shutterstock Ronan also released his own statement on Twitter yesterday, in which he announced that he had severed ties with Hachette. He brandished the publisher wildly unprofessional and stated that the acquisition shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse. He began, I was disappointed to learn through press reports that Hachette, my publisher, acquired Woody Allens memoir after other major publishers refused to do so and concealed the decision from me and its own employees while we were working on Catch and Kill - a book about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse. Hachette did not fact check the Woody Allen book, he continued. My sister Dylan has never been contacted to respond to any denial or mischaracterisation of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Woody Allen - a credible allegation, maintained for almost three decades, backed up by contemporaneous accounts and evidence. Its wildly unprofessional for Hachette to behave this way. But it also shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse, regardless of any personal connection or breach of trust here, he said. Ive encouraged Hachette, out of respect for its readers, authors and reputation, to conduct a thorough fact check of Woody Allens account, in particular any claim that implies my sister is not telling the truth. Ive also told Hachette that a publisher that would conduct itself in this way is one I cant work with in good conscience, Ronan finished. His statement was retweeted by his sister, who said that she was proud of my brother and his uncompromising integrity. Getty Images Hachette UK confirmed to the Evening Standard that they would not be publishing Apropos of Nothing in the UK. The Evening Standard has reached out to Hachette Book Group USA, who will be publishing the memoirs, for comment. Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan, who worked closely with Ronan on his investigation, also responded to the news by tweeting out a picture of Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch. She wrote, SHAME ON YOU MICHAEL PIETSCH. SHAME ON @HachetteBooks. You profited greatly by publishing [Ronans book] Catch & Kill, but thats not enough for you. What an evil double cross, betraying @ronanfarrow by publishing Woody Allens memoirs. Are you kidding me, Hachette? This will not stand. #shame she continued. Dylan Farrow alleges that she was sexually abused by Allen at the age of 7 years old. The charges against Woody Allen have been investigated twice, however nothing was ever filed against him. Attorney Frank Maco decided in 1993 that he would not prosecute Woody Allen despite having probable cause, due to the trauma it would inflict on Dylan but said that he believed she had been sexually abused. Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg who had received the endorsement of Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin has bowed out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president after a disappointing performance on Super Tuesday. With the former New York mayor now out of the race, Benjamin now says he is supporting former Vice President Joe Biden Bloomberg spent a reported $500 million running for president. He did not participate in the early contests, including the South Carolina primary, instead choosing to focus his efforts and cash on the March 3 Super Tuesday states. It was an effort that ultimately came up short. Bloomberg didn't win any of the 14 states that were at play on Super Tuesday, though he did score a small victory in American Samoa, a U.S. territory. Bloomberg only won 50 delegates on March 3, placing him well behind progressive Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (488 total delegates, as of March 4) and resurgent frontrunner Biden (555 delegates). As he exited the race, Bloomberg endorsed Biden, the former two-term vice president. Benjamin was an early endorser of Bloomberg's presidential dreams. The third-term Columbia mayor announced in November he'd be supporting Bloomberg's candidacy. Benjamin eventually became a national co-chair of Bloomberg's campaign (work he did as a volunteer), and traveled across the country campaigning for him. "Mike Bloomberg is a unique leader who has been incredibly successful in both public & private life," Benjamin tweeted Wednesday, after Bloomberg dropped out. "He has lived the American Dream and committed himself to ensuring that millions of others have that very same opportunity. While I believe that history will regard him as one of the greatest & most consequential philanthropists of all time, I am thankful that his leadership continues today." Shortly after Bloomberg exited the race Wednesday, Benjamin confirmed that he will join the former New York City mayor in supporting Biden. "The vice presidents always been a friend, hes a true servant in every sense of the word, and right now I think he has the very best chance of beating President Trump, so I look forward to supporting him and helping him find his way back to 1600 Pennsylvania, Benjamin tells The Post and Courier. But Benjamin declined to reveal which candidate he voted for in South Carolina, where Bloomberg was not on the ballot. "Thats between me and my God, Benjamin says. "I havent told my wife even. But I voted to make history again, how about that? Ill let you figure that out." The mayor's endorsement was coveted in South Carolina before the Feb. 29 "First in the South" Democratic primary, which is why it might have seemed odd to some that he was backing a candidate who was not on the ballot in the Palmetto State. The Columbia mayor has enjoyed a national profile, particularly through his leadership roles with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He also spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and, as revealed through a WikiLeaks hack of Hillary Clintons campaign manager, was on a first cut list of possible candidates for vice president in 2016. It seemed for a moment as if Benjamin might have initially bet on the right presidential ride, as Bloomberg had been performing well in polls in a number of Super Tuesday states. However, that was before Biden's campaign was revived from the political dead in South Carolina thanks in part to an endorsement from influential U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. Following his resounding victory here, Biden was also boosted when Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic race after South Carolina, and each threw their support behind the former vice president. Then former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, of Texas, also endorsed Biden. That swirl of events formed a perfect storm for Biden, who won 10 of the 14 states at play on Super Tuesday. Bloomberg also had picked up another high-profile African American endorsement in Columbia, from state House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, who said just a few weeks ago that he believed that Bloomberg was the only candidate in the Democratic field who could beat Republican President Donald Trump in November. Rutherford says he'll now support Biden in the presidential race. Rutherford said that he voted for Biden in the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29, since Bloomberg wasn't on the ballot here. In a Feb. 26 story in Free Times, Columbia Democratic strategist and CBS pundit Antjuan Seawright nodded at the unique nature of Benjamin's support of Bloomberg. Our mayor has always been a visionary leader, Seawright said. And sometimes he has a vision that is beyond the moment. And this, perhaps, could be one of those scenarios where he played a longer game and it worked out for him. Or it could be a situation where he misread the tea leaves. Either way, at the end of the day I dont think the mayor loses anything. Indeed, the tea leaves didn't align in Benjamin's favor in this instance, and it remains to be seen where this moment fits in his greater political oeuvre. His current mayoral term comes to an end in 2021, and he's continued to leave the door open even if just a crack to the possibility that he might not seek re-election. Im not taking it off the table, Benjamin told Free Times in December about the possibility of running for a fourth mayoral term. You always run fast and hard. Im preparing for re-election. But, and I mean this with every degree of sincerity: Gods will and [my wife] DeAndreas will, in that order, will reign supreme. Well see where it goes." And there have been other whispers, such as the possibility he'd run for Clyburn's seat when the congressman retires, though the mayor has told Free Times he has "no intentions, at all" of seeking that U.S. House seat. His name also has been bandied about as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2022. The Woodlands-based attorney Eric Yollick had the slight edge after early voting totals Tuesday night in the race for the bench for the new 457th state District Court. According to early voting, Yollick was out front with 12,662 votes over Vince Santini with 9,014, Robert Kasprzak with 4,557, Bruce Tough with 4,414 and Chris Buck 2,405. If no one earns more than 50 percent of the vote, the race will go to a runoff. As of early voting totals, Yollick and Santini would go head to head in a runoff. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday addressed the media over coronavirus outbreak and said that the administration is concerned about the situation. There is no need to panic, he said. The chief minister stated that a task force has been formed under his leadership which will include all concerned stakeholders. Have asked task force members to deal with coronavirus situation as an emergency, he said. Watch | State-level task force to deal with coronavirus situation: Arvind Kejriwal The Aam Aadmi Party chief also said that a coronavirus testing lab will be set up at Lady Hardinge Hospital in the national capital and also at LNJP Hospital, if necessary. Also read: 14 Italians, 1 Indian in ITBP quarantine camp test positive for coronavirus Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal: A state-level task force has been constituted to control the situation arising due to #CoronaVirus. It will be chaired by me. It includes members from several agencies, departments & corporations. Each member has been assigned a role. pic.twitter.com/hlK92RpO1P ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 He said that the authorities have identified 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus and all of them will be screened for the infection. Kejriwal briefed the media on coronavirus shortly after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced that India will now screen passengers from all countries. Also read: Coronavirus cases jump to 28, India to screen passengers from all nations Coronavirus cases in then country have jumped to 28. The latest to test positive for infection include 14 Italian tourists and an Indian driver who were in contact with the two Italian nationals who tested positive for the disease in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Six people in Agra, family of the Delhi patient, were also tested positive. A boy in Hyderabad who recently returned from Dubai and worked in Bengaluru also tested positive for coronavirus. Earlier, India had confirmed three coronavirus cases from Kerala who successfully recovered from the infection. Across Texas on Election Day, voters in the states largest counties stood in long lines for up to six hours after polls closed at 7 p.m., waiting for their chance to cast a ballot. State law requires that counties allow anyone who gets in line before the polls close to vote, no matter how long it takes. In some extreme cases, such as at Texas Southern University, voting didnt wrap up until 1 a.m. Ive been working in Texas politics since 2002 and have never seen or heard of anyone having to wait for more than six hours to vote, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a nonprofit that runs a nonpartisan voter protection program. There werent lines that long in the Obama/Clinton primary or even in any general election. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Its still early, and election administrators and voting rights advocates are still analyzing what might have caused the excessive waits, but here are five reasons they say likely contributed: 1. Massive turnout As of the latest report, Texas saw hundreds of thousands more voters this election with 2 million in the Democratic Presidential race alone, up from 1.4 million in 2016. Thats a 44-percent increase in voters. The huge number of voters streaming into limited polling places put a strain on them and exacerbated other issues. Turnout on Election Day is generally about a third of the total with the majority coming from early voting. In Harris County and others, Election Day turnout was higher than normal, in part because Democratic voters were holding off to see how the presidential primary field would shake out before casting their vote. Several candidates indeed dropped out just before Tuesdays election. 2. Fewer and new polling places Four out of five of the states largest counties moved to allow countywide voting centers in 2019. The centers allow voters to use any polling location, no matter where they live. The sites are intended to increase turnout by making it more convenient for voters to find a site. For subscribers: Harris County Democrats waited in line for hours to vote Tuesday. Two-thirds of polling sites were in Republican areas. The consolidation has in part contributed to the loss of 750 polling places statewide since 2012, most of them in minority communities, according to a 2019 report. Theres also a learning curve as voters grow accustomed to the new locations and change their habits. A 2019 University of Houston study, which found that vote centers had little effect on increasing turnout in midterm and presidential elections while cautioning that it may still be too early to say whether theyre a net positive, also noted that polling place consolidation could increase wait times as voters are faced with new and unfamiliar locations. Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor and co-author of the study, said crowding can also be an issue at popular voting centers and that counties will need to assess high-traffic locations and make adjustments before November, when the higher turnout and lack of straight-ticket voting is expected to cause long lines Just like in real estate, its all about location, location, location, Rottinghaus said. Finding the right location for a vote center is the most important factor in making them work properly. Another reason there may have been more traffic on Election Day had to do with a constraining of sites during early voting. A state law passed in 2019 banned temporary polling sites, commonly used for campus polling places, and required all sites to stay open throughout the early voting period. That change meant fewer options for local elections officials. Its unfortunate that theyre being forced to make that choice by the Legislature, said Chris Davis, Williamson County election administrator and legislative chair of the Texas Association of Elections Administrators. If some of those sites didnt have polling places for early voting, that probably contributed to longer lines on Election Day. That law is now the subject of a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party. 3. Inadequate machine allocation In several large counties, including Harris and Tarrant, primaries are not held jointly by the two major parties. The two must agree on whether to run their elections together and use the same check-in tables and machines, or to hold them separately. With such high turnout on the Democratic side yet equal amounts of machines in both parties primaries, it meant that Democratic voters were often stuck waiting in line, while Republican voters had little to no wait and machines on their side went unused. If we had had a joint primary, each party could have used the same machines, Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman said Tuesday night. But since it was a shared location, each party had to have their individual side of their machines and the party had to have the other side of the room for their machines, and each one is programmed just with the partys ballots so they cant be used for the other side. Davis said in cases where election administrators could have predicted high Democratic turnout in a heated presidential primary compared to the Republican ticket that did not include such a race, the parties ought to work together and with their counties to distribute machines based on those expectations. 4. New technology Several counties, such as Bexar and Tarrant counties, were still adjusting to new machines that hadnt yet been tested in a general election. Texas Civil Rights Project spokesman Ivy Le said the Austin-based voting rights nonprofit received about 60 calls from Tarrant County voters about issues theyd experienced at the polls and locations that opened late. The data we collected yesterday showed the most severe breakdowns of voting infrastructure were invariably at polling locations in black and Latino communities and college campuses, said TCRP president Mimi Marziani. Even without technical issues, the novelty of the system could have also caused delays because voters and poll workers were less familiar with how the new machines worked. 5. Lack of state support Common Cause and the Texas Civil Rights Project point to the state as the root cause of voting delays on Super Tuesday. Gutierrez said other states offer counties more financial support for running elections. This wasnt something isolated to TSU in Houston or Travis County; we were definitely seeing really long lines all over the state, which to me points to a bigger systemic problem that Texas just doesnt do much to make it easier for Texans to vote, Gutierrez said. The easiest solution to the excessively long lines we were seeing would be for Texas to allocate more resources to things like voting machines and election workers. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, Colonel-General of the Customs Service Safar Mehdiyev met with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Azerbaijan Hamad bin Abdullah bin Saud bin Khudair, Trend reports on March 4 referring to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. Mehdiyev said that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia are successfully developing. "A high level of cooperation is important and friendly relations between the heads of two states play an important role in the development of the bilateral relations," the chairman said. The reforms in the Azerbaijani customs system, initiated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, helped simplify customs procedures, increase the country's export and transit potential and transparency, promote international trade and create modern customs procedures, Mehdiyev added. The trade between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia is developing, but both countries have more opportunities to increase the volume of import-export operations, Mehdiyev said. The chairman stressed the importance of fully using these opportunities. Mehdiyev also touched on the relationship between the customs services of the two countries, stressing the development of relations in the field of customs, the importance of interaction and exchange of experience to intensify the cooperation. In turn, Hamad bin Abdullah bin Saud bin Khudair said that Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to the development of relations with Azerbaijan. Stressing the high level of relations between Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, the ambassador emphasized that there are good opportunities for expanding cooperation in the economic, trade, investment, agricultural and other spheres. The ambassador also stressed the need to further strengthen the ties between the customs agencies of the two countries and increase trade turnover. Hamad bin Abdullah bin Saud bin Khudair added that he would make every effort to further strengthen the bilateral relations. Then the sides also exchanged the views on other issues of mutual concern. The goal of the Azerbaijani Customs Service is to protect Azerbaijans sovereignty, economic and national security, as well as improve the social well-being of people, promote the international trade, as well as ensure security, collect customs payments and transfer them to the state budget, as well as prevent fraud in the field of customs affairs and the fight against international terrorism. Twitter made headlines this week when it became the first major U.S. company to strongly encourage all employees to work from home in an effort to minimize the coronavirus spread. Tweet As COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, becomes more widespread throughout the U.S., more employers are likely to follow suit. Alex Alonso is the chief knowledge officer of the Society for Human Resource Management. He tells CNBC Make It that the society's call center has seen a surge in requests from HR professionals seeking guidance about how to prepare their work forces for operational disruption, as well as ways to safeguard their employees' health. In addition to complying with safety guidelines from sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experts say these are some of the ways employers can support their workers amid the coronavirus outbreak. The case for paid sick leave One of the biggest recommendations to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the workplace is for those who are sick to stay home. However, recent reports suggest as many as 90% of workers have gone to work while sick. Their main reasons for doing so include having too much work, not wanting to take a sick day and feeling pressure from management and colleagues to continue working while under the weather. And for many, taking a sick day means forgoing a paycheck. There is currently no federal law to mandate paid sick time; instead, a handful of states and cities require employers to provide paid sick leave to qualified individuals. Those who don't work in these areas could very well be sent home by their employer without pay if they show symptoms of pandemic influenza. Unfortunately for many, staying home does not seem like a viable option. Aaron Goldstein, partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney in Seattle, says he's advising companies to provide workers with unlimited paid sick leave given the current coronavirus spread. "A lot of workers can't afford to miss a paycheck," Goldstein says. "If someone's out of paid sick leave or time off or worried about having enough in their bank to take care of a love one, they may come to work when they don't feel well." Experts worry this could contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, considering it produces mild cold symptoms in about 80% of patients, according to Sylvie Briand, a physician who is the head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division. "For folks unable to work at home, companies need to take a long view that a temporary shutdown and extra precautions now are going to be a lot less expensive than if an illness sweeps through the workplace," Goldstein adds. Alonso says the SHRM call center has seen a small but noticeable increase of employers asking how to create a completely new category of paid leave given the coronavirus spread. "One of the things we've seen is HR professionals asking, 'Can we offer conditional paid leave even if we haven't set up our compensation structure in that way?'" he says. He encourages workers to ask their employer whether existing or a new category of paid leave is on the table if the spread worsens in their area. David Barron, a Houston-based labor and employment attorney at Cozen O'Connor, says companies may also need to be more flexible in how they administer their existing paid time off policies. "Employees should ask the question: 'Will I be able to dip into my balance and potentially go negative? Or get PTO days in advance?'" he says. Generally, a worker's paid leave options will be mandated by where they live, their employer and their employee status for benefits eligibility. Workers who are part of a union may consider speaking with a union representative about their leave options, as well. In terms of unpaid leave, the Family and Medical Leave Act provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to take care of their own or a family member's "serious health condition." When working from home isn't an option "The most important thing employers can do is to assess their work scheduling and remote work options," Goldstein says. "If you have resources to do that, spend that up now so it's ready to go, should the virus become more widespread." Of course, these workplace policies tend to be more common among technology companies and offices that already accommodate remote working options. For those who work for a company without an active flexible work culture, workplace strategist Cali Williams Yost says employees can advocate for putting those measures in place. The CEO and founder of workplace strategy firm Flex+Strategy Group advises workers sit down with their manager, walk through their daily responsibilities, and determine which, if any, can be done remotely. Workers should be prepared to determine what resources they'd need to make this arrangement work, including remote access to company systems, communication and videoconferencing tools, documents and so on. They should also lay out what the arrangement will mean for individuals as well as teams as a whole. "None of this is wasted energy," she adds. "Right now it's coronavirus, but it could be something else down the road. It's worth it to take the time to think these things through." For workers who need to be on the premises to do their jobs, Goldstein says employers may be able to accommodate alternative shift schedules, where workers come in outside of the traditional 9-to-5 workday. This could result in staggered commute times and fewer people in a space at a given time, which could help limit an individual's exposure to the coronavirus and other illnesses in general. Such arrangements could also be beneficial to working parents in the case of a school closure. "If companies have shifts on weekends or hours where another parent may be home and able to take care of kids, that could make a huge difference," Goldstein says. "Companies need to be thinking of those practical realities." Other workplace resources that can help 259 Shares Share I work as the medical director for a non-profit agency that serves people who are currently or formerly homeless. I am trained as a psychiatrist and have previously worked in local government. I live in the county in Washington State, where people have died from COVID-19. Here are my recommendations for other physician leaders in other regions, particularly those who work in outpatient, non-profit settings. I hope this information can help you if once COVID-19 arrives in your area. Start talking with other physician leaders that intersect with your work now. Talk about how you all will coordinate together. How can your teams all work together to ensure that only people who need ED-level services are sent there? What sort of screening will you all do? If people who dont have homes need to self-isolate, where can they go? Establish a communication system now because when COVID-19 arrives, you dont want to fumble through that. If you havent met these other people yet, meet them now. Start talking with physicians who work in your local government. My observations thus far are that physicians in government havent been active in planning for systemwide medical issues, and not because theyre not interested, but rather because they are overwhelmed, and theres not enough of them. Start asking questions like: If people who are homeless need quarantine, where should they go? Has the city or county started talking with the hospitals to determine a system of where people with COVID-like symptoms should go? Who will get tested? Is there a centralized phone number clinics can call to alert county authorities of outbreaks? What sort of communication is the city or county having with the state?. Keep up the advocacy with state and local partners with questions related to system processes. The state and local partners likely wont have answers, particularly if you serve underserved patients. Since COVID-19 is affecting everyone, governments are thinking about the majority of people, many of whom are the worried well, can self-isolate, can go see their own doctors, etc. People without the same resources cant do the same prevention and early intervention activities, so it is vital to keep following up with government partners, so they dont forget about these underserved populations. (This also includes populations that may not seek health care services, like immigrant and refugee populations.) If you can keep up the questions to your physician partners in government, they will feel empowered to keep asking their partners (e.g., state and federal agencies) for information. Start teaching stuff to your non-medical partners. Sometimes physicians and nurses forget what we know; we think everyone knows what we know. Agencies that serve homeless populations often dont have medical staff, so their leadership and line staff may have questions like, Will an air purifier eliminate COVID-19? or Will hydrogen peroxide kill COVID-19? People may not know HOW to wash their hands. Advocate with your agency leadership to get hygiene supplies now (because most of the suppliers locally are sold out) and make it easy for your staff to practice good hygiene. And dont make assumptions that people know how to do hygiene stuff. A small minority of people will do things you wont like. There are people calling health care agencies pretending that they are the WHO or CDC and are asking for financial information so they can steal money. Supplies, like face masks, may suddenly go missing. Prepare for these sort of disappointing behaviors. You cant overcommunicate. In the face of uncertainty, frustration arises. Dont lie, either; tell people what you know and dont know. That way, they will be more likely to trust you when you do have recommendations. Support your staff. You cant rely on your staff to take care of other people if your staff dont think you are taking care of them. We heard a comment today during a phone call that an estimated 40 percent of staff will be out of the office due to illness. Some may also call out because of fear. We can appeal to the better natures of our teams, but they wont rise to the challenge if they think we dont care about them. And if they dont think we dont care about them, then they wont have the emotional and cognitive capacity to care for patients. (This applies to local government, too: They must take care of the agencies that provide services on their behalf, or otherwise the agencies will feel unsupported and may not extend themselves.) People are expressing and demonstrating anxiety, which is finethere are reasons to worry. But there are things we can do as leaders to acknowledge and mitigate that anxiety. Start now. Maria Yang is a psychiatrist who blogs at her self-titled site, Maria Yang, MD. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Azercell Telecom LLC, always distinguished by its corporate social projects, continues its activities in the direction of education, professional growth and employment of the youth. Aiming to assist young people in their integration to the labor market, build a successful career in their specialty, and support their employment, Azercell representatives took part in regular labor fairs, this time organized in Lankaran and Guba. Azercell Human Capital Management Department employees informed the fair participants about the latest trends in the labor market, available vacancies in the company and answered their questions. Job Fairs were jointly organized by the International Organization for Migration, Public Employment Services under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and International Training and Projects Center LLC. Notably, the project involved various lines of activities aimed at development of the youth, such as supporting the self-employment and access to the labor market, capacity building and others. It is worth noting that, Azercell stands out for active participation in the career fairs organized by various education institutes, public agencies and other organizations. Moreover, 67 students from various institutions have attended Student Programs initiated by Azercell during 2019, while 161 in-house and external training sessions were conducted by Azercell Academy. For more information, please contact [email protected] The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. Currently, 4.8 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Mobile operator controls 49% of market share; while its geographical coverage constitutes 99.2% (excluding the occupied territories); and population coverage 99.8%. Azercell was the pioneering mobile operator to introduce a number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, 24/7 call center service (*1111), 7/7 Front Office service, Azercell Express offices, M2M services, technology and pilot version of 5G, mobile, online customer care services and customer services through social media, mobile e-signature service ASAN Imza etc. Rapidly increasing network of Azercell covers nearly 60 regions of the country, including Baku and Absheron peninsula. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International Investors in People Standard. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Zurich 3 March 2020: Amun AG, the Swiss issuer of crypto Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), is pleased to inform investors of its change of name of the ETP line of products to 21Shares AG. This name change occurred with immediate effect on 2 March 2020 and all Amun ETPs will now be traded under this new name on SIX Swiss Exchange. In addition, the website www.21shares.com is also now live. Launching a total of 11 ETPs in one year and getting the approval of the base prospectus by the Swedish Financial Authority (SFSA), 21Shares has been pioneering innovation in the regulated digital asset space since its inception in 2018. The newly rebranded 21 Shares company will focus on further expanding its range of ETPs internationally to service more diverse markets and broaden its offering of financial products on regulated operating venues, with the goal of listing on at least two new such exchange venues by end of 2020. Hany Rashwan, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We remain on a mission to help simplify access to crypto and we are focused on being the financial partner of choice in the crypto ETP industry. The name change will allow us to target additional and increasingly more diverse markets with ease by utilising a consistent brand appropriate for all regions around the world. This change is not limited to marketing communications but focuses on our financial product range to better serve our investor community in the crypto markets." The new brand name is a homage to the total maximum supply of Bitcoin, as only 21 million Bitcoin will ever be in circulation. It further reflects the progressive change made in implementing the corporate strategy to transform the company into a multi-project, multi-crypto business and to standardise its offering by streamlining access for investors into either the financial or in crypto markets. For example, last week, 21Shares was in the news for launching the world-first inverse Bitcoin ETP on Boerse Stuttgart, the second-largest stock exchange in Germany. Story continues The changes will not impact the trading of the ETPs and therefore investors will feel no disruption. All tickers, ISINs and WKNs will remain unchanged. About 21Shares 21Shares makes investing in crypto assets as easy as buying shares using your conventional broker or bank. Investors can invest in cryptocurrencies using a conventional ETP structure (or tracker) easily, with total confidence, and cost-effectively thanks to the 21Shares suite of ETPs launched by 21Shares and now composed of 11 Crypto ETPs: the 21Shares Crypto Basket Index ETP (HODL:SW), 21Shares Bitcoin (ABTC:SW), 21Shares Ethereum (AETH:SW), 21Shares XRP (AXRP:SW), 21Shares Bitcoin Cash ETP (ABCH:SW), 21Shares Binance ETP (ABNB:SW), 21Shares Tezos ETP (AXTZ:SW), Amun Bitcoin Suisse ETP (ABBA:SW), Amun Bitwise 10 ETP (KEYS:SW), Amun Sygnum Platform Winners Index ETP (MOON:SW) and 21Shares Short Bitcoin ETP (SBTC:SW). The entire suite is listed on a regulated framework on the SIX Swiss Exchange, BX Swiss and some on Boerse Stuttgart in CHF, USD and EUR respectively. Founded in 2018, 21Shares is led by a team of talented serial entrepreneurs and experienced banking professionals from the technology and financial world. Incorporated in Zug, with offices in Zurich, Berlin and New York, the company has launched several world firsts, including the first listed crypto index (HODL) in November 2018. 21Shares has 11 crypto ETPs listed today and has over $70 million in AuM in total listed. Press Contact 21Shares Laurent Kssis +41 44 260 86 60 press@21Shares.com Disclaimer This document and the information contained herein are not for distribution in or into (directly or indirectly) the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan or any other jurisdiction in which the distribution or release would be unlawful. This document does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities in the United States. The securities of 21Shares AG to which these materials relate have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. There will not be a public offering of securities in the United States. This document is only being distributed to and is only directed at: (i) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"); or (ii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"); or (iv) persons who fall within Article 43(2) of the Order, including existing members and creditors of the Company or (v) any other persons to whom this document can be lawfully distributed in circumstances where section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply. The Securities are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. In any EEA Member State (other than the Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden) that has implemented the Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Regulation") this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation. Exclusively for potential investors in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) is made available on the Issuers website under www.21Shares.com . The approval of the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) should not be understood as an endorsement by the SFSA of the securities offered or admitted to trading on a regulated market. Eligible potential investors should read the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) and the relevant Final Terms before making an investment decision in order to understand the potential risks associated with the decision to invest in the securities. You are about to purchase a product that is not simple and may be difficult to understand. This document is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for securities of 21Shares AG. Neither this document nor anything contained herein shall form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any offer or commitment whatsoever in any jurisdiction. This document constitutes advertisement within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (the "FinSA") and not a prospectus. In accordance with article 109 of the Swiss Financial Services Ordinance, the Base Prospectus dated 13 November 2019, as supplemented from time to time (the "Base Prospectus") and the final terms for SBTC dated 22 January 2020 (the "Final Terms", and together with the Base Prospectus, the "Prospectus") have been prepared in compliance with articles 652a and 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, as such articles were in effect immediately prior to the entry into effect of the FinSA, and the Listing Rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange in their version in force as of January 1, 2020. Consequently, the Prospectus has not been and will not be reviewed or approved by a Swiss review body pursuant to article 51 of the FinSA, and does not comply with the disclosure requirements applicable to a prospectus approved by such a review body under the FinSA. Copies of the Prospectus are available free of charge from the website of the Issuer. Subject to applicable securities laws, the Base Prospectus and the final terms of any product mentioned herein can be obtained from 21Shares AG on the website. Copies of this document may not be sent to jurisdictions, or distributed in or sent from jurisdictions, in which this is barred or prohibited by law. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any jurisdiction. Potential coronavirus patients are being tested at drive-thru centres in London today as part of a city-wide bid to stop the infection from spreading at hospitals. A test centre has opened at Parsons Green, west London, where people who believe they have contracted Covid-19 can be checked while still sat in their own cars. Photos taken today show brave nurses donning face masks and protective glasses while swabbing patients in their nose and mouth through an open car window. The Central London Community Healthcare NHS trust launched the scheme this week. If successful, it will be rolled out more widely across England. A similar scheme will soon be rolled out in Northern Ireland, where nurses were seen practicing the procedure at Antrim Area Hospital in Co Antrim this morning. Only patients referred by NHS 111 are currently being sent to the drive thru service, with potential patients thought to be seriously ill excluded. Scroll down for video Photos taken today show brave nurses donning face masks and protective glasses while swabbing patients in their nose and mouth through an open car window in London A similar scheme will soon be rolled out in Northern Ireland, where nurses were seen practicing the procedure at Antrim Area Hospital in Co Antrim this morning Potential coronavirus patients are tested at a drive-thru centre in London today as part of a city-wide bid to stop the infection from spreading at hospitals A test centre has opened at Parsons Green, west London, where people who believe they have contracted Covid-19 can be checked while still sat in their own cars Those who undergo a drive-thru test are asked to go home and self-isolate while the test results are checked over the next 72 hours. It comes as the UK's chief medical officer said the infection would kill some Britons, with an epidemic on UK soil is now 'highly likely'. Professor Chris Whitty's message for Britain's 66 million residents came as the total number of UK cases rose to 53 today after two patients in Scotland tested positive. Boris Johnson admitted yesterday that people's lives may have to be put on hold for up to three months to fight the deadly coronavirus In the worst case scenario, schools could be shut, millions could be forced to work from home and people could be asked to stop eating out or shopping. And he said that protective masks would do little good for the people donning them on the London Underground, in the streets and in airports. Those who undergo a drive-thru test are asked to go home and self-isolate while the test results are checked over the next 72 hours People with face masks walk across the concourse at London Victoria train station yesterday 'If people have got an infection and are being moved around a hospital then wearing masks is a good thing to do but for people just walking the streets it's not going to have a significant effect,' he said. Piers Morgan pointed out that those who are wearing the ineffective items might also leave fewer masks available for the NHS. It comes after the news a breath test that can help rapidly spots patients with coronavirus has been developed by British scientists. They say the technology could be used to rapidly screen people in airports. And it could also be used in GP surgeries, pharmacies or ambulances. The technology, developed by a team at Northumbria University in Newcastle, needs further testing but experts believe it could be quickly change the way the virus is spotted around the world. The Government is launching a renewed public information campaign urging people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Adverts will seek to drive home the message that regular hand-washing is the single most important action individuals can take in the fight against Covid-19. A lone commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge in the capital this morning Prime Minister Boris Johnson, flanked by the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty (left) and the chief scientific officer, Sir Patrick Vallance (right), launched Government's coronavirus action plan at Downing Street yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) posted a picture of him washing his hands to his Instagram page yesterday with the caption: 'I fully understand the publics concerns about the global spread of coronavirus, and it is likely to become more significant in the coming weeks' Professor Whitty's comments come after the NHS yesterday announced it had hiked its threat level to the highest possible 'national incident' after 12 more British patients tested positive for the infection. Health chiefs have declared the epidemic a 'level four incident', which grants them emergency powers to take control of local hospitals. Coronavirus was ratcheted up to level four status in January, but the move was only confirmed yesterday as the government tried to calm public concern by unveiling a four-pronged strategy to tackle the growing crisis. The government's battle plan has been divided into four stages 'Contain', 'delay', 'research' and 'mitigate' Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a press conference yesterday with Professor Whitty and the government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, to launch the official action plan. Troops could be deployed on the streets, infected patients who are not suffering from complications could be sent home from hospital, and non-urgent NHS operations could be cancelled to free up space in overwhelmed hospitals. The PM also revealed schools could be shut and children allowed to do coursework and sit exams from their home to stop the spread. But he maintained that this would only be worst-case scenario and said schools should not close unless instructed to by Public Health England. Mr Johnson said the government would take all 'necessary and reasonable steps' to contain the coronavirus, but appealed for the public to keep 'going about our business as usual'. He said: 'I do think that this is a national challenge. The potential is there for this to be something that our country has to get through. 'But I have absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have the health service to get through it.' The 28-page 'action plan' was agreed at the first emergency Cobra meeting to be chaired by the PM on Monday. The report stresses the response is still in the 'containment' phase, and explained there are four stages contain, delay, research and mitigate. A man wears a medical mask on a street in London yesterday as more patients in the UK tested positive for coronavirus today A woman wears a mask as a precaution against coronavirus on a street in London yesterday But experts fear they will have to shift to 'delay' tactics effectively damage limitation within days or weeks amid growing outbreaks across Europe. More than 2,500 people have now been diagnosed in Italy, which is in the grip of the second worst outbreak outside of China, and hundreds of patients have been discovered in Germany and France. Poland today declared its first case of the coronavirus, following Ukraine yesterday. The only European countries without infections are now Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Modlova, Turkey and Cyprus. The Government's action plan states that the 'vast majority' of cases will have only mild-to-moderate effects on individuals, but points out that the virus is highly infectious. 'As it is a new virus, the lack of immunity in the population (and the absence as yet of an effective vaccine) means that Covid 19 has the potential to spread extensively,' the document says. A stone's throw from Number 10, two people wear protective face masks in London's Parliament Square amid concerns of a British outbreak 'The current data seems to show that we are all susceptible to catching this disease, and thus it seems more likely than not that the UK will be significantly affected.' 'The potential is there for this to be something that our country has to get through. But I have absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have the health service to get through it.' The plan said that in the event of mass infections the Government 'will aim to minimise the social and economic impact, subject to keeping people safe'. There would be 'population distancing strategies' such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, and reducing the number of large scale gatherings to slow the spread of the disease. Pensioners would be advised to stay away from events such as VE Day commemorations to avoid putting themselves at risk. However, experts say that an infected person is as likely to pass on the virus to 12 people in a pub as in a 70,000 seater stadium. Police 'would concentrate on responding to serious crimes and maintaining public order' if forces suffer 'a significant loss of officers and staff.' Meanwhile, the armed forces could be called upon to 'backfill' gaps in emergency services and provide other assistance if required. 'The Ministry of Defence has put in place plans to ensure the delivery of its operations in the UK and overseas. There are also well-practiced arrangements for Defence to support to civil authorities if requested,' the document says. DR Congo: With Ebola on the wane, UN agencies prepare to combat coronavirus 3 March 2020 - After more than a year of battling an Ebola virus outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people, UN officials are "cautiously optimistic" that the epidemic in the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will soon be history as the country gears up to face the emerging threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In an emotional ceremony on Tuesday, the last Ebola patient in the DRC - a woman called Masiko - was discharged from the treatment centre in Beni, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. "There are currently zero cases of #Ebola in #DRC after over a year of fighting this outbreak", WHO Regional Director Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said in Tweet sharing a video of Masiko leaving the facility to the cheers of a waiting crowd. "So proud of all involved in the response. We are hopeful, yet cautiously optimistic that we will soon bring this outbreak to an end". The milestone comes as countries increasingly report cases of respiratory disease caused by a new strain of the coronavirus, which first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. To date, more than 60 additional countries have been affected. Africa prepares for COVID-19 Following the virus's spread to the continent, the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention organized an emergency ministerial meeting last month where the DRC was identified among 13 countries most at risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to their direct travel links with China. "Some countries in Africa, including DRC, are leveraging the capacity they have built up to test for Ebola, to test for COVID-19", WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting. "This is a great example of how investing in health systems can pay dividends for health security." WHO's Africa office this week held an emergency partnership meeting on coronavirus , aimed at boosting engagement and developing an effective preparedness and response plan for countries in the region. Organizations in attendance included fellow UN agency the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which believes that compared to countries with little experience in large-scale infection prevention and control, the DRC may be better positioned to prevent the spread of the coronavirus because of the Ebola measures already implemented. Lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak UNFPA health workers have been supporting Ebola response in the DRC: the tenth such outbreak in the country's history. It has occurred against the backdrop of one of the world's most protracted crises and in a region of the country that has been scarred by deadly armed group attacks. Overall, nearly 16 million Congolese citizens require support, including 3.5 million women and girls of reproductive age: that is between 15-49 years old. While all people living in affected areas are at risk of contracting Ebola, UNFPA explained that health workers face increased risk due to frequent contact with infected persons, their biological fluids and contaminated objects. They also risk spreading the disease to other patients and practitioners during care. More than five per cent of Ebola victims in DRC were health workers who contracted the disease through contact with an infected patient's bodily fluids, according to the agency. Midwife Rachelle Mbavindi was infected with Ebola while working in the Mangina Referral Health Centre, which was renovated by UNFPA. Located in North Kivu province, it is at the epicentre of the humanitarian crisis and Ebola outbreak. Rachelle and nine colleagues spent 90 days in quarantine and treatment after contracting the disease. Despite the difficulty of her experience, Rachelle returned to work following her release. "After my experience with Ebola, I felt born again," she said, "and I carry out my work with great caution and attention." UNFPA expanding interventions As a midwifery supervisor, Rachelle trains her colleagues in the proper implementation of practices that can make the difference between life and death in the prevention of fatal diseases. These steps include proper hand hygiene, face protection and clothing, prevention of injuries causing open wounds, respiratory hygiene: that is, preventing viral spread through coughing, systematic cleaning of rooms and linens, and appropriate management of biological wastes. Rachelle is applying her personal and professional experience with Ebola to prepare for the potential spread of coronavirus. "Thanks to the Ebola training provided by UNFPA, I feel reassured that my maternity ward can prevent and control a new epidemic, including the coronavirus", she said. "In addition to the training and related supervision, UNFPA provides maternity wards with essential equipment to ensure full implementation of the infection prevention and control measures", said Dr. Polycarpe Takou, UNFPA humanitarian coordinator for Ebola response. UNFPA regional and country offices are now working to expand such interventions in preparation for the potential spread of COVID-19. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address It can take three-and-a-half days for feet to return to normal after donning a pair of uncomfortable shoes, research by footwear brand Hotter has shown. According to the historic Lancashire company, the average Brit wears an ill-fitting pair of shoes for an average of two days every month, taking three weeks in total every year of recovery time. The study, which surveyed 2,000 people, found that nearly 30 million British people are likely to have damaged their feet by wearing shoes that are the wrong size or fit. Scroll down for video The average British person wears an uncomfortable pair of shoes for two days every month, meaning their feet spend three weeks a year recovering (Pictured: file image of heels) One in five admitted that they haven't had their feet measured in more than ten years, meaning millions have no idea what their shoe size really is. Dina Gohil, a podiatrist and foot expert, warned that as well as crippling our feet, wearing poorly-fitting shoes can actually cause back and neck problems. She said: 'Think of shoes as the foundations of your body, if the foundations don't support you properly, it puts more pressure on other areas of the body like your knees, hips and lower back. This extra pressure will cause for overcompensation on these areas.' She added: 'It is incredible how so many people are unaware that something as simple as the footwear may cause lower body pains and aches even in your neck.' The study - which was commissioned by Hotter and surveyed 2,000 people - when applied to the nation as a whole found nearly 30 million British people have damaged their feet One in eight adults knowingly wear the wrong size shoes, despite the agony they cause, simply because they like the style, the research also found. And nearly a third have footwear they describe as 'sit-down shoes' only. As a result of wearing the wrong size, a tenth of Brits have to deal with painful bunions on a day-to-day basis. Thirty-eight per cent report hard skin on their feet, while more than one in 20 are contending with painful blisters. It also emerged that four in 10 adults say looking good is their primary consideration when buying shoes, while a tenth are more concerned whether their legs look nice. And just under a fifth believe they must wear the wrong size shoes because the ones they want aren't available in half sizes or different width options. Victoria Betts from shoe brand Hotter said: 'We are on a mission to measure the nation's feet. 'Our shoes come in four fittings, and with half sizes, we have over 6,500 options in our collection so we can precision fit every pair. 'Our 3D Hotter Footprint scanners measure feet in five seconds and we're taking them across the nation to share the joy of shoes that fit perfectly.' Vile Parle Election Result 2019 LIVE: Check Vile Parle Constituency Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) Election Updates, Candidates, Winners, Losers, Voting Percentage The Congress on Wednesday held the government in Gujarat responsible for the death of over 15,000 infants during treatment at newborn care units across the state in the last two years. Responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly on March 3, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who also handles the Health portfolio, said that out of the 1.06 lakh infants admitted to such units during 2018 and 2019 across the state, 15,013 babies died during treatment. These deaths were reported from sick newborn care units set up in almost all districts of the state. On Wednesday, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala held the BJP government responsible for these deaths. "15,013 infants died. Everyday 20 infants are dying. The maximum number of infant deaths -4322- in Ahmedabad. This is Amit Shah's parliamentary constituency," he said in a tweet. "Will the cries of babies be heard? Will anyone raise questions? Will the TV media show courage?" Surjewala asked. Photo credit: YouTube From Men's Health On Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver broke down the coronavirus for his audience. The comedian offered tips on what to do to prevent contracting the virus. "How scared should you be? A bit," he said in the segment. John Oliver is not afraid to speak his mind. During Sundays episode of Last Week Tonight, the late-night host let the audience know his thoughts on the coronavirus outbreak which included addressing some recent headlines and news coverage. The virus, formally known as COVID-19 , has led to an international concern ever since the first case was detected in China in December 2019. During his monologue, Oliver referenced a recent segment from Good Day New York; in the clip he showed, news anchors wonder whether someone could contract the virus from ingesting Chinese food. No, you cant! Oliver exclaimed. Of course you cant get the coronavirus from eating Chinese food! In fact, if youre eating at a Panda Express, you cant even get Chinese food from eating Chinese food. Oliver went on to break down some statistics, explaining to the audience that this particular viral strain does come with a two percent mortality rate. Two percent of people is a lot when youre talking about people dying, the HBO host said to his audience. Think of it this way: Two percent of people disappearing was literally the premise of The Leftovers. While Oliver criticized President Trumps handling of the pandemicthis is a bad time to have a president who cannot speak clearlyhe circled back to his original point: Theres good reason for everyone to be mindful about the coronavirus. The truth is, while clinical trials are underway, there is no treatment for the coronavirus at the moment," he said. "How scared should you be? A bit. At the end of the clip, Oliver offered tips as to how people can take the time to protect themselves from the coronavirus: Dont be racist about who is becoming affected by the virus. Dont hoard all the face masks because other people need them too. Check out the CDC website for all the information on the coronavirus. Wash your hands (make sure you do it for twenty seconds!). Story continues Click here for the full video: You Might Also Like Daniel Craig in No Time To Die (Credit: MGM/Universal) Ever since Daniel Craig's first appearance as James Bond in Casino Royale, there's been a single driving force behind his tortured 007. And that's Vesper Lynd. The death of Eva Green's character in the 2006 movie, helmed by Martin Campbell, has informed Craig's character more than any other incident during his tenure as Bond. Read more: Bond fan site appeals for No Time To Die release delay And now Craig has hinted that this part of Bond's story will likely come full circle in his final turn in the tux, No Time To Die. Speaking to Total Film, Craig said: We started talking about it and I went, 'There might be a story we need to finish here something we started in Casino [Royale]. 'Something to do with Vesper, and Spectre, and something that was connected, in a way'. It started to formulate, and I thought, 'Here we go.' Eva Green and Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (Credit: MGM/Sony) Director Cary Fukunaga has also echoed Craig's sentiments, telling Fandango: I think the emotionality was something that I was interested in, and wanted to explore, and [I] wanted to get deeper into the psychology of Bond after the tragedy of his relationship with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. And now, with the new relationship, with Madeleine Swann, what bringing all that baggage into this new relationship means. Read more: Chinese premiere of No Time To Die axed No Time To Die will see 007 pulled out of retirement in Jamaica by his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who needs his help to investigate the disappearance of a scientist. It will also involve dealings with Christoph Waltz's Blofeld, introduced in Spectre, but now detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, while Rami Malek plays the movies villain Safin, described by Malek as seeing himself 'as a hero almost in the same way that Bond is a hero'. Starring Craig, Wright, Waltz and Malek alongside Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear. Ralph Fiennes, Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas, No Time To Die lands in the UK on 2 April. Health Authorities are asking for restraint and calm as a Kiwi family in isolation for COVID-19 is battered through social media. ARPHS Director Dr William Rainger says the family has done everything right and has minimised the risk to others. "The woman with the virus has gone straight into isolation with her family when she was told she was suspected of having COVID-19. "Yet they have become the focus of sustained and abusive bullying on social media and are being hounded by the media. "There is a high level of anxiety and concern in the school and wider communities, but it is not acceptable to attack people who have been caught up in this global outbreak. They have taken all the right actions to protect others. "As a public health service, we are worried that such attacks will lead people to hide any illness that might be COVID-19, and not seek medical attention. "We will not be able to contain this spread of this illness, if the public response is so hostile towards cases and their families." The Ministry of Health also supports the ARPHS message. "I want to say that this is a Kiwi family that has been affected by a virus that is part of a worldwide outbreak," says Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. "What they need is support and understanding. Our task is to ensure they have all the support and health care they need." Two cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed in New Zealand. Ashley says one case is a woman in her 30s who had recently returned from a trip to Italy. The positive test result was formally reported to the ministry at about 6pm on Tuesdayy. At that point, health authorities began notifying the woman and her family and started the process of contact tracing. New Zealand's first case is a woman who had returned from Iran via Bali. She is recovering in hospital in Auckland. The ministry says 160 tests have been carried out. All the testing of New Zealanders for Covid-19 were being done in New Zealand. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The noose is further tightened on Karvy Stock Broking Ltd with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) ordering a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into the alleged financial irregularities. The order issued on February 27, directed SFIO officials to investigate not only into the affairs of Karvy and its group companies but also nine other entities including Wizard Insurance Services, Zenith Insurance Services, Buoyant Insurance, Nova Wealth Management Services, Karvy Consultants, Vitalink Wealth Advisory Services, Classic Wealth Management Services Pvt Ltd, Champion Insurance Services, and Pelican Wealth Advisory Services. The investigation initiated under Section 212 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013 was based on the Registrar of Companies inquiry report submitted on February 24, pointing towards a potential fraud at the city-based brokerage. "...In exercise of powers conferred under Section 212 (1) (a) & (C) of the Companies Act, 2013 the central government has formed an opinion that the affairs of the above referred companies need to be investigated to examine the serious nature of fraud committed as large public interest is involved," it said. On its part, Karvy challenged the MCA order in High Court on Tuesday, but its petition was dismissed. Its expected to file a fresh petition on Wednesday. Karvy sought interim relief so as to prevent MCA officials from taking any 'coercive steps including investigation under Section 212 of the Act.' It further argued that the RoCs investigation under section 206 to 208 were ongoing besides of course the final decision of markets regulator SEBI, which barred the company from doing business. Karvy officials hoped the confusion will be put to rest after their deliberations with the MCA due this Thursday. "We will file a fresh petition tomorrow (Wednesday). This (its Mondays petition) wasnt correctly filed. We werent give adequate time to respond to the section 206 (1) notice," C Parthasarathy, chairman, Karvy told this publication. SEBI barred it from opening new trading accounts based on an NSE inquiry alleging the brokerage raised money pledging clients shares. In the video depositions, nearly half of the women testified that they felt pressured to comply with Smileys requests for sex and that they faced retaliation even losing their jobs if they didnt. The other half described comments or jokes by Smiley that they said made them uncomfortable in the workplace. Philippines' latest ASF outbreak in Naga city; state of calamity imminent The city of Naga in Camarines Sur province is the latest area in the Philippines to confirm an outbreak of the African swine fever. Blood samples from pigs raised in two villages within the city tested positive for ASF, according to the Department of Agriculture and the National Meat Inspection Service, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on Tuesday, March 3. As a result of the outbreak, the city government ordered a two-week closure of its slaughterhouse and the culling of pigs. The city's mayor, Nelson Legacion, also requested the city council to declare the city under a state of calamity. Earlier the neighboring towns of Bombon and Calabanga also reported outbreaks of ASF, as a result of which a partial state of calamity was declared in the latter town. The provincial government of Camarines Sur had also placed the province under red alert due to the swine disease. Meanwhile, in neighboring Albay province, south of Camarines Sur, the provincial government has banned the transport of live hogs from within a one-kilometre radius of the slaughterhouse in a village in Daraga town outside the designated zone after tests on samples from four butchered pigs turned out positive for ASF. The four pigs had been delivered from ASF-infected Bombon town in Camarines Sur. PORTLAND - She was a schoolteacher, he worked at Pratt & Whitney and drove a school bus. At the holiday, they sold Christmas trees on their property on Route 66. In his spare time, he worked on boats. By 1945, with the war over, they decided to focus on selling boats. Their first store was a chicken coop they found in Middletown. They disassembled it and had it brought it over to the Route 66 site. And thus was born a multi-generational success story that has made Petzold Marine Center a leader in all things boats and marine-related business. This year the company is celebrating its 75th anniversary, 75 years since William and Agnes Petzold began their business. Seated in a narrow conference room this week, brothers Bob and Ken Petzold and Bobs daughter, Heather Petzold, shared their thoughts and memories of the (mostly) good times through all those years. Bob Petzold is president of the company, Ken Petzold the vice president and sales manager, while Heather Petzold is the operations coordinator. Ken Petzold has quiet, wry sense of humor, while Heather Petzold is lively and personable. Both her father and uncle agree on one thing: We work for her. (Heather has a brother, Dominic, who was away at training.) When they sit down together, out come warm family memories, recollections of their commitment to Portland (Bob Petzold was a long-time fire chief and remains active in community affairs), and the pleasure of friendships made, and kept, with any number of boat owners. Bob Petzold also charts the see-saw peak-and-valley nature of boating: the 1973 oil embargo, the late 1980s crash, and the 2008 recession, from which he says Connecticut has yet to fully recover. Reaching back across the decades, Bob Petzold said of his parents, They were really a team. Grandmother was really the brains of the operation and Grandfather was the brawn. The elder Petzolds are relaxing in a warmer and drier climate than Portland for the winter. In 1963, the family moved from Route 66 to a little-over 8-acre parcel of land on the Connecticut River, on the site of the old Gildersleeve & Sons shipyard. The Gildersleeve shipyard was established in 1776 and continued building ships until it was destroyed in the 1936 flood. Petzolds currently has three outlets: the main store and shipyard off Indian Hill Road, and satellite stores in Norwalk and Wakefield, R.I. The Portland office has 14,000 square feet of display space spread over three buildings. They offer any type of (motor) boat from 15 feet to 58 feet, Heather Petzold said, adding that pontoon boats are currently very popular. Were too far up the river for sail boats, her dad said. In many ways, the boatyard is an ideal location, Bob Petzold said. With all the inland lakes, streams and ponds and with Long Island Sound so close, this is the best location I can imagine, he said. This is the best boating to be had in the area. I never thought of doing anything other than this, Heather Petzold noted. I just knew this what we do, and I wanted to be like my Dad. Gesturing around the room, she said, I grew up here. When she was a child, she would wait at the store for the school bus to take her to pre-school. I had my own little desk, where she would work until the bus arrived and then in the afternoon, it would drop her off. It was like, this is our life, she said. And I saw how passionate my Dad and my uncle were about it. Heather Petzold literally grew up at Petzolds and in doing so she grew up with the children of families who were their customers. Now she sells boats to the children with whom she used to play. They met me and my whole family, and we met them and their family. Thats really cool, she said. And working with her family helps, too. When they get together they discuss - and explain - their ideas about the business. We work really hard together to make it all work, she said. This is true one-stop shopping, Bob Petzold said. We sell boats, repair boats, shrink-wrap boats (in the winter), we can repair the electronics, offer them a slip, and we store over 300 boats. There is a fully stocked marine store, and if by chance they dont have an item on a day, they can have it shipped overnight and available the next day, Heather Petzold said. The company has 29 full-time employees. We have some really strong employees here, some really good guys, Bob Petzold said. We wouldnt be here without them. Weve been very lucky with the people we have here, his brother said in agreement. Some of the employees have worked for Petzolds since before Heather Petzold was born. She has taken to the idea in using social media to increase awareness of Petzolds. Her brother flew a drone to capture aerial views of the property and of the boats hibernating all snug in their gleaming white shrink-wrap cocoons. Social media has been really good for us, she said during a tour of the yard. She is gearing up to use it for the annual open house, which will be held March 21-22. Its an annual event given boaters the cue that it wont be too long before their boats will go back into the water. It will be extra special this year because its our 75th anniversary, Heather Petzold said. Thirty new and 40 pre-owned boars will be on display during the two-day event, which will include door prizes and food trucks on site. Petzolds is selling a lifestyle, Bob Petzold said. People get excited when they get a boat. If you call up your friends and say do you want to come and sit and backyard and grill hamburgers, they might say yes. But if you offer them a chance to go out on you boat, then you know theyll come, he said. There arent a lot of businesses where you can create everlasting memories. Our family business is your familys pleasure, Ken Petzold said. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Lilia Shushanyan today received representatives of Moodys Investors Service. During the meeting, the deputy minister and the representatives discussed issues related to Armenias economic development and the participation of the mining industry in economic development and touched upon the operation of certain companies. At the request of the organizations representatives, Shushanyan presented the implemented reforms and stated that the primary objective of the government for the coming years will be to balance the issues related to effective management of resources, ensuring of a predictable environment for manufacturers and management of environmental risks. The representatives of Moodys expressed gratitude for a comprehensive presentation of the current situation in the sector and touched upon other issues of common interest. A video has come to light in which a group of men is seen climbing the boundary walls of a zila parishad school in Mahagaon and passing chits to students writing their Class X matriculation examination on Tuesday. AS Chaudhary, exam centre controller of the school, said that they have been facing an issue due to an incomplete boundary wall. "The boundary wall of our school compound is incomplete, so we have asked police to increase the security. We have repeatedly contacted them over the phone," she said. Chaudhary asserted that the school is committed to holding fair examinations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump said he had a "very good" conversation with top Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the first known call between an American president and the insurgent group. The historic telephonic conversation, which the Taliban said lasted more than half an hour, took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country, raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10. The US also launched an air strike against the Taliban militants to defend the Afghan forces on Wednesday. President Trump "emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29," the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation on Tuesday. The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said. "He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war," the White House said. Trump confirmed the call as he left the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters he "had a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban." "I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today, we had a good conversation, we have agreed there is no violence, don't want violence. We will see what happens. They're dealing with Afghanistan but we will see what happens," he said. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah," Trump added in later comments at the National Institutes of Health. "They want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also." After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months. The signing of the deal came after the completion of a week-long "reduction in violence" in Afghanistan. Before the "reduction" agreement there were on average more than 100 attacks a day. In Doha in the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Baradar had signed the agreement with the US Special US Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had signed the agreement on behalf of the United States. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin on March 10, according to the US-Taliban deal, but a dispute over prisoner swap has raised questions. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. However, President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do it before the negotiations begin. Under the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha, the US has agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 130 days and withdraw all its soldiers in 14 months. President Trump has previously said that he would be "meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not too distant future" following the signing of the Doha agreement. Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Suhail Shaheen said the group's leader could meet Trump in the coming days or weeks. He said the Taliban had accepted Trump's invitation for talks in the US and that the US President had set the agenda for the meeting. "Of course this will be shared with us through proper channel and we will have own opinion about that. And then it will take place," Shaheen was quoted as saying by CNN. In September, Trump called off a secret peace negotiations with the Taliban after the militants admitted they were behind an attack that killed a US soldier. The US president was then set to meet Afghan President Ghani and senior Taliban leaders at his Camp David retreat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By PTI NEW DELHI: Additional counters, doctors, medical equipment and modified forms in pre-immigration area of airports will be arranged as part of coronavirus screening, an official said on Wednesday. After the Centre's announcement that all international passengers arriving in India would henceforth be screened, Aviation Secretary P S Kharola held a four-hour long meeting with officials from various departments and airports. He directed them to have additional counters, doctors, medical equipment and modified forms in pre-immigration area, the official said. ALSO READ: Coronavirus likely a permanent guest, summer may not contain spread, says top virologist The modified forms will be filled with a duplicate copy -- one copy will remain with airport health authorities and other with the immigration department. Kharola said sufficient manpower must be arranged with the help of respective state governments, immigration departments and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Through the 21 international airports in the country, a total of 25. 15 lakh people arrived in India in March last year, according to the data by aviation regulator DGCA. ALSO READ: Paytm employee in Gurgaon tests positive for coronavirus, staff asked to work from home his means, around 83,000 passengers came to India daily on international flights. While the number of international passengers landing in India has decreased significantly since the coronavirus outbreak, there are still thousands of passengers coming to India everyday from abroad. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier in the day said that there have been a total of 28 positive cases - which includes 16 Italian tourists -- of novel coronavirus in India yet. Lawyers for Pacific Gas & Electric said the utility cant commit to hiring hundreds more tree trimmers in the way that a federal judge wants to cut the risk of starting more catastrophic wildfires in California. U.S. District Judge William Alsap ordered the utility last month to add at least 1,100 more tree trimmers to help prevent trees and branches from falling onto its power lines and igniting. The judge is overseeing PG&Es criminal probation imposed after its natural gas lines blew up a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood and killed eight people in 2010. He has taken a strong interest in PG&Es safety record after the companys power lines started a series of wildfires that killed 130 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Attorneys for PG&E said in court filings Monday that the company is unable to provide a deadline by which it will hire a set number of new contracted workers to cut trees and branches around power lines. They argued they shouldnt be forced into hiring a set number of people for a single part of its multi-faceted wildfire safety efforts. G&Es filing said the company has about 5,500 tree trimmers and plans to train about 2,800 more next year. But the company wants to use that pool of newly trained workers partly to replace out-of-state contractors who were hired at a premium. The workforce more than tripled in 2019 when PG&E needed to finish a high amount of trimming in the last few months of the year. The company doesnt think it is necessary or financially wise to retain that level of contractors constantly when it could instead spread the work throughout the year. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Wildfire Anthony Ferrill shot dead five co-workers at the Molson Coors brewery last Wednesday. New reports suggest he had been harassed at work. An employee who fatally shot five of his co-workers at Wisconsin's Molson Coors brewery last week was the victim of workplace harassment. A company spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that shooter Anthony Ferrill had a noose placed on his locker at the Milwaukee plant back in 2015. Molson Coors spokesman Adam Collins said the company investigated the shocking incident at the time, but there was no security video showing who carried out the act. Local media have reported in recent days that that last week's mass shooting was racially motivated, interviewing current and former Molson Coors employees who spoke about long-standing discrimination against black workers. One claims that, just weeks after the noose incident, Ferrill found 'racist notes' in his locker. Ferrill was black. Four of the shooting victims were white. The fifth was Latino. However, Milwaukee police said Wednesday that they are still investigating possible motives and have released almost no details about the incident aside from the shooter's and victims' names. 'At this time, it is undetermined if race played a factor in this incident,' Sgt. Sheronda Grant, a spokeswoman stated. The Molson Coors spokesman said Wednesday that the company explained to employees back in 2015 that harassment wasn't acceptable and shared channels for filing discrimination complaints. The spokesman said there is no evidence to suggest any of the shooting victims were involved in the noose incident. Several Police agency tactical teams are pictured working together in the aftermath of the mass shooting, which took place last Wednesday Ferrill was a long-time electrician at Molson Coors, and it is unknown whether he filed a complaint about the noose incident to the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. Christine Saah Nazer, an EEOC spokesperson, told Associated Press that no suit appeared to have been filed regarding Ferrill. Nooses can evoke the lynch mobs that targeted black people in the South between Reconstruction and the mid-20th century. Miller Brewing Co., which Molson Coors took over in 2008, paid $2.7 million to settle a lawsuit by black employees who alleged that racial harassment ran unchecked at its Volney, New York, plant. Among the black workers' complaints were nooses found at the plant's gate. Police investigate a shooting at the Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee Ferrill had been an electrician for 20 years after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard where he served from 1987 to 1991. He lived in a three bedroom home with his wife and three children Collins, the Molson Coors spokesman, said the company has 'a lot of work to do to build the open, welcoming and inclusive culture this company values. We've already started some of that work by listening to employees over the last few days.' He urged people to be patient while police investigate. 'It's understandable in the absence of facts there are rumors out there,' he said. 'But we have the same kinds of questions everyone else does.' Two former brewery employees, Robert Powell and Lonnie Carl Jones, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a story published Tuesday that a few months after the noose was found, several racist notes were slipped into Ferrill's locker. Asked if he could confirm whether anyone put racist notes in Ferrill's locker, Collins again said the company isn't aware of any complaints Ferrill may have filed with the EEOC, his managers or Molson Coors' human resources about discrimination or harassment. Collins, the Molson Coors spokesman, said the company has 'a lot of work to do to build the open, welcoming and inclusive culture this company values' Jones told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that he worked at the brewery from 2013 until 2019. He said Ferrill mentioned to him that someone had placed an ace of spades playing card on his locker in 2016 or 2017. 'We knew what that meant,' Jones said. 'It's calling you black, like a spade.' He said workers of different races clustered together in cliques. He noticed racist graffiti directed toward blacks on bathroom stalls and said a Hispanic employee refused to train him on how to use a machine that filled bottles with beer because he is black. He never filed any formal complaints with human resources personnel, he said, but he did complain verbally to them. Nothing was done, he said. Jones said the culture was so toxic that it drove him to smoke marijuana and fail a drug test, resulting in his firing in 2019. 'I still get mad about it to this day,' Jones said. 'What could you do? Tell HR, they say, `We'll look into it.' I can't run to HR 10 times a day. ... They had bad seeds and they never tried to weed them out.' He described Ferrill as a quiet man who was focused on his work. He never fooled around because he didn't want to give his managers any reason to fire him, Jones said. 'That man was a nice guy,' Jones said. 'He wasn't crazy. He was normal like everybody else. They (just) pushed Tony too far.' The victims of last Wednesday's attacks have been identified as Jesus Valle Jr., 33; Gennady Levshetz, 61; Trevor Wetselaar, 33; Dana Walk, 57; and Dale Hudson, 60. None of the victims are related to the alleged racist incidents perpetrated against Ferrill. Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon, has been named as one of the five victims of Wednesday's mass shooting. He is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren Jesus Valle Jr. (left) and Dale Hudson (right) were among the victims (Bloomberg Opinion) -- If youre raining cash on people and want them to spend it, you have to convince them that the benevolence is being financed by printing money. Nobody wants to worry about being taxed more in the future. These things are going to be problematic for Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan. He plans to give away HK$10,000 ($1,285) to every adult permanent resident to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus, but since he cant conjure money at will, hes being asked if the city will consider a consumption tax to make such giveaways more than just a one-time palliative. Thats the last thing the receiver of gifts wants being made to pay for them. The liberal handout is seen by some analysts as a weapon that even large economies could deploy to fight the corrosive effects of the disease on supply chains and consumer demand. Global interest rates are too low to cut much further. And since governments never have enough shovel-ready projects to quickly ramp up spending, its perhaps best to give people cash to stimulate activity, especially when the virus itself can hinder mobilizing men and materials. Even so, Hong Kong isnt a global exemplar of a money-financed tax cut. Helicopter money, as economist Milton Friedman evocatively termed it, requires monetary and fiscal policies to work together. But since Hong Kong pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar by forsaking its own monetary policy, it doesnt have a chopper to send up. People will expect the HK$71 billion bill of Chans largesse to eventually come to them, to be settled by drawing down the citys HK$1.1 trillion of accumulated fiscal wealth. That may see off the current challenge. But what if such handouts become more permanent because of a prolonged downturn? As one of the worlds top financial centers, Hong Kong cant deplete its wealth and risk its high credit rating. Hence, when transfers from the government start hitting their bank accounts this summer, the 7 million people who get them wont be able to shake the feeling that theyre loans, to be returned one day via higher taxes. Should they save some of the money, then, and defeat the whole point of Chans bounty? Story continues The rich Asian city doesnt tax consumption, and charges a maximum rate of 17% on incomes. Its fiscal dependence on land premiums and stamp duties (and hence, property prices) is a millstone. Rival Singapore is also opening its purse-strings to fight the coronavirus. It has a better-diversified revenue stream, including a more progressive income tax (top rate of 22%); a 7% goods and services tax thats set to rise to 9% by 2025; casino levies; and contributions by its sovereign wealth fund and state investment firm. Hong Kong is hemmed in. Chan is predicting a record budget shortfall of HK$139 billion for the coming 12 months. He expects deficits in the future, too. The citys accumulated reserves are projected to fall to HK$937 billion by March 2025, enough to finance 15 months of government expenditure. In March 2018, it had dry powder for 28 months of spending. But the economy, hit hard by anti-government protests, shrank last year. Before it could shrug off the recession, the coronavirus arrived. This raid on past wealth cant go on indefinitely. In a post-budget Bloomberg Television interview, Chan said that revenue-raising measures including consumption taxes are up for discussion. Hong Kong has been famous for a very simple and low tax system, he said. Im going to invite scholars, business sector and tax experts to work together with us as to the appropriate response. A Singapore-style GST is something Hong Kong has contemplated before. But as Chan himself says, a levy on consumption will be regressive. It will hit the poor more than the rich in a society plagued by income inequality. Singapore, too, has a wealth divide, but it has put together an elaborate system of returning cash to the less affluent, a task made easier by the fact that, unlike Hong Kong, most Singaporeans live in public housing. The apartment size becomes a tool for means testing. Hong Kong, meanwhile, is just about managing to use some social transfers such as for education, health and housing to mitigate the in-built disparity of earnings. A regressive GST could see those gains vanish. Thats bound to trigger fresh backlash. Another idea could be to use investment returns on past surpluses to finance future giveaways. The more than HK$90 billion of unspent balances tied up in special-purpose funds could also be deployed better. In the absence of structural changes, the only way Hong Kong can sustain generous handouts without compromising tax competitiveness is to keep apartment prices high and sell more land parcels to developers. Since there isnt much more scope left in Hong Kong island and in Kowloon, attention will shift to controversial new projects like Lantau Tomorrow, a HK$624 billion plan that involves building artificial islands over 1,000 hectares of reclaimed land. Unaffordable housing also breeds inequality and angst. But once a government has decided to ride a property tiger, it cant get off. Larger economies can experiment with helicopter money. Hong Kong can only throw down cash from condominium roofs, hoping that the illusion of having more money will keep people dreaming of owning one. To contact the author of this story: Andy Mukherjee at amukherjee@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McDowell at pmcdowell10@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. The government will come out with a one-time settlement scheme for Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) that will provide more time to submit their pending documents as well as immunity from prosecution for defaults. The LLP settlement Scheme, 2020 -- to be in force from March 16 to June 13 -- would permit a "one-time condonation of delay in filing statutorily required documents" with the Registrar of Companies. "LLPs, that wish to avail themselves of the scheme, may file the pending documents/ forms and make good the defaults, to gain immunity from prosecutions for such defaults," the corporate affairs ministry said in a release on Wednesday. LLPs are governed by the LLP Act, which is implemented by the ministry. According to the release, it has been observed that due to applicability of additional fee on late filings, which in case of inordinate delay could actually become a financial burden, a large number of LLPs have remained non-compliant. This is mainly due to their inability to pay late fees for the cumulative period of delay. There would be a one-time relaxation in additional fee for the defaulting LLPs to make good their default by filing pending documents. The scheme would permit LLPs to submit their filings that were due till October 31, 2019. The LLP concerned has to pay a nominal additional fee of Rs 10 per day for the period of delay as well as any fee that is to be paid for submitting a document. The additional fee per document would be capped at Rs 5,000. As per the release, the scheme would be applicable for submission for four types of forms -- 3, 4, 8 and 11 -- by the LLPs. Form-3 pertains to information about LLP agreement and changes while Form-4 relates to notice of appointment, cessation, change in name/ address/ designation of a designated partner or partner. Form-8 is for statement of account and solvency (annual or interim), and Form-11 pertains to annual return of an LLP. "The scheme is being introduced in pursuance of the government's objective of providing greater ease of living to the citizens of the country and is expected to provide a significant relief and a window of opportunity for LLPs to abide by the law and conduct business accordingly," the release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After two cases of coronavirus were confirmed this week hospitals across the country are prepping for incoming cases of the deadly disease. Footage captured on March 4 shows workers at Medan Adam Malik Hospital in surgical masks and hazmat suits, while subsequent clips show many members of the general public wearing protective masks. Medan hospital has examined at least four people where only one has been ordered to have further monitoring. Indonesia's first Covid-19 patient is a 31-year-old woman who contracted the virus when dealing with a Japanese citizen who was later identified as a number 24 Covid-19 victim in Malaysia, while the second is a mother of 64 years old. President Joko Widodo has ordered officials to protect the identities and privacy of all confirmed Covid-19 patients, following Monday's announcement of the first confirmed pneumonia-like infection case in the country. Continuing her sartorially winning streak in Ireland, the Duchess of Cambridge has proved that she can also execute casualwear on a visit to an Irish farm this afternoon. The 38-year-old opted to wear her trusty Dubarry Friel Utility Jacket, which is available to buy for 299. On her feet, she opted for her pair of Penelope Chilvers Long Tasselled boots, which she first wore in 2004, and are still available to buy. Dubarry began as a specialist hand stitched moccasin manufacturer in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland during the 1930's. Since then the brand has grown to become a well-respected manufacturer of quality country gear its leather boots are particularly famous. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Teagasc Animal Bioscience Research Centre in Dunsany / PA This is the second engagement for the royal couple today, after they stepped out this morning to visit Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Ireland, which provides support to young people across a range of services. For her appearance this morning, the Duchess wore a coat she first debuted over a decade ago on one of her first public appearances as Prince William's girlfriend. The Duchess kept her hair and make-up simple and natural for the countryside outing. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are touring the Teagasc Animal Bioscience Research Centre in Dunsany, County Meath, to learn about sustainable farming methods. Telstra has set the most ambitious carbon emissions targets of any major Australian corporation to date, after it unveiled plans to become carbon neutral this year and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030. Telstra chief executive Andy Penn said the plan addresses what he sees as the biggest risk to climate change - believing it is someone elses problem to fix. "Events including Australias black summer of bushfires have raised urgent questions in the community about what climate change means and, more importantly, what must be done," Mr Penn said. "The science is clear. Climate change, driven by greenhouse gas emissions, is creating risks that impact our economy, our environment, our communities and each of us individually." Last month Telstra CEO Andy Penn told an Amcham audience that action on climate is urgent, but he avoided getting political on the issue. Credit:David Crosling For 2020, Telstra said it plans to improve the energy efficiency of its networks and invest in carbon offsets to counteract the balance of its emissions and achieve carbon neutrality this year. LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Compare-autoinsurance.org (https://compare-autoinsurance.org/) is a top auto insurance brokerage website, providing car insurance quotes online from trustworthy agencies all over the United States. This website offers car insurance info about different coverage types, available discounts, and money-saving tips. Drivers should consider dropping full coverage on older cars for the following reasons: A car's value gets down over time. Like many other things, a car's value depreciates over time. When offering claims, insurance companies use the term Actual Cash Value (ACV). This is the value of the car at the moment accident, not the original value. This is usually significantly lower, depending on the age of the car. A car model's current value can be checked through various specialized websites. A ten-year-old car has a really low value when compared with its initial value. If the car has full coverage, it may not be worthy. It only takes a simple math test to figure out if the policyholder is overpaying or not. Get online quotes from https://compare-autoinsurance.org/ Check if the annual cost of full coverage insurance is more than 10% of the car's replacement value. If the answer is "yes", then the client may be overpaying. The cost of replacing entirely an old car or even some parts may be too high. For old cars some parts may be too scarce. Finding and repairing the car can be costlier than the current value Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. 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CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing Company Person for contact: Gurgu C Phone Number: (818) 359-3898 Email: cgurgu@internetmarketingcompany.biz Website: https://compare-autoinsurance.org/ SOURCE: Internet Marketing Company View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/578913/Car-Insurance-Guide-2020-Why-it-is-Extremely-Important-to-Reduce-Car-Insurance-Coverage-on-Old-Cars WASHINGTON - Voters in Californias Democratic primary ranked health care and climate change as the most important issues facing the country, well above the economy, race relations, foreign policy and many other social issues. About a third named health care, an issue that has intensely divided the field of Democratic candidates. Nearly as many had climate change on their minds, according to a wide-ranging AP VoteCast survey of the Democratic primary electorate in California. Sen. Bernie Sanders was the winner in California, where he was boosted by strong support from Latinos. Heres a snapshot of Democratic voters in California who they are and how they voted based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of 4,023 voters, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. DO THEY WANT A BIG CHANGE? More voters in Californias Democratic primary said they wanted a candidate who would bring fundamental change to Washington, rather than one who would restore the political system to how it was before Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But change in Washington doesnt look the same to everyone. Close to 6 in 10 voters said they preferred a candidate who will pursue practical, centrist policies to one pursuing bold liberal policies. WHAT ELSE VOTERS WANT Roughly 8 in 10 said it was very important that a nominee can beat Trump. Similar numbers also considered strong leadership highly important. Nearly 7 in 10 said it was very important that a candidate have the best policy ideas, while about as many said the same of one who cares about people like them. Having the right experience and being willing to work across the aisle were considered very significant for a Democratic nominee by about 6 in 10 voters. DIVIDED BY RACE Sanders and former Vice-President Joe Biden each received support from about a quarter of white voters in California. Fewer supported Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg dropped out of the race on Wednesday. Black voters were somewhat more likely to back Biden than Sanders, Bloomberg or Warren. Among Latinos, Sanders enjoyed a clear advantage, winning about half of those voters. DIVIDED BY AGE Sanders continued to show strength among young voters, especially those under 30. Six in 10 of them supported the 78-year-old senator. Biden had the edge among voters ages 45 and older in California. About 3 in 10 supported Biden, while Sanders and Bloomberg each received support from about 2 in 10 voters. LARGELY UNIFIED AGAINST TRUMP A wide majority say they will definitely vote for the Democratic candidate against Trump in the general election. Still, about 2 in 10 say their decision will depend on which Democrat is on the ballot in November. PRIMARY PROCESS SKEPTICISM Voters are skeptical that the Democratic Partys nomination process is fair. Nearly 2 in 10 say they are very confident that the process for selecting a presidential nominee is fair. About one-third have little to no confidence, while nearly half say they are somewhat confident. DEBATING HEALTH CARE The campaign has featured a contentious debate among candidates over the best way to tackle health care, an issue seen as the most important facing the country by roughly a third of voters. There is majority support for a government-run health care system for all Americans, with more than 6 in 10 voters saying they are in favour. Roughly a third are opposed. But support for a public option, where every American could buy into a government-run insurance plan if they wanted to, is even higher. Nearly 9 in 10 are in favour. About 6 in 10 voters are in favour of either proposal, while about a quarter say they favour a public option but oppose a single-payer system. CLIMATE CHANGE, THE ECONOMY AND OTHER ISSUES More than one-quarter of voters said climate change is the most important issue facing the nation. A wide majority about 8 in 10 expressed support for a tax on the use of carbon-based fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. About 2 in 10 called the economy the top issue. But a significant majority described the economic system in this country as unfair. That includes one-third who said its very unfair. Small shares of voters considered race relations, immigration, gun policy or abortion most important. ___ AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey of 4,023 voters in California was conducted for seven days, concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from nonprobability online panels. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. ALBANY Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said Wednesday that the county is awaiting test results on a person who recently traveled to Italy, a coronavirus hot spot, but who currently has no symptoms. The county has tested two people so far for COVID-19, she said. One test came back negative; the one that's currently pending is being analyzed at the state's Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany. To date, the county health department has monitored 37 people for signs of illness caused by novel coronavirus, Whalen said. Those individuals agreed to a voluntary 14-day quarantine at their homes, with only one requiring an alternative quarantine location. Citing privacy concerns, she declined to disclose that location, but said the county has identified alternate quarantine sites in the event that individuals can't quarantine at home. As of Wednesday, 11 people remained on quarantine across seven households, she said. That figure is up from four people and two households on Monday. "We check in on them on a daily basis to ensure they don't have fever or symptoms, and the knowledge was if they developed any concerns we would facilitate any health care needs they have," Whalen said. She updated the public at a media briefing alongside County Executive Daniel McCoy at the county office building Wednesday. One reason for the briefing, McCoy said, was to limit the spread of misinformation going around. Later that day, his office said it was notified of a "concern related to coronavirus" at the Albany County Courthouse. "After a careful assessment of the situation, the department of health has concluded that there is no current increased risk for individuals present in this building today," he said. "There has been no recommendation for coronavirus testing based upon this situation." New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo confirmed Wednesday that the state had seen nine additional positive coronavirus tests come back, bringing the state's total case count to 11. Ten of them are in Westchester County, and connected to a single man. One is in New York City. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Also on Wednesday, the State University of New York announced it would be bringing study abroad students in five high-risk countries home to select campuses for quarantine. Whalen said she spoke with SUNY on Tuesday and that none of those students would be returning to Albany County. Local religious organizations, meanwhile, are urging congregants to avoid handshakes and other physical greetings for the foreseeable future. COVID-19 has spread to more than 90,000 people in over 70 countries worldwide since it was first detected in Wuhan, China in late 2019. In the U.S., there are signs the virus is spreading undetected through certain communities, especially the Seattle area, where 10 people have now died. One other U.S. death was reported Wednesday in California. James Francies Photo: Photo courtesy of James Francies Photo: Photo courtesy of James Francies Two months ago, Houstons jazz scene grew a bit quieter. The Montrose club Cezanne shut down after more than 30 years. Those who enjoyed weekly improvised music in Houston had no place to go. Thats not to say jazz in Houston went away the city has and remains blessed with organizations that bring live jazz to the city. But for those who enjoyed live performances in more of a club setting by notable players from around southeast Texas and other places around the world, well, they got just a little more muted. This weekend, Cezanne springs back to life two months after it went away. The space is bigger and more centrally located in downtown in a room at Birraporettis restaurant. Woody Witt, the Houston-based saxophonist who booked Cezanne for years, is excited about the venues new home. His seating nearly doubles: from 65 to just around 100. And Witts quartet guitarist Mike Wheeler, bassist Alex Browne and drummer Gavin Moolchan will perform two sets March 6-7. Its a nice sounding room, its a warm sounding room, he says. I think we can establish a greater presence for Cezanne. So were ready to go. The expansion facilitates what Cezanne already did well, which is draw upon local players looking for regular weekend gigs in town. More Information Cezanne reopening with the Woody Witt Quartet When: 9 and 10:45 p.m. March 6-7 Where: Cezanne, 500 Louisiana Details: $15; 713-224-9494, cezannejazz.com Years ago, Robert Glasper the wildly successful jazz-soul-hip-hop artist and native Houstonian who recently scored the hit film The Photograph told me, Theres not a place for people to play between Cezanne and the Da Camera shows, the latter being the organization that brings acts to such venues as the Wortham Theater Center and the Menil Collection. Finding middle ground His point was that Houston was lacking midlevel jazz clubs for touring acts who hadnt found their way to the theater-level shows. Glaspers Grammy-winning career means hes since found a very comfortable space playing larger venues around the city. But his point remains valid. There are stages in the city dedicated to touring and rising jazz talents. But when Cezanne shut down, one of the best stages in town for jazz was gone. Witts hope is that the new Cezanne offers a bigger stage for jazz players too big for its smaller confines above the Black Lab pub on Montrose and smaller than the theaters that host the performing arts. Glaspers grievance had merit. Houston had, and still has, arts programs that bring its successful jazz artists back home. Da Camera which mixes jazz and chamber music bookings has been chief among them. Over just the past few years, the arts group has brought in artists such as Jason Moran, Helen Sung, Kendrick Scott, James Francies and several others for shows. Often a rising artist in jazz finds a welcoming home through the organization. And Houstons Nameless Sound has repeatedly showcased avant garde artists from outside of town, while also regularly bringing in those who originally came from here. Houston native Billy Harper comes to town in April with the great jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille thanks to Nameless Sound. Da Camera recently brought in the Vijay Iyer Sextet, which received a raucous welcome from the sold-out crowd. There was extra vigor for Jeremy Dutton, another remarkable drummer from Houstons High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which nurtured such jazz and genre-blurring artists as Moran, Glasper, Sung, Scott and scores of others, who have come to Houston as sidemen for headliners and then enjoyed headliner status here for theater shows. And while theater shows are great for artists, theyre not the reality for a lot of musicians. And thats where a larger, revitalized Cezanne excels. Witt had hoped the old Cezanne would survive. But the property sold in late 2019, and the club was briefly left homeless. Witt sees the move as a positive. The piano in the room was less than desirable, but there was still something about the room, he says. There was some legacy to the space, it was always strong. But I think that was one chapter. And I think the next chapter is going to be better. The post-theater crowd Witt knows there will be a period of rediscovery for Houston jazz fans. The Montrose location was well known he booked it on and off for more than 20 years. But he also hopes theres a late-night audience that might find Cezanne at Birraporettis as it leaves the theater. Witt hopes it will expand from two nights of live jazz to possibly four. Hes confident, given the space and the potential audience, that he can marry Houstons already formidable jazz players with more artists from elsewhere in the States, as well as Central and South America and Europe. Witt says, We already had a great clientele at the old location. Im hoping theyll find their way to the new location. I think we can find an audience that came to the old Cezanne, but a lot of people who didnt know about us. He points out that Houston has players who will show up at the new Cezanne who have been making the scene here for decades. I think there are a lot of people who are like me, who grew up at Cezanne as musicians, Witt says. He brings up Joe LoCascio, who has played Cezanne since it first opened. The acoustics of the room made it feel like a living room. It never felt as formal as having a stage that separated musicians from the audience, he continues. Our new space is a little bigger. But we want that same feel. andrew.dansby@chron.com WASHINGTON A secretive federal court on Wednesday effectively barred F.B.I. officials involved in the wiretapping of a former Trump campaign adviser from appearing before it in other cases at least temporarily, the latest fallout from an internal inquiry into the bureaus surveillance of the aide. A 19-page opinion and order by James E. Boasberg, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also largely accepted changes the F.B.I. has said it will make to its process for seeking national-security wiretaps following a damning inspector general report about errors and omissions in applications to monitor the adviser, Carter Page. But Judge Boasberg ordered law enforcement officials to specifically swear in future cases that the applications to the court contain all information that might reasonably call into question the accuracy of the information or the reasonableness of any F.B.I. assessment in the application, or otherwise raise doubts about the requested findings. While Judge Boasberg also ordered the F.B.I. to report back about its progress on the changes, the move essentially brought to a close the courts intervention after the report. His predecessor as chief judge in December had ordered the F.B.I. to explain what it would do to regain the confidence of the judges who review wiretap requests. Brenntag generated sales of 12,821.8 million EUR in 2019 in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Sales were therefore on a par with the prior-year figure on a constant currency basis. Operating gross profit rose by 3.4% to just over 2,821.7 million EUR. Operating EBITDA reached 1,001.5 million EUR, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%. The earnings growth is the result of the initial application of IFRS 16, the new financial reporting standard on leases. Excluding the effect of 116 million EUR attributable to this IFRS, Group earnings were down slightly on the strong prior-year figure. At 837.3 million EUR, free cash flow was well above the figure for the prior-year period (525.2 million EUR). This is due primarily to an improvement in working capital compared with the previous year. A further increase in the dividend to be proposed Profit after tax was up slightly on the prior-year figure of 462.3 million EUR to 469.2 million EUR in financial year 2019. Earnings per share stand at 3.02 EUR. At the General Shareholders Meeting on June 10, 2020, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of 1.25 EUR per share (2018: 1.20 EUR). Brenntag has therefore increased the dividend every year since its stock market flotation in 2010. The payout ratio is 41.4% of profit after tax attributable to Brenntag shareholders. Georg Muller, Chief Financial Officer of Brenntag AG, said, For Brenntag, financial year 2019 was marked by a difficult macroeconomic environment, with economic downturns, a lack of impetus and weak demand. This was the case primarily in our two large regions, EMEA and North America. However, we once again demonstrated the stability of our business model and report operating EBITDA almost on a par with the prior-year figure on a like-for-like basis. The very positive free cash flow performance is encouraging. It shows that we are able to deliver a strong liquidity performance in challenging times. Weak demand and a lack of impetus depress earnings in EMEA Business in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region was marked by weak demand and a lack of economic impetus throughout 2019. In this difficult environment, Brenntag EMEA generated operating gross profit on a par with the prior-year figure at 1,141.6 million EUR (+0.1%). Operating EBITDA reached 406.3 million EUR, a rise of 5.6%. This figure includes a positive effect of 42 million EUR attributable to the application of IFRS 16, the new financial reporting standard on leases. North America negatively impacted by an increasingly difficult environment Following a good start, Brenntag North America faced falling momentum and an increasingly difficult market environment during the course of 2019. The North American companies generated operating gross profit of 1,216.8 million EUR, an increase of 3.4%. Operating EBITDA climbed to 474.8 million EUR, a rise of 10.1%. This figure includes a positive effect of 53 million EUR attributable to IFRS 16. Latin America improves earnings in a continued volatile environment Overall in the Latin America region in 2019, Brenntag posted an improvement in earnings driven by organic growth and demonstrated its resilience in a continued volatile and difficult market environment. Operating gross profit rose by 6.5% to 177.0 million EUR. Operating EBITDA came to 55.9 million EUR, a rise of 38.0%. This figure includes a positive effect of 9 million EUR attributable to IFRS 16. Asia Pacific achieves further growth The Brenntag companies in the Asia Pacific region achieved further growth in the reporting period, due primarily to the positive contributions from the acquisitions. They generated operating gross profit of 266.8 million EUR, an increase of 14.7%. Operating EBITDA came to 101.1 million EUR, a rise of 24.7%. This figure includes a positive effect of 9 million EUR attributable to IFRS 16. Outlook for financial year 2020 Dr Christian Kohlpaintner, who took office as Chief Executive Officer in January, said, Brenntag is a strong brand with a good reputation in its markets. Our company offers great potential for organic profitable growth. My Board of Management colleagues and I will therefore make every effort to unlock more of this potential. Going forward, we will not only maintain our highly market-centric approach, but also focus to a greater extent on optimizing our processes, procedures and structures, thereby creating the conditions crucial to long-term organic growth. In a holistic analysis, Brenntag is currently examining its internal structures, processes and organizational forms along the value chain. Brenntag sees potential for improvement in harmonization and standardization as well as in the stringent internal execution of initiatives and measures. The company also intends to further expand its already very customer-centric approach. The Brenntag Group currently expects a positive performance at operating EBITDA level in 2020, assuming that exchange rates remain stable. The company is operating in a macroeconomic environment of considerable uncertainty. The outlook is based on the assumption that the effects of the macroeconomic risks and, in particular, the effects of the crisis regarding the new coronavirus remain very limited. Edouard Meylan was born in 1976 in the Vallee de Joux, Switzerland. He was involved in the watchmaking world from a young age through his family, who had been in this field for generations. With a Masters in Engineering from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and an MBA from Wharton, Philadelphia, USA, Edouard Meylan has a 360 perspective of the watchmaking business. His experience includes regional leadership roles for high-end independent watch brands in Asia and Europe, management consulting across various industries and founding a luxury brand, prior to joining H. Moser & Cie. In April 2013, Edouard Meylan became CEO at H. Moser & Cie. Since starting as CEO, Edouard has brought a refreshing dynamism to H. Moser & Cie., which is now clearly positioned as an innovative, key player on the new watchmaking scene. Under the leadership of Edouard Meylan and his team, H. Moser creations have benefited from an energetic, modern approach and an air of bold distinction, while still staying true to the brand DNA of the Manufacture. In a unique position linking traditional watchmaking with unexpected designs, product development and brand communications, Edouard Meylan is known for taking a clear and decisive stance in the watch industry. Breaking with convention, H. Moser & Cie. has caused in 2016 a stir with the launch of the Swiss Alp Watch, insisting on the need to focus on traditional watchmaking amid the debate on smart watches. The company has also become known for its Concept Series of watches with no visible logo or index, providing a contrast to increasingly elaborate watchmaking often seen today and proving that true luxury is unmistakeable. ABLE Equipment Rental, Inc. of NY (ABLE) a supplier of Construction Equipment Rentals, Sales, Service and Parts, is pleased to announce that they are now part of the Magni America LLC dealer network offering Magni's world leading line of telehandlers in parts of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and all of New Jersey & Delaware. ABLE will offer the complete line of Magni models including 16 Rotating Telehandlers with lift heights from 57 - 167 and lifting capacities from 8,800 - 28,600 lbs. In addition, ABLE will offer Magnis 8 Heavy Telehandlers with capacities from 22,000 - 110,000 lbs. Lastly, ABLE will offer Magnis Fixed Boom Telehandlers with lift heights of 63' & 78' and capacities of 11,000 & 13,200 lbs. "The Rotators have been an integral part of our growth strategy and our alliance with Magni is key to this continued growth," said Steve Laganas, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of ABLE. "Our customers demand better products to reach new heights and capacities. The versatility of the Magni Rotator and heavy lift telehandlers will give them that and more," Laganas added. Philippe Bisson, ABLE's Business Development Director for the Rotator and Telehandler Division said, This strategic partnership with Magni will allow ABLE to be the largest Rotator dealer in North America. ABLE has developed an impressive expertise on the Rotators over the last 10 years and the Magni products will allow us to provide our customer base even more options and solutions to their demanding job sites," Bisson added. Gary Weisman, Vice President at Magni America said, ABLE will sell, rent, service and provide support on all Magni models in their territories. ABLE was chosen after very careful consideration and we are highly confident that ABLE will bring tremendous value to Magni customers. About ABLE Equipment Rental Founded in 1996, ABLE Equipment Rental is privately owned with 6 locations. Corporate headquarters are based in Deer Park, NY. ABLE provides Rentals, Sales, Service and Parts, as well as applications for critical infrastructure maintenance and support, contingency planning and disaster recovery. ABLEs fleet of service vehicles provides emergency service and repairs to both corporate and customer owned equipment. ABLE's locations serve the northeast markets of NY, NJ, CT, PA, DE and MD. For more information on ABLE Equipment Rental, visit ableequipment.com or send an email to info@ableequipment.com. About Magni Telescopic Handlers & Magni America LLC Magni Telescopic Handlers, located in Castelfranco Emilia, Italy, is the world leader in rotating and heavy lift Telescopic Handlers. Magni has over 300 dealers serving over 150 countries throughout the world. Magni America LLC is a factory owned importer and distributor for Magni Telescopic Handlers. With and abundance of parts and superior service expertise located in the United States, Magni America provides unparalleled support for Magni dealers. RELATED LINKS ableequipment.com facebook.com/ableequipment instagram.com/ableequipmentrental LinkedIn.com/ableequipment magnith.com Certainly, MSOs work on the GT speaks for itself. The supercar wears an exclusive paint finish unlike anything MSO has offered in the past. The exclusive touches continue in the interior, and the results are as mind-blowing as youd imagine them to be. The McLaren GT Verdant Theme by MSO isnt an entirely new model as it is based on McLarens showstopping GT supercar. Where it stands out is the level of customization it received from MSO, McLarens in-house personalization department. The McLaren 765LT is getting all the deserved shine today, but that doesnt mean we should sleep on the other model that the British automaker unveiled as part of its Geneva Motor Show offering. Were totally green with envy Incredible color transition Please excuse us for having to wipe the drool off our faces. The McLaren GT Verdant Theme by MSO caused it. McLarens in-house personalization unit decided to showcase its wares at the Geneva Motor Show, and while the show itself got canned, the result of MSOs effort remained the same. Officially, McLaren calls this masterpiece the GT Verdant Theme. Its essentially a combination of three shades of green Horsell Green, Arbor Green, and Steppe Green meticulously combined to create a remarkable flowing look that changes its shade in certain sections of the McLaren GT. 0-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine packs a lot of juice McLaren says that it took 430 hours to prepare the paintwork to its final appearance. Remarkably, MSOs work on the exterior of the GT Verdant Theme doesnt end there. Members of the MSO team also hand-painted Napier Green pinstripes on the body. You can see the front splitter and the brake calipers sporting this color. An MSO Black Pack our favorite was also added to the mix, darkening the wheels, exhaust tips, and the upper window surround. Care for some cashmere with your supercar? Can I live inside the McLaren GT Verdant Theme? In a bid to stand out from the rest of the high-profile, automaker-backed, in-house personalization outfits, McLarens MSO unit pulled out all the stops in dressing up the interior of the GT Verdant Theme. What you see covering up most of the interiors surface, ladies and gentlemen, is cashmere, specifically charcoal grey cashmere. Its the first time an automaker has used cashmere to this extent to dress up a car interior and the results are as youd expect. The GT Verdant Themes cabin isnt lacking in class and prestige. I can say that of the interior simply because of the presence of cashmere, but the story, as it goes, doesnt end there. The rest of the interiors surface area is covered by Dark Green, Laurel Green, and Jet Black leather. Add the Laurel Green piping and you have a cabin that speaks to MSOs caliber. No performance upgrades, but that doesnt matter in this context Napier Green pinstripes add a jolting presence You would think that the McLaren GT Verdant Theme, as awesome as it looks, would also benefit from a bump in power and performance. That, however, isnt the case here, and thats ok. On its own, the GT comes equipped with a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 engine that produces a whopping 620 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. A seven-speed dual-clutch transmission sends all that power to the two rear wheels, enabling the supercar to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and 0 to 124 mph in nine seconds. Top speed is achieved when the GT hits 203 mph. McLaren GT specifications Engine configuration 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, 3,994cc Power PS (bhp/kW) @ rpm 612 HP @ 7,500 RPM Torque Nm (lb ft) @ rpm 465 LB-FT @ 5,500-6,500 RPM Transmission 7 Speed+reverse SSG 0-100km/h (0-62mph) 3.2 seconds 0-200km/h (0-124mph) 9.0 seconds Maximum speed 326km/h (203mph) This color scheme is entrancing and hypnotizing Napier Green pinstripes add a jolting presence Incredible color transition Can I live inside the McLaren GT Verdant Theme? My, oh my, all that cashmere is making our my knees weak 0-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine packs a lot of juice 620 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque to play with has received 44 expressions of interest for investment amounting to over Rs 13,000 crore in nearly four months after was abrogated, the government said on Wednesday. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that all proposals were under scrutiny by respective departments. " has informed that 44 expressions of interest for investment amounting to Rs 13,120 crore have been received during the period from August 5, 2019, to December 31, 2019," he said. The parliament had in August last year adopted a resolution to abrogate from The Parliament also passed a bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. BRISTOL, Tenn. A Bristol man faces charges after police say he pointed a gun at two people he knew in a parking lot. Gary Owens, 22, was arrested Tuesday on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless endangerment, according to a Bristol Tennessee Police Department news release. After noon, a Bristol officer was flagged down by people in the vicinity of the University C Mart on King College Road near East Cedar Street. The officer saw another man in the parking lot with a gun, and he was taken into custody while two others were interviewed, the news release states. Following a brief investigation, Owens was taken to the Sullivan County jail, where he is being held without bail. No shots were fired, and no one was injured, according to Capt. Charlie Thomas. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dan Martin (Agence France-Presse) Wenzhou, China Wed, March 4, 2020 11:05 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20682be4a 2 World China,coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak,spreading,health Free Constant temperature checks, a "no mask, no service" ethos, and high-tech people-tracking: welcome to the new normal in China, where reminders of the country's national mobilization against the coronavirus lurk around every corner. China appears to be coming to grips with the virus, which emerged late last year and has infected more than 80,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 in the country, but has slowed markedly in recent weeks. But that has come at the cost of new preventive policies that have turned life upside down and are not likely to be swiftly abandoned. The changes wrought by a contagion spread by humans and their travels is particularly felt when trying to move around within China, as AFP journalists discovered during recent trips from Shanghai up to the borders of the viral epicenter of Hubei province. Reminders of the virus begin as soon as one leaves home, with masked cab drivers in white gloves quick to admonish any passengers who forget to wear masks. Some drivers are going even further. In the city of Wenzhou, about four hours by train from Shanghai, AFP reporters jumped into car called via Didi Chuxing -- China's answer to Uber -- in which a clear plastic barrier was stretched over a makeshift frame to separate driver and passengers. Didi Chuxing piloted the project in a handful of hard-hit cities and plans to spend 100 million yuan ($14 million) to expand it. 'Sold-out' trains Travellers booking tickets aboard the country's efficient high-speed rail network lately are surprised to find that, despite travel being depressed by virus fears, popular booking apps like Ctrip invariably list most trains as "sold out" or with only a handful of seats left. But one such Wenzhou-bound train was full of empty seats. That is because only a fraction of tickets are being made available to prevent travellers sitting too close to each other. "We are sorry for the confusion, but China's high-speed rail systems are contributing to the patriotic hygiene campaign. We hope you find this convenient," said a young female train attendant. With the government calling for an all-out "People's War" against the virus, tech champions like Alibaba and Tencent have rolled out digital mobile-phone apps that use big data to track a traveller's movements going back as far as a month. Users are rated as green, yellow or red based on whether they visited any high-risk zones. Showing one's code to security personnel is now compulsory in a number of cities to exit train stations, or use public transport. In Wenzhou, cab drivers, hotels, and virtually any business will ask to see the color code before letting someone pass. The system has fuelled new grumbling on China's internet over previous accusations that the big tech firms were doing the Communist Party's surveillance work. But most complaints seem to involve "green" ratings inexplicably turning "red", which can result in mandatory 14-day home quarantine. The pervasive measures attest to the one-party state's ability to marshal huge resources -- financial, material, and human -- for mass campaigns couched in 1950s Communist rhetoric. Red banners hang throughout now largely shut-down cities like Wenzhou, lauding the "War of Resistance Against Pneumonia", and declaring that "Everyone Must Contribute to the Patriotic Hygiene Campaign." Elbow bump Hotel check-ins have become mini health inspections by masked staff who measure guests' temperatures by aiming hand-held sensors at foreheads and forearms and record the result. "Have you experienced any fever, felt unwell or visited Hubei recently?" a Wenzhou front-desk clerk asked. The temperature obsession can be taken to absurd lengths, with some hotels re-measuring guests who had stepped out only minutes earlier. On one day, an AFP reporter moving around Wenzhou had his temperature taken a dozen times, including by cab drivers, restaurant owners, convenience-store clerks, hotel security, front-desk staff and a final late-night knock on the door by a female hotel employee. "Do not walk forward! Be still please," she snapped, before a light beep announced the result. "It's normal. Enjoy your evening." Beijing is pushing a long-term fight and local governments will no doubt be fearful of letting up even slightly anytime soon and being blamed for a new outbreak. That means even some of society's most time-honored practices are on hold. When an AFP reporter presented a business card to a government liaison officer in Wenzhou, she recoiled and asked that it be placed on a table. And when it came time to shake another official's hand, the man refused, laughing nervously. "For safety, we don't really shake hands at the current time," he said, instead sticking forward the crook of his arm for an "elbow bump." The parliament of Ukraine made a decision to dismiss the previous Cabinet of Ministers as 112 Ukraine reported. 336 parliamentarians supported the decision. Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada appointed the new composition of the new Cabinet of Ministers. Besides, Andriy Taran was appointed as the Defense Minister of Ukraine; Dmytro Kuleba was appointed as the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. As we reported earlier, today the Verkhovna Rada has accepted the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk from the post of Prime Minister and his government. 353 MPs voted "for" the corresponding draft resolution No. 3158. Later, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed Denys Shmyhal as the Prime Minister of Ukraine. An extraordinary parliamentary meeting is underway. Subscriber content preview Tensions rise as US death toll from coronavirus reaches 9 Lawmakers have expressed doubts about the government's ability to ramp up testing fast enough to deal with the crisis. By GENE JOHNSON and CARLA K. JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE Tensions over how to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus escalated Tuesday in the United States as the death toll climbed to nine and lawmakers expressed doubts about the government's ability to ramp up testing fast enough to deal with the crisis. All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state, and most were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. The number of cases in the U.S. overall climbed past 100, scattered across at least 15 states, with 27 infections in Washington alone. . . . login or purchase a To read this story in fullor purchase a subscription. Kymetathe communications company that is completing the connectivity fabric for everything, everywhere, today announced the appointment of David Geiling as Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific, a move that will increase the availability of Kymeta solutions across multiple markets in the region. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005355/en/ Dave Geiling, newly appointed Kymeta Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific (Photo: Business Wire) In this role, Mr. Geiling will be responsible for all direct sales and reseller management for Asia Pacific, including India. He will also be tasked with growing strategic customer accounts and partner relationships for Asia that enhance Kymetas core business objectives. Geiling joins a team of seasoned sales professionals at Kymeta, including Rash Jhanjee, Vice President of Sales, EMEA, Steve Sybeldon, Vice President of Business Development and Sales, North and South America, Paul Mattear, Vice President of Business Development and Sales Government, and Scott Glass, Director of Sales, North America. The sales organization will continue to grow under the leadership of David Harrower, Sr. Vice President of Global Sales, as Kymeta pursues new market opportunities for connectivity solutions around the globe. Mr. Geiling brings a broad range of experience to his new position at Kymeta, including sales executive and business development roles with extensive experience in the satellite, connectivity, and broadcast media industries. Mr. Geiling brings a consistent track record of success in identifying, developing, and implementing deal strategy and closing business opportunities. Previously, he held the position of Senior Sales Director at Eutelsat, managing accounts in APAC, Europe and the U.S., with most of his career spent in Central Asia and East Asia. Geiling holds a bachelors degree cum laude from the University of Maryland and is an alumnus of the Defense Language Institute and is multi-lingual. We are very excited to have David join Kymeta. Adding an industry veteran like David to the Asia region is an essential part of our plan to offer truly global customer service to grow our sales and distribution partners in the region, said David Harrower, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Kymeta, We are focused on developing a global sales-driven organization, and building the sales force required to support our commercial and government customers across all regions and markets. About Kymeta Kymeta is unlocking the potential of satellite connectivity, combined with cellular networks, to satisfy the overwhelming demand for mobile connectivity. The companys flat-panel satellite antenna, the first of its kind, and Kymeta Connect connectivity services provide revolutionary mobile connectivity on satellite and hybrid satellite-cellular networks to customers around the world. Backed by U.S. and international patents and licenses, the Kymeta terminal addresses the need for lightweight, slim, and high-throughput communication systems that do not require mechanical components to steer toward a satellite. Kymeta makes connecting easy for any vehicle, vessel, or fixed platform. Kymeta is a privately held company based in Redmond, Washington. For more information, visit www.kymetacorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005355/en/ EDMONTONA 66-year-old Ontario man has been charged in a sexual assault reported in Edmonton nearly four decades ago. Police say they responded to a call around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 18, 1981, after a 36-year old woman left her vehicle in a parkade and was sexually assaulted and robbed by an unknown man. Investigators were never able to identify or locate a suspect, despite what police say was a thorough investigation. Officers with the historical crimes section of the Edmonton Police Service say they re-evaluated the file in October 2018 using modern investigative techniques. A DNA profile of the suspect was developed and a match was found using the national DNA data bank. John Edward Beausoleil was arrested on Feb. 26 at his home in Orillia, Ont. He has been returned to Edmonton where hes facing charges of rape and robbery under the 1981 Criminal Code. Despite our best efforts, historical files can be difficult to solve, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Tebb with the historical crimes section. We are pleased that our review of this particular investigation was successful, and todays technology was able to assist us with an arrest. Read more about: Poor, talented Elizabeth Warren. Mere months ago, we thought she was a shoo-in for president. Remember the four-hour selfie lines; the early endorsements from Julian Castro, Scarlett Johansson, John Legend and Chrissie Teigen; the impressive, uncompromising debate performances? We thought she might throw Bernie a bone and make him her VP when he floundered in the polls. We thought I have a plan for that was 2020s answer to Yes we can. But then her much-vaunted ability to predict the future backfired. On Tuesday night, she came away without first or even second place those honors were reserved for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders respectively. Donald Trump tweeted a mocking racial slur about her in response. It was, to put it bluntly, a humiliation. And it shouldnt have ever happened. When Warren saw where the race was heading, she dealt with it in the most infuriating way. She stopped talking about the revolutionary universal healthcare system known as Medicare for All at the same time as she began distancing herself from Bernie, the man who wrote that damn bill. Once, Sanders supporters cheered as loudly for her as they did for their own candidate. Then she started saying shed expand Obamacare in her first year in office which was basically Joe Bidens pitch and did a Buttigieg-esque waffle about how people with private insurance enjoy having a choice. It looked like she was creeping away from her principles before she even hit the Oval Office. The people who had thought she was going to deliver a revolution began to melt away. They started talking, again, about how she used to be a Republican; how she once falsely claimed Native American ancestry. Trump poisoned the well, and Democrats began to drink from it. Warrens past mistakes were no longer old faux pas they were evidence of her flakiness, her unreliability. How could anyone trust her to stand for anything any more? Shed refused to shake her old friend Bernie Sanders hand in front of the nation. Shed co-opted his ideas for popularity points and now she wanted to cast him aside. Almost all of this is monumentally unfair. Warren is a talented politician with a long history of standing up for the little guy. She stuck it to Wall Street when it wasnt cool, and she did it from within. She was more energetic, more on-the-ball and more articulate than her fellow septuagenarians Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. She had more to say about womens rights and a more coherent policy on gun control. She was also free from the baggage of either a former VP or a former independent who spent most of his career shouting from the sidelines at every passing Democrat. Indeed, Warren had the whiff of electability about her, and no doubt Trumps team were glad to see his Pocahontas jibes take effect. Warren could have been a unifying candidate, one who successfully bridged that wide chasm between Biden and Bernie. But she overthought it. She clearly predicted, correctly, that everyone bar Sanders would coalesce around a single moderate candidate. Too late and too awkwardly, she tried to make herself into that candidate. What happened to the righteous, relatable anger channeled by a woman who had specialized in bankruptcy law and had her Republican foundations shattered when she realized the system was rigged against the people? It became subdued as time went on, as healthcare and punishing the bankers lines which echoed Sanders stopped appearing so often in her speeches. Democratic primaries: Who won where? Show all 27 1 /27 Democratic primaries: Who won where? Democratic primaries: Who won where? Arizona: Biden wins Joe Biden: 39 delegates Bernie Sanders: 28 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Alabama: Biden wins Joe Biden: 41 delegates Bernie Sanders: 7 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Arkansas: Biden wins Joe Biden: 17 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 5 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? California: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 179 delegates Joe Biden: 127 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 15 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 5 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Colorado: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 20 delegates Joe Biden: 9 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 9 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Florida: Biden wins Joe Biden: 152 delegates Bernie Sanders: 53 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Idaho: Biden wins Joe Biden: 11 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates EPA Democratic primaries: Who won where? Illinois: Biden wins Joe Biden: 95 delegates Bernie Sanders: 59 delegates AFP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Iowa: Buttigieg wins Pete Buttigieg: 14 delegates Bernie Sanders: 12 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 8 delegates Joe Biden: 6 delegates Amy Klobuchar: 1 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Maine: Biden wins Joe Biden: 11 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 4 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Massachussetts: Biden wins Joe Biden: 37 delegates Bernie Sanders: 29 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 25 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Michigan: Biden wins Joe Biden: 72 delegates Bernie Sanders: 52 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Minnesota: Biden wins Joe Biden: 38 delegates Bernie Sanders: 27 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 10 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Mississippi: Biden wins Joe Biden: 34 delegates Bernie Sanders: 2 delegates AFP via Getty Images Democratic primaries: Who won where? Missouri: Biden wins Joe Biden: 44 delegates Bernie Sanders: 24 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Nevada: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 24 delegates Joe Biden: 9 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? New Hampshire: Sanders/Buttigieg tie Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Pete Buttigieg: 9 delegates Amy Klobuchar: 6 delegates EPA Democratic primaries: Who won where? North Carolina: Biden wins Joe Biden: 66 delegates Bernie Sanders: 36 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 2 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? North Dakota: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 8 delegates Joe Biden: 6 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Oklahoma: Biden wins Joe Biden: 21 delegates Bernie Sanders: 13 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Florida: Biden wins Joe Biden: 152 delegates Bernie Sanders: 53 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Tennessee: Biden wins Joe Biden: 33 delegates Bernie Sanders: 18 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 10 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Texas: Biden wins Joe Biden: 111 delegates Bernie Sanders: 102 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 10 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 5 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Utah: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 12 delegates Joe Biden: 2 delegate Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Vermont: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 11 delegates Joe Biden: 5 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Virginia: Biden wins Joe Biden: 66 delegates Bernie Sanders: 31 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Washington: Biden wins Joe Biden: 46 delegates Bernie Sanders: 43 delegates AP That anger did return, briefly, when Bloomberg made an appearance on the Democratic stage in Nevada. Id like to talk about who were running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians, she said at the time. And Im not talking about Donald Trump. Im talking about Mayor Bloomberg. It was Warren at her best. But a lot of primary votes had already been cast early, and she didnt benefit from her performance in the way she would have in a more just system. Where does Warren go now? Does she make a joint-ticket agreement with Joe Biden, thus sealing the deal on her centrist conversion? Does she throw it all in with Bernie, back the revolution and risk being cast out in the cold by the DNC for the rest of her career? Does she retire back to Massachusetts and regroup, re-strategize, at the age of 70? Time is not on her side although its still two presidential cycles until shes the same age as Bernie is now. Tonight, she may, for the first time, be left without a plan. Not long ago, she said she would stick it out to the Democratic convention in Milwaukee, come hell or high water; but failing to even win her home state is surely a humiliation too far. Perhaps she can still pull some strings in a cabinet position which befits her energy and experience, under either a President Biden or Sanders. Perhaps a miracle will happen and shell make it to the White House anyway. Perhaps shell run away with the nomination in 2024 and finally oust Trump in a landslide victory, long after both Uncle Joe and Bernie are shown to be inadequate bulwarks against the rising tide of Keep America Great. She would have made a better president than either of the two frontrunners. She deserved better than this. But Elizabeth Warren changed what she was selling too late for people to buy it and in the end, she was left with not very much at all. Not even Massachusetts. (Newser) President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to ever speak directly with the militant group that harbored al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan, the AP reports. We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended. I think we all have a very common interest, Trump said. We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban. Tuesday's call, which the Taliban said lasted 35 minutes, came days after the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement calling for the withdrawal of American troopsallowing Trump to make progress on a key campaign pledge to extract the US from what he calls endless wars and paving the way for all-Afghan talks to begin on Tuesday. story continues below Trump suggested the phone call was not his first. Asked if Tuesday was his first conversation with a leader of the Taliban, Trump said, I don't want to say that. Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the president had spoken on the phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar. The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah, Trump said. We had a good long conversation today and, you know, they want to cease the violence. They'd like to cease violence also. Trump said it's still unclear what the Afghans will do when and if they sit with the Taliban and attempt to draft a peaceful political future for the nation. The country really has to get it ended. We've been there for 20 years. Other presidents have tried and they were unsuccessful," he said. (Read more Taliban stories.) Coronavirus has had no effect on oil and gas production in Iran, the deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Wednesday, according to the Tasnim news agency. "The production and distribution of Iran's oil and gas is being carried out without any effect from the outbreak," Farokh Alikhani was quoted as saying. Iran's crude oil exports were cut by more than 80% after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh arrived in Vienna on Wednesday to attend a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, SHANA, the news site of the Iranian oil ministry reported. Iran is in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 77 people and led several countries to impose border closures and air travel restrictions on the Islamic Republic. Cassandra Thorburn is quite the style chameleon. The ex-wife of Karl Stefanovic glammed up for a series of TV interviews this week to promote her new podcast about divorce. But in a promo photo unveiled on Wednesday, she adopted a more bookish look while posing with co-host Annaliese Dent and psychologist Jacqui Manning. Style chameleon: Karl Stefanovic's ex-wife, Cassandra Thorburn (right), debuted a bookish new look on Wednesday in a promotional photo for her podcast about divorce. Pictured with co-host Annaliese Dent (left) and psychologist Jacqui Manning (centre) Cassandra's usual TV-ready hairdo comprises loosely waved shoulder-length hair with bangs. She opted for this style while appearing on The Daily Edition on Wednesday. But the mother-of-three, 48, kept things corporate chic in her promotional shot, pulling her hair back into a short ponytail and wearing smart spectacles. She also wore a conservative pink blouse, and looked ready for a day at the office. Before and after: Cassandra's usual TV-ready hairdo comprises loosely waved shoulder-length hair with bangs (pictured left on The Daily Edition). But she kept things corporate chic in her promo shot (right), pulling her hair back into a short ponytail and wearing smart spectacles It was announced on Monday that Cassandra had signed a deal with Seven West Media to host a podcast series about divorce and separation. While the podcast is not about her split with Karl specifically, is believed she will allude to their 2016 break-up in the series titled Divorce Story. The former journalist announced the project on Instagram, telling her followers it will consist of 'informative' discussions with legal and relationship experts. Dream team: It was announced on Monday that Cassandra had signed a deal with Seven West Media to host a podcast series about divorce and separation. She will co-host the podcast with journalist Annaliese Dent (left), whom she met through a mutual friend, Constance Hall Divorce Story: Surviving Separation has been commissioned by New Idea magazine, which is owned by Pacific, Seven West Media's publishing division. Seven West Media is the main commercial rival of the Nine Network, Karl's employer. Karl and Cassandra, who share three children, Jackson, 20, River, 12, and Ava, 14, separated in 2016. The Today show host, 45, has since remarried shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough, with whom he is expecting a baby girl. Here comes trouble! While the podcast is not about her split with Karl Stefanovic specifically, is believed she will allude to their 2016 break-up in the series titled Divorce Story. Pictured together on May 1, 2011 in Melbourne It is not known how many noticed the recent acid attack on disabled soldiers although some did. For the first time in the history of the country, a few disabled soldiers received the princely sum of Rs 100 as monthly pension; that it was not Re 1 is a wonder. Banks implemented the governments decision from last year to do away with exemption of IT for disabled soldiers who had continued serving. The norm to recover arrears is that not more than one-third is recovered in a month from the salary or the pension. But in the instant case, the plan obviously was to continue paying Rs 100 in monthly salary until the recovery of full arrears. This, despite most disabled soldiers surviving on pension throwing acid on the wounds. And it was done despite the issue being sub-judice in court. Faced with possible action of contempt of court and uproar in the media, the MoD asked the PCDA to withdraw the circular mandating Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on disability. But it was the MoD in the first place that had asked the PCDA to do so. On February 24, a report appeared in The Economic Times saying neither Defence Minister Rajnath Singh nor Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were kept in the loop when the decision was taken last year by MoD (Finance), which is absurd. On July 8 last year, Singh had told Rajya Sabha that the decision to tax the pension of the disabled was being examined. But this was after Sitharaman told Parliament that the decision to tax the pensions of the disabled was on recommendations of the Army implying the issue was sealed. Banks do not remit pensions on 24th of the month. Following the February media report, the MoD could still have asked the PCDA to not deduct TDS, with the matter being sub-judice, but this was not done. In mid-2019, TV media sought the views of Major General Ian Cardozo (a war hero and the first amputee in action to command an active battalion and a brigade) on the issue of doing away with IT exemption for disabled soldiers. Following his television appearance, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat (now the Chief of Defence Staff) wrote a letter to General Cardozo. His reply (reproduced below) must be read to understand the issue in its entirety: Thank you for your letter No. 0043/1/COAS Sectt dated 09 July 2019. It is very kind of you to have taken the trouble to write to me. I received your letter on 02 September 2019 on my return from the UK. Along with your letter, I also received a copy of a letter written to you by Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch, on the subject of withdrawing of exemption of income tax to war disabled soldiers. Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi has also written an article on this subject expressing his deep anguish on this unfortunate development. This issue raises concerns about other related matters that are a cause for considerable concern for the Indian Army community which deserves to be commented upon. I wish to inform you, Sir, in this context a little about myself and connected issues so that you are better informed about disability issues. After I retired from the Army I worked for children with disabilities for eight years. During this period I joined a group called the 'Disabilities Rights Group', whose main mandate was to push the government of India to recognize the problems faced by disabled persons in every possible human endeavour. This group and other disability institutions were able to revolutionise how the government looked at disability and ensured major reforms. It facilitated the evolution of 'The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016' that ensured that the Act conformed to with the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. After this period of eight years working for persons with disabilities, the government of India appointed me as chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India. I worked in this appointment for nine years without pay or allowances of any sort. All that I asked for was a free hand to do my work and to the credit of the government, they respected my request and did not interfere. The Army, however, has been ambivalent on how it looks at disability and disabled soldiers. While I was still at the Artificial Limb Centre recovering from my wounds, I asked to meet Lieutenant General GG Bewoor, GOCinC Southern Command who had hosted a reception for the large number of battle casualties at Pune and Kirkee. As the senior most officer battle casualty on that day; I projected to the Army Commander the issue of wardisabled officers returning to own units and being given command of infantry units if found otherwise fit. The Army Commander surprisingly said this issue is for doctors to decide! On my saying that instead of doctors it should be the COAS and the army commanders to decide, he said that he did not need advice of persons like me as to how to do his job. You have said something similar in your letter at page 4, para 6. As a consequence of this view, doctors have been given authority in deciding what a wardisabled soldier 'can do or cannot do', an authority far in excess of their charter. This needs to change. Fortunately there have been Army Chiefs like Sam Manekshaw, General Raina and General Krishna Rao who thought differently and mitigated the concept that war disabled officers had limited utility in the army. Their attitude contributed positively in my long struggle of 7 years to convince the world in general that battle casualties needed to be given an opportunity to command infantry battalions and later on infantry brigades. Thereafter, promotions opened up with no limit to rank and appointment and officers like YN Sharma, Pankaj Joshi and Vijay Oberoi vindicated the trust reposed on them by the Army. All three rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and the appointment of Army Commander and Vijay Oberoi retired as the Vice Chief of Army Staff. In this matter, General Sam Manekshaw was a great visionary. He directed the MS to set up a committee to look into the improvement of the career prospects battle casualties 'otherwise who would stick their necks in battle in the next war?' The committee took its own time in coming to a conclusion and recommended a 'status quo' on the existing policy after General Manekshaw had retired. Their recommendations suited the views of the next Chief General GG Bewoor! General Prakash Katoch has commented on General Bewoor on other issues and I fully agree with his comments. During my move in the chain of evacuation after I was wounded I had several bad experiences with officers of the Army Medical Corps. That does not mean that all medical officers are bad. On the contrary, however, I do feel they have been given more powers than they deserve and there is no one to rein them in! Lieutenant General BK Chopra's letter as DG AFMS to the Defence Secretary in December 2014 is direct indictment of his own failures and the failure of army doctors to prevent officers (mostly senior officers including one who happened to be an Army Chief) taking the system for a ride! Worse still, according to your letter, medical officers have themselves taken advantage of their power and authority to cheat the system to benefit themselves. The issue is what action will be taken to punish such miscreants. In my interaction with the government and the public as Chairman Rehabilitation Council of India, I have always proclaimed the Indian Army as the only institution that effectively punished wrong doers in uniform. Your letter and it's appendices that gives details of how wrongdoing has been carrying on without being punished, is a great disappointment to veterans like us who retired 25 years ago. Action to withdraw exemption of income tax for all who have been given the concession including battle casualties projects the Army's inability to punish wrongdoers and instead to punish those who were deservedly granted this exemption. Mass punishments, as you would know from your days at the NDA are not only unethical, but also never delivers the right outcomes. The alacrity with which Government acted on the recommendation of Army HQ on this issue is part of their concerted drive to denigrate and downsize the armed forces. In my interaction with Mr Raghavan, an exHigh Commissioner to Pakistan, on this issue at a seminar at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy at Mussoorie in March 2018 is enlightening. I said to him 'Mr Raghavan it looks like you hate us!' his answer floored me. He said, 'General don't you know? We hate you! We have always hated you!' This perhaps explains the committed resolve of the bureaucracy to downsize the Armed Forces. The tragedy is that they have succeeded largely in their efforts in the past few years wherein hard earned privileges have gradually been withdrawn, while Service Chiefs appear to be passive spectators. In my first interaction on TV on the issue of withdrawal of exemption of income tax on battle casualties, I blamed the bureaucracy for this action. Later, it became known that it was the Army that initiated the case and I was subsequently asked on TV as to what I had to say now? What was I to say? All that I could say was that whoever had done this had done wrong in punishing all battle casualties instead of punishing those who had misused the concession for personal gain. As our Chief and Head of Family, all army personnel and retired, including our families look up to you to protect their interests, status and wellbeing of the Army and its personnel. Judging from the 'freerun' that the bureaucracy has had in downsizing the armed forces in recent years; we feel very much let down. I do hope that the issues stated in your letter highlighting the alleged moral decline in the Army will be examined and action taken to stem the rot. In particular, I hope that the miscreants who have manipulated the system in the exemption of income tax and other issues will be punished. I concur with the views of General Prakash Katoch and General Vijay Oberoi in their letters and articles. Their views and comments need to be addressed. Exemption of IT for disabled was removed because of the Army's inability to punish wrongdoers and instead to punish those who were deservedly granted this exemption, as mentioned by General Cardozo. Instead, recourse was taken behind the euphuism of broad banding which amounts to a PT/drill instructor punishing the whole course because of missteps by some. The Army did not bother to find out how many hundreds of civilian and CAPF avail disability pension and are exempt income tax with even below 20% disability. No thought was given for having medical boards in last 4-5 years of service in the sister service or under tri-service arrangements. Why could inquiries not be held for specific cases where misuse was felt and disability pension stopped if misuse was proved? Applying the so called broad banding to disabled soldiers is morally wrong and unethical. This needs review by the political authority even if the CDS makes it a prestige issue. The disability pension of Indian Armed Forces was exempt from IT since 1922 for good reason, till the Army created this sub-class of disabled who continued serving. Sitharaman puts the blame on the Army but where is her conscience and how much would removal of IT exemption for disabled soldiers help her economic dreams? She probably only needed to drop a hint to the Army hierarchy. Wonder if she knows that the Indian military currently has higher numerical strength of active duty personnel than the US military but the recipients of disability benefits of US are 4.7 million compared to 0.2 million in India as tweeted by Major Navdeep Singh. Indias deep state is intent on denigrating and deriding the Armed Forces, waiting to strike at the right moment. Despite the sterling campaign to conquer East Pakistan to liberate Bangladesh and taking 93,000 POWs, the 3rd CPC reduced military pensions from 70% to 50% simultaneously increasing pension of civilians from 30% to 50%. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw would not have accepted this, so the deep state waited for General GG Bewoor to take over knowing he would not say anything. Similarly, recommendations of the 7th CPC was objected to by three Service Chiefs being highly discriminatory to Armed Forces bringing their emoluments below that of CAPF and police. MoD waited for them to retire and then directly issued implementation orders from MoD, which are supposed to be issued by Services HQ. General Rawat has endeared himself to the hierarchy for various actions, becoming the first CDS. But while he is focused on military pensions, he needs to address why 22% of civilian defence employees are eating up 45% of the defence pension outlay. Whether those in MoD, PCDA and ones involved in drafting and issuing the mischievous orders are in contempt of court only the Court can decide but the Government could develop compassion some towards disabled soldiers. The Court needs to abrogate the unethical decision of removing IT exemption for disabled who continued serving. Exemption of IT on disability pension as authorised sine 1922 should continue. The defence minister needs to stand up for the Armed Forces the same way he stood up for the CAPF and the police as the Home Minister. Merely asking the PCDA to cancel the mischievous circular, forcing concerned disabled to resort to individually seek refunds does not reduce their misery. Rajnath Singh needs to direct the PCDA to immediately pay full pension through banks to those gifted with Rs 100 and ask for completion report within four to five days. (The author is veteran Indian Army. Views are personal.) Two people in Hungary have been infected with coronavirus, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday, 4 March. Update: By Friday morning the number of coronavirus cases in Hungary has risen to four, according to the official website Koronavirus.gov.hu, with no further explanation given. We have our first coronavirus case, in fact there are already two patients who have had to be taken to a medical facility due to coronavirus infection, PM Orban said in a video posted on Facebook (switch Captions on for English subtitles) after a meeting of the operative board overseeing Hungarys response to the new virus. The patients, both Iranian students, have been taken to Budapests St. Laszlo Hospital, in line with regulations, the prime minister noted. The coronavirus has arrived in Hungary, PM Orban announced, adding that Hungary had now entered the phase of defending against the outbreak. From now on, the operative board will meet every day at noon before briefing the press on the latest updates concerning the virus, he added. At Wednesdays meeting, the board concluded that Hungary had enough doctors and nurses along with the necessary tools and the legislative framework needed to defend against the virus, Orban added. National Institute of Infectology: both students in good health Janos Szlavik, the head of the National Institute of Hematology and Infectology at South Pest Central Hospital, told a press conference that the two Iranian students who have tested positive for the new coronavirus were in good health and had no fever. Physically, theyre completely fine, Szlavik said. He added that two people living with the students had also been placed in isolation at the hospital for observation. He said the authorities were investigating how the patients had contracted the virus and what places they had visited in Hungary. The patients will remain in isolation until they make a full recovery, he added. In response to a question, Szlavik said both of the students had recently visited Iran to celebrate the Iranian New Year with their families. One of them had specifically asked to be tested, while the other was tested after showing light symptoms, he added. Meanwhile, Tibor Lakatos, head of the operative board, told a press conference that the board would continue to keep the public updated about the virus. Narendra Modi, Prime minister of India | Though almost all of Indias Prime Ministers have come from the nearly 80% of the population that is Hindu, only Modi has governed as if no one else matters, writes Karl Vick, Time editor. (Image: Reuters) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will not participate in any Holi Milan programme this year in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 The PM took to Twitter on March 4 and said experts across the world have advised reducing mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Hence, he decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. The Holi Milan programme is a gathering of people to celebrate the festival together. Following the prime minister, Union Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah also announced that he will not celebrate the festival. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself and your family," he tweeted. tweeted Shah on March 4. Earlier on March 3, the PM had held an extensive review on India's preparedness to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak. "Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on COVID-19 or novel coronavirus. Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention," he tweeted after the review meet. The PM further appealed not to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection, he said. The chief executive of Casey Council removed two to three staff members from the council's planning division that controversial planning consultant John Woodman and his lawyer, Megan Schutz, also wanted sacked. The chief executive, Glenn Patterson, also used Mr Woodmans planning firm, Watsons, for a private two-lot subdivision in Mt Eliza the year before he started at Casey Council in 2018. Casey Council chief executive Glenn Patterson Credit:The Age The latest developments at the state anti-corruption commission came as Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas defended his relationship with donors Mr Woodmans firm was a "platinum member" of Labors Progressive Business fundraising operation after Ms Schutz was secretly taped describing the treasurer's actions as very helpful. The states Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission is probing land deals at Casey Council, in Melbournes south-east. As of April 6, Flight For Life will no longer operate out of McHenry, Ill., where, in partnership with Northwestern Medicine Hospital, it has provided air medical transport since 1987. Tammy Chatman, public information office for Flight for Life, said an agreement was been reached with aviation vendor Air Methods (AMC) to maintain air medical services in northern Illinois. However, McHenry-based Flight for Life also serves portions of southern Wisconsin, including Kenosha and Racine counties, and Air Methods isnt licensed to operate in Wisconsin. That initially raised concerns in western Kenosha County, but Flight for Life assured officials there would be no interruption in service. (Flight for Life) will still be the primary aircraft in Wisconsin, Chatman said, adding the Waukesha base will continue to operate. We will continue to be the primary aircraft serving southeastern Wisconsin, including Racine and Kenosha counties for scene and hospital response. Chatman met with rural Kenosha County fire and emergency medical operation chiefs recently to discuss the transition. All of the chiefs feel Flight for Life will be able to maintain a level of service we will be comfortable with, Salem Lakes Fire Chief Mike Slover said. We dont feel there will be any negative impact. The chiefs were assured the protocol will not change. It is supposed to be seamless to us as users, Wheatland Fire Chief Lou Denko said. If a Flight for Life helicopter is not available from Waukesha, the dispatch process already is in place will find one from another base. We will do what we have always done and find the next closest aircraft, Chatman said. Declining numbers The change in service was announced to local departments via a letter from Flight For Life, a nonprofit organization. As a nonprofit organization, FFL has had to make some very difficult decisions regarding our McHenry base as a result of the declining volume, the letter reads. According to the letter, the change is a result of changing health care market dynamics in the region over the last 10 years that have resulted in yearly declines in the number of patients who need air medical care and transport. Specifically, the letter reads, the loss of flight volume is due to: Hospitals increasing their capabilities and therefore keeping more patients. A greater number of patients being transported via ground ambulance. Health systems engaging in preferred provider agreements with specific air medical providers. Smooth transition Chatman said the agreement with Air Methods will provide a smooth and timely transition of the existing FFL-McHenry base to AMC beginning in March and concluding on April 6, Chatman said. Air Methods provided the helicopter, the pilot and the mechanic for Flight for Life out of the McHenry base. It now will also provide the crew. The AMC pilots and mechanics will not change, and the current FFL medical crew will transition their employment to AMC, Chatman said. A rebranding of the name, aircraft and new dispatch number will be part of the transition. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Delhi, March 4 : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has come out with a school advisory in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. All schools have been advised by the government to avoid any large gathering of students in the school premises. As per the advisory, any student or staff with travel history to any COVID-19 affected country or in contact with such persons in the last 28 days should be monitored and home quarantined for 14 days. Class teachers have been asked to be alert of any possible symptoms among the students like coughing, fever or difficulty in breathing and inform the parents to get them tested, said the advisory. Any affected student should not join school unless okayed by a doctor. The Health Ministry's advisory also talked about basic hygiene like washing hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water. It also suggested using alcohol-based hand sanitizer. "Everyone should cover their mouth with a tissue/handkerchief when they cough or sneeze and wash their hands afterwards. Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Everyone should throw away used tissues in a bin and wash their hands after contact with coughing/sneezing," said the government advisory. It has also asked schools to place alcohol-based sanitizers at different spots. The advisory also asked the authorities to monitor the students staying in hostels. It asked people to contact the dedicated call centers should the need arise. The first case of coronavirus in Delhi was detected on Monday. Six suspected cases have been detected in Agra, who came in contact with the person from Delhi who tested positive. As of today, 29 cases of coronavirus have been reported from India, including a group Italian nationals who are now been quarantined. Three persons from Kerala have been discharged after treatment. So far, 3,110 people have died across the globe due to the highly contagious virus. Police in Lithuania intervened in a domestic dispute on Wednesday after a man locked his wife in the bathroom over fears that she may be carrying the coronavirus. "We got the report that a husband and two adult sons refused to let the woman out of the bathroom after she told them that she could have contracted the coronavirus," national police spokesman Ramunas Matonis told AFP. The woman reportedly told her husband she may have caught the disease new coronavirus when she spoke with a person who had arrived from abroad. "Police officers arrived, there was no violence, no complaint, therefore an ambulance was called," the police spokesman said. Local media reported that the woman tested negative for the presence of the new coronavirus, which has so far infected one person in Lithuania, an EU Baltic state of 2.8 million people. The 39-year-old male victim had recently returned from Verona in an area of northern Italy that has recorded Europe's highest number of deaths from the disease. The virus death toll in Italy passed 100 on Wednesday. Altogether the virus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide, most of them in China. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Regulatory News: Getlink SE (Paris:GET)announces the proposed appointment of 2 new independent directors at the general meeting on 30 April 2020. This proposal completes a thorough and robust selection and reflection process on its composition, led by the Nomination Committee and the Board of Directors. The new directors whose appointment is proposed are Sharon Flood, British who will bring to the Board of Directors her recognised financial expertise, particularly in the railway sector, as well as her Franco-British culture and her skills and experience as an independent director of international companies Jean-Marc Janaillac, French, who will bring to the Board of Directors, through his recognized stature as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, a wealth of experience in governance, particularly in the regulated infrastructure sector, as well as in-depth knowledge of international traffic and the economic model of concessions. The areas of expertise and the diversity of know-how of these two directors will be major assets for the development of Getlink. The Board will also propose to the General Meeting of April 30, 2020, the staggered renewal of the terms of office of four directors: Peter Levene, for a term expiring in 2021, at the end of the General Meeting called to approve the financial statements for the financial year 2020; - Jean-Pierre Trotignon and Perrette Rey for a term expiring in 2022, at the end of the general meeting called to approve the financial statements for the financial year 2021; - Colette Lewiner for a term expiring in 2023, at the end of the General Meeting called to approve the financial statements for the year ending 2022; Colette Neuville, Chairwoman of the Remuneration Committee and Lead Director has decided not to seek the renewal of her term of office, which will expire at the end of the General Meeting of 30 April 2020. The same applies to Philippe Vasseur, who having reached the end of his 12-year term of office will retire early. The Board of Directors pays tribute to Colette Neuville and Philippe Vasseur for their sustained and ongoing commitment to the development of Getlink SE and their contribution to the evolution of governance. Finally, Jacques Gounon, Giancarlo Guenzi, Elisabetta de Bernardi di Valserra, Stephane Sauvage, Philippe Vanderbec, Corinne Bach, Bertrand Badre, Tim Yeo and Patricia Hewitt will continue to sit on the Board of Directors. Sharon Flood: A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants with a university degree in mathematics, and an MBA from INSEAD. Sharon Flood has extensive experience in finance and strategy across a number of companies including Castorama/Kingfisher and John Lewis Department Stores, where she served as finance director. She has also served as a group chief financial operator for Sun European Partners. Her varied career includes 5.5 years as a director of Network Rail, the owner of the UK's Rail Infrastructure, where she chairs the audit and risk, treasury and environmental sustainability committees, and 4 years as president du conseil de surveillance for S T Dupont SA. She is currently chair of audit at both Pets at Home plc, the leading UK pet care company, and Crest Nicholson plc, a UK housebuilder, as well as a trustee of both the Science Museum Group and the University of Cambridge. Sharon will join the Board of Getlink in September after she has completed her second term at Network Rail. Jean-Marc Janaillac, is a graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (HEC) and former student of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA). After starting his career in the French administration (1980-1997), he was successively Chief Operating Officer of AOM (1997-2000), then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Maeva (2000-2002). He joined RATP in 2004 as Director General of Development, becoming Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (2004-2010) and then Chairman of the Management Board (2010-2012) of RATP Developpement. In 2012, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Transdev (2012-2016), an international group specializing in land transport. Jean-Marc Janaillac was also a Director of Air France from 1989 to 1994 and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Air France-KLM group and Chairman of Air France (2016 -2018). Since 2018, he has been Chairman of Fnege (Fondation Nationale pour l'Enseignement de la Gestion des Entreprises). The Combined General Meeting will be held on 30 April 2020 at 10 a.m. Maison de la Chimie, 28 bis Rue Saint-Dominique, 75007 Paris. The notice of meeting including the agenda and draft resolutions was published in the BALO of March 4, 2020. The information and documents relating to this meeting referred to in Article R. 225-73-1 of the French Commercial Code will be posted on the company's website at the following address: https://www.getlinkgroup.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005557/en/ Contacts: Getlink For UK media enquiriescontact John Keefe on 44 (0) 1303 284491 Email: press@getlinkgroup.com For other media enquiries contact Anne-Laure Descleves on +33(0)1 4098 0467 For investor enquiries contact Jean-Baptiste Roussille on +33 (0)1 40 98 04 81 Email: jean-baptiste.roussille@getlinkgroup.com Michael Schuller on +44 (0) 1303 288749 Email. Michael.schuller@getlinkgroup.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Firefighter John Chipura was a hero long before he lost his life on 9/11 while attempting to rescue those trapped in the World Trade Center, and on Saturday, March 7, an annual blood drive will take place in his memory, paying tribute to his life of continuous service. This year, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of Iwo Jima, the John G. Chipura Foundation has chosen to remember the late firefighters active duty tour in Beirut, Lebanon, with the Marine Corps. -- and the service of all military personnel -- when it hosts the drive in partnership with the New York Blood Center at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Tottenville, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chipura was responding to the World Trade Center with Brooklyns Engine 219/Ladder 105 when he lost his life at age 39. As a Marine, we know John would have been remembering the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima this month, said his brother, Gerard Chipura, an FDNY captain at Engine Co. 164, Huguenot, who has been organizing the drive for the past 18 years with his wife, Eileen, and three children. We want people to remember the sacrifices that so many of our military families have given, and call people to action in a way that can save lives right here at home, said Chipura. John was a man of service to his community and others because of the sacrifices he saw at the Beirut bombings in October 1983. John Chipura, who also served as a city police officer and started his life of community service as an Eagle Scout, became a Marine for many reasons, but one in particular was because of actor John Wayne, his brother recalled. He was a fan of his from a young boy -- enjoying Waynes films, including, The Flying Leathernecks and The Sands of Iwo Jima, Chipura said. This memory has stayed with me, and when I realized it was the 75th anniversary of Iwo Jima at the same time the blood drive was scheduled, I tied the blood drive into the iconic image of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Now is a critical time to give blood, according to the New York Blood Center, which has announced an urgent need for blood and platelet donors as fears of coronavirus keep healthy donors away. Chipura said hes seen the value of blood donorship firsthand, as his late brother was on the National Marrow Donor Program registry and that sample of blood, saved by the New York Blood Center, was used to positively identify his 9/11 remains, giving the family closure. Thousands of firefighters are in the system, he said. For some 9/11 families, blood was the only remains they buried. Since Boy Scout Troop 21 started the John G. Chipura Blood Drive 18 years ago, the Chipura family, friends and members of the NYPD, FDNY and BSA have donated more than 1,000 pints of blood in memory of John Chipura. You may donate if you are at least 17 years old (16 years old with written consent from parent or legal guardian), weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in good health, according to the New York Blood Center. Those ages 16 to 18 are subject to additional height and weight restrictions. Walk-ins are welcome. Donors should come prepared with photo identification and having recently eaten a full meal. To register for the blood drive online, visit the New York Blood Center website, nybc.org Georgia gets another crack at 'Bama for college football title LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that coronavirus would not stop him greeting people with a handshake, adding that he had shaken the hands of everyone at a hospital where infected patients were being treated. Johnson was speaking at the announcement of Britain's plan to deal with the expected spread of the virus, which included a warning that as many as one in five employees could be off work at the peak of the outbreak. The global death toll from the virus is over 3,000, prompting a range of official, and sometimes contradictory, advice on how to prevent its spread. France recommended last week that people do not shake hands to prevent the spread of the virus, while Switzerland has said its residents should consider dropping the everyday greeting of kissing each other on the cheek. Johnson however, exhibited no such caution. "I'm shaking hands," Johnson said when asked how he planned to handle visiting dignitaries. "I was at a hospital the other night where I think a few there were actually coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you'll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. He said people were free to make up their own minds, but referred to the scientific advice he had received: "Our judgement is washing your hands is the crucial thing." (Reporting by William James; editing by Stephen Addison) NEW HAVEN Towns need far greater partnership, and money, from the state and business community to battle environmental fallout from firefighting foam leaching into municipal aquifers and public water supplies, according to Connecticuts largest lobbying organization for municipalities. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) Tuesday said that it is thankful that Gov. Ned Lamonts proposed state budget includes $2 million in new funding to help towns replace their chemical firefighting foam, which contains per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. But CCM said money from the state and responsible businesses will be needed as towns across the state now face immense potential environmental liability as the long-used (but no longer used) firefighting foam has leached into the water table and migrated into public water supplies, possibly contaminating some municipal water beyond acceptable levels. If the state and responsible businesses do not step up to help towns pay for the necessary level of remediation, the bill handed directly to property taxpayers could be very significant and public water supplies could be compromised, said Joseph DeLong, CCMs chief executive officer. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to PFAS over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including developmental problems for fetuses during pregnancy or for breastfed infants, as well as cancer and possible damage to the liver, immunological systems, thyroid, and other areas. PFAS can enter the bloodstream through food, drinking water, and the biodegradation of products that contain these chemicals. And once they are in, they are there forever, earning them the name forever chemicals. PFAS entered the municipal realm as they were also used to make Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF). Many municipal fire departments currently have stocks of AFFF, and a new state action plan discusses the need for financial assistance for the establishment of a take-back program to safely dispose of AFFF and thereby prevent future releases. In 2019, Lamont created the Connecticut Interagency PFAS Task Force to handle the problems created by the chemicals leaching into watersheds. The task forces final action plan recommends testing public drinking water, setting a maximum contaminant level, identifying and evaluating sources of human exposure, minimizing occupational exposure, establishing limits for PFAS in consumer products, standards for cleanup, and developing a GIS database that identifies and establishes a public outreach team. The foams have become a staple for municipal fire departments because it is effective against gasoline, oil, and other chemical fires. While training with AFF foam should be avoided, doing so also increases the chances of spreading the chemical. The foam can be sprayed over large areas and, as such, help to curtail the spread of a burning liquid like gasoline. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, they use the foam because on ships and on aircraft, the close proximity of people, fuel, and munitions can be especially dangerous. AFFF works by quickly spreading out over the surface of the fuel, depriving the fire of oxygen, quickly extinguishing even large fires. Created by corporations such as 3M and DuPont, PFAS have been used in everything from food packaging to carpets to clothing to make things durable and non-stick. Teflon is an inert Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), a subset of PFAS. PFAS were once thought to be safe and heralded as the wave of the future. Every household had a non-stick pan and fire departments around the country were using AFFF to control fires. But now that the harmful effects of the chemicals are known, the question is how much is harmful and who is going to pay for the remediation. Attorney Paul J. Napoli of the law firm Napoli Shkolnik, and Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, spoke in detail to municipal leaders recently about the issue and raised the legal argument that manufacturers, such as 3M and Dupont, should pay significant damages to the towns to help them with the environmental remediation that is necessary now and in the future. Here are some of the examples they presented of lawsuit settlements and costs budgeted by state governments: Michigan is spending $23.2 million for costs associated with PFAS contamination, including testing, monitoring, and technical assistance at more than a dozen sites across the state; In New York, $10 million was budget to cover the cost of installing a temporary municipal filtration system and hundreds of private well filtration systems while working to identify an alternate, permanent drinking water source in Hoosick Falls. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced that $350 million would be available for water system upgrades statewide for PFAS; In Massachusetts, Barnstable County paid $2.95 million to clean up contaminated wells in the Town of Barnstable, and the City of Westfield approved $13 million in bonds to address water contamination; New Hampshire taxpayers have shouldered the burden of nearly $14 million to clean up PFAS from a Superfund site owned by Coakley Landfill Group. As of 2017, New Hampshire had already spent roughly $30 million on PFAS remediation projects; PFAS contamination at Cape Fear, North Carolina has cost $1.8 million to date, with an additional $650,000 for legal fees and water quality testing. A handful of the thousands of Australians who have stormed supermarkets to stock up on toilet paper have revealed why they felt the need to stockpile loo roll. Daily Mail Australia visited several Sydney supermarkets on Wednesday where manic shoppers were clearing out aisles, including an entire Costco warehouse in the city's west. As the coronavirus scare widens - with 43 confirmed diagnoses in Australia - a father and son were among dozens of shoppers to empty a supermarket shelf at Lidcombe Shopping Centre within 10 minutes of it being restocked. Oscar Andres, 46, said he and his son Ivan, 18, from Bondi had made an urgent trip to the shops to stock up on 'rare commodities' - including six packets of toilet paper. But admitted they did not desperately need toilet paper and had largely been caught up in the hype that is sweeping the nation, despite authorities urging people to stop. Scroll down for video Oscar and Ivan Andres (pictured) admitted they had been caught up in the hype sweeping the country and did not need the six packs of toilet paper they bought, but simply 'did not want to miss out' Within 10 minutes of it being stocked, this shelf at Woolworths in Lidcombe Shopping Centre was completely empty 'It's a little bit scary, especially seeing the way everyone is behaving,' Mr Andres said. 'We are from Bondi but we heard on the radio about how everyone was selling out so we had to come and get some urgently. 'My son said people are buying up on rice too so I told him to get some of that too. We don't want to miss out!' While some had just run out at home or were doing their weekly shop, others admitted the hype surrounding coronavirus had them worried. 'It's because of the coronavirus, it's very scary,' Angelo Vargas told Daily Mail Australia. 'Everyone is buying toilet paper and I think everyone is a bit caught up in in and you don't want to miss out. The enormous Costco warehouse in Sydney's west was completely out of toilet paper within a few minutes of a new truckload arriving on Wednesday Four shoppers make the most of the new arrival of toilet paper at Woolworths in Lidcombe on Wednesday Angelo Vargas (right) admitted the reason he filled his trolley with toilet paper was 'because of the coronavirus'. He wasn't the only shopper to be stocking his cupboards with the country's hottest commodity Woolworths had to limit the number of packets of toilet paper to four per person 'I think if you get stuck in your house for a few weeks it's the only safe way to clean yourself.' Alex Kim said he believes the majority of those concerned are Chinese people. 'People are worried about the virus and if it takes over they won't be able to leave the house, so they are just stocking up,' he said. The manic rush to fill trolleys with the maximum four packets of toilet paper angered some who missed out. Jeanette Timsans, Mary Delaveris and Rebecca Kastrantas left Woolworths with none empty trolleys and said people should only be able to buy one packet each. 'It's ridiculous, people are coming in and taking four rolls each - there's groups of people leaving with dozens,' Ms Delaveris said. 'Woolies should be limiting it to one per person. Mary Delaveris, Jeanette Timsans and Rebecca Kastrantas (L to R) left Woolworths with empty trolleys on Wednesday afternoon. They believe the limit should be lowered to one packet each An ALDI store in the same shopping also had its shelves emptied of toilet paper within minutes of a new delivery arriving on Wednesday morning 'It sold out in 10 minutes - if you work during the day how are you meant to get any?' An Aldi store in the same centre and a nearby Costco superstore were both already empty. As word spread that Woolworths had received a delivery of toilet paper, shoppers could be seen running through the centre. 'It was crazy, they are out of control,' one supermarket employee said. While former Vice President Joe Biden was the big winner in the Bay State on Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren was still the hometown favorite in her back yard. In Cambridge -- where Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, have called home for decades -- she was the big winner of the night. She received just 44.7% of the vote - just under double that of Bernie Sanders, who came in second in Massachusetts with 24.1%. Biden followed in a close third, with just over 21% of the vote. A former Harvard Law professor, Warren and Mann purchased their Cambridge home in 1995. She returned home Tuesday to vote and was welcomed back to Massachusetts by a large crowd of supporters. She took selfies with members of the group, shook hands and spoke with a group of elementary school-aged girls. How has there been no woman president before? one girl asked. I voted today with hope in my heart. I believe in this grassroots movement. I believe in the America we can build together. Let's dream big, fight hard, and get out to vote! https://t.co/5tQ5A0Zkq2 pic.twitter.com/JVDG8t7N4r Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 3, 2020 While Warren was the winner in Cambridge, she didnt pull off a win statewide. Biden won with 33.7% of support from Massachusetts voters, compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders 26.7% and Sen. Elizabeth Warrens 21.2%. The Super Tuesday contest followed weeks of questions over whether Warren could win her home state, with her strongest competition in Massachusetts believed to be Sanders, who held a pair of back-to-back rallies in Springfield and Boston ahead of the primary. Warren also lost to Biden in Oklahoma where she grew up and hoped her roots would clinch the state for her. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also didnt see a hometown win. Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, placed fourth in the Massachusetts city northwest of Boston. Sanders won in Medford with 29.6% of the vote, closely followed by Warren with 28.3% then Biden in third with 25.8% of the vote. Bloomberg took home just 11.9% of Medford votes on Tuesday. Following a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, Bloomberg ended his presidential bid and endorsed Biden. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said in a statement. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. Bloomberg pledged to spend upwards of $1 billion to oust President Donald Trump from the White House. Related Content: Math Field Day 2020 will test young mathematicians skills by Tim Crosby CARBONDALE, Ill. Young mathematicians from two states will once again travel to Southern Illinois University Carbondale for day of competitions, comradery and achievement. The annual Math Field Day competition is set for March 17, at the Banterra Center. Organizers expect students from about 40 schools in Illinois and Missouri to attend and compete for prizes. A maximum of 36 students, nine per grade from each school, may compete. Event tests math skills The event, which includes a comprehensive test designed, presented and scored by faculty in the mathematics degree program, kicks off at 10 a.m. and runs until noon. Organizers will present awards beginning at 2 p.m. at Shryock Auditorium. All students will take the same two-hour exam. Topics range from beginning algebra and geometry through trigonometry and college algebra. A few questions venture into calculus, finite mathematics and a clever thinking problem. Workshops, prizes on tap For the second time, organizers will provide workshops for students between 1 and 1:30 p.m. After a pizza lunch, students will participate in workshops provided by SIU faculty and graduate student at various campus locations. The top two finishers in each grade, freshman through seniors, will receive cash awards again this year. First place winners will receive $75 while second place winners take home $50 each. Top-scoring student teams will receive trophies or ribbons in three divisions based on school enrollment size. Students also can win certificates for individual accomplishments in each academic division. Teachers program set SIU will host a program for math teachers during the event, as well. The program is set for 10 a.m. in the Roger & Sally Tedrick Auditorium, Boydston Center, Room 189, at the Banterra Center. For more information, contact co-chairs Kathy Pericak-Spector, retired professor of mathematics, or Ron Nagrodski, senior lecturer in the mathematics degree program, at 618/453-5302 or dfritcher@siu.edu. The US government on Wednesday approved the sale to Poland of Javelin anti-tank missiles, the weapon system at the center of the Ukraine scandal that led to President Donald Trump's impeachment. The Pentagon said the order, authorized by the State Department, was for 79 Javelin missile launchers and 189 missiles worth $100 million. Poland's conservative government has stepped up its efforts in Washington, which it regards as its most reliable ally, to reinforce the presence of US troops on its soil. Polish President Andrzej Duda signed an agreement in January to buy 32 F-35 stealth fighters, in a deal worth $4.6 billion. Warsaw also bought US-made HIMARS mobile rocket launchers and Patriot anti-missile systems, to build up its air defenses. Meanwhile the United States has committed to increase the US military presence in Poland to 4,500 troops. The sale to Ukraine of Javelin anti-tank missiles, which Kiev needed to defend against Russian-backed rebels, was the subject of an infamous telephone conversation last July between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. A White House summary of the conversation showed that when the newly elected Zelensky raised the missiles, Trump asked for a "favor" -- that Ukraine announce a corruption investigation into his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son. The exchange triggered a whistleblower complaint that led to a congressional investigation and the president's impeachment for abuse of power by the House of Representatives. Trump was acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate after it voted against hearing from witnesses who could have testified against the president. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani has taken to his Twitter handle to kick against a proposed bill seeking to ban public process. The former lawmaker from Kaduna pointed out that any bill aiming to ban public protest or procession is a manual for tyranny and a clear declaration of war against the rights and liberties of the people guaranteed by the constitution. Also Read: Disbandment Of SARS: Shehu Sani Commends IGP Adamu Sani, explaining the essence of protest, pointed out that protest is the armour, wheel and soul of constitutional democracy. See his tweet below: CAMBRIDGE, England, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SciBite today formally announced that Philippe Fauchet, OBE, has become the latest addition to its advisory board. Joining Alexander Karle and Diane Harbison, who initially formed the SciBite advisory board back in April 2019. "We are pleased to formally welcome Philippe to our advisory board," said CEO & President Rob Greenwood. "With vast corporate experience within the pharmaceutical space, SciBite will hugely benefit from his strong global senior leadership perspective." Philippe has spent 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, 20 of which he has spent in Japan, most of them as a General Manager of Sanofi-Aventis and then of GlaxoSmithKline groups in Japan. He was Head of Sanofi-Aventis Corporate Business Development before joining GlaxoSmithKline. Philippe is now providing consulting services to various companies within Japan. He is also a venture partner of an international venture capital firm and sits on the board of Japanese biotech start-ups. "SciBite has organically built a market-leading position in text analytics and clean data intelligence, it's an exciting time for the company as they near reaching the stage where they can see a case for raising investment," said Philippe Fauchet. "I look forward to bringing my corporate expertise to the board and being part of the continual rapid growth of SciBite." Philippe joins existing board members Alexander Karle and Diane Harbison. Alexander brings in-depth experience from the corporate business world. Having recently become CEO of social housing software provider Mobysoft Ltd, he was previously CEO of life sciences market intelligence provider Evaluate Ltd. Diane brings a wealth of scientific knowledge, she has a PhD in Molecular Biology and spent 10 years of her career at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Diane is currently CEO of start-up Decipher Analytics Ltd. "We are very fortunate to have such a high level of experience within our advisory board, ready to help strengthen our strategic positioning as we continue to support the delivery of our customer's data strategies with our innovative technology," said Rob Greenwood. "We are very excited to continue our growth journey and for the future direction of SciBite." About SciBite SciBite is an award-winning semantic software company offering an ontology-led approach to transforming unstructured content into machine-readable clean data. Supporting the top 20 pharma with use cases across life sciences, SciBite is headquartered in the UK with additional sites in the US and Japan. Find out more at www.scibite.com. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/617446/SciBite_Logo.jpg Press contact: Lauren Barham, Marketing Manager lauren@scibite.com +44 (0)1223 786 129 Nina Dobrev's new movie Run This Town had its world premiere at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2019. And finally, one year later, the movie is set to open in theatres in North America on Friday. On Tuesday night, Dobrev, 31, wore a striking pink dress as she headlined a special screening of the film in Toronto. Red carpet ready: Nina Dobrev, 31, wore a striking pink dress for a special screening of the film Run This Town in Toronto ahead of its North American release in theatres Friday Her long-sleeve mini dress skimmed her thighs and she added a pair of silver sandal heels. Dobrev, who was born in Bulgaria and raised in Canada, wore her long hair loose with a center parting. The former Vampire Diaries star completed her red carpet look with large chunky hoop earrings and scarlet lip color. Stylish: The former Vampire Diaries star showed off her legs in the long-sleeve mini dress that skimmed her thighs. She added a pair of silver sandal heels and chunky silver hoop earrings Pretty: Dobrev, who was born in Bulgaria and raised in Canada, wore her long hair loose with a center parting and completed her look with scarlet red lip color Run This Town is a drama about the final year in office of controversial Toronto mayor Rob Ford. British actor Damian Lewis stars as Ford, with a little help of prosthetics and makeup, while the supporting cast includes Aladdin's Mena Massoud, pitch Perfect's Ben Platt and Underworld's Scott Speedman. Only Massoud joined Dobrev at Tuesday's event along with Run This Town director Ricky Tollman and producer Randy Manis. Indie role: Also at Tuesday's event was Canadian-Egyptian actor Mena Massoud who is in the drama about the final year in office of controversial Toronto mayor Rob Ford Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Montreal, Canada Wed, March 4, 2020 19:00 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684dc24 2 People Greta-Thunberg,Canada,X-Site-Energy-Services Free A Canadian oil-services company apologized Monday after an outcry over a sticker that showed their logo under a sexualized image targeting Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. The image, shared widely on social media last week, shows a black-and-white drawing of a naked woman with her back turned, two hands pulling on her braids -- an apparent reference to 17-year-old Thunberg's signature hairstyle. The word "Greta" and X-Site Energy Services's logo appear underneath the illustration. Disgusting how such vitriol is aimed at a girl standing up for the environment.. putting the environment over money shouldnt be so hard.. RT @6ixbuzztv: Alberta oilfield company X-site Energy is under fire for sexually graphic Greta Thunberg image. pic.twitter.com/0qbcH31tuD gh0stface_x (@gh0stface_x) February 28, 2020 The oil and gas services provider released a statement apologizing for the image and promising to "do better." Canadian media said the Alberta-based company initially denied involvement in the sticker. "We deeply regret the pain we may have caused," the statement said. "Explicit images and personal attacks on anyone are unacceptable." Thunberg has inspired millions of young people around the world by spearheading a movement since 2018 to demonstrate on Fridays in frustration at government efforts to tackle climate change. But she has been criticized and abused for her uncompromising attitude. "They are starting to get more and more desperate," Thunberg tweeted on Saturday about detractors of her movement. "This shows that we're winning." X-Site Energy Services said it is working to remove the decals from circulation and asked others to stop sharing the image. It also said it plans to train employees to follow a new "code of conduct." "Just as we are committed to help reduce our industry's environmental footprint, we are committed to learn from and correct our mistake," the firm said. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called the image "odious." Last September Thunberg marched in Montreal with nearly half a million supporters including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. She rallied with thousands more the following month in oil-rich Alberta. As the dreaded coronavirus appeared to spread in India, top Chinese doctors treating patients in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, on Wednesday advised their Indian counterparts to prepare plans, train medical staff and educate the public about wearing masks and washing of hands to contain the disease. Four top medical specialists, who were selected to treat coronavirus cases in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan in the last two months, interacted with the foreign and domestic media for the first time through an online press conference from the virus-hit Wuhan city on Wednesday. While the coronavirus infections showed signs of receding in China with 38 new fatalities on Tuesday, taking the total number of deaths to 2,981. But countries around world grappled to contain the fast-spreading deadly virus that has claimed over 3,100 lives globally. By the end of Tuesday, there were 80,270 confirmed cases of the virus in China, the National Health Commission (NHC) here reported on Wednesday. A total of 28 COVID-19 cases were detected in India so far. Among them, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. "China and India are the most important countries in Asia. We have some similarities like large population with united families and similar medical system," Qiao Jie, President of the Peking University Third Hospital who was drafted for controlling coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, said when asked what advise the Chinese experts would give to their Indian counterparts. "The first important requirement is to have enough medical staff ready to treat the infections," Qiao said. She said training for medical staff to treat mild and severe Covid-19 patients is important as it involved different training. The training should include how to protect themselves putting on the protective clothing and take it off and prepare the much-needed equipment ready for both invasive and non-invasive treatment. Qiao's emphasis on training medical staff it significant as over 3,000 medical staff including ten doctors and nurses died in Wuhan mainly due to lack of understanding of the virulence of the virus in its initial stages. She also said the preparation of the rooms to treat patients is also important. For this particular virus, the rooms should have high-power exhaust fans to ensure change airflow which is crucial for both the patients and medical staff. Mostly importantly, doctors must educate and train the public to wear masks and basic sanitation like constant washing of hands to avoid contracting the disease, she said. Dr Du Bin, Director ICU, Peking Union Medical College Hospital and President of Chinese Association of Critical Care Patients, said the key word for success is to prepare a plan involving all the concerned departments. The plan should include where to keep the close contacts and how to identify the probable cases within the close contacts, he said. "It is a very tough job, it has to be done not only by the health care workers but also the government," he said. "Other departments such as police, transport etc also have to work together. That is the only way to control the epidemic not only in China but also in other countries," he said. China has deployed over 30,000 medical staff including several thousand from the military in Wuhan to combat the virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, Tuesday ordered the arrest of three Chinese nationals operating a quarry company without permit at the Afienya-Dawhenya Industrial and Urban Renewal Enclave in the Greater Accra Region. The three Chinese, who are yet to be identified, established Skyline Quarry Company about three years ago and employed 30 Ghanaian workers. The Minister also ordered two other Ghanaians who were building structures without permit to stop work with immediate effect. Daily Guide A man has been disqualified from driving for a total of 20 years after he appeared before Judge Seamus Hughes, charged with a number of traffic offences. Artur Hauf, 28 Shannon Grove, Ballyleague, Roscommon was charged with driving while disqualified, no insurance, and failure to remain at the scene of a collision. Edel McDermott, who was driving the other vehicle involved in the crash explained that she had pulled out onto the main road and was hit by a car. I was heading to work from Lanesboro to Athlone and taking a turn from a by-road. As I was turning onto the road, a car came and hit my car, she said. I asked him where he came from, because it was a dark morning and I didnt see him. He had no lights on. He was heading in the direction of Ballymahon. It was a dark morning on 13th December 2018. It was raining and visibility was poor but most cars had lights. That car didnt, she continued. It was 8.45am and I saw the driver just as I was approaching the white line. After the collision, I was in shock. I wasnt sure what happened because the airbags had been deployed. I asked him where he came from. I couldnt hear what he said, he was shouting at me, then he reversed down the road I came from. A witness came out of another car and said he had called the guards. My car was in bits and wouldnt move. He (the accused) was anxious to get away. I asked him to stay until the guards came. He took the insurance disc from his car and handed it to me and gave me his number. He got into his car and reversed into an ESB pole, then drove down the road I had come from. I had looked in the windows of the car because he said something about kids and I was worried they were in the car, but there was nobody else in that car. He was driving the car. When asked by Inspector Frank Finn if she had ever seen the man before, Ms McDermott replied that she had not. When asked if she could point him out in the courtroom, Ms McDermotte pointed to Mr Hauf. When solicitor for the defence, Mark Cooney, got up to cross-examine the witness, he was promptly interrupted by Judge Hughes who said: Im not interested in who was at fault here. Im only interested in who was driving. May I just say, in my 11 years on the bench, youre the best witness Ive ever come across, he added to Ms McDermott before she left the witness box. Garda Tom Killion was on duty on the day of the incident and was called by the prosecution to give evidence. I was on duty and received a call five minutes after it happened, he told the court. I arrived and found the last witness at the scene. Her car was damaged at the front and the airbags had been impacted. The witness was shaken and there was an ambulance on the scene. Gda Killion quickly found out that the registered owner of the other car was a Louisa Goulda, the wife of Artur Hauf. I called up to the registered address shortly after 9am, he explained. The car was outside and was damaged to the front and back. I knocked on the door and Mr Hauf answered. I asked him about the accident. He said he wasnt driving and that his wife was. But the witness described a man driving. He said he couldnt drive because he was disqualified. Is he wise for fighting this? Because I have the option of sending him to prison, Judge Hughes noted as he listened to the evidence. Gda Killion explained that both Ms McDermotts and Mr Gouldas vehicles were seized for examination. He added that, when he initially questioned Ms Goulda, she had said that she wasnt driving that day but, when he returned to take statements from both the defendant and his wife, Mr Hauf outlined that he was a passenger in the car and that there were children in the car, while Ms Goulda outlined that she was driving. Ms Goulda was at a hospital appointment the morning of the accident when Gda Killion first called to the house. When Ms Goulda was called to give evidence, she explained that the couple have five children, one of which has autism, and said that she and her husband were bringing three of the children to school at the time of the accident. Youre saying that, at the time of the accident, you were driving. He was in the front seat and three kids were in the back, Judge Hughes clarified. Ms Goulda agreed. When Inspector Finn asked Ms Goulda to describe what the weather had been like on that morning, she said that it was raining but it wasnt that dark. She explained that Gda Killion came to her house the next day and asked her what had happened. He asked you who was driving and you said you hadnt been, said Inspector Finn. I told him I was, Ms Goulda replied. Gda Killion said you said you werent driving, said Inspector Finn. I said I was driving, Ms Goulda objected. The garda said you said your husband was driving. Did you go to a hospital appointment that day? Judge Hughes asked, to which Ms Goulda replied yes. You brought the children to school. So why did your husband go with you? Judge Hughes asked. Sometimes we go shopping after, said Ms Goulda. But you went to Galway for a hospital appointment. How did you go? Judge Hughes pressed. With my friend, Ms Goulda replied. Where did she get you from? asked Judge Hughes. My house, said Ms Goulda. What time was your appointment? asked Inspector Finn I cant remember, said Ms Goulda What time did you leave? Inspector Finn asked. I dont know, she replied. When asked what had happened that morning, Ms Goulda explained that Mr Hauf spoke to the driver of the other car, while she went to the kids because the child who has autism was screaming. What happened then? asked InspectorFinn. We went back home. My husband tried to help the woman, Ms Goulda explained. He gave her his phone number and called an ambulance. He drove home because I have a boy with autism and he was screaming and the baby was crying. The court heard that, while Mr Hauf didnt stay long enough to get Ms McDermotts details, they did make a claim on her insurance for the damage to the car. When was your husband disqualified? Judge Hughes asked Ms Goulda. He was informed by the prosecution that the disqualification dated back to 2017. So when you asked him to drive home, you knew he was disqualified, said Judge Hughes to Ms Goulda. Why didnt you drive home if he was disqualified? He had huge motive to hide the fact he was driving. Hes facing prison. He wasnt driving. I told him to take me home, Ms Goulda replied. Even if you were in the car, you were a passenger, Judge Hughes snapped. I have no doubt whatsoever he was driving the car. Ms McDermott gave her evidence very clearly and it was very impressive. Shes an example of what everyone should do at the scene of a crash. She got his details, she called the guards, she tried to make him wait for the guards. Im convicting him. He gave his name, telephone number and details, Mr Cooney objected on behalf of the defence. He failed to remain at the scene, said Judge Hughes. Mr Hauf, the prosecution revealed, had 21 previous convictions - ten of which were for road traffic offences. The most recent conviction was March 2017 in Roscommon District Court, where he was charged with having no insurance and not having a seatbelt. He received a four month sentence, suspended for two years, and was disqualified for 15 years. In October 2013 at Athlone District Court, he was convicted for having no insurance and disqualified for two years. This was an absolutely fabricated defence, said an irritated Judge Hughes. He was driving and he wanted to avoid detection and instead of putting his hands up, he got his wife to say she was driving. I have to compliment the Garda on his speedy investigation. But I cant allow people to come in here and defend such spurious cases. With that, Judge Hughes sentenced Mr Hauf to four months in prison for having no insurance and disqualified him for 20 years. For failure to remain at the scene, Judge Hughes disqualified Mr Hauf for five years concurrent and sentenced him to four months concurrent. And for driving while disqualified, Mr Hauf was sentenced to one month concurrent and disqualified for 20 years, concurrent. In a major escalation of a media war between Beijing and Washington, the Trump administration on Monday ordered four Chinese news outlets operating in the US to reduce the number of Chinese nationals working on their staff by more than a third. The action comes on the heels of a State Department decision on 18 February requiring five Chinese news organisations considered organs of the government to register as foreign missions and provide the names of employees. China responded by expelling three Beijing-based Wall Street Journal reporters, condemning as racist an essay that ran in the news outlets opinion section criticising Chinas response to the coronavirus outbreak. US officials said that by 13 March, the Chinese news outlets can have no more than 100 Chinese citizens on staff, down from 160 currently employed by the five outlets. The officials said it was an effort to bring reciprocity to the US-China relationship and to encourage the ruling Chinese Communist Party to show a greater commitment to a free press. They noted that only 75 American reporters are known to be working in China. As we have done in other areas of the US-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said in a statement. It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to US and other foreign press in China. We urge the Chinese government to immediately uphold its international commitments to respect freedom of expression, including for members of the press. In announcing the move, senior administration officials cited the disappearance of citizen journalists chronicling the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan. In a report by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, called Control, Halt, Delete, 8 in 10 correspondents said they had encountered interference, harassment or violence while reporting and described the environment for journalists as deteriorating. Were witnessing an assault on free speech inside of China that goes even beyond what it was a decade ago, said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity under administration rules for briefing reporters. Other officials sought to distinguish the US action from Chinas expulsion of nine foreign reporters since 2013 when Xi Jingping ascended to power. The expulsions were usually attributed to the governments unhappiness with news coverage. US officials said it will be up to the designated outlets to determine which employees to cut and said there will be no restrictions placed on their content or choice of what to cover. But they said they are considering imposing duration limits on Chinese nationals working for the outlets, similar to those used by Beijing on foreign correspondents. The officials pointedly refused to refer to the affected employees as journalists, calling it an insult to free and independent reporters who are not working for propaganda outlets. Though they are not being expelled, many are in the country on I-visas issued to foreign media and may not be able to stay in the country if they lose their jobs. The caps were imposed proportionately on four of the five designated outlets: Xinhua News Agency at 59, the China Global Television Network at 30, the parent company of the China Daily at nine and China Radio International at two. The fifth designated outlet, the distributor for the Peoples Daily, was not capped, because it has no Chinese citizens working in the US. All the outlets employ Americans as well as Chinese, so the caps will not eliminate their ability to cover news in the United States. But State Department officials refused to call the affected employees journalists, saying they work for propaganda outlets. Officials said it will be up to the news organisations to determine which Chinese citizens to let go by the 13 March deadline. It is not clear how many will have to leave the country or when, because it depends on the type of visas they have. The government in Beijing and the four outlets were notified of the restrictions Monday morning. US officials declined to speculate on how Beijing may respond but said if they retaliate against foreign reporters in Beijing, all options are on the table. Our goal is to get to a place where Beijing moves to a more accommodating posture towards journalists, including Americans, a senior State Department official said. An administration official said it would be a shame if Beijing retaliates against reporters working in China, predicting it could lead to a pullback of investor confidence in the country. American news outlets arent part of the US government, the official said. Thats the beauty of our system. Theyre completely independent. It would be a shame if China decided it wanted to take things out on them. Every year, hundreds of Chinese citizens are granted visas allowing them to report in the US, though it was not immediately clear how many are currently working as reporters. The move against employees of Chinas government-controlled media comes amid an escalating series of critical statements by Pompeo about Beijing. He has repeatedly criticised the governments maltreatment and detention of Muslim Uighurs, warned US allies of risks associated with technology from the Chinese company Huawei and castigated Beijings expanding economic influence in developing countries. Pompeo has said Beijing is intent on international domination and during a January visit to London, he called the Chinese Communist Party the central threat of our times. Now, as the world braces for the spreading coronavirus that originated in China, Pompeo has taken the battle to the journalistic arena. After China expelled the Wall Street Journal reporters, Pompeo issued a statement deriding Beijings reaction, suggesting it was being juvenile. Mature, responsible countries understand that a free press reports facts and expresses opinions, Pompeo said in a statement. The correct response is to present counter-arguments, not restrict speech. Then, Pompeo accused China of covering up the magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak and allowing it to spread and endanger people around the world. Expelling our journalists exposes, once again, the governance issue that led to Sars and, now, the coronavirus, namely censorship, he said in a news conference, applauding the brave reporters covering the outbreak in China. It can have deadly consequences, he said. Had China permitted its own and foreign journalists and medical personnel to speak and investigate freely, Chinese officials and other nations would have been far better prepared to address the challenge. The Washington Post (Alliance News) - Consumer goods company Unilever PLC on Wednesday said current Non-Executive Director and former chair Marijn Dekkers has decided not to offer himself for re-election at the company's annual general meeting, in order to focus on his responsibilities as founder and chair of investment and advisory firm Novalis LifeSciences. The annual meeting of Unilever PLC is scheduled on April 29, while the NV-entity will hold its meeting on April 30. Nils Andersen, Laura Cha, Vittorio Colao, Alan Jope, Andrea Jung, Judith Hartmann, Susan Kilsby, Strive Masiyiwa, Youngme Moon, Graeme Pitkethly, John Rishton and Feike Sijbesma have all offered themselves for reelection to the boards of the company. Nils Andersen, Unilever chair, said: "I would like to thank Marijn for his contributions as a Unilever chair and non-executive director. He has brought invaluable experience to the Unilever boards during his four years of service and been a great source of advice and guidance for the business. He will leave with the best wishes of us all." Dekkers was chair of Unilever from April 2016 to November 2019. Unilever shares in London closed 1.8% higher at 4,459.50 pence each on Wednesday. By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. A Saline County judge has delayed the high-profile murder trial of Bailey Boswell which had been set to begin later this month in Lexington because of the court having a family medical emergency. Tuesday, District Judge Vicki Johnson issued an order continuing the trial "until further order of the court." Boswell, 26, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and unlawful disposal of human remains for allegedly killing and dismembering Sydney Loofe, a 24-year-old Lincoln woman, in November 2017. In July, after her co-defendant, Aubrey Trail, was convicted in Wilber, Boswell's attorney, Todd Lancaster of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, asked to move the trial, arguing that media coverage of Trail's trial made it impossible for Boswell to get a fair trial in Saline County. Publicity of Trail's trial was widespread and detailed weeks of trial testimony and evidence, some of which likely will not be presented at Boswell's trial. In August, Johnson agreed to move the trial, finding that "the pervasive publicity makes it impossible for Boswell to receive a fair trial in Saline County, or even Southeast Nebraska." Dawson County District Judge James Doyle had agreed to make his courtroom available in Lexington for the trial, which was set to start March 16 until the continuance ordered Tuesday following a hearing in chambers. Lancaster declined to comment on the delay. Boswell is accused of bringing Loofe, a hardware store clerk, to the Wilber apartment Boswell and Trail shared, on Nov. 15, 2017, after the women had met on the dating app Tinder. Prosecutors say Loofe's phone was turned off soon after the women reached Wilber and never came back on. Searchers found it later, broken, near Wilber, not far from some of Loofe's ID. Prosecutors say Boswell and Trail bought tools used to dismember Loofe earlier that day. Her remains were discovered in rural Clay County on Dec. 4. Photos from Aubrey Trail's trial Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Exit polls certainly don't tell the full story, but former Vice President Joe Biden probably doesn't mind some of the Super Tuesday data that's been revealed so far. There are still hours to go until polls close in several other states, but CNN reports that a substantial number of Democratic primary voters in two key states, Virginia and North Carolina, said they made up their minds in the last couple of days. Half of those who voted in Virginia were apparently game-time decision-makers, while about 30 percent said the same in North Carolina. Biden's campaign rebounded after a convincing win in Saturday's South Carolina primary, and he subsequently picked up a string of endorsements, including two big ones from his former competitors, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). So while it's quite possible those voters ultimately opted for another candidate, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), there's reason to believe they also may have been drawn to Biden's resurgence. Meanwhile, exit polls also show primary voters have a slight preference for returning to Obama-era policies rather than shifting further to the left. According to early exit polls, slightly more voters in Super Tuesday states want a return to Obama's policies rather than more liberal policies. https://t.co/dejxP1aVYS pic.twitter.com/n6dCySvRJe CBS News (@CBSNews) March 3, 2020 That's seemingly another positive sign for Biden if there's anything the Biden campaign has made clear, it's that the vice president wants to continue the legacy of his former running mate. More stories from theweek.com The anybody-but-Bernie comeback It's 2020 and women are exhausted Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are nervous at how much Trump thinks he's nailed the coronavirus response Nexhmije Hoxha, who remained a staunch and unrepentant defender of her husband, Enver Hoxha, whose four-decade control of Albania made it one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world, died Feb. 26 at her home near the country's capital of Tirana. She was 99. Her son Ilir Hoxha issued a statement announcing her death, which was confirmed by Agence France-Presse and other news organizations. The cause was not disclosed. Hoxha - her name was pronounced nedge-ME-yuh HOH-jah - was at her husband's side as he built Albania into a communist state under his sole dominion, beginning in 1944. By many accounts, she was virtually an equal partner to her husband as they consolidated power, closed off the country to outside influence and exacted harsh retribution on dissidents who questioned their dictatorial authority. She did not hold official public office, but she was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee and, for many years, director of the country's Institute for Marxist-Leninist Studies, a kind of think tank of communist orthodoxy. Hoxha's manipulative, coldblooded manner led some to call her the Lady Macbeth of Albania. "She could be very ruthless, even with people she knew very closely," Elidor Mehilli, an Albanian-born historian at the City University of New York's Hunter College, said in an interview. "In public, she seemed so reserved. But behind the scenes, she was very much a power to be reckoned with." During her husband's regime, Hoxha often pointed out, Albania's educational standards and industrial output rose. But he also imposed his tyrannical will on a small country of about 3 million people. He formed successive alliances with Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union (under Joseph Stalin) and China (under Mao Zedong) before breaking with all of them. With other communist societies becoming too accepting of Western values, in Hoxha's view, Albania would go its own way. The government became a cult of personality, with grandiose statues of Enver Hoxha dotting the landscape. Hoxha helped edit more than 70 volumes of her husband's speeches and autobiographical musings. Travel to and from Albania was sharply restricted, and the country's telephone system was accessible only from nearby Greece and Italy. Religion was banned in 1967, leading to the demolition of hundreds of churches and mosques. Fearing invasion, Enver Hoxha had more than 150,000 concrete bunkers built throughout the country. Albania's secret police rounded up anyone suspected of not giving proper obeisance to the government and its leaders. In one of the more notorious examples, four petroleum engineers refused to drill for oil in a location where there were no oil deposits. They were tortured and sentenced to 25 years in prison for defying government orders. Citing a study from a Tirana-based institute examining communist-era repression, Mehilli noted that more than 90,000 Albanian citizens were sent to labor camps or imprisoned for political reasons. At least 6,000 were put to death. "Within this communist world," Mehilli said, "this was a particularly harsh Stalinist regime that did not soften." With most Albanians living in dreary poverty, the Hoxha family and other members of the party elite occupied an exclusive compound in Tirana. After the collapse of communism in the early 1990s, Albanians learned that the family villa was equipped with an indoor swimming pool, soundproof bedrooms and tunnels leading to underground bunkers. Hoxha and her husband had a substantial French-language library and multiple televisions on which they reportedly watched video feeds of the interrogation and torture of political prisoners. Beginning in the 1970s, the chain-smoking Enver Hoxha was in failing health, and his wife assumed a larger, if unacknowledged, role in running the government, including the surveillance of political opponents. When a onetime friend was jailed, Hoxha reportedly replied, "Shut your mouth and eat the piece of bread we are giving you." After Enver Hoxha's death in 1985, a handpicked successor took over as president, with Hoxha still exerting a powerful influence over the country's ideological direction. In 1991, as communism was collapsing across Eastern Europe, the regime finally came to an end. Emboldened citizens held public rallies, pulled statues of Enver Hoxha off their pedestals and dragged them through the streets. "I have no protection from the mob," Hoxha lamented after she was arrested in 1991. "Sometimes they shout abuse." She was convicted of misusing government funds and sentenced to nine years in prison. When Hoxha was released in 1997, after five years, she continued to call her husband "an ideal leader." "Until the very last day," Mehilli said, "she defended her husband and his legacy. She didn't have any kind of regret at all." Nexhmije Xhuglini was born Feb. 8, 1921, to an Albanian family in Bitola in what is now North Macedonia, a country that was once part of Yugoslavia. She and Enver Hoxha, who was almost 13 years her senior, met at a Communist Party meeting in 1941. They were married in 1945. Survivors include three children and several grandchildren. In recent years, Albania has adopted capitalism and a multiparty democratic system of government. But, according to Mehilli, the country is beset by corruption, the departure of hundreds of thousands of citizens and the lingering effects of a brutal regime. In her final years, Hoxha wrote her memoirs and tried to burnish her husband's image. "Enver Hoxha was not a dictator," she told Agence France-Presse in 2008. "What should I be ashamed of? Why ask for a pardon? I do not regret anything and there is nothing I should feel guilty for." New Delhi, March 5 : Student housing company Stanza Living on Wednesday said that is has expanded its operations to provided customised living spaces for working professionals starting with facilities in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Coimbatore. "Starting with a combined 10,000 beds capacity across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Coimbatore, this will be a separate business line designed around the lifestyle needs of working professionals," the company said in a statement. The company said that it will invest Rs 150 crore over a period of one year for working professional category. Anindya Dutta, MD and Co-founder, Stanza Living said: "Like our student offering, we have invested in understanding the nuanced needs of working professionals and will be launching a separate product offering designed for their lifestyle requirements. We are on target to grow this category multifold and consolidate our position as India's largest shared living operator." The company is also exploring preferred residence-partner engagement with over 15 companies, for its working professionals category. Cabinet of Ministers should develop the plan and submit it to the National Security and Defense Council President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky approved the structure of Ukraine's defense plan. This was stated in the presidential decree 61/2020, published on the website of the President's Office. "In accordance with part three of Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine On defense of Ukraine I hereby declare: to approve the structure of the plan of defense of Ukraine, the message reads. It is noted that the text is being added for official use. Zelensky instructed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to ensure the development of a defense plan with the participation of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine and the National Bank, in accordance with the structure, approved by the decree, and submit it to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. As we reported earlier, Defense Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk expects that Ukraine will join the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Plan in October 2020. The accession of Ukraine to the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Plan is expected in October. It will be a great step for us. They also understand it and due to these reasons support it. There, in EOP, are a number of benefits for us, the minister said. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday arraigned Oladeji Henry and his wife, Omotayo, before an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos, over an alleged N555,820 million fraud. Arraigned alongside their company, Built Global Concepts, the couple were charged with a seven-count of conspiracy to steal and stealing contrary to sections 411,280(2)(f),280(1)(b) and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 The prosecuting counsel, Bilkisu Bihari, told the court that the defendants, in 2018, converted to the use of one Abiodun Henry N410,170 million property of Mmart Investors Club. The prosecutor further stated that the couple dishonestly converted N70 million property of a man, Julius Ekonorue. According to the charge sheet, That you Oladeji Henry, Omotayo Henry and Built Global Concepts Limited sometimes on or about 2018 in Lagos within Ikeja Judicial Division conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly converted to the use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the total sum of N410,170 million property of smart investors club. That you, Oladeji Henry, Omotayo Henry and Built Global Concepts Limited sometimes on or about 2018 in Lagos within the Ikeja judicial division conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly convert to the use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the sum of 70 million property of Julius Ekonorue That you Oladeji Henry, Omotayo Henry and Built Global Concepts Limited sometimes sometimes on or about 2018 in the Lagos within the Ikeja judicial division conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly converted to use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the sum of N15 million property of Adebola Omotosho. That you Oladeji Henry, Omotayo Henry and Built Global Concepts Limited sometimes on or about the 5th of November 2018 in Lagos within the Ikeja judicial division conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly convert to the use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the total sum of N21,300 million property of Teniola Reuben. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Following their not guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court for a trial date and asked that the defendants be remanded in a correctional facility. Richard Ahonaruogho, counsel to the defendants, told the court that there is a bail application pending before the court. He said the application was filed on Wednesday morning because the prosecution served the charges to his clients on Tuesday. The charges had been filed before the court since January 27. The judge, Mojisola Dada, adjourned till March 9 for hearing of the bail application. She ordered that the defendants be remanded in Kirikiri Correctional Facility pending hearing of the application. Netanyahus first option will be to seek out defectors from parties that are not in his right-wing bloc, lawmakers who are looking for a better deal or who are sick of the continued stalemate. Scooping up such individuals is perhaps the most elegant solution, but there are some constraints for Knesset members wanting to switch to one party after being elected with another. The Kuwait Olympic Committee Tuesday said the Gulf Olympic Games slated to take place in April have been postponed to December owing to the Coronavirus outbreak, which has affected 56 people in the Gulf country. The decision aims to ensure the public interests and the safety of athletes, executives and technicians, the committee said in a press statement relayed by Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA). The participating countries in the event are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Kuwait has joined the list of dozens of countries around the world to be infected by the virus which first emerged in China where it has killed over 2,900 people, mainly in the city of Wuhan; the epicenter of the outbreak. The Gulf country has confirmed 56 cases including 10 new reported on Monday. The virus also known as Covid-19 entered the country from Iran. Iran, with 77 deaths, is after China the country with the largest number of deaths caused by the virus. Kuwait has closed its borders to all nationalities except foreigners holding legal residency permits; but those who recently visited an infected country are barred from entering. The decision comes at the start of Umras high season which begins with the Islamic month of Ragab, starting 25 February, and reaches its peak regarding the number of reservations in the following two months Egyptian religious tourism companies were in disarray after Saudi Arabia suspended travel to the holy sites for the minor pilgrimage (Umra) over fears of the spread of the coronavirus. The decision comes at the start of Umras high season which begins with the Islamic month of Ragab, starting 25 February, and reaches its peak regarding the number of reservations in the following two months of Shaaban and Ramadan. Saudi Arabias decision temporarily stops foreigners from visiting the holy city of Mecca where the Kaaba is located. The decision also halted travel to Prophet Mohameds mosque in the Saudi city of Medina, which is usually included in the Umra programme. Saudi authorities, moreover, suspended entry into the kingdom of those with tourist visas from nations affected by the viral epidemic. We agree with the decision and are optimistic about the return of travel traffic. The decision is effective basically until the precautionary measures are taken in Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Abdel-Fattah, chairman of Jaunt in Time (JIT) Travel tourism company, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Certainly there are losses for most tourism companies, especially those specialised in religious tourism. Most tourism companies are now suffering from a lack of liquidity because they are obliged to return reservation fees to those who do not wish to postpone their Umra until travel returns, Abdel-Fattah said. He added that his company is giving two suggestions to clients: either cancel Umra and get a refund or postpone it. Egypts Consumer Protection Authority said in a statement over the weekend that tourism agents and airlines are obliged to refund Egyptian pilgrims whose trips have been cancelled in accordance with the consumer protection law. The Egyptian Travel Agents Association said in media statements that it is adhering to the Saudi decision and that it is currently working to ensure that Egyptians are refunded for their cancelled trips. Despite the obligation, not all religious tourism companies have the liquidity to refund Umra reservation fees. An Egyptian pilgrim whose flight to Saudi Arabia had been scheduled for last week, Thursday, said: The flight was cancelled due to the Saudi decision which was taken earlier on the same day of the flight. The company did not return my money, it told me that flights are postponed as a temporary measure and that travel by pilgrims will start again, he told the Weekly. One board chairman of a religious tourism company who asked to remain anonymous said that his company is financially strapped due to the suspension of the Umra. The would-be pilgrim pays about 75 per cent of reservation fees in the early steps of reserving, and the rest is paid after a visa is issued, the chairman said. A large sum of the underpayments are usually already spent on salaries and other travel agency costs, he explained, adding that he hasnt figured out how to refund the money after it has already been spent. Losses would exceed all limits if the decision to stop flights continues for the months of Shaaban and Ramadan, he noted. In an attempt to ease the strain, Saudi Arabia on Sunday opened a new online system to enable Umra pilgrims whose trips have been cancelled to get refunds for their visas and other service fees associated with them. The authorised pilgrimage agents in various countries will be allowed to submit an electronic request to reclaim fees paid by travellers, Saudis Hajj and Umra Ministry announced in a statement. On Monday, Saudi Arabia confirmed its first case of coronavirus and became the last Arab state in the Gulf to report COVID-19. The epidemic has killed over 3,000 people worldwide the vast majority in mainland China and infected more than 90,000 globally. Saudi Arabia renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus, and urges its citizens to exercise caution before travelling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement announcing the decision to suspend the Umra. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it had prepared 25 hospitals, which include 2,200 beds dedicated to quarantined patients, to handle any coronavirus cases that might be detected in the kingdom, part of precautionary measures which include closing its borders to foreign Umra pilgrims. On the same day Saudi Arabia announced its decision, Egypts Dar Al-Iftaa, the countrys religious authority responsible for issuing fatwas, said that it backs Saudi Arabias decision and firmly supports the kingdoms efforts to preserve the safety and stability of religious rites. The decision is in line with the provisions of Islamic Sharia to protect the lives and safety of pilgrims, the prestigious Islamic institution said in a statement. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the title: Virus upends Umra Search Keywords: Short link: A car backed by 5G technology runs during a road test at the end of 2019 in north Chinas Hebei province. (Photo/Xinhua) Eleven ministerial-level authorities, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, recently released a set of guidelines pertaining to the development of smart vehicles. According to the document, China will basically finish establishing standards for autonomous vehicles covering such aspects as technological innovation, industrial ecology, infrastructure, supervision and network safety by 2025. Analysts say smart vehicles will play a more important role in peoples lives as the demand for 5G technology and artificial intelligence rises day by day. Currently, China has built at least 20 pilot zones for self-driving technologies in cities and provinces such as Beijing, Jilin province, Liaoning province, Jiangsu province, Shanghai, Zhejiang province, and Hunan province. Moreover, domestic car manufacturers have moved to develop autonomous driving technologies. Cherys L2 self-driving cars have achieved scale production, and by 2025, the carmaker will apply the L4 technologies, according to an executive with Chery. Starting in 2020, Geely will achieve L3 level autonomous driving on 350,000 kilometers of highways, 22,000 kilometers of elevated urban roads and 30 cities across the country, according to Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Auto Group. Many auto manufacturers have expressed that the newly released blueprints provide a clear roadmap for the development of China's smart car industry through top-level design, and also bring to enterprises more confidence and determination to invest in the development of smart cars. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Philippines' close ties with China under the Duterte administration has paved the way for the entry of "dirty money" in the Philippines, Senator Richard Gordon said Wednesday. Gordon, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said authorities kept their hands tied on all posible money laundering activities in the country. "This would never happen if the administration was not too soft on China," Gordon told reporters, citing the supposed inaction of the Anti-Money Laundering Council on the billions of pesos' worth of laundered money in the country. "There is a patina of doubt na dahil nga malapit si Presidente sa China, kaya 'yung mga tao, 'Hindi ako gagalaw kasi 'yung Presidente ko malapit sa Chinese," he added. [Translation: There is a patina of doubt that just because the President is Close to China, people will not move because the President is close to the Chinese.] On Tuesday, Gordon bared that 47 individuals, mostly Chinese nationals, arrived in the Philippines carrying $447 million or 22.7 billion, citing information from the Bureau of Customs. He said this huge amount could be linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators in the country. On the other hand, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte can suspend POGO operations the same way he ordered a stop to lotto games over "massive corruption." "The President, if you remember, suspended operations of lotteries when he received certain complaints of anomalies. Kung talagang grabe na ang complaints may gagawin si Presidente diyan [If there are really too many complaints then the President will do something about that]," said Panelo. However, he said he has yet to consult Duterte about it. Panelo also maintained there is no special treatment for Chinese nationals but he did not directly respond when asked if the government feels insulted over their illegal activities in the country. "What is important is we respond to whatever allegations of corruption or practice, we prosecute them," said the spokesperson. Gordon added that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Duterte already talked to each other about the matter. "Secretary Carlos Dominguez already had a conversation with the President and is already preparing na alisin ang POGOs or put limits into it. I hope he is correct. Because if the President acts lahat susunod 'yan," he said. Last month, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said the Chinese government has obtained a list of its nationals suspected of committing cybercrimes outside China, including the Philippines. Senator Risa Hontiveros also revealed that some Chinese POGO workers conspired with immigration personnel to dodge background checks upon entering the country, paying bribes under what is billed as "pastillas" scheme. The Bureau of Internal Revenue earlier revealed that over 27 billion worth of tax liabilities remain uncollected from the POGO sector. Ghana has raised $3bn as part of a new eurobond issued on February 4. The issuance was almost five times oversubscribed and attracted around $14bn in bids.[i] It consists of a $750m tranche with an average life of 40 years at a yield of 8.875%, the longest ever from a sub-Saharan country, accompanied by a $1bn segment with an average maturity of 14 years, yielding at 8%, and $1.25bn of debt with a life of six years and a yield of 6.375%. The bond, which followed a $1bn issuance in mid-2019, was dominated by US and European fund managers, according to local media.[ii] Fund managers accounted for around 90% of those involved in the issuance, followed by banks and pension fund managers. Restructure of energy payments Following the successful raising of the debt, government officials have indicated they will use the money to move forward with flagship programmes. In particular, the government is looking to improve the efficiency of the energy industry by restructuring the countrys obligations to independent power producers (IPPs).[iii] Speaking to local media shortly after the bond issuance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, said the government planned to spend up to $1bn of the eurobond on renegotiating supply deals with IPPs. At present Ghana has a series of take-or-pay agreements, which often mean that the state is billed for unused energy. Given that power capacity is almost double the countrys peak demand, it is estimated that Ghanas electricity utility pays IPPs around $450m a year for energy that it does not use. Officials hope that a successful renegotiation of existing contracts will help streamline electricity supply, which has been highlighted as one of the principal conditions of ongoing economic development and growth.[iv] Reduction of debt levels In addition to restructuring power deals, Ofori-Atta revealed that an estimated $1bn of the proceeds would be put towards retiring expensive legacy debt. The minister said the funds would help to pay off maturing debts from previous eurobonds, ultimately reducing the countrys debt burden.[v] The announcement comes amid concerns over Ghanas rising debt levels, which reached GHS214.9bn ($39.2bn) at the end of November last year. This was equivalent to 62.1% of GDP, according to the Bank of Ghana (BoG), up from 57.9% a year earlier. The IMF and World Bank have both expressed concerns about the growing debt, warning that the country risks moving into a high-debt-distressed status. Despite these concerns, Ofori-Atta, speaking to international media after the bond issuance, said he was confident that current government reforms would reduce future debt levels, and stated that borrowing was necessary to help carry out the governments long-term strategies. He identified two factors the inefficient energy sector payment plan and the clean-up of the financial sector[MOU1] as the major contributors to the countrys increasing debt.[vi] Launched in 2017, the BoG has revoked the licences of some 420 financial institutions found guilty of malpractice as it seeks to restore confidence in the banking and financial services sector.[vii] While it is seen as a crucial step towards strengthening the sector, the cost of the clean-up is estimated at around 3% of GDP.[viii] Funding the ongoing infrastructure development Government officials have said that the remaining funds from the bond will be allocated to infrastructure development, in particular road and rail. The area has been a significant focus in recent years, as Ghana looks to establish itself as a regional logistics centre for West Africa. The 2020 budget earmarked GHS9.3bn ($1.7bn) for infrastructure, equivalent to 2.3% of GDP and 53.5% higher than the previous years outlays.[ix] With 2020 dubbed the Year of the Roads, government officials say that funding will go towards the construction or rehabilitation of 150 projects nationwide, with an emphasis on improving road connections in key agricultural areas. The authorities plan to forge ahead with major rail projects such as the 97.3-km, $400m Tema-Mpakadan Railway project, which will link Tema Port, Ghanas main maritime hub, with Lake Volta. Meanwhile, work will also continue on the construction and rehabilitation of both standard and narrow-gauge rail lines in the west and east of the country.[x] [i] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-04/ghana-markets-sub-saharan-africa-s-longest-eurobond-to-date [ii] https://www.myjoyonline.com/business/2020/february-7th/us-fund-managers-dominate-ghanas-eurobond-sale-purchases.php [iii] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-10/ghana-to-use-1-billion-of-bond-proceeds-for-energy-debt-talks [iv] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Ghana-to-commit-1-billion-Eurobond-proceeds-to-address-energy-sector-challenges-Minister-860461 [v] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Eurobond-cash-to-be-used-to-payoff-IPP-contracts-others-862438 [vi] https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/finance/finance-minister-assures-that-the-dollar3-billion-eurobond-will-not-increase-ghanas/mvpw08f [vii] https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/will-ghana%E2%80%99s-financial-sector-clean-build-stronger-banking-system [viii] https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/finance/finance-minister-assures-that-the-dollar3-billion-eurobond-will-not-increase-ghanas/mvpw08f [ix] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/2020-Budget-GH-9-3bn-earmarked-for-infrastructure-799111 [x] Ghana 2020, page 171-2 [MOU1]Add hyperlink: https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/will-ghana%E2%80%99s-financial-sector-clean-build-stronger-banking-system Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The building will still have 112 micro apartment units but it will now be three stories rather than two, he said. The footprint and layout will be roughly the same, he said. WASHINGTON - Democrat Steve Bullock, the Montana governor who has insisted he wont run for the Senate, is poised to do just that, according to two people familiar with his plans. Bullock has long been a Democratic favourite and has been heavily wooed to take on Republican Sen. Steve Daines. Democrats are straining to win back the Senate and they see a Bullock matchup with Daines as key to that strategy. Daines is increasingly allied with President Donald Trump and got a shoutout from the president Wednesday. Bullock, who made an unsuccessful run in the crowded Democratic presidential primary, has until next Mondays filing deadline to formally announce his bid. Bullock is in close discussions with his family as he makes the decision, according to one person close to the governor. Two people confirmed the planning, as first reported by The New York Times, but were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. Democrats have courted Bullock for months, even before dropped his presidential bid in December. He met with former President Barack Obama during a trip to Washington, and the Senates Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, made a visit to the West last month for more talks, the people said. But Bullock also is a dad with school-age children and had emphatically said in the past he would not be relocating to Washington for the Senate. Bullock would be the most prominent Democrat in a primary race that also includes Cora Neumann, a public health expert, and Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins. A matchup in the Mountain West state as part of this falls battle for the Senate would be potentially intense. On Wednesday, Daines enjoyed a ripple of activity. In the morning, Trump tweeted his support for Daines, who met with the president last week at the White House. The great people of Montana can have no better VOICE than Senator @SteveDaines, the president tweeted. He warned, Whoever the Democrat nominee may be, please understand that I will be working hard with Steve all the way. Later, Daines and another Republican incumbent facing a tough reelection campaign, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, rolled out a public lands funding package important to Montana and other Western states. The plan is notable because it provides funding for public lands that Trump has suggested cutting in past budgets. They said they have Trumps backing for the funding. Daines campaign spokesperson Julia Doyle said: Were ready to win this race. Senator Daines has a proud record of delivering results, protecting our way of life, and always putting Montana First. ___ Volz reported from Helena, Montana. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump donated his quarterly salary to the Department of Health and Human Services at a time when the agency is responding to the global outbreak of the coronavirus, the White House said Tuesday. Trump "made a commitment to donate his salary while in office," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham posted Tuesday to Twitter. Grisham said he chose HHS to support "the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus." The president faced criticism for his initial response to the outbreak when he appeared to contradict health officials in his own administration about the scope of the virus. At a rally last week, Trump described concerns about the virus as a "hoax," and then later said he was referring to the Democratic response to the outbreak. More: Health officials tell Donald Trump that coronavirus vaccine is at least a year away When he was running for office, Trump pledged he wouldn't accept his $400,000 annual presidential salary if elected. But because he has to be paid under law, he has been donating the payment to different areas of the federal government. Trump has previously donated his salary to HHS, including during his first year in office. Trump's critics mocked the gift. "This is a meaningless gimmick," tweeted Robert Maguire, research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "President Trump's decision not to divest his businesses netted him $434 million in personal revenue in 2018 alone the last year for which data is available. That's a thousand times more than his presidential salary." More: President Trump donates $100,000 of his salary to Surgeon General's office Contributing: Jayne O'Donnell, David Jackson, Courtney Subramanian President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he leaves the White House on Tuesday, March 3. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump donates 4Q salary to HHS amid outbreak Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are holding up their reputations as the hardest working members of the royal family in 2020. Last year, Charles appeared in a grand total of 521 engagements, slightly ahead of his younger sister, Princess Anne. Starting in mid-March, Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, have an incredible 50 public engagements lined up and theyre finishing them all in a matter of just nine days. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles | Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles increase their royal workloads For 2019, Prince Charles took the crown as the hardest-working member of the monarchy, attending 15 more events than his younger sister. With Queen Elizabeth turning 94 years old and Charles being first in line to the throne, his increased workload will continue in the years to come. Over the past decade, the Prince of Wales has been taking on more responsibility as he gets ready to lead the monarchy. Although he has waited longer than anyone in British history to take the crown, the Prince of Wales is clearly getting ready for the day he becomes King. Camilla has also significantly increased her workload over the years and often appears with Charles at public events. Once Prince Charles is on the throne, Camilla will take on the title of Queen Consort. With that in mind, it is not a big shocker that Charles and Camilla have such a packed schedule. But his upcoming tour with Camilla is about as busy as it gets for a senior member of the royal family. Prince Charles plans for a busy March Despite being in their 70s, Charles and Camilla have lined up a busy tour for March. The couple will visit The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Republic of Cyprus starting on March 17. According to Hello Magazine, Prince Charles and Camilla have a whopping 50 stops planned for the tour over the course of just 9 days. And before they start their trip, the pair is scheduled to attend events in Herzegovina and Bosnia. The couple is going to Cyprus to raise awareness of the UN Peacekeeping Force. They will also put the spotlight on Cypriot culture during the first royal visit to the region since the early 1990s. Prince William and Kate Middleton came close to staying in Cyprus in 2018, but they technically visited RAF Akrotiri, which is a British Overseas Territory. Charles and Camilla, meanwhile, have multiple stops planned in the Larnaca district and the Troodos mountains. How are Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wrapping up their tour? During the last part of their tour, Charles and Camilla will visit with King Abdullah and Queen Rania in Jordans capital of Amman. The main focus of their stay in Amman will be to learn how the country is helping refugees. This, of course, is hardly the first time the couple has visited Jordan. Charles enjoyed several engagements in the country in 2015 while Camilla last appeared in Jordan in 2013. The couples tour is set to wrap up on March 25, but their busy year is only beginning. If they keep pace with what they did last year, Prince Charles and Camilla have the bulk of their work ahead of them. Is Prince Harry following in his fathers shoes? While Charles and Camilla prepare for their upcoming tour, some royal experts believe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are following in their shoes. Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have taken a lot of heat over their decision to leave the royal family. Although the two are still dealing with the backlash, royal expert Kate Thornton has argued that they will eventually win back public support just like Prince Charles and Camilla. Its worth thinking about here, though, if we rewind 20 years, whoever thought we would see Camilla being embraced by the public and the family? Thornton shared. Who knows what the next 20 years bring in terms of how these roles evolve. As royal watchers will recall, Prince Charles and Camilla were among the most disliked members of the royal family following his divorce from Princess Diana, which was, in part, due to their affair. It took years for the couple to change their public image, and the same will likely hold true for Harry and Meghan. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are scheduled to step down as active members of the royal family at the end of March, following a few appearances with Prince Charles, Prince William, and the rest of the royal family. The race for Webb County Tax Assessor-Collector was highly contested by Patricia Barrera and Rosie Cuellar as Cuellar finished ahead by only 30 votes. Cuellar received 44.75% or 13,018 votes and Barrera received 44.64% or 12,988 votes. As a result of neither receiving 50% of the vote, both Barrera and Cuellar will continue their campaign until May for a runoff election. Amalia Quintana Valdez was also running for the position but trailed behind with approximately 10% or 3,087 votes. Im not mad, not sad, it all depends on all what God wants, Valdez said. I do want to thank everybody who voted for me. Im happy, I feel happy. Barrera, 67, resigned her position of Tax Assessor after 25 years in order to run for Webb County Judge against Tano Tijerina. After losing the race, she is now vying for her former position. Well wait for the people who voted today, but well be happy with whatever votes we get, Barrera said. Cuellar, 54, became an attorney in 1993 and is the current Webb County Tax Assessor-Collector. She was sworn into her position on Dec. 27, 2018. Im not a stranger to a runoff, Im not a stranger to working hard, Cuellar said. I think that I should win that because that office it has to do with the character of a person, it has to do with professionalism, integrity and dedication to this community, and Ive shown that. The chief duties of this elected official is to collect property taxes for the County of Webb, and other entities: Laredo Community College, the City of Rio Bravo, the City of El Cenizo and the Webb County Drainage District No. 1. Other functions of the Webb County Tax Assessor-Collector is to serve as an agent of the State of Texas in the Motor Vehicle Division of Titles and Registration, and for the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission in collecting fees on Beer, Liquor and Mixed Beverage Licenses. The Tax Office also collects Hotel/Motel Occupancy taxes for Webb County. Christian Ocampo may be reached at cocampo@lmtonline.com Much of the media discussion about coronavirus revolves around diagnosis and management of suspected cases. But the first piece of advice that is essential for anyone worried about contracting the coronavirus is something your grandparents might have suggested: wash your hands. It's at the top of the list of many of the players trying to prevent the spread of the disease. This includes the World Health Organisation (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities around the world. But, ask the cynics, could preventing the spread of disease really be as simple as washing my hands? The answer is yes. Because the science says so. Hand washing is a tried and true, scientifically proven preventive strategy that reduces the likelihood of transmitting both viral and bacterial borne diseases. It has been shown to decrease both respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases in countries across the world. One review found that hand washing reduced diarrhoea cases by 30%. This is because it prevented bacteria being transmitted from faeces to the mouth. It may seem like a low-cost and incredibly simple intervention. But not emphasising it would be a huge missed opportunity. Read more: Why hand-washing really is as important as doctors say The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the following fivestep approach: 1) Wet your hands and turn off the tap (to save water), 2) Lather, 3) Rub your hands together for at least 20 seconds (possibly while singing Happy Birthday twice), 4) Rinse, and 5) Dry. Do this multiple times a day, especially before eating. Using hand sanitiser is another option, as long as it is composed of 60% or more alcohol. The benefits of hand washing over other preventive measures are clear: soap is easy to access. Both soap and an alcohol-based products for cleaning hands are cost effective interventions. But millions of us don't wash our hands as often and as well as we should. A study done in South Korea indicated that 93.2% of 2,800 survey respondents did not wash their hands after coughing or sneezing. The history The current outbreak of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported on 31 December 2019 in Wuhan, China. By early March 2020 more than 90,000 people from 71 countries had been infected. More than 3,000 people have died so far. It is not clear what the fatality rate is and this may not be known until the outbreak is over but it has been quoted as around 2.5% by the WHO. Other diseases carry much higher fatalities. For example, tuberculosis claims the lives of 4,100 people worldwide every day. And the Ebola virus fatality rate is 50% . Nevertheless, the spread of the new virus has set off alarm bells, with China famously building two hospitals in 10 days , cruise ships being quarantined and cities effectively being shut down . The reason for the panic is that Corona-19 (more correctly named SARS-CoV-2) is a newly discovered virus. We don't know exactly how infectious it is or who is at risk and why. As the WHO director-general said: we are entering uncharted territory . Apart from hand washing it's important to try not to touch one's face and not shake hands. Face masks are really only useful for those who already have the virus or are caring with someone known to have the virus. Proper use of face masks is explained by the WHO. Consideration should also be given to the fact that a run on medical masks could cause a shortage for public health-care workers who need them for protection against other diseases such as drug-resistant TB. This is particularly true in South Africa. What the science says about hand washing Research shows that hand washing isn't just effective in preventing transmission of coronavirus. MIT recently conducted a study to identify the most effective mitigation strategy for hand hygiene that could contribute most to the reduction of global epidemic risk. Researchers used modelling and datadriven simulations. The study found that if 60% of travellers moving through airports worldwide had clean hands, global disease spread could be curbed by almost 70%. And if this rate could be maintained in only 10 of the busiest airports internationally, an astounding 37% of infections could be prevented. Research has also shown that hand washing can prevent about 30% of diarrhoea-related sicknesses and about 20% of respiratory infections . Some scientists go as far as to argue that 80% of diseases can be prevented by proper hand washing. Not everyone is convinced. Hand washing has been treated with scepticism as a significant disease prevention and eradication measure by some who favour hard science interventions. This is not without precedent. A Hungarian-born physician in the mid-19th century, Ignaz Semmelweis , was ostracised and shunned by his colleagues because he was so bold as to make a link between decreased maternal mortality and hand washing for doctors who went directly from the dissection halls to deliver babies. Huge gaps Despite the growing body of research showing its effectiveness, hand washing habits are inadequate. The MIT study assumes that 30% of people do not wash their hands at all after using a bathroom, and that correct hand washing is practised at such low rates that only 20% of people in airports actually have clean hands. In South Africa, a national hand hygiene behaviour strategy estimated that only 20% of South Africans washed their hands with soap at critical times such as before, during and after preparing food, after going to the toilet, after sneezing or coughing, after touching animals, after changing nappies of babies, and after caring for an ill person. Hand washing is simple and should already be part of everyone's daily routine. If it became a habit for everyone in the world, it would not just prevent mortality and illness from coronavirus. It could be the start of a more viable strategy to prevent death from other bacterial and viral diseases. While the full implications of this global pandemic are still unfolding, and a vaccine has yet to be developed, we need to act without delay using the one tool we already have. Karen Hofman currently receives research funding from the IDRC (Canada), UK Wellcome Trust, UK National Institutes for Health Research, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the South African Medical Research Council. In the past, she has also received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO and UNFPA. Susan Goldstein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Karen Hofman, Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand And Susan Goldstein, Professor at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand Several products made by manufacturers in Morgan and Cass counties are in the running to be declared Coolest Thing Made in Illinois. The Illinois Manufacturers Association has launched its first Makers Madness contest, a bracket-style competition in which Illinois-made products compete for the title. Around 260 products are competing for a spot on the Sweet 16 bracket, including well-known products such as Tootsie Rolls and Kraft Mac & Cheese alongside products made by smaller manufacturers. Kristin Jamison, president of Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corp., said multiple products are manufactured in Morgan and Cass counties, from supermarket mainstays such as Nestle Coffee-Mate creamers, which are manufactured in Jacksonville, to items that are more regionally based. The Big Eli Ferris Wheel, bug repellent and a machine used to recycle wood pallets are contestants developed by Jacksonville manufacturers. Khara Koffel, co-owner of Serious Lip Balm, said her bug repellent, The Bug Stuff, is unique because it is a solid balm that a person applies to pulse points rather than an all-over body spray. Using the balm, which has been on the market for two years, has been easier with her 6-year-old child than using a spray, she said. Koffel also cited a customer who worked on the river in Meredosia during a gnat outbreak last summer, who told her the balm was the best bug repellent for the job. The balm is all-natural, Koffel said, noting it was a deliberate choice on her part because other bug repellents contain chemicals that worry her. Koffel first heard about the contest from a friend and from supporters of the business on social media, who encouraged Serious Lip Balm to enter the contest. Being a part of the competition is an honor no matter the outcome, she said. Even if they dont vote for you, its just a pleasure and an honor to be on the list. Koffel said. Jeff Williams, president of The PRS Group, said his company manufactures machinery that recycles wood palettes by sorting them, repairing them or cutting the pallet apart into reusable components. The recycled pallet lumber is put into other pallets, either through repairs or by manufacturing new pallets. The machinery reduces the amount of wood that goes in landfills and the number of trees that would be chopped down as a result, Williams said. The machinery is sold in 40 countries. The company decided to enter the contest as part of its 30th anniversary, Williams said, noting that the company relocated to Jacksonville after spending its first 12 years in Springfield. The Big Eli Ferris Wheel is manufactured by Jacksonvilles Eli Bridge Co. and Jacksonville Rotary Club maintains one of the companys wheels in Community Park. Gina Hayes, a Rotary board member and Ferris wheel committee chairperson, said Rotary helped spearhead the push to enter the Ferris wheel. Hayes said the wheel in Community Park has been in commission since 1907 and has traveled all over the world before settling in Jacksonville. She expects that the Ferris wheels placement in the contest could help Jacksonville tourism and bring Ferris wheel aficionados to visit Jacksonville. It was made here, its the pride of our community, its a historical treasure but still in operation, Hayes said. Tarps Manufacturing in Meredosia submitted a containment tarp and Westermeyer Industries in Bluffs entered a refrigeration item, Jamison said. JREDC got advance notice of the competition from the Illinois Manufactures Association, which allowed Jamison to reach out to manufacturers in her area, she said. The contest is an opportunity to promote what is manufactured in the region and introduce the products to a new audience, she said. Now she is hoping people in the region vote to support these manufacturers. Its a nice way to show that were proud of the manufactured goods in this area, she said. The winner of the contest will get statewide recognition and articles featuring the winner penned in the Illinois Manufacturers Associations trade journal, Jamison said. The vote to determine the top 16 runs until Sunday. The first round voting to determine the top eight will start Tuesday and continue until March 15. The second round will go from March 17 to March 22 and the final round will go from March 24 to March 29. People can vote online at makersmadnessil.com/cast-your-vote/. Police also confiscated syringes and other drug paraphernalia, the release said. The Lake County Drug Task Force received numerous tips, and as such it conducted surveillance and traffic stops over the last month, according to the release. The stops led to the arrests of more suspects, the release said. Another trap many organizations fall into is believing that the introduction of a mindfulness program can make up for significant underinvestment or inattention to employees actual working conditions, Dr. Worline said. She recalled visiting a major hospital system to help with a unit of doctors who were dealing with an increasing error rate in their work. After she ran a session for the team focused on compassion and restoring meaning to medicine, she discovered that the unit was short seven staffers and many employees were working double shifts. They very rightly said to me, You could sit here and talk to us about compassion all day long, its not going to make a difference in our stress levels, Dr. Worline said. No wellness management is going to work until you fix the working conditions for people there. In that case, wellness programs were a Band-Aid over a gaping wound. Still, Mr. Israel, the meditation expert, is confident that as stress levels in the workplace increase, so will the demand for this kind of programming. Last year, at a hospitality design conference in Hollywood, Fla., he presented in front of hundreds of people from the industry. Ninety-five percent of the people in the room had never meditated or done any of this before, and it was risky for the organizer to book me, but people loved it, he said. In these more traditional spaces where people are not in New York or Los Angeles, theyre starting to open up to this stuff. And through these sessions, some of them are finding practices they can replicate on a more regular basis. Mr. Santulli, the office manager at WayUp, said he would look into hosting a weekly mindfulness session for the whole staff. Stress and anxiety has been a big part of our life, and everything gets overwhelming sometimes, he said. This was the first time in a long time that I let go of this list of things I have to do, even for a moment. In wake of rising cases of novel coronavirus in India, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra on Wednesday chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to review preparedness and response on the COVID-19 disease. This was the latest in a series of stock-taking meetings at the PMO, with the first held on 25 January. The meeting emphasised on greater participation of the private sector and the community at large, through a Jan Bhagidari approach. It was highlighted that participation of the communities and local bodies is essential to combat the public health challenge posed by the virus. The PMO has decided to explore the greater involvement of private sector. Two important decisions taken today by the government and mentioned at the meeting include introduction of universal screening at all international airports and sea-ports through use of thermal imagery equipment, and mandatory filling of declaration forms of places visited by tourists and travellers returning from abroad. In last two days, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases have spiked to 28 from 6 on Monday. Of these 16 are Italians while 12 are Indian nationals. More than 3,100 people have died, most of them in China, and over 90,000 have been infected worldwide by the virus. According to PMO statement, the pro-active measures taken by the government have contained spread of the virus in India, despite a big population and geographical proximity to the epicentre of the disease. The PMO has decided to further enhance the effectiveness of the steps taken by adopting a pan-government approach, in partnership with the states. In the meeting, decisions were also taken to rapidly implement opening of proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country, down to the district level, in partnership with the state governments. "Ministries such as MHA, MoD, M/Railways and M/Labour would also seek to support and supplement the efforts of M/Health through use of their facilities and hospitals," as per PMO statement. In a bid to share information to the general public in a timely manner, including relevant advisories and 'Do's and Don't's', Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been tasked to work closely with Ministry of Health, Ministry of Human Resource Development and NDMA. For this purpose, Ministry of Health has started a system of regular daily briefings by their spokesperson, so as to ensure access to real time data for the public in a timely manner. Besides, it is also coordinating the activation of a GIS mapping of 'disease hotspots' and availability of medical facilities, with NDMA, relevant agencies and government departments. Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that "experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme". On March 3, PM Modi had urged people not to panic owing to new coronavirus cases reported from cities across India. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection. Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries & states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention." Also Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: PM Modi dives into coronavirus battle, review meet at PMO Also Read: Who has entered, who has exited India? This data can gauge coronavirus risk Many Italians, as well as foreigners living abroad, have stressed on social media that the most of nation is safe, and have tried to portray a country that is calm and managing still to enjoy its aperitivi. For those who still make it to the country, they find an Italy that is more Italian than ever, stripped of the Disneyland crowds in Venice and central Rome. Some in the tourism business make the argument that Italy is potentially safer than other European countries, because its testing for the virus has been so comprehensive, and the scale of the outbreak is better understood. T he Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoyed a romantic clifftop walk as they spent some quality time together in Ireland. Walking hand in hand and with a stunning coastline as a backdrop, William and Kate strolled along a path taking in the scenery. The couple could have been any other husband and wife admiring the views of the Howth Cliff walk, a popular tourist spot north of Dublin that attracts thousands of visitors every year. In brilliant winter sunshine they followed the trail to the summit which gave them panoramic views and hugged as they posed for a picture. Waiting at the top was Irelands environment minister Richard Bruton who greeted them after they completed the steep climb. Kate and William on their trip / PA After meeting the couple the politician said: They remarked on how you couldnt come to Ireland and not see the coastline so they got their wish. And they saw it in a benign light, normally there is a wind howling its really beautiful today, they couldnt be luckier. It came after William revealed today he had been inspired by his father to get out and lay hedgerows to improve the countryside. The future king revealed his secret pastime as he and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, visited the Teagasc Research Farm in Co Meath to learn more about its pioneering research to promote sustainable farming in Ireland. The couple were shown around by Edward ORiordan, Enterprise Leader, who explained that the two main aims of the centre were to explore more sustainable beef farming and study the molecular biology of the animals, seeing how their DNA affects their behaviour. Speaking after their meeting Mr ORiordan described the couple as "absolutely charming, so interesting and interested". He said: "They are a lovely couple. Really interested in what was happening, really well informed. We went through the issue of sustainable livestock production, the environment, society and economics and they were interested in all of that. "They showed a great depth of understanding of the subject. Very easy to talk to, very engaging, very related. You couldnt ask for a nicer couple. "The duke told me that he was very interested in hedging and hedge planting. He said that when he was vey young his father would take him out laying hedges but that he had now mastered the art, apparently, too. He says that he appreciates the art of planting hedges and the importance of it to the environment and the need to maintain forestry and wildlife." The pair visiting a village store / PA He added: "The Duchess was just a engaging, if not more so. So easy to talk to. Just lovely. "If you didnt know they were a royal collie you would just think they were nice young people." Dressed casually - the duchess in a Dubarry jacked and knee-high boots - first viewed a cattle field where there were several sets of young twins, apparently quite unusual for cows, and then the maternity shed. They also had the chance to chat to a group of local farmers. William asked them: "Are young people getting into farming? Does the future look bright?" Looking concerned as the farmer told him, one by one, no, he said: "The schools, they need to be more proactive in putting the message put about where our food comes from." He also asked: "Do you think people appreciate your role as custodians of the land. The importance of sustainable farming and hedgerows?" Before they left the couple met a group of schoolchildren from Kiltale National School who gave then a presentation about food, farming and nutrition Evelyn Donoghue, 12, said afterwards: "They were really interested and the duchess said a lot about our health had do with sleeping and getting outdoor and getting fresh air." Asked how it was to meet the couple, she declared: "Splendid!" As he left William said: "We want to do more on rural issues. We care about the countryside." Michael Creed, Minister for Agricultural, Food and Marines said the Irish government was hugely appreciative of the royal visit, particularly post Brexit. He said: "Our relationship with the UK at a political level are reflective of the broad ties that in bind us. We have had the Queen visit, Prince Charles and Camilla, so this is a continuation of the friendship. I think its really important still, perhaps more important, because of the changes. Its our long term mission to have a very close relationship with the UK, including a trading relationship." Ninety per cent of Irelands beef is exported, and of that around half goes to the UK. Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. A married high school teacher in Michigan has been jailed for four years for having sex with two teenage students and plying one of them with drugs. Kathryn Houghtaling, who was 26 at the time of the offenses, sexually assaulted the male students aged 16 and 17 when she was working as a special education and science teacher at Rochester High School. She had sex with the students on multiple occasions, at least one time in a car while other students watched, and another time in one of the victim's homes. She also plied one of the students with Xanax, with the victim's guardian telling the court the vulnerable teen came home 'high as a kite' after being with Houghtaling, while he was struggling to cope with the death of his mother. Kathryn Houghtaling (pictured in court Tuesday), who was 26 at the time of the offenses, sexually assaulted the male students aged 16 and 17 when she was working as a special education and science teacher at Rochester High School She was sentenced to 51 months to 180 months in prison after she pleaded no contest to six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with the boys Houghtaling, now 27, was also charged with providing a controlled substance to one of the boys Houghtaling, 27, was sentenced Tuesday to 51 months to 180 months in prison after she pleaded no contest to six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with the boys. She was also charged with providing a controlled substance to one of the boys. The abuse took place between November 1 and December 31 2018, with each of the incidents reportedly taking place outside of school hours and off school property. One of the teens was a student in her class. A complaint was made to the school district in January 2019, and Houghtaling was fired following an internal investigation and a criminal investigation was launched. Kathryn Houghtaling (pictured) had sex with the students on multiple occasions, at least one time in a car while other students watched, and another time in one of the victim's homes She struck a deal with the court this January, pleading no contest to the charges just before her trial was due to start. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such during sentencing. It meant that rather than the maximum sentence of 15 years, Houghtaling's team offered a lesser sentence of 51 months. Houghtaling at her arraignment in January 2019 The sentence came despite the pleas of prosecutors to come down heavily on the married woman, saying she had shown 'no remorse' for her abuse of power. Instead, she continues to blame the victims, prosecutors said, even making new claims that one of the boys had threatened to kill her, her husband and her dog and to burn down her house. The guardian of one of the boys told the court Tuesday how Houghtaling had preyed on the vulnerable student at a time when he was dealing with his mother's death just months before. He added that the former teacher had not only groomed the student but had gained the trust of the family, who thought she wanted to help the teen, according to a victim impact statement read out by the distraught uncle. The guardian of one of the boys told the court Tuesday how Houghtaling had preyed on the vulnerable student at a time when he was dealing with his mother's death just months before. He added that the former teacher had not only groomed the student but had gained the trust of the family The mother of the second victim also called for her son's abuser to face 'the maximum punishment.' She told how Houghtaling had sneaked into her house in the middle of the night to be with her son, and had given him alcohol and unauthorized rides home The judge agreed with the plea guidelines, sentencing Houghtaling to 51 months to 180 months for the criminal sexual conduct charges and 51 months to 96 months for the drug charge He choked back tears as he recounted one occasion when Houghtaling insisted she come to their house to cook a meal with the boy, and he later found his vulnerable nephew 'higher than a kite.' The mother of the second victim also called for her son's abuser to face 'the maximum punishment.' She told how Houghtaling had sneaked into her house in the middle of the night to be with her son, and had given him alcohol and unauthorized rides home. Houghtaling cried in court as she apologized for her crimes and admitted her 'actions betrayed the duties and responsibilities I had as a teacher.' The judge agreed with the plea guidelines, sentencing Houghtaling to 51 months to 180 months for the criminal sexual conduct charges and 51 months to 96 months for the drug charge. A District Court Judge called for action on derelict houses in Cork City's Boreenmanna Road yesterday stating that a number of people were coming before the court charged with squatting in properties there. Sergeant Gearoid Davis said there were two particular properties being used by homeless people for the purpose of squatting. Judge Olann Kelleher said that one of the derelict houses was the location for a recent murder investigation. That was the case where dismembered remains were found during the Christmas holiday period. Another derelict house was at the centre of cases involving two different defendants yesterday. Jamal Khan, 36, with an address at Cork Simon Community was found on February 14 at a derelict house on Boreenmanna Road, which he had entered a building as a trespasser. In another case yesterday, Jolanta Koterba, 48, of no fixed address, also pleaded guilty to trespassing at the same house on the same date. Koterba, Khan and two other men went into the house on that date. A neighbour alerted gardai who arrived at the scene. Sgt. Davis said there was no difficulty caused by the defendants when gardai arrived. Judge Kelleher said: It was at a house in this area where the alleged murder occurred. Something should be done about it. Some of the people going in (to derelict houses) were homeless people. Joseph Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said of Koterba: When asked to leave she caused no difficulties. The solicitor said Koterba had cleaned up her act considerably in recent times. Judge Kelleher said he would impose a four-month suspended sentence in her case. Khan was given a four-month jail term. In his case he was pleading guilty to public order offences arising out of several incident, some of which occurred very recently, including one at Cafe Mexicano in Cork City and on Clonakilty Road in Bandon. Khan admitted being threatening and abusive to Garda Robin Jose as well as being drunk and a danger during that incident in Bandon. Mr Cuddigan also represented Khan and said the defendant who is from Afghanistan had chronic alcoholism. Judge Kelleher said in Khans case, What concerns me is that he is now up to ten thefts, including two before the court today. Airports are investing billions of dollars in upgrading and expanding their safety and security systems to ensure effective and hassle-free management of passengers flow and cargo movements as they continue their upward curve globally. Airport Security has been changing diametrically as the fast pace of technology brings innovative products and services with the wider use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biometrics and Internet of Things (IoT). A digital transformation is currently taking place across the airport ecosystem to ensure that security systems are evolving apace with the security environment. Airports are looking at products and solutions that harness data, automation and connectivity to mitigate new security threats and better understand, anticipate and shape passenger behaviour. Insights into new airport security technologies will be in sharp focus at the Airport Security Conference being hosted as one of the three co-located events on Day 3 of the 20th edition of Airport Show in Dubai on June 24. Being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, over 375 companies from 94 countries are expected to participate in the show. A key conference for the Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF), the worlds leading airport B2B industry platform at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) will debate the widest range of security topics including Airport Cyber Security, Airport Security in Ground Operations and Safety and On-Time Performance and Protability. Major General Pilot Ahmed Bin Thani, assistant general commander for Ports Affairs at Dubai Police, remarked: Technology plays a key part to ensure an effective airport management and secure operations. Dubai continues to place top priority to a safe and smooth travel experiences for more than seven million passengers who use its two international airports every month. Airports and airlines always explore new ways to simplify the overall travel experience by adopting smart technologies and solutions like biometrics and automated checkpoints. Dubai continues to invest massively in deploying the best technology and smart solutions. Daniyal Qureshi, Group exhibition director at Reed Exhibitions Middle East, organisers of the Airport Show, said: Airport Security now requires best-in-class technology for greater speed and accuracy of data analysis, faster threat detection and passenger and cargo screening. In todays aviation industry, each and every airport requires to leverage the best technologies and improve security methodologies. The global airport security equipment market is expected to reach $18.42 billion by 2025, according to a study. According to a Sita and Airports Council International (ACI) survey, security is a top priority for over half of the worlds airports - more than 225 airports which together manage 2.3 billion passengers. Security is also a top most priority for Gulf airports which are expected to handle 450 million passengers this year, according to the ICAO. - TradeArabia News Service WASHINGTON -- Freedom House has assailed crackdowns on protesters in "authoritarian states," such as Russia and Iran, but also criticized traditional defenders of democracy -- including the United States -- for turning their backs on traditional safeguard roles to pursue "populist agendas." In its annual report released on March 4, the Washington-based human rights watchdog also said that twice as many countries suffered setbacks relating to political rights and civil liberties in 2019 than those making gains, marking what it called the 14th consecutive year of deterioration in global freedom. The country-by-country review, titled A Leaderless Struggle For Democracy, said North Macedonia ranked among nations recording the biggest gains in scores for rights and liberties, and it also cited hopeful signs with new leaders in Ukraine and Armenia. It said, meanwhile, that of the 49 countries listed as not free, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan ranked among the 10 worst. Democracy is under assault around the globe, and the effects are evident not just in authoritarian states like China, Russia, and Iran, but also in countries with a long track record of upholding basic rights and freedoms, the report said. Dictators are toiling to stamp out the last vestiges of domestic dissent and spread their harmful influence to new corners of the world, it said. At the same time, many freely elected leaders are dramatically narrowing their concerns to a blinkered interpretation of the national interest. In fact, such leaders -- including the chief executives of the United States and India, the worlds two largest democracies -- are increasingly willing to break down institutional safeguards and disregard the rights of critics and minorities as they pursue their populist agendas. In Russia, the report said, the ruling United Russia party won all of the years gubernatorial elections, mainly by preventing viable opposition candidates from running. Even in the Moscow City Council elections, which featured a successful strategic-voting campaign organized by dissident leader Aleksei Navalny, the votes lost by United Russia largely went to Kremlin-approved alternatives, the report said. The report likewise faulted parliamentary elections in Belarus and Uzbekistan, saying they also shut out any genuine opposition." In Kazakhstan, it noted that longtime President Nursultan Nazarbayev transferred power but lamented that it went to a hand-picked successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, through a rigged election and that a violent crackdown occurred when protests broke out against the move. Freedom House also said that, in Montenegro and Serbia, "independent journalists, opposition figures, and other perceived foes of the government faced ongoing harassment, intimidation, and sometimes violence," moves leading to large protests in both countries. Still, the report cited some hopeful indications in the region and within the former Soviet sphere. It said that despite the grim picture overall, some positive signs were evident in several of the regions partly free environments. Newly elected leaders who came to office as reform candidates -- including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of Armenia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine took initial steps to uproot the kleptocratic forces that have long stymied their countries democratic aspirations, according to the report. In Iran, the report said security forces killed hundreds of people and arrested thousands in a bid to stamp out anti-government protests in November. It said authorities there set a worrying new precedent with a near-complete Internet shutdown that suppressed media coverage and ordinary communications during the crisis. Ethnic, religious, and other minority groups have borne the brunt of government abuses in both democracies and authoritarian states, the report said. It said the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken its Hindu nationalist agenda to a new level, affecting different segments of its Muslim population, threatening the democratic future of a country long seen as a potential bulwark of freedom in Asia and the world. It called Chinas treatment of its Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking indigenous people in Xinjiang Province one of the years most appalling examples of domestic repression, labeling it a campaign of cultural annihilation. The report criticized the United States, which it said democracy advocates have traditionally turned to for support. It said the administration of President Donald Trump has failed to exhibit consistent commitment to a foreign policy based on the principles of democracy and human rights. The report said that, while Trump has denounced authoritarian abuses in countries such as Iran and Venezuela, he has excused clear violations by traditional security partners such as Turkey and Egypt. He has also given a pass to tyrannical leaders whom he hopes to woo diplomatically, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Every year, St. Patricks Day rolls around and cabbage prices plunge at area grocery stores. Let us commence with the eating of the green, yall. To prepare for the humble stalwart of the cruciferous kingdoms upcoming abundance, weve cooked up five recipes that celebrate cabbages wide range of culinary uses, from condiment to main course. All of these recipes are budget-friendly and can be prepared with about 30 minutes of active time. (And none of them involve corned beef.) Perhaps the most effective way to preserve a bounty of cabbage is with a batch of homemade sauerkraut. If youve never tried fermenting vegetables at home, its a simple and safe process that yields kraut with a bright flavor and excellent texture in as little as three days depending on the temperature. And because its not pasteurized in the canning process, homemade sauerkraut retains all of its probiotic benefits. If fermenting is still a step too far, weve got another way to keep cabbage past its typical shelf life. The classic Southern condiment chow chow is essentially pickled cabbage and other vegetables, usually a variety of peppers and green tomatoes, swimming in a tangy brine. Weve taken that template and shifted it firmly into the Texas kitchen with tomatillos standing in for the green tomatoes, a generous dose of jalapeno, and cumin and coriander seeds perfuming the pickling brine. The result is just at home alongside a smoky slice of brisket or topping a taco. On ExpressNews.com: 4 fish fry recipes for Lent without the fryer If its a fun and fast side dish you need, cabbage steaks are the answer. A simple slab of cabbage, brushed with a glaze of balsamic vinegar and mustard, becomes a fun and showy plate after a spin in the oven. And while that oven is fired up, consider our whole stuffed cabbage head. If you enjoy traditional Eastern European cabbage rolls, this recipe will ring all those familiar flavor bells, but in a far more amusing package. In recent years, chefs have embraced the smoky aroma of charred vegetables, and cabbage takes particularly well to some high-heat scorching. That distinct flavor contributes considerable depth to a simple chicken soup made from the carcass of a store-bought rotisserie chicken. If, by some chance, youre fighting off a virus (corona or otherwise), youll definitely appreciate a bowl of this one. Recipe: Chicken Soup with Charred Cabbage Recipe: Roasted Balsamic Cabbage Steaks Recipe: Roasted Stuffed Whole Cabbage Recipe: Tomatillo Chow Chow Recipe: Simple Home-Fermented Sauerkraut Paul Stephen is a food and drink reporter and restaurant critic in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen DALLAS, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Populus Financial Group announced that on March 10, 2020, it will provide financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019 to TMI Trust Company, the trustee under the Indenture dated as of December 15, 2017 governing the Company's 12% Senior Secured Notes due 2022. The Company also announced it will host a conference call for Noteholders on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CT to discuss the financial results. Noteholders should contact David Sternblitz, Vice President, Treasurer of Populus Financial Group to obtain access to the Company's financial statements and information concerning the conference call. About Populus Financial Group Populus Financial Group provides financial services through its family of brands including ACE Cash Express, ACE Elite Visa Prepaid Debit Card and ACE Flare Account by MetaBank. Populus Financial Group delivers a broad range of financial products and services including short-term consumer loans, card services, check cashing, money transfers, bill payments and money orders. Visit PopulusFinancial.com for more information. SOURCE Populus Financial Group Related Links http://www.acecashexpress.com The Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop project is still on the cards and it will be implemented using the Swiss Challenge Method, Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde told the Legislative Council on Wednesday. Conceptualised by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, the hyperloop project aims to reduce the travel time between Pune and Mumbai from around three hours to just 25 minutes and it would be the first such system in the world. Incidentally, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar last month had said the state government will consider the Hyperloop project if it is shown to be practicable in other countries. Pawar had pointed out that this futuristic mode of transport has not been implemented anywhere else in the world as yet. Shinde on Wednesday made the announcement in a written reply to a question raised by Congress MLC Sharad Ranpise and stated that the project will be implemented using Swiss Challenge Method. Under this method, an interested party initiates a proposal for a contract or the bid for a project, after which the government makes details of the project public and invites proposals from others. After receiving other bids, the original contractor gets an opportunity to match the best bid. A meeting of Dubai-based DP World officials, Pune district collector and other stakeholders had taken place on May 3, 2019, he said. "The meeting was about finalising a stretch of barren land from Gahunje to Ozarde for constructing a testing track," he said. The cost of the project is estimated at Rs 70,000 crore and it will be implemented by Virgin Hyperloop One. Shinde also admitted that Virgin group head Richard Branson had met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on December 12, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stan Bates, the one-time San Antonio oil-field services company executive who was charged with now-former state Sen. Carlos Uresti for defrauding investors, has lost his bid to get his 15-year prison sentence overturned. Bates, the former FourWinds Logistics CEO who masterminded a Ponzi scheme and pleaded guilty to eight felonies, had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside his sentence and to direct the U.S. District Court in San Antonio to resentence him. The federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld Bates sentence Tuesday. On ExpressNews.com: Prosecutors name LaHood, father in restraining order In his appeal, Bates argued his 15-year prison term was stiffer than warranted. The sentence should have been in the range of about 10 years to 12 years and seven months, according to his appeal. Bates public defender, Kristin Davidson, declined to comment on the appeals court ruling. Bates, 48, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money laundering, among other charges, rather than stand trial with Uresti and businessman Gary Cain. A jury convicted both Uresti, the longtime San Antonio Democrat, and Cain of defrauding investors in the buying and selling of frac sand used in oil production. Bates is serving his sentence in a low-security federal correctional institution in Bastrop. He is scheduled to be released in 2031. Uresti, 56, is serving a 12-year sentence in a minimum-security prison camp in Western Louisiana and is scheduled to be released in 2029. Cain, 63, is serving a 68-month sentence in Seagoville and is expected to be released in 2023. Cain appealed his conviction, but the federal appeals court upheld it in October. Each of the three were ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution to the fraud victims. On ExpressNews.com: Judge hands Uresti co-defendant Stan Bates 15-year prison sentence Bates received a longer sentence because he made significant false representations to induce investors to sign contracts with FourWinds. Bates disagreed with the finding by Senior U.S. District Judge that the executive abused his position of trust with investors. Unlike Uresti, who recruited FourWinds investors and served as a lawyer for the company and one of the victims, Bates said in his appeal that he did not hold a position of trust. Batesdid not hold a special position of trust with any of the investors similar to that of a fiduciary or trustee, he said in his appeal. The contract between (the company) and the investors was an arms length contract albeit based on material misrepresentations but not one dependent on a special type of trust relationship with Bates. Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox But the three-judge panel on the appeals court disagreed, saying the court has repeatedly held that individuals occupying high managerial offices may hold a position of trust. As majority owner and CEO of the company, Batess position superlatively situated him to perpetuate and conceal his fraudulent scheme, the court said in its ruling. The (pre-sentence report) includes numerous instances in which Bates and employees acting on his orders falsified records, doctored promotional materials, and made material misrepresentations in order to secure investments in his company, the court added. With complete managerial discretion and no oversight, it was nearly impossible for investors to detect his scheme. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD Documentary series Dirty Money returns to Netflix next week. This season offers a look inside Jared Kushners real estate empire, the Wells Fargo banking scandal and Malaysias 1MDB corruption case. Netflixs critically-acclaimed investigative series Dirty Money, from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibneys Jigsaw Productions, returns for a second season on March 11, 2020. Dirty Money provides an up-close and personal view into untold stories of scandal, financial malfeasance and corruption in the world of business. Dirty Money is produced by Jigsaw Productions. Executive producers are Alex Gibney, Meghan OHara, Stacey Offman and Richard Perello. Co-executive producers are Isaac Bolden, Brad Hebert and John Turner. Wednesday March 11 on Netflix. 'It may serve the interests of the rule of law if the Supreme Court were to appoint the UNHCR as amicus curiae in the CAA case,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. IMAGE: Rioters mercilessly beat up a man during the Delhi riots, February 24, 2020. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters The UN human commissioner for refugees's move to approach the Supreme Court on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is already triggering a response in our country that can only be called a manifestation of 'Pavlovian conditioning' -- a classical conditioning which, during the 1890s, the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov first noted while researching salivation in dogs in response to being fed. The Indian spokesman's tweet in response to the UNHCR move is that the CAA is an 'internal' matter and no foreign party has any locus standi on issues pertaining to India's sovereignty. But this knee-jerk reaction in its narrow interpretation of Westphalian sovereignty is irrelevant when it comes to the UN as the watchdog, since the UN has been founded on the basis of universal principles and ideals. We always have a choice to quit the UN if we find the world body to be a tormentor who doesn't respect India. But so far we have only refused to abide by UN resolutions. Now we are in strategic defiance of one of the UN's most prestigious flag-carriers. There is a paradox here. Remember, one of the first foreign policy initiatives by Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi after coming to power in 2014 was to address a letter to all UN member countries soliciting their support for India's claim to be represented permanently in the UN security council. Whereas, the Modi government is now lamenting that the UN itself is intrusive. The Indian establishment's stance is that the UN move on CAA is 'unsustainable'. Indeed, many powerful countries will wholeheartedly endorse the Indian argument -- Russia and China, for instance. But that is not the whole point. The heart of the matter is that the UNHCR's proposed appeal to the Supreme Court has a poignant backdrop -- whether the Indian establishment likes it or not. Its plea is to be appointed as an assistant or amicus curiae in a pending case on the CAA where the Supreme Court has not been in a tearing hurry to pass judgment. Simply put, the UNHCR has the skill and resources that may help the Supreme Court to expedite the case. Which is, of course, a great thing, since the CAA is no doubt the most pressing issue in the national discourse today, for the public as well as for the government and political leadership. Equally, a perception is gaining ground within India -- and, more importantly, in international opinion -- that the Modi government has put the judiciary on a tight leash as part of its project to emasculate dissent and opposition of any form. There is no point in pretending that we do not notice such a perception growing or that it is a most unfortunate thing to happen, since we all take immense pride in India being hailed on the global stage as a country with the rule of law. Incidents such as the sudden transfer of Delhi high court judge Justice S Muralidhar within hours of passing harsh strictures against the Delhi police's apathy in the recent communal riots is a telling example of where matters have reached. Arguably, in the prevailing apocalyptic climate in our country, it may serve the interests of the rule of law if the Supreme Court were to appoint the UNHCR as amicus curiae in the CAA case. This is vital since the Supreme Court verdict on the CAA is going to be a momentous event for India's political economy and its foreign policy for a foreseeable future. IMAGE: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Michelle Bachelet in Geneva, February 27, 2020. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters Succinctly put, the UNHCR offers an insurance cover at a crucial juncture when the Supreme Court is expected to act impartially, but is also seen as doing so -- both nationally and internationally. Since Mahatma Gandhi, India has not produced a figure of such high moral stature like Michelle Bachelet. Therefore, we seem to have a problem in understanding her motivations. Bachelet herself has been a victim of torture at the hands of a dictatorial regime who subsequently rose to become the elected president of her country when the brutal fascist dictators ended up in the dustbin of Chile's modern history. Suffice to say, she knows what she is talking about and silencing her when she holds a torchlight on the grotesque face of present-day India is going to be an uphill task. Her tenacity and the weight of the office she holds pose a severe challenge to the Modi government. Above all, Bachelet carries immense prestige in Western capitals, whose acceptance Modi and External Affair Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar -- and the ideologues of our current regime as a whole -- so eagerly crave for behind the veneer of belligerent nationalism as strategic asset for India's future trajectory as a regional power. Make no mistake, Bachelet's shadow will follow Modi when he sets out for Brussels later this month. Modi's European Union interlocutors will certainly not embarrass him. But what is of enduring significance will be the silent thoughts that cross their mind when they sit across the conference table with Modi -- what happened to the wonder that was India during the past five-year period under his watch? Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar served the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years. He has served as India's ambassador to Turkey and Uzbekistan and has been a contributor to Rediff.com for well over a decade. An Iowa Senate bill would not allow restoration of voting rights until felons have paid restitution to victims. A court has struck down a Florida law requiring payment of fines, restitution. Voting is not an earned government privilege like driving a car. It is a right guaranteed to Americans by the U.S. Constitution. Every Iowan not in prison should be free to exercise that right. This is a simple concept. Unfortunately, Republicans controlling Iowa government cant or wont grasp it. Iowa has gained national attention for being the only state that permanently bans felons from voting unless they ask for and receive permission from the governor. Elected officials can easily restore voting rights to Iowans who have served their time for felony convictions. Gov. Kim Reynolds could sign an executive order the way other governors have done. She has refused and said she wants state lawmakers to sort this out. The GOP-controlled Legislature could move forward with a clean amendment to the Iowa Constitution granting automatic voter restoration, but they insist on using legislation to further a tough on crime agenda, mucking up what should be a simple fix. Senate File 2348 limits which felons would automatically regain voting rights if a constitutional amendment takes effect. This means if Iowa voters eventually amend the state constitution to guarantee rights to everyone, Republicans want to make sure some Iowans cannot cast ballots. What is the thinking behind this? Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, summed it up when he talked recently about not wanting Iowans convicted of murder, manslaughter and certain sex offenses to have voting rights automatically restored. "I dont want them voting for the president of the United States, let alone the local dogcatcher, he said. This idea harks back to ancient Greece, where civil death, or a permanent loss of rights, was imposed on people convicted of certain crimes. Society evolved, and leaders eventually recognized the importance of ensuring offenders could move on to become involved, contributing members of society. But some members of the GOP want to continue punishing freed offenders. The legislation they're pushing would likely lead to more confusion and problems. Exempting some people from automatic restoration would ensure the continuation of a felon voter database riddled with errors, which has led to ballots being wrongly rejected. Exemptions would make it even harder for local election officials and an understaffed judicial branch to keep information accurate. Exemptions would confuse felons who may not know the exact category of their offense, which could lead to fear of voting. If everyone simply had the right to vote, this state could entirely eliminate the mess of a felon database. Senate File 2348 also requires felons to make full payment of restitution to victims before rights are restored. That is wrong, and it may be unconstitutional. A federal appeals court recently ruled that Florida cannot restrict the voting rights of felons solely for being unable to pay outstanding financial obligations. The only conclusion one can draw from the Iowa GOPs attempt to impose voting restrictions on certain felons: The majority party wants to make it as difficult as possible for people to exercise their constitutional rights. That is something all of us should remember on Election Day in November. This editorial originally appeared in the Des Moines Register on March 1. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Theres plenty in store this weekend to celebrate local women as a series of events for International Womens Day (March 8) kick off. The Midlands Polish Community is inviting everyone to celebrate women at an event in the Longford Arms Hotel from 8.30pm. There will be finger food, a raffle with great prizes and the best music from 80s, 90s and beyond. English, Polish and different styles of music will be played as DJ LukCap will get you to the dance floor. Tickets are available for 15 online on www.music-box.ie (booking fee applies). At the doors tickets are for 20. Money collected will support future community projects of Midlands Polish Community association.Find our more at www.polishcommunity.ie, Facebook (Polish Community) or by sending an email to contact@polishcommunity.ie. Longford Womens Link will also be hosting a series of events at their premises on Friday, March 6, kicking off with guest speaker Sinead Hussey of RTE at 11am un the main room, an International Cafe with food from around the world at 11.20am in the main room and sustainable fashion and makeup master classes throughout the morning. At 11.45am , Social Ecologist and Change Management Consultant Kathryn McCabe will be a guest speaker, followed at 12.10pm by Stephanie Igoe from the ICA. Guest speaker Anna Atkinson will give a talk on Ethical Living and Sustainability in the small room at 12.30pm, and Jackie Greene will take over at 1pm with a mindfulness and meditation session. The Tri County (Leitrim, Longford and Westmeath) Women in Business Network will be hosting a Women in Business Network event on Friday, March 6th in the Mullingar Park Hotel from 6pm to 8pm. Guest speakers for the event include - Niamh S. Barry - The Fairy Door Company, Melanie Boylan - STOMP Social Media Training and Cathy Moran, Intreo/Social Protection Office. Alison Harney of Copper Owl Creative, Longford will also speak at the event. India's defence industry received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $8.82 million (Rs 51.93 crore) during April 2000 and December 2019, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. In 2018-19, in the sector was aggregated at $2.18 million, according to the data provided by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Foreign fund inflows in retail trading stood at $2 billion during April 2000 and December 2019, the data showed. The top countries from where India attracted maximum during the period include Mauritius, Singapore, Japan, Netherlands and the US. In a separate reply, the minister said total merchandise imports from China were $76.3 billion in 2017-18, which decreased to $70.3 billion in 2018-19. Total imports from China during 2019-20 (April-January) were $57.9 billion, he said. Trade remedial measures were taken against as many as 89 products like EVA sheets, electrical insulators and Flax yarn against China, the minister informed. Similarly, six countervailing measures and one safeguard steps has been taken against the neighbouring country. Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], Mar 4 (ANI): Congress leader Shobha Oza on Wednesday said that more than half of the 8 party MLAs, who were allegedly taken hostage by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) have been freed. Talking to ANI, she said: "BJP had held hostage our 8 MLAs in ITC Resort in Gurugram's Manesar. More than half of them are released now.BJP took a few of them to Bengaluru. We will ensure their release too." "From Day one, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath challenged the BJP to show their strength through a floor test. But they did not dare to do so. Now, they are resorting to horse-trading in order to bring down the government," she added. The remark came after allegations were leveled against the BJP for reportedly holding at least eight Madhya Pradesh MLAs against their will at a Gurugram hotel. In 2018 Assembly results, Congress, which won 114 seats in the 230-member Assembly formed the government with the support of four Independent MLAs and two BSP MLAs and a legislator from the Samajwadi Party (SP). The BJP had secured 109 seats in the state Assembly. (ANI) The new Chancellor has been urged to dismiss the 'blinkered' view of his senior adviser who suggested the UK doesn't need its own farmers. Treasury official Dr Tim Leunig is reported to have argued that the food and farming industry was not 'critically important' to the UK's economy. In leaked emails obtained by The Mail on Sunday, he said the "food sector isn't critically important to the UK, and ag[riculture] and fish production certainly isn't." NFU President Minette Batters hit back at Dr Leunig by calling his remarks 'completely out of touch'. Now the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has responded by urging Rishi Sunak to reject his adviser's 'wild and wacky' idea. It comes as the Chancellor of the Exchequer prepares to outline the UK's 2020 Budget on Wednesday 11 March. TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said: It is a major concern that Dr Leunig is considered a senior adviser, when his view is so blinkered to describe the contribution of UK agriculture as negligible. "The suggestion that the UK should abandon agriculture falls squarely into the category of wild and wacky." The economic adviser to Mr Sunak also said the UK could follow Singapore's model post-Brexit - 'which is rich without having its own agricultural sector'. But Mr Dunn said the suggestion 'stands no scrutiny whatsoever': "The Chancellor has an opportunity to stand in support of British agriculture as he delivers his first Budget statement next week. "He has a responsibility to us all to disassociate himself with Leunigs eccentric analysis," he added. The TFA has provided Mr Sunak with a set of proposals aimed at boosting the tenanted sector of agriculture. Our main concern is the lack of security available to almost half of the agricultural tenants who occupy land under Farm Business Tenancy agreements," Mr Dunn explained. "The average length of term is now cripplingly low at less than three years and only 10% are let for five years or more. "This is no basis for a productive, environmentally sustainable sector, which is why the TFA has suggested several tax changes that would lead to the availability of many more longer-term tenancies, he said. Mr Sunak is also looking at plans to make Agricultural Property Relief rules stricter in a bid to raise around 800 million a year. But opponents say any move to tighten the rules could 'devastate' family farms, as financial returns from agriculture can be lower than many other businesses. While the 4G variant of the Samsung Galaxy A71 has been out for two months now, its 5G counterpart is yet to make an official debut. Weve already came across it on Geekbench and we saw rumors about its availability and now the latest clue from Chinas 3C agency reveals the phone will sport a 25W fast charger. Galaxy A71 5G certification The device was spotted bearing the SM-A7160 model number which was also seen in the Geekbench listing where it was revealed to carry the Exynos 980 SoC, 8GB RAM and Android 10. The Galaxy A71 5G is expected to launch in the US, China, Australia, New Zealand and several European markets. There is still no time frame for the release date but well make sure to keep you posted. Source (in Chinese) | Via The United States has conducted an airstrike against the Taliban in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump boasted he secured peace with the group. Military officials confirmed on Wednesday the airstrike was to interrupt a planned attack on a checkpoint run by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF). The strike was from a drone, according to military officials. "The US conducted an airstrike Wednesday against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our 1st strike against the Taliban in 11 days," US Forces in Afghanistan Spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett wrote in a series of tweets. "On March 3rd alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on #ANDSF checkpoints in #Helmand. The Taliban claim to be fighting to free Afg. from int'l forces, the Feb 29 agreement provides a conditions-based path to withdrawal," he added. The spokesman was referring to an agreement signed last Saturday between the US and the Taliban that would significantly decrease the number of troops in Afghanistan. At least 25 Afghanistan soldiers were killed and 13 others were injured in three separate Taliban attacks, military officials confirmed to CNN. Hours before the drone attack by the US, Mr Trump spoke to Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar over the phone. The president then boasted about the conversation with reporters, saying: "I had a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban. We've agreed there's no violence. We don't want violence." We'll see what happens, he added. They're dealing with Afghanistan. But we'll see what happens. Under the peace deal signed last Saturday, the US agreed to reduce the number of military troops in Afghanistan with plans to completely withdraw from the country in 14 months. In return, the Taliban said it would "not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies." Mr Leggett said the US is committed to creating peace in Afghanistan with the Taliban but the country would not abandon its allies, which include the ANDSF. "We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required," he wrote. The Taliban did not comment on the airstrike, according to the Associated Press. IRVINE, Calif., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocutrx Vision Technologies, LLC , an Irvine, California-based technology startup developing a state-of-the-art augmented reality headset, has announced the successful preliminary results of their Dynamic Opacity outer lens in providing safety for surgeons and operating room technicians using medical lasers. Used on their ORLenz Augmented Reality Surgery Visualization headsets, and designed to be combined with surgical digital microscopes feeds and laser technologies for treatment of conditions in the eye, the ORLenz AR headset is set to provide surgeons with enhanced surgery visualization, ease, comfort and safety. Ocutrx will be showing their ORLenz AR surgery headsets at the HIMSS20 conference in Orlando March 9-13. Medical lasers, including ophthalmic lasers, provide precise treatment for a range of eye conditions with little risk of infection --- and are usually a less invasive option. The combination of safety, accuracy and relative low cost makes lasers very useful ophthalmic tools for such surgeries as a posterior capsulotomy. Ophthalmic lasers are used with patients who have previously had cataract surgery then present with subsequent cloudy vision due to clouding of the posterior capsule. A surgeon uses a laser to painlessly clear the vision again. Other ophthalmic laser uses include treatment of glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, vein occlusions, retinal holes and retinal detachments. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1040 in the US and IEC 60825 internationally, defines classes of laser depending on their power and wavelength and protection needed. When medical lasers are used, there exists a nominal hazard zone (NHZ) in an operating room, where personnel must adhere to appropriate eye protection procedures during all laser applications. Appropriate laser protective eyewear (LPE) must be worn by everyone in the NHZ while the laser is in operation. Appropriate LPE typically currently consists of glasses or goggles of sufficient optical density (OD) to prevent ocular injury at the laser wavelength in use. Surgeons looking through a microscope which has a lens filter for the laser in use are typically exempt, but not with the advent of new heads-up tv monitor surgery systems this often also includes the surgeon who must wear protection. This means a surgeon may have to hold the laser while a tech removes his 3D glasses and puts on goggles, all while the surgeon is holding the place to laser. Developing an entirely new 3D holographic display for the OR brings its challenges and opportunities, said Michael H. Freeman, CEO/CTO of Ocutrx. The opportunity here is to have our ORLenz headset double as the safety protection for laser surgery. In this way, surgeons, assistants, techs and others in the OR NHZ wearing the ORLenz do not have to wear googles because the Dynamic Opacity lens features serves to safely block harmful laser photons and wavelengths. Ocutrxs patent pending Dynamic Opacity layer contains cholesteric liquid crystals on the outer lens which creates a shadow opaqueness that exactly (1:1) mirrors the image being projected onto the reflective inner lens. In this way, the ORLenz can be up to 85 percent see-through so very little ambient lights has to be blocked, whereas other AR headsets must block up to 85 percent of ambient light to see the AR image. Unlike other liquid crystal technologies, the Ocutrx Dynamic Opacity is characterized as bistable because their liquid crystals do not need power to maintain a selected state. This is not true of LCDs or LEDs because LCDs need constant power. Also, LCDs, because they use polarization, can only be 50 percent see-through, while cholesteric liquid crystals provide almost 100 percent see-through. Tests conducted at the Ocutrx testing facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado show that the liquid crystals hold significant promise in blocking and attenuating photons emitted by medical lasers. Current tests show blocking of almost 70 percent of direct laser hit with reflection and diffusion of the intensity of the laser beam with just a few crystals. Improvements on the crystal layers resolution and wave filtration are expected by the end of 2020. Major Healthcare industry leaders have expressed excitement and optimism about how our AR surgery visualization headset can improve existing operating room platforms, said Michael H. Freeman, CEO/CTO of Ocutrx. We have just begun our testing of a liquid crystal design for laser protection and these results show that our Dynamic Opacity can play a major role in OR laser safety, eliminating one cumbersome existing step of putting on and off goggles in the OR. With a large FOV of 120 degrees (100 degrees horizontal and 45 degrees vertical), the ORLenz accepts a single or dual 4K microscope feed, providing state-of-the-art 3D visualization for operating room care. Surgeons not only see the microscope images with 60 pixel-per-degree resolution (the highest resolution the human eye discern at 20/20) but can further magnify the digital microscope images up to 10 times in the headset. For more information about Ocutrx and the companys pioneering ARWear technology, please visit www.oculenz.com . About Ocutrx With corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, and research, testing and development labs in the US Midwest, Ocutrx is a new breed of AR manufacturing company focusing on the best connected lightest weight AR headset housing the largest field-of-vision in the market. At a time when worldwide applications for easy-to-wear and easy-to-use AR solutions are being touted as the next big thing after smartphones, Ocutrx is creating impactful, revolutionary ARWear for mass use. To learn more about Ocutrx and its ground-breaking technology, please visit the company website at www.oculenz.com . Media Contact: Dave Feistel Bastion Elevate (for Ocutrx Vision Technologies) 949-502-6200 ext. 224 dave@bastionelevate.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4fc67c8e-b620-482f-9306-17afe42a2a1b DUSHANBE -- Several mosques in Dushanbe have asked worshippers to not attend Friday Prayers as a precaution against the spreading of the coronavirus in mostly Muslim Tajikstan, which has yet to register a confirmed case. Afshin Muqim, a spokesman for the Committee on Religious Issues, told RFE/RL on March 4 that the move by some mosques to suspend mass prayers was based on a recommendation from the Tajik Islamic Center. Muqim added that authorities may officially suspend collective prayers in mosques in the near future. Deputy Health Minister Mirhomiddin Kamolzoda confirmed to RFE/RL that such a measure is currently being discussed by health officials. The Education and Science Ministry said on March 4 that all street performances by students held from March 20 to 22 to celebrate the Norouz New Year's holiday had been canceled due to the virus. Norouz is the pre-Islamic New Year celebration that starts on the vernal equinox, which usually occurs around March 20. It is marked in many countries in Western and Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, and the Balkans. In the wake of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending companies actively encourage workers to stay home if they are showing symptoms. But not all workers can telecommute. Some jobs just have to be done in person. Consider the person who stocks your supermarkets shelves. The cashier at your favorite retail store and the person who pumps your gas. The barista who makes your caramel latte and the server who brings you lunch. The folks who work at Amazon fulfillment centers. Those jobs cant be done if workers stay home, and unless a company offers its employees substantial paid sick time, workers who stay home could lose a lot of money. Imagine how many people would be in trouble if stores and restaurants decide to close. Its a bleak outlook for families without healthy emergency funds who will have to find a way to pay the bills while theyre not getting a paycheck. Workers who run out of paid sick time will be at the mercy of their employers, said Rebecca Kolins Givan, associate professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. If the employer chooses to pay them, great. But many workers, especially low-wage service workers, will be in dire straits. If your boss tells you to stay home or if you decide to self-quarantine but you dont have paid sick time here are your protections in New Jersey. SOME PROTECTIONS, NOT MANY New Jersey passed a bill two year ago that allows workers to earn sick time. The New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law went into effect on Oct. 29, 2018. Before the law kicked in, some 1.2 million New Jerseyans wouldnt be paid for sick time, and those who stayed home without pay could have lost their jobs. Businesses of every size that dont already provide paid sick leave are subject to the law, and it includes part-time, full-time, temporary and seasonal workers. It permits workers to use their earned sick time to care for themselves or a family member (which is broadly defined); when the employees workplace, childs school, or childs daycare is closed by order of a public official because of a public health emergency; or where a public health authority determines that the employees (or a family members) presence in the community would jeopardize public health, said Angela Delli Santi, a spokeswoman for the states Department of Labor and Workforce Development. For every 30 hours worked, a person is entitled to one hour of leave. It maxes out at 40 hours per year, so for most employees, it would only cover a weeks worth of sick time. Thats a problem given current guidance that those infected with coronavirus should quarantine for 14 days. When you run out of earned sick time, you cant necessarily count on unemployment insurance. If a worker isnt clearly unemployed, but rather working inconsistent or fewer hours than usual, they may not be eligible, Givan said. In general, workers only receive unemployment insurance if they are actively looking for work. Its hard to envision how workers could seek other employment during a pandemic, she said. Delli Santi offered these examples of how workers might or might not be covered under current unemployment, disability and workers compensation rules: If a worker contracts the virus because he/she waited on or worked with someone who had the virus, the worker may be eligible for workers compensation. If a worker was quarantined, is under the care of a health care provider and negative for the virus, he/she may be eligible for temporary disability. If a worker is laid off because the market dried up, he she may be eligible for unemployment insurance. If an employer knows a worker was exposed to the virus and orders him/her to stay home, the worker may be eligible for unemployment insurance. If a worker contracts the virus and is under a doctors care, the worker may be eligible for temporary disability. (The employer could pay the difference between the amount of the temporary disability benefit and the workers weekly salary.) Federal law doesnt require companies to provide paid sick time. But the Family and Medical Leave Act could provide help for some workers, but not everyone including employees of companies with fewer than 50 employees would be eligible. You can learn more here from the U.S. Department of Labor. And if youre a union employee, you can check to see if your collective bargaining agreement includes paid time off for certain emergencies. Even though theyre not required to offer more help, companies can step up to support their workforce. Employers are free to enact all kinds of policies to help their workers, from additional paid sick time to covering co-pays and deductibles for workers who need to see a healthcare provider," Givan said. As long as some workers cant afford to stay home because theyve exhausted any earned sick leave, or theyre unable to see a doctor because they cant afford the out-of-pocket cost, the virus will spread more quickly. Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.coms weekly e-newsletter. U.S. automaker Ford Motors latest announcement that it intends to expand its Vietnamese plant will provide only a modest boost to the countrys vehicle output over this year and next, according to Fitch Solutions. Laborers work at Ford Vietnam car factory in the northern province of Hai Duong on April 12, 2019. Ford Motors intention to expand its Vietnamese plant will provide only a modest boost to the countrys vehicle output over 2020 and 2021 The provider of credit and macro intelligence pointed out the influx of imported vehicles, which will erode the demand for locally produced vehicles and lead other automakers to cut output, thereby suppressing the countrys overall passenger vehicle production. Locally founded in 1995, Ford Vietnam announced on January 14 that it is investing US$82 million to expand its plant in northern Vietnam to increase output. The construction will expand the facility across an additional 60,000 square meters of land, bringing the total area to 226,000 square meters. This extra investment led the primary distributor of Fitch Ratings content to believe that this expansion will come online, or partially online, by the end of this year. The automaker also stated that the expanded factory would boost its annual vehicle production capacity to 40,000 units from its current capacity of 14,000 units. This led Fitch Solutions to raise its passenger vehicle production forecast for only 2021, as the agency believed that output cuts from other automakers in Vietnam will cancel out any growth that would come from Fords expansion in 2020. For 2020, the agency forecast that passenger vehicle production will expand modestly by 3.3%. For 2021, it has raised the growth forecast to 6.8%, up from 2.6%. This forecast will depend on the Governments effectiveness in limiting imports, noted the agency. Earlier, Deputy Trade Minister Do Than Hai said he expected the expansion of Ford Vietnam to reduce Vietnams reliance on imported vehicles and therefore lower the countrys trade deficit. Strong demand for imported vehicles Strong demand for vehicles will be geared toward imported vehicles. Fitch Solutions believed that Vietnams automotive market will remain robust in 2020, as an improved credit outlook coupled with globally outperforming economic growth and declining vehicle prices all support higher vehicle demand. Furthermore, the agency stressed that consumers will look to imported vehicles as their costs are dropping the fastest due to the oversupply of vehicles following the reduction of tariffs on vehicles as part of the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, which was signed in 2009 in Thailand. The agency forecast passenger vehicle sales would expand by 10.8% this year, following a year-on-year expansion of 19.6%. We forecast new passenger vehicle sales will expand by another 10% in 2021 and that new passenger vehicle sales will average annual growth of 7.9% over 2022-2029, announced the agency. It predicted a sizable portion of this demand will flow toward imported vehicles over locally produced vehicles. This means that automakers producing vehicles in Vietnam will cut back on their output as the demand for locally produced vehicles slows, thereby suppressing growth in output in 2020 and 2021. Skilled labor shortage Fitch Solutions claimed skilled labor will also become an escalating problem for the countrys automotive production industry over the medium and long term. Its Operational Risk team believed that Vietnams labor market appeals to labor-intensive businesses due to the presence of a large working-age population. However, the shortage of advanced skills in the domestic market, owing to low education attainment levels, will force businesses with sophisticated production processes to invest in training or import workers at an additional cost. These structural inefficiencies will increasingly present themselves over time and will limit the growth of the countrys vehicle output over our 2020-2029 forecast period. Hence our forecast that total vehicle output will average only 3.5% over our 10-year forecast period, according to the agency. The agency said that Vietnam is also falling further behind other automotive producing countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, when it comes to having a strong enough labor force to facilitate stronger vehicle production growth. In the Operational Risk teams labor market risk index, which assesses the risks surrounding the size, education levels and costs of employing workers, Vietnam scored a low 49.3 out of a possible 100. This score is far behind automotive production competition in the region, particularly Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, which score 62.7, 57.5 and 56.7, respectively. Therefore, the agency projected that Vietnams competitors in the region will emerge as attractive alternatives for automakers producing vehicles in the region and will keep vehicle production growth in Vietnam subdued over the 2020-2029 forecast period. SGT/Fitch Solutions Thanh Thom Automobile industry stimulus policies proposed The luxury tax rate on electric automobiles and the added value created in Vietnam in automobile manufacturing and assembling may be cut to zero percent to encourage the development of supporting industries. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:57:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BLANTYRE, Malawi, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Malawian President Peter Mutharika on Wednesday launched a mega loan program in Blantyre district aimed at developing and reviving small scale businesses for the youth and women in the country. The 18-million-U.S. dollar program, which is known as Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (MEDF) is expected to become one of the Malawi's strategies to achieve government's vision 2063 goals, the president said. Mutharika said during the launch that the government is trying its best to ensure that the youth and women have a viable financial access in the country. He further said that the government can not achieve its development goals if the youth and women are not empowered financially. During the event, minister of finance Joseph Mwanamvekha disclosed that the government has put strategic methods to ensure that the loan opportunity benefits the targeted youth and women in the country without any segregations on grounds of politics and tribal background. He further asked the youth and women to kindly return the loan in order to make the program sustainable for generations to come. The minister also highlighted that the government is looking forward to the youth and women that they will be able to expand their businesses, which will certainly boost the economy of the country. The Malawi Government established MEDF with the approval of Parliament as a revolving fund whose returns ensure regional and constituency equity. The objective of the fund is to assist Malawians who wish to set up small businesses in the country by providing them with financial means of setting up new businesses or expanding one. An employee works near a Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Boeing's 737 Max production facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. December 16, 2019. WASHINGTON House lawmakers are planning to introduce this month a bill that aims to increase the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of aircraft, a measure that stems from criticism that regulators gave too much power to Boeing when they approved the plane-maker's 737 Max three years ago. The 737 Max has been grounded worldwide for nearly a year after two crashes one in Indonesia in October 2018 and another in Ethiopia in March 2019 killed all 346 people aboard. Boeing has faced numerous investigations into the plane's development, including a criminal probe and another by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, whose chairman, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is introducing the bill with Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who heads the committee's aviation subcommittee. The legislation has the potential to bring more scrutiny to future aircraft, such as Boeing's 777X, which it began flight testing in January. "We are close to proposing legislation but we are not waiting to finish all of our investigation and interviews," DeFazio said in an interview Wednesday. Boeing came under fire for its development of the plane, which included a flight-control system, known as MCAS, that was later implicated in both deadly crashes. Pilots complained they didn't know the system existed until after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia. The House committee is still seeking to interview more Boeing employees and "a lot" of communications from the FAA about the Max, DeFazio said. While the investigation will continue on, the findings will inform the proposed legislation. "There's got to be to be a lot more scrutiny and oversight," he said. The FAA, for its part, said it has provided more than 37,000 pages of documents related to the 737 Max to the committee and that it plans to disclose other documents "in the near future." "The FAA has been transparent to an unprecedented degree with the Committee on matters related to the Boeing 737 Max," the agency said in a statement. "In addition, we continue to make FAA personnel available for in-person interviews to answer questions from Committee staff members." Boeing said in a statement: "Safety is our number one priority, and as members of Congress work on legislation, we are committed to working with them and the FAA to promote aviation safety." Emails and other messages released by Boeing and lawmakers have revealed employees at the manufacturer boasting about convincing regulators to accept less pilot training and ridiculing the aircraft. In messages from April 2017, one Boeing employee told another: "This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys." Others showed employees concerned about training. For example, a Boeing employee asked a colleague in a February 2018 message: "Would you put your family on a MAX simulator-trained aircraft? I wouldn't." His co-worker replied: "No." In the same exchange, one of the employees says, "Our arrogance is our demise." The mother of a Limerick man gunned down eight years ago has sought answers as to why it has taken eight years for an inquest into his death to be held. Robert Sheehan, 21, was shot and critically wounded at Bunratty Castle Hotel in Co Clare, in the early hours of September 2, 2012, and died the following day at University Hospital Limerick. Mr Sheehan, who was known to gardai, was shot by a gunman outside the front entrance of the hotel where he was attending a family wedding reception. Two men whom gardai suspect had vital information about the killing were later arrested at a garda checkpoint in Cork, however no persons have been charged in connection the murder. Majella Sheehan said she wrote to the office of the Limerick coroners office, last year, seeking answers as to why her sons inquest had not been opened. She said she has yet to receive her sons death certificate. In her email to the coroners office, dated on September 28 last, Ms Sheehan added: I would like to know the results of his post mortem and to have a death cert issued for him. An inquest into Mr Sheehans violent death is scheduled to open at Limerick Coroners Court on March 11. It is likely the inquest will be adjourned as the garda investigation into his murder has not concluded and it remains an open investigation. Ms Sheehan told the Limerick Post: Theres a lot I dont know about Roberts murder. I know he was shot in the head, but I dont know how many times. What are they going to say in the inquest, I don't know. There is a lot I haven't been told, all I know is he was murdered. Ms Sheehan said she was really shocked when the coroners office replied informing her the inquest was due to open later this month. Im shocked really. We had to ask for this, and for it to take nearly eight years, is a long time. Robert Sheehan Despite gardai making public appeals for information over the years, she said she was not confident her sons killers would be brought to justice. To this day, I cant understand how they haven't been arrested. Its going on too long. She said gardai have told her they believe they know who did it, they know where they are but they need further information. They are never gong to get their information until they bring them in and question them, that's how I feel. "But, I wont be giving up until I get justice for Robert. He is my child at the end of the day. Majella Sheehan organised a march in Limerick last year calling for a local garda cold case unit to be established, however the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, responded that open investigations would continue to be reviewed locally before such cases could potentially be considered by a national garda cold case unit based in Dublin. The coroners office in Limerick has been asked if it was aware of the reason why Mr Sheehans inquest has not yet been opened. It has yet to repond. Turns out, we can have exactly one nice thing. Photo: Courtesy of YouTube/Vevo Its the year 2020 and the prodigal Dixie Chicks have finally returned, no thanks to George W. Bush and his ilk. Their new Jack Antonoffproduced single and music video, Gaslighter, dropped today, ahead of the May release of Gaslighter, the first new Chicks album in 14 years. Naturally, we have a landslide of feelings about it. Cowboy, take us away! Madison Malone Kircher: The Dixie Chicks are back! I could cry. In fact, I did. Rachel Handler: Let me begin by saying, for perhaps the 500th time in my brief life: Fuck you, George W. Bush. I cannot believe our erstwhile president nearly ruined music forever. I, too, shed a tear for my long-lost Chicks. For many reasons! First of all, one can only do Goodbye Earl so many times at karaoke from 19992020. Ive been waiting for a new Dixie Chicks song for, well, 14 years, and Id essentially given up hope that wed ever get one. And not only did we get it, but its a furious banger that blatantly and unrepentantly addresses all of the bullshit they had to put up with back in the olden days of the early aughts (and beyond). Its a furious banger that blatantly and unrepentantly addresses all of the bullshit theyve had to put up with. Rachel Handler MMK: I, too, am ashamed that George W. Bush is from Texas, Natalie Maines. Despite being a place I have been only once on a trip that mostly involved visiting the Dallas Book Depository to learn about JFKs assassination, I feel for you, Texas. This song is everything my little heart has been waiting for since I got drunk off Bud Lights with my mom (she would like me to tell you she was not drunk, just me) while scream-singing my face off at a stop on their last tour, 20162017s DCX MMXVI World Tour. RH: I would like to take a moment to thank our ancestors for inventing divorce. Just think about it: If Natalie Mainess ex-husband hadnt ended up sucking so hard, we may have never gotten this song and this album. MMK: She finally got the nerve to file for dee-vorce, you might say. Natalie, Im really sorry because this whole situation sounds shitty but, if I may quote ABBA at you, thank you for the music. RH: What do we think her husband did, exactly, to deserve such a ceremonious fuck-off song? Outside of, you know, trying to steal her unreleased music and apparently setting his own bed on fire? And is this song just about him or is it about the curse of heterosexuality in general? MMK: A brief pause to shoot my shot and just say Natalie. Date me. I am literally begging you and I promise I will never attempt to steal your music. I will also say I was worried when I first saw the title of the track. Gaslighter. That word gets tossed around too much these days. It really felt like it could easily fall into the trap of the Yass, queen. Go off. This pussy grabs back feminism of the Trump era that doesnt actually say anything. I, obviously, never should have doubted the Chicks. RH: To your first point, Madison, I refuse to believe that a woman with that haircut and a single cross earring stomping around in feathers and military drag is 100 percent straight. Im rooting for you (but also myself). And yeah, I was also gently concerned that the song might be a sort of commodified, pseudo-feminist anthem because thats the sort of hell we inhabit currently, but I love how unapologetically specific and personal it is. Especially the imagery in the video, which is irreverent enough that it will probably incite some sort of Republican pearl-clutching. MMK: I really dig the Americana vibe. The paramilitary Girl Scouts thing is really working for me, too. Feels exactly right for all the fights this group has quite literally survived in the last nearly two decades. RH: Its also delightful because it will piss off the exact same people who got mad at them for saying something relatively benign (and true) about politics in the first place. Plus, allow me to reiterate, its gay!!! I also really enjoy the implication that her ex-husband is a potato. MMK: Right, weve got this deliciously literal burn, but then theyre also weaving in things like that clip from that old controversial LBJ campaign ad the clip of the little girl picking flowers and counting which was about the very real threat of nuclear war. The Chicks are not messing around here. RH: Its funny how Jack Antonoff has become the producer who women go to when theyve been wholly screwed over: Lorde, Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, and now Natalie. Does he have some sort of hotline you can call when a man isnt shit? MMK: Yeah, its just his iPhone. Theres a moment in the video (2:04 if you want to get specific) where Natalie sings, Look out you lil in a lead-in to the chorus. She does this little vocal flip on the last word that is extremely OG Dixie Chicks but also made me go, Oh, yes, there it is. The Jack Antonoff special. RH: Im just really happy about how angry this song is. When shes like, Acting all above it when our friends divorced. What a lie, lie, lie, lie lie. Ya burnt, Natalie Mainess ex-husband, whose full name I will not bother to Google (Earl?). When the Chicks popped up on Taylors album to sing a tender ballad, I was like, Okay, this is nice. But I really prefer the Chicks in righteously pissed-off mode. More Dixie Chicks songs about burying men alive, figuratively and/or literally! MMK: Not to fact-check but they poison him with black-eyed peas first at a picnic on the lake, Rachel! Earls dead when they bury him. RH: MAYBE. They dont really specify MMK: Dark. I hadnt considered. Dont think Im going to let you get away with referring to Taylors Soon Youll Get Better as nice. Its way better than nice. RH: I just like everybody including Taylor better when theyre a little bit mad. Being a vocal, unruly woman is trendy now. But this isnt a shtick. Its the way the Dixie Chicks have always been. Madison Malone Kircher MMK: Okay, fair. I think why this video works so well is because it doesnt feel like a hard-left turn being a vocal, unruly woman is trendy now. But this isnt a shtick. Its the way the Dixie Chicks have always been. RH: Its true! They have always been non-ready to make nice. Taylor has talked a lot about how she was afraid to speak up about politics because of what happened to the Dixie Chicks, but its also because of the Dixie Chicks that shes even remotely able to do what she does now (kill men at picnics). We all owe them a huge debt for their prescient political outspokenness and also for the official ho anthem Ready to Run. MMK: That is always my go-to Dixie Chicks karaoke song, though I always forget it has an extremely long musical break in it where youre stuck standing holding the microphone between ready to runs and you look like a real dummy and your only choice is to dramatically down your whole drink as choreo. Still slaps, though. The online travel agency Yatra.com has claimed that airfares to Southeast Asia and Italy have dropped by 20-30 per cent in the backdrop of The travel agency also said that there is a hike in enquires with respect to domestic destinations including Andaman & Nicobar, Goa, and cities in North-East. "Southeast Asia and Italy being one of the most preferred destinations for Indians, we can anticipate a drop of about 20-25 per cent in terms of future bookings, though it is too early to predict any drastic impact. They are wary of making fresh bookings to the affected locations and airfares to these destinations have dropped by 20-30 per cent," Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder, Yatra.com said in a statement. "Travelers are now looking at alternate foreign destinations from India, such as Sri Lanka and Bhutan for summer travel. There is a hike in enquires to domestic destinations such as Andaman & Nicobar, Goa, Ujjain, North-east cities among others," she said. Chopra said that the travel agency has received about 35 per cent of cancellation queries from travellers planning their trips to foreign locations during the holiday season. "We at Yatra.com are advising and helping customers to postpone their travel dates and book their tickets accordingly," she added. The Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday informed that six positive cases of deadly (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far. Global deaths due to outbreak on Monday rose above 3,000 with the new count in China mainland rising to 2,912. The deadly virus that originated in China late last year continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 80,000 people. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 18:18 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684cb46 1 National labor-union,KASBI,omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,omnibus-law,police,Tangerang-regency Free The Tangerang regency police have taken 11 labor union members into custody for alleged incitement during protests over the omnibus bill on job creation. Congress Alliance of Indonesian Labor Unions (KASBI) chairwoman Nining Elitos told The Jakarta Post that two of the detainees were KASBI administrators, namely Joe, also known as Imron, and Siswoyo. Read also: Labor unions protest Jokowi's omnibus bill Seven of the 11 union members are KASBI members and the remaining two are members of the All-Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI). They were picked up by the police between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. when they were coming home from the night shift at their respective workplaces, the chairwoman said over the phone. She said the police suspected them of provocation during several labor union protests against the omnibus bill on job creation. According to Article 160 of the Criminal Code (KUHP), the arrested union members could face up to six years in prison if found guilty of incitement. Read also: Key points of labor reform in omnibus bill on job creation: What we know so far Nining has called for the police to release the 11 union members and not to arrest more labor union members for provocation to avoid further social disturbance. The arrests were arbitrary, she added. It happened in the middle of the night as if they were corruption suspects. At the time of reporting, the KASBI advocacy team and union leaders are in mediation with the Tangerang Regency police. The police did not immediately respond to the Posts request for an interview. On Feb. 17, an unknown group of people staged a protest without any prior notice at the KASBI secretariat in Pulo Gadung district, East Jakarta. The protesters spoke briefly spoke about the omnibus bill before they started burning tires and demanding KASBI be dissolved, according to Nining. This is an act of terror against our unions. We believe that this [protest] occurred because of our stance on the omnibus bill, she said on Feb. 17. The government considers the bill on job creation essential for attracting foreign investment to help improve economic growth and boost the nation's ease of doing business. If passed, the omnibus bill would amend about 1,200 articles in more than 80 prevailing laws. Read also: Guide to omnibus bill on job creation: 1,028 pages in 10 minutes Workers, however, have been campaigning firmly against the bill, having held demonstrations since January. They rejected the omnibus bill after rumors surfaced that it would reduce severance payments, enforce an hourly pay system to replace the minimum wage and eliminate sanctions against companies that failed to provide health insurance. The government has formed a consultative team consisting of government officials, businesspeople and labor representatives to discuss the bill. However, major labor groups including the KASBI, the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) and the All-Indonesia Workers Union Confederation (KSPSI) have declined to join the coordination team. Amsterdam, 4 March 2020 - Heineken N.V. today announces the appointment of a new Chief Supply Chain Officer and the company's first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. Following a distinguished and highly successful career at HEINEKEN, spanning 25 years of which 15 years as Chief Supply Chain Officer and Executive Team member, Marc Gross will retire as Chief Supply Chain Officer in April 2020. He will per that date be succeeded in the Executive Team by Magne Setnes, currently General Manager of Brau Union AG, HEINEKEN's business in Austria. Magne Setnes joined HEINEKEN in 2000 and has held a number of senior international leadership roles across Supply Chain, Commerce and General Management in The Netherlands, United States, and Austria. Ronald den Elzen will join the Executive Team as HEINEKEN's first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. The world is changing fast, with tremendous opportunities for the beer industry and HEINEKEN. Consumers, customers and employees expect a seamless digital experience when they interact with all brands and the company. In 2019, 'Connect in a digital world' was launched as the fifth business priority. The appointment of our first Chief Digital and Technology Officer underpins the ambition to become the world's most connected brewer. Having joined HEINEKEN 25 years ago, Ronald den Elzen most recently served as Managing Director of HEINEKEN USA. Previous roles have included Finance Director in The Netherlands and HEINEKEN UK as well as Managing Director of Sociedade Central de Cervejas, the Company's Portuguese business. Ronald's appointment is effective immediately. Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO, commented: "I would like to thank Marc Gross for his enormous contribution to HEINEKEN. Marc has been critical for managing the growth of this company. While during the last 15 years our volumes, number of breweries and number of brands grew significantly, he has made the complexity of our global supply chain feel easy. Today thanks to Marc and his global teams across our regions, we have a very high performing supply chain organisation. I am delighted by the appointments of Magne Setnes and Ronald den Elzen. They are two highly experienced and versatile HEINEKEN executives who have a lot to bring to our company. Our Executive Team very much looks forward to working with them." A successor for Magne Setnes in Austria will be announced in due course. -ENDS- Press enquiries Tim van der Zanden / Michael Fuchs E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-355 Investor and analyst enquiries Federico Castillo Martinez/ Janine Ackermann / Robin Achten E-mail: investors@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-590 About HEINEKEN HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. HEINEKEN is committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brewing a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets. It employs over 85,000 employees and operates breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on Reuters under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS. HEINEKEN has two sponsored level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes: Heineken N.V. (OTCQX: HEINY) and Heineken Holding N.V. (OTCQX: HKHHY). Most recent information is available on HEINEKEN's website: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com and follow us on Twitter via @HEINEKENCorp. Attachments The former heavyweight boxer who was awarded the George Medal after saving Princess Anne from a gun-toting kidnapper in 1974 has revealed his shock after it sold at auction for 50,000 - more than 30,00 over its estimated value. Ronnie Russell, 72, from Bristol, said he was 'absolutely blown away' by the price paid by a private collector for the bravery award. Yesterday, he revealed he was selling it to pay for his own funeral after being struck down by years of ill health including several strokes. Now, he says the extra money has given him opportunities to do things he never thought he could. A crowd-funding campaign, set up by kind-hearted strangers, has also raised 1,300 for the pensioner. Scroll down for video Ronnie Russell, 72, from Bristol, was left in disbelief after the George Medal he was awarded by the Queen after saving Princess Anne from a gun-toting kidnapper in 1974 fetched 50,000 - more than 30,000 over its estimated value Mr Russell was a 28-year-old 6ft 2in, 17 stone former heavyweight boxer when he halted the kidnap attempt on the princess at The Mall in central London (Pictured: Princess Anne photographed earlier last month at an Edinburgh rugby match) Reward: Ronnie, pictured second from right, with the Queen and Anne ,far right, at Buckingham Palace receiving the medal in the late Seventies Mr Russell was a 28-year-old 6ft 2in, 17-stone former heavyweight boxer when he stepped in to floor a man trying to kidnap Anne at The Mall in central London, on March 20, 1974. He had been working in Princess Square on Pall Mall nearby before the incident and was on his way home. The George Medal he went on to receive from the Queen - who also paid off his mortgage at the time - had an estimated value of 15,000 to 20,000 when it went under the hammer at auction yesterday. The George Medal is the second highest civilian award for gallantry after the George Cross. Speaking after the sale, Mr Russell said: 'For something I thought that I would never sell, I never believed it would sell for this amount. He added: 'I am absolutely blown away with this price and gives me opportunities to do things that I thought I never thought we could.' Auctioneer Oliver Pepys, from Dix Noonan added, said during the sale: 'Ronnie Russell displayed an outstanding act of gallantry, and it is fitting that his George Medal achieved such a fantastic price at today's auction - a price that not only reflects the wonderful story of courage behind the medal, but also shows how strong the market for medals currently is.' Former heavyweight boxer Ronnie Russell (left in 1974) awarded The George Medal (right) after he thwarted the attempted armed kidnap of Princess Anne is to go under the hammer Recalling the terrifying incident in 1974, he said: 'It is as clear today as it was if it was last night. Once I got into the Mall, I saw a royal car coming down the Mall and it's got a small blue light on the roof of it. 'That's only on when there is a member of the royal family in the car. I saw the car and thought "I wonder who this is".' A few minutes later a car drove towards him by Admiralty Arch, which Mr Russell initially thought was an angry driver. However, when he realised it was more serious, he turned back to intervene, acting as Princess Anne's "human shield" as Ball tried to kidnap the royal.' He said of the royal: 'She was the calmest person of the whole event. She just kept sitting there without getting angry or upset. Ian Ball had blocked the princess's car with his own as it drove along the Mall back to Buckingham Palace, and fired a series of shots through the rear window as he tried to kidnap Princess Anne 'She just went "go away you silly man". That was it. That was all she said to him, without any excitement or shouting.' 'I said "come this way Anne", you'll be safe. I got her by her forearms and lifted her out in front of me. I said he's going to have to go through me to get to you.' 'He then ran round behind me but I don't know that. I turn around and he's looking at me, glaring at me with the gun. It's you or me now.' Russell then punched the assailant to the ground, leaving him 'flat on the floor'. Police arrived shortly afterwards. Appearing on This Morning today, he admitted that while he 'vowed' to never sell the medal, he did not want to be left in a situation where his family would be forced to pay for his funeral The silver medal has a portrait of the Queen's head on one side and a scene showing St George Slaying a dragon on the other. It is one of only 600 George Medals awarded since World War Two. Mr Russell, who now lives in a council house in Bristol with his wife explained his decision to sell, saying: 'I've just been so ill for the last few years. I have to go and have a drip every 21 days. 'I want to thank my brother, Terry, for looking after me during my illness. I'd have been in serious trouble if it weren't for him.' Russell told of how calm Anne was in the situation, 'She was fantastic', said Russell,' A lot of people don't believe me Appearing on This Morning yesterday, Russell admitted that while he 'vowed' to never sell the medal, he did not want to be left in a situation where his family would be forced to pay for his funeral when he does eventually pass away. 'I vowed I would never sell it. I felt it was a betrayal to the Queen. But I've had support from my family. I don't want a situation where everyone is putting money in. 'I feel very sad about it. I was honored receiving it, but I have been forced into the situation. I've been particularly unwell now. ' Ronnie also spoke of the heartwarming chat he had with the Queen when he was given the award at Buckingham Palace. He told: 'She said: 'This medal thanks you as The Queen, but I want to thank you as Anne's mother''. A few members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have condemned the resolution passed by the lawyers' body against Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra. In a letter signed by 11 members, to the secretary of SCBA, the lawyers have demanded the resignation of SCBA president Dushyant Dave. The SCBA had criticised Justice Mishra for praising Prime Minister Narender Modi in a public function. The SCBA resolution had said it is unbecoming of a judge to praise the head of the government in such a manner and that judges are expected to maintain neutrality. [{90971dd5-8d3f-46e0-963d-e7fa38dd1eea:intradmin/SCBA_1_cdzqzMz.jfif}] "We the undersigned members of this esteemed SCBA were taken aback by the mischievous act of passing the above-said resolution dated February 26 at the behest of President of SCBA showing as if the resolution has the accent and consent of the entire SCBA, when the fact remains that no Executive Committee meeting was convened despite the request of the Secretary and other members of Executive Committee to discuss this issue in the Executive Committee meeting," the letter read. [{0049022e-0257-4b0a-acee-1f889a09d949:intradmin/SCBA_2_pzWM54G.jfif}] "The conduct of the President is not only an act of maligning the image and reputation of the Apex Bar and also against the larger interest of the Bar because the first and foremost interest of the Bar is to have an appropriate place to sit for which 1.33 acres of land is yet to be acquired for the building of chambers. This land can only be acquired while working in tandem with the Govt functionaries. The act of the President and other members who signed the resolution will definitely invite the envy of the Officers who are in the helm of affairs of granting aforesaid acquisition and other beneficial schemes and projects," they added. The signatories said they viewed the "impugned act very seriously and construe this as an act of advancing personal political agenda of President as also settling of score with a particular judge". "In view of aforesaid facts and circumstances, it is incumbent upon your good office to seriously give consideration to the use of the majority of the members of the bar, including the undersigned members and consider the following resolutions by convening a general body meeting forthwith," the letter read. The resolutions that the signatories urged to consider included -- to condemn the unauthorised resolution dated February 26 purportedly passed by the Executive Committee (through circulation) and to immediately withdraw the same, not to use the office of SCBA for political agendas, to remove Dushyant Dave from the post of President of SCBA and to remove Dushyant Dave from the primary membership of SCBA for working against the interest of the Bar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WASHINGTON A Minnesota woman who worked as a translator for the military in Iraq was charged on Wednesday with providing highly classified information to an Iran-backed militia group. Prosecutors said she intensified her espionage as tensions between the United States and Iran increased in recent months. Prosecutors said the contractor, Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, revealed to a Lebanese man with ties to Hezbollah the names of foreign informants and details of the information they provided to the United States. The identities of such informants are among the governments most closely held secrets, and law enforcement officials said Ms. Thompson endangered the lives of the sources as well as those of military personnel. The officials suggested that the potential loss of classified information was grave and that the prosecution was one of the most serious recent counterintelligence cases they had seen. Several top national security prosecutors as well as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, appeared in court on Wednesday as Ms. Thompson made an initial appearance before a judge, demonstrating the importance of the case. If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military, John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished. An Iowa man has been jailed for two years for beating a rabbit to death with a stick and beheading it at an animal shelter. Bobby Carothers said 'I'm having rabbit stew tonight' as he left the shelter after committing the gruesome crime, according to court records. The 64-year-old told the arresting deputy he used a stick to kill the animal and then cut off its head, police documents state. Staff at the Des Moines shelter found the dead creature in a 'beyond gruesome' scene, local media report. According to the Des Moines Register, Carothers also told police he cut off the rabbit's ears. Bobby Carothers pleaded guilty to animal torture after beating a rabbit to death with a stick and was sentenced to two years in jail Carothers was seen on CCTV from the shelter walking around the gift shop before the attack Staff at the Animal Rescue League (ARL) identified Carothers as the last visitor to leave the building after the incident last December. Police arrested Carothers three hours later when a fire alarm was pulled at a nearby trucking company. Carothers told the arresting Polk County sheriff's deputy he was hungry when asked why he killed the rabbit, court records said. He pleaded guilty to animal torture last month and was jailed for two years and fined $625. A protective order banning Carothers from entering any ARL facility was also issued by the judge. The rabbit had been rescued from a zoo just a week before it was killed, according to local media. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa released security footage of Carothers in the shelter before he beat a rabbit to death The rescued rabbit was beheaded by Carothers at the Polk County, Iowa, Animal Rescue League shelter last December (stock image) The Animal Rescue League of Iowa gave staff grief counseling and submitted dozens of victim impact statements for consideration by the judge. Tom Colvin, ARL CEO, said Carothers 'brazenly violated our safe haven for animals' with his attack. He said in a statement: '2019 was an exceptionally challenging year, none of the least of which was when Bobby Gene Carothers brazenly violated our safe haven for animals by horrifically murdering Petunia, a pet rabbit in our care. 'This has been an incredibly painful journey of recovery for our team, and while we are relieved to have a resolution in the courts for this case, our fight to improve Iowa's animal welfare laws continues, and is now more personal than ever before.' CONCEPT is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of online and professional training. Our training programs elevate a professionals practice and can be custom-built for an organization to meet their training goals. Since 2009, CONCEPT Professional Training has valued being part of the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) community and equipping mental health professionals with education and specialized training for continued success in their practice or organization. At this years annual AP-LS Conference, March 5-7, CONCEPT Professional Training and Palo Alto University (PAU) will celebrate the launch of CONCEPT as Palo Alto Universitys new Division of Continuing and Professional Studies. Acquired in late 2018 by PAU, Northern Californias leading school of psychology and counseling, CONCEPT is a world-class provider of premium post-graduate professional training for mental health professionals, with a reputation for excellence in forensic psychology. Together, PAU and CONCEPT will provide expanded program offerings, including new certifications, premier group training programs (online and in-person), and enhanced forensic program certification. All training programs are based on the latest research and evidence-based practices and led by world-class experts. Programs can be customized for both online and in-person formats for mental health and allied professionals around the world, as well as for a wide variety of organizations and local, state and federal agencies. CONCEPT was founded by Patricia Zapf, Ph.D., who has a deep history with AP-LS, where she has served as President, Past President and on the Executive Committee, among other important roles. The conference is the perfect platform to announce this new division of the university to attendees. CONCEPT is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of online and professional training. Our training programs elevate a professionals practice and can be custom-built for an organization to meet their training goals, said Dr. Zapf, Vice President for Continuing and Professional Studies at Palo Alto University. In addition to professional training, CONCEPT offers free resources for mental health professionals, including webinars, brief research summaries and a translation of how to apply the knowledge to practice, podcasts, and much more to promote lifelong learning and allow professionals to stay at the top of their practice throughout their careers. For more information about CONCEPT at Palo Alto University, please go to our website or visit our booth at AP-LS in New Orleans March 5-7. Are you attending the conference? Stop by CONCEPTs booth and ask about a special offer to attend CONCEPTs Summer Training Institute and join Palo Alto University President Maureen OConnor and Dr. Patricia Zapf at their celebration reception on March 5th @ 7:30 p.m., please email awatkins@paloaltou.edu for more information. On Monday, President Trump was already having a bad week. The coronavirus was spreading, the stock market was plummeting and his administration was getting blamed for an inadequate response to a health crisis. Then came Tuesday. Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom Mr. Trump was so eager to paint as corrupt that his attempts to do so led to his impeachment, pulled off one of the most remarkable political comebacks in recent history, winning nine states and joining Senator Bernie Sanders as a front-runner in the Democratic presidential race. U.S. stocks did make a comeback on Wednesday, closing nearly 1,200 points up, which counted as good news for a president betting the farm on a healthy economy. The bad news was the reason many analysts cited for the gains was Mr. Bidens Super Tuesday victories. For Mr. Trump, whose belief in his own ability to shape external events is a source of comfort, it has been a week of confronting the fact that almost nothing is in his control right now. Two reports issued by different firearms experts one hired by attorneys for Rayes family and the other by Poulos legal team came to the same conclusion: A bullet that struck Raye went through his back, exited his chest and damaged the gun as it rested in the front pocket of the coat. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation said it is willing to close down offshore gaming companies in the country if issues on unpaid taxes, labor, and a spike in crimes are not resolved. Pagcor Assistant Vice President Jose Tria, Jr., who heads the licensing of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs, said the gaming regulator is open to calls to shut down these businesses in the country. "We are openly coordinating with agencies na nagkakaproblema dito sa operations ng mga POGO sa Philippines. We are trying to help," Tria told CNN Philippines' Balitaan. "Kapag hindi talaga ma-resolve, we will look into closing down the operations of POGOs." Pagcor stopped accepting new applications for POGO licenses in August last year amid growing concerns about job losses, unpaid taxes, and even on national security. Separate Senate investigations also unearthed a spike in cases of prostitution and human trafficking as women are brought in to cater to POGO workers. A Senate panel has also unearthed the "pastillas" scheme, where Chinese nationals pay grease money to enter the Philippines with great ease. RELATED: Chinese POGO workers can now order prostitutes online, Senate panel reveals RELATED: Defense chief fears POGOs may shift operations to spying Senators Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva, and Franklin Drilon are among those calling to halt POGO operations, saying the industry brings more harm than good in the country. Drilon even said that the Philippines appeared to be a "laundromat" for dirty Chinese money, saying that ill-gotten funds are being funneled to POGOs to make it look like these came from legitimate sources. Pagcor believes that the issues hounding the industry are not too big to resolve. However, Tria warned that closing down the 61 licensed POGO firms would mean lower revenues for the government. "Ang nakikita naming trend, just like any other industry, ay papunta na sa online. If we do not look at this industry now and then talagang mag-convert into online gaming, mamamatay siguro ang mga land-based casinos natin dito. We will lose the chance to raise revenues," he said. [Translation: The trend we are seeing, just like any other industry, is the shift to online (gaming). If we do not look at this industry now and there is widespread conversion to online gaming, maybe our land-based casinos will die.] Tria said Pagcor collects taxes from POGO firms worth 2 percent of their gross gaming receipts every month. This is separate from the personal income taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which should be collected from the salaries given to POGO workers, most of them Chinese nationals. Latest available government data show that POGO service providers had about 108,914 employees. The BIR issued 170 notices to collect P27.35 billion in tax liabilities from errant POGOs. The agency shut down several POGO service providers in 2019 upon discovering that they have not been paying the right taxes to the government. These establishments were eventually allowed to resume operations upon reaching a tax settlement with the BIR. Last year, the government made it a requirement for foreign POGO employees to secure taxpayer identification numbers before they are given work permits. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III earlier ordered a crackdown on POGOs not paying their dues, estimating about 2 billion in monthly income taxes uncollected from foreign workers in this sector. Agencies estimate about 50 billion in unpaid taxes from POGOs last year, against 6.42 billion collected by the BIR. YEREVAN, MARH 4, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan received Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, the ministry told Armenpress. The sides discussed the joint projects, as well as touched upon the current situation caused by the novel coronavirus and the preventive actions. Andrea Wiktorin welcomed the Armenian healthcare ministrys actions on detecting the first case in the country. She expressed readiness to assist not only in fighting the new coronavirus, but also developing the healthcare sector in general. The transparent action taken by the healthcare ministry and the government is the best way to reduce panic, Arsen Torosyan said, expressing readiness to cooperate on this direction. The EU Ambassador highlighted the support to the social reforms. We highly value the European Unions support to Armenia. I hope our productive cooperation will continue, Minister Torosyan said. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan In view of the coronavirus outbreak, Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has called for suspension of the use of breath analyser tests for alcohol consumption, by the police. In a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner, Bagga said, "In the light of ongoing ncovid2019(corona) infection, to protect(prevent) further spread of the disease, I request to please suspend the breath analyser tests for drunk drivers." He claimed breath is one of the main reasons behind the spread of the virus, adding the test can be resumed after the situation becomes normal. "Request to @DelhiPolice @cpdelhi & other state Police for suspension of breath analysis for some time #CoronaAlert," Bagga tweeted. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said 28 positive cases of coronavirus have been detected so far in India and announced that all international flights and passengers will now have to undergo screening, and not just the 12 countries listed earlier. Giving a breakup of those who have tested positive for the virus, the minister said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person is from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Panic spread across Mindspaces many buildings in Hyderabad Wednesday morning when a company in Building 20 announced that one of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus. DSM, a company with an office on the ninth floor of the building, sent out a mail to all its employees, announcing this news and asking them to leave the office and work from home. A screenshot of this mail went viral on Twitter and was shared widely on WhatsApp as well. "Within an hour, employees of all companies in the building had learnt of the development. An employee of Yash Technologies, which has offices on the sixth and tenth floors, said, "As soon as the news broke, we were asked to leave the office and go home immediately. An employee from Cognizant, which has an office in the same building, at around 1 PM, said, So far, we have received no information from the company officially. All of us are requesting our managers to let us go home. There is a lot of anxiety in the air. When we came in the morning, the security guards and some employees were wearing masks. This sight does not help. Soon enough, the fear spread across other buildings as well. Employees of Building 12C were also afraid, since they are located in exactly the opposite Building 20. The Yash Technologies employee said, We visit that building often. After our lunch, we go there since it has an open area where we can walk. I am sure that building will also have to be evacuated and fumigated. NCR, another company with an office in 12C nearby 12B, also asked its employees to go home. The mail also asked its employees from Mindspace to not visit its other office in Western Aqua, probably as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, even outside Mindspace, IT employees remained anxious. One employee from a software company just a kilometre away from Mindspace, said one of his colleagues had received a mail that an employees spouse was exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus infection. Members of that team have been asked to go home. We are awaiting instructions for the rest of us soon, he said. Finnish English Municipality Finance Plc Stock exchange release 4 March 2020 at 2 pm (EET) Municipality Finances Annual Report for 2019 published Municipality Finance Plcs Annual Report, Corporate Governance Statement, and Remuneration Report for the year 2019 have been published in English and in Finnish on the companys website at www.munifin.fi. Municipality Finance has also published Pillar 3 Disclosure document in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and Directive 2013/36/EU. The document is available in English on the companys website. MUNICIPALITY FINANCE PLC Esa Kallio President and CEO tel. +358 50 337 7953 MuniFin (Municipality Finance Plc) is one of Finland's largest credit institutions: the company's balance sheet totals nearly EUR 39 billion. The company is owned by Finnish municipalities, the public sector pension fund Keva and the Republic of Finland. MuniFin's mission is to build a better future in line with the principles of responsibility and in cooperation with its customers. MuniFin's customers are Finnish municipalities, municipal federations, municipally controlled entities and non-profit housing organisations. Lending is used for environmentally and socially responsible investment targets such as public transportation, sustainable buildings, hospitals and healthcare centres, schools and day care centres, and homes for people with special needs. MuniFin's customers are domestic but the company operates in a completely global business environment. It is the most active Finnish bond issuer in international capital markets and the first Finnish green bond issuer. The funding is exclusively guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board. The Municipality Finance Group also includes the subsidiary company, Financial Advisory Services Inspira Lt Read more: www.munifin.fi Attachment On 28 November 2019, the bank had set up a six-member panel to find a successor to Puri who turns 70 on 26 October 2020. Mumbai: HDFC Bank has reconstituted the search panel instituted to find the successor to Aditya Puri, the managing director and chief executive of the 25-year-old private sector lender, the private lender informed the bourses on Wednesday. HDFC Bank's Search Committee has been reconstituted due to cessation of Keki Mistrys directorship from the board. The Search Committee is meant to identify successor to the Managing Director of the bank pic.twitter.com/Pw95o4pXEf CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) March 4, 2020 Keki Mistry has been replaced by Renu Karnad of the bank's parent HDFC in the search panel. Mistry leaves the board of the bank after completing eight consecutive years as a director the maximum tenure that regulation allows. Puri, who built HDFC Bank from scratch since its inception in 1994 and made it the second largest lender with more than Rs 9 lakh crore assets, is the highest paid banker in the country and is retiring on 26 October 2020. Puri succession is keenly watched by the industry as the new person will have to fill in a very large shoe, given the way Puri has built the bank that commands the highest premium among the banking stocks across the world and also the best asset quality among the all omestic lenders. Speculation is intense on whether the bank will pick an internal or an external candidate. On 28 November 2019, the bank had set up a six-member panel to find a successor to Puri who turns 70 on 26 October 2020. Weeks into the appointment of the search panel, the bank had roped in international headhunting firm Egon Zehnder to assist the panel identify the right candidate. The reconstituted search panel drops Keki Mistry, representing the parent HDFC and is replaced by Renu Karnad of the largest mortgage lender, the bank informed the exchanges this evening. The filing attributed the exclusion of Mistry, who is the vice-chairman, managing director and chief executive of HDFC from the panel to "the cessation of his (Mistry's) directorship from the board of the bank and Karnad's appointment as an additional non-executive director on the board of the bank." HDFC Bank in a separate filing said that Karnad has been appointed as sdditional non-executive director -- nominee of promoter Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited - on the board of the bank. Aditya Puri shall continue to act as advisor to the search committee, a position he held in the original panel as well, the filing said. Karnad is the joint managing director at the mortgage major. The other members of the panel include Shyamala Gopinath who is also the chairman of the bank, Sanjiv Sachar, MD Ranganath, Sandeep Parekh and Srikanth Nadhamuni. The bank's number two position fell vacant after Paresh Sukthankar, the deputy managing director who was considered as a front-runner to succeed Puri, put in his papers last year. At the annual general meeting in 2019, Puri had said that his replacement should be better than him and should not require 18 months handholding for the job. Industry is keenly watching the succession as Puri, hired by HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh from Citibank to start HDFC Bank in 1994, steps down in October after creating a behemoth with a market value of Rs 6.3 lakh crore as of today having scaled past Rs 7.5 lakh crore in recent past. Advertisement The world's only known albino orangutan has been spotted alive and well in a Borneo rainforest, more than a year after she was released into the wild. Alba, a blue-eyed primate covered in fuzzy white hair, was taken in 2017 from a cage where she was being kept as a pet by villagers in Indonesia's section of Borneo, known as Kalimantan. Alba, which means 'white' in Latin, was released back into the wild in late 2018. Alba, believed to be approximately six years old, appears a healthy weight and content in the wilds of Borneo as conservationists discover her foraging for food in a tree Health issues particular to albino species appear to be no problem for this cheeky young primate, who playfully looks down at the conservationists keen to find out how she is When first discovered by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation in Tanggiran village, Kalimantan, Alba was severely underweight from lack of food, riddled with parasites and suffering from dehydration. The conservation group believed she had become separated from her mother prior to capture. At the time, she could not immediately return to the wild because of health issues relating to her albinism, which could have made her vulnerable to hunters. Albino species of primate can suffer from poor eyesight and hearing, and have an increased chance of developing skin cancer in later life. The conservation group restored Alba to good health, and in June 2018 moved her to a 10-hectare man-made 'forest island' near the group's orangutan rehabilitation centre in Kalimantan. A public appeal to raise $80,000 to buy land for the special reserve is still accepting donations. Alba, who is approximately six years old, was joined in her new home by three other orangutans a four-year-old female called Radmala, a six-year-old female called Kika, and Unyu, a four-year-old male. They received round the clock observation by staff who monitor their health and behaviour. Then, in December 2018, Alba was released into the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park following a more than 24-hour journey from her rehabilitation center. The Natural Resources Conservation Agency made the decision to release Alba into the wild at the time because she had become physically strong and learned essential behaviours for survival. She was electronically tagged by the foundation and regularly monitored by a medical team. Alba enjoying some watermelon on a branch while she was being restored to full health by a conservation group in Kalimantan A much healthier Alba eagerly awaiting her imminent release into the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia She is back to full health and the authorities are confident she can survive in the wild with light supervision Here's the moment Alba is released from her cage, striding boldly in her glossy white coat into the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park 'Alba has no inferiority complex as we imagined before. She is very confident compared to other orangutans,' said veterinarian Agus Fathoni to The Associated Press at the time. Fathoni added the real threat to Alba's life was from poachers who consider her a valuable target because of her special condition. This week, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said Alba was spotted as it monitored three other orangutans who were recently released. "After we learned that she can build nests, forage independently and is no longer dependent on human assistance we concluded that she can survive in the forest," said Indra Exploitasia, the environment ministry's director of biodiversity conservation. Alba's rescue was some rare positive news for the critically endangered species, which has seen its habitat shrink drastically over the past few decades largely due to the destruction of forests for logging, paper, palm oil and mining. Plantation workers and villagers are sometimes known to attack the animals because they see them as a pest, while poachers also capture them to sell as pets. Heres what we should be doing. First, bringing in more outdoor air in buildings with heating and ventilation systems (or opening windows in buildings that dont) helps dilute airborne contaminants, making infection less likely. For years, we have been doing the opposite: sealing our windows shut and recirculating air. The result are schools and office buildings that are chronically underventilated. This not only gives a boost to disease transmission, including common scourges like the norovirus or the common flu, but also significantly impairs cognitive function. A study published just last year found that ensuring even minimum levels of outdoor air ventilation reduced influenza transmission as much as having 50 percent to 60 percent of the people in a building vaccinated. Buildings typically recirculate some air, which has been shown to lead to higher risk of infection during outbreaks, as contaminated air in one area is circulated to other parts of the building (as it did in the school with measles). When its very cold or very hot, the air coming out of the vent in a school classroom or office may be completely recirculated. Thats a recipe for disaster. If air absolutely has to be recirculated, you can minimize cross-contamination by enhancing the level of filtration. Most buildings use low-grade filters that may capture less than 20 percent of viral particles. Most hospitals, though, use a filter with whats known as a MERV rating of 13 or higher. And for good reason they can capture more than 80 percent of airborne viral particles. For buildings without mechanical ventilation systems, or if you want to supplement your buildings system in high-risk areas, portable air purifiers can also be effective at controlling airborne particle concentrations. Most quality portable air purifiers use HEPA filters, which capture 99.97 percent of particles. These approaches are supported by empirical evidence. In my teams recent work, just submitted for peer review, we found that for measles, a disease dominated by airborne transmission, a significant risk reduction can be achieved by increasing ventilation rates and enhancing filtration levels. (Measles comes with something that works even better that we dont yet have for this coronavirus a vaccine.) There is also ample evidence that viruses survive better at low humidity precisely what happens during winter, or in the summer in air-conditioned spaces. Some heating and ventilation systems are equipped to maintain humidity in the optimal range of 40 percent to 60 percent, but most are not. In that case, portable humidifiers can increase humidity in rooms, particularly in a home. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 15:13:56|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Six Afghan police and eight insurgents were killed in fierce clashes following a Taliban's attack on a security checkpoint in the country's southern Uruzgan province overnight, local police said Wednesday. The incident happened on Tuesday night, when a group of Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in Nachin, an area in provincial capital Tirin Kot, leaving six national police and eight militants dead and 11 others, including seven policemen wounded, Zurgay Ebadi, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua. According to him, the security post remains in the security forces' control and the militants fled the area abandoning their fighters' bodies at the scene. The province has been the scene of heavy clashes between Taliban militants and security forces for long. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period, ending on Feb. 29 when a U.S.-Taliban peace deal was signed in Qatari capital of Doha. However, Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashes with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal, which framed American troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan, was signed. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday alleged that "some people and channels" were trying to create panic over coronovirus in the country to divert attention from the Delhi communal riots. She said "happy and healthy" people were killed in Delhi because of violence and not a virus. "Today some people are shouting corona, corona [coronavirus] a bit too much. Yes, it's a dreaded disease but don't create panic. Some (TV) channels are creating hype over it to suppress Delhi violence. Do report when it occurs. We don't want the disease to spread, but don't create panic," she told a TMC meeting here in South Dinajpur. A total of 28 COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in India so far, according to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. None of these are in West Bengal. "Those who died in Delhi violence, didn't die of coronavirus or any other diesease. If they had died from the virus, we would have at least known they died due to a dreaded disease. But healthy and happy people were mercilessly burnt to death and killed," she said. Without naming the BJP or the Centre, the TMC supremo said they did not even care to apologise. "Think of their arrogance. They are saying Goli Maro...let me warn them Bengal and Delhi are not the same." She claimed hundreds of people have gone missing in the national capital after the riots and bodies are still being recovered from drains. "The situation in Delhi is pathetic. There are heaps of bodies. So many people have become homeless. Bodies are being recovered from drains. Seven hundred people are still missing," she said. The chief minister said she was misquoted by media on Tuesday over the citizenship issue of Bangladeshi people who have settled in India. "I never said Bangladeshis who have come to this country are Indian citizens. During partition, many from Pakistan came to our country, to Punjab, Gujarat and Delhi, and many people from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) came to Bengal. "After these (refugees) came, Nehru-Liaquat Pact was signed which granted citizenship to those who had crossed over to India from Pakistan. Again, in 1971 during the (Bangladesh) liberation war, there was a treaty between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which granted Indian citizenship to refugees from that country. I was speaking about them," she said. Banerjee said she was referring to these people, who are bonafide citizens of this country, and wondered why they should be asked by the BJP government to submit fresh proof of citizenship. She also accused the BJP of perpetrating atrocities on Dalits and claimed the saffron party had a tacit understanding with the Congress and CPI(M) with an eye on the West Bengal assembly elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People stand in front of a drug store in Daegu, South Korea, March 3, 2020. REUTERS The median incubation period of the new coronavirus is five to seven days and the maximum 14 days, Du Bin, Chairman of the Critical Care Medical Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, told a press event on March 4 in Beijing. Du also said that, while in Hubei province some individuals have tested positive for the virus even after being discharged from hospital, there is no data tracking such cases. He said there was no evidence yet that such patients can transmit the virus to others. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 12:24 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20682eb5e 4 City South-Tangerang,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,outbreak-in-Indonesia,Banten,COVID-19,surveillance,observation Free The South Tangerang administration in Banten has put a suspected novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient under surveillance amid concerns over a possible outbreak. Based on our meeting, there is only one [suspected case]. Theyre under surveillance, which means were also observing for [symptoms] of other diseases, South Tangerang Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com. The suspected patient was being treated at Permata Hospital in Pamulang, she went on to say. Separately, South Tangerang Health Agency head Deden Deni said authorities had put the patient under surveillance due to his history of recent travel to Malaysia. He returned from Malaysia on Feb. 20, if Im not mistaken, Deden said as quoted by kompas.com. As of Wednesday morning, John Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering compiled data showed there were 36 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Malaysia, of which 22 had recovered. Read also: 6 suspected patients, 3 with contact with COVID-19 cases, quarantined in Jakarta hospital The mayor added that the test conducted at Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Jakarta on the patients sample showed that the individual was not found to exhibit any COVID-19 symptoms. [] there has yet to be any sign of the disease, [the suspected case] asked to be put under surveillance at home, Airin added. However, the health agency had advised against observing the suspected individual at home. Instead, the agency preferred to keep the suspected case in the hospital, she said. Several cities in Greater Jakarta have taken anticipatory measures following the announcement of the countrys first confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday. According to the Health Ministrys official coronavirus readiness guidelines, there are two types of COVID-19 cases: patients under observation and patients under surveillance. A patient who has a fever of over 38 degrees Celsius, cough or sore throat, pneumonia, or travel history to regions with confirmed COVID-19 cases including outbreak epicenter Wuhan, Hubei province in China in the last 14 days, as well as contact history with confirmed COVID-19 cases qualifies as a suspect and is subject to immediate observation. The patients family members and/or health workers that have come in close contact with them are also subject to surveillance given their contact history. Meanwhile, a patient under surveillance is an individual who has a fever of over 38 degrees Celsius or an acute respiratory infection without pneumonia, as well as travel history to regions with confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days. The surveillance will last 14 days to determine whether the patient develops any COVID-19 symptoms. (rfa) Hamilton County Schools is working closely with the Chattanooga Hamilton County Health Department as the concern nationwide regarding the Coronavirus increases. The local Health Department is in close contact with its partners, the Tennessee Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to monitor the situation and get the latest health recommendations, and they share that information with our school district. There are no known cases of Coronavirus in our area. Even so, Hamilton County Schools will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to prevent the spread of all viruses in our community and schools. School nurses are working to keep the school environment safe by sending students home when they exhibit signs of fever or flu-like symptoms. We ask parents; please keep your child at home if any of these symptoms are present. Schools will support students in the area of leniency regarding absenteeism from classes and extra-curricular activities. We also encourage employees to stay at home if flu-like symptoms are present. Students and employees should be fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medications for 24-hours before returning to school. The district is increasing efforts to reinforce proper hygiene practices and cleaning methods to protect students and employees from illnesses such as a cold, flu, and the Coronavirus: Parents, please help by reinforcing a child covering any coughs or sneezes with the elbow or tissue and not the hands. Schools will continue to encourage students to wash their hands multiple times during the school day and model proper hand washing. (CDC Information on effective hand washing) Schools and custodial personnel are disinfecting surfaces in schools daily, such as desks, countertops, light switches, doorknobs, and other frequently touched areas. The custodial service provider has fogged every school with an electrostatic disinfectant sprayer and will continue to revisit schools with this cleaning method while concerns are present with the flu or Coronavirus. The districts efforts to keep schools clean and safe learning environments has helped us keep schools open during this flu season. We appreciate the work of our administrators, teachers, and cleaning staff, and we will increase our efforts during this current concern. The CDC has recommended school districts have alternative methods in place to provide educational opportunities for students. Already this year, Hamilton County Schools has provided learning opportunities for children to use on the few days missed due to inclement weather. The district will continue to develop methods to provide even more alternative learning for students in the future. Officials said, "We will continue to be proactive during the coming weeks and work with our health partners and the Tennessee Department of Education to make any adjustments necessary to ensure the safest environment possible for our students and employees. As information is shared with us by state and local officials, we will communicate with our staff, students, parents, and community." Like every year, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches issued its appeal for the Pro-Terra Sancta Collection, which is held on Good Friday to raise money to help the place where Jesus lived. The Congregation also released its report on how aid money was spent last year. Vatican City (AsiaNews) The Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leandro Sandri, has released a letter to the bishops around the world as part of the dicasterys annual appeal for the Pro-Terra Sancta Collection, which is normally done on Good Friday. The goal is to raise funds to offer aid to the land where Jesus lived, which is still the scene of Long and exhausting wars which produce millions of refugees and strongly influence the future of entire generations. The dicastery also released its report noting that the Collection is the main source of funds for the maintenance of the life around the Holy Places and is the instrument the Church has given herself to stand alongside the ecclesial communities of the Middle East. The report notes that in 2019 the Congregation received US$ 6,929,209.64from the Pro-Terra Sancta Collection. In 2019 the Custody received US$ 1,350,000.00 for previous years. The total was US$ 8,279,209.64. The generosity that the Catholic faithful express towards their brothers and sisters in the Middle East though the Collection can solve many problems, but prayer and moral support are even more necessary. We therefore invite you to adopt a Christian from the Middle East, even if you do not know his/her name, and pray for him/her throughout the year 2020. Thanks to the Collection, contributions can be made to seminaries, religious houses of formation and cultural institutions in the territories of competence, supporting in various forms (scholarships, university fees and health needs) young seminarians and priests, men and women religious and, depending on the funds available, and some lay people. About 300 students benefiting from scholarships are hosted in 7 colleges under the jurisdiction of the Dicastery in Rome. A new college that opened four years ago for nuns from different Eastern countries welcomes 32 female students this year. The dicastery spent US$ 2,310,681.00 for the training of seminarians, priests and nuns in Rome, maintenance of colleges; US$ 915,571.00 for the Pontifical Oriental Institute (PIO), and US$ 50,000 on extraordinary subsidies for cultural collaboration. The total was US$ 3,276,252.00. For its part, the Custody of the Holy Land, in a "summary report" lists the works carried out last year for the support and development of the local Christian minority, the conservation and enhancement of archaeological sites and shrines, for emergencies, liturgies, apostolic works as well as assistance to pilgrims. These works, among the hundreds, include those in: - Emmaus Qubeibeh: the shrine of Saints Simeon and Cleophas, for the renovation of some areas of the monastery to welcome the inter-obediential community. - Ain Karem: shrine of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. - Bethany: at shrine of the House di Martha, Mary and Lazarus, ongoing restoration and enhancement of the Byzantine and medieval remains of the monastery at Bethany through the recovery of degraded areas; training and employment of 10 young Palestinians for restoration work; support for the entrepreneurial activities of the local women's association; an educational project with primary schools to learn about local religious and archaeological sites (supported by Association Pro Terra Sancta, ATS). - Bethlehem: collaboration with other ecclesial communities and the Palestinian National Authority for the restoration of the Basilica of the Nativity. - Jericho: shrine of the Good Shepherd; restoration of the school stadium; construction of 10 new bathrooms, a stage for various school activities, four new classrooms (with air conditioning to cope with Jerichos temperatures which can reach 50C), renovation of the school library. - Jerusalem: Basilica of Gethsemane: completion of the tunnel project and elevators for pilgrim groups to connect the basilica area to the Cedron Valley via a pedestrian pathway; completion of the renovation of the hermitages available for hermitical experiences; planning the service centre for pilgrims in the Cedron Valley. - Jerusalem: Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord: implementation of structural consolidation of the rock of the Grotto of the Invention of the Holy Cross following instrumental investigations and in-depth analysis; replacement of the monastery lift/elevator in the Chapel of the Apparition; study in collaboration with the Sapienza University (Rome, Italy) and the Venaria Restoration Centre (Turin, Italy) of the restoration of the Basilica's floor and infrastructures (with the Greek and Armenian Communities). - Jerusalem: Terra Sancta Museum: ongoing structural consolidation of the premises to complete the museum area at the Shrine of the Flagellation; ongoing construction of a modern museum centre for the enhancement of the Franciscan artistic, archaeological and cultural heritage covering an area of about 2,500 square metres with an archaeological museum about places of the Bible in Palestine (Monastery of the Flagellation) (third phase) and an historical Museum about the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (Monastery of St Saviour). - Jerusalem Old City: ongoing renovation work of houses with the aim of improving the living conditions of the residents. - Bethlehem: Boys Home for 27 socially children, including ten interns in social difficulty; renovation of heating system; scholarships and subsidies; funds for 490 four-year university scholarships (225 from the Custody and 265 from the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land (FFHL) in different universities (Bethlehem, Hebrew, Bir Zeit, Amman); 178 grants for students in financial difficulty. - Bethlehem: support for craft businesses; purchase of spare parts, production equipment, aids for securing the activities of ten small craft businesses; - Bethlehem: ongoing support for parish family counselling; support for more than 20 children (ages 6-12) from families in difficulty; medical assistance for families in serious financial difficulties; renovation of homes of needy families (with FFHL support). - Bethlehem: works in favour of parish communities: Catholic Action, special general maintenance of bathrooms in parish swimming pool area for local use; - Ramleh: flats for the needy and young couples. - Syria, Jordan and Lebanon: intensified assistance for Syrians and Iraqis, Christians and others, in extreme need, through the Custody of the Holy Land with external financial support and collaboration, especially that of ATS. - Lebanon: reception and temporary support for 14 Iraqi families in Deir Mimas and over 47 in the area of Harissa and Jounieh; educational help for 28 Iraqi children and young Iraqis in Deir Mimas, over 35 in the Harissa area and almost 65 in Jounieh; aid to 40 young Syrians in Jounieh and Beirut. - Syria: help through the parishes of Aleppo, Damascus, Knayeh, Yakubiyah and Latakia: help to the Aleppo emergency centre for the parish and Terra Sancta College (food parcels for 1,200 families per month; emergency health care; funding surgery for Christians of all denominations; working with other Churches to provide support in pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum mother-and-child care); aid project for Christian, Orthodox and Catholic couples engaged to be married (wedding gifts: one-year home rental, electricity, one or two-room furniture, home repair, etc.); free funeral service, burial service, coffin purchase; support for families of priests and poor families, all Catholic and Orthodox rites. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Department of Agriculture on Wednesday denied a report saying farmers have lost more than 60 billion in revenues since the law that allows unlimited rice imports was implemented nearly a year ago. Hindi naman sila nalugi ng P68 billion eh [They did not lose P68 billion], Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in an economic press briefing in Malacanang in Manila, reacting to the study by farmers group Federation of Free Farmers. However, Dar was mum when asked if the government can guarantee the farmers would not suffer any more financial losses, arguing they should not solely rely on the government and must work hard to increase their harvest so they could yield a higher income. Well ang isang farmer, hindi naman lahat ay i-ano mo sa gobyerno. Dapat magsipag at mas mapataas pa yung ani niya at ipababa niya ang cost of production niya then that will give them more opportunities in terms of higher income, the top agriculture official said. He said the government is more prepared to cushion the blow on farmers of low prices of palay, but he acknowledged authorities need to do a much better job in implementing the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund which is designed to assist farmers losing out from the flood of cheaper imported rice under the Rice Tariffication Law. Dar mentioned gains from the policy such as the collection of P12.3 billion worth of tariffs last year which will all be used to fund the programs under RCEF as well as lower prices of goods for consumers. One of the aims of RCEF programs is to cut rice production cost by half, from P12 to P6 per kilo, in six years. The DA budget for this is P10 billion per year until 2024. The official also said they were able to give P1.4 billion worth of cash aid to nearly 280,000 affected farmers from 33 provinces. He added Land Bank was able to release P459 million worth of credit to 469 farmers and 19 cooperatives. Data from the US Foreign Agricultural Services show that almost three million metric tonnes of rice went to the Philippines last year, making the country the top rice importer in the world in 2019. ASHBURN, Va. The Joe Biden comeback continues. The former vice president streaked to several significant wins Tuesday, building on the Saturday victory in South Carolina that reinvigorated his 2020 campaign. The results brought Biden dramatically closer to the front-runner, Sen. Bernie Sanders, as Democrats voted in 14 states on Super Tuesday, the most expansive day of the nominating contest. Combined with the South Carolina results three days earlier, Tuesdays results altered a race that had looked like Sanders to lose. It now looks increasingly like a two-person contest for the nomination, with the Democratic establishment, and voters across the map, rallying behind Biden. Its a good night and it seems to be getting even better, Biden told cheering supporters in Los Angeles, a few weeks after many wondered if his campaign was doomed. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing. ... Its still early, but things are looking awful, awful good. Biden swept the South, carrying Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. He was also declared the winner in Oklahoma and Massachusetts, and scored a surprise victory in Minnesota after receiving a last-minute endorsement from home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a onetime Biden rival. Virginia and North Carolina were called almost as soon as polls closed, suggesting that Biden had scored huge victories there and would win a substantial share of delegates toward the nomination in two of the largest states on the map, with 99 and 110 delegates, respectively. Sanders, meanwhile, won Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont and the state with the biggest delegate prize of the night, California. But the popular-vote margin and the number of delegates he would carry out of that state werent immediately clear. Still, the night dented one of the central premises of Sanders campaign: that he is the candidate who can bring out new voters, including disaffected liberals and working-class people. Instead, it was Biden who seemed to juice the electorate. In Virginia, turnout almost doubled compared with 2016, and Biden won more than half the vote in the state, while Sanders had about 23%. Instead of a surge of liberals, Biden rode a wave of support from African Americans, as well as moderate voters who have turned away from the GOP in affluent, Democratic-trending suburbs similar to the ones outside Philadelphia. People are talking about revolution, weve started a movement," Biden said in a dig at Sanders frequent calls for a political revolution. Weve increased turnout. The turnouts turned out for us, Biden said. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, trailed well behind, despite having poured more than $500 million into advertising and staffing across the country, much of it in the Super Tuesday states. On Wednesday morning, he dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren suffered a significant blow in failing to carry her home state, Massachusetts. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Biden supporter, said his state is "urban, rural, suburban. Its a real composite of who America is," McAuliffe said, "and I think this was a huge win for Joe Biden because it goes to electability, for me, in the general election. The margins of victory in each state are critical, because delegates are awarded proportionally, not on a winner-take-all basis. Sanders, speaking to supporters in Essex Junction, Vt., seemed to acknowledge the new, stiffer competition, sharply contrasting himself with Biden. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq youre looking at him," Sanders said. "Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. One of us led the opposition to disastrous trade agreements which cost us millions of good-paying jobs and thats me. And another candidate voted for disastrous trade agreements. The success for Biden ensured that he would continue his momentum and made it likely that he would rack up enough delegates to rival Sanders. As he did in South Carolina, Biden won with huge support from African Americans, winning 63% of black voters in Virginia and North Carolina, according to CNNs exit polls. Among Virginia voters who said beating Trump was their top priority, 58% chose Biden, while 19% supported Sanders. "I believe we need change, but revolution doesnt happen overnight, said Ken Steele, 70, who voted for Biden in Oakland, Calif. I marched for civil rights. I remember when cities burned. We need to restart the revolution, but you cant do it overnight. The coast-to-coast primaries provided a new test for the candidates just as the field narrowed. For the first time, campaigns had to organize across multiple states, and try to appeal to broad cross sections of the Democratic coalition all at once. From Maine to Alabama to Texas to Minnesota to California, every region was represented. The voting came as Democratic insiders increasingly worried that Sanders was building enough momentum to run away with the nomination, with some in the party thinking he would prove too liberal to beat Trump and even hurt other Democrats on the ballot. Biden hoped to counter with the new energy from big-name endorsements that followed his South Carolina victory, including support from former opponents Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. In Virginias upscale and moderate suburbs just outside Washington, most voters who said their main priority was beating Trump said they voted for Biden. Those motivated by specific issues such as health care or the environment often said they backed Sanders. Cotrina McGue, 56, said morality was the main factor on her mind as she sought a candidate who could defeat Trump. For her, that meant supporting Biden. His rivals just dont compare with Joes experience, McGue said as she voted in Ashburn, Va. In Leesburg, another growing Virginia suburb, Seamus Welch, 32, was among the many younger voters enthused by Sanders. Welch said that while he lives in an affluent area, he grew up in a less well-off part of South Carolina and saw many struggle with health-care costs, including when his mother faced a bill of about $40,000 after an emergency appendectomy. Im a big proponent of Medicare for All, he said of Sanders single-payer health-care proposal. I know how important that can be for a lot of people. In a sign of the importance of California, several candidates spent most of the day in the state. Biden started in Oakland and ended in Los Angeles. As he walked into a diner in Oakland, Sanders supporters waved signs and chanted into a megaphone on the corner. I think the last 72 hours shows that the Democratic establishment is more afraid of Bernie than they are of Trump, said Keith Brower Brown, 32, co-chair of the East Bay chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Sanders is the only one who can defeat Trump. Hes the only one who has a movement of hundreds of thousands of people. Carolyn Tawasha, 60, who voted for Biden, gestured at the rallying Sanders supporters while waiting to see her candidate. I think right now we just need someone who can heal the country, she said. "I just want Uncle Joe to take care of us for four years and then we can get our act together and start the revolution. PHOENIX The head of a major business organization wants state lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey to quash a proposal to allow individuals to sue cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials. We dont need it, Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Capitol Media Services on Tuesday. He said it has the potential of creating needless controversy and ill will. This is an area where there needs to be great sensitivity, he said. Hamer said that with strong laws against sanctuary cities on the books we believe that attention would be better focused elsewhere. Hamer said he was sharing his views with lawmakers who will decide the future of the measure and with Ducey who will have to make the final decision whether to sign it if it clears the House and Senate. That pressure could be the death knell for HB 2598. (@FahadShabbir) UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2020) One of Ghassan Salame's deputies will most likely serve as an acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), a diplomatic source told Sputnik on Wednesday. "We are not talking about Salame's successor yet," the source said. "So far, we are talking about an acting [special representative]. Logically, the acting [envoy] will be from Salame's team. Probably, it would be one of his deputies." On Monday, Salame announced via Twitter that he would resign from his post as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya due to his health. UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later confirmed that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had received Salame's letter expressing his intention to leave the post. Details added (first version posted on 18:55) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: The operational headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers has disseminated another statement in connection with coronavirus, Trend reports on March 4 referring to the Cabinet of Ministers. Azerbaijan is ensuring the return of its citizens who are in Iran, the message said. In this regard, the appeals of Azerbaijani citizens received through the hotline of the embassy in Tehran and the consulate general in Tabriz are registered. Lionel Bonaventure/Getty Images Two New Jersey teenagers have been charged after a failed attempt at the viral skull breaker challenge resulted in the hospitalization of a seventh-grader with a serious head injury and a seizure, prosecutors and family members said. The two students, who have not been identified because of their age, were both charged with third-degree aggravated assault and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child after the January incident spurred by the internet craze, the Camden County Prosecutors Office told The Daily Beast. While prosecutors wouldnt provide details about the incident, the parents of the 13-year-old boy told local media outlets that their son, from Cherry Hill, suffered a concussion and subsequent seizure from the prank. Hes doing better, but he feels like hes being punished because he cant do the things he likes to do, Stacy Shenker told Patch.com, noting her son still has concussion symptoms. We need to make sure this doesnt happen to anyone else. Theyre 13-year-old boys, and they just dont think. The injury is the latest in a series of mishaps spurred by the challenge, which is popular on the social media platform TikTok. It has prompted several local police stations across the nation to issue warnings against participating in the new craze. Originally from Spain, the prank involves three people standing next to each other under the guise of learning a new dance move or to jump in a social media video. Instead, two or more people trick a third into jumping into the airbefore kicking their feet out from under them and causing them to fall headfirst. The safety and well-being of our users is a top priority at TikTok and we do not allow content that encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury, a spokesperson for TikTok told The Daily Beast in a statement, stressing that the video app did not inspire the challenge. The behavior in question is a violation of our Community Guidelines and we will continue to remove this content from our platform. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off. Story continues Last month, a 12-year-old Alabama boy broke his wrist after participating in the challenge at the Ozark Boys and Girls Club, his mother, Teri Smith, wrote on Facebook. Smith said her son was not an avid TikTok user and was not prepared when his friends asked him to stand in a line and take turns jumping on Feb.13. He was then knocked onto the gym floor and landed on his arm. All these little games they see on the internet, its not always fun. It can be dangerous. You have to think about what could happen. Kids are not going to think about that. Thats where the parents and teachers and adults have to think about that and try to educate the kids, she later told WTVY. Influencers Tell TikTok to Stop Purging Their Videos Just over a week later, KeAvion Hearn was approached by a couple of classmates at Southeast Arkansas Preparatory High School who said, all you got to do is jump. I jumped, they kind of kicked me out under my legs so I cant land. All I remember is being on the floor, the teenager told KARK, who was hospitalized for a concussion after the incident. An Arizona mother also wrote on Facebook earlier this month that her son was left with serious head and facial injuries after two classmates kicked him as hard as they could and laughed as his stiff unconscious body lay on the asphalt. Injuries have also been reported in Pennsylvania and Florida. Dr. Sabrina Sykes, a psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, says despite the known risks, children will continue to take part in these types of challenges because of the wow factor. New online challenges routinely spring up and rapidly spread over social media, particularly among adolescents and young adults, Sykes explained in a blog post about the appeal of online challenges. Social media, in turn, offers instant popularity among peers in the form of likes and followers, providing peer acceptance, buoying the teens self-concept and, therefore, enhancing the draw to participate in these challenges. Teens Are Now Claiming They Have Coronavirus for Tik Tok Clout Citing the still-developing prefrontal cortex for many teens inabilities to manage their impulsescombined with the fear of missing outSykes says the need to participate in the trend may cause teenagers to make irresponsible decisions and gravitate toward thrill-seeking, without focusing on potential risks or consequences. But despite the dangerous trend that rivals the Tide Pod and Bird Box challenge, the charges against the two New Jersey teenagers are the first legal action taken against students participating in the craze. In a letter to parents obtained by The Daily Beast, the Westfield Public School District issued a warning to parents in February about the dangerous social media challenge, noting the student injured in the replicated prank suffered physically and emotionally. Often, children act impulsively and without considering the consequence of their actions. If your child has an electronic device, ask them to share what apps they are viewing and using. Help them to understand the extreme unintended outcomes that may occur because of a fleeting moment of making a bad choice, Dr. Joseph Meloche, Cherry Hill Superintendent of Schools said in the Feb. 27 letter. Shenker, who has had a meeting with Meloche about the incident and has suggested an assembly to warn students about the consequences of these dangerous videos, told Patch.com they are still waiting to see the long-term effects the prank will have on their child. We dont know what the long-term effects will be, Shenker said. If hes still lethargic in six to eight months, then well know, but as with any brain injury, you just cant predict whats going to happen. We just dont want to see any more kids get injured. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. A Chinese developer has attempted to limit tourist access to a public beach despite having no control over it. China Bloom purchased a lease to a portion of Keswick Island, off the coast of Queensland, in 2019. The developer installed a sign in the water of Basil Bay prohibiting boats from entering, instead claiming the waters are strictly for Keswick Island residents and guests. The bay is a beloved tourist destination which is often frequented by boats visiting from the mainland. The developer installed a sign in the water of Basil Bay prohibiting boats from entering Frustrated boatsmen reported the signs to the Department of Natural Resources, who in turn questioned China Bloom about the restrictions. While the developers initially argued the sign was intended to 'provide a safe and hazard-free swimming area for residents and guests', they later agreed to remove it. The government department confirmed China Bloom had no control over who visited Basil Bay and that the destination was still open for public use. 'The bay is available for public use and we have notified the company they are unable to restrict public access outside of their leased area on Keswick Island,' a spokesman told Courier-Mail. Tourists who arrive via boat were greeted with a sign that said they were not able to access the bay Mackay Tourism chief executive officer Tas Webber told the publication tourism was a vital part of the economy on Keswick Island. He said tourists were encouraged to visit and that he would love to see the island open 'as much as possible'. 'We would love to see the island open as much as it possibly can be, so that it can go back to its former glory days where there were always tourists accessing the island,' he said. China Bloom holds a long-term lease over 115 hectares of the 517ha island. PARIS The coronavirus crisis shifted increasingly westward toward the Mideast, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of face masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses. We are concerned that countries abilities to respond are being compromised by the severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment, caused by rising demand, hoarding and misuse, said the World Health Organizations director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers. Around the world, deaths in Italy surged to 79, making it the deadliest reported outbreak outside China. Irans supreme leader ordered the military to assist health officials in fighting the virus, which authorities said has killed 77 people. Moreover, 23 members of Irans Parliament and the head of the countrys emergency services were reported infected. South Korea saw its largest daily increase in new cases Tuesday, with 851 more infections reported, largely in and around the southeastern city of Daegu. In all, about 5,200 people in South Korea have tested positive for the virus. In the capital of Seoul, drive-through virus testing centers began operating, with workers dressed head-to-toe in white protective suits leaning into cars with mouth swabs, a move meant to limit contact with possible carriers of the illness. And in Spains Basque region, at least five doctors and nurses were infected and nearly 100 health care workers were being held in isolation. The mushrooming outbreaks contrasted with optimism in China, where thousands of recovered patients were going home and the number of new infections dropped again Tuesday, with just 125 reported. It is still by far the hardest-hit country, with over 80,000 infections and about 95% of the worlds deaths. Chinas ambassador to the United Nations said the country is winning its battle against COVID-19. We are not far from the coming of the victory, Zhang Jun said. Worldwide, more than 92,000 people have been sickened and over 3,100 have died, the vast majority of them in China. The number of countries hit by the virus reached at least 70, with Ukraine and Morocco reporting their first cases. Lori Hinnant and Ken Moritsugu are Associated Press writers. By the time all the Super Tuesday votes are counted across 14 states, former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will likely be neck-and-neck in the delegate count, or one might have slightly bested the other. But the biggest story of the night by far will have been Biden's stunning surge. One month ago, Biden fell off a polling cliff, plummeting from the high 20s in national polls to the mid-teens. He finished fourth in Iowa and came in a distant fifth in New Hampshire. No modern candidate with results like that has gone on to win a presidential nomination. He seemed dead in the water. And after Sanders ran away with the Nevada caucuses, it seemed for a few days like the Democratic Party was preparing to nominate a democratic socialist with the self-financed campaign of billionaire Michael Bloomberg the only thing that could stop him. But all that has changed in the past week. From South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn's endorsement of Biden last Wednesday to Biden's resounding 48.4 percent victory in the state's primary on Saturday to former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropping out of the race and endorsing Biden over the intervening days to a series of strongly favorable polls on Monday and Tuesday, all signs pointed toward a dramatic turn of events. And on Tuesday night that sense was verified in spades. Biden didn't just win in the South in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia where he was widely expected to do very well with African American voters, as he had in South Carolina. He also prevailed in Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, showing he could do well in states with whiter electorates in very different regions of the country. As of midnight, he was also fighting Sanders to a virtual tie in Maine and had begun to pull into the lead in Texas. Measured in delegates, Sanders was likely to have a good night as well with wins in Colorado, Utah, and the biggest delegate prize of them all, California. On the other hand, after such an unexpectedly robust showing on Super Tuesday, Biden would be a strong favorite in several upcoming contests in large states over the next two months, including Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. Biden accomplished what appeared to be impossible just over a week ago: he brought himself back from the dead. Story continues But that's not all. Biden's unexpected resurrection also shredded a series of assumptions that have long prevailed among pundits and other political prognosticators. Biden showed that Iowa and New Hampshire don't need to matter at all. We've seen candidates skip Iowa, fail to win New Hampshire, and then go on to secure their party's nomination. But competing in both, finishing fourth and fifth, and then ending up the frontrunner? That's unheard of and it calls into question not just whether those two small and unrepresentative states should come first on the calendar, but whether the way they vote deserves outsized attention at all. Biden also showed that money doesn't matter as much as many of us tend to assume it does. The Biden campaign was outspent 7-to-1 by the Sanders camp and an astonishing 100-to-1 by the Bloomberg juggernaut in the states that competed on Super Tuesday and yet Biden beat Sanders in lots of places and bested Bloomberg almost everywhere. The same could even be said for campaigning itself. Biden barely campaigned at all in several of the states he won on Tuesday and he had just one field office in the state of Virginia, which he won with 53.3 percent of the vote! (Sanders came in second there with 23.1 percent.) But perhaps most surprising of all after the Trump insurgency of 2016 and the apparent Democratic chaos of the past couple of months, Biden's remarkable reversal of fortune this past week shows that the party decides presidential nominations after all or at least it can still do so when the stakes are sufficiently high and leading members of the party resolve to intervene. Tuesday's results simply couldn't have happened had the institutional party not engaged in an astoundingly rapid act of consolidation against Sanders and in favor of Biden. Whatever the final tally turns out to be, we will be learning the lessons of Joe Biden's spectacular comeback on Super Tuesday 2020 for a long time to come. More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are nervous at how much Trump thinks he's nailed the coronavirus response Trump has a 'hunch' the COVID-19 death rate is 'way under 1 percent,' calls the WHO's 3.4 percent 'a false number' SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham urged New Mexicans on Wednesday to prepare for the new coronavirus by taking common-sense steps to protect themselves and others. People should wash their hands frequently, stay home if theyre sick, and contact their doctor if they show flu-like symptoms and have traveled to a hot spot for the virus, she said. Be prepared dont be panicked, Lujan Grisham told a news conference at the Capitol. New Mexico has tested two people for the virus, one of whom didnt have it, she said. Test results for the other person are pending. Lujan Grisham, a former secretary of the state Health Department, said its likely that every state will be affected by the coronavirus eventually. But New Mexicos centralized public health programs and smaller population, she said, will help the state avoid some of the complications facing other states. We are ready for any emergency, Lujan Grisham said. She participated in a phone call this week with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors, she said, on the potential for reimbursement as states test patients and watch for the virus. Lujan Grisham said that as governor, she is authorized to spend $750,000 to respond to an emergency. State officials, she said, are engaging in tabletop exercises for how to respond if the virus surfaces in New Mexico. That includes the possibility of off-site locations that could be used to provide care and limit transmission of the virus. Were doing the work we should be doing, the governor said. Common-sense steps can limit the spread of the disease, Lujan Grisham said. People should wash their hands frequently or use hand sanitizer. If youre sick, she said, stay home. If you show symptoms and have traveled to certain countries such as China, South Korea, Iran or Italy contact your doctor, who will advise on next steps. At least one local employer, Sandia National Laboratories, has curtailed travel. We are just trying to use good sense, Deputy Labs Director Dori Ellis told the Journal. Were trying to be judicious, making sure our employees are safe and that we do the work that has to be done. Sandia has more than 12,300 employees in the state. Journal staff writer Scott Turner contributed to this report. Two new cases of COVID-19 in Singapore, one patient discharged as of March 4 Photo courtesy: leo2014 on pixabay As of 12 pm on March 4, the Ministry of Health has confirmed two new cases of the novel coronavirus infection in Singapore. This brings the total number of cases in the island nation to 112. Of these, 79 patients have recovered and been discharged, including one patient discharged today. Case 111: A 43 year-old male Singapore Permanent Resident who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions but who had been in Malaysia from February 18-21. He is currently warded in an isolation room at the National University Hospital (NUH). He reported the onset of symptoms on February 24 and had sought treatment at a general practitioner clinic on the same day and on February 28. He presented at Sengkang General Hospital on February 27 and NUH on March 3. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection. Prior to hospital admission, he had mostly stayed at his home at Compassvale Street. Case 112: A 62 year-old female Singapore Citizen who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on March 4 morning and is warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). She works at Creative O Preschoolers Bay (31 International Business Park) as a non-teaching staff. She is linked to Case 94 who is a 64 year-old female Singapore Citizen who was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on February 26. Case 110 (Announced on March 3): A 33 year-old male Singapore Citizen who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. He is linked to the cluster at Wizlearn Technologies Pte Ltd. Prior to hospital admission, he had gone to work at Wizlearn Technologies Pte Ltd. He stays at Upper Boon Keng Road. The MOH has also said that of the 33 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving while seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The EU institutions in Brussels have been hit by their first confirmed case of coronavirus, as authorities in the Belgian capital step up precautionary measures to fight the virus. A staff member at the European Defence Agency has contracted the disease, according to an internal email reported by the website Euractiv. The EDA staff member is reported to have returned from a trip to Italy last week, before falling ill at the weekend. The member of staff is said to have attended a four-hour long meeting with roughly 30 officials from other EU institutions prompting the possibility of further contagion. A member of the European External Affairs Service (EEAS) who attended the meeting has started experiencing symptoms and is awaiting test results. Other participants in the meeting have also been to other meetings and travelled. The alert comes a day after the European Parliament closed its doors to visitors as a precautionary measure, cancelling dozens of events. MEPs and their staff are however still planning to follow through on their regular visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg later this month. The parliament is reportedly considering videoconferencing technology to allow any quarantined MEPs to participate in debates. The European institutions will however face perhaps their biggest virus control test so far at the end of this month, when the European Council will host a summit of 28 member states. On 26 and 27 March leaders, government officials, diplomats and journalists from the 27 EU member states and further afield will converge on two buildings in the city for the quarterly meeting. Speaking at the start of the week Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced the creation of a rapid response team at EU level to help coordinate the response to the virus. Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty "We have a situation that is very complex and it requires on the one side, very swift action and on the other side, a strong coordination at all the levels and all the different sectors not only on the European level but of course on the national level," she said. "And then, a very comprehensive and coherent approach towards the topic from all 27 Member States and the European Union" The first trailer for Banana Split is showing Central New Yorkers a look at a new movie filmed in the Syracuse area. Banana Split," produced by Jeremy Garelicks Liverpool-based American High, follows two teenage girls who become best friends over a summer, but theres a big problem: One of them is dating the others ex. The trailer shows scenes filmed at Heids ice cream shop -- yes, a banana split is served -- along with the Palace Theater in Eastwood, a private residence on Sedgwick Drive in Syracuse, and the former A.V. Zogg Middle School in Liverpool, now known as Syracuse Studios. Dylan Sprouse, best known for playing Adam Sandlers fake son in Big Daddy and starring in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody with his twin brother, said some scenes were also shot in Los Angeles due to the cold weather. The movie is directed by Benjamin Kasulke and stars Hannah Marks (The Amazing Spider-Man), Dylan Sprouse (Big Daddy, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) and Liana Liberato (If I Stay). Marks wrote the script with Joey Power. Banana Split won the Special Jury Prize at the Independent Film Festival Of Boston, the Jury Prize for Best Comedy Feature at the Woods Hole Film Festival, and multiple awards at the 2019 Oceanside International Film Festival, including best picture. Despite being set in summer, Banana Split was filmed in CNY in December 2017. Sprouse, best known for playing Julian (with his twin brother) opposite Adam Sandler in Big Daddy," told MTV that due to the cold weather, some exterior scenes had to be shot in Los Angeles. Banana Split hits select theaters and digital/video-on-demand on March 27. Two other American High movies, Holly Slept Over and Big Time Adolescence, are also coming out this month. Holly Slept Over, starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), was released direct to digital/VOD on Tuesday, March 3; Big Time Adolescence, starring Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live), hits select theaters next week and Hulu on March 20. All three films are produced by American High and Garelick, best known for directing The Wedding Ringer, writing The Break-Up," and uncredited writing work for The Hangover. Garelick also directed American Highs sixth movie, The Binge, starring Vince Vaughn, in the Syracuse area; the "Purge-inspired comedy is expected to be released on Hulu later this year. Other American High movies shot in Syracuse over the past two and a half years include Looks That Kill" (starring Brandon Flynn), Sid is Dead" (starring Joey Bragg and Mary Stuart Masterson) and The Ultimate Playlist of Noise (starring Keean Johnson and Madeline Brewer). American High will begin filming its eighth movie in the Syracuse area later this month. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Line for abortion hearing at SCOTUS. You dont always need to camp for days on the sidewalk to grab a seat at a US Supreme Court hearing. But this week, this winter, is different. On March 4 the justices are hearing arguments in one of the most anticipated cases of the termJune Medical Services v. Russo. The matter stems from a Louisiana law ostensibly designed to protect womens health, but with the practical effect of limiting abortion access. The high court already ruled in 2016 that a similar law out of Texas, which required doctors at clinics to be associated with local hospitals, was unconstitutional because it unduly burdened women without advancing a legitimate government interest. But that was before justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were appointed by US president Donald Trump. Some conservatives hope the junior justices will take this opportunity to approve the Louisiana law, helping to unravel abortion protections and precedent. This case presents a pivotal opportunity, Louisiana representative Mike Johnson said today in a statement for Americans United for Life, a conservative advocacy group that represented more than 200 Republican lawmakers in an amicus brief to the court. I am very confident in the merits of what Louisiana is presenting, and I expect the Court will rule in our favor. Designed for now? It is this certainty that worries pro-choice advocates. The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that if the Louisiana law goes into effect, two of three abortion clinics in the state will close. That leaves one million women of reproductive age with one abortion provider. This is precisely the kind of undue burden the court disapproved when it ruled on the Texas law not so long ago. But 2016 already feels like another age. Though the justices are bound by the courts precedent on abortion, just like on other issues, whether or not hotly disputed, the conservative majority could theoretically approve Louisianas abortion law anyway. Story continues The state had argued that its case is factually distinct from the matter out of Texas. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in 2018. If they were so inclined, the five conservative jurists on the Supreme Court could use this same basis for a decision that erodes Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case legalizing abortion. Many progressives believe that the Louisiana matter was brought for just this reason (a belief supported by the Americans United for Life brief, which argued that Roe should be overruled). They also suspect that the court agreed to review this case to advance a greater conservative project to remake America. Historically speaking Emily Bazelon at the New York Times argued last week that in the aftermath of Roe, conservatives have concocted a whole legal philosophyoriginalismto justify judicial activism (which they claim to hate) and promote policy preferences disguised as principle. By masking political decisions behind invented legal traditions they can make their choices look like historically-rooted law, she says. Originalists purport to follow a strict interpretation of the Constitution as it was understood by the framers, rather than being swayed by contemporary social considerations, like progressives. Yet that ignores the critical fact that laws exist to govern present lives and the safe assumption that conservatives have agendas to advance or curb, just like progressives do. Bazelon explains: The idea of an evolving Constitution, built from the language of the framers but not limited to their understanding of it, became a concept associated with liberals. Yet sometimes it has been conservatives who leave the text and the framers behind. In the 1970s, the conservatives on the court began to rule that the First Amendment protected commercial speech, like advertisements, even though it had never been understood that way before. The doctrine remains a tenet of the right. In other words, just because justices say they follow a particular philosophy that ensures their decisions are impartial, not based on personal preferences but the dictates of the law as it was understood by those who wrote the founding legal document, doesnt make it so. And just because they are bound by precedent, and claim to respect it, doesnt mean they will. An amicus brief from legal scholars, including Lee Bollinger of Columbia University and Laurence Tribe from Harvard, argues that theres no real difference between the Louisiana and Texas cases and that the Fifth Circuits decision masks recalcitrance behind alleged factual considerations. The outcome here should be clear, they say, urging the justices to rein in lower courts who fail to follow the law and arguing that the implications extend far beyond the abortion context. Cherry blossoms and competing ideologies Tensions are running high in Washington, DC. Already prospective audience members are lining the block on East Capitol street, claiming space in anticipation of the crowds expected at the nations highest tribunal. They are young and old. Male and female. Armed with food and blankets. Luckily for them, the weathers been warm and sunny, birds are singing, the air smells of spring, and cherry blossoms are blooming on the court lawns (should they find someone to guard their spots and feel inclined to take a walk around the corner). But winter isnt over, not literally or metaphorically. Local meteorologists promise a cold front, court commentators are forecasting legal storms, and activists on the left and right are planning competing rallies on the courthouse steps while the hearing takes place inside. If anything, things will only get more tense as all await a decision by terms end in late June. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 09:32:42|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win Virginia's Democratic primary, while Senator Bernie Sanders will take home state Vermont, according to projections by multiple U.S. media outlets. The projections came shortly after polls closed in the two states, ending part of the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries that have also seen voters of 12 other states, including populous California and Texas, cast ballots for their preferred presidential candidates this year. There are 99 pledged delegates to July's Democratic National Convention at stake in Virginia, and 16 in Vermont. Before Super Tuesday, Sanders led in a five-candidate Democratic field with 60 pledged delegates, followed by Biden with 54. Here are some of todays top headlines. WHO chief warns we are in uncharted territory as number of coronavirus cases worldwide passes 90,000 The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that public health officials are operating in uncharted territory as they combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 90,000 people across 73 countries and territories as of Monday evening. Your pet cant catch coronavirus. Heres why one dog tested positive Theyre your furry best friend and a fixture of your home but could your beloved cat or dog give you coronavirus? NBA players advised not to high-five fans as coronavirus spreads NBA fans might be getting fist bumps over high-fives from players as coronavirus spreads in the United States. Apple will pay up to $500 million to settle lawsuit over slowing down older iPhones Apple will pay up to half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of slowing down older iPhone models to compel users to buy new ones. James Lipton, longtime host of Inside the Actors Studio, has died at 93 James Lipton, whose serious interviews with high-profile stars Inside the Actors Studio for more than 20 years made him a well-known pop-culture figure, has died at the age of 93. Netanyahu projected to win Israeli election, but exit polls suggest bloc just short of majority As counting gets underway in Israels unprecedented third election in 11 months, initial exit polls projected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud party as the winners. Shark Tank judge Barbara Corcoran gets her $400,000 back from scammers Shark Tank judge Barbara Corcoran is thrilled about getting back nearly $400,000 after it was stolen in an elaborate email scam. Bentley unveils $2 million roofless car with trim made from 5,000 year-old wood Bentley has unveiled the Mulliner Bacalar, a $2 million open-topped car with interior trim thats made from trees that fell 5,000 years ago. Only 12 of these cars will be made, Bentley said. Coronavirus: WHO says world is in uncharted territory BBC News There are now almost 90,000 cases worldwide in about 70 countries, although the vast majority just under 90% remain in China, and most of those are in Hubei province, where the virus originated late last year. Of the nearly 8,800 cases outside China, 81% are in four countries Iran, South Korea, Italy and Japan. How a top Nigerian bishop got caught up in fake news In our series of letters from African writers, Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani reflects on the impact that fabricated news stories can have. Nigerias popular ThisDay newspaper recently published a story headlined: Drama as US Embassy Denies Bishop Oyedepo Visa. Key endorsements boost Biden for Super Tuesday US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has picked up three endorsements from former rivals on the eve of the most important day in the 2020 White House race so far. Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Beto ORourke all campaigned with the former US vice-president in Dallas, Texas. Coronavirus: Twitter tells staff to work from home Twitter has told its employees to work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. In a blog post, the social media giant said it was mandatory for staff in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea to work remotely. Buttigieg, Klobuchar Endorse Biden In 2020 Presidential Race: Reports Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, fresh off ending his bid for the White House, is expected to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, CNN and Reuters reported Monday. Also on Monday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs To 6, All In Washington State SEOUL, South Korea (AP) The death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. climbed to six Monday and the disease spread to ever more countries and world capitals, even as new cases in China dropped to their lowest level in six weeks. Netflix to host its first comedy festival Editors independently select all products and services featured here. If you buy something through our links, we may receive a commission. Netflix has been diving headfirst into the comedy game lately, and on Monday the streamer announced its first-ever Netflix Is A Joke Fest in Los Angeles from April 27 to May 3. Hey Netflix & other streaming services: Give us shuffle and playlists Editors independently select all products and services featured here. If you buy something through our links, we may receive a commission. Its time to talk about the biggest and most irritating oversight of the streaming revolution: No playlists, no shuffle. What gives, Netflix and Hulu and Amazon and Disney+ and every other video streaming service? Apple co-founder bizarrely suggests he and his wife were patient zero in U.S. for coronavirus Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak set Twitter off on Monday with a very weird tweet alluding to the coronavirus outbreak. Checking out Janets bad cough, stated Wozniak. Started Jan. 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in U.S. Voting results from Tuesday's election showed that San Mateo County voters were on track to approve a handful of bonds and measures benefiting local school districts. With 55 percent approval required to pass, 61.06 percent of voters in the Jefferson Union High School District voted to approve Measure J, which would allow the district to issue more than $28 million in bonds to fund repairs at Jefferson, Oceana, Terra Nova, Thornton, Westmoor and Adult-Ed high schools. In the Brisbane School District, with 55 percent approval required, 58.97 percent of voters supported Measure K, which would authorize the district to issue $27 million in bonds to fund building and classroom repairs and upgrades. A total of 57.14 percent of voters in the Burlingame Elementary School District supported Measure O, which would allow the district to issue $97 million in bonds for classroom improvements. A 55 percent majority is needed for the measure's passage. In the San Carlos School District, with a two-thirds majority necessary to pass, 68.35 percent of voters supported Measure N, which would allow the district to increase its annual parcel tax from $246.60 to $334.60 per parcel for the next eight years. Early Wednesday morning, support for a parcel tax increase in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District had eclipsed the two-thirds necessary for its passage. A total of 68.82 percent of voters supported increasing the district's parcel tax from $100 to $130 over seven years. A $385 million bond measure in the San Mateo Unified High School District and a parcel tax increase measure in the Portola Valley School District were both short of their required vote thresholds to pass. Vote totals could change in the coming days, according to the San Mateo County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder's Office. Election officials plan to release the next update on the county's election results Thursday afternoon. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. In line with measures to forestall the spread of Coronavirus, four Chinese nationals have been quarantined at the University of Abuja Teaching hospital. The Chinese are being held in separate facility after they tested negative to the dreaded virus, an official said. The yet-to-be identified Chinese were said to have symptoms of the pneumonia-like disease upon arrival on Tuesday after a spot check at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja. They were brought into a holding facility at the teaching hospital around 4:30 p.m. same day, according to Mr Sulai, a staff of the information unit. They tested negative for the virus but they are being quarantined for the next 14 days at a separate facility, as a necessary precaution, Mr Sulai, who refused to give his surname said Wednesday. The Chief Medical Director, Bissallah Ekele, directed questions regarding the development to the focal person, Infection Prevention Control. The focal person was not in the office Wednesday afternoon. His known numbers were switched off. Mr Sulai said the hospital, with the World Health Organization, will provide more details of the issue on Thursday when the Monthly Clinical Presentation on Coronavirus is billed to hold. PREMIUM TIMES also observed a notice of the Thursday presentation on coronavirus posted on information boards across the hospital. Nigeria last Thursday reported a confirmed case of COVID-19 which was detected in an Italian businessman who had flown into the country on business. Since then, the Italian has been quarantined, placed under treatment and people who have had contacts with him traced and put under supervised isolation. So far, Nigeria has not recorded any new case of coronavirus, which has caused over 3,000 deaths globally, majority in China. Wuhan, March 4 : If it were not for the reunion with his brother who works in Wuhan, Kang Tiejun would not have come to the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak before the Spring Festival, which fell on Jan. 25 this year. On the night of January 22, Kang drove his mother from their hometown Ganzhou, eastern China's Jiangxi Province, to Wuhan, after his wife and two sons had arrived there by high-speed train in the afternoon, the Xinhua news agency. Before the trip, Kang's mother specially told him to call his brother to understand the situation in Wuhan as news of the outbreak spread. "Come on, it's not that bad," answered his brother, like most Wuhan citizens who did not realise the severity of the epidemic at that time. Unexpectedly, the day after their arrival, the city declared an unprecedented lockdown. Moreover, Kang began to develop a fever and sometimes chest tightness and cough on January 29. "I only went out twice, both times wearing a mask, after arriving here, and I thought I just had a common cold," he recalled. It was not until February 6 that he was urged by his family to go to the hospital as his fever never improved. When he climbed the stairs at the hospital that day, his chest was so tight that he had to take off his mask to catch his breath. "At that moment, I was so scared," he said. Three days later, the 41-year-old man was shocked by his positive nucleic acid test result. He was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was sent to a designated isolation point and later transferred to a temporary hospital converted from an international expo center in Wuhan on the night of Feb. 11. The temporary hospital had a total of 960 beds, with some 20 beds in each unit. Kang was assigned to Unit Seven, in which there were 19 patients including elderly, young people and children. Kang said the atmosphere in the unit was kind of awkward in the beginning, with only a few people inquiring about each other's illnesses. Some people even turned away when they heard others coughing. The day after Kang was admitted to the hospital, he was appointed head of the unit by the medical staff when he was helping the others in his unit get their daily necessities. At first, the undereducated patient thought he was not qualified and refused it. However, they told him that all he needed was a warm heart. Even though he did not know how to be a temporary "leader," he began to take charge of getting food and fruit, as well as registering information, for people in his unit every day. He would also advise the patients who spent most of their time on their cell phones in bed to do some exercise and comfort those who had lost their loved ones in the outbreak. To help his ward mates maintain a positive attitude, Kang often cracked jokes with others and shared the three sets of aerobics he learned from China's video-sharing app Douyin, also known as TikTok, with people who were interested in. Gradually, under his "leadership," the patients in the unit, who had been forced together by the virus, became more and more like a family and showed optimism about the disease. After two nucleic acid tests and a computed tomography (CT) scan, the first four people, including Kang, in the unit were approved to be discharged from the hospital after recovery. The day before their departure, the ward mates in their unit had a "ceremony" for them: Boxes of milk were placed in a heart shape, and the patients toasted with milk instead of wine. "I was so moved at that moment," Kang said. "Your snoring is our lullaby. We won't sleep well without your snoring when you're gone," some aunties quipped. The "leader" also chose a patient in the unit to take his place. He believed the conscientious young man could continue to lead other patients through the difficulties and to be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible. When Kang walked out of the temporary hospital on February 21, together with other 52 cured COVID-19 patients, he could not help shouting, "Wuhan stay strong! China stay strong!" He was then put under quarantine at a designated hotel for 14 days in accordance with the statement issued by the local authorities. Now, Kang enjoys his life at the hotel. Apart from doing aerobics and viewing short videos on Douyin, he talks more with his family on the phone or China's social media platform WeChat. He even set up a WeChat group for his unit to invite the patients discharged from the hospital to share their latest situation and cheer each other on. "My biggest wish right now is to reunite with my family and resume my normal life as soon as possible," Kang said, adding that he would donate blood after his quarantine ends to help cure more patients. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Alexander S. Blum is chief operating officer of Two Prime. He has led blockchain projects and startups for more than seven years including at Atomic Capital, crypto hedge funds, and consulting projects at Fortune 500s, the World Economic Forum and prominent blockchain startups. I recently had the good fortune to attend the 2020 Satoshi Roundtable in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. While there, I met TRON founder and CEO Justin Sun. I also witnessed the social media feeding frenzy that ensued as prominent crypto Twitter influencers posted trolling tweets with him. It was really fun. To many, Justin and TRON epitomize a class of useless altcoins superficial marketers perverting cryptos true purpose. There are oft-repeated claims Justin and his team plagiarized their white paper and that TRON has no value as a technology. Yet, TRON currently hovers around a $1.3 billion market cap, already acquired BitTorrent and Steemit, and Justin and friends recently palled around with Warren Buffet. What the hell? Ive seen a wide breadth of this industry after seven years, working at traditional and blockchain VC funds, leading security token business Atomic Capital and now as the COO of crypto finance firm Two Prime. It may seem baffling this 29-year-old wunderkind leads one of the largest blockchain networks in the world. However, when you approach the spectacle of TRON and Justin Sun with a traditional financial lens, you start to see that maybe all the flack TRON receives points to something else an industry lost in theoretical achievements to the detriment of practical ones. Building a blockchain and a business Related: Justin Sun Bought Steemit. Steem Moved to Limit His Power Its useful to look at Justins background to start. The kid is no dummy. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and was hand-selected to attend Jack Mas Hupan University. Prior to starting TRON, Justin worked as the head of Ripple in China. Ripples model, similar to EOS, is what we at Two Prime refer to as a Continuous Token Offering an ongoing sale of a token in public and private market concurrent with the use of raised funds. Knowing this, it seems to me Justin has taken his Ripple experience and applied it to TRON, seeing the token as a financial instrument before a technical one. Story continues So then why the TRON disdain and epithets? Like many altcoins, TRON is a money-making initiative often posing as a technical product. This branch of cryptocurrencies exists because technical blockchain jargon provides regulatory cover and fundraising juice for what are, essentially, financial products. While a dividend payout implies a regulated security product, a user staking reward doesnt. In practice, they are pretty damn similar. Additionally, the language of things like Web3, Layer 2 solutions and Oracles speaks to long-time crypto buyers and helps TRON to market itself adeptly. Its this false, technical facade that draws the ire of more purely focused technologists. True blockchain technologists are quick to delineate between the real blockchains and tokens and those just looking to make a quick buck. Yet, if we try to understand the realities of entrepreneurs like Justin, we can see why technical language offers a sensible way to raise funds and develop a global, borderless business. It helps sidestep the constraints of regulation while tapping into a thriving community of supporters. Though TRON has drawn criticism for putting promotion before development it seems they wisely focused first on building adequate capitalization and community. Having done that, they are now executing on some of the technical claims they initially espoused much in the same way Binance did. Dropping the intellectual snobbery Viewed through the lens of traditional finance, TRON is acting pretty predictably. It is acquiring more market share through the acquisition of weakened competitors, like BitTorrent, and their networks while promoting their retail financial product. Theyre performing a balancing act between being a financial product and a technical one. As with EOS, this need to keep up two competing business identities may become a barrier to TRON in the long term. If it could drop the pure technology act (like the TRON Developer Guide) and simply behave as a FinTech investment product, they could expend less money and energy on, most likely, a dead-end blockchain and useless dapps and instead work to appeal to mainstream finance. Related: China Has Many Strategic Reasons to Invest in Blockchain Justin is leading TRON as a for-profit business pretty well. Why does that irk many hardcore developers? For those in the Western world sticking up their noses at TRON, its worth reflecting on how deeply elitist it is to judge from a position of pure technical idealism. As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I can tell you that most people dont care about DeFi and obscure dapps. They care about making money and eating food. The emergence of TRON in highly competitive Asian markets is commendable. They are pioneering a new business model and creating wealth ex nihilo out of thin air because they focus on what works today. Their users share the companys pragmatism. TRON, EOS and Ripple are pioneering community-centric financial products that offer exciting new models for wealth creation. Building a loyal base of users that will accept these tokens as money sounds similar to the start of the U.S. dollar. Better yet, TRON is bringing together a community bound by culture rather than geography or ethnicity, and without violent coercion. Its no surprise to me Justin sought a meeting with Warren Buffet and not Steve Wozniak. Buffet has made a fortune from discerning real value and human needs, like razors and insurance, and isnt lost in technical hyperbole. From what Ive seen, Justin has the insight to recognize the interplay between a product marketed as technology and the financial reality of its applications. This clear-eyed approach to growth and success could be a lesson for many in the industry who are still lost in the abstract world, trying to wrap golden ponies dancing in magical rainbows on a blockchain. Maybe its time we put aside the self-congratulations for our technical genius and start making stuff real people care about. Related Stories Police want to speak to these two males in connection with the assault. (Police) Police have released CCTV images of four men they want to speak to after a student was allegedly beaten up by attackers who shouted coronavirus at him. Jonathan Mok, 23, from Singapore, claimed he was set upon by a group of men and a woman as he walked along Oxford Street in central London on 24 February. Trouble allegedly started when the group passed Mok, who has been studying in the capital for two years, and one made a remark about coronavirus. Mok revealed his facial injuries in a Facebook post. See latest coronavirus news and updates Jonathan Mok, 23, was attacked on Oxford Street in London. (Facebook/Jonathan Mok) On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police released CCTV images of four men they wish to speak to. Detective Sergeant Emma Kirby said: This attack left the victim shaken and hurt. Theres no room on our streets for this kind of violent behaviour and we are committed to finding the perpetrators. I am keen to speak to anyone who has information about this assault. I would like to identify and speak to the four men pictured, who may be able to help me with our inquiries. Read more: UK sets out 'battle plan' to try to contain spread of coronavirus Police are also looking for this person in connection with the attack. (Police) A CCTV image of another suspect. (Police) In his account of the assault, Mok described how, as he turned to face the group, one of the men said: Dont you dare look at me, before launching an attack. The student said: All of a sudden, the first punch was swung at my face and took me by surprise. When I was still shocked by the first hit, the guy delivered the second sucker punch. By then, a few passers-by had stopped and one of them tried to reason with them that four on one was not fair. The attackers friend tried to swing a kick at me as I was explaining to the passer-by that I hadnt done anything at all. Read more: Community transmission of coronavirus already happening, warns chief medic I tried to react in self-defence but couldnt do anything substantial because I was still recovering from a broken finger in my master hand. The guy who tried to kick me then said I dont want your coronavirus in my country, before swinging another sucker punch at me, which resulted in my face exploding with blood (from my nose), where the blood was splattered all across the pavement. The Congress on Wednesday accused the BJP of attempting to bring down its government in Madhya Pradesh by 'poaching' MLAs using money and power, and said such conspiracies were a 'blot on democracy'. New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday accused the BJP of attempting to bring down its government in Madhya Pradesh by "poaching" MLAs using money and power, and said such conspiracies were a "blot on democracy". The Opposition party also said it was hopeful of the Supreme Court taking cognisance of the issue and that the BJP will not succeed in toppling the Madhya Pradesh government. The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh appears to have survived a poaching bid, with senior party leaders on Wednesday blaming the BJP for the alleged move and Chief Minister Kamal Nath asserting that there was no threat to his regime. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. Congress general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal slammed the BJP for trying to "poach" MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. "In its naked lust for power, the BJP has exposed its unprincipled, opportunistic and power-hungry character by trying to poach Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh," he said. "In all non-BJP ruling states, the BJP is publicly encouraging and orchestrating defection, horse trading, treachery and above all political immorality. It is more than apparent that the prime minister and his party leaders are directly involved in this treachery," he alleged. In Madhya Pradesh, this dissolute political treachery of the BJP is going to fall flat on its face, Venugopal said. The Congress government led by Kamal Nath will complete its five year term, he added. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said "trampling upon the Constitution" has become the character of the BJP. "Where they can't ally, they indulge in breaking (MLAs)," he said. They cannot swallow the fact that the people have ordered them to stay away from power, Surjewala tweeted. "The BJP's conspiracy to hijack the mandate in Madhya Pradesh will never succeed," he said. Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said that in a democracy, it is the people who decide whose government is to be formed. "But you look at Gujarat, you look at Karnataka, Goa, Manipur or Meghalaya. Through demonetisation, BJP's coffers are filled with black money. They are using black money to bring down a government that has been chosen by the people," Gohil alleged. "This is being done on the orders of these two people (Modi-Shah). I have full confidence that they will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. He expressed hope that the Supreme Court would pull up those indulging in such acts. "Constitutional Amendment was made (to ensure) that horse-trading does not take place, but Modi-Shah duo considers it their birth right to indulge in this," he said. "These conspiracies to bring down the government on the basis of money and misuse of power are a blot on democracy and they (BJP) will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. According to media reports, Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and his minister son Jaivardhan also reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Nath told PTI, "Things are under control. There is nothing like that. The MLAs will come back." According to the Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who have been taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is an Independent lawmaker, while the rest of them are from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). They said that woman BSP MLA Rambai was allegedly manhandled when Congress ministers reached the hotel to meet her. CLEVELAND, Ohio A Solon man now faces criminal charges in a wrong-way crash that killed a 43-year-old man along Jennings Freeway in Cleveland. Kevin Rosen, 28, is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and drunken driving in the Nov. 17 crash that killed Jason Shimko of Lakewood. Rosen is not in custody and his arraignment is scheduled for March 17 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Rosen was speeding while driving in the northbound lanes on the highway about 3 a.m. when he smashed head-on into Shimkos car near the Spring Road exit, according to police. Shimko was pronounced dead at the scene. Rosen suffered critical injuries in the crash. He was previously convicted of drunken driving in Dearborn Municipal Court in 2014. Read more from cleveland.com: Cleveland Police Chief issues no discipline to officer accused of wrongdoing in detaining Tamir Rices sister after deadly police shooting 87-year-old man carjacked at gunpoint at Cleveland Aldi Cleveland cop accused of stealing money from people during two arrests Abused inmates, convicted jail officers round out potential witnesses in trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director charged during rash of inmate deaths Cleveland man gets three years in prison in drunken-driving crash that cost tow truck driver his leg Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights chair Richard Gordon did not mince words in criticizing policemen for their inaction on the killing of Bureau of Correction officials by motorcycle-riding assailants over the past years. "There is a culture of incompetence, inefficiency, lack of passion, lack of attentiveness, lack of sense of urgency. I would like to see that change," Gordon said during a Senate hearing. "I express my sheer frustration, my utter disgust of the system," he said. Even other government agencies were not spared from these criticisms. "Ang pinagtataka ko dito, bakit walang solved cases (I have been wondering why there are no solved cases)? The Secretary of Justice and the Department of Justice should be the first person to react here along with the director of BuCor," he said. Gordon made these remarks after grilling authorities on the killing of BuCor legal division chief Fredric Santos on February 19 near his agency's headquarters in Muntinlupa City. National Bureau of Investigation-National Capital Region Director Cesar Bacani said there are many possible reasons behind Santos' death. "Marami pong possible motives. May anggulo na may mga napangakuan (sa GCTA) tapos biglang na-hold, may anggulo na naglalaban ang commanders sa loob," said Bacani. [Translation: There are many possible motives. There is an angle that he made promises to some people (in connection with the Good Conduct Time Allowance) that were put on hold, there is an angle of infighting among commanders inside the prison] He added that even Santos' involvement in the decision-making process on the questionable catering services availed of by the BuCor for inmates is also being looked into. Santos had wanted to testify in the Senate on the alleged freedom for sale scheme at the New Bilibid Prison. He was the 16th BuCor official killed near or inside the compound since 2011, Gordon said. The senator added that Santos should "not just be another statistics" in the unsolved deaths of BuCor employees. "We have to change the culture...There needs to be a conscious effort to change the culture of everybody from the Philippine National Police to the jailguards, kasi masyado nang sanay sa 'pwede na yan' eh (because they're all used to being mediocre)," Gordon noted. "May conclusion ako na basta na-assign ka sa BuCor, i-expect mo talaga mga death threats (I have a conclusion that once you're assigned in the BuCor, you can expect numerous death threats)," said BuCor Technical Chief Inspector Albert Manalo, who represented BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag. Gordon also expressed his disappointment at Bantag's absence in the hearing. He said he will put the latter and other senior government officials in contempt if they fail to show up and answer queries in the next probe scheduled on March 10. Berkeley voters appear to be approving by wide margins three measures that would generate funding for school facilities and teacher and staff salaries. With 61 percent of precincts reporting from Tuesday's election, Measure E, a new parcel tax that would raise $10 million a year for all school staff salaries, was winning by a margin of 78 percent to 22 percent. New Delhi, March 4 : Seventeen Indians abroad have been infected with coronavirus, Parliament was told on Wednesday. Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said 16 cases were reported from Japan on the cruise ship and one from the UAE. He further said that the government evacuated a total of 766 persons - 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners - from China, while 119 Indians have been brought back to India from the cruise ship in Japan. "Air India has raised a bill of Rs 5.98 crore for operating two special flights to China and an Indian Air Force flight carrying relief material to China also carried Indian citizens from Wuhan, China on its return journey," he said. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan earlier said 28 positive cases of coronavirus have been detected so far in India and announced that all international flights and passengers will now have to undergo screening, and not just the 12 countries listed earlier. Giving a breakup of those who tested positive for the virus, the minister said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. A former Guatemalan sergeant who admitted to participating in a massacre in 1982 during the country's civil war was expelled from the United States on Tuesday, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. Gilberto Jordan, 64, is the third former Guatemalan soldier to be deported to face war crime charges for the murder of 200 men, women and children in the village of Dos Erres. Guatemala's civil war lasted 36 years before a peace treaty was signed in 1996. Jordan was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in May 2010 by Homeland Security Investigations and pleaded guilty two months later to making false statements on his U.S. naturalization forms, hiding his service in the military and involvement in the killings. His U.S. citizenship, which was granted in 1999, was revoked, and he served ten years in federal prison. Gilberto Jordan was deported from the United States to Guatemala to face war crime charges. He admitted to participating in the killings of more than 200 men, women and children during Guatemala's civil war in 1982. He was a member of the elite 'Kaibiles' force Santos Lopez Alonzo is one of three former Guatemala soldiers expelled by the United States to the Central American nation to face war crime charges. He was deported in August 2016 and convicted in November 2018. He is serving 5,160 years in prison U.S. officials say the Guatemalan government has accused Jordan of being among some 20 members of an elite Guatemalan force known as the 'Kaibiles' who committed the atrocity in Doss Erres in December 1982. The slaughter was part of an effort to eliminate communities supporting insurgent groups at the height of the war. The soldiers were searching for missing rifles believed to be stolen by guerrillas, but the search turned violent when villagers were raped and killed. In 1994, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team [EAAF] dug through the villages 40-foot well and recovered 162 skeletons, including many belonging to young children. Jordan acknowledged participating in the killings and personally throwing a young child down the well. He testified against a fellow former soldier in a California trial in 2013. The United States has expelled three former members of Guatemala's military for their role in the December 1982 massacre of 200 people in the town of Dos Erres. Pedro Pimentel Rios (center) was deported to Guatemala in July 2011 and sentenced to 6,060 years in March 2012 Residents (pictured on October 1, 1982) listen to a Guatemalan Army officer speak about forming civil defense patrols to secure their villages against leftist guerrilla attacks near Huehuetenango, Guatemala Jordan arrived illegally in the United States in 1985 and eventually settled in Boca Raton, Florida. He held a job at a country club as a cook before his arrest in 2010. The 1982 slaughter went unpunished for years, even after Guatemalan authorities issued 17 arrest warrants. Prosecutors say six former soldiers have now been convicted in the deaths. Pedro Pimentel Rios was deported to Guatemala in July 2011 by ICE and sentenced to 6,060 years in March 2012. Santos Lopez Alonzo, who was removed from the United States in August 2016, was convicted in November 2018 and sentenced to 5,160 years in prison. The civil war from 1960 to 1996 left 200,000 people dead and 45,000 missing, a United Nations report says. The document says that army and paramilitary groups were responsible for at least 97% of the deaths, while the rest is attributed to the insurgent groups. A Portlaoise school where 100 students were booked to go to Italy on March 13 has not yet decided whether the trip will go ahead, given the increased spread of coronavirus there. St Mary's CBS held a meeting with parents of the Transition Year boys going on the trip last Tuesday night at 7pm. It is understood that it was agreed to make a decision with the parents in the coming days. The students are due to visit Artesina in Northern Italy. They would be flying into Milan Airport. However The Department of Foreign Affairs has now advised against travelling to four regions in northern Italy, including Lombardy where Milan airport is situated. "For the moment, we are advising against non-essential travel to the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna" it has stated. The school Principal Maura Murphy is unavailable for comment today Wednesday March 4. Italy has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases outside of Asia. The death toll from coronavirus had reached 79 on Tuesday as the number of confirmed cases rose to 2,263. Portland police arrested seven teenagers on Tuesday following an assault at a Southeast Portland MAX station that left one man injured. But many of the teens were also suspects in a slew of crimes at TriMet stations last month, police said. Around 2 p.m., police responded to the Holgate Boulevard Transit Station for reports of a threat involving a weapon. They found a man who had been assaulted and had non-life-threatening injuries. Officers found the suspects had flashed a knife, but didnt use it in the assault. The teens fled, but officers used police dogs and arrested the suspects a short while later. Police arrested six boys, ranging from ages 13 to 16 and one girl, age 13. Police said they had reviewed video footage and identified suspects based on incidents at four other transit stations: on Feb. 11 at the 7th Avenue station, Feb. 16 at the 82nd Avenue station, Feb. 20 at the 162nd Avenue station and Feb. 21 at the Lloyd Center station. Two teens were arrested at the most recent incident, and were not involved with Tuesdays assault. With the exception of two boys, all the teens face charges related to incidents prior to Tuesdays. The teens were charged with a series of crimes based on the Tuesday encounter including robbery, assault, riot and interfering with public transit. The previous cases include similar charges. Police did not immediately say what the teens had stolen from victims, nor the exact manner in which they robbed them. Police said they think there may have been similar incidents on TriMet property, and have asked potential victims to come forward. The teens have all been lodged at the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center. Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. ROSEBURG, Ore. -- Hospitals are looking into making changes to their policies to prepare for coronavirus. KEZI 9 News spoke with health officials from Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield and a spokesperson for PeaceHealth. Officials from Mercy Medical and Bay Area said they havent put restrictions on visitation at the facilities. However, they both said staff are reevaluating every day. PeaceHealth said they havent made changes to their visitation policies either. They did say they are currently reviewing those policies and will make the changes if needed. If you want to visit a patient but have a fever or cough, you shouldn't come to the hospital, officials from Bay Area said. If a sick person does come into the building, they want those people to wear masks. Because there hasnt been any reported cases in the area yet, one Douglas County health official said there is no reason to panic. I think were telling our community not to panic, said Bob Dannenhoffer, Douglas County public health officer. I think were telling our community to get ready for any kind of emergency. Other officials said they are working very closely with their public health departments when it comes to testing. If a patient tests positive, the results will automatically be reported to the state. If the positive test results come from a smaller area like Roseburg, Coos Bay or Florence, officials said those patients will be transported to larger hospitals to get treated. Two amendments to the bill submitted by Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis including one that would provide townships the chance to apply for a circuit-breaker replacement grant for any year the reduction of a townships property tax revenue attributable to the credits provided under to taxpayers within the township equals or exceeds 40% of the townships property tax levy and allow the Department of Local Government Finance to approve a grant application for a circuit breaker for any amount that does not exceed 50%) of the reduction of the townships property tax revenue attributable to the credits ... regardless of the amount requested and subject to the availability of money -- failed in the House Monday. LOS ANGELES - New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reassessing her candidacy Wednesday as the winnowing process in the Democrats 2020 nomination fight lurched forward after a consequential Super Tuesday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this March 3, 2020 photo, Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg waits to speak at a news conference, in the Little Havana neighborhood, in Miami. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) LOS ANGELES - New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reassessing her candidacy Wednesday as the winnowing process in the Democrats 2020 nomination fight lurched forward after a consequential Super Tuesday. Bloomberg became the third failed Democratic presidential contender to exit the race in three days. Like the others, he endorsed Joe Biden, the big winner on Super Tuesday with victories in 10 of 14 states, and called him the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump in November. Sen. Bernie Sanders lashed back in a Wednesday news conference in Vermont, declaring himself in a neck-and-neck race with Biden, despite the former vice-president's overwhelming support from the Democratic establishment. What this campaign I think is increasingly about is, Which side are you on? Sanders said. There has never been a campaign in recent history which has taken on the entire political establishment. That is an establishment that is working frantically to try to defeat us. The new sense of urgency from Sanders and his allies came just hours after a resurgent Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California but won just three other states. Warren, Sanders' progressive ally, was huddling with advisers on Wednesday to determine if there was a reason to stay in the race after her Super Tuesday wipe-out. She didn't win a single state and finished in third place, after Biden and Sanders, in her own home state of Massachusetts. Sanders confirmed that he spoke with Warren early Wednesday Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg walks off stage after speaking during a rally, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) What Sen. Warren told me is she is assessing her campaign, he said. She will make her own decision in her own time. While Warren's future is unclear, Tuesday's round of voting helped clarify that the Democratic Partys presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, had turned into a two-man contest. Both men are expected to begin receiving Secret Service protection, according to Biden campaign chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, who said Wednesday that the House Homeland Security Committee has asked the Secret Service to provide protection to all remaining major presidential candidates. Biden and Sanders already have Secret Service code names: Biden's is "Celtic" and Bernie's is Intrepid Biden's campaign is embracing his renewed status as a Democratic front-runner and is going on the offensive against Sanders. Richmond blasted the Vermont senator for suggesting that the Democratic establishment is colluding against the progressive's White House bid. Richmond said Biden is earning his votes. "I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment," Richmond said, noting that Biden's overwhelming support among black voters gave him wide delegate gains in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia, among other states. African American voters, he continued, understand the importance of nominating a person that they know, nominating a person that can win. The Sanders campaign announced Wednesday that it would begin airing three new campaign ads in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, states that hold primaries March 10 and March 17. One of the new ads features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. It's a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Biden's frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a primary election night rally, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at Eastern Market in Detroit. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to call Biden's strong Super Tuesday showing a perfect storm and amplify his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination. The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Trump tweeted. Trump also called Warren selfish for staying in the race because it hurts Bernie badly. Biden's victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45. Sanders' success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decadeslong political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast. Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. The former vice-president showed strength in the Northeast with victories in Massachusetts and Maine. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and hoped to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. That didn't happen. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he won just three other states: his home state of Vermont, Utah and Colorado. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. In a statement announcing his departure, Bloomberg vowed to stay engaged in the 2020 election and his ultimate goal to ensure Trump is defeated this fall. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden." Biden aides said they didn't immediately know what to expect out of Bloomberg's endorsement moving forward. The former New York mayor has committed to turning his massive campaign operation toward the Democrats larger goal of defeating Trump this fall. It was not immediately clear if Bloomberg would use his resources and organization to help Biden in his nominating fight against Sanders. Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said Biden is "thrilled" to have Bloomberg's support. But she said conversations about what Bloomberg's endorsement means in practice are ongoing. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 566 delegates to Biden, 501 to Sanders and 61 to Warren. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. ___ Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Will Weissert and Brian Slodysko in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. Bengaluru: Amulya Leona, the 19-year-old woman who captured a nations attention by shouting full-throated slogans, allegedly in support of Pakistan, at a rally in Bengaluru, has reportedly held her composure under grilling by the Special Investigating Team (SIT). The woman was arrested after her speech to an audience of protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act on February 19, and was slapped with sedition charges. Sources in the police said Amulya Leona seemed to be absolutely normal during interrogation by senior cops, unlike most other persons in such circumstances. Not once throughout the grilling nor in judicial custody did she break down. Amulya is said to have defended herself on charges that she shouted pro-Pakistan slogans. She made it clear that by speaking out at the rally at Freedom House, she did not mean to support the enemy country and that she was not against India. Lower-rung officers said Amulya Leona seemed to be considerably influenced by the late firebrand activist Gowri Lankesh, who was shot dead in 2017. In fact, the policewomen to whose charge she was entrusted right after she was arrested are said to have heaved a sigh of relief when she handed over to custody of prison staff. An urban legend going around in lower-rung police circles is that Amulya Leona attended the funeral of Gowri Lankesh and fainted near where the late activist was buried. Its impossible for a 19-year-old to show such grit. We have seen hardcore criminals breaking down in custody. Forget about breaking down, Amulya Leona is becoming stronger, they explain. Former vice president Joe Biden recorded a critical victory Tuesday evening in the Texas Democratic primary, beating U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., behind a wave of late momentum stemming from his emphatic win in South Carolina. The Democratic presidential nomination was far from the only notable contest Tuesday night. In Harris County, conservative activist Keith Nielsen defeated Republican Party Chair Paul Simpson. And civil litigation attorney Christian Menefee unseated County Attorney Vince Ryan, narrowly avoiding a runoff according to unofficial results. Democrats also selected former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar for the U.S. Senate runoff, while Austin activist Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez was jockeying with Dallas state Sen. Royce West for the second spot. As the final results come in, here are some early takeaways from Super Tuesday in Texas. Waiting game helped Biden in a big way Sanders began election night with the lead, boosted by strong early voting performances in several large counties around the state. As Election Day results began trickling in, however, Biden slowly narrowed the gap before eventually surpassing Sanders for good. The trend extended across several of the 14 Super Tuesday states, where exit polls conducted by multiple outlets found that 20 to 30 percent of voters decided on a candidate in the last few days. Among those voters, Biden won well over 40 percent of the vote, countering his deficit to Sanders among voters who made up their minds earlier in the primary. SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: Who won and lost in Harris County elections on Super Tuesday 2020 This years presidential contest was far more fluid than usual, prompting many voters to hold out until the last minute, Houston political analyst Nancy Sims said. I think certainly in the Democratic primary this year, people have felt less definitive about their choices, Sims said. Theyve had so many options, and theyve moved around as candidates have come and gone. Bush just another name in era of Trump Republicanism Pierce Bush, scion of the Bush political dynasty, made a splash when he jumped into the wide-open race for Texas 22nd Congressional District. The seat, located in the south Houston suburbs, spans Fort Bend, Brazoria and Harris counties and includes some of the countrys most diverse areas. U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, who won re-election by a narrower-than-usual 5 percentage points in 2018, did not seek re-election in 2020. Fifteen Republicans filed to replace him, including Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls, who easily finished first Tuesday but failed to secure a majority of the vote. JOE TAKES TEXAS: Biden beats Sanders in tight Super Tuesday race in Texas The second runoff spot came down to Bush, political donor Kathaleen Wall and former Brazoria County Judge Greg Hill. Wall, who spent more than $4 million on her race, edged out Bush and Hill for the second runoff spot. Bush vigorously supported President Donald Trump in the primary, despite his own familys well-documented clashes with the president. Bush also took a hardline stance on immigration, running ads that accused Democrats of wanting open borders. Nehls strong name ID in Fort Bend County and Walls funding advantage, however, proved too much to overcome. Repeat candidates had a good night The 2018 midterms saw several Democrats come close to flipping congressional districts once thought to be Republican strongholds. One of those Democrats, Sri Kulkarni, ran again this year after narrowly losing to Olson in the last cycle. He won his four-way primary outright Tuesday, as did Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas 23rd Congressional District, which runs from San Antonio to the outskirts of El Paso. National Democrats say both districts are ripe for turnover, and they are especially bullish on Jones after she lost by fewer than 1,000 votes to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, who is not seeking re-election. ERICA GRIEDER: Joe Biden roars through Lone Star State on way to stunning Super Tuesday Democrat Mike Siegel, another repeat candidate, came within striking distance of winning the nomination in Texas 10th Congressional District, where he narrowly lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul in 2018. He will face Austin physician Pritesh Gandhi in a runoff. They just never stopped running, Sims said of the second-time candidates. Its a two-year cycle, so they just kept moving, and that put them in a better position for this primary season. Abbotts endorsement failed to move the needle for some Houston-area candidates Gov. Greg Abbott is not on the ballot this year, but he linked his name to several Republican House candidates by endorsing them in contested primaries. In the Harris County area, said candidates achieved mixed results. In House District 132, a swing district targeted by Democrats, Abbotts preferred candidate Angelica Garcia lost to Mike Schofield, the districts former representative. And in Fort Bend Countys House District 27, Abbott-backed Republican Manish Seth lost to real estate agent Tom Virippan. Insurance company owner Matt Morgan, a Republican, appeared to narrowly miss an outright win over Abbott-backed candidate Jacey Jetton in House District 26. Morgan received just shy of 50 percent, finishing about nine points ahead of Jetton, according to unofficial results. The governor made a clear push to endorse minority and female Republican candidates, Sims said, but the party didn't seem to want to follow suit. Meanwhile, Abbott-backed Republican Lacey Hull easily bested her two primary foes in west Houstons House District 138, while incumbents Briscoe Cain, Dan Huberty and Dennis Paul each of whom were endorsed by Abbott recorded convincing but expected wins. Republican Justin Ray, also backed by Abbott, recorded an anticipated landslide win in battleground House District 135. Harris County elections folks have some work to do Scores of Democratic voters in Harris County waited hours after the polls closed to cast their ballots, with dozens still standing in line after midnight. Some people gave up and left. Democratic County Clerk Diane Trautman said each of the countys 401 polling places started with between 16 and 48 machines, depending on anticipated turnout, but at each location the machines were divided equally between the Democrat and Republican primaries, regardless of whether the location heavily favored one party or the other. Some questioned whether a more prudent allocation of machines would have quickened the process. The last voter standing in line at one Texas Southern University cast his ballot about 1:20 a.m. And as of 2 a.m., results from 21 voting centers were still unreported. Concerns about the COVID-19 virus have hit one of Southern Arizonas largest events, with at least three authors canceling their appearances at this months Tucson Festival of Books. As of Tuesday morning, authors no longer attending include CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca; The Limits of the World novelist Jennifer Acker; and Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, festival executive director Melanie Morgan said. So far, cancellations are on par with the number of authors who back out each year, Morgan said. We always have a handful of authors who need to cancel every year for personal reasons and theres a variety of reasons, she said. So I would not say that this is more than the normal amount of cancellations right now. The 12th annual gathering of authors and book lovers, one of the largest in the country, is scheduled for March 14-15 on the University of Arizona campus. Acker, who has a chronic illness, said she consulted with her doctors about taking airplanes and visiting events that draw a lot of people. They advised against it, so I took that advice seriously, said Acker, adding that she was looking forward to attending the book festival for the first time. Many of the presentations that were to feature the authors whove canceled include other writers, so those sessions will still be held. Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten will replace Rocca in a Saturday appearance. A gun-wielding man who was seen confronting an unarmed policeman during violence at Maujpur in northeast Delhi has been arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district and is being brought to Delhi, News18 reported on Tuesday The gun-wielding man who was arrested for pointing a gun at an unarmed policeman during the Delhi riots, has been booked under charges for attempt to murder, among others, the Delhi Police said on Tuesday. At a press briefing regarding the arrest, Additional CP Ajit Kumar Singhla said that the police is yet to recover his pistol with which he fired three shots "in a fit of rage". The police also said that the man, identified as Shahrukh, told the interrogators that he had fired shots in a fit of rage after he saw stone pelting happening in the Jaffrabad-Maujpur area of northeast Delhi, which was one of the epicentres of the three-day riots over the Citizenship Amendment Act. "He had bought the pistol two years ago from a friend in Bihar," Singhla said, adding that the police are investigating whether he has any links with any organisation and whether he had planned the firing. Ajit Kumar Singla, Additional Commissioner of Police: We're trying to recover the pistol he used. Shahrukh said he fired during protests in a fit of rage. He has no criminal background but his father has a narcotics & fake currency case against him. Further investigation underway https://t.co/ON2IxwPDCI pic.twitter.com/11lEUJTr0N ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2020 "He has been charged under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 186, 353 of IPC and Arms Act. Further sections will be added during the course of investigation if needed. We will try to get his maximum possible remand," he added. Singhla also said that the police are looking into whether Shahrukh has any links with former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, who has been named as an accused in the killing of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma. He also added that while Shahrukh's father has a case of narcotics and fake currency against him, he doesn't have a criminal record himself. Shahrukh was arrested from a bus stop in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli on Tuesday morning, Singhla said. In a video that went viral last week, Shahrukh could be seen pointing his country-made pistol at the policeman on the Jaffrabad-Maujpur road. The incident was from 24 February when violence was at its peak in northeast Delhi. However, the gunman managed to escape Delhi as senior officials remained caught up in controlling the rioting. Speaking about the arrested accused, Singhla said that Shahrukh is interested in modelling and makes Tik Tok videos. He added that he has studied till the second year of undergrad and now is involved in a business. A report by The Indian Express also said that, Shahrukh's father is local drug peddler who has been arrested by district police several times and has been under scanner of local police. He is also reportedly a close relative of criminal Irfan alias Chhenu Pehalwan (35), who is currently in jail. Earlier too reports had suggested that Shahrukh had been held, however, Delhi Police later denied such reports. Meanwhile, Authorities said the situation has been peaceful for the last six days. According to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, 79 houses and 327 shops were completely gutted in arson during the violence last week. Besides this, 168 houses suffered substantial and 40 minor damage due to arson, Sisodia said, citing figures available till Monday evening following a survey by officials. On Tuesday, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said that over 98 per cent attendance was recorded in the class 12 board exam held in violence-affected northeast Delhi. ANN ARBOR, MI Poetic words filled the City Council chambers at city hall this week as officials recognized Hasna Ghalib as Ann Arbors 2019 youth poet laureate. Before she recited a poem for the packed room, Mayor Christopher Taylor read a proclamation honoring Ghalib for giving a voice to the communitys youth. Youth voice and community engagement are vital for empowering young people to effect positive change in their community and beyond, Taylor said. Ghalib has been part of the Neutral Zone teen centers literary arts program where she has encouraged and inspired multitudes of young people with her poems, Taylor said, and she has become immersed in the study of language and literature to create beautiful and powerful literary art. She has written with grace, elegance and immeasurable power about difficult topics, often giving voice to the politically, economically and socially marginalized, Taylor said. Ghalib, who was born in Iraq and came to the United States as a refugee in 2008, has been a member of the Black Student Union at Pioneer High School and one of the most outspoken and committed youth leaders at the Neutral Zone, working to address racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia and rape culture, according to an online biography. Ann Arbors youth poet laureate program recognizes youth writers and leaders who are committed to civic and community engagement, poetry and performance, human relations, diversity and education. Ghalib was chosen from a group of poets who participated in a selection process requiring five original poems and an essay on the power of poetry and the spoken word. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: 100-year-old actress brings laughs, inspiration in Ann Arbor community theatre production 24-hour UM dance event raising money for pediatric rehabilitation therapy Bump, dont shake: Lawmakers from Michigan push elbow bump to prevent coronavirus spread Ann Arbor officials have mixed feelings about latest high-rise plan As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Consultants on Tuesday presented a 10-year facilities plan for the Hamilton County Schools that includes closing nine sites, constructing 11 new buildings, and renovating 27 schools. The price tag is $891 million. County School officials emphasized that the work of MGT Consultants is just a recommendation and no decisions have been made yet. The plan includes closing the current sites for Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts and Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences, which are in two of the district's older buildings. CSAS would move to the Brainerd High School site, where a $54 million school would be built. A new site for CSLA was not identified. A new Harrison Elementary School would also include students from Lakeside Elementary, which would close. Here are other recommendations: Phase 1: Alpine Crest Elementary to close and merge with Dupont and Rivermont in a new $42.5 million school at the Dupont site. Rivermont School would also close. Normal Park, which is in two older buildings, would move to the current site of Center for Creative Arts (the old Chattanooga High School). A new $46 million school would be built for CCA. A new $35.4 million school would be built at the Clifton Hills Elementary site. A new $35.4 million elementary school would be built at the CSLA site on East Brainerd Road. Orchard Knob Middle School would be replaced with a new $49.8 million school that would also serve Dalewood Middle School. A new $74.2 million Tyner High School would be built for grades 6-12, 1,500 students. Tyner Middle School would be merged into the new school. Phase 2: Brainerd High students would go to a new $33.2 million school built at the Dalewood site. Phase 3: Barger School would close and be repurposed as a new career and technical education site at a cost of $18.9 million. A new $42.5 million Apison Elementary School would be built. Soddy Daisy Middle School would close and move to the Daisy Elementary site. Daisy Elementary students would move to Soddy Elementary, which would be re-named Soddy Daisy Elementary. Mike Raisor of MGT said a number of community members spoke in favor of neighborhood schools, but he said it was necessary for the district to "right size" itself. He said, "As much as small schools are important, you can't be 'house poor.' " He said the overall plan "is a big lift, but it is achievable." Currently, he said there is "a lot of inequity throughout the system" in terms of facilities. He said the plan would spread improvements throughout the county. At present, he said buildings are in "fair" condition and there is a major backlog of maintenance needs. OTTAWA - The head of the Canadian military called out Russia and China on Wednesday for their "antagonistic actions" even as he revealed that work has begun on identifying the scope and price of upgrading North America's defences, including the North American Aerospace Defence Command. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Canadian Col. Christopher Coates talks to media at the Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan on April 6, 2009. A senor Canadian general says while a military attack is unlikely in the immediate future, Russia nonetheless represents the greatest short-term threat to North American security. Lt.-Gen. Christopher Coates made the comment at a defence conference today while making the case for modernizing the North American Aerospace Defence Command, the Canadian-American defensive system better known as Norad over which he is the deputy commander. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrice Bergeron OTTAWA - The head of the Canadian military called out Russia and China on Wednesday for their "antagonistic actions" even as he revealed that work has begun on identifying the scope and price of upgrading North America's defences, including the North American Aerospace Defence Command. Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance would not provide a timeline or other details on upgrading Norad, but said they have to happen "relatively quickly" as the threat posed by Russia, China and others continues to grow. Russia and China figured prominently during the first of an annual two-day defence conference organized by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, in which numerous Canadian and allied military officers spoke before Vance provided the keynote speech. Vance, who has served as this country's top military officer for nearly five years, warned that Canada and its allies are currently engaged in a "global fight over values" that goes beyond the traditional domains of land, sea and air to include space, cyberspace and information. That fight threatens to upend the post-Second World War order that has benefited Canada, Vance added, even though it does not involve normal military operations. Rather, he accused Russia and China of advancing their aims through actions that fall just short of war. "Currently, those actors use their antagonistic actions below the threshold of open, conventional conflict to avoid a full-scale response," he said. "At least for now." Those actions include Russia's military incursions into Ukraine, its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and incursions on other country's airspace as well as China's actions in the South China Sea, "malign" activities in cyberspace and "coercive" economic and diplomatic actions. "These below-the-threshold (of war) activities are a death by a thousand cuts," Vance said. "In isolation, they would not merit large-scale responses. ... But viewed, cumulatively, it is clear that they demand a new approach." Vance indicated that new approach is still a work in progress, but it includes the need to detect and deter a variety of threats. Yet at the same time, traditional military threats from Russia and others continue to not only exist but evolve, such as the development of new long-range, non-nuclear missiles that are difficult to detect. Hence the need to upgrade Norad. The Norad system was originally built in the 1950s to spot Soviet nuclear missiles. The system was last upgraded in the 1980s, and officials have warned it cannot detect the new, long-range Russian weapons. The Liberal government's 2017 defence policy included plans to modernize Norad to defend against the threats of today and tomorrow, but talks with the U.S. have so far been minimal and no money has been set aside for what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar project. While Vance said protecting North America will require a more holistic approach, protecting against foreign missile attack is essential because such weapons "have the potential to hold North American decision-making hostage in a period of conflict. "Even a modest attack could hamper or cripple Canadian response to crisis or harm Canadians or critical infrastructure." Hours before Vance took to the stage, the Canadian deputy commander of Norad joined a growing chorus calling for the modernization of North American defensive systems even as he described Russia as the "greatest short-term threat" to the continent. Lt.-Gen. Christopher Coates said a military attack by Russia is not likely in the immediate future, but it has been racing to develop a variety of non-nuclear weapons and find gaps in North America's ability to defend against cyber, information and economic attacks. Coates suggested Canada and the U.S. "kept our eye off the ball for a while" by not taking the threat posed by Russia seriously. The implication is that North America is now playing catch up. While it will ultimately be up to the government to decide what Norad looks like in the future and how much it will cost to get there Coates said an update is required and that will cost money and effort. "I think all Canadians should recognize the importance that that partnership brings to our defence and security and that we need to put a value on it," he said. "Of course, it's not a blank cheque ... But there's something that's required. There's some level of modernization that I think would be necessary to ensure Norad does remain relevant, that we cause Russia and others, perhaps, to view North America as not a soft target." This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Labs were analysing blood samples and hotel staff disinfecting rooms along the tourist trail followed by a group of Italian travellers, 16 of whom have now tested positive for Health Minister Raghu Sharma told the assembly on Wednesday that at least 215 people came in contact with the Italian who visited several places in the state from February 21 to 28. A 69-year-old man was the first one in the group to test positive for His wife too has tested positive for the virus at the Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital, where the couple is now admitted. The other 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. According to Union Health Ministry officials, the Italian wanted to go back to their country after the first person in their group tested positive in Jaipur, but the authorities advised them to stay back. Replying to an adjournment motion in the Assembly, Health Minister Raghu Sharma said swab samples of 93 people who came in contact with the Italian have been collected. Fifty-one of them have tested negative for the virus while reports of others are yet to arrive, he said. He said 59 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 78 in Jaipur came in contact of the Italian group. While the couple was admitted to the Jaipur hospital, others in the 26-member group, including three crew members, had left for Agra and then Delhi. Earlier in the day, the Rajasthan government issued directions to the collectors and chief medical health officers of Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur districts to take public health measures at the places visited by the Italian tourists. The officials have been asked to disinfect the rooms and the bus in which the group travelled from the time they arrived at the IGI airport in New Delhi to the hotels they stayed in the state. The bus driver and cleaner will be home quarantined for 14 days. "The officials have been asked to get detailed addresses of all who have stayed in these rooms and to do follow-up for health status and advice them for home quarantine for a total of 14 days," Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said. Tourist guides, helpers and hotel staff who had served or came in close contact with the group in any manner will also be home quarantined, he said. Rooms will be disinfected with a solution of one per cent sodium hypochlorite while total mopping of all areas, handles, chairs, tables, etc. will also be done, the senior official said. The minister told the assembly that though there is no prescribed medication or vaccine to treat the disease, the suspected patients in the state are being given swine flu medication as a precautionary measure. Purchase orders have been given for 50,000 personal protective equipment kits and five lakh each of N95 and triple layer masks to deal with the problem, the minister said. Informing about the measures taken by the state Health Department, he said teams have been alerted to thoroughly screen passengers at airports and rapid response teams have been formed in the medical colleges and associated hospitals. Amendment One appears headed for a resounding defeat, with early results showing Alabama voters trust themselves more than the governor when it comes to selecting who runs the states public schools. So, it looks like business as usual tomorrow in Alabamas schools. I feel really good about it, Alabama State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said about results on Tuesday. With three quarters of the votes in, about 76 percent of voters had rejected the proposal. It hadnt passed in a single county. I think the board and I feel some confidence that the public has said, Hey, weve got confidence in the folks that are running things," said Mackey. We know theres work to be done. Lets do the work. Gov. Kay Ivey and other elected leaders pushed Amendment One, which called for an appointed state school board. They argued the current elected state school board is broken, and pointed to Alabamas dead last ranking in math on the recent national report card and the five superintendentsthree permanent and two interimthe board has appointed since 2016. Amendment One was a bold and ambitious effort to transform our states public schools, said Gina Maiola, spokesperson for Ivey. Governor Ivey was willing to step out and support this idea because she firmly believed leadership and change started with the Board itself. Tonight, however, it appears the fear of losing the right to elect our State School Board members was greater than the confidence we had that fundamental change could be made. But current Alabama state school board member Dr. Wayne Reynolds, who represents District 8, which covers portions of north Alabama, said the results are not a surprise. Voters across the state have expressed confidence in us, Reynolds said, adding that voters have put the burden to improve education on the state school board. We are responsible for education in Alabama, and we better accept it. Opponents of the state amendment said people shouldnt give up their right to vote. Social media lit up in recent days with posts from Alabamians vowing to vote no. The state Amendment split the Alabama Republican Party, with Ivey, as the highest officeholder in the state, and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, calling for an appointed board, while a large faction of the party opposed it. Reynolds said he wants to work with state lawmakers, but hopes Ivey and Marsh get the message voters sent in rejecting Amendment One. The state board meets again March 12, where he expects Ivey will be at the board table. Ivey needs to know, he said, shes not going to bully the state board, either. Iveys spokesperson said the governor will continue to work to improve education in Alabama. While disappointed, the governors resolve to improve our public education system remains intact, said Maiola, her press secretary. Amendment One is not where her plans for education stop, and youll see her continue to be more innovative and creative with her approach to improving Alabama. The Amendment got the backing of big political players, including the Alabama Farmers Federation, whose CEO chaired the Yes for the Best Education PAC, raising nearly half a million dollars for radio and television ads urging voters to approve the amendment. Other conservatives groups, including the Alabama Eagle Forum and the Common Sense campaign opposed the amendment, saying Alabamians shouldnt give up the right to vote. The defeat of Amendment One is a victory for the voters of Alabama, said board member Jackie Zeigler, who represents District 1 in parts of south Alabama. "Montgomery Insiders spent obscene amounts of money trying to gain control of our education system. They failed. Local school district superintendents started speaking out last week, urging a no vote. Jefferson County Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin told AL.com he would vote no because he didnt trust the politicians who would do the appointing and the confirming given the current political climate and their track record where Alabama schools were concerned. Whats next is anyones guess. Marsh has promised a set of bills related to education. A consulting firms report on how the Alabama State Department of Education is organized is due the week of March 16. And lawmakers have not yet considered what could be a record education budget, the first to top spending amounts before the recession. Mackey said the state school board is committed to getting this right. Were going to work harder tomorrow than we were before, and we were already working hard. Update on March 4: With 99.6 percent of the vote in, the amendment failed 75 percent to 25 percent. Thats 849,400 votes against and 278,279 votes for. By Lee Gyu-lee Korean National Ballet dancer Na Dae-han may lose his job after taking a trip to Japan with his girlfriend when he was supposed to be in self-quarantine last week. The ballet company had advised all crew who performed in Daegu on Feb. 14 and 15 to go under quarantine for about two weeks, after canceling further performances. The decision came as the coronavirus cases spiked in the city, and all artists, including Na, 28, were instructed to stay home and report every day after checking body temperature. But the dancer's trip overseas was discovered when he and his girlfriend posted pictures of themselves on social media, and criticism poured in. Artistic director Kang Sue-jin released a statement shortly after the news broke Monday, apologizing for "bringing concerns to people at such a dreadful time in the country." She continues, "We, Korean National Ballet, will proceed with the internal process to impose a serious disciplinary action on the dancer." An official from the company told news outlet OSEN, Tuesday, that Na is now in self-quarantine after the trip to Japan. "The disciplinary committee regarding the dancer will be held on Mar. 12," said the official, adding that the dancer could be fired. Na became familiar to the public through Mnet's romance reality show "Somebody" in 2018. The show invited dancers from various genres to find their romantic partners. Soon after the show ended in 2019, he joined the national company. Sometimes, foreign policy consists of trying to make lemonade out of lemons. In the case of the recently signed U.S.-Taliban agreement on Afghanistan, President Trump provided the lemons, and the lead U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, and his team did the squeezing. Mr. Trump made clear that he intended to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan with or without a deal. Then NATO partners pressured the United States not to reward the Taliban by conceding their long-held objective of forcing an American withdrawal for free. So, the president reportedly gave his negotiators a finite window to explore whether some deal was achievable. Lacking the backing of a resolute American commander in chief, Mr. Khalilzad got what he could a deeply flawed agreement that has the potential to lead to peace but is very unlikely to achieve it. In short, the United States gave away a lot and got relatively little in return. To start, the United States dropped its longstanding, principled opposition to negotiating directly with the Taliban (including the terrorist Haqqani network, which has killed countless American service members) without our key partner, the Afghan government, at the table. Next, following a seven-day, roughly 80 percent reduction in violence, the United States acceded to the Talibans primary demand that America fully withdraw all of its own and NATO forces as well as intelligence personnel from Afghanistan. Mr. Trump agreed to draw down from our current force level of approximately 12,000 U.S. troops to 8,600 (the level he inherited from President Barack Obama) within four and a half months. Within 14 months, he will drop American and NATO troops to zero leaving only an embassy-based diplomatic presence. Sanders seizes Super Tuesday's biggest prize but Biden secures comeback Bernie Sanders has seized Super Tuesdays biggest prize with a victory in California on a big night for the Democratic presidential candidates. A resurgent Joe Biden scored wins across the country, taking the battleground states of North Carolina and Virginia in a strong showing. But his is nearest rival Mr Sanders countered with wins in his home state of Vermont and in Colorado as the race shifted west. He also picked up California, which is considered the top prize across the 14 states and one territory that went to the polls yesterday. Live updates: Democrat candidates in Super Tuesday battle World Bank commits 9.4bn in emergency aid to fight coronavirus The World Bank has committed 9.4 billion in aid for developing countries grappling with the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus. The emergency package is designed to help countries detect when the virus crosses their borders and purchase medical equipment. Leaders around the world are pledging to shield their nations from the worst outcomes of the outbreak amid warnings a slowdown could tip countries into recession. In the UK, the Government yesterday released its battle plan. Possible measures in the official document include the cancellation of non-urgent operations and retired NHS staff being called "back to duty". Caroline Flack's proescution to be reviewed by CPS The Crown Prosecution Service is set to review its move to prosecute Caroline Flack after being criticised for pressing ahead with her "show trial". The former Love Island host, 40, took her own life last month. She had been charged with assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton and stepped down from presenting the winter series of the reality show. The CPS last night confirmed there would be a post-case review panel conducted by a deputy chief crown prosecutor. Its review will look at the services handling of the case and the decision behind charging Flack. Will and Kate sip Guinness at lively Dublin reception The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge capped off their first day in Ireland with a lively reception at the home of Guinness beer. Kate sparkled in a metallic emerald green dress by designer The Vampires Wife as the pair arrived at Dublins iconic Storehouse last night. The royal couple followed in the footsteps of the Queen who visited Irelands top attraction some nine years ago. Taking to the stage with a pint of stout in hand, Prince William joked: "It's not often that I find myself following the Queen to a pub." Klopp blames 'massive mistakes' for Liverpool's dumping from FA Cup Jurgen Klopp blamed 'two massive mistakes' for Liverpool's dumping from the FA Cup at the hands of Chelsea last night. The thrilling fifth-round contest featuring a remarkable 31 shots was decided in the hosts favour by a goal in each half from Willian and Ross Barkley. But it was the Reds' defending that cost them the 2-0 defeat according to Klopp, who insisted he was largely happy with his team's performance overall. On this day... 1789: The first Congress of the United States was held in New York. 1824: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded. 1890: The 1,710ft Forth Bridge was officially opened by the Prince of Wales. 1924: Happy Birthday To You was published by Clayton F Summy. 1941: British forces, assisted by local Norwegians, raided the German-occupied Lofoten Islands, destroying 11 ships. 1967: North Sea gas was first piped ashore near Durham. 1969: At the Old Bailey, gangland twins Ronald and Reginald Kray were found guilty of murder and given life sentences. 1974: After the general election, Edward Heath failed to persuade the Liberals to join a coalition and resigned. Harold Wilson became prime minister of a minority administration, which lasted for eight months until fresh elections secured a Labour majority. 1980: Robert Mugabe became the prime minister of Zimbabwe, winning 57 of the 80 black seats in the 100-member Assembly. BURLINGAME, Calif. - Two teenagers were seriously injured when a driver enraged by damage done to his car during a prank struck an innocent group of pedestrians he wrongly believed were responsible, police in Northern California said. Two other teenagers had moderate injuries after the attack Saturday. The 18-year-old driver, Omeed Adibi, of San Mateo, was arrested, Burlingame Police Lt. Laura Terada said. Officers found the injured teenagers after responding to a report that an SUV had crashed into four teenagers walking on the sidewalk before driving off, Terada said. Two of the teens were rushed to Stanford Hospital with major injuries, while the other two taken to San Francisco General Hospital with moderate injuries, Terada said. All four are from the city of San Mateo, the Mercury News reported. As emergency responders helped the four teens at the scene, Terada said, witnesses described the vehicle to officers and police quickly found it and the driver. Adibi was booked on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and driving under the influence, according to jail records. Adibi allegedly believed that the four teens had tampered with his car, Terada said, and wanted to get back at them but it was actually his own friends who damaged his car in a prank. It was a case of mistaken identity, Terada said. As of Monday morning, both teens at Stanford remained hospitalized, Terada said; one is in critical condition. A third remains at San Francisco General with moderate injuries, while the fourth was released over the weekend. Adibi remains in San Mateo County jail on no bail status. Scientists shed light on mystery of dark matter Scientists have identified a sub-atomic particle that could have formed the "dark matter" in the Universe during the Big Bang. Up to 80% of the Universe could be dark matter, but despite many decades of study, its physical origin has remained an enigma. While it cannot be seen directly, scientists know it exists because of its interaction via gravity with visible matter like stars and planets. Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light. Now, nuclear physicists at the University of York are putting forward a new candidate for the mysterious matter - a particle they recently discovered called the d-star hexaquark. The particle is composed of six quarks - the fundamental particles that usually combine in trios to make up protons and neutrons. Importantly, the six quarks in a d-star result in a boson particle, which means that when many d-stars are present they can combine together in very different ways to the protons and neutrons. The research group at York suggest that in the conditions shortly after the Big Bang, many d-star hexaquarks could have grouped together as the universe cooled and expanded to form the fifth state of matter - Bose-Einstein condensate. Dr MIkhail Bashkanov and Professor Daniel Watts from the the department of physics at the University of York recently published the first assessment of the viability of this new dark matter candididate. Professor Daniel Watts from the department of physics at the University of York said: "The origin of dark matter in the universe is one of the biggest questions in science and one that, until now, has drawn a blank. Our first calculations indicate that condensates of d-stars are a feasible new candidate for dark matter. This new result is particularly exciting since it doesn't require any concepts that are new to physics." Co-author of the paper, Dr Mikhail Bashkanov from the Department of Physics at the University of York said: "The next step to establish this new dark matter candidate will be to obtain a better understanding of how the d-stars interact - when do they attract and when do they repel each other. "We are leading new measurements to create d-stars inside an atomic nucleus and see if their properties are different to when they are in free space. " ### The researchers will now collaborate with scientists in Germany and the US to test their theory of dark matter and search for d-star hexaquarks in the cosmos. A new possibility for light-quark Dark Matter is published in the Journal of Physics G Letters. The research was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). This story has been published on: 2020-03-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A new culprit -- hydrogen sulfide -- has been found for the deadly infectious disease tuberculosis. Hydrogen sulfide gas is known for its rotten egg smell, yet it has normal physiological roles in the human body to communicate among cells. UAB researcher studies tuberculosis in South Africa Play When tuberculosis bacteria invade the lung, however, the amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the lung microenvironment appear to greatly increase, and this makes the microbe more virulent and better able to block the body's protective immune response, according to research led by Andries "Adrie" Steyn, Ph.D., a University of Alabama at Birmingham professor of microbiology. The source of this hydrogen sulfide? Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, or Mtb, are able to induce human macrophage immune cells to produce more hydrogen sulfide. Thus, Mtb exploits macrophage metabolism to increase Mtb virulence. During the disease, Mtb grows and safely persists inside macrophages, the immune cells that normally should have protected the lungs by killing the engulfed bacteria. In a bacterial sense, the Mtb become wolves in sheep's clothing. "To the best of our knowledge," Steyn said, "no study has yet reported a role for host hydrogen sulfide in the control of bacterial disease." Two research papers by Steyn and colleagues -- the first descriptions of this unexpected role for host-generated hydrogen sulfide in bacterial pathogenesis -- are published in Nature Communications and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. Tuberculosis is responsible for about a million and a half deaths each year, and roughly 2 billion people are latently infected with Mtb worldwide. Our results indicate that Mtb exploits host-derived hydrogen sulfide to promote growth and disease and suggest that host-directed therapies targeting hydrogen sulfide production may be useful for the management of tuberculosis and other microbial infections." Andries "Adrie" Steyn, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham Steyn oversees labs at UAB and at the Africa Health Research Institute, or AHRI, in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, an area that is the worldwide epicenter for tuberculosis infections. The experimenters used two different mouse models and also showed clinical relevance by examining the spatial distribution of human hydrogen sulfide-generating enzymes in excised lung samples from South African tuberculosis patients. The samples come from a Durban hospital whose surgeons often resect diseased portions of an infected lung; this surgery provides nearly immediate symptomatic relief for seriously ill patients. The human tuberculosis lung tissue experiments, described in the PNAS paper, showed that hydrogen sulfide is produced at a spectrum of tuberculosis lesions that are the sites of Mtb infection. Study details Hydrogen sulfide has roles in normal physiology as one of three gasses -- along with nitric oxide and carbon monoxide -- that can diffuse from producer cells to send a signal to nearby cells. However, when Mtb invades macrophage cells, Steyn and colleagues found a 34-fold increase in the level of the macrophage enzyme cystathionine beta-synthase, or CBS, a major producer of hydrogen sulfide in mammalian cells. So, in the Nature Communications paper, the researchers examined the roles of CBS and different levels of hydrogen sulfide using a variety of approaches. One was mice that have one of their two genes for CBS inactivated, so they make only half as much CBS enzyme. When these mice were infected with Mtb, they survived a significantly longer time compared to wild-type mice. They also had fewer Mtb bacilli in their lungs and spleen, and their lungs showed less pathology. In another approach, the researchers found that exposing Mtb cells to increasing concentrations of hydrogen sulfide significantly increased the rate of Mtb growth. Mechanistically, hydrogen sulfide stimulates Mtb respiration and bioenergetics, acting at a protein called cytochrome bc oxidase. It also reverses one of the body's immune defense mechanisms -- the inhibition of Mtb respiration by increased amounts of nitric oxide produced by host cells. Furthermore, exposure of Mtb to hydrogen sulfide regulated bacterial genes involved in sulfur and copper metabolism and a 48-gene regulon involved in bacterial dormancy during latent infections. "This suggested that Mtb infection of host cells upregulates CBS production, leading to increased hydrogen sulfide levels, which exacerbates disease as indicated by reduced host survival, and to a lesser extent by increased organ burden," Steyn said. "These ?ndings identify a new phenotypic category of host genes that exacerbates tuberculosis disease, whereas their disruption prolongs survival during infection." Importantly, as seen in the PNAS paper, the increased hydrogen sulfide also alters host immunometabolism in a way that increases Mtb burden -- and hence disease -- in the lungs and other organs. This was shown with mice that lacked a second major hydrogen sulfide producing enzyme, macrophage cystathionine gamma-synthase, or CSE. Similar to what was shown for the CBS-deficient mice, the Mtb-infected CSE-knockout mice survived longer than wild-type mice and showed reduced pathology and lowered bacterial burdens in the lung, spleen and liver. Thus, they were more resistant to Mtb infection. For CSE-knockout macrophages grown outside of mice, Mtb infection of macrophages resulted fewer live bacteria in the macrophages. Experiments with a chemical that slowly releases hydrogen sulfide or experiments with a CSE inhibitor showed that hydrogen sulfide was the effector molecule regulating Mtb survival in macrophages. Comparison of the immune responses in wild-type mice or CSE-knockout mice showed that CSE promoted an excessive innate immune response and pathological inflammation, as measured by levels of various cytokines in the serum and numbers and types of immune cells in the lungs. This change exacerbated disease. The CSE-knockout mice also had a reduced adaptive immune response; a functional adaptive immune response is needed to control Mtb infection. Mechanistically, hydrogen sulfide appears to induce these changes by reprogramming central metabolism in the macrophages, including decreasing flux through glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway, which causes dysfunctional immunity. Steyn and colleagues note that their findings highlight the hydrogen sulfide-producing enzyme CSE as a potential therapeutic target to restrain tuberculosis disease; one current drug that is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, D-penicillamine, targets CSE. Pilgrims arrive in St Peter's Square, Vatican City, for prayer with masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus. (Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio/Sipa USA) Italy could have more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus, an expert has revealed. Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College Londons faculty of medicine, said he estimates there are at least 50,000 to 100,000 cases of the virus in the country, which is one of the worst affected by the virus. Italy has 2,500 confirmed cases and has suffered 79 deaths. Prof Ferguson told the BBCs Today programme that he expects to see measures to tackle the virus rolled out in a matter of days. [Italy has] I think its over 50 deaths now, he said, so those people were probably infected three weeks ago, and for every person who dies we think there might be 100, maybe even 200 people infected. A man on the Piccadilly line of the London Underground wears a protective facemask. (Kirsty O'Connor/ PA Wire) See latest coronavirus news and updates The lethality of this virus is not completely determined but its in that order... so the epidemic is probably doubling every week or so in Italy, so when you put those numbers together, wed estimate somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 cases at the moment in Italy. At least, it could even be higher, cases may still be being missed even in severe cases. He said the UK is several weeks behind Italy and is in an earlier stage of an epidemic. Authorities will be looking to slow the spread of the virus to try to relieve pressure on health systems and the UK government yesterday announced measures to tackle the virus. Read more: 11 myths and conspiracy theories around coronavirus debunked Prof Ferguson said screening air passengers is imperfect and pointed out that Spanish flu spread around the world in the days before commercial air travel. His figures mean the total number of Italys cases could outstrip the total number confirmed worldwide. Just over 93,000 have been reported globally as of Wednesday morning. Read more: UK coronavirus worst-case scenario of 80% infection rate 'highly unlikely' After mainland China where the virus originated South Korea is the next worst hit with 5,328 confirmed cases and 28 deaths. Iran reports 77 deaths from its 2,300 officially reported cases. Cambodian workers sit down for lunch during a break in front of their factory in Phnom Penh, March 2, 2020. Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday announced that his government is placing a priority on combatting the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on his countrys economy, which he said is expected to last for a year or more. COVID-19 has caused a severe disruption to the global supply chain originating in China, where more than 80,000 people have been infected and nearly 3,000 people have died since authorities warned of the outbreak early this year. Authorities there have since scrambled to contain the spread of the virus, putting quarantines and travel restrictions in place that have created a dearth of raw materials that Cambodias crucial garment industry relies on to keep its factories operating and its workers employed. Speaking at an event in the capital Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said that as of Wednesday there are 18,000 workers who lost their jobs and at least 20 factories that have suspended production in Cambodia due to lack of raw materials. Our top priority is to fight against COVID-19this is all we need to focus on, he said. The prime minister said that the government will cut 50 percent of expenditures to all ministries, and 25 percent of funding to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, and the Council of Ministers, in a bid to shore up resources to fight the impact of the virus, although civil servants will continue to get their pay checks. Cambodias economy can expect to take a hit for at least one year, he added, without providing details. Hun Sen appeared to downplay the number of laid off workers and factories that have suspended operations, which Ministry of Labor spokesman Heng Sour recently said had nearly reached 20,000 and more than 30, respectively. Heng Sour also warned earlier this week that in March, at least 200 factories are expected to face raw material shortages, and as many as 160,000 workers would be affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Owners plea Hun Sens comments came as Cambodias Garment Manufacturers Association (GMAC) and Footwear Association submitted a joint proposal with Cambodias Ministry of Industry, calling on the Chinese government to urgently send raw materials to certain factories facing the risk of suspending their operations. Ken Loo, secretary general of GMAC, told RFAs Khmer Service that Chinese suppliers had begun the process of sending around 60 percent of raw materials for Cambodian garment and footwear productionsuch as cloth, cotton, glue, and buttonsearlier this year, but shipping was temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which also caused several factories in China to close. He said that the longer it takes for China to send raw materials, resulting in production setbacks in Cambodia, the more factories will be forced to close their doors. It wont be easy to order raw materials from China, because it will take several months for them to ship to Cambodia, Loo said. Well have to check the quality of the raw materials, because we arent able to buy them as soon as they are needed, and now, we dont yet know whether companies may increase the cost of shipping. Nguon Channara, a deputy secretary general of the Footwear Association, said that some shoe factories had suspended productions for a short time due to lack of glue, plastic, and buttons deemed essential to the production of footwear. The lack of any one raw material affects production as a whole, he said. The Footwear Association official said he was unable to predict when any raw materials Chinas government sends might arrive in Cambodia, as COVID-19 continues to spread. For the [Footwear] association, we had a meeting with the Ministry of Industry last week, and the government has agreed to ask the Chinese side to speed up the sending of raw materials once Chinese factories begin processing products for export, he said. Attempts by RFA to contact Ministry of Industry spokesman Um Sotha and Foreign Ministry spokesman Kuy Kuong went unanswered Wednesday, as did attempts to reach Chinas ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian, about the governments proposal on the urgent sending of raw materials. However, Ministry of Labor spokesman Heng Sour told local media that the shortage of raw materials had caused some factories to ask for a suspension of operations. Ath Thun, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation (CLC), said the shortage of raw materials had severely impacted factories and workers, and could lead to longer-term losses for the industry. We dont yet know whether [the factories] will be able to survive the expected hit to production over the next two months, he said. If they are not able to restore production to normal levels, it will seriously affect the industry. EBA suspension While the outbreak of COVID-19 in China has thrown production for Cambodias garment industry into disarray, observers have suggested that even tougher losses are in store for factories and workers when combined with an expected drop in orders from buyers in the European Union in anticipation of a return to tariffs on some Cambodian imports. The EU in mid-February announced plans to suspend tariff-free access to its market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme for around one-fifth of Cambodias exports, citing rollbacks on human rightsa decision that would reinstate taxes on garments and footwear beginning Aug. 12, unless it is overturned by the blocs governments or its parliament. The suspension, which Hun Sen has shrugged off and called an attack on Cambodias sovereignty, will result in a loss of around U.S. $1.1 billion of the countrys annual U.S. $5.8 billion in exports to the bloc, some 75 percent of which are made up of clothing and textiles. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun and Pheap Aun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using a new application of an existing imaging technique that may help detect tumors in humans. The technique, super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy, was used to visualize the distribution of blood vessels and measure oxygen levels in tumors. The study was carried out in chicken embryos, but the researchers hope to extend the studies in humans. The paper "Ultrasound localization microscopy of renal tumor xenografts in chicken embryo is correlated to hypoxia" was published in Scientific Reports. ULM uses microbubbles, which are the size of red blood cells, to image tissues. "We track these bubbles as they flow through blood vessels to obtain a higher resolution image than traditional ultrasounds," said Matthew Lowerison, a postdoctoral research associate in the Song Research Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Researchers have long known that tumors can be resistant to therapy because of their lower oxygen levels. "Red blood cells can flow through straight blood vessels quickly and efficiently. As a result, the delivery of oxygen and nutrients is efficient," Lowerison said. "In contrast, the blood vessels in tumors are twisted onto each other. It is chaotic and disorganized, and the delivery of oxygen is inefficient." The members of the Song group have used ULM to demonstrate that oxygen levels are lower in tumors compared to healthy tissue. "This study is unique because we can image tissue that is deeper inside humans without losing image resolution," said Pengfei Song, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a full-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute. "Although this technique requires us to inject these microbubbles, they do not have toxicity problems as other imaging agents. Additionally, the microbubbles are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and are widely used in clinic around the world." Currently the main challenge posed by this technique is the acquisition time. "We need to have a large data set to process the images," Lowerison said. "Although as engineers we are focused on getting the best possible images we can, this technique might work for doctors who want a better vascular image than the conventional imaging methods." "We are starting to see good results when we use artificial intelligence and machine learning with these technologies, which can help to make this process faster," Song said. "Ultimately, we want to be able to use this technique in a clinical setting for cancer detection, diagnosis, and therapy evaluation." ### This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Beckman Institute, Cancer Center at Illinois, and Carle Hospital have provided support for the Song Research Group to conduct human imaging studies at Carle Cancer Center. Editor's note: The study "Ultrasound localization microscopy of renal tumor xenografts in chicken embryo is correlated to hypoxia" can be found at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59338-z For more information, contact Pengfei Song, 217-300-9763, songp@illinois.edu. Funding from institutional investors, or cuckoo funds, is needed to facilitate city centre living, according to Michael Stanley, CEO of Cairn Homes, one of the country's largest developers. Last year, Cairn sold around 20pc of homes, in value terms, to such investors. It estimates that there is approximately 5bn in domestic and international institutional capital seeking to invest in new homes here. "There is substantial capital looking for an opportunity to invest in the private rental sector in Ireland," Mr Stanley said. "I see that as a positive. I don't feel these [apartment] schemes will be built unless that capital is there to fund it. "Housing schemes will be built out in the suburbs; we will have more of the same urban sprawl. "So, if you want city centre apartment living, which is really expensive to build, the industry needs funders." However, he maintained that 80pc of Cairn's business will be directed at first-time and private buyers. His comments came on the back of the company's annual results, which showed operating profit increased by 28pc to 68m last year. Revenue increased by a similar margin - 29pc - to 435.3m. Last year, Cairn closed 1,080 home sales, with an average selling price of 372,000. This is up from the prior year when it closed 804 sales at an average price of 366,000. The average selling price in the first-time buyer starter home category was 314,000, up slightly on the 2018 price of 312,000. Cairn owns a circa 17,000-unit land bank across 35 residential development sites, over 90pc of which are located in the greater Dublin area. It plans to complete 1,250 to 1,300 sales of homes this year. A further 1,500 to 1,600 sale completions are targeted for next year. Mr Stanley yesterday would not be drawn on the types of government policy required to increase the supply of housing in the market. "We didn't IPO with the intention to acquire a land bank of that size, but we just felt it was the right opportunity as it emerged over the last couple of years," he said. Mr Stanley asserted that there would be no supply fix until there were 15 to 20 Cairn Homes-style companies in Ireland - a scenario which would take "some time". With regards the current loan-to-income ratio, which means a bank can lend only 3.5 times a person's income, Mr Stanley said sensible mortgage lending "is part of a long-term sustainable industry and that is what we are here for; it's up to others to decide what those rules are". Elsewhere, the company expects to start selling houses at its Clonburris site in Dublin 22 by the end of this year. The development has the ability to deliver approximately 3,000 new homes. The provided first aid on request to 60,806 rail passengers during 2018-2019, the ministry informed Parliament on Wednesday. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Railways Minister said these passengers were given medical care and were even attended to by doctors on payment basis. "In compliance of orders of the Supreme Court and as recommended by a committee of experts constituted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), instructions have been issued to provide a medical box containing life saving medicines, equipments, oxygen cylinders at all railway stations and passenger carrying trains. "Front line staff i.e. Train Ticket Examiner, Train Superintendents, Assistant Station Master are trained in rendering first aid. Regular refresher courses are conducted for such staff," the minister said. List of nearby hospitals and doctors along with their contact numbers is available at all railway stations. Ambulance services of railways, state government/private hospitals and ambulance service providers are utilised to transport the injured/sick passengers to hospitals/doctor's clinics, he said. I am asking the Turkish people: What is your problem with Syria? What is the problem over which Turkish citizens need to die? Assad said in the interview with Russia-24, set to be broadcast Thursday. The remarks were published in advance by Russias state-owned RT television network. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Fidan Babayeva - Trend: Ukrainian and Moldovan customs officers are on a visit to Azerbaijan to study the experience of Azerbaijan customs in the field of information technologies, Trend reports referring to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. The visit is organized with the support of the International Organization for Migration under the project on equipping Ukraine-Moldova border checkpoint video surveillance system. At a meeting with the guests, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, customs service Major General Igbal Babayev told them about the reforms in the country's customs system and the role of IT in the successful implementation of these reforms. The Committees deputy chairman noted that modern information technologies are widely used in the country for effective management, simple and quick implementation of the customs procedures, ensuring transparency and minimizing contacts of entrepreneurs with officials. As a part of the five-day visit, Ukrainian and Moldovan customs officers will be provided with information on projects implemented in connection with the use of information technologies at Azerbaijani customs. The guests will also visit of various territorial and specialized customs departments and posts to get familiarized with the innovations. Houston may claim the title of oil and gas capital of the world, but San Antonio is leading the way to build the energy grid of the future. The key to the Alamo Citys success was a decision made decades ago to keep its municipally-owned utility rather than adopt a competitive retail electricity market. CPS Energy, the largest community-owned electric and gas utility in the nation, is proving nimbler than private competitors. More than 20 years ago, the Texas Legislature voted to introduce competition into the electricity market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Private companies would compete to produce the cheapest power, a state-managed utility would manage transmission lines, and retail businesses would sell kilowatts to customers. Except where cities and electricity cooperatives maintained the old system. In those areas, residents stuck with a quasi-governmental provider such as CPS, Austin Energy, Pedernales Electric Cooperative or one of the others owned by their customers. Competition between generators has worked out spectacularly well, with ERCOTs wholesale electricity prices among the lowest in the nation. The competition in generation allowed Texas to become a global leader in wind power, and soon solar power. Tomlinsons Take: The competitive Texas electric grid proves critics wrong again Retail competition, though, has not worked out as well. For most of the last 20 years, CPS and other community-owned utilities have consistently charged customers less than private-sector retail providers. Since CPS owns the generation down to the customers meter, this not-so-traditional utility has also implemented cutting-edge energy efficiency programs, cut reliance on coal power from 32 percent in 2010 to 18 percent in 2018, and kept prices lower than what the average Houstonian pays. For us, we think reliability and customer affordability have to be part of innovation, Cris Eugster, chief operating officer at CPS, told the City of the Future conference, organized by Zpryme. You never hear for-profit companies talking about making less money. Because CPS is fully integrated, the utility can install batteries near substations along the distribution grid, which then collect power the company generates when its cheap, and then release it to customers when prices spike, saving everyone money. In competitive markets, that would be illegal. CPS is also proposing to use cheap nighttime wind power to liquefy and compress air and then use it to spin turbines when electricity prices spike in the afternoon. They basically can go to six, eight or 12 hours or even longer based on the size of the tank capacity, Eugster added. Lastly, the utility is embracing the coming wave of electric vehicles, trying to set up a regional charging program. A key feature: encouraging customers to charge at night when most of the Texas grid is wind-powered. Ultimately, though, Eugster and CEO Paula Gold-Williams want to get out of the business of selling kilowatt-hours. The future is selling energy as a service, where customers pay a flat price based on their devices and then allow CPS to focus on efficiency, not selling a commodity. If we can make that transformation, we can decarbonize our grid and bring value to our customers. We can bring new products and services to our communities, Eugster added. Meanwhile, in Houston, retail electricity companies blitz customers with nonsense offers such as free nights and weekends, or tricky plans, where electricity is really inexpensive until the consumer hits 1,001 kilowatts, then the price skyrockets. Competitive markets stifle innovation under layers of bureaucracy and regulation. Oncor, the transmission utility in North Texas, proposed installing batteries along powerlines to increase resilience and lower prices, but generators objected. Tomlinsons Take: Companys failure reveals biggest challenge for power grid Four years ago, retail power companies blocked legislation that would have allowed firms that turn off lights and turn up thermostats when prices spike to participate in the Texas wholesale electricity market. Setting up electric vehicle charging stations in Houston is a nightmare, requiring permits and permissions from landowners, the city and CenterPoint. San Antonio has rolled out a Climate Action Plan with the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, which means it will add no new carbon to the atmosphere. Most emissions come from energy use in buildings and transportation, including personal vehicles. The goal meshes with the Paris Climate Accords and is not very ambitious. But with a municipally-owned utility, the city has a pretty good chance of neutralizing emissions. Houstons Climate Action Plan is still in draft form, but will likely establish a similar goal. The problem is that City Hall has no control over electricity usage, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas has recently favored fossil fuel generators by allowing them to charge more during peak demand periods. Private-sector competition makes sense most of the time, but when it comes to things like energy and health care, consumers are the losers. Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com Elizabeth Warren's campaign for president fell flat on Super Tuesday as she was unable to win even her home state of Massachusetts. Warren lost to both Joe Biden - whose South Carolina win Saturday night restored his frontrunner status - and Bernie Sanders, who represents neighboring state Vermont. Warren was in third place with 22 per cent of the vote with 70 per cent of the votes counted. And President Trump rubbed it in, tweeting, 'Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer!' Trump was referring to Warren's debut as a presidential candidate, where the overly folksy former Harvard Law professor said, 'I'm gonna grab me a beer,' before answering questions online from supporters. But Warren's persistance had her looking ahead, as she campaigned in Detroit, Michigan Tuesday as votes were trickling in - a state that doesn't vote until next Tuesday - and telling supporters in an email that she needed their help 'to keep up the momentum.' Elizabeth Warren spoke in Detroit, Michigan Tuesdsay night - a state that doesn't vote until the following week - ignoring the results that were not in her favor from the 14 Super Tuesday states President Trump gloated over her bad fortune, pointing out how she lost her home state of Massachusetts and mocking Warren's debut as a candidate where she grabbed a beer and answered questions from supporters Elizabeth Warren is photographed casting a ballot in Cambridge, Massachusetts Tuesday morning. With 70 per cent of the vote in, she was coming in third place in her home state 'Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,' Warren told the Michigan crowd. 'Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States.' During her final rally in California Monday night, Warren dismissed the surging Biden as a same-old, same-old Washington politician. 'No matter how many Washington insiders tell you to support him, nominating a fellow Washington insider will not meet this moment,' Warren said at her rally at East Los Angeles College. 'Nominating a man who says we do not need any fundamental change in this country will not meet this moment.' She also said that Democratic voters deserved more than a Biden-Sanders showdown, casting herself as the candidate who split the difference. Elizabeth Warren, who was the first Democratic hopeful to announce she was running for president in 2019, opened up her campaign by doing an online Q&A with supporters while drinking a beer Joe Biden (right) appearing in Los Angeles California Tuesday night with his wife Jill BIden (left) won the Massachusetts primary, despite it being Elizabeth Warren's home state 'From the start of this campaign, despite so many great candidates with so many different perspectives, voters were worried about beating Donald Trump,' the Massachusetts senator said. 'And they have been told there are only two lanes, only two choices and now we find ourselves barreling toward another primary along the same lanes as 2016 - one for an insider, one for an outsider,' she continued. 'Americans should have more choice than that,' she added. Democratic voters, who have now voted in 18 states and American Samoa, have yet to choose Warren once. Warren will likely see more pressure on her to withdraw, especially as Sanders - the fellow progressive - underperformed in Super Tuesday states. But Tuesday night, after the last polls closed, Warren indicated to supporters she planned to stay in the race. 'There are six more primaries just one week away,' her fundraising email pointed out. To Have Shen Yun on Our Stage is Truly an Honor For Us, Says Theaters President of the Board It was the first time the Shen Yun Performing Arts performed for audiences in Reno, Nevada. The New York-based company was so popular, a performance was added during its run from Feb. 28 to March 1 at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. Mark Ashworth, President of the Board at the center, saw Shen Yun for the first time. Theyre all very, very talented and most accomplished. As a drummer myself, I enjoyed the drums early on in the first half of the show, and I enjoyed the Mongolian horsemen as well, he said. To have Shen Yun on our stage is truly an honor for us, and were so glad that you chose us to bring your show to town. We are overwhelmed by the response from the city of Reno, relative to sold-out performances for Shen Yun, said Ashworth. Much of traditional Chinese culture is divinely inspired. Audience members appreciate the way its presented. The presentation of the Chinese culture and its history, through dance and music, is evident and is carried to the audience by the performance of the artists on stage, said Ashworth. He added: I would encourage anyone who has never had the opportunity to attend a Shen Yun performance, to take the opportunity to do so. And we hope that youll return to Reno again. Jim Petrie, president of Renown Bearing LLC, said: Everything was superb. Everything! Well done! Well done! And I also liked the introductions to the dances, which were both in Chinese and in English. Bruce Hahn, supervising attorney in Washoe County, said: The performance, its uplifting. Its meaningful, more than just the dance and the grace. Its spiritually uplifting, and Im grateful for that. Its a message of renewal and peace thats available if we choose it. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 21:14:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JAKARTA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday he expects extreme poverty to be reduced to zero percent in the country within next three years. "We hope in 2024, the extreme poverty can be removed to zero," he told a limited cabinet meeting at the presidential office. Based on the World Bank's standard of poverty, a total of 9.9 million Indonesian citizens are now living under the extreme poverty line, according to the president. The World Bank's standard of poverty noted that people with earning less than 1.91 U.S. dollars per day are classified as those living under the extreme poverty line. The president said the data from the Indonesian Central Agency of Statistics showed that the government has reduced poverty to 9.22 percent in September of last year from 11.22 percent in 2015. "Scoring below 10 percent is a great achievement, but our works are not over," he added. The president said that currently the programs to alleviate the poverty from the ministries and government institutions have been focused on the target. He reminded the state-owned enterprises of focusing their targets on poverty alleviation, among others through their corporate responsibility programs, according to a statement from the cabinet secretariat. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 14:46:12|Editor: Liu Video Player Close NEW DELHI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 21, after 15 Italian tourists tested positive on Wednesday, said media reports. An emergency meeting is going on in the country's Health Ministry to take stock of the situation. The country's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is scheduled to brief the media after the meeting concludes. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday made a strong pitch for Constitutional protection to ensure freedom of press in the backdrop of the 'increasing' attacks against media houses and members of the fourth estate in the country. It was the Centre's responsiblity to bring in a constitutional amendment since it did not come under the state's purview, Vijayan said in his reply to a submission by Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala in the assembly. During the Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat riots and the recent Delhi violence, media freedom had been curbed, he said. In Delhi, visual media personnel were not only prevented from going to the violence-hit areas, but even asked if they were Hindus or Muslims, he added. It was during the emergency period that the press freedom suffered the most, Vijayan said. There was need to ensure constitutional protection of the freedom of press through an amendment and in the absence of such a measure, there can be an uniform law applicable to the entire country, he said. The Kerala Assembly can pass a resolution requesting the Centre to implement such a legislation, he added. "...Keeping in mind the present circumstances, we need to urge the Centre to enact a law for freedom of the press," Vijayan said. It should be ensured that such a legislation protects the freedom of the press, he added. Vijayan said there is no restriction on media freedom in Kerala and there has been a constructive relationship between the state government and journalists and media houses. When communal forces unleashed violence against journalists, the state government had stood by the media and had taken strong legal action against the attackers. The government of Kerala has always stood by the media in case of any kind of attacks against them, he said adding the present laws in the state are being "fruitfully" used to prevent attacks against the fourth estate in the state. To ensure sanctity of the media, political parties also need to be careful and keep away from factors like paid news, the chief minister said. Chennithala said there has been increase in instances of attacks on journalists and media houses. The media came under attack in the state while reporting the women's entry issue at the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala and the agitations against the CAA. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Chattanooga branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers selected Bryan College freshman Benjamin Hendrich for a $1,000 scholarship. Mr. Hendrich was one of four area students selected for the award. The Maryville native noted that the scholarship will assist in helping him meet his financial obligations to further his education. In addition, he shared that hes in the process of applying for a short-term mission trip which would limit his ability to take on a summer job. Mr. Hendrich was made aware of the scholarship by fellow Bryan College student and president of the colleges ASCE student chapter, Russell Green. Mr. Hendrichs membership in the local chapter along with a recommendation from the colleges dean of engineering were critical in his selection for the scholarship. About obtaining the scholarship, Mr. Hendrich said, While there are some amazing opportunities online, students can compete against a much smaller pool of applicants by applying for extremely local, very specific scholarships. The scholarship was only open to members of the ASCE student chapters at Bryan College and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This scholarship will help make my education more manageable next semester, said Mr. Hendrich, I am very grateful to the Chattanooga branch of the ASCE for this honor. A patient with coronavirus has died in Placer County, near Sacramento, marking the first coronavirus death in California. According to the Placer County Public Health, the patient was elderly and had pre-exisiting conditions. Health officials say the person was likely exposed to the virus on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21. The patient had 'minimal community exposure' after returning from the cruise, according to county health officials. He or she was taken by ambulance on February 27 to Kaiser Permanente Roseville and placed in isolation before passing away. As of Wednesday, there are more than 150 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US and 11 deaths. Meanwhile, the number of cases in Washington rose to 10, and six are linked to Life Care Center. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS The first coronavirus death has occurred in California in Placer County in a patient who was elderly and had pre-existing health conditions The patient likely caught the virus on a Princess cruise ship (file image above) that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21 He or she was taken by ambulance on February 27 Kaiser Permanente Roseville and placed in isolation before passing away Patients infected by coronavirus wait to be transferred from Wuhan No.5 Hospital to Leishenshan Hospital, March 3 Pictured: Medical staff in Wuhan, China prepare to transfer patients infected by coronavirus to Leishenshan Hospital on March 5 While the California patient was in isolation, ten health care workers and five emergency workers were exposed to him or her. They are all in quarantine, but none are currently exhibiting symptoms, health officials say. Officials of the Princess cruise company sent an advisory recommending anyone on the cruise ship to self-quarantine for 14 days until cleared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least two Californians, including the Placer County resident who died, contracted coronavirus, after traveling aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship. The other patient is a resident of Sonoma County and is currently hospitalized. 'We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,' Placer County Health Officer Dr Aimee Sisson said in a statement. 'While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see. 'This tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions.' The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has previously stated that patients with underlying health conditions are twice as likely to develop 'serious outcomes.' California Governor Gavin Newsom released a statement shortly after the death was announced, 'Jennifer and I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this death in Placer County,' the statement reads. 'The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health.' Meanwhile in Washington, the number of deaths rose to 10, but Public Health - Seattle & King County has not released any details about the patient. Coronavirus deaths in Washington rose to 10, with most linked to Life Care Center in Kirkland. Many are worried about their loved ones in isolation. Carmen Gray says her mother, Susan Haley (left and right), who lives at Life Care, and other residents as being 'held hostage in a petri dish' Another woman, Bonnie Halstad (pictured) said her calls went unanswered for days as she asked for news about her husband, Ken, who lives at the home Of the 10 deaths, nine are residents of King County and one of Snohomish County. At least six of the deaths are linked to Life Care Center in Kirkland, a nursing long-term care facility just outside of Seattle. Children and spouses of the nursing home's residents say that staff are keeping the elderly isolated in their rooms and checking their temperatures daily. But they are scared that their loved ones who show symptoms will not be tested or hospitalized until they are in serious condition. Carmen Gray, of Bothell, told CBS News that her mother, Susan Haley, is one of the patients under quarantine at LifeCare Center. She says she asked for her mother to be tested for the virus, but was refused. '[They said she] did not meet the criteria at this time,' Gray said. 'They're being held hostage in a petri dish.' And Bonnie Holstad said staff is refusing to speak to her about the condition of her her husband, Ken, who is at the facility recovering from broken hip. She says her calls to the center have gone repeatedly unanswered and she is desperate for news that he is okay after he had a cough. He also suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia. Holstad stood outside the facility on Sunday with a sign saying: 'No one at Life Care is answering the phones. He needs to be attended to...what is his temperature?' She told CNN that, after she protested, a nurse did then check on him and told her he doesn't have a fever. 'I was so angry. How can this be that I have to do this, make a sign and go down there?' Holstad said. 'I have real problems with how they're handling the interface with family,' and added that it was 'sort of like a movie about an epidemic in a little town, and they don't know how to handle the situation.' Holstad told how she only found out about the potential outbreak in the home when she arrived for a visit on Saturday and was turned away by a sign on the door saying no visitors allowed. She then got a message from the center telling her about the confirmed cases. Before then she had been told staff were wearing masks because some residents had colds. Holstad also said her husband had not been tested for coronavirus because he doesn't have all of the symptoms required for testing. In Facebook post, Life Care said staff members are constantly monitoring patients for any signs of the virus. Medical personnel attend to a patient in critical condition at a hospital designated for coronavirus patients in Wuhan, March 1 South Korean soldiers wearing protective gear, spray antiseptic solution against the coronavirus in Guryong slum on March 3 Families are worried about their loved ones at Life Care Center of Kirkland, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Washington. Pictured: Healthcare workers transfer a patient on a stretcher to an ambulance at the Life Care Center, March 1 Children and spouses of the nursing home's residents say that staff are keeping the elderly isolated in their rooms and checking their temperatures daily but not testing them for the virus. Pictured: Healthcare workers transfer a patient on a stretcher to an ambulance at the Lifeare Center, March 1 'Current residents and associates continue to be monitored closely, specifically for an elevated temperature, cough and/or shortness of breath,' the post read. 'Any resident displaying these symptoms is placed in isolation. Associates are screened prior to beginning work and upon leaving. We are also following infection control recommendations, including proper hand-washing techniques and wearing masks, gowns and gloves when caring for any symptomatic patients.' Life Care Center of Kirkland did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment. At a press conference yesterday, King County Public Health Officer Jeffrey Duchin said they 'expect the number of cases will continue to increase in the coming days and weeks.' In fact, officials say they expect to see more cases than the flu. 'This disease will pose a significant challenge to the healthcare delivery system across the country and across the world,' Duchin said. The death toll also rose in New York on Wednesday from seven to 11. Governor Andrew Cuomo echoed the CDC's mortality rate quote for coronavirus: 1.4 percent. However, Cuomo is not quoting the actual death rate in the US. Eleven out of 157 people with coronavirus in the US are dead. That means the death rate here is currently seven percent. Cuomo and the CDC are quoting the death rate that a Chinese study identified. But that death rate was based on a bigger group of patients who were both young and old. In the US, most patients are older and at least six out of the 11 who died were in a nursing home for sick and old people. This is likely skewing the death rate high, especially because a shortage of coronavirus tests means there are probably many younger people who are only mildly ill and have not been tested or diagnosed yet. Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on coronavirus in the US, told Congress on Wednesday it was still too early to determine accurate mortality rates of the disease in America because it wasn't yet clear how many had been infected. Health authorities in Northern Ireland are preparing for all eventualities amid the coronavirus outbrekak (Michael Cooper/PA) Northern Ireland health authorities are planning to send Covid-19 patients to England if they require further clinical treatment. Antrim Area Hospital is ready for drive-through testing for the virus and expects patients will receive results within four hours. They will be swabbed in the nose and mouth then told to go home and self-isolate while awaiting the outcome. Doctors are attempting to contain the spread of the virus until the summer, when it will be easier for hard-pressed health services to manage and the infection could go dormant. Most cases are expected to be relatively mild and may simply involve self-isolation and care at home in Northern Ireland. Dr Seamus OReilly, medical director for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said: If the test comes back positive there is a very well-rehearsed process that we do in conjunction with our colleagues in England. A nurse demonstrates drive-through coronavirus testing procedures (Michael Cooper/PA) That involves assessing whether the patient requires care in a hospital then planning the logistics of the move. We identify an infectious diseases bed in England, if possible, to transfer the patient to. If we cannot transfer the patient across for whatever reason, the infectious diseases beds in the Royal (The Royal Victoria in west Belfast) will be used for that purpose, that is ward 7A. Tests are analysed in Belfasts virology lab and the number which can be conducted has been increased. Results will be ready within four hours, Dr OReilly added. He said: The whole idea is to contain it as long as possible, we get into the spring time where it is a little bit warmer, experience would tell you the virus may not be as virulent and may actually go dormant over spring and summer time. The longer we can buy time for that to happen the better. It allows time for research into the virus, to look at different treatments and perhaps in a year or a year-and-a-halfs time, a vaccine. (PA Graphics) One person in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with the condition so far. Meanwhile, Stormonts First and Deputy First Ministers have scaled back a US investment trip to take part in emergency meetings on Covid-19. Arlene Foster said the infection is the top priority of ministers in Belfast. She and Michelle ONeill cancelled plans for the New York leg of their itinerary at the start of next week. Economy Minister Diane Dodds will be fulfilling engagements in New York instead. Mrs Foster told the BBCs Good Morning Ulster programme that their top priority as leaders of the Executive is to make sure we are in a good position in relation to Covid-19 and the coronavirus and that we have all the planning in place. She added: So we took the decision over the weekend that we felt we needed to be here for emergency meetings that take place on Monday of next week. It is important that we are part of that and that we are involved in that so that is why we have decided to limit the trip. Coronavirus tests are analysed in Belfasts virology lab (Michael Cooper/PA) The DUP leader and Sinn Fein vice-president are still anticipated to travel to Washington DC for a series of political meetings in the US capital later in the week. Health officials in Northern Ireland have said routine hospital appointments and surgeries may be postponed if Covid-19 infects large numbers of people. Wards could be set aside and more critical care beds added to the 100 already available. The establishment of special pods separate from emergency departments and home testing kits may also be needed if the virus spreads widely through the community. Northern Irelands chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said medical staff are in a phase of containment. Chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said health officials are planning for all eventualities (Michael McHugh/PA) He added: What we are doing is planning for all eventualities. One person in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with the condition. Around 99% of people affected will make a full recovery, while 95% will suffer mild to moderate symptoms which will not require hospital treatment, Dr McBride added. That is based on data from the source of the infection in China and those numbers will change as officials receive information from European systems more aligned with Northern Irelands. Joe Biden said things are looking awful, awful good in his Super Tuesday victory speech after he surged to frontrunner status in a Democratic primary race that has been transformed. The former vice president declared this campaign is taking off, and told those who have been counted out and knocked down in life this campaign is for you. He was even able to laugh off yet another gaffe when he mixed up his wife Jill Biden and sister Valerie Biden Owens on stage the kind of mistake that just a week ago would have been used by critics to suggested he has lost a step or two. Mr Biden criticised Donald Trump, saying the president has no compassion and views honour and respect as weaknesses. He doesnt believe were beacons of the world, the former VP said of Mr Trump, underscoring his campaigns major theme that he is best-suited among all Democrats to beat the incumbent in a head-to-head race. Mr Biden surged to a lead in the all-important Democratic delegate count, but he must still defeat Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who was the frontrunner until Tuesday night when he won only three states. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloombergs exit and his endorsement of Biden means that all the moderates are gone and they have all endorsed the former vice president, said Brad Bannon, a Democratic political strategist. The Tuesday results put Biden in the drivers seat but there have been so many twists and turns that it would be a mistake to rule Sanders out. Voters like to build up frontrunners and then they take delight in knocking them down. Here are five things that Mr Bidens big night mean for the 2020 race. Wheres Hunter? As Mr Biden and Mr Sanders get set for a two-candidate fight for the Democratic nomination, expect the president to ramp up his attacks on the longtime Delaware senator after focusing on Crazy Bernie for weeks. But Mr Trumps rhetoric probably wont be limited to Sleepy Joe. The president also has attacked Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president. It was the sons seat on a Ukrainian energy companys board while his father was leading the Obama administrations anti-corruption push there that Mr Trump asked the countrys president to look into. Testimony during the House impeachment inquiry by current and former administration officials stated the president made a $391m (305m) military aid package contingent on the announcement of an investigation of the Bidens. Mr Trump has asked Wheres Hunter? on Twitter and at political rallies. His campaign even sold Wheres Hunter? T-shirts. The answer appears to be in Los Angeles. Painting. Bernie bro The president has been trying for a year to paint all Democrats as radical and extreme and socialists. He has described Democratic politicians like Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Mr Biden as standing by while progressives like Mr Sanders have taken over their party. At a campaign rally on Friday night in South Carolina, Mr Trump conducted a poll of his supporters, asking whether Mr Sanders or Mr Biden would be easiest to beat. Mr Sanders won. It was a continuation of Mr Trumps almost daily advocacy for the self-described democratic-socialist, tweeting frequently that the establishment wing of the party will stop at nothing to block him from becoming the nominee. You see whats happening, right? Its being rigged against [Mr Sanders], the president said on Monday night at a campaign rally in Charlotte. Its sad, its being rigged against crazy Bernie. But Mr Trumps Bernie bro act appears to have backfired. He crushed Mr Sanders first in South Carolina, site of a Friday night Keep America Great rally, then on Tuesday in North Carolina, which hosted a Monday night rally. But, as always, those results did not cause the president to change tactics. He took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to paint Mr Sanders as the victim Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasnt in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states, Mr Trump tweeted. Our modern day Pocahontas wont go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER! Head-to-head Although the presidents words suggest he would prefer to run against Mr Sanders, polls suggest his odds of winning another term are about the same against each leading Democrat. Recent national polls conducted by Fox News and Yahoo give the Vermont senator a seven-point and six-point lead, respectively, over the president. The same polls give Mr Biden an eight-point and nine-point advantage nationally over Mr Trump in a head-to-head race. In key swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Mr Sanders leads the president by a few percentage points but within the margins of error. The same polls in the same states show the former VP tied with the 45th chief executive. One Democratic strategist, however, said Mr Biden is attracting a mix of voters that would probably give him a better chance in the general election. This is the winning coalition from 2018 and Obama years: African-American and suburban voters, the strategist said. Mr Trump is watching those polls carefully, and hes mindful that he has to put his 2016 Electoral College map back together again a needle he must again thread. That includes Pennsylvania. The president returns to the Keystone State on Thursday night for a town hall event hosted by Fox News, his preferred cable network and one that gets massive ratings among conservatives as he looks to drive up turnout among that bloc to offset Democratic turnout in urban areas. Impeachment on a loop After Senate Republicans acquitted Mr Trump on two House-passed impeachment articles, the presidents approval rating rose to record highs. Although it has fallen over his uneven handling and downplaying of the coronavirus threat, should Mr Biden become the nominee, expect the president to use the Ukraine matter as a bludgeon against him. In fact, as he tries to soften up Mr Biden in hopes of running against the socialist, Mr Trump is likely to start talking about his impeachment and Ukraine a lot more as the two Democrats battle it out. But some Democratic strategists are suggesting the issue is a loser for the president. Definition of a bad day at the WH: You buy a freakin impeachment to try and stop @JoeBiden and now hes resurgent!, David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, tweeted on Wednesday. Advertisement The Queen ditched her gloves as she carried out audiences at Buckingham Palace - but will be following Government advice on washing hands amid the coronavirus outbreak. The 93-year-old unusually wore large white gloves at a Palace investiture for what was believed to be the first time on Tuesday, as she greeted more than 50 recipients. But on Wednesday, for her one-to-one audiences in her London residence, during which she never wears gloves, she was back to being bare-handed. The Queen, dressed in a vibrant red dress, met President of Malta George Vella in the Palace's 1844 room. She also held an audience with Cuban Ambassador Barbara Montalvo Alvarez. The monarch shook hands with her guests, who were also without gloves. A royal source has previously said that Buckingham Palace is following Government advice. The Queen's hands appeared to be a shade of purple, although experts have previously said this was most likely slight bruising caused by a minor injury. Today: The Queen, not wearing any gloves, shakes hands with the President of Malta, George Vella, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London Yesterday: The gloved Queen shakes hands with Butterflies star Wendy Craig as she is made a CBE today - in November she made Marnie Gaffney from Kingston-Upon-Thames is Member of the Royal Victorian Order with her hands uncovered The 93-year-old, pictured with the Ambassador of Cuba, Barbara Elena Montalvo Alvarez, was back to being bare-handed during today's audiences The Queen is pictured today as she shakes hands with Miriam Vella, the wife of George Vella, who is the current President of Malta It is therefore likely that the Queen will be helping to stop the spread of any germs by washing her hands for 20 seconds with soap and water, or using hand sanitiser. Senior members of the British royal family such as Prince Charles, Prince William and his wife Kate all carried out public appearances yesterday where they shook hands as they were introduced to hundreds of people. Today, the royal family's social media accounts posted footage of the monarch greeting the Maltese president and his wife, Miriam. Mr Vella can be heard telling the Queen he had 'always dreamt about' meeting her and 'at last it has happened'. 'Oh, that's very nice, isn't it,' the Queen remarks. The Queen lived in Malta during the early years of her marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh, when Philip was serving in the Navy. Her Majesty never usually wears gloves at the Palace events, shown right knighting Alastair Cook in February 2017 without her hands covered and left making Sir Archibald Tunnock a Knight Bachelor in November 2019 The Queen, who has carried out investitures since 1952, has worn gloves for the first time as she handed an MBE to D-Day veteran Harry Billinge today An audience is a brief, one-on-one meeting with the Queen, and they happen regularly throughout her working week. The majority are for members of the diplomatic community, though the Queen also welcomes political, religious and military leaders, and people who have won prestigious cultural prizes. Audiences generally last approximately 15 to 20 minutes, and the conversations which take place are entirely private. The Queen shakes hands with her guests, who are often accompanied by a close family member, usually a spouse. If they are diplomats, they hand the Queen their credentials - their Letters of Credence or Letters of High Commission. The Queen turns 94 next month, and the risk of more severe symptoms of the coronavirus is greater for the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. A gloveless Prince Charles speaks with Oscar winning British composer Rachel Portman during a reception in the new Performance Hall, after presenting her with an honorary Fellowship award during the Royal College of Music's Annual Awards Ceremony Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, shake hands with Ireland's President Michael Higgins and his wife Sabina in Dublin yesterday England's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has said the death rate for people infected with coronavirus is 'significantly ramped up' among those over the age of 80. World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has advised anyone over the age of 60 to avoid crowded areas. Around the world, people are rejecting handshakes and refusing kisses in an attempt to reduce the spread of the disease. A video widely shared showed people in China tapping their feet against one another, dubbed the 'Wuhan Shake', as a hands-free greeting. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will continue to shake hands with people despite the outbreak of coronavirus. PMs usually have an audience with the Queen each Wednesday, where they typically shake the monarch's hand. The great handshake debate: How world leaders are divided over whether to touch their subjects World leaders are continuing to shake hands across the globe despite health officials suggesting the gesture should be banned to stop the spread of coronavirus. Senior members of the British royal family such as Prince Charles, Prince William and his wife Kate all carried out public appearances yesterday where they used the traditional greeting as they were introduced to hundreds of people. The Queen herself took part in a investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace as normal on Tuesday, but was seen donning gloves for the first time in a decade. Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared he would continue to shake hands despite the outbreak, boasting that he had already done so at a hospital where coronavirus patients were being treated. Leading figures from across the world are also continuing to shake hands, including US president Donald Trump and Queen Letizia of Spain. Despite the lack of concern from politicians, the hashtag #StopShakingHands has been widely used on Twitter. The Queen herself took part in a investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace as normal on Wednesday, but was seen donning gloves for the first time in a decade In Germany, even Chancellor Angela Merkel was shunned by her interior minister Horst Seehofer who refused to shake her hand at an event on Monday. Merkel had previously refused to shake the hands of attendees at an event in her own district due to the outbreak. One British doctor also claimed she has stopped shaking hands with new acquaintances and a Google executive revealed how he has spent hours avoiding the greeting in order to stop the virus spreading. Motivational speaker and presentation coach Richard McCann hosted an event in Leeds on Saturday and later posted a video that showed him greeting a man with an air handshake in a move he said was because of the 'unfolding coronavirus situation'. Posting to his social media accounts, Mr McCann revealed the video and questioned whether or not he was being paranoid for not shaking the hands of those attending his 300 per-ticket event. Claiming he had 'improvised' his greeting he said: 'Not sure if I'm being paranoid but due to the unfolding Coronavirus situation I decided not to shake hands with the delegates here at one of my training events'. The Prince of Wales shook hands with several people while presenting awards and diplomas at the Royal College of Music in London last night Speaking to MailOnline, Mr McCann said he wasn't suggesting that people stop shaking hands with one another and added that he was trying to teach his clients how to be forward at events by offering their hand first. He said putting your hand out first was a sign of confidence and added that he mentioned the coronavirus at his session last week as it was in the news, saying that someone extending their hand out to your first was a good way to make a good first impression. Public Health England says there are two main routes that can spread the infection with the first being from people who are within two metres of each other inhaling the infection into their lungs. Its guidance adds: 'It is also possible that someone may become infected by touching a surface, object or the hand of an infected person that has been contaminated with respiratory secretions and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes (such as touching door knob or shaking hands then touching own face).' On Thursday one business in London also revealed that they had stopped employees from shaking hands with each other in a bid to curb the spread and contraction of the disease after several office buildings were closed. It comes as other professionals warned that the disease can spread easily and that ultimately, people would eventually stop shaking hands due to the spread. U.S. President Donald Trump and President of the Republic of Colombia Ivan Duque Marquez shake hands in the Oval Office on Monday Speaking on Radio 4, Dr Hannah Fry, who previously worked on an experiment to see how far and fast a virus could spread, claimed she has also stopped shaking hands. Dr Fry had worked on documentary 'Contagion: The BBC Four Pandemic', that charted how the UK would be able to plan and cope for the next flu pandemic. #StopShakingHands 'is not an overreaction to coronavirus fears', says health professional As officer workers are encouraged to stop shaking hands, one expert has claimed that limiting human contact is the key to preventing the disease. Speaking to MailOnline Wesley Baker, CEO of ANCON Medical said even though there has not yet been an official handshake ban, limiting contact could be for the best. 'Whilst there has not yet been an official ban or warning from the government or NHS to stop handshakes, we would recommend that human contact, particularly in public areas, is kept to an absolute minimum. 'It is clear that the transfer of coronavirus moves at extraordinary pace, the particles are extraordinarily large and surrounded by a fatty outer layer which means person to person transmission is tangible and occurs speedily through physical contact and respiratory droplets. 'Albeit a valuable element of business and social etiquette, in the more than unique medical climate that we are experiencing currently, we believe it is by no means an overreaction to limit human contact such as a handshake as much as possible.' Advertisement Asked about human behaviour and whether or not she was 'still going around shaking hands' with new acquaintances she said: 'Goodness no. I think for me this was one of the biggest things of the TV programme, the simulations that we ran showed what might happen in the UK if there was no intervention what so ever and what might happen in the UK if just something as simple as people washing their hands between 5/10 times a day, the difference is remarkable. 'I think the messages of coming out catch it bin it kill it make sure you wash your hands and avoid shaking hands with people can really make a genuine difference.' One executive at Google also revealed that he had stopped shaking hands with people. Jaime Casap said on Thursday that he was nervous about catching the virus and said he wanted to help others by not shaking hands. Posting to Twitter he said: 'Wanted to let everyone know I will not be shaking hands. Not nervous about catching the #coronavirus (I'm immortal,) I don't want to pass it to the vulnerable. I hope we can all commit to nodding to each other and #StopShakingHands Pass it on! #COVID19US #CoronaVirusUpdate.' Confirming he had managed to get through an event without shaking hands he later posted: 'Friday night I went to speak at an event with 250 people. I got through the whole thing, with meeting hosts, talking to a bunch of people after my talk, all without ever shaking hands. It can be awkward but it's doable! I still saw too many people shaking hands! #StopShakingHands.' Many on social media praised both Mr McCann and Mr Casap for not shaking hands with others. Over the last few days many social media users have been sharing the #StopShakingHands message, as cases of the coronavirus in the UK hit 36 over the weekend. So far worldwide there have been over 89,000 cases of the virus and over 3,000 deaths. On Friday German Chancellor Angela Merkel also weighed in on the handshake issue when she attended a business event in Stralsund. She had given a speech to 400 local business leaders and constituents in her electoral district but claimed she would not be using the common gesture. 'Germany is among the countries with the best possible conditions to deal with this virus. 'Not every event needs to be cancelled. And on top of that, every single one of us can make a contribution. 'I'm not going to shake anyone's hand tonight.' Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared he would continue to shake hands despite the outbreak, boasting that he had already done so at a hospital where coronavirus patients were being treated Horst Seehofer rebuffed the chancellor's outstretched hand at a summit in Berlin on Monday - refusing to make an exception to a self-imposed handshake ban. Merkel took the snub in good spirits, withdrawing her hand and laughing with the Bavarian minister who has frequently been a thorn in her side. 'That is the right thing to do,' she said as she took her seat while guests at the meeting also burst out laughing. Seehofer had told German media that he had stopped shaking people's hands, adding that he hoped a vaccine would be found within months. Asked whether Germany would go so far as to close off access to cities or regions, he said 'such a scenario would be a last resort'. Chancellor Angela Merkel offers her hand to Minister of Interior, Building and Community Horst Seehofer, who jokingly refuses to shake it 'I estimate that a vaccine will be available by the end of year,' he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Other workers on platforms such as LinkedIn have also been posting about the virus and what businesses can do to prevent, with many claiming that not shaking hands is a 'sensible measure'. Gerard Barnes, CEO of mental health treatment specialists Smart TMS said that the speculation around the virus could be impacted people's mental health. 'The potential of increased stress brought about by the news of coronavirus could leave you feeling more inclined to lean on negative and harmful habits such as excessive drinking, smoking or drug use. 'We strongly recommend focusing on positive behaviours such as maintaining good exercise, a healthy diet and plenty of sleep, to ensure your physical and mental health is in the best possible shape.' Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Environment Department will shut down a quarrying operation found encroaching on a Rizal georeserve's protected area. Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu visited Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal on Tuesday where he personally saw the barbed wires put up by Rapid City Realty and Development Corp. on trees to cordon off Masungi's reforestation work. "The Secretary vowed to close down the quarry and cancel the multiple MPSA's (mineral production sharing agreement) issued in the protected area and reforestation site," DENR said on its Facebook page. Masungi Georeserve said the encroachment was discovered on February 26. It said the quarrying operations are affecting its efforts to restore 3,000 hectares of degraded land as the the area that was fenced by the firm was located in the middle of its 500-hectare designated reforestation site. "We found a portion of the site assigned to us blocked off by barbed wires by a quarry company. The area is part of the Upper Marikina Watershed and the proposed Masungi Strict Nature Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary where extractive activities are banned," Masungi Georeserve said on its Facebook page. Masungi Georeserve is widely known for its unorthodox approach to trekking, as visitors usually go through canopy walks, web-like viewing platforms, and a massive hammock that hangs on the karst. Its mission is to also conserve and protect the area from daily threats such as quarrying, illegal logging, and deforestation. You have reached a premium content area of TOL. To read this entire article please login if you are already a TOL subscriber. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today for access to: Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles). The five nurses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their working conditions, said that some medical staff were being prevented from wearing masks to avoid causing panic and that there were shortages of masks, gloves and other protective gear for workers. The nurses also described a staffing shortage as medical workers were being shifted among hospitals to address the growing caseload. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMMO, Inc. (OTCQB: POWW) (AMMO or the Company), a premier American ammunition and munition components manufacturer and technology leader, is launching its STREAK ammunition kiosk program in multiple Farm Fleet locations across the Midwest starting in April 2020, with expectations to be in all stores by year-end. The kiosk program showcases the unique capabilities and proprietary technology behind STREAK ammunition for consumers to view directly in-store. The kiosk includes several videos that highlight AMMOs innovative one-way luminescent patented technology, which allows shooters to see a projectiles path within a 30-degree view through a non-incendiary method. Launching the STREAK kiosk program into Fleet Farm is an important step forward as we look to continue expanding our footprint and build brand loyalty with consumers across the U.S., said Fred Wagenhals, AMMOs CEO. This program has been an effective marketing tool to educate customers and highlight the unique capabilities of this innovative product line. In fact, stores that utilize the kiosk program typically see in-store sales of STREAK ammunition increase 700%. Given the success this program has had, we look forward to continue expanding this into new retailers, along with adding more stores through our current partners. AMMOs kiosk program is currently in approximately 150 stores, including other major retailers like Bass Pro Shop, Cabelas and Gander Outdoors. About AMMO, Inc. AMMO was founded in 2016 with a vision to change, innovate and invigorate the complacent munitions industry. The Company designs and manufactures products for a variety of markets, including law enforcement, military, hunting, sport shooting and self-defense. AMMO promotes branded munitions, including its patented STREAK Visual Ammunition, /stelTH/ subsonic munitions, O.W.L. Technologies, and Night OPS (One Precise Shot) a lead-free frangible tactical line of munitions for self-defense. The Companys corporate offices are headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Manufacturing operations are based in both northern Arizona and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. For more information please visit: www.ammoinc.com . Forward Looking Statements This document contains certain forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, any projections of earnings, revenue or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, goals and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning proposed new products and services or developments thereof; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; any statements or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Forward looking statements may include the words may, could, estimate, intend, continue, believe, expect or anticipate or other similar words, or the negative thereof. These forward-looking statements present our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this report. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. We do not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the dates they are made. You should, however, consult further disclosures and risk factors we include in Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Reports filed on Form 8-K. In our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, references to AMMO, Inc., AMMO, the Company, we, us, our and similar terms refer to AMMO, Inc. and its wholly owned operating subsidiaries The Enlight Group (d/b/a Jagemann Munition Components), SNI, LLC and Ammo Technologies, Inc. Kolkata: There is chaos across the country regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee has said that all those people from Bangladesh are Indian citizens who are voting in the elections. West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee said on Tuesday that there is no need to apply for fresh citizenship to such people. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah is constantly saying that every intruder will be taken out of the country. Congress targets Central government, makes big attack on this law Mamta Banerjee criticized the Modi government's way of dealing with the violence in Delhi and said that she would not allow West Bengal to become another Delhi. He addressed a public meeting and said, 'People from Bangladesh are citizens of India, they have citizenship. You do not have to apply for citizenship again. You are choosing PM, CM by casting a vote in the election ... and now they are saying that you are not a citizen. Do not believe them. ' Sunni Central Waqf Board meeting to be held on this day for Mosque construction Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief Mamata Banerjee insisted that she would not let a man out of Bengal. He said that no refugee living in the state will be denied citizenship. Attacking the central government over the Delhi violence, he said, 'Don't forget that this is Bengal. Whatever happened in Delhi will not be allowed to happen here. We do not want Bengal to become another Delhi or another UP. ' Congress hit back at Modi, saying- 'Holy slogans should not be dragged into political debate' Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was against the "the idea of India" and the framers of the Constitution explicitly rejected any idea of citizenship on the basis of religion. Tharoor, speaking at the inaugural Dr N R Madhava Menon Memorial Lecture by O P Jindal Global University on the theme 'Law and The Idea of India', said India is a "land of belonging" rather than of blood and what binds the idea of India is the rule of law contained in the Constitution. Menon was an educationist, scholar and the pioneering spirit behind modern legal education in India. Menon was the founder director of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore and headed it for 12 years. After that, he established West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in 1998 and later presided as the founder director of Judicial Academy (NJS), Bhopal, till 2006. Quoting B R Ambedkar, Tharoor said, "The Constitution makers explicitly rejected any idea of citizenship on the basis of religion.... It is for the Supreme Court to decide on the constitutionality of the law (CAA), but it goes against the very spirit, the idea of India." Referring to former President Pranab Mukherjee's statement that Indian Penal Code is full of inequities that need to be changed, Tharoor hailed the Supreme Court for delivering landmark judgments on section 377 of IPC which decriminalised gay sex. He also expressed concern over the role of media in the recent times and said that a new and disturbing trend of trial by media has emerged. "While I am a staunch supporter of press freedom, the media in recent times has played the role of judge, jury and even executioner," Tharoor said. Supreme Court judge Justice S K Kaul also spoke on the occasion and said the Constitution must be elastic enough to change according to a changing times. Justice Kaul referred to the recent judgements on adultery, section 377 and permanent commission of women in armed forces, saying that these cases have played important role in bolstering role of India. Quoting Ambedkar, Justice Kaul said "constitutional morality" is not a natural sentiment and it has to be cultivated. Professor C Rajkumar, founding vice chancellor of O P Jindal Global University, delivered the welcome address. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the AAP government's compensation announced for victims of the riots in northeast Delhi last week. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said "it is a policy decision" and it will "not interfere" in it. "The compensation is being awarded on a no fault basis. There is nothing wrong with it," the court said. It also asked the Delhi government to ensure that compensation is paid only to the victims of the riots. Two passengers with a travel history to Italy and South Korea have been shifted to the quarantine ward at a government medical college hospital in Jammu, officials said on Wednesday. Jammu and Kashmir has been put on alert to deal with any threat emerging due to coronavirus, even though no positive case has been found in the Union Territory so far, officials said. The tests of the two persons have been sent to Delhi and symptomatic passengers have been instructed for home quarantine, they said. Around 200 people have been identified with travel history to coronavirus-affected countries or those who have had contact with persons from such countries, the officials said. Twenty-one suspected cases have been tested till date and "no positive case has been reported so far across J-K", a senior official said. "A 100 per cent self declaration at the airports of Jammu and Srinagar will start from Thursday to trace any such person having travel history to the infected countries," he said. "Further, check points for passengers travelling by road have been set up at Lakhanpur and Lower Munda (Zig) to identify individuals with travel history to these countries," he added. Also, 24x7 data control centres have been established at Srinagar and Jammu to receive information on travellers coming from the coronavirus-affected countries, Principal Secretary, Planning and Information Rohit Kansal said, adding that all suspected cases are being managed through defined protocols. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with chief secretaries and health secretaries of states and UTs through video conference to review their preparedness to deal with coronavirus. The Union health secretary and other senior functionaries of the Government of India also participated in the meeting. While interacting with them, the cabinet secretary sought details of arrangements put in place for containment of COVID-19. The states and UTs have been asked to scrupulously follow the guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry with regard to surveillance and contact tracing, surveillance at entry points, sample collection, packaging and transport, clinical management protocol and infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities. The cabinet secretary asked the chief secretaries to review, assess and monitor the arrangements in the states and UTs, and ensure adequate quarantine, isolation facilities and equipment are available to deal with suspected or confirmed cases as per the mandated protocol. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the global health crisis of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that there is a shortage of protective gear, and this endangers healthcare workers. The vast spread of the coronavirus has led to a rapid depletion of essential protective gear, including goggles, masks, and suits used by health workers who are in the front line of the battle against the coronavirus. The depletion of personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies is due to its high demand, panic buying, hoarding, and misuse, putting lives at risk. Healthcare workers rely on personal protective equipment to protect themselves and their patients from being infected and infecting others, WHO said on its website. But shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons, it added. Hong Kong - 30 January 2020: Mask supply shortage in Hong Kong. Image Credit: Lewis Tse Pui Lung / Shutterstock Price surge Protective gear, including basic ones such as masks, goggles, and gloves, are running out. The manufacturers cannot cope with the increased demand for the products. Aside from that, hoarding and misuse have led to the depleting supply. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in late December 2019, prices have surged. The price of surgical masks has increased six-fold, while the price of gowns has doubled. Without a secure supply of this protective equipment, healthcare workers face a serious threat of being infected and infecting others. Boost supply The WHO encourages the industry and governments across the globe to boost supply and impose measures to stem hoarding. Without protective gear, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners are not protected. Though the WHO has provided nearly half a million sets of PPEs to 47 countries, the stocks are rapidly depleting due to the widespread threat of the coronavirus. It has spread to more than 83 countries, infecting nearly 95,120 people and killed more than 3,200 people, mostly in Hubei province where the virus originated. Also, the WHO estimated that the response in battling COVID-19 would call for 89 million medical masks, 76 million pairs of gloves, and 1.6 million goggles every month. The rapid spread of the virus The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the cases in the country are rapidly increasing, with a jump of 17 in one day, topping the total cases at 153. Tensions rise as the number of people who died from the coronavirus disease increased to eleven. What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. She noted that the scenario was the same in China, wherein older and those who are immunocompromised or have an underlying medical condition are twice as likely to become seriously ill than those who are younger, wherein most cases are mild. The risk of being seriously ill from the coronavirus increases with age. The CDC reports that among the cases confirmed, 22 are travel-related, while 11 are considered from the person-to-person transmission. At least 48 of the cases are people who were evacuated from Wuhan City, China, and the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the ship that was quarantined with more than 3,000 on board in Japan. A top CDC official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, said that WHO will most likely declare the coronavirus a global pandemic when sustained human-to-human transmission occurs in China. The current outbreak already meets two of the three criteria to consider it a pandemic. LAVUMISA A head teacher is said to be apprehensive of going to school after he was allegedly beaten up by a former pupil. The incident reportedly took place at Mgampondo Primary School in Lavumisa recently. School officials could not say what started the fight but they were certain that it was targeted at the head teacher, who later disappeared from the school. It is understood that the head teachers physical and psychological condition after the assault led him to avoid returning to the school in fear that he could be attacked again by the former pupil. Queried about the incident, the school administrator confirmed the attack but would not discuss the issue any further. He cited procedure which dictates that the matter be discussed with his superiors at the Ministry of Education and Training. Superiors We are yet to discuss the issue you are talking about with my superiors. I think it is not the right time for me to comment or issue any statement about the incident, he said briefly. The lid was first lifted by pupils who watched the drama unfold within the school compound. A resident told this publication that he was informed of the attack by a pupil who goes to the same school. He said the pupil told him that the head teacher was attacked by a former pupil out of revenge. Information gathered was that the same pupil, who was in the company of a friend, was once rebuked while still enrolled there after he was found carrying a knife. The initial incident reportedly happened during the past school calendar year, where the weapon was seized by school authorities from the pupil. However, the affected pupil is said to have not returned to school this year and only resurfaced recently when he launched the attack on the head teacher. The reason the pupil was not part of the school community this year could not be immediately established. But it is believed that the attack emanated from a grudge he held against school authorities. Confronted Witnesses said it all started when two boys from the area confronted the head teacher who was found busy inside his office during school hours. A resident said the school administrator was violently taken out of the office before being subjected to a heavy assault by the two youngsters. When a few teachers who were sitting at the staffroom intervened, the matter only escalated. This called for the involvement of other male teachers, who eventually managed to separate the head teacher from the aggressive duo. After the attack, the head teacher was reportedly taken to a nearby health facility, where he received treatment before being discharged. Information reaching this publication indicated that police from Lavumisa also paid a visit to the school after the incident but no arrests has been made so far. This publication later gathered that the Ministry of Education and Training was probing the matter. Shiselweni Regional Education Officer (REO) Siboniso Gumbi acknowledged receiving a report about the assault allegations. I received information relating to such claims, and the matter is under investigation, responded Gumbi, when contacted yesterday. Cole Haan, the iconic American lifestyle accessories brand and retailer of premium footwear, has opened a new store within Kuwaits Al Hamra Mall by Alyasra Fashion LLC. Cole Haan was introduced to Kuwait in 2016 and has currently a total of 12 stores operating in key malls throughout the GCC including 4 stores in Kuwait alone. Established in 1928, Cole Haan is an iconic American brand renowned for its heritage and classic designs while integrating with innovative technologies. In recent years, Cole Haan successfully established itself in over 60 markets and is further strengthening its presence in the GCC with this new store opening. The expansive 111 sq m Cole Haan store at Al Hamra Mall offers an elevated experience to its customers. The design-led store puts an emphasis on product innovation itself, appealing to young, urban professionals seeking form and functionality in their day-to-day lives. Cole Haans Kuwaiti consumer has an entrepreneurial mindset, striving always work for what they believe in. Al Hamra Mall is the perfect location for Cole Haans new store as it is situated in the thriving downtown area of Kuwait and has a pristine reputation after winning numerous awards for its architectural and developmental excellence. Recently, Al Hamra Mall was awarded the Best International Commercial High-Rise Development at the International Property Awards 2019-2020. We are thrilled to be opening our fifth store in Kuwait, in the heart of Kuwait City. Opening at the iconic Al Hamra Luxury Centre and Business Tower provides us with closer proximity to the business community of Kuwait, an entrepreneurial hub within which many are already ardent Cole Haan fans, said Adrian Santos, Senior Vice President, International at Cole Haan. This beautiful store has been thoughtfully designed to the highest standards and will carry the latest products across our innovative and forward-thinking lifestyle, accessories and footwear collections. As seen in the last few years, Cole Haan has become one of Kuwaits preferred footwear brands which has motivated us to make it more accessible to our customers, adds Varun Ahuja, Managing Director of Fashion & Footwear Division at Al Yasra Fashion. With the opening of this new store in Al Hamra Mall, we offer an exciting layout of stylish collections of footwear and accessories for both men and women and are committed to be at the forefront of style and innovation, continuously enhancing customer experience. Located on the ground floor at the entrance of Al Hamra Business Tower, the new Cole Haan store will feature dual-gender footwear collections, including the Iconic ZERGRAND collection, mens and womens accessories, as well as an exclusive range of outerwear attire.-- Tradearabia News Service This subscription grants access to the locked content of Spectator.sk and SME.sk for only one person through a maximum of three different devices or browsers. To continue reading the article on this device, please update the list of devices in the profile settings. Welsh farmers have welcomed the ambitions of a new 4.2 million veterinary school launched in Aberystwyth. The School of Veterinary Science, led by Aberystwyth University, is a new agricultural facility with high specification laboratories and offices. It aims to support businesses throughout the livestock supply chain and other allied industries. The school was boosted by a 3 million fund from the European Regional Development fund, and by 1m funded by alumni donations. Speaking after the launch, Farmers' Union of Wales said it is a 'significant step forward' in boosting Welsh livestock. The union has in the past expressed concern about the shortage of large animal veterinary practitioners in Wales. The launch of this vet school represents significant research and development into animal health issues of importance to the Welsh farming sector," FUW Senior Policy Officer, Dr Hazel Wright said. "It is hoped that the centre will provide an integrated approach to disease diagnosis and elimination. This an exciting opportunity for the farming sector and we remain keen to work with members of the school to help safeguard livestock health, identify industry priorities, reduce losses and improve livestock performance through better health. She added: Alongside providing research into livestock health, we hope that the programme will increase the veterinary skills base available to our members and will ultimately raise the number of veterinary professionals in Wales. The new centre will be ready in time to welcome the first students in September 2021. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East This is an opinion column. Last year, Michael Bloomberg effectively launched his campaign for president in Alabama. Then chaos ensued. Not because of Bloomberg, but because of someone else. Hours before the qualifying deadline, Bloombergs team walked into the Alabama Democratic Party headquarters in Montgomery with the requisite signatures. With little fanfare, this was where he began his bid for the White House, but otherwise, it wasnt that different than all the other states where the billionaire qualified to get on the ballot. The confusion and disorder came a little later that night, when Nancy Worley recently deposed as party chairwoman by a young, diverse coalition of Democrat reformers arrived to take back control. At first she fussed at party officials there. She body-checked a few of them in the tiny buildings narrow halls. She had staff empty their bags and purses. Then, she told them to clear the building. Finally, after they ignored her, she told them she had a gun and knew how to use it. The new party chairman, Chris England, told his people to leave the building. The next day, they changed the locks on the doors. What do Bloombergs dismal campaign and Worleys tantrum have in common? Only Joe Reed. Ive been reluctant to write Reeds political obituary. Ive worried reports of his death of influence would be exaggerated, that the moment I said he was done, hed come springing back to life. Its happened before. But not this time. The longtime party bosss sway in this state is done. There is no pulse. Its gone. Reed had backed Worley to lead the Alabama Democrats. Decades-old diversity rules allowed Reeds organization, the Alabama Democratic Conference, to pack the party executive committee with its members, giving him self-perpetuating control of its affairs. But the Democratic National Committee ordered the state party to change those diversity rules to include more youth and diversity beyond ADCs aging membership. Reed resisted those changes. ADC boycotted party elections. Then there was Worleys lawsuit challenging the new party leaders who replaced her. Technically, Worley was the plaintiff, but at the court hearings, she was never there. Instead, it was Reed who huddled with the lawyers in the courtroom and sparred with the press outside. Last week, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin dismissed the lawsuit. Reed has said he might sue in federal court, but its unclear how he could make a case that minorities in the party have been treated unfairly. The party reformers ended their first organizational session with more diversity on the partys executive committee, not less, and it elected the partys first African-American chairman. Having lost the court battle, Reeds only chance at political resurrection was Bloomberg. Last month, ADC endorsed the billionaire. Despite Bloombergs support for stop and frisk. Despite Bloomberg blaming the 2008 financial crisis on the end of redlining. Despite a lot of things that should have been disqualifiers. This endorsement was nakedly transactional. Bloomberg needed to pull the black vote out from under Joe Biden. Reed needed a credible presidential candidate to glom onto. For decades, Reed has held power in Alabama by convincing a lot of people that ADCs endorsement and African-Amercian support were the same thing. There have been signs before they werent. In 2008, black voters supported Barack Obama over an ADC-supported Hillary Clinton. But this time, it was one vanilla Yankee white man versus another. All the variables in this test were controlled for. If ADC couldnt deliver for Bloomberg, the question would be answered. The matter would be settled. On Tuesday night, Alabama Democrats overwhelmingly gave their support to Biden, black Democrats especially so. After all that money, after all that work, Bloomberg failed to crack the 15 percent necessary to win any delegates here. ADCs endorsement and Reeds support did nothing to help him here. Bloomberg is done. Worley is gone. Reed is irrelevant. Alabama Democrats chaos is receding. The only question left is what new order will emerge. Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram. The War on Dumb is a thing on Facebook now, too. Expect better, demand better, come help Alabama do better. https://t.co/B2JeYkFWSf pic.twitter.com/GugqXDdsMC Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) December 18, 2019 More by Kyle Whitmire WELLESLEY, Mass., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Indicating strong health of entrepreneurship, both entrepreneurial activity and established business ownership in the United States have trended upward over the past 19 years, according to the 20192020 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Global Report, released March 3 in Miami at the GEM Annual Meeting. Entrepreneurial attitudes flourish in the U.S. according to Babson College Entrepreneurship Professor and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Board Member Donna Kelley. In addition, there is a growing positive disposition toward entrepreneurship, as well as recognition of the overall benefit of entrepreneurial activity and its value to society. Entrepreneurial attitudes flourish in the U.S. with seven out of 10 adults agreeing that they are thought by others to be highly innovative, demonstrating their belief in their own entrepreneurial potential. Other report findings: More than half of the population in 36 of the 50 economies believes that they have the skills, knowledge, and experience to start their own business. In the United States , 65.5% of adults reported these capabilities perceptions, the highest level on this indicator since GEM started in 1999. , 65.5% of adults reported these capabilities perceptions, the highest level on this indicator since GEM started in 1999. A greater proportion of men than women typically engage in Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) overall, but the gender gap narrowed in the United States in 2019, where there are nine women entrepreneurs for every 10 men entrepreneurs. In 2018, the female to male entrepreneurship ratio was 7.5 to 10. in 2019, where there are nine women entrepreneurs for every 10 men entrepreneurs. In 2018, the female to male entrepreneurship ratio was 7.5 to 10. Regarding motivation, "purpose-driven" entrepreneurship is taking hold. For example, more than seven out of 10 adults engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity in South Africa , India , Guatemala , and Panama responded that they are motivated to make a difference in the world. , , , and responded that they are motivated to make a difference in the world. Women are generally more purpose-driven than men. Women starting a business are more likely to agree with the motivation of making a difference to the world. Entrepreneurship is an important way of lifting women out of poverty, since women also were more likely than men to agree that earning a living because jobs are scarce is an important motivation. Men starting a business are more likely to agree with the motives of building great wealth or high income, or of continuing a family tradition, than women. In 42 of the 50 economies, less than half of those who see good opportunities would be deterred by fear of failure. "The positive attitudes about entrepreneurship that we see in the United States, and in many other parts of world, is an encouraging sign. It indicates that there is both a supply of potential entrepreneurs and those who may support their efforts. This is all reflective of the visibility, events, and leadership that contribute role models and inspiration for entrepreneurs," said Donna Kelley, PhD, Frederic C. Hamilton Professor of Free Enterprise Studies at Babson College. "It is encouraging to see the substantive evidence of 'purpose-driven' entrepreneurship taking hold at the grassroots level, demonstrating the collective will for future business sustainability," said Aileen Ionescu-Somers, GEM executive director, speaking at the GEM Launch in Miami. "We will continue to research new questions that provide policymakers and other actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem with credible data to make informed decisions." Babson College and GEM Babson continues its long-standing support for this research effort. Babson will provide a new home for the U.S. GEM team, and projects to apply and leverage the body of GEM data, in the newly established Butler Institute for Free Enterprise through Entrepreneurship at Babson, created with $10 million in funding from the John E. Butler family. Babson co-founded GEM with the London Business School in 1999. "Babson is proud to be a founding partner and longtime supporter of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor," said Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA'92, PhD. "The outcomes of this paramount study impact economic policies, educate students, entrepreneurs and stakeholders worldwide, and influence the research and teaching around entrepreneurship all over the globe." The Miami meeting also highlighted the recent GEM report on Women's Entrepreneurship, issued in November 2019, which showcased areas where women entrepreneurs have made progress, how ecosystems influence and are influenced by women entrepreneurs, and where there are still gaps, challenges, and opportunities. Presenting were Vice Provost of Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Candida G. Brush, Amanda Elam, co-author, Diana International Research Institute Fellow, Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson, and Smith College Jill Ker Conway Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center Director Monica Dean. Celebrating the entrepreneurial outlook for the host city were Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, Knight Foundation Director Raul Moas, eMerge Americas President Melissa Medina, Gallant CEO and Founder Aaron Hirschhorn, and Babson Miami Director Gustavo Trindade MBA'17. Babson and eMerge are planning to release later this month a report regarding the Miami entrepreneurial ecosystem. One supporter of that ecosystem, Alberto Perlman '98, co-founder and CEO of the global brand Zumba, held a fireside chat with Babson's Blank Center Executive Director Debi Kleiman. Babson Entrepreneurship Professor Heidi Neck led a special session of Babson's Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), a programs designed to further develop faculty from around the world in the art and craft of teaching entrepreneurship and building entrepreneurship programs. About This Year's Survey Fifty economies participated in the GEM 2019 Adult Population Survey (APS), including 11 from the Middle East and Africa, eight from East Asia and Pacific, eight from Latin America and Caribbean, and 23 from Europe and North America. Over 150,000 individuals participated in extended interviews as part of the GEM research in 2019. Since 1999, GEM has cumulatively surveyed over 3 million adults in 114 economies around the world. This makes GEM the world's largest and most extensive study of entrepreneurial activity. About GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a consortium of national country teams, primarily associated with top academic institutions, that carries out survey-based research on entrepreneurship around the world. GEM is the only global research source that collects data on entrepreneurship directly from individual entrepreneurs! GEM's Adult Population Survey (APS) provides analysis on the characteristics, motivations, and ambitions of individuals starting businesses, as well as social attitudes toward entrepreneurship. The National Expert Survey (NES) looks at the national context in which individuals start businesses. In numbers, GEM is: - 20+ years of data - 150,000+ interviews a year - 100+ economies - 500+ specialists in entrepreneurship research - 300+ academic and research institutions - 200+ funding institutions GEM began in 1999 as a joint project between Babson College (USA) and London Business School (UK). The consortium has become the richest resource of information on entrepreneurship, publishing a range of global, national and special topic reports on an annual basis. About Babson College Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value. Contact: Michael Chmura [email protected] SOURCE Babson College; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Related Links http://www.babson.edu Flash The U.S. side has been escalating the oppression against Chinese journalists from listing the Chinese media as "foreign agents" to designating them as "foreign missions" and now to capping the number of their Chinese employees, which means de-facto "expulsion" in a limited time, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. China strongly opposes and condemns the U.S. State Department's political crackdown on the U.S. offices of the Chinese media out of Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice on shaky ground, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday. The U.S. State Department announced Monday that the U.S. government will cap the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for the five Chinese media groups that were designated as "foreign missions," effective March 13. "Considering where the China-U.S. relationship now stands, what the United States has done will have serious negative impacts and damage bilateral relations," Zhao told a press briefing. "We urge the United States to immediately change its course and correct its wrongdoings. The Chinese side reserves the right to respond and take further actions." Zhao said Chinese journalists stationed in the United States have been strictly abiding by U.S. laws and regulations and carrying out news reporting under the principle of objectivity, fairness, truthfulness and accuracy. "Their professionalism is well recognized. The U.S. side has no basis and reason to take such an action against Chinese journalists." The U.S. side has been escalating the oppression against Chinese journalists from listing the Chinese media as "foreign agents" to designating them as "foreign missions" and now to capping the number of their Chinese employees, which means de-facto "expulsion" in a limited time, Zhao said. "Because of their mounting oppression, Chinese journalists' normal reporting activities, the reputation of the Chinese media and normal people-to-people exchanges between the two sides have been gravely damaged," said Zhao. While priding itself on freedom of press, the United States now disrupts and obstructs the Chinese media doing their job, Zhao said. "Such a two-faced behavior exposed its hypocrisy in so-called freedom of press, nothing short of double standards and bullying." When asked to comment on the U.S. announcement that the purpose of such measures is to seek "reciprocity," Zhao said China has never instituted any caps on the number of offices and employees of U.S. media in China. "It is their own choice to make on how many people they want to send here, not a result of China's restriction." Zhao said the United States had rejected and delayed issuance of visa to Chinese journalists since 2018 to restrict their going to the United States, and at least 21 Chinese journalists have been denied visa since last year. "On top of all that, this time, the United States has decided to 'expel' 60 Chinese employees of these Chinese media in the country, under the pretext of capping their number. Can this be called 'reciprocity'?" According to Zhao, China only has nine media agencies in the United States while there are 29 U.S. media groups in China. He also noted that while the U.S. journalists enjoy multiple entries of China with their visa, the United States has taken discriminatory measures targeting Chinese journalists by issuing single-entry visa, which means Chinese journalists will have to reapply for their visa if they go back to China briefly or even visit their families during their tenure, not to mention the 354 U.S. dollars of their visa fee, which is twice as much as the fee China charges. "Can this be called 'reciprocity'?" Zhao asked. "The United States wants 'reciprocity' with us. Does it also want that with other countries' media?" he continued. Zhao said the U.S. constant request for reciprocity is essentially prejudice, discrimination and aversion against Chinese media. "The United States is guilty of foul play first. We will simply do what we have to do." DETROIT, MI -- Democratic hopeful Elizabeth Warren encouraged supporters to keep fighting at a high-energy rally in Michigan, showing no signs that her campaign is slowing down after a disappointing start in the first four primary states. Warren spoke before an estimated 2,200 supporters packed into a venue at Eastern Market venue in Detroit, her fifth visit to Michigans largest Democratic stronghold since her campaign began in 2019. The Massachusetts senator took the stage while results began to roll in from primaries in 14 states voting on Super Tuesday," the most influential day of the election thus far. Warren introduced herself as the woman whos going to beat Donald Trump." She told voters not to listen to pundits trying to turn voting into some kind of strategy and playing games about predicting the race. Prediction has been a terrible business and pundits have gotten it wrong over and over, Warren said. "Heres my advice. Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart. Go for the person you think will make the best president of the United States. Supporters said the result of Super Tuesday could make or break Warrens campaign. She hasnt won any of the first four states and only gathered enough support in one of those states to cross the 15% threshold needed to earn delegates. Warren showed no signs that her campaign is slowing down. The campaign is preparing for Michigans primary on March 10, and the campaign announced Warren will make a second visit to Lansing on Friday, March 6. In her opening remarks, Warren presented herself as a lifelong fighter for middle-class families. Warren said she experienced life on the edge of poverty while growing up in Oklahoma and later created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help families facing foreclosure in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The crowd assembled to see Warren on one of the most important days of her campaign was notably diverse in terms of age, race and gender. Democrats traveled across the state for the opportunity to see Warren speak in Detroit. The event also came after a major shakeup in the Democratic primary. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., emerged the likely front-runner early in the race, but former vice president Joe Bidens faltering campaign found new life after a dominating victory in South Carolina over the weekend. Bidens victory caused moderates to begin rallying behind his campaign. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to leave the race and swiftly endorse the former vice president before the next round of voting started Tuesday. Former candidate Beto ORourke also endorsed Biden in the wake of their decision. Weiwei Kapp, 21, said Warren demonstrated early that she is the most competent candidate by releasing a series of detailed policies. Kapp and several others MLive talked to at the rally said Warren is less divisive than Sanders and more likely to pull in more supporters as other candidates leave the campaign trail. I wish that more people could see how great she is, Kapp said. I am disappointed by that. I still think shes the best candidate. Several Super Tuesday states - including California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah -- did not allow early voters to change their ballot. Theres still time for Michiganders to spoil their absentee ballot and request a new one before election day next week. Tammy Fenner-Lamky, a 65-year-old Macomb County resident, said she didn't come to a decision on who to support until a few weeks ago. She requested an absentee ballot, but Fenner-Lamky hasn't submitted it yet. Buttigieg's and Klobuchar's exit from the race made the decision easier. Fenner-Lamky said she was motivated to volunteer for Warren's campaign for one key reason: "old white men." Several Warren supporters expressed disappointment that the historically diverse field has produced front-runners who are nearly 80 years old and only a year apart in age. Im very aware that we are not as diverse as we were when we started," Kapp said. "I think thats sad, that have a system and a country and a culture that has allowed that to be the case. Warren is not the only woman left in the race, but she is the most prominent one. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, continues her longshot campaign -- she held a rally blocks away from Warrens event in Detroit -- without earning more than 3% of the vote in any state before Super Tuesday. Michigan state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, and Danielle Atkinson, the founder and executive director of Mothering Justice, provided opening remarks. Chang said Warren is like the city of Detroit. Both are scrappy" dont give up and rise like a Phoenix. Warren spoke for around 13 minutes before taking curated questions from the audience. The first was from a Detroit Public Schools teacher, who asked Warren how she would make school funding more equitable for struggling urban districts. Its time for a wealth tax in America, Warren said to a roar of applause. Warren said President Ronald Reagans trickle-down economics has been a monumental failure." She said the wealthiest Americans have an obligation to give back to a society that helped them create their fortune. Imposing a 2-cent tax on every dollar of net worth greater than $50 million, and an extra 1-cent on every dollar of net worth above $1 billion, would create enough funds to make sweeping investments in education, universal child care, early childhood education and raise the wages of workers in those fields. The ultra-millionaire tax would affect the countrys 75,000 richest families, according to the campaign, and create $2.75 trillion in new funding over the next decade. Warren also Trumps actions on the southern border are shameful and diminished Americas reputation on the world stage. Understand this. I will not take away children from their families. I will not put children in cages. I will close for-profit detention centers. Warren continued to take questions for roughly another 20 minutes before closing out her speech by calling on her supporters to stay in the fight. This moment will not come our way again," Warren said. "This is our moment to choose hope over fear. This is our moment to choose courage over cynicism. This is our moment to dream big, fight hard and win. Erika Perry, a 26-year-old Kalamazoo resident, became a volunteer for Warren's campaign after realizing she is the "only chance at uniting the Democratic Party." Warren didnt win a lot of votes in February but posted big fundraising numbers after two fiery debate performances that month. Warren scored praise for her blistering attacks against billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who recently began rising in national polls after spending nearly $540 million to flood the airwaves with slick television ads. Some Sanders supporters signaled its time for Warren to drop out and unite progressive Democrats around the Vermont Senator. Perry said she was an ardent supporter of Sanders in 2016, and he remains her second choice, but also doesnt believe voters are ready to accept a self-described democratic socialist. "I love it, but I just dont think the country is going to get down with it," Perry said. She doesn't consider Biden a strong candidate to take on Trump either. Voters aren't looking for an establishment candidate, Perry said, adding that Biden isn't "the model for the future." Perry worries Biden could get bogged down in defending himself from accusations of corruption, due to his sons role in taking a big paycheck at a Ukrainian energy company while Biden was vice president. Perry said its too early to count Warren out. Meanwhile, Sanders offered an olive branch to the former candidates supporters at a Monday rally in Minnesota. I know that there are political differences, but I also know that virtually all of Amys support and Petes support understand that we have got to move toward a government which believes in justice, not greed, Sanders said. "And that our government must be based upon principles of economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. Elijah Shalis, a 40-year-old Ann Arbor resident, said he would support Sanders in the general election, but considers him divisive. In order to win an election you have to bring everyone together so you can go on to victory, he said. That was the problem last time, some people were left behind because of the divisiveness. I like the fact that she pulls in people and presents in a more friendly manner. Hundreds of jobs at Harris Scarfe could be saved after another business saves the company from closure. The Spotlight Group, who owns Spotlight and Anaconda, could finalise a deal to take over the retailer by as early as mid-April. Harris Scarfe announced they were going into receivership in December 2019. The retailer said in January they intended to close 21 of their 66 stores across South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. The Spotlight Group, who own stores such as Spotlight and Anaconda, could finalise a deal to take on Harris Scarfe by as early as mid-April (stock) The Spotlight Group has won the exclusive rights to deal with the chain and it appears they intend to keep many of their 1,300 employees. Receivers said the rights were granted following 'vigorous due diligence'. Vaughan Strawbridge, one of the receivers from Deloitte, said: 'There is still a lot of work we need to do together to finalise the transaction and we will be working with the Spotlight Group and the Harris Scarfe Leadership team to make this happen. 'We are hopeful all of the 44 stores will be retained under the sale but ultimately, this will be dependent on how the transaction progresses over the next couple of weeks.' Meanwhile the Spotlight Group said a transaction will go ahead based on negotiations with landlords. Spotlight Group Managing Director, Avi Gilboa, said: 'Whilst far from a done deal, the acquisition of Harris Scarfe would offer Spotlight Group another iconic retail brand and the potential to deepen our market share. 'It also presents the opportunity to leverage our significant property interests, including Spotlight Property Group and ASX-listed HomeCo.' The Spotlight Group employs 7,500 staff across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Yale Stephens, from the Australian Retailers Association, said the Spotlight Group have seen an opportunity in purchasing Harris Scarfe. 'Department stores in Australia have done it tough for some time,' he told 7 News. 'We would hope that most of jobs would remain. Obviously Spotlight have purchased those stores and they need staff to operate them.' Several businesses have fallen victim to what has been dubbed the 'retail apocalypse'. The Spotlight Group said a transaction will go ahead based on negotiations with landlords (stock) Bridal on Pulteney is the latest casualty, with more than 170 stores tipped to close this year. Household names such as Bardot, Roger David, Collette, and Napoleon Perdis dropped like flies in the past year with dozens of stores closing resulting in heavy job losses. Jeanswest almost underwent a similar fate, however last month it was announced Harbour Guidance Pty Ltd, an Australian partner company to Hong Kong based Harbour Guide Ltd, would buy the chain. Online shopping has been blamed for taking customers away from traditional shopfronts, with fashion sellers in particular struggling. Trinamool Congress (TMC), with its newly launched public outreach initiative Mamata, the pride of Bengal has dwarfed the state BJP in terms of political branding. The initiative aimed at reaching out to 2.5 crore people in West Bengal seeks to boost the image of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in preparation for the 2021 Assembly elections. Compared to TMCs mammoth 75-day-long programme, the BJPs missed call-based No more injustices launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah pales in comparison. With regard to public outreach initiatives in Bengal, TMC has surged ahead of BJP both in terms of detailed planning and political branding. TMC has planned to carry out its program for 75 days involving more than 75,000 leaders and at least 5 lakh party workers. The ruling party in the state will hold rallies in all the 294 Assembly constituencies covering about 41,000 km. It also plans to hold 21,000 public meetings across the state within 75 days. TMC aims at enrolling 1.25 lakh new party members within that time. The program, a brainchild of poll strategist Prashant Kishor, seeks to evolve Mamatas image from a firebrand opposition leader to that of an able administrator. It seeks to project her as a leader who will fight tooth and nail to safeguard Bengals interests. "The campaign celebrates the journey of Mamata Banerjee and is providing an opportunity for people to come together to celebrate her as a passionate proponent and true custodian of Bengals culture dignity and pride, stated a release issued by TMC. The program launched on Monday also seeks to highlight her secular credentials and her image as a fierce protector and guardian of democratic values. According to TMC sources through the large scale grassroots level public outreach activities in Mamata, the pride of Bengal the party seeks to remind the people of the long history of political struggle and agitation behind Mamata. Compared to this, BJPs No more injustices has no declared targets, organisational procedures and detailed planning. All that was announced was a phone number for missed calls and a website. "A section of party leaders are sceptical about this move," a senior state BJP leader said. English French Paris, March 04, 2020 06:30 PM CEST - Pixium Vision (Euronext Growth Paris - FR0011950641 - ALPIX), a bioelectronics company developing innovative bionic vision systems to enable patients who have lost their sight to lead more independent lives, today announces the successful activation of the Prima System in the first US patient suffering from dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in its US feasibility study that recently started. This is the first reported successful activation with the new generation of transparent glasses, Prima 2. A second patient has also been implanted and should be activated shortly. Both patients, underwent the procedure at the UPMC Eye Center, Pittsburgh, USA, led by Professor Jose A. Sahel1, co-founder of Pixium Vision and director of the UPMC Eye Center. The US patients benefit from the transparent glasses which are part of the newest generation of Prima System and allow for the combination of both peripheral natural vision and prosthetic vision. The patients were also the first to benefit from Pixium Visions newly developed and proprietary implantation device, which is designed to ease the surgical procedure and lower any potential side effects. The activation of the Prima System in the US is another important step in developing a treatment for this significant unmet medical need and we are very proud of our role in the clinical assessment of this promising technology, says Professor Jose A. Sahel. We now have the opportunity to better understand its full potential in improving the quality of life for patients with dry AMD, who currently have no treatment options. Pixium Vision is delivering on its promises and successfully moving forward its clinical trials of the Prima System. This is a big milestone for Pixium as it is the first time an initial activation was done using our improved Prima 2 system anywhere in the world. As well as this US feasibility study, we are also looking forward to reporting in Q1 2020, the 18-month data from the patients in France who have transitioned to the newest generation Prima System. These studies will support the upcoming PRIMAvera trial in dry AMD on track to be filed in H1 2020. We expect to start PRIMAvera in 2020 which will pave the way for regulatory approval, says Lloyd Diamond, Chief Executive Officer of Pixium Vision. Contacts Pixium Vision Didier Laurens Chief Financial Officer investors@pixium-vision.com +33 1 76 21 47 68 Media relations LifeSci Advisors Sophie Baumont sophie@lifesciadvisors.com +33 6 27 74 74 49 Investor relation LifeSci Advisors Guillaume van Renterghem gvanrenterghem@lifesciadvisors .com +33 6 69 99 37 83 Pixium Vision is creating a world of bionic vision for those who have lost their sight, enabling them to regain visual perception and greater autonomy. Pixium Visions bionic vision systems are associated with a surgical intervention and a rehabilitation period. Prima System sub-retinal miniature photovoltaic wireless implant is in clinical testing for patients who have lost their sight due to outer retinal degeneration, initially for atrophic dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD). Pixium Vision collaborates closely with academic and research partners, including some of the most prestigious vision research institutions in the world, such as: Stanford University in California, Institut de la Vision in Paris, Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, Institute of Ocular Microsurgery (IMO) in Barcelona, University hospital in Bonn, and UPMC in Pittsburgh, PA. The company is EN ISO 13485 certified and qualifies as Entreprise Innovante by Bpifrance. For more information: http://www.pixium-vision.com/fr Follow us on @PixiumVision; www.facebook.com/pixiumvision www.linkedin.com/company/pixium-vision 1 holds shares in Pixium Vision Attachment FALLS CHURCH, VA.The Democratic Primary now appears to be a race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, as Biden swept the southern states voting on Super Tuesday primary day, won Minnesota and Massachusetts, and was trading the lead with Sanders as the vote came in through the night from delegate-rich Texas. His comeback to front-runner status that began in South Carolina on Saturday is complete after voters decided many at the last minute to come to his side. Deborah Litman made up her mind standing in the voting booth in Falls Church. My favourite candidate was actually Elizabeth Warren, but I voted for Biden because I think he has the best shot to beat Trump. And I think thats the most important thing, she said. Standing with her son outside the local elementary school, she said they belong to a two-mom family and she didnt think Donald Trump liked families like theirs, that she is a scientist and Trump fights science, that she didnt like his wall and all it stood for. Hes just a disgusting human being, she said. And so while her heart remained with Warren, shed today become convinced Biden was the guy to take on Trump. It was a common sentiment at two polling stations in Fairfax County, Va., in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. an overwhelming majority of the voters I spoke with supporting Biden, and having decided to vote for him within the past few days. I heard from two Pete Buttigieg supporters who followed their candidates endorsement, one talking about how the centrist wing of the party was coalescing. I heard from multiple people worried Sanderss socialism wouldnt sell in the general election. All of the voters I spoke with said they would support the Democratic nominee, whoever it was, in November. Alexandra Bowes, a lifelong Republican in Langley who voted Libertarian in 2016, had just cast a vote for a Democrat for the first time in her life. I really watched the polls to see what was trending and then picked the candidate that I felt had the strongest chance of winning the delegates to beat Trump. That was the story across Virginia, which Biden won in a landslide by 30 per cent of the vote, and many Super Tuesday primary states, completing one of the most astonishing political turnaround weeks in memory. Biden also won Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Massachusetts. Its a good night, and it seems to be getting even better. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing, Biden told his supporters Tuesday night. Im here to report we are very much alive. Make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing. This campaign is taking off. People are talking about a revolution, weve started a movement, weve increased turnout that can turn out for us, he said, possibly in reference to a turnout in Virginia that was reported to be double that of 2016. A week ago, his campaign seemed to be on the verge of collapsing and Sanders, the Vermont senator, poised to lock up the nomination. Now, after a convincing Biden win in South Carolina and endorsements by his former opponents Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto ORourke on Monday, he saw his poll numbers climb 10 or more points within a matter of days. After the 14 states that voted Tuesday, it is clearly a two-horse race between Biden and Sanders. The full results of the largest state primary held Tuesday wont be known for days or weeks, as voters in California cast votes by mail that get counted as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. The delegate breakdown there will be a long time coming, but AP declared Sanders the winner of the state shortly after polls closed, which will likely help him maintain his competitive position in the delegate race with Biden. Sanders won his home state of Vermont, as well as Colorado and Utah. We are not only taking on the corporate establishment, we are also taking on the political establishment. But we are going to win because the people understand it is our movement thats best positioned to beat Trump, Sanders said in a lively speech to a Vermont rally. He went on to criticize Bidens past senate votes on the Iraq War, trade agreements, and social program cuts. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old same-old kind of politics. Just before midnight Tuesday, Maine and Texas were too close to call between Sanders and Biden. The votes of Americans living in Canada and around the world who participated in the Democrats Abroad primary beginning Tuesday also wont be counted until online voting for them closes in a week. Mike Bloomberg, the ninth-richest man in the world and former mayor of New York, washed out in what was supposed to be his big debut in the nomination contest. He skipped the four earliest states while spending unprecedented amounts of money campaigning in Super Tuesday states and across the country, betting that an unsettled race at this point would leave him room to parachute in as the moderate alternative. He did garner some support. Sebastian Harvery, 17, was casting his first-ever vote, and marked Bloomberg on his ballot. Hes one of the only people I think who can actually beat Trump, he said. Biden has some decent views, but I think you cant put him up on a debate stage against Trump. And Bernie and Warren, for me, are a little too far left. Bloomberg won the caucus in American Samoa, where six delegates were at stake (Tulsi Gabbard placed second there, and won her first delegate). And based on early returns, it seemed Bloomberg might get some delegates in other states such as Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. But after $500 million (U.S.) spent, a poor debate performance two weeks ago and a dominating Biden victory in South Carolina seemed to consolidate the field somewhat, Bloomberg was mostly left on the sidelines. He said throughout the day Tuesday hed fight on for the possibility of becoming a consensus choice at a contested convention. Thats also been Warrens strategy she has played the role of Bloombergs political assassin in debates but said she hoped to be a consensus candidate at the convention. But she lost her home state of Massachusetts, and didnt reach the viability threshold to receive delegates in many other places. What seems most likely now is that Biden and Sanders fight it out through the coming primary schedule there are still 2,473 pledged delegates to be won, well over half of the total delegates, in what has been characterized as a fight for the soul of the party. Sanders has built, since his second-place run against Hillary Clinton in 2016, a youthful movement of energetic and often antagonizing supporters ready for a political revolution based on his democratic socialism. They are a fundraising powerhouse based on small repeated donations, and they refer to the establishment of their own party as corrupt. Many of them refuse to say theyll vote for any other Democrat in the general election and seem likely to view any kind of defeat of Sanders as a robbery of the primary by lobbyists and party fixers. Biden, likely the most experienced candidate in the race, has pitched himself as an unthreatening return to politics as usual what he recalls as a more civil time in political history offering his own empathy and charm as a way to beat Trump and make gradual progress on progressive goals by bringing centrist independents and alienated Republicans onside rather than alienating them with calls for socialism. Both candidates come with significant downsides: Biden has not demonstrated any organizational strength until the past few days, and often seems unfocused and lost in his debates and speeches. His appeal can seem disjointed, and he represents to many an endorsement of the status quo both Sanders and Trump voters thoroughly reject. Sanders, meanwhile, embraces a socialist label that is very unpopular in the U.S., and often embraces divisive soak-the-rich rhetoric that turns off many centrists who arent interested in class warfare. Political pundits warn Trump will have a field day with Sanders past admiration for elements of Communist policy in the Soviet Union (where he honeymooned) and Fidel Castros Cuba. Both men, of course, are older than Trump, and age may be a factor. Sanders had a heart attack within the past few months, while Biden seems to have lost some of his mental edge in public appearances from his years as a senator and vice-president. They appear, after the Super Tuesday votes, to be the choices available to the party. Sanders at 78 promising with his young following to bring about the politics of the future. Biden at 77, offering a restoration of the politics of the recent past. For many Democratic voters, the priority is beating Donald Trump, and the decision now is which of those two options offers the best way to do it. Read more about: JTBC's "When The Weather is Fine" as announced to the press will resume its airing after 7 days. This was amidst the possible infection fo a crew member a few days ago. To remember there was an article that released before that a staff of the cast encountered possible transmission. This was the drama series Hi Bye, Mama. The mentioned staff sent for an emergency check-up. Within that day, the management advised that the staff was negative of infection. Therefore the drama series resumes its filming. In the case of "When the Weather is Fine" within last week Park Min Young travel to attend the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy held from 18 - 24 February. She travels with Chungha and other staff members. Upon there return to South Korea, Chungha's 2 companions showed asymptomatic of the virus. They tested right away, the result showed 2 of the crew was positive for Coronavirus. It revealed right away that Chungha's result was negative. To avoid any suspicion of their health. The management cast right away advised that the actress is safe and does not show any symptoms of the illness. Park Min Young agency which is Namoo Actors released a statement that after the scheduled trip. The actress never had any overlap trips and travel to any of the confirmed areas. They always watched her activities each day and should they see any symptoms they will have the actress subject for testing. To date, the management and producers of the drama. "When The Weather is Fine" confirmed that "we change the schedule for filming to ward off Coronavirus and ensure a safe environment. Episode 5 which was on track scheduled to broadcast on March 9, will transfer to air on March 16 - Monday instead". Everybody is hoping for a fast recovery of the infected crew. The virus is spreading fast and need to be cautious to avoid delays and sickness for the whole cast. The drama series airs every Monday and Tuesday at 21:30 holding 16 episodes. The past new episodes give a good rating nationwide. Under cable TV for March 2 - episode 3 at second with 2.5 percent. The story revolves around a lady who encountered many downfall and pains along the way. She returned to a place where she used to live and met high school friends. One of these alumni is the bookstore owner who holds a long time crush on her. The title coincides with the weather of the scenes and the blossoming relationship. Mok Hae-won (played by Park Min-young) memories and loneliness lead her to search for a place of peace and belongingness. The character of Im Eun-seob (played by Seo Kang-joon) plays a big part in her recovery. The people around the small village gives back laughter to her face again. On Tuesday, a court in Hyderabad took an important decision after hearing the case related to the blast. The court acquitted terrorist Syed Abdul Karim alias Tunda on charges of conspiring for the 1998 serial blasts. The Metropolitan Sessions Judge said that the prosecution could not produce sufficient evidence against Tunda. The suspected terrorist of Lashkar-e-Taiba is considered to be an expert in making bombs. He is accused of carrying out more than 40 bomb blasts across the country. The 77-year-old Tunda, suspected of a Mumbai attack, is currently lodged in a jail in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Fire erupts in Kupwara's military camp According to media reports, a report was filed against Tunda and others during the Ganpati Festival in Hyderabad in the 1998 serial bomb blasts. According to Hyderabad police, he was a conspirator in the case. He trained some accused to make bombs. A case was registered against Lashkar-e-Taiba's hardcore terrorist Tunda under severe IPC sections. Hotel room seize in Udaipur where corona patients stayed The police said that there were a total of 28 accused in this case. Some of these were arrested and punished, while the rest are absconding. Tunda was arrested on 16 August 2013 by the central agency from Banbasa on the Indo-Nepal border. He was subsequently detained by the Hyderabad police. He is believed to be among the terrorists involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, whom India had demanded from Pakistan. Tragic Accident: Bus of 41 students collided with rock due to high speed As more and more COVID-19 cases pop up around the country, Hamilton County is doing what it can to prepare for a scenario where the coronavirus enters the county. Hamilton County Health Department administrator Becky Barnes told members of the County Commission that her department is heavily involved in being prepared for the worst. As far as public health, one of our earliest roles was following returning travelers and working with providers in the community who had a possible person to test, said Ms. Barnes. And also working with the entire community to update all of our emergency preparedness plans. She stressed that it is not just her department that is involved in making sure Hamilton County is ready for a possible coronavirus outbreak. She said multiple entities are charged with adjusting their pre-existing emergency response plans. All of your community partners, be them hospitals, providers, county government, businesses, schools, all should have emergency response plans, said Ms. Barnes. But theyre all written from an all-hazard standpoint. So when you have a new emerging thing like COVID-19, you have to take those plans and adjust them to the particular thing. Were working with them in trying to get the most up to date scientific knowledge out there so they can adjust their plans. County Mayor Jim Coppinger echoed many of Ms. Barnes sentiments. He focused on the idea that it would take a joint effort in order to respond effectively. I had a lengthy discussion with (superintendent) Dr. Johnson about what the school system would do. Obviously, it would be a collaborative effort, said County Mayor Coppinger. Were grateful we have some very competent people doing this. I want the public to know that this has been on our radar, from an administrative standpoint, for weeks now. While there have been no reported cases of the coronavirus in Tennessee, County Mayor Coppinger said the county will be ready in the unfortunate event that it has to deal with the now-worldwide virus. In preparation, its like the good men and women who serve in the armed forces, law enforcement and firefighters, said County Mayor Coppinger. You do a lot of preparation for things you hope never happen. We hope it never comes here, but its our responsibility to be prepared in the event that it does. The COVID-19 virus was first identified in Wuhan, China. People are advised to regularly wash their hands in order to fight the spread of the virus. On Monday, there were two reported cases of coronavirus in Georgia. There are no vaccines currently available for COVID-19. Jammu, March 4 : A team of special operations group (SOG) of the J&K Police here on Wednesday claimed to have detained a Pakistani intelligence agent. According to the police, Pankaj Sharma, a resident of Samba in Jammu, was in regular touch with his handlers from across the border for the last few years. "He had sent photos and videos of vital spots and installations, mostly of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts, to his handlers via social media platforms in lieu of monetary gains," the police said. During questioning he confessed to his involvement in sharing information on vital installations, including sensitive bridges in border areas. "Preliminary probe indicates some monetary transactions in the accused's two bank accounts," the police said. Sharma has been handed over to Trikuta Nagar police station for further questioning and a case has been registered against him. "His bank accounts are being analysed to ascertain more suspicious transactions," the police said. A woman who assaulted an 86-year-old priest in his own home has been sentenced to five years in prison at Kilkenny Circuit Court. Geraldine Sutton, of Kilcohan Park, Waterford admitted burglary at the Parochial House in Coon on August 18, 2018. Gardai conducting a murder investigation into the disappearance of Newbridge woman Deirdre Jacob over two decades ago may have a file ready for the Director of Public Prosecutions on a particular suspect in the next few weeks according to reports. The Irish Examiner has reported that the file will be ready in the next two weeks. On submission to the DPP, it will then decide whether there is sufficient evidence to bring a prosecution towards it is understood a well known rapist who is believed to have been working in the area at the time. Last July marked 21st anniversary of the student teachers disappearance from near her home in Roseberry. The familys liaison officer and former sergeant in Newbridge, Seamus Rothwell, confirmed to the Leinster Leader back then that gardai investigations have taken a particular avenue. He said that while the chief suspect in the missing teenagers murder case could not yet be named, gardai are working on the file, which should be ready in the next few months. Every scrap of evidence has to go into that file and then it is up to the DPP to decide if the suspect will be charged or not, he said. We are following up on everything we have on the case and looking at every strand, and if there is somebody somewhere that might have an idea about somebody else who may have been involved then gardai would still like to hear from them. Especially if somebody has something on their mind now is the time to say it.We wont ask the question why it took so long well be very thankful for the information and thrilled to get it. It could well be relevant to the case. Deirdre Jacob was 18 years old when she was last seen 21 years ago on July 28, 1998, outside the family home in Roseberry. Last August, gardai upgraded her case from a missing persons to a murder investigation. The investigation is being overseen by Supt Martin Walker from Kildare Garda Station. Officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations cold case unit and the Serious Crime Review Team are also involved. Since Deirdres disappearance, gardai have followed numerous lines of inquiry and conducted searches for the missing teaching student. However, no arrests have been made over the disappearance. Amnesty International says it has evidence that at least 23 children were killed by Iranian security forces when they unlawfully used lethal force to crush nationwide anti-government protests in November 2019. An investigation by the London-based human rights watchdog has uncovered that at least 22 of the children were shot dead by security forces firing live ammunition at unarmed protesters and bystanders, it said in a statement on March 4. According to the findings, the children killed include 22 boys aged between 12 and 17, and a girl reportedly aged between eight and 12. Philip Luther, research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, called for independent and impartial investigations into the killings and for the prosecution of those suspected of ordering and carrying them out. Member states of the UN Human Rights Council should also mandate an inquiry into the killings of protesters and bystanders, including the 23 children, in the November protests, according to Luther. Protests erupted in Iran on November 15, 2019 following a government decision to raise fuel prices. According to Amnesty International, at least 304 people were killed and thousands injured over the next days as authorities crushed the protests. Authorities arbitrarily detained thousands of people and subjected some to enforced disappearance, torture, and other ill-treatment. In its latest statement, Amnesty International said the 23 children are recorded as having been killed in 13 cities in six provinces across Iran -- Esfahan, Fars, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, and Tehran -- reflecting the widespread nature of the bloody crackdown. The vast majority of the childrens deaths, 20, took place over just two days -- November 16 and 17 -- which Luther said is further evidence that Iranian security forces went on a killing spree to quash dissent at any cost. The remaining three deaths took place on November 18. Amnesty International said it had gathered evidence from videos and photographs, death and burial certificates, accounts from eyewitnesses and victims relatives, friends, and acquaintances on the ground, as well as information gathered from human rights activists and journalists. The Supreme Court Wednesday took strong note of the Centre's allegations that activist Harsh Mander, who sought lodging of FIRs against some BJP leaders, has also made certain objectionable remarks against the top court, "majesty of law", the government and Parliament. The top court not only refused to hear Mander's counsel Karuna Nundy till the issue of his alleged hate speech is "sorted", but also kept his petition to itself. A bench, comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, remanded to the Delhi High Court another plea of 10 riots victims seeking registration of FIRs against BJP leaders -- Anurag Thakur, Pravesh Verma, Kapil Mishra and Abhay Verma -- for allegedly making hate speeches. No sooner the hearing commenced, the bench told the counsel appearing in the matter that it has come to its notice that Mander has made some statements against the Supreme Court, the government and Parliament. "The petitioner (Mander) appeared before the High Court. He made statements against the Supreme Court and Parliament," the bench said in the packed courtroom. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, took no time to respond to the remarks of the bench. "Yes he made such statements and it is routine for him and what he said can't be repeated." Mehta said however that he can make reference of some of the alleged hate speech delivered by Mander during the anti-CAA protests and at the Jamia Millia University on December 16, 2019. The law officer read out certain excerpts from alleged speech of Mander and said that they included objectionable statements about the apex court, Parliament and the government. "We have seen the track record of the Supreme Court. We have no faith in the Supreme Court but we will go there as we have no choice. But, ultimate justice will be done on the streets," Mehta said quoting Mander's alleged hate speech. He also referred to the speech which was allegedly provocative and was aimed at instigating Muslims. "If this is what you (lawyer for Mander) think of this court then we will have to deal with this. You heard the allegations and now, before we hear you, you see the allegations and respond to them," the bench said and asked senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the riots victims, to proceed with his submissions. "We have been told that you (Mander) have made certain remarks against this court," the bench said, adding that it wanted to know all of them who have violated the majesty of law. Mehta told the bench that Mander had "instigated anti-CAA protestors saying that ultimately justice will be done on the streets and the petition in the apex court has been filed for the sake of filing". "Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General appearing for the respondent(s), states that he will file the counter affidavit to this petition during the course of the day and furnish copy thereof to the counsel appearing for the petitioner (Mander) forthwith," the bench said in its order. The bench then asked Mander's counsel Nundy to file response to the affidavit of the Centre by March 5 and fixed the plea for hearing a day, rejecting the vehement objection that Mander was in US and will only be able to come on March 8. Mehta said Mander wanted immediate lodging of FIRs against the leaders without they being given a notice and was adopting different yardstick when the allegations relate to him. The law officer said Mander himself is guilty of hate speech and "he can be the subject matter of the FIR". He also alleged that clients of Gonsalves were sponsored and instigated by Mander. The court was of the view that unless the issue of alleged hate speech is "not sorted", it will not allow Mander's counsel to argue his petition which will now be heard by the top court itself on March 6. Nundy vehemently opposed Mehta's allegations against Mander saying that she was, in fact, unaware of the contents of the video being referred to. She said that Mander never said anything like that and moreover, no copies were given to her. To this, the court asked the law officer to provide the affidavit along with the transcripts of the alleged hate speech, to be filed during the day, to Nundy. When Nundy said persons have also made hate speeches at Rajiv Chowk metro station here, the bench said, "We are told that you (Mander) have made certain remarks against this court as well. We want to know who all have violated the majesty of law. Have you also violated the majesty of law?". The law officer also referred to certain strong observations made by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi (now retired) against Mander during the hearing of his PIL on detention of illegal Bangladesh nationals in detention centres in Assam. The then CJI had struck out his name as the petitioner and had rather appointed his lawyer Prashant Bhushan as the amicus curiae, he said. The apex court, in May 2019, had come down heavily on Mander for seeking recusal of the then CJI from hearing his PIL saying that it would not allow anybody to "browbeat" and "damage the institution". Last week, the Delhi High Court had adjourned to April 13 the hearing of the petition led by Mander for enquiry into Delhi Riots and lodging of FIRs against BJP politicians who allegedly incited violence. Mander then filed the appeal in the apex court against the long adjournment of the hearing the High Court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The giant tech firm, Twitter, became the first major US corporation to tell its employees to work from home to avoid the spread of coronavirus, following its announcement on Monday. In a blog post shared by Twitters human resources chief Jennifer Christie, the social media giant said it was mandatory for staff in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea to work remotely. The post further revealed that the social media giant is strongly encouraging all of its 5,000 employees around the world not to come to their offices. READ ALSO Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey Says Hell Be Relocating To Africa For Three Months The post read in parts: Beginning today, we are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if theyre able. Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us and the world around us The United Nations launched a worldwide appeal Tuesday to raise more than U.S. $800 million this year to support around 855,000 Rohingya refugees and 444,000 Bangladeshis who live in host communities in southeastern Bangladesh. The money will be used for vital services, such as food, shelter and clean water, as well as education and healthcare of the refugees, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said. Support of the 2020 Joint Response Plan is essential to safeguarding the well-being of Rohingya refugees both now in Bangladesh and once it is safe and sustainable for them to return home to Myanmar, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement, referring to the joint fundraising by the U.N., the International Organization for Migration and other partner agencies. Until then, the world must stand by the Rohingya and by the Government and people of Bangladesh who continue to host them, he said. About 740,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state fled their homes, beginning in August 2017, after Myanmars military launched a brutal offensive in response to deadly attacks by a rebel group on government security posts. The Rohingya who crossed the border into southeastern Bangladesh joined tens of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously fled Myanmar, bringing the number of refugees in camps in and around Coxs Bazar district to more than 1 million. It was not immediately clear how the UNHCR statement came up with its figures on the number of refugees. Reacting to the U.N. appeal for funds, Athena Rayburn, senior humanitarian advocacy manager for the NGO Save the Children in Coxs Bazar, said in a statement that many refugees continue to suffer from mental health issues as a result of their distressing experiences. Children from the host community have also been affected; their lives turned upside down, Rayburn said, as she urged the international community to step up and provide the funds desperately needed to continue to protect Rohingya and host community children. Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, UNHCRs public information officer in Bangladesh, told BenarNews that funds raised by the United Nations and its partner agencies in the past two years were heavily focused on life-saving assistance and protection of the refugees in desperate situation, including the setting up of shelters. Moving into the third year of the response, the goal is to keep hope alive and give Rohingya refugees and their Bangladeshi hosts a view to the future, he said. A recent attempt by Dhaka and Naypyidaw to return thousands of the refugees to Myanmar on a voluntary basis collapsed in August 2019. UNHCR and Bangladeshi officials said none of those interviewed among the 3,450 people cleared for repatriation were willing to go back. Myanmar, which classifies Rohingya Muslims as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and denies them citizenship, is the subject of a lawsuit launched by Gambia at the International Court of Justice. The persecuted Muslim minorities claim roots that go back centuries in Myanmars Rakhine state. In a rare preliminary ruling last January, the Hague-based court ordered Naypyidaw to take urgent measures to protect its Rohingya population from genocide. Its final decision on the lawsuit, which accuses the Southeast Asian country of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention during its crackdown, is expected to take years. Myanmars campaign of violence, including burning of villages, left thousands of Rohingya dead, while some of those who tried to flee were subjected to torture and mass rape, according to rights groups and U.N. investigators. Myanmars security forces have denied allegations that they took part in what the United States has described as ethnic cleansing. SPRINGFIELD Illinois top health official Tuesday elaborated on the Department of Public Healths efforts to contain the coronavirus, one day after a fourth person in the state tested positive for the illness. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the department, updated members of the Senate Public Health Committee on state and local efforts to prevent, contain and treat COVID-19, as well as the toll it has taken on state resources. The risk of coronavirus infection to the people of Illinois remains low, however, even as the risk is low, we are planning and preparing for all possibilities, Ezike said. She said the state has tested 116 people for the virus. Ninety tests have come back negative, four were confirmed as infected and 22 are still outstanding. The four positive cases were all in Cook County. The most recent two, announced Saturday and Monday, were a couple in their 70s. Their tests await official confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ezike said state health officials and the CDC are trying to find out where those people got the virus. The first two cases, another elderly couple, have since recovered. The wife was infected after traveling to Wuhan, China, where the virus originated, while her husband contracted the virus from her. Growing price tag The total cost to local health departments and the state for COVID-19 response has been more than $20 million, Ezike told reporters after testifying. We have also requested additional funding for our preparedness efforts, she told lawmakers. She said IDPH wants more money from the federal government to cover costs that the state government and local governments have incurred, including the cost of providing testing. She said cost estimates have been provided to Illinois congressmembers so they can advocate for more funding in the federal budget currently being negotiated. We absolutely want support to get additional resources, Ezike also said of the Illinois legislature. That would include funding for personnel, equipment, lab and housing costs. Testing methods Ezike said health officials monitor anyone suspected to have come in contact with a person known to have the virus for 14 days. If they develop a fever, they are tested, and results are sent to a lab in Chicago, Springfield or Carbondale. Ezike said the state has 2,200 testing kits, and she will ask the CDC for more when she travels to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. The IDPH is preparing to partner with hospitals in every region for a program called sentinel surveillance, where patients with flu-like symptoms can be voluntarily tested for the virus. The aim is to detect community spread, which is when the source of the infection is unknown. It is likely that we will have some level of community spread, Ezike said. The issue is how much. Ezike said the health department is in regular contact with hospitals, talking through infection control protocols and keeping up with inventories of medical supplies. Chicagos OHare International Airport is also screening some passengers for the virus. The best way for people to protect against COVID-19 right now, Ezike told lawmakers, is basic hygienic practices such as washing hands for 20 seconds with soap and water, using hand sanitizer, staying home when sick and cleaning frequently-touched surfaces. These commonsense, everyday measures really do matter, she said. Preparing for the future Ezike also addressed concerns that some senators had about how severe the virus could get. State Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield, asked if schools, universities and businesses should think about closing. Were not in that situation now, Ezike said. She added that such a response would also not be a one-size-fits-all for the state. She said school or work closures may be appropriate if one part of the state sees dozens or hundreds of cases. State Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago, asked if people should stock up on emergency supplies like medications, food and water, in case they need to be quarantined. Thats a basic that we always recommend, coronavirus or not, Ezike said. Currently, the only way to test for the virus is for people to get tested at a hospital or clinic, which sends samples to a state lab. Committee Chair Patricia Van Pelt, D-Chicago, said this convoluted process may shut out people who cannot afford to go to the doctor. We are looking at the possibility of having some kind of drive-through testing where you dont bring people into the hospital who are sick in the first place, Ezike said. She told reporters that she hopes commercially available tests will become available so hospitals and clinics can cut out the state lab and get results in an hour or two. Ezike also said IDPH is conducting hospital assessments in case things worsen. Additionally, she encouraged people to get this years flu shot so that illness can be one less thing that health care workers have to juggle if COVID-19 spreads. A vaccine for COVID-19 is in the works on the national and international levels, but Ezike told lawmakers it could be six to 12 months before it is available. Should this coronavirus infection become something like H1N1, which is a seasonal thing, then we would have one for potentially the next round, she said. Worldwide concern The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. rose above 100 on Tuesday, with Washington state seeing the most cases at 31. Washington is also the only state to have deaths, with nine. Most of the dead were either elderly or had preexisting medical conditions. More than 92,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide as of Tuesday evening, causing more than 3,100 deaths. Illinoisans worried they may have the virus can call the states COVID-19 hotline (1-800-889-3931) or email dph.sick@illinois.gov. IDPH also has a webpage of frequently asked questions: http://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/diseases-a-z-list/coronavirus. The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition by a suspended ruling Congress MLA from Puducherry seeking to forbear the Union Territory Assembly Speaker from disqualifying him for alleged anti-party activities as sought by the Government Whip. Justice K Ravichandrababu held the petition of D Dhanavelou as not maintainable at this stage since the Speaker was yet to pass any order on the plea of the Government Whip seeking the MLA's disqualification. The petitioner submitted that the Government Whip has sent two petitions to the Speaker on January 30 and February 14 for disqualifying himfrom the membership of the assembly. He contended that the reasons cited in the petitions would not attract provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and therefore the Speaker was not empowered to act on them. Speaker V P Sivakolundhu has sought the response of the MLA, who was suspended by the Puducherry Congress on January 15 for alleged anti-party activities and violation of party discipline days after he held a rally and levelled charges of corruption against Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his ministerial colleagues. He had also called on Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and submitted a petition, seeking a CBI probe into the alleged corrupt practices. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [March 04, 2020] Physicians' Education Resource to Present Live Symposium on Asthma at the 2020 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting Physicians' Education Resource (PER), a leading resource for continuing medical education, will conduct a satellite symposium titled "Severe Asthma Through the Ages: Personalized Management for Difficult-to-Treat Children, Adolescents, and Adults" adjunct to the 2020 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting. The program will take place on Monday, March 16, from 6:15 to 8:00 a.m. at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Grand Ballroom, Salon 5, Level 5, in Pennsylvania. The satellite will be chaired by Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., M.D., emeritus professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania; science professor of medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; vice chancellor for translation medicine, science director, Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "Severe asthma is undertreated and underrecognized and can cause a large burden on patients of all ages," said Phil Talamo, president of PER. "Our engaging panel discussion features asthma experts who will discuss a range of actual patient cases to improve attendees' clinical decision-making. Please join us at AAAAI for this dynamic educational activity." Faculty presenters for the live satellite symposium include: Natasha McClure, DNP, PNP-BC, assistant professor, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and faculty head of north house, The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons assistant professor, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and faculty head of north house, The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons Michael E. Wechsler, M.., M.M.Sc., professor of medicine, division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine; and director, Cohen Family Asthma Institute, National Jewish Health For more information and to register, click here. About Physicians' Education Resource (PER) Since 1995, PER has been dedicated to advancing cancer care through professional education and now advances patient care and treatment strategies on a wide variety of chronic illnesses and diseases. In 2016, PER initiated continuing medical education (CME) programming in the cardiovascular and endocrinology areas. While expanding into topics outside of oncology, PER stands as the leading provider of live, online and print CME activities related to oncology and hematology. The high-quality, evidence-based activities feature leading distinguished experts who focus on the application of practice-changing advances. PER is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and the California Board of Registered Nursing. PER is a brand of MJH Life Sciences, the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005741/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Camden County employee has been charged with stealing more than $114,000 in funds earmarked for local regattas and rowing competitions, the Camden County Prosecutors Office announced Tuesday. James Stack, 44, of Collingswood, who previously served as the director of rowing at the Camden County Boathouse, accepted checks from various rowing organizations meant for regattas and rowing competitions at Cooper River Park, which runs through Pennsauken, Cherry Hill, Collingswood and Haddon Township. Instead of putting them into county accounts, he deposited them them into two bank accounts he managed under a company he owns called Cooper Training Center, LLC, the office said. An ongoing investigation into the money revealed that Stack would then deposit a lesser amount than he received from the organizations into the accounts managed by the county, authorities said. The disproportion in funds was discovered during a county audit and investigators were able to find evidence of Stack doing this from January 2018 through December 2019, the office alleged. Stack is charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of property received and official misconduct and was released pending a central judicial processing hearing scheduled for March 10, the office said. Camden County authorities suspended Stack without pay upon finding the accounting inconsistencies in the audit. A short time later. he resigned from his position at the boathouse prior to his termination, county spokesman Dan Keashen said in a statement. The county went above and beyond to proactively address the situation and alert law enforcement to the alleged theft and misconduct of Mr. Stack when it became clear there was an issue. In turn, since his resignation, the county has reengineered how regattas and rowing operations are facilitated ensuring that a situation of this nature will never happen again. In addition, the county, through counsel, will work to recover all of the alleged stolen funds that have been taken from the boathouse during Mr. Stacks employment, Keashen said. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters Widespread digitalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution have helped all industries to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. The energy industry is no exception, with a growing number of firms using all kinds of digital solutions as they seek cost cuts and higher profitability. Yet, data analytics, predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) for any industry require more and more data centers. Increased internet and cell phone use around the world and smart appliances and smart home solutions need more and more infrastructure. And all these new technologies and apps need a lot more energy. The growing number of social media users requires more and more electricity, and this electricity, for a very large part, comes from oil, natural gas, and coal. The Internet is 24/7 and right now, the worlds 24/7 electricity supply can be ensured only with fossil fuels dominating the power generation industries. Ironically, all campaigns against fossil fuels on social media with calls to keep it in the ground are powered by fossil fuels. And until renewable energy sources can be safely and reliably incorporated in the power grids around the world, there wont be 100-percent renewable energy to power the Internet and its many uses by people and corporations. The Internet is already sucking up a lot of fossil fuel-generated power According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers are one of the most energy-intensive buildings. They suck up 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office building. Taken together, data centers account for around 2 percent of total U.S. electricity use. As our countrys use of information technology grows, data center and server energy use is expected to grow too, the DOE says. The more data there is to process, the more energy it will require, is the logic applied to energy use for data centers. Related: Heres Why Oil Prices Should Go Higher But the most recent research on data centers energy use globally showed last week that efficiencies in processors and computing over the past decade have kept energy use basically flat. Researchers at Northwestern University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Koomey Analytics published a study in the journal Science on Friday, arguing that despite the dramatic surge in data center workloads, computation, traffic, and storage capacity, the electricity use of global data centers has remained flat. While the historical efficiency progress made by data centers is remarkable, our findings do not mean that the IT industry and policymakers can rest on their laurels, Eric Masanet, who led the study, said in a statement. Masanet is an adjunct professor in Northwesterns McCormick School of Engineering and the Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. We think there is enough remaining efficiency potential to last several more years. But ever-growing demand for data means that everyone including policy makers, data center operators, equipment manufacturers and data consumers must intensify efforts to avoid a possible sharp rise in energy use later this decade, Masanet noted. So, the exponential growth in data and Internet use around the worldespecially in emerging markets with booming Internet penetration as more people gain access to energy, the Internet, and technologiesis set to drive increased demand for electricity. Tech Giants Pledge 100-Percent Renewables Use To be sure, Big Tech is pledging 100-percent renewables use in their operations, and although they have made progress in this area, they are still far from this target. Google, for example, acquired 100-percent renewable energy to match its annual electricity consumption for global operations, including data centers and offices, in both 2017 and 2018. Related: Oil Prices Rise As Market Expects Large OPEC+ Cut But it admits that Although our 100% renewable milestone signifies that we buy enough renewable energy over the course of a year to match our annual electricity consumption, it does not mean that our facilities are matched with renewable energy in every hour of every day. Amazon is committed to using 100-percent renewable energy across its global infrastructure as scaling up the use of renewable energy is a critical part of Amazons goal to reach net zero carbon by 2040. Big Tech was the biggest buyer of corporate clean energy in 2019, with Google leading the pack and Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft following as the next largest corporate buyers of clean energy, BloombergNEF (BNEF) said in a report in January. Despite the commitments of the worlds largest technology corporations to use growing shares of renewable energy for operations, the grids stability, especially in the U.S., is still ensured by fossil-fueled power generation, which accounted for 62.7 percent of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation. Renewables, including hydropower, held a share of 17.5 percent. Data centers in China, however, are mostly powered by coal. The digital revolution needs energy and until power grids around the world can support all-renewable energy sources, the Internet will continue to need fossil fuels to operate 24/7. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Lufthansa Air on Wednesday said it would ground 150 aircraft out of its total fleet of around 770 due to the coronavirus pandemic. We are dynamically adjusting our plans to reflect extraordinary circumstances, a Lufthansa spokesperson was quoted as saying. Reuters exclusively reported that 25 of the 150 grounded aircraft are long-haul jets. The German airline had last week said it had grounded 23 long-haul aircraft. European airline bosses had on Tuesday warned that the worst is still to come for the airline industry in terms of economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak. They, however, predicted travel demand could stabilise in the coming weeks. Lufthansa Group airlines, which include Swiss, Brussels and Austrian airlines, had already said on Friday that it would reduce the number of short- and medium-haul flights by up to 25 per cent in the coming weeks depending on how coronavirus spreads. The airline said on Monday that it was extending flight cancellations on Iran and China routes until late April, and reducing services to northern Italy due to the coronavirus outbreak. Lufthansa has said it was too early to assess the impact on its earnings, which are due to be published on March 19. President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, officials said on Wednesday. The mercy petition of Pawan has been rejected by the President, a home ministry official said. The father of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim expressed hope that the convicts will be hanged this month. "He has one option left -- that is to challenge the mercy plea in Supreme Court as the others have done. Let's see what happens next, but we are confident of getting justice," Nirbhaya's father said. "We are hopeful that the convicts will be hanged this month and justice will be finally delivered to us after a long wait," he said. A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya -- the fearless -- was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment. A total of six people -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student here. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term. Members of the Capital Defense Command spray disinfectant from a decontamination truck near Yeokchon Station in Eunpyeong District, western Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk By Kim Se-jeong The Moon Jae-in administration has failed to improve the ongoing shortage of face masks due to its "inaccurate" estimates of supply and demand amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus, according to experts, Wednesday. "The government drew a mask supply plan based on a production capacity and a demand estimate. The government failed to forecast a sharp demand increase fueled by fear. The government should have considered this more carefully during its planning," said Myongji University Prof. Kim Hyun-joon. Amid the worsening mask shortage, the government began to intervene in production and distribution Feb. 26. It promised to get enough masks by channeling them through public organizations post offices and the NongHyup Bank's Hanaro Mart stores and pharmacies. Yet, the masks didn't arrive on time at those outlets and even after the supply started, lines of people outside the outlets didn't disappear many even had to leave without getting any. A mask producer told local media outlets that staff and machines were overloaded in trying to meet deadlines. "The machines work 24 hours without a break. So do my staff. We would like to have people with technical skills, but it takes time," he said. On Tuesday, President Moon lashed out at officials handling the mask distribution and apologized for the supply delay. "I am sorry that the government is not supplying enough masks to citizens," Moon said. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), there were an additional 293 patients as of?9 p.m., Wednesday, putting the total at 5,621, with 33 fatalities. On Tuesday, 516 new coronavirus patients were confirmed. [March 04, 2020] Never Miss the Bus Again: Destinations Career Academy of Oregon Online Public School Now Open for '20-'21 School Year Although it's early in the calendar year, Destinations Career Academy of Oregon (ORDCA), a full-time online and blended public school, is ready to welcome students in grades 9-12 to enroll for the 2020-2021 school year beginning February 27. ORDCA gives your student a personalized learning experience designed to assist those who seek alternative pathways to education. ORDCA is tuition-free to all students who reside in Oregon. Authorized by the Mitchell School District, and delivered entirely online, ORDCA combines online instruction, rigorous curriculum and the support of state-licensed teachers. In addition to working towards their high school diplomas, ORDCA students can participate in the Destinations Career Program, which allows them to discover exciting options for their future in career fields like Business and Management, Health Sciences, and Arts, Information and Communications. "With college costs spiraling out of control nationwide, it's good to get an idea of what you want to do before you get there. Our career program lets studnts try new things and get a sense for the options they have, while still in high school, helping Oregon students take charge of their own future," says Interim Head of School Sonimar Villegas. Overall, ORDCA offers challenging academic curriculum focused on college preparation. Students take a full course load in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, history, and art. Electives include world languages, photography, and personal finance. ORDCA also offers student clubs, in-person field trips, and social gatherings to foster a sense of school community. Virtual classes are taught by Oregon-licensed teachers who provide instruction during live online class sessions, and are available to students via phone, email and one-to-one meetings. "Being a part of Destinations has given me many opportunities that I never would've experienced otherwise," said ORDCA senior Shannah Lindh. "Choosing a career path that interested me really opened the doorway to gaining knowledge in the areas I wanted to pursue. My teachers have given me a great amount of help and attention with preparing for college and finishing high school strong." Students choose online school for a variety of reasons including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs. ORDCA's online and blended platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment and at an appropriate pace for their learning style. ORDCA is now accepting enrollments for the 2020-2021 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online or in-person information session hosted by the school. More information on ORDCA, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events can be found at http://ordca.k12.com. About Destinations Career Academy of Oregon Destinations Career Academy of Oregon (ORDCA) is a full-time online public charter school authorized by Mitchell School District that serves students in grades 9-12 statewide. As part of the Oregon public school system, ORDCA is tuition-free, and provides families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ORDCA, visit http://ordca.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005009/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 61 Shares Share It has been nearly three months since the first cases of a new coronavirus pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China, and it is now a global outbreak. And yet, despite nearly 90,000 infections worldwide (most of them in China), the world still doesnt have a clear picture of some basic information about this outbreak. In recent weeks, a smattering of scientific papers and government statements have begun to sketch the outlines of the epidemic. The Chinese national health commission has reported that more than 1,700 medical workers in the country had contracted the virus as of Feb. 14. (Thats alarming.) The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that some 80% of those infected have a mild illness. (Thats comforting.) Last week, a joint World Health Organization-China mission announced that the death rate in Wuhan was 2% to 4%, but only 0.7% in the rest of China a difference that makes little scientific sense. In recent days, the WHO has complained that China has not been sharing data on infections in health care workers. Last month, the editors of the journal Nature called on researchers to ensure that their work on this outbreak is shared rapidly and openly. Much more could be known and, in all likelihood, some scientists out there have good, if not definitive, answers. And yet, the lack of consistent, reliable and regularly updated information on the key measures of this outbreak is startling. In an era when we get flash-flood warnings on phones and weekly influenza statistics from every state, why is data on the new coronavirus so limited? Science, politics and pride have all, in various ways, conspired to keep potentially vital, lifesaving knowledge under wraps. That is problematic at a time when more information is needed to be strategic about preparedness. It began early in the course of the epidemic. On Dec. 30, a Chinese physician, Dr. Li Wenliang, posted on social media about a small number of people with unusual pneumonia. Though scientists in labs were already sequencing the virus, he was warned and reprimanded by local officials for rumor-mongering and the illegal activity of publishing false information online. (Li later died of the illness.) There is a tradition in China (and likely much of the world) for local authorities not to report bad news to their superiors. During the Great Leap Forward, an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China from 1958 to 1962, local officials reported exaggerated harvest yields even as millions were starving. More recently, officials in Henan province denied there was an epidemic of AIDS spread through unsanitary blood collection practices. Indeed, even when Beijing urges greater attention to scientific reality, compliance is mixed. On Feb. 13, the Communist Party secretaries of Wuhan and Hubei provinces lost their jobs over their botched initial handling of the crisis. But the damage had been done. As the virus was taking hold, doctors were not wearing proper protective equipment. Sick people, thinking they had just a cold, didnt seek medical attention. And travelers continued to board cruise ships, spreading a new pathogen. Early on, management was less than optimal in Hubei, and theyre paying for that now, Dr. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbias Mailman School of Public Health who has been working in China and advising the Chinese government since the SARS outbreak, told me. There were, of course, genuine barriers to understanding what exactly was happening in Wuhan: Cases of pneumonia are not unusual in winter, and there was no way to know there was a novel virus. (Lipkins group is working on building a new test that distinguishes between different causes of viral pneumonias, with a researcher headed to China this week for testing.) Lest Americans feel it could never happen here, Lipkin pointed out that it took many months for health officials in the United States to acknowledge and recognize HIV as a new virus, despite gay men turning up at alarming rates with unusual pneumonias and skin cancers. Scientific competition has also slowed reaction and response, experts fear leading to the extraordinary editors plea in Nature. For a young researcher, a paper in Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine is gold in career currency. Scientific prestige may encourage perfecting data for peer review, but preparedness requires rapid dissemination of information. While federal officials in the United States warn Americans to be ready for the virus, there are important aspects of its spread about which we have little information even though they have likely been studied by scientists and officials in China, Japan, and elsewhere. Scientists in various countries are presumably gathering large amounts of data day by day, and the world deserves to see more of it. Were there patterns around infections, places, procedures? Maybe that is being collected and readied for the medical literature. But it would be hugely important to know, said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which studies epidemics. For example: Of the more than 1,700 health workers infected in China, did those infections occur before they knew to wear protective equipment? Were they doing procedures that might lead to exposure? Those answers would quell fears about how the virus spreads and how to protect front-line workers. Likewise, hundreds of people tested positive aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship and were transferred to the hospital. But little public information has been released about what shape they were in. How many in the cohort were really sick, how many just had minor symptoms, and how many just needed isolation? Does the pattern of infection suggest a role for transmission via plumbing on the ship? Finally, the worlds public health researchers need much more transparency about how officials are monitoring this epidemic. What exactly is Chinas surveillance strategy among the general population? To gauge the actual death rate of COVID-19, researchers would need to know how many people actually have it, even if they have only mild symptoms. In-country surveillance may reveal a very large pool of people with mild or no symptoms at all. Lipkin noted that because cases observed early in an epidemic are the most severe, early mortality estimates tend to be high. As more information comes out, the death rates are likely to fall. Were probably six months out from having a good picture, and when we do, Id guess the mortality will drop dramatically, he said. Compared with the situation in 2003, when it took about five months for the Chinese central government to publicly acknowledge a deadly crisis associated with SARS, the flow of information has clearly improved. But since then, travel and commerce between China and the rest of the world have increased manifold. The spread of information about emerging infectious diseases needs to keep up with that new reality. Elisabeth Rosenthal is editor in chief, Kaiser Health News. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Shares of seven hospitality firms declined by 2.61% to 12.34% as the coronavius outbreak is suppressing the travel and tourism industry. HLV (down 12.34%), Lemon Tree Hotels (down 7.37%), Indian Hotels Company (down 6.81%), India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) (down 6.37%), Chalet Hotels (down 5.87%), TajGVK Hotels & Resorts (down 4.26%) and EIH (down 2.61%) declined. Meanwhile, the Nifty 50 index was down 127.65 points, or 1.13% at 11,175.65. Shares of hospitality companies tumbled as news of quarantines, mass evacuations and infected cruise ships make travelers reconsider going on vacation in this middle of a global pandemic. Although coronavirus started in central China, it is spreading faster in the rest of the world. The epidemic has grown to infect over 92,000 people with over 3,000 fatalities. India's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said number of confirmed coronavirus cases has jumped to 28. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Attorney Xochil Pena Rodriguez and state Rep. Roland Gutierrez will face each other in a runoff May 26 to decide who will be the Democratic nominee in the race for Texas Senate District 19. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Pete Flores in Novembers general election. With votes in all but one of the 17 counties that make up the district counted, Rodriguez had 44 percent of the nearly 70,000 votes cast district wide and Gutierrez had 38 percent. Freddy Ramirez, a Bexar County felony prosecutor, came in a distant third with 18 percent of the vote. A candidate needed a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Democrats hope to regain Senate District 19 seat Texas Democrats hope to regain the seat in the fall. The district had been solidly blue for 139 years until Flores, a political newcomer and retired game warden living in Pleasanton, pulled off a stunning upset to capture the seat in a 2018 special election. The seat had become vacant after Sen. Carlos Uresti was convicted of felony corruption charges and resigned his office. Rodriguez, 37, the daughter of former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, was born and raised on San Antonios South Side. This marks her first run for political office. She campaigned on a platform of being more responsive to Texans needs. She called for better educational opportunities and quality, affordable health care in the district. She also highlighted infrastructure needs, including inadequate internet access. It was Gutierrezs second campaign for the seat. He lost the special election to Flores in 2018. Gutierrez, 49, is nearing the end of his sixth term as state representative for House District 119. The immigration lawyer and former San Antonio city councilman said hes the only District 19 candidate with a plan to fill the $7 billion education funding shortfall that Texas faces in the next biennium. He proposes legalizing cannabis to bridge the gap. Gutierrez projected that legal cannabis would generate $3.6 billion in taxable revenue per biennium, create up to 30,000 jobs and establish a $10 billion industry in Texas. Ramirez, a first-time candidate for elective office, focused on education funding, health care, mental health services and infrastructure during his campaign. On ExpressNews.com: How a retired game warden defied the odds in Senate District 19 Flores, 60, the incumbent senator, was unopposed in the Republican primary. He retired from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as the colonel game warden, essentially the states chief game warden. Flores said he has a proven record of working across the aisle and getting things done. District 19 encompasses all or parts of 17 counties, including Bexar and Atascosa. It extends from the east side of San Antonio to Reeves and Brewster counties in West Texas. The sole county that had not reported a complete count to the Texas Secretary of State was Dimmit, which has a population of about 10,000 people with about 7,000 registered to vote, according to the Secretary of States office. It appeared only Dimmits early vote 433 votes for the SD 19 race, of which Ramirez took 170 had been reported as of 6 a.m. Wednesday. More than half of the districtwide vote came in Bexar County, and the candidates percentages were similar to the districtwide results. Rodriguez pulled in 19,043 votes in Bexar, which accounted for 46 percent. Gutierrez drew 15,019 votes, which was 36 percent. Ramirez logged 7,354 votes for 18 percent. The district is home to around 830,000 people and includes 463 miles along the Mexican border. It includes parts of the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. Peggy OHare reports on the census, demographics and occasionally crime and general assignments in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare As the coronavirus and its COVID-19 disease spread, Insurance professionals going to industry conferences over the next few weeks and months could find themselves having their temperature taken at the door and being told not to shake hands with fellow attendees. They will also be encouraged to wash their hands frequently. Other than that, its mostly business-as-usual for insurance conference planners, thus far. Insurance Journal checked in with organizers of various global and national conferences and found that while they are monitoring the coronavirus situation closely, none of the organizations has cancelled a conference. [Editors Note: The day after this story was published, Insurance Journal learned of one insurance conference cancellation, or conversion. Insurance data analytics and risk modeling firm Verisk has converted its Cyber and Casualty Seminar scheduled for March 10 in New York City from an in-person to a free virtual event out of an abundance of caution over the global spread of the novel coronavirus. Learn more. Also, a major insurance claims industry conference scheduled to start Sunday, March 8 was cancelled. The event was scheduled for the Gaylord National Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. The Property Liability Research Bureau (PLRB) called off its 2020 Claims Conference on Saturday at 10 p.m., the night before registration was to begin, after the American Conservative Union reported on Saturday that an attendee at its recent Conservative Political Action Conference at the hotel had tested positive for the virus. Learn more.] The organizations are emphasizing that registrants who are ill should not travel, while working with the managers of their hosting venues to sanitize their meeting spaces and provide convenient hand washing facilities. From RIMS to Insurance Innovators, WCRI to NAMIC to NAIC, the meetings are on. A key influence on the thinking of some organizers to forge ahead with their plans: they do not have many, if any, registrants from areas hard hit by the virus. MarketforceLive, creators of the Insurance Innovators series of conferences including Claims 2020 and Fraud 2020 in London on March 11 and USA 2020 in Nashville March 30-31, has decided to move ahead as scheduled but with limitations on registrants from China. Currently, its advisory said, we do not have any delegates from China registered to attend our events in Europe or the USA and we currently do not expect any delegates from China to register in the coming months. We will not permit entry to any delegates from Hubei or Wuhan provinces, the specific lockdown areas in Northern Italy as designated by the Italian government and parts of South Korea. Furthermore, travellers from China would need to show proof that they have been outside of China for 14 days prior to the event before being allowed to attend. Michael Brode of the Property Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB) said his organization is well-prepared for its annual Claims Conference and Insurance Expo on March 8-11 in Washington, D.C. PLRB always has contingency plans. Big meetings get canceled from time to time due to weather events also known as acts of god. PLRB works with the host cities, hotels, and convention centers when these things happen. PLRB is prepared to adapt at a moments notice, Brode told Insurance Journal. Parametric Insurance for Hotel Cancellations Organizers of events called off because of the coronavirus are likely to miss out on insurance payouts because typical policies do not cover epidemic outbreaks. Hotels hit by cancellations may fare better. A new type of insurance launched by Lloyds of London just last year offers hotels compensation when revenue per available room drops below a certain level because of factors they could not predict or control. Learn more. Bode said PLRBs audience is mostly domestic and it does not have a significant number of international participants from countries with significant outbreaks. PLRB said on Wednesday it has seen about 10% of registrants cancel. MarketforceLive is taking precautions further than the others. All attendees will be temperature checked upon entry to a MarketforceLive event, anyone registering a temperature above 37.5C will not be admitted to the event, according to the company. Furthermore, forget the self-serve buffets at an Insurance Innovations event. All food will be served by venue staff to stop cross contamination at buffets. Registration will be conducted by MarketforceLive staff to avoid multiple people using the same touchscreen devices. Also, all of its events have adopted a no-handshake policy until further notice. The thinking on handshakes is similar at the Workers Compensation Research Institute, which is meeting in Boston this week. WCRI said the conference hotel is reinforcing recommended measures on appropriate sanitation standards and following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization and local health authorities. While the risk remains low at this time, WCRI encourages a handshake-free meeting, its memo to attendees adds. RIMS 2020, which is among the industrys largest meetings and draws a global audience, is scheduled to go an as planned for Denver in early May, according to a statement from the risk management group. The safety and well-being of our attendees is a priority. We are taking the potential impact of COVID-19 virus very seriously and are working with local agencies and partners to ensure that we deliver a safe and productive environment, RIMS said. Crista Hassett, vice president of event operations for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said her organization is continuing its current event schedule without interruption. That said, we are following coronavirus updates to address the safety and well-being of attendees at all future events, she added. We realize that the situation may change in the coming days and weeks and we will reevaluate as needed. Among NAMICs upcoming meetings are a Commercial Lines Seminar this week in Chicago and a CEO Roundtables event on March 22-24 in Orlando. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said it currently does not believe the immediate risk of COVID-19 warrants any change in its meeting plans However, we are actively monitoring the situation on a day to day basis, with the safety and security of our attendees in mind, the organization told Insurance Journal. NAICs upcoming conferences include its Spring Meeting on March 21-24 in Phoenix and its International Forum on May 4-5 in Washington, D.C. Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway announced it is proceeding with its May 2 annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, which attracts as many as 40,000 people from around the world, as planned no matter what happens. It posted this notice on its website: The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting will be held on May 2, 2020 irrespective of conditions at that time. The scope of the meeting and associated activities may be modified by circumstances at the time, but we have no present plans to do so. While insurance professionals may not feel the effects of the virus in their convention plans, some may come to feel its effects elsewhere. Fitch Ratings says that while the coronavirus outbreak is not expected to have a big impact on insurers, event cancellation is one area where they may have losses. There have been a number of cancelations of large events in other industries and regions hit by the coronavirus. Last month a major telecoms conference Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was canceled and more recently two major energy conferences in the Middle East were postponed. A conference on the world economy scheduled for Italy later this month with Pope Francis has been rescheduled for November. Facebook pulled the plug on its March 9 global marketing summit in San Francisco and yesterday it pulled out of next weeks South by Southwest (SXSW) music and tech festival in Austin. MOSCOW Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, fired his cabinet of ministers on Wednesday after suggesting in a speech that they had become overly solicitous of Western nations that financially support Ukraine by appointing foreigners to the boards of state companies. With all respect to our international partners and with all appreciation for their help, the citizens of our country on governing boards of our companies are feeling like an ethnic minority, Mr. Zelensky said in the speech in Parliament, where a vote was needed to dismiss the cabinet. Mr. Zelensky also faulted the ministers for poor performance but offered praise and thanks that none had become entangled in a corruption scandal in the six months they served. The shake-up was the most sweeping since Mr. Zelensky, a former comedian, won a presidential election last spring on promises to end a six-year war with Russian-backed separatists, and to root out corruption. Photo: Latha B/Flickr Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Sacramento. Wildfire burning 100 miles north of Sacramento: 'It's not common' A wildfire burning 100 miles north of Sacramento has spread to 50 acres and was 20% contained as of Monday night. Read the full story on SFGATE. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg reelected Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg was reelected during the March 3 primary election. Read the full story on KCRA 3. Sacramento DA looking at more cases tied to Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist suspect Prosecutors in Sacramento are continuing to investigate Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist suspect Joseph James DeAngelo for a series of rapes in seven California counties and are seeking five fresh DNA samples from him as part of their efforts to convict him in their ongoing case. Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento police chase ends with suspect shot at Miller Park An early morning police chase ended at Sacramento's Miller Park, where police say the suspect shot himself. Read the full story on KCRA 3. Sacramento store security guard injured by suspected shoplifters, police say The security guard suffered moderate injuries and was taken to a hospital. Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Ready Steady Cook viewers were left amazed after watching the show's first blind contestant show off his impressive cooking skills today. Alex Pepper, 29, from London, who lost his sight four years ago, demonstrated the gadgets and techniques he uses to help him move around the kitchen on this afternoon's BBC One programme. He had sticker bumps to show where the hob was, a beeper to measure the level when pouring hot water, and special oven gloves. Fans were fascinated with the helpful items and also loved Alex's guide dog River, who was in the studio audience. Ready Steady Cook viewers were left amazed after watching the show's first blind contestant Alex Pepper, 29, from London, (pictured left with presenter Rylan Clark-Neal) show off his impressive cooking skills today Alex, who lost his sight four years ago, demonstrated the gadgets and techniques he uses to help him move around the kitchen on this afternoon's BBC One programme. Pictured: A beeper to measure the level when pouring hot water Fans were fascinated by the helpful items and also loved Alex's guide dog River (pictured), who was in the studio audience One person wrote: 'Today's Ready Steady Cook is a must watch! If you ever wondered how someone partially sighted cooks, Rylan is demonstrating with his contestants. 'I am so glad we are giving a platform to diverse contestants and being educated at the same time.' Another said: 'The blind contestant on Ready Steady Cook has brought some fascinating gadgets with him to help in the kitchen. Interesting stuff!' Alex revealed on the show that he was four months old when he suffered from cancer of the eye, leaving him partially sighted. Four years ago, his condition worsened and he was left fully blind. Viewers were wowed by the gadgets which aided Alex in the kitchen while others explained how they loved seeing guide dog River in the studio audience on today's show Alex also explained while on the show, how when cooking at home, he used a bar code reader for identifying ingredients and a speaking set of scales. He said he wanted to take part in the programme to show that 'anyone can get in the kitchen if they want to, it's just finding the know how'. Alex, who starred in Guide Dogs latest advertising campaign, won the episode against his cousin Joe Pepper, who is also visually impaired. He was voted the winner as part of team green pepper by the studio audience with his chef Mike Reid, defeating team red tomato consisting of chef Romy Gill and his cousin Joe. Alex (above) said he wanted to take part in the programme to show that 'anyone can get in the kitchen if they want to, it's just finding the know how' Alex said: Winning Ready Steady Cook was an amazing experience, especially as I got to take part with my cousin Joe! Rylan and the team were so welcoming and seemed genuinely interested in how I navigate the kitchen. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate how blind and partially sighted people can cook just like anyone else, and the producers spent a lot of time asking me what tools, tips and tricks I use that I thought people at home would be interested in. The iconic daytime programme returned to our screens this week, ten years after its last episode, with Rylan Clark-Neal, 31, replacing Ainsley Harriot, 63, as host. Speaking ahead of today's episode, Rylan told the Mirror: 'Alex is fully blind and was just unbelievable in the kitchen. Alex, who starred in Guide Dogs latest advertising campaign, won the episode against his cousin Joe Pepper (pictured right), who is also visually impaired 'He wasnt treated any differently to any other contestant. The first thought I had was, ignorantly, how is he going to get on with the chopping? 'How is he going to get on with the gas hob? Is it going to be dangerous? Absolutely not, because theres little things we learnt from him.' The BBC decided to leave the show's format largely unchanged for the new series and as before, two contestants are paired up with a professional chef. For the first challenge, contestants bring in ingredients bought on a 10 budget and create a dish in 20 minutes with their chef. Alex (pictured left) was voted the winner as part of team green pepper by the studio audience with his chef Mike Reid, defeating team red tomato consisting of chef Romy Gill and his cousin Joe The second task has been changed slightly and sees the studio audience hold up cards with letters on them to be picked from by the two contestants. They randomly select three cards, which are then turned around to reveal three different ingredients. The chef's have ten minutes to create dishes from the items and the audience picks the winners. But while the format hasn't changed, the show has certainly become more sustainable. Gone are the famous plastic bags that the contestants brought their goods in replaced by reusable ones. Meanwhile unused food will be given to a food bank, and locally sourced produce is favoured. Ready Steady Cook, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm, BBC1 India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on. "Export of specified APIs and formulations made from these APIs... is hereby 'restricted' with immediate effect and till further orders," the Director General of Foreign Trade said in a statement on Tuesday, without explaining the extent of the restrictions. The list given by the government, of 26 APIs and their formulations, account for 10% of all Indian pharmaceutical exports. "Irrespective of the ban, some of these molecules may face shortages for the next couple of months," Dinesh Dua, chairman, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India, told Reuters. "If coronavirus is not contained, then in that case there could be acute shortages," Dua said. The council falls under the federal commerce ministry. Separately, the government said on Tuesday it had detected "high viral load" in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the virus in the capital New Delhi. The people have been kept in isolation and their samples are being sent to India's National Institute of Virology for confirmation, the government said in a statement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to quell public fears. "There is no need to panic," he said in a tweet. "Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries & states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention," he added. On Monday, India reported three new cases of coronavirus, including an Italian national in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. The patient in New Delhi was being closely monitored but stable, the government said. The Indian ministry of health did not immediately give further details on the cases when contacted by Reuters. David Fernandes sat with his young son at a table facing members of a nuclear safety tribunal, expressing the shock he felt when he found out he lives near a plant that produces nuclear fuel. The devastating thoughts that his five-year-old boy may be harmed by going to a community park just 350 metres from the BWXT Nuclear Energy plant, on Lansdowne Avenue north of Dupont Street, are difficult for me to express, Fernandes said, speaking to the tribunal members on a raised platform in a west-end Toronto ballroom. I do not want BWXT to continue operating in my neighbourhood, or anywhere in Toronto, he said. It was the kind of impassioned plea that was echoed again and again Monday and Tuesday at the Casa do Alentejo Community Centre on Dupont Street as the commissions five-member tribunal heard public submissions on a controversial application to renew the plants licence for 10 years. BWXT manufacturers pellets for nuclear fuel bundles using uranium dioxide powder. More than half the uranium pellets that fuel Ontarios nuclear reactors are made each year at the Davenport plant. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), which has 900 employees, regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials in the country and enforces the regulations set out in the Nuclear Safety and Control Act. Its tribunal is a quasi-judicial body that operates independently of commission staff. At the hearings this week, many of the speakers expressed fear over the potential risk of uranium exposure despite assurances from a raft of scientific and technological experts from the CNSC. The experts, who spoke in person and by video from Ottawa, where the commission is based, repeatedly said that radiation emissions from the plant were well below allowable limits and that there were no health and environmental risks. The company monitors emissions from its stacks 24 hours a day, seven days a week and also analyzes the amount of uranium dioxide that is captured in five air filters around the perimeter of the plant. That data is not available in real-time to outside organizations another complaint at the hearings. Speakers were also critical of the companys outreach efforts, which are a condition of its licence. In the hearings, tribunal members asked CNSC staff and BWXT to address community members concerns about the companys transparency, as well as outreach by commission staff and the company. Speaker after speaker told the tribunal they only found out about the plant years after they had already moved into the neighbourhood. BWXT told the hearing that it delivers flyers to 4,000 people multiple times during the year, holds barbecues and regularly updates information on its website. Julie Dzerowicz, the Liberal MP for Davenport, told the hearing that BWXT has continued to be a source of anxiety to her constituents, even though she has not personally heard any evidence from health officials that its a risk. She said the lack of information breeds anxiety. On day two of the hearings, Rumina Velshi, the president of the CNSC tribunal, agreed, saying: I dont think one of (the speakers) left this room convinced that they were safe ... whats tried before is not working. Marit Stiles, Davenports NDP MPP, told the tribunal she had knocked on doors over the weekend, finding that nearly everyone she talked to was unaware of the plants existence. We cannot ask residents to become their own environmental monitoring agency, she said. Both politicians said theyd like the plant to move. But, Velshi said as she did on day one community buy-in is not a consideration for renewing the plants licence. BWXT staff, including president John MacQuarrie, were also present and spoke of the facilitys safety measures, particularly around a 9,000-gallon liquid hydrogen tank that was the focus of several residents fears. Employee Dave Snopek told the commission the tank has several built-in safety features that would relieve pressure in the event of a fire. In the extremely rare event of an explosion, said Doug Chambers, another employee, you would expect some broken windows, but it would not be a situation where buildings would fall down. Steve Coupland of the Canadian Nuclear Association, the trade association for the industry, praised BWXT for improvements to safety systems at the plant, its environmental performance and for improvement to its public information program, newsletters and website. Still, he said, most people dont understand radiation exposure and its incredibly difficult to change peoples minds. Mr. Fernandes wouldnt let his son play in the playground ... The data shows theres no risk. But he was genuinely concerned about his son, Coupland said. RELATED STORIES GTA This Toronto plant makes fuel for Ontario nuclear reactors. A group of Davenport neighbours want it gone The only way to change peoples minds is through education and public outreach, he said. The CNSC held the hearings in the Davenport riding because of the unprecedented level of interest that the application has generated. They will hold similar hearings in Peterborough from Wednesday to Friday because BWXT has asked the commission to include a clause in its licence that would allow it to move the pelleting operation to Peterborough. BWXT has a second plant in Peterborough where the pellets are assembled into fuel bundles for Darlington and Pickering reactors. Peterborough activists are opposed to the move because the existing BWXT facility is across the street from an elementary school. Nearly 250 people registered to speak, or sent in written submissions to the tribunal. CNSC staff have recommended renewing the licence, which covers both the Toronto and Peterborough plants. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will never compromise safety and would never issue a licence for uranium processing operations unless the proposed activities were safe, a commission spokesperson said in an email last week. The licensing process includes a separate and thorough assessment by CNSC staff of BWXTs application submission. The assessment is based on the best available science and operational experience which informs a recommendation, according to the email. It is important to note that this recommendation is not in any way an authorization or preliminary approval of BWXTs licence application. The Commission is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal; it will review all the submissions and render an independent decision in due course. Muhyiddin Yassin A staunch Muslim nationalist backed by a scandal-mired party was sworn in as Malaysia's Prime Minister 01 March 2020 after a reformist government's collapse. For the first time since independence, there was no non-Malay party at the core of the government. Bersatu, UMNO and PAS are all Malay-centric parties and all three do not have a single non-Muslim MP. The move forstalled the impending rise to the Prime Minister's office of Anwar Ibrahim, who had campaigned on a platform of fighting corruption and rolling back race-based policies that favor ethnic-majority Malays. Ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, 94, slammed the move as illegal. The Southeast Asian nation was plunged into turmoil after Mahathir's "Pact of Hope" alliance, which stormed to a historic victory in 2018, collapsed amid bitter infighting. He lost in a power struggle to Muhyiddin Yassin, who heads a coalition dominated by the multi-ethnic country's Muslim majority and has faced criticism for controversial remarks about nationality. Muhyiddin saw the chance to be Malaysia's new prime minister and used his decades of political experience to seize it. The King's decision 29 February 2020 to pick Muhyiddin as prime minister was greeted with shock as Mahathir's allies claimed to have enough support, and it sparked widespread anger that the democratically elected government had been thrown out. Muhyiddin's coalition includes the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party of disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak, as well as a hardline group that wants tougher Islamic laws. UMNO was the corruption-riddled lynchpin of a coalition thrown out at the 2018 elections amid allegations Najib and his cronies looted billions of dollars from state-fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) - an insolvent Malaysian strategic development company. Najib is now on trial for corruption. Just before Muhyiddin's inauguration, Mahathir accused him of betrayal and said he would seek a parliament vote challenging the new leader's support. Despite a last-minute bid by Mahathir to prove that he had enough support to return as prime minister, Muhyiddin's inauguration went ahead 01 March 2020 at the national palace. His alliance boycotted the ceremony. To become prime minister, a candidate must prove to the King, who appoints the prime minister, that he has the backing of at least 112 MPs. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, 73, was a Member of Parliament for P143 Pagoh from 1978 to 1986 and served as Deputy Federal Territory Minister as well as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry during that period. He was subsequently appointed as the Johor Menteri Besar from 1986 to 1995 after being elected as a Bukit Serampang assemblyman. Tan Sri Muhyiddin returned to the federal government after being re-elected as a Member of Parliament in the 1995 General Elections. At the 14th General Election, he was also elected as the N09 Gambir Assemblyman. Tan Sri Muhyiddin held the position of President of the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (BERSATU). After GE14 he was appointed to lead the Home Ministry. He managed to survive the transition from Mahathir to the next Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, and again when the Prime Ministership passed to Najib Razak. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on 18 March 2008 announced Malaysia's new cabinet. Vice President and former Minister of Agriculture Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed as the new Minister of International Trade and Industry, replacing long-time Minister Rafidah Aziz. Muhyiddin could represent a sense of continuity in US-Malaysian trade relations. He had expressed support for a US-Malaysian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with U.S. officials in the past as Agriculture Minister. However, in his Agriculture role he also pushed several measures that are probably inconsistent with WTO obligations. Muhyiddin was the most prominent UMNO leader responsible for forcing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to agree to step down in favor of Najib after the disastrous March 2008 elections. In September 2008 UMNO management committee leaders pushing for Abdullah's early removal included UMNO VP Muhyiddin Yassin, who indicated March 2009 was the firm deadline for Abdullah's departure. The UMNO Supreme Council postponed party elections from December to March 2009, but apparently with the understanding that Abdullah does not seek reelection. UMNO Vice President and Minister for International Trade and Industry Muhyiddin Yassin publicly urged all UMNO divisions to give "100 percent backing" for Najib to ensure that the leadership transition from Abdullah to Najib "can proceed smoothly." Muhyiddin was widely expected to announce his candidacy for the party's Deputy President post on October 10, and stood as the presumed frontrunner for the deputy slot. Najib personally but quietly supported Muhyiddin as the choice for Deputy UMNO President after Ali Rustam, Melaka Chief Minister and former UMNO Senior Vice President, was barred from contesting for the post for corruption. During the March 24-28 2009 UMNO General Assembly, Muhyiddin pledged to be "ultra loyal" to Najib. Muhyiddin won the UMNO deputy president post, which by tradition carries with it the Deputy Prime Minister position. In addition, Najib made Muhyiddin Education Minister, an important patronage position but without access to the central levers of power. Observers debate how close Muhyiddin really is to Najib as some consider him as ambitious and a possible rival to Najib under certain circumstances. Some observers have indicated Muhyiddin has yet to completely satisfy Najib of the new DPM's loyalty. Prime Minister Najib Razak publicly announced his cabinet on 09 April 2009, placing his loyalists in key positions and giving the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party control of 15 out of 24 ministries. Najib officially appointed Muhyiddin Yassin as his Deputy Prime Minister, keeping with the tradition that the UMNO Deputy President serves in this post. Muhyiddin, the previous Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), is also the new Minister of Education. The Education Ministry is not considered as prestigious as MITI, but is still considered moderately important and commands the largest budget of all the ministries. Traditionally, the Deputy Prime Minister has held more politically powerful posts, such as Defense, Home Affairs or Finance; this is not the case with Muhyiddin. While in Najibs government as Education Minister, Muhyiddin ended the use of the English language to teach math and science. Muhyiddin said, according to The Guardian: I wouldnt say its a complete failure but it has not achieved the desired objectives that it was supposed to achieve. The government is convinced that science and maths need to be taught in a language that will be easily understood by students, which is Bahasa Malay in national schools, Mandarin in Chinese schools and Tamil in Tamil schools. He courted controversy in 2010, when after being challenged by Democratic Action Party (DAP) veteran Lim Kit Siang to call himself a Malaysian first, described himself as a Malay first. Muhyiddin said, according to The Star Online: How can I say I am a Malaysian first and a Malay second. All Malays will shun me and say its not proper as Indians will also say they are Indian first. Tan Sri Muhyiddin was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia when he joined the Cabinet in 2013. Previously, from 1995 to 2015, he held several positions including; Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Minister of International Trade and Industry, Minister of Education and Minister of Education I. Tan Sri Muhyiddin was previously deputy chairman of the Barisan Nasional from 2009 to 2015. Muhyiddins long career seemed over in 2015 when he was sacked by Najib from his post as Deputy Prime Minister. His offence was criticising his bosss handling of the scandal surrounding 1MDB, Malaysias sovereign wealth fund. He was quoted by The Malaysian Insider as saying: I told him to let go of his post in 1MDB, but he didnt want to listen I dont have any evil intention, my will is to help him. His repeated criticism saw him also sacked from his party post by UMNO in June 2016. Tan Sri Muhyiddin married Puan Sri Hajjah Noorainee Abdul Rahman on September 22, 1972, and was blessed with 4 children. His early career in the public sector began as the Assistant Secretary of State of Johor (Training and Scholarship) in 1970 and later as Assistant District Officer in 1974. He has also held several important corporate sector positions in several state government investment subsidiaries including the Johor Darul Takzim State Economic Development Corporation (PKENJ); now the Johor Corporation (JCorp) from 1974 to 1978. In Muhyiddin registered a new political party whose name translates to the United Indigenous Party of Malaysia - BERSATU. As the name suggests, it is an explicitly Bumiputera-first policy, with Bumiputeras as full members and non-Bumiputeras only allowed associate membership. Tan Sri Muhyiddin has been with BERSATU since September 2016 and has been elected as the President of BERSATU and the Heads of Pagoh Division in the same year. Muhyiddin served as party president, with his old boss Mahathir as chairman. Bersatu joined forces with Anwar Ibrahim of PKR, Lim Guan Eng of the DAP, and Mohamad Mat Sabu of Amanah to form the Pakatan Harapan coalition for the May 2018 general election. On 24 February 2020, Muhyiddin announced that Bersatu was leaving Pakatan Harapan, triggering the collapse of the government. Muhyiddin, after a career spent serving three different Prime Ministers in four different terms, finally assumed power as Malaysias Prime Minister himself. On 1st March 2020, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah appointed Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia. Well-polished and sophisticated, Muhyiddin is a very credible senior interlocutor, particularly on economic issues, given his strong background as Trade Minister. Muhyiddin Yassin resigned 16 August 2021, following months of political turmoil. Muhyiddin said he was stepping down after losing majority support in parliament. Muhyiddin was under pressure to resign from both political and civilian fronts. People were angry over his handling of the COVID crisis in the country. Muhyiddin said the recent crisis was because of his refusal to meet certain demands, including dropping corruption charges against some individuals. UMNO lawmakers, including former premier Najib Razak and party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, are facing graft charges. The king said Muhyiddin would stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government could be formed. It is not immediately clear who could form the next government, seeing as nobody commands a clear majority. King Al-Sultan Abdullah will likely make a decision in the case. Ordinarily, calling fresh elections would be the alternative option. However, these are considered unlikely at present because of rising COVID cases and economic instability amid the pandemic. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) Mauritius' Commerce and Consumer Protection ministry on Wednesday introduced a temporary ban on importation of live animals including fish in view of the COVID-19 internationally Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 10:45 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206829754 1 City COVID-19,coronavirus,outbreak,commuter-trains,hand-sanitizer,face-mask,Greater-Jakarta,passenger-trains Free State-owned commuter line operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) is offering hand sanitizer and disposable face masks to passengers at its 80 stations amid concerns over the possibility of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Jakarta, following the countrys first two confirmed cases. The companys spokesperson, Anne Purba, said the hand sanitizers and face masks would be available for passengers starting Tuesday. #RekanCommuters PT KCI secara rutin melakukan tindakan preventif bagi pengguna KRL terkait mulai mewabahnya Virus Corona. Selanjutnya kami mulai mendistribusikan handsanitizer untuk 80 Stasiun KRL, dan memberikan masker bagi pengguna KRL yang sedang sakit serta lansia. |1 pic.twitter.com/7yFBXjdAsn Info Commuter Line (@CommuterLine) March 3, 2020 PT KCI will distribute hand sanitizers to 80 commuter line stations. Face masks will also be available at health posts in each station, Anne said in a statement on Tuesday. She also suggested that passengers bring their own face masks and hand sanitizers to avoid long lines at the stations. Face masks will be prioritized for sick and elder passengers. Officials at the health posts can also provide first aid for sick passengers and refer them to the nearest hospital if necessary, Anne went on to say. Read also: Indonesia to test more people for COVID-19 The company asserted that all commuter trains were cleaned regularly using disinfectant. The Greater Jakarta commuter train line is deemed the backbone of railway transportation in the capital city and its surrounding areas, as the company recorded in November last year that it had served up to 1 million passengers every day. President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced on Monday Indonesias first two confirmed cases of COVID-19. Case 1 is a 31-year-old woman who had been in contact with a Japanese citizen, who tested positive in Malaysia on Feb. 27 after visiting Indonesia in early February. Case 2 is the woman's 64-year-old mother. (nal) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend Entry of ships flying Iranian flag to the Azerbaijani ports has been temporarily suspended, Tural Museyibov, spokesperson for Azerbaijans State Maritime Agency, told Trend on March 4. The State Maritime Agency of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies has temporarily restricted the entry of ships flying the Iranian flag to the Azerbaijani ports as part of proactive measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Azerbaijan, as well as of the rapid implementation of preventive and urgent measures, Museyibov added. The government will come out with a one-time settlement scheme for Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) that will provide more time to submit their pending documents as well as immunity from prosecution for defaults New Delhi: The government will come out with a one-time settlement scheme for Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) that will provide more time to submit their pending documents as well as immunity from prosecution for defaults. The LLP settlement Scheme, 2020 -- to be in force from 16 March to 13 June -- would permit a "one-time condonation of delay in filing statutorily required documents" with the Registrar of Companies. "LLPs, that wish to avail themselves of the scheme, may file the pending documents/ forms and make good the defaults, to gain immunity from prosecutions for such defaults," the corporate affairs ministry said in a release on Wednesday. LLPs are governed by the LLP Act, which is implemented by the ministry. According to the release, it has been observed that due to applicability of additional fee on late filings, which in case of inordinate delay could actually become a financial burden, a large number of LLPs have remained non-compliant. This is mainly due to their inability to pay late fees for the cumulative period of delay. There would be a one-time relaxation in additional fee for the defaulting LLPs to make good their default by filing pending documents. The scheme would permit LLPs to submit their filings that were due till 31 October, 2019. The LLP concerned has to pay a nominal additional fee of Rs 10 per day for the period of delay as well as any fee that is to be paid for submitting a document. The additional fee per document would be capped at Rs 5,000. As per the release, the scheme would be applicable for submission for four types of forms -- 3, 4, 8 and 11 -- by the LLPs. Form-3 pertains to information about LLP agreement and changes while Form-4 relates to notice of appointment, cessation, change in name/ address/ designation of a designated partner or partner. Form-8 is for statement of account and solvency (annual or interim), and Form-11 pertains to annual return of an LLP. "The scheme is being introduced in pursuance of the government's objective of providing greater ease of living to the citizens of the country and is expected to provide a significant relief and a window of opportunity for LLPs to abide by the law and conduct business accordingly," the release said. [March 04, 2020] All-Female Student STEM Team From Elwood-John H. Glenn HS Wins Annual Feinstein Institutes Science Competition The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Northwell Health's Center for Workforce Readiness gave top honors to Elwood-John H. Glenn High School in Suffolk County as the winner of its eighth annual Medical Marvels competition. The Medical Marvels program encourages regional high school students in 9th and 10th grades to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005697/en/ Medical Marvels winning team from Elwood-John H. Glenn High School (Credit: The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research) More than 135 students from 29 schools and three New York counties were asked to address the theme of vaccinations. Participants were required to include a technological/engineering component, a scientific research assessment, and public policy (public health and communication) strategy in their final presentations. A panel of scientists, clinicians and health care administrators evaluated each proposal using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant 9-point scale scoring criteria to determine each projects' Impact Score. The applications were judged for qualities such as innovation, approach and significance. "Every year, we challenge Long Island's brightest students to tackle some of the most pressing medical and scientific issues," said Cheryl Davidson, senior director of Northwell Health's Cener for Workforce Readiness. "This unique competition opens up a free-flowing dialogue between Feinstein Institutes researchers and our nation's future leaders in the STEM field." Answering a hypothetical challenge, competitors had to research the vaccination debate and put themselves in the shoes of the New York State Commissioner of Education. They were asked to imagine a measles outbreak in their school districts and tasked to develop a strategy to address vaccine hesitancy and increase the immunization rate across the state. The all-female team from Elwood-John H. Glenn High School proposed developing an organization called ProVax that would decrease vaccine hesitancy through public outreach using social media and partnering with the school system, physicians, and prominent leaders to educate the community. The proposed organization would also work to promote research and development to create genetically modified methods of immunity and utilize precise tracking and monitoring of vaccination rates. "The future health and security of the United States is in the hands of today's STEM students," said Kevin J. Tracey, MD, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes. "The Feinstein Institutes is happy to help shape young minds that one day may advance scientific achievements." Chaminade High School students placed second while Commack High School finished third in this year's competition. Presentation awards were granted to Massapequa High School, Lawrence High School, and Elwood-John H. Glenn High School. About the Feinstein Institutes The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest health care provider and private employer in New York State. Home to 50 research labs, 2,500 clinical research studies and 5,000 researchers and staff, the Feinstein Institutes raises the standard of medical innovation through its five institutes of behavioral science, bioelectronic medicine, cancer, health innovations and outcomes, and molecular medicine. We make breakthroughs in genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and are the global scientific leader in bioelectronic medicine - a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we produce knowledge to cure disease, visit feinstein.northwell.edu. About Medical Marvels An annual STEM competition for ninth and tenth grade high school students, The Medical Marvels program believes in the academic promise of all students, and that by investing in their ideas, the future health and well-being of our community will be served. They also believe that by investing in youth and giving them a sense of place and responsibility for problem solving in the community, a community ensures that it will have bright and capable future leaders for STEM careers. Any New York State-accredited educational institution in Nassau, Suffolk, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, or Westchester is eligible to participate. Medical Marvels was established in 2013 by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Northwell Health's Center for Workforce Readiness. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005697/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner has had a year to convince voters he is the right person to vote for, while Labor dropped its 2016 lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding in favour of veteran journalist Pat Condren. Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner speaking in the council chambers. Credit:Tammy Law The Greens selected Kath Angus, a breastfeeding advocate and mother, to run against the two parties, and is pitching multiple candidates in other marginal wards in a bid to boost its single seat in council. Independent Nicole Johnston (Tennyson) might be joined by newly-announced independent, former LNP councillor Kate Richards (Pullenvale), if Cr Richards can wrest the 18 per cent margin away from her former LNP colleagues. Labor lord mayoral candidate for Brisbane Pat Condren. Credit:Fairfax Media In total nine lord mayoral candidates have raised their hands, including the Animal Justice Party's Karagh-Mae Kelly, Herston resident John Dobinson, 2016 candidate Jeffrey Hodges, and Benjamin Gorringe, who is running on a campaign offering a free goldfish for every Brisbane resident. Ipswich After nearly two years under the watchful eye of interim administrator Greg Chemello, Ipswich City Council will return with a full council. During the administrator's era, Mr Chemello overhauled Ipswich's divisions and restructured them so each division has two councillors. Former mayor Paul Pisasale is in jail and appealing his sentence for extortion, while some other Ipswich councillors and former employees are being processed through the court system after the Crime and Corruption Commission laid a litany of charges. Paul Tully, former Ipswich councillor and deputy mayor, confirmed he would run for division two with a running mate, Nicole Jonic. Former Ipswich deputy mayor Paul Tully will run as part of a two-person team with Goodna accountant Nicole Jonic. Seven people, including a federal LNP candidate, two Labor Party members, a Greens accountant, a truck driver, custom truck magazine editor Chris Smith and little-known businessman Karoly Kochardy, want to become the new Ipswich mayor. Logan The second Queensland council to be sacked en masse, Logan City Council has been under the purview of an interim administrator, Tamara O'Shea. Now a sacked councillor, the father of a state Labor minister and a former federal member of Parliament who went up against former mayor Luke Smith at the poll are among the five who will run for the Logan mayoralty in the coming election. Long-serving Logan councillor Darren Power to stand for mayor of Logan in March 2020. Former councillor Darren Power, who lost his job when Logan ratepayers were left without a council after it was sacked en masse by the state government, is one of those running. Allan de Brenni, lawyer and father of Queensland Housing and Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni, is also running for mayor, against former federal member Brett Raguse, who lost the race for Logan mayor in the last election. The remaining Logan councillors who were not charged by the CCC - Lisa Bradley, Laurie Koranski and Jon Raven - are all running again. Moreton Bay Incumbent Allan Sutherland announced last year he would not recontest the election, after years of leading the council. Cr Sutherland is facing two charges from the CCC, over which he was automatically suspended. Moreton Bay mayor Allan Sutherland. Credit:Robert Shakespeare Suspended councillor Adrian Raedel, however, confirmed he would run for mayor despite a charge laid by the CCC against him last year, while Moreton Bay division two councillor Peter Flannery has also nominated. Candidate Cherie Porter announced late on Tuesday after nominations closed that she would not be contesting owing to personal reasons. Former LNP candidate and Pine Rivers resident Chris Thompson is also contesting for mayor, while real estate agent Dean Teasdale and community advocate Eric Shields have also nominated. Sunshine Coast Incumbent mayor Mark Jamieson faces a challenge from former councillor Chris Thompson, who was on the council from 2004-2016 and stood down to spend more time with his family. Other mayoral challenges include Donald Innes, and businessman Michael Burgess. Gold Coast Tom Tate insisted he would run again despite a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into the Gold Coast council, and has been true to his word. The Gold Coast mayor will face challenges from eight mayoral hopefuls, including nutritionist Mona Hecke, dry-cleaning business manager Virginia Freebody, and independent Derek Rosborough. Redland In Redland, tucked between Brisbane, the Sunshine and Gold coasts, incumbent mayor Karen Williams will run again, with two possible contenders against her. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam Wed, March 4, 2020 06:30 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20680ef94 1 National Batam,COVID-19,Riau-Islands,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,quarantine,outbreak,outbreak-in-Indonesia Free Two men in Batam, Riau Islands, who had been in close contact with a Singaporean COVID-19 patient have evaded quarantine, the city's health authorities said on Tuesday. Both residents work as app-based ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and are among the 15 people identified as having been in close contact with three Singapore residents who tested positive for COVID-19 after visiting Batam. The two were supposed to be quarantined with nine other people at the haj dormitory complex in Batam from March 2 to 8, while the four other contacts are being quarantined in their homes. "One of them was already quarantined but then ran away. Another has refused since the beginning and can't be reached now. They refused to be quarantined because they're afraid of losing their jobs and income, Riau Islands Health Agency head Tjeptjep Yudiana told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. We're currently looking for ways to give them money [to replace their lost earnings]. He said his agency had requested the local police's help to search for the two men so they could proceed with the quarantine. The Health Agency is using a room on the third floor of a building in the complex to quarantine the 11 people along with three observation and medical workers. The rest of the complex remains open to the public, Tjeptjep said. He added that medical workers were not yet familiar with how to implement a quarantine during a virus outbreak, which could impede the success of the process. He also acknowledged that Indonesia's capabilities in identifying those who had been in close contact with COVID-19 patients lagged far behind those of neighboring Singapore, as Indonesia relied on interviews, while the city-state used CCTV cameras installed in many public areas. "However, we have some experience from the quarantine of returnees from Wuhan in Natuna [...] Our officers are capable enough to handle [contact tracing]," he said. Riau Police health division Sr. Comr. Muhammad Haris, who also leads the citys coronavirus mitigation task force, said he had requested that officers of the Batam Mobile Brigade (Brimob) help secure the quarantine area. He added the police were still searching for the two men. On Sunday, Singapores Health Ministry announced that three people, two Singaporean citizens and one Myanmar national, had tested positive for the disease after visiting Batam from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23. The 15 people identified as having close contact with the three patients are 33-year-old P, along with his wife and two children, and 39-year-old CSS, along with 10 of her relatives and close acquaintances. P acted as Case 103s driver during the Singaporeans visit, while CSS worked as her domestic helper. The two men who evaded quarantine are among CSSs acquaintances. (ars) The Dalton Police Department is warning of phone scammers posing as police. A phone scammer called a Dalton resident on Tuesday evening claiming to be from the Dalton Police Department. The scammers number appeared on caller ID as the police departments phone number, and the scammer attempted to get the victims social security number and other sensitive information. Fortunately, the victim in this case didnt fall for the trick and instead reported the situation to police and investigators are warning the public to be on the lookout for this scam. Police departments or other government agencies will never call you to ask for your social security number or banking information. The scam phone call reported to police Tuesday night was made in the evening after normal business hours. The victim reported that her phone rang with the caller ID displaying 706-278-9085 which is the Dalton Police Departments main phone line. The scammer, who the victim said had a Hispanic accent, told the victim that her social security number had been compromised in Texas and had been used to open multiple fraudulent credit cards. The scammer then asked for the victims social security number for confirmation. Fortunately, the victim did not give her full social security number. The scammer kept talking and told the victim to stop interrupting every time she attempted to ask questions. At one point, the scammer told the victim she was being transferred to another person posing as an investigator from Murray County to make the scam appear more real. Finally, the scammers threatened the victim that she would be arrested if she didnt follow their instructions. The victim cut off the call. This scam is not new, but its the first time its been reported in Dalton in the last few years. Its fairly simple for a phone scammer to fake the caller ID to make any number appear when they call and scam callers often attempt to pose as police or other government agencies to trick victims into giving up their personal information or to send scammers money to settle fake fines or settle fake warrants. Police or other government agencies do not call you to ask for personal information like social security numbers or bank account information. Fines arent collected over the phone on cold calls. And police or government agencies dont instruct people to make specific types of payments for fines like instructing people to purchase prepaid credit cards or gift cards. If you ever receive a call from the Dalton Police Department, simply get the name of the person calling and hang up and call the police department back to confirm it. The police departments number is 706 278-9085, and you can also contact the 911 centers non-emergency line at 706 370-4900 to confirm the identity of the caller. If the caller claims to be from another police department or agency, the contact numbers for those agencies are typically available online. Be wary of anyone that you do not know calling and asking for your personal information. As bizarre theories do the rounds of social media about the outbreak of the disease, the WHO has issued a warning against misinformation and the harm it can cause. So what are the facts? Here is what the WHO says... (Image: WHO) (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday that it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. 'Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community,' the company said. (Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday that it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. "Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community," the company said. (Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The Venice-Simplon Orient Express Picture: Tailor Made Rail IT'S virtually impossible to overstate the impact that rail travel has had on literature. Books have long inspired us to hop on a train and explore the world and few long rail journeys cannot be enlivened by a trusty paperback to flick through while the landscape scrolls by. Research by Visit England has found that more than half of surveyed holidaymakers would be inspired to visit a literary attraction. You may not be able to travel from platform 93/4 to Hogwarts, but there are still many train journeys that take in famous 'literary landmarks', so in celebration of World Book Day, Thursday, March 5, here are five train holidays with a literary bent. Agatha Christies Orient Express: London to Venice The Venice-Simplon Orient Express will naturally be forever synonymous with Agatha Christies 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express, in which Hercule Poirot is called upon to solve a murder on the train heading west from Istanbul. Christie herself was a frequent and enthusiastic international rail traveller, journeying solo all the way to Baghdad on the Orient Express to visit her second husband Max on his archaeological missions around the Middle East. She was known to travel with her typewriter and described it as undoubtedly my favourite train". The Dracula Express to Transylvania and the Black Sea This journey glides like a stake right through the heart of Transylvania, taking in Romanian capital Bucharest and the countless castles dotted around the cities of Sibiu and Sinaia, and you can take excursions to visit Peles Castle and, best of all, Brasovs Bran Castle. The castles dramatic setting, perched high above a river valley, fuelled the imagination of Irish writer Bram Stoker, who, despite never having actually set foot in Romania, was nonetheless suitably inspired to conjure up his infamous vampire and sorcerer Count Dracula just from pictures he had seen of the imposing building. Paddingtons Andean Explorer & Machu Picchu Follow in the inimitable pawprints of everyones best loved bear from deepest, darkest Peru by taking the Belmond Andean Explorer in search of world-famous Machu Picchu. Perus only luxury train travels from Arequipa to Cusco along one of the highest and most beautiful rail routes in the world, with a stay in Perus capital Lima, plus an unforgettable day trip to Machu Picchu. Tolstoys Moscow and St Petersburg The complex narrative of Leo Tolstoys seminal novel Anna Karenina is heavily underpinned by trains, including the books dramatic climax. The novel is largely set among Saint Petersburg high society and you can still experience the splendour of the city before a trip to the Russian capital of Moscow. Anne Franks Amsterdam Later this spring, Eurostar will be running their first direct return service from London to Amsterdam, delivering travellers from St Pancras to the Dutch capital or the reverse - in just four hours. Thus, providing the perfect pretext to hit up the canals, parks and museums, including a pilgrimage to the Anne Frank House, a sobering museum dedicated to the tragically short life and monumental work of Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. Suggestions from Tailor Made Rail, London As concerns mounted over spike in coronavirus cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday formed a task force and said efforts are on to screen the people who came in contact with the infected Delhi man and 16 Italian tourists. Many resident welfare associations and schools cancelled events as people in the city were urged to avoid large gatherings. Isolation wards in 19 government and six private hospitals are being readied incase of need across the national capital and thermal scanning of all passengers landing from abroad is being conducted at the airport, Kejriwal said. The man from Delhi, who tested positive on Monday, was among 29 confirmed cases in the country. These include 16 Italian tourists who had travelled by road and stayed at two hostels here. The latest case was of a Paytm employee working in Gurgaon, Haryana. Despite appeal by authorities not to panic, several people complained that masks and sanitiser were unavailable at chemist and other shops and even online sellers were showing them out of stock. Asked about alleged black-marketing of masks and hand sanitiser in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Kejriwal said the government will look into it and take all necessary preventive steps. He asserted there is no shortage of masks. Worried over the spread of virus, three schools in the national capital and adjoining areas announced holidays for students and staff, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. Most of the schools have cancelled their planned events and several were planning to sanitise premises. A large number of people commuting through the metro were seen wearing masks or covering their faces. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said it would increase the frequency of cleaning on its premises in view of the coronavirus outbreak. It has also issued do's and dont's in both English and Hindi regarding the virus. Atul Goyal, president of URJA -- United Residents Joint Action, the apex body of RWAs in Delhi -- said it has also issued an advisory to all RWAs to not have public engagements or 'Holi Milan' due to coronavirus scare. "Holi is approaching but most of the RWAs will not be celebrating Holi. We have issued an advisory to all RWAs to not have public engagements and avoid use of water in view of the coronavirus scare," he said. Sports and recreational classes were also being cancelled by some organisers. Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said a state-level task force headed by him has been formed to tackle the emerging situation and there is no need to panic. "We are concerned about the situation but there is no need to panic. We are doing whatever we can to check coronavirus from spreading...members of all the important departments in Delhi, state officials, and police officials have been included in the task force," he said. A coronovirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital if necessary, the chief minister said. "We have one confirmed case in Delhi till now and the patient has been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital. He is the resident of Mayur Vihar, who had travelled first from Italy to Budapest and then from Vienna to Delhi. "We have identified 88 people who he came in contact with after coming back to India. We are trying to conduct screening on all those 88 identified people," he told reporters. Kejriwal said thermal scanning of all the passengers landing from abroad is being conducted on the airports. They are referred to the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital incase any symptoms are observed, he added. Until now, 1,16,579 patients have been screened at the airport. On the Italian tourists, he said they "had come from Italy and were staying in Surya Hotel. But we have also traced and identified the people who had come in contact with those passengers and they have been kept in isolation". Around 13-14 rooms of the hotel have been sealed to ensure that they are properly sanitised before putting into use," he said. "The same steps have been taken in the Grand Hotel, where they stayed afterward. The passengers are currently in Chhawla ITBP camp and we are preparing to transfer them to Safdarjung Hospital for treatment as they have been found positive," he said. Municipal bodies are also contacting and screening tourists from four countries -- China, Iran, Italy and South Korea -- where most cases of the infection have come to light. The screening is being done at hotels and guesthouses in the city, he said. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) said it has formed two rapid response teams for screening of residents who visited coronavirus-affected countries after January 15 and has already screened 56 houses. The NDMC area has residences of lawmakers and other VIPs, besides the Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, diplomatic enclave and five-star hotels. The civic body has also asked all hotels and guest houses in the area to send report regarding guests coming from the affected countries or any person showing symptoms of fever or flu. On Tuesday, a five-star hotel asked its staff, who were present at one of its restaurants where an individual tested positive for coronavirus dined on February 28, to go on self-quarantine for 14 days. Earlier in the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and civic body officials and urged them to augment facilities of isolation wards in city hospitals if more cases are confirmed. Kejriwal said schoolchildren also need to be made aware of coronavirus and steps to prevent the disease from spreading. The Jamia Millia Islamia organised an awareness lecture on COVID-19, which was attended by over 200 students. The traders' association were doing their bit including procuring masks and distributing them to customers. Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar mini market traders' association, said they will also put up banners in the market informing people about various precautions to be taken in the wake of the current situation. "We will be distributing masks to customers who visit the market. We are planning to procure 1,000 to 2,000 masks in the next few days and will be distributing them to customers. Atul Bhargava of the New Delhi Traders' Association (NDTA), under which the Connaught Place market comes, said he has been creating awareness among traders of the market by sending messages on two WhatsApp groups of their association. The Khan Market sees a high footfall of foreign tourists. Sanjeev Mehra of the Khan Market Traders' Association said the tourists visiting the market themselves are quite aware and can be seen wearing masks. Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has urged the police to suspend the use of breath analyser tests for alcohol consumption. Earlier in the day, giving a break-up of those who have tested positive for the virus, Harsh Vardhan had said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person is from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Australian man has spoken out about a conversation he heard at Coles, where an employee suggested socks as an alternative to toilet paper. Real conversation that just happened very loudly at North Rocks Coles, he began his Twitter post. Man: I need toilet paper. Employee: we have absolutely none Im sorry mate. Man: Its an emergency! Employee: We sell socks in aisle 12? Man: Thank you so much!... *runs* The struggle is real people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he would not participate in any Holi Milan programme this year due to coronavirus. He said that the decision comes as experts have advised people to avoid mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme," he said. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 The Prime Minister's tweet comes a day after he urged people not to panic and asked people to undertake basic protective measures. "There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection," he had said. He had also said that the government has undertaken extensive reviews of the preparedness to tackle coronavirus. "Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention," he said. There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection. pic.twitter.com/sRRPQlMdtr - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 3, 2020 Meanwhile, the six individuals who came in contact with the Delhi coronavirus patient have been quarantined and tested. Their reports show no traces of coronavirus. Additionally, 15 from a group of 21 Italian tourists have been tested positive for coronavirus. The tourists have been kept in preventive isolation since yesterday and are currently in Chhawla camp in New Delhi. Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: PM Modi not to participate in 'Holi Milan' event over COVID-19 outbreak Also read: Coronavirus update: 15 Italian tourists in India test positive for COVID-19 NASA has announced Elon Musk owned spacex as the company to launch a mission to the 8,000 quadrillion space rock made up of the core of a long dead planet. There are so many precious metals buried within the asteroid that it could make every single person on Earth a billionaire if it were to be returned to the planet. NASA says the mission will explore Psyche 16, a 'giant mysterious metallic asteroid', that could help shed light on how rocky planets are formed in our solar system. The $117 million (93 million) mission will launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket in July 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida for the rock orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Scroll down for video In this rendering, NASA depicts a spacecraft that is capable of traveling to a distant hunk of iron and nickel that scientists say could be a planetary core Psyche 16 was originally discovered in 1852 and is believed to be the remnants of a protoplanet destroyed by 'hit-and-run collisions' when the solar system was forming. Unlike other rocky or icy bodies, Psyche 16 - spanning 150 miles across - is suspected to be made of mostly iron and nickel. There will be no mining of the space rock, in fact NASA won't even be landing on the surface - it's purely scientific - and no samples will be returned to Earth. WHAT ARE THE MISSION OBJECTIVES? Determine whether Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material Determine the relative ages of regions of Psyche's surface Determine whether small metal bodies incorporate the same light elements as are expected in the Earth's high-pressure core Determine whether Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth's core Characterize Psyche's topography SOURCE: NASA JPL Advertisement Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist calculated that the iron in 16 Psyche alone, would be worth $10,000 quadrillion (8,072 quadrillion). If this were returned to Earth it would cause the value of precious metals to plummet, completely devaluing all holdings including those of governments. Ultimately, it could lead to the collapse of the entire economy, she said. It also includes a number of other rare metals, including gold, platinum and copper. The primary materials are iron and nickel, the same materials found in Earth's core and possibly the core of every other rocky planet. By examining the planet, scientists hope to get a glimpse into the solar system's nascent past, when massive collisions were commonplace. Using a host of instruments like a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, the craft will also be taking more precise readings of the rocks composition. The goal will be to determine how old the asteroid is and whether it was formed the same way Earth was. Aside from the primary objective of investigating 16 Psyche, the initiative will also test out a new kind of communications system that uses lasers to encode data in photons rather than radio waves in order to communicate with Earth. The system will allows communications between a probe in deep space and Earth and is able to transfer more data at once than other more traditional methods. While similar objects have been observed throughout the universe, Psyche is uncharacteristically close to Earth, making it ideal for study. The mission is being led by Arizona State University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who will manage the mission and navigation. The payload being launched by SpaceX includes an imager, mangetometer to measure the magnetic field and a gamma-ray spectrometer. The secrets of our own planet could be unlocked thanks to the mission, according to NASA scientists, who say it appears remarkably similar to the Earth's core. The Psyche mission may offer insight into how planets are formed over time and could help solidify inferences about our early solar system. 'Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets including Earth scientists think there are large solid metallic cores. WHAT IS THE TIMELINE AND WHAT ARE THE KEY EVENTS? KEY EVENTS Launch: 2022 Solar electric cruise: 3.5 years Arrival at Psyche: 2026 Observation Period: 21 months in orbit, mapping and studying Psyche's properties TIMELINE 2022 - Launch of Psyche spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center, Florida 2023 - Mars Flyby of Psyche spacecraft 2026 - Psyche spacecraft arrives in asteroid's orbit 2026-2027 - Psyche spacecraft orbits the Psyche asteroid Advertisement 'These lie unreachably far below the planets' rocky mantles and crusts,' NASA wrote on the Psyche project website. 'Because we cannot see or measure Earths core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions that created terrestrial planets.' The main objectives of the mission will see it examine the rocky asteroid to see how similar - or disimilar - it is to what we think the Earth's core is like. It will determine the relative ages of the regions of its surface, whether small metal bodies incorporate the light elements as expected int he Earth's high-pressure core and whether it was formed under conditions similar to the Earth. They will also map and characterise the topography of the metalic core fragment. While the primary goal is to look at the core of Psyche 16, the payload being sent up by SpaceX will also include equipment for two other scientific missions. One will see it examine the Martian atmosphere while it makes its flybe and another, called Janus will see it study binary asteroids. It's due to launch in 2022, make a flyby of Mars in 2023 and then begin orbiting Psyche 16 in 2026 to 2027. The operator of a central Queensland mine has been charged with breaches of the mining health and safety act after a worker was killed last year. Bradley Hardwick, 47, died on February 20 when a personnel carrier and the grader he was operating crashed into each other about 4.15pm. Bradley Hardwick was killed in a collision between two pieces of machinery at a Queensland coal mine. Anglo American, which operates Moranbah North mine, about 150 kilometres south-west of Mackay, allegedly breached its obligations under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999. A Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy spokesman said the charges were filed in the Clermont Industrial Magistrates Court by the Queensland Resources Safety and Health Regulator. Image: Euro sign in Frankfurt, German - Credit: ilolab / Shutterstock - The Pound-Euro exchange rate is -0.14% lower @ 1.14540 - The Euro-Dollar exchange rate is -0.12% lower @ $1.11633 - The RBA and the Fed have already cut rates. The BoC are likely to follow today with the BoE close behind. - However, the ECB cannot make equal cuts as rates are already negative. - More likely the ECB will say they are prepared to act while hoping fiscal stimulus can steady markets. This situation should support the Euro. Central banks are making headlines with a co-ordinated response to the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell led a call with the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on Tuesday to discuss policy reactions to the outbreak. A statement followed but said little more than the expected potential for monetary stimulus, Given the potential impacts of COVID-19 on global growth, we reaffirm our commitment to use all appropriate policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable growth and safeguard against downside risks. Alongside strengthening efforts to expand health services, G7 finance ministers are ready to take actions, including fiscal measures where appropriate, to aid in the response to the virus and support the economy during this phase. Indeed, the market reaction to the call and the statement was barely noticeable, especially in context to recent market volatility. However, soon after the Fed announced a 50bps cut, and while this was broadly expected, it produced an unexpected reaction in stock markets which spiked briefly higher and then fell sharply, at one point shedding over 3%. Whats Next? Other G7 members are expected to join the Fed in easing measures. Indeed, the RBA already cut rates on Tuesday morning before the conference call and other banks have pledged support. The Bank of Canada is due to meet on Wednesday and a 50bps cut is widely expected. However, not all central banks have the option to make 50bps cuts. The ECB and BoJ in particular have limited options as rates are so low already. This situation has led to the Euro showing relative strength against many currencies, especially the US dollar, as traders are betting any easing measures are small in comparison to the Fed and other banks. ECB Cornered Last week it seemed unlikely the ECB could get involved in any easing efforts, but this changed on Monday as a statement said the bank would take appropriate and targeted measures. What this means exactly is now being debated but most agree the options are limited as further easing would plunge rates further into negative territory and pressure the banking and financial systems. As ING point out, Judging by recent statements, there has been a growing awareness of the adverse effects of the ECBs unconventional measures, lowering the likelihood of, or at least the willingness for, additional monetary policy easing. In our view, the ECB would still prefer to stick to its wait-and-see policy until next weeks official policy meeting and then try to steer markets with words rather than action. However, any empty words and lack of action could be just as dangerous for the ECB if markets continue to crash lower and the Euro continues to appreciate. A stronger Euro exchange rate could further weigh on the eurozone economies at the worst possible time. So what options does the ECB have? ING continue, The coronavirus and its impact on the economy, in our view, call for fiscal rather than monetary policy. Think of state guarantees, bridge loans or temporary tax relief. There is very little the ECB can do, besides calming financial markets. Fiscal stimulus is slower to implement than a monetary one. After all, the Feds 50bps cut is effective immediately and fiscal stimulus would need to be agreed by the governments of each member state. This route would likely mean the Euro can hold into recent strength and the Euro to Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate could break back above 1.12. Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno says he resisted shedding tears while watching displaced persons queuing for distribution of relief materials. Mr Zulum stated this during the distribution of food and non-food items to 19,000 displaced households on Tuesday at Gajiram, headquarters of Nganzai Local Government Areas of the state. The governor, who directly supervised the distribution of the items, was dismayed over the life threatening and critical conditions being experienced by the displaced people occasioned by insurgency. He said: When will our people stop queuing to receive relief items. I charge you all to cooperate with the security operatives to enable them restore normalcy in our land so that our people can go back to their farmlands. We cannot continue to depend on food aid to survive, with the kind of resources we inject in providing relief items, you can only imagine the development projects we would have executed. Mr Zulum reiterated commitment to end insurgency so as to fast track resettlement, recovery and peace restoration process. He called on the elders, stakeholders and communities to cooperate with the security agencies by providing information on suspicious movements and activities in their communities. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that about 11,300 house wives received clothing materials and N5,000 each, while 7,800 men received one bag of rice and maize as well as three litres of cooking oil each. The beneficiaries were displaced persons taking shelter in host communities and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the area. Meanwhile, Mr Zulum had visited Mega Primary School, Gajiram in Nganzai, and supervised the ongoing enrollment exercise to facilitate resumption of academic activities. The governor assured provision of necessary support to ensure that schools were reopened in the area. Education is a game changer; you have to ensure that enrollment figures will match with classroom capacity. I will provide uniforms, reading materials and other facilities to ensure sustainability, he said. But Kim Jong Uns insular world also could face a major crisis if the virus that causes covid-19 finds its way in. An outbreak could overwhelm the feeble health system ranked 193 out of 195 on the Global Health Security Index in a country already stalked by malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis. A large asteroid will fly close to but won't hit Earth next month, according to NASA data. CNN reports that the asteroid, predicted to be between 1.1 and 2.5 miles wide is scheduled to fly past Earth on 29 April at 4:56am ET. First spotted in 1998, the asteroid named 52768 (1998 OR2) will come within 3,908,791 miles of Earth. NASA predicted the asteroid would be of concern when they first found it in 1998, saying it would be "large enough to cause global effects" alongside asteroid 1998 OH. "Both are classified as 'potentially hazardous objects' because they pass periodically near Earth's orbit," said NASA in 1998. Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas from fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in February 2010 Nasa/ESA/STScI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012 Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Death of a star: This image from Nasa's Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015 Nasa/APL/SwRI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015 Nasa/Scott Kelly Thankfully, the space agency is not currently listing the asteroid on their Earth Impact Monitoring page, a list detailing the objects most likely to collide with the planet. There was a similar scare in August 2019 when a "small Asteroid of concern" was publicised, but NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies confirmed it would narrowly miss Earth. Read more Asteroid larger than the Shard set to skim past Earth next month, Nasa Although the threat of an asteroid collision is slim for now, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine warned there may be a deadly asteroid in the near future. This is not about Hollywood, its not about the movies, he said. This is ultimately about protecting the only planet we know, right now, to host life. At the time Space X CEO Elon Musk echoed Bridenstine's statement when downplaying last August's asteroid. "But a big rock will hit Earth eventually and we currently have no defence. The coronavirus, which has spread to 73 countries, including India, and has sickened more than 90,000 people, is making the global luxury property market jittery. But in India, the overall impact will be limited unless the outbreak lasts long. According to a report by CBRE, there has been no material impact thus far on the retail market. Both physical retail and online retail continue to witness growth in key retail markets as more global retail brands enter and expand, it says in its report Why the Corona Virus Outbreak Could Have a Lasting Impact on Asia-Pacific Real Estate. The office-leasing demand, too, has been unaffected. Robust leasing continues to be supported by an improvement in domestic economic sentiment and sustained appetite among US and other EU-based corporates for outsourcing their business operations to India, says the report. On the industrial and logistics sector, the outbreak is unlikely to have a major impact, too. The logistics sector has been witnessing robust growth due to supply-side incentives and promotion from the government and demand from local and global 3PLs, e-commerce firms. Manufacturing could be affected, as China is Indias largest trading partner. A serious disruption of supply-chain linkages might force traders to look for alternate markets for sourcing both raw materials as well as finished products which will impact costs, the CBRE report says. The China factor But the same cant be said of global luxury real-estate market. International property consultants are worried that there may be a short-term impact, as Chinese are the biggest buyers of such properties across the world, especially in Europe and North America. China, from where the virus originated, has been the worst hit, though infections seem to be slowing. Wealthy Chinese buyers are the largest purchasers of luxury lifestyle properties, especially branded residences, across Europe and the US. The top-end of the market may be expected to soften as a result at least for the short term, Rod Taylor, director, International Residential Developments, Global Residential, Savills, told Moneycontrol. In the short term, buyers have less incentive to purchase if its unclear when theyll get to visit the property. In the long term, the virus could temporarily weaken sales if the problems persist, say realty consultants. The Chinese community buys homes across Europe. Chinese are very active property buyers in Cyprus, Lisbon, Portugal, Italy, London and even Germany. Lifestyle and property appreciation is the main motivation for the Chinese to buy second homes in these markets. They are largely lifestyle buyers and collect properties the way they would collect pieces of art or even vintage cars. Properties are like trophies that they would want as part of their collection, Taylor said. Also, if one were to compare the Chinese community with the Indians, the Chinese are faster at making property decision when compared to Indians, who tend to be conservative. A Chinese buyer is more likely to make a decision over the phone. Therefore, the coronavirus may have an impact on the economy and activity in the lifestyle property market may take a hit in the short term, he said. Since there were travel curbs, there would be fewer property roadshows in China over the next six months and impact the property market, he said. The fixture fix Indian realtors, however, are of the view that the virus may not have a major impact on the domestic real-estate market. The impact may be restricted to high-end luxury real estate that relies heavily on import of fixtures and furniture from China. Imports from China have slowed down as a result of the unprecedented situation arising from the coronavirus pandemic. When we look at possession dates as also the ongoing interior work in the luxury real estate segment, these are definitely going to be delayed. Supply of fixtures, furniture and fittings used in luxury housing in India is also imported from China and will be impacted, said Niranjan Hiranandani, president (National) NAREDCO as also President, ASSOCHAM. Also, there were no alternative sourcing options for the fixtures, furniture and fittings at the price contracted with Chinese manufacturers, he added. The impact of the virus is difficult to estimate. Its not clear how it will play out in the long run but something we will have to keep a watch on the overall macro level, Mohit Malhotra, managing director and CEO at Godrej Properties Limited, said. Further relief will be provided to the crayfish industry due to severe market disruptions caused by the impact of the coronavirus on the Chinese market. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has agreed to allow some of this years uncaught crayfish harvest to be carried forward to the next fishing year, which runs from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. Todays decision means the rock lobster industry has greater certainty about business decisions. It can effectively defer up to 10 per cent of this years uncaught rock lobster entitlement till next year. The COVID-19 outbreak means the market for New Zealand rock lobster in China has temporarily collapsed. These are exceptional circumstances and require an urgent response. The governments decision enables some financial relief for the industry. Last month I agreed that live rock lobster could be released back into the wild in certain circumstances, after export orders were cancelled. The rock lobster industry then asked for further help to enable some of their uncaught Annual Catch Entitlement to be carried forward to the next fishing year. Fisheries officials tested the proposal through a short and targeted public consultation process with affected groups. Almost 370 submissions were received, from tangata whenua, the recreational sector, environmental organisations, and commercial fishing. Submissions were split. Non-commercial groups favoured no change to the rules, Maori organisations generally favoured a 10 percent carry-forward, and commercial interests wanted 100 percent carry-forward. I agreed with the 10 percent carry-forward, as it is in line with previous decisions about other fish stocks in the Quota Management System. It is estimated about 120 tonnes of rock lobster ACE could be carried forward to the next fishing year. The industry can now release rock lobster back into the wild, subject to biosecurity and survivability criteria. It will be available for later harvests and allow the industry to recover some of its anticipated income from the lost orders. Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS A 13-year-old boy was arrested on an aggravated battery charge at 3:26 p.m. Tuesday after being accused of striking an employee at the Illinois School for the Deaf at 125 S. Webster St. Austin D. Sims, 42, of 602 Jordan St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:05 p.m. Wednesday on a burglary charge. ACCIDENTS Tad J. Finch, 43, of Jacksonville was cited on charges of failing to yield and operating an uninsured motor vehicle after the car he was driving and one being driven by Delani D. Dillard, 19, of Jacksonville collided at North West and State streets at 10:56 a.m. Tuesday. THEFTS, BURGLARIES Someone entered a car while it was parked overnight in the 1100 block of W. Lafayette Ave, according to a report filed at 4:21 p.m. Tuesday. Nothing appeared to have been taken. South Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Jessica N. Smith, 35, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:50 p.m. Monday on a domestic battery charge. Compiled by Darren Iozia and David C.L. Bauer Williams has over 34 years of experience in the insurance industry, starting his career at independent Lloyds Broker Cork Bays Fisher. After several broking roles at Ropners, Devitts, and Robert Fraser, he undertook the role of divisional director bloodstock at specialist bloodstock broker SBJ Nelson Steaveson (now Lonmar Global Risks), before moving to Brit Syndicates as class underwriter bloodstock, with responsibility for the formulation of the class business plan, business development, and all broker and client relationships. As one of the markets leading art, specie, and bloodstock insurer, we need a team that combines the best talent and experience available; one that has a deep understanding of the risks facing our clients and is imaginative enough to deliver the bespoke solutions that fit their specific requirements, said Graham Hawkins, chief underwriting officer at AXA XL. I am delighted that Chris will be leading the team going forward. He is a well-known and highly-respected individual with a vast amount of global experience in this marketplace, and I am certain he has all the attributes required to succeed in this role. Fuel names changed in the UK Petrol and diesel have been renamed at filling station pumps. Youll now find petrol labelled E5 and diesel labelled B7. Fear not, though: it remains obvious exactly which is which: unleaded nozzles are green, diesel are black. Pumps themselves (and other signage, including the all-important fuel price displays) keep the unleaded and diesel labels, too. What are the new fuel labels? Fuel names changed in the UK What does it all mean? For petrol, E stands for ethanol, while 5 is a percentage, referring to how much of the ethanol is synthetic. Similarly, in B7 diesel, the B stands for biodiesel and the 7 stands for the percentage of it thats renewable. In short, the letter refers to the renewable element of the fuel, and the number is the percentage of it. The labels will be in their own distinct shapes, to avoid confusion. E5 will be circled, while B7 is in a square. Why are renewable fuels added? Fuel names changed in the UK Aside from eco credentials, the addition of renewable fuels cuts carbon dioxide (CO2) production. According to government figures, blending renewable fuels reduces CO2 emissions equivalent to taking a million cars off the road. E10 and no biodiesel explained Finding the cheapest petrol and diesel You may also see E10 fuel, with a higher amount of renewable ethanol. Its fine for any modern car, but wed suggest you avoid putting it in your classic. It can be bad for fuel tanks, lines and fuel containment/distribution equipment not originally designed for it. The government says nearly all cars homologated since 2000 should be okay to fill with E10. Not that it matters much to us, given the UK hasnt yet joined the USA, Europe and Australia in offering it. If your car has a sticker saying no biodiesel, B7 is still fine. B7 is normal diesel. What you mustnt fill up with are high biodiesel blends or 100 percent biodiesel. The post What is E5 petrol and B7 diesel? appeared first on Motoring Research. One of the fastest horses to race downunder will be heading to North America within the month, but first he has a shot at a million-dollar event this weekend. Majordan, whose six wins in 1:50 or faster is the most for a single horse in Australasian harness racing, is set to compete in Saturday's $1,000,000 Miracle Mile at Tabcorp Park Menangle for trainer Kevin Pizzuto. Originally owned solely by cousins Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover of New York, Majordan (Art Major - Benelise) has had a 50 percent interest purchased by Ohio's Ned Hodkinson and Milton Leeman. Fireworks are likely as Majordan and driver Todd McCarthy have been saddled with post eight in Australias biggest harness purse event, the $1 million Miracle Mile, with favoured Lochinvar Art drawing post seven to his inside. Majordan comes into the Miracle Mile fresh off a scintillating wire-to-wire 1:50.7 track record-setting mile in last weeks Group 1 $100,000AUD Newcastle Mile. With a summary of 30-11-14 in 93 career starts and $486,568 in purses, seven-year-old Majordan could surpass $500,000AUD in lifetime earnings in Saturday's Miracle Mile. According to co-owner Hanover, Majordan has been paid into many of the top North American stakes races for 2020 including the Canadian Pacing Derby. A horse Hanover calls a "mile specialist" that "should suit North American racing to a tee," Majordan will report to the stable of Ohio-based trainer Virgil Morgan Jr. within the month. This is the adorable moment a dog uses his head to push his elderly owner's wheelchair along a city street. The cute puppy, called Magnus, was filmed walking alongside 70-year-old Anatoly Derbenev's chair as the pair travel around Taraz in Kazakhstan. The 11-month-old dog stays close to his owner and even appears to check the road ahead is clear as they roll along the street. In the clip Magnus can be seen walking under the wheelchair and appears to be nudging it along with his head as Mr Derbenev also uses levers to propel it. The dog then walks alongside its owner before going back under the chair and trying his best to help again. Onlooker Fidana Durusova filmed the sweet moment and shared it online. She said she tried to offer money and food to Mr Derbenev after seeing him and Magnus. However, Mr Derbenev prefers doing things by himself, with a little help from Magnus who he describes as his 'only family'. Loyal dog Magnus walks under his 70-year-old owner Anatoly Derbenev's wheelchair and appears to help push it along the street in Taraz in Kazakhstan The puppy walks under the chair (left) and checks the road is clear of obstacles before going back under (right) for another push Magnus also walks alongside Mr Derbenev, who describes his dog as his 'only family, as they travel around the city Magnus had been injured after he was hit by a bus, but has recovered and returned to helping his owner get around the city. Ms Durusova said: 'It turns out that the dog has already been run over by a bus but despite its fear, Magnus continues staying with its owner on the street full of cars, helping him as much as it can.' Mr Derbenev says that Magnus started helping him when he was only four months old and stressed that the dog is his only family member. People online praised Magnus and Mr Derbenev's close bond, saying: 'Dogs are real friends, we should never forget about them.' Another added: 'Dogs are unable to betray anyone. They stay loyal no matter what.' Read the preliminary statement (PDF) GEORGETOWN (March 4, 2020) In a preliminary statement released today, The Carter Center commended the people of Guyana for their participation in the March 2 election and encouraged all Guyanese to remain patient and peaceful as GECOM finalizes the results. Because the election process is still ongoing, this statement reflects only preliminary findings of observations through March 3. It does not provide an overall assessment, which can only happen after the process is completed. Carter Center observers continue to observe the tabulation process, with teams at the Georgetown tabulation center around the clock. The Center may issue additional reports in the days ahead. A comprehensive final report will be released in the coming months. At this juncture, it is especially important that political parties and observers witness the Guyana Election Commissions processes of tabulation and finalization of results to ensure transparency. GECOM has made progress in tabulating results, but the process may still take some time to complete. Only GECOM has the authority to declare results. In the days to come, the Center urges the key political leaders to act responsibly and in the interest of all Guyanas people, consistent with the spirit of the code of conduct signed by all parties. It is important that any disputes be addressed through appropriate legal channels. The statements key findings include: Voting and Counting: The Centers 41 observers conducted 220 observations in polling stations across all 10 regions, in addition to observing the advance voting for disciplined forces that took place on Feb. 21. Carter Center observers reported that voting and counting processes were largely well-organized and peaceful, and assessed the implementation of voting procedures as positive, with only occasional inadequacies. GECOMs polling staff seemed well-trained on polling procedures and exhibited professionalism throughout the day. Carter Center observers noted that polling staff were less confident in the application of counting procedures. Observers encountered political party scrutineers in all of the stations they observed, which provided an important level of transparency. In 95 percent of the stations observed, The Carter Center assessed the performance of political party scrutineers as positive. In some areas, particularly Region 4, The Carter Center observed the presence of campaigning and campaign materials within 200 yards of polling stations, which violates the law. In addition, observers noted the presence of information desks operated by the two major political parties in regions 4, 7, 9, and 10, particularly in Georgetown. The Carter Center heard some complaints in Georgetown about the presence of these tents within 200 yards of polling stations. Electoral Administration: GECOM utilized its strong base of electoral expertise to conduct well-managed voting-day operations. The voting and counting processes were generally well-prepared and logistically sound. The method of appointment of GECOM commissioners was based on a recommendation former U.S. President Jimmy Carter made for the 1992 election that has come to be known as the Carter Formula and was later integrated into the constitution. The formula gives GECOM a partisan structure that has resulted in a highly polarized and sometimes ineffective board of commissioners. It also advantages the major parties and excludes newer parties. The Carter Center reiterates a recommendation made in multiple prior reports that Guyana consider adjusting GECOMs structure to increase its independence, effectiveness, and professionalism. GECOM also would benefit from taking steps to provide greater transparency. Its decision-making processes were carried out in closed-door meetings, and few decisions were publicly explained. This consistently inhibited the commissions credibility, unnecessarily reducing confidence in the process. In the future, GECOM should adopt a public relations plan to increase the transparency of the commissions work. Voter Registration: The voter register has been a source of controversy throughout the election period. The Carter Center closely followed the development of the final voter register and steps by the secretariat to try to produce a voter register that was comprehensive, reliable, and accurate. Carter Center observations on election day indicate that GECOMs efforts to compile the list appear to have been successful. A total of 660,988 registered voters were on the final roll, an increase of 15.5 percent from the 2015 election. The increase in registered voters from 2011 to 2015 was similar in absolute terms approximately 90,000 voters. The number of registered voters seems disproportionate to Guyanas estimated population. The Carter Center recommends that before the next election the government reassess and overhaul both the process and the technology used to create and manage the voter registration database. Preparations for Election Day: Generally, preparations for polling day went smoothly and were carried out on schedule. In advance of the election, The Carter Center observed the training of poll workers in several locations across the country, and in all cases assessed the training positively. In the preelection period, some questioned the reduction of polling places in private residences, which the opposition felt was implemented in a discriminatory manner. The issue was resolved, but only a few days before the election. Some stakeholders linked this issue to Carter Center reporting and recommendations from 2015. The Carter Center noted in its 2015 report that 166 polling stations were located in private buildings and residences and suggested that GECOM ensure that citizens can cast their ballots in a neutral environment. While The Carter Center stands by this recommendation, we note that the use of private buildings may be necessary in some areas and does not necessarily undermine public confidence in the process. Regardless, the debate about this issue contributed to delays in the finalization of the list of polling stations. In the future, any changes to polling locations should be completed well in advance of election day. Conclusions: The Carter Center urges Guyanas political leaders to commit to reform the winner-takes-all election system currently in use. They should make critical issues of constitutional reform an urgent priority and commit to completing key reforms well before the next general election. About the Mission: Following a letter of invitation from the government of Guyana, the Center formally launched its international electoral observation mission in early January by deploying a core team of four international experts and six long-term observers. They were joined in late February by a delegation of Center staff from Atlanta and short-term observers co-led by Aminata Toure, former prime minister of Senegal, and Jason Carter, chairperson of The Carter Center Board of Trustees. The Center will remain in Guyana to observe tabulation and the resolution of any legal disputes. Statement Guyana General Election Preliminary Statement, March 4, 2020 (PDF) ### Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org The Carter Center Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope. A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. WASHINGTON (AP) A resurgent Joe Biden scored sweeping victories across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition and progressive rival Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesday's biggest prize with a win in California as the Democratic Party's once-crowded presidential field suddenly transformed into a two-man contest. The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America's future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party's 2020 presidential nomination fight. The winner will take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half billion dollars to score a single victory in American Samoa. The new contours of a nomination fight pitting Biden against Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, were crystallizing by day's end as the former vice president and the three-term senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) Tuesday night. "People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders and other family members, speaks during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vt., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont. "You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics," Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. "This will become a contrast in ideas." The balance of Super Tuesday's battlefield with Biden winning at least eight states and Sanders four raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats' establishment wing. The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a win in Massachusetts, won Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado. Still, Sanders proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decadeslong political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. And his conclusive win in California marks a huge reversal in a state he lost four years ago. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $19 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. A key to Biden's success: black voters. Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obama's vice president, won 60% of the black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate on Tuesday. Bloomberg earned 25%, and Sanders won about 10% of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate. The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump. Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party's far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nation's political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party's Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change. Across the Super Tuesday states there were early questions about Sanders' claims that he is growing his support from his failed 2016 presidential bid. Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016's numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders' vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders' raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago. Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country. "We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016," he said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida. The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Warren was also fighting to be optimistic. Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan before news of her disappointing home-state finish was announced, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she's willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn't claim an outright victory anywhere. "Here's my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart," Warren declared. She added: "You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight." With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 362 to Biden, 285 delegates to Sanders, 30 to Bloomberg, 20 to Warren and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift dramatically throughout the night as new states, none bigger than California, report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must ultimately claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. ___ By STEVE PEOPLES and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Brian Slodysko in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Los Angeles contributed to this report. More from PennLive More than 20,000 Pa. voters sign up to vote by mail With voting by mail in Pa. this year, election results may not be known for days, officials say Listen to the latest episode of PennLives political podcast, Battleground Pa., on your favorite app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Battleground Pa. examines the political climate across the Keystone State leading up to November. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been banking on Super Tuesday. In bypassing the first four primary and caucus states, the billionaire and philanthropist has invested hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into advertising in the 14 states up for grabs on March 3. After just one win in American Samoa, the Associated Press reported that he would reassess on Wednesday whether to stay in the race. Bloomberg has aggressively ramped up his campaign organization, hiring staff, touting endorsements of local and state lawmakers and running a host of canvassing events, including in Massachusetts. A former Republican, Bloomberg pitched himself to voters as a moderate whos been a successful manager in a progressive city who could mount a successful challenge to President Donald Trump. In the Bay State, Bloomberg finished in fourth place, with about 11.5% support with more than 70% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. He likely will not meet the 15% threshold to earn delegates in the state. Bloomberg picked up a win in American Samoa, and based on results tracked by AP and CNN, he was likely to pick up delegates in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Colorado, Utah, California and perhaps Oklahoma. The latest poll from Morning Consult showed Bloomberg in third place nationally with 19% support behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was fourth in the poll at 14% support, has frequently targeted Bloomberg for his campaign spending, for a stop-and-frisk policy in place while he was mayor and for alleged sexual harassment of his employees. Bloomberg, who offered to release three women from confidentiality agreements after pressure from Warren, said in a statement Tuesday night that hes met with voters in 27 states over the last few months. He added that he knows how to lead the country through a crisis, and he touted his track record of fighting for gun safety and combatting climate change. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible, he said. In just three months, weve gone from just 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination. Bloomberg has said that no matter who the Democratic nominee is, hes willing to spend up to $1 billion to help oust Trump. Lead actors of Ramayan -- Arun Govil, Dipika Chikalia and Sunil Lahri -- who played Ram, Sita and Lakshman respectively on the show, celebrated 33 years of their iconic mythological show as they visited The Kapil Sharma Show. Sony TV, the channel that airs The Kapil Sharma Show, shared a teaser for the episode on Wednesday morning and the three veteran actors can be seen having fun on the sets of the comedy show. The video opens with an announcement that Lord Ram, Goddess Sita and Lord Lakshman are happy with Kapil and will come to his show to offer blessings. Also read: Vidya Balan begins shooting for Sherni on World Wildlife Day, muhurat happens in a forest temple We then see Kapil interacting with the actors. Jab Dara ji Hanuman ka role karte the, unka to Hindi...(turns to audience) Punjabi aadmi jo hota hai wo English badi acchi bol lenge, lekin Hindi se humara thoda (When Dara Singh played Hanuman, it was different as Punjabi people can speak fluent English but are not so comfortable with Hindi). Sunil then responds, Har kisi ko pehli baar pata laga ki Hanuman ji Punjabi the (Everyone got to know for the first time that Lord Hanuman was a Punjabi). Talking about being selected for the role of Ram, Arun had earlier told Hindustan Times, I was rejected after the audition. Sagar saab chose someone else. He wanted me to play the role of Bharat, but I wanted to play Ram. Later, they called me back. I was happy to have landed the role. Ramanand Sagars 80s hit TV serial Ramayan was shot in a small town in Gujarat - Umbergaon. Most actors were chosen a week before their respective episode shooting. Ramanands son Prem Sagar had told Hindustan Times, He (Ramanand) read almost all the Ramayanas and was the only one who could have done it. Look at what they do with the epic these days. They only know technicalities, but have no knowledge. Follow @htshowbiz for more By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans State Border Service and Military Prosecutors Office have revealed the weapons and other processions left by the Armenian sabotage group that killed an Azerbaijani border guard during Armenian infiltration attempt on the border Gazakh district on February 24. The investigation revealed 100-bullet ribbon for PK machine gun, one unit of unexploded RQ-42 hand grenade, 66 cartridge-cases of 7.62 mm, food bag of intelligence-diversion group (tinned food, individual water reserve, bakery products) that the enemy used at the time of the armed raid nearby the border point where the incident occurred, and left behind themselves while retreating, the State Border Service and Military Prosecutors Office said in a statement published on March 2. Investigators have determined that the adversarys diversion group sabotaged the ceasefire regime by attacking for the purpose of deliberately killing our military servicemen and occupying the border point, the statement reads. Investigation-operation measures are underway into incident. The joint statement recalls that the Armenian armed forces divisions, located nearby Koti village of the Noyemberyan district, made an attempt of division to the border point of State Border Service in Qushci Ayrim village of Gazakh district at 7:00, 24 February, 2020, using grenade launchers and large-caliber weapons. The attempt of division made by Armenian armed forces was thwarted, and the adversary was forced to retreat suffering serious combat losses, the statement reads. State Border Service and Military Prosecutor emphasizes that a criminal case has been launched into the killing of the State Border Services soldier Ibrahim Valiyev protecting internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. The fallen border guard has been awarded posthumously for the distinguished service in the military. Other border guards involved in thwarting the Armenian infiltration attempt have been awarded with medal, valuable present and honorary degrees with the orders of the chief of State Border Service. Furthermore, it is stated in the joint statement that Armenia has intensified sabotage attempts on the line of contact of the troops. On 1 March, the border points, located nearby Khanliglar and Qushci Ayrim villages of the Gazakh district, of the Gazakh separate border division of the State Border Services Border Troops were intensively shot by the large-caliber weapons, the enemy's fighting positions were silenced by response fire. We inform that taking all necessary measures will be ensured to thwart all provocative actions of the Armenian side in the frontline and punish the guilty persons for every and each of crime committed by bringing them to criminal responsibility, the statement concludes. Earlier, the Azerbaijani State Border Service reported the killing of one and the wounding of another Armenian saboteur during the operation. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Joe Biden secured an early advantage on a pivotal night of Democratic primary voting on Tuesday with victories in four Southern states Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama The Democratic presidential race emerged from Super Tuesday with two clear front-runners as Joe Biden won Virginia, North Carolina and at least six other states, largely through support from African-Americans and moderates, while Senator Bernie Sanders harnessed the backing of liberals and young voters to claim the biggest prize of the campaign, California, and several other primaries. The returns across the country on the biggest night of voting suggested that the Democratic contest was increasingly focused on two candidates who are standard-bearers for competing wings of the party, Biden in the political Centre and Sanders on the Left. Their two other major rivals, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg, were on track to finish well behind them and faced an uncertain path forward. Bidens victories came chiefly in the South and the Midwest, and in some of them he won by unexpectedly wide margins. In a surprising upset, Biden even captured Warrens home state of Massachusetts, where he did not appear in person, and where Sanders had campaigned aggressively in recent days. Sanders easily carried his home state of Vermont and was locked with Biden and Warren of Massachusetts in a competitive race in her home state. Bidens early lead in the South could well be offset by victories in Western states later: Sanders was expected to perform strongly in California, the most important prize of the night, where recent polls had shown him with a solid lead over Biden. As he did in South Carolina, Biden rolled to victory in the four Southern states thanks in large part to black voters: More than 60 percent of African-Americans voted for him. Just as worrisome for Sanders, in Virginia and North Carolina two states filled with suburbanites Biden performed well with a demographic that was crucial to the partys success in the 2018 midterm elections: College-educated white women. We were told, well, when you got to Super Tuesday, itd be over, a triumphant Biden, 77, said at a celebration in Los Angeles. Well, it may be over for the other guy! After a trying stretch in February, even Biden appeared surprised at the extent of his success. Im here to report we are very much alive! he said. And make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing. Sanders continued to show strength with the voters that have made up his political base: Latinos, liberals and those under age 40. But he struggled to expand his appeal with older voters and African-Americans. The unexpected breadth of Bidens success on Tuesday illustrated the volatility of this race as well as the determination of many center-left Democrats to find a nominee and get on to challenging Trump. The former vice-president had little advertising and a skeletal organisation and scarcely even visited many of the states he won, including liberal-leaning Minnesota and Massachusetts. But his smashing victory in South Carolina echoed almost instantaneously, and his momentum from there proved far more powerful than the money Sanders and Bloomberg had poured into most of Tuesdays contests. The early returns were a comprehensive setback for Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City who entered the race late and spent more than half a billion dollars on an aggressive advertising campaign. But Bloomberg slumped badly after a series of damaging clashes with Warren, and many moderates and African-Americans appeared to have abandoned him for Biden. Hours into vote-counting, Bloomberg had won only one contest, in American Samoa. Addressing supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday night, Bloomberg tried to put the best face on a dismal evening. Heres what is clear, he said. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible: In just three months, weve gone from one percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. Warrens loss in Massachusetts left her without a single victory after a month of primaries and caucuses, and in many places on Tuesday she was running in a relatively distant third or fourth place. Most dispiriting to Warren may be that it was not Sanders, who worked hard to defeat her in her home state, but rather Biden, who bested her in Massachusetts, suggesting that none of the recent tumult in the race had worked to her advantage. But Warrens campaign in recent days explicitly laid out a strategy of accumulating delegates for a contested convention, and it was not clear that her latest setbacks would deter that approach. Warren campaigned Tuesday in Michigan, which holds a primary next week, and urged voters to cast the vote that will make you proud rather than making more calculated assessments. And she has announced campaign stops in Arizona and Idaho, two other states that vote later this month. At Sanders campaign party in Vermont on Tuesday night, he answered Bidens surge in the race with a battle cry for his supporters: He proclaimed absolute confidence that he would win the Democratic nomination, and delivered a scathing critique of Bidens record that left little doubt he would confront Bidens revived candidacy in blunt terms in the coming days. Without naming the former vice-president, Sanders said there was another candidate in the race who had supported the invasion of Iraq, endorsed cutting Social Security, voted for international trade deals and represented the credit card companies by backing a 2005 overhaul of the bankruptcy code. As for himself, Sanders said, he had stood on the opposite side of every issue. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders said. What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement. Sanders was on track to rack up delegates in California, but he was sharing some of them with Biden in his own state of Vermont. And in Colorado, another state Sanders carried, he was dividing them four ways, as he, Biden, Bloomberg and Warren all reached the 15 percent threshold to win delegates there. The voting followed an extraordinary reframing of the race in the past 48 hours, as moderate candidates came together to form a united front against Sanders, a democratic socialist whose general election prospects are viewed skeptically by much of the party leadership. Bidens overwhelming victory in South Carolina on Saturday established him as the clear front-runner in the Democrats centrist wing, prompting two rivals, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, to end their bids and throw their support to Biden. As Sanders, 78, returned to Vermont, where he voted Tuesday morning, his allies acknowledged that they had been caught off guard by the swiftness with which Bidens former adversaries had locked arms to oppose Sanders campaign. They argued that Sanders was still far better equipped financially and in his campaign organization than Biden to compete for the nomination over a long primary race. And they vowed to highlight to voters the sharp differences in their agendas. Bloomberg had poured millions of dollars from his personal fortune into TV ads in the two states and made repeated appearances in both, with his advisers holding out the most hope in North Carolina. And while he has been more focused on liberal states, Sanders made multiple stops in Virginia and North Carolina in the weeks after the New Hampshire primary last month. The Democratic campaign barreled into Super Tuesday in a state of extraordinary flux, as a loose alliance of party leaders, elected officials and centrist voting blocs have seemed to fall in behind Biden since his weekend triumph in South Carolina. On Monday night, Biden made appearances in Texas with three former rivals Klobuchar, Buttigieg and former Representative Beto ORourke who are now supporting his candidacy, while Sanders rallied supporters in Minnesota in an effort to capture Klobuchars home state. Few presidential candidates have endured the political roller coaster Biden has found himself riding in recent weeks. After finishing a distant fourth in Iowa and then coming in fifth in New Hampshire, he was short on money, in danger of losing support to Bloomberg and facing a do-or-die primary in South Carolina. Yet after shaking up his campaign and installing a longtime adviser, Anita Dunn, as his chief strategist, Biden was able to claw back into contention by finishing second in Nevada. Then, after two solid debate performances during which his ascendant rivals were the ones under attack, he picked up a crucial endorsement: Representative James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress and the most influential South Carolina Democrat, came out for Biden at an emotional news conference. With Clyburns imprimatur, Biden built a considerable advantage with black voters that propelled him to a 28-point rout in South Carolina. Bloomberg, the wealthy former mayor of New York City, has been a pervasive presence in the race: He has run more than half a billion dollars in paid advertising since he announced his campaign in November, offering himself to the Democratic establishment as a potential savior if Biden failed to halt Sanders in the earliest primaries and caucuses. Yet Bloombergs prospects were uncertain heading into Super Tuesday, after his disastrous performance in a debate last month in Las Vegas and Bidens resurgence in the polls. Bloombergs campaign publicly signaled he planned to forge ahead even if he faced a disappointing night, announcing plans to stump later this week in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and holding his election-night event in Florida, which holds a primary in two weeks. But advisors to Bloomberg have also acknowledged that the former mayor would make a cold assessment of his options once the results of Super Tuesday became known. He is likely to face intense pressure to make way for Biden if his self-funded candidacy does not yield impressive results. Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns c.2020 The New York Times Company Employees at a major accountant firm in central London have been told to work from home after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus following a trip to Asia. Deloitte announced on Tuesday that it was deep cleaning one floor of its main UK office in Holborn, where it employs about 20,000 people, following confirmation of the case. The employee, who has been in self-isolation since 26 February after falling ill on their return from Japan, is currently receiving good care in hospital, Richard Houston, chief executive, said in an email. Mr Houston described the incident as unsettling but reassured employees that Deloitte was working with Public Health England on its response. Staff on the tenth floor, where the infected employee worked, were told to go home with immediate effect on Tuesday. The rest of Deloittes London campus at 1 New Street Square remains open, though staff have been given the option to work from home if they wish. Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty Mr Houston also warned all people working on the London Campus ... to limit non-essential movement between buildings. We have also cancelled or moved all events due to take place in 1NSS tomorrow [Wednesday], he added. One member of staff told The Independent: Im happy they mounted a quick response and told people from the floor to quarantine themselves. Recommended Amazon employee tests positive for coronavirus in Seattle Im not getting too worked up about things. Its likely multiple people went to the same floor but, what can you do. Its nobodys fault. A spokesperson said: Deloitte has been closely monitoring and managing the Covid-19 situation in order to respond as necessary. The health and safety of our people and clients is our top priority. We continue to monitor the situation and will adjust our guidance as necessary. Deloitte is the second major London employer, after US oil company Chevron, to send workers home due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. This comes as Chris Whitty, England and Wales chief medical officer, warned that the UK will probably see a significant number of cases and some deathsin the next six weeks To date, the UK has confirmed 53 infections, with thousands others tested for the pathogen. A n asteroid measuring at least a mile across is set to pass by the Earth next month, according to NASA scientists. The asteroid, estimated to be between 1.1 and 2.5 miles wide will pass around four million miles from Earth, travelling at just under 20,000 miles per hour. Experts predict it will fly by on on April 29, according to CNN. Named 52768 (1998 OR2), the asteroid was first picked up by scientists in 1997 and scientists then described it as "large enough to cause global effects" if it impacted with our planet. Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures 1 /80 Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 NASA This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft NASA Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984 NASA The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image NASA Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program Getty Images The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960 NASA The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey NASA The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961 NASA President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress NASA Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth NASA A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969 NASA Man's first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, "Eagle," touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969 NASA After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet NASA Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965 NASA The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it's budding young pilots NASA Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968 NASA American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 NASA Home View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission NASA Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969 Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images Lunar mission Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972 NASA First image of Viking 1's foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976 NASA The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977 NASA A dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979 NASA The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981 NASA Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space NASA One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called 'Pillars of Creation' NASA Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973 NASA NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA's SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona NASA Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000 Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000 NASA 2004 The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004) NASA 2005 A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005) NASA International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008 NASA The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA's Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp NASA Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum's face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks. AFP/Getty Images In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way NASA A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn NASA This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows 'mountains' where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars NASA The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station NASA Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011 NASA NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012 NASA Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet NASA Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent's Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park east of Buckingham Palace NASA International Space Station image of London at night NASA This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015 NASA Pluto's haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015 NASA NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL NASA Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 NASA The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017 NASA Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017 NASA The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017 This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater NASA US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen's looking spectacular from above NASA SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018 NASA NASA's Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter's southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018 NASA The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli NASA The Bailey's Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse NASA The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington NASA Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed it's 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops. NASA After next month's pass, the asteroid is set to come quite close to the Earth again - 11 million miles away - in May 2031, and again in May 2042, before coming relatively close to Jupiter in 2058, according to NASA's asteroid monitoring service. Earlier this month, astronomers discovered a "mini-moon" , which has been in the Earth's orbit for the past three years. At this stage, it is unclear whether the object is 'natural', or a piece of space debris, according to the researchers at the Gemini Observatory in the US who discovered it. If it's 'natural' - an asteroid, for example - the object is only the second of its kind that scientists have spotted, other than the moon. The last 'natural' object in the Earth's orbit was discovered in 2006 and has since moved away. The last collision with the Earth took place in 2013 near Chelyabinsk, in Russia. Around 1,500 people reportedly sought medical attention in the aftermath, mostly for cuts from shattered glass. A meteor streaked across the sky near Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 (AP Photo/Chelyabinsk.ru) And last year, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine warned against underestimating the danger posed by asteroids, saying there was a "giggle factor", according to CNET. He added: "We have to make sure that people understand that this is not about Hollywood, it's not about movies." Alabama churchgoers turn backs on Bloomberg at Bloody Sunday anniversary service Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg got spurned by a group of black churchgoers who turned their backs on him as he delivered remarks about voter suppression and civil rights during a "Bloody Sunday" commemorative service on Sunday. Bloody Sunday occurred on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, when more than 500 demonstrators, participating in a right to vote march, were met with violence by state troopers and others after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. A reenactment of the march happens annually and Bloomberg and other presidential candidates had arrived in the state to mark the 55th anniversary of the march and court black voters ahead of Super Tuesday on March 3, when 1,357 delegates will be up for grabs in 14 states, including Alabama, where more than 60% of Democratic voters are black. Bloomberg has been under fire in recent weeks for his controversial support of stop-and-frisk policies that targeted mainly black and Hispanic residents. The criticism has come in the wake of the revelation of audio, reportedly from a 2015 speech in Colorado, in which Bloomberg claims that "95%" of "murders and murderers and murder victims" are male minorities between the ages of 16 to 25 and the way to reduce violence in the city is to throw minority kids "up against the walls and frisk them." "You can just take the descriptions and Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops," Bloomberg can be heard saying on the audio. Congregants at the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama turn their backs in protest while Michael Bloomberg speaks.pic.twitter.com/26RdruTre7 Chloe Salsameda (@ChloeSalsameda) March 1, 2020 As the former Big Apple mayor delivered his remarks at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, on Sunday, the group of approximately 10 people silently stood and turned their backs to him, multiple outlets reported. "For too long we have gone on with just listening and letting the status quo continue," Bloomberg said, according to the Star Tribune. He highlighted his ability as mayor of New York to work with activist Al Sharpton, seated a few feet away from him. Ryan Haygood, one of the people who turned his back during the billionaire presidential candidates speech at the church, told the Montgomery Advertiser that he hoped the former New York City mayor would have taken the opportunity to right a wrong concerning his administrations stop-and-frisk policy but he didnt. I was sitting there really wrestling with the fact that 55 years ago 600 or more people assembled at this church and they prayed and prepared to be brutalized by Alabama state troopers about a half a mile up the bridge, Haygood said. Then comes Michael Bloomberg who when he was the mayor of New York City presided over those very kinds of police brutality practices and policies. So in my mind, I thought, though I was surprised to see him come through the doors, I thought he would use this space to atone for that. When it was clear that there wouldn't be any atonement, thats when Haygood said he decided to stand quietly and turn his back. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that seven others then stood beside him and turned their backs while a few others across the church stood and did the same for about 30 seconds. Theres a direct connection to the police brutality on Bloody Sunday and that brutality he presided over in NYC. So I thought he would lean into the moment, to really acknowledge it, take responsibility for it and atone for it, Haygood argued. And not only did he not do that, it was clear to me that he wasnt even going to address the issue at all. And so I wrestled with it. So I felt like I had to do something to acknowledge that thats not OK especially in this sacred space. This is a space that changed the world. The Rev. Leodis Strong, the churchs pastor who introduced Bloomberg to the church, told the New York Post that he encouraged the former mayor to come to the church on the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. I think that its important for Mr. Bloomberg, Mayor Bloomberg, to hear from you, listen to you, to learn from you, Strong told the church. Let me just say this. I think its important that he came, he added. And it shows a willingness on his part to change. And I like that, and I think that that is important. As of 4 p.m., the extraordinary session of the Parliament is expected to begin in Kyiv. The MPs will be considering changes in the Cabinet's composition The Parliament Committee on Law Enforcement has decided to recommend the parliamentarians to consider a draft resolution on a vote of no confidence to Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Ryaboshapka. Denys Monastyrsky, the chairman of the Committee said so. "The offer appeared so that the Verkhovna Rada will be recommended (...) to define and vote on accepting or declining the Verkhovna Rada draft decree on the vote of no confidence to Prosecutor General Ryaboshapka", he claimed. Members of the Committee supported the offer with the majority of votes. As of 4 p.m., the extraordinary session of the Parliament began in Kyiv. The MPs will be considering changes in the Cabinet's composition. Currently, the draft document on Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk's removal from the office is already registered in the Parliament. The MPs are supposed to look into it, too. [March 04, 2020] Insight Academy of Arizona Ready to Help Families Enroll for the 2020-2021 School Year Insight Academy of Arizona (ISAZ), an online public-school serving students in grades 7-12 throughout the state, is ready to welcome students to enroll for the 2020-2021 school year beginning February 27. ISAZ gives your student a personalized learning experience designed to assist those who seek alternative pathways to education. They also offer opportunities for credit recovery, which enables students to concentrate on courses in a condensed schedule to help students get back on track and graduate high school on time. With over 8 years as a trusted education program, ISAZ is tuition-free to all students who reside in Arizona. Accredited by AdvancEd, and delivered in a blended learning environment, ISAZ combines online and in-person instruction, rigorous curriculum and the support of state-licensed teachers. In addition to working towards their high school diplomas, ISAZ students can participate in the Destinations Caeer Program, which allows them to discover exciting options for their future in career fields like Business, Health and Human Services, and IT, including some Microsoft (News - Alert) certifications. Students can also earn college credits through partnerships with local colleges and universities and prepare to take industry-recognized certification exams upon graduation. "With college costs spiraling out of control nationwide, it's good to get an idea of what you want to do before you get there. Our career program lets students try new things and get a sense for the options they have, while still in high school, helping Arizona students take charge of their own future," says Head of School, Kelly Van Sande. Overall, ISAZ offers challenging academic curriculum focused on college preparation. Students take a full course load in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, history, art and music. Electives include world languages, as well as high school honors courses. ISAZ also offers student clubs, in-person field trips, and social gatherings to foster a sense of school community. Virtual and in-person classes are taught by Arizona-licensed teachers who provide instruction during live online class sessions, and are available to students via phone, email and one-to-one meetings. Students choose online school for a variety of reasons including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs. ISAZ's online platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment and at an appropriate pace for their learning style. "I feel safe studying from my house," said ISAZ student Isabella Carabello Mesa. "The staff has been very helpful, supportive and understanding, and the school has given me a lot of opportunities to make my learning more pleasant in the best way. I get all the help I need." ISAZ is now accepting enrollments for the 2020-2021 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online or in-person information session hosted by the school. More information on ISAZ, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events can be found at https://az.insightschools.net/. About Insight Academy of Arizona Insight Academy of Arizona (ISAZ) is an AdvancEd-accredited, full-time online public school that serves Arizona students in grades 7-12. As part of the Arizona public school system, ISAZ is tuition-free and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISAZ, visit az.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005007/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Soon after a school in Noida was shut down following Coronavirus (COVID-19) scare, Uttar Pradesh health minister Jai Pratap Singh chaired an interdepartmental coordination committee meeting COVID-19, comprising officials of UNICEF, IMA, WHO along with states health department. He later confirmed that there were 34 suspected cases in the state and said six out of them, from Agra, had tested positive. In a chat, he said four master trainers along with rapid response teams specially trained to deal with people reporting COVID-19 symptoms have been readied by the health department to react in an emergency. Excerpts: A school in Noida has been shut down due to the COVID-19 scare. What caused it and how big is the threat in UP now? The (school) closure is precautionary. A family from Agra and another from Delhi jointly travelled to Italy on holiday and returned to India on February 26. On their return, the Delhi family threw a party in Delhi and later the Agra family also hosted one in Agra. On March 2, the Union health ministry confirmed that Delhi family member had tested positive, becoming the fourth confirmed case of COVID-19 in India. The Delhi party was also attended by 6 persons of two families of Noida which included a student. We also traced a family in Bulandshahr and took their samples as member of this family worked with the Delhi person. As far as Agra family is concerned, the rapid response team did contact tracing of the family and all those whom it had come in contact with. So whats the exact number of suspect cases as of now in UP? As of now, 34 suspects whose samples have been collected. What is the kind of precaution the UP government is taking? We have set up a state level inter-departmental coordination committee and I just chaired that meeting comprising members of UNICEF, WHO, health department officials among others. So we have told tourism department to keep a watch on tourists travelling to UP. Tour and travel guides have also been asked to cooperate. Similar cooperation has been sought from hotels frequented by foreign tourists. We have also asked hospitals to be on guard for anyone reporting symptoms. Twelve countries have put on watch list and that means people returning from those countries would be specially watched and screened. Whats the kind of preparedness the state government has made? See, there are teams from health department in all airports in the state. Our teams are also on the Indo-Nepal border. We have set up isolation wards in all district hospitals and have also requested medical colleges to do so. Four master trainers, specially trained to deal with such situations along with rapid response teams are in place. But, we would advise against panic reaction. This is that time of the year when there is seasonal change and people also have common cold, sore throat etc and that is why we are repeatedly advising people to follow personal hygiene, avoid unnecessary contact but also guard against panic reaction. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON MILAN A table of old men were shooting the breeze next to the bocce ball courts in a Milan recreation center on Wednesday, talking, like seemingly everyone else in northern Italy, about the coronavirus outbreak that had shut down towns, closed all of Italys schools and claimed the lives of more than 100 people, almost all of them elderly. The men, mostly in their 70s and 80s, joked that their wives gave them a hard time for leaving the house (not even the coronavirus can keep this guy home), that lifes finish line was too close to get worked up about a contagion, that they had faith in northern Italys vaunted health care system. But the bravado also disguised real concern. Its normal that Im a little worried, Antonio Di Furia, the clubs owner, 67, said. I have heart problems. Italys mortality rate in the outbreak, about 3.5 percent, is not much above the global average of 3.4 percent reported by the World Health Organization. But the virus is taking a disproportionate toll on the elderly in Italy, which has the oldest population in Europe, and the second-oldest in the world after Japan. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The coronavirus outbreak had already hit the global travel industry hard, and now with new infections being confirmed in India, the domestic travel industry too is beginning to feel its impact. Travelers have become apprehensive about traveling, both online and offline travel companies told Moneycontrol. Most cancellations or requests for rescheduling are coming for those headed to Southeast Asian destinations. While it may be too early to predict, there could be an up to 25 percent drop in future bookings for these destinations such as Bangkok and Bali, online travel portal Yatra.com said. A similar impact may be seen on traffic to Italy, another popular tourist place. Both Southeast Asia and Italy have seen a surge in confirmed coronavirus cases. More than 5,300 people have died all over the world, with over 90,000 infected. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show In India, six confirmed cases have been reported, and another six people are being monitored for the coronavirus. This news has upset travellers. "Travellers are wary of making fresh bookings to affected locations and airfares to these destinations have dropped by 20-30 percent. We have received around 35 percent of cancellation queries from travelers planning their trips to foreign locations during the holiday season," said Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder and COO, Corporate Travel & Head Industry Relations, Yatra.com. "While we have seen a 30-35 percent drop in airfares across international routes post the virus outbreak," added Aloke Bajpai, CEO & Co-founder, ixigo. For the latest updates on the novel coronavirus outbreak, follow our LIVE blog Any drop in travellers will be a serious setback for the whole travel industry, including airlines, as the peak summer season coincides with school vacations, which is just about to begin. For airlines, including IndiGo and SpiceJet, this is one of their peak business seasons. Both airlines had aggressively expanded operations to cities in Southeast Asia. "Airfares for the domestic market hasn't changed much, whereas fares for international flights have dropped. Moreover, Indian travellers are avoiding travel to Hong Kong and Singapore," said Nishant Pitti, Co-founder & CEO, EaseMyTrip. Source: Ixigo The virus will have an immediate impact on impulsive travel, something that is becoming common among Indian travellers. "People often travel at short notice, like when a long weekend is coming up. Impulsive travel has increased. But the sentiment right now is of apprehension," Ajay Prakash, Chief Executive at Mumbai-based Nomad Travels, said. But he added that travellers may well opt for destinations within the country. Travellers are now looking at alternate foreign destinations from India, such as Sri Lanka and Bhutan for summer travel. There is a hike in enquires to domestic destinations such as Andaman & Nicobar, Goa, Ujjain, northeast, among others, Chopra of Yatra.com added. Bajpai of Ixigo agrees. "While there is a slowdown in the top countries impacted, there is still a demand to travel to other areas. On the international front, people are still actively booking their vacations for places like Sri lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, Thailand & Bhutan. We expect the situation to improve closer to the summer travel season. " Returning home from a holiday always leaves me with mixed feelings. Part of me longs for the adventure to never end. While other parts cant wait to get back home, namely to my own bed. My last trip though, which came to an end on Saturday, was perhaps the most polarising of all. Ive just spent a little over three weeks exploring Japan. Its easily been the most fascinating and unique trip of my life. Japan is truly like nowhere Ive ever been before. Their culture and way of life is just so foreign to Australia, yet so charming. Well, most of it anyway. But, as much as I could gush over this holiday, I have to say Im happy to be home. Not because I felt like Id seen or done everything I wanted. Far from it actually, Im already preparing a list of places that I want to go back to next time No, I was happy to be home because of COVID-19. Better known as the coronavirus. Download your free pandemic investment briefing, The Coronavirus Portfolio, right now. Ignorance was bliss See, when I left for Japan there where two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. For the most part the authorities seemed to have things on lockdown. I wasnt all that worried, and the full plane seemed to suggest others felt the same way. Once we arrived in Japan though, things quickly changed. It wasnt long before more cases began popping up. Not to mention the now infamous cruise ship, the Diamond Princess a floating petri dish that saw hundreds of people infected. I was aware of very little of this though. And what little I did hear I brushed off. Call it ignorance, stupidity, or whatever you like at that point in time, all I cared about was not ruining my holiday. Today, with my trip over and the comfort of hindsight, I can say I probably was a little too ignorant. Dont get me wrong, Im not all that worried about COVID-19. Its just that I could have stayed more aware of it. If only for peace of mind, if anything. Indeed, it wasnt until I was sitting in the airport waiting to fly home that I truly grasped the situation. Japan, as it turns out, is actually struggling to contain this virus. The latest tally of infected stands at 242. And that doesnt include the 705 passengers from the Diamond Princess. Suffice to say, it was a lot worse compared to when I left. In fact, on the day I was leaving several major tourist attractions announced plans to shut down. Tokyo Disneyland, Universal Studios, and a plethora of museums across Japan are now all shut until at least mid-March. On top of that, Shinzo Abe has closed every school across Japan. Right up until the end of their school year in late March. Now when I hear about all of this, I cant help but think of the costs. The amount of money Japan will need to fight this virus will be huge. Not to mention all the lost revenue if tourists steer clear. Just imagine the fallout if this isnt all cleared up before the Olympics. Itll be an economic disaster for the country. But, for some industries it is already proving to be a massive opportunity As the saying goes, Never waste a good crisis. Function or fashion? Without doubt, the most shocking part of my trip was Japanese attire. Namely, the fact that almost everyone was wearing a mask. Now I dont know about you, but Ive read mixed reports on the effectiveness of masks. As far as I understand, for the average person theyre useless for preventing infection. If youre already infected though, they can be a great way to stop you spreading the sickness. Ill let you make up your own mind on that matter. Point is, I didnt wear a mask at all in Japan, which was a stark contrast to the vast majority of the locals Because of this, the manufacturers of said masks are booming. Most reports state they simply cant keep up with demand. Its even forcing the hand of others to pivot into the field. Sharp, for instance, has had to turn one of their TV factories into a face mask supplier. Churning out up to 500,000 masks per day. None of this should really surprise anyone. Its a logical response, even if the masks arent all that helpful. However, the truly shocking part to me was what these masks sometimes looked like. People were turning these masks into fashion statements. Often wearing sleek designs or stylised prints on their masks. A trend that you can also find online. Take a look at this from Etsy: I seriously cant believe how many people were wearing unique masks like these. It doesnt appear to be just some street, chic fad either. Masks managed to make an appearance at the New York Fashion Week catwalk a few weeks ago. Showing off extravagant pieces like these: Perhaps well soon all be wearing masks. If only to match them with our outfits Make hay while the sun shines So what does this mean for you? Well, short of making your own fashion statement with a mask, it proves that opportunity still abounds. For some companies and industries, anyway. Even with the current collapse in global markets, good stocks can be found. Take US mask maker 3M Co [NYSE:MMM] for example. Back in 2002, at the height of the SARS panic, this company boomed. It just may do so again. Or, for a more local example, you cant ignore the meteoric rise of Zoono Group Ltd [ASX:ZNO]. At the start of December this stock was trading at just 24 cents per share. As of right now, its at $2.22 per share. Thats an 825% gain in three short months! The reason for this success is because Zoono has been actively working to combat COVID-19 for months now. In fact they recently announced that their latest sanitiser is 99.99% effective against the virus. Its a case of the right product at the right time. Which is exactly what crises like these are all about. You have to find the hidden gems that defy the wider downturn. Im not saying its easy, but they are out there. If you can spot the broader trends as they happen, then you can turn it into an investing advantage. The challenge is learning how to do it. But what better time to practice than now? Regards, Ryan Clarkson-Ledward, Editor, Money Morning PS: Download your free copy of our Analyst Lachlann Tierneys report today and youll discover two key investment asset groups that look set to benefit as the global pandemic escalates. Click here to get a copy. Appointment 4 March 2020 OLS Hotels & Resorts, a leading hotel management company comprised of bespoke independent and branded properties, has named Jade Hammond as its Hawai'i director of sales and marketing. In her role, Hammond will plan and implement sales and marketing strategy for OLS Hotels & Resorts' nine properties throughout the Hawaiian Islands. She also will be an integral part of the onboarding process for future Hawai'i hotel additions, contributing her energized attitude, imaginative flair and passion for curating marketing content. As a seasoned sales professional with a deep knowledge of both the market and the industry's complex distribution channels, Jade looks forward to working closely with the revenue team to deliver incremental growth to the portfolio by ensuring fast and seamless connectivity and implementing strategic agreements with new wholesale, retail and corporate accounts. Prior to joining OLS Hotels & Resorts, Hammond was the Hawai'i senior market manager for the largest global distribution platform, Hotelbeds, where she was responsible for bringing in $130 million of revenue to Hawai'i annually. Before her time in Hawai'i, Hammond managed 11 Caribbean Islands at Tourico Holidays. She possesses unparalleled market knowledge of resort product and strategies to optimize global reach for destinations that rely heavily on tourism. About 223 children, including 10 girls, have been released from Nigerian Army administrative custody and Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison after being cleared of suspected ties with armed groups, the United Nations Childrens Fund has said. Descriptiohe United Nations Childrens Fund has revealed. The children were released to Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, UNICEF and Borno State authorities in Maiduguri, north-east Nigeria on Tuesday night. In a statement Wednesday evening, Borno state Communication Officer UNICEF, Samuel Kaalu, said the children will immediately be enrolled in a reintegration programme to enable them to re-engage with their families. Mr Kaalu said some of the children are reported to have been missing for up to four and five years, with many presumed dead by their families. UNICEF Country Representative, Peter Hawkins, described the release of the children as a huge step forward towards ensuring the well-being of children in conflict areas These children deserve to have a normal childhood and now require our full care and support to re-enter the lives that were so brutally interrupted by this devastating conflict, he said. Trends The conflict in north-east Nigeria has continued to uproot and devastate the lives of tens of thousands of children, women and men for the past 10 years. UNICEF said non-state armed groups in north-east Nigeria have recruited and used children as combatants and non-combatants, raped and forced girls to marry, and committed other grave violations against children since 2012. Some of the girls become pregnant in captivity and give birth without any medical care or attention. The UN organisation also said about 1,743 children associated with armed groups (1,125 boys, 618 girls) have been released from administrative custody since 2017 Since 2016, 3,559 people associated with armed groups have been released from administrative custody, including 1,743 children (1,125 boys, 618 girls). All have gone through the Bulumkutu Rehabilitation Center in Maiduguri in Borno State and have since been reunited with their families or placed in the most appropriate alternative care, where they are accessing rehabilitation services and reintegration support in their communities. UNICEF also said it is working closely with the Nigerian state authorities to help with reintegration programmes for all children formerly associated with non-state armed groups, and others affected by the ongoing conflict in north-east Nigeria. Age and sex appropriate community-based reintegration interventions include an initial assessment of their well-being, psychosocial support, education, vocational training, informal apprenticeships, and opportunities to improve livelihoods. At least 12,264 people formerly associated with armed groups, as well as vulnerable children in communities, have accessed such services since 2017. The Nigerian military in 2019 handed over 86 Boko Haram child fighters to Borno State Rehabilitation Centre in Bulumkutu, the defence headquarters said. Google is looking forward to replacing face-to-face interaction at the San Jose conference centre with online presentations. Google says it will refund the attendees in full by March 13. Google has joined the growing list of global events that have been cancelled amid the Coronavirus outbreak. The company has announced the cancellation of its I/O 2020 Developer Conference. Recently, Google also cancelled its Cloud Next event in San Francisco in favour of a digital-first event. In accordance with health guidance from WHO, CDC, and other health authorities, Google has decided to cancel the on-ground event. It is exploring other ways for its developer community to connect and collaborate. "Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), we've decided to cancel this year's physical event at Shoreline Amphitheatre," a Google statement said. The Google Developers account added in a tweet, its sad that we won't be able to gather as a developer community but your health and safety is our priority." Google says it will refund the attendees in full by March 13. Further, those who purchased tickets for this years event will be automatically granted the option of buying a Google I/O 2021 ticket. The I/O event typically attracts thousands of developers from around the world who get to interact with one another and engineers from the Internet company. Recently, Facebook cancelled its F8 developers conference, and Microsoft scrapped its event that was supposed to be held in Australia. The F8 is the biggest annual event for the US tech giant. It draws a lot of software makers from around the world. Earlier, MWC 2020 and Game Developer Conference were also cancelled amid the COVID-19 outbreak. As for Google, it is looking forward to replacing face-to-face interaction at the San Jose conference centre with online presentations The US forces in Afghanistan conducted a defensive airstrike in support of Afghan security forces in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, the first raid after a US-Taliban deal was signed. The strike was launched against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e-Saraj district after their attack on an Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) checkpoint, Colonel Sonny Leggetta, a spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our first strike against the Taliban in 11 days," he said. On February 29, Taliban's political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad signed the peace deal in Doha, Qatar. Under the accord, the US and NATO will completely pull out their troops from Afghanistan in 14 months, while the Taliban would start an intra-Afghan dialogue. "To be clear, we are committed to peace, however we have the responsibility to defend our ANDSF partners," said the spokesman. "Taliban leadership promised the international community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." According to Leggetta, on Tuesday alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on ANDSF checkpoints in Helmand, 555 km south of Kabul. Earlier in the day, an Afghan special force command, without providing details, said one Taliban key member was killed following an airstrike in Nahr-e-Saraj. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period ending on February 29 when the peace deal was signed. However, the Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashed with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal was signed. At least 19 Afghan security force members and several Taliban militants were killed in separate predawn clashes on Wednesday in two provinces of Afghanistan. In analyzing the results of Super Tuesday, we crusading newspaper columnists are forced to answer some difficult questions. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion In analyzing the results of Super Tuesday, we crusading newspaper columnists are forced to answer some difficult questions. The first question, not surprisingly, is this: What exactly are the results of Super Tuesday? Well, the answer to that question is simple: I personally do not have a clue what the results are because, thanks to the strict deadlines for this column, I am forced to write these words long before the polls have closed. Not that I will let something that simple stop me from doing my sworn duty to provide you, the curious reader, with enough words so that my employer will continue to provide me with a paycheque. I dont know about your profession, but if we big-shot media analysts only analyzed things that had actually happened, then there would be a lot less analysis in the world, and that would be a sad day for democracy. That said, the other main question we crusading columnists need to answer is: What exactly is Super Tuesday? The answer to that one is: It depends on what side of the Canada-U.S. border you live on. For instance, if you happen to be Canadian you can check your passport if youre not sure Super Tuesday is most likely the day on which you have to decide whether you want double the Air Miles or 10 per cent off your entire purchase at the grocery store. Its an entirely different story south of the border. In the U.S. and you are going to have to trust my journalistic expertise on this one Super Tuesday has, and you can quote me directly, "something to do with politics." According to what I have just read online, Super Tuesday is I guess we should say "was" because you are reading this on Wednesday the single day when the most states hold contests to pick a presidential nominee, the most voters have a chance to go to the polls , and the most delegates will be allotted to candidates. More than a third of all (bad word) delegates for the Democratic National Convention are (were) up for grabs on this one day. Think about it: one-third of Democratic delegates (1,357) were up for grabs in 14 states Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont as well as the territory of American Samoa and the votes of those living abroad. And I think we all know that as American Samoa goes, so goes the election. But that is not todays main point. No, todays main point is that I do not have a clue who won the most delegates on Super Tuesday, but I still feel obligated to provide Canadian readers with a thoughtful analysis. I think the first thing we can say and this seems pretty obvious to me is that Super Tuesday highlights some major differences between Canadians and Americans. In the U.S., the way the Democratic race to be the person who gets to challenge Donald Trump for the White House works is pretty complicated, bordering on clinically insane. What the Democrats do is get together and hold televised debates in which all the challengers stand beside each other and kick one another in the teeth and accuse each other of being a far-left lunatic or a right-wing fanatic or a person who believes in kicking the most puppies before election day. The person who survives with the fewest visible scars gets to take on the president. It is sort of like taking a panther and a tiger and a jaguar and, possibly, a wildebeest, and throwing them together in a room with a bunch of raw meat, closing the door, and then opening it an hour later and, whichever one is able to drag its bleeding body out of the room fastest, gets to fight a (bad word) lion to be King of the Jungle. That is not the way politicians roll in Canada. In The True North Strong and Free, our politicians tend to stress their Canadian-ness at debates, wherein they try to score points by out-politeing one another. First debater: "I dont want to hurt anyones feelings, but I possibly might just disagree." Second debater: "Thats perfectly fine. Maybe we should sit down over a two-four and talk about it." The other thing I have observed about the front-runners in Super Tuesday in the U.S. is that they are (how can we phrase this?) chronologically challenged guys of my particular gender. Establishment-friendly moderate Joe Biden is 77, and progressive populist Bernie Sanders is 78, which means U.S. President Donald Trump is comparatively a spring chicken at a mere 73. If we were to get these three guys together to debate health care, it would sound like this: Sanders: "If Im elected president, EVERYONE gets new knees. (Points at audience) YOU GET A KNEE! AND YOU GET A KNEE!" Biden: "Listen, I was vice-president to Barack Obama and that guy had FANTASTIC knees!" Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Trump: "No one in the world knows knees the way I know knees! I have genius knees! Very stable knees!" In contrast, Canada has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Tory front-runner Peter MacKay and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, three guys who barely seem old enough to be allowed out on their own on a Friday night. And your standard Canadian voter feels a strange sense of pride knowing that American magazines love to write about how sexy our political leaders are and how, in a pinch, they can decide volatile issues by challenging each other to combat in a mixed martial arts bout. In conclusion, I would just like to point out that, wherever you live, Super Tuesday is now over, which means you no longer qualify for a discount at the grocery store. Which is sad, because I could really use the Air Miles. doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca Scandal-hit Netanyahu claims victory in Israel Knesset election Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 3:38 AM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed victory in the general election after exit polls put his party ahead of its main rival with a narrow lead. Media projections give Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party 36 or 37 seats while his main rival Benny Gantz's Blue and White managed 33 seats. Based on the exit polls, Likud and like-minded parties combined could win 60 of Knesset's 120-seats, only one short of a majority. The Monday election was the Israeli regime's third in less than a year. Netanyahu, who has been indicted in a corruption scandal, had failed to secure a governing majority in the elections held in April and September, last year. Netanyahu's victory means annexation, settlements, apartheid Meanwhile Palestinian officials and factions have slammed the vote. Saeb Erekat, a top official of the Palestine Liberation Organization said Israel's exit polls show victory for annexation and apartheid. "From the exit polls we have just seen it's obvious that annexation, settlements, apartheid won the elections," Erekat said in a message. "The whole election campaign was about annexation of the Jordan Valley , the Dead Sea, the settlements, Jerusalem, subjecting the Palestinian people to further and deeper to the Israeli occupation; denying them the rights of determination," he added. Erekat said Netanyahu "has taken the wrong side of history" and his pro-conflict policies will take the region into a cycle of violence, extremism, counter-violence and bloodshed. And seems to me that Mr. Netanyahu believes that conflict is what serves Israel's interests in the future. I believe he has taken the wrong side of History, I think if he forces Palestinians and Israelis to live by the sword that means a cycle of violence, extremism, counter-violence and bloodshed dominate this region." The Hamas also slammed the vote saying election in the Palestinian territory has NO legitimacy and Israel will remain an occupying regime. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official, said there is no difference between Israel's right and left parties since they are all hostile to the Palestinians. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nothing about the film makes it an obvious candidate for an American remake, but for some reason this task has been taken on by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, comic actors turned filmmakers whose previous feature, The Way, Way Back, was a coming-of-age story set at a water park in Cape Cod. Force Majeure, directed in 2014 by Sweden's Ruben Ostlund, isnt a film I would recommend to anybody as a barrel of laughs. Its a literally and figuratively chilly story, in which an affluent middle-aged couple find themselves at odds while on holiday in the Alps: the approach is satirical, but less broadly so than in Ostlunds subsequent art world spoof The Square. That the stars of Downhill are Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (otherwise known as Elaine from Seinfeld) tells you that Faxon and Rash arent aiming to replicate their source. Their film is nearly half an hour shorter, and lighter in every sensebut despite some promising elements, it never finds a viable identity of its own. Once again, the setting is the Alps: Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus play Pete and Billie Staunton, middle Americans who check into a ski resort with their two pre-adolescent sons (Julian Grey and Ammon Jacob Ford). From the outset, there are signs of strain between the pair. Why, for instance, is Pete spending so much time on his phone? But theyre determined to enjoy themselves at whatever price, until the threat of natural disaster leads to catastrophe of another kind. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell in Downhill. With the plot of Force Majeure as a basis, the film resembles a string of semi-improvised skits, or a extended pilot for a Netflix sitcom. The studied distance of Ostlunds visual style has been replaced by a blander, more televisual flatness, with the grandeur of the mountain scenery used as counterpoint to the pettiness of the Stauntons squabbles. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 22 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering a statement in Pyongyan as regards to a speech made by the president of the United States of America at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 21, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) North Korean Swagger May Conceal Brewing Virus Disaster TOKYOIn these days of infection and fear, a recent propaganda photo sums up the image North Korea wants to show the world, as well as its people: Soldiers with black surgical masks surround leader Kim Jong Un, ensconced in a leather overcoat and without a mask as he oversees a defiant military drill. As a new and frightening virus closes in around it, North Korea presents itself as a fortress, tightening its borders as cadres of health officials stage a monumental disinfection and monitoring program. That image of world-defying impregnability, however, may belie a brewing disaster. North Korea, which has what experts call a horrendous medical infrastructure in the best of times, shares a porous, nearly 1,450-kilometer (900-mile) border with China, where the disease originated. North Koreas government has also long considered public reports on infectious diseaseor, for that matter, anything that could hurt the ruling elitematters of state secrecy. This has raised fears that North Korea, which claims zero infections, may be vastly unprepared for a virus that is testing much more developed countries across the globeand that infections could even be exploding already within its borders. Unfortunately, the international community has no idea if the coronavirus is spreading inside North Korea, said a recent report by Jessica Lee, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank in Washington. The fact that we know nothing about the level of infection or deaths within North Korea is extremely problematic and, left unchanged, could have serious public health implications. North Korean media, meanwhile, are filled with self-described examples of ultra-vigilanceas well as a sense of urgency. Calling its anti-virus campaign a matter of national existence, the North has banned foreign tourists, delayed the school year, quarantined hundreds of foreigners and thousands of locals whove traveled abroad, shut down nearly all cross-border traffic with China, intensified screening at entry points, and mobilized tens of thousands of health workers to monitor residents and isolate those with symptoms. A parade of media photographs show North Korean doctors, scientists and health workers in masks, paper hats, and protective clothing, discussing matters of science, disinfecting public transportation, or planning ways to further protect citizens. No special cases must be allowed within the state anti-epidemic system, Kim, emerging recently from a prolonged period out of the public spotlight to oversee a politburo meeting on the virus, said, according to state media. Officials must seal off all the channels and space through which the infectious disease may find its way. On March 2, Kims military fired unidentified projectiles into the sea, weapons tests apparently aimed, in part, at showing that alls well amid outside worries about an outbreak in the North. Despite the bravado, there are rising doubts that North Korea has dodged the virus. Some North Korea monitoring groups, which claim to have a network of sources inside the nation, recently said that there are virus patients and deaths in North Korea, a claim the South Korean government couldnt confirm. Im 100 percent sure that North Korea already has infected patients, said Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at South Koreas Korea University who served as president of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Koreas main spy agency. He said that if North Korea had an outbreak similar to whats happening in South Korea, the worlds hardest-hit country aside from China, it would cause serious turmoil because of a chronic lack of medical supplies and medicine. North Korea would be helpless, he said. Some analysts believe that North Koreas strong moves to shut down border areas with China, its only major ally and aid benefactor, signal that the virus has already spread into the nation from China, which has reported more than 80,000 cases. Theres usually heavy border traffic between the two countries, and tens of thousands of North Koreans were believed to be working in China before a U.N. order for Beijing to send them back home expired in December. Its unknown how many of them have returned home. There have been growing outside calls for North Korea to open up about whats going on inside its borders. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, urged North Korea to allow full and unimpeded access to medical experts and humanitarian actors, and relax restrictions on access to information. Further isolation of the country is not the answer. Ojea Quintana said that many North Koreans, especially in the countryside, lack proper access to health services, water, and sanitation, and that more than 43 percent of the population is undernourished. The United States also expressed worry about North Koreas vulnerability to the viral outbreak and said it was ready to support efforts by aid organizations to contain the spread of the illness in the impoverished nation. An epidemic in North Korea, which experts say has a chronic lack of medical supplies, could further shake an economy battered by U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile program. That, in turn, could quicken the depletion of the Norths foreign currency reserves by choking off income from tourism and smuggling. Decreased trade with China could also dry up the goods going to North Koreas informal private markets, which have emerged as a big part of the national economy following the collapse of the state rationing system during a devastating famine in the 1990s, experts say. And the countrys intensified anti-virus efforts could potentially hamper Kims ability to mobilize his people for labor on major development and tourist projects, said Lim Soo-ho, an analyst from South Koreas Institute for National Security Strategy think tank. Despite a big economic hit to many North Koreans, however, the elite may survive a serious outbreak. North Korea has a powerful control over its people, and that was how it maintained its leadership when 2 to 3 million people died during the arduous march period, Oh Gyeong-seob, an analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification, said, referring to the North Korean euphemism for the 1990s famine. Public dissatisfaction with Kim Jong Un will grow, but not at a level that will deal him a critical blow, Oh predicted. ALBANY Mayor Kathy Sheehan vetoed a Common Council change to the city's zoning code intended to prevent a blood plasma collection center from opening on Central Avenue, calling it "unconstitutional." In a March 3 letter to the council, Sheehan says the ordinance isn't valid because it violates a number of city and state laws regarding the process used to change zoning codes. "While I understand the approval of this ordinance by the Common Council was driven by the best of intentions, I have been advised by Corporation Counsel it is an unconstitutional zoning action with no rational basis in law," she wrote. The council voted 14-0 on Feb. 20 to require a 1,000 buffer between any plasma collection center and a home, school or church, among other changes to the zoning code. In her letter, Sheehan says the council failed to refer the ordinance to the county planning board, failed to properly notify the public on changes to the ordinance and didn't do an environmental review. Additionally, Sheehan said the council may have violated the state's Open Meetings Law several times, namely by not allowing a representative of the developer to speak at a public comment period because they arrived several minutes late and for not properly letting residents know about proposed changes to the ordinance after a committee meeting in February. On Wednesday, Sheehan said the council had valid concerns about the project but that its process was flawed. "We don't ban certain types of clubs in the city that I'm against and we can't just ban a procedure that happens every day at the Red Cross on a regular basis," she said. Councilman Michael O'Brien, who sponsored the ordinance, declined comment on Sheehan's letter on Wednesday but said he and residents near the proposed site would be filing an Article 78 proceeding against the city Planning Board later this week to stop the project. O'Brien and residents who live near the planned collection center have said they believe there are other areas in the city that would be more appropriate for the project and they are not trying to ban plasma collection centers from the city. Council President Corey Ellis said the council re-introduced the ordinance at its Monday meeting and would be holding a public hearing on it. "The will of the council on this is unchanged," he said on Wednesday. CSL Plasma, a Florida-based company that operates over 230 plasma collection centers around the world, proposed opening a center at 900 Central Ave., near the Hannaford supermarket, soon after the city approved a new zoning map in 2017. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The proposal has been stalled since the board initially denied the project in 2017. The city planning department later released guidelines that included a 250-foot barrier between any proposed collection center and any home, church or school. OBriens ordinance pushed that barrier back to 1,000 feet and made other changes. Last month the citys Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved an appeal last month that would classify blood plasma donation centers as light manufacturing in areas zoned for that use. OBrien said when the city created zoning that included light manufacturing, this was not the type of industry officials had in mind. No one even thought of a blood plasma center, he said last month. Its almost as if the zoning board went searching for a category they could drop it in to. More for you Albany Common Council votes to restrict blood plasma centers During the Feb. 20 meeting, several council members criticized the project, saying it would take advantage of poorer residents who were desperate to provide for their families. Plasma collection involves drawing blood from donors, spinning the blood to remove the red blood cells, and keeping the remaining liquid which is mostly water and proteins. That plasma is then used in therapies and medical procedures. Plasma collection companies have been criticized for targeting poorer residents and college students as potential donors. Donors are usually compensated $30 to $40 per donation. Typically the centers are located near bus lines and strip malls. ISTANBUL Turkey hopes negotiations with Russia will yield a truce in northwest Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, less than a week after he launched a military operation to stop the Syrian armys advance in the last opposition stronghold and prevent a new refugee crisis at its southern border. Two Turkish soldiers were killed as clashes between the neighboring armies continue, the Defense Ministry said, bringing the death toll to about 60 since January, when Turkey began sending thousands of troops to Idlib province. It also said that more than 3,138 men fighting on behalf of Syria had been neutralized. Our main topic is securing a quick cease-fire in the region, Erdogan told reporters one day before traveling to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Syrias main backer that has stepped aside to allow Turkey to pummel the Syrian Arab Army. NATOs second biggest military launched Operation Spring Shield at the weekend, shooting down three Syrian warplanes and destroying several anti-aircraft systems. Despite supporting opposite sides in the conflict, Erdogan and Putin have deepened bilateral ties, hammered out several truces in Syria and struck energy and weapons deals, much to NATOs chagrin. Moscow previously greenlit three Turkish military campaigns that targeted the Islamic State and a Kurdish militia and has given Ankara control of some 3,500 square miles (5,600 square kilometers) of northern Syria. Rescuing Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime has been a central foreign policy priority for Russia since entering the conflict in 2015. But the effort to expand its political leverage in the Middle East and challenge Western dominance in global affairs has also extended to its ties with Turkey. Tolerance for Turkeys ambitions in northern Syria for safe zones is probably the price Russia is willing to pay for the other aspects of the relationship, in which Russia has immense interests, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at the Brussels-based foreign policy think tank Carnegie Europe, told Al-Monitor. Any cease-fire arrangement is likely to meet a Russian condition to return the vital M4 and M5 highways to Assad and address Turkeys demands for a buffer zone in Idlib, where displaced people are now sheltering in dire conditions in makeshift camps, said Pierini, who served as the European Unions ambassador to both Syria and Turkey. Turkeys offensive came after prolonged Syrian and Russian bombardment of civilians forced nearly a million people to its closed border since December as the rebels it backs make a last stand in the nine-year-old war that has claimed nearly a half-million lives. Another humanitarian crisis has erupted on Turkeys western frontier as Greek border guards use force to push thousands of migrants back to Turkey, which stopped preventing them from trying to reach Europe last week. Turkey argues the threat of new arrivals from Idlib means it could no longer handle those refugees who are already there. If European countries want to solve this problem, they must support the political and humanitarian resolution Turkey is trying to achieve in Syria, Erdogan told members of his party in a televised speech. The European Unions foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met with Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday and said he told Turkish officials not to encourage more migrants to go to its border with Europe. Increased pressure at the EU-Turkey border and unilateral actions will not provide answers, said Borrell, according to a press statement. The EU expects Turkey to stick to an agreement to deter migration that it signed with the bloc in 2016 in exchange for six billion euros, he added. One man was killed and five others were wounded when Greek security forces used rubber and real bullets on migrants, the governor of the border province of Edirne said. A Greek government spokesman called it fake news, denying the use of live rounds and any injuries. The Turkish presidents press office provided journalists with footage showing an injured person being rushed through a field and photographs of men with what appeared to be wounds from rubber bullets. The Greek government then released a video purportedly showing Turkish guards firing tear gas toward Greece. Since last week, nearly 136,000 migrants have reached Greece, said the Turkish interior minister, while Greece said it has prevented 27,832 attempts to cross and arrested 220 people who were successful. Turkey opened its borders just days before launching the Idlib operation, helping to underpin longstanding Russian efforts to sow discord in Europe. Anti-immigrant fervor has destabilized centrist governments and weakened EU institutions, welcomed by Putin, who views the EU project as a threat to his own world vision. Every time you have an incident like the one underway at the Greek-Turkish border now, it benefits the extreme right in Europe and that is extremely beneficial for Russia, Pierini told Al-Monitor. Thats a miscalculation for Turkey, because it also [undermines] the EUs ability to deal efficiently with Turkey. The crisis on its southern flank also reveals Europes failure to forge a common migration policy and prepare for the inevitable: Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates to migrants as Turkey struggled to cope with the worlds largest population of refugees and diverged with Europe on Syria policy. For its part, the United States has dispatched its Syria envoy to Ankara and supports a cease-fire in Idlib. Erdogan said on Wednesday he also had promises of ammunition from US President Donald Trump. Washington has stopped short of sending Turkey the Patriot missiles it requested, a wish unlikely to be granted after Erdogan bought a Russian-made defense system that has wrought the threat of US sanctions. The US recognizes that this is an opportunity to push back against Assad and Putin and restore confidence with Turkey, even though a break in Russian-Turkish ties remains unlikely," said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Right now is the perfect constellation for Turkey, where Putin does not want a rupture with Erdogan and the US wants to use this chance to repair its rupture with Turkey, he said. Meanwhile, emotions are running high in Ankara as more Turkish soldiers fall in Idlib. A fistfight broke out in parliament on Wednesday after a lawmaker from the main opposition party criticized Erdogans years-old comments about dead Turkish soldiers. Most Turks support the military operation, but the government is ensuring that dissent is not expressed. The state-appointed governor of Istanbul banned anti-war protests through March 10 for security reasons as well as to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Lufthansa will ground 150 aircraft due to the coronavirus, the German airline said on March 4, confirming what company sources had told news agency Reuters earlier. "We are dynamically adjusting our plans to reflect extraordinary circumstances," a Lufthansa spokesman said. European airline bosses warned on March 3 that the worst is still to come for the airline industry in terms of economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak, but they predicted that travel demand could stabilise in the coming weeks. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday asked fair trade regulator CCI to initiate again the probe against e-commerce major for an alleged use of its dominant position. A three-member Bench of the headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has set aside the earlier order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in this regard. Earlier, the CCI had absolved e-commerce major of unfair practices using its dominant position. The appellate tribunal has directed the CCI to ask its probe arm Director General (DG) to investigate into the allegations. We set aside the order passed by CCI..., the bench said adding that the fair trade regulator is directed to initiate probe against Flipkart. The said that the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has successfully made its case here. While, said it was waiting for the copy of the order passed by the We understand that the NCLAT has issued an order in relation to the AIOVA appeal. We are currently awaiting a copy of the order, a Flipkart spokesperson said. In November 2018, the AIOVA had approached the CCI alleging abuse of market dominance by e-commerce major. The AIOVA had alleged abuse of market dominance against Flipkart India Pvt Ltd, which is into wholesale trading/distribution of books, mobiles, computers and related accessories, and e-commerce marketplace Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd. It had alleged that small vendors have become allies of the big vendors and suppliers to leading sellers such as Cloudtail, WS Retail, etc on the Flipkart and Amazon platforms, rather than selling directly to consumers through the online e-commerce marketplace sites. However, passing an order on November 6, 2018, the CCI had held that the business practices of Flipkart and Amazon are not in violation of competition norms and rejected allegations of abuse of market dominance made by the AIOVA. The CCI had ruled that looking at the present market construct and structure of online marketplace platforms in India, it does not appear that any one player in the market is commanding any dominant position at this stage of evolution of market. The AIOVA, as mentioned in the CCI order, is a group of over 2,000 sellers selling on e-commerce marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc. Earlier in February, in a different matter, the High Court of Karnataka had stayed the CCI investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour by two e-retailing majors Amazon and Flipkart for a period of eight weeks. The CCI had ordered a probe into Amazon Seller Services and Flipkart Internet, units of the two e-commerce marketplaces, on January 13 after receiving complaints from trader body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh. Uptrust, a San Francisco- and Northampton, MA-based technology company fighting mass incarceration, completed a $1.3m funding round. Uptrust is a public benefit corporation supported by the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, RFK Human Rights, Schmidt Futures, Inherent Foundation and the Heising-Simons Foundation. The organization intends to use the funds comprised of a combination of grants and investment to broaden both its engineering and sales capabilities, and improve its product, including the launch of the new Uptrust mobile app for public defender clients. Co-founded by Jacob Sills, CEO, and Elijah Gwynn, Uptrust provides a tech platform which ensures people attend mandatory appointments in the criminal justice system by reminding them of their obligations and connecting them to relevant social services. With the new app, clients will be able to message multiple stakeholders (such as their attorney and social worker) and learn about local opportunities such as free or reduced transportation to court and expungement clinics. Since its founding in 2017, the company has secured partnerships with more than 50 new jurisdictions and now works with 40 percent of the 15 most populated counties in the United States. The platform reaches over 500,000 individuals. FinSMEs 03/03/2020 Online retail giant Amazon has said on Tuesday that an employee in the United States has been tested positive for coronavirus. "We are supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine," a company spokeswoman said. The company also said that all the employee's co-workers who were in contact with the patient have been informed. The patient worked at the company's South Lake Union office complex in Seattle, as mentioned in a report in Reuters. According to multiple reports, nine coronavirus deaths have been reported in the country so far. The US has detected around 100 cases across its states. Also read: Coronavirus Outbreak Live Updates: Covid-19 cases in India rise to 6; China death toll touches 2,981 Amazon also said on Sunday that two of its employees in Italy have also been infected with the virus and were under quarantine. Separately, Twitter also asked over 5,000 of its employees to work from home. "Beginning today, we are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they're able. Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us - and the world around us," the micro-blogging site said. Closer home, two schools in Noida were shut after the authorities discovered that the Delhi coronavirus attended a birthday party with his child and met other children, parents and teachers. The Hyatt Regency in Delhi also asked its staff to self-quarantine for 14 days after they discovered that the coronavirus patient had dined at their restaurant. Air India also asked the crew of the flight the patient took from Vienna to Delhi to self-quarantine and informed the fellow passengers to follow protocol. Also read: Coronavirus in Noida: What Delhi-NCR residents should know Also read: Coronavirus update: Health Ministry to hold high-level meeting to review preparedness Precaution: South Korean soldiers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus at Guryong village in Seoul. Photo: Getty Job losses and a dramatic economic slowdown will be side-effects of the coronavirus outbreak if it continues into the summer, ministers have been warned. With health experts predicting that the virus could take months to contain, there are growing fears at government level that Ireland's economy is "extremely exposed". Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has privately briefed ministers that we could be one of the worst-hit countries if there is a global downturn. The Irish Independent understands that a memo that was brought to Cabinet yesterday outlined "negative consequences for the labour market and public finances". Sources added that the financial impact of the health emergency could be deep and long lasting. The memo said it would be "premature to accurately assess" the domestic and global implications of the coronavirus. However, Ireland is "particularly sensitive" to external economic conditions, it said. Mr Donohoe noted that if world demand for goods falls by 1pc then Irish economic activity will fall by at least that. "Given the nature of this, there are reasons to believe the impact on Ireland will be even worse," a well-placed source said. The minister told colleagues that the economic shock would occur at a time when demand from many of Ireland's major trading partners is "already weak" and "when downside risks are becoming more prominent". The public finances would have to deal with the coronavirus shock on top of the uncertainty around a future trade agreement between the EU and the UK. Mr Donohoe said exports could be badly affected and corporation tax receipts, which have been running at record levels, could be hit. This would undermine the potential for a new government to deliver many of its election promises. One Cabinet source noted that while the health implications of the virus are known, the economic repercussions will take some time. "At some point this will become an economic story. If you start cancelling parades, if punters are too afraid to book holidays, it will start to hurt," a source said. A number of multi-national companies based in Ireland have already seen their normal business disrupted. Google told the majority of its 8,000 workers to stay at home for a second day. The company is still waiting on results for a worker who has reported flu-like symptoms. Twitter has told more than 200 workers in Dublin to work at home if they can. Web Summit's 400 Irish staff are to work from home until March 18 and all international travel by employees has been suspended. Facebook, which has almost 4,000 Irish workers, has cancelled all "social" visits to its Dublin office, but remains open for business otherwise. Meanwhile, the leader of the trade union movement has called for a statutory 'code of practice' to ensure workers forced to stay at home due to coronavirus get paid. In a letter to Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Patricia King said she had asked the director general of the Workplace Relations Commission to consider her proposal. "This would provide clarity for all concerned and avoid different employer approaches to this serious matter," she said. In recent days there has been considerable public debate on the precise implications for workers who are affected in any way by the current public health requirements. Ms King said in cases of enforced absences where a worker gets medical advice to self-isolate, they should get their normal pay. "This should also apply where an employee self-isolates in accordance with the up-to-date guidance of the HSE," she said. She said where someone must carry out caring duties as a direct result of the Covid-19 virus, these absences should be regarded as "enforced" and "remunerated accordingly". A union for Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus workers has demanded that they get full pay if forced to self-isolate due to the coronavirus. In letters to the companies, general secretary of the National Bus and Railworkers Union Dermot O'Leary demanded his members get the same deal as a nursing union and the HSE. Two groups of Italian tourists were under quarantine in India Wednesday, with 16 testing positive for the new coronavirus, prompting authorities to tighten controls. Italy is a hotspot of the virus with 79 deaths and over 2,500 infected, while India's case total stands officially at just 29 -- including the Italians and their Indian driver. Confirming the new cases, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Wednesday that passengers on all international flights would now be screened. Visitors from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan -- except diplomats and officials from international bodies -- were already barred, on Tuesday, along with those from China last month. Vardhan said a husband and wife in the first Italian group -- who arrived last month and number around 20 -- fell ill while visiting the western state of Rajasthan, a popular tourist destination. The remainder were moved to a quarantine centre in New Delhi, where 14 members plus their Indian driver were confirmed as being infected. "We are awaiting test results of the others," a source told AFP said on condition of anonymity. Separately authorities said that nine other Italians and their local guide have been quarantined in the central state of Madhya Pradesh for suspected exposure to the virus. "Two of them are suffering from cough and cold. They have been quarantined as a precaution," local official Sheelendra Singh told the Press Trust of India. - 'Report visitors' - Worldwide around 3,200 people have died from the virus with more than 90,000 infections -- with China, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan the worst affected. India confirmed three cases in late January and early February, all of whom arrived from China and who have since recovered. But until last week no more infections were reported when an Indian man who returned from Italy via Austria to New Delhi tested positive. The man has since infected six family members in Agra south of the capital and home to tourist hotspot the Taj Mahal. Hotels and tourist sites in Agra have been told to report any visitors from Italy, Iran or China, so that they can be screened, local medical official Mukesh Vats told PTI. One other infection was confirmed in the southern state of Telangana, reportedly a software engineer who arrived from Dubai, where he met fellow technicians from Hong Kong. Another was confirmed in Gurgaon outside Delhi with the local man having recently returned from Italy. On February 4, India blocked the entry of new arrivals from China or anyone who had visited China in the preceding two weeks. It has also been screening arrivals from certain countries. Gagandeep Kang, a leading infectious diseases expert and the first Indian woman to become a Royal Society Fellow, said that India's actions until now have been "entirely appropriate". "But it is also a limited strategy. Maybe it's time to think about whether we should be doing more than this," Kang told AFP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Tuesday that he had held an "extensive review regarding preparedness" for the virus and that different ministries and states were "working together". "There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection," Modi said. On Wednesday Modi said he would stay away from celebrations during Holi, one of India's biggest festivals when paint and water are thrown around in an explosion of colour. Other top officials including Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said they would also skip the celebrations. Protesters have demonstrated outside a restaurant in Paris after a group of English and French women were alleged to have been 'turned away for wearing Islamic headscarves'. A young French woman had been out with a group of friends when she was refused entry to the Matignon restaurant, located near the Champs-Elysees in Paris. She claimed those at the restaurant were 'racist' and that she had never experienced anything like it. The woman claimed the venue told her group and another behind her with a reservation that they were not able to enter because of the shoes they were wearing. The woman on the left posted the video online claiming her group was refused entry because he friend (right) was wearing a headscarf The restaurant (pictured above) is alleged to have discriminated against the women because of their headscarves She disputed this as many of the women were well dressed, with most wearing designer clothing from the likes of Gucci and Fendi. However one woman in the video was wearing an Islamic head covering and this, the woman claimed, was the reason they were not allowed in. The incident happened on February 27 and just one day later, groups turned up outside the restaurant to protest its decision. A video posted online showed a group outside pinning banners to the outside of the restaurant. A day after the incident protesters were outside the restaurant. They hit back at the owners due to the alleged discrimination One of those, believed to have been in attendance tweeted: The answer to #islamophobie from the restaurant the #Matignon today. #nameandshame #racisme. According to CEN the woman in the video claimed the restaurant had a 'beautiful gang of racists'. She claimed: 'We were supposed to have dinner tonight at Le Matignon, everything was supposed to go well, it's not the first time we've been there. But today we have an 'intruder'!' The woman added that things had 'become serious' in the city and that she had to speak up, branding it an 'act of racism' on behalf of the restaurant. In 2011 France became the first European country to impose a ban on full-face veils in public areas, however, none of the women in the video seemed to have been wearing the full covering, with one just wearing a headscarf. Local media claimed the woman's allegations were 'slanderous', the restaurant is alleged to have claimed this in an Instagram post which is no longer on their account. MailOnline has contacted Matignon. Another person also claimed to have been turned away from the restaurant despite wearing a shirt and tie. He said he was the only Frenchman of Arab descent in the group and claimed it was because of this he was refused entry. Employees of Thane Mental Hospital along with Maharashtra State Industrial Officers Kamgar Union protested on Wednesday but this did not affect the working of the hospital. They were miffed by the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities towards problems of staffers. They have also been demanding a permanent medical superintendent for the hospital. However, the staff ensured that the work at the hospital is not affected in any way while they were protesting. We are looking into the problems of the staffers. As we have to follow a protocol and procedures, there could be a delay in taking decisions. However, we have had a meeting with the staffers, said Makarand Patil, medical superintendent, Thane Mental Hospital. Employees have been complaining about their problems for long. AD Kulkarni, president of Maharashtra State Industrial Officers Kamgar Union, said, Every day, the women employees have to pull heavy food trolleys weighing 300 to 350kgs and take them to the wards. As men are not allowed entry into womens wards, only women employees have to take food to wards and this is taking a toll on their health. He added that if any of the inmates are taken outside the hospital for consultation, only one employee accompanies him or her. If the inmate becomes violent, it becomes difficult to handle the patient single-handedly, said Kulkarni. The union and the staff are demanding a solution to such problems. The medical superintendent is not necessarily a psychiatrist. This affects the working of the hospital, said one of the caretakers at the mental hospital on condition of anonymity. Although there are doctors and specialists, often the inmates are taken outside for consultation. This can be avoided and instead better provisions be provided to the existing infrastructure, said the caretaker. On Thursday, the sanitation workers of Thane Mental Hospital will go on a one-day strike, demanding an increase in wages. The disease can be prevented by frequently washing hands either with soap or sanitizer if in touch with a patient. Stay wary of people sneezing or coughing The coronavirus scare sweeping the world has cast a shadow on India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday cancelling his Holi milan event to minimize mass gatherings as the country recorded a significant jump in detected cases from 15 to 23. Over the last 3 days, 28 new cases have been detected. PM Modis call to shun gatherings was joined by Home Minister Amit Shah who appealed to the people to avoid mass gatherings and that he will also skip Holi events. The festival falls early next week. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal assured Delhiites of arrangements made to contain the virus and urged them not to panic. Among the new cases are 6 from the family of the Delhi man who had been to Italy and contracted the virus there. Coronavirus has spread to 60 countries, has killed more than 3,000 and infected more than 90,000 people across the world. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said all passengers of international flights will be screened from now on and not just from the 12 countries reported earlier. Almost 6 lakh people have been screened at airports and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance. Also Read: Coronavirus scare reaches Noida, 2 schools closed after students parent put under quarantine Of the 23-member group of Italians that had come to visit Rajasthan, 16 have tested positive and 14 are housed in Delhi while 2 others are in Jaipur. This is the largest group afflicted as of now. Doctors have said the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads on contact with droplets emitted while sneezing or coughing by an infected person. Measures to prevent the spread of the virus include washing hands frequently with soap or by using sanitisers. The government has advised people not to travel to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy and is barring visitors from these countries barring diplomats and officials. Several hundred Indians are stuck in Iran, which has reported some 1,000 cases. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:36:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File photo shows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li He) The U.S. side has been escalating the oppression against Chinese journalists from listing the Chinese media as "foreign agents" to designating them as "foreign missions" and now to capping the number of their Chinese employees, which means de-facto "expulsion" in a limited time, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China strongly opposes and condemns the U.S. State Department's political crackdown on the U.S. offices of the Chinese media out of Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice on shaky ground, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday. The U.S. State Department announced Monday that the U.S. government will cap the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for the five Chinese media groups that were designated as "foreign missions," effective March 13. "Considering where the China-U.S. relationship now stands, what the United States has done will have serious negative impacts and damage bilateral relations," Zhao told a press briefing. "We urge the United States to immediately change its course and correct its wrongdoings. The Chinese side reserves the right to respond and take further actions." Zhao said Chinese journalists stationed in the United States have been strictly abiding by U.S. laws and regulations and carrying out news reporting under the principle of objectivity, fairness, truthfulness and accuracy. "Their professionalism is well recognized. The U.S. side has no basis and reason to take such an action against Chinese journalists." The U.S. side has been escalating the oppression against Chinese journalists from listing the Chinese media as "foreign agents" to designating them as "foreign missions" and now to capping the number of their Chinese employees, which means de-facto "expulsion" in a limited time, Zhao said. "Because of their mounting oppression, Chinese journalists' normal reporting activities, the reputation of the Chinese media and normal people-to-people exchanges between the two sides have been gravely damaged," said Zhao. While priding itself on freedom of press, the United States now disrupts and obstructs the Chinese media doing their job, Zhao said. "Such a two-faced behavior exposed its hypocrisy in so-called freedom of press, nothing short of double standards and bullying." When asked to comment on the U.S. announcement that the purpose of such measures is to seek "reciprocity," Zhao said China has never instituted any caps on the number of offices and employees of U.S. media in China. "It is their own choice to make on how many people they want to send here, not a result of China's restriction." Zhao said the United States had rejected and delayed issuance of visa to Chinese journalists since 2018 to restrict their going to the United States, and at least 21 Chinese journalists have been denied visa since last year. "On top of all that, this time, the United States has decided to 'expel' 60 Chinese employees of these Chinese media in the country, under the pretext of capping their number. Can this be called 'reciprocity'?" According to Zhao, China only has nine media agencies in the United States while there are 29 U.S. media groups in China. He also noted that while the U.S. journalists enjoy multiple entries of China with their visa, the United States has taken discriminatory measures targeting Chinese journalists by issuing single-entry visa, which means Chinese journalists will have to reapply for their visa if they go back to China briefly or even visit their families during their tenure, not to mention the 354 U.S. dollars of their visa fee, which is twice as much as the fee China charges. "Can this be called 'reciprocity'?" Zhao asked. "The United States wants 'reciprocity' with us. Does it also want that with other countries' media?" he continued. Zhao said the U.S. constant request for reciprocity is essentially prejudice, discrimination and aversion against Chinese media. "The United States is guilty of foul play first. We will simply do what we have to do." Massachusetts voters on Tuesday picked former Vice President Joe Biden as their top choice among a narrowing field of Democrats chasing the chance to face President Donald Trump in November. Full results were not yet available, but with more than half of precincts reporting, Biden benefitted from a surge following his dominant South Carolina victory to pick up 34% support compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders 27% and Sen. Elizabeth Warrens 20%, according to the Associated Press. The Super Tuesday contest followed weeks of questions over whether Warren could win her home state against a surging Sanders. APs results as of 11 p.m., with about 70% of precincts reporting, showed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in fourth place at 11%. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard picked up less than 1% of the vote, while former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who exited the race over the weekend, each earned less than 3%. The critical primary day, with Bay State residents joining voters in 13 other states heading to the polls, also comes just a few days after former Bidens win in South Carolina, which led to two candidates dropping out and endorsing him. As of 10:30 p.m., Biden had picked up wins in half of the Super Tuesday states. Massachusetts had 91 delegates up for grabs Tuesday, a small percentage of the total 1,357 delegates about a third of the 3,979 contested nationwide that will be divided proportionally among candidates who earn at least 15% support Tuesday. A candidate would need 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention. Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Cervical Cancer Drugs Global Market Report 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global cervical cancer drugs market was valued at about $15.3 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to $17.9 billion at a CAGR of 4% through 2022. Major players in the market are F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Hetero, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly & Company, and Pfizer. North America was the largest region in the cervical cancer drugs market in 2018. This region is expected to remain the largest during the next five years. The cervical cancer drugs market in Asia-Pacific is forecasted to register the highest CAGR during 2018-2023. The increasing prevalence of HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) in women is driving the growth of the cervical cancer drugs market. Women with HIV positive have a greater risk of cervical cancer than the general population. Nearly 18 million women have tested HIV positive globally, HIV weakens the immune system which increases the likelihood of cervical cancer. Women with HIV have an increased chance of being diagnosed with cervical cancer because the count of the protein CD4 goes down. According to a survey conducted by the National cancer institute, in 2017, a person with HIV is three time as likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer. The lack of awareness and other misconceptions about cervical cancers hinder the growth of the cervical cancer drugs market. A lot of cervical cancer-related deaths among women are due to late diagnosis of disease. The lack of awareness leads to avoidance about the disease; this ignorance causes delayed diagnosis and medication/treatment. In 2017, a study was conducted at the Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), in Nigeria, about 318 women from the general outpatient clinic were interviewed to assess the level of awareness of cervical cancer. The level of awareness for cervical cancer was 22.6% and 17.9% for screening tests, with major sources of information being from health talks and hospital staffs. The cervical cancer drugs market is experiencing a number of significant trends that helps in efficient and targeted treatment of the disease including advances in drug delivery. One such trend is the use of drugs that can be delivered directly from the vagina such as drugs using vaginal formulations as gels, creams, pessaries, rings, films and tablets. These drugs ease the localized treatment of cervical cancer. The formulation of these drugs is in such a way that they get easily absorbed into vaginal tissue and reach the site of action. For instance, companies introduced vaginal gels such as Cidofovir gel and 851B Gel into the market to treat cervical cancer. As per the reports by International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH)'s Clinical Trials Registry, 851B Gel is in trial phase. Whereas Cidofovir gel, sold under the brand name Vistide, is already a success in the market. In addition to the above mentioned gels, drugs such as ISA101, AGEN2034 and Z-100 are in pipeline and promise growth to the cervical cancer drugs market. The U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the safety and effectiveness of cancer drugs in the market. The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee process evaluation and clinical trials of cancer drugs requested by FDA. The Division of Oncology Products 1 (DOP1) regulates investigation, application, licensing of new drug for gynecological cancers. Various clinical trials are done for approval of cervical cancer drugs. Under the title 21CFR314, subpart H regulates the approval of new drugs that are for serious illness. In January 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb, an American biopharmaceutical company acquired Celgene for $74 billion. This acquisition will enable the Bristol-Myers Squibb to hold a strong position in oncology, immunology and inflammation and cardiovascular diseases drugs market. Celgene is an American biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases globally. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 2. Cervical Cancer Drugs Market Characteristics 3. Cervical Cancer Drugs Market Size And Growth 3.1. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Historic Market, 2015 - 2019, $ Billion 3.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.1.2. Restraints On The Market 3.2. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Forecast Market, 2019 - 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 3.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.2.2. Restraints On the Market 4. Cervical Cancer Drugs Market Segmentation 4.1. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Market, Segmentation By Cancer Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Squamous Cell Cancer Adenocarcinoma 4.2. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Market, Segmentation By Drug Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Avastin Bevacizumb Blemocin Blenoxane Others 4.3. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Market, Segmentation By Distribution Channel, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Hospitals Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Others 5. Cervical Cancer Drugs Market Regional And Country Analysis 5.1. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2. Global Cervical Cancer Drugs Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd Hetero GlaxoSmithKline Eli Lilly and Company Pfizer Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Allergan plc Biocon Limited Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Novartis AG AstraZeneca plc Celgene Merck & Co Amgen For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dr56s8 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Market regulators and central banks across the global are taking measures to mitigate the risk of economies getting hit by the outbreak. With Corona virus playing havoc with domestic markets, regulators, including RBI and Sebi, are stepping in to salvage the situation. Mumbai: With Corona virus playing havoc with domestic markets, regulators, including RBI and Sebi, are stepping in to salvage the situation. The markets regulator Sebi said it is internally assessing" the potential impact of the epidemic on the capital markets, even as the domestic equity market is witnessing huge volatility over the past week when the benchmark indices have fallen by over 7 per cent in line with the global meltdown. "Sebi is aware of coronavirus and the possible impact that it can have on the market. We are taking the necessary steps," Sebi whole-time member S.K. Mohanty told reporters here. "Whatever has to be done, has to be done. We are internally assessing the situation," he added. He, however, said the Financial Sector Development Council (FSDC), an apex body of regulators formed by the government, is yet to get involved in the discussions. The comments come a day after remedial action by central banks across the world, including a surprise 50 basis points cut in rates by the US Federal Reserve. The Reserve Bank of India also came out with a statement on Tuesday, assuring the markets of all help. Market regulators and central banks across the global are taking measures to mitigate the risk of economies getting hit by the outbreak. According to global brokerage firm, Credit Suisse, the impact on Asian economies from the coronavirus outbreak could be worse than SARS. We expect a bigger and possibly longer macro impact for Asia than was seen during SARS. Our base case is that 12 months from now Asian economies will be near where it would have been without the Wuhan virus, but see a sizeable risk of a significantly worse outcome, Credit Suisse said in a report. The SARC epidemic had a big but short macro impact, with every Asian market except India, Indonesia and Japan seeing a significant fall. A high-level Trump administration official traveled up to the border with Syria's last rebel stronghold in a show of support for Turkey and its armed Syrian opposition groups' fight against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and to highlight relief efforts for the nearly 1 million people who have fled recent fighting. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft met with White Helmet rescue workers and announced a new injection of U.S. aid money for the humanitarian crisis unfolding just across the Turkish border in Idlib province on Tuesday. MORE: Despite growing risk of refugee crisis, humanitarian disaster in Syria, UN Security Council, US not taking action The new assistance is the first tangible step the U.S. has taken to respond to the offensive, which has displaced 948,000 people, the majority women and children, since December. Seeking to win the nine-year war militarily, Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iranian-commanded troops, have violated a ceasefire deal with Turkey and the Syrian rebels it supports, including jihadist groups. "Humanitarian aid is only a response, but the solution is an immediate ceasefire," Craft told reporters on the border. "We are asking for other countries to step up and contribute." PHOTO:U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft and James Jeffrey, the U.S. envoy for Syria, pose with rescue workers at the Syrian crossing point of Bab al-Hawa near Turkey's Cilvegozu border gate, in Idlib governorate, Syria, March 3, 2020. (Tuvan Gumrukcu/Reuters) Along with U.S. special envoy James Jeffrey, Craft announced an additional $108 million of U.S. assistance for food, shelter, winter clothing, medical care and safe drinking water. Those funds will be distributed on the ground through the U.N. and other international and nongovernmental organizations, who work across the border into Syria to provide humanitarian aid to those in need. Craft began her day at the border with Mark Lowcock, the United Nations humanitarian affairs coordinator, where she urged the U.N. Security Council to ensure the border crossing stations at Bab al Hawa and Bab al Salam remain open, referring to them as "vital humanitarian cross-border lifelines into Syria." Story continues MORE: As fighting in Syria intensifies, pressure is rising for US intervention amid the crisis But those border crossings are threatened by Russia's veto at the U.N. Security Council. Earlier this year, Russia, with Chinese support, forced the council to reduce the number of humanitarian border crossings, stopping 40% of medical aid to northeast Syria, according to the State Department. The resolution that was adopted will also expire in July, threatening to close the remaining two border crossings, given Russian opposition. "Russia and China cynically conspired to hamper the international community's ability to deliver humanitarian aid to vulnerable areas in Syria," State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement Tuesday. PHOTO: A man holding a child looks through barbed wire as migrants and refugees gather on the Turkish side of the closed Kastanies border crossing between Greece and Turkey, near the Evros River, in an attempt to cross into Greece, March 2, 2020. (Dimitris Tosidis/EPA via Shutterstock) Lowcock said relief operations to meet the needs of nearly 1 million people who fled the recent fighting in Idlib province have been overwhelmed, even as additional pledges are coming in from the United States and the United Kingdom to step up aid for one of the biggest humanitarian crises of Syria's civil war. The U.N. is scaling up assistance after agreeing with Turkish authorities to double the number of trucks it sends across the border to 100 each day, Lowcock added. MORE: US forces come under fire while on patrol in Syria Even as Craft was at the border, fighting continued in other parts of the province. A Syrian government warplane was downed by Turkish forces in Idlib on Tuesday, state news agency SANA reported, adding that regime forces shot down two Turkish drones. Turkey launched a military offensive last month in northwest Syria to push back regime forces looking to retake the rebel stronghold. Beyond the humanitarian aid, the U.S. is still considering ways to support its NATO ally Turkey in that fight. A senior State Department official said last week any U.S. response would not include U.S. troops or Patriot missiles, but Jeffrey said Tuesday they are supportive of new ammunition sales for Turkish forces, according to Reuters. PHOTO: Displaced Syrian children walk through a destroyed school, reportedly targeted in a regime forces' air strike, in northwestern Idlib province on March 3, 2020, near the town of Adwan in Syria. (Ibrahim Yasouf/AFP via Getty Images) A new U.N. report released Monday found that Assad and pro-government forces are using tactics that amount to war crimes in this Idlib offensive, after he, his forces and even Russia, had committed war crimes in the last few months. According to the U.N. Human Rights Council's special independent panel for Syria, Russia was responsible for at least two bombings of civilian targets last summer -- a crowded marketplace and a shelter for displaced families, including a school and medical center. Assad and his forces have "intended to terrorize civilians, in an effort to depopulate the zone and accelerate its capture," the report said. MORE: Over half a million displaced as fighting in Syria's last rebel stronghold intensifies despite US warnings It also accused the Syrian fighters backed and armed by Turkey of war crimes, including extrajudicial killings and pillaging, during Turkey's offensive against Syrian Kurds in the fall after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. troops to pull back. Turkish commanders could face "criminal responsibility" for those acts, the report concluded. Among the opposition groups in Idlib, the al Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham dominates, and the report warned it has conducted war crimes against the local civilian population as well. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said that Craft took a few steps across the border into Syria, but she did not. We regret the error. US ambassador to UN makes visit to Syrian border, announces $108M of new aid originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government in connection with the denial of retirement benefits to a retired deputy commissioner of commercial taxes who had fought against the illegal iron ore lobby. Justice G Narendra also directed the state to respond to the notice before March 9, stating the reasons for withholding the officers retirement benefits. Advocate Ramananda, appearing for the retired officer Josephat Andrews, explained that the single-judge bench also warned the government of stringent action. Petitioner Josephat Andrews said his retirement benefits amounting to Rs 25.88 lakh were being withheld since 2014. In 2009, Andrews detected a huge scam involving Vijaya Leasing, a company associated with former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. Immediately he wrote to his higher officials explaining to them how the department was owed Rs 1,400 crore in taxes by the company. Immediately after that, Andrews was transferred to Bengaluru. The media exposed the scam in 2012. Thereafter, to harass the officer, Andrews was served notice for allegedly not conducting an inspection of M/s Vijaya Leasing, which was controlled by the family of then tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on July 11, 2012. He was discharged by a full departmental enquiry. The petitioner was issued a second show cause notice on Jan 29, 2014 on the same charges. Before his retirement, he was docked two increments, denied promotional benefits and his pension was reduced without following due process. He was served yet another notice with charges that he did not inspect goods vehicles, and an order was passed on April 30, 2019 reducing his pension by 5 per cent, an unprecedented punitive action. This order was quashed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which also ordered payment of retirement benefits to Andrews within five months. However, the benefits were not released to him. Rule 214 of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR) make it clear that no enquiry can be held four years after an officers retirement. Belying all statutory rules and precedents of the Supreme Court, Josephat Andrews retirement benefits were withheld for five years. Andrews therefore approached the High Court, advocate Ramananda explained. Josephat Andrews recalled to Deccan Chronicle that although mining activity was in full swing in 2008, the commercial tax department maintained that it had nothing to do with mining. I travelled to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bellary to investigate. I found tax evasion of thousands of crores. When I visited M/s the Vijaya Leasing facility it was operating from an old oil mill premiseswithin 20 minutes I got calls from Ali, a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Gali Janardhan Reddy. He told me to get out of the premises as it belonged to his boss. Then calls came from minister Sreeramulu and MLA Nagendra. Within minutes 200-300 rowdies gathered around the building and my superior asked me to come back. Instead of filing a police complaint and forming a special team to deal with the situation, the department transferred me to Bengaluru, he explained. Talking about the High Court directive, Josephat Andrews said, I have suffered a lot. Instead of getting a reward for increasing revenues by Rs 2,000 crore, I was punished. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:33:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about recent developments of the electoral dispute in Guinea-Bissau, his spokesman said Tuesday. "The secretary-general is following with concern the institutional crisis in Guinea-Bissau provoked by the ongoing electoral dispute," Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. He said Guterres encourages all stakeholders to await the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, exercise maximum restraint and take all necessary measures to prevent any acts that could undermine peace and stability in the West African country. The UN chief "reiterates the United Nations commitment to continue to accompany Bissau-Guineans in their efforts to consolidate peace, democracy and development," the statement said. The political leadership of Guinea-Bissau has fractured since a second-round presidential vote in December saw opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo beat Domingos Simoes Pereira, candidate of the long-ruling PAIGC party, as announced by the electoral commission. Embalo was sworn in on Thursday as president by the first Vice President of the National People's Assembly Nuno Gomes Na Biam. The Supreme Court of Justice has issued rulings requiring a check of the vote tally sheets after PAIGC filed a lawsuit. According to media reports, a dozen soldiers on Monday occupied the grounds of Guinea-Bissau's Supreme Court of Justice, in a move that has deepened the post-election crisis. - Significant increase in application in the food & beverage industry as a preservative and packaging of ready-to-eat food along with rise in demand for safe animal feed drive the global propionic acid market PORTLAND, Oregon, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Propionic Acid Market by Application (Herbicides, Rubber Products, Plasticizers, Food Preservative and Others) and End-User Industry (Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care, Food & Beverage, Agriculture, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026." According to the report, the global propionic acid industry generated $1.25 billion in 2018, and is estimated to garner $1.6 billion by 2026, witnessing a CAGR of 3.5% from 2019 to 2026. Prime determinants of growth: Significant increase in application in the food & beverage industry as a preservative and packaging of ready-to-eat food along with rise in demand for safe animal feed drive the global propionic acid market. However, adverse side effects on human health and concerns regarding usage of herbicides hinder the market growth. On the other hand, application of propionate esters as solvents and propionic acid as antibiotics provide new opportunities in next few years. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5692 The food preservative segment to dominate during the forecast period: Based on application, the food preservative segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the total share of the global propionic acid market in 2018, and is expected to dominate during the forecast period. This is attributed to preference for ready-to-eat food and demand for propionic acid to reduce spoilage. However, the rubber products segment is expected to maintain the highest CAGR of 5.1% from 2019 to 2026. This is due to surge in usage as intermediate for production of rubber from the automobile industry. The food & beverage segment to contribute its highest share by 2026: Based on end-use industry, the food & beverage segment held the largest share of the global propionic acid market, accounting for more than two-fifths of the total share in 2018, and is expected to contribute its highest share throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to application of propionic acid as a food preservative in breads, cheese, cakes, jams, non-alcoholic beverages, jellies, and other processed foods for preventing development of mold and bacteria. However, the agriculture segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 4.4% from 2019 to 2026. North America to grow the fastest: Based on region, North America is estimated to portray the largest CAGR of 4.0% from 2019 to 2026, owing to the growth of the agriculture sector and increase in demand for poultry products. However, Europe contributed to the highest market share in 2018, holding nearly two-fifths of the global propionic acid market, and is estimated to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2026. This is due to presence of many producers and suppliers of propionic acid and surge in investments in the food industry. For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5692 Leading market players: BASF SE Dow Inc. Eastman Chemical Company Perstorp Holding AB Hawkins, Inc. Corbion N.V. Otto Chemie Pvt. Ltd. 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Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter Get more information:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Fluorochemicals Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 UV Curable Resin Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 Herbicides Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025 Seed Treatment Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. 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ANNE DRAGO, Stonington, Girls Basketball, Senior; Drago was named to the all-tournament team at the WCCU Holiday Basketball Tournament. In two games, she scored 38 points and had eight rebounds. DANTE WILK, Westerly, Boys Basketball, Senior; Wilk was named MVP of the WCCU Holiday Basketball Tournament after the Bulldogs beat Chariho in the title game. Wilk had a combined 35 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists and eight steals in two tournament victories. TYLER LABELLE, Chariho, Boys Basketball, Junior; LaBelle scored 41 points in two games to earn all-tournament honors at the WCCU Holiday Basketball Tournament. LaBelle had 22 in a win against South Kingstown and 19 in a loss to Westerly. ADDIE HAUPTMANN, Wheeler, Girls Basketball, Senior; Hauptmann scored 32 points in two games in the Montville Christmas Tournament. She also had 20 rebounds, seven assists and eight steals. Vote View Results Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe says that Fine Gael is still preparing for opposition but denied policy exchanges with Fianna Fail were a hollow exercise. Mr Donohoe was speaking after his party met Fianna Fail to discuss housing, the cost of living, climate change and the National Development Plan. Mr Donohoe added that Fine Gaels resolution that it will be in opposition after the formation of the next government did not preclude it from speaking to others. There are many different governments possible in this Dail which will rely on support from other parties. Having an opportunity to hear the policies and ideas of other parties is beneficial of itself. Discussions where you have the opportunity to hear from other parties are always fruitful. It is too early, Mr Donohoe said, to take a position on whether he would prefer a second general election or government with Fianna Fail, adding that Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail have an obligation to seek to form a government. However, Mr Donohoe stopped short of saying the two parties should hold talks. Its imperative on those who think that they can bring about change in a way that we have not been able to seek to form a government. Its really vital that those who are claiming they can form a government and have a mandate to do so, show their ability to make progress in the Dail on the votes that will happen to elect a new Taoiseach. While Mr Donohoe said that Sinn Fein had claimed it can put together a coalition of change, he said that it was difficult to answer whether Fine Gael would abstain from a vote on Taoiseach in the event of a minority left government being formed. Theres a lot of ifs within that (idea) and a lot of bridges to be crossed before we get to that point. Privately, members of both parties say that yesterdays meeting was constructive but warned that any agreement is still some way off. Both parties will hold parliamentary party meetings on Thursday to discuss the next steps in government formation. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, appeared to put further distance between Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. At a speech in Trinity College Dublin, Mr Varadkar said that Ireland must face down the spectre of populism. Speaking to the audience at a combined Irish Institute for European Affairs and Trinity Historical Society event, Mr Varadkar said that easy answers were being offered more and more in Irish politics. We need to tell the story of Europe better when it comes to facing down the spectre of populism. Otherwise, the narrative will be shaped against us by others. Those very easy slogans that we hear far too often and now increasingly in Ireland about people against the elites and the establishment. Mr Varadkar has previously referred to Sinn Fein as Irelands populist party. The Taoiseachs comments, which were not included in the official text of his speech, come a day after Mr Varadkar said that he has written to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald offering to enter talks. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) San Francisco police are aiming to pick up the pace on 272 reforms called for by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016, as the department may be only 40 percent done, police said Wednesday. Though some progress has been made, 163 of the 272 tasks have yet to be submitted. Forty-eight are essentially done and a total of 109 have bee submitted for review, "We have to have a sense of urgency," Police Chief Bill Scott said, adding that they're trying to pick up the pace. Reforms were started in 2016 following a series of police killings that resulted in the resignation of former police Chief Greg Suhr. When Donald Trump was elected president, the U.S. Department of Justice ended its reform work with San Francisco police. It was restarted in 2018 with the California Department of Justice and a security risk management firm Hillard Heintze, which was a contractor with the U.S. Department of Justice when it conducted its review of the Police Department in 2016. Despite the slow progress, some positive changes have been reported. Since 2016, overall use of force incidents dropped 56 percent to 1,649 and the number of times an officer pointed a gun at someone dropped by 67 percent to 868. Those improvements, Scott said, haven't reduced crime per se, but they likely will build trust and faith in police, who can solve more crimes as people come forward to provide information to officers. Also, Scott said that even though 163 reforms have yet to be completed, police have already changed policies to reflect the reforms they will seek official approval for. Sometimes, Scott said, the department has implemented changes that have gone over and above the recommendations. The California Department of Justice Wednesday morning will release its second report on how far San Francisco police have come reforming practices around use of force, bias, transparency and accountability and community policing. "SFPD is undergoing an enormous transformation and we are grateful for our partnership with California Department of Justice and Hillard Heintze," Scott said. "The technical assistance provided through this collaboration enables SFPD staff to address the many complex challenges associated with reform. As we enter Phase III of the collaborative process, we are committed to identifying strategies that will help accelerate this work and solidify our extraordinary achievements." Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. THE government will repatriate from Macau more than 100 overseas Filipinos, as well as active members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) within this week, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Tuesday, March 3. DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said 148 overseas Filipinos and 48 Owwa members are set to be repatriated from Macau via separate chartered flights, and they will undergo the prescribed screening and quarantine measures being implemented by the Philippine government. He said in a press briefing Wednesday, March 4, that those who have symptoms of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will not be allowed to board the flights, stressing only those who are asymptomatic will be repatriated. Duque clarified that these Filipinos will be considered as persons under monitoring (PUMs) and they will be home quarantined. He said the local government units, who will help in the monitoring of the PUMs, will be given a list of the repatriates. In case the repatriates develop symptoms of Covid-19 while on home quarantine, they will be brought to the DOH's referral hospitals in their respective hometowns for treatment and testing, Duque added. The repatriation was earlier raised by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), noting the number of Filipinos who had lost their jobs in Macau, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak in these countries. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on his official Twitter account Tuesday, March 3, that he wanted the repatriation of the overseas Filipinos done immediately. The repatriation was agreed upon by the Inter-agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IAFT-EID) Tuesday, March 3, when it also announced the partial lifting of travel restrictions to South Korea. The IATF said Tuesday that Filipinos heading to South Korea, except to North Gyeongsang Province including Daegu City and Cheongdo County, will be allowed to travel provided that they sign a declaration signifying their knowledge and understanding of the risks involved. Story continues The IATF has resolved to partially lift travel restrictions to South Korea as their government has implemented stringent infection control measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. South Korea has also reported a low case fatality rate of only 0.5 percent, and the successful containment of local transmission to only certain areas, Duque said. The IATF also agreed to expand travel exemptions allowing dependents of permanent residents of South Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau to travel to these areas as long as they also sign a risk-acknowledgement declaration. The IATF-EID is closely monitoring the spread of Covid-19 cases in other countries and is regularly updating its travel restrictions based on standardized risk assessment indicators. We are working nonstop to ensure that our kababayans are protected from Covid-19 no matter where they are, Duque assured. He also announced that to date, the Philippines has not recorded any cases of local transmission of Covid-19. "The WHO director general has cited the Philippines as among the few countries in the world which have not recorded any new cases of Covid-19 for more than two weeks," he said, but added that the DOH will still continue to be vigilant. "We cannot afford to let our guards down." The Philippines only has three confirmed cases of Covid-19 and as of Wednesday, March 4, the DOH said a total of 39 patients have been placed under investigation for the coronavirus disease. (LMY/PR) (Alliance News) - Equipment rental firm Ashtead Group PLC on Wednesday announced a rebranding of its UK business A-Plant. The UK business will be renamed Sunbelt Rentals from the start of May. This, Ashtead said, puts all of the A-Plant brand under one banner. The FTSE 100 company already operates under the Sunbelt Rentals brand in both the US and Canada. Ashtead confirmed the parent company's named remains Ashtead. Ashtead reported third-quarter results on Tuesday, showing an 11% rise in revenue to GBP1.25 billion. UK revenue fell 1%, but the US and Canada delivered 13% and 29% revenue growth. Ashtead's third-quarter pretax profit was 1% lower at GBP225 million. Ashtead shares were 2.1% lower on Wednesday afternoon in London at a price of 2,358.00 pence each. By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Oregon Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick plans to step down from her leadership role after this legislative session in order to focus on property tax reform and other finance issues. Burdick, a Portlander who has led supermajority Democrats through three Senate Republican walkouts in the last 11 months, told The Oregonian/OregonLive this week that she is not making a big deal of the move. This has been a challenging session. I want to be fully present, Burdick said. But yes, that is my goal to get more involved in some of the financial issues that affect my district and all of Oregon. Burdick has been majority leader since fall 2015, when she replaced previous majority leader Diane Rosenbaum. A former journalist, Burdick has served 24 years in the Senate and is running for re-election this year. She faces a primary challenge from Tigard school board member Ben Bowman, who has been endorsed by the Oregon School Employees Association. Before she became majority leader, Burdick served as senate president pro tempore and chair of the Finance and Revenue Committee. She is a longstanding supporter of gun control legislation, including the states extreme risk protection order law, and had a high-profile role in implementing legal recreational pot in Oregon in 2015. Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. (TNS) A proposal that would force Maine State Police to be more transparent about their use of facial recognition and other surveillance technologies is scheduled to be taken up by the House this week after being approved as an emergency measure by legislative leaders.The bill moves forward as Maines public safety commissioner acknowledged for the first time that state police use facial recognition scans as part of some criminal investigations, although the agency relies on help from out-of-state agencies.Commissioner Michael Sauschuck defended the practice in his written statement, saying the agency does not use the technology to conduct surveillance, spying, tracking or monitoring of the general public or individuals not suspected of criminal activity. However, he did not provide written policies or details about how the technology is used.Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, introduced the emergency bill in response to a Feb. 9 Maine Sunday Telegram report about how the Maine State Police are using an unusual provision in state law to conceal whether they are using advanced technologies capable of conducting mass surveillance of Mainers, including citizens who are not convicted of a crime. Warrens bill, L.R. 3227, would eliminate that provision.Maine is one of only two states believed to have a so-called Glomar provision codified in state law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. It says: A Maine criminal justice agency may not confirm the existence or nonexistence of intelligence and investigative record information confidential under section 804 to any person or public or private entity that is not eligible to receive the information itself.The provision has been cited as a reason to withhold information about what type of technologies police are deploying, how much money is being spent on the technologies and what policies are in place to prevent misuse and protect the privacy of innocent people.Warrens bill eliminating the provision needed special approval by legislative leaders as an emergency measure so that it could be taken up during the ongoing, short session of the Legislature. She expects the House will vote Tuesday to refer the bill to the Criminal Justice Committee, which she co-chairs. At that point she will schedule a public hearing, perhaps for next week.We as Mainers are really interested in our privacy. Thats sort of at the center of who we are, at least the way I was raised, Warren said. My colleagues in the Legislature share the importance of protecting the privacy of their constituents.Neither spokespeople for Gov. Janet Mills nor Sauschuck responded to requests for interviews about the technologies or their opinions about the Warrens bill. However, late Friday afternoon, Sauschuck issued a two-page statement in response to the Telegram story defending limited use of facial recognition.Sauschucks statement came one day after Warrens bill advanced through the Legislative Council. The council voted 6-4 to label the bill an emergency so that it could move forward in the current legislative session. The vote split with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed, but officials from both parties said that doesnt necessarily represent lawmakers views on the bill itself.The Republicans voted against it because they didnt think it was an emergency, said Tom Desjardin, the communications director for Senate Republicans. It wasnt so much about the merits of the bill.The ACLU of Maine urged the Legislature to pass Warrens bill, which is being co-sponsored by Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, the former executive director of the ACLU of Maine.We cant regulate what we dont know, Michael Kebede, policy counsel with the ACLU of Maine, said in a written statement to the. Surveillance technology is developing at an incredible pace, and we cant afford to wait another year to find out what our law enforcement agencies are doing with it.The lack of disclosure comes as communities across the United States are trying to regulate the use of technology that gives local law enforcement tools that can be used to conduct sweeping surveillance of the public, including people who are not suspected of crimes.Two types of surveillance technology have come under the most scrutiny from civil liberties advocates and elected officials: facial recognition and cell site simulators.Facial recognition technology can map an individuals facial features using a high-resolution digital image or surveillance video, creating a unique profile similar to a fingerprint. The profile is then compared to the faces in existing databases, such as those that contain drivers licenses, state IDs, immigration records, passport photos or police mug shots.Along with its potential for tracking citizens, studies have found that facial scans have higher error rates when applied to people of color, women and transgender individuals, raising concerns that those people are more likely to be misidentified as criminal suspects.Sauschucks statement stressed that police only conduct facial recognition searches after a crime has been committed and a suspects image was captured by a home or commercial security system. He said neither the state police nor the Maine Information and Analysis Center spies on innocent people. The center is known as a fusion center and is staffed by the military, and local, state and federal law enforcement officials.The state police (including the MIAC) does not utilize facial recognition technology to conduct surveillance, spying, tracking or monitoring of the general public or individuals not suspected of criminal activity, Sauschuck said.The use of this technology in these cases is simply another tool in addition to the common practice of publicly releasing the digital image on TV or social media to enlist help from the public, Sauschuck said. We believe that the public expects that the police have the ability and resources to take a digital image or forensic evidence from a crime scene and identify the suspect that broke into their home, stole their property or injured their loved ones.Sauschucks written statement did not provide any information about how many searches state police request of out-of-state agencies, the types of investigations in which its used, the databases being searched or what policies may be in place to protect against misuse. And it is still unclear whether any of the partners in the states fusion center, including the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Border Patrol, can conduct facial recognition searches in the Augusta-based fusion center at the request of state police.Sauschuck also did not address questions about whether police are using cell site simulators, another controversial type of technology capable of mass surveillance.Cell site simulators can turn cellphones into real time tracking devices. The simulators can be the size of a briefcase and carried in a police cruiser or on an airplane to ping cellphones. It sends out a signal that tricks nearby cellphones into connecting with the simulator, rather than a cellphone tower. The signal is then passed to a tower, and it happens without the user knowing.Authorities can either search for and track a specific cellphone number or collect data from all of the cellphones within a certain area. That data can include the IMSI or International Mobile Subscriber Identity and metadata about whom a person communicates with and for how long. And some advanced simulators can intercept the content of messages, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.We stand by our previous response on cell site simulators, Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said, referring to the states response of neither confirming nor denying a broad range of information relating to the technology. Mel B is said to be furious that the nanny whom she accused of wrecking her marriage to ex Stephen Belafonte is still caring for their daughter Madison. The Spice Girl, 44, is looking into taking legal action to keep Lorraine Gilles away from the eight-year-old who is living with her father in Los Angeles, according to The Sun. There is a stay away order in place to ensure Lorraine Gilles keeps out of the lives of Mel and her daughters, a spokesperson for the star told the UK outlet. Her lawyers will be looking into this matter. Gilles was recently snapped picking up Madison from her school and walking the family dog with her. Belafonte and Mel were divorced in late 2017. She accused him of physical and emotional abuse and he claimed she was a cocaine and alcohol addict. Gilles, who was 18 when she was hired by the celebrity couple as a nanny in 2009, admitted to having s.e.x with both Belafonte and Mel including threesomes during a deposition in the messy divorce case. In April 2019, the Spice Girl paid out $1.8 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Gilles whom she had called a prostitute and a homewrecker two years earlier. Mel and Belafonte currently share joint custody of Madison following their acrimonious divorce in late 2017. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Opening arguments for the Los Angeles murder trial of Robert Durst began this week, four decades after his wife's disappearance set off a string of bizarre crimes and conspiracies involving the real estate heir, whose criminal investigations and alleged confession were the subject of the HBO series The Jinx. Mr Durst is accused of killing his friend Susan Berman to allegedly stop her from speaking to police about his role in the disappearance of Kathleen Durst, whose body was never recovered after she disappeared in January 1982. Prosecutors believe he killed his wife near their home outside New York City, and that he shot and killed his friend, who authorities believe may have helped cover up the murder, hours before she was scheduled to speak with police in 2000, reportedly bringing new evidence of the killing to light. Mr Durst, now 76 and reportedly in poor medical health, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Berman and has repeatedly denied his involvement in her death as well as the disappearance of his wife. As opening arguments in the months-long trial were set to begin on Wednesday, Judge Mark Windham told the courtroom: "Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seatbelts. We're about to begin." He was arrested for her murder in 2015, one day before the final episode of The Jinx had aired, in which the last shot appears to incriminate him on a hot mic saying, after presented with potentially crucial evidence: "There it is. You're caught. What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." Prosecutors pressed for his arrest after they had learned that he appeared to admit to several murders in interviews for the documentary. His trial will reportedly rely on little physical evidence, though a cryptic letter revealed in the TV series could play a significant role. The series argues that the "cadaver" note containing only Ms Berman's address and sent to police in Los Angeles to allegedly alert police to her body could only have been written by Mr Durst. Defence attorneys had tried to prevent the letter from inclusion in the trial, then reversed their argument, saying that he did in fact write the anonymous note but that it "does not change the fact that Bob Durst did not kill Susan Berman." In the series' climactic moment, filmmakers confronted Mr Durst with the letter, showing that his handwriting along with his misspelling of Beverly Hills in capital letters was identical in a separate letter to Ms Berman. A stunned Mr Durst then goes to the bathroom where he utters his "killed them all" comment off-camera. Defence lawyers will point to critical editing that they say wrongly makes his comments appear to be a confession, though authorities said the audio was substantial enough to provide cause for an arrest. The series also revisits the killing and dismembering of Mr Durst's neighbour Morris Black, whom Mr Durst admitted to killing in self-defence before cutting off parts of his body and throwing them into Galveston Bay in Texas in 2003. He was released on bail after his arrest, then, after missing a court hearing, he was arrested in Pennsylvania for shoplifting in a grocery store. He was ultimately acquitted for the murder but convicted for dismembering Mr Black's body, and served nine months in prison for related weapons charges. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 04:39:17|Editor: Wang Yamei Video Player Close Medical workers are seen at the Boufarik Hospital in the province of Blida, Algeria, on March 3, 2020. Algerian Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that three new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number in the country to eight. The three new cases were recorded in the family circle of the previous four cases in the province of Blida. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that three new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number in the country to eight. The official APS news agency quoted an announcement of the ministry as saying that the three new cases were recorded in the family circle of the previous four cases in the province of Blida, some 50 km south of the capital Algiers. The ministry said the epidemiological investigation continues to identify all the people who were in contact with these diagnosed patients. On Feb. 25, Algeria announced the first COVID-19 case of an Italian national who arrived in Algeria on Feb. 17. Four more cases of coronavirus from a family were recorded later in the province of Blida who were infected by two family members from France. A Cincinnati 911 dispatcher was suspended without pay after Cincinnati's city Manager said the person failed to send help when a man had a stroke. Cincinnati City Manager Patrick A. Duhaney wrote a letter to Cincinnati City Council members detailing what he called "nothing short of a tragedy," highlighting that the dispatcher violated multiple processes and procedures. In the letter, he stated on Jan. 12, a resident of an apartment complex called 911 to report one of his neighbors appeared to be having a stroke. The caller was not with the stroke victim when he placed the 911 call pleading for help. He was in a different apartment on a separate floor. The dispatcher, who was an employee of an Emergency Communications Center, told the caller to go to the stroke victim so that he could ask questions, but the caller said the victim might not want to answer questions or want help. The call continued for nearly eight minutes. During the call, the caller told the dispatcher, "He is getting worse and worse," "This is an emergency," "He's had a stroke," "He's had a stroke and another one is coming. He's gonna die," "He's going to die here." The dispatcher reportedly told the caller, "We can't force ourselves on him" and "If he doesn't want help, they won't do anything. He has to want to be helped." The dispatcher also said, "There is nothing the fire department or police officers can do. They can't force themselves on him." After around eight minutes, the caller hung up the phone and the dispatcher closed the call. No help was sent for the stroke victim that night. According to Duhaney, 911 dispatchers received another call from the apartment complex the next day. The caller said the person who suffered a "medical emergency" the night before had died. The caller also requested someone come to the apartment complex to help remove the body since no one had come to help the day before. ECC officials promptly opened an investigation into the incident. The officials determined that 45 seconds into the call, the caller provided the dispatcher with a clear, dispatchable location. The dispatcher was also aware that there was a person having a stroke, but yet chose not to send anyone to the apartment complex to help. ECC officials found that the dispatcher violated many established ECC procedures. Duhaney said those training to become an emergency medical dispatcher are trained to send "immediate medical response that is not subject to delay" to anyone who appears to be having a stroke. The dispatcher had reportedly taken all required training on ECC procedures and "should have taken a more appropriate course of action," according to Duhaney. The dispatcher will remain suspended without pay as authorities continue to investigate the incident. "What took place on the night of January 12 is nothing short of a tragedy. It's unclear if the individual would have lived or died, but the actions of this call-taker undermined the possibility of a positive outcome in this situation," Duhaney wrote in the letter. As the Coronavirus scare increases rapidly in India with 28 confirmed cases reported so far, chemist shops near the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Delhi have witnessed a rise in the demand for masks and sanitizers in the recent days. The chemists fear a shortage in stock of the said items in a few days as the demand surges after the government issued health advisory against the deadly virus. "We have sanitisers and masks currently in ample stock, but their demand has been rising in the past few days so a shortage may arise in the coming days. Sanitisers, especially, are being demanded more since the advisory was issued. Currently, though we have ample stock to meet the demand," Vishwajit, a chemist told ANI. As patients from Agra have arrived in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital for treatment of coronavirus, the people have become more cautious and aware, resulting in the rise in demand for masks. The chemists have also been advised to wear the mask at the shops amid Coronavirus outbreak. READ | Coronavirus Live Updates: Delhi CM Set Up State-task Force To Control The Situation Coronavirus confirmed cases rise to 30 Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said 30 positive cases of coronavirus have been detected so far in India and announced that all international flights and passengers will now have to undergo screening, and not just the 12 countries listed earlier. In view of Coronavirus scare and the first positive case reported from Delhi, Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday informed that Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) and Safdarjung hospitals are made nodal offices to tackle with a possible outbreak. READ | All International Flights To Be Screened For COVID-19; 28 Positive Cases So Far In India: Health Minister Giving a breakup of those who tested positive for the virus, Harsh Vardhan said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. He also said that so far, 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports, over 10 lakh screened at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance. READ | Coronavirus: All 6 Samples From Noida Test Negative, Say, Officials READ | Screening 88 People Who Came In Contact With Delhi Coronavirus Patient: Kejriwal (Photo : Yohann LIBOT on Unsplash) [WATCH] This Anti-Cancer Drug Extracted From Fungi, Turns Insect Into a Zombie; But How? (Photo : Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash) [WATCH] This Anti-Cancer Drug Extracted From Fungi, Turns Insect Into a Zombie; But How? A newly-discovered anti-cancer drug is now being studied. However, unlike standard procedures and medicinal packets, this drug came from fungi that also makes insects turn into a living zombie. Does this also mean that you can turn into a zombie once you induced the said medicine? Shocking! These fungi can make zombie insects, but it can also heal cancer! Willing to try? Cancer is now one of the deadliest diseases in the world. In the United States, an estimated population of 1,735,350 new cases of cancer was diagnosed in the country, and 609,640 died from the disease two years ago. This number continues to increase over time, and everyone is worried about getting this disease. Luckily, a new drug is now being studied and formulated for the people living with potential cancer to be cured of the disease like never before. According to the report in The Conversation, Cordyceps, parasitic fungi, release spores that reportedly fight against cancer cells. This contains a molecule called cordycepin that many studies revealed that could switch on a cellular protein called AMPK. AMPK or the magic bullet of the health industry can allegedly heal some types of diabetes and cancer, which can even extend the lifespan of a normal human being. This information still has no scientific basis or explanation of why this protein can heal diseases; however, it is proven to be effective. Though the process seemed to be easy -- since you only have to get cordyceps--getting these fungi can be hard to achieve on a typical day. This fungus is complicated to acquire that markets sell them for the prices equivalent to silver and gold bars. This zombie caterpillar can cure cancer like never before, here's how As explained by BBC Earth, cordyceps are created when they infect insects like ants or caterpillars. Since it is a fungus, it infects its host until it dies, but before that, abnormal behavior can be seen with the insect-- this was the inspiration behind the term 'zombie' fungi since it forces insects to do things they do not normally do or like to do. While the zombie effect on human beings is not yet verified by any scientists or researchers, cordyceps fungus remained to be one of the most in-demand traditional Chinese medicinal remedies for any type of ailments in the world. Due to this, it is also not true that ingesting these cordyceps will turn you into a zombie yourself; however, scientists and doctors advise in The Conversation that AMPK protein can sometimes trigger more cancer cells on a human body-- which prohibits the body to heal overtime properly. Aside from being an unverified healing cure for cancer, cordyceps are also being sold in the market to be used as a 'viagra' or an aphrodisiac medicine used especially for men. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. GREELEY, Colo., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greeley, Colorado-based CBD-hemp extraction company, Vantage Hemp Co., confirms it will be featured in the award-winning documentary series, Behind The Scenes hosted by Laurence Fishburne. The focus of the documentary is to inform audiences about the rapidly emerging CBD-hemp industry in the U.S. featuring Vantage Hemp Co. and will showcase the companys operations and tell the industry story. Taking centre stage in the U.S. CBD-hemp industry is Vantage Hemp Co., an extraction frontrunner utilizing a specific, innovative, deep science approach and multi-stage process to create exceptional CBD products for the marketplace. Behind The Scenes, hosted by Laurence Fishburne will feature Vantage Hemp Co. in its engaging documentary-style series, diving deep into the companys unique position and approach to extraction, as well as the companys competitive advantage in the marketplace. This Behind The Scenes segment will be a front-row seat for audiences to gain deep insights into the rapidly expanding CBD-hemp industry in the U.S, says Harvinder Johal, Director of Vantage Hemp Co. Viewers will learn how Vantage Hemp Co. is setting the standard for high-quality CBD-hemp extraction, through science, innovation and technology. Using a precise, GMP compliant, technologically advanced and scientifically driven CBD extraction process, Vantage Hemp Co. produces large scale, full-spectrum CBD oil, distillate, and isolate for pharmaceutical and consumer markets. The Behind The Scenes documentary will take viewers into Vantage Hemp Co.s latest technological advancements, in its purpose-built 62,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art extraction facilities in Greeley, Colorado, and the companys world-class team. During the documentary, audiences will engage with Dr. Daniel Chinnapen, Vantage Hemp Co.s Chief Science Officer and former Harvard Medical School professor. Behind The Scenes is excited to feature Vantage Hemp Co. as a content provider in this unique and growing field, and will be gathering media in an effort to best inform consumers, says Anthony Davis, a senior spokesperson from Behind The Scenes. With a pulse on the market, Vantage Hemp Co. is positioned as a leader in the production of industrial hemp on a global scale. The Behind The Scenes documentary production will begin in May. For more information, visit https://vantagehemp.com/. For media interviews please contact, Ada Lovelace Rampersaud at ada@marigoldpr.com or +1 (416)-648-4150. About Behind The Scenes Behind The Scenes is an award-winning program that highlights new stories and innovative concepts through groundbreaking short-form and long-form documentary presentation. The program, which is anchored by a veteran production team with decades of industry experience, is able to effectively communicate the most critical stories to a wide and diverse audience. About Vantage Hemp Co. With 800-acres of U.S. certified hemp biomass and large-scale, high volume extraction facilities, Colorado-based Vantage Hemp Co. has CBD extraction down to a science. By utilizing state-of-the-art technology and a meticulous focus on every detail from seed-to-extract, this small startup turned industry leader consistently delivers pharmaceutical grade, GMP compliant CBD extracts (including full-spectrum oil, distillate and isolate) that companies can trust. Learn more at www.vantagehemp.com. Attachment City lawyer Philip Murgor, who is representing murder suspect Sarah Wairimu, on Tuesday accused the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti of threatening him and his wife. Speaking to the press after the mention of the murder case, Murgor said Mr Kinoti is hell-bent on ruining his reputation and that of two other judges, one of whom is his wife, Justice Agnes K. Murgor. The other Judge that Kinoti is allegedly targeting is Justice Sankale Ole Kantai, who is accused of colluding with Wairimu to defeat justice. According to Murgor, Kinoti has on several occasions sent messages threatening to destory him if he wont stop pushing him. He has been conferred with such great powers but what does he do with it? When he is on the ropes in court, he sends messages to lawyers like me and tells them if you dont stop, I will destroy you. George Kinoti sent a message to me on 29th of January and said if I dont stop pushing him, he will ruin my reputation, he will ruin the reputation of the judge who is my wife and the other judge, said the lawyer. Murgor called on the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji to intervene and tame Kinoti. Mr. Haji has the constitutional power to control Mr. Kinoti. We are all officers of the court. Tomorrow when Mr. Kinoti is charged, for example, with abuse of the court, it is us who will defend him. He should stop using social media to intimidate lawyers and the Judiciary, said Murgor. Divestment requests in the fund started to flicker in 2017 and picked up through 2019. A Feb. 11 article in the Wall Street Journal that cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter claimed investors were ready to pull US$7 million out of the fund due to its ongoing level of underperformance. UBS sought to calm investors by offering to reduce fees and to wave management fees for new investments, along with replacing some in the funds leadership team, including Matthew Lynch, the head of U.S. real estate. Nonetheless, UBS might find itself in a dilemma if it is tight for funds to accommodate a large wave of redemption requests. The Swiss bank did not publicly comment on the Wall Street Journals coverage. So, what is the connection between Trumbull and Canadian housing? Christopher Liew, a former financial advisor at Royal Bank of Canada, used his column in The Motley Fool to speculate how a cross-border crash could be possible if the weakening of Trumbull sets off a chain reaction into real estate funds that seeps into the residential side of the market. Despite the ups and downs, the housing market in Canada was able to post higher prices and sales in 2019, Liew wrote. The housing market in general displayed resiliency and earned a passing mark following the slowdown that began in 2018. Now, dark clouds are hovering. If the $20 billion time bomb explodes across the border, it could erase the gains last year and trigger a tailspin this year. The situation is a bit alarming, because the Canada and U.S. markets, at some times, are moving in a similar direction. Liew observed that the major Canadian banks reported lower profits and higher loan-loss provisions by the end of 2019, adding, Is it the new normal, or are the banks preparing for an eventuality like a housing market crash? Investors are starting to monitor the amounts the banks are setting aside for bad loans. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4 By Eldar Janashvili Trend: The impact of coronavirus to the economy of Azerbaijan will depend on global processes, but currently the government takes all necessary measures to mitigate the infections economic impact and prevent its threat, for which, on the instructions of President Ilham Aliyev, an operational headquarters was created under the Cabinet of Ministers, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication Vusal Gasimli said, Trend reports. Gasimli believes that the problem of reducing the export of services amid growing danger of coronavirus negatively affects the tourism sector not only in Azerbaijan but also around the world. "Many airlines and tourism agencies of the world have already begun to feel the seriousness of the problem. In some cases, most of those planning to travel to Southeast Asian countries put off their trips. The damage to the tourism sector around the world will be measured in billions," the executive director said. "As for Azerbaijan, 3.2 million foreigners and stateless persons arrived in the country in 2019, which is 11.3 percent more compared to 2018. Some.1 percent of the arrivals were Iranian citizens. The number of Azerbaijani citizens traveling abroad increased by 13.4 percent in 2019 and amounted to 5.6 million people, 36.7 percent of whom visited Iran," Gasimli said. In other words, two million people from Azerbaijan visited Iran in 2019 and only 256,000 people from Iran visited Azerbaijan, Gasimli said. It turns out that those who travel to Iran from our country are eight times more than those who come from there. This means that if this problem continues, the current changes in the tourism balance of Azerbaijan with Iran will be in our favor, and will also positively affect the balance of current operations, the executive director said. This month, 35,000 people arrived from Iran into Azerbaijan, which is 13.7 percent year on year. Undoubtedly, as a result of the closure of the borders, the reduction in the number of tourists in both directions will be enormous, Gasimli noted. "Tourism is at an early stage of development between China and Azerbaijan. The number of people arriving in our country from China increased by 62.4 percent in 2019. But in 2018, only 25,500 people visited Azerbaijan In general, the lag in world tourism will negatively affect the number of people leaving Azerbaijan abroad, which will positively affect the country's currency balance, Gasimli noted. Azerbaijan is part of the global economy. In general, I want to emphasize another point that the health and safety of citizens for the Azerbaijani state is a matter of paramount importance. It is based on the interests of Azerbaijani citizens that decisions are made in connection with the elimination of the threat of coronavirus, the executive director added. Azerbaijan remains one of the countries, least affected by the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease. The country's official structures are applying necessary measures to prevent any possible exposure of coronavirus. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili NEW DELHI: Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) latest earth observation satellite GISAT-1, the launch of which was postponed by the space agency due to technical reasons on March 4, 2020, can keep a 24/7 watch on Indian subcontinent. Though the launch was postponed for some time, ISRO veterans claimed that the the geo-imaging satellite GISAT-1, which is one of the first-of-its-kind satellites, is equipped with a very powerful telescope and very sensitive imaging sensors which have been developed indigenously. Explaining reasons for placing the earth-observation satellites in GEO, Padma Shri Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, Programme Director Chandrayaan 1 and Mangalyaan, Vice President TN State Council for Science and Technology, said, Satellites in Low earth orbit can only click an image of a particular spot only 2-3 times a day, when they make a pass, but satellites in geostationary orbit (In sync with the movement of the earth) can constantly monitor a vast area. When a satellite is placed in GEO, it can click pictures of a particular spot in India or any spot that is visible to it, almost 24/7. When asked if the image quality will not be adversely affected due to its distance of nearly 36000 km from earth, Annadurai said, It is true that the resolution and quality of an image would be affected due to the 36,000 km orbit at which the satellite is placed, but besides optical cameras, we can also use other infrared-based imaging sensors that are part of the satellite. Replying to a question if there were other Indian satellites apart from communication satellites which have been placed in GEO, Annadurai said, Some of our earlier satellites such as Kalpana, INSAT 3D and INSAT 3DR can click images 24/7. INSAT 3D and 3DR are utilized for communication, monitoring climate, environment and for disaster management system and are placed in GSO. These are the satellites that help us track changing weather patterns every 15 minutes. While the earlier ones were multi-purpose satellites, the current satellite GISAT-1 is a more advanced version dedicated mainly to earth observation and can give higher resolution images and incorporates a different kind of technology, he added. Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai also explained how the new technology will change the functionality of the satellite and said, Some of our earlier generations of satellites like INSAT series had a scanning mirror in them, that moved east-west in a sweeping motion as a part of the image capturing process. However, since the satellites were also used for communications purposes(and are required to move in such a way that it appears fixed over a particular spot above the equator), the satellite was only moving on its GEO (in sync with the angular velocity of the earth). But since the GISAT is dedicated mainly for different kinds of earth observation, the satellite itself can rotate on an east-west, north-south axis to enable imaging of a specific region. In laymans terms, its like tilting a handheld camera and moving it for getting the best shot. Meanwhile, Padma Vibhushan Dr G Madhavan Nair, former Chairman, ISRO, said revealed some of the real world applications of the GISAT -1. Nair said, If we have a natural calamity in a particular region or a region that has to be monitored, we can issue commands for the satellite to point towards that specific region, or a weather pattern such as a cyclone and look at it in more detail. Low earth orbit satellites can give us better quality pictures, but they can make a pass only every 110minutes or so. But in the case of GISAT, we can continuously observe the area. So if a region is affected by forest fires or floods, we will know it near-real time and (if required) can deploy the satellites in Low Earth Orbit to click high-resolution pictures to improve our awareness of the situation. Explaining why ISRO calls it the first state-of-the-art agile earth observation satellite from Geostationary orbit, Nair said, As far as India is concerned this is the first-of-its-kind satellite. Basically this is a technology breakthrough as it requires a very powerful telescope and very sensitive imaging sensors which we have developed indigenously. We have been working on this technology for sometime. The launch of ISROs GSLV-F10 rocket carrying the geo-imaging satellite GISAT-1, that was scheduled for 5:43 pm on Thursday, was postponed by the ISRO due to technical reasons. ISRO has said that a revised launch date would be announced in due course. The GSLV rocket will be carrying what ISRO calls a state-of-the-art agile Earth Observation Satellite into Geo Stationary Transfer Orbit(GTO), which is 36,000 km at its farthest point from earth and 170km at its nearest point to earth. After it is placed in GTO, the satellite would be issued a series of commands to fire its Liquid Apogee Motor(LAM) for a few sequential burns, until it is placed in Geostationary orbit (GEO) of 36000km circular from where the satellite would be seen stationary to all the points from the earth. According to ISRO, the satellite is meant to provide near real time imaging of large regions of interest at frequent intervals, quick monitoring of natural disasters, episodic events and also obtain spectral signatures for agriculture, forestry, mineralogy, disaster warning, cloud properties, snow & glaciers and oceanography. While conventionally, earth-observation satellites are placed in Low-Earth orbit (between 500 and 2000kms), to ensure high resolution imagery, better capabilities, it is pertinent to note that ISROs latest agile earth-observation satellite is to be placed in 36,000kms away. The GEO orbit is generally meant for Communication Satellites that are required to relay signals across a vast landmass. Being placed in the 36,000km circular orbit would also mean that the 2268kg GISAT-1 is beyond the range of Anti-satellite missiles. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Carmakers have made across-the-board improvements in technologies that cut carbon emissions and save consumers money at the gas pump, a sign that current federal rules are working, environmental experts say. The Environmental Protection Agencys annual Fuel Economy Trends report shows a record-high number of 25.1 mpg on average for all of the passenger vehicles sold in the U.S., up from 24.2 mpg in 2013. And 12 of the 14 automakers that sell cars and light trucks in the U.S. have shown improvements over the five years ending in 2018. For consumers, it means new vehicles are going farther on a gallon of gas. And the EPA report offers a road map for environmentally conscious shoppers interested in automakers that are investing the most to improve fuel economy. Our tests at the track show that new cars have improved fuel economy while also making strides in safety, comfort, and even acceleration, says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports has supported fuel-economy regulations that increase mpg for consumers and that also reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. Honda and Subaru have shown the most dramatic gains in fuel economy over the past five years with new engine and transmission advances, according to the EPAs annual report. The two automakers improved fuel economy by more than double the national average. The Fuel-Economy Debate The report comes as the Trump Administration is finalizing a plan to scale back fuel-economy targets in the coming years. Rather than improving fuel efficiency by about 5 percent a year, as called for under current regulations from the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal government is considering a plan that would scale back annual efficiency gains to about 1.5 percent a year. A final decision is expected in the coming months. Story continues The auto industry has spent billions of dollars developing new technologies, offering more than 475 models that achieve 30 mpg or more, said Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, in an email. The industry is selling 62 hybrids models, 36 plug-in hybrids, and 36 battery-electric vehicles, he said. While the industry continues to support year-over-year increases in fuel economy standards going forward, this report also demonstrates the market challenges that exist, Newton said. The EPA report shows that automakers are cutting emissions and improving the fuel economy of the vehicles in their fleets, be they SUVs or compact cars, says Luke Tonachel, director of the clean vehicles and fuels group at the Natural Resources Defense Council. This latest data demonstrates yet again that we need to accelerate progress, not throw it into reverse as the Trump administration is proposing, Tonachel says. Every major automaker complied with the 2018 standards, notes Chris Harto, senior transportation and energy policy analyst at Consumer Reports. The fastest growing segments, crossovers and SUVs, saw year-over-year average increases in fuel economy of 4 percent, Harto says. This tells us that the standards have worked, he says. When automakers invest in fuel-saving technology, vehicles save drivers money on fuel while delivering the performance theyve come to expect. Most Improved Honda dramatically improved the efficiency of its big selling CR-V SUV from 23 mpg in 2013 to 28 mpg in 2018a 22 percent improvement in one vehicle. It also sells a lot of fuel-efficient cars, such as the Civic sedan and hatchback and the Accord midsized sedan. The EPA report shows that Honda has taken advantage of new technologies to improve fuel economy83 percent of its vehicles now come with engines with gasoline direct injection, and 54 percent of its models have a turbo. Other companies near the top of the list of automakers with high mpg averages include Subaru, which went from 26.5 mpg to 28.7 mpg over the five years. Mazda tied Subaru for second at 28.7 mpg, up from 27.8 mpg in 2013. Taking a Step Back Volkswagen was the only manufacturer to take a big step backward between 2013 and 2018. One development came with the virtual end of diesel sales in the U.S. following the company's emissions-cheating scandal. VW has also moved into the business of selling more large SUVs, such as the Atlas. Hyundai was the only other automaker to have a worse average mpg in 2018 than in 2013, falling from 29 mpg to 28.6 mpgstill good enough for fourth-best in the industry. Bottom of the Chart Like General Motors and Ford, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sits at the bottom of the EPA chart for individual company fuel efficiency. FCA is known for its truck-heavy lineup of Ram trucks and Jeep SUVs. In an emailed statement, FCA said its investing heavily in vehicle electrification, which means fuel-efficiency gains and less emissions. The chart below is from the EPA. Automaker 2013 2018 Honda 27.2 30 Subaru 26.5 28.7 Mazda 27.8 28.7 Hyundai 29 28.6 Kia 27.2 27.8 Nissan 26.5 27.1 BMW 24.3 26 Toyota 25 25.5 Volkswagen 25.9 24.6 Mercedes-Benz 22.2 23.5 General Motors 22 23 Ford 22.2 22.4 Fiat Chrysler 20.9 21.7 All Automakers 24.2 25.1 More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2020, Consumer Reports, Inc. On Tuesday, surrounded by members of Council, the mayor, members of the state General Assembly, and private sector leaders, City Council President Darrell L. Clarke unveiled the Philadelphia Poverty Action Plan a document outlining strategies to both increase income and reduce the cost of living for Philadelphians near or below the poverty line. The plan starts with a concrete goal: lifting 100,000 Philadelphians out of poverty by 2024. Call me crazy, Clarke teased. Im just optimistic this will happen. Believing that we can cut poverty by 25% is the kind of crazy we need in government. But it will take a lot more than optimism or a glossy brochure of ideas. Council did that last year, almost to the day, when it released a report outlining best practices to alleviate poverty called Narrowing the Gap. The city has not reduced poverty in the year since, though last years report was the starting point of a process that led to Councils current plan. The Poverty Action Plan includes innovative ideas, such as guaranteeing basic incomes to some Philadelphians as well as the expansion of existing efforts, such as a rent subsidy program and a job training stipend. The plan also outlines approaches to lobbying state government to increase the minimum wage, create a state earned-income tax credit, and restore general assistance, among other state initiatives. A promising element of the plan is the call to create a single application for all city, state, and federal benefits that would allow people to get all the help they qualify for millions of unclaimed dollars that should get into the hands of Philadelphians. Given the complexity of the poverty problem, its not cynical to wonder how this plan will differ from others, such as the 2013 effort by then-Mayor Michael Nutter to establish the Office of Economic Opportunity, tasked with slashing poverty. While $65 million was spent over five years, the poverty rate declined by roughly two points. READ MORE: Philly antipoverty office: Lack of clout, vision, and leadership The plan released Tuesday is more a set of aspirations than a plan. Sound aspirations, to be sure, but success will rely on many things beyond Councils or the mayors control, including a minimum wage hike, access to more state and federal benefits, and restoration of general assistance, which the state killed last year. Council does get credit for identifying concrete goals something that this board has called for many times in the past. Having concrete goals allows for evaluation and accountability. The plan calls for a Poverty Action Dashboard to allow experts outside of city government to measure the efforts progress. And the plan will rely on public-private partnerships that will and should include the business community. The big question which remained unanswered Tuesday is the price tag, and how many dollars Mayor Jim Kenney will commit. (Last year, Kenney pocket vetoed the wage tax credit that is part of Councils new plan.) Clarke has called reducing poverty a moonshot. Shooting for the moon is an admirable goal, but that will require building the right rocket and we should know how much that will cost. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:30:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong on Wednesday reported two more confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 102. The first case involved a 43-year-old man, who is the abbot of a Buddhist worship hall in North Point, Hong Kong Island, which has been proved to be related to multiple infections, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said at a press conference. The man, who has remained asymptomatic, was finally diagnosed after repeated tests on his deep-throat respiratory sample. The other case involved a 57-year-old woman, who is the maid of two COVID-19 patients, Chuang said. In addition, a woman, who is the wife of a diagnosed patient, was preliminarily tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Of all confirmed cases in Hong Kong, 57 stayed in the hospital for treatment, 43 were discharged and two died. Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said Hong Kong has issued red alert for trips to South Korea, some areas of Italy, and Iran as the number of COVID-19 cases kept increasing in multiple places of the world, adding that Hong Kong residents who planned to travel there may need to consider adjusting their plans. Armed guard: Greek soldiers patrol the border near the Evros River to stop migrants crossing by boat from Turkey. Photo: OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images Greek troops and riot police remain on high alert along the land border between Greece and Turkey, the main flashpoint in an escalating row between the EU and Ankara over how to deal with a new wave of migrants and refugees. Some 10,000 migrants have been trying to breach the border since Turkey said last Thursday it would no longer uphold a 2016 accord with the European Union to keep refugees on its territory in return for billions of euro in aid. Greek authorities said the border was quiet in contrast to the clashes seen over the weekend and into Monday, when police used tear gas against migrants, including women and children, stuck in the no-man's land. "There were only a few attempts today [by migrants to cross the land border]. Let's hope they get the message," a machine gun-toting army officer said near the Kastanies border crossing. Army vehicles patrolled the area, and roads leading to the Evros river which marks the Greek-Turkish border remained shut. Further south, the marine border with Turkey in the Aegean Sea was also calmer due to choppier waters after nearly 300 migrants arrived on the Greek islands by boat on Monday. A Syrian boy died after he and 47 others were plucked from the sea when their boat capsized. He was the first reported fatality since Turkey opened its border. "Greece's borders are also Europe's borders," said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as he made an inspection tour of the area yesterday. The presidents of the executive European Commission, the European Council - which represents national governments - and the European Parliament were due to join Mr Mitsotakis later in a show of solidarity with Greece. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees urged more EU support for Greece and also said countries should stop "bickering" and look at the root causes of the emergency. "Greece is an EU member so its primary source of support is European resources," Filippo Grandi said in Geneva. "Greece needs more of that. That is very clear." European leaders are desperate to avoid a repeat of the 2015-16 crisis, when more than a million migrants entered the EU from Turkey via the Balkans, straining security and welfare systems and boosting support for far-right parties. The mood toward migrants on Greek islands such as Lesbos - once relatively welcoming - has soured since the 2015-16 crisis amid a sense the Athens government and the EU are not providing sufficient support. "It used to be the island of solidarity but it seems like the locals are exhausted," said Charlie Meyers, a US aid worker on Lesbos. Turkey, which already hosts 3.7 million refugees from Syria's civil war and faces another big influx after an escalation of fighting there, has said it cannot take in any more migrants. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has voiced support for Greece's efforts to safeguard its borders. "The situation at our border is not only for Greece issue to manage it is the responsibility of Europe as a whole," she told a news conference after touring the region with other EU leaders and Mr Mitsotakis. "Those who seem to test Europe's unity will be disappointed. We will hold the line and our unity will prevail," she said. Technavio has been monitoring the travel services market in India and it is poised to grow by USD 56 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 19% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005710/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Travel Services Market in India 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. MakeMyTrip Ltd., Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd., Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., TripAdvisor Inc. and Yatra Online Inc. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Rise in international tourist footfall has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Travel Services Market in India 2020-2024: Segmentation Travel Services Market in India is segmented as below: Service Domestic Flight Services, Hotel Accommodation Services Rail Ticket Services Taxi/cab Services Domestic Bus Services Holiday Packages Mode of Booking Online Offline To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40267 Travel Services Market in India 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our travel services market in India report covers the following areas: Travel Services Market in India Size Travel Services Market in India Trends Travel Services Market in India Industry Analysis This study identifies introduction of low-cost airlines as one of the prime reasons driving the travel services market growth in India during the next few years. Travel Services Market in India 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the travel services market in India, including some of the vendors such as MakeMyTrip Ltd., Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd., Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., TripAdvisor Inc. and Yatra Online Inc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the travel services market in India are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Travel Services Market in India 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist travel services market growth in India during the next five years Estimation of the travel services market size and its contribution to the parent market in India Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the travel services market in India Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of travel services market vendors in India Table of Content PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market outlook Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY SERVICE Market segmentation by service Comparison by service Domestic flight services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Hotel accommodation services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Rail ticket services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Taxi/cab services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Domestic bus services Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Holiday packages Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by service PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY MODE OF BOOKING Market segmentation by mode of booking Comparison by mode of booking Online Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Offline Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by mode of booking PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Introduction of low-cost airlines Increased contribution of travel and tourism to GDP and employment Technological advances in mobile-based and website-based travel service platforms PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Airbnb Inc. Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd. Cox Kings Ltd. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. Ltd. ITC Ltd. MakeMyTrip Ltd. Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. TripAdvisor Inc. Yatra Online, Inc. PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005710/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/04/2020 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Mindy Shiben believes her friends might have been right in that she can't trust her husband Zach Justice During recent episodes of 's tenth season, Mindy's friends and bridesmaids have voiced complaints and concerns about Zach and his intentions for marrying on the show.Given Zach is a personal trainer and aspiring model, Mindy's friends feared he signed up for the show for exposure and to promote himself as well as his business.And then Mindy's friends' opinion of Zach went downhill when they discovered he chose not to move in with his wife into the Washington, D.C. apartment the show had provided for the newlyweds following their honeymoon in Panama.Mindy's friends worried Zach was only sticking around and going through the motions in his relationship to save face on camera."Do you trust him?" host Jamie Otis flat out asked Mindy during the February 26 episode of : Unfiltered."At this point, he really hasn't shown me a reason to trust him," Mindy admitted. "So, I don't know."Mindy seemed torn on whether her husband really deserved her trust, especially since he had done very little to show he cared about her and their marriage.Zach allegedly told Mindy multiple times during their honeymoon he wasn't attracted to her, and Mindy was upset Zach chose not to try to initiate intimacy in other ways -- such as holding her hand or doing thoughtful gestures like carrying her bags into and out of the hotel."He hasn't done anything where it's like, 'Oh my God, I really can't trust you!' But he also hasn't done much to develop my trust," Mindy explained on Unfiltered."So I'm just kind of in this place right now where, yes, I kind of have my guard up and I'm a little skeptical, but I still want to give him a shot."'s tenth-season star Derek Sherman joined Mindy on the Unfiltered episode and offered his perspective on her marriage at this point in the extreme eight-week experiment.When asked whether Mindy should trust Zach, Derek admitted, "I think she should take him with a grain of salt.""No," Derek continued. "Actions speak louder than words. And as of right now, there is a lack of action."Mindy wasn't convinced Zach truly wanted to make their marriage work, but she planned to stay committed to him and the process regardless.Mindy therefore found herself grateful for any time Zach wanted to spend time with her after their honeymoon, and Zach did, in fact, begin making an effort in attempt to prove divorce wasn't on his mind already.Not only did Zach spend time with Mindy and her friends on two separate occasions, but he also invited himself over Mindy's place to play some card games with her one night. The pair shared a couple of laughs doing face masks together as well.During the Unfiltered broadcast, Mindy also admitted she and Zack have had very little physical intimacy in their marriage thus far."Have you and Zach had any sort of intimacy?" Jamie asked Mindy during Wednesday night's episode."That's a hard, 'No,'" Mindy quickly interjected."Have you consummated your marriage at all?" Jamie finished saying."No," Mindy confirmed.When asked if she or Zach had tried to initiate any intimacy in their relationship, Mindy shared, "We made out.""Second base!" Mindy jokingly cheered, as her other Unfiltered guests, MAFS expert Dr. Viviana Coles and Season 10 groom Derek Sherman , laughed."No, not really," Mindy said on a serious note."During the honeymoon, we kind of started kissing and stuff a couple of times, and I hate to say it, but it was kind of forced and just, like, no, he doesn't make me feel very wanted with any kind of physical affection or anything."'s tenth season, which currently airs on Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on Lifetime, also stars Katie Conrad Jessica Studer , and Austin Hurd Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group CALGARY - A delayed inspection and a failure to predict how fast cracks could develop from corrosion are cited in a report describing the cause of an explosion and fire in an Enbridge Inc. natural gas pipeline northeast of Prince George, B.C., in October 2018. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A pipeline has ruptured and sparked a massive fire north of Prince George, B.C. is shown in this photo provided by Dhruv Desai. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says stress corrosion cracks that weren't detected by the operator led to an Enbridge Inc. natural gas pipeline rupture northeast of Prince George, B.C. in October 2018 that resulted in an explosion and fire. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dhruv Desai MANDATORY CREDIT CALGARY - A delayed inspection and a failure to predict how fast cracks could develop from corrosion are cited in a report describing the cause of an explosion and fire in an Enbridge Inc. natural gas pipeline northeast of Prince George, B.C., in October 2018. No one was injured in the incident but 125 people in a two-kilometre radius were evacuated as a precaution and the outage in the almost 50-year-old pipeline led to natural gas shortages throughout British Columbia. In its final report released Wednesday, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada says the 90-centimetre (36-inch) pipeline part of the T-South gas system that supplies much of southern B.C. ruptured due to stress corrosion cracks on the outside surface of the pipe. It said polyethylene tape coating applied to the pipe to protect it from corrosion deteriorated over time, allowing soil moisture to come into contact with the pipe surface and leading to corrosion and cracking. "The pipeline operator had a stress corrosion cracking hazard management plan in place for this pipeline," the report says. "The model used to predict crack growth did not take into account all potential uncertainties in the predicted crack growth ... Additionally, an inspection of this pipeline segment scheduled for 2017 was deferred until the fall of 2018. As such, the existing cracks remained undetected." The final report echoes the TSB's initial diagnosis in an open letter sent to Enbridge subsidiary and pipeline operator Westcoast Energy Inc. last October. The report doesn't offer new recommendations because the problems related to the polyethylene tape widely used in construction in the 1960s and 1970s are well known and have been addressed by the industry and regulators, said TSC lead investigator Jennifer Philopoulos in an interview. "Already today there's been action taken on the part of the company and the regulator to ensure that they've addressed some of the issues associated with the failure of this pipeline," she said. In the case of the Westcoast pipeline, the company didn't follow its own procedures in technical assessment and approvals before deciding to defer the inspection that may have identified the cracks, she added. The TSB says cracking due to tape deterioration was also to blame for three other similar pipeline failures since 2002, all in TransCanada Corp. (now TC Energy Corp.) pipelines, near Beardmore, Ont. in 2011, at Swastika, Ont., in 2009 and at Brookdale, Man., in 2002. The tape isn't used in new pipeline construction but remains in place on many older pipelines in Canada, Philopoulos said. "We know this incident has caused concern and disrupted the lives of so many people in the area and we really apologize for that," said Michele Harradence, Enbridge chief operations officer for gas transmission and midstream, in an interview. "We absolutely commit we've learned from this incident and taken steps to ensure the safety of our natural gas system. And we took those steps right away, as soon as we were able to get into the area to see what happened." Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Enbridge says it has completed enhanced pipeline inspections on its natural gas pipeline system in B.C. to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Philopoulos said the purpose of the report is to identify the cause of the incident, not assign blame. The evacuation involved many residents of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, whose members live nearest the blast site, and the community announced last year it would pursue a lawsuit demanding Enbridge remove its pipelines. A lawyer for the nation, Malcolm Macpherson, said residents feel that the TSB report backs up their contention that the pipelines aren't safe, and that the lawsuit would proceed. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:ENB, TSX:TRP) The day after the Tuesday Republican primary, 457th state District Court candidates Eric Yollick and Vince Santini were wasting no time preparing for the May 26 runoff as they battle to be the first judge of the newly created civil court. The two men have similar strategies hoping to gain the support of the three other candidates in the race and their supporters. With all precincts reporting, Yollick topped Santini with 21,662 (37.53 percent) votes. Santini pulled in 14,468 (25.07 percent) votes. Close behind were Robert Kasprzak with 8,358 (14.48 percent) and Bruce Tough with 8,115 (14.06 percent) with Chris Buck 5,109 (8.85 percent). Candidate face runoffs when no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote. The winner of the runoff will face Democrat Marc Meyer in November. According to County Judge Mark Keoughs Chief of Staff Jason Millsaps, Govenor Greg Abbott could appoint Yollick or Santini as early as June to launch the new court. He added the county is preparing for that scenario and will discuss the budget for the court at its mid-year budget workshop March 17. Introduced in February by state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, Toth said he requested the new judicial district at the behest of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court and county judges in light of a caseload growth. Yollick, who brings 31 years of experience to the race, said he is focused on efficiency in the courtroom, unifying the Republican party and keeping oversight of county finances a priority for the countys Board of District Judges. More specific to the bench, Yollick said putting in long hours is the reality. You can be certain I will be working every day, except county holidays, until the back log eliminated, he said adding civil judges can do a lot of rulings via paperwork that dont require court staff to be there. Yollick also said the court will need procedures in place to streamline the process including information on the court website on how and what documents need to be filed for each case to help save both time and money. Experience, he added, is critical for the bench. Admittedly, Yollick has been a vocal community activist. However, since filing to run for the bench, Yollick has removed himself from any activism and noted that would continue if elected. I have never brought political activism into the courtroom, he said. I understand the role that lawyers and judges have in the courtroom as opposed to what I do as a political activist. I understand as a political activist, I am a very different persona than who I have been as a lawyer. I dont think that is an issue at all. Santini began his career as a criminal prosecutor but moved to civil law in July 2018. Experience, he notes, is important for the position, pointing out he has managed court dockets for both the 435th and 359th state district courts. The 457th court, he said, was created for docket management to help reduce caseloads. And Santini, who has been visiting both local and state justices, said he has a plan on how he will roll out the new court. It starts with a professional staff, he said. Ill run an efficient court and be responsive to people. I will work extremely hard. Like Yollick, Santini knows the bench takes priority. I will be there 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, plus on call shifts, he said. We have to be available to the community and law enforcement to review search warrants we need to be able to review those at a moments notice. The time involved, he added, is nothing new. As a prosecutor, Santini explained he worked many hours preparing for cases, managing hundreds of cases and going to crime scenes. Santini also volunteers in the community and is married with two small children. Nothing has stopped me, he said. You want someone who can juggle all these things. Because the court was created to help with caseloads, Santini said docket management is critical in the success of the court. Getting trial dates set is a priority. Its about trying cases, he said. Im a trial specialist, Im going to try cases. We are going to stay on top of our docket, we are going to stay on top of our lawyers. Early voting for the May 26 runoff will be May 18 through May 22. cdominguez@hcnonline.com Advancing the hearing in the Delhi riots cases by nearly six weeks, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi High Court to take up on March 6 the PIL seeking lodging of FIRs against some BJP leaders for alleged hate speeches, observing a long adjournment in such matters is "not justified". The Delhi High Court had on February 27 adjourned till April 13 hearing the PIL filed by activists Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi for FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma for their alleged hate speeches in connection with protests over the amended Citizenship law. A high court bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar ordered the adjournment, a day after a different bench headed by Justice S Muralidhar expressed anguish over the police failure to register the FIRs and asked the Delhi police commissioner to take a "conscious decision" on it by February 27. The apex court said the high court may also explore the possibility of a "peaceful resolution" of the issue. Noting that it "wants to see if peace is possible", a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said it was not questioning the high court for adjourning the Delhi riots cases for April 13 and asked it to hear these petitions on March 6. "We are not on the merits. We think adjournment by the high court for such a long period was not necessary and was not justified," said the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. "As a matter of judicial discipline, we do not want to assume the jurisdiction of the high court as it is seized of the matter," the bench said, and made it clear it does not intend to say that high court was not justified in adjourning the case. The bench requested the chief justice of the high court to dispose of these matters "as expeditiously as possible" on their own merits and in accordance with law and also prepone the hearing on other related pleas. The bench directed that the hearing on other connected matters along with all the applications for impleadment and intervention on the issue, which have been adjourned to a later date by high court, may be advanced and be taken up on March 6. "The high court may also explore the possibility of peaceful resolution of the subject dispute," the bench said in its order on a plea by 10 riot victims for registration of FIRs against some BJP leaders and others for their alleged hate speeches. However, the apex court kept to itself the issue related to the allegations of hate speech by activist Harsh Mander, who has also filed a separate plea before it related to the riots in which at least 42 people lost their lives and over 200 injured. It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to file an affidavit during the day on behalf of the Centre giving details regarding allegations of the hate speech delivered by Mander, who had purportedly made objectionable comments during the anti-CAA protests about the Supreme Court, Government and Parliament. Mehta told the bench that Mander had "instigated anti-CAA protestors saying that ultimately justice will be done on the streets and the petition in the apex court has been filed for the sake of filing". Mander's lawyer, Karuna Nundy, vehemently denied the allegations and said he had not made any hate speech. The court, however, was of the view that unless the issue of alleged hate speech is "not sorted", it will not allow Mander's counsel to argue his petition which will now be heard by the top court itself on March 6. At the outset, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the 10 riots victims, claimed that the four BJP leaders--Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma-- are "still roaming free" despite making hate speeches which led to the violence. "It is possible that you register FIRs against one side only then situation may aggravate. It cannot aggravate if you register FIRs against people from both the sides," the bench told Mehta. Mehta said petitioners were "abusing the forum" of court and alleged hate speeches referred by them were made in January and February and have been selectively used. When Nundy said persons have also made hate speeches at Rajiv Chowk metro station here, the bench said, "We are told that you (Mander) have made certain remarks against this court as well. We want to know who all have violated the majesty of law. Have you also violated the majesty of law?". "Despite careful use of words, we hear so many things about us," the CJI said. Gonsalves referred to the alleged hate speech by Kapil Mishra and said after he made these statements, the violence broke out. When Gonsalves said riots could have been avoided if the police had caught the "main persons" who had given hate speeches, the CJI responded by saying, "We also have some experience of riots". Gonsalves also said he was "demoralised" when the high court had adjourned the matter to April 13. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ST. PAUL Minnesota voters around the state cast their ballots Tuesday, March 3, in the state's first partisan presidential primary contests in nearly three decades. Minnesota, along with 13 other states and one territory, held partisan presidential primaries on Super Tuesday and combined the contests are set to determine who will bank one-third of total delegates in the presidential nominating contests. In the wake of several last-minute decisions by Democratic candidates to drop out of the race, Minnesota voters said they had to change their decisions heading into the polls. Bob Whitney, a musician and business owner who was celebrating his 76th birthday by going to the polls in New London Township, said he voted for former Vice President Joe Biden. But if U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., hadnt dropped out of the race, he said he would have had a hard time deciding who to vote for. "I was torn between the two," Whitney said, but Klobuchar "simplified" the decision for him when she dropped out. "I think she did the right thing." ADVERTISEMENT The landscape shifted with just hours before Minnesota voters were set to start casting their ballots. Klobuchar on Monday announced that she would suspend her campaign. And she, along with former Democratic hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke endorsed Biden at a rally in Dallas. Meanwhile on Monday night, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stumped at an arena in St. Paul, inviting Klobuchar and Buttigieg's backers to cast their ballots for him and urging Minnesotans not to join the moderate coalition aiming to block his path to the nomination. Ave Green, 56, said her choice between the Democratic candidates changed several times before she made her final decision at a St. Paul precinct on Tuesday. She declined to share who she ultimately picked, but said she hopes to see a new president "who has a sense of dignity, inclusion and kindness" come January 2021. Within recent years, Green said she sees a spike in hatred and bigotry, which she views as "in essence, backed by the president, what he says and does." She said she worries for her three teenaged children and the future of the country. "Im worried about the racism. Im worried about the temperature -- what you can say and do now, and its okay," Green said. "Im worried about young adolescents and the younger generation with that, and how its coloring their life." For other voters, the choice was clearer as they went to the polls. Eric Clapp, of Wadena, said he supported Elizabeth Warren because he appreciated her detailed plans and work with underserved communities. "(She knows) youre not going to overthrow the whole system but that there are ways that the system can work better for everyone and I think thats a really important thing," Clapp said. "And she with the plans that shes released and has and the way that shes spoken in the debates, she has a finger on that pulse of kind of what levers to pull within the system to make it more equitable." ADVERTISEMENT The Republican primary left voters with less uncertainty about who to pick as only one candidate appeared on the ballot. GOP voters said they were glad to help re-elect President Donald Trump. While there were some technical issues reported at polling locations, the primaries appeared to go off without a major issue on Tuesday. Some election officials reported low-turnout for both contests, but voters said they welcomed the return of the presidential primary over partisan caucuses. "I like the primary," Aaron Pearson, of Pequot Lakes, said outside his polling location. "I think that more people are able to participate in a primary and I really appreciate that because I think more people should be involved in the political process. I do miss the caucus craziness a little bit, and feeling like you can make your voice heard a little bit more in the caucus, but the caucus is still happening. " Pine and Lakes Echo Journal reporter Travis Grimler, Fargo Forum reporter Dave Olson, West Central Tribune reporter Carolyn Lange and Wadena Pioneer Journal reporter Rebecca Mitchell contributed to this article. As coronavirus spreads in the United States, killing at least six and infecting more than 100 as of early Wednesday, people are beginning to get more creative with their social interactions as they try their best to avoid contact. Institutions are already starting to implement best practices in the West Coast. The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino announced that parishes have the option to implement liturgical restrictions that are allowed during the annual flu season, according to a letter from the Office of the Vicar General sent to the Los Angeles Times. Global leaders also are taking precautions. German chancellor Angela Merkel was waved away by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer after she extended her hand for a greeting during a meeting Monday. Handshakes Handshakes are popular among co-workers, classmates and acquaintances inside a professional setting, but health experts warn that shaking hands is a prime way to spread the coronavirus. In Germany, where children are taught to shake hands with adults and the firmness of the grip can be seen as correlating to personality strength, health experts and doctors are trying to persuade people to stop. At Virchow hospital in Berlin, doctors not only stopped shaking hands with their patients even noncontagious ones but are encouraging them to follow the example as cases in Germany exceeded 200. Friendly kissing In other countries, health officials are advising the public to avoid friendly kissing, or a quick peck on either one or both cheeks as a way to say hello. The Italian governments special commissioner for coronavirus, Angelo Borrelli, has suggested that Italians' demonstrative nature could be contributing to the virus spread. More than 2,000 people have tested positive and 79 have died, almost all of them in the countrys north. French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte at a French-Italian summit Feb. 27 in Naples, southern Italy. In neighboring France, Health Minister Olivier Veran on Saturday advised people to cut back on la bise, the custom in France and elsewhere in Europe of giving greetings with kisses, or air kisses, on the cheeks, along with shaking hands. France, which has had more than 200 cases and four deaths, made a similar recommendation during the swine flu epidemic a decade ago. Story continues In Spain, a country rooted with a strong tradition of cheek-kissing in social as well as many professional exchanges, has been continuing the practice unabated. Spain has registered more than 150 coronavirus infections. But even more reserved northerners are grappling with whether to forgo the hallowed handshake. Fist bumps and high-fives A 2014 study published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Infection Control found that nearly twice as many bacteria were transferred with a handshake compared with a high-five and that transmission was even lower for fist bumps. But that all depends on how long that high-five or fist bump lasts. Because handshakes typically last longer than high-fives or fist bumps, the study prolonged the contact for three seconds. Researchers found that the transfer of bacteria didnt significantly increase for the long high-five but did for the fist bump. Germ transmission doesnt just vary with the type of greeting or how long it is, but it also depends on the force of contact. Scientists involved with the study also said the different parts of the hand also would have higher or lower transmission. The elbow bump Instead of handshakes or high-fives, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams introduced the elbow bump at a news conference in Connecticut as a possible alternative to avoid the coronavirus. He showed reporters how it was done by demonstrating the elbow bump with Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Ned Lamont. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, right, bumps elbows with Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont as they meet in Rocky Hill, Conn. Were encouraging communities to think about the steps they can take to limit spread within communities to mitigate the effects of the virus, he said at a news conference Monday. We should probably rethink the handshake for a while. Other world leaders are also adopting the elbow bump. World Health Organization Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward was photographed offering an elbow to a reporter who extended his hand for a handshake. The CDC notes the virus spreads when people are within six feet apart. Respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs, CDC said. So the safest way to avoid transmission is to avoid all contact, experts say. That may mean a simple wave or a grander Namaste bow instead of a hand or elbow. Namaste, the Indian style of greeting familiar to yoga practitioners, includes a prayer-like hand position and slight bow. Dr. KK Aggarwal, a cardiologist and former president of Indian Medical Association, told the Times of India that 30% to 40% of the risk of coronavirus would be eliminated if people adopted what he called Corona Namaste instead of the handshake. Contributing: Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY; The Associated Press. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus outbreak prompts elbow bump greeting over handshake Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 03:21:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Feb. 29, 2020 shows former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (front) attending a "Women for Mike 2020" campaign event in McLean of Virginia, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg made a late entry into the presidential race and has spent over 500 million U.S. dollars on advertising. WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that he's suspending his presidential campaign and is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. The announcement came after a disappointing finishing for Bloomberg in Super Tuesday's Democratic primaries, in which he only won American Samoa. "I'm a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible - and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists," Bloomberg said in a statement. The billionaire entrepreneur, who made a late entry into the presidential race and has spent over 500 million U.S. dollars on advertising, also said that he's glad to endorse Biden, a moderate political veteran who most of the 14 states voting on Tuesday. Photo taken on Feb. 29, 2020 shows former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (front, L) attending a "Women for Mike 2020" campaign event in McLean of Virginia, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) A champion of progressive policies, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont finished second but scored a major win in California, the state with the most pledged delegates to July's Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biden, in a tweet on Wednesday, thanked Bloomberg for his endorsement. "This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics," Biden added. David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, said Bloomberg's departure "was expected." "He's a flinty-eyed realist and the numbers weren't there," the former chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. "The big news was his quick pledge to back Biden, with all the material support that implies. It could turn out to be one of the most meaningful developments of 2020." Photo taken on Feb. 29, 2020 shows former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (front) attending a "Women for Mike 2020" campaign event in McLean of Virginia, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Sitting President Donald Trump, who is projected to easily win the Republican Party's primaries on Tuesday, weighed in on Bloomberg's exit and lashed out at Biden with a series of tweets on Wednesday morning. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are still in the Democratic primary race, as a Biden-Sanders matchup took shape. "Before the pundits call it a day, the ST (Super Tuesday) results don't mean this competition is over," Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, tweeted on Wednesday. Sanders "has a substantial number of delegates, many important contests still ahead, and everyone should see by now that uncertainty is the only certainty," Zelizer stressed. The next Democratic primaries will take place on March 10 for voters of six states to cast ballot for their preferred presidential candidate this year. The Super Tuesday Democratic primary decided over 1,300 pledged delegates to the DNC or roughly a third of the total. Typically, a candidate is only eligible to receive a share of the pledged delegates at stake if they win at least 15 percent of votes cast in a primary or caucus. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the DNC, which election officials said must be at least 1,991 delegates. The Republican Party is expected to nominate Trump for a second term during August's national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2020 U.S. presidential election will take place on Nov. 3. MBABANE A family of a 34-year-old liSwati woman, who died while residing in Nelspruit, South Africa, is not convinced that she died of natural causes. Ntombifuthi Mahwayi had found love in the arms of a businessman from Nelspruit before she met her death last week Friday. Her death was confirmed by her sister, Minenhle Mahwayi, and the South African Police Service (SAPS), through Mpumalanga Police Spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi. The news of Ntombifuthis death made rounds on social media, with claims that she was murdered as she allegedly had bruises on her neck and head and a broken right arm. Discovered However, Hlathi disputed the murder claims, stating that police conducted a post-mortem on her and it was discovered that she died of natural causes. The results of the post-mortem did not sit well with the family of the deceased, according to Hlathi, and they also conducted their own post-mortem. It has been gathered that Ntombifuthi went for an afternoon nap and died in her sleep. Hlathi said the family believed she was murdered, to the extent that they accused the police of taking a bribe from her alleged killers and colluded in the results of the post mortem. Although I cant confirm the results of the second post-mortem, it reached our attention that they also depicted natural causes, he said. Hlathi said there was no way the police could have accepted a bribe from anyone because they did not even know any of the suspected killers. The family is free to open a case against the police if they are convinced that the initial post-mortem results were tampered with after the bribery claims but Im certain that there is no truth in those claims. If the results of the post-mortem suggested that the deceased was murdered, arrests would have been made by now, he said. When reached for comment via whatsApp on the matter, the sister to the deceased, Minenhle, advised this reporter to refer to tweets of the family lawyer handling the case. Unfortunately we cant give more details because the matter is now being dealt with by the lawyer. We will give you more details once we get the autopsy report, she said. According to the familys lawyer, who made noise about the death through multiple Twitter messages, the deceased was found with bruises on the neck and head and a broken right arm. The body has been located at the Tonga Hospital and a post-mortem is being conducted and the family is receiving assistance from the South African Police Service, he said through a twitter message. The lawyer said the situation remained very murky and the latest disclosure was that the doctor who signed the death certificate signed it a day before he left on holiday. He did not report a cause of death. Finally found a private doctor who was willing to examine the body, he said. Results Efforts to get the family on the results of the second post-mortem did not bear any fruits as Minenhles phone was later not reachable and she did not respond to her whatsApp messages anymore. Woman rights activist Hleli Luhlanga, who also had something to say on the news of Ntombifuthis death on Facebook, extended her heartfelt condolences to the Mahwayi family and friends of the deceased. Futhi was a young Eswatini woman with a promising future. However, she was failed by the economic system in the country; patterns of feminised poverty, limited educational opportunities and high youth unemployment levels. You will agree with me that she migrated to South Africa to pursue greener pastures where she met her unexpected death, she said. Pune, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Sickbed Market report provides detailed analysis and competitive analysis by region and other main information like a manufacturing process, raw material, and equipment suppliers, various manufacturing associated costs, historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data, the actual process. Sickbed report offers a detailed analysis of the industry, with market size forecasts covering the next four years. The Report contains complete coverage, intensive analysis, and actionable market insights to spot opportunities in existing and potential markets. Get a Sample Copy of the Report - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/request-sample/14537725 Global Sickbed Market: Drivers and Restrains, The research report has incorporated the analysis of different factors that augment the markets growth. It constitutes trends, restraints, and drivers that transform the market in either a positive or negative manner. This section also provides the scope of different segments and applications that can potentially influence the market in the future. The detailed information is based on current trends and historic milestones. This section also provides an analysis of the volume of production about the global market and also about each type from 2015 to 2026. This section mentions the volume of production by region from 2015 to 2026. Pricing analysis is included in the report according to each type from the year 2015 to 2026, manufacturer from 2015 to 2020, region from 2015 to 2020, and global price from 2015 to 2026.A thorough evaluation of the restrains included in the report portrays the contrast to drivers and gives room for strategic planning. Factors that overshadow the market growth are pivotal as they can be understood to devise different bends for getting hold of the lucrative opportunities that are present in the ever-growing market. Additionally, insights into market experts opinions have been taken to understand the market better. List of the Top Manufactures of Sickbed Market: Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. Invacare Corporation Drive Medical Stryker Corporation. Getinge Group Linet Spol. S.R.O. Stiegelmeyer & Co. GmbH Chen Kuang ArjoHuntleigh BaKare Gendron Inc Graham Field Health Products, Inc. Hard Manufacturing Co Umano Medical DRE Floor Hugger Global Sickbed market 2020 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Global Sickbed market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins. For each manufacturer covered, this report analyzes their Sickbed manufacturing sites, capacity, production, ex-factory price, revenue and market share in global market. The Global analysis is provided for the international markets including development Sickbed market trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue, and gross margins. Enquire Before Purchasing this Report - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/14537725 The report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Sickbed market providing information such as company profiles, product picture, and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis are also carried out. The Global Sickbed market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed and overall research conclusions offered. Research Objectives of Sickbed Market Report: To Analyze Sickbed Consumption (Value & Volume), Product Type And Application, History Data From 2014 To 2019, And Sickbed market Forecast To 2026. To Understand The Structure Of Sickbed Market By Identifying Its Various Subsegments. Focuses On The Key Sickbed Manufacturers, To Define, Describe And Analyze The Sales Volume, Value, Market Share, Market Competition Landscape, SWOT Analysis And Development Plans In Next Few Years. To Analyze The Sickbed Market With Respect To Individual Growth Trends, Future Prospects, And Their Contribution To The Total Market. To Share Detailed Information About The Key Factors Influencing The Growth Of The Market (Growth Potential, Opportunities, Drivers, Industry-Specific Challenges And Risks). To Analyze Competitive Developments Such As Expansions, Agreements, New Product Launches, And Acquisitions In The Market. To Strategically Profile The Key Players And Comprehensively Analyze Their Growth Strategies. With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Sickbed market, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market. The report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Sickbed market providing information such as company profiles, product picture, and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. This report focuses on Sickbed volume and value at a global level, regional level, and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents the overall Sickbed market size by analyzing historical data and future prospects. Purchase this Report (Price 2900 USD for Single User License) - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/purchase/14537725 On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Long Term Care Bed Maternal Bed Critical Bed Medical Surgical Bed Others On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including Hospital Clinic Home Others Major Points from Table of Contents: Table of Contents 1 Sickbed Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Sickbed 1.2 Sickbed Segment by Type 1.2.1 Global Sickbed Production Growth Rate Comparison by Type 2020 VS 2026 1.2.2 Long Term Care Bed 1.2.3 Maternal Bed 1.2.4 Critical Bed 1.2.5 Medical Surgical Bed 1.2.6 Others 1.3 Sickbed Segment by Application 1.3.1 Sickbed Consumption Comparison by Application: 2020 VS 2026 1.3.2 Hospital 1.3.3 Clinic 1.3.4 Home 1.3.5 Others 1.4 Global Sickbed Market by Region 1.4.1 Global Sickbed Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2020 VS 2026 1.4.2 North America Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.3 Europe Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.4 China Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.5 Japan Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5 Global Sickbed Growth Prospects 1.5.1 Global Sickbed Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.2 Global Sickbed Production Capacity Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.3 Global Sickbed Production Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 2.1 Global Sickbed Production Capacity Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.2 Global Sickbed Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.3 Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) 2.4 Global Sickbed Average Price by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.5 Manufacturers Sickbed Production Sites, Area Served, Product Types 2.6 Sickbed Market Competitive Situation and Trends 2.6.1 Sickbed Market Concentration Rate 2.6.2 Global Top 3 and Top 5 Players Market Share by Revenue 2.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion 3 Production Capacity by Region 3.1 Global Production Capacity of Sickbed Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.2 Global Sickbed Revenue Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.3 Global Sickbed Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.4 North America Sickbed Production 3.4.1 North America Sickbed Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.4.2 North America Sickbed Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.5 Europe Sickbed Production 3.5.1 Europe Sickbed Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.5.2 Europe Sickbed Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.6 China Sickbed Production 3.6.1 China Sickbed Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.6.2 China Sickbed Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.7 Japan Sickbed Production 3.7.1 Japan Sickbed Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.7.2 Japan Sickbed Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 4 Global Sickbed Consumption by Regions 4.1 Global Sickbed Consumption by Regions 4.1.1 Global Sickbed Consumption by Region 4.1.2 Global Sickbed Consumption Market Share by Region 4.2 North America 4.2.1 North America Sickbed Consumption by Countries 4.2.2 U.S. 4.2.3 Canada 4.3 Europe 4.3.1 Europe Sickbed Consumption by Countries 4.3.2 Germany 4.3.3 France 4.3.4 U.K. 4.3.5 Italy 4.3.6 Russia 4.4 Asia Pacific 4.4.1 Asia Pacific Sickbed Consumption by Region 4.4.2 China 4.4.3 Japan 4.4.4 South Korea 4.4.5 Taiwan 4.4.6 Southeast Asia 4.4.7 India 4.4.8 Australia 4.5 Latin America 4.5.1 Latin America Sickbed Consumption by Countries 4.5.2 Mexico 4.5.3 Brazil 5 Production, Revenue, Price Trend by Type 5.1 Global Sickbed Production Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.2 Global Sickbed Revenue Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.3 Global Sickbed Price by Type (2015-2020) 5.4 Global Sickbed Market Share by Price Tier (2015-2020): Low-End, Mid-Range and High-End 6 Global Sickbed Market Analysis by Application 6.1 Global Sickbed Consumption Market Share by Application (2015-2020) 6.2 Global Sickbed Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2015-2020) To Continued...... Browse complete table of contents at - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/TOC/14537725 About Us: Market reports world is an upscale platform to help key personnel in the business world in strategizing and taking visionary decisions based on facts and figures derived from in-depth market research. We are one of the top report resellers in the market, dedicated to bringing you an ingenious concoction of data parameters. In a bizarre demand, a nurse in China asked for a boyfriend in return from the government for helping Wuhan fight the coronavirus outbreak. The 30-year-old nurse, named Tian Fangfang, has shared a photo on social media in which she can be seen holding a note and wearing a hazmat suit. The note in the photo read, "I hope the country can assign me a boyfriend when the epidemic is over". The pic went viral soon after the nurse shared it on Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo. Tian did this after being inspired by a colleague, who had written on her hazmat suit that she wanted a boyfriend. Talking to an independent media outlet Ren Jian Zhi Bei, the nurse said that she wanted a tall partner as she herself measures 5ft6in. She added that she has posted the picture to encourage people to stay positive amid coronavirus outbreak. Tian also said that at the moment her most important task is to treat patients, who had contracted the deadly virus. The nurse also wrote on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, that she is indeed looking for a partner, but right now her focus is on what a nurse should do. Tian was reportedly the first employee to sign herself up for the task. Tians father, who was himself a medical worker, also helped fight the SARS outbreak in 2003. The nurses parents supported her decision to go for the treatment of virus infected people. 5 1 of 5 Northwestern CT Community College / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Northwestern CT Community College / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Northwestern CT Community College / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 5 of 5 WINSTED Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC) will host the unique music theater production of Aint I a Woman! at noon March 10 in the Founders Hall Auditorium, 4 Park Place, Winsted. Aint I a Woman! features a performance format developed by the Core Ensemble, which combines both theatrical narrative with chamber music for a compelling and strong performance. The event is free and open to the public. Former Vice President Joe Biden rallied on Super Tuesday, taking nine of the 14 Democratic presidential primaries in play and surpassing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in delegates to date. And the health insurance industry was seemingly pleased to see it. Health stocks and insurers are predicted to outperform the broader market Wednesday, Bloomberg reports, because Wall Street was reassured by Biden's resurgence. The vice president wants to build upon former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, as opposed to Sanders' preferred Medicare-for-all, which is a threat to the private insurance industry. Companies with ties to government-run health care like UnitedHealth Group Inc, Centene Corp, and EHealth Inc. jumped 10 percent, 8.2 percent, and 2.6 percent, respectively. Jared Holz, a health care strategist at Jefferies, told Bloomberg that Biden's Super Tuesday performance "will spur positive returns across the health care insurance peer group," but he added that the Democratic presidential race has already proved that it shift gears rapidly, which makes long-term prospects harder to forecast. Read more at Bloomberg. More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism? How Bernie blew it CONWAY, S.C. - A woman accused of giving birth and then leaving her infant to die beside a South Carolina highway has been arrested more than a decade after the child was found dead. Jennifer Sahr, 32, of Pensacola, Florida, was expected in court Wednesday for a bond hearing in the death of the infant who became known as Baby Boy Horry, news outlets reported. Sahr, formerly Jennifer Rickel, faces a homicide by child abuse charge in the death of the infant. Authorities said at the time that utility workers found the babys body in a bag thrown into a ditch beside a route in Horry County on Dec. 4, 2008. The infant was viable and would have survived with proper care, according to officials. Sahr was a student at Coastal Carolina University at the time. She graduated from the school in December 2010, according to news outlets. The arrest came just hours after police announced that the State Law Enforcement Agency had determined Sahr was the biological mother of the infant, based on scientific evidence. Sahr was with her husband and two small children in North Myrtle Beach when she was arrested, her attorney Greg McCollum told news outlets. She is presumed innocent and people should not get out their pitchforks at this point, McCollum said. A lot of times these cases are highly emotional. D etectives investigating after a Singaporean student was beaten and suffered abuse in a coronavirus related attack in Oxford Street have released images of four men they want to speak to. Jonathan Mok, 23, wrote on Facebook that he was physically and verbally assaulted as he walked along the iconic shopping stretch last week. He said a group member made a comment about the Covid-19 strain then reacted aggressively when he turned to look at them. All of a sudden, the first punch was swung at my face and took me by surprise, Mr Mok, who has been studying in London for two years, wrote on Facebook. Do you recognise any of the individuals in the photos? / Met Police When I was still shocked by the first hit, the guy delivered the second sucker punch. The UCL student said he could not defend himself as he was recovering from a hand injury. Jonathan Mok shared pictures of his injuries after the incident / Jonathan Mok/Facebook The guy who tried to kick me then said, 'I don't want your coronavirus in my country', before swinging another sucker punch at me, which resulted in my face exploding with blood (from my nose), where the blood was splattered all across the pavement," he said. Mr Mok sustained face fractures during the attack and may have to undergo reconstructive surgery. Police released still from CCTV of people they would like to speak to in connection with an assault in Oxford Street / Met Police Met Police confirm they were called to a location near Tottenham Court Road station on Monday, February 24 to reports of a man being attacked. They have launched an investigation into the racially aggravated assault and are appealing for witnesses to come forward. The CCTV has been shared after an investigation was launched / Met Police Detective Sergeant Emma Kirby said: This attack left the victim shaken and hurt. Theres no room on our streets for this kind of violent behaviour and we are committed to finding the perpetrators. I am keen to speak to anyone who has information about this assault. I would like to identify and speak to the four men pictured who may be able to help me with our enquiries. The men in the photos have been identified as able to help with enquiries / Met Police There have been no arrests following the incident and enquiries continue. Draining the Intelligence Community Swamp New hires will all be Israel's poodles By Philip Giraldi March 03, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The appointment of U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as interim Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a position that he will apparently hold simultaneously with the ambassadorship, has been criticized from all sides due to his inexperience, history of bad judgement and partisanship. The White House is now claiming that he will be replaced by Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe after the interim appointment is over, though sources in Washington suggest that Ratcliffe might have some problems in being approved by Congress. But such criticism, including my own, has somewhat missed the point, which is that what we are already seeing is a purge orchestrated by Grenell of federal employees in the White House and national security apparatus who are holdovers from the Obama Administration and who are therefore considered to be unreliable. That is why Grenell will continue to be ambassador as well as DNI as it is envisioned that his wrecking ball will have completed its task within six months and he will be able to return to Berlin, in spite of the fact that he is despised in Germany and many officials there even refuse to meet with him, which characteristically doesnt appear to bother the White House at all. Presumably many current senior employees in the intelligence community (IC) will be given non-jobs away from the White House and replaced by new appointees who are distinguished by their loyalty to the president, not by their accomplishments or skills. That means that competence will be secondary, if not irrelevant. It should be assumed that many of the new hires will be drawn from the pool of neoconservatives that proliferated in the George W. Bush administration. Many who believe the CIA and NSA to be evil organizations will, of course, welcome the de facto destruction of both organizations for ideological reasons. But those critics should bear in mind that there are potentially serious consequences to the possible changes. First of all, if one thinks that the illegal surveillance, regime change programs and assassination plots that have come out of the IC over the past twenty years have been a disgrace, just think for a moment how bad it could get if the security organs begin to ignore all constitutional and legal restraints after their assigned mission becomes de facto protecting the president and everything that he seeks to do. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Second, having large numbers of new employees learning on-the-job will mean that the quality of intelligence produced will go down. Again, some will object that the quality is already bad, but a careful analysis of what has gone wrong since 9/11 would suggest that the real problem has been political, that information is cherry picked or even falsified by the highly politicized IC leadership to support a certain agenda and is then spun to arrive at a particular conclusion supporting the White House. This has gone on since George W. Bush, if not before, but under Trump it is operating largely out in the open. A third point is that the people who will be in charge of what is characteristically being described as draining the swamp are not necessarily acting in support of identifiable national interests. They are ideologues who are acting to create a policy decision-making process whereby the president of the United States will be empowered to do more-or-less whatever he or she chooses to do in terms of national security and foreign affairs. That continues what has been happening in any event since 2002, but it creates a very bad precedent moving forward. And it pari passu strengthens what has been one of the most disgraceful aspects of Trump foreign policy, the incessant and irresponsible pandering to Israel. Whitney Webb of Mint Press News has explored the depth of Grenells engagement with Israel and with Zionist individuals and groups in the United States. There is already a very top-heavy presence of Israel advocates in a Trump administration that has already proven to be the most pro-Israel ever, even exceeding the completely suborned Bill Clinton. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both Christian Zionists head the list, but there is also presidential special advisor Jared Kushner, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and the Mormon head of the National Security Council Robert OBrien. The State Department is fully staffed with Jewish Americans who are ardently pro-Israel at every level that relates to Middle East policy, to include David Schenker as head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and Nathan Sales as Counterterrorism Coordinator. Elan Carr fills the bizarre position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and Cherrie Daniels is the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues. Morgan Ortagus is State Department spokesman. In Congress American Jews considered to be strong supporters of Israel are prominent in Committees that deal with national security or the Middle East. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has described himself as shomer or defender of Israel in Congress. Congressman Adam Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee, recently featured in the attempted impeachment of Trump. Eliot Engel chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is joined by Brad Sherman, Ted Deutch, Andy Levin and Lee Zeldin. The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, chaired by Max Rose, an Israel partisan, recently held hearings about confronting the rise in antisemitism and domestic terrorism. And then there is the president himself and his paymaster Las Vegas casino multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who have been the driving forces behind moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, endorsing Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, and dropping the description of the Israeli occupation settlements as illegal. It was all accomplished while closing the PLO representative offices in Washington, defunding the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and eliminating security assistance to the Palestinians. Along the way Trumps Zionist mouthpiece Ambassador David Friedman has endorsed every Israeli atrocity and war crime, to include the mass shooting of unarmed Gazan civilian protesters. Trump has also been promoting a take it or leave it peace plan that permits the Palestinians only a small bit of non-contiguous West Bank land completely surrounded by Israel with no actual sovereignty. Fifty European foreign ministers and senior officials have recently denounced the plan as little more than apartheid. Webb observes that overlookedare Grenells ties to the powerful American pro-Israel lobby and Israeli politicians alike, including organizations and individuals with a history of espionage and blackmail against the United States. Grenell is merely the latest example in a series of appointments over the past few years that have seen individuals with deep ties to the pro-Israel lobby rise to top positions in the U.S. intelligence community, including the NSAs current director of Cybersecurity Anne Neuberger as well as the leaders of the Presidents Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB). Grenells consulting firm Capitol Media Partners has done work for Arthur Finkelstein and Associates, which Webb describes as a firm of the late Republican political operative of the same name. Finkelstein has been directly involved in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus first campaign in 1996 and has since worked with far-right wing parties and politicians in Israel, to include that of the extremist Avigdor Lieberman. His political philosophy is that the only way to win an election is by running a negative campaign. Shortly after becoming Ambassador to Germany, Grenell arranged a meeting with Netanyahu at Berlin Airport. Afterwards, Netanyahu told the media that Grenell is a big fan of Israel. For his part, Grenell has said that American support for Israel is a biblical mandate, adding that he has visited the country more times than he can count. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has also strongly praised Grenells appointment as acting DNI. ZOA president Morton Klein issued a statement: I am proud to say that during my long personal friendship with Ambassador Grenell, it became powerfully clear to me that Grenell isa man who understands the importance of our countrys great alliance with Israel in promoting U.S. security interests. There has never been a better friend of a strong U.S-Israel relationship than Ambassador Grenell. Meanwhile over at the NSA, there is Anne Neuberger, an Israeli by birth who is married to Yehuda Neuberger, chairman of AIPACs executive council in Baltimore. Her job at NSA places her in charge of a division that unifies NSAs foreign intelligence and cyberdefense missionsto prevent and eradicate threats to national security systems and critical infrastructure. That would include the U.S. election infrastructure. Back at the White House, both the head and deputy of the PIAB, which promotes itself as having immense and long-lasting impacts on the structure, management, and operations of U.S. intelligence, have similar close ties to Israel. PIAB exists exclusively to assist the President by providing him with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the Nations intelligence needs, and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The Board has access to all information needed to perform its functions and has direct access to the President. PIAB Chairman Stephen Feinberg, the billionaire owner of Cerberus capital management, is a close friend of Jared Kushner, and has been involved in major investments in Israel as well as with Israeli partners. Cerberus owns the scandal-ridden US national security contractor DynCorp. The New York Times has claimed that Cerberus was involved in orchestrating secretive deals that transgressed legal and ethical boundaries. Feinbergs capacity to oversee the ethically-challenged IC is consequently troubling. Through Dyncorp, he has also been linked to Saudi intelligence. The PIABs current deputy is Samantha Ravich, who previously was an employee of the notorious pro-Israel lobby group Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a spin-off of AIPAC organized in 1984 to protect the parent organization when it was investigated for spying on Israels behalf against the U.S. government. Ravich also is a senior advisor to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), which works directly with Israels government. Per Webb, Ravich also worked for the consulting firm of Michael Chertoff, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security whose mother worked with Israels Mossad. Webb also notes how Ravich has specifically promoted a cyber project to the U.S. Senate that would protect member countries from cyber threats but exclude nations that endorse or fail to condemn the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that supports Palestinian rights and Israeli compliance with international law. The presence of many American Jews and Christian Zionists with close ties to Israel in the upper levels of the White House, State Department, the Intelligence Community, the Pentagon and the National Security Council is not a new phenomenon, though the numbers of such players has increased. It is in part a process of positioning whereby Zionists already in place bring in other Zionists and godfather them into key jobs in the bureaucracy. Note, for example, how Richard Perle brought in Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz to the Pentagon, with disastrous consequences that led to the Iraq war. When challenged, the individuals who fill the posts in question tend to fall back on the claim that the United States and Israel have more-or-less the same security interests, which is demonstrably false. Webb notes correctly that the presence of numerous Israel-firsters in the national security apparatus means that the foxes will be guarding the hen house. Ostensibly alert to any signs of so-called foreign interference in the 2020 election, they will be completely blind to what Israel is up to. Noam Chomsky once observed that First of all, if youre interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Israeli intervention in US elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done There is little to add beyond that, but one has to wonder why the Administration, aided and abetted by congress and the media, persists in promoting and placing in sensitive positions individuals whose ultimate loyalty is to a foreign country. Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org - " Source " PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-04 00:21:22 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 423 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VICTORIA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 3, 2020 / Erin Ventures Inc. (TSXV:EV), at the request of IIROC, would like to clarify certain information contained in its previously disseminated news release dated Feb. 28, 2020.Specifically, the statement "the annual boron market is valued at $US$2.5B", while sourced from an independent research report (Maia Research), is overly promotional and, as a minimum, potentially misleading.Additionally, the statement "Piskanja's strong potential to become a world-class deposit" is misleading. This project has a disclosed mineral resource only, with no supporting PEA, PFS or FS to support the economic viability or technical feasibility of the project.The Disclosure of the mineral resource as stated on February 28th did not comply with the requirements of NI 43-101, 2.2 - All Disclosure of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. The Disclosure should have read: Piskanja is Erin's wholly owned boron deposit with an indicated mineral resource of 7.8 million tonnes (averaging 31.0 per cent B2O3), and an inferred resource of 3.4 million tonnes (averaging 28.6 per cent B2O3), calculated in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves (CIM Standards)."Mineral Resource Estimate Update On The Piskanja Borate Project, Serbia, October 2016 - Amended February 28 2019" (the "Report"), was prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd.The responsible persons for the updated MRE are Dr Mike Armitage (C.Eng. C.Geol.) and Dr Mikhail Tsypukov who are both full time employees of SRK and Qualified Persons in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves (CIM Standards) and independent of Erin Ventures.The disclosure "Erin Ventures is currently in the process of submitting its mine application" implies that a production decision has been made without first establishing mineral reserves. To clarify, Erin has commissioned a Serbian compliant Mineral Resource Calculation and a Technical Economic Assessment as the first of three steps in the exploitation license process, as required under Serbian rules. Additionally, as a reporting issuer in Canada it is Erin's intention to commission a mineral resource estimate and economic analysis which complies with Canadian securities legislation.Blake Fallis, General ManagerThe technical information in this release was prepared and approved by James E Wallis, M.Sc. (Eng), P. Eng., a director of the company, who is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.SOURCE: Erin Ventures Inc. Advertisement Joe Biden dramatically won Texas while people were still waiting to vote in the state in a sensational end to a Super Tuesday which upended the Democratic race making it effectively a two-horse race with the former vice president ahead of Bernie Sanders. Sanders seized a victory in California after Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all. Just after polls closed at 8pm PST - 11pm EST - , the state was called for Sanders, his fourth victory of the night. That left Texas in play and for hours a nail-bitingly close count played out, while huge turnout prompted long lines and polling stations were kept open to deal with backlog. Biden's comeback left the party's rival establishment candidate's campaign for dead. For Mike Bloomberg, a disastrous night appeared to spell the end of a campaign which has burned through $1 billion in three months, leaving him with one victory American Samoa to show for it. His aides said he was discussing whether to drop out, and he tweeted an ambiguous 'thank you' to supporters saying 'we're more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,' hardly a commitment to stay in the race. For the two frontrunners, Sanders' win in California threatened to upend the narrative of the night being a sensational comeback for Biden. However by the time a third of the vote was in, the state may not have been poised to deliver the kind of resounding win or delegate haul for Sanders that had been forecast. Sanders had a strong lead, with 30 per cent of the vote, with Biden running about 10 points behind. At that point, Sanders, Biden, and Bloomberg all looked to harvest delegates out of the state. There was a dramatic race playing out through the night in Texas, the night's second biggest prize. Biden opened up a lead over Sanders early Wednesday morning. By the time the race was called around 2 am, he was leading Sanders by 50,000 votes, with 89 per cent reporting. Biden was at 33 percent, Sanders was at 30 per cent, and Bloomberg was at 15 per cent just enough to earn delegates. There were long lines in Harris County, home to Houston, where Biden was running up strong margins. As in southern states, Biden was running up big margins with the state's African American voters, but Sanders heavily targeted Latino voters in the state. Biden's margin, however was bigger. Some voters were online for six hours, in a state that had pared back polling locations. Biden cleaned up among those who decided who to back late winning the group 49 to 20 per cent in the state. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe called it 'astounding,' noting that Biden didn't spend 'a penny' there, speaking on CNN. Biden staged a dramatic rally in Dallas Monday where he secured endorsements from former presidential rivals Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O'Rourke. The former Texas lawmaker and Senate candidate then went out to Whataburger, a regional chain, for a milkshake. Bloomberg was coming in third with 17.6 per cent of the vote, trailed by Elizabeth Warren, who was born in Oklahoma. Across the map there were signs of Biden's sudden revival. Biden dealt a humiliating blow to Warren in her home state of Massachusetts snagging at least 28 delegates out of the state and beating her in her backyard. She vowed to stay in the race all the way to the conventions even as more centrist candidates flocked to 77-year-old former vice president. He also denied the prize to Sanders, who hails from a neighboring state. Bloomberg was born there, and had actor Michael Douglas stumping for him in Boston. But the region where he dominated was the south, with wins stretching from Virginia to Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Biden scored a surprise win in Minnesota. Warren, hosting a rally in downtown Detroit, called herself 'the woman whos going to beat Donald Trump.' The final details of delegate distribution were yet to be determined as the night wore on. But Biden's overwhelming performance, and the collapse of Bloomberg and Warren, immediately reset the race, with the prospect that Sanders and his political 'revolution' would be up against a long slog against the Demoratic establishment-backed candidate as he was against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden rushed to win after win early in the night, with Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama falling in rapid succession. He took Minnesota without spending a dime on advertising and despite being third in the polls until Amy Klobuchar dropped out on Sunday. She endorsed Biden on Monday. 'Prediction has been a terrible business and pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,' she said. 'Heres my advice. Cast a vote that will make you proud.' Then Sanders took some western wins in Utah and Colorado and snared the biggest state of all. Both men claimed victory, and both said they will take the nomination. SELECT STATE TO SEE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS Bernie Sanders seized a victory in California in the last act of a dramatic Super Tuesday which saw Joe Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all Biden rushed to win after win early in the night, with Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama falling in rapid succession. He took Minnesota without spending a dime on advertising and despite being third in the polls until Amy Klobuchar dropped out on Sunday As Biden raced to a series of state victories, Mike Bloomberg's campaign said he plans to 'reassess' whether he should stay in the race tomorrow. His aides said his campaign chiefs were considering their next move. Dropping out would hand a huge victory to Biden and also the potential for Bloomberg's almost unlimited resources to be thrown behind him immediately Senator Elizabeth Warren, who only holds eight delegates after the first four early primary contest states, hopes to finally place on the leaderboard in Super Tuesday with her home state of Massachusetts. As a small amount of results from the state starts to roll in, Warren is shown with about a third of the votes from the North East state TRUMP ROASTS HIS RIVALS AND TOASTS HIS OWN SUCCESS Donald Trump skewered his critics while toasting his own successes on Twitter as results rolled in from Super Tuesday ballots across the country. The President reserved most of his ire for 'Mini' Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, who both had poor showings in the polls. Hitting out at fellow New York billionaire Bloomberg, Trump branded him 'the biggest loser of the night, by far'. 'His political consultants took him for a ride,' Trump tweeted. '$700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike!' Trump also took aim at Warren after she failed to win her home state of Massachusetts, landing her a distant third in the delegate stakes. 'Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts,' he wrote. While Trump made sure to put down his rivals, he donated most of his energy to cheering his own successes - albeit while facing token opposition. As each win rolled in he tweeted out a message of thanks to his supporters, while vowing to retake the presidency in November. Advertisement In Los Angeles, before California was called for Sanders', Biden took to the stage and cast himself the victor, regardless if Sanders took both California and Texas. First, he mixed up his wife Jill and sister Valerie, a characteristic gaffe which has clearly done nothing to put off Democratic voters. Biden declared: 'It's a great night and it seems to be getting even better. They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing! It may be over for the other guy.' Energized, coherent and not put off even by two militant vegan protesters who ran onto the stage to protest against the dairy industry, he painted himself as the one Democrat who can take on Trump. 'A lifelong Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat,' he said to cheers a pointed way to contrast himself to Sanders, who is an independent senator. Jill Biden was captured in a photograph grabbing the protester by the arm and grimacing. It was a return in part to the early days of the race, when Biden held a strong polling lead before the first states voted and caucused. With Sanders on the rise days ago and party leaders warning the democratic socialist could seize the nomination Tuesday, forces coalesced around Biden in South Carolina. A key factor was the endorsement there of James C. Clyburn, the state's most senior African American elected official. In Vermont, Sanders pinned his hopes on California, pivoting to a victory speech and a string of attacks on Biden. 'Tonight I tell you with absolute confidence we are going to win the Democratic nomination,' he said. In Massachusetts, Biden's upset victory is a blow to home state senator Elizabeth Warren and neighboring Vermont senator Sanders. Warren will still gain delegates from Massachusetts because she passed the 15 percent viability threshold with 20 percent of the vote, but failing to win your own state is almost invariably the end for presidential campaigns. Warren has deep pockets, thanks to mostly small-dollar supporters willing to chip in, especially after debates, but she will come under massive pressure in the next few hours to get out of the race from both Biden and Sanders' camps. Sanders in particular will want her out after she cast herself as capable of getting his ideas done. Sanders stands to make up momentum with the huge win of California, catching up to the combined 559 delegates up for grabs in the eight states Biden picked up. In Los Angeles, before California was called for Sanders', Biden took to the stage and cast himself the victor, regardless if Sanders took California and Texas Energized, coherent and not put off even by two militant vegan protesters (pictured) who ran onto the stage to protest against the dairy industry, Biden painted himself as the one Democrat who can take on Trump Biden's early lead caused a dramatic shift and left Sanders, until last week the frontrunner, clinging to the hope of doing well in California before polls closed in the nation's most populous state. Shortly after polls in California closed, he was named the winner Biden's campaign had suggested that the key to Super Tuesday was to minimize Sanders' lead and a Virginia victory appeared to put them on the path to that goal. The sign of momentum for the former vice president came as he saw a boost in last-minute opinion polls despite having trailed Sanders in recent weeks WARREN LOSES HER HOME STATE Elizabeth Warren's campaign for president fell flat on Super Tuesday as she was unable to win even her home state of Massachusetts. Warren lost to both Joe Biden - whose South Carolina win Saturday night restored his frontrunner status - and Bernie Sanders, who represents neighboring state Vermont. Warren was in third place with 22 per cent of the vote with 70 per cent of the votes counted. But Warren's persistance had her looking ahead, as she campaigned in Detroit, Michigan Tuesday as votes were trickling in - a state that doesn't vote until next Tuesday - and telling supporters in an email that she needed their help 'to keep up the momentum.' 'Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,' Warren told the Michigan crowd. 'Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States.' During her final rally in California Monday night, Warren dismissed the surging Biden as a same-old, same-old Washington politician. Advertisement BLOOMBERG TO REASSESS CAMPAIGN Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg plans to reassess his campaign Wednesday after a disappointing showing in the first states to be called on Super Tuesday despite his multi-million spending blitz. Bloomberg got trounced by rival Joe Biden in southern states and didn't snag a single delegate in Virginia despite spending millions on ads there. Although he was harvesting delegates out of Colorado and got five out of American Samoa, it was not the night the billionaire was hoping for after pouring hundreds of millions into the race. By 11 pm, the U.S. territory was his only prize, and he had yet to win a single state. NBC reported that the Bloomberg camp sees 'some of the writing on the wall.' A person close to the campaign confirmed deliberations about the way forward to the Associated Press. Bloomberg told a crowd of supporters his unlikely campaign had made remarkable gains 'no matter how many delegates we win.' He spoke after Biden racked up wins in Virginia and North Carolina, but before Biden snagged other prizes including Minnesota. Advertisement Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont Sanders supporters cheer as they hear election results during a party held at Central Machine Works Brewery in Austin, Texas Sanders supporters cheer as they hear election results during a watch party held at Central Machine Works Brewery in Austin, Texas - a state he eventually lost to Biden Supporters of Bernie Sanders look over Super Tuesday election results at a campaign center in Denver, Colorado Supporters of Democratic Presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren attend a rally in Detroit Texas, the state with the second most delegates in Super Tuesday with 228, is leaning towards Sanders, as votes filter in. With about 30 percent reporting, the progressive Vermont senator is shown with a bit under 47 percent of the vote in the deep-red state that went more than 52 percent for Donald Trump in 2016. If Texas went to Sanders, he could close the gap between himself and Biden. The path to the delegation in Milwaukee now runs through a mini-Super Tuesday on March 10, when Missouri, Michigan, Washington and Mississippi vote. Sanders had appeared to be ahead in Michigan but Biden's upset in Minnesota is likely to weigh heavily there, and the combined demographic of African-Americans and disaffected blue collar voters could play to Biden's strengths. The following Tuesday, March 17, offers another selection of massive delegate counts when Florida, Illinois and Ohio all vote, along with Arizona. The following week, March 24, sees Georgia vote, which Biden's southern firewall should make a surefire victory. For Sanders, the loss of momentum from a rocky Super Tuesday could be critical. In 2016 he stayed in by rallying his base and railing against an 'establishment' determined not to give him the nomination and to install an 'inevitable' candidate in Hillary Clinton. That may be more difficult as he faces in Biden an opponent whose comeback narrative offers him some of the advantages of the underdog, and whose narrative of empathy and standing up for those who were left behind overlaps with Sanders' more radical rhetoric. With exit polls showing that Biden picked up eight states, it suggests the string of endorsements he has garnered in the last few days from centrist party figures, including three of his former rivals, had been crucial in driving momentum. Tulsi Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, remains in the race though has only campaigned sporadically. She did make a pitch to voters in American Samoa, where she was born, to vote for her Tuesday People wait to vote during the presidential primary in Santa Monica, California on Super Tuesday Voters cast their ballots in the Democratic presidential primary election at a polling place in Armstrong Elementary School o in Herndon, Virginia Rochelle Marks, 77, votes at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California People line up to vote at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California Students at the University of Vermont Franklin fill out voter registration forms at a polling place on Super Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont. At the close of the polls on Tuesday night, Sanders won his home state Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school in Minneapolis, Minnesota President Trump touted his string of Republican primary victories Tuesday night, tweeting his thanks after state after state was called in his favor. The president only had token competition - former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld - in the Super Tuesday contests and one state, Virginia, canceled its GOP primary as Trump, like most incumbent presidents, is easily expected to win his party's nomination. The president needs 1,276 delegates to be the nominee and is expected to have more than 800 by the time the night comes to a close. Since the last time voters went to the polls, the Democratic race has drastically changed, with three presidential hopefuls dropping out. Following Biden's South Carolina win on Saturday night, billionaire Tom Steyer dropped out. From there, things escalated quickly. On Sunday, Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana also exited the race. And Klobuchar exited Monday. She and Buttigieg were in Dallas, Texas, on Monday night endorsing Biden - who also got a bonus nod from Beto O'Rourke, who ended his own presidential run on November 1. A flurry of other mainstream Democrats announced their support for Biden too - including former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, former Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia, among others. Meanwhile, Sanders continued to draw droves of supporters, including more than 24,700 to his two rallies Sunday in San Jose and then Los Angeles, California. Biden talks with actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key as he campaigns before his evening rally on Super Tuesday in LA Meanwhile Bernie Sanders, who was earning frontrunner status, spoke to thousands at his rallies in Super Tuesday states including one Monday night in Minneapolis. With Amy Klobuchar out, her state is up for grabs On Monday night at a really in Los Angeles Warren pitched herself as the candidate who could split the difference between Biden and Sanders. 'Voters deserve a choice of someone with unshakeable values who can also get things done and bring all kinds of Democrats along with her,' she argued Voters from 14 states head to the polls on 'Super Tuesday,' with about a third of Democratic delegates at stake in a single day Nicki Minaj's husband Kenneth Petty has pleaded not guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in California. Petty, 41, appeared in court Wednesday after he was indicted for failure to register as a sex offender in California, according to TMZ. Petty turned himself into U.S. Marshals following the indictment, and was subsequently arrested. Initially, prosecutors wanted to place Petty under house arrest, but his attorney objected and now he will be required to wear an ankle monitor in addition to adhering to a curfew. Nicki Minaj's husband Kenneth Petty has been arrested by U.S. Marshals for failing to register as a sex offender (pictured with his wife Nicki in February 2019 in Hollywood) A lawyer for Petty says he will be posting a $100,000 bond later today. Petty, who will be under pre-trial supervision, has had to surrender his passport and restrict his travel to Southern California. He isn't allowed to use drugs, including marijuana from legal dispensaries in Los Angeles. His next hearing is scheduled for March 23. Petty, who moved to California over the summer, was initially arrested in November during a traffic stop in Beverly Hills after police determined he was a registered sex offender in the state of New York but not in California. He was subsequently arrested, released on a $20,000 bond, and charged for failing to register as a sex offender. Petty, who moved to California over the summer, was arrested in November during a traffic stop after police determined he was a registered sex offender in the state of New York but not in California (pictured with Minaj in February 2020) It appears as though he still had not registered, and has been indicted in federal court for failing to register. Petty faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if he is convicted on the federal charge of failing to register, according to TMZ. Petty is a 'registered Level 2 sex offender,' as listed by the New York State's Sex Offender Registry. Petty's offense was an 'attempted first degree rape' that took place in 1994 'when both he and the victim were 16,' according to USA Today. He ended up serving 'just under four years in prison' and was a free man by January of 1999. Nicki announced her relationship to Petty over a year ago and instantly faced backlash as internet sleuths uncovered his criminal past In 2006, the husband of Nicki would return behind bars for 'first-degree manslaughter' and would go on to serve seven-years in prison for the charge. Nicki announced her relationship to Petty over a year ago and instantly faced backlash as internet sleuths uncovered his criminal past. In 2019, Nick defended her man on Instagram, when fans flooded her feed with disapproval over her silent acceptance of Petty's crimes. Minaj had this to say about the sexual assault charge: 'He was 15, she was 16... in a relationship. But go awf Internet.' Nicki revealed in September 2019 that she had decided to retire and begin a family. The singer announced their marriage in October 2019, several months after revealing she had obtained a marriage license. The rapper recently fueled rumors she was expecting a baby as she posted a video of Petty affectionately rubbing her stomach during a flight to Trinidad. The plastic sign, about 10 feet long with A-R-B-Y-S spelled vertically, lay on its side by a ladder and some construction tools. Do you want it? Sohui Kim, the chef and an owner of the Brooklyn restaurants the Good Fork and Insa, asked a visitor. You can have it. That made it official: Gage & Tollner, one of the most storied restaurants in New York food history, is finally reopening on March 15. Workers hoisted a new Gage & Tollner sign into place, marking the end of a string of businesses, including an Arbys franchise, that opened in this Brooklyn space on Fulton Street after the dining institution closed in 2004. In the restaurants newly modernized kitchen, Ms. Kim and the chef de cuisine, Adam Shepard, considered whether some newly arrived cuts of meat were Gage-worthy. Upstairs, in private halls recently christened the Edna Lewis Room and the Dewey Room, after a former Gage chef and a former owner, applicants waited in hopes of landing a position. Obasanjo will officially mark his 83rd birthday tomorrow, though he had said he didnt know his exact birthday and some have said he is older than he claims to be. The obvious news is that many voters, after staring into the abyss of Bernie Sanders's socialism and seeing Fidel Castro looking back at them, are turning to Biden as their preferred candidate. Biden, after looking like a loser last week, is looking like a contender this week. The less obvious news is that in many states, there was a real fire among Republicans, even though Donald Trump is a virtually uncontested incumbent. People ought to be staying home, but in several states, they are voting for Trump in droves. The following data are from Decision Desk HQ as of 11:50 P.M. EST, with many votes still being counted. In those states in which Republican voter turnout exceeded Democrat voter turnout, the Republican numbers are bolded. In those states in which Republicans, while fewer in number than Democrats, still made a good showing, Republican numbers are bolded and italicized. In Alabama, with 88.44% of votes counted, 387,762 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 623,732 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 613,799 votes. In Arkansas, with 69.28% of votes counted, 216,840 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 233,898 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 227,078 votes. In California, with only 12.37% of votes counted, 1,030,439 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Bernie winning. Meanwhile, 625,295 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 573,611 votes. In Colorado, with 97.25% of votes counted, 665,014 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Bernie winning. Meanwhile, 612,497 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 568,143 votes. In Massachusetts, with 74.49% of votes counted, 978,054 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 169,317 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 150,602 votes. In North Carolina, with 101.34% of votes counted (yes, you read that correctly), 1,258,615 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 781,960 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 750,074 votes. In Oklahoma, with 98.87% of votes counted, 303,977 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 292,117 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 273,562 votes. In Tennessee, with 100.00% of votes counted, 486,091 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Biden winning. Meanwhile, 388,975 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 381,041 votes. In Texas, with 45.24% of votes counted, 1,320,425 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Bernie winning. Meanwhile, 1,295,764 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 1,266,396 votes. In Utah, with 93.01% of votes counted, 160,399 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Bernie winning. Meanwhile, 292,354 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 259,650 votes. In Vermont, with 88.36% of votes counted, 148,652 people voted in the Democrat primary, with Bernie winning. Meanwhile, 36,702 people voted in the Republican primary, with Trump receiving 32,611 votes. (Some of these numbers are still subject to change, but the relative values have not changed much over the past few hours as of this writing.) Despite being the incumbent, Trump is still having monster rallies across America. Moreover, in several of the above states, while Republicans could well have sat this one out, they made the effort to vote for Trump. People aren't bored with Trump; they are still thrilled. No matter the hype on the Democrat side of the race, it turns out that many Trump-haters are happier to tweet their discontent with Trump and their support for one candidate or another than they are to make the effort to vote. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 07:24:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A voter fills in his ballot at a polling station during the Virginia primary in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) The Democratic primaries are drawing nationwide attention, as a third of all pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July are up for grabs on "Super Tuesday." WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Voters of 14 U.S. states are casting ballots for their preferred candidate on "Super Tuesday" for the 2020 presidential election. Sitting President Donald Trump, who is facing no major challenges in the Republican Party, is expected to win the GOP primaries, while on the Democratic side there are still five vying for the party's nomination to challenge the incumbent. The Democratic primaries are drawing nationwide attention as 1,357 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in July, or a third of the total, are up for grabs on Tuesday. Besides the 14 states, American Samoa is caucusing while Democrats living overseas is starting a primary. After caucuses and primaries in four early voting states in February, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is currently leading in the Democratic field with 60 pledged delegates to the DNC, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden, with 54. In the southern state of Texas, which has 228 pledged delegates -- the third-largest number in any state and the second largest on Super Tuesday, Samantha Lynn Deal told Xinhua that she is supporting Sanders, a champion of the progressive Medicare for All plan, a single-payer, national health insurance program. "Mostly because I really want an upheaval of the health care system," Deal said. "I don't believe that the system that we're currently using is going to work for the future. And I think that we need a major change." Voters cast ballots at a polling station in Houston, the United States, on March 3, 2020. Polling stations opened on Tuesday morning, kicking off the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries of the U.S. 2020 presidential election. (Xinhua/Lao Chengyue) A moderate political veteran, Biden is on the rise in the Democratic primary after winning big in South Carolina, and his momentum has been boosted by a growing number of big-name endorsements. Darrell West, director of governance studies at Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, told Xinhua that "Biden is that guy" if "people are looking for safe, experienced option." At a polling place in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday, Max Blake told Xinhua that he is aware of an ongoing tussle between the Democratic Party's progressive candidates and the moderate bloc but he believes they will eventually unite for the race against Trump. Besides Biden and Sanders, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is making ballot debut, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are also in the Democratic primary race. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving for an event, said that he does not care who the Democratic nominee is when asked if he would rather face Sanders or Biden. "Whoever it is, we will take them on," said the Republican, who also traded barbs with Bloomberg on Twitter Tuesday morning. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the DNC, which DNC officials said must be at least 1,991 delegates. In other words, the Super Tuesday primaries will not determine who is going to become the Democratic presidential nominee. However, Super Tuesday could offer indicators for how the rest of the primaries might play out. "This is the first time that a large number of states in different regions of the country all vote on the same day," Clay Ramsay, a senior research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland, told Xinhua. "The four previous state caucuses and primaries each had their own local flavor. They can't tell us what Democrats across America are thinking," Ramsay said. "Super Tuesday will get us much closer to seeing that." Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, tweeted that he believes the day is important for the candidates to prove their electability. "Will Biden recreate the SC (South Carolina) coalition? Is the Sanders coalition stronger than the 'too far to the left' attacks? Can Warren win enough delegates to demonstrate her viability? Is Bloomberg's media-centered campaign more than hot air?" Zelizer wrote. Polls close between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time, depending on the state. Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on March 2nd revealed that foreign arrivals amounted to 1.27 million in January, up 5.85 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. However, the growth is much lower than the around 9.5 percent year-on-year increase recorded in January 2019. Tourists walk to the pick-up point in Sanur beach, Denpasar after their return from Nusa Penida Island in Bali. (Photo: https://www.thejakartapost.com/) BPS deputy director for statistics distribution and service Yunita Rusanti said the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was only be significantly seen in the last week of January because the number of tourists from China, Malaysia and Singapore to the country promptly declined. Notably, the statistics agency data showed that the number of tourists from Malaysia Indonesias largest tourism market - fell 10.6 percent year-on-year to 206,532 in January, accounting for around 16 percent of the total international visitors. Indonesia set to welcome 17 million international holidaymakers this year. Last year, the country hosted a total of 16.1 million foreign visitors, far below the target of 20 million. Recently, the Indonesian Government announced an economic stimulus package worth 10.3 trillion rupiah (about 742 million USD). In addition, it will grant 3.3 trillion rupiah to 33 provinces and cities to exempt tax for hotels and restaurants in the next six months, while providing 298.5 billion rupiahs for airlines and travel firms to attract foreign tourists, and 443.39 billion rupiah for reducing prices of tours to 10 domestic destinations./. WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a bid to gain traction in opioid plagued Midwestern states before Democratic primaries in the region, former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled his plan to curtail opioid addiction. The eight-page document calls for a $125 billion federal investment to make prevention, treatment and recovery services available to all, paid for by raising taxes on pharmaceutical company profits. It also calls for stemming the flow of drugs like fentanyl and heroin into the United States; stopping overprescription of addictive pain medications while improving access to effective and needed pain management, and holding big pharmaceutical companies responsible for their role in triggering the crisis. Ohio has one of nations highest rates of opioid-related drug overdose deaths. According to the Ohio Department of Health 1,423 Ohioans died of drug overdoses in 2009 with numbers increasing every year until 2017 when 4,854 died. The next year, unintentional drug overdoses in Ohio declined by 22.7%, a possible sign that the worst of the opioid epidemic may be over, the health department said. The role of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, continues to be a dominant factor in Ohios overdose deaths: 72.6% of the 2018 deaths involved illegal fentanyl or fentanyl analogs, which are drugs with a similar chemical structure. Fentanyl was often present in combination with other drugs. Politicians throughout the country have made fighting opioids a priority. Upon taking office, President Donald Trump declared opioids to be a public health emergency, and the White House subsequently dedicated $900 million in new grant funding to help states and territories address the opioid crisis, and another $900 million awarded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research into overdose treatment and improving overdose data. One of Bidens rivals for the Democratic partys nomination - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren - introduced a bill that calls for providing $100 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years to fight opioids. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has co-sponsored her bill. Bidens plan calls for enforcing requirements that health insurance plans provide treatment for mental illnesses and substance use disorders, and making it clear how state officials and the public can file complaints when their insurers or Medicaid arent living up to their parity obligations. It would also double funding for community health centers, protect rural hospitals from payment cuts, give them the flexibility they need to remain open, and invest in telehealth so people in remote areas can still have access to mental health and substance use disorder specialists. It would invest $75 billion in flexible grants to states and localities for prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts, and remove undue restrictions on prescribing medications to treat substance abuse disorders. Another $5 billion would go toward community-based prevention efforts and public education initiatives including training educators to recognize the signs of mental health problems and substance use disorders and refer them to appropriate services. It would also reform the criminal justice system so nobody is incarcerated solely for drug use. During his years as a U.S. Senator from Delaware, Biden backed War on Drugs laws that jailed numerous drug users. Critics say he also championed legislation that worsened the opioid epidemic by making it illegal to establish facilities where opioid users can inject drugs under medical supervision to avoid overdoses while they get addiction treatment. Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin released a statement in support of Bidens plan. The fight against opioid addiction requires bold action; we just cant arrest our way to a cure, said Baldwin. "Medically assisted treatment, access to supportive resources and services, and a united partnership between law enforcement, government, and service providers are the keys to winning the battle. Joe Biden is the right person to lead that fight. Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Ben Glassman said he liked its focus on expanding access to treatment and support for rural hospitals and community health centers as well as its recognition that high-level coordination is needed across many agencies to address the addiction crisis. The people who are impacted most directly by opioids need the opportunity to get healthy, said Glassman, who served as U.S. attorney from October 2016 until November 2019. He is now in private practice. If we dont do that, this drug problem will never go away. The cartels supplying drugs will come up with every kind of option to keep the population being harmed as their customers. Below is a summary of Bidens plan: Read more coverage: Sen. Sherrod Brown has no plans to endorse before Ohios primary Rep. Marcia Fudge endorses Joe Biden for President Meet Rep. Marcia Fudge and the people whod like to replace her in Congress House passes ban on flavored and menthol cigarettes in drive to curb youth smoking Rep. Jim Jordan predicts Trump victory in November, good chance of GOP House takeover Rep. Marcia Fudge has doubts about Bernie Sanders getting the Democratic presidential nod Senate Democrats including Ohios Sherrod Brown block anti-abortion legislation Sen. Sherrod Brown says Trump is working with Russia to help his re-election Ohio Congress members want government action on coronavirus Meet Rep. Marcy Kaptur and the people who want to replace her in Congress Ohio Attorney General tosses out GOP voting complaint against Democratic congressional candidate Rep. Jim Jordan visits Israel and tours Temple Mount with former Knesset member who is later arrested Meet the three Democrats vying to take on Rep. Jim Jordan Former OSU wrestler Adam DiSabato calls out Rep. Jim Jordan on MSNBC Heres who says Jim Jordan knew - or didnt know - about sex abuse on OSUs wrestling team Retired carpenter challenges Rep. Dave Joyce in GOP primary A North Texas man has spent tens of thousands of dollars on stockpiling non-perishable goods amid the coronavirus outbreak, even though the state has no confirmed cases of COVID-19. Jesse Colombo has 240lbs of rice, masses of dried beans and even 192 cans of spam in his stash that could last 18 months, but admits he doesn't even like the canned meat. He joins other Americans and people across the world who have rushed to buy items as panic spreads and infections increase. 'What you're seeing right here is about a year and a half's worth,' Colombo told CBS DFW. 'Easily tens of thousands of dollars. It's basically an insurance policy against chaos.' Scroll down for video Jesse Colombo has 240lbs of rice, among masses of other items stockpiled in his Texas home. The state has no confirmed cases of COVID-19 Colombo said: 'What you're seeing right here is about a year and a half's worth. Easily tens of thousands of dollars' Colombo joked Tuesday alongside an image of his shopping cart piled high: 'I've just cleaned my local Walmart out of its supply of Vienna Sausages and DAK ham' Colombo, who is a financial analyst in Dallas, Texas, tweeted a photo of his emergency food pile, including rice, Spam, freeze-dried foods and beans Colombo has six cases of Spam in his living room as a backup because the product, originally created by Hormel for the U.S. military, was designed to have a very long shelf-life. The ham product sits alongside a dozen 20-pound bags of rice and mounts of canned Vienna sausage. He wouldn't usually chose to eat this way: His Twitter profile last month showed him enjoying his favorite meal of Texan-style BBQ ribs and vanilla Keto ice cream. But Colombo is an economic analyst and claims he learned a lesson in preparation from the 2008 financial crisis. 'Ever since the global financial crisis hit, that was a wake up call to me that I need to be prepared,' Colombo said. Colombo warns about dangerous bubbles and was recognized by the London Times for predicting the Global Financial Crisis, according to his Twitter profile. He wouldn't usually chose to eat this way: His Twitter profile last month showed him enjoying his favorite meal of Texan-style BBQ ribs and vanilla Keto ice cream He's falling back on large bags of uncooked beans in case times get tough and an economic collapse occurs due to the coronavirus outbreak Colombo has also made sure he has access to clean drinking water amid the COVID-19 panic. Right, he demonstrates to how to use a device to purify water He's convinced medicine, water and meals that are ready to eat should be hoarded at a time like this. 'My immediate concern is not so much getting coronavirus, it's more so economic collapse is caused by the coronavirus outbreak,' he continued. 'I believe everyone should be prepared.' For long-term food storage he has a preparedness pail in his home. The 40 days and 40 nights kit contains formulas for pancakes, rolled oats, miso, superfood, green lentils, brown rice, quinoa, black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans and millet. Colombo joked Tuesday alongside an image of his shopping cart piled high. 'I've just cleaned my local Walmart out of its supply of Vienna Sausages and DAK ham. I was definitely getting some interesting looks!' he captioned the picture. One purchases he made can store up to a gallon of fresh drinking water in an emergency For long-term food storage he has a preparedness pail (left) in his home. There's also a medical kit on hand (right) His home is piled with boxes of disposable utensils and he has a backpack on hand Colombo has collected items to store up to 100 gallons of fresh water. He also has boxes of disposable utensils, medical kits and protective nose and mouth masks. However the government has advised citizens against using in an effort to protect themselves from contracting coronavirus. Still, the masks have been selling out in many areas as the number of global infections reached 94,102 on Wednesday and 3,220 deaths. In the US 137 people were confirmed with the infection and nine people had died. Colombo keeps a backpack beside his stash just in case. Colombo said he's preparing for an economic collapse caused by the coronavirus outbreak. 'It's basically an insurance policy against chaos,' he said. Pictured, shoppers at Costco in Brooklyn panic buy water, tissue and Clorox products after New York confirmed its second case Other people on social media have shared images of their hoarding. An LA couple's stash included instant lunches, noodle cups and saltine cracker boxes piled high. 'I'm deeply concerned for our sodium levels,' Esmerelda Bermudez joked about her husband's shopping choices. 'But this made me laugh so hard and love him even more.' Another Twitter user was more concerned with amassing medicines, vitamins and teas to soothe symptoms. Across the world people have been collecting toilet paper en mass too. One man with vacuum sealed tissue rolls tweeted: 'Everyone makes fun of the prepper until s**t hits the fan.' A woman in LA showed off her collection of saltine crackers and noodle cups (above) The LA woman's husband had stocked up on ready-to-eat meals that were high in sodium One prepared Twitter user amassed teas, medicines and roasted hazelnuts amid the panic Around the world supermarket carts have been filled with large quantities of toilet paper In Australia people were baffled about why toilet paper was in such high demand But one social media user explained that preparation is key at a time like this In the US, 137 people were confirmed with the infection and nine people had died by Wednesday morning A brand of gin which took two years to create has been pulled from the shelves in New Zealand after a huge backlash from the country's Maori community. Chris Charteris and Simon Wilson launched the 'Indiginous' label in 2019, out of their distillery on the Kapiti Coast. But the duo were forced to pull the label on Tuesday night after being criticised for cultural appropriation for the brand name, as well as the Maori designs used on the bottles. The company has completely withdrawn the label and deleted its social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram after a barrage of criticism online. Chris Charteris and Simon Wilson launched the 'Indiginous' label in 2019, out of their distillery on the Kapiti Coast The brand copped a major backlash this week after an image promoting the Reikorangi triple distilled dry gin went viral among the Maori community. A Wellington resident shared an image of the brand's marketing at the Liquordland Fitzroy store which featured six white women in front of a sign promoting the liquor. The user labelled the distiller's behind the gin brand a 'culture thief' in a scathing post on Facebook. 'When people don't have a culture of their own they don't know or CARE about things like TAPU, MANA and a little thing called RESPECT,' the user wrote. 'They will misappropriate things from the culture of others to make money for themselves, because THEIRS is nonexistent. A Wellington resident shared an image of the image of the brand's marketing at the Liquordland Fitzroy store which featured six white women in front of the sign The original image was a post of the store's staff standing in front of a chalkboard with a feminist slogan The company has completely withdrawn the label and deleted its social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram after a barrage of criticism online 'There's a certain type of person that feels ENTITLED to do this.' The Facebook user also attacked the owners of Fitzroy Liquorland for their part in the marketing campaign, before discovering the image had been photoshopped. The original image was a post of the store's staff standing in front of a chalkboard with a feminist slogan. Since sharing the post the brand's owners have been forced to apologise and pulled the label entirely. The bottle shop owner has removed the brand from the shelves and apologised for unwillingly playing a part in the drama. A statement issued to Stuff.Co.NZ by one of the gin creators Simon Wilson said they were deeply sorry. 'We unreservedly apologise for any offence. It was certainly never intended,' the statement reads. 'We were very thorough, we thought, in ensuring there was nothing offensive in the imagery,' the statement read. 'We set out to celebrate our New Zealandness on one of our labels but it seems some don't view it that way.' The creators said they had worked closely with a Samoan artist who grew up within a Maori community in Porirua to create the label. The gin was being sold in New Zealand for more than a year before being pulled this week. Queenslanders are being reassured authorities can give them toilet paper if they need it, as panic-buying is seen in many shops across the state due to coronavirus fears. There has not been any human-to-human transmission of the disease within Queensland at this stage and health authorities are urging residents to continue with their normal lives. However, there have been increasing incidents of supermarket shelves being stripped bare across the country, especially in the bathroom aisle. Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles called for calm, saying there was no reason for anyone to be stocking up on supplies, especially toilet paper. MALTA - The town board unanimously passed a resolution on Monday night to support state Senator James Tedisco's efforts to pushed back on state's 2020 justice reforms. The bipartisan resolution takes issue with new rules on bail and discovery. It also supports Tedisco's bill aimed at protecting the home addresses of first responders. "The town board supports the repeal and replacement of the New York State's Bail and Discovery Reforms through a legislative process which includes public hearings and consultation with law enforcement and the judiciary so that a fair set of reform measures can be enacted, for the benefit of crime victims, law enforcement and public safety," the resolution reads. Clifton Park was the first to pass a resolution of its kind. Last week, the all-Republican Milton town board also passed a similar resolution supporting Tedisco's bill. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Advocates for justice reforms argue that the changes are necessary because courts penalize the poor and people of color. Three men were arrested in two separate incidents for allegedly supplying illegal arms in the national capital, police said on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Zahid (24), Manish Sirohi (22), both residents of Uttar Pradesh and Ramesh (31), a resident of Madhya Pradesh, they said. In the first incident, Zahid and Sirohi were arrested from near Indraprastha Park in Delhi on February 26, a senior police officer said. During interrogation, the duo said that they have been supplying arms for the last two years. They used to purchase weapons and cartridges from Sendhwa, Madhya Pradesh and then supplied them in Delhi and NCR, police said. In the other incident, police received a tip-off on Tuesday regarding Ramesh and arrested him from near Dwarka-Link Road, NH-8, the officer said. Ramesh was delivering arms for last one year. He had visited Delhi thrice and sold over 50 pistols, they said. Police said that they have also recovered 36 country-made pistols and 100 cartridges from their possession. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CNN Philippines (March 4) A low pressure area is likely to drench Mindanao by Thursday or Friday, a forecaster said Wednesday. This is if the LPA, last spotted east of Mindanao, will not dissipate within the next two days, Rene Paciente, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist told CNN Philippines. Meanwhile, northeast monsoon is still affecting the weather conditions of Batanes and Babuyan Group of Islands, bringing them cloudy skies and light rains. Paciente said they are expecting only one or no weather disturbance to affect the country's weather conditions this month. The rest of the country will have generally hot weather with some chances of cloudy skies and isolated rains or thunderstorms due to the easterlies, Aurelio said. Paciente said it will gradually start to become warmer by April. The temperature in Metro Manila would range from 23 to 31 degrees Celsius. In retrospect, maybe buying a cruise wasn't the best choice for a stress-free vacation this year. Don't be too hard on yourself. When you decided a year ago to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on a cruise, you had no way of knowing that coronavirus would become such a major health concern. And you certainly couldn't have foreseen the horror story that unfolded aboard Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess ship. What started with 10 confirmed cases of the virus on Feb. 4 grew into more than 700 cases over two weeks the ship was quarantined off the coast of Japan. Historians will forever debate whether quarantining vulnerable passengers aboard a ship was the right response in the outbreak's early days. But you've got these tickets now and you're wondering whether you should go as planned. Most cruisers booked on voyages to Asian countries hit hard by the virus already have their answer in February, their cruise lines canceled those trips and refunded their money. So far, the cruise lines aren't canceling voyages to other destinations, including the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe. Except for the few who spent money on "Cancel For Any Reason" travel insurance, you'll forfeit the money you spent on your cruise if you decide not to go on a trip the cruise line does not cancel. To go or not to go? This dilemma plays out in the social media section of the consumer-focused cruise information website cruisecritic.com, which features a separate "roll call" forum for every cruise scheduled by the major cruise lines. On a roll call for Carnival Cruise Line's March 15 seven-day trip to the Caribbean and Mexico aboard Carnival Horizon, a woman named Brenda confided, "I know the Coronavirus is real bad and I have so many friends that are trying to TELL ME that the 8 of us should not do our cruise. I know it is still about 5 weeks away, so I'm praying that things will get better over this time period." Another member, TeresaJ, posted, "I am hoping the Coronavirus will be died down by the time we cruise. It seems to (be) mostly overseas so I think we will be OK." Brenda responded, "Yes Teresa, I hope you're right." WHETHER TO CANCEL Whether to cancel "is a personal decision," said Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of cruisecritic.com. She noted: "I'm boarding a cruise in the Caribbean in less than two weeks and am not concerned. But there are certainly travelers out there who are reconsidering travel plans." Cruise lines and associated businesses spent much of last week reassuring consumers that cruising remains safe, even as investors have sold off cruise company stocks and driven down stock prices in anticipation of the virus' spread scaring away more travelers and driving down revenues. Cruise lines' defensive posture is understandable. If consumers across the globe stop booking cruises en masse, the loss of revenue would cripple the multibillion-dollar industry. So the companies put their best feet forward, even if behind the scenes officials are closely monitoring falling stock prices and rising numbers of cases in popular destinations such as Italy. None of six major cruise lines Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises or Holland America were willing to tell the South Florida Sun Sentinel how their cancellation rates so far this year compare to last year's rates. The virus' impact on cancellations likely won't come into focus until the publicly traded cruise lines release their first-quarter earnings reports sometime after March. Cruise Lines International Association, the cruise lines' Washington, D.C.-based trade association, responded to emailed questions by promising that "our priority at all times, and especially now, is the health and safety of our passengers and crew." The statement specified what member companies are doing to prevent the virus from spreading among passengers: All member companies are required to have "robust" Outbreak Prevention and Response Plans, including procedures to provide care for and isolate passengers and crew as needed. Preventative screening measures have been put into place, including denying boarding to anyone who has traveled from, visited or transited via airports in China, Hong Kong and Macau within 14 days of embarkation. No one can board if they had close contact with, or helped care for, anyone suspected of or diagnosed with having the virus, or if they are currently being monitored for possible exposure. Enhanced screening and initial medical support are to be provided as needed to anyone exhibiting symptoms of "suspected" coronavirus. CONCERNS OVERBLOWN? While cruise ships continue to operate as usual throughout the world, including the Asia-Pacific region, measures cruise lines took within hours of the World Health Organization's declaration of the virus as a global health emergency "appear to be working," CLIA's statement says. Of the 272 ships owned by association members, only the Diamond Princess has had confirmed coronavirus cases on board, the statement said. And the Diamond Princess began its 29-day journey on Jan. 6, well before the World Health Organization's emergency declaration on Jan. 30. Erika Richter, communications director for the American Society of Travel Advisors, which calls itself "the world's largest association of travel professionals," contends that concerns that cruise passengers are more vulnerable to getting infected are overblown. "Our message has been to keep calm and keep cruising," Richter said Thursday. There's still time to take advantage of (seasonal) deals and prices. It's important to know that fear is contagious." She recalled similar concerns raised about cruising after 9/11 and during an outbreak beginning in 2012 of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and in the early 2000s of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. Yet "people keep traveling," she said. The current coronavirus, however, has already infected and killed more people than either SARS or MERS-CoV, which to a large degree explains the current level of concern. Rob Stuart, who owns St. Petersburg, Fla.-based travel agency Creating Magic Vacations, said his agents are reporting a "surprisingly few clients saying, 'I'm worried.' " Likewise, Richter said her agents aren't concerned about a long-term business drop-off. Chris Caulfield, owner of Chris Caulfield Cruise One in Hudson, N.Y., said his company will focus on selling trips to the Caribbean which so far has no reported cases until "things bounce back in the next quarter." WHAT TO DO Worried passengers, meanwhile, should continue to use common sense when approaching a cruise they've already booked, experts say. That means monitoring communications from the cruise line about itinerary changes, and travel advisories from the U.S. government. Wash hands well and often. Answer health questionnaires truthfully. Report any onboard illness to the ship's crew as soon as symptoms arise. Travel insurance is worth considering, as it can cover unexpected medical costs arising from accidents or sickness. For passengers who have already paid for their cruises, it's probably too late to purchase travel insurance with a "Cancel For Any Reason" option. That's because most cruise lines make it available for only a certain amount of time after paying their deposit, says Julie Loffredi, manager of media relations for the agency InsureMyTrip. For travelers still eligible to purchase it, "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance enables consumers to get up to 75% of their prepaid fare back if they back out of a voyage the cruise line refuses to cancel. The cost is reasonable _ about $200 extra for a couple in their 50s already spending $200 on standard travel insurance for a $5,000 vacation to Aruba, Loffredi said. If you didn't buy travel insurance and you're too afraid of infection to go on the cruise you bought, you'll probably have to eat the cost of the cruise. "Cruise lines aren't legally required to offer a refund for a cruise that's past final payment and canceled by the guest," Faust said. "The lines are protected by the contract that all cruisers sign at the time of purchase." But if the cruise line decides the trip is too risky and cancels, that's a different ballgame. When cruise lines cancel, guests get full refunds and sometimes future credits as a gesture of goodwill, she said. "So if you're concerned about compensation for cruises in regions where there have been more severe impacts, and you've already paid in full, it's usually better to wait until the cruise line has made a cancellation before jumping the gun and doing it on your own." ___ (c)2020 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The resident of Chernivtsi, who was diagnosed with coronavirus, feels better now, there is a positive trend in his treatment, according to the press service of Chernivtsi Regional State Administration on Facebook. "In the morning, the man had a temperature of 36.7 degrees and a slight cough. He has a normal appetite. We are seeing a positive trend," said Valentyna Myndresku, the head of the infectious diseases department of the regional clinical hospital. As reported, on March 3, for the first time in Ukraine a laboratory-confirmed case of coronavirus was recorded in Chernivtsi. The man returned from a trip to Italy on February 29. His wife, who was also in Italy, and later in isolation at home, was placed on observation on March 3. She does not have any symptoms of the disease. Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more A coding error in an app used to count vote totals in the Democratic caucuses in Iowa has delayed the release of final tallies, the states Democratic Party announced Tuesday. Although the data collected by the app was sound, it was reporting only a portion of that data to party headquarters due a coding issue with its reporting system, the party explained in a statement. After discovering inconsistencies caused by the flaw, party staff implemented manual backup measures that delayed release of final tallies. Nevada was set to use the app for its caucuses Feb. 22, but has scrapped the idea after the Iowa debacle. The problematic app was made by Shadow, a company that builds political tools and platforms. At its website, it touts work it has done for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee. The company sincerely regrets the delay in the reporting of the results of last nights Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns and Democratic caucus-goers, CEO Gerard Niemira wrote in an online post. We will apply the lessons learned in the future, and have already corrected the underlying technology issue, he added. Shadow did not respond to our request to comment for this story. Inadequate Testing Although details about the app remain sketchy, it seems that it was rushed to market. It was tested for two months. It should have been tested for far longer than that, said Bruce deGrazia, program chair for cybersecurity management and policy at the University of Maryland Global Campus in Adelphi, Maryland. You dont bring something like this out in the middle of an election cycle, he told the E-Commerce Times. Thats just asking for trouble. And guess what? Thats what happened. A D V E R T I S E M E N T Organizations never should rely on brand new technology during the immediate lead-up to a critical event, said Jamil Jaffer, senior vice president at IronNet, a network security company in Fulton, Maryland. You want to have vetted it and tested it and be relying on something youve had experience with, he told the E-Commerce Times. At the minimum, there appears to be a failure to perform adequate functional and stress testing of the app and its back-end systems, noted Jack Mannino, CEO ofnVisium, a Herndon, Virginia-based application security provider. Systems perform differently in preproduction and live environments due to a number of factors, including volume of usage, heavy loads and component failures, he explained. This is why exhaustive and comprehensive testing must be done across the software development lifecycle from prototype development through integration to preproduction or simulated environment and especially before live deployment for such mission-critical applications, he told the E-Commerce Times. Its so important that people have faith in the results of elections, so its extremely important to vet these applications with extensive load testing before theyre deployed, added Mark Graff, CEO of Tellagraff, a cybersecurity consultancy. Testing at load is critical for all election applications, he told the E-Commerce Times. Need for White Hats It appears that Shadows developers did all their testing in-house, observed Michael Covington, vice president of product at Wandera, an enterprise mobile security and data management provider in San Francisco. When producing an app with this much visibility, they really should have made an effort to collaborate with the White Hat hacker community in an effort to truly vet the security properties of the app and back-end supporting systems, he told the E-Commerce Times. Any app used in the democratic process should be released as open source software or at the very least, be submitted to an independent organization for a complete static and dynamic code analysis, suggested Richard Henderson, head of global threat intelligence at Lastline, a cloud-based provider of threat intelligence in Redwood City, California. A D V E R T I S E M E N T How was something so obvious as ensuring the transmission of an accurate count missed? Thats a pretty substantial flaw, he told the E-Commerce Times. It was entirely irresponsible of the Iowa Democratic Party and the app developer to approve the use of this app without adequate testing, said Josh Bohls, CEO of Inkscreen, a maker of enterprise mobility security solutions in Austin, Texas. The app was not dealing with much data or demand, he noted. There were only 1,600 caucus sites, Bohls told the E-Commerce Times. That is an incredibly small number of endpoints connected to a centralized database that is only required to collect and process around 250 thousand records. In the app world, that is not much data. Disinformation Fodder While the voting technology used by the Iowa Democratic Party was flawed, there are some bigger questions that must be answered, noted Parham Eftekhari,executive director of the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a cybersecurity think tank in Chicago. The real question is, How did we get here? Where did the decision-making process fail that led to the development of a piece of technology that wasnt properly tested and didnt work? After the paper ballots are counted, they need to do a major dissection of the entire process, he told the E-Commerce Times. Whenever technology fails in a very public way, the consequences can be severe. Unfortunately, a failure like the one in Iowa will have a lasting impact on the publics trust in using information technology to adequately and accurately support future elections, whether theyre held at state or national level, Mannino said. I think many people will point to this debacle as an argument against technology in future elections, said Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech, a reviews, advice and information website for consumer security products. The many conspiracy theories surrounding the app will fuel distrust, he told the E-Commerce Times. Ideally, the problems in Iowa will help spur more rigorous future vetting and testing, not only of mobile apps but also of any digital aspect of the voting infrastructure, said Andrea Little Limbago, chief social scientist at Virtru, a data protection company inWashington, D.C. However, the biggest impact of the Iowa snafu may not be technical, she added. It will likely be used in disinformation campaigns that attempt to weaken the faith of Americans in free and fair elections, and will provide fodder for those who question election results, she told the E-Commerce Times. In fact, it actually demonstrates the opposite how a resilient system built on checks and balances and audit trails is foundational to election integrity, said Limbago. Hopefully that is the narrative that will prevail. Aer Lingus and Ryanair are under pressure from travel agents to stop charging change fees to people who want to postpone bookings because of the coronavirus outbreak. The plea from the Irish Travel Agents Association comes as the industry suffers a significant drop in business and the travelling public face substantial losses if they cancel a booking. Many other airlines, including British Airways, Flybe.com and American Airlines, have already announced such waivers. However, ITAA CEO Pat Dawson told Independent.ie that most suppliers had responded positively, but the two main players out of Ireland have not yet. He said the response from Aer Lingus to a letter sent yesterday, was that it was not company policy at the moment and Ryanair had not yet replied. Mr Dawson said someone seeking to postpone a trip could face a higher fare for a new date, as well as a change fee, which could be of the order of 50. He said the ITAA letter was effectively asking travel industry suppliers, including airlines and cruise companies, step up to the mark and help the public out, subject to certain restrictions. As an example, he suggested a change fee waiver could cover bookings made for the month of March. He pointed out that the Aer Lingus position was in contrast to the decision at British Airways, which is part of the same IAG group. The ITAA letter says many travellers are choosing to cancel or miss flights rather than risk travelling to an affected country, and many were also becoming increasingly hesitant to book a holiday overseas. Read More We have all noticed a significant drop in bookings, which is a major concern the letter adds. The ITAA suggests a partnership approach to mitigate the potential issues, and asks the companies to which the letter is addressed to offer the travelling public incentives to continue booking holidays. We are mindful that consumers value the ability to book holidays in advance and with confidence. One such idea would be suspending change fees and allowing clients to cancel or change their trips without penalties, perhaps with some date and time restrictions on waivers. A number of airlines such as British Airways, Flybe.com and American Airlines have already undertaken these measures. Reassuring travellers who are concerned by the spread of the virus that their travel plans can be changed or modified would lead to a boost in customer confidence and could stimulate sales. As an industry we must work together and strive to protect our mutual businesses, to move forward through these uncertain times with a positive outlook. This comes as Emirates announced this evening that they will remove change/reissue fees for all new tickets issued. A spokesperson said in a statement: "Due to the changing situation of COVID-19, we have updated our waiver policy to allow our passengers the choice to change travel dates or reissue their ticket without penalty. "Emirates will waive change and reissue fees on all new tickets issued on/from Thursday 05 March to Tuesday 31 March 2020." An Aer Lingus spokesperson told Independent.ie that the company continues to keep what is a dynamic situation under constant review. Independent.ie has also contacted Ryanair for a comment. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) One Filipino quarantined at the New Clark City, who is exhibiting symptoms not commonly linked to coronavirus, was sent to the hospital to be checked for the highly-infectious disease. Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday said one Filipino from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship is experiencing diarrhea one of the unusual symptoms of COVID-19 infection caused by the novel coronavirus. "Mayroong dinala doon na bago, ngayon ay inoobserbahan at kinuhanan na ng specimen," she said in a media briefing. The health official said the 15 others who showed symptoms, such as fever, cough, and sore throat, have all tested negative for coronavirus and have been sent back from the hospital to the Athletes' Village in New Clark City to complete their 14-day quarantine until March 11. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said they are testing repatriates who show even mild symptoms so they can immediately identify cases. "Inubo lang kahit walang lagnat sa NCC, nilalagay na agad (sa ospital). The key is always early detection. We don't want people to slide down into the critical conditions," he said. Meanwhile, of the 80 Filipinos who tested positive for coronavirus while the cruise ship was docked in Japan, 40 have recovered and were already released. Of this number, 21 have returned to the Philippines and are under strict monitoring. Vergeire added that 19 other Filipinos are being processed for repatriation while 40 remain in hospitals in Japan. She said that no Filipinos are left inside the cruise ship, but 11 asked to stay behind to finish some work. One Filipino was brought to the hospital, but not due to coronavirus-linked symptoms. By Trend Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the activity of the tourism agencies has dropped to zero, Chairman of the Association of Tourist Agencies of East Azerbaijan Province Rajab Rashidpour said, Trend reports via IRNA. "The tourism industry is getting worse every year and nobody does anything about it," he said. Referring to the impact of political, economic, health and security issues on tourism industry in the country and East Azerbaijan Province in particular, he said that currency fluctuations, the crash of the Ukrainian airplane and the spread of the coronavirus have led to the closure of travel agencies. The current situation is much worse than ever, he added. Noting that many East Azarbaijan travel and tourism agencies are now closing their units or reducing their staff, he says that many tourism agency executives have stated that they have not received a single order last month, due to the spread of the coronavirus, which means the destruction of the country's tourism industry and, of course, East Azerbaijan. Iran is one of the recent countries, affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 2,300 people have been infected, 77 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 400 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The disease in the Islamic Republic has spread to nearly all 31 of Iran's provinces. Following the reports of coronavirus spread in the Islamic Republic, several countries have taken measures, including closing borders and banning flights. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Back in 2010, 15-year-old Sergio Hernandez was hanging out along the Mexican side of the Southern border with his friends, playing a game where they would touch a fence on the border and then run back. A Border Patrol agent on the U.S. side named Jesus Mesa saw them and, when Hernandez ran again, shot and killed him in front of everyone in the middle of the day. A civil suit was the only option for Hernandezs parents. The case, Hernandez v. Mesa, wound up at the Supreme Court, because the Department of Justice refused to prosecute Mesa, and when the Mexican government charged the agent with murder, the United States refused to extradite him. But just last week, the court decided the parents couldnt seek damages for their childs death. This case may seem singular and specific, but it really isntits part of a pattern at the Supreme Court that shows how the conservative majority is remaking immigration law, one ruling at a time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Mondays episode of What Next, I spoke with Slates Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the Supreme Court, about why this case is such a big deal and what the consequences could be. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Mary Harris: The decision in the Mesa case rests on a precedent called Bivens. How would you explain that case to people who arent familiar with it? Mark Joseph Stern: The full name of the case is Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. This was a case where six narcotics agents committed horrible abuses against a source: broke into his house with no warrant and strip-searched him. And Bivens thought, That was definitely illegal, that was definitely unconstitutional, that was a huge Fourth Amendment violation. Advertisement Advertisement But heres the wrinkle: There is a federal law that guarantees you the right to sue a state law enforcement officer who violates your constitutional liberties, but there is no law that creates the same guarantee for federal law enforcement officers. If a state police officer abuses your constitutional rights, you can easily sue them under this statute. If a federal police officer violates your constitutional rights, it gets a lot trickier. And thats where Bivens comes into play. Advertisement Bivens is the only thing that establishes the right for anyone to sue a federal law enforcement officer when they behave badly. But Bivens is a rule, not a law, so a judge can overturn it. Since the 80s, conservative justices have seemed eager to do just that. Whats the argument against holding federal employees accountable when something goes wrong? Advertisement The argument, which I dont agree with, is laid out pretty clearly by Justice Samuel Alito in his decision. The Constitution has a separation of powers: There is the legislative power that Congress gets to exercise and theres the judicial power that the courts get to exercise. Alito says that when a court is figuring out how much money victims should get when Congress hasnt said anything about it, the court is usurping legislative power. Advertisement Advertisement Theres also another argument made by conservatives, which is that with great power comes not so much the responsibility, but the necessity to use it. And they dont want to take away the power of these federal agents to be able to shoot first and ask questions later. Advertisement Advertisement "Shouldnt this be a straightforward example of a law enforcement officer going overboard?" Mark Joseph Stern That is tragically a persuasive argument at this Supreme Court: that federal agents need to make split-second decisions, that they need to be able to act quickly to protect the peace and protect lives. Sometimes theyll make mistakes, and they shouldnt be overly punished for those mistakes, because that comes with the territory. This court believes that about all law enforcement officers. So even when victims of police violence come to this court and are seeking justice for constitutional violationseven when Congress has allowed that to proceedthis court will often say, Were not going to let you do that because we dont want to tie the hands of law enforcement officers and make them afraid to use force when they really need to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You were there for oral arguments for Mesa. Now that we have the decision, what do you think about how both sides presented their cases and how those arguments were received by the justices? I think it was really clear during oral arguments how this case was going to come down, and that is because there was this massive gulf between the two different sides of the court. For this family, this is not a difficult case. This is, in constitutional terms, an unreasonable seizure. This case involves a cross-border shooting, but the agent was standing on U.S. soil. He was a U.S. agenthe was vested with the power of the U.S. federal government. What the liberals were really asking was, why does it matter that the killing was at the border, that Mesa was an immigration officer? Shouldnt this be a straightforward example of a law enforcement officer going overboard? This belongs in federal court and the victims deserve to have their say. Advertisement Advertisement Justice Sonia Sotomayor was a major character in these oral arguments. She asked, why is it a problem that we hold this agent accountable? She cited this amicus brief that was filed by former high-level officials at Customs and Border Protection who said, We used to work at CBP, and this agency has a huge problem. This agency is violent, lawless, and unaccountable. There is no discipline here. If you dont let victims of CBP officers sue them in federal court, there will be no justice for the victims, because the U.S. government is never going to punish these officers. Sotomayor cited that and talked about how the agency has high rates of corruption and misconduct. Basically, the courts are the only ones who can step in and hold these people accountable. Nobody else is going to do it. Advertisement Advertisement Sotomayor was saying that the play here is to make this agency accountable to no one. Absolutely no one. There cannot even be a grieving parent of a victim coming into court and asking for modest damages. The agents are free to do whatever they want, anytime they want. No ones going to punish them. This massive gulf between the liberal and conservative justices during oral arguments, you can see it in the final decision the majority handed down. For the conservatives, Bivens now seems very far from sacred. Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch have now come out and said they want to overrule Bivens. John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Alito have not admitted that yet. But reading between the lines of this decision, I get the sense that what theyre saying is: We will let you have your Bivens claims, but if you try again to expand this, then were going to overturn this precedent because weve never liked it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If we look at the immigration decisions that have come down to the Supreme Court over the past couple of weeks as a test for how this jurisprudence will move forward in the future, what do they tell us? Advertisement Advertisement They suggest to us that Trump, being unleashed and unrestrained after impeachment, is going to have more victories at the Supreme Court. Theres all of this reporting suggesting that his advisers and Cabinet secretaries and lawyers dont worry about legal challenges anymore. They now have total faith in the Supreme Court. Its going to be a pretty frightening run, because if Trump wins in November and shores up that majority, then he will have captured another branch of government. And nobodys going to step up to him and say, youve gone too far. Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: A Moga native who returned from Dubai on Tuesday ran away from a local hospital he visited for tests after doctors suspected him of having the coronavirus. With some media persons clicking his photos, he panicked but then returned after a few hours and gave his samples. Sources said that the man complained of cough and visited the civil hospital in Moga to get a check-up done as a precautionary measure. A few tests were done and his samples were collected, following which he was referred to the isolation ward of the hospital. An officer on the condition of anonymity said, "He refused to get himself admitted to the isolation ward as some media persons tried to click his photos and returned home. Then a team of doctors went to his house along with the local police and convinced his family. He then gave the rest of the samples and also agreed to come back and get admitted in the ward for observation. His initial reports show he has pneumonia symptoms. We will be sending his blood samples for coronavirus testing to Pune." Deputy Commissioner of Moga, Sandeep Hans, said that the patient got scared as he was to be admitted to the isolation ward. Today, the post-postmodern understanding of meaning is comfortably ambiguous. Its widely accepted that purpose is a narrative humans are inherently compelled to derive and embody. Simply: our purpose in life is whatever we make it. Family; religion; conservation; exploration; creativity; work whatever it is, we hold an unwavering belief we exist on earth to do this one thing. Its a reason to live; our enduring legacy making it a fundamental part of our identity. Wherever we individually find meaning, it tends to be bigger than ourselves. We talk about existing to serve the greater or higher purpose, serving the community, providing for our family, standing up for the under-represented, or saving the world. We share information, but we evangelise purpose. And the more we feel our contribution matters in the wider context, the more fervent our belief. Its no surprise then, that purpose plays such a critical role in the performance of individuals, teams, and organisations. Not big necessarily, but meaningful Purpose doesnt need to be monumental, it just needs to be meaningful. What are we working together to achieve? Does it make a difference? Is it worthy work for a worthwhile cause? These are the considerations that motivate people over the pursuit of profit. And when comparing two jobs with similar wages, the one with greater purpose will have greater appeal. Research also shows were more inherently motivated when were aware our work helps others. Psychologist Adam Grant conducted a study in which university students whod received scholarships spoke to operators from the call centre which had raised the funds. A month later, operators were spending 142 per cent more time on the phone with a revenue increase of 171 per cent. Simply hearing the impact of their work was enough to make a massive difference. Almost $1m has been spent on political adverts attacking Bernie Sanders by a group not legally required to reveal its donors, it has been reported. In a development that will be of intense concern to the 78-year-old Vermont senator and his supporters, it was reported that the so-called political action committee Big Tent Project Fund, had spent $868,000 on digital ads. This follows previous expenditures on adverts attacking the progressive former mayor of Burlington. The group had previously spent almost $5m in adverts attacking the senator during the caucus in Nevada and the primary in South Carolina. Politico said the the nonprofit organisation commonly known as a dark money group because it is not legally required to disclose its donors said in a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday that it spent just the money in 10 states, all of which were voting today on Super Tuesday. Now who is funding these ads? Why are they funding these ads? Well, because we have a corrupt political system, Mr Sanders said about the group at a news conference on Monday. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images The group is helmed by Jonathan Kott, a former senior aide to West Virginia senator Joe Manchin. Socialist Bernie Sanders is promising the world, but at what cost? 60 trillion dollars in spending and the largest middle class tax hike ever. So whats the true cost? 4 more years of Trump, reads one of the ads from the group currently running on Facebook. As moderates in the party move to consolidate his campaign so Mr Sanders has claimed the establishment is getting scared. He often tells supporters they will have to confront the Democratic political establishment if the are to win. CLEVELAND, Ohio A federal grand jury in Cleveland charged 20 people in a case that involved hundreds of pounds of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine sent over the border from Mexico to the U.S. and distributed nationwide. An indictment unsealed Tuesday says an organization led by a man in Mexico named Julian Aguirre-Aguirre, nicknamed El Chocolate, sent drugs to Northeast Ohio, as well as New York, Arizona, Louisiana and Georgia. Members sent drugs through the mail and in semi-trucks, and some members carried them into the U.S., the indictment states. Participants used encrypted push-to-talk telephones to talk to each other and wired money to people in Arizona after drugs were sold, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. The federal investigation into the organization, though not its breadth, was made public in January, when agents arrested five men in the Cleveland area who delivered 33 pounds of cocaine from Chicago. Agents seized the drugs after wiring up a house in Eastlake with recording devices and working with an informant to steer a car containing to the cocaine into the cars garage, records say. Three of the men jumped out of a second-story window and fled across the highway when agents descended upon a TownPlace Suites in Streetsboro. They hailed a Lyft, whose driver made it to Columbus before authorities arrested them there, according to court records. The men arrested in Cleveland and Columbus were in contact with Aguirre-Aguirre, prosecutors said. In addition, the U.S. Attorneys Office says in a news release that Herman Fletcher and Nelson Becton distributed drugs for the operation in Ohio, and 14 others in Ohio helped. Aguirre-Aguirre is not in custody, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bridget Brennan said in an email. The case is assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko. The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoards Dairyman. The states leading dairy lobbying group applauded todays signing by Gov. Tony Evers of legislation that creates a streamlined process for trading water quality credits that will save taxpayers money and capitalize on farmers conservation practices. The new law creates a clean water clearinghouse to make it easier for farmers who are reducing the runoff of nutrients such as phosphorous to trade with municipalities and manufacturers that surpass the allowable limit in their discharges. While state law already allows for this type of trading, it has been used relatively little. A centralized third-party system will likely make the trading more popular. Tom Crave, president of the Dairy Business Association and a farmer and cheesemaker in south-central Wisconsin, made these comments: This is a win-win-win for Wisconsin. Residents and customers wont have to bear the full cost of updating wastewater treatment plants and other industrial facilities, our farmers will have a new revenue stream to offset some of the costs of their innovative efforts, and our water will be clean. Thats the ultimate goal. We appreciate Senator Cowles and Representative Kitchens for authoring the legislation and Governor Evers for supporting this common-sense way to facilitate more environmental stewardship work. Our dairy farmers are committed to using science and innovation to take nutrient management to the next level. Having another tool to use will only help in this mission. The basics of the clean water clearinghouse: The clearinghouse approach for water quality credit trading will function something like existing markets for carbon credits. Various entities, including local water treatment facilities, cheese plants and other factories are required to meet limits for what pollutants or nutrients they can discharge to the environment. Phosphorus is one of the most commonly regulated nutrients. It can be expensive for a facility to filter its discharge sufficiently to reach its assigned target. In the case of treatment plants, those costs can result in higher fees for residents. At the same time, there are environmental and farming organizations that are implementing innovative farming techniques or land use changes that reduce the amount of phosphorus in a watershed. Now, organizations doing that kind of work could sell credits from the phosphorus reductions they achieve, and other entities could buy them to offset the amount of phosphorus they need to remove from their waste. Video: Click here for a one-minute explanation from John Holevoet, DBAs director of government affairs Tweet about this: Dairy Business Association @DairyForward praises @GovEvers signing of clean #water clearinghouse @SenRobCowles @RepKitchens #sustainability #farmers About DBA: The Dairy Business Association is the leading dairy lobby group in Wisconsin, focused on advocating for sensible state laws and regulations that affect the dairy community. The nonprofit organization is comprised of dairy farmers, milk processors, vendors and other business partners who work collaboratively to ensure that dairy farms of all sizes have the support they need to keep Americas Dairyland strong. More information: www.dairyforward.com As panic spreads as fast as the coronavirus in the country, the government has urged people to follow basic precautionary measures. Even the Prime Minister took to Twitter to quell the rising panic. PM Modi said that he has extensively reviewed the preparedness of the country to tackle the spread of coronavirus. However, while the symptoms of coronavirus can be found with every news report and a generic Google search, how can you find out if you have been infected? If you believe that you are demonstrating some of the symptoms of coronavirus, a quick visit to the nearby doctor would not necessarily lead to a confirmed diagnosis. Many of the signs such as fever, cough, difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath are symptomatic of the common flu. What's worse is that milder cases even resemble the flu or a bad cold. Symptoms can manifest as early as two days or might take 14 days after exposure to the virus. Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Confirmed cases rise to 28; Delhi, Agra, Kerala, Telangana in grip REACH OUT TO HEALTH OFFICIALS In case you exhibit some or all of these symptoms as well as gastrointestinal problems, then getting in touch with a government official would be advisable. The Ministry of Health has released details on how to get in touch with a health official. You can dial 011-23978046 for the 24X7 control room or email to ncov2019@gmail.com. Meanwhile, you must self-quarantine yourself, which means that you should not step out of your home for at least 28 days. You must put a mask, and inform the designated local health official/district CMO/DSO by telephone. Health officials will monitor you for 28 days since the exposure through home visits or through telephone. Also read: Big film releases may be deferred due to coronavirus outbreak FEW TEST CENTRES When it comes to identifying coronavirus victims, there are only a few government-designated places that can get you tested. Besides the National Institute of Virology in Pune, the government has identified National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s laboratories at Alappuzha, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai that can test samples for coronavirus. The ministry has stated that there are 15 other laboratories under Indian Council of Medical Research's Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories network that can test samples for coronavirus. However, the ministry has not revealed the locations. The health ministry has said that 19 more labs would be operational to test such samples. CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that a coronavirus testing lab will be set up at Lady Hardinge Hospital and also in LNJP Hospital if necessary. The government is currently taking stock of the situation. Travellers from 12 countries including China, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Indonesia, Iran and Italy were being screened at airports. However, the Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said at a meeting on Wednesday that from hereon all international flight passengers would be screened. There are screening provisions at 21 airports, 12 major seaports and 65 minor seaports and land crossings particularly bordering Nepal. He also said that so far, 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports, over 10 lakh screened at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance. During the meeting, the minister said that that the total confirmed cases in India has surged to 28, including 17 Italian tourists. Also read: Coronavirus: How UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat are dealing with virus scare Also read: Coronavirus update: 15 Italian tourists in India test positive for COVID-19 New Delhi: India's diamond exports could shrink by a fifth to $19 billion by the end of fiscal 2021 from $24 billion in fiscal 2019, as the novel coronavirus (n-CoV) outbreak amplifies sluggishness in global demand, Crisil said on Monday. The rating firm said that in the first nine months of this fiscal, India's total diamond exports by value were down 18 per cent year-on-year. "About 40 per cent of these exports are to Hong Kong, which has seen dysfunctional local markets over the past year or so. Moreover, there has been no diamond exports to the island since January 15 this year," it said. Subodh Rai, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings, said: "Exports would continue to fall in the closing quarter of this fiscal, which typically accounts for roughly a third of India's exports to the south-east Asian region." Besides, Crisil said that the n-CoV impact couldn't have come at a worse time for an industry that has been buffeted by tepid demand, declining realisations, and the ongoing political conflict in Hong Kong. Even if the n-CoV outbreak is contained in the next two months, trade normalcy and demand uptick from Hong Kong is unlikely before the middle of next fiscal. Consequently, exports next fiscal would remain down or be at best flat because any traction in the second half would be offset by the weak first half, the report added. Flybe has seen a reduction in bookings since the coronavirus outbreak (Pete Byrne / PA) Flybe, which accounts for 80% of routes out of Belfast City Airport, is set to collapse "within hours", according to reports. The BBC reported on Wednesday night that 2,000 jobs are at risk after a fresh bid for financial support failed. The struggling airline was saved from collapse earlier this year but has been unable to obtain the finance from the government. Flybe has been hit by a slump in bookings since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Final flights touched down across the UK late on Wednesday night, with Flybe's 8.55pm departure from Belfast City Airport to Glasgow among a number of flights cancelled. Flybes website has stopped working, with visitors being shown as message stating This link is no longer live. The airline flies to 14 UK destinations from Belfast City Airport. A collapse of Flybe would leave Belfast City Airport flying to just four other destinations. As part of the January rescue deal, Flybe agreed an arrangement to defer tax payments of less than 10m with HM Revenue and Customs. Ministers also agreed to hold a review into air passenger duty (APD). The structure of APD which adds 26 to the price of most return domestic flights such as those operated by Flybe could be altered in next weeks Budget. Flybe serves around 170 destinations and has a major presence at UK airports such as Aberdeen, Belfast City, Manchester and Southampton. It flies the most UK domestic routes between airports outside London. A series of issues have affected the airlines finances, including rising fuel costs, falling demand, competition from road, rail and other airlines, plus a weakening of the pound. It was bought by a consortium comprising Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital in February 2019, but has continued to make losses. Rival Ryanair has predicted the drop in demand for flights due to the coronavirus will result in some European airlines failing in the coming weeks. Earlier on Wednesday, a Belfast City Airport spokesperson directed all queries to Flybe. A Flybe spokesman would not comment on its financial situation. A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: We wont comment on speculation. At the time of Flybes rescue, rival airlines complained that they should not be penalised for their own success and they should also be given a tax holiday. British Airways owner International Airlines Group claimed the arrangements breached state aid rules. Things are getting serious between Married At First Sight intruders Elizabeth Sobinoff and Seb Guilhaus. While their wedding only aired on Monday night, it appears the loved-up couple are already making plans to move in together. On Wednesday, an eagle-eyed MAFS fan spotted the pair 'getting house keys cut' at a locksmiths in the Westfield Kotara shopping centre in Newcastle. Moving in together! A MAFS fan spotted Elizabeth Sobinoff and Seb Guilhaus 'getting house keys cut' at a locksmiths in the Westfield Kotara shopping centre in Newcastle on Wednesday The Westfield is just a stone's throw away from Elizabeth's home, which suggests that Seb is getting ready to make a move from Adelaide. The photo was shared publicly by Instagram account MAFS Funny, with many fans commenting how lovely it was to see Elizabeth find her happy ending. Speaking to OK! magazine on Thursday, Elizabeth said she was ready to have children with Seb - despite only meeting him in October. 'He's such a great guy': Speaking to OK! magazine on Thursday, Elizabeth said she was ready to have children with Seb - despite only meeting him in October. Pictured on their wedding day 'He's such a great guy and I'm completely open-minded to any situation thrown at me when it comes to a future with Seb,' she said. Since filming wrapped in December, Elizabeth and Seb have made no secret of the fact they're still together. Last month, Daily Mail Australia revealed they had been sharing near-identical photos to Instagram from their romantic dates. Happily ever after: Since filming wrapped in December, Elizabeth and Seb have made no secret of the fact they're still together On February 16, they both shared photos from the same Sydney lookout. While they didn't pose together, the pictures were taken in the same spot, at the same time of day, and on the same date. Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine The United States has conducted a defensive air strike against Taliban fighters in Afghanistans southern Helmand Province after a checkpoint manned by Afghan forces was attacked. "The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett said in a tweet. The strike came just hours after Taliban militants killed at least 20 Afghan security officers in a string of attacks and on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trumps "very good" chat with the Talibans political chief. The wave of violence is threatening to unravel a February 29 agreement signed in Doha between the United States and the Taliban that would allow allied forces to leave Afghanistan within 14 months in return for various security commitments from the extremist group and a pledge to hold talks with the Afghan government -- which the Taliban has so far refused to do. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has warned he was not committed to a key clause in the deal involving the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The Taliban said it would not take part in intra-Afghan talks until that provision was met. And on March 2, the militant group ordered its fighters to resume operations against Afghan forces, saying that a weeklong partial truce between the Taliban, U.S., and Afghan forces that preceded the Doha agreement was "over." "Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. Another attack killed six soldiers in the same northern region, Amiri added. Washington has said it would defend Afghan forces if they came under Taliban attack. With reporting by Reuters and dpa Google has cancelled its annual conference, Google I/O 2020, citing coronavirus concerns. The company is currently finding new ways to host its developer conference, which will now most likely be an online event. Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), we have decided to cancel this year's physical event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. It's sad that we won't be able to gather as a developer community, but your health and safety is our priority, Google said. The company has also sent out emails to attendees who had registered for the event and assured refunds for their tickets. All guests who have purchased tickets to I/O 2020 will receive a full refund by March 13, the statement read. Further, registered guests for Google I/O 2020 will be granted an option to purchase next years conference tickets. Google I/O 2020 joins the long list of tech events that were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Mobile World Congress 2020, GDC 2020, Facebooks F8 and the Geneva Motor Show were cancelled for the same reasons. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show In India, Xiaomi announced that it will host online-only launch events in March after reports emerged of suspected coronavirus cases in the country. Realme also followed and announced an online-only Realme 6 series launch event on March 5. SPRINGFIELD - A narcotics raid on a High Street apartment Tuesday afternoon led to the discovery of a small amount of heroin and crack cocaine but also 3 unlawful firearms and 750 rounds of ammunition, police said. Police spokesman Ryan Walsh said the Narcotics Bureau, under the command of Capt. Brian Keenan, obtained a search warrant for the residence at 90 High St. after an investigation into illegal drug and weapons activity there. The area around High Street near School Street, is considered by police to be a hot spot for drug activity and violent crime. Police found 11 bags of heroin, three loaded firearms and several boxes of ammunition. They arrested resident Julio Rosa, 37. He was charged with possession of heroin and crack cocaine, but also three counts each of improper storage of a firearm, possession of a firearm without a license, and possession of a firearm with three prior convictions for narcotics or violent crimes, and a single count of possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card. Under Massachusetts law, people with prior convictions for either drug crimes or crimes of violence are prohibited from owning have firearms. Also in the apartment at the time of the raid was Marie Karbone, 37, of West Springfield. She was charged with possession of a class B substance and was also found to have four warrant issued against her. Each is scheduled to appear in Springfield District Court on Wednesday. I A global mining survey released last week reveals that Mexico has lost attractiveness as an investment destination for the mining industry, despite being the top producer of silver globally, according to an article by Mexico Business. Fraser Institute's Annual Survey of Mining Companies shows Mexico's rating in the Investment Attractiveness Index declined to 65.43 in 2019 from 73.91 in 2018. In spite of this downturn, Mexico lands on the 5th spot in the overall ranking in Latin America lead by Chile (15th in the world), Brazil (39th), Peru (45th). In the global index, Mexico ranks 51st in being the most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment. Additionally, the Latin American country continues to be the leading silver producer in the world with 6,300 tons and is now the 12th producer of gold with 1,200 tons produced last year. Aside from the global rating, Fraser Institute's Annual Survey of Mining Companies also gathered comments from leading companies on what might be the reason why countries decrease their attractiveness among investors in the mining industry. "Licensing processes in Mexico are subjective and uncertain, which is a deterrent for investors," says the vice-president of a producer company with more than US$50M. The COVID-19 outbreak also proves to be a major hurdle for the sector, as copper and zinc prices fall amid fears of the consequences of the contagion. According to an article by Latin Post, there have been two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mexico. In Friday, the country's Health Department announced the second case of the COVID-19 confirmed in Mexico City. The first one was in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Studies reveal coronavirus remain on metal, glass and plastic surfaces for two hours to nine days. However, these same fears have led to the increase of the value of gold to an all-time high in several years. Gold prices rose on Wednesday, as countries try to combat the economic impact from the fast-spreading coronavirus. Grupo Mexico, the country's largest mining corporation and the third largest copper producer in the world, announced in late February a significant investment even after it had to close down a mine in northern Mexico. The group is also the country's leading producer of silver, zinc, gold, lead and molybdenum, according to Mining Global. With the closing of its San Antonio mine located in Aquiles Serdan, Chihuahua, the company has displaced 382 miners. Nonetheless, Grupo Mexico has set their expectations high for this year as it disclosed a US$1.992 billion investment in 2020 with an increase of 78 percent from last year's investment. Two other industry giants Fresnillo and MAG Silver have recently announced that they will begin their production in Juanicipio mine in Zacatecas sooner than expected. Fresnillo holds a 56% interest in the joint venture, while the remaining 44% is owned by MAG Silver. The announcement alone has increased its stock to 10 percent. The joint venture will reportedly produce a total of 11.7 million ounces of silver and 43,500 ounces of gold. This year, five silver projects in Mexico- including Juanicipio mine - is seen to produce an additional 23 million ounces, cementing Mexico's position as the world's top silver producer. As the dust settles on Super Tuesday, Democrats are left with two clear frontrunners: former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Biden, who was seen as dead in the water only a couple of weeks ago, benefited from a flurry of endorsements just before 14 states went to the polls. Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto ORourke (remember him?) all turned up in Texas to profess their belief in former President Obamas old running-mate. And most of them were talking about electability. Im voting for Joe Biden because he can defeat Donald Trump, ORourke wrote in an email that hit my inbox early Tuesday morning. Having him at the top of the ticket will help our down-ballot candidates, especially in Texas, he added. Joe can beat Donald Trump because he is the clear contrast to Donald Trump. Joe Biden is kind and decent. Empathetic and caring. He will reassert our moral standing in the world at a moment that its been called into question. A couple of paragraphs later, Beto added that he also admired the integrity of Elizabeth Warren, the way in which Michael Bloomberg had used his wealth for good, and the way in which Bernie Sanders has consistently and successfully pushed this country to think big. Thinking big never means being electable everybody knows that. But is it really true that Bernie Sanders big ideas those calls for full structural and systemic reform make him less likely to appeal to American voters than steadfast, sensible Uncle Joe? Im not convinced. The problem with calling someone unelectable while thousands of people turn out to vote to them is it can make you look a bit foolish. Whether or not the DNC thinks that Sanders will speak to the entire US population in Novembers general election, its undeniable that his rallies have been well-attended and have translated into real-life voters turning up to the ballot box. And the simple fact is that there is overlap between Sanders voters and Trump voters; theyre just not the same Trump voters who might be tempted over by Biden. In 2016, Trump asked Americans to vote for a revolution with a maverick at its helm. Democrats chose a safe, establishment candidate. This wasnt the year to mess around, they said. They needed someone guaranteed to knock an inexperienced idiot like Trump out of the park. We know how that strategy ended up. Yet we are being sold the same reasoning again, as if 2016 and the midterms in 2018, where a surge of young progressives won it for the Democratic Party never happened. There are a lot of swing voters in the United States. For better or worse, they tend to vote on issues that directly affect them, such as healthcare, personal taxation and gun rights. They made it loud and clear in 2016 that they wanted to drain the swamp, stick it to the establishment and bring the troops home from endless wars. Trump hasnt held Wall Street or any of his billionaire buddies to account, but Bernie promises he will in no uncertain terms. An impeachment and a Mueller report later, some who believed in Trump back then may well be ready to believe in Sanders now. Then theres the other side. Biden is a household name who stood beside one of the most beloved presidents in American history. Theres no denying he knows how it all works and that he already has a working relationship with some of the worlds most powerful leaders. The Never Trump movement, comprising Republicans embarrassed by what The Donald has done to their Grand Old Party, has been growing in ranks over the past four years. Some of those Never Trumpers have been saying that they would be willing to vote for Biden. They consider the situation within their party so dire that theyd rather press the reset button and start again in 2024. But those people people for whom socialism is the dirtiest of dirty words could never countenance voting for Bernie Sanders. If Sanders was the Democratic nominee, theyd either hold their noses and vote for Trump or fail to turn up to vote at all. Thats a powerful argument in favor of Biden. The problem is that those people might fail to turn up even if Biden is the nominee. Can we really count on dedicated, life-long Republicans to switch allegiances and vote for someone so emblematic of a previous Democratic administration? Would a group of Never Bernie Democrats seriously go to the ballot box for Dick Cheney? Counting on this group of voters to come out for Biden is just as risky as counting on disillusioned former Trump evangelists to ditch Make America Great Again and hop on board the Medicare for All train. Both strategies make for an uphill struggle. This polarization is what such a ridiculously overstuffed race for the nominee gave us. Consider what the young, enthusiastic backers of Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and Beto ORourke might do when faced with the choice between Biden and Trump. In their hearts, they will most likely be blue no matter who. But will that get them out to vote early in the morning or late at night on election day? More than a few former Mayor Pete campaigners told me this week that theyd been left confused by his quick endorsement of Biden only five minutes ago, werent they backing a millennial touting a new kind of politics? And wasnt Biden offering a kind of optimistic nostalgia, a return to the good old days? It seemed like a bait-and-switch of the cruelest kind. We cant know whether Biden would unseat Trump in November in the way moderate Democrats hope he will but we can learn the right lessons from the past four years. Nothing is guaranteed, and electability doesnt always mean what you think it means. If were to move towards a Trumpless future, we first have to admit that the safe choice in the Democratic race dropped out a long time ago. Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato on Wednesday counted strength of the Opposition BJP MLAs as 25, making it clear that he is yet to take a call on declaring its legislative party leader Babulal Marandi as the Leader of Opposition in the House. Stating parties mumerical size in the house for allotment of time to members for speaking in debate on Income and Expenditure of 2020-21 fiscal', Mahato mentioned strength of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) as 3, despite the fact that Marandi has already merged JVM-P LP with the BJP and its rest two legislators switching over to the Congress. Dissatisfied BJP legislators clapped and thumped the house table, bowed and knelt with folded hands urging the Speaker to "do justice" to their demand. The Speaker said, "I understand your concern, and it will be decided 'yatha sighra' (at the earliest). Try to understand that it is a legal process and everyone knows that it takes time. Dont exert unnecessary pressure." Marandi was not present in the house on Wednesday. On past three days of the ongoing assembly session, he has been seen sitting silently on the seat alloted to him during the special session between January 6-8. After electing Marandi as their legislative party leader on February 24 last, the BJP MLAs had given a letter to the Speaker's office to declare the former chief minister as LoP. The BJP legislators have been staging protests in support of their demand since the opening day of the month-long Budget session of the house. The Speaker read out the house strength as: JMM-29, BJP (25), Congress (16), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik-03), AJSU party (02), RJD (01), CPI-ML (Liberation-01), NCP-01 and Independents (02), and accordingly allotted time to the members to speak as per the rule. Dumka seat has fallen vacant after Chief Minister Hemant Soren gave it up in favour of Barhait assembly segment, the second seat he won in the November-December polls for 81- member Jharkhand assembly. As a result the the ruling JMM's tally has come down to 29. On January 24, Governor Droupadi Murmu had appointed a nominated MLA from the Anglo Indian community, taking the total number of the house to 81. The nominated MLA cannot vote on money bills and Rajya Sabha elections, but can cast vote during a floor test. BJP MLA and former minister Amar Kumar Bauri began the debate in course of which he demanded that Marandi be recognised as the Leader of Opposition as per the rule. After Bauri concluded his speech, the BJP MLAs walked into the well again, raising slogans and demanding the Speaker to "do justice" by deciding on the LoP. The opposition members staged a walk-out dissatisfied with the Speakers observations on the LoP. The house continued with the debate with JMM MLA Deepak Birua, Congress MLA Irfan Ansari, CPI ML-Liberation) member Vinod Kumar Singh, AJSU party leader Lambodar Mahato, independent MLA Amit Yadav and MLAs Pradip Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey speaking on the topic. Earlier in the morning session, the Speaker had to adjourn the house twice following ruckus over the demand for announcement of LoP by the BJP MLAs. Raising the issue on the point of order, BJP MLA Anant Kumar Ojha had told the Speaker, "The House is incomplete without a Leader of the Opposition. So we urge you to make the announcement." On BJP MLAs tropping in the well and shouting slogans in support of their demand, the Speaker had said, the 'Chair' is determined by the rules. When his requests were turned down by the agitating saffron party legislators, the Speaker adjourned the house for a second time till lunch break. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW YORKDeath statistics should not be simply filed and forgotten. What writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen set out to do with their moving documentary-theater piece Coal Country is show that the 29 coal miners who died in the 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia were more than just statistics in a ledger. Most of the shows text is taken from interviews conducted in 2016 with those directly affected by the tragedy, while other material comes from trial transcripts. The original music by Steve Earle, who serves as the shows music director and sole musician, also adds, as he notes, a few words of his own to the story. As these coal miners lives start to unfold before the audience, we begin to understand how it wasnt uncommon for the men to have a connection to the mine that stretched back decades. Gary (Thomas Kopache), who had 34 years of mining experience himself, proudly points out how he, his father, grandfather, and then his son all worked in the mine. Indeed, it was not uncommon to have multiple members of the same family working side by side deep within the earth. Those who went away to college for a time usually ended up working there. Even if some didnt actually work in a mineworking where one never sees the sky is not for everyoneone would likely work for the mine in some other capacity. Roosevelt (Ezra Knight), for example, ended up working as a mining dispatcher, while his dad labored underground. The entire place was basically a company town. And those industries that didnt deal directly with the mine were almost certainly dependent on it for a major portion of their businesses. Just as the audience gets to know those who worked at the mineall drawn as down-to-earth characters who give off a next-door-neighbor familiaritythe show provides a general explanation of mining life, a Coal Mining 101. For example, the top-quality coal, and therefore the kind fetching the highest price, was located so far down that it took an hour and a half just to get thereand this in a vehicle. But as Gary notes, in his day, you were treated like family when you worked at the mine, but changing times, new mine owners, and, in the race for increased productivity, the ignoring of various safety rules, changed all that. The mine became, in the words of Goose (Michael Gaston), another veteran miner, a ticking time bomb. Coal Country presents a deeply involving story of those at the lower links of the coal food chain. These people are forced to work in evermore dangerous conditions by those interested only in the financial bottom line. While the obvious thing when faced with unsafe working conditions is simply to walk away, the coal miners had done the same thing all their lives and couldnt easily conceive of doing anything else. This point is made through conversations between Goose and his wife (Amelia Campbell), as well as by recollections from Patti (Mary Bacon), who urged her husband not to return to the mine because he wasnt feeling well. Steve Earle (foreground) wrote and performed the original music. (Joan Marcus) At one point, some miners were so afraid of getting laid off that they refused to talk to the safety inspectors who went there to check on any alleged problems. One man eventually sees it as his duty to speak up for those who were no longer there, because they could no longer speak for themselves. He also feels more than a little guilt for not speaking up earlier. The actors bring the characters and situations to life and help to create, on a basically bare stage, the atmosphere and camaraderie around the company town, as well as the shock, horror, and helplessness they feel when the accident occurs. Ever-present, too, is the feeling of anger at how they are treated by the company and others in the aftermath of what happened. The text is at times punctuated by songs, which help to add folksiness and additional poignancy. Richard Hoovers set works quite well. Its sometimes oppressive and stark look give a feeling similar to the isolation one might feel when working deep in a coal mine. The costumes by Jessica Jahn are realistic and perfectly fit the characters depicted. As director as well as writer, Ms. Blank keeps the shows narrative tightly focused. The creative team concentrates on only a few specific stories, but acknowledges all of them toward the end. Coal Country reminds its audience how every person leaves a mark during his or her lifea mark that can last as long as there are those who remember it. Coal Country The Public Theater 425 Lafayette St. New York Tickets: 212-967-7555 or PublicTheater.org Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission) Closes: April 5 Judd Hollander is a contributor to Stagebuzz.com and a member of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle. WASHINGTON They were the tweets Washington had been waiting for after Mike Bloomberg announced Wednesday he's suspending his presidential campaign. "He didn't have what it takes," President Donald Trump tweeted after his archrival's exit from the race. Trump claimed he had seen the folly in Bloomberg's effort from the start and warned that any effort by Bloomberg to salvage his reputation was futile. TRUMP TWEET Bloomberg responded to the tweet with a clip from "Star Wars" that suggests he plans to continue working, and spending part of his $61 billion fortune, to help beat Trump in November. BLOOMBERG RESPONSE A few minutes later, Trump tweeted again, this time singling out Bloomberg's campaign adviser Tim O'Brien, who previously worked for Bloomberg's company before he joined the campaign. TRUMP OBRIEN TWEET For long-time Trump watchers, the president's focus on O'Brien comes as no surprise. In 2005, O'Brien published TrumpNation, an investigative biography of Trump. In it, he wrote that Trump "was not remotely close to being a billionaire," and that Trump's net worth was closer to between $150 million and $250 million. Trump sued O'Brien, claiming the journalist had intentionally set out to damage Trump's reputation by printing false information about Trump's net worth in order to sell more books. A judge rejected Trump's libel suit in 2009. A few minutes after the tweet about O'Brien, Trump again went after Bloomberg, this time mocking him using a line from Bloomberg's announcement that he was dropping out of the race. TRUMP TWEET3 But if Trump is defeated this fall, his loss could be partly due to the impact of Bloomberg's money on the 2020 presidential contest The media mogul and former New York mayor has pledged to spend as much as $1 billion to defeat Trump, even if he is not the eventual Democratic nominee. Prior to dropping out, Bloomberg spent more than $500 million mounting an unconventional campaign that relied entirely on making a strong showing on Super Tuesday. When Bloomberg won only the U.S. territory of American Samoa and failed in the 14 state races, it became apparent that his strategy of skipping the first four nominating contests in favor of Super Tuesday had flopped. Bloomberg endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday, pledging that he would "work to make him the next President of the United States." Syracuse, NY -- A five-judge appellate court appears sympathetic to arguments made by Syracuse prosecutors in a public clash with a judge over a tossed child rape case. Austin Pratt, then 21, was facing a possible life sentence, if convicted, in June 2019 when a local Judge Stephen Dougherty tossed his case and blamed the DAs office for a lackadaisical error. Pratt had been accused of repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl. (More on the specifics of the crime.) But prosecutor Maureen Barry had run out of time to be ready for trial under speedy trial laws, the judge ruled. It was unconstitutional to keep Pratt jailed for nearly a year while prosecutors werent ready for trial, Dougherty wrote in his decision. Pratt was freed from jail and his child predatory sex assault charge was dismissed. Onondaga County DA William Fitzpatrick strongly defended his assistant prosecutor at the time, calling the judges decision offensive. In fact, prosecutor Barry had asked for a delay in Pratts trial only to properly investigate evidence that could help the defendant, as required under law, he said. But Dougherty ruled that the DAs office had plenty of time to investigate that evidence, which was already in its possession. Instead, he said, it appeared they waited until a week before trial to do so, meaning that they werent actually prepared for trial in the first place. Fitzpatrick vowed an appeal. A Rochester appellate court, during live arguments in late February, suggested that the DAs office might have the upper hand. The court has not issued an official ruling, and its rationale may change between live arguments and a decision. But, if prosecutors prevail, the case will be sent back to Doughertys court for trial. Pratt will again face a predatory sex assault against a child charge, punishable by up to life in prison (with a minimum sentence of between 10 and 20 years). What had been chalked up to prosecutors error might actually have been a reasonable delay to investigate the case further, appellate Judge Shirley Troutman agreed while questioning the lawyers. That could be true, even if prosecutors had only realized they had the information at the last minute, she added. And the judges did not quibble with appellate prosecutor Kenneth Tylers argument that, even if there was no excuse for the last-minute investigation, the trial itself was actually delayed at the request of Pratts defense lawyer. Even if we were to agree to disagree with you on the first point, that the first statement of readiness (for trial) was illusory, you win anyways, appellate Judge Stephen Lindley told Tyler, because almost all of the adjournments before trial were caused by the defense. We win anyway, Tyler agreed later. Pratts case became a campaign issue before the November 2019 elections. DAs challenger Chuck Keller seized on Doughertys decision in his campaign to paint longtime incumbent Fitzpatrick as running an office so badly that cases like Pratts got dismissed. But the appellate court seemed to turn Judge Doughertys criticisms on their head. In fact, prosecutors had ample evidence to proceed to trial -- as required under law -- and only delayed because of information that could help the defendants case, judges suggested. Tyler, the appellate prosecutor, noted that Pratts own lawyer had the same information, and could have investigated further, too, long before trial. None of the judges voiced agreement with the opposite argument: that from the start, prosecutors were not ready for trial because it turned out there was more investigating to do later. The key question, judges suggested, was whether prosecutors had done enough homework at the start to have sufficient evidence for trial. There was clearly enough evidence for trial, appellate Judge Erin Peradotto noted: the trial judge himself had ruled there was enough evidence presented to a grand jury to go to trial. Just because prosecutors later said they werent ready -- to investigate this new evidence -- doesnt mean they werent ready when they said they were, she added. Pratts appellate lawyer, Jeffrey Parry, defended Judge Doughertys original decision, arguing that prosecutors had the obligation to investigate the evidence before declaring that they were ready for trial in the first place. Doughertys decision made a huge deal over the fact that prosecutors should have known to investigate further long before trial, Parry noted. He challenged the judges not to create a precedent that allowed prosecutors to say, Im sort of ready (for trial), Im kind of ready, Im almost ready, and thats gotta be good enough. The evidence in question created credibility issues surrounding a key witness in the case -- one of the 10-year-old victims relatives. It also affected key photos that prosecutors say depict the abuse (though do not show Pratts face). But appellate Judge Lindley suggested that prosecutors could have gone to trial anyway, even without the contested evidence. In many sex cases, a victim takes the witness stand and accuses someone without any other confirmatory evidence, he noted. They didnt say they were partially ready, or somewhat ready, Lindley noted of prosecutors. They said, Were ready for trial. They had the victim. Later, they requested an adjournment to investigate some further evidence. Thats enough to get you to trial, Lindley suggested. Winning is a different question. Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. New Army recruits with low-grade fevers could be prevented from starting Basic Combat Training (BCT) on time as part of a sweeping effort involving all U.S. military branches to prevent the novel coronavirus from potentially spreading throughout the force. The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have all confirmed to Military.com that all recruits are now being screened for the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, before starting initial-entry training. Over the past week, U.S. military leaders have begun to intensify the Pentagon's response to the COVID-19 outbreak after a soldier stationed at Camp Carroll in South Korea tested positive for the potentially deadly virus. Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. The Army has directed that all recruits be screened at recruiting stations just before shipping to BCT and then undergo a second round of screening upon arrival, according to Lisa Ferguson, spokeswoman for Army Recruiting Command. Related: The Army Is Working Overtime to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine "The health and safety of all our people -- soldiers, family members, civilians and future soldiers -- is a top priority," she said. "As a precautionary measure, Army Recruiting is directing all future soldiers who are within three days of shipping to basic training to be pre-screened. Every recruiting station will pre-screen future soldiers." Recruiters will take the recruit's temperature with "no-touch" thermometers and ask the following three questions: Have you or anyone living with you traveled to or through China, Korea, Japan, Iran or Italy? Have you had contact with anyone confirmed to have COVID-19? Do you have any of the following symptoms: fever greater than 99.5 degrees, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, muscle aches, fatigue or diarrhea? "If a future soldier answers yes to any of these questions or has a ... temperature greater than 99.5, [that] could result in a future soldier being delayed in shipping to basic training," Ferguson said. The recruit would be "directed to contact a medical provider to be tested for illness, and then must be cleared by [military entrance processing stations or MEPS] before shipping," she added. "This could result in a delay in shipping, but that length of time will depend on how long it takes each individual to be free of any symptoms and ensure she/he does not have coronavirus disease. Once they are cleared, they will receive a new ship date," Ferguson said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training (CIMT) began screening all trainees for COVID-19 at reception stations at Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, according to Megan Reed, CIMT spokeswoman. Trainees will be asked the three questions, then screened for fever, cough, sore throat and other symptoms. "If a trainee presents positive during the initial screening process, the trainee is then given further evaluation by medical professionals, who will make a determination for appropriate care," Reed said. The Air Force, like the Army, will screen all recruits on two occasions before they enter basic training. "All members entering basic military training are required to process military entrance processing stations (MEPS) on the day of or the day before departing for basic military training," according to a statement from Air Force Air Education and Training Command. "Members at MEPS have virus protocol procedures to observe and take temperatures of all individuals entering MEPS facilities. "Air Force recruiters also complete a medical pre-screen on all applicants that covers all medical concerns, to include COVID-19," it continued. The Navy and Marine Corps are screening all recruits for COVID-19 at the start of basic training. "All recruits are medically evaluated on arrival to Recruit Training Command (RTC), as well as throughout their training; this includes monitoring for COVID-19," said Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Martin, spokesman for Naval Service Training Command. Lt. Sam Boyle, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, added that the Navy began including a novel coronavirus screening to initial processing of recruits in January. Boyle said recruits are checked for symptoms including "fever or lower respiratory illness" and asked about their overseas travel history and whether they've had contact with anyone who might have been infected. "Any recruit identified as having symptoms or having traveled overseas to certain regions in the last 14 days would be addressed by medical personnel for follow-on assessment and treatment," Boyle said. "As of March 3, 2020, [recruit training command] has not had any recruits that require further action." Capt. Christopher Harrison, spokesman for Headquarters Marine Corps, said the service has "implemented several measures to preserve the wellness of our Marines and the readiness of the force." "Preliminary screenings have been implemented as a precautionary measure for incoming recruits at our Marine Corps Recruit Depots," Harrison said. "Additionally, the Marine Corps has issued force-wide disease containment guidance in accordance with [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines that includes measures toward increasing medical surveillance and monitoring for flu-like symptoms." In a Feb. 20 Marine administrative message, the Corps issued guidance to commanders on how to start taking precautions to prevent the spread of "2019 Novel Coronavirus, or NCoV." "The current threat of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus has raised concern that this virus could result in a pandemic disease," the message states. "In such a scenario, NCoV could spread, infecting U.S. personnel, and threaten the operational readiness of the U.S. Marine Corps." The message directs commanders to "identify all Marines returning from mainland China after 2 February 2020 and place service members under a 14-day restriction of movement (ROM)." The outbreak of the virus is "rapidly evolving, but currently poses a LOW RISK" to Marines based in the United States, the message states. "Presently, the U.S. Marine Corps is planning, conducting routine surveillance, and commencing engagement activities, to assure and solidify collaborative relationships, and inform all personnel, to be prepared for disease containment operations and support," according to the message. The Coast Guard, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has begun taking screening precautions in line with the other services at its only boot camp in Cape May, New Jersey. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tim Tamargo told Military.com that prospective recruits with fever symptoms are not being shipped to training. Additional screening for virus symptoms and exposure is being conducted according to CDC guidelines, he said. "Right now, there have been no cases in Cape May or at the training center," he said. "If there [was a case], we would work with healthcare providers to treat anything immediately." -- Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Read More: Navy Imposes 14-Day Quarantine Between Port Calls for Ships in Europe Amid Coronavirus Worries Well done to Diarmuid O Donnell TY student in St Mels College who has won a four day Educational Trip to Brussels, Luxembourg & Strasbourg on Graduate.ie online citizenship and democracy programme www.graduate.ie. He will be accompanied by 23 other students and 3 teachers on the trip. He will spend one full day at the European Parliament where he will take part in Euroscola which is a youth parliament and will involve the students debating and discussing topics about the European Union with students from other countries. The trip will take place later in 2020 and this prize was kindly sponsored by Midland Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force. The competition was based around a weekly Quiz to encourage students to develop an understanding of how various public institutions work, how they interact with young people and how they impact on their everyday lives, as well as developing their internet and Computer skills. Mr O'Connell is Diarmuid's German teacher and introduced the class to the Graduate.ie programme and is pictured alongside Diarmuid as well as TY Coordinator Miss Dempsey. Gandhinagar, March 4 : With Union Health Minister confirming 25 cases of COVID-19 at present in the country, the Gujarat government on Wednesday said that since January 15, they have screened as many as 1,582 passengers who have entered the state. "We have received information from the Centre that a total of 1,582 passengers coming from abroad since January 15 in Gujarat, were screened for coronavirus. These passengers include people who have entered the state through airports, bus terminals or any other modes of transport," Jaiprakash Shivhare, Commissioner for Health and Family welfare, Gujarat told IANS on Wednesday. "Out of the total 1,582 passengers, screening has been done for 944 passengers from China, 141 from Thailand, 131 from Australia, 88 from New Zealand, 84 from Iran, 45 from the US, 42 from Canada, 37 from Hong Kong, 26 from Singapore and 11 from Japan," added Shivhare. The health officials also said that at least 25 suspected cases for coronavirus were quarantined out of the total passengers, reports of which have found to be negative. Total of 1,042 passengers have finished their observation period of 28 days and all are certified to be healthy. We are constantly monitoring this situation, the officials added. At the airports, the passengers arriving from abroad are mandatorily been asked to give a declaration regarding their health status and they are under watch through follow-ups by the concerned District and Corporation health officials. In the preparedness against the Coronavirus, a special control room has been set up at the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC). Every Thursday, the situation is reviewed by the health department in coordination with the District and Corporation officials. The Ahmedabad civil hospital has been converted into the Base hospital, where 29 isolation wards have been set up equipped with 29 ventilators. Apart from that, in every medical college and district hospitals in the state, isolation wards have been setup. "The state of Gujarat is now ready to fight the Corona invasion with total of 576 isolation wards and 204 ventilators in all," said ShivHare. "Earlier all the suspected samples of the passengers were sent to the National Virology institute at Pune, but now the BJ medical college in Ahmedabad has been equipped with testing laboratory where all the samples are diagnosed, " Shivhare added. Besides the airports, all the shipping ports are also being closely monitored with screening. Till date as many as 1,454 passengers have been screened from 24 ships, according to the Gujarat health department. The father of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim on Wednesday expressed hope that the convicts will be hanged this month, after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the case. He has one option left -- that is to challenge the mercy plea in Supreme Court as the others have done. Lets see what happens next, but we are confident of getting justice, the father of the victim told PTI over phone. We are hopeful that the convicts will be hanged this month and justice will be finally delivered to us after a long wait, he said. A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya -- the fearless -- was gangraped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment. The president had already rejected the mercy petitions of the other three convicts in the case. While one of the accused, Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, a juvenile accused was released from a remand home after completion of his term. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on March 4, 2020 2020/03/04 I'd like to share with you some latest figures. According to the statistics from the National Health Commission this morning, March 3 saw 2,652 patients cured and discharged from hospital in China's mainland, bringing the tally to 49,856. Outside Hubei, the number of newly confirmed cases per day has been hovering around 10 for six days running, and that of newly reported suspected cases per day has been capped under 100 for five days running. In Wuhan, the number of patients cured and discharged has exceeded that of confirmed cases. Q: According to reports, the IAEA issued two reports on the Iranian nuclear issue on March 3. One is a quarterly report on Iran's implementation of JCPOA obligations. It says Iranian stockpile of enriched uranium has exceeded one tonne and Iran is continuing violation of limits in other key areas set out in the deal. The other is a report on Iran's implementation of the comprehensive safeguards agreement and the additional protocol. It asks Iran to provide access without delay to two locations. The IAEA will review relevant issues as its board meet next week. I wonder if China has a comment? A: We have taken note of the IAEA's latest reports on Iran. It confirms that the agency's verification activities on Iran's implementation of the JCPOA have been going on, that Iran has not taken the fifth step of reducing commitments and has not diverted declared nuclear material for other purposes. China encourages Iran to continue cooperation with the agency. At the same time, we hope the agency will uphold the principle of objectivity, impartiality and neutrality, exercise safeguards oversight on Iran in strict accordance with its mandate, and work together with Iran to resolve relevant issues. I reiterate, the US unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA and maximum pressure on Iran is the root cause of the current Iranian nuclear crisis. The US should give up its wrong approach and leave room for dialogue and negotiation. Parties to the deal should follow the step-by-step and reciprocal approach and seek full and effective implementation within the Joint Commission framework. The IAEA board should properly handle the issue and support diplomatic efforts to preserve the JCPOA. China will continue to work in close collaboration with relevant parties to uphold the deal and realize a political and diplomatic solution of the issue. Q: It was once speculated that the virus was leaked from a lab in China and such speculation was already countered by the Chinese side. Still, there are many versions about the origin of the virus and "patient zero". Some media and netizens still talk about it in ways like "China virus"and "Wuhan virus". There are also news stories saying that some US seasonal influenza patients actually came down with COVID-19. What is your response? A: It is highly irresponsible for some media to dub it "China virus". We firmly oppose that. I want to stress two points. First, no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus, as relevant tracing work is still underway. The WHO has said many times that what we are experiencing now is a global phenomenon with its source still undetermined, and we should focus on containing it and avoid stigmatizing language toward certain places. The name COVID-19 was chosen by the WHO for the purpose of making no connections between the virus and certain places or countries. Dr. Zhong Nanshan, respiratory specialist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the epidemic was first reported in China but was not necessarily originated in China. Second, we should all say no to "information virus" and "political virus". By calling it "China virus" and thus suggesting its origin without any supporting facts or evidence, some media clearly want China to take the blame and their ulterior motives are laid bare. The epidemic is a global challenge. The right move should be working together to fight it, which means no place for rumors and prejudice. We need science, reason and cooperation to drive out ignorance and bias. Q: The confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been on the rise worldwide. Some countries are feeling increasingly strained in epidemic prevention and control. But in China, we see a climbing cure rate, and the numbers of newly confirmed and suspected cases have been kept low for several days on end. What has China been sharing with other affected countries, in terms of prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment? A: China has been closely following the global footprint of COVID-19. We have been strengthening international cooperation in this area with the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind in mind and in an open, transparent and responsible attitude. That's what we've been saying and we've been doing. Yesterday afternoon, together with the National Health Commission, the Foreign Ministry had a video conference with COVID-19 experts from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Turkmenistan and the SCO Secretariat. The video conference was attended by officials from the NHC, the Foreign Ministry, the General Administration of Customs and China's embassies in the relevant countries, experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Peking University First Hospital, officials from foreign diplomatic and health departments, foreign diplomatic missions in China, foreign experts in the health field, and representatives from relevant international organizations. The experts on the Chinese side gave a full account of the epidemic situation in China and our experience in epidemic control and treatment. All participants had an in-depth exchange of views on control measures, diagnosis, screening and laboratory tests, pledging further actions on sharing information and coordinating actions to safeguard regional and global health security. Prior to yesterday's video conference, China has already had such communication with the EU via two video conferences. You can look for more details of these meetings from the press release we've already issued. Q: According to reports, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Japan and China will delay President Xi Jinping's planned visit to Japan in April. Can you confirm that? A: I responded to this question yesterday. We will let you know if there's any update. Q: On March 3 local time, Togo's Constitutional Court announced the final result of the presidential election held on February 22. Incumbent President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe was reelected with 70.78 percent of the vote. Does China have a comment? A: China notes the result of the presidential election announced by Togo's Constitutional Court. We extend warm congratulations to Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe on his reelection as president. Under his leadership, the government and people of Togo are sure to achieve greater progress in national development. China and Togo have a profound traditional friendship. Placing high emphasis on advancing this relationship, we stand ready to work with Togo to carry forward our traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation and realize in-depth, all-round development of bilateral relations. Q: Findings and analysis of Qihoo 360 revealed recently that the CIA's APT-C-39 engaged in an 11-year-long cyber infiltration and attack program against key Chinese sectors, with victims ranging from space and aviation to scientific research and development, oil industry, Internet companies and government agencies. What's China's comment? A: It has long been an open secret that the US government and relevant departments, in violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, have been engaging in large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft, surveillance and attacks against foreign governments, enterprises and individuals. From WikiLeaks to the Edward Snowden case to the recent Swiss company Crypto AG case, the immoral practices of the US have been exposed time and again. The Qihoo 360 report serves as further evidence. As facts show, the US is the world's number one cyber attack initiator. It is quite literally an "empire of hackers". However, like a thief crying "stop thief", it has been dressing up as the victim at every turn, putting its hypocrisy and double standard on cyber security on full display. China has long been a victim of the US cyber theft and attacks. We have lodged stern representations with it repeatedly. Once again we urge it to offer clear explanations, immediately stop such activities and restore peace, security, openness and cooperation in cyberspace. Q: Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 28, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in response to the Iranian nuclear issue that the US will appeal to the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in October under the terms of Resolution 2231 so that China and Russia will not be able to sell their weapons to Iran. The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its regret over this on March 3 and urged the US to end breach of the JCPOA and strictly implement Resolution 2231. What is your comment? A: We note the relevant reports. China believes that the JCPOA, as an important outcome of multilateralism endorsed by the UNSC Resolution 2231, should be implemented effectively and in full. The US withdrew itself from the JCPOA in 2018 in total disregard of the Resolution and has subsequently been obstructing the implementation of the JCPOA and the Resolution. This is the root cause why a crisis has arisen on the Iranian nuclear issue. The US should stop blaming China and Russia for no cause, strictly observe Resolution 2231, and return to the right track of implementing the JCPOA. China will work with all relevant parties to continuously uphold the authority of the UNSC Resolution and the JCPOA and advance the political and diplomatic process of the Iranian nuclear issue. Q: Can you give us an update on which countries China has sent experts to fight the coronavirus and medical equipment to? And are any new flights planning to bring Chinese citizens from countries hit by the virus? Also, do you have a total number of cases brought into China by international arrivals? A: On your first question, please refer to yesterday's transcript of the press conference for my answer. Regarding your second question, the foreign ministry and our diplomatic missions overseas are closely following the situation on the ground in relevant countries and actively carrying out consular protection and services. In case of emergencies, we hope Chinese nationals overseas will contact local government departments for help and also contact our embassy or consulate. If the epidemic worsens to a degree that puts Chinese citizens' health and security under serious threat, we will take necessary measures to assist their return home. We will keep you updated if there's anything new. As to your third question, we'll try to gather more information from relevant authorities before I come back to you. New York, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Fall Protection Equipment Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868639/?utm_source=GNW Moreover, the growing investment in renewable energies, such as wind and solar, is expected to increase demand for high-end safety equipment for workers that inspect, install, and maintain extensive infrastructures such as windmills, machines, and panels. The construction industry accounts for the highest accidents than in other sectors. The rise in the number of infrastructure projects across the globe, especially in the US, the UAE, and China, is expected to generate awareness and demand for fall protection equipment. In the US, fall accidents are growing at an alarming rate, thereby increasing stringency in regulations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) work to promote voluntary safety standards at workplaces to ensure employee safety. Government agencies and employee welfare organizations across several countries are making efforts to reduce the number of work-related accidents. Hence, the increase in campaigns and awareness programs will influence employers to install safety equipment, thereby increasing the growth of the fall protection market during the forecast period. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the fall protection market during the forecast period: Increasing Workplace Injuries Stringent Safety Regulations Growing Professional Cleaning Industry Increased Government Investments Growth of Adventure Sports The study considers the present scenario of the fall protection market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market. Fall Protection Market: Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by product type, End-user, and geography. Soft goods comprise harnesses, body belts, lanyards, and ropes. The application of harnesses is high in construction, oil & gas, mining, and energy industries. Harnesses are in demand as they offer high safety and security. They are experiencing a high application in the mining industry. Hence, the expansion of the oil and rig industry in North America is expected to drive the demand for harnesses. Lanyards reduce free fall distance and minimize injury risks. These types of soft goods are durable and flexible, which increases their utilization in construction activities. The demand for lanyards is expected to grow due to the increasing construction activities in the APAC and North American regions. Hard goods consist of anchors, karabiner, rope grabs, and retractable blocks. Anchors are highly capable of supporting intended loads and helping in fall arrest. The application of anchors is mandatory in the mining industry as it can maximize versatility and convenience among workers. The global expansion of the mining industry is likely to bolster the demand for anchors. Rope grabs enable level and inertial locking to prevent the fall and are the preferred options for vertical and horizontal lifeline systems applied in the construction and mining industry. The increasing installation of lifeline systems in the construction and mining industry is expected to drive the growth of rope grabs. Rescue kits prevent the employee from fall accidents. Stringency in occupational safety in the US is driving the demand for rescue kits as they are mandatory for all types of work environments. Hence, the increasing application of rescue kits due to regulatory compliance is expected to increase the revenue of the hard goods segment during the forecast period. The construction industry is the major end-user of the fall protection system as it witnesses the highest incidences of accidents every year. The global construction industry accounts for more than one-third of workplace fatalities annually. The US, the UAE, Canada, Mexico, and China are the key countries for safety equipment in construction sites due to the high number of upcoming construction projects. As oil & gas industries are potentially more hazardous than any other industries, the exposure of physical, chemical, and biological toxins might increase the chance of falls and explosions that demand fall protection equipment. Retractable lifeline systems are widely preferred in the oil & gas industry due to high-security concerns. The growth in public investments and the probability of increased risks in workplaces are likely to trigger the demand for protective equipment. The demand is expected to be significant in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as they are among the leading oil exporters in the world. Volatility in the mining environment is enforcing the adoption of fall safety equipment on a large scale. The demand for harnesses and belts is likely to increase as they are majorly used in the mining industry. The global mining industry is expected to grow at a rate of 3% until 2022. Thus, the demand for rescue kits, lanyards, and belts is likely to surge during the forecast period. Market Segmentation by Product Type Soft Goods Hard Goods Installed Systems Access Systems Rescue Kits Services Others Market Segmentation by End-user Construction Mining Oil & Gas Energy Transportation Telecom & Utility General Industry Others Insights by Geography The increasing oil and rig activities in North America is expected to boost the demand for soft goods, access systems, and rescue kits during the forecast period. In the US, strict compliance to stated regulations, including OSHA, is likely to drive the market. Moreover, the increase in commercial construction, which consists of hotels, spas, amusement parks, and recreational facilities, is expected to drive the growth of the market. Increasing infrastructural developments in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Portugal is likely to drive the market in Europe. The construction industry in the European region is expected to generate $2,750 billion by 2023. With the rise in the number of construction projects, risks and hazards associated with employees are also estimated to rise in the coming years, thereby expecting to drive the demand for soft goods such as lanyards, ropes, harness and access systems, and rescue kits during the forecast period. The APAC region will grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The construction industry in APAC, excluding India, is estimated to reach over $5 trillion by 2021. Chinas construction industry will grow over 4% by 2021 due to the development of several mega infrastructure projects, along with the construction of over 2,900 hotel projects. In the MEA region, the fall protection market is likely to grow due to significant investments in advance technology and infrastructural design. Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait are the major countries in the region, which are likely to invest tremendous growth. Market Segmentation by Geography North America o US o Canada Europe o UK o Germany o France o Spain o Italy APAC o China o Japan o South Korea o India o Indonesia Latin America o Brazil o Mexico MEA o South Africa o Saudi Arabia o UAE o Turkey Insights by Vendors The fall protection market is fragmented, with a limited number of global players earning significant revenue. The margin of success always lies in the intensity of the differentiation among the products. Factors such as price, warranty, training methods, feasible access to the trainers, and durability of the products are expected to play a vital role in highlighting the major vendors. In price-sensitive countries such as India, there is a threat from the new entrants that offer non-certified equipment at low prices. Hence, global players are facing a significant challenge to establish a diverse market base in the country. Globally, the expansion through mergers and acquisitions is likely to be effective in the fall protection market. The vendors are expected to earn revenue through training, inspection, and services in underpenetrated regions of APAC, MEA, and Latin America. Key Vendors 3M Honeywell MSA Petzl Pure Safety Group Other Vendors SKYLOTEC GmbH Guardian Fall Kee Safety Werner FallTech Cofra FrenchCreek Safe Approach Swelock Asia Heightsafe Hi-Rise Access SafetyLink Malta Dynamics Buckingham Manufacturing Elk River Sellstrom Rigid Lifelines Key Market Insights The analysis of the fall protection market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 20202025. Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market. Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market. Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868639/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Feel bombarded by COVID-19 coronavirus information? Dont worry: A Singapore artist is making it all easier to understand -- and protect yourself -- with health advisory infocomics even kids can comprehend. Weiman Kow created her first 17-panel comic while she was recovering from a respiratory disease. She found informational articles on the coronavirus difficult to digest, so she took facts from reputable health sources and illustrated them. She posted the comic on Jan. 31, when Singapore had its first cases of coronavirus. Since then, the disease has spread around the world. So has the comic. The fact that my simple comic covering the basic aspects of keeping safe from the coronavirus has gone viral has made me realize there is a large gap in risk communication to the public, when an epidemic strikes, Kow wrote cleveland.com in an email. Kow has since created other comics to address proper handwashing and who should wear masks. Shes planning another to incorporate the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization. Doctors are vetting her work. It is essential that the public is aware of basic facts on COVID-19, and understand their governments strategy in combating it within their countries," she wrote." I hope the free comics will be able to cut through the misinformation... Check out Kows original comic below. Follow her on Instagram @weimankow and Facebook @weimankowart and check out all her comments on comicsforgood.com. Singapore artist Weiman Kow created several infocomics to share facts about the COVID-19 coronavirus.Weiman Kow, Comics for Good More coronavirus stories: Handwashing in the age of coronavirus Kids and coronavirus: Children have come down with COVID-19, but usually with milder symptoms Coronavirus in Ohio: Health Director Dr. Amy Acton runs down latest facts GOJO Industries, makers of Purell, ramp up production to meet increased demand due to coronavirus concerns Here are the China coronavirus questions you sent us for Ohio Health Director Amy Acton Coronavirus testing coming to Ohio Department of Health Known for impeccable talent and love for his craft Amitabh Bachchan is one of the finest actors the country has ever produced. Amitabh Bachchan's incredible body of work over the years has made him the 'Shahenshah' of Bollywood in the true sense. Amitabh Bachchan is such actor who not only appreciates other actor's work but also doesn't shy away from vocalising himself on social media on several occasions. Source: Amitabh Bachchan Instagram When Amitabh Bachchan met Nelson Mandela Read: Amitabh Bachchan's Throwback Photo With Baby Kareena Kapoor Khan Will Melt Your Heart Amitabh Bachchan is very active on social media and enjoys a massive fanbase. Every now and then the Bunty Aur Babli actor keeps on posting some adorable pictures. Be it some throwback pictures with family and friends, or some candid photos with International personalities he admired. Talking about throwback photos, Amitabh Bachchan shared a throwback when he met the great Nelson Mandela. Take a look at it- Source: Amitabh Bachchan Instagram Nelson Mandela is the former President of South-Africa. His popularity knows no bounds due to his impressive work in the country as a political leader. Known for his good-will and humungous contribution to society, Nelson Mandela is one of the most celebrated leaders the world has ever witnessed. Amit Ji shared a picture with the kind-hearted Nelson Mandela on his Instagram account. Read: Kareena Kapoor Khan Spills The Beans About Some Of Her Life's Dreams In the caption, AB talked about his pleasure of meeting Nelson Mandela twice during his visit to South-Africa. The Dev actor shared this special picture on the 100th Birth Anniversary of the former President. Amitabh Bachchan not only complemented Nelson Mandela's humility and caring nature but talked about his visit to the prison cell, where Mandela was kept in Robben Island. Read:Brahmastra: Alia Bhatt & Amitabh Bachchan's New Leaked Pic Entices Fans; See It Here Source: Amitabh Bachchan Instagram Furthermore, Amitabh Bachchan also mentioned about the very fact, that this particular photo was gifted to him by Nelson Mandela with an autograph. On the work front, Amitabh Bachchan will be next seen in Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastra. He will be sharing screen space with Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt for the first time in this film. The highly-anticipated film will hit the theatres on December 4, 2020. Read: Priyanka Chopra To Alia Bhatt; Bollywood Divas Who Rocked The Trench Coat Look Like A Boss Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. Open source On Tuesday, March 3, according to the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Razumkov received a letter of resignation by current Ukraine's Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. News outlet Ukrainian Truth reported that linking to the interlocutor in the Servant of the people faction. During the meeting of the ruling Servant of the People faction, which is still underway, the head of Ukraine's parliament Dmytro Razumkov said that the Prime Minister was asking for his dismissal from his post. Earlier it was reported that Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk asked District Administrative Court of Kyiv to forbid Dmytro Razumkov, the Parliamentary Speaker to consider his resignation letter during the extraordinary parliamentary session on March 4. DERBY A city man will serve one year and one day in federal prison for possession of images and videos that depicted sexual abuse of children, officials said. Michael Vadakin, 29, was sentenced in New Haven federal court on Wednesday, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham. After his prison term, Vadakin was ordered to be on supervised release for five years the first four months of which must be in home confinement. Vadakin was arrested Dec. 13, 2018, after an investigation indicated that he used the smartphone application Kik to collect and share images and videos of children being sexually abused, authorities said. Forensic analysis of a tablet seized during a search of Vadakins Derby residence led investigators to additional images of child pornography. Investigators also learned that in an attempt to hide the criminal activity, authorities said, Vadakin regularly downloaded the app, used it and then deleted it. Authorities said Vadakin also used fake user names and switched user names to try to remain anonymous. Vadakin pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on Sept. 6, 2019. He was released on bond and remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals after Wednesdays court proceeding. Cases of child exploitation can be reported at www.cybertipline.com. Delhi witnessed severe violence when a number of people in the North-East part of the city were either killed, injured severely or their property and houses were burnt and destroyed. The violence took place when Hindu pro-CAA protestors attacked Muslims who're primarily anti-CAA, in their colonies. Twitter Since the attacks, a lot of rescue and relief work has been going around conducted by citizens and locals who live around the area, with the help of some organisations and lawyers who have established legal networks with free legal counselling for the victims. While the Delhi government has set up only 9 rescue and relief shelters around town and has assured that people with serious injuries will be shifted to private hospitals, the Delhi Police has shown complacency in helping the riot victims. Which means the people who're in dire need of rescue and aid, could really use some help from people around them, people like you and me. So, in case you're feeling helpless and want to make a contribution in any way, here's how you can help the victims: (1) Get In Touch With Gurudwaras The Akal Takht chief has asked all the Gurudwaras in Delhi to help the victims in every way possible. Currently, the Gurudwaras are giving shelter to the victims and feeding them langar, while the Khalsa Aid, an international NGO with an aim to provide humanitarian aid wherever needed, is giving relief by providing food and supplies to the violence-affected areas. You can get in touch with either a Gurudwara to make donations or Khalsa Aid to help them distribute food and supplies. Churches in Delhi too have opened their doors to the riot victims to take shelter and will provide food and clothing. They're open to donations too. Twitter (2) Get In Touch With Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU too is coordinating with people on the ground to collect donations and funds in order to help the riot victims out. They have a basic list of supplies that are needed and it would be great if you can collect the stuff and drop it off at their collection entre inside the University. Hamdard University in South Delhi too is helping people out and needs donations from citizens to help provide the riot victims with basic food. Twitter JNU is coordinating donations/funds in Delhi for victims, those of us overseas can donate via google pay at # 9868947995 (debit card is needed for the transaction) pic.twitter.com/BTiyTMMOON (@panipataleka) February 27, 2020 Twitter (3) Visit The Riot-Affected Areas Yourself While you can drop off supplies at various collection points, it's also imperative to witness how most areas are doing after the riots broke out and how the people are trying to survive with the bare minimum. You can drive down or take the metro to these areas, but make sure you go in a group and not alone. Safety is always going to be a concern, so make sure people know where you are at all times and you contact the right people who can assist you in reaching ground zero to drop off the supplies and have a word with the victims too. Police presence is ample around these areas but unfortunately, the police haven't been the most helpful resource yet. Twitter So, in case, you're planning to go to these areas, here's a list of the riot-affected areas and contact points of people to get in touch with once you're there. It's our sole responsibility to understand that this has happened in our lifetime and our generation and we need to hold ourselves and our leaders accountable for such a terrible tragedy. But apart from blaming one another, it's time to act swiftly and come to the aid of those who need immediate attention and that can only happen if we, as citizens, actively partake in ensuring the victims get as much aid and relief as possible. The project will take about 18 months, Uran said at this months Tuesday Talks with the Mayor event, and residents can expect some traffic interruptions and one 36-hour closure to cut through the road to get to the utility hook up. Chennai, March 4 : A special court here on Wednesday sentenced K.N. Ramachandran, a former AIADMK parliamentarian and Chairman-cum-Managing Trustee, Kannamal Educational Trust to seven years rigorous imprisonment in a bank cheating case. The court also sentenced two others to jail terms in the case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch, Chennai, filed a charge sheet against R.Thiagarajan, Senior Regional Manager, Central Bank of India, Chennai, R.Rajasekaran, Chairman, Sakthi Mariamman Engineering College and Ramachandran. According to CBI, the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy during the period from July 9, 2012 to September 17, 2013 and availed term loans in the name of Kannamal Education Trust in excess of the permissible limit of the Regional Manager, thereby causing wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 17.28 crore to the bank and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves. The court sentenced Thiagarajan to five years rigourous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 13.10 lakh while Rajasekaran and Ramachandran were sentenced to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment and levied a fine of Rs 1.11 crore each. The fourth accused, Kannamal Educational Trust was slapped a fine of Rs 15.20 crore. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page In a Quentin Tarantino-esque series, creator David Weil whose maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors seeks to shock, awe, horrify, and inform audiences in his new Amazon show Hunters. Claimed to be based on true events, Logan Lerman (of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Fury fame), plays Jonah Heidelbaum a 19-year-old set on revenge after the murder of his Auschwitz-surviving grandmother. He joins Meyer Offerman, played by Al Pacino, and his secret group of Nazi hunters whose sole mission is to kill those seeking to create the Fourth Reich in America. While critics are split on series with its seemingly gratuitous violence, grappling with the moral quandaries of vigilante murder, and the almost outlandish 1970s tropes; the show does bring to the forefront the truth that thousands of Nazis did, in fact, live in the United States and that many Holocaust survivors would spend the rest of their lives tracking them down. Hunters, however, is built around mostly fictional characters and largely leaves real-life heroes unexplored. The most well-known among them, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, does make an appearance in a later episode of the show. Jordan Peele, an executive producer of the series, at the Hunters premier. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) After surviving Mauthausen death camp in Austria, Wiesenthal spent more than 50 years hunting down war criminals. Through his work, some 1,100 Nazi war criminals were tracked down and brought to justice. Those of a higher profile include Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka killing centers; and Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo agent who led to the arrest of teen Anne Frank and her family. Annes diary, published posthumously by the sole surviving member of her family, her father Otto Frank, gave voice to Holocaust victims and whose legacy continues today. When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis werent able to kill millions of people and get away with it, said the Ukrainian-born Wiesenthal. In a 1967 New York Times article, Wiesenthal denies revenge as his motive, seeing his actions as educational. The schools would fail through their silence, the church through their forgiveness and the home through the denials or the silence of parents. Unlike the Nazi hunters in the series, Wiesenthal emphasized justice, not vengeance. With Rabbi Marvin Hier calling him the conscience of the Holocaust. Less known, but equally influential, was Fritz Bauer Germanys first Nazi hunter. Bauer, who was secretly gay, grew up in a middle-class Jewish family, and in 1930 became Germanys youngest judge at the age of 27. With Hitlers ascent to power in 1933, Bauer became a fiery and outspoken critic of the then-chancellor and was sent to a concentration camp for dissidents. Following his release nine months later, Bauer fled to Denmark and would spend the duration of the war there. Returning to what was then West Germany in 1949, Bauer became a dogged state prosecutor intent on seeking justice for the victims the Holocaust. He became the first German-born citizen to try 22 members of the Nazi SS in the 1963 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Only six of the accused were given life sentences and 12 others given terms of up to 14 years, which Bauer believed to be his failure. To him, he would later write, the trial reinforced a wishful fantasy that there were only a few people with responsibilityand the rest were merely terrorized, violated hangers-on, compelled to do things completely contrary to their true nature. Yet the information uncovered and released during the subsequent litigation ensured that the German people could not hide nor forget the horrific killing machine that was Auschwitz. Fritz Bauer (AP) Not made public until after his death, was Bauers crucial involvement in the capture of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major architects of the Holocaust. It was Bauer who received the message from Lothar Hermann that Eichmann was hiding out in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through Bauers tip to Mossad, the high ranking Nazi official was famously captured by the Israelis and put on trial. Like Wiesenthal and Bauer, Nazi hunters were made up of a network of individuals across the globe seeking to track down those who had slipped through the cracks of justice. In the United States, however, due to the volume of Nazi emigres, an entire organization was required. The Office of Special Investigations (OSI), created in 1979, sought to identify and seek removal of only those who assisted the Nazis and their allies in the persecution of civilians. Early estimates from OSI, often referred to as the governments Nazi-hunting organization, purported that nearly 10,000 Nazis emigrated to the United States after World War II. The organization was meant to help sift through the mighty caseload. The task however, was monumental. Witness memories were fallible. Those who survived the Holocaust oftentimes never knew the names of their torturers. And a large majority of witnesses never survived the war. With more than 600,000 emigres entering the United States between 1948 and 1953, Nazis, and those who had assisted them, slipped by overworked consular officials reviewing their paperwork. That number included the nearly 1,600 German scientists and engineers who were imported to the U.S. as intellectual reparations owed to the U.S. and the U.K. in Operation Paperclip. Wernher von Braun, the famous architect of the V-2 rocket that rained terror down on the streets of London was also a participant in Paperclip, and later served as one of the chief engineers for Americas first space satellite Explorer I. Arthur Rudolf, another of Germanys top rocket program specialists, supervised the Mittel-Bau-Dora concentration camp and the brutal slave labor it required to assemble the rockets. An estimated 20,000 inmates perished while tunneling and digging into the mountains around the camp in Nordhausen, Thunringia, Germany. Rudolf, a U.S. Army interrogators assessment read, was One hundred percent Nazi, dangerous type, security threat.Suggest internment. Despite this, Rudolph was relocated to the United States and eventually became the project director for NASAs Saturn V rocket program, which helped put Americans on the moon. Operation Paperclip was largely hushed up, its characters, like other Nazis in the U.S., under most Americans radar until the beginning of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1964 high-profile case and subsequent arrest of Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan a former warden at Majdanek and Ravensbruck concentration camps and then-housewife in Queens, New York brought the issue to the fore. Known to her victims as the mare for her sadistic inclination to kick inmates with her iron-tipped boots, Ryan had previously been convicted by an Austrian court on charges of assassination, infanticide, and manslaughter. She served three years before her release in 1950, entering the U.S. in 1959 and becoming a citizen in 1963. It was later discovered that Mrs. Ryan had concealed her criminal conviction to American authorities, and in 1971 she was stripped of her citizenship and stood trial in Dusseldorf in 1975. It was not until the 1970s, however, that the general public became fully alerted to the presence of Nazis living in America. Congressional hearings in 1974, 1977, and 1978 were held to correct this oversight. New York City Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, a member of the subcommittee, was appalled by the issue and largely pushed for the creation of OSI. For the next 31 years, OSI operated as a branch of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In March 2010, OSI merged, writes the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with a new Department of Justice section, the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, while continuing with its original mandate. There is no statute of limitations on civil immigration and naturalization fraud claims, and to date OSI has successfully initiated the removal of more than 100 Nazis from the U.S. and has blocked more than 200 individuals suspected of Nazi activity from entry into the country. Through the efforts of OSI, Rudolf, after a successful career at NASA, was linked to Mittelbau-Dora and in a deal to avoid prosecution, renounced his U.S. citizenship. While there are few Nazi suspects still alive to be charged for their crimes, the hunt for perpetrators continues. Since 2013 there have been 23 charges pending against individuals with connections to the Holocaust, with charges filed as late as October 2019 against former SS guard Bruno Dey. While Hollywood offers up a splashy alternate reality in Hunters, the true Nazi hunting heroes the ones who quietly and determinedly stalked down pure evil deserve recognition. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, What have you done?, there will be many answers, Wiesenthal told the New York Times. One will say, I have smuggled coffee and American cigarettes, another will say, I built houses, but I will say, I didnt forget you. YEREVAN, MARH 4, ARMENPRESS. The movement of Armenian and Georgian citizens to both directions is being simplified as they can make visits with their identification cards, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during a Q&A session in the Parliament, introducing details from his recent visit to Georgia. The visit was held at a very high level, I want to thank Giorgi Gakharia [Prime Minister of Georgia], all our Georgian partners for the productive and impressive visit. Armenia and Georgia signed a memorandum according to which their citizens will be allowed to cross the border with their ID cards. We agreed that we will start implementing this agreement from now on, he said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan paid an official visit to Georgia on March 3. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan Beijing Citizen: Central Authorities Shift Responsibility The streets of Beijing are empty. The number from the government is unreliable. Want to learn about the epidemic in Beijing? Listen to Beijing citizens voices. The Epoch Times journalist spoke to Mr. Chen in Beijings Changping District, who has his own unique perspective on the Chinese communist party (CCP)s response to the outbreak. Mr. Chen said that the enemy could not be seen, and that the CCP adopted the human shield method of warfare: People do not move, do not flow. This is called the human shield. If you are sick, then itll stop the virus by restraining you to make sure there is no further spreading. Journalist: The number reported in this period of time is said to have come down. It stopped. What happened? The situation in Beijing is so serious. They said its controllable? Mr. Chen: In order to stabilize public order, the government has tried every means. One method is to compress the figures. From my point of view, the governments figures are not reliable. For example, Wuhan numbers suddenly rose more than 15,000, why? The inspection of Wuhan communities depends on quotas given to them. One community is given one or two quotas. If one patient is lucky or his/her disease becomes more serious, he/she can take a test, but others dont have the chance. Mr. Chen: The quota has been used up. How can this person be counted if he cant take a test? Isnt it a clever concealment of the number? And in the end, its not their fault. Its the communities. The communities didnt report the number of people. Authorities dont have any fault. But how many quotas did you give to communities then? Journalist: They all transfer the contradictions to the grass-roots level. Why? Mr. Chen: Thats right. Its called delegating power to the grassroots, but the grassroots have no way to exercise this power. What methods do they have? The houses, the hospitals, the doctors, and the professionals, none of them are delegated to them. Youre not delegating power, youre passing the buck to others. Journalist: So much conflict. What do you think? Mr. Chen: There are some in Wuhan. Since they dont have a chance to be detected and can only be shut in the room. As long as there is one infected, all the family members will be infected. A family of six, a family of nine are all infected except a child. What is waiting for them? Even if you send these people to the hospital, so what? Hospitals dont have this ability. Mr. Chen: The Hubei provincial Party secretary says were well prepared, very well prepared. Its nonsense! What can people do about this? Nothing. The CCP cannot do anything either. These problems are all caused by the deliberate cover-up by the National Centre for Disease Control, which created such an uncontrollable situation. Journalist: Its said that the epidemic prevention in Beijing will now be upgraded to that of Wuhan. Is it possible? Mr. Chen: It seems theyre trying to do that as much as possible. All of the Hutong entrances have installed defensive guard doors. There is no way, because weve been fighting for a long time and the enemy is not clear yet. Theres no way to fight this war. Wheres the enemy? Who is it? Even if people stand right in front of you, you cant know who should be quarantined. Theres no way to find and recognize. Mr. Chen: By the time you recognize (those infected), the virus has already spread to many places. How can you control it with such a large population and such a large flow? So, the only effective way now is not to move, not to flow. This is called the human shield. If you are sick, then itll stop with you. No further spread. Mr. Chen: This issue, such a big problem! All caused by the preventable and controllable speech, the no human-to-human transmission speech of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It caused Wuhan citizens to lower their guard. This is an evil crime! Not work negligence. This is your job. Spending so much money, setting up the National CDC information network, you claim to be able to notify of a new outbreak from local authorities to the central authority. Mr. Chen: Yet 400 hours have passed and you are still lying. Is it just a mistake? What are you [expletive] doing? If they didnt fool people like this, would the situation become so severe? One speech for the inside and another for the outside. Hua Chunying of the Foreign Ministry said at a news conference on Feb. 3 that they have reported the outbreaks and treatment measures to the United States 30 times since Jan. 3. You [expletive]! Why didnt the Chinese people know about it? Why didnt you disclose any information at home? The doctors communicate between each other about the disease, yet you arrest and lecture them? These eight doctors are all leaders in the field. What qualifications does a policeman have to reprimand them? The only purpose is to hide the truth. The crimes committed by these people are unpardonable. Journalist: It says only China has the capability to control the epidemic. Mr. Chen: [Expletive]. Foreign countries cant do it. Would foreign countries tell lies like this? Could the police come out and reprimand the doctors who alerted the public? We are a single-voice system. These people are only responsible to the leaders, and are not responsible for the facts, for the people. This is our fundamental problem. You are now sending thousands of troops and horses to the front, because all of these resources are in your hands. This is not powerful, this is a dictator. After Hubei Province has been placed under lockdown for more than a month, Chinese state media are now telling Chinese people that the coronavirus outbreak is well under control in places outside Hubei Province. They have started to praise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for outperforming democratic systems in controlling the epidemic, saying only the CCP is capable of implementing strong and compulsory orders across the entire country. Fortunately, many clear-minded Chinese know well that the CCP should bear the blame for the outbreak; in addition, being well under control is a sheer lie and outperforming democratic system is a shameless proclamation. Bengaluru: Amidst protests and slogans by Congress members, speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri kickstarted a special debate on One Constitution and One Citizenship in the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday. The speech, loaded with glowing references to the motherland, set the stage for the ruling BJP to pass a resolution in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the next two days. Our country, being secular and federal in nature, believes in one nation and one citizenship, Kaageri said. Even as Congress members raised slogans against Nathuram Godse and the BJP, Kageri said every politician must join in support of the Constitution setting his or her political differences aside. Bernie Sanders released a new TV ad Wednesday featuring a 'narration' from Barack Obama after Joe Biden's Super Tuesday sweep put the pressure on the Vermont senator's campaign. The 30 second ad pieces together clips of interviews and speeches Obama has given about Sanders. It's edited to be filled with the former president praising the Vermont senator and leaves out some crucial context about when and where Obama made his original remarks. Mike Bloomberg's campaign had deployed the same tactic in an ad last month. Sanders' opens with footage of Obama and Sanders walking along the colonnade of the White House and Obama putting his arm around him. Bernie Sanders released a TV ad featuring a 'narration' from Barack Obama The ad edits together clips of interviews and speeches Barack Obama made about Bernie Sanders Ironically it appears to be from a June 2016 meeting Obama had with Sanders at the White House - shortly before he endorsed Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The ad is filled with Obama approval for Sanders. The former president has not endorsed in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. The narration from Obama says: 'Bernie is somebody who has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes. Great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless. Bernie served on the veterans committee and got bills done. I think people are ready for a call to action. They want honest leadership who cares about them. They want somebody who's gonna fight for them. And they will find it in Bernie. Thats right: Feel the Bern!' But parts of Obama's original comments were left out of the commercial. In his first quote in the ad, part of his comment on how he doesn't know Sanders that well is left out. Bernie is somebody who although I dont know as well because he wasnt, obviously, in my administration has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, and great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless,' is what Obama originally said in a 2016 interview. The quote from Obama about Sanders 'honest leadership' is from 2006 when Obama, then a senator from Illinois, was campaigning in Vermont for Sanders' Senate re-election bid. And Obama actually said 'Feel the Bern' in 2016 when he was trying to persuade Sanders' supporters to vote for Clinton. When they yelled 'Bernie' at him, he responded: 'That's right, feel the Bern,' CNN noted in its fact check on the ad. The Obama was part of a trio of ads Sanders released after Joe Biden trounced him in the Super Tuesday states, where 14 states held their nominating contests and a third of the delegates needed for the nomination were up for grabs. Biden won nine states to Sander's four although the Vermont senator took the biggest prize of the night - the delegate-rich state of California. The former vice president leads in the delegate count but California is still working out the allocation of its delegates - done by percentage - and Sanders could leap frog back to the front once those totals were in. Bernie Sanders at his rally in Vermont on the eve of Super Tuesday Joe Biden's Super Tuesday wins pushed him to frontrunner status Still Tuesday was a stellar night for Biden, who also enjoyed a trio of endorsements from former contenders on Monday - Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O'Rourke. Mike Bloomberg exited the race on Wednesday after his poor Super Tuesday showing and endorsed Biden. The scale of Biden's comeback is not in doubt - and neither is Sanders' ability to keep going, possibly even to the convention in Milwaukee in July. Sanders' has already released his campaign schedule for the week. He'll hold a rally in Phoenix on Thursday evening and will campaign in Michigan this weekend. Long before the European colonization, North America had already endured a history of violence and conquest, including the ancient empires in what we now know as Mexico and Guatemala. Scientists have recently discovered evidence that could lead to the speculation of the clash between the Teotihuacan and Mayan territories over 1600 years ago, according to Inside Hook. A Science article by Lizzie Wade traces the fateful string events beginning with the year 378 when Sihyaj K'ahk' (SEE-yah Kak), or Fire is Born, arrived in the large Maya city named Tikal that used to lie in what is now northern Guatemala. His arrival was engraved on the Mayan stone monuments. Archaeologists believe he was likely a mighty warrior from Teotihuacan, a metropolis of 100,000 people about 1000 kilometers northwest of Tikal, near today's Mexico City. They also claim Sihyaj K'ahk' may have carried an army as he entered the realms of Tikal. What was not recorded, however, was the reason behind his arrival and how he was received by then ruler of Tikal Chak Tok Ich'aak, or Jaguar Paw. But the same day Sihyaj K'ahk' marched into the city, Jaguar Paw died. According to the engravings on the stone monuments of Maya, Sihyaj K'ahk' had been sent as an emissary by Spearthrower Owl, a powerful foreign ruler. Two years later, Spearthrower Owl's young son named Yax Nuun Ayiin began his rule in Tikal. In portraits carved on stone monuments there, Yax Nuun Ayiin was shown holding an atlatl, a spearthrower commonly used by Teotihuacan warriors. He also wears a Teotihuacan-style headdress adorned with tassels. There were images of him and Spearthrower Owl on monuments at Tikal carved in the flat, geometric style of Teotihuacan art, in contrast to the intricate, naturalistic portraits of the Maya. Under the rule of Yax Nuun Ayiin and his family, Tikal rose to power among the other cities in the Maya territory. Despite being able to outline the events during the period, what puzzled archaeologists and became the subject of their long-standing debate was the meaning of the images. Some newly-discovered evidence from both Teotihuacan and the Maya region has resurfaced the issue about the real relationship between the two great cultures, suggesting an unpleasant past. Maya writing and art suggests Teotihuacan had completely conquered Tikal as well as several other Maya cities. Also, by about the time Tikal was being swayed by Spearthrower Owl's influence, Teotihuacan may have turned against Maya expatriates who had lived there peacefully for decades, as suggested by defaced art in Teotihuacan. Wade noted, however, that this isn't a universally held theory and it is possible that something entirely different took place yet contemporary historians are trying to project a narrative of conflict and conquest. Some researchers also say the events of year 378 may have been an isolated case wherein Sihyaj K'ahk' and his army had been local Maya usurpers who appropriated the symbolism of faraway Teotihuacan. The only thing clear about the recently-obtained evidences was the history of political and cultural collision that helped spark the flourishing of Tikal in the following centuries. Said information was unearthed by scientists from UC Riverside and Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. Despite the differing opinions on what these new findings could mean, they were unanimous on their importance to a larger understanding of history. "It's a thrilling time to be working in this area," says Stephen Houston, an archaeologist at Brown University. "We're getting astounding new finds that amplify what had just been a sketched story before." People in the UK have shared photos of their coronavirus stockpiles with cupboards stacked with food and toiletries in case the country goes into lockdown. One said he was simply renaming his 'Brexit cupboard' in preparation for a disaster. Others shared pictures of piles of chocolate and crisps they plan to rely on if food supplies are hit by an epidemic in the UK. Thirty-four new cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed in the UK today the biggest one-day rise so far and a total of 85 people in Britain have now caught it. Supermarkets are also feeling the effects people's stockpiling of household goods means that many aisles in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda, Lidl and Aldi up and down the UK are looking increasingly desolate. Sections for hand soap and disinfectant, nappies and baby wipes as well as dried goods such as pasta and rice appear to be the most decimated. Britain's supermarkets have also been accused of setting up 'doomsday' displays in stores and online aimed at worried stockpiling 'survivalist' shoppers. All the best selling suggested items on Amazon's Fresh website in grocery and beauty all appear to similar items being bought in bulk across the UK. And one customer at the Sainsbury's store in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, photographed the display close to the checkout - containing toilet rolls, crisps, bottled water, and pasta as well as 'mega packs' of detergents, dishwasher tablets and disinfectant. James Woolnough told MailOnline: 'I've been watching the show Doomsday Preppers on Netflix and these are some of the essential items survivalists recommend'. Jonathan Phillips said he was renaming his 'Brexit cupboard' of disaster preparation supplies 'Coronavirus cupboard' Michaela Williams joked 'it's good to be prepared' as she posted pictures of a cupboard stacked with chocolate Twitter user Victoria said her crisps cupboard was 'prepared for coronavirus to hit' Phil Dore said his stash would double up for a crisis in the event of a no-deal Brexit or a coronavirus epidemic A London supermarket's toilet paper aisle is left bare amid reports of stockpiling across the UK People preparing for disaster shared photos of their supplies of essential and some less essential food items they have gathered as the UK faces the prospect of a crisis. Twitter user Jonathan Phillips posted a photo of flour, beans and soup with the caption: 'Renaming our Brexit cupboard to Coronavirus cupboard is easier than attempting to eat through it'. People had built up stashes of food and supplies amid jangling Brexit nerves last year when there were claims supermarkets could run bare if ferries and lorries bringing produce from the continent were interrupted. New fears of coronavirus hitting food supplies have got people hoarding again, but admitting the funny side. Michaela Williams joked: 'It's good to be prepared' as she shared a photo of a cupboard stacked with chocolate. And Victoria Thorpes added: 'I may not be prepared for Coronavirus to hit. But at least my crisps cupboard is.' She posted a photo of 10 multi-packs of crisps on the floor of her house. In the UK there are now 85 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, out of a total of 16,659 tests Harrogate, North Yorkshire: This is the empty handsoap section in the historic town's Morrisons Govan, Glasgow: The fruit and veg section and the bakery section of this Scottish Asda store was bare last night Osterley, west London: There is barely a bottle of handsoap in this branch of Tesco Pimlico, London: There was not a single bag of pasta available in this Sainsbury's store last night Cribbs Causeway, Bristol: This Asda has also run out of pasta and there are only a few packs of rice The Amazon Fresh grocery website's suggested best sellers are nearly all linked to stockpiling Sainsbury's claim the display has been there for a year and a spokesman denied it was deliberate - but Mr Woolnough said: 'We havent noticed it in the past, but have only been buying in bulk over the last few weeks. The items in the area seem very specific to those that are recommended in these situations. Perhaps they have adapted the area to include such items'. The shelves of British supermarkets are emptying at pace as coronavirus stockpiling spiralled out of control amid warnings of 'food riots' if the crisis worsens - despite warnings from the Government not to panic buy. Shortages previously limited to anti-bacterial hand gel and hand soap have spread to cupboard items such as rice, pasta, couscous, Pot Noodles, bottled water, toilet roll and pet food - as well as chilled items including milk, butter and yoghurt. Pharmacy shelves are also emptying of paracetamol, ibuprofen and immune-system boosting tablets such as Berocca as people prepare to fight off the flu-like illness that has claimed hundreds of lives worldwide. Facebook and Twitter is packed with photographs of empty shelves from major supermarkets across the UK where shoppers appear to have thrown empty boxes into the aisles in the mad scramble for items. MailOnline readers have also shared pictures of their well-stocked larders as people prepare for weeks in isolation. One reader said: 'I have been trying for THREE days to buy pasta but I cannot see any as most shops have run out of pasta and pasta sauce'. The scramble for food has also revealed what Britons do not consider essentials despite a China-style shutdown of communities predicted - including some flavours of crisps and confectionary including Terry's Chocolate Orange. Londoner Jasia Warren tweeted: 'Interesting to see what people are stockpiling in my local supermarket. Bare shelves for rice, pasta, handwash, tissues and loo roll. Also interesting to see what people are not stockpiling: polenta, crumpets and get well cards. Their loss is my gain. #stockpiling'. A Sainsbury's shopper in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, has spotted this display containing items Britons have been stockpiling in case there is a China-style shutdown over coronavirus One committed MailOnline reader has built up 3 months worth of food and water for his family of four Kirsty Mildrew spent 40 on small bottles of anti-bacterial hand gel in Aldi and Lidl and admitted: 'I was like a mad woman stock pilling - Im keeping it all for myself and my family' Shelves in this London Tesco is empty of pasta, pasta sauces, rice and other staples but crisps and chocolate oranges appear to have been left This London Sainsbury's is running out of germ-busting disinfectant, bleach and anti-bacterial wipes Water is also selling out in supermarkets including this Asda in the capital despite coronavirus posing little threat to the country's water supply Sales of oral painkillers such as paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen are up ten per cent in the past year Milk also appears to be flying off themselves along with other dairy products such as cheese and yoghurts also selling well There has also been a spike in sales of effervescent drinks containing vitamin C including Berocca and Redoxen This MailOnline reader has shared pictures of her stockpiled goods that include pies, squash, beans, sauces, detergent, bottled water and pet food These two pocket-sized bottles of limited edition antibacterial hand gel are being sold on Amazon for 50 as people try to cash in Haslemere shoppers empty the shelves in 'heaving' Sainsbury's after four locals fall ill with coronavirus By Nick Fagge Shoppers and supermarket staff have told how the Haslemere Coronavirus outbreak has caused panic buying. Stocks of toilet roll, pasta and baked beans were completely sold out at the Sainsburys store in nearby Liphook, with new deliveries failing to make-up the short-fall. Today shelves remained partially empty with shoppers buying extra provisions, just in case. One shopper, who declined to be identified, told MailOnline: There was panic buying here on Saturday. The shelves were empty of rice, pasta, beans of all kinds, lentils and loo roll. People were clearly worried about what had happened in Haslemere and wanted to make sure they would be ok if they had to stay in-doors. The 55-year-old mother-of-two, from Liphook, added she had been buying extra provisions today. She said: Today I saw the shelves were almost empty of loo roll so I have stocked up. Ive also got some extra tins of soup in and some Lucozade in case we have to self-isolate. Haslemere is only down the road and everyone around here knows people there. A Sainsburys worker described the weekend as heaving. He said: Saturday and Sunday were unbelievably busy much busier than a normal weekend. We sold out of lots of essentials, like beans, toilet roll and pasta. It looked like people were trying to stock up just in case. Advertisement Shops have seen a surge in panic buying fuelled by the coronavirus crisis - and supermarkets have now drawn up contingency plans to 'feed the nation' in the event of a sudden escalation, it has emerged. With two chains already rationing sales, a former Tesco executive said a major outbreak in Britain would 'quickly lead to empty shelves and food riots'. Ocado has emailed customers to warn it is running out of home delivery slots due to 'exceptionally high demand' and 'particularly large orders'. Waitrose reported 'seeing more demand for... cleaning products and hand sanitisers', and Tesco's website has sold out of hand gel. Lidl said it is 'experiencing a significant increase in demand for durable products and disinfectants'. It has now limited sales of hand sanitisers to two per customer as has Boots. Industry experts insist that supermarkets have contingency plans to cope with a worst-case scenario and, despite the pressure, will ensure food remains on shelves. Under the plans, supermarkets would work alongside suppliers to scale back the variety of available foods and groceries, instead paying attention to maintaining the supply of staple products, the Guardian reported. However, senior food markets analyst Bruno Monteyne, a former Tesco executive, warned: 'If a major [coronavirus] outbreak happens, that will quickly lead to panic buying, empty shelves and food riots.' Mr Monteyne, who now works for stockbrokers Bernstein, told industry magazine The Grocer: 'Plans are surely being drawn up with suppliers to rationalise product ranges when necessary. The objective isn't to scaremonger... the industry has plans to deal with this. 'Yes, it will be chaotic and expect pictures of empty shelves but the industry will keep the country fed.' The British Retail Consortium's director of food and sustainability, Andrew Opie, insisted: 'Disruption to supply chains has been limited, and the availability of products remains good. Retailers are working closely with their suppliers and monitoring consumer behaviour to anticipate changes in future demand.' Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, added: 'At this stage supply chains have experienced disruption but there is no evidence of significant disruption to food supplies.' However, Ged Futter, a former senior buyer at Asda, said supermarkets were reluctant to admit to shortages for fear of making matters worse. Mr Futter, now director at consultancy firm The Retail Mind, said: 'The last thing retailers will want to talk about is rationing. As soon as you mention rationing it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and the food equivalent of a run on the banks.' Toilet rolls are in short supply at Sainsbury's in Liphook - close to Haslemere, the current epicentre of the UK coronavirus outbreak Empty shelves in Boots in Weymouth where it is hard to get your hands on handsoap and anti-bacterial gel Sainsbury's in East Dulwich has a severely depleted poultry section as people stock up on food There is also a visible shortage of toilet roll as people also stock up on tissues MailOnline reader Navjot Singh said he has been trying to buy own brand bags of pasta and sauce for three days - but only the premium brands remain These bare shelves in a Boots pharmacy as panic buying over the UK took hold Superdrug and Boots has sold out of hand gel and face masks at their stores with emergency orders on their way Families are building up reserves to ensure their homes are 'fit for a pandemic' with some purchasing new chest freezers to fill with food and portable camp toilets to avoid sharing a loo if a relative tests positive for the killer virus. Clean mobile twice a day Phone screens are 'portable petri dishes' and should be disinfected twice a day to stop coronavirus spreading. Scientists claim the virus can live for up to 96 hours on flat surfaces, such as the screen of a smartphone and urged users to invest in alcohol wipes to clean their screens throughout the day. Professor Mark Fielder, a microbiologist at Kingston University, backed the suggestion and said 'don't share your phone around'. Last week Professor Peter Hall from the University of Waterloo in Canada called smartphones a 'portable petri dish, accumulating bacteria and viruses'. Research by Dscout in 2016 found that people tap their phone screen an average of 2,617 times a day. Advertisement A shortage of germ-killing antibacterial gel has seen a spurt in sales of surgical spirit on eBay and Amazon by people desperate to sanatise their hands, with Boots sold out today. On social media one panicked Briton revealed that they have turned one small room in their house into an 'isolation zone' equipped with cooking equipment, bedding and food if they have to be in quarantine for a fortnight. Another Mumsnet user said: 'I've cleaned and prepped the farm caravan so if needed it could be an isolation suite. Useful place to store surplus supplies, tinned food etc as well'. Others are drawing up spreadsheets of the items they need to buy to last them weeks or months in self-isolation. Professor Ratula Chakraborty, professor of business management at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said: 'The prospect of whole towns being in lockdown and shops closed is heightening the fear and stockpiling may become rife'. Experts believe the stockpiling of medicine and food in family homes 'may become rife' as people grow increasingly concerned about coronavirus disrupting British life. Professor Chakraborty, said: 'One big opportunity for the supermarkets may be home delivery, where online grocery retailers could see a bonanza as consumers shy away from visiting stores and instead prefer to shop from the safety of their own homes. 'There is no immediate need to stockpile or panic buy any goods, but people should be prepared to help out and shop for vulnerable relatives and friends who are elderly or have underlying conditions which places them at a greater risk of developing severe symptoms if the coronavirus spreads'. Ged Futter, a former senior buyer at Asda, said supermarkets were reluctant to admit to shortages for fear of making matters worse (file image) STURGIS | The Sturgis City Council put two contentious annexations on hold Monday night to allow property owners more time to potentially form voluntary agreements with the city. On Feb. 3, the council held a first public hearing on resolutions of intent to annex both a parcel of land in the Murray addition as well as property owned by the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club. On Monday night, a second public hearing ended with both annexation resolutions deferred to May 4. Both the representative of owners of a Murray Addition business, the Big Rig Campground, and members of the Jackpine Gypsies said delaying the final decision on annexation will give them time to study potential effects of becoming part of the city. Jim Paisley and Brett Winsell of the Jackpine Gypsies repeated their concerns that annexation of the club grounds, which includes a dirt oval race track, motocross and hill climb course, might fall under present or future city restrictions on continuing those activities. Without a clear agreement, Paisley said the city could impose limits on the time of day, days of the week, or enforce noise limits on the clubs racing events. City attorney Greg Barnier said annexation would not affect the clubs existence as a corporation, with its racing activities considered a pre-existing, non-conforming activity. He also said annexation would not mean a mandate to build housing on the property. City Manager Daniel Ainslie said the city has annexed a number of properties contiguous to the city over the past six years in an attempt to ensure residents receiving the benefit of city services, such as ambulance and street maintenance, help pay for those services. Its a matter of equity, Ainslie said. A yes vote on either annexation resolution would have put them into effect 20 days after legal publication, while opponents could petition the city to put the issue to a public vote. Paisley said the club hoped for a delay to allow further discussions with the city. What were asking for tonight is a win-win for everybody, said Paisley. A vote no (tonight) is not a vote that annexation will never happen, it just means theres no losers. It just means we have more time to keep working on it. The council voted 4-3, with one abstention, to set another public hearing on the annexations for May 4. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 01:33:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A voter fills in his ballot at a polling station during the Virginia primary in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) After caucuses and primaries in four early voting states, Senator Bernie Sanders is currently leading in the Democratic field, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden. ARLINGTON, the United States, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Polling stations opened on the U.S. East Coast Tuesday morning, kicking off the so-called "Super Tuesday" primaries of the 2020 presidential election. In Virginia, one of 14 U.S. states scheduled to hold votes this day, only candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the White House are on the ballot, as the state's Republican Party has canceled its primary to throw full support behind sitting President Donald Trump. Other states, including populous California and Texas, are scheduled to hold both Republican and Democratic primaries, some of which began hours later because of time differences. Trump, who's facing no major challenges in the Republican Party, is expected to win the GOP primaries, while on the Democratic side there are still five vying for the party's nomination to challenge the incumbent. After caucuses and primaries in four early voting states, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is currently leading in the Democratic field with the most pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), followed by former Vice President Joe Biden. Voters walk into a polling station during the Virginia primary in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) At a polling place in Arlington, Max Blake told Xinhua that he voted for Sanders despite Biden's resurging momentum triggered by a big victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary several days ago. The Virginia voter also said he is aware of an ongoing tussle between the Democratic Party's progressive candidates and the moderate bloc but that he believes they will eventually unite for the race against Trump. Besides Sanders and Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are also in the Democratic primary race. Bloomberg, who is making his ballot debut on Tuesday, traded barbs with Trump on Twitter in the morning. On Super Tuesday, 1,357 pledged delegates to the DNC or a third of the total will be up for grabs. To win the Democratic presidential nomination, a candidate must receive support from a majority of all the 3,979 pledged delegates on the first ballot of the national convention: 1,991 delegates. In other words, the Super Tuesday primaries will not determine who will become the Democratic presidential nominee. However, Super Tuesday could offer indicators for how the rest of the primaries might play out. Voters fill in ballots at a polling station during the Virginia primary in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) "This is the first time that a large number of states in different regions of the country all vote on the same day," Clay Ramsay, a senior research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland, told Xinhua. "The four previous state caucuses and primaries each had their own local flavor. They can't tell us what Democrats across America are thinking," Ramsay said. "Super Tuesday will get us much closer to seeing that." Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, called it "an enormous day in the presidential race." "A lot of questions will be answered in the next 36 hours," he added. Polls close between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time, depending on the state. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, at Grange, Co Meath, this afternoon after meeting with a teen mental health charity this morning on the second day of their Irish visit. Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton were greeted at the centre by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, and Teagasc Chairman, Liam Herlihy. Director of Teagasc Professor Gerry Boyle, Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council, Cllr Wayne Harding, and Chief Executive of Meath County Council Jackie Maguire, as well as members of the Teagasc Authority were also in attendance. A group of 10 sixth class students from Kiltale National School, Dunsany, County Meath, and principal of the school Eileen OReilly, all had the opportunity to meet the royal couple on foot of their work on projects about food production and sustainability. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire Farmers Ronan Hughes, Justin Walsh, Teleri Thomas, David Hannon, and Donal Keane also met with the Duke and Duchess, and told them about their efforts to farm with nature on their farms by means of using the best animal genetics, grass based production systems. The Cambridges were shown three cows, each with twin calves, by beef researchers Paul Crosson and Edward O Riordan, at Teagascs Derrypatrick demonstration suckler herd. The researchers told the couple about the environmentally friendly steps being taken on Irish cattle farms to ensure beef is produced in a sustainable way, and spoke about technologies being developed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the herd. Kate donned brown boots and a green coat by Irish brand Dubarry for the occasion. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The trip to Teagasc was the second engagement the couple embarked on for day two of their three day visit to Ireland. The couple will take a trip to Dublins Museum of Literature later today, where they will meet with Tanaiste Simon Coveney. Earlier today, William and Kate visited Jigsaw, The National Centre for Mental Health in Temple Bar in Dublin City Centre this morning. They commended the work produced by both the organisers and service users of the charity and met three young people from the charitys youth advisory panel. The visit to the charity took six to eight weeks to organise and it was the royal visit organisers from the UK who reached out to Jigsaw. CEO of Jigsaw Joseph Duffy said: Inside, they met some of our funders, the HSE, they met three young people who have used our services across the country and they spent the most time talking with them and their experience." Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire They also met with teachers and representatives from the work we do in the community and supporting schools. Speaking to Independent.ie, member of the panel Abigail McDonnell said how meeting the royal couple was surreal. Theyre very interested in youth mental health which is unbelievable and theyre interested to know what was going on with them. I got a handshake from Kate, which was amazing. They basically just thanked us for the work that we do, which is unbelievable, because you dont think such high up people would thank us for the work that we do, she said. Alex Rowan from Finglas, who is a fellow member of the youth advisory board, was also starstruck when he met the royals. It was crazy, I didnt expect how normal it would turn out to be. When I was waiting I was nervous but theyre genuinely just the nicest people and we had a brief conversation in welcoming them and saying goodbye. I had small talk with Kate, and she was saying well done for being a part of the service and it was so sweet, he added. Kate wore a white Reiss coat, with black jeans and a black and white polka dot blouse, while William wore navy trousers, a teal jumper and shirt. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire "They were really lovely, really warm and very kind and wanted to spend time with the young people in the service, said James Barry, service manager at Jigsaw Dublin City. They wanted to know a lot more about our work within our schools. They wanted to know more but also wanted to share what they were doing in the UK as well, he said. The couple have several engagements in Dublin today before heading to Galway in the afternoon, where they will spend the day tomorrow. It is estimated that as many as 80% of advanced-stage cancer patients may develop cachexia, a potentially fatal metabolic syndrome characterized by extreme weight loss and muscle wasting, but scientists do not yet fully understand why it is more frequently associated with certain kinds of tumor than others, or why not all cancer patients develop it. Tumor genetics could provide an answer. Researchers at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil analyzed 12 types of cancer and identified patterns of tumor protein secretion that correlated with the prevalence of cachexia and average weight loss for each type. The study was supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP. The principal investigator was Robson Francisco Carvalho, a professor at UNESP's Botucatu Institute of Biosciences (IBB). Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Antioquia's Medical School in Colombia also contributed to the study. The results were published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle. According to Carvalho, cachexia is most frequent in patients with pancreatic, esophageal, colorectal, stomach and head-and-neck cancer, and least frequent in patients with breast and prostate cancer. Cachexia-inducing factors, mainly deriving from cancer, had already been associated with development of the syndrome but it was not yet possible to link them to this variation in its prevalence and severity. In the case of cancer of the pancreas, for example, which correlates closely with cachexia, we found alterations in the expression of 14 out of 25 genes that encode cachexia-inducing factors. In prostate cancer, which does not, we found no change in the expression of any of these 25 genes." Robson Francisco Carvalho, professor at UNESP's Botucatu Institute of Biosciences Tumor databases The findings of the study were based on an analysis of clinical and molecular data from two public tumor databases, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. To delineate a specific tumor profile, the researchers used 4,651 samples of 12 types of cancer and compared them with 2,737 samples of normal tissue from the same organs. Every cell or tissue produces a transcriptome, a set of RNA molecules responsible for "transmitting" the information encoded by the genes, and for guiding protein synthesis. "Based on transcriptome analysis we compared the gene expression profiles of the proteins secreted by tumors and normal tissue," Carvalho explained. This initial analysis identified new factors that were specific to each type of tumor and could potentially explain variations in the prevalence and severity of cachexia in cancer. Data on all cellular protein-encoding genes came from the Human Protein Atlas. A total of 2,933 human genes associated with proteostasis have been described to date. After analyzing the genes for their list of proteins, the researchers focused on investigating the genes that encode the 25 growth factors and cytokines known to be cachexia-inducing factors. These include CXCL8, IL1B, LIF, TGFA and IL6, analyzed in a previous study based on blood samples from cachectic patients with pancreatic cancer. "In this manner we identified major correlations between the expression profiles of cachexia-inducing factors specific to each tumor type and the prevalence of the syndrome and average weight loss in patients with these cancers," Carvalho said. In pancreatic cancer, for which the patient survival rate is low, average weight loss is 13.7 kilograms (kg). In prostate cancer, which has a high survival rate, average weight loss is less than 2 kg. "We also identified major correlations between the expression profiles of cachexia-inducing factors for each type of tumor and a worse patient prognosis [lower survival rate]," he noted. Patients with end-stage (refractory) cachexia are expected to survive for less than three months. Biomarkers The genes described in the article have the potential to serve as biomarkers of the risk of developing cachexia, a complex condition whose treatment continues to defy science. "This suggests each type of tumor requires specific treatment against cachexia," Carvalho said. "Knowledge of this profile can help physicians identify patients with an unfavorable prognosis, which influences important decisions about their treatment." The researchers at IBB-UNESP had previously made a key discovery in this connection. "Last year, while analyzing cachexia in cases of lung cancer, we found that the protein IL8 secreted by the tumor can induce muscle cell atrophy," Carvalho said. Conducted in collaboration with the Danish research group and with FAPESP's support, the previous study was published in the journal Cancers. "Our analysis of secreted protein gene expression in the tumors of patients with lung cancer and low muscularity as assessed by computed tomography also identified a set of molecules that can be used for prognosis prediction," he explained. Practical application of this knowledge remains a challenge. "Having identified this set of biomarkers of cachexia with significant prognostic value, we may be able in future to develop a panel for assessment of the expression of these genes in tumor tissue," said Paula Paccielli Freire, who conducted the investigation while researching for a PhD at IBB-UNESP. The researchers are now analyzing the transcriptomes of individual cells in tumors with a high prevalence of cachexia, using a technique known as single-cell RNA sequencing. Transcriptome analysis was possible hitherto only with samples of tumor mass, which contains a complex mixture of various cell types. "With the advance of single-cell RNA sequencing, we're now able to identify exactly which cell secretes which cachexia-inducing factor," Carvalho said. [March 04, 2020] The global stationary lithium-ion battery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 13% during the period 2019-2025 NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global stationary lithium-ion battery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 13% during the period 20192025. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868640/?utm_source=PRN The stationary lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery market is expected to witness significant growth on account of the need to shift to renewable sources such as solar and wind energy for clean and sustainable energy. The shift to renewable sources is likely to infuse high capital investments from the public and private sectors, which is expected to bolster the demand for Li-ion batteries. Governments' initiative to achieve zero-energy targets in the residential sector, coupled with increasing construction and installation of PV systems, is likely to drive the market. The rise in electric vehicle sales has led to increasing demand for such batteries. Li-ion batteries use phosphate as a cathode material benefit from low resistance properties, which enhance safety and thermal stability. Their demand is growing in stationary energy storage applications as they require high load currents and endurance, which are further expected to augment the growth. Their application in industries such as aerospace, semiconductor, and automobiles is likely to contribute to the growth of the market significantly. The disparity between green energy generation and conventional energy storage is likely to be bridged by the installation of energy storage systems (ESS) using stationary Li-ion batteries. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the stationary lithium-ion battery market during the forecast period: Increasing Number of Smart and Self-sustained Buildings Rising PV Installation in Residential and Commercial Segment Non-conventional Energy Generation Demanding Stationary Lithium-ion ESS Rising Traction of Zero Energy Buildings Demanding ESS Increasing Adoption in Data Center UPS Systems The study considers the present scenario of the stationary lithium ion battery market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market. Stationary Lithium-Ion Battery Market: Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by end-user and geography. The demand for Li-ion batteries in grids and PV systems is expected to increase due to the installation of large-scale solar and wind power plants to meet the growing demand for clean and energy-efficient storage systems. They are cost-effective, offer high-power capacity, and are configurable into a variety of sizes to develop a wide range of voltages, power ratings, or energy increments. The APAC region is expected to lead the application of such batteries in grid and PV systems because they have a significant number of installed capacities for renewable energy generation. Li-ion-based UPS systems are increasingly replacing VRLA battery systems. Hence, vendors are focusing on offering Li-ion-based UPS systems, especially for data centers, which are likely to aid the growth of the market during the forecast period. Advanced UPS systems provide a high number of discharge cycles, charging depth, power, and are environment-friendly. The application of Li-ion batteries in the telecom segment is to provide and maintain energy power backup. Telecom companies are likely to adopt solar panels on telecom towers to maintain energy sufficiency, which is likel to drive the demand for Li-ion batteries as efficient storage solutions. Government agencies in developed economies are pushing the residential sector to become self-sustained as well as achieve zero-energy targets. Hence, the demand for PV systems is expected to witness significant growth. In the US, over 35% of PV system users look for residential solar energy solutions that are interested in purchasing branded Lithium-ion home batteries, thereby driving the demand. The installation of Li-ion based UPS systems is expected to increase in the residential sector as these UPS provide more power backup than inverters and stationary batteries. Moreover, they are inexpensive and are increasingly becoming a product of choice for residential applications. Market Segmentation by End-user Commercial o Grid and PV Systems o Telecom o UPS Systems o Others Residential o PV Systems o Power Backup Insights by Geography APAC is likely to dominate the market due to the high installation of Li-ion batteries of solar and energy storage in residential and commercial buildings in Korea, China , and Japan . Australia and India are expected to witness an increased demand for such batteries because of government initiatives to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Moreover, improving economic conditions are expected to infuse investments for renewable energy solutions, which are likely to bolster growth opportunities. However, the trade war between China and India is expected to be a major hindrance to growth. In Europe , governments aim to increase the share of renewable energy and all new buildings in the EU required to meet nearly-zero energy buildings standard by utilizing Lithium-ion based battery systems. Institutions and industries in Europe are expected to adopt eco-friendly technologies to reduce the risk of environmental pollution, which is likely to boost the demand for Li-ion batteries. The European region is expected to increasingly install solar energy systems for residential applications, which is expected to drive the demand for Li-ion batteries for energy storage in residential buildings. The use of Li-ion batteries in grid and photovoltaics (PV) systems due to the robust grid infrastructure are expected to provide further growth opportunities in the European commercial segment. The demand in the North American region is likely to increase on account of strong economic growth, business expansions, and efficient energy production in residential and commercial sectors. The prospect of using renewable energy resources at grid and utility scales is increasing, which is further expected to boost the market. North America is a developed region in the adoption of solar energy. It is likely to witness the emergence of vendors offering Lithium-ion batteries to be installed with their PV systems. Moreover, the demand for energy storage is expected to be driven by the rise in residential solar roofing systems and commercial retrofit projects in the region. Market Segmentation by Geography APAC o China o Japan o South Korea o Australia Europe o Germany o France o Italy o UK o Nordic North America o US o Canada Latin America o Brazil o Chile MEA o GCC o South Africa Insights by Vendors The lithium-ion batteries market is expected to grow over 10X from 2019 to 2030. The significant demand is likely to arise from passenger EV, followed by commercial electric vehicles. The development and improvement of key vendors capacity and capability to manufacture Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles is likely to impact the market significantly. Several key vendors are expected to produce solar system Li-ion batteries. The increasing adoption of solar energy in residential and commercial buildings is expected to witness unprecedented growth during the forecast period. The growth of vendors relies on technological innovations and industry development. The development and commercialization of high-efficiency battery technology remain a key capital-intensive area for new vendors. Hence, existing vendors are likely to expand geographically while reviving domestic demand to achieve sustained growth. Vendors are expected to boost profits by practicing efficient production techniques that minimize production costs and mitigate associated risks. Prominent vendors are vulnerable to rapid advances in battery technology as well as new entrants with proprietary technology is expected to pose a threat to their market share. This is likely to force vendors to distinguish their product offerings through a clear and unique value proposition to survive in a competitive environment. Key vendors are focused on developing battery with high functionalities and continuing to upgrade them to keep pace with the latest technological developments to strive in the market. Key Vendors LG Chem Samsung SDI BYD Kokam Panasonic Other Vendors Leclanche Hitachi Chemical GS Yuasa PowerTech Systems CATL Sonnen Stem Toshiba Saft Electrovaya BMZ AXITEC Energy Pylon ACME ABB Tesla Alfen Key Market Insights The analysis of the stationary lithium-ion battery market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 20192025. Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market. Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the stationary lithium-ion battery market. Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868640/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-global-stationary-lithium-ion-battery-market-is-expected-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-over-13-during-the-period-20192025-301016181.html SOURCE Reportlinker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Indias leading digital payment platform Paytm on Wednesday decided to shut its offices in Gurugram and Noida for at least two days after one of its employees who had recently travelled to Italy was tested positive with COVID-19. In an official statement, the company informed that it has suggested team members of the COVID-19 patient to get their health tests done immediately, while all their offices will remain shut for sanitising purposes. One of our colleagues based out of Gurugram office, who recently returned from Italy post a vacation, has now been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment and we are extending complete support to his family, a Paytm spokesperson told IANS. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately, the spokesperson added. The company said it has advised all employees to work from home for a couple of days while the offices are sanitised. However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual, the spokesperson added. With 25 fresh confirmed cases of coronavirus in India, the tech industry in India is withdrawing into a shell, with Paytm, Nearbuy, Wipro, TCS and HCL announcing action plan to safeguard their employees. Nearbuy, which claims to be Indias first hyper-local online platform that enables customers and local merchants to discover and engage with each other, has decided to close its Gurugram office for at least 14 days as a precautionary measure. The company has told its employees to work from home during the period and also keep a proper check on their health. Global software giant Wipro on Wednesday announced that it has suspended employee travel to coronavirus-stricken China, Hong Kong and Macau. The company also said that any employee who has travelled to an affected place in China in the last few days has been advised to work from home for 14 days before resuming work in office. We have advised our employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently, said Wipro. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also claimed that it was working closely with all relevant global and regional and local health institutions to tackle COVID-19 outbreak. While HCL Technologies said it has invoked an epidemic contingency plan in the impacted geographies and is providing full support to employees, wherever possible. Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Oklahoma, a state that Bernie Sanders bagged in 2016. Going into Super Tuesday, the former vice president was projected to take the state by around seven points. Early returns from the state, which has 39 nominating delegates and 7 electoral college votes in the general election, suggested Mr Biden was set to win by 9 points or more. It was one of a succession of eastern and southern states the 77-year-old was projected to win, in one of the most crucial dates on the election calendar. He also won Virginia and was projected to win North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images Meanwhile, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders won his home state of Vermont and was projected to win Colorado, among the early states to post results. Two of the other candidates contesting Super Tuesday have their own relationship with the state of Oklahoma. Elizabeth Warren was born in Oklahoma City and grew up in the state. Yet early results suggested she was set to come in behind not just Mr Biden, but also after Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg. It was unclear whether whether the Massachusetts senator would meet the 15 per cent vote requirement to qualify for a share of the delegates. In 2016, Mr Sanders won the Oklahoma primary, defeating Hillary Clinton 52-42. 1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus. 2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue. 3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things. 4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit. 5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted. Vote View Results Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Ground and Cargo Handling Services Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Ground & Cargo Handling Services Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% during the period 2019-2025. Key Market Insights The report provides the following insights into the ground and cargo handling services market for the forecast period 2020-2025 Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage The global ground and cargo handling services market has been witnessing continuous growth in the last few decades. The increase in the number of air passengers directly drives the demand for effective ground and cargo handlers. For airliners to provide in-house ground handling services at airports can become a costly affair due to fluctuation in currency values and regulations across geographies. The global air cargo tonnage grew by 25% in 2019 compared to 2010. Also, according to the IATA, the air tonnage is growing at a higher rate and is likely to maintain its growth in the coming years. The booming e-commerce industry and the increasing number of people ordering merchandise via online platforms from overseas have to strengthen freight services. As the majority of e-commerce companies are pushing for one or two day guaranteed deliveries, they employ an increasing number of shipment services to meet their promises. Hence, the growing tonnage of freight through passenger airlines is boding well for the ground and cargo handling services market. Market Dynamics Opportunities & Trends Innovations in Ground & Cargo Handling Systems & Equipment Increasing Freight in Passenger Airlines Growth Enablers Booming Air Travel & Freight Industry Increase in Seat Capacity & Fleet of Airlines Focus to Reduce Turnaround Times by Airlines Establishment of New Airports & Stations Restraints Financial Stress on Airlines & Volatility in Fuel Prices Lack of Skilled Workforce Causing Operational Hindrance Halt of Airport Operations Terrorism Disease Outbreak & Natural Disasters Ground and Cargo Handling Services Market: Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by service type, airline type and geography. With the increase in the number of scheduled passengers, the amount of cargo being transported through the air is growing at a significant rate. The ground handling services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% and is likely to account for an incremental revenue of $1.84 billion during the forecast period. The growth in scheduled international passengers, the development of new airports, and an increase in retrofitting activities at airports are expected to boost the ground handling segment. North America leads the passenger and baggage handling service market due to the presence of several international as well as domestic airports. The segment is likely to expand in APAC on account of an increase in domestic and international passengers in China and India. The cargo handling services segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% during the forecast period. According to IATA, the global demand for air freight increased by approximately 3% in 2018. The overall demand for air cargo is expected to resonate well in the coming years. The highly competitive air freight industry is projected to continue the growth curve in the coming years. The freight handling segment is likely to generate increased revenues during the forecast period. A number of airlines generate additional revenues from extra luggage per passenger. Airlines are also focusing on carrying more freight in their bellies. Not only passenger airlines, but cargo airlines also reported resilient growth in revenues in 2019. Europe leads the freight handling market, followed by North America. Passenger airlines account for the largest share of the ground and cargo handling services market. As passenger airlines carry the largest number of passengers and baggage, they are the main revenue generators for services providers. One of the factors is driving the revenue generation is the ongoing trend of combination airlines. A majority of airlines are primarily passenger airlines; however, they partner with several e-commerce companies to offer belly cargo space to carry express shipment, including perishable items, time-sensitive, and temperature-controlled products. Cargo airlines primarily focus on carrying the air freight from one place to another both on domestic and international routes. APAC is the largest export center for air freight, western countries remain the largest importer. Europe and APAC constitute high revenues due to currency valuation and the presence of several busiest cargo airports. Insights by Geography Europe dominates the global ground and cargo handling services market. The region has well-developed airports with state-of-the-art infrastructure to accommodate a large number of passengers. Passenger travel plays a major role in the economic operations of airports. Further, the growing number of LCC airlines is also fueling the growth of the airport ground service industry. The steadiness in the economy bodes well for the development of new airports as well as capacity increment within existing airlines to cater to the growing number of people preferring to travel by air. The growing economy of European countries allows for a high propensity of international travel per person as well. North America is one of the largest markets for ground and cargo handling services. In terms of standalone countries, the US accounts for the largest market in 2019. The demand for North American airlines increased by 4.4% in June 2019. According to the IATA, the comparatively robust economic backdrop in North America is expected to continue to support passenger departures. However, inbound travel is being affected by additional security measures in place to travel to the US. The ground and cargo handling services market in North America is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period. The US has the largest airports in the world in terms of passenger traffic. Key Vendor Analysis The global ground and cargo handling services market witnesses both monopoly and fair competition. The entry to the market is generally based on regulations set by airport managing authorities. The entry barriers for multinational ground and cargo handling service providing companies are often placed by state or federal governments to safeguard local airline subsidiaries. The marketplace is highly fragmented. The four largest handlers account for approximately 24% of the ground handling market. In 2019, over 35 million flight turnarounds were carried out globally, of which an estimated 10 million were outsourced by the airlines. By 2021, it is expected there will be approximately 44 million flight turnarounds undertaken globally, of which 45% will be outsourced, thus presenting rising opportunities for independent ground and cargo handling service providers. Key Topics Covered 1 Research Methodology 2 Research Objectives 3 Research Process 4 Scope & Coverage 4.1 Market Definition 4.1.1 Inclusions 4.1.2 Exclusions 4.2 Base Year 4.3 Scope of the Study 4.3.1 Market Segmentation by Geography 5 Report Assumptions & Caveats 5.1 Key Caveats 5.2 Currency Conversion 5.3 Market Derivation 6 Market at a Glance 7 Introduction 7.1 Overview 7.2 Positive Impact of Growing Airlines Industry 7.3 Global Economic Improvement to Aid Market Growth 8 Market Opportunities & Trends 8.1 Innovations in Ground & Cargo Handling Systems & Equipment 8.2 Increasing Freight in Passenger Airlines 9 Market Growth Enablers 9.1 Booming Air Travel & Freight Industry 9.2 Increase in Seat Capacity & Fleet of Airlines 9.3 Focus to Reduce Turnaround Times by Airlines 9.4 Establishment of New Airports & Stations 10 Market Restraints 10.1 Financial Stress on Airlines & Volatility in Fuel Prices 10.2 Lack of Skilled Workforce Causing Operational Hindrance 10.3 Halt of Airport Operations 10.3.1 Terrorism 10.3.2 Disease Outbreak & Natural Disasters 11 Market Landscape 11.1 Market Size & Forecast 11.2 Five Forces Analysis 11.2.1 Threat of New Entrants 11.2.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 11.2.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers 11.2.4 Threat of Substitutes 11.2.5 Competitive Rivalry 12 Services 12.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 12.2 Market Overview 12.2.1 Ground & Cargo Handling Services by Type 13 Ground Handling 13.1 Market Size & Forecast 13.2 Passenger & Baggage Handling 13.3 Airplane & Apron Handling 14 Cargo Handling 14.1 Market Size & Forecast 14.2 Freight Handling 14.3 Logistics 15 Airlines 15.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 15.2 Market Overview 15.3 Passenger Airlines 15.4 Cargo Airlines 15.5 Charter Airlines 16 Geography 16.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 16.2 Geographic Overview 16.2.1 Market by Geography 17 Europe 18 North America 19 APAC 20 Latin America 21 Middle East & Africa 22 Competitive Landscape 22.1 Competition Overview 22.2 Market Share Analysis 23 Key Company Profiles 23.1 Swissport 23.1.1 Business Overview 23.1.2 Product Offerings 23.1.3 Key Strategies 23.1.4 Key Strengths 23.1.5 Key Opportunities 23.2 DNATA 23.3 Menzies Aviation 23.4 Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) 24 Other Prominent Vendors 24.1 Bird Group 24.1.1 Business Overview 24.2 Celebi Aviation 24.3 SATS 24.4 Aviapartner 24.5 BBA Aviation 24.6 DHL 24.7 FRAPORT 24.8 Glamco Aviation 24.9 Primeflight Aviation 24.10 Havas 24.11 Transworld Aviation 24.12 Qatar Aviation Services 24.13 Jardine Aviation Services 24.14 Gategroup 24.15 POS Aviation 24.16 Goldair Handling 24.17 Aeromexico Services 24.18 Airline Assistance Switzerland 24.19 ACCIONA For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mknawh Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. OTTAWA, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of Project Learning Tree Canada (PLT Canada) released the following statement in response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus announcement this morning of funding through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy: Project Learning Tree Canada applauds the federal government for investing $492 million in addressing barriers to youth employment through Employment and Social Development Canadas (ESDC) Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) program. This important investment will help partners like PLT Canada better meet the needs of young people who are seeking jobs in todays challenging labour market. PLT Canada is excited for the opportunity to be able to continue to support youth, including those facing barriers, in navigating green career pathways. PLT Canada is pleased to see that todays announcements with Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough and Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Bardish Chagger, build on the modernized YESS by aiming to provide flexible, innovative solutions to the specific needs of youth facing socio-economic barriers in joining the workforce. Supporting full range of career pathways for youth PLT Canada is proud to be on track to connect more than 2,500 youth in 12 provinces and territories with diverse job opportunities across Canada, including in rural communities, in forest management, ecosystem and wildlife management, Indigenous forest-based programs, recreation and interpretation, conservation and research, education and in provincial/territorial parks through its Green Jobs initiative, funded to support goals outlined in the modernized YESS. This success is made possible by the organizations work with both the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Canadian Parks Council networks, and with over 200 employers across Canada. The strength of our network has supported gender balance and over 250 Indigenous youth across Canada. Just as importantly, PLT Canada is currently developing value-added career pathway tools, including a mentorship program, career development resources, and employer education materials. PLT Canada is also supporting youth to attend valuable networking opportunities. These valuable tools and experiences are helping to build career pathways and are designed to support all youth, including those who may be facing barriers. These projects will provide young Canadians with flexible and personalized support, employment services and opportunities that will have a lasting positive impact on their careers. Green Jobs Summit in Ottawa As a YESS program partner, we are pleased to welcome youth from across Canada to Ottawa on March 23-24 for the first PLT Canada Green Jobs Summit. Previous Green Jobs recipients from across Canada will come together to discuss barriers to employment and solutions to accessing diverse job opportunities that benefit their communities, the economy and the environment. We look forward to working with Minister Qualtrough and Minister Chagger, their departments and our employer partners in supporting even more youth. PLT Canada is poised to deliver the supports and job opportunities that will help them succeed in their green careers. About Project Learning Tree Canada An initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Project Learning Tree Canada believes in a society that values and benefits from sustainably managed forests and the great outdoors. PLT Canada is committed to using the outdoors to engage youth in learning about the world around themin rural, Indigenous and urban communitiesand using trees and forests as windows on the world to inspire action and grow the next generation of future forest and conservation leaders. Delhi, New Delhi -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/03/2020 -- In the year 1986, at the young age of 22, Mr. Hemant K Sharma launched Nepal Tourism Package as a proprietorship firm that focused on leisure and adventure tourism. Thereafter, this business gained Limited Status in the year 2000 under the name, NTP Tourism Affairs Limited, which now operates with diversified brands and activities. These activities and brands include Nepal Tourism Package (focusing on inbound Nepal), Kailash Yatra (focusing on Kailash Mansarovar Yatra), and NTP India Tourism (focusing on inbound India). In the latest industry meeting, the spokesperson of NTP Tourism Affairs Limited revealed, "We have registered offices in India and Nepal that have been operational for more than three decades. Currently, we also offer medical tourism from Nepal to India, along with educational and college allied activities in Nepal. We have a strong network of trusted local partners to cater to any of our guests' requests, from local transportation, accommodation and excursions to fully organized round trips for multiple weeks in solo, family or group settings." NTP offers several interesting tours that include trek packages to Annapurna Base Camp and Everest Base Camp. These packages are available at the most competitive rates. NTP provides a customized itinerary for these tours based on the specific trekking needs of tourists. The agency offers a guided tour, with a well-known guide to be with its guests as a cabby. During trekking to Annapurna Base Camp, NTP arranges the best available lodge for its guests. The frozen dawn there is best observed from the glacier moraine, a short stroll from their cozy room. The spokesperson further informed, "Annapurna Base Camp Trek is a popular moderate trekking trail in the Annapurna region of Nepal, located east of a great gorge cut through the Himalayas by the Kali Gandaki River. The Annapurna massif is an astonishing and unforgettable mountain range in the Himalayas. The valley floor, which encounters ice walls and great peaks, offers comfy camping spots in good weather. The maximum height we reach in this trekking trail is 4,190 m. It is best visited during September to November or February to June." Beautifully placed villages and pasture land alongside the scenic beauty of Himalayas are the most pleasing points for those who book Annapurna Base Camp trek package. On the other hand, the Mount Everest Base Camp trek also promises picturesque views. The best time to go on this tour is either the autumn season when the skies are clear or the spring season when rhododendrons are in bloom and the temperature is warm. About NTP Tourism Affairs Limited NTP Tourism Affairs Limited is a leading tour and travel agency in Nepal and India. Whether the tourists are looking for an affordable Ghorepani Poon Hill trek package or an all-inclusive Siliguri to Nepal tour package, the agency caters in the best possible way to their custom needs. NTP has a vast product range that goes from region-specific pilgrimage tours to leisure tours for spa and wellness enthusiasts. Travelers can also go on soft adventures, eco and agro tours, cultural excursions, yoga and meditation tours, wedding tours, and village, bird watching and photography tours. South Korean soldiers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, on March 4, 2020. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images) Coronavirus Exposes Globalizations Downside Amid Protective Equipment Shortages Experts say personal protective equipment shortages in the United States reveal dangerous levels of over-reliance on globalized supply chains. Ive been preaching the same message since 2007, said Mike Bowen, founder of the Secure Mask Supply Association, an organization that for years has been raising the alarm about the United States being at the mercy of foreign government-controlled production facilities of personal protective equipment that is critical in fighting epidemics. For fourteen years, Ive warned about Americas foreign-controlled mask supply, he told The Epoch Times in an email. Bowen, who also runs Prestige Ameritech, the nations biggest surgical mask manufacturer, said he has been working flat out since the outbreak hit headlines, trying to fill orders for protective masks of the type frontline responders and medical staff rely on when dealing with viral outbreaks like COVID-19. He warned that without a reliable domestic supply of masks, a Cover your Cough campaign will be the only defense. Unprecedented Potential Severe Health Challenge Globally Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar warned lawmakers on Feb. 25 that the United States faced a shortage of surgical masks and N95 respirators. He said the country has a stockpile of about 30 million N95 masks, but might need as many as 300 million during the outbreak. This is an unprecedented potential severe health challenge globally, Azar said. Panic buying and hoarding of masks have exacerbated the problem. Healthcare workers rely on personal protective equipment to protect themselves and their patients from being infected and infecting others, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a release on Tuesday. But shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons. The organization blamed the shortage on rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse, which it said is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases. The WHO has called on industry and governments to increase manufacturing by 40 percent to meet rising global demand amid the supply squeeze. Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first, said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The WHO estimates that since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the prices of surgical masks have increased by 600 percent, while those of N95 respirators have gone up threefold. In the wake of panic buying and hoarding of personal protective equipment like masks and hand sanitizer, some experts argue some of the gear is of limited utility to the general public. We need to make sure those N95 masks are available for the doctors and nurses that are going to be taking care of individuals that have this illness, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said during a House Foreign Affairs hearing on Feb. 27. And it really does displease me, to find people going out, there is no role for these masks in the community. Dr. James Robb, former professor of pathology and an early researcher on coronaviruses, said in a note widely shared online that masks will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth, but that they are useful in keeping people from touching their face, which is a major transmission mechanism. No handshaking! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, Robb advises at the top of his list of preventive measures. Bringing Manufacturing Back to America President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the coronavirus outbreak highlights the importance of bringing back to the United States previously offshored supply chains for badly needed drugs and gear. In a meeting between the Trump administrations Coronavirus Task Force and representatives of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said, The coronavirus shows the importance of bringing manufacturing back to America so that we are producing, at home, the medicines and equipment and everything else that we need to protect the publics health. We want to make certain things at home. We want to be doing our manufacturing at home. Its not only done in China; its done in many other places, including Ireland, and a lot of places make our different drugs and things that we need so badly, Trump said. The president added steps were being taken to mitigate the risk to public health of reliance on other countries for key drugs and equipment. Two U.S. officials told Reuters that the administration is considering invoking special powers through a law called the Defense Production Act to rapidly expand domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing to combat the coronavirus. Reuters said one of the officials was from the Department of Homeland Security, while the other was from the White House, and that both requested anonymity to discuss the issue. The law grants the president broad authority to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the U.S. industrial base to support military, energy, space, and homeland security programs, according to a summary on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website. Most Urgent Possible Wake-up Call Trade expert Alan Tonelson praised the Trump administrations efforts to reshore key manufacturing capacity, calling reliance on China for Americas medical supplies a policy failure. A U.S. economy heavily reliant on vital medicines and their ingredients from an increasingly hostile and secretive China is a devastating indictment of pre-Trump national security and public health policy, Tonelson told The Epoch Times in an email. But the purely economic effects shouldnt be overlooked either, as globalist leaders also encouraged the buildup of China as a huge global manufacturing hub, and thereby exposed Americans to the risk of shortages and other supply chain risks in a wide variety of critical products. All Americans should demand that the coronavirus outbreak be regarded by Washington as the most urgent possible wake-up call, Tonelson added. Lido Surface Data NEXTView receives EASA Service Provider Type 1 Certificate, becoming the first certified aviation terrain product on the market RAUNHEIM, Germany, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Lufthansa Systems and Intermap Technologies announced that Lido Surface Data NEXTView has received the Service Provider Type 1 Certificate from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Lido Surface Data NEXTView is the world's first high-resolution, global terrain dataset specifically designed for the aviation industry. It provides the highest quality of data with continual updates and incorporates Lido's aerodrome database, significantly increasing the accuracy around aerodromes. The solution is currently the only certified digital surface model on the market that fulfills all relevant industry standards. Lido Surface Data NEXTView was developed in collaboration with Intermap Technologies, an industry leader in geospatial intelligence solutions with long-standing expertise in the field of digital elevation models. "We are extremely proud to be the first to receive an EASA certificate for our newly developed terrain product" said Michael Sauter, Senior Product Owner for Aeronautical Data at Lufthansa Systems. "Lido Surface Data NEXTView is further enriching our aeronautical data portfolio and provides a fundamental database for the increasingly digitally driven future of mobility." With the newly certified terrain product, Lufthansa Systems is enabling the aviation industry to further enhance solutions such as: synthetic vision systems (SVS) as well as enhanced and combined vision systems (EVS, CVS), which provide pilots with greater situational awareness; and terrain awareness and ground proximity warning systems (TAWS, EGPWS), which allow aircraft and helicopters to maintain a safe distance from the ground. Furthermore, the solution serves the wider aviation market by enabling the development of innovative applications for: flight planning, procedure design and performance calculations; and drone operations and drone planning, increasing the efficiency of flight operations. "This announcement is a milestone for Intermap Technologies' data business," said Patrick Blott, Chairman and CEO of Intermap Technologies. "With the certification of Lido Surface Data NEXTView, we are now able to work with our partners at Lufthansa Systems to consistently and globally deliver high-resolution information that aviators and airlines need to improve the customer experience, navigation and safety. Commercial airlines, UAV companies and governments all over the world can rely on their subscriptions to the Lido Surface Data NEXTView data to power critical automated systems and make flying even safer and more efficient." Further images can be found in the download section of our website at: https://www.lhsystems.com/about-us/downloads/image-library About Intermap Technologies Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap is a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions. The Company's proprietary NEXTMap database and value-added geospatial data management, processing, analytics, fusion and orthorectification software and solutions are utilized across a range of industries that rely on accurate, high-resolution elevation data, including aviation, engineering, environmental planning, government markets, hydrology, insurance, land management, law enforcement and patrol, oil and gas, renewable energy, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. Intermap's commercial applications include location-based intelligence, risk assessment, geographic information systems, global positioning systems and 3D visualization. For more information, please visit www.intermap.com. About Lufthansa Systems Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co. KG is a leading airline IT provider. Based on long-term project experience, a deep understanding of complex business processes and strong technological know-how, the company provides consulting and IT services for the global aviation industry. Over 350 customers worldwide rely on the know-how of IT specialists at Lufthansa Systems. Its portfolio covers innovative IT products and services which provide added value for its customers in terms of enhanced efficiency, reduced costs or increased profits. The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020 and, in addition to its headquarters in Raunheim near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, it has offices in 16 countries. SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation Related Links www.intermap.com American drivers are at their angriest at 6pm on a Friday night in August, especially if they live in Hawaii.These are the findings that researchers from insurance news and information website Auto Insurance Center (AIC) discovered after analysing 65,535 Instagram posts with the hashtag #RoadRage.High temperatures, more holidaymakers taking to the streets, and motorists at a higher chance of consuming alcohol led to a perfect storm for road rage, the researchers found.The data revealed the cities, states, months and even the most common words associated with road rage, which include traffic, stuck, work, crazy and, not surprisingly, numerous expletives.States with high tourism were found to have higher road rage posts, with Hawaii topping the list at 5,872 posts possibly since traffic in Honolulu ranks as the third worst in the US.Los Angeles topped the list of cities with the most road rage, followed by New York City.The AIC launched the study after data collated by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed the number of fatal accidents caused by road rage or aggressive driving had risen dramatically since 2004.While the analysis revealed many trends, the researchers explained it did not highlight the grim truth of road rage, which is often tied to violence, injury and death.Allowing extra time, adjusting your schedule to avoid the worst traffic, and listening to music were all recommended as ways to curb feelings of anger.They also suggested breathing deeply, taking a break to stretch your legs or having some water if anger does begin to build.And for those on the receiving end of road rage, they said to never challenge another motorist, ignore any obscenities, and avoid using the horn unnecessarily.The researchers added that even posting on Instagram could have a beneficial effect.The rise of social media has given motorists new ways to vent their driving-related frustrations a much better option than expressing anger while behind the wheel.#RoadRage in the United States:1. August2. July3. October1. 6:00 pm2. 5:00 pm3. 4:00 pm1. Hawaii2. California3. New York4. New Jersey1. Hawaii2. Los Angeles, CA3. New York City, NY Bismah Malik By Express News Service BENGALURU: There is a new twist in the ongoing tussle between e-commerce companies and traders as the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday directed the anti-trust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) to initiate a probe against Flipkart for misusing its dominant market position. NCLAT also asked CCIs director-general to probe the unfair practices of Walmart-backed Flipkart. A three-member NCLAT bench said it has set aside the CCIs 2018 order that stated Flipkart is not in a dominant position in the e-marketplace in the country, hence there is no question of abusing their position as claimed by the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA). AIOVA later appealed to NCLAT, alleging Flipkart is entering into selective agreements with certain sellers, violating Section 4 (2) (a) of the Competition Act and indulging in deep discounting, thus denying fair market access to other sellers. Legal experts told this publication that the NCLATs order could affect the interim stay directed by the Karnataka High Court last month on the CCIs probe into the alleged malpractices of Amazon and Flipkart. Amazons legal counsel team had, according to sources, extensively quoted CCIs 2018 order favouring Flipkart, and hence quashing the same order is likely to impact the judgement. The NCLAT order is a big shot in the arm of CAIT, which is spearheading a legal fight and other agitation against Amazon and Flipkart. This order is certainly going to impact the stay granted by the Karnataka High Court against investigation into Amazon and Flipkart matter. Our lawyers will examine the implications of the order, then we will decide our future course of legal action, said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general, Confederation of All India Traders. In January 2020, CCI had asked its director-general to complete the probe into the alleged business malpractices of Amazon and Flipkart within 60 days after a Delhi-based traders body filed a fresh appeal accusing the e-commerce giants of violating various provisions of the Competition Act. Meanwhile, Flipkart, when contacted, said, We understand that the NCLAT has issued an order in relation to the AIOVA appeal. We are currently awaiting a copy of the order. Amazon India, when contacted, didnt reply to the query. Buenos Aires [Argentina], Mar 4 (ANI): Health authorities in Argentina and Chile on Tuesday confirmed their first cases of the Novel Coronavirus, as the number of infection cases continued to spread across South America. A 43-year-old man who recently returned to the capital Buenos Aires on Sunday from a trip to Italy, while a 33-year-old Chilean man who had spent a month in South-East Asia were confirmed as the first coronavirus cases in the Latin American neighbours, Xinhua news agency reported. "The man visited several places in Europe, but mainly Italy," Argentina Health Minister Gines Gonzalez was quoted as saying at a press conference. The patient told healthcare workers that he lives alone and had not gone out socially, so the chances of having infected others were low. In Latin America, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have also reported cases of the Coronavirus. (ANI) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Abdul Qadir Sediqi and Charlotte Greenfield (Reuters) Kabul, Afghanistan Wed, March 4, 2020 17:37 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068444f3 2 World US-Taliban,Afghanistan,Afghan-war,troop-deployment,withdrawal,violence Free The United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, a US forces spokesman said, the first such attack since a troop withdrawal agreement was signed between the two sides on Saturday. The Taliban fighters were "were actively attacking an (Afghan National Security Forces) checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," said Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan in a tweet. He said Washington was committed to peace but would defend Afghan forces if needed. "Taliban leadership promised the [international] community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments," he said. The airstrike was the first by the United States against the Taliban in 11 days, when a reduction in violence agreement had begun between the sides in the lead up to Saturday's pact. Since the signing, the Taliban had decided on Monday to resume normal operations against Afghan forces, though sources have said they would continue to hold back on attacks on foreign forces. The Taliban has so far declined to confirm or deny responsibility for any of the attacks and did not immediately respond to request for comment on the airstrike. On Tuesday, there were several attacks against Afghan officials blamed on the Taliban, including one at a security checkpoint near a copper mine that killed five Afghan policemen. A Ministry of Defense spokesman said on Wednesday that in the past 24 hours there had been clashes between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in nine provinces, including Helmand. A spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor said that the Taliban had attacked a security checkpoint in Washer district - a different district to the one in which the US carried out its airstrike - on Tuesday evening, killing two police officers. A defense ministry spokesman also confirmed an attack against an Afghan army base in the city of Kunduz and said there were seven casualties. The weekend agreement envisages a full withdrawal of all US and coalition forces within 14 months, dependent on security guarantees by the Taliban, but faces a number of hurdles as the United States tries to shepherd the Taliban and Afghan government towards talks. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 14:08:27|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close NEW YORK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 epidemic threatens to test global information ecosystem, as misinformation going viral on social media can amplify tensions and, as a result, breed a volatile political climate, an opinion piece in the New York Times has said. "In the event of widespread illness, we'll need to rely on accurate, vetted information to keep us safe," said the article titled "Coronavirus Will Test Our New Way of Life" on Monday. "While the internet has made distribution easier than ever before, the democratization of information has created platforms and advertising economies built to reward misinformation," it noted. The spread of misinformation hoaxes and rumors about the outbreak in China have plagued popular social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook while adapting to new platforms, it said. "Unverified videos from Chinese social media are shared by local Twitter influencers, viral WhatsApp forwards warn users of government advisories that don't actually exist, and people share bogus cures for the virus," the author quoted U.S. website BuzzFeed News' senior reporter Ryan Broderick as saying. It has been made clear over the past few years that "our social media ecosystem is easily hijacked to incentivize behavior from the worst actors, further amplifying existing tensions and disagreements," the article said. The result of the problem is "a volatile political climate, where news is weaponized for political gain," it noted, adding the state "is further exacerbated by black-box algorithms protected as corporate secrets that dictate the information we see." In the fallout, "trust in what we see online decreases, and news fatigue grows more widespread, especially among the least engaged political-news consumers," it said. "Should the virus reach extreme levels of infection globally, it would very likely be the first true test of the 21st-century way of life" defined by "constant connectivity," it said. People's way of life has shifted from individuals to markets, and from localized to globalized, the article explained, adding that so far this interconnectivity has largely been a strength. However, much like a virus exploits a small vulnerability, creating a chain of reactions that allow it to weaken its host, "a true global pandemic could work its way through the interconnected ecosystems that support our present way of life," it said. An encounter broke out on Wednesday between militants and security forces in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Dooniwara area, following information about the presence of militants there, a police official said. He said during the searches, the militants hiding in a house opened fire that was retaliated by the security forces. "The exchange of fire was going on till last reports came in," the official said, adding that there were no casualties reported so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Canadian Palladium Resources Inc. (CSE: BULL) (OTCQB: DCNNF) (FSE: DCR1) (formerly 21C Metals Inc.) (the "Company") announces that, pursuant to the terms of the Option Agreement entered into with Pavey Ark Minerals Inc. (the "Agreement") (see February 26, 2019 press release) to acquire a 100% interest in the East Bull palladium property (the "Property"), the Company confirms it has exceeded the contractual minimum exploration expenditures on the Property, issued 750,000 common shares of the Company, and made a $150,000 cash payment. Canadian Palladium's diamond drilling program is well underway on the Company's East Bull Palladium Property. With the recent closing of a $4 million non-brokered financing, the planned exploration program is fully funded. The objective of the program is to expand the Company's current NI 43-101 inferred resource of 523,000 ounces of Palladium equivalent (see July 3, 2019 press release). The present resource is defined over 1.8 kilometers and drilled down dip (-45o) to 125 meters. The ongoing program is testing the full 3.0 km length, to a depth of 240 meters. The Company's goal is to expand upon this inferred resource. To date, the Company has received sample results from the first diamond drill hole, EB-20-01, (see March 2, 2020 press release). Most notably, Canadian Palladium's hole EB20-01 intersected: 3.32g/t palladium over 7 meters 2.50 g/t palladium over 10 meters 3.77 g/t palladium + platinum + gold over 10 meters Including 7.13 g/t combined palladium + platinum + gold over 3 meters Pursuant to the Agreement, and over a period of four years (should the Company elect to continue), the Company is obliged to incur $1,750,000 in exploration expenditures, issue $975,000 in cash payments, and issue an aggregate of 4.5 million common shares of Canadian Palladium to Pavey Ark in accordance with the following schedule: Minimum Exploration Expenditures Common Shares Issued Cash Issued Due Date - - $25,000 On Term Sheet signing (issued) - 750,000 $75,000 Within 5 days of signing (issued) $250,000 750,000 $150,000 On or before March 1, 2020 (issued) $500,000 1,000,000 $200,000 On or before March 1, 2021 $500,000 1,000,000 $250,000 On or before March 1, 2022 $500,000 1,000,000 $300,000 On or before March 1, 2023 $1,750,000 4,500,000 $975,000 Canadian Palladium Resources Inc. Wayne Tisdale, President and CEO T: (604) 639-4472 Reader Advisory This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the proposed timing and completion of the private placement and the proposed use of proceeds from the private placement. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Canada and globally; industry conditions, including governmental regulation and environmental regulation; failure to obtain industry partner and other third party consents and approvals, if and when required; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; liabilities inherent in water disposal facility operations; competition for, among other things, skilled personnel and supplies; incorrect assessments of the value of acquisitions; geological, technical, processing and transportation problems; changes in tax laws and incentive programs; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53150 SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) is reminding InterXion (NYSE: INXN) shareholders to tender their shares before the close of business on Friday, March 6, 2020. InterXion shareholders will only be eligible to receive the Digital Realty first-quarter dividend if enough shareholders tender their shares by Friday such that the minimum condition is met. In addition, InterXion shareholders who do not tender will generally be subject to a 15% Dutch withholding tax.1 Finally, the tender offer technically expires at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Monday, March 9, 2020, or one minute after midnight on Sunday night / Monday morning. However, since the Depository Trust Company and the exchange agent are closed on Saturday and Sunday, practically speaking, shareholders need to tender before the close of business in New York on Friday, March 6, 2020. No guaranteed delivery procedures apply. How to Tender Shares Shareholders of InterXion who hold shares through a brokerage firm should tender their shares by providing instructions to their broker. Other InterXion shareholders may tender their shares by following the instructions provided in the Letter of Transmittal circulated on January 29, 2020. InterXion shareholders who have questions or requests for assistance should contact Okapi Partners, the Information Agent for the Exchange Offer, by phone at (877) 629-6356 or (212) 297-0720, or via email at [email protected]. Regulatory Approval Update On Friday, February 28, 2020, Digital Realty and InterXion received approval for the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement from the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, the foreign investment regulatory authority. As a result, all regulatory approvals required under the Purchase Agreement have been obtained, and the condition of the Exchange Offer related to receipt of required regulatory approvals has been satisfied. Shareholder Vote Update At the extraordinary general meetings on Thursday, February 27, 2020, shareholders of Digital Realty and shareholders of InterXion both voted to approve the pending combination, with over 90% of votes cast by both sets of shareholders in favor of the proposals necessary to consummate the transaction. Opportunity for InterXion Shareholders to Receive Digital Realty's Declared Quarterly Dividend Separately on Thursday, February 27, 2020, Digital Realty's Board of Directors authorized a common stock cash dividend of $1.12 per share to common stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 17, 2020. If 80% or more of outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis are tendered by the expiration of the initial offering period and all other required conditions are satisfied as described below, tendering InterXion shareholders should be holders of record of Digital Realty stock as of the record date and have the opportunity to receive the first-quarter dividend. If the initial offering period is extended for any reason, InterXion shareholders would not be expected to become holders of record of Digital Realty common stock by the close of business on March 17, 2020, and consequently would not be entitled to receive the first-quarter dividend in any closing of the offer. Anticipated Timing for Completion of the Offer Digital Realty expects to complete the pending exchange offer for all outstanding ordinary shares of InterXion as soon as reasonably practicable. Subject to satisfaction of the remaining required conditions, if 80% or more of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis are validly tendered and not withdrawn at the expiration of the initial offering period, Digital Realty expects to accept the validly tendered shares as early as March 9, 2020, with the post-offer reorganization transactions to be completed as soon as practicable after the expiration of any subsequent offering period. Offer Expiration Unless the offer is extended, the initial offering period will expire at 12:01 a.m. EDT on March 9, 2020. (In other words, one minute after midnight on Sunday night / Monday morning. Please note, the Depository Trust Company and the exchange agent are closed on Saturdays and Sundays.) InterXion shareholders are encouraged to validly tender their shares before the close of normal New York business hours on Friday, March 6, 2020. No guaranteed delivery procedures apply. Lowering the Minimum Condition The offer is conditioned upon receipt by Digital Intrepid Holding B.V. ("Buyer"), a subsidiary of Digital Realty Trust, Inc., of a number of InterXion shares having been validly tendered and not withdrawn that would allow Buyer to acquire at least 80% of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis at the closing of the offer. If less than 80% but more than 66 2/3% of the outstanding InterXion shares are tendered in the initial offering period, Digital Realty or Buyer may elect to reduce the minimum condition to 66 2/3% of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis, in which case the offer shall be extended for at least five business days (and no subsequent offering period will be provided). Digital Realty or Buyer may also reduce the minimum condition to 66 2/3% prior to the expiration of the initial offering period (in which case a subsequent offering period will be provided). Digital Realty or Buyer may reduce the minimum condition below 66 2/3% with prior written consent from InterXion, subject to compliance with applicable laws. Treatment of Untendered Shares after the Offer As promptly as practicable following the later of the time at which Buyer accepts the tendered InterXion shares and the expiration of any applicable subsequent offering period, the parties shall initiate the post-offer reorganization. If less than 95% of the outstanding InterXion shares are acquired by Buyer in the offer, the post-offer reorganization will result in non-tendering holders of InterXion receiving shares of Digital Realty common stock (and/or cash in lieu of fractional shares of Digital Realty common stock) pursuant to a liquidation distribution (rather than the offer). Non-tendering holders of InterXion shares who receive shares of Digital Realty common stock (and/or cash in lieu of fractional shares of Digital Realty common stock) pursuant to the liquidation distribution generally will be subject to a 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax. If 95% or more of the outstanding InterXion shares are acquired by Buyer in the offer, Buyer will initiate Dutch compulsory acquisition proceedings, which will enable it to acquire the remaining InterXion shares against a cash amount as determined by a competent Dutch court. Non-tendering holders of InterXion shares who receive cash pursuant to Dutch compulsory acquisition proceedings will not be subject to the 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax. However, this process may materially delay non-tendering InterXion shareholders' receipt of this cash consideration. Please refer to the offer to purchase for more information and a full description of the summaries above. About Digital Realty Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) supports the data center, colocation and interconnection strategies of customers across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and consumer products. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. For Additional Information Andrew P. Power Chief Financial Officer Digital Realty (415) 738-6500 Investor Relations John J. Stewart (415) 738-6500 [email protected] Media Inquiries John Christiansen / Reze Wong / Celia de Pentheny O'Kelly Sard Verbinnen & Co (415) 618-8750 [email protected] Additional Information and Where to Find It On December 6, 2019, Digital Realty filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4 in connection with the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement, dated as of October 29, 2019, as amended, among Digital Realty, InterXion Holding N.V. and Buyer, which included a proxy statement/prospectus. This communication is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any proxy, vote or approval with respect to the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The registration statement was declared effective by the SEC on January 27, 2020. Digital Realty has mailed a definitive proxy statement/prospectus to shareholders of Digital Realty and Buyer filed a Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO with the SEC on January 29, 2020. InterXion filed a Solicitation / Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect to the exchange offer on January 29, 2020. The solicitation and offer to purchase the ordinary shares of InterXion will only be made pursuant to the Schedule TO and related offer to purchase. This material is not a substitute for the proxy statement / prospectus, the Schedule TO, the Schedule 14D-9 or the Registration Statement or for any other document that Digital Realty or InterXion may file with the SEC and send to Digital Realty's stockholders or InterXion's shareholders in connection with the proposed transactions. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION OR DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFER, WE URGE INVESTORS OF DIGITAL REALTY AND INTERXION TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROXY STATEMENT / PROSPECTUS, SCHEDULE TO (INCLUDING AN OFFER TO PURCHASE, RELATED LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL AND OTHER OFFER DOCUMENTS) AND SCHEDULE 14D-9, AS EACH MAY BE AMENDED OR SUPPLEMENTED FROM TIME TO TIME, AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED BY DIGITAL REALTY AND INTERXION WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DIGITAL REALTY, INTERXION AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTIONS. Investors can obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, proxy statement/prospectus, Schedule TO and Schedule 14D-9, as each may be amended from time to time, and other relevant documents filed by Digital Realty and InterXion with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov, the SEC's website, or free of charge from Digital Realty's website (http://www.digitalrealty.com) or by contacting Digital Realty's Investor Relations Department at (415) 848-9311. These documents are also available free of charge from InterXion's website (http://www.interxion.com) or by contacting InterXion's Investor Relations Department at (813) 644-9399. Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Digital Realty cautions that statements in this communication that are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties that may impact actual results of operations of Digital Realty, InterXion and the combined company. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the exchange offer and completion of the proposed transactions contemplated by the purchase agreement between them. Although we believe the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: the risk that a condition to the closing of the anticipated combination may not be satisfied, on the anticipated timeline or at all or that the anticipated combination may fail to close; the outcome of any legal proceedings, regulatory proceedings or enforcement matters that may be instituted relating to the anticipated combination; the costs incurred to consummate the anticipated combination; the possibility that the expected synergies from the anticipated combination will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; difficulties related to the integration of the two companies; disruption from the anticipated combination making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees, regulators or suppliers; the diversion of management time and attention on the anticipated combination; adverse changes in the markets in which Digital Realty and InterXion operate or credit markets; and changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, and other modifications and actions by customers and other business counterparties of Digital Realty and InterXion. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of these and other risk factors, please see (i) Digital Realty's filings with the SEC, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and (ii) InterXion's filings with the SEC, including its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018 and its subsequent reports on Form 6-K. This communication reflects the views of Digital Realty's management as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, Digital Realty undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. SOURCE Digital Realty Related Links http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com New Delhi: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, in a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) informed that as many as 28 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in India. Apart from the three cases from Kerala who were cured, there is one case each in Delhi and Hyderabad, six from Agra and 17 people from Jaipur (a group of 16 Italians and 1 Indian). The minister said, "We have requested Delhi government to remain fully prepared if the cases increases and to develop high-quality isolation wards if needed in future. Our health officials have visited and reviewed the facilities anticipating the outbreak." He said that 19 more laboratories have been established making it a total of 34 functional laboratories. The Italian group had come to India on February 21, Italy wasn't a part of the universal screening at airports that point of time. One of the tourists was found positive in Jaipur, they wanted to go back but they were put in isolation at the ITBP camp and placed them in quarantine. It is believed that the infected person gave the infection to his wife who has also tested positive. Out of the group, 14 more people were found positive. Their Indian driver has also been found positive for coronavirus. A total of 17 people from that group. Follow LIVE updates here The one confirmed case from Delhi had a travel history to Italy, it is reported that he has been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital. At least six other people reported of high viral fever from the Taj city (Agra) on March 3. Reports claimed that these are the same people who were in contact with the COVID-19 patient from New Delhi. All the six people have been kept in an isolation and their samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for confirmation. The person from Hyderabad had recently returned from Dubai. Read | Three active coronavirus cases confirmed in India, Centre issues fresh travel advisory The first cases were reported from Kerala in the month of January 2020, but after being administered 'treatment' they were later discharged in February. According to officials of the Government Medical College Hospital, the decision to discharge was taken by the Medical Board after the patients' samples had tested negative for the second time. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released basic preventive measures to avoid the spread of the deadly virus in the country. The measures 'Help us to Help you' states: -Wash your hands frequently -Maintain social distancing -Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth -Practice respiratory hygiene by covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze -If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care at the earliest -Stay informed and follow the advice given by your healthcare provider India curbs exports of common drugs as coronavirus fears intensify Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also released some more measures to follow while using a mask and said: - Before putting on a mask, clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water - Cover your mouth and nose with a mask and make sure there are no gaps - Replace the mask with a new one as soon as it is damp - Do not reuse single-use masks - Remove the mask from behind and avoid touching the front of the mask - Discard the mask immediately in a closed bin after use The government has also released a 24/7 helpline number +91-11-2397 8046 and an email id ncov2019@gmail.com through which people can get more information in this regard and can seek help in case of any coronavirus emergency. Globally, more than 3,100 people have died as a result of the virus, the vast majority of them in China. More than 90,000 people have been infected, with cases registered in more than 60 countries. PartnerRe today is a stronger company, with a more complete and efficient business, stated EXOR chair and chief executive John Elkann. We have now been presented with an outstanding chance for PartnerRe to further strengthen its competitive advantage while providing important new opportunities for its people under Coveas ownership. We are proud to have fulfilled EXORs purpose of building another great company and are grateful to PartnerRes board, leadership, and people for all they have done to make this possible. Commenting on the deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2020, PartnerRe CEO Emmanuel Clarke noted: Over the past four years, under EXORs ownership, we have strengthened PartnerRes position as a global, diversified reinsurer, thanks to a continuous focus on enhancing our client and broker franchise, our underwriting and investments portfolios, and our operational efficiency. And Im confident we are in a very good position to further evolve under our new ownership. EXOR, the holding company whose portfolio includes Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, acquired PartnerRe in 2016 for $6.72 billion in cash. In a Bizarre Biological Twist, a Mother Lion Adopted a Leopard Cub in India Smith A woman almost got trampled when she tried to pet a moose in Colorado CNN Facebook is shifting its Libra cryptocurrency plans after intense regulatory pressure The Verge Central banks and fintech data issues (PDF) Bank of International Settlements. Fintech creates important data gaps. Mastercard is pioneering new payment technology that identifies commuters by the way they walk MarketWatch. From February, still germane. #COVID-19 U.S. Weighs Paying Hospitals for Treating Uninsured Coronavirus Patients WSJ. The National Disaster Medical System, as devised by Carlos Mucha and promoted at NC Monday [lambert preens]. If Trump really does want to own the libs, this would be a brilliant way to do it. From the WSJ: We encourage the department to look at using a national disaster program as an option because no one should think twice about seeking screening or treatment due to costs, said Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association. We also urge them to cover both patients who have coronavirus and those who are under investigation for coronavirus. A 1918-like pandemic would cause U.S. hospitals to absorb a net loss of $3.9 billion, or an average $784,592 per hospital, according to a 2007 report in the Journal of Health Care Finance that called on policy makers to consider contingencies to ensure hospitals dont become insolvent as a result of a severe pandemic. The National Disaster Medical System is subject to available funds and reimburses doctors and health facilities that provide care to eligible natural-disaster patients under specific guidelines if care isnt available in their local area. It has been used in the past for situations such as Hurricane Irma in 2017, when about 85 patients were covered under the program. U.S. Hospitals Say Theyre Ready for Coronavirus. Their Infection Control Violations Say Otherwise. ProPublica (Re Silc). Priorities for the US Health Community Responding to COVID-19 JAMA. One important goal of public health response efforts now should be diminishing the speed of spread and the peak of the epidemic curve. In seasonal influenza and pandemic influenza, cities have experienced peaks at different times in the epidemic. Working to slow the spread of disease in a city could help diminish the peak burden of disease. The most important public health interventions to slow the spread will be rapid diagnosis and isolation of cases. Why America is so vulnerable to coronavirus The Week. U.S. health care is not only by far the worst system among rich countries, it is much worse than that of many middle-income or poorer countries when it comes to confronting a fast-moving epidemic. Distributing a vaccine is not that difficult of a task World Health Organization workers managed it with smallpox even in desperately poor African countries in the 1970s. You just round up everyone, and give out the shot. But that will be a heavy lift indeed with a health care system geared above all to price-gouge sick people out of as much money as possible. * * * HandHygiene Mitigation Strategies Against Global Disease Spreading through the Air Transportation Network Risk Analysis. From 2019, still germane. By increasing travelers engagement with hand hygiene at all airports, a potential pandemic can be inhibited by 24% to 69%. In addition, we identify 10 airports at the core of a costoptimal deployment of the handwashing mitigation strategy. Increasing handwashing rate at only those 10 influential locations, the risk of a pandemic could potentially drop by up to 37%. Those 10 key airports of the global airtransportation network are AMS, CDG, DXB, FRA, HKG, JFK, LAX, LHR, PEK, and SFO (sorted alpha for your convenience. In rank order: LHR, LAX, JFK, CDG, DXB, FRA, HKG, PEK, SFO, and AMS). Coronavirus pushes aviation sector into crisis zone FT Airlines Balk at U.S. Push for More Traveler Data in Virus Hunt Bloomberg. About 26% of passengers dont have a phone number in their travel record and 44% dont have an email, according to Airlines for America, a lobbying group. More handwashing tips: You're supposed to wash your hands for 20 sec, which is the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice. But I'm tired of singing Happy Birthday and you probably are too, so I've done the very important public service of compiling other songs with roughly 20 sec choruses to sing: Jen Monnier (@JenMonnier) March 2, 2020 * * * Amazon employee in Seattle tests positive for coronavirus GeekWire Washington State risks seeing explosion in coronavirus cases without dramatic action, new analysis says STAT News Perfect Storm: Washington virus deaths highlight risk at nursing homes Reuters * * * Coronavirus and the Politics of Care Law and Political Economy Four disastrous mistakes that leaders make during epidemics WaPo. President Dwight D. Eisenhower facilitated a free vaccination program for children with the release of Jonas Salks polio vaccine. CDC blocked FDA official from premises Politico The economic effects of a pandemic Mainly Macro (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Russia aims to further strengthen diverse ties with Kyrgyzstan, including military cooperation, to ensure regional stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony of Russia-Kyrgyzstan cross year. Earlier in the day, Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov held a meeting in Moscow, during which the leaders discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, as well as the development of cooperation in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. The leaders also took part in the ceremony launching the cross years of the two countries. "I would like to stress that Russia is aimed at further strengthening its diverse ties with Kyrgyzstan in every possible way. We hope that this will be greatly facilitated by the successful holding of the Russian-Kyrgyz cross year," Putin said, noting the Moscow and Bishkek's ties had reached the level of strategic partnership. The Russian president added that Russia and Kyrgyzstan were jointly working to ensure the regional stability and cooperated in the defense sphere, including within the Collective Security Treaty Organization. According to Putin, Russia and Kyrgyzstan are also implementing joint projects in the mining industry, transport and high technology sectors. At the same time, Russia is the main supplier of energy resources to Kyrgyzstan, while Russian universities train qualified personnel for the Kyrgyz economy. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) San Francisco voters took to the polls Tuesday and appeared to approve four measures on the ballot with Proposition D too close to call, according to the preliminary election results. Proposition A appeared to garner more than 70 percent of the vote, well above the 55 percent needed to pass. The measure asked voters whether to allow the City College of San Francisco District to sell $845 million in bonds to renovate the school's buildings, including seismic retrofitting and environmentally sustainable upgrades. Tuesday's preliminary results also showed 81 percent of San Franciscans approved Proposition B, much more than the two-thirds of the vote needed. Prop B sought approval for the city to sell $628.5 million in bonds to finance infrastructure improvements at the city's fire and police stations, as well as other disaster response facilities like the city's 911 call center. The money would also be used to expand the city's emergency firefighting water system, a 135-mile-long network of high-pressure pipelines and saltwater pumping stations used to combat fires. Early election results also showed 68 percent of voters approved Proposition C, surpassing the simple majority needed for approval. The measure asked voters whether to continue providing former Housing Authority employees rehired by the city between March 7, 2019 and March 1, 2021, retiree healthcare coverage based on their combined years of service and date of hire. Super Tuesday Protesters somehow get on stage during Biden CA speech Back in March 2019, dozens of Housing Authority employees received layoff notices after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated the city assume responsibility of the agency due to several defaulted agreements and obligations. Under the new arrangement, the city announced it would begin managing the agency and contract third-party experts to administer housing vouchers and public housing programs for the 14,000 San Franciscans who rely on them. Though a deal with the mayor's office, however, many of the laid-off workers were either transitioned into other city jobs, or given severance packages. Proposition D garnered 68 percent of the vote in the preliminary numbers, just above the two-thirds majority needed to pass. Prop D would allow the city to tax property owners in certain commercial districts who allow their ground-floor spaces to go vacant for more than 182 days. The tax would start at $250 per linear foot of the space the first year, and then double each year after that. Proposition E also appeared to narrowly pass, as preliminary election results indicated it garnered more than 55 percent approval. The measure, which needed a simple majority to pass, asked voters whether to restrict large office projects if the city fails to meet state mandated affordable housing goals. A 1986 proposition approved by voters limits new office developments annually, but Prop E would bring the number of large projects even lower, to the same percentage as the housing shortfall. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored judicial probe into the communal violence in Delhi, in which at least 42 people lost their lives. Addressing Trinamool Congress workers at a meeting in Sujapur in Malda district, Banerjee said, "In Bengal, for trivial issues, they (BJP) demand CBI inquiries. But even after the killing of so many people in Delhi, there has been no judicial probe. We want a judicial inquiry in this case under the supervision of the Supreme Court." Banerjee alleged the "Gujarat model of riots" was replicated in the national capital. Asserting that divisive forces won't be allowed in Bengal, she called for a united fight to tackle such situations. "We believe in humanity, in unity among different communities, in love and not hatred, we will never allow such clashes, such violence to take place in Bengal. We will repulse them with all our might," she said. Slamming the Centre's disinvestment plans, Banerjee said, "They are on a selling spree - from rail, BSNL, Air India, LIC to banks. And if people are protesting they are crushing the protests in a brutal manner." "They (BJP) are a cash-rich party. They are killing on one hand and distributing money (among people) under the garb of some NGOs on the other. Please don't accept money from them, the state government will come to your help in every situation despite its modest financial strength," she said. Accusing the BJP of trying to topple the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government, she said, "They are so shameless that they are trying to destabilise an elected government. They are using money power there." The TMC supremo called upon her party leaders in Malda to sink differences and work shoulder to shoulder with an eye on the assembly elections in 2021 and win all the seats in the district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As concerns grow over the outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, public health officials are telling people that the No. 1 thing they can do is to properly wash their hands. While washing hands is the preferred way to clean your hands, soap and water arent always available. Thats when the World Health Organization recommends using an alcohol-based formulation, like hand sanitizer. CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: FULL COVERAGE Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: Email: But if you think you can just give your fingers a quick rubdown with a dab of hand sanitizer, the WHO says youre not going far enough. They recommend that people follow these 8 steps to clean hands using hand sanitizer, which takes about 40 seconds total. Apply a palmful of hand sanitizer in a cupped hand, using enough to cover all surfaces. Rub hands palm to palm. Use the palm of each hand to rub the back of the other hand, interlacing fingers. Rub hands palm-to-palm with fingers interlaced. Rub the backs of fingers in opposing palms with fingers interlocked. Rub each thumb in the palm of the other finger in a rotational direction. Using rotational rubbing, go backwards and forwards with clasped fingers of each hand in other palm. Once the hand sanitizer is dry, youre done! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. The CDC cautions that sanitizers do not get rid of all types of germs, and their effectiveness goes down if your hands are really dirty or greasy. Also, they might not remove chemicals or other contaminants that might be on your hands, like pesticides. Tell us: How is Oregons coronavirus outbreak affecting you? -- Grant Butler gbutler@oregonian.com 503-221-8566; @grantbutler Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Nancy Pelosi has branded Donald Trump 'the most dangerous person in the history of America' who 'doesn't tell the truth'. In an interview with Variety, the Speaker of the House warned that the country 'can't withstand another four years of his presidency' when discussing her frustrations with the Trump administration. She claims the President does not respect the Constitution and that his pattern of lying is 'harming children'. 'I have real problems with this president because he doesn't tell the truth, he doesn't honor the Constitution and he's harming children. My whole message is about children. Anybody who hurts children I'm a lioness. Watch out,' she told the publication. Nancy Pelosi has branded Donald Trump 'the most dangerous person in the history of America' who 'doesn't tell the truth' Pelosi went on to say that she believes Trump to be the most 'dangerous' person the country has ever had as president. 'We have the most dangerous person in the history of our country sitting in the White House,' she told the publication. When discussing her hopes for the nomination process, the Speaker of the House explained she wanted Democrats to 'winnow' down the field of candidates because 'our country cannot withstand another four years of Donald Trump'. 'Hopefully as we winnow down the number of candidates, that big distinction between the two parties will be [evident] there,' Pelosi says. The Speaker of the House warned that the country 'can't withstand another four years of his presidency' when discussing her frustrations with the Trump administration 'It has to be. Because our country cannot withstand another four years of Donald Trump. The courts, the press, the environment everything is ' But Pelosi, who is the highest-ranking Democrat in elected office, believes the country has the power to 'withstand' Trump. 'The greatness of America is such that we will withstand what [Trump] has done and move on from that. I feel confident about our ability to do that,' she told the publication. Speaker Pelosi has emerged as a tour de force against President Trump and the pair have a long-running feud. Speaker Pelosi is the highest-ranking Democrat in elected office and has emerged as a tour de force against President Trump It comes after Pelosi scorned Trump's response to the coronavirus crisis Wednesday, saying: 'I don't think the president knows what he's talking about - once again.' The Speaker's sideswipe at the president came after he claimed the response was 'great,' boasted nobody had died and tweeted Fox News guests praising him despite lawmakers from both parties expressing concern about the country's preparations for a crisis. 'CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world,' he tweeted, in apparent backing for Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services Secretary. But Democrats and Republicans both demanded billions more be allocated for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fight the virus' spread, in a sign of bipartisan unease at the Trump administration's response. Atheists in Kenya(AIK) have slammed Deputy President William Ruto, accusing him of advancing religious nationalism. This follows a recent remark by the DP that Kenya is a God-fearing nation during a public address in Western Kenya. Speaking at the Anglican Church of Kenya in Khwisero on Sunday, DP Ruto said: I want to say for the avoidance of doubt that Kenya is a country of prayer and not reggae and magicians. According to Atheists in Kenya, DP Rutos remark was nothing short of religious arrogance. We have been drawn to recent remarks made by the Deputy President, Dr. William Ruto to the effect that Kenya is a God-fearing nation. This kind of religious arrogance has no place in Kenyas democracy. We are concerned that the Deputy President is advancing religious nationalism. Given that he holds a key Constitutional office, such remarks demean the status of his office and pose threat to our Constitutionalism, AIK said in a statement on Tuesday. AIK Chairperson Harrison Mumia and Vice-Chairperson Francis Maende noted that Kenya is a secular State as established in Article 8 of the constitution. Article 27 of our constitution guarantees freedom of religion as well as freedom from religion for all Kenyans. Article 8 establishes Kenya as a secular state. William Ruto is perverting the spirit of our Constitution by insisting that his religious views (or the religious views of the majority) should be normative for all citizens, AIK said. They further argue that the fact that census data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that 700,000 Kenyans are atheists means Kenya is a diverse nation. At the same time, a number of incumbent ministers will retain their posts. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, at its extraordinary meeting today, March 4, may stop short of appointing a number of ministers in the new Cabinet as part of a major government reshuffle initiated by President Volodymyr Zelensky. That's according to deputy chair of the leading "Servant of the people" faction, Yevhenia Kravchuk, lb.ua reports. "I wouldn't like to comment on all the names, but I really can confirm that incumbent Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk wrote a letter of resignation, it was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, and Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov confirmed this. Also, at the meeting, President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a new candidate for the post of Prime Minister incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. And he, Mr. Shmyhal, has already proposed his candidates to the Cabinet," she told reporters following the faction's working meeting. Read alsoMember of Parliament shares list of possible members of government At the same time, Kravchuk noted that candidacies for top posts in four ministries had not been agreed yet. "As I understand it, if decisions are not finally made, part of the ministries will be working for some time with the acting ministers," she said. Kravchuk noted that a number of current ministers would retain their posts in the new Cabinet: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Justice Denys Malyuska, Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov, and Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Dmytro Kuleba, who is also set to combine his post with that of the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs. A Virgin Atlantic plane in Orlando airport. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images) Virgin Atlantic said on Wednesday that its chief executive and senior leaders would take significant short-term pay cuts in the coming months, as the airline introduces a recruitment freeze across the company in response to the coronavirus fallout. CEO Shai Weiss will take a 20% pay cut from April to the end of July, while the companys executive leadership team have agreed to a 15% salary reduction. The airline has also proposed a deferral of annual pay increases from March until August, when it will reassess the impact of coronavirus on its business. READ MORE: Wizz Air latest airline to cut flights due to coronavirus Virgin Atlantic on Wednesday called the coronavirus outbreak dynamic and fast-moving and said that the health and safety of its customers remained its absolute priority. The airline, which has restricted non-essential staff travel and training, said it was taking these measures to ensure that the company was in a robust position to weather the storm. Virgin Atlantic previously announced the suspension of flights between Londons Heathrow Airport and Shanghai, and has also reduced the frequency of its service to Hong Kong. It said on Wednesday that it will defer the commencement of its new service between Sao Paulo and Heathrow until the winter. READ MORE: Ryanair and BA cancel hundreds of flights due to coronavirus outbreak We continue to review our flying programme and additional changes will be made as the situation evolves, Virgin Atlantic. Earlier on Wednesday, low-cost airline Wizz Air (WIZZ.L) became the latest carrier to warn about the impact of coronavirus on its business. Hungarian-based Wizz Air said on Wednesday demand for flights in Europe had been hit by the outbreak of the virus. As a result, it has made adjustments to its schedule, including cutting back on flights to Italy. Wizz Air follows British Airways, easyJet (EZJ.L), and Ryanair (RYA.L) in reducing service in recent weeks. The rapid spread of coronavirus around the world has led to slumping demand for flights. The big picture: As more systems become interconnected to the Internet of Things (IoT), more wireless bandwidth is vital to keeping the data flowing smoothly. Being the frontrunner in building the 5G infrastructure is equally essential. Although 5G technology is still quite far from being broadly implemented, the US military says, "Space-based communications will play a key role in connecting 5G devices." Officials also believe it will be vital to many of the missions taken by the newly formed Space Force. They feel the US should be the one to pave the way for the next generation of telecommunications technology. We need to up our game in 5G. As more autonomy moves to the edge of the internet of things, its going to have to be supported by more bandwidth, said Air Force acquisition officer Will Roper. It would be a shame if something that is going to control most of the data moving from machine to machine commercializes first overseas. The military supports the Huawei ban and hopes that our allies continue to stand behind it, too. While skirting around specifics, officials said a Chinese foothold in the US and friendly countries could undermine military operations. Our partnerships and our alliances and our friendships, we are about collaboration and cooperation, our adversaries are about coercion, Lieutenant General David Thompson, one of the new commanders of the Space Force, told CNBC last week. Democratic lawmakers in the US share the sentiment that China poses a 5G threat. In one of the few times that the House majority leader voiced agreement with the Trump administration, Nancy Pelosi urged allied countries not to use Huawei equipment, albeit for different reasons. If you want to build a collective conscience of values and respect for human rights and the rest, dont go near Huawei and instead, lets internationalize and build something together that will be about freedom of information, the Speaker said at a security conference in Munich. The consensus is that China would use 5G as an intelligence-gathering vector. The Trump administration banned the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment by government agencies and contractors in 2018, at the same time warning neighbor nations to do the same. Intelligence officials in the US have long suspected Huawei of being a spying tool for the Chinese government, an allegation the company vehemently denies. However, earlier this year, US National Security Advisor Robert OBrien said that the US has evidence proving the claims are valid. We have evidence that Huawei has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells around the world, OBrien said without giving specifics citing to security concerns. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo views all Chinese run tech companies as suspect, calling them Chinese intelligence Trojans. Air Force Commander General Jeffrey Harrigian summed up the situation saying, At the end of the day, I think we need to be clear-eyed [about] what the Chinese are trying to do with 5G. Its something that globally we need to pay attention to because thats a threat that frankly if you dont pay attention to it, youre going to get yourself in a square corner. Pelosi image credit: Sheila Fitzgerald via Shutterstock Ajayababu Shiwakoti, the general secretary of the Nepal Press Union (NPU), received threats for his reporting on an alleged bribery scandal involving Nepals minister of communications and information technology. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates the Nepal Press Union (NPU) and the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FJN) call on authorities to immediately ensure Shiwakotis safety. Shiwakoti is the editor in chief of www.hamrakura.com, which published a story on February 20, linking an audio recording alleged to be that of the minister, Gokul Prasad Baskota, negotiating with Bijay Prakash Mishra, a Nepal agent of a Swiss equipment supplier on the printing of passports and other sensitive material. The recording suggested the minister would receive NPR 700,000,000 (USD 6,000,000) commission for the deal. Following the release of the two-and-a-half-minute audio recording and subsequent news coverage, the minister resigned from his post on February 21. After Shiwakotis reporting on the ministerial scandal, NPU said unidentified persons had put the journalists residence and his activities under surveillance. The journalist also said he received indirect threats from social media and, as a result, was cautious and semi-underground. Shiwakoti previously received threat s on September 30, 2019, after publishing a reportalleging a female member of the parliamentary staff was sexually harassed by the then house-speaker, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who later resigned from his post. Journalists in Nepal express serious concern to the security situation of Shiwakoti. NPU said: Such a threat to an investigative journalist who is committed to make the authorities accountable is really pathetic. We demand the government of Nepal and concerned stakeholders to ensure constitutionally-enshrined press freedoms and urge it to create a more conducive environment for the practice of independent journalism. The IFJ said: We urge threats to Shiwakoti to be taken with the seriousness they deserve and for a response from Nepals government to underline its commitment to press freedom and to show the necessary support for protecting journalists in Nepal. Amid the increasing Coronavirus cases in India and other countries, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday released an updated advisory on the COVD19. The advisory was issued by the Ministry after the Health Ministry's meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan at the National Capital. READ | PM Modi to skip Holi milans; takes lead amid Coronavirus experts' 'no gatherings' advice The new travel advisory All regular (sticker) visas/e-Visa (including visa on arrival for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan, and issued on or before March 3, 2020, and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect. Those requiring to travel to India due to compelling reasons may seek a fresh visa from the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. Regular (sticker) visa/ e-visa granted to nationals of China, issued on or before February 5 were suspended earlier. It shall remain in force. Those needing to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for a fresh visa to the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. Regular (sticker) visas/e-visas granted to all foreign nationals who have traveled to China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Japan on or after February 1, and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect. Those requiring to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for a fresh visa to the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. Diplomats, officials of the United Nations and other international bodies, OCI cardholders, and aircrew from the above countries are exempted from such restrictions on entry. However, their medical screening is compulsory. Passengers of all international flights entering India from any port are required to furnish duly filled self-declaration form (including personal particulars i.e. phone number and address in India) and travel history, to health officials and immigration officials at all ports. Passengers (foreign and Indian) other than those restricted, arriving directly or indirectly from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan must undergo medical screening at the port of entry. Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19 affected countries. READ | Singapore minister urges authorities to prepare for 'spike' in coronavirus cases Coronavirus outbreak The Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday that six positive cases of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far. Global deaths due to coronavirus outbreak on Monday rose above 3,000 with the new count in China mainland rising to 2,912. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 80,000 people. While most of the cases are from the Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan (the epicenter of the outbreak), other countries including Iran, Italy, Japan, and the Philippines have also reported deaths related to the novel coronavirus. READ | Major concerts & festivals canceled or postponed due to Coronavirus outbreak READ | Local officials first line of defence in protecting our communities: Trump on coronavirus Friday March 6 Coon Valley Knutson Library: Preschool Stories with Karla, 10:30 a.m. Driftless Al-Anon: Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 504 S. Main St., Viroqua, back door, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Westby Bekkum Library: PBS Wisconsin Appy Hour for Educators, 1:30-3 p.m. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Historic Temple Theatre, 116 S. Main St., Viroqua, 7 p.m. Saturday March 7Westby Bekkum Library: Pre-K story time: Sleepy time, 10 a.m. Sunday March 8No activities scheduled Monday March 9Produce distribution, Living Faith Food Pantry, 209 Sands Road (behind Family Restaurant), Viroqua, 1-3 p.m. Westby Bekkum Library: March 9-14 pencil pics drawings by Daryl Skrupky; vinyl and cassette conversion transfer (by appointment); Norseland delivery, 2 p.m. Coon Valley Knutson Library: Afternoon Knitting, 1:30 p.m.; After School Fun, 3:15 p.m. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, La Farge United Methodist Church, 212 W. Penn St., La Farge, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday March 10Westby Bekkum Library: Tech help, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Rock & Read (K-6), 3:30 p.m.; library board meeting, 5:30 p.m. Stoddard Food Pantry, 300 N. Main St., Stoddard, 2:30-5:30 p.m. Good Shepherd Clothes Closet, 504 S. Main St., Viroqua (use entrance off parking lot in back), 1-3 p.m. Come for Supper, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Westby, 4-6 p.m. Wednesday March 11Food distribution, Living Faith Food Pantry, 209 Sands Road (behind Family Restaurant), Viroqua, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1004 W. Broadway, Viroqua, weigh-in, 10-10:15 a.m.; meeting, 10:15-10:45 a.m. Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club meeting, Digital Marketing Tactics by Taylor Henry, Food Enterprise Center, 1201 N. Main St., Viroqua, networking, 5:30 p.m.; program, 6 p.m. Coon Valley Knutson Library: Whats Cooking?, 6:30 p.m. Viola Al-Anon Family Group, 108 E. Commercial St., Viola, 7 p.m. Thursday March 12Westby Bekkum Library: Card Crafting with Kathy, 10 a.m.; One Book One Community family event, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Good Shepherd Clothes Closet, 504 S. Main St., Viroqua (use entrance off parking lot in back), 1-3 p.m. Westby Lions Club meeting, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Westby, 6:30 p.m. Debtors Anonymous, Vernon Memorial Hospital Community Room 3, 507 S. Main St., Viroqua (enter through the emergency room entrance), 7 p.m. Friday March 13Coon Valley Knutson Library: Conversations with Coffee, 10:30 a.m. Driftless Al-Anon: Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 504 S. Main St., Viroqua, back door, 12:30-1:30 p.m. To stay up-to-date on everything happening in the area send your event information no later than Friday noon for the following weeks edition. Email angie.cina@lee.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria said that terrorists tried to explode several containers with toxic substances in Syrias Idlib. "In an effort to stop the Syrian government forces from entering western quarters of the Saraqib settlement and further slapping accusations over using chemical weapons on March 2, a group of up to 15 terrorists carried out an attempt to set off high-explosive ammunition with containers filled with toxic chemical substances," the statement says. However, due to the lack of experience and skills of dealing with chemical substances, the militants broke the seal what resulted in a leak. "During the incident, the terrorists were severely poisoned by chemicals and failed to explode munitions and carry out their provocation," TASS cited the Russian military as saying. According to the reconciliation center, "hard evidence of the failed chemical weapons provocation" was obtained on March 3 when the Syrian army retaliated against terrorists of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (the terror group banned in Russia) in the east of the Idlib de-escalation zone. The Russian Reconciliation Center of the Opposing Sides in Syria said it has overwhelming evidence about this incident, which will be made public soon. NASHVILLE Rescuers searched through shattered Tennessee neighborhoods for bodies Tuesday, less than a day after tornadoes ripped across Nashville and other parts of the state as families slept. At least 25 people were killed, some in their beds, authorities said. The twisters that struck in the hours after midnight shredded more than 140 buildings and buried people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. The storms moved so quickly that many people in their path could not flee to safer areas. "It hit so fast, a lot of folks didn't have time to take shelter," Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. "Many of these folks were sleeping." Faith Patton looks over buildings destroyed by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. Patton lives near the damaged area but her home was intact. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP The governor declared an emergency and sent the National Guard to help with search-and-rescue efforts. An unspecified number of people were missing. Early findings by National Weather Service survey teams indicated that the damage in Nashville and Wilson County to the east was inflicted by a tornado of at least EF-3 intensity, the agency said. One twister wrecked homes and businesses across a 10-mile (16 kilometer) stretch of Nashville that included parts of downtown. It smashed more than three dozen buildings, including destroying the tower and stained glass of a historic church. Another tornado damaged more than 100 structures along a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) path of destruction in Putnam County, wiping some homes from their foundations and depositing the wreckage far away. Workers search for victims among the rubble in an area where several people were killed by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, near Cookeville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding more than 140 buildings and burying people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP Daybreak revealed landscapes littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, making many city streets and rural roads impassable. More than a dozen polling stations were also damaged, forcing Super Tuesday voters to wait in long lines at alternative sites. In Putnam County, 80 miles (128 kilometers) east of Nashville, houses and businesses were completely flattened. In one neighborhood, volunteers found five bodies. Neighbors and sheriff's officers were still looking for two more. Nashville residents walked around on streets and sidewalks littered with debris, in neighborhoods where missing walls and roofs left living rooms and kitchens exposed. Mangled power lines and broken trees came to rest on cars, streets and piles of rubble. "We are resilient and we're going to rebuild," Nashville Mayor John Cooper said. Sumant Joshi helps to clean up rubble at the East End United Methodist Church after it was heavily damaged by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Joshi is a resident in the area and volunteered to help clean up. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP During Gov. Bill Lees tour of Putnam County, homeowners dug through debris, trying to salvage any items not destroyed. One young woman held up a clean green blouse while standing on a second floor of a home that had no roof. President Donald Trump spoke with the governor by phone and pledged federal assistance, the White House said. Trump also announced plans to visit the disaster area on Friday. In Nashville, the twister's path was mostly north and east of the heart of downtown, sparing many of the city's biggest tourism draws the honky tonks of Broadway, the Grand Ole Opry House, the storied Ryman Auditorium and the convention center. A man climbs through storm debris Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP Instead the storm tore through the largely African American areas of Bordeaux and North Nashville as well as neighborhoods transformed by a recent building boom. Germantown and East Nashville are two of the citys trendiest hotspots, with restaurants, music venues, high-end apartment complexes and rising home prices threatening to drive out longtime residents. "The dogs started barking before the sirens went off. They knew what was coming," said Paula Wade, of East Nashville. "Then we heard the roar ... Something made me just sit straight up in bed, and something came through the window right above my head. If I hadn't moved, I would've gotten a face full of glass." The roof came crashing down on Ronald Baldwin and Harry Nahay in the bedroom of their one-story brick home in East Nashville. "We couldn't get out," Baldwin said. "And so I just kept kicking and kicking until we finally made a hole." Deanna and Tony Speck, of Cookeville, Tenn., console one another on the front lawn of what's left of Deanna's parent's house off Locust Grove Road on the western edge of Cookeville, Tenn., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Her parents survived after huddling beneath the staircase as the tornado ripped through the area around 1:30 a.m. (Jack McNeely, Herald-Citizen/The Herald-Citizen via AP)AP The roaring wind woke Evan and Carlie Peters, also in East Nashville, but they had no time to reach the relative safety of an interior bathroom. "Within about 10 seconds, the house started shaking," Carlie Peters said. "I jumped on top of the ground. He jumped on top of me. The ceiling landed on top of him. ... we're grateful to be alive." With more than a dozen Super Tuesday polling places in Nashville's Davidson County damaged, voters were sent to other locations, some of them with long lines. Election officials in Putnam County advised voters in eight precincts with damaged polling locations to vote at the main election office in Cookeville. "None of us are yelling at each other, so that's good," said Ryan Rayburn of Nashville, who waited about 90 minutes to vote at the Cleveland Park Community Center, where people were sent after their regular precincts were closed due to storm damage. There were abundant examples of strangers helping people whose homes or communities had been hit. People look in a restaurant damaged by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP A van of longtime customers at a Putnam County eatery who proudly stated they ate there every morning arrived to help clear debris just as the governor stopped by to tour the devastation. In the small town of Baxter, Mike Stephens was awakened when a big tree crashed through the roof of his house. He started cleaning up as soon as the sun rose. He cut up one tree and had help from a neighbor with a backhoe and a man who stopped by with a chainsaw. "I've only met him once, and he just happened to show up while we're out here," Stephens said of his neighbor. "And then this other guy he just happened to stop by. I don't know him." Wayne Stephens, a technician at a local car dealership, had Tuesday off from his job. With no damage to his home, he got in his truck with his chainsaw. He's not related to Mike Stephens and had never met him. He said he only wanted to help "as much as I can." ___ Associated Press writers Kristin Hall, Jonathan Mattise and Mark Humphrey in Nashville; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Teresa Walker and Wade Payne in Cookeville; Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky; and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report. Vietnams Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of SOM Vietnam, chaired the event. Participants discussed the implementation of outcomes gained at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Nha Trang city, Vietnams Khanh Hoa province in January, and the initial preparation for the 36th ASEAN Summit and relevant events to be held in Da Nang on April 8th-9th. Delegates in a group photo (Photo: VNA) They agreed on the working agenda of the ASEAN-New Zealand Commemorative Summit slated for April 9 immediately after the 36th ASEAN Summit. Participants also gave opinions about steps to implement initiatives and priorities proposed by Vietnam during 2020 under the theme Cohesive and Responsive. Delegates expressed support for the initiatives on holding mid-term review of the implementation of ASEAN Community building plans to 2025, and evaluation of the implementation of the ASEAN Charter. They also advocated efforts to promote sub-regional cooperation, especially in the Greater Mekong Subregion, enhance womens role in building the ASEAN Community, and promote the image of ASEAN. Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung affirmed Vietnams determination to fulfill tasks of the Chair of ASEAN in 2020, including the acceleration of the ASEAN Community building process, the expansion of ASEANs external relations and reform of ASEAN working methods. Mentioning the complicated developments of the acute respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the diplomat described Vietnam as a safe destination for foreign tourists with the epidemic under good control. As host of ASEAN events this year, Vietnam has been taking a range of measures to ensure safety and health for all delegates, he said. Following the SOM, the special ASEAN SOM, the ninth meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group (ACCWG), and the Joint Consultative Meeting (JCM) are scheduled to take place on March 5th-6th. Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./. The new owner of a Belfast-based technology company has said its workforce could double within 18 months as a result of the deal. Titan IC, which has around 30 staff, has now been sold for an undisclosed sum to Nasdaq-listed company Mellanox Technologies. The firm, which is based in the US and Israel, specialises in solutions for data centre servers and storage systems. Mellanox said the acquisition will strengthen its network intelligence capabilities. It added: "Titan IC's world class team in Belfast will become the centre of advanced network intelligence research and development for Mellanox." Eyal Waldman, president and chief executive of Mellanox Technologies and a co-founder of the business, said: "With this acquisition, our merger and acquisition (M&A) investments total more than $1.2bn to date and more than $53m invested in start-ups to further our intelligent networking strategy." He told the Belfast Telegraph: "We've worked with Titan IC and we think their tech is amazing and we like the team, so we decided to merge the two companies. "We actually are thinking that we will grow in Belfast and make this the base of our research and development, and we would like to grow into Ireland. "The headcount of 30 could easily double in the next year to year and a half. We think there's great talent here." Explaining that he would be meeting economic development agency Invest NI, Mr Waldman said that "we're counting on Invest NI to help us grow our business". He added: "We think the research in universities is very close to what we are doing in terms of technology which we can utilise in future products." He said his team had visited Belfast multiple times but that this week marked his first visit. The chief executive also said Brexit would have no impact on its plans for Belfast. Nor did he regard coronavirus as a possible threat. "Our supply is pretty assured and we don't think we'll experience any difficulties in supplying our product in quarter one and quarter two," he said. And he added a surge in homeworking due to the virus could result in more demand for its storage infrastructure. Mr Waldman said some aspects of the company's travel was being curtailed as result of the virus, but not to a "significant" level. Noel McKenna, chief executive of Titan IC, said: "We are pleased to become part of Mellanox and together we will accelerate the pace of innovation and will advance network intelligence to new levels of performance and insight." He added the companies had already worked together extensively in the past. "Now as part of Mellanox, we will be able to achieve new capabilities for cyber intelligence, intrusion detection and protection, and advanced data analytics applications," he said. 1971: Village Voice columnist Jill Johnston comes out in her article, Lois Lane is a Lesbian, sparking a controversy between feminism and lesbianism that results in various Johnston antics, including simulating an orgy during a panel discussion moderated by Norman Mailer. As recorded in Lesbian Nation, Johnston often was at the center of controversies within the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s She famously went on record stating that all women are lesbians except those that dont know it yet. Johnston was also one of the first countercultural and lesbian writers at Ms. magazine, eventually coming to the conclusion that the magazine was too mainstream, ultimately presenting feminism as palatable, family-friendly and safe. According to author Vivian Gornick: For radical feminists like me, Ellen Willis, and Jill Johnston, we had a different kind of magazine in mind. We came out against marriage and motherhood. Gloria Steinem was uptown; we were downtown. She hung out with Establishment figures; we had only ourselves. It very quickly became obvious at that first meeting that they wanted a glossy that would appeal to the women who read the Ladies Home Journal. We didnt want that, so they walked away with it. Johnston is the subject of one of Andy Warhols portrait films, Jill, a 4-minute silent movie shot in black and white (1963) 1972: The California DMV reports that while the majority of the 65,000 vanity license plates have presented no censorship issues for the department, a few plates including HOMO, GAYLIB, EAT ME, and LOVE69 have been banned. 1973: Two weeks after the National Organization for Women passes a resolution establishing the fight for lesbian rights as a top priority, feminist Betty Friedan ( her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century.) in the New York Times publicly accuses man-hating lesbians of trying to take over the organization. The, disrupters of the womens movement were the ones continually trying to push lesbianism or hatred of men, even though many werent lesbians themselves and didnt act privately as if they hated men. They even tried to push purple armbands saying We Are All Lesbians on women attending a march on abortion and child care at Gracie Square. The responsible lesbians in the womens movement fought these disruptors. Who or what was really behind it? Some of the disruption seemed to be instigated by extreme left groups. Also, I never told anyone, but very early, TiGrace Atkinson took me to lunch in Philadelphia with the wife of a top C.I.A. official, .who offered to help us. I told TiGrace we didnt want any help from the C.I.A. Sometime in 1968, we heard that 200 women had been trained by the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. to infiltrate the womens movementas is known was done by the F.B.I. in the student and radical movement. In the spring of 1970, a very troubled woman whom I had trusted came to see me one night. She told me a story I could hardly believe. The lesbians were organizing to take over NOW and the womens movement, she said; they had used me, since they needed me for respectability and for my contacts; and she said they had given her the assignment to seduce me and blackmail me into silence. It seemed dangerous then to publicize this attempted lesbian takeovereven if it were true. I was considered square, uptight, oldfashioned, conservative, etc., about lesbianism; and considering my Middle American background, maybe I was. I think everyone has a right to sexual privacy and to each her/his own (as long as it doesnt hurt or exploit anyone else). But it was both hurting and exploiting the womens movement to try to use it to proselytize for lesbianism because of the sexual preferences of a few. This could only subordinate the great issue of equality for women, the opportunity and institutional changes that all women so desperately need. As president of NOW, I never knew, or wanted to know, any womans sexual preferences. But I warned those who were pushing lesbianism in New York NOW that they were creating a sexual red herring that would divide the movement and lead ultimately to sexual McCarthyism. It seemed to me the womens movement had to get out of sexual politics. 1981: A twenty-year-old Kansas City truck driver, David Groves, is found guilty of murder in the June 1980 shooting death of a gay man. Groves was sentenced to life imprisonment without probation or parole for 50 years and had told the police it was an honor to kill a homosexual. Via Law.Justia.com They're currently on a quest to find love following their recent splits from their partners. And James Lock and Olivia Bentley appeared in great spirits as they filmed scenes for Celebs Go Dating at Soho's Scarlett Green restaurant on Tuesday evening. The TOWIE star, 33, and the Made In Chelsea personality, 24, were delighted to be in each other's company as they giggled and linked arms while leaving the eatery with their co-stars. Giddy: James Lock and Olivia Bentley appeared in great spirits as they filmed scenes for Celebs Go Dating at Soho's Scarlett Green restaurant on Tuesday evening Photographer Olivia flashed a glimpse of her lean legs in a tiny black skirt, which she styled with a long-sleeved top, a smart blazer and knee-high boots. Toting her essentials in a chain-strap handbag by YSL, the blonde beauty opted to accessorise with just a pair of diamond dangle earrings. Olivia wore her tresses in a straight fashion while her radiant complexion was enhanced with a dewy make-up look. Lockie cut a typically dapper figure in a navy turtleneck jumper, indigo jeans and a wool longline coat. Close: The TOWIE star, 33, and the Made In Chelsea beauty, 24, were delighted to be in each other's company as they giggled and linked arms while leaving the eatery with their co-stars Legs for days: Photographer Olivia flashed a glimpse of her lean legs in a tiny black skirt, which she styled with a long-sleeved top, a smart blazer and knee-high boots Sharp: Businessman Lockie cut a typically dapper figure in a navy turtleneck jumper, indigo jeans and a wool longline coat Socialite Olivia recently split from on-off boyfriend Digby Edgley, just nine months after they rekindled their romance. The reality star endured a tumultuous break-up from Digby, 25, calling time on their relationship over the summer in Croatia in 2018. Liv told MailOnline at the time: 'It was nice having the break between the series. And it 100 percent gets really horrible. 'It's not been like when I broke up with Fred [Ferrier]. Because this relationship with Digby - well, I loved him. And having to see an ex is savage. We have all the same friends so it's not easy.' Ex: Socialite Olivia recently split from on-off boyfriend Digby Edgley, just nine months after they rekindled their romance (pictured in 2018) Co-stars: The pair joined Love Island's Amy Hart, EastEnders actor Dean Gaffney, and Ex on the Beach star Josh Ritchie on set The blonde - who was diagnosed with alopecia at 16 - is keen on finding her Prince Charming after admitting she previously struggled to date due to her hair loss condition. Businessman James called it quits from his on-off girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou, 25, in late summer after rumours of cheating on his part. The couple - who displayed their turbulent relationship on TOWIE - dated on-off for two years, following his split from Danielle Armstrong, who is now expecting a child with her best friend of 22 years Tom. Former partner: TOWIE's badboy James called it quits from his on-off girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou (pictured together in 2017), 25, in late summer after rumours of cheating on his part THE Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, He Xiangdong, urged Ireland to prioritise making a decision on whether the St Patrick's Day celebration programme involving mass gatherings should proceed in light of the coronavirus threat. Ambassador Xiangdong issued the warning as he visited Cork to pay tribute to the solidarity being shown by Ireland to his country as the world faces up to the mounting coronavirus threat. Ambassador Xiangdong - who is from Wuhan where the Covid-19 outbreak originated - visited Cork both to demonstrate the solidarity between China and Ireland but also to offer a personal message of support to the thousands of Chinese nationals now living and working in Ireland. But the diplomat said it was vital that Ireland make a quick and reasonable decision on whether or not the elaborate St Patrick's Day programme of events, both in Ireland and overseas, should proceed with mass public gatherings. "The authorities here in Ireland need to take the very smart and quick and cautious while at the same time reasonable decision in terms of that," he said. "Our experience is that at the early stage we need to make some hard decisions in terms of if mass gatherings need to be held or not." The St Patrick's Day celebrations rank as arguably the highlight of the Irish tourist season - with millions attending March 17 events worldwide to celebrate the Irish diaspora. This evening, Irelands chief medical officer has said the St Patricks Day parade in Dublin on March 17 does not need to be cancelled, despite concerns. Dr Tony Holohan insisted as things stand the parade can go ahead in a fortnight. Speaking at a press briefing in Dublin on Wednesday, Mr Holohan said: Im going to be as clear as I can be about this because we have been asked it on a number of occasions. As things stand, and on the basis of our assessments on the risks to this country, we see no implications for the St Patricks Day parade. As things stand, we dont envisage that situation changing. On the other hand; this is a fast-moving national and international situation. We see no reason why there should be a question or doubt, as we see it, around the holding of St Patricks Day events in this country. Mr Xiangdong added that the health threat can only be handled by countries working closely together and by "hard decisions" being taken on travel, public gatherings and screening. Cork was chosen for the special visit as the city is twinned with Shanghai - and also operates as a partner city with Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuxi. Hundreds of Chinese students are now studying and working across multiple Cork colleges and research bodies. Ambassador Xiangdong was welcomed to Cork by Lord Mayor Councillor John Sheehan. The visit also involved the ambassador meeting with officials from Cork colleges, the Tyndall National Institute, Cork Chamber of Commerce and the Ireland Cork China Business The ambassador noted the efforts Cork had made to show solidarity with China and Chinese cities dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. Councillor Sheehan recorded a special message of support which was issued to Shanghai and broadcast on the nightly SNC news. Cork began developing ties with China 18 years ago and three years later became the first Irish city to twin with a Chinese city through a formal partnership with Shanghai. Cork City Council supports the Confucius Institute to offer student and teacher student exchanges between Cork and Chinese primary and second level schools to further cross cultural and social understanding amongst young people. Four persons have been arrested from Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district for allegedly transporting coal to Assam in violation of an NGT order, while four other accused including a state minister's brother got anticipatory bail, police said on Wednesday. The National Green Tribunal had banned unscientific and unsafe rat-hole mining of coal in Meghalaya in 2014, though it intermittently allowed transportation of already mined coal. Meghalaya Revenue Minister Kyrmen Shylla's brother Bison Shylla and three others got anticipatory bail while four others were arrested in the case, East Jaintia Hills district SP Vivekanand Singh told PTI. Last week, the matter came to light when police personnel manning Umkiang check post near Assam border had detected 24 coal-laden trucks at Malidor area. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had recently divested his brother James K Sangma of the home portfolio, after the coalition partners of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government demanded his removal over alleged illegal transportation of coal. The hazards of rat-hole mining had hogged the headlines in the national media, when 15 miners got trapped in December 2018 in one such mine at Kasan, about 3.7 km deep inside a forest. The mine was inundated when water from the nearby Lytein river gushed into it. Only two bodies were recovered from the mine. Rat-hole mining involves digging of narrow tunnels, usually 3-4 feet high, for workers to enter and extract coal. The horizontal tunnels are often termed "rat-holes", as each just about fits one person. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the past week, companies like the U.S.-based American Airlines AAL, the European carrier Ryanair RYAAY and the Latin American LATAM Airlines LTM suspended various flights as the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) spread it tentacles beyond its country of origin, China. In fact, this contagious disease now left an impact on every continent barring Antarctica, claiming multiple lives and infecting in larger numbers. In another coronavirus-related update, United Airlines UAL postponed its investor day. Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines SAVE grabbed headlines as it came out with an expansion-related update. Moreover, Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway increased its stake in Delta Air Lines DAL. (Read the Last Airline Stock Roundup here). Flashback to Past Weeks Top Stories 1. American Airlines, which already cancelled flights connecting the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) with China and Hong Kong, now suspended flights between DFW and South Korea's Incheon International Airport due to lackluster demand following the coronavirus outbreak. Flights on the Dallas-Seoul route are expected to commence on Apr 25, 2020. The carrier also decided to suspend all U.S. flights to Milan, Italy, again due to this soft air-travel demand induced by the coronavirus. (Read more: American Airlines to Cancel Milan Flights on Coronavirus Woes). American Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks (Strong Buy) here. 2. United Airlines deferred its investor day, scheduled to be held on Mar 5, to September due to the plaguing coronavirus scare. Management feels that given the current situation it will not be feasible to have a productive conversation revolving around its long-term strategy. Simultaneously, the carrier cut back flights to Japan, South Korea and Singapore, significantly due to low demand on these routes. The airline reduced approximately two thirds of its flights to Seoul, a third of flights to Japan and 40% of flights to Singapore. (Read more: United Airlines Calls Off Investor Day on Coronavirus Threat). Story continues 3. Per a Reuters report, LATAM Airlines announced the cancellation of its daily flight connecting Sao Paulo and Milan through Apr16 due to tepid demand post the coronavirus outbreak. Citing the same reason, Ryanair plans to lower its flight frequency to and from Italy by 25%. Capacity in the airlines primary market, Italy, will be slashed for the Mar 17-Apr 8 period. However, Ryanairs flight cancellations will not leave as much an impact as anticipated on its current financial year ending Mar 31.(Read more: Ryanair to Cut Back Flights to Italy Amid Coronavirus Fears). 4 In a bid to expand its international footprint, Spirit Airlines announced that it will include more flights from the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to two international destinations, namely, Cancun, Mexico and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. While flights connecting New Orleans with Cancun will be operational from Jun 10, 2020 onward, services on the New Orleans-Honduras route will start the following day. (Read more: Spirit Boosts Global Network, Adds Flights From New Orleans). 5. Taking advantage of the sharp depreciation in stock price as the coronavirus persistently wreaks havoc, Warren Buffett, considered one of the greatest (if not the greatest) investors of all times, raised his stake in Delta. Per a Bloomberg report, this Berkshire Hathaway founder and CEO purchased more than 976,000 shares of the airline behemoth for $45.3 million. Performance The following table shows the price movement of major airline players over the past week and during the past six months. The table above shows that most airline stocks have traded in the red over the past week inducing the NYSE ARCA Airline Index to decline 6.9% to $80.73. Over the course of six months, the sector tracker has inched up 0.6%. What's Next in the Airline Space? Investors will await the fourth-quarter 2019 earnings report of Azul AZUL, scheduled to be released on Mar 12. Watch this space for further updates on the coronavirus and its resultant impact on the sector. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? 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Zacks Investment Research By PTI BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday ordered closure of an iron ore mine owned by BJP MLA and mining baron Sanjay Pathak, said to be a key figure in the poaching row in the Congress-ruled state. The administration in Jabalpur district, where the mine is located, ordered closure of the facility for allegedly violating a Supreme Court ruling, officials said. The mine belongs to M/s Nirmala Minerals, a company owned by Pathak, a former Congressman who joined the BJP and served as a minister in the erstwhile Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. "Yes I have passed the order banning M/s Nirmala Minerals's operations in two areas in Sehora with immediate effect, Jabalpur Collector Bharat Yadav told PTI. The mine is spread over Agariya and Dubiyara villages in Sihora tehsil, some 50km from district headquarters. "The lease holder (the mining firm) of khasra (survey) No 1093 and khasra No 628/1 has failed to prove in last six months that an order passed by the Supreme Court on March 3, 2019, banning mining on (forest) land, does not apply to his operational area," another official said. "So the collector today banned Nirmala Minerals from carrying out mining operations," he said and confirmed the mine in question belongs to Pathak. The BJP MLA has named the company after his mother Nirmala, he said. Following the SC order, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), on whose jurisdiction the mining area falls, on June 7, 2019, approached the Jabalpur district collector for its implementation. Three days later, the district collector banned mining operations of Nirmala Minerals in Sihora, the officer said. But on August 13, 2019, the collector stayed his own order on advice of the state advocate general following a review application received in the matter, the said. Attempts to contact Pathak did not yield any result. In a late-night political drama, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. The BJP has denied the Congress charge that it was attempting to poach MLAs to topple the Kamal Nath government. According to sources in the Congress, Pathak was one of the key figures allegedly involved in efforts to convince a section of MLAs to change sides. Pathak, son of former Congress leader Satyendra Pathak, is the MLA from Vijayraghogarh in Katni district. He was the richest candidate during the 2013 Assembly elections with declared assets worth over Rs 226 crore. They said Pathak has good rapport with several Congress MLAs, including cabinet ministers who were once his colleagues in the now ruling party. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 107. The simple majority mark in the house is 116. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party are providing crucial support to the Congress government. Two seats are currently vacant. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are travelling to the Prosperous area this morning to visit a residential facility run by a social justice charity Extern. There will be a number of road closures in the area to facilitate the convoy of vehicles. Last evening, the first day of the state visit was rounded off with a party at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin where William and Kate were photographed with pints of Guinness. Based near Donadea Forest, the Extern facility supports people living with homelessness and children at risk of entry into the care or justice system. Extern operates across Ireland and Northern Ireland. The facility provides a safe space to support vulnerable young people and families who are going through challenging times. It places a particular emphasis on equipping young people with key life skills through a range of activities on offer. During the visit, the royal couple are expected to join in a number of the activities and hear from young people about the support Extern provides. From there, they will travel to the Teagasc Animal Bioscience Research Centre in Dunsany in Co Meath, where they will meet farmers and hear about pioneering research to promote sustainable farming across Ireland. Later this evening, Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will host a reception for the couple in Dublin. The first stop this morning was Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, in Dublin's Temple Bar. The couple's Royal Foundation supports Heads Together, a UK charity helping people struggling with mental health issues. At Jigsaw, they talked to a number of young people about their experiences before hearing from campaigners, teachers and parents about the impact of Jigsaw's work. Bhopal: Six of the ruling camp MLAs, who were allegedly taken hostage by the BJP on Tuesday night and returned to Bhopal on Wednesday afternoon, refused to give any concrete reply about the details of their whereabouts during the last few hours even as they expressed their support to the Kamal Nath-led Congress government. A delegation of senior party functionaries, including ministers Jitu Patwari, Jaivardhan Singh and Tarun Bhanot, returned to Bhopal on Wednesday afternoon with the six MLAs the Congress party's Aidal Singh Kansana, Kamlesh Jatav, Ranveer Jatav, the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Rambai Singh and Sanjiv Kushwah, and the Samajwadi Party's (SP) Rajesh Shukla Babloo. The group headed to the Chief Minister's House from the airport and after meeting Nath, a few of them spoke to reporters. But instead of clearing the air, this only added to the prevailing confusion. While expressing his loyalty to the Congress government, Kushwah said no BJP leader had contacted him. His party colleague, Rambai Singh, said she is going back to her home town of Damoh, declining to share details of what transpired in New Delhi. I would speak on this in a day or two, she said. Denying any resentment against Nath, she expressed her support to the Congress dispensation. Meanwhile, Kansana, who has for long openly been fuming over a snub for a ministerial berth, said he was sad, not angry. I had gone to the national capital to see my ailing daughter-in-law, he said, denying any rumours of abduction. Who would dare to abduct me, a four-time MLA? Shukla, who also returned to Bhopal via the special plane, expressed his faith in the Congress government. However, Bhanot and Patwari, who "rescued" these MLAs from a hotel in Haryanas Manesar, accused the BJP of forcibly taking them away. We all had the sole aim of exposing the ugly face of the BJP, said Patwari, adding the remaining four missing MLAs are in touch with Nath and party veteran Digvijaya Singh. Public Relations and Law Minister PC Sharma reiterated that the MLAs were abducted by BJP leaders -- he also threatened legal action against the opposition party. The Congress has claimed four of the ruling camp MLAs, including Bisahulal Singh, Hardeep Singh Dang and Raghuraj Kansana, have been taken to either Bengaluru or Chikmagalur in Karnataka. Independent legislator Thakur Surendra Singh, who is said to be upset with the Congress dispensation over the denial of a ministerial berth and has been vocal about it, was also unreachable. Later, sources said about three-four legislators are reportedly putting up at a private place in Bengaluru's Whitefield area. One of them is said to be an independent legislator. (With PTI inputs) Jose Ledesma, an accused Orlando identity thief, was free on bail in November when the key witness in his upcoming trial was gunned down at a Hialeah strip mall. Although Hialeah detectives immediately suspected Ledesma of orchestrating the attack his brother was charged for the shooting within days Orlando prosecutors never moved to revoke his bond and return to him to jail. What happened next? Several weeks after the shooting in Hialeah, Ledesma raped a 15-year-old girl, Orlando police say. The girl wound up pregnant. Cops have now jailed Ledesma, and hes facing three separate criminal trials in Orlando plus the ongoing murder probe in Miami-Dade County. The newest charge, plus newly released evidence in his cases, add more layers to the story of Ledesma, a 35-year-old ex-con from the U.S. Virgin Islands who has a long history of domestic violence and identity-theft arrests. The Orange County State Attorneys Office has not responded to requests for comment on why it never moved to put Ledesma back in jail after the witness in his case was gunned down. But now, citing the sex-assault allegations and the arrest of his brother in the Hialeah witness murder, Orange prosecutors are finally asking a judge to order that Ledesma be held behind bars while he awaits trial on his cases there. A hearing will be held Friday before an Orange County circuit judge. His pending charges ... and the fact that his brother has been charged with the murder of the victim in his fraud case, make him a flight risk and a risk to the community, Orange County assistant state attorney Jenny Rossman wrote in the motion filed last week. According to police, the girl told authorities that that Ledesma raped her in November, the same month as the Hialeah shooting, and then again twice around Christmas. Police said that he later tearfully told the girls mother that he would be getting the death penalty for a case in Miami and he did not want to go out like that, according to an arrest warrant. Story continues Ledesma was charged with sexual battery and has been jailed since his arrest on Jan. 14. Hialeah detectives are still working toward building a case against Ledesma for the Hialeah case, but he has yet to be charged. Hes well-known to law enforcement in Central Florida. Back in 2015, he was implicated in a series of ID thefts and credit-card fraud cases in Orange County. In one case, Ledesma stole his landlords IDs, hacked into his email and other computer accounts and used his credit to rack up debt. Jose Ledesma He could not believe Ledesma had so much of his personal information, a detective wrote in an arrest report. [The victim] explained to me that these series of incidents over the past months had caused him great stress on him and his family. He said that dealing with all the fraud and credit issues caused him to take attention away from his work and he was recently let go from his job as a result. Ledesma eventually pleaded guilty and served two years in state prison. He got out in 2017. Ongoing legal troubles Hes been in and out of trouble since, including arrests for a series of domestic-violence incidents. In February 2018, Orlando police said, he pointed a black handgun at a man who confronted him over Ledesma allegedly stealing his identity. Ledesma was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, a case that remains open. Detectives investigated further sifting through trash outside Ledesmas home. They found envelopes addressed to Carmen Ramirez, a Hialeah dentist, as well as another South Florida victim. An Orlando detective called Ramirez, who told him that somebody had used her identity to start at least four credit card accounts. The hacker even managed to gain control of her cellphone line, police said. Police identified Ledesma on surveillance cameras using the fraudulent credit cards to make purchases at stores, according to court documents. Ledesma had been free on bond awaiting trial on both cases. The trial in Ramirezs case had originally been set to start in December. But on Nov. 19, Ramirez was gunned down in a bold daylight ambush outside her office in a Hialeah strip mall. She was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. She later succumbed to her wounds. Hialeah detectives immediately focused on Ledesma. Investigators found surveillance video they believe showed Benjamin and Hector Ledesma, his brother, casing the dentists office the day before the shooting, even buying drinks at an adjacent supermarket. Hector Ledesma was also seen walking in the neighborhood, other footage showed. At Walmart, cameras also captured the two buying clothes that Benjamin is believed to have worn during the shooting. Ralph Benjamin and Hector Ledesma On the day of the shooting, video showed Benjamin getting dropped off at the same market, where he bought a Heineken beer and Marlboro cigarettes just before Ramirez was shot. As Ramirez walked up the stairs, according to a Hialeah police report, Benjamin approached the victim and shot her numerous times. During a fast-moving investigation, Hialeah detectives tailed Hector Ledesma and Benjamin as they boarded a flight bound for the U.S. Virgin Islands. They were arrested when they arrived for a connecting flight at Miami International Airport on Nov. 21, according to court documents. To police, Hector Ledesma blamed Benjamin, saying he dropped him off to buy marijuana and observed defendant Benjamin with both arms up in a shooting stance, and saw muzzle flash as numerous shots were fired, according to a police report. Hector Ledesma and Benjamin have been indicted for first-degree murder and face the death penalty. Hialeah detectives are still building a case against Jose Ledesma for the murder. Jose Ledesma is believed to have supplied the Vanilla Visa gift card to the two killers used to pay for expenses on the trip, secured the black BMW used in the killing and paid for the travel expenses for Benjamin, according to one law-enforcement source. The gift card was also purchased at an Orlando 7-11 convenience store where Ledesma worked, the source said. Call to the cops Ledesma knew detectives were asking around about the gift card. Days after his brothers arrest, he arranged to meet Hialeah Detective Magy Montalvo in Tampa, then blew off the meeting. Later, he called the detective, wondering why police were inquiring about the gift card. In a recording of the call released by the Orange County State Attorneys Office, Ledesma appears to be fishing for information, insisting that his brother was only tagging along for a drug deal. Ledesma blamed Benjamin, suggesting some sort of convoluted plot that Benjamin was trying to frame him for murder because Ledesma was going to implicate him in identity theft. He knew I was going to roll over on his ass, Ledesma told the detective, according to the newly released audio. Ledesma swore he would give Hialeah detectives evidence tying Benjamin to the murder. I want to help my brother, Ledesma said. The offer of help, however, never materialized. A risk to the community Back in Orlando, prosecutors could have asked a judge to put Ledesma back behind bars based on the killing of the witness, even if he hasnt been charged. Under Florida law, judges have discretion in deciding on pretrial detention, especially if they find a substantial probability that a defendant attempted or conspired to obstruct justice or hurt a witness. Allison Freidin, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor, said the State Attorneys office in Orlando had an unequivocal duty to bring the witness death to the attention of the judge to revisit the conditions of his bond. Especially when considering this defendants designation as a career criminal, it seems as though a judge would not have a tough time identifying the threat of danger Mr. Ledesma poses to the community, said Freidin, who is not involved in the case. Another former Miami-Dade prosecutor, Sarah Waters, said it was shocking that the state didnt at least attempt to put Ledesma back behind bars especially because one of his pending cases was for aggravated assault with a firearm, a violent crime. The prosecution would require a change in circumstances to revisit the issue of pretrial release conditions, but the arrest of his brother for the murder of an essential witness against the defendant in his case surely amounts to enough to at least make the argument, Waters said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Retno LP Marsudi (The Jakarta Post) Thu, March 5 2020 At the end of last month, I was invited to witness the signing of the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Doha. At the same time, the joint declaration between Afghanistan and the US was released and further marked a pivotal moment in the peace process. The day after, I flew to Kabul to meet with the leaders of Afghanistan and to launch the Indonesia-Afghanistan Womens Solidarity Network. These are highly encouraging developments that we have waited for a long time to happen in the region. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login James Carville, the former political strategist who worked for President Bill Clinton, called on Bernie Sanders to end his presidential campaign after the Vermont senator failed to carry key primary states on Super Tuesday. Carville said members of the Democratic Party had indicated who will lead the ticket heading into this year's presidential election after the results came in Tuesday showing former Vice President Joe Biden winning several of the 14 states that held contests. 'We might see Democrats starting to ask Sanders, 'Look, let's just don't drag this thing out anymore than we have to,'' Carville said during an interview with MSNBC. James Carville, the former political strategist who worked for President Bill Clinton, blasted Bernie Sanders after the Vermont senator failed to carry key primary states on Super Tuesday Carville said Sanders should stop wasting time seeking the presidential nomination. 'We might see Democrats starting to ask Sanders, 'Look, let's just don't drag this thing out anymore than we have to,'' Carville said during an interview with MSNBC Former Vice President Joe Biden won several of the 14 states that held contests on Super Tuesday, which prompted Carville to suggest voters will start asking Sanders to drop out 'People want to get on to the general election. They want to get on to defeating Donald Trump,' he explained 'I think Sanders is showing tonight, hardly any showing with the African Americans, our loyal constituency, and our most exciting new constituency: educated white women,' Carville said. '(Sanders) showed nothing, and if we're going to beat Donald Trump, we can't be lollygagging around here for a lot longer.' Carville said that if Democrats wants to defeat President Donald Trump, we can't be lollygagging around here for a lot longer' Carville, who also advised Hillary Clinton in her 2008 Democratic primary run, also praised South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn for endorsing Biden. The endorsement was seen as helping Biden solidify black voter support in Saturday's primary in the Palmetto State. 'That guy literally saved the Democratic Party' Carville said of Clyburn. Carville also praised South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn for endorsing Biden 'That guy literally saved the Democratic Party' Carville said of Clyburn. The congressman is pictured with Biden at a primary night election rally in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday Sanders fell short of seizing on the momentum he received after winning in the New Hampshire and Nevada Democratic primaries. And his poor performance in South Carolina Tuesday night, particularly with black voters, was mirrored by similar black voting data in Southern states such as North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia. Carville also wrote off the campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 'I think were going to see obviously Bloomberg and Warren are not long for this world,' he told MSNBC. ADELPHI, Md. -- Researchers at the Army's corporate laboratory in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside have identified an approach to network security that will enhance the effectiveness and timeliness of protection against adversarial intrusion and evasion strategies. Networked devices and infrastructure are becoming increasingly complex, making it nearly impossible to verify an entire system, and new attacks are continuously being developed. To rapidly protect Army systems from attack in ways that don't require massive amounts of manual intervention, the researchers have developed and approach called SymTCP. SymTCP is a proposed approach that can be used to identify previously unknown ways to bypass deep packet inspection, or DPI, checks in networked appliances, often what internet service providers use to prevent malicious attacks from being launched or to censor certain content. "Identifying strategies that attackers use to evade DPI in networked systems has been generally a manual process," said Dr. Kevin Chan, researcher at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "This research provides an automated method to identify potential vulnerabilities in the Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP, state machines of DPI implementation." Chan stated that this research has found previously undiscovered vulnerabilities in TCP, which is what the internet is built on; most of internet traffic is TCP. However, it is very difficult to find vulnerabilities in the implementation of TCP, as some of these vulnerabilities are found in obscure parts of the code and require a specific sequence of packets to be sent in order to trigger the vulnerability. "Our approach uses symbolic execution to explore the state of TCP implementation of an endhost to identify ways to reach critical points in the code," Chan said. "If such a point is found, then packets can be inserted and be undetected by DPI. This method is evaluated against several state-of-the-art DPI systems such as Zeek and Snort and identifies previously known evasion strategies in addition to new ones that were not previously documented." The search space is enormous, and being able to make sense of the state and explore it efficiently is a great achievement, Chan said. "This research will improve the security of Army networks in terms of being able to protect against future intrusion and evasion strategies," Chan said. "It has developed an efficient way to find and patch vulnerabilities in future Army network infrastructure." According to the researchers, information must be securely transmitted between domains (i.e. air and land) and within domains (i.e. cyber domains) for various Army functions, making this research crucial to each of the Army Modernization Priorities in support of enabling Multi-Domain Operations, with direct applicability to the Army's Network Modernization Priority. "This type of research helps focus cyber defense resources," said Dr. Tracy Braun, computer scientist at CCDC ARL. "It can reveal weaknesses and suggest more efficient deployments of network defenses. This helps protect networks against advanced attacks. It can also help guide the design of future Army network infrastructure and cyber defense strategies." This collaborative research endeavor was made possible by ARL's Cyber Security Collaborative Research Alliance, which has the objective to develop a fundamental understanding of cyber phenomena, including aspects of human attackers, cyber defenders and end users, so that fundamental laws, theories, and theoretically grounded and empirically validated models can be applied to a broad range of Army domains, applications and environments. CRAs are partnerships between Army laboratories and centers, private industry and academia that are focusing on the rapid transition of innovative science and technology for Army modernization. "Collaboration by the teams of academic, industry and government researchers in the CRA, including students, builds enduring relationships and maintains a focus on cross-cutting foundational research addressing important Army challenges," said Dr. Michael Frame, Cyber Security CRA collaborative alliance manager. The team's research was accepted to be presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium 2020, which took place Feb. 23-26 in San Diego, California. The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy and advance the state of available security technologies. According to Dr. Zhiyun Qian, Everett and Imogene Ross associate professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California Riverside, future research includes the continuous analysis of future generation of DPI boxes, as well as better designs of DPIs that can be made robust against evasion attempts. ### CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army's corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win the nation's wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command. They were one of Australia's favourite celebrity couples before they called time on their relationship at the end of 2010. But model Megan Gale has said her split with comedian Andy Lee 'tarnished' her image when the public turned on her for moving on with her current partner, Shaun Hampson shortly after the breakup. 'It was very demeaning. I get how it happens, I don't like it, I don't accept it. It was really challenging to navigate for a while,' she said in an interview with Mamamia. 'It was very demeaning' Megan Gale (pictured) has said her image was 'tarnished' after her break-up with comedian Andy Lee back in 2010 Secret: The former David Jones ambassador went on to explain that the couple had been dealing with their issues privately, so by the time everyone found out about the split, it was 'old news' 'It wasn't a good time. It almost felt like I had done something wrong and I had been tarnished like I'd done something wrong. When I was with [Andy], everyone loved us together.' The former David Jones ambassador went on to explain that the couple had been dealing with their issues privately, so by the time everyone found out about the split it was 'old news'. 'We were going through what we were going through very privately for quite a while, so when people found out we were broken up, I think it came as a bit of a shock and I did appear to have moved on relatively quickly,' she explained. Megan started dating former AFL player Shaun, who was 12 years her junior, in January 2011. Back in November, the brunette beauty also spoke to The Australian Women's Weekly about the devastating effect her new relationship had on her career. 'If the public sadly believe what they read, they aren't going to like me. And if they don't like me, no one's going to hire me,' she said. Moving on: After breaking up with Andy late 2010, Megan started dating former AFL player Shaun Hampson (pictured left) in January 2011 'That's really horrible, you feel powerless. I saw [my career] suffer.' The former Project Runway host also suffered a financial blow in 2007 when she quit her ambassadorship with David Jones to pursue a career in Hollywood. She had signed on to play Wonder Woman in a three-movie franchise, but the project was abandoned due to the WGA writers strike. Despite these setbacks, she remains one of Australia's most celebrated models to this day and has an estimated net worth of $10million. She also runs a successful baby products brand and an online wellness blog. Her relationship with Shaun is going strong, with the couple now engaged and sharing two gorgeous children, son River, five and daughter, Rosie, two. They are expected to tie the knot later this year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rsi Suwardana (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali Wed, March 4, 2020 18:47 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684d316 3 Health COVID-19,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,health-ministry,hoax,Terawan-Agus-Putranto Free By Rsi Suwardana We might be powerless to stop, or even halt, this current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. First, most of us are not health professionals trained to face this kind of outbreak in the first place. Second, most of us are also not scientists, nor do we hold significant positions in the local, regional or national health agencies responsible for managing this outbreak. Third, obviously we cannot halt something that has not yet arrived in our community. On Monday, President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced the first two confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. After the announcement, the Health Ministrys Disease Control and Prevention Directorate General secretary, Achmad Yurianto, said more tests would be carried out to prevent the spread of the virus. Previously, skepticism was high after the Health Ministry insisted that no cases had been recorded in the country. In response to a much-cited Harvard study that argued it was impossible that Indonesia did not have any cases of coronavirus infection, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto described the study as insulting. The insistence that there were no cases continued, even as several foreigners tested positive after visiting Indonesia. Terawan and his staff should start taking public discussions more seriously. As the leader of our country in the battle against COVID-19, the minister must learn how to speak to the public and the press. One of the biggest blunders was when Achmad Yurianto incorrectly explained the difference between COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 is the official term the World Health Organization (WHO) has given to name this outbreak. Meanwhile, SARS-CoV-2 is the proposed name for the virus that caused the outbreak. Despite the blunder, Yurianto was later appointed as spokesperson for COVID-19-related matters in Indonesia. We might be questioning the Health Ministrys preparedness, but remember, we should not play the role of the powerless. As a privileged population with access to higher education and abundant information from the internet we need to enlighten ourselves and our community, and not seek to discredit the Health Ministry with rumors and false information. For example, part of the health ministers explanation regarding the sky-rocketing prices of face masks was correct. He said prices were rising because of our mistake and advised us to only use masks if we were coughing or sneezing. But unfortunately, he delivered his message in his usual nonchalant style, and the media emphasized the phrase, Its your fault you bought the masks, in their headlines. Yes, it is our fault. We were fooled by the false information that we needed to wear face masks everywhere were went, even if we were healthy. The WHO recommends that masks be worn when taking care of suspected COVID-19 carriers, or when we exhibit symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection, such as coughing or sneezing. The high demand for masks has decreased their stocks and in turn increased their price. This shortage has also been felt by health professionals and has impacted the budgets of health facilities, especially small-scale clinics. It has in fact harmed our efforts to prepare for an outbreak. This is before even mentioning the illegal production of masks that do not meet the Health Ministry's standards. So please, use masks according to the WHO's recommendations. Another point I want to raise is please refrain from spreading posts or statuses from unverified social media accounts. If you are confused about anything concerning COVID-19, such as the safety of packages from China, the effectiveness of certain medications to prevent or treat COVID-19, or whether pets like dogs or cats can transmit the virus, please search for the answers from the homepages or social media accounts of trusted health organizations. At the moment, I only recommend the WHO website and its verified social media accounts. Please also be more careful when you interpret news reports, as not all journalists and writers have expertise in health-related topics. For example, lets look back on the mistake made by one of the Health Ministrys staff members when addressing the difference between COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. Yurianto should have understood the terms, but the media should have also elaborated, instead of only providing fragments of information. SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but the virus is unrelated to the previous Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak that occurred in 2002. The SARS outbreak was caused by another coronavirus strain, officially named SARS-CoVs. If we encounter a new respiratory-related outbreak caused by coronavirus in the future, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) might call the virus SARS-CoV-3. Many conspiracy theories are circulating on social media about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. One of them states that this virus was deliberately created as a biological weapon. The term SARS in SARS-CoV-2 might falsely be used to feed this conspiracy theory, as the public might think this virus was modified from the previous SARS virus. In fact, many scientists around the world firmly state that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is of natural origin, and is unlikely to have been produced in a laboratory. The similarity in the names SARS-CoVs and SARS-CoV-2 is only a matter of nomenclature, and has nothing to do with their origin, just as the Hepatitis A virus is not the direct ancestor of the Hepatitis B, C, D and E viruses. As a general practitioner, I usually refrain from using the formal SARS-CoV-2 name. Instead, I refer to it only as the new coronavirus. Dont get me wrong. Im not trying to downplay the severity of the current outbreak, as the number of cases and deaths is far higher than the previous SARS outbreaks. In my personal opinion, it is more important to educate patients and the public about how to their wash hands and use face masks correctly than it is to tell them the formal name of SARS-CoV-2. But if they ask about SARS-CoV-2, I explain to them clearly without trying to evoke anxiety and advise them to take appropriate preventive measurements. As powerless as you and I might be to tackle this outbreak, we can still contribute by monitoring and criticizing our Health Ministry, to ensure it behaves transparently and takes the necessary approaches to prevent this outbreak from damaging our community. We can also prevent the spread of false information from ravaging our social media environment. With a vaccine still several months away, there is no more effective mantra to prepare for an outbreak than transparency and collaboration, supported by a healthy social media environment. (kes) *** Rsi Suwardana works as a general practitioner. Reach him at Twitter @Rsi_Suwardana. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, officials said on Wednesday. The mercy petition of Pawan has been rejected by the President, a Home Ministry official said. A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya -- the fearless -- was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment. A total of six people -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student here. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Congo's Director-General of the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), Evariste Ondongo, announced on Tuesday that the Fund has paid pensions and social benefits over the past year to the tune of 58 billion CFA francs, the public radio station announced in Brazzaville [March 04, 2020] Vecna Robotics Expands Partnership with UniCarriers Americas to Meet Soaring Demand for Automated Materials Handling Equipment WALTHAM, Mass., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vecna Robotics, a leading automation provider in the materials handling space, today announced an expansion of their partnership with UniCarriers Americas, part of the Mitsubishi Logisnext family companies - the third largest forklift manufacturer in the world. Through this partnership, UniCarriers will manufacture and promote their best-in-class pallet jacks running Vecna Robotics' Pivotal automation software. With UniCarriers' manufacturing capabilities, this alliance enables Vecna Robotics to satisfy soaring demand for automation solutions amongst their customer base, including the largest retailers, 3PLs and manufacturers in North America. UniCarriers' Marengo, IL operation employs sophisticated manufacturing equipment, a team of more than 350 highly skilled professionals, and a half a million square foot manufacturing facility. Vecna Robotics is also working with UCA to leverage UniCarriers' Authorized Dealer network of 125 Dealers throughout the Americas. Through this support network, customers can expect rapid response times in the field, further improving the already best-in-class uptime offered by Vecna Robotics autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). "It is clear that logistics is no longer a cost center for the material handling industry; it is the differentiator," said Daniel Theobald, Founder and CEO of Vecna Robotics. "Our partnership with UniCarriers America allows our customers to quickly expand their use of automation solutions in order to satisfy the customer expectations for faster delivery." In addition, UniCarriers will promote Vecna Robotics AMRs to their national accounts. "We are seeing the need to expand our offering to address our customer's growing needs to automate their operations," said Brian Markison, Senior Director, National Accounts & AGV Sales at UniCarriers America Corporation. "The combination of our pallet jack's high quaity and Vecna's Pivotal automation software is a great combination for us to offer to help our customer meet automation challenges." In addition to the ability to deliver autonomous mobile robots at scale, Vecna Robotics provides one of the most integrated solution in the industry through its continuously-learning orchestration engine, Pivotal. Created to help enterprise organizations navigate the challenges associated with coordinating human and robot productivity, Pivotal works with the site WMS to coordinate and assign tasks to robots, humans, and manual MHE in real-time based on resource capability, location, and availability. Pivotal also provides the ability to bring new units into a fleet quickly, without interrupting already-established workflows and productivity. About Vecna Robotics Vecna Robotics delivers autonomous material handling solutions via self-driving vehicles powered by their proprietary continuously improving software, Pivotal orchestration engine, and 24/7 customer service team. Vecna's solutions deliver value for customers in the distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing sectors by automating cross-docking, line-side delivery, replenishment, case-picking, kitting, goods-to-person, person-to-good, and oversized/non-standard SKUs delivery. Vecna Robotics' technology goes beyond traditional automation and focuses on maximizing human and robot capability to create fulfilling jobs, increase productivity, and encourage innovation. For more information visit www.vecnarobotics.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. About UniCarriers America Corporation As part of a global organization that is the third largest forklift company, UniCarriers is an American manufacturer redefining reliability in the material handling industry. Our reliable forklifts are engineered to deliver maximum uptime every day. Offering high performance and a low cost of ownership, the UniCarriers lineup includes internal combustion and electric powered forklifts, pallet trucks, tow tractors, walkie-stackers, and reach trucks. We offer unmatched warranty coverage including the industry's best standard, limited warranty. We also offer ready access to the parts and services customers need to maximize productivity and profits through a network of factory-trained, authorized dealers throughout the western hemisphere. For more information, visit www.unicarriersamericas.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vecna-robotics-expands-partnership-with-unicarriers-americas-to-meet-soaring-demand-for-automated-materials-handling-equipment-301016298.html SOURCE Vecna Robotics [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Approximately one-in-four Americans who are age 18 or older are or may travel this spring break. Of those, 49 percent intend to leave the state, and 26 percent would like to head to another country. Usually, the goal is to have some fun and possibly shake off the winter chill. However, for many, finding ways to stick to a tight budget is crucial. Otherwise, they cant travel for spring break at all. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to keep costs down. Heres a look at how to save money on spring break. Skip the Major Spring Break Destinations While heading to South Padre Island, Cancun, Venice Beach, Key West, Myrtle Beach, or Daytona Beach might seem like the ideal way to go, it usually isnt. These destinations are incredibly popular. They tend shockingly crowded, and that makes it hard to find reasonably priced accommodations and airfare. Instead of hitting a hot spot, consider an alternative with a similar vibe. If you want to head out of the country to find a tropical destination, you might enjoy Caye Caulker, Belize, Casco Viejo, Panama, or Exumas, Bahamas. For a sunny US destination, consider Palm Springs. If you want to visit a unique city, maybe Charleston, South Carolina, is for you. By looking at alternatives, you might be able to make your trip more affordable. Just keep an open mind and explore the opportunities. You could be surprised by what you discover. Book Your Plane Tickets Early In most cases, youll find the best deals on airfare during a specific window. Typically, you want to purchase domestic plane tickets approximately six weeks before you intend to travel. For international flights, you should get them at least six months in advance. If that window has passed, then youll need to use a different approach. Monitor fare prices and compare ticket costs from multiple airlines. You can also take advantage of a comparison site like Google Flights to see what deals might be best. Explore Every Option for Accommodations There are tons of approaches that can help you save on lodging. You might be able to find deals on travel sites like Priceline or Travelocity. This is especially true if you are open to being a bit surprised and are willing to book accommodations without first learning the propertys name. By being open to that, you can secure potentially deep discounts for hotels with a guaranteed minimum star rating. However, you also shouldnt overlook options like Airbnb or Vrbo. You may be able to rent a room, condo, or whole house for much less than youd spend on a hotel. This is especially true if you are traveling in a large group and would require several hotel rooms, as you might be able to find a multi-bedroom rental that you could stay at together. Plus, with a condo or house, you could end up with access to a full kitchen. That may help you save on food costs as you could, at least occasionally, make your own meals instead. Get Your Attraction and Experience Tickets in Advance If you want to swim with dolphins, head to the zoo, or do anything along those lines, get your attraction or experience tickets in advance. It is almost always cheaper to buy before you intend to arrive. Plus, it gives you a chance to find deals. You can check options like Groupon for discounts or see if there are city passes available that can help you save on multiple attractions. At a minimum, you can see if there are online specials through the experience or attraction website. Do you have any tips that can help people save money on spring break? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Read More: If you enjoy reading our blog posts and would like to try your hand at blogging, we have good news for you; you can do exactly that on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started. Re: False Allegations Against The Bauchi State Govt On The N3.6 Billion Contract For The Supply Of Vehicles We write with reference to the Premium Times story, of 22nd February 2020, by the above title. The story, in its entirety is, to put it mildly, a very serious distraction from the ethical governance environment, that the Bauchi State Government, under the leadership of His Excellency, Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, CON, (Kauran Bauchi), has established in the State; a paradigm shift from the past and a vehicle that promotes transparency, accountability and due process. In summary, the Premium Times story under reference contained, among others, three major false claims that: It is important to place on record, as was stated in the story that, when contacted, I emphatically and painstakingly debunked all the allegations that were considered as the kernel of the story. We restate, without equivocation, that the story, as told by the sponsors, is a tissue of lies promoted for selfish reasons, by politicians who have embarked on a campaign of calumny, blackmail and mischief against the Governor and the State Government. Thus, without prejudice to whatever other steps we may take, we have decided to put the records straight; to afford the discerning public, particularly the good people of Bauchi State, the opportunity to reach a fair and balanced judgment on the situation. Here are the facts: DUE PROCESS In order to justify its baseless and false allegation of impropriety, the Premium Times story gave the impression that the contract award was rushed. That is laughable as no such thing ever happened. On assumption of office, the Government was confronted with the highly demoralising spectre of its critical human resources being incapacitated logistically, either because of rickety vehicles left behind by the Mohammed Abubakar Administration or the absence of any means of transportation at all. As things stood, the need to provide this important work facility was, for all practical purposes, no longer a matter of choice but of acute necessity. Despite the urgency, Government took the following steps: Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Rep. Kay Granger survived a challenge in Tuesdays primary from a conservative firebrand who accused her of being disloyal to President Donald Trump. Trump had endorsed Granger against Chris Putnam, a former city councilman from suburban Fort Worth. It was Grangers first serious challenge in the heavily Republican district since she was first elected in 1997. She is the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and the only woman among Texas 23 Republican House members. Trump had endorsed Granger back in December when he tweeted she had been a strong supporter of our #MAGA Agenda. Grangers district in around Fort Worth includes a Lockheed Martin plant that builds the F-35 fighter jet. Over the years, she has been a key force in securing more military funding. But Putnam argued that she should have used her perch over House spending to secure more funding for Trumps border wall. As primary election night returns trickled in Tuesday night, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo also showed strength in early returns. Watch: Girls trip and fall during massive Congress sponsored marathon in UP BJP needs to change its mindset about women': Congress Cong accuses BJP of using Tek Fog app to propagate agenda on SM, seeks intervention by SC Congress to issue whip to MLAs in Madhya Pradesh for RS polls India oi-PTI Bhopal, Mar 04: The Congress will issue a whip to its 114 MLAs for the March 26 polls to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, a minister said on Wednesday, hours after the ruling party accused the BJP of taking some of its MLAs to Haryana in a bid to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. The BJP has denied the charge, saying it is not trying to topple the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh. 'We are going to issue a whip and if any of our lawmaker violates it, his membership will be scrapped in just one hour,' state Legislative Affairs Minister Govind Singh told reporters here. How the numbers stand in Madhya Pradesh assembly Cross-voting will not be tolerated at any cost, the minister said. Usually, political parties do not issue whip for the Rajya Sabha elections. Congress veteran and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, who losing the the last year's Lok Sabha poll from Bhopal to BJP's Pragya Thakur, may seek re-election to the Upper House of Parliament, party sources said. The Congress may field former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also in the Rajya Sabha polls, they said. Scindia lost the Lok Sabha election last year from Guna seat in the state. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 The BJP is likely renominate former Union minister and Dalit leader Satyanarayan Jatiya for the Rajya Sabha polls, sources in the saffron party said. The three Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in the state are currently held by Digvijaya Singh (Congress), Satyanarayan Jatiya and Prabhat Jha (both from BJP). Operation Lotus: Will Madhya Pradesh govt see the same fate as Karnataka politics? The BJP is set to make all efforts to retain the two seats, while the Congress wants to take its tally to two from one, as it has more legislators this time around. In the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP- 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. Members of a state Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 14:35 [IST] Northern white rhinos no longer exist in the wild. The last two remaining female individuals are under constant surveillance in Kenya while scientists are working on groundbreaking techniques to save the species from complete extinction. Najin and her daughter Fatu are under intense surveillance in their 700-acre (about 280-hectare) enclosure at the Ol Pejeta conservancy near the town of Nanyuki, on the equator in central Kenya. Their head caregiver, Zacharia Mutai, says his team considers them as family members. We know them very well and must ensure that they are healthy and well looked after. Having the last two is something very serious. We are trying all our best to protect and preserve them. We dont want to face extinction any more. Mutai was the caregiver of Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, which died in 2018. The two remaining females, 31-year-old Najin and 20-year-old Fatu, are clinically infertile and cannot carry a pregnancy. Furthermore, Najin has a large tumour on her right ovary and Fatin has a damaged uterus. Groundbreaking techniques In order to save the species from extinction, scientists are working on artificial reproduction techniques which have never been attempted with rhinoceros before. The efforts are pioneered by the BioRescue project at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Germany. The team of international scientists are using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and stem cell technology for reproduction purposes. We have collected a lot of semen from four different northern white rhino bulls over the last 20 years, says Professor Thomas Hildebrandt who heads the BioRescue project. This frozen semen allows us to do in vitro fertilisation and we hope to combine that approach together with groundbreaking stem cell technology. Hildebrandt, a veterinarian specialised in the reproduction of wild animals, hopes that the combined technology will help produce a viable population that could be released into the wild within 15 to 20 years. Story continues Last year, in a unique procedure at the Ol Pejeta conservancy, his team managed to collect the eggs from Fatu and Najin, but only three embryos from Fatus eggs have managed to survive. Our goal is to produce the first offspring of the northern white rhino with IVF technique as soon as possible so that this baby can learn how to be a northern white rhino from Najin and Fatu. So, our timeline for that is about three years from now, he added. The embryos are ready for transfer into surrogate southern white rhinos mothers. Hildebrandt hopes that it will happen before the end of 2020. It will then be followed by a gestation period of 16 months. Meanwhile in Kenya, Stephen Ngulu, the wildlife vet at the Ol Pejeta conservancy, told RFI that Najin and Fatu are scrupulously monitored. I have to observe their walking, their skin, check the eyes, teeth, feet or any wounds. I collect blood and we will test for various parasites, bacterial and viral diseases. Stem cell technology to save endangered species The stem cell approach is needed because we need a gene pool large enough to create a solid, viable population of northern white rhinoceros, said Hildebrandt, who has spent the last 20 years working with the northern white rhinos. The technique, inspired by the work of the 2012 Nobel Prize-winning stem cell biologist Shinya Yamanaka, has only been performed on lab mice, but nobody has been capable, so far, to do that with two-ton species like the rhino. The scientists are using stem cell technology to create eggs and sperm from deceased northern white rhinos. We have not only harvested sperms from the four different northern white rhino bulls but we also collected skin samples from 12 unrelated individuals. We have the best scientists on board and we hope to make significant progress in this field in the next three to five years, Hildebrandt told RFI. It is very ambitious, but without dreams you cant change the world. 24/7 armed surveillance The northern white rhino is endemic to swamp areas extending over Uganda, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Chad. Extensive poaching and civil war led to their near extinction. Najin and Fatu were born in captivity and brought to Kenya in 2009 from the Dvur Kralove Safari Park in the Czech Republic. The worlds two remaining northern white rhinos live under the constant surveillance of 42 armed guards from the National Police Reservists. We have a system where we can track the walkie talkies of the patrols. We have night vision, we have thermal images, explains Emilio Gichuki at the Ol Pejeta conservancy. He added that poaching is still an acute problem which they are trying to resolve by involving the neighbouring communities. Follow BioRescue project on Twitter @BioRescueP Follow Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research on Twitter @IZWberlin Follow Ol Pejeta conservancy on Twitter @OlPejeta Follow Zeenat Hansrod on Twitter @zxnt Bengaluru: BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnals allegedly derogatory remarks against centenarian freedom fighter H S Doreswamy have won him the displeasure of Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala. While receiving a Congress delegation that came to complain about Yatna on Wednesday, Vala made his views known clearly: The BJP member should respect the age and experience of Mr Doreswamy. He should not make such remarks against a centenarian freedom fighter. The remarks attributed to Yatnal were uttered during Constitution Day celebrations in Vijayapura. Yatnal remarked that there are many freedom fighters in this country, and one is staying in Bengaluru. Doreswamy behaves like a Pakistan agent. He is a fake freedom fighter and makes statements in favour of Pakistan, Yatnal said during the meeting. Having disrupted business in the Assembly for two days over the disrespect shown to Doreswamy, a Congress delegation went to Raj Bhavan today to submit a memorandum to the governor to request him to prevail upon the speaker to expel Yatnal from the Assembly. In the memo, leader of the delegation Siddaramaiah stated that Yatnal, by showing disrespect to the freedom fighter, violated the provisions of the Constitution and therefore his actions amounted to misconduct as per House rules. Siddaramaiah also pointed out that the chief minister and speaker have promised a discussion in the Assembly on the issue should the Congress give notice of it. The Congress did so, and the speaker initially fixed a time for the debate on March 3. But in a turnaround, he later ruled the Congress notice as not maintainable. The governor assured the Congress delegation he would examine the procedures of the legislature and the Constitution, and take an appropriate decision. Based on the governors assurance, the Congress decided to withdraw its dharna in the Assembly. They participated in the days discussion on the Constitution. Healthpointe's team of employees, family, friends, and pups took on the Brea 8K on an early Sunday morning. Healthpointe... looks forward to using 2020 to be even more involved in surrounding neighborhoods. On February 23, 2020, the Healthpointe team participated in the 29th annual Brea 8k, a hometown-style event to raise funds for the students of Brea Olinda High School. This occasion is focused on health, community, and most importantly, fun! In addition to sponsoring the event, Healthpointe gathered a team of some of the most dedicated employees and family to walk and run the (approximately) five mile course in the neighborhoods surrounding the Brea Mall. Following the race, the team contributed to the Finest Finish Line closing ceremony, in which vendors set up food trucks, games, giveaways, and more. Healthpointe had a booth set up as well, and the team spent our post-race time engaging with the community. One of Healthpointe's esteemed chiropractors, Dr. Castro, used this opportunity to show off some specialized physical therapy massagers, and participants were encouraged to try it out under the guidance of a medical professional. The Brea 8k is a child and pet-friendly affair, so of course, this organization jumped at the opportunity to bring out family members and dogs. Runners were asked about Healthpointe's matching blue shirts several times, and the dogs garnered a lot of attention. Other participants wore costumes and face paint, and some even went so far as to dress their dogs up as well. Starting from the Brea Mall, the course of the race went straight down Birch Street, curving around Country Hills Elementary School and Country Hills Park. One of the last turns started near the Country Hills Estates Neighborhood and Pool, and the final stretch went up Birch Street back to the mall. Runners were greeted by sunny skies, spectators, and an all-around friendly atmosphere. While many people walked the event, Healthpointe's very own Lydia Gil completed the race in under 51 minutes, finishing 1,023 in over 2,460 participants. Additionally, she finished 377th out of over 1,335 women, and 32nd in her age range. Gil maintained close to a ten minute mile, and the team was very pleased with her energy and effort in this race. The race is organized and worked by unpaid parent and community volunteers. The money raised for this event will go to several programs at Brea Olinda High School, including the Global IT Academy, Instrumental Music and Color Guard Boosters, and the Vocal Music Boosters. For almost 30 years, the funds raised in this single event have gone straight to uplift Breas only high school. Healthpointe is thrilled to have participated in this community event for the first time, and looks forward to using 2020 to be even more involved in surrounding neighborhoods. To learn more about Healthpointe, visit the website! There's information about Healthpointe's services, locations, and health-related blogs, all in one place! Thank you for your time and attention stay healthy with Healthpointe! : Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Wednesday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging him to withdraw the new provisions in the National Population Register (NPR) 2020 as they were causing panic among the people. In a letter to Shah, the Chief Minister said the population census should be as per the 2010 format and the additional provisions now included in the NPR should be withdrawn. The Chief Minister said the people were panicky over the additional provisions in the NPR, hence he urged the Union Minister to scrap the provisions. He said that already West Bengal, Bihar and Kerala, among others, have expressed their protest against the NPR and taken a stand they would not implement the NPR 2020. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A glamorous mayor and bride-to-be suddenly called off her wedding just hours after revealing she was engaged to her boyfriend of eight months. Sarah Carter, the mayor of Maribyrnong in Melbourne's inner-west, announced her upcoming nuptials with Aaron Lipson, an advertising director, over the weekend. She wrote in a gushing Facebook post her partner was the 'most amazing man I have ever chanced upon'. High-profile mayor Sarah Carter has called off her engagement to boyfriend Aaron Lipson after receiving information from a third party Over the weekend, she shared her upcoming nuptials with her boyfriend of eight months in a gushing Facebook post A third party phoned to tell Ms Carter as she was basking in the glow of well-wishers Ms Carter, an accomplished councillor who has enjoyed an admirable political career in local government since being first elected to Maribyrnong City Council in 2008, is pictured in front of Congress in Washington D.C 'On Saturday, the most amazing man I've ever chanced upon got down on one knee and proposed,' Ms Carter wrote in the post, attracting hundreds of reactions on the social media website. 'I, of course, rushed to say "yes" and just like that we're engaged to be married. I'm the luckiest gal in all the world and can't wait to be your wife Aaron Lipson - love you to the moon and back.' But while celebrating the news with her friends and family and basking in the glow of well-wishers, a third party phoned her to reveal some bad news. Ms Carter returned to her Facebook page on Tuesday to tell her friends and family her plans to marry her advertising guru - who boasts Jeep, Nike and Heinz as his clients - were no more. 'The wedding is off,' she wrote in the second post. 'Thank you to the woman for telling me, best to know now. 'Im obviously terribly embarrassed.' Returning to her Facebook page on Tuesday, Ms Carter said her wedding plans were no more The mayor of Maribyrnong in Melbourne's inner-west is pictured with former Labor leader Bill Shorten 'Thank you to the woman for telling me, best to know now,' Ms Carter wrote in the second post The glamorous councillor (pictured again with Mr Shorten) was elected to the suburban Melbourne council in 2008, before reaching the role of mayor in 2011 The glamorous councillor was elected to the suburban Melbourne council in 2008, before reaching the role of mayor in 2011. Her political interests include gender equity and social justice. Ms Carter also spoke about the whirlwind of emotion in such a short space of time - leading from the happy moment to the shock separation. 'Its too soon and too raw,' she told the Herald Sun. Ms Carter said she was 'terribly embarrassed' by what had happened over the past few days Ms Carter said she was still feeling very 'raw' after a whirlwind of emotions leading from the happy moment to the shock separation She said she was still trying to process going through 'the highest of highs and the lowest of lows' The now former fiance of Ms Carter has refused to comment on the claims, saying it is a 'private matter' Ms Carter had in her weekend post described her partner as the 'most amazing man I have ever chanced upon' 'Ive gone through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in a very short space in time and am just trying to get through it with family and friends.' Mr Lipson refused to comment. 'This is a private matter were working through and dont want to comment,' he told the Herald Sun. Do you know more? Email tips@dailymail.com Do you want to save money on car insurance. Why not try online quotes? They can help you get the best rates, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has released a new blog post that explains why drivers should compare car insurance quotes online. For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/why-you-should-compare-auto-insurance-online/ Online quotes can be obtained using a brokerage website or an insurance companys website, It all depends on how much time the user wants to dedicate to finding and comparing price estimates. Shopping around with the help of online quotes has some serious advantages. Check them out and get free quotes from http://compare-autoinsurance.org/ Comparing prices online will help drivers save hundreds of dollars. Online quotes will help drivers find affordable coverage. A smart person will compare offers from various sources before buying car insurance. The main role of quotes is to provide accurate price estimates for the chosen policies. Online brokerage websites display multiple search results on a single webpage. Using those websites is quicker and more effective than getting just a single quote from every car insurance company. Plus, the online questionnaires will differ, making price comparison a bit more difficult. On average, quotes can help drivers find policies cheaper with 5%-10% than a current providers renewal premium. Good online questionnaires are complex and extensive. Really good brokerage websites rely on complex, extensive forms that will return very accurate results. The form must contain important questions for auto insurance companies: car manufacturer, model, fabrication year, type of car, approximate mileage per year. Also some personal information will be required: recent DUI incidents, workplace, if the car is still financed the car and so on. The info will help the website search for more accurate quotes. Online quotes are very fast and easy to obtain. The Internet allows us to send and receive data really fast. Online quotes can be obtained in just several seconds. Clearly, this is much faster than any of the traditional ways of obtaining insurance quotes. The user does not have to leave the house in order to get the best online quotes. Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org A parliamentary panel had examined the Demands for Grants 2020-21 of Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) and tabled its report in Parliament New Delhi: A parliamentary panel on Tuesday suggested a lower GST rate for the automobile segment at least till the revival of the sector and uniform road tax across all states against the backdrop of negative growth in the automobile production since July 2018. A parliamentary panel had examined the Demands for Grants 2020-21 of Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) and tabled its report in Parliament. The automobile industry in India is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors and constitutes 27 percent of industrial gross domestic product (GDP) and 49 percent of manufacturing GDP. It provides about 37 million direct and indirect jobs and 15 percent of total GST collection amounting to Rs 1.5 lakh crore. "But, the committee observes that of late, there is negative growth in the automobile production since July 2018," said the report. The committee noted that some of the factors that contributed to slowdown are non-availability of credit facility to consumers, stringent rules for loan sanction by banks, rise in price due to the upfront payment of third-party insurance for 5 years, introduction of BS-VI vehicles from April 2020; and higher rate of GST on automobiles and components. Amid a slowdown in the sector, the committee, among other things, recommended to either suspend or postpone the upfront payment of insurance for 5 years for the time being and reduction in GST rate to a lower slab "at least till the revival of the auto sector". Further, it made a case for the introduction of incentive-based scrappage policy for creating purchase demand for new vehicles, reduction in import duty on lithium-ion cell battery which is used for operating the e-vehicles and levy of uniform road tax across all states. The report said the committee "is pleased to note" that the Delhi-Chandigarh highway has been declared as the first e-vehicle friendly expressway of the country. It desires that other expressways, including Delhi-Jaipur and Mumbai-Pune expressways, may also be made completely e-vehicle friendly soon with charging infrastructure in place at regular and frequent intervals. Amazon on Tuesday said an employee who works in one of its Seattle, Washington, offices tested positive for the coronavirus. "We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine," the company told CNBC. "The employee is based out of Amazon's Brazil office building in Seattle, WA." The office is in downtown Seattle on 9th Avenue, according to a search on Google Maps. It is not Amazon's headquarters office, which is located on 7th Avenue. Amazon notified employees of the update in a memo, saying, "The employee went home feeling unwell on Tuesday, February 25 and has not entered Amazon offices since that time." "We notified the employees who we know were in close contact with this employee," the memo continues. "The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low." Amazon asked employees who are experiencing symptoms to stay home and seek medical attention. Washington state has seen the largest surge of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., including several cases at a nursing facility. Nine people have died in Washington as of Tuesday evening. The total number of confirmed cases in the state stands at 27 as of Tuesday, up from 18 on Monday. Health officials said 231 people in the state are being monitored for the virus. Last week, a Google employee in Switzerland tested positive for coronavirus. CNBC's J.R. Reed and Annie Palmer contributed to this report. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, citing concerns about the fast-spreading coronavirus, on Tuesday said they will adopt a "virtual format" for their Spring Meetings instead of convening in person in Washington. The institutions' Spring Meetings, scheduled this year for April 17-19, usually bring some 10,000 government officials, journalists, business people and civil society representatives from across the globe to a tightly packed, two-block area of downtown Washington that houses their headquarters. "Given growing health concerns related to ... APALACHIN, N.Y. -- New York State Police called in underwater recovery teams and drones Tuesday in their search for a 37-year-old woman who went missing in Tioga County on Sunday. Police have yet to find Casie Weese, who went missing near Main Street in Apalachin on Sunday. On Tuesday, police used the underwater recovery teams to search the Susquehanna River and Apalachin Creek, state police said. The state polices aviation unit and drones were used by troopers to view the area in which Weese went missing from the air. The search area has included the area along Main Street, State Route 434 and the surrounding streets and terrain, police said. Six different New York State Police departments and five other law enforcement organizations or fire departments helped the search, police said. Weese, who is from Glen Aubrey, was last seen at a party with her husband around 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, police said. Ronnie Weese, her husband, told police their car broke down on Main Street, the two got into an argument and Casie walked away, according to state police. Casie Weese When state police interviewed Ronnie Weese, troopers said they saw a spare tire on the car. They also said Ronnie Weese has been cooperating with the investigation. Ronnie Weese told state police he asked his daughter to call 911 to report her mother missing after she did not return home later Sunday. Casie Weese was last seen walking east on Main Street, away from the car and away from the party they had just left, a trooper said. State police do not know exactly where on Main Street the car broke down, but they believe it may have been just east of a bridge near Apalachin Creek, Trooper Aga Dembinska. State police did not say what the couple was arguing about or whether they had been drinking alcohol at the party before Casie Weese disappeared. "I cant speak intellectually to their level of intoxication, State police Zone 3 Commander Capt. Erik Dauber said. We dont know what her state was, Dembinska added. Dembinska said theres a lot of speculation as to why Casie Weese disappeared, but state police are still trying to iron out all the facts. State police have received reports from people who claimed to have seen Casie Weese in Glen Aubrey and Waverly, but they have not yet found her, Dembinska said Monday night. Weese is 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a black and white checkered jacket, jeans and black Ugg boots. State police ask anyone with information to call 911 or their barracks in Owego at (607) 687-3961. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:32:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VIENNA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price increased to 52.65 U.S. dollars a barrel on Tuesday, compared with 51.65 dollars on Monday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Wednesday. Also known as the OPEC Reference Basket of Crude (ORB), the OPEC basket is a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, and used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. Currently it averages the oil prices from 14 countries, namely Algeria, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. REUTERS Donald Trump labelled Mike Bloomberg the biggest loser of Super Tuesday following a night of disappointing results for the billionaire Democratic hopeful. The former mayor of New York picked up only a handful of delegates from the territory of American Samoa, despite spending more than half a billion dollars of his own money on the campaign. After failing to make headway in key target states, sources close to his campaign have said that Bloomberg plans to reassess whether he should stay in the race. Politico cited several people close to the campaign saying his exit was all but certain. The Associated Press reported that he would decide whether to continue in the race tomorrow. The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg. His political consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation, Trump tweeted. Earlier in the night, Bloomberg was in a combative mood as he said his campaign has achieved something no one else thought was possible, touting his rise from one percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president." But poor performances in several bellwether states targeted by the billionaires campaign have raised questions about his future in the race. Despite spending more than $17 million on television advertising alone in North Carolina, and building a significant ground game, Bloomberg is projected to finish third in the state behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. One campaign aide blamed the former mayors poor performance in his debut debate in Las Vegas last month. "This isnt going as planned," a campaign adviser told CNNs Jeff Zeleny. "Things changed after Las Vegas debate and never recovered." In Virginia, too, the signs were bad. His campaign has flooded the airwaves with television commercials in the past few months, and he has visited some seven times. Story continues But that effort has shown little reward so far, with polling currently placing him in fourth place with 9.5 percent. Campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told reporters earlier in the night that Bloomberg was absolutely not dropping out. Bloombergs spending has dwarfed that of his rivals, a strategy that is credited with propelling him in the polls from around 5 percent in November to around 15 percent today. The parents and grandmother of a six-year-old boy have been charged with his murder after it was revealed they locked him in a cupboard for a month to punish him for sneaking out and stealing food. Anthony Jose Archibeque-Martinez, 23, Elizabeth Archibeque-Martinez, 26, detained him in the cabinet alongside his brother, and on Monday afternoon he was found unresponsive at their home in Arizona. The boys were kept in a cupboard from 8pm until 12pm the following day when they would eat oatmeal. Four hours later they were allowed a cheese sandwich. Flagstaff Police learned the boy's grandmother Ann Marie Martinez, 50, was aware of the conditions he was kept in, and was arrested alongside the couple. Anthony Jose Archibeque-Martinez, 23, Elizabeth Archibeque-Martinez, 26, detained him in the cabinet alongside his brother Cops responded to a 911 call at approximately 12.39pm Monday and immediately began life-saving efforts on the child who was sprawled on the living room floor and appeared small with a tiny bone structure. 'The physical appearance of the six-year old child did not compliment his age, appearing malnourished,' the police said in a statement. When medical personnel arrived they were not able to resuscitate the child, who was pronounced deceased on scene. Detectives interviewed the family and searched the residence while collecting evidence as part of the investigation in the death. Authorities said he appeared malnourished but there were no obvious signs of trauma to the child. They are awaiting results from a medical examiner to determine the condition and timeline of abuse. Investigators noted the boy's seven-year old brother also appears malnourished. The two boys were not enrolled in a school but one of their sibling was. Police claim the parents admitted the brothers were kept in the bedroom closet and denied food at times. Both admitted that the two boys were kept in the closet because they were stealing food, by sneaking out at night when the parents slept. Cops responded to a 911 call at approximately 12.39pm Monday and immediately began life-saving efforts on the child who was sprawled on the living room floor and appeared small with a tiny bone structure In the most recent circumstances the parents estimated the juveniles had been kept in the closet for about a month. Cops said that the grandmother admitted during questioning that she was aware of the condition the boys were kept in and admitted to disciplining the children when they stole food. It was note noted how the grandmother disciplined the children or why they were stealing food at night. All three adults were charged with first-degree homicide and two counts of child abuse. They were held in Coconino County Jail on $3million cash bond. Police have started interviewing other family members, neighbors and possible witnesses as part of an investigation. The six-year-old boy's grandmother Ann Marie Martinez, 50, was aware of the conditions he was kept in, and was arrested alongside the couple The Department of Child Safety personnel has since taken custody of the boy's three siblings. The seven-year-old boy who was also malnourished was placed in hospital. A four-year-old girl who regularly attended school and a two-year-old sibling did not appear malnourished. We can confirm the child's siblings are currently in DCS care and are receiving the care and services necessary to help them during this difficult time,' a Department of Child Safety spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement. DCS said it 'mourns the tragic loss of this innocent life'. The Daily Beast reports that DCS responded to the home in February 2013 due to 'two allegations of abuse' involving one of the deceased boy's siblings. Both allegations were 'unsubstantiated' and the couple 'agreed to participate in voluntary in-home services'. But the investigation was completed in July 2013 so the case was closed. 'Keeping children safe is the Department's top priority. However, DCS cannot investigate child abuse and neglect unless we receive a report from the community,' a spokesperson said. Neighbors have said they didn't seen the family much. 'That little boy suffered, I'm not going to sleep well tonight,' Leslie Lerma, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, told Fox 10 on Tuesday. 'What a horrible way to pass away,' Peggy Norman said. 'Breaks my heart, and I wish the best for those other kids.' Norman lives across the street and cried when she heard the news. KATHMANDU, Nepal - Nepals prime minister had a successful kidney transplant on Wednesday and is in stable condition, doctors said. Khadga Prasad Olis new kidney is already functioning and he is recovering at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, said Prem Krishna Khadga, a doctor at the hospital. It was not clear how long Oli, 69, would remain in the hospital. Other details of his condition and the operation were not made public. Doctors said the donor, who is Olis relative, is also in stable condition and is recovering well. The popular Communist prime minister has long suffered from kidney illness and has made several trips to India and Thailand for treatment. He underwent an earlier kidney transplant in 2007 in New Delhi. Oli became prime minister in 2018 after a Communist alliance swept parliamentary elections. He was also prime minister in 2015 and has been elected to parliament four times. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 2) With the number of confirmed cases rising globally, the fatality rate of the novel coronavirus disease is deemed to be quite high, a health expert said Monday. Former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said the COVID-19 fatality rate which has previously been computed at around two percent may actually be higher given the possibility of undetected cases around the globe. They're (officials) saying there are a lot of mild infections that they haven't detected, and therefore they're saying it's lower, Dayrit, who previously served as the governments Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome czar, told CNN Philippines The Source. Many cases are flying under the radar. READ: It's likely there are more coronavirus cases in the United States than the numbers show Dayrit said while SARS and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus posted higher mortality rates, COVID-19 is seen to be more explosive with a quicker reproduction process. The Philippine government has repeatedly assured that precautionary protocols to prevent the spread of the disease are in place. There are no new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, but hundreds of Filipino crew members and passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship remain in quarantine in Tarlac. RELATED: Govt scouting for quarantine sites in Visayas, Mindanao as worldwide coronavirus cases soar While Dayrit lauded the governments efforts, he said the current coronavirus situation is just the tip of the iceberg with the world bracing for worst case scenarios. Because the bigger iceberg underneath are all of those undetected and actually mild cases that are actually circulating in the community, he said. Earlier, the World Health Organization said the coronavirus case fatality rate was on a downward trend, despite a rapid increase in cases. The agency has since declared the outbreak as a global health emergency. Over 3,000 people have been killed by the COVID-19 as of Monday, CNN reported. The disease has since spread to 66 other countries outside of China, with over 89,000 cases to date. The Delhi government moved a court here on Wednesday seeking fresh date for the execution of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, saying their all legal remedies are exhausted. The government swung into action hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four convicts facing the gallows in the case. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana issued notice to the convicts and directed them to file their response by tomorrow. The Delhi government told the court that all legal remedies of the convicts have been exhausted and nothing survives now. The lawyer for the prosecution also said no notice was required. While issuing the notice, the court said that "principles of natural justice are part of Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and the sacrosanct principle of 'audi alteram partem' (listen to the other side) cannot be ignored". The court had on Monday deferred till further order the hanging the convicts that was scheduled for Tuesday. The trial court had on February 17 issued a fresh date, March 3 at 6 am, for the execution of death warrants for the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- in the case. The execution of their death warrants has been deferred thrice so far due to delays by them in exhausting legal remedies. All the convicts in the case are to be hanged together. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. She had died after a fortnight. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Conservatives push two beliefs about government: It can always be smaller and it should be run like a business. They claim a miniaturized government frees business to empower Americans to reach their potential, and that government run like a business eliminates waste and balances the budget. Trumps presence in the White House proves both beliefs wrong. We have immediate evidence of the dangers of a shrunken government, thanks to Trumps cuts to the federal epidemiology system that used to protect Americans from threats like the coronavirus. Trump removed major components of the federal system that coordinated with states to fight epidemics, provide training for medical staff across the country, and support testing for infections. All in the name of shrinking government. Businesses and employees are paying the cost for an understandable lack of faith in the governments ability to address this risk. We will never know how many Americans were sickened as a result of Trumps foolish policy. As for the myth that the best government is run like a business, look at Trumps business history four bankruptcies and a reliance on shady Duetsche Bank for loans because no one else would lend to him. Unger Trump the federal deficit has ballooned to $1 trillion, abetted by Republicans who now ignore their own predictions of disaster from a growing national debt. Republican debt good; Democratic debt bad. Trumps a loser as a businessman, and his pattern of growing debt has now become the burden of working Americans. Michael Kenney Easton Fiona Bruce is almost unique among her generation of high-profile female presenters in that she has never so she says succumbed to the temptation of Botox. In an industry where frozen foreheads abound, she remains steadfastly untouched by the needle at 55, even though, as she puts it: 'If you don't do it, as I don't, you look pretty rough by comparison.' I think she's being a bit hard on herself. With her impeccable poise and perpetual low-key glamour, Bruce is the last person I would describe as looking 'rough'. But there is undoubtedly something in what she says. Women these days view their appearance with an increasingly critical eye, often striving to achieve impossible levels of perfection in a world that seems to value appearance above almost everything else. Fiona Bruce is almost unique among her generation of high-profile female presenters in that she has never so she says succumbed to the temptation of Botox, writes Sarah Vine It's not just those who make a living on screen who feel this need; thanks to the popularity of image-based social media platforms such as Instagram, we all spend more time scrutinising our own reflections than is perhaps good for us. And I should know. This time last year I had a thread lift, ostensibly for a magazine article but if I'm honest because, like Fiona Bruce, I was feeling somewhat 'rough'. I wanted to look and feel just that little bit glossier, more confident less like the rather cross, increasingly jowly person who greeted me every morning in the mirror. A thread lift is a little more involved than Botox: in essence it involves inserting a number of barbed threads under the skin which are then tightened to lift the tissues of the face. Over time the threads dissolve, leaving the lift in place. It wasn't exactly painless; but it was quick, and it was effective. I left the clinic looking a little chipmunky but otherwise unscathed, and went straight to a lunch meeting. Over the course of the following weeks and months, my skin grew smoother and my face less saggy. But perhaps more importantly, for the first time in years I felt quite good about myself. And, shallow as that may seem, it was the best feeling ever. We live in a world where there is an entire new female aesthetic, fuelled by the rise of celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and their many imitators, whose appearance relies heavily on the work of cosmetic surgeons. Among such social media 'influencers', Botox and fillers and all the rest are no longer the exception, they are the norm 'Instagram Face', they call it. And Fiona Bruce is right: these pouting paragons of perfection do make the rest of us look 'rough'. Even if you know it's all fake, it's hard not to be seduced by it. No wonder more and more of us are succumbing. According to a recent survey, 40 per cent of British adults are considering a non-surgical treatment in the next 12 months. In the UK alone, the market for these treatments is projected to rise to more than 3 billion a year within five years. Like it or not, having one's facial expressions tweaked is fast becoming no more unusual than a visit to the dentist. The sad truth is that we are not all blessed with Fiona's solid, sensible resolve least of all me. I admire her tremendously. But I fear she may be fighting a losing battle. Italians have been told to observe a one metre exclusion zone around themselves in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus. To anyone who knows the tactile Italians as I do, that's like telling an Englishman not to mention the weather. In other words, we're all doomed. Clean sweep over Mantel Mrs Hinch, a former hairdresser from Essex and an Instagram 'cleanfluencer', has had twice as many pre-orders for her Little Book Of Lists as two-times Booker Prize winner Dame Hilary Mantel for the latest part of her acclaimed Tudor trilogy. Mrs Hinch, who has 3.2 million Instagram followers, describes her magnum opus as 'a whole book filled with just lists! Notebook goals! My idea of absolute heaven!' And to think we used to be nation of literary giants... Mrs Hinch, a former hairdresser from Essex and an Instagram 'cleanfluencer', has had twice as many pre-orders for her Little Book Of Lists as two-times Booker Prize winner Dame Hilary Mantel for the latest part of her acclaimed Tudor trilogy Back in 2009 I caught swine flu, or H1N1 to give it its proper name. It was absolutely horrible, made worse by the fact that the publication I was working for at the time kept ringing me up every five minutes asking me to write about how I felt. Write? I could barely open my eyes. I spent several days in bed and then got tonsillitis, which turned into a quinsy (a medieval-sounding ailment that basically amounts to an abscess on the tonsils), and after that, pneumonia. But I survived. By all accounts, coronavirus sounds much less unpleasant, plus it only really causes complications in the very elderly or those with underlying conditions. Of course, we must all take precautions. But let's not turn a pandemic into a panicdemic. Kardashian trash-ion The house of Balmain is the latest venerable fashion house to have sold its soul to the ranks of the rapper-ati. Where once its founder, Monsieur Pierre Balmain, presided over exquisitely tailored creations, now the company makes overpriced trainers and rubber onesies for the likes of Kim Kardashian, who strode around the capital of fashion this week looking as though she'd escaped from some S&M party. I'm not much of a fashion-ista myself, but I am lucky enough to own a vintage Pierre Balmain coat dating from the mid-Fifties. It's a little threadbare, but it still draws compliments, thanks to its expert tailoring and timeless cut. I can't imagine Ms Kardashian's tawdry creation will stand a similar test of time. I'm glad Prince Harry took advantage of his visit to the UK to spend some time with his grandmother at Windsor. Apparently they exchanged warm words, and the Monarch, 93, told him he will 'always be welcomed back'. The Queen is the only one to come out of this hoo-ha with any integrity. God only knows how this royal band of flakes and fools will cope when she's gone. Stella McCartney reinforces her animal rights credentials by sending a menagerie of models dressed as furry friends foxes, cows, rabbits, horses and even a cuddly crocodile down the catwalk in Paris. She does know, doesnt she, that fake fur is about as environmentally unfriendly as you can get, made as it is from plastic? Oh, the pitfalls of being right-on. Stella McCartney reinforces her animal rights credentials by sending a menagerie of models dressed as furry friends foxes, cows, rabbits, horses and even a cuddly crocodile down the catwalk in Paris Keiras fight for vulnerable young There is something depressingly inevitable about the tale of Keira Bell, 23, the young woman who was given drugs to help her transition to male and who is now suing an NHS Trust for negligence on the grounds that, aged 16, she was too young to make an informed decision. For years, experts have been warning of such a possibility, arguing that vulnerable young people should not be making irreversible decisions about their gender. The response from the powerful transgender lobby has been predictable: online hysteria, accusations of transphobia and conspiring to deny trans people their rights. Meanwhile, politicians who should know better have caved in to their demands, further endangering the wellbeing of people like Keira. Of course, we should respect the medical needs of transgender people. But we also have a responsibility to distinguish between cases that are genuine and those that are born out of other issues. And yet, as I write, it is still possible for a child to begin hormone treatment as Keira did after as few as three therapeutic assessments. In other words, a teenager can embark on a course of treatment that will result in irreversible physical changes, including potentially rendering themselves infertile, with about as much thought as they might give to getting a tattoo. That is not progress, that is child abuse and it must stop. Some 200 Royal Mail workers in Inverness, Scotland are preparing to strike over company mistreatment of disabled employees. In violation of Royal Mails own guidelines as well as the Equality Act of 2010, management conducted workplace attendance reviews that specifically targeted disabled workers, with claims that this could be used as a pretext for firing and replacing them. The potential strike could affect the delivery of mail throughout the entire Highlands and Islands region of Scotland. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has prepared a strike ballot after stalling any struggle for months. Though workers began to file complaints as long as six months ago, the union only recently addressed the issue. The sheer scope of complaints filed by Royal Mail workers in the Inverness area pushed the CWU to file an investigation, which produced a 16-page document detailing the systematic abuse of disabled staff. Credit: Flickr.com, Monica Arellano-Ongpin Though the CWU made the decision to issue a strike ballot, their main aim is to reach a resolution with Royal Mail and avoid strikes. Industrial action is the very worst-case scenario for us, said a local CWU spokesman, acknowledging the union bureaucracys reluctance to call a strike. Such attacks are not limited to the Inverness facility but are widespread and systematic. The targeting of disabled employees is bound up with the broader Amazonification of Royal Mail, a process by which the company hopes to compete with corporate logistics behemoths like Amazon. Workers have requested the CWU hold an industrial action ballot at Royal Mails Filton distribution facility in the greater Bristol area after the company announced job cuts last week. The Bristol Mail Centre in Filton is the largest Mail Centre in the South West of England and covers an area stretching from Gloucestershire through Wiltshire and Somerset and includes all postal districts in Bristol. The company said that 40 workers will be made voluntarily redundant, while the CWU estimates that job losses could be as high as 100a slashing of 10 percent of the current 1,000 strong workforce. As is standard practice for the unions, they will sanction any redundancies on a voluntary basis, with their main complaint beingas per the CWUs February 27 national briefingthe point-blank refusal of Bristol management to rule out compulsory redundancies. Presented as an efficiency drive involving the elimination of redundant positions, the move represents the replacement of full-time positions with casual, low-wage, part-time work with irregular hours, similar to the hyper-exploitative conditions at Amazon. Shane ORiordain, Royal Mails managing director of regulation, corporate affairs and marketing, spelled out the companys intention to restructure itself along Amazons lines. The initiative includes a review of some individual tasks and shift patterns in order for the business to adapt to changing consumer habits, he said. Consumers are ordering parcels later in the evening with growing demand for next day delivery. The cuts, due to take place over the course of the next month, have sparked outrage from workers at the facility. We see agency workers being used to fill vacancies on a daily basis, one worker told the Bristol Post. Managers cant manage and are spending their time doing our work to fill the gaps left by staff shortages. The two-bob parcel machines theyve brought in are breaking down all the time. One of them has never worked properly since a dead pigeon fell in it. So, we end up sorting the parcels by hand. And yet we are told there is a massive surplus of staffit just doesnt add up. The CWU is arguing that the cuts were imposed by management without it signing off with them. Management are forcing through an unagreed revision at the workplace based on figures that are pie in the sky, CWU branch secretary Rob Wotherspoon said in a statement, describing the cuts as a shocking and irresponsible decision by rogue managers. In other words, the only objection by the CWU bureaucracy over the job cuts is that they were caught off guard. Wotherspoons painting of the cuts as a decision made by rogue managers is a ruse aimed at distracting workers from the broader context of the frontal assault by the company as a whole. If a strike does go ahead, the union officialdom will undoubtedly employ similar arguments in an attempt to isolate and diffuse it. The CWU bureaucracy is working to ensure disputes remain under their control and are ended smoothly, amidst the backdrop of the rapid growth of militancy amongst its own rank and file, as evidenced by a seven-day wildcat strike last October called by Royal Mail workers at the Bootle and Seaforth sorting and delivery office over racist insults by management against their Muslim co-workers. The strike escalated when Royal Mail workers from Warrington walked out in support of members of their depot who were suspended for refusing to cross Bootle picket lines. Workers were due to strike again for two days in January over claims that management had victimised workers following the previous walkout. This involved a union representative and 21 other workers being disciplined. After talks with the CWU and dropping the case against the union official, the strike was called off by the union. The CWU called it off despite some workers still being subject to disciplinary action. A statement by the union January 17 read, there are still several outstanding disciplinary actions pending against other members of staff. It has been agreed that, if any of these cases reach the level of potential dismissal or suspended dismissal, a fully independenti.e., non-Royal Mailmanager will be brought in to hear the appeal. In their national briefing the CWU pointed out that the above disputes were part of 34 requests for local ballots in response to Royal Mail managers impositions of various instances of executive actionsranging from removals of CSS [compact sequence sorter] machines and alterations to shift and duty patterns to unagreed revisions. The uneasiness of union officials over these largely spontaneous outbursts of resistance by workers takes place within the context of the nationwide strike ballot, which began yesterday with the result due on March 17. More than 800 gate meetings of postal workers took place outside Royal Mail branches across the UK in support of the strike ballot the previous Tuesday. In an indication of the growing militant mood among its members and their determination to fight against the companys attempts at slashing jobs, wages, the CWU said the number of gate meetings was the largest in the history of the union. The gate meetings took place less than four months after the CWU refused to act on a 97 percent strike vote by Royal Mail workers. Despite the unprecedentedly high level of pro-strike votes last year, the CWU cravenly capitulated to a High Court injunction aimed at ensuring there was no industrial action during the November/December general election campaign. The CWU bureaucracys refusal to mount a struggle in the face of naked state repression demonstrates its hostility to any genuine defence of the living standards of its membership. A senior government official was among several people booked by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday for alleged embezzlement of funds meant for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in Jammu and Kashmir, an official said. The case was registered against M S Choudhary, the Chief-Executive Officer-cum-Managing Director of State Procurement and Supplies Agency, and others after preliminary investigation revealed misappropriation of funds to the tune of over Rs 66.84 lakh during his posting as the tribal affairs director, a spokesman of the ACB said. He said another former director of tribal affairs, Ali Hassan Raza (now retired), proprietor of International Computer Training Centre in Rajouri Nasreen Qadir and other officials of the Tribal Affairs department were also named in the FIR registered at the police station ACB Rajouri. After registration of the case under relevant sections of law, the spokesman said, special teams conducted simultaneous raids at the residence of Choudhary in Rajouri and at his official residence in Trikuta Nagar in Jammu. It is alleged that funds under the centrally-sponsored Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for ST candidates were released to un-recognised institutes in gross violation of guidelines. The spokesman said the accused public servants in connivance with other officials of the Tribal Affairs department and Qadir had released payments directly to the tune of Rs 60,17,400 in favour of the beneficiary firm (International Computer Training Centre Rajouri) for the year 2011 to 2013 and 2014 to 2017. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chandigarh, March 4 : Taking note of the large number of missing children in the Panipat district, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said in the Assembly, here on Wednesday, he would request the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the matter. "The SIT (special investigating team) was probing the case. Now I will write to the CBI to investigate the matter," he said. Replying to a question of Parmod Kumar Vij (BJP), the Home Minister said it was also raised at the District Public Relations and Grievances Committee meeting, which he was chairing, in Panipat. A day earlier, he had informed the House that 21.1 per cent of the children who went missing between 2014 and 2019 were yet to be traced. From 2014 to December 31, 2019, 11,973 children went missing, he added. They included 5,458 boys and 6,515 girls. Of these, 9,441 children (or 78.9 per cent) -- 4,322 boys and 5,119 girls -- were recovered and reunited with their families. Biden projected to win Maine Bloomberg drops out, backs Biden Aide says Warren assessing campaign Biden now leads Sanders in delegate count California remains too close to call Warren comes in 3rd in home state of Massachusetts As Super Tuesday, the single biggest day of voting in the 2020 primary election cycle, rolled into Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden swept southern states and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led in the delegate-rich state of California. Here's how the day unfolded. 8:50 p.m. Biden camp names new national co-chair looking to capitalize on Super Tuesday momentum Looking to build off of its impressive slate of Super Tuesday victories, the campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden is naming its third national co-chair, Delaware Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. Yesterday, Joe Biden showed the country what I have known for a long time: there is no other leader with more experience, heart, or determination for this moment, Blunt Rochester wrote in a statement released by the campaign Wednesday. I am honored to join Joes campaign as a national co-chair and build upon the incredible energy and enthusiasm we are witnessing across the country for Joe. Together, we will grow this campaign into an even stronger movement that turns out voters to the ballot box in November and ensure we make Donald Trump a one-term president. Blunt Rochester, who was first elected to Congress in 2016 and endorsed Biden on the day he announced his candidacy, joins Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as national co-chairs at a time when the Biden campaign is looking to capitalize on a strong showing on Super Tuesday and build out its staff to compete with Sen. Bernie Sanders in the delegate race that will ultimately decide the nomination. PHOTO: Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester walks down the House steps at the Capitol after a vote, Sept. 19, 2019. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, FILE) Lisa has been with me since day one, and I am grateful that she will be taking on this important role on our campaign. Lisa and I have been in the trenches together, and her continued support is invaluable to me personally and this campaign, Biden wrote Wednesday announcing the move, referencing his close personal relationship with his home state congresswoman. Story continues The campaign also announced Wednesday that it has raised $7.2 million since the beginning of Super Tuesday, a sum that outpaces Sanders and looks to allow for further expansion in the coming weeks as more critical primaries loom later this month in Michigan, Arizona, Ohio and Florida. ABC News' Johnny Verhovek reported. 6:25 p.m. As the race winnows, Gabbard shows no signs of stopping In a fundraising email to supporters on Wednesday, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's deputy campaign manager signals that the campaign is going full steam ahead. After winning a single delegate in America Samoa, Gabbard traveled from Michigan to Washington, D.C., where she will stay for a few days before hitting the trail again. Gabbards team put forth a $1 million fundraising goal which they reached on Super Tuesday. ABC News' Beatrice Peterson reports. 5:55 p.m. Update: pledged delegates count Of the 14 states that voted on Super Tuesday, only one has yet to be projected, and it's a gold mine for delegates: California.Among the 1,344 delegates up for grabs from Super Tuesday, 595 have yet to be allocated, meaning 749 have already been awarded the candidates. As the votes continue to trickle in from several states, Biden currently leads in the overall delegate race, the popular vote and in the hunt for Super Tuesday delegates. He's also won the most states so far. But Sanders currently holds a single state edge over Biden in the number of states where he has won some delegates, since he has delegates in all 14 states, while Biden does not currently have any delegates in Utah -- for now -- where vote is still outstanding. Here where the numbers stand as of 5:55 p.m. (EST):Total delegate count (including early states)Biden: 433Sanders: 388Warren: 36Bloomberg: 12Gabbard: 1Popular vote for Super Tuesday so farBiden: 4,513,082Sanders: 3,672,279Bloomberg: 1,704,870Warren: 1,642,201Gabbard: 84,351Winners scoreboard (how many states they've won so far and where)Biden: 10 (NC, VA, AL, TN, OK, AR, MN, MA, TX, ME)Sanders: 3 (VT, CO, UT)Bloomberg: 1 (AS)Gabbard: 0Warren: 0 Super Tuesday delegate scoreboard (how many delegates they've won so far and where)Biden: 380AL-25, AR-12, CA-83, CO-5, ME-7, MA-32, MN-36, NC-35, OK-11, TN-21, TX-42, VT-5, VA-66Sanders: 328AL-3, AR-5, CA-135, CO-13, ME-7, MA-27, MN-26, NC-15, OK-6, TN-10, TX-38, UT-3, VT-10, VA-30Warren: 28CA-1, CO-3, MA-17, MN-5, TX-1, VA-1Bloomberg: 12AS-4, AR-2, CO-5, TX-1Gabbard: 1AS - 1 In California, Sanders is still leading and Bloomberg is still not viable statewide.California vote count (54% of expected vote reporting)Sanders 34% Biden 25%Bloomberg 14%Warren 12%Gabbard 1% In Maine, which was projected for Biden earlier Wednesday, the expected vote has ticked up slightly to 94%, but the margin between the top two contenders currently remains the same.Maine vote count (94% expected vote reporting)Biden 34%Sanders 33%Warren 16% Bloomberg 12%Gabbard 1% 1,991 pledged delegates is the magic number to secure the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at July's convention in Milwaukee. ABC News' Kendall Karson reported. 4:54 p.m. Biden touts campaign as a 'movement' Coming off a series of Super Tuesday wins, Biden spoke in Los Angeles and described his campaign as a "movement." "We welcome all those who want to join us ... and we need that movement to beat Donald Trump, and to build a future we all know is possible," Biden said. "Those of you who have been knocked down, those of you who have been counted out, this is your campaign." Joe Biden touts campaign as a "movement" coming off series of Super Tuesday wins: "We welcome all those who want to join us... and we need that movement to beat Donald Trump, and to build a future we all know is possible." https://t.co/hSeeKCeMjo pic.twitter.com/yM3S16CGIy ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 4, 2020 He also warned against infighting among the Democrats still running for president. "What we can't let happen in the next few weeks is let this primary turn into a campaign of negative attacks. The only thing that that can do is help Donald Trump." Joe Biden warns against infighting within Democratic field: "What we can't let happen in the next few weeks is let this primary turn into a campaign of negative attacks. The only thing that that can do is help Donald Trump." https://t.co/hSeeKCeMjo pic.twitter.com/MCqP1xaYtI ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 4, 2020 Biden did not take questions from reporters, saying there will be plenty more chances "as we go along." "As I've said from the beginning, character is on the ballot. Not only the character of the candidates but the character of the nation," he added. 3:21 p.m. Biden projected to win Maine Based on analysis of the vote, ABC News projects that Biden will win the Maine primary. With the addition of Maine, Biden has secured 10 Super Tuesday states. Maine has 24 delegates up for grabs, and so far Biden and Sanders have earned at least seven delegates each. ABC News' Kendall Karson reporting. 3:14 p.m. "Today I am glad to endorse Joe Biden," Bloomberg says Bloomberg spoke to supporters in New York on Wednesday after announcing his decision to suspend his 2020 presidential campaign. "I won't walk away from the most important political fight in my life and I know you won't either," he said. PHOTO: Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg addresses his staff and the media after announcing that he will be ending his campaign, March 4, 2020, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Bloomberg went on to declare his support for the former vice president, telling the crowd, "And today I am glad to endorse Joe Biden, and I hope you will join me in working to make him the next president of the United States." The former mayor suspended his campaign after only winning the American Samoa primary Tuesday. He announced his campaign in November. ABC News' Mary Bruce, Sarah Kolinovsky, Armando Garcia and Benjamin Siegel reports 1:57 p.m. "Which side are you on?" Sanders asks Speaking to reporters from his Vermont campaign office on Wednesday, Sanders shared his hopes for how a potential two-man race between he and Biden will shape up. He also revealed that he spoke with Warren earlier in the day. "What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is: which side are you on?" he told reporters. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to members of the media during a briefing at his campaign office, March 4, 2020, in Burlington, Vt. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) "We did speak on the phone a few hours ago. And what Sen. Warren told me is that she is assessing her campaign," he said. ABC News projected that Sanders won three contests on Super Tuesday. The Vermont senator currently leads in California. ABC News' Adam Kelsey reports. 1:40 p.m. Secret Service protection requested for Biden and Sanders Rep. Bernie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security submitted a letter to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Congressional leadership requesting Secret Service protection for the two front-runners in the Democratic race: Biden and Sanders. The letter points out that the Secretary of Homeland Security "has the statutory authority to determine which major Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates should receive USSS protection, after consulting with an advisory committee made up of Congressional leaders." MORE: Congressional lawmaker requests Secret Service protection for Democratic candidates The letter continues that guidelines "further set forth a number of discretionary factors that may be considered when deciding whether to authorize USSS protection for a major candidate, reflecting the scale and seriousness of the candidates campaign. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Senator Bernard Sanders appear to satisfy several of these criteria." The letter asks Acting-Secretary Chad Wolf to immediately initiate the consultation process to determine whether to provide USSS protection to certain major Democratic presidential candidates. 12:57 p.m. Trump on Super Tuesday: 'It was a great comeback for Joe Biden' President Donald Trump called Super Tuesday an "incredible comeback" for former Vice President Joe Biden's and celebrated former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's exit, saying "he made a fool out of himself." At the conclusion of a pool spray of a meeting with airline CEOs, the president joked with reporters that no one had asked him about the election. Then the questions started. On Biden: "It was a great comeback for Joe Biden, incredible comeback when you think of it" On Warren: Calling her a spoiler for Bernie Sanders, the president said she "was the single biggest factor in that election last night...in a very selfish way." Had she not been in the race last night, the president predicted, the night would have broken in Bernie Sanders' favor and not in Biden's: "Had she gotten out it would have been a very different night." On Bloomberg: The president called him a "spiteful guy" and said he "made a fool out of himself." Speaking of both Steyer and Bloomberg, the president said "One thing this whole thing has shown is you can't buy an election ABC News' Jordyn Phelps reporting. 12:36 p.m. Looking ahead: 2020 Democrats' post-Super Tuesday TV ad spending. Three of the four remaining 2020 Democrats are looking forward, already reserving more than $8 million worth of airtime in states that are set to further shape the primary field in coming weeks. Sen. Bernie Sanders in particular, is wasting no time in launching an aggressive post-Super Tuesday ad blitz, taking at least seven new ads to the air this morning, including one featuring former President Barack Obama and another one attacking former Vice President Joe Biden, which has been running as a digital ad since January. The Sanders campaign has about $5.3 million TV and radio ads in 10 different states that have started running this week, including seven figures in Florida and six figures in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is "talking to her team to assess the path forward" after Super Tuesday, has about $1.7 million scattered about 11 states, and former Vice President Joe Biden, enjoying a big win from Super Tuesday, has about $1.1 million in three states -- Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi. Michael Bloomberg, who just ended his presidential campaign, had more than $9 million airtime reserved post-Super Tuesday. ABC News' Soorin Kim reporting. 11:38 a.m. And then there were four... There are four candidates left in the race for the Democratic nomination: Former Vice President Joe Biden Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard And here's the timeline of the Democratic candidates who have exited the race since December. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg 3/4 Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar 3/2 Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg 3/1 Billionaire Tom Steyer 2/29 Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick -- 2/12 Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang -- 2/11 Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet -- 2 / 11 Colorado Sen. John Delaney -- Jan. 31 New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker -- Jan 13. Author Marianne Williamson -- Jan 10. Former House and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro -- Jan. 2 California Sen. Kamala Harris -- Dec. 3 Montana Gov. Steve Bullock -- Dec 2 Former Rep. Joe Sestak -- Dec 1 ABC News' Kendall Karson and Ben Bell reporting. 11:11 a.m. Biden camp responds to Sanders' ad featuring Obama The Biden campaign has already issued a response to Sanders' new ad featuring President Obama's praise, pointing again to the Vermont Senator's reported consideration of a primary challenge to Obama in 2012, and other critical statements Sanders has made about Obama in the past. "As recent history has proven, no quantity of ads can rewrite history - and there's no substitute for genuinely having the back of the best president of our lifetimes," a statement from Biden spokesman Andrew Bates partially reads. The campaign also sent a link to their TV ad blasting Sanders that ran during the South Carolina primary entitled "Can't Be Trusted," which also features 2011 audio of Sanders saying: "I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition." 11: 05 a.m. Biden tweets thanks to Bloomberg Former Vice President Joe Biden has given his first reaction to Michael Bloomberg's endorsementtweeting his thanks for the former mayor. "@MikeBloomberg, I can't thank you enough for your supportand for your tireless work on everything from gun safety reform to climate change. This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics. It's about defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, we're gonna do it," Biden tweeted. As a reminderBloomberg pledged to keep his campaign offices open even if he was not the nominee as well as spend what he would have spent on his own run for the nominee. Biden has acknowledged his lackluster ground game, and told ABC News that changes were coming to his campaign in terms of staffing. Their fundraising has improved over the last few days and changes were already in the works, but it seems Biden will now be getting a huge influx of cash and organization, courtesy of this endorsement. ABC News' Molly Nagle reporting. 11 a.m. Sanders launches adds in diverse states featuring Obama In the wake of Super Tuesday voting, the Bernie Sanders campaign launched three television ads Wednesday in states that vote in the next two weeks, including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Washington, including one that utilizes former President Barack Obama's praise of Sanders and another that hits Joe Biden using old comments of his in which he touted calls for a federal spending freeze. For example, in the ad featuring Obama, titled "Feel the Bern," which appears to cut together audio from at least a couple different sets of remarks, the former president cites Sanders "authenticity," "passion," and "fearless[ness]." ABC News' SooRin Kim and Adam Kelsey reporting. 11 a.m. Bloomberg to Trump: "See you soon, Donald." And here's Bloomberg's tweeted response to Trump, taking a page out of the sci-fi movie series "Star Wars." "See you soon, Donald." Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Lucas Films 10:40 a.m. Trump: Bloomberg 'didn't have what it takes' President Donald Trump responds to Bloomberg, his bitter rival, announcing he's leaving the 2020 race. "Mini Mike Bloomberg just "quit" the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didn't have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost," Trump said in a tweet. He also criticizes Bloomberg endorsing Joe Biden. "Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe's campaign, hoping to save face," Trump said. "It won't work!" Mini Mike Bloomberg just "quit" the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didn't have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe's campaign, hoping to save face. It won't work! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg attends his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., March 3, 2020. (Maria Alejandra Cardona/Reuters) 10 a.m. Bloomberg drops out of 2020 Democratic primary, backs Biden Michael Bloomberg is withdrawing from the 2020 primary this morning, and endorsing Joe Biden as he exits the race. Bloomberg says in statement that, after the Super Tuesday results, he did not see a viable path to the nomination. "I've had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States." Bloomberg said. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks during a primary election night rally, March 3, 2020, at Eastern Market in Detroit. (Patrick Semansky/AP) 10:05 a.m. Aide: Elizabeth Warren to assess 'the path forward' After coming out of Super Tuesday without winning a single state, Warren's 2020 campaign manager told staff Wednesday morning that they "fell well short of viability goals and projections" and would assess next steps regarding the future of the campaign according to an email first obtained by ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett. "Last night, we fell well short of viability goals and projections, and we are disappointed in the results. We're still waiting for more results to come in to get a better sense of the final delegate math. And we also all know the race has been extremely volatile in recent weeks and days with front-runners changing at a pretty rapid pace," Lau wrote in an email to the campaign staff first obtained by ABC News. "But we are obviously disappointed, and we are going to announce shortly that Elizabeth is talking to the team to assess the path forward," Lau wrote. In a memo to supporters earlier in the cycle, Lau predicted that Warren would come in within the top two in at least half of the 14 Super Tuesday states. She did not meet that goal. Lau acknowledged that results are still coming in in states like California and the race is "volatile," with rapidly changing frontrunners, but said "we are obviously disappointed, and we are going to announce shortly that Elizabeth is talking to the team to assess the path forward." "This decision is in her hands, and it's important that she has the time and space to consider what comes next," Lau wrote. Lau thanked the staff and said he and Warren were "so incredibly grateful for all the hard work of everyone on this team - not only leading up to Super Tuesday but in all the weeks and months before." 9:50 a.m. Clyburn: A bit surprised' by how well Super Tuesday went for Biden Rep. Jim Clyburn, the influential South Carolina Democrat, said Wednesday morning that he was a bit surprised by how well Super Tuesday went for Biden. Clyburn endorsed Biden last week ahead of Saturday's key South Carolina primary, a victory that triggered a resurgence of Biden's campaign. "It did go better than many of us expected. To be one point ahead in Maine, I didn't expect that," Clyburn said on CNN. "To be winning Massachusetts, I did not expect that at all." At the same time, Clyburn said he is not surprised by the victory in Texas. He said if he were Elizabeth Warren or Mike Bloomberg, he would reassess, adding that he hopes Bloomberg will "coalesce" around Biden. 8:44 a.m. Biden's big comeback, but many delegates yet to be allocated In the all important race to 1,991 pledged delegates -- the magic number to secure the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at July's convention in Milwaukee, Biden finds himself in the front of the pack, with ABC News estimating he'll pick up at least 326 from Super Tuesday's haul. The 1,344 delegates up for grabs in Super Tuesday's 15 contests represent 34% of total pledged delegates -- and more than half have yet to be allocated to candidates. As of Wednesday morning, both California -- which has a whopping 415 delegates -- and Maine remain too close to call. MORE: Super Tuesday results: Biden sweeps the South, Sanders strong in the West, anemic outcome for Bloomberg Citing extreme wait times and technology failures in the Golden State, the Sanders campaign even filed a complaint late Tuesday demanding that Los Angeles County polls stay open late. Texas, too, saw voters lined up through the early hours of Wednesday morning. PHOTO: People wait in line to vote Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at Texas Southern University in Houston. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP) The Sanders campaign had expected a sweeping Super Tuesday win, but with the last-minute departures of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg from the race and their endorsements of Biden, those expectations were disrupted. MORE: Super Tuesday Results Biden hugely benefited from the consolidation of those moderate candidates, pulling huge upsets in Klobuchar's home state of Minnesota and Sen. Elizabeth Warren's home state of Massachusetts. In total, nine states have been called in Biden's favor -- Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- bringing his total pledged delegate count to 379 as of 8 a.m. ET. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Chris Carlson/AP) Meanwhile, Sanders has taken wins in three states -- Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont -- bringing his total pledged delegate count to 313. It's a tale of two parties: Biden sweeps among black, suburban and older voters, while Latino and young voters sided with Sanders. Electability was the primary concern among voters across exit polls, but health care was polled as the electorate's most important issue. PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his wife Jane as he arrives to speak at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vt., March 3, 2020. (Caitlin Ochs/Reuters) The race now appears to be one between Biden and Sanders, with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Warren failing to make any significant inroads. Bloomberg, the billionaire who spent more than half a billion dollars on advertising alone, didn't win a single state Tuesday, only taking home a win in American Samoa's territorial caucus, which had the least amount of delegates -- 6. As of 8 a.m. ET he has only 12 delegates so far. While he's almost sure to pick up more, it wasn't the showing he had hoped for when he skipped out on the first four early states, as in hopes of raking in the delegates on Super Tuesday. When his campaign manager was asked on Tuesday whether Bloomberg had given any thought to dropping out and endorsing Biden, he said, "I think we'll find out today how successful Mike has been, or how successful the vice president has been, and I expect one of them to be the nominee, and I expect the other to be supporting that person." Warren came in third in her home state, prompting calls from progressives for the party's left to consolidate. According to ABC News exit poll analysis, Sanders is leading in California while Biden appears likely to take Maine. But in addition to California, the other most delegate-rich state that voted Tuesday, Texas, still has 148 unassigned delegates. While ABC News projected Biden the winner, with 93% of the expected vote in as of 8 a.m. ET, Sanders is only trailing by three points, meaning he may pick up a significant amount of delegates there, despite losing the state. Unlike the Republican Party, the Democrats have no "winner take all" states, so the delegates are all allocated proportionally to candidates who get at least 15% of the vote at the district level and/or statewide. Biden seem like the big winner on Tuesday, but simply winning states doesn't win a candidate the nomination. The delegates are what really matter, and when the rest are allocated, it may look like a closer race than it does only based on how many states a candidate can claim victory. Super Tuesday results: Bloomberg suspends bid; Biden names new national co-chair originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Kajeet, Inc. We have seen our company evolve from serving primarily education clients... to the Fortune 100, and other enterprises that value our technology, expertise and services, in particular, our Sentinel cloud platform. Kajeet, Inc., commonly known as Kajeet and stylized as kajeet, announced today the consolidation of its brands Kajeet and Otarris into Kajeet, Inc. This consolidation is part of Kajeets one brand strategy, which leverages the major successes of each brand to provide customers with a seamless wireless connectivity experience. Kajeet is the foremost provider of wireless solutions to school districts across America, deploying wireless solutions to bridge the digital divide and keep children safe. Otarris provides enterprise customers with wireless connectivity solutions and wireless data intelligence capabilities to inform their business decisions. Together, the two brands support over 5 million connected devices across multiple verticals and have always been focused on delivering reliable, innovative, and high-value customer-centric wireless solutions. Under one Kajeet, Inc. brand, the company will synergize its shared objectives, existing partnerships in a wide range of industries, and the knowledge and expertise of its wireless solutions engineers across the globe to enhance its growth and service delivery. The initial phase of our journey more than 15 years ago gave us tremendous experience and laid a strong foundation for our innovative technology platform, our deep collective expertise in wireless and cloud software, and our expanding pool of intellectual property, said Daniel Neal, CEO, and Founder of Kajeet, Inc. We have seen our company evolve from serving primarily education clients in the K-12 space to working on behalf of major cable companies, public safety service providers in the Fortune 100, and other enterprises that value our technology, expertise and services, in particular, our Sentinel cloud platform. As a unified brand, Kajeet plans to build on our excellent and well-earned reputation in the market to help clients compete in this rapidly evolving, increasingly connected world. Kajeet plans to accelerate its innovation of vertical solutions and continue to offer customers the flexibility of its Sentinel platform to manage policies and data on mobile devices. Sentinel will be the centerpiece of our combined strategy. We plan to incorporate the best features of all of our product lines into our modular platform to deliver outstanding solutions to our customers, said Neal. The corporate rebrand will have no impact on the companys structure, client relationships, or service delivery. Legacy websites will continue to be functional until the launch of a consolidated website in the coming months. About Kajeet Kajeet, Inc., is the industry leader for highly-managed multi-network mobile solutions, and for deploying private wireless networks across multiple industry verticals. Our secure, cloud-based SaaS platform, Sentinel, allows our clients to centrally manage network security and filtering; policy, device and network controls; data consumption rates; business analytics; and allows for operation on all 6 major north American wireless networks. Kajeet products and services are protected by the following issued U.S. patents: 10,313,532; 10,285,025; 10,057,300; 10,009,480; 9,237,433; 9,137,389; 9,137,386; 9,125,057; 8,995,952; 8,929,857; 8,918,080; 8,774,755; 8,774,754; 8,755,768; 8,731,517; 8,725,109; 8,712,371; 8,706,079; 8,667,559; 8,644,796; 8,639,216; 8,634,803; 8,634,802; 8,634,801; 8,630,612; 8,611,885; 8,600,348; 8,594,619; 8,588,735; 8,285,249; 8,078,140; 7,945,238; 7,899,438; 7,881,697. Other patents are pending. For more information, please visit us at 45,238; 7,899,438; 7,881,697. Other patents are pending. For more information, please visit KajeetBusiness.com. ### Kajeet, Inc. If you would like more information, please call Marcia Degnan, Director of Marketing at 240-482-3500, or email mdegnan@kajeet.com. PIGGS PEAK Within just a few seconds, two thugs fled with over E100 000 belonging to Buy Cash Hardware that was taken from a woman inside a Toyota Quantum. This is said to have happened on Monday inside the public transport vehicle which is said to have been heading towards Piggs Peak, along the Matsamo Piggs Peak Highway. The money was taken from the employee of the hardware who was going to deposit it in the bank in Piggs Peak town after a busy month- end weekend. Police Under normal circumstances, police officers are often requested to assist in transporting money, particularly for amounts of over E10 000. This publication gathered that police officers from Mliba Police Station normally assist in transporting the money from the Madlangempisi branch of Buy Cash Hardware but on Monday, this was not the case. It is alleged the woman who had been tasked with transporting the money had first boarded a bus from Madlangempisi, intending to go to deposit the money in Piggs Peak at one of the banks. The bus was heading for Piggs Peak when the driver is said to have informed the passengers that he could not continue with the journey due to the poor road. According to one of the commuters, the driver of the bus was worried that the bus would be stuck due to the muddy road since it had been raining over the weekend. At that point, the driver is said to have asked the commuters to board a Quantum which would then take them to Piggs Peak. Unlike the bus, the Quantum then used the highway through Buhleni/Msahweni and headed for Piggs Peak town. The woman carrying the cash is said to have been one of the commuters who shifted from the bus to the Quantum. After the commuters had boarded the Quantum, it proceeded but while they were travelling, the driver is said to have received a call from someone that they had left some people behind. Interestingly, another eyewitness, who asked not to be mentioned, revealed that on the spot where the bus exchanged commuters with the Quantum, there had been a blue Mazda parked with its bonnet open. Driver The caller is said to have told the driver of the Quantum that some elderly people had been left behind and that they should wait for them. When the elderly people eventually boarded the quantum, the would-be thugs also boarded the kombi. The eyewitness stated that the thugs somehow knew the woman because when they boarded, one of the men headed to sit next to her. The other thug is said to have taken another seat within the vehicle. It is alleged that while the vehicle was still in motion, the thug who sat next to the woman suddenly forcefully took the bag from her while the other ordered the driver to stop while wielding what appeared to be a knife. Even before the Quantum could fully stop, the two men quickly alighted from the vehicle and fled into the bushes with the bag of cash. The passengers were left so terrified that no one dared to attempt to follow the thugs as they vanished into the nearby bushes. After the robbery, upon arrival in Piggs Peak, the woman immediately reported the incident to the police. Senzo Nhlabatsi, who is a Manager at Piggs Peak Buy Cash, confirmed the incident. Nhlabatsi stated that the incident happened on Monday along the Matsamo-Piggs Peak Highway near the Piggs Peak Hotel and Casino. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that a woman was robbed of over E100 000 aboard a Quantum. Investigation Vilakati also noted that so far, no one had been arrested in connection with the robbery but the matter was still under police investigation. This is not the first time money belonging to Buy Cash Hardware had been stolen. Last year, criminals literally walked into another outlet of Buy Cash Hardware and stole about E174 000 from the safe. Thugs have been targeting Buy Cash Hardware as far back as 2014, particularly around Hluti. In one incident, an employee of Buy Cash Hardware was almost robbed of E100 000 when a man wielding a firearm ordered him to surrender the cash. Are all Catholics homophobic? If you were to listen to what a lot of what is being said in the newspapers and on the radio and TV these past few days, you would have to assume that the answer is yes. Over the past couple of weeks the warm-up for the referendum on 'gay-marriage' has been taking place, and people with strongly opposing views on the subject have been making noises and beating their war-drums. One of the main views that is being proffered is that all Catholics are homophobic. But I would contend that such a statement is not necessarily true, because maybe, just maybe, some Catholics aren't homophobic at all. Maybe some Catholics have family members and friends who are gay and whom they actually love rather than hate. Maybe even some Catholics are gay themselves. Now wouldn't that be a crazy thought! Could we then describe such people, who are gay Catholics, as self-loathing homophobic gay people? So we end up with a situation where we have homophobic gay people running around chanting anti-LGBT bile. As the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin said last week; yes - there are some people who are catholic, who also happen to be homophobic. Similarly there are some people who are catholic who happen to be claustrophobic (fear of small spaces), and hagiophobic (saints or holy things), hierophobic (sacred things), hadephobic (hell), and even heterophobic (straight people). There are also some people who happen to be gay who are all of those things and more. The simple truth is that there are as many different opinions and feelings as there are people. My point is, that so far the entire argument and discussion that been clogging up the airwaves and plastered across our newspapers for too long already, is simply ridiculous nonsense. It's back to the same thing of tarring everyone with the same brush, and it's on both sides of the debate/discussion. In the same way as people in the media dislike being accused of having an anti-church agenda, so too people in the media must stop accusing all Catholics of having an anti-gay agenda. Some people do hold prejudicial views about people who are gay - they might think of them as psychological messed-up, or 'sick' and in need of a cure; they might think that they shouldn't be let near children for fear of what they might do to corrupt them, and that they should never be allowed to adopt children. Such views don't fit with the vast majority of people, and most people today can't believe such views even exist, but they do. My question is this - why all the hate? Why, when it comes to discussing a simple thing such as 'gay-marriage', do we have to resort to hate? Surely 'gay-marriage' is all about love between two people, and celebrating that love, so why the hate? When some commentators legitimately offered their views and opinions that 'gay-marriage' shouldn't be allowed, they were met with a barrage of hate. Being accused of being homophobic is being accused of having a hatred of gay people. I don't believe any of those commentators involved ever said anything hateful about gay people. Yet hate is thrown at them hatefully. They are being treated with hate. The same thing happened in the recent abortion referendum, hate was being thrown around like confetti, by both sides of the debate. There were hateful messages emanating from both pro-life and pro-choice groups. Is it possible that as a mature modern society, we can have a reasonable debate about social issues without resorting to hate? Is it possible that instead of hate, we can show a bit of compassion and love for a change? The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday dismissed the pleas of debt-ridden IL&FS auditors - Deloitte Haskins & Sells and KPMG arm BSR & Associates - challenging their impleadment in the case involving alleged fraud in IFIN, a subsidiary of IL&FS. A two-member NCLAT bench led by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya dismissed the pleas of auditors and other independent directors. The appellate tribunal, however, granted relief to both auditors and other independent directors by allowing the operation of its earlier interim order passed on July 29, 2019, for two weeks. On July 29, the NCLAT stayed the order of the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to implead the auditors and the independent directors of IL&FS. Earlier on July 23, the NCLT had allowed the plea of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to implead the auditors and independent directors of IFIN. "On the request of the council, we allow (that) interim order dated July 29 would continue till another two weeks," the bench said. The MCA had asked the NCLT to freeze the assets of the former auditors in the case involving alleged fraud in IFIN. While commenting on the development, Delloite India spokesperson said: We will review the written order before determining our further course of action, which may include an appeal." Auditors cannot be treated as part of the management which is responsible for managing the affairs of the company and therefore should not be charged, the spokesperson said. "We will continue to present and protect its position, supported by the facts, to the relevant authorities. The firm remains committed to high standards of audit quality and ethical conduct in its professional practice," he added. President Donald Trump topped former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld in the Bay State primary on Super Tuesday. Associated Press called the race with less than 1% of precincts reporting, showing Trump with 85% support compared to Welds 11.9%. Trump will pick up all of Massachusettss 42 Republican delegates in the run up to the Republican National Convention in North Carolina. Weld has argued that Trump is a divisive force, and he has banked on strong showings in his home state, Colorado and Utah to make his case that hes a better bet for the White House. Some states have canceled their Republican primaries altogether to clear a path for Trumps nomination. Weld opposes most Trump programs but has focused his campaign on how Trump has treated the office. An environmentalist, Weld argues Trumps deregulation efforts have effectively dismantled environmental protections. Weld picked up 9.1% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary. Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, who frequently criticizes Trump as unfit for office, recently ended his campaign. AIPPM Honors Bing Priest of Printing Papers Inc. with Linda Hartinger Award Ron Dennis (on left) with Bing Priest at AIPPM's annual meeting in Austin, Texas. March 3, 2020 - The Association of Independent Printing Paper Merchants (AIPPM) announced that Bing Priest, President of Printing Papers, Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas, was honored with the Linda Hartinger Award at AIPPM's 2020 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. The award, formerly called AIPPM Founder's Award, was established to honor the memory of Linda Hartinger, past President of AIPPM and Anchor Paper in St. Paul, Minnesota. Recipients are recognized for their contributions and leadership of the Association. Past recipients include: Steve Rudin, Milton Paper Kent Westhelle, Hudson City Paper Morris Dennis, Dennis Paper Michael Ramaker, Steen Macek Paper Dave Powell and Dan Robinson, Omaha Paper Don Crew, Clampitt Paper Jim Belisle, Valley Papers Tucker Jones, Hudson Valley Paper Bayard Tynes, Strickland Companies Don Clampitt, Clampitt Paper Jeannie Cao, Sandia Paper Mr. Priest began his career in 1964 with Arkansas Paper Co. as a warehouseman and a driver. During his early years in the industry, he also served in the Marine Corps Reserves. In 1970 he joined Fine Papers as a sales representative. The company was sold in 1980 to Crown Zellerbach and he was appointed to sales manager in 1982. On April 1, 1985, Mr. Priest started his own company, Printing Papers Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas. For 35 years, Printing Papers has been a leading distributor of fine papers in Little Rock and throughout Arkansas. Mr. Priest served on the AIPPM Board of Directors from 2012 through 2016, and as its President in 2015. About AIPPM The Association of Independent Printing Paper Merchants is committed to bringing growth and value to its members by leveraging its purchasing and marketing opportunities, sharing and encouraging the use of best business practices and promoting the healthy exchange of ideas. For more information, visit: www.aippm.com . SOURCE: Association of Independent Printing Paper Merchants (AIPPM) Colonies has concluded a new 180m funding round. This sum has come from a combination of existing investors?-?Idinvest Partners, Global Founders Capital and La Financiere Saint James?-?and new investor LBO France. Colonies plans to launch more than 50 new projects in France and Europe in 2020. Colonies designs and runs living spaces offering its inhabitants the comfort of fully furnished private spaces and access to shared living spaces in a spirit of community (gyms, laundry facilities, rooftops, etc.). French research and consulting company BVA1 recently published a study that attests to the relevance of the model, since 66% of people under 35 say they feel lonely. After successfully opening its first residences in France and Germany, Colonies now aims to accelerate its development in Europe and will launch more than 50 new projects in 2020. "We are very pleased with this new funding, which represents an endorsement of our vision and of our development forecasts. In just one year, we have already achieved operating profitability with 3 projects in Paris and the Ile-de-France region and 2 in Germany. We have put this concept of shared living to the test and it has worked. The trust our existing investors have in us is also a strong indicator of the relevance of our model and the quality of the team," said Alexandre Martin, co-founder of Colonies. New investors and continued trust of existing backers: The growth and operating profitability achieved in the first year validated Colonies' vision, model and operational excellence. Confident in the ability of the founders to accelerate growth and become the European leader in the sector, the existing investors?-?Idinvest Partners, Global Founders Capital and La Financiere Saint James?-?have reinvested 30 million euros in this new round. LBO France, a French investment fund with more than 30 years of expertise, will enable Colonies, through 150m in funding, to accelerate its property development and expand its offerings to meet ever-increasing demand. As it stands, 50 new projects should be completed in France and the rest of Europe in 2020. "We now offer institutional investors the opportunity to gain exposure to the ultra-resilient housing market without the management risk, as we do everything for them?-?from sourcing assets to operating them. We are delighted to partner with the LBO France teams who have a sharp understanding of what's involved in the co-living sector. The first projects to come out of this collaboration will be developed as early as this summer," said Amaury Courbon, co-founder of Colonies and main contact for property investors. "At Colonies, the first thing we wanted to bet on is the team: pioneers in co-living, focusing on the profitability of their model and ready to open up a huge market in France and Europe", explained Antoine Zins, Investment Manager at Idinvest Partners. "We are very pleased to support a new paradigm for urban residential property. Of all the property sectors, housing is the one that has failed to evolve: Colonies, a true pioneer in France, is offering a new concept and real expertise at a time when housing in urban areas is becoming more and more complicated and lives are becoming less sedentary," said Stephanie Casciola, Partner and Head of Real Estate at LBO France. "As one of the first investors in Colonies, we are particularly pleased to be able to support the company in this phase of strong growth, after having demonstrated the relevance of its product, the solidity of its business model and the quality of its teams," commented Hugues de Braucourt, Partner at Global Founders Capital. About Colonies Created in 2017 by Alexandre Martin, Amaury Courbon and Francois Roth, Colonies is France's pioneer in the co-living sector. The company's mission is to create the housing experience of tomorrow. Colonies bases its offerings on 3 cornerstones: spaces, services and community life. It currently runs residences in Paris, Berlin, Noisy-Le-Grand and Fontainebleau. 1 BVA study for Astree (2018) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005594/en/ Contacts: PRESS: AGENCE RAOUL Sibylle de Villeneuve, +33 (0)6 45 29 58 57 sibylle@agenceraoul.com Beatrix Prades, +33 (0)6 69 42 48 30 beatrix@agenceraoul.com A self-confessed 'monster' who bit his cat's ear off and 'lost count of how many times he punched him' has been locked up and banned from owning animals for life. Aaron James Williamson, 20, was jailed for 12 weeks after a court heard of his sickening catalogue of abuse against the kitten. Williamson, of Grimsby, admitted he had lost count of how many times he had punched the feline, called Litten, and did it whenever he was angry. He tortured him, including biting his ear multiple times, leaving the pet with very little of it left. Aaron James Williamson, pictured, was jailed for 12 weeks after a court heard of his sickening catalogue of abuse against Litten the kitten, pictured District Judge Daniel Curtis described his acts as 'sickening', before sentencing him to 12 weeks in prison and stopping him from owning animals for the rest of his life. The RSPCA confirmed three kittens were rescued from Williamson's home on September 11, after a witness contacted the organisation to report animal cruelty. Litten and the other two kittens have since been rehomed, with Litten, now called Oreo, and another, finding a new home together in Derbyshire. His new family have said that he is now 'fantastic' and is 'absolutely adorable and really good natured'. RSPCA inspector Kate Burris said: 'Williamson tortured this kitten. He admitted repeatedly biting Litten's ear, which resulted in the loss of most of it, and that he had lost count of the times he had punched Litten. He said he did it when he was angry. 'District Judge Curtis said his daily abuse of small, defenceless animals who were unable to harm him and were at his mercy was sickening. The cat, pictured, suffered horrendous injuries, inflicted by Williamson, who called himself a 'monster' in interview District Judge Daniel Curtis described the thug's acts towards Litten, pictured, as 'sickening', before sentencing him to 12 weeks in prison and stopping him from owning animals for the rest of his life 'He said that Williamson had called himself a monster in interview, and that was accurate as to how he behaved. 'We are extremely grateful to the witnesses who contacted us, and got these kittens out of this situation despite the position that put them in. It was very brave. 'I was surprised how friendly Litten was when I first met him given the abuse he had suffered, he was so affectionate and loving and was rubbing his face against mine during his veterinary examination. 'I just knew he was going to make a perfect addition to any family. 'I am so happy that he has found a fantastic new home, with people who love him and are caring for him in the way he always should have been cared for. It could have been a very different outcome for him if we hadn't been able to intervene when we did.' Litten, now named Oreo, pictured, has been rehomed along with two other kittens in Derbyshire, where his new family have described him as 'absolutely adorable and really good natured' Williamson admitting one offence of causing unnecessary suffering to a kitten when he appeared at Grimsby Magistrates Court. He was also ordered to pay 250 costs and a 120 victim surcharge. The maximum sentence for animal abusers in the UK currently stands at six months in prison under the Animal Welfare Act and an unlimited fine. Williamson will have been given credit for his early guilty plea as well as co-operation with the RSPCA, which often reduces a sentence down from the six month maximum. A bill to increase the maximum sentence up to five years is currently in the process of going through Parliament, but stalled in the House of Commons due to the dissolution of Parliament in November. Despite the new government being formed after the December election, a date for the next stage is yet to be announced. Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has launched the Rs 2,857 crore Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme (TNHSRP) in Chennai on Tuesday. The health scheme will be implemented with funding support from the World Bank. The five-year programme focusses on three key areas, including improved quality of care, management of non-communicable diseases & injuries, and reduced equity gaps in reproductive and child health. Under the new scheme, quality certification of the government hospitals will also be undertaken, which will help improve the medical service. It will focus on diagnosing non-communicable diseases, like diabetes, cancer, blood pressure, breast cancer, and psychological disorders at an early stage. Palaniswami reportedly said that the state is on the forefront in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and the infant mortality rate (IMR). Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, however, said that for the scheme Rs 1,999 crore would be the share of World Bank loan and the rest being provided by the state government. World Bank's Country Director for India, Junaid Kamal Ahmad was also present in the function. Meanwhile, kickstarting propaganda for the next year's Assembly polls, Palaniswami exhorted the party workers to expose what he called the disinformation campaign of the opposition parties. Addressing a workshop held by the party's literary unit in Chennai, Palaniswami, who is the co-coordinator of the AIADMK, said the state has been adjudged a best-performing state in various sectors by the Centre, which spoke volumes about the government's administrative efficiency. Palaniswami said that a host of welfare schemes was being implemented and all the assurances of late party chief J Jayalalithaa made during 2011, 2016 Assembly elections were also being continuously fulfilled. Pointing to new industries and fresh projects in various departments, Palaniswami flayed his rivals for spreading canards that no developmental work was happening in the state. Notably, opposition DMK had alleged that the government did not take steps for the closure of already existing oil wells in the delta region. Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are due in April-May 2021. (With Agency Inputs) The South Korean government is offering "emergency child care" to parents dealing with the double challenge of school closures and work-at-home policies as the country battles to fight the fast-spreading novel coronavirus. Drastic measures are taking place this week which include the state subsidizing owners of small and medium-sized businesses so that they could provide flexible hours to employees who have family members to take care of. South Koreas COVID-19 confirmed cases skyrocketed from 31 to 5,328 in just two weeks, as of March 4. To limit mobility and human contact, the government has encouraged people to stay home, company offices that are at risk to be closed and public venues and events be canceled. All schools that should have started a new semester on March 2 are now postponed until March 22. We support companies that promote flexible work arrangements, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said in a statement. MORE: South Korean president declares 'war' on COVID-19 as deaths there reach 32 The government will compensate business owners a maximum of about $5,000 for every employee per year according to the number of flexible work hours per week. In the event that an employees close relative falls ill, has an accident, or struggles due to old age, or that child care difficulties arise, he or she can take up to 10 days of unpaid leave from work. For parents who still must go to work, the Ministry of Education has ordered all 9,762 kindergartens and elementary schools to run an "emergency child care" service placing teachers on duty. Children in each class must be limited to a maximum of ten. On Monday, five percent of kindergarten students and less than one percent of elementary students showed up, according to the Ministry of Education. We both have to work so how can we not send my kids? This is so sad we have to send them to school with no kids around. We dont have any relatives to help out, Cho Heeyoon, a mother of two who works in a bank, told ABC News. Story continues MORE: Simple answers to common questions about coronavirus I cried this morning sending my smiling son to school for emergency child care. We both work and, frankly, we dont want to send him. Best is not to be in crowded places. But thankfully there werent that many kids. We are all nervous and I feel sorry for my son and the teacher on duty, Ryu Namju told ABC News. My daughters class used to have 40 children, but the daycare told me only six are there today, Lee Seo-yeon, a clinic nurse and mother of a three-year-old in Seongnam Gyeonggido, told Abc news. All Day Care centers for toddlers must also provide mandatory emergency care in the event of inevitable closures. The state health center provides cleaning and fumigation services two to three times a week, Kwon Hyokyung, running Bomsaem Castle Daycare Center in Seongnam, South of Seoul, told ABC News. Many toddlers parents have canceled registration for the entire month of March even though the center takes extra precaution. We measure temperatures twice a day, have the kids wash hands frequently, and sanitize textbooks and toys everyday, said Kwon. Our neighborhood has quite a number of confirmed cases so my teachers and I are taking extra care of the few kids who come in. Each of us make sure to stay away from outdoor activities and even teachers who have young children themselves are out here to give a helping hand, Lim Kyunghwa who runs a public child care center at Cheonan told ABC News. If a daycare center refuses to provide emergency child care, parents can file complaints to the government department in charge which may lead to suspension of operations of maximum six months. For facilities that are unable to provide adequate child care and day care services, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans expand its program that sends a child carer to each household. Anyone affected by the current COVID-19 outbreak could apply for the service during school closures from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. ABC News Hakyung Kate Lee, Heejin Kang and Jiyung Koo contributed to this report. South Koreas drastic measures against the coronavirus offers a glimpse of what the US may need to do originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Lucknow, March 4 : The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is all set to mark three years in office on March 18 by focusing on the work done so far. The state government is planning to hold a function on March 18 with BJP president J.P. Nadda also attending. The function will also celebrate Adityanath as the longest serving BJP Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier BJP chief ministers including Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh had tenures of less than three years at a stretch. The state information department is also publishing a book highlighting the work done by the Adityanath government since it came to power in March, 2017. All legislators have been asked to submit the work done by them in their respective constituencies and this will be published in the book. Since most opposition legislators are in no mood to submit any such information, the book will mainly comprise the work done by BJP legislators. "This book will be a Bible for our candidates in the 2022 Assembly election campaign. It will carry a comprehensive account of various schemes implemented by the Yogi government and also the work done by the legislators," said a BJP functionary. The book will portray the Chief Minister's image as a tough administrator and his zero-tolerance policy against corruption. On the law and order front, the book will detail how high-profile criminal cases have been worked out and solved within days with the accused being jailed. Adityanath will also embark on a tour of the various districts from March 19. He will visit the districts in a random manner to take stock of the impact of his schemes. The BJP is also planning to unleash a publicity blitzkrieg on social media to mark the event. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia and Sunil Lahri, stars from the iconic mythological show, Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, will appear on The Kapil Sharma Show this weekend. The actors will be seen revealing many unheard stories from their time on the sets of the legendary show. The actors shot for an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show on February 26. Archana Puran Singh even went live with the guests on the official Facebook page of Sony TV. In a recent promo shared by the channel, host Kapil Sharma is seen asking some 'most asked rumoured questions' to the guests. He asks them if they ever felt itchy while wearing those heavy costumes, crowns and carrying bow and arrow. Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Ram in the show, says that there was a time when they felt itchy by just seeing the costumes. Deepika, who played the role of Sita, said people never greeted her with a 'hi' or a 'hello' but bowed down before her with folded hands. Sunil, who played the role of Laxman, jokes about the time when people learnt that their Hanuman (played by Dara Singh) is a Punjabi. Check out the promo here: Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, which first aired between January 1987 and July 1988, was a huge hit and achieved the cult status. Later, Ramayan was re-created on the small screen by many other production houses, but they couldn't match up with the iconic status of the original. Follow @News18Movies for more Troy When it comes to climate change, the time for screwing around has long passed, says Roger Hallam. He actually didnt say screwing around, choosing a less-printable verb, but you get the message. For Hallam, the current political, legal and regulatory process moves too slowly to make the rapid changes he believes are needed to avert a human catastrophe stemming from global warming. As a result, people need to take matters into their own hands and rebel against a power structure that doesnt want to change. Its absolutely coming down the line, said Hallam. Its going to be absolute hell, he said of the constant floods, massive Australia-style wildfires, violent storms and famine-causing droughts he believes are facing the planet in the next few decades. Thats why he helped found Extinction Rebellion, a growing group of non-violent but radical protestors who have been blocking traffic, bridge and subways in mass demonstrations, mostly in Europe, to get their point across. The group, also known as XR, made headlines in October when they paralyzed central London in a street protest in which hundreds were arrested. They staged an earlier blockage in April as well. In the Capitol Region, 11 activists were arrested in February when they blocked the entrance to Comptroller Tom DiNapolis office, demanding immediate divestment of state pension fund money from fossil fuel-related companies. Hallam spoke to Capital Region climate activists Tuesday at the Sanctuary for Independent Media, a Troy-based community organization that creates videos and other media with an emphasis on social justice and environmental causes. They also put on events such as Tuesdays talk by Hallam. Hallam, though, talked with the roughly 100 people who attended via Skype from his home base in England. He had planned to visit Troy in person but was blocked from visiting the U.S., he said, when Homeland Security officials said he would need a visa. Hallam, 53, was last year cleared by a jury of a criminal damage charge for his spray-painting Divest from oil and gas, on the walls at Kings College in London. An organic farmer, Hallam had also been studying for a Ph.D at Kings College with a focus on social change through civil disobedience. His work in that area informed much of the talk on Tuesday. While initially coming to the U.S. to promote his new book, Common Sense for the 21st Century, he wanted to visit Troy since it sounds to him like the kind of place where climate activists should be looking for support. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Rather than looking for new XR members in trendy inner-city hipster areas, he goes to blue collar, Rust Belt communities like Troy. Working people, he said, understand how much it harder its going to be when the s&*t comes down the line. Hallam is decidedly in the group of climate change activists who believe the planet has reached a High Noon moment in which rising temperatures will create massive, unprecedented natural disasters, which will in turn create a social and economic collapse. The current power structure of business and industry as well as political leaders, he says, simply arent equipped to decarbonize rapidly enough, thus the need for mass civil disobedience by those who will feel the brunt of these disruptions. He also believes the actual protests should focus on disrupting locations that are power centers such as state or national capitols, where they can draw a lot of media attention by blocking traffic and day-to-day business. You need to close down fundamental parts of the economy, Hallam told the Troy audience, who ranged in age from Generation Zers to Baby Boomers. That sounds really harsh but thats what it takes. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU The UNs special envoy for Libya has resigned amid efforts to bring peace in the North African country. According to Ghassan Salame, his efforts in Libya was damaging his health. My health no longer allows this rate of stress, the UN diplomat said on Twitter. Talks between the UN-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli, and fighters loyal to renegade Gen Khalifa Haftar have floundered. Last week Salame brought representatives of the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA), the two warring sides, to Geneva for peace talks, but the representatives suspended their involvement. Salame, in post for over two years, has been frustrated by the willingness of European powers including France to covertly back Haftar along with Russia. Posting his resignation statement on his personal Twitter account, Salame said he had spent two years trying to reunite the country and curb the influence of outsiders, but that he could no longer continue because of health reasons. My health no longer allows this rate of stress, and therefore I have asked the [UN] secretary general to relieve me of my duties, he said. UN chief Antonio Guterres, in an interview with the BBC last month, termed the conflict a proxy war, adding that it was unacceptable. An international summit was held in Berlin in January with hopes of cementing a fragile truce brokered by Turkey and Russia, who support rival camps in the war. A final communique declared that the dozen countries participating in the meeting pledged to end the flow of weapons and armed personnel to Libya. The company H. Moser & Cie., based in the Swiss-German town of Neuhausen, bears the tagline very rare. Most people assume that the phrase refers to the H. Moser & Cie. watches, but it also applies to the company at large. For an industry that is largely based in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, H. Moser & Cie. stands out as a company that is set apart from the rest of the pack. They are part of a group that also includes a research and development arm, supplying horological solutions such as balance wheels and hairsprings to other players in the industry. There are plenty of so-called independent brands, but H. Moser & Cie. is more independent than most. Currently owned by the Meylan family, H. Moser & Cie. was founded in 1828 by Heinrich Moser, industrialist and entrepreneur originally from Schaffhausen who trained as a watchmaker in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle before venturing into Russia to establish his business. His work quickly found favour among the elite classes, and Moser-made movements found their way into exceptional Faberge creations that were commissioned by members of the ruling Romanov dynasty. Edouard Meylan, CEO H. Moser & Cie. On his return to Switzerland, Heinrich Moser became a benefactor of his city of origin, driving civil engineering projects such as the ambitious hydro-mechanical dam that made Schaffhausen a thriving industrial hub. It was this reputation for cutting-edge technology and a modernising spirit that made the city so attractive to American businessman F.A. Jones, who subsequently founded IWC in Schaffhausen. The modern H. Moser & Cie. collections Endeavour, Venturer and Pioneer are named for periods of Heinrich Mosers life, with the former two representing more traditional values whilst the sporty Pioneer is imbued with dynamism and a contemporary energy. Newly introduced, the Streamliner is the latest collection of H. Moser & Cie., which possesses a slick vintage vibe that will attract design aficionados. The Swiss Alp Watch, which some critics initially dismissed as a marketing gimmick aimed at riding the smart watch wave, has grown into itself and has its own fans and enthusiasts. Swiss Alp Watch Concept Black H. Moser & Cie. Their proximity to Precision Engineering, their R&D-focused sister company, has augmented H. Moser & Cie. invaluably, allowing them to implement such mechanical hallmarks as the Straumann double spiral, their high-efficiency modular escapement and the large perpetual date. Despite their inherent horological sophistication, some of the most popular H. Moser & Cie. models are the Concept watches, which eschew dial markings for a minimalist appeal. The Swiss Alp Watch Concept Black, for example, doesnt even have hands the time is suggested by the tourbillon and more precisely told by the minute repeater function. Over the years, H. Moser & Cie. have shown their willingness to embrace viral marketing, creating incisive and always memorable campaigns whose messages remain in the mind long after their watches have been presented. When it comes to H. Moser & Cie., rarity does not equal obscurity. Certainly, no one can ignore them. WorldTempus is delighted to welcome H. Moser & Cie. as a partner once again. UB students studying abroad in countries impacted by COVID-19 directed to return to U.S. The health and safety of our students is of paramount importance to the university, whether theyre pursuing their education at our home campus or anywhere in the world. BUFFALO, N.Y. Following the guidance of New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the State University of New York (SUNY), the University at Buffalo has directed its students who are studying abroad in countries impacted by the novel coronavirus to return to the U.S. Nine UB students currently are participating in UB study abroad programs in Italy (eight students) and South Korea (one student), which are among the countries for which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a Level 2 or Level 3 travel notice. This is an extraordinary gesture by the governor. The UB community appreciates the governors efforts to help the university keep our students safe, said UB President Satish K. Tripathi. In addition to recalling students from affected countries, UB and SUNY also have cancelled all campus-sponsored travel to impacted countries for the remainder of the semester. The health and safety of our students is of paramount importance to the university, whether theyre pursuing their education at our home campus or anywhere in the world, said UB Provost A. Scott Weber. The university will take all steps necessary to ensure our students have the opportunity to complete their studies in accordance with the CDCs guidelines. For SUNY students in impacted countries who have yet to return to the U.S., SUNY is currently arranging chartered flights from South Korea, Italy and Japan to New York Stewart International Airport in the coming days. Upon arrival and in accordance with New York State Department of Health guidelines, local and state health representatives will screen passengers and SUNY will arrange transportation to designated SUNY campus dormitories to begin 14-day quarantines. SUNY will then work closely with campuses, the DOH and local health departments to provide medical monitoring, remote course study, and various resources to help individuals during the quarantine period. Tripathi has also announced the formation of a COVID-19 Advisory Committee at the university comprised of faculty, students and staff across the university community. The purpose of the advisory committee is to provide perspective and advice regarding UBs readiness during this evolving situation. Since January, a COVID-19 Task Force has been active at UB monitoring the COVID-19 situation and the health of the university community, collaborating with the Erie County Department of Health, and developing and implementing a communication plan to facilitate the delivery of accurate, up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 to the UB community. UB has communicated regularly with students, faculty, staff and visiting scholars via its COVID-19 information website, www.buffalo.edu/coronavirus, social media and other channels, all of which are sharing information provided by authoritative sources, such as the CDC and Erie County and New York State health departments. At this time, the Erie County Department of Health reports there are no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Erie County, where UBs campuses are located. The U.S. on Wednesday conducted an airstrike on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan just days after signing a historic peace agreement with the groups leadership over the weekend. The airstrike was launched against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an Afghan security forces checkpoint, U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack, Leggett wrote in a tweet. The airstrike, the first against the Taliban in 11 days, came a day after President Trump spoke on the phone with Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar amid reports that fighting had resumed between Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces. Trump called the phone call a very good talk and said both have agreed there is no violence, dont want violence. Three distinct attacks Tuesday night by the Taliban reportedly killed at least 25 Afghan soldiers and injured 13 others injured. The U.S. and Taliban signed the landmark Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan on Saturday, which stipulates that the Taliban start intra-Afghan negotiations with Afghan sides on March 10. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that he has given the green light to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan to begin withdrawing American troops from the region, in a show of good faith to bolster the peace agreement. The Pentagon aims to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan from the current number of 12,000 to 8,600 in 135 days. A full withdrawal was planned for 14 months from now provided the Taliban does not breach the peace deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will closely watch the Talibans compliance with their commitments, and calibrate the pace of our withdrawal to their actions. More from National Review Rep. @BillPascrell "By refusing to turn over Donald Trump's business and personal tax returns to this committee, I think you're breaking the law." Sec. @stevenmnuchin1: "In all due respect, I am not breaking the law. You have a different interpretation. You're not a judge." pic.twitter.com/Tp9XceVfWB CSPAN (@cspan) March 3, 2020 WASHINGTON Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. confronted Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin at a congressional hearing Tuesday, accusing him of breaking the law by refusing to release President Donald Trumps tax returns as requested. Pascrell, who has led the so-far unsuccessful effort to get Trump to release his returns like his predecessors have done for four decades, said the law was clear. Mnuchin has refused to release the returns, despite a 1924 law giving the House Ways and Means Committee chair the right to obtain them upon request. The committee chairman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., sought six years of Trumps personal and business returns in April, saying he wanted to examine how the Internal Revenue Service ensured that the president complied with the tax laws. The House Ways and Means Committee sued to get the returns after Mnuchin refused to honor a subpoena. The treasury secretary, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service, rejected the demand because it lacked a legitimate legislative purpose, and the Justice Department backed him up. "By refusing to turn over Donald Trumps personal and business tax returns to this committee, I think youre breaking the law, Pascrell, D-9th Dist., told Mnuchin at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing. It says, shall, it doesnt say might," Pascrell said. The only thing you suffer is smug rhetoric and staggering lies. I find it offensive that youre telling me that Im breaking the law and staggering lies, Mnuchin shot back. "Thats your interpretation of the law. Im relying on legal counsel on what is our interpretation of the law. In all due respect, I am not breaking the law. You have a different interpretation. Youre not a judge. Pascrell said Mnuchin didnt feel that way when Senate Republicans recently demanded the tax returns of Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Bidens son, after they refused to call witnesses in Trumps impeachment trial and acquitted him with only one GOP dissenter. When two Republican senators asked you for the private financial information of Joe Bidens family, your department practically tripped over themselves to provide it, Pascrell said. "You sent it over to them so fast I wonder if you stuffed it in a Federal Express envelope. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Pakistani Christian man tortured to death for bathing in well water; family wants justice Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A 22-year-old Christian man was beaten to death in Pakistans Punjab province by men who accused him of contaminating water in a well owned by a Muslim farmer. Sources have told human rights organizations that Christian laborer Saleem Masih from the Kasur district of Punjab was chained, dragged, and beaten with rods by a landowner and four other men around Feb. 25. Masih died from his injuries on Feb. 28 at Lahore General Hospital, according to the U.K.-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assitance and Settlement. Masihs older brother told the Union of Catholic Asia News that Masih was tortured for two hours for washing himself off in a tube well owned by a Muslim landowner who has been identified as Sher Doga. We have to take a bath after unloading husk from a trolley. Even the cold weather doesnt matter. The itching from chaff, stuck in our clothes, disturbs our sleep, Nadeem Masih was quoted as saying. They threatened him with dire consequences when he cleaned himself after unloading a vehicle last week. They accused him of desecrating their water. He was already being warned about making TikTok videos in farms belonging to Muslim landlords. Masih was discovered lying in Dogas cattle farm with serious injuries on Feb. 25 in Bhagiana village, where many Christians work as farm laborers. Nadeem Masih said local women informed him that they heard Masih moaning in pain around 7 a.m. He told the police about being chained, beaten and electrocuted by four men, Nadeem Masih said. They rolled a thick iron rod over his entire body. He was like a crushed sugar cane from a juice machine. Although Masih was taken to a hospital for surgery, he died from organ failure. According to UCANews, Doga was arrested but later released. The high court in Lahore accepted a bail petition from the suspects who accused the Masih of stealing. CLAAS Director Nasir Sayeed said in a press release that Doga summoned the police himself. Sayeed accused Doga of bribing police since police pressed Masihs family to settle the matter. According to Sayeed, Doga justified the crime by saying that Masih "committed a crime by dirtying" the well water. The Masih family had to plead with the landowner to free Saleem Masih so they could take him to a hospital for medical treatment, Sayeed reported. Ghafoor Masih told CLAAS that he wants justice for his son. Those who have killed my son must be punished for taking the law into their own hands and killing him for nothing but for being Christian, Ghafoor Masih was quoted as saying. According to Sayeed, it will not be easy to get justice for Masih because the perpetrators are so influential. The Pakistani police is often biased when it comes to the matter Muslims and non-Muslims, Sayeed said. Michelle Chaudhry, president of the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, said in a statement that the horrific act of violence is once again a grim reminder that intolerance in the name of religion in Pakistan has escalated beyond the rule of law. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, when it comes to the religious minorities anyone is free to act as a prosecutor, judge and executor, Chaudhry explained. We cannot allow this to go on; impunity around violence against religious minorities in Pakistan has to end. Pakistan is ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Christians have often been victimized by societal persecution in the predominantly Muslim country. In 2014, two Christians from Kasur were burned alive in a brick kiln by a Muslim mob after they were accused of desecrating a copy of the Quran. It is unacceptable that Christians in Pakistan still face discrimination and hatred on account of their religious identity, CSW Executive Mervyn Thomas said in a statement. The government of Pakistan must take decisive action against the perpetrators of hate and those who carry out such crimes. We also urge the authorities to fully commit to the long-term work of overcoming the prejudiced mindset toward religious minorities in society. In a Feb. 26 tweet, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that " anyone in Pakistan targeting our non-Muslim citizens or their places of worship will be dealt with strictly." "Our minorities are equal citizens of this country," Khan wrote. According to UCA News, over 1,000 Christians attended Saleem Masihs funeral held at an evangelical church in front of his home. Reportedly among those in attendance was Ejaz Alam, Punjabs minister on human rights and minority affairs. Masih's killing has inspired the social media hashtag #JusticeForSaleemMasih. Health officials are desperately trying to work out where an aged care worker contracted coronavirus before she passed it on to elderly residents, one who has since died. NSW Health has confirmed a 95-year-old woman died after contracting coronavirus from the female nurse at BaptistCare's Dorothy Henderson Lodge at Macquarie Park in western Sydney. She was one of six new NSW cases identified on Wednesday night as the state total jumped to 22. NSW Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, said the nurse hadnt travelled abroad and admitted she could have spread the virus prior to testing positive on Tuesday. Were aware that its likely that she could have been capable of passing on the coronavirus from at least the day before, Mr Hazzard said. The aged care facility where the virus has spread. Source: Google Maps Confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia as of 9AM on Thursday. Source: Yahoo News Australia It is concerning when we have somebody present with coronavirus and we cant track the source. How did she end up with coronavirus? She initially began showing symptoms on February 24. A second resident, an 82-year-old man, also contracted the virus from the worker, aged in her 50s, while a further 11 residents who came into contact with the woman have been placed into isolation. Fears of further spread, including inside hospital A further five cases in NSW were later confirmed on Wednesday, including a 70-year-old woman from the care facility, a female doctor working at Liverpool Hospital, a female patient from the Northern Beaches, a man from Cronulla and a woman believed to have returned from the Philippines. The female doctor had no history of overseas travel. We are immediately establishing which staff and patients [at Liverpool Hospital] may need to self-isolate and be tested for COVID-19 should they be unwell," NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant said in a statement late Wednesday night. The woman believed to have returned to Australia from the Philippines is aged in her 60s and arrived on March 3. Mr Hazzard admits NSW Health doesn't know where the nurse contracted the virus. Source: AAP Passengers arriving at Sydney Airport wearing face masks. Source: Getty "Her travel details are being obtained and will be disclosed if she posed a risk to any other passengers on her flight," Dr Chant said. Story continues Authorities are still trying to establish the recent movements of the woman aged in her 30s from the northern beaches and the man in his 50s from Cronulla. NSW Health is also seeking passengers who were on five separate flights from Asia in the past week after two men in their 30s, a man in his 50s and two women in their 60s tested positive following their arrival in NSW. They travelled from Iran, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Qantas on Wednesday cancelled its QF1 Sydney-to-London flight after it was advised that several passengers who had recently travelled on various airlines had tested COVID-19 positive. The airline said it was doing some additional cleaning of the aircraft as a precaution. There are now 22 confirmed cases in NSW. With AAP Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Queen Elizabeth II meets President of Malta George Vella and his wife Miriam Vella during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London. (Press Association) The Queen has ditched her gloves again, the day after wearing them for investitures at Buckingham Palace. While giving out awards at the palace on Tuesday afternoon, the Queen was seen in long white gloves, despite it being a fiddly process to attach the medal to clothing. But as she received the president of Malta and his wife on Wednesday, she was gloveless, shaking bare hands with the couple. It came amid growing fears of the spread of coronavirus. The Palace did not confirm whether the Queen wore gloves earlier in the week because of the virus, but she has not worn gloves at investitures for some time. A royal source said she would be following government advice. Queen Elizabeth II did not wear gloves for her audiences on Wednesday. (Press Association) Read more: Coronavirus: Queen wears long gloves while handing out honours to members of the public In her one-to-one audiences on Wednesday, the Queen, dressed in a vibrant red dress, met President of Malta George Vella in the Palaces 1844 room. She also held an audience with Cuban Ambassador Barbara Montalvo Alvarez. The monarch shook hands with her guests, who were also without gloves. Government advice is that people wash their hands regularly and for 20 seconds, with soap and water and use hand sanitiser. The Royal Family posted a video on social media of the Queen meeting Vella, who tells her he always dreamt about meeting her, and at last it has happened. The Queen replies: Oh thats very nice isnt it. The President of Malta, George Vella and Mrs. Vella meet The Queen at Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty last visited Malta in 2015 to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. pic.twitter.com/M3LcZoZHw2 The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 4, 2020 Queen Elizabeth II wears gloves as she awards the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) to Miss Anne Craig. (Press Association) Read more: World Health Organisation issues warning over new coronavirus scam The Queen and Philip have a special relationship with Malta as they lived there in the early years of their marriage, because the death of the Queens father. Story continues Audiences with the Queen last about 15 to 20 minutes and the conversations take place in private. She holds several throughout her working week and are usually for members of the diplomatic community, though this sometimes extends to political, religious or military leaders. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will continue to shake hands with people despite the outbreak of coronavirus. Prime ministers usually have an audience with the Queen each Wednesday, where they typically shake the monarchs hand. See latest coronavirus news and updates. Talk show hosts are taking jabs left right and centre at Trumps questionable handling of the coronavirus, with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel among those making brutal jokes at the presidents expense last night. In the aftermath of Super Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel deadpanned: I'm not sure why we even need a new president when the one we have is doing a pretty darn great job". Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he lambasted Trumps misunderstanding of vaccines, playing a clip of Trump pharmaceutical executives. But the same vaccine could not work you take a solid flu vaccine you dont think that would have an impact or much of an impact on corona, Trump said at the televised roundtable held in the White House. As if they wouldnt have thought of that, Kimmel laughed. Well thats a great idea, we can just use what we already have youre a genius youve cured the coronavirus. However, Trump was far from the only target of jokes about the administrations handling of the virus, as Kimmel took gibes at Mike Pence and threw in a jab at the presidents wife. The other rumour involving Pence is that a few days ago, Pence shook hands with a student in Florida who has since been quarantined for potentially having the coronavirus, Kimmel said. If Trump thought Mike Pence was anywhere near the coronavirus, he'd never let him in the White House again. He'd keep him out in the yard on a leash or something. The host jokingly explained how Pence could single-handedly infect everyone in Washington except Melania, who's been self-quarantining for about three years now. Stephen Colbert also ridiculed Trumps misunderstanding of vaccines on his The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. A regular flu vaccine wont work? huh weird. What about a solid flu vaccine. Im talking top shelf admiral class? Colbert mimicked. What about this, a box of band aids. Im talking really good ones. Frozen two, all Elsa throw away the Annas they dont work. He also addressed the rising criticism about the level of testing taking place for the virus across the US. Mike Pence, who is in charge of leading the governments response to the outbreak, promised all Americans could get tested after rumours that a number of people were being turned away for testing. Colbert added: "As of last week, the CDC has tested just under 500 Americans with suspected infections. Other nations have tested patients by tens of thousands." The Daily Show also poked fun at Trump and his constant self-congratulation of his handling of the virus, editing together a show real of clips of the president feeling very pleased with himself. London: A former Tory leader has likened Huawei to "heroin" and said the UK must go into "rehab" to wean itself off the high-risk Chinese vendor. The comments were made in a parliamentary debate in which nearly two dozen MPs urged Boris Johnson to reverse his decision to allow the company to help build Britain's 5G network. Huawei in the UK has been used for 4G networks since the mid-2000s. Credit:AP The Westminster debate came as 20 US senators, including senior Republicans Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, wrote to British MPs to express their "significant concern" over the British Prime Minister's Huawei decision. The debate was led by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith and backed by a more than half a dozen government MPs including former cabinet heavyweights David Davis, Damian Green and Owen Paterson. Guest Column In Eastern Myanmar , the Karen Watch Over a Revolutionary Forest Members of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) and the Kawthoolei Forestry Department visit the community forest in Htee Tha Blu village, in Dooplaya District, a Karen National Union-controlled area of Karen State to observe the community forest in October 2019. / KESAN / Facebook This article was originally published in Earth Island Journal. It is before dawn when we pass the last checkpoint perched above the Salween River, along the border between Thailand and Myanmar. As we wind north through a sparse woodland up an unpaved track, the first signs of daylight begin to appear. It is the end of the dry season, and most of the trees in the forest around us are leafless, allowing us to catch glimpses of the giant river below, a rushing torrent even now at its lowest ebb. As the sun rises, we scramble down a steep embankment and board a longboat piloted by a teenager in army fatigues. After plying rough currents upriver for hoursthreading powerful eddies that threaten to throw us off coursewe reach a different type of checkpoint. It is manned not by Myanmar government border patrol, but rather by soldiers of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). We are cleared and enter the area that local communities have declared as the Salween Peace Park, a refuge for the last holdouts of the Karen revolution, the longest-running ethnic insurgency on earth. Welcome to pure indigenous Karen territory, says Saw Mabu Htoo, 40, a Karen who works with an environmental rights group here called KESAN. We are not in Thailand, but we are not in Myanmar, he notes. We are in Kawthoolei. He is using the Karen name for their ancestral land, which once covered a large swathe of southeast Myanmar and western Thailand, running down the Salween River basin south to the Andaman Sea. War of attrition For more than 70 years, since shortly after the country formerly known as Burma gained independence, a low-boil insurgency has fought for Karen self-determination, promised first by the British and then the Burmese. Over the intervening decades, far from granting the Karen meaningful rights, the Myanmar military has waged a grinding war of attrition against them. It has been devastatingly successful. Thousands of Karen communities have been displaced, and more than 200,000 Karen have fled the country. Multiple efforts to negotiate peace have failed. Meanwhile, the area under Karen control has dwindled to a small fraction of what it was when the revolution began in 1949. As a result, many Karen have accepted that autonomy will never be realized. But others continue the struggle, some utilizing new, nonviolent strategies of resistance. The Salween Peace Park is central to this agenda. Covering more than 550,000 hectaresnearly twice the size of Yosemite National Park in Californiathe park is located in a remote corner of Karen State, which is internationally important for biodiversity conservation. Although it is called a park, it is not your typical protected area. Rather than focusing strictly on nature preservation, the reserves backers promote indigenous land management systems like traditional swidden agriculture and forest management. To that end, the parkwhich the Karen have proclaimed as a self-governed, independently administered territory within Myanmarputs development into Karen hands while conserving the forest that generations have called home. Rejecting green land grabs It is a vision that is in line with international trends towards increased recognition of indigenous peoples rights to conserve forests, safeguard biodiversity, fight climate change, and enable locally driven development. This approach rejects strict preservation as a Western model that has not only failed to halt deforestation in most of the tropics, but that has been used by governments to dispossess indigenous groups, not least in Myanmar, through green land grabs. Indeed, KESAN, which helped conceive the park, is keenly aware of many examples from Latin Americain places like Mexico, Guatemala, and Peruwhere local communities have taken control of their forests and are achieving better outcomes than preserves that are off-limits to communities. But it remains far from clear that the Salween Peace Park will become another such example. The Myanmar government does not recognize the park. The military continues to operate scores of camps in the area, in violation of a ceasefire agreement. Incidents of violence have increased over the last few years, including the 2018 murder of the Karen environmental rights defender Saw O Moo, who was a leading advocate for the park. Meanwhile, a rapidly changing political environment in Myanmar has opened the door to land grabbing for investments in mining, large-scale agriculture, and hydropower development, much of it with Chinese and Thai capital. As a result, deforestation rates have skyrocketed in many parts of Karen territory. Pressure is starting to push into even the most remote forest areas around the park, aided by military road building. As we travel upriver, I ask Saw Mabu Htoo what chance the park really stands to succeed. It is not a question of whether the peace park will be officially recognized by the government, or by anybody else, he says, gesturing to the unbroken forest all around us. In the most important sense, our vision has already been realized. Karen communities here have spoken. We have established the Salween Peace Park. So we are already succeeding. With a population of around 7 million, the Karen are the second-largest ethnic minority in Myanmar, and one of the biggest indigenous groups in mainland Southeast Asia. But they are by no means homogenous. The term Karen actually refers to a diverse range of ethnicities including Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa-O, whose languages are often mutually unintelligible. Some are Buddhist, some are Christian, and many still follow animist traditions. Over time, many Karen, especially in the lowlands and in the larger towns, have assimilated to Burmese ways; some no longer identify as Karen. Tens of thousands of others who have fled conflict to Thailand and beyond have adopted new identities, names, languages, and ways of living. To the extent that there is a pan-Karen ethnic identity, it has been forged in response to external forces. As the British moved to annex Burma as a province of India in the 19th century, they capitalized on old enmities between the Burmese and other ethnic groupsmany of whom the Burmese had long enslavedarming the Karen to support British colonization. Colonial policy, while not kind to any group, gave some priority to the Karen. World War II and Burmas independence only deepened divisions. General Aung San, known as the father of Burmese independence, saw the Japanese occupation as an opportunity to rid the country of the British and initially sided with Japan. The Karen, meanwhile, stayed loyal to the British. For their loyalty, British military leaders had promised the Karen their own autonomous state once independence was granted. But when the war was over and negotiations began around a Burmese state, Karen delegations to London were met with a cold shoulder. In 1948, a campaign of ethnically motivated attacks on Karen villages and the removal of Karen from posts in the new government led to the founding of the Karen National Union (KNU) and its armed wing (the KNLA), and to the armed conflict that continues to this day. Increasingly violent That conflict grew increasingly violent with the ascent of General Ne Win and the military junta that would come to rule Myanmar for the better part of 50 years. Under Gen. Ne Win, the Karen and other ethnic armed groups were the target of near-ceaseless offensives by the Myanmar military (known as the Tatmadaw), including regular attacks on civilians and the destruction of whole villages. After multiparty elections in 1990won by Gen. Aung Sans daughter, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but nullified by the juntathe KNLA gave shelter to dissident Burmese student leaders. Tatmadaw campaigns against them increased further. By the 2000s, more than 200,000 Karen had fled to Thailand and were living in refugee camps; many more were internally displaced. Things seemed to begin looking up during the 2010s with the introduction of a series of ostensibly democratizing reforms introduced by the junta. Optimistic that they might finally be able to broker a real peace, the KNU signed a ceasefire agreement with the military in 2012. Nationwide negotiations with the countrys armed groups a few years later raised the prospect of increased autonomy for the Karen within an eventual federal union. Yet many in the KNU remained skeptical. They were right to be. The good faith efforts that rebel groups put into Daw Aung San Suu Kyis new civilian government have not been repaid. The peace process has not advanced. The military still holds de facto control over the country. It also has a controlling interest in nearly all of the development investment that has transformed the country over the last decade, including those in mining, oil and gas exploration, hydropower, plantation development, and real estate. Many Karen dont believe that the military is interested in allowing true democracy to take hold. A 2018 report published by the Karen Peace Support Network, an activist group, asserted that the Tatmadaw is interested in reforms only to further entrench military rule and expand their control into ethnic areas. Observers point to the military regime next door in Thailandrecently legitimized by electionsas the guiding inspiration for what the Tatmadaw wants in Myanmar. Losing faith Meanwhile, faith in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government to negotiate a fair deal for the nations ethnic groups has waned given the Nobel Peace Prize winners defense of the militarys campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar. Her support of the military rattled international observers, but it did not surprise many Karen, who see the Myanmar governments project of state-making as one concerned above all with making peripheral areas legible and quashing their struggles for self-determination. As we plied upriver into the heartland of what Saw Mabu Htoo calls pure Karen Kawthoolei, we were entering a place the holdouts are trying to keep illegible. Yet the project of taming the periphery advances unabated. Contrary to the ceasefire agreement, scores of military camps are tactically spread out within the peace park. Skirmishes have increased over the last few years, with KNLA regulars resisting military road building and associated development. The conflict continues to claim civilian lives. Karen people have experienced enough hardship to know that peace, even if it can be achieved, may not be in our favor, says Saw Paul Sein Twa, 47, who founded KESAN with Saw Mabu Htoo and other Karen nearly 20 years ago. At the same time, we cannot ignore the reality: We will not win this fight with bullets. We need a different strategy. That strategy began to coalesce in the late 1990s in a Karen refugee camp called Mae Lama Luang in Thailand. Saw Paul Sein Twa and Saw Mabu Htoo, who fled their villages in 1995 during the waves of attacks by the Tatmadaw (as Myanmars military is known), began working together on environmental issues inside the camps. They founded KESAN in 2001. Initially, their work focused on illegal logging and deforestation in Karen territory, recording whatever evidence they could back in the days of film cameras, recalls Saw Mabu Htoo. The exposes they produced brought some much-needed attention to the environmental dimensions of the conflict, but nothing changed. So they began working directly with communities. They mapped ancestral boundaries, undertook wildlife surveys, and established local committees to monitor forest incursions. In a remote forest area, next to a village of displaced Karen, they built a training center. They set up demonstration plots for agro-forestry development, created a seed bank to conserve traditional Karen rice varieties, and trained locals in GPS use and GIS mapping. An idea is born Still, they dreamed of something bigger. A place where Karen land rights would be recognized and traditional livelihoods could be practiced without the threat of encroachment. Given that the Tatmadaw continued to violate the fragile ceasefire, we wanted to build something proactively showing our true vision for peace, says Saw Paul Sein Twa. But it needed to be big, so that it would be hard for the decision-makers to ignore. The idea for the Salween Peace Park was born. The vision had its detractors. Parks have not been kind to ethnic groups in Myanmar. A range of efforts meant to strengthen nature conservation in the countrymany led by big international NGOs like the Wildlife Conservation Society and Flora & Fauna Internationalhave been accused of aiding and abetting central government agendas of violence and forced displacement. As a result, park and reserve are dirty words to many indigenous rights activists. To build consensus for a different kind of protected area, KESAN undertook consultations with communities within the proposed park boundary, which initially covered around 300,000 hectares. Over a period of four years, they discussed the idea of a Karen-operated reserve, one that would respect local land rights and recognize age-old natural resource management. Support was so overwhelming that the proposed park size nearly doubled as word traveled about the initiative. Key to gaining community support was the message that the parks main aim was to recognize the indigenous Karen land governance system known as kaw. Maintained for generations in the face of conflict, kaw is a physical space as well as a social system, integrating ecological knowledge, wildlife management, forestry, swidden agriculture, and conflict resolution mechanisms. More than 170 kaw occur within the park typically forested common properties shared by up to 20 communities. Part of what we are doing here is demonstrating to the national government and others how greater autonomy in indigenous territories can function, says Saw Paul Sein Twa. We know that if we wait for a political settlement, there might not be anything left. The Myanmar government has promised to lead the country toward a devolved, federal democracy, adds Saw Mabu Htoo. We Karen are not waiting idly for this. The Salween Peace Park shows what we believe a federal democracy should look like. It is indigenous self-determination and community protection of natural and cultural heritage in action. In December 2018, the Salween Peace Park was formally launched at a ceremony in Mutraw District, a border region that is the heartland of indigenous Karen territory. Over three days, communities came together to launch the park charter, a formal document painstakingly developed through grassroots engagement with communities throughout the park area. The charter lays out the goals, objectives, and governance system agreed for the parks management, from the bottom up. Harmony with nature As the staccato notes of a traditional Karen harp rang out in the background, multiple speeches reiterated the vision of the park: Instead of massive dams on the Salween River, we see small hydropower and decentralized solar power. Instead of large-scale mining and rubber plantations, we call for ecotourism, sustainable forest management, agroforestry, and organic farming. Instead of megaprojects that bring conflict, we seek a lasting peace and a thriving ecosystem where people live in harmony with nature. That vision comes to life once Saw Mabu Htoo and I finally clamber out of the longboat, the heat sweeping over us in waves. We hike up to a ramshackle trading post stocked with a bizarre array of items: purplish mottled eggs, canned energy drinks, fishing nets, car batteries, a Chinese-English dictionary. A stripped-down pickup arrives and we climb in. We drive up an impossible slope, throwing off plumes of dust in our wake. As we ascend, the Salween River reappears, in our rearview; the trees of sloping dry forest surround us. The shift to evergreen is sudden. The temperature drops and the air becomes humid. The soil profile changes from sandy browns to blood red and orange. Reaching the top of the ridge, a cool mist blows from the north. The view west plunges down into folds of lush forest, cut by river valleys and a patchwork of Karen agricultural plots, fallows, and forests in various stages of managed succession across the landscape. After clearing another KNLA checkpoint, we switchback down into one of those valleys. The winged fruits of dipterocarp trees litter the forest floor around us. The Salween Peace Park is over 85 percent forested and home to some of the richest biodiversity remaining in Asia. It lies at the heart of the Indo-Burma hotspot, one of 36 areas in the world that Conservation International has prioritized for conservation. It remains little studied. A 2008 KESAN wildlife survey likened it to the dark side of the moon. Biodiversity assessments undertaken by KESAN and partners have found significant populations of endangered species like tiger, Asian elephant, gaur, banteng, Phayres leaf monkey, and Hoolock gibbon, as well as multiple endemic bird species. There is also an abundance of floraby some estimates, the hotspot is home to as many as 25,000 different plant species, half of them endemic. This floraincluding some of the last remaining stands of natural teak on Earth, endangered orchids, a variety of edible and medicinal plants, and moreis critical for the 70,000 Karen who live within the park, spread out over some 350 communities. Deh Bu Nor is the largest of those communities, and the seat of Mutraw District, which is largely administered by the KNU. It lies along one of the Salween Rivers biggest tributaries, the Yunzalin. In midafternoon, a dry heat is blown through town by lashing winds coming up the river valley. We are welcomed by the district leadership into a wooden house on stilts. Like most structures in this part of Southeast Asia, it is mostly open-air, the roof hewn from dried tree leaves. The incongruous signs of both insurgency and bureaucracy are visible: military grade walkie-talkies on top of an old file cabinet, a typewriter under the Karen independence flag. We wont give up A group of men sit cross-legged on Thai-style plastic mats, clad in camouflage cargo pants and traditional Karen shirts. They chew betel nut as I ask about the peace park, what it will take to protect the area, and how they think Karen territory will look in 100 years. Saw Ten Der, the district chief, does not hesitate: For hundreds of years, since long before the days of the British, we have managed these lands. Through decades of attacks by the Tatmadaw, [and] rich outsiders stealing our timber, mining our soils, we have stood up. We will not give up now. In the Salween Peace Park we are defending Kawthoolei, for the Karen people. Saw Ten Ders resolve is striking given the many pressures on the Karen and the park. Perhaps most threatening at the moment is the wave of investment that has come in since the military began opening the country, investments that are quickly transforming Karen territory, and Myanmars forest frontier at large. Although the countrys forest areatotaling more than 29 million hectaresis still the biggest in mainland Southeast Asia, its deforestation rates are among the highest in the world. Since 2011, Global Forest Watch data indicates that Myanmar has lost more than 2.2 million hectares of forest. Around 15 percent of that loss has occurred in Karen territory. There is a perfect storm driving deforestation on Karen lands right now, says Dr. Kevin Woods, a senior analyst for the Washington, DC think tank Forest Trends who has worked in Myanmar for 20 years. Woods was co-author of a 2017 article in Conservation Biology that identified four types of political and economic transitions that have historically led to profound environmental consequences in countries around the world: war to peace, democratization, decentralization, and market liberalization. All four are being faced simultaneously in Myanmar presently, the article notes. This has resulted in significant new pressures in resource-rich borderlands like Karen territory, where Woods has documented waves of counterinsurgency development backed by the central government, a phenomenon he has dubbed ceasefire capitalism. Military-led development Such development is on stark display in the southern part of the Karen ancestral lands in Tanintharyi Region. There, more than 725,000 hectares of oil palm concessions have been awarded, often to companies with close ties to the former military regime, notes a 2017 report published by a group of local NGOs and the Environmental Investigation Agency. Although such widespread conversion has not yet reached the Salween Peace Park, it is fast approaching. On the southern fringe of the park, over the last 10 years, nearly all of the Thee Tha Blu communitys forest has been lost to land grabs by groups tied to the military, but for a small area that KESAN helped demarcate as a community reserve. In the face of this, the Salween Peace Park stands as a kind of last hope for the Karen revolution. The park is significant because it inverts the power relationship between Karen and the state, and it embodies the Karen vision of self-determination and political federalism that are championed as the hallmarks of peacebuilding for and by the Karen people, notes Woods. Still, to date, the Myanmar government has yet to even acknowledge the existence of the park, although it has reportedly been mentioned in parliamentary proceedings. The KNU, for its part, currently has no agreed strategy for negotiating official recognition of the park. Riven internally by its own factionalism, which has dogged the organization since its founding, some powerful KNU leaders remain ostensibly committed to the derailed peace process and do not want to be seen as going rogue. Others, like Mutraws district leader Saw Ten Der, appear not to trust the military or the civilian government to negotiate in good faith. For them, there is no need for official recognition. Karen communities declaring the park as theirs is all the recognition that is needed. KESANs head Saw Paul Sein Twa strikes a more balanced tone. For him, while the question of negotiation with the government will come at the right time, a key near-term strategy is attracting more international support for the park. We know that groups around the world are working towards the same vision in their own indigenous territories, he says, noting that he has spent the past few years crisscrossing the planet to learn about allied initiatives, while pitching the peace park to donors. The Salween Peace Park is linked to a powerful global movement that cannot be ignored. Prayers in the forest At night, back along the Yunzalin River, it is finally cool. After a meal of river fish, bamboo shoots, and upland rice, Mabu and I walk down to the riverbank. On the far side a silhouetted stand of hundred-year-old teak throws shadows in the moonlight. We are joined by a village elder, Saw Tha Say, from Lay Bu Der, a small community not far from KESANs training camp. He opens our meeting by chanting rites to Karen forest spirits, passing around a bamboo cup with shots of rice wine (called thee). A companion from his village adds a Christian prayer and the sign of the cross. More thee goes around. Saw Tha Say is exactly as old as the Karen revolution. He first took up a gun when he was still a child, and has lived through almost constant conflict and uncertainty all his life. He has been shot at. He has fled his village multiple times, living in hiding with other displaced Karen, eating only wild foods in the forest. He has returned home. Through all this, he notes with a wry chuckle, he has never worn shoes. I ask him what he hopes his village might look like in another 70 years. During my life we have had to live always avoiding violence, he says. I believe that in the future, thanks to the peace park we are building, the children of my village will be able to live differently. They will be able stay home, and to live in peace. Benjamin D. Hodgdon is a forestry specialist who has supported community forest management initiatives worldwide, including the Salween Peace Park, for more than two decades. He lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. You may also like these stories: The Day the Karen Were Defeated at the Battle of Insein Rebel Groups Told to Unite to Save Myanmars Peace Process Behind the KNU Election Results SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The New York Public Service Commission is literally not equipped to properly monitor Spectrum and other utilities across the state, according to an audit released Tuesday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Auditors from DiNapolis office found regulators lacked the equipment to measure internet speeds, used inaccurate data to track service reliability and imposed only four penalties in four years, according to the audit. When New Yorkers flip on the lights, log in or make a call, they should be confident that someone is making sure these service providers are living up to their promises, DiNapoli said in a statement Tuesday. My auditors found the state Public Service Commission was not doing enough to make sure utilities are holding up their end of the deal. PSC lacked critical equipment to do its job and rarely inflicted financial consequences when companies did not deliver. This has to change. The commission said it strongly disagreed with the audits findings. The Department of Public Service uses all enforcement tools at its disposal to hold utilities accountable and major enforcement actions have resulted in more than $675 million in benefits for New York consumers in just the last two years, it said in a statement. "Our dedicated staff is in the field every day inspecting utility work for compliance and their shareholders pay the consequences when they fail to meet our requirements. DiNapoli said his office began the audit after lawmakers in the Hudson Valley raised concerns about poor internet service and him to look at Charter Communications, Spectrums parent. The Public Service Commission consists of five members appointed by the governor. It regulates 650 utilities operating in the state. The PSC approved Charters merger with Time Warner Cable in January 2016, a merger that made Charter the states largest cable company and the second largest in the country. The commission by law cannot regulate broadband, but it conditioned its approval of the merger on Charter extending its network to an additional 145,000 unserved and underserved homes within four years, beginning Jan. 8, 2016, with a goal of 25 percent expansion annually. The agreement included a provision under which Charter would be required to pay substantial penalties if it failed to meet network build-out milestones. Auditors said the commission should have collected $5 million in fines when the company failed to meet the milestones. However, it has only been able to collect $1 million, according to the audit. The commission said Charter owed $4 million in fines, not $5 million, and that the commission was legally barred from collecting more than $1 million by litigation filed by the company. It said it took vigorous and timely enforcement action against Charter" in mid-2018 when it revoked its approval of the companys merger with Time Warner Cable. Ultimately, the enforcement action was settled in a manner that resulted in a company commitment to expand its network entirely Upstate at an estimated cost of more than $600 million, it said. The merger approval also required Charter to upgrade its network to permit the transition to all-digital technology, including an increase in broadband speeds by the end of 2018, DiNapoli said. Charter submitted required documentation stating it had complied with the requirement, but the Department of Public Service, which the commission oversees, did not verify that the upgrades had been completed, he said. In fact, DPS staff stated they lack the equipment required to perform such verification, his office said in a statement. The commission said it did not (but does now) have specialized broadband speed testing equipment at the end of 2018 when the first portion of the Charter speed enhancement requirement was due. However, it said its verification of Charters compliance was not contingent upon a single action of conducting physical speed tests because the required speed enhancement work by Charter were of a lengthy duration, complex and comprehensive in nature. In addition, Charter pledged to invest $50 million in service quality improvements over the two years following approval of the merger, but the department did not verify the improvements had been made by May 2018, auditors said. The commission said staff resources were dedicated to settlement negotiations and litigation preparation related to its revocation order. Since the settlement with Charter, staff has resumed examining and verifying Charters investments in service quality, it said. DiNapoli recommended the Public Service Commission: Actively monitor all conditions listed in orders to ensure all utilities are complying. Develop and issue orders that include well-defined, measurable and enforceable conditions. Verify the accuracy of utility company data used by the commission or department to evaluate or make decisions concerning the utilities, including data submitted for performance metrics, safety standards and reports. The commission said it agrees with the comptrollers recommendations but believes it is already in compliance with most of them. Lara Pritchard, a spokesperson for Charter, said Wednesday the company has not only met, but exceeded its merger commitments, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and significant enhancements to the products and services offered to its customers in New York." These investments have enabled Charter to remain the fastest growing cable and broadband company in the country and is a strong demonstration that the commission made the right decision when it approved the merger. Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Explained: Why has the UN approached the Supreme Court India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Mar 04: The United Nations in an unprecedented move, approached the Supreme Court against India's decisions to implement the citizenship law that aims at giving a home to the persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The United Nations said that while it is a worthy and commendable objective, it raises a number of issues related to India's wider human rights obligations in the context of fundamental principle of non-refoulement. Refoulement: Refoulement is the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution. Explained: Why was PSA slapped against Omar Abdullah The principle of non-refoulement is enshrined in international human rights laws. Non-refoulement under the refugee law prohibits return in any manner whatsoever to threats to life or freedom on five grounds, but is not restricted to religion, the UN said in an intervening application.Under international human rights law return is prohibited where there is a real risk of the individual suffering irreparable harm, which is a concept broader than persecution and does not require the risk of harm to be linked to a specific ground. International laws: Under the international human rights law, the principle of non-refoulement prohibits the expulsion, return or extradition of a person in the territory of a state or under its jurisdiction or effective control to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to irreparable harm such as violation of right to life, torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance, among others, the application further states. The principle applies to all forms of exclusion or return of persons regardless of their nationality, legal status, immigration status, statelessness or citizenship. The question arises as to whether the differentiation made with regard to the persecution on religious grounds as opposed to other grounds is sufficiently objective and reasonable, in particular taking into account the prohibition of refoulement and India's obligations under the international human rights law. Muslim migrants at risk: The application broadly states that the new law puts Muslim migrants at risk and that the law has issues of reasonableness and objectivity. It further states that the new law may not in sync with India's commitment to international covenants. Explained: How police is fighting rumours in riot hit Delhi India meanwhile said that its permanent mission in Geneva was informed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet about the intervening application. This is India's internal matter and concerns the sovereign right of the Indian Parliament to make laws. We strongly believe that no foreign party has any locus stand on the issues pertaining to India's sovereignty, the MEA said. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 India maintained that the new law is constitutionally valid and complies with the requirements of our constitutional values. It is reflective of our long standing commitment in respect of human rights issues arising from the tragedy of the partition of India. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 8:08 [IST] All lanes were re-opened as of 6 a.m. Wednesday. WHITE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - State police said a gust of wind started the chain-reaction crash that hospitalized three truck drivers Tuesday afternoon. All but one lane of northbound I-65 remains closed, nearly six hours after the crash. Around 3:00 p.m., police said a strong wind picked up the trailer of a semi near the 199 mile marker, and caused it to hit another semi in the right lane. Both drivers lost control. The first truck hit a concrete bridge barrier, separating the cab from the frame. The cab came to rest in the median and the trailer fell into the creek. When traffic behind the initial crash slowed, police said a tanker semi rear-ended a box truck in a secondary crash. That pushed the box truck into another semi and all three crashed. Both drivers in the first crash and the driver of the tanker were rushed to the hospital. Police say all three are expected to survive. The crash completely closed the northbound lanes of I-65 between the Wolcott and Remington exits for several hours. That's an eight-mile stretch. Traffic was backed up for at least another five miles while police redirected drivers onto U.S. 231. Additional photos courtesy of Troopers Stinson, Benner and Jones https://t.co/G8uATQKNX4 pic.twitter.com/XQMH7eDFR3 Sergeant Glen Fifield (@ISPLowell2) March 3, 2020 As of 8:30 p.m., one lane of northbound I-65 was open, but state police said it could still be another hour or two before everything was cleared. Drivers are still advised to avoid the area. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Two weeks ago, Sand Hill Road VC firm Andreessen Horowitz received some heckling after posting a No Handshakes notice on their front entrance. Coronavirus cases were still rare outside of China, and it was easy to dismiss the precautions as symptomatic of Silicon Valleys heightened self-importance. Now that multiple U.S. cities have declared a state of emergency, it may be worth considering the decisions of those who spend their days analyzing massive troves of user data and considering whether that data might be used to draw any conclusions about the virus now known as Covid-19. Amazon was one of the first companies to withdraw from last months Mobile World Congress in Barcelona over coronavirus concerns. Amazon ships products to over 100 countries around the world, so its not surprising that they would be ahead of the curve in predicting disease outbreaks. Just follow the flow of face masks and hand sanitizer. According to Amazon price tracking site camelcamelcamel, the prices of Purell hand sanitizer and disposable masks began to rise around the end of January, a reflection of the impact of supply and demand on automated pricing algorithms. Then theres Facebook, which tracks the interests, relationships and real-time physical location of 2.4 billion users. (Dont worry, we consented to this when we clicked Agree on the terms of service pop-up window.) Its not too much of a stretch to say that the popularity of Facebook Groups may have given the company some insight on the state of global gatherings. Last week, the company confirmed the cancellation the annual F8 developers conference, originally scheduled to take place in May in San Jose, California. Google keeps track of user location as well as global traffic flows through its mapping service. On top of that, the search engine fields 3.5 billion queries a day, many of which are health-related search requests from consumers seeking medical advice. Searches for pneumonia, for example, reached an all-time high in January of this year. Googles decision to cancel an internal conference in Vegas and move its upcoming Cloud Next event to a virtual gathering may be better-informed than the guidance issued by our own CDC. Story continues Its hard to deny big tech companies the right to apply proprietary data analysis to protect the health of employees and customers, if thats indeed whats happening. Itll be even harder to prevent the government from demanding access to the same information for public health planning. We already saw this happen in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when the USA PATRIOT Act authorized law enforcement and intelligence agencies to engage in mass surveillance. Widespread panic, whether from terrorism or pandemic, provides a handy excuse to erode civil liberties. What will happen if the government asks mobile phone carriers to share location data? AT&T and Verizon (who both canceled their participation in last weeks RSA conference in San Francisco) were recently fined for failing to safeguard information about customers real-time locations. Both carriers were previously revealed to have assisted the NSA in warrantless wiretapping. To see how this might play out, look to Asia. Singapores Ministry of Health has provided enough information for local citizens to create a website tracking the movement and status of individual cases. Such transparency may be reassuring to the public, but its also a potential violation of patient privacy. In China, mobile phone apps such as AliPay and WeChat are used by the government to track peoples interactions and perform contact tracing. China has accomplished impressive containment measures, but few Americans aspire to turn the country into China. Mass surveillance, of course, is not the only solution. Genomic epidemiology, which examines how viruses mutate and accumulate changes during the course of transmission, may be a decent predictor of disease spread. Better distribution of test kits will certainly fill information gaps and help the public manage disease risk. So far the CDC has been remarkably inadequate on COVID-19 testing, forcing employers into a collective action problem no one wants to be the first to scale back business interests. Several of the biggest U.S. banks have restricted non-essential international travel. In San Francisco, Square, Twitter, Stripe, and Coinbase have all urged employees to work from home. Maybe its time for the rest of us to consider following their lead. To contact the author of this story: Elaine Ou at elaine@globalfinancialaccess.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Elaine Ou is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a blockchain engineer at Global Financial Access in San Francisco. Previously she was a lecturer in the electrical and information engineering department at the University of Sydney. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. A dissident Jehovahs Witness who posted content from the religions magazine in order to stir criticism acted legally and can remain anonymous, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. The displays were posted in August 2018 on a Reddit website devoted to discussion and criticism of Jehovahs Witness practices. They showed two pages from the religions Watchtower magazine: an ad, quoting the Bible and seeking donations, and a chart describing the types of information collected by the religions Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The poster, a lifelong Jehovahs Witness who lives abroad and was identified only as Darkspilver, said the ad showed a commercialized approach to fundraising, and the chart raised privacy questions. In court papers defending anonymity, Darkspilver said critical voices in the faith, once identified, are often disfellowshipped, or excommunicated, an act that could damage relationships with family and friends. Watch Tower, which publishes the magazine, said the postings violated its copyright. It did not sue Darkspilver or Reddit, but sought a court subpoena, in Reddits hometown of San Francisco, to disclose the posters identity. U.S. Magistrate Sallie Kim ruled last May that Darkspilver had a right to speak anonymously and had shown a likelihood of harm from public identification. She said the poster to whom she referred as he, because the legal papers were filed under the name of John Doe had displayed the pages for a noncommercial purpose and did not harm the publications value. But Kim also said Watch Towers copyright case was not entirely baseless, and that its lawyers should learn Darkspilvers identity as long as they did not disclose it to anyone else. Darkspilver appealed, with support from the privacy-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, and won a ruling Monday from U.S. District Judge James Donato. Donato agreed with Kim that the postings were protected by fair use, a law that allows republication of copyrighted material for such purposes as criticism, comment, news reporting, and teaching or research. He said the ad and chart were not creative works and had no independent market value, and were used by Darkspilver solely for criticism and commentary, not for commercial purposes. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Watch Tower contended the postings might have discouraged visitors to its website, but the religious organization presented no evidence of any such effect, which in any event would not have harmed its copyright, Donato said. And because Darkspilvers postings were entirely fair use, the judge said, he did not infringe Watch Towers copyrighted works, and there is no basis in the (copyright law) for a subpoena to compel disclosure of his identity. The Electronic Frontier Foundations legal director, Corynne McSherry, said Tuesday the claim of infringement was absurd from the start. The subpoena process is not supposed to be a pretext for unmasking lawful speakers, she said. Paul Polidoro, a lawyer for Watch Tower, said the organization disagreed with the ruling and would be considering its options. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Two Coconino Community College students were awarded the prestigious 2020 All-Arizona Academic Team Scholarship, which provides free tuition for 60 credit hours at the recipients choice of one of the three state universities. Shawna Greyeyes and Keren Chavez received the honor from CCC. Both students are members of the Beta Gamma Chi chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honors Society. They were honored at a ceremony Thursday at Arizona State University West in Phoenix. It means a lot to me, Greyeyes said in a press release. It allows me to be the first in my family to get a degree. Greyeyes plans on attending the University of Arizona with the goal of becoming a researcher in Environmental Science, where she plans on bringing what she has learned back to the Navajo Nation to contribute to her community. That is huge for me, Chavez said. Im really excited because this means I can focus more on school and finish on time. Chavez, who works full time to pay for her studies, plans on studying Biomedical Science with the goal of attending medical school. Her ultimate goal is to help in underdeveloped communities because of her experiences growing up in Mexico. Every year, Arizonas community colleges nominate students to the International PTK organization, where students are judged based on a 3.50 GPA or higher, good academic standing while working toward an associate degree and involvement in campus and community volunteer work. Judging consists of three rounds, with second and third rounds held in Washington, D.C. Scores from the national competition are used to rank the students for the state team. Out of the students nominated this year, several will be named to the All-USA Community College Academic Team. Team members are the nations top community college students who are awarded $2,500 in stipends, a medallion, obelisk, certificate and are featured in a spring global edition of USA Today. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Michael Bloomberg saluted his staff as he ended his presidential campaign Wednesday for a historic achievement, telling them that 'No campaign has ever achieved as much as you did in such a short period of time.' What he didn't mention is that they also burned through an astonishing amount of cash for a losing effort that failed to capture a single state. In normal circumstances, the end of a campaign means almost every staffer would be fired, because the campaign itself has run out of purpose and most likely money. But this time round Bloomberg 2020 has run out of neither: he was entirely self-funding and has both endorsed Joe Biden and pledged to keep going until November to defeat Donald Trump. His spending of $1 billion is a fraction of his wealth of - according to Forbes - $54.8 billion, a figure which went up by more than $1 billion after he quit as the markets delighted in Joe Biden being the likely nominee and Bernie Sanders' healthcare policies apparently being off the agenda. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions on his campaign, which failed to win a single state on Super Tuesday, although he did take American Samoa, a U.S. territory He therefore remains potentially the Democrats' most significant spender, with the resources and intent to benefit not just Biden but down-ballot candidates across the country. Bloomberg's path to that began Wednesday when he did not tell his campaign staff what they would have expected from any other failed candidate: 'You're fired.' Instead in his farewell address, he offered no outline of what they should expect, and many had been taken on being told that they were hired until May or November. That omission was intentional: behind the scenes, Bloomberg's team of cmapaign finance attorneys were scrambling to work out how as many as 2,400 staffers will work within the law. As Bloomberg plots how to refocus his campaign empire operation toward the defeat of Donald Trump, who mocked him throughout his campaign, the full magnitude of his operation was still coming into focus. It was an effort that put more than 2,000 aides on the payroll, paid extravagant salaries to exiles from Clinton and Obama campaigns, splurged on meals, accommodations and a network of field offices around the country, and flooded the airwaves. The campaign's expenditures on food alone would be enough to mount a credible congressional contest in recent years. The dining tab hit $750,000 and that was before Bloomberg's February filings for the crush leading to Super Tuesday were due. Included in that amount was $27,720 for sushi to keep his campaign army fed. For legal consulting, Bloomberg shelled out $3.1 million to the Venable firm. His total disbursements were at $409 million according to the latest FEC records, with the total likely to rise substantially. Well-paid staffers were outfitted with special Bloomberg terminals and Apple products. Mike Bloomberg greets staff and volunteers as he stops by one of his campaign offices in the Little Havana neighborhood on March 3, 2020 in Miami, Florida. He suspended his campaign the following day Actor Michael Douglas speaks to an audience in support of Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, not shown, at a Bloomberg campaign office, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, in Quincy, Mass. Bloomberg had staff in 43 states 2,400 staff were put behind Bloomberg Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg speaks beside Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer during an appearance at Bloomberg's field office in Orlando on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. He built his organization for his 100 day campaign Campaign signs and messages are placed in the windows at Mike Bloomberg's campaign office in Knoxville Staffers got Apple phones and computers, as well as Bloomberg terminals that were key to the candidate's fortune The campaign spent heavily on merchandise, which it distributed liberally at events Bloomberg staff gave out free buttons and T-shirts at Bloomberg's final campaign event in Florida Bloomberg's staff lined the hallways of a Florida convention center after his final rally The precise scale of Bloombergs operation, while vast, was not entirely clear. The most recent estimate was of 2,400 paid staff, all on salaries which were far higher than they would have expected elsewhere. They were deployed in 43 states in a national campaign that ignored the first four contests by design. For example, entry-level field organizers would normally expect to earn the weekly equivalent of around $35,000 a year; Bloomberg offered $72,000 with benefits. State political and communications directors are towards the top of the regular campaign structure and could expect normally maybe $6,000 a month - $72,000 a year but Bloomberg offered $144,000 a year. State press secretaries were on $120,000 a year. The national political director was on $360,000 a year. Headquarters staff benefits in New York were even more lavish if they were not from the city, there were corporate furnished apartments on the East Side of Manhattan. Every member of staff was issued with iPhones and Apple laptops. The event, like other Bloomberg events, his final campaign rally featured a buffet Two bartenders served beer and wine to guests He acknowledged his 'incredible team' in American Samoa Bloomberg tweeted out reports of his American Samoa win Earlier in Miami Bloomberg bristled at suggestions he get out of the race before ballots were case Kevin Sheekey, Global Head of Communications, Government Relations and Marketing for Bloomberg L.P. An array of campaign staff members drew six-figure salaries on the campaign Campaign aides churned out effective online ads, but Bloomberg got hammered during the Las Vegas debate So far undeclared is the final number of campaign field offices, but it appears to have been heading towards 200. By the New York Times count in mid-February there were at least 120 offices then. Since then more were being opened in the next states to vote. In Texas, the campaign opened 20 field offices. In Massachusetts, there were six, with a total of 60 workers. Virginia, which had been seen as a key target state, had at least 80 workers in seven offices. He didn't win a delegate there, despite spending $18.4 million on TV ads in Virginia and North Carolina. The campaigns headquarters was in a Times Square office once home to the New York Times. The New York Post estimated that the open floor space of more than 50,000 square feet would cost him $5 million a year. In New York City, hardly a place he needed to rack up votes, he also opened offices in Brooklyn and Harlem. In Brooklyn there were at least 20 staffers. All the spending barely made a dent in Bloomberg's bottom line. Forbes estimates Bloomberg's wealth at $58 billion, a fortune he amassed with his financial and media empire. Despite his failure to capture the nomination, the organization Bloomberg built has the potential to greatly influence the outcome of the race, as the cash-strapped Joe Biden gears up his effort against Sen. Bernie Sander and hopes for the chance to take on Trump with a unified party behind him. On top of staff on the payroll, the scale of consultants helping will only become apparent in future FEC declarations. Among those hired were digital organizers who were essentially paid to tweet or post at $2,500 a month. By mid-February there were certain to be more than 1,000, with the Los Angeles Times reporting it had accessed a document naming 400 in California alone. The Facebook posts were so prolific that the platform changed its rules about telling users they were paid content. Bloomberg spent it all over a period of just 100 days before he announced he would drop out Wednesday after a disappointing Super Tuesday finish. He failed to carry a single state, winning only in American Samoa, though Bloomberg took pride in winning million votes. The campaign used its own tech firm, Hawkfish, which recruited from Google and Facebook. CNBC reported that it was set up in Spring 2019 and was the primary digital agency and technology services provider for the campaign. It was headed by Elisha Wiesel son of the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and a former Goldman Sachs executive and drew in a former Facebook chief marketing officer, Gary Briggs, and Jeff Glueck the CEO of Foursquare, the location-tracking tech firm which is now used by hundreds of apps. The firms LinkedIn page in January said it aims to support candidates and causes who will advance progress on climate change, gun safety, womens rights, education, access to healthcare. The use of the plural suggests strongly that it will be a key element of Bloombergs vast arsenal of resources which he hopes to deploy for Democrats more widely. Such assistance has the potential to outgun a Trump campaign which has made Facebook in particular the key to its election strategy. Hawkfish has at least 78 employees according to LinkedIn but that number is likely to be a significant undercount it only includes those who have it on their profile. Hawkfishs profile was updated in recent weeks to remove a claim it was from 50 to 200 employees, suggesting it could be intended to be more. Unlike the campaign itself, Hawkfish was still recruiting Wednesday, with open ads for video editors and copywriters, the key to rapid advertising production. There were ads about New York, ads with Judge Judy, ads attacking Trump in bitterly personal terms, ads about gun violence, ads about his love of Big Gay Ice Cream. Until now presidential candidates have been presented in consistent lights in a handful of ads mostly because it is so expensive to saturate the market. More mundane tasks were also performed in a way no campaign before has done. Even his speeches were transcribed and provided to reporters meaning he had a staff of stenographers similar to the West Wings. The cost of the advertising campaign will be fully declared by the end of the month. But its scale and variety was unheard of and repeatedly prompted Trump to tweet angrily about it. In some TV markets it was so aggressive that prices for political advertising spiked by 45 per cent, Politico reported. Television stations are legally obliged to provide ad time at the lowest applicable rate, but that is calculated by demand which Bloomberg provided. Shares in publicly-traded owners of local broadcasters went up, bucking market trends. Because the campaign will only have to declare national figures, its local impact is not made public. But CNBC reported that in California, Advertising Analytics put spending at $36 million by mid-February before he ramped up ads to lean into Super Tuesday and $30 million in Texas. Bloomberg also adopted an advertising strategy only available to the biggest buyers and never before attempted by a presidential campaign: multiple messages rather than one, as practiced by Geico, which has more than one ad agency on retainer. The final number of different ads does not have to be declared but one Slate journalist wrote on February 17 that he had watched 185 different productions. Since then the number appeared to have been stepped up. Research by Hugh Dougherty New Delhi, March 4 : A day after the US Federal Reserve announced an emergency rate cut, Moody's Analytics said that it may come up with another rate cut soon along with other measures to counter the impact of coronavirus epidemic. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve announced an emergency rate cut of 50 basis points (bps) in the US benchmark policy rates. It is the first unscheduled, emergency rate cut since the global financial crisis of 2008 and comes as novel coronavirus has hit the US too, killing six. The US benchmark policy rates now stands at 1 per cent to 1.25 per cent. "The Fed's rate cut would pack the biggest punch if it creates a sense of urgency among fiscal policymakers to act. The Fed will likely cut again but they can pull other levers. It's possible that ease credit standards on banks," Ryan Sweet, Head of Monetary Policy Research at Moody's, said in a report. It noted that there is flexibility in the Fed's guidance to banks during natural disasters, allowing them to provide temporary relief to borrowers under the Community reinvestment Act. The Fed could use forward guidance, signalling they will keep rates low for an extended period of time or use quantitative easing, it said. "We will likely incorporate at least one additional rate cut in our March baseline," Sweet said. "However, monetary policy isn't a panacea. The intra-meeting decision is rare and risky, since it could be viewed as the central bank panicking, and financial market conditions may not respond as well as the central bank anticipates. The Fed's rate cut would pack the biggest punch if it creates a sense of urgency among fiscal policymakers to act," he added. L ORD Sugar has said companies that do not adapt to offer young people vegan options could end up like Kodak. The Apprentice founder spoke as he launched a new vegan range at the Dough Bakehouse in Herne Hill, which he runs in partnership with the shows 2019 winner, Carina Lepore. The 72-year-old decided in December last year that his 250,000 investment would go to the 30-year-old following a tense final. Lord Sugar chose Ms Lepore in part because he had never owned shops. Almost a quarter of all new food products launched in the UK last year were vegan, according to market research firm Mintel. Bakery chain Greggs made headlines and saw a 27 per cent rise in profits in 2019 after the runaway success of its vegan sausage roll, launched in January 2019 to coincide with Veganuary. Lord Sugar told the Standard: Its become a very important thing, particularly for young people. From a business point of view one cant blame companies and businesses, including our own, for jumping on the bandwagon and starting to produce vegan products. Thats exactly why we are doing this. Carina Lepore shows off her vegan dishes at Dough House with Lord Sugar / Joe Pepler/PinPep Thats how you remain in business. If there is a demand for a new kind of product like a vegan item then of course you need to cater for it, and those that havent will fall behind, its as simple as that. Its a bit like the demise of Kodak, they kind of ignored the digital revolution, and they went from a company that monopolised photography to zero, basically. You see things like that happen, and the same will be applied to food. If big companies dont start observing that vegan stuff is important, they may find that some of their products start to dwindle in sales. An extensive menu of new vegan dishes at Dough House will include a vegan sausage roll with sage and onion, vegan pasties filled with swede and potato, and a vegan banana cake, vegan chocolate brownie and vegan energy balls. All products are made onsite and by the winners father Carlo. Bagcilar, Istanbul -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/03/2020 -- Damas Turk Real Estate Company has, from its establishment, been focused on providing real estate consultancy and investment solutions in Turkey. The government registered and certified company is out to offer its services to any Turk, Arab, and foreign investor who is keen on attaining high returns after investing in the country. Damas Turk Real Estate Company stands as a connection to the fast-growing Turkey real estate industry that has been defined as the new gold for investors. Speaking about ways to make property investments in Turkey easier, the company's spokesperson commented, "It is public knowledge that Turkey has undergone great economic changes over the past decade creating the perfect environment for investments. In particular, the real estate sector has significantly grown in value and become an area that can never be ignored by investors. However, it is critical that you take the right channel when looking to invest in the country. This is why we provide you with a foolproof investment channel that will see you work with our real \state professionals alongside your lawyer." For a company that placed its focus on the needs of foreign investors' right from its establishment, Damas Turk Real Estate Company is the go-to partner for those who want to invest in Turkey. The specialists have, over time, developed a suitable platform that investors can depend on to make safe and value-based property investments. As an extra plus, Damas Turk Real Estate Company offers free and impartial consultancy services to all clients for ease in providing guidance to a suitable package. Talking about the properties they have for sale in Antalya, the company's spokesperson said, "As the sixth-largest city in Turkey that is famously known as the capital of leisure tourism, Antalya is a gold mine. This city attracts a huge number of tourists each year, which has seen it create lots of job opportunities and consequently have a high-density population. It is for these reasons why we have placed our hands on several projects across the city. These properties are the ultimate choice for investors who want to have a share of this multi-billion market." Despite being a latecomer in the international real estate market, Istanbul has quickly caught up and outshined most cities as the ultimate investment destination. Damas Turk Real Estate Company has not been left behind in being part of this wave and offers its clients top-class Turkey Istanbul real estate solutions. The company has properties that are strategically located in the city and are part of the most successful developments that have captured global attention. Investors will further love the fact that there are limitless options available to suit any budget and other investment specifications. About Damas Turk Real Estate Company Damas Turk Real Estate Company is giving foreign investors a legally-backed and professionally-approved channel to attaining Turkish citizenship by property investment in leading cities. Russia has banned the export of masks, respirators and hazmat suits to ensure access to the items for medics treating coronavirus patients and the public, under a decree published Wednesday. The ban covers 17 types of equipment including face masks, plastic shoe covers, gloves, surgical scrubs, gas masks, hazmat suits and "reusable anti-plague" suits. The ban aims "to protect the interests of Russian citizens" as the coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 3,000 people and infected around 92,000 globally. It does not affect supplies leaving the country as humanitarian aid or for personal use. The decree is dated Monday, when it entered force, and is set to expire on June 1. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month called for the closure of pharmacies that hike prices for face masks. Russia has had six confirmed cases of coronavirus, including three people repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan and two Chinese citizens. The first case in Moscow, a Russian man who had travelled to Italy, was announced Monday. The country has imposed a near blanket ban on visits by Chinese citizens, although flagship airline Aeroflot is still running some flights to and from China. It has also restricted entry for Iranians and for those travelling from South Korea. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jimmy Lai, owner of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested on February 28 on suspicion of taking part in an anti-extradition assembly. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the police for arresting Lais and suppressing freedom of expression in Hong Kong. On February 28, Jimmy Lai, founder of Next Media Limited, was arrested alongside pro-democracy figures Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum for allegedly taking part in an assembly during an anti-extradition law demonstration last August 31. Under the Public Order Ordinance it is an offence for three or more people to act together in a disorderly manner with the intent to cause others to fear that a breach of peace will be committed. Lai was taken to Western Police station in Hong Kong where he was released at 1 pm on the same day with his case to be heard on May 5. Lai is also accused of insulting an Oriental Daily reporter in Victoria Park in 2017, however the Justice Department never filed the case. Lais Next Media Limited owns the Apply Daily newspaper; the second bestselling newspaper in Hong Kong. Lee and Yeung also have strong ties to the democracy movement; Lee was previously the chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China and Yeung the former chief of the Democratic Party. Conversely, there have been several attacks on people linked to the Apply Daily that did not result in any arrests, as documented by IFJs affiliate, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). In September 2019, a female reporter from Apple daily who reported frequently on the anti-extradition protests was doxxed, harassed and assaulted by a group of thugs. The thugs mentioned Lai during the assault and later in the same month, Lais home was attacked using a petrol bomb. No arrests were made in relation to these incidents. The IFJ has recorded numerous instances of journalists being threatened, attacked and harassed by police over the last year with no prosecution despite requests by HKJA and the IFJ to investigate these cases. In an open letter to the Hong Kong Commissioner for Police, HKJA call on the police to stop treating reporters as enemies. The use of force, violence, verbal abuses and humiliation by police (has) turned from bad to worse. We have issued numerous public statements, made countless calls to Chief Executive Carrie Lam and you for an explanation of the relevant policy/policies and problems in the process of execution regarding specific cases and the problems in general, HKJA added. The IFJ said: Given the selective arresting of media workers in Hong Kong, the IFJ finds Lais arrest highly suspicious. The IFJ condemns the arrest of Lai and urges Hong Kong authorities to review the political bias in police practices to enable journalists to carry out their jobs safely and exercise their right to freedom of expression. A transgender man who has given birth but does not want to be described as 'mother' on a birth certificate today began the second stage of a legal battle and says he should have won first time around. Freddy McConnell, a multimedia journalist who works for The Guardian, wants to be registered as father or parent because being referred to as a mother was psychologically scarring. A judge ruled against him, after a High Court trial in London, but he has launched an appeal. Three appeal judges are now considering the case. Freddy McConnell, a multimedia journalist who works for The Guardian, wants to be registered as father or parent because being referred to as a mother was psychologically scarring Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the Family Division of the High Court and most senior family court judge in England and Wales, ruled against Mr McConnell in September. He concluded that people who had given birth were legally mothers, regardless of their gender, and said there was a 'material difference between a person's gender and their status as a parent'. Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice and most senior judge in England and Wales, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh began analysing arguments at a Court of Appeal hearing today. The hearing is due to finish tomorrow. A barrister leading Mr McConnell's legal team told the three judges there were 'clear reasons' why her client should have won the High Court fight. 'Notwithstanding the complexity of the arguments and the issues engaged, there were clear reasons why the claim ought to have succeeded and why (Mr McConnell) ought to have been declared the father or parent of (the child), not the mother,' Hannah Markham QC stated in a written argument. A barrister leading Mr McConnell's legal team told the three judges there were 'clear reasons' why her client should have won the High Court fight. He is pictured in a publicity photo for a film 'It is submitted that the learned judge fell into error in determining the term 'mother' not to be a gendered term.' She said Sir Andrew had failed to consider whether the current birth registration system was 'fit for purpose'. 'The learned judge was wrong to focus on giving birth as the determining issue when deciding parental role described in an administrative document,' she added. 'In identifying that the issue in this case raised important matters of public interest and that there was a pressing need for the government to challenge square on the status of a trans-male person who has become pregnant and given birth to a child, the learned judge ought to have declared where the current law fails to recognise those rights.' She said Sir Andrew should have considered whether those 'national failings' were breaches of Mr McConnell's human right to respect for private and family life. Judges have heard how Mr McConnell is a single parent who was born a woman but now lives as a man following surgery. Mr McConnell had been biologically able to get pregnant and give birth but had legally become a man when the child was born. Mr McConnell had been biologically able to get pregnant and give birth but had legally become a man when the child was born He wanted to be registered as father or parent but a registrar told him that the law required people who give birth to be registered as mothers. Mr McConnell had taken legal action against the General Register Office, which administers the registration of births and deaths in England and Wales. Solicitor Scott Halliday, a family litigation specialist based at law firm Irwin Mitchell, urged the Appeal Court judges to be on the 'right side of history'. McConnell outside the High Court at the previous hearing 'The High Court decision was hugely disappointing, but the Court of Appeal offers an opportunity to accurately acknowledge the relationship between Freddy and his child, and thus for the law to be on the right side of history when it comes to transgender rights,' he said. 'The current argument used to resist change in the law is seemingly to allow transgender people to assume rights in their acquired legal gender only in some circumstances. It is a piecemeal approach and extremely problematic.' 'The transgender community will be looking at this case as a measure in how the law understands their needs and fundamental rights; a cherry-picking policy simply cannot be endorsed going forward, and the courts should recognise this when they hear the case.' He added: 'At the crux of the story are a man and his child wishing to have the family life that reflects their personal reality - to not have this basic right is a tragedy and one we must rectify in law.' Equality campaigners were disappointed by Sir Andrew's ruling. Laura Russell, director of campaigns, policy and research, at campaign organisation Stonewall, had said in September: 'We believe this ruling is a missed opportunity to send a positive message and recognise all parents, including LGBT parents, for who they are.' She said legislation 'desperately' needed updating. Coronavirus is set to be declared a 'notifiable' disease so firms can claim for losses on insurance. Businesses had raised concerns that they would not be covered because the killer virus did not have the formal classification. Diane Howarth, who runs Cottage in the Dales, a small holiday cottage business in the Yorkshire Dales, had told the BBC she stood to lose up to 8,000 in forward bookings. 'We're a small family business,' she said. 'I'm owed 8,000 in overseas bookings - 10 per cent of my turnover - in the next six weeks from guests arriving in June. If they cancel, and I can't claim, that would be catastrophic for us, and many other businesses in the same position.' Businesses had raised concerns that they would not be covered because the killer virus did not have the formal classification Quiet streets in Bourton-on-the-Water today, as the Gloucestershire village is seeing fewer visitors due to fears over the spread of Coronavirus The Scottish and Northern Ireland governments formally declared that coronavirus was 'notifiable' last month - meaning medical professionals have a duty to inform the authorities of suspected cases immediately. Other diseases such as malaria are caught by the terms of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010. But up until now Covid-19 had not been added to the list in England. The Department of Health told the BBC: 'We want to ensure any steps taken to protect the public during the Covid-19 outbreak are proportionate and do not come at an unnecessary social or economic cost. 'To mitigate the impact on businesses, we will register Covid-19 as a notifiable disease. 'This will help companies seek compensation through their insurance policies in the event of any cancellations they may have to make as a result of the spread of the virus.' However, the Association of British Insurers has warned the decision is unlikely to apply retrospectively. 'Standard business insurance policies are designed and priced to cover standard risks, not those that are very unlikely, such as the effects of Covid-19,' a spokeswoman said. The British government may raise about 150m in its first auction of carbon emissions allowances in more than a year, potentially depressing prices further. The sale will be carefully watched by traders looking for signs of how many more allowances the EU's Emission Trading System can absorb. Carbon has taken a hit along with natural gas and coal as warmer winter temperatures and the coronavirus reined in energy demand. "Demand is still looking soft, with both power sector and industrial emissions likely to fall," said Trevor Sikorski, a carbon and gas analyst at Energy Aspects in London. UK companies still need to buy allowances to cover their greenhouse gas emissions through the end of this year under EU environment rules. The auctions have been halted since early 2019 due to the risk that Britain would exit the union abruptly and without a deal, erasing the need for polluters to buy the securities. Bloomberg Dark matter is the mysterious substance that makes up roughly a quarter of the Universe. There is strong indirect evidence for its existence from measurements of cosmic primordial radiation, anomalies in the radial dependence of galactic rotational curves and gravitational lensing. Despite its apparently pivotal role in the Universe the physical origin of dark matter remains unknown. Scientists suspect that it is made of unseen particles that neither reflect nor absorb light, but are able to exert gravity. Two theoretical physicists at the University of York, UK, have a new candidate: a recently-discovered bosonic particle, the d*(2380) hexaquark. The d*(2380) hexaquark is composed of six quarks, the fundamental particles that usually combine in trios to make up protons and neutrons. Importantly, the six quarks in a d*(2380) result in a boson particle, which means that when many d*(2380) are present they can combine together in very different ways to the protons and neutrons. University of Yorks Dr. MIkhail Bashkanov and Professor Daniel Watts suggest that in the conditions shortly after the Big Bang, many d*(2380) hexaquarks could have grouped together as the Universe cooled and expanded to form the fifth state of matter Bose-Einstein condensate. The origin of dark matter in the Universe is one of the biggest questions in science and one that, until now, has drawn a blank, Professor Watts said. Our first calculations indicate that condensates of d*(2380) hexaquarks are a feasible new candidate for dark matter. This new result is particularly exciting since it doesnt require any concepts that are new to physics. The next step to establish this new dark matter candidate will be to obtain a better understanding of how the d*(2380) hexaquarks interact when do they attract and when do they repel each other, Dr. Bashkanov said. We are leading new measurements to create d*(2380) hexaquarks inside an atomic nucleus and see if their properties are different to when they are in free space. The teams paper was published in the Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. _____ M. Bashkanov & D.P. Watts. 2020. A new possibility for light-quark dark matter. J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys 47 (3): 03LT01; doi: 10.1088/1361-6471/ab67e8 See Full Image Gallery >> Hispano-Suiza rose from the dead in 2019 to introduce a limited-edition electric hypercar named Carmen. It's not the only company on a quest to peddle multi-million-dollar EVs, the segment is getting unexpectedly crowded, so Hispano-Suiza injected a little bit more performance into its retro-futuristic coupe in a bid to help it stand out from the pack. Introduced online, the Carmen Boulogne loosely channels the spirit of race-winning Hispano-Suiza models made during the early 1920s. It carries on with an electric powertrain that consists of two electric motors (one for each rear wheel) and a T-shaped, 80-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, but engineers increased the system's output to 1,114 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. The 95-horsepower bump gives the Boulogne a 180-mph top speed, up from 155 mph, and lowers its zero-to-100-km/h (62 mph) time to somewhere under the 2.6-second mark. The reborn Spanish brand made rather bold claims about its two-seater coupe. It pledged to deliver a coupe gifted with "blistering acceleration," "seemingly endless pulling power," and "exceptional handling" in a package that remains "predictable and easy to drive." It backed up these ambitious statements by pointing out the 1,630-pound Boulogne is 60 pounds lighter than the Carmen, boasts a better stiffness-to-mass ratio than the Lamborghini Aventador, and has a lower drag coefficient (0.32) than high-profile hypercars like the Koenigsegg Agera R, the Ferrari F12, and the Porsche 918 Spyder made between 2013 and 2015. Carbon fiber helps offset the weight added by the battery pack, which holds enough electricity for up to 250 miles of range, and the Boulogne proudly displays its lightweight construction by forgoing paint. It also stands out from the standard Carmen thanks to copper-colored accents, new-look wheels, model-specific interior trim, and either suede or Alcantara upholstery. Finally, stylists took off the rear wheel arch covers to achieve a sportier look. The focus put on performance doesn't overlap with creature comforts, however. Every Boulogne comes standard with a six-speaker sound system, heated seats, and a Swiss clock designed by an unidentified watchmaker. There's also a 10.1-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system, and a mobile app. Hispano-Suiza plans to cap global Carmen production at 19 units, and only five of them will receive the Boulogne package, meaning it's a limited-edition version of a limited-edition car. Pricing starts at 1.6 million (about $1.8 million) before taxes and options elbow their way into the equation. Deliveries from the Barcelona, Spain, factory are scheduled to begin in 2022, and the company is inviting enthusiasts who want one to get in touch. Story continues Related Video: Click here to See Video >> A YouTuber has shared a clip from inside the deserted 2020 Geneva Motor Show as concerns over the coronavirus shut down the event. Organisers were forced to cancel the annual motoring fair after the Swiss government banned all social gatherings of over 1000 people on Friday, to prevent the spread of the disease. The show was due to open to the press on Tuesday 4 March and the wider general public from Wednesday 5 March. Handfuls of new vehicles were due to be launched at the event by all of the major car manufacturers. New cars that were set to make their debut were instead revealed online. But one YouTuber was not put off from attending the motor show in person. Vlogger and phtoographer George Williams walked around and filmed the inside of the venue as stalls were being dismantled. 'Come with me and check out the crazy 2020 (lack of) Geneva Motorshow,' he captioned his video. 'It was fascinating to have a look round and see the sad state of the stands being pulled down!' YouTuber George Williams filmed inside the deserted Palexpo exhibition centre as workers dismantled the displays Palexpo in Geneva was almost completely abandoned as no one attended the car show Organisers were forced to cancel the annual show, which was scheduled to begin on March 5, after the Swiss government banned all social gatherings of over 1000 people on Friday Deserted: The show was due to open to the press on Tuesday 4 March and the wider general public from Wednesday 5 March. Instead images from inside the venue show the dismantling of the displays was in full swing Images show the cars that were set to debut this week covered in cloth. Manufactures instead revealed their new vehicles online The unfinished exhibition centre was littered with step ladders, boxes and other items A poster is seen at the Palexpo exhibition centre as the 90th edition of the International Motor Show is cancelled to curb the spread of the coronavirus Cars and workers are pictured at the Palexpo exhibition centre as the 90th edition of the International Motor Show is cancelled Covered cars are pictured at the Palexpo exhibition centre By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Panic spread amidst employees in an IT park in Hitec City after an MNC was abruptly shut and its employees were asked to work from home and self-quarantine amidst fears that one of its employees is being tested for Covid 19. A company in building 20 sent this out a while ago to it's employees pic.twitter.com/LugZTmrKHV Donita Jose (@DonitaJose) March 4, 2020 The employees of the Dutch-based company DSM received an alert from the company that a female employee had recently travelled to Italy and developed symptoms of the coronavirus and hence precautions have to be taken by the others. While there is no official confirmation if the employee has tested positive or not, based on the seriousness of the issue, the company has asked all staffers to work from home and self-quarantine. The company is located in building 20 of the IT park and several other companies in the building are now mulling issuing work-from-home notices to their employees. It is not yet known if the DSM employee had visited her office after her Italy trip. New York, March 4 : US President Donald Trump said he is considering tightening travel restrictions as the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak continues to claim more American lives, taking the US death toll to nine and spreading across major urban areas including New York on Tuesday. The second confirmed case in New York is that of a lawyer in his 50s who had an underlying respiratory illness and is now at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in "serious condition". New infections in New York, California and Georgia have no connections to international travel and have set off alarm bells across the country. Five states - California, Washington, Texas, Nebraska and Illinois, have nearly a 100 cases just between them. Some Seattle area schools closed, many states declared emergency, public events are getting cancelled as the number of infections in the US jumped well past 100 across more than a dozen states, with 27 cases in Washington alone. World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros said today that there are now 90,893 reported cases globally and 3,110 deaths. Seattle schools have begun training staffers on the mechanics of remote lessons in case schools need to be shut down for an extended period. Almost everywhere in the US, people are on edge but answers to the simple questions are hard to come by: Is it okay to travel during spring break, are more school closures on the cards and whether corporate leaders should actually push for remote work rather than waiting for things to go downhill. "We're not going to get out of this unscathed", Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said today as the US health system scrambled to get its act together. He said, "I think that this is going to be one of those things we look back on and say, 'boy, that was bad.'" Fauci, who has been in the thick of America's response to nearly a dozen outbreaks during the reign of at least six presidents, told Trump the rapidly shrinking timeline to begin vaccine trials is a triumph in itself. Trump continued with his signature messaging, highlighting the overall "low risk", the early decisions on shutting off inbound travel from China and pinning hopes on America's drug manufacturers to deliver. "Therapeutics could happen a lot faster than the vaccine, so we're hoping for some good answers", Trump said at the National Institutes of Health today. The official line from the US health experts remains unchanged: "For the average American going about your daily life, the risk of getting coronavirus is really low." "The prevalence of fatalities have been in the elderly and those who have other forms of fragility", Alex Azar, Health and Human Services Secretary said. Fauci, who is hailed by Trump administration officials as one of the world's best infectious diseases specialists, has already cautioned that the first vaccine for coronavirus is at least 8-12 months away. Meanwhile, doctors and nurses are telling patients to double down on the basics: Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water or a hand sanitiser with at least 60 per cent alcohol, avoid touching your face, especially face, eyes, nose and mouth. Wiping surfaces with regular disinfectant is enough to kill the virus, they say. Although Trump has compared the coronavirus with the annual flu, doctors who are learning of the coronavirus symptomatic pattern point out crucial differences. The coronavirus is less about nose congestion and more about the lungs, they say. Doctors are reporting fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal problems or diarrhoea and malaise as the dominant symptoms. The Department of Health and Human Services chief said that public health labs could test up to 75,000 people by the end of this week. These numbers are way short of the US government's own initial estimates. Expedited vaccine trials are likely to begin in about two months and it would take a further three months to determine safety and efficacy which means the fastest possible time frame would still be upwards of 6-8 months before a breakthrough, according to Dr. Fauci. (Nikhila Natarajan can be contacted at @byniknat) Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, fighting his extradition to India on charges over the nearly USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case, has filed another plea for bail to be heard by the High Court in London on Thursday. The 49-year-old, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March last year and is scheduled for an extradition trial in May, is making his fifth attempt at getting bail on the basis of a change in circumstances. However, he had already appealed to the High Court last year and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, said it will be arguing that the latest application should be heard at Westminster Magistrates' Court level. "We think it should be heard at Westminster Magistrates' Court and will be making that point," a CPS spokesperson said. "The bail application is regarding a change of circumstances. Modi has increased the security and offered more stringent bail conditions than last time," the spokesperson said. Last week, Modi appeared via videolink from his prison before Judge David Robinson at the Westminster Magistrates' Court for his routine 28-day call-over remand hearing and was remanded in custody to appear again via videolink on March 24. He has made three previous attempts for bail at the magistrates' court offering 2 million pounds and then doubling that to 4 million pounds as security, rejected each time over fears that he would flee the country and fail to surrender before the court. Meanwhile, the Royal Courts of Justice in London will hear his latest bail application and consider if there has been a substantial change in circumstances since the previous appeal before the same court in June last year. During the last High Court bail plea, Justice Ingrid Simler had concurred with Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot to conclude that there are "substantial grounds to believe that the diamond merchant would fail to surrender as he does possess the means to abscond. She had also found strong evidence to suggest there had been interference with witnesses and destruction of evidence in the case and concluded it can still occur. There are still places in the world one can escape to, which are an even safer haven from the Indian investigating authorities, she said, countering Modi's lawyers' assertion that he did not have any incentive to flee the UK as he sees it as a safe haven of justice. During the previous bail hearings, Modi's legal team has highlighted the unliveable circumstances of his prison and also raised concerns for his mental health. Judge Arbuthnot presided over the last application in November last year, when his legal team had offered the court an unprecedented bail package, including house arrest conditions akin to those imposed on terrorist suspects, just so he could be out of what is one of England's most overcrowded prisons. James Lewis, appearing for the CPS, had challenged the bail application on the grounds that there had been no material change in circumstances from the previous occasions and stressed that Modi continued to possess the means and intention to flee the UK. "He has said he will kill himself if his extradition is ordered, that in itself is the strongest motivation for someone to abscond, noted Lewis. Modi's barrister, Hugo Keith, had argued a change in circumstances in the doubling of the security offered to the court, from the previous 2-million pounds to 4-million pounds, and also a privately-paid guard service to ensure constant monitoring alongside electronic tagging. Besides his client's mental state in Wandsworth Prison, he informed the court of an extortion attack when two inmates entered his cell and kicked him to the floor and punched him in the face. "It is obvious that it was a targeted attack following renewed media coverage recently in which Modi is wrongly referred to as a billionaire diamantaire," said Keith, accusing the Indian government of having thoroughly blackened Modi's name as a world-class schemer. He argued at length about the diamond merchant's difficulties in preparing for his case from inside prison, where he is locked up isolated and vulnerable in a cell 22 hours a day. The judge had offered to intervene with a direction to the prison authorities to allow him access to a computer in order for him to effectively prepare his defence in the case. Modi was arrested on March 19, 2019, on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government. During subsequent hearings, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told that Modi was the "principal beneficiary" of the fraudulent issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) as part of a conspiracy to defraud PNB and then laundering the proceeds of crime. His extradition trial is scheduled between May 11 and 15 this year. Meanwhile, he has been appearing regularly via videolink before the magistrates' court every 28 days until the case management hearings in the case kick in. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Ricas presidency has been rocked by federal investigators search of presidential offices and four high-level resignations, including President Carlos Alvarados mentor and right-hand man on Wednesday. At issue is a data analysis unit set up within executive offices that for the past 1 1/2 years has compiled and analyzed private personal data collected from various government entities, ostensibly to aid in shaping public policies. The problem was that the Presidential Unit of Data Analysis had no legal foundation until the government published a Feb. 19 decree creating it and authorizing it to request confidential personal data from other government entities. There was a public outcry and last week the Attorney Generals Office announced that it had opened an investigation into Alvarado and seven officials over alleged misuse of Costa Ricans personal data. It raided the presidential offices an unprecedented move in Costa Rica the planning ministry and the homes of four officials. The government repealed the decree, but the furor continued. The Attorney Generals Office said that Alvarado and others were under investigation for violation of personal data and abuse of authority. It said the unit had ordered the request of citizens personal and sensitive data from different institutions and its believed that Alvarado knew about this. Alvarado said last week that he recognized mistakes. There was at least an error, a political clumsiness, because thats what it is, he said. On Wednesday, the scandal claimed Alvarados top ally, presidential minister Victor Morales Mora. Morales, who is the key link between Alvarado and the legislative assembly, resigned after being grilled by that body over the creation of the data unit. Morales said lawmakers were considering his censure and the situation had made it impossible for him to continue in his job. The Legislative Assembly approved and established an investigative committee for those same events, to which I have been called (to appear) and to which I will give the necessary collaboration, Morales said. He said he would return to the seat in the Legislative Assembly that he had occupied before joining Alvarados government last year. Morales exit followed the resignations of Alvarados legal adviser, the vice-minister of planning and vice-minister of the treasury. No major terror attack took place in the hinterland of the country during the last three years, except a grenade attack in Amritsar in November 2018, the Home Ministry informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Jammu and Kashmir reported over 1,500 terror incidents during the period, it said. The grenade attack in Amritsar took place at a prayer hall in Adliwal village on November 18, 2018, wherein three persons were killed, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said. "As per available information, the involvement of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) has come to notice in this incident. The Punjab Police has arrested three persons involved in this attack," he said. The data presented by the minister in response to a question also showed that 1,550 terror incidents were reported in Jammu and Kashmir between 2017 and 2019 and 251 security personnel, 118 civilians and 627 terrorists were killed during the period. Reddy said terrorism is largely sponsored from across the border as Pakistan's snooping and espionage agency ISI has close links with terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen and it provides them safe havens, material support, finance and other logistics to carry out terrorist activities in India. "No major terror attack took place in the hinterland of the country during the last three years, except a grenade attack in... Amritsar, wherein three persons were killed," he said. On a question about undertrial terrorists, the minister said the data is maintained by the state governments since 'Public Order', 'Police' and 'Prison' are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. At the central government level, he said, the cases relating to terrorist acts are investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, provides for constitution of special courts, registered by the NIA, where such cases are heard on day-to-day basis and get precedence over other cases. "Accordingly, 49 courts all over India have been designated as Special NIA Courts for speedy disposal of cases relating to all accused arrested by NIA in terror cases," Reddy said. He said financial assistance is given to victims of terror attacks. The state government initially gives financial relief to the civilian victim or next of kin of victim, which is Rs 5 lakh in case of death or permanent incapacitation, and then seeks reimbursement of the expenditure from the Centre. "Apart from it, the concerned State Governments also provide assistance to the victims as per their policy," he added. Reddy said a total reimbursement of Rs 4.30 crore has been issued in fiscal years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. Hyderabad birdwatchers had the opportunity of watching the worlds fastest bird, Peregrine Falcons hunting dive. What started as a drive to clean up for safeguarding birds nesting, turned out to be a treasure trove of experience for a community of birdwatchers in the city. The Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP) a birding group in association with Animal Warriors Conservation Society (AWCS) and Deccan Birders, recently conducted a clean-up drive at Osman Sagar Lake on Sunday. While on the drive, the birdwatchers spotted the Peregrine Falcon (scientific name, Falco peregrine) from a distance of mere 20m, no less! Known as the fastest bird in the world, the peregrine can reach over 320 km/hr during its high-speed dive, which is its characteristic hunting stoop. Incidentally, its speed also makes it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. In fact, as per Wikipedia, this bird of prey has the fastest visual processing speed of any animal tested so far, with an ability to register discrete changes up to 129 Hz or cycles per second. Birdwatchers flock for the show This is not the first instance that people have spotted the peregrine at the lake, but its proximity to the birdwatchers from as close as 20 m is indeed a big deal. In fact, birdwatchers and animal photographers from Mumbai, Bengaluru and other cities in the country have been flocking to capture the peregrine at the lake. Then again, it is not only about that the proximity at which we spotted the bird, but also that some of us could capture this magnificent creature in its hunting dive. To begin with, the dive is a rare spectacle for bird watchers, but to capture it on camera is an even rarer phenomenon, explains Fawaz Syed, an HBP member. Fawaz was one of the lucky birdwatchers who could capture the fastest animal on earth on his lens. We have shot birds such as lesser kestrel, kestrel, etc., but normally, any bird gets scared and flies away when we get close to it. Surprisingly, this peregrine was unmoved, and the opportunity of clicking the peregrine from just 20m away is an experience beyond words. And that I could capture the bird in my lens will remain an experience Ill cherish for a long time, says Fawaz. Divers club While the city is home to a wide range of bird species, both residents and migrants, Osman Sagar is one of the best hotspots for birds, with over 278 species reported till today. Because of the open land adjacent to the lake and trees and bushes, winter migrant birds such as peregrine, which come from Europe, find their feeding here, explains Rajeev Khandelwal, another HBP member, who claims to have been lucky enough to witness the peregrines hunt. Peregrine is a raptor (bird of prey), which, like other such birds, is attracted by vast open lands. Peregrine typically feeds on bats, parrots, pigeons, etc. Then talking about its diving speed recorded at even 389 per hour Rajeev tells us how it is not an easy bird to click especially in city limits. Generally, birdwatchers have to travel to far-off places to click the peregrine, so also it was heaven sent that we could spot it at Osman Sagar. It is almost like a photographers trophy, says Rajeev. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images En espanol | Voters in 14 states made their picks for the Democratic presidential nominee this November. Former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner in 10 states while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won four. Throughout the election season, the Associated Press is conducting surveys of how and why voters made their choices. The following are insights from eight of the states that had Democratic primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3, as determined by AP VoteCast surveys conducted for the Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. Alabama Who won: Biden Top issues: Voters in Alabama's Democratic primary ranked health care as the most important issue facing the country, well above climate change, the economy, race relations, foreign policy and many other social issues. Key statistic: Support for Sanders from young voters under 30 was comparable to their support for Biden, a notable difference from most other states. Among voters age 45 and older, Biden had a significant advantage, about 7 in 10. About 1 in 10 of those age 45 and older went for Sanders and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race Wednesday, a day after Super Tuesday. California Who won: Sanders Top issues: Health care and climate change were the top two issues for people who voted in the California Democratic primaries. Key statistic: Sanders continued to show strength among young voters, especially those under 30. Six in 10 of them supported the 78-year-old senator. Unlike in other states, Biden had only a slight lead among voters age 45 and older in California. About 3 in 10 supported Biden, while Sanders and Bloomberg each received support from about 2 in 10 voters. Colorado Who won: Sanders Top issues: Voters in Colorado's Democratic primary ranked health care and climate change as the most important issues facing the country, well above the economy, race relations, foreign policy and many other social issues. Key statistic: Close to half of voters under 45 supported Sanders, while older voters divvied up their support among several candidates. Bloomberg and Biden each received support from about a quarter of voters age 45 and older. Sanders received support from about 2 in 10 voters, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren received support from about 1 in 10. Massachusetts Who won: Biden Top issues: Voters in Massachusetts ranked both health care and climate change as the most important issues facing the country. Key statistic: Women in Massachusetts gave a clear advantage to Biden over Sanders and Warren, the home-state candidate and the only major female candidate left in the race. Men were about as likely to support Sanders as they were Biden. Minnesota Who won: Biden Top issues: Minnesota voters were closely divided over whether they wanted a candidate who would bring fundamental change to Washington or one who would restore the political system to how it was before 2016. Key statistic: About half of Democratic primary voters in Minnesota say they made up their minds just days before casting their ballots, likely a result of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar's departure from the race. Biden was aided significantly, with more than half of those voters supporting his candidacy. North Carolina Who won: Biden Top issues: Roughly 4 in 10 voters in North Carolina said health care was the most important issue, followed by climate change and the economy. Key statistic: About half of voters age 45 and older supported Biden, with close to 2 in 10 voting for Mike Bloomberg and 1 in 10 voting for Sanders. Sanders continued to show strength among young voters, especially those under 30. About half of them supported the Vermont senator. Texas Who won: Biden Top issue: Voters in the Democratic primary in Texas had health care on their minds, with close to 4 in 10 saying it was the most important issue facing the country. Key statistic: While Sanders continued to dominate voters under 30, Biden's edge over Sanders with older voters was cut somewhat by Bloomberg. About 40 percent of voters age 45 and older supported Biden, with roughly another quarter supporting Bloomberg and close to 20 percent voting for Sanders. Virginia Who won: Biden Top issues: About a third of Virginia voters named health care as the top issue. Roughly 2 in 10 each had climate change and the economy on their minds. Key statistic: Younger voters in Virginia were behind Bernie Sanders. About half of those under 30 supported the Vermont senator. But Biden won about two-thirds of voters age 45 and older, the majority of voters in the state. Saskatchewan's exports declined three per cent over last year, but the news is not all doom and gloom. Jeremy Harrison, minister of trade and export development, said much of the decline is attributed to a 32 per cent decline in trade with China, but that exports to other countries are thriving. "We continued to maintain $30 billion in exports around the world," Harrison said on Tuesday. "[We've seen] significant increases in a number of countries like Bangladesh, like India, like others where we have been actively engaged." Harrison said Saskatchewan has diversified its trading relationship with other countries and that will benefit the province in the future once Chinese markets reopen. He noted much of the decline in provincial exports to China is driven by a drop in canola sales. He said sanctions, imposed on Canada by China following the arrest and refusal to release Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou by police in Canada, are behind the decrease in canola sales and are having "disproportionate impacts" on Saskatchewan's exports. Harrison said he's not in a position to comment on how the federal government has handled that file. Measures taken to protect employee in China The province operates a trade office out of Shanghai. Given concerns about COVID-19, otherwise known as the coronavirus, Harrison said that employee has been working from home for "many weeks." "We are taking this very seriously. We want to ensure our officials aren't put into any adverse circumstance," Harrison said. In terms of planned trade or export missions abroad, he said the province is looking at travelling to Vietnam and Indonesia in the summer and those plans haven't been put on hold. "It's still preliminary and there are always changes in what these [missions] look like," Harrison said. "But as of right now, we're planning on it." ST. JOSEPH, MI A Boys and Girls Club site leader at St. Joseph High School allegedly assaulted a St. Joseph High School student at the end of the day at the school, according to the Berrien County Prosecutors Office. Chris Glisson, 51, of Coloma, was having a conversation on Thursday, Feb. 20, with Steven Meridy, Jr., 18 of Benton Harbor, when, as witnesses and video suggest, Glisson allegedly went after Meridy, putting his hands around Meridys throat, according to a news release from Berrien County Prosecutor Michael Sepic. Interviews reveal that Meridy and Glissons daughter, both students at St. Joseph High School, dated and recently broke up, the news release states. Glisson has been charged with assault by strangulation, a 10-year felony. At his arraignment on Wednesday, March 4, his bond was set at $5,000.00/10%. A preliminary exam conference was set for March 13 with a preliminary exam hearing set for March 19, both at 8:30 a.m., Sepic said. A Portlaoise man has been further remanded in custody charged in connection with a burglary in which an 85-year-old man was slashed across the face in his bed. PJ OShea (27), 20 OMoore Place, Portlaoise, is charged with aggravated burglary, and assault causing harm, at St Brigids Place, Portlaoise, on March 16, 2019. At last weeks court, Sgt JJ Kirby said the book of evidence against the accused was not yet ready. The matter was adjourned to March 26 next. Evidence of the incident was given at the previous weeks court by Detective Garda JP OBrien. Det OBrien said that on March 16 last, two males broke into the home of an 85-year-old man at St Brigids Place. The two men smashed the rear window of the house and confronted the man in his bed, making demands for money. When the man fought back he was slashed to the right side of his face before the two assailants fled the house. The man got to the door and raised the alarm, before he collapsed due to the loss of blood. Det OBrien gave evidence that when he arrived at the scene he saw the blood from the deep cut the man had suffered. He said there was a lot of blood in the bedroom. Det OBrien said the injured party was now in a retirement home, where he will stay until the end of his life. Detective Garda JP OBrien gave evidence that when charged, the accused replied: I didnt do it. Defence, Mr Philip Meagher said the accused had made no admissions to the charges against him. English French CHALK RIVER, Ontario, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canadas premier nuclear science and technology organization, is pleased to announce that it has developed an Action Plan under its existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), a nuclear services technology provider owned and operated by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK). Designed to foster collaboration in research areas that include clean energy, medical isotopes, waste management and decommissioning, the Action Plan was established to address shared opportunities and challenges between Canada and the United Kingdom related to climate change, public health and environment stewardship, among others. Under the Action Plan, CNL and NNL will work in partnership to explore and pursue joint research projects and studies, information exchange workshops and other resource and knowledge-sharing opportunities. In particular, both parties have identified research related to advance nuclear reactor fuel, targeted alpha therapy and medical isotope production, and environmental remediation practices and technologies as key areas that the laboratories intend to pursue in partnership. Canada and the United Kingdom have a long history of working together to tackle some of the worlds most pressing challenges through nuclear science and technology, commented Mark Lesinski, CNLs President and CEO. But we still have a lot to learn from one another, and I am thrilled that this tradition of collaboration will continue through this agreement. The Action Plan will allow CNL and NNL to share expertise, facilities, equipment and other resources to achieve key public policy goals in Canada and the UK, including the development of new technologies to better protect the environment, fight climate change and treat many difficult forms of cancer. Collaborative working is an essential part of how NNL operates and succeeds, commented Paul Howarth, NNLs Chief Executive Officer. The MOU between CNL and NNL has been an excellent way of opening links between our two organisations. However, this Action Plan takes us a big step further forward and means that we will now begin to see outputs from our collaboration which will benefit both the UK and Canada. As Canadas national nuclear laboratory, CNLs Chalk River Laboratories campus is home to a number of facilities and nuclear services ranging from research and development, design and engineering to specialized technology, waste management and decommissioning. Among the many activities being carried out at the site, CNL is currently working to demonstrate the commercial viability of small modular reactors (SMR), with the goal of siting Canadas first SMR by 2026; to advance the availability and scientific understanding of actinium-225, a rare medical isotope that has shown great promise as the basis for new, cutting-edge cancer therapies; and to address the Government of Canadas nuclear legacy liabilities through the planning and execution of a number of major decommissioning and environmental remediation projects. Whether its the development of next-generation nuclear reactors or the production and processing of medical isotopes to fight cancer, CNLs research activities intersect quite closely with the work being carried out by NNL, added Lesinski. With that in mind, it is clearly in the best interest of both organisations to carry out this research in concert with one another, and Im confident this fruitful relationship will continue for years to come. The announcement builds on the strong record of collaboration between Canada and the UK that dates all the way back to the 1940s, when both countries established a laboratory in Montreal to jointly begin research into the creation of controlled nuclear power. CNL previously signed an MOU with NNL in 2016 to collaborate on a variety of projects in reactor metallurgy, fuel development, waste management and medical radioisotopes. Most recently, CNL also signed an MOU with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) at the Canada-UK Energy Summit in 2018. For more information on CNL, please visit www.cnl.ca . For further information on NNL, please visit www.nnl.co.uk . About CNL Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a world leader in nuclear science and technology offering unique capabilities and solutions across a wide range of industries. Actively involved with industry-driven research and development in nuclear, transportation, clean technology, energy, defence, security and life sciences, we provide solutions to keep these sectors competitive internationally. With ongoing investments in new facilities and a focused mandate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is well positioned for the future. A new performance standard reinforced with a strong safety culture underscores every activity. For more information on the complete range of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories services, please visit www.cnl.ca or contact communications@cnl.ca . Contact: Patrick Quinn Director, Corporate Communications CNL, 1-866-886-2325 "The weight of all that colonialism is heavy." The Imperial State Crown fitted with the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, is one heavy affair. So much so that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in a 2018 BBC documentary, revealed that the hefty crown comes with its own set of disadvantages. Why wouldn't it? The Crown is fitted with 2868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, and 269 pearls after all. Opening up about the ungodly weight of her crown in her 65th-year reign in 2018, the monarch was quoted by Mirror as saying, "You can't look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did, your neck would break - it would fall off." While one would only sympathise with the then 91-year-old Queen's "humble" revelation, Twitter wasn't in a mood to let it go. Return the jewels to make the crown lighter, netizens snided in unison. Our ancestral diamonds no more enjoyable I see Hofisi (@CliffordHofisi) March 2, 2020 Stolen property does that #OurLand (@PNMaster_) March 2, 2020 Her crown is made with our precious minerals stolen from South Africa. #MyContinent (@MelusiTweets) March 2, 2020 When is she returning our South African diamonds? Babes kaKendrick (@MsPuleng) March 2, 2020 Prove it Balenciaga Balaclava (@Devon_OnEarth) March 2, 2020 Return the stolen diamonds then. Problem solved! Godfrey Albertyn (@galbertyn) March 2, 2020 She should return the jewels to Africa, the crown would feel lighter then. They think that Im Tom Cruise // RIP KOBE (@b_timbs) March 2, 2020 As the never-ending debate around which jewel on the crown belongs to whom, it's worth noting that 105.6 carats Koh-i-Noor diamond was "taken away by the British", according to an ASI reply in 2018. As per the records, the Lahore Treaty held between Lord Dalhousie and Maharaja Duleep Singh in 1849, the Kohinoor diamond was surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England," the ASI reply read. The treaty clearly indicates that the Kohinoor was not handed over to the British on the wishes of Duleep Singh. Besides, Singh was barely nine-years-old when the treaty was signed. 'Health Minister Simon Harris has admitted officials were wrong to classify a HSE-issued letter about the case as a fake.' Photo: PA Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer during a media update at the Department of Health on the confirmed case of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) in Ireland. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins MAJOR questions have emerged over the handling of the first person to be found to have the coronavirus in the Republic after it was claimed he was at band practice in a community hall shortly before the positive test was announced. Anyone suspected of having the virus sweeping the world must be in self-isolation until their test result gives the all-clear. But the case of a school student who tested positive after a trip to Italy was thrown into confusion when a leaked HSE letter said the person was at band practice between 6-8pm on Saturday. Read More Under HSE safety guidelines anyone suspected of having the virus needs to be placed in immediate self-isolation with little or no physical contact with other people until the test, which can take several hours to be analysed, is clear. The Department of Health announced the first confirmed case, a male from the east of the country, shortly before 9pm on Saturday. Public health doctors, as per protocol, would advise the suspect case about the need to isolate themselves from others in their homes and observe strict guidelines on the sharing of any cutlery or bathroom facilities. The issue came to light yesterday after a letter from the HSE to the parents of teenagers in a local band, of which the student was a member, was leaked stating the other band members needed to go into self-isolation. The letter was written on Monday, although the student had been confirmed as having the virus on Saturday night, leading to a two-week closure of his school and an instruction to staff and pupils to restrict their movements. When contacted and asked if the hall had been disinfected or cleaned thoroughly, a representative of the centre said "we have been advised not to speak to the media, to refer everything back to the HSE." On its Twitter page the department said we are aware of fake letter circulating regarding the confirmed case of Covid-19. But after the letter was proven to be true, the tweet was deleted. While the letter was later confirmed as being genuine by the HSE, a spokesman refused to respond to further queries. The communications blunder between the HSE and the Department of Health has raised concerns about weaknesses in the national action plan to combat the spread of the virus at a time when clusters of the disease are being forecast. There were also questions being asked last night about how soon the community hall where the band practice took place was used after practice. It is understood it was used for activities involving older people yesterday morning. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the virus can potentially survive in the environment for several days. It warns premises and areas potentially contaminated should be cleaned before re-use, using products containing antimicrobial agents known to the effective against coronaviruses. Cleaning should be performed using proper personal protective equipment. The HSE and Department of Health yesterday declined to say if these precautions were observed. A spokesperson for the HSE said "HSE and the Department of Health are not providing information about individual activations of preparedness plans or about individual cases of Covid-19 other than confirmed cases." A spokesperson for the Department of Health separately said however that the hall would be safe to occupy after a number of hours "the virus may only survive a few hours if someone who has it coughs or sneezes on a surface. Simple household disinfectants can kill the virus on surfaces and guidance is to clean the surface first and then use a disinfectant.." They said that they will advise on the time necessary to leave an enclosed area where a person with a known case of Covid-19 had been "on a case by case basis". Another spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "If somebody is diagnosed with having the Covid-19 the HSE will contact anyone that they deem relevant to advise them. "What I understand about the virus is that it is droplet-borne so it's not air or saliva. If you sneeze on the bus it doesn't go all over the place. If you cough or sneeze the droplets will go a metre or two metres and then they drop and land on something and if you wipe your hand on that and rub it all over your face then you have a good chance of getting the virus. "But if you coughed or sneezed on the floor and walked away, within a couple of hours that virus will have died." Arthotels.co.jp scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 2 Jul 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the arthotels homepage on Twitter + the total number of arthotels followers (if arthotels has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the arthotels homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the arthotels homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if arthotels has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the arthotels homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the arthotels homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE ART HOTELS DESCRIPTION 3GET KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS art hotels, hotels, The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE SHIFT_JIS DETECTED LANGUAGE Japanese Japanese SERVER Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) (PleskLin) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) The language of arthotels.co.jp as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for arthotels.co.jp by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The type of Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND LOS ANGELES The mother of a man who carried out a 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, will plead guilty to destroying a map that was thought to have been drawn by her son to plan the shooting that killed 14 people, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Rafia Sultana Shareef, 66, who is also known as Rafia Farook, will plead guilty to alteration, destruction and mutilation of records, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said in a statement. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, but the plea deal says prosecutors will recommend a sentence of no more than 18 months. Image: Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik Shareef's son, Syed Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, 2015, in what authorities have said was a terrorist attack. They were killed in a firefight with police. Shareef admitted that on the day of the mass shooting, she had told family members that she believed her son and daughter-in-law were responsible, according to the plea agreement. Before she left the home she shared with them in Redlands, she went to her son's bedroom and fed what appeared to be a map into a shredder, prosecutors said. "Shareef admitted that she knew her son had produced the document, and she believed it was directly related to his planning of the IRC attack," prosecutors said in Tuesday's statement. She shredded the document to impede the investigation, the plea agreement says. Prosecutors noted in the document that they have not alleged that Shareef had prior knowledge of the attack. Shareef is scheduled to make an initial appearance in court March 16, the U.S. attorney's office said. The plea agreement also requires her to cooperate fully with investigators. When Syed Farook left the home with his wife around 8 a.m. on the day of the attack, he told his mother that they were going to a medical appointment. Instead, they went to the Inland Regional Center and opened fire with what prosecutors have described as high-powered firearms. Story continues Another criminal case is associated with the mass shooting, involving a different person. A man described as a friend of Syed Farook's, Enrique Marquez Jr., was indicted in 2015 on charges that included that he supplied the guns used in the attack. He is alleged to have acted as a "straw buyer" to get two rifles, prosecutors have said. Nothing in the criminal case alleged that he knew about the attack. Marquez was to have pleaded guilty in 2017 to two counts, but online court records, some of which are sealed, indicate that last year he moved to withdraw a guilty plea on one of the counts. Two persons including a special police officer (SPO) were killed on Wednesday in a militant attack in Sopore area of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, officials said. The militants opened fire on a police party at Warpora in Sopore area this evening, resulting in injuries to SPOs Wajahat Ahmad and Showkat Khandey and a civilian, the officials said. The injured persons were taken to a hospital where Wajahat and civilian Umar Subhan Wagay were declared dead, they said. Security forces have cordoned off the area to track down the assailants, the officials added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) Malacanang has lifted the suspension of negotiations for financial assistance from states that called for a United Nations probe into the bloody war on drugs. A memorandum dated February 27 and released on Wednesday ordered all department secretaries, and heads of agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations and state financial institutions to resume talks for signing loan and grant agreements with countries that voted for or co-sponsored Iceland's resolution urging the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into the killings and other alleged human rights abuses in the Philippines. The memorandum, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea "by order of the President" is "effective immediately." "It is understood, however, that all necessary approvals, authorities and clearances, as required by relevant laws, rules, and regulations, should first be obtained prior to actual negotiations and conclusion of any agreement with the covered foreign governments," the order read. On July 11, 2019, 17 member states of the UN Human Rights Council voted to adopt Iceland's resolution calling for an investigation into the Philippines' drug war. They are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, UK, and Uruguay. Fourteen other nations, including the Philippines and China, voted against the conduct of a probe. The remaining 15 abstained. President Rodrigo Duterte's administration has condemned the impending investigation, even arguing that it failed to get a majority vote from the 47-member-strong Human Rights Council. Duterte also repeatedly lashed out at Iceland and maintained that the Philippines will not allow UN investigators in the country. READ: Duterte 'seriously considering' cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland On August 27, 2019, Malacanang issued an order stopping all negotiations for aid from Iceland and the 17 other states supportive of the UN probe. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo initially denied the existence of the controversial order but the Bureau of Customs later published a copy of the memorandum on its website. Foreign Affairs Secretary Tedoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin, Jr. said stopping the aid talks was a "good idea," claiming the Philippines has "more than enough." Under the resolution, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet will conduct a "comprehensive" review of the Philippines' human rights situation and present the results in June 2020, during the body's 44th regular session. READ: What to expect from UN's review of Philippine drug war The tough-talking President has in the past repeatedly lashed out at the UN and human rights groups for criticisms on his drug war, which according to government data has left around 6,000 suspects dead in police operations. Local and international human rights groups say the anti-drug campaign has resulted in thousands more extrajudicial killings, a claim the government has denied. The killings are also being examined by the International Criminal Court, an international tribunal which could have Duterte and his officials prosecuted and jailed. Duterte has threatened to arrest ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and her investigators if they set foot in the country, claiming they have no jurisdiction over the Philippines. European Union vessels will see their access to UK fishing grounds reduced and there is no prospect of using the industry as a bargaining chip in trade talks, George Eustice said. The Environment Secretary said the UK had a strong hand and claimed that Germany and other EU countries without a strong interest in access to British waters would prevent France from derailing trade talks over the issue. He confirmed that the Government had increased its fleet of patrol vessels to monitor UK waters and officials played down the impact of a possible blockade of French ports by the countrys trawlers if they saw their access to British fishing grounds restricted. Mr Eustice said the UK was seeking an arrangement with the EU similar to Norways, with annual negotiations based on the scientific evidence on fish stocks, but possibly a multi-year framework on access. But if no deal could be reached by the end of June, the deadline set out as part of the Brexit divorce deal, then the UK will rely on its automatic status as an independent coastal state from January 1, 2021 to determine access arrangements. Mr Eustice said he was optimistic about reaching a partnership agreement. But he told a Lords committee: If it were the case that a partnership agreement couldnt be concluded by July then it would be, under international law, the case in any event that we would become an independent coastal state and we would automatically take back control of our exclusive economic zone and that there would be an obligation on both us and the European Union to work towards a sensible annual negotiation at the end of this year. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he wants to ensure that British fishing grounds are first and foremost for British boats. Mr Eustice said: There will be some reduction in access, not least in the six-12 mile zone. But its too early to say what access we would grant. Story continues French minister for Europe Amelie de Montchalin (Brian Lawless/PA) Frances Europe minister Amelie de Montchalin has insisted that fishing rights are linked to the possibility of a trade deal and warned that negotiations could turn into a very nasty battle. Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier has also said there cannot be a deal without an agreement on fishing rights. But Mr Eustice told peers: There really isnt a precedent of linking a trade deal in the round with sacrificing or forfeiting your right as an independent coastal state. He claimed that manufacturing interests in Germany and Italy would prevent the issue becoming a stumbling block to the wider trade deal. The member states that are are quite dependent on access to our waters are France the Normandy fleet has quite a lot of access Ireland, to a lesser extent the Netherlands and Belgium. After that, there are many, many other member states who dont have access to our waters or our stocks. It would be quite a big ask for countries like Italy and Germany, who dont really benefit from access to UK waters, to say we are actually going to jeopardise a trade deal on all those important industrial goods that they do seek access to the UK market for. Im not sure its sustainable for the EU to hold to the position that some member states have been articulating. Mr Eustice said the UK had significantly increased its enforcement capabilities to monitor fishing access, with three new Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels and a decision not to decommission old ones, extra private sector vessels and an aerial surveillance contract. There are concerns that ports on the French coast including Boulogne and Calais could be the site of protests aimed at preventing UK vessels landing their catches to access the EUs markets if they are unable to fish in British waters. Neil Hornby, the marine and fisheries director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, acknowledged the risk of blockades. If there were to be blockades of ports in France, the French authorities would be expected to deal with that, be that Calais or Boulogne or others, he said. Former diplomat Lord Kerr suggested that if there was a trade deadlock, the French authorities might not be devoting tremendous political effort to clearing the port. Mr Hornby said for British vessels access to Boulogne was not something they completely rely on and they could head elsewhere, including UK ports. But if there were problems at Calais the main port for cross-Channel trade I dont think the French authorities would be wanting to see that happen either. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks with politicians and business owners in a round table discussion on raising the minimum wage at Casa Don Juan restaurant in Las Vegas, October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Barack Obama has yet to endorse any of the Democratic candidates including his former vice president, Joe Biden. But on Super Tuesday, many of his top administration officials endorsed Biden. The endorsements come from Obama's former chief of staff Denis McDonough, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice. The establishment wing of the Democratic Party has begun to consolidate around Biden after he surged to a resounding victory in South Carolina in an attempt to back a moderate candidate against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is leading the delegate count. It is unclear how the endorsements will affect the vote on Super Tuesday, when millions of early votes have already been cast. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Barack Obama has conspicuously declined to endorse candidates during the 2020 Democratic primary, but on Tuesday several of his top advisors publicly endorsed his vice president, Joe Biden. The endorsements came from members of Obama's cabinet and senior staff, and followed a consolidation of the Democratic Party establishment behind Biden after he rallied to victory in South Carolina. The endorsements came one after the other as millions of Democrats headed to the polls in 14 states and American Samoa on Super Tuesday. In an op-ed published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Obama's former chief of staff Denis McDonough said that during his time working with Biden, "he demonstrated not just why the president trusted him to take on tough assignments but why he will be an excellent president." Obama's former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced his endorsement on CNN. "Joe Biden is not only a good friend but he's a man I have admired for many, many years," Hagel said. "I don't know of a more experienced, better person, a more decent person in politics." Story continues "I voted today for Joe Biden," former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power tweeted as part of a long thread explaining her decision. On Monday, Obama's national security advisor and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice posted a picture of her and Biden in an embrace after her mother passed away in 2017. "There is no one kinder, more empathetic and caring than @joebiden," she wrote. Biden struggled to build momentum after disappointing finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. But his overwhelming victory in South Carolina breathed new life into his campaign and forced his main moderate rivals, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, to drop out and endorse him. He now heads into Super Tuesday with a wave of establishment support at his back, but it is yet unclear how this will impact his performance tonight. Millions of people had already voted before Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and investor Tom Steyer dropped out this weekend, and in some states, those votes are irreversible, the Associated Press reported. Read more: Here are the most important people who threw their support behind former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of Super Tuesday Read the original article on Business Insider Boris Johnson has been accused by Labours Angela Rayner of lying about shaking hands with coronavirus patients. The prime minister was asked on Tuesday whether he had stopped shaking hands with people in an effort to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19. He told reporters: "I am shaking hands. I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were coronavirus patients and I was shaking hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. "People must make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing." Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale, north London. (PA) Labour's Angela Rayner accused Mr Johnson of lying. (Angela Rayner/Facebook) See latest coronavirus news and updates Angela Rayner, the favourite to win Labours deputy leadership contest next month, jumped on the prime ministers comments, accusing him of lying about shaking hands with patients. She wrote on Facebook: Boris Johnson visited Kettering General Hospital and there are NO Coronavirus cases there, but he said he shook hands with patients who had #Coronavirus. Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner at a Labour Party deputy leadership hustings in Durham in February. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Read more: UK will see deaths from coronavirus, chief medical officer warns Stop it now, you were absent when floods devastated communities, now daft #coronavirus stories, go back to hiding in fridges! A Number 10 spokesperson would not comment specifically on Angela Rayners comments but told Yahoo News UK: The PM visited a hospital where there were coronavirus patients being treated and he met staff who were treating them. Read more: Italy could have more than 100,000 coronavirus cases, expert warns Elsewhere in the world, people are rejecting handshakes and refusing kisses in an attempt to reduce the spread of the disease. A video has been widely shared showing people in China tapping their feet against one another dubbed the "Wuhan Shake" as a hands-free greeting. The prime minister said he was still shaking people's hands. (Getty) Prime ministers usually have an audience with the Queen each Wednesday where they typically shake the monarch's hand. Read more: 11 myths and conspiracy theories around coronavirus debunked Johnson is also due to host a reception in Downing Street later this week. Earlier, health secretary Matt Hancock said scientific advice suggests "the impact of shaking hands is negligible and what really matters is that you wash your hands more often". Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 4 claimed that foreign powers were attempting to spread fake news about coronavirus. According to reports, Putin claimed that fake news reports were being spread in order to create panic in Russia. Putin also urged government officials to ensure that citizens were correctly informed and that undue panic was not created. Taking preventive measures As a measure to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Russia has closed all entry points along its 4,200-kilometre borders with China and has also banned Chinese Citizens from entering the country. Russia previously had reported its first two cases of the coronavirus and reports indicated that they were both Chinese citizens that have since recovered. Read: Taiwan Claims China Waging Cyber 'war' Against To Disrupt Fight Against Coronavirus Read: Borussia Dortmund Agree Deal With Manchester United Target Jude Bellingham: Report The first three Russians to have been infected by the coronavirus were aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess that was quarantined in Japan. As per reports, Russia has also banned the export of certain types of products such as medical masks, gloves, bandages and protective suits. Taiwan accuses China Joseph Wu, Taiwan's foreign minister, on February 29 accused China of reportedly waging a cyber 'war' on Taiwan in order to disrupt its fight against the Coronavirus. The minister has accused Beijing of using fake news to spread disinformation on the island that China claims as its own. Read: Trump Re-election Campaign Sues US Daily Over 2019 Opinion Piece On Russia Read: Mexican Accused By US As Russian Agent Pleads Not Guilty According to reports, the recent Coronavirus outbreak has put pressure on already strained ties between Taipei and Beijing. Recently Beijing had blocked Taiwan's attempts at participating at the World Health Organisation (WHO) which has further deteriorated ties between the two nations. According to reports, the fake news include things like claims that Taiwan is hiding the true number of infected people on the island and that it is much more than the official figure and that the members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party have received a priority on face masks. The Taiwanese government was quick to refute these claims made by what they say is fake news. Greece says only 1,500 migrants at most have entered since Friday, while 26,000 have been stopped. Ankara says more than 130,000 have left since opening its border with Bulgaria and Greece last Friday. The Greek government says only 1,500 have crossed over illegally and 26,000 have been stopped. Desperation and despair have been growing, and refugees and migrants are taking increasing risks to reach and cross the Greek border. Al Jazeeras Natasha Ghoneim has this exclusive report. Authorities have charged a 27-year-old Friendswood woman with possession of a controlled substance after reporting that on Feb. 20 she was found in possession of 1.5 grams of heroin and a bottle of the anesthetic Xylocaine, according to documents from the citys police department. An undercover officer who knew Marah Elizabeth Barthelmess had an outstanding felony warrant for possession of a controlled substance in Brazoria County reportedly saw her leave a residence and get into a vehicle in the 500 block of Brandywyne Drive, police said. An officer in a marked Friendswood police unit stopped Barthelmess, confirmed her identity and took her into custody, according to the report. Asked if she was in possession of anything illegal, the suspect admitted stuffing heroin between the vehicles seat and console, the report said. The suspect also was found in possession of a bottle of Xylocaine and a marijuana grinder, police said. Bond for Barthelmess was set at $30,000. Narcotics Police charged a Houston man, 24, with marijuana possession after a Feb. 22 traffic stop for speeding in the 200 block of East Parkwood Avenue. The officer reportedly found marijuana, a digital scale, a grinder, a butane lighter, more than 100 small bags and a bong during a vehicle search. Bond was set at $20,000, police said. Burglary A resident in the 200 block of Dover Lane returned from an trip to find belongings missing from his home, according to a Feb. 17 police report. The victim believes entry into the home was gained through an unlocked window, police said. A contractor arrived for work Feb. 18 at the newly constructed Blue Wave Car Wash in the 300 block of West Parkwood Avenue and found the business back bay door open and his equipment and tools missing, police said. A second contractor reported the theft of 52 spools of copper wire, according to police documents. An installed sink faucet and shower head were stolen from a home under construction in the 2400 block of Morning Ridge Lane, according to a Feb. 18 police report. A vehicles rear window was shattered in the 17000 block of Bougainvilla Lane, according to a Feb. 20 police report. Nothing was reported stolen. Cash and jewelry were reported stolen Feb. 20 at Bay Meadows Apartments, 17201 Blackhawk Blvd., police said. The tenants left the apartment at 3:30 p.m. and returned at 5 p.m. to find the front door forcefully opened, according to the report. Four vehicle burglaries were reported Feb. 22 at the Reserve at Autumn Creek Apartments, 3102 W. Bay Area Blvd., police said. Stolen items included purses, bags and change, according to the report. Theft A resident in the 300 block of Dawn Hill Drive said her son entered her home and took a computer out of her lap as well as her iPhone and iPad before leaving, according to a Feb. 18 police report. When asked to return the items, he refused, police said. A bicycle and Razor scooter were stolen Feb. 19 from Enclave Apartments, 5000 Watkins Way, police said. The theft reportedly occurred between 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. A license plate was stolen from a vehicle in the 3700 block of Townes Forest Road, according to a Feb. 22 police report. Fraud A Friendswood man discovered unauthorized transactions on his business bank statement, according to a Feb. 19 police report. The charges allegedly were from a credit card associated with another banking facility. The victim believes the suspect may be a contractor hired by his company, police said. Assault A Friendswood man was charged with assault, family violence after a reported disturbance Feb. 19 in the 16900 block of Stardale Lane, police said. He allegedly assaulted his wife. Officers arrived to find a woman with a bleeding ear, according to the report. Police charged a 15-year-old boy with assault, family violence after he allegedly sprayed his foster parent with pepper spray during an argument Feb. 23. He received an additional charge of criminal mischief after he reportedly destroyed the mounted camera inside the patrol unit during his trip to Galveston County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. Driving while intoxicated Police charged a 22-year-old Friendswood man with DWI Feb. 19 in the 100 block of East Castlewood Drive. An officer reportedly observed him swerving into the marked bike lane in the 500 block of East Parkwood Avenue. A League City man, 44, was charged with DWI Feb. 20 in the 1600 block of FM 528, police said. He allegedly exited a parking lot at a high rate of speed and failed to yield the right of way to an oncoming motorist. Police charged a Pearland man, 26, with DWI Feb. 22 in the 16100 block of Blackhawk Boulevard. He allegedly occupied two lanes and then stopped for no apparent reason. Once he began traveling again, he was clocked at 37 mph in a 20-mph zone, police said. An Alvin woman, 22, was charged with DWI after she allegedly stopped at a green light, made a turn from the incorrect lane, ran a red light and failed to stop at a designated point Feb. 22 in the 1400 block of South Friendswood Drive, police said. She reportedly drove another quarter of a mile after the officer turned on his emergency lights. Police took a Houston man, 36, into custody for DWI with a child under 15 after a traffic stop for speeding and expired registration Feb. 22 in the 300 block of South Friendswood Drive. Three children were inside the vehicle, police said. A Webster man, 36, was charged with DWI Feb. 23 in the 3200 block of FM 528, police said. He reportedly had stopped in a moving lane of traffic. Police charged a La Marque woman, 24, with DWI after a traffic stop for making a wide turn and weaving outside her lane Feb. 23 in the 200 block of West Edgewood Drive. Public intoxication Police charged a Friendswood man, 26, with public intoxication and possession of drug paraphernalia Feb. 23 in the 100 block of North Friendswood Drive. He allegedly claimed he had taken prescription pills and smoked marijuana. Marijuana was found inside his vehicle, according to the report. Weapons Police charged a Houston man, 56, with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon after a traffic stop for an illegible temporary dealer tag Feb. 18 in the 300 block of South Friendswood Drive. The driver, on probation for a felony and in possession of a pistol, opened his glove box to retrieve his insurance paperwork and exposed a pill bottle with no label, according to the report. The bottle reportedly contained two pills. The vehicle had not been inspected since March 2018, and its registration had expired in February 2019, police said. A 23-year-old Texas City man was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon after a traffic stop for a license plate violation Feb. 19 in the 3100 block of FM 528, police said. The officer reportedly observed a pistol on the floorboard during the stop and asked the driver and a passenger to exit the vehicle. The driver admitted to having narcotics in the vehicle, and a search yielded marijuana and the firearm, according to the report. Tobacco A 17-year-old Friendswood High School student was found in possession of an electronic cigarette on campus, according to a Feb. 19 police report. The student was caught skipping class and will receive a summons for municipal court, police said. Two Friendswood Junior High School students were found in possession of e-cigarettes after a school official received a tip, according to a Feb. 21 police report. The 13- and 14-year-old students will each receive a summons for municipal court, police said. Traffic A League City man, 26, was charged with driving while license invalid Feb. 18 in the 100 block of East Castlewood Drive, police said. Police charged a Richmond man, 24, with driving while license invalid and no insurance Feb. 21 in the 1200 block of West Parkwood Avenue. Police charged a 21-year-old Manvel man with failure to stop and give aid after an officer reportedly witnessed an accident involving an injury Feb. 21 in the 600 block of East Edgewood Drive. The fleeing vehicle allegedly went off the road and drove in the grass to leave the scene. The officer caught up with the vehicle and took the driver into custody in the 5300 block of FM 2351, police said. The driver did not have insurance and his drivers license and vehicle registration were expired, according to the report. A vehicle search reportedly yielded synthetic urine and marijuana shake. Meanwhile, another officer checked on the disabled vehicle, police said. The injured driver was taken to the hospital for treatment, according to the report. An Alvin man, 55, was charged with no drivers license, no insurance and possession of drug paraphernalia after a traffic stop Feb. 23 in the 400 block of East Edgewood Drive, police said. He allegedly had an open container of beer and marijuana inside his console. Other incidents A 64-year-old Waco man was charged with failure to register as a sex offender after a traffic stop for failure to signal a turn Feb. 18 in the 3000 block of West Bay Area Boulevard, police said. The addresses on his Colorado drivers license and Texas identification card reportedly did not reflect the League City address he claimed. The officer checked the mans identifiers and discovered he had not filed the change of address required of sex offenders, according to the report. Bond was set at $20,000. Twenty mailboxes were damaged along Blackhawk Boulevard between Laura Leigh Drive and Friendswood Link Road, according to a Feb. 20 police report. John Malcolm Patterson was the son of Albert Patterson, who was assassinated outside of his law office in Phenix City, Alabama shortly after he had won the Democratic nomination for Alabama Attorney General on a campaign agenda of elimination of corruption that had existed in the city for over 100 years. Born on September 27, 1921, John served in WWII enlisting in 1940 in the U.S. Army as a private. He rose through the ranks to attain the rank of Major with a Bronze Star in 1945. He graduated from law school at the University of Alabama in 1949 and joined his fathers law practice in Phenix City. Recalled to the military during the Korean Conflict in December, 1953, he later rejoined his fathers law practice. After his father was killed on June 18, 1954, John was elected State Attorney General in 1955. John Patterson campaigned for governor on three main issues in 1958. 1) The cleanup of Phenix City 2) Investigations of corruption in the second administration of governor James E. Folsom, Jr. and 3) Legal attempts to prevent desegregation Although he was a populist and attempted reform in the areas of property tax assessment and education it is in his dedicated fight against integration that he is best remembered. In that capacity, he clashed with the John F. Kennedy administration over the handling of the Freedom Riders who came to Alabama to assist in desegregation efforts. In 1958 he vigorously opposed mixing of the races and he was able to portray George C. Wallace as a moderate on the subject. After his defeat, Wallace is alleged to have stated that this will be the last time I will be out n_ _ _ _ _ _ _ in a political campaign and assumed the hard line against integration which would ultimately lead to national prominence on that single issue. Patterson won the run off with Wallace and received 55% of the vote with support of the Klu Klux Klan, organized labor and working class white votes. When he entered the Governors office, he fought hard for improving education and the revision of the property tax assessment program with limited success. After he left office he was part of the trio of himself, Ryan deGraffenried, and U.S. Senator John Sparkman that fought the Alabama Senate's passage of the successor amendment which would have allowed a Governor to serve two consecutive terms of office. This political fight affected Alabama politics for many years and led to the defeat of many Patterson supporters in the Alabama Legislature. Patterson ran for the Alabama Supreme Court in 1970 but lost to future U.S. Senator Howell Heflin of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Governor George Wallace in 1984 appointed John to the intermediate Court of Criminal Appeals where he was elected for two terms and retired in 1997. When ouster proceedings were filed against controversial Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore he was sworn in as Special Chief Justice where he presided over the court that upheld the decision of the Alabama Court of Judiciary to remove Moore from judicial office. After completing this public service he retired to his place of birth in Goldville on the family farm. In 2008 the University of Alabama Press published Gene Howards, Patterson for Alabama: The Life and Career of John Patterson. ------ Jerry Summers (If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com Elrich said that it is unlikely that Montgomery can afford to assign an officer to every school and that he is unsure whether he would want to. The county has asked the state whether the $1.4 million grant can be used for other purposes, such as to add more psychologists to public schools, he said. WASHINGTON - Voters in Texas Democratic primary ranked health care as the most important issue facing the country, well above climate change, the economy, race relations, foreign policy and many other social issues. Nearly 4 in 10 named health care, an issue that has intensely divided the field of Democratic candidates. Sixteen per cent each had climate change and the economy on their minds, according to a wide-ranging AP VoteCast survey of the Democratic primary electorate in Texas. The AP called Texas for Joe Biden. Heres a snapshot of Democratic voters in Texas who they are and how they voted based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of 3,268 voters, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. DO THEY WANT A BIG CHANGE? Somewhat more voters in Texas Democratic primary said they wanted a candidate who would bring fundamental change to Washington, rather than one who would restore the political system to how it was before Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But change in Washington doesnt look the same to everyone. About 6 in 10 said they preferred a candidate who will pursue practical, centrist policies to one pursuing bold liberal policies. WHAT ELSE VOTERS WANT Close to 9 in 10 said it was very important that a nominee be a strong leader. Roughly 8 in 10 said they considered beating Trump and caring about people like them highly important. About 7 in 10 said it was very important that a candidate have the best policy ideas and the right experience. Willingness to work across the aisle was considered very significant by about 6 in 10 voters. DIVIDED BY RACE Comparable shares of white voters in Texas -- about 30% -- supported both Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Biden. Some gave their support to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. About half of black voters in Texas supported Biden, compared with 20% for Sanders and 15% for Bloomberg. By comparison, about 4 in 10 Latino voters supported Sanders, while about a quarter went for Biden and about 2 in 10 for Bloomberg. Bloomberg dropped out of the race on Wednesday. DIVIDED BY AGE Sanders continued to show strength among young voters, especially those under 30. About two-thirds supported the 78-year-old senator. About 4 in 10 voters ages 45 and older supported Biden, with roughly another 2 in 10 each supporting Bloomberg and Sanders. LARGELY UNIFIED AGAINST TRUMP A wide majority say they will definitely vote for the Democratic candidate against Trump in the general election. Still, about a quarter say their decision will depend on which Democrat is on the ballot in November. PRIMARY PROCESS SKEPTICISM Voters are skeptical that the Democratic Partys nomination process is fair. Just about a quarter say they are very confident that the process for selecting a presidential nominee is fair. Roughly 3 in 10 have little to no confidence, while about half say they are somewhat confident. DEBATING HEALTH CARE The campaign has featured a contentious debate among candidates over the best way to tackle health care, an issue seen as the most important facing the country by roughly 4 in 10 voters. There is majority support for a government-run health care system for all Americans, with about two-thirds saying they are in favour. Roughly a third are opposed. But support for a public option, where every American could buy into a government-run insurance plan if they want to, is even higher. About 9 in 10 are in favour. About 6 in 10 voters are in favour of either proposal, while about 3 in 10 say they favour a public option but oppose a single-payer system. CLIMATE CHANGE, THE ECONOMY AND OTHER ISSUES Sixteen per cent of voters said climate change is the most important issue facing the nation. A wide majority about three-quarters expressed support for a tax on the use of carbon-based fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. Another 16% of voters called the economy the top issue. But a significant majority described the economic system in this country as unfair. That includes about one-third who said its very unfair. Small shares of voters considered race relations, immigration, gun policy or abortion most important. ___ AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey of 3,268 voters in Texas was conducted for seven days, concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from nonprobability online panels. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. I've sometimes written in these pages about what it's like to be a moderate Republican living in the fifth most progressive ZIP code in America, the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. Before I get to what happened over the weekend, I offer a brief history of some of my experiences. A few weeks after Trump's election, I was at a restaurant where a large party was celebrating the fact that one of the group members finally had the "courage" to leave her home apparently being in public in the weeks after Trump won was too frightening for her. A few days later, at a local coffee shop, a man asked that I put away my Wall Street Journal, as it apparently was too triggering for him. About a year ago, a woman sitting next to me on a train made a big show about changing seats, because she saw me posting to a pro-Trump private group on Facebook. About six months ago, a friend who lives in my neighborhood sent me a text canceling our meeting for drinks after work after he watched one of my media appearances, stating: "Until you get on the right side of history, I'm going to need to re-evaluate our friendship." (Proving the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished, I helped this "friend" find a job after he was out of work for six months.) But none of this prepared me for what happened at my gym this weekend. The gym is located in the heart of the hard-left part of the neighborhood. It's the kind of area where if you wore the hat of a relative "moderate" like Biden, Klobuchar, or Bloomberg, you'd run the risk of someone quickly denouncing you as a racist. (I cannot even imagine what would happen if I wore my MAGA hat.) In any event, the class was especially somber. The instructor asked what was up, and one young white man who looked to be in his late twenties got off his bike in tears and left the room. The instructor followed him out and then came back in and reported the man was upset about Bernie's loss in South Carolina (an entirely predictable result). Several other class participants nodded their heads in sympathy. The class went on, but at a much less energetic pace than normal. As I left the gym, I put a note in the comment card dispenser that perhaps the gym should consider hiring grief counselors. If Trump is re-elected, this may be a necessity for many businesses in my neighborhood. Josh Kantrow is a Chicago cyber-security lawyer. [March 04, 2020] care.ai Announces Partnership with the Texas Hospital Association to Accelerate the Adoption of AI-powered Autonomous Monitoring Across Texas The partnership will provide accelerated access to care.ais platform, delivering real-time awareness for better outcomes and significant cost savings, while making care more human with the power of AI ORLANDO, Fla., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- care.ai , an AI leader in healthcare, today announces a partnership with the Texas Hospital Association (THA) to create statewide adoption of artificial intelligence for autonomous monitoring. This program provides awareness to care providers about their patients, providers and business. care.ai is selectively partnering with the most innovative healthcare providers, including leading for-profit health systems, academic research institutions, and large post-acute care organizations and now, the largest Hospital Association in America, that serves as a principal advocate for more than 400 hospitals and health systems members. The partnership between care.ai and THA will accomplish two key goals: accelerate the power and effectiveness of AI to deliver more efficient and higher quality care in a cost-effective manner, as well as establish a strategic framework for collaborative learning and adoption of AI in healthcare. care.ai and THA will establish a joint innovation demonstration in Austin, Texas where care.ai will showcase its Self Aware Room in a simulated hospital environment. Members of the Texas Hospital Association will be able to see how care.ais platform can transform clinical and operational workflows. Were incredibly proud to partner with THA to demonstrate AIs powerful potential to revolutionize healthcare, said Chakri Toleti, founder and CEO of care.ai. As healthcare innovators, we are focused on bringing patients and providers closer together, making care more human. This partnership with TH will help bring that vision to life. Texas hospitals have always been trailblazers when it comes to the use and adoption of leading-edge healthcare technology, said Fernando Martinez, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association Foundation. Through this new partnership with care.ai, Texas hospitals will have the opportunity to experience the use of AI in a hands-on local lab environment. They will get to see in real time the value that autonomous monitoring can bring to their facilities. Were proud to connect our members to cutting-edge technologies that have a transformative impact on healthcare delivery in Texas. care.ais autonomous monitoring platform gives care teams an unparalleled advantage by providing real-time information about the patient, caregivers and their business. Through the use of its active learning neural networks, care.ais edge sensors can autonomously monitor for conditions where timely human care can improve outcomes and mitigate risk. The care.ai neural network algorithms are built using the worlds most extensive and proprietary human behavioral library. care.ais machine learning capabilities include first-of-its-kind AI algorithms to naturally identify strengths and expose gaps in workflows and partner with caregivers to improve accuracy, efficacy and efficiency. About care.ai care.ai is the first and only AI-powered autonomous monitoring platform focused on using the power of AI to provide breakthrough benefits to healthcare, improving outcomes and saving millions of lives every year; while making the jobs of providers more productive and fulfilling. care.ais autonomous monitoring platform powered by purpose-built AI accelerated edge sensors transform ordinary rooms into Self Aware Rooms. We are making care more human with the power of AI. care.ai , LinkedIn , Facebook , or Twitter . About THA Founded in 1930, the Texas Hospital Association is the leadership organization and principal advocate for the states hospitals and health care systems. Based in Austin, THA enhances its members abilities to improve accessibility, quality, and cost-effectiveness of health care for all Texans. One of the largest hospital associations in the country, THA represents 452 of the states non-federal general and specialty hospitals and health care systems, which employ some 369,000 health care professionals statewide. Learn more about THA at www.tha.org or follow THA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/texashospitals . Media Contact Daniel Tummeley [email protected] 888-918-0377 ext. 808 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has expressed her regret over the recent resignation of the top civil servant in her ministry, Sir Philip Rutnam, and stressed that she valued the work of all her aides in the UK Home Office. In her first response to the controversy surrounding Rutnam's shock exit over the weekend amid allegations of bullying, the Indian-origin minister addressed the Home Office staff in an email on Tuesday to stress that she deeply cared about the well being of civil servants and called on her team to come together. "We both regret Sir Philip's decision to resign. We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the wellbeing of all our staff, she said in the internal email, jointly written with Rutnam's successor Shona Dunn, who is the Acting Permanent Secretary. "It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team. We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld," read the email, quoted by the BBC. Patel sought to focus on delivering the government's priorities, including implementing a new points-based immigration system, and called on the Home Office team to help deliver that agenda. The email adds: "We have one of the most important jobs to do, keeping people safe and our country secure and delivering on the government's priorities, which were endorsed by the British people at the recent general election. "Our work continues, and our focus must be on working, in partnership with you, to deliver this agenda as the public would expect," she said. The email follows days of controversy surrounding the minister's conduct, including fresh allegations of bullying while she was an employment minister in 2015. The UK Cabinet Office has launched an inquiry to establish the facts but the Opposition has mounted pressure on the government to widen the scope of the inquiry and also demanded Patel's resignation. Rutnam had resigned with an explosive television statement about a "vicious" campaign against him and also made references to Patel allegedly shouting, swearing and belittling people in her department. He has declared that he plans to take the government to court for his unfair dismissal. Over the course of the controversy, Patel has received the backing of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who described her as a fantastic Home Secretary, who is doing one of the toughest jobs in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Were more than two decades into an era of digital feudalism. In medieval times, feudalism meant the nobility owned vast amounts of land. Serfs worked the fields to create value, most of which the landlord confiscated. Instead of farm produce, todays new asset class is data created by us, but captured by digital overlords such as social media companies, search engines, online retailers, governments and banks. Surfing the internet has become serfing the internet, with users giving up intimate details that companies expropriate, aggregate, and monetize. We plebians get a few lousy cabbages. All this data constitutes a detailed virtual you. This mirror image knows more about you than you do. You likely cannot recall personal identifiers such as your drivers licence details, credit card numbers, or government information. And you certainly cant recall your exact location a year ago, what you bought or its precise cost, what you said online, or what medication you took or diagnosis you received. This is just the beginning. Soon the virtual you could contain even more detailed medical information and myriad other real-time measures of where you are, what you are doing, how you are functioning, and even your mood. You create the virtual you, but the digital overlords seize control of it. This new feudalism causes problems. First, we cant use our data to plan our lives. Its stored in other peoples silos, which we cant access but third parties including Cambridge Analytica can, often without our knowledge. Second, we enjoy none of the rewards of this third-party data usage, yet we bear most of the risk and responsibility for its clean up, should these third parties lose or abuse our data. Finally, we cant monetize these data assets for ourselves, resulting in a bifurcation of wealth and all its discontents. What we need is a fundamental change in how we define and assign ownership of data assets and how we establish, manage, and protect our digital identities. Change those rules, and we end up changing everything. What each of us needs is a self-sovereign and inalienable digital identity, one that is neither bestowed nor revocable by any central administrator and is enforceable in any context, in-person and online, anywhere in the world. As Alex Tapscott and I argue in Blockchain Revolution, the means now exist to assert what Devon Loffreto calls sovereign source authority: Identity is not simply endowed at birth it is endowed by birth. To be masters of our identity, we first need to see the data is distributed among us and maintained by us. This means that everyones incentives align in an identity commons, with clear rights that enable citizens to protect their privacy, choose how they monetize their data, and help make the rules that govern the datas uses. Each identity is in a black box on a blockchain. It sweeps up the exhaust of all our daily transactional and information data from purchases to our biological data protecting it and enabling each of us to use it any way we want. Several identity projects in the blockchain space are working to provide such structure and capabilities. Many of these startups are collaborating in the Decentralized Identity Foundation, a consortium consisting of Hyperledger and R3, and incumbents such as Accenture, Microsoft, and IBM. The best solution should exist independent of any corporation, government, or other third parties, and not exposed to abuse by corporations or political parties. It must interoperate with these institutions, even as it outlasts them. Citizens should be able to enforce their right to be forgotten. Organizations must take at least three actions to rebuild the trust of those whose data they hold. First, companies must define decision rights around the data they possess. Many large corporations and government agencies have strong governance mechanisms for hard assets such as factories, but poor governance of information assets. Second, we must either destroy these massive customer databases altogether (after returning files and records to customers) or migrate this data to distributed storage systems and transfer control to customers. Third, organizations must cultivate a new core competence: the ability to work with huge anonymized data sets rented from large numbers of people, all handled in a distributed and trustworthy manner. Data will be a fundamental human asset from birth. It will flip the data-analytics business model on its head and reward corporations for serving as data brokers on behalf of individuals. This will see the end of the large centralized data frackers that scrape, hoard, and rent our data. These new approaches to privacy and ID management give citizens ownership of their identities, the facts of their existence, and the data they create as they live their lives. The self-sovereign identity is key to becoming to a more open, inclusive, and private economy. We need more than access to our data. We should own it. Bengaluru, March 4 : A defiant Karnataka Congress sought action against BJP legislator Basanagouda Patil Yatnal for 'insulting' centenarian freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy, a party official said on Wednesday. "We have approached state Governor Vajubhai Vala to uphold dignity of public office and initiate action against Yatnal for disrespecting veteran freedom fighter Doreswamy," party's state unit spokesman Rajiv Gowda told IANS here. Opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who led a party delegation to Raj Bhavan, submitted a letter to the Governor, seeking direction to the BJP government for acting against Yatnal. "Since the BJP assumed office in July 2019, the Constitution has been under threat with unwarranted statements by its state unit leaders," asserted Gowda. "Yatnal should not only withdraw his derogatory remarks, but also apologise to Doreswamy for insulting him and the 90-year freedom struggle," Siddaramaiah reiterated. The Vijayapura legislator recently termed Doreswamy a "fake freedom-fighter" and a "Pakistani agent" for associating with "anti-nationalist" elements like former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar and student activist Amulya who shouted "Pakistan Zindabad" on February 20 at an anti-CAA rally in the city. "Yatnal's remarks violate the Constitution as he disrespected a freedom-fighter, who fought for the country's independence," pointed out Siddaramaiah. Doreswamy, born on April 10, 1918 near Mysuru, about 150 km southwest of Bengaluru, joined the freedom movement when he was in the intermediate college in Bengaluru during the mid-1930s. He was arrested for joining the Quit India movement along with his brother and other freedom fighters. The Congress also sought an apology from BJP MLC (member of legislative council) N. Ravikumar for accusing Doreswamy of having "links" with anti-national forces in the country. B enjamin Netanyahus political future remains up in the air as preliminary results from Mondays Israeli election confirmed a stunning victory, bringing his Likud party within a couple of seats of a clear majority in the 120-member Knesset. Two general elections last year had brought stalemate and demands for a rerun. Bibi officially has just under four weeks to form a coalition led by Likud in alliance with Jewish Orthodox and nationalist parties. Unofficially, the deadline is Tuesday, March 17, when he will indicate to President Reuven Rivlin if he can make a working coalition. If he does, he will become elected prime minister for a record fifth time, making him Israels longest-serving premier. Also on March 17, Netanyahu is due to face the Jerusalem district court on three charges of corruption, bribery and breach of trust in office. They are the most serious charges a sitting prime minister has faced. It is still a matter of urgent legal debate in Israel whether a PM can be allowed to form a new government while under an indictment of this gravity. The trial itself could last a year which would seriously cut into the daily activity of government. The election, with the last few results from soldiers and overseas votes still to be calculated, shows that democratic politics in Israel are still very much alive... though more than a little chaotic. Turnout rose to over 71 per cent. The big loser is the main opposition bloc of the Blue and White alliance led by former defence chief Benny Gantz. They have dropped back slightly on last Septembers result to around 33 seats and cannot form a viable coalition as Gantz has ruled out an alliance with the Joint List of Israeli Arabs, which is a major factor after coming third with 15 seats. Arab voters turned out largely in protest against Donald Trumps deal of the century peace plan, offering key Palestinian territory to Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:04:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Head of Syria's Planning and International Cooperation Commission (PICC) Imad Sabouni (2nd L) and Chinese Ambassador to Syria Feng Biao (2nd R) sign an economic cooperation agreement in Damascus, Syria, on March 4, 2020. Syria and China signed an economic cooperation agreement on Wednesday. Under the deal, China made a donation that will be used to fund a series of humanitarian projects that will be agreed upon by both sides, according to a statement released by PICC. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) DAMASCUS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Syria and China signed an economic cooperation agreement on Wednesday. The agreement was signed by Syria's Planning and International Cooperation Commission (PICC) and the Chinese embassy in the capital Damascus. Under the deal, China made a donation that will be used to fund a series of humanitarian projects that will be agreed upon by both sides, according to a statement released by PICC. Imad Sabouni, head of the PICC, said the Chinese donations are of a great significance as they help in the tough situation that has resulted from war. "In fact, this donation... aims to help the Syrian government and people to meet the humanitarian needs resulting from the current situation. Most of these donations will be used in humanitarian and environmental projects," Sabouni told reporters at PICC headquarter where the agreement was signed. Sabouni, meanwhile, hailed the Chinese-Syrian relations as "special and historic." For his part, Feng Biao, the Chinese ambassador to Syria, hoped that the cooperation between both countries will continue. "I hope this cooperation will continue between both friendly countries, which have set up diplomatic relations since 1956," Feng said. The possiblity of a future power-availability crunch spurred in part by a global increase in data usage is driving researchers to get creative with a slew of new and modified ways to generate and store energy. Ongoing projects include the use of seawater for batteries; grabbing ambient humidity; massive water storage systems for hydropower; and solar panels that work at night. Here are some details: Batteries based on seawater Seawater will provide "super-batteries," says the University of Southern Denmark. Researchers there have been studying how to use sodium, which is abundant in seawater, as an alternative to lithium in batteries. "Sodium is a very readily available resource," the school says in a press release, and it can be easily extracted from seawater. Lithium, on the other hand, is a limited resource that's mined only in a few places in the world, says research leader Dorthe Bomholdt Ravnsbk of the department of physics, chemistry and pharmacy at the university. Batteries based on seawater would also alleviate the need for cobalt, which is used in lithium cells. The team in Denmark (working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology) believes it has come up with a new electrode material, based on manganese, that will make the seawater battery ultimately viable. Using ambient moisture to generate power Humidity captured with bio-electronics could end up being a viable power source for sensors, say some scientists. "Harvesting energy from the environment offers the promise of clean power for self-sustained systems," notes University of Massachusetts researchers in an article published in Nature. However, known technologies often have restrictive environmental requirements solar panels that must be mounted outside, for example that limit their energy-producing potential. Moisture harvesting with thin-film, protein nanowires doesn't have restrictive environmental requirements. Sustained voltages of about half a volt can be obtained from moisture present in normal, ambient air. "Connecting several devices linearly scales up the voltage and current to power electronics," the Amherst group claims. "Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a continuous energy-harvesting strategy that is less restricted by location or environmental conditions than other sustainable approaches." Seasonally pumped hydropower storage On a larger scale, inland water storage could solve renewable power issues, say scientists at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. One big problem collecting power from the environment, as opposed to using fossil fuels, is where to store the on-the-fly electricity being generated. The Austrian organization believes that hydropower systems should be used to contain renewable energy. It's cheap, for starters. In addition, seasonal pumped hydropower storage (SPHS) is better than wind or solar, the group claims, because it not only generates the power in real time as its needed, but also isn't affected by variations a windy day isn't required, for example. SPHS operates by pumping water into dammed, river-adjacent reservoirs when water flow is high but power demand is low. Water is then allowed to flow out of the reservoir, through turbinessimilar to hydroelectricwhen energy demand increases. Electricity is thus created. The group, in a press release related to a study just released, says the technique is highly economical, even including required land purchases, excavation and tunneling. Nighttime, anti-solar cells Contrary to popular belief, photovoltaic solar panels don't actually need full sun to function. Cloud cover allows some to work just fine, just not as well. Nighttime photovoltaic, however, is something more radical: The earth should be used as a heat source, and the night sky a heat sink, say Jeremy Munday and Tristan Deppe of the department of electrical and computer engineering at University of California, Davis. They shared their idea for nighttime photovoltaic cells in an abstract of a paper published by American Chemical Society's ACS Photonics. What they are suggesting is using thermoradiative photovoltaics, where deep space radiative cooling (which Ive written about before) is combined with photovoltaics. Current is created as infrared light or heat, in other words is radiated into extremely cold, deep space. "Similar to the way a normal solar cell works, but in reverse," Munday says of their anti-solar panel concept, quoted in a UC Davis news article. The once-robust candidacy of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was humiliated when she placed third in a state that has elected her twice, is also near its end. There is no path forward for her. The only question now is whether Warren will endorse Sanders or Biden, or decide that she will remain more relevant if she doesnt. LOS ANGELES - Who needs the Secret Service when you have Jill Biden by your side? Joe Bidens wife is being praised for fending off a protester who rushed the stage at a rally last night in Los Angeles. It happened while the Democratic presidential candidate was thanking supporters for his Super Tuesday victories. The protester leaped onto the stage with a Let Dairy Die" sign. Jill Biden blocked the woman from getting to her husband. A lot of people are praising her for her act of bravery. Dr. Jill Biden has no idea if this person has a weapon and she ain't waiting to find out. pic.twitter.com/AXBhlkbMjI YesBiscuit (@YesBiscuit) March 4, 2020 Dont mess with Jill Biden. pic.twitter.com/LKXso34l80 Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) March 4, 2020 In addition to Dr,Jill Biden top Joe Biden aide Simone Sanders body blocks protester heading for the candidate. People: its time Secret Service started protecting Biden and Bernie Sanders pic.twitter.com/Zoj35if6Wy Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) March 4, 2020 Just an incredible still photograph of Dr Jill Biden protecting Joe against protestors. She is a badass.#SuperTuesdsy pic.twitter.com/F6xoYzC0eO Koko (@Kokomothegreat) March 4, 2020 If Joe Biden does become our next President, the cost of Secret Service will quite a bit lower.#JillBiden Joel Keith (@JustMessinWitYa) March 4, 2020 Jill Biden is a linebacker Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) March 4, 2020 YO, Jill Biden is FEARLESS. These two protesters rushed the stage, and Jill had her man's back. Nice to see that. You'll never see Melania do that. pic.twitter.com/wG0xHobFyk BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) March 4, 2020 Did not have Jill Biden trucks a vegan on my Super Tuesday Bingo card Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) March 4, 2020 One thing we can all agree on is Dr Jill Biden has always been a badass. Seeing how she just jumped into action to PHYSICALLY have her husbands back when a protestor rushed the stage was a new level of impressive. Jackie (@world_iswide) March 4, 2020 If any NFL teams are scouting for a right guard, Jill Biden is available. Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) March 4, 2020 Jill Biden for Secretary of Defense Xeni Jardin (@xeni) March 4, 2020 Ok, I don't care who you vote for in the upcoming primaries or in November. Just giving credit where credit is due. @DrBiden is a badass! @JoeBiden, your wife is as tough as they come. That's love right there. It was a selfless moment. She protected her man. #Biden #JillBiden pic.twitter.com/Xu8decgNYT Roy Hankins (@wrestlerspulse) March 4, 2020 Jill Biden for Joes VP pic.twitter.com/F2bxZHft1u Matt Sheppard (@MattShep88) March 4, 2020 The strategy does not specifically say how much the Navy is looking to spend on education or where the money will come from. Kroger said it will rely mostly on existing education funding that can be used in a more cost-effective way. About $109 million was transferred from other Navy programs this fiscal year to pay for immediate education needs, including startup costs for the community college. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Consumer electricals firm Orient Electric has entered the inverter air-cooler category. The company has launched products in this category ahead of the summer season, which accounts for a majority of air-cooler sales in India. Though these products are pricier than regular air-coolers, the technology cuts electricity consumption by half. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Rakesh Khanna, MD, Orient Electric, said that while the company was present in categories like Internet-of-Things air-cooler, the idea was to promote energy efficiency. "The product range we have launched is priced between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the size. While these are 15-18 percent more expensive than the traditional air-coolers, the products will help save electricity costs by almost 50 percent," he added. Unlike a traditional air-cooler, inverter-technology models converts alternating current to direct current through a variable frequency drive. The device is also able to test the air temperature and adjust the speed of the compressor. This eliminates sharp fluctuations in the load and saves costs of operations. Part break-downs are also minimal. Due to the automatic functions, inverter air-coolers are quieter than the regular ones. In Q3FY20, Orient Electric saw a 14 percent growth on a year-on-year basis in its electric consumer durables at Rs 325 crore. Khanna explained that air-coolers would constitute almost 10 percent of their business. The organised air-cooler market in India is estimated to be around Rs 2,500 crore. Industry estimates show that size of air-cooler market would touch Rs 9,000 crore by the end of 2021. The organised players operating in this segment are Symphony (largest player in air-coolers), Bajaj Electricals, Voltas, Crompton Consumer and Orient Electric among others. Unorganised players still dominate the market. However, Khanna said that the company has seen a shift of customers to branded players since there is more accountability and value for money. "Air coolers are among the fastest growing categories in the appliances segment. But since it is a seasonal product, business varies from one year to the other depending on the weather," he added. Though North India contributes almost half of the business for the air-cooler industry as a whole, Khanna explained that there is a country-wide acceptance of products. "You have desert coolers for extreme dry heat but in places like Mumbai personal coolers are getting popular," said Khanna. Apart from fans which is a product category synonymous with Orient Electric, the company sells lights, kitchen appliances, air-coolers, water heaters as well as switchgear. Advertisement Amazing ice sculptures that resemble frozen waves have formed on the surfaces of lakes in Colorado's Rocky Mountain Park. The near-perfect sculptures spotted at the park's Dream Lake, located some 9,905ft above sea level, are not caused by the waters freezing. In fact, water starts to turn into a slush called frazil before it freezes into ice. Landscape photographer Eric Gross took this incredible image of the frozen sculptures that appeared on Dream Lake in Colorado's Rocky Mount National Park in February Gross said he was quick to shoot the images when he came across the frozen lake in February, because the frozen 'surface screamed opportunity and chance, as any unique sight in nature is sure to be short-lived' Instead, a weather phenomenon in Colorado is responsible for the stunning natural beauty captured in photos taken by vacationers and outdoor lovers. Meteorologists say snow likely drifted across the frozen lake, melted in the sun and refroze into the stunning sculptures. An image taken by an Instagram user shows snow drifting across the frozen surface of Dream Lake. Meteorologists say the snow melts and then refreezes to create the ice sculptures An image posted by Terri Yang on Instagram shows how ice sculptures have formed over the surface of Dream Lake Dream Lake as pictured by Terri Yang and posted on Instagram shows the tops boulders as they break through the frozen surface of the ice sculptures Another image by Terri Yang shows her boots on the cracking ice sculptures on Dream Lake Wavy ice is seen across the surface of Dream Lake in an Instagram post made by Robbi Sue Another shot by Robbi Sue shows blue hues emerging from the ice sculptures in Dream Lake A tree trunk appears like its almost floating in a wave of frozen water at Dream Lake in an image taken by Maddie Zenker Another Instagram user offers a closeup of the ice sculptures with boulders appearing through the surface of Dream Lake Landscape photographer Eric Gross was quick to shoot some of the images when he came across the frozen lake in February, saying the frozen 'surface screamed opportunity and chance, as any unique sight in nature is sure to be short-lived.' Other images taken by outdoor lovers and vacationers were posted on Instagram. Published on 2020/03/04 | Source Vehicles arrive for drive-through testing for coronavirus at a facility in Gwangju on Tuesday. /Yonhap Advertisement The coronavirus infections in Korea jumped to 5,328 as of Wednesday morning, a rapid surge from about 1,000 about a week ago. Most of them were reported from Daegu and North Gyeosang Province, but the virus is rapidly affecting other regions as well. In Seoul and surrounding areas, the confirmed cases now surpassed 200 -- Seoul (99), Incheon (9), and Gyeonggi Province (101). More than half of the infections are linked to the secretive Shincheonji sect. According to government data on 4,812 patients on Tuesday, some 2,698 or 56.1 percent contracted the virus through the religious group's Daegu branch. They are mostly women with 62.4 percent and those in their 20s with 29.4 percent, the highest among all age groups. But Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said, "It is unlikely for other Shincheonji branches across the country to become hotbeds of coronavirus" now that many have been closed. Municipal officials make calls to followers of the Shincheonji sect in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. /Newsis The risk of further spread remains, however, as a growing number of new infections are unrelated to the sect. Kim said that the government will now change its priority from Shincheonji followers to ordinary citizens in coronavirus testing to minimize further transmission. His remark came after the deaths of several people who could not get tested in time because they were not Shincheonji followers. Avaya Announces Participation in Upcoming Investor Conferences Avaya (News - Alert) Holdings Corp. (NYSE:AVYA) today announced it will present at the following upcoming investor conferences: Hardy Myers, senior vice president, Strategy & Business Development and Mike McCarthy, vice president, Investor Relations, will attend one-on-one meetings at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, on Thursday, March 5, 2020. The conference will be held at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Kieran McGrath, executive vice president & CFO and Mike McCarthy, vice president, Investor Relations, will attend one-on-one meetings at the Jefferies Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Summit on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The Summit will be held at the Jefferies Conference Center in New York City. Scott Shoults, vice president, Business Transformation and Mike McCarthy, vice president, Investor Relations, will attend one-on-one meetings at the Stephens West Coast 1-on-1 Conference on Thursday, March 12, 2020. The coference will be held at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. For more information about these and other events, access the investor page of Avaya's website https://investors.avaya.com/. About Avaya Businesses are built on the experiences they provide, and every day millions of those experiences are built by Avaya (NYSE: AVYA). For over one hundred years, we've enabled organizations around the globe to win - by creating intelligent communications experiences for customers and employees. Avaya builds open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration - in the cloud, on-premise or a hybrid of both. To grow your business, we're committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what's next. We're the technology company you trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter. Visit us at www.avaya.com. Source (News - Alert) : Avaya Newsroom View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005992/en/ Jerry Bair regrets waiting until Super Tuesday to vote in the Texas primary. The 70-year-old Houston attorney had wanted to cast his ballot for Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old Hoosier whose intellect and temperament impressed him. But Buttigieg, who fought Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to a draw in the Iowa caucuses last month, abruptly dropped out of the race Sunday and threw his support to former Vice President Joe Biden. So Bair voted for Biden on Tuesday. It seemed to him that the fight for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination had become a two-man race. Biden is probably the most likely to beat (Donald) Trump, and thats paramount, Bair said after casting his ballot at Lamar High School. Many Texas voters apparently reached a similar conclusion in recent days. Throughout early voting, which ended Friday, Democratic turnout was a bit lower then anticipated, as if voters were waiting to see what happened in South Carolinas Feb. 28 primary and many who did seemed to break Bidens way. By the evening, it was clear Biden was competitive in Texas after having been declared the winner by news outlets in Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia. This marks a stunning turnaround for Biden, the two-term veep and longtime Delaware senator who prior to last weekend had never won a presidential primary (he briefly ran for president in 2008 and 1987). At 77, Biden is a well-known and beloved figure in the party who has consistently performed well in hypothetical head-to-head matchups with President Donald Trump. Still, Democratic voters in the first three contests gravitated toward other candidates amid concerns about Bidens candidacy. Struggling in fundraising and organization, he wasnt helped by a series of underwhelming debate performances and meandering campaign speeches. But things shifted for Biden in South Carolina, where influential U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, enthusiastically endorsed him. At a CNN town hall meeting, Biden comforted a Charleston pastor whod lost his wife in a 2015 mass shooting at a historically black church. The exchange showed Biden at his best: warm, empathetic, thoughtful, reflective. Biden then scored a resounding victory in the Palmetto State, winning 48 percent and performing well across demographic categories: He won a majority of black voters, older voters and religious voters, bested Sanders among white voters and held his own among young voters. Bidens nearly 30-point victory set the stage for a coming-together of moderate candidates behind Biden in an effort to deny Sanders an insurmountable delegate lead coming out of Super Tuesday. If youre looking for the perfect candidate, theres no perfect candidate. What were looking for is the perfect candidate to beat Trump, said state Rep. Armando Walle, who represents parts of north Houston and Harris County, after voting for Biden on Tuesday. When youre looking at all those factors, the vice president is the one to unify the party, to bring integrity back to the White House. Walle said he admires U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for her policy chops and intellect, not to mention the tenacity that spurred her to fight successfully for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But he was concerned about how the Massachusetts Democrats anti-fracking stance would affect down-ballot candidates, particularly in Texas. And he reckoned that many Democratic voters took note of Bidens performance in South Carolina. He certainly was Lazarus, Walle said. During an extraordinary 72 hours for the presidential race, billionaire Tom Steyer dropped out late Saturday, followed by Buttigieg on Sunday and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Monday. In addition to Buttigieg, Biden picked up endorsements from Klobuchar and former U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke of El Paso, who achieved rock-star status during his spirited 2018 U.S. Senate campaign and briefly ran for president himself. The three appeared with Biden at events in Dallas on Monday night, after which ORourke and his wife, Amy, treated the candidate to dinner at Whataburger, a frequent stop for ORourke during his Senate bid. It was clearly a revitalized Joe who visited Houston earlier Monday. He joked at one point that he is about 800 years older than U.S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee, the Houston-area congresswoman who backs his campaign. And he was unapologetic in describing Trump as a threat to the republic and in calling on Americans to join in what he sees as a battle for the soul of the country. We have to beat Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but we cant become like them, Biden told the crowd. He reminded the gathering that in the wake of the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., the families of the victims forgave the killer and that in the wake of that radical act of forgiveness, change came to the state: Republican lawmakers joined their Democratic colleagues to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House, ending a bitterly divisive dispute. That ethos, in Bidens view, is one that should inspire all Americans who hope to defeat Trump in 2020. Lets get back up! Were decent, were brave, were resilient people, Biden said. We can believe again. Were better than this moment and were better than this president! It was a powerful speech, according to attendees. He just started giving us some direction, said Chirvone Hymes, 67, of Pearland. He let us know hes for everybody. Her friend Barbara Dillard, 72, echoed that sentiment. She was supporting Biden, she said, because of his long history of fighting for all people, not just African Americans such as herself. Hes genuine, she said. IT consultant Chris Hall, 36, said the case for Biden was clear-cut: Experience. Empathy. Obviously, the Obama relationship. We need somebody to bring this country together, Hall continued. Some voters might feel these are flimsy reasons to support a presidential candidate and many progressives have noted that Biden, unlike Sanders and Warren, isnt promising to fight for the degree of change that might galvanize younger voters. The Super Tuesday results also dont necessarily make Biden the front-runner. Sanders won Colorado, Utah and Vermont and was expected to prevail in delegate-rich California on Super Tuesday. He entered the week with millions more in the bank and a superior organization. And though exit polls from CNN showed Biden with a commanding lead among black voters in Texas, Sanders was leading among Latino voters. Warren and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also remained in the race as of Tuesday evening, with the well-funded Bloomberg vying for the same moderate voters as Biden. Still, if South Carolina gave Biden a fighting chance, Texas and other Super Tuesday states have transformed the race and positioned Biden well for the campaigns next stage. And in just eight months, Texas will be in the spotlight again in arguably the nations biggest battleground state in 2020. erica.grieder@chron.com Hate and violence are enemies of development and divisiveness being spread will not benefit 'Bharat Mata', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday, as he led a delegation of party leaders to the riot-hit northeast Delhi. Two separate delegations of Congress leaders visited different areas in northeast Delhi. The delegation led by Gandhi included K C Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K Suresh, Mukul Wasnik, Kumari Selja, Gaurav Gogoi and Randeep Surjewala. This delegation visited a private school in the Brijpuri area of northeast Delhi that was vandalised and burnt during the riots. Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School, which is over 32 years old, suffered massive damage and the Congress delegation went around the gutted classrooms and surveyed the burnt busses. Speaking with reporters, Gandhi said, "This (school) is India's future. Hate and violence has destroyed it. Nobody has benefited from this. Violence and hate are enemies of development." "India is being divided, burnt. This will not benefit Bharat Mata," he said. Gandhi along with other leaders also visited a mosque near the school that was affected in the violence. Sources said the Delhi Police advised Gandhi not to go beyond the Brijpuri Nullah. The other delegation, comprising mostly MPs, left in a bus from the Kerala House here and included Hibi Eden, Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Abdul Khaleque. Their first stop was Chand Bagh where they met shopkeepers and asked them about the losses they suffered. The Congress has demanded that the issue of communal riots in Delhi be debated in Parliament and proceedings of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been disrupted over the issue. Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week had deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas of Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there. The communal violence in northeast Delhi, which was sparked by protests over the amended Citizenship Act, and has left 42 dead and over 200 injured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 3 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of Dash Salahli-Urkmazli-Damirchilar highway after renovation. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov informed the head of state of the technical and economic indicators of the road. The two-lane highway is 16km in length. President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the road. An Army officer who returned from Iran last month has been isolated in Madhya Pradesh for suspected exposure to the coronavirus. However, there were conflicting versions of where he was isolated. A health official said the 32-year-old officer had been quarantined at the military hospital at Mhow near Indore, while senior Army officials said he was at home. The conflicting versions could not be immediately reconciled. The officer had returned from Tehran, Irans capital, on February 25. Dr Santosh Sisodia, district in-charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Program, claimed that the officer was admitted to isolation ward of the military hospital on Tuesday when he complained of sore throat. His condition is fine. He has been kept under medical observation in an isolation ward. His blood and swab samples are being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for testing, Sisodia added. Iran announced on Tuesday that 11 more people had died from the new coronavirus on Monday, taking the death toll in the country to 77. In all, 2,336 people have been infected in Iran since the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, a 27-year-old woman, who was studying in Italy and admitted to Indores state-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital for the past two days for suspected exposure to COVID-19 virus, tested negative, an official said. She had attended a party in Italy a few days ago and a person who was present there later tested positive for the virus. It scared her and she returned to Indore on Saturday, the official said. Italy, Europes worst-affected country with around 1,700 coronavirus infections, said that deaths, as of Monday, stood at 52. Community broadcasters C31 Melbourne and C44 Adelaide are standing firm in the wake of confirmation this week that Communications Minister Paul Fletcher will proceed with a June 30 spectrum switch-off for the sector. In a joint statement they said, Confirmation of the Governments decision follows the recent closure of WTV Perth last week a terrible loss for local arts, journalism and education in WA however we are encouraged by the strength of the support that still exists for Community TV. Despite six years of instability caused by a series of chaotic last-minute and short-term reprieves and forgoing $3.5m in lost revenue due to this ongoing uncertainty, both Melbourne and Adelaide stations have continued to provide an important, vibrant and diverse contribution to Australias cultural fabric. The governments plan to switch off Community TV has dragged on for 6 years. In 2014 then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered all broadcasters to move to an online model. But pleas from the community led to multiple extensions. Both C31 Melbourne and C44 Adelaide believe there is no alternative use planned for the spectrum they currently occupy for many years to come and that their departure from the airwaves is of no benefit to the public. Last year Community TV stations aired over 150 locally produced shows per week, involving over 1000 volunteers, with no government funding. We sincerely believe the Government does not intend to oversee the loss of Community TV in Australia and we look forward to an opportunity to meet with Minister Fletcher to discuss a way forward for the remaining broadcasters. With 13 states across the country casting ballots today in the Democratic presidential primary as part of Super Tuesday, Winston-Salem voters at the Woodruff Center on Lansing Road and the Brown and Douglas Center on Indiana Avenue talked about their votes for the potential nominee. Countries on Wednesday voted to put the head of Singapore's national patent agency in charge of global intellectual property, replacing Australian Francis Gurry after 12 years at of the helm of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. In a second round of voting, Daren Tang took 55 votes over 28 for Chinese candidate Wang Binying, who has served as WIPO's deputy chief for a decade, the UN agency said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ALBANY State lawmakers and fiscal watchdogs have their eye on language in state budget bills that would allow Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to transfer up to millions of dollars between any department, agency or authority. David Friedfel, director of state studies at the fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli have criticized the practice that gives Cuomo authority to move money between agencies and programs a practice they said clouds the states true spending growth and results in funding for projects the Legislature and public may not support. When the Legislature votes on a budget, the public believes thats the budget the state is going to go forward with, Friedfel said. The changes would allow the executive to move money around anywhere, including (to fund) things that the Legislature and public may be against. Cuomo has faced criticism for the sweeping authority he has with the overall budget process. He has also been provided similar authority in the past for a handful of programs, but this year his executive budget proposes for him to have that fiscal discretion in dozens of allocations involving tens of millions of dollars. The controversy over the practice surfaced recently when state lawmakers heatedly debated a bill that gave the governor broad authority over the $40 million allocated to respond to the coronavirus outbreak and to deal with other disasters and public crises. The emergency appropriation bill allows Cuomo to issue directives in response to a disaster an "occurrence or imminent, impending or urgent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property" that not only includes disease, but also natural disasters, terrorism or volcanic activity and infestation. The measure permits the Legislature to reconvene and revoke a directive they feel is too broad, and the bill sunsets on April 30, 2021. Cuomo has defended the broad language, noting that it ensures state government does not have to go back each time there is a disaster to take action. He called a piecemeal approach to the bill stupid. So, you recognize the law is deficient, you recognize that just suspension of the law doesnt give you the ability to do anything affirmative, (you) fix it for this situation but dont fix it for the other situations, he said. So next week when we have a flood and the government is in handcuffs, then come back and fix it for floods. And a month after that, when there is a fire and the government is handcuffed, go back and pass another law for that. That would be unintelligent, in my opinion. The Executive Chamber also has defended the language written in Cuomos operations appropriations bill, which shows $4.68 million in administrative programs for the Adirondack Park Agency could be increased or decreased by interchange or transfer, without limit, with any appropriation of any other department, agency or public authority ... with the approval of the director of the budget. Another $7.59 million for administrative programs for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets also attaches the same caveat, as does $51.17 million for agricultural business services program within that department. Richard Azzopardi, Cuomos senior adviser, defended the practice and noted that previous administrations have enlisted similar measures to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. DiNapoli's office said previous budgets did not include this language. This has long predated this administration and for good reason: We live in the real world and when situations arise, New Yorkers expect their government to respond quickly and nimbly, he said. The people youre talking to are rooting for more red tape, less efficiency and a slower bureaucracy and for the life of me I dont understand why. Legislative insiders said the practice is being looked at by both houses, and measures could be introduced in the one-house bills that would tackle the issue. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. In the comptrollers executive budget analysis released last month, DiNapoli called on Cuomo to remove the language, noting that it may conflict with the state Constitution. Numerous state operations appropriations provide the executive significant authority to shift resources among departments, agencies or public authorities after budget enactment, the report states. Transfers of funds from state agencies to public authorities could reduce oversight and control of such resources. Neither the Senate Majority 0ffice nor the Assembly Speakers office responded to requests for comment. Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Helene Weinstein didnt respond to requests for comment. Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger said through a spokesman that she shares the same concerns as the comptroller and is "likely to reject the governor's proposals on this." Friedfel said the fact that Cuomo has delayed Medicaid payments which partially accounts for the states $6.1 billion budget gap this year underscores the importance of transparency and a clear budget and fiscal management. Assemblyman Ed Ra, R-Nassau County, said Cuomo has become more brazen with sweeping authority over the budget and the precedent for those broad powers has already been set. He expressed concern over the latest move amid the coronavirus outbreak. We know that the governor is going to look to expand authority wherever he can, Ra said. Im fully confident that when he has the authority, hes going to look for opportunities to use it. We want the public to be aware of this, and what the governor is trying to do so that they know that the governor is looking to enhance authority, and hopefully the Legislature realizes thats really whats happening. The assemblyman ultimately voted in favor of the appropriations to combat the virus, but warned of a slippery slope. I could see how the authority of the governor could be used to respond to a crisis, he said. The flip side is there is a huge potential for it to be abused, and the tough part with this is we have an extremely strong executive to begin with when it comes to the budget process. [March 04, 2020] No More Waiting for the Bus: Insight School of California Now Enrolling for the 2020-2021 School Year Golden State families looking for an alternative education program for the 2020-2021 school year are invited to enroll, starting tomorrow, at Insight School of California (ISCA), an online and blended public charter school for students in grades 9-12. ISCA provides students throughout the state with the opportunity to reach their academic goals, while planning for the future in an alternative education setting. ISCA combines online instruction with the support of state-licensed teachers to provide a personalized learning experience for its high school students. Graduates earn a high school diploma, and those who come to ISCA behind on credits can participate in the school's credit recovery program. ISCA teachers facilitate lessons during live, interactive online classes, and students can receive support through extended class sessions and with real-time help from teachers. The school offers students the opportunity to progress faster in subjects at which they excel and spend more time on those where they need additional help. "At ISCA we believe that a one-size-fits-all approach to education isn't going to work for everyone, but we do believe the right learning environment canbe found for anyone," said Head of School Kimberly Odom. "We are committed to the academic and personal success of each one of our students and are proud to be a trusted online school partner to families across California." ISCA teachers interact with students and parents via phone, email, web-based classrooms and online discussions to ensure families feel supported and students feel appropriately challenged as they work towards high school graduation. "It's easier for me to stay focused at Insight," said ISCA Student A. Santillan. "I don't have to deal with all the people who were mean to me anymore, I can finally just breathe." Throughout the year, ISCA builds a community of online and blended learners through weekly virtual assemblies, and the school's Social and Emotional Learning program ensures students are ready to learn and succeed after high school. To learn more about ISCA and enrollment, visit ca.insightschools.net, or download the K12 mobile app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices. About Insight Schools of California Insight Schools of California (ISCA) are full-time online public charter schools for students in grades 9-12 who are behind in their education or need additional support to graduate from high school. The schools are available for students in Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Orange (News - Alert), Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura counties. ISCA uses the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. Families do not pay tuition for a student to attend an online public school. Common household items and office supplies like printer ink and paper are not provided. Our enrollment consultants can help address your technological and computer questions and needs. Learn more at ca.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005008/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] J eremy Corbyn was booed as he presented an accolade at the British Kebab Awards last night. The outgoing Labour leader, who is the MP for Islington North, smiled despite the hostile reaction from some sections of the crowd as he announced the winner of the best kebab restaurant in north and west London. Mr Corbyn, whose Labour party suffered their worst General Election defeat since 1935 in December, told the crowd: "My test of a kebab restaurant because of predilection not to eat meat is, sorry about this - I can't ignore the truth that I am a vegetarian - is that, does it contain salad and do they have good falafels? "That has divided the audience. But can I tell everyone who operates a kebab restaurant or uses one, they are something very nice and very special in our community." Jeremy Corbyn was booed by some sections of the audience / PA A number of other politicians attended the event, including London mayor Sadiq Khan, Conservative business minister Nadhim Zahawi and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott. Among the winners were vegan kebab chain What The Pitta, which scooped the award for best London takeaway. Co-founded by Cem Kaymaz-Yildiz and Roj Gul, it began selling at pop-ups around London in 2017 before opening a permanent store in Shoreditch. Thousands of members of the public voted for the 150 finalists to face the judges, who included the Labour MP Carolyn Harris, Conservative MP David Warburton, journalist Ash Sarkar, and Cobra beer sales director, Samson Sohail. Ibrahim Dogus, Lambeth-based restaurateur and founder of the Kebab Awards said: "The kebab is an unsung cornerstone of high streets across the country, and the simply superb quality of this year's entries shows that British small businesses can more than compete on a world stage of cuisine. "What is also just as important is that we must not let Brexit hinder the UK's flourishing restaurant and takeaway industries, which employ so many people often from migrant backgrounds." J oe Biden was left red-faced on Super Tuesday after mixing up his wife and his sister during a victory speech. The 77-year-old presidential hopeful was speaking on stage in Los Angeles, California, after he became the runaway success story of the night. While thanking the crowds in the sunshine-state - which he is forecasted to lose to left-wing candidate Bernie Sanders - Mr Biden introduced his wife Jill and sister Valerie to the crowds. Without looking at the two women, who were behind him, the former vice president grasped Jills hand and declared this is my little sister Valerie. As his partner shook her head and laughed, Mr Biden added and Im Jills husband while reaching for Valerie. Super Tuesday - In pictures 1 /18 Super Tuesday - In pictures Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden arrives onstage with his wife Jill and sister Valerie (right) at a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally AP Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with supporters after addressing a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to supporters during a rally Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg waves to his supporters at his Super Tuesday night event Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (L) arrives with wife Jill (C) and sister Valerie (R) at a Super Tuesday campaign event at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center o Getty Images Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., endorses Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives at a primary night election rally AP Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, Californi Bloomberg via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, and his wife Jill attend a primary election night rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets supporters during a primary night election rally i AP Democratic presidential hopeful former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg greets supporters after speaking during a rally at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Super Tuesday AFP via Getty Images After a quick glance behind him the Democrat realised his mistake and announced they switched on me before correcting himself. Super Tuesday saw a narrowing of the field in the race to become Donald Trumps opposition in the General Election come November. Despite spending half a billion dollars on advertising, former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg only came first in American Samoa. Mr Biden exceeded expectations, running away with most of the states on offer including Texas, which Senator Sanders had been hoping to claim. Mr Sanders and Mr Biden look to be the last two in the race to be the Democrat's nominee for President Mr Sanders was still on course to claim California - which boasts the most delegates in the country - but failed to secure the resounding lead he would have been hoping for. The next big date on the Democrats calendar is a debate on March 15, which will see the remaining candidates argue it out on stage in front of CNN cameras. It will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, ahead of the primary there. The military contractor has been accused of giving away information placing American military personnel in danger: Associated Press A US Defence Department contractor has been charged with giving away military secrets, the Justice Department has announced. Mariam Taha Thompson has been accused by federal prosecutors of giving away information that puts American military personnel in danger. The linguist has been charged with supplying classified information to a Lebanese international with apparent ties to Hezbollah. This allegedly included the names of American intelligence assets, photographs and information provided by the sources to the US government. Prosecutors have said that a handwritten note written in Arabic was found in the 61-year-old's living quarters when officials searched her room. The note, hidden under her mattress, allegedly included information about Defence Department computer systems and warned of a department target. Ms Taha Thompson reportedly accessed dozens of files not in her remit over a six-week period starting in December 2019 during US airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed forces in Iraq. The Justice Department statement made clear that they would "go above and beyond" to protect the US from disclosure of classified information. "The conduct alleged in this complaint is a grave threat to national security, placed lives at risk, and represents a betrayal of our armed forces," said US attorney Timothy J Shea for the District of Columbia. "The charges weve filed today should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider disclosing classified national defence information to a terrorist organisation," Ms Taha was arrested on 27 February at an overseas US military facility. Additional reporting by the AP Read more Pentagon tells military not to use DNA kits over surveillance concerns Bengaluru: Seeking to allay fear among the citizens in the wake of Coronavirus scare, Karnataka Health Minister B Srirumulu on Wednesday made an appeal to the people not to pay heed to rumours spreading on social media. In a series of tweets, Sriramulu assured people that the government has taken adequate measures to ensure that the disease does not spread further. Don't lend your ears to rumours about the Coronavirus in the social media. Rely only on the authentic information, he tweeted. The minister's tweet came as Bengaluru reported the first case, after a techie from the city with a travel history to Dubai and interaction with Hongkong-based people there, was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad. As panic gripped the city, Sriramulu said the apartment where the software engineer was staying has been sanitised besides, his 25 colleagues have been identified. So far 40,207 people have been screened at the International airport. 251 blood tests have been done, of which 238 were found negative, while the rest of the reports are yet to come, Sriramulu tweeted. Meanwhile, a parent appealed to people not to panic about the Coronavirus in the techie's apartment, where his son too resides. My son is from the same apartment.To update everyone, there is absolutely nothing wrong here. It was more of panic on social media that created this, he said in a message. Everyone in this building is safe. Please educate yourself. Refrain from spreading panic and misinformation. he added. The health department said three people have been admitted to the isolation ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD). Low-cost European carrier Flybe is facing collapse by the end of month and Wizz Air has revealed plans to slash routes, cut costs and freeze recruitment as part of measures to offset plunging demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. Flybe, which has been hit by a slump in bookings due to the virus outbreak, was saved from going bust by the government earlier this year. People briefed on the regional carrier's situation told the Financial Times that the company only has enough resources to survive until the end of March. As part of the January rescue deal, it agreed an arrangement to defer tax payments of 'less than 10 million' with HM Revenue and Customs. Ministers also agreed to hold a review into Air Passenger Duty (APD). The structure of APD - which adds 26 to the price of most return domestic flights such as those operated by Flybe - could be altered in next week's Budget. Wizz Air - which focuses on the central and eastern European markets - said it will reduce flights from March 11 to countries affected by the virus - mostly to Italy - and is looking at cutting capacity by about another 10% between April and June. The airline - which focuses on the central and eastern European markets - said it will reduce flights from March 11 to countries affected by the virus - mostly to Italy The airline said a task force has been set up to 'address the financial implications of Covid-19' since the start of the outbreak. Measures taken include 'significant' cutting of cost overheads and discretionary spending, pausing recruitment and non-essential travel, and working with suppliers to make further savings. The London-listed Hungarian company did not estimate the size of the hit from the outbreak in the year to March 31, adding that it is 'difficult to predict the extent and the duration of the outbreak and the impact on the next financial year'. Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: 'Our ever-disciplined attitude to cost enables Wizz Air to partly offset some of the headwinds due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which have driven a temporary decline in demand and an increase in the cost of disruption as we put the well-being of passengers and crew first.' It comes after rivals have also cancelled flights and reined in routes in response to coronavirus. Wizz Air said a task force has been set up to 'address the financial implications of Covid-19' since the start of the outbreak British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) said on Monday it was cancelling more than 400 flights, mostly on short-haul routes between Heathrow and Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. The airline had already suspended its flights serving mainland China and reduced the frequency of flights to northern Italy and Singapore. Ryanair also said on Monday it was cancelling up to one in four flights on some of its routes, particularly those serving Italian airports, while other measures include 'rolling schedule cuts', allocating leave or paid leave to pilots and cabin crew, working with suppliers to cut costs and freezing recruitment, promotion and pay across its network. Wizz Air's rivals easyJet and Ryanair have also cancelled flights into and out of Italy. We have a very few nondisclosure agreements, Bloomberg acknowledged on the stage. . . . None of them accuse me of doing anything, other than maybe they didnt like a joke I told. And let me just and let me theres agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet and thats up to them. They signed those agreements, and well live with it. An Army officer who was isolated in Madhya Pradesh for suspected coronavirus exposure following his visit to Iran has tested negative for the infection, a medical official said here on Wednesday. The 32-year-old officer of the major rank was not found to have contracted the coronavirus, Indore's Chief Health and Medical Officer (CMHO) Dr Praveen Jadia said. The test report came from Nagpur-based Indira Gandhi Medical College laboratory, he said. The officer, however, will remain under medical supervision for 14 more days but he might be discharged from the cantonment hospital at Mhow near here, Dr Jadia said. Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme's district in-charge Dr Santosh Sisodia had earlier said the Army officer had returned from Tehran on February 25, and was suffering from a bad throat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The U.S. Air Force has successfully completed testing of its new, higher resolution Space Fence Surveillance System Radar. The new radar is based on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, 3,900 kilometers southwest of Hawaii. Construction began in 2015 for the solid-state S-band phased array radar which is able to detect and track objects as small as 10 cm (four inches) long. The older (1960s) Space Surveillance System Radar could only detect objects at least 75 cm (30 inches) long. As a result, the number of orbital objects/debris that can be tracked goes from 23,000 to over 200,000. This space debris is moving at high velocity meaning that objects as small as one cm (0.4 inch) can damage satellites and larger stuff (at least 10cm) can destroy satellites and seriously damage the ISS (International Space Station). The 1960s era Space Surveillance System consisted of three radars (in Texas, Alabama and Arizona) and six receiving stations. The cost of maintaining the older system led to it being shut down in 2013. The Space Fence will work in conjunction with a Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite in a 620 kilometer high orbit as well as a large (85 ton) telescope in Australia that specializes in getting a more detailed look at space debris. A second, and possibly third, Space Fence radar is planned to provide more persistent and accurate tracking of debris. Two or more radars make it possible to determine which debris is a danger to existing satellites and larger orbital objects like the ISS. Orbital debris is a growing danger in orbital space and the major satellite launching nations cooperate in identifying and tracking the debris swarms. There are millions of fragments in orbit. Most of the pieces are tiny, but at least a thousand are truly dangerous (at least 10 cm/four inches long, wide, or in diameter). There are many such debris swarms up there that have to be watched and avoided. Not all the debris swarms are the result of accidents. For example, in 2007 a Chinese KillSat test put a huge debris swarm in orbit followed by another new swarm created by the accidental explosion of a Russian rocket that put over 1,100 dangerous fragments in orbit. Those two incidents increased the dangerous debris in orbit by about fifteen percent. While the debris is a danger, it should be put into perspective. Orbital space is actually quite large. Each layer of orbital space is over 600 million square kilometers. A layer is anything you want it to be (say a kilometer) between orbits. Thus even in low orbit (500-2,000 kilometers) you have 1,500 such layers. Orbits lower than 500 kilometers will rapidly drag debris back into the atmosphere. While this amounts to two billion square kilometers of orbital space for half a million bits of dangerous debris, most satellites occupy a small portion of these orbits and move through an orbit every 90 minutes. Most of the debris is concentrated in a small number of debris swarms but these swarms tend to be in the most heavily used orbits. Bottom line is that current chances of any live satellites getting hit by debris are low but as more debris accumulates the chances of getting hit increase. It has reached the point where satellite operators take precautions, like equipping their satellites with the ability to move (until the fuel runs out) and paying people to constantly monitor the debris collision situation. For a satellite costing several hundred million dollars to build and put into orbit, this is considered a prudent way to operate. Currently, about a thousand active satellites are in orbit, and nearly half of them are American. About 75 percent of all satellites are non-military, most of them commercial, the rest government non-military birds. The most common time for orbital debris to be created occurs as a satellite is put into orbit. Thus in late 2012 the third stage of a Russian satellite launcher unexpectedly exploded after it failed to put two satellites into orbit. Launched via a Proton rocket, there was some kind of problem in the final stage and apparently the remaining fuel in that stage caused an explosion. This created a debris field of several hundred new bits of space junk, mainly pieces of the third stage and the two satellites. This prompted satellite (and space station) operators to check their orbits and make adjustments if there might be a collision with this new cloud of deadly (at high speed coming from the opposite direction) debris. On the bright side, many of these new bits of junk are large and in a low orbit, meaning that they will soon fall towards earth and burn up. That also has to be tracked, so you know what debris is gone and what is not. A less common cause of orbital debris is stable satellites that explode in orbit. In early 2015 an American space satellite did this. This one was a twenty year old weather satellite that experienced an equipment failure that showed up to ground monitors as a rapid increase in internal temperature followed by the satellite exploding into 43 pieces. This was not catastrophic for weather monitoring since this satellite, because of its age, was relegated to backup duty in 2006. Eventually, when it failed, it would have been maneuvered into a lower orbit where it would eventually burn up in the atmosphere and leave no debris in orbit. As soon as signs of malfunctioning in the satellite were detected plans were made to maneuver the satellite into the lower orbit, but the satellite soon became uncontrollable and exploded. While rare, satellite unexpectedly exploding is not unknown. The space junk situation has been getting a lot worse in the 21st century. In 2007 the United States became the first nation that had to change the orbit of one of their satellites to avoid the cloud of debris created when China tested an anti-satellite weapon earlier in 2007. This call began when China launched an anti-satellite system (a KillSat or Killer Satellite) on January 11th that destroyed an old Chinese weather satellite, about 850 kilometers up. That's at the upper range of where most reconnaissance satellites hang out. The KillSat hit the weather bird, and the result was several million fragments. The IADC (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee) is an international organization that coordinates the exchange of information, and space operations, as they relate manmade and natural debris in orbit around the earth. Every year some of this stuff falls into the atmosphere and burns up but there are always new accidents or deliberate operations that add more junk to the spaceways. There are many government and amateur groups monitoring low orbit space and most of these observers share their information for the safety of everyone going up there. A Paytm employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, advising its employees to work from home for the next couple of days. It said the infected employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-hit countries. The leading digital payments firm has advised all its employees to work from home for the next couple of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised, the statement said, adding its daily operations will not be impacted. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy post a vacation has sadly been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," a Paytm spokesperson said. "We have also advised all our colleagues to work from home for a couple of days while we get our offices sanitized. However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual," the spokesperson added. With the latest case being confirmed, the total number of people infected with the coronavirus has gone up to 29 in the country of which 16 are Italian tourists, a Health Ministry official said. People and corporate firms in Gurgaon are taking preventive steps. While protective gears like masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in some companies, some firms set up facilities to check the body temperature of their employees before they entered offices. "Several employees including security guards at my office wore masks as a precautionary measure against the new virus," a software engineer told PTI. Another techie said, "Masks were distributed in my office while people were also discussing who has visited which country abroad recently." A statement from the Haryana Health Department said, 956 people are under observation in the state, of whom 938 with travel history to affected countries are asymptomatic. "18 passengers with travel history from affected countries in various districts like Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Kaithal, Karnal, Panchkula, Rohtak and Sirsa were admitted out of which 14 Passengers have been discharged as their result is negative for ncOv, however they are still under surveillance at home as per protocol," the statement added. "Two passengers from Gurugram and two from Faridabad are admitted," according to the statement. "Till date, 32 samples have been sent out of which 29 found Negative for ncoV and result of three is awaited," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Osman (centre) with mothers Rahma (left) and Hayat (right), whose daughter Almaz he his holding. UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem In 2003, Osman fled civil war in Darfur after witnessing armed men kill his father and loot his familys property. Then aged only 19 and afraid for his life, he made it across the border to Libya on his own, leaving everyone he knew behind. At first, he struggled to find work in the capital Tripoli, where he knew no one, but finally found informal work in the construction sector. Now 35, Osman remembers the desperation he felt as a newly arrived refugee in Libya and vowed to help others as they strived to build a life here. Since 2016, the 35-year old has opened his home to families, single mothers, unaccompanied minors and people with serious medical conditions, hosting more than 200 refugees over three years in his sparsely furnished three-bedroom home in central Tripoli. "I know the value of finding a helping hand." Helping other people in need gives me a purpose in life, Osman explained. I was once a stranger in this city with no one to turn to, and I know the value of finding a helping hand. His efforts were part of a caregivers programme run by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, that places at-risk individuals with more established refugee volunteers until they are able support themselves. The programme has become especially vital as the situation grows increasingly challenging for refugees and asylum seekers in the country. Ongoing conflict and instability since the 2011 uprising that removed Muammar Gaddafi has left them and others vulnerable to exploitation and abuse at the hands of armed groups and criminal networks. Volunteers such as Osman, who despite the risks chose to stay in the war-ravaged nation rather than uproot himself again, can provide a safe place to stay as well as friendship and support to fellow refugees. See also: The challenge of helping child refugees in Libya overcome trauma The most recent guests staying with Osman in the densely-populated neighbourhood where he lives were two young Eritrean women and their children, Hayat and her four-year-old son Zuhair, and Rahma and her infant daughter Almaz. Due to the limited number of caregivers and the urgency of finding a shelter for the two vulnerable women, Osman was selected as the most suitable candidate. As with all participants in the caregivers initiative, UNHCRs partners vet potential hosts and make regular monitoring visits to ensure that living conditions are adequate and guests feel comfortable and safe. Hayat, 22, grew up in Ethiopia after leaving Eritrea when she was just four years old. After getting married, she and her husband decided to leave the country in search of a better future. They arrived in Libya hoping to cross the sea to Europe and start a new life. But they were held captive by smugglers who demanded US$10,000 for their release a fee they had no way of paying. While in captivity, Hayat who was pregnant and her husband were regularly beaten. One day while trying to defend his wife, Hayats husband was killed in front of her. "My life turned into darkness." After this terrible incident, the traffickers let Hayat go. Alone and disoriented, she walked for hours trying to reach the nearest town but was arrested at a security checkpoint for being undocumented and for having entered the country in an irregular manner. She ended up in a detention centre run by the Libyan authorities for months, until UNHCR staff members visited the centre, registered her and advocated for her release. Since we left Ethiopia, my life turned into darkness, said Hayat. Losing my husband was the most difficult thing Ive gone through. But today, my son gives me strength and hope to go on, even though there is little I can offer him in this country. I cant even take him to school. Today, Hayat is one of more than 40,000 refugees and asylum seekers living in urban areas of the country. She is grateful to have met Osman, whom she regards as a big brother to her and her son Zuhair. Together with Rahma and her daughter, the five spent time chatting about their experiences and what they left behind, but also about their hopes for the future. Their favourite moments were spent around the dining table, exchanging stories and jokes while sharing a meal. "Hayat has been very brave." Thanks to the generosity of Osman and others like him, the caregivers programme currently provides shelter and support to dozens of refugees and asylum seekers. UNHCR hopes to expand the number of hosts in order to accommodate more vulnerable cases. Osman recently left the caregivers programme to work as a UNHCR community mobiliser, providing the community with information and advice about the assistance available and flagging up any specific cases requiring extra support to UNHCR and its partners. Given his own experiences, Osman understands the difficulties people like Hayat face trying to get by in Libya, and is happy to have done what he can to help her find her feet. Its extremely hard for a single mother to find work in Libya and to provide care for her child at the same time, Osman said. Hayat has been very brave. Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday after a poor performance in the Super Tuesday contests, and immediately endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden's candidacy. "Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump," Bloomberg said in a statement. "Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," said the former New York mayor and billionaire, who had spent more than $500 million on his candidacy. "I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said in the statement. Bloomberg tweet "I've known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs." A campaign aide said the two candidates talked Wednesday morning, before the announcement of Bloomberg dropping out, according to NBC News. Biden accepted Bloomberg's endorsement, saying in a tweet that the focus is on "defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, we're gonna do it." Biden tweet Bloomberg's endorsement of Biden is a major boost for the former vice president's campaign. Biden's efforts will get a lift from Bloomberg's extensive field staff and advertisements that have already been booked in future primary states. Biden will see an assist from Bloomberg's own technology company, Hawkfish. The campaign previously told NBC News that it will keep its operation going, even if Bloomberg was forced to drop out of the race. Trump gloated about Bloomberg's departure from the contest. "Mini Mike Bloomberg just 'quit' the race for President," Trump tweeted. "I could have told him long ago that he didn't have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe's campaign, hoping to save face. It won't work!" Trump tweet Bloomberg's embarrassing finish Tuesday night marked the first time he was on the ballot. Had he continued in the race, his candidacy might have taken away votes from Biden, a fellow moderate who's competing for the nomination with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. With his departure, there are now only four candidates in the race: Biden, Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Despite his massive, unprecedented spending, Bloomberg managed to win only American Samoa on Tuesday night when that territory and 14 states were up for grabs. Warren's own poor performance Tuesday increased speculation that she will be the next big name to drop out of the race. Warren's campaign manager Roger Lau said Wednesday that the campaign had fallen "well short of our viability goals and projections" on Super Tuesday, and "we are disappointed in the resullts." "Elizabeth is talking with our team to assess the path forward," Lau wrote in a message to campaign supporters, which was published on Medium.com. "She's going to take time right now to think through the right way to continue this fight. There's a lot at stake for this country and the millions of people who are falling further and further behind," Lau wrote. "This decision is in her hands, and it's important that she has the time and space to consider what comes next." President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that not all Ukrainians were ready for the second stage of medical reform. According to him, local authorities are not ready to assume powers in order to carry it out. He stated this during his speech, which was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine TV Channel. "You need to have the courage to admit that many people are not ready for the second phase of medical reform on April 1, it is true. Almost every day there are protests in various medical institutions, people are afraid of the closure of hospitals, hospitals are afraid of dismissals. Sometimes local authorities are not ready to assume powers, there is not enough funding and more, there are many reasons: There are big questions about tariffs, medical equipment and a very big question about staffing. So the main question is: Where are we rushing now? Where are we going? Does not it seem to us that with such an approach the reform flies into the wall? the president said. Zelensky expressed his gratitude to Ukraine's Minister of Health Zoriana Skaletska for her work in Novi Sanzhary and for the evacuation of Ukrainians from China. As we reported earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky created an interim working group on healthcare system reform and approved its composition. The corresponding decree No. 55/2020 was signed by the head of state on February 21, the press service of the president informed. "The working group should analyze the progress of reforming the healthcare system of Ukraine until March 1, 2020. In particular, on the implementation of state guarantees of medical care for the population under the program of medical guarantees for primary care and the readiness of healthcare institutions to implement the same guarantees for other types of medical care," the statement says. Thailand's finance ministry will propose next week a package of measures worth more than 100 billion baht ($3.2 billion) to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The measures, to be submitted to a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, will include handouts, soft loans and steps to support the stock market, Uttama Savanayana told reporters. Photo: Contributed The coronavirus has put a North Okanagan school trip to Europe on hold. Paul Britton, a recently retired teacher at Pleasant Valley Secondary School, said due to concerns over the virus, a spring break trip for 35 students and parents to Italy and Greece has been cancelled. Britton said students from Vernon, Armstrong, Enderby and Salmon Arm were scheduled to go on the Euro trip, which has been a long-standing tradition for students in the region. Britton said the trip had been in the works or two years. Britton said the trip is being rescheduled for late August and early September. Due to the risk of harm to students and parents travelling to those areas, the group has decided to reschedule at a later time, said Britton. After consultation with the travellers and (organizer group) EF, we have decided to take the necessary precautions of postponing the trip, after taking into account Health Canadas travel advisories and the very real potential that parents and students could be quarantined either overseas or once they return to Canada after the trips. Britton said the students are very disappointed, and this decision to reschedule was not an easy one, but necessary as the situation around the world is very complex, is rapidly changing and impacting all of us. As of Tuesday, there were 2,263 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Italy, with 79 deaths and 160 people recovered. The country declared a state of emergency on Jan. 31. One of the most amazing things students get to experience in school is travel. The ability to travel internationally, to experience different languages, cultures and geography is a rich and rewarding experience. As you can imagine, these trips require extensive planning and support to succeed and working with EF to reschedule this trip has lessened the burden and impact on the travellers, he said. Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.s provincial health officer, said shes had discussions with school districts across B.C. and Canada about the risks and potential for coronavirus. Weve recommended that people postpone or cancel trips to areas that have been affected and to be very aware that this is changing rapidly, Henry said. Were seeing that in the last couple of weeks, theres been other countries that have been identified and I think schools are looking at that and trying to determine where it is safe for children to go. Wearing green in Ireland might not be groundbreaking, but wearing The Vampire's Wife certainly is for Kate Middleton. The Duchess of Cambridge visited the Guinness Storehouse's Gravity Bar during her tour of Ireland where she was all smiles, joking with fellow guests and sipping on a tall glass of stout - and her look was refreshingly youthful. To continue her green theme for the Cambridges' tour of Ireland, Catherine wore an iridescent emerald metallic silk The Falconetti Dress ($2,076) by edgy British brand The Vampire's Wife that is currently available for preorder. She paired the on-trend midi dress with Manolo Blahnik BB Dark Green Velvet heels ($695), her Wilbur and Gussie Charlie Gold Glitter Classic Clutch ($315), and passed season earrings from H&M. If Kate's The Vampire's Wife dress looks familiar, then you're absolutely right. A very similar dress by the brand was worn by fellow royal Princess Beatrice to the wedding of Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling in September 2019. Ahead, a closer look at Kate's emerald green look. Related: Kate Middleton Channeled Blair Waldorf in This Velvet Headband, and We're Sure She'd Approve Benjamin Netanyahu has a narrow lead in Israels third general election in year, but he still might not be able to form a government. With 90 percent of votes counted in the Israeli general election on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the lead, but it was still far from certain whether he would win enough seats to form a majority government and end a year of political stasis. If the results stand, no bloc has enough seats for a majority in Parliament, not even Mr. Netanyahus, The New York Times writes in the article Israels Election: 7 Takeaways. All eyes are on Avigdor Liberman, the leader of an unaligned ultranationalist party that now holds the balance of power. Israels political system is still in a logjam Mr. Libermans intentions are unclear. As a secular hard-liner, he is leery of entering a coalition with some of Mr. Netanyahus ultra-Orthodox allies. He has also previously rejected entering one supported by Arab lawmakers, whose backing Mr. Gantz would require. Yet on Tuesday he ruled out forcing Israel into a fourth election in little more than a year. Im not so sure he knows himself what hes going to do, said Abraham Diskin, a politics professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. If Mr. Liberman were to end up refusing to join either side, Mr. Netanyahu could still form a coalition with defectors from Mr. Gantzs party. The two blocs might even formally create a government of national unity, though talks to do so after the past several elections have failed. If the stalemate drags on, Israel may face yet another election in several months. Israelis are divided by party, but they lean right when it comes to the Palestinians In one sense, the election once again highlighted the persistent divides within Israeli society. Though Mr. Netanyahu emerged slightly ahead, the size of the countrys two main electoral blocs one mainly religious and conservative, the other secular and comparatively centrist did not significantly change. But one theme united many voters: Israels approach to relations with the Palestinians. Both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz have declared their support for President Trumps proposed solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a proposal that rights groups condemned for neglecting Palestinian interests and annexing large parts of the West Bank. Mr. Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White party, qualified his support for annexation by saying that it should be completed in coordination with the international community, which largely opposes the move. But as he sought to win over right-wing voters, his stated goal on the issue was broadly aligned with Mr. Netanyahus. Many were willing to vote for a leader under indictment Mr. Netanyahu is scheduled to stand trial in two weeks on charges of corruption, in what would be the first prosecution of a sitting Israeli prime minister. Mr. Gantz made those charges central to his election campaign, arguing that Israelis faced a choice between an alleged kleptocrat and a man of morality one that could make or break the countrys democracy. But Mr. Netanyahus vote share appeared to have risen nearly five points since the previous election in September, suggesting that his court case wasnt a make-or-break concern for a critical mass of voters. The people in the street refused to accept that argument, David Amsalem, a lawmaker from Mr. Netanyahus party, said on a television panel show on Monday night. A constitutional crisis appears to be coming Israeli law isnt clear about whether someone facing corruption charges can legally form a government. The Supreme Court delayed ruling on the matter in January, arguing that it was a hypothetical question. But now hypothesis has turned into reality, and the court will almost certainly be sucked into a constitutional crisis that Mr. Netanyahu could frame as an attempt by an unelected judiciary to thwart the choice of the people. If he does ultimately form a majority government, he may also try to blunt the effect of the trial by decriminalizing the acts he is accused of or by granting himself immunity. The big question is: Will he have a big enough majority to avoid a trial? said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a private research college. If he does get a government that can do that, then we are moving away from what made Israel a true democracy. Arab parties are now a major force. Arabs form about 20 percent of the Israeli electorate but historically have played only a small role in Israels Parliament. That changed emphatically on Monday. The Joint List, an alliance of Arab groups, was projected to emerge as the third largest party with a record 15 seats. High turnout was reported in Arab-majority areas as residents used the election to express fury at Mr. Trumps plan, which would cede several Israeli Arab towns to a future Palestinian state. But the Joint List was also supported by Jewish leftists who felt that the countrys traditional left-wing parties had become toothless. I have been voting left for years, said Judith Posner, 73, a first-time Joint List voter in Jerusalem. I decided to vote differently this time. Mr. Netanyahu is a savvy campaigner As a longtime incumbent facing a potentially damning criminal trial, Mr. Netanyahu didnt have the easiest of hands to play in the campaign. But in the crucial run-up to the vote last week, he managed to prevent Mr. Gantz from setting the terms of debate. Mr. Netanyahu steered the national conversation away from his corruption charges with insinuations about Mr. Gantzs personal life, an embarrassing leaked recording of one of Mr. Gantzs advisers, and a series of eye-catching government responses to the coronavirus. Its very clear that Netanyahu knows much more about political campaigning than Gantz, said Mr. Wolfsfeld. Israelis havent completely lost faith in politics In the run-up to Israels third election in less than a year, there were fears that turnout would plummet amid electoral burnout and anxiety over contracting the coronavirus, of which the country had a dozen confirmed cases by Tuesday. But turnout provisionally rose to 71 percent, up from 69.8 percent in September and the second-highest rate this century. Pundits speculated that the coronavirus had convinced more Israelis to remain in the country on Election Day. Others attributed the rise to a spike in Arab turnout. The Delhi government moved a court here on Wednesday seeking fresh date for the execution of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana directed the convicts to file their response by tomorrow. The Delhi government told the court that all legal remedies of the convicts have been exhausted and nothing survives now. The lawyer for the prosecution said no notice was required. While issuing the notice, the court said that principles of natural justice are part of Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and the sacrosanct principle of "Audi alteram partem" (listen to the other side) cannot be ignored. President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the case, a Home Ministry official said earlier in the day. The court had on Monday deferred till further order the hanging the convicts that was scheduled for Tuesday. The trial court had on February 17 issued a fresh date, March 3 at 6 am, for the execution of death warrants for the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- in the case. The execution of their death warrants has been deferred thrice so far due to delays by them in exhausting legal remedies. All the convicts in the case are to be hanged together. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. She had died after a fortnight. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran has temporarily released more than 54,000 prisoners in an effort to combat the spread of the new coronavirus disease in crowded jails. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters the inmates were allowed out of prison after testing negative for Covid-19 and posting bail. Security prisoners sentenced to more than five years will not be let out. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Student housing start-up firm Stanza Living plans to invest Rs 150 crore for expanding its working professionals business. The company has launched 10,000 beds for working professionals across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Coimbatore. It plans to expand its working professional segment in three cities, including Chennai, Delhi and Indore over the next three months. "We will invest Rs 150 crore over a period of one year for working professional category with an aim to grow the category to 50,000 beds in next one year," said Anindya Dutta, MD and co-founder, Stanza Living. "This will be a separate business line designed around the lifestyle needs of working professionals. At the same time, the company will continue deepening the foothold of its flagship student housing business in new and existing markets," it said. The shared living sector in India has largely been fragmented and unorganized, suffering from infrastructure and service quality gaps like ill maintained and cramped buildings, poor quality food and lack of access to regular facilities. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network is stepping up its efforts to combat virus-related misinformation by giving the World Health Organization free advertising. Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account that the company is working with national health ministries and global organizations like the World Health Orgnization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF to get out timely and accurate information on the virus. Zuckerberg said Facebook will also give support and millions more in ad credits to other unspecified organizations. Facebook has previously taken other measures to fight virus hoaxes and misinformation, including removing false claims and conspiracy theories and showing users a pop-up directing them to the World Health Orgnization or their local health authority for the latest information. A Beijing-based intensive care doctor now working in Wuhan the city at the epicenter of China's coronavirus outbreak says designated hospitals in the city are seeing an increasing number of empty beds after a large number of virus patients were discharged. Du Bin added, however, that there's always the possibility of another spike in new cases. Du said Wednesday that a major cause of deaths in younger patients may have been the prolonged application of certain high-dosage treatments that ended up causing more harm than good. Cao Bin, a doctor specializing in respiratory research who is also currently in Wuhan, told reporters, The war is not over. Cao said Chinese researchers have led initial clinical trials of two antiviral drugs and will soon share the results of the trials with the World Health Organization. Germany has joined several other countries in banning the export of medical equipment such as respiratory masks, gloves and protective suits in most cases. Germany, like other nations, has faced a shortage of such equipment as concerns over the widening coronavirus outbreak have mounted. In Germany itself, 240 infections have been confirmed so far. Germany's interior ministry said Wednesday that exemptions from the export ban will be allowed only under strict conditions, such as for concerted international aid actions. Russia's government on Wednesday banned the export of masks, respirators and other protective gear along with anti-virus medicines until June 1. It also noted that the ban doesn't cover humanitarian aid. The Ministry for Industry and Trade said the move is intended to prevent an artificial deficit of protective goods, which are being increasingly sold abroad as global demand has soared. The Czech government also said it is banning exports of respirators and will start regulating their sale at home, saying it needs them for health workers and others. The Czech Republic has five confirmed cases of the new virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A satellite image shows a Chinese-built artificial island with airstrip and docking facilities at Fiery Cross Reef where the Chinese rescue ship Nan Hai Jui 115 has been located, Feb. 23, 2020. Updated at 6:33 p.m. ET on 2020-03-04 A Chinese rescue ship recently showcased with patriotic zeal in the nation's state media has started operating in and around Fiery Cross Reef, a land feature disputed between China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam in the South China Sea, Radio Free Asia has learned. The Nan Hai Jiu 115, according to the Office of Naval Intelligences navy recognition guide, is operated by Chinas Ministry of Transportation, and is responsible for rescue and salvage services at sea. The presence of Chinas maritime rescue service and ships in the area reinforces the official narrative that Beijing has benign intentions in its creation of artificial islands and other infrastructure in the South China Sea where its expansive claims are disputed by neighboring nations. But the ship could also play a support role for Chinese maneuvers that put pressure on other claimants. The rescue ship departed the Chinese city of Sanya, Hainan province, on Jan. 10 and entered Fiery Cross Reef on Feb. 18. It has since been patrolling around Fiery Cross, according to a vessel-tracking software used by RFA, an online news service affiliated with BenarNews. The precise reason for sending the Nan Hai Jiu 115 to Fiery Cross Reef at this time is unclear. Since July 2018, it has been based at the maritime rescue center on Subi Reef, another disputed feature built-up into an artificial island by China. Fiery Cross is about 110 nautical miles southwest of Subi Reef. Fiery Cross has been built into a logistics hub for passing Chinese vessels, and is near the site of an ongoing stand-off between Chinese coastguard ships and a Malaysian energy exploration team that was also reported by RFA last week. In addition to a rescue center, Chinas Ministry of Natural Resources said on Jan. 21 it has upgraded ecological monitoring facilities at Fiery Cross Reef, according to Chinas state-run news service Xinhua. Satellite imagery dated Feb. 23 that was analyzed by RFA shows a vessel at dock at Fiery Cross that looks very similar to the Nan Hai Jiu 115. Ship-tracking software shows the vessel was inside Fiery Cross Reef on that day. The vessel is distinguishable by its green landing helicopter dock. It was last detected in Fiery Reef on Feb. 28, but since then no new positions have been recorded. A closer-cropped view of the Feb. 23 satellite image of Fiery Cross Reef showing what appears to be Chinese rescue vessel Nan Hai Jiu 115, which ship-tracking software shows was at that location on the same day. [Planet Labs Inc.] Rescue ships in service by China have been used to assist both civilian and military vessels. Of the other two ships of its class, the Nan Hai Jiu 117 is still in port at Sanya, while the Nan Hai Jiu 116 left Sanya Feb. 2 for an unknown location. A Xinhua News video purportedly showing the crew of the Nan Hai Jui 115 as they carry out their duties was posted Feb. 23. Patriotic music is played while crew shout encouragement for the people of Wuhan and elsewhere in China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Each crew member shown is wearing a blue face mask. China established the Nansha Maritime Rescue Center on Fiery Cross in January 2019, according to the South China Morning Post and Xinhua. The new maritime rescue center is part of the South China Sea Rescue Bureau under the Ministry of Transport. The China Rescue Service (CRS) is distinct from the China Coast Guard. The CRS solely focuses on maritime rescues and salvaging after accidents or disasters at sea. Even though it performs a civilian function fulfilled by the coastguards of other countries, the CRS was not folded into the coastguard along with other agencies and bureaus in the 2013 reform process that created the China Coast Guard as it is today. This could be because of the aggressive purpose of the China Coast Guard versus the ostensibly humanitarian mission of the CRS. However, CRS vessels including the Nan Hai Jiu 115 have been accompanied by coastguard ships in the past. According to a recruitment bulletin posted online by the Ministry of Transport, the South China Sea Rescue Bureau now has eight bases to operate from in Shantou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Beihai, Haikou, Sanya and Sansha. The China Rescue Service received a huge propaganda boost in the form of a big-budget action movie The Rescue, released in January. The film prominently features equipment and platforms used by the China Rescue Service, including ships of the same class as the Nan Hai Jiu 115. It was directed by Dante Lam, the same director of the 2018 action movie Operation Red Sea, which showcased actual ships and equipment in use by the Peoples Liberation Army Navy. A veteran pilot has apologised for gifting his colleague a mug with an offensive slogan that landed him in court. Casey Mackenzie sent his female colleague coffee mug with the words 'Even Santa thinks you're a c***' on it as a Christmas gift on December 17 last year. The 48-year-old from Cairns used a fake sender's name which led to his female colleague to call the police with concern over the package. Casey Mackenzie sent his female colleague coffee mug with the words, 'Even Santa thinks you're a c***' (stock) Police trawled CCTV footage and tracked it to Mackenzie getting out of his car and sending the parcel, the Cairns Magistrates Court heard on Wednesday. Mackenzie pleaded guilty to one count of using a postal service to offend, Cairns Post reported. His solicitor Michael Finch told the court that his client acknowledges that his actions were 'adolescent'. '(But) what he did was not threatening. There was no mention of ruining anyone's lives, no guns, no shooting anybody, no blowing up schools,' Mr Finch told the court. He urged the magistrate not to record a conviction, describing Mackenzie as someone of 'good character' who 'contributed positively to the community and Australia broadly'. Mr Finch argued that a conviction could destroy his career as a pilot and that his wife, who's an American citizen, could impact their stay in Australia. Magistrate Alan Comans described Mackenzie's behaviour as a 'juvenile act' and fined him $1,000 with a six month good behaviour bond. Film footage shot at the outset of World War I is surprisingly crisp, even by today's standards -- not bad for a technology that was barely 20 years old at the time. Now, you can watch these old film reels for free. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has digitized hundreds of old film reels shot between 1914 and 1936, essentially the period from before America's entry into World War I through the interwar years before World War II erupted in Europe. Titles aren't limited to footage taken by U.S. or even allied troops. Captured German footage offers shots of German Prince William and Gen. Paul Von Hindenburg reviewing a parade of troops. A clip of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt from a "movie history" about his life. (NARA) The footage also includes allied forces' film reels. In one sequence, you can watch Italian alpine forces, including artillery, cavalry and ski troops, make their way to the Austrian front. That set of reels also depicts the capture of German troops by those same Italians. Elsewhere, footage of other allied forces was captured all around the war's Western Front, showing the British Expeditionary Forces breaking the Hindenburg Line in 1918. Back in the United States, you can watch then-Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels pull random numbers to draft men for the Great War. There is also footage of French Marshal Ferdinand Foch touring the United States, as well as British airship crews training in New Jersey. More famous scenes include film reels from the British and Germans in the North Sea, as the Royal Navy and the German Fleet battled it out for supremacy in the region during the Battle of Jutland. An Armistice Celebration in New York City, 1918 (NARA) The scenes captured on film from so long ago weren't all war and death and destruction. There are reels of dogs being trained to deliver cigarettes to the boys in the trenches, as well as the everyday lives of the men and women who served on the frontlines of the War to End All Wars. -- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. Want to Know More About Military History? Be sure to get the latest news about Military History, as well as critical info about how to join and all the benefits of service. Subscribe to Military.com and receive customized updates delivered straight to your inbox. Actor Sidharth Malhotra will star in the Hindi remake of Tamil hit "Thadam", the makers announced Wednesday. The yet-to-be-titled action thriller will hit the theatres on November 20. To be directed by debutant Vardhan Ketkar, the movie is jointly produced by Bhushan Kumar and Murad Khetani. Sidharth, who will once again be seen in a double role, said he was looking forward to working on the film. "Double trouble! Excited to be a part of this ultimate entertaining thriller, in association with @itsbhushankumar, @MuradKhetani and #VardhanKetkar. See you at the movies on 20th November, 2020," the "Marjaavaan" star wrote on Twitter. This is Sidharth's third film in which he will be seen in a dual role after "A Gentleman" (2017) and his upcoming release "Shershaah", based on the life of Kargil hero Captain Vikram Batra. Starring Arun Vijay in the lead, 2019's "Thadam" is a murder mystery. Things get interesting when the murder accused is found to have a lookalike. The Tamil film also starred Tanya Hope, Smruthi Venkat, and Vidya Pradeep. Bhushan, who is collaborating with Murad for a fourth time, said working with the co-producer is always a fun experience. "We both share the same love and passion for films and hence our collaborations have always been successful. When Murad bhai mentioned about 'Thadam' and post reading the hindi script, it was an instant yes from my side. "It was an unanimous choice to get Sidharth on board as a lead and he will surprise the audiences in this film. Vardhan has worked with one of the best directors in the industry and he is apt to lead this project," the producer said. Murad said he watched "Thadam" when it released and loved the film, which is based on real incidents. "So much so that I approached the Tamil makers and immediately bought the rights for the Hindi remake of the film. Sidharth Malhotra was my first choice and when I approached him, he instantly agreed to come on board. "I share a wonderful relationship with 'Bhushanji', after the success of 'Kabir Singh', this is our fourth collaboration with T-Series including 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', Sandeep Vanga's next and now 'Thadam'," he added. The Hindi remake of "Thadam" will be shot in Delhi from May. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government and Urban Planning has decided to recommend that Parliament accept the resignation letter of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. Twenty-three members of the committee out of 25 present were in favor of such a decision. In total, the committee has 28 parliamentarians, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported. Days after terming the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) divisive in the House of Lords, the Boris Johnson government told the House of Commons on Tuesday that events in Delhi last week were very concerning, assuring MPs it is watching the situation closely. Elizabeth Sugg, minister in the Foreign Office, told the House of Lords last week that the CAA has clearly been divisive, while Nigel Adams, minister for Asia, told MPs that the situation is still tense, adding that London has conveyed concerns to New Delhi in recent days. Labour MPs Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Preet Kaur Gill recalled the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi, and asked Adams what steps the UK government was taking to ensure that religious minorities in India could feel safe. Some MPs also mentioned recent developments in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir during the debate on Recent violence in India. Adams said: The British high commission in New Delhi and our extensive diplomatic network of deputy high commissions across India are monitoring closely the recent violence in India and developments around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019. The events in Delhi last week were very concerning, and the situation is still tense. The death of one protester is one too many. We urge restraint from all parties and trust that the Indian Government will address the concerns of people of all religions in India. India has a proud history of inclusive government and religious tolerance. Its secular constitution, which guarantees equality before the law, has been an exemplar of inclusive democracy. After his re-election, I note that Prime Minister Modi promised to continue this under the guiding principles of together with all, development for all and trust for all. Conservative MP Bob Blackman noted that Hindus have also been killed as part of the riots and told the house that the Delhi police had organised 330 separate meetings with different communities to bring them together and calm the situation. Alison Thewliss of the Scottish National Party said many of her constituents had raised concerns over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, and called for updating the Home Offices assessment while dealing with cases who have been through religious persecution already. Adams responded: We regularly update our advice on Kashmir via the FCO website and we encourage people to take close notice of that. I am sure that my colleagues in the Home Office will have noted the hon. Ladys question and will make sure she gets a follow-up. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riska Rahman and Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4 2020 Analysts and businesspeople have called on the government to take transparent and comprehensive steps to prevent a domestic COVID-19 outbreak and mitigate any potential economic risks after Indonesia announced its first two confirmed cases. The government is expected to face rapid capital outflows, leading to continued weakness of the rupiah, according to Fitch Solutions Asia country risk research head Anwita Basu. The other concern we have is that, policymakers have only taken action to mitigate the impact of the outbreak on the external sectors, she wrote in an email to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. So far, we have seen limited resources going toward the countrys public health services to avoid a domestic epidemic. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Lavifood has created new products to take food lifespan into account, Photo: Le Toan With a processing factory in the Mekong Delta province of Long An stuck with a large amount of dragon fruit due to the current worldwide health crisis, global fruit and vegetable producer Lavifood has come up with brand new products made from this kind of fruit. As a result, the company bought a huge amount of dragon fruit to both support farmers and start their new project. We have made 100 per cent dragon juice with a lifespan of nine months, soft dried dragon fruit for six months, and also frozen packaged products, Dinh Hung Dung, deputy general director of Lavifood said. According to Dung, with these new products, the company can use all of the fruit before their expiry dates. Part of these products will be shipped to China via sea, which is convenient for both China and Vietnam. From now on, we will only export by sea, not by road, Dung added. Along with Lavifoods move, many other enterprises have also found different ways to diversify their products while supporting farmers. Self-proclaimed king of bread Kao Sieu Luc, owner of ABC Bakery, also thought of using dragon fruit in his products. He replaced 60 per cent of water with pureed dragon fruit, which means that he uses 1.4kg of the fruit for every 5 kg of wheat. At the early stage we bought a tonne of dragon fruit, then pureed and froze them for future use. If the product is popular, we will need 200kg of dragon fruit per day, Luc said. After big success with the dragon bread and long lines of people waiting to purchase some, Luc has also introduced varieties with durian filling in the middle. We aim to export this kind of bread after serving the domestic market. In addition, we will introduce dragon moon cake this autumn. We have also thought of using typical Vietnamese products like taro, watermelon, and avocado to bake cakes, he added. Also wishing to support farmers, Huynh Kim Chis Vikybomi Corporation, a producer of prepared mix in Ho Chi Minh City, has finished products made from wheat, dragon fruit, and watermelon such as bread and fresh noodles. We are a material provider, so we will not sell the products directly to consumers but transfer the formulas of these products to manufacturers for free, helping consume more agricultural products, Chi said. According to Chi, her corporation may create more new items from agricultural products for export. Meanwhile, Le Duy Toan, director of Duy Anh Food Ltd., Co., said that his company had also successfully made watermelon vermicelli and dragon fruit rice crepes, which were immediately welcomed by Japanese and South Korean customers. In these two markets, people often use the rice crepes to roll barbecue or wrap sushi. We have just exported the first watermelon vermicelli patch to South Korea, while one customer from Japan has ordered 3.5 tonnes. We are in the process of signing an order of around three tonnes of watermelon noodles and dragon fruit rice paper for the Australian market, Toan said. According to Toan, the company will continue creating similar products, while continuing to promote these new ones. Noodles and rice paper made from dragon fruit and watermelon will be our major products. We are consuming 1-1.2 tonnes of watermelon and 300kg of dragon fruit a day. We hope to increase the amount to four tonnes of watermelon and one tonne of dragon fruit, he added. With experience in using sweet potatoes, beetroots, and spinach to produce vermicelli, pho, and rice paper, Toan said, Creativity in processing agricultural products to increase their value is essential because Vietnam has strong advantages in agriculture while consumers are very fond of new products. Lauding the initiatives of enterprises, Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that these were practical means to help the agricultural sector to sustainably develop in the future. Focusing on deep processing is necessary to help the agricultural sector reach the target of $43 billion in 2020. Processing enterprises must closely connect with material areas to reduce the volume of exported fresh products, Minister Cuong said. BEIJING,CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Amid an outbreak, over 4 million community workers across China are now dedicated to collecting information and screening potentially affected individuals. JD Digits' calling system offers a much safer and more agile alternative - instead of going door to door, the community workers can instead upload their key questions and contact lists to the system. By calling and asking the questions, the robot collects important clinical information, such as body temperature, travel to at-risk sites, and more, thereby supporting efforts to identify cases of possible infections through advanced filtering of collected data. This is particularly useful for hospitals in severely affected areas which are often understaffed and operating with limited resources. In support, JD Digits is swiftly deploying its flexible artificial intelligence (AI) - powered solutions - including several conversational AI products - to help communities with their day-to-day screening and reporting work. Facilitating the collection of urgently needed clinical information and providing free online consulting services, JD Digits' community-centric approach is helping to alleviate shortages of medical resources during the public health emergency as well as reducing the risk of viral transmission through face-to-face interactions. Additionally, JD Digits has also deployed an online questionnaire system called JD Digits Survey-Pro. It provides hospitals, companies, and residential communities with another tool for easily monitoring and analyzing critical information, from people's health to their return-to-work status. People can easily access via a QR code. This system has proven highly successful within JD Digits itself in terms of its ability to quickly generate data. Since the outbreak, JD Digits has donated the system to over 200 public service institutions and companies to assist them in monitoring and synchronizing the latest health-related information. JD Digits' robotic consultancy services - based on a deep learning algorithm - are another AI-powered software being actively used for medical and health-related advice. Helping more than 200 social entities, the system is now accessible on WeChat and apps in the form of a mini program, through which users can access a variety of free online services, including medical consultations and treatment recommendations, drawn from the National Health Commission's extensive knowledge pool. In addition, users can also purchase relevant medicines, locate the nearest fever clinics and designated hospitals, and see real-time information about the COVID-19 virus or receive alerts about nearby cases of infections. For medical institutions, such as hospitals and centers for disease control, JD Digits' product is helping to alleviate workloads and reduce viral exposure by providing an effective and safe online alternative. "We are deeply concerned about the COVID-19 epidemic and the well-being of the communities and JD Digits employees", said Liefeng Bo, Chief Scientist at JD Digits. "We have shown our capability in deep learning and natural language processing and the flexibility in responding to a major public health emergency. The team put a great emphasis on the efficiency and accuracy of our products. Effective solutions do not exist in the void and this cannot do without the collective work with people in the fields." JD Digits is a leading Chinese digital technology company that connects the real economy through world-class digital solutions. First established under JD.com, China's largest retailer, it later began operating as an independent business group in October 2013. Media Contact Company Name: JD Digits Contact Person: Yu.Ji Tel: 86(10)12345678 Email: media.yu@foxmail.com Website: https://www.jddglobal.com/ SOURCE: JD Digits View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578989/JD-Digits-AI-technologies-support-in-the-fight-against-COVID-19 Shackles lie on the tarmac at an airfield in Alexandria, Louisiana, after ICE agents loaded deportees onto a flight to Guatemala. Handcuffs are typically removed from Guatemalan deportees about an hour before their flight lands, according to ICE. Leg restraints are removed when deportees board the plane. Read more A Pennsylvania county imposed restrictions on U.S. immigration agents Tuesday after a federal officer arrested a man at the courthouse, sparking a heated confrontation that was captured on video. Franklin Urrutia-Cordon, 32, went to the Northampton County Courthouse for a hearing in his drunken driving case and unexpectedly found himself in federal custody for an alleged immigration violation. His attorney loudly protested the warrantless arrest. An executive order issued Tuesday by Northampton Countys top elected official, Lamont McClure, prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting people at the county courthouse or jail unless they have provided county officials with a detainer request and then show up with a warrant signed by a federal judge. McClure, a Democrat, said that the policy had been in the works for some time, but that Mondays arrest of Urrutia-Cordon was the straw that broke the camels back. ICEs presence around courthouses has been a contentious issue nationally during the Trump administration, with courts from California to New Jersey pushing back by limiting or blocking the agency from conducting courthouse arrests. Advocates for immigrants say detaining people who appear for court proceedings has a chilling effect on victims and witnesses. The immigration agency's Philadelphia office had no immediate comment on Urrutia-Cordons arrest or the county's new policy. Federal officials contend that such state and local restrictions are illegal and endanger the public. In a November letter to the Washington and Oregon supreme courts, U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared that immigration officers are not subject to state rules that purport to restrict (them) from making administrative arrests on property that is otherwise open to the public and other law enforcement officers." Immigration agents arrested two people inside a California courthouse last month, ignoring a new state law requiring judicial warrants. In Northampton County, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia, Urrutia-Cordon was in court Monday when a plainclothes immigration agent abruptly took him into custody. Taken by surprise, his lawyer demanded to see a warrant. I have a copy of it it my car, the unnamed agent said, according to a video of the encounter released by defense lawyer Joshua Fulmer. That is not acceptable, Fulmer, his voice rising, told the agent. You must show him a warrant! The agent then said he was conducting an administrative warrantless arrest. Urrutia-Cordon, who came to the United States from Honduras as a teenager, was taken to the York County jail to await deportation proceedings, according to Fulmer. My client was arrested by a federal agent with no warrant and no probable cause to do so in violation of federal law, he said. To have this idea that we are going to have federal agents walking around the hallways arresting people without a warrant that they think are here illegally, or undocumented, is extremely disturbing. Immigration agents are authorized by law to make warrantless arrests of people they have probable cause to believe are in the country illegally and are likely to flee. But Fulmer said his client had been showing up for court proceedings in his drunken driving case for more than two years without incident and was not a flight risk. Urrutia-Cordon intended to plead guilty in hopes of resolving his case and smoothing his path to lawful permanent resident status. It was a first offense for Urrutia-Cordon, who is married to a U.S. citizen. It was definitely a massive shock and very unexpected, Fulmer said of the arrest. We were there to enter a guilty plea. We thought we had resolved the case in a way that was not going to involve immigration at all. I was caught off guard. McClure, the county executive, said federal court precedent gives Northampton County the right to require ICE to show up with a warrant. We respect the federal governments need to enforce our immigration laws, but we also respect the need of people residing in the commonwealth to have due process, McClure said. But Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said the county's new policy could be legally problematic. Under the policy, the county can hold someone for up to 48 hours on an ICE detainer. Walczak cited a 2014 federal court decision that found that counties are not legally required to honor ICE detainers and thus can be held liable if there was no constitutional basis for the detention. This doesnt really protect anybody, and it doesnt expressly address whats going on in the courthouse, he said. Three members of the jury that convicted Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual assault last week have offered an inside look at how they came to the decision, describing the daunting task of unraveling five weeks of testimony in the landmark #MeToo case. The 12 jurors sat down in a small room at the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building on February 18 to begin deliberations on five charges that could send Weinstein to prison for life. Five days later, the jury presented its unanimous decision, finding Weinstein guilty on two counts for third degree rape and criminal sexual act while acquitting him of first-degree rape and the two most serious counts for predatory sexual assault. Three of the panelists spoke anonymously to the New York Times in an article published Monday which details the 26 hours they spent huddled together, poring over each piece of evidence and debating its significance to the charges. They said the process was both physically and emotionally exhausting, the stress causing several jurors to become ill. 'You are analyzing your own morality as viewed by the law in a room of 11 strangers. It is a very stressful dynamic,' one juror said. Three members of the jury that convicted Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual assault last week spoke to the New York Times about the taxing 26 hours of deliberations The jury sat through five weeks of testimony at the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building before being sent out on February 18. They returned five days later with their decision, finding Weinstein guilty on two counts for third degree rape and criminal sexual act while acquitting him of first-degree rape and the two most serious counts for predatory sexual assault The jury, comprised of seven men and five women, began deliberations by listing the five charges against Weinstein on a whiteboard. 'Everybody got a couple minutes to unpack the last five weeks for everyone else,' one juror said. 'There were different opinions. We were not unanimous anywhere on the first day.' The charges stemmed from allegations from three women: actress Annabella Sciorra, actress Jessica Mann and production assistant Mimi Haleyi. Mann accused Weinstein of raping her in 2013 - resulting in one count of third degree rape, one count of first degree rape and one count of predatory sexual assault. Haleyi accused Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006 - resulting in one count of criminal sex act and one count of predatory sexual assault. Sciorra accused Weinstein of raping her in the 1990s. While her allegation was too old to be charged on its own because of the statute of limitations, it was a key component of the two counts of predatory sexual assault from Mann and Haleyi. The jury weighed the evidence that Weinstein raped onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann (left) in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performed oral sex on film production assistant Mimi Haleyi (right) in 2006 The jurors said they were aware of the trial's significance in the #MeToo movement, but kept their focus on the evidence. They first set out to understand the legal definition of each charge before breaking down the specific incidents with the goal of answering two questions: did the assault occur, and did it meet the definition of a crime. They mapped out timelines for each incident on a second whiteboard and scribbled notes on a large legal pad. Many of the notes were immediately ripped up to ensure that they wouldn't leak. Debates between panelists were mostly civil, the jurors said, without providing specific details about disagreements. Answering the two questions for each incident required trying to block out what one called 'the noise' - which included the naked photo of Weinstein that was shown to the court as well as the 28 witnesses beyond the three accusers behind the charges. The prosecution had called three other accusers to testify about their allegations against Weinstein in an effort to establish a pattern of behavior. The jurors said they didn't spend much time discussing those accounts, but one noted that they did lend credibility to the main accusers. 'Each act happened the same way,' the juror said. 'Each person said the same thing.' Two of the jurors said the fact that Weinstein didn't testify probably hurt his case. They noted that the one friend who was called by the defense, Paul Feldsher, was not helpful either. Feldsher, a writer and former talent agent, testified that Weinstein was a 'sex addict' and said the defendant's appetite for women was 'to put it mildly, voracious'. 'He threw him under the bus,' one of the jurors said. 'That didn't help his case at all.' The jurors said they also gave little weight to the fact that Haleyi and Mann both maintained relationships with Weinstein after the attacks. 'It was one instant, not a relationship, that we were analyzing,' one juror said. The jurors said they tried to block out what one called 'the noise' - which included the naked photo of Weinstein that was shown to the court (above in a sketch) as well as the 28 witnesses beyond the three accusers behind the charges The first account examined by the jury was that of Haleyi, who was a production assistant on Weinstein's show 'Project Runway'. One juror said that Haleyi was convincing in that she remembered many specific details about the room at Weinstein's loft in Lower Manhattan where she said he held her down and forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. THE CHARGES AGAINST WEINSTEIN EXPLAINED What was Weinstein accused of: Harvey Weinstein was accused of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on film production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his apartment in 2006. What are the FIVE charges he faced: Jessica Mann: First degree rape and third degree rape The first degree charge alleges Weinstein used physical force or an implied or expressed threat that led the alleged victim to fear immediate death or injury. The third degree charge alleges only that there was a lack of consent. Mimi Haleyi: Criminal sexual act for her forced oral sex allegation. Two counts of predatory sexual assault, one for each of the charged acts. How the predatory sexual assault charges works: Under New York law, one way a person can be found guilty of predatory sexual assault is if he or she committed certain sex offenses in the past, even if that conduct didn't result in criminal charges. In Weinstein's case, prosecutors alleged that he raped Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra in late 1993 or early 1994 - an accusation that is too old to be the basis for criminal charges on its own because of the statute of limitations. The verdict: The jury convicted Weinstein of third degree rape for Mann. He was found guilty of a criminal sexual act for Haleyi. Weinstein was found not guilty of the two counts of predatory sexual assault and first degree rape for Mann. To find him guilty of predatory sexual assault, the jury had to believe Sciorra's allegations and that he committed one of the other charged offenses related to Mann or Haleyi. How much time could he face? The criminal sex act charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Third degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison. Why did three other accusers testify at trial: Three other women - costume designer Dawn Dunning, model Tarale Wulff and actress Lauren Marie Young - testified they were enticed into meeting Weinstein for professional reasons and then groped or raped. Their accusations were not the basis of any charges but they were brought in to help prosecutors show Weinstein showed a signature behavior pattern. Under New York state law, they are known as 'Molineux' witnesses. Advertisement On the first day of deliberations the jury asked to see a floor plan of the loft, which they compared to Haleyi's testimony before concluding that the evidence corroborated her story. The juror said that Haleyi's credibility was also bolstered by the fact that she had turned down Weinstein's earlier sexual advances, and that the correspondence she had with him after the assault was focused on jobs. The jury then moved to Sciorra's testimony. The 59-year-old claimed that Weinstein forced his way into her Manhattan apartment in the early 1990s and raped her. Sciorra's testimony was central to the predatory sexual assault charges. To convict Weinstein of those counts, jurors needed to agree on two things: that Weinstein raped Sciorra and that he committed one of the other charged offenses related to Mann or Haleyi. The jurors said the panel took their time in understanding the charges, and Sciorra's role. They said there were some doubts about Sciorra's account because it did not fit the pattern of the other assaults. Mann, Haleyi, and the three other accusers called by the prosecution had all said they were assaulted after Weinstein lured them into meetings with a promise of helping their careers. Sciorra, however, was already an established actress, and said that Weinstein followed her home after a dinner party. One of the jurors said that the panel questioned Sciorra's memory of the incident because it took place nearly three decades ago and she had admitted on the stand that she was addicted to Valium at the time. 'It was difficult to eliminate doubt,' the juror said. Finally they jurors turned their focus to Mann - who claimed Weinstein raped her at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan in 2013. Her account was the most complicated because she had been in a relationship with Weinstein for years that continued after the assault. 'We were kind of confused because she was in a relationship and it happened and she went back and it happened again,' one juror said. But in the end, that juror said: 'We all felt the same way on her. We believed her.' 'A reasonable person should have understood that she was not consenting to the act in question,' they said, noting how they explained to the other jurors that it was possible for someone to be raped by a partner. The jurors agreed that Mann had not consented to sex but determined that the crime did not amount to first-degree rape because no force was used. Instead they found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape, which does not require 'forcible compulsion'. The jurors said anxiety was high when they reached the fifth day of deliberations because it was clear that they were close to reaching a verdict. They went around the room polling each panelist and asked to take a break outside before writing down the complicated split decision for the foreman to announce in court. They then rang a bell in the corner of the room to alert the judge that they were ready. Weinstein has maintained his innocence in the days since the verdict was announced, but the jurors said they are confident that they did the right thing. 'Even if he is convinced of his own innocence, he's got to regret the choices that he made,' one juror said. If he doesn't, the juror added, 'then he is a monster'. The judge ordered that Weinstein be jailed at Rikers Island until his March 11 sentencing, where he faces 29 years in prison. He was instead diverted to a hospital after suffering high blood pressure and heart palpitations, and has remained there since. State home minister Anil Deshmukh informed the legislative Assembly on Tuesday that the government was planning to make changes to the building proposal rules to make installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras mandatory in all private buildings in Mumbai. He said it will help the government augment the network of CCTVs and control the crime rate. The state government has already installed 5,000 CCTV cameras in the city and plans to add 5,600 more cameras to the network in the next few months. The government is looking to make changes to the building proposal rules to make installation of cameras within the premises of the existing and new buildings in the city. The cameras will be linked with the surveillance network of the police and help in reducing the crime rate, especially crimes against women, he said. Deshmukh was replying to a debate motion moved by Opposition members on inadequate relief to farmers and rise in atrocities against women. He reiterated a special law for stringent punishment to the accused in cases of crime against women will be brought in on the lines of the Disha Act passed by the Andhra Pradesh government in the ongoing budget session. The draft of the bill is being finalised in consultation with various stakeholders, including women legislators and NGOs working in the field. The home department has convened a meeting of all women legislators on Tuesday to discuss the proposed law. 14,029 FIRs against drug peddlers In 2019, a total of 14,029 FIRs were registered against drug peddlers in Maharashtra, and 14,805 people were arrested. The state also confiscated 13,522kg of drugs worth 281 crore in this period, home minister Anil Deshmukh told the legislative Council. The state will examine if it is possible to fast-track the cases. UPPER THUMB The Tuscola County Sheriffs Department is looking for volunteers to help others during times of crisis or trauma. Volunteers are needed for the countys victim services unit to respond to crisis calls and assist victims of a traumatic situation. A victim advocate touches the life of another by providing a valuable source of support and information to those who have had their lives altered by traumatic events, explained Tuscola County Victim Services Coordinator Nancy Cook. Some of the things victim volunteers help with are: information and referrals, personal advocacy, criminal justice advocacy, courtroom accompaniment, services for sexual assault and domestic violence victims, crisis counseling, assistance with personal protection orders and subsequent violations. We do this because no one should have to go through a traumatic incident alone," Cook said. "We give them support or at least help them locate the support they need. For a victim of a crime, the criminal justice system can be scary, complicated and overwhelming." Advocates are available to help a victim through this process and help connect them with other resources and agencies in the area, Cook said. Cook noted that a person does not have to have contact with law enforcement to receive help because there are other incidents were the victim services can help as well. An advocate can help with safety plans, discuss options, explain steps of making a report, or assist in petitioning for a personal protection order if needed, she said. We are here to offer confidential support and advocacy. Contact us even if you just have questions or want to talk about your current situation. An advocate does not make decisions, but helps sort out what is happening, explains options, and helps with solutions once a victim makes a decision. Advocates receive 20 hours of special training for the position from the Michigan Sheriff Association. The training alternates from county to county. We welcome college students, those students who are on the criminal justice track, or social work, said Cook. Volunteers can be seniors citizen who want to be active in the community, or people who have gone through a tragedy or crisis of their own can draw on their experience of what helped them to be a support to others. A victim service unit is a liaison between citizens and law enforcement, the judicial system and social services. Law enforcement officers are very supportive of our victim services," Cook said. "While on the scene law enforcement has to focus on the investigation. An advocate frees them up to do the job they need to focus on. We come in and help with the victim or family. We are a liaison between them and law enforcement. Cook has a Bachelors Degree in Human Services, and in Law Enforcement. She has been the Tuscola County victim services coordinator since 2014. For more information or to volunteer to be a Tuscola County Victim Services Unit advocate call 989-673-8161, Ext. 2241. COLUMBIA Fresh off a successful 2020 primary, some South Carolina Democrats are already eyeing the possibility of taking on an even more prominent role in future races. They point to the immediate impact of Joe Biden's win in the state on the heated race, the disastrous Iowa caucuses in which it took weeks to declare a winner and longstanding complaints that the earliest states are too white. Early proponents of the idea include South Carolina's longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third highest-ranking member of the U.S. House and highest-ranking African American elected official in the country, as well as multiple Democratic National Committee members from the state. Precise ideas about what should happen vary. Clyburn's preference is to pair off the four early states, holding New Hampshire and South Carolina's primaries on the same day and Iowa and Nevada's on another, thereby adding more diversity to each contest day. Others, like South Carolina DNC committeeman Clay Middleton, propose simply moving the Palmetto State earlier in the primary calendar. "South Carolina should not only be first in the South, it should be first in the nation," Middleton said, pointing to the state's strong track record in recent cycles. One obstacle is that New Hampshire has a state law requiring that it hold the first primary in the country. But longtime state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat and DNC committeewoman, argued that should be no issue and said conversations among officials about changing the order already have begun. "Laws can be changed, and I don't think the fact that New Hampshire has a state law should preclude the DNC from scrapping it," Cobb-Hunter said. "Nevada and South Carolina are more indicative of the Democratic base across the country, so they should lead the way." South Carolinians aren't the only ones who feel the state has proven it should take higher priority in the pecking order. Scott Arceneaux, a Democratic strategist who previously served as the executive director of the Florida and Louisiana Democratic parties, said it "would make a lot of sense to move South Carolina up even earlier than it is." "That's something the Democrats should seriously look at," Arceneaux said. "It's important to have a Southern state in the mix and South Carolina has been a great indicator. We've talked a bunch about how we need to have more diversity in the early states, and I think you do need to have more diversity earlier." While some other Southern states may be interested in moving up, Arceneaux argued South Carolina is a good choice because battleground states already receive significant attention and resources in the general election. In a sign of how little influence Iowa now has in the process and how unrepresentative it is of the national party's preferences, the winner of Hawkeye State's caucuses this year former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind. dropped out of the race just a few weeks later because of his inability to generate momentum elsewhere. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Biden's massive 29-point victory in South Carolina, on the other hand, produced huge consequences nationwide within a matter of hours, prompting multiple candidates to drop out of the race and boosting the former vice president back into the lead in national polls. One change that seems to already have widespread agreement is that the party should entirely rid itself of caucuses. Even former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he believes caucuses that his home state of Nevada has held for years should be replaced by primaries. Wil Colom, a DNC committeeman from Mississippi, suggested either creating regional primaries in which several states in various parts of the country vote on the same day or rotating the earliest four states. "South Carolina tells us a lot about Southern African American voters, which probably gives you a good sense of what's going to happen in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, at least," Colom said. Historically, both parties have favored having a few smaller states go earliest in the process because it gives candidates with less money and name recognition a chance to compete on a more level playing field, unlike in bigger states or in a national primary. Not all S.C. Democrats are ready to get started so early on conversations about the next presidential primary cycle. The DNC is unlikely to begin seriously considering changes until at least 2021, after a new chairman and potentially a new president, are in place. Don Fowler, a former chairman of both the DNC and S.C. Democratic Party, said he worries that moving some states could create a cascading series of domino effects and regardless, he added, there's no reason to talk about it now. "I think speculation at this point time is just idle talk," Fowler said. "We've got bigger fish to fry right now." Current S.C. Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson said he would refrain from talking about it until after all the primaries are over. "Right now we're in the middle of a process and discussing this doesn't benefit our nominee," Robertson said. But many South Carolina Democrats feel they will at least have a strong argument to make. Iowa and New Hampshire "truly don't represent the diversity of this country," said state Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, chairman of the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus. "It would be a smart move for the Democratic National Committee to look at states like South Carolina, who give you a much more realistic view of what the rest of the country is feeling and thinking moving into Super Tuesday," he said. UK PM Johnson on Coronavirus: In Worst Case Scenario Army is Ready to Step In Sputnik News 11:03 GMT 03.03.2020(updated 13:23 GMT 03.03.2020) Toilet rolls and bottled water have virtually disappeared from shops in Australia after an outbreak of panic buying sparked by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Some UK consumers are set to hit the panic button amid fears of a mass national lockdown. The UK government has outlined new measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus as the number of cases reported reaches 40. It said a fifth of the workforce could be off sick and the government has urged people to work from home if possible. The Ministry of Defence would provide support to the civilian authorities if requested. Asked about the possibility of staff shortages in the police force, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The army is of course always ready to backfill as and when, but that is under a reasonable worst case scenario." Mr Johnson's government has said it was considering closing some schools, cancelling sporting events and curbing travel on public transport. Mr Johnson told reporters it would be "business as usual" for "the vast majority of people". He said: "I fully understand public concern about the global spread of the virus and it is highly likely we will see a growing number of UK cases. Keeping the UK safe is the government's overriding priority. We will make sure the NHS gets all the support it needs. Our country remains extremely well prepared as it has been since the outbreak began several months ago." The coronavirus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has spread around the world with 90,000 cases globally and infections in 77 countries, the latest of which has been Ukraine. The vast majority of the deaths - 2,943 - have been in China but there have been 75 deaths outside of Chinese borders and a worrying spike in cases in Iran and Italy. Mr Johnson chaired a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 3 March, before announcing a coronavirus battle plan. At the forefront of the plan was a strategy of "social distancing" which would involve people working from home, not travelling unnecessarily or socialising in large numbers. The National Police Chiefs' Council lead for civil contingencies, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Netherton, said: "If required, we have tried and tested plans that ensure continuity of policing during times of capacity issues or increased demand. These plans can include moving officers around the country, changing shift patterns and the use of the Special Constabulary." The new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been told to redraft his Budget - due to be announced on 11 March - in order to focus on combating the coronavirus and alleviating the burden on businesses which are due to suffer as a result of the reduced footfall. Retailers, publicans, cinema owners and transport companies are all expecting to face a major hit if people heed warnings and stay at home. But the social media reaction suggests that many people in Britain believe the coronavirus has triggered an over-reaction. Many Twitter users have pointed out that more people have died from influenza than COVID-19 and have highlighted the fact that the illness is only believed to be fatal for the elderly or those with underlying health problems. On Monday Mr Johnson said it was likely there would be a "very significant expansion" of the virus across Europe in the next few days. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC on Tuesday: "Right now, we do not recommend the cancelling of mass events and schools as well should not be closing unless there is a positive case and the schools have the advice to close. There maybe things we have to do down the line that we don't want to, but we will need the powers to do that hence proposing emergency legislation." Among events which could be under threat are next week's English Premier League fixtures. The media-driven hysteria has also led to a number of racist incidents against people from East Asia. The Metropolitan Police are investigating a racially motivated assault on a Singaporean student, Jonathan Mok, 23, in London. Mr Mok recounted on Facebook how he was punched in the face by a youth who said: "I don't want your coronavirus in my country." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As we become a united voice with data thats impactful, that shows better health care saves lives and that we can eventually save costs to the health care system, I think that information is able to then make policy changes and negotiate the economic drivers and support that we need," she said. "If we put on the front end some of the prevention we can mitigate some of that which costs more money on the back end. WASHINGTON President Trump has tapped Nancy B. Beck, a former chemical industry executive, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency charged with protecting the public against dangers like toxic substances in products. Dr. Beck previously led the Environmental Protection Agencys office of chemical safety, a position she came to after serving as the senior director of regulatory science policy at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the chemical industry. Democrats and environmental groups on Tuesday criticized Dr. Becks nomination as chair of the commission and accused her of using her previous government positions to advance the agenda of the chemical industry. During her time at the E.P.A., Dr. Beck oversaw the rewriting of an Obama-era rule in 2017 on a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that are linked to birth defects, in a way that would make them harder to regulate. She also helped scale back proposed bans on other substances like asbestos and methylene chloride, a deadly chemical found in paint thinners, in favor of limited restrictions. (Photo : Screenshot From Global News Official Youtube Page) Nashville Tornado Drone Footage The Nashville Tornado has recently done quite a lot of damage, with 25 people reported dead even including children and about 45,000 homes losing power. This shocking turn of events has not yet even been fully accounted for as the damage seems too big to handle right away. The home of country music is suffering as most of its infrastructure has fallen to the ground, and there are still a lot of people unaccounted for. The lack of power has also prevented help from reaching Nashville Tennessee The lack of power has also hindered communications and other devices from working, which could have helped the citizens contact their relatives and friends seeking individual help while their property is damaged. Huge devastation for everyone as even communications are hindered, and the majority of the civilians are without homes, jobs, and the necessary resources to continue. This natural disaster came as quite a shocker to everyone. The Nashville Tornado came as a surprise According to some civilians, the Nashville Tornado came without warning and has given them no time to prepare or even vacate the area as the tornado swept past several neighborhoods and business districts before moving into the city's eastern suburbs and more. The reported amount of casualties has yet to be updated as the city is still trying to at least restore power to the necessary sources for the general public. Read Also: NASA Releases Alarming Images of Antarctica Losing 20% of Snow in Just 9 Days Due to Global Warming The last deadliest tornado left 40 dead According to records, the previous most devastating tornado to do more than the Nashville Tornado's damage happened last March 2, 2012, when the twister hit different parts of the Midwest and South. The sound of Sirens and cellphones were pretty loud to alert civilians, but the twister apparently moved so quickly that not many people had the chance to vacate. Sadly, there were victims who were killed in the comforts of their own bed without even a clue of what was going on. Read Also: [MUST WATCH] Thwaites Glacier Discovery Brings Alarming Messages About Climate Change Not everybody was able to get to shelter, which left most civilians on their own to battle out the tornado with whatever structures they had to save them. The Nashville Tornado has had a similar experience with a majority of buildings from Germantown in rubbles as the tornado passed by causing mayhem in its footsteps. The storm continued eastward, which then hit Donelson, Mt. Juliet, and even Lebanon Country. The storm then continued towards the east, hitting Putnam Country. There have been at least 48 buildings that have collapsed There were at least 48 buildings that have totally collapsed, while most buildings and homes suffer major damages towards their infrastructures. Tennessee has already declared a state of emergency, but the damage has already been done. The city is pulling its resources to rescue those in need and treat those who are already injured. The Nashville Tornado was something unexpected for everyone around the area, and now that it has done its damage, the citizens of Tennessee are looking for help. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against the Taliban in Nahr-e Saraj of Helmand district of Afghanistan, the US military spokesperson said on Wednesday. IMAGE: United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Talibans top political leader signing a peace agreement between Taliban and US, in Doha on February 29, 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attacks by Taliban, the Pajhowk Afghan News reported citing the spokesperson. "The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an Afghan National Security Forces checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our 1st strike against the Taliban in 11 days," the spokesperson said. "To be clear -- we are committed to peace. However, we have the responsibility to defend our Afghan National Security Forces partners. Afghans and US have complied with our agreements," he added. This comes hours after more than 20 Afghan soldiers and police officers were killed in northern Afghanistan in the latest Taliban attack. The increase in the violence follows US President Donald Trump having a telephonic conversation with Taliban leaders where the latter promised to reduce the violence in the country. The violence by the Taliban and counter-attack by the US jeopardise the historic peace deal signed four days back by the United States and Taliban to bring peace to Afghanistan by withdrawing American forces. A senior Pakistani official on Wednesday rubbished reports that the number of coronavirus cases in the country were being understated due to the ongoing Pakistan Super League. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on health Zafar Mirza when asked by a journalist about reports that the actual number of cases was around 250, Mirza said: "This is 100pc untrue. In fact, it is 200pc untrue. The 5th edition of PSL started on February 20 and is scheduled to continue till March 22 with several international players taking part in it. Mirza said that so far only five cases of coronavirus were confirmed and all of them were in stable condition. He said that people should take precautions but should also know that everyone with flu should not assume they have the virus. Mirza said that the federal and provincial governments were working closely to face the challenge. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the number of cases of Coronavirus on a rise in the UK, the lawmakers in the British parliament are worried if the spread of the virus can be contained inside the 100-year old building. According to reports, the members of the parliament are worried as they feel the building is not equipped to deal with the deadly virus. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined the plan to tackle the disease, but lawmakers worry that the risk inside the parliament was much greater. Read: Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, German Airline Lufthansa To Ground 150 Flights British lawmaker Chris Bryant told the press that the parliament toilet has no sanitizers or soap and one of the sinks in the men's toilet has not worked for a decade now. As per reports, some lawmakers have suggested the prime minister consider conference calls and electronic voting if the situation in the United Kingdom worsens. Some lawmakers have even urged to install more sanitizers in the corridors as lots of people walk through it touching the same door and shaking hands. Read: Barack Obama Urges People To Take 'stay Calm', 'listen To Experts' Amid Coronavirus Scare According to reports, there were currently 85 active cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom as of March 4 of which 34 cases have been reported recently. So far, no loss of life from coronavirus have been reported from England, but the country remains on high risk until further notice. Italy has been the most affected country in Europe with over 3,000 active cases and 107 deaths. The level of risk of contracting coronavirus in Europe has been raised from 'moderate to high' amid escalation. Read: Supermarkets Draw Up Plan To Maintain Uninterrupted Food Supplies Amid Coronavirus Scare Coronavirus outbreak The new coronavirus also known as COVID-19 has claimed more than 3,200 lives across the globe and has infected over 95,000 people since December 2019. According to reports, at least 268 people have died outside mainland China, which makes it the worst disease outbreak in the 21st century. The virus originated from a seafood market in Wuhan city, where animals were being traded illegally. Hubei province in China has been most affected by the contagious disease, which is also the epicentre of the virus. Read: Boris Johnson Admits Shaking Hands With COVID-19 Patients, 'danger To Public' Say Tweeples Image Credit: AP Captain Solomon Quainoo (right) 04.03.2020 LISTEN Ghanaian pilot, Captain Solomon Quainoo has admonished the youth to seize the opportunity to live their dreams by directing their energies into useful ventures. According to Captain Quainoo, being optimistic and putting effort into working hard can lead one to achieve greater heights. I have always wanted to become a pilot since I was a child. Unfortunately, the journey became murkier along the line. From a very poor background, it was not easy for me at all, but with perseverance and good faith, I never gave up my dreams, he added. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Peace FMs Emmanuel Bekoe at the Headquarters of Emirates in Dubai, Captain Quainoo said it was quite worrying to see a section of the youth give up their dreams easily when they were faced with complex challenges. Whenever you quit, you have less knowledge of what you could achieve, he said. Touching on the much talked about Dubai Expo 2020 that seeks to connect 193 countries in Dubai, Captain Quainoo mentioned that it was a rare opportunity for him to fly participants and visitors to Dubai. The advantages and opportunities of Dubai Expo 2020 are huge and I am looking forward to discharging my duties creditably. Fortunately, here at Emirates, the work gets easier as a result of our hardworking team, he concluded. Captain Quainoo rose to prominence when he became the first Ghanaian to fly the worlds largest passenger aircraft, Emirates Airbus A380 to Ghana. Daily Guide The Feb. 28 Metro article Acting U.S. attorney for D.C. gets alumni plea described a letter dated Feb. 26 delivered to acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea from more than 60 former federal prosecutors in that office. The letter is the latest in a series of salvos highly critical of Attorney General William P. Barrs involvement in the Roger Stone sentencing. The letter asks that Mr. Shea resist any and all political interference by either the President or the Attorney General, investigate vigorously . . . violations of federal criminal law regardless of . . . political affiliation and not be used as a tool to favor the politically connected. Photograph: JLN Photography/REX/Shutterstock There wasnt much good news on Super Tuesday for the more progressive wing of the Democratic party, save for one lesson: money on its own, mercifully, cannot, as of yet, buy an entire election. Thats the lesson many drew from the failure of billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who had hoped spending a half billion sliver of his massive fortune on an ad buy and staffing a national campaign might make inroads against former vice-president Joe Biden for the battle of the centrists. But Bloombergs announcement today that he will be dropping out means the more than $500m he spent was wasted on nothing. Unless you count his sole win in American Samoa. Wasted is a relative term of course, because for a man reportedly worth over $60b, $500m to him is practically nothing. For everyone else its still, well, $500m, and that has prompted some to wonder what good that kind of money could have done spent elsewhere. Here are some places he might have better spent the cash dump: Clearing medical debt According to RIP Medical Debt, a group who purchases medical debt in bulk, every $100 donated can alleviate $10,000 in oppressive medical bills. 66% of all US bankruptcies are tied to medical debt issues they say. So far theyve eliminated around $1.3bn in medical debt, but doing some quick math, if Bloomberg had chipped in what he spent on the campaign that might have alleviated $50bn in debt. Sadly and sickeningly thats not enough to clear everyones tab in America, but its pretty close, and good enough to change hundreds of thousands of lives over night. Alas. Cleaning up Flint For around 1/10 of what he spent on getting embarrassed in front of the world, Bloomberg also could have replaced all of the old lead pipes in Flint, Michigan, then had hundreds of millions left over to pull every citizen there or in many other cities out of poverty. Its a point that many made when the campaign complained about their headquarters there being lightly vandalized last month. Story continues Pay off student debt While $500m might be a drop in the bucket of the $1.4tn owed in student loan debt in America, with an average outstanding loan of around $37,000, thats roughly 150,000 people whose lives the former New York City mayor could have transformed for the better. Think about all the good all those people unshackled at once from their predatory student loans might go on to do. House the homeless With a reported 60,000-80,000 people living unhoused in New York City, his hometown, Bloomberg certainly would have had to lay out a bit more than $500m to give them all homes, certainly in one of the most expensive cities in the country, but with an average home price across the US of about $226,000 thats well over 2,200 people he could have simply purchased a home for. Just like that. Heres a house. Its all yours now. Hed barely even notice the money was gone. Restore voting rights to felons As an ardent believer in democracy, Bloomberg is no doubt aggrieved by Florida Republicans efforts to reverse engineer a poll tax against the will of the voters, making it harder for felons to vote. Bloomberg could make a huge dent in the hundreds of millions outstanding, restoring the right to vote to thousands, or alternatively, he might have funded any number of campaigns against Republicans in the state actively working to disenfranchise its own citizens. His call, really! This article was amended on 5 March 2020. $500m could be used to clear approximately $50bn of medical debt, not $500bn as we said in an earlier version. This has been corrected. Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren is coming back to Michigan for the second time this week. The Massachusetts senator is planning to visit Michigan four days before the March 10 presidential primary, her seventh stop in the state so far. Warrens campaign announced a March 6 town hall at Lansing Community College, releasing the details shortly before she took the stage at a rally in Detroit Tuesday. Warren told her supporters to keep fighting at the Detroit rally, held before 14 states voting on Super Tuesday began releasing election results. Warren introduced herself as the woman whos going to beat Donald Trump," drawing large applause from a diverse crowd of roughly 2,200 supporters. This moment will not come our way again, Warren said. This is our moment to choose hope over fear. This is our moment to choose courage over cynicism. This is our moment to dream big, fight hard and win. Doors open to the public at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 6. The event is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. at the Gannon Building on LCCs campus, located at 600 N. Grand Ave. in Lansing. People interested in attending the event can RSVP online here. The Friday event will be Warrens second visit to Lansing. She held a rally at LCC in June 2019, which was also scheduled after Warren held another event in Detroit. Read more on MLive: Elizabeth Warren tells Michigan shes the woman to beat Donald Trump at Super Tuesday campaign rally Bloombergs Michigan agenda includes more funding for Great Lakes, roads and housing What happens if I voted for someone who dropped out of Michigans presidential primary? What Michigan voters need to know about absentee ballots for March 10 primary Bernie Sanders could seize second Michigan presidential primary win, this time as Democratic front-runner In one of the most-watched congressional primaries in the nation, longtime U.S.. Rep Henry Cuellar narrowly defeated rising progressive Jessica Cisneros in the race for the Democratic nomination for Texas 28. With all precincts in the nine counties that make up the district counted, Cuellar held on to his seat, 52 percent to 48 percent. The largest part of the district is based in Laredo, Cuellars hometown as well as Cisneros, but Cuellar is the one who took it, 15,853 votes to 12,900. Cuellar lost the small part of Bexar included in the congressional district by nearly half; Cisneros scored 8,682 votes to Cuellars 4,315. The partys establishment stood behind Cuellar, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress with some even making a stop at his campaign headquarters in Laredo while progressives in D.C., including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, backed his challenger. Cisneros supporters had hoped larger turnouts on Tuesday would propel her past Cuellar in the end. The race provided an early test of the appeal of some of the partys most far-reaching policy proposals including the Green New Deal, which calls for a swift shift away from fossil fuels in a district where the oil and gas industry employs tens of thousands. Cuellar, one of the few pro-gun, anti-abortion Democrats left in Congress, has taken to calling Cisneros a socialist, keying on the buzzword that has defined much of the Democratic presidential primary. Cuellar brought in all the help he could get to retain the seat, including the conservative Koch brothers, whose political action committee spent tens of thousands on mailers supporting him. Oil and pharmaceutical companies, too, poured thousands into the pro-business congressmans campaign during the final days of the primary. Local businessmen and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce contributed as well, in what ended up as one of the most expensive races in the state, with the total raised and spent in the South Texas district well beyond the $5 million mark. Still, Cisneros, the 26-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants who would have been the youngest member of Congress has she been elected, out-raised Cuellar during the final stretch of the race. She was backed by major progressive groups, including EMILYs List, which supports women candidates, and Justice Democrats, the group that helped Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 defeat a longtime New York congressman who was a moderate Democrat. Others including the Working Families Party dispersed teams of canvassers across Laredo, Cuellars home turf, and launched cable and digital advertisements. We knew this would be an uphill battle going in, the group said in a statement earlier in the week. But nobody ever said electing progressive champions would be easy. Cisneros branded Cuellar Trumps favorite Democrat because of his penchant for crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans. She argued he was out of touch with the solidly blue district as she racked up endorsements from the state AFL-CIO, as well as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and presidential hopeful now campaigning for Warren. Among other issues, Cisneros has called for Medicare For All, getting money out of politics, and creating an independent immigration court system. Cuellar, meanwhile, is well-known in the 28th Congressional District. A lawyer who has held the seat since 2005, he is one of three members of his family on the ballot this year in Laredo. His brother, Martin, is sheriff and his sister, Rosie, is tax assessor. Both are seeking re-election. His campaign also boasted endorsements from more than 200 former and current local Democratic officeholders. The large 28th congressional district stretches from San Antonio to the southern border with Mexico. It has been reliably Democratic, but is unique in that it is largely rural and overwhelmingly Latino. In the end, Cuellar won in five of the counties, including Atascosa, Starr, Webb, Wilson and Zapata. He lost in Bexar, Hidalgo and Wilson. The two candidates tied in tiny McMullen, where they each received nine votes. Overall, Cuellar bested Cisneros by nearly 3,000 votes: 38,720 to 35,964, winning all of the counties except Bexar. Samples of two persons in Telangana have been sent to the NIV Pune after local tests for coronavirus returned "borderline", health officials said on Wednesday, as the government stepped up precautionary measures in the backdrop of first positive case being reported in the state. One of the two persons was working in a software company here as the virus scare hit the IT corridor at Cyberabad here with a complex being "closed" for sanitisation. The state reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, tested positive for the virus. His condition was stated to be stable on Wednesday. Officials said the samples sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune pertain to a person with foreign travel history to Italy and a person who had come in contact with the man who tested positive for the virus. The samples were sent as results of tests done here were on the "borderline", a senior health official said. State Health Minister E Rajender said in a release that there are no fresh cases of coronavirus in the state and that only one positive case has been confirmed. Later, speaking to reporters, he said: "Report of two people will come by tomorrow. (so far) one case of coronavirus (in Telangana).There are no fresh cases." The two are among the 47 people whose samples were tested at the state-run Gandhi hospital here on Tuesday. According to the minister, 45 samples tested negative for the virus. Rajender also said four family members of the Dubai- returned software professional tested negative for the virus, which has affected 29 people in the country. He said the government has decided to set up a command control centre and different committees, including a panel for hospital management and another for surveillance, would be set up to deal with the situation arising out of COVID-19. Managements of over 20 medical college hospitals have agreed to arrange an isolation ward in their facilities with monitoring equipment, ventilators and others. Rajender stressed that no false information should be spread on the social media with regard to the virus. He found fault with the evacuation of employees in the IT corridor of the city. One building in a complex, housing software firms, was vacated for sanitisation for a day as a precautionary measure after an employee there was suspected to have contracted the virus and other employees asked to work from home. The evacuation triggered rumors, including on social media, about the spread of the virus, forcing the authorities to clarify that operations in the building would resume on Thursday. State Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan said the positive COVID-19 cases in the country are those with travel history to foreign countries. He said the IT firm's office in which the techie, who is suspected to have contracted the virus, worked is located on the ninth floor of the building. The firm employed 350 people and about 23 were part of the work group in which the techie worked. Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) M Mahendar Reddy requested people not to spread rumors in social media regarding coronavirus and warned of stern action against those indulging in such acts. In a related development, around five private schools in Secunderabad here were closed on Wednesday following requests from parents of some students. A District Education Official told PTI the managements of the school 'voluntarily' closed the institutions and they will again function as usual from Thursday. Meanwhile, apro-CAA meeting scheduled to be addressed byUnion Home MinisterAmitShah here on March 15 has been postponed to reduce mass physical contact of people in view of the current precautions being taken up in the country, Telangana BJP Chief Spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao said in a statement. The revised scheduled would be informed n due course, he added. Sanitisation drive was taken up in the Hyderabad Metro trains and by the state-run Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as a precautionary measure, as suggested by Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) EDWARDSVILLE An investigation into the Madison County Administration may not be as over as previously announced. On Monday G. Edward Moorman, the attorney for Madison County IT Administrator Robert Dorman, filed a motion indicating the investigation is ongoing, or that a second investigation may be underway. Information is limited because, according to the filings, all of the related documents have been sealed by the courts. On March 2 a motion for rule to show cause was filed in Madison County as part of the original case claiming Madison County Sheriff John D. Lakin was in contempt of court for failing to comply with a judicial order releasing a laptop seized from Dormans office. It also seeks to clarify which judge is dealing with the case and requests a hearing to determine whether an outside prosecutor should be appointed. This comes after visiting Judge Jerry Crisel of the Second Judicial Circuit in Mount Vernon issued an order on Feb. 5 terminating the prosecution and investigation into the Madison County Board administration and ordering the return of seized items, including several computers. The order came approximately two years after the initial investigation started. At a Jan. 24 hearing, McGinley Andrew of the Illinois Attorney Generals Office said her office had withdrawn and ended the investigation begun in January 2018 when officers from a special Madison County Public Corruption Task Force raided several administration offices, seizing computers and other items. Eventually the case was turned over to the Illinois Attorney Generals office for investigation and prosecution with Crisel appointed to oversee the proceedings. The motion claims the sheriffs department did not return the IT Departments laptop but, instead, had another judge not part of the original case issue a seizure warrant for the computer. That warrant was served in January. The motion states that, because the sheriffs department did not return the property, Lakin must show why he should not be held in contempt. The motion also states that, before the attorney general withdrew, another judge issued an order extending the sealing of the original warrant affidavit for 90 days and sealed the order so it is not apparent who requested said order. The motion states the attorney generals office had no objection to unsealing the affidavit and either the sheriffs department or the Madison County States Attorneys Office, which had been removed from the case by Crisel, requested the new order. The motion states that one day after Crisels order releasing the evidence, another judge issued the seizure warrant and all of those proceedings have been sealed. While the Illinois Attorney General had reported to the court that its investigation was complete the Madison County States Attorney, despite the fact that it had been removed from the investigation, requested that the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor be appointed and another judge not previously assigned to this matter issued a new order appointing the Appellate Prosecutor, the motion states. Lakin declined to comment on the matter Wednesday. Chief Deputy Sheriff Maj. Jeff Connor, in an email, said the department has not seen the filing and any comment from Lakin would come through his attorney. As of Wednesday afternoon, officials with the Madison County States Attorneys Office and Illinois Attorney Generals Office had not responded to requests for information. Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447. Journalist Ronan Farrow, the author of the bestselling book Catch and Kill, said on Wednesday that he would cut ties with his publisher, Hachette Book Group, after it announced one of its divisions was publishing Woody Allen's autobiography next month. Farrow is Allen's son with actress Mia Farrow, and his adopted sister, Dylan Farrow, has long accused Allen of molesting her when she was a child, allegations he has denied. Journalist Ronan Farrow has hit back at publisher Hachette for acquiring and releasing Woody Allen's memoir. Credit:Evan Agostini/Invision/AP In an email exchange, obtained by The New York Times, Farrow, whose reporting on accusations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men helped touch off the #MeToo movement, harshly criticised Hachette, calling its decision to publish Allen's memoir a betrayal. "Your policy of editorial independence among your imprints does not relieve you of your moral and professional obligations as the publisher of Catch and Kill, and as the leader of a company being asked to assist in efforts by abusive men to whitewash their crimes," Farrow wrote in an email to Michael Pietsch, the chief executive of Hachette, whose Little, Brown imprint published Catch and Kill. An 18-year-old male accused of sexually assaulting a girl four years ago when she was seven was found not guilty by direction of the judge at Tullamore Circuit Court. The young man, who cannot be named, had denied six counts of sexually assaulting the girl on dates unknown in February 2016. In an interview conducted by a specialist garda and recorded on a DVD, the girl said the assaults had occurred in the bathroom of a neighbour's house. She said she was playing with three other boys in a bedroom when the oldest one asked if she would go to the bathroom with him. After initially refusing to go, she went to the bathroom herself and was followed by him. In addition to sexually assaulting her, she said she was asked to look at his private parts and she touched them. Similar events occurred again the following day, a jury of 10 men and two women heard. The girl's recorded statement was played on TV screens in the courtroom while the girl, now aged 11, stayed in a separate room in the same building. When counsel for the defence, Colm Smyth, put it to the girl in cross-examination that the events did not occur, the girl said she could not now remember because it happened years back. Mr Smyth also told the court the accused's penis could not have been touched in the manner described earlier because he had been circumcised in 2012. The defence also said during the first day of the trial last Friday that the accused would say a picture had been taken on a Nintendo DS device of the girl's mother in bed with two young men. The girl said she did not know anything about such a picture and said she used the DS to take photographs of stories she would make up. The gardai inspected the device and could not find the photograph but when the girl's mother was cross-examined by Mr Smyth, she said that two men and two or three female friends of hers had come back with her one night from the pub and they were on the bed with her the following morning. Her daughter had not been there that night but she returned in the morning. On the second day of the trial yesterday (Tuesday, March 3) prosecuting counsel Shane Geraghty introduced Dr Sinead Harty, a consultant paediatrician at Crumlin children's hospital. She gave evidence of examining the girl and said it was her opinion that the girl had been abused. When it was put to her that earlier medical reports indicated the girl had been treated for constipation, Dr Harty said the treatment was for mild constipation and did not change her finding that what she found in her examination was consistent with abuse being the cause. However, she accepted that the best evidence in relation to the constipation would be provided by the GP who had treated the girl. Acceding to an application yesterday from Mr Smyth that the case be stopped, Judge Keenan Johnson said it was an unusual one because of the length of time it had taken to come to court. He said the girl was being honest but had said she could not remember what had happened and at its height, there would have to be a reasonable doubt about the evidence. He also said it had only been discovered on the morning of the first day of the trial that the accused had previously been circumcised. Therefore he directed the jury to record a not guilty verdict on all six of the counts. Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "The US Pet Insurance Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2020-2024 Edition)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides an analysis of the US pet insurance market, with detailed analysis of the market in terms of value, volume and the average annual premium. The US pet insurance market is expected to increase at high growth rates during the forecasted period (2020-2024). The US pet insurance market is supported by various growth drivers, such as increasing love for dogs and cats, growing interest of millennials for pets, etc. yet, the market faces certain challenges, such as barrier to entry, risks for a pet insurance company, etc. few new market trends are also provided such as expanding distribution channels options, association with competing for payment options, etc. Moreover, the report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall the US pet insurance market has also been forecasted for the years 2020-2024, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends. Trupanion Inc., FigoPet Insurance, ASPCA Pet Insurance, and Pet Plan Insurance are some of the key players operating in the US pet insurance market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, a business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the companies are provided. Company Coverage Trupanion Inc. FigoPet Insurance ASPCA Pet Insurance Pet Plan Insurance Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction 2.1 Pet Insurance: An Overview 2.1.1 Pet Insurance: Meaning 2.1.2 Types of Pet Insurance 2.1.3 Factors Affecting Premium Pet Insurance 2.1.4 Benefits of Pet Insurance 3. The US Market Analysis 3.1 The US Pet Expenditure: An Analysis 3.1.1 The US Pet Expenditure by Value 3.1.2 The US Pet Expenditure by Category (Live animal purchase, Pet services, Food, Supplies/OTC medicines and Vet care) 3.1.3 The US Pet Expenditure by Basic Annual Expenses For Dogs And Cats 3.2 The US Pet Insurance Market: An Analysis 3.2.1 The US Pet Insurance Market by Value 3.2.2 The US Pet Insurance Market by Volume 3.2.3 The US Pet Insurance Market Volume by Coverage Type (Accident and Illness/ Insurance with Embedded Wellness and Accident Only) 3.2.4 The US Pet Insurance Market by Average Annual Premium 3.2.5 The US Pet Insurance Market by Top Encouraging Reasons 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Growth Drivers 4.1.1 Increasing Love for Dogs and Cats 4.1.2 Growing Interest of Millennials for Pets 4.1.3 Rapid Growth in Consumer Acceptance of Pet Insurance 4.1.4 Growing Disposable Income of a Household 4.1.5 Increasing Transparency Regarding Coverage 4.1.6 Growing Industry 4.2 Challenges 4.2.1 Barrier to Entry 4.2.2 Risks for a Pet Insurance Company 4.2.3 High Competition 4.3 Market Trends 4.3.1 Expanding Distribution Channels Options 4.3.2 Association With Competing Payment Options 4.3.3 Technological and Efficiency Improvements 4.3.4 Expansion of Exotic Pet Insurance 5. Competitive Landscape 5.1 The US Pet Insurance Market: Player Analysis 5.1.1 The US Pet Insurance Market Player by Share 5.2 The US Pet Insurance Market Player: Price Comparison 6. Company Profiling List of Figures Figure 1: Pet Insurance vs Without Pet Insurance Figure 2: Types of Pet Insurance Figure 3: Benefits of Pet Insurance Figure 4: The US Pet Expenditure by Value; 2015-2019 (US$ Billion) Figure 5: The US Pet Expenditure by Value; 2020-2024 (US$ Billion) Figure 6: The US Pet Expenditure by Category; 2018 Figure 7: The US Pet Expenditure by Basic Annual Expenses For Dogs And Cats; 2019 (US$) Figure 8: The US Pet Insurance Market by Value; 2015-2019 (US$ Million) Figure 9: The US Pet Insurance Market by Value; 2020-2024 (US$ Billion) Figure 10: The US Pet Insurance Market by Number of Pets Insured (Million) Figure 11: The US Pet Insurance Market Volume by Coverage Type; 2018 (Percentage,%) Figure 12: The US Pet Insurance Market by Top Encouraging Reasons; 2017 Figure 13: Number of US Households with Pets (Cats & Dogs); 2017 (Million) Figure 14: The US Pet Ownership Share; 2017 (Percentage, %) Figure 15: The US Pet Ownership Share by Age; 2017 (Percentage, %) Figure 16: The US Insured Pet Share by Generation; 2017 Figure 17: The US GNI Per Capita; 2013-2018 (US$) Figure 18: Different Distribution Channels for Pet Insurance; 2017 Figure 19: The US Pet Insurance Market Player by Share; 2017 (Percentage, %) Figure 20: Trupanion Inc. Revenue; 2014-2018 (US$ Million) Figure 21: Trupanion Inc. Revenue by Segment; 2018 (Percentage, %) Figure 22: ASPCA Pet Insurance Revenue; 2014-2018 (US$ Million) Figure 23: ASPCA Pet Insurance Revenue by Segment; 2018 (Percentage, %) Figure 24: Pet Plan Insurance Revenue; 2013-2017 (US$ Million) List of Tables Table 1: The US Pet Insurance Market Average Annual Premium Per Dog Per Cat, by Product; 2014-2018 (US$) Table 2: Barriers to the New Entrants Table 3: The US Pet Insurance Market Players by Pet Insurance Offerings; 2017-2018 Table 4: The US Pet Insurance Players by Pet Insurance Price Comparison; 2017 For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xt8w52 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Trump Campaign Sues The Washington Post for Russia-Related Libel The campaign of President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against The Washington Post, alleging the paper published two defamatory opinion articles about it last year causing millions in damage. The articles at issue herein also are part of the The Posts systematic pattern of bias against the Campaign, designed to maliciously interfere with and damage its reputation and ultimately cause the organization to fail, says the complaint filed on March 3 with the federal District Court in Washington. The papers vice president of communications, Kristine Coratti Kelly, responded in an emailed statement. Its disappointing to see the Presidents campaign committee resorting to these types of tactics and we will vigorously defend this case, she said. Russia Claim One of the articles, by Greg Sargent, was published on June 13 with the title Trump just invited another Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is making one more likely. It said, in part, that special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the campaign tried to conspire with Moscows campaign to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. This claim is false and defamatory the suit says. The Mueller Report is a public record, and repeatedly finds that there was no conspiracy between the Campaign and the Russian government. Muellers March 2019 report marked the conclusion of more than two years of investigation into allegations of Trump-Russia collusion to sway the election. It concluded the probe didnt establish any such coordination. The article mentions that Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Russia and North Korea Claim The other article, by Paul Waldman, was published on June 20, 2019, entitled Trump: I can win reelection with just my base. It says in part, who knows what sort of aid Russia and North Korea will give to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their assistance? This is also false and defamatory the suit says. The Campaign has repeatedly and openly disclaimed any intention to seek Russias help in the 2020 election. The claim about North Korea has been made up out of whole cloth, the suit says. Not only has nobody affiliated with the Campaign made such a statement, but there has been no reporting by any reputable news outlet that the Campaign has sought or will seek North Koreas assistance, or has had any contact with North Korea regarding the 2020 election. The paper never informed the Campaign that it was going to publish the claims in the Defamatory Article, did not afford the Campaign an opportunity to verify the accuracy of the claims before publication, and did not reach out to the Campaign for comment. The claim that Trump invited foreign interference stemmed from his comments during a June 12, 2019, ABC News interview, where he said that if a foreigner offers information on ones political opponents you might want to listen and if there was something wrong go maybe to the FBI. Bias Claim The suit accuses the paper of being extremely biased against the Trump campaign and Republicans, noting that it only ever endorsed Democrats for president since it started issuing endorsements in 1976. Sargent has been critical of the Trump administration on Twitter and in a book he wrote, the suit says. Waldman used to work for Media Matters for America, a progressive nonprofit focused on criticism of conservative media. The purpose of the suit is to publicly establish the truth, properly inform The Posts readers (and the rest of the world) of the true facts, and seek appropriate remedies for the harm caused by The Posts false reporting, the complaint says, seeking compensatory damages in the millions of dollars and further not quantified presumed and punitive damages. New York Times Suit Last month, the Trump campaign filed a libel suit against The New York Times, saying the newspaper had published false and defamatory statements about the campaign in an opinion article last year. The 2019 op-ed in question, titled The real Trump-Russia quid pro quo, was written by Max Frankel, who was the newspapers executive editor from 1986 to 1994. The article claims that Trumps campaign and Russia had an agreement in order to defeat Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. The complaint alleges The Times was aware of the falsity at the time it published them, but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process, said Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the campaign, in a statement. The paper responded by saying the campaign was trying to punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable. Defamation suits filed by public figures have a high legal bar to clear as they need to establish a false, damaging statement was made by somebody who knew it was false or had reckless disregard for whether it was false. The Prime Ministers Office has told the health ministry to rapidly expand the facilities to test for coronavirus (Covid-19) and isolate suspected cases to the district level and map the disease hot-spots with the available medical facilities. PK Mishra, principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also discouraged government departments from holding conferences and international meetings. It was decided to order all departments to consult the health ministry before going ahead with any conference and international meeting in the country. Already, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that he would not participate in any Holi Milan event in light of advice from experts to reduce large gatherings of people to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. PM Modis cabinet colleagues and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states soon after made similar announcements. By evening, President Ram Nath Kovind aso announced that Rashtrapati Bhavan would not hold the traditional Holi gatherings as a precautionary measure. Wednesdays meeting was held against the backdrop of a spike in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases to 28, nearly half of them Italian tourists who contracted the infection from one man in their group. By the time doctors were able to confirm the infection, it transpires that the group had come in contact with over 200 Indians across six districts of Rajasthan where they had travelled. It was in this context that the PMO review decided to rapidly open proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country, down to the district level. An official statement issued later said these facilities would be rolled out in partnership with the state governments. The Bharatiya Janata Party has already cancelled Home Minister Amit Shahs rally in Hyderabad scheduled to be held on March 15. K Krishna Saagar Rao of the Telangana BJP said the rally had been deferred to a future date. The government, in an effort to ensure that any more people infected with the virus do not enter the country, has introduced screening of all travellers returning from abroad. Changes are also being made in the immigration form that requires travellers to declare the countries that they have visited in recent days and weeks. This would enable the government to isolate potential cases for a closer examination, depending on their travel history. Two important changes since yesterday to further enhance our level of preparedness, namely the introduction of universal screening at all international airports and sea-ports through use of thermal imagery equipment as well as mandatory declaration forms of places visited by tourists and travellers returning from abroad, were noted by all concerned for operationalization, the PMO statement said. It said the review meeting stressed on the participation of communities and local bodies to combat the public health challenge posed by the virus and also decided to explore the greater involvement of the private sector. Ayodhya, March 4 : Iqbal Ansari, one of the plaintiffs in the Babri title suit, has come up with a new suggestion for the five acre land designated for a mosque. Ansari has said that the Sunni Central Waqf Board has not yet formed a trust for mosque construction and it would be better if the land is used for public welfare. "I would want that a school, a hospital and a 'dharamshala' should be constructed on the five acre land. I want to communicate my desire to the Chairman of the Sunni Waqf Board but he is not taking my calls. We had sought land in Ayodhya and our opinion should be taken in its utilisation," he said on Wednesday. He further said that since the land given for mosque was an agricultural land, it would also be a good idea if the land is used for agriculture and the crop grown on it can be distributed among the poor. "The Sunni Board may or may not include me in the proposed trust but I want the land should be utilised in a manner which benefits the people of this country," he said. He added that if Board did not accept his advice, he would not hesitate to oppose their decision. Ansari said that he had not been invited to the meeting of the Sunni Central Waqf Board, scheduled to take place on Thursday. According to reports, two people have been confirmed dead from attack by suspected gunmen on Bagwai town in Kano State. The incident was confirmed to newsmen by the Kano State Police Command on Tuesday. Also Read: Single Mom Flees After Beating Up 3-Year-Old For Defecating On The Bed DSP Abdullahi Haruna, who is the spokesperson of the command, confirmed the incident during an interview with NAN. He pointed out that the gunmen attacked some shops and shot three persons on Monday night. Haruna further stated that two of the victims died after they were rushed to Bichi General Hospital. Prince William and Kate Middleton arrived in Ireland on March 3 for a quick three-day visit. The two have seemed to step up their royal duties even more ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their royal exit. Public displays of affection are typically rare in the royal family, though Harry and Meghan often kept each other close during their royal duties. Kate and William tend to take a more formal approach and dont usually put their hands near each other, but they did have a sweet moment of PDA while on their trip. Prince William and Kate Middleton in Ireland | Samir Hussein/WireImage William and Kate keep a very formal tone during royal engagements Though times are changing, its always been tradition in the royal family that engagements are kept very professional. Ever since William and Kate wed, they have always remained steadfast in not showing much PDA while doing professional work. The two occasionally sneak a hand hold and have been spotted sharing a kiss at something more casual, such as a sporting event. But for the most part, they keep their hands to themselves while tending to business. The two have been even more present since Harry and Meghan announced their exit When Harry and Meghan announced in January that they would be leaving the royal family, William and Kate seemed to become even more present in the publics lives. They stepped up their social media posts and seem to have increased their royal engagements (though that has not been confirmed). The couple is currently in Ireland on a three-day trip to help promote the relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom. The purpose of the trip is to highlight the many strong links shared between the U.K. and Ireland, per the Kensington Royal Instagram account. William and Kate shared a sweet PDA moment together during their Ireland trip On March 3, William and Kate were visiting the Guinness Storehouses Gravity Bar for an engagement. According to the couples Instagram, they met Irish people from across the creative arts, sport, business, and charity sector. While performing their duties, the two snuck in some quick but sweet PDA. They shared a laugh together, and Kate lovingly touched Williams shoulder while the two giggled about something unknown. Kate lovingly touched Williams arm while they shared a laugh in Ireland. | Samir Hussein/WireImage The two posted about the event on social media, and fans doted on the couples professionalism. Catherine is so classy, one user wrote. Wow, Kate is a born Queen!! someone else commented. The public has always adored the couples marriage William and Kate have been lucky in that theyve received far more love as a couple than Meghan and Harry have. Though it doesnt quite add up why the public never took a liking to Meghan, William and Kate have always remained in the publics good graces. Despite going through their share of scandals, including a cheating scandal last year on Williams behalf (which was never confirmed), these two have always come out unscathed in the public eye. People seem to genuinely adore them, so much so that many would rather see these two become king and queen as opposed to Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. Right now, though, William is content in his role and is in no rush to be the next king. Priti Patel was once asked whether she thought she was widely liked by the civil servants who worked for her. 'Probably not,' she replied. 'But you don't go to work to be liked and be popular. You go to work to be effective and to change things.' Given recent events, that attitude is probably for the best. Because one thing few people dispute is that the Home Secretary seems to be almost universally disliked in Whitehall. In this rarefied world, Patel is widely regarded a 'vicious' bully with reputation for 'rude and dismissive' behaviour when she fails to get her own way. Sometimes, she has been known to shout or even shock, horror! swear at staff. When she was sacked from the Department for International Development in 2017, civil servants there reportedly responded with an impromptu rendition of Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead! Priti Patel was once asked whether she thought she was widely liked by the civil servants who worked for her, writes Guy Adams In one deeply hostile briefing this week, she was dubbed a 'vile, pushy, horrid thicko'. Defenders insist that she's the victim of a misogynistic vendetta orchestrated by aloof and snobbish Oxbridge mandarins who dislike taking orders from a sharp-elbowed newsagent's daughter from deepest Essex. Wherever the truth lies and a formal inquiry will attempt to shed some light on this question this increasingly messy political row exposes a deeper fault-line between Boris Johnson's newly elected administration and the civil service. 'Put simply, this is the first time for decades that we've had a radical Government, which boasts a strong majority,' is how one Whitehall insider puts it. 'Mandarins have grown used to coalition, or minority, administrations, where ministers ask civil servants what might be achieved and proceed accordingly. 'Now they have to deal with an emboldened Government which has a clear agenda, is determined to pursue it, so is telling civil servants what to do.' Many Tories believe that to sack Patel now would send a clear signal that an unelected bureaucracy, rather than Boris Johnson's Government, is what really controls Britain's levers of power. 'In effect it would mean surrendering to what Dominic Cummings and others call the 'blob',' says one senior party source. 'That's why it can't and must not be allowed to happen.' Against this backdrop, simmering tensions about what one might call Patel's 'bedside manner' were made public on Saturday with the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam, the ministry's permanent secretary, who accused her of orchestrating a 'vicious' campaign against him. In a dramatic press conference, Sir Philip accused the 47-year-old mother-of -one of not only briefing against him but 'shouting and swearing' at staff, 'belittling people', and 'making unreasonable and repeated demands'. He said Patel had 'created fear' and 'needed some bravery to call out', and revealed that he intends to sue the Government for constructive dismissal. The fallout has seen similarly ugly claims aired regarding two of her other ministerial spells: at both the Department for Work and Pensions, where she was a junior minister for 14 months in 2015-16, and DfID, which she ran from July 2016 to November 2017. At the DWP, it has emerged that a senior aide took an overdose having lost her job shortly after Patel arrived. The woman complained of being bullied and harassed, and was paid 25,000 in an out-of-court settlement. According to legal correspondence leaked to the BBC, the former civil servant claimed that some of the abuse she suffered came directly from Patel, who in one incident shouted at her to 'Get lost' and 'Get out of my face'. Sources close to Patel say the claim is 'ludicrous', that the woman only worked for her for a fortnight and was 'already in the process of quitting' when she took over as employment minister. Pictured: Home Secretary Priti Patel At DfID, two permanent secretaries were allegedly informed of bullying complaints against Patel during her tenure, while an aide was signed off with depression. A former official in the department has told The Times that Patel 'would come out [of] office and say, 'Why is everyone so f****** useless'.' Another claimed: 'She was reviled for her rudeness and insensitivity. She could not have been more hated for the way she treated people. She was just vile.' According to a third, 'while the word 'bullying' is used, with her it's not really personal, as if she took a dislike to certain people, it was her typical manner. One minute she would come across as rude or ungrateful, and another she would be being dismissive or hostile in the face of advice.' The problem with these and many other complaints is they are short on detail and context. Without knowing what prompted individual incidents, it's impossible to properly judge whether the bullying allegations are justified. 'Priti is a tough cookie, and to be frank doesn't mind being called a demanding boss because she is,' says a friend who spoke with her this week. 'She is forceful and pushy, and is the first to admit that she can be abrasive. Part of that comes from her parents, who came to the UK from Uganda with nothing and worked 18-hour days to build up a small chain of newsagents. Her view is that staff in the Home Office need to display similar gumption. They need to be told to pull their socks up because... it's an organisation which is unfit for purpose.' Another source says: 'If you go into a failing department, which is what the Home Office is, at some point you will need to tell people that they are failing. But there are ways of doing that, and the civil service is not used to being told something robustly. It's a world where people never fail. They just get moved sideways.' A pressing example of the ways in which Home Office civil servants work to frustrate their elected masters was aired on Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, where former immigration minister Damian Green told how mandarins who worked for him created a secret unit to write a new immigration Bill, against his specific instructions. '[The unit] was kept in existence for about nine months,' he recalled On the other side, rumours doing the rounds in Whitehall suggest that hostile Home Office staff originally angered Patel by failing to show her full briefing documents because they feared she would misunderstand or misinterpret their contents. In a dramatic press conference, Sir Philip Rutnam (pictured) accused the 47-year-old mother-of -one of not only briefing against him but 'shouting and swearing' at staff, 'belittling people', and 'making unreasonable and repeated demands' 'She is not up to the job and does not know what she's doing,' one official told the Mail. 'She refuses to listen to civil servants and instead only listens to special advisers who are young, inexperienced appointees. In interviews, unless she has a script to follow, it always ends in tears.' By way of an example, the source cited Patel's recent claim that the UK's 8.5million 'economically inactive' citizens who can do jobs currently filled by EU nationals when free movement ends. 'These 8.5million include students aged between 16 and 18, along with pensioners and people who are long-term sick. How can they take on low-skilled jobs? It beggars belief.' The Whitehall source also highlighted a recent broadcast interview in which Patel confused 'terrorism' and 'counter terrorism' resulting in a nonsensical pledge to be 'tough on counter terrorism'. Staff who attempt to prevent her making such errors are accused of seeking to frustrate the Government's agenda, the source complained, when in fact they are merely attempting to help. 'The Home Office faces huge challenges, not least redesigning the entire immigration system by the end of the year. Up to now, Priti has basically been going into meetings shouting 'mandate mandate mandate', and her civil servants have been replying 'reality reality reality' and nothing is being achieved.' Patel's ultimate fate rests with Boris Johnson, who will decide on her future once Sir Alex Allan, the Cabinet Office's inquisitor general, completes an investigation into the complaints against her. It will explore whether she breached the ministerial code which states that ministers should 'treat all those with whom they come into contact with consideration and respect'. Given this fact, it was significant that the Prime Minister invited her to sit next to him in Parliament yesterday. A signal, perhaps, that a no-holds-barred fight with the civil service is something No 10 is quietly spoiling for. PM declares full confidence in embattled Home Secretary as ANOTHER bullying claim emerges and inquiry looms By Jason Groves and Claire Ellicott for the Daily Mail Boris Johnson vowed to 'stick by' Priti Patel over bullying allegations yesterday even as a fresh claim emerged that she threw a folder at an official during a row. The Prime Minister told MPs he had full confidence in the embattled Home Secretary despite launching a Cabinet Office inquiry this week into claims that she bullied staff. But his vote of confidence came as a Whitehall source told the Mail that Mrs Patel had thrown a folder at an official, hitting him in the face during a meeting in 2016. The fresh claim, which was denied by allies of Mrs Patel last night, dates from her time as employment minister. Boris Johnson vowed to 'stick by' Priti Patel (pictured together) over bullying allegations yesterday even as a fresh claim emerged that she threw a folder at an official during a row A Whitehall source said: 'She was being briefed by officials for an event and there was a page missing and she got annoyed. At the end of the briefing, she threw the folder at him and hit him in the face. 'It was so aggressive. She didn't apologise. It was just like when Alex Ferguson chucked the boot at Beckham.' A spokesman for Mrs Patel said the claim was 'categorically false'. Former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who was Mrs Patel's boss at the time, also denied the claim, saying: 'If someone threw a file at you, you would report it, wouldn't you? There wasn't a complaint.' But the allegation is the latest in a series of bullying claims levelled against the Home Secretary in recent days all of which she has denied. In a bombshell resignation statement at the weekend, the Home Office's former top civil servant Sir Philip Rutnam accused Mrs Patel of 'shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands'. Sir Philip, who branded Mrs Patel a liar and a bully, is now suing the Government for constructive dismissal. An official at the Department for Work and Pensions is reported to have received a 25,000 payout after filing a formal complaint against the department. According to legal documents seen by the BBC the woman took an overdose of prescription medicines following the alleged bullying in 2015. Sir Philip, who branded Mrs Patel a liar and a bully, is now suing the Government for constructive dismissal Mrs Patel has also been accused of bullying her private secretary during her time as International Development Secretary. A senior official at the Department for International Development has claimed there was a 'tsunami' of allegations of abuse by officials in her private office. One former senior figure in the department told the Mail yesterday that she had 'harassed' her private secretary to the point where he was eventually signed off sick with a stress-related condition and asked for a transfer to another department. But, in a sign of the difficulty the Cabinet Office is likely to face in investigating the claims against Mrs Patel, another former DfID official flatly denied the claim she had bullied her private secretary. The source said: 'Priti wanted to get a new private secretary, which is not uncommon for a new minister. It was handled a bit awkwardly but it all ended amicably. The claim she was bullying him is just not true and is being put about maliciously.' Now a 'thrown folder' adds to the accusations The most senior official at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned, accusing her of 'bullying' and 'belittling' staff while Home Secretary. Several are said to have been moved on as a result of clashing with her, according to The Times. Mrs Patel allegedly bullied a senior civil servant out of his job while in charge of the Department for International Development during 2016-17. He signed off with a stress-related illness, it was reported. Two permanent secretaries in the department were allegedly informed of bullying complaints against her. A member of staff at DfID accused Mrs Patel of belittling him by cutting him out of email chains. In 2015, a former aide took an overdose after allegedly being bullied by Mrs Patel while at the Department for Work and Pensions. She received a 25,000 payout. Mrs Patel has been accused of throwing a folder of papers in a civil servant's face during a tense meeting at the DWP in 2016. She denies all of these claims. Advertisement A former minister who served with Mrs Patel urged the Prime Minister to sack her. The minister said: 'There hasn't been a single government department in which she has worked where there haven't been complaints about her conduct, whether it was the Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, DfID or now the Home Office. 'She is not fit to be a minister and it is a reflection on Boris's judgment that he ever put her in the Home Office.' In the Commons yesterday, the Prime Minister gave Mrs Patel his full backing. Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, with Mrs Patel sat alongside him, he said: 'The Home Secretary is doing an outstanding job delivering change, putting police on the streets, cutting crime and delivering a new immigration system and I'm sticking by her.' Labour called for an independent inquiry into Mrs Patel's conduct, and said it had received fresh allegations against her from officials who served with her various government departments. Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Johnson had 'no shame in defending bullying' in his government as he called for an 'independent' investigation. But Downing Street insisted that the Cabinet Office inquiry, which will report to Mr Johnson, would be 'robust' and would be able to look at all allegations made against Mrs Patel. It is thought that Mrs Patel will be interviewed by senior officials about the claims in the coming days. Her allies have claimed that 'dark forces' are trying to remove her. Mr Duncan Smith said disgruntled officials were 'in league' with each other and elements of the media as part of an effort to damage the Government. 'Some of the civil service are using Priti Patel to take on the Government,' he said. 'They're using Priti to weaken Downing Street's resolve. If Downing Street backs down, some in the civil service will say they have won, and no one will say boo to them again. It's complete nonsense from start to end. I've worked with her and yes, she's tough, she's strident. But she's trying to get a job done.' A judiciary spokesman says the inmates were granted furlough after testing negative for Covid-19. Iran has temporarily released more than 54,000 prisoners in an effort to combat the spread of the new coronavirus disease in crowded jails. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters the inmates were allowed out of prison after testing negative for Covid-19 and posting bail. "Security prisoners" sentenced to more than five years will not be let out. The jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be freed soon, according to a British MP. Tulip Siddiq cited the Iranian ambassador to the UK as saying that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe "may be released on furlough today or tomorrow". Her husband said on Saturday that he believed she had contracted Covid-19 at Tehran's Evin prison and that authorities were refusing to test her. But Mr Esmaili insisted on Monday that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had subsequently been in contact with her family and "told them about her good health". Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed for five years in 2016 after being convicted of espionage charges that she has denied. The UK has also insisted she is innocent. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We call on the Iranian government to immediately allow health professionals into Evin prison to assess the situation of British-Iranian dual nationals there." There have been more than 90,000 reported cases of Covid-19 worldwide and 3,110 deaths since the disease emerged late last year - the vast majority in China. The outbreak in Iran has killed at least 77 people in less than two weeks. On Tuesday, the health ministry said the number of confirmed cases had risen by more than 50% for the second day in a row. It now stands at 2,336, although the real figure is believed to far higher. Cases linked to Iran have also been reported by Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. A number of senior Iranian officials have contracted the virus. Among the latest is the head of the emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand. Twenty-three of the 290 members of parliament have also tested positive. On Monday, a member of the Expediency Council, which advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died as a result of Covid-19 in Tehran. State media said Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, had a close relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei. At a tree-planting ceremony to mark World Wildlife Day on Tuesday, the supreme leader urged the public to observe the health ministry's hygiene guidelines and ordered all government bodies to provide any necessary help to the health ministry. Ayatollah Khamenei also insisted Iranian authorities were not concealing information about the scale of the problem, saying: "Our officials have reported with sincerity and transparency since day one. However, some countries where the outbreak has been more serious have tried to hide it." Iran's outbreak, he added, "will not last long in the country and will pack up". Meanwhile, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said a nationwide screening campaign would begin on Wednesday. Teams will visit patients who are suspected of being infected with Covid-19 and who do not have access to medical services. A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), who arrived in Iran on Monday, is supporting local health authorities. The WHO said they would "review readiness and response efforts, visit designated health facilities, laboratories and points of entry, and provide technical guidance". The plane carrying the experts also contained a shipment of medical supplies and protective equipment to support more than 15,000 healthcare workers, as well as enough laboratory kits to test and diagnose almost 100,000 people. BBC Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Styrene-butadiene Rubber (SBR) Market 2019-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Styrene-butadiene Rubber (SBR) Market is expected to show a lucrative growth rate during the forecast period. This report covers: A comprehensive research methodology of the Global Synthetic Rubber Market. A detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights. An exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the Global Synthetic Rubber Market. Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Synthetic Rubber Market. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players. SBR hold the largest application in the synthetic rubber market as it has wide application in various industry verticals, especially in tire manufacturing in the automotive segment. However, the unstable crude price at the international market is one of the major restraints to the market. The downfall of the automotive market in 2019 is slowing the demand for tires from OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). The global SBR market is studied on the basis of end-user. By end-user, the market is further divided into tires & other automobile components, industrial application, footwear, household, and others. Tires and other automobile components will hold the major market share during the forecast period. Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World. During the forecast period, Asia-Pacific is expected to hold the major market share with a significant growth rate. The major factor for the significant market in the region includes the high demand for SBR due to the automotive market in countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Moreover, the region is a hub for consumer electronics manufacturing which is also expected to create a significant demand for the market. Europe is expected to hold the second-largest market share owing to the significant production of the vehicle in Germany, UK, Spain France, and Italy. In North America, the US will hold a major market share whereas in the Rest of World countries such as Brazil, South Africa, UAE are expected to hold a significant market share during the forecast period. The companies which are contributing significantly in the market include Asahi Kasei Corp., Bridgestone Corp., ExxonMobil Corp., JSR Corp., LG Chem, Ltd., SABIC, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., The Dow Chemical Co., The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., The Michelin Group and others. The market players are considerably contributing to the market growth by the adoption of various growth strategies including new product launch, merger, and acquisition, collaborations with government, and technological advancements to stay competitive in the market. Key Topics Covered 1. Report Summary 1.1. Research Methods and Tools 1.2. Market Breakdown 1.2.1. By Segments 1.2.2. By Geography 2. Market Overview and Insights 2.1. Scope of the Report 2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends 2.2.1. Key Findings 2.2.2. Recommendations 2.2.3. Conclusion 3. Competitive Landscape 3.1. Competitive Dashboard 3.2. Key Strategy Analysis 3.3. Key Company Analysis 3.3.1. Overview 3.3.2. Financial Analysis 3.3.3. SWOT Analysis 3.3.4. Recent Developments 4. Market Determinants 4.1 Motivators 4.2 Restraints 4.3 Opportunities 5. Market Segmentation 5.1. By End-user 5.1.1. Tires & other automobile components 5.1.2. Industrial Application 5.1.3. Footwear 5.1.4. Household 5.1.5. Others (Electronics) 6. Regional Analysis 6.1. North America 6.1.1. United States 6.1.2. Canada 6.2. Europe 6.2.1. UK 6.2.2. Germany 6.2.3. Italy 6.2.4. Spain 6.2.5. France 6.2.6. Rest of Europe 6.3. Asia-Pacific 6.3.1. China 6.3.2. India 6.3.3. Japan 6.3.4. Rest of Asia-Pacific 6.4. Rest of the World 7. Company Profiles 7.1. Asahi Kasei Corp. 7.2. Bridgestone Corp. 7.3. ExxonMobil Corp. 7.4. JSR Corp. 7.5. Kuraray Co. Ltd. 7.6. LG Chem Ltd. 7.7. Reliance Industries Ltd. 7.8. SABIC 7.9. Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. 7.10. The Dow Chemical Co. 7.11. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 7.12. The Michelin Group 7.13. TSRC Corp. 7.14. Ube Industries Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/g42vch Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) For the South Korean crew behind the latest hit drama Crash Landing on You," recreating the life in North Korea was a painstakingly meticulous process with big political risks. At first, we were even told not to use the word chairman'" when referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Joo Dong-man, a props manager for the story about a South Korean billionaire heiress who accidentally paraglides into North Korea and falls in love with an army captain. Apart from its fantastical plot line with prominent stars like Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin, the drama has been creating a buzz for its unconventional take on North Korea. With detailed portrayals of the isolated country down to words, objects and the makeup style, the cross-border love story even drew praises from several North Korean defectors in South Korea. Behind the effort are people like Joo, who had soaked in almost everything about the secretive regime collecting details from books, experts and North Korean escapees. Joo said recreating life in North Korea was a difficult process, simply because theres no guidebook on multiple hurdles he had to hop over - skillfully and delicately to accurately depict the country while dodging criticism. He said rules, self-imposed by the production team themselves, were arbitrary and frequently subject to change. Later, we got permission (to show propaganda slogans), Joo told The Associated Press. He said three names from North Koreas ruling family dynasty Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un were banned till the very end. The surreal plot cross-border love between beautiful heiress and a handsome North Korean soldier from the top military family doesnt fail to show occasional glimpses into the most repressive authoritarian regime in the world. The team had to tread carefully in order to avoid glorifying or misrepresenting the state. They blurred the portraits of the Kim dynasty, which are mandatory in public places and private homes in North Korea. Objects displaying the faces of the Kims are practically illegal in South Korea, where wearing or possessing them could be considered praising the regime, which is punishable by law. The two rivals are still technically in a state of war. Story continues Since all North Korean adults are required to wear a pin with the leaders' images to show their loyalty, Yang Hee-hwa, a costume manager, said the cast had to wear them too. But she devised her own safe way of doing so. Our badges were almost half or one third smaller (than actual badges), Yang told AP. The team created scenes that had the least resemblance to South Korea, according to Joo. He said the most difficult props was smartphones made in North Korea, which came from a series of meetings with defectors, including one based in Yanji, the Chinese city near North Korea. Joo declined to comment further on the process due to sensitivity of the matter. Joo brought with him three North Korean phones, each as much as three times the price of an iPhone. Joo said some scenes were exaggerated for theatrical reason. One scene where a woman puts together a makeshift plastic shower stall to keep the water warm for longer drew a complaint from one of defectors for being too condescending. The defector who advised the team had told him that such method was used in the 1960s. However, Kang Na-ra, a Youtuber who defected in 2014, said people living in rural parts of North Korea still use it. Kang was one of the escapees who provided real-life depictions of North Korea from a group kimchi-making session to a popular make-up style that emphasizes the eyebrows. The South Korean actors speak with a North Korean accent and use expressions less familiar in the South. The drama series aired its final episode this week. For Yang, this was an opportunity to create something new. Everything we did was the first so there wasnt any benchmark (to follow), said Yang. I think weve created the benchmark. "To be honest, we always showed poor and famished scenes when it comes to North Korea, Kang said. But I really like this drama because it shows that North Korea is also a place with people, and they know how to share despite the scarcity." The drama is one of a few reminders of Kang's faraway home. Its also a distant place for both Joo and Yang, because neither nation allows contact with the other's citizens. I thought about how nice it wouldve been to film in Pyongyang, Joo paused. Well the time will come one day. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has won Utah, claiming victory in his third primary contest of Super Tuesday as polls close on the West Coast and early results emerge. The state holds 29 delegates. Utah's Democratic Party estimates Latinos represent 14 per cent of a state that is largely white, as the Vermont Senator's campaign has bet on its support among Latino and Hispanic communities to carry him to wins in crucial states. In 2016, four in five Democrats chose Mr Sanders over Hillary Clinton, and he was projected to win 28 per cent of the vote in 2020 in a more-crowded field but wasn't guaranteed a landslide victory. It was another state that held a caucus rather than a primary, much like Minnesota, which Mr Sanders also won. Recommended Follow all the latest polls as US Democrats head into Super Tuesday Many voters mailed in their ballots in the days and weeks ahead of Tuesday, with a significant number of ballots counting towards candidates no longer in the race. Moments before the race was called for the senator, he addressed a crowd in Vermont, taking aim at Joe Biden, who is carrying more state victories on Super Tuesday. "You cannot beat Trump with the same ol', same ol' kind of politics", Mr Sanders said. "What we need a is a new politics that brings working class people into our political movement, that brings young people into our political movement, and in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history." He said the race between him and the former vice president is a "contrast in ideas" between a senator who opposed the Iraq War ("you're looking at him") and another who voted for it, as well as opposing views on cutting Social Security and other issues on which both men are in stark contrast. Mr Biden has won several states tonight, cementing his lead in the South, as Sanders pursues major victories in delegate-heavy Texas and California, which are the primary's bigger trophies, with a smattering of smaller states with fewer delegates to divvy among them. The number of people with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India rose sharply to 29 and additional schools and offices were closed in several cities on Wednesday as authorities found more people with signs of an infection, deepening the potential for the virus to spread further in what could turn into a health emergency for the country. The infections confirmed on Wednesday include a 26-year-old man who works for Paytm in Gurugram and had been to Italy one of the hotbeds of the outbreak. The rest were people who had been in close contact with the three patients confirmed to have been infected by the novel coronavirus earlier this week. In Hyderabad, where one Covid-19 case was confirmed on Monday, authorities said two more people were found positive for coronavirus in preliminary testing. Their status will be confirmed by the National institute of Virology, Pune, potentially taking total for people infected in India to 31. With all of the active cases linked to people who arrived either from Dubai or Italian cities, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan announced on Wednesday it was expanding its screening of passengers at airports to all inbound international flights. In the less than three months since it started spreading from China, the novel coronavirus technically known as the SARS-Cov-2 has sickened at least 94,000 people, of which around 3,200 have died. By Wednesday, the pathogen spread to nearly 80 countries with South Korea, Iran and Italy now accounting for the maximum number of new cases outside of China. The rate of spread and the severity of the disease the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it appears to kill 3.4 out of every 100 people it sickens poses a challenge for a dense country like India. Containment of Covid-19 must remain the top priority, but in the event of community transmission, the focus would have to shift towards protecting the most vulnerable population and minimising both the health and social impact of the outbreak, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, South-east Asia Region, of which India is a part. Community transmission means infections within a population are not imported from another virus-hit area. To stem such spread, Indian health officials have activated a labyrinthine contact-tracing operation, with more than 300,000 ground-level workers at hand to track down new infections. On Wednesday, authorities in states such as Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh said hundreds have been put under observation or are being reached after they came in close contact with people who are confirmed patients. Our team will be collecting names and addresses of 150-200 employees working in the Gurugram office to conduct surveillance. The team will locate the employees for examination and immediate testing if required, said Rajiv Arora, Haryana health departments additional chief secretary, while speaking about the 26-year-old patient who works in Paytms Gurugram office, whose infection was confirmed on Wednesday. Paytm said it was closing its offices temporarily. We have also advised all our colleagues to work from home for a couple of days while we get our offices sanitized, a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that daily operations and services would not be impacted. Paytm has six offices around New Delhi, employing at least 3,000 people. Several schools in the National Capital Region said they were fumigating and sanitising their premises. Three schools in Delhi and its adjoining suburbs of Noida announced holidays for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the disease, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents, PTI reported. The outbreak also prompted authorities and political leaders to cancel several functions as they sought to avoid contact between large groups of people. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the (virus) spread, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet on Wednesday. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate. In the national capital, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) which ferries at least two million people across the city every day on an average said it would increase the frequency of cleaning on its premises. Outside India, Italy where the number of dead crossed 100 on Wednesday announced it will shut schools and colleges for two weeks. The outbreak also disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca, while Iran cancelled Friday prayers in major cities. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON EUCLID, Ohio Euclid Superintendent Chris Papouras is eager to get back to a normal day running the Euclid schools, after drawing praise and media attention for pulling a woman from a burning car outside his home early Sunday morning. Papouras, who just became superintendent earlier this school year, dashed from his Gates Mills home after 3 a.m. Sunday when he heard a loud crash. He found a white SUV had flipped on its side after striking a boulder in Papouras yard and had caught fire with a passenger trapped inside. After smashing a hole in the windshield with a tire iron, Papouras was able to pull out the passenger, a 22-year-old Lakewood woman, while the flames grew. Papouras said he just reacted to a bad situation and did not fully appreciate the danger until later. A lot of people are reaching out and saying it was a good act, he said. I was thrust into the situation and I just did my best to help. Both the driver and passenger were transported to Hillcrest Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Gates Mills Police. The driver, Nayesha Gates, 23, of Cleveland, was charged with a felony, aggravated vehicular assault, and misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle while under the influence, driving with a suspended license, reckless operation and failure to maintain reasonable control. She pleaded not guilty to all charges Wednesday morning in Lyndhurst Municipal Court. A pretrial hearing was set for March 25. According to the court website, she was still being held on a $3,500 bond as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. The vehicle that crashed and caught fire outside Euclid Superintendent Chris Papouras' house Sunday sits on its side after the fire was extinguished. Courtesy Chris Papouras According to Papouras, he heard the crash shortly after 3 a.m. and thought a tree might have fallen. I noticed the flames outside the front of my house, he said, first thinking a utility pole had caught fire. As my eyes came clear, I realized it was a car. Gates had managed to exit the car and told Papouras her friend was still inside. Papouras said he grabbed a tire iron and sledgehammer from the garage and tried to break the windshield. But the shatter-resistant glass did not immediately break, he said, and he had to chip away at a hole to make room to pull the passenger out. The flames had grown by then, but the passenger could not walk. So he had her roll away from the vehicle and into a ditch. By the time police arrived, the vehicle was engulfed in flames. Papouras said he hopes his students will learn some simple lessons from the incident: Everyone makes mistakes, but still deserve help and a chance to learn from them, he said. Its what you do after the mistakes, he said. He added: We dont necessarily need accidents like this to allow us to treat each other with compassion and kindness. We can do that every day. Amsterdam, 4 March 2020 - Heineken N.V. today announces the appointment of a new Chief Supply Chain Officer and the companys first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. Following a distinguished and highly successful career at HEINEKEN, spanning 25 years of which 15 years as Chief Supply Chain Officer and Executive Team member, Marc Gross will retire as Chief Supply Chain Officer in April 2020. He will per that date be succeeded in the Executive Team by Magne Setnes, currently General Manager of Brau Union AG, HEINEKENs business in Austria. Magne Setnes joined HEINEKEN in 2000 and has held a number of senior international leadership roles across Supply Chain, Commerce and General Management in The Netherlands, United States, and Austria. Ronald den Elzen will join the Executive Team as HEINEKENs first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. The world is changing fast, with tremendous opportunities for the beer industry and HEINEKEN. Consumers, customers and employees expect a seamless digital experience when they interact with all brands and the company. In 2019, Connect in a digital world was launched as the fifth business priority. The appointment of our first Chief Digital and Technology Officer underpins the ambition to become the worlds most connected brewer. Having joined HEINEKEN 25 years ago, Ronald den Elzen most recently served as Managing Director of HEINEKEN USA. Previous roles have included Finance Director in The Netherlands and HEINEKEN UK as well as Managing Director of Sociedade Central de Cervejas, the Companys Portuguese business. Ronalds appointment is effective immediately. Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO, commented: I would like to thank Marc Gross for his enormous contribution to HEINEKEN. Marc has been critical for managing the growth of this company. While during the last 15 years our volumes, number of breweries and number of brands grew significantly, he has made the complexity of our global supply chain feel easy. Today thanks to Marc and his global teams across our regions, we have a very high performing supply chain organisation. I am delighted by the appointments of Magne Setnes and Ronald den Elzen. They are two highly experienced and versatile HEINEKEN executives who have a lot to bring to our company. Our Executive Team very much looks forward to working with them. A successor for Magne Setnes in Austria will be announced in due course. -ENDS- Press enquiries Tim van der Zanden / Michael Fuchs E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-355 Investor and analyst enquiries Federico Castillo Martinez/ Janine Ackermann / Robin Achten E-mail: investors@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-590 About HEINEKEN HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. HEINEKEN is committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brewing a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets. It employs over 85,000 employees and operates breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on Reuters under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS. HEINEKEN has two sponsored level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes: Heineken N.V. (OTCQX: HEINY) and Heineken Holding N.V. (OTCQX: HKHHY). Most recent information is available on HEINEKEN's website: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com and follow us on Twitter via @HEINEKENCorp. Attachments iPrice Group, which helps comparison shoppers in Southeast Asia by pulling together prices from different e-commerce platforms, has closed a $10 million Series B. Led by ACA Investments, the round also included participation from Daiwa PI Partners and returning investors Line Ventures, Mirae Asset-Naver and Asia Growth Fund. The companys last funding announcement, from Line's venture capital arm, was in May 2018. Its new round brings iPrices total funding so far to about $19.8 million. The company said it has more than 20 million monthly visitors and about 5 million transactions were made through its platforms in 2019. Its core iPrice unit accounted for about half of its revenue and operated at a 30% EBITDA margin, a level of profitability the company expects its other businesses to hit in the next two to three years. iPrice will use its funding to develop product discovery features, including recommendations and professional product reviews. The platform currently partners with "super apps," like Line and Home Credit, that offer a wide array of services through one app. iPrice began by collecting coupons and discount codes when it launched, before expanding into price aggregation to help consumers navigate the growing roster of e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, such as Zalora, Shoppee and Lazada. The platform is divided into verticals, including electronics and appliances, fashion and automotive, and it now claims to aggregate more than 1.5 billion products from more than 1,500 e-commerce partners. It says it is the leading product aggregator in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In a press statement, ACA Investments chief investment officer Tomohiro Fujita said, "The e-commerce industry in Southeast Asia is at its emerging stage and we see huge potential. iPrice Group will play an important role, especially with its comprehensive coverage of markets in Southeast Asia. Its the prime gateway to online shopping." Our special investigation details how Lisa Dorrian was murdered and secretly buried and reveals the UVF-backed cover-up that still exists to this day and prevents witnesses from coming forward. We name individuals who have been considered key witnesses by cops and detail the hours before and after she was killed at a Co Down caravan park. Our review of the evidence also shines a light on the PSNI probe and how after 15 years detectives now have just a single suspect in mind. They believe this individual strangled Lisa in the Ballyhalbert caravan and then summoned a close relative to help dispose of her body. Our investigation further reveals how the Dorrian family are now backing a campaign for a law that would result in Lisas killer, if he is ever prosecuted, remaining in prison until he tells police where her body is hidden. The victim Lisa Dorrian, a 25-year-old shop assistant from Bangor, went missing on February 28, 2005. Murdered and secretly buried, her remains have never been recovered. Popular Lisa was the oldest of four sisters, all of whom have campaigned tirelessly to bring her killer to justice. Had she been alive, she would have celebrated her 40th birthday last June. Expand Close Lisa Dorrian Photopress Belfast / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lisa Dorrian That evening Lisa spent the evening before she vanished partying in the home of Naomi Drysdale, who police accept was not involved in her death or disappearance. From there the 25-year-old moved the short distance to a drugs party in Ballyhalbert Caravan park, which was deserted because it was off season. Mark Lovett, the last man to see her alive, was also there drinking and taking drugs. Because almost everyone at the party was under the influence, their statements to police were unreliable. But information from one reveller, the only one who was sober, proved key in establishing that Lisa may have been killed before 1.15am, when the witness rang Lovett, who was intoxicated. Lovett later told police that he and Lisa were alone in the caravan when they were startled by flashing lights and noise outside at around 4.45am. He claims they ran off into the darkness and lost each other. He claimed he rang the shop assistants mobile, but she did not answer. The location The caravan in which Lisa is believed to have been murdered is on the north Down coast between Ballywalter and Portavogie. It is popular among holidaymakers during the summer months. However, the site was virtually empty on the night of her February 2005 disappearance because of the cold weather. Lisa was partying in a caravan with several friends including Mark Lovett, who at that time was the parks teenage groundsman. Extensive searches of the surrounding area have so far failed to recover her body. Expand Close Police search for Lisa Dorrian near the Ballyhalbert caravan park where she vanished in 2005 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police search for Lisa Dorrian near the Ballyhalbert caravan park where she vanished in 2005 The murder Detectives believe that Lisa was strangled in the Ballyhalbert caravan and her body was secretly buried a short distance away. Forensic tests on the mobile home failed to locate any of her blood, backing up this theory. Her killer is thought to have summoned help to hide the shop assistant's body. This second individual is understood to be a close relative. It is because of this strong family bond that both have stayed silent for 15 years. Police now have only one suspect in mind and are working on the theory that he murdered Lisa in a rage before disposing of her remains. Expand Close Police search for Lisa Dorrian Photopress / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police search for Lisa Dorrian The cover-up The Lisa Dorrian murder cover-up goes right to the very top of the UVF. Her killer and his associate, who is believed to have helped hide her body, have for the past 15 years been given protection by a senior figure within the terror gang from Co Antrim. Potential witnesses have been threatened and the murderer was even provided with a job at a UVF-backed business in an effort to keep him from cracking. Expand Close Detectives are still investigating the disappearance of Lisa Dorrian. Picture: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Detectives are still investigating the disappearance of Lisa Dorrian. Picture: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker The key people After almost 15 years of silence, Mark Lovett, the last man to see Lisa alive, has still not spoken again to police or the Dorrian family about the events of that night. When he was interviewed by detectives in the wake of the disappearance, he said he and Lisa, who had been taking drugs, fled into the night after hearing sounds outside the caravan in which they were partying. But he has refused to speak to cops again despite repeated requests from the Dorrian family. Aged 17 at the time of Lisas death, the Newtownabbey father-of-two (32) has since been convicted of possessing an offensive weapon and drugs. Expand Close Mark Lovett / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mark Lovett His silence is in stark contrast to other witnesses interviewed by police. These include Lisas then boyfriend Stevie Thompson, who split with her shortly before she was murdered. The 41-year-old, who is not a suspect, was co-operative throughout. He told Sunday Life how at 5am on the Monday, not long after she disappeared, a phone she had left with him rang. He said: Lisas phone rang at 5am on the Monday morning. I answered it and it was Mark Lovett. He was ringing me from the caretakers phone at the caravan park. Mark told me that Lisa had disappeared and asked me if I knew where she was. Convicted drug dealer Mark Smyth (37) was wrongly named in graffiti as Lisas killer. He sat a Sunday Life lie detector test to prove his innocence, telling this paper he was in no way linked to the murder. Another criminal spoken to by cops was Marty Peacock (37), who was questioned in prison. Detectives accept he had nothing to do with Lisas disappearance. Last year the PSNI arrested Newtownards woman Naomi Drysdale. She was released without charge after making statements. The 35-year-old was interviewed because Lisa had been partying with her prior to the disappearance and Mark Lovett slept in her house later that night. She was not at the caravan party. To date, police have arrested 10 people, but no one has been charged. Expand Close Lisas sister Joanne and father John with some of Lisas precious belongings / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lisas sister Joanne and father John with some of Lisas precious belongings The evidence Because Lisas body has never been recovered and no blood was found in the caravan where she was last seen alive, the evidence in the case is limited. Central to the police probe are phone calls made on the night and statements from witnesses at the drugs party. The most crucial of these is from the only sober person who was in the static home. He told cops that Mark Lovett and Lisa were hallucinating in the hours before her disappearance. Worried about their safety, the witness phoned Lovett at 1.15am on February 28, 2005, to check both he and Lisa were okay. In police statements he revealed how Lovett rambled incoherently and talked about seeing things before ending the call. Expand Close Lisa Dorrian / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lisa Dorrian The tragedy Lisas murder and disappearance are not the only tragedies the brave Dorrian family have endured during the past 15 years. Lisas campaigning mum Pat Dorrian died in December 2015, having never secured justice for her beloved daughter, and in 2018 their family home burned down, destroying many of Lisas treasured possessions. The investigation As part of its 15-year investigation into Lisas murder and secret burial, the PSNI has pursued more than 3,500 lines of inquiry and carried out 400 land, air and sea searches. The most recent focused on a disused airfield behind Ballyhalbert Caravan Park where cops believe her body may have been hidden. Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy explained how officers were using new technology that was not available at the time of her disappearance in 2005. Another key aspect of the investigation is establishing the exact time that the murder took place. Mark Lovett, the last man to see Lisa alive, said they fled the caravan at 4.45am. However, his account cannot be relied upon because he was on drugs on the night in question. DS Murphy told Sunday Life phonecall evidence suggests Lisa may have been dead before then. He said: I know that Lisa was alive between 10.00pm and 10.30pm. There was a phonecall made at 1.15am (to Mark Lovett) and that phone call for me is relevant. There is a potential that Lisa was already dead at that stage. My question is, what happens between 10.30pm and 1.15am and what happens between 1.15am and 4.45am? Asked if Lisa was murdered between 10.30pm and 1.15am, DS Murphy replied: There is certainly potential for it. The UVF The UVF carried out an internal inquiry into the murder in an apparent effort to retrieve missing Lisas body. But the probe, led by a Portavogie loyalist, was nothing more than a whitewash that only served to shift attention away from the terror gangs links to the killing. The rival LVF was wrongly blamed when, in fact, a member of the UVF-affiliated Red Hand Commando is believed to have been centrally involved. The fight for justice The family of missing murder victim Lisa has come out in support of a proposed law that would keep convicted killers behind bars until they reveal the location of their victims body. A 10,000 reward and numerous appeals for information on her whereabouts has still not led to the remains being recovered. With this in mind, the Dorrians have thrown their weight behind the new proposals, saying: This is an important move in our campaign as up until now we have focused on finding Lisa and treated justice as a secondary issue. But after 15 years of asking the person to do the right thing, we are switching our campaign to focus on justice for Lisa. We are sending a direct message to the man who hid Lisas body. We just want to find her. We have asked you, begged you through the media for 15 years to tell us where you hid her body. We are now focusing on getting justice for Lisa. When we get a guilty verdict from the jury, we will make sure this law is in place so that you are never released from prison until you tell us where Lisa is. If you wont think of Lisa, think of yourself. A lifetime in jail versus telling us where Lisa is now. This is your choice. Life must be difficult for you, flashbacks of what happened, that gut-wrenching feeling when you hear the name Lisa being said. Consider spending the rest of your life in jail, missing your kids growing up. Thats what this new law will mean when we get a conviction for Lisa. This is your choice. As top officials from OPEC countries start to arrive in Vienna for this weeks OPEC+ meeting, OPECs top producer Saudi Arabia is pushing for a huge cut of more than 1 million bpd, while restive cartel producer Libya, which has lost 1 million bpd due to the port blockade, thinks that theres no need for additional cuts on top of that outage. Saudi Arabia wants the OPEC+ coalition to agree to a collective cut of more than 1 million bpd, delegates told Bloomberg on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Joint Technical Committee of the OPEC+ group, meeting before the regular OPEC meeting, considered bigger oil production cutsbetween 600,000 bpd and 1 million bpd, and ended up recommending additional cuts of at least 600,000 bpd. But the head of Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, told S&P Global Platts on Wednesday that additional deeper cuts were not logical and that the 1 million bpd outage in Libya was enough. I think there is no need to reduce because theyve already now lost 1 million b/d, Sanalla said, as carried by Platts. Some analysts have warned in the past weeks that the OPEC+ decision is being complicated not only by the uncertainty regarding the recovery of Chinese and global oil demand, but also by the Libyan outage with uncertain timelines as to when the country could return 1 million bpd to the market. Meanwhile, Irans Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told reporters in Vienna that there is an oversupply on the market and its necessary that OPEC and non-OPEC do something for the balance in the market, Irans oil ministrys news service Shana reported. The partners need to cut at least 500,000 bpd of their production, Zangeneh said, noting that in his opinion, the Russians would resist until the last moment not to lower their output. This weekend Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Moscow would continue to play ball and cooperate with OPEC, although it sees current oil prices as acceptable. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence (L) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar (R), speaks during a meeting with the White House Coronavirus Task Force and pharmaceutical executives at the White House in Washington, on March 2, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Trump Donates 4th Quarter Salary to Aid Coronavirus Relief President Donald Trump will be donating a quarter of his annual salary in order to help fight coronavirus, according to a twitter post from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. In the post on Tuesday, March 2, Grisham wrote that Trump made a commitment to donate his salary while in office. She further stated that the act was a way to further honor his promise to the American people to protect them. Grisham wrote that the donation will be coming from the pay he received in the last quarter of 2019, according to the tweet. The money will be going to the Department of Health and Human Services in order to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat Coronavirus. Trump was paid around $400,000 in 2019, and according to the image included in the tweet from the press secretary of the White House, Trump had signed off on a check for $100,000. Throughout his time in office, Trump has donated his quarterly presidential wage to various causes and government offices, such as U.S. Homeland Security, Transportation and Veteran Affairs, as well as to several agencies trying to fight the high amount of opined crisis. Grisham stated that in his time as president, he had donated well over $1 million, according to a tweet back in November. Several of the other agencies that Trump had donated his salary to were the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Grisham added. The Hill reported that the Trump administration submitted a supplemental funding request for $2.5 billion as additional money to combat the coronavirus, but House Democrats said the amount is insufficient. The news outlet cited an anonymous source saying that the final funds to combat the coronavirus would likely be between $6 billion and $8 billion, although there would be a vote on the amount allotted. Also in November, a White House official announced that Trump would be donating his third-quarter salary in order to battle the opioid epidemic. $100,000, would be paid to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health. According to the White House, the funds donated would be used to continue the ongoing fight against the opioid crisis. From NTD News UTICA, NY - The latest monthly meeting of Uticas Downtown Community Forum took place Tuesday at the Veterans Outreach Center on Washington Street. Oneida County Legislator, Evon M. Ervin was on hand to let residents know whats happening in their community on the county level. She also listened to residents concerns on a variety of issues. Ervin said those concerns ranged from downtown parking to a proposed pedestrian walkway that will run from Whitesboro Street to Wurz Avenue. They called me here as a legislator, but I heard everything from the school board, to youth, and transportation. They want to be heard about everything, so its very important that they feel like theyre being heard. Were elected. People put us in office so we should be available to them as much as we can. We have other lives, but you know you got to take a little time out to listen. The next Downtown Community Forum will take place on April, 7. What The Study Did: This population-based study describes the risk of experiencing violent assault among young immigrants and refugees (ages 10 to 24) compared with nonimmigrants in an analysis of linked health and administrative databases in Ontario, Canada. Researchers acknowledge some important factors are unknown, including the circumstances of some events. Authors: Natasha Ruth Saunders, M.D., M.Sc., of The Hospital for Sick Children, in Ontario, Canada, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.0375) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. ### Media advisory: The full study and commentary are linked to this news release. Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.0375?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=030420 About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is the new online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. There can and should be principled disagreement. In a Tuesday evening speech, Mr. Sanders previewed his line of attack on Mr. Biden, noting the former vice presidents vote for the Iraq War, positions on entitlement programs and support for past trade agreements. Thats fair: Mr. Biden should have to defend his support for the Iraq War, and the Democratic Party could use a vigorous debate on trade, particularly now that Mr. Trump has shown that the protectionist alternative is a dead end. Democrats should tangle over how to make entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare financially stable for another generation. A man who tested positive Monday as the first case of the coronavirus in New Hampshire was told to self-isolate last week but ignored the order to attend a Dartmouth College event. The staffer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center had returned from a trip to Italy and was showing symptoms of the virus. On Tuesday, the Granite State's second case was confirmed as a close co-worker of the man, suggesting that the first patient was contagious. Both men are in quarantine and are not believed to have had contact with patients. Attendees at the college event have been informed and the venue has been cleaned. Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire's state epidemiologist, announced the state's first case of the coronavirus on Monday. The man disobeyed an order to self-isolate while waiting for his test results and attended a Dartmouth College event in New Hampshire on Friday The man was a staffer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where a second New Hampshire case was identified on Tuesday. The second man was a close contact of the first On Friday, the first New Hampshire patient attended an event in Vermont run by Tuck Business School, who have since informed the venue and all the other attendees of the diagnosis Health officials said the first man, an adult male from Grafton County, was ordered to stay at home to await his test results over the weekend after presenting himself with 'fever and respiratory symptoms'. He defied the order to attend a private invitation-only event in neighboring Vermont on Friday night organized by the Tuck School of Business. 'We recently learned that this individual attended a Tuck School of Business social event in White River Junction on Friday, February 28,' said a statement form Dartmouth College on Tuesday. 'An investigation of those who were in close contact with that individual is underway and all close contacts have been notified; at this time, there are no Dartmouth students considered to be close contacts.' The first New Hampshire patient has now been issued with an official order of isolation from the state's Department of Health and Human Services. It is not known how many attendees were at the event. The event took place in The Engine Room in White River Junction. It will remain open The venue said it had enlisted a cleaning service but was determined as a 'low risk' The venue was a popular Vermont music spot The Engine Room in White River Junction. They issued a statement on Tuesday after being contacted by the DHHS. It will remain open for future events after being told it was 'low risk'. 'I have been in contact with all staff that worked that evening to make them aware,' the venue's owner wrote. 'Both Health Departments stated that this is Low Risk situation and recommended a thorough cleansing of The Engine Room to ensure the safety of all staff and guests. We have a professional cleaning company coming in to take care of this. 'The Health Dept. also said there was no reason to cancel the events going forward this week/weekend.' The DHSS says it has identified the people who were in close contact with the patient and have advised them to go into self-isolation for 14 days. The death toll as a result of the coronavirus was at nine as of Wednesday morning On Tuesday a second New Hampshire patient was identified as a man also working at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He was in close contact with the first patient. 'This patient was a close contact of the first identified patient and had gone into quarantine,' the hospital said in a statement. It added that neither men were in contact with patients. Other staff members who may be at risk have been informed and are being monitored as they self-isolate. There are four other tests pending in New Hampshire. Six others were tested but proved negative for the coronavirus. Confirmed cases in the United States reached 137 on Wednesday with nine deaths, all in Washington state. Falling for the third consecutive session, the rupee on Tuesday slumped 47 paise to 73.23 (provisional) against the US dollar, as investor sentiment remained fragile amid concerns over the impact of coronavirus. Forex traders said the Indian rupee which started the day on a positive note witnessed heavy volatility during the session and finally settled below 73 per US dollar level as uncertainty over coronavirus spooked investors. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 72.50. During the day it saw a high of 72.43 and a low of 73.34 against the American currency. The domestic unit finally settled at 73.23 against the greenback, down 47 paise over its previous closing price. The local unit had settled at 72.76 against the greenback on Monday. This is the third consecutive session of fall for the domestic unit during which it has depreciated by 160 paise. "Rupee fell to the lowest level in a year following an increase in number of reported cases on coronavirus in India. Market participants will be keeping an eye on the expected synchronised move from Central banks and that could trigger a move for the greenback," said Gaurang Somaiyaa, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Somaiyaa further added that the rupee (spot) is expected to quote with a negative bias and in the range of 72.80 and 73.50. BATH TOWNSHIP, MI The Bath Township Police Department confiscated some interesting items during an overnight traffic stop. According to a post on the Lansing-area departments wildly popular Facebook page, officers found the very odd combination of illegally possessed weapons and methamphetamine during a traffic stop. The collection of items includes drugs, syringes, a semi-automatic rifle, pistol, a large knife, a hole punch (more on that in a moment) and a peculiar sword that looks like it was swiped straight from the set of Lord of the Rings. Bath PD, known for their comedic antics, dubbed the extravagant weapon the Ancient Sword of the Meth King" even though there was a relatively small amount of drugs found. Hashtags like #ObviouslyAHiPoint and #LordOfTheRingsMeetsJohnWick also accompany the Facebook post, which has been shared nearly 1,000 times and generated nearly 1,500 comments since it was posted on Wednesday morning. As for the hole punch, it appears it was left in the photo by the officers as a joke. A quick skim of the comments will give you more information. It is not considered a deadly weapon. Or is it? A former special forces officer turned top Islamist militant was executed by Egypt over his involvement in several high-profile attacks. Officer-turned-extremist Hisham Ashmawy was hanged on Wednesday morning in Cairo, said the army. He was accused of killing 54 people in total and has been convicted on several charges, including plotting a 2014 attack that killed 22 military guards near the frontier with Libya. 'The execution by hanging was carried out based on a decision by the military court ... and after taking all the relevant judicial procedures,' said army spokesman Tamer al-Rifai. Hisham al-Ashmawy (pictured) was captured in Derna, Libya, in late 2018. He was executed on Wednesday morning in Cairo Ashmawy - dubbed Egypt's 'most wanted man' by local media - was a former officer with Egypt's special forces who went on to fight with Al-Qaeda linked groups. On Monday, a Cairo court sentenced Ashmawy to death along with 36 others over 54 crimes including killing police officers and blowing up several security installations. Born in 1978 or 1979, Ashwamy joined the Egyptian Armed Forces as a young man and rose to join the elite unit, but was dismissed in 2012 over his hardening religious views. Ashmawy was convicted last November by a military court over his role in 14 crimes including the 2014 killing of 22 soldiers in a border post attack, and a 2013 assassination attempt on a former interior minister, who survived the attack. He was also found guilty of having led the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Islamist militant group in the turbulent Sinai region. Ashmawy broke with the organisation after it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in November 2014. In October 2018, the self-styled Libyan National Army under strongman Khalifa Haftar captured Ashmawy in the eastern city of Derna. He was extradited to Egypt in May. Pictured is a propaganda video by an al-Qaeda group which featured their leader, al-Ashmawy Other charges against him included infiltrating to Libyan territories and forming an Al-Qaeda aligned militant group, al-Mourabitoun, there. In October 2018, the self-styled Libyan National Army under strongman Khalifa Haftar captured Ashmawy in the eastern city of Derna. He was extradited to Egypt in May. Egypt has for years been fighting a hardened insurgency in North Sinai that escalated after the army's 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. In February 2018, the army and police launched a nationwide operation against militants focused on North Sinai that is ongoing. Egypt's military spokesman posted a picture of Ashmawy with a thick beard dressed in orange prison overalls on Twitter. 'This morning the death penalty was carried out on the terrorist Hisham al-Ashmawy,' he wrote. Local media including the state newspaper al-Ahram as well as security sources had said last week that Ashmawy had been executed, though the news websites later took down their reports. Saudi Arabia has banned citizens and residents from performing the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca over fears about new virus Tehran: Saudi Arabia has banned citizens and residents from performing the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca over fears about new virus. The announcement came on the state-run Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday, quoting an unnamed Interior Ministry official announcing the ban. It gave no time frame for how long the suspension will stand. Last week, Saudi Arabia closed off the holiest sites in Islam to foreign pilgrims over the coronavirus. That disrupted travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affecting plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The Metropolitan Sessions Court in Nampally acquitted Abdul Kareem Tunda on Tuesday from all the charges filed against him in the bomb-blasts at various parts of the country. Tunda currently serves jail-term in Ghaziabad prison for his alleged involvement in bomb-blast cases that hit various parts of the country and making bombs. He was arrested in 2013 from the Nepal-border while allegedly travelling to/from a terrorist camp. Soon after his arrest, the Hyderabad CCS police filed a case against him accusing him of masterminding a bomb blast at a Ganesh Pandal in 1998. He was booked under Sections 120-B, 121,121 -A, 122, 153-A, 153-B, 420, 471, 436, 511, 428, 302 and 307 of IPC, Section 25 (1) of Arms Act, Section 4,5 and 6, of Explosives Substance Act, Section 12 of Passport Act, Section 3 (2)(A) and 14 of Foreigners Act. However, the court has acquitted him from all the charges. The court made this judgement after examining 12 witnesses and 18 documents pertaining to the case. Speaking to Express, Tundas counsel Saifullah Khaled said: Tunda was falsely implicated in the case. After verifying the merits of the case, the court has acquitted him. It was a split of the case. The prime accused persons were convicted before the trial of Tundas began in 2014. The US State Department recently approved the possible sale of eight KC-46 tanker aircraft that would replace Israels Ram (Boeing 707) tanker aircraft which are nearing the age of 60. According to reports, the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs made the announcement of the sale on March 2. Improves Israel's self-defence capabilities The estimated cost of the eight KC-46 tanker aircraft is $2.4 billion and they are expected to land in Israel by late 2023. As per reports, US State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs claimed in a statement that the US was committed to the future security of Israel and it is beneficial to the US's national interests to help Israel develop strong self-defence capabilities. The Bureau also added that the sale of the tanker aircraft was in line with those objectives. According to reports, the Bureau also claimed that the sale of these tanker aircraft will also potentially free up US assets during times of war or crisis. Aerial refuelling and strategic airlift have been consistently cited as the shortfalls of US allies. The sale of the aircraft will also help improve Israel's national security posture as a key US ally according to reports. Read: Israeli Exit Polls: Netanyahu Ahead, But Short Of Majority Read: Likud Celebrations, Counting After Israel Exit Polls The announcement of the proposed sale comes despite delays in the aircraft's development. As per reports, the main question regarding the design rested with its refuelling function. The US Air Force found significant problems with KC-46's remote vision system which is essential when it comes to lining up and attaching the refuelling boom to the aircraft. According to reports, Israels fleet of Ram planes is former civilian aircraft that had been adapted for military uses such as ariel refuelling and converted into transport aircraft. Similar to other tankers, the KC-46 has a three-man crew, consisting of two pilots and a boomer. Reports have shown that the KC-46 has a range of 11,830 kilometres and has the capacity to unload approximately 207,000 pounds of fuel, the KC-46 can refuel over 64 different types of aircraft. Read: Challenger In Israel Vote Does Not Concede Defeat Read: Indicted Netanyahu Claims Victory In Israel Vote Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 01:12:27|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close People take part in a flag raising ceremony to celebrate the National Flag Day of Kyrgyzstan at Ala-Too Square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, March 3, 2020. Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday celebrated the National Flag Day and the Central Asian country's President Sooronbai Jeenbekov extended congratulations to citizens on the occasion, his press service reported. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua) BISHKEK, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday celebrated the National Flag Day and the Central Asian country's President Sooronbai Jeenbekov extended congratulations to citizens on the occasion, his press service reported. In his congratulatory message, the president said that the national flag is one of the attributes of the sovereignty of the state, a symbol that reflects the patriotic feelings for the homeland of each citizen. "The national flag reflects the unity of the people of Kyrgyzstan. Honoring the heritage of our ancestors, we must live in harmony under our flag," he said. Jeenbekov wished everyone good health, happiness and success. In addition, a festive event was held on the central Ala-Too Square in Bishkek in honor of the 28th anniversary of the National Flag Day with the participation of citizens. The national flag of Kyrgyzstan was approved on March 3, 1992. The fierce national debate over health care reform includes deep divisions over the appropriate roles of the federal and state governments. For example, while Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calls for expanding the federal Medicare program to cover all Americans, the Trump administration pushes for the states to have far greater authority. However, according to Michael Sparer, JD, PhD, chair of health policy and management at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) points towards a more effective inter-governmental partnership, one in which the states have significant policy and administrative discretion, bounded by strong national standards designed to limit unacceptable inequities. In a policy paper titled "Federalism And The ACA: Lessons For The 2020 Health Policy Debate" in a special issue of the journal Health Affairs, Professor Sparer writes: States are too prominent and too engaged in every aspect of the nation's health care system not to insist on playing an important ongoing role." Proposals to eliminate a significant state role are both unlikely to be enacted and at odds with 250 years of American history. But he adds that future reforms also need strong national standards to guarantee the desired policy outcome (such as universal coverage) and to limit unacceptable inter-state inequities The ACA offers several models for combining centralized and state-based approaches for policy makers to develop the next generation of health reform, notes Sparer, and each of them could achieve universal coverage without eliminating the private insurance system. Indeed, rather than abandoning the ACA, reformers ought to recognize that the law suggests "the sort of intergovernmental partnership that just might lead to a US version of affordable universal coverage. On March 10th, Professor Sparer will take part in a briefing in Washington hosted by the journal. [March 04, 2020] DHI Group, Inc. to Participate at the 32nd Annual ROTH Conference NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) today announced that Art Zeile, Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Bostick, Chief Financial Officer, have been invited to participate in the 32nd Annual ROTH Conference being held in Orange County, CA at The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel, on March 15-17, 2020. The ROTH conference will feature presentations from public and private companies across a variety of industry sectors, with close to 550 participating companies and over 5,100 attendees, including institutional investors, analysts, family offices and high net worth investors. Mr. Zeile and Mr. Bostick will host one-on-one meetings with institutional investors and analysts on Tuesday, March 17th. To schedule a one-on-one meeting with DHI, please contact your ROTH representative or email the ROTH one-on-one desk at: [email protected]. Additionally, you may contact the Company directly at: [email protected]. Investor Contact MKR Investor Relations Inc. Todd Kehrli 310-625-4462 [email protected] Media Contact Rachel Ceccarelli Senior Director Communications 212-448-8288 [email protected] About ROTH Capital Partners ROTH Capital Partners, LLC (ROTH), is a relationship-driven investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors. As a full-service investment bank, ROTH provides capital raising, M&A advisory, analytical research, trading, market-making services and corporate access. Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, ROTH is privately held and employee owned, and maintains offices throughout the U.S. For more information on ROTH, please visit www.roth.com. About DHI Group, Inc. DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) is a leading provider of data, insights and employment connections through our specialized services for technology professionals and other select online communities. Our mission is to empower technology professionals and organizations that hire them to compete and win through expert insights and relevant employment connections. Employers and recruiters use our websites and services to source, hire and connect with the most qualified and highly-skilled technology professionals, while professionals use our websites and services to find ideal employment opportunities, relevant job advice and tailored career-related data. For nearly 30 years, we have built our Company on providing employers and professionals with career connections, news, tools and information. Today, we serve multiple markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. Find out more at www.dhigroupinc.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dhi-group-inc-to-participate-at-the-32nd-annual-roth-conference-301016686.html SOURCE DHI Group, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Billionaire Mike Bloomberg said his campaign has achieved something no one else thought was possible after winning his first Democratic primary delegates in the territory of American Samoa. The victory gave the former mayor of New York, who has spent more than half a billion dollars of his own money in his bid for the nomination, his first delegates of the primary race. "No matter how many we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible," he said, touting his rise from one percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president." But even as he celebrated his first delegates on Super Tuesday, the key states targeted by Bloombergs campaign provided less than hopeful results. Despite spending more than $17 million on television advertising alone in North Carolina, and building a significant ground game, Bloomberg is projected to finish third in the state behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images One campaign aide blamed the former mayors poor performance in his debut debate in Las Vegas last month. "This isnt going as planned," a campaign adviser told CNNs Jeff Zeleny. "Things changed after Las Vegas debate and never recovered." In Virginia, too, the signs were bad. Bloomberg has a long history of spending heavily in Virginia politics, giving millions to help elect Democratic candidates over the years. His campaign has flooded the airwaves with television commercials in the past few months, and he has visited some seven times. But that effort has shown little reward so far, with polling currently placing him in fourth place with 9.5 percent. Despite the disappointing early results, campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told reporters that Bloomberg was absolutely not dropping out. Bloombergs spending has dwarfed that of his rivals, a strategy that is credited with propelling him in the polls from around 5 percent in November to around 15 percent today. Three suspected cases of coronavirus have been found in the state on Wednesday, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur said. "Among the three cases, the two people under observation in the Tanda Medical College in Kangra had returned from Italy. The third person, who came back from South Korea, is under observation in Indian Gandhi Medical college at Shimla," Thakur informed. READ | J&k to set up data collection centres for tourists from Coronavirus-affected countries READ | Intel quarantines Bengaluru employee amid 'potential exposure' to Coronavirus; lists steps CM Thakur also said that isolation wards have been set up in both the hospitals. A meeting will be conducted by the state government to identified three more hospitals if there is a rise in COVID-19 suspect cases. READ | Hyderabad gears up ahead of Coronavirus outbreak "Today we will be having a meeting to identify three hospitals which will be used if there is an increase in the suspected cases or if a positive of coronavirus," he said. Refuting to the allegation made by the Congress leader Ramlal Thakur, Himachal Pradesh CM said: "The patient had to wait for only a few minutes as the hospital needed time to prepare the isolation ward." The Congress leader had alleged that a patient transferred from Bilaspur had to wait for an hour as the hospital was not ready to with coronavirus patient. The Chief Minister also said that the government will take special precautionary measures as it shares a border with Nepal. He also said that the precautionary measure will also be taken in areas such as Dharamshala where there is the maximum influx of tourists from Tibet. "However, the public need not panic as not many coronavirus cases have been reported in Nepal," he said. Coronavirus outbreak According to the latest reports, 42 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll to over 3,000. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan (the epicentre of the outbreak), other countries including Iran, Italy, Japan and the Philippines have also reported deaths related to novel coronavirus. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across 20 countries since December 2019. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19. READ | Netanyahu encourages Israelis to adopt 'Namaste' to greet amid Coronavirus scare (With inputs from ANI) A family-owned Arkansas-based trucking company closed its doors on March 2 after notifying its customers and drivers late last week. Randy Clifton Jr., president of RCX Solutions Inc. of Little Rock, Arkansas, confirmed the news of the closure to FreightWaves on Monday. "We got everyone home and they were all taken care of last Friday [February 28]," Clifton told FreightWaves. Clifton, a third-generation trucking company owner, said the decision to close has been "gut-wrenching." His father, Randy Clifton Sr., started RCX in 2001. He turned over the reins to the younger Clifton in January 2010 after suffering a heart attack. His grandfather owned Pacific East Transportation Co. Inc. of North Little Rock, Arkansas, before selling the company in 1978. "I've been around trucking all of my life; it's all I've ever known," Clifton said. Since his decision to cease operations, Clifton said he has worked to find his seven company drivers and 24 leased owner-operators new "homes" with other carriers. "We were able to find our drivers some good homes, which was important to me because we are more like a family," Clifton said. "Some of them are already rolling for their new companies." Since 2015, RCX Solutions has been fighting a legal battle that resulted in a $23 million "nuclear verdict" in 2017, Clifton said. While the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lowered the amount to $7.5 million in late 2019, Clifton said RCX was unable to climb out of debt to continue operating. "The Beginning Of The End" On January 9, 2015, Clifton said one of RCX's trucks broke down while en route with a load of empty L'Oreal cosmetic cases. Clifton, who also owns a brokerage company called Sunset Transportation, brokered the load to an outside carrier, About Tyme Transport Inc. He said he "did a trailer interchange" with About Tyme's owner-operator, Ronald Brown, to finish delivering the load to the customer's facility in Little Rock. Story continues However, while Brown was in transit with the L'Oreal load near Refugio, Texas, his tractor-trailer hydroplaned, then crossed the median and jackknifed, striking a Dodge Ram pickup driven by Alexandro Puga, according to court documents. Both vehicles caught fire. Puga, who was 29 at the time of the crash, sustained several broken bones and third-degree burns. Brown died at the scene. Puga and his wife, Norma, sued now-defunct About Tyme Transport and Xtra Lease. About Tyme paid the Pugas $1 million. About six months later, Clifton said the Pugas' attorneys filed suit against his company, RCX, which had leased the trailer from Xtra Lease. His company lost the case and a jury awarded the Pugas around $23 million. While the Court of Appeals found the jury award to be "excessive" and lowered it to $7.5 million, it was too late. "After the crash, our insurance rates tripled, which we have been paying over the last couple of years. Then the economy hasn't been strong and it's just really taken a toll on us," Clifton said. "The lawsuit was really the beginning of the end for us." Following his company's five-year legal battle, Clifton said he was looking forward to a new start. "I was excited because our insurance premiums were going to be lower for the first time in four years," Clifton told FreightWaves. "But, when we went to the bank to extend our credit line, we kind of got the stool kicked out from under us because the bank said they were unable to work with us because we still had that judgment hanging over our heads." Clifton said after the meeting with the bank, he made the decision to bring everybody home and close the doors. "These nuclear verdicts are driving some insurance companies out of the market, which is making insurance capacity tight," Clifton said. "The remaining insurance companies are going to be able to charge really high rates, which is forcing a lot of smaller trucking companies out of business because they can't afford to pay the rates. It's just a vicious circle all the way around." Image Sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:25:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Namibian amateur boxer Jonas Junias has been cleared of the sexual harassment charges he faced during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, the Namibian National Olympic Committee (NNOC) announced on Wednesday. NNOC said that the boxer, who booked his place in the 2020 Olympics last week, has been cleared of the charges after the Brazilian Eight Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice dismissed allegations in which the boxer was accused of sexually harassing a hotel maid in Brazil in 2016. The then 22-year-old was arrested in Brazil for allegedly attempting to sexually assault a housekeeper at the Olympic village. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:11:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of elderly refugees from South Sudan hosted in neighboring Ethiopia consider access to nutritious food, basic sanitation and safety as their urgent priorities, according to a report launched in Nairobi on Wednesday. According to the report that was compiled by global charity, HelpAge International, the aging refugees felt they were sidelined during the provision of humanitarian support that included food rations, clean water, sanitation and health. "Older refugees make up only a small portion of the total number of refugees and as a result, they are often not prioritized in the humanitarian response," Sisay Seyoum, Ethiopian Country Director, HelpAge International, said in a statement issued in Nairobi. "But as one of the most vulnerable groups, their needs must not be overlooked by those who should be taking care of their needs," he added. More than 80 percent of elderly South Sudan's refugees that were surveyed in the study said they received inadequate food rations. The study indicates that one-quarter of elderly refugees from South Sudan housed at Ethiopia's Gambella camps often go to bed hungry, thus worsening their already frail health. The Telangana government has decided to undertake various measures, including a campaign to promote cleanliness in public transport, to prevent the spread of novel Coronavirus. The move comes against the backdrop of the virus spreading in various countries and a man from the state testing positive for it. Telangana Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao requested the Hyderabad Metro Rail and the state Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar to take up cleanliness measures inside Hyderabad Metro trains and state-run Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses. He made the request by referring to media reports that the BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) issued a circular to depots directing them to maintain cleanliness inside buses. "Request MDs of @hmrgov @ltmhyd to start the same in HYD Metro Rail immediately. Also Request Transport Minister @puvvada_ajay Garu to direct TSRTC to do the same asap," Rama Rao tweeted. The Hyderabad Metro Rail has initiated different protective measures to prevent the spread of the virus. It said Metro employees have all been made aware of preventive steps to be taken, including hand hygiene and reporting sickness. Metro stations, trains and touch surface areas, escalators and hand rails would be cleaned with soap and detergents after operational hours. Announcements would be made for passengers soon, the metro rail said adding there has been no impact on ridership so far. Meanwhile, the test results of 36 people, including those who came in contact with the man who tested positive for the virus, are awaited. The 24-year-old man, who tested positive for the virus on Monday, is the first positive case of nCov from the state. The man from Telangana, a software professional who works in Bengaluru, was in Dubai last month and worked with people from Hong Kong where he is suspected to have contracted the virus. He had returned to Bengaluru from Dubai and then travelled to Hyderabad in a bus. The man was being treated in an isolation ward in the state-run hospital. The Telangana government has taken up a process of tracking people (about 88) who came in contact with the techie to ascertain if they have been infected. The virus that erupted in central China in December has killed more than 3,000 worldwide and infected over 90,000 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccines Market report offer insights into the latest trends. It summarizes key aspects of the market, with a focus on leading key players, areas that have witnessed the highest demand, leading regions, and applications. According to Coherent Market Insights, the global inactivated polio and rabies vaccine market is estimated to be valued at US$ 966.6 million in 2019 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period (20192027). Free Download PDF Research Report Brochure @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/3581 (**Note: Free Sample with TOC, Graph, Charts) Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market: Manufacturers are engaged in adopting inorganic growth strategies such as collaborations, and mergers and acquisitions to enhance their product portfolio and strengthen their position in the market. This is expected to propel the global inactivated polio and rabies vaccines market growth. For instance, in February 2019, GlaxoSmithKline subunit, Chiron Behring, was acquired by Bharat Biotech. Post-acquisition, in November 2019, Chiron Behring reintroduced anti-rabies vaccine, ChiroRab, in India, in order to overcome the vaccination shortage in the country. Moreover, major manufacturers are focused on the introduction of new software, in order to record the number of dosage of rabies vaccination, as a patient is immunized with three dosage over the interval of few days. For instance, in 2019, Kedrion Biopharma, an Italy-based company, launched a software, KEDRAB Dose calculator, in the U.S., in order to help healthcare providers to quickly and accurately determine the amount of vaccine KEDRAB that needs to be administered to rabies patients. Many foundations across the world are providing monetary support to manufacturers for the research and development of new vaccines with high efficacy and vaccines that are cost-effective. For instance, in 2016, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated US$ 13.2 million grant to Batavia Biosciences, in order to manufacture clinical-grade inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV) using its low-cost polio vaccine manufacturing process i.e. NevoLine manufacturing technology, which was developed by Univercells. The vaccine will cost less than US$ 0.30 per dose i.e., lower than the currently available vaccine by 5 times. To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market Press Release, click the link below: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/press-release/inactivated-polio-and-rabies-vaccines-market-2885 Key Market Takeaways: The global inactivated polio and rabies vaccines market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period (20192027), owing to increasing launch of products related to inactivated polio and rabies vaccine by key players Non-government organizations (such as Gavi organization) are also taking efforts to decrease the cases of inactivated polio and rabies vaccine which is expected to boost the global inactivated polio and rabies vaccines market growth over the forecast period. North America is expected to hold dominant position in the market over the forecast period, owing to increasing cost of maintaining rabies-free and polio-free conditions in the region Some of the major players operating in the global inactivated polio and rabies vaccines market include Bharat Biotech., BIO-MED, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., Kedrion Biopharma Inc. GlaxoSmithKline plc., Bilthoven Biologicals, Merck & Co., Inc., and Pfizer Inc. Order a copy of Global Inactivated Polio And Rabies Vaccines Market Report 2020 @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/3581 Detailed Segmentation Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market, By Vaccine: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market, By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market, By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market, By Distribution Channel: Government Private Global Inactivated Polio and Rabies Vaccine Market, By Region: North America By Vaccine Type : Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: U.S Canada Latin America By Vaccine Type: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: Brazil Mexico Argentina Rest of Latin America Europe By Vaccine Type: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: K. Germany Italy France Spain Russia Rest of Europe Asia Pacific By Vaccine Type: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: China India Japan Australia South Korea ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East By Vaccine Type: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: GCC Israel Rest of Middle East Africa By Vaccine Type: Inactivated Polio Vaccines Inactivated Rabies Vaccines By Method of Inactivation: Solvent Detergent Method Radiation Method pH Concentration Heat Inactivation Others By Age Group: Pediatrics Adults By Distribution Channel: Government Private By Country: Central Africa South Africa North Africa About Coherent Market Insights: Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity. Contact Us: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com U.S. Office: Name: Mr. Shah Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave, # 3200 Seattle, WA 98154, U.S. US : +1-206-701-6702 UK : +44-020-8133-4027 JAPAN : +050-5539-1737 Other Related News: President Aleksandar Vucic wished all participants success as he called the election on Wednesday. Serbias opposition parties are already preparing to boycott a parliamentary election set for April 26, called by President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday. The Alliance for Serbia and the Movement of Free Citizens, which say they are the only viable opposition to Vucic, are not going to take part in the poll, citing the presidents firm control over media and the electoral process. The boycott call casts doubt on the conditions for free and fair elections. I wish all participants success, Vucic said at a news conference in Belgrade. There will be more than 50 days allocated for the campaign, which makes it one of the longest campaigns ever. That is enough time for everybody to present their programmes. Everything should take place in a democratic atmosphere. Of course, there will be some raised voices and passionate speeches, but it is important that everything goes peacefully, democratically, and that people choose their own representatives, said the Serbian president. Vucics right-wing Serbian Progressive party is expected to overwhelmingly win the vote and continue its eight years of dominance on the Serbian political scene. Vucic has an almost total grip on Serbias mainstream media, with pro-government tabloids frequently blasting his critics as foreign stooges or criminals without allowing them to respond. European Union officials have failed to persuade the main opposition parties to take part in the election. Serbians will vote for 250 deputies to replace those elected in 2016 in the Balkan country of seven million. Local elections in Serbias northern Vojvodina region will be held on the same day. Like other Balkan countries, Serbia faces a demographic challenge with an ageing population and a high emigration rate. She has become known for her street style. And Charlize Theron demonstrated her fashion sense once again when she stepped out for a sushi lunch in Los Angeles this Tuesday. The 44-year-old actress slid her enviably trim figure into a fitted denim jumpsuit and headed off to a Sugarfish for a meal. On the move: Charlize Theron demonstrated her fashion sense once again when she stepped out for a sushi lunch in Los Angeles this Tuesday Her outfit was hemmed above the ankle, allowing for a full glimpse of her low-top high-heeled olive green boots. Charlize has been wearing her platinum blonde hair in a short-cropped do lately and accessorized with white-rimmed shades this Tuesday. The South Africa-born Oscar winner added a touch of dazzle to the look with jewelry, rounding off the ensemble with a black leather purse. Place to be: The 44-year-old actress slid her enviably trim figure into a fitted denim jumpsuit and headed off to a Sugarfish for a meal Charlize recently disappeared into the role of Megyn Kelly in Bombshell, a movie about the Roger Ailes sex scandals. The role earned Charlize her third Oscar nomination for best actress, although unlike the first time she did not win. Best actress this year went instead to Renee Zellweger for her performance as Judy Garland in the drama Judy, loosely based on the play End Of The Rainbow. Esteemed company: Charlize recently joined a star-studded W Magazine ad in which celebs like Brad Pitt, Cynthia Erivo and Shia LaBeouf encouraged Americans to vote on Super Tuesday The first time Charlize was nominated for an Oscar, it was as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 biopic Monster, and she won. Two years later she was nominated again for the sexual harassment legal drama North Country, but she lost to Reese Witherspoon for Walk The Line. Charlize recently joined a star-studded W Magazine ad in which celebs like Brad Pitt, Cynthia Erivo and Shia LaBeouf encouraged Americans to vote on Super Tuesday. A deranged knifeman who stabbed five people in a four-day rampage told doctors he was smoking cannabis every day to help him manage voices in his head, a court heard. Jason Kakaire, 30, knifed four men and a woman in a horrific spree of violence in Edmonton, north London. Kakaire, who had a history of carrying blades, later told a psychiatrist at maximum security Broadmoor Hospital that he had been hearing voices that were going to kill him. Deranged knifeman Jason Kakaire, 30, who stabbed five people in a four-day rampage told doctors he was smoking cannabis every day to help him manage voices in his head, a court heard Ayfer Bektas was the first to be attacked at 6.45pm on 30 March last year. She had gone out for evening stroll when she was wrestled to the ground from behind and knifed to the left of her back severing her spinal cord. Kakaire ran off down the street leaving her to her fate as a shocked witness phoned the emergency services. Rossano Scamardella, QC, prosecuting, said: This was witnessed by Shevki Emin who was also on Aberdeen Road. He saw a hooded male walk three or four metres past Ayfer Bektas, before turning around and sprinting towards her. He then pushed Ayfer Bektas to the ground using both hands before striking her on the back four or five times causing her to cry out in pain. Kakaire knifed four men and a woman in a horrific spree of violence in Edmonton, north London. Pictured: Police at the scene of the fifth stabbing, in Aberdeen Road, Edmonton, in April last year The hooded male then ran off in the direction he had just come from. There was blood coming from the left side of her back and she could no longer feel her legs. Around ten minutes later police arrived and began to cut Ayfer Bektas jacket away from her body. As they did so, it was clear that there was a knife blade protruding two or three inches from her back. The handle had snapped off during the attack, but the blade remained inside her. Judge Anne Molyneux heard Ms Bektas was suffering from breast cancer at the time of the attack and remains paralysed with her life expectancy shortened. Ms Bektas said in a victim statement read to the court: The knife attack has left me paralysed and the inability to walk. I will never walk again. I find myself screaming aloud in public. I was not in employment at the time but that was only because I was battling breast cancer. I battle pain and depression every day. Kakaire attacked Thom Langley, in Park Avenue, on 31 March, before knifing Tekle Hayle and Sujel Uddin both on Fore Street shortly afterwards. His final victim was Suleyman Karayapi, who was stabbed on 2 April back on Aberdeen Road. The injuries sustained by Mr Karayapi, Mr Hayle, Mr Uddin and Ms Bektas were considered life threatening. Timeline of stabbings Saturday, March 30 7.02pm: A woman, aged 45, is left in a 'critical condition' after she is knifed in the back in Aberdeen Road, Edmonton. Sunday, March 31 00.15am: A man aged 52 is stabbed in Park Avenue and rushed to hospital with non-life threatening wounds. 3.55am: A 23-year-old man is stabbed in Silver Street, Edmonton, before being found at Seven Sisters Tube station. 9.43am: A man aged 29 is knifed in the back in Brettenham Road in another 'bloodbath attack'. Tuesday, April 2 5.05pm: A man, in his 30s, is found with knife injuries in Aberdeen Road, Edmonton after being stabbed in Fairfield Road. Advertisement Mr Langley left the Gilpin Bell pub at 11pm on 31 March and was chased along Park Avenue by Kakaire, wearing a distinctive blue coat, the court heard. He felt a blow to the left side of his lower back and turn to see his attacker flee. Doctors found he had been stabbed and was suffering from a 2.2 inches-deep injury. Just hours later at 2.45am Kakaire left his flat again and 20 minutes later Mr Hayle got off the 149 bus and bought some cigarettes form a BP garage and headed down Fore Street. As he made his way down the road, he was stabbed in the kidney - the wound was 4.7 inches deep. He managed to stagger to Seven Sisters Tube Station and get assistance from staff. Kakaire changed his clothes after the attack and put on a white hooded top with the number 32 on the back, the court heard. Six hours later Mr Uddin was on the way to work as he also headed along Fore Street. Outside John Grant Estate Agents he too was knifed in the back. After the attack he told officers he had felt dagger eyes following him through the busy streets. He suffered a cut to his lung after the blade penetrated 3.5 inches deep. Kakaire, who had a history of carrying blades, later told a psychiatrist at maximum security Broadmoor Hospital that he had been hearing voices that were going to kill him. Pictured: The scene in Fairfield Road, Edmonton, after the fifth attack Police officers later found Mr Uddins blood on Kakaires jeans and also on his pair of no fear trainers. Mr Uddins statement read: I have nightmares and suffer from stress. I always think about this incident. I am still out of work and cannot lift heavy objects. Mr Karayapi also suffered a punctured lung after he was stabbed in an unprovoked attack on 2 April. He had left his home, near where Ms Bektas was attacked, on the way to pick medication up for his son. Due to the police cordon Kakaire took a diversion and headed through Craig Park, the court heard. A blow landed on his back and went 5.1 inches deep leaving him with a collapsed lung. Mr Karayapi said in his victim impact statement: This incident has effected my social life very much as I used to take my children to the park, I am now afraid, and I still cannot go out in the evening. I was unable to bath myself and although my wife was heavily pregnant at the time, she helped me. I keep reliving the incident in my mind. I feared I would not see my children grow up. Mr Scamardella said the knifeman later reported ongoing auditory and visual hallucinations including hearing voices telling him to kill himself. He told the doctor he used cannabis on a daily basis which helped him to manage the voices but recognised to this doctor this may in fact have been the course of some of the offences. He stated in the days leading up to the attack the voices got worse, but he was unsure why that was the case. He said the voices were starting to say they were going to kill him, and he started to think he needed to go out and kill. He said he regretted his actions and was sorry for what he had done. In 2008 at Haringey Magistrates Court put on a community order with an unpaid work requirement for possessing a blade on October 6 that year. Two years later at Camberwell Magistrates Court he was convicted of possessing another kitchen knife with a 7.9-inch blade and sent to a Young Offenders Institute for five months. Kakaire, of Cameron Close, Edmonton, has admitted five charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and five of having a bladed article. He denied five counts of attempted murder and those charge were ordered to lie on file. Kakaire is set to be sentenced on 29 May after reports are prepared. Proceedings in both the houses of Parliament was disrupted for the second consecutive day on Tuesday on account of recent riots in Delhi. Members of the Opposition are asking for a discussion on the issue. The government would do well to explain its position. This will also help rebuild confidence in the capital. Business Standard Opinion pieces for the day talk about Delhi riots and other issues related to policy and politics. As long as the CAA remains on the statute books and the NPR goes ahead, Indians, not just Delhi-ites, will continue to mistrust each other, argues our ... New Jersey Transit has announced enhanced cleaning efforts for trains, buses and stations amid concerns about coronavirus. The agency said Tuesday that while it regularly cleans and disinfects handholds, arm rests, seating areas and restrooms, workers will now increase how often those spots are scrubbed using bleach/water mixes and other disinfectant sprays and liquids" that contain anti-viral components. Other areas that NJ Transit says it frequently cleans are doors, door knobs, windows, benches, partitions, trash cans, elevators, escalators, handrails, ledges, all restrooms and floor surfaces and all floor mats. NJ Transit riders on social media, sometimes using colorful language, took exception to the regular cleaning claims with many saying they see the same trash and grime for days during daily commutes. Enhancing your daily cleaning? Does that mean actually doing the cleaning instead of just saying you are? We all commute and see the garbage, spills and stains at 6-7am, and sometimes same ones for weeks Just right of center (@Mike_Lordi) March 3, 2020 NJ Transit added that its working with members of Gov. Phil Murphys coronavirus task force to keep riders and employees safe. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York Citys subways and buses as well as Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad also said it will clean its facilities more frequently. There have been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York state, including one in Manhattan. Health officials in Philadelphia are testing a suspected coronavirus case. As of Wednesday morning, the number of worldwide coronavirus cases has topped 94,000. There have been more than 3,200 deaths, mostly in China. In the U.S. there have been 128 people infected. Nine have died. There have been no confirmed cases in New Jersey. On bus now: trash & sticky substances on floor am so probably been there at least yesterday or before. Frankly just glad the bus came though. pic.twitter.com/FIOCRFa3ED DogtownNative (@DogtownNative) March 3, 2020 Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. There has been a 70 per cent reduction in insurgency incidents and an 80 per cent drop in civilian deaths in the Northeast in 2019 compared to 2013, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. UnionMinister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the security situation in the Northeastern states has improved substantially since 2014 and there has been a 78 per cent decline in casualties in security forces. "Compared to 2013, there has been 70 per cent reduction in insurgency incidents, 80 per cent in civilian deaths and 78 per cent in security forces casualties in the year 2019," he said in a written reply. As many as 1,824 insurgents surrendered between 2014 and 2019. Reddy said recently 88 cadres of National Liberationist in Front of Tripura (Sabir Debbarma) [NLFT-SD] surrendered after an agreement with the outfit in August, 2019. He said 644 cadres of different outfits surrendered on January 23, 2020 and 1,615 cadres of different factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland [NDFB] surrendered on January 30, 2020 after signing of Memorandum of Settlement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iain Duncan Smith compared China to the Nazi Germany today as MPs demand the government shuts Huawei out of the UK's 5G network. The ex-Cabinet minister suggested the tech giant's involvement was equivalent to giving a German firm a role in developing British radar systems in 1939. Boris Johnson announced in January that Huawei will be permitted to take a 'limited' part in the comms upgrade. Despite furious opposition from Donald Trump, the PM said security services had concluded that the risks could be managed. There were fears that rejecting the Chinese company would increase costs and delay the completion of the crucial scheme. However, the firm was not classed as a 'trusted' vendor for core elements, and will not be allowed to take more than a 35 per cent share of contracts. In a debate in Westminster Hall today, Mr Duncan Smith and other Tory MPs demanded that the government reduce Huawei's involvement to zero by 2023. Iain Duncan Smith compared China to the Nazi Germany today as MPs demand the government shuts Huawei out of the UK's 5G network Huawei was not classed as a 'trusted' vendor for core elements of the 5G network, and will not be allowed to take more than a 35 per cent share of contracts He told MPs the Government's decision had left the UK 'friendless' among its Five Eyes security allies. Sir Iain said: 'The decision by the UK Government, frankly, leaves us utterly friendless amongst our allies. 'We're in a mess and the only way to get out of that mess is ... to ensure that Huawei reduces from its present position not to 35 per cent that the Government wants, but simply down to zero per cent.' Sir Iain added: 'Can I just simply say, imagine in 1939 had we been developing our radar systems, we decided actually to have one of the Nazi companies in Germany involved directly in doing it. 'This is the level. ''Oh, but we reduced to the 35 per cent of the involvement, so only 35 per cent was controlled by them''. 'I wonder, how ridiculous that is.' There are many things that worry Fina Kao about working in a busy donut shop in an age of fear about a spreading virus. The elderly customer who shuffles across the brown linoleum floor of the shop, orders a glazed donut, and then coughs. The parents sitting at a table sharing a breakfast sandwich as their small child touches the tables and the floor and the drinks fridge with her dirty fingers. The regulars who come in and who Kao knows travel annually to Chinaone of whom proceeds to sit at the window and cut his fingernails. The fact that California now has 53 confirmed cases of coronavirus, more than any other state. But Kao and her fellow workers at All Stars Donuts in the Richmond district of San Francisco dont have much choice but to show up to work, their only shield from potential coronavirus carriers a 24-ounce bottle of aloe hand sanitizer theyve put near the register. Kao works five days a week from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. If we dont work, says Kao, 31, we dont get paid. While employees of companies like Twitter are being encouraged to work from home to protect themselves from the virus, known as COVID-19, people like Kao, whose jobs depend on in-person interaction, feel more exposed than ever. In this way, the spread of the coronavirus exposes a widening chasm in the U.S. economy between college-educated workers, whose jobs can be done from anywhere on a computer, and less-educated workers who increasingly find themselves in jobs that require human contact. Since 1980, as automation has spread in the workplace and companies have sent more jobs overseas, economists say the labor market has polarized, with employment growing in high-wage jobs that require a lot of education and in low-wage jobs that dont. Many of the low-wage jobs available are the type of non-routine service work that cant be automated or outsourced things like cleaning an office, changing a diaper, delivering a package, cooking an omelet. Story continues Keep up to date with our daily coronavirus newsletter by clicking here. Around 86 percent of U.S. workers are employed in service industry jobs, up from 68 percent in 1970, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. People in these non-routine, in-person jobs are already facing low pay, few benefits, and uncertain hours. Now, these workers are facing another challenge: Because workers in these positions often have substantial face-to-face customer contact, they face elevated coronavirus exposure risk if the virus spreads, says David Autor, an MIT labor economist. The nature of their work presents a significant economic risk, too, says Autor. Many of the fastest-growing jobs are low-paid and operate on shift workwhen customers arent shopping, workers arent getting hours. Some of the fastest-growing occupations in the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are in-person jobs with low pay, including food preparation and serving workers, who make around $22,500 a year, and taxi drivers and chauffeurs, who make around $26,000. There are signs that companies that employ shift workers are in for a downturn: businesses such as Cedar Fair, which runs amusement parks, MGM Resorts, and Dave & Busters, all of which depend on people leaving their houses and spending money, hit 52-week lows on the stock market Tuesday. Already, many workers are struggling to find enough hoursfour in 10 part-time workers prefer more hours of work than they currently have, according to a February report released by the Center for Law and Social Policy. The spread of the coronavirus has also highlighted the divide between workers who receive paid sick leave and vacation days, and low-wage workers who dont get paid if they have to take time off for illness. Just 47 percent of the bottom quarter of American wage-earners have access to paid sick days, compared to 90 percent of the top quarter, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Though some cities and states have mandated that employers offer paid sick leave, which research shows can help reduce the spread of infectious disease, even workers in those places sometimes cant make use of the benefit. Thats because they work for multiple employers, which means they cant accrue leave from one employer. Low-wage workers without paid sick leave are often reluctant to skip work, even if they are ill, since they need the money; Four in ten workers said they could have difficulty covering a $400 emergency expense, according to a 2019 Federal Reserve survey. Nancy Harvey, a childcare provider in Oakland, does not currently accrue sick days, nor do the four people she works with. Yet working with children puts her at risk, she says: We interact with little people that get in our laps and sneeze in our faces, she says. The parents whose children she watches travel frequently, she says, and her co-workers commute on public transportation. To avoid getting sick, Harvey stocked up on Lysol and started sanitizing crayons and cots. A parent who is a pediatrician sent her information on how to prevent coronavirus from spreading, which she handed out to other parents and colleagues. But Harvey, who is among a group of California childcare providers trying to form a union, says that more support for people like her is necessary, including backup care and more information on how childcare providers can keep themselves safe. One growing cohort of workers who only get paid when they show up in person and dont have access to paid sick days are gig economy workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers and delivery drivers for apps like Postmates and Doordash. People like Victor Regidor, a 42-year-old Uber driver in San Jose, are continuing to work while protecting themselves as much as possible. Regidor bought a giant tub of Lysol wipes and a mask and now scrubs down the door handles and seats if he transports someone who is coughing or sneezing. He worries when he picks people up from the airport, since he doesnt know where theyve traveled from and if theyve been coughed on. He doesnt know what hell do if people stop going outits been hard to find another steady job. People are being normal right now, he says, but it seems like only a matter of time before they stop going out at all. A Chinese woman wears a protective mask as she accepts a package from a courier through a cutout hole on Feb. 25, 2020 in Beijing, China. | Kevin FrayerGetty Images Companies such as Uber and Lyft have sent messages to workers encouraging them to sanitize their cars and wash their hands frequently. But the spread of the illness has prompted calls from worker advocates for companies and the government to do more for employees with few protections, including raising their wages so that a day off isnt such a financial hardship. Moments of crisis are important times to look at our values and see where there are gaps in our current policies, says Julie Kashen, senior policy advisor at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which is organizing domestic workers such as house cleaners, nannies, and home care aides. Everyone in the care workforce is underpaid, and there needs to be a rethinking of the way we value care. Silicon Valley Rising, which calls for better protections for low-wage tech workers, asked employers to include sub-contracted and service workers in their coronavirus response plans, and it emphasized the importance of paid sick days and healthcare coverage for all workers. Working Washington, which advocates for low-wage workers in that state, wants employers to allow workers to go negative on sick timeuse sick days even if they havent accrued anyand to waive policies that may require a doctors note for people to use sick time. United for Respect, which is trying to organize Walmart workers, has called for Walmart to publicly guarantee that associates wont be fired for staying home or taking care of an ill family member. We shouldnt have to fear losing our jobs or not qualifying for a bonus if we decide to stay home with the virus, said Melissa Love, a Walmart employee, in a statement. Ironically, if the coronavirus continues to spread, companies may try to accelerate the automation of some jobs so they dont have to depend on workers, says Ken Goldberg, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who studies automation and AI. In Israel, robots are taking the temperatures and vital signs of patients who may have the coronavirus and helping doctors diagnose them from another room. Employers in fields like agriculture and food preparation, and in warehouses, are already struggling to find enough workers in a tight economy, Goldberg saysthe coronavirus could persuade them to stop looking for humans and embrace machines. So far, robots have not been able to successfully replace manual laborthey are too clumsy to do things like clear a table or pick up a childbut employers may try to introduce them into places like warehouses and agriculture, where the technology is more advanced. If people are sufficiently quarantined, thats going to push that demand for robots that can do certain jobs, he says. Already, in China, Goldberg says, restaurants sit empty while demand for food delivery booms. This is likely to happen in the U.S. as well. Goldberg, who co-founded a startup, Ambidextrous, that is working on software that will help robots grasp almost any object, says he thinks that the more the coronavirus spreads, the faster e-commerce will grow, and the more companies will turn to robotics for their needs. People who do gig economy jobs, such as Amazon delivery workers, are already seeing an uptick in demand as customers move to limit their exposure by ordering in. Neil Randall, who delivers for Amazon Flex near Sacramento, California, and his fellow delivery drivers are delivering packs of bottled water and bags of rice to worried customers. At first, Randall was concerned that he might be exposed to coronavirus by touching the items he was delivering, but he read some World Health Organization guidance that indicated coronavirus couldnt survive long on objects like packages. As he delivers more doomsday supplies, Randall says, his worry level has gone down: increasingly, customers have asked him to just drop things off at their front door, with no signature required, or any human interaction. Please send any tips, leads, and stories to virus@time.com. Allstate Corp. struck a deal with Ford Motor Co. that will allow some of the automakers customers to share data with the insurer for its program that tracks mileage. The majority of Ford and Lincoln 2020 model-year vehicles with embedded modems will be able to connect with Allstates Milewise program, which is currently in 14 states, according to the insurer. Milewise allows customers to pay for insurance based on the number of miles driven. Ford has been working with companies including Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. to connect some newer vehicles with programs that measure how a customer drives and adjust a policy accordingly. For years, insurers have used telematic devices that connect to cars or apps to gather the information. Allstate said it expects data collected directly from vehicles to eventually replace such devices. Connected vehicles have the potential to deliver new benefits to Ford customers, including the ability to help lower their insurance premiums, said Kari Novatney, chief operating officer of the automakers FordPass mobile program. Allstate has been expanding programs that track drivers to offer discounts for safe habits or let customers pay for coverage by the mile. The company is testing a program that allows clients to see how driving habits affect a personalized price. The agreement with Ford gives drivers the ability to control and customize their auto insurance policy like never before, Ginger Purgatorio, Allstates senior vice president of product management, said in a statement. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Personal Auto From left, Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, talks before a Democratic presidential primary debate, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, in Charleston, S.C. Read more The day before Super Tuesday, all the nations top security agencies issued a joint statement warning that foreign actors continue to try to cause confusion and create doubt in our system. This should hardly have been surprising since intelligence officials and the FBI have been publicly warning that Russia is waging information warfare to fan U.S. political divisions and undermine trust in the 2020 elections. Yet, on Super Tuesday, President Donald Trump was tweeting about the phony Russia Witch Hunt and the Mueller Scam, meaning Robert Muellers investigation that detailed Kremlin election meddling in 2016. Moreover, Trump is purging the intelligence community of top officials who warn of the Russian threat. And he is still pushing the Kremlin propaganda line totally discredited by his own officials that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the last presidential contest. You can bet that, in the wake of Joe Bidens strong Democratic primary showing on Tuesday, well see an explosion of fake news about Ukraine, Hunter Biden, and Burisma both from Russian sources and White House allies. READ MORE: Remember Ukraine as example of unchecked presidential power | Trudy Rubin Welcome to Campaign 2020, where Russia will be trying to sow confusion and conspiracy theories and Trump will be amplifying Russian disinformation even as U.S. security agencies try to expose it. That puts a heavy burden on ordinary voters to sort out the real from the fake. In 2020, experts say, the Russian modus operandi has shifted from originating fake content or hacking computers to promoting divisive themes that Americans themselves are creating. They [the Trump camp] are doing the same kind of thing as the Russians, amplifying conspiracy theories, I was told by the longtime former director of national intelligence, James Clapper. This is not good for any democracy, and makes it harder to detect what the Russians are doing. Thus, for example, Moscow can use social media and Kremlin media mouthpieces such as Russia Today to play on the fears of Bernie Sanders supporters that the establishment wants to rig the election, while at the same time encouraging the concerns of moderates that Sanders wants to take away their health care. Heres another perfect example of the Kremlin playbook: Although the U.S. intelligence community believes Moscow would prefer a Trump victory, intelligence officials have also told Sanders that Russia has been trying to help his campaign. Vladimir Putin wants to promote divisiveness and mistrust on both sides of the political spectrum. However, Sanders, to his credit, publicly pushed back against any so-called Russian assistance. My message to Putin is clear, the Vermont senator said. Stay out of American elections, and as president, I will make sure that you do. This response stands in stark contrast to that of President Trump, who stood beside Putin in Helsinki in 2018 and said he believed Putins denials of meddling over the warnings of his own intelligence experts. That effectively gave the green light to future Russian meddling. You cant have an adequate U.S. response to Russian interference an all-of-government response without the White House in the lead. READ MORE: Voices from Kiev: Trump's impeachment defense based on lies about Kiev | Trudy Rubin My concern is that the bully pulpit is silent, Clapper told me. It is the president who would need to tell people what not to believe. Yet there is not one tweet where he has dimed out Russia. Trumps kowtow also stands in sharp contrast to strong positions taken by British, German, and French leaders on Russian election meddling. French President Emmanuel Macron stood alongside Putin in Versailles, France, in 2017 and exposed Russias blatant inference in French elections. Said Macron bluntly: During the campaign, Russia Today and Sputnik were agents of influence which on several occasions spread fake news about me personally and my campaign. Macron not only backfooted Putin but made the French public aware of Russias moves. Indeed, no matter the efforts of the FBI, CIA, and Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, they cannot adequately repel Russian election meddling so long as the White House denies its existence. Even more disturbing, Trump recently fired Joseph Maguire, the respected acting director of national intelligence, because a senior member of his staff briefed the House Intelligence Committee that Russia probably favored Trump. In Maguires stead, the president chose an acting replacement, Richard Grenell, the current U.S. ambassador to Germany, who has zero intelligence experience but is a fierce partisan propagandist and former Fox News talking head. Grenell is there to purge or directly control the place, says Clapper. And as a permanent replacement for Maguire, Trump has nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe (R., Texas), known mainly for his combative defense of the president on TV and social media. (He demanded an investigation into the whistle-blower who filed the complaint about Trumps effort to extort Ukraine into investigating Biden.) Either man will likely try to quash any further U.S. intelligence reports of Russian interference. Yet, the joint statement by the top agencies dealing with U.S. security indicates they will try, as best they can, to protect the integrity of our elections from Russian interference, despite White House efforts to thwart them. For that, they deserve our thanks. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Indian banks are at the end of a prolonged, painful non-performing assets (NPAs) clean-up cycle. The hidden stock of bad loans buried deep in the balance sheets, accumulated over the years of easy money era, prompted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to initiate an Asset Quality Review (AQR) in 2015 at the insistence of former RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan. As a result, the Gross NPAs of banks surged from about Rs 2 trillion all the way to around Rs 9 trillion in a period of just three to four years. By now, that process is almost over with banks having disclosed most of the problematic large corporate accounts. Many large cases of corporate loan defaults have been pushed to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) court for quicker resolution. But the nightmare is not over for banks. The second round of bad loans could come up with the slowing economy caught in the vicious cycle of consumption slump and policy paralysis. Fresh loans given to companies including those given to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face risk if the cash flows of companies remain under pressure, thus impacting their loan repayment ability, bankers said. "There is only so much you can do when economy is not doing well. Lending and recovery depend on economic recovery on the ground," said Naresh Malhotra, a banking consultant. The consensus among industry leaders is that, right now, most companies in consumer-oriented sectors are operating with less than 70 percent of their capacity. The fate of the next bad loan cycle will depend on how soon the economy recovers. The pain points When one analyses the third-quarter (Q3) earnings cards of major banks, a larger trend emerges--though some major, retail-focused banks have reported marginally lower or flat Gross NPA figures, corporate portfolios and MSME segments (that immediately reflect the stress in economy) are showing a slight rise in stress. Here, the story could take a turn either side depending upon the future course of the economy that has a high correlation to cash-flows of the companies. In Q3, ICICI Bank reported addition of Rs 2,473 crore in corporate and SME loan NPAs as compared with Rs 1,159 crore in the second quarter and Rs 1,020 crore in the year-ago quarter. During the quarter, the bank converted Rs 845 crore into compulsorily convertible preference shares under the debt restructuring scheme. Including this part, fresh additions come to Rs 3,309 crore. Take the case of IndusInd Bank. In Q3, the bank reported a significant jump in its gross NPA levels, which rose to 2.18 per cent from 1.13 per cent in the year-ago period. Of the NPA pie, corporate bad loans rose to Rs 3,050 crore from Rs 2,932 crore sequentially. Bad loans in commercial vehicle (CV) loan segment expanded quickly vis-a-vis other segments; from Rs 361 crore to Rs 415 crore on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis. PNBs NPA figures show a different picture. Here the MSME accounts show NPAs at an elevated level. Gross MSME NPAs, in percentage terms, stands at 25.7 per cent of the total loans as compared with 20.7 per cent in the year-ago period. Corporate NPAs are at around 19 per cent, a tad less than a year ago. HDFC Bank, too has seen its gross slippages inching up in Q3. The bank did not disclose which sectors have contributed to fresh slippages of about Rs 1,500 crore in the quarter. Gross NPAs stood at 1.42 percent. The trend is not different from Karnataka Bank which also posted a rise in gross NPAs from 4.78 per cent to 5 per cent. Warning signals Telecom construction sectors are sending out warning signals too. The adjusted gross revenues (AGR) mess telecom companies face and the crisis in the non-banking finance sector could spill over to banks balance sheets too. A recent Supreme Court order asked telcos to pay up substantial AGR dues. According to rating agency, Care, at an industry level banks have seen an improvement in asset quality but provisions are likely to inch up going ahead. "Provisions of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) are likely to rise in the coming quarters on account of recognition of stressed assets due to exposure to some stressed groups in the non-banking financial companies/ housing finance companies (NBFC/HFC) segment along with other corporates that have undergone structural changes due to t the policy and regulatory measures (real estate and telecom)," it said. In a note late 2019, Jefferies said that there is a potential 'meaningful divergence' between the ratings and the debt repayment ability of companies. The latest RBI Financial stability report too suggested that RBI NPAs are likely to rise to 9.9 percent by September 2020 from 9.3 per cent in the first half of the current financial year. In view of the stress in corporate/MSME loan portfolios, banks have scaled down their loan growth. For instance, Kotak Q3 loan growth was slowed to 10.3 percent in December quarter compared with 15.3 percent sequentially. Federal Bank is another lender which has felt the heat of demand slump and chose to lend cautiously. "Overall loan growth slipped further to 13 percent year-on-year (YoY), mainly due to the conscious slowdown in the corporate book," said Emkay analysts in a note. Will economy recover early? The banking sector is a proxy to the economy and its health is inseparably linked to how the economy performs on the ground. So, the trend explained above will depend on how soon the economy revives on the ground. Till now there arent any strong signals of economic revival. In Q3, the Indian economy grew by 4.7 percent dragged by manufacturing and lack of private investments. The Gross Fixed capital formation (GFCF), which indicates the investment activity in the economy, contracted by 5.2 percent in Q3 as against a contraction of 4.1 percent in Q2. An early recovery, at this stage, looks extremely unlikely in Asias third-largest economy as none of the domestic growth engines is firing. The lightly regulated shadow banking sector and the mess at co-operative banks add to the financial sectors woes. The recent national budget was widely expected to offer the much needed extra spending push to revive the consumer demand. But that did not happen. Land/labour reforms are absent even after six years of a majority government. Privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) remains a long-forgotten promise. One of the government's promises after rising to the national scene in 2014 was "the government has no business to be in business". This remains on paper. Unless PSBs are privatised, private investors will be on the sidelines. This has direct implications on the autonomy and efficiency of PSBs. The government pegged total expenditure for FY21 at Rs 30.42 lakh crore or13.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared with a total expenditure of Rs 26.99 lakh crore (revised estimate) or 13.2 per cent of GDP in FY20. That is just 0.3 per cent increase over a year; not what a sinking economy needs. WASHINGTON Vice President Mike Pence said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lifted all restrictions on testing for the coronavirus and would be releasing new guidelines to fast-track testing for people who fear they have the virus, even if they are displaying mild symptoms. Today we will issue new guidance from the CDC that will make it clear that any American can be tested, no restrictions, subject to doctors orders, Pence told reporters at the White House. Any American can be tested. Were removing that barrier. The Trump administration has struggled to project confidence and progress in the fight against the coronavirus and simultaneously prepare Americans for what could be a difficult struggle. The slow start in testing for the virus has been particularly vexing. Officials at the White House emphasized that the supply of tests may not fully meet demand until the coming weeks, but they said around 2,500 test kits for more than 1 million individual tests could be available by the end of the week, and that an additional 1 million tests could be manufactured weekly after that. We are trying to meet that demand with increased capacity, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told reporters during the briefing. Right now, Id say wed need more capacity. On Saturday, the FDA gave laboratories and hospitals around the country the go-ahead to conduct tests that had been limited to those analyzed by the CDC, which had been enforcing strict guidelines about who was allowed to be tested. Pences announcement Tuesday loosened those regulations further. Hahn said at a Senate hearing that the CDC was working with a private manufacturer to drastically increase the testing capacity of laboratories across the nation. Our expectation in talking to the company that is scaling this up is that we should have the capacity by the end of the week to have kits available to the laboratories to perform about a million tests, he said. When Hahn was asked to clarify, he said he was hearing from private manufacturers that 2,500 test kits could be available by the end of the week, with each kit capable of 500 tests. Later in the day, Pence repeated that number to reporters, saying the kits amounted to 1.5 million tests. This is a dynamic process, Hahn said. Every day were hearing from additional manufacturers. But under questioning from senators in both parties, Pence, who is leading the administrations coronavirus response, and other top health officials were unable to satisfy lawmaker concerns. They could not answer how soon people would be able to get the tests, said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, emerging from a lunchtime briefing with Pence and top health officials. We need an on-site test, not a test that has to be sent far away and sent back, and we need to know where people can get it, how people can get it. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. and a medical doctor, agreed, there was concern about the testing a lot of concern about testing. The point was made in there that everybody who gets sick is above age 50 almost, Cassidy continued, and nobody has been dying less than age 20, but that doesnt mean theyre not infected. Democrats also raised concerns with the officials about making sure the test is not so costly that people dont get it, Schumer said. And there were no answers to those vital questions. The issue of vaccine affordability is a final sticking point in negotiations on an emergency aid package to respond to the virus, which lawmakers and staff members said they hoped to unveil late Tuesday. Schumer said the package, which is expected to be at least $7 billion, would include funding to state and local agencies responding to the virus, as well as funding for equipment and the development of a vaccine. The package, which has been quickly cobbled together over the past few days, is expected to be far larger than the White Houses initial proposal: $1.25 billion in new funds, paired with a transfer of existing funds from other health programs. House Democrats have said they hope to hold a vote on the emergency bill by the end of the week. Democrats want to ensure that drugmakers charge the government reasonable prices for treatments and vaccines once they come available. We believe that the vaccine should be very cost-effective, and not be out of the reach of average folks, Schumer said. Thats one of the arguments thats still being disputed. New infections in Westchester County, New York; San Mateo County, California; Wake County, North Carolina, and Fulton County, Georgia, since Monday evening made clear that the coronavirus was spreading in the sprawl of Americas largest urban centers and was no longer tethered to international travelers. In the United States, there have been at least 120 cases of coronavirus confirmed by lab tests as of Tuesday evening, and worldwide infections neared 93,000. The number of tests that will actually be administered in the coming days could be substantially lower than the administrations projection of 1 million by next week. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that public health labs currently can test 15,000 people, and could test up to 75,000 by the end of this week. The Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local government laboratories around the country, has said that its labs would be able to conduct about 10,000 tests a day when all of its 100 members that can perform testing are running. Scott Becker, the executive director of the lab association, said on Monday that labs can run about 100 tests per day. As of Monday, he said fewer than half of those labs were able to do so. All that matters is how many people you can test a day, said Scott Gottlieb, who was the FDA commissioner between 2017 and 2019. As they learned on Tuesday that the death toll in their state had reached nine, the two Democratic senators from Washington pressed Pence and the health officials about both the administrations response and its message to the public, particularly about the availability of testing. Our message to them was, be clear that they arent readily available, and the universe of people who have access to them is not large enough, Sen. Maria Cantwell said. Lets figure out a more aggressive plan. The states other senator, Patty Murray, said she had been hearing from constituents who were desperately calling every number they can find for information, and cannot get through. I think theres a lot of concern about honest, accurate reflection of what is real when you have something like this happening, Murray said. She criticized the Trump administrations efforts to play down the effects of the virus. What I really feel strongly about is, we do not need Mick Mulvaney telling people dont watch TV, she added, referring to remarks made by the acting White House chief of staff. We do not need the president saying this is fear mongering. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Politico in an interview on Friday that Americans should expect the outbreak to worsen. I dont think that we are going to get out of this completely unscathed, he said. I think that this is going to be one of those things we look back on and say, Boy, that was bad. Fauci also said that he would be truthful in his public pronouncements, even as President Donald Trump sought to minimize the viruss impact. You should never destroy your own credibility. And you dont want to go to war with a president, Fauci told Politico. But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Luke Jacobz has returned to the set of Home And Away after almost a decade away from the long-running soap. The actor, 39, was filming scenes on Palm Beach last month, ready to bring his character - police officer Angelo Rosetta - back to the life. Instead of boardshorts and a surfboard, he donned a sharp-looking suit and carried a coffee with a paper bag. Back on set! Luke Jacobz has returned to the set of Home And Away after almost a decade away from the long-running soap - reprising his role as police officer Angelo Rosetta After walking up the sandy hill - he met up with Jasmine Delaney (played by Sam Frost) and Willow Harris (played by Sarah Roberts). Sam was dressed in a green nurse's uniform with a black skirt. Sarah was also dressed in character, wearing Willow's red gym trainer uniform with black shorts. Summer bay favourite: The actor, 39, was seen on the iconic beach set back on last month, filming with co-star Sam Frost Co-stars: He was also seen chatting to Sarah Roberts (who plays Willow Harris) Friends on set: Also spotted in the set was Tim Franklin, who plays Senior Constable Colby Thorne (left) with members of the crew Also spotted on the set was Tim Franklin, who plays Senior Constable Colby Thorne, who was dressed in a pair of colourful boardshorts. During what appeared to be a break in filming, Luke was animated as he talked with members of the crew and co-stars Sam and Sarah. Luke last appeared on Home And Away back in 2011. Ready to work: Sam was dressed in a green nurse's uniform with a black skirt Gal pals: She was then joined by Sarah, who was wearing a gym trainer uniform with black shorts Patient: The two women chatted away as they prepared to film their scenes His return to comes after he revealed to The Sunday Telegraph that Channel Seven producers contacted him in January asking him to reprise his role. '[Channel Seven executives] called me in and said 'How do you feel about Angelo coming back to the bay?'' he explained. 'I said "very good" and almost straight away it was "ok, let's get a haircut, a wardrobe fitting and look at some scripts," he enthused. Getting mic'd up: The actors waited as the crew attached their microphone packs Ready and waiting: With her coffee in hand, Sam headed back to her waiting post, as Luke continued chatting away with the crew While it's not known how long he will star on the show this time round, Luke revealed that Angelo will stick around the Bay for 'a good few months.' '[Channel Seven producers] haven't said to me I'm coming in to die,' he added. Luke also told What's On TV he was excited to catch up with the old cast and meeting the new cast. In character: Luke's return to Summer Bay comes after he revealed to The Sunday Telegraph that Channel Seven producers contacted him in January asking him to reprise his role He's sticking around: While it's not know how long he will star on the show this time round, Luke revealed that Angelo will stick around the Bay for 'a good few months' 'Im so excited that my first scene back is with Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart! We all have so much to catch up on. 'The show has always delivered great Aussie drama and Im thrilled to be part of the talented family once more.' Carol Harrison has admitted that sometimes she really wishes had never agreed to join the cast of EastEnders. The actress, 65, played Tiffany Mitchell's mum and notorious man-eater Louise Raymond in the nineties, and admitted the show led to her being typecast. Speaking on Loose Women, Carol told how she loved playing the role at first but 'didn't like the way women at that age were being represented.' Scroll down for video Admission: Carol Harrison, 65, has admitted that sometimes she really wishes had never agreed to join the cast of EastEnders She said: 'I've never really said this before but in some ways I really wish I hadn't taken that part, because I've never been typecast before. 'At first it was fabulous because the character was all of those things that us glorious women are when we get over 40. Which was really sassy, and outspoken. 'I loved the part I was playing. I loved Louise and I loved her at the beginning, but I didn't like the way that women at that age were being represented. 'I felt some sort of responsibility to it. I felt helpless. It was the regime at that time, I don't think it's like that anymore.' Role: The actress played notorious man-eater Louise Raymond in the nineties, and admitted the show led to her being typecast (pictured with Patsy Palmer on the series) 'Unfortunately, for me, a job that should've been the greatest time in my life, and I'm an East Ender, so I really wanted to be in EastEnders.' And following her departure, Carol admitted she wasn't receiving the sorts of offers she expected, with many of the scripts featuring women on the hunt for younger men. She said: 'A lot of parts I was being offered at that time were the same sort of parts. 'These, strangely, because I was over 40 then, older women who were predatory on young men. I wanted to play what a woman in her 40s would be. Seen a bit of life, sassy, taking on the world.' Honest: Speaking on Loose Women, Carol told how she loved playing the role at first but 'didn't like the way women at that age were being represented' She said: 'I loved the part I was playing. I loved Louise and I loved her at the beginning, but I didn't like the way that women at that age were being represented' The Thunder Girls star was 42 when her character Louise was no longer required, and she believes part of the show bosses' decision was due to how old she was. She said: 'You spend so much time playing that character that obviously what they're going through affects you as well, if you're method. I felt a real sense of rejection. 'Acting has always been my very first love and then it was suddenly completely unrequited. 'It was an age thing. There was a time when there were hardly any parts for someone of my age and in that soap as well, they were divided. 'It was the youngsters and the older people. That middle range of us, what we were, middle-aged I guess.' Carol added: 'I felt some sort of responsibility to it. I felt helpless. It was the regime at that time, I don't think it's like that anymore' Typecast: Following her departure, Carol admitted she wasn't receiving the sorts of offers she expected, with many of the scripts featuring women on the hunt for younger men An EastEnders representative declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. It comes after Carol recently lashed out at producers of the show and accused them of making her feel 'suicidal' amid a clash over 'sexist and ageist scripts'. The TV star said the toxic atmosphere on set eventually led her to have an emotional breakdown. Carol told The Mirror how she had seven crunch meetings with producers over the way she was treated, with the drama having a serious impact on her health. Furious: It comes after Carol recently lashed out at producers of the show and accused them of making her feel 'suicidal' amid a clash over 'sexist and ageist scripts' (pictured in 2018) Carol was axed from EastEnders in 1999, after just a year on the show. Discussing her treatment at the hands of producers at the time, she told the publication: 'I was told, "We don't care about women over 40. They are not our audience. There is no interest in them." 'It left me shocked at how ageist and misogynistic they were. They told me to just get on with it and be grateful.' The TV personality went on claim that the stress of her trying to please show bosses through her character led her to suffering blackouts, putting on weight and having suicidal thoughts which first occurred when she was a teenager. Anger: The actress spoke out against the BBC soap and says the toxic atmosphere on set eventually led her to have an emotional breakdown (pictured in character in 1999) Carol explained that she ended up on antidepressants and went to therapy following her time on the show, which she says made her feel like a 'has-been'. During her time on the soap, Carol was involved in several explosive storylines, namely the affair with Tiffany's husband Grant Mitchell, of which Tiffany subsequently learned of via a baby monitor - a plot which which one the soap a BAFTA. However, in the six months that followed, Carol recalled many scenes in which she believed reeked of 'ageism and misogyny'. She told of a scene in which Louise's then lover Gianni Di Marco found a bottle of her hair dye in the medicine cabinet, leading him to brand the character 'nothing but an old granny.' So sad: Carol, who was 42 when she portrayed the character, told The Mirror how she had seven crunch meetings with producers over the way she was treated, with the drama having a serious impact on her health (pictured in 2018) Shock: Discussing her treatment at the hands of producers at the time, she told the publication: 'I was told, 'We don't care about women over 40. They are not our audience. There is no interest in them' Carol remarked that this was 'demeaning' to the characters and viewers of a similar age. While another scene saw Grant snap at Louise and remark why would he be with her when he could have Tiffany, despite his character being just five years younger than hers - with Carol adding that his line was 'ridiculous.' Going on to discuss the difficult times she faced in the wake of her clashes she had with producers, she added: 'I had about seven meetings with executives. My relationships with them became toxic and I started feeling ill... I was working 7am to 7pm and had my little boy Alfie and husband Jamie. I'd go home and cry.' Oh her suicidal feeling, Carol told how she 'never let them' go beyond thoughts and 'knew the signs' due to her past battles. Tough time: 'It left me shocked at how ageist and misogynistic they were. They told me to just get on with it and be grateful' Impact: Carol explained that she ended up on antidepressants and went to therapy following her time on the show, which she says made her feel like a 'has-been' Carol's comments come in response to the news that Dot Cotton star June Brown had quit the BBC soap amid reports she was unhappy with her scripts. The mother-of-one gave her verdict on the news, stating that it 'smacks of ageism' and that June's character Dot was 'diminished'. Carol's words come after she claimed last year that the soap axed her aged 42 because she was 'past it' as she said she went from 'desirable to desperate'. The star appeared on This Morning back in April and revealed she discovered her contract was ending through the press. Ructions: Carol's character Louise was embroiled in several scandalous storylines, including having an affair with her daughter Tiffany's husband Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), with Tiffany (Martine McCutcheon) finding out over a baby monitor Toxic atmosphere: 'I had about seven meetings with executives. My relationships with them became toxic and I started feeling ill' (pictured with former husband Jamie Foreman in 1999) She told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'The fact was, I was in my 40s and the role was so powerful, she had this affair with a younger man... 'It's that stigma about an older woman, that you are kind of cougar. I suddenly went from desirable to desperate. 'When I came out [of the show], I couldn't understand it at first. It was very confusing. It was like, 'Where are the parts?' 'There weren't that many parts for a woman like me at that age. Suddenly they dried up.' Carol said the situation was even more confusing because she thought she had done such a good job in the soap. Axed: Carol's words come after she claimed last year that the soap axed her aged 42 because she was 'past it' as she said she went from 'desirable to desperate' Speaking out: Carol told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, 'The fact was, I was in my 40s and the role was so powerful, she had this affair with a younger man... I suddenly went from desirable to desperate' She said: 'I thought I did really well, I thought I played her really, really well. If you are rubbish, you get it. 'I felt a real sense of rejection. Acting has always been my first love and suddenly it's unrequited I was offered some parts but they were all very similar the description [for the roles I was offered] was 'mutton dressed up as lamb'.' She added that she learnt she was being let go from the soap by reading it in the papers. She said: 'The new Executive Producer came on board and I guess when someone else comes in, they want to make their changes. 'A lot of people found out in the newspaper. I thought, 'How terrible', and then the next week, there I was.' [The stream is slated to start at 5:30 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] Members of the task force created to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak are expected to hold a press briefing Wednesday at the White House. Their remarks come hours after lawmakers unveiled more than $8 billion in emergency funding to address the spread of the virus. The House was expected to take up the supplemental spending proposal for a vote later in the day. Senate leaders hope to vote on the plan soon afterward. The $8.3 billion plan for the emergency was revealed as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 138 cases of coronavirus had been identified in the United States. There are more than 95,000 cases worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the bulk of which are in China. There have been at least 11 deaths in the United States from the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials. The novel strain of coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, has roiled markets and led governments to take drastic actions as it rapidly spreads across the globe. CNBC's Kevin Breuninger and Dan Mangan contributed to this report. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Since the coronavirus outbreak began in January, a rising number of cases around the world has led to an increase in panic and concern. Worry has appeared more prevalent in recent days, following the prime ministers announcement on Monday 23 March that the nation was to be placed in lockdown. Fear has understandably begun shaping peoples behaviour; sales of hand sanitiser gel (recommended by the World Health Organisation as a preventative measure for the coronavirus) spiked 255 per cent in February as the Covid-19 outbreak spread. Supermarkets including Tesco, Asda and Waitrose have implemented rationing of certain items and social distancing measures in response to customers panic-buying and stockpiling. Boots confirmed with The Independent that a notable increase in hand sanitiser sales resulted in a limit of two purchases per customer, although the retailer said it does have stock available in its warehouses. Ocado warned customers they were facing exceptionally high demand for delivery slots, while elsewhere around the world, it has been reported that items like toilet roll are also increasingly scarce as people buy in bulk. But should you be stockpiling to prepare for self-isolation should you develop symptoms and be unable to leave the house for 14 days straight? What are consumers stockpiling? In addition to hand sanitiser, members of the British public are stockpiling other goods including food and medicines. A number of American Twitter users shared images of empty shelves at Costco supermarkets, seemingly due to fears over Covid-19. And in the UK Ocado warned customers of high demand. More people than usual seem to be placing particularly large orders. As a result, delivery slots are selling out quicker than expected, an email sent to customers read. Ocado emphasised to The Independent that this was a result of a shortage of delivery slots as opposed to food products being in low supply. But Bruno Monteyne, senior analyst at Bernstein and Tesco Asia supply chain director, said that a major outbreak of the virus could quickly lead to panic buying, empty shelves and food riots. The objective isnt to scaremonger. On the contrary: the industry has plans to deal with this, Mr Monteyne said. Yes, it will be chaotic (and expect pictures of empty shelves), but the industry will reduce complexity to keep the country fed. Other businesses have reported seeing spikes in the buying of medicines and pharmaceutical goods. Shyam Morjaria, superintendent pharmacist at online pharmacy UK Meds, told The Independent there had been an increase in purchases of cough and cold remedies, vitamins, hygiene products and face masks. Worried-well patients attempt to do everything within their means to protect themselves against the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier this month, several food giants signed an open letter published by the British Retail Consortium urging customers to be considerate when shopping. We would ask everyone to be considerate in the way they shop, the letter said. We understand your concerns but buying more than is needed can sometimes mean that others will be left without. There is enough for everyone if we all work together. How are businesses responding to reports of stockpiling? The British Retail Consortium (BRC) says retail companies have not been drastically affected as of yet. Disruption to supply chains has been limited, and the availability of products remains good, Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, told The Independent. Retailers are working closely with their suppliers and monitoring consumer behaviour to anticipate changes in future demand. Mr Opie added that sales of hand sanitiser have increased due to individuals and businesses making sensible precautions, and retailers are taking necessary steps to meet the rise in demand for certain hygiene products. Ian Wright CBE, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), agreed that the UK is well-prepared to avoid shortages: At this stage supply chains have experienced disruption but there is no evidence of significant disruption to food supplies. UK food and drink manufacturers have robust procedures in place. Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Show all 16 1 /16 Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondoliers wait for customers in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondoliers wait for customers in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A man wearing a protective mask walks past the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge) in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A gondolier on the Grand Canal as the sun sets in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities in Italy decided to re-open schools and museums in some of the areas less hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has the most cases outside of Asia, as Italians on Friday yearned for a return to normal life even amid fears that the outbreak could plunge the country's economy into recession. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A local pulls a trolley as she leaves a street food market in Venice, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. A U.S. government advisory urging Americans to reconsider travel to Italy due to the spread of a new virus is the "final blow" to the nation's tourism industry, the head of Italy's hotel federation said Saturday. Venice, which was nearing recovery in the Carnival season following a tourist lull after record flooding in November, saw bookings drop immediately after regional officials canceled the final two days of celebrations this week, unprecedented in modern times. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Locals wait for a mass at the barely empty San Salvador church in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. A coughing Pope Francis told Italy, pilgrims gathered for the traditional Sunday blessing that he is canceling his participation at a week-long spiritual retreat in the Roman countryside because of a cold. It is the first time in his seven-year papacy that he has missed the spiritual exercises that he initiated early in his pontificate to mark the start of each Lenten season. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists wearing protective masks take photographs in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists wearing protective masks look at their smartphones as they have a break at the St. Mark's square in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears A couple stand at the Rialto bridge during a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks as the country's confirmed cases surpassed 1,000. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. Reuters Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears An empty water bus after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020. REUTERS Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Tourists shelter against the rain with umbrellas as they walk in the empty St. Mark's Square during a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks. AP Streets of Venice empty due to Coronavirus fears Gondolas are parked on a rainy day in Venice, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Italian tourism officials are worrying a new virus could do more damage to their industry than the Sept. 11 terror attacks. AP But Markus Kruger, chief economist for commercial data and analytics firm Dun and Bradstreet, explained to The Independent that the continued spread of the coronavirus could have long-term potential impact to businesses, their supply chains and the economy at large. Data shows that there are 51,000 companies worldwide that source directly from the impacted regions in China, with another five million companies indirectly exposed via Tier 2 supply chain relationships, Mr Kruger said. South Korea and Italy, and companies are having to assess the potential risk to their supply chain and business operations. Mr Kruger added that while the situation in China is starting to improve and several factories have re-opened (albeit not working with full capacity), supply chains will remain under stress for several more weeks. This supply chain disruption comes at a time when UK companies are also dealing with uncertainty around the potential implementation of new tariffs and quotas in UK-EU trade at the end of the Brexit transition period in December, he added. Several supermarkets have introduced measures such as the rationing of products so that consumers are unable to buy more than they require. Since a measure was introduced at Sainsburys on 18 March, customers at the supermarket have only been able to buy a maximum of three grocery products and two of the most popular products, including toilet paper, soap and UHT milk. On Wednesday 8 April, the supermarket announced it had lifted buying restrictions on thousands of products to allow customers to shop for vulnerable people who cannot leave their homes. Asda announced that customers can only buy up to three items from the food, toiletries and cleaning products aisles, later easing restrictions on chilled food, fruit and vegetables, while Waitrose said individuals can only buy three items at a time, and only two packets of toilet paper in one go. Supermarkets including Iceland, Sainsburys and Tesco have also introduced dedicated shopping hours for the elderly, vulnerable customers, NHS and social care workers so that they can get all the food and household supplies they need. So is stockpiling necessary? On Tuesday 3 March, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance joined Boris Johnson to address the nation over the coronavirus outbreak. Mr Vallance said members of the public should not resort to panic-buying. I think the advice is that there is absolutely no reason to be doing any panic buying of any sort or going out and keeping large supplies of things, the chief scientific adviser said. Clearly there will need to be measures in cases of household quarantine for making sure food is in the right place at the right time but we imagine that could be a rolling case of household quarantine if that measure becomes necessary, and clearly things will need to be in place for care homes and so on if that decision is made. On the UK governments website, it says that stockpiles are maintained of the most important medicines and protective equipment for healthcare staff who may come into contact with patients with the virus. Following the implementation of a lockdown across the UK on Monday 23 March, the British Retail Consortium holds fast in the view that shoppers should only buy what they need and refrain from panic-buying. Retailers are working incredibly hard to keep shops well-stocked and deliveries running as smoothly as possible, said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the organisation. In the face of unprecedented demand, we urge everyone to be considerate as buying more than is necessary can sometimes mean that others will be left without. This is a time for everyone to come together, and we hope everyone will support friends, family and neighbours, particularly those who are elderly or self-isolating, so that everyone can get access to the products they need. On Wednesday 25 March, Tesco released a statement outlining certain measures it had put into place to ensure all customers are treated fairly. Customers can only buy three items from every product line and to shop in-store rather than online if customers are able to leave their homes as their online delivery slots are at full capacity. We have more stock coming into stores every day, with up to double the usual amounts of key essentials arriving but we need everyones help: please buy only what you need, so that there is enough for everyone, the supermarket said. A spokesperson for Aldi informed The Independent that all supermarkets share the view that customers should not stockpile because there are enough supplies to go around. People may worry that if they show symptoms for the coronavirus, theyll be unable to leave their home for 14 days and therefore may run low on household essentials. In the event of this happening, it may be wise to contact a neighbour who could buy your groceries for you. By Jung Min-ho The Philippines is lifting a travel ban to Korea, only a week after imposing it over coronavirus concerns. According to Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday, Philippines citizens are now allowed to visit Korea, except for North Gyeongsang Province, including Daegu the hardest hit areas. Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Inter-agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases approved the resumption of Filipinos' travel to Korea. Authorities earlier banned all travel to the country, except for those who live, study or work there. "Our ministry has asked the Philippine government to revoke the previous decision through various channels, explaining our superb medical and disease control capabilities in response to COVID-19," the ministry said. Korea has so far recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases outside mainland China, with more than 5,300 infected patients and 32 deaths. Korea's health ministry said there have been no confirmed COVID-19 infections in Filipinos in Korea. [March 04, 2020] Government of Canada supports climate action by the Government of Yukon WHITEHORSE, March 4, 2020 /CNW/ - A report from leading Canadian scientists shows that Canada's North is warming three times as fast as the global average. That's why the Government of Canada is working with the Government of Yukon to reduce pollution, make life more affordable, and support a strong and sustainable economy in the North. Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, announced up to $2.3 million to support a climate action initiative by the Government of Yukon. He was joined by the Member of Parliament for Yukon, the Honourable Larry Bagnell, as well as Yukon's Minister of Highways and Public Works and Minister of the Public Service Commission, the Honourable Richard Mostyn. This investment will go toward connecting an existing biomass heating system currently used at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre's to two additional public buildings: the Young Offenders Facility and Takhini Haven. This clean heating system will reduce emissions by 82 percent. That's equivalent to removing approximately 3,460 cars from the road for one year. This project will be the largest biomass project in Whitehorse and one of the largest in Yukon. The funding comes from the Government of Canada's Low Carbon Economy Fund, an important part of Canada's climate plan. The Fund invests in projects that reduce carbon pollution, save money, and create good jobs in a clean economy. Canada's climate plan is on track to deliver the largest emissions reduction in the country's history. But these initiatives are just the beginning. The Government will continue to bring forward new and enhanced climate action measures to exceed our 2030 target and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Quotes "We are proud to invest in the Government of Yukon's Whitehorse biomass district heating system. This project will reduce emissions, make the air cleaner to breathe, and create good jobs for Northerners. This project will also serve as an important case study that can encourage more biomass projects in the future." The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change "Biomass is a sustainable fuel source. Our government is committed to greening our energy system and economy, and this investment is part of our concerted effort to address the impacts of climate change." The Honourable Richard Mostyn, Yukon's Minister of Highways and Public Works and Minister of the Public Service Commission "This investment from the Government of Canada's Low Carbon Economy Fund is an important step toward reducing the Yukon's reliance on fossil fuels. In partnership with the Government of Yukon, we are working to find creative northern solutions to climate change." The Honourable Larry Bagnell, Member of Parliament for Yukon Quick facts The Government of Yukon's district heating system will reduce the territory's reliance on traditional fossil fuels and help Yukon reach its goal of increasing renewable energy supply. district heating system will reduce the territory's reliance on traditional fossil fuels and help reach its goal of increasing renewable energy supply. The Challenge stream of the Low Carbon Economy Fund is an important part of Canada's climate action plan, and it's helping put Canada on a path to meet and beat our Paris Agreement target for 2030. climate action plan, and it's helping put on a path to meet and beat our Paris Agreement target for 2030. Canada's climate plan was developed with the provinces and territories and in consultation with Indigenous Peoples to meet our emissions reduction targets, grow the economy, and build resilience to a changing climate. Associated links Low Carbon Economy Challenge Low Carbon Economy Fund Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] CivicSmart President and CEO Michael Nickolaus presents to the Starkville Board of Aldermen at its meeting Tuesday night. Bahais in Iran are deprived of most basic civil services such as loans from banks, cashing a cheque or buying property after the introduction of Iranian national identification card there, a body representing the community in India has said. The Baha'i international community is deeply concerned by the surge in persecution by the Iranian authorities against the Baha'i community recently, particularly a disturbing institutional decision impacting Baha'is across the country, it said. "By restricting applicants of the new Iranian national identification card to select only one of the four recognized religions -- i.e. Islam, Christianity, Judaism or Zoroastrianism -- those belonging to other faiths, including Baha'is, are forced to either lie about their beliefs or remain deprived of the most basic civil services, such as applying for a loan, cashing a cheque, or buying property," the statement said. Moreover, a court there has ruled that all of the properties belonging to the Baha'is be confiscated on the basis that Baha'is have "a perverse ideology and therefore have no legitimacy in their ownership of any property, it said. This outrageous decision is despite the fact that Baha'is have been resident in the area and owned properties there for generations, reaching as far back as the mid 1800s, the statement issued by the office of public affairs of the Bahais of India, the statement said. "The Baha'i International Community is alarmed by the recent wave of persecution against the Baha'i community in Iran and calls upon the international community to shine a spotlight on these issues which represent a major further deterioration," said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - The pharmaceutical glass ampoules market has been generating opportunities from their extensive use in packaging applications in numerous industries. Characteristics of glass ampoules to maintain the integrity of contained liquid has spurred interest of cosmetics industry - Several players are leaning on strengthening their production by adopting high-speed filling lines ALBANY, New York, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Extensive and consistent demand for glass ampoules among pharmaceutical and chemical laboratories as a reliable packaging solutions for variety of drug formulations and sterile solutions is key to evolution of the pharmaceutical glass ampoules market. The demand for customized glass ampoules in several other end-use industries, notably including chemical, retail, and cosmetics industries continues to bolster revenue potential. The aforementioned factors, coupled with numerous other application trends, will help the global pharmaceutical glass ampoules market to reach worth ~US$ 4 bn by 2027 end. During the period 2019 - 2027, the global market is expected to clock a CAGR of 7.5%. "Future growth revenues will come from demand for pharmaceutical glass ampoules in Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Eastern Europe," notes the authors of the study. "The packaging is rapidly emerging as a promising alternative for plastic ampoules, given the mounting environmental concerns with plastics," concede the analysts. Key Findings of Market Study Among the various product types, straight stem and open funnel glass ampoules are expected to garner higher demand than others. The latter segment held a share of ~31% in 2019 in the pharmaceutical glass ampoule market. In 2018, straight stem product segment held a global share of ~33%, in relation to volume; by 2027-end the share is estimated to reach ~36% of the pharmaceutical glass ampoule market. held a global share of ~33%, in relation to volume; by 2027-end the share is estimated to reach ~36% of the pharmaceutical glass ampoule market. Among the various applications in the pharmaceutical glass ampoules, cosmetic industry is expected to increasingly contribute to the global revenues. Increasing inclination of cosmetic brands in Asia Pacific to use the packaging for serums will be the key catalyst for growth in the segment. to use the packaging for serums will be the key catalyst for growth in the segment. Demand for glass ampoules featuring up to 2ml is expected to rise substantially over the assessment period. This can be attributed to the popularity of small-sized glass ampoules in packaging applications. Explore 205 pages of top-notch research, incisive insights, and detailed country-level projections. Gain business intelligence on Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market (Product: Straight Stem, Open Funnel, Closed Funnel, and Others; and Capacity: Up to 2ml, 3ml to 5ml, 6ml to 8ml, and Above 8ml) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019 - 2027 at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pharmaceutical-glass-ampoules-market.html Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market: Key Driving Factors Numerous end-use industries continue to utilize the marked dimensional accuracy of glass to ensure a contaminant-free and safe packaging. Unique characteristics of glass make it suitable as a primary range of applications such as pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, first aid, cosmetics, spa items, dental, and toiletries. Pharmaceutical glass ampoules are also used for storing hygroscopic materials and air-sensitive reagents. Growing inclination to reduce the plastic waste generated from the cosmetics industry has led companies to adopt safer and cost-effective packaging materials. Thus, glass ampoules have gathered widespread preference over conventional glass bottles among the end users and the industry players. Counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products is a significant concern among drug makers. According to an estimate, counterfeiting affects nearly 17% of the total turnovers of branded companies. This is a key trend bolstering demands in the pharmaceutical glass ampoules market. Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=74806 Key Impediments for Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market Players Despite glass being a safer material than most conventional materials, there is a pressing need for improving the safety characteristics of glass ampoules, motivating them to relentlessly search for better packaging options. In this light, increasing adoption of prefilled syringes and glass vials is hampering revenues in pharmaceutical glass ampoules market. Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market: Region-wise Analysis The major five regions in the pharmaceutical glass ampoules market are China, the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and India. Of these, the U.S. accounted for a large share in the global market in 2018. Of all the key country markets, the U.S. is estimated to hold the leading revenue share by the end of the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to be the market for substantial revenues streams for players in coming years. Analyze pharmaceutical glass ampoules market growth in 30+ countries including US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, ASEAN Countries, Japan, India, China, and Japan. Request a sample of the study. Competition Landscape Most players in the pharmaceutical glass ampoules market are leaning on improving the quality of products and strengthen their production volumes. Numerous players are investing sizably to strengthen their production capacities in new geographies. An example is SCHOTT AG investing millions in India to bolster their production capacity. Leading players are expected to keep investing in capacity expansion in coming years as well. Some of the well-entrenched players in the pharmaceutical glass ampoules market are Klasspack Pvt. Ltd., Tvornica Farmaceutske Ambalaze D.O.O., Lutz Packaging GmbH, Crestani S.R.L., Birgi Mefar Group, and SGD S.A. View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/74806 The pharmaceutical glass ampoules market is segmented on the basis of: Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market, by Product Straight Stem Open Funnel Closed Funnel Others Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market, by Capacity Up to 2ml 3ml to 5ml 6ml to 8ml Above 8ml Pharmaceutical Glass Ampoules Market, by Region North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East Africa Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the Global Packaging Industry: Pharmaceutical Ampoules Filling & Sealing Machines Market - Increasing demand for aseptic packaging solutions is driving the global pharmaceutical ampoules filling & sealing machines market. Automatic filling and sealing leads to increment in the safety and security of drugs from infection and external elements. Pharmaceutical Bottles Market - The global market for pharmaceutical bottles in Spain presented an opportunity worth US$241.4 mn. Progressing at a steady CAGR of 3.80% between 2016 and 2024, the market is estimated to reach US$235 mn by the end of 2024. Primary Packaging Market - Primary packaging market is driven with demand for primary packaging products from industries, Asia Pacific leads primary packaging market, primary packaging market to show a remarkable growth in coming years. Glass Bottles and Containers Market - The global glass bottles and containers market is expected to expand alongside rising need for glass bottles in the packaging industry. The advent of customized packaging has played a vital role in accelerating the rate of market growth. Gain access to Market Ngage, an AI-powered, real-time business intelligence that goes beyond the archaic research solutions to solve the complex strategy challenges that organizations face today. With over 15,000+ global and country-wise reports across 50,000+ application areas, Market Ngage is your tool for research on-the-go. From tracking new investment avenues to keeping a track of your competitor's moves, Market Ngage provides you with all the essential information to up your strategic game. Power your business with Market Ngage's actionable insights and remove the guesswork in making colossal decisions. About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Blog: https://tmrblog.com/ LOGO: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1085206/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg A volunteer is pictured holding a sign that reads, 'Please show your temporary entrance card', outside a residential block in Beijing on 4 March. Compounds are refusing entry to visitors to ward off the coronavirus. (Getty Images) The coronavirus has killed 3.4% of patients globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is higher than previous estimates, which predicted around 2%. Experts have been quick to say the new figure is likely an overestimate, with milder cases that do not require treatment potentially going unreported. Read more: Could the coronavirus spread on public transport? Some said a 1% death rate seems more reasonable. A utility-service worker is pictured deep cleaning a train at Porta Garibaldi station in Milan on 4 March. Italy has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe. (Getty Images) Since emerging at a seafood and live animal market in the Chinese city if Wuhan at the end of last year, the coronavirus strain Covid-19 has spread to more than 60 countries. Over 93,000 cases had been confirmed globally on Wednesday, of which 80,270 were in mainland China, according to John Hopkins University data. Incidences appear to be plateauing in China, making some optimistic the outbreak may have peaked in its epicentre. It is on the rise elsewhere, however, with South Korea alone having more than 5,600 confirmed cases and 32 deaths. Read more: Should humans limit their contact with animals to prevent further outbreaks? Italy is faring worst in Europe, with over 2,500 incidences and 79 fatalities. In the UK, out of more than 13,900 tests, 51 have come back positive. One British man died after catching the infection aboard the hotbed Diamond Princess cruise ship. Globally, the death toll exceeded 3,100 on Wednesday. While the figures may sound alarming, four out of five cases are thought to be mild, while more than 50,000 patients have recovered. Of the countries with confirmed cases, 21 have just one patient, while 122 nations are yet to report any. What is the coronaviruss death rate? Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, WHOs director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: Globally, about 3.4% of reported Covid-19 cases have died. Calculating the death rate in the midst of a new outbreak is far from straightforward. Death rates are generally defined as the percentage of fatalities among the number of cases. Story continues This is different from the death toll, which gives the number of fatalities. On 29 January, the WHO cited a likely death rate of 2%. Just a few days later, the Chinese National Health Commission reported it appeared to be 2.1%, based on 425 deaths among 20,438 confirmed cases. On 20 February, a WHO-China joint statement put the death rate at 3.8% based on 2,114 deaths among 55,924 cases. With Covid-19 virtually unheard of at the beginning of the year, its death rate was initially estimated according to hospital data. Patients who require hospital treatment are severe by definition. Milder cases who may experience fever, cough and breathlessness could have gone unreported. We do not report all the cases, said Professor John Edmunds from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In fact, we only usually report a small proportion of them. If there are many more cases in reality, then the case-fatality ratio will be lower. Estimating what fraction of the cases might be reported is very tricky. This long-winded explanation goes to show how difficult it is to get an estimate of the death rate. Dr Toni Ho from the University of Glasgow agreed, adding some countries have limited testing when it comes to diagnosing mild or asymptomatic patients. This [3.4%] is likely an overestimate as a number of countries have had limited testing, he said. Hence few of the mild cases have been picked up and [the cases] we are observing is the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, determining mortality using confirmed deaths over total cases does not account for the fact that outcome is still unknown for many confirmed cases, as they are still hospitalised. Lastly, since subclinical [an infection not severe enough to cause observable symptoms] and asymptomatic infections have been reported, [the] true case-fatality ratio cannot be estimated until population surveys can be undertaken to estimate the proportion of individuals that were infected but did not manifest symptoms. Population surveys refers to testing the public for an antibody protein produced by the immune system in response to the infection. Read more: Could antibacterial hand sanitisers protect against the coronavirus? Referring to asymptomatic cases, Dr Ghebreyesus said in Tuesdays media briefing: Evidence from China is only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms and most of those cases develop symptoms within two days. Taking into account those with mild or no symptoms, Dr Christl Donnelly from Imperial College London estimated a 1% fatality rate appears more likely. In an unfolding epidemic it can be misleading to look at the naive estimate of deaths so far divided by cases so far, she said. The infection-fatality ratio is the proportion of infections (including those with no symptoms or mild symptoms) that die of the disease. Our estimate for this is 1%. A worker disinfects a train to avoid the spread of Covid-19 at Bangkok railway station in Thailand. (Adisorn Chabsungnoen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Dr Tom Wingfield, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, also pointed out that the definition of a Covid-19 case is not always clear-cut. This was shown when China changed its definition to definitely infected if a patient presented with symptoms, alongside a CT scan showing a chest infection. Beforehand, patients were confirmed via a nucleic acid test. Nucleic acids are substances in living cells, making up the NA of DNA. As a result, cases appeared to spike overnight in mid-February, despite one expert stressing it was solely an administrative issue. Death rates can also change over the course of an outbreak. This may be due to mutations within the virus making it more or less potent, as well as humans potentially developing immunity or becoming less exposed to the infection due to quarantines and other interventions. A lack of awareness at the start of the outbreak may also have meant patients only sought treatment when their symptoms became severe. Death rates may reduce as patients start self-identifying their symptoms earlier on. The best estimates of case-fatality rates would have to occur once an epidemic was over, said Dr Wingfield. Estimating in real time during the epidemic is fraught with difficulties. Dr Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia agreed, adding: In my view, 1%-to-2% is a reasonable estimate. This is not the first time Covid-19s suspected case-fatality rate has sparked a debate, with experts questioning how many could become infected and the number that will go on to die. 'Military-appointed members of parliament' are pictured wearing masks in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on 4 March. (Getty Images) What is the coronavirus Covid-19? Covid-19 is one of seven strains of the coronavirus class that are known to infect humans. Others include the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed 774 people during its 2004 outbreak. In severe cases, pneumonia can come about when the infection causes the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus. The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream. Without treatment the end is inevitable, said the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. Deaths occurs because of asphyxiation. Covid-19 is thought to have started in bats before jumping into humans, possibly via snakes or pangolins. There is no specific treatment, with care being supportive while a patients immune system works to fight off the infection. Officials recommend regular hand washing and social distancing to ward off the infection. DUSHANBE -- The mother of the sole survivor of a group of attackers who killed four Western cyclists in Tajikistan in 2018 has raised questions about the death of her son in prison.. Gulchehra Shodmonova, mother of Hussein Abdusamadov, who was considered the group's leader, told RFE/RL on March 3 that, after her son's burial, she was told by authorities that the cause of death was kidney failure. Shodmonova said she visited her son several days before his death in prison, where he was serving a life sentence for his role in the killing of the foreign cyclists on the Dushanbe-Danghara highway in July 2018, and that he looked good and had no complaints about his health. "They say he got sick on March 1 and died the next day. If they consider themselves true Muslims, they should tell us how and what exactly he died of," Shodmonova told RFE/RL, adding that there were no traces of violence on her son's body. Mansurjon Umarov, chief of the Main Directorate at the Tajik Justice Ministry's Penitentiary Service, told RFE/RL on March 3 that Abdusamadov's body bore no signs of violence, adding that investigations had been launched into the death of what he called "a dangerous terrorist." Four cyclists -- an American woman and man, a Dutchman, and a Swiss man -- were killed on July 29, 2018, when attackers plowed their vehicle into their group on a road and then stabbed some of them. Two other foreign cyclists survived the attack, which occurred about 150 kilometers south of Dushanbe. Four suspects in the attack, Zafarjon Safarov, Asomuddin Majidov, Jafariddin Yusupov, and Asliddin Yusupov, were killed by Tajik security forces. Abdusamadov survived and was found guilty of murder in November 2018. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after it occurred and released a video showing five men -- at least some of whom appeared to resemble those identified by Tajik officials as suspects killed in a confrontation with security forces -- pledging allegiance to the leader of IS. The Tajik government, however, rejected the claim and instead blamed followers of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), a political party that was banned by the authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon's government in 2015. The leadership of the IRPT -- which served for several years in the Tajik government -- has denied involvement and called the authorities' claims "shameless and illogical slander." With India, Indonesia and Thailand confirming new cases of COVID-19, the World Health Organization on Wednesday asked countries in its South-East Asia region to strengthen preparedness for all possible scenarios and ensure early containment measures. "Top priority of countries should be to be ready to roll out speedy response to the first case, first cluster, and first evidences of community transmission. Early containment measures can help countries stop transmission," Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO South-East Asia Region said. Five of the 11 countries in the region have confirmed novel coronavirus cases -- Thailand 43, India 28, Indonesia two and Sri Lanka and Nepal one each. The risk of the new coronavirus is very high across the world and in WHO South-East Asia Region. More cases can be expected, Singh said while stressing on identifying them early and isolating them and following their contacts to help limit person-to-person transmission. Singh said there are three priorities for country readiness protecting health workers, engaging with communities and empowering them with timely and accurate information to enable them take protective measures, specially those at highest risk; and "doing our best to contain epidemics in the most vulnerable countries". The virus can cause mild, flu-like symptoms as well as more severe disease. Patients have a range of symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Based on current data, globally 81 per cent of cases seem to have mild disease, about 14 per cent appear to progress to severe disease, and some five per cent are critical. People can protect themselves and prevent spread of the virus by practising hand hygiene, covering their cough and sneeze, maintaining distance from others if they are sick and from those who are sick, she said. Outlining preparedness and response measures and capacities in the WHO South-East Asia Region, Singh said WHO is assisting countries in preparedness and response planning, in coordination with other partner organisations as per updated global guidelines. All member countries have rolled out a series of measures to prevent the disease and protect their nationals. Nine of the 11 countries now have capacities to test for novel coronavirus. WHO is supporting countries with supplies for laboratories. For countries unable to test, WHO is assisting in shipping of their samples to global referral laboratories, three of them in the region -- two in Thailand and one in India, she said. Nearly 3,00,000 pieces of personal protective equipment comprising caps, goggles, surgical masks, gloves, gowns, etc., have been supplied to member countries, and nearly 2,00,000 more pieces are being procured. On February 28, WHO raised the risk assessment for the COVID-19 outbreak internationally from "high" to "very high" nearly a month after the novel coronavirus was declared a public health emergency of international concern WHO's highest level alarm. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The February 14, 2019 terror attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pulwama, which killed 40 troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was supposed to take place in the first week of February. The Pakistan-based terror outfit was reportedly prepared with explosives and arms to carry out the attacks on the slated date. But due to hostile weather conditions, the CRPF convoy was postponed, forcing JeM terrorists to defer their plans until movement of convoys began on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway. The information was revealed by JeM overground worker (OGW) Shakir Bashir Magrey, who is now being grilled by sleuths from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Hindustan Times reported. He was the first arrest made by the agency in connection with the fidayeen attack that unfolded last year. The disclosures made by Magrey are important as he is the first person to be arrested who knew everything from planning to execution. He also provided shelter to main bomber Adeel Ahmad Dar. This piece of information revealed how the Pakistan-based terror group was specifically targeting convoys. We will now be able to file a chargesheet in the Pulwama attack, the article quotes a NIA official as saying. Notably, two more people were arrested by NIA on March 3. The investigative agency said the accused father-daughter duo -- Tariq Ahmad Shah (50) and Insha Jan (23) had allegedly harboured terrorists in the run-up to the attack. The investigating officers revealed to the paper that Magrey has told them that the convoy attack was being discussed since June 2018, and preparation for its execution began in October. The OGW has told NIA that slain Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq was tasked with executing the attack, while JeM area commander Mudassir Khan, who was killed by security forces, was told to supervise it. Only Dar, the 20-year-old fidayeen attacker who blew himself up along with the explosive-laden car that rammed into the CRPF convoy, was a native of the Kashmir Valley. Magrey also told the NIA that they had chosen the particular spot to carry out the attacks since the highway starts to get steep there, forcing convoys to reduce their speed, the report said. A woman in Lagos state killed her 15-year-old daughter, also attempted to kill her other children, before killing herself in order to spite her childrens father who abandoned them. Hafusat Ibuloye, resides at Idumota, Lagos Island, with her kids. According to media report, she woke her daughter from sleep on Thursday, February 27, 2020 gave her a poisonous substance to drink. She did same to her two younger children but they refused to consume the substance. Hafusat then drank hers and became unconscious. According to the nations, neighbours found Hafusat and her teenage daughter unconscious and rushed them to the hospital but it was already late. Hafusat had been angered that her husband had not reached out to her for years after he relocated to USA. He recently returned to Nigeria but did not contact Hafusat or their children. When Hafusat found out that he has been in Nigeria for 3 months, she was upset. However, no one suspected she would go this far. Prince Charles and Boris Johnson had a rare meeting this week. (Getty Images) The Queen has a weekly audience with the prime minister, but its not often that the heir apparent meets the leader of the government. But according to a court circular, Prince Charles had a rare meeting with the Prime Minister on Tuesday evening. The Prince of Wales received Boris Johnson on Tuesday evening, at Clarence House. The news appeared as one line on the court circular, which lists each engagement carried out by royal family members every day. While the Queen has a weekly audience with the prime minister, and has done since she acceded, its rarer for the heir apparent to do so. He has a regular meeting with the prime minister in September each year, and this appears in court circulars. Clarence House would not comment further. Number 10 has been contacted for comment. Johnson, Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall at the Invictus Games opening ceremony in 2014. (Getty Images) Read more: Prince William and Kate talk Brexit with Irish president in historic visit There has not been further detail released or a readout from Number 10 so its not known what was on the agenda between the two men. It came on the same day as the prime minister revealed the governments action plan for dealing with any further spread of coronavirus, as the Queen was seen giving out investitures while wearing long white gloves. Prince Charles and Camilla received Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in September last year. In the circular, the royal couple is listed as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay which means the meeting took place in Scotland. Boris Johnson has a weekly audience with the Queen. (Getty Images) Read more: Coronavirus: Professor warns people to stop kissing in public to prevent infection spreading Prince Charles had an audience with Theresa May in Scotland in September 2018, and both Charles and Camilla received May and her husband Philip in September 2017. In addition to a regular September meeting in Scotland, Prince Charles received David Cameron in July 2012 for a meeting. In February, Charles and Camilla paid a visit to the Cabinet Office, on a day which turned out to be a bit busier than an average reshuffle, as then-Chancellor Sajid Javid dramatically quit his role. He made a rare comment about Brexit, thanking cabinet staff for their hard work over the last two years. The Lagos State Government on Tuesday said the Chinese man quarantined in the State has tested negative to Coronavirus. Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi disclosed this on Tuesday evening, saying that the man who arrived on Monday evening on Ethiopian Airline with cough was tested negative for Coronavirus. The Chinese, Si Wenqhuan was coughing seriously at the airport and had to be taken into isolation immediately. Abayomi had earlier in the day confirmed at a news conference that a Chinese national who came into Lagos on Monday evening has been quarantined. He had said the Chinese national arrived Lagos aboard Ethiopian Airline and was taken into isolation when he began to manifest symptom of Coronavirus. Abayomi had said that samples had been collected from the Chinese national for test to determine if he is positive to Coronavirus. PV: 0 Much dissenting opinion has been made about Sen. Bernie Sanders about how Fidel Castro should be given credit for advancing education for the people of Cuba. His rationalization for this comment was that not all things a tyrant and dictator do are necessarily evil. My question to Sen. Sanders would be, given that logic, what has President Trump done that would award your approval? I dont know if any of the Democratic nominees would answer this question honestly and without party prejudice, but I believe it would give a little more perspective on this election for the American people. Tim Tyrrell, Hampden Twp. Ravi Zacharias asks for prayers amid 'severe pain' following back surgery Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Ravi Zacharias has asked supporters to continue praying for him after he underwent back surgery, revealing hes been experiencing severe pain amid a challenging recovery process. In an update posted on social media, Zacharias wife, Margie, thanked those who prayed for her husband following his emergency spinal repair surgery last month. However, she revealed the healing process has been much slower than expected for the 73-year-old head of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Ravi is progressing in his healing, but at a much slower pace than he had expected based on his past experience (perhaps since he is 18 years older now than when he had his previous back surgery, the healing takes more time), she wrote. His pain continues to be severe, especially during the night, which makes the nights very long and difficult. We are thankful that Ravi has the expertise of two pain management doctors, including his brother Ramesh, but even so it is a little bit of trial and error. Margie asked supporters to continue praying for her husband, especially his nights, adding, This is a challenging time, and there is still a long way to go before he will be able to pick up his itinerary. Thank you again for your love and caring for Ravi and our family. Your prayers and encouragement mean the world to us, she concluded. Zacharias underwent back surgery on Feb. 20. In an earlier update, the apologist revealed he has a history of serious back issues and had previously undergone two surgeries, the first of which resulted in 18 good years in which he said the Lord brought him comfort and strength. Its time for a serious repair job that will take me off the road for close to eight weeks, he shared. The surgeon has said he will have to remove two of the screws that are loose and anchor my fractured sacrum in two places to the pelvis. Thats in lay language, but I have the best of doctors and surgeons who have loved this ministry and want to see me positioned for the distance. The speaker and author said he will be recovering until the beginning of April and said he anticipated some days of pain and struggle. Ezekiel asks the question, Can these dead bones live? The answer is a resounding Yes as God breathes new life into them, he concluded. The Lord has never forsaken me and He is by my side. I am a blessed man. As I recover, I will pray, read, and write. As a result of his surgery, Zacharias canceled several upcoming speaking engagements, including an appearance at the NRB 2020 Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, last week. Abdu Murray, senior vice president with RZIM, attended NRB in Zacharias' absence. A former Muslim, Murray shared a message titled Seeing the Sun Through Fog during NRBs opening session on Feb. 25. STOCKHOLM, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the fight against the Corona virus, Bactiguard donates products for infection prevention to Chinese hospitals, at a market value of over 2 million SEK. "To help fight the new corona virus (covid-19) and protect the most severely ill patients, we will donate products from Bactiguard's and Vigilenz's combined product portfolios to China", says Stefan Grass, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy CEO. "Hydrocyn aqua is a water-based product that kills bacteria, fungi and virus within seconds without damaging or irritating the body. In the past, it has proven to have a powerful effect on earlier versions of the Corona virus and can thus be very useful for prevention of both the general public and healthcare professionals. Further, our catheters for infection prevention protect patients against the bacterial infections that often come as a complication of viral infections," continues Stefan Grass. HYDROCYN aqua is a pH-neutral and water-based product that, unlike alcohol and chlorhexidine, isn't toxic or harmful to the body. The active substance is hypochlorous acid (HOCl) which kills bacteria, fungi and virus within seconds. HYDROCYN aqua is included in Bactiguard's portfolio of products following the acquisition of Vigilenz and it is documented that the product kills 99.9% of previous variants of Coronavirus within 15-30 seconds. HYDROCYN aqua is CE marked (EU approved) and FDA approved in the US. Bactiguard develops and provides infection prevention solutions which reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections. In viral infections, the body's immune system is under stress, which increases the risk of secondary bacterial infections. Bactiguard's unique coating prevents bacteria and other microbes from adhering to the surface of, for example, catheters, which reduces the risk of biofilm formation that lead to infections. Recently, Bactiguard completed the acquisition of Malaysian Vigilenz, a manufacturer and supplier of medical devices and consumables, primarily within wound care and infection prevention, where HYDROCYN aqua is an important part of the product portfolio. For further information, please contact: Cecilia Edstrom CEO Cell phone: +46-72-226-23-28 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/bactiguard-holding-ab--publ-/r/bactiguard-donates-infection-prevention-to-china,c3052311 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/9686/3052311/1205578.pdf 200304 Bactiguard donates infection prevention to China https://news.cision.com/bactiguard-holding-ab--publ-/i/bip-foley-heart,c2758678 BIP Foley Heart SOURCE Bactiguard Holding AB (publ) Look, its a little bit like a whole lot of things that people didnt know before this guy became president, until he started to take it away. And they started to take it away, and he said, Whoa, wait a minute, man, look what thats done. Hes changed the CAFE standards. Were not going to meet those standards. Well, that means boom. Hes done this. It means bang. Everybody knows now, knows what he has done, and its raised the ante significantly. No one can any longerI remember when I introduced that bill back in 1986. They said, What the hell are you talking about, Biden? Whats the crisis? Well, it wasntwe didnt have Superstorm Sandy at the time. We didnt have all these things that are occurring that people now know and were predicted they would occur. We werent losing species that, in fact, we find are not going to be able towhere theyll never return. I mean, theres a whole range of things. Look whats happening right now in the Amazon. The Amazon is a natural carbon sink. It absorbs more CO2 in the air, from the air than if we took every single automobile off the road in the United States of America. Whats going on? Nothing. Nothing. Were talking about $2 million. We should be organizing the world, demanding the change. Thatsthere are the things I have done internationally. We need a diplomat in chief, as well, to be able to put this together. Thats in my wheelhouse. Ive done that my whole career. Coronavirus in India: Union Home Minister Amit Shah postpones rally in Hyderabad India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Hyderabad, Mar 04: Telangana BJP on Wednesday said that the scheduled public rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 15 in Hyderabad, has been postponed to a future date. It is reportedly said that this decision by the BJP was taken to reduce mass physical contact of people during the public rally, in the current context of serious precautions being undertaken by the Central Government to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. However, the state BJP, in its advisory did not mention the postponed dates but said that Shah's visit and public rally details will be will be informed by the party in due course. Condition of 24-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, stable NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 Earlier, a techie in Hyderabad showed up symptoms of coronavirus after he returned from South Korea. The infected person has been admitted to a hospital in Kakinada in East Godavari hospital of Andhra Pradesh. The reports of the test samples are awaited. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 15:57 [IST] GRT Jewellers Owner G. Rajendran established GRT which stands for G.R. Thanga Maligai in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The GRT Jewellers was formed in the year 1964 with the sole intention to focus on the customer satisfaction. The GRT Jewellers is one of the most trustworthy jewellers in India. The house of GRT Jewellers is one of the fast-growing shopping hubs in the city of Chennai. It has become a household name in Chennai. The jewelry pieces from the house of GRT is known for its purity. It also offers a broad choice of jewelry patterns. Apart from jewelry, the house of GRT has also forayed into diverse business groups with its vested interest in hospitality, hotels & resorts, agriculture, Eco-friendly energy sources like solar and wind energy, trading and setting up educational institutions. GRT Jewellers Collections The house of GRT Jewellers has a range of collections under several brands like Adore, Elena, Vihara, Zeva, Gina, Viha, Mayuri, Laya, Oriana. GRT Jewellers offers gold jewelry, silver jewelry, platinum jewelry, diamond jewelry, jewelry made out of pearl, semi-precious stones, precious stones like ruby, emerald, navratna stones, corals, pearls and so on. GRT Jewellers necklace designs are beautifully designed to suit the occasion and mood of the wearer. GRT Jewellers mainly manufacture and sell bangles, necklaces, earrings, rings, pendants, bracelets, nose pins, chains made out of gold, platinum, silver, diamonds, rose gold apart from this they also sell silver articles and corporate gifts. It organizes Bangle Mela, a collection of GRT Bangles which showcases a collection of exotic, traditional and colorful bangle jewelry pieces which are an assortment of unique, trendy and precious bangles. The Bangle Mela provides finely crafted individual pieces of bangles keeping in mind the tastes of customers apart from the current trends. Bangles are made out of gold, diamonds, platinum, emeralds, rubies, pearls, zircon which are presented in exquisite combinations in the form of contemporary and traditional styles. The designs, especially of the GRT diamond necklace, has a range of fashionable pieces as well as traditional one which is trendy and easy on the purchase. Each category of collections is artistically paired out with GRT diamonds and gemstones gaining special attention from customers for their striking appeal. GRT Jewellers Branches The GRT Jewellers has a chain of network stores which has its presence in many state capitals apart from some of the foreign locations. GRT has its presence in the following states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. Apart from its stores located in India, it has a strong presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai. The showrooms of GRT Jewellers is situated in Chennai, Bangalore, Tirupathi, Hosur, Vishakapatnam, Madurai, Guntur, Puducherry, Trichy, Kumbakonam, Hyderabad, Thanjavur and so on. The GRT Jewellers Bangalore has stores located in Malleswaram, Jayanagar, Kammanahalli, and Marathahalli. The aspiring customers can also find the branches through Store Locator. GRT Jewellers Gold Rate With the advent of technology, the customers woes to know about the existing gold rate on daily basis has come down to a great extent. GRT Jewellers provides a platform in its web portal exclusively wherein it shares the rate of 22 karat gold per gram on a daily basis across the three states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Hyderabad. This is done mainly for helping the customers to be aware of the existing gold rates for the day before they head for the purchase of the yellow metal. Brand Ambassadors of GRT Jewellers The GRT Jewellers has roped in famous celebrity actor Aditi Rao Hydari as its brand ambassador to endorse the jewelry. GRT Jewellers Online Collections There is a huge range of online collections which the customer can check for in the web portal of GRT Jewellers which are unique, trendy yet appears classy on the wearer. One can check for the fabulous Mayuri collections from the house of GRT which offers both office and party wear pieces which range from pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and so on which grabs the customers attention completely by just having a glimpse of it. The interested customers can even check for the list of GRT Silver collections with price to understand the pricing pattern, making charges, weight, the rate of silver per gram and so on which is provided on the groups website. GRT Jewellers Gold Scheme Like most of the jewelry houses in India, the GRT Jewellers also offer the gold scheme to help their esteemed customers to gain additional discount by enrolling themselves in the gold scheme. GRT Golden Eleven Flexi Plan is a special scheme offered to the customers who help them to plan and buy the jewelry that they always wanted to buy. The customer can select the desired amount of their choice as a monthly advance payment on joining the scheme. A passbook will be given to keep track of the payments. One has to pay eleven equal monthly advance payments regularly without fail to enjoy the full benefits of the scheme. Post 11 months of making payment, the customer can choose from their favorite jewelry except for certain items like platinum, ruby, diamond, uncut diamonds, emerald, pooja items, silver articles, silver jewelry, ethnic and vintage jewelry which have charges like wastage or value addition. The customer need not have to pay any kind of wastage or value addition charges on the item which they select. The customer is free to choose either the gold weight based option or can go for value-based ones. The customer can opt to pick the jewelry piece of their choice on the 12th month and if they do not purchase within the 12th month from the date of enrollment, then the company may opt to refund the total advance amount paid without providing any kind of other benefits to those customers. The refund amount will be sent directly to the members registered address through cheque or bank transfer. GRT Jewellers Gold Jewellery Charges Most of the jewelers in India levy charges on customers at the time of purchase apart from collecting the value of gold per gram which is popularly known as making charges. The wastage and making charges usually differ from one jewelry piece to another one. The charges of wastage and making are also different from one jeweler to another. GRT Jewellers also collects making charges and wastage charges from the customers who buy their products. To know more about the charges levied by GRT Jewellers the customers can visit the nearest shop and enquire about the same. Press Release March 4, 2020 Senate approves Go-backed local hospital bills on second reading Local hospital bills sponsored by Senator and Senate Committee on Health chair Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go were approved on second reading with only minor amendments during the Senate regular session on Tuesday, March 3. The bills which hurdled second reading on the Senate floor include: - House Bills (HB) 1477 or "An Act Increasing the Bed Capacity of the Caraga Regional Hospital in Barangay Washington, Surigao City, Surigao del Norte from One Hundred Fifty (150) to Five Hundred (500) Beds, and Appropriating Funds Therefor"; - HB 5871 or "An Act Upgrading the Maria L. Eleazar District Hospital in the Municipality of Tagkawayan, Province of Quezon into a Level III General Hospital to be known as the Maria L. Eleazar General Hospital Under the Direct Supervision and Control of the Department of Health, and Appropriating Funds Therefor"; - HB 1799 or "An Act Upgrading the Talisay District Hospital in Talisay City, Province of Cebu, into a Medical Center to be known as the Cebu South Medical Center, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 7799, and Appropriating Funds Therefor"; and - Senate Bill (SB) No. 640 or "An Act Increasing the Bed Capacity of Bicol Medical Center from Five Hundred (500) Beds to One Thousand (1,000) Beds, Upgrading its Service Facilities and Professional Health Care Services, Authorizing the Increase of its Medical Workforce Complement, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 8053, and Appropriating Funds Therefor". No senator registered to interpellate on the proposed measures. Go has been vocal about the growing need of the country to improve its hospital facilities and augment their bed capacity. In a committee public hearing on February 12, Go said that he has personally seen the need to improve the country's health facilities during his frequent visits to government hospitals, saying, "Nakakalungkot po na kulang ang ating mga pasilidad at equipment para tugunan ang pangangailangang medikal ng mga Pilipino." He also cited data from the Department of Health (DOH) which further justify the need to improve public hospitals. "The country has a one-is-to-1,083 bed-to-population ratio. This is beyond the recommended ideal target ratio of one-is-to-1,000," Go declared, adding that the government needs additional 131,250 beds to reach its target. "Currently, we have 88,394 beds or 67 percent of the target. In 2018, almost 65% of public hospitals were overcrowded," he added. Go also noted the timeliness of the measures given the current Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation affecting several countries worldwide, including the Philippines. "In light of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the readiness of our government hospitals to provide quality, available and efficient health services was highlighted," Go stated. "It is just timely that we discuss today measures that are aimed towards the improvement of our government hospitals," he added. Known as an advocate of improved access to health care, Go has authored and supported measures in his first year as senator to accomplish this undertaking. In July last year, he filed the landmark "Malasakit Center Act of 2019" which mandates the establishment of Malasakit Centers in 73 hospitals that are run by DOH all over the country and in the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, ensuring easier access to government medical and financial assistance to Filipinos. In his previous statements, the Senator expressed his commitment to ensuring better health services for Filipinos, saying, "Ibigay natin sa Pilipino ang mabilis, maayos at maaasahang serbisyo, lalo na pagdating sa pangangailang pangkalusugan." "As I have said many times, pera nila ito, ibalik sa kanila sa pamamagitan ng mabilis, maayos, at maaasahang serbisyo mula sa gobyernong may malasakit," he added. The Swiss government banned large gatherings in order to curb the outspread of the virus. This year's Geneva Motor Show has been cancelled due to the continued spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus with several cases confirmed in Geneva and parts of Switzerland, spreading in other European countries. The Swiss government banned large gatherings in order to curb the outspread of the virus. In a statement, the cabinet said, "In view of the current situation and the spread of the coronavirus, the Federal Council has categorized the situation in Switzerland as 'special' in terms of the Epidemics Act. Large-scale events involving more than 1000 people are to be banned. The ban comes into immediate effect and will apply at least until 15 March." Maurice Turrettini, chairman of the Foundation Board said in a statement, "We regret this situation, but the health of all participants is our and our exhibitors' top priority. This is a case of force majeure and a tremendous loss for the manufacturers who have invested massively in their presence in Geneva. However, we are convinced that they will understand this decision". The Geneva Motor Show was scheduled on 5th to 15th March for the general public and was supposed to be open to the press on 3 March 2020. Several companies had already taken the decision to not participate in this year's Motor Show for health concerns and to try to keep the Show go on, Palexpo, the official organizers of the GIMS had announced a warning for the attendees to maintain hygiene but with the Swiss government's statement led to the pulling of the plug. Because of the current scenario, many car manufacturers have decided to showcase their portfolio via media platforms and online press conferences which can be live-streamed through links available on their respective websites. A number of US officials have travelled to Syria to inspect the ongoing situation in Idleb and the humanitarian efforts that are being pursued reports Alsouria Net. A high-level American delegation visited Idleb province in northwestern Syria, including senior officials from the Trump administration, led by the United States representative to the Security Council, Kelly Craft; and the American envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey. Craft announced the visit on Tuesday, using her Twitter account, publishing photos of her entering Syrian territory through Turkey and meeting members of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) to review relief operations. Craft and Jeffrey also met with United Nations Humanitarian and Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, on the Syrian-Turkish border, to observe the progress of the humanitarian response to crises in Idleb, she said. Craft added that her country has allocated 108 million dollars for humanitarian and relief support in Syria and called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard. Regarding the visit, Craft said that she came with the American delegation to Idleb on behalf of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who assigned her this task, expressing her happiness to meet Civil Defense volunteers, saying: They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things to save the lives of the victims of Assads brutality. The American envoy called on Turkey to keep the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salama crossings open to humanitarian assistance, supervised by the United Nations, noting that the meetings with the Turks in this regard had been positive. This is the first visit of its kind by American officials to Idleb since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, and it came in the context of an American delegation to Turkey to discuss the rapid developments in Idleb. An American delegation arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, to hold meetings with Turkish officials and discuss the latest developments in Syria, according to the Anadolu news agency. It included Trumps special envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, and the representative of the United States of America at the United Nations, Kelly Craft. The two sides discussed the humanitarian crisis taking place in Idleb as a result of the attacks of the Syrian regime. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Health Department disease detectives are locating and following up with anyone who had contact with a man who is the second person to officially have the coronavirus in New York, officials said on Tuesday. The man, who is in his 50s and has an underlying respiratory condition, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio, works at Lewis and Garbuz, P.C., a small law firm located only hundreds of feet away from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. He sought care on Feb. 27 at Lawrence Hospital in Westchester, de Blasio said, but is now hospitalized at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and in serious condition. The man also has two children who attend schools in New York City. Both children are currently in isolation and are being tested for the coronavirus, officials said. Officials said the man traveled to Miami, Florida, and had traveled to Israel as well in recent months. However, he did not travel to any areas with widespread transmission, making the case appear to be an example of community spread, de Blasio said. Coronavirus: Full coverage on SILive.com Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) personnel are on the ground at the law firm and the two schools SAR Academy and High School in the Bronx and Yeshiva University in Manhattan, de Blasio said. Disease detectives are following up with anyone who had close contact with the patient or his kids to get them tested for coronavirus, de Blasio wrote on Twitter. That includes casting a wide net and conferring with coworkers with prolonged contact at the Manhattan law firm, members of the mans family, individuals at the two schools his children attended and health workers at the two hospitals where the man was held. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene personnel are on the ground at the law firm, SAR Academy and Yeshiva University. Disease detectives are following up with anyone who had close contact with the patient or his kids to get them tested for coronavirus. Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 3, 2020 In response to a question concerning the mans travel at Tuesdays press conference, de Blasio said detectives are looking for prolonged contact, adding that the global medical community believes you cannot contract the virus through casual contact, so the subway is not the issue." The issue of the train is not the issue, de Blasio said. The issue is prolonged, consistent contact. Still, the MTAs mass transit divisions New York City Transit, MTA Bus, Access-A-Ride, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North have significantly ramped up the frequency and intensity of their sanitizing efforts, using EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants, the Advance previously reported. Frequently touched station surfaces like turnstiles, handrails and MetroCard vending machines will be disinfected daily, with the agencys full fleet of trains, cars and buses undergoing full sanitization every 72 hours. De Blasio repeatedly asserted that the DOHMH is ascertaining which individuals had consistent and close contact to the man and his children, and the Health Department is in the process of providing anyone who may have had incidental contact with precautionary measures and information. The Health Department recommends that anyone concerned about close contact with these individuals go to their health care provider or call 311. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that there have been more than 91,700 confirmed cases of the virus globally and more than 3,100 deaths. The Washington State Department of Health announced today that nine deaths have been confirmed in the state the only state currently with confirmed deaths. (Photo : Pixabay) University students, while busy checking out the asteroid Bennu, have detected a newly flaring black hollow 30,000 light-years away. While gazing an asteroid the use of a NASA spaceship, the students noticed a bright object in the constellation Columba. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, developed by students at MIT and Harvard and designed to measure X-rays emitted from asteroids, accidentally picked up a showy flare of X-rays from a black hole that is now named MAXI J0637-430. These X-ray emissions happen when a black hollow pulls in elements from a regular star in orbit around it. As the matter spirals onto a spinning disk surrounding the black hole, an unlimited amount of energy is launched in the process - primarily in X-ray form. The new black hole changed into detected remaining fall, and only a week after Japan's MAXI telescope found it. ALSO READ: NASA's OSIRIS-REx Moves Closer Than Ever To Bennu Asteroid A first for REXIS In a statement, NASA said REXIS detected the same activity millions of miles from Earth while orbiting Bennu. The space agency added such outburst was the first-ever detected by the spacecraft from interplanetary space. NASA also uploaded a GIF displaying how OSIRIS-Rex instrument detected the black hole outburst. Madeline Lambert, an MIT graduate student who designed the device's command sequences that serendipitously revealed the black hole, said detecting this X-ray burst is a proud moment for the REXIS team. Lambert underscored that their device worked as expected and at a level required of NASA technology instruments. Students and researchers from MIT and Harvard built the spacecraft's Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer instrument. The REXIS supposed to measure X-rays emitted by the asteroid. However, the device inadvertently picked up a showy flare of X-rays from a black hole now named MAXI J0637-430. MIT professor Richard Binzel, an instrument scientist for the REXIS student experiment, said they are teaching students a way to construct and perform area instruments. The greatest lesson, according to Binzel, is always to be open to "discovering the unexpected." REXIS to spend the following year orbiting Asteroid Bennu The REXIS device's primary purpose is to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, and project managers in the development and operations of spaceflight hardware. Nearly one hundred undergraduate and graduate college students have worked at the REXIS crew since the venture's inception. OSIRIS-REx left Earth more than two years ago on its mission to take a look at an asteroid and, hopefully, deliver a sample again in 2023. ALSO READ: NASA To Send OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft To Study Bennu Asteroid That Could Destroy Earth The craft will spend the following year in orbit around its target earlier than dropping down in brief so it could get close sufficient to scoop up a pattern of dirt and rock from the surface. Osiris-Rex's main goal is to bring home a regolith pattern of at least 2.1 ounces. Asteroid Bennu is a carbon-rich hunk of rock that might incorporate natural materials or molecular precursors to life. NASA explains that analyzing a pattern from Bennu will assist planetary scientists to understand the role asteroids can also have played in delivering life-forming compounds to Earth. 'We understand from having studied Bennu via Earth- and area-based telescopes that it is a carbonaceous, or carbon-rich, asteroid. Carbon is the hinge upon which natural molecules hang. 'Bennu is likely rich in natural molecules, that are fabricated from chains of carbon bonded with atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, and other elements in a chemical recipe that makes all known living things. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KSRTC bus services from the city including long-distance services came to halt after the employees protested against the arrest of three colleagues who questioned unauthorised service by a private bus on Wednesday morning. Assistant transport officer NK Jacob Sam Lopez, Traffic Inspector Rajendran and driver Suresh were taken into custody for obstructing the duty of the police. They had objected to free service operated by a private bus in violation of permit to Attukal temple where the annual festival is underway. KSRTC also operates free service during Attukal Pongala festival. Following the arrest, the employees gathered in large number in front of Fort police station. The police have refused to relent as they maintained that the KSRTC officer had no authority to obstruct the service. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global vape market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 14% during the period 20192025. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868637/?utm_source=PRN The vape market is witnessing a shift from smoking to vaping. Veteran vapors and heavy smokers have started to switch to bulky vapor mods. It is expected that the vapor products market would be driven further by VTMs and personal vaporizers during the forecast period. Disposables and rechargeable e-cigarettes are witnessing a decline in their revenue as well as popularity worldwide as VTMs offer flexibility in terms of filling e-juices and are proving cost-effective in the long run. Unlike disposables and rechargeable e-cigarettes that can be refilled only with the company's own brand of cartridges, VTMs, and personal vaporizers can be refilled with e-juices produced by any company. Hence, vaping is substantially cost-effective in the long run than traditional tobacco cigarettes and disposables/rechargeable e-cigarettes, which is expected to affect the market during the forecast period. Another important reason for the popularity of vapor products is the availability of different flavors in the market. The market has been witnessing the introduction of new flavors and their blends regularly, which, in turn, has been driving the growth. However, e-liquids with flavors of fruits, beverages, and sweets have been gaining share over traditional tobacco flavor. Further, many countries, such as Australia and Canada have banned nicotine-loaded vapor products. Thus, e-liquids with a variety of flavors containing zero nicotine have become popular among vapers. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the vape market during the forecast period: Shift from Smoking toward Vaping Increased Market Consolidation Increasing Availability of Variety of E-juices The study considers the present scenario of the vape market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market. Vape Market: Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by E-vapor, HnB tobacco, distribution, and geography. E-liquids were the largest revenue-generating product category of the global vape market in 2019. The major reason behind high market shares can be attributed to the increased proliferation of Vapor/Tank/Mods (VTM). North America is expected to hold the largest share during the forecast period due to growing technological advancements, developed GDP, increasing manufacturers, and rising demand for e-liquid from this region is surging the growth. Open tanks systems started to gain popularity among end-users in 2014 when the global e-vapor market faced an influx of private label products, and vaping enthusiasts started demanding strong vaping experience. However, VTMs are more prevalent in European countries such as Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the UK, where the penetration has crossed 50% mark. The existing demand in the US, Italy, and the UK, along with growing demand from Poland, China, and Russia, will propel the growth during the forecast period. Cig-a-likes are the first generation of e-cigarettes designed to mimic traditional cigarettes. The advent of closed tanks systems and VTMs has affected the sale of cig-a-likes since 2014. Further, a weak battery power, along with low vapor-producing capacity, leads to dissatisfaction among end-users. Thus, the demand started to decline. However, with the introduction of modern-day cig-a-likes such as the one by V2 Cigs (V2 Cigs EX series), cig-a-likes are started to witness growth. The HnB market is growing rapidly across the globe. APAC is the largest market for HnB products, followed by Europe. The APAC region enjoys a larger share because of the large smoking population and continuous shift toward smoking innovative products. Besides, South Korea, Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic are the robust market for heat-not-burn products. HnB products are getting popular with the shift in social culture and increasing health consciousness among people. The rise in demand for these products has enabled companies to bring innovations in products and spend more on promotion. The industry is also growing quickly in Europe, especially the UK, Italy, Poland, and France. The market value of heat-not-burn products is expected to grow twice in Western Europe than Eastern Europe. Although the heat not burn market share is minuscule compared to cigarettes, they are expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The market size for HnB tobacco consumables is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% during the period 20192025. The distribution environment is rapidly evolving, with systems and processes being upgraded at a rapid pace. Changes are spurred by expanding competition, accelerating digitization, constant disintermediation, and consumerization of expectations. B2B commerce is witnessing the increase in expectations that are associated mainly with B2C, such as transparent pricing and communities and social connections. This is expected to continue during the forecast period the focus on lowering costs, improving efficiencies, and opening up to new opportunities. With the vapor products market being highly consumer-and community-centric, distributors are increasingly focusing on extending their reach to vape stores and local outlets. E-vapor products are also available to end-users through online OEMs' e-commerce portals and online direct-to-consumer stores. In 2019, retail sales constituted over 70% of the distribution model, and online stores constituted the rest. The increased demand from retailers, dealers, and consumers for a multi-channel approach and support is driving the growth of the segment. Market Segmentation by E-vapor E-liquids o Pre-filled Cartridges o Refill Bottles Open Tanks Systems Closed Tank Systems Cig-a-likes o Disposables o Rechargeables Consumables o E-cigarettes Batteries o Atomizers/cartomizers/clearomizers Market Segmentation by HnB Tabacco HnB Devices o Direct/Indirect Heating o Hybrid/Infused HnB Consumables o Tobacco Sticks o Tobacco Capsules and Cartridges Market Segmentation by Distribution Retail o Convenience Stores o Vape Stores o Tobacco Stores o Grocery Stores o Drug Stores o Others Online Insights by Geography The global vape market is growing at a tremendous rate. The US vapor market is consistently increasing after the authorization of the sale of HnB products by the FDA in the country. This is expected to help North America to increase its share as smokers in the US are becoming health conscious. One of the major influencing factors propelling growth is the increasing availability of vapor products in vape shops and over the internet. Europe captures more than a 33% share of the revenues. Poland, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic are the major contributors to the European market. Poland has been witnessing tremendous growth, with the revenue increasing from $130 million in 2014 to $542.6 million in 2016. The growth can be attributed to heavy taxation on traditional tobacco cigarettes and the presence of low-cost vapor products in the country. The popularity of vapor products in the Middle East and Africa is low. However, large tobacco companies are using their worldwide retail outlets to enter the markets to exploit the untapped potential. Latin America has a low penetration of HnB and vaping products due to rigid government regulations. In countries such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Panama have put a complete ban on the sale of e-cigarettes. However, large tobacco companies are investing in several regions, such as Paraguay, Chile, and Brazil, to expand their presence. Thus, the increased awareness of vapor products in the market and the expansion of large tobacco companies are expected to drive revenues in the region. Market Segmentation by Geography Europe o UK o Poland o France o Spain o Italy o Germany o Russia o Romania o Czech Republic APAC o China o Japan o South Korea o Australia and New Zealand o Malaysia North America o US o Canada MEA o Egypt o South Africa o UAE Latin America Insights by Vendors The competitive scenario in the global vape market is currently intensifying. The rapidly changing technological environment could adversely affect vendors as continual innovations and upgrades are the characteristics of this market. The present scenario is driving vendors to change and refine their unique value proposition to achieve a strong presence. The market is highly fragmented, with over 300 vendors that operate and sell e-cigarettes under different brand names across the world. Before the entry of major tobacco players in the vaping domain, small companies are engaged in the supplying e-cigarettes. The entry of large tobacco companies poses a significant threat to small vapor products' vendors. Large companies such as Philip Morris International, Altria Group, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco International are all set to explore the market worldwide. Key Vendors Altria Group British American Tobacco (BAT) Imperial Brands Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Philip Morris International (PMI) Other Vendors RJ Reynolds Vapor Company (RJRVC) Ballantyne Brands CB Distributors ECIG (Formerly known as Victory Electronic Cigarettes) Gamucci Gilla International Vapor Group Joyetech Co. KangerTech Technology Mainstream Cannabis Innovations Group (mCig Group) Nicotek NJOY PAX Labs RR Chemicals Totally Wicked E-liquid Vape Holdings Vapor Hub International VPR Brands White Cloud (Leads by Sales) XEO International KT&G (Korea Tomorrow& Global Corporation) Shenzhen AVBAD Technology Company Ltd. Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing Shenzhen Royal Tobacco Industrial Limited (Royal Tobacco) Jouz Shenzhen Yukan Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd. Sichuan China Tobacco Industry Co. Ltd. Marvel International Tobacco Group Key Market Insights The analysis of the vape market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the forecast period 20202025. Offers sizing and growth prospects of the market during the forecast period Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05868637/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 by Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend: Azerbaijan has all financial and technical capabilities and human resources to fight coronavirus, said Ibadulla Agayev, the chief epidemiologist of the Health Ministry. He made the remarks at a conference dedicated to coronavirus at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Trend reports. Talking about the work to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Azerbaijan, Agayev said that the work of the Republican Center for Control of Particularly Dangerous Infections in this direction was highly appreciated by foreign experts. Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Academician Irada Huseynova said that this event was organized on the initiative of the President of the Academy, Academician Ramiz Mehdiyev. She spoke about the proactive measures taken by the state to prevent the spread of the disease. Huseynova gave detailed information about viruses, their origin, occurrence and spread, as well as the fight against infectious diseases. According to her, 93,574 people were infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus in 81 countries. [March 04, 2020] ClearMetal Launches Next-Generation CDX Platform 2.0 ClearMetal, a leader in Continuous Delivery Experience (CDX) for Supply Chain and Logistics solutions, announced today the launch of its transformational CDX Platform 2.0. This next-generation Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) platform transforms supply chain delivery and experience using patent-pending data science and machine learning. This launch adds a number of new collaboration and planning capabilities across multiple transportation modes beyond 'ocean freight'-- all which drive ROI and Amazon-like customer-centricity for the world's largest supplier, manufacturer and retailer supply chains. Most other supply chain software still uses a static visibility approach to try and solve modern customer expectations and a continuously evolving supply chain, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses due to reduced revenue, increased costs, inefficient cash flow and lower net promoter scores. ClearMetal's CDX Platform 2.0, however, uses a continuous methodology to learn, adjust, and drive constant improvement in freight delivery and experience for customers by using proprietary machine learning to cross-reference inputs and canonicalize supply chain data. This differentiated technology enables businesses to make highly intelligent inventory and customer decisions based on continuously live, trustworthy data. The Platform's new capabilities, focused on Continuous Delivery and Continuous Experience, include: CDX Customer Portal: Give permission-based access to your customers to self-serve and view the status of shipments via a trusted and accurate single source of truth. Give permission-based access to your customers to self-serve and view the status of shipments via a trusted and accurate single source of truth. CDX Transport Planning: Enable continuous freight transportation planning through dynamic transit-times, on-time reliability, and accurate customer promise dates. Enable continuous freight transportation planning through dynamic transit-times, on-time reliability, and accurate customer promise dates. CDX Planning API: Flexible and simple APIs enable dynamic, continuous planning capabilities, which bolster your other IT systems and investments. Flexible and simple APIs enable dynamic, continuous planning capabilities, which bolster your other IT systems and investments. CDX Collaboration: Proactively and continuously resolve supply chain issues via instant messaging, notes and @mentions. Proactively and continuously resolve supply chain issues via instant messaging, notes and @mentions. CDX Dashboard: Gain actionable, AI-powered insights from a birds-eye view of the supply chain. Gain actionable, AI-powered insights from a birds-eye view of the supply chain. CDX ransport Visibility: New capabilities include additional patent-pending data quality enhancements, multiple transport modes, and advanced exceptions like missed transshipment management. New capabilities include additional patent-pending data quality enhancements, multiple transport modes, and advanced exceptions like missed transshipment management. CDX Visibility API: Power your IT systems from Sales to Finance with clean, actionable shipment data. CDX Platform 2.0 includes a number of new features that continue to create more opportunities for ClearMetal customers to drive even greater ROI from the solution and transform their customer's experience. These include: Enhanced customer portal features boost collaboration and customer experience: Uplevel and ultimately transform customer experiences via a single source of truth and Customer Portal for anyone (executive, DC manager, 3PL/carrier, and customer) to see and dynamically plan for inventory in transit in real-time, helping drive customer connectivity towards an Amazon-like customer experience. Uplevel and ultimately transform customer experiences via a single source of truth and Customer Portal for anyone (executive, DC manager, 3PL/carrier, and customer) to see and dynamically plan for inventory in transit in real-time, helping drive customer connectivity towards an Amazon-like customer experience. Truck and rail support expands ClearMetal's platform's footprint: The platform supports North American and International Rail, with integrated workflow to help provide a seamless end-to-end experience for ClearMetal customers as well as their customers. The platform supports North American and International Rail, with integrated workflow to help provide a seamless end-to-end experience for ClearMetal customers as well as their customers. Continuous planning capabilities enhance delivery: Dynamic planning results in accurate lead-times, buffer stock reduction, speed to market, and reliable customer promise dates and on-time delivery. More importantly, this allows continuous planning from end to end, supporting personalized views, metrics such as variability and roll rate, and the ability to compare carrier performance. The power of ClearMetal CDX Platform 2.0 is demonstrated in how the company's customers have driven real ROI: Dynamic lead-time planning: 50 percent improvement in on-time delivery 50 percent improvement in on-time delivery Inventory optimization: 10-20 percent reduction in buffer inventory 10-20 percent reduction in buffer inventory Reduced transportation costs: 10-20 percent reduction in D&D fees and air freight expenses 10-20 percent reduction in D&D fees and air freight expenses High personnel productivity: 80 percent reduction in unproductive searches, planning for exceptions, and manual data cleansing 80 percent reduction in unproductive searches, planning for exceptions, and manual data cleansing Superior customer service: ClearMetal customers selected as 'preferred supplier' by their own customers "Customer expectations of both delivery and experience have never been higher. CDX focuses on enabling companies to give customers an 'Amazon-like' digital B2B experience in global freight transportation while delivering products in a timely and predictable manner. In short, a continuous (versus static) methodology finally enables supply chains to dynamically adapt in real-time to today's ever-changing customer expectations. The largest shippers equip themselves with a CDX strategy in order to transform," said Adam Compain, CEO of ClearMetal. ClearMetal saw 400 percent revenue growth year-over-year in 2019 and the addition of some of the largest industrial suppliers in the world. The company doubled the size of its workforce during that same time period, drawing employees from such known brands as GT Nexus, Transvoyant, E2Open, Llamasoft, INTTRA, Elementum, Tradeshift and others. ClearMetal also opened expanded company headquarters in San Francisco, hosting an entire floor in the city's Financial District, and added offices in New York, Chicago, Houston, London and Switzerland. Today ClearMetal has customers located on four continents. About ClearMetal: ClearMetal, Inc., based in San Francisco CA (News - Alert) (USA), is a leader in the Continuous Delivery Experience (CDX), enabling supply chain organizations to optimize logistics and provide their customers with easy access to trusted, live information about their shipments. The ClearMetal CDX Platform uses proprietary machine learning algorithms to break free from static-visibility paradigms and make sense of supply chain data. ClearMetal was founded by top software engineers, data scientists, and operations researchers from Stanford University, Google, and Silicon Valley and is funded by Eclipse Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, NEA, SAP (News - Alert).io, Prologis Ventures, PSA Unboxed, DCLI, and the founders of GT Nexus, Navis, and Uber Freight. For more information visit www.clearmetal.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005109/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] OAKLAND (BCN) A former Social Security Administration employee from Vallejo and her husband pleaded guilty in federal court in Oakland Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to steal more than $248,000 in payments intended for others. Kimberly Dominguez, 37, and Erick Dominguez, 39, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam and will be sentenced by Gilliam on July 13. The maximum possible penalty for the crime is 20 years in prison. Kimberly Dominguez formerly worked at the Social Security Administration's Oakland Teleservice Center. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons said the couple admitted in their plea agreements that between 2015 and 2019, Kimberly Dominguez diverted more than $248,000 in Social Security payments from more than 30 recipients' bank accounts to accounts she controlled. Erick Dominguez withdrew money from the accounts, primarily via ATM cash withdrawals, Simmons said. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. A 19-year-old man who attempted to board a fight to Mexico three weeks after the shooting death of a social worker in New York has been arrested by Border Patrol agents at Washington Dulles International Airport. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Tuesday that Luis Gustavo Sanchez Arenales was apprehended at 5pm Saturday as he tried to flee the United States. CBP said the New York Police Department was searching for the 19-year-old man, a suspect in the February 12 homicide of Purcell Gowie in East Harlem. Luis Gustavo Sanchez Arenales was arrested by CBP agents at Washington Dulles International Airport attempting to board a fight to Mexico on Saturday - three weeks after he was allegedly involved in the deadly shooting of Purcell Gowie in New York Purcell Gowie was shot in the chest after walking past a group of men who were arguing the night of February 12 in East Harlem. He worked for a local nonprofit organization helping the poor and homeless A spokesman for CBP confirmed to DailyMail.com on Wednesday that Sanchez Arenales is a citizen of the United States. 'This arrest illustrates the seamless collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement as we captured a fleeing murder suspect and will bring him before a court of law to stand before his charges,' said Anne Maricich, CBP's Acting Director of Field Operations, Baltimore Field Office. 'Customs and Border Protection contributes our unique border security authority to identify and arrest dangerous fugitives at our ports of entry and return them to justice. It's one way in which CBP helps to keep our country and our citizens safe.' The 43-year-old man was on his way to a doctor appointment when he got caught in the middle of a crossfire between a group of men, according to his former employer, Services for the UnderServed. Gowie, who worked assisting the poor and homeless, was shot once in the chest while walking past a local church. He was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he was declared dead. East Harlem residents told the New York Daily News that Gowie was working towards earning his masters degree in social work. Sony Pictures said Wednesday it is temporarily closing offices in London, Paris and Gdynia, Poland, after a London-based employee may have been exposed to coronavirus. "The health and well-being of our employees is of the utmost importance," the company said in a memo to employees. "We thought it was important to share with you that one of our London employees may have been exposed to coronavirus COVID-19 given recent travels to an affected area. Out of an abundance of caution, the London, Paris and Gdynia offices will be closed for the remainder of the week, and employees should work from home." This is not the first instance of a company shuttering an office temporarily or instituting a new sick policy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which began in China. On Tuesday, Amazon said an employee who works in one of its Seattle, Washington, offices tested positive for the coronavirus. Amazon notified employees in a memo, saying the employee went home on Feb. 25 and has not been in the 9th Avenue office since. It is not Amazon's headquarters office, which is located on 7th Avenue. The tech company has asked employees who are experiencing symptoms to stay home and seek medical attention. Additionally, Amazon has started restricting all nonessential employee travel in the U.S. Similarly, a Google employee tested positive for the coronavirus at an office in Switzerland last week. In response, the company began restricting staff travel to Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea, which have all seen the virus spread. Google's Zurich office remained open. TBILISI -- In her annual state of the nation address, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has said Moscow's policies will not divert her country from its path toward the European Union and NATO. If Russia plans to use the occupation of Georgia's territories...to force Georgia to renounce its aspirations, that kind of goal will never be achieved, Zurabishvili said on March 4 in her second such address to parliament. Moscow has been keeping its troops in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since it recognized their independence following a five-day Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. The majority of the world's countries consider Abkhazia and South Ossetia as Georgian territories. In her speech, Zurabishvili reiterated her country's goal of eventually joining EU and NATO, saying: Along with our membership, our objective is to be, even today, a more active player in the EU and NATO." Zurabishvili also said that the bipartisan Georgia Support Act adopted by the U.S. Congress in 2019 was another proof of the close ties and trust between the two nations. The president addressed Georgias upcoming parliamentary elections, to be held by October, calling on the opposition and the ruling Georgian Dream party "to continue dialogue." For Georgia, the country in a difficult situation with 20 percent of its territory occupied, we must be careful when dealing with political struggles as they might shatter our stability," she said. Opposition parties have complained that Georgia's electoral system unfairly favors Georgian Dream. Mass protests held in Tbilisi in June and July last year were violently dispersed. Photo credit: Dylan Glasgow Guice From Harper's BAZAAR March 4 will mark a pivotal day for reproductive rights in America. The Supreme Court will hear June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, the first abortion access case its presided over since conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were confirmed. At the center of the case is Act 620, a Louisiana state law that prevents doctors from performing abortions unless they have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where the abortion is performed. Considering abortion is one of the safest outpatient procedures and patients rarely require emergency care, admitting privileges requirements do not make patients safer, they just reduce access. If upheld, Act 620 would shut down all but one remaining abortion care providers in Louisiana (three exist now), leaving a single doctor to provide abortion services for the roughly 10,000 women who seek them in the state every year. Whenever people dont have access to abortion that is safe, they will resort to other means, says A.J. Haynes, the front woman of the Louisiana-based soul rock band Seratones and an abortion counselor of 10 years. Passed in 2014, the law was immediately challenged by three plaintiffs, including Hope Medical Groupthe Shreveport, Louisiana, clinic where Haynes volunteerssubsequently preventing it from going into effect. In 2016, an identical Texas law was presented to the Supreme Court in Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt. Ultimately, it was deemed unconstitutional on the grounds that limiting clinic availability was an undue burden on women seeking legal abortions, which is a constitutional right as determined by Roe v. Wade in 1973. Whats pivotal about this case is that its not just about abortion, this is about the integrity of the Supreme Court, says Haynes. The state of Louisiana is openly defying the constitutional precedent that was established in 2016. How massive is that? The case is the latest in a string of attacks that signals a larger national assault on womens reproductive rights. As of June 2019, six statesKentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginiahad only one abortion clinic left, and according to a May 2019 report by The New York Times, 11.3 million American women of reproductive age are more than a one-hour drive to the nearest abortion facility. On a state-by-state basis, dangerously strict laws pertaining to when and if abortion should be allowed have been proposed all over the country: In Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a 2019 law banning abortion at any stage of pregnancy, including in cases of rape and incest; in Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a 2019 fetal heartbeat law that would effectively ban abortion after six weeks. These are just some of the onslaught. Story continues As Haynes points out, abortion restrictions disproportionally affect women of color and low-income women. A 2014 study by the Guttmacher Institute reveals that 75 percent of U.S. abortion patients are poor or low-income, and 62 percent identify as non-white. The people, who are the most vulnerable and the most marginalized, are going to suffer the most, she says. This case is about stopping cycles of poverty in states like Louisiana, which has the third-highest poverty rate in the country. Why are we creating barriers for people to have access to something they need? Having volunteered at Hope Medical Center since her senior year at Centenary College of Louisiana in 2009, Haynes has become all too acquainted with the threats that abortion rights have long faced. Though it would be easy to chalk the affront on abortion access up to the rule of the Trump presidency and the Republican-majority senate, the reality is this has been going on far longer than the last four years. Its only because of the increasingly polarized political climate, says Haynes, that people are finally paying attention. Ive been working in reproductive health for over a decade, so Ive known what time it is. It didnt take a complete dumpster fire of an electoral college and peoples apathy for me to realize the reality of what the most marginalized and vulnerable people have been dealing with, regardless of what happened in 2016. I saw the writing on the wall. Thats whats been happening in Louisiana. Photo credit: Rebecca Santana/AP/Shutterstock Haynes first became involved with Hope Medical Center after her college cover band played a set at the clinics Christmas party. (Two of the band members went on to cofound Seratones with Haynes.) She struck up a conversation with Kathleen Pittman, the clinic administrator, and asked if they needed any help. The following week, she started her role as a part-time counselor, meeting with patients ahead of the state-mandated 24-hour waiting periodwhich Haynes describes as just another barrier to accessto ensure they understood everything about the abortion process and felt supported and informed. People walk in with all these preconceived ideas and a lot of misinformationtheyre really scared sometimes because of the stigma that surrounds abortion, says Haynes, emphasizing its safety. My role is to be a listener, to make sure that people are informed about their decision, and to make sure they have all the resources they need. Above all, I just need to sit there and shut up, and let people explain to me what they feel. Throughout her time as a counselor, Hayness music career has bloomed. She went from playing in a college cover band to make money for textbooks to founding the Seratones with three other musicians in 2013. Two years later, they were featured in NPR Musics Tiny Desk Concert series; in 2016, they released their first album, Get Gone; and between it all, they toured internationally, playing festivals with the likes of South by Southwest and Hangout Fest Stateside, and Reading and Leeds in the United Kingdom. In a lot of ways, coming home to work at Hope is a stabilizing force in my life as an artist, she notes. Most recently, Seratones released Power (2019), a rousing 10-track album that, as its name suggests, is meant to inspire strength in anyone who gives it a listen. The way Im interested in creating is very rooted in the day-to-day struggle of people and the day-to-day victories of people, explains Haynes. What are the daily things that we dont talk about, how do we reflect on our own narratives and really find the power thats in those? I feel like oftentimes weespecially women, especially marginalized peopledont feel like our stories are worth telling. Part of working at Hope has informed the necessity and the importance of peoples stories. The albums title track has become an anthem of sorts for fighting for change in the face of adversity. We take two steps forward / They take one step backward / We take each step to lift us up higher, sings Haynes, later adding, We take each step / Cause we have the power. Fittingly, Seratones performed the track at the Center for Reproductive Rights 2019 gala held in New York Citys Lincoln Center. That was like, man, thats what Im supposed to do as an artist. Im supposed to take something, this frustration and anxiety, and figure out how to position it as power and create something that we need to hear, says Haynes. No matter what happens [with this case], were going to move forward and make sure we have access to the things that we need. I have that hell-or-high-water mentality, because what else is there? We need this win, and it needs to happen. The end. To help combat abortion restriction in Louisiana and across the United States, consider donating to The Goldstein Fund, the New Orleans Abortion Fund, the National Abortion Federation, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Hope Medical Center and its fellow plaintiffs in the upcoming case. You Might Also Like (TNS) Los Angeles, Calif., voters who showed up to cast ballots in person on Tuesday reported long wait times and operational errors at a number of the countys newly designed vote centers, experiences that suggested an inauspicious beginning for L.A.s first fully redesigned election system in more than half a century.While some Angelenos gave high marks to the new voting machines and applauded the extended hours of operation, a number of the in-person locations were overwhelmed by the throngs of voters looking to participate in the most talked-about California presidential primary in at least a generation. The flow of voters had hardly ebbed by the official end of voting at 8 p.m. Those in line at that time were allowed to stay there until they had a chance to vote.This is absurd, said Jefferson Stewart, a software designer who left the vote center at the Westchester Family YMCA frustrated after waiting 90 minutes to cast his ballot. If the idea is to make this simpler, its gotten much worse.Brentwood resident Myles Berkowitz found himself in a state of perpetual motion. He stopped by the University of California, Los Angeless Hammer Museum around 4 p.m. but left after being told that it would be a three-hour wait. Three more locations, three more long lines. He ended up at the Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center in West L.A.Theyre telling me, after waiting here for another hour and a half, that its another two hours, Berkowitz said Tuesday evening as he stood in line. This is like gridlock on the 405, he said.Local voting officials blamed the delays on a combination of high turnout and glitches affecting the new election equipment. But they couldnt provide information on how many of the countys 978 vote centers were affected. Official returns trickled in as the night wore on.This was a challenging day for a lot of voters in L.A. County and I certainly apologize for that, said Dean Logan, the countys registrar of voters. Thats something that has to be better.Voters were quick to sound off on social media about the blunders: locations that didnt open on time or were hard to find; ballot-marking devices that jammed or otherwise failed to operate; and electronic voter registration devices that didnt work, requiring them to cast provisional ballots to be counted after eligibility is confirmed by election workers.By the time Arcadia resident Omar Noureldin left the vote center at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, the queue of people waiting to cast ballots stretched out the door.Those people that are in line around the corner are probably going to be there for three hours if they wait, he said.Noureldin used an election shortcut offered under the new system: Ballot selections could be filled out on a smartphone ahead of time and transferred to the touchscreen machines with a QR code. The biggest issue he experienced, he said, was the lack of staff and voting machines at the center.At Castlebay Lane Charter School in Porter Ranch, scores of people remained in a line when polls statewide closed at 8 p.m. Elections workers estimated they would wait anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to cast their ballots.There was never a line the last several years, said Craig Meier, a Porter Ranch resident who works as an executive assistant. At his old polling place at a church we were in and out within 10 minutes.Election day ended up as the ultimate stress test for the countys new $300-million voting system. L.A. officials spent months trying to raise awareness about two big changes: the elimination of neighborhood polling places and the debut of ballot-marking touchscreen devices in regional vote centers, available to everyone and spread throughout the county.The task was daunting. With 5.5 million voters, L.A. County is the largest voting bloc in California and larger than the electorate in all but 11 states.Voters seemed to like the ballot-marking devices when they worked. The machine allows choices to be made on a touchscreen and then prints a paper ballot. Once the selections are reviewed, a voter feeds the paper ballot back into the machine where its deposited in a sealed ballot box.Roughly 22,000 machines were deployed across L.A. County. Elections officials did not say how many machines failed and were taken out of operation.Representatives of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaign attempted to get a federal court to intervene to force L.A.s vote centers to stay open until 10 p.m.Voters reported machines out of service at vote centers in Arcadia, L.A.s Carthay Square , Los Feliz and Rancho Palos Verdes.A full day of problems plagued voting inside the Hammer Museum. By nightfall, a line snaked around the second floor as voters fiddled with phones, read books and propped up computers to do homework. By around 8:30 p.m., the last person in line had been told the wait would be up to three and a half hours.I always go to a place late on election day, Sandra Kielgass said as she waited. I guess its a good thing its so crowded. People are voting.Waits of nearly two hours were reported on USCs campus. Sarah Wagner, a 21-year-old student, was frustrated that poll workers didnt tell her about nearby voting centers that had shorter waits until she was at the front of the line.Youd hope that voting would be a quick and easy experience to encourage young people to vote, Wagner said.University of Southern California researchers queried L.A. voters last month about the new voting system: Only 38% of respondents even knew of its existence.Among those who didnt know were Antonieta Espinoza, who stood outside a Catholic church in Palmdale on Tuesday, where she had just cast her vote.Mas trabajo y bien complicado, the 80-year-old Palmdale resident said, explaining that she wasnt a fan of the new voting system, which she found harder and more complicated to use.Espinoza said she and her husband arrived at the elementary school near their home their traditional go-to polling place and found closed doors. They then headed to St. Marys Catholic Church, where after more than an hour of adjusting to the new system, Espinoza finally finished voting.Other voters reported paper jams in the new machines and confusion over the need to press the more button on the screen to view additional candidates in certain races.Ken Proctor, a retired teacher, said election workers at his Northridge polling place over the weekend couldnt tell him what to do with his paper ballot after the machine printed it even though it needed to be reinserted into the machine.When it printed out, I was looking for a ballot box to put it in and they didnt have one and they didnt know what else to do with it, he said. And they said just to keep it, so I did and brought it home. Proctor said his wife later shredded the document.I think we both were kind of disenfranchised, he said.Not that all of the challenges in Californias closely watched election were confined to Los Angeles. State elections officials reported that 15 counties had experienced problems in the morning with connecting to Californias statewide voter database. Even with all of its problems, Los Angeles was not reported to be one of the counties.The lack of online connectivity at polling places and vote centers would pose a problem for one of Californias most talked-about election changes: election day registration, designed to ensure that any eligible citizen can still vote before polls closed.Some L.A. voters reported general satisfaction with the countys new system.Mary Wood, who responded to the online request for voters to share their stories, said the experience was such a breeze when she cast her ballot last week at the Pan Pacific Senior Activity Center in Los Angeles.The new system was easy to use, she said. I loved that you could review your ballot before submitting it.But few voters had actually cast ballots by the time election day arrived. L.A. County elections officials reported a total of almost 249,000 ballots were cast at vote centers in the 11 days leading up to Tuesday. By comparison, there were 2 million people who were not mailed a ballot and can only participate in the primary by voting in person.Robert Little, a Beverly Hills attorney, tried to vote Tuesday afternoon at Beverly Hills City Hall when, seeing a long line, he then searched for an alternative. He found the Beverly Hilton and it, too, looked like a long wait, so he decided to put it off until later.It was not unlike the Southern California experience of trying to get on Space Mountain at Disneyland on the Fourth of July, Little said. What exactly is the Luxembourg flag doing on the facade of a shopping centre in Lima, Peru? The oddity conceals the history of a Peruvian man who became a Luxembourger and decided to pay tribute to the country where he found success. Justino Alarcon Cinpaucar arrived in Luxembourg in the 1980s, almost by coincidence. "This is the story of a lifetime," he told our colleagues at RTL 5Minutes. "In the 1980s, you didn't have many airlines around. The Russian airline Aeroflot signed an agreement for a flight route connecting Lima and Moscow, with a stop in Luxembourg. This is how I found Luxembourg - I wasn't interested in the final destination!" He then went on to pursue a shining career in the finance sector and became responsible for the Luxembourgish subsection of PlaNet Finance, the international solidarity organisation founded by Jacques Attali with Deloitte Luxembourg. Mobile reporter Thanks to this experience, Justino then decided to create an 'inclusive' shopping centre baptised the Centro Comercial Luxemburgo in the Chorillos area of Lima. The shopping centre offers opportunities for micro-entrepreneuers. He explained that his experience in micro-finance has given him the drive to help micro-entrepreneuers by renting out small retail units so they can develop their businesses. The rent is very accessible and they have all necessary utilities, including water, electricity, internet access. "Usually, they need three years to develop their businesses and earn a small amount of capital to be able to move," he added. Following Luxembourg's example of providing opportunities The building was constructed along sustainable development lines. "We are trying to pay attention to our ecological footprint," the entrepreneur explained. It is one of the first buildings in south Lima to have been built with recyclable material. Mobile reporter For Justino, it was obvious to name the building after the country that afforded him his opportunity to build his career. The Peruvian is also connected to Luxembourg in another way as he has become a naturalised Luxembourgish citizen. Whilst Luxembourg does a lot in many ways, he believes the Grand Duchy could do more in the realm of development cooperation: "Luxembourg gives thousands of foreigners opportunities. I studied there, I learnt there, and I worked there. This is all impressive, but I think the government could do more to build links with residents who decide to return to their countries of birth. The government could channel this force and energy to promote the Grand Duchy's image throughout the world and strengthen ties." (Thanks to Claude Frisoni for the article pitch and contacting Justino). EUGENE The Oregon Ducks will hold their March 14 practice at Hillsboro Stadium. It will be Oregons fifth practice of the spring and its last before a two-week break for finals and spring break. The 1 p.m. practice is free and open to the public and fans can enter the stadium through Gate A or Gate B. No outside drinks or food is permitted but concession stands will be open and parking around the stadium is also free. Oregon held a spring practice at Hillsboro last year and Franklin High School in Portland two years ago. November 2020 will be known as the gun-control election. Tuesday night, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that Beto ORourke will be the one who leads his gun-control effort. Hell yes, were going to take your AR-15, ORourke, a former Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate himself, famously promised in a debate in September. They are weapons of war, designed to kill people efficiently on a battlefield, he warned. ORourke vowed to buy back every single assault weapon but said that he would use force if people didnt voluntarily agree to selling their guns. The former candidate also appears to support all the currently discussed gun-control proposals. Last year, many Democrats worried that ORourkes aggressive position would alienate moderate voters and give credence to conservative assertions that Democrats really do want to take away peoples guns. Some prominent Democrats felt it necessary to distance themselves from those comments. I dont know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto ORourke, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said. Others blamed ORourke for creating distrust about gun-control advocates motives. A CNN headline last fall posed the question, Is Beto ORourke single-handedly dooming a gun control bill? After ORourkes comments, President Donald Trump tweeted that ORourke had convinced many that Dems just want to take your guns away. Biden has now locked himself into that position. In every campaign rally, Trump declares his unwavering support for the Second Amendment. It appears to be one of his most popular lines. ORourke constantly gives the impression that AR-15s are weapons of war. In fact, no self-respecting military in the world would use the assault weapons that he wants to confiscate. AR-15s fire the same sorts of bullets as small-game hunting rifles, and do so with the same velocity and rapidity (one bullet per pull of the trigger). In fact, AR-15s arent allowed for deer hunting in most states because of the fear that they will wound rather than kill the animals. Such small-caliber rounds may cause the deer to die slowly and painfully. Story continues ORourke may be correct that weapons of war are designed to kill people efficiently on a battlefield. But thats not the story of civilian gun use. Guns can also protect people and keep them from harm. About 95 percent of the time, simply brandishing a firearm will cause criminals to break off their attacks. People need only look at Virginia to see what Democrats have in store for the nation at large. The state has recently enacted many new measures, including Red Flag laws, gun-lock requirements, a one-handgun-a-month purchase limit, and costly background checks on the private transfer of guns. Virginia has even given its local governments the green light to pass their own, more extreme gun-control laws. In a matter of just a few months, Virginia is going from a gun-friendly state to one of the most restrictive states. That will make it hard for people to exercise their right to self-defense. Only the courts will be able to rein in these state gun-control laws. Trumps federal judicial appointments have made a difference, but they have only just reached an approximate political balance. Republicans hold a nominal 5-to-4 majority on the Supreme Court, but John Roberts is not a dependable vote on gun-control issues. The Supreme Court hears fewer than one out of every thousand cases decided by the circuit courts, and those courts are equally divided. Democratic judges hold the majority in circuit courts in 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, while 26 states have Republican majorities. Only a second Trump term in office could really tilt the balance of the federal judiciary. Biden was Barack Obamas point person in his push for gun control. That wasnt by accident. In choosing Beto ORourke, a person who openly brags about not owning a gun, Biden has made the election debate over whether people should even be able to own guns. Make no mistake about it, your right to defend yourself is as stake in November. More from National Review Photo: Vancouver Police Department Vancouver police are warning people of continuing violence at the infamous Oppenheimer Park. Following a recent assault and seizures of multiple weapons, police are warning community members of ongoing public safety concerns. Our officers are continuing to deal with multiple seizures of weapons in the park which raises safety concerns for members of the community, as well as our officers, says Sgt. Aaron Roed. We continue to issue warnings about crime stemming from the park, which is showing no signs of slowing down. Police officers attended an incident early Tuesday after a 32-year-old Vancouver man was assaulted inside of a tent within the park. The man was hit in the face with the handle of an axe, sustaining minor injuries. Officers then located the axe inside of the tent along with two additional axes, a bolt cutter and six knives. In addition to this, at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, a tent fire prompting the evacuation of the park. No one claimed ownership of the tent after the fire, which also caused explosions from nearby propane and aerosol containers. This fire could have gotten out of hand very quickly, say Roed. It was fortunate that no one was injured. This incident comes only a week after police released information regarding another large seizure of weapons including nine guns, a small quantity of drugs and weapons from a tent. This is a unique seizure because of the size of the stash of weapons in this one location, said Roed. Following reports of a domestic dispute, officers found the weapons inside of the tent lying plain sight. Police believe it was a communal tent that numerous people have access to. No occupants have yet been identified. The seized guns are currently being analyzed by Vancouver police to confirm if they are real or replicas. All remaining weapons and drugs will be destroyed. We are working with the community to keep the neighbourhood safe, says Roed. Taking these weapons off the streets is another step in in the right direction. Officers will continue providing a presence, keeping the peace, and ensuring public safety for the park and surrounding neighbourhood. Great Plains Art Museum Complete a scavenger hunt for a prize; Also showcasing Up in the Air: Great Plains Weather, art about the changing weather on the Great Plains; "Retrospective of Lifes Work: Charles W. Guildner, 30 years of photographs." Guildner photographed the landscape and people of the rural heartland. "Over the Edge of the World," featuring Kirsten Furlong, who is the Elizabeth Rubendall artist in residence, exhibit showing Friday through June 27. The exhibition explores natural history and current grassland ecology in the Great Plains and beyond through drawings, monotypes, and paintings. Reception: 5-7 p.m., 1155 Q St. Working Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava, Special CP Satish Golcha on Wednesday briefed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the current situation in the capital. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was also present in the meeting that lasted for 15 minutes, according to sources. The meeting was held at Shah's chamber in Parlianent. Shrivastava was summoned by the Home Ministry. Shah wanted update regarding law and order situation in northeast Delhi which faced the deadly violence that left 47 people dead and over 200 injured. As the government on Wednesday announced in the Lok Sabha that it would hold a debate on March 11, after Holi, Shah needed a detailed update on the issue. Negotiation: Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary is open to buying new aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus RYANAIR remains in talks with Boeing about a possible new order for the jet maker's troubled 737 Max aircraft, chief executive Michael O'Leary has confirmed. But he told Bloomberg that the group could also buy aircraft from Airbus, if the European manufacturer cuts its prices and can come up with more attractive delivery slots. Ryanair's Vienna-based Lauda subsidiary already operates Airbus aircraft. The 737 Max aircraft have been grounded for almost a year following two deadly crashes. They're not expected to be recertified to fly until mid-year in North America, and probably a couple of months later in Europe. Ryanair has ordered up to 210 of the Max 200 variant. Of the 450 Max aircraft that Boeing currently has manufactured and awaiting delivery, 20 are destined for Ryanair. It had been due to take its first Max delivery last year. Ryanair executives met their Boeing counterparts in Chicago in January. When Mr O'Leary spoke to analysts in early February, he said the airline was in talks about the Max 10 variant of the jet. Yesterday, he said the talks are also regarding the Max 200. "If the price is right, we'll buy aircraft," Mr O'Leary said yesterday. "I'm only interested in buying aircraft that will enable me to lower my operating costs. Airbus's order book has been largely full and the pricing has been high for four or five years." Mr O'Leary has in the past capitalised on disruptive events such as the 9/11 terror attacks to place orders with Boeing that secured deep discounts to the list price of the aircraft. The Ryanair chief said he understands that work on final fixes required for regulators to approve the return of the Max to service - including wiring and software issues - should be completed by the end of April. That will pave the way for test flights in May. Ryanair hopes to get its first Max jet in September or October. Additional reporting: Bloomberg Next week will be key in managing any corona virus outbreak in Cork, the Lord Mayor said at a meeting with Irelands Chinese Ambassador who said that the disease can be beaten. China has now contained the virus to such an extent that all new cases in some provinces are being brought in from abroad, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, He Xiangdong said. The number of confirmed cases in China are reducing very noticeably, Mr Xiangdong said. Now were seeing quite a few new confirmed cases are from people coming from abroad. In my home province the day before yesterday there were seven new confirmed cases all of them were from Northern Italy. The Ambassador said that China has worked with Ireland, sharing information with the Department of Public Health and the HSE, in a bid to defeat the virus. There has been sound cooperation between the Chinese side and the Irish side... and we would like to continue this important cooperation. It can be beaten. If you look back in history there have been a lot of cases similar to this one. We have full confidence that in the near future we will be successful in defeating the disease. Cork Citys Lord Mayor, Cllr John Sheehan, who is also a GP, quashed current concerns that the St Patricks Day parade would be cancelled due to the virus. Theres no indication for us to cancel it, he said. Theres no person-to-person spread that we know of in Ireland yet. So reducing mass gatherings isnt on the agenda at the moment. But its an evolving situation and things may change over the next week. He said that the next week would probably be a key time in the diseases progression in Ireland because the incubation period for many of those who travelled to Italy will end soon. So I think well get a much better idea over the next week if its going to spread further, he said. Responding to a question about whether COVID-19 may actually be man-made and have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, Mr Xiangdong said: Thats total nonsense. Fake news. Scientists already carried out in-depth analysis into the genomic information of the virus which shows that it cant be made in the lab. Also speaking at the solidarity meeting between the Irish and Chinese communities in City Hall, Cork, Alex Lin, Vice President of Ireland Cork Chinese Business association said that although the corona virus had already had an impact on the world economy, he did not foresee a global crash. Trade had to stop because the factories stopped. But more people are going back to the factories. I think 70% - 80% recovered already so hopefully well be getting back to normal soon. I dont think there will be a global economic crash. But small businesses have been hit. In Ireland a lot of Chinese restaurants have seen the impact already. Goods are more expensive now and its hard to sell. Many people are just not going there out of fear. Messages of solidarity sent by University College Cork (UCC) academics were so well received in China that they ended up on national media there, said Emma Connolly, International Strategy Officer for the International Office at UCC, who was in China at the time of the Sars outbreak. Were trying to support our 500 plus Chinese students on campus, she said. Messages of solidarity from our academics to their counterparts in our 40 partner universities across China have been very well received. Also reinforcing the importance of solidarity, the lord mayor said:Were conscious that the Chinese community here can sometimes feel the effect of the worry and concern people might have over the Coronavirus. So [this meeting] its to show solidarity with the strong Chinese community thats here. Advertisement Mike Bloomberg dramatically quit the presidential race Wednesday morning after a disastrous Super Tuesday and immediately backed Joe Biden. The billionaire gained just 44 delegates by 10.11am, the time he announced his departure - but ran up a bill of $1 billion. He immediately and whole-heartedly backed Biden, the night's big winner, hinting that his vast fortune is now at the former vice-president's disposal. 'I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it,' he said. 'After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. 'I've known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. 'Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States.' Democrats are also urging Elizabeth Warren to drop out after further pulling votes from frontrunners Biden and Bernie Sanders without winning any states - including her home of Massachusetts. She was reported by NBC News to he holding talks with aides about 'the path forward,' suggesting that she too is on the brink. And in yet another blow to Warren early Wednesday morning, Biden was declared winner in Maine, the last of the 14 Super Tuesday states to declare - and Warren did not even get the 15 per cent threshold to pick up delegates there. In the White House Donald Trump took time out of the coronavirus crisis to send a string of mocking tweets about his richer would-be rival and notably about Bloomberg's campaign aide Tim O'Brien. Trump had tried and failed to sue O'Brien for libel for writing in 2006 that he was not a real billionaire. Bloomberg had been a late bloomer to the race. Seeing the relative weakness of frontrunner Biden, and after first saying he would not run for the White House in 2020 the billionaire decided to jump in after all around Thanksgiving. SELECT STATE TO SEE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS Out: Mike Bloomberg quit the race hours after a drubbing, saying: 'After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists.' Still not out: Elizabeth Warren - who lost her home state of Massachusetts to both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders Tuesday night I'M ALL IN FOR JOE - HOW BLOOMBERG QUIT This is Bloomberg's statement as he left the race Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult. I'm a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday's results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life. I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. I've known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. I've had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him and I will work to make him the next President of the United States. Advertisement Like another former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who ran for the White House in 2008, Bloomberg decided to skip the first states that held primaries - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. But a change in the Democratic National Committee rules allowed for Bloomberg to still make the Las Vegas debate stage last month. It was the first time for American voters to see Bloomberg the candidate outside the flurry of television ads his hundreds of millions had bought. And while the expectation was for Sanders, a democratic socialist, to push back on Bloomberg being there, within the first 10 minutes Warren brought up some of the alleged sexist behavior from the ex-mayor's past. 'I'd like to talk about who we're running against: A billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians.' And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg,' Warren said. 'Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop and frisk.' Warren's debate performance was the beginning of the end. The results of the single-biggest primary contest night essentially narrowed the field to a two-horse race with Biden edging Sanders. On Super Tuesday, 14 states and the U.S. territory of American Samoa voted, and Bloomberg only walked away with a win in Samoa where six delegates were up for grabs. Every other state was won by either the former vice president or senator from Vermont. The scale of Biden's comeback is not in doubt - and neither is Sanders' ability to keep going, possibly even to the convention in Milwaukee in July. Biden began by winning state after state, and appeared to stumble when California went to Sanders just after the polls closed there at 8pm - 11pm Eastern. For the two frontrunners, Sanders' win in California initially threatened to upend the narrative of the night being a sensational comeback for Biden. However, the state may yet deliver the kind of resounding win or delegate haul for Sanders that had been forecast. Sanders had a strong lead, with 87 per cent of the vote in, Biden was running nearly 9 points ahead, and the Vermont senator had garnered over a million votes. In California, Bloomberg also slipped below the 15 per cent threshold he would need to hit in order to collect delegates. There was a dramatic race playing out through the night in Texas, the night's second biggest prize. Biden opened up a lead over Sanders early Wednesday morning. By the time the race was called around 2 am, he was leading Sanders by 50,000 votes, with 89 per cent reporting. Biden was at 33 percent, Sanders was at 30 per cent, and Bloomberg was at 15 per cent just enough to earn delegates. As votes continued to come in Wednesday morning, Bloomberg had slipped below that 15 per cent. There were long lines in Harris County, home to Houston, where Biden was running up strong margins. As in southern states, Biden was running up big margins with the state's African American voters, but Sanders heavily targeted Latino voters in the state. Biden's margin, however was bigger. Some voters were online for six hours, in a state that had pared back polling locations. Biden cleaned up among those who decided who to back late winning the group 49 to 20 per cent in the state. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe called it 'astounding,' noting that Biden didn't spend 'a penny' there, speaking on CNN. Biden staged a dramatic rally in Dallas Monday where he secured endorsements from former presidential rivals Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke. Earlier Monday, Pete Buttigieg had also endorsed the former vice president. O'Rourke later took Biden out to a Whataburger, a regional chain, for a milkshake. Across the map there were signs of Biden's sudden revival. Biden dealt a humiliating blow to Warren in her home state of Massachusetts snagging at least 28 delegates out of the state and beating her in her backyard. She vowed to stay in the race all the way to the conventions even as more centrist candidates flocked to 77-year-old former vice president. He also denied the prize to Sanders, who hails from a neighboring state. Bloomberg was born there, and had actor Michael Douglas stumping for him in Boston. But the region where he dominated was the south, with wins stretching from Virginia to Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Biden scored a surprise win in Minnesota. Warren, hosting a rally in downtown Detroit, called herself 'the woman who's going to beat Donald Trump.' The final details of delegate distribution were yet to be determined as the night wore on. But Biden's overwhelming performance, and the collapse of Bloomberg and Warren, immediately reset the race, with the prospect that Sanders and his political 'revolution' would be up against a long slog against the Demoratic establishment-backed candidate as he was against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden rushed to win after win early in the night, with Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama falling in rapid succession. He took Minnesota without spending a dime on advertising and despite being third in the polls until Amy Klobuchar dropped out on Sunday. She endorsed Biden on Monday. 'Prediction has been a terrible business and pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,' she said. 'Here's my advice. Cast a vote that will make you proud.' Then Sanders took some western wins in Utah and Colorado and snared the biggest state of all. Bernie Sanders seized a victory in California in the last act of a dramatic Super Tuesday which saw Joe Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all Biden rushed to win after win early in the night, with Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama falling in rapid succession. He took Minnesota without spending a dime on advertising and despite being third in the polls until Amy Klobuchar dropped out on Sunday As Biden raced to a series of state victories, Mike Bloomberg's campaign said he plans to 'reassess' whether he should stay in the race tomorrow. His aides said his campaign chiefs were considering their next move. Dropping out would hand a huge victory to Biden and also the potential for Bloomberg's almost unlimited resources to be thrown behind him immediately TRUMP ROASTS HIS RIVALS AND TOASTS HIS OWN SUCCESS Donald Trump skewered his critics while toasting his own successes on Twitter as results rolled in from Super Tuesday ballots across the country. The President reserved most of his ire for 'Mini' Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, who both had poor showings in the polls. Hitting out at fellow New York billionaire Bloomberg, Trump branded him 'the biggest loser of the night, by far'. 'His 'political' consultants took him for a ride,' Trump tweeted. '$700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike!' Trump also took aim at Warren after she failed to win her home state of Massachusetts, landing her a distant third in the delegate stakes. 'Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didn't even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts,' he wrote. While Trump made sure to put down his rivals, he donated most of his energy to cheering his own successes - albeit while facing token opposition. As each win rolled in he tweeted out a message of thanks to his supporters, while vowing to retake the presidency in November. Advertisement In Los Angeles, before California was called for Sanders, Biden took to the stage and cast himself the victor, regardless if Sanders took both California and Texas. First, he mixed up his wife Jill and sister Valerie, a characteristic gaffe which has clearly done nothing to put off Democratic voters. Biden declared: 'It's a great night and it seems to be getting even better. They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing!' The former vice president recalled how just days ago the suggestion was that Super Tuesday would mark the end of his campaign. 'Well it may be over for the other guy,' Biden said, a clear shot at Sanders. Energized, coherent and not put off even by two militant vegan protesters who ran onto the stage to protest against the dairy industry, he painted himself as the one Democrat who can take on Trump. 'A lifelong Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat,' he said to cheers a pointed way to contrast himself to Sanders, who is an independent senator. Jill Biden was captured in a photograph grabbing the protester by the arm and grimacing. Symone Sanders, Sanders' former press secretary who's not a top Biden adviser, had rushed across the stage to pull a protester off. It was a return in part to the early days of the race, when Biden held a strong polling lead before the first states voted and caucused. With Sanders on the rise days ago and party leaders warning the democratic socialist could seize the nomination Tuesday, forces coalesced around Biden in South Carolina. A key factor was the endorsement there of James C. Clyburn, the state's most senior African American elected official. In Vermont, Sanders pinned his hopes on California, pivoting to a victory speech and a string of attacks on Biden. 'Tonight I tell you with absolute confidence we are going to win the Democratic nomination,' he said. The path to the nomination in Milwaukee now runs through a mini-Super Tuesday on March 10, when Missouri, Michigan, Washington and Mississippi vote. Sanders had appeared to be ahead in Michigan but Biden's upset in Minnesota is likely to weigh heavily there, and the combined demographic of African-Americans and disaffected blue collar voters could play to Biden's strengths. The following Tuesday, March 17, offers another selection of massive delegate counts when Florida, Illinois and Ohio all vote, along with Arizona. The following week, March 24, sees Georgia vote, which Biden's southern firewall should make a surefire victory. For Sanders, the loss of momentum from a rocky Super Tuesday could be critical. In 2016 he stayed in by rallying his base and railing against an 'establishment' determined not to give him the nomination and to install an 'inevitable' candidate in Hillary Clinton. That may be more difficult as he faces in Biden an opponent whose comeback narrative offers him some of the advantages of the underdog, and whose narrative of empathy and standing up for those who were left behind overlaps with Sanders' more radical rhetoric. The string of endorsements Biden has garnered in the last few days from centrist party figures, including three of his former rivals, have been crucial in driving momentum. In Los Angeles, before California was called for Sanders', Biden took to the stage and cast himself the victor, regardless if Sanders took California and Texas Energized, coherent and not put off even by two militant vegan protesters (pictured) who ran onto the stage to protest against the dairy industry, Biden painted himself as the one Democrat who can take on Trump Biden's early lead caused a dramatic shift and left Sanders, until last week the frontrunner, clinging to the hope of doing well in California before polls closed in the nation's most populous state. Shortly after polls in California closed, he was named the winner Biden's campaign had suggested that the key to Super Tuesday was to minimize Sanders' lead and a Virginia victory appeared to put them on the path to that goal. The sign of momentum for the former vice president came as he saw a boost in last-minute opinion polls despite having trailed Sanders in recent weeks WARREN LOSES HER HOME STATE Elizabeth Warren's campaign for president fell flat on Super Tuesday as she was unable to win even her home state of Massachusetts. Warren lost to both Joe Biden - whose South Carolina win Saturday night restored his frontrunner status - and Bernie Sanders, who represents neighboring state Vermont. Warren was in third place with 22 per cent of the vote with 70 per cent of the votes counted. But Warren's persistance had her looking ahead, as she campaigned in Detroit, Michigan Tuesday as votes were trickling in - a state that doesn't vote until next Tuesday - and telling supporters in an email that she needed their help 'to keep up the momentum.' 'Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,' Warren told the Michigan crowd. 'Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States.' During her final rally in California Monday night, Warren dismissed the surging Biden as a same-old, same-old Washington politician. Advertisement Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont Sanders supporters cheer as they hear election results during a party held at Central Machine Works Brewery in Austin, Texas Sanders supporters cheer as they hear election results during a watch party held at Central Machine Works Brewery in Austin, Texas - a state he eventually lost to Biden Supporters of Bernie Sanders look over Super Tuesday election results at a campaign center in Denver, Colorado Supporters of Democratic Presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren attend a rally in Detroit Tulsi Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, remains in the race though has only campaigned sporadically. She did make a pitch to voters in American Samoa, where she was born, to vote for her Tuesday People wait to vote during the presidential primary in Santa Monica, California on Super Tuesday Voters cast their ballots in the Democratic presidential primary election at a polling place in Armstrong Elementary School o in Herndon, Virginia Rochelle Marks, 77, votes at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California People line up to vote at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California Students at the University of Vermont Franklin fill out voter registration forms at a polling place on Super Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont. At the close of the polls on Tuesday night, Sanders won his home state Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school in Minneapolis, Minnesota Those included former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, former Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia, among others. Now Biden will have Bloomberg out of his way in order to capture more moderate voters - and Bloomberg's commitment to help him remove Trump from office. President Trump, for his part, touted his string of Republican primary victories Tuesday night, tweeting his thanks after state after state was called in his favor. The president only had token competition - former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld - in the Super Tuesday contests and one state, Virginia, canceled its GOP primary as Trump, like most incumbent presidents, is easily expected to win his party's nomination. Trump has played armchair pundit on Twitter as he's watched the shake-up on the Democratic side. 'Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer!' Trump tweeted early Wednesday. The president relished the news that Bloomberg had bowed out. 'Mini Mike Bloomberg just "quit" the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didnt have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost,' Trump wrote. 'Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joes campaign, hoping to save face.' 'It wont work!' Trump said. Biden talks with actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key as he campaigns before his evening rally on Super Tuesday in LA Meanwhile Bernie Sanders, who was earning frontrunner status, spoke to thousands at his rallies in Super Tuesday states including one Monday night in Minneapolis. With Amy Klobuchar out, her state is up for grabs On Monday night at a really in Los Angeles Warren pitched herself as the candidate who could split the difference between Biden and Sanders. 'Voters deserve a choice of someone with unshakeable values who can also get things done and bring all kinds of Democrats along with her,' she argued Voters from 14 states head to the polls on 'Super Tuesday,' with about a third of Democratic delegates at stake in a single day Taking up Toni Morrisons famous literary challenge"If theres a book you really want to read, but it hasnt been written yet, then you must write it"Rita Woods, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Rachel Howzell Hall, three black female novelists, talk to PW about their most recent novels, each inspired by African-American history and contemporary social experience. In her debut novel Remembrance (published in January by Forge), Rita Woods a Chicago doctor and former self-publisher, has conjured an imaginative historical novel spanning the lives of four black womeneach with distinctive super powersacross three centuries and two countries. The books narrative converges on a mysterious fictional place called Remembrance, where history, myth, science and the supernatural meet. Gaelle is a Haitian-born nurses aid in present-day Ohio. A refugee from her homelands recent devastating earthquake, Gaelle can sense the past through touch. She has a mysterious elderly patient, Winter, who grew up in Remembrance in the mid-19th century, and can break into the spaces of spaces. Margot is a teenage Louisiana slave with healing powers who escapes to Remembrance; and theres Abigail, who can bend space to create safe spaces; she escaped the Haitian Revolution of 1791 and traveled to New Orleans. In Woods novel the lives of these four women are connected through slavery, displacement, and social upheaval. "The inspiration for the novel came from a book entitled Quantum Mechanics for Dummies, Woods says. She described a passage from the book describing that familiar feeling of being on a train while theres a train on the track next to you, and one of them starts to move, and you have that weird, vertiginous feeling that youre not sure which one is moving, and if so, in which direction and how fast? That feeling captures, Woods explains, one of the principles of quantum mechanics, in which time, space, speed and velocity are relative: its a matter of perspective. Woods says her book is the product of an epiphany: what if there was a character who could manipulate space, velocity and time, so that perception was relative? She had recently visited a a cemetery in Ohio that is purported to be a stop for escaping slaves following the Underground Railroad, so she put both concepts to work. She created a character that could manipulate time and space, and have this parallel universe thats also a stop on The Underground Railroad. And thats the genesis of the story. Though Woods novel has been compared to the works of novelists Christina Baker and Tara Conklin, she draws direct inspiration from the novels of Morrison and from Gloria Naylors novels Mama Day and Baileys Cafe. I love them because those books are grounded in reality, Woods says, and yet, theres always that little thing on the side that goes, what if this could happen? What if you really could have someone who is psychic? Arming her heroines with paranormal abilities, she explains, is a deliberate attempt to protect her characters from the trope and trap of victimhood. I didnt want them to be seen as victims. All of these horrible things happen to them, except they have these powers that Im trying to weaponize. Not as offensive weapon per se, although Abigail does occasionally go rogue, Woods says laughing, but in a defensive way. Phyllis LeBlanc, the beautiful, mixed-race lead character in Alaya Dawn Johnsons forthcoming fantasy novel Trouble The Saints (Tor, June), is anything but defensive: shes a knife-wielding, Harlem-born assassin who can pass for white in a jazz-tinged, alternate-reality New York City, circa World War II. After years of wetwork (or contract killing), shes reconsidering her occupation after reuniting with ex-boyfriend Dev Patil, a paranormal half-Indian police informant who, once he touches someone, can see future threats against them. LeBlanc becomes pregnant with Patils child at the same she must face a volatile racial situation in upstate New York. Johnson is known for her award-winning short fiction and YA novels, which include receiving the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii (which appeared in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy), and a 2015 Andre Norton Award for the novel Love is the Drug. Her debut YA novel, The Summer Prince, was longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award. She describes Trouble The Saints as a long-overdue examination of the feminine dimension of violence. I desperately wanted to deconstruct a noir story, says the Washington D.C.-born Johnson, who spoke with PW from her home in Mexico, City, where she has lived since 2014. I had a lot of thoughts about how violence is often used as a shorthand for strength, especially in a lot of works [with] a strong, female character. But I feel that sometimes, that strength comes at a cost, she explains. Theres a really complicated history of violent women in literature and film. In a lot of horror movies, theres sort of female violence thats sort of stylized in a way thats chimeric. Whereas male violence is presented as good or bad, but its congruent with their nature. Its problematic if our only notion of trying to achieve appreciation and representation for marginalized people ends up forcing them into a mold that has been created by an extremely racist, patriarchal and imperialistic culture. So it seems very natural for me to [deal with those ideas] to tell a different kind of noir story, Johnson says. Johnson chose to set her examination of violence, race-passing and racist oppression in an alternate historical representation of 1940s New York City. I lived in New York for thirteen years, Johnson says, though her research also focused on reading novels set in New York. My priority was to try to get the feel of things, Johnsons says, emphasizing that I wanted to make sure that this building existed in 1941. I also did a lot of research on numbers running, and conjure in Harlem, because that was incredibly fascinating. Los Angeles native Rachel Howzell Hall is the author of the Lou Norton crime series, as well as co-author, with novelist James Patterson, of The Good Sister. Hall says shes always been fascinated by the time-honored literary whodunit. The classic murder mystery, she says, is the perfect genre in which to examine, critique, even spoof, matters of race, gender and class. Halls 2019 crime thriller They All Fall Down (Forge) features Miriam Macy, an L.A. copywriter whose marriage is falling apart. Shes invited to participate in what she believes to be a TV reality show, to be held on a cruise ship bound for a ritzy island in Mexico. But when the other invitees start dyingher shipmates include a former cop, a coked-up chef, stuck-up financial adviser, on-edge nurse, a self-involved lawyer, and a sexually generous widowMiriam morphs from a down-on-her-luck, newly single mom, to a budding crime sleuth. Sound familiar? Halls novel is an updated version of Agatha Christies 1939 mystery And Then There Were None. I was raised Seven Day Adventist - so I grew up with the concept of punishment for the things you do wrong, Hall says, to describe her attraction to crime fiction. She was an English and American literature major at U.C. Santa Cruz. I read Dantes Inferno, and The Canterbury Tales, and all of those ideas stayed with me. But, she says, it was Christies great mystery novel that focused her thinking about how to structure a contemporary work of crime fiction. It wasnt until I finished my [Lou Norton] detective series that I had the courage and the skill to even think about taking on Agatha Christies story and making it mine. Its an English novel, but I wanted it to be American and contemporary. I wanted the main character to be a black woman, and I wanted to tell it from the first person. Hall changed Christies classic novel to the first person and adapted it to a new social and cultural setting. Were so used to white folks being the default, she says explaining that all novels, unless you say it explicitly, [have] white characters. And a lot of readers who arent African-American just assume that, she says. So its been a weird journey for me with this book, because I put an African-American character in front of a book that everyone knows, and shes the lead, and Im killing off white folks, Hall says laughing. These three writers take their inspiration from Morrisons challenge and from her legacy as a beacon for aspiring African-American writers. Hall says: Im hoping one day, some baby writer, somewhere, wanting to write a crime/mystery novel featuring black women, looks up to me. New Delhi, March 4 : Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, India's dairy giant Amul has dropped an ad on their Twitter handle with an appeal requesting people to stay safe and adopt all precautionary measures. The comic creative titled "Better saaf than sorry" was shared by Amul's official Twitter handle and has gathered about 1,000 likes so far. The company posted on its official Twitter handle @Amul_Coop the ad which shows a girl washing hands in a washbasin and wrote, "#Amul Topical: Precautions against the Coronavirus!" As the post went viral, social media has been abuzz with reactions. A user wrote, "Only precautions can help, please share maximum awareness." Another wrote, "Very innovative and timely!" A post read, "Face Corona...Mat Darona." "Spot on as always!" a user remarked. With the threat of COVID-19 looming large, the government has tightened the entry conditions for the nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan with immediate effect. As per the revised travel advisory issued on Tuesday by the Union Health Ministry, new travellers from these countries will have to apply for fresh visas. At least 28 cases of new coronavirus have been reported from India. The virus has affected more than 60 countries across the globe. Symptoms of COVID-19 disease are cold, cough, pneumonia and shortness of breath. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A man receives assistance in a pre-triage medical tent in front of the Cremona hospital, northern Italy (Picture: Getty) Italy is shutting shut down schools and universities until March 15 because of the coronavirus outbreak. Officials agreed to take the drastic measure after a jump in cases and deaths from the virus. The Government previously closed some schools and universities in the worst-affected regions in northern Italy and quarantined a handful of towns at the epicentre of the outbreak. However, the contagion has spread, with at least 79 people dying and more than 2,500 infected. See latest coronavirus news and updates A cleaner sanitises seats at the San Paolo football stadium ahead of the Coppa Italia semi-final between Napoli and Inter Milan, which has since been postponed (Picture: Reuters) The virus has spread south but the vast majority of cases remain centred on the original hotspots, with the addition of Emilia Romagna, another affluent region which borders on both Lombardy and Veneto and now has more cases than Veneto. In a worrying development, a policeman and a fireman based in Rome have also tested positive, authorities said, raising the risk of the virus spreading in the Italian capital. Read more: Community transmission of coronavirus already happening, warns chief medic Cases in Rome, Italys largest city with three million people, had previously been limited to a Chinese couple on holiday and an Italian repatriated from the Chinese city of Wuhan - where the outbreak originated late last year - on a special flight and hospitalized. All three recovered. Italys Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Wednesday the government was likely to order that all top-flight Serie A soccer matches should be played behind closed doors in a further effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The government last month banned sporting events in the countrys most affected northern regions and so far ten Serie A matches have been postponed. Read more: CCTV images released in hunt for racist coronavirus attackers who targeted student Countries with confirmed cases of coronavirus (Picture: PA) Coronavirus European round-up On Tuesday, France had 212 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, up from 191 on Monday. In total four people have died from the infection in the country. Story continues The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased to 240 on Wednesday, up from 196 on Tuesday afternoon, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said. Read more: Iran frees 54,000 prisoners to combat spread of coronavirus A couple wearing protective masks takes a selfie in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris (Picture: Getty) Germany has not reported a fatal case of the virus, which emerged in the Chinese metropolis Wuhan late last year and is quickly spreading around the world. Around 150 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Spain, while some 100 health workers in the Basque region have been isolated in their homes after coming into contact with people carrying the virus. Dutch health authorities have reported 18 coronavirus infections since 27 February. Coronavirus UK round-up In total 85 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK. As of Wednesday, a total of 16,659 people have been tested. Government scientific experts predict the UKs coronavirus outbreak could last around four to six months. Globally, there are now more than 90,000 cases worldwide with more than 3,000 deaths. Lawmakers in eastern German state Thuringia re-elected its state premier Wednesday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling CDU party sitting out the vote after a first try sank it into a deep crisis. Popular former premier Ramelow of the radical-left Die Linke party was returned to power, despite falling four votes short of an absolute majority after the centre-right CDU abstained. It was the second attempt in a month to form a working government in the former East German state, after CDU MPs there set off an earthquake in national politics by voting with the far-right AfD in the first vote on February 5. The unprecedented alliance with the far-right triggered the departure of Merkel's designated successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and sparked a new leadership contest for the German chancellor's party. Amid the national outrage, elected liberal candidate Thomas Kemmerich immediately stepped down, leaving the state rudderless. As Wednesday's rerun of the vote pitted the far-left Ramelow against far-right firebrand Bjoern Hoecke, the only viable option left for the CDU was to abstain in order to hold to its national edict of not cooperating with either extreme. "We are returning to stable conditions," said Ramelow , adding that Thuringia had "overcome a crisis of democratic legitimation". He refused to shake Hoecke's hand after the vote, accusing him and his party of being "arsonists" who were "stamping on democracy". - New force on the right - A fundamental article of faith for the CDU during its decades of dominance over German politics since 1949 was that no political force could be allowed to emerge to its right. But Merkel has shifted the party closer to the centre. The repeated rescue programmes for Greece during the eurozone crisis and above all Merkel's decision to allow in more than one million migrants and refugees since 2015 stoked the rise of the AfD. Double-digit scores for AfD in state elections in the East in recent years have made it increasingly tough to build working coalitions that shut out both extremes. With the party leadership -- and likely the candidacy for the chancellorship in 2021 -- now up for grabs, those tensions are boiling up to the surface. The race to a new CDU leadership election on April 25 is a fresh struggle for control between supporters of the chancellor's centrist course and those who believe the party must tack right. - Crucible - With no majority possible in Thuringia without either AfD or Die Linke, the state became a unique crucible for the CDU's repeated declarations that it would work with neither. In Wednesday's re-run, Ramelow had initially hoped to persuade individual CDU MPs to edge him to the absolute majority needed in the first two rounds, threatening to otherwise call fresh elections. Yet he changed strategy on Wednesday morning as conservatives railed against a potential cooperation with the far-left. "CDU votes for a Linke party candidate are unacceptable," moderate party leadership contender Armin Laschet said Sunday, echoing conservative rivals like long-time Merkel rival Friedrich Merz. Yet after the CDU's abstention on Wednesday, Hoecke accused them of "holding open the door" for Ramelow, and claimed that the former East German Communist Party SED had "risen again". One of the most radical voices within AfD, the former history teacher's rhetoric includes calls for "tempered inhumanity" in removing non-ethnic Germans from the country. Such statements placed him beyond the pale even for the more hardline eastern CDU branches. On Wednesday, parliamentary president Birgit Keller opened the sitting with a tribute to the victims of a deadly racist attack in neighbouring state Hesse two weeks ago. Ramelow is now expected to lead a minority government until new elections in April 2021, in a compromise agreed with the CDU at the height of the crisis two weeks ago. Members of the Mohawk community dump more gravel at the entrance to the blockade of the commuter rail line in Kahnawake, Que., on Feb. 26, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz) Pipeline Dispute: Delicate Decisions Ahead, with Much at Stake Commentary What is at stake in the current pipeline dispute? Few episodes in Canadas recent past have attracted national and global attention as have the anti-pipeline protests and rail blockades in solidarity with the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs. Fuelled by well-financed and media-wise environmental organizations and accelerated by legitimate Indigenous frustrations and internal political dynamics, the recent imbroglio has brought potent political and economic forces together in what has the makings of a perfect storm. While there has been some movement toward ending the blockades and while a tentative deal to end the pipeline dispute is supposedly forthcoming, there can be no mistaking that this situation is more broad and complex than one pipeline or one agreement. In summary, here are some of the basic realities. Environmental groups have targeted Canadas energy sector, correctly identifying the governments vulnerability on energy production and delivery. Five Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs are asserting their right to make decisions regarding their traditional territories, a position that has solid legal foundations but has not yet been clarified in practice or legitimized by formal community endorsement. The protesters do not represent all, or even many, Indigenous peoples; many are non-Indigenous anti-pipeline advocates who associate the two causes to gain media attention and delay construction activity. The fact is that the majority of elected First Nations officials and the Indigenous population at large support natural resource development. The protests are part of the ongoing effort by climate change advocates to curb energy production and delivery, thereby threatening major projects with cancellation. The federal government has been proceeding with extreme caution and less than fulsome commitment to the energy sector. The shifting regulatory environment has already stifled energy investment and activity. Western anger has escalated dramatically, stoking the flames of separatism or, more plausibly, further entrenching regional hostility. Consider, specifically, what is at stake in this controversy. Indigenous decision-making authority. The Gitxsan and Wetsuweten won recognition of outstanding, but unspecified, Indigenous title to their traditional lands. A quarter-century later, the meaning and political processes of traditional Indigenous governance, including the authority and role of hereditary chiefs, remain unresolved. The hereditary chiefs have asserted a plausible position on this issue, but a resolution process has not been found. Indigenous economic futures. The chief and council of the Wetsuweten, along with other First Nations in northern B.C., have endorsed the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Jobs, hundreds of millions in business, and long-term community benefits are at stake. The pipeline, along with the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project, is a priority for First Nations across Western Canada. Indigenous communities, particularly in northern regions, see resource development as one of the only ways to achieve a fair share of Canadian prosperity. They can feel a once-in-a-century opportunity slipping through their fingers. Western regionalism and Canadian politics. For almost 40 years, Western Canadians have been suspicious of Central Canadian plans for the energy sector. The unequal treatment of the region compared to energy and emissions projects in Eastern Canada remains a major irritant. Construction delays have angered westerners, particularly in Alberta and northern districts. If Coastal GasLink does not proceed, a long winter chill will descend on the region. Canadas economic future. The importance of the oil and gas sector in Alberta and the West in general is well known. Much less appreciated are the tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in business for Central Canadians and the thousands of workers from the Maritimes who work in the sector regularly. Recent government policy and regulatory expansion, combined with low prices and uncertain global demand, have driven billions of dollars in investment out of the sector. If pipelines are delayed or cancelled, the loss of investment will escalate and revenue to Indigenous, provincial, territorial, and federal governments could decline precipitously. The national climate change agenda. Canadas approach to emission control has been highly conceptual, haphazard, and unconvincing. If significant economic dislocations attend pending government decisions on TMX and Coastal GasLink, the governments climate change agenda will be advanced in the minds of many Canadians and discredited in the eyes of a larger number. These measures would have a distinctly Western Canadian impact while causing little obvious or immediate pain in Central and Eastern Canada. Controlling civil disobedience in Canada. Protest is an important and necessary part of democratic political life. But there are real limits, which have already been crossed by some of the protesters. Economy-harming road blockades, major traffic disruptions, and the barricading of the B.C. legislature have gone too far. Ironically, these extreme protests, particularly railway blockages that lack support from First Nations governments, have eroded public sympathy for the environmentalists cause and put great pressure on the federal government to take action. The gathering anti-protest backlash. Canadians are a calm and unprovocative people. But there are limits to their patience. This line, too, has been crossed. Non-Indigenous counter-protesters have started to push back. News media comment sections and calls to radio talk shows reveal the depth of the anger, the misunderstanding of the relationships between the anti-pipeline and Indigenous rights issues, and simmering unhappiness with the trajectory of Indigenous aspirations and achievements. What makes this whole scenario so frustrating is that it was avoidable. Only a year ago, the Trudeau government had the right people, with high standing in Indigenous communities, to be able to work through an unfolding crisis like this one. Jane Philpot, in a year and a half as minister of Indigenous services, established an enviable reputation and high credibility with Indigenous communities. And Jody Wilson-Raybould, as justice minister, held especially high status among Indigenous people. In the wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired Wilson-Raybould from cabinet and ousted her from the Liberal caucus. Philpot resigned her cabinet position in protest and then was likewise removed from caucus. It is hard to imagine the current controversy unfolding as poorly as it has if Philpot and Wilson-Raybould were still in cabinet. That the prime minister appears to have rebuffed Wilson-Rayboulds offer to assist with the pipeline controversy indicates that the PMO still does not understand her standing among First Nations and the damage to his reconciliation agenda that attended her firing. Rarely has a Canadian controversy held such potential to disrupt the country. Canadas economy is facing long-term and short-term hits. Indigenous politics is in turmoil. Anti-protest actions are escalating. The willingness of provincial and federal governments to defend the rule of law remains in doubt. The energy future of the nation may hang in the balance, along with a substantial portion of the Western Canadian economy. The contours of civil disobedience have shifted the political process dramatically in favour of protesters direct actions. At present, despite having no obvious way out, there is an urgent need for decisive government action, undertaken with strong Indigenous community support, and with a careful eye to the frayed bonds that hold the country together. Public confidence in Canadas collective ability to achieve these results is at low ebb. More than most Canadians realize, there is a great deal at stake in the delicate decisions that lie ahead. Ken Coates is a Munk senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He is a professor and the Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. By Yin Hang BEIJING, Mar. 4 -- Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe held a phone talk with US Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark Esper on March 3, 2020. Gen. Wei Fenghe said that the Chinese people are waging an arduous battle to prevent and control the epidemic. By adhering to the concept of a community with shared future for mankind, China has been timely reporting the epidemic situation, cooperating closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) actively providing assistance to countries with outbreaks and foreign citizens in China, which has been highly recognized by the international community. At present, the positive trend of epidemic prevention and control is expanding, said Wei. Gen. Wei Fenghe pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Trump talked over the phone not long ago and reached an important consensus on the development of China-US relations. The Chinese and the US armed forces should conscientiously implement the consensus between the two heads of state, adhere to the general tone of coordination, cooperation, and stability, resolve differences through dialogue and consultation in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, and promote the development of China-US relations along the right track. Dr. Esper expressed appreciation for the efforts made by China, especially the Chinese armed forces, to prevent and control the epidemic. He expressed his willingness to enhance dialogue and consultation between the two militaries and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in areas including epidemic prevention and control. The votes are in and Coloradans across my home state felt the Bern an unsurprising result given the money and effort Bernie Sanders put into the state. The 78-year-old Vermont Senator and self-declared democratic socialist was a frontrunner going into Tuesday evening. In 2016, he easily won Colorado by 19 points against Hillary Clinton. He's managed a similar margin against Joe Biden in 2020. Sanders hosted more than 1,000 events across the state since launching his current presidential campaign and raised $3m from citizens. So was I ultimately surprised by him pulling ahead in the end, even with changes to the field mere days before the election? No. But another story rising from the results is the success of Joe Biden in Colorado, given he neither held any public events in the state nor bought a single ad for his campaign. As this article goes live, Biden currently is in second place, beating out billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who has just dropped out after disappointing results across the Super Tuesday states. In the less than six months since Bloomberg entered the race, he invested an estimated $7m into Colorado. He created offices across the state, all in an effort to appeal to the moderate and unaffiliated voters that make up a good portion of the swing state. But the billionaire could not adequately take on the vice president's revitalized campaign. What that tells us is important. These results were not anticipated at the start of Super Tuesday, when polling data altered to show how Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar's departure could potentially alter the race. Then, Bernie Sanders held a comfortable lead with Elizabeth Warren then set to take second, according to Data For Progress. For those unfamiliar with Colorado's political landscape, the state decided to abolish caucuses in favour of an open primary for the 2020 election. This move allowed unaffiliated voters to cast a ballot for either a Democratic candidate or a Republican candidate after years of being unable to vote. These mail-in ballots arrived in voters' mailboxes last month. So Biden getting that second-place finish speaks to what was going on for probably a large number of unaffiliated or moderate voters in the state. My guess is these people held onto their ballots until Monday or Super Tuesday, where they could then drop them off before polls closed, because they remained on the fence about what candidate to pick. This indecisiveness played in Biden's favour not only in Colorado, but across America. Voters, specifically moderates, wanted a candidate they could finally rally behind who was not boasting far-left views like Sanders'. I, myself, watched my own parents struggle over who would be the ideal candidate for them to take on President Donald Trump come November. For context, I was raised in a white suburban household by one parent who identifies as a moderate Republican and another who is unaffiliated but tends to lean Democrat. Neither of them support the sitting president. So when making their decision they were looking at where candidates stand on issues relating to the economy and healthcare, but also for someone who could beat Trump. They have yet to inform me who exactly they decided to vote for when it came to the primary and I don't expect them to. But both expressed intrigue over Bloomberg's moderate views and the money he was able to put behind a campaign to challenge Trump. With news of Bloomberg dropping out of the race, I anticipate voters like my parents will now turn to Biden to lead the way. And I don't believe they are in the minority in the state; instead, I think this helps explain the current makeup of a Colorado voter. Colorado is still considered to be a swing state, even though the last three general elections saw it go blue for both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In the last decade, I've watched my home state become more progressive and its demographics swing younger, as it embraces a tranche of new liberal positions that include legalised marijuana. This bodes well for a candidate like Bernie Sanders, who especially appeals to younger voters. But Colorado also makes up a population of moderates and unaffiliated voters who want an option away from both Trump and radical democratic socialism. Sanders may have taken the majority of Colorado's delegates for the primary, but the dramatic resurgence of Biden's campaign, given his lack of effort put into the state, shows how voter support behind the "safe choice" to beat the president is currently driving this election. Apple had lost its mojo with the iPhone camera for the last couple of years, till the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models landed. Apple made huge improvements to the still camera especially with regards to the portrait mode, dynamic range, detail and low-light imaging with a new night mode. Apple had lost its mojo with the iPhone camera for the last couple of years, till the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models landed. Apple made huge improvements to the still camera especially with regards to the portrait mode, dynamic range, detail and low-light imaging with a new night mode. With its haloed space amongst creators, the iPhone was already the most popular camera on the planet and Apple doubled down on that iconic heritage with a new Night Mode challenge to its #ShotOniPhone campaign. As a part of this Night Mode challenge, 6 photographers from around the world won the challenge and the photos were tweeted out by Apples CEO Tim Cook. Amongst the 6 photographers was Mumbaikar, Mitsun Soni who had posted a photo of a tree on Instagram, which won the challenge. The 28-year-old is a concert and travel photographer, whose photo of an outwardly looking tree, won the challenge alongside contestants from China, Russia and Spain. Its crazy man. Im so excited and overwhelmed. I got to know that Im the winner yesterday itself after Apple posted the picture on their Instagram, said Mitsun Soni in an interview with NewsX. Now for this picture, you know, I was just clicking from my own self, like how I click for my Instagram. Then Apple one day announces the night mode challenge. And I was like, might as well give it a shot. So I put up the picture and used the hashtags, he added. Apples jury for the challenge included acclaimed photographers Malin Fezehai, Tyler Mitchell, Sarah Lee, Alexvi Li, and Darren Soh. Also, Apples marketing leadership also featured in the jury featuring its senior Vice President for worldwide marketing Phil Schiller and his team Kaiann Drance, Brooks Kraft, Jon McCormack and Arem Duplessis. This one blows my mind. I have no idea where that deep rich red light is coming from on the tree. It almost feels like a UFO sighting above the tree, just out of frame. Absolutely beautiful composition as well, said Tyler Mitchell of the composition. Soni also felt overwhelmed about the scene. I was in Dubai for a festival last December. One random night I was going around walking through the streets, I came across this beautiful plant. A tree flooded in red light. I was so much in awe of that tree because it felt so outwardly. I couldnt describe the feeling when I saw the tree I couldnt just like you know, help myself from taking a picture of it, he added. Soni also said that he took many photos of the tree, but this was one of his favourite compositions. He used Snapseed and Lightroom to colour correct it, while he used the VSCOCam app to add a slight tone to it, but gently so, to not overpower the photo with a filter. The photo, of course, was shot using an iPhone 11 Pro in night mode. I used a 3-second shutter, Soni added. Soni also admitted that he used the stock camera app for this shot, and felt if he had used a third-party app for RAW capture, the photo couldve come out even better. Soni, who has been a shutterbug since the age of 16, started shooting photos on Nokia phones. He used to own a Nokia N95 before he moved on the iPhone which he has used ever since. In his day job as a concert photographer, he uses Canons EOS R full-frame mirrorless cameras which he believes are very good. Hes shot many concerts including Sunburn, Justin Beiber, Avicii and more. Recently he even shot the OnePlus festival in Mumbai where Dua Lipa and Katy Perry performed together, last November. For all the latest Gadgets News, download NewsX App Midland Mayor Patrick Payton has coordinated a round table discussion with local entities to discuss the citys and regions readiness and preparedness for dealing with for COVID-19, coronavirus. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Midland Municipal Court Community Room, 201 E. Texas Ave. By Akbar Mammadov Boosting cooperation between Qatar and Azerbaijan in many sectors, especially in agriculture, food security, and business was discussed at the meeting between the two countries government officials in Qatar on March 3. Led by Leyla Mammadova, Chairperson of Agro Procurement and Supply OJSC under the Ministry of Agriculture, the Azerbaijani delegation held a meeting with Qatar Chamber First Vice-Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari. During the meeting, the sides evaluated perspectives to develop business relations between Azerbaijan and Qatar, as well as cooperation in numerous sectors, predominantly food security and agriculture. The objective of the visit is to inform the Qatari private sector on the investment opportunities available in Azerbaijan and urging Qatari investors to invest in her country, said the head of the Azerbaijani delegation Leyla Mammadova. She said that Agro Procurement and Supply OJSC under the Ministry of Agriculture seeks to encourage Azerbaijani farmers and food producers to export. In turn, Mohamed bin Towar Al Kuwari said that Qatar and Azerbaijan enjoy distinguished relations in many fields, adding that there is a scope for cooperation between the private sector in both countries in food security. There is a great interest on the part of Qatari investors in exploring the investment opportunities available in Azerbaijan, Al Kuwari emphasized. Mohamed bin Towari said the time is appropriate for more partnerships between both sides. -- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz He's one of the most respected songwriters in the music business. But Paul McCartney has revealed that he was originally inspired by the iconic British playwright William Shakespeare, after being introduced to the writer by his English teacher. The legendary Beatle, 77, also revealed that a teacher also taught about the 'dirty bits' from poet Geoffrey Chaucer, which helped spark his love for writing some of the greatest songs of all time. Inspiration: Paul McCartney has revealed that he was originally inspired by the iconic British playwright William Shakespeare, after being introduced to the writer by his English teacher Paul said on the Clear + Vivid podcast that he was one of only three students to pass his 11-Plus exam, which meant he could attend the Liverpool Institute Grammar School. He explained: 'You really got a great education for free, it was a state school. I had this one guy who was English Literature teacher and he turned me on. He just showed me some things.' Paul added: 'He showed me actually the dirty bits in Chaucer. And for a 16-year-old boy (it was) ''wow, I'm loving this. I said are you sure I should be reading this?'' 'He says it's not in the curriculum but. With him as my teacher I did ok. It's the only exam I did well in.' Wow! Shakespeare is credited with introducing the world to a modern English language, through his collection of tragic and comedic plays (pictured in 1609) Paul added that he was eventually introduced to some of Shakespeare's most iconic works, adding: 'I think during that little period of a couple of years at school a lot was going into the data base - these great writers. I'm getting the cadences of these great writers too. 'So I think, it's just a theory, that when I left school and then started getting into music, I think that kind of stayed with me and I thought I naturally produced these words and rhythms that were better than what I done before. 'When we first started off it was just 'thank you girl.' It really was a message to the fans with The Beatles. We kind of grew out of that.' Throwback: Paul said that after he was accepted to a prestigious Liverpool grammar school, he was introduced to Shakespeare by one of his teachers Legendary: He was also taught about the 'dirty bits' from the works of 14th Century poet Geoffrey Chaucer (pictured in an engraving in 1876) Of course Paul McCartney has written some of the most iconic tracks in music history, including the legendary Beatles song Hey Jude, and the Bond theme Live And Let Die. Sir Paul also discussed George Harrison and the Beatles' songwriting, admitting they never really learned how to interpret written music. He said: 'We didn't really learn music in the Beatles. John [Lennon] and I, neither of us could read or write music. The same with George or Ringo* We just made it up.' 'When writing songs, we looked at where everyone else did and that's how you wrote them.' 'There was no dots,' he said. 'You're not looking at that. You're thinking it, so I think it comes a bit more from your heart* I think that directness was quite a good thing for us.' 'We didn't actually understand how to do things.....so everything, therefore, was exciting.' The Ensign Group, Inc. ENSG recently completed the buyouts of the operations of two skilled nursing facilities located in Commerce City, CO. Subject to long-term, triple net leases, the transactions were effective Mar 1, 2020. The addition of Ridgeview Post Acute, a skilled nursing facility with 105 skilled nursing beds, and Irondale Post Acute, a skilled nursing facility with 83 skilled nursing beds, adds 216 skilled nursing operations to the companys portfolio. It also owns the real estate at 91 healthcare operations. This strategic move is in line with its commitment to serve the greater Denver healthcare market. Management confirmed that the company is still looking to purchase real estate and lease both well-performing and struggling skilled nursing, assisted living and other healthcare-related businesses throughout the United States. Acquisition Story Ensign Group has been on an acquisition spree for skilled nursing facilities. It has a tradition of acquiring distressed healthcare operations that require significant clinical, financial and cultural turnaround. The company has a track record of closing 208 acquisitions in all over the period of 10 years (2009-2019). The company is also adding value to its real estate portfolio by improving the operating results in its owned operations and acquiring additional real-estate assets. Last year, the company successfully expanded its operation with the addition of 22 stand-alone skilled nursing operations, one stand-alone senior living operation and four campus operations. It also invested in new ancillary services that are complementary to its existing businesses. Other Strategic Initiatives Apart from buyouts, the company separated its home health and hospice business into a publicly-traded company. This spin-off is expected to meet not only patients' requirements but also be beneficial to its shareholders. The company hopes to add capabilities to its home health, senior living and hospice business line through this spin-off. We expect the divestiture to enable Ensign Group to focus on its core operations. Price Performance Shares of this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company have lost 16.2% in a years time, wider than its industrys decline of 12.8%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The stock price performance looks subdued when compared with the returns of other companies in the same space, such as Genesis Healthcare, Inc. GEN and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated UNH, which have gained 34.4% and 8.3%, respectively, and Brookdale Senior Living Inc. BKD, which has decreased 7.1% in the past year. However, we expect the company to fare better going forward on the back of its solid fundamentals like inorganic growth and the improving top line. Story continues Click to get this free report UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (BKD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Genesis Healthcare, Inc. (GEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Ensign Group, Inc. (ENSG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research As weird as it may sound, Darryl Lockett began preparing for his new position as executive director of the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative when he was just 8 years old. Thats when he committed to memory the last speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ever gave: Ive Been to the Mountaintop. Delivered April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, Kings speech was more than 4,000 words and lasted 43 minutes. Lockett was a member of a group called Kings Kids and Daughters, which met at 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month at the Martin Luther King Center. The program was meant to help children as young as 4 develop public speaking skills, and Lockett grew up reciting many of Kings speeches. Now, in the role he started Jan. 13, Lockett gets to help continue Kings legacy, which is rather unique in Indianapolis because its where Robert F. Kennedy turned a campaign rally into a public mourning for the gunned-down civil rights icon. The park, with the Landmark for Peace statue, serves in memoriam of King and that historic day. Its humbling, Lockett said. Just to work in an organization that has these two mens names in the organization is humbling. I feel a great responsibility to honor the legacy, but I see it to be a wonderful opportunity in the same sense. Lockett, 36, said the Landmark for Peace statue is a hidden gem in Indianapolis right now, and he wants it to be more than that. He wants busloads of schoolchildren brought to the marker to learn about a tragedy that also has streaks of hope and perseverance. Its part of Locketts plans to modernize Kings message for the 21st century. The details have changed over the decades, but Kings messages fighting for social, economic, criminal, environmental justice can be rewoven and delivered to generations that may learn of King only from historys formal teachings, not the stories of those who were there. King and Kennedy left a blueprint for equity and inclusion, Lockett said, and its his job to do right by these two giants of men. The young orator has made it back to the place where his knowledge and passion live side by side, but Locketts work moved him around the country before. The Indianapolis native and North Central High School graduate left to attend Howard University in 2001 and didnt make a permanent move home until now. Lockett worked for the National Diversity Council in Houston for three years, became a political consultant in Washington, D.C., and joined AARP Foundation in 2014. Lockett and his wife Amanda have a son. I can appreciate Indianapolis in a new way, he said of coming back. Theres new neighborhoods in new areas that Im still trying to learn and navigate. It just seems like theres a new energy in Indianapolis. Lena Hackett, the former managing partner of the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative, said in an emailed statement shes confident Lockett will not only honor the legacies of Kennedy and King, but move those legacies to action by addressing issues of equity and justice. Thats why Lockett wanted this position. To have the opportunity to champion those issues in my hometown was a dream come true, he said. Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick. Darryl Lockett Englands chief medical officer has warned the public wearing face masks will do little to combat the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Professor Chris Whitty told Sky News on Wednesday that wearing a face mask had almost no effect on reducing the risk of contracting the illness. Prof Whitty said: In terms of wearing a mask, our advice is clear: that wearing a mask if you dont have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all. So we do not advise that. The only people we do sometimes use masks for are people who have got an infection and that is to help them to stop it spreading around," he added. Instead of using face masks, Prof Whitty advised members of the public to regularly wash their hands for roughly 20 seconds. He also urged the public not to change their normal day-to-day behaviour at this stage, but warned that it may be necessary for people to take more extreme action in the longer term. His comments come a day after the government released its battle plan to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in the UK. The 27-page document lays out a possible range of measure to help combat the outbreak, which includes closing schools and reducing the number of large gatherings. Government scientific experts believe that the UK will have its peak number of cases two or three months after transmission becomes widespread. As of Tuesday, 51 people had been diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK. The health minister Matt Hancock warned in a statement in the Commons on Tuesday the country was facing an increasingly serious situation over the illness. Prime minister Boris Johnson has said he is confident the British public will rise to the national challenge presented by coronavirus. Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron's government has defeated not just one but two no-confidence votes, allowing it to force an overhaul of the retirement system through the lower house of parliament despite months of protests. Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and other cities the day before the vote to denounce the pension changes, which they fear will oblige people to work longer for less money. Currently the eligibility age for a full pension is 62. Members of the FO Union chant during demonstrations in Paris after French unions called for national strikes. Credit:Getty Images As members of the National Assembly accused Macron of "dictatorial" behaviour in a debate that started on Tuesday and lasted past midnight, protesters illuminated the Champs-Elysees with red flares and intoned the national anthem, the Marseillaise. The pension reform prompted France's worst strikes in decades throughout December and January, hobbling public transport and disrupting schools, hospitals, courts and even opera houses. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:41:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIANJIN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A development fund for high-tech firms with an initial government funding of 30 billion yuan (about 4.2 billion U.S. dollars) has been approved in northern China's port city of Tianjian, according to local authorities. Set up in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, the fund is aimed at wooing firms in new and high-tech industries across the globe to invest in Binhai, according to authorities in the 2,270-sq km new area. The authorities expect the fund will grow to a scale of over 100 billion yuan in five years by attracting private funding. The fund will focus on supporting strategic emerging industries such as intelligent technology, bio-medicine, new energy and new materials to foster new momentum for development. It also aims to develop high-end manufacturing in the area by supporting industries such as aerospace, equipment manufacturing, automobiles and petrochemicals. A few legislators from Congress- ruled Madhya Pradesh are reportedly in the city, amid allegations of poaching attempts to destabilise Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government. According to sources, around three to four legislators are at a private place in the city's Whitefield area. One of them is said to be an independent legislator. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. Kamal Nath, however, asserted there was no threat to his government, which came to power in December 2018 by ousting the BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two female corporals have completed a course that allows them to lead teams that operate some of the heaviest and most destructive artillery pieces in Marine ground-combat units. Marine Corps M777 Howitzer teams on the East and West coasts have their first female section chiefs. Cpl. Julianna Yakovac, with 1st Battalion, 11th Marines, graduated from Howitzer Section Chief Course in California last month. In December, Cpl. Shannon Lilly, with 10th Marine Regiment, finished the course on the East Coast. Yakovac and Lilly are the first women in Marine Corps history to graduate from the course since combat-arms jobs opened to women in 2016. But Yakovac told the San Diego Union Tribune, which reported her graduation on Friday, that she doesn't view herself as a trailblazer. "I'm just happy to have the same opportunity everyone else has," she told the paper. "It's not any more of an accomplishment than my male counterparts." Related: Top Marine General Wants More Women Serving in Ground-Combat Jobs Lilly, according to officials with 2nd Marine Division, is currently deployed to Norway with her unit. Howitzer crews rely on teamwork and physical strength to operate the 155mm Howitzers. Each round weighs more than 100 pounds, and Marines can fire them at enemy targets from up to 25 miles away. During a months-long Marine Corps experiment from 2014-2015 that assessed whether women should be allowed to join combat units, the service required six-person coed teams to set up the weapons and carry out a series of live-fire missions. Each crew member had to carry the 105-pound round more than 200 yards, Military.com's Hope Hodge Seck reported at the time. Yakovac told UT-San Diego that when she first reported to her unit, she was one of two women, but in the two years she has been there, more have followed. The Marine Corps reported to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services in December that 613 female leathernecks and sailors were serving in jobs previously only opened to men, which officials said was a 60% jump from the year before. Commandant Gen. David Berger last month instructed leaders to look at more ways to move female Marines into combat roles. That includes encouraging more lieutenants and captain to attend Infantry Officer Course and possibly bringing back women who'd left active duty to serve in combat roles. As Howitzer chiefs, Yakovac and Lilly are responsible for "the safe operation and employment of the howitzer including maintenance, handling of ammunition, local security, convoy operations, navigation, direct fire ... and emergency," the Marine Corps Warfighting Publication on artillery operations states. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Read more: Marine Commandant Personally Invites MARSOC Trailblazer to Become an Officer The race is on to develop a coronavirus vaccine, but doctors and Massachusetts health officials say its delivery could be at least a year away and thats the best case scenario. We should not expect to have a safe vaccine that could be used broadly for at least another year, said Monical Bharel, the state commissioner for the Department of Public Health. Several companies are developing their own coronavirus vaccines. The Pennsylvania-based company Inovio, for example, plans to start human clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine in April in the U.S., followed by trials in China and South Korea, MarketWatch reported. But such products take multiple trials to test for safety and ultimately its effectiveness, followed by submissions for approval from regulatory agencies. When lawmakers asked doctors from Boston-area hospitals if they agreed with that estimate, they said they expected a wait of a year, if not 18 to 24 months. I think we are all hoping for as short a turnaround as possible," said Paul Beninger, who works at Massachusetts General Hospital. As much as everyone wants a quick turnaround, he added, safety and manufacturing delays are non-negotiable issues. If anyone had lingering doubt, Boston University School of Public Health professor David Hammer and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor Michael Mina echoed Beningers estimates. Hammer said he wouldnt expect a vaccine for another 18 to 24 months. That is under the assumption that the vaccine works biologically, said Mina, who works at Brigham and Womens Hospital. Biology does not play with us very well, as weve noticed, we dont have vaccines for very, very many viruses. Until then, doctors and public health officials urged the public to wash their hands thoroughly (a full 20 seconds at least), stay home if theyve traveled internationally recently and stay home if they dont feel well. Something that we as a culture are pretty bad at is staying at home when youre sick, not going to work or school, Bharel said. Its really, really important. The Baker administration urged high schools and colleges to cancel their upcoming organized international trips. The MBTA said it would disinfect commonly used surfaces every four hours. Schools are asking students and staff who recently traveled to stay home for at least two weeks, following protocol from the Centers for Disease Control and state public health officials. Rep. Michael J. Soter, a Bellingham Republican, noted that students and staffers in Bellingham Public Schools stayed home following an Italy trip. One student who was ill luckily does not have the virus. It was more of a strep issue, Soter said. Id rather have 25-30 parents upset than have the whole town upset that we didnt do the right thing, he added. Soter says profs' testimony "opened my eyes to a lot of things that I dont think are fully out there were almost 18 months from a true vaccine or true medicine that will take care of this issue." "Best case scenario," Beninger says. Steph Solis (@stephmsolis) March 4, 2020 Massachusetts has one confirmed case and one presumptive case: A UMass Boston student person who returned from China and is now in recovery, and a Norfolk County woman in her 20s who had recently returned from a school trip to Italy, respectively. The CDC will be confirming whether the woman constitutes a second confirmed case likely over the next few days, Bharel said. In Massachusetts, 719 people have self-quarantined in an effort to monitor for potential symptoms of the virus. Officials say 470 people have already completed the two-week self-monitoring protocol, with 259 still under quarantine. Related Content: The Bengaluru-based firm competes with US rival Uber whose lukewarm IPO last year has contributed to the lag in valuation trend among the unicorns across the Indian start-up ecosystem. SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firm Ola is planning to go public in the next few years and it is aiming to do it in the India market, confirmed Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal. He said the focus of the firm has always been on building sustainable, self-sufficient, profitable and long-term institutions. Our India business is in a strong position, we are doing the same in other countries also. "The next logical step is for us to list in the public markets; we are an Indian domicile, unlike some of our peers, so we list in India, said Aggarwal during the MEA-PIC Geo-Economic Conference that was held in Pune over the weekend. It is very important for us to be an Indian company and list in the Indian markets and build maybe looking at us more, Indian internet companies can start going public (rather) than relying on private markets, said Aggarwal. The Bengaluru-based firm competes with US rival Uber whose lukewarm IPO last year has contributed to the lag in valuation trend among the unicorns across the Indian start-up ecosystem, according to the analysts. Also, the fiasco at SoftBank-backed co-working start-up WeWork pushed the firms initial public offering (IPO) plans in the US, as investors questioned the $47-billion valuation. The WeWork debacle has put pressure on SoftBank portfolio companies to show profitability, according to the analysts. Ola which has raised a total of $3.8 billion in funding and is valued at around $5.8 billion. Referring to the startup phase in the country, Aggarwal said that one of the objections people have is young ventures are spending too much money and they are not prudent from a financial perspective. Our focus has been to build a business which is, not building for vanity, but for building strong fundamental propositions for the consumer and in a profitable business model. So, weve been doing that, he said. Aggarwal said he sees Olas growth in three phases - the first was the struggle phase which was 2011 to 2014, or 2013-14 where the firm was figuring out its business model, customer, users, and who will give it the money to build the company. The second phase was between 2014-2017 roughly, where this industry just exploded and like most disruptions in any industry it wasnt a linear curve, it was an S curve. Disruptions happen in an S curve. Once the core economics of a certain service is better in the previous incumbent service or product, the adoption in the consumer is just exponential. "Thats what happened with our industry also, said Aggarwal. Because it (Ola) was such a relevant product offered at such a compelling price point for everybody that it just scaled very rapidly. "And in that phase, as the management team and the founding team, it felt like we were just riding a tiger. "And after that we got into a phase of consolidation, making sure operations are running more efficiently. About two years ago, Ola decided that after having built the mobility services business for the country, there are enough reasons for it to take the same technology and business capability outside India. It started with Australia, then expanded to New Zealand and then to the UK. We chose these countries especially because there are enough cultural links between them and there are enough similarities in the ways of doing business, said Aggarwal. And obviously, these countries are very relevant in the global context for the mobility industry. One of the big things in a global city like London is pollution and congestion. Ola is focusing a lot of its business around having a much larger share of electric vehicles. We are actually making sure that the industry in London becomes electric in the next few years vs ten years as per their plans, said Aggarwal. Like in India, the company has also introduced many safety innovations there such as OTP technology, so that the customers know that they are getting into the right car. Weve used AI (artificial intelligence) facial recognition to make sure the right driver is driving you - the same driver who signed up with us. "This is something we already have in India, said Aggarwal. He said the more the company expands outside India, the more it feels excited about the Indian industry and the startups to take a globally leading mindset. I think there are two models in the world: the American model and the Chinese model. "There is a need for an Indian model also, which will be accepted much more beyond, said Aggarwal. Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters The following telegram has been received by the Under Secretary and Superintendent of Telegraphs from the officer in charge at Cooktown : " The Warrego returned from the scene of the wrecks this morning. Authentic reports state that 14 white men and about 400 coloured men were drowned. Eighty luggers and six schooners were wrecked. The damage is estimated at 50,000. Channel Island lightship and four men were lost at Douglas Spit. A coloured man reached shore with two women after swimming four days. The beach is strewn with dead fish, snakes, and birds." The following telegram from the Harbour Master at Cooktown was received about 5 o'clock this afternoon by the Postmaster, Captain Almond. The message appears to have been de- layed in transmission, as it was despatched at 10 o'clock in the morning. It runs as follows : " I considered, after conferring with Bennett, officer on board the White Star, that the Warrego could accomplish no good going further north than Flinders Island, and instructed the captain of the Warrego to return to Cooktown, where he arrived at midnight. The White Star left Flinders Island for Cape Melville at 7 a.m. on Sunday. It was arranged to go from there to- wards the reef north-east from Piper Island and search north. This was not done, because we passed her at 6.30 on Sunday evening between Murdock and Lookout Point steaming south. It was useless searching south of Barrow Point. At 12.40 on Saturday sighted the steamer Victory.Bade her stay, and signalled 'Come along- side.' On receiving the report of Pilot Coles, I instructed the captain to proceed south along the coast as far as Barrow Point, searching the beach. If any bodies were found the instructions were to bury them. If white bodies, to obtain full par-ticulars for indentification ; also instructions were given to give flour to the blacks for burying the dead, and then return if time permitted to Channel Rock and anchor for the night. Next morning to proceed to C Reef, off Flinder's Point, examine the lugger ashore on the reef, and also proceed to King Island, looking for wreckage, afterwards to proceed to Cooktown. Captain Porter (Crest of the Wave) reports he saw the lightship at 11 p.m. on Saturday at anchorage. The barometer was then 27in. The consensus of opinion is that the lightship foundered at her moorings. The water was too dirty to send a diver down. If not at her moorings, then she foundered at Bathurst Bay, but the opinion is she sank at her moorings. All hands were drowned. The captains of the pearling fleets say they never experienced such weather. Latest fallout from the ongoing San Francisco City Hall corruption scandal the entire Public Works Department will undergo special ethics training. We want to ensure that all 1,600 Public Works employees have the tools and training they need to meet the ethical standards the city and state demand as they perform their work keeping San Francisco, clean, safe, beautiful and resilient, Public Works Acting Director Alaric Degrafinried said. City law requires that the Public Works director, deputy directors and all staff involved in contracting and purchasing take an online ethics training course. Degrafinried is taking the training further, directing all department, bureau and section managers to review the ethics standards with all staff. Training will be offered online, in team meetings and at informal worker tailgating sessions in the departments work yard. The training is aimed at laying out the rules on everything from statements of economic interest for executives to gifts and honoraria, plus possible conflicts of interest. It will cover everything from awarding contracts to what to do if you are a street sweeper and someone offers you a free cup of coffee, Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said. Not everyone is impressed with the mass training. Im not aware of any allegations of wrongdoing by frontline Department of Public Works employees, most of whom have nothing at all to do with contracting, said Supervisor Matt Haney, a frequent critic of Public Works. The real problem has clearly been a culture of corruption at the top, and a bloated Department of Public Works that has little to no accountability or transparency, Haney said. The training follows the arrest of former Director Mohammed Nuru on federal corruption charges. The feds allege that Nuru conspired with restaurateur Nick Bovis and undercover FBI sources to offer a San Francisco airport commissioner $5,000 to help them acquire a concession lease at SFO. Nuru stands accused but not charged of having contractors who work for the city do work on his vacation home in Colusa County and with using department funds to pay for holiday meals for city workers at Bovis restaurant. Nuru is also under investigation for having allegedly assisted a billionaire Chinese national developer Zhang Li, CEO of R&F Properties, who was having permitting problems at a development at 555 Fulton St. in return for vacation trips to China and South America. City Attorney Dennis Herrera believes that Nuru used charity donations to help fund city programs and events, such as the Department of Public Works Christmas party and Public Works Week, a celebration of the department. Nuru also used $5,600 of his own money help repair Mayor London Breeds personal car, the mayor revealed in an online post. Nuru resigned in February and has been assisting the city attorneys investigation into allegations of corruption at City Hall. Gordon said the training is intended to both bolster accountability and transparency in the workplace and to show the public that Public Works is taking the scandal seriously. For example, the department now must solicit bids from at least three qualified contractors for contracts issued under an emergency declaration. A detailed monthly report will also be forwarded to the city administrator and Board of Supervisors on all bids received and contracts awarded, Gordon said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee is scheduled to begin hearings Wednesday into Public Works contracting procedures. At this point, we are taking a high-level look at the practices in the awarding of work and procurement contracts, said committee chair Aaron Peskin. Everything from how they were written to how they were put out to bid. Peskin said he was pleased to hear that Public Works is launching such a broad ethics training effort, but said its a little after the fact. Most people know what is right and what is wrong, and you dont need ethics training to figure that out, he said. The training will be done in-house, at no additional cost, with the goal for it to be completed by June 30. As for what to do when offered a free cup of coffee? While its legally allowed, we are asking our employees to graciously decline even token gifts of gratitude to avoid even the perception of quid pro quo, Degrafinried said. A thank you and a handshake or in this era of coronavirus, an elbow bump goes a long way. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier March 5: Sale has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, Roenicke tells reporters (Twitter link via Mastrodonato). Hell be shut down from throwing until next week and even then will be limited to simply playing catch. The next steps will depend on how he responds to that activity. Roenicke notes that Sales UCL looks the same as the last image. March 4, 4:35pm: At this point, theres no expectation that Sale will require Tommy John surgery, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. 9:05am: We learned yesterday that star Red Sox lefty Chris Sale had undergone an MRI after he experienced elbow soreness, with Dr. James Andrews set to review the results. That has now occurred, but a diagnosis and course of treatment remain unknown. Boston manager Ron Roenicke tells reporters, including Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (Twitter link) and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter link), that the club has sought another opinion. Another premier specialist, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, will review the imaging and weigh in with his opinion. Presumably, the hope is to land upon a consensus after receiving the viewpoints of Andrews, ElAttrache, and the Sox own team medical staff. All involved are taking their time, says Roenicke, because theres a need to get this right. Sale will ultimately decide upon what course of treatment he deems best. But theres a shared interest in arriving upon the best long-term approach to his as-yet-unclear elbow ailment. The Red Sox owe Sale $145MM over the next five seasons. Roenicke says that fans and media shouldnt read into the ongoing uncertainty. Sale isnt necessarily staring down Tommy John surgery, it seems. Indeed, its not really even clear whether that is a possibility on the table at the moment. What is known to this point: Sale was shut down and received platelet-rich plasma treatment in August after visiting Andrews. The southpaw said he had been cleared of ligament damage. He was cleared to throw over the winter; indications were that hed be a full participant in Spring Training. Sale was delayed at the outset of camp, with the explanation given that he was dealing with a case of pneumonia, but began throwing recently without evident issue. But his elbow began barking after facing live hitters recently, prompting this new round of medical analysis. DRIVER Location: Goma, DRC The World Bank, a leading multi-lateral institution in global economic development, is looking for a highly organized, energized and experienced person capable of operating effectively in a very demanding fast-paced environment to serve as a Driver to provide an effective and efficient day to day logistics transport function for the Office in Goma, DRC. S/he will work as part of the office car pool and will drive office vehicles for transport of authorized personnel usually within Goma, DRC but also in the surrounding regions and countries. S/he will be responsible for the delivery and collection of mail. S/he will report directly to the Goma Head of Office or designated staff for day to day assignment. Key responsibilities: The Incumbents duties include but are not limited to: Transport authorized personnel to/from airports, meetings, appointments, and other official duties, Transport authorized personnel on business travel to/from locations throughout DRC and surrounding countries Ensure the delivery and collection of mail, documents and other items. Meet official personnel at the airport and facilitate immigration and customs formalities Ensure day-to-day maintenance of vehicles, checking oil, water, battery, brakes, tires, etc. Perform minor repairs and arrange for other repairs. Ensure that vehicles are kept clean always Follow all steps required by the World Bank Road Safety Policy in case of travel and accident Log all trips, daily mileage, fuel consumption, oil changes, lubrications, etc. Strict adherence to the World Banks Road Safety Policies and procedures as well as the countrys National High Way Code. Assist in protocol, visa, airport clearance Any other duties as may be required for the mission of the World Bank Selection criteria: (i) Minimum High School Diploma or equivalent; (ii) 5 years driving experience, experience in driving 4X4 car. Defensive driving skills being an advantage (iii) Possess a required valid driving license with excellent knowledge of road safety. Applications: For the full position description and complete selection criteria and required competencies, qualified candidates are requested to submit an on-line application at https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/careersClick on > Current job openings > Keyword or ReqID > req6417. The World Bank is committed to achieving diversity of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. Closing date for receipt of applications is March 13th, 2020. Only qualified candidates will be contacted. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facebook (FB) is reportedly reconsidering its plans for its own digital currency after pressure from regulators. Facing pressures from regulators, Facebook is reportedly planning to offer its users digital versions of government-backed currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the euro, in addition to the proposed Libra token, according to The Information. Meanwhile, Facebook still plans to go ahead with the launch of a digital wallet that would allow users to make purchases and send and receive money. 'Reporting that Facebook does not intend to offer the Libra currency in its Calibra wallet is entirely incorrect. Facebook remains fully committed to the project,' a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. Several US senators have opposed Facebook's digital coin, arguing that the social networking giant has been irresponsible with user data privacy. They have even called the digital cryptocurrency Libra 'delusional' and 'dangerous'. The social network giant's digital wallet is now expected to launch this autumn, several months later than initially planned, according to the reports. Last year, Facebook announced it would launch the Libra digital currency, with a goal of making payments easier and cheaper. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 06:50:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WARSAW, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Iceland and Poland will deepen cooperation on geothermic energy, Polish president Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday. His remarks came on the first day of Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson's three-day state visit to Poland. At a press conference following a meeting with Johannesson, Duda named geothermic energy as one of their common interests, as well as aluminum, fishery and the shipbuilding industry. "We have enormous amounts of geothermic energy available in Poland," Duda said. "Iceland is the absolute leader in this area." "We have discussed the possibility of applying the Icelandic experiences in this field here," Duda added. The two sides also inked a deal on making Polish language classes in Iceland more accessible, including the founding of a Polish school at the embassy in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. Poles have become the single largest immigrant group in Iceland, numbering around 20,000, or nearly 6 percent of the island nation's population, following a boom of the Icelandic construction industry in 2006. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry and the French company Natixis have signed an agreement that provides for the French governments official support of a drinking water supply project in Mariupol, according to the Finance Ministrys press service. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry and the French company Natixis have signed an agreement that provides for the French governments official support of a drinking water supply project in Mariupol, according to the Finance Ministrys press service "On March 3, 2020, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova signed an Agreement with the French company Natixis on the application of the Framework Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the French Republic on the official support of a drinking water supply project in Mariupol. The agreement regulates the terms of the use and repayment of the loan under the Framework Agreement. The loan is provided by the Government of the Republic of France, represented by Natixis, in the amount not exceeding EUR 64 million, reads the statement. This project is among the priorities of the Ukrainian government. Its implementation will allow the city of Mariupol to improve the quality of drinking water services that are vital to its 450,000 citizens. iy Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:27:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the policy-setting body of the International Monetary Fund, on Wednesday pledged to provide the necessary support to mitigate the economic and financial impact from the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Medics transport a person on a stretcher into an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, a long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases, in Kirkland, Washington, March 3, 2020. The House passed a sweeping bill Wednesday allocating more than $8 billion in emergency funds to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The vote was 415-2. Republican Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona were the only members to vote against the legislation. The emergency funding package, which provides more than $3 billion in vaccine research and $2.2 billion in prevention and preparedness efforts, was unveiled hours earlier following days of negotiations on Capitol Hill. The coronavirus bill will head to the Senate, where leaders there hope they can quickly bring it to a vote. If the bill passes that chamber, it will move to the Oval Office desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it. The $8.3 billion congressional spending proposal is more than three times the $2.5 billion the White House proposed last week devoting to the coronavirus effort. Senate Appropriations Committee Leader Richard Shelby, R-Ala., revealed the plan as the death toll from the outbreak in the U.S. rose to 11 people. California on Wednesday reported the first death in that state from the virus. The other 10 deaths occurred in Washington state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 138 cases of coronavirus had been identified in the U.S. The fast-spreading disease, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, has killed more than 3,100 people and infected tens of thousands more around the world, prompting fears that a pandemic is imminent. Strides Pharma Science rose 1.31% to Rs 472.75 after the company said it received US drug regulator's approval for Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsules. Strides Pharma Science on Wednesday (4 March) announced that its step-down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global, Singapore, has received approval for Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsules USP, 250 mg and 500 mg from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA). Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsule is an antibiotic used to treat many different bacterial infections of the skin, intestines, respiratory tract, urinary tract, genitals, lymph nodes, and other body systems.In some cases, Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsule is used when penicillin or another antibiotic cannot be used to treat serious infections such as Anthrax, Listeria, Clostridium, Actinomyces. The product is a generic version of Achromycin V Capsules, 250 mg and 500 mg, of Avet Pharmaceuticals Inc (previously Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc). According to IQVIA MAT data, the US market for Tetracycline Hydrochloride capsules USP, 250 mg and 500 mg is approximately $16 million. The product will be manufactured at the company's flagship facility at Bangalore and will be marketed by Strides Pharma Inc. in the US market. The company has 123 cumulative ANDA filings with USFDA of which 84 ANDAs have beenapproved and 39 are pending approval. Strides Pharma Science is a global pharmaceutical company. It focuses on difficult to manufacture products that are sold in over 100 countries. On a consolidated basis, the drug maker's net profit fell 68% to Rs 93.89 crore despite a 28.5% rise in net sales to Rs 732.44 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is going through a transition phase between the generation cohorts. At present, 65 per cent of the population consists of the younger workforce, which includes millennials and Generation Z. It provides India with the opportunity to benefit from its demographic dividend. Among the younger workforce Generation Z are now entering the workforce and millennials have become the primary participant of the workforce. However, they are experiencing a challenging environment, where fields such as education, medicine, management and law which were assured for growth in one's career in the 1990s and 2000s are becoming less lucrative and safe. To be the force multipliers in developing entrepreneurial skills, FLAME University, the pioneers of liberal education in India, is offering a one-year full-time postgraduate program in entrepreneurship and innovation. This program is designed for individuals and next-generation family entrepreneurs who are highly motivated to launch high impact ventures. Moreover, the economic uncertainty and open discussion about employee loyalty, has changed the preferences of the younger workforce. Today's younger workforce is sceptical about employment, and as an outcome, they do not follow the idea of one job, one career. The youth pursuing higher education prefer professions that offer opportunities such as learning innovative technology, working with newer and different methods, and providing opportunities which allow taking calculated risks. The inner self of the younger workforce consists of an innovator and an entrepreneur. Therefore, most of them aspire to transform their hobbies into careers. As a result, the industry is witnessing a change in the characteristics of the younger workforce when compared with the older generation of baby boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) and Generation X (born from 1965 to 1977). The new Indian demographics, coupled with the entrepreneurial drive, low engagement levels and fewer employment opportunities, triangulates into the complexity faced by the country today. There is a need for the corporate world and the policymakers to understand what the younger workforce wants at the workplace and build their policies accordingly. The younger workforce today wants to do work that does not currently exist. Moreover, they wish to work in entirely different formats: not 40-hour per week cubicle workers, but freelance contractors with great flexibility, who solve problems with their expertise. These characteristics make one realize that to reap the dividend of the younger demographics, Indian organizations need to develop a long-term orientation based on entrepreneurial initiation. It can be done by engaging employees to practice corporate entrepreneurship. Organizations can permit employees to use a minimum of 10 per cent of their time on self-directed projects within the organizations by leveraging the resources of the parent's organization. For instance, 3M started this practice in 1948 and many other organizations, including Google, practice it even today. Such corporate entrepreneurship initiatives are not limited to the creation of new businesses or development of new products, but on entrepreneurship on a daily basis and aims at doing things in an entrepreneurial way. This allows the younger workforce to remain engaged, practice entrepreneurship and help India reap the demographic dividend. With the world we live in today, it's time to stop blaming the new generation and start providing them with the opportunities they need to change the way the world functions. This story is provided by Digpu. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 14 BGL BNP Paribas clients fell victim to phishing attacks in which money was stolen from their accounts over the last two weeks. At first, scammers began by stealing small sums, as opposed to amounts just under 5,000, which the Tageblatt had previously reported. One of the victims came forward to criticise the initial report, claiming it was much higher, and highlighted the questions that have yet to be answered. After contacting RTL and informing our colleagues that he had only recently joined the bank, he went on produce a bank statement revealing clearly just how much had been withdrawn from his account: six transactions of 3,000 and one transaction of 1,900, leaving the man with a total of 19,900 in stolen funds. Most banks tend to have a three-step security system for clients logging in to their account. The username is usually a mix of letters and digits, the password should have uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and symbols, and finally users must put in their one-time password from their LuxTrust token. The man admitted that this process should be safe, but that BGL's usernames are formed of ten digits without letters, which can easily be discerned by others. The victim added that the LuxTrust token is the 'second major security flaw', pointing out that the same one-time password with six digits is available for too long without requiring a refresh. Rather than just being available for a few seconds, allowing the user to log in or make a transaction, the LuxTrust token keeps the same code for three minutes. These three minutes provided ample time for scammers to make seven transactions on the victim's account. The bank has since corrected the flaw, as customers must now put in their code on two occasions. How hackers got access The man said that because he was a client of the bank's, he was not suspicious when he received an email addressed to his private email address. This email claimed that he had an important message from BGL on his online-banking account. He explained that as everything was new to him and needed to be set up, he did not question the email. He opened the link in the email, which opened a very accurate imitation of the BGL online banking website. The scammers even included a security captcha in which users must select a pre-selected photograph out of a dozen other images. Once logged in to online banking, the man felt something was amiss. He immediately contacted his bank adviser by email, but he got no response. Not long after, the hackers transferred the seven sums to a German bank. As is normal with cases such as these, the reason why the fraudsters stuck to several smaller amounts, rather than one large sum is that they knew the bank would automatically carry out stricter checks over 5,000. Once a transaction hits 20,000, the bank's alert is set off. The victim told RTL that BGL BNP Paribas was aware of the potential of fraud as of Friday 21 February. From that point onwards, the online banking website included the warning 'be careful of phishing'. However, that was insufficient, as the money was taken on 24 February. The transactions were sent to a German e-bank called N26. BGL contacted the bank, but the German counterparts are yet to respond, another aspect which the victim finds odd. Questions requiring answers In the aftermath of the fraud, a number of questions require answers. For one, how exactly did hackers access the man's private email address? How did they know which identification photograph the man had selected on his online banking page? How come N26 has not reacted to BGL's requests? A further question is whether the LuxTrust token is actually valid for three minutes and whether this causes risks with other banks. Our colleagues at RTL Radio will pursue these questions with the relevant authorities. BGL was contacted for comment, but had not responded by Tuesday at 7 pm. As a reminder, any victims of phishing attacks feeling that their funds or systems are no longer secure should contact the CSSF, the surveillance body for the financial sector. The CSSF is available to mediate between customers and banks where necessary. Niamey, Niger (PANA) The Nigerien government on Wednesday launched an information seminar on the COVID 19 to further sensitize the people on the virus and inform them about the preparation and response plan elaborated by the countrys health authorities President Donald Trumps administration is fast-tracking the legal proceedings of thousands of immigrant children in its care and unveiling a pilot program in Houston to video stream their hearings a move advocates say will jeopardize their asylum cases and speed up deportations. Immigration judges also have been instructed to decide the fate of detained children within 60 days, a significantly tighter time frame than usual. Advocates for children say the government is trying to ram their cases through the courts to expedite their deportations while they are in government custody. Children in federal shelters usually either come here alone to join their family or traveled with relatives who are not their parents. Unlike in the criminal justice system, the government does not provide attorneys to immigrants facing deportation if they cannot afford them so children often represent themselves in court. If they are released and reunited with family, however, they are far more likely to obtain legal counsel and qualify for protection. These policies are evidence that the Trump Administration is doubling down on its extraordinary efforts to stack the deck against unaccompanied children through policies that decimate basic protections in their immigration proceedings, said Wendy Young, president of Kids In Need of Defense, a group that represents immigrant children in court, in a statement. Together, these new policies essentially slam the door on due process and a chance for these unaccompanied kids to seek protection in the United States. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, an arm of the Justice Department overseeing immigration courts, declined to provide details on the video pilot or explain the 60-day deadline guidance that was emailed to immigration judges in January. The agency constantly monitors its caseload nationwide and shifts resources to meet needs in the most efficient manner possible, Rob Barnes, a spokesman for the office, said in a statement. EOIR remains committed to ensuring that all who come before its courts will receive due process and a timely and fair adjudication, the outcome of which is based on the law. The White House has said it trying to reduce a record immigration court backlog of more than 1.1 million cases, which means migrants can stay in the United States for years before their fate is decided. The administration has hired more immigration judges, imposed quotas for how many cases they must decide a year and limited tools jurists have to take cases off their dockets. The new video conferencing program for detained minors would begin March 9 and last for at least two months, with children appearing in a Houston court room and their testimony streamed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutor and Judge Sirce Owen in Atlanta. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Owen, previously deputy chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, as an assistant chief immigration judge in 2018. She oversees three of the toughest immigration courts for asylum applicants in the country. We are very concerned for many reasons, said Zenobia Lai, legal director of the Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Many of the children her group represents in Houston speak indigenous languages and barely understand Spanish. Translators must be dialed in telephonically, rather than interpreting alongside the judge in court. Hearing and understanding them can be difficult even without streaming the proceeding via video. It is difficult for them to really understand what is happening even in person and now, on top of that, theyll just have some voice through the television and not be able to see whats going on in the court room, Lai said. It is hard for children to articulate why they need protection even when they physically appear before the judge. Jurists often rely on body language to deduce if children fear returning home. Now their body language wont be registered, Lai said. The government over the last year has ramped up the use of video-enabled immigration court trials for adults across the country. The system is often plagued by technical problems, from poor audio and pixelated screens to slow connections, advocates said. Children are far less likely to understand what is happening. This is deeply concerning, given what we know about how kids brains work, said Jennifer Nagda, policy director for the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, which provides guardians ad litem to migrant children. Child advocates fear the Houston pilot signals a forthcoming national program that would hear all detained childrens cases remotely through the technology. A 2015 University of California, Los Angeles study found adults who appeared via televideo conferencing in immigration court were far more likely to be ordered deported than those who appeared in person before a judge. That is with adults. Imagine the dire differences with children, said American Bar Association President Judy Perry Martinez. What is about to happen in Houston commencing next Monday is wrong. It will hurt children and is contrary to the American notion of justice. Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, called the pilot a pretty big departure from standard practice. It has generally been recognized that judges should see children in person, she said. A 2018 program hearing the cases of some children who sought deportation through video technology was quickly abandoned after it emerged a complete disaster, Tabaddor said. Many minors were wrongly identified as wanting to return home and the initiative was inefficient, with technological and logistical difficulties dragging cases out. If youre deciding whether someone should stay or go it is much more problematic to not have a child, especially one not represented by an attorney, appear in person, Tabaddor said. Combined with the renewed pressure to complete cases in 60 days, judges are between a rock and a hard place, she said. The administration has also implemented two additional changes making it more difficult for detained migrant children. Previously prosecutors would wait at least a month before filing notices for children to appear in immigration court. That allowed time for them to be processed in federal shelters and contact their relatives. Now the government in Houston and Phoenix is filing that documentation within days of childrens arrival, speeding up their cases and reducing the time they have to find a lawyer. ICE did not respond to questions about that policy change. Federal shelters for children run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement also previously transported children in its custody to appointments with their lawyers, but have stopped that practice likely denting the pool of pro bono lawyers who can drive to faraway federal shelters and meet with their juvenile clients. The agency did not return an email inquiring about the termination of that practice. Three out of four children with lawyers were able to legally remain in the United States during a 2014 influx of Central American minors compared to 85 percent of those without legal representation who were deported, according to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The administrations changes this month come as the number of children detained by the government has dropped 70 percent since March 2019 to about 3,600. The amount coming here has steadily plummeted from a peak of 11,500 last May during a surge of Central American families at the border to nearly 2,700 in January. The White House since last summer has implemented a range of initiatives at the border, all but curtailing access to asylum and allowing few adult migrants to enter the United States and seek protection. But federal law and a legal settlement intended to shield children means the administration cannot prevent minors from requesting asylum. While the governments policies have effectively closed off the southern border to adults, it has not been able to block children, said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington D.C. As a result they are trying to do everything they can to tighten that process and speed up kids adjudication, Pierce said. lomi.kriel@chron.com She recently revealed how she's learned to be 'strong' after facing vile trolling following her stint on Love Island. And Anna Vakili was the picture of confidence as she shared a sizzling throwback snap from her trip to Phuket, Thailand earlier this year. The former pharmacist, 29, sent temperatures soaring as she highlighted her curves in a vibrant two-tone bikini, which featured a busty pink bralet and tiny yellow briefs. Working it: Anna Vakili was the picture of confidence as she shared a sizzling throwback snap from her trip to Phuket, Thailand earlier this year Displaying her toned abs in the barely-there ensemble, the TV personality tapped into full relaxation mode as she posed up a storm on the beach. The London native let her skin breathe in minimal make-up, while embracing the relaxed atmosphere by styling her tresses into loose, beach-inspired waves. Commanding attention, the online sensation continued to showcase her bright swimwear wardrobe as she slipped into a neon green and orange two-piece in the same style. Turning up the heat: The former pharmacist, 29, sent temperatures soaring as she highlighted her curves in a vibrant two-tone bikini Ooh-la-la: Displaying her toned abs in the barely-there ensemble, the TV personality tapped into full relaxation mode as she posed up a storm on the beach Racy: Commanding attention, the online sensation continued to showcase her bright swimwear wardrobe as she slipped into a neon green and orange two-piece in the same style Anna's appearance comes after she detailed her relaxed pre-villa health regime and her experience with online trolling. The curvaceous star confessed she needs to be 'stricter for health reasons', but insisted being in front of the cameras hasnt motivated her to hit the gym. The brunette has suffered the wrath of cruel trolls after haters branded her a 'terrorist', but Anna said she uses a strict block and delete method to banish negativity. In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Anna said: 'I dont have a vigorous work out regime at all I need to be stricter really for health reasons. 'I didnt work out at all before going on the show. While I was in Majorca during lockdown was the only time I really thought "maybe I should be a bit healthier." 'I would have thought that coming out and having cameras in my face would make me want to work out but it hasnt. Ive been the opposite actually!' She added: 'I still get trolled but I am getting stronger. I filter out bad comments. 'If I get a DM I read the first few words and if I can tell its going to be negative I just block and delete straight away. Thats my way forward.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:02:13|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close Li Jinling (L) communicates with a staff member before live streaming at the cultural center in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, March 3, 2020. Li Jinling is a professor working at the music and dance school of the Zhengzhou Institute of Technology. She is also a disciple of Henan Yu Opera, learning from the noted actress Chang Xiangyu's second daughter Chen Xiaoxiang since 14. For years she has been dedicated to the heritage and development of the art form, performing and teaching Henan Yu Opera for free as a volunteer. After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China, Henan cultural center launched a live streaming platform on line to promote culture and arts. Li Jinling began to perform and teach Henan Yu Opera as a volunteer again, but this time on line. She believes that this is a nice way to promote the cultural heritage to the audience during the special period. (Xinhua/Li An) Hypertension in young adulthood associated with cognitive decline in middle age High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects everything from your arteries to your kidneys, from eyesight to sexual function. Among older adults, high blood pressure is also associated with cognitive decline as a result of interrupted blood flow to the brain, as well as strokes, heart attacks and impaired mobility. A new Northwestern University-Tel Aviv University study has revealed that subjects who experienced relatively high blood pressure during young adulthood also experienced significant declines in cognitive function and gait in midlife (approximately 56 years old). The study cohort included about 200 young adults with an average age of 24 at the beginning of the study. The research was led by Prof. Farzaneh A. Sorond and Dr. Simin Mahinrad of Northwestern University's Department of Neurology and Prof. Jeffrey Hausdorff of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, TAU's Sagol School of Neuroscience and Tel Aviv Medical Center's Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility at the Neurological Institute. The study was published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation in March. "We find that the deleterious effects of elevated blood pressure on brain structure and function begin in early adulthood. This demonstrates the need for preventive measures of high blood pressure even at this early age," explains Prof. Hausdorff. "We know that poor gait and cognitive function among older adults are associated with and predict multiple adverse health outcomes like cognitive decline, dementia, falls and death. Our study shows that the time to treat high blood pressure and to minimize future changes in gait and cognition is much earlier -- decades earlier -- than previously thought." In addition, the study suggests that gait impairment may be an earlier hallmark of hypertensive brain injury than cognitive deficits. For the study, the researchers assessed the blood pressure, gait and cognition of 191 participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, a community-based cohort of young individuals followed over 30 years. In the last year of follow-up, gait was assessed using an instrumented gait mat; cognitive function was evaluated using neuropsychological tests; and the level of white matter intensity in the brain, a symptom of cardiovascular disease, was measured using MRIs. The impact of cumulative levels of high blood pressure was found to be independent of other vascular risk factors over the same 30-year period. "Higher cumulative blood pressure was associated with slower walking speed, smaller step length and higher gait variability," Prof. Hausdorff says. "Higher cumulative blood pressure was also associated with lower cognitive performance in the executive, memory and global domains." "Our takeaway is this: Even in young adults, blood pressure has significant implications, even at levels below the 'hypertension' threshold, and is important to assess and modify for future cognitive function and mobility," Prof. Hausdorff concludes. ### American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world. This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. (Bloomberg) -- The deadly coronavirus arrived by courier on February 6, delivered to a windowless air-locked laboratory in a secret location on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. It came sealed in two 500-microliter vials, wrapped inside plastic pouches, placed inside a third sealed plastic container, all packed with dry ice.A team of scientists protected head-to-toe by Tyvek body suits with battery-powered respirators opened the vials, got down to work and havent stopped since. Members of an elite lab of virologists at the universitys Gillings School of Global Public Health, their mission is to come up with a drug to treat the pathogen that has already infected over 90,000 people and killed more than 3,000. For veteran researcher and lab leader Ralph Baric, its the moment he has both long feared and expected. As early as the 1990s, Barics work was raising red flags: Coronaviruses so named for the crown-like spikes that help them invade cells had an extraordinarily high ability to mutate and adapt. That suggested new coronaviruses might spread into humans in the future. In one study, he showed coronaviruses that infected mice could rapidly adapt to invade hamster cells. It was not that difficult to evolve strains that could jump between species, Baric says.Almost 30 years later, thats exactly whats occured with the deadly new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2. Scientists believe it began in a cave somewhere in China, with bats flying off to spread the virus to other animals in the wild. Some of those animals eventually wound up in one of Chinas open-air, or so-called wet, markets where live animals are caged in close proximity a perfect setting for transmitting viruses to humans. Until two months ago, Baric was little known outside academic circles. When he began his career, coronaviruses were understood as causing little more than a common cold in people. But his work has suddenly taken on new urgency with the appearance of the new coronavirus. Baric's 30-person team was one of the first in the U.S. to receive samples of the virus isolated from a patient in Washington by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A handful of other labs are also racing to find anything that might slow the virus spread or ease its symptoms, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine among them. Barics team is growing as much of the virus as it can to test possible drugs for their ability to inhibit the virus inside human lung cells in a test tube. This first round of testing will likely wrap up soon. If it works, scientists will test a slew of new drugs in mice that have been engineered to carry human lung receptors that the coronavirus can infect. Now that we have the virus, it is a lot of people working all the time, says Lisa Gralinski, an assistant professor under Baric. The pace is just as frenzied at the few other labs with samples. It has been 18-to-20-hour days for the last two months, says Matthew Frieman, a University of Maryland virologist and a Baric protege, who was also among the first to receive the virus. Researchers at the World Health Organization have called Gilead Sciences Inc.'s remdesivir, developed with Barics assistance, as the most promising agent identified so far against the new virus. Trials of the drug are underway in hard hit areas of China, and Gilead says it expects results by April. To speed the efforts, government agencies are redirecting existing funds to bolster coronavirus research. Congress is close to an agreement to greenlight about $7.5 billion in emergency funding, some of which will be for drug and vaccine development. The government is working with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Johnson & Johnson to create new drugs or identify existing ones in the hope of quickly finding something that can slow down the global scourge. There are hundreds and hundreds of new technologies. Our job is to comb through those as quickly as possible, says Rick Bright, director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services. The ultimate goal is to get as many ideas going as they can. No one is more aware of that urgency than Baric, who stands out as a leader in the campaign. Suddenly at the center of the action, he seems uneasy in the limelight, preferring to focus on his work in his office piled high with research papers, virology books and framed patents he hasn't gotten around to hanging up. His warnings about the dangers of coronaviruses were first proven on the mark when SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, swept through China and other countries in 2002 and 2003, eventually killing almost 800. The virus originated in bats and is thought to have passed through palm civets on its way to people. By 2012, a deadly pathogen from camels, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), began killing people in the region. Eventually, more than 850 died. In 2015, Baric and his colleagues were able to show that SARS-like viruses in Chinese horseshoe bats posed a particular threat to cause a new outbreak. The virus spike in the bat coronavirus was unusually adaptable, allowing it to recognize receptors in multiple species, including human lung cells. Over the last five years, Baric, working closely with Vanderbilt University infectious-disease specialist Mark Denison, tested almost 200,000 drugs against SARS, MERS and other bat coronavirus strains. He found at least two dozen that appeared to hinder the virus. Among the most promising was Gileads remdesivir, a drug that fared poorly when used against a recent Ebola outbreak in Africa. In the lab, it worked against numerous coronavirus strains, including SARS and other bat coronaviruses that are similar to the new strain. Every coronavirus it was tested on, it had high potency and efficacy, Denison says. That work was fortuitous. In early January, Baric got an urgent call from an infectious-disease colleague to send his unpublished data on remdesivir to colleagues in China who were dealing with a then-mysterious outbreak. Baric says he was shocked to see how fast the coronavirus was spreading. Since then, work at his lab has been virtually nonstop. Each scientist puts in from one to six hours inside two different clean rooms equipped to handle the virus. The labs workday begins at 6 a.m. and often goes until 11 p.m. Individual sessions are short for safety and practical reasons researchers arent permitted to eat, drink or visit the bathroom once inside the lab. Everyone has to pass an FBI background check and undergo months of safety training. Scrubbing up and gowning takes 15 minutes, a laborious process that includes putting on multiple layers of Tyvek suits, nitrile gloves and booties, along with an air-purifying respirator powered by a battery that belts around the waist. Exiting the lab is just as exacting and involves researchers spraying themselves down repeatedly with 70% alcohol as they take off each layer of protective clothing to kill any stray viral particles. The workload, Baric says, is overwhelming as companies and researchers around the globe turn to his lab for help. Hes narrowed down the search to about 100 drugs that are likely to show promise against coronaviruses. Even if the Gilead drug works a big if it would have drawbacks: It cant be offered in pill form, for instance, but must be infused in a hospital or doctors office. More crucially, other drugs may need to supplant it to fight even newer coronaviruses. So Baric is moving forward to find yet other treatments that could succeed against the numerous coronaviruses now lurking in bats and other mammals, poised to jump to humans at any moment.The goal of our program is to find broad-based inhibitors that work against everything in the virus family, Baric says . That makes the challenge sound matter of fact, but Baric knows the road ahead will be long and hard. I have a lot people who are really tired, he says. They are working really hard. --With assistance from Michelle Cortez. To contact the author of this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net 2020 Bloomberg L.P. (Newser) The Super Tuesday polls are closed, and it's shaping up to be a good night for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, not so much for Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg. Biden came out strong, particularly in the South, but Sanders took the night's biggest prize, California, as expected. He's also leading in the second biggest, Texas. Biden racked up wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Massachusetts (Warren's home state), and Minnesota. Sanders also took his home state of Vermont, as well as Colorado. Delegates are what matter, though, and a whopping 1,344 are at stake. Sanders is expected to be the leader when all is said and done, but because these are not winner-take-all races, the full effect of the voting might not be clear until Wednesday. The states at play, in order of delegates, per the Hill and Vox: story continues below California: 415 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race quickly for Sanders . The key questions are how big his margin of victory will be and how many delegates his rivals can win. Sanders dominated in early results, with 67 delegates to 18 for Biden, 8 for Bloomberg, and 5 for Warren. 415 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race quickly for . The key questions are how big his margin of victory will be and how many delegates his rivals can win. Sanders dominated in early results, with 67 delegates to 18 for Biden, 8 for Bloomberg, and 5 for Warren. Texas: 228 delegates; all polls closed at 9; the AP called it for Biden hours later. 228 delegates; all polls closed at 9; the AP called it for hours later. North Carolina: 110 delegates; the polls closed at 7:30, and the AP called the race for Biden about 15 minutes later. 110 delegates; the polls closed at 7:30, and the AP called the race for about 15 minutes later. Virginia: 99 delegates; polls closed at 7, and the AP immediately declared Biden the winner. That the race was called so quickly bodes well for Biden because it suggests he "cleaned up" with African-American voters, per Politico. 99 delegates; polls closed at 7, and the AP immediately declared the winner. That the race was called so quickly bodes well for Biden because it suggests he "cleaned up" with African-American voters, per Politico. Massachusetts: 91 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for Biden about three hours after polls closed. This is Warren's home state, of course, and thus a bad loss for her. Worse, she was on track to finish in third behind second-place Sanders. 91 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for about three hours after polls closed. This is Warren's home state, of course, and thus a bad loss for her. Worse, she was on track to finish in third behind second-place Sanders. Minnesota: 75 delegates; polls closed at 9, and the AP called the race for Biden within the hour. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's endorsement surely helped. 75 delegates; polls closed at 9, and the AP called the race for within the hour. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's endorsement surely helped. Colorado: 67 delegates; polls closed at 9, and the AP immediately called the race for Sanders . 67 delegates; polls closed at 9, and the AP immediately called the race for . Tennessee: 64 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for Biden about 9:30. 64 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for about 9:30. Alabama: 52 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP immediately called the race for Biden . 52 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP immediately called the race for . Oklahoma: 37 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for Biden about an hour later. 37 delegates; polls closed at 8, and the AP called the race for about an hour later. Arkansas: 31 delegates; polls closed at 8:30, and the AP called the race for Biden about 90 minutes later. 31 delegates; polls closed at 8:30, and the AP called the race for about 90 minutes later. Utah: 29 delegates; polls closed at 10, and the AP called the race for Sanders . 29 delegates; polls closed at 10, and the AP called the race for . Maine: 24 delegates; polls closed at 8, but Sanders and Biden are still neck-and neck. 24 delegates; polls closed at 8, but Sanders and Biden are still neck-and neck. Vermont: 16 delegates; polls closed at 7, and the AP declared Sanders the winner of his home state at 7:20. 16 delegates; polls closed at 7, and the AP declared the winner of his home state at 7:20. American Samoa: The US territory held a caucus, and Bloomberg won five of six delegates; Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who was born there, won the last one. (Read more Super Tuesday stories.) A father accused of killing his six-year-old son by sexually assaulting him with a stick would allegedly pull his teeth out with pliers and force him to sleep in a dog cage, a court heard. Mauricio Alejandro Torres is alleged to have violated his son Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres on a camping trip as a punishment for eating a piece of cake without permission. The youngster developed a bacterial infection and died of septic shock the next day in March 2015. A jury heard on Monday that the six-year-old's parents would allegedly beat their son with cables and shoes and gave him coal in his stocking at Christmas, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Torres pleaded not guilty to capital murder and battery over the death of Maurice at Benton County Circuit Court in Arkansas. Mauricio Alejandro Torres (pictured) is alleged to have violated his son Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres on a camping trip as a punishment for eating a piece of cake without permission Isaiah's 12-year-old sister testified at the trial, and claims she witnessed her parents pulling her brother's teeth with pliers and made him sleep in a dog cage. She also says he was forced to stay in a large trash can for a month while she would often act as guard so he wouldn't escape to eat food. The sister claims that she was fed home-cooked meals and would dine in restaurants, while Isaiah was fed rice and beans. She told the court she witnessed her father beating him with a stick - and he also made her and her twin sister beat him too. Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres developed a bacterial infection and died of septic shock after he was raped with a stick 'I did it because I was afraid because I might get beat if I didn't do it,' she told the court according to the news outlet. Isaiah's birthday was never celebrated and he was given coal on Christmas Day, she told the court. She also told jurors she remembered her mother pouring bleach over her brother while her father scrubbed his skin. The boy was said to have been forced to squat while the stick was in his rectum and his mother Cathy injured him further by pushing him to the ground with it inside him. She was handed a life sentence after pleading guilty to capital murder in March 2017. He was sentenced to death in November 2016 but his conviction was overturned last April because the alleged assault with a stick happened in Missouri and not Arkansas. Maurice's father has been charged with capital murder and battery over his death in 2015 Capital murder offences that carry the death penalty must have taken place in the state where the prosecution is being brought, according to state law. Torres now faces a retrial at Benton County Circuit Court in Arkansas on Thursday after his original convictions were overturned on this technicality. He faces life imprisonment or death if convicted of the murder charge and from five to 20 years in jail if he is convicted of battery. His original trial heard testimony from a medical examiner who stated that Isaiah's death was caused by a bacterial infection from being violated with the stick, the news outlet reports. The medical examiner noted that Isaiah's nose was broken and several teeth had been pulled out and he had numerous old and fresh wounds on his head. Prosecutors used allegations of other instances of child abuse committed by Torres in Arkansas as grounds for the retrial on the murder charge. Torres was sentenced to death in November 2016 but his conviction was overturned last April because the alleged assault with a stick happened in Missouri and not Arkansas. He now faces a retrial At the opening of the trial last week, the prosecution set out the horrific details of the case. Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith told jurors: 'This is a story of abuse, torture, and murder of six-year-old Isaiah. 'He suffered chronic child abuse syndrome. The pictures you will see are ugly, grotesque.' Smith alleged Isaiah had been abused for two years before his death and in March 2015, when he was 'inflicted a death blow', he added. During the first trial it emerged Arkansas' Department of Human Services investigated allegations of child abuse against Torres and his wife twice, a year before the death of their son. Notwithstanding. That single word is causing two sets of experienced attorneys to joust over a crucial section in House Bill 364, which would update the states collective bargaining laws. Transparency experts insist the section erodes access to information regarding public employees, such as their hiring date and wages, information that under the states public records law is clearly public. The bills authors insist the wording actually protects the publics right to know such information. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, started out as Senate Bill 110 and essentially died in that chamber twice. It was resurrected via the dummy bill process in the waning days of a short budget-centric legislative session, and is now sitting on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams desk waiting for her signature. Republican lawmakers have voiced concern the bill was fast-tracked without enough time for ample scrutiny; public employers such as the New Mexico Council of University Presidents say they werent consulted during the past year as the bill was developed behind closed doors. Now there is the flap over transparency. The final version of the House Labor, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee substitute bill requires public employers to provide information about an employee in a bargaining unit to union representatives within 10 days of the employees hiring regardless of the employees consent. Some of that information such as home address and phone number is clearly private and is an exception to the state Inspection of Public Records Act. But much of the information is public, such as names, dates of hire, contact information, job titles and salaries for each employee. The bill then states: Apart from the disclosure required by this subsection, and notwithstanding any provision contained in the Inspection of Public Records Act, the public employer shall not disclose the information to a third party. Both the Governors Office and Shane Youtz, an attorney for the New Mexico Federation of Labor who worked on the bill, say the provision keeps the private records private and public records as defined by IPRA public. But Kip Purcell, an Albuquerque attorney and member of the Foundation for Open Governments legal panel, said the bills language could actually do the opposite even if it was not the bills intent and was simply a drafting error. It is a position supported by other transparency experts on FOGs legal panel. Attorneys for both sides cite notwithstanding as being a key to their interpretation, and both cite some of the same court cases to support their opposite views. Lujan Grisham spokesman Tripp Stelnicki insisted Tuesday that information normally available through IPRA would still be available if the bill becomes law. But New Mexicos taxpayers should not be expected to depend on this weeks interpretation to last months, years, decades. And the governor should not sign a bill that she knows will end up in court to clear up some messy language. This is a complex 35-page bill on public workers and collective bargaining that will affect tens of thousands of hard-working New Mexicans. It deserves strong vetting. There is no emergency here. However well-intended, the current incarnation of HB 364 is a bad bill with a high potential for unintended consequences. Municipalities and other public employers across the state could, based on its face, make secret records that have always been public under IPRA. If Lujan Grisham, a vocal champion of transparency and open records, strongly supports the intent of the bill, she should veto it with a message saying she supports revising New Mexicos 2003 Public Employees Bargaining Act but wants the section on transparency revamped to protect our states long-standing tradition of government accountability through public access to information. The governor has until March 11 to decide whether to sign or veto the bill, and lawmakers have until Feb. 18, 2021, to get it right for the next session. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Actress, Mandya MP and veteran actor Ambareeshs wife Sumalatha is all set to join the cast of Challenging star Darshans upcoming film Rajaveera Madakari Nayaka. The period drama will see the actress portray the role of Darshans mother, Rajamatha. The Rajendra Singh Babu directorial was announced last year amidst major fanfare. The Sandalwood biggie commenced its journey a few months back in Chitradurga by conducting special poojas at the Barageramma and Ekanatheshwari temples. This was closely followed by the cast and crew heading to Kerala for their first shoot schedule. In a recent interview with TOI, the films director revealed, Sumalatha plays the raja matha, a character she is apt for. She will joining the films team in Hyderabad, where we will be shooting at the Ramoji Rao Studio. The film also has P Ravi Shankar and Doddanna in pivotal roles. The rest of the cast will be announced shortly. (sic) Produced by Rockline Venkatesh, the shooting of this film is currently underway in full steam with a number of grand sets being erected for the same. The highly anticipated Sandalwood biggie is inspired by a historical novel by BL Venu and is based on the life of the last ruler of Chitradurga, Madakari Nayaka. The music for the film will be composed by Hamsalekha and will also boast of Ashok Kashyaps cinematography. The landmark film is touted to release in multiple languages and will be shot in various cities including Bangalore, Chitradurga, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. On the work front, D boss Darshan will soon be seen on the silver screen in Roberrt. The keenly awaited the action extravaganza is all set to hit the silver screens on April 9, 2020. ALSO READ: Challenging Star Darshan Is All Set To Play Raja Veera Madakari Nayaka In His Next ALSO READ: Sandalwood Star Darshan Hospitalised In Mysuru Following Acute Abdominal Pain WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. A drug discovery scientist typically screens up to 10,000 compounds in the early stages of developing one FDA approved drug. During this high-throughput screening, candidate compounds are initially tested on cell and tissue samples. Such experiments are conducted using so-called multi-well plates where each of the wells acts as a test tube. Much of the initial screening process is automated. But one big exception is retrieving the cell and tissue samples from multi-well plates, typically 96 or more wells per plate, for further analysis in a microscope for histological analysis. Now, Purdue University researchers have developed a collapsible basket technology to help speed up the process of retrieving the cell and tissue samples for histology analysis. This will significantly accelerate the analysis process when drug discovery scientists are developing new medicines or when health care professionals are searching for the best drugs for a given patient. Our collapsible basket array technology has big advantages for drug discovery and personalized medicine, said Thomas Siegmund, a professor of mechanical engineering in Purdues College of Engineering. With our collapsible basket array, cells and tissue now reside in fluid permeable microcontainers submerged in the wells of the plate. Microcontainers are attached to a flexible grid. That grid conforms in size not only to the well plate but also to a much smaller histology cassette where cells and tissue much reside for microscopy analysis. Siegmund said that with this new device, the Purdue researchers not only contribute to a speed-up of process of creating new drugs by removing a time-consuming process step, but also reduce the error rate during tissue and cell transfer. The Purdue technology is particularly compatible to an emerging technology for cell biology, pharmacology, toxicology and personalized medicines 3D cell culture, where cells grow in 3D configuration better mimicking patient tissues. The 3D cell cultures can give scientists a much more accurate analysis of drug reactions in the body. There is increasing scientific interest in 3D cell cultures derived either from one particular cell type, called spheroids, or from natural and intentional mixtures of multiple cell types, known as organoids, said Bumsoo Han, a Purdue professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering and program leader of the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research. George Chiu, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering and member of the team, said, Our technology is designed to overcome the obstacles with the handling and analysis of 3D cultures. Those processes are typically laborious, mostly manual and with a low throughput. Increasing throughput can benefit both drug discovery as well as personalized medicine. The Purdue collapsible basket array is designed to be reconfigurable for high throughput culture and histological analysis, which involves studying the tissue and any associated diseases. Scientists and doctors often use such analyses to study patients with cancer to better examine tumors. The National Cancer Institute funded the initial work on the technology. The research team is working with Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization to patent the technology. The office recently moved into the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Discovery Park District. The researchers received support from the Trask Innovation Fund, a development program established to support projects that advance the commercial value of Purdue intellectual property. The fund makes awards twice a year to aid faculty and staff with their patented innovations that are being commercialized through OTC. The researchers are looking for partners to continue developing their technology. For more information on licensing and other opportunities, contact Patrick Finnerty of OTC at pwfinnerty@prf.org. About Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact otcip@prf.org for more information. About Purdue University Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu. Writer: Chris Adam, 765-588-3341, cladam@prf.org Sources: Thomas Siegmund, siegmund@purdue.edu Bumsoo Han, bumsoo@purdue.edu George Chiu, gchiu@purdue.edu Amy Koren-Roth never set out to be an entrepreneur. In fact, she was a few years away from retirement when she took her first food tour in Asheville, N.C. It was everything she loved: history, art and food. It inspired her to learn more about food tourism, and sparked the idea for her Taste of Troy Food Tours. Going into her fifth season, which runs May through October, Koren-Roth has hosted over 1,500 tour guests from the Capital Region, Hudson Valley and around the world on her popular Central Troy Historic District Food Tour in 2016 and Historic Downtown Albany Food Tour in 2018. This year her season will include a new offering: a South Troy tour, the second of her events in the Collar City. While she has been invited to expand her business into other cities in the Capital Region, as a sole proprietor and the only employee of her business, expanding to another city is something that has to be considered logistically and carefully. For Koren-Roth, building a food tour is more than working with restaurants and selecting tasty treats for guests to try. It's mapping the route online and then walking it, learning the flow of the restaurants and finding historic points of interest in between. "Usually, there needs to be about a mile and a half of total walking. You can have places of interest to talk about between stops so that you're not just walking," says Koren-Roth. "So, every three to four blocks should have something to stop and look at. It can be about history, culture as well as the food scene. And then the taste, you want to have a taste that represents your area." Her first tour in Troy, the Central Troy Historic District Food Tour, explores the culinary scene and historical significance of the area surrounding the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. The new South Central Troy Food Tour three-hour walking tour includes a wine tasting at the Hudson-Chatham Winery, Quang's Vietnamese Bistro, Carmen's Cuban Cafe, DeFazio's Pizzeria, The Ruck and Second Scoop Gelato. The Historic Downtown Albany Food Tour highlights the city's culinary and craft beer scene as well as areas of historical interest. While the new tour will not be centered around the farmers market, she plans to encourage guests to stop through before the tour and support local artisans and farmers. "They can put a cooler in their car, put everything back, take the tour, and then they can go on their way." We spoke with Koren-Roth, discussed how her business has evolved, and how her love of travel inspired her business and what it's like sharing some of her favorite spots in the Capital Region. How has the business evolved since you started? While the business is called Taste of Troy Food Tours, I was asked to put together a tour of downtown Albany and launched it in 2018. As far as the tours go, the only changes that I've made to my flagship tour in Troy has been because a restaurant has gone out of business (Psychedelicatessen). Thankfully when this happened, I had been talking to another restaurant (Little Pecks) who was able to replace the spot that closed. As you have been building these tours in Troy, what's the overall theme? I always presented Troy as a story of community both historically and currently. I do provide a lot of history. Both of my tours have historic churches on it that have Tiffany lamps and Tiffany interiors. Troy was the fourth-wealthiest city per capita in the country during the 1800s and that whole Victoria-era wealth is still very visible and present. So, I try to highlight some of that as well. Where are your tour guests from? Are they local or visitors to the area? I'd say that they are broadly local, from the Kingston area to up in Saratoga, with some international guests as well. I have some groupies from Australia that have taken my tour a few times that have family here and they'll come when visiting grandchildren. I've actually had a few bachelorette parties do the tour as well as local companies take the tour as part of a team-building activity. It's a mixed bag. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Do you have a personal connection to food and travel? I love to travel. I've been to more than 30 countries and lived overseas for six years. I spent six months traveling in Asia. I would travel all the time if I could! I was an East Asian history major and what I love about being history major was that we all had the same basic needs, but how we answered it was differently in terms of self, clothing and what we consume, and that fascinates me. What's your favorite part about leading food tours? I love getting people out of their rut and maybe a little out of their comfort zone. I've had people say, "Oh, I don't eat eggplants, but this is good," or "I don't do this." What's nice about a food tour is by the time you're done you've had a complete meal and with each stop, the taste isn't huge so if you took a bite and you find it not to your taste, there is something else coming shortly thereafter. So, you haven't wasted a huge investment of a meal to order something. You don't know what it is. Is there anything on the horizon you'd like to share? I invite everyone to join us on a tour, as food tourism is still pretty new to this area. If you're a local, you can still be a tourist in your own backyard because you probably have your routine, your same places that you'd go to with your comfort level. Most of my guests had not taken one before and many of them have said, "Now you've changed the way I travel." It's a really great introduction to a buffet of restaurants and if you're traveling and do it early on, you know where to go back to. Stephanie Gravalese is a freelance writer splitting her time between the greater Capital Region and western Massachusetts. You can reach her at sgravalese@gmail.com. stephanita.com, @stephanita The deadly and devastating wildfires that recently charred Australia were worsened by human-caused climate change, a new study published Wednesday reports. Researchers found that climate change increased the chances of Australia experiencing extreme fire weather by at least 30% and likely much more. There is evidence that Australian fire seasons have lengthened and become more intense and extreme temperatures have played a role in this, said Sophie Lewis, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia, and a co-author of the study. Climate change is now part of Australias landscape extreme heat is clearly influenced by human-caused climate change, which can influence fire conditions, she said. Australias 2019-20 wildfire season burned a record 47 million acres, displaced thousands of people and killed at least 34. The fires also razed rare habitats and killed more than a billion animals, researchers said. 2019 was both Australia's driest and hottest year on record since measurements began a century ago. The extended heat wave was the main factor that heightened the fire risk, according to the study, which was led by researchers from Australia, North America and Europe. A Forest Corporation worker manages a fire hose as he battles a fire near Moruya, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. Scientists looked at the Fire Weather Index a measure of weather conditions that describes the risk of wildfires in the areas of southeastern Australia that were most affected by the 2019-20 fires. It compared current conditions to the climate as it was around 1900, using observations and climate models. According to the researchers, the real influence of climate change on the wildfires could be much higher than 30%, given that the trend in extreme heat is one of the main factors behind this increase and computer models underestimate the trend in heat. This is a highly conservative assessment, David Karoly, a climate scientist based in Melbourne who was not involved in the analysis, told Nature. The study was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, an international collaboration that analyzes the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events, such as storms, extreme rainfall, heat waves, cold spells, and droughts. Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Australian wildfires worsened by climate change, study finds 32.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Super Tuesday hasnt just been a good night for former Vice President Joe Biden, who continues to rack up big wins in states all across the country. Its also a huge night for the Democratic Party as turnout is through the roof in places that the eventual nominee will need to win in order to defeat Donald Trump in November. As The Hill reported, in the state of Virginia, turnout in the Democratic primary was nearly double what it was in 2016. More from the report: Nearly twice as many voters cast their ballots in Virginias Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday than in 2016. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, some 1.3 million votes had been counted in the commonwealth, according to current tallies. Thats nearly double the roughly 780,000 votes cast in the states 2008 Democratic primary race between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Former Vice President Joe Biden won a decisive Victory in Virginia on Tuesday. Current tallies show him with more than 700,000 votes in the state a roughly 40 percent increase over the half-a-million votes won by Clinton four years ago. Be very afraid, Donald Trump At the beginning of this primary process, some pundits sounded the alarm about Democratic turnout, claiming that what happened in Iowa was a national emergency. But the truth is that Democrats are as motivated as ever to replace this president and restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office. As PoliticusUSAs Sarah Jones said on Tuesday night, the surge in Democratic turnout can be described as the Trump effect. Trump effect: Dem turnout in VA nearly doubled. See you in Nov, @realdonaldtrump. https://t.co/lNPq6hDSxX Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 4, 2020 Donald Trump should be very afraid by the Democratic show of force on Tuesday night. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter A man in Tasmania who tested positive for coronavirus is reportedly being criticized for violating self-quarantine safety measures after he went to the supermarket to stockpile supplies. The 40-year-old patient had returned from Iran and was discharged from the hospital on account of self-isolation at home, confirmed health authorities. Tasmania's Public Health director Mark Veitch said in a press conference on March 2 that the man infected with the coronavirus strain was on limited travel advisory in Launceston. He had entered the country from Iran via Malaysia and Melbourne. Veitch further elaborated saying that the man chose to visit Woolworths store in Wellington Street on the night of March 1 and spent about 15 minutes in the supermarket between 10pm to 10:15pm. He further added that the man, whose name hasn't been officially released yet, was caught roaming without a mask. Read: Health Ministry Releases Revised Travel Advisory Amid Coronavirus Outbreak; Details Here Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: 2,000 Surgical Masks Stolen From French Hospital Patients behaviour 'disappointing' According to the reports, health director Veitch described the patients behaviour as disappointing. He said in the media reports that the man had managed to expose13 out of the 15 people on the Virgin flight VA-1368 flight while entering Launceston. He said that the efforts to trace the presumptive cases was hampered by incorrect phone numbers and the authorities were trying their best to contact them. Speaking about the supermarket incident, Veitch said in the media report that it would not be right to inform the staff and customers at the supermarket about the mans visit as it would create a panic situation. Health authorities in Tasmania have reportedly urged the citizens to self-quarantine themselves at homes for 14 days in case they returned from high-risk countries like Iran. Health Minister Sarah Courtney told the international media that at this time the risk of spread was relatively low. The authorities would keep the public informed about the further developments, she added. Read: Tiny Blood Testing Device Can Detect Coronavirus At The Airport - Researchers Claim Read: Israel Asks 1,150 Students To Self Quarantine As Coronavirus Cases Surge WASHINGTON As Congress considers a bipartisan deal for $8.3 billion in emergency funding to combat the novel coronavirus, some progressives say lawmakers have failed to act on a key remedy: mandatory paid sick leave. Progressive Democrats said efforts to stop the virus could prove futile if low-wage workers cashiers, waiters and others feel they cant afford to miss work should they get sick. The sweeping funding deal includes money for vaccine research, local government response efforts and telemedicine services for seniors. But it does not include provisions to require paid sick leave. When workers dont have paid medical leave, they go into work while theyre sick, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, tweeted as news of the deal broke. These are your waiters, your cashiers, your line cooks. If this Coronavirus outbreak is not the right time for universal paid medical leave, when is? The virus has killed 11 Americans, one in Placer County and the rest in Washington state. At least 153 people across the country have been infected. Congress emergency funding plan sets aside $3 billion for development of a virus vaccine and treatments, $300 million to subsidize access to the vaccine, $2.2 billion to assist with local response and prevention efforts and $500 million to expand telemedicine services. In a rare act of bipartisan unity, the House voted 415-0 on Wednesday to pass the package. The Senate is expected to send it to President Trump on Thursday. The White House had asked for a much smaller funding package, but Trump has indicated a willingness to agree to a more expensive deal. About 27% of American workers dont have paid sick leave, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means more than 30 million workers might have to choose between a paycheck and going to work sick. Khanna and some other Democrats say now is the time for Congress to do something on sick leave, as the virus rapidly spreads. Theyve floated the idea of federal assistance for businesses to offset the cost of their employees sick time. Khanna is urging lawmakers to support the Family Act, HR1185, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. It would guarantee up to 12 weeks of leave, at 66% of pay, for those with serious illnesses. We are all only as safe as the least-insured, sickest person around us, Khanna told The Chronicle in a statement. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has grilled Trump administration officials about the public health costs of not guaranteeing sick leave in light of the outbreak. In my home state, people are being told to stay home for two weeks if they are sick, Murray said Tuesday during a committee hearing on the crisis. Guess who cant stay home? If you dont have child care, if youre a low-wage worker, if you dont have sick leave. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration was considering proposals to mitigate the virus effect on workers without sick leave, though no details have been announced. Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner Punjab jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday acknowledged that the states prisons are not playing the role of sudhar ghars (correction centres) to reform their inmates as they are faced with a lot of problems. The minister said this while taking part in a discussion on the Punjab Prisons Development Board Bill, 2020 which was later passed by the House. Randhawa also accepted that the food given in jails is substandard as yearly funds outlay to run them is 90 lakh. There are 24,000 inmates to look after in the states jails, of which 8,000 are convicts. Replying to a question by Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains, Randhawa said the new bill will increase of jails in Punjab as it will revive the cottage industry that will help the prisons earn revenues as well as correct the hardened criminals by engaging them in constructive work. The cottage industry in jails was shut during the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharartiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government. Earlier, Bains said he remained in jail for many years and prisons function like fiefdoms. Senior functionaries like ministers are shown a rosy picture during their visit to the jails. Canteens charge exorbitantly, the food given is not nutritious and there are no medical facilities for the inmates. Many inmates get infected by serious diseases such as HIV during their stay in the jails, he added. Citing the example of the Ferozepur jail, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Sarabjit Kaur Manuke said 1,214 inmates are lodged in the prison against the capacity of 1,100 inmates. There is no provision in the jails to help criminals shun the path of crime. Ironically, they come out as even more hardened criminals, she added. The minister said the jail board will help make states prisons self-sufficient as the earnings would not be deposited in the governments coffers and will kept at the disposal of jail administration. Speaking on the Punjab Private Health Sciences Educational Institutes (Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fee and Making of Reservation) Amendment Bill, 2020, Bains asked for provisions in the act for refund of excess fee paid by the students. Though medical education minister OP Soni was non-committal on the matter, he said the new act will bring uniformity in the fees charged by private medical colleges. Bains said the Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana, and Dayanand Medical College (DMC), Ludhiana, are charging 25 lakh and 24 lakh from MD students while Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)-run Guru Ram Das College is charging a whopping 49 lakh. There is no use of the new act if the variation in fee structure is not rationalised, suggested Bains. BOX: OTHER BILLS THAT WERE PASSED: The Punjab Management and Transfer of Municipal Properties Bill, 2020: Local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra said the properties owned by urban local bodies which are not giving any dividend will be identified and sold to generate revenues. There are large number of such properties which could be disposed of to help development works in the state, he added. The Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Bill, 2020): The new act will give propriety rights to the slum dwellers and provide them basic amenities The Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2020: The amendment will result in additional borrowings of 928 crore over and above 3% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) in the current financial year Europe attaches great importance to food safety, and it is ready to pay a high price for environment-friendly food products. Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Head the European Union (EU) Delegation to Armenia, said this at the launch of the EU-funded Green Agriculture Initiative (EU-GAIA) project in the country today. According to her, this pilot program that launched in Armenia will operate in three provinces for now, and this will allow evaluating the results more objectively. She noted that within the framework of EU-GAIA, the EU seeks to increase the number of small and medium-sized enterprises, which can accelerate economic growth as well as solve the employment issue, given that more than 36% of Armenia's population is engaged in agriculture. In his turn, Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia Arman Khojoyan noted that EU-GAIA is in line with the government's strategy to increase economic competitiveness and ensure high incomes in agriculture. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Due to the increasing risk of the spread of coronavirus, which worries the entire world community, international mass events, interstate visits, and even domestic and foreign trips of heads of states and governments are being canceled everywhere, Azerbaijani MP Sahiba Gafarova told Trend on Mar. 4. Gafarova added that President Ilham Aliyevs visit to the Shamkir, Goranboy and Gazakh cities, participation in the opening of various facilities and meetings with members of the public at current threatening situation show that, despite the situation, the head of state remains with the people. By his step, the president showed the whole world that no threat or event can interfere with the contacts of the head of state with the people. And in 2019, when an earthquake occurred in Shamakhi, Aghsu and Ismayilli, the president immediately went there, got informed on the populations problems, and gave the necessary orders, the parliaments deputy noted. The deputy added that since the threat of coronavirus arose, President Ilham Aliyev has been keeping this issue in the spotlight and trying to prevent the spread of a fatal disease in Azerbaijan. As is known, in accordance with the instructions of the head of state, an operational headquarters was created under the Cabinet of Ministers due to the spread of coronavirus. To prevent the spread of the disease in the country all necessary steps have been taken. Azerbaijan has all the capabilities to fight this virus. The situation with coronavirus in Azerbaijan is under full control, Gafarova said. Sanil Bose, Founder, Ayruz Data Marketing LLC, a data-driven marketing agency focused on delivering results, based out of Philadelphia has been accepted into Forbes Agency Council, an invitation-only community for owners of and executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative, and advertising agencies. Sanil Bose was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors. We are honored to welcome Sanil Bose and Ayruz Data Marketing into the community, said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Agency Council. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world. As an accepted member of the Council, Bose has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Bose will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts. Finally, Bose will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team We enable brands to meaningfully engage with consumers in their digital journey and impact the bottom-line revenue with marketing, analytics, and creativity. stated Sanil Bose, Founder, Ayruz Data Marketing LLC. The Forbes Council invitation helps us further this commitment and contribute to the Forbes community. We look forward to sharing actionable insights and our experience with the community. ABOUT FORBES COUNCILS Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive. For more information about Forbes Agency Council, visit forbesagencycouncil.com. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com. ABOUT AYRUZ DATA MARKETING LLC Ayruz Data Marketing LLC. is a data-driven marketing agency focused on delivering results. They accurately map and optimize the entire digital consumer journey. Their data-driven approach and creative thinking are what differentiates them in the space. The agency is based in Philadelphia, primarily working with some of the big names in the retail, e-commerce, automobile, and tourism verticals across North America, UK, EU, and Asia. For media inquiries about Sanil Bose and Ayruz Data Marketing, contact Nivin Xavier, nivin@ayruz.com https://ayruz.com Two churchgoers at the gate of Sarang Jeil Church in Sungbuk District, Seoul, hold placards urging people to sign a guest book and wear masks. The church pushed for Sunday gatherings despite fears of the spread of coronavirus spread, and accused the government of persecuting its head pastor Jun Gwang-hoon who is being detained while under investigation. / Yonhap 3 megachurches willing to house patients in centers By Kang Hyun-kyung Culture Minister Park Yang-woo met the leaders of United Christian Churches of Korea (UCCK), an association of Protestant church denominations, Tuesday, amid fears of the continuing spread of the new coronavirus here. Park asked the church leaders to voluntarily join a campaign to halt mass public gatherings in a bid to help contain the virus. "We are at a crossroads, when it comes to the spread of the virus," he said. "It could spread further and become harder to contain (if things go badly). I'm here today to ask for help from church leaders to be cautious about public gathering at this critical time and to fully cooperate with the government in its fight against the virus." Reminding UCCK leaders that other religious groups have been fully cooperative, Park renewed his call to join the move and urged church leaders to reconsider holding Sunday worship for the foreseeable future. UCCK Co-President Kim Tae-young vowed to give full support to the government. "I wanted to say though that it was not an easy decision for churches to move to online services for Sundays," he said. "But we will cooperate with the government because we know many people are worried about Sunday services at churches because of the virus. We'll take their concerns seriously and replace physical services with online sermons." The culture minister's plea for help came as some Protestant churches are persisting in holding Sunday worship services. Members of Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul gathered at the church Sunday for worship. Rev. Jun Gwang-hoon, who is currently detained under investigation after a warrant for his arrest was issued, is head pastor of the church. In the crowded church, they prayed for the release of the pastor, accusing the government of persecuting their religious leader. According to a local media report, 100 churches out of 150 in Daejon Metropolitan City went ahead with their Sunday services, despite serious public health concerns. The defiant churches drew the ire of the citizens with many saying that they were putting people's lives at risk. Such resentment comes as the Catholic Church and Buddhist groups have fully cooperated with calls to hold off on any kind of mass gatherings. A bird's eye view shows the Sarang Church's Prayer Center in Jechon, North Chungcheong Province. The megachurch in southern Seoul offered two prayer centers, one in Jechon and the other in Ansung, Gyeonggi Province, as facilities to house coronavirus patients exhibiting mild symptoms amid an increasing shortage of hospital beds. / Yonhap More than 1,500 employees of the UkrLandFarming agricultural holding joined in a rally. More than 1,500 agrarians have joined in a rally outside the Verkhovna Rada building, demanding the dismissal of Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk, who is accused of putting pressure on their business and posing a threat to their sowing campaign. Protesters who are employees of the UkrLandFarming agrarian holding are chanting the slogan: 'Sytnyk is a Virus that Destroys the Country,' insisting that an individual who was included in the registry of corrupt officials cannot head NABU, according to a UNIAN correspondent. Read alsoBakhmatyuk's companies pay over US$313 mln in taxes to consolidated budget "Today we're urging the president to complete the work that the Verkhovna Rada has already begun the dismissal of the corrupt official Sytnyk. Please let us be heard! The company that paid UAH 8 billion in taxes to the budget in the past three years and that employs 27,000 people in the countryside should not be destroyed by one person's unhealthy ambitions," UkrLandFarming Operational Director Halyna Kovtok said in a comment. Agrarians hope that since lawmakers are considering the dismissal of a number of ministers and heads of law enforcement agencies today, March 4, they will also make a decision regarding Sytnyk, a resolution on whose dismissal has already gathered 216 signatures in parliament. "Sytnyk abuses his office, and over his personal claims against our owner, he terrorizes employees, threatens them with dismissal, therefore they have come to protest here. NABU, having no procedural documents and violating the law, conducts daily interrogations of UkrLandFarming employees and tries to extract confidential information on a case in which these people are not involved," Director of the Avangard enterprise Vasyl Marchuk said. "A sowing campaign is pending, and we must be in the fields now, but we are standing here. All that we're seeking is to be left alone. It's good for us to work in this country, and we don't want to immigrate to Poland over the loss of jobs," said an employee of one of the UkrLandFarming enterprises in Poltava region (LLC Agrokrai), who was present at the rally. This is a third meeting since the beginning of this year UkrLandFarming employees had previously handed their demands with 30,000 signatures over to the President of Ukraine and members of the Cabinet of Ministers. As UNIAN reported earlier, NABU opened proceedings against the owner of the UkrLandFarming agricultural holding, Oleg Bakhmatyuk, within the framework of which, it started interrogating 10,000 employees of the enterprise without a court warrant. NABU Director Artem Sytnyk is accused of taking personal revenge on the owner of the agricultural holding over the fact that the main witness of the prosecution in the trial of Sytnyk, where he was found guilty of corruption, was the adviser to Bakhmatyuk's sister. UNIAN memo. UkrLandFarming is the largest Ukrainian agro-industrial holding, which manages the country's largest land bank, which is 500,000 hectares. It is engaged in grain and oilseed farming, seeds production, sugar production, cattle breeding, and distribution of agricultural machinery. It includes the Avangard agricultural group, whose companies produce eggs and related foods (their design capacity is 1.6 billion eggs per year), which are exported to about 40 countries. The Hunt for a New Vaccine Theres Always Been Pushback A Slew of Bills Last week, the Colorado Senate passed a bill that would make it more difficult for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children. On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators showed up in hopes of blocking the bills passage in the state House.Its a scene that has been replayed recently in capitals across the country. Last month, more than 500 people showed up to testify about a vaccine bill in Connecticut, stretching a committee hearing out to more than 21 hours. In January, New Jersey lawmakers pulled a bill that would have ended religious exemptions for vaccines after weeks of sustained protests against it.On Tuesday, voters in Maine rejected, by an overwhelming margin, a measure that would have overturned a law passed last year to eliminate non-medical exemptions. Despite the defeat, vaccine skeptics are undaunted -- and well organized.The fact that enough people came out and got the signatures required to get it on the ballot, and that there are many legislators supporting this effort, shows that this is not a cut-and-dry issue, Dawn Richardson, advocacy director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit group opposed to universal vaccination requirements, said before Tuesday's vote. Theres obvious division on it.For years, legislators sought to distance themselves from that division. Although the number of parents who are skeptical about vaccines has been growing for a couple of decades, most states have kept exemptions on the books. Recent outbreaks of preventable diseases, however, have prompted some lawmakers to make it harder for parents to opt out.There were enough people who were choosing to exempt themselves from vaccines, and diseases came back, says Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.In Colorado, for example, 87.4 percent of kindergarteners have received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine one of the lowest rates in the nation and well below the 95 percent rate sought by both the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Senate-passed bill. Connecticut has seen a 25 percent year-over-year spike in religious exemptions. Non-medical exemptions have also been growing in Maine, leaving the state with the sixth highest rate of such exemptions during the last school year. All told, the percentage of unvaccinated children has increased fourfold since 2001.We unfortunately talk to people on a daily basis who have lost their children to vaccine-preventable diseases, says Erica DeWald, advocacy director for Vaccinate Your Family, a pro-vaccine advocacy group. A whole other group of parents are terrified their kids are going to school with unvaccinated kids.With the new coronavirus spreading across the country, most of the public would welcome the protection of a new vaccine. Its possible that dynamic could shift the debate around the broader vaccination question.We could have lots of problems before a vaccine is available, says Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College who has written critically about vaccine exemptions. That long, unhappy period could remind people about the value of vaccination.But DeWald notes there have been public health scares in the recent past that havent pulled off that trick, including anthrax and H1N1. DeWald and other vaccine supporters believe that the whole idea of inoculation has been a victim of its own success.When you hear celebrities like Jenny McCarthy say that, 'between the vaccine and measles, Ill take measles every time,' it shows weve not only eliminated measles but the memory of measles, Offit says.Polls indicate that the vast majority of Americans support vaccines. According to a Gallup poll released in January, 84 percent believe that vaccinating children is important. That number has dropped, however, from 91 percent at the start of the century.There are now a number of organized groups who are staunchly opposed to mandated vaccinations. They insist that theyre not opposed to vaccination, but contend that not all vaccines are equally safe and effective. They argue that parents should be able to make informed choices for their families.Who do you think cares most about their children do you think its the parents or the drug producers? says Mary Holland, general counsel for Childrens Health Defense, an anti-mandatory vaccine group chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This is a voting issue for people on the right and the left. This is about their kids.Those who are skeptical or hesitant about vaccines may hold a minority viewpoint, but their staunch advocacy and sometimes aggressive tactics have made the vaccine issue a difficult one for legislators.Youre going to see this issue become more and more contentious in the states, Richardson says.The idea of universal vaccination has always met with resistance. In 1796, Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine, which over the next quarter-century cut the death rate from the disease in half. In 1867, the British government passed a law making the smallpox vaccine compulsory under penalty of fines and possible imprisonment. Compulsory vaccination spawned the first anti-vaccine movement, Offit writes in his 2015 bookWith the advent of the polio vaccine during the 1950s, there was in fact real and demonstrated harm. A small pharmaceutical company called Cutter Laboratories failed to fully deactivate the virus, leading to 70,000 mild cases of polio and 10 deaths. It was one of the worst biological disasters in U.S. history, Offit writes. Yet, he notes, demand for the vaccine from other manufacturers did not abate.More recently, there was concern about thimerosal, a preservative that contained mercury and was used in some childhood vaccines. Studies showed thimerosal to be safe and not be linked to autism, but it has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001 due to parental concerns.Following measles outbreaks during the 1970s, states began to mandate vaccines for children attending public schools. Those laws faced pushback as well. In the end, all but two states Mississippi and West Virginia allowed for religious or philosophic exemptions.In 1998, a study purported to show a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. That study was withdrawn in 2010 and has been refuted by numerous other studies, but it helped fuel skepticism and even downright hostility to vaccines particularly the MMR vaccine.Each child is different and each vaccine is different, Richardson says. Some can be harmful for some people.Although billions of doses have been injected into millions of people since the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created, only about 6,600 people have been compensated for harm they claim was caused by one of 16 vaccines. Harm was not proven in most of those cases. Approximately 70 percent of all compensation awarded by the VICP comes as a result of a negotiated settlement between the parties in which HHS has not concluded, based upon review of the evidence, that the alleged vaccine(s) caused the alleged injury, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration Failure to vaccinate can cause real problems. An anti-vaccine group in Minnesota highlighted the debunked MMR study among Somali Americans living in Minneapolis. Between 2004 and 2010, the MMR vaccine rate among Somali children in Minnesota dropped from 91 percent to 54 percent, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . During a 2017 measles outbreak in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, 64 of the 79 confirmed cases were in Somalis, with 74 cases in unvaccinated or undervaccinated individuals.Last year, there were almost 1,300 cases of measles in the U.S., the most since 1992.Get to a few thousand, and people would die, Offit says. The choice not to get a vaccine is not a no-risk choice. It creates different and more serious risks. This isnt a choice theyre making just for themselves and their children. Its a public health issue.Legislatures are now weighing more than 200 vaccine-related bills, according to the National Vaccine Information Center. They are roughly divided in number between those that would make it harder to avoid vaccinations and those that would give parents greater leeway or provide them with more information.Health groups such as the American Medical Association support limiting the ability to opt out of immunizations. Some states are considering joining the few that allow older or mature minors to consent to vaccination, even when their parents object.Richardson says the fact that most states considering reducing or eliminating exemptions have rejected the bills shows that this is not a popular position.She contends that the pharmaceutical companies are backing the anti-exemption bills to line their own pockets. Merck and Pfizer each contributed $250,000 to defeat the referendum in Maine. Drug companies spend millions annually on campaigns and lobbying after losing credibility in some quarters, given the opioid epidemic and accusations of price gouging.But anti-vaccination groups have also benefited from wealthy donors, including a hedge fund manager and a physician who has made millions selling natural health products.No one doubts that thousands of parents are sincerely motivated by a desire to protect their children. If you look at it from their perspective, these are parents who are made to believe their children are injured, so theyre very passionate, says DeWald, of Vaccinate Your Family.That passion can sometimes spill over into intimidation. Last summer, an anti-vaccine activist was cited for assault after shoving California state Sen. Richard Pan, the lead sponsor of the states anti-exemption law. In October, another protester spattered senators with a small amount of menstrual blood from the Senates visitors gallery. Colorado state Rep. Kyle Mullica, a sponsor of pro-vaccination legislation, received death threats last year, including a threat to burn down his house with his children in it.Richardson says such incidents are purely the products of disturbed individuals and not supported by any organized group. Still, doctors such as Offit who are prominent pro-vaccine spokesmen have received enough serious death threats to receive police protection at times. And vaccine skeptics are known to be highly vocal on social media.They are generally the most aggressive, hostile, rudest and threatening group of people I have ever experienced as a legislator, Bob Duff , majority leader of the Connecticut Senate, told the New Havenafter needing a security escort to leave a forum on the issue last month.Parents who advocate stronger vaccination mandates in the media and in statehouses can find the experience to be intimidating, says DeWald. These people who have lost children can be heckled when they stand up and testify, she says.But DeWald and other mandate supporters recognize that they have to try to match the emotion and energy that vaccine skeptics bring to the debate. Making the case clinically is not the same as making it politically.As opposition to mandatory vaccines continues to grow, countering that movement will require compelling storytelling, not just statistics.Its disappointing to see so many politicians yield to the anti-vaccine people, says Pitney, the Claremont McKenna political scientist. Theyre buying a few minutes peace and quiet by jeopardizing the long-term health of school children. Rajya Sabha on Tuesday did not transact any substantial business as the Opposition insisted on an immediate discussion on the Delhi communal clashes over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, leading to its adjournment. When the House re-assembled at 3 PM after two adjournments earlier, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said it would appear strange if the Parliament did not discuss the incidents of violence in Delhi when the whole world was talking about it and it would be like a "non-event" if it is discussed a week later. Leader of the House Thawar Chand Gehlot then said the government is ready for a discussion on the issue at a timing ascertained by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. However, Opposition MPs were not satisfied and continued to raise slogans and the House was then adjourned for the day. Rajya Sabha started its proceedings with an adjournment within three minutes of its assembling at 11 AM, as Opposition MPs and Treasury benches locked horns. The former raised slogans when Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who stoked controversy for egging party supporters to chant "shoot the traitors" during Delhi Assembly election campaign, was called to lay official papers related to Ministry of Finance. Thakur had courted controversy during the campaigning for Delhi Assembly elections when he egged on party supporters to chant "shoot the traitors" slogan. He was removed by the Election Commission from BJP's star campaigners' list and banned him from campaigning for 72 hours. Opposition MPs were on their feet protesting against Thakur, which led to acrimonious exchanges between the Treasury Benches and their opponents. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said this was the reason why he was not immediately allowing a discussion on the situation in Delhi, which witnessed the worst communal riots in three decades that claimed at least 42 lives, and adjourned the House till 2 PM. It was again adjourned soon after the House re-assembled at 2 PM. As Congress Deputy Leader Anand Sharma raised a point of order, Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said they were ready to discuss the issue as per the directions of Naidu regarding time slot. Azad the said it was a "very serious issue. Now if the situation is normal then let us discuss the issue here or the government should tell us that the situation is not normal...." But before he could conclude, the House was adjourned till 3 PM. When the House re-assembled, Azad said the discussion should aim towards ensuring that such an incident does not recur in the country and that Opposition parties would act responsibly and not fuel tensions further. Bhupendra Chaubey of the BJP said the Chair should not be forced to hold the discussion at a particular time and the decision of when to hold the discussion should be left to the Chair's discretion. Health officials in Northern California say one person died Wednesday at a hospital in Roseville where they were in isolation. The death -- plus another death from announced Wednesday in Washington state -- bring the national death toll from COVID-19 to 11. The person in California was likely exposed to the virus while they traveled in February on a Princess cruise ship from San Francisco to Mexico, officials said in a statement. Officials described the patient as an elderly person who had other health conditions. Officials in Los Angeles have signed proclamations of local emergencies after six new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the county, where there was one previously. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the director of the county Department of Public Health, said Wednesday that all of the COVID-19 cases were due to a known exposure and not the result of so-called community transmission. She said one person was hospitalized and five others were in self-quarantine at home. The emergency declarations in the county and city are aimed at aiding efforts to respond to the virus and free up resources. Authorities are also assisting shelters to prevent transmission of the virus in the homeless population. Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Samir Ali - Trend: Azerbaijan has begun growing four new potato varieties, Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Vegetable Growing of Azerbaijans Agriculture Ministry Elmar Allahverdiyev told Trend. These varieties are submitted to obtain the respective license, he added. The four new potato varieties - Chenlibel, Ugur, Turan and Vagif - have already been grown in greenhouses. The varieties are distinguished by higher yield. In recent years, work has been carried out to grow their seeds. These varieties are more resistant to diseases and pests, and are also suitable for cultivation in arid areas, for example, in non-irrigated conditions of highlands," Allahverdiyev said. These varieties were submitted to the Agency for Agricultural Services for approval, he added. "The registration process began in 2019. We hope that certificates for the new varieties will be issued by next year," said Elmar Allahverdiyev. Last time, a new variety of potatoes in Azerbaijan was introduced in 2006. Currently, three local potato varieties - Sevinj, Telman and Amiri - are grown in the country. ANNAPOLIS (March 4, 2020)Maryland universities, colleges and community colleges would have to clearly outline free and lower-cost course materials, along with textbook and other fees associated with a course, in the institution's catalog, per a bill under the Maryland General Assembly, should it pass. The idea came out of a University of Maryland Student Government Association meeting, according to the group's director of government affairs, Samay Kindra, who pitched the idea to the House sponsor of the bill, Delegate Vaughn Stewart, D-Montgomery. "We're not asking for money or anything, we're asking for information," Kindra, a senior international business and economics major at the University of Maryland, told Capital News Service last week. Kindra said that many students register for classes not knowing how much they will actually be spending on the course. He used himself as an example: "I'm dropping close to a thousand dollars on materials," adding that he didn't know he would have to do so beforehand. Colleges and universities under the University System of Maryland would be required to publicize which courses would provide students with free digital course materials, and may provide access to low-cost print options to students as an alternative, according to the bill's legislative analysis. The process may require a one-time programming cost in fiscal year 2021 for the update in course catalog, though the costs have not been estimated, according to the state analysis. By spreading information to students and faculty, Kindra said, it'll encourage faculty to adopt free or low-cost course materials going forward. "The whole idea behind this is to give students more information so that they can make better financial decisions for themselves," said Kindra. The bill faced opposition at its House hearing on Feb. 11, with a representative of the university system calling the bill's intention "duplicative" of the policies currently in place, but supporting the bill's idea and implementation of open educational resources, an idea that encourages instructors to mix-and-match free or low-cost materials. The Senate version of the bill, 667, has bipartisan support with lead sponsor Sen. Jim Rosapepe, D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel, and co-sponsor, Justin Ready, R-Carroll, saying that the bill would basically be "truth in advertising." A similar measure was passed in Oregon in 2015, in order to make material more affordable and accessible to students, Kindra said. Kindra said that the Student Government Association is in the process of trying to push lawmakers in voting in favor of the bill by sending them emails. Neither the House nor the Senate committees have yet voted on the legislation. Virginia bans sexual orientation conversion therapy for youth with unwanted same-sex attraction Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Virginia has become the latest state in the U.S. to ban sexual orientation conversion therapy for minors. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed House Bill 386 into law on Tuesday, which bars healthcare providers and counselors from counseling youth to treat unwanted same-sex attraction. Conversion therapy sends the harmful message that there is something wrong with who you are, said Northam in a statement. This discriminatory practice has been widely discredited in studies and can have lasting effects on our youth, putting them at a greater risk of depression and suicide. Introduced by Democratic Delegate Patrick Hope in February, HB 386 passed the House of Delegates in a vote of 66 to 27 and then the Senate in a vote of 22 to 18. The Family Foundation of Virginia denounced HB 386 and its companion legislation, Senate Bill 245, as one of the worst bills being considered by the General Assembly. HB 386 and SB 245 prohibit counselors to counsel a minor in a way that would encourage them toward their biological sex, stated the foundation. Referrals for conversion therapy are also prohibited under state law and could affect state grants toward entities who refer. There is no religious exemption. Also called sexual orientation change efforts therapy or "reparative therapy," the process involves counseling efforts to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The practice is controversial among some, with prominent American psychological organizations rejecting it as harmful and several left-leaning states, beginning with California, banning it for minors. In past sessions, the Virginia Legislature has entertained bans on conversion therapy for minors only to ultimately fail to pass them. For example, in 2014, Hopes House Bill 1135 was defeated in a House of Delegates subcommittee of the Committee on Health Welfare and Institutions. However, in 2019, the Democrats took control of the General Assembly and have since advanced several progressive agenda items on several issues, such as abortion and gun control. While 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed bans on conversion therapy for youth, which have so far survived legal challenges, some localities that had similar measures have repealed them in light of litigation. For example, the New York City decided last September to repeal its ban on the practice following litigation brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of a licensed psychotherapist. At issue, according to NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, was a concern that an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court would likely strike down the law. I dont want to be someone who is giving in to these right-wing groups, said Johnson, as reported by The New York Times. But the Supreme Court has become conservative; the Second Circuit, which oversees New York, has become more conservative. Amit Kumar, of Baltimore, Maryland, has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife in January 2019. According to the Baltimore City States Attorneys Office, the Indian American stabbed his wife 55 times. (Baltimore, Maryland Police photo) WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had spoken with the senior Taliban leader, a phone conversation that is apparently the first direct communication between a U.S. president and the Afghan insurgent force since the early 19-year-old war in Afghanistan began. Trump confirmed the Taliban's announcement earlier Tuesday that Trump had spoken by phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top political leader. "We've agreed there's no violence. We don't want violence. We'll see what happens. They're dealing with Afghanistan. But we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters. Barader was a senior figure representing the insurgent group in talks with the United States in Doha, Qatar. Those talks concluded with the signing of an accord Saturday between the United States and the Taliban that would lead to the reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Trump said Saturday that he intends to meet with Taliban leaders soon, but he did not provide details. On Saturday, he hailed the accord, formalized with signatures and a handshake between U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad and his Taliban counterpart, Baradar, as historic. "There hasn't been a moment like this," Trump said at a White House news conference. "We've had very successful negotiations. Everybody's tired of war." Senior administration officials, while claiming success, offered slightly more tempered expressions of optimism over the weekend. "There will be a temptation to declare victory," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the signing ceremony, held at a hotel in Doha, the Qatari capital, and attended by a full contingent of Taliban as well as diplomats and other dignitaries. "Victory for Afghans will only be achieved when they can live in peace and prosper. Victory for the United States will only be achieved when Americans and our allies no longer have to fear a terrorist threat from Afghanistan." The agreement, after 10 years of on-and-off talks with the Taliban, follows months of intense negotiations, in which the Afghan government did not participate. Many veterans of the years-long efforts to end the war and leave a stable Afghanistan, as well as Trump supporters, questioned whether the new agreement laid a sturdy groundwork for permanent peace. Some described it as a capitulation to the Taliban, whose primary demand has always been the full departure of foreign troops. SHARON HILL Members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested a man early Tuesday on vehicular homicide and related charges stemming from a car crash in South Carolina, according to a release from Eastern District of Pennsylvania U.S. Marshal Eric Gartner. Dominique Carter, 29, was taken into custody at approximately 6:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Poplar Street, according to the release. Carter is accused of crashing his vehicle into a home in North Charleston, S.C., killing a 49-year-old woman. The North Charleston Police Department issued a warrant for his arrest Feb.11, according to the release. The U.S. Marshals Carolina Regional Fugitive Task Force discovered Carter had a family member in Sharon Hill and joined members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force in Philadelphia Tuesday morning. They went together to the suspected residence on Poplar Street, where Carter was taken into custody without incident after brief negotiations with investigators, the release states. Carter is currently being housed at the Delaware County prison in Concord pending extradition to South Carolina, according to the release. This fugitive from South Carolina was safely captured within hours of our notification, again demonstrating the strengths of collaborative law enforcement within the Eastern District of PA, said Gartner. Special thanks to our partners from the Sharon Hill Police Department who worked together with our Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force. Joe Biden has won the battleground state of North Carolina, the third most important prize on Super Tuesday in terms of delegates and electoral college votes. Following his landslide victory in South Carolina over the weekend, a win that threw a lifeline to his presidential campaign and saw a major consolidation of moderates, with Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, the former vice president won its sister state as well. In terms of delegates and electoral college votes, North Carolina is the third most important prize up for grabs on Super Tuesday, following California and Texas. While Mr Sanders is expected to win California and is polls suggest Texas will be a closely fought affair, Mr Biden had always been projected to win North Carolina, which also has a large American American population. Ahead of Super Tuesday, an average of polls collated by RealClearPolitics gave Mr Biden a lead of almost 30 points in North Carolina. The New York Times reported that cheers of North Carolina! Broke out as Mr Biden made the rounds at a chicken and waffles shop in Los Angeles, as supporters applauded. It said he was heard to say to one of the crowd: I dont want to jinx myself. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital business publication, CV Magazine, announced the winners of the 2020 Corporate Excellence Awards. Underscore Marketing, a strategic media agency with a focus on brands that contribute to health and wellness, has been awarded the title of "Excellence in SEO and Media Planning Services, 2020 New York." This honor was based on comprehensive analysis of qualitative and quantitative research, ensuring merit was given properly across many industries. The Corporate Excellence Awards celebrate organizations that are exceeding goals, creating innovative breakthroughs, demonstrating superior knowledge and expertise, and improving their business method and strategies. Underscore connects brands with their ideal audiences through nuanced insights and efficient media solutions that combine the best in AI with media experts who know how to guide this innovative technology. Specialties include hyper-targeting consumers, patients with conditions ranging from minor to severe and/or rare diseases, and health care professionals (HCPs) and payors. "Our structured media planning approach and emphasis on the small nuances that make big differences is our formula for success," said Underscore's CEO Lauren Boyer. Underscore performs diligently to provide the best media solutions for brands looking to reach narrow audiences or broad audiences with unique nuances. Lauren and her team of over 50 media practitioners will confidently continue to maintain this high standard. About Underscore Marketing LLC. Underscore delivers media strategy and ROI focused insights that use a combination of AI and human intelligence to ensure your marketing campaigns produce the strongest results. Go beyond what AI-alone can yield with a team of experts focused on making advertising media simple and maximizing Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). To learn more, please visit https://www.underscoremarketing.com/ About CV (Corporate Vision) Magazine Created by a highly experienced and passionate team of business experts, advisors and insiders, Corporate Vision provides discerning readers worldwide with a wealth of news, features and comment on the corporate issues of the day. Corporate Vision is bought to you each month by AI Global Media, a B2B digital publishing group founded in 2010. The group currently has 16 brands within its portfolio including luxury lifestyle, construction, healthcare & small business focused publications. AI Global Media are dedicated to delivering content you can trust to each of its readers, subscribers, clients and visitors. Media Contact Samantha Day Phone: 646.442.0703 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Underscore Marketing LLC Related Links https://www.underscoremarketing.com HCM City is producing millions of cloth face masks to meet rising demand amid the Covid-19 outbreak. It also aims to prevent hoarding and overcharging for single-use face masks. The manufacturers will use an antibacterial material imported from the US to make the masks. All steps of the process, from dying to pressing, must be done carefully. The masks can be washed and used 30 times. About 10 firms in HCM City are producing the masks to meet demand. Each day, a factory produces 100,000 masks. In the coming time, they will find ways to increase productivity. As of now, at least 2.5 million masks have been put on sale at supermarkets. About a million masks are being made for pharmacies and free giveaway to the citizens. Some photos of the factories: Dtinews Hospital director under investigation for illegal face mask trading The police in HCM City are investigating a hospital director who is accused of illegally trading face masks. Dozens of parliamentarians joined the fistfight, some climbing over desks to throw punches. A fistfight erupted in the Turkish parliament on Wednesday during a speech by an opposition legislator who earlier accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of disrespecting Turkish soldiers who died in Syria. Dozens of parliamentarians joined the brawl, some climbing on top of desks to throw punches, while others tried to stop the fighting, according to video footage of the brouhaha. Some legislators fell to the ground during the fray, Turkeys Haberturk television reported. Engin Ozkoc, a legislator from the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), accused the president at a news conference and later in tweets of disrespecting soldiers killed last week in Syrias Idlib region. Ozkoc called Erdogan dishonourable, ignoble, low and treacherous. He also accused the president of sending the children of Turkeys people to fight while Erdogans own offspring allegedly avoided long-term military service. During a speech to members of his party, Erdogan earlier accused the opposition of being dishonourable, ignoble, low and treacherous for questioning Turkeys military involvement in Syrias northwest province. The speaker of Parliament, Mustafa Sentop, condemned the statement by the opposition legislator. Prosecutors launched an investigation into a suspected insult of the president, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. At least 59 Turkish soldiers have been killed in Idlib since Turkey began its military campaign in Syrias last rebel bastion, where a Russia-backed government offensive has forced nearly one million people to flee towards the shut Turkish border in search of safety. Dubbed Operation Spring Shield, the offensive came in response to the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers in Syrian government air raids last week the biggest casualties suffered by Turkeys armed forces in decades. Turkey has sought to push back Syrian forces behind lines agreed under a 2018 deal with Russia, which established 12 Turkish observation posts and created a de-escalation zone around the province, which is home to more than three million people. On Thursday, Erdogan will try to reach a deal on a ceasefire over Idlib when he meets his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addresses Immigrant-rights organizations at the 'Unity Freedom Presidential Forum' in Pasadena, Calif., on May 31, 2019. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images) Bernie Praises Cuba: Will He Emulate What Hes Long Admired? Commentary Nobody should have been surprised when presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently praised Cuban literacy programs. Sanders, a lifelong Marxist, never met a revolution he didnt like. Seeing the good side of Marxism comes naturally to Sanders. Marxists are students of history; they take the long view. Yes, in the short term, socialism can produce misery and death on a huge scale, because in the long run, theyre sowing the seeds of a great new society, a utopia of endless bounty, and opportunity for all. What does it matter if hundreds, or thousands, or millions die in the process? The individual is nothing; its the good of the collective that counts. In an interview on CBS News 60 Minutes, Sanders described what he saw as two sides to the regime of Cubas Fidel Castro: Were very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but you know, its unfair to simply say everything is bad. When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it? Yes, comrade Sanders, its a bad thing. A very bad thing. A legitimate literacy program would normally be a good thing. Literacy is an essential tool for all who aspire to both liberty and prosperitybut that was far from the Cuban Communist Partys purpose. Castro didnt seek liberty and prosperity for his people. He sought slavery and control. According to a now-declassified CIA intelligence report, NIE 85-62: The Situation and Prospects in Cuba from March 21, 1962: Before the revolution, Cuba enjoyed a relatively high literacy ratefor all his faults, Batista had been a notable founder of rural schools. With great fanfare, however, the [Castro] regime undertook to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba and named 1961 the Year of Alphabetization. The universities and secondary schools were closed; the students and others were turned into literacy brigades and sent forth to alphabetize the illiterate. The operation served three political purposes: (a) To organize, indoctrinateand inspirethe literacy brigadiers; (b) to gratify the alphabetized and make them accessible to regime propaganda; and (c) to make a propaganda impact throughout illiteracy-ridden Latin America. Some illiterates proved recalcitrant, but in general the operation was successful in achieving these purposes. So Castros communist program was far from altruistic. Its purpose was not to uplift the people, but to make them more controllable and to encourage the spread of revolution across Latin America. Sanders and his wife, Jane, visited Cuba in 1989 and tried to meet with Castro. That couldnt be arranged, so, instead, they met with the mayor of Havana and other officials. The trip was organized by the Center for Cuban Studies, a pro-Castro group based in New York. When he returned to Vermont, Sanders reported that Cuba had solved some very important problems such as hunger and homelessness, according to The Daily Beast. I did not see a hungry child. I did not see any homeless people, he told the local Burlington Free Press. Cuba today not only has free health care but very high-quality health care. Even Cuban health care serves a revolutionary purpose. Cuban doctors are serving in Third World countries all over the world as ambassadors for the communist regime. Venezuela has thousands of themall loyal servants of the Maduro government and the Cuban Communist Party. After the anti-communist president Jair Bolsonaro came to power in Brazil in 2018, Cuba withdrew 8,300 doctors from the country. Cubas Latin American Medical School (ELAM) provides scholarships to more than 10,000 low-income students from Africa, Asia, and the Americas who make a commitment to work in underserved communities at home. Several Americans have also earned their medical degrees at ELAM, courtesy of the Cuban worker. Many of them are communists, or the sons and daughters of U.S. Communist Party members. What kind of return does the Cuban government demand for its investment? Before he took power, Castro repeatedly told foreign journalists some variation of this meme: There is not communism or Marxism in our ideas. Our political philosophy is representative democracy and social justice. After President Donald Trump recently called Sanders a communist, Sanders told Fox News: Obviously, I am not a communist. The difference between my socialism and Trumps socialism is I believe the government should help working families, not billionaires. Sanders is always careful to add the qualifier democratic when he refers to himself as a socialist. But the definition of democracy means something very different to a Marxist than it does to most American voters. To a communist, democracy means the will of the people. And who represents that will? Why, its the Communist Party, of course. Democracy to a Marxist-Leninist simply means communist party rule. Pure democracy is unchallenged communist party rule. Even Sanders, though, wasnt always willing to use the s word. In 1976, Sanders told student newspaper The Vermont Cynic, I myself dont use the word socialism because people have been brainwashed into thinking socialism automatically means slave-labor camps, dictatorship, and lack of freedom of speech. Well, actually it does, comrade Sandersgiven enough time. But we dont want to frighten the voters, do we? The difference between Castros representative democracy and social justice and full-blown communism was about three years. Only when he had fully consolidated his power and had executed, jailed, or expelled all serious opposition forces did Castro openly proclaim his commitment to Marxism-Leninism. Sanders has boasted he has a list of dozens of executive orders to be enacted as soon as hes inaugurated. How long would it take President Sanders to turn his democratic socialism into communism? It shouldnt take too long. Castro has already laid out the blueprint. Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics. He is best known for his book Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress and his similarly themed documentary film Enemies Within. His soon-to-be published book is White House Reds: Communists, Socialists & Security Risks Running for U.S. President, 2020. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today: A case now before the Supreme Court is the first major test of abortion rights since President Trump created a conservative majority on the court. Adam Liptak on whats at stake. Its Monday, March 9. adam liptak Its a rainy Tuesday morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Im outside the Hope Medical Clinic, one of the three remaining clinics in Louisiana that perform abortions. And Im about to head inside and see whats going on. [vehicle door opens] michael barbaro Adam Liptak, tell us about Hope Medical Clinic. adam liptak Its a nondescript building. It doesnt have any windows. Its got a sort of double-door vestibule. Its been the subject of a variety of attacks a guy with a sledgehammer, Molotov cocktails. And this clinic is at the center of a major Supreme Court case. And it involves a significant question that could put the clinics future at risk. speaker Yes, sir. adam liptak Hi, Im Adam Liptak. Im here to see Kathaleen. Im from The New York Times. speaker Yes, sir. adam liptak So I go in. I ask to see the director of the clinic, Kathaleen Pittman kathaleen pittman Hi. adam liptak Hello. kathaleen pittman Come on in. Im Kathaleen. adam liptak Pleasure to meet you. kathaleen pittman You, too. adam liptak Thanks for seeing me. kathaleen pittman Certainly. I feel so badly for you and Kelly. Weve had some beautiful weather, and now we dont. adam liptak who turns out to be a folksy, tough, charming, 62-year-old woman. adam liptak Tell me about you. How did you find yourself here? Whats your background? kathaleen pittman That is a really long story. [LAUGHS] adam liptak Thats all right. adam liptak Shes been the director for a decade, but shes worked there much longer. adam liptak How long ago was that? kathaleen pittman 92. adam liptak So thats 20 kathaleen pittman Ive been here for 27 years. adam liptak 27 years. kathaleen pittman Yeah. Personally, I worked here for two months before I told my mom. And I was a divorced mom living at home with her. adam liptak And she told me that, at first, it made her nervous to tell her mom she comes from a big Catholic family what it was she was going to do for a living. kathaleen pittman And I worked here for two months before I finally told her. But when I told her, I said, you know, Im counseling women, but I didnt tell you the whole story. And her response was, women have always had abortions, darling. They always will. They need a safe place. And this is someone who adam liptak Did that surprise you that you got that response? kathaleen pittman Yes. I had 15 siblings. To find my mom, after all this, was pro-choice, the phone lines burned up calling all my sisters. Do you know mothers pro-choice? This is what she said. My mother was so funny. She said, darling, I would have still been having babies had your sisters not stepped in. The oldest sisters told the doctor, do something. And she was fine with it. She just couldnt be the one to tell him to do it. adam liptak Wow. michael barbaro And why are you visiting this abortion clinic in this state and speaking to this director? adam liptak Well, Louisiana really is ground zero for state efforts to regulate, if not eliminate, abortion. Louisiana has enacted 89 different abortion restrictions. kathaleen pittman But what I find really interesting [thud] adam liptak Whoa. kathaleen pittman This just one, just one. But this is the form the physician and stenographer must review with the patient. Im going to give you this as well. adam liptak So to be an abortion clinic in Louisiana means you have to literally, as Kathaleen showed me, leaf through a sheaf of regulations just to make sure you can stay open. And they cover things like 24-hour waiting periods, requirements that abortion providers read their patients descriptions of the fetus, the complications that might happen, show them sonograms they can look away, if they wish allow them to hear fetal heartbeats they can cover their ears, if they wish. But most importantly, for my purposes, I was there to assess the impact of a law that requires abortion providers doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. michael barbaro And tell me a little bit more about that law. adam liptak So this law, when you first hear about it, sounds perfectly sensible. [music] archived recording Louisiana is the fifth state to adopt a law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. adam liptak It was enacted in 2014. archived recording Supporters say they make health care safer. adam liptak Lawmakers say that it was an effort to protect womens health, that its a kind of credentialing function. Opponents say the whole thing is a ruse that abortion is a very safe procedure, that youll be admitted to the hospital under very rare occasions, that there are complications whether your doctor has admitting privileges or not, and that its hard to get admitting privileges. Many hospitals dont want to give abortion providers admitting privileges for political reasons. And those conflicting views are at the center of a case that has reached the Supreme Court, which will decide whether this Louisiana abortion regulation is constitutional. adam liptak If the Supreme Court rules against you, this clinic closes, you think? kathaleen pittman Very possibly. adam liptak And what does that mean for the women in this part of the state? How far away are we from whatever clinics might remain? kathaleen pittman Minimum four hours. And for some women, that puts it out of reach. But you have to understand, most of the women we work with here live at or below the federal poverty level. The whole reason theyre looking seeking to terminate a pregnancy is theyre already trying to take care of the families they have. They cant add to that anymore. adam liptak The clinic has said that although they have one doctor with admitting privileges, that doctor cannot carry the whole load of the clinic, and the clinic would very likely have to close. michael barbaro Adam, this question of admitting privileges and abortion and the Supreme Court, it has a very familiar ring to it. adam liptak And it should. archived recording 1 We begin tonight with the most sweeping decision on abortion in a generation. Today, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that imposed strict requirements on clinics and doctors. archived recording 2 The Texas abortion law requiring doctors at abortion clinics to get admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. adam liptak The Supreme Court has already decided this question in the context of an identical Texas law in 2016. The court struck down the Texas law. archived recording Jubilation from the pro-choice side, but despair from anti-abortion forces. adam liptak So it might be surprising to some that just a few years later, its taking a look at an identical law from a different state, from Louisiana. michael barbaro Yeah, why would the court be looking at the exact same question if there is a precedent, and the precedent is that that Texas law is unconstitutional? adam liptak Well, to the surprise of many archived recording A federal appeals court had upheld the law, even though a nearly identical statute from Texas was declared unconstitutional. adam liptak A federal appeals court sustained the Louisiana law, meaning the Supreme Court almost had no choice but to take this case. Because whatever the court might want to do itself about admitting privileges laws, it seems a little odd for a federal circuit court to be breaking new ground and, in the eyes of some, to disregard what looks like binding Supreme Court precedent in this area. michael barbaro And why would a lower court openly defy a four-year-old Supreme Court precedent on an identical law? That doesnt make a whole lot of sense. adam liptak They said that they were able to discern differences between Louisiana and Texas. They say that the abortion providers didnt try hard enough in Louisiana to get admitting privileges. And, more importantly, a lot has changed since 2016. archived recording After the final day of the term, we have just learned that Justice Anthony Kennedy will be retiring. archived recording (donald trump) The Supreme Court its what its all about. The justices that Im going to appoint will be pro-life. They will have a conservative bent. adam liptak A lot has changed since President Trump put a lot of new judges on the courts, the lower courts and the Supreme Court. archived recording (donald trump) We are here to celebrate history. The taking of the judicial oath by the newest member of the United States Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch. The newest member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [CHEERING] adam liptak A lot has changed in state legislatures, which are enacting abortion restriction after abortion restriction. Folks opposed to abortion are very hopeful that we live in a different judicial climate and that this new Supreme Court might take a very different view of abortion rights than earlier ones had. michael barbaro Well be right back. archived recording (john roberts) Well hear argument this morning, Case 18-1323, June Medical Services v. Russo, and the cross petition, 18-1460, Russo v. June Medical Services. Ms. Rikelman michael barbaro OK. So Adam, tell us what happened inside the Supreme Court last week as this case opens up. adam liptak It was a little hard to make sense of what was going on at the court. You know for sure that the courts four more liberal members are completely on board with striking down this law. They think the 2016 Texas case takes care of it. But they also think if they were looking at this fresh, this is a regulation that they say confers no medical benefits, but imposes enormous costs on womens ability to obtain abortions. So you could hear this intense skepticism as the more liberal justices ask questions. Justice Elena Kagan, for instance archived recording (elena kagan) Is it right that there is evidence in the record that Hope Clinic has served over 3,000 women annually for 23 years so thats around 70,000 women and has transferred only four patients ever to a hospital? adam liptak She did the math. She said it amounted to some 70,000 abortions. And they had complications necessitating trips to the hospital four times. archived recording (elizabeth murrill) So they testified archived recording (elena kagan) Well, they know whether theyve transferred women to a hospital. And its four. I mean, I dont know of a medical procedure where its lower than that of any kind. michael barbaro And so Kagans point is, women so rarely need to be admitted to hospitals that theres no rationale for requiring admitting privileges for abortion practitioners in these clinics. adam liptak That was her point, if, indeed, having admitting privileges makes it more likely that youll be able to go to the hospital. But that itself is a contested proposition. Theres no real link between your doctor having admitting privileges and you getting the medical care you need at a hospital. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. What about the other liberal justices? adam liptak Justice Sotomayor raised a different question whether some doctors, because of the nature of their practices, could ever get hospital admitting privileges. She talked about a doctor who doesnt perform surgical abortions, but only so-called medication abortions, where patients are given pills. And that kind of doctor, she said, could never get admitting privileges in Louisiana, and so would be prohibited from performing abortions entirely. michael barbaro Adam, I have to imagine that some of these liberal justices also raised the simple question of precedent from that Texas case in 2016. adam liptak Yeah, Justice Breyer archived recording (stephen breyer) I have read the briefs. I understand there are good arguments on both sides. Indeed, in the country, people have very strong feelings. And a lot of people morally think its wrong. And a lot of people morally think the opposite is wrong. The court is struggling with the problem of, what kind of rule of law do you have in a country that contains both sorts of people? adam liptak He paused and said, listen, people have very strong feelings about the issue of abortion. People have moral objections to it. People believe that women have a right to it. archived recording (stephen breyer) But why depart from what was pretty clear precedent? adam liptak And the job for the court is to hold the nation together under the rule of law. And the way to do that, he said, was to respect precedent. michael barbaro And what is the response from the lawyers defending the law to that question of precedent? adam liptak They say Louisiana is different. They basically say, our admitting privileges law we have a different justification for it than the one put forward by Texas this credentialing justification. And we also think the impact in Louisiana is going to be different. In Texas, the fear was that the state would go from 40 abortion clinics to 10 in an enormous, geographically-vast state. Here, they say, theres no especial reason to think it should go from 3 to 1, because, they say, if only doctors tried harder to get admitting privileges, they probably could. So their point is, maybe the words of the law are the same, but the facts on the ground are different. archived recording Thank you, counsel. [CLEARS THROAT] michael barbaro OK, that was the liberal side of the court. What did you see, Adam, from the conservative justices here, who, it seems, will ultimately decide this case? adam liptak The right side of the court was unusually hard to read. archived recording (julie rikelman) standard here. archived recording (samuel a. alito jr.) Well, lets take one example. Lets take Doe number 2. Doe number 2 is plaintiff in this case, right? archived recording (julie rikelman) Yes, your honor. adam liptak The only justice who asked consistently hostile questions of the lawyer representing the abortion providers was Samuel Alito. archived recording (samuel alito) He testified that he didnt apply for admitting privileges there, because its a Catholic hospital. Isnt that right? archived recording (julie rikelman) That was part of the testimony, but in a adam liptak And he came on strong. archived recording satisfy, including residency archived recording (samuel alito) When Doe number 2 explained why he didnt apply to this hospital, he said, in part, because its not a place where I would feel comfortable. Didnt he say that? archived recording (julie rikelman) He did, your Honor. Doe 2 adam liptak But he was the only one who came on strong. Clarence Thomas, as is his custom, asked no questions. Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trumps first appointee, is usually active at oral argument. And to my surprise, and the surprise of many, he said nothing at all during this argument. michael barbaro Hm, making it very difficult to know where he may be leaning. adam liptak Thats right. Hes quite conservative. I have to think he doesnt think theres a constitutional right to abortion. But theres not a lot of judicial track record to pin that intuition on. michael barbaro Hm. What about President Trumps second appointee on the court, Justice Kavanaugh? adam liptak Justice Kavanaugh asked questions that seemed to show an open-minded attempt to sort through the various issues in the case. He wanted to know, for instance, whether a regulation that maybe didnt do anything to further womens health, but also didnt make it harder for them to have abortions, whether such a regulation would be possible. archived recording (brett kavanaugh) If a state passed an admitting privileges law, therefore, and suppose a state had 10 clinics and two doctors for each clinic, but all 20 doctors could easily get the admitting privileges so that thered be no effect on the clinics, no effect on the doctors who perform abortions, and therefore no effect on the women who obtain abortions, would a law be constitutional in that state? adam liptak So he asked, hypothetically, what if every doctor and every clinic was able to get admitting privileges? Would we still have to strike down that law? And that was a way of asking the question of, are we bound by that Texas decision, or can we find that the same law with the same words has a different impact in a different place? But as open-minded as Justice Kavanaugh sounded, there is some evidence in his judicial rulings, when he was a federal appeals court judge, that he is not comfortable with abortion rights voting, for instance, to block a pregnant, undocumented teen from being able to get an abortion. michael barbaro So it sounds like there is reason to believe that these four justices you have mentioned Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh they may all support this Louisiana law. They might vote to uphold it. adam liptak Yeah, I think thats the best information we have. That the four liberals are solid, that the four conservatives you mentioned are pretty solid. And that leaves one justice. michael barbaro Chief Justice John Roberts. adam liptak Yes, who, more and more, finds himself at the ideological center of the court in all kinds of cases. michael barbaro And what is John Robertss conduct during these oral arguments? archived recording (john roberts) Do you agree that the benefits inquiry under the law is going to be the same in every case, regardless of which state were talking about? adam liptak So hes very hard to read in this case. But heres what you need to know. In the 2016 case, in the case involving Texas, he said the Texas law was fine. He voted to uphold the Texas law. michael barbaro Oh, interesting. adam liptak And now hes looking at the identical Louisiana law. And for him, even to be open-minded about it might be a big surprise. archived recording (john roberts) I understand the point that the impact of the laws varies from state to state. But why do you look at each state differently if the benefits of the law theyre not going to change from state to state. archived recording So adam liptak He asks a series of questions that seem a little skeptical about the Louisiana law. He seems to be buying the idea that it may not confer any medical benefits to women, it may not protect their health. And that casts the chief justice in a very interesting light. michael barbaro Hm. So Chief Justice Roberts was a vote in favor of this identical Texas law four years ago. And now, in his questions to the lawyers, he seems skeptical of the identical law in Louisiana, perhaps somewhat open to striking it down. adam liptak So Chief Justice Roberts often has conflicting impulses. Hes basically conservative. Hes a product of the conservative legal movement. But hes also the steward of the courts integrity and authority. And he may think that, listen, weve decided this question once. A federal appeals court seems to have ignored us. Thats not acceptable. And even though I might have voted differently the first time, there are other interests at play here. archived recording (julie rikelman) There are no further questions. archived recording (john roberts) Thank you, counsel. The case is submitted. michael barbaro So how do you think this all will shake out? You have an almost startlingly good track record of predicting outcomes in Supreme Court cases. adam liptak Im confused, Michael. I really dont think that John Roberts wants to make it a habit of having 5-4 decisions in which he joins the courts liberals. But I guess I do think that theres a class of cases, and this may be one of them, where a conception of respect for the rule of law and for precedent and for judicial integrity might push him in that uncomfortable direction. michael barbaro Towards the liberals and striking down this law. adam liptak Thats right. michael barbaro Adam, Im curious. What does Kathaleen say about what she thinks will happen here? adam liptak She is very, very nervous. She thinks that in the past couple years, the landscape the legal, social, political landscape has shifted against abortion rights. Shes nervous about the future of her clinic. kathaleen pittman My one big hope is that the integrity of the Supreme Court means something or that it still exists. Let me put it that way. I think look, you know, anybody looking at the bigger picture would know that if we dont win, and if the court reverses itself, or even qualifies its prior ruling, then its going to open up a Pandoras box. michael barbaro Adam, thank you very much. adam liptak Thank you, Michael. michael barbaro A Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of Louisianas abortion law is expected by June. Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. On Sunday, in an attempt to contain the coronavirus, Italy locked down much of the countrys north, restricting movement for about a quarter of the Italian population. It was the most sweeping effort outside of China to stop the spread of the disease, which has already infected more than 7,300 Italians and killed more than 365. But it was unclear how effective the lockdown would be. Hours before and after it began, people streamed out of the region on trains and planes. In the U.S., 21 passengers on a cruise ship off the coast of California have tested positive for the virus. New York has declared a state of emergency over its outbreak, and a top health official told Fox News that regional travel restrictions could become necessary. archived recording 1 Italy just announced that it is going to lock down an entire region of northern Italy that includes Milan and Venice, with a quarter of the population. Could that happen here? archived recording 2 We have to be realistic. I dont think it would be as draconian as nobody in and nobody out. But if we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call mitigation, where youll have to do, essentially, social distancing keep people out of crowded places, those kinds of things. michael barbaro PARIS France requisitioned protective masks and sent tens of thousands of students home from school, deaths in Italy soared and Spain isolated dozens of health workers Tuesday as the new coronavirus spread farther into Europe. With the new virus taking firmer hold on the continent, Europe faced many of the same complications seen in Asia weeks ago. The number of virus patients dying in Italy rose to 79 the most of any nation outside of China, where the epidemic first emerged late last year. Flights to Italy, and especially Milan and Venice, were dropped, with the Finnish and Swedish airlines suspending service for at least two weeks. The number of virus cases in Italy jumped to over 2,500. Travelers from northern Italy, along with South Korea and Iran, now face a ban in Singapore. Italy has closed schools in the hard-hit regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. All student outings have been canceled nationwide. In addition, a handful of schools are closed or under quarantine in Germany and even in Poland, which has no confirmed cases so far. Hoarding was starting to become a problem. French President Emmanuel Macron announced in a tweet Tuesday that his government was requisitioning all current and future stocks of protective masks in order to ensure their distribution to virus patients and health workers. The head of the World Health Organization, meanwhile, demanded an end to hoarding of masks, gloves and other medical supplies, which he said has caused a severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Around 120 French schools were ordered to close, most in Brittany and the Oise region north of Paris. Cases of patients with the new COVID-19 virus in France rose to 212, with four deaths. Lori Hinnant is an Associated Press writer. Some experts are of the view that Covid-19 may become less active in the summer, but could return if not controlled during this summer itself. Generally, the virus cannot survive in temperatures above 34 degrees Celsius, something that is already being witnessed in India. (Photo: Representational/Pixabay) HYDERABAD: Hot and dry climate could play a role in curbing spread of the dreaded novel coronavirus strain Covid-19 in India, say meteorologists. When the sun is strong and temperatures are warm like in April to June intensity of sunlight and warm weather conditions could suppress the virus. There may be many reasons for decrease in cases of influenza and cold during summer, but the major one is that heat and dry weather can make it harder for respiratory droplets to spread viruses. Warm temperatures degrade the virus rapidly, Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist of private weather forecaster Skymet told Deccan Chronicle. The forecasters assertion is based on studying historic patterns of flu and viruses, such as the 1918 Spanish flu, SARS in 2003 and the US flu. Mr Palawat said, It is possible that the intensity of sunshine, longer daylight hours and warmer weather during summer months suppress the virus. India is currently heading into the spring season. Soon, day temperatures in northern plains will also surpass 30 degrees Celsius. Central and south India are already experiencing maximum temperatures in mid-thirties, he pointed out. Some experts are of the view that Covid-19 may become less active in the summer, but could return if not controlled during this summer itself. Generally, the virus cannot survive in temperatures above 34 degrees Celsius, something that is already being witnessed in India. The virus dies whenever it is exposed to such temperatures. Thus the chances of this infection spreading from person-to-person in Telangana during the summer are very low. But people who have already been infected and are carriers of the virus must be kept under observation, Dr K. Shankar, superintendent, Fever Hospital, told Deccan Chronicle. Meteorologists say that if higher temperatures can control Covid-19, then India is in a much better position compared to countries in higher latitudes, such as China, Japan and South Korea that witness much lower temperatures. Over the past year Brazil exported thousands of cargoes of wood from an Amazonian port without authorization from the federal environment agency, increasing the risk they originated from illegally deforested land, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. After customs officials in Europe and the United States alerted Brazil of the issue, the president of the Brazilian environment agency known as Ibama changed regulations to do away with previously required export authorizations, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The changes made by Ibama ... Hyderabad, March 4 : Few schools in Mahendra Hills neighbourhood in Secunderabad were shut on Wednesday as a precautionary measure as the software engineer who tested positive for Covid-19 has his house here. At least three major private schools in the area, which falls under Secunderabad Cantonment Board, declared indefinite holidays as a precautionary measure. The 24-year-old techie, who returned from Bengaluru on February 23, lived in his house in Ravi Colony in Mahendra Hills for a week before he was admitted to government-run Gandhi Hospital, where he was tested positive on March 2. Panic gripped the area since its resident was tested positive. While some families moved out as a precautionary measure, others either remained indoors or were using masks while moving out. Many people had not sent their children to schools on Tuesday. The man is suspected to have contracted the virus last month in Dubai, where he met some company officials from Hong Kong. After his return to India, he spent two days in Bengaluru before reaching Hyderabad by bus. Authorities have identified as many as 88 people who came into contact with the techie and they were all asked to undergo coronavirus test. The techie's house is deserted as all his family members were kept in isolation ward at Gandhi Hospital for tests. Cantonment authorities took up sanitation drive in Mahendra Hills, especially around the techie's house. The sanitation workers removed garbage and carried out disinfectant drive. They were seen spraying disinfectants in the area. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text One of the six pillars of the Chester County Historic Courthouse on North High Street will shine in blue light on January nights beginning Tuesday evening in recognition of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Vanessa Hudgens was born at the tail end of 1988. But the High School Musical star is channeling the decade of her birth in 2020. She debuted a very 80s look, with a high hairdo and bright eyeshadow, in a set of Instagram stories on Tuesday. Going retro: Vanessa Hudgens debuted a very 80s look, with a high hairdo and bright eyeshadow, in a set of Instagram stories on Tuesday Hudgens shared two photos to her stories that showed off a new look. In the shots, the 31-year-old's hair was in large loose waves with extra volume, more hair was flipped over the top of her head, toward the right of the frame, adding even more height to her look. Adding to her look, she donned full filled in brows and pastel purple eyeshadow. Big fan: In a second and very similar photo she captioned it 'what can I say. I'm a big fan of the 80s' Her look was dramatized with darkened eyelashes on top and bottom. Complimenting the eye look she wore a bright purple graphic crewneck sweater and large purple jewel earrings. In a second and very similar photo she captioned it 'what can I say. I'm a big fan of the 80s.' Getting noticed: Vanessa Hudgens attended opening night of the Broadway revival of West Side Story on Thursday in New York wearing a very revealing strapless black jumpsuit Last month Hudgens was among the famous faces who attended opening night of the Broadway revival of West Side Story. She is newly single after her split from longtime boyfriend Austin Butler, and made sure to get noticed in her very revealing strapless black jumpsuit. Vanessa and Austin began dating in September 2011. Us Weekly broke the news of the couple's split, which looked to happen either in November and December. 'Vanessa and Austin are officially broken up, and Vanessa has been telling those close to her about their breakup,' a source told the site. An Army helicopter made a "precautionary landing" in an agriculture field in Balesar near here on Tuesday, an official said. After making some necessary checks, the Chetak helicopter flew back to an Army base in Jodhpur, defence spokesperson Sombit Ghosh said. The chopper was on its way to Jaisalmer when the pilot noticed some indication on the control panel. He made a precautionary landing in Belwa of Balesar subdivision of Jodhpur, Ghosh said. There was no serious technical or mechanical issue with the helicopter, Ghosh said, adding that the aircraft flew back to Jodhpur after 20 minutes. The chopper had four Army officers onboard, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 14:03:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Instead of going back home to the U.S., restaurant owner David Chon chose to stay in China's Hainan during the #coronavirus outbreak. This time he delivers 280 free meals to Hainan University students. Check out EP02 of #ChinaVlog... To watch EP01 click here: xhne.ws/Gtlsy Re: If [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x [ #permalink musabber wrote: hello GMAT guy!! well i m confused about a certain problem [ 100th data sufficieny on 12th ed] here they define x as a integer but in the explanation they solve it as if x is is a fraction not an integer...can any one have better explanation... If [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x, is [x] = 0 ?[data suff prob number 100 from 12th edition] (1) 5x + 1 = 3 + 2x (2) 0 < x < 1 If [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x, is [x] = 0 ? rounds down Here \(x\) is not said to be an integer. Stem defines some function, represented by the symbol \([]\), as the function whichany number to an integer value:\([3.4]=3\), \([2]=2\), \([-7.5]=-8\), ...Q: is \([x]=0\)? Or is \(0\leq{x}<1\)?(1) 5x + 1 = 3 + 2x --> \(x=\frac{2}{3}\) --> \([\frac{2}{3}]=0\). Sufficient.(2) 0 < x < 1 --> any \(x\) from this range will round down to 0, so \([x]=0\). Sufficient.Answer: D.Hope it helps._________________ STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Meg Ventrudo is stepping down as executive director of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, a position she has held for nearly 16 years. The news comes shortly after a yearlong series of events and exhibitions was announced to mark the 75th anniversary of the museum on Lighthouse Hill. A celebratory gala on March 13 in the Richmond County Country Club will kick off the events. Ventrudo confirmed her departure to SILive.com saying her last day will be Friday, March 27. She has accepted a position as Executive Director at the Woodlawn Conservancy in the Bronx, writing "The Tibetan Museum will always remain a special place to me and I am so happy to have been a part of its rich history and wonderful culture. Prior to working at the museum, Ventrudo was the assistant director for exhibits and education at the Museum of American Finance from 1994 to 2004. When the Westerleigh native assumed her position at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art in 2004, it was believed she was the first borough-born Islander to become executive director. And while Ventrudo had not formally studied Tibetan art or history, she happily immersed herself in it. Its a challenge, she told the Advance at the time, but the objects in our collection are so beautiful and so fascinating. During her tenure as executive director, Ventrudo has grown a schedule of meditation, tai chi, film screenings and exhibitions at the Lighthouse Hill space. Outside of her position, she has supported several Staten Island organizations, including the National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island Childrens Museum, Project Hospitality, Alice Austen House and the Greenbelt. 02/28/2011 - At the Old Bermuda Inn, Rossville, the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, honored the late Joe Madory. Here he shares the moment with his wife, Kathy; Meg Ventrudo, executive director of the museum; and Beverly Garcia-Anderson, museum president. The occasion was a celebration of the Tibetan new year, which was marked by The Year of the Iron Rabbit champagne brunch. Honoree Joe Madory with wife Kathy, Meg Ventrudo (exec. director), Beverly Garcia-Anderson (president). Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Tibetan New Year, The Year of the Iron Rabbit Champagne Brunch honoring Joe Madort held at The Old Bermuda Inn. 2/27/11 (Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores) ABOUT JACQUES MARCHAIS MUSEUM OF TIBETAN ART The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art was founded in 1945 by Jacques Marchais, an American woman and collector of Tibetan and Himalayan art. The structure was the first Himalayan-style architecture built in the United States and the first museum in the world devoted solely to Tibetan art. As a result, many Buddhist monks and high ranking lamas have visited the museum throughout its history. The museum resembles a Tibetan monastery with a collection including pieces from Tibet, Nepal, Northern China and Mongolia. It has been dubbed the Jewel in the Lotus" and is often featured in NYC travel guides. Seventy-five years after its founding, the museum continues to preserve and exhibit the collection of Tibetan Buddhist art. It has received donations of collections from the estate of Walter and Caroline Meuly, and from Philip Trimble, the U.S. ambassador to Nepal from 1980 to 1982. And while Marchais never visited Tibet herself, the museum conducts trips to Buddhist and Himalayan countries each fall. Public programs include lectures, films, performances by Tibetan dancers, and programs related to the Tibetan traditions of meditation. Jacques Marchais wanted to create a place that was a retreat from the outside world," Ventrudo previously told the Advance. I think when people come here, they fall in love with the place. Its like no other place on Staten Island. From Michael Jackson to Woody Allen, in widely varying degrees of verifiable offence, how much can we separate the behaviour, criminal or otherwise, of the artist from the nature and quality of the art? Like many, Chicago-based filmmaker and University of Illinois-Chicago professor Jennifer Reeder wrestles with the implications of the Polanski win and the Cesar walkouts. Women's rights activists protest near Friday's Cesar ceremony in Paris because Roman Polanski's latest film led the nominations. Credit:AP "It's a combination of things," Reeder says. "The protests (at the Cesars) related to a sense that Portrait of a Lady on Fire was ignored, by and large. So that's the context for watching a man considered an auteur, with a history of abusing his power, awarded yet again." On the other hand, she says, "it's important not to ignore the work itself. It's important we look at Polanski's work in a more complicated way. Scrutinise it! Examine it!" If Polanski's film, which currently has no distribution deal in the United States either for theatrical or streaming release, ever becomes legally available, she plans on seeing it. Reeder has shown earlier Polanski films in her classes, from Rosemary's Baby to Chinatown. She also devotes classroom time, she says, "to talk about why Roman Polanski doesn't live in this country anymore." Noemie Merlant, left, and Adele Haene during the Cesar Award ceremony after being awarded best film for Les Miserables. Credit:AP Polanski's recent on-screen incarnation may well be the last time he ever comes off like a hero in the eyes of popular culture. In Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, we catch glimpses of Polanski as he tools around the Hollywood Hills with his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, two timeless, stylish emblems of industry cool in Tarantino's eyes. At the Venice Film Festival last September, An Officer and a Spy received the Silver Lion (second place, effectively) from a jury headed by Argentinian director Lucretia Martel. There, too, the inclusion of Polanski's film in festival competition provoked great controversy. Prior to opening, festival director Alberto Barbera defended the overwhelmingly male-directed feature competition slate as well as the inclusion of Polanski's drama. "I am convinced," he said during the opening press conference, "that we have to distinguish between the artist and the man." Not long afterward, jury president Martel countered: "I don't separate the work from the author," adding that she has "recognised a lot of humanity in Polanski's previous films." Cinema scholar and historian Kristin Thompson, honorary fellow in University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Communication Arts, attended the Venice festival and caught the world premiere of Polanski's film. Loading "I have to say: very well-directed," she says, acknowledging that for countless moviegoers, activists and abuse victims appalled by Polanski's fugitive status, quality remains a non-issue. Thompson, who runs the sterling film website Observations on Film Art with her husband, David Bordwell, says she "completely sympathises" with the women who walked out at the Cesars Friday. "What bothers me," she adds, "is that a lot of other people besides Polanski worked on Polanski's film. Hundreds of people. I don't see how you can condemn the entire film on the basis of the director ... . (W)ould some protesters go so far as to say that nobody should've taken a job on the film? That nobody should've worked on it? That's going pretty far. And I think we shouldn't go that far in judgment." The worldwide #MeToo movement hasn't moved at the same rate of speed or enlightenment, country to country, person to person. So many sharp, well-intentioned minds have changed so quickly on so many personal fronts. Kate Winslet worked with Polanski on the 2011 film Carnage. She co-starred in Woody Allen's 2017 film Wonder Wheel. Polanski's rap sheet was well known; Allen was a different matter, having been accused (though never charged) of child sexual abuse by his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. In 2017, Winslet told The New York Times: "Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that's the truth." Four months later, Winslet recanted, acknowledging an internal reckoning and the "bitter regrets I have at (my) poor decision to work with individuals with whom I wish I had not. Sexual abuse is a crime. It lies with all of us to listen to the smallest of voices." In the meantime, Allen's memoir, Apropos of Nothing, which was largely thought unpublishable, has been acquired by Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group (which published Ronan Farrow's expose Catch and Kill that led to #MeToo), and will be released on April 7. The coronavirus infections in Korea jumped to 5,328 as of Wednesday morning, a rapid surge from about 1,000 about a week ago. Most of them were reported from Daegu and North Gyeosang Province, but the virus is rapidly affecting other regions as well. In Seoul and surrounding areas, the confirmed cases now surpassed 200 -- Seoul (99), Incheon (9), and Gyeonggi Province (101). Vehicles arrive for drive-through testing for coronavirus at a facility in Gwangju on Tuesday. /Yonhap More than half of the infections are linked to the secretive Shincheonji sect. According to government data on 4,812 patients on Tuesday, some 2,698 or 56.1 percent contracted the virus through the religious group's Daegu branch. They are mostly women with 62.4 percent and those in their 20s with 29.4 percent, the highest among all age groups. But Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said, "It is unlikely for other Shincheonji branches across the country to become hotbeds of coronavirus" now that many have been closed. Municipal officials make calls to followers of the Shincheonji sect in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. /Newsis The risk of further spread remains, however, as a growing number of new infections are unrelated to the sect. Kim said that the government will now change its priority from Shincheonji followers to ordinary citizens in coronavirus testing to minimize further transmission. His remark came after the deaths of several people who could not get tested in time because they were not Shincheonji followers. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:42:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran cancelled Friday prayers in major cities across the country amid novel coronavirus outbreak, official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. "The Friday prayers in the capital cities of all provinces (including Tehran) have been cancelled this week," Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, chief of Friday prayers' headquarters, was quoted as saying. Iran had cancelled Tehran's Friday prayers ceremony last week over concerns of the outbreak of the coronavirus. Friday prayers is a weekly religious event held in the Iranian cities, whereby Iran's major cultural, social and political issues are addressed by senior clerics. The novel coronavirus has so far infected 2,922 people across Iran, 92 of whom have died. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse Police Department is reviewing its policy on when and how officers pursue vehicles, the department has confirmed to Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. Police department officials wont say much about the review, but the president of the union that represents Syracuse officers said he believes the review stems from a six-minute chase in January that ended with the wanted driver crashing into a tree. The department's policy on vehicle pursuits is being reviewed to make sure it reflects best practices and 21st century policing, said Officer Joseph Commisso, a department spokesman. Syracuse police chief Kenton Buckner declined to discuss the review, referring questions to a department spokesman. The departments spokespeople declined to answer more questions about the pursuit policy review or the existing policy. Syracuse police union president Jeff Piedmonte said the department has put together a committee to review the policy that includes driving instructors in the department and other administrative members. He did not know how many people are on the committee or all the committees members, only that a committee has been formed. With the review underway, Syracuse officers were reminded in a roll call near the end of January to weigh the risks of chasing a car with the benefits of catching the driver, Piedmonte said. The department is not trying to discourage officers from being proactive but that's what's happening, Piedmonte said. Nationally, police pursuit policies have been shifting for the last 20 years and particularly within the last decade, said Travis Yates, who runs SAFETAC, a company that offers driving training for officers. Yates is also a major in the Tulsa Police Department. I think it really started out of civil litigation and when we saw some tragedies in pursuits, Yates said. As civil litigation has gone on through the years, you see departments, and unfortunately it typically follows a tragic occurrence, shift their policies to more restrictive policies, he said. Chases can be a problem because of how they end: sometimes with crashes, injuries or fatalities; sometimes without arrests and occasionally with charges that officers used too much force once they caught the driver or passengers, Yates said. Studies differ on how many chases end in crashes, but the number is about one-third, according to an estimate by Yates and a review of studies by syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. Yates estimated 50 to 70 percent of pursuits end in an arrest. Through June of 2019, Syracuses Citizen Review Board found for two complainants in 58 cases filed against police. One complainant alleged excessive use of force after they fled police in a car. The other complainant alleged excessive force against a person pulled over while he was driving a car that had been reported stolen. Data for the rest of the year is not yet available. Citizen Review Board administrator Ranette Releford said in February she was looking into the departments pursuit policy. There are things that have happened recently that would make people concerned about the policy, she said, declining to elaborate on the concerns. More modern pursuit policies typically restrict the types of crimes that police can start a pursuit on, Yates said. Police departments have often moved to a policy only allowing chases of felony or violent felony offenders, he said. Restrictive policies dont make them less dangerous, Yates said of chases. By the very nature that youre chasing fewer people, fewer people are going to get hurt or injured. A study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police of nearly 8,000 car chases in the mid-2000s found that 16.1 percent of chases began because the driver was suspected of a felony. The rest began because of a traffic violation, the car was suspected to be stolen, a suspected impaired driver, other misdemeanors or in assisting another department. Piedmonte, the union president, believes the Jan. 6 chase led to Syracuse polices review. That chase began because the drivers van was missing a headlight, police said. At 3:52 a.m. that day, officers tried to pull over a 2003 red Chevy Venture near Herald Place and North Franklin Street. Instead, the driver, Stephen Marks, led police on a six-minute chase through the North Side, according to police and scanner reports. He eventually crashed the van he was driving into a tree in the 2800 block of Lodi Street, injuring his legs, according to police. An initial release from Syracuse police said Marks was a suspect in a larceny from a Wegmans on Route 57 in Liverpool, which happened before the chase. When Marks appeared in court after the crash, he faced eight misdemeanors. They included four theft charges spread across Syracuse, Camillus, Solvay and Clay, as well as impersonation charges and traffic violations. The study by the police chiefs found that 1 in 5 chase start because the car officers are trying to pull over is believed to be stolen. Syracuse has seen a historic rise in stolen cars over the last three years. From 2017 to 2018, car thefts increased 37 percent to 525, a five-year high. Then, in 2019, that number rose to 539. During a talk to teenage boys in 2019, Buckner took time out to teach kids about car chases, stolen cars and running from the police. As the department has considered the policy change, it has been reluctant to discuss the matter. For several weeks, the department refused to answer any other questions about its review of the policy. The department has declined to provide a copy of its current vehicle chase policy. It wants to look over the current policy before releasing it because there (are) tactics and things that could be advantageous to the criminal being pursued, according to Malinowski, a department spokesman. Yates, the expert, said pursuit should be publicly available. I dont see a reason why the department wouldnt have their pursuit policy for the public to see, Yates said. Some departments, such as New York City and Chicago, post their pursuit policy and other policies online. He acknowledged police should refrain from sharing some policies because they may reveal tactics, but Yates does not see car chase policies as one of those policies. I think the public has a right to not only know what that is," Yates said of the policy, "but also have some input on that. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Citizens of Armenia have the right to know whether the Amulsar gold mine is going to be exploited or not. Consequently, will you be putting the issue of exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine to a referendum? This is what deputy of the Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly Ani Samsonyan told Prime Minister of Armenia during a question-and-answer session with government officials in parliament today and asked about the time limits for the possible referendum. In response, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan declared the following: If, after discussions, the government comes the conclusion that there is a need for a referendum, it will put the issue to a referendum. According to the Prime Minister, if Armenias laws provide the opportunity to solve the issue through a referendum, then the legislation provides the opportunity to call a referendum through a civic initiative as well. This is a legal matter, and I cant give an answer at this moment. The government will consider the proposal and take a look at the legislation, he said. A crowded race defined by voters agonising over who can beat President Donald Trump in November comes into focus. Joe Bidens surprise victories on Super Tuesday were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. The late deciders helped Biden win Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, among several other states. In some states, they made up roughly half of all voters, according to VoteCast surveys of voters in eight state primaries conducted by The Associated Press news agency. And the surveys show they lined up behind the former vice president. In Virginia, where nearly half of the voters waited to make up their minds, Biden won two-thirds of the late deciders. The surveys show the power of a well-timed surge in a race that has been defined by a crowd of candidates and confused voters agonizing over the best challenger to President Donald Trump in November. Bidens big win in South Carolina on Saturday revived his struggling campaign and within 72 hours pushed three of his rivals towards the exit and swung the opinions of voters in distant states. Yet Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders found a way to blunt the impact. By organising aggressively and banking early votes from his liberal, young and Latino coalition, Sanders won Colorado and California. About 80 percent of Sanders voters in California said they picked their candidate before the final stretch. Heres a snapshot of Democratic voters in Alabama, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia who they are and how they voted based on preliminary results from the AP surveys. Bidens comeback coalition The former vice presidents coalition came into clear focus Tuesday. He did well with moderates and conservatives, voters older than 45 and African Americans. In many states, he enjoyed an advantage among women and college graduates. He ran strong with voters who attend church at least once a month. And he successfully channelled sentimental attachments to former President Barack Obama. About half of North Carolina voters, for example, wanted a president who would restore politics to a pre-Trump era and Biden won the majority of this group. Theres little doubt Bidens ties to black voters were critical to his rebound. Biden cleaned up in Alabama on Tuesday night by winning close to 70 percent of African Americans, a majority of Democratic voters in that state. Voters wait in line to cast their ballot in the Democratic primary at a polling station in Houston, Texas [Callaghan OHare/Reuters] Perceptions about electability may also be key to Bidens supporters. In Minnesota, for example, where Biden benefitted from home-state Senator Amy Klobuchars exit from the race, about 60 percent of voters said it would be harder for a nominee with strong liberal views to win in the general election. Even in his California loss, there were signs of newfound energy for Biden. Of voters there who picked their candidate in the last three days, Biden had a slight advantage. Biden also flashed some crossover appeal in places that matter. In Virginia, a state likely to be a top battleground in November, Biden won more than half of voters who say they voted in the 2016 Republican primary. Mike Bloomberg won close to 20 percent. Sticking to Sanders The Vermont senator is holding on to his coalition of liberal voters, Latinos and voters under 30. In states with sizable populations of each, he fared well. In Virginia and North Carolina, where majorities were older and more likely to identify as moderate, Sanders came up short. Sanders strength with Latinos was clearest in California, where the group made up about 30 percent of the vote. Sanders won close to half of that group in California roughly double Bidens share. Sanders has benefitted from a youth movement. In California and Colorado, he won about 60 percent of voters under 30. His voters there are also somewhat more likely than Bidens to feel as though theyre falling behind financially. He won about 40 percent of Texas and Minnesota voters who said that recent economic gains had bypassed them. Aside from their youth, Sanders supporters stand out for their scepticism of most other candidates in the race. At least half of his voters in North Carolina said they would be unhappy with Biden or Bloomberg as the nominee. Majorities of them in California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Virginia felt the same. Bloombergs bust More than $500m in spending on ads could not buy Bloomberg much love. Bloomberg fared better among voters older than 65 compared with those younger, and similarly among those who think of themselves as moderate or conservative more so than liberals. But even among these groups, he was edged out by Biden. The former New York mayor was the Democrat voters were least enthusiastic about nominating. More than half of voters in Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts, his birthplace, said they would be dissatisfied if Bloomberg was the Democratic candidate. Roughly half in California, North Carolina and Virginia would also be displeased. By comparison, majorities in each of those states said they would be satisfied if Sanders was the nominee. Only in Alabama and Texas would a majority be satisfied by Bloomberg. Looking towards November The Democratic contests do appear to be drawing some potential swing voters. Close to 20 percent of voters or more said they are waiting to see who wins the nomination before deciding how theyll vote in November. That was true in seven of the eight states AP surveyed. The share was somewhat smaller, 15 percent, in Minnesota, a state Trump is trying to flip. Most of this group identified as moderates or conservatives, a sign that they might be open to Trump or consider not voting for any candidate in November. Another closely watched group is suburbanites, a constituency that could make up more than half the general election electorate. Sanders and Biden battled it out for those voters on Tuesday, neither jumping ahead with a clear advantage. - Increase in spending capacity, meat consumption, and demand for high-quality protein to drive growth in global animal genetics market - Asia Pacific to chart a high growth curve while North America to hold a dominant market share ALBANY, New York, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Owing to multiple factors such as adoption of advanced technologies, high demand for well-bred animals with desirable genetic traits (livestock and poultry), and increase in disposable income is helping the global animal genetics market chart a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 6.0 % from 2018 to 2026. As a result of this robust growth rate, market would be reach a valuation of USD 8.0 bn by the end of the forecast period. Transparency Market Research states, "One of the most significant trends that will lead to a higher market growth over the forecast period is increase in ownership of companion animals. Besides, with food safety and quality gaining prominence, the live animal segment will show significant growth from 2018 to 2026." Key Findings of the Animal Genetics Market Study The live animals sub-segment from the product type segment will contribute massively to the overall growth of global animal genetics market sub-segment from the product type segment will contribute massively to the overall growth of global animal genetics market High focus on food safety and quality , along with increase in global population and urbanization will drive growth in live animals' segment , along with and urbanization will drive growth in live animals' segment Need to produce animal protein in a safe and cost-effective manner to drive market players over the forecast period in a safe and cost-effective manner to drive market players over the forecast period North America to hold a dominant market share; Asia Pacific to chart an impressive growth curve owing to a sturdy CAGR Explore 157 pages of top-notch research, incisive insights, and detailed country-level projections. Gain business intelligence on Animal Genetics market by Product Type - Live Animals (Bovine, Porcine, Poultry, Canine, and Piscine), Genetic Material (Semen, Embryo), Genetic Testing, Read Details TOC of the Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/18995 Animal Genetics Market: Key Driving Factors The animal genetics market is set to witness sturdy growth over the forecast period owing to a plethora of trends and growth drivers. As per Transparency Market Research, some of the crucial factors are high level of consumption of meat and poultry products, increase in purchasing power of people, need to plug supply gaps in terms of food, and growing demand for stronger animals, well-bred and with desirable genetic traits. An overview of growth factors is provided below: By 2050, demand for food will see massive increase with world population reaching the 9.1 bn. mark Production of healthy and affordable food items would gain center-stage, driving demand for animal-based foods Increase in disposable income, particularly in lower and middle income consumers to impact consumption of animal-based food positively The trend of owning companion animal is gaining steam, helping the global animal genetics market take a higher trajectory Request PDF Brochure of Animal Genetics Market Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=18995 Key Impediments for Animal Genetics Market Players Despite charting a steady growth curve over the forecast period, the global animal genetics market would not be free from restraints. As per Transparency Market Research, one of the major restraints that will limit growth in the global animal genetics market is the regulatory environment which is strict in terms of animal genetic engineering. Besides, a notable dearth of skilled professionals in the market is also a limiting factor in the global animal genetics market. Additionally, it is worth noting that animal testing is expensive. Animal Genetics Market: Region-wise Analysis North America to continue holding a prominent place in the global animal genetics market in terms of revenue owing to extensive research ongoing in the region; besides, a large number of strong market players occupy the region - VetGen, Neogen Corporation, and Zoetis, etc. to continue holding a prominent place in the global animal genetics market in terms of revenue owing to extensive research ongoing in the region; besides, a large number of strong market players occupy the region - VetGen, Neogen Corporation, and Zoetis, etc. Some other major factors that favor growth in the North American region are high spending capacity, swift adoption of technology, high consumption of meat and animal products, and high demand for animals with desirable genetic traits Over the forecast period, Asia Pacific would demonstrate a notable CAGR owing to increase in population, increase in spending capacity, and rapid urbanization Analyze Animal Genetics market growth in 30+ countries including US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Benelux, Nordic, China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Request a sample of the study, Competition Landscape Research and Development (R&D) forms the core of global animal genetics market and is thus a major determinant of the size of market share a player holds. Besides, players also forge partnerships in order to tap into uncharted territories in order to bring a larger consumer base into the fold. It is pertinent to note here that technology also holds a prominent place in the market. Transparency Market Research has profiled key players such as Genus plc, CRV Holding B.V., Neogen Corporation Zoetis, Inc., Groupe Grimaud, Topigs Norsvin, VetGen, Animal Genetics Inc., and Hendrix Genetics BV, in its market report. The global animal genetics market has a decent number of players operating the market landscape. Transparency Market Research has segmented the Animal Genetics market report based on product type, geography and forecast. Product Type: Live Animals Bovine Porcine Poultry Canine Piscine Genetic Material Semen Embryo Genetic Testing Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the Global Healthcare Industry: Thyroid Function Test Market: The global thyroid function test market was valued at approximately US$ 1.3 Bn in 2018. It is anticipated to exceed a value of US$ 2.4 Bn by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of more than 5% from 2019 to 2027. The global market is driven by an increase in the incidence of thyroid disease, rise in geriatric population, increase in obese, diabetic, and cardiovascular patients, and increase in disease awareness programs in developing regions. DNA Test Kits Market: The global DNA test kits market is driven by increase in the number of direct to consumer genetic testing companies offering DNA tests for ancestry and health & fitness, rise in focus on health risk & preventive care, and increase in demand for ancestry DNA testing services across the globe. 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Gain access to Market Ngage, an AI-powered, real-time business intelligence that goes beyond the archaic research solutions to solve the complex strategy challenges that organizations face today. With over 15,000+ global and country-wise reports across 50,000+ application areas, Market Ngage is your tool for research on-the-go. From tracking new investment avenues to keeping a track of your competitor's moves, Market Ngage provides you with all the essential information to up your strategic game. Power your business with Market Ngage's actionable insights and remove the guesswork in making colossal decisions. About Us Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals. Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. 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Contact Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com LOGO: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1085206/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg Aer Lingus employees in their new uniforms. Thomas Pallini/Business Insider Aer Lingus completed the final stage in its rebranding earlier this month when it debuted new employee uniforms. All customer-facing employees will receive the new uniforms from ground staff to cabin crew, representing the airline's new look. The airline embarked on the rebranding campaign in 2018 that also included a new livery for its fleet. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus debuted the final stage in a brand refresh aimed at giving the airline a new look as it continues to expand into a major European player. The marketing campaign began with a new livery for its aircraft in 2018 that saw the airline reimagine its iconic shamrock emblem and incorporate a modern paint style in line with the global airlines in Europe that it seeks to compete with. While the current market for the Dublin-based carrier is travelers heading to and from its island homeland, Aer Lingus wants to also expand Dublin Airport into a European transit hub comparable to London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The rebranding, along with a new aircraft type and route expansion, is aiming to give it a new modern look to help achieve that goal. As the initial stages of the rebranding were implemented, Irish designer Louise Kennedy worked on the customer-facing aspect of the endeavor, staff uniforms. Kennedy has worked on the airline's previous uniforms, which went unchanged for over 20 years. Take a look at the new Aer Lingus. As Ireland's flag carrier, Aer Lingus' brand identity has always been associated with symbols of the country, including the shamrock and the color green. Aer Lingus Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images Aer Lingus' aircraft are painted mostly in green with a shamrock on their tails, serving their homeland as unmistakable representations of Ireland for decades. Aer Lingus Airbus A330 Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty The Irish-inspired style is also maintained inside the cabins of its aircraft, as well as with its crew uniforms. Story continues Aer Lingus Flight review Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider Though the branding was undoubtedly Irish, it became tired looking in a new decade that saw numerous high-profile rebrandings from airlines such as Lufthansa, Alitalia, and Iberia. And so began Aer Lingus' rebranding effort. Aer Lingus Flight review Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider The airline started with its aircraft, shifting from a majority green to a majority white livery, known in the industry as "Eurowhite." Aer Lingus Airbus A330 new livery. Brian Lawless/PA Images/Getty The iconic shamrock was kept and enhanced, making it more three-dimensional compared to its predecessor. Aer Lingus Shamrock Brian Lawless/PA Images/Getty Short-haul aircraft such as the Airbus A320 family went from looking like this,... Aer Lingus Airbus A320. Steve Parsons/PA Images/Getty To this. Aer Lingus Airbus A320 new livery Steve Parsons/PA Images/Getty The final step in the rebranding would be its employee uniforms, recently debuted in February, a year after it unveiled its new livery. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The new uniforms will be worn by customer-facing employees from in-flight crew to ground staff. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The male uniforms consist of new suit jackets, a highly-requested item, and coats. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider Female uniforms feature more green than their male counterparts, maintaining the heritage of the airline and its uniforms while enhancing them with a modern style. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider A highlight of the offering includes female trouser pants, which weren't previously options for female staff. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The pants will be a navy blue, named "midnight" by designer Louise Kennedy. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider Though the option for a skirt is still available in either green, named "Kenmare Green,"... Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider Or midnight navy. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The new uniforms offer a greater amount of variety for Aer Lingus staff in terms of comfort and fashion. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider More so than the previous generation uniforms that appear stiffer and required female flight attendants to solely wear skirts. Aer Lingus old uniforms Brian Lawless/PA Images/Getty Here's designer Louise Kennedy with her newly-dressed employees. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider It's the first uniform refresh for Irish airline since 1998. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider And will give its crew a modern look as Aer Lingus continues its expansion. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider With the airline wanting to transform Dublin into a European transit hub similar to London, Paris, and Frankfurt, Aer Lingus will have to reinvent itself from Irish airline to major European player. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The airline is aiming to accomplish this by improving Dublin Airport, expanding North American routes and ordering new, efficient aircraft. Aer Lingus New Uniforms Thomas Pallini/Business Insider One of the key purchases made by the airline is the Airbus A321neoLR that's able to fly long, thin routes between North America and Europe. The plane is currently flying on transatlantic routes like the one that connects Dublin and Hartford, Connecticut. Aer Lingus Airbus A321neo Thomas Pallini/Business Insider Aer Lingus joins the likes of TAP Air Portugal and Azores Airlines, which are also trying to use geography and a new fleet of aircraft to transform their home bases into connecting hubs. To transform the airline into a major player in Europe, however, will still require scores of new aircraft and routes in addition to a modern brand image to influence potential customers to take the Irish route to Europe over the dozen other potential options. Read the original article on Business Insider Monroe County officials announced Tuesday a state investigation into deliveries of material advertised as clean fill, but contaminated with toxic substances and municipal waste. "We need to get the message out to the public that what is happening is dangerous," said James Lambert, executive director of the Monroe County Waste Management Authority. "We have numerous residences, over 16 sites now, that have received what they thought was clean fill for purposes of leveling off property and things like that and it turns out that this material contains not only municipal waste in it but also hazardous waste materials." The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office is investigating allegations that the tainted material is being trucked in from out-of-state, officials said during a news conference at the Monroe County Conservation District headquarters in Hamilton Township. The attorney general's office did not take part because its investigation is ongoing, the local officials said. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned. County officials said they wanted to get the word out before the investigation is complete in the hopes that homeowners think twice about accepting what may be falsely advertised as clean fill. "What we're urging the public is to please be cautious of where they obtain the soils," said Capt. Jackie Bagu, of the Monroe County Waste Management Authority police. "Facebook Marketplace is not a reputable place to obtain it." James Lambert, executive director of the Monroe County Waste Management Authority, speaks alongside, from left, Capt. Jackie Bagu of the authority's police department and Kristina Heaney, district manager for the Monroe County Conservation District, during a news conference Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at the district's headquarters in Hamilton Township about contaminated fill trucked in from out of state to 16 residential sites in Monroe County.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com Waste Management Authority police began investigating complaints about so-called clean fill several months ago. Some material smelled of petroleum or visibly was mixed with municipal waste ranging from shoes to filing cabinets, wood to textiles, officials said Tuesday; one homeowner already had the fill that was delivered removed because it was making the residents there ill. With these particular loads, not only are there long-term effects, which have health risks, theres also the fact that there will have to be cleanup costs that may have to fall upon the homeowners, Bagu said. In some of the 16 sites fill, testing by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection revealed the presence of cobalt, which is carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in its radioactive form; the probable carcinogens aldrin/dieldrin; and vanadium, which is possibly carcinogenic, along with lead, according to Bagu. Haulers being investigated as part of the state probe are allegedly being paid to remove waste from out-of-state cleanup sites, and instead of paying to dispose of it properly are dumping it in Pennsylvania as free clean fill, according to Lambert from the Monroe County waste authority. "You really need to look into what the background of this material being brought to your property is," said Kristina Heaney, district manager for the Monroe County Conservation District. "If it's free fill and it seems like it's too good to be true, it most likely is." Contaminated fill trucked in from out of state to 16 residential sites in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, is seen in photos from Monroe County Waste Management Authority Police.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com Pennsylvania on Jan. 1 updated its Management of Fill policy to provide guidelines on material that can be reused without a Solid Waste Management Act permit. Fill that is regulated under the act is only permitted to be used at non-residential, commercial and industrial properties. State law requires a certification that fill is clean through what is called a Form FP-001. Homeowners should request to see this form from a hauler to ensure what theyre getting is free from hazardous or municipal waste. "Failure to perform a demonstration that the fill can be reused or the use of other types of fill that would not qualify as clean fill without first obtaining a permit may result in an enforcement action under the Solid Waste Management Act," Pennsylvania DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly told lehighvalleylive.com following Tuesday's news conference. The state can levy hefty fines and civil penalties, beyond what county regulations call for, Lambert said. Contaminated fill trucked in from out of state to 16 residential sites in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, is seen in photos from Monroe County Waste Management Authority Police.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com The Pennsylvania investigation comes after several high-profile investigations in New Jersey over fill. In Vernon Township, Sussex County, a 75-foot-tall pile of dirt and debris led to jail time for Joe Wallace, who is appealing that sentence. The New Jersey Department of Transportation last May announced more than $700,000 in fines against two Newark-based truck companies for setting up illegal solid waste transfer stations in Sussex County, then using those stations to pass off solid waste as clean dirt and sell it to unsuspecting customers. New Jersey has since launched a statewide Guard Your Backyard campaign against illegal soil, and has a new law on the books to try and crack down on illegal dumpers. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. KYIV -- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has abruptly reshuffled the Ukrainian government, putting the countrys commitment to reforms into question at a time when Kyiv is seeking to finalize a new loan program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At a special parliament session on March 4, lawmakers voted to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, and backed Zelenskiys choice for his successor, Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The reshuffling comes six months after Zelenskiy ushered in the youngest and freshest government to reduce the influence of oligarchs and eliminate opportunities for corruption -- two aspects that have dominated Ukrainian life since the country gained independence in 1991. The shake-up also comes days after a mission from the IMF visited Kyiv to discuss a long-delayed $5.5 billion loan. Ukraine has failed to unlock the loan program, seen as crucial to economic stability and investor confidence, over policy and legislative disagreements. In all, 291 members of the Verkhovna Rada approved Shmyhal's appointment, with 59 opposing and 46 abstaining, while nine did not vote. Earlier, 353 lawmakers voted to accept Honcharuk's resignation. A total of 49 deputies abstained, and nine did not vote. Parliament approved other cabinet members, including new foreign, defense, and finance ministers. In a speech before parliament ahead of the votes, Zelenskiy blamed Honcharuk for failing to halt an industrial slump and for not meeting tax-collection targets. Honcharuck, a political newcomer, was named prime minister in August 2019. We need new brains and new hearts in the government, he said. But the reshuffle raised concerns that key policy issues like land reform could be delayed. All of a sudden, when we expected stability and passage of major pieces of legislation, there is major upheaval and things seem to be up in the air, Morgan Williams, the president of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, a D.C.-based lobby, told RFE/RL. The business community is wondering why now, who is behind all these changes, he added. Williams said the business community was concerned about the replacement of Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, who was well respected by markets and Ukraines Western backers, and Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov, who had been leading the controversial agricultural land-market reform that is now stalled in parliament. Reshuffle Questions John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and an analyst at the Atlantic Council, also questioned the merit of Zelenskiys sudden reshuffle. We all understood that he was a newbie and that there would be some changes, he told RFE/RL. The question is, what do those changes bring? There is a default position to expect the worst because of independent Ukraines nearly 30-year history of promising reform and not delivering. In the latest reshuffle, Makarova was replaced by her deputy, Ihor Umanskiy. Dmytro Kuleba replaced Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko, who was appointed as deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Andriy Taran, a retired general, is the new defense minister, replacing Andriy Zahorodnyuk. The new health minister is Illya Yemets, who served in that post for several months in the administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych. Controversial Interior Minister Arsen Avakov kept his job. The new ministers of economy, education, energy, and environment have not been appointed yet. Shmyhal, 44, was named deputy prime minister in February. He previously served as head of the regional administration in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, where he made a name for himself as a business-friendly governor. In 2017-2019, Shmyhal worked as an executive at DTEK, an energy holding owned by Ukraines richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Shmyhal has rejected allegations that he was close to Akhmetov, saying he never met him and was hired to work for DTEK through a competitive process. A native of Lviv, he headed several business enterprises for most of the previous decade before entering the civil service at the Lviv regional administration. He has studied abroad, including in Belgium, Canada, Georgia, and Finland. Responding on March 3 to reports that Shmyhal had been chosen to replace Honcharuk, Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense with responsibility for Ukraine, cautioned Kyiv against allowing oligarchs a pathway back to power. If you do, you will lose the support of the Western community, said Carpenter, who is now a managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, during a March 3 conference dedicated to Ukraine. So much is at stake here and if we see the influence of people like Dmytro Firtash, Rinat Akhmetov, and other oligarchs through proxies, through people more beholden to their interests than to the national interest, then the [reform] project starts to unwind. I hope that they consider very wisely who they put into what jobs, he added. A 35-year-old former lawyer and a political newcomer, Honcharuk was named prime minister in August 2019. He immediately fell into disfavor with Ihor Kolomoyskiy, the powerful oligarch that backed Zelenskiy. Honcharuk fought Kolomoyskiys attempts to recover PrivatBank, which was nationalized in 2016 following a $5.6 billion bailout. Western financial institutions could turn down Ukrainian aid requests if Kyiv hands the bank back to Kolomoyskiy. Some analysts have speculated that Zelenskiys reshuffle is an attempt to get other Ukrainian oligarchs, such as Akhmetov, to back his standoff with Kolomoyskiy. Melinda Haring, a Ukraine analyst at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, rejected that interpretation, calling it a fat chance. Honcharuk previously submitted his resignation on January 17, amid a scandal surrounding an audio recording in which he allegedly disparages the economic knowledge and competence of both himself and Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy at the time declined to accept it. Honcharuk and his ministers had submitted a land-market reform bill into parliament and turned over several hundred state-owned companies to be privatized in moves lauded by western governments and lenders. Land reform passed a first reading in parliament in November 2019, but opposition parties have submitted several thousand amendments, delaying its passage in a second reading. Western analysts have said land reform would be the biggest driver of Ukraines economic growth in the coming years. Ukraine is one of just six countries, including Cuba and North Korea, that doesnt have a land market. However, powerful interests inside the country have been opposed to land reform and other policies pushed by the Honcharuk government. The government changes just create another period of uncertainty and instability and possibly delay what we thought could be a major year for Ukraines economy, said Williams. Zelenskiy won a landslide victory in April 2019 on promises to end endemic corruption, attract foreign investment, and end the war in the east with Russian-backed separatists. Three months later, his Servant Of The People party swept national elections, giving him unprecedented power to push through major economic reforms that had been stalled by oligarchs for decades. However, public trust in Zelenskiy has slid from nearly 80 percent in September to around 50 percent last month, polling figures from Kyiv-based policy center Razumkov Center show. Famous Polish film director Roman Polanski is a very wicked man. Or, to be more precise, 43 years ago he did a very wicked thing. By his own admission, he engaged in unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, Samantha Jane Gailey, now Geimer, in Los Angeles. She claimed in court that she had been drugged, raped, and forced to submit to various sexual perversions. Polanski denied he had done these things but, following a plea bargain, confessed to unlawful sexual intercourse. When he feared he was about to be flung into jail, he fled the U.S. He has not returned there for fear of arrest. Famous Polish film director Roman Polanski is a very wicked man. Or, to be more precise, 43 years ago he did a very wicked thing This is the background to a huge furore over a film he has directed, An Officer And A Spy, which is based on a novel by the distinguished British author Robert Harris. It tells the true story of the treatment of Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was persecuted by the French authorities towards the end of the 19th century. By most accounts, it is a brilliant film. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. Last week, Polanski, who is 86, was awarded the prize for best director at the Cesars, the French Oscars. Whereupon leading actresses walked out in protest, and the ceremonys female host refused to continue. One star, Adele Haenel, who is known as the face of the French #MeToo movement, sarcastically shouted Long live paedophilia, bravo paedophilia before storming out. Polanski did not go to Venice to accept the award, as he may have been arrested, extradited back to the US and jailed for his statutory rape conviction. His wife who stars in the film, Emmanuelle Seigner, collected the award on his behalf My sympathies are entirely with those who couldnt stomach the feting of Polanksi. They were being asked to celebrate the success of a convicted plus absconding and seemingly unrepentant rapist. I think I might have walked out too. But expressing ones personal feelings is one thing. Trying to have a film banned is another. That is effectively what has happened to An Officer And A Spy as a result of pressure from movements such as #MeToo. Although the film has been seen by more than 1.5 million people in France, and by many others throughout Europe, it will not be shown in Britain, America, Ireland or anywhere else in the English-speaking world. Its distributors apparently fear a backlash if it is shown in these countries, where feminist lobby groups are more powerful than they are on the Continent. One could justly say that the film has been boycotted. Polanski (pictured with Sharon Tate) was struck by tragedy in 1969 when his then pregnant wife was murder along with four friends by members of the Manson family at the couple's Hollywood home Is this right? I dont think so. It seems to me there is a distinction between on the one hand expressing personal distaste for Polanski and electing not to see his film, and on the other hand stopping everyone else from watching it. The sins of an artist should not be confused with the work of art which he or she produces. It is a hard truth to swallow that many proficient, and even great, artists are bad people sometimes very bad. Let me offer some examples. About two decades ago, there was a huge controversy about the artist Eric Gill, and in particular his beautifully wrought Stations Of The Cross, which adorn the nave of the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London. Gill, who died in 1940, was a devout Catholic. But long after his death he was outed as a serial paedophile who sexually abused two of his daughters and had an incestuous relationship with one of his sisters. He even experimented with bestiality. How, it was asked, could Gill be celebrated by the Church? The uncomfortable fact was that a man who was indubitably a dangerous sexual deviant had, in his stone carvings of Christs Passion, movingly portrayed the Divine. Polanski did not go to Venice to accept the award, as he may have been arrested, extradited back to the US and jailed for his statutory rape conviction During the controversy I went along to Westminster Cathedral. I found, admittedly after something of a struggle, that I was able to put the enormous human failings of Eric Gill out of my mind and appreciate his wonderful carvings as works of high religious art. If the works of bad men they are usually men were banned, there would be many vacant spaces in our art galleries, and a lot of empty shelves in our remaining public libraries. The wonderful Italian painter Caravaggio was often violent, and, in 1606, killed a man in a brawl. He fled after being convicted of murder. Like Eric Gill, he produced works of great religious art. Paul Gauguin, the 19th-century French post-impressionist whose fine portraits were exhibited recently at the National Gallery in London, took three under-age wives in Tahiti, and infected them all with syphilis. He eventually died from syphilitic complications at the age of 54. Writers are sometimes no better. The 16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe was frequently in trouble with the law before being stabbed to death in a brawl in a Deptford pub. Charles Dickens anatomised unforgettable rogues in his magnificent novels. In his own life he dumped his wife Catherine (who had borne him ten children) to take up with the young actress Ellen Ternan. He even publicly accused Catherine of having a mental disorder. And so it goes on. The American novelist Norman Mailer stabbed his wife with a penknife in 1960, and nearly killed her. His compatriot, the great modernist poet Ezra Pound, was a fascist and a supporter of Mussolini, as well as an anti-Semite. Nor are composers exempt from moral failings. German Richard Wagner was a virulent anti-Semite whose views influenced Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Is his music any less sublime? Whether a wholly wicked person could produce a great work of art may be seriously doubted since art demands a high degree of human empathy, of which very bad people seem incapable. But it is surely incontrovertible that many great artists, whose works we revere, have been no better than the rest of us, and sometimes a lot worse. And yet I suspect that most people can see that we should try to appreciate a work of art without dwelling on the moral imperfections of the person who produced it. So why boycott Polanskis film? I admit there is a difficulty in that he is still on this earth. The sins of dead artists inevitably recede into history, and are bound to bother us less than those of living ones. The fact that Roman Polanski has not paid any legal penalty for his crime, and that his victim is alive and presumably still affected by the attack (though she says she has forgiven him) is undoubtedly troubling. I certainly think he should return to the U.S. and finally accept his punishment. But I should be astounded if he did. After all these years, he appears to have convinced himself that his crime was less heinous than it was if a crime at all. Attempts by him to compare his own treatment with the terrible punishments meted out to Dreyfus, the hero of his film the poor man spent five years on Devils Island in French Guiana and another seven trying to clear his name have understandably infuriated Polanskis critics. Abominate the man, or his act, but let Roman Polanskis film be watched that is my message. It is simply one of the mysteries of life that bad men can produce good, sometimes great, art. Presidential candidate of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Davit Babayan and his team today visited the Martuni and Hadrut regions of Artsakh, as reported the pre-election headquarters of leader of the Conservative Party of Artsakh Davit Babayan. He said the primary goal is to turn Artsakh into a democratic and social state and added that the other objectives are to increase effectiveness of public administration, ensure justice and lead the right human resource policy. The candidate said he will promote the development of small and medium-sized businesses and ease their tax burden and promised to continue to be active in politics, regardless of the results of the elections. During a meeting with the residents of Jivani village, the presidential candidate talked about the problems with the settlement that is in the process of being resettled. All the villagers are certain that road construction will lay the foundation for the solutions to all issues. However, the presidential candidate also talked about the actions to be carried out in other sectors as well, the press release reads. ExxonMobil has released a model framework for industry-wide methane regulations and urged stakeholders, policymakers and governments to develop comprehensive, enhanced rules to reduce emissions in all phases of production. ExxonMobil has been applying the principles of this framework to our oil and natural gas operations for several years, resulting in improvements that demonstrate whats practicable and achievable, said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation. We offer this blueprint to companies across our industry as they consider how to make improvements to reduce the sectors methane emissions. Our industry has developed high-tech advances to curb emissions, and we also hope this framework will be helpful for governments as they develop new regulations, said Woods. The ExxonMobil model framework is based on its voluntary methane reduction programme, which involves prioritised replacement of components with a high-leak potential at production sites, technology enhancements to infrastructure and substantial data gathering and research. More comprehensive than current federal rules, the proposed regulations would apply to new and existing sources. The company has reduced methane emissions from its US unconventional operations by 20 per cent since 2016 and remains on track to reach its target of 15 per cent reductions across the company. To achieve meaningful reductions in methane emissions, regulations should address and include four primary requirements: *Leak detection and repair programmes across oil and gas infrastructure; *Minimisation of venting; *Operational equipment controls; and *Record keeping and reporting to support agency enforcement. ExxonMobil has advocated in the US for a cost-effective, federal regulatory standard to manage methane emissions from both new and existing oil and natural gas facilities. The company will continue to work constructively with state and federal regulators, industry and nongovernmental organisations to develop and implement cost-effective and reasonable methane-emission regulations. ExxonMobil supports the Methane Guiding Principles for reducing methane emissions across the natural gas value chain, which were signed in 2017. The guiding principles are being implemented in collaboration with many stakeholders, including the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Energy Agency, the International Gas Union, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Climate Investment Fund, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Sustainable Gas Institute, the Energy and Resources Institute and United Nations Environment. -- Tradearabia News Service TOYAHVALE After careful consultation with onsite contractors, Balmorhea State Parks closure has been extended to summer of this year, according to release from the Texas Parks and Wildlife. The extended closure will allow contractors to complete the four major construction projects without compromising the visitors experience and safety, according to the press release. Construction projects in progress at Balmorhea State Park include removal and replacement of all existing septic systems, replacement of the chain-link fence surrounding the pool to one made of wrought iron and limestone, reconstruction of the CCC pergola near the diving board, campground and San Solomon Courts repairs, and renovations to the managers house and concession building. The Westchester lawyer who has tested positive for coronavirus lives in a wealthy neighborhood on a block dotted with spacious homes where many families have quarantined themselves. While they are stocking up on food and other essentials, most told DailyMail.com they aren't too worried they'll catch the potentially deadly disease. The attorney remains in intensive care at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Health officials said he has severe pneumonia that put him in more danger than others from the disease. His family, including his wife, son and daughter, remain quarantined in their home in New Rochelle. A neighbor, who initially drove the attorney to the hospital when he started suffering symptoms last Friday night, is also under self-quarantine at home. One thousand people who may have come into contact with the attorney, who commuted every day to midtown Manhattan, have been ordered to self-quarantine as the United States death toll rises to 11. When approached by DailyMail.com, the lawyer's wife declined to answer questions and put an orange blanket on the window of their door to avoid prying eyes. An elderly woman stood behind her in the alcove of their Tudor style house, also refusing to talk. Despite the coronavirus quarantine, the upscale neighborhood seemed at ease, with parents playing with their kids outside and paying visits to their neighbors' homes. A 40-year-old surgeon stood outside in his yard, watching his three young children play on monkey bars, telling DailyMail.com his kids were asked to self-quarantine but added: 'We're not walking around with respirators on, in a hazmat suits.' The Westchester lawyer who has tested positive for coronavirus lives in a wealthy neighborhood on a block dotted with spacious homes where many families have quarantined themselves. Pictured: A house in the upscale New Rochelle area Next door to the sick lawyer's home, a priest and his assistant pulled up in an SUV, opened the trunk and carried cases of Pellegrino and coke along with a few bags of groceries to the door of a neighbor who was also sick and self quarantined WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS? The virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Advertisement His children attend SARS Jewish day school in Riverdale, which is closed because of the virus. He said: 'We've been asked to stay home, despite lack of symptoms, by the department of health. That seems reasonable for the time being. So we're staying home. 'It's just us, I guess,' he said, pointing to his kids. 'Not so terrible.' He's also following guidelines for hand washing and general hygiene, but said: 'I'm not overly concerned about getting sick. I have more concern over the mass hysteria and issues with supermarkets and food and supplies and things like that.' He said he feels safe outside but doesn't want to come too close to potential victims. 'The CDC says (keep) six feet (away),' he said. 'Luckily we don't live in the heart of Manhattan. I'm outside on my yard, so I think we're okay.' Asked about the infected lawyer, he said, 'I know the lawyer, but not well. He seems to be in serious condition, so we're all concerned from him.' Across the street from the lawyer, a middle aged man wearing a yarmulke was home, in the middle of the workday, with his school aged daughter and son, telling DailyMail.com many in the area are worried, adding: 'We've decided to stay home, just to be safe.' He continued: 'I have the ability to work from home, so I am. Many don't have had luxury. People are doing whatever's right for them.' 'I don't know what to believe, there's so much conflicting information out there, so much fear. I just listened to [Governor Andrew] Cuomo's press conference. I don't know what to think.' The man said his decision to stay home is voluntary. 'You can't force a city of thousands of people to self quarantine even if you want to,' he said. 'It's not a police state.' Across the street, another resident also wearing a yarmulke, told DailyMail.com: 'We're all self quarantined from the synagogue.' Next door to the sick lawyer's home, a priest and his assistant pulled up in an SUV, opened the trunk and carried cases of Pellegrino and coke along with a few bags of groceries to the door of the neighbor who was also sick and self quarantined. Another man, a psychiatrist, stopped by a neighbor's home just down the block. Asked how he's dealing with the threat, he said: 'I wash my hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap and I use Purell. I don't know what's too much. It's a disease we don't know a lot about yet and we have no treatments as far as we know.' He's not locking himself inside, though. 'I don't think that's necessary,' he said. At nearby ACME supermarket, a local woman named Faith, in her 70s, loaded three, six packs of Poland Springs water into her shopping cart, which was already filled up with cans of tomato sauce and two packs of Goya brown rice, to add to the 10lbs she's already stockpiled at home. 'I'm not panicking, but I'm buying a little extra just in case,' she said. 'I mean, I just heard there's six people in New Rochelle who have the virus. Where are we now? That's right, New Rochelle.' 'I can live in my house for two months now, me and my husband,' she noted. 'My one daughter, she's freaking out, and she's a biologist. I said to her, 'you can come to my house when you run out of food.' At nearby supermarket (pictured), a woman loaded water, cans and rice into her shopping cart. Two aisles over, a worker scrambled to restock shelves of products that were selling rapidly, including toilet paper and disinfectants. 'They're buying Lysol like crazy,' he told DailyMail.com The number of coronavirus cases in New York has now jumped to six after the wife, two children and neighbor of a Manhattan attorney who is currently hospitalized (above) with the disease all tested positive Two aisles over, a worker scrambled to restock shelves of products that were selling rapidly, including toilet paper and disinfectants. 'They're buying Lysol like crazy,' he told DailyMail.com. Following the positive tests, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said about 1,000 people in Westchester County and New York City will be contacted by health professionals and asked to self-quarantine. They include some 300 people from New Rochelle synagogue the infected family attends, two people at the son's university, an unconfirmed number of students at the daughter's school in the Bronx, seven employees and one intern at the Manhattan law firm and eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital. The lawyer commuted every day on the Metro-North Railroad from his home in New Rochelle to his small law firm across from Grand Central Terminal. Seven law firm employees were identified as being at risk of coronavirus after having close, prolonged contact with the infected attorney. Yeshiva University, the private Jewish university where the lawyer's diagnosed 20-year-old son is a student, canceled classes at its Washington Heights campus on Wednesday as a precaution. The 50-year-old attorney, who lives in Westchester County and commutes to his midtown Manhattan law firm (above), was confirmed as the state's second case on Tuesday The SAR High School in the Bronx (pictured) where the lawyer's diagnosed 14-year-old daughter is a student was shut down after his positive test was announced Tuesday The SAR High School in the Bronx where the lawyer's diagnosed 14-year-old daughter is a student was shut down after his positive test was announced Tuesday. Health officials on Tuesday directed the family's synagogue, Young Israel of New Rochelle, to halt services immediately. Congregants who attended February 22 services as well as a funeral and a bat mitzvah on February 23 were directed to quarantine themselves at least through Sunday. The sudden outbreak came after New York health officials revealed on Monday that a female healthcare worker in Manhattan, aged in her 30s, was confirmed to be the state's first case. In what he said was a piece of good news, Governor Cuomo announced that tests in other suspected cases around the state had come back negative, including for the husband of the healthcare worker. The husband and wife had recently traveled together to Iran where the disease is widespread. It comes as the death toll from the coronavirus reached 11 in the US on Wednesday. Ten deaths have occurred in Washington state with at least six of them linked to the senior living facility, Life Care Center, in Seattle. BART reports a major delay on the San Francisco iine in the SFO, Millbrae, Daly City and East Bay directions due to a medical emergency at the Glen Park station, which has been closed since about 11 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is providing mutual aid Muni service between Balboa Park and Embarcadero station. There is limited train service between the Daly City and 24th St stations. Scientists have created an environmentally-friendly bendable concrete that could save buildings from buckling during earthquakes. An Australian research team developed the material, which is made out of waste products such as fly ash a by-product of coal-fired power stations. Its suited to earthquake zones in countries such as Japan and New Zealand where the brittle nature of conventional concrete leads to catastrophic structural damage. A video shows the new creation the engineered geopolymer composite yielding impressively under a weight that snaps conventional concrete in two. The material can bend under load making it suited for construction in earthquake zones in counrties such as Japan where earthquakes are particularly damaging Our laboratory test results showed that this novel concrete is about 400-times more bendable than normal concrete, yet has similar strength, said Dr Behzad Nematollahi at the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. Building in areas vulnerable to that sort of natural disaster is one of the main uses that we can see for this material. Its quality has a massive effect on the resilience of our infrastructure such as buildings, bridges and tunnels. Dr Behzad Nematollahi with a sample of the novel concrete developed at Swinburne. The production of this material requires 36 per cent less energy than conventional concrete Traditional concrete is not only prone to shattering when stretched or bent, but produces a huge carbon footprint. This is because the production of cement involves heating limestone to extremely high temperatures, which releases carbon dioxide. Using industrial waste products makes this process which has been patented by the team of developers much more sustainable. The team used a low-calcium fly ash supplied from Gladstone power station in Queensland, Australia and two types of slags a glass-like by-product formed in smelting and welding. HOW IS CONCRETE MADE? In its simplest form, concrete is a mixture of paste and aggregates, or rocks. The paste, composed of cement and water, coats the surface of the fine and coarse aggregates. Through a chemical reaction called hydration, the paste hardens and gains strength to form the rock-like mass known as concrete. Within this process lies the key to a remarkable trait of concrete: it's plastic and malleable when newly mixed, strong and durable when hardened. These qualities explain why one material, concrete, can build skyscrapers, bridges, sidewalks and superhighways, houses and dams. Polymer concrete is a type of concrete that uses polymers, typically resins, to replace lime-type cement as a binder. Advertisement Production of this bendy concrete requires about 36 per cent less energy and emits up to 76 per cent less carbon dioxide compared to other flexible concrete methods. The inclusion of short polymeric fibres in the mix a type of man-made fibre that used synthetic chemicals creates multiple hair-sized cracks when put under tension to prevent it from breaking. Cracks in conventional concrete can make it less resilient against earthquakes or tornadoes, as well as man-made forces, such as bomb blasts in terrorist attacks. This new creation is able to bend when force is applied to it, meaning buildings made from it will be more likely to remain intact during earthquakes, hurricanes, blasts or projectile impacts. This is vital because of the reliance on concrete in new infrastructure projects worldwide. Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world in fact, it is the second-most consumed material by human beings after water, Dr Nematollahi said. The team detail their sustainable concrete in the journal Construction and Building Materials. Traditional concrete is not only prone to shatter when being stretched or bent, but also has a huge carbon footprint due to calcination of limestone Bendy concrete is not an entirely new creation one laboratory at the University of Michigan has been taking its inspiration from iridescent material on the inside of sea snail shells to develop its own version. Nacre, the coating on the inside of sea snail shells, is highly pliable, allowing the shell to resist impacts without fracturing. This is thanks to a natural layer of elastic polymer that allows the shells to slip from side to side under stress. The University of Michigans resulting creation engineered cementitious composite, or ECC -- has 300 to 500 times more tensile strain capacity than normal concrete. Victor C Li, Professor of materials science at the University of Michigan, previously wrote that concretes brittleness is to blame for the woeful state of US infrastructure. This is what made US earthquakes such as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in Northern California and the 1994 Northridge quake in LA so economically damaging, as well as fatal. A woman who fell into an open grave as she sympathised with the chief mourner at a funeral has settled a High Court action for damages. Margaret Walsh (77) sued the undertakers, the gravediggers and the local council which owns the graveyard in Balgriffin, north Dublin. The defendants denied her claims of negligence. Ms Walsh, of Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry, was attending the funeral nearly nine years ago of a first cousin when she fell into the grave and allegedly hurt her back, arm, hip and neck. She claimed that on September 3, 2011 when she toppled into the grave, earth started coming in on top of her and she suffered a tremendous shock. It was claimed she had to spend ten days in hospital and a consultant doctor noted she sustained multiple soft tissue injuries in a very unusual accident from which she was allegedly quite traumatised. When the case came before Mr Justice Michael Hanna on Wednesday, he was told it had been settled. The judge was told the case could be struck out against all parties with costs against all the defendants except the graveyard owners, Fingal County Council, which is not liable for any costs. The details of the settlement are confidential. Ms Walsh had sued undertakers, Allied Funeral Services trading as Stafford and Jennings North Strand Road, Dublin and Allied Funeral Services Ireland Ltd of the same address; Fingal County Council; and gravediggers Paul Tierney and Martin Molloy trading as TierneyMolloy of Kileek, St Margarets, Co Dublin. She claimed she was allowed to walk near the open grave when the defendants ought to have known it was unsafe and dangerous for her to do so. There was an alleged failure to warn her of the dangers. It was further claimed there was a failure to provide a secure foothold and to properly guard or fence the open grave. She also claimed the open grave created a trap for her. It was further claimed there was a failure to institute an adequate system of inspection and maintenance of the open grave whereby the alleged defect in the excavation guarding of the grave might have been detected and remedied Ms Walsh did not suffer a bone injury but claimed she was sore around the thoracic region and lower back and was stiff and restricted in the left shoulder after the accident. Her cheeks were also sore and she had been struck in the face by her handbag as she fell. It was claimed that Ms Walsh was extremely emotionally upset and embarrassed by the incident. She claimed she was restricted in her ordinary everyday activities and her ability to work had also been impacted. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe A long-term Los Angeles City Council president and a state senator with a number of recent legislative wins appear to be headed for a runoff in the race for a seat on the powerful L.A. County Board of Supervisors. As of 4:09 a.m. Wednesday, former L.A. City Council president Herb Wesson and state Senator Holly Mitchell were leading the race for the 2nd District. Wesson received just under 32% of the vote, and Mitchell stood at about 26%. Wesson raised more money and won the endorsement of the L.A. County Democratic Party. But in the first batch of results on election night, Mitchell took a narrow lead. "I'm cautiously optimistic," Mitchell said. "I want to see the final numbers, but this was a great way to start the night." Later in the evening, Wesson pulled ahead of Mitchell slightly. He said he's ready to face her in November. "It's gonna be a tight race," Wesson said. "We've got seven, eight months to go. We're right there with pathways to victory." TOP CANDIDATES HAVE DEEP ROOTS IN THE DISTRICT This is a job that directly impacts the lives of millions of Angelenos -- even if the race hasn't received as much attention as other contests in this election. Both candidates have represented communities in the 2nd District for years, and each have pointed to recent victories when arguing why they're best for the job. Under Wesson's leadership, L.A. City Council put the city on the path to a $15 minimum wage and created a social equity program in the city's nascent cannabis industry for members of communities disproportionately harmed by the so-called war on drugs. Senator Mitchell has been in the state Legislature since 2010. Last year she sponsored legislation banning landlords from turning away renters solely because they're using government-funded housing vouchers. She's also behind the law that made California the first state to ban discrimination against black people who wear natural hairstyles in schools and workplaces. WHAT'S AT STAKE? The position is one of only five seats on the county Board of Supervisors, who collectively oversee a $30 billion annual budget. That budget pays for everything from mental health treatment to homeless services, public health to law enforcement. Like other supervisorial districts, the 2nd District is enormous. It stretches from Culver City to the USC campus and down to Carson, covering most of South L.A.. It's home to about 2 million people (larger than many U.S. states), and about half of L.A.'s black population. The incumbent, Mark Ridley-Thomas, is termed out. He has served as a co-chair on the Governor's homelessness task force. Ridley-Thomas is now running for Wesson's current city council seat. HOMELESSNESS: TOP ISSUE FOR VOTERS About a third of L.A.'s homeless population lives in the 2nd District, and voters like Fanny Cruz say it's a top issue. "It was noticeable before but now I don't think you can drive more than two blocks without seeing it," she said. Cruz didn't vote for Wesson or Mitchell. The field was crowded with other candidates, and no one came close to cracking the 50% needed to win the seat outright. Both Wesson and Mitchell have proposed putting more funding toward helping residents on the verge of homelessness, and toward developing more low-income housing. Gentrification is another dominant issue in the 2nd District. Both candidates opposed SB-50, a state bill that would have allowed taller and denser buildings near transit. They argued such development could displace low-income communities of color. WHO ARE THE OTHER CANDIDATES? Other candidates in the race included Jake Jeong, who rallied community opposition to a homeless shelter in Koreatown, and Jan Perry, an L.A. city councilmember from 2001 to 2013. 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The NCLAT on Wednesday set aside the order passed by the CCI and directed the director general to investigate the business practices of Flipkart in an appeal filed by the AIOVA. Chennai: After getting some respite from the competition watchdog in the Karnataka High Court recently, e-commerce companies now have something more to worry about. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has asked the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to initiate a probe against Flipkart in a case filed by the All-India Online Vendors Associ-ation. (AIOVA) The NCLAT on Wednesday set aside the order passed by the CCI and directed the director general to investigate the business practices of Flipkart in an appeal filed by the AIOVA. The CCI in November 2018 had absolved Flipkart of alleged unfair business practices through abuse of its dominant position. The AIOVA had alleged abuse of market dominance by Flipkart. We are delighted with today's order. We are positive after the e-commerce study findings that CCI will penalise these platforms for violating various provisions of the Competition Act, said Chanakya Basa, counsel for AIOVA. Reacting to the order, a Flipkart spokesperson said: "we understand that the NCLAT has issued an order in relation to the AIOVA appeal. We are currently awaiting a copy of the order". Both Amazon and Flipkart had recently received a respite when Karnataka High Court had stayed a CCI probe against them. In that case filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh against the e-commerce biggies, the HC had noted that CCI should have also called AIOVA in the matter before passing the impugned order. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a briefing on the administration's coronavirus response in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, on March 3, 2020. Standing with Pence, from L to R, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Debbie Birx, White House Corona Virus Response Coordinator, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) White House Task Force Addresses Coronavirus Testing Problems WASHINGTONThe White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, has ramped up efforts to expand the countrys testing capacities, which are critical for detecting and fighting the virus that causes COVID-19. We are addressing the testing issue in a variety of ways, Pence said on March 3 during a press briefing at the White House in response to complaints about lack of testing capacity. He said the test kits developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were being shipped. We should have 2,500 kits out before the end of this week, he said, which will have the capability of testing 1.5 million people. In addition, a company called Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) is ramping up manufacturing and will be able to ship an additional 1 million capacity by next week, he added. A doctor on March 2 warned that hospitals across the United States are unprepared to detect and respond to the coronavirus. Dr. Matt McCarthy, a staff physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, told CNBC that the lack of testing capacity hampered him. Im here to tell you, right now, at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I dont have it at my fingertips, he said. I still have to make my case, plead to test people. This is not good. We know that there are 88 cases in the United States. There are going to be hundreds by the middle of the week. Theres going to be thousands by next week. And this is a testing issue. Speaking at the press briefing, Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said that the recent shipments would significantly increase the capacity around the country for testing. Pence also announced that any American would be tested for coronavirus if deemed necessary. We will issue new guidance from the CDC that will make it clear that any American can be testedno restrictionssubject to doctors orders, Pence said, adding that the guidance would be effective immediately. To address the testing issues, the task force held a meeting with the CEOs of some of the nations leading commercial laboratories on March 4. Congress Reaches Funding Deal Meanwhile, congressional negotiators on March 4 reached a bipartisan emergency funding deal to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. A congressional aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) told The Epoch Times that the deal provides $8.3 billion in new funding to federal agencies to help states and the federal government fight the coronavirus. The bill is expected to reach the presidents desk by the end of this week. As of the time of this writing, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has risen to nine and confirmed cases reached 80, according to the CDC. Speaking at the press conference, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said a coronavirus vaccine could be ready for testing on humans soon. Still, it would take at least a year to determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective, even though were going at rocket speed. The task force also announced that the Office of Management and Budget would be issuing new guidance for employee travel. It will direct all federal government agencies to review internal travel policies to adhere to State Department advisories with regard to international travel, Pence said. Pence also addressed the face mask shortage in the country. He said that the country had reserves of 43 million masks, and there were plans to expand the production of masks. Its not necessary for the American people to buy masks, he said, stressing that masks are most needed by health care providers. Personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators are in high demand in the United States, with the supply of the masks being strained due to panic-shopping. Health care officials have been asking people not to use masks if theyre healthy and not infected. A recent poll found that 77 percent of Americans are confident in the federal governments ability to tackle a potential coronavirus outbreak. The result was from a Feb. 316 Gallup poll, which began a few days after the Trump administration announced travel restrictions from China. The result topped the confidence that Americans reported during the previous outbreaks between 2005 and 2017, including Zika, Ebola, the swine flu (H1N1), and the bird flu. Critics say the recent death tolls in the United States may have lowered the confidence. President Donald Trump formed a Coronavirus Task Force to combat the spread of the disease with an all-of-government approach. He appointed Pence on Feb. 26 to oversee the task force and praised his experience in handling health crises during his time as Indiana governor in 2014. Pence announced that the task force would hold a daily press briefing to provide updates. Government has defended its decision to ban the importation of salvaged vehicles, also known as accident cars, as well as second-hand vehicles of more than 10 years old. The proposal is part of the Customs Amendment Bill, 2020, which was passed on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at the second reading stage in Parliament. The Bill will be fully passed after the amendments are debated as the government has predicted an estimated revenue loss of GHS802 million over the next three years after the review of the policy. But this expected to be partially offset by the additional revenue from duties on vehicles not covered by the programme, according to the joint report of the Joint Committee on Finance and Trade, Industry and Tourism. Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah defended government's decision to impose the ban on Eyewitness News on Tuesday. He said it will among other things make roads in the country safe and make the acquisition of cars affordable. What we want to do is to make cars in Ghana very cheap so the person who is tempted to bring in an over-aged vehicle because it is cheaper never minding the fact that it leads to a lot of emissions or someone who will buy a condemned vehicle and assemble can now buy one of the new cheap vehicles manufactured in Ghana. How do we do that? In the investment plan that we will bring and approve, we will negotiate with them [assembly plants] on the sale parameters and prices so that we ensure that we are not pricing out the Ghanaian who wanted to use condemned vehicles which are not safe. Those who are dealers in condemned and over-aged vehicles will again through this investment policy get the opportunity to engage these manufacturers to find ways of on-boarding them to become the new dealers of these vehicles. So in the end, we are able to develop a local market for cars manufactured here in Ghana, create more jobs and income and bring more safety on our roads, he added. Unfair ban Car dealers Meanwhile, the Automobile Dealers Union Ghana (ADUG) has described the move as unfortunate claiming that the decision is unfair. If the car's fender, bonnet, boot, or other part is broken which somebody can buy and import into the country, I don't think that those ones should be banned. But the ones that cannot be driven at all, a vehicle that has been damaged or caught by fire or the body is totally condemned, nobody will even invest their money in and buy them to import them into this country. So if you go on to say that there is a broken part and for that matter, those things are not going to be allowed, then I think that it's rather unfortunate. We have a lot of cars that are even older, even more than 40 to 50 years old, and they are still allowed to be driven on our roads. What are you going to do with those ones but you say you are going to ban a car that has just a few parts broken, the Secretary of the Union, Clifford Ansu stated on Eyewitness News. Analysis Data available from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Customs Division, indicates that between 2005 and 2016, more than one million vehicles were imported into the country; representing an average of 100,000 cars per year. Out of this figure, 80 percent were second-hand vehicles. According to some quarters the trend needs to be reversed to allow for the development, nurturing and flourishing of a competitive automotive industry in Ghana. Currently, there are penalties for over-aged cars ranging between 5% and 100% of the total cost, insurance and freight of an imported car, between 10 years, and those over 35 years at the country's ports. Automobile giants like VW, Toyota, Renault and Nissan, have all expressed interest to set up assembly plants in Ghana, aside from local car manufacturer, Kantanka Automobile Company Limited , which is seeking government's support to expand its production for the local market. citinewsroom DNY59/iStock(NEW YORK) -- More than 65% of college graduates have acquired student loan debt, which adds up to over $1 trillion in overall U.S. debt. First Aid Beauty is ready to help change that. The popular skincare brand, sold at mass retailers, has introduced their Fab Aid initiative -- a commitment to pay off $1 million in student debt. First Aid Beauty's mission is to rescue people from their biggest skin concerns," the brand wrote in a statement. "Now, we are launching the Fab Aid initiative to rescue recent college graduates from the burden of paying off their student loans." To be considered for the aid, interested 2018 to 2020 graduates from an accredited four-year college or university are encouraged to apply online, and submit an application that includes a two-minute video on how student loans have affected their life, as well as an optional essay with any additional information. First Aid Beauty will select recipients along with a six-person advisory board, including notables such as Bowdoin College President Emeritus Barry Mills, finance expert Bola Sokunbi and actress Laura Marano. Grand prize winners can receive up to $100,000 for student loan repayment and will be announced on Nov. 10. Winners will also receive 10% of sales from a limited-edition First Aid Beauty FAB AID Ultra Repair Cream, which retails for $42 (8 ounces) and $14 (2 ounces). There's no purchase necessary to submit an application for the First Aid Beauty Fab Aid contest, but you must be a U.S. or Canada resident to be considered. Full terms can be found on First Aid Beauty's website. The submission deadline is 5 p.m. on Aug. 31. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Conversational AI platform provider to showcase its app, One, by Active.Ai, at Finastra Universe New York NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra customers can now consume Active.Ai's conversational AI retail banking app via the FusionStore. Banks and credit unions will be able to quickly deploy AI avatars to engage their customers and members 24x7 in the banking channel of their choice. "Voice and messaging are greatly transforming client engagement in financial services," said Ravishankar, Co-Founder and CEO of Active.Ai. "We are already working with Finastra customers globally, and we look forward to delivering these experiences at scale using FusionFabric.cloud capabilities." Active.Ai helps banks and credit unions supercharge customer support by creating intelligent virtual assistants, bringing automation and insightful customer engagement while reducing support costs. Its conversational banking technology uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine intelligence to enable customers to have natural dialogues over messaging, voice or IoT devices. Key features of the app include: Pre-built workflows, pre-trained datasets, and pre-certified integration with Finastra for balance queries and fund transfers Highly customizable features including business rules, custom responses, branding APIs available for extending features Supports iOS, Android, Web apps, Facebook virtual agent and skills for Alexa and Google Active.Ai currently services millions of monthly conversational banking sessions in 10 countries across five continents, with a very high accuracy rate. Finastra's North American customers can now take advantage of this proven and scalable solution using pre-built integrations. "Conversational banking is the next big thing in consumer banking, but financial institutions aren't expected to become experts in AI in order to offer these services to their customers," said Eli Rosner, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Finastra. "At Finastra, we are championing 'innovation through collaboration,' bringing our clients easy access to innovative and fully-vetted fintechs that provide the capabilities they need. For financial institutions, that means consuming the latest technologies available in the market which connect to your core Finastra systems through FusionFabric.cloud. For fintechs, it's the ability to distribute their apps to the more than 9,000 financial institutions that use Finastra solutions, and implement with ease." Active.Ai will be showcasing the One by Active.Ai app at Finastra Universe New York on March 4th. Visitors to the demo pod can learn more about how it is bringing conversational AI to retail banking, as well as how Finastra's FusionStore can bring this powerful capability to your institution. About Finastra Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com About FusionFabric.cloud FusionFabric.cloud is a scalable, open and collaborative development platform built by Finastra. The secure and proven cloud platform encourages innovation, opening up the company's core systems through APIs so that third parties can develop applications on top. Fintechs can quickly build and promote apps worldwide. Financial institutions can access or create new services, which their customers are demanding, faster. Visit fusionfabric.cloud Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/967510/Finastra_Logo.jpg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/finastra Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinastraFS YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXMHbdfIgA6bzw_fsPN39bg Corporate headquarters 4 Kingdom Street Paddington London W2 6BD United Kingdom T +44 20 3320 5000 Conflux, a Beijing-based startup, has achieved a rare feat: winning official Chinese government support for a public, permissionless blockchain. When President Xi Jinping urged his countrymen to seize the opportunity afforded by blockchain technology last year, he wasnt encouraging them to trade cryptocurrencies or launch initial coin offerings (ICOs). On the contrary, the government has been cracking down on ICOs and exchanges since the salad days of 2017. While China tolerates crypto mining and public-network development projects such as NEO, Qtum and VeChain, Xi was talking about permissioned blockchains, a variety preferred by corporations, where only approved parties may participate. Related: The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham Against that backdrop, Conflux has forged important relationships with the authorities despite its plans for an open network. In December it received an unusual endorsement from the Shanghai government, which plans to provide Conflux with research grants and offices. Fan Long, a co-founder at Conflux, credits the firms big-name investors and academic pedigree. Formed in 2018, the firm has raised $35 million from backers including Sequoia China and Huobi Group via a private token sale in 2018. At least 10 out of Confluxs 18-member development team, including founders Fan Long and David Chow, earned degrees from the top computer science program at Tsinghua University. The investment from serious backers and educational background of the firms core engineering teams make us trustworthy to the Shanghai government, which eventually leads to its official public support, Long said. Related: Crypto Exchange Huobis DeFi-Focused Blockchain Released in Public Beta Beyond credentials, the company is adapting the public blockchain model to Chinas regulatory framework. It has pledged to never launch an ICO or get involved in public token sales in any form, with the caveat that if an exchange were to list Conflux tokens for secondary trading, it would be outside the firms control. Story continues The Shanghai government will write research grants and has built a research institute for the firm. It also plans to set up an incubation center for Conflux as early as June. Among public chain projects, few have won such an imprimatur; one similar example would be Nervos, which is working with state-owned bank CMBI. Conflux plans to launch its main network within the next two months with the possibility of another private token sale. The firm aims to attract strategic investors that could bring their decentralized applications (dapps) to the mainnet, Long said. Like many Chinese companies, Conflux has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Everyone at Conflux is working remotely from home. The health of everyone in the company should not be put into any risky situation, Christian Oertel, chief marketing officer at Conflux, said. Crypto-free blockchains For many engineers, starting a token project in China is a reputational gamble. Developers consider the stigma of cryptocurrency a bigger concern than the technical challenges. Often, the risk isnt worth the potential reward. Setting aside the rise of blockchain-related scams, China sees crypto as a threat to its financial stability. Borderless money could enable Chinese investors to circumvent tightening capital controls. It can also make financial transactions harder to trace and weaken the central banks ability to carry out effective monetary policies. In the two lists released by the Chinese government last year, the vast majority of the blockchain projects that intended to register with authorities were permissioned. Almost all of the existing investments in public decentralized blockchain projects in mainland China are from the private sector, said Omer Ozden, CEO of merchant banking firm RockTree Capital, which invests in Chinese blockchain firms. It is rare to see a public chain with its own token get official government support, he said. But tokens are integral to these projects, he said. The key question, according to Ozden, is the value of tokens to non-crypto funds. Can traditional exchanges in mainland China list them? If you look at investment in the blockchain space, investors are more interested in finding use cases in different industries for enterprise blockchain projects or blockchain-as-a-service platforms compared to public chains, said Chen Zhao, partner at Hong Kong-based CMCC Capital, who oversees blockchain equity investments in mainland China. On the other hand, there is a recognition that the token part of a blockchain is important, Ozden said. You need some kind of representation from different types of blockchains. You can still apply blockchain in other ways. If you remove the token from it, you take away some important pieces of the blockchain, Ozden said. The Chinese government is aware that a small number of projects it supports have native tokens, according to three investors who are familiar with the development process of state-backed financial technology projects. For investors, however, the concerns are diminished. Many of the so-called private token sales are between institutional investors who use legal entities outside China to process the deals, one investor said. In that way, these token investors can avoid any trouble in China. Growth ceiling The Chinese developer community has been instrumental in the rise of open-source blockchain projects such as NEO and Nervos. However, market forces are required to sustain further growth. I think blockchain has already reached most of the interested developers or hackers in China, Long said. All the growth of blockchain was driven by these communities and groups of hackers or developers who believe certain technologies are cool and they help build the networks. For the next development cycle, the public blockchains probably need support from institutional investors and the government, according to Long. You have to reach a wider user base which includes ordinary people besides tech-savvy hackers, meaning you have to find more sustainable market forces than speculation in the crypto market, he said. Long contends that Confluxs close relationship with the government increases its chances for mass adoption. While the governments funding will not cover all the costs, we are in a good position to maintain our operation and do things that we want to do for a long time, Long said. On the other hand, Long said Confluxs first priority is not to compromise the permissionless, decentralized nature of the network. I think there are a lot of anarchist feelings in the community, especially during the early days, Long said. Whatever our team is going to do will be public and open-source, which means there will be nothing secretive. In Conflux, there will be no special supernodes that could control a lot of transactions. A few other tech-savvy Chinese cities have been on the lookout for qualified public blockchain projects, Ozden said. We are seeing a lot of support from the Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou governments, Ozden said. Some of the companies tell us that the local government is really supportive of technology development, particularly in blockchain. Related Stories Luxembourg's lawmakers are set to make the practice of photographing or filming up a woman's skirt a criminal offence. The members of the parliamentary commission on justice worked on the proposition submitted by MP Gilles Roth on Wednesday morning. The bill concerns the practice called upskirting, which describes the sexually intrusive act of taking a photograph or filming up somebody's skirt without their permission. Broadly, the draft bill will also target voyeurism in general, including filming in changing rooms. Wann een a Zukunft, zum Beispill, ennert der Jupe vun enger Fra filmt oder Fotoen helt kann ee bestrooft ginn. D'Membere vun der Justizkommissioun hunn de Moien op enger Gesetzespropositioun vum Deputeierte @RothGilles geschafft. Mei Infoe https://t.co/Kx3P3brWzu pic.twitter.com/cOQknE1Wfu Chambre des Deputes (@ChambreLux) March 4, 2020 These acts do not currently fall under the realms of sexual aggression or invasion of privacy, which will change in the future with a specific draft bill creating a new criminal offence. Minister of Justice Sam Tanson welcomed the proposition by the opposition politician, highlighted that it would allow the government to regulate a gap in legislation. The minister believes that voyeurism should be integrated into the Criminal Code. Her viewpoint differs from that of the public prosecutor's office and the public prosecutors of Luxembourg City and Diekirch, who disagreed with the notion in a report from May 2019. In the past, reports concerning voyeurism with mobile phones or cameras were unable to be treated in court as there had not been a corresponding criminal offence. MPs will continue to work on Roth's draft bill, focusing specifically on sanctions. The Luxembourgish lawmakers will orientate themselves on French legislation, which outlines fines of up to 15,000 and prison sentences between eight days and a year. The legislative proposition was submitted by the CSV MP exactly a year ago. Press Release 4 March 2020 Capella Hotel Group introduces a new brand to its portfolio - Patina Hotels & Resorts. The sophisticated lifestyle brand was created for progressive travellers of a new generation. Patina Maldives, Fari Islands will be the first launch, with properties in Ubud, Bali and Sanya, China, also in development. Patina is one of two unique brands under Capella Hotel Group, which boasts a common legacy of crafted design combined with intuitive service. Advertisements Born out of guests' desire to honour individuality, Patina Hotels & Resorts is a response to the continual flow of life, seamlessly morphing to accommodate guests as they go about their routine without intermission. Inspired by independent minds with a deep appreciation of culture and community, and an unwavering devotion to the wellbeing of the planet, Patina Hotels & Resorts encourages guests to nurture a deeper connection with themselves and the world around them. The vibrant social spaces flow with the natural modes people are in, gently and intuitively providing for each guest's individual needs, ensuring that no two stays are the same. Located in extraordinary urban and natural landscapes, Patina brings unexpected, sophisticated and fresh experiences together to reveal layers of possibility. Set to open in Q4 2020, Patina Maldives is designed by renowned Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan. The resort offers 90 beach and water villas, ranging from one to three bedrooms, all of which embody a harmony of sanctuary and stimulation. Accompanying the villas, the resort also offers 20 Fari Studios. Located in the North Atoll of the Maldives, Fari Islands is home to island artistry an elevated Maldivian destination that celebrates nature, craft and connection. Patina Maldives is strategically situated on the island which forms the heart of the social destination: the Fari Marina is built around a vibrant Beach Club, with charming boutiques and a variety of handpicked, upscale food and drink options. Guests of Patina Maldives will enjoy freedom of movement across the islands, which gives every guest the choice of privacy and seclusion or a vibrant social centre. Nicholas Clayton, CEO of Capella Hotel Group said, "Patina Hotels & Resorts will become a new leader in progressive hospitality. Focusing on creating a seamless experience, the brand is refreshing, dynamic and modern, appealing to the blended lifestyle of today's curious and conscious consumer. We look forward to bringing the Patina vision to life when we open Patina Maldives later this year." Patina Maldives, Fari Islands is set to launch in Q4 2020. More information will be announced soon. For more information about Patina Hotels and Resorts, please visit https://patinahotels.com ABOUT FARI ISLANDS Fari Islands is an elevated Maldivian resort experience that celebrates nature, craft and connection. Anchored by three world-class hospitality brands, Fari Islands is located in the North Male Atoll of the Maldives, a 50-minute speedboat journey from Male International Airport. The archipelago of four islands also features the picturesque Fari Marina, which is built around a vibrant Fari Beach Club, charming boutiques and a selection of handpicked, upscale food and drink options. Spaces have been masterfully designed by renowned architects from Studio Mk27 (by Marcio Kogan), Kengo Kuma & Associates, and Kerry Hill Architects, to bring about a delicate balance of serenity and social. A fourth island is home to a thoughtful hospitality campus; Fari Village is a dedicated island for staff with a focus on community, education, and engagement, and is the first of its kind in the Maldives. FORT WORTH, Texas As of Sunday, Texas prison inmates can no longer receive greeting cards on colored paper from their children and loved ones. The new policy named Inspect 2 Protect was approved in February as a way to eliminate contraband, such as drugs, from coming into prisons through the mail, said Jeremy Desel, Texas Department of Criminal Justice director of communications. Beginning in March, inmates will only be allowed to get mail from general correspondents on standard white paper. Mail received on colored, decorated, card stock, construction, linen, or cotton paper will be denied, the new TDCJ rules state. Letters sent to offenders may not contain uninspectable substances such as perfume, stickers, lipstick, bodily fluid, powdery substances, or artwork using paint, glitter, glue, or tape. Offenders may only receive greeting cards directly from an approved third-party vendor. Desel said a significant amount of drugs were getting into prisons on paper dipped into liquid drugs and then dried. Greeting cards that had been laced with SIM cards that are used in cell phones have also been found during searches, Desel said. In a tweet of a open letter to TDCJ officials, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition and other organizations expressed concerns that the new policy was punitive and would interrupt contact between inmates and their relatives, cost the families of inmates more money and ultimately result in reduced visitation. Maggie Luna, peer policy coordinator for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, said that visitation and communication are already difficult for some families and adding more restrictions is going to make people stop visiting and stop writing. Some people dont have families, Luna said. Some nonprofits have card-writing sessions to communicate with people on their list. Some children with parents in prison are involved in those card-writing sessions and they cant even speak yet. But they can draw mommy or daddy a picture. Thats going to stop. The greeting card ban is only a part of a slate of new procedures prison officials are implementing this month in their efforts to keep drugs and other contraband from getting into state prisons. Certified narcotic canines will be used strategically to detect narcotics and synthetic marijuana on visitors entering facilities. Searches on staff have already been implemented. The individual the canine alerts on will not be allowed to visit any offender that visitation cycle or that weekend. If a certified narcotic canine alerts on a child visitor, all adult visitors accompanying the child will not be allowed to visit any offender that visitation cycle. Also, millimeter wave scanners, such as the type of scanners used at airports, will be installed at some prisons, according to TDCJ documents. Luna said that inmates tell her most of the contraband is smuggled in by prison guards and she believes this is an attempt by officials with the prison system to mollify the public and convince them that they are doing their jobs. Visitation is already invasive for family members, Luna said. Some drive for hours. Say they come from a state where marijuana is legal and the dog picks that up. And some people are afraid of dogs, and that will cut down on visits. This is just an outrageous, arbitrary policy. Mitch Mitchell of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote this story. 2020 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Visit the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at www.star-telegram.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci testifies at a Senate hearing regarding the coronavirus in Washington on March 3, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Senate Hearing Seeks to Find Balance in Dealing With Coronavirus Four key Trump administration public health officials tasked with coordinating efforts to control and contain the rapidly spreading coronavirus testified to a Senate committee about the governments efforts to deal with the threat of COVID-19, the disease thats threatening to become a worldwide pandemic. Chairing the hearing on March 3 of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) cited a New York Times article that said most people in the U.S. are at low risk of contracting the coronavirus. COVID-19 has now killed more than 3,000 people globally. Alexander summarized what has been done so far to fight the spread of the virus, which has now killed nine people in the United States, of whom at least three became infected while outside U.S. borders. Travel bans preventing visitors from countries with high infection rates from entering the United States have been put in place, Alexander said. At the same time, travel warnings have been issued by the State Department. Italy, Iran, and South Korea are on the list. Americans who ignore those warnings would invalidate their travel insurance should they become sick there, insurance companies have said. When a crisis occurs we often need money quickly, Alexander said. Thats why Congress has created two funds: the Public Health Emergency Fund and the Infectious Disease Rapid Response Fund. For example, [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Alex] Azar has already used $105 million of the Rapid Response Fund, and using authority Congress has given him, hes transferring $136 [million] from other programs in his department to respond to the coronavirus. And the Trump administration has requested an additional $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, the House on March 4 passed a roughly $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus package to tackle the spreading epidemic. The measure now heads to the Senate, which could approve the measure as soon as March 5 and send it to the president for his signature. Work in the United States to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus is progressing at a more rapid pace than on any previous project, Alexander told the committee. And national laboratories, such as those at Oak Ridge and Livermore, are using their supercomputer capabilities to try to understand the virus. At the same time, Alexander said, we should explore the dependence we now have on other countries for health supplies. Its not just medicines that are affected, he added, referring to items such as face masks and medical-grade gloves. Vaccines and Therapy Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said that there are two forms of intervention against the disease: therapy and vaccines. The timelines for each of these are fundamentally different, he said. First looking at therapy, Fauci stressed that about 80 percent of individuals who get infected do rather well without intervention, and they spontaneously recover. Fifteen to 20 percent of patients need treatment, however, such as oxygen, Fauci said. But he said its important to remember that although the technology we have has allowed us to develop a vaccine in the fastest time we have ever done that entire process will take one to one and a half years. Nonetheless, Fauci said, I expect we can inject in two months, and maybe six weeks, after which the process will go to a second stage and clinical testing. Fauci reminded the committee that one of the primary principles of medical ethics is do no harm. Dr. Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, said that during the Ebola crisis, Congress developed a national Ebola plan. That training was vital to how we managed to get Americans out of Wuhan and off the Diamond Princess [cruise ship]. Those successful evacuations were the result of his departments incident management network, Kadlec told the committee. And although this is the first time weve done this formally wed been working for two years to prepare for just such an event. Striking a Balance Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tried to put the situation into perspective. One thing Im not concerned about is enough money, Scott said. President Donald Trump said in a Feb. 29 news conference that he would accept whatever amount Congress decided upon. I think we havent had enough conversation about putting this virus in context, Scott said. Eighty percent may have a fever or cough, and 20 percent are at more risk. But, he said, were seeing it hyped up. There are those who are alarmist and then those who are acting with a sense of urgency but not being alarmist at all. Fauci said, Every single year, the flu does significant damage to the U.S. and to the world. [But] we know the bracket of how many people are sick and dying. Such is not yet the case with COVID-19, he suggested. Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, added to Faucis remarks. In a large population, most people will have a mild reaction. Its a balance, she said, of not overreacting, but not underreacting. Test Kits Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked about testing kits. Im hearing from professionals that a million tests will be available by the end of the week, she said. Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, confirmed that 2,500 kits, each containing 500 tests, would be available by the end of this week. In later testimony, he added a caveat. We know this manufacturer well, and they have said they can get 2,500 kits out by Friday. [But] I want to distinguish between the ability of getting the kits out to the labs, and their ability to do the test, Hahn said. Schuchat reminded the committee that not everyone needs a test. We have guidelines for flu and have adapted them for this. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) offered the witnesses a vote of support. This is a very unique committee; we are bipartisan. I think part of our job is to stay with you when youre taking the boos, and stand behind you when youre taking the bows, he said. Meanwhile, Murray asked the witnesses, Yes or no, can the American people count on you to be 100 percent transparent, even if you have to contradict a tweet from somebody? All of the witnesses said, Yes. A South African national was apprehended by CISF personnel at the Delhi airport on Wednesday after heroin worth Rs 15 crore was recovered from a concealed pocket of his bag, an official said. Justine Du Toit was intercepted at the departure forecourt in Terminal-III of the Indira Gandhi International Airport around 9:30 am after his behaviour raised suspicion among the security personnel. The South African man had arrived here from Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and was bound for Kolkata, officials said. About 3.4 kg of heroin worth Rs 15 crore was recovered from his bag, officials said, adding the man has been handed over to the customs authorities for further investigation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voters in Colorados Democratic primary ranked health care and climate change as the most important issues facing the country, well above the economy, race relations, foreign policy and many other social issues. About a third named health care, an issue that has intensely divided the field of Democratic candidates. Roughly as many had climate change on their minds, according to a wide-ranging AP VoteCast survey of the Democratic primary electorate in Colorado. The Colorado primary was won by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Some voters cast ballots for Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. Both candidates submitted paperwork on Tuesday to officially withdraw from the race in Colorado. Votes cast for them, including those already sent in, were not counted by the state. Heres a snapshot of Democratic voters in Colorado who they are and what matters to them based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of 3,006 voters, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. DO THEY WANT A BIG CHANGE? More voters in Colorados Democratic primary said they wanted a candidate who would bring fundamental change to Washington, rather than one who would restore the political system to how it was before Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But change in Washington doesnt look the same to everyone. Six in 10 voters said they preferred a candidate who will pursue practical, centrist policies to one pursuing bold liberal policies. WHAT ELSE VOTERS WANT Close to 9 in 10 said it was very important that a nominee can beat Trump, and about 8 in 10 considered strong leadership highly important. Roughly two-thirds said it was very important that a candidate have the best policy ideas, while about as many said the same of one who cares about people like them. Having the right experience and being willing to work across the aisle were considered very significant for a Democratic nominee by about 6 in 10 voters. DIVIDED BY RACE White voters in Colorado supported Sanders, with about 3 in 10 voting for the Vermont senator. About 2 in 10 went for former Vice President Joe Biden, and roughly as many supported Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg. Sanders had a significant lead among Latino voters, with close to 4 in 10 voters supporting him. DIVIDED BY AGE Sanders continued to show strength among young voters, especially those under 30. Six in 10 of them supported the 78-year-old senator. Bloomberg and Biden each received support from about a quarter of voters ages 45 and older. Sanders received support from about 2 in 10 voters, and Warren received support from about 1 in 10 voters. LARGELY UNIFIED AGAINST TRUMP A wide majority say they will definitely vote for the Democratic candidate against Trump in the general election. Still, about 2 in 10 say their decision will depend on which Democrat is on the ballot in November. PRIMARY PROCESS SKEPTICISM Voters are skeptical that the Democratic Partys nomination process is fair. Just about 1 in 10 say they are very confident that the process for selecting a presidential nominee is fair. Roughly 4 in 10 have little to no confidence. Roughly the same number say they are somewhat confident. DEBATING HEALTH CARE The campaign has featured a contentious debate among candidates over the best way to tackle health care, an issue seen as the most important facing the country by roughly a third of voters. There is majority support for a government-run health care system for all Americans, with about 6 in 10 voters saying they are in favor. Roughly 4 in 10 are opposed. But support for a public option, where every American could buy into a government-run insurance plan if they wanted to, is even higher. About 9 in 10 are in favor. About 6 in 10 voters are in favor of either proposal, while about 3 in 10 say they favor a public option but oppose a single-payer system. CLIMATE CHANGE, THE ECONOMY AND OTHER ISSUES Roughly a third of voters said climate change is the most important issue facing the nation. A wide majority about 8 in 10 expressed support for a tax on the use of carbon-based fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. Just about 1 in 10 called the economy the top issue. But a significant majority described the economic system in this country as unfair. That includes about 4 in 10 who said its very unfair. Small shares of voters considered race relations, immigration, gun policy or abortion most important. ___ AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey of 3,006 voters in Colorado was conducted for seven days, concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The survey is based on interviews with a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 3.0 percentage points. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. Racing fans are gearing up for the first big event in the calendar next week, with Cheltenham getting underway on Tuesday. For fashion-conscious revellers, a statement hat is a key element of their race day outfit - but those who are new to millinery may not have a clue where to start. Thankfully couture milliner Vivien Sheriff, founder of the Wiltshire-based British luxury eponymous brand and its sister brand Vixen Millinery, which is more affordable, has offered some words of wisdom for picking stylish headwear. And she certainly knows what she's talking about - Vivien dressed more guests at Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding than any other designer and created the Vivien Sheriff fascinator worn by the Duchess of Cambridge at her first official engagement. Vivien's designs, which are typically very detailed with layers of feathers, quills and even handwoven crystals, remain a firm favourite among high society - with Princess Eugenie sporting one of her eye-catching designs at Trooping the Colour in 2016 - and are always on prominent display at Royal Ascot. Here she shares her top tips with FEMAIL on how to pick the best hat to suit your look this racing season - and offers her expert opinion on popular trends to look out for. Vivien Sheriff dressed more guests at Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding than any other designer and created the fascinator worn by the Duchess of Cambridge at her first official engagement - launching the new RNLI's lifeboat 'Hereford Endeavour' at Trearddur Bay, Anglesey on February 24 in 2011 (pictured) Face shape 'Finding a hat that flatters both your face and silhouette is really important,' Vivien said. 'As a rule of thumb, if you have a square or round face, then an angular disc worn to the side of the face asymmetrically looks great. 'Long faces tend to look good in berets or sweeping brims. However, if your face is oval then you're one of the lucky ones who can wear any hat style!' Hair style Vivien recommends wearing long hair up with a hat, ensuring it is pulled back away from the face. 'A simple sweeping bun or sleek pony tail look amazing,' she said. Princess Eugenie sported one of Vivien Sheriff's eye-catching designs at Trooping the Colour in 2016 'What looks particularly sophisticated is when you have it tied into a low bun and off to one side; this really accentuates the style of the hat. 'If you have shorter hair then check that any elastic or Alice band is properly secured with pins to avoid the hat slipping throughout the day.' Height According to Vivien, taller women tend to be able to carry off wider brims. 'If you are petite, then go for height over width for a really elegant look,' she added. Vivien's (pictured) designs, which are typically very detailed with layers of feathers, quills and even handwoven crystals Take your outfit shopping with you Vivien said: 'We always recommend taking your outfit and accessories with you when selecting millinery. Check your hat is suitable for the event It's important to always ensure sure your hat is suitable for the event you are attending. If it's the races, you need to understand if there are any rules or established etiquette. 'Cheltenham prefers smart attire, so ladies often wear hats - and because the racing is largely in the cooler months, it's important to dress accordingly,' Vivien said. 'Feathered pieces work particularly well for Cheltenham. 'Royal Ascot, on the other hand, has very strict dress codes and they differ depending on which enclosure you might be in. 'With the exception of our headbands, all of our occasion wear pieces are designed to conform with Royal Ascot's dress code.' Advertisement 'At Vixen Millinery we offer a colour-matching service so we can ensure an exact match to you outfit in your chosen colour.' If you've not managed to shop for your dress yet then that's OK - Vivien suggested planning your outfit with your millinery selection to ensure a coherent, stylish look. 'Find a hat in a shape, style and colour that you love and then choose a dress and accessories to work with it,' she advised. 'More often than not, a plain coloured, simple dress can actually be the most effective, especially if you are wearing a fabulous headpiece.' Make sure it's on the right way! If you're a first-time hate wearer, it can sometimes be tricky to work out which way around it goes. To avoid any potentially embarrassing scenarios, Vivien explained: 'Traditionally hats sit on the right-hand side of the head, so check how your hat is positioned in the first instance. 'Look for showcase embellishment or trim, such as feathers or quills, as these are usually at the front of the hat. 'We always add our swing tags at the back of the hat to help clients understand front from back when they are trying on their piece for the first time.' Experts from OPEC+ recommended that oil ministers consider a larger production cut when they meet later this week as the coronavirus takes a greater toll on the world economy. After a meeting on Tuesday, the groups Joint Technical Committee suggested an additional reduction in supply of between 600,000 and 1 million barrels a day during the second quarter, said delegates. Thats potentially a larger cut than it recommended last month, but falls short of some estimates of the demand hit from the outbreak. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies face an unprecedented challenge as the epidemic that started in China threatens to become a global pandemic. Growth in fuel consumption could be wiped out this year and prices have just had their biggest weekly drop since the global financial crisis. PRICES: Oil extends gains as Saudis push for deeper OPEC+ cuts To secure a supply cut that could stop the rout, the group must overcome Russian resistance while also grappling with the risks of bringing together delegations from 23 nations as the deadly disease continues to spread. One of those members, Iran, has a serious outbreak at home affecting top government officials. Theres an extremely grave situation in the oil market, Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab said on Tuesday, according to state-run Algeria Press Service. Algeria calls for a concrete, credible, cohesive and rapid action. Fever Tests In an effort to limit potential contagion as officials descended on Vienna, OPEC said medical advisers would conduct screenings at the entrance to detect staff or delegates who might have high temperatures. Some staff will be told to work from home. OPEC told national delegations to limit their size to the bare minimum, pressing ahead with the meeting even as conferences across the globe were canceled. STOCKS: Wall Street oil outlook crumbles as Goldman sees contraction It took the unprecedented step of blocking journalists from entering its headquarters during the meeting, and scrapped the final press conference in favor of a webinar. The cartels meetings typically attract a contingent of hundreds of officials, reporters, TV crews, analysts and consultants from around the world. The JTC met on Tuesday, and that will be followed by a gathering on Wednesday of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee -- the body that overseas the alliance -- and the ministerial meetings on Thursday and Friday. The JTC reappraised the impact of the epidemic, which has worsened since they last met. At their previous meeting in February, they recommended a production cut of just 600,000 barrels a day. Global benchmark Brent crude rallied on Wednesday, but is still down 20% this year due to the demand hit from the coronavirus. The recommended 600,000 barrel-a-day additional cut for the second quarter of 2020 will be seen as too little, Mohammad Darwazah of consultant Medley Global Advisors said in a note. It is clear that the group is mulling a deeper production pullback. FUEL FIX: Now more than ever, you need our energy news in your inbox OPEC+ has been struggling to manage the price impact from the U.S. shale boom since it was formed in late 2016. It launched a new round of supply curbs at the start of this year, removing about 2.1 million barrels a day from the market. Under the JTC recommendation, even deeper cuts would be implemented only in the second quarter, and the group would return to its existing curbs in the second half, the delegates said. With flights canceled in Europe, schools closed in Japan, towns quarantined in Italy and a rising death toll from Iran to Washington state, the coronavirus crisis has gone global, and with it, its impact on energy demand. For only the fourth time in almost 40 years, oil consumption may not grow at all in 2020, according to a growing minority of traders, investors and analysts. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. echoed that view, becoming the first major Wall Street Bank to forecast a contraction in oil demand this year. That possibility is reflected in crude, which slumped 16% in New York last week, the biggest drop since December 2008. The market has rebounded somewhat, but at about $48 a barrel on Wednesday prices remain too low for most of the cartels members to balance their budgets. --With assistance from Nayla Razzouk, Fred Pals, Golnar Motevalli and Andrew Janes. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Maggie Q says she has been asked to return to the Mission: Impossible franchise twice after appearing in 2006s Mission: Impossible III. The actress says prior contractual obligations prevented her return as IMF agent Zhen Lei. The 40-year-old actress is back on the big screen for new Blumhouse thriller Fantasy Island (in cinemas 6 March), and she tells Yahoo that shes keen to make a return to the Mission: Impossible franchise. They wanted me back, Q tells Yahoo when we asked about her characters possible return to the series. I did [Mission: Impossible III] and they wanted me back for four [2011s Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol] but I was on a show, then they wanted me back for five [2015s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation], and I couldnt do it because I was contracted. Read more: McQuarrie talks Bond Although Q doesnt state which shows she was contracted to that prevented her return, she was starring in The CWs hitman show Nikita from 2010-2013, and in the CBS crime drama Stalker between 2014-2015. Maggie Q in a still from Mission: Impossible 3. (Paramount Pictures) Zhen Lei played a pivotal role in Mission: Impossible III, JJ Abrams directorial debut that reinvigorated the franchise, helping Cruises Ethan Hunt to acquire the Rabbits Foot McGuffin from Philip Seymour Hoffman Owen Davian in a thrilling Shanghai set piece. Paul Patton joined the IMF team as the female lead in the Brad Bird-directed Ghost Protocol, while Rebecca Ferguson was the female lead in Christopher McQuarries Rogue Nation. Maggie Q in a still from Mission: Impossible 3. (Paramount Pictures) Q revealed that shes currently working on a top-secret project that she said was in the same vein as Mission Impossible but female-driven, adding: I think if youre capable of [doing your movie] you should push for it. But yes, she would drop anything to work with Tom Cruise again, whom she called the best co-star ever Hes one of the most professional people I have ever worked with in Hollywood and there is a reason he is at the level he is at, she said. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ving Rhames, Tom Cruise and Maggie Q in a still from Mission: Impossible 3. (Paramount Pictures) When I work, I am not looking for new best friends - I dont need a Christmas card from you! - all I really want is to show up and have people know their job and do it well and thats what you get from him, so hes the best co-star ever. Story continues There are currently two Mission: Impossible sequels in development, with director Christopher McQuarrie planning to shoot both films back-to-back for release in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Read more: How Fantasy Island subverts expectations Tom Cruise is returning as Ethan Hunt for both films and will be joined in the cast by Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Wigham, Nicholas Hoult, Henry Czerny and Simon Pegg. In this weeks new release Fantasy Island, Maggie Q plays Gwen Olsen, a businesswoman who visits the island to realise her fantasy of accepting a marriage proposal. Fantasy Island is released on 6 March. Watch a trailer below. Former Vice President Joe Biden won a second state on Super Tuesday. Minutes after the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, he was projected to win North Carolina by CNN. Virginia offers 110 Democratic delegates. Earlier in the evening, he was projected to win Virginia. Voters across Massachusetts and 13 states head to the polls on Tuesday, March 3. 1,357 delegates about a third of the 3,979 contested nationwide will be divided proportionally among candidates who earn at least 15% support. A candidate would need 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention. The Democratic nominee needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention to be held July 13-16 in Milwaukee. Hillary Clinton received the majority of votes during the 2016 Democratic primary. By ANI NEW DELHI: Six positive cases of deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan where an Italian national has been found positive with the infection in Jaipur. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and discharged from hospital. The Health Ministry has also stated that six persons with suspected COVID-19 have heavy viral load and are being quarantined and are stable. Their samples have been sent for testing. ALSO READ: Italian tourist's wife also tests positive for coronavirus at Jaipur hospital Also, 24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (including a bus driver, conductor and a tourist guide), who had come in contact with the Italian national in Jaipur, have been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Depending on the result, the future course of action will be taken, said the Health Ministry. Witnessing the seriousness of the situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tweeted that he has reviewed the situation of coronavirus and India's preparedness to deal with the global pandemic, assuring citizens that there was no reason to panic. ALSO READ | Coronavirus scare: Demand for surgical masks, sanitisers shoot up in Delhi as stores run out of stock The Cabinet Secretary held a review meeting through video conference with the secretaries of concerned ministries, chief secretaries and health secretaries of the States to review and assess action taken for containment of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the Delhi government has made full preparations to tackle the situation. For providing treatment to the patients, 25 Delhi hospitals -- including 19 government hospitals and six private hospitals -- have been equipped to handle the influx of patients in case of an emergency. "Isolation facility has been provided in these hospitals and 230 beds have also been made available. Beds will also be made available to doctors and other staff treating the cases in the hospital. The Delhi government has also arranged for the distribution of more than 3.50 lakh N95 masks. Around 8000 separation kits have also been arranged," he said. The Irish architects won the Pritzker for their integrity in their approach and commitment to excellence. Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have been awarded the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize for consistent service to humanity as evidenced by a body of built work and for leading the way for women in a male-dominated profession. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Tom Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award, considered architectures highest honour. The jury citation noted that the pair, who co-founded their Dublin-based Grafton Architects in 1978, unhesitatingly pursued the highest quality of architecture for the location in which it was to be built, the functions it would house and especially for the people who would inhabit and use their buildings and spaces. McNamara, 68, and Farrell, 69, are the first female duo to win the Pritzker, and the first architects from Ireland to be awarded the prize. Pioneers in a field that has traditionally been and still is a male-dominated profession, they are also beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path, read the jury citation. Three women have won the prize previously: Zaha Hadid in 2004, Kazuyo Sejima in 2010 (with Ryue Nishizawa) and Carme Pigem in 2017 (with Ramon Vilalta and Rafael Aranda). In 2008, Farrell and McNamaras celebrated Grafton Building at Milans Bocconi University was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona [File: Luca Bruno/AP] You get younger as you get older In a telephone interview from Dublin, Farrell and McNamara told The Associated Press news agency how they began their collaboration as early as 1969 when they met as architecture students. We learned a lot from each other, McNamara said. We grew together in college. Even now, she said, after decades in the field, Whats interesting is we always feel like were starting. With architecture, you always feel like you get younger as you get older. Youre continually being challenged and continually challenging yourself. You never sit back and say OK, Ive done that. The architects have collaborated on many projects in their home country, as well as commissions in locales like Peru, Italy and France. Farrell said the two believe that architecture is both a business and an art. In each project, she said, there is the capacity to find something that is an addition to what the client originally maybe dreamed of, something thats added by the imaginative and creative skills of what the architecture profession can bring. The jurys citation singled out projects like the Urban Institute of Ireland, a 2002 building that employs what the architects call a crafted skin to create a visually interesting building through changes in materials responding to openings, folds, needs for shade and other concerns, while also creating an efficient, sustainable building. It also cited university buildings in Peru and Italy, saying the architects have achieved a human scale through the composition of spaces and volumes of different sizes. In 2008, Farrell and McNamaras celebrated Grafton Building at Milans Bocconi University was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, a prize that thrust the pair onto the international stage. The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established in 1979 by the late entrepreneur Jay A Pritzker and his wife, Cindy. The winner receives a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion. It is awarded not to a firm but to an individual architect; when more than one individual is selected, it is because the jury deems their work to be inextricably linked. This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech. REMINDER, BIDEN AND BLOOMBERG VOTERS, #SUPERTUESDAY PRIMARIES HAVE BEEN DELAYED TO WEDNESDAY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS. PLEASE RETWEET TO SPREAD THE WORD. #TEAMBIDEN #TEAMBLOOMBERG read one of the misleading (and since deleted) tweets screenshotted and reported on by the Daily Beast on Tuesday. It was just one example out of several in which Twitter users, whether seriously or jokingly, tried to take advantage of peoples fears about the spread of the novel coronavirus to influence voter behavior with references to voters age (As the virus disproportionately impacts the elderly, Biden supporters are urged to remain indoors) and rescheduled primaries. Advertisement Even before Super Tuesday, there was lots of false and misleading information about the spread of COVID-19, the appropriate precautionary measures, and its economic impacts on social media. At times, its almost (almost!) possible to forget were in the middle of a presidential election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But there are certain points of overlap between the election and the virus, as in the cases of purported Bernie Sanders supporters tweeting out fake updates about the primaries, and coordinated Russian efforts to interfere with the elections. While Russia leverages COVID-19 for online disinformation, China has also been using the internet to control the story to its own advantage, through rabid censorship of keywords related to the virus on Chinese social media and messaging platforms. These different approaches to manipulating information about the coronavirus are typical of the two countries past uses of online infrastructure to control content both within and beyond their own borders. They speak to the myriad, interconnected risks associated with the virus beyond the immediate medical ones. Advertisement Advertisement In late February, State Department officials accused Russia of using fake profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to spread false rumors about the coronavirusfor instance, that the CIA had developed the virus as a biological weapon. By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response, Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, told the Guardian. Meanwhile, Kevin Collier at NBC reported that the U.S. government and Facebook were preparing for the possibility that coronavirus conspiracy theories or other false information about the diseases spread might be leveraged to dissuade voters from voting in the 2020 elections. Facebook has already taken steps to try to monitor inaccurate content and exploitative ads related to the virus on its platform, including showing educational pop-ups to everyone who searches for information about the coronavirus on Facebook and blocking ads that take advantage of people, noting that ads for face masks that imply they are the only ones still available or claim that they are guaranteed to prevent the virus from spreading will not be allowed to run on our platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Facebook is trying to root out and remove misinformation about false cures or treatment options (for instance, that drinking bleach cures the coronavirus), Chinas social media and messaging platforms have been censoring huge swaths of coronavirus-related content for months, according to a report released this week by researchers at the University of Toronto Citizen Lab titled Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus Is Managed on Chinese Social Media. The researchers analyzed two Chinese platforms to assess the extent of coronavirus-related censorship in China: YY, a livestreaming platform, and the TenCent-owned messaging service WeChat. Both platforms censored content related to the virus through a set of keywords. In the case of YY those keywords were stored within the app itself, so the researchers were able to reverse engineer the app and find the complete list, which included Chinese characters for keywords such as Unknown Wuhan Pneumonia and Wuhan Seafood Market beginning as early as Dec. 31, weeks before the Chinese government disclosed the full extent of its knowledge of the disease to the public, as the report points out. Advertisement Advertisement WeChat, by contrast, conducts censorship remotely, through servers owned by the company, which makes its censorship keywords much trickier to track. To figure them out, the researchers pulled content from articles listed on the front pages of a set of 31 news sources based in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, including Peoples Daily, the South China Morning Post, China National Radio, and China Central Television. The researchers then sent the headlines and text extracted from those articles to a WeChat group chat comprised of three different test accounts: one registered to a phone number in mainland China and two registered to Canadian phone numbers. Advertisement Advertisement Its old news by now that China engages in extensive online censorship, yet its still rather remarkable to see the Citizen Lab results laid out side by side: the messages received by the Canadian accounts and blocked for the Chinese account in the very same group chat, about, for instance, CDC recommendations that people wash their hands. By repeating these scripted chats over and over, the researchers were able to identify hundreds of keyword combinations blocked by WeChat that they organized into seven different categories. The first category consists of keywords related to Chinese central leadership, including Chinese phrases for Xi Jinping goes to Wuhan and the combination of such sets of words as Epidemic + Pneumonia + Xi Jinping + Central or Epidemic + Chairman Xi + Unity. The keyword combinations trigger censorship when every word in a set is used at some point in a message. Advertisement Advertisement Another group of keyword combinations was associated with Chinese government actors and policies. These included Muckraking Wuhan Virus Lab + Successful history of lab director, Wuhan + CCP + Crisis + Beijing, Wuhan + Obviously + Virus + Human-to-human transmission, US Centers for Disease Control + Coronavirus, and Online teaching + Strongly + Promote. These were some of the most striking combinations because of how strongly they seem to imply that even accurate information about the transmission and prevention of the coronavirus was being aggressively blocked by Chinese platforms. This was even more true of the category of keywords that the researchers designated as being linked to factual information and discussions of COVID-19, which included such combinations as Pneumonia + Disease control and prevention + Virus + Medical journal and Relevant + Disease control + Travel ban + Virus. Advertisement Advertisement The report authors noted, Because of social medias integral role in Chinese society and its uptake by the Chinese medical community, systematic blocking of general communication on social media related to disease information and prevention risks substantially harming the ability of the public to share information that may be essential to their health and safety. Other keyword combinations pertained to the spread of the virus in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (e.g., Masks + Taiwan + Export + Country), speculative content about the disease (such as Death case + Pneumonia + Death toll or Poisonous City + Wuhan), the deceased Dr. Li Wenliang who raised early concerns about the virus (e.g., Epidemic + Virus + Li Wenliang + Central government), and collective action calls for petitions and public mobilization (such as Wuhan + Liberate). Advertisement Both the Russian and Chinese approaches to online coronavirus content are worrying in their own ways. True to form, Russias approach to online manipulation seems more focused on influencing behavior and causing panic outside its own borders, while Chinas strict censorship of coronavirus-related content appears to be largely internally directed and aimed at preventing panic. Thats not to say China is not interested in influencing outside opinionsit has even taken a page from Russias playbook in the past year, deliberately seeking to spread disinformation about the Hong Kong protests. But when it comes to the coronavirus, Chinas online efforts have been primarily inward-facing, perhaps because of how many of the cases have occurred in China and how significant its own domestic crisis is at the moment. Russia and China have long had very different approaches to controlling and creating online content in order to manipulate particular audiences, even as Russia seems to be trying to crack down on domestic internet control and China may be expanding its capabilities to include disinformation. For the moment, however, each country still has very different strengths when it comes to manipulating information flows, as their efforts around the coronavirus demonstrate. Unfortunately for people trying to combat those efforts, each requires a very different set of technical tools and mitigations to respond to effectively. But keeping track of what each country is doing is an important first step in thinking through how best to respond and ensure the free flow of accurate and helpful information about the virus worldwide. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. This agreement will facilitate the strengthening and development of the cooperation in the provision of the protection of the rights and interests of the workers of both states and fight against illegal work President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed the draft law #0021 On ratification of the agreement between the Cabinet of Minister of Ukraine and the government of Lithuania on employment and cooperation in the labor migration sphere. The goal of the adoption of the act is the ratification of the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and government of Lithuania on the employment and cooperation in the labor migration sphere signed December 7, 2018, the explanatory note says. According to Deputy Minister of Social Policy Oleg Koval, this agreement will facilitate the strengthening and development of the cooperation in the provision of the protection of the rights and interests of the workers of both states and fight against illegal work. The ratification of the agreement will provide the possibility for the official employment of the citizens of Ukraine and Lithuania and improve the financial state of the Ukrainian families. Besides, the ratification will allow to attract highly qualified specialists and workers from Lithuania to Ukraine. On February 5, 2020, ratified an agreement with Lithuania on employment and cooperation in the field of labor migration, adopting bill 0021. 324 MPs voted in favor. As we reported earlier, the 2019-unemployment rate in Ukraine was considered to be one of the highest in comparison with other European countries. This is stated in the Labor Market Overview, provided by the Ministry of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture. SALEM, Ohio Interpreting royalty checks from oil and gas companies can be confusing. The information laid out on the check stubs isnt always clear, if the information is there at all. Ohio state Rep. Jack Cera heard that feedback from his constituents and others throughout the region for years. Cera, D-Bellaire, introduced legislation last year that would standardize the information sent out with royalty checks for landowners. House Bill 55 would require 15 different items to be included on a statement with the royalty check. Right now, the Ohio Revised Code requires producers to report three things and only if the royalty owner requests that information. Those three things are the volume of natural gas for which the royalty owner is being paid, the price per thousand cubic feet the producer received and the volume of natural gas that passed through the wells meter. Most oil and gas companies already report the required information automatically with the landowners monthly royalty checks. Additionally, many producers voluntarily increased what they disclose on royalty check stubs, said Matt Hammond, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, in a statement to Farm and Dairy. We have concerns about the state inserting itself into a contract between two private parties, Hammond said. Cera said hes heard of at least one company making a deliberate effort to make its royalty checks more user-friendly. Encino Energy began putting more information on royalty check stubs after it took over Chesapeake Energys Utica shale assets in Ohio in 2019. The company, though, faced blowback from landowners in Carroll and Columbiana counties, many of whom said they noticed issues with their royalty checks after Encino took over. The bill would require basic information like the well name, well identification number, county in which the well is located and the beginning and end date of the payment period. It would also require more detailed information like severance taxes and deductions. The Ohio chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners supports the legislation, with some additions. This is a great start to helping royalty owners better understand the multitude of expenses being deducted from their income, said Barry Browne, president of the Ohio NARO chapter. Cera said this is the third time the bill has been introduced, starting back in 2011. It never gained enough steam to make it out of committee. It was sent to the Energy and Natural Resources committee. History seems to be repeating itself as no further committee hearings have been scheduled yet. (Reporter Rachel Wagoner can be contacted at 800-837-3419 or rachel@farmanddairy.com.) US Intelligence-Sharing Program Coincides With Turkish Strikes Against Iraqi Civilians Reuters reported earlier this month that the United States suspended an undercover military program it had conducted in cooperation with the Turkish military since 2007. The program, it was reported, fed intelligence to Turkey that was then used to target Kurdish militants in the recent conflict on the Turkey-Syria border. The program's suspension is believed to be a direct response to Turkey's heavy-handed attacks against the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, but further evidence indicates that the Kurds may not be the only ones suffering as a result of the American intelligence passed on to Turkey under the now-suspended program. The intelligence handed to Turkey included surveillance conducted by U.S. drones over the mountains of northern Iraq--an area where Turkey has repeatedly targeted Christian and Kurdish homes and villages. It is likely that the intelligence fed to Turkey by the United States played a role in what has been widely condemned by observers as an unjustified targeting of innocent civilians and a blatant violation of human rights. At least seven non-combatants were killed in a series of Turkish air strikes and ground attacks between May 2017 and June 2018. Human Rights Watch, reporting on firsthand testimony it received after these attacks, indicated that there was no apparent military motive behind the strikes and recommended that the strikes be investigated for violations of the laws of war. ICC reported 98 bombings conducted by Turkey in northern Iraq in 2018, including strikes which killed three Christians from the predominantly Assyrian Christian village of Aradnan. The airstrikes did not stop in 2018 either--ICC reported on a number of attacks in 2019 in which Turkey repeatedly targeted Christian villages in the same region of northern Iraq that the U.S. surveilled under its intelligence-sharing program with Turkey. Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952 and despite a number of significant disagreements between Ankara and the rest of the bloc it continues to maintain an active role in that federation to this day. President Recep Erdogan, in a bid to gain support for his hardline stance against the YPG, recently threatened to block a major NATO security plan but eventually backed down. Turkey's systematic human rights violations have, thus far, failed to produce major reforms in the way that the United States and others cooperate with Turkey militarily. The decision to stop sharing drone intelligence with Turkey is, however, one indication that this may be changing. That the United States has only just now stopped sharing drone footage of northern Iraq with Turkey is extremely concerning from a human rights perspective. Turkey's targeting of religious and ethnic minorities in that region is well known, and to share intelligence with them that may have directly aided them in their strikes against innocent civilians highlights the importance of considering the unintended consequences of providing intelligence to foreign actors. The United States has a mandate to explore the consequences of its military decisions on the vulnerable populations that it interacts with. This mandate clearly includes taking responsibility for its own direct military actions, but it must also include a dedication to ensuring that the military intelligence we share with other nations is used properly and in compliance with international standards of human rights. A Montesano registered nurse and political newcomer will challenge 19th District incumbent state Rep. Jim Walsh on a platform of single-payer healthcare, rent control, income tax and expanding union membership. Before she earned her nursing degree from Grays Harbor Community College in 2011, Marianna Everson said she and her two daughters were homeless for about four months due to a house fire. (She now is married to Brad Everson and they have six children in their blended family.) Having been there, having felt even just a little bit of what people are going through, it helps me empathize and understand just the desperation you can feel when you dont have a place to live, Everson said Tuesday. Everson, 46, is running for 19th District position 1, which represents western Cowlitz County, including Longview and Kelso. She said she supports rent control and public housing as a way to combat rising rents and the affordable housing shortage. She and her daughters were able to move out of an Aberdeen shelter when her name came up on a list for federal housing. A wealth and income tax would be a wonderful thing for Washington because the states current system which relies on sales, property and business taxes puts a larger burden on poor people than on the wealthy, she said. She also supports a Washington State Bank. Its not fair to put the burden of what it takes to run a state on the backs of working class and poor people. Thats absolutely wrong. With the sales tax as one of the main ways we get revenue, poor people pay more money to taxes than rich people, she said. While income tax has been unpopular in the past, Everson said she thinks people will change their minds when they realize they might pay less in taxes under a different system. As a nurse, Everson said she sees people struggling every day with healthcare costs. She recalled one woman who declined treatment for colon cancer because she didnt want her husband to be bankrupt when she died. That is just wrong for someone to just resign themselves to death so that their family doesnt go bankrupt. It makes me very sad, she said. She is the steering committee president for Whole Washington, an organization pushing a universal single-payer healthcare bill in the Legislature. Everson also said she wants to support union workers and get money out of politics. She is not accepting campaign donations from corporations or their political action committees. And she has pledged not to take money from the fossil fuel or agriculture industries. Another Montesano Democrat, Clint Bryson, also has announced he is challenging Walsh. Bryson is an electrical worker and Montesano City Council member. They are running against Rep. Walsh, a two-term incumbent Republican from Aberdeen who has advocated for Second Amendment rights and tax cuts. He defeated Democrat Erin Frasier in 2018 with 50.4% of the vote a lead of less than 500 ballots. Love 6 Funny 8 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 11 A 32-year-old man was allegedly killed by three persons after a scuffle over marijuana in Mumbai, a police official said on Wednesday. The incident took place on a skywalk near Cotton Green station in central Mumbai on Tuesday night when the deceased, Amin Patel, and his friend Bunty Kamble (34) were sitting and having a chat. At that time, three persons came there and demanded a packet of marijuana from them, the official said. When Patel told them that they did not possess the drug, the three accused had an argument with them and started beating both of them, he said. One of the accused allegedly hit Patel on his head with a bamboo stick, causing bleeding injuries. Patel collapsed and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead, the official said. Following a police complaint lodged by Kamble, the three accused were arrested, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With their wallets badly hurt, city workers struggle to cope as epidemic fears spread among employers and hit their businesses. It is Monday, but Ly Thi Sinh is not at work as usual. In her shared studio apartment in Saigons District 9, she is busy phoning acquaintances in search of work. Employed by a textile firm, she was asked to take four days off amid sluggish sales and dwindling material supply from China. "I have to find an alternative to survive in the city," Sinh said, adding she is considering working by the hour. A worker makes a mask at a texttile company in Hanoi on February 6, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. From northern Thai Nguyen Province, Sinh pays VND2 million ($86) in rent, which she hopes to postpone this month. She is among a plethora of urbanites suffering the effects of the coronavirus, which is hitting businesses hard. The Ministry of Planning and Investment estimates almost 900 local companies have ceased operations or scaled down business because of the epidemic. In Hanoi, some hotels are letting staff go or cutting salaries as the virus slashes both tourist and revenue numbers. Nguyen Van Hai, a night guard at a local hostel on Hang Ma Street, is one such victim. He lost his job at the end of February after the owner decided to secure his own premises. "They have to tighten their belt and asked me if I could come back in 2-3 months when business is better," Hai said, adding he understands the owners decision, though he would have preferred more time to make preparations. The financial burden is heaviest on those existing on the margins of society with few safety nets. Selling banh mi on To Hien Thanh Street in Saigon's District 11, 47-year-old Nguyen Thi Cham has experienced "the worst time." "I used to sell over one hundred sandwiches a day, but now the number dropped to less than 30," she noted. During the past four weeks, with schools and universitys closed, Chams regular flow of student clients have simply dried up. To adapt, the Mekong Delta native only operates her stall 7 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. "I close in the afternoon because there are no more customers." The working class community members face social stigma from employers and colleagues if hailing from epidemic affected areas. Visiting his hometown in Tam Canh Commune of Binh Xuyen District, northern Vinh Phuc Province, bordering locked down Son Loi Commune, Nguyen Thanh Dung was prevented from returning to work after the Tet break (from January 23-29). "People were so scared of me, I was asked to stay at home so everyone could relax and focus on work," Dung recalled, adding he received no compensation while in isolation. The 39-year-old eventually returned to work in Hanois Gia Lam District, having lost around VND4 million ($172.3) after two weeks at home. "I did not send money to my mom last month and hope this month will be better," he commented. Life goes on Though Covid-19 is currently under control in Vietnam, it still poses a severe threat to international supply chains and domestic enterprises. According to economist Le Dang Doanh, the epidemic has hit all of Vietnams three biggest businesses partners, including China, South Korea and Japan. Having little savings and salaries, many workers try to overcome the situation by tightening their belt and finding grueling jobs. Releasing her companys struggles could affect her wallet, Sinh started cutting down on spending. "I buy less meat, and have leftovers for breakfast," Sinh noted, saying she usually ate lunch at work, which is provided for free. Dung adopted a similar routine, even skipping on breakfast. While some try their best to avoid crowds or contact with strangers, others have little choice but to hit the streets in search of work because, as Hai stated, "it is still better than earning nothing." He is now applying to work as a motorbike taxi rider. Meanwile, Cham checks her phone each morning to see whether any acquaintances want her to clean their house in the evening. "I have to live off the land until the epidemic is over. At least there are jobs in Saigon," she said with a sigh. Vietnam has recorded a total of 16 Covid-19 patients, all of whom have recovered and been discharged from hospital. The country has reported no new infections since February 13. Meanwhile, the lives of millions of urban workers and migrants have been disrupted for one month due to the lack of income and security. "This epidemic leaves a worker like me with nothing but an empty wallet, but life goes on and we have to survive and overcome," said Sinh after an old friend asked to meet her at coffee shop, which she declined due to strict budgeting. The Centre and various authorities made efforts to quell panic regarding the spread of coronavirus in India as the number of confirmed cases in India rose to 29 on Wednesday, including 16 Italians in Rajasthan and a PayTM employee who tested positive in Gurgaon, according to reports. The Centre and various authorities made efforts to quell panic regarding the spread of coronavirus in India as the number of confirmed cases in India rose to 29 on Wednesday with 16 Italians in Rajasthan, a man who drove them around, and a PayTM employee in Gurgaon being among the fresh cases, reports said. The PayTM employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-affected countries. PayTM has advised all its employees to work from home for the next few of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised, according to a statement released by the company. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy has sadly been tested positive for coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," the statement said. The figure of confirmed cases in the country also includes the initial three cases that were reported from Kerala and all three patients have now recovered. All international passengers to be screened, says Harsh Vardhan Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said that all international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide. Seventeen Indians abroad have been infected, 16 from a cruise ship in Japan "being treated at onshore medical facilities" and one from the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Addressing a press conference, Vardhan gave a break-up of the cases in the country. He said that one patient is from Delhi, six more, who are his relatives, are from Agra, one is from Telangana and there are 16 Italians as well as their Indian driver in Rajasthan. The figure also includes the initial three cases that were reported from Kerala who have now recovered from the disease. The minister said the government has adopted a cluster approach, as part of which health authorities will check and sensitise every household within a three kilometre radius of the house of the infected person. The government also intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so Indians there can be tested for possible exposure to the virus before being brought back, he said. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran. A meeting chaired by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, PK Mishra, decided that all government departments will consult the health ministry before organising conferences and international meets in the country in the coming days. At the meeting, chaired by Mishra, the Ministry of Home Affairs was tasked with working closely with state governments, including relevant district administration officials, to ensure compliance with screening protocols at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) on India's land borders. Decisions were also taken to rapidly implement opening of proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country, down to the district level in partnership with state governments, PTI reported. As Indians all over the world came to grips with the global epidemic, the health crisis was discussed at a meeting of the Union Cabinet as well. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said over six lakh people had been screened for coronavirus symptoms in 21 airports. Briefing reporters, the Information and Broadcasting minister said more than 10 lakh people entering India from the open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have also been screened. While only the virology institute based in Pune is fit for conducting coronavirus tests, the government has now set up 15 more labs and is in the process of establishing 19 additional centres, he said. "The government is proactively engaged in dealing with coronavirus. The prime minister is monitoring the situation daily," he said. Modi, Shah, Kejriwal wont celebrate Holi this year With Holi less than a week away on 10 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said they will not celebrate the festival or hold a Holi Milan gathering. President Ram Nath Kovind's office also said Rashtrapati Bhavan will not celebrate Holi this year. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 or novel coronavirus. Hence this year, I have decided not to participate in any 'Holi milan' programme," the prime minister tweeted. Reports also said that Shahs Hyderabad rally scheduled for 15 March was postponed after one case was reported from the city. Higher education secy, railways ministry issue advisories Higher education secretary Amit Khare on Wednesday wrote to all the state chief secretaries and the CBSE directing them to spread awareness about precautionary measures regarding coronavirus in schools, reports said. In order to create awareness among students, preventive measures such as frequent hand wash, respiratory etiquettes (using handkerchiefs over mouth while coughing or sneezing, etc) would help in preventing/reducing transmission of not only this disease, but also large number of other communicable diseases, the advisory said. Ministry of Human Resource Development issues advisory for schools regarding #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/GnIffxOR1p ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 The railway ministry also issued an advisory stating that material with information about coronavirus should be displayed "prominently" to increase awareness among the public regarding the disease, The Indian Express reported. Railway staff will be trained with preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus, the statement said, and added that any suspected case of coronavirus should be reported to the railway hospital. Kerala govt says three students stable; Rajasthan screens visitors Kerala health minister KK Shailaja on Wednesday said that the three students who had returned from China's Wuhan and had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, are stable and "at home". "Their isolation period is also over," she was quoted by ANI as saying. Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak, and the three students who had returned from the Chinese city were the first cases of the coronavirus in India. Several state governments, including in Rajasthan and Delhi, screened visitors and others for the disease in hotels and guesthouses. With 16 Italian tourists, who came to Rajasthan by road from Delhi, testing positive, the desert state swung into action to contain the infection. Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma said in the Assembly that at least 215 people had come in contact with the group. These included 53 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 76 people in Jaipur. Swab samples of 93 people were taken with 51 suspected patients testing negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said. He said Italy has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world (more than 2,500) and the tourists should have been screened earlier. A 69-year-old man was the first one in the group to test positive for the disease. Subsequently, his wife, too, tested positive at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital, where the couple is now admitted. The other 14 members of the group and their Indian driver were quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. In Delhi, Kejriwal said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus. While Vardhan said that the 45-year-old man from Mayur Vihar and six of his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited are being treated at the Safdarjung hospital, Kejriwal said a taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection. "We are concerned about situation but no need to panic," he said. A coronavirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, Kejriwal said. Do 'namaskar to avoid coronavirus, says Prakash Javadekar Stating that wearing masks was not the only solution to dealing with coronavirus, Union minister Javadekar also said, Other things are keeping your hands clean, taking precautions in public places, and doing namaskar. He was addressing concerns after reports emerged about the shortage of masks in the country. As the coronavirus came perilously close to home and dos and don'ts about the disease were circulated, others also advocated that the Indian way of greeting, the Namaste, was the way to go. A BJP leader from Goa on Wednesday suggested that people should adopt the 'Namaskar' style of greeting each other with folded hands to battle coronavirus. "As cases detected for nCovid19 increase, albeit in single digit, it's high time we take adequate precautions and adopt the Indian style of greeting with 'Namaskar'," Kunkolienkar, who was a close aide of former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, tweeted on Wednesday. Meanwhile, The Print reported that the Hindu Mahasabha is planning a gaumutra party to curb the spread of coronavirus in the National Capital. Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also told Israelis to adopt the 'Namaste' greeting at a press conference to mitigate the spread of coronavirus on Wednesday. People stock up on hand sanitisers and masks Many people went into panic mode and started stocking up on hand sanitisers and masks, PTI reported. Many shops, including in Delhi, said stocks of both had run out. However, Kejriwal said there is no shortage of masks. In Rajasthan, too, purchase orders have been given for 50,000 personal protective equipment kits and five lakh each of N-95 and triple layer masks to deal with the problem, Rajasthan minister Sharma said. Many schools in the National Capital Region said they were fumigating and sanitising their premises. Three schools in Delhi and its adjoining suburbs announced holidays for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the disease while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. Toll rises in Iran, US; Italy mulls nationwide shutdown of schools, colleges Friday prayers in Iran have been canceled for the second consecutive week across all provincial capitals amid the country's growing coronavirus outbreak, state television was quoted by AP as saying. Friday is the main congregational day of prayer in Islam, and traditionally an important event for Iran's clerical rulers. Iran on Wednesday announced that the toll of the coronavirus had risen to 92 amid 2,922 confirmed cases across the Islamic Republic, the highest toll in the world outside of China. While reports said that Italy was likely to close all schools and universities from Thursday until mid-March to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Italian education minister Lucia Azzolina said that the government hasn't decided on whether to close schools and universities. Azzolina came out of a government meeting where new measures were being discussed by top ministers to explain that a final ruling on schools and universities will come "in the next hours", an AFP report said. Meanwhile, tensions over how to contain the coronavirus escalated on Wednesday in the United States as the death toll climbed to nine and lawmakers expressed doubts about the government's ability to ramp up testing fast enough to deal with the crisis, The Associated Press reported. All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state, and most were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. The number of infections in the US overall climbed past 100, scattered across at least 15 states, with 27 cases in Washington alone. With inputs from agencies State Treasury Service almost ready to introduce funded pension system in Ukraine 13:20, 04.03.20 798 The Pension Fund's average monthly expenditure is estimated at about UAH 36 billion (US$1.4 billion). KIRKLAND, Wash. As three more deaths in the United States were linked to the coronavirus Tuesday, World Health Organization officials warned the virus could be far more dangerous than the flu, with a mortality rate of 3.4%. During an off-camera news conference at the White House with the task force charged with overseeing the federal governments response, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered a message to the American public: I want them to be prepared for the reality that they, there are going to be more cases in the community, he said. But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families. Redfield said scientists do not have the data to predict the future spread. What we do know for sure that in the right setting, it does have the potential to move quickly, Redfield said. When you think that just a couple of weeks ago there were less than three cases in Korea, now theres 2,500. Public health officials confirmed a nursing home patient in Washington state was admitted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Feb. 24 and died two days later. The patient, a 54-year-old man who had underlying medical conditions, was transported from Life Care Center of Kirkland and died days before several other patients at the nursing home were linked to the coronavirus, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. The Seattle and King County Public Health Department on Tuesday reported two additional deaths from COVID-19, bringing the King County total to eight. A North Carolina resident who visited the Kirkland facility has since tested positive for the virus, becoming that states first case of COVID-19, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday. New York City confirmed its first case of community spread coronavirus the second case of the virus in the state. The individual is a man in his 50s who lives in Westchester County but works at a law firm in Manhattan. The man is hospitalized and in severe condition. The global mortality rate which includes more than 3,000 deaths is many times higher than the mortality rate of the flu, which is less than 1%. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it. Still, Tedros reiterated the WHOs belief that containment was still within reach. We dont even talk about containment for seasonal flu, Tedros said. Its just not possible, but its possible for COVID-19. Officials say they have learned the coronavirus is less transmissible than the flu, which is often spread by people who are infected yet dont have symptoms. That doesnt seem to be the case for COVID-19, he said. There are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, which is why we must do everything we can to contain it. Mike Ryan, who runs the agencys emergencies program, pushed back against officials who wanted to wave the white flag and surrender to the diseases hold. China took drastic steps to fight the virus, he said, and case numbers are now on the decline there. Countries such as China and South Korea implemented very, very strong measures that have affected their own economies and their own societies, Ryan said. Its really a duty of others to use the time that has been bought. That is not a reverse you can achieve with influenza. If that is a failure, well have slowed down the virus. There can be a big benefit in slowing the virus arrival in a country for a few months, Ryan said. Many countries, including the U.S, are in the middle of flu season, so large numbers of coronavirus cases would overwhelm the health system. In Italy, COVID-19 patients and flu patients are already stretching hospitals and healthcare facilities, he said. Tedros said hes concerned by shortages of masks, gowns and other equipment needed by healthcare workers to stop the spread of disease caused by rising demands and hoarding and misuse. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers, said Tedros, noting that prices of surgical masks have increased sixfold. Current information suggests that most COVID-19 cases are mild, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. According to a report out of China, the most serious illnesses occur in 16% of cases, she said, and older people and those with underlying health conditions are twice as likely to develop serious outcomes. By Richard Read, Soumya Karlamangla, Colleen Shalby and Noah Bierman - Los Angeles Times (TNS) The targeted killing of Irans Qassem Soleimani by an American drone on January 3 raised reactions all over the world and South America is not an exception. Media across the continent expressed diverse opinions reflecting the political situation in each country and relations with Iran. The attack also opened a debate on the presence of Hezbollah in South America. Venezuela Media landscape of this Latin American country is highly affected by the current political situation. As reported by Reporters Without Borders, independent media often face persecutions and intimidation as government of Nicolas Maduro tries to keep news coverage under his control. The state media reaction to the killing of Qassem Soleimani followed the official stance of Nicolas Maduro, a close ally of Iran. State television VTV condemned the assassination describing it as a terrorist attack and calling Soleimani a martyr. Pan-American television TeleSur, which is sponsored by the Venezuelan government, described the attack as a treacherous crime and called American steps as provocations to escalate the situation into a conflict. The reactions of non-state media were different. Majority of outlets were explaining Qassem Soleimanis role in the Middle East and in the world, but in some cases, they expressed critical views of the Qods force commander that the United States considered an arch-terrorist in the Middle East. The non-state media are not directly controlled by the regime but can be influenced as the regime uses intimidation tactics to silence journalists when they report on something government does not want to have exposed. I do not think that in case of killing of Soleimani the regime did it. Thus, independent media were free to report about it, Joseph Humire, an expert on transregional threats in Latin America & Middle East told Radio Farda in an interview. For example, El Nacional, outlet which is not directly controlled by Maduros administration, published an article written by Adolfo P. Salguiero, lawyer who claims to be an opponent of government. The author called Soleimani a world terrorist number one and expressed his concerns about future developments in the Middle East. Yet most articles published by non-state media were rather informative with no expression of opinions. Venezuela is the closest ally of Iran in Latin America. The two countries, connected by strong Anti-Americanism, built their relationship during the presidencies of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and remain allies even under the administrations of Nicolas Maduro and Hassan Rouhani. The U.S. and its allies also believe Maduros government provides a haven to units of Lebanese Hezbollah. Colombia In Colombia, media focused on the presence of Hezbollah in the continent and possible retaliation for Soleimanis killing. According to Humire Colombia was one of the countries which covered the death of Soleimani the most as it happened just two weeks before a major conference about counterterrorism took place in Bogota on January 19th. Media paid a lot of attention to the topic of Hezbollah, its presence in Latin America and its connection to Quds force and Revolutionary guards. Furthermore, Colombian media proved to be concerned about future developments in the Middle East and in the world. The biggest newspaper in the country, El Tiempo, published an article written by political and investigative journalist Moises Naim in which he called Soleimani a dangerous terrorist but also expressed concern that his death could encourage nuclear proliferation as a defensive measure. The author claimed U.S. adversaries know that the same thing could not happen in North Korea because it could respond with nuclear arms. Colombia, one of the closest U.S. allies in South America, is currently governed by right-wing president Ivan Duque elected in 2018. During the Regional Conference Against Terrorism held in Bogota he stated that Venezuela is in collusion with Hezbollah and that Colombia added the group to the countrys list of terrorist organizations, according to the magazine Semana. A strong reaction to the killing came from leftist guerilla group FARC which condemned the attack and held a ceremony for Soleimani on February 7th in Bogota. When FARC made this very vocal and public expression, media was wondering why they politicize it and what is the connection between Hezbollah, FARC and Iran - so that became an interest of media as well, added Humire. Argentina Reactions from Argentina to the killing were influenced by the countrys experience with attacks believed to be carried out by Hezbollah in mid-1990s. One of the topics was involvement of Iran and Soleimani in the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires in 1994 where 85 people died. Argentinian investigative and political journalist Daniel Santoro claimed in an article published in national journal Clarin, one of the biggest private newspapers in the country, that Soleimani is named in specific intelligence reports on the AMIA attack even though he was never accused. According to the article by Santoro, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, stated that based on his information, Soleimani was implicated in the AMIA attack. Bolsonaro openly praised the assassination saying that Brazil rejects all forms of terrorism anywhere in the world. His Argentinian counterpart, president Alberto Fernandez remained neutral calling for a diplomatic solution which made him a target of criticism by conservative media such as La Nacion. Yet, according to the media agency Infobae, president Fernandez ordered an increase of security measures after the attack. Even though Fernandez is not that strong on Iran as previous president Mauricio Macri, he got concerned that Iran would retaliate for the death of Soleimani, and Argentina is always a soft target. That is why he raised the alert level, particularly at airports and Jewish communities, explained the expert. Peru Peruvian media also expressed fears about future developments in the Middle East and in the world. Important Peruvian newspaper La Republica published an article in which they compared the killing of Soleimani to the assassination of Ferdinand dEste, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, whose killing is considered to have been an immediate cause of World War I. The biggest newspaper in Peru, El Comerio, presented an opinion piece from Peruvian international security and the Middle East expert Farih Kahhat in which he assumed that neither the U.S. nor Iran know what consequences their actions would have while referring specifically to the downing of a Ukraine airliner by Irans revolutionary Guard on January 8. KALAMAZOO, MI Coronavirus is spreading globally, and while there are no confirmed cases in Michigan as of March 2, officials in Kalamazoo are preparing in case it infects people here. While we need to be diligent and concerned about the coronavirus, its important we weigh what were telling to the community so we dont create fear or panic, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief Jeff VanderWiere said during a presentation to the Kalamazoo City Commission on March 2. That said, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and other agencies are preparing for the virus. Protocols have been put in place so that when someone calls 911 and has symptoms such as respiratory distress or fever, they will be asked further screening questions, such as if they have been out of the country in the last two weeks or if they have been around others who were effected, VanderWiere said. If any of them come back positive, that information is immediately relayed to first responders as theyre responding, and they will use additional protection protocols with that patient, he said. Responders will also carry additional equipment including hand sanitizer, masks and protective gowns (for use on street to protect responders and to utilize on patients with a potential infection of the virus). All personnel are going through protocols and precaution training due to the virus, VanderWiere said. KDPS is also staying in communication with the Kalamazoo County Health Department and the office of emergency management. Officials plan to start a communication campaign with citizens to develop consistent messaging related to the virus, he said. In Michigan, as of March 2, there have been no positive tests for COVID-19, the coronavirus that began spreading in China before it was discovered at locations around the globe, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. While cautioning against creating fear or panic, VanderWiere said millions of people have suffered the flu virus. He gave that statistic and others about the flu virus to help put the current situation with coronavirus in perspective, he said. He recommends officials stay in communication with the community and try not to create more fear or panic related to the virus. Pride Care Ambulance Spokesman Robert Lohrberg said the company has talked with employees about the signs and symptoms of coronavirus to help them do their jobs. Much of the protocols in place to protect against coronavirus are similar to other ones already in practice for flu and other things, he said. Its not a big change, he said. The company provides ambulance services in five counties, and all paramedics have received training on state-mandated protocols, he said. Were hoping it wont arrive but Im sure it probably will, he said. Were prepared for the worst case scenario and hoping for the best. This week our Observers take us to Chile, where we meet the Primera Linea - a group of people on the front line of violent protests who have taken it upon themselves to protect other protesters. Then in Niger, police brutally broke up a mass sit-in by asylum-seekers who have been ignored for too long. A weekly news show produced with photos, videos and personal accounts from France 24 Observers around the world - all checked by our staff here in Paris. Sheriff Javier Salazar held on to a commanding lead from the beginning in a Democratic field of five candidates in Tuesdays Democratic primary, while former Bexar County Clerk Gerard C. Gerry Rickhoff did the same in a three-way race on the Republican side. Both now head to the November general election without a runoff. When the final votes were tallied well past 1 a.m., Salazar ended up with 54 percent of the Democratic vote: 85,020 of the 158,244 cast in his race. Former Bexar County sheriffs deputy Sharon Rodriguez was a distant second with just 18 percent of the vote, or 27,958. Trailing even further behind were controversial former Precinct 2 Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela, with 12 percent or 19,294 votes; law enforcement veteran Jose Trevino, 10 percent; and retired state trooper Pete Lozano, 6 percent. On ExpressNews.com: Sheriff facing seven challengers as he seeks second term Salazar, who narrowly defeated Republican Sheriff Susan Pamerleau in 2016, is seeking to become the first sheriff in Bexar County to be re-elected since 2004, when Ralph Lopez secured a fourth term. Lopez, a Democrat, was defeated in 2008 by Democratic challenger Amadeo Ortiz, who was unseated by Pamerleau, a Republican, in 2012. She, too, lost her bid for reelection. Salazar is a 27-year law enforcement veteran, having served most of his career with the San Antonio Police Department. During his first term as sheriff, he has dealt with a number of challenges, including the arrests of more than a dozen employees in the Bexar County Sheriffs Office; erroneous releases and mishandled transfers of inmates; and other highly publicized troubles at the Bexar County Jail. In citing achievements during his tenure, Salazar has said he has tightened up hiring standards in the department and implemented safeguards to prevent accidental inmate releases. He has cited statistics tracking a decrease in violent crime and emergency response times, thanks in part to the opening of two Sheriffs Office substations under a long-range, county-funded capital program. Celebrating at an election watch party late Tuesday, Salazar, 49, said the agency has about 200 vacancies, with 100 quality applicants in the pipeline for the end of March. I think were only hiring about 5 percent of applicants that get in, so we have to cast a wide net, he said. Were not the highest paying agency in the area, and thats what were fighting against. Im fully confident that were going to get those 200 vacancies filled with some good, quality folks. Salazar called Rickhoff a worthy adversary, but said he is improving training and discipline in the force, including the use of an ethical policing strategy that worked for the New Orleans Police Department. Were not breaking stride. Were going to be block-walking every weekend, doing the grass-roots campaign that got us here, he said. On ExpressNews.com: Former constable hit with multiple charges; declares innocence Velas third-place showing came despite being indicted in January on one count of aggravated perjury, two counts of tampering or fabricating evidence and three counts of official oppression. Her lawyer told reporters after a recent court hearing that Vela maintains her innocence. On the Republican side, Rickhoff led law enforcement veterans Willie Ng and Gary W. Garcia, with 52 percent, garnering an even 40,000 votes out of 76,337 ballots cast. Ng came in second with 30 percent, 22,899 votes, while Garcia logged 18 percent, 13,438 votes. Rickhoff, 67, was the county clerk for 24 years before he was defeated in 2018 by Lucy Adame-Clark, a Democrat. Tuesday night, Rickhoff said he would bring new ideas and administrative and educational skills into the Sheriffs Office to improve morale in the department and address human needs faced by deputies and their families. He mentioned development of a partnership with a bank or other financial institution to provide short-term, low-interest loans for deputies families and finding creative approaches to providing child care and other support. I dont have law enforcement experience, and I think its an asset, said Rickhoff, who watched election returns from home with family members. He said he would incorporate concepts he exercised as county clerk, including hiring and promotion opportunities for women, into the role of sheriff. I dont believe in militarizing the police, Rickhoff said. I believe group knowledge is better than individual knowledge. Whatever were doing now isnt working. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA [March 04, 2020] City of Houston Proclaims March 3, 2020, as "C.T. Bauer College of Business Day" Houston has set its sights on being recognized as one of the world's top cities for innovation, and on Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed "Bauer College of Business Day" in recognition of Bauer's entrepreneurship programs, including the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship that was named the top undergraduate program in the United States in annual rankings compiled by The Princeton Review. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005569/en/ On March 3, 2020, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston City Council recognized the C. T. Bauer College of Business as a leader in entrepreneurship education with a proclamation. (Photo: Business Wire) Administrators, Bauer College Board members, faculty and staff, mentors, and students of the University of Houston C. T. Bauer College of Business crowded City Hall as Turner recognized the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship as the country's best undergraduate academic training ground for next-generation innovators. Turner praised the program for its "pioneering, student-focused," approach and called out its exceptionalism. "Bauer has been called the number one undergraduate program for entrepreneurship in the nation. Not in the city, not in the state, but the nation," Turner said, after reading a proclamation recognizing the achievement. The Wolff Center, named for Houston philanthropists Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff, consistently finishes at or near the top of the prestigious list and has been included in the Top 10since 2007. Dean and Cullen Distinguished Chair Professor Paul A. Pavlou noted that the program, which prepares students to assume leadership roles in the business world, deserves celebration and recognition, but he noted that Bauer has even more to contribute to its community going forward. "There is still work to be done for Houston itself to become a top innovation city worldwide," Pavlou said. "Let's all work together ? all the industry, mentors, and universities in this great city, so we can create the City of Houston as the innovation ecosystem it deserves to be." More than 1,200 businesses have been started over the past decade by Wolff Center students and graduates, with identified funding of more than $268 million. Between 35 and 40 students each year are accepted into the program, which was launched in 1991. Far more students participate in Wolff Center classes: About 2,500 UH students take at least one entrepreneurship course every year. Dave Cook, Executive Director of the Wolff Center, said the program's success starts with its students, who complete a rigorous application process. "We are looking for students who are passionate about entrepreneurship, who want to grow personally and professionally," he said. "When it works, there's magic in the class. They learn not just from the professors, but from each other." Key experiences for Wolff Center students include intense, personalized mentoring from more than 500 experienced entrepreneurs from the Houston business community; experiential learning that includes everything from starting an internet business to working with intellectual property to launch new ventures; and Wolffest, a three-day festival that allows students to run a pop-up restaurant while handling hiring, marketing, cooking and sales. (This year's festival runs April 7, 8 and 9 on the UH campus.) Though the Wolff Center serves as a powerful catalyst for entrepreneurship, the concept of innovation is embedded in several other Bauer College programs and initiatives. RED Labs is UH's startup accelerator and technology entrepreneurship program, providing co-working space, mentorship and other resources to founders. Bauer College is also home to the award-winning SURE (Stimulating Urban Renewal Through Entrepreneurship) Program. The overarching mission of the SURE Program is to energize the entrepreneurial ecosystem, facilitating a partnership between UH students, industry experts and entrepreneurs from under-resourced communities. The University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center Network is also housed within Bauer College and provides business advising and access to training, tools and resources to help small businesses start, grow, expand and succeed. About the University of Houston The University of Houston, Texas' premier metropolitan research and teaching institution is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students. About the C. T. Bauer College of Business The C. T. Bauer College of Business has been in operation for more than 60 years at the University of Houston main campus. Through its five academic departments, the college offers a full-range of undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in business as well as executive education and community engagement initiatives. The Bauer College is fully accredited by the AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In August 2000, Houston business leader and philanthropist Charles T. (Ted) Bauer endowed the College of Business with a $40 million gift. In recognition of his generosity, the college was renamed the C. T. Bauer College of Business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005569/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Centre Manager of the Lagos State Biobank, Dr Bankole Akinwale, says the Italian man who tested positive for coronavirus in Nigeria is fast recovering and already eating amala. Akinwale, Manager, Lagos State Biobank, said this on Tuesday, at the briefing and sensitization of religious leaders on Coronavirus and other communicable diseases, organized by the State Ministry of Home Affairs, held at Christ the Light Chapel, Alausa, Ikeja. Akinwale said, A lot of things are flying in the social media but the Lagos State Government has been so active, Mr Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, prior to the latest development had established the incident command system cost over $ 4 million, in collaboration with Canadian government, is a coordinating centre to coordinate the preparedness and control system, otherwise work will be done haphazardly and there would not be a uni-directional flow of order. In 2014-15, while we had Ebola, one of the major reasons why we had serious issues in West Africa before Nigeria intervened was because there was no command system. Every organization that came was doing it on their own and before you knew, it had escalated. We started the command centre here with Mr. Governor, as Chief Incident Commander and Commissioner for Health is deputy incident commander. Read Also: It Will Rain Till The End Of This Week To Wipe Away Coronavirus: TB Joshua Now, what did we do beyond that. We have upgraded to activating Emergency Operation Centre where we have different groups that are handling issues relating to the disease. One of the groups; is those that will be searching, surveillance, searching for possible cases. Another group is those at the point of entries into the country, the airports, like MMIA and borders. Another group is those that disinfect by using chemicals to flit and clean any environment we had cases and kill the viruses that must have been deposited at the place. Another group is the one to create awareness and sensitises. Another group will diagnose the cases to determine if its actually coronavirus. Lagos is the only state and Nigeria, the country in West Africa with biosecurity facility, while South Africa has one. This shows that Lagos State is a country within a country. Its also a signal that we have pro-active, responsive government in Lagos. Thats why we have been able to handle the case when it came into the country, it didnt take us time to diagnose if its actually COVID -19. There is no state in Nigeria that has it except Lagos, thats why Ogun State referred it to Lagos. As at today, we are expected to check two other patients being suspected for COVID-19. If we do not have such facility how do we diagnose. The normal laboratories cant do it because it is risky to manage such a highly infectious virus. The first case is a Chinese man while the second is a Nigerian who just flew in from Dubai few days again and started developing severe body pains and other symptoms. The patient showed up at the facility on Monday to make the complaint, but we asked the patient to come back today for possible diagnosis and further action. The bio-security facility is not only for diagnoses but also as research centre where we look into ways of developing diagnostic kits. Kits are being imported into Nigeria with so much money spent. Since the case broke-out, everyday, we meet and review situation and continue on the next step. So far so good, no other confirmed case, the index case is doing well. He is doing perfectly well. We are also collecting follow up samples to see how well we are doing in terms of achievement. We are proud to say, we are doing well. The viral dose is dropping, appetite has increased, the man is interacting very well and eating our local food Amala. He is enjoying our meal. We are hoping for the best. In the case we are handling, we have gone to decontaminate the hotel where the Italian lodged and keep tracing the contacts and following upon them. The essence of that is to break and stop the spread of the disease. Leticia Van de Putte spent election day in the Rio Grande Valley. The former state senator visited more than 20 polling sites Tuesday, starting in Brownsville and ending up in McAllen. Van de Putte was lending a hand to the presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has been riding high since his landslide Democratic primary win last Saturday in South Carolina, consolidating the partys moderate faction with endorsements from vanquished former rivals Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Beto ORourke. Now Playing: Greg Jefferson is live blogging election updates and commentary. Here, he talks with columnist Gilbert Garcia on Bernie Sanders leading Bexar County and the fate of Joe Biden in Texas. Video: San Antonio Express-News The rush to anoint Biden, however, has been met with anger from supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who commands the loyalty of uncompromising progressives. In terms of policy, Biden wants to give the house a new paint job and maybe add a room or two. Sanders wants to tear the house down and build a brand new structure in its place. Van de Putte said the voters she encountered looked at the nerve-wracking climate in this country with fears about the coronavirus outbreak and a tanking stock market and valued the familiarity of Biden. RELATED: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden compete in tight race in Texas Because of the uncertainty, they want to go with Uncle Joe, because they know him, she said. At least the feeling here is that its not time for a revolution. Thats the crux of the internal tension thats dividing the Democratic Party, and threatens to rupture it in the coming months. Its a family feud that played out in the Texas presidential primary race between Sanders and Biden, and in the South Texas contest between centrist U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his ultra-progressive challenger, immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros. Cuellar, whose District 28 includes part of the East Side of San Antonio, is a political powerhouse in his hometown of Laredo. Hes been winning elections there for 34 years. His brother, Martin, is the sheriff of Webb County. His sister, Rosie, is that countys tax assessor-collector. Both of those siblings were on the ballot Tuesday. Getty Images In a different political environment, he would have coasted through this primary challenge without breaking a sweat. But theres a growing rebellion within the party, and Cuellar represents what the rebels are irate about. While he stood with Democrats in support of the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, and in opposition to a 2017 ACA repeal-and-replace bill from the GOP, for many progressives, he has been the epitome of what they despise about the modern Democratic Party. He voted against the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill, collaborated with Republican Senator John Cornyn on a 2014 bill that would allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to turn around Central Americans at the border, rather than allowing them to stay in the country to await an immigration hearing. He voted to prohibit federal funding for abortions and to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities. He has taken money from the National Rifle Association and from the GEO Group, a notorious private-prison company. Cisneros is only 26, entered the race with no campaign experience and couldnt compete with Cuellars clout in Webb County (which tends to make up close to half of the vote in his congressional district). Nonetheless, she pushed him hard in this primary race. In the Bexar County early vote, Cisneros beat Cuellar by nearly a 2-1 margin. Not so coincidentally, Sanders beat Biden by roughly the same margin. Cuellar was boosted in the primary race by a late visit from Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. speaker of the House, to the congressmans Laredo campaign office. For Sanders and Cisneros backers, that show of support from Pelosi was an act of unforgivable hypocrisy. The Democratic Party is talking about unity and saying they want to be seen as the party of the working class and the people and not governed by elites, said Rick Trevino, a Sanders delegate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. A former Sam Houston High School history teacher, Trevino ran in the 2018 U.S. District 23 primary and made it to a runoff with Gina Ortiz Jones. Paul Sancya, STF / Associated Press Simultaneously, Nancy Pelosi is going out of her way to support a guy who is voting with the oil companies, voting with the gun lobby, is voting against womens health care and is voting for private prisons. And Im supposed to believe that the Democratic Party is really against this stuff? Trevino said he believes many Democrats would rather lose with a moderate than win with a progressive. He added that he will not vote for any Democratic presidential nominee other than Sanders. Theres a lot of people like me, who are done with this, he said. Van de Putte has seen major intra-party division before. She was a co-chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in which Hillary Clinton supporters carried a major grudge against Barack Obama after Obama narrowly edged out their candidate for the presidential nomination. That battle, however, was chiefly about personal preference. This time, its a fissure over ideology and values. For the Bernie supporters and for all Democrats, Van de Putte said, its going to come down to Does my displeasure for the current occupant of the White House override the Democratic choice? And everybodys going to have to answer that question on their own. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 Geneva [Switzerland], Mar 4 (ANI): The World Sindhi Congress held a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Geneva to raise the issue of the persecution of minorities, especially the Hindus, in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Sindhis were joined by Pashtun, Kashmiri and Baloch political activists. They also raised concerns over the enforced disappearances of Sindhi political activists and shouted slogans against the Pakistani Army. "The Pakistani Army is supporting these fundamentalists who are kidnapping our minor Hindu girls. The persecution against the minorities has enormously increased in the past few months," said Hidayat Bhutto, a member of the World Sindhi Congress. In recent years, several incidents of forced abduction and conversion of Hindu girls by the Muslims have shaken the minority community in Pakistan and they have demanded justice to save their religion, culture, and ethos. The protesters called Pakistan an abuser of human rights and demanded justice for Mehak Kumari. Mehak was abducted by a middle-aged man, Ali Raza, from the Jacobabad district of Sindh province on January 15. The girl said she was forced to accept Islam, causing a widespread furore among the Islamic fanatics. Some Pakistani clerics want the minor girl dead after she retracted her previous statement in the court, where she said that she had accepted Islam of her own free will. The clerics blamed 14-year old Mehak of murtad, or an act of Apostasy, and are demanding death punishment, accusing her of insulting Islam. Meanwhile, the court which is yet to announce the verdict has sent Mehak Kumari to a local Dar-ul-Aman in Larkana district of Sindh for eleven days. "This has happened to thousands of girls and not a single perpetrator has ever been punished. This is a systematic design to persecute Sindhis so that they leave. They want to occupy Sindh," said Lakhu Luhana, the Secretary-General of the World Sindhi Congress. Luhana urged the world community to increase pressure on Pakistan to act on the perpetrators and stop the persecution of the Sindhi community. "We need the support of the international community. They should increase the pressure on Pakistan otherwise they would not listen and the people of Sindh would continue to suffer," he said. The abduction and forceful conversion of Hindu and Christian girls is widespread in Pakistan. Such incidents have sparked widespread criticism as many victim families are forced the migrate in foreign countries, including India. (ANI) 04.03.2020 LISTEN Mr. Frank Asiedu Bekoe, Political Director at the Office of the Chief of Staff has sued a broadcast journalist working with Joy TV and the Multimedia Group for publishing defamatory documentary against him. Mr. Kwettey Nettey and the Multimedia Group run a documentary to the effect that Mr. Bekoe allocated and auctioned seized vehicles to politically connected cronies of the government without the beneficiaries paying the required assessed duties. Mr. Bekoe says that the documentary was defamatory and therefore claiming compensatory damages in the sum of Ten Million Ghana Cedis (GHC10,000,000.00) from Mr. Nettey and the Multimedia Group. Apart from that Mr. Bekoe wants a declaration from the court that the publication on Joy TV against him in connection with the auction vehicles was defamatory and was made without any basis. The Plaintiff wants an order of injunction directed at the Defendants, agents, assigns, privies from continuing to air the said defamatory documentary. Again, Mr. Bekoe wants an order of the court directed at Mr. Nettey and the Multimedia Group to retract and render an unqualified apology in the same prominence on Joy TV and four publications in the Daily Graphic. In addition, Mr. Bekoe is asking the court for general damages and costs, including legal fees. A statement of claim in a suit filed by Mr. Gary Nimako of Safo & Marfo @ Law on March 4, 2020, said that the publication by the Defendants which was widely circulated has damaged the Plaintiffs (Mr. Bekoe) image as a public officer. Mr. Bekoe avers that by the standard of journalistic practice, Mr. Nettey and the Multimedia Group ought to have also cross-checked with relevant facts with him before putting the documentary but woefully failed to do so. It is clear that the Defendants sought to embark on a one-sided piece of work that was carefully calculated, designed, crafted to malign and destroy the reputation of the Plaintiff in the eyes of right-thinking members of society, the statement said. It said: the publication of the Defendants has seriously affected Mr. Bekoes reputation in the public space, including social and print media. Attached Is The Writ Of Summons PALERMO, N.Y. -- An Oswego County man has been charged with raping a person who was sleeping, according to the Oswego County Sheriffs Office. Alec Sova, 20, of the town of Mexico, was charged Tuesday with raping and sexually abusing a victim who was asleep in November 2019 inside a Palermo home, deputies said in a news release. Deputies declined to release the gender or age of the victim. Sova has been charged with first-degree sexual abuse and third-degree rape, both felonies. He is not listed in custody, but is due to appear in Palermo Town Court on April 6. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Have a tip, a story idea or a comment? You can reach me at shouse@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 466-4160 | Twitter | Facebook The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by airlines to suspend the country's new passenger rights charter until an appeal of the regulations is heard. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A plane is silhouetted as it takes off from Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on May 13, 2019. The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by airlines to suspend the country's new passenger rights charter. The judge turned down Tuesday a motion by Air Canada, Porter Airlines Inc. and 14 other carriers to freeze the traveller protections until an appeal of the regulations is heard. Justice David Near said the appellants did not show on a balance of probabilities that the rules would cause irreparable harm. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by airlines to suspend the country's new passenger rights charter until an appeal of the regulations is heard. A judge turned down a motion by the International Air Transport Association trade group which counts Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. among its 300-odd members and 13 other major carriers to freeze the traveller protections while the appeal is being dealt with. Justice David Near said Tuesday the appellants did not show on a balance of probabilities that the rules would cause irreparable harm. Tabled in May 2017, the passenger bill of rights aims to beef up compensation for travellers subjected to delayed flights and damaged luggage. "I'm very glad the court made that decision," Transport Minister Marc Garneau said in an interview Wednesday. "We did our homework...and we tried to come up with something that we felt was fair to both passengers as well as to the airlines." The issue came to the forefront after a 2017 incident in which two Montreal-bound Air Transat jets were diverted to Ottawa because of bad weather and were held on the tarmac for up to six hours, leading some passengers to call 911. While some travellers and advocates say the rules allow for loopholes, the appellants argue the regulations exceed the Canadian Transportation Agency's authority and contravene the Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty. AirHelp, a Berlin-based passenger rights company, has said the exemptions for weather or mechanical malfunctions don't encourage airlines to avoid "so-called undiscovered issues" and allows them to sidestep compensation by pointing to malfunctions on the tarmac. Other consumer rights advocates say getting monetary compensation is tough because it requires passengers to present evidence that is in the hands of the airline. The rules rely on travellers filing complaints with airlines or, as a last resort, the Canadian Transportation Agency. New complaints about air travel to the transportation watchdog have risen more than 800 per cent over the past four years, hitting 7,650 in 2018-19. "Canadians are using them," Garneau said of the freshly delineated rights. "Sometimes they're having a different interpretation from the airlines and those things are getting worked out through the Canadian Transportation Agency. Garneau characterized the ongoing limbo as "the shake-down period, and eventually we'll come out of that with everyone clearly understand(ing) those rules, based on precedent." Transportation agency chair Scott Streiner has said he is satisfied with the airlines' overall efforts to comply with the first wave of rules and expected the same in the 2020. The federal appeal court also granted a motion by passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs to intervene in the case. "The proposed intervener would defend the interests of airline passengers in a way that the parties cannot...and that the proposed intervention would be of assistance to the court in deciding the appeal," the judge wrote. I am very pleased by the courts ruling," Lukacs said. "This is a very significant judicial recognition of the work that we have been doing for the past 12 years." The new rules allow passengers to be compensated up to $2,400 if they are bumped from a flight and receive up to $2,300 for lost or damaged luggage. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Compensation of up to $1,000 for delays and other payments for cancelled flights took effect on Dec. 15. The International Air Transport Association did not immediately reply to a request for comment. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:TRZ, TSX:AC) With files from Jordan Press Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version included Air Canada among the airlines moving to temporarily suspend the country's new passenger rights charter. PHILADELPHIA, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aberdeen Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund, Inc. (the "Fund") (NYSE American: AEF) held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") on March 4, 2020. At the Meeting, shareholders of the Fund voted to re-elect one Class III Director to the Board of Directors. As of the record date, December 31, 2019, there were 50,751,778 outstanding shares of the Fund. 86.09% of the outstanding shares were voted at the Meeting representing a quorum. The description of the proposal and number of shares voted at the Meeting are as follows: To re-elect one Class III Director to the Board of Directors: Votes For Votes Against Abstained Steven N. Rappaport 39,694,299 3,987,418 11,504 Under the Fund's retirement policy, the retirement of Mr. James Cattano and Mr. Lawrence Fox was effective at the conclusion of the 2020 Annual Meeting. The Board would like to extend its sincere gratitude to Mr. Cattano and Mr. Fox and acknowledge the invaluable contributions they have made to the Fund during their tenure and wish them the best of success in all their future endeavours. In light of the foregoing, the Board has approved a reduction in the size of the Board from six to four directors. Directors whose term of office continued beyond the Meeting are as follows: Nancy Yao Maasbach, C. William Maher and Rahn Porter. Effective upon the retirement of Mr. Cattano, the Board appointed Mr. Maher, an Independent Director, to serve in the role of Audit and Valuation Committee Chair. In the United States, Aberdeen Standard Investments is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: Aberdeen Standard Investments Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments Australia Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments (Asia) Ltd., Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC and Standard Life Investments (Corporate Funds) Ltd. Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact: [email protected] aberdeenaef.com SOURCE Aberdeen Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund, Inc. Related Links http://www.aberdeenaef.com China also censored initial reports of the coronavirus, delaying for several weeks an appropriate response to the outbreak. And we know the consequences of that delay. The world is now on the verge of a pandemic. Fred Luce Winston-Salem Far worse Some people seem to be wary of socialism because it, like other forms of government, has its dangers. Certainly. But we have something far worse than that in place in our country right now: dictatorship. The president controls the legislative branch, which is Congress. He controls the executive branch and the Cabinet and tells his minions what to do about the environment, immigrants and poor people. He just about controls the judicial branch and certainly wants to, including the attorney general and the Supreme Court. He says he has the power and authority to pardon his pals when they get caught for criminal conduct. Worst of all, he has persuaded a lot of people to yell in favor of his racism and bigotry and the way he tongue-lashes his opponents. Taiwan's aviation, tourism sectors hit hard by coronavirus epidemic ROC Central News Agency 03/03/2020 09:55 PM Taipei, March 3 (CNA) Airline companies and travel agencies in Taiwan are facing difficulties amid falling demand due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, while travelers have been expressing frustration at having to cancel or postpone their trips. In an internal letter to its 10,000 employees on Monday, China Airlines (CAL) said the impact of the epidemic has been like an "avalanche," and it asked for understanding and cooperation if the situation worsens and tighter measures become necessary. CAL has already cut salaries at the management level by 10 percent and has been asking its employees to take special leave. "Even when the epidemic ends, the company will need more time than before to recover," the letter reads, citing previous crises such as the SARS epidemic in 2002. According to CAL, it has so far canceled nearly 3,000 flights scheduled for March, about 49 percent of its total number for the month, and another 2,100 flights, or 33 percent, that were booked for April. The recent escalation of the COVID-19 in neighboring countries has exacerbated the situation, as CAL routes to Japan, South Korea and across the Taiwan Strait account for 51 percent of its total services, the carrier said. Meanwhile, the other major Taiwanese carrier EVA Airways has also been encouraging its employees to take time off amid continued low travel demand. EVA said it has asked the government to implement bailout plans for the aviation industry. The outlook is even more dismal for travel agencies, which are absorbing pressure from consumers, airlines and upstream tour operators. Under Taiwan law, travelers are eligible to receive compensation if they choose to cancel their trips based on official travel warnings, but that often leads to disputes. For example, based on a Level 3 travel warning issued by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which urges people to avoid unnecessary travel to a destination, travelers can obtain a full refund, minus an administrative fee, if they cancel their trips. Cancellations based on a Level 2 warning allow a minimum 95 percent refund, while the refund for those based on the lowest warning of Level 1 are calculated on a scale that takes into account how far in advance the ticket was canceled. In both situations, administrative fees are not refundable. One of the most contentious issues in that system is the calculation of administrative fees, according to Wu Mei-hui (), secretary-general of the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA). Wu said travel agencies sometimes cannot return that fee because they have made payments to upstream tour organizers and cannot obtain a refund, but the travelers get upset about it. If the impact of the coronavirus lasts until June, the amount of money related to travel disputes is likely to exceed NT$10 billion (US$332.6 million), she said. Travel agencies are at risk because of the slowdown in cash flow, Wu said, forecasting the closure of about 500 travel agencies in Taiwan by the end of June if the coronavirus situation persists until then. If the epidemic lasts into the second half of the year, more than 90 percent of Taiwan's 3,900 travel agencies might be forced to close, she said. The current situation is also causing frustration among travelers, who are losing money and have had their plans disrupted. Lin Shih-chun, an independent traveler, said she paid NT$2,000 to cancel a Feb. 24 trip to Tokyo, two weeks ahead of schedule, due to a Level 1 warning for Japan. Lin said she was worried about the epidemic and the possibility of quarantine measures upon return to Taiwan, if the coronavirus situation in Japan worsened. Evelyn Huang (), who had booked a group tour to Japan, canceled her trip to the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama on Feb. 28, saying she was postponing any overseas travel until summer. Although she canceled the Japan trip a month in advance and managed to get a refund, Huang said, she was upset about not being able to go on the much anticipated tour. "It is terrible, but what can we do?" she said. (By Lee Hsin-Yin) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) Actress Kim Chiu is safe after unidentified gunmen shoot at her van in Quezon City on Wednesday. "Yes I am safe po. Im ok and my P.A. And my driver as well. Papa Jesus protected us," she posted on her Instagram page. A police report based on the statement of Chiu's driver Wilfred Taperla said two suspects on board a motorcycle fired six gunshots at their vehicle along Katipunan Avenue corner C.P. Garcia Avenue at around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday. The 29-year-old actress recalled the terrifying ordeal. She said she was asleep inside her car when she was awakened by what she said were eight gunshots. When she woke up, she saw bullet shells right beside her head. "I saw this bullet on the windshield where my head is laying. (I was thinking) 'Buti nakahiga ako.' Pano kung tinuloy ko magbasa ng script?... I was so scared, I don't know what to feel right now," she said. [Translation: I saw this bullet on the windshield where my head is laying. I was thinking that it's a good thing I was lying down. What if I was awake and continued reading my script? I was so scared, I don't know what to feel right now.] A shaken Chiu believes the shooting incident was a case of mistaken identity. "I don't have an idea what really happened, mistaken identity? I guess?? Napag tripan? Wala naman akong kaaway or ka atraso," she said. [Translation: I don't understand what happened. Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity? Maybe someone did it as a joke? I don't have enemies.] She added, "Sana tininignan nyo muna ang plate number bago nyo paulanan ng bala yung kotse ko." [Translation: I hope you checked the plate number first before you shot my car.] Her driver said the two suspects wearing black helmets and jackets fled towards Katipunan Avenue after the incident. Chiu's home network ABS-CBn condemned the shooting, adding that they are working closely with authorities. Chiu is currently starring in ABS-CBN's afternoon drama television series "Love Thy Woman." [March 04, 2020] Ashland Pacific and Integrated Capital Management Form $150M Real Estate Joint Venture, First Acquisition Is $18M Student Housing Portfolio Around USC Campus Ashland Pacific, a vertically integrated real estate firm, announced today that it has formed a joint venture with Integrated Capital Management (ICM), an LA-based investment management firm, that will focus on acquiring and managing $150 million of student housing properties on the West Coast. Ashland Pacific will be the managing member of newly formed Ashland Pacific Integrated (API) with primary responsibility for the venture's day-to-day operations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005242/en/ API staked its first claim with the acquisition of an $18 million portfolio of student housing assets located less than one mile from the University of Southern California (USC) campus. These nine properties, comprised of 84 beds which are currently 94% occupied, immediately catapult API among the top owner/operators of student housing for USC students. Dan Lewin of Marcus & Millichap represented API in the transaction. "This joint venture enables us to take our proven acquisition and management model to more student housing markets on the West Coast with a goal to quadruple assets in the next five years," said Julio Davila, CEO & President of Ashland Pacific. "Our first step was to acquire a base of properties in our own backyard around USC and make a large impact in Downtown LA's student housing market." API brings together a combined 20 years of student housing and 40+ years of institutional expertise at Ashland Pacific with the extensive private equity and advisory platform of ICM for the intention of significantly expanding its acquisition o student housing over the next five years. With this most recent acquisition, Ashland Pacific's student housing owned/managed portfolio grows to 40 properties valued at nearly $70 million around USC. "We are thrilled to have ICM as our partner in this new venture to scale our student housing platform," said Troy Dodgion, Ashland Pacific's COO. "Ashland Pacific brings institutional-caliber operations to the student housing market while delivering strong adjusted returns to our investors." Given only approximately 15% of student housing needs at USC are currently served on-campus mainly serving freshman, and demand for off-campus alternatives is only going to grow as both undergraduate and graduate enrollment increases, the new venture is well positioned to capitalize on the burgeoning student housing market. Moreover, API intends to drive value by bringing operational best practices to the sub-institutional market serving more than half of student housing needs. "Many investors have come to recognize the resilience student housing offers in any economic climate," said John Carrick, co-founder and managing principal at ICM. "We've seen the value Ashland Pacific has already delivered for its stakeholders, and we believe this new joint venture will see impressive returns by expanding their proven business model." About Ashland Pacific Founded by industry veterans, Ashland Pacific is a vertically integrated real estate firm focused on investing in and managing student housing and other value-add properties with historical market resiliency. Ashland Pacific's team has collectively managed close to $20 billion in assets combining a fiduciary mindset and entrepreneurial culture to produce a strong track record that has weathered multiple market cycles over the last 30 years. From investments and acquisitions to property management, the firm focuses mainly on undervalued assets, properties and urban developments in the West and Southwest U.S. with an opportunity for large return on investment over the long term. Ashland's team studies macro-economic and demographic trends for a thorough investment strategy and maintains a full service, hands-on management approach to ensure quality and accountability. For more information, please visit www.ashlandpacific.com About Integrated Capital Management Integrated Capital Management (ICM) is a Los Angeles-based investment management firm. Founded by real estate finance veterans John Carrick and Robert Lindner, ICM is privileged to invest the commercial real estate allocation of Disney (News - Alert) and several other family offices around the country, as well as multiple registered investment advisors (RIAs), high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and foreign capital sources. Principal investments are capitalized through the firm's various discretionary private equity offerings and are generally styled to help accomplished owners, operators, and developers of commercial properties scale their platforms and assets under management on a national basis by offering strategic co-investment capital. For more information, please visit www.integratedcm.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005242/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Delhi violence: Teachers of Jamia Millia Islamia to contribute one-day salary to victims India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Mar 04: All teachers of Jamia Millia Islamia on Tuesday decided to contribute a minimum of one-day's salary for the welfare of victims, who faced severe loss in the Delhi riots. This decision, by the teachers were taken after a delegation comprising teachers was sent to the violence-affected areas in northeast Delhi on February 29. According to reports, it is alleged that the teachers would not make any "lavish purchase" through the year and will stick to basic household expenses. A delegation of teachers alleged that the victims have lost faith in the government and its administration. "It is high time we common Indians unite and collectively fight the hate-mongers to save religious diversity, which leads to stability of the nation," said Jamia teachers. 327 shops, 79 houses destroyed in Delhi violence NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 The death toll in the violence rose to 46 with 38 been reported dead at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, three at Lok Nayak Hospital, four at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and one at Jag Parvesh Chander Hospital. Also, four bodies were fished out from the drains in Gokalpuri and Shiv Vihar areas. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 11:20 [IST] The Donald Trump administration is talking with Turkey about the delivering the Patriot system, the Pentagons top weapons buyer said today, despite killing a sale to Ankara last year. The NATO ally has requested the American-made air defense system amid a standoff with the Syrian regime in the contested Idlib province. We continue to talk to them about Patriot, said Ellen Lord, the Pentagons top weapons buyer. Turks are very important to us; we have many different collaborations with them at many different levels. We would love to see the removal of the S-400 and we would love to see the Patriots go in. After Turkey took delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system in July, the Trump administration pulled a $3.5 billion offer for competing Patriot batteries. Turkey previously received the defense systems on a loan basis during tensions on its southern border with Syria in 2013 as well as European systems. A source familiar with the matter told Al-Monitor that US Special Representative for Syria Engagement Jim Jeffrey wants Turkey to request the Patriot system through NATO, as opposed to the United States. Jeffrey traveled to Syria on Tuesday with US envoy to the United Nations Kelly Craft, though it is unclear whether the delegation met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the trip. Lord said that despite the US decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 program in the wake of receiving the S-400, which the Pentagon fears could erode the stealth fighter jets ability to evade Russian radar systems, other sales programs to the NATO ally havent slowed down. Turkey would have to send a formal request to the Pentagon to buy the Patriot system. But Lords comments could indicate that the US administration may still see a narrow window of opportunity for Turkey to walk back from the Russian system, which the alliance has said is not interoperable with NATO-grade weapons. Turkey has pointed to an April date to make the S-400 fully operational, after it tested the defenses in December against F-16s it purchased from the United States. Speaking last week, US envoy to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchinson renewed a US call on Turkey to drop the Russian system in the midst of the Idlib offensive after an airstrike last week killed at least 34 Turkish troops. They see what theyre doing now, Hutchinson said. And if they are attacking Turkish troops, that should outweigh everything else. A State Department official told Al-Monitor on Tuesday that the United States was still considering Turkish requests for assistance in Syria, but it has not approved any new ammunition. A former senior administration official told Al-Monitor they were concerned that US provisions of ammunition to the Turks in Idlib could hamper the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and could be used against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. In October, Turkey launched an incursion into areas of northern Syria liberated from IS by the Kurdish-dominated group. The United Nations has called for an immediate cease-fire in Idlib, where renewed fighting has forced more than 950,000 people from their homes. Samples of two persons have been sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune for confirmation of coronavirus, health authorities said on Wednesday, as the government stepped up precautionary measures. The virus scare hit the IT corridor at Cyberabad herewitha complex, housing software companies, being "closed" for sanitisation after a person working there was suspected to be suffering from the infection. The state reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, had tested positive for the virus. State Health Minister E Rajender said in a release on Wednesday that samples of two persons have been sent to Pune for full confirmation with regard to COVID-19. The two persons are among the 47 whose samples were tested at the state-run Gandhi hospital here on Tuesday. According to the minister, 45 samples tested negative. The two persons are - a foreigner who came from Italy and another who moved closely with the man who tested positive for the virus, he said. According to a police official, of the 21 buildings in the complex located in the IT corridor "only one building has been closed for sanitisation, that too it has not been entirely closed." As a precautionary measure, the employees working in the buildingconcerned were asked to "work from home", the official said. A bulletin on COVID-19 issued by the state health department on Tuesday said test results of 36 samples were awaited. However, more samples were sent for tests subsequently, taking the total number tested the same day to 47, official sources said. The condition of the techie, who tested positive for the virus and being treated in an isolation ward in the state-run Gandhi hospital, is stable, the release said. The man, who is working in Bengaluru, had gone to Dubai last month, where he is suspected to have contracted the virus after allegedly coming into contact with some people from Hong Kong. He had returned to Bengaluru from Dubai and then travelled to Hyderabad in a bus. The Telangana government has taken up a process of tracking about 88 people who came in contact with the techie to ascertain if they have contracted the virus. As part of precautionary measures, the government has decided to undertake a campaign to promote cleanliness in public transport to prevent the spread of the virus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Saudi Arabia Passenger Car Market By Vehicle Type, By Fuel Type, By Transmission Type, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2024" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05813143/?utm_source=GNW Saudi Arabia passenger car market was valued at over $ 11 billion in 2018 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 16% to surpass $ 28 billion by 2024 on account of increasing per capita income and developing infrastructure of the country.Upliftment of ban from women driving along with increasing number of CKD plants are further driving growth of the market in the country. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is the one of the largest auto and auto parts market in the Middle East, accounting for over 30 per cent of all vehicles sold in the region. Also, the Saudi government is looking to develop domestic automotive industries and is encouraging global vehicle manufacturers to establish local operations, which would further drive Saudi Arabia passenger car market in the coming years. Saudi Arabia passenger car market can be segmented based on vehicle type, fuel type, transmission type and region.In terms of passenger car type, market can be classified into hatchback, sedan, MPV, pickup and SUV. Sedan cars dominated Saudi Arabia passenger car market in 2018, with the market share of over 55%, and the segment is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period as well.The leading position of sedan segment is backed by the wide range of products in this segment, besides being comparatively more spacious and easier to maintain. SUVs segment held the second largest market share in 2018, primarily on account of SUVs powerful engine, higher passenger capacity and suitability for off-road driving. List of major players operating in the Saudi Arabia passenger car market include Toyota Motors Corporation, Hyundai Motor Company, Mazda Saudi Arabia, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, General Motors Co., Ford Middle East, Kia Motors Corp, Isuzu Motors Saudi Arabia Co. Ltd., Volkswagen AG, Renault Middle East, etc. Major companies are adopting strategies such as expansion in new locations, mergers & acquisitions and product developments. With rising focus of these leading players on sales and marketing activities, the passenger car industry in Saudi Arabia is anticipated to witness intensifying competition over the next five years. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2014-2017 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Period: 20202024 Objective of the Study: To analyze and forecast the market size of Saudi Arabia passenger car market. To classify and forecast Saudi Arabia passenger car market based on vehicle type, fuel type, transmission type and regional distribution. To identify drivers and challenges for Saudi Arabia passenger car market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in Saudi Arabia passenger car market. To conduct the pricing analysis for Saudi Arabia passenger car market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players involved in the Saudi Arabia passenger car market. The analyst performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study.Initially, the analyst sourced a list of manufacturers across the country. Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies.While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors. Through this technique, the analyst could include the manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The analyst examined the product offerings, distribution channels and presence of all major manufacturers across the country. The analyst calculated the market size of Saudi Arabia passenger car market by using a bottom-up approach, where data for various end-user segments was recorded and forecast for the future years. The analyst sourced these values from the industry experts and company representatives and externally validated through analyzing historical data of these product types and applications for getting an appropriate, overall market size. Various secondary sources such as company websites, news articles, press releases, company annual reports, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied by the analyst. Key Target Audience: Passenger car manufacturers, suppliers and other stakeholders Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Organizations, forums and alliances related to passenger car market Market research and consulting firms The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as manufacturers, suppliers, and partners, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities. Report Scope: In this report, Saudi Arabia passenger car market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Market, By Vehicle Type: o Hatchback o Sedan o MPV o Pickup o SUV Market, By Fuel Type: o Petrol o Diesel o Others Market, By Transmission Type: o Manual Transmission o Automatic Transmission Competitive Landscape Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in Saudi Arabia passenger car market. Available Customizations: With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: Company Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five). Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05813143/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ After a Nazi flag was removed from the window of a prominent building in downtown Yellowknife, what appears to be another controversial flag has been hung in its place. Cabin Radio reported on Tuesday that a red flag with a white circle containing a black swastika was seen on Monday hanging backwards in a window on the top storey of Northern United Place. By Tuesday morning, the flag had been replaced with what looks like an Imperial German war flag, a banner that predates the Third Reich. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Imperial German flag has been used as a substitute for the Nazi flag by some neo-Nazis in Germany, where public displays of the swastika are banned. Northern United Place's landlord says there's not much it can do about offensive imagery in its windows. "There's only certain things under the Residential Tenancies Act that we can, as a landlord, ask a tenant to comply by, and decorations are not one of them," said Gail Leonardis, executive director of the N.W.T. Community Services Corporation, which owns and manages Northern United Place. Sidney Cohen/CBC Leonardis said a memo was sent to the person living in the apartment with the flag, asking them to take it down. "That flag has connotations that are very uncomfortable for a lot of people," she said. But Leonardis said making the request is all she can do. "He is allowed to display whatever he wants within his own home." She said she doesn't know whether the tenant responded to the memo, and that he is under no obligation to do so. Asked whether actions will be taken over the second flag, Leonardis said she is away from the office and will assess the situation when she returns. "If we've got complaints from other tenants, or that kind of stuff, then we'll address the situation with the tenant," she said. Everyone knows the swastika, what it represents, and the impact from displaying it to the public - Evan Balgord, Canadian Anti-Hate Network Story continues Northern United Place contains residential and commercial spaces, including Aurora College, affordable and student housing, and the Yellowknife United Church. Citing privacy concerns, Leonardis would not say who is living in the unit, nor would she say if the apartment has gotten other complaints. CBC knocked on several doors on the building's top floor on Tuesday, but no one answered. Not illegal to display Nazi flag "We don't have a specific law against flying a Nazi flag [in Canada]," Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network a non-profit that monitors hate groups and hate crimes in Canada wrote in an email. "That being said, everyone knows the swastika, what it represents, and the impact from displaying it to the public (outside of a museum context)." Responding to an email containing a link to the Cabin Radio story, Balgord said, "the use of the symbol itself in this context is the wilful promotion of hate propaganda, which is a criminal offence. If an apology is not forthcoming and it looks like that will not be the case they should be charged." In an emailed statement, Yellowknife RCMP said the force monitors "ideologically motivated extremist groups that pose a risk to public safety," but that it is "not in a position to comment on the existence of any specific group in the N.W.T." "It is not a criminal offence to display a flag, even if the flag could be perceived as distasteful," wrote spokesperson Julie Plourde. She said police are not investigating a flag in a Northern United Place window. March 4, 2020 POCATELLO Clearing and maintaining the Red Hill trails will be the focus of Idaho State Universitys second annual Turner Day, an annual day of service for the ISU community, that will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, March 13. The first 100 volunteers will get free T-shirts and free lunch vouchers. Volunteers can meet at 10 a.m. in the Pond Student Union Bengal Theatre Lobby, and then will work until noon. From noon to 2 p.m. there will lunch at Turner Dining Commons and a Volunteer Opportunity Fair in the Turner Lobby. The event is for ISU students, faculty, staff and alumni. Turner Day is a student-driven initiative that promotes community and fosters leadership, said Ryan Sargent, director of ISU alumni relations. Theodore Turner, the father of ISU, understood how institutions of higher learning empower individuals and enhance communities. For over fifty years he dedicated himself and his means to ensuring a comprehensive four-year college education would be available in Pocatello. Remembering that spirit of leadership and philanthropy, students come together through the Turner Day project to improve something on campus and thus join the ranks of so many who have dedicated their time and talents to exalt Idaho State University. Turner Day is sponsored by the Associated Students of ISU, Student Opportunity Development, Idaho Healthcare for Children and Families AmeriCorps, ISU Facilities, ISU Grounds and the ISU Traditions Committee. For more information on Turner Day, visit isu.edu/turnerday. To sign up as a volunteer, visit https://forms.gle/TvFUVAwceYDWVYUN8. Forest (Nick Offerman) is a know-it-all. Thats not to say that hes a polymath, or wise, or even especially well-informed. Forest is a tech mogul, and his project is building a computer that uses the principle of determinism that everything that happens is physically foreordained to calculate the cause and outcome of any event in the universe. Its function is literally to Know. It. All. Alex Garland is also a know-it-all. The British science-fictioneer has, as a screenwriter and director, staked out a particular genre of galaxy-brain theater. His films create twists and haunting alternative worlds from hard science and big-think, be it artificial intelligence in Ex Machina or bio-horror in Annihilation. Garland is concerned with macro forces and the mortals who would master or be mastered by them; he operates at god-level. The eight-episode Devs, which begins Thursday on FX on Hulu, is Garlands first television series, and he writes and directs it in full. The size has a magnifying effect: It showcases what Garland does well ideas and atmosphere while amplifying his weaknesses in character and plot. As the techies say, it scales for better and for worse. Devs is breathtakingly grand in ideas and ambition. (Less so in content. Im not convinced the story couldnt have been told in a two-hour film.) In a few words: Lily (Sonoya Mizuno), an engineer at Forests company, Amaya, is drawn into a dangerous intrigue when her boyfriend, Sergei (Karl Glusman), is assigned to the project that gives the series its title, then disappears. T he number of coronavirus cases in Britain has jumped by 34 to 85. The spike the largest in a single day in the UK came as Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty warned that an epidemic is now highly likely. Before todays surge, the UK total stood at 51 cases. The Department of Health said that as of 9am on Wednesday 16,659 people had been tested in the UK, with 85 confirmed as having contracted the virus. Two further cases were later confirmed in Northern Ireland, taking the UK toll to 87. The jump today far exceeds the previous daily high on Sunday, when 12 more people in England and one in Scotland tested positive for the virus, taking the total to 36. The vast majority so far are people who have returned from countries suffering outbreaks. However, health chiefs now suspect the infection is being passed on here as well, beyond one case in Surrey and another in Essex which at least initially were not thought to be linked to foreign outbreaks. It came as Boris Johnson announced statutory sick pay will be paid from the first day of absence, rather than the fourth, and told Jeremy Corbyn that he would urgently look at whether two million workers who are not entitled to the pay should get financial help. The Prime Minister is also urgently considering special help for workers on zero-hours contracts who stand to lose income if they self-isolate. Some 974,000 Britons are on zero hours and ministers are worried they would be tempted to work while carrying the infection. Mr Johnson told MPs at Prime Ministers Questions that health chiefs would announce measures in coming days over how to stop the spread of Covid-19 in Parliament and other places with large gatherings. Italy is considering closing all schools and universities across the country until mid-March, education minister Lucia Azzolina said. Professor Whitty said it was now believed that person-to-person transmission was happening in the UK, though currently not on a large scale. We probably do in my view have some onward transmission here in the UK, I dont think it is a large amount or we would have detected it, Professor Whitty told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. [March 04, 2020] Ryan Helps Astoria Co-op Secure Federal New Markets Tax Credits Ryan, a leading global tax services and software provider, helped Astoria Co-op secure low-interest loans through New Markets Tax Credits, resulting in forecasted sales growth from $3.6 million to more than $7 million. The incentives are expected to almost quadruple the grocer's total square footage from 3,100 to 11,600 and more than triple its retail space from 2,100 to 6,800 square feet. The incentive also benefits the less than 10,000 residents of Astoria, Oregon, where fresh or organic produce and protein selections are difficult to find. Many residents travel across the Columbia River to Warrenton to purchase these items from big-box grocers. "Since 2009, we have experienced positive sales growth every year, have become a staple in this community through years of service, and added 30 living-wage jobs to our small town," said General Manager of Astoria Co-op, Matthew Stanley. "Our facility at 14th and Duane was no longer feasible for our growth to serve or community. Without Ryan's ability to connect us to low-cost capital with favorable terms, this project would have simply not been possible." "Our purpose is to liberate clients from the burden of being overtaxed, freeing their capital to invest, grow, and thrive," said Principal and Practice Leader of Credits and Incentives, Sharon Welhouse. "Working with our client, Astoria Co-op, we were able to deliver the capital needed to give local residents access to healthier organic grocery options, while supporting growth and sustainability in the Astoria community." Astoria Co-op's relocation to a much larger location in town will create additional jobs, impact the local economy, and create a positive impact on community health by availing more fresh fruits and vegetables to residents. According to its Business Expansion Plan, Astoria Co-op will continue to work with the National Cooperative Grocers (NCG) to plan the physical facility, appropriate organizational changes, and merchandising strategies. Financing was provided to both the Astoria Co-op and its developer Astor Venture LLC by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). About Ryan Ryan, an award-winning global tax services and software provider, is the largest Firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides an integrated suite of federal, state, local, and international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including tax recovery, consulting, advocacy, compliance, and technology services. Ryan is an eight-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multidisciplinary team of more than 2,700 professionals and associates serves over 15,000 clients in more than 50 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com. "Ryan" and "Firm" refer to the global organizational network and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ryan International, each of which is a separate legal entity. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005047/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The "EU Clinical Trial Regulation: Overview and Implementation" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This course will provide an essential understanding to help with compliance with the new regulation and associated implementing acts and other texts for carrying out clinical trials in the EU The new EU Clinical Trial Regulation (536/2014) will replace the European Clinical Trials Directive (2001/20/EC). Key aims of the new Regulation are to harmonise procedures for carrying out clinical trials across the EU and to simplify the clinical trial approval dossier by submission through a new clinical trial database and portal. Once the electronic portal and database are fully functional and the European Commission has given its approval, it will take six months to become applicable. Guidelines for enacting the new Regulation have also been prepared in a number of areas including inspection, investigational medicinal products and trial documentation. This course will provide an essential understanding to help with compliance with the new Regulation and associated implementing acts and other texts for carrying out clinical trials in the EU. The programme will highlight the most important of these key requirements and changes and how these are likely to impact on trials for biopharmaceutical companies, CROs and study sites. Benefits of attending: Gain an overview of the Clinical Trial Regulation and changes for trials in the EU an overview of the Clinical Trial Regulation and changes for trials in the EU Review how the new Regulation differs from the previous Clinical Trials Directive how the new Regulation differs from the previous Clinical Trials Directive Discuss the Clinical Trial Regulation delegated acts and other implementation documents the Clinical Trial Regulation delegated acts and other implementation documents Understand the new EU clinical trial authorisation process, including considerations for the UK Key topics to be covered include: Implications of having a regulation instead of a directive Clinical trial transparency Clinical trial authorisation process Co-sponsorship Safety reporting Trials with authorised medicinal products Risk-based considerations Non-EU sponsors Requirements for managing investigational medicinal products Clinical trials conducted on children Regulatory inspection Agenda: Background to the EU Clinical Trial Regulation (536/2014) The development of European clinical trial legislation The framework of clinical trial regulations in Europe Overview of the current Clinical Trials Directive requirements Problems with the Clinical Trials Directive Directive vs Regulation what are the main differences? Changes in the new EU Clinical Trial Regulation Overview of the major new requirements of the Regulation including: Risk-based evaluations Non-EU sponsors Transparency Informed consent Co-sponsorship EU Clinical Trial Regulation documents Serious breaches Risk-proportionate approaches in clinical trials Summaries of clinical trial results for laypersons ICH GCP (R2) New requirements for the trial master file Q&A document Clinical trial regulatory authorisation and ethical approval The significant changes in clinical trial approval in the EU The new clinical trial authorisation process Substantial modifications Investigational medicinal product/auxiliary product guidelines GMP requirements Key requirements for IMPs and AMPs (auxiliary medicinal products) Requirements for labelling and packaging Pharmacovigilance and adverse event reporting Adverse event reporting requirements and definitions Safety reporting requirements RSI (reference safety information) Considerations for clinical trials conducted with minors EU guidance for running clinical trials on children Assent and consent Key differences and requirements for running clinical trials on children compared to adults Considerations for regulatory inspection GCP and GMP inspection guidelines How to prepare for inspection under the new EU clinical trial requirements Speakers: Laura Brown Pharmaceutical QA and Training Consultant University of Cardiff Dr Laura Brown MBA, BSc, PhD, is a Pharmaceutical QA and Training Consultant, Course Director for the MSc in Clinical Research, School of Pharmacy at the University of Cardiff. She has more than 20 years' experience of quality assurance in the pharmaceutical industry and has worked for several companies, including GSKs Hoechst Marion Roussel, Farmitalia and Phoenix International. She has a particular expertise in quality assurance including risked based approaches to quality systems, data Integrity and project management in the pharmaceutical industry. She regularly writes on pharmaceutical regulatory issues including The Planning of International Drug Development, in the Clinical Research Manual, Euromed and the Impact of Brexit, RQA Journal 2017. For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/d3o9sq View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005491/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Several pieces of a McDonald's restaurant playground have been put up for auction. An 'Officer Big Mac' climber jail from a McDonaldland playground has been listed for auction on selling website Trade Me and is currently sitting at $620 from 112 bids. The seller - based in Dunedin, New Zealand - described the Officer Big Mac as 'great for kids playing and adventures'. The piece weighs 200kg and is 2.4metres tall. Officer Big Mac climber jail (pictured) from McDonaldland has been listed for auction Officer Big Mac is a character that was launched by the fast food restaurant as part of a marketing campaign for McDonaldland in the 1970s to the 1990s Officer Big Mac is a character that was launched by the fast food restaurant as part of a marketing campaign for McDonaldland in the 1970s to the 1990s. He joined other McDonald's characters in 1971 and was subsequently dropped in 1985. However, he continued to have a presence with the other toys at a number of restaurants. Trade Me spokeswoman Millie Silvester said the playground pieces bring back much loved childhood memories. 'These retro McDonald's playground pieces seem to bring back happy memories and unfortunate incidents for many kids of the 80s and 90s,' she told Stuff. In 2017, an auction featuring an Officer Big Mac climber jail, a Mayor McCheese roundabout and a Hamburglar dual swing set was auctioned off for $11,000. The auction was the most viewed item on the website that year, reaching a total of 115,000 views. T wo strains of coronavirus have been discovered since the outbreak began in December, Chinese scientists have said. The two types of Covid-19 are infecting people and making their way around the world. Researchers believe most people have caught the most aggressive form of the disease. More than 94,000 cases of coronavirus had been recorded at the time of writing, and 3,219 people have been killed as a result of contracting the illness. Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures 1 /61 Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures A man wearing a protective mask travels on the underground tube Reuters A woman wearing a protective face mask Jeremy Selwyn A man and woman wearing protective face masks on a bus PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A woman shopper wears a protective mask as she walks down an aisle in a supermarket in London AFP via Getty Images A man wearing a face mask waits to board an underground train on the Central Line at Bank station in London AP A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A woman wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street in London PA A woman wearing a mask walks by the Emirates Stadium Action Images via Reuters A man is seen wearing a protective face mask at Waterloo station Reuters A woman wears a surgical mask as she walks through Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport Reuters A fan in the stands wears a mask during the Premier League match at Stamford Bridg PA A man wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A person wears a mask in a display of street style outside the BFC Show Space show in London PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A commuter on the tube wearing a face mask Jeremy Selwyn A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridge Getty Images People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station AP The coronavirus outbreak will unlikely lead to a Tube ban PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A woman wearing a face mask on the London Underground. PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A man wears a mask as he takes a photograph in China Town AP A man in a hazmat suit and face mask cleans the Ritchie Street Health Centre, Islington PA A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man arrives at Euston Underground wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Staff in suits at St Thomas's Hospital today Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man wears a face mask as he stands near an electronic arrivals board at Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images A man wears a face mask as he walks along the Thames embankment AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen on London Bridg Reuters Experts from Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institute Pasteur of Shanghai said 70 per cent of people who have tested positive for coronavirus had the more aggressive strain of the two. However they cautioned that their analysis examined a limited range of data and said follow-up analyses of larger data sets are needed to better understand the virus's evolution. "These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)," they wrote. The findings were published on Tuesday in the National Science Review, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They come amid a fall in new coronavirus cases following crippling restrictions imposed on the world's second largest economy to stop its spread, including transport suspensions and the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday. Mainland China had 119 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the National Health Commission said, down slightly from 125 the previous day, in a broad trend that has seen numbers of new cases fall from the middle of February. Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first US case of COVID-19 / Centers for Disease Control and The total number of cases on the mainland has now reached 80,282. The number of deaths rose by 38 to bring the total toll for mainland China to 2,981 by March 3. All but one new death occurred in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Overseas spread Countries are beginning to ban manufacturers of face masks from exporting them / Jeremy Selwyn The number of new daily infections overseas is now exceeding the new cases in China. Following this downturn in cases Chinese officials say they are now looking at ways to control the spread of the virus outside their nation and guard against future outbreaks. Authorities have asked overseas Chinese people hoping to return home to reconsider their travel plans, while cities across the country have set up quarantine rules for those entering from high-risk places. Italy, South Korea and Iran have all become infection hot spots. An infected person is known to have arrived in China from Iran last week. China is encouraging domestic producers of medical protective equipment to export protective suits to meet overseas demand as the virus spreads, Cao Xuejun, an official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. A number of countries including France, Germany, Russia, Kenya, Taiwan and Thailand have banned the export of face masks. NSW Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock has warned against labelling all property developers as "evil" while facing questions over the government's response to Labor's bid to ban them from sitting on local councils. The South Coast MP instead suggested it should fall upon political parties to vet their candidates appropriately during the preselection process, with nominations now being fielded across several councils ahead of elections in September. NSW Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock says not all property developers are "evil". "If we start to ban certain groups of people from running for local government, where do we stop?" she said during a budget estimates hearing before NSW Parliament's joint planning and environment committee on Wednesday, adding it could turn into a constitutional issue. Asked by Labor MP Mark Buttigieg if there was a conflict of interest in property developers acting as elected officials, Ms Hancock replied, "There doesn't have to be." The Super Tuesday Democratic primary results with Joe Biden winning nine states and Bernie Sanders winning just three but also likely to take California, the state with the most delegates have cemented the Democratic contest as a two-horse race and set the stage for a drawn-out tussle for the 2020 presidential nomination. Sanders, the left-wing Vermont senator, was the unquestionable front-runner ahead of Super Tuesday and now, by winning the California primary, he showed that he remains a formidable contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But Biden pulled off a powerful upset even before Super Tuesday with his landslide victory in South Carolina last weekend, which turbocharged his campaign after drubbings in the first three primary contests. The battle between their two divergent visions for the Democratic Party and the United States was centre stage on the most crucial day of the US presidential primaries, with 14 states, American Samoa and American voters abroad awarding around one-third of the delegates. On the one hand is Sanders advocacy of wide-reaching change to reorder American society along left-wing lines, including universal healthcare and offering workers an ownership stake in corporations. On the other is Bidens incrementalist approach, demonstrated by his 36-year record as a senator known for being able to work with Republicans to advance centre-left priorities. Bidens remarkable achievement These two leading candidates imposed themselves on Super Tuesday amid humiliating performances for the alternative candidates on both wings of the party. New Yorks former mayor Mike Bloomberg threw more than half a billion dollars of his own fortune at Super Tuesday, banking on Biden continuing to flounder as he did in Iowa and New Hampshire. This strategy bombed: The centrist ex-Republican only won the US territory of American Samoa. As a result, on Wednesday Bloomberg announced he was dropping out of the race and subsequently endorsed Biden. Story continues In Sanders lane, left-wing Senator Elizabeth Warren came a distant third in her home state of Massachusetts. Its now a question of when, not if ... Warren leaves the race, said Robert Singh, a professor of American politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Bidens victory in Warrens home state was arguably the most striking manifestation of the former vice presidents resurgence. Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states in the country, and Sanders was riding high in polls there in the run-up to the vote while the former vice president was not even seen as much of a contender. Its a remarkable achievement, Singh said. Former president Barack Obamas former vice president also pulled off unexpected victories in Oklahoma and Minnesota two states Sanders won in his 2016 battle against Hillary Clinton. Less surprisingly, Biden swept through his stronghold in the South, where his core constituency of moderates and African-Americans comprise a large part of the Democratic electorate. Biden took Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, as well as eking out a victory in Texas, the second-most-populous state and one of its most heterogeneous. Exit polls showed that in many Super Tuesday states Biden was the biggest beneficiary of voters who made up their minds over the last few days. Its very significant that Biden won hugely among these voters, said Iwan Morgan, a professor of American politics at University College London. While moderates were divided, Sanders was able to capitalise on his clear leadership of a large part of the party, but the fact that centrists Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg withdrew over recent days and swung support to Biden proved crucial. Suburban, white, university-educated Democrats seemed to go for Biden because many of them see him as more electable against Trump, and I suspect that elements of that constituency also see Sanders as too left-wing, as having a programme like that of [British Labour party leader] Jeremy Corbyn lots of spending without explaining where the money would come from, Singh added. You cant write Sanders off Nevertheless, Super Tuesday showed that Sanders continues to perform well with Latino voters, a major factor behind his victories in California and Colorado, not to mention his previous triumph in Nevada. In capturing those states as well as Utah and his home state of Vermont the self-proclaimed democratic socialist also showed his undiminished strength among the young, white voters who have been the bedrock of his support since the 2016 primaries. Not only are they relying on different segments of the electorate, but the two leading candidates can be expected to draw on divergent strengths when it comes to the nitty-gritty of campaigning as they head towards a gruelling series of contests including six primaries on March 10, in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington. Biden does well with the establishment ground game, getting endorsements, getting the support of establishment machines, noted Scott Lucas, an expert on US politics at Birmingham University. Sanders real advantage is committed activists: Hes got a lot of people to go out with posters and flyers, using social media. When it comes to getting the money to pay for these campaigns, Biden enjoyed a big boost after South Carolina in the wake of a disappointing start. Following his comeback, the former vice president raised $15 million in three days. Yet the ability to garner huge sums from a plethora of small donations remains one of Sanders greatest strengths as demonstrated by the record $46.5 billion his campaign raised in February from more than 2.2 million donations after months of out-raising his opponents. Biden has clearly got political momentum, but when it comes to things like fundraising, Sanders is clearly playing it a lot better, Singh said. The media are all over Biden at the moment, but you cant write Sanders off. Given the respective strengths of both contenders, it is possible that neither Sanders nor Biden will have won a majority of delegates by the time of the Democratic convention in July. A contested convention is not something that could easily be ruled out, Singh pointed out. In light of the ferocity and zealotry of Sanders base, you could see a real battle going on there. Its also possible that if one candidate wins a narrow majority, the legitimacy issue rises again especially if Biden wins when youve got a large part of the Democratic base supporting Sanders that is much further left than it was under Obama. No Operation Lotus, here is how BJP plans to form government in Karnataka Operation Lotus: Will Madhya Pradesh govt see the same fate as Karnataka politics? India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Mar 04: In an overnight drama, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh claimed that eight lawmakers from the State were being kept in a five-star hotel in Gurugram. Two Ministers of the Kamal Nath government - Jitu Patwari and Jaivardhan Singh - have allegedly taken at least four legislators out of the hotel. Reacting to this, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh alleged that the nation's grand-old party was trying to bribe some of the Congress legislators by offering between Rs 25 to 30 crore. However, BJP leader Shivraj Singh denied these claims made by the Congress. In September 2019, a Karnataka Minister had reportedly said that the State BJP was trying to poach Congress legislators. Speaking to reporters at the time of Karnataka MLA being poached by the BJP, Congress leader and party troubleshooter DK Shivakumar said, "Three of our MLAs are in Mumbai. We (Congress) are aware of the horse trading that is being attempted by the BJP. Our legislators have also admitted to being approached by the BJP." Also, HD Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) leader who became the Chief Minister of Karnataka in its coalition government had then said that the BJP made a mockery of democracy by taking away several MLAs from the coalition government. The TV footages have clearly shown BJP leaders and functionaries accompanying our MLAs to Mumbai in special aircraft." Is the Congress govt in MP on the verge of a collapse NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 In the previous Karnataka coalition government, out of the 225-member Assembly, the Congress had 80 MLAs including the Speaker, the JD-S 37 and BJP 104. In 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly election, out of 230 Assembly seats, the Indian National Congress became the single largest party with 114 seats. However, the BJP gave a tough fight by winning 109 seats. Later, the Congress claimed its support of Samajwadi Party's 1 MLA, Bahujan Samaj Party's 2 MLA and 4 Independent MLA. Due to no majority, BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh resigned on 12 December 2018. It was indeed a historic day for the Congress as they came back to the power in the State after 15 years. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 12:27 [IST] At the same time, asset freezes on Ukraine's ex-PM Azarov and energy chief Stavytskiy are expected to be removed. Brussels-based RFE/RL journalist Rikard Jozwiak says the European Union ambassadors have decided to prolong sanctions against Russia for the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. "EU ambassadors have extended visa bans & asset freezes against 175 Russians and separatists + 44 entities by six months for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Should be confirmed by ministers on 12 March," he wrote on Twitter on March 4, 2020. Eu ambassadors have extended visa bans & asset freezes against 175 Russians and separatists + 44 entities by six months for violating the territorial integrity of #Ukraine. Should be confirmed by ministers on 12 March. #Crimea#Russia Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) March 4, 2020 EU ambassadors have decided to remove the asset freezes on the former pm of #Ukraine Azarov & the ex energy minister Stavytskyi. Prolonged by 12 months for Yanukovych and 8 others & for six months for his son Oleksandr. #Russia#Crimea. Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) March 4, 2020 At the same time, Jozwiak said asset freezes on former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Ukrainian Energy Minister Eduard Stavytskiy would be removed. "EU ambassadors have decided to remove the asset freezes on the former pm of #Ukraine Azarov & the ex-energy minister Stavytskiy. Prolonged by 12 months for Yanukovych and 8 others & for six months for his son Oleksandr," the journalist tweeted. As UNIAN reported earlier, the EU on March 6, 2014, froze assets of former Ukrainian officials who had been in office during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency over misuse of public funds and human rights violations. In December 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union canceled restrictive measures imposed on Azarov. A biotechnology park would soon be set up at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) campus here, state Industries Minister M C Sampath said on Wednesday. The 12-floor facility would also have an Information Technology segment and Chief Minister K Palaniswami would inaugurate it soon, he told reporters here. To a query on the progress of the Defence Corridor project here, he said a special cell would be formed to look into it. Noting that the government was planning to set up another Industrial park around Perundurai, the minister said it could accommodate small industries from Coimbatore region. Asked about the impact on coir exports from Pollachi, due to coronavirus, he said the issue was taken up with the Chief Minister. Sampath was here to inaugurate the 3-day 9th International Engineering Sourcing Show organised by Enginering Export Promotion Council. He claimed that despite global economic slowdown, Tamil Nadu was attracting more investments and become a preferred destination. To another question, he said investments worth Rs 8,035 crore from 41 firms were attracted after Chief Minister's foreign tour, resulting in creation of over 26,000 jobs. Earlier, addressing the show, Sampath noted that the State stood third in engineering exports and the government was focusing on developing MSME sector to boost exports. The state has signed 304 MoUs for various projects during the Global Investors Meet 2019, out of which 209 are under operation, he said. In his speech, Tamil Nadu Rural Industries and MSME minister P Benjamin said small industries have witnessed an investment of Rs 17,810 crore by 11,508 industries, benefiting more than one lakh employees. Of the 36 industrial parks announced in the last nine years, 23 had become functional, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The official was caught red-handed. A civil servant with the Kyiv city branch of the Social Security Fund for the Disabled has been detained upon receiving a bribe of 17,000 (US$682). "An employee received a UAH 17,000 bribe from CEO of a private company to avoid sanctions for non-compliance with the norm for employing persons with disabilities," the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office press service said on March 4. Read alsoWhistleblower reports $70 million Bitcoin scam with Kyiv roots The official was caught red-handed after receiving the bribe at her office. Further investigation is under way. Preliminary legal assessment is based on Article 368 (taking a bribe) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. One person commenting on news that Pickens County Medical Center was closing this week was blunt. Leaving us to die on our way 2 Meridian, Ms, wrote one person. Sad day for County - Sad day for Old Senior Citizen. The 56-bed hospital, based in Carrollton near the Mississippi state line, is closing Friday, the only hospital in the county. The Pickens County Health Care Authority made the announcement, saying the hospitals financial situation is unsustainable and that for several years it has experienced declining patient volumes. As U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell said in a statement, once the hospital closes, thousands of residents of Pickens County will have to drive nearly an hour for hospital services. The closest hospitals to Carollton are in Eutaw, Tuscaloosa, Fayette and Macon, Miss., but the closest is 38 miles away. The Pickens County hospital, for example, is critical to the federal prison in Aliceville, local paper mill, and thousands of small businesses and residents across the county, Sewell said. Last week, Sewell requested hardship action from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar for the hospital, presenting Azar with a letter saying the hospital faced closure as it could not make payroll. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones called the closure a real loss for the Pickens County community. Both lawmakers pointed the finger at state leaders not expanding Medicaid for the plight of the hospital and rural hospitals in Alabama. According to the Alabama Hospital Association, 88 percent of rural hospitals operate in the red and 75 percent of all Alabama hospitals operate in the red. In all, 13 hospitals have closed in the last eight years, seven of which were rural. Researchers at the healthcare analytics firm Chartis Group say that 12 of Alabamas 45 rural hospitals are most vulnerable to closure based on several factors - including revenue, system affiliation and the lack of Medicaid expansion. Jones said the closure should be yet another wakeup call for action. My team and I have been working closely with other members of the congressional delegation to find long-term solutions to help rural hospitals like Pickens County Medical Center stay open, but there is a clear step our state leaders could take that would help: expanding Medicaid, Jones said. "I sincerely hope that no other community has to suffer their hospital closing its doors because of our inability to put partisan differences aside and work together to save our rural hospitals. The closure also deals a blow to the local economy, as the hospital employed about 150 people. On Tuesday and Wednesday, it hosted healthcare job fairs with representatives from Greene County Health System & NHS Management, DCH and Baptist Hospital, among others. Charleston had about 60,000 residents in 1918 when the Spanish Flu struck. It was September and World War I was about to end. Troops were returning home, and some brought the flu with them. The first reported cases here were at the Charleston Naval Training Station. Officials scrambled to get a headcount. They found 350 ailing sailors. The Navy tried to staunch the flu's spread by prohibiting sailors from going to downtown Charleston. They banned them from entering city theaters or attending dances. The disease seems to be well under control, The Charleston Evening Post reported in mid-September. It wasn't. Lessons from a pandemic The Spanish Flu spread quickly here and across the world, generating fear and difficult decisions. A century later, with the coronavirus marching through one place after another, the Spanish Flu still offers lessons about what worked and what didn't. Though called the Spanish Flu, it most certainly originated elsewhere, experts say. But the movements of troops at the end of World War I placed many people in confined spaces perfect breeding grounds for influenza. Scientists later estimated that one-third of the planet's population was infected, and that the death toll exceeded 50 million. In the United States, the Spanish flu killed more than 675,000 people. It seemed to strike the young with special virulence, with most deaths related to complications from pneumonia. Charleston was hit hard. 'New public health' As the Navy in Charleston struggled to control the outbreak, local health officials had to make difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. Ringling Brothers was planning to bring its circus to town that fall, and circus organizers wanted its shows to go on. One of its acts even had elephants dressed as surgeons and Red Cross nurses. But health officials were pressing for widespread shutdowns of public spaces, churches, schools and businesses. A circus? In an epidemic? The governor eventually stepped in and negotiated a limited run in early October. "There were bans on public gatherings and interesting discussions about whether churches should remain open," said Jacob Steere-Williams, a College of Charleston history professor and specialist in the history of science and medicine. "It was pure chaos." One of the notable public health leaders of the time was Dr. John Mercier Green, head of Charleston's Health Office. Green was part of what scholars later would call the "new public health" movement scientists who used new discoveries about bacteria and infectious diseases to isolate and reduce infectious disease outbreaks. Due in part to Green's work, "the outbreak in 1918 was the first in the 20th century where the structure of public health started to look like what it does today," Steere-Williams said. In early October, Green asked Charleston's physicians to report all influenza cases to him, including patients' addresses and races. This effort created one of the period's most noteworthy databases of disease surveillance, Steere-Williams said. Certain patterns became evident, he said. Most of the white Charlestonians tended to die in hospitals, while black patients died at home. This was partly a reflection of longstanding fears in African American communities about being treated in Charleston hospitals, he said. Under Green's leadership, the city ordered churches, theaters and other public gathering spots to shut down. The Citadel and College of Charleston closed its campuses. The city banned assemblies of more than five people. The local American Red Cross divided the city into districts, assigning overworked nurses to coordinate with volunteers and tend the ill. But the flu continued to race through Charleston and beyond. That didn't stop The Charleston Evening Post from overly optimistic reporting. Improvement in influenza here, one headline said on Oct. 16, 1918. Whiskey cure? By the end of October, the number of cases in the city exceeded 5,000, likely a vast undercount, Steere-Williams said. Panic set in. To fight the epidemic, the mayor coordinated efforts to distribute whiskey, which at the time was thought to be an effective remedy. Residents went to doctors to get their whiskey prescriptions. They lined up at dispensaries. By late October, The News and Courier was reporting about the scarcity of whiskey supplies. It was a controversial medical practice. In 1918, the Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association noted that the flu had spread from the mountains to the coast, reaping its "fearful toll of valuable lives" and creating demand "for whiskey for the treatment of desperate cases." The group polled some of its members. Some doctors said they never prescribed whiskey. Others said they had for decades, with one saying "Coca cola is more injurious than a moderate use of whiskey" and that "coffee kills more people than whiskey ever did." Ebb and flow The epidemic began to wane late that November. Green and other health officials began lifting their shutdown orders. By the end of the year, more than 6,000 flu cases were reported, about 10 percent of the citys population. Statewide, more than 14,200 people died. The lessons of 1918 are still useful today, Steere-Williams said. "One thing is clear that when health authorities in 1918 urged people to stay at home and rely on basic notions of hygiene, people by and large complied." Those measures didn't stop the disease, he said, but they reduced its impact a reminder that science should direct public health decisions, not fear. Glenn Smith and Jennifer Berry Hawes contributed to this report. GREENBELT, Md. - A federal magistrate judge refused to set bond Wednesday for a 19-year-old Maryland man awaiting trial on criminal charges in connection with a white supremacist group. William Garfield Bilbrough IV has been in federal custody since his arrest in January on charges that he helped transport and harbour a fellow member of The Base who was accused of illegally entering the U.S. from Canada. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan in Greenbelt, Maryland, called the decision not to free Bilbrough on bond a very close call, but said he had reservations about releasing the defendant into his grandmothers custody. Sullivan said hes willing to consider other possible living arrangements. Bilbrough, who worked as a pizza delivery driver and lived with his grandmother in Denton, Maryland, before his arrest, pleaded not guilty last month to charges including conspiracy to transport and harbour certain aliens. Former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews, 27; and Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, separately pleaded not guilty to related charges including transporting a firearm and ammunition with the intent to commit a felony. Defence attorney Robert Bonsib said Bilbrough doesnt have a criminal record and cut ties with The Base before his arrest. He doesnt represent a danger in this case, Bonsib said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom said Bilbrough knew The Bases goal was to accelerate the overthrow of the U.S. government and replace it with a white supremacist regime. This guy knew what the consequences of his actions were at the time, the prosecutor added. Gail Bilbrough, the defendants grandmother, said she thought her grandson was too busy with college and a part-time job to get into trouble even though she had been concerned about his association with Mathews and Lemley. I realize now how bad and dangerous The Base is and how serious the charges are, she told the magistrate. In a court filing, Justice Department prosecutors said Lemley and Mathews discussed the planning of violence at a gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia, in January. A closed-circuit television camera and microphone installed by investigators in a Delaware home captured Mathews talking about the Virginia rally as a boundless opportunity, prosecutors said. And the thing is youve got tons of guys who ... should be radicalized enough to know that all you gotta do is start making things go wrong and if Virginia can spiral out to ... full blown civil war, Mathews said, according to prosecutors. Lemley talked about using a thermal imaging scope affixed to his rifle to ambush unsuspecting civilians and police officers, prosecutors said. I need to claim my first victim, Lemley said on Dec. 23, according to prosecutors. Bilbrough, the only defendant in the case who isnt facing firearms-related charges, participated in their early discussions about travelling to Richmond but had tried to distance himself from the group shortly before his arrest, a prosecutor has said. Windom has described Bilbrough as a leader of the group who was viewed as a prophet by Mathews and Lemley. Bilbrough had repeatedly expressed an interest in travelling to Ukraine to fight with nationalists there, and tried to recruit Mathews and Lemley to go with him, prosecutors said. Bilbrough has participated in several training camps for The Base and appeared in a propaganda video for the group, according to prosecutors. They said Bilbrough had compared The Base favourably to al-Qaida and remarked to other Base members that the Islamic State group doesnt compare to us. By these statements, Bilbrough was boasting that The Bases aspirations were greater than either terrorist organization, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. During a hearing in January, Windom showed the judge a photograph recovered from Bilbroughs phone in which the defendant is holding up the severed head of a goat he killed in a ritual sacrifice at a training camp in Georgia for members of The Base. Bilbrough initially tried to kill the goat with a knife but failed, so he borrowed a gun to shoot it, Windom said. The magistrate cited that weird conduct as cause for concern about Bilbrough. Bonsib said it looks bad but ultimately doesnt prove his client poses a danger. He was to that goat, the magistrate said. FBI agents arrested Mathews, Lemley and Bilbrough as part of a broader investigation of The Base. Authorities in Georgia and Wisconsin also arrested four other men linked to the group. In their "Megxit" announcement earlier in the year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle said their decision to leave the royal family was because they wanted to become more financially independent. However, now that the couple is getting close to getting what they want or at least a huge part of it, many are asking if they could still afford to keep the luxurious lifestyle that they have been used to. Will they be able to pay for everything on their own? The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will have to give up all the privileges that come with being a member of the royal family. At the beginning of their new life, the couple will also have to pay $3 million dollars to the taxpayers' funding used to refurbish the Frogmore Cottage because they used it as their residence when they were living in the U.K. Paying Back When they got married in 2019, the Queen gifted the couple the use of the Frogmore Cottage. Although the cottage will remain their base in the U.K., the couple has decided to spend most of their time in North America where they plan to raise their son Archie. As part of the big move they are making, the couple will have to part ways with their trusted staff members. However, it is worth noting that should the couple hire new staff in Canada post-Megxit, the Queen will no longer be paying for their staff. The Buckingham Palace confirmed that no staff members of the Sussexes were let go, but they were relocated within the royal household instead. Now, who will be taking care of their schedules? That problem is in the hands of Meghan and Harry. They will have to find a way to make it work. Security Nightmare Canada has been paying some part of the security services covering for Harry and Meghan since they moved to Vancouver Islands in November. However, at the beginning of April, things might be a little different. Although Canada may have close ties with the United Kingdom, its government will reportedly not be paying for any extra security that Meghan and Harry may need while they live in the country. Their "change in status" from being members of the royal family to being regular citizens will prevent them from getting such privilege. "The security assistance will cease in the coming weeks, as the government is only keeping up with their status," a government representative of Canada told CBC News. No Access to Jewels and Other Luxuries The Duchess of Sussex will have to get used to wearing her own set of pieces of jewelry to use on a daily basis and those for special occasions. When everything has been finalized, Meghan Markle would no longer have access to the Queen's jewelries -- even those prized pieces of Princess Diana. Kate Middleton regularly borrows from the Queen's personal jewelry collection. Sadly, Meghan was not given the same luxury. According to The Express, it looks like Meghan will never get that chance anymore. It might not be a very big deal considering that when they move to Canada for good, there will not be regal and royal occasions that will require her to wear such expensive pieces. The new life ahead looks exciting for Harry and Meghan. They will have to get used to the changes, but least, they are getting exactly what they want -- minus all the luxuries they hopefully will not miss. CALFire TCU Fire Engine View Photo Update at 5:15 p.m.: CAL Fire reports that the fire has been contained to the debris pile and a section of the wood pallets. No injuries are reported in the blaze. Crews were able to contain the fire in about 30 minutes but will remain on scene for about another half hour mopping up. Update at 4:45 p.m.: CAL Fire reports that when firefighters arrived on the scene they found a 50 by 50-foot debris burn pile and flames come up from a section of pallets nearby. Original post at 4:25 p.m.: Mi-Wuk Village, CA Firefighters are heading to a report of an escaped debris burn in the Mi-Wuk Village area of Tuolumne County. CAL Fire reports that the caller relayed that the flames escaped the debris pile and ignited a large stack of pallets and wood nearby. The fire is burning along the 24900 block of Highway 108 between Lodestone Avenue and Bonanza Drive. There are no details on the fires size or whether any structures are threatened. We will have an update as soon as more information comes into the newsroom. New Book on Men's Mental Health Launches Today: "Guts, Grit & The Grind A MENtal Mechanics MANual" The Stories, Science and Strategy to Help Men Build and Maintain a Life Worth Living DENVER (March 4, 2020) Today United Suicide Survivors International (United Survivors) announces the publication of the first book in a series to help support men's mental health, edited by Sally Spencer-Thomas, Sarah Gaer and Frank King. Like a "Chicken Soup for the Man's Soul," Guts, Grit & The Grind male storytellers share how they overcame experiences like depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma and more, and how they reclaimed a passion for living. The book is also a workbook and tool for therapists working with men. Its format is similar to an automobile owners manual, using car metaphors many men can relate to like "preventative maintenance," "troubleshooting," and "check engine." Throughout "Guts, Grit & The Grind," readers and listeners will find stories of mental health challenges of men, written by men, for men in similar circumstances - inspiring stories of resilience, recovery and transformation. For more: www.GutsGritGrind.com. "Men have come a long way in rejecting negative stereotypes of the past and embracing mental health. But still, prejudices remain along with pressures to keep stress and mental health struggles hidden. This book offers crucial insight into how to get past the old ways of thinking, counteract the stereotypes, and build a new era of mental health for everyone," Josh Levs, former CNN and NPR journalist, the leading global expert on modern fathers in the workplace, and award-winning author of. All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families and Businesses And How We Can Fix It Together "The men's stories are incredibly inspiring," said Sarah Gaer, suicide prevention specialist. "They overcome incredible emotional hardship and share their lessons learned to help other men." "'Guts, Grit & The Grind' is about building a community for men to thrive," said Frank King, professional speaker. "Here they will know, they are not alone." "With a dash of humor and mental health science, tools, and exercises, our goal is to help men help themselves, to overcome challenges and build a life worth living," said Sally Spencer-Thomas, psychologist and President of United Suicide Survivors International. To learn more, please visit www.GutsGritGrind.com and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn. You can buy the book (or eBook) on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. A portion of the proceeds benefits the 501(c) 3 nonprofit United Suicide Survivors International. ### ABOUT UNITED SUICIDE SURVIVORS INTERNATIONAL (UNITED SURVIVORS) United Suicide Survivors International is an independent international organization that serves as a home for people who have experienced suicide loss, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts and feelings, and their friends and families collectively known as people with lived experience with suicide. Our goal is to leverage their expertise for large scale change. For more information, visit www.unitesurvivors.org or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Scientists say they have used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to repair a person's eyesight for the first time. DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is the substance that carries genetic information in the cells of living things. The CRISPR tool makes it possible to change DNA to add needed genes or take some away if they lead to problems. A patient recently had the procedure done for an inherited form of blindness, the companies that make the treatment announced Wednesday. The operation took place at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. The companies did not release additional details about the patient. It may take up to a month to see if the procedure worked to repair a patients vision. If the first few attempts seem safe, doctors plan to test it on 18 children and adults. We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see, said Charles Albright. He is chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Editas is one of the companies developing the treatment. The other is Allergan, based in Dublin, Ireland. Albright added, We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA. Dr. Jason Comander is an eye doctor at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. He said it marks a new era in medicine in which technology has made editing DNA much easier and much more effective. Doctors first tried in-the-body gene editing in 2017 for a different inherited disease using a tool called zinc fingers. Many scientists believe CRISPR is a much easier tool for finding and cutting DNA at an exact spot. The people taking part in the study have a genetic condition that keeps the body from making a protein needed to turn light into signals to the brain, which leads to sight. People with the disease are often born with little ability to see. They can lose whatever vision they are born with when they are still very young. Scientists have found it difficult to treat the condition with usual gene therapy. So, they are aiming to edit or remove the mutation by making two cuts on either side of it. The hope is that the ends of DNA will reconnect and make the gene work as it should. The procedure is done in an hour-long operation. Through a tube the width of a human hair, doctors put three drops of fluid containing the gene editing machinery just under the retina. That is the lining at the back of the eye that contains the light-sensing cells. Doctors believe they need to fix one-tenth to one-third of the cells to repair vision. In animal tests, scientists were able to correct half of the cells with the treatment, Albright said. Some independent experts were hopeful about the new study. Dr. Kiran Musunuru is a gene-editing expert at the University of Pennsylvania. He said the treatment seems likely to work, based on tests in human tissue, mice and monkeys. The gene editing tool stays in the eye and does not travel to other parts of the body. So, if something goes wrong, the chance of harm is very small, Musunuru said. It makes for a good first step for doing gene editing in the body. Im Bryan Lynn. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story inherit - v. to have (a characteristic, disease, etc.) because of the genes that you get from your parents when you are born literally - adv. a way that uses the ordinary and usual meaning of a word potential - n. capable of becoming real essentially - adv. used to strengthen the basic nature of something era - n. a period of time that is associated with a particular quality, event, person, etc. mutation - n. a change in the genes of a plant or animal that causes physical characteristics that are different from what is normal vision - n. the ability to see : sight or eyesight MOBILE, Ala. - The son of Martin Luther King, Jr. has called on Alabamas governor to stop Thursdays plan to execute an inmate for the 2004 killings of three police officers in which authorities say a co-defendant did the shooting. Nathaniel Woods, 43, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison unless the governor or courts intervene. Family members of Woods also have urged the governor to halt the execution. Woods and co-defendant Kerry Spencer were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 2004 killings of Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisolm III and Charles R. Bennett. The officers were killed in a hail of gunfire, their deaths rocking Alabamas largest city that year. Spencer was the shooter in the slayings, prosecutors said. But they argued that Woods conspired in the killings, which occurred when officers tried to serve a misdemeanour domestic assault warrant on Woods. Woods advocates have argued that Spencer said he was the sole person responsible for the shootings and that there are outstanding questions about the fairness of Woods trial. Martin Luther King, III, the son of the late civil rights leader, sent Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey a letter Tuesday pleading with you not to execute Nathaniel Woods. Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice. Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed? King wrote to Ivey. Ivey did not immediately issue a public response. Separately, Woods family and supporters on Wednesday delivered a letter to the governors office asking for a reprieve. Nathaniel had no part in those actions of another man, Kerry Spencer, Pamela Woods told reporters, according to al.com. Lawyers for the Alabama attorney generals office wrote in a court filing that Spencer opened fire after Woods told officers he was surrendering. A surviving officer said he saw Spencer standing in the doorway and shooting in his direction. On Wednesday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall urged Ivey to reject the eleventh-hour request for a reprieve. The evidence adduced at trial clearly shows that while Woods may not have pulled the trigger, he was a full participant in the officer slayings, Marshall wrote in a letter to Ivey. Marshall said Woods pointed to one of the officers so that Spencer could shoot him. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Woods appeal last year. Attorneys for Woods unsuccessfully appealed his conviction, arguing that he had ineffective counsel and the trial had multiple errors, including the admission of song lyrics and drawings in his cell. State attorneys said that while Woods was awaiting trial, deputies found a drawing of a bullet-riddled police car in his cell and song lyrics about killing such as, Havent you ever heard of a killa I drop pigs like Kerry Spencer. His attorneys have a pending challenge before the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals related to what they said was a lack of information given to inmates when they had to select if nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method authorized but not yet implemented by the state, would be their preferred execution method. Woods did not make a selection and is to receive a lethal injection. Attorneys for Woods said the state failed to inform him that, because the state of Alabama did not have a nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol, he was also making a decision (or indecision) regarding the timing of his execution. Lawyers for the state called the challenge a last-minute bid to try to postpone the sentence being carried out. (Natural News) One of the more fascinating things to note in the reporting of the coronavirus is that the more local you get, the more truth you hear. At the federal level with the CDC and HHS, all were hearing are coordinated lies. But when it comes to states and counties, there are striking examples of raw, uncensored truth to be found. One such example now emerges from Oregon, where state health officer Dr. Dean Sidelinger just estimated there may be 300 to 500 coronavirus cases already present across Oregon, as the virus is fairly widespread in our community, he says. This stunningly honest revelation which only seems odd because were all used to being constantly lied to by incompetent government is documented at OregonLive.com with the article title, Hundreds of Oregonians likely infected with coronavirus, state health officer says. From the story: The advance of coronavirus to a remote town more than 200 miles from Portland means the virus is fairly widespread in our community, but not broad enough to start aggressive containment, Oregons top medical officer said Monday. Oregon may now have 300 to 500 Oregonians who are or were unknowingly carrying the coronavirus, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state health officer and epidemiologist, acknowledged as officials announced the states third presumed coronavirus case. Its not clear how the Umatilla County resident, a casino worker, contracted the disease. So far, Oregon has only tested 28 people According to OregonLive, Oregon officials wont require more broad isolation or quarantine efforts unless a much greater number of people get infected or die. Im not pessimistic and giving up that its going to spread like wildfire, said Sidelinger. Were not sure what to make of that quote. Does he mean its not going to spread like wildfire? Or is he saying he admits it will spread like wildfire? The OregonLive article also goes on to note what weve been warning about for weeks: Namely, that states like Oregon are testing virtually no one for the virus. To date, Oregon has tested only 28 people, with three positive, 17 negative and eight results pending, says the article. The State of Oregon is currently monitoring 101 people for possible coronavirus infections. Those people are allowed to stay home with their family members, who they might of course cross-infect. As OregonLive points out: State authorities dont ask family members of a person under monitoring to stay home. Thats because we dont want to unnecessarily burden them by having the entire household stay home, Sidelinger said. In other words, a person being monitored can easily spread the coronavirus to a family member who takes it to their job or a social event. Only when a person begins to show symptoms are they upgraded to the states investigation category. The fact that the coronavirus spreads during its asymptomatic incubation period means, of course, that Oregon will fail to catch many cases until after infected persons have already spread it to others. And thats why the R0 value of the coronavirus is so high, of course. Its also why Oregon along with Washington and California is unlikely to contain this outbreak at all unless more aggressive social isolation measures are put into place. If there are 500 infected people in Oregon today, there will be 1,000 people one week later. Then 2,000 the following week, 4,000 the next week and so on. Sooner or later, strict social isolation measures will have to be implemented. The virus will spread across the West Coast until a kind of medical martial law is implemented Heres the big realization in all this: State health officials can either avoid more aggressive containment policies and watch the virus spread, or they can get more aggressive (and possibly draconian) with their isolation and quarantine orders, resulting in a halting of the spread. In essence, the choice is between having more people die with their freedoms intact, or reducing overall deaths by running authoritarian medical martial law protocols. Theres also a third option that nobody seems willing to consider: Tell everyone to take vitamin D and start eating anti-viral herbs and foods. But since that advice doesnt enrich the drug companies, no one in any position of authority dare state the obvious solution to all this. Or you could wait for the vaccine and hope it doesnt kill you. But you might be dead before the vaccine even arrives, as Dr. Fauci of the NIH says its 18 months out. Stay informed. Read Pandemic.news for daily updates on the coronavirus pandemic. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment One of the most poignant moments in the new Netflix film The Two Popes is a moment of supreme exasperation. The individuals at the center of the film soon-to-be-retired Pope Benedict XVI and soon-to-be-Pope Jorge Bergolio (now Francis) have spent the past few minutes disagreeing on every issue facing the Catholic church: homosexuality, divorce, celibacy, the environment and the sexual misconduct of priests. At last, Cardinal Bergolio says, mournfully, It seems to me that we are no longer a part of this world. We do not belong to it. We are not connected. Pope Benedict XVI considers this, and then, quoting Anglican priest William Inge, replies, A church that marries the spirit of this age Bergolio interrupts him with the rest of the quotation: will be widowed in the next. To me, this scene perfectly encapsulates the debate raging around the issue of celibacy in the Catholic Church. To those outside of it, the practice seems archaic and baffling. Why shouldnt priests be allowed to marry? What good is it doing? Is it actually doing harm? Even to some within Catholicism, it seems like a superfluous practice, especially when stacked against problems with far more impact. And yet, there are those within the Church who believe that this issue cannot and should not be compromised on. To change the practice of celibacy would alter centuries of tradition and the work of generations of God-fearing servants. Should we change simply because the world says we should? Pope Benedict XVI believes the Church should not, and he is making his view abundantly clear through a series of arguments in the French newspaper Le Figaro and in a newly published book. In 2013, after becoming the only pope since 1415 to retire, Pope Benedict promised that he would stay hidden from the world. However, he has broken his silence to argue for the great significance of celibacy and calling it a truly essential standard for priesthood. In the book, co-authored with Cardinal Robert Sarah, Pope Benedict states definitively that the call to follow Jesus is not possible without this sign of freedom and of renunciation of all commitments. The sudden outspokenness of the former pope is seen by many as a response to Pope Francis considering a change in the Churchs position on celibacy. Last year, stemming from a shortage of priests in the Amazon region, church leaders from South America requested that married men be allowed to be ordained. Pope Francis is apparently working on a document that tackles this issue, which has made Catholic hardliners nervous. In the past, Pope Francis has expressed a willingness to reconsider the practice of celibacy. In 2014, in a conversation with journalists, Pope Francis admitted that, while he did consider celibacy a rule of life that I greatly appreciate, he did not view the practice as a dogma of faith, so the door is always open. The Catholic Church, like any political institution, has always been at war with itself, the traditionalists and the reformers duking it out behind closed doors. What is unique about this situation, though, is that each camp has a champion out in the open, and both have sat on the Chair of St. Peter. For some, the real issue at hand is that there are two living popes, commenting on and providing conflicting guidance for Catholics around the world. In an op-ed for the Telegraph, Catherine Pepinster suggests that Pope Benedicts sudden reemergence and intervention really matters because it is harmful to the unity of the church. How is anything to be accomplished if someone who was once key to an institution [leaves] their position and rather than keep quiet, [murmurs] from the sidelines? Of course, the truth is, this current moment is just a manifestation of a conflict that has been surging through the Catholic Church for years now. Many believe the Church is long overdue for a reckoning, specifically in the area of the priesthood. In a recent article for The Atlantic, James Carroll a former priest, practicing Catholic and reporter who has been covering the Catholic sex scandal for decades, calls for the abolishment of the priesthood. Clericalism, he writes, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction. Too many popes have looked the other way, Carroll writes. Things must change dramatically. Put the power in the hands of the people. The presence of two popes is creating a rift, certainly. But maybe thats exactly what the Church needs. Throughout history, in times of great theological and cultural tumult, Christianity has reconstituted itself. Perhaps the Church is in the midst of another great reconstitution. I personally hope so. In the scene from The Two Popes, both popes are right, in their own way. Christianity so often seems to exist far away from the lived experiences of human beings in the present day. And yet, we cant just dismiss the tradition that has guided us to where we are. But we need to land somewhere. And who knows? Maybe it will take two popes to help us settle on where that place should be. Brandon Chaples, of McHenry, looked on Wednesday as the house was being torn down. He said he came to see the demolition because he wanted to pay his respects to AJ, whose story he followed in the news. NEW YORK, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP, a national class action and shareholders' rights law firm with offices in New York, California and Georgia, announces an investigation of NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) ("NiSource" or the "Company"). If you own NI shares and wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, visit our website: http://www.weisslawllp.com/nisource-inc/ Or please contact: Joshua Rubin, Esq. WeissLaw LLP 1500 Broadway, 16th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 682-3025 (888) 593-4771 [email protected] The investigation focuses on possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of federal securities laws by NiSource's Board of Directors. Specifically, the Company and its subsidiary, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts ("Columbia"), have recently agreed to plead guilty and pay a $53 million fine in connection with a series of gas fires and explosions that took place in September 2018. According to the Massachusetts US Attorney, the Company failed to maintain and acted with flagrant disregard for the public safety. The fine represents the largest penalty paid for violations of the Pipeline Safety Act. Moreover, as part of the guilty plea, the Company was also ordered to sell Columbia. WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected]lawllp.com SOURCE WeissLaw LLP Related Links http://weisslawllp.com President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he leaves the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Washington, to visit the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Md. AP-Yonhap U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Washington is looking closely at the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea and will decide "at the right time" whether to impose travel restrictions on the country. Trump was asked by a reporter if he is considering cutting off travel to and from South Korea and Italy, two countries hit hard by the disease. "We're watching Italy very closely, South Korea very closely, even Japan very closely," the president said at the White House before departing for a roundtable briefing on the coronavirus. "And we'll make the right determination at the right time." South Korea has seen a continued rise in the number of infections, with nearly 5,200 cases and more than 30 deaths as of Tuesday. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who is overseeing the U.S. response to the coronavirus, told reporters Monday that all airports in South Korea have begun screening travelers taking direct flights to the United States. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading around the globe. With the high infection rate and spread of the virus to more than 80 countries, scientists are racing to study the nature of the virus, in the hopes of finding new vaccines and therapeutics. Now, scientists have published two genome sequences for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. The scientists, which were from the Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL), the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, published their study on Virological.org, which is a forum for discussion and date shared by virologists, public health specialists, and epidemiologists across the globe. Different genomes The team has found that the genome sequence of the coronavirus sampled from the first confirmed case in Brazil is different from the one acquired from the second confirmed case in the country. Further, the two complete genome sequences were different from the patients in China. The scientific discovery has been added to an international database where about 22 countries have sequenced the virus genomes, to help them understand and know the nature of the virus. In understanding how the virus behaves and how it affects the health of those infected according to the genetic characteristics of each population, better therapeutics and potential vaccines can be developed. China has published the complete genome of the coronavirus 2019, now officially called SARS-CoV-2, which served as the basis for diagnostic methods that are now being used across the globe. The findings of the genome analysis have also led to scientists formulating potential vaccines that can help stem the spread of the virus. Now, this new genomic analysis of the two patients in Brazil will shed light on how the virus affects each countrys population. The activity of the virus may affect the population of each country differently. Also, the genome analysis in each country can help determine how the virus moves, leads to unrelated cases, and where originated. Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2: This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round gold objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. SARS-CoV-2, also known as 2019-nCoV, is the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus shown was isolated from a patient in the U.S. The first Brazilian sequence closely resembles the samples sequenced in Germany. The second Brazilian genome is more similar to the genome sequenced in the United Kingdom. Credit: NIAID-RML A step closer By sequencing the genome, weve come closer to finding out the origin of the epidemic. We know the confirmed cases in Brazil came from Italy, but the Italians dont yet know the origin of the outbreak in Lombardy as they have yet to sequence their samples. They havent identified patient zero and dont know whether he or she came from China directly or via other countries, Ester Sabino, head of USPs Tropical Medicine Institute (IMT), said. Further, Sabino added that the first Brazilian sequence closely resembles the samples found in Germany and is different from those in Wuhan, China, the outbreaks epicenter where the virus emerged in late December 2019. However, the second genome from Brazil is more similar to the genome from the UK, suggesting that internal transmission is happening in European countries. Ongoing monitoring progress The ongoing monitoring progress will help scientists identify the specific regions of the viral genome that mutate least, a pivotal step in developing vaccines, diagnostic tests, and therapeutics. This way, when scientists perform testing in a region that mutates frequently, it can have a high loss of sensitivity. The new project in determining genomic sequences of the virus can help combine the expertise of many scientists in responding to outbreaks, including studying epidemiological data in real-time. We began partnering with the IAL team and training researchers to use MinION, a portable, low-cost sequencing technology. We used this methodology to monitor the evolution of the Zika virus in the Americas, but in that case, we were able to trace the origin of the virus and the dissemination route only a year after the epidemic ended. This time the team went into action as soon as the first case was confirmed, Sabino said. At the moment, the researchers urge other scientists in the field in other countries to perform genome sequences of their confirmed cases. With the vast data about the virus, it can shed light on its mechanism, making it easier to develop antivirals and possible vaccines. Coronavirus outbreak magnitude The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading across continents. Globally, the total number of coronavirus disease cases is 95,120, and it is increasing by the minute. The death toll has reached 3,254. China has reported the highest number of infections and deaths, with 80,270 cases. Outside mainland China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran have reported high infection rates. South Korea has 5,621 confirmed cases, while Italy has 3,089 cases, and Iran has 2,922 cases. Italy and Iran have reported the greatest number of deaths outside mainland China with 107 and 92 deaths, respectively. TANZANIA, Tanzania - The top U.N. humanitarian official for Syria said Tuesday the crisis in northwest Idlib where nearly one million people have fled to avoid escalating hostilities is probably the biggest crisis we have in the world today. Kevin Kennedy said that despite a massive relief operation, the needs are overwhelming and we have a long, long way to go. He said in a video briefing from the region that he got a first-hand look at the situation on Monday along with representatives from six U.N. agencies who visited a camp about seven kilometres inside Syria. Kennedy said they saw the massive needs and the trauma that these people are living in the newly displaced or (those) there for some time. Although the camp was established three years ago and was fairly well supported by several non-governmental organizations and the Turkish Red Crescent, Kennedy said, conditions there were very, very difficult the sanitation, the shelter, the health facilities were not available. He said about 30 per cent of the nearly 8,000 people there were new arrivals. What was really striking was you could stand there and look out at the hills surrounding this camp and there were thousands of people clustered not in camps, (but) with individual tents, or many without tents, living under trees or just out in the open and it gives you a real feel for the full dimensions of this crisis and the enormous human need, Kennedy said. He said the other striking thing is that over half the nearly one million displaced people probably 600,000 are children, who are caught in a very barren landscape in austere conditions, with little to do and very little education available, and are just sitting there hoping something will happen. Kennedy, the U.N. regional humanitarian co-ordinator for the Syria crisis, said women colleagues on Mondays mission spent time talking to displaced women, many of them widows. He said they told him some people were so desolate, in despair, they couldnt say a word. They just sat in these individual tents, and just were speechless, and these were Arab speakers so it wasnt a question of language, it was just a question of giving up, he said. Kennedy said he thought the U.N. mission gave at least a small signal of hope to people that amidst this crisis the UN is there. The U.N. representatives also visited Bab al-Hawa hospital, one of the three major hospitals in Idlib, he said. Kennedy said doctors told him that in the first 10 days of February they received the number of trauma cases that they normally receive in a months time, and most of those were people many women and children, who had been struck by high explosive things. He praised Turkey for also treating many of the victims. Last week, the U.N. appealed for $500 million for the humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria. On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, who was visiting one of the two Turkish crossing points for aid deliveries into Syria, announced that the Trump administration was giving an additional $108 million in humanitarian aid to Syria. Kennedy also welcomed the United Kingdoms announcement Tuesday of an additional 89 million pounds. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said in a statement from near the Turkish border that an estimated 2.8 million people in northwest Syria need humanitarian aid and with $500 million we will be able to reach 1.1 million of the most vulnerable. So far, he said, more than $300 million has been received or pledged by donors. After United Nation's nuclear watchdog was denied access to Iranian nuclear sites, Iran's UN ambassador, Gharib Abadi has said on March 4 in Vienna that it has no obligation to grant access. He said that requests are based on fabricated information while mentioning the warnings raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who indicated towards secret atomic warehouse. Abadi's statement came a day after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in which it reprimanded Iran for denying access to two sites which certain diplomats reportedly believe has a connection to Iran's historic nuclear activity. "Intelligence services'' fabricated information... creates no obligation for Iran to consider such requests," said a statement from Iran''s ambassador to the UN in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi. Read - No Change In India's Nuclear Doctrine: MEA According to reports, Gharib Abadi also accused the United States and Israel of trying to exert pressure on IAEA in order to distort the active and positive cooperation between the agency and Iran. Meanwhile, Israel has also claimed that the trail of information obtained by its intelligence services has new information on a previous nuclear weapons programme in Iran. Moreover, the two sites which the Iranian government denied IAEA's access to were among the three locations that the agency had been raising questions over since last summer. In the second report issued on March 3, the IAEA reported Iran was continuing to breach the terms of the nuclear accord of 2015 signed with the world powers but did not report any restrictions in access to nuclear facilities. Read - Japan Opens Part Of Last Town Off-limits Since Nuclear Leaks Seeking access to 'atomic archive' IAEA is seeking access to sites which has been referred by Israel as the atomic archive of information on Irans nuclear program. In November 2019, Irans nuclear program head Ali Akbar Salehi declared that Tehran had been producing more low-enriched uranium on a daily basis after it restarted an underground lab in Fordow. Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), had said that Iran was producing at least 5.5 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which is almost 12 times what the country had been producing before the underground lab started. Iran had claimed that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes as it has been facing severe sanctions on the economic front after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPoA. Read - IAEA Alarmed Over Irans Nuclear Programme, Demands 'clarification' Read - Nuclear Watchdog IAEA Backs Japan On Releasing Fukushima Water In Ocean (With PTI inputs) Superstar songstress Camila Cabello celebrated her 23rd birthday on Tuesday with a glittering bash in Blackpool in Lancashire. The Havana hitmaker, who is in the seaside town filming Cinderella, rang in her special day in the unusual venue of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, and boyfriend Shawn Mendes flew 3,300 miles from his home in Toronto, Canada to be with her. Camila shared a series of videos from inside her lavish birthday bash, where she flaunted her toned abs in a purple crop-top while she danced up a storm. Say what? Superstar songstress Camila Cabello celebrated her 23rd birthday on Tuesday with a glittering bash in Blackpool in Lancashire Nothing holding him back: The Havana hitmaker, who is in the seaside town filming Cinderella, rang in her special day in the unusual venue of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, and boyfriend Shawn Mendes flew 3,300 miles from his home in Toronto, Canada to be with her One video revealed a cake in the style of the pumpkin carriage from Cinderella, which is a nod to the musical movie she's currently filming in England. Another clip showed a very different birthday prop: a giant ice sculpture in the form of a towering stiletto heel. Camila again showed off her dance moves as she joined a conga line, with smitten Shawn, who she began dating in July 2019, watching on proudly. Kay Cannon, the director of Cinderella, shared a sweet tribute to Camila, posting a picture of her and Shawn and writing: "Sweet @camila_cabello turns 23 today!!! 'Celebratin' "Cinderella" style. Happy bday, Cinders!!!!! @shawnmendes (sic) Shimmy: The star showed off her taut abs and dance moves, with a snap of the Blackpool Tower visible in the background Fairytale day: One video revealed a cake in the style of the pumpkin carriage from Cinderella, which is a nod to the musical movie she's currently filming in England Opulence: Another clip showed a very different birthday prop a giant ice sculpture in the form of a towering stiletto heel The party was Cinderella themed with a birthday cake shaped like a pumpkin, that was adorned with the words: "If you keep on believing the dream that you wish will come true. Happy birthday Camila!". Camila also took some time on her birthday on Tuesday to think about those a lot less fortunate than her namely, the youth of Syria. The Bad Things songstress posted a heartfelt message to her Instagram for the occasion, alongside a reflective selfie, in which she called upon her fans to help displaced families affected by the ongoing war in Syria and specifically in the city of Idlib. Cutting the rug: Camila looked over the moon as she showed off her best dance moves 'ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!! guys thank u for all of the birthday love, I absolutely love you guys and am so thankful for you,' she wrote alongside a sweet selfie. 'For my birthday I wanna bring attention to one of the worst humanitarian crises happening in the world right now, in Syria,' she continued. '950,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the violence in Idlib some with only the clothes on their backs. Most of them are children. 'Now, theyre living in displacement camps in freezing cold temperatures. families shouldnt have to choose between dying from bombs or freezing cold temperatures', Cabello added, before making a call to action. Heartfelt: Camila also took some time on her birthday on Tuesday to think about those a lot less fortunate than her namely, the youth of Syria 'Save the Children is working to provide displaced families with food, blankets and warmth. They are trying to keep kids families safe, but they need our help. so for my birthday, it would mean the world to me if you would consider supporting Save the Childrens response to this humanitarian crisis. 'Go to savethechildren.org to help Save the Children reach children in need. I love u ,' the Cuban-born songbird concluded. She also uploaded a similar message to her Instagram Story, after various video snippets showing her partying with friends and family for her big day. Late last month, Camila also retweeted an alert from Save The Children, which is endeavoring to get the message out about the humanitarian crisis in Syria due to ongoing civil war and conflicts there. According to Save The Children's website, the crisis in Idlib has reached 'a new level of horror' as 10 schools have been hit in a ruthless attack, causing mass displacement and '900,000 vulnerable people in northwest Syria facing a brutally cold winter. Children are dying every day from freezing temperatures.' European lawmakers will allow Greta Thunberg to visit Brussels parliament despite a ban on guests over coronavirus fears. The young activist will deliver a speech to MEPs in Brussels on Wednesday as the number of confirmed cases of the deadly virus continues to rise. Conservative MEP Nuno Melo of Portugal was among those to criticise the move. He asked, in a letter to parliament president David Sassoli, what justified an 'exception' when 'in matters of health risk, human beings are democratically equal'. 'How can we explain this to our visitors and guests', added Belgian MEP Hilde Vautmans, a liberal, in another letter to Sassoli. Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg speaks to demonstrators during a Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate march last week 'Everyone should be treated equally. If the European Parliament grants an exception to Greta Thunberg, this house will not be taken seriously,' she added. Sassoli on Monday announced the immediate suspension of all visits to the European Parliament, a measure that applied not only to tourists, but also to guests of MEPs, their assistants and lobbyists. 'This is not a decision linked to a particular person,' a spokeswoman for the institution said. 'Any speaker specifically invited by the president of an official body of the parliament is allowed to attend' if he or she respects the health rules, the spokeswoman added. On Twitter, French MEP Nathalie Colin-Oesterle was surprised by the invitation to the 17-tear-old Swedish campaigner. Conservative MEP Nuno Melo of Portugal (pictured on Tuesday) was among those to criticise the decision to allow Greta Thunberg to speak. He sent a letter to parliament president David Sassoli 'My assistant is not allowed to come to the plenary session in Strasbourg (next week), but Greta Thunberg will be there tomorrow', she said. More than 90,000 people globally have been infected with the disease which has led to 3,100 deaths. Spain on Tuesday confirmed its first death from coronavirus. Health officials in Valencia said the virus was to blame for the death of a man on February 13 in a city hospital. Confirmation came after what was described as a 'retrospective investigation' following the death of the man - who had travelled to Nepal. At the time it was put down to a type of pneumonia of unknown origin. Officials have a new message for anyone who wants to throw parties in central Oregons beloved caves: Dont do it. New regulations proposed by the Deschutes National Forest aim to protect the sensitive underground environments by more carefully restricting what people are allowed to do in and around them. Existing rules outlaw several activities inside the roughly 700 caves managed by the national forest, including camping, smoking, drinking, operating internal combustion engines and leaving behind any human body waste. The proposed rules would amend the existing regulations to ban all of those activities within 200 feet of any cave entrance or opening, while also tacking on a number of additional restrictions. Those new restrictions would include lighting fires of any kind, digging or excavating, playing music (live or recorded), releasing substances like glitter or dust into the air, slacklining, and depositing animal waste inside or near the entrance of a cave. Proposed restrictions would also close Skeleton Cave year-round and extend existing seasonal closures at several other popular spots, including Skylight Cave and Arnold Ice Cave. Kassidy Kern, spokeswoman for the Deschutes National Forest, said all of the proposed restrictions stem from real problems that happen at Oregon caves. There are caves that have unfortunately become what amounts to a party cave, Kern said. As you can imagine, these caves are sensitive environments. Fires, loud music, graffiti and vandalism are serious problems that have been actively threatening not only the geologic formations, but also the wildlife and cultural resources like petroglyphs, she said. Adding rules that explicitly prohibit those behaviors would help the U.S. Forest Service issue citations in the future. Kern said the forest service doesnt anticipate much pushback from the public on the proposed changes. Some people have already voiced concerns that the new rules amount to a slippery slope that could lead to a ban on all public use of caves, she said, but she was adamant that the goal is only to stop the inappropriate and damaging behavior thats already going on. We want people to continue to explore these caves, but we want them to also recognize that they are visitors to these caves, Kern said. READ MORE: 10 caves in Oregon for an underground adventure Those who explore caves in a safe and responsible manner can discover beautiful new worlds underground, like the stunning natural phenomenon that occurs at Skylight Cave near Sisters. Of course, anyone who enters a cave in Oregon needs to take certain precautions. Aside from abiding by seasonal closures to protect hibernating bat populations, people also need to make sure theyre not bringing in spores that spread the deadly white-nose syndrome among bat populations. The easiest way to avoid that is to not bring anything into the cave that has been in any other cave in the last year including clothing, hiking boots, cell phones and camera gear. You can also decontaminate any items at home, following steps laid out at whitenosesyndrome.org. The public comment period will be open through April 2. Anyone can submit a comment by email at comments-pacificnorthwest-deschutes@usda.gov or by mail to: Holly Jewkes (Forest Supervisor), Deschutes National Forest, c/o Sasha Fertig, 63095 Deschutes Market Road, Bend, OR 97701. --Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. GENEVA - A Singaporean official defeated a candidate from China in a leadership contest for the U.N.s intellectual property body, which was swept into a rift between Washington and Beijing over claims of Chinese theft of technological know-how. Daren Tang, 47, the CEO of Singapores intellectual property office, won a crucial nomination to become the next director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization over Chinas Wang Binyang, a veteran at the agency. The co-ordination committee handed a 55-28 victory to Tang in a final round of voting that began Wednesday with five candidates vying to replace the agencys outgoing chief, Francis Gurry of Australia. The fight over the post pit the United States against Wang, prompting the Chinese ambassador to criticize an attack against a competent civil servant. She would have become the agencys first woman chief at a time when the U.N. is promoting gender parity in high office. WIPOs general assembly has final say in May, but it has never rejected a committee nominee since the 192-country agency was created in 1967. We are very pleased with the election outcome, said the U.S. ambassador in Geneva, Andrew Bremberg. We very much look forward to working with him when he takes over at the end of this year. Asked whether the United States had sought to torpedo Chinas candidate, he said: Of course not. But top U.S. officials including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro spoke out against Chinas ambitions, accusing Beijing of stealing intellectual property and arguing that Chinas choice would reflect badly on an agency devoted to protecting it. The stakes are high: WIPO is said to be the only U.N. specialized agency that consistently brings in a surplus, mainly through hits patent- and trademark-filing process that costs companies money to help protect their intellectual property overseas. The United States and other Western allies have long expressed concern about Chinas approach to intellectual property, which has involved requiring companies that want to operate in its large, fast-growing market to share their technical savvy with local partners. The standoff to replace Director-General Gurry, who was not standing for re-election, comes as China has been flexing its intellectual and diplomatic muscle in recent years. By WIPOs own count late last year, China alone accounted for nearly half of all patent filings worldwide. Chinas ambassador in Geneva, Chen Xu, insisted Wednesdays result was not a defeat. The whole process, I think, is a very strong indication of Chinas readiness to make more contributions to the international community, he said. We tried our best. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The OPEC meeting of ministers from OPEC, Russia, and other non-OPEC producers ended its meeting day without agreeing on a solution to the coronavirus problem, with Russia holding out, an OPEC source told Reuters on Wednesday afternoon, raising doubts that the group will get a bigger cut deal done after all. While Saudi Arabia and a few others had pushed hard for additional cutssome as much as 1.5 million barrels per daythrough the second quarter, Russia, who sits in a better place budget-wise to withstand lower oil prices, instead lobbied to merely keep the existing cuts in place through the end of the second quarter. And while President Vladimir Putin earlier this week said that Russia was willing to continue its cooperation with the OPEC+ group, it is no secret that the Russian oil companies were not eager to sign on to additional cuts. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak left the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting today after discussing the proposals for three hours. Russias reluctance to sign on to cut even more oil production does not bode well for the oil markets, which have taken a severe beating by the coronavirus since the beginning of the year. Analysts have surmised that the markets were already pricing in additional cuts by OPEC+, and any failure to fulfill market expectations could have a profound negative effect on oil prices. OPEC has routinely pulled out a win in the eleventh hour, so all hope is not lost, and the bump in the road that is Russia may serve to successfully manage expectations in a market that was primed for a cut between 600,000 bpd and 1 million bpd. Last week, rumors surfaced that Saudi Arabia and two other OPEC members would be willing to go it alone should Russia fail to jump on board with additional cuts. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: G reta Thunberg hit out at the EU's action on climate change likening their plans to a "betrayal". Speaking to the European Parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee, the teenage climate activist said that the EU's target of carbon neutrality by 2050 was not enough. She said: "The longer you keep running away from [the] truth, the bigger the betrayal towards your own children." In a reference to the widespread school strikes for climate the 17-year-old is credited with popularising, Ms Thunberg said: "When your children set off the fire alarm, you went outside and smelled the air. You stated that the house was actually burning... "But then you went inside, finished your dinner and watched a movie. You didnt even call the fire department." Greta Thunberg - In pictures 1 /57 Greta Thunberg - In pictures Climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a protest ahead of the UN Climate Conference in London REUTERS Teenage activist Greta Thunberg delivers a speech surrounded by other student environmental advocates outside the White House in 2019 Getty Images Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World. AP Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters Jason DeCrow/AP Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg gives a speech at the plenary session during the COP25 Climate Conference Getty Images Climate activist Greta Thunberg waves as she arrives in Lisbon aboard the sailboat AP Greta Thunberg on the Time Magazine cover, as the climate activist has been named as Person of the Year by the publication PA Climate change activist Greta Thunberg is escorted by police on her arrived at Chamartin train station in Madrid Getty Images Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivers a speech after a mass climate march to demand urgent action on the climate crisis from world leaders attending the COP25 summit, in Madrid AFP via Getty Images Greta Thunberg arrives at the Santo Amaro docks in Lisbon onboard the catamaran La Vagabonde AFP via Getty Images Greta Thunberg waves as she stands onboard the catamaran La Vagabonde AFP via Getty Images Climate activist Greta Thunberg, foreground, gives a speech in Lisbon AP Greta Thunberg (C), 16, speaks during a "FridaysForFuture" climate protest AFP via Getty Images Teen Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg poses as she visits the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield via REUTERS Swedish teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg poses on the La Vagabonde, a 48-foot catamaran, with those offering her a ride across the Atlantic ocean @GRETATHUNBERG / via REUTERS Greta Thunberg shows the placard "School strike for the climate" which she held outside the Swedish parliament Getty Images Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses supporters and journalists upon her arrival in Santo Amaro Recreation dock Getty Images Greta Thunberg on the Atlantic Ocean @gretathunberg Greta Thunberg in Stockholm, Sweden for BBC's Climate Change - The Facts BBC Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg (C) speaks at the Extinction Rebellion group's environmental protest camp at Marble Arch in London on April 21, 2019, AFP/Getty Images Chief Arvol Looking Horse greets Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at Standing Rock High School in Fort Yates AP Greta Thunberg speaks during a press conference before the march for climate in Montreal AFP/Getty Images Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg watches as US President Donald Trump enters the United Nations Reuters Greta Thunberg (C), young activists and their supporters rally for action on climate chang Getty Images Greta Thunberg on the cover of GQ PA Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a Blue Leaders breakfast briefing focused on the release of and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere In a Changing Climate AP Getty Images Greta Thunberg, Ivy-Fleur Boileau, Virgile Mouquet, Adelaide Charlier and Alicia Arquetoux, French activists from the Youth for Climate movement REUTERS Greta Thunberg stands next to Swedish parliament in Stockholm. AP Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives for a meeting and a visit of the French National Assembly AFP/Getty Images 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg (C) holds a placard reading in Swedish "school strike for the climate" as she takes part in the Fridays For Future rally in Piazza del Popolo in Rome AFP/Getty Images Greta Thunberg with Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn PA Environment Secretary Michael Gove, former Labour leader Ed Miliband and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg PA Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a press conference before setting sail for New York in the 60ft Malizia II yacht from Mayflower Marina Getty Images Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a debate with the EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee during a session at the European Parliament AFP/Getty Images Greta Thunberg addressed world leaders in Davos AFP/Getty Images 16 year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (R) and other students participate in the 'School Strike for Climate' in front of the entrance of the Congress Center on the last day of the 49th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos EPA Prince Charles, Prince of Wales greeting Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos Clarence House/AFP via Getty Images Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg addresses guests at the World Economic Forum AP Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg AP PA Archive Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives at Glasgow Central train station (Jane Barlow/PA) PA Wire Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate POOL/AFP via Getty Images Ms Thunberg, speaking in Brussels, continued: "When your house is on fire you dont wait a few more years before putting it out. "When the EU presents this climate law... you indirectly admit surrender." Before the start of Ms Thunberg's speech, EU officials welcomed her to the meeting by comparing their attitude towards the climate favourably with the US, Australia and Brazil. The US has filed to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which it describes as putting an "unfair economic burden" on its workers. Environment activist Thunberg meets EU chiefs Brazil's foreign minister recently denied the existence of "a climate change catastrophe". while the UN criticised Australia last year for falling behind on emissions commitments. But Ms Thunberg appeared to reject this comparison, saying: "Neither the awareness nor the politics that is needed are anywhere near sight... "We have lots of brilliant solutions... We have unprecedented wealth... What we do not have is awareness, leadership and above all time... "The EU must lead the way you yourselves declared that we are in a climate and environment emergency you said that this was an existential threat now you must prove you mean it." The ten-minute speech was met with a long standing ovation by the audience. The coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, has infected over 92,000 people and killed more than 3,100. While 87% of the cases have been reported in China, nine people in the US have died because of COVID-19. We spoke to six experts for tips and tricks people can use to stay safe while taking public transportation. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Several public transportation agencies across the country are now taking steps to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus and subdue public fears of catching it. For example, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that its trains, cars, and buses will be sanitized every 72 hours, and frequently touched surfaces in stations will be disinfected daily. San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system will also be undergoing a similar procedure by disinfecting commonly used surfaces in its stations and wiping down handrails and stanchions at multiple stops. nyc subway Getty/NurPhoto There are currently two reported cases of coronavirus in New York, and San Francisco's mayor has already declared a state of emergency due to the spread of COVID-19. "Be vigilant, but not anxious," infectious disease specialist Avisheh Forouzesh who owns Advanced Infectious Disease Medical in New Jersey, told Business Insider in an interview. "The key is not to panic because we can't live in a bubble." "I don't think people should entirely avoid public transportation," Forouzesh continued. However, there are still different tips and tricks people can take to ensure that they don't put themselves at any potential risk while taking public transit. For example, emerging and reemerging viral diseases expert Thomas Ksiazek at the University of Texas Medical Branch Health told Business Insider that hand sanitation is one of the most important ways to stay safe. Keep scrolling to see what experts said, including advice from professor of infectious diseases and medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Bernard Camins and professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University Amira Roess. Story continues Don't touch your phone while you're taking public transportation. subway Subway passengers waiting for their train to arrive. Andrew Burton/Getty While one expert, Carol Shoshkes Reiss, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Amesh Adalja, claims it should be okay to use your phone on transit unless someone coughs directly onto it, several experts advise against using personal mobile devices while riding public transit. While this may be a hard habit to curtail, Adalja advises changing certain behaviors and patterns to remind yourself to not touch your phone. For example, put your phone in a place that it's not normally in, such as a different part of your bag or a different pocket. That way, when you reach for your phone and it's not in its usual place, you are reminded of why you put it elsewhere. To be extra cautious, clean your phone screen with an antibacterial wipe, and wash your hands with soap and water after touching your phone. Carry hand sanitizer and use it the moment you leave the bus, train, or subway. walmart hand sanitizer Shoshy Ciment/Business Insider Almost every expert suggests carrying hand sanitizer to use after exiting any form of public transportation. "If you don't have access to water or soap right away, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer," Forouzesh said. "That's one thing that's easy and everyone can do." Don't touch your face. coronavirus train milan face mask A woman sitting on a train wearing a face mask in Milan, Italy, Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters Don't touch your face, whether you're on or off public transit. The CDC recommends avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, specifically. If someone is coughing or sneezing, try to move away from them. Coronavirus train tokyo Commuters wearing face masks while on a train in Tokyo. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo If someone is coughing or sneezing on the train or subway, you should either move to the other end of the railcar, or exit at the next stop and continue your commute in a different section. If you're on a bus or a crowded train and can't physically step away, face your back towards the person coughing. "Don't be downwind of the cough," Reiss advised. Wash your hands the moment you have access to soap and water. Washing hands Getty Almost every expert reached by Business Insider and the CDC recommends that people wash their hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds after leaving public transit. Reiss also recommended using a moisturizer to prevent your hands from drying due to constant washing. Don't wear a face mask unless you're sick. subway coronavirus new york city face mask A man with a face mask rides the subway in the Queens borough of New York City. Nick Zieminski/Reuters "There is no evidence that wearing a mask by the general public is preventative against infection," Adlja said. "However, there is evidence that people panic buying a mask may cause problems with supplies necessary for hospitals." Wearing a mask can sometimes cause more harm than good because people are more likely to touch their face while trying to adjust or touch their mask, according to Forouzesh. Limit contact with train and bus poles. coronavirus train mask japan Commuters wearing masks on a train in Tokyo. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo If that's not possible, disinfect your hands shortly after leaving public transit, and make sure to not touch your nose, eyes, and mouth after touching the poles or seats. If you decide to use a napkin or tissue to hold onto the poles and railings, discard the tissue in an enclosed trash bin afterward. If it's possible, try to leave work a bit earlier or later to avoid packed public transit during rush hour. coronavirus japan train face masks Commuters on a train in Urayasu, near Tokyo, wearing face masks. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo Commuting on a packed train during rush hour is the antithesis of social distancing, which Ksiazek claims has been one of the most effective ways of curtailing the spread and transmission of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China where COVID-19 first originated. Don't eat or drink while on public transit. subway newsstand A subway newsstand in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Forouzesh recommends not eating or drinking while on public transit because there's a higher chance you will touch your face. Sanitize your bag and keep it off of the floor and other surfaces. metro passengers with bags Metro passengers. Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images If you're carrying a bag that may hit any surfaces on a train, bus, or subway, sanitize the bag. This includes the bottom of the bag, especially if it sits on the floor any time during your travels. Carrying around sanitizing and disinfecting wipes will make this process easier and more convenient. Avoid directly touching the turnstiles. subway turnstile beijing coronavirus A worker wearing a hazardous materials suit helps a woman through a turnstile at a subway station in Beijing. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo Turnstiles can be loaded with germs. If possible, push through with your hips instead of your hands. Keep up with recommendations from the local department of health and CDC. singapore coronavirus train travel masks REUTERS/Edgar Su "Unfortunately there's a lot of erroneous information out there right because of the public panic," said Forouzesh. "But my best advice is to follow the CDC advice and don't steer away from that." Read the original article on Business Insider The Congress (INC) has offered Nitin Patel Gujarat Chief Minister's post, if he defects with 15 to 20 other state MLAs, The Times of India reported. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Patel is the Deputy CM of Gujarat. The Congress' proposal came after he hinted at being isolated within his party. Speaking at a function on March 1, Patel had reportedly said, "You must be watching on television, or reading in the newspapers. On the one hand, there is everybody, on the other, I am alone." Within a day of the statement, Congress MLA Virji Thummar addressed Patel in the Gujarat Assembly and made the offer. "We heard that you have become lonely in BJP. You can join Congress with 15 to 20 MLAs and become CM in a Congress government," Thummar was quoted saying. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-03 22:51:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TOKYO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he would like to make "full use" of a fiscal 2019 reserve fund as a second emergency package to combat the COVID-19 outbreak as the number of infections continue to rise in Japan. "We will decide whether to use all of the fund when we finalize the details of the package on March 10. We'd like to make full use of it," Abe told a parliamentary session on Tuesday. The Japanese leader was referring to a reserve fund of 270 billion yen (2.5 billion U.S. dollars), as six more infections have been confirmed, bringing the total to 986 and the death toll to 12. Of the 986, however, more than 700 confirmed cases stem from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo. Six of the 12 who died from virus-related illnesses were liked to the cruise liner. As for the second emergency package, the government has said it will compile the parameters of the package by March 10 with an aim to help mitigate the financial burden being suddenly imposed on parents after Abe decided last week that all schools nationwide should be closed from Monday to help contain the virus with children to remain indoors. In addition, funds will be allocated to bolster medical services and help underpin small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) that are buckling under the economic burden resulting from the impact of the virus on domestic and global supply chains, demand, investment and labor-related issues. A final figure for the emergency package has yet to be decided on, the government has said. The government's first package, however, was to the tune of 15.3 billion yen (142 million U.S. dollars) and announced in mid-February with funds predominantly earmarked for emergency medical needs including the development of rapid-test kits and work towards developing a vaccine to fight the virus. In terms of additional virus-related spending, Abe said Tuesday that for the fiscal 2020 budget, for the time being, if necessary, funds designated for "various downside risks" to the economy could be tapped. "Whether additional spending will be needed depends on the impact of the coronavirus on the global and domestic economies, and we will carefully analyze it and take action without hesitation if necessary," said Abe. Also on Tuesday the ruling Liberal Democratic Party drafted a number of proposals aimed at cushioning the economic blow of the outbreak and called for the government to compile a supplementary budget for fiscal 2020. Japan's upper house of parliament, meanwhile, is currently gearing up to pass a record 102.66 trillion yen (952 billion U.S. dollars) budget following its passage through the lower house last week. Former vice president Joe Biden was the beneficiary of the Virginia groundswell, easily beating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and three other hopefuls as he won nine of the 14 Super Tuesday states. Nearly 60 percent of Virginia voters said they would rather nominate a candidate who can beat Trump than someone who agrees with them on major issues, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Media Research. Biden won this group by a more than 3 to 1 margin, 63 percent to 16 percent. New data show that manufacturing in China has decreased much more than expected, as the country battles the spread of the coronavirus. Chinese officials are trying hard to get people back to work without causing another outbreak. A private, independent survey of manufacturers published this week shows the largest decrease in China's manufacturing activity in 16 years. The survey is called the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, PMI. It gives an independent look at operating conditions in manufacturing. It found manufacturing in the country fell last month to 40.3, the lowest reading since the survey began in April 2004. A PMI rating below 50 is a sign that the manufacturing economy is decreasing. Above 50 shows expansion. China's National Bureau of Statistics released its latest data last Saturday. It showed the countrys economic activity decreased to a record low of 35.7 in February, down from 50.0 in January. It marks the lowest rating since January 2005, when the index began. The previous lowest was 38.8 in November 2008, during the international financial crisis. Those surveys show just how much the coronavirus has affected the Chinese economy. 'Shocking' decreases The decreases were not a surprise; the extended Lunar New Year holiday kept factories and offices closed because of the virus. However, the drops were sharper than expected. "It is shocking," said Dr. Frank Xie, a business professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken. "It really shows how bad the situation is," he added. Nicholas R. Lardy is an economist at the Brookings Institution and a Chinese economy expert. "I think the negative effect of the virus on China's economy is going to be much larger than some think," Lardy said. He said factories and businesses that had reopened are still operating at reduced levels and are facing production problems. Small businesses struggle While the coronavirus outbreak has affected some of the biggest companies in the world, it is also hurting small businesses in China. Zhang Kejian is the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. He said last week that only 30 percent of China's small- and medium-sized businesses had returned to work. Chinas central government reported that 90 percent of state-owned companies have returned to work. Small- and medium-sized businesses make up more than 60 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product. They employ more than 80 percent of China's workers, government data from last September show. The government has promised to offer financial support to small businesses affected by the outbreak. Health crisis challenges In recent days, China has reported fewer than 10 new confirmed coronavirus cases outside Hubei Province, where the outbreak began. But the government is not ready to declare victory yet. Liang Wannian is a senior official with China's National Health Commission. He recently called the situation grim. We haven't stopped the (outbreak) in Wuhan yet," he added. Many experts fear there will be new outbreaks when millions more people in China go back to work. Im Susan Shand. VOA News reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story outbreak n. a sudden start or increase of fighting or disease survey n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something index n. a sign or number that shows how something is changing or performing statistics n. a number that represents a piece of information Gross Domestic Product n. the amount an economy earns grim adj. unpleasant or shocking to see resurgence n. a growth or increase that occurs after a period without growth or increase reveal - v. to make (something) known previous - adj. earlier in time or order negative - adj. earlier in time or order The Meghalaya government on Tuesday lifted the ban on mobile internet services in two Jaintia Hills districts after improvement in the situation, officials said. Mobile internet and messaging services were withdrawn in six districts of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region following clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups, which claimed three lives. However, the services remain withdrawn in three Khasi Hills districts and Ri-Bhoi district for another 24 hours from 10 pm on Tuesday, they said. Clashes had broken out between Khasi Students Union (KSU) members and non-tribals during a rally organised against the Citizenship Amendment Act and to demand implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP), at Ichamati area close to the India-Bangladesh border on Friday. "The situation in the affected areas is returning to normal. We are keeping a close watch and no untoward incident was reported in the past 24 hours," Assistant Inspector General of Police Gabriel Iangrai said. A senior Home department official said mobile internet services were restored in West and East Jaintia Hills districts as no untoward incident was reported. As night curfew was promulgated in entire Shillong from 9 pm on Tuesday till 6 am on Wednesday, state Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui held a peace meeting with representatives of various religious bodies and social organisations. Rymbui told PTI that the meeting was aimed at restoring normalcy and allowing peace to return in the affected areas. He said that attendees of the meeting acknowledged the state government's seriousness on the demand for implementation of ILP in Meghalaya. The home minister appealed to the people to restraint from any act of violence or taking the law into their hands and urged them to work together with the state government. "In a democracy, we should work to fulfil the aspirations of the people through a proper process," he said. Press Release 4 March 2020 Although ITB and IHIF Berlin have been cancelled at short notice, Kempinski Hotels is holding its planned events and meetings in Berlin through the entire week. Martin R. Smura, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Kempinski Hotels as well as all members of the Management Board are present in Berlin despite the cancellations due to the corona virus, thus expressing the importance and appreciation of customers and partners. Advertisements "We are one of the few companies that are committed to meeting our customers and media friends as originally planned through the "ITB programme" explains Martin R. Smura. "We did not hesitate at all to move all of our meetings and events to the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin. Even though there were expected individual cancellations, we still meet with investors for intensive meetings, invited partners as a thank-you for their many years of close collaboration and we informed journalists at the media breakfast about the latest projects and developments." And Smura continues: "The tourism and hotel industry is going through difficult times and of course as an international hotel company we are affected. In particular our hotels in China are suffering from the current situation and we hope that there will soon be more positive news in this regard. However, this does not prevent us from maintaining close and personal contact with our most important customers." Kempinski Hotels is using the days in Berlin to talk about portfolio expansion and exciting new openings. In the next 18 months alone, 15 new luxury hotels with 3,888 rooms will welcome guests from all over the world for the first time. Seven people accused of being members of a Mauritanian group seeking to reform the conservative Islamic republic were charged with terrorism crimes against Islam, their lawyer said on Wednesday. However no charges were brought were against two high-profile feminists whose arrest in the capital Nouakchott in mid-February, along with 12 other activists, provoked outcry from Amnesty International. The 14 were accused of belonging to the Arem group (Alliance for the Re-foundation of the Mauritanian State), which was formed in Paris this year to work for "an end to the old practices of bad governance, injustice and impunity". An anti-terror investigating judge on Wednesday charged seven of the group for "offending the Muslim religion", "insults against Allah" and the Prophet Mohammed by publishing computer-related content and terrorism, lawyer Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubakar told AFP. Six of those charged were placed in detention, while the seventh was released under judicial supervision, he added. Mauritania's justice system on Wednesday also issued arrest warrants against three other suspected Arem members, including members of the diaspora. But the case was dropped against Aminetou Mint El Moctar, a woman's rights activist and vice-president of Arem, and Mekfoula Mint Brahim, winner of the 2018 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law and recipient in December of France's highest accolade, the Legion d'Honneur. Mint Brahimim denies ever being a member of the group. Amnesty said on February 19 that it was "extremely concerned" by the arrest of the well-known rights activists and called for their immediate release. The group was arrested following an unauthorised meeting and the state security service carried out an investigation, according to a judicial source. The computer-related content in the charges refers to audio recordings sent on the WhatsApp messaging service, the group's lawyer said. Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, who rose to power in August last year, has pledged to engage with the opposition. But Amnesty has called on him to end the judicial harassment of human rights defenders in the West African country, which follows sharia law. ORRVILLE, Ohio, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) (the "Company") today announced the pricing of $500 million aggregate principal amount of 2.375% notes due 2030 (the "2030 Notes") and $300 million aggregate principal amount of 3.550% notes due 2050 (the "2050 Notes" and, together with the 2030 Notes, the "Notes"). The sale of the Notes is expected to close on March 9, 2020, and is pursuant to an underwriting agreement dated March 4, 2020 between the Company and BofA Securities, Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, as representatives of the underwriters. The expected net proceeds from the offering of the Notes will be approximately $792.4 million, after deducting the underwriting discount but before deducting the Company's expenses related to the offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the Notes to repay, redeem or refinance $500.0 million in principal amount of its unsecured senior notes due March 15, 2020, which bear interest at 2.50%, together with accrued and unpaid interest, and for general corporate purposes, which could include, but are not limited to, repayments of other outstanding debt (including the repayment of commercial paper outstanding), capital expenditures or working capital. The Company has filed a registration statement on Form S-3 (including a prospectus) (the "Registration Statement") with the Securities and Exchange Commission for this offering. Before investing, investors should read the prospectus in the Registration Statement and the prospectus supplement and other documents the Company has filed or will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more complete information about the Company and the offering. These documents may be obtained for free by visiting EDGAR on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website. Alternatively, a copy of the prospectus and prospectus supplement relating to the Notes can be obtained from BofA Securities, Inc. at 200 North College Street, NC1-004-03-43, Charlotte NC 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department, toll-free at (800) 294-1322, or by email at [email protected]; or from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at 383 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10179, Attention: Investment Grade Syndicate Desk, or by telephone collect at 1-212-834-4533. About The J. M. Smucker Company Inspired by more than 120 years of business success and five generations of family leadership, The J. M. Smucker Company makes food that people and pets love. The Company's portfolio of 40+ brands, which are found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants, include iconic products consumers have always loved such as Folgers, Jif, and Milk-Bone plus new favorites like Cafe Bustelo, Smucker's Uncrustables, and Rachael Ray Nutrish. Over the past two decades, the Company has grown rapidly by thoughtfully acquiring leading and emerging brands, while ensuring the business has a positive impact on its 7,000+ employees, the communities it is a part of, and the planet. For more information about The J. M. Smucker Company, visit jmsmucker.com. The J. M. Smucker Company is the owner of all trademarks referenced herein except for Rachael Ray, a registered trademark of Ray Marks II LLC, which is used under license. SOURCE The J. M. Smucker Company Related Links http://www.jmsmucker.com Experts from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have confirmed that an industrial autoclave seized from the Chinese ship Dai Cui Yun can be used for the manufacture of very long-range ballistic missiles or satellite launch rockets. The ship was detained by Customs at Kandla Port while en-route to Port Qasim, Karachi, on February 3 on the basis of an intelligence tip-off and allowed to proceed to the Pakistani port on February 20 after the so-called dual-use (civilian and military) equipment was seized. The autoclave was misdeclared as an industrial dryer. Hindustan Times first reported the seizure. Analysts said DRDOs confirmation exposes the nuclear nexus between China and its all-weather ally Pakistan. According to top government and intelligence officials, the DRDOs technical experts and missile scientists informed the Kandla Customs, the ministry of external affairs and national security planners on Tuesday morning that the seized 18 metre by 4 metre autoclave can indeed be used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) platforms. The autoclave can be used for the manufacture of the motor of very long range missiles, with range upwards of 1,500 kilometres or even in the construction of a motor for the launch of satellites. Pakistan has the Shaheen II missile in the 1,500-2,000 kilometre range and the platform was tested last May, said one of the officials, who asked not to be named. According to the officials, it is now up to Indias national security planners to invoke the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act 2005 as well as inform the UN under the WMD Convention to expose the nuclear proliferation nexus between Beijing and Islamabad. Under Indian law, any contravention of the above law attracts a punishment of not less than five years imprisonment which may be extended to imprisonment for life with an added fine. The autoclave was being imported by the Islamabad-based United Construction Company and Hong Kong-based General Technology had booked the consignment. North Korea, initially, and then China have helped Pakistan in the development of nuclear missile delivery platforms by supplying M-11 and M-9 missiles. Islamabads nuclear missile programme is not indigenous and is based on Chinese design with Beijing helping Islamabad since the 1980s. It is for no other reason that China is blocking Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) till Pakistan is also allowed into the nuclear club. Given the seizure of the autoclave, Indias friends such as France and the US can now pressure Beijing to allow India into the NSG, the officials said, adding that the countrys record in context of nuclear proliferation was spotless. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A month ago, Sophie Emerson was cooking homemade pasta, studying about wine, and waking up to a view of a Florence cathedral. A week ago, she was waiting at a bakery to buy a chocolate croissant at 3 a.m. when she got an email that because of a U.S. government travel advisory for northern Italy, her study abroad program was cut short. The fast spread of the coronavirus in Italy prompted the warning for Americans to avoid nonessential travel. On Wednesday, she returned home in tears to her mom and boyfriend waiting for her at San Francisco International Airport. I felt so exasperated and worn out, Emerson, a 20-year-old junior at San Diego State University, said on the phone from her home in Sacramento Thursday. I feel robbed because of everything I wasnt able to do, she said. They told me to leave an apartment that my family had already paid for. I was tired from my physical journey and also my emotional one. Its mixed emotions, she added. Im happy to be home. Emerson is one of hundreds of California students returning early from study abroad programs cut short because of coronavirus outbreaks in China, South Korea and Italy. The University of California system canceled its program in China in January and ended semesters in South Korea and Italy last week. Around 350 students are affected, according to spokeswoman Myla Edmond. The university has a policy to not run programs in a country when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues its highest level of warning to avoid nonessential travel. Weve recommended that they come home, we certainly cant force them to, they have to work with their individual airlines to make that happen, Edmond said. Students are encouraged to follow CDC advice to self-quarantine for 14 days. They will be returning home, not to campus, and will work with their local universities to receive partial credit for semesters abroad, get into new classes or take online courses. California State University suspended its China program in January, and when new travel advisories were issued, nixed studies for a small group in South Korea last Friday and around 80 students in Florence Tuesday. Each campus has the authority to suspend its own programs. Michael Uhlenkamp, spokesman for the Cal State chancellors office, said international programs are working with families and students to get them back. Students will continue studying online. Stanford University also withdrew its Florence program last week. Online courses from students home locations were scheduled to start March 2. Emerson said she was one of around 35 San Diego State students who went to Florence through Texas-based Academic Programs International to study politics, law, sociology, Italian, and wine; three of her five courses were required for her double major. She arrived on Jan. 26. She was scheduled to be there until May. The coronavirus arrived a week later. It was always lurking in the background, she said, adding she thought it was serious from the beginning. As coronavirus cases climbed, towns and schools shut down about 100 miles north of Florence. Emerson and fellow students always felt healthy, she said. She didnt buy a mask because its been discouraged by medical professionals except for health care workers, but covered her mouth and nose with her scarf and used extra hand sanitizer. But when they set up a tent in front of the hospital near her apartment for emergency cases, it was super intimidating, she said. It was about two weeks ago where the probability of us staying dwindled every day before our eyes, Emerson said. There were so many people in denial. It was hard to talk about. Everyone was trying to act like they werent freaked out and it wouldnt happen to us and it wouldnt reach us. On Feb. 28, API cut its program short. Students were told to make immediate plans to leave the country; they could stay in housing until March 6. Back in California, Connie Sanders Emerson, Sophies mom, tried to figure out how to access the international travel insurance they purchased for the trip. She found out it didnt cover pandemics or epidemics, which is not uncommon. She watched available tickets dwindling and prices rising because of limited flights out of northern Italy that made Florence departures in high demand. Finally she bought a $2,200 one-way ticket. On her flight from Florence to Frankfurt, Emerson filled out a form about her travel history and health. She missed her connection by five minutes and finally reached SFO on a later flight Wednesday. She said she wasnt asked questions about whether she was sick or where she had traveled. Emerson will be at home in Sacramento for the foreseeable future. She is considering self-quarantine, and if she goes out, maintaining an arms-length distance from anyone. Her boyfriend decided not to see his grandparents with health issues for the next two weeks while he spends time with her. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. As of Thursday morning, Emerson wasnt sure what was happening with her education and feared she would lose credits required for graduation next year. APIs housing and tuition are nonrefundable, an email from the program said. Since Emerson left Italy, the government shut down universities, including Lorenzo de Medici in Florence where she was studying. She received an email that online versions of her courses would be available starting March 26, although a follow-up message asked whether the wine course, which included a practical component, was essential for graduation. San Diego State is planning a set of course offerings via a specially designed accelerated spring term to be offered from March 16 to May 14, another email said. The university also announced a waiver to the study abroad requirement for students sent home, which means seniors scheduled to graduate will be able to do so even if they couldnt meet the requirement this spring, spokeswoman La Monica Everett-Haynes said in an email. Developing information about the virus makes the family afraid that Emerson could be asymptomatic. Its the unknown thats intimidating, Emerson said. The unknown of whats going to happen with my school and my health. Its a waiting game I dont want to play, but Ill have to. As the coronavirus spreads rapidly, the fate of other study abroad programs is unknown. API, which ran Emersons program, said it continues to hold the safety and well being of its participants as its number one priority, student health official Carolyn Lutes said in an email. A task force is continually monitoring CDC country-specific warnings and if the risk is elevated, programs in other countries will be canceled. We do have a good number of programs that are operating overseas and continue to monitor the situation and work with federal agencies, Uhlenkamp with Cal State said. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov contributed to this report. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench The Gujarat government on Wednesday informed the Assembly that as against a collection of over Rs 5,800 crore towards the premium in two years, insurance companies have settled claims worth Rs 2,800 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme. While the Congress alleged the BJP government is helpless against insurance firms, Agriculture Minister R C Faldu claimed the government is 'fighting' with these companies to get compensation for farmers in case of crop damage. Responding to a question by Amit Chavda (Congress) during the Question Hour, Faldu said a total of seven companies had collected a premium of Rs 5,862 crore during the last two years from state and Central governments, each sharing equal amount of Rs 2,931 crore. As against the collection of Rs 5,862 crore towards premium, these seven companies had disbursed compensation of Rs 2,892 crore in two years. Asked what action the state government took to ensure that farmers get adequate compensation, Faldu, in his written reply, said the government had asked insurance firms to adhere to guidelines of the scheme and take necessary action. Responding to a specific question regarding Banaskantha, Faldu admitted that as many as 648 groundnut- growing farmers in the district were yet to get compensation for the kharif-2019 season. During the debate in the House, Congress MLAs accused the BJP government of going soft on insurance firms which according to them are not paying the compensation despite collecting a premium of thousands of crores of rupees. Notably, the Central government had recently made this contentious scheme 'optional' for farmers. Talking to reporters outside the Assembly, Faldu said farmers were paid Rs 5,120.09 crore under the crop insurance scheme during the last three years. For the kharif-2019, claims worth Rs 100.91 crore were already settled, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ministers have launched an advertising blitz amid frantic efforts to halt the rise of coronavirus in the UK. The huge public information campaign will urge the public to wash their hands whenever they arrive somewhere. The drive is designed to change people's attitude to hygeine. amid fears that coronavirus could become a seasonal problem. The Chief Medical Officer warned this morning that more Britons will be killed by the virus, as two more test positive in Scotland brought the total number of UK cases to 53. Yesterday Boris Johnson unveiled the government's 'battle plan' for dealing with a major outbreak in this country, which experts believe is increasingly likely. A huge public information campaign is urging the public to wash their hands whenever they arrive somewhere Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned this morning that Britons will be killed by the virus The measures include urging people to avoid social contact as much as possible for an estimated three months until the crisis peaks, with employees advised to work from home. Other contingency measures are designed to allow key public services, such as the NHS and the police, to continue functioning. The latest adverts - to be rolled out across print, radio, online and billboards - will reinforce the message that people should be washing their hands more often. It includes when they come in from home or work, after they blow their nose, cough or sneeze, and before they eat or handle food. The adverts say washing should be for 20 seconds, using soap and water or hand sanitiser. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "We all have a role to play in stopping this disease and that's what this expanded campaign is all about - making sure the public knows exactly what they should be doing to keep themselves and others safe. "Washing hands regularly is the single most important thing that an individual can do." The 'battle plan' said police could be told to suspend investigations and focus on serious crime, the Army could be put on standby and foreign visitors showing symptoms could be required to have a coronavirus test before being allowed into the country. It warned that a fifth of the workforce more than six million staff could be off sick at the peak of an outbreak, which ministers hope to delay until late in the spring. It emerged last night that the NHS had declared a 'Level Four' incident, the highest level of alert, as officials brace for a surge in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. Hospitals have been advised to postpone treatment where possible and treat patients at home, or in the community to ease pressure on beds. A commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge in the capital this morning At a press conference in No 10 yesterday, the Prime Minister said 'all reasonable and necessary steps' were being taken. He stressed that for the overwhelming majority the virus would produce only a mild disease. But there are fears for the over-80s, who are thought to be especially susceptible. In a worst-case scenario, official projections point to as many as half a million deaths, although experts insisted early evidence from China suggested the final figure would be only a fraction of this. Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told Sky News today: 'I think it is, well, it is certainly, almost certain there will be more cases in the UK, probably a lot more cases as the Prime Minister laid out, and we would expect some deaths, yes.' He warned that there was the potential for 'waves' of the disease, stressing that it was not clear how big they would be. Mr Whitty also told ITV's Good Morning Britain that people wearing masks in public will have little effect on whether or not they catch Covid-19. He told the show's presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: 'It's much more likely than not that we're going to deal with a significant epidemic.' Professor John Oxford, from Queen Mary University in London, told The Telegraph: 'If you look at other members of the coronavirus family, that are respiratory viruses and we've known about them for the last 50 years or more, they're seasonal.' 'They're just like the common cold, there's probably a few thousand people infected with them at the moment in England. 'Whether Covid-19 will fit into that pattern or not, we will just have to wait and see but my guess is it will.' WEST READING, Pa.- The coronavirus is a growing concern in the United States, with many parents worrying about how it will spread among children. "Just like any virus that we pay attention to, the basics are the basics," said Dr. Bunmi Ojikutu, the chair of pediatrics at Reading Hospital. "When kids do have it, it's showing up like a mild viral illness," Ojikutu said. "That helps us feel better about how kids will fare with this." She said that information is based off of data from other parts of the world, where the virus has been circulating longer. Experts said one of the best ways to avoid spreading germs is still the simplest. Wash your hands. "You want to wash well and get in between the crevices with soap and water," said Ojikutu. Many local schools are monitoring the coronavirus and have put out district-wide messages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has guidelines for schools based on where they're located and if the virus is present in that area. Most schools have contingency plans for emergency situations. "Viruses tend to be seasonal, and this one showing up at this time," said Ojikutu. "Time will tell us if it's going to behave like a usual seasonal virus." She advised talking to your children but to spread facts and not hysteria. Washington, D.C. On the steps of the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered as the justices heard oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, the first abortion-related case on the docket since Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Court. The case was brought by abortion providers against the state of Louisiana, challenging a law that requires them to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital so women can get emergency care if necessary after a failed abortion procedure. Louisiana law currently requires the same of all other ambulatory surgical centers in the state; the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act aims to hold abortionists to the same standard. Sources who attended oral arguments told National Review that seven of the nine justices asked questions. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch were the two who did not. Outside the Court, meanwhile, both the abortion-rights movement and pro-life advocates hosted rallies all morning, standing right beside each other underneath a perfectly blue and sunny sky, the abortion-rights crowd swathed in teal and the pro-lifers in a lighter shade of blue. My right, my decision, read most of the signs on the pro-choice side. The signs were printed, and the rally coordinated, by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the abortion-advocacy group that argued against the Louisiana law this morning, representing June Medical Services and two unnamed abortionists. One of the most prominent speakers for the abortion-rights rally was Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who directed part of his remarks at Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Theyre taking away fundamental rights, he said. I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You wont know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) also addressed the pro-choice crowd, opening her remarks by suggesting that they are obsessed with our bodies, as well as that abortion is an issue of economic justice and racial justice. Story continues We have every frickin right to fight for our lives and our bodies, Tlaib said. Most of the remarks from speakers at the pro-choice rally didnt touch on the substance of the Louisiana law at all, or they falsely claimed that it was intended to restrict access to abortion. But in fact, in a decision upholding the statute last fall, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the only permissible finding, under this record, is that no clinics will likely be forced to close on account of the Act. Much of the abortion-rights rally centered around common slogans such as permitting or trusting women to control their own bodies. A poster that one of the abortion-rights demonstrators held read, Hey Kavanaugh, keep your religion out of my health care. And yea, we still believe Dr. Blasey Ford. Another, much larger sign said, Thank God for abortion. On the pro-life side of the divide, meanwhile, most signs read, Protect women, protect life. The remarks from the slate of speakers in defense of Louisianas law focused almost entirely on the law itself, as well as the goal of ensuring that women are able to get emergency care. Katrina Jackson, the Louisiana Democrat who sponsored the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, addressed the pro-life crowd after exiting the Court following the hearing. For so long, this nation has put the abortion industry before the health and safety of the women, she said. We will no longer be quiet, because we love the child, and we love the woman. And Louisiana is all about love, even when someone doesnt agree with us, Jackson added. We seek to protect them in their decisions. We seek to hold others accountable, and especially when a billion-dollar industry makes money off of that womans decision, they should be held accountable just as other doctors who treat us for other things. One young woman from Louisiana, who serves as a campus leader for Concerned Women for America, spoke to the group close to the end of the rally. Twenty-two years ago, my mom went to a Louisiana Planned Parenthood seeking to know what her options were because she was in a crisis pregnancy, she said. She had no support from anybody in my family or from my biological father. They told her that my life was not worth anything and that her only option was to abort me, that she would not be successful in life, that she could not get an education, and that I would essentially ruin her life. Twenty-two years later, I think she begs to differ. Charmaine Yoest, vice president at the Heritage Foundation, spoke about Karnamaya Mongar, a woman who died after receiving an abortion at the clinic of former abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Her death was the result not only of a botched abortion at Gosnells hands but also of the fact that his clinic did not adhere to safety standards. As a result, emergency personnel were unable to remove her quickly enough to get her to life-saving emergency care. The abortion lobby does not care enough about women to make sure they survive their abortions, said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, noting that abortion providers who sue states rather than make a good-faith effort to adhere to standard medical practices are putting profits above what is best for women. The Court likely will issue its decision in June Medical as one of its last rulings this session, sometime at the end of June. Until then, the rallies in front of the Court made clear that pro-lifers are willing to defend Louisiana on the merits of its law and on the grounds that providing for womens safety should be the bare minimum in a regime of legal abortion on demand. More from National Review Relatives of those killed in a series of disputed shootings in west Belfast in August 1971 attend a fresh inquest hearing into their deaths at Belfast Coroners Court (Rebecca Black/PA) The final oral evidence has been heard in a series of fresh inquests into the fatal shootings of 10 people in west Belfast almost 50 years ago. Eye witnesses, forensic experts, former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and more than 60 former soldiers including the former head of the army General Sir Mike Jackson gave evidence at Belfast Coroners Court over the last 16 months. The disputed shootings happened across three days at a turbulent time following the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland on August 9, 1971 which was met by large scale disorder. The victims of the shootings (Ballymurphy Massacre Committee) Ten people, including a mother of eight and a Catholic priest, were among those shot dead in a series of incidents between August 9-11, which have become known locally as the Ballymurphy Massacre. The families of those killed contend they were innocent, unarmed civilians shot by soldiers without justification. Barristers for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have argued soldiers only ever opened fire when they perceived they were under threat. The narrative became further clouded in 2018 when the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force claimed their gunmen had also taken part. Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (right) with Richard McAuley, arrives at Laganside Court in Belfast to give evidence to the Ballymurphy inquest (Liam McBurney/PA) Fresh inquests into the deaths opened at Belfast Coroners Court in November 2018 under Presiding Coroner Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan. The final scheduled witnesses gave evidence on Monday and Tuesday around the fatal shootings of Father Hugh Mullan and Frank Quinn on waste ground close to an army barracks at Vere Foster school in Springmartin on the evening of August 9. A former paratrooper, M34 who had been a member of the anti-tank platoon of 2 Para Support Company, was challenged over whether he had been in possession of a .303 sniper rifle on August 9 at the Springmartin flats. Giving evidence via videolink on Tuesday, he responded saying he had not had a .303 rifle until 1972 and referred to a photograph which shows him holding the rifle as he sat in a Land Rover during a visit by then Northern Ireland secretary William Whitelaw, which he said, was the first time he had had the weapon. M34 said he does not recall having been in Springmartin on August 9, 1971. M71, who was then a second lieutenant with 2 Queens, gave evidence in court from behind a screen. He recalled the unit taking command of observational posts at the Springmartin flats from paratroopers and seeing wooden crosses on waste ground where two people had been shot dead. He said he did not know then who had been killed. M2312, then a lieutenant with 2 Queens, also gave evidence in court from behind a screen. He recalled arriving at the Springmartin flats around midnight on August 9, seeing bullet casings on the floor and remarking someone has had quite a firefight. He recalled hearing a splat against the wall and a long burst of gunfire before a sergeant major rolling over in his sleeping bag and identifying the gunfire as being from a Bren machine gun before rolling back over. On Monday, a former paratrooper rejected a suggestion that he could have fired the shots which killed Father Mullan. M1270 recalled seeing a gunman crouching beside a metal dustbin and firing a shot at him which caused the dustbin to explode. Karen Quinlivan, counsel for the Mullan and Quinn families, said she does not accept gunmen were present. She put it to M1270 that the shots which killed Fr Mullan could have been fired either by him or one of the soldiers with him. I disagree, he responded, and suggested the priest had been killed in cross fire. Mrs Justice Keegan said at the close of Tuesdays hearing that she anticipated that would be the end of the oral evidence. Medical reports are to be received in relation to two military witnesses who have requested to be excused from giving evidence in person. Mrs Justice Keegan set a date of March 20 for final written submissions from legal representatives. There may be other little bits and pieces that I have to work out and I will obviously be reviewing as I go on but I anticipate that is really the end of the oral hearings after a long period of time, she said. There will be ends to tidy up, I will be working on this fairly intensively to try and get something to all of you in the next number of months. Karnataka Budget 2020: Will CM Yediyurappa make it mandatory for his MLA, MLCs to adopt govt schools India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Bengaluru, Mar 04: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa is all set to table his first budget for FY 2020-21 after he came to power in 2019. As a Chief Minister, this would be Yediyurappa's fifth budget. However, it can be seen that there are several changes made in the government before CM Yediyurappa table the budget in Parliament. Now, with recent reports, it is alleged that the Karnataka Chief Minister would make it mandatory to all his MLA and MLCs to adopt at least three government schools in their respective constituencies. Earlier, MR Doreswamy, the advisor to Karnataka government (Education Reforms), urged CM Yediyurappa to make this move mandatory. Karnataka Budget: CM Yediyurappa to rename populist schemes, axe farm loan waiver Other recommendation by the advisor were to celebrate public holidays in a meaningful manner, promote physical fitness and yoga among students and online delivery of question papers to the examination centres. Recently, it was alleged that Yediyurappa would axe farm loan waiver that was started by his predecessor HD Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah. It was also alleged that the chief minister is likely to announce Rs 1,500 crore scheme as incentives to the farm sector. Speaking to a media organisation, food and civil supplies minister K Gopalaiah had said that many schemes are under the scanner. However, by scrapping Anna Bhagya scheme, the Chief Minister would receive severe backlash. Instead, Yediyurappa is likely to reduce the quantity of rice from 7 kg to 5 kg a month. Letter trouble to BS Yediyurappa: Documents demand CM to step down from post NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 It is allegedly said that Yediyurappa is also having an eye on renaming "Airavatha", a scheme that is helpful to dalit youth to own a taxi and partner with app-based aggregators, as "Ambari". With all these major developments in the state budget, it can be assumed that several opposition leaders might express their displeasure in the budget that is all set to be tabled on Thursday. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 9:39 [IST] WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump told his attorney general and top GOP lawmakers he will not extend surveillance authorities that expire this month unless Congress sends him a bill that incorporates reforms, according to a senator present for the Tuesday night meeting at the White House. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has led efforts to curtail the federal governments ability to spy on Americans, said Trump made it exceedingly clear he will not accept a straight re-authorization of the surveillance provisions. Trump wants changes before he will sign the bill into law, Paul said. The president said hes not signing without something happening, Paul told reporters after the nearly 90-minute meeting with top lawmakers. He pushed back very vigorously and said, Were not doing this. Another person familiar with the meeting confirmed the account. The person was unauthorized to discuss the meeting and granted anonymity. Trump is getting more deeply involved in the dispute among Republicans over what to do about expiring surveillance powers used by the FBI as lawmakers strain amid the looming deadline to chart a path forward. At the White House, Attorney General William Barr made the case to the president that the Justice Department could make regulatory changes to satisfy the critics of the surveillance programs. Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want to simply renew the surveillance authority and work on reforms that eventually could be legislation. McConnell made his preference for that approach known at the meeting, those involved said. But Barr and McConnell were outnumbered by the others who attended the meeting that included House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Reps. Doug Collins, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan. Paul, Meadows and Jordan have advocated an overhaul of the surveillance laws and have been pressing Trump to go along. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was also present, has sided with Barrs approach, pushing for continuing the surveillance and taking the months ahead to work out the reforms. The president didnt accept that, Paul said. Barr has urged Congress to quickly renew the provisions, which are used by the Justice Department to fight terrorism. McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are supportive, but each side has lawmakers who are critical of the surveillance tools and want to make changes. Bipartisan negotiations are ongoing, but its unclear if lawmakers can agree on an overhaul before the provisions expire March 15. No resolution was reached Tuesday, those involved said. Paul indicated the president may be willing to consider a stopgap measure that continues the surveillance provisions for a another week or so if the talks are progressing. The Republicans who want an overhaul are somewhat aligned with liberal Democrats who are also unhappy with the surveillance safeguards. Both groups want to overhaul the surveillance powers to preserve civil liberties and ensure the U.S. doesnt unfairly target private citizens. McCarthy has said he is working with Democrats in the House and is optimistic reforms can be hammered out in time to vote before the provisions expire next week. Paul said McCarthy told Trump as much at the meeting. But Republicans are also angry over the FBIs investigation into Trumps presidential campaign and Russia, and they want to use the looming deadline to force their own changes. At issue are three surveillance provisions, including one that permits the FBI to obtain court orders to collect business records on subjects in national security investigations. Another, known as the roving wiretap provision, permits surveillance on subjects even after theyve changed phones. The third allows agents to monitor subjects who dont have ties to international terrorism organizations. The FBI calls the provisions vital in the fight against terrorism and stresses that none are tied to the surveillance problems identified by the Justice Department inspector general during its investigation into the Russia probe. The inspector general said in a report last year that the FBI made serious mistakes and omissions during four applications to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, including omitting information that did not support their suspicions that Page was an asset of a foreign government. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., have introduced their own legislation that would make some reforms to the law, but it has stalled because it does not go as far as many Democrats would like. Schiff said Tuesday that he is negotiating with the Democrats who want more reform and with Republicans, but its unclear if they will find agreement. Some Senate Republicans have suggested adding an extension to legislation to provide dollars to the coronavirus outbreak, but Schiff, McCarthy, Pelosi and other House lawmakers have said they want it to move separately. Schiff said that in negotiations they have incorporated a lot of the proposals in terms of privacy protections, and I think narrowed significantly the differences on any remaining issues. I hope we can get to yes, and then well have to see where the Republicans are, Schiff said. What Im focused on doing is coming up with a bill thats good policy, that has good reforms in it that preserve our ability to get the intelligence. We need to protect the country. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. YEREVAN. The trial of the criminal case of the 10 members of the Sasna Tsrer armed group has resumed today at a Yerevan court of first instance. The questioning of the witnesses of this case continues at this court hearing. Police officer Khachatur Muradyan, a witness in the case, was questioned at the previous court session. Currently, defendants Armen Bilyan and Smbat Barseghyan, who are charged with murdering police officers, are still in custody. After the revolution in Armenia in 2018, and based on the personal pledges submitted by MPs, the pretrial measure of custody that was in force for seven other members was commuted and they were released, while Sasna Tsrer member Pavel Manukyan was set free on a 1mn-dram bail. In protest of the then authorities, the Sasna Tsrer armed group took over a police patrol regiment building in Yerevan and held hostages, but later surrendered in July 2016. Three police officers, however, were killed during the two-week standoff. Criminal charges have been brought against 32 people in connection with this incident and related developments. Advertisement Panic buying across the US has continued as shoppers empty shelves amid panic over the spread of coronavirus -sending hand sanitizer sales rocketing 73 per cent. Anxious shoppers have been loading up on essential items such as bottled water, toilet paper, disinfectant, tinned food and cleaning products to prepare for the possibility of having to self-isolate. Sales of hand sanitizers in the US were up 73 per cent in the four weeks ending February 22 compared to the same period a year ago, according to market research firm Nielsen. Store managers in Atlanta saw quickly dwindling supplies of bottled water, toilet paper, disinfectant sprays and wipes as fears of coronavirus spread across the country. Most if not all pharmacies and supermarkets have been out of face masks for more than a month, with little hope of restocking anytime soon. Costco has a special section created selling rubber gloves, tissue products and bottled water amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak on Tuesday Cleaning supplies are dwindling, but visibly being restocked, at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak Peroxide supplies seen dwindling at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday. Hand sanitizer at a Walmart in the area had completely gone as residents rushed to stockpile their supplies Costco in West Palm Beach, Florida, had a special section created selling rubber gloves, tissue products and bottled water on Tuesday. But hand sanitizer at a Walmart in the area had completely gone as residents rushed to stockpile their supplies. Purell says it has seen higher demand from health care facilities in addition to stores. It is adding more shifts and having employees work overtime at the two Ohio facilities where most Purell is made, says Samantha Williams, a spokeswoman for its parent company Gojo Industries. Bath & Body Works, which sells hand sanitizers with scents like 'vanilla rose' and 'pineapple colada,' says its been able to keep bottles in stock at its 1,700 stores. An executive for Bath & Body Works owner L Brands said last week that hand sanitizers made up 5 per cent of its total business and that it's growing 'at a very high rate.' Walmart has seen higher demand for cleaning supplies and other items, similar to when shoppers start preparing for a hurricane. The world's largest retailer says it is working with suppliers to stock up again on those items, including hand sanitizer. At a Costco in Los Angeles Tuesday, hand sanitizer was gone and shoppers clogged the back of the cavernous store where workers were wheeling out pallet after pallet of bottled water. 'Don't believe the hype,' one worker shouted. A sign restricting the purchase of bottled water to five per customer. Store managers in Atlanta observed quickly dwindling supplies of bottled water, toilet paper, disinfectant sprays and wipes as fears of coronavirus spread Bottled water supplies dwindling at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday. Shoppers have been stockpiling essential items over virus outbreak fears Tissue and paper products dwindling, but also being restocked by workers, at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday On Amazon, most hand sanitizers were gone. Ones that remained were seriously overpriced, even though the company has said it is policing its site for price gougers. Two 8-ounce bottles of Purell, for example, were being offered for $119 by a third-party seller; such vendors can list their items for sale on Amazon.com directly. Hospitals are concerned about a shortage of face masks, which people have also been snatching up despite pleas from health officials not to panic buy. Patient and treatment rooms in hospitals always have a sink and soap to wash hands, says Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association's head of quality and patient safety. But there are no good alternatives to masks for nurses and doctors. Malls and sports arenas are adding more hand sanitizer stations and some workplaces have said they are stocking up, too. Hand sanitizer is seen completely gone at a Walmart in West Palm Beach. Sales of hand sanitizers in the US were up 73 per cent in the four weeks ending February 22 compared to the same period a year ago Tissue and paper products selling out at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday. At a Costco in Los Angeles, hand sanitizer was gone and shoppers clogged the back of the store where workers were wheeling out pallet after pallet of bottled water Costco has a special section created selling rubber gloves, tissue products and bottled water on Tuesday amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak Gaelen Gates says she trekked to two Walgreens, a Safeway and a CVS this week and couldn't find any hand sanitizer. The attorney, who lives in San Francisco, is not worried about the new virus, she's just trying to avoid getting a cold at a music and film festival she plans to attend later this month in Austin, Texas. If she can't find any by the time of her trip, she has a plan: wash her hands more frequently and 'try not to touch anything.' An Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and North Carolina's first confirmed case was confirmed. At the Life Care Center of Kirkland near Seattle, an outbreak was first detected on Saturday and six residents of the long-term care facility have died of the virus. HOUSTON, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Midstream, LLC ("Delta" or "the Company"), a newly formed midstream company, announced today that funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, have agreed to lead a line-of-equity investment in the Company. Delta, headquartered in Houston, TX, seeks to acquire, develop, and operate midstream assets of scale and will target opportunities across multiple basins in North America. Delta's senior management team has extensive leadership, operational and transaction experience across the midstream and upstream oil and gas sectors, with a track-record of significant value creation. Delta will be led by the former executive management team of Noble Midstream Partners, including CEO Terry Gerhart, CFO John F. Bookout IV and COO John Nicholson, each of whom will serve in similar capacities at Delta. Matt Slatnick, former VP of Corporate Development at Noble Midstream, and Nick Alfermann, a former senior member of the energy investment banking team at Baird, also join Delta as founding partners. While at Noble Midstream, the team deployed significant growth capital at attractive rates of return and expanded the company from a largely single-producer midstream system at IPO in 2016 to a multi-customer, multi-basin enterprise of scale at the time of their departure in 2019. Collectively, Delta's founding partners have in excess of 90 years of energy industry experience and $20 billion in transactional experience across the energy value chain as well as deep experience servicing energy customers and operating midstream assets. Delta will pursue a strategy of acquiring midstream assets within both private and public ownership structures across the hydrocarbon value chain including natural gas, natural gas liquids, and crude oil operations. Delta's focus is on assets of scale with integration opportunities that can be optimized through the management team's transaction, commercial, and operational expertise. Mr. Gerhart commented, "We are grateful to have the support and confidence of Warburg Pincus to assist us in evaluating a highly opportunistic landscape for energy investing. The firm's patient capital and experience through multiple energy cycles offer unique advantages as we approach the current midstream environment." David Habachy, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus said, "We are pleased to partner with Delta's best-in-class management team and to leverage their industry relationships and strong track record to acquire and develop sizeable midstream assets. This investment underscores our long-term commitment to strategically deploying significant capital within the energy sector." Kirkland & Ellis LLP was Warburg Pincus' legal counsel. Winston Strawn was Delta management's counsel. About Delta Midstream, LLC Based in Houston, Texas, Delta Midstream, LLC seeks to acquire, develop, and operate midstream assets of scale across multiple basins in North America. Delta's founding management team has decades of leadership, operational and transaction experience across the midstream sector along with a track record of value creation. Delta is led by Terry Gerhart, along with founding executives John F. Bookout IV, John Nicholson, Matt Slatnick and Nick Alfermann. Delta was formed with Warburg Pincus. For more information please visit www.deltamidstream.com. About Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $58 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm's active portfolio of more than 190 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds, which have invested more than $81 billion in over 890 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm has invested in energy companies for over thirty years, investing or committing over $15 billion across more than 90 energy investments around the world involved in oil and gas exploration and production, midstream, downstream, power generation, oilfield technology and related-services, mining and alternative energy development. Notable investments include Antero Resources, Bill Barrett Corporation, Broad Oak Energy, Encore Acquisition Company, Kosmos Energy, Laredo Petroleum, MEG Energy, Newfield Exploration, Spinnaker Exploration and Targa Resources. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com. Media Contacts: For Delta John F. Bookout IV 281-869-3669 For Warburg Pincus Kerrie Cohen 212-878-9207 SOURCE Delta Midstream LLC Related Links http://www.deltamidstream.com Chief Prosecutor's Office has no questions about printing house Colorpack - GeorgianJournal Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Wed, March 4, 2020 19:07 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684f899 2 SE Asia #Malaysia,#protest,Mahathir-Mohamad,daughter,questioned,police Free Malaysian police questioned ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad's daughter and 18 other activists Wednesday over several small, peaceful protests triggered by the elderly leader losing power and a corruption-tainted party's return. The reformist "Pact of Hope" alliance, which took power in a historic victory two years ago, collapsed last week and 94-year-old prime minister Mahathir resigned. He then sought to return as premier but unexpectedly lost out to Muhyiddin Yassin, who is backed by the scandal-mired United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had been ousted in 2018. Several peaceful protests, with crowds of no more than a few hundred people, took place in Kuala Lumpur following the weekend decision to appoint Muhyiddin prime minister. But under Malaysian law, it is illegal to hold a protest without first getting police permission, and on Wednesday a group of activists who took part were called in for questioning. Among them was Mahathir's daughter, Marina, who participated in a small rally on Sunday. "This reminds us of more than two years ago, when so many of us had to undergo this," the 62-year-old, who is a leading women's campaigner activist, told AFP. "The new government has only been in two days and all this is happening." Activist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, who was questioned for taking part in two protests, added: "We experienced this before and now we're seeing the same thing unfolding." The long-ruling UMNO-led regime ejected from power in 2018 was frequently accused of using heavy-handed tactics to curb free speech and the right to protest. Mahathir's alliance, which included leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim, sought to reform draconian laws, but made only small steps during its two years in office. His allies have challenged Muhyiddin's legitimacy, saying he did not win an election and does not have majority support from MPs, which is necessary to become premier. Mahathir wants to bring a vote of no-confidence in Muhyiddin's leadership when parliament sits again. But his plan suffered a blow Wednesday when the legislature's return was delayed from March 9 to May 18. Tansey was charged in a 2016 road rage incident in the suburbs. On Dec. 12, Tansey followed another driver to a residential area and got into a fight once they both exited their vehicles, according to Arlington Heights police. Tansey pulled out a handgun and tried to pistol-whip the man but missed, causing both to fall to the ground. The other driver disarmed Tansey, who was charged with misdemeanor battery and unlawful use of a weapon. Super Tuesday is the day when the most states hold contests to pick a presidential nominee, the most voters can go to the polls, and the most delegates are allotted to candidates. (For its history, go here.) Fourteen states and American Samoa held nominating contests yesterday, awarding a total of 1,357 delegates. These constitute 34 percent of the nearly four thousand delegates available through the process. How Joe Biden won the day Heres what we know so far. Joe Biden won nine states last night, seizing control of the Democratic presidential process. He scored a dramatic upset victory in Texas and surprising wins in Minnesota and Massachusetts and now leads the race with 453 delegates. Bernie Sanders won California, Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont. He is in second with 382 delegates. Elizabeth Warren did not win a single state and now has fifty delegates. Michael Bloomberg managed to win American Samoa and now has forty-four delegates. Maine remains too close to call this morning. Before yesterday, less than 5 percent of the delegates had been allotted. After Super Tuesday, 38 percent have been determined. Across Europe, this wall will fall Whatever your beliefs regarding President Trump or the Democrats seeking to replace him, its worth remembering that yesterdays primaries gave nearly 130 million people a chance to participate in our democracy. They would constitute the tenth-largest nation on earth. In Give Me Liberty: A History of Americas Exceptional Idea, Richard Brookhiser explores the history of liberty in the US through many of our most significant historic documents. Here are some of the lesser known: The minutes of the Jamestown General Assembly in 1619 established the principle of local control or home rule in the New World. The Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 mandated that local government allow everyone to have his own belief, helping to establish the principle of religious liberty. The Constitution of the New York Manumission Society, founded in 1785, promoted the freeing of slaves and the abolition of slavery in New York. The Monroe Doctrine made America an advocate for freedom in the world. The Seneca Falls Declaration in 1848 promoted rights for women, including the right to vote. The New Colossus, a poem written to raise money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, welcomed to our country huddled masses yearning to be free. And Ronald Reagans Tear Down This Wall speech in 1987 extended liberty to Eastern Europe. He concluded by proclaiming, Across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom. The freedom for which President Reagan appealed was a freedom 130 million Americans had the right to exercise yesterday. Demonstrators cancel Klobuchars rally Such freedom is changing in our culture, however. In the Old World, the majority submitted to the minority, specifically to the king and the ruling monarchical class. In the New World, as the documents above show, we sought to replace the rule of kings with the rule of the people. Today, however, we are witnessing the rise of a new ruling class: the minority who insist on their rights so loudly that they are intimidating the majority. When Sen. Amy Klobuchar returned to her home state of Minnesota Sunday night to speak, a group of protesters entered the room, took over the stage, and refused to leave. Their demonstration prompted her campaign to cancel the event. The LGBTQ population of America is 4.5 percent today. However, the advocacy group GLAAD successfully persuaded networks to make LGBTQ characters on prime-time broadcast TV exceed 10 percent of the total. They now want 20 percent representation by 2025. According to the Knight Foundation, college students consider (by percentage) these activities to be appropriate: protesting speakers (92 percent), disrupting campus operations (86 percent), and shouting down speakers or otherwise preventing them from speaking (51 percent). Canceling someone is the increasingly popular response to political incorrectness by attempting to end the persons career through boycotts or calls for their firing. There was a day when the Moral Majority made news. Now its the Vocal Minority. How to prove our love and faith Super Tuesday was an expression of participatory democracy in which every vote counts as much as every other vote. Such egalitarian inclusion for those who defend biblical morality is declining rapidly. This is nothing new for followers of Jesus. We are the most persecuted religion in the world. In fact, 80 percent of persecuted believers around the world are Christians. From the trial of Peter and the apostles (Acts 4:3) to the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58), the great persecution against the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), and the beheading of James (Acts 12:2), Jesus followers have always faced the same opposition as did our Lord (John 15:18). Our response, like that of Jesus, must be to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44; Luke 23:34) and love those who do not love us (Luke 6:27). In fact, we prove our love by the degree to which it is not returned and our faith by its cost. How will you demonstrate your love and faith today? Image courtesy: Alex Edelman Stringer For more from the Denison Forum, please visit www.denisonforum.org. The Daily Article Podcast is Here! Click to Listen Greggs said its sales were battered by the February storms as retailers brace for a slump in demand caused by coronavirus. The on-the-go bakery said growth slowed as people stayed home in the recent wet weather. It also suffered a flood at its bakery outside Cardiff, putting production out for around four weeks. Stale sales: Greggs said said growth slowed as people stayed home in the recent wet weather The chain, which has 2,050 shops, had a record-breaking 2019 with pre-tax profits up 31 per cent to 108.3million, on revenue of almost 1.2billion, up 13.5 per cent. It is the sixth consecutive year of growth. Shares rose 3.6 per cent, or 76p, to 2166p, and the dividend rose 25.8 per cent to 44.9p. Greggs said 10 per cent growth in January, fell to 'low-single digit' growth in February. Its shops were battered by recent storms and now face shoppers deserting high streets due to the coronavirus. Chief executive Roger Whiteside said that Greggs would continue to open 100 stores per year, and had capacity to supply 2,500. 'There are 20,000 food-on-the-go locations in the UK. For Greggs, we just don't know the number,' he said. Bosses are looking at openings in train stations and airports, click-and-collect, a delivery service from Just Eat, and will start serving in five Asda stores. International expansion is also seen as an option, but not before 2025. How many women wear the burqa in Sri Lanka? May be less than 100, with a bit of generosity may be less than 200. Therefore, is it the niqab that is being targeted or the burqa? by Mass L. Usuf Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all. (Maximilien Robespierre). EXIT ISLAM, ENTER FREEDOM. This should be the debate among those with grey matter. Demarcate the areas distinctly and develop the discussion intellectually. Forget Islam but, remember human rights. This will not be possible if the mind is preoccupied with a hidden motive and is irrationally shackled. Then, unknowingly, comprehension takes leave and confusion is substituted. The normal is thrown out and the new normal sets in. Islamophobic? Anti-Muslim? There are many who would happily say, hip, hip, hooray. Again, not out of reason but out of blind prejudice or sometimes misunderstanding. Burqa, Niqab and Hejab The term burqa is sometimes conflated with niqab. In more precise usage, niqab is a face veil that leaves the eyes uncovered, while a burqa covers the entire body from the top of the head to the ground, with only a mesh screen allowing the wearer to see in front of her. The burqa is also not to be confused with the hijab, a garment which covers the hair, neck and all or part of the chest, but not the face. (Wikipedia). How many women wear the burqa in Sri Lanka? May be less than 100, with a bit of generosity may be less than 200. Therefore, is it the niqab that is being targeted or the burqa? An assumption would indicate that it is the niqab that is the subject of a proposed ban however, for sake of consistency, this column will continue to use the term, burqa alternatively with niqab. Firstly, clear the mind of the misperception that all the women wearing the Burqa (niqab) are doing so because they are forced to do it. Secondly, throw Islam out of the equation and independently think on the following lines. Would a ban on Burqa (niqab) be encroaching on individual freedom? Would a ban on Burqa be oppressing womens rights? Will not a ban take away the choice of a woman to decide which dress she prefers to wear? To whom does the body of a woman belong to? Is it to herself or to some other? If her body belongs to herself, can any other person decide on which part of her body she needs to cover or expose? If the Burqa is considered a threat to national security, has there been an authoritative research done to prove this claim, substantiated with irrefutable evidence? Where are the womens rights activists, fighting for gender equality? It is high time that a complaint is lodged with the Office of Missing Persons as all of them have apparently gone missing! Dignified Nation Of People Sri Lanka is one of the few countries which could boast and, truthfully so, about the existence of the four major world religions within her borders. Not only having them but, also, devoutly being practised by the followers of each of them. We are a tolerant, respectful and dignified nation of people. We are also a country which hail democratic values and have paved the way to entrench these principles in our constitution. We valued self-determination and sovereignty, until the recent decades. Each of the communities of religion lived side by side adhering to the principals of metta, karuna, muditha and upeksha that is variantly taught in all the religions Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Are these characteristics and many more not mentioned, gradually slipping away from our collective consciousness as a people? Are we going to allow the metta, in which we were nurtured, to be replaced with intense covetousness, intolerance, the desire of clinging to satisfy our lusts and trespass on the rights of each other or, any other? What values will remain to impart to our children if we embrace falsehood and nonchalantly infringe on the rights of others? Unconvincing Reasoning For our people who are struggling to justify their intentions among other things, they say that some of the European countries have banned the burqa. How shameful can such a statement be? France makes a hullabaloo about its secularism and liberal democracy. Maximilien Robespierre of France fathered the idea of freedom, equality and fraternity. Fraternity to mean brotherhood and that all people are brothers and sisters. Was not the action of France in direct conflict with the principles of a liberal state and secularism? Does it legitimise liberal values to prescribe to the citizens what to wear and what not to wear? Can the legislation specifically targeting only a few women be classified as observing the Robespierre idea of Equality? The Washington Post reported, France's Interior Ministry released a study that said niqabs were worn by fewer than 2,000 women in the country hardly a significant portion of the country's Muslim population, now estimated at 7.5 million and that very few, perhaps none, wore the burqa. (August 12, 2016). This clearly indicates that the motive to affect such a ban lies elsewhere and not on what had been touted publicly by the French media. Sexy Cleavage, Backless, Sleeveless Here in Sri Lanka, the situation is not any different and the motive is crystal clear. Out of the around two million Muslims in Sri Lanka, there may be less than one thousand women wearing the Burqa (meaning the niqab). So, what is this big deal of banning the burqa as if the country is on fire. Is there a moral case for our counterparts in Sri Lanka to propose to ban the burqa (niqab) just because a hypocritical France did it? Why should our folks in Sri Lanka blindly follow what others do? Are they spineless to act independently or are they still possessed by the mentality of colonised subjects or, is it that they do not have a plausible reason and then looking for stereotypes? For a change, would the following adverts in an online dress selling site satiate the lust of those itching to call for the ban: Reveal your inner sexy this season when you wear '..'. The keyhole cut outs along the bust, in addition to the bustier top, accentuate the bust and give you shape. Hot Selling, Sexy, Women Cleavage, Off the Shoulder, Solid Pink, Bodycon Mini Dress (by the way, a bodycon dress is a close-fitting garment). Women, Sexy Cleavage, Backless, Sleeveless, Solid Black Office Bodycon, Mini Peplum Dress. Sexual Crimes And Alcoholism Should not the priority of this country be for example: (1) To address the phenomenal increase in rape cases. According to the Performance Report of Sri Lanka Police the total number of rape cases of women reported in the last three years (2016-2018) stood at 5,558. Though not directly corelated the number of women wearing the Niqab are much, much lesser than the figure for sexual crimes. (2) Why not look into the growing and uncontrollable issue of alcoholism. According to the World Health Organisation the prevalence of alcohol use disorders and alcohol dependence in 2016 was 5.9% and 4.9 % respectively. These numbers are proportionately very, very high compared to the women wearing the Niqab which is like 0.004%. In real terms, 1.3 million and 1.1 million people with alcohol related disorders compared to less than one thousand women wearing the niqab. What about the hundreds of thousands of our innocent women who are silently suffering at the hands of alcohol dependency disorder husbands? In this context, is the Niqab the priority for our society? (3) Why not deal with the serious issue of the lack of expeditiousness and efficiency in our Criminal Justice system. It takes approximately 17 years to finish a serious crime case. From the date of commission of a crime prosecutable at the High Court up to the conclusion of prosecution it takes an average 10.2 years. Further, it generally consumes seven years (07) for the completion of the two appeals in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court subsequent to hearing of a case at the High Court. (See: Parliament Sectoral Oversight committee on Legal Affairs (anti-corruption) & Media). (4) What about the proliferation of suspect brothels in the guise of massage parlours, the endemic vices of bribery and corruption etc. These are the real issues which are destroying our people and seriously eating into the very moral fabric of our society. With the General Election around the corner, the time is right for right minded people to rethink the type of people we send to the Parliament who have no sense of priority. The End. On Feb. 11, before a vote had been counted in that days New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, former Vice President and former front-runner Joe Biden was heading south, metaphorically and geographically. Carrying a lifeless campaign gasping for inspiration, he turned to the only people who could sustain him black voters of South Carolina, who breathed fresh political life into him. Bidens overwhelming victory in the Palmetto State generated a wave of momentum on which he rode into Super Tuesday, winning Texas and other states in one of the more improbable four-day political comebacks in recent history. Wednesday morning, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, followed other former contenders for the nomination in dropping out and endorsing Biden. It is clearly Bidens race to win or lose. Bidens run of victories and endorsements is a consolidation of support and the belief by Democratic voters that he, and not Sen. Bernie Sanders, would be the stronger candidate in November against President Donald Trump. Sanders supporters would disagree, of course. He has fared well with Latino voters and won in California, Utah and Colorado, but Tuesday night belonged to Biden and the moderates. However the race goes, the question now is whether Democratic voters will unify. While the revival of Biden was the lead narrative coming out of Super Tuesday, other races had interesting outcomes statewide and in Bexar County. In the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, a 12-candidate race that never engaged the electorate, combat veteran MJ Hegar, who was endorsed by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, appears to be in a runoff against state Sen. Royce West. This would pit a lawmaker with 27 years of experience against an engaging and rising star with an incredible story and a strong grasp of the issues. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar survived a strong challenge from attorney Jessica Cisneros, a reminder that tweets and social media likes are not enough in politics. And former state Sen. Wendy Davis will face U.S. Rep. Chip Roy in a race destined to flood homes in District 21 with television ads. In Bexar County, it was a great night if your name was Rickhoff. Former District Clerk Gerry Rickhoff who is running for sheriff, but has no law enforcement experience! had an easy time defeating the superbly prepared, veteran law enforcement officer Willie Ng. In the fall, hell face incumbent Sheriff Javier Salazar, who handily won a crowded Democratic primary. Rickhoffs older brother, Tom Rickhoff, a former probate judge, is in a runoff with public relations consultant Trish DeBerry for the Republican nomination for the Precinct 3 seat on Commissioners Court, which has long been held by Republican Kevin Wolff. DeBerry would be wise to address the question of her PR contracts with government agencies. All it takes is the appearance of a conflict of interest to lose the publics trust. Also headed for a runoff is Democratic Precinct 1 Commissioner Sergio Chico Rodriguez, who was first elected in 2004. His challenger, Rebeca Clay-Flores, a city employee with degrees from Princeton and Harvard, has run a strong campaign and given Rodriguez his first glimpse of his political mortality. Another first-time candidate, Rodriguezs niece, Xochil Pena Rodriguez, forced another veteran officeholder, state Rep. Roland Gutierrez, into a runoff. Both are running for the Democratic nomination for Texas Senate District 19, which had been a Democratic seat for 139 years before Republican Pete Flores won in 2018. On the judicial side, controversial Juvenile District Court Judge Arcelia Trevino, who refused to explain her frequent absences, canceled hearings and other misdeeds, finally had to answer to Democratic voters, who tossed her out in favor of veteran prosecutor Jacqueline Jackie Valdes. As always, there were some head-scratchers. But the political equivalent of burning dandruff was conspiracy theorist Robert Morrow gaining the most votes in the GOP primary for State Board of Education. People, he wants to insert conspiracy theories about John F. Kennedys assassination in Texas textbooks! We can only pray for the success of Lani Popp in the runoff. Business leaders are pleading for the Chancellor to shake up Britain's broken business rates regime. In a letter to Rishi Sunak as he prepares for his first Budget next week, organisations have demanded urgent reform. With the struggling High Street facing a fresh onslaught from the coronavirus, groups including the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the Federation of Small Business, the British Retail Consortium and the British Beer and Pub Association, want business tax reduced. Rates overhaul: In a letter to Rishi Sunak as he prepares for his first Budget next week, business organisations have demanded urgent reform Adam Marshall, director-general of the BCC, said: 'The system is one of many upfront costs holding back the growth potential of companies across the UK. 'It's time for the Government to deliver on its manifesto pledge to review and reduce business rates so firms can invest in their people and prospects instead.' James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, said: 'The system is no longer fit for purpose.' Businesses say the system unfairly taxes those with lots of property such as shops, pubs and cafes while giving online sellers a competitive advantage. High rates have been cited in dozens of cases of businesses going under, and critics say the tax risks turning thousands of UK main shopping streets into ghost towns. The call comes as high streets brace for a slump if shoppers stay home to avoid catching the coronavirus. The rates raise 30billion for the Treasury each year, and businesses say the smallest firms should not pay the tax at all, to support start-ups. Creighton University was recently saluted for its work to connect minority students with opportunities in STEM fields. Creightons commendable efforts are in line with those of the AIM Institute, an Omaha organization doing pioneering work in connecting young people from underrepresented backgrounds with software coding and other tech-related opportunities. Omaha cannot reach its full potential unless it maximizes the growth possibilities for all its citizens. And tech fields provide some of the most promising employment options in our area. Efforts such as those by Creighton and AIM, among other similar initiatives in our area, have great value for minority residents and for our community as a whole. Members of minority groups currently make up a fifth of Nebraskas population, The World-Heralds Henry Cordes reports. But the trend line is moving steadily upward, and by 2040 minorities are projected to account for a third of the states population. Nebraska should work to see that opportunities are extended broadly across the states population. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 04:41:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China's UN envoy on Tuesday called for a "good atmosphere" to be created for political dialogue and national reconciliation in Iraq. Speaking at a Security Council meeting on the unrest-torn country, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said as the internal political process in Iraq is at an important juncture, the international community should support Iraq in independently managing its own internal affairs and responding to the challenges by playing a constructive role and creating an enabling environment. "We are firmly against interference in Iraq's internal affairs," he said, adding any military action on Iraq's territory must be subject to the consent of the government of the country to avoid Iraq becoming a victim of geo-politics. He said engaging in peaceful and meaningful dialogue toward inclusive reconciliation and harmonious coexistence is in the fundamental interest of the Iraqi people. "We welcome further improvement of relations between the central government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government as well as their continuation of communication and dialogue on oil revenue sharing and security arrangements," he said. Moreover, Zhang urged the international community to consolidate the achievements in counterterrorism and safeguarding national security, noting Iraq has made great sacrifice for the international cause of counterterrorism. He warned that the threat of remnant forces of terrorism still remains and the disposal of foreign terrorist fighters and their families is in urgent need of support from more parties. In this regard, he called on international community to fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and jurisdiction, and support Iraq in bringing terrorists to justice and in preventing the return and spread of terrorist forces and activities. He said the world should support the UN investigative team to promote accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State. In addition, Zhang stressed the need to promote Iraq's economic recovery and accelerate its reconstruction, noting development is the fundamental guarantee for peace. In this light, he pointed out that speeding up economic reconstruction, augmenting public service capacity, improving people's livelihood and responding to people's aspirations are important tasks for Iraq. He urged the international community to support Iraq in exploring a development path that fits its own national conditions, and to fulfill its commitment to continuing support and assistance to Iraq. The Chinese envoy said China supports any effort that is conducive to maintaining stability and development in Iraq. "We will continue to work under the Belt and Road framework by actively participating in the reconstruction of Iraq's energy and infrastructure sectors among others." He said China will also continue to provide humanitarian and economic aid to Iraq and help the Iraqi people cope with various difficulties and challenges. Donald Trump has used a racist slur to mock Elizabeth Warren after she looked set to lose her home state of Massachusetts. As results came in on the evening of Super Tuesday, with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders appearing to be set to collect the lion share of delegates, the president found time to mock Ms Warren, after she was projected to fail to even win her home state. Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts, Mr Trump wrote. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer. The president has frequently been criticised for using the word to refer to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, mocking her over her claim to have native ancestry. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images The National Congress of American Indians has previously condemned Mr Trump for using the term. Last month used the while addressing guests at the White House marking American American History Month. Reports said Trump and talked about a rally Ms Warren held where the crowd was smaller than at one he held. Super Tuesday: Bernie Sanders speaks about winning the democratic nomination He referred to the 70-year-old Democratic hopeful as Pocahontas, the report said. On Tuesday evening, Mr Biden looked set to win Massachusetts, according to projections, with Mr Sanders coming second. Earlier Mr Trump had fired an insult directly at Mr Bloomberg. The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg. His political consultants took him for a ride, he wrote. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike! By Trend Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu sent a letter to Russian prosecutor general in connection with a biased article which openly distorts the events of January 20, 1990, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani embassy in Russia. As is known, on February 26, 2020, an article by Vladimir Khomyakov entitled Russians, do not leave, we need slaves and prostitutes was published on the website of the Russian Tsargrad TV information and analytical channel, the message said. In connection with a biased article which openly distorts the events of January 20, 1990, the letters signed by Polad Bulbuloglu were sent to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov and Head of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications Alexander Zharov, the message said. The Azerbaijani sides protest and position on this issue were expressed in the letters, the message said. "According to the letters, the issue related to the "Bloody January" events is very sensitive for the Azerbaijani people, the message said. The political and legal assessment was given to these tragic events upon the order of the Azerbaijani parliament on March 29, 1994. January 20 was declared a nationwide day of sorrow. During the high-level state visits, foreign guests, including the president of the Russian Federation, the foreign minister, as well as other Russian officials, visit the Alley of Martyrs, lay wreaths there and revere the memory of martyrs, the embassy said. Such article is aimed at sowing enmity and hatred between the Azerbaijani and Russian peoples." Taking into account the abovementioned statement, the ambassador requested to check whether the requirements of Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code and Article 10.6 of the Federal Law On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information dated July 27, 2006 are violated or not, the embassy said. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz While continuing to fight the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic, Chinas courier sector had gone back to 80 percent of its normal delivery capacity by Feb. 28, according to the State Post Bureau. (Photo/Xinhua) The bureau said 2.5 million deliverymen have resumed work, accounting for 90.2 percent of the total. Data from the bureau showed that 162 million parcels have been collected by deliverymen, while 160 million were delivered, accounting for 81 percent and 80 percent of the sectors normal capacity, respectively. The sector has gone beyond its target of recovering over 60 percent of its normal delivery capacity by the end of February. The sectors quick recovery can be attributed to the positive trend in controlling the epidemic and Chinas measures to get people and businesses back to work, said Yang Daqing, a researcher with the China Society of Logistics. Yang added that platforms such as Chinas e-commerce giant Alibaba have also rolled out positive measures lowering costs for courier firms. Alibabas e-commerce platform Tmall and logistics arm Cainiao Network have set up a 1 billion yuan fund to subsidize supply chains and logistics. Meanwhile, non-contact delivery is being encouraged to reduce the risk of infection, with deliverymen putting orders in self-collection containers or pre-determined locations. Chinese courier giant SF Holding posted a 10.6 percent year-on-year increase in revenues, totalling 11.2 billion yuan, from its express delivery business in January. Bhopal: The Congress will issue a whip to its 114 MLAs for the March 26 polls to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, a minister said on Wednesday, hours after the ruling party accused the BJP of taking some of its MLAs to Haryana in a bid to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. The BJP has denied the charge, saying it is not trying to topple the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh. "We are going to issue a whip and if any of our lawmaker violates it, his membership will be scrapped in just one hour," state Legislative Affairs Minister Govind Singh told reporters here. Cross-voting will not be tolerated at any cost, the minister said. Usually, political parties do not issue whip for the Rajya Sabha elections. Congress veteran and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, who losing the last year's Lok Sabha poll from Bhopal to BJP's Pragya Thakur, may seek re-election to the Upper House of Parliament, party sources said. The Congress may field former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also in the Rajya Sabha polls, they said. Scindia lost the Lok Sabha election last year from Guna seat in the state. The BJP is likely to renominate former Union minister and Dalit leader Satyanarayan Jatiya for the Rajya Sabha polls, sources in the saffron party said. The three Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in the state are currently held by Digvijaya Singh (Congress), Satyanarayan Jatiya and Prabhat Jha (both from BJP). The BJP is set to make all efforts to retain the two seats, while the Congress wants to take its tally to two from one, as it has more legislators this time around. In the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP- 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. Members of a state Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. Famous US senators Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin have sent a message to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev calling for an end to the political persecution of journalists in the country, cardin.senate.gov reported. They expressed concern about the serious and ongoing violations of the press and freedoms in Azerbaijan. The senators refer to the case of the journalist Khadija Ismayilova, convicted in 2014 on false charges and conditionally released in 2016. It is our hope that your government will work to establish an open space for the media in keeping with Azerbaijans international commitments as a member of the Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, wrote the senators. We also urge you to immediately lift all restrictions on Ms. Ismayilova. Unfortunately, persistent concerns regarding judicial independence and respect for fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan damage international confidence in the integrity of Azerbaijans institutions and the security of investments in the country. We are deeply troubled by serious and ongoing violations of press freedom in Azerbaijan, in particular, the rights of Azerbaijani investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, the statement said. Over five years since Khadijas arrest and the closure of RFE/RLs Baku bureau, journalists continue to be silenced and nearly all media have been blocked. There are no independent print or television media remaining in the country, the letter added. Even Azerbaijani journalists who cover Azerbaijan from outside the country are subject to harassment related to their work. We urge you to cease such harassment and allow independent media to once again operate inside Azerbaijan, they said. Face recognition system suit proceedings quashed RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 17:17 04/03/2020 MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow dismissed a case over illegality of the face recognition system use on Wednesday, RAPSI was told in the courts press office. A lawsuit against the system use was filed by oppositionist Vladimir Milov and activist Alena Popova. The plaintiffs claimed that collection of such information about participants of an authorized rally could result in the violation of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The Interior Ministrys Main Directorate for Moscow and Moscows Information Technology Department were named as defendants in the suit. In November 2019, Moscows Savelovsky District Court dismissed a similar lawsuit lodged by Popova. It appears as though the Coronavirus scare in India is spreading ever so rapidly, as a cautious politician was seen sporting a mask inside Parliament on March 4. Navneet Rana, an Independent Member of Parliament, who represents Maharashtras Amravati constituency, pointed out how even Parliament is a public space that remains crowded, making screening a necessity. The actor-turned-politician even urged the authorities to provide masks to all MPs at subsidised rates. Speaking to the media, she said: Parliament is a crowded area and one must wear a mask in such places as parliamentarians meet many people through the day. To exemplify, she noted how just one infected person who had toured Italy has raised fears of the disease spreading across the National Capital Region. The Amravati MP further pointed out the need to buy the right mask, claiming it took her about half an hour to purchase the right one. According to an NDTV report, Rana also mentioned that the masks are expensive, and would be unaffordable for many. Therefore, the government must sell it at subsidised rates, she added. Notably, she is the first MP to highlight that theres a crowd even inside Parliament, which necessitates wearing masks within its premises. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Notably, the move comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that they would not take part in any Holi celebration given the sudden surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. A day after advising people not to panic, the prime minister tweeted today that he wont be a part of the Holi Milan programme because health experts have warned against taking part in mass gatherings to curb the spread of COVID-19. So far, 28 confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported in India, with 15 of them being Italian tourists. Amid rising concerns over the spread of the deadly pathogen, the Centre announced that all passengers arriving in India via international flights would be screened at the airports. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, U.S., March 3, 2020 Bernie Sanders' campaign will ratchet up its criticism of Joe Biden and highlight the senator's record in three new TV ads rolled out Wednesday and set to run in upcoming primary states. It unveiled the ads a day after Super Tuesday, when the former vice president notched a few surprising presidential primary wins on his way to an overall pledged delegate lead over Sanders, according to NBC News. The fourteen states that voted Tuesday will allocate more than a third of all pledged delegates. With the ads, Sanders looks to gain traction over the candidate who has emerged as his chief rival in the 2020 Democratic primary as the party coalesces around Biden. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts both performed poorly Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, Bloomberg dropped out and endorsed the former vice president. The new ads will run in nine states that hold a pivotal slate of nominating contests on March 10 and March 17: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Washington. The campaign did not say how much it would spend on the buy. One of the messages whacks Biden over Social Security. Sanders has drilled into him on the issue in a possible attempt to blunt Biden's strength among older voters. It features audio the Sanders campaign highlighted earlier this year. In the 1995 comments, Biden suggests the U.S. should "freeze" federal spending, including Social Security, Medicare Medicaid and veterans' benefits. He continues: "And I not only tried it once. I tried it twice. I tried it a third time. And I tried it a fourth time." Biden has argued the Sanders campaign took his comments out of context. Earlier this year, he told MSNBC he would not cut Social Security benefits if he wins the White House, adding, "we weren't talking about cutting them either then." Another new ad unveiled Wednesday features video of Sanders and President Barack Obama laughing together as they walk into the White House. It plays audio of Obama's 2016 comments saying Sanders has "great authenticity" and passion and "got bills done" on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. Biden, who served eight years under the former president, has tied himself closely to Obama and repeatedly touted the achievements of the "Obama-Biden administration" during the primary. A third Sanders TV ad set to run in the states voting later this month features a union autoworker highlighting Sanders' opposition to free trade deals. The senator argues agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership have clobbered American workers by pushing companies to move jobs overseas. The ad points to Biden's support for NAFTA as a senator a vote Sanders has repeatedly criticized during the primary. The message could help Sanders in manufacturing states such as Michigan and Ohio. He surprisingly triumphed over Hillary Clinton in Michigan during the 2016 Democratic primary. When the Sanders campaign announced a mammoth $46.5 million haul for the month of February alone, it said it planned to run TV ads in the nine states. Biden, at a cash disadvantage against Sanders for the primary so far, has started to see more donor interest after his Super Tuesday success. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Most coastal cities and ports face a double threat from storm surge and river flooding. Infrastructure development along waterways and sea-level rise increase vulnerability for these communities. In a recent publication, The Propagation of Fluvial Flood Waves Through a Backwater-Estuarine Environment, historical data is examined to determine how to reduce the risk of coastal river flooding to communities. Usually, in rivers, large flooding events move from upstream to downstream faster than small events. This study identified a different model by tracking flooding events as moved from the river to the coastal ocean. The river delta, which is common in many natural systems, turned out to be very important for understanding when and where flooding is likely to happen. Using years of observations (in some cases 9 decades of data), this study found that the Tombigbee-Alabama Delta (also known as the Mobile-Tensaw Delta) delays and reduces flooding for cities along the delta and bay. Amazingly, this effect is largely caused by the vegetation that naturally occurs in the delta. Most of the delta is a densely packed tupelo-bald cypress swamp, supporting the most biodiverse location in temperate North America. For large events, the delta swamp acts like a sponge quickly absorbing the initial floodwaters, and then slowly releases the water back to the main rivers. This gives communities more time to prepare and reduces the risk of river flooding overlapping with a storm surge during a hurricane. The slower release of water from the delta also slows the impact on the bay, delaying the initial flushing while also keeping the salinity low for a longer period of time. In contrast, smaller flooding events moved downstream faster. This occurs because smaller flooding events remain in the confines of the river channel, where they are not impacted by the swamps of the delta. These findings indicate the intensity of coastal flooding can be decreased and provide more time to prepare by allowing inland regions of rivers to flood and/or by managing vegetation type, both of which reduce the downstream height of water. ### The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw (Brian Lawless/PA) Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. Condition of use; Mandatory credit MUST include JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. The Duke of Cambridge waves following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of his three day visit to the Republic of Ireland.: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duchess of Cambridge smiles following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of her three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. photo:Aaron Chown/PA Wire Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visit the Teagasc research farm in County Meath, Ireland March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble The Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, with Eddie OORiordan (left) director of the farm and beff scientist Paul Crosson (right) as part of his three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visit the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, County Meath, Ireland March 4, 2020. Aaron Chown/Pool via REUTERS The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visit the Teagasc research farm in County Meath, Ireland March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy handout photo of the Duchess of Cambridge after visiting a Londis supermarket in Prosperous, Co Kildare, during her three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy handout photo of the Duchess of Cambridge visiting a Londis supermarket in Prosperous, Co Kildare, during her three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Extern at Savannah House, in County Meath,; Stephen Lock/PA Wire Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy handout photo of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visiting a Londis supermarket in Prosperous, Co Kildare, during their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday March 4, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo;: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo;: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo;: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo; Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo; Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo; Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo; Brian Lawless/PA Wire In Pictures: Day two of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to Ireland Close THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoyed a romantic clifftop walk in Howth, Co Dublin this evening as they spent some quality time together in Ireland. Walking hand in hand and with a stunning coastline as a backdrop, William and Kate strolled along a path taking in the scenery. The couple could have been any other husband and wife admiring the views of Howth Cliff, the popular tourist spot north of Dublin that attracts thousands of visitors every year. In brilliant winter sunshine they followed the trail to the summit which gave them panoramic views and hugged as they posed for a picture. Waiting at the top was Environment Minister Richard Bruton who greeted them after they completed the steep climb. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cliff walk during a visit to Howth Head in Co. Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire After meeting the couple, Mr Bruton said: They remarked on how you couldnt come to Ireland and not see the coastline so they got their wish. And they saw it in a benign light, normally there is a wind howling its really beautiful today, they couldnt be luckier. Before their sunset walk, they helped prepare the dish of the day for a group of youngsters in Ireland after popping to a shop to teach the children about budgeting. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo;: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Howth Head near Dublin, as part of their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo;: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire William and Kate joined 13-year-olds Simon and Molly to visit a village shop to buy ingredients for vegetable soup. Their trip to the Londis store in Prosperous, Co Kildare, was supposed to be a secret but by the time they got there around 200 villagers had gathered outside to see them. William stopped to take a selfie with Jennifer Malone, who gave him a bunch of daffodils for his wife. Before they set off, the Cambridges inspected the fridge with the youngsters and checked the ingredients needed for the soup all designed to teach the children life skills. William said: Theres only one leek. Do we have to stick to the menu? He then told the others in the kitchen: Were going to shop for you. Well be back in a minute. Well bring back all the wrong ingredients. Read More The couple, who had 20 to spend, returned 15 minutes later with a bag of provisions including brown bread, butter and leeks. Later, the couple played a game of table tennis with other young people who are supported by Savannah House, a respite centre run by social justice charity Extern. The duchess quipped about their cocker spaniel, Lupo: We try to do this at home but our dog keeps catching the ping pong balls. Each year around 300 children from across Ireland stay at the centre in Clane, County Kildare, for a maximum of three nights at a time to have a break from problems at home or while they are in care. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Extern at Savannah House, in County Meath,; Stephen Lock/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to Extern at Savannah House, in County Meath,; Stephen Lock/PA Wire Earlier today, the couple visited the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, at Grange, Co Meath, this afternoon after meeting with a teen mental health charity this morning. Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton were greeted at the centre by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, and Teagasc Chairman, Liam Herlihy. Director of Teagasc Professor Gerry Boyle, Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council, Cllr Wayne Harding, and Chief Executive of Meath County Council Jackie Maguire, as well as members of the Teagasc Authority were also in attendance. A group of 10 sixth class students from Kiltale National School, Dunsany, County Meath, and principal of the school Eileen OReilly, all had the opportunity to meet the royal couple on foot of their work on projects about food production and sustainability. Expand Close The Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire Student Evelyn Donoghue (12), said she was so starstruck by the couple that she almost forgot the speech she prepared for them. It was very exciting, they were just talking about the projects we did, and about food and wellbeing. I nearly forgot what I had to say when I saw them, but eventually I got it out. Another pupil, Rachel Mulligan (10), said Kate and Will advises them to get outside more and have more sleep to get more energy. Principal of local primary school Kiltale National School Eileen OReilly said the couple told her they loved their trip to Ireland and want to return with their three children. They said they would like to come back her with the kids and do a cycling tour and see the Irish countryside. Kiltale NS Pupil Darragh Dolan said the couple loved discussing their healthy eating project with them. It was so exciting to meet a real life princess. They were very nice and lovely to us. They asked us all about our project on healthy eating and exercise as we learned that Irish young people dont get enough exercise and that one in four are overweight. They had a conversation with some local farmers and William asked them if they thought young people are still interested in becoming farmers. Is the future bright for farming, do young people want to get involved? asked William. Do the wider public know exactly how much you guys do as custodians of the land? he also said. Farmer William Byrne from Kiltale in Co Meath said William asked him about organic farming and if people appreciate the quality of Irish produce. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research Centre in County Meath as part of their three-day visit to Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research Centre in County Meath as part of their three-day visit to Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA) Farmers Ronan Hughes, Justin Walsh, Teleri Thomas, David Hannon, and Donal Keane also met with the Duke and Duchess, and told them about their efforts to farm with nature on their farms by means of using the best animal genetics, grass based production systems. The Cambridges were shown three cows, each with twin calves, by beef researchers Paul Crosson and Edward O Riordan, at Teagascs Derrypatrick demonstration suckler herd. The researchers told the couple about the environmentally friendly steps being taken on Irish cattle farms to ensure beef is produced in a sustainable way, and spoke about technologies being developed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the herd. Kate gave her first nod to Irish fashion on the trip as she wore a jacket and a pair of flat boots by Irish brand Dubarry. Her blouse was from Barbour. The trip to Teagasc was the second engagement the couple embarked on for day two of their three day visit to Ireland. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Teagasc Animal & Grassland Research Centre at Grange, in County Meath. photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire They called into Londis in Prosperous on their way through Co Kildare, where they were seen looking at Kerrygold butter and Irish bread. The couple will take a trip to Dublins Museum of Literature later today, where they will meet with Tanaiste Simon Coveney. Earlier today, William and Kate visited Jigsaw, The National Centre for Mental Health in Temple Bar in Dublin City Centre this morning. They commended the work produced by both the organisers and service users of the charity and met three young people from the charitys youth advisory panel. Expand Close The Duke of Cambridge waves following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of his three day visit to the Republic of Ireland.: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke of Cambridge waves following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of his three day visit to the Republic of Ireland.: Brian Lawless/PA Wire The visit to the charity took six to eight weeks to organise and it was the royal visit organisers from the UK who reached out to Jigsaw. CEO of Jigsaw Joseph Duffy said: Inside, they met some of our funders, the HSE, they met three young people who have used our services across the country and they spent the most time talking with them and their experience. They also met with teachers and representatives from the work we do in the community and supporting schools. Speaking to Independent.ie, member of the panel Abigail McDonnell said how meeting the royal couple was surreal. Expand Close Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. Condition of use; Mandatory credit MUST include JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. Condition of use; Mandatory credit MUST include JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Theyre very interested in youth mental health which is unbelievable and theyre interested to know what was going on with them. I got a handshake from Kate, which was amazing. They basically just thanked us for the work that we do, which is unbelievable, because you dont think such high up people would thank us for the work that we do, she said. Alex Rowan from Finglas, who is a fellow member of the youth advisory board, was also starstruck when he met the royals. It was crazy, I didnt expect how normal it would turn out to be. Expand Close The Duchess of Cambridge smiles following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of her three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duchess of Cambridge smiles following a visit to mental health charity Jigsaw, at Temple Bar in Dublin, as part of her three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire When I was waiting I was nervous but theyre genuinely just the nicest people and we had a brief conversation in welcoming them and saying goodbye. I had small talk with Kate, and she was saying well done for being a part of the service and it was so sweet, he added. Kate wore a white Reiss coat, with black jeans and a black and white polka dot blouse, while William wore navy trousers, a teal jumper and shirt. Expand Close Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. Condition of use; Mandatory credit MUST include JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Julien Behal Photography/ POOL IMAGES on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy. Condition of use; Mandatory credit MUST include JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY. They were really lovely, really warm and very kind and wanted to spend time with the young people in the service, said James Barry, service manager at Jigsaw Dublin City. They wanted to know a lot more about our work within our schools. They wanted to know more but also wanted to share what they were doing in the UK as well, he said. The couple have several engagements in Dublin today before heading to Galway in the afternoon, where they will spend the day tomorrow. BRUSSELS The European Union laid out plans on Wednesday for a climate law that would set a target of net zero carbon emissions across the bloc by 2050. But the bill, part of a wider policy package called the Green Deal, was immediately criticized by climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, who denounced it as empty words. Many activists had called on the bloc to set a 2030 target, and to specify now how it would be achieved. European officials had hoped to win the support of Ms. Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish activist, when they met with her in Brussels on Wednesday. But she went on instead to tell the European Parliament that the proposal amounted to giving up on the Paris Agreement, the pact signed in 2016 under which almost 200 nations promised to limit their emissions, and from which the United States has withdrawn. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission the blocs executive arm, which formulated the bill described it as a compass for the next 30 years. If passed by the European Parliament and its 27 member states over the next several months, it would require the commission to factor climate goals into every piece of legislation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 13:26:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- As many people across China have reduced outdoor activity and stayed indoors to curb the spread of the epidemic during the past month, emerging business modes have been developing in various industries to meet people's needs. Here are the latest developments: -- Real estate agents have set up online sales offices and resorted to live-streaming to attract consumers. Evergrande has developed an app called Hengfangtong, providing one-stop services from showcasing houses through virtual reality (VR) technology to signing contracts. It has listed all its properties for sale on the app since Feb. 13. -- China's largest online travel agency Trip.com facilitated cloud tourism of over 3,000 tourist attractions in 832 cities of 48 countries in the world. -- Many museums and galleries have launched or repackaged various online exhibitions to provide a satisfactory touring experience for the country's vast number of stay-at-home visitors. In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum and the Chongqing Natural History Museum were among those bringing their exhibitions online. -- The school closure amid the epidemic outbreak has not stopped Chinese students from learning as they turn to the Internet to attend classes, bolstering the rise of e-learning. Over 20 online education agencies have rolled out free courses for students since the epidemic outbreak. Xueersi, one of the agencies, said student numbers surged on Feb. 1 when it launched free courses online, with an average of over 2 million viewers at each class. -- Alibaba's communication app DingTalk said it has served 200 million staff workers from more than 10 million enterprises and organizations as of Feb. 3. -- Internet companies such as NetEase recently opened a full chain of contactless recruitment through online resume submission and online interviews. The candidates can also sign contracts, attend training workshops and even begin work over the Internet. -- Alibaba's Freshhema, a fresh food retailer that offers delivery services, came up with the idea of "sharing employees" with restaurants and ride-sharing firms that face sluggish markets as more people are staying at home and choosing online shopping amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. As of Feb. 10, over 1,800 workers have started their new, short-term jobs as deliverymen with Freshhema. Among their "previous" employers are 32 catering firms, ride-sharing companies, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas that are facing a sharp downturn in clients. -- Kuaishou, a popular short-video sharing platform, said in its latest report that its daily active users exceeded 300 million in early 2020. People livestream whatever they do at home from cooking and cosplay to cutting hair and working out. The Maharashtra BJP has suspended the chairperson of a party-ruled municipal council and deputy head of another local body which recently passed resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act. BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye posted the suspension letters on his Twitter handle on Wednesday. As per the letters, issued on Tuesday, the Parbhani-based Selu Municipal Council's chairperson Vinod Borade and Palam Municipal Council's deputy chairperson Balasaheb Rokade have been suspended by the party. READ | MoS G Kishan Reddy Says 'Violence Is Not The Solution' After Anti CAA Protests BJP state president Chandrakant Patil has stated in the letters that both the party workers showed indiscipline by voting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), hence they have been suspended from the party. The letters did not specify the period of suspension. The Selu Municipal Council is ruled by the BJP. The CAA, which was passed by Parliament in December last year, grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had settled in India before December 31, 2014. The new citizenship law triggered protests in many parts of the country since then despite the repeated claims made by the ruling BJP that it will not take away anybody's citizenship. READ | Clash Erupts Between Pro & Anti CAA Groups In Northeast Delhi's Maujpur READ | UP: Azamgarh Police Foil Attempt To Stage Anti CAA Protest, 19 Arrested Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside Reserve Bank of Indias order prohibiting banks from offering services for cryptocurrencies, terming such a blanket ban bad in law. RBI had through a circular dated April 6, 2018, barred entities regulated by the central bank from providing any service in relation to virtual currencies, including transfer or receipt of money in accounts in connection with the purchase or sale of virtual currencies. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) had moved the SC against the RBI diktat. On July 3, 2018, the top court had sought a response from RBI and the Union ministries of finance and information and technology on IMAIs plea. A three-judge bench headed by Justice R F Nariman found the complete prohibition was disproportionate to the objectives sought to be achieved by the apex banking regulator. When the consistent stand of RBI is that they have not banned VCs (virtual currencies) and when the Government of India is unable to take a call despite several committees coming up with several proposals including two draft bills, both of which advocated exactly opposite positions, it is not possible for us to hold that the impugned measure is proportionate, the bench said in its 180-page verdict. In its circular, the banking regulator had said the prohibition was to protect entities from activities that pose reputational and financial risks along with other legal and operational risks. RBI had also said there were risks of terror financing and money laundering through cryptocurrencies. RBI banned crypto on moral grounds IMAI had argued RBI had banned cryptocurrencies on moral grounds since no prior studies were conducted to analyse the effect of the virtual currencies on the economy and the blanket ban was arbitrary, unconstitutional and unfair. Till date, RBI has not come out with a stand that any of the entities regulated by it namely, the nationalised banks/scheduled commercial banks/cooperative banks/NBFCs has suffered any loss or adverse effect directly or indirectly, on account of the interface that the VC exchanges had with any of them, the judgment said. Earlier, a finance ministry appointed inter-ministerial panel had come up with a draft bill seeking to ban private crypto-currencies and suggesting that the government consider launching its own cryptocurrency. Crypto traders feel the road is not yet cleared as much will depend on how the government and RBI go ahead with this ruling. Move will give birth to a lot of start-ups in India, said Zac Cheah, CEO, Pundi X. RBI ban onmoral grounds IMAI argued in SC that RBI banned cryptocurrencies on moral grounds since no prior studies were conducted to analyse the effect of virtual currencies on the economy A sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in India has led to panic buying of masks in Chandigarh, leading to their shortage. Vijay Jain, general secretary of the Chemists Association of Chandigarh , said there was a shortage of supply of every type of mask since the outbreak in China. And now panic buying has led to further shortage, he said. However, there is no disruption as far as life-saving drugs are concerned. Meanwhile, residents claim the masks are being sold at exorbitant rates. A mask which should be available for 10 is being sold for 25. The authorities should crack down on such practices, said Sheela Agarwal, a Panjab University student. Masks are not covered under the drugs Act. We have examined their inclusion under the essential commodities Act, and most likely the order will be issued on Thursday, said Dr G Dewan, director health services. The health department has also warned chemists of strict action if they indulge in unethical business practices, such as overpricing and hoarding.The directions have been circulated among major pharmaceutical laboratories in Chandigarh for ensuring supplies. Meanwhile, Mohali civil surgeon Dr Manjit Singh said: Residents need not panic as there is no confirmed case of coronavirus infection in Punjab. They just need to be cautious and alert. He also cautioned people against spreading rumours. Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 4th March 2020. Here are the major headlines. Nigeria Has Attained Food Security Since Border Closure Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the country has attained food security following the closure of land borders across the country. This was part of his remarks while meeting with Bashir Mamman Ifo, the outgoing president of the ECOWAS Bank for investment and development (EBID) and George Nana Donkor, his successor. Dangote Pledges N200m To Fight Coronavirus Foremost Nigeria businessman and Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote has pledged N200m towards the fight against the deadly coronavirus in Nigeria. Aliko Dangote, Africas richest man, made the pledge to support the federal governments effort in containing the spread of coronavirus. Punishment For Kidnapping Is Death By Hanging Police The Katsina State Police Command has released a statement about some members of the public who now pose as bandits to call and send messages, threatening to kill or kidnap people or their relatives for ransom. Amotekun: Osun State Assembly Passes Bill After Third Hearing The Osun House of Assembly on Tuesday read the Osun Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps Establishment Bill 2020 for the third time and subsequently passed the bill into law. National Center for Disease Control Boss Quarantined For Coronavirus The Director-General of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has been quarantined for 14 days as part of measures to stop the Coronavirus from spreading into the country. Coronavirus: Reps To Suspend Plenary For Two Weeks The lower chambers of the National Assembly has moved to suspend plenary activities for the next two weeks, following the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria. Ill Not Rest Until There Is Global Peace Obasanjo Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has vowed not to relent until he achieves global peace. Obasanjo made this known on Monday in his remark while receiving a special handwritten letter by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby, presented by Bishop Precious Omuku on the occasion of his 83rd birthday at the Penthouse of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. We Didnt Use Corps Members Allowance To Fight Coronavirus NYSC The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has dismissed claims that it diverted funds meant for payment of corps members February allowance to fight coronavirus. Kwara Receives N263m Looted By Previous Administration The Kwara state government says it has received N263 million looted in the past administration which was recovered by the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). INEC Boss Seeks Severe Punishment For Election Riggers The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has canvased for stiff punish for election riggers. BU researchers propose pairing of clinician and basic science educators to diminish the 'cultural divide' between these 2 groups of educators (Boston)--There is a trend in modern medical school curriculum design to integrate the basic sciences and clinical sciences. Integrating basic science education with its clinical application from the initial stages of learning is thought to improve retention of information and facilitate the transfer of knowledge to the clinical setting. Basic science educators are not clinicians, yet to accommodate integration they must adjust their content to mesh appropriately with its clinical application. While achievable, this is a challenge that requires intentional effort on the part of the basic science educators. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) believe a practical way to facilitate curricular integration is to create opportunities for basic science educators to learn about the clinical application of their area of expertise through shadowing and collaborations with clinician educators and to pair these initiatives with training in effective medical education practices. "By shadowing clinician educators during patient care or clinical teaching, basic scientists can observe how clinicians apply basic science concepts. Such opportunities help basic science educators better understand how to prioritize and communicate information that has long-term relevance for their learners," explains corresponding author M. Isabel Dominguez, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM. Most medical schools are wrestling with the challenge of integration in medical education. Dominguez along with co-author Ann Zumwalt, PhD, BUSM associate professor of anatomy & neurobiology, discuss practical strategies to develop these opportunities and how they bene?t educators. They believe there are numerous ways that both individuals and institutions can create and facilitate such faculty development opportunities, both for basic science faculty who are full-time educators and those who engage in medical education part time. "Ultimately, these interventions and initiatives will bene?t both the institution's curriculum and the student learners impacted by the curriculum," adds Zumwalt. ### These finding appear online in the journal Advances in Physiology Education. Funding was provided by a Faculty Development and Diversity Grant from the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine. Egypt's government has decided to bar the entry of all Qatari nationals starting Friday, 6 March, as a precautionary measure to face the coronavirus outbreak, the cabinet said on Wednesday. The ban, which applies to those who have valid residency, will remain in place until further notice, cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad said in a statement. "In light of what Qatar has decided as to prohibiting entry for travelers who hold the Egyptian nationality...as part of precautionary measures to confront the coronavirus, [we] decided to implement the principle of reciprocity," the spokesman said. Qatar on Sunday imposed a temporary ban on entry by visitors from Egypt through intermediate points because of the spread of the flu-like virus. There have been no direct flights between Qatar and Egypt since June 2017 when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut diplomatic, trade and transport ties with the Gulf state over charges it supports terrorism, accusations Doha has denied. According to a Coronavirus report released by the World Health Organisation Tuesday, Qatar recorded seven cases of the virus from Iran, whereas Egypt detected two cases based on entry from abroad. One of those two cases confirmed in Egypt has recovered, while the other, a foreign national, is still undergoing treatment in a quarantine hospital in the coastal govenorate of Marsa Matrouh, north of Cairo. Search Keywords: Short link: JERSEYVILLE Even a bad wedding cake probably tastes a lot better than the first tiered wedding cakes from France in the 1660s. They would have to bake them several days in advance, said Connor Ashlock, a volunteer tour guide for Jersey County Historical Society. And they didnt have icing in those days, so they just coated them with lard. Well, one day a guy put sugar with the lard and, voila, you had icing. Ashlock interpreted wedding traditions through history during Tying the Knot: The History of Wedding Traditions last weekend at the historical societys Cheney Mansion in Jerseyville. More than a dozen wedding dresses dating back to the 1800s were on display in the home, and those who bought a $10 ticket could see the dresses, decorations and delicacies from weddings through the past century and a half. We use fluffy wedding cakes over here, but in Europe they used fruitcakes, Ashlock said. Queen Victoria had a fruitcake for her wedding it weighed 300 pounds and was 9 feet long. She used what they called egg white icing, which is sometimes called royal icing. The whiter the icing was on your cake, the more affluent your family was, he noted. Because of that, pure white icing was not seen with many Jersey County families in the 1800s, because, if you were a richer family, you could afford more refined sugar. Ashlock talked about grooms cakes, singular wedding traditions, and even less glamorous nuptial happenings. A lot of people in Jersey County had shotgun weddings, where the bride got pregnant before she got married, Ashlock said. For many couples that meant a trip to Pocahontas, Arkansas, which was like our Las Vegas. Ashlock said the oldest wedding dress owned by the historical society dates to 1868, a time when brides-to-be made their own dresses and continued to wear them to church and other more formal occasions until they no longer fit. Queen Victoria was the first bride to wear white in modern history but, until just before World War I, a white wedding dress was a luxury most Jersey County women couldnt afford, he explained. Margaret Kirbach of Jerseyville was among those attending Saturdays event, and the wedding dresses from her mothers and grandmothers weddings were part of the narrated tour. They had been hanging in the back of my closet for a long time, Kirbach said. Its pretty nice to see them out and have people really appreciate their beauty. Jerseyville resident Krista Russell learned a lot at the Cheney Mansion during the weekend. We go to weddings and there is a maid of honor and a best man, and you dont necessarily know what is behind that, so it was interesting to learn where those traditions started and why we still do those today, Russell said. It was cool to see Jerseyville intertwined with those traditions so we can see what happened here and to learn about our roots. Tying the Knot is just one of several special events held by the Jersey County Historical Society during the year. Board secretary Roger Scheffel said their big event is the early October Apple Fest, followed by the popular Deadly Departed before Halloween, that features historic funeral customs. He said all of the events highlight the societys artifact collections. Everything we have on display has a Jersey County connection, Scheffel said. University teaching staff are feeling pressured to churn out online course content as the tertiary education sector grapples with how to keep international students affected by coronavirus travel bans. Dr Alison Barnes, national president of the National Tertiary Education Union. Credit:Attila Csaszar National president of the National Tertiary Education Union Alison Barnes said she was concerned about the pressure on staff to deliver online course content too quickly. "If you need to turn a unit into an online delivery that can be very difficult to do that in a quality way in a very short amount of time," Dr Barnes said. "I'm worried about staff falling over and want vice-chancellors to be mindful of the health and wellbeing of staff. Wendy Lauber states, regarding the new position at The Dunes East Hampton: "It is an honor for me to work with people and their families affected by addictions. It never gets old to witness people experience the positive transformations of treatment and recovery physically, emotionally, socially and otherwise." Wendy has used her experience and expertise to help outpatient and inpatient programs provide, develop, and expand services to meet the needs of the people being served, while avoiding a cookie-cutter approach to treatment. Wendy will be an asset to The Dunes East Hampton due to her experience with evidence-based practices, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT, especially TEAM version), Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (known as CRAFT) and related versions, Mindfulness-based practices, Motivational Interviewing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and trauma-informed practices. Dr. Cecilia Ford has been utilizing her expertise as the mental health editor and chief correspondent for the last five years as an integral part of the Website titled Women's Voices For Change (WVC). Founded by a group of women doctors, WVC aims to change the image of women's lives aged over 40 by providing medical, psychological, and cultural information that's vital to this demographic." The Women's Voices For Change Website has 150,000 page views monthly. Dr. Ford states: "After receiving an education in classical psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, I pursued further training in evidence-based methods of treatment and avenues for positive growth. These include cognitive psychology, family systems theory, and self-psychology which emphasizes that problems of the self, including identity, issues of self-worth and self-esteem, and the need for self-soothing through addictions are paramount in the modern world." The Luxury rehab center is located in East Hampton, NY on Long Island, not far from NYC. The Dunes offers inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation, in addition to outpatient rehab services. The Dunes specializes in dual diagnosis treatment, substance abuse and addiction intervention using both clinical and holistic treatment services. The luxury rehab estate facility, just a short drive from New York City in beautiful East Hampton, provides the perfect retreat environment to recover from alcohol and drug abuse situations. The addition of team members Dr. Cecilia Ford and New York State Licensed Clinical Social Worker Wendy Lauber will help The Dunes East Hampton continue to advance the level of addiction treatment care available in New York. The Dunes is a NAATP certified facility promoting hope and recovery to those affected by addiction. Visit their Facebook page and LinkedIn page by clicking the links. For more information about The Dunes East Hampton's facility or addiction treatment programs, call Marisa Salamone at (877) 818-5539 or visit https://theduneseasthampton.com/. About The Dunes East Hampton The Dunes East Hampton is a unique and comprehensive luxury alcohol and drug rehab center located in the beauty and serenity of East Hampton, New York. Press Contact: Marisa T Salamone 877-818-5539 [email protected] Website: https://theduneseasthampton.com SOURCE The Dunes East Hampton Related Links https://theduneseasthampton.com Amaravati, March 5 : At least eight persons, including a German national, were admitted to hospitals in Andhra Pradesh with suspected coronavirus (Covid-19) symptoms, officials said on Wednesday. Among them, seven persons had recently returned from various foreign countries. The samples of all the eight persons were sent to Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, for testing to know if they had contracted the virus. Deputy Chief Minister and state Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas said that eight persons were admitted to hospitals during the last 24 hours. Five of them were kept in isolation at Chest Hospital in Visakhapatnam. Three of them had returned from Singapore and two from Bahrain. A German traveller was under observation at a hospital in Vijayawada. A person, who had visited Muscat, is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Eluru. Earlier, a techie, who recently returned from South Korea, was kept in isolation at a hospital in Kakinada. The minister said that the state has not registered a single positive Covid-19 case so far. Thus far, 281 passengers have been screened. At least 65 of them were advised self-isolation at home. The samples of two, who were admitted to the hospital, have tested negative. So far 11 samples from the state were tested and all the results have come negative. Srinivas said the government had taken all necessary measures to contain the possible spread of the virus. He also urged people to not panic. The government has arranged isolation wards in hospitals across all 13 districts in the state. He said the health authorities in the state were following all the guidelines issued by the Centre. Russia announced that it had deployed military police in Saraqeb, although the claim was questioned by many, and seen as a ploy to create a balance with Turkey writes Nadaa Syria. The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced the deployment of military police in the strategic city of Saraqeb, located at the intersection of the international M5 and M4 highways in eastern Idleb province. In response to the Russian announcement, the spokesman for the Syrian National Army, Major Youssef Hammoud, said: The statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the deployment of its forces in the city of Saraqeb is far from a reality. The Jusoor Center for Studies believes that the Russian declaration aimed to achieve several goals, including: Expressing rejection of Turkish demands for the Russians to stay neutral during Turkeys operation against the Assad regime in Idleb province, as well as Moscows efforts to obstruct Ankaras efforts to achieve this operation, which it called Spring Shield, and aimed primarily at driving the Assad regime back to the Sochi agreement borders. The Russian forces also aim to demoralize the opposition groups by broadcasting propaganda that there had been a Turkish-Russian understanding regarding Saraqebs future, and thus curb their ability to attack and defend. The center added that the fourth goal was, establishing a new reality on the ground ahead of the bilateral summit between the Turkish and Russian presidents in the hope that this will help support Russias position during the talks. Turkey has not yet commented on the Russian Ministry of Defense announcement that it would deploy police forces in Saraqeb, which coincided with ongoing clashes in the area between rebels groups and militias. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. DURHAM This year, Eversource expects to invest over $83 million in tree work around the state as part of the companys comprehensive distribution line vegetation management plan. The utility is required to provide detailed plans, indicating the areas where distribution line vegetation management will occur, according to a press release from First Selectman Laura Francis. A map recently sent to the tree warden highlights the roads in town where Eversource roadside tree work is expected to occur in 2020. The project covers approximately 32 miles in Durham, Francis said. Eversources team of licensed arborists will work together with the warden in advance of the work performed by qualified contractors. Homeowners contacted by Eversource seeking permission to work on their property are asked to seriously consider the request, she added. This work will help protect the electric system against inclement weather all year long. The large number of dead and diseased trees are top of mind. The impact in Connecticut has been significant, and Eversource continues to work with the town, property owners, and the state of to address the magnitude of trees affected by disease and invasive insects, the release said. Together, our focus continues to be trees that pose a potential threat to the electric system and roadside safety, especially those that affect large numbers of residents, the selectman said. The Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, Public Works Department and tree warden are working together to address the growing problem with dead and dying roadside trees. While extra funds have been allocated for this year and requested for next year, it is expected to be a multi-year problem, requiring a multi-year solution. For information, contact Jen Keogh at 860-349-8253 or jkeogh@townofdurhamct.org. She's the uber-talented star of contemporary classics such as American Beauty and The American President. And Annette Bening lent her considerable star power to the proceedings at the Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony for her friend, radio veteran Susan Stamberg on Tuesday. Bening, 61, wore a smart-looking black double-breasted pinstripe blazer for the daytime event in Hollywood, California, worn open over a cream silk blouse with a knot at the neck. A star for a star: On Tuesday, Annette Bening lent her considerable star power to the Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony for her friend, radio veteran Susan Stamberg The Grifters star, who herself received a star on the Walk of Fame in 2006, paired the jacket with navy trousers, and tan leather loafers. Annette kept her hair short as usual, and wore small hoops in her ears. The four-time Academy Award-nominated actress completed her look with a pair of dainty rose-colored wayfarer sunglasses. Stamberg, 81, wore a lovely lime green pantsuit to the event in her honor. Embrace: The four-time Academy Award-nominated actress hugged honoree Stamberg, whom she has known for at least ten years Holding court: Benning offered some remarks at the ceremony for the public radio great Among many career accomplishments, Susan is known as a 'founding mother of National Public Radio,' having been with the radio programming pioneer since its inception in 1971. Stamberg, whom Bening has known since at least 2010, is also credited as being the first woman to host as an anchor for a national nightly news broadcast in the United States, for her 14-year stint on the long-running and celebrated series All Things Considered from 1972 to 1986. In addition to Annette, Susan was also joined at the ceremony by her son, actor Josh Stamberg, who has appeared on series such as The Affair, Nashville and Parenthood, among many other projects. Hollywood trio: In addition to Annette, Susan was also joined at the ceremony by her son, actor Josh Stamberg As reported by NBC News, Annette and Susan met when Bening costarred with Josh in a play titled The Female Of The Species at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, California a decade ago. Stamberg's star can be found in front of the headquarters of the audio streaming service Dash Radio in Hollywood, California. Hers is the 2,690th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They told me later they had been setting up camp in the same spot for 30 years and never been flooded like this. While the other guests sheltered in their tent at the untroubled north end of our beach camp, the crew grimly splashed and scrambled at the south end, where the water was rising. I stood on the rain-pelted sand, directing my headlamp beam to help the crew see what they were doing. I eventually busied myself dragging kayaks to higher ground and digging a trench in hopes of channeling the runoff - a futile effort, but something to do. And then, no more than 30 minutes after the water burst upon us, the runoff settled on a single route to the sea. It had bisected our camp, and the wind and rain raged on. There would be hours of reconstruction and cleanup ahead, but the water had stopped tearing away sections of beach. The crew could take a breath, reclaim gear from the shallows (including Lucero's tent and my backpack) and set up on higher ground. I walked to my tent at the north end of camp and crashed. Ramirez, tent-less, worked another few hours, then accepted my invitation to sleep on my floor. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sebastian Smith, Usman Sharifi and Emal Haidary (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States/Kabul, Afghanistan Wed, March 4, 2020 06:30 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20680faa9 2 World Donald-Trump,US-Taliban,Afghanistan,Afghan-war,violence Free US President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday that he'd had a "very good" talk with the Taliban political chief on the Afghan peace process, despite an eruption of violence marring a brief calm in the country. The insurgents were the first to give news of the highly unusual phone call between Trump and former Taliban fighter Mullah Baradar, which the insurgents said lasted 35 minutes. Trump confirmed the call later to reporters in Washington. But asked if he had held previous, undisclosed talks with Baradar, Trump replied: "I don't want to say." "We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today," Trump said in Washington. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also." However, the call held at around 1440 GMT Tuesday came just a day after the militants ended a partial truce meant to be the first step in a wider peace deal under a US-Taliban agreement signed Saturday. The unrest raised questions over the future of talks between the insurgents and the US-backed Afghan government in Kabul that are set to begin March 10. Trump has touted the peace agreement as a way to end the bloody, nearly two decades US military presence in Afghanistan -- right in time for his November reelection bid. Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul. The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start. Baradar called on Trump to "not allow anyone to take actions that violate the terms of the agreement thus embroiling you even further in this prolonged war", according to the Taliban transcript. Trump sounded sympathetic to the Taliban message, saying "they are looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended, I think we all have a very common interest." He said the Kabul government may be "reluctant" to pursue the peace deal, saying "they've done very well with the United States for many years -- far beyond military if you look at all the money that we spent in Afghanistan." Dozens of attacks Following Saturday's deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming "victory" over the US and on Monday they announced an end to the partial truce, resuming their attacks on Afghan national forces. Since Monday, the Taliban conducted 33 attacks in 16 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. "As a result, six civilians were killed and 14 wounded. Eight enemy were also killed, 15 wounded," he said on Twitter. Two soldiers were killed in one of the attacks in southern Kandahar province, a government statement said. An attack in Logar province near Kabul killed five security forces, the provincial governor's spokesman Didar Lawang told AFP. The halt to the limited truce, which began on February 22, ended what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have born the brunt of the deadly violence. Kabul-based analyst Ahmad Saeedi told AFP the uptick in attacks reflected the insurgents' belief that "they have to keep the battlefield hot to be able to win on the negotiating table, as they did with the Americans." Holding nation 'hostage?' Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open "initial contacts" with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives. Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators. The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives. In a statement, the UN's Afghanistan mission called for "continued reduced violence to maintain & enhance an environment conducive to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations". "After the US-Taliban deal, it is illogical to fight. It is time for peace," said Naqibullah, a 40-year-old government employee in Kabul, who uses only one name. "The Taliban can't take the whole nation hostage." (Alliance News) - Aquis Exchange PLC said Wednesday its takeover of NEX Exchange Ltd has been approved by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. London-based exchange services firm Aquis agreed back in July of last year to buy NEX Exchange Ltd off US futures exchange operator CME Group Inc, for a nominal sum of GBP1 plus working capital of GBP2.7 million. The company had originally expected the deal to complete during the autumn. NEX has 86 companies listed on its primary market, as well as 670 on the secondary market. NEX delivered revenue of GBP1.5 million but had losses of GBP2.1 million in the year to March 2018. Aquis said back in July that a number of cutbacks could be made in the business to offset the losses. Aquis said the deal is another step towards its goal of becoming the "leading exchange services group in Europe". "Underpinned by the group's proven technology and a track record of transparency and innovation, the board believes that Aquis' experience in building new businesses in the exchange industry and increasing liquidity, means it has the ability to transform the old NEX Exchange business at a time when MiFID II implications and other factors make the IPO industry ripe for innovation," the company said. Following the deal, NEX Exchange will be renamed Aquis Stock Exchange. Aquis Non-Executive Director Glenn Collinson will step down from the Aquis Exchange PLC board and will join the Aquis Stock Exchange board on completion of the acquisition. Chief Executive Alasdair Haynes said: "We are delighted that this acquisition has now been approved, and we look forward to welcoming NEX Exchange's staff, customers and other stakeholders to our group. "Since announcing our intention to purchase the business we have been most encouraged by the appetite for change in the industry. We look forward to building Aquis Stock Exchange into the supportive home for quality growth businesses we believe it should become." Aquis, which listed on AIM in June 2018, became the first multilateral trading facility to achieve dual-trading in Europe. Its French subsidiary Aquis Exchange Europe received approval from French authorities to operate in Paris, ensuring the company can trade in Europe post-Brexit. Shares in Aquis Exchange were up 5.1% on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday afternoon at 410.00 pence each. By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. The assistant police chief in the tiny Alabama town of Geraldine has been fired because of an online post in which he suggested Democrats could be targeted by a roadside bomb. The Town Council voted 5-1 tonight to terminate Jeff Buckles, who has worked for the police department for two years. The Council accepted the recommendation of an outside lawyer who served as an impartial decision maker during a private hearing on the situation last week. Buckles has been on leave since early February when town officials began investigating a post the assistant police chief wrote on Facebook. Jeff Buckles, the assistant chief at the Geraldine, Ala. police department, came under fire for a comment about Nancy Pelosi and a roadside bomb. In the post, Buckles suggested that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Dumbocrats could be targeted by a roadside bomb. Buckles shared the post on the night of President Donald Trumps State of the Union Speech after Pelosi ripped up her copy of the Presidents remarks. Pelosi just ripped up his speach (sic), Buckles wrote that night. Road Side bomb on her way home and any other Dumbocrats. Buckles apologized for his comments in a later post on Facebook. Both posts have since been deleted or removed from public view. I want to apologize for venting on FB (Facebook), Buckles wrote. I have definitely offended some people with my remarks. It just rips my heart out that our great country is do divided. Screenshots of Buckles post were shared on social media, with some people leaving negative reviews on the police departments Facebook page. Others on social media shared the phone number to Geraldine town hall and encouraged people to call the mayor to demand action against Buckles. He made a mistake that he regrets, but mistakes have consequences, said Chuck Ables, the mayor of Geraldine, a tiny town about 50 miles southeast of Huntsville in southern DeKalb County. I intend to remain friends with officer Buckles and I am willing to help him any way I can. This is an unfortunate situation with an unpleasant result and now it is time to move on. Ables, who voted to terminate Buckles, said the officer has done important work during his two years with the police department, including on community outreach. It is important to me that people understand that Jeff Buckles is not a terrorist, Ables said in a statement to AL.com. He made a statement that can easily be considered a threat and that statement violated the policies we have in place for police officers. I believe police officers and elected officials should be held to a higher standard and we do that and will continue to do that, the mayors statement continues. "We have good officers and will continue to enforce the law unbiased and fairly. White-tailed Deer The Southeast Pennsylvania Quality Deer Management Association Whitetail Extravaganza, a full day of whitetail educational seminars presented by Noble Research Institute, is scheduled for Saturday, March 7, at Crowne Plaza, Reading. Topics for the extravaganza will include All About Deer Movements, Oklahoma Deer Hunter Project, Hunter Behavior, Buck and Doe Encounters During the Rut, Aging on the Hoof, Antler and Body Development, and Habitat Management Principles. Registration fee is $25. For more information, contact Ed Sep at 610-207-2482. Fly Fishing The Lancaster Fly Fishing Show will run Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8, at the Lancaster County Convention Center in Lancaster. The shows annual edition will feature 10-15 fly-tying demonstrations or how-to seminars each hour, and wall-to-wall displays of the newest fly rods, reels, lines, boots, waders, clothing and flies during the Sat.-Sun. late-winter run. Seminars will range Mountain Trout with Joe Humphreys, Streamer Tactics 2.0 with George Daniel and Presentation with Gary Borger to Clousers Top Tips with Bob Clouser. Theyll also be doing casting demonstrations, along with Dusty Wissmuth and Anita Coulton. Featured fly tiers will include Tom Baltz, Engle, Borger, Clouser, Daniel and Matt Grobert. There also will be some 20 Destination Theater presentations each day including Redfish in the Southeast, Penns Creek, Spring Creeks of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont Trout Streams, Fly Fishing the Islands of the Bahamas, Fly Fishing Chilean Patagonia and Trophy Trout in Southern Chile. Admission is $15 for one day, $25 for two days. Children under 5 are free, as are Boy and Girl Scouts under age 16 in uniform. Children 6-12 are $5. Active military with an ID are $10. For more information visit the Fly Fishing Show website. Youth Archery The 2020 Pennsylvania state tournament of the National Archery in the Schools Program State Tournament is set for Friday, March 13, at the Penn State Multi-Sport Facility in State College. It likely will be the biggest student archery tournament ever in the state. The NASP state tournament has been growing each year since its inception in 2011, and the March13 tournament is expected to draw nearly a thousand participants. Students from more than 45 schools across Pennsylvania are expected to participate. The tournament should be a sight to see. 95 lanes, each with two archers, will be operating at once. About 9,000 arrows will fly each hour. And, nearly 50,000 arrows will be fired on the day. NASP, which started in Kentucky in 2002 and has since gained participants around the globe, came to Pennsylvania in 2005. The Pennsylvania Game Commission began coordinating the program in 2010 and, to present, the program has expanded to 300 schools. NASP helps school districts in Pennsylvania meet physical-education curriculum requirements standards set by the state Department of Education, and at the same time introduces students to the world of competitive archery. Tournaments are held at the state, national and international levels. Pennsylvania sent more than 200 students to the 2019 national competition, which was held in Louisville, Kentucky. Turkey Calling World Turkey Calling Champion Matt Morrett and Petersens Bowhunting Editor Christian Berg are among the presenters at The Art of Turkey Calling Wednesday, March 18, at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. The event will help sportsmen get ready for turkey season and take their turkey calling skills and tactics to the next level with seminars by some of the best in the industry. In addition to the speakers, a selection of films curated by the National Wild Turkey Federation that highlight their conservation mission will play. During the evening, attendees will have a chance to bid in a silent sale and a live auction featuring an African safari for two with Somerby Safaris, steelhead angling on Salmon River in New York courtesy of Wackem Guide Service, a turkey hunt for two at Camp Freedom in northeastern Pennsylvania and more. Proceeds from the event will benefit ArtsQuests free Step Outdoors festival for families May 30-31, as well as the conservation work of the Jerry Zimmerman Memorial & Walking Purchase chapters of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Tickets for the event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and theyre on sale now at www.steelstacks.org. Outdoor Show The Yellow Breeches Anglers and Conservation Association Inc. will present its 49th annual Outdoor Show on Saturday, March 21, at the Carlisle National Guard Readiness Center in Carlisle. Hunters can visit the Pennsylvania Longbow Association, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Dunn's Sport Hunts, National Rifle Association and hear a presentation by State Game Warden Tim Wenrich on "Chronic Wasting Disease: Is it coming to your deer woods?" Tammy and Morgan Wagner will present "It's Not Just A Guy Thing." Predator hunter and trapper Rob Wilbur will talk about coyote hunting. Stan Gingerich will talk spring turkey hunting. Kevin McCleary and his retrievers Big Lew and Miss Nellie will present Hunting with Dogs. Fisherman can find everything they need for opening day, from bass flies at Conrad's Flies, lures at Scared Fishless and Tom's Custom Baits, Custom Flies by Jarred, Brad Wilson at Strike Fly Company, Timberwolf Spinners, Aspen Ridge Rods, M & J Custom Rods and Northkill Tackle. Those wanting to book fishing trips can check out Bob Eder at Wishin To Be Fishin, Isaac Zettel at Trophy Trout Chasers, Brian Shumaker at Susquehanna River Guides or TCO Fly Shop. Backyard birdwatchers may want to visit Becks Critter Capture, featuring bird feeders made from recycled materials. Art collectors will want to visit Thom Glace watercolors, Hunter McCaffrey or Tim Trexler Salmon Fly Art. New this year are several charities the YBAC supports. Project Healing Waters teaches fly fishing to wounded veterans. Heroes on the Water provides kayak fishing trips for any veteran. Casting for Recovery helps women recovering from breast cancer. Admission is $3 for adults 16 and older, free to 15 and under, First Responders and military personnel will be our honored guests. For more information, visit the Yellow Breeches Anglers and Conservation Association Inc. website. Migrants walk past a fire as the smoke rises near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing with Greece's Kastanies, near Edirne, Turkey March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir Greek riot police and troops fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants as they made another attempt to cross the border from Turkey into Greece, in the early hours of this morning. The air was thick with smoke on both the Greek and Turkish sides of the Kastanies border crossing, and fire engines were also at hand to put out smouldering blazes on the ground. Kastanies has been the scene of sometimes violent clashes between Greek security forces and migrants since last Friday, though tensions had eased on Tuesday as some of the migrants left the immediate area of the border crossing. More than 10,000 migrants have been trying to breach the border since Turkey said last Thursday it would no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the European Union to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for billions of euros in aid. Expand Close Migrants carry an injured man near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing with Greece's Kastanies, near Edirne, Turkey March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Migrants carry an injured man near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing with Greece's Kastanies, near Edirne, Turkey March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir Greece, backed by the EU, and Turkey have traded daily accusations about mistreatment of the migrants. Athens has reinforced security along the border, with troops and army jeeps patrolling the area. Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 3.2 million vehicles worldwide, more than half of which are in the U.S., to fix faulty fuel pumps. The move affects certain Lexus and Toyota brand cars and trucks for the 2013-2019 model years, a company spokesman said Wednesday. That includes about 1.8 million vehicles sold in the U.S. and another 158,262 in Canada, Toyota said. This almost doubles an initial recall in January that was limited to 696,000 vehicles in the U.S. The action was necessitated by potentially defective fuel pumps that may stop operating and cause engine stalls that increase the risk of a crash, Toyota said. The carmaker issued a separate recall in January for about 2.9 million vehicles with electronic-control units that could affect the deployment of airbags in certain sedan models. The United States of America is exerting great efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the country, said an article from CNN. According to US officials, further testing for the virus will increase the total number of positive cases of the coronavirus illness in the country. On Tuesday, a total of 74 coronavirus cases were reported from 13 different states. Despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, US officials affirm that there is no need for the public to panic. The Total Coronavirus Cases in Each State In the state of Washington, there are 27 confirmed cases of the COVID-19. Five of the confirmed cases are situated in a long-term nursing center in a Seattle suburb. In California, there are 23 confirmed positive cases for the coronavirus. It was reported that half of the COVID-19 cases in the state were travel-related. Additionally, four or more of the cases are from unknown origins. In North Carolina, there is one patient who was positive for the novel coronavirus. According to officials, the patient was recovering from the illness at home. In Oregon, there are there positive cases of the COVID-19. The state had already declared a state of emergency in the entire region after two new cases were discovered. There are currently four confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Illinois. The two new patients were reported to be both in their 70s. The two patients are currently in stable condition from the illness. Massachusetts reports two positive cases of the coronavirus. In the latest case, a woman, in her 20s, did not show any symptoms related to the illness. In Florida, three confirmed cases of the COVID-19 were reported. The third was called a 'presumptive positive' by the CDC. In Georgia, two patients tested positive for the coronavirus. According to Governor Brian Kemp, the two cases in the state were from the same household. Rhode Island had reported two confirmed cases of the illness. The patients were reported to have traveled to Europe. Currently, a third person is being tested for the coronavirus. In New York, two confirmed cases were reported. One of the patients is a 39-year-old health worker who returned to the US from a trip to Iran. The other patient is a man from New Rochelle who has a job in Manhattan, started by New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo. Arizona reported two patients who tested positive for the coronavirus illness. One of the two patients is recently reported to have survived the illness. The patient tested negative for the deadly virus. In New Hampshire, two patients were given the 'presumptive positive' diagnosis for the dangerous coronavirus. The first one was the first one to be labeled as a 'presumed positive' while the second one was given a similar diagnosis due to being in contact with the first case. In Wisconsin, a sole case of the coronavirus epidemic was reported in the earlier parts of February. The patient was reported to have traveled to Beijing China, stated the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The infected patient was in isolation. The patient's risk of infecting the public is low. Currently, the patient had recovered from the deadly disease. The patient is now released from isolation. Description GIS - 04 March, 2020: A graduation ceremony was held, this afternoon, at Montagne-Blanche, to reward some sixty-six students of the Fashion and Design Institute (FDI) who graduated in various courses including Arts Practice, Fashion, Graphic design, digital design, and art and design. The Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr. Soomilduth Bholah, was present on the occasion. The Minister congratulated the graduates for having successfully completed their studies and added that the FDI has inculcated to them the necessary cognitive and technical skills and competencies to embrace a successful career. He pointed out that the institute is aligned with the current market conditions and has upgraded its standards . According to Minister Bholah, technical and vocational education is important to move upward on the economic front. He commended the role of training institutions like the FDI, in imparting the skills and knowledge needed to drive economic growth and social development and to boost entrepreneurship. The Minister recalled that the Government Programme 2020-2024 highlights Governments determination to improve the education sector, and to create an environment conducive to learning through modern digital technology and latest best practices. He pointed out that to this end, in order to better prepare and empower the youths, a National Skills Development Strategy 2020-2024 will be developed. Furthermore, Minister Bholah emphasised that Government will ensure that the skills needed to drive economic growth and social development are delivered at an accelerated rate as the county needs skilled professionals. One of the most important roles for the FDI, in its current phase of strengthening, expanding and diversifying the post training system, is that of providing support to the technical and vocational training of students and entrepreneurs, he added. The Minister lauded the initiative of the institute for the setting up of new courses , including the Jewellery Design courses. He also expressed satisfaction as regards the contribution of FDI students in the conceptualisation and designing of the uniforms of the Metro Express staff. 2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard United States military officials earlier this morning confirmed that theyve launched an airstrike against the Taliban in Afghanistan mere days after President Donald Trump boasted about brokering a peace deal with the group. A military spokesman told the press that the decision to launch the airstrike was made to interrupt a planned attack on a checkpoint run by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF). The US conducted an airstrike Wednesday against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our 1st strike against the Taliban in 11 days, U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett wrote on Twitter, adding that the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on ANDSF checkpoints on March 3rd alone. On March 3rd alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on #ANDSF checkpoints in #Helmand. The Taliban claim to be fighting to free Afg. from intl forces, the Feb 29 agreement provides a conditions-based path to withdrawal. USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) March 4, 2020 News of the airstrike comes just days after the Trump administration and the Taliban signed an agreement to limit the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Under the detail, the U.S. military committed to decreasing troop levels to 8,600 in 135 days as well as withdrawing from Afghanistan in 14 months should the Taliban not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. Additionally, the Taliban vowed not to cooperate with those who threaten the U.S. or its interests in the territory under its control. Military officials told CNN that at least 25 Afghan soldiers were killed and 13 others were injured in three separate Taliban attacks. Hours before the attack, President Trump had spoken to Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar over the phone, later telling reporters theyd had a very good talk. I had a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban. Weve agreed theres no violence. We dont want violence, he said at the time. Well see what happens. Theyre dealing with Afghanistan. But well see what happens. Trump says today he had a "very good talk" with the leader of the Taliban, adds, "We had a good conversation, we have agreed there's no violence, we don't want violence." Reminder: 1,856 US servicemembers have been killed in violent conflict with the Taliban since 2001. pic.twitter.com/dQAdwTZoPo Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 3, 2020 The president now faces heated criticism for what many are characterizing as a major foreign policy failure. The US hit the Taliban with an air strike only hours after the call between Trump and the Taliban. I dont think this is how peace deals work, Donald. Scott Dworkin (@funder) March 4, 2020 The Taliban conducted more than 40 attacks on the same day Trump made these warm comments about their leadership https://t.co/DSaUagkxbq Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 4, 2020 I see Trump's peace deal with the Taliban is progressing just swimmingly. https://t.co/ODZ5i2KHAL Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) March 4, 2020 We signed a peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday, then attack it on Tuesday. Logic so absurd and PR-driven could only come from Donald Trump. https://t.co/fCWEY4hOTW Publius (@ThePubliusUSA) March 4, 2020 In 2012, Trump criticized former President Barack Obama for negotiating with our sworn enemy the Taliban. While @BarackObama is slashing the military, he is also negotiating with our sworn enemy the Talibanwho facilitated 9/11. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2012 The Taliban has not commented on the U.S. strike, though Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that a week of reduction in violence that started midnight on Feb. 21 had ended. The Afghan Taliban has spoken of its plans to forge bilateral relations with countries around the world for the second time in less than a week, even though the terror groups deal with the US doesnt envisage a role for it in the government in Kabul. Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar referred to the groups plans to have bilateral relations during a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, according to a readout from a Taliban spokesman. Mullah Baradar further said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a strong political and military force that aims and has the potential of maintaining positive bilateral relations with you and other world countries, Baradar was quoted as saying to Trump during the conversation that purportedly lasted 35 minutes. Trump confirmed the conversation to reporters in Washington, saying he had a very good talk with a Taliban leader. Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada had gone a step further in a message issued on February 29, after the group signed a deal with the US that envisages the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan within 14 months, and spoken of positive bilateral relations with regional countries. The Islamic Emirate believes in maintaining positive bilateral relations with the world and especially with the regional countries and is committed to the principle of good neighbourly relations with its neighbours, he had said. There was no immediate response from Indian officials to these remarks. A person familiar with developments, who declined to be identified, said: Its strange that the Taliban are already talking of establishing bilateral ties when they arent even in government. This seems to be part of their posturing. The Talibans latest statements are being closely followed in diplomatic circles in New Delhi and by experts who track developments in Afghanistan. The Taliban have carried out attacks on Afghan forces at least five places across Afghanistan since they ended a partial truce, killing 16 soldiers in Kunduz province. Hours after the call between Trump and Baradar, the US carried out what it said was a defensive strike on the Taliban. Photos released by the Taliban showed US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad was present with the groups leaders when they made the call to Trump from Doha in Qatar. Baradar welcomed the first contact with Trump and asked him to take determined actions for the withdrawal of foreign forces. He also spoke of establishing a government of our own choosing. Trump told reporters: We had a good conversation. Weve agreed theres no violence. YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. For the first time since the inception of the US Secretary of States International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards, an Armenian recipient will be honored and recognized with the award. 12 women from around the world will be honored at the Annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards at the U.S. Department of State on March 4 in Washington D.C. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will host the awards, and First Lady Melania Trump will deliver remarks to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of the awardees. For the first time since IWOCs inception in 2007, the award will be bestowed to an Armenian recipient this year. Lucy Kocharyan, a journalist who is fighting against sexual and domestic violence, has been selected to be recognized for her activities. Using her platform as a journalist, Kocharyan has championed children with mental health issues and has emerged as a leading voice in the fight against psychological, physical, and domestic violence against women and children. Through her dedication and resolve, Kocharyan became famous for launching Voices of Violence in August 2018. She has become a spokesperson on gender-based violence in Armenia and has continued to speak out despite harsh criticism from people on the street who yell shame as she passes by, to parliamentarians speaking out against her and threatening her with lawsuits. She successfully started a conversation about domestic and sexual violence that is slowly leading to some action. Gender-based violence is a pervasive problem throughout Armenia, where traditional social norms regarding masculinity, femininity, gender equality, and the division of household tasks remain rigid, making her achievements and impact all the more impressive, the State Department said in a media note announcing the recipients. Now in its 14th year, the Secretary of States IWOC Award recognizes women around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and womens empowerment, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. Since the inception of this award in March 2007, the Department of State has recognized 134 women from 73 countries. This year will bring the total to 146 awardees from 77 countries. U.S. diplomatic missions overseas nominate one woman of courage from their respective host countries. The finalists are selected and approved by senior Department officials. Following the IWOC ceremony, the 12 awardees will participate in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) visiting various cities throughout the country, before reconvening in Los Angeles for the conclusion of their program on March 16. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans spouse Anna Hakobyan will also attend the awarding ceremony at the invitation of the State Department. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan DODGE COUNTY Extradition paperwork has been filed to bring Lois Riess back to Minnesota to answer to charges that she murdered her husband. The interstate detainer agreement was filed on Tuesday in Dodge County District Court. Riess signed paperwork in January consenting to be brought to Minnesota. It is unclear why the paperwork took so long to reach Dodge County. A hearing date in Dodge County has not been set. Court records state that Riess must be brought to trial within 180 days of her arrival in Dodge County, unless an extension is granted. Riess was indicted in May by a Dodge County grand jury on charges of first-degree and second-degree murder. Riess husband, David Riess, was found shot to death in the couples Blooming Prairie home in March 2018. She then led authorities on a four-week, nationwide manhunt that went through Fort Myers Beach, Fla. where she was accused of a second murder before ending with her arrest in South Padre Island, Texas. ADVERTISEMENT Riess is serving a life sentence in Florida for the murder of Pamela Hutchinson. In Lee County Court in Florida, Riess pleaded guilty in December to first-degree murder with a firearm, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and criminal use of personal identification information of a deceased individual, according to the 20th Judicial Circuit Administrative Office of the Courts in Florida. Hutchinson, 59, of Bradenton, Fla., was found shot to death in a Fort Myers Beach condo on April 9, 2018. Riess is being held at the Florida Womens Reception Center in Ocala, Fla. Upon completion of the Dodge County matters, Riess must be returned to Florida, according to court documents. At the time of her sentencing in Florida, some questioned the need to bring Riess back to Minnesota to answer to the charges. In a statement, Attorney General Keith Ellison said that Riess should not be allowed to escape responsibility for her crimes in Minnesota simply because she was able to leave the state and commit another crime elsewhere. Bhopal: In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress alleged that the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. The statement of Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari came hours after Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. The opposition BJP dismissed the claim of Madhya Pradeshs former chief minister and said his statement was aimed at ensuring his re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh scheduled on March 26. Senior BJP leaders, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others, have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy," Patwari alleged. "The MLAs told us that they were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders," he said. "We are trying to bring them back. Four of them have come back also but they have forcibly taken away tribal MLA Bisahulal Singh," he added. According to media reports, Digvijaya Singh and his minister son Jaivardhan Singh also reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. Speaking to the media, Singh said: The BJP was luring our MLAs and some of them fell in the trap. We reached ITC Grand Manesar where we managed to contact Bisahulal Singh and Rambai Singh and others but were hindered by the police and hotel staffers. We have taken Rambai Singh, the BSP MLA with us. She is a brave woman who despite threats returned with us. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said: "Things are under control. There is nothing like that. The MLAs will come back". According to the Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who have been taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is Independent while the rest of them are from the BSP and the SP. They added that four Congress MLAs continue to be holed up at ITC Maurya, while one Congress MLA and two Independents were moved to a resort in Karnataka. Speaking to reporters on Monday at New Delhi, Singh alleged his party MLAs were being offered huge amount of money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron partys "poaching" attempts to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. Hitting back, Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements and engaging in sensationalism. BJP vice-president and MLA Rameshwar Sharma said people dont take the Congress veteran seriously. On Wednesday, as horse-trading charges intensified, Nath had said he has asked legislators of the ruling camp to take the money allegedly being offered by the BJP leadership in the state if given for free. As MLAs are telling me about money offers, I am telling them phokat me mil raha hai, toh le lena (accept the offer if given for free), Nath said. African Airlines have lost $400m since the outbreak of the coronavirus in China in February, according to the global airline industry body. In recent months, airlines like South African Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Air Tanzania, Air Mauritius, EgyptAir, RwandAir and Kenya Airways have suspended flights to and from China. The continents largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines, is still operating flights to and from five cities in China. According to the Vice-President of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Raphael Kuuchi, the losses incurred by the continents aviation industry had so far come from suspended and cancelled flights on routes to China. He said the impact of the virus is bound to get worse for African airlines which last year posted losses of $100m. Almost all African governments have publicly put in place strict screening at points of entry especially airports. Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal have recorded confirmed cases. The World Health Organization has warned that countries with poor healthcare systems may not be able to cope with an outbreak, many in Africa being of particular concern. New Delhi: The Central government will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) on coronavirus and the newly confirmed cases in Delhi, Rajasthan and Telangana. The meeting will be presided by Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan at 11 am in Nirman Bhavan. After the meeting, the media will be informed about the preparations undertaken by the government. The Delhi state government, on the other hand, held a meeting yesterday and reviewed the preparedness of the state. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held the meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and other officials on the preparations undertaken by the state for the prevention of an outbreak. Sisodia appealed to people to not panic and said cautioned people to make a habit of washing hands repeatedly for 30 to 40 seconds. "While talking to others, try to avoid shaking hands. Always keep in mind that without washing, do not apply anything by hand or nose. This is how the infection of the coronavirus spreads," he said. As many as 25 hospitals in Delhi have been kept ready for patients, of which 19 beds are in state-run hospitals while 6 are at private hospitals, he told reporters at a press conference in Delhi. So far six positive cases of deadly coronavirus have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. Apart from the three new cases reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan, last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and been discharged from the hospital. BT is probing claims that controversial equipment supplier Huawei has been linked to slavery in China. The telecoms giant's probe comes after researchers claimed subcontractors were using Muslim workers in factories where 'conditions strongly suggested forced labour'. Similar conditions were found in the supply chains of firms including Apple, BMW, Gap, Nike, Sony and Volkswagen, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said. BT's probe comes after researchers claimed Huawei subcontractors were using Muslim workers in factories where 'conditions strongly suggested forced labour' BT was urged to look into the allegations by Tory MP Bob Seely, a vocal opponent of the Government's decision to let Huawei supply kit to the UK's 5G mobile network. BT said: 'Forced labour is never acceptable in our own operations or suppliers, and we have engaged with Huawei in connection with these allegations.' The claims have emerged after China was accused of persecuting Muslim minorities, forcing them to live in concentration camps. It is thought up to 1m people have been detained. Huawei said: 'We require all suppliers to comply with international standards and laws. We have read the report and are looking into the matter.' Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here on Wednesday announced that the state government will give credit guarantee of education loans to be taken by students for pursuing higher education. Speaking on the conclusion of the three-day Budget session here, Khattar said a credit guarantee fund will be set up for the purpose as students face difficulties in getting loan for higher education due to a lack of collateral guarantee required by the banks. He said after becoming an earning hand, students will be required to refund the loan amount to the banks. A separate provision has been made in the Budget for this scheme, he added. The chief minister also announced that the state government has created a separate Foreign Cooperation Department to focus on initiatives for the welfare of non-resident Indians and youth employment. He said it has been decided that farmers, workers, students, teachers and representatives of panchayati raj institutions besides urban local bodies will be sent on foreign tours to abreast them with information about the latest schemes at the global level. Making another announcement, he said the state government employees and their dependents will now be able to get the facility of lung and heart transplant. Earlier, in his nearly 75-minute reply to the discussion on the state Budget, Khattar said the figure of 28 per cent unemployment rate in the state was incorrect and concocted. Senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhary had interjected the Chief Minister during his reply and drawn his attention to the high unemployment rate. "This 28 percentage figure is not correct, it is concocted. Two years back, the figure was 2.5 per cent. How can it go so high," he said. Responding to the rising state debt, the CM said it reflected the outstanding debt of nearly Rs 27,000 crore of the power department which was taken over by the government. The state has a debt of Rs 1.908 lakh crore and the government has been under constant attack of the Congress over the issue. The chief minister, who countered the opposition charge through poetry, said the state GDP was estimated to be 7.7 per cent this fiscal, which will increase further next year. He said the present state government has spent more funds on development activities in its five years as compared to the 10-year tenure of the Congress government. Hitting out at the Congress, he said they did not allocate adequate funds to many of the projects they started but the present dispensation has made sufficient allocations for their smooth functioning and completed many unfinished projects. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nokia and Marvell today announced a partnership to develop 5G multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology) silicon innovations, including multiple generations of custom silicon and infrastructure processors to further expand the range of Nokia ReefShark chipsets available for 5G solutions. The two companies are developing a new generation of custom system-on-chip (SoC) and infrastructure processors combining Nokias differentiated wireless technology with Marvells industry-leading multi-core Arm processor platforms. These new chipsets are designed to be deployed in several building blocks of the Nokia AirScale radio access solution, as part of Nokias 5G Powered by ReefShark portfolio. By deploying ReefShark, these solutions will benefit from a reduction in size and power consumption, while also seeing a boost to capacity and overall performance. Marvells multi-core Arm processor technology builds on five previous generations and provides a combination of programmability and performance that represent a significant benefit for Nokia ReefShark chipsets. Nokia and Marvell will continue to work collaboratively to address the complex needs of 5G NR, 5G NSA, 5G SA and other evolving standards. Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: This important announcement highlights our continued commitment to expanding the variety and utilization of ReefShark chipsets in our portfolio. This ensures that our 5G solutions are equipped to deliver best-in-class performance to our customers. As service providers continue to evolve their 5G plans and support growing traffic and new vertical services, the infrastructure and components must evolve rapidly. Adopting the latest advancements in silicon technology is a critical step to better serve our customers needs. Matt Murphy, CEO and President of Marvell, said: Marvell is excited and honored to partner with Nokia to enable next-generation solutions for 5G networks. Our platform of semiconductor solutions for data infrastructure in combination with Nokias technology and market leadership will enable wireless networks of the future to deliver on the promise of 5G and open a world of new business opportunities. Alliant Insurance Services Inc. has acquired the Portland, Ore.-based LifeBalance Program, adding the well-being discount program further it its employee benefits groups products and services. The entire LifeBalance team will join Alliant and continue serving clients nationwide from its Portland headquarters. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Newport Beach, Calif.-based Alliant provides property/casualty, workers compensation, employee benefits, underwriting, surety, and financial products and services. Topics Mergers Oregon Alliant A 43-year-old man was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday after a jury unanimously convicted him of assault for shoving his girlfriends face into a concrete walkway in Southeast Portland last summer. Davin Olson confronted the woman -- about not responding to his text messages -- in her backyard on June 8, 2019, while she was doing chores, according to a statement from the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office. Olson, who had been staying with his girlfriend at her Southeast Portland home, pushed his phone into her face, then she took and threw it to the ground, cracking the screen, the report says. She told Olson to leave and said if he didnt she would call the authorities. According to the report, Olson ran after the woman in her backyard and shoved her forcefully to the ground. The victims body slammed into a concrete walkway, the release reads. "Her shoulder took the brunt of the impact. While on the ground, and seemingly trying to get away from her abuser, Olson got on top of the victim and grabbed her head and shoved her face into the concrete. According to the report, Olson also took the womans phone, preventing her from calling 9-1-1. She reported the attack two days later and provided evidence to Olsons probation officer. After her report, the Portland Police Bureau investigated. Olson has a string of past convictions, including coercion and criminal trespass from early 2019 and stalking, first-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault from 2005. After the June assault, the woman suffered shoulder pain, forehead numbness for about a month and ongoing difficulty breathing, according to the district attorneys office. The jury found Olson guilty of one count of second-degree assault constituting domestic violence, one count of fourth-degree assault constituting domestic violence, and one count of interfering with making a police report. Olson is now subject to a lifelong ban of the possession of any firearm or ammunition. The Multnomah County District Attorneys Sexual Assault Victim Advocate program provides a 24-hour on-call response to victims of sexual assault in the county. According to the release, the programs volunteers respond to about 270 sexual assault call-outs each year. If you are experiencing domestic violence in the Portland area, you can contact the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office Victim Assistance Program at 503-988-3222, Call to Safety at 1-888-235-5333 and The Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services at 503-988-6400. -- Lizzy Acker 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the only Democrat elected to a statewide non-judicial office in Ohio, told reporters on Wednesday that he doesnt plan to endorse a presidential candidate before Ohios March 17 primary. Brown said he believes all the candidates who remain in the race could defeat Republican President Donald Trump in November. As a flurry of Democratic aspirants including billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar have dropped out of the race and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, Brown says he called Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to wish her well in deciding a course for her political campaign. But he said he doesnt have an opinion on what people should do with their lives and their careers in politics. It is increasingly clear that President Trump has betrayed the people of this state and we will defeat him no matter who the nominee is," said Brown, citing Trumps character, failure to tell the truth and his failure to fight for workers. Brown accused Trump of betraying workers in Lordstown who lost their jobs when General Motors closed its factory, of betraying the Great Lakes by attempting to cut money for cleanup efforts, and for zeroing out a program meant to help small manufacturers who visited his office grow jobs and exports," and for failing to support an increase in the minimum wage. He attributed Trumps decision to fully fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in his latest budget proposal to Trumps worries about winning the states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the upcoming election. Elections are about contrast, and Democrats need to talk about dignity of work and contrast it with his betrayal of workers," said Brown. At the same time, we will be organized, ready to get large numbers of particularly young people to vote. I think young people are hungry for change. Brown, who explored running for president last year before deciding against it, explained his decision to not endorse a candidate before Ohios primary. I want to sort of see how all this goes, said Brown, adding that he was not surprised by Bidens success on Super Tuesday. People want to select the candidate they think best to beat President Trump. In many peoples minds, that was Joe Biden. Other people think that Bernie Sanders would be better to defeat Trump. Read more coverage: Rep. Marcia Fudge endorses Joe Biden for President Meet Rep. Marcia Fudge and the people whod like to replace her in Congress House passes ban on flavored and menthol cigarettes in drive to curb youth smoking Rep. Jim Jordan predicts Trump victory in November, good chance of GOP House takeover Rep. Marcia Fudge has doubts about Bernie Sanders getting the Democratic presidential nod Senate Democrats including Ohios Sherrod Brown block anti-abortion legislation Sen. Sherrod Brown says Trump is working with Russia to help his re-election Ohio Congress members want government action on coronavirus Meet Rep. Marcy Kaptur and the people who want to replace her in Congress Ohio Attorney General tosses out GOP voting complaint against Democratic congressional candidate Rep. Jim Jordan visits Israel and tours Temple Mount with former Knesset member who is later arrested Meet the three Democrats vying to take on Rep. Jim Jordan Former OSU wrestler Adam DiSabato calls out Rep. Jim Jordan on MSNBC Heres who says Jim Jordan knew - or didnt know - about sex abuse on OSUs wrestling team Retired carpenter challenges Rep. Dave Joyce in GOP primary Turkey is neutral in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), and therefore, it objectively cant play any positive role. This is what the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh declared in response to the request to comment on the statement that Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu made during his meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. It is a fact that Turkey is an ally of Azerbaijan. Since the origin of the Artsakh movement in 1988 and throughout the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh, Turkey has supported Azerbaijan. Moreover, in April 2016, Turkey overtly supported the military aggression that Azerbaijan had unleashed against Artsakh, contrary to the calls of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and, in general, the international community to immediately terminate the military operations, the clarification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh reads. According to the official Stepanakert, Ankaras policy of unconditional support to Azerbaijan not only contradicts the status of Turkey as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, but also undermines the efforts of the international intermediaries targeted at the ultimate settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Artsakh. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) President Rodrigo Duterte will kick off his tour of the country's top spots to help boost local tourism with a trip to Boracay this month, the Department of Tourism said Wednesday. Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said the President will visit the world-famous island on March 12. It will be his first visit to Boracay since its shutdown for rehabilitation in 2018. "March 12, inaanyayahan namin kayo. Pupunta si Presidente Duterte sa Boracay [we are inviting you. President Rodrigo Duterte will go to Boracay] for the first time since it opened to show that it is safe," said Puyat in a media briefing. Earlier, the DOT said it was lining up different tourist spots for Duterte to visit in a bid to improve local tourism amid a slump in visitor arrivals due to the global coronavirus outbreak. DOT mentioned Bohol and Cebu among the President's planned destinations. The Philippines is seen to lose an estimated 42.9 billion for the first four months of the year, according to DOT. The government imposed travel bans to mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong and South Korea's North Gyeongsang province to prevent local spread of coronavirus infections known as COVID-19, badly affecting the tourism industry. Several events such as concerts of international artists and local festivals were also canceled as a precautionary measure. The secretary said the agency will allot P6 billlion for international and domestic promotions and regional tourism development. An example would be its new campaign on popular video-sharing app TikTok where snippets of the country's tourist spots are shown using the tag "#gocreateph." Puyat said discounts from airlines and hotels will also continue until April. DOT will also push through with its travel trade shows to areas with fewer cases of COVID-19 such as Western Europe, Middle East, Russia and Indonesia. Part of the budget will also be for training of stakeholders on preparedness, response and protocols amid the virus outbreak, she added. Correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report. Andrew Boff is a member of the London Assembly When I think about our approach to drugs laws, I often recall the rather overused quote attributed to Albert Einstein: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It sums up our drugs laws well. Prohibition has been in place for some time, yet people continue to use drugs and criminals continue to supply them. We put someone behind bars, someone else takes their place. Yet, we continue with this notion that drug laws are keeping us safe when theyre causing significant damage. Checking the victims of drug abuse into a drug rehab is a good idea. Last week, Dame Carol Black published her Home Office commissioned report, which concluded that Government interventions to restrict supply have had limited success, and even if all enforcement organisations were sufficiently resourced, it is not clear that they would be able to bring about a sustained reduction in drug supply. To understand the immensity of the failure of drug policy, we only need to look at the statistics. The illegal drugs market in the UK is worth an estimated 9.4 billion a year, this is almost as big as the UK wine market. Last year, in England and Wales around three million people took drugs. Most used cannabis, with 2.5 million users. This was followed by cocaine with almost one million users. Drug abuse is also a serious issue and with the help of rehab centers near you, you can fight this. These statistics do not paint a picture of a law that is working. Just as the Pietism Movement tried to impose its moral beliefs on the US population through alcohol prohibition and failed; the UK establishment has tried to impose its moral standpoint on an unwilling UK population, many of whom have chosen to ignore these laws and engage in recreational drug use. When I highlight such statistics to the guardians of current drug policy, in response, I will inevitably hear What about the children?. Indeed, what about the children? The children who can buy drugs because drug dealers dont have age restrictive sales policies? The children who are being exploited into county lines and a life of criminality? Drug use among children (aged 11 to 15) has increased by over 40 per cent since 2014, this appears to be occurring across a wide range of substances and across most demographics. The Childrens Commissioner estimates that around 27,000 young people in England and Wales identify as gang members, and 2,000 teenagers from London alone have been identified as having a link to county lines activity. There are two options available to remedy the situation; legalisation and decriminalisation. Legalisation will provide a legal means in which people can purchase recreational drugs, through a licensed supplier, which have standards and pay tax. Decriminalisation will allow possession for personal use, not the legal sale of drugs. I personally think we should use both options. Legalise mainstream drugs, ones that make up the bulk of supply in the UK such as cannabis, and decriminalise the more harmful, but lesser-used, drugs such as heroin, treating addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal justice one. The sheer number of people using cannabis is fuelling the illegal drugs market. Lets put the criminals out of business, introduce quality control and bring in tax revenue lets legalise. Buying cannabis from the black market also acts as a gateway to more harmful drugs as dealers will use this as an opportunity to push more of their products; legalising it will sever this link. Heroin and crack cocaine cost the UK over 16 billion a year, through reoffending, acquisitive crime, and health implications. In fact, offenders who regularly use heroin or crack cocaine are estimated to commit around 45 per cent of all acquisitive crime. Police action will not solve this alone and its common sense, and indeed financial sense, to invest in more treatments programmes for addicts. If we treat this as a health issue, by reducing addiction and increasing work opportunities, we can bring this bill down. We cant do this if we just criminalise these users, who clearly need help. This week, I raised these points at the Home Office Drugs Summit in Glasgow. While Im not holding much hope that the Government will start listening, I do see light at the end of the tunnel. The public is becoming increasingly in favour of legalisation. In London, even the majority of Conservative voters are supportive of legalising cannabis. The road has been long, but the end of prohibition is fast becoming a mainstream view. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Flying with kids is stressful enough without the added angst of having your 6-year-old seated in the back of the plane when youre up front in row 12. But without seat assignmentswhich can come with a steep fee or require the purchase of a more expensive class of tickettheres no guarantee that children, even toddlers, will be seated with parents or guardians. Its a problem some airlines say theyre addressing, even though complaints from passengers keep rolling in. In fact, the Department of Transportation received 600 complaints about family seating in just the past three months, quadrupling the number it received in the previous two and a half years. Many of those reports came after Consumer Reports encouraged people who had experienced the problem to contact the DOT. And more than 128,000 people have signed an online petition CR launched in late February calling for the three largest U.S. airlinesAmerican, Delta, and United to guarantee that children 13 and younger be seated with their families on planes at no additional cost. Family seating is also on the radar in Congress and was one of the topics addressed Tuesday at a House aviation subcommittee hearing on ways to improve airline passenger experiences. Its not just a matter of inconvenience for families, says Anna Laitin, director of financial policy at CR. Separating children from their parents during flights is stressful to children and parents and poses safety risks if there's an in-flight emergency. It could also put children at risk for sexual assault, she says. Travel Troubles Monica Fernandez is among the many upset flyers. Last June she flew from San Francisco to Newark with her 4-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son on United. While checking in she discovered that their basic economy tickets had them seated in different rows. The gate agent couldnt help her and said she should try asking passengers to switch with her once she boarded. Fernandez says she had to beg other flyers, finally getting two to agree to move a few minutes before takeoff. Story continues My son is on the autism spectrum, and I could not have him seated away from me. My daughter was terrified, crying and calling out for mommy," Fernandez says. "It is infuriating that I have to pay to be seated next to my young children. Something needs to change." But its not only flyers who buy basic economy fares who can find themselves separated from their kids on a plane. It can happen even when you have assigned seats, say, if your flight is canceled and youre booked on another flight, or if a different type of aircraft shows up for your flight. Families face a constant battle to ensure they are seated together, even when they choose seats far in advance, Laitin says. Nobody benefits from children sitting far away from adults who can care for them, and the risks created are simply too high." What Airlines Are Doing Airlines say they're clear about how restrictive basic economy fares are, with pop-up windows and other alerts pointing out that seats together for families or groups aren't guaranteed. Some of the major ones are beginning to address the problem. United, Delta, and American say they now have systems in place that automatically scan reservations to flag flyers traveling with children on the same itinerary and try to seat them together before check-in whenever possible. Andrea Koos, a spokesperson for American, says the airlines system will detect families traveling with a child under the age of 15 without seat assignments starting 48 hours after the reservation is made and will search for seats together. Koos says American also blocks a certain number of seats that can be assigned at the gate for families and others who want seats together at the last minute. Delta says it also reserves a block of seats so gate agents have some inventory they can assign at the last minute. It says it also has a process to try to seat groups on the same itinerary together, though it's not age-specific. A United spokesperson, Charles Hobart, says the carrier now automatically seats children next to at least one adult traveling under the same passenger name, even if the family doesn't choose seat assignments when booking. We launched this technology last summer as part of several family-friendly initiatives, including a new check-in and security lane at Chicago OHare dedicated to families to help de-stress the airport experience, Hobart says. No Simple Fix CRs Laitin says more is needed. Airlines may be making some improvements, but the complaints we see show theyre not working well enough, she says. For example, she points out that while United says it has processes in place to ensure that parents and young children sit together, its website still says basic economy travelers aren't eligible for family seating. Even passing laws may not immediately solve the problem. For example, Canadas new Air Passenger Protection law, which went into effect last year, requires airlines operating in the country to seat children under the age of 14 near their parent, guardian, or tutor at no extra cost. But some families report still being separated. Ashleigh Moore, a Salt Lake City native, says when her familyincluding her husband and two children ages 3 and 6flew home from Toronto in January, they were each seated in separate rows. Neither the gate agent nor the flight attendant was able to help, Moore says, and no other passengers wanted to swap for middle seats on the 4-hour flight. Our children sat next to strangers," Moore says, adding that her 6-year old sat between two adults each watching R-rated movies. "We were concerned for their safety, both in case of an emergency, and also in case of an untrustworthy seatmate. Moore contacted Delta to complain but the customer service agent wasnt aware of the law, though the airline ultimately gave Moore vouchers for new flights. The airlines need to find a better way to solve the problem," Moore says. "It shouldnt be up to families to deal with it, and its not fair to ask passengers who have paid more for a seat to move." What to Do Unless there are new regulations in the U.S., the only way to guarantee that your family will sit together is to pay for a reserved seat and check regularly to make sure that assignment hasn't been changed. But there are ways you can try to be seated with your kids without paying extra. Heres what to do, and how to complain if you have a problem. Call the airline. Try calling a reservation agent while youre booking your flight online and say you're traveling with children. While the airline isn't obligated to seat you together unless you pay extra to reserve seats, the agent may be able to make an exception or note in the reservation that you are traveling with children, which could help you later. Get to the gate early. If the airline has blocked seats for groups of people who want to sit together, early birds stand a better chance of getting them. File a complaint. When you have a problem, even after the fact, you should file a complaint. Start with the airline; it may offer vouchers for future travel for your trouble. You should also file a complaint with the DOT, which says it will continue to monitor the issue and has created a separate complaint category for family seating. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2020, Consumer Reports, Inc. It has been announced that a 21-year-old man is in custody after an alleged botched equine robbery has led to the death of a pair of Standardbred racehorses. According to an article by ABC affiliate WPTA 21, John R. Eicher of Berne, Indiana has been arrested and charged in relation to the incident. The WPTA 21 report states that in addition to tack, a jog cart and other miscellaneous racing items, Eicher is alleged to have stolen a total of three Standardbreds from the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, Ohio. Police received a call at roughly 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning (March 3) in regard to an overturned horse trailer that was found on a roadway near the fairgrounds. Two of the three racehorses in question were found inside the trailer. The two horses, which have since been identified as Gear Box and Latest Rock, were found deceased in the trailer when police arrived. The third Standardbred in question, M R Fearfullflight, which had reportedly been stolen earlier and not involved in the fatal accident, has since been returned to its owner. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Gear Box and Latest Rock. (With files from WPTA 21) In presiding over Mr. Trumps impeachment trial this year, the chief justice got a taste of the venomous partisan warfare in Congress and did what he could to keep his distance. One of his tasks was to read questions submitted to him, even when they were directed at him. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and a presidential candidate, had the chief justice recite this: At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court and the Constitution? That echoed criticism from liberals who wanted Chief Justice Roberts to take a more active role in the trial. But he showed no inclination to explore the limits of his role as presiding officer. He made this clear when Mr. Schumer asked whether the chief justice would break a tie vote. If the members of this body elected by the people and accountable to them divide equally on a motion, the normal rule is that the motion fails, Chief Justice Roberts said. I think it would be inappropriate for me, an unelected official from a different branch of government, to assert the power to change that result so that the motion would succeed. Last week, Mr. Trump took issue with Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Ginsburg had made critical remarks about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Justice Sotomayor had issued a recent and routine dissent taking issue with a string of requests for emergency relief sought by the administration. Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters! Mr. Trump said on Twitter. In 2016, Mr. Trump called on Justice Ginsburg to resign after her remarks, which included calling him a faker. She did not, but expressed regret, saying that her remarks were ill advised for a Supreme Court justice and promised that in the future, I will be more circumspect. Last week, Mr. Trump also criticized Justice Sotomayors dissent. I just thought it was so inappropriate, such a terrible statement for a Supreme Court justice, the president said of Justice Sotomayors dissent, though he did not appear to have detailed familiarity with it. Hong Kong: 1 imported case reported The Centre for Health Protection is investigating an additional confirmed case of COVID-19, which is an imported case, taking the number of cases to 105. The new case involves a 69-year-old female with underlying illness who lives in Landwood Court, Villa Lotto, Happy Valley. The patient had visited India from January 31 to February 24. She developed diarrhoea since February 23 while in India. After returning to Hong Kong, she developed fever since February 28 and consulted a Chinese medical practitioner twice. She visited the Violet Peel General Out-patient Clinic on March 3. Her deep throat saliva specimen tested positive for the COVID-19 virus today and she was arranged to be admitted to Ruttonjee Hospital. She is now in stable condition. Her husband and domestic helper who live with her are asymptomatic and will be arranged for quarantine. The patient took Cathay Pacific flight CX 694 from New Delhi to Hong Kong and arrived on February 24. Passengers onboard the flight concerned are urged to contact the centre at 2125 1122. For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage. This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Holly Stockus, a certified nutritional consultant and holistic astrologer who practices many modalities for health and wellness outside the typical programs, has published her latest book Trumps Stars: Astrological Insights into Donald J. Trump: a detailed astrological analysis and supportive commentary on the real estate heir and former reality television personality who became president of the United States of America. The author writes, Our elected President, Donald J. Trump, has become one of the most polarized human beings in our lifetime. We watch as the media browbeats this man, while simultaneously urging the people of this great nation to rise up, and pull the rug out from under him. Many do not understand how he continues to plow through the media unscathed and intact. His larger than life personality, and blunt tongue will not attract everyone, however he is who he is by design. Would it not be in our best interest to get to know our president before swallowing the dictations of the press, and late-night jesters? We can make some sense of it all by releasing wisdom from our ancient ancestors. When we study the movements of the celestial beings a narrative can be told. The human psyche is an inner zodiac expressing its identity. "As a holistic astrologer, I felt the urge to divulge some insight on our president and our current times. Were finding ourselves in the midst of a showdown between two energetic forces. Our country has become totally divided partly because of the relentless media. Politicians will be politicians, but the outlandish attempts to discredit this administration is diabolical. Power and control is the new norm by manipulation, while our freedom is slowly being taken away. We are at a pivotal time in our countrys history. How can we rise above the noise and become aware of whats right in front of us? Journey with me for insights to a man that has captured us allwhether by embracement or revolt, but either way intrigued. Published by Page Publishing, Holly Stockuss illuminating book is a must-read for astrology enthusiasts and those intrigues by the forty-fifth president of the United States. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Trumps Stars: Astrological Insights into Donald J. Trump at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. (Photo: Hurghada ) (Photo: Alexandria) (Photo: Luxor) With a captivating history that stretches back to the dawn of civilization, Egypt is widely considered the oldest tourist destination on earth. Ancient Egypt, before its collapse some 1700 years ago, was the Land of Pharaohs. Monuments such as the mythical Giza pyramids, the Great Sphinx, the ancient temples of Luxor, and numerous royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, stand as a tribute to all the Egyptian who once reigned in this ancient territory. Although the focus for traveling junkies in Egypt remains Nile Cruise Vacation, the possibilities for travel can also include diving and snorkeling along the Red Sea coast. Other adventurous things to do during a holiday in Egypt include visits to the Coptic monasteries of the Eastern Desert, tours to remote oases, or camel trips into the mountains of Sinai. Wondering what the best time to concoct an itinerary to Egypt is? Fret not, Egypt is a year-round tourist destination. Here are five unmissable destinations that people visiting Egypt must experience. 1. Cairo Cairo is, without a glimmer of doubt, one the world's greatest megacities. It's beautiful as it is crazy, as rich in history as it is half-decrepit-this city tends to create a sense of love-hate feeling for people who visit. The sheer noise, bewildering traffic, and pollution are assaults to your senses, but a look beyond the craziness of a modern-day conurbation will reveal a beauty and historical richness that span centuries. Full of potency, Cairo embodies what it means to be Egyptian. True Egypt tour packages aren't complete without a stay in the city Arabs term as Umm al-Dunya (The Mother of the World). Some of the best tourist attractions sites in the city include Museum of Islamic Art, Giza Pyramids, Egyptian Museum, Al Azhar Mosque, Sharia Al Muizz Li Din Allah, Khan Al Khalili, and Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan, among many others. If it's the ancient ruins that attract you to Egypt's capital, carve out some time for the archaeological sites of Saqqara, Memphis, and Dahshur. As the dusk sets in the city's sandy terrain, enjoy the monuments glow in the orange light of the setting sun as you relish a felucca ride on the Nile. Cairo is truly jam-packed with lots of activities. 2. Luxor Luxor stands above and beyond other major towns in Egypt when it comes to the sheer wealth of tombs and temples. This was the famous site of ancient Thebes, the great city of the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom pharaohs, who covered the banks of the Nile River with their gigantic building works. They also established vast tomb designs snuggly hidden within the rocky valley of the West Bank. Their work is greatly showcased and best appreciated in the splendid Karmak Temple complex, but there are numerous other attractions here that one could spend an entire week simply soaking up the panache and sumptuousness. For a crash course in Egyptian history, before exploring Luxor's ruins, visit the Luxor museum. Once you soak up all the artifacts and mummies in the museum, go and enjoy the town's famous tombs and temples. Although you might need more than three days to explore everything here, must-see sights must include the Karmak Temple Complex, the Temple of Hatshepsut, and the Valley of the Kings. 3. Alexandria Bursting with ancient history, Alexandria was founded by one of the most prominent early figureheads, Alexander the Great. This fascinating city sits on Egypt's north coast, slurped up at the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Founded some 2500 years ago, Alexandria has come a long way; its former glory still shines bright today, with a mixture of modernity creating an inimitable ambiance that has to be explored fully to be understood. The city features a wide variety of underwater activities, lots of other excursion options, and has plenty of nearby beaches for travelers to relax and make merry. More than any other major city in the country, Alexandria provides that unique days-gone-by atmosphere that can't be felt anywhere else and that history fanatics shouldn't miss. From the late 19th century up until the 1950s, this city was something of a bohemian bad boy, with a dazzling cast of artists, poets, and writers making this territory their home. While here, you might want to check out Alexandria New Library, Pompey Pillar, Catacomb of Kom El-Shoqafa, Montazah Palace, and Qaitbay Citadel. 4. Hurghada Hurghada is Egypt's oldest and most illustrious resort. Offshore is the flamboyant and bizarre Red Sea world of coral and fish life that has introduced the city into the world, while on the solid ground, the once small fishing village has now bourgeoned into a popular resort city that caters directly to tourism. For most tourists today, Hurghada is a winter-escape destination that treats visitors with its eye-catching sandy beaches and blue skies that make it a year-round attraction. It has also become popular as a family holiday destination thanks to numerous family-friendly resorts and hotels and an abundance of water-based fun activities such as scuba diving, sailing, windsurfing, and deep-sea fishing. Not only is the city ideal for such activities and relaxing, but it is also famous for its vibrant nightlife and extensive shopping opportunities. If you're planning a visit, this small city shouldn't miss in your itinerary. 5. Aswan It's always difficult to pick favorites, particularly in a country as mind-blowing as Egypt, but in a list of five mystical places to visit in this formidable country, Aswan shouldn't miss. This Nile-side city is in the south of Egypt and is as relaxed and chilled as it is chockfull of incredible attractions. Not only can you learn about ancient Egypt in this city with lots of archaeological and historical sites, but you can also find peaceful Nubian villages and experience some of the best views of the Nile-the perfect contrast to super urbanized and populated cities of Cairo and Luxor. From the utterly mesmerizing temples of Abu Simbel and Philae to the peaceful boat rides of Elephantine and Kitchener Island, Aswan packs it all. If you are planning an exotic Egyptian vacay, make sure you explore Aswan and its historical treasures, sunset panoramas, thrilling Nile cruises, chilled-out vibes, and delicious kebabs. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 NASSAU, BAHAMAS / ACCESSWIRE / March 3, 2020 / Amperico Corp (OTC PINK:AMPO) (Company'' or "the Group") dated 29 February 2020 (collectively, the Announcements'') announcement in relation to the Regulation S Securities Placing of Amperico Corp. The Board is pleased to announce that Amperico Corp has signed a USD Stock Placement Agreement with Digital Access Pass PTE. LTD., the completion of the full Placement will take place on or before 30 April, 2020 in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Placement Agreement. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the Placement Agreement, the Placing of Shares are to be on a best efforts basis. The shares under the agreement have not been fully placed. A partial number of placed shares in accordance of the Stock Placement Agreement have been successfully placed with one investor, namely Digital Access Pass PTE. LTD. To the best of the Directors' knowledge, information and belief having made all reasonable enquiries, (i) the Placee and, where appropriate, their respective ultimate beneficial owners, is an Independent Third Party; and (ii) the Placee will not become a substantial Shareholder (as defined under the Listing Rules) of the Company upon completion of the Placing. The net proceeds from the Placing (after deduction of commission and other expenses of the Placing) which will be utilized as to (i) for developing the Group's existing digital block chain technology products and the related block chain supply chain service business in relation to the SEC compliance and future STO public mobile exchange system under which Cointraders.io, a patent product of Coin Trader Ltd a subsidiary of Amperico Corp will be target to global block chain applications; (ii) for establishing with Digital Access Pass PTE. LTD., a leading block chain real estate sale supply chain service business system including the exclusive locking of upstream saleable property and the facilities in downstream channel system; and (iii) remaining balance for general working capital of developing block chain technology, products and services of the Group. Story continues Safe Harbor Notice This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements relating to financial results and plans for future development activities and are thus prospective. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding intent, belief or current expectations of the company, its directors or its officers. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's ability to control. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements are risks and uncertainties associated with the company's business and finances in general, including the ability to continue and manage its growth, competition, global economic conditions and other factors discussed in detail in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Contact Information Mark Powers Chief Executive Officer www.amperico.com (929 600-2646 info@amperico.com SOURCE: Amperico Corp View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/578890/Amperico-Corp-Announces-Signing-of-Placement-Agreement Michelle Obama will hit the campaign trail next month when she hosts a get-out-the-vote rally in Detroit, Michigan, a state key to President Trump's re-election efforts. The former first lady will be rallying young voters for When We All Vote on March 27 at University of Detroit Mercy, the organization announced. Trump was the surprising winner of Michigan in the 2016 election, taking the state from Hillary Clinton by less than half a percent. He'll need it in his column again this November. Obama is co-chair of the When We All Vote advocacy group and has touted its bipartisan nature, saying people simply need to vote. Michelle Obama will hit the campaign trail next month with a get-out-the-vote rally in Detroit Michigan is a state key to President Donald Trump's re-election bid Michelle Obama will hold the event for the bipartisan group she co-chairs, When We All Vote, on March 27 at University of Detroit Mercy But she also has made no effort to hide her dislike for President Trump, who has used his executive powers to overturn several Obama-era initiatives, including those to Michelle Obama's school lunch program. And, last week, Trump attacked Democrats including Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton for being 'fans' of Harvey Weinstein in his first comments on the rapist's conviction 'The people who liked him were the Democrats. Michelle Obama loved him, loved him. Hillary Clinton loved him,' he said a press conference in New Delhi in response to a question from DailyMail.com. 'I was never a fan of Harvey, as you know,' he said. 'He was a person I didn't like. 'I knew him because he was in New York.' In fact he, his wife Melania and Weinstein and his wife Georgina Chapman were photographed together in 2009. Trump also called the conviction a 'great victory' for women that 'sends a very strong message' for the #MeToo movement against that kind of behavior toward women. 'I think from the point of view of women, it is a great day, a great victory.' Trump himself stands accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by more than a dozen women when he was a private citizen and has denied the allegations. The Obama family was also directly linked to Weinstein by their eldest daughter Malia being an intern at his company in the summer of 2017. In 2013, Michelle Obama called Weinstein 'a powerhouse' and 'wonderful' as she praised him at a White House reception when she was first lady. Obama also campaigned against Trump and for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. And, last month, on her 56th birthday, Trump's administration proposed new school lunch guidelines Friday that would undo several changes made by Obama to get more fruit and veggies on the menu. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Food and Nutrition Service, said it proposed new rules 'to simplify meal service and reduce food waste.' That would include 'increasing flexibility in the vegetable subgroups requirements for school lunches.' Donald Trump used a press conference in New Delhi to claim Michelle Obama 'loved, loved' Harvey Weinstein as he spoke in the wake of the movie mogul's rape conviction 'Michelle Obama loved Harvey Weinstein.' Donald Trump's accusation apparently referred to the then first lady calling the movie mogul a 'powerhouse' and 'wonderful' at a White House workshop on careers for high school students in 2013 also attended by Blake Lively 'I knew him because he was in New York.' Donald Trump and his wife Melania went to the premier of Weinstein Company movie NINE in 2009 where they posed with the now convicted rapist and his wife Georgina Chapman Family tie: Malia Obama was an intern with the Weinstein company in summer 2017 But the changes would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits required at lunch and breakfasts while giving them the ability to offer more pizza, burgers and fries instead. It would also undo rules championed by Michelle Obama as part of her Let's Move initiative and The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. Obama made healthy eating a signature issue during her time in the White House. 'I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition,' she said. Trump, however, is known for his love of fast food. He often ate McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken on the campaign trail. cognizance of a video clip of a speech by social activist Harsh Mander, where he made objectionable statements against the top court on its decision in crucial matters such as NRC, Ayodhya and Kashmir. New Delhi, March 4 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo moto cognizance of a video clip of a speech by social activist Harsh Mander, where he made objectionable statements against the top court on its decision in crucial matters such as NRC, Ayodhya and Kashmir. Mander had moved the top court seeking FIR against BJP leaders for making hate speeches and accused them of inciting riots. According to the video clip from December 2019 in Jamia Millia Islamia, he is allegedly heard saying "I have been observing the Supreme Court for sometime...In its judgment in NRC, Ayodhya and Kashmir, the Supreme Court has failed to protect humanity, equality and secularism. "We can no longer bank on Supreme Court and Parliament. That is why all of you will have to come on the street. Ultimately you will get justice only on the street." Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, during the hearing on the Delhi riots matter, termed it as the "worst kind of hate speech" as "Mander is seen instigating citizens against the country's Supreme Court". The top court has asked Mehta to file an affidavit today and agreed to take up the matter on Friday. A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant made it clear that Mander's plea against hate speech by BJP leaders will be taken up only after the issue pertaining to the video clip is decided. The top court made some sharp observations on the alleged video clip. The Chief Justice told Mander's lawyer Karuna Nandy: "If this is what he feels about the Supreme Court, why should we hear him at all?...This is what you think of this court...before we hear you (Mander's lawyer), you go through the transcript and respond to these allegations." He also told Nandy: "If this is what you feel about the Supreme Court then we have to decide what to do with you." Nandy said: "He (Mander) has never said it. No copies given to me." Chief Justice asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to give transcripts and documents to Mander to prepare a response to the allegations. The apex court also shot down Mander's counsel request to put off the case against him to a later day, as he was currently on a flight to the US, and would be back on Sunday. Mehta replied: "Oh!...so he is enjoying his time in the US after doing all this." During the hearing, Justice Gavai also queried Mander's lawyer about this video clip allegedly showing Harsh Mander instigating a crowd against the apex court and Parliament. Mehta also pointed out that senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who was appearing for victims of Delhi riots, had appeared for Mander in a case connected with riots in the Delhi High Court. Mehta insisted Colin was appearing for different petitioners in the Supreme Court without a complete disclosure. The apex court also questioned Centre on registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and others, if the atmosphere was conducive to lodge FIRs. Mehta said that it should be left to the law enforcement authorities, as many factors were involved. The Centre said over 400 FIRs have been registered. It denied statement made by petitioners counsel that 10 people were dying everyday. Colin, in his petition referred to alleged hate speeches made by BJP leaders -- Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:01:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CAIRO, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The leading Islamist terrorist Hesham al-Ashmawy, who has been convicted of orchestrating several high-profile attacks, was executed on Wednesday, Egypt's armed forces said in a statement. Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer and one of Egypt's most wanted terrorists, was extradited in late May last year to Egypt from Libya where he was detained by the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army. He was found guilty of several charges including plotting an attack in 2014 that killed 22 military guards and exploded their weapons warehouse near the border with Libya and the involvement in an attempted assassination of a former interior minister in 2013, the army said in a video message published on its Facebook page. Ashmawy also took part in planning for targeting the commercial ships crossing the Suez Canal in the second half of 2013 as well as exploding security premises in the canal province of Ismailia following the army-led ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, it added. He fled to Libya after leading a terrorist operation in 2017 in a desert area in Egypt that killed 16 policemen and stole all the weapons, according to the army statement. Ashmawy, 41, was the leader of the Sinai-based Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014. Remake Amateur Radio for the 21st Century IARU Region 2 request help from young people to remake Amateur Radio for the 21st Century Are you a young ham? Want to help remake Amateur Radio for the 21st century? Frustrated that there are so few of your friends and age group that are interested in ham radio? Frustrated that amateur radio is in a rut, not doing more or different things with technology? Concerned that an aging demographic means ham radio is dying? And that our frequencies will be sold out to the highest bidder because there arent enough hams to show that we use them? So are we. And we want to do more than talk we want to do something about it. IARU Region 2 is looking for a few volunteers to work together to brainstorm ideas and possible actions to increase ham radios attractiveness. Were not looking for a single magic approach. After all, amateur radio means many things to many people. Rather were looking for possible ways to target specific interests that are either part of ham radio today or could be part of ham radio in the future to recruit and retain new amateurs. Are you interested? Are you: A radio amateur who has been licensed for more than a year? Between 18 and 35 years of age? Are a self-starter, willing to take initiative? Willing to volunteer your time and exercise creativity? If so, send an email to secretary@iaru-r2.org telling us why you are interested in volunteering to be part of this group, your current interests (in ham radio, what you do: job, student, etc) and your thoughts on what may be done. Ideally we would like to have as many parts of the Americas represented as possible*. With the exception of a liaison person sitting in, the formalities of committees wont apply: the group will figure out how it wants to work (Facebook, WhatsApp, video meetings, etc), and develop ideas of what it thinks will be worth trying out. This is more than a think tank. Were prepared to provide funding to try out some of the proposed ideas to see how well they work. We expect that some ideas will work, others wont, and different things will work in different parts of the Americas one size will not fit all. As part of the work, IARU R2 would propose to send one person to the IARU R1 YOTA youth camp to experience the camp, meet with the R1 youth coordinators to learn about what they are doing in Europe and Africa, to exchange ideas, and explore what joint activities might be done. Who are we: IARU Region 2 is the Americas part of the International Amateur Radio Union. Like ITU, IARU has 3 regions: Region 1 Europe/Africa, and Region 3 Asia/Pacific. IARU is best known for being the international representative of ham radio at the ITU, defending our spectrum. IARU does more than that, working through the national societies in each member country, coordinating WINlink networks, band planning, satellite frequency coordination, and training among many others. And of course, IARU is very concerned about the future of amateur radio, especially in attracting new amateurs. R2 has an Executive Committee made up of representatives of each of the 7 areas, a President and a Secretary. All are volunteers, dedicated to seeing that our hobby not only survives but prospers with new ideas and ways to do ham radio. *IARU Region 2 is divided into 7 areas: Area "A" - Northern part of North America including Canada and Bermuda. Area "B" - Central part of North America including the United States of America: also including Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands, and also Hawaii and all of the Pacific Ocean islands administered by the United States of America within the boundaries of IARU Region 2. Area "C" Mexico and the Caribbean Islands of Antigua-Barbuda, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Turks and Caicos. Area "D" - Central America including Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Area "E" - Northern part of South America including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and the Caribbean Islands of Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Grenada and Dominica. Area "F" - Central part of South America including Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. Area "G" - Southern part of South America including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Joaquin Solana, XE1R News Editor - IARU R2 https://iaru-r2.org/ French Prosecutors have said that a Russian-born man suspected of murdering a Chechen critical of the Kremlin-backed leader of the Russian North Caucasus region, Ramzan Kadyrov, returned immediately after the stabbing to Chechnya. The prime suspect, who is believed to have stayed at Imran Aliyevs home in Belgium before murdering him reportedly lives in Chechnya, AFP reported, citing the Lille prosecutors office on March 3. Aliyev, 44, was stabbed 135 times and his body was found in a hotel room in the northern French city of Lille on January 30. He had refugee status in Belgium since 2012. Authorities in a statement didnt release the name of the suspected murderer and said, on the day of the events, having quickly left France, he flew to Berlin to travel to Moscow the day after. From the Russian capital, the suspect took a domestic flight to Mineralnye Vody, an airport in Russias North Caucasus about 100 kilometers from the Chechen border. For the time being, he has not faced any questioning, the statement said. Judicial and police cooperation from concerned European countries have already been sought. Aliyev and another man with a Russian passport arrived in Lille from Belgium on the night of January 29-30. Both checked into a hotel room near a train station there. The victim was a popular blogger critical of strongman ruler Kadyrov. It is not the first time that a critic of Kadyrov has been killed in Europe. In August last year, a former Chechen separatist fighter, Georgian native Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was shot dead in Berlin. A 49-year-old man with a Russian passport has been detained in connection with the killing. The suspect, also implicated in the murder of a Russian businessman in 2013, has maintained his right to maintain silent. Berlin expelled two Russian diplomats over the apparent assassination, but Moscow has rejected the allegations of state involvement. Rights groups say Kadyrov, who has ruled the volatile region since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the region. They allege Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Kremlin critics say Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned a blind eye to the alleged abuses and violations of the Russian Constitution by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiments and violence in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus. With reporting by AFP The casting is interesting in theory but neither star departs much from their trademark schtick. Ferrell plays a relatively subdued version of his pompous man-baby character, while Louis-Dreyfus keeps up a stream of can-you-believe-this reactions, widening her eyes in incredulity or squinting in suspicion. The sitcom rhythms leave little room for what the material seems to require: moments when we hang back, watch the characters think and wait to see what emerges. But if you wind up seeing Downhill, you may decide to take what amusement you can get. Read Jake Wilson's full review here. Dark Waters The groundswell of dogged determination propelling this environmental thriller is so powerful that it deals effortlessly with the knotty tangle of facts packed into its plot. Much of this is down to the films star and initiator, Mark Ruffalo, playing a whistleblower whose courage has little to do with the flashier brand of heroism displayed by more conventional movie crusaders, writes reviewer Sandra Hall. Bill Camp (left) as Wilbur Tennant and Mark Ruffalo (right) as Robert Bilott in in Dark Waters. Rob Bilott is a corporate lawyer who has acted for some of the USs biggest chemical companies. His career trajectory takes an abrupt turn to the left with the discovery one of his firms most important clients, DuPont chemicals, is polluting the water of a town in West Virginia, causing cancers and birth defects and killing dairy cows and other farm animals. Loading DuPont responds to his inquiries with overkill. Boxes of files arrive at his office, filling an entire room and keeping him penned up for months as he sifts through reams of paper in a painstaking attempt to find something that he can use. The film is an adaptation of a New York Times Magazine expose by Nathaniel Rich. Ruffalo bought the rights to it and hired Todd Haynes to direct an unorthodox choice, given that Haynes biggest films, Far From Heaven and Carol, are lavishly furnished time trips which conjure up comparisons with Douglas Sirks romantic melodramas of the 1950s. Bilotts legal bouts with DuPont began in the 1990s, taking 20 years to reach a resolution. And it turns out Haynes can do much grainier work than his earlier films suggest. Dark Waters was shot in the winter and gloomy intimations of discord and decay are built into the very weather patterns. Nature is very angry. You might be relieved to know Bilott doesnt spend too much of the film closeted with his piles of paper. He has a wife, Sarah (a fractious Anne Hathaway), who views his obsession with the case with a mixture of alarm, awe and growing respect for his tenacity, and he has a boss, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), who allows him extraordinary latitude tempered by the fact Bilott has been prepared to take a massive pay cut while his research continues. The plot contains a few unexplained loose ends, but they count for nothing when stacked up against the films basic accuracy. Its best quality lies in the fact it has no Eureka moment. Bilotts wins are incremental a series of advances and retreats that add up to victory. And even then, his story suggests, the battle is not over. If were to maintain a just balance between environmentalism, consumerism and corporate profits, it never will be. Read Sandra Hall's full review here. Escape And Evasion Its not the script which provides the punch in Australian director Storm Ashwood's Escape and Evasion. That comes from Josh McConvilles embodiment of an Australian army officer who has returned from a mission to Myanmar suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome, writes reviewer Sandra Hall. Josh McConville (left) stars as a former soldier with PTSD in Escape and Evasion. McConville has a brooding look and the bulk to back it up credentials which, in the past, have set him up for roles as alpha males nursing grudges. He may be big and bearish, but he traces the patterns of guilt and anger warping this desperate soldiers sense of self with a delicacy that keeps you with him every step of the way. Seth is unsuccessfully trying to recuperate from his tour of duty in a gloomy little shack on the Gold Coast near his ex-wife and young daughter, Lizzy (Jessi Robertson), another of the unnervingly wise children to be found on the screen these days. Seth and his unit were supposedly on a landmine-clearing mission, but his fellow soldiers have not returned and its clear that something covert was involved. Ashwood begins to tease out the truth with glimpses of the mission gleaned from Seths dreams and delusions and these keep us interested, serving well enough as a build-up to the final revelation. At the same time, hes being pumped for information by Rebecca (Bonnie Sveen), a journalist who is also the twin sister of Josh (Hugh Sheridan), one of the missing soldiers and Seths best friend. Less credible is the fact shes starting to fall in love with him, and he with her. What makes the film work is McConvilles success in evoking a sense of what it must be like to suffer PTSD. Seth never knows what will spark his next attack. It might the unheralded pop of a balloon or the awareness of a figure looming up behind him in a bar that pitches him into a state of sweaty panic. Even Lizzy is thrown by these moments, as her sweet-natured father is suddenly transformed into a stranger. Fifty minutes in, the secret haunting him is revealed in an extended flashback which sets out to re-create the atmosphere of blurred reality that can distort perception in a guerrilla war when decisions have to be made at speed in murky circumstances. But the effect is not entirely convincing because the central premise is so far-fetched and the climax introduces a character drawn with such cartoonish relish that caricature takes over for the first time in a film that has, up until now, been scrupulous in its determination to get things right. The ending, too, is a bit neat and predictable to be persuasive, but through all the implausibilities, McConvilles performance never falters. He comes close to having you believe it all, but not quite close enough. Read Sandra Hall's full review here. Honeyland Documentary has never been pure, but that doesn't mean its practitioners ever stop trying to convince us otherwise. Honeyland takes us to the Balkans, where two ageing women live in a slate hut with a dog and three cats amid an arid mountain landscape. It's primitive, beautiful, elemental just the sort of place to produce a great documentary story. And it does, writes reviewer Paul Byrnes. Macedonian beekeeper Hatidze lives a life mostly untouched by technology. Hatidze Muratova, born 1964, has a face like Mount Rushmore and teeth like a broken fence. She raises Macedonian bees in the old way, finding their wild hives, bringing them home to the ruined village where she and her mother Nazife are the only inhabitants. The old woman is 85, bedridden and blind, with an awful sore under a dressing on the right side of her head. Manama The First Supreme Criminal Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the verdict announced by the First High Criminal Court last year against an Asian man who attempted to smuggle narcotics into the Kingdom by hiding it in his shoes. The man was sentenced to five years imprisonment, deportation and to pay a BD3,000 fine for the charges. Court files show that the man was arrested at Bahrain International Airport airport, after 2,231 narcotic pills were detected in his shoes and luggage. More pills were also found professionally stashed in the mans headphones and mobile phone charger. The investigations of the Anti-Narcotics Department within the Interior Ministry proved that the detected pills contain methamphetamine and that the man was planning to hand it over to unknown individuals here in return for certain amounts. The case was referred to the Public Prosecution, which interrogated the suspect in July last year. During the interrogation, the defendant confessed to the crime, adding that he brought the narcotics from Bangladesh so he could consume it along with a friend, who would allegedly pay him BD500 for it. The defendant filed an appeal against the previously announced verdict hoping that the judges would reduce it. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected his request and upheld the sentence. The Taliban killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had had a "very good" chat with the insurgents' political chief. "Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: "Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Income Tax Department on Wednesday conducted raids at the premises of former Congress MLA Lalit Nagar in Faridabad and Gurugram. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that I-T raids in the state are "politically motivated". The Income Tax Department had on Monday conducted a raid on the residence of Saumya Chaurasiya, deputy secretary to the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister. The team of IT Department entered the residence in the presence of Chaurasiya. The department had, on February 29, sealed the residence. The I-T Department had last week conducted raids at 25 premises, including those of Congress leader and Raipur Mayor Ajaz Dhebar and senior IAS officers in the Chhattisgarh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bonomi lead-free three-way brass ball valve packages are available with pneumatic or electric actuators in "T" or "L" configurations The T port with its four-seated design provides straight-through flow, diversion, and complete shut-off capability. Bonomi North America has introduced a new range of lead-free, three-way, direct mount brass ball valve packages with a choice of factory-installed electric or pneumatic actuators. The valves are approved under the NSF standard 61/372 for potable water use. The low-torque ball valves are available in both T and L configurations in sizes through 3. The T port with its four-seated design provides straight-through flow, diversion, and complete shut-off capability. 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About Bonomi Bonomi North America has served the U.S. and Canada since 2003 and is part of the Bonomi Group of Brescia, Italy. Bonomi Group brands include Rubinetterie Bresciane Bonomi (RB) brass ball valves and check valves; Valpres carbon and stainless-steel ball valves; Valbia pneumatic and electric industrial actuators, and Frabo fittings for plumbing and industrial systems. Bonomi North America maintains an extensive distribution network for these products from its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. The threat of coronavirus has inspired a wave of panic buying in Australia, resulting in items including loo paper disappearing from shelves across the country. Australians have begun to prepare for disaster at levels previously unseen, even at the height of the countrys recent extreme bushfires and other natural disasters. The huge demand for loo paper has seen supermarket supplies dry up in minutes, and in Sydney one chain has implemented a four pack buying limit. On the internet some people were selling packets of loo roll for over a hundred dollars, people have stolen loo rolls from public lavatories, and fights have reportedly erupted when lorries delivering paper arrived. Demand for loo paper surged after authorities said the number of people known to be infected in Australia has risen to 42, with at least two cases where it is not known how the sufferers were exposed to the virus. As well as huge demand for loo paper, supermarkets have been emptied of items including canned goods, hand sanitiser and bottled water. The Australian government has described panic buying as unnecessary, and prime minister Scott Morrison has urged calm. It is important that people just go about their business and their normal processes in a calm manner, he said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Widespread panic buying has rarely been seen in Australia before, but according to an academic interviewed by Australias ABC, the current wave may be informed by the mass disruption caused by the bushfires and floods which affected swathes of the country in recent months. Erin Smith of Edith Cowan University who has studied the mental impacts of major disasters, told ABC: With most other disasters, unless youre right there, theres a feeling of separation, of Im not there, Im not directly impacted, so Im OK. In terms of inducing fear and a psychological toll, pandemics are always right up there with nuclear attacks, chemical, biological and radiological issues and terrorism. She added: Were probably in largely unprecedented territory in Australia, in that were just coming out of the tail end of one our worst and most devastating bushfire crises that we have experienced. The World Health Organisation has said rising demand for medical supplies including gloves and masks, resulting in panic buying, hoarding and misuse, is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases. The organisation has called on industry and governments to increase manufacturing of essential personal protective equipment by 40 per cent to meet rising global demand. Kartik Aaryan Doesn't Let Work Suffer Even Post Surgery, Seen At IIFA Awards Event Soon After Leaving Hospital Today a U.S. fighter jet bombed a Taliban unit which was fighting with an Afghan government checkpoint. The air attack came just a day after U.S. President Trump had a telephone call with the Taliban leaders in Doha. The Taliban will likely see this as a breach of the recent ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban. The Russian Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov supports that view: "This is a treaty violation, because both the US and the Taliban entered into legally binding commitments not to attack. The Taliban did not attack the Americans or other foreign forces. If the US did that, they violated the agreement blatantly," the diplomat pointed out. The Russians have called the U.S. "nedogovorosposobny" () which translate to "not-agreement capable" or unable to make and then abide by an agreement. Today's attack again demonstrated that. On Saturday, February 29, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and a commission of high ranking Taliban signed the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America (pdf). (Yes, that is the real title.) The Taliban were quite happy with the agreement: Dozens of Taliban members had earlier held a small victory march in Qatar in which they waved the militant groups white flags, according to a video shared on Taliban websites. Today is the day of victory, which has come with the help of Allah, said Abbas Stanikzai, one of the Talibans lead negotiators, who joined the march. Shortly thereafter Stanikzai was seen shaking hands with Secretary of State Pompeo. Jessica Donati @jessdonati - 18:30 UTC Mar 3, 2020 We got a copy of the only known photo of Sec Pompeo shaking hands w top #Taliban negotiator Stanekzai here it is #Doha. US told #Qatar to keep him away from insurgents to avoid photo ops. At the same time the Doha agreement was signed, U.S. Defense Secretary Esper and NATO General Secretary Stoltenberg were in Kabul and signed a Joint Declaration between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States of America for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan (pdf). Neither the U.S. agreement with the Taliban nor the joint declaration with the Afghan government constitute a ceasefire between Afghan government and the Taliban. Both agreements are designed to facilitate upcoming direct ceasefire negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The joint declaration includes somewhat vague commitments of further military and economic support for the government in Kabul and its troops. But it noticeably does not include any commitment to use force in support of Afghan government operations against the Taliban. The relevant passage says in Part One Point 2 and 3: The United States re-affirms its commitments regarding support for the Afghan security forces and other government institutions, including through ongoing efforts to enhance the ability of Afghan security forces to deter and respond to internal and external threats, consistent with its commitments under existing security agreements between the two governments. This commitment includes support to Afghan security forces to prevent al-Qaida, ISIS-K, and other international terrorist groups or individuals from using Afghan soil to threaten the United States and its allies. The United States re-affirms its readiness to continue to conduct military operations in Afghanistan with the consent of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in order to disrupt and degrade efforts by al-Qaida, ISIS-K, and other international terrorist groups or individuals to carry out attacks against the United States or its allies, consistent with its commitments under existing security agreements between the two governments and with the existing understanding that U.S. counterterrorism operations are intended to complement and support Afghan security forces counterterrorism operations, with full respect for Afghan sovereignty and full regard for the safety and security of the Afghan people and the protection of civilians. While listing al-Qaeda, ISIS and "international terrorist groups" the U.S. intentionally left out attacks by the Taliban. Part One Point F of the U.S. agreement with the Taliban says: The United States and its allies will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs. The fight between the Afghan Taliban and Afghan government forces is certainly a 'domestic affair'. Under this agreement the U.S. had no right to intervene in it. Those who defend today's U.S. attack on the Taliban will argue that the Taliban broke the agreement by attacking a "U.S. ally". The U.S. agreement with the Taliban says under Part Two Point 1: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban will not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al-Qaida, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. The strategic Agreement Between the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and AFGHANISTAN (pdf) signed at Kabul May 2, 2012 designates Afghanistan as a "Major Non-NATO Ally" of the United States. The argument is thus that Taliban attacks on Afghan government forces are attacks on a U.S. ally from which the Taliban should refrain. Still my legal reading is that the more recent U.S. agreement with the Taliban as well as the joint statement with the Afghan government supersede that with regards to inner Afghan fighting which is clearly a 'domestic affair'. That the U.S. is not an honest partner is also visible in other parts of its recent Afghanistan agreements. Part One C of the U.S. agreement with the Taliban says: The United States is committed to start immediately to work with all relevant sides on a plan to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence building measure with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides. Up to five thousand (5,000) prisoners of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and up to one thousand (1,000) prisoners of the other side will be released by March 10, 2020, [...]. The United States commits to completing this goal. The interesting point is that the 5.000 prisoners are actually prisoners of the Afghan government. That the U.S. committed itself to release prisoners it has no direct control over is quite curious. It is also contradicted by the joint declaration with the Afghan government which was signed at the same time. Part Two Point 4 of it says: To create the conditions for reaching a political settlement and achieving a permanent, sustainable ceasefire, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will participate in a U.S.-facilitated discussion with Taliban representatives on confidence building measures, to include determining the feasibility of releasing significant numbers of prisoners on both sides. A vague Afghan government commitment to "participate in discussions" about prisoner exchange seems to contradict the strong promise with a fixed date the U.S. made in the agreement with the Taliban. When the U.S.government signs two agreements with different parties which contradict each other on the very same day it is clearly not-agreement capable. Why should the Afghan government now agree to a prisoner exchange which would clearly favor the Taliban? The sitting president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani immediately made the point: Pajhwok Afghan News @pajhwok - 4:27 UTC Mar 2, 2020 The US-Taliban agreement, which sets into motion the potential of a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, calls for the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. We have not made a commitment, Afghan President says. Its a sovereign Afghan decision." He told @CNN The Taliban demand the prisoner release before they will sit down with the Afghan government for ceasefire negotiations. Ghani is currently fighting with Afghan government's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah over who of them won the botched election in Afghanistan. The U.S. has yet to accept one of them as the newly elected president. Ghani will sabotage the prisoner release until Trump officially recognizes him as the newly elected president of Afghanistan. The Taliban will press the U.S. to stand to its agreement and to press Ghani to release their friends. As long as that is not happening they will continue to fight: A Taliban letter shared Monday with Stars and Stripes by a person with links to the militant group called on fighters to attack Afghan forces, but not U.S. or foreign forces. After signing the agreement, once again the Mujahedeen (fighters) of the Islamic Emirate are advised to start their attacks against the puppet Kabul administration, said the Taliban letter, which the person provided on condition of anonymity. ... Top officials at the Pentagon on Monday indicated they were not surprised the Taliban would return to attacking Afghan forces, but they called on the group to gradually reduce violence across Afghanistan as measures in the new agreement are implemented. ... This is going to be a long, winding, bumpy road, Esper told reporters. There will be ups and downs. Well stop and start. Thats going to be the nature of this over the next days, weeks and months. Yesterday Trump had a 35 minutes phone call with the deputy leader of the Taliban peace commission in Doha Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The Taliban empathized that the U.S. must stick to its agreement. The Taliban readout of the call includes this exchange: Mullah Baradar said: "Mr. President!" "Take determined actions in regards to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and do not allow anyone to take actions that violate the terms of the agreement thus embroiling you even further in this prolonged war." ... The President of the United States Donal Trump said: "It is a pleasure to talk to you. You are a tough people and have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland. We have been there for 19 years and that is a very long time and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan now is in the interest of everyone." President Trump added: "My Secretary of State shall soon talk with Ashraf Ghani in order to remove all hurdles facing the intra-Afghan negotiations." He said that we shall take complete part in the future rehabilitation of Afghanistan. Extensive discussions were also held about the implementation of the agreement concluded by both sides. The White House has not published a readout of the call but U.S. media mention it: Afterward, he told reporters that his "relationship" with Baradar is "very good ... we had a good, long conversation today, and, you know, they want to cease the violence. They'd like to cease violence also." That's not true. On Monday, the group's spokesperson said attacks would resume on Afghan government forces but not U.S. forces, and Monday into Tuesday, there were 33 attacks in 16 provinces, killing six people and wounding 14, an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson told ABC News. Five Afghan policemen also were reportedly killed during an attack on a security checkpoint, according to Reuters. After the call the U.S. military announced that it would continue to attack the Taliban: TOLOnews @TOLOnews - 8:38 AM Mar 4, 2020 Video [English]: US Gen. Miller in exclusive intw with TOLOnews on Tues. says US will defend Afghan forces, situation is "fragile," reduction of violence is the objective, if Taliban don't live up to obligations US will respond. #Afghanistan The Taliban do not have any obligations to stop fighting the Afghan government. The U.S. agreement with them does not include any such clause. The general announced that the U.S. would continue its air support for Afghan government forces and demanded that the Taliban "lower their violence." That is not what the Taliban expected from the deal that was signed. From their point of view a ceasefire with the Afghan government is still far away and they have no obligations to put their weapons down. They will now likely escalate with attacks against the foreign troops in their country. There were rumors that the U.S. agreement with the Taliban has four secret annexes which would allow for U.S. troops to stay in the country. Rumors in Afghanistan also say that the U.S. intends to let the Taliban take power and to then use them for its purpose against Iran, Pakistan and in Central Asia. Secretary of State Pompeo denied such side deals: The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday in an interview on CBS News' Face the Nation said that along with the public document of the US-Taliban deal released on Saturday, there are two implementing elements that will be provided. They are secret. They are military implementation documents that are important to protect our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, Pompeo said. They're classified, secret. There aren't any side deals. This is a rare case in which I believe Pompeo. The Taliban would not stick to any side deal after the U.S. proved to be not-agreement capable with regards to the main deal. If there were any side deals of any importance the U.S. would not disregard the just signed agreement as blatantly as it does now. Trump does not care about any of the above. He needed the agreement to justify a draw down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He will use that draw down to claim that he kept his 2016 election promise to get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. This even when there will actually still be the same number of troops in Afghanistan as there were during his inauguration. Spring is coming and with it the campaign season of the Taliban. With the agreement with the Taliban breached the U.S. is likely to lose more soldiers. To be not-agreement capable tends to have a high price. Kano State House of Assembly has launched a fresh investigation against Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi ll over alleged violation of cultural and norms of Hausa tribe. At Wednesdays plenary, the House received two petitions against the Emir. The petitions were from Kano State Society for Promotion of Education and Culture and an individual. The two petitions were signed by Muhammad Bello Abdullahi and Muhammad Mukhtar Jain Yamma respectively. The petitioners, who backed their petitions with video CDs, demanded the house to investigate the Emirs attitudes which they alleged contradict the Hausa norms and values. The House referred the petitions to the 8-man House Standing Committee on Public Complaints and Petition and mandated it to study the content of the petitions and report back to the house within one week. Shortly after the committee was ordered to commence the investigation, a member representing Dala Constituency, Lawal Hussain (PDP), suggested that the content of the petition should be read in public. However, the Speaker briefly explained to him that according to the section 3, sub-section (b) of the House Rule, there was no need for further explanation of such petition in public. We have given our committee the go ahead to go through the petitions, look into the issues and report back to the House for further deliberations on the issue, he said. The Committee, which the Deputy Speaker of the House, Engr. Hamisu Chidari was co-opted to lead the investigation, was given one week within which to present its report to the House. Also, the Majority leader, Kabiru Hasaan and the Chief Whip of the assembly, Labaran Ayuba were added as supporting members of the committee. This is not the first time the House is probing the Emir. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates (Alliance News) - Severn Trent PLC on Wednesday said it will invest GBP1.2 billion over the next five years as the UK water utility looks to build a "sustainable long-term future". The investment will go towards it pledge of going carbon neutral by 2030. By 2030, Severn Trent is also aiming to source all of its energy from renewable sources and have an all-electric fleet. The FTSE 100 listing is hosting its capital markets day on Wednesday, "focusing on our approach to sustainability and the benefits we can deliver both for the environment and for the wider stakeholders we serve". Severn Trent added: "We are making a number of ambitious long-term commitments that will enable us to support our purpose of taking care of one of life's essentials. These commitments are integral to the delivery of the customer outcomes agreed in our business plan for the next five years and also in securing a sustainable long-term future for the business we run. As part of our plan we have chosen to invest GBP1.2 billion in delivering our commitments." The company is committed to reducing leakage, water lost from the distribution system, by 15% by 2025 and by 50% by 2045, it said. It also aims to pay the national living wage to all who work on its supply chain, including those it does not directly employ. The UK's national living wage, the minimum wage level payable to adults over the age of 25, will rise by 6.2% to GBP8.72 per hour from GBP8.21 in April 2020. Severn Trent added that by 2025, it will also look to support 195,000 customers per year who struggle to pay their bills. Chief Executive Liv Garfield said: "By committing to invest GBP1.2 billion in the next five years we believe we can make a real difference to the environment and people we serve while delivering strong business outcomes at the same time." Shares in the company were 0.2% lower at 2,598.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Zambia has signed a contract of more than $824 million with a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation to upgrade a rail line, the company said on Wednesday. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation will rehabilitate the railway line in southern Zambia over a period of eight years, China Railway said in a statement. Infrastructure development has been at the core of Zambias development agenda since 2011 when the Patriotic Front (PF) came to power after winning the elections. The Chinese government and enterprises have been playing an important role in driving the agenda. This week agreement comes while Zambias external debt, currently estimated at 35% of its GDP, has soared. According to official figures, the debt reached nearly $10bn in 2018, up from $1.9bn in 2011. As southern Africas third-largest economy and Africas second-largest producer of copper, Zambia is a textbook case of the Chinese debt trap that affects 15 African countries, including Djibouti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The IMF rejected Zambias request for a loan of $1.3bn, arguing that the borrowing plans provided by the authorities continue to compromise the countrys debt sustainability and risk undermining its macroeconomic stability. ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo urged calm Wednesday as he confirmed there are now 11 known cases of COVID-19 in New York, 10 of which are connected to a Westchester County man who appears to have contracted the illness from community spread. The 50-year-old man, who lives in New Rochelle, is currently the only New Yorker hospitalized as a result of the novel coronavirus illness. The others remain quarantined at home as state health investigators work to trace their possible exposures in the community. New York's first case was reported Sunday in a Manhattan woman who had recently traveled to Iran. The second case, the Westchester attorney, was confirmed Tuesday. He is in stable condition "but still requires support" in a hospital intensive care unit, Cuomo said. His family a wife, son and daughter has since tested positive as well. They are quarantined at their New Rochelle home with mild symptoms. Meanwhile, a neighbor who drove him to the hospital and a close friend of the man have also tested positive. The latter's wife, two sons and a daughter have tested positive as well. The kids, Cuomo said, attend Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, which will close until Friday. Cuomo has said for weeks that New York should expect to see COVID-19 cases, given its position as an international travel destination. On Wednesday, when the state learned of nine new cases, he again urged against panic, noting the illness' mortality rate is considerably lower than other known coronaviruses. "The number of people infected will continue to increase," he said. "It's a function of mathematics. We're now playing this game of, oh, one here, one here, one here, whack-a-mole. It's going to be dozens and dozens and dozens, at a minimum." The 50-year-old's family has known exposures to a local synagogue, SAR School in Riverdale, Yeshiva University in New York City, Metro North public transportation, as well as the Manhattan law firm where the man works. Eight health care workers at New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville are being tested for possible exposure, Cuomo said, as that's where the man first went for symptoms before being transferred to an unspecified Manhattan hospital. SAR Elementary School and Yeshiva University will close until Friday. Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue will close until Sunday. SAR High School will close until after Purim is over next Tuesday. Yeshiva University said Tuesday that the student was last on campus Feb. 27. At least one other student has been quarantined, despite showing no symptoms, the university said Tuesday. Cuomo said "about 1,000 people" are quarantined in Westchester County out of precaution. Previously: Cost of vaccine slows congressional deal on response Cuomo: Second New York coronavirus case confirmed Gov. Cuomo: NY gets OK to run its own coronavirus tests Churchill: The coronavirus and the sick way we treat workers Legislature gives $40M, broad powers to Cuomo amid coronavirus Cuomo also said Wednesday that about 300 State University of City University of New York students who are abroad are going to be brought home on a chartered plane, and there will be dorm spaces identified for them to be quarantined in. In the face of increasing concern, Cuomo cautioned against panic and noted the strength of the U.S. healthcare system. "By definition, the more people you test, the more people you will find who test positive." The governor repeated statistics that 80 percent of coronavirus patients get better on their own, with the mortality rate being 1.4 percent. That number, however, is double compared to .6 percent who died after contracting the flu. The state's first confirmed case, a 39-year-old health care worker who recently traveled to Iran took precautions to limit her exposure on the way to back to the U.S. and is currently under quarantine at her Manhattan home. Cayla Harris contributed. (ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 4 - The coronavirus is expected to cost Italy's tourism sector 7.4 billion euros in losses in the upcoming trimester - March 1-May 31 - with an estimated loss of 31,6 million tourists over that quarter, the confederation representing businesses in the sector Confturismo-Confcommercio said on Wednesday. The new estimates were released after the evolution of the outbreak over the past week, the confederation said. "The situation is dramatic for the whole sector", said the president of Confturismo-Confcommercio, Luca Patane. "Unfortunately we are paying the price of media communication which is much more lethal than the virus".(ANSAmed). The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said there was "nothing wrong" with the AAP government's decision to announce compensation for victims of the riots in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar declined to entertain a PIL which had challenged the compensation announced by the Delhi government, saying "it is a policy decision" and "we will not interfere in it". The court said, "This is not a compensation given on fault basis. The compensation is being awarded on a no fault basis. There is nothing wrong with it." The petitioner, BJP leader and former MLA Nand Kishore Garg, contended that victims of the riots be identified before payment of compensation to ensure those who "perpetrated" the violence do not get the relief. The bench disagreed with the contention, saying if the petitioner's suggestion was accepted, then the scheme "would become totally unworkable". "It would be impossible to implement," the court said, adding that it was a policy decision of the Delhi government and "we will be extremely slow in interfering with it". The court further said, "We expect the Delhi government's assistance scheme for helping riot victims will be for assistance of riot victims only." "We see no reason to entertain the writ petition," the bench said, dismissing the plea filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) F our new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland taking the country's toll to six. The nation's department of health confirmed the additional cases this evening. The patients are all associated with travel from the same affected area in Northern Italy, according to the countrys Department of Health. There are two male and two female patients, from the western part of the country. Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer with the Irish department of health, said contact tracing is under way for the new cases. Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn added: There is still no evidence of widespread or sustained community transmission in Ireland, as seen in some other EU countries. While we now have six confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, we continue our containment efforts, central to which is that the public know what to do in the event they have symptoms. Earlier in the day 34 cases were added in Britain, taking the UK-wide toll to 87. Getting her eyes tattooed cost a model dearly as she has lost sight in one eye and will soon be blind in the other one too. Aleksandra Sadowska, from Wroclaw in Poland, decided to copy a rap artist named Popek, who got the whites of his eyes dyed black, reported Mail Online. The botched up procedure left the model, 25, complaining of pain in her eyes. When she contacted the tattooist about the problem, he replied that it was normal and could be treated with painkillers. The tattooist named Piotr A is staring at three years imprisonment for unintentionally damaging the eyes of the woman. After losing the sight in the right eye, Aleksandra has been warned by doctors that the irreparable damage will soon leave her blind in the left eye too. Meanwhile, investigations have revealed that the tattooist used the body ink, which should not come in contact with the eye. He runs a salon where he carries out mainly ear piercings. The models lawyers told that the investigations provide them with enough evidence that the artist did not know how to perform this delicate procedure and yet he did it which led to tragedy. Aleksandra said that doctors, for now, do not offer much hope and she is afraid that she will be completely blind. However, the model also said, I will not lock myself in the basement and get depressed. I have sadness behind me, but I live on. The artist, who has been charged four years after the models ordeal began, has pleaded not guilty. A court will take up the case soon. Warm tributes have been paid following the death of former BBC producer Douglas Carson. The respected historian, poet and public speaker, who was in his 80s, was educated at Annadale Grammar School and attended Queen's University Belfast. He is best remembered for his work alongside wife Marie in the BBC schools department, which broadcast educational programmes. BBC NI said last night: "Douglas was a greatly respected BBC producer who made an important contribution to the development of schools broadcasting in Northern Ireland. "Our sincere condolences go to his family at this time." Former BBC nations and regions director Pat Loughrey added: "Douglas never underestimated his young audience. "Instead, he produced a heady blend of literature, scholarship and startling imagination, mediated by some of our leading creatives. "He was confident that the audiences would rise to the challenge with relish. He was right. "Douglas was himself an inspired historian, poet and devastating satirist. "He deployed these gifts generously to the benefit of the schools department's listeners and viewers in some of Northern Ireland's worst times. "Modern producers have much to learn from his example." UTV presenter Paul Clark told this newspaper he first met Mr Carson when he started working as a freelance broadcaster on BBC radio in the 1970s. "Mostly, I reported for Good Morning Ulster, but I learnt my real skill in educational broadcasting," he added. "One of the producers was Douglas. "He told me that the target audience was children in a classroom surrounded by a multitude of distractions. "He then taught me how to grab their attention dramatically through word and sound pictures. It really was a theatre of the mind. "In those early days of my career, I learnt skills which I am using today more than 40 years later. "I shared Douglas's passion for the Titanic and Irish history, particularly the history of Northern Ireland, warts and all. "Douglas was a gifted radio producer and a master of the word. "But, for me, most of all he was a teacher. Mr Carson was the president of the Titanic Trust, which was established in 1997 to promote the Titanic as a centre of interest for Belfast. He was related to Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic who went down with his ship. In 2008 Mr Carson's daughter Kerry hit the headlines when she married Belfast's former Lord Mayor and consultant paediatrician Ian Adamson, who was nearly 30 years her senior. Kelli Raftery VicaomCBS executive vp corporate communications Kelli Raftery is leaving, effective April 6. Rafterys exit is the latest in a stream of departures from the company formed by the 2019 merger of Viacom and CBS. It follows the March 2 announcement that CBS communications chief Dana McClintock, who was Rafterys boss, is leaving later this year. Raftery, who spent 20 years at CBS, led overall media relations and communications strategy for CBS. According to a report in Variety, ViacomCBS raised its cost savings target from the merger from $500 million to $750 million. Anna Wintour The coronavirus has taken its toll among several of the top figures in fashion media. A report in the New York Post says that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Elle editor-in-chief Nina Garcia and InStyle editor in-chief Laura Brown are all in self-imposed quarantines since they returned from Milan Fashion Week. The report adds that overall, about 30 people from the three companies that publish the titles are in self-imposed quarantine. Bruce Dold Chicago Tribune publisher and editor Bruce Dold, who has been with the paper for 42 years, is being replaced as editor of the paper by Tribune Publishing chief content officer Colin McMahon. No replacement has been named to fill the publisher position, but McMahon will report to Chicago Tribune Media Group general manager Par Ridder, according to a memo sent to staffers from Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez, who took over from Timothy Knight earlier this month. McMahon will also continue as chief content officer, as well as retaining oversight of Tribune Content Agencys editorial team. In addition, Peter Kendall, a 32-year Tribune vet who was of the papers two managing editors, is also exiting the company. The moves all follow hedge fund Alden Global Capitals acquisition of a 32 percent stake in Tribune Publishing last year. How a magnet could help boost understanding of superconductivity Physicists have unraveled a mystery behind the strange behavior of electrons in a ferromagnet, a finding that could eventually help develop high temperature superconductivity. A Rutgers co-authored study of the unusual ferromagnetic material appears in the journal Nature. The Rutgers Center for Materials Theory, a world leader in the field, studies "quantum phase transitions." Phase transitions, such as when ice melts, usually require heat to jiggle atoms and melt ice crystals. Quantum phase transitions are driven by the jiggling of atoms and electrons that result from fluctuations that never cease even at low temperatures. A quantum phase transition can be achieved by tuning a material to enhance quantum fluctuations, either by applying a magnetic field or exposing it to intense pressure when the temperature is near absolute zero. In certain quantum phase transitions, the quantum fluctuations become infinitely intense, forming a "quantum critical point." These unusual states of matter are of great interest because of their propensity to form superconductors. Think of it as like an electronic stem cell, a form of matter that can transform itself in many ways. Meanwhile, in the weird world of quantum mechanics, "entanglement" allows something to be in two different states or places at the same time. The Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment, which features a cat that is simultaneously dead and alive, is an example of entanglement. Inside materials with electrons moving through them, entanglement often involves the spin of electrons, which can be simultaneously up and down. Typically, only electrons near each other are entangled in quantum materials, but at a quantum critical point, the entanglement patterns can change abruptly, spreading out across the material and transforming it. Electrons, even distant ones, become entangled. Ferromagnets are an unlikely setting for studying quantum entanglement because the electrons moving through them align in one direction instead of spinning up and down. But physicists found that the ferromagnetism in "Cerge," (CeRh6Ge4) a ferromagnet, must have a large amount of entanglement with electrons that spin up and down and are connected with each other. That had never been seen in ferromagnets. "We believe our work, connecting entanglement with the strange metal and ferromagnets, provides important clues for our efforts to understand superconductors that work at room temperature," said co-author Piers Coleman, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "As we learn to understand how nature controls entanglement in matter, we hope we'll develop the skills to control quantum entanglement inside quantum computers and to design and develop new kinds of quantum matter useful for technology." Rutgers scientists have used some of their findings to propose a new theory for a family of iron-based superconductors that were discovered about 10 years ago. "If we are right, these systems, like ferromagnets, are driven by forces that like to align electrons," Coleman said. Yashar Komijani, a Rutgers post-doctoral associate, is one of three co-lead authors. Scientists at Zhejiang University in China, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Germany and Nanjing University in China contributed to the study. This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Indonesians wade through flood water on a street in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, 25 February 2020. Overnight rains caused rivers to burst their banks in greater Jakarta sending muddy water into residential and commercial areas, inundating thousands of homes and paralyzing parts of the citys transport networks, officials said. Photo: Tatan Syuflana / AP Photo By Niniek Karmini 25 February 2020 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Floods that have crippled much of Indonesias capital worsened Tuesday, inundating thousands of homes and buildings, including the presidential palace, and paralyzing transport networks, officials and witnesses said. Overnight rains caused more rivers to burst their banks in greater Jakarta starting Sunday, sending muddy water up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep into more residential and commercial areas, said Agus Wibowo, the National Disaster Mitigation Agencys spokesman. Floodwaters entered parts of Indonesias presidential palace complex Tuesday morning but the situation was brought under control with water pumps, said Bey Machmudin, an official at the Presidential Office. A woman wades through water in a flooded neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, 25 February 2020. Photo: Tatan Syuflana / AP Photo The heavy downpour that hit the capital on Sunday had submerged the state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital, the countrys largest hospital, damaging medical machines and equipment, Wibowo said. Wibowo said the floods on Tuesday inundated scores of districts and left more than 300 people homeless, forced authorities to cut off electricity and paralyzed transportation, including commuter lines, as floodwaters reached as high as 1.5 meters (5 feet) in places. Television footage showed soldiers and rescuers in rubber boats struggling to evacuate children and the elderly who were holding out on the roofs of their squalid houses. Indonesias meteorological agency is predicting rain for the next two weeks. The flooding has highlighted Indonesias infrastructure problems. A woman pauses as she stands in flood water at a flooded neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, 25 February 2020. Photo: Achmad Ibrahim / AP Photo Jakarta is home to 10 million people, with a total of 30 million in its greater metropolitan area. It is prone to earthquakes and flooding and is rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of groundwater. Congestion is also estimated to cost the economy $6.5 billion a year. President Joko Widodo announced in August that the capital will move to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans. Severe flooding and landslides that hit greater Jakarta early last month killed more than 60 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and forced an airport to close. Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, who was criticized when massive floods struck the city last month, blamed widespread deforestation in the southern hills, saying it had destroyed water catchment areas. [more] Thousands caught in floods in Indonesias sinking capital Flooded residential houses are seen after heavy rain in Jakarta on 5 February 2020. Photo: Bay Ismoyo / AFP / Getty Images Jakarta disaster agency head resigns amid recent floods JAKARTA, 27 February 2020 (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Jakarta) head Subejo has resigned as severe flooding occurred across Greater Jakarta in the past several days. He resigned on Monday, Jakarta Employment Agency chief Chaidir said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com. He added that Subejo had resigned as BPBD Jakarta head to train and teach civil servants. With his new job, Subejo, who is 59 years old, can prolong his career until he is 65. If he had continued serving as a civil servant [in the agency], he would have been required to retire at 60 years old, said Chaidir. The new position also provides Subejo the opportunity to become a first echelon official in a ministry. [] Governor Anies Baswedan said Subejos resignation would not hinder flood mitigation. Heavy rains over Jakarta and its surrounding areas caused severe flooding across the capital from Sunday, resulting in the deaths of at least nine people and displacing thousands of others. [more] Jakarta disaster agency head resigns amid recent floods The tension between the royal family seems to mellow down this past few weeks as the Sussexes prepare to bid their farewell to the British monarchy. With Prince Harry back in the U.K., the Duke of Sussex had a chance to sit down with the Queen for an emotional four-hour chat. No More Family Drama? The 35-year-old royal went out from his Frogmore Cottage home to pay a visit to his grandmother in Windsor Home Park castle. The two shared a light lunch and tea as Harry discussed his future plans for his wife and son. The heart-to-heart talk ended with a heartfelt message from the Queen, who reportedly said: "You are much loved and will always be welcomed back." "The Queen had a lot to talk to Harry about and this was the ideal time for them to both say their piece," a source told The Sun. The same insider also mentioned that this might have "cleared the air" between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry's family. "Sunday was the first time the Queen has had the chance to talk to Harry on his own and really find out what his plans are. It was a much more relaxed environment and they were both able to speak their mind," the source furthered. Queen Elizabeth II Misses Grandson, Archie The one-one conversation between the two royals came after recent reports claim that the 93-year old Queen felt "very sad" and disappointed that her grandson Archie was left in Canada. It was after the royal couple returned to the U.K. without the presence of their 10-month old son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The young royal is said to be being taken care by the Sussexes' nanny, as well as Meghan's friend and fashion stylist, Jessica Mulroney in Vancouver Islands. Her Majesty was also convinced that Prince Harry had already made up his mind to leave the U.K. to have a fresh start in North America. The royal insider, however, reiterated the Queen's terms regarding the couple's status and her role as the head of the monarchy. According to Queen Elizabeth II, nothing will change about her decision to ban the couple from using the term "royal" in their branding. "However she also wanted to make it clear that the arrangement can only work if they do not exploit their royal status and try to 'cash in' - that's why she wouldn't let them use the word 'royal' for their foundation. "The Queen is protecting the institution and she is also aware of the cost of security." Although Harry and Meghan have already settled the issue with the condition, Queen Elizabeth II made it clear that the Sussexes are "always welcome to come back" to the U.K. anytime and they "will always welcome them with open arms." The Sussex Officially a Non-Royal In a few more weeks, Harry and Meghan will no longer be senior members of the royal family. With that said, the couple will now have a chance to be financially independent. Their royal status will officially end on March 31. The content of this item is withdrawn, as the facts are disputed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:42:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Everyday heroes from all walks of life have stepped up to play supporting roles in battling against the epidemic in Wuhan, the center of the epidemic. The city has 1.5 million registered volunteers, or 14 percent of its permanent population, official statistics show. WUHAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- As doctors are racing against the time to save patients infected with COVID-19, everyday heroes from all walks of life also step up to play supporting roles in battling against the epidemic in Wuhan, the center of the epidemic. From medical aid, food and goods assistance and psychological support to transport and community services, thousands of volunteers respond quickly and gingerly after the megacity was locked down to curb the spread of the deadly virus. Volunteers carry out disinfection work in Jiang'an District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min) QUICK RESPONSES FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE On Feb. 3, the Communist Youth League of Wuhan issued the first public notice online to recruit volunteers, and over 7,000 people had signed up in less than 12 hours after the announcement. Until now, the organization has selected and trained 19,155 people to serve as deliverymen, drivers, coordinators and community workers in grocery stores, neighborhoods, designated hospitals and makeshift hospitals to receive infected patients. Six counseling hotlines have been set up to allow 61 professionally trained psychological consultants to help residents 24 hours a day and 74 volunteers of legal practitioners take turns to answer epidemic-related inquiries online. Grid-based community worker Huang Lifang (2nd L) and volunteers Liu Ying (2nd R) and Zhang Qi (1st R) deliver food to a senior citizen living alone in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) On Feb. 23, another 10,000 people applied for volunteer posts within 10 hours following the city's new recruitment to ensure efficient deliveries of emergency supplies and daily necessities to residents. Over 24,000 volunteers out of the total 70,000 applicants have been recruited to meet the delivery needs of neighborhoods in the city. Some of the volunteers have played different roles in their anti-epidemic efforts. Yang Xue, in her 20s, has driven over 800 doctors to work and back home along with her friends. They have also transported over 500 tonnes of goods for communities. As the pressure on transport surges, donors of goods and medical supplies also hit the road to ensure timely delivery of the resources to destinations in Wuhan. Volunteer Wang Zhen, member of the volunteer group "Wuhan Emergency Team" taking pregnant women without access to vehicles to the hospital, checks information in a car in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) After over 30 hours of driving, a fleet of six passenger buses sponsored by a grassroots organization had sent 30 tonnes of fresh fruits and 10 tonnes of eggs to two major makeshift hospitals in Wuhan. "The food is a little token of our regard for patients as we stand together with them in fighting the disease," said Zhao Pengfei, one of the drivers. To facilitate the customs clearance of overseas assistance, over 300 college students, medical workers and professional translators teamed up to translate documents and notices in a dozen foreign languages such as English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French, Italian and Vietnamese. They also actively participate in coordinating overseas donations, as well as facilitating transport services. Haroon Nomaan, a Pakistan engineer working for Lenovo in Wuhan, also volunteered to help coordinate overseas projects and translate custom clearance documents in English and Urdu in a team of 83. "I hope that this crisis will be over soon, and as long as I'm needed, I'm more than happy to do this, whatever the time," he said. Recovered coronavirus patient Cheng Lin donates her plasma at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 18, 2020. (Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital/Handout via Xinhua) Meanwhile, following a nationwide appeal of plasma donation among cured patients, Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, a major designated hospital, has seen a rising number of cured patients to donate their plasma for the treatment of infected patients in critical condition. SUSTAINABLE, INTEGRATE SERVICES China has seen a growing number of volunteers over the past decades along with rapid economic and social development. In Wuhan alone, the city has 1.5 million registered volunteers, or 14 percent of its permanent population, official statistics show. A large number of professional social workers have also acted quickly to help people in need amid the epidemic, with systematic practices of helping people obtain tangible services, undertaking counseling and psychotherapy with individuals and families and supporting communities to provide and improve health services. Yu Zhihong, a social work professor from Wuhan University, has mobilized a team of professional social workers among her colleagues, students and counterparts and majors of social work across the city. The number of her community-based "Good Companions Response Team" has grown to 200 with a talent pool of up to 500. "The value of social workers lies in the ability to continuously serve more people in a short time," Yu said. People who are organized and guided by the "Good Companions Response Team" pose for a group photo at the "Wuhan Livingroom" makeshift hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 28, 2020. "Good Companions Response Team" is a team mobilized by Yu Zhihong, a social work professor from Wuhan University, to help people in need amid the epidemic. (Xinhua) For now, it is a more efficient operation mode to set up a targeted and sustained service system that links social workers with psychological and medical resources and "the services can be provided to more residents at the community level," she added. To minimize the risk of cross-infection, the team adopts a methodology of teaming up five workers in a group to coordinate and provide services using social media platforms. A group consists of two social workers based in communities, hospitals and designated zones for isolated patients and three volunteers offering logistics, medical and phycological assistance online. Yu also turned to the China Association for Social Work Education to appeal to nationwide professionals. More experts and social work supervisors from Heilongjiang, Shanghai and Guangzhou have beefed up the team. However, Yu said several hospitals declined their offer at the very beginning as doctors are fully occupied looking after patients rather than taking time to learn about their intentions. However, necessary guidance and consulting are in great demand among patients, and relative efforts are needed in the management and coordination of hospitals, Yu said. The team, thus, found another way to carry out their plans. With the approval of the administration office of hospitals, social workers introduced a QR code to invite patients into a social media group. Workers also drafted a map and completed the guidance of the hospital for newly accepted patients. Special needs brought up by patients are also handled carefully by Yu's team. Community workers and volunteers use a speaker to publicize the information about prevention and control of the novel coronavirus at a street near the Yellow Crane Pavilion in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) The professional training of social workers, oriented to help people in need, ranges from direct providing of services and the comprehensive coordination of social resources to participating in the formation or change of social policy, Yu said. Yu's team expects to promote a social work pattern that answers the call for social, life and psychological assistance. "As a supplementary effort to support the government who gives priorities to the most significant issues, social work takes care of the needs of more individuals," Yu said. "Most importantly, we attach great importance to humanistic care," she said. (Reporting by Ma Xiaoran, Yu Pei, Yue Wenwan, Wang Zuokui, Lu Donghua, Li Wei, Liang Jianqiang, Li Laifang and Liao Jun; Video reporters: Xu Yang, Gao Shang, Yu Guoqing, Yang Zhigang, Rao Rao, Wang Siban, Pan Zhiwei, Fang Yadong, Dong Han, Yan Kaixiang, Wang Bin, Chen Binrui and Cheng Yuanyuan; Video editor: Wu Yao) Kabul, March 4 : The US forces in Afghanistan conducted a defensive airstrike in support of Afghan security forces in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, the first raid after a US-Taliban deal was signed. The strike was launched against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e-Saraj district after their attack on an Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) checkpoint, Colonel Sonny Leggetta, a spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our first strike against the Taliban in 11 days," he said. On February 29, Taliban's political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad signed the peace deal in Doha, Qatar. Under the accord, the US and NATO will completely pull out their troops from Afghanistan in 14 months, while the Taliban would start an intra-Afghan dialogue. "To be clear, we are committed to peace, however we have the responsibility to defend our ANDSF partners," said the spokesman. "Taliban leadership promised the international community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." According to Leggetta, on Tuesday alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on ANDSF checkpoints in Helmand, 555 km south of Kabul. Earlier in the day, an Afghan special force command, without providing details, said one Taliban key member was killed following an airstrike in Nahr-e-Saraj. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period ending on February 29 when the peace deal was signed. However, the Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashed with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal was signed. At least 19 Afghan security force members and several Taliban militants were killed in separate predawn clashes on Wednesday in two provinces of Afghanistan. A couple in medical masks walk through the financial district in Manhattan in New York City on March 3, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) 3 Family Members, Neighbor of NY Patient Test Positive for Coronavirus The wife, son, daughter, and neighbor of the New York man who was the states first case of coronavirus spread in the community have tested positive for the new virus, officials said on Wednesday. There are now six confirmed cases in New York. The new cases include a male student at Yeshiva University in New York City, prompting the closure of one of the colleges campuses. The mans daughter attends SAR Acadamy and High School in the Bronx borough of the city. That school was closed on Tuesday when the mans case was first announced. Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck and Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, two schools in Westchester, closed as precautions due to possible exposure to the confirmed cases. The family of the man, who is in serious condition at a Manhattan hospital, were isolated at home while testing was done. The neighbor of the family drove the man to the hospital in Westchester, an area just outside the city, on Feb. 27, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters at a press conference. The male patient was transferred to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan on March 2. Cuomo also said that 300 State University of New York and City University of New York students and faculty in China, Italy, Japan, Iran, and South Korea will be told to return to the United States. Yeshiva University announced earlier Wednesday that a student tested positive for COVID-19, which is caused by the virus. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected, it said in a health alert on Wednesday morning. Precautions include canceling all classes on Wilf Campus in the neighborhood of Washington Heights in the northern part of the borough of Manhattan for Wednesday. That includes in-person graduate courses on that campus as well as at the boys high school. A pharmacy worker sells N95 face masks in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Feb. 27, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) A woman wears a mask on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Feb. 28, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) All classes and operations at the other campuses would continue as normal, the university said. It previously said that it was disinfecting all relevant common areas. Two people who came into contact with the 20-year-old student were transferred to Bellevue Hospital for testing, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Wednesday. A day earlier, he said that the Yeshiva student was showing symptoms but his sister was not. The father of the students was the first case of community spread, health officials said. Community spread means the source of the infection isnt known. The patient, a man in his 50s, works at the Lewis and Garbuz law firm in the Manhattan borough of New York City and traveled to Miami, Florida in early February. De Blasio highlighted that current data on the new virus show about 80 percent of patients experience symptoms similar to the flu and recover without hospitalization. The other 20 percent, international health officials have said, require hospitalization, with a percentage of those requiring intensive care and a smaller percentage requiring some form of mechanical ventilation. The lethality for the new virus is around 2 percent, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said at a press conference last month. The lethality of the flu is 0.1 percent. The virus emerged in late 2019 in China and has spread to dozens of countries around the world. There are dozens of cases in the United States, primarily on the West Coast. Theres an old Greek proverb that says a society grows great when people plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit. And even though opportunity lives here today, with a strong, growing economy, we have to be planning for tomorrow, not today. Thats what the Invest in Iowa Act is all about. It will address two of our greatest challenges as we look ahead into the future: competitiveness and quality of life. My plan will provide tax relief for hard-working Iowans, generate sustainable funding for water quality and conservation projects and fully fund our mental health system. On taxes, it will provide meaningful income tax relief for Iowa families. On average, it lowers taxes by 10 percent the very first year, with lower income Iowans benefitting the most and seeing a 25 percent cut. Those are real dollars back in the pockets of working Iowans. Today, Iowa ranks 42nd in the nation in personal income taxes just a few spots better than Vermont, Minnesota, New York and California. The plan Ive put forth will move Iowa to 20th, a substantial improvement to our competitive position that makes us more attractive to businesses and workers. The plan also reduces property taxes and dramatically expands child care credits, benefitting working families in every corner of the state. The second part of the Invest in Iowa Act funds water quality, conservation and outdoor recreation at historic levels. A decade ago, Iowans voted overwhelmingly to allocate three-eighths of a cent in sales tax to this critical quality of life need. Under my plan, $100 million per year would be allocated to water quality efforts, with another $55 million annually to improve outdoor recreation and conservation. This level of investment is a lasting legacy we can leave for future generations. And finally, this is a plan to help some of our most vulnerable Iowans by strengthening our mental health system. Weve made major reforms and significant investments in mental health the last two years to ensure Iowans have access to mental health services. But now we need to fully fund the system in a sustainable way that takes most of the burden off of local property taxpayers, which is what my plan does. To make this all happen meaningful income and property tax cuts, historic investments in the environment and a fully-funded mental health system the Invest in Iowa Act includes a penny increase in the sales tax. But make no mistake, I am not raising taxes. The penny increase is more than offset by tax cuts and added exemptions aimed to help working class Iowans such as exempting diapers and feminine hygienic products from the sales tax. The Invest in Iowa Act is a big idea and bold reform. Its the tree that we can plant today to provide shade, and limitless opportunity, for future generations of Iowans. Kim Reynolds is the governor of Iowa. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 (Newser) Bernie Sanders won the biggest prize on Super Tuesdaybut the wider result was a stunning victory for Joe Biden, who scored wins in at least 9 of the 14 states that voted, including Texas, analysts say. "They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing," the former vice president told supporters in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The candidate, whose campaign appeared to be on the ropes before his big win in South Carolina Saturday, "cleaned up across the board," writes Sarah Frostenson at FiveThirtyEight. "He performed well in states where he wasnt even really competing, and he proved hes more than a regional candidate." Some takeaways: Momentum is with Biden . Ryan Lizza at Politico calls the result "one of the most monumental political comebacks in the history of party primaries." He notes that Biden, now seen as a frontrunner with momentum, was helped by strong support from black voters and the Democratic establishmentas well as the exit of centrist rivals Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobucharbut may have gotten the biggest boost from the "jackpot" of his landslide win on Saturday. According to one estimate, "the amount of positive coverage he received after the polls closed in South Carolina was worth over $100 million." . Ryan Lizza at Politico calls the result "one of the most monumental political comebacks in the history of party primaries." He notes that Biden, now seen as a frontrunner with momentum, was helped by strong support from black voters and the Democratic establishmentas well as the exit of centrist rivals Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobucharbut may have gotten the biggest boost from the "jackpot" of his landslide win on Saturday. According to one estimate, "the amount of positive coverage he received after the polls closed in South Carolina was worth over $100 million." A "bitter blow" for Sanders. The senator is still very much in the raceand could regain his delegate lead when the full California results are released"but he faces some serious questions," writes Niall Stanage at the Hill. "He lost at least two states on Tuesday nightMinnesota and Oklahomathat he had won against Hillary Clinton four years ago," Stanage writes. "The loss of Texas was a bitter blow. He also appears to have lost the black vote again by dramatic margins, a crucial factor in his losses across the South." The surge of younger voters that Sanders had predicted also largely failed to materialize. story continues below This could be it for Bloomberg . This was a terrible result for Bloomberg, who failed to meet his target of hitting at least 15% in most Super Tuesday states and is rumored to be considering dropping out of the race in the days to come. The former New York City mayor "staked his entire campaign strategy on dominating the Super Tuesday states," writes Daniel Strauss at the Guardian. "He poured almost $500 million into advertising and field staff in these states," but the only victory the big spend secured was in American Samoa, which only has six delegates. . This was a terrible result for Bloomberg, who failed to meet his target of hitting at least 15% in most Super Tuesday states and is rumored to be considering dropping out of the race in the days to come. The former New York City mayor "staked his entire campaign strategy on dominating the Super Tuesday states," writes Daniel Strauss at the Guardian. "He poured almost $500 million into advertising and field staff in these states," but the only victory the big spend secured was in American Samoa, which only has six delegates. Warren, too . Warren will also face some serious questions after a fourth-place finish in California and most southern states, Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post. In her home state, Massachusetts, she was behind both Biden and Sanders. "Warren has been picking up some key endorsements in recent days, but without a win and with that Massachusetts rebuke, whats the argument for her candidacy?" he asks. . Warren will also face some serious questions after a fourth-place finish in California and most southern states, Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post. In her home state, Massachusetts, she was behind both Biden and Sanders. "Warren has been picking up some key endorsements in recent days, but without a win and with that Massachusetts rebuke, whats the argument for her candidacy?" he asks. A two-person race. The results show that the contest has "effectively narrowed to a two-man race," and made it certain that the Democrats will "nominate one of two septuagenarian white men with conspicuous political baggage," Matt Flegenheimer writes at the New York Times. "If nothing else, a Biden-Sanders matchup is the logical venue for the partys foremost ideological debate about the proper scope and ambition of governmentabout whether Mr. Trump is a symptom of longstanding national ills or an 'anomaly' ... whose removal should be the partys chief animating priority," he writes. (Read more Super Tuesday stories.) Meghan McCain has reignited her feud with Tara Setmayer, a fill-in for The View, after the ABC News contributor's remark that Trump supporters are like a 'cult' was drawn back into the spotlight last weekend. Insiders have exclusively told DailyMail.com that a series of previous squabbles between the two women had McCain push ABC executives to block Setmayer from returning to the talk show. A source at the network said: 'We haven't had Tara back on the show in [seven] months and of course you can guess why, Meghan hates her. For whatever reason [ABC] does whatever Meghan wants.' But even more outrageous, according to the insider, are the Twitter spats both McCain and her husband Ben Domenech have gotten into with Setmayer, with Domenech launching a profanity-laced rant last month aimed at Setmayer and speakers of a conference where she spoke. The source suggested that Domenech's willingness to attack Setmayer, who is employed by ABC News just like his wife, is likely him doing Meghan's bidding. They said: 'I'll put it to you this way, if Joy Behar was starting Twitter fights with ABC News contributor Chris Christie online, all hell would break loose behind the scenes and she'd be in big trouble. 'Meghan and her husband lash out at Tara, an ABC News contributor, and ABC News President James Goldston is sending his assistant out to buy Meghan a new cactus. It's a real s**t show.' Meghan McCain has reignited her feud with Tara Setmayer (pictured), a fill-in for The View, after the ABC News commentator's remark that Trump supporters are a like a 'cult' was drawn back into the spotlight over the weekend But even more outrageous, according to the insider, is the Twitter spats both McCain and her husband Ben Domenech (pictured together) have gotten into with Setmayer, with Domenech launching a profanity-laced rant last month aimed at Setmayer and speakers of a conference she spoke at The two conservatives butted heads on Twitter after some remarks Setmayer made at a conservative conference ended up being misrepresented in the Washington Examiner. 'I've never done jack s**t to you @TaraSetmayer - stop using my name for media attention,' McCain tweeted along with the link to the Washington Examiner story with the original headline 'Tara Setmayer has zero actual political beliefs and will work for anyone who pays. Yeah,' Domenech wrote. The source suggested that Domenech's willingness to attack Setmayer, who is employed by ABC News just like his wife, is likely him doing his wife's dirty bidding The two conservatives butted heads on Twitter after some remarks Setmayer made at a conservative conference ended up being misrepresented in the Washington Examiner. The publication initially ran a headline that read: 'Republican says Meghan McCain and husband wanted her ''bullied into silence'' over Trump ''cult'' comments.' McCain was quick to accuse Setmayer, who is currently a spring fellow at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, of trying to use her for recognition. 'I've never done jack s**t to you @TaraSetmayer - stop using my name for media attention,' McCain tweeted along with the link to the Washington Examiner story with the original headline. Setmayer shot back on Twitter: 'First of all, the headline is incorrect. And I immediately confronted the writer on here to say so. And there were 200 other [people] in the room who could back that up. Secondly, I don't need to use your name for media attention and never have.' In a separate tweet, Setmayer, who is also a CNN political analyst, shared a video clip of what she said at the event and wrote: 'I said no such thing about Meghan McCain. However, I did respond to her husband's attack on me... Here's the video to prove it.' Setmayer made sure to mention the Examiner changed its headline to reflect her actual quotes. The issue stems from July 2018, when Setmayer was on The View and clashed with McCain. Joy Behar had just finished a rant about Republicans not holding Trump accountable and Setmayer chimed in: 'It's a cult that way!' That remark set off McCain, who shot back: 'Please stop saying that. You said it the last time you were here and it's so reductive to people like me.' A spokesperson for The View said: 'This is total nonsense. As we have said many times before, the producers book the show not the co-hosts.' The issue stems from July 2018, when Setmayer was on The View and clashed with McCain (pictured). Joy Behar had just finished a rant about Republicans not holding Trump accountable and Setmayer chimed in: 'It's a cult that way!' That remark set off McCain, who shot back: 'Please stop saying that. You said it the last time you were here and it's so reductive to people like me' Things got tense from there and the bickering garnered some media attention, however McCain claims she doesn't recall the encounter during a follow-up tweet to Setmayer Setmayer didn't back down, firing back: 'No, I won't stop saying that because... it's not everyone, but there's a large group of people who blindly follow what this man says, that don't think for themselves.' Things got tense from there and the bickering garnered some media attention, however McCain claims she doesn't recall the encounter during a follow-up tweet to Setmayer. 'I don't even remember that conversation with you on The View, it was so forgettable. Also, you worked for one of the most corrupt, disgusting, Putin propaganda mouthpieces Dana Rohrabacher in ALL of Congress for 7 years. So, please save the virtue signaling.' McCain tweeted. McCain's husband, who is the controversial publisher of the online conservative magazine The Federalist, also went after Setmayer just a little more than a week before. He posted a series of profanity-laced messages attacking all of the speakers at the Principled Conservatism conference, including Setmayer. 'Tara Setmayer has zero actual political beliefs and will work for anyone who pays. Yeah,' Domenech wrote. Setmayer replied: 'Whoa....excuse me @bdomenech. While u were being accused plagerism (sic), I'd been on the frontlines of the conservative movement since 1993. So don't even go there w/ me. Ur casting aspersions upon my conservative bona fides based on what? B/c I'm not a Trump cultist? Nice try.' McCain's husband, who is the controversial publisher of the online conservative magazine The Federalist, also went after Setmayer just a little more than a week before. He posted a series of profanity-laced messages attacking all of the speakers at the Principled Conservatism conference, including Setmayer Setmayer replied: 'Whoa....excuse me @bdomenech. While u were being accused plagerism (sic), I'd been on the frontlines of the conservative movement since 1993. So don't even go there w/ me. Ur casting aspersions upon my conservative bona fides based on what? B/c I'm not a Trump cultist? Nice try' Domenech, who wed McCain in 2017, lost his job at the Washington Post because of plagiarism and then had his syndicated column dropped by multiple outlets for being paid to push Malaysian propaganda in it and not disclosing it. The spat didn't go unnoticed by The View fans, as many have wondered why Setmayer has been overlooked each time there has been a shakeup at the table, including when Sara Haines and most recently Abby Huntsman departed the show. One viewer tweeted: 'Meghan McCain's husband attacking those he apparently considers faux conservatives, including Tara Setmayer, who has been an occasional guest co-host on The View, alongside his wife. If you want insight into Meghan's nasty attitude over past few yrs, check out her hubby's feed.' Another said: 'I think MM is missing Abby as a backup. I wish we could have Tara Setmayer and more of Ana Navarro.' 'Tara Setmayer has my vote for permanent co-host. I didn't like the show when Paula was on. #TheView,' tweeted one user. The source said co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Behar and Whoopi Goldberg agree with fans, adding: 'Everyone at the show really likes her, she's the consummate professional, smart and Whoopi has fawned over her on-air.' The insider also revealed that McCain was back to her old ways of causing backstage drama, even after her friend Abby Huntsman quit the show over the 'toxic' workplace' They added: 'But for whatever reason this network does whatever Meghan wants and that's why Abby got the hell out of there and made sure everyone knew why when she bolted.' The insider also revealed that McCain was back to her old ways of causing backstage drama, even after her friend Huntsman quit the show over its 'toxic' workplace. Now The View co-hosts are emboldened by Huntsman's departing word to them, telling her former colleagues that it is McCain herself who has been using her husband to plant stories about the show. The source said: 'Abby told the ladies that Meghan loves playing the victim because she not only feels that it garners her sympathy as a hardcore conservative, but it deflects from people figuring out that she's been the one manipulating everyone by leaking stories on the show all along. 'And if you notice from watching since Abby's departure, Joy, Sunny and Whoopi are cutting Meghan no breaks. They all know what time it is now.' Scientists at Uppsala University have proposed an addition to the theory of evolution that can explain how and why genes move on chromosomes. The hypothesis, called the SNAP Hypothesis, is presented in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics. Life originated on earth almost four billion years ago and diversified into a vast array of species. How has this diversification occurred? The Theory of Evolution together with the discovery of DNA and how it replicates provide an answer and a mechanism. Mutations in DNA occur from generation to generation and can be selected if they help individuals to adapt better to their environment. Over time, this has led to the separation of organisms into the different species that now inhabit all the different ecosystems of the planet. Current theory (that evolution involves mistakes made when replicating a gene) explains how genes can mutate over time and acquire new meanings. However, a mystery in biology is that the relative locations of genes on chromosomes also changes over time. This is very obvious in bacteria, where different species often have the same genes in very different relative locations. Since the origin of life, genes have apparently been changing location. The questions are, how and why do genes move their relative locations? Now, scientists at Uppsala University have proposed an addition to the theory of evolution that can explain how and why genes move on chromosomes. The hypothesis, called the SNAP Hypothesis, is based on the observation that tandem duplications of sections of chromosome occur very frequently in bacteria (more than a million times more frequently than most mutations). These duplications are lost spontaneously unless they are selected. Selection to maintain a duplication can occur whenever bacteria find themselves in a sub-optimal environment, where having two copies of a particular gene could increase fitness (for example, if the duplicated region includes a gene that increases growth rate on a poor nutrient). Duplications typically contain hundreds of genes, even if only one is selected. The scientists Gerrit Brandis and Diarmaid Hughes argue that mutations can quickly accumulate in the hundreds of non-selected genes, including genes that are normally essential when there is only a single copy in the chromosome. Once two different essential genes are inactivated, one in each copy of the duplication, the duplication can no longer be lost. From this point on, the bacteria will have many genes unnecessarily duplicated, and mutations to inactivate or delete them will be positively selected because they increase fitness. Over time, all of the unnecessary duplicated genes may be lost by mutation, but this will happen randomly in each copy of the duplication. By this process of random loss of unnecessary duplicated genes in each copy of the duplication, the relative order of the remaining genes can be completely changed. The SNAP process can rearrange gene order very rapidly and it may contribute to separating different species. ### He has been trying to combat rising incidents of knife crime in London, and has previously called for an end to the 'stupid' incidents. And Idris Elba stepped out on stage at the WE Day charity event, which was held at SSE Arena in Wembley, London, to discuss social issues with 12,000 schoolchildren and teachers on Wednesday. The Luther star, 47, said of his own experience growing up in London: 'Happy is my normal. Yes, there was crime. Yes, there was poverty. Yes, there were gangs. Helpful: Idris Elba encouraged young people to 'speak out about what matters' as he discussed social issues with students at WE Day event 'Some of the people I grew up with, people I saw around the neighbourhood, went down the wrong path, ended up doing the wrong thing. 'I was different. I was lucky, maybe. I wanted different things. I was an only child by immigrant parents from Sierra Leone, West Africa. 'And they worked hard for what they had. This way of life taught me the importance of independence and relying on myself for my own success.' Doing his part: Idris spoke with 12,000 schoolchildren and teachers at the event Help: Idris told the attendees, 'Speak out about what matters whether that is fighting against knife crime, global hunger, housing, education, sexism, combating racism' Idris continued: 'You are all capable of making an impact so speak out about what matters whether that is fighting against knife crime, global hunger, housing, education, sexism, combating racism. 'We all need to be conscious about the world we live in because it is our responsibility to make things better together.' The Wire star was joined at the event by stars like Lewis Hamilton, Leona Lewis and Laura Whitmore, as they celebrated the charity work that young people do. Last year, Idris called for an end to the 'stupid' incidents whilst speaking to ITV News about rising knife crime. Star-studded: The Wire star was joined at the event by stars like Lewis Hamilton (pictured), Leona Lewis and Laura Whitmore, as they celebrated the charity work that young people do Candid: Idris said of his youth: 'I was an only child by immigrant parents... and they worked hard for what they had. This way of life taught me the importance of independence' At the time he called on perpetrators to stop making their communities 'look stupid', and urged them to think of their future. The Wire star explained that knife crime wasn't 'new' in the capital, as he grew up in the 1980s when there were similar incidents 'between blacks and whites.' Idris went on: 'And now it's definitely between young black men in small, tiny communities. And it's affecting everyone, we all look stupid. Sharp: Idris looked dapper at the event, as he teamed a black sweatshirt with a pair of smart navy blue trousers 'You look even more stupid, if you've got a knife, or you know someone that's got a knife, tell them to stab themselves right now, trust me. Because you're just going to stab your future if you go and stab someone else. 'You become a murderer, you go to prison, you ain't got s***. For what? For some beef that lives within your community. You need to see past that.' Idris looked dapper at the event, as he teamed a black sweatshirt with a pair of smart navy blue trousers. He offset his smart ensemble by stepping out in a pair of white trainers, while he accessorised with a smart watch. Big issue: Last year, Idris called for an end to the 'stupid' incidents whilst speaking to ITV News about rising knife crime Sonata Software on Wednesday announced signing of definitive agreements to acquire GAPbusters Limited (GBW), a Melbourne-headquartered company in the Customer Experience (CX) space. GBW has been amongst the pioneers in the CX domain serving renowned brands globally for nearly 30 years, according to a Sonata Software statement. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. GBW has for long been known for its mystery shopping, brand/compliance audits & competitor benchmarking programmes, it said. Over the last few years, GBW has taken a platform based approach for its new solution offerings in employee survey, feedback management and voice of customer programmes to widen its CX bouquet leveraging advanced AI & ML capabilities to deliver "insightful & actionable" recommendations for its clients with more evolved CX requirements, the statement said. Sonata Software had last year acquired Scalable Data Systems, a Brisbane-headquartered company. The latest acquisition not just strengthens Sonatas footprint in Australia but also opens up new geographies in South East Asia & Europe where GBW has large clients in the QSR, retail, automotive and oil & gas space, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kendra Brooks made rent control a key piece of her platform in her insurgent campaign for City Council last year. She called for hearings on rent control at her first Council meeting after a historic win for the Working Families Party. But now shes slowing things down. Although City Council approved Brooks resolution in January calling for hearings, there wont be any for at least several months. And she said shes not ready to introduce legislation for rent control in Philadelphia. Beginning this month, she plans to host meetings around the city about community stabilization" a phrase she said shes now using instead of rent control to include different kinds of renter protections, as well as support for long-term homeowners. Were just trying to be more inclusive in the conversation, Brooks said in an interview. But rent control is definitely something thats catching, and people will remember that and it will help us in the process." Brooks, whose election to an at-large seat from outside the Democratic establishment promised a more liberal Council, said shes not taking a different approach to the hot-button issue because of any political pushback. Nevertheless, the shift may demonstrate the limits of how quickly City Halls new progressive members can achieve major policy wins. And her new colleagues praised the slow walk, saying that rent control, at least as its been implemented in other cities, may not be right for Philadelphia. As soon as you reference a term that was used in other cities, youre going to take either the baggage or support from that other city, Council President Darrell L. Clarke said. I dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. Several large U.S. cities have laws limiting the amount by which landlords can increase rent annually, including New York and Washington. Statewide rent control legislation took effect in California this year. Brooks resolution noted that 182 municipalities have rent control. Philadelphias business and landlord communities are sure to fight against any rent control efforts. READ MORE: There are 300,000 rental units in Philly. Is it time for rent control? | Pro/Con In many places, rent control limits the amount by which a landlord can increase rent annually for certain apartments, and the policies are often paired with protections against eviction. The charged legacy of rent control in New York, where people can stay in rent-controlled apartments regardless of wealth, also contributes to controversy over the policy. Some New York apartments are rent-stabilized, with limits on the amount by which landlords can increase rent. But rent-controlled apartments are different; increases are even more limited more for some apartments that have been occupied continuously by one tenant or family since 1971. In Philadelphia, about 52% of Philadelphia residents own their homes and 48% are renters, according to 2017 U.S. Census data. New York Citys homeownership rate is 33%. Philadelphia used to have a larger majority of homeowners, but the portion of residents who rent has risen in recent years. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia is $1,400, according to Zumper, a company that tracks rental rates. More than half of Philadelphia renters spend at least 30% of their income on rent, making them cost-burdened, according to a 2019 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. That figure is above the national average for cost-burdened renters. Brooks the first Council member from outside the two major parties in the 100 years since the body adopted a modern legislative structure said shes going to use her background as a community organizer to draw attention to the fact that housing affordability is not only an issue for the citys poorest residents. I would like to help people realize that housing affordability is an issue for working class people, and those are the steps we need to take in order to move toward legislation that more people would be willing to support, Brooks said. But Brooks may not have much support from her colleagues on rent control. The citys housing action plan drafted in 2018 didnt mention it. Nor did a report released Tuesday by City Councils special committee on poverty reduction. The report instead focused on initiatives like increasing affordable housing and providing incentives for developers to include affordable units. Councilmember Maria Quinones Sanchez, who helped lead that committee, said affordable housing is a priority. But she doesnt like using the term rent control because it can have a negative connotation when you hear of a millionaire thats in a rent-controlled property in New York. She applauded Brooks for exploring all options. I do believe that we have an opportunity to get to a fixed-rate housing model based on the customer and what their income is, versus just a blanket this property is rent controlled and if youre lucky enough to get in it,'" Quinones Sanchez said. Even with a formal hearing months away, groups on both sides of the hot-button issue are mobilizing. Activists pushing for rent control policy in Philadelphia held a rally outside City Hall last month, calling for both universal rent control and protections for homeowners who fall behind on property tax payments. Brooks attended. The Pennsylvania Apartment Association, an association of landlords who own multifamily buildings, says its ready to fight. Philadelphias biggest problem is its high poverty rate the highest among Americas big cities not that its unaffordable," Marilyn Orlando, the groups CEO, said in a statement. "If we focus on neighborhood job growth and revitalization, we can build sustainable, strong, and affordable communities. Orlando warned that cities with rent control, such as New York and San Francisco, still have sky high rents. Councilmember Allan Domb, who owns his own real estate company focused on Center City condos, said earlier this year that Philadelphia has an income problem, rather than an issue with high rent. He said he prefers to focus on job growth. READ MORE: Philly Council passes Right to Counsel, giving free legal representation to tenants who are evicted City Council has taken other action to help renters. Councilmember Helen Gym, who cosponsored Brooks resolution on rent control, successfully pushed legislation last year that provides free legal counsel to low-income tenants facing eviction. And a bill passed in 2019 offers some protections for month-to-month renters. A Council committee will hold a hearing this month to explore the expansion of renter protections. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who chairs the committee that would hold Brooks rent-control hearing, said the topic generated intense interest. Even though other councilmembers havent pushed for rent control, Gauthier said she thinks the rest of Council is open to discussing it. I do think that some of the newer folks on Council, including Councilmember Brooks, arent afraid to push, said Gauthier, a new member herself. And see just how far we can push those ideas. But I dont get the sense that the more senior members are resistant to that. I think theyre very open to it. Zalmay Khalilzad (L), US envoy for peace in Afghanistan, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the leader of the Taliban delegation, after signing an agreement between the US and the Taliban, Doha, Qatar February 29, 2020. REUTERS Conceived out of United States President Donald Trump's political expediency, the deal aimed at bringing lasting peace in Afghanistan is tilted heavily in favour of Taliban. The pact smacks of Washington's nonchalance about repeating the old mistakes in dealing with terrorist outfits hasty military withdrawal spawning more potent insurgent groups such as the Islamic State. The US and NATO troops exiting from the highly-unstable, but a contiguous neighbour of India, Afghanistan, in the next 14 months spells major trouble for New Delhi. The US deal shows that the Taliban almost won the day barring two highly-unlikely events of Washington impulsively pulling the plug on the pact, and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani rocking the boat in defiance of the mighty Americans in an election year in the US. First things first. The fundamental aim of the Talibans war was to get the US troops out of Afghanistan. This has been achieved now after 18 long years where the war remained more or less a stalemate. Under the agreement, the US will draw down to 8,600 troops in 135 days and five bases will be closed. Other coalition or NATO troops will also be slashed in a time-bound manner to ensure all of them leave Afghanistan within 14 months. Thus, without giving much in return, the Taliban extracted the pound of flesh that it held dearer. Then, the Taliban will escape the weight of the crushing sanctions imposed on it by both the United Nations and the US by the end of August, and, more importantly, 5,000 imprisoned Taliban men are set to walk free by March 10. The insurgents in turn will release 1,000 soldiers from their custody. There is an intra-Afghan dialogue to back up the US-Taliban peace process. However, the Taliban was not forced into accepting the Afghanistan constitution or abiding by the primacy of a Kabul-controlled peace process or a reconciliation in the future. As window dressing, there were diplomatic niceties: a joint statement from the US and Afghanistan governments said that without an Afghan peace deal, the US troop withdrawal would not be completed. Similarly, date and modalities for a permanent ceasefire would be announced along with a future political road-map of Afghanistan. The fact that needs to be highlighted here is that the Taliban is the only group from Afghanistan that has taken part in talks with the US that has far-reaching implication for the future of a multi-ethnic Afghanistan, which has a democratically-elected government in Kabul, and has been fighting a civil war of one form or another for the last four decades. Certainly the US got one key assurance: The Taliban, which once harboured Osama bin Laden will not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al-Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. Such a formulation leaves out the concerns of India, a non-treaty ally of the US, which has always advocated a regional approach to find lasting peace in Afghanistan. India which enjoys enormous goodwill in Afghanistan had a troubled relationship with the Taliban. Though India's absolute hesitations in dealing with the Taliban is a thing of the past, the contours of the deal doesnt augur well for New Delhi in any way. There is no mention about terror groups that are inimical to Indian interests, such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed in the pact. The West is obsessed with the Islamic State for the moment, and rightly so. However that doesn't mean the national security interests of India in a region known for terror sanctuaries remain unaddressed through a selective approach in fighting terror. Most of the Taliban and other terrorist leaders wanted by the US were either killed or found to be hiding in Pakistan, including Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, the Afghan Taliban leader killed in a US drone strike in 2016. The fact that without Pakistan playing an active role no meaningful talks with the Taliban can take place worked to its advantage. Considering the deep trust deficit between India and Pakistan, Islamabad getting an upper hand in a pact in Afghanistan will work to the major disadvantage of New Delhi. American political expediency in dealing with the war on terror, which it itself had launched, is often counter-productive. The revival of Al-Qaeda could be a possibility should the US troops make a hasty retreat from Afghanistan. One of the reasons for emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq was the sudden US troop pull-out by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. Usually a ceasefire agreement precedes a pact of the magnitude of US-Taliban agreement. However, the a violence reduction pact was all that the US cared to extract from the Taliban to seal a deal a deal, whose primary aim is to let Trump boast that he had ended America's longest war in history, which Obama sought both in pain and vain. KABUL The U.S. on Wednesday conducted its first air strike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan since signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group. U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the defensive strike was the first U.S. attack against the militants in 11 days. He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province. Leggett added that Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand. According to a spokesman for the provinces governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one other wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand. Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the peace agreement signed on Feb. 29 between their leaders and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, that lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first U.S. president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. The Afghan Interior Ministry says that four civilians and 11 troops were killed Wednesday in a wave of Taliban attacks across the country in the past 24 hours. According to ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, Afghan forces killed at least 17 Taliban during these clashes. The Afghan Defense Ministry earlier said that seven soldiers were killed when the Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Kunduz province. The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of these attacks so far or commented on the U.S. air strike Wednesday. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Wednesday that a week of reduction in violence that started midnight on Feb. 21 had ended. Based on the U.S.-Taliban deal, peace negotiations between the warring Afghan sides are supposed to begin on Tuesday. However, the Afghan government has already rejected releasing Taliban prisoners ahead of launching the talks, a precondition which the militants say was part of the U.S. agreement. Leggett said that U.S. forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies according to agreements between U.S. and Afghan governments. Tameem Akhgar is an Associated Press writer. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen attends an event celebrating the 22nd National Culture Day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 3, 2020. Cambodia celebrated the 22nd National Culture Day with the show of traditional music and dances on Tuesday. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia celebrated the 22nd National Culture Day with the show of traditional music and dances on Tuesday. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen attended the event, which was held at the Diamond Island exhibition center with about 4,000 participants. Speaking at the ceremony, Hun Sen said the cultural sector has been developed rapidly in the last two decades thanks to the country's peace and political stability. He said youth has been playing a very important role in helping to safeguard, preserve and develop the kingdom's cultural properties. "It's a pride and honor for our people who were born and live in Cambodia-the nation that is rich in culture in Southeast Asia," the prime minister said, expressing his profound gratitude to the ancestors for leaving countless cultural heritages for next generations. Cambodia has so far had three tangible cultural properties and five intangible cultural heritages listed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The listed tangible cultural properties included the Angkor Archeological Park, Preah Vihear Temple and Sambor Prei Kuk Archeological Site, while the listed intangible cultural heritages are the Royal Ballet, Sbek Thom or Khmer Shadow Puppetry, tug-of-war game, Chapei Dang Veng, a long-necked, two-stringed lute, and Lkhon Khol, a masked dance-theater. Here are the latest updates on the coronaviruss spread in Oregon: THE LATEST NUMBERS FOR OREGON: Twelve more Oregonians have tested negative for the new coronavirus, according to updated Oregon Health Authority numbers Tuesday. The results bring Oregons negative test results to 29 and the states positive results at three. The state is waiting on test results for 18 other people. WASHINGTON NUMBERS: Health officials say there are three more coronavirus deaths in Washington and seven new cases. A total of 39 people have been diagnosed with the illness in King and Sonomish counties and 10 people have died, including nine in King County, according to the state health departments report at 11 a.m. Wednesday. ITS OFFICIAL: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday confirmed Oregons first coronavirus case four days after it was first announced by state health officials. RELATIVE RISKS FOR KIDS, OLDER ADULTS: If the new coronavirus takes a foothold in Oregon, children are almost certainly not the ones you need to worry about. Its elderly adults. Or people with conditions such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, heart disease or lung disease. The virus that causes COVID-19 so far appears to have had little impact on the vast majority of children -- no child age 9 or younger is believed to have died from the disease. VIRUS COULD BE DEADLY FOR OREGON HOMELESS PEOPLE: Already, Portland provides far fewer public hygiene facilities than people who need them, including stations for people to regularly wash their hands, shower and clean their clothes or tents. In addition, shelters, day centers and free meals are nearly all designed to serve lots of people in one large space -- a perfect way to transmit COVID-19. GOV. KATE BROWN WANTS CORONAVIRUS TESTING FLEXIBILITY: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday said state health officials are concerned they lack enough protective gear for medical workers and warned that rural communities believe they may have inadequate hospital staff if the coronavirus continues its spread. In a letter Tuesday to Vice President Mike Pence, Brown also asked for flexibility from federal guidance about who can be tested for the potentially deadly virus. EASTERN OREGON PATIENT DOING FINE: The Umatilla County resident who tested positive for coronavirus remained hospitalized Tuesday in Walla Walla, Washington, but is expected to make a full recovery, a top county official said. TOILET PAPER? BOTTLED WATER? ARE WE HOARDING THE WRONG THINGS FOR THE CORONAVIRUS? Oregon shoppers flooded Costco, WinCo and Fred Meyer over the weekend, driven into a buying frenzy by word that the coronavirus had spread to the Portland area. WASHINGTON DEATHS: As coronavirus spreads, heres an inside look at what happened at Life Care nursing home, a national epicenter with five patient deaths. INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION SHIFTS: As the number of new cases drops precipitously in China, attention has shifted to South Korea, Italy and Iran, countries with major coronavirus clusters that the World Health Organization says account for 80% of new cases outside China. WITH CORONAVIRUS SPREADING IN OREGON, WILL REPUBLICANS RETHINK THEIR CAPITOL BOYCOTT? The increased interest in Oregon leaders response to the spreading virus could pose a quandary for Republicans, most of whom remain out of state in order to block Democrats from passing cap-and-trade or any other bills. RESTAURANT OWNERS WORRIES: Concerns grew Tuesday among Portland restaurant owners about the potential for a significant slowdown days after the coronavirus first arrived in Oregon, even as most reported relatively normal business through the weekend. TWITTER CHAT: Dr. Esther Choo of Oregon Health & Science University is hosting a Twitter chat Wednesday about the state of coronavirus. For anyone interested in a chat about #COVID19, I'll be hosting expert @CarlosdelRio7 tomorrow (Wed) morning at 9 am EST for a Twitter chat on the state of the disease. Feel free to drop some early questions here (use #COVIDchat) and we'll see what we can get to! Esther Choo (@choo_ek) March 4, 2020 CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: FULL COVERAGE More Coronavirus News: The Oregonian/OregonLive Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: A couple spent just 410 on their once drab kitchen after shunning the 3,000 quoted by a professional to revamp the space. Student Emma Hartshorne, 22, moved into her new home in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with her engineer boyfriend Jordan Carter, 23, in April last year - but they didn't like the style of the decor. It took them less than a week to completely transform the room by stripping the wallpaper and repainting the cabinets a darker and more fashionable colour. Emma said: 'I was sitting in my kitchen one day and was thinking to myself how much I loved it, so I decided to share it on social media. Slide me Student Emma Hartshorne, 22, and her boyfriend Jordan Carter, 23, from Yorkshire wanted to transform the outdated kitchen (pictured left) in their new home. The couple repainted the cabinets in a fashionable dark colour and added rose gold handles to the units (right) Student Emma Hartshorne (left), 22, moved into her new home in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with her engineer boyfriend Jordan Carter (right), 23, in April last year 'The response has been amazing - everyone loves it and my family couldn't believe that we had managed to do it by ourselves. 'We had someone come round to quote us for it to be done professionally and it would have cost over 3,000.' The couple had just paid thousands of pounds for a deposit to buy their first house and couldn't face spending too much more on redecorating their new space. 'Having just bought our first house, there was no way that we could shell out that amount of money and so we decided to do it ourselves,' Emma added. Slide me The pale cabinets and green wallpaper were not to the couple's taste and they set about finding someone to redecorate for them - but were quoted 3,000 (pictured before, left). The wallpaper was replaced with black panelling and the table was upgraded to a more fashionable bench-style seating area. Trinkets were placed on the shelving (right) In the kitchen Emma worked mainly on the painting while Jordan focused on inserting new panelling (pictured during the assembly process) Fashion-forward rose-gold handles replaced the older silver versions and the cabinets were given a couple of coats of black paint What did the couple spend their 410 on? 200 tiling 20 paint 80 wood panelling and shelves 100 door handles 10 foam roller and frog tape Advertisement 'Neither of us have ever really done DIY before but it was actually really fun and we want to transform the whole house.' The pair have already gone on to redecorate their fireplace and bedroom since finishing their first project together. In the kitchen Emma worked mainly on the painting while Jordan focused on inserting new panelling. 'We started by ripping out all of the cupboards and removing the wallpaper. Then, we set about painting the entire kitchen and panelling the wall that we stripped the wallpaper from,' she said. The only part of the kitchen the couple needed a bit of help with was the tiling, which they paid a workman to complete at a cost of 200. The pair saved money by keeping the cooker, side boards and their sink the same, while updating the cabinets and tiling The rest of their money went on 20 for tape, 80 for the wood panelling and shelves, 100 for the gold handles and 10 for a foam roller and frog tape. 'Then, we painted all of the cupboards and added new rose-gold handles to match the black paint. We finished it off by getting some professional tiling done and that's how we transformed it,' she added. Rebranding 4 March 2020 Ambassador Chicago is proud to announce it is joining Hyatt lifestyle hotel brand Joie de Vivre Hotels, which includes a collection of diverse, boutique properties inspired by their surroundings. Located at 1301 N. State Parkway in Chicago's Gold Coast, Ambassador Chicago is considered one of the city's original boutique hotels, capturing the essence of the Joie de Vivre brand with its distinct character and neighborhood roots. As part of its transition to the Joie de Vivre Hotels brand, the Ambassador Chicago prepares for a refresh. This year, upgrades are planned for the hotel's 285 elegant guest rooms and suites, including the addition of the Joie de Vivre Hotels brand's signature Jonathan Adler bath products and 55-inch LG smart TVs with streaming capabilities. Also expected to get a facelift are the hotel's public spaces such as The Library - a chic lounge serving La Colombe Coffee and fresh pastries from the Coffee Bar by day, and light bites and libations alongside an inviting fireplace come nightfall. Other hotel amenities include a chic, modern American restaurant, the Food Gallery, which is helmed by Executive Chef Pedro Avila. Over 9,000-square-feet of versatile meeting and event space offer guests a contemporary and historically impressive setting with highlights such as an outdoor terrace on the 17th floor, featuring stunning skyline views, and The Screening Room with a 110-inch flat screen TV. The guest rooms are complete with artisan touches such as BTL SVC ready-to-serve cocktails. Ambassador Chicago also features business and fitness centers and offers guests valet parking with in-and-out privileges. 'EU must back us in Syria for solution', Erdogan says Clashes between migrants, Greek police at border (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 4 - ''If European countries want to solve the issue of (migrants), they must support Turkey's efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria'', Turkish President Recep tayyip Erdogan told his AKP party's parliamentary group in Ankara. ''As we won't leave our country to terrorists, we will not leave innocent Syrian people at the mercy of a criminal regime'' of bashar al Assad ''and his supporters. With our latest military operations'' in Idlib ''We have shown once again that we are a country that knows how to fight but that doesn't want war'', added Erdogan. - Several clashes were reported between groups of migrants and Greek police at the border with Turkey, where thousands of people are trying to cross into the EU. One person has been reportedly wounded, shot in the leg while some migrants were trying to cross a fence near the border of Pazarkule (Kastanies on the Greek side). The migrants threw stones against Greek border police that responded with tear gas. Eye witnesses said that they heard several shots. Several ambulances were reported on the Turkish side of the border. Athens released a video showing a Turkish policeman firing tear gas towards the Greek border. (ANSAmed) Sprott and La Mancha Group aim to bid on blocks in Egypt's Eastern Desert, while Canada's Kinross Gold plans to put large investments in the country's mining sector US mining company Sprott and mining group La Mancha intend to bid on Egypt's international gold mining tender this month, while Canada's Kinross Gold plans to make large investments in the country's mining sector, Egypt's oil ministry said. Egypt will launch a tender for gold mining in the mineral-rich Eastern Desert in mid-March, with blocks planned to be awarded to bidders within four months. The country passed a new mining law last year to encourage exploration and production. The law removes the requirement for mining companies to enter into joint ventures with the Egyptian government and sets a cap of 20 percent on state royalties. Chairman of Sprott US holdings Rick Rule expressed his company's "desire to take part in the international gold exploration tender" during his meeting with Egypt's Oil Minister Tarek El-Molla, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The minister is holding talks with top executives from world mining firms on the sideline of an international mining conference in Toronto, Canada. La Mancha Group, which is chaired by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, will also take part in the bidding round; it promised to "funnel large investments in mining in Egypt," the ministry added. The oil minister discussed the details of the bidding round with La Mancha Executive Vice-President Vincent Benoit, and said that Egypt will carry out a seismic survey of 500,000 square kilometers in the Western Desert to "support future tenders " in the region. This would be followed by continuous surveys of other areas with gold potential nationwide, he added. Officials from Canadian-based miner Kinross Gold Corp also said they plan to put large investments into Egypt, and to make the county among its "top five priorities for its global investments in the coming years". Search Keywords: Short link: A Delaware judge is holding a hearing in a lawsuit over the secret filming of women and girls in a restaurant bathroom. Tuesdays hearing involves a lawsuit filed in 2018 by the mother of two young girls. The plaintiffs are identified in court filings only as Jane Does, and the hearing will take place in a closed courtroom in Wilmington. An employee of Moes Southwest Grill on Kirkwood Highway near Wilmington pleaded guilty in 2017 to five felony charges of violation of privacy. Luis Eduardo Lopez was sentenced to five years behind bars. Lopez was arrested in 2016 after a hidden camera was discovered by a restaurant employee. Authorities have said the camera was secured to a trash can and placed in a position to capture images of women while they used a specific toilet in the bathroom. Investigators recovered videos of both adult women and young girls. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Legislation Farmer Jerome Regnault works on a windy day in his fields, just west of Paris. As he looks around the property, he can see it is very different than it was when his grandfather worked the same fields. Roads and housing developments are moving a lot closer. Technology and international markets are increasingly important to the success of his farm. French farmers like Regnault say they now have another concern: agri-bashing. Agri-bashing is the verbal criticism and sometimes even physical abuse of farmers. Critics accuse them of harming the environment, animals and the health of other people. Its become unsupportable, said Regnault. He has not personally been attacked, but knows of friends who have. He says that worries over agricultural practices do not justify people attacking farmers and their farms. As the yearly agricultural show in Paris opened last week, many farmers spoke about their sense of becoming victims. The show gives French children and their parents a chance to touch farm animals and reconnect with their agricultural past. A growing farmers movement now wants to make that connection stronger. Some farmers are putting videos on social media to explain what they are doing. Regnault and a group of farmers launched a telephone hotline for questions and concerns. We realized that while farming had a negative image, farmers were seen in a positive light, he said. His group is called Ici La Terre (Here is Earth). Hard times for European farmers Across Europe and on other continents, farmers are under pressure to increase their harvests to feed a growing world population for less cost. Many farmers are also under pressure because of climate change. Now, they are pushing back. In recent months, farmers and their machinery have stopped traffic in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, among other countries. They have protested such things as feared cuts in European Union aid to farmers, free trade deals and stronger environmental rules. In France, officials have created pesticide safe areas around communities. They have announced plans to ban the herbicide glyphosate, which kills unwanted plants. Environmentalists say both measures fall short of what is needed. Farmers answered the environmentalists by leaving hay on a major road in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron told farmers he would fight in support of the EUs assistance to farmers. He said the money will help them change to more environmentally friendly farming methods. "Its a policy of the future, Macron said. Yet some environmentalists say they, not farmers, are under siege. We believe agri-bashing doesnt exist, said Marie-Catherine Schulz-Vannaxay. She is an agricultural expert for the group France Nature Environnement. She said that many farmers just do not like being criticized. For hundreds of years, agriculture controlled the French economy. Today, less than three percent of workers are involved with agriculture. About 20 percent of farmers live in poverty and their suicide rates are higher. Ici La Terre Some farmers are, in fact, changing. A new report finds about 10 percent of them are growing organic products. Organic farming and other issues are discussed on the farming hotline. Launched in September, Ici La Terre now counts 130 farmers. Were not trying to convince people, just to explain what we do and exchange, Regnault said. Im Susan Shand. VOAs Lisa Bryant reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story practices n. the action of doing or using something hotline n. a telephone service for the public to use to get help in emergencies negative adj. thinking about the bad qualities of someone or something positive adj. thinking about the good qualities of someone or something pesticide n. a chemical that is used to kill animals or insects that damage plants or crops hay n. grass that has been cut and dried to be used as food for animals organic adj. grown or made without the use of artificial chemicals convince v. to cause (someone) to believe that something is true The first case was reported on March 3. As of now, the patient has no temperature and symptoms of pneumonia As of Wednesday, March 4, one case of Covid-19 coronavirus was recorded in Ukraine, six more people are suspected and now they are waiting for the results of the tests. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Liashko during a briefing. According to him, the condition of the infected man is stable. The patient has no temperature and symptoms of pneumonia. At this moment, he is under the supervision of doctors. Ukraines Deputy Health Minister also noted that six more people were suspected of coronavirus. They are isolated and awaiting the results of the tests. As we reported earlier, yesterday, on March 3, Ukraine confirmed the first case of COVID-19 or coronavirus. The case was spotted in the Chernivtsi region. A man returned to Ukraine from Italy and entered Ukraine through the border with Romania. According to Ukraine's Deputy Minister, the wife of the infected man stays in self-isolation in her flat. The woman stays in the self-isolation in her flat without symptoms of acute viral respiratory infections. A medical worker stays in constant touch with her. In case of symptoms, she will be also examined; the samples for the research will be taken and hospitalization will take place in case of need, Liashko noted. Kabul: Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has placed a condition before the terrorist organization for the release of Taliban prisoners on Tuesday. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has placed a condition before the Taliban that if he wants the release of his prisoners, he will have to end his relationship with Pakistan. Conspiracy being hatch to topple Kamal Nath government, this leader reveals Addressing the people in Nangarhar province, Ghani said that, the Afghan Taliban cannot justify terrorism after signing a peace deal with the US. Ghani said that Taliban leaders have reached a peace agreement with foreigners, so what does your jihad mean now. It is a crime to kill Afghan comrades. He said that, if the Taliban have conditioned the release of their prisoners for Afghan talks, then we also have some conditions, they should tell me when they are going to establish their relationship with Pakistan. Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan issues alert, coronavirus cases increase more than expected Pakistan has been providing protection to the Taliban for a long time and it has a great influence on the Taliban. Pakistan has also used its influence on the Taliban against India. Let us tell you that in the peace agreement of Qatar's capital Doha on February 29, the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan has been fixed within 14 months. Government nominates this much person as councilors in 16 municipal corporations A decade ago, if a Floridian wanted extra cash to replace a roof, install solar panels or a brand new air conditioner, the most common choice was a bank loan. But for the last few years, homeowners also have had a controversial new option. Called the Property Assessed Clean Energy program or PACE for short, it allows homeowners to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for energy-efficient or hurricane-resistant improvements to their home with no money down and no credit check required. Instead, a new type of private lending industry dominated in Florida by the company Ygrene Energy Fund collects payments through property tax bills. Many business and political leaders including in Miami-Dade, which leads the state in PACE loans have embraced the program as a key to covering the tremendous price tag associated with adapting to climate change. The program has produced billions of dollars of investment in solar power and hurricane readiness across the state along with, advocates say, a significant cut in carbon emissions. PACE financing has become an essential tool for homeowners, for local governments, for state policymakers to incentivize as many people as possible to address the risks for natural disasters and climate change, said Mike Lemyre, senior vice president for government affairs at Ygrene, which controls about 80 percent of Florida market and has become a familiar name through a television and radio advertising campaign. But the program also has a rising number of complaints and critics, who contend the agreements which amount to a lien on a home can hurt some consumers, particularly the elderly and low-income at risk of getting in over their heads financially. Currently, there are no statewide laws requiring PACE providers to explain the costs of the improvements, check if the people who sign up can actually afford to pay back the money or understand the terms. Its getting bad. It is bad, said Mike Fasano, the tax collector for Pasco County and a self-described watchdog for the program in the state. Theres nobody in the state no agency, no entity, no one that a homeowner can go to with issues with these PACE loans. In response, California, which pioneered the loan-like product, hit the industry with major new regulations, including requiring lenders to make sure homeowners can afford the tax and designating a state body to oversee the program. But in Florida, where those protections dont exist at the state level, the program is booming. BIG IMPACTS, BIG GROWTH A new study from the University of South Florida funded in part with about $9,500 from Ygrene makes a case for the PACE programs benefits. It found that since 2013, Ygrenes projects alone have reduced greenhouse gas emissions in Florida equivalent to driving 114,000 cars for a year and saved enough electricity to power 78,000 homes for a year. Using an economic model that Ygrene developed, the researchers found that contractors have made about a billion dollars from the program, homeowners have saved more than a billion dollars in insurance premiums over the lifetime of the improvements, and that soup to nuts economic impact of Ygrene in Florida tops $2 billion. The study also found Ygrene and therefore, PACE is exploding in Florida. From 2013 to 2018, the company signed $400 million worth of contracts with Florida homeowners. From August of 2018 to November 2019, Ygrenes data show its signed another $342 million. That makes private investment funneled through the state-sanctioned PACE program a valuable tool for local governments, many of whom are counting on state or federal cash to cover the high price of climate adaptation, said Pradeep Haldar, an adjunct professor at the Patel College of Global Sustainability at USF and one of the authors of the study. If youre going to be dependent on federal money that could take a long period of time to happen and to implement, he said. This is a very, very fast way. Although its one of the less popular choices in the program, the study found that solar investment in Florida jumped 150% during the 16 months researchers analyzed. That was a big indicator that the public is ready to invest their own dollars on solar panels, said Zachary Oliphant, one of the studys co-authors and a graduate student in USFs department of criminology. The 16-page report dedicates one paragraph to criticism of the program, noting that because the federal government wont buy a residential mortgage with a PACE lien on the property, PACE may result in homeowners having difficulty selling their home or refinancing their mortgage. Originally, PACE programs charged customers a fee if they paid off their agreements early, but that has since been discontinued. In response to the complaints from around the state, Lemyre said Ygrenes track record is very strong, and that they have a 100 percent resolution rate. He also noted that its Ygrenes policy to call customers and explain the contract before they sign it. At least according to our research, PACE has far lower complaint rates than any other home improvement financing that weve been able to find, he said. Approximately 2 percent of our customers file a complaint of some sort. Its overwhelmingly related to workmanship. CONTROVERSY IN COUNTIES But around the state, some Florida counties have taken steps to guard consumers against what one Collier County commissioner called a defective program. In that county, commissioners banned all residential PACE activity, the Naples Daily News reported. In Pasco County, the tax collector got so many complaints about the program that his office hired someone to contact every new person who signs up and explain PACE in more detail. They also have customers and PACE operators sign a disclosure form that spells out the good, the bad and the ugly, Fasano said. Last year, St. Lucie County voluntarily adopted the stricter standards first set in California that require PACE operators to check the credit of potential customers and make sure they can afford the higher tax bills. In Miami-Dade, the largest PACE market in the state, County Commissioner Dennis Moss drafted a form that all new PACE clients would have to sign. It spells out the dangers (losing your home, having to pay off the loan before you can refinance or sell the property) and the full price of the improvements. Moss tabled the bill in July. In Miami-Dade, calculations by the tax collectors office show the number of people who fell behind on their taxes after getting a PACE lien has steadily risen as the program has become more popular, but the total number of people in distress has hovered around 1%. In 2018, about 8,000 residents had PACE liens and 103 fell behind in their taxes. The office estimates that of the nearly 12,000 homeowners who had PACE liens in 2019, about 141 will have trouble with their taxes. So far, efforts to build in more consumer protections have failed in Tallahassee, despite urging from politicians around the state. Last year, Miami-Dade passed a resolution urging lawmakers to expand the program to cover seawall replacement and converting homes from septic tanks to the sewer system, two pricey upgrades that will become even more necessary as seas rise. Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, the resolutions main sponsor, said her legislation asked lawmakers to make sure new policies also forced PACE providers to disclose all costs upfront. That is the problem in the past, she said. In some other programs, it comes as a surprise. South Florida Democrats Barbara Watson and Jose Javier Rodriguez introduced bills doing exactly that this year _ expanding the program to cover sea walls and septic tanks as well as also enforcing more consumer protections _ but they havent budged. Another pair of bills, designed to reform the program and slip the PACE loan into second position behind the mortgage, also withered in committees. Those bills would have fundamentally changed the nature of the product, Lemyre said. That would greatly reduce the access to what has become one of the most affordable products for these kinds of measures. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Florida Climate Change Energy Homeowners VANCOUVER - "Wash your hands" has been the usual advice during flu season but "hands off" may well be the new mantra to reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus as social norms like shaking hands are shunned for nods, smiles and tapping of feet. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, right, bumps elbows with a worker at the seafood counter of the Uwajimaya Asian Food and Gift Market, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Seattle's International District. Inslee said he's doing the elbow bump with people instead of shaking hands to prevent the spread of germs, and that his visit to the store was to encourage people to keep patronizing businesses during the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Ted S. Warren VANCOUVER - "Wash your hands" has been the usual advice during flu season but "hands off" may well be the new mantra to reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus as social norms like shaking hands are shunned for nods, smiles and tapping of feet. Some churches in Canada have replaced handshakes with other gestures as COVID-19 spreads around the world. Melissa Godbout, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Vancouver, said the archbishop has sent a letter to priests saying parishioners could be advised to replace handshakes with other ways of acknowledging each other during the sign of peace portion at mass. She said her parish priest in nearby Chilliwack has acknowledged the virus as the dioceses watches for recommendations from the provincial government. "We are monitoring the situation closely and checking in with the Ministry of Health multiple times a day and we will be working on updating the policy should we deem it necessary," Godbout said. "At my parish .... this past weekend our priest said if we feel comfortable we should just bow or nod instead of shaking hands so that's what we did." The number of COVID-19 cases in South Korea had reportedly spiked on Tuesday to nearly 5,200, with many of them clustered around a local church in the city of Daegu. The death toll had risen to at least 28 in that country. As of Wednesday, Canada had 34 cases of the virus 20 in Ontario, 13 in British Columbia and one in Quebec. Neil MacCarthy, who speaks for the archdiocese of Toronto, said some parishes began shunning handshakes in 2003 during the SARS outbreak and have never returned to that nicety as parishioners have used smiling, nodding, bowing or holding up the peace sign to greet each other. "What we're really trying to stress is that people who are distributing communion are washing their hands before and after," he said. "Some parishes have hand sanitizer available when people come into the church." Health officials in Toronto have not advised any other changes, MacCarthy said, adding parishes recommend people stay home if they are sick and watch mass online. The archdiocese released a statement this week to all parishes and staff saying the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses can be prevented by washing hands, not touching the eyes, mouth or nose and avoiding contact with people who are sick the same advice health officials around the world have given. The archdiocese of Montreal is in the process of preparing an advisory that will be sent to parishes before the weekend regarding precautions that can be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19, said spokesman Eric Durocher. Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer in British Columbia, said she has stopped shaking hands and advised people to use another form of acknowledgment, such as putting their hands in prayer, bowing or just smiling and looking someone in the eyes when saying hello. "It is an extraordinary time and it's challenging for all of us," she said, adding the change away from handshaking is a gesture of solidarity during the global spread of the virus. "It's a small gesture but a gesture that shows that we are paying attention to what's going on and it's something that we can do in our community." Henry said she worked on the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 1999, when people replaced hugs and handshakes with tapping of their feet. Premier Johh Horgan said Thursday he has taken to touching elbows with people he meets while Quebec's health minister said residents of the province where the two-cheek kiss is customary should avoid it for now. "I think temporarily, we should be very careful," Danielle McCann said in Montreal. "And we'll come back to it later, probably. I think at this point it's a good measure, especially with vulnerable people, older people, people who have illnesses. Let's be careful with them." Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer of health, said he wouldnt generally encourage a lot of hand shaking during the regular flu season. If youre going to shake my hand you don't know what I did just before, he said. We tend to say not usually unless you're pretty sure (about whose hand youre shaking) or you're going to be washing your hands afterwards and not going to touch your face. Kei Esmaeilpour, spokesman for the Civic Association of Iranian Canadians of B.C., said members have begun holding out their hands to each other instead of shaking hands. "Everybody knows why and this is not rude," he said. "This is about caring for each other. If you're not handshaking, your friend will not be unhappy. He or she will just understand that you are caring for them." Esmaeilpour said Iranian-Canadians in the Vancouver area and Toronto are also considering cancelling Persian New Year festivities slated for later this month to avoid large gatherings that could more easily spread a respiratory illness. On Tuesday, officials in British Columbia asked travellers from China and Iran to isolate themselves for 14 days when they return home to Canada. Esmaeilpour said many community members have already started voluntarily isolating themselves at home for that length of time after returning from Iran. On Monday, some Iranian-Canadians in the Vancouver area joined forces to start a new campaign to try and help people who would be stuck at home in quarantine. A group of 147 people had signed up on an app with days and times they would be available to drop off groceries or assist in other ways, Esmaeilpour said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. With file from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal. (Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd. has signed up some of South Koreas biggest gaming firms as its cloud clients, expanding its enterprise services beyond its home country to compete with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.Half of the top 20 Korean game developers by revenue have opted to use Tencents cloud services to power their existing or planned online games, said Zhao Jiannan, managing director of the newly founded Tencent Cloud for Northeast Asia. Those clients include Gravity Co., Netmarble Corp. and the Korean subsidiary of Linekong Interactive Group Co., he said. Emulating the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., Tencent is building out a cloud operation by leveraging its existing assets, which in the Chinese companys case include a vast gaming empire and deep connections within the industry. Like those U.S. leaders, Tencents nascent cloud division has seen strong growth, with revenue rising 80% in the third quarter of last year to 4.7 billion yuan ($675 million), closing the gap with compatriot peer Alibaba, whose cloud division grossed 9.3 billion yuan during the same period. In the next three to five years, we hope Japan and South Korea will contribute to at least 15% of Tencents overseas cloud revenue, Zhao said in a phone interview. His team of 12 people will double in number by the end of this year, he added. Earlier this year, Tencent became the third certified foreign cloud services provider in South Korea, following in the footsteps of Amazon and Microsoft. The company will maintain a focus on recruiting gaming clients in the worlds No. 4 gaming market, Zhao said, but it will also complement that with ventures into e-commerce, live streaming and other online content. To contact the reporter on this story: Zheping Huang in Hong Kong at zhuang245@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad Savov, Peter Elstrom For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. It will be the president's second visit to the state in a month, following his appearance at a "Keep America Great" rally in Colorado Springs last month. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin John Whitesides and Trevor Hunnicutt (Reuters) Washington, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 10:19 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206827cd4 2 World Super-Tuesday,US-presidential-election,US-presidential-race,Joe-Biden,Bernie-Sanders Free A resurgent Joe Biden was projected to win seven large states on Tuesday, and front-runner Bernie Sanders captured two states with several others too close to call on the biggest day of voting in the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating race. Edison Research and the main television networks declared Biden the winner in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama based on exit polls on Super Tuesday, when Americans in 14 states voted for a Democratic challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Fox News projected Biden would also win Oklahoma. The Associated Press projected he would also win Arkansas and Minnesota. Sanders was projected to win in Colorado and his home state of Vermont, expected outcomes for the self-described democratic socialist and independent senator who hopes to take a huge step toward winning the nomination on Tuesday. More than one-third of the delegates who will pick the eventual nominee at a July convention are up for grabs in primary elections on Tuesday that could provide some clarity at last in a muddled race for the White House. Early results showed Sanders holding a narrow lead over Biden in Texas, while Biden had a narrow lead in Massachusetts and Minnesota. The rush of early results left Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor who spent more than half a billion dollars on advertising, largely out of the running, with his only victory coming in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. NBC News reported that Bloomberg would reassess whether to stay in the race on Wednesday, but a campaign official said it was inaccurate to suggest his White House bid could end on Wednesday. The official said the campaign reassesses everyday. Biden, former President Barack Obama's vice president, has enjoyed a burst of momentum since a blowout win in South Carolina on Saturday, which led to endorsements from a flood of prominent party officials and former rivals. Broad Biden coalition He entered Super Tuesday hoping to muscle aside Bloomberg and consolidate support from moderates in Tuesday's voting, turning the race into a one-on-one contest against Sanders. Biden's showing in the Super Tuesday states was fueled by strong support among a broad coalition of voters including women and men, white and black, those with or without college degrees, and those who considered themselves liberal or moderate. With 100% of the precincts reporting in Virginia, Biden was winning more than half of the votes in that southern swing state, well ahead of Sanders. In Alabama, he was winning 69% of the vote, and in North Carolina he was winning 34%. Edison Research forecast a record turnout of 1.3 million voters in Virginia, well ahead of 986,203 in 2008 and 785,041 in 2016. Early exit polls by Edison Research showed Biden was winning large majorities of African-American voters in the South, including 72% in Alabama, 71% in Virginia, 63% in North Carolina and 62% in Tennessee. In Virginia, Biden won the votes of more than four of 10 white college educated women, compared to about two in 10 each for Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts. Bloomberg was a wild card heading into the voting, as he joined the competition for the first time. In early results, he was winning more than 15% of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Colorado and Arkansas. The moderate Bloomberg skipped the first four contests and bombarded Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads, but saw his poll numbers slip after coming under fire during Democratic debates over past comments criticized as sexist and a policing policy he employed as New York's mayor seen as racially discriminatory. Biden is trying to build a bridge between progressive Democrats' desire for big structural change and more moderate Democrats yearning for a candidate who will be able to win over enough independents and Republicans to oust Trump. Fresh momentum That effort gained fresh momentum on the eve of Tuesday's voting as moderate presidential rivals Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, endorsed Biden after withdrawing from the race. The pace of the Democratic race begins to accelerate after Super Tuesday, with 11 more states voting by the end of March. By then, nearly two-thirds of the delegates will have been allotted. Sanders headed into Tuesday with 60 delegates to Biden's 54 in the state-by-state nominating fight. Sanders managed a virtual tie with Buttigieg in Iowa and wins in New Hampshire and Nevada. Besides leading in polls in California, Sanders also is ahead of Biden by a smaller margin in polls in Texas. Sanders' strength with Hispanics should pay dividends in that state, where Latinos comprise one-third of the Democratic electorate. Biden, whose South Carolina win affirmed his popularity with black voters, hoped to win five states where African Americans make up at least a quarter of the Democratic electorate: Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas. Democrats living abroad began voting in a primary set to run until March 10. The last polls will close in California at 8 p.m. PST (0400 GMT on Wednesday). The next contests, on March 10, will be in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington state. Health authorities are sweating on the test results for the housemate of the Brisbane student who contracted the novel coronavirus, with the outcome expected to be known on Wednesday morning. The infected University of Queensland student, a 20-year-old man from China, had spent two weeks in isolation in Dubai before flying to Brisbane and becoming Queensland's seventh coronavirus case. An Indian lift operator stands inside a dedicated lift for people suspected to be infected with the new coronavirus at the Government Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad on Monday, March 2. Credit:AP - Mahesh Kumar A. He remained stable and in isolation at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital on Tuesday night. A UQ spokesperson said the student was understood to have not attended any university classes after arriving in Australia. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a fresh case of money laundering against Naresh Goyal, former chairman of the grounded Jet Airways, and the airlines. A source said that the money laundering case was registered against Goyal and Earlier, the financial probe agency had registered a case of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations against the airline and Goyal last year. The source said that earlier in the day, Goyal was questioned by the central probe agency at its office here and then he was taken to his residence for carrying out searches. Fresh case has been registered to probe the alleged irregularities committed by the grounded airline, including diversion of funds, the source said. Last year in August, the ED carried out searches at the residence of Goyal and has got details of 19 held by him of which five are located abroad and how money was siphoned off to other countries through dubious transactions. During searches last year, the ED seized several incriminating documents related to the payments made to foreign and digital evidences have been seized. The official said the agency has taken up the investigation into alleged violation of the FEMA against and Goyal based on complaints from various sources. According to ED, the business empire of Goyal, who stepped down from the post of chairman of the airline in March last year, includes 19 privately-held of which 14 are registered in India and five are registered abroad. An ED official had earlier said, Goyal "indirectly controls" various entities "abroad" some of which are in tax havens. A full-service carrier, shuttered operations on April 17 after running out of funds. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and the airline's slots and aircraft were leased out to competitors on a temporary basis. Fuel Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Our full-service marketing programs deliver sales-ready leads. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Learn more Samsung refreshed its Galaxy smartphone line, introduced a new foldable phone, and upgraded its wireless earbuds offering at an event held Tuesday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Its three new flagship phones, pictured above, are all 5G ready. The S20 is priced at US$999, while the S20 Plus will sell for $1,199, and the S20 Ultra for $1,399. The S20 is smallest of the trio, with a 6.2-inch display. The Plus display is 6.7 inches and the Ultras is 6.9 inches. All the units have three cameras wide angle, ultrawide and telephoto and the Plus and Ultra have a fourth camera for augmented reality applications. The cameras in the S20 and Plus have 64-megapixel sensors, while the Ultra supports a whopping 108 MP. The cameras also support 8K video. The Ultra has a 10x optical zoom. Thats unheard of in a phone, said Jack E. Gold, principal analyst atJ. Gold Associates, an IT advisory company in Northborough, Massachusetts. You dont even get that in some traditional cameras, he told TechNewsWorld. Samsung continues to amaze me in what theyre doing in video and photography category, said Mark N. Vena, senior analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas. Samsung clearly sees video and photography as a tremendous opportunity to completely replace traditional cameras, he told TechNewsWorld. A D V E R T I S E M E N T Pushing 5G Lever The use of multiple lenses in high-end phones and features powered by artificial intelligence will continue to evolve, predicted Gerrit Schneemann, senior analyst at IHS Markit, a research, analysis and advisory firm headquartered in London. Theres a big networking difference between this crop of flagship phones and the previous generation, he told TechNewsWorld. The whole lineup supports 5G, whereas before, only select models were 5G. Now Samsung is putting 5G into everything, Schneemann said. Very few people need 5G now, but it will be on every phone in the next couple of years, so Samsung is pushing the adoption lever as fast as they can, noted Stephen Baker, analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, New York. We know the networks are going to be there in the next year or two, and we know from history that consumers arent afraid of future-proofing, especially when they buy a premium phone like the S20, he told TechNewsWorld. Folding Glass Samsungs new Galaxy Z Flip has a display made of foldable glass that measures 6.7 inches when flipped open. When closed, the phone is a compact 2.89 x 3.44 inches. Models will come in three mirror colors purple, gold and black. Galaxy Z Flip Smartphones are part of our everyday lives, but this is no ordinary smartphone, Samsung Electronics Marketing Director Rebecca Hurst told an enthusiastic crowd at Tuesdays event. It changes everything our phones shape, size and the very way we use it, she continued. A D V E R T I S E M E N T The Galaxy Z Flip is a statement smartphone, Hurst said. Its a standout smartphone for people who want to stand out. Innovative Flex Mode In addition to its main 2636 x 1080 AMOLED display, the Z Flip has 1.1-inch cover display for screening information like time and notifications. The unit has three cameras: an f/2.4 10-megapixel selfie camera; an f/2.2 12-MP ultra-wide camera; and an f/1.8 12-MP wide-angle camera. Three video resolutions are supported by the shooters 4K UHD, 1080p FHD and 720p HD. It has four shooting speeds Super Steady, Super Slow-mo, Slow Motion and Hyperlapse. The foldable, which is priced at $1,380, comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage. The phone supports an innovative flex mode that turns the unit into a dual screen phone when its folded at a right angle. We think foldables will fundamentally change how we think about and interact with smartphones, Google Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer said at the Samsung event. Razr Killer? Samsungs introduction of the Z Flip, which will go on sale Feb. 14, comes on the heels of another foldable arriving on the market, the Motorola Razr. The Flip is a more powerful phone than the Razr, observed Moors Vena. If foldable phones are going to gain traction in the market, the flip phone orientation is going to be a big deal because of the convenience factor, he pointed out. The Flip is a nicer device with its glass screen and variable hinge that can bend the phone at different angles, said Gold. Another potential issue for Motorola and its parent Lenovo are problems meeting demand in the early stages of the Razrs release. Thats the thing about Samsung, Gold remarked. Once they start making a device, they can turn the crank and produce a lot of stuff. Battle of Hinges Samsung has another advantage over Motorola. Samsung has a lot of brand, product equity and distribution strength, which is going to be a part of success in the market, noted NPDs Baker. The Flip is a pretty well-put-together product Samsung clearly learned a lot from the issues they had with the original Fold, he added. Its a very polished device. One of the issues with foldable devices is the strength of their hinges. At the Samsung event, Hurst noted that the Z Flips hinge had been opened and closed 200,000 times without any signs of damage. The hinge on the Flip seems to be sturdier and less prone to outside attack than the Razr because theres no visible gap when its shut, observed IHS Schneemann. The Flips two-camera system also raises the foldable a notch above its competition. Cameras are an area where Samsung has been strong in the past and where Motorola has struggled in the past, Schneemann recalled. Further, theres a price gap between the phones, with the Razr selling for $1,499 and the Flip for $1,380. New Buds In addition to the S20 line and the Z Flip, Samsung announced a refresh of its wireless earpods at its event. Galaxy Buds+ The Galaxy Buds Plus, priced at $149, have two speakers in each pod one for high range sound and one for bass as well as three mics. They even work with iOS devices via a Samsung app. At $149, the one thing missing is active noise cancellation, Schneemann said, but at that price thats not feasible. BRIDGEWATER, N.S.Moments before a former Nova Scotia police chief was sentenced to 15 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl, the victim read a statement in court, describing John Collyer as the monster who ruined her life. The woman, now 20, spoke in a clear but monotone voice, saying Collyer was like a father to her when she and her mother moved to Nova Scotia and were in need support from the community of Bridgewater, which is near the provinces southwestern coast. She said Collyer, then deputy chief of the Bridgewater Police Service, and his wife stepped forward to help. Court heard the senior police officer became a mentor to the girl, who was then 12 years old. He took her to appointments, on shopping trips and sometimes to a beach near his home. But something happened when she turned 15, she said. The things he said to me got worse, but I didnt tell anyone about what he would say to me, she said, clutching a yellow sheet of paper. One day, I went with John and he started crying, saying he couldnt trust himself around me anymore. He was acting like things were my fault. As she spoke in court, Collyer sat motionless in the front row of the public gallery, his wife of 33 years at his side. Wearing a grey suit and green shirt and tie, the balding and bespectacled 56-year-old kept his hands folded in his lap, and his face remained expressionless. Though Collyer has denied any sexual interest in the complainant and has maintained his innocence, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Mona Lynch convicted him of sexual exploitation last October. During Collyers trial, a psychiatrist testified that at the time of the offence, the girl had an intellectual and emotional age of between 10 and 12 years old. The court also heard that the girls mother gave investigators screen shots of sexually suggestive online messages that Collyer had sent to the girl. In particular, one video included images of a small dog tugging at the bikini of a young woman. Collyer sent a message with the video, telling the girl: Guess which little dog Im rooting to win the tug of war! ... I wonder if you could train yours to do that. At the conclusion of the trial, Lynch said the intent of that and other messages led to an inference of an older man grooming a young girl to have sexual contact. The judge said the complainant did not respond to Collyers remarks in a suggestive way. The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told investigators that sometime in the spring of 2016, she and Collyer were driving in his small convertible when he asked if she could make herself have an orgasm, and he then reached between her legs, pushed aside her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers. The girl said she did not give her consent. The complainant was clear and did not waiver in the details of the events in the car, Lynch said in her ruling. On Wednesday, the woman talked about the incident in the car. I couldnt figure out what I did to make him think I wanted that, she said. The assault transformed her from a fun and outgoing person to a reclusive, suspicious individual who not even my family wants to be around. She said people now look at her as if she was broken. I was always told that the only monsters I had to worry about were the ones in the movies or under the bed, she said. John, youre the monster Im looking out for now. Her mother also read a statement in court, saying other people had warned her that Collyer and her daughter were spending too much time together in 2016. If you cant trust the chief of police, who can you trust? she said. I felt like a large failure as a parent for letting that happen .... I feel responsible for all of this. Collyer, who now works in landscaping and snow removal, was also sentenced to one year of probation and his DNA will be added to the national sex offender registry for 20 years. Outside the court, Crown prosecutor Roland Levesque said Collyers crime marked a serious breach of trust for the community. As a society we depend on police officers to uphold the law and to protect us, he said. When a police officer breaches that trust ... its very disheartening for everyone in the community. The 26-year veteran of the police force was originally charged in May 2017 with sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation, but one of the exploitation charges was withdrawn. He was suspended from the force shortly afterwards. Sexual exploitation involves the sexual touching of a minor by a person in a position of trust or authority. Collyer was tried on one count of sexual assault and one of sexual exploitation. Lynch found him guilty of both crimes, but she ordered a conditional stay on the sexual assault conviction based on the principle that an accused cannot be convicted of two offences arising from the same actions. Read more about: Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 11:56:47|Editor: zyl Video Player Close VIENTIANE, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The government of Thailand has given medical supplies to Lao Ministry of Health to aid in COVID-19 response and prevention. The items were handed over on Monday by the Ambassador of Thailand to Laos, Damrong Kraikruan, to Lao Minister of Health Bounkong Syhavong, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday. The supplies comprised 2,040 bottles of gel handrub and 50,000 medical gloves. Bounkong thanked the government of Thailand for its assistance and for providing the valuable supplies to the Ministry of Health. Laos runs a high risk of infection and the spread of the virus into the country as it shares a border with several outbreak countries. However, Laos has no confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, the minister added. Many countries have provided medical supplies to the ministry, aiming to help Laos prevent the spread of the virus. The government of Japan recently gave personal protective supplies to the ministry for use by medical staff. The United States government also provided personal protective equipment for use in response to the coronavirus. The equipment will be distributed to regional centers and provinces in greatest need of these items, said the report. Aircrafts of Vietjet Air land at Da Nang International Airport. Photo by Reuters. Budget airline Vietjet Air will temporarily halt all flights to South Korea, the worst-hit country by the coronavirus after China, starting Saturday. The carrier, which operates 11 direct air routes between Vietnam and South Korea, or 480 flights a month, confirmed its decision as over 5,300 infections and 32 deaths have been reported in the country. However, Vietjet Air will help repatriate South Koreans stranded in Vietnam to Incheon Airport in Seoul before the suspension takes effect. National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines stopped flying to South Korea from Wednesday while private carrier Bamboo Airways halted services to the country on February 26. Around 200,000 Vietnamese citizens study or work in South Korea, 8,285 living in Daegu and 18,502 in North Gyeongsang. The country suspended its visa waiver for South Koreans starting last Saturday. Vietnam has recorded a total of 16 Covid-19 patients, all of whom have recovered and been discharged from hospital. The country has reported no new infections since February 13. Indian shares edged lower on Wednesday as an emergency 50 basis point rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to calm investor nerves about the debilitating impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The surprise rate cut on Tuesday was accompanied by Fed Chairman Jerome Powells acknowledgement of an uncertain outlook and his view that rate cuts will not restore supply chains, sending U.S. stocks sharply lower overnight and gold higher. Indian equities, which had rallied on Tuesday on hopes of a coordinated effort by major central banks to combat the economic fallout of the virus, were kept in check on Wednesday by losses in heavyweight financials. Markets are uneasy as the Feds action has shown the gravity of the situation and Powells comments have indicated that the cut alone will not solve the problem, said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president research, SMC Global Securities. The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.25% to 11,276 by 0358 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.26% at 38,523.66. From the monetary policy angle, ensuring adequate availability of liquidity for stressed sectors is more important than rate cuts. And of course, fiscal measures too could be useful at this juncture, said Kunal Kundu, India economist with Societe Generale. However, analysts said investors were still expecting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reduce rates as well, in line with global counterparts. The RBI said on Tuesday it stood ready to take appropriate actions to ensure functioning of financial markets and preserve financial stability. Top private-sector lender HDFC Bank Ltd was the biggest drag on the indexes, falling as much as 1.1%. Vedanta Ltd dropped 3.7% and was the biggest loser on the blue-chip Nifty index. The Nifty Metal Index slipped 2%. Defence firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd fell as much as 5.1% to its lowest since Sept. 4 after the company said it got a notice from the International Court of Arbitration related to an alleged breach of agreement with RUAG Aerospace Services GMBH. The Ogun State Traditional Rulers (Installation and Burial Rites) Bill 2020 has scaled the second reading at the State House of Assembly. The bill seeks respect for human dignity and promotion of modernity in the installation and burial of traditional rulers. The proposed legal framework, if finally passed into law, is expected to curb idolatry practices in the process of installing and burying traditional rulers. This means there would be room for any deceased monarch in the state to be installed or buried in accordance with his or her religion or belief. The lawmakers, on Tuesday, spoke in unison, while contributing to the second reading of the Ogun State Traditional Rulers (Installation and Burial Rites), Law 2020, during a plenary presided over by the Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo. This came shortly after the motion for its second reading was moved by Akeem Balogun, seconded by Yusuf Amosun and unanimously supported by the entire House through a voice vote. The sponsor of the bill, Mr Balogun, opened debate on the bill titled, HB No 36/OG/2020- A Bill for a law to provide for the Preservation, Protection and Exercise by the traditional rulers of their fundamental Rights to be installed and buried according to their Religions or Beliefs and for other related matters. He said the bill became imperative because there is a need to avoid archaic practices and embrace modern realities with a view to respecting the religious obligations of the traditional rulers during their installation and burial. In their separate remarks, Oludaisi Elemide, Solomon Osho and Damilola Soneye who threw their weight behind the bill, said its passage would further redefine the states traditional system by putting a stop to act of cannibalism- a culture inherited from the dark ages. Other members, including Kemi Oduwole, Atinuke Bello and Abayomi Fasuwa, also cited Sections 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) as the basis for upholding human dignity. The lawmakers said that it was high time the traditional stools were made more attractive to the positive-minded citizenry of high pedigree, whose wealth of expertise could improve and bring development to their communities. The Speaker, in his response, stated that no person, especially a traditional ruler, should be subjected to any form of inhuman and degrading acts. He thereafter referred the bill to the Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs for further legislative actions. An age-long secret practice In 2017, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, set up a committee on Ijebu Obas burial rites. The move was a response to a tradition in Ijebuland, where corpses of traditional rulers are hijacked by traditional worshippers, otherwise called Osugbos. The monarch, who said the actions of the traditional worshippers are an abomination, described members of Osugbo cult as bailiffs. He condemned their actions in strong terms. The monarch said a resolution was agreed upon in December 28, 2016 to ensure that any king that joined his ancestors is given a befitting burial according to the faith such monarch practiced while alive. READ ALSO: Despite the move, the tradition still persists in several quarters. The funeral rites of Ogun State Traditional Monarchs (all Obas) remain a secret, a taboo subject, wrote Alderman Erelu Lola Ayonrinde, in a 2014. She also added that the sensitive and controversial issue requires a law to give all Monarchs the right to opt-out of customary rituals during installation and funeral rites. According to the writer, it would also curtail the powers of the ritualists Afobajes, Odis, slaves, and Abobakus, who once upon a time would have buried whole with my late Kabiyesi. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 08:54:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on June 21, 2018 shows morning view of the Lujiazui area in Pudong, east China's Shanghai. Located in the middle of east China's coast line and the estuary of the Yangtze River, Shanghai is China's largest economic center as well as the regional hub of Yangtze River Delta region. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) The meeting underlined the need to advance epidemic control and economic and social development in parallel. It urged targeted steps in ensuring stability in the six key areas to more effectively manage the impact of the outbreak on the economy. BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China will refine the coordination mechanisms for stable performance in six key areas, namely, stability in employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and market expectations, to promote both effective outbreak response and steady economic and social progress. The decisions were made at the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang Tuesday. "The coordination mechanisms for stable performance in the six key areas have, since their launch, played an important role in forging inter-agency synergy to keep major economic indicators within the proper range. This year we may face even greater challenges, hence there is a higher need to refine these mechanisms to make our work across the six areas better targeted," Li said. The meeting underlined the need to advance epidemic control and economic and social development in parallel. It urged targeted steps in ensuring stability in the six key areas to more effectively manage the impact of the outbreak on the economy. Inter-agency coordination on macroeconomic policies, foreign trade and investment, and financial stability must be fully leveraged to formulate strong and effective response measures to boost the internal dynamism of the economy and keep major economic indicators within the proper range for the whole year. "The most pressing task now is to manage the impacts of the epidemic. Maintaining stability in the six key areas will help keep capital flowing and the industrial chain running, and contribute to an economic performance within the proper range," Li said. Aerial photo taken on Oct. 30, 2019 shows a view of a container port in Taicang, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Li Bo) The meeting also adopted a host of policies for facilitating the restart of business activities in the logistics sector from transportation, shipment to express delivery services to provide a strong underpinning for epidemic control, help smooth the flow of economic activity, and meet people's daily needs. The meeting called for following the region-specific, tiered and targeted approach to encourage businesses to resume operation in an orderly way. Any arbitrary requirements on the resumption of work must be lifted. Face masks and other needed protective gear should be made available through coordination. Sub-national authorities are required to provide equal convenience for both postal and courier services providers under all types of ownership. "A major obstacle in current outbreak response and production resumption lies in logistics. Undue restrictions should be removed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the operation of both industrial and supply chains will be hampered," Li said. Further tax and fee cuts will be made to logistics-related services. Insurance companies will be encouraged to lower or exempt premiums for commercial vehicles, ships and aircraft whose operations are suspended during the outbreak, by way of extension of insurance period and deduction of policy renewal fees. For toll-road operators encountering difficulty in repaying their financial debts as a result of the toll-free pass policy, financial institutions will be guided toward providing support to them through deferring interest payment, extending principal repayment and rolling over maturing loans. "It is important to further cut costs for logistics companies, deferring or exempting relevant payments as needed. Such steps should also enable truck and taxi drivers to get tangible benefits," Li said. "We must enhance preparedness in terms of policies and projects, do everything we can to keep economic development and employment stable, and work hard to meet this year's targets for economic and social development," Li said. Shifting to promote tourism in Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and India during and after the Covid-19 epidemic, applying visa waivers, and developing suitable products are the main goals of the tourism industry. For many years, the Vietnam Tourism Association has been warning that heavy reliance on the Chinese market would bring consequences. More than 32 percent of total foreign travelers to Vietnam are Chinese. Many tourism sites and travel firms, focusing on attracting and serving Chinese travelers, are experiencing hardships as the number of Chinese travelers has dropped dramatically because of Covid-19. Meanwhile, other travel firms bear smaller impact in the epidemic as they still receive the travelers from Europe, the US, Australia, India and Thailand. Many tourism sites and travel firms, focusing on attracting and serving Chinese travelers, are experiencing hardships as the number of Chinese travelers has dropped dramatically because of Covid-19. According to Nguyen Ngoc Toan, director of Images Travel, 10 percent of travelers have canceled tours, but the situation is not too bad for the company. Images Travel is preparing to serve 50 tours in the time to come with 80 percent of travelers from France. In February 2020, the firm received more than 1,000 European travelers. Fiditour received 10 groups of European travelers, about 30-80 travelers for each group, in February. Viking said Indonesian travelers still come to Vietnam. Tan Hong said it continues to serve thousands of cruise travelers, mostly from the US, Europe, Australia and Canada as previously planned. Analysts commented that Covid-19 once again shows the need of diversifying the markets. Vietnam receives only hundreds of thousand of travelers from Australia, New Zealand and North America each year, a modest figure. Meanwhile, the Middle East also has potential. Among the new markets that the analysts believe Vietnam should focus on, India proves to be very promising. That is why Vietjet has opened five non-stop air routes from Vietnam to different destinations in India. The non-stop flights will bring Indian travelers to famous tourism sites in Vietnam. A report showed that the number of Indian travelers to Vietnam in 2019 increased by 27 percent over the year before. A representative of TST Tourist said the company began exploiting the Indian market four years ago and has gained encouraging results. The number of Indian travelers served by the firm in 2019 increased by 29 percent. Vietnam has become a strong brand after weddings of Indian billionaires were successfully organized at Vietnams famous tourist sites, including Phu Quoc and Da Nang. Nguyen Huu Tho, chair of the Vietnam Tourism Association, also commented that India, with 1.3 billion people, including a high number of millionaires, is a potential market. He said direct air routes and chartered flights will help bring Indian travelers to Vietnam. Kim Chi Vietnams tourism loses Chinese, Korean travelers The number of Chinese travelers to Vietnam has dropped to zero because of the measures on traffic restrictions in the Covid-19 epidemic. The loss of South Korean travelers is also visible. HAMILTON After years of setbacks, a newly unified Hamilton Fire Department could be up and running this summer. Hamilton Council introduced a series of ordinances Tuesday night to bring fire district consolidation one step closer to fruition. One ordinance would establish a municipal Hamilton Township Fire Department, and another ordinance would dissolve and abolish all nine of Hamiltons autonomous fire districts effective July 1. The all-Democratic Hamilton Council voted 5-0 to introduce both ordinances Tuesday evening; the governing body also passed a separate resolution to receive special legal advice in the area of firefighter contract negotiations. Tuesdays official action shows Hamilton Township is inching closer to abolishing its big government fire service in favor of a singular and more efficient firefighting force that services this 40-square-mile municipality. The current governing structure of Hamiltons fire service is an antiquated, decades-old arrangement that divides the township into nine autonomous fire districts. Each of those nine districts is governed by five elected commissioners, and all 45 of those commissioners collect taxpayer-funded salaries. Hamilton Council in September 2018 voted 4-1 to introduce an ordinance calling for Hamilton Fire Districts 2 through 9 to be hereby dissolved and abolished. But the ordinance stalled and eventually died by default, for the township did not act quickly enough to get fire consolidation done. Councilman Anthony Carabelli Jr. said the 2018 ordinance had expired from what he understands, and the newly introduced ordinance now includes the dissolution of all nine fire districts. The 2018 ordinance excluded Hamilton-Chesterfield Fire District 1, which serves all of Chesterfield Township in Burlington County and a tiny portion of Hamilton. Both of Chesterfields fire districts have recently merged and are now consolidated into the Hamilton-Chesterfield Fire District 1. In order to dissolve and merge the fire districts into a municipal fire department, Hamilton Council needs to pass an ordinance and present the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs with necessary information and details. DCA will have to approve of said merger in order for the Hamilton Township Fire Department to become a reality. Hamilton Council on Tuesday did much of the legwork to bring consolidation one step closer to fruition, but the township still needs to iron out a labor union contract for ranking firefighters and officers in Hamilton FMBA Locals 84 and 284, according to rookie Mayor Jeff Martin, a Democrat. He said the township must provide DCA with labor contract details specifying firefighter salaries and wages. Nick Buroczi, president of FMBA Local 284, thanked the Martin administration and town council for introducing the ordinances Tuesday. Town Council on Tuesday also passed a resolution authorizing a $25,000 professional services agreement with the McManimon, Scotland & Baumann LLC law firm to serve as special counsel advising the township in the labor negotiations with the townships FMBA Local 84 firefighters union. The township wants special attorneys on board because the process to negotiate new contracts from the status quo is complicated, Martin said Tuesday in an interview with The Trentonian. We are taking essentially 16 contracts and have to narrow that down into two contracts, one for firefighters and one for officers. Martin said state lawmakers had passed a key funding measure, one that entitles Hamilton Township to be fully reimbursed for any expenses the town put out in furtherance of consolidation provided the township gets consolidation done by July 1. We are trying to get as much information as possible to the state as quickly as possible so they can review things and provide guidance along the way, Martin said. DCAs about-face The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Division of Local Government Services in January 2017 released a fire district dissolution study that did not attempt to seriously review the dissolution of Hamilton Fire District 1. Given Fire District No. 1s unique bi-county jurisdictional authority and related considerations, it was not included as a fire district subject to dissolution at the time of this study, DCA said in its 2017 report. Nothing contained in this report is intended to limit or restrict future legal consideration of Fire District No. 1s access to become part of any new entity formed subsequent to this study. Now DCA is singing a different tune suggesting District 1s dissolution must occur in tandem with the other districts, not at a later juncture. We have preliminary meetings with DCA, who informed us District 1 the Hamilton portion had to be included in consolidation, Martin said. Two years ago District 1 was not included in our plan. Originally we were going to leave it alone because a portion is in Hamilton and a portion is in Chesterfield, Hamilton Council President Rick Tighe said of the proposed dissolution of Hamilton Fire District 1, noting DCA has advised the township to include District 1 this time. Martin said the DCA and state Local Finance Board want to make sure the new municipal fire department is fiscally sustainable when its creation goes into effect. District one in Hamilton is tiny, covering approximately 40 residences in a township with thousands of single-family households. Defeated budgets In last months fire district elections, Hamilton Township Fire Districts 1, 6, 7 and 8 had their budgets defeated by the voters, according to Municipal Clerk Eileen Gore. Hamilton Council next week is scheduled to host a series of special meetings to discuss the defeated fire budgets. The governing body has the authority to amend the rejected budgets and may impose spending reductions through line-item cuts, effectively giving Hamilton Council the ability to provide property tax relief in Fire Districts 1, 6, 7 and 8. If and when consolidation takes place, the municipal fire departments budget would be approved by Hamilton Council and the days of having annual fire board commissioner elections in nine autonomous districts would be over. The fire consolidation is moving forward, Councilman Pat Papero Jr. said at Tuesdays council meeting, adding the unified Hamilton Fire Department will be beneficial to everyone. The departments command structure would comprise a fire chief, four deputy chiefs, four battalion chiefs assigned to operations, one battalion chief of administration, one captain of training and one captain of logistics, according to the proposed ordinance. Ordinances must first be introduced and then subsequently approved on second reading at a future council meeting to become ordained into law. Detectives say a drug-dealing barber helped orchestrate the killing of two men who had just stolen $4,000 worth of pot, the result of which left bullets and bodies scattered across the East Freeway in August. The barber, identified in court documents as 25-year-old Jose Hernandez, is charged with capital murder. So is the accused gunman, 29-year-old Jonathan Aleman. MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Teen driver to be charged after Houston police pursuit sends 5 to hospital Aleman admitted to a detective his role in the deaths of Bradley Barker and Binel Gasery Jr., according to a lengthy court document that details what police said led up to the shooting. At one point, Aleman said Hernandez ordered him to do his "dirty work" and if he didn't, the barber would kill his family. The accused gunman also told the detective he was aware of the shooting, saying, "I made global news. I was on every news station." Detectives said Barker texted Hernandez for a haircut and green on Aug. 8. Hernandez worked at a barber shop on South Wayside near Telephone and was involved in narcotics trafficking, police said. Aleman drove a black Chevrolet Impala to the barber shop and met with Hernandez before the two prospective buyers showed up. Minutes later, Barker and Gasery pulled into a parking spot in a white Nissan Sentra. Nearby surveillance video showed the barber and accused gunman got into the Sentra with Barker and Gasery. Thats when the prospective buyers pistol-whipped Aleman and stole the pot and cash from Hernandez, police said. Hernandez stumbled out of the car into the barber shop as Barker and Gasery sped away in the Sentra. Aleman, who managed to get out of the Sentra before the pair sped off, jumped into the Impala and immediately gave chase, detectives said. ARKEMA TRIAL: Hurricane Harvey overwhelmed well-prepared Arkema leaders, defense attorneys say Detectives said they believe Aleman, and possibly several other drivers involved, chased the Sentra through neighborhoods and along busy freeways. Surveillance video from a business along Interstate 10 East shows as many as three vehicles including the Impala, a Ford Focus and Porsche chasing the Sentra, according to court documents. Driving the Impala, Aleman caught up to the Sentra and spun it out on the East Freeway main lanes near Federal Road just before 6 p.m. that evening. Witnesses told detectives that Aleman pulled a gun and shot into the Sentra upwards of 20 times in the middle of the busy highway, killing both Barker and Gasery. Shortly after the shooting, Hernandez placed several phone calls, detectives said. Surveillance video showed him on the phone, at one point apparently directing toward a customer a hand across his neck which detectives say is associated with the death of someone. On Feb. 28, Aleman was arrested on an unrelated warrant and confessed to being the gunman, according to court records. I knew who I was shooting for, Aleman told detectives, according to a charging document. I wasnt trying to hurt nobody but them. Aleman told detectives he used a torch to melt the gun after the shooting. If convicted, both Aleman and Hernandez are facing life in prison. They are also eligible for the death penalty. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com [March 04, 2020] Resilience Capital Partners Portfolio Company, Diversified Global Graphics, Completes Acquisition of Ryan Edwards Communications CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Diversified Global Graphics Group (DG3), a leading provider of global print, technology, and visual communication services, today announced the acquisition of Ryan Edwards Communications, Inc. (REC). Founded in 2013, REC is a leading global supplier of outsourced graphic communications and print solutions to the cruise industry. Leading cruise lines partner with REC to deliver managed onshore and onboard printed communications. "We are pleased to welcome the Ryan Edwards team into the DG3 family," said DG3 President and CEO Steven Babat. "Ken and his team have built an entrepreneurially minded growth company and strong brand over the last eight years. The Ryan Edwards solutions to the cruise industry will be a great addition to the DG3's portfolio of Managed Services offerings." REC founder Ken Wahler will lead cruise line Managed Services for DG3. Mr. Wahler commented, "We have built our company to be a leading provider of managed services in our market and are excited about the next chapter of our growth. We are thrilled to join DG3 and leverage its support services and world class onshore printing capabilities to rapidly expand our services and client reach. Additionally, I admire how DG3 shares our singular focus for providing on-time, high quality services to our clients and look forward to continuing to provide outstanding service to the cruie industry on a much larger scale." Bassem Mansour, Co-CEO of Resilience Capital Partners, added "Steve and the entire team at DG3 have successfully grown the business and achieved very strong results. The addition of REC will enhance the continued growth of DG3 and we look forward to supporting the company and its strategic objectives." Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. About DG3: DG3, a Resilience Capital Partners portfolio company (www.resiliencecapital.com), is a global leader in print and communications services. DG3 delivers client-centric, globally integrated solutions to companies within numerous industries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.dg3.com. About Resilience Capital Partners: Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Resilience invests in niche-oriented manufacturing, value added distribution and business service companies with sustainable market positions. Resilience provides a flexible transaction approach to accommodate the needs of businesses and sellers. Since its founding in 2001, Resilience has invested in 81 companies under 40 platforms. Resilience manages in excess of $550 million for its global investor base which includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, fund of funds and family offices. For more information, please visit www.resiliencecapital.com. Contact: Bassem Mansour, Co-CEO Resilience Capital Partners 216.292.0200 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/resilience-capital-partners-portfolio-company-diversified-global-graphics-completes-acquisition-of-ryan-edwards-communications-301016433.html SOURCE Resilience Capital Partners [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Honeyland takes us to the Balkans, where two ageing women live in a slate hut with a dog and three cats amid an arid mountain landscape. It's primitive, beautiful, elemental just the sort of place to produce a great documentary story. And it does. Documentary has never been pure, but that doesn't mean its practitioners ever stop trying to convince us otherwise. The need to believe is strong, but how much should we believe when a filmmaker offers a story that seems too perfectly rounded and shaped with meaning? Hatidze Muratova, born in 1964, has a face like Mount Rushmore and teeth like a broken fence. She raises Macedonian bees in the old way, finding their wild hives, bringing them home to the ruined village where she and her mother, Nazife, are the only inhabitants. The old woman is 85, bedridden and blind, with an awful sore under a dressing on the right side of her head. They are Turks in what's now called North Macedonia, hemmed in on all sides by the former Yugoslav republics of this and that. By tradition, the last daughter remains unmarried to look after the parents. Hatidze is that daughter; most of her sisters are buried outside. The camera work is exceptionally intimate, taking us deep into their lives. Once this technique was called cinema verite, or fly on the wall filmmaking, but it's neither "the cinema of truth" nor the view of that fly. It's as directed, mediated and interpreted as any other film. Purity has no dominion, except that Hatidze and her mother really do seem to live these lives. Or something like them. Let me be clear: this is an exceptionally beautiful film about these women, and what happens when another family a raucous, jangling couple with seven children moves in up the road with 50 head of cattle. It's also a constructed narrative in which the directors make many choices. The filmmakers are from the capital Skopje, where Hatidze goes to sell her exceptionally good honey. These film folk have allegory on their minds, the most obvious being how capitalism might ruin the "pristine" world of Hatidze and her bees. Voters from predominantly black and Latino neighbourhoods were forced to wait for hours to cast their ballot in Texas on Super Tuesday after long lines were reported at some polling stations. Election officials in the Houston area were forced to send in additional voting machines as thousands of people reportedly waited for up to five hours to vote at one station. The long waits came after the closure of hundreds of polling stations across Texas by the Republican-led state government since 2012. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow suggested voting difficulties had been caused in part by the systematic closing of stations in areas with high turnout for minority voters, poor people and young people. It is an outrage that it is this hard to cast a vote in this country, Ms Maddow said on Tuesday night. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images I know its not only Texas but in Texas, specifically over successive electoral cycles over the past 10 years, the Republican-led government has made it harder and harder and harder to vote, she added. With 90 per cent of precincts reporting, Joe Biden was leading in Texas with 33.5 per cent of the vote, beating Bernie Sanders on 30 per cent. The Texas Civil Rights Project, a non-profit legal organisation, said the long waits were part of a predictable trend in elections across Harris County, the county which contains Houston. Recommended Outrage as electronic voting machines malfunction in California Once again, black and brown voters in #HarrisCo are facing unacceptable wait times in their communities, the group wrote on Twitter. We know that some voters have already given up and gone home. This is not the first time this has happened. In 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that forced jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory voting practices to seek approval before changing election rules. Following that decision, Texas implemented a law requiring voters to present photo IDs at polling stations and began closing voting sites. Ari Berman, the author of the voting rights book Give Us the Ballot, described the delays as "voter suppression" and warned there would be similar problems in the November presidential election if action is not taken. Four hour lines in Democratic & minority communities in Texas [are] a preview of voter suppression GOP planning for November, Mr Berman said on Tuesday. Dems need to keep eyes on prize and develop strategy for combatting this, no matter who the nominee is. The issue of voter suppression is likely to be a major issue in the 2020 election, especially as Democrats hope to win Texas for the first time in decades with strong support from black and Latino voters. Delays were also reported in Travis County, Texas, due to coronavirus after many election workers did not show up, with some citing fears of contracting the virus, according to the county clerks office. The election office said it implemented emergency procedures, with elections staff and other employees filling in as poll workers. Additional reporting by AP LeadingResponse Promotes Ariadne Rodriguez to Vice President of Talent and Culture LeadingResponse, the national leader in client acquisition for the professional services industry, has promoted Ariadne "Ari" Rodriguez, PHR, to vice president of talent and culture. Rodriguez, who joined the company in 2016, was previously director of human resources. A member of the executive leadership team, she is responsible for corporate training and development, hiring, benefits administration and employee relations, and ensuring adherence to state and federal employment regulations. Before coming to LeadingResponse, Rodriguez served in human resources leadership positions at a variety of companies in Florida and Texas, most recently Thyssenkrupp Elevator Americas. "I'm pleased to recognize the contributions Ari has made to the company so far, and I look forward to her further developing a diverse and productive workforce," saidMatthew Kearney, chief executive officer. A Tampa resident, Rodriguez holds a bachelor's degree in interpersonal and organization communications from the University of South Florida. She received her Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) in 2019. She is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Tampa Bay chapter. Rodriguez lives in Tampa with her husband of 22 years, Nelson. They have two sons, David and Nicholas. She enjoys traveling with Her family, and ballroom and Latin dancing. LeadingResponse is the premier provider of client acquisition services for the financial, legal, estate planning, elective medical, senior living and home services industries, using digital and traditional marketing strategies. Founded in 1995, we're based in Tampa, Fla., with operations in Frisco, TX, and Oldsmar, FL. Our driving purpose is to connect clients with their ideal prospects and grow their revenue. Learn more at LeadingResponse.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005757/en/ Baba Punjab Singh, a survivor of the 2012 massacre of worshippers at a gurdwara in Wisconsin state by a white supremacist, died Monday, taking up the toll to seven. The killings had led to changes in the federal criminal justice system to include attacks on Sikhs as a hate crime. Singh, 72, had been left paralysed by a shot in the face and could communicate only by blinking his eyes. He had lived in a long-term care facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since. Babajis capacity for love and optimism was unchanged by the heinous attack in Oak Creek, as well as the life-altering injuries he sustained, said his son Raghuvinder Singh said in a statement. Even when I regularly visited him in the hospital after his paralysis, I would ask him: Are you living in chardikala, the Sikh spirit of eternal optimism? Each time, without fail, he would blink twice to say yes. Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist, had opened fire on the gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin just as worshippers were gathering for the morning prayer. He killed six people and wounded several others - Singh was among them - before he was killed in a gunfight with a police officer. The massacre led to congressional hearings and became a turning point in the treatment of crimes against Sikhs, who had become a target of ethnic slurs, bullying and violence. The FBI now tracks incidents against Sikhs as a hate crime. Sikhs were the target of 4.1% of hate crimes committed on the basis of religious identity in 2018, according to the FBI Three in the capital and adjoining areas have announced holiday for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of coronavirus, while two advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. On Tuesday, a day after the Union Health Ministry reported two fresh cases of in the country with one of them in Delhi, two sent messages to parents announcing their closure. One of the two schools, where the infected man's son is a student in a primary class, said it will remain shut from March 4 to March 6. A health department team fumigated and sanitised the school campus on Tuesday. A school in has announced it will be closed from Thursday while its two branches in Gurgaon have advanced their spring break and will now close from Saturday. Amity International Schools (AIS) in have have fumigated their classrooms and sent advisories to parents detailing the dos and don'ts. "We have sanitized the schools and fumigated each classroom. We may announce holidays if the need arises. Students and their parents should not panic but take precautionary measures," Principal of AIS Pushp Vihar Ameeta Mohan said. Nina Kaul, the principal of Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Gurgaon, said, "We have established a comprehensive quarantine protocol and our medical staff have been trained to identify symptoms of in order to take necessary steps upon suspecting a case. Parents have been requested not to send their child to school if they are feeling sick and especially if the child has fever". "We have also requested the parents and staff to declare their travel plans or inform us if the child or someone in the family or in immediate circle of the child has travelled to any of the 'at risk' places so that quarantine protocols can be put into effect," she said. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in has asked parents to inform school authorities if anybody in the family or even relatives who frequently visit are suffering from cough and cold. "Even if any other member of the family has such symptoms, please inform so that adequate precautionary measures can be taken in this regard," an advisory by the school said. Schools in the region have also suggested parents to not send their wards to attend classes even in case of mild cough or cold. Delhi Chief Minister on Wednesday said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for A taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection and there is no need to panic, the chief minister said at a press conference. NEW YORK (AP) - The children, wife and neighbor of a New Rochelle lawyer who is hospitalized with COVID-19 have also tested positive, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Yeshiva University, the private Jewish university the son attends, said it is canceling classes at the upper Manhattan campus where the student is enrolled. The positive test results for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 came one day after Cuomo announced that the attorney had become the second case in New York state. This makes six confirmed cases in New York total since the first was announced March 1. Bernie Sanders learned Wednesday from a reporter during a press conference that Mike Bloomberg had dropped out of the Democratic primary race. 'I wanted to ask you about Michael Bloomberg stepping out and dropping out of the race,' a reporter prompted during Sanders' first public appearance since Super Tuesday. 'Has he stepped out dropped it?' Biden questioned apparently he had not yet head the news. 'He's dropped out supporting Joe Biden,' the reporter confirmed. 'I wanted to get your thoughts on what he brought to this race?' 'Well, first I've heard about that. He certainly brought a lot of money into this race. He certainly made a lot of television networks very, very wealthy, and I'm sure they're very disappointed that he's leaving. Look, I have no animus toward Mayor Bloomberg. I truly, strongly disagree with many of his policies as mayor of the city of New York, including stop and frisk and many other policies,' Sanders said. Bloomberg announced hours earlier Wednesday morning that he was ending his presidential campaign after failing to win a single Super Tuesday state of the 14 that voted in their respective primary contests. Bernie Sanders made his first appearance following Super Tuesday at a press conference at his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vermont Wednesday He admitted there after a reporter asked a question that he was not aware that Mike Bloomberg had dropped out of the race hours before his press conference 'Has he stepped out dropped it?' Biden asked, then said it made sense he was backing Joe Biden because 'establishment' Democrats want everyone to rally around the former vice president Mike Bloomberg announced Wednesday morning he was dropping out of the race after his dismal performance in Super Tuesday left him with only 12 delegates and winning the majority of votes in none of the 14 states that cast their ballots Bloomberg endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, who had a dominating Super Tuesday win in multiple states, putting him back in frontrunner status after performing poorly in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada But Sanders said Bloomberg dropping out and putting his weight behind Biden just proves his theory that the Democratic establishment is doing everything it can to hurt his chances in winning the nomination to take on Donald Trump in November. 'But this just confirms exactly what I said, it's what the media has been talking about for months. How do we stop Bernie Sanders?' the progressive candidate said. 'And what you do is you get candidates out of the race to rally around Joe Biden.' 'And now Joe will have behind him, I don't know what this is the first I've heard about what role Mayor Bloomberg will be playing. But obviously, as the ninth wealthiest person in this country he's worth some $60 billion I suspect we will see, you know, a lot of money coming in to Biden's campaign. Probably a lot of negative ads attacking me. That's what we're taking on,' Sanders continued. The Vermont senator, a Democratic socialist, said he had not heard about Bloomberg bowing out of the running even though it happened more than four hours before he took the podium to make post-Super Tuesday remarks. Bloomberg, a billionaire, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on his presidential campaign, including pumping much of that money into a plethora of television and social media advertising in Super Tuesday states. His efforts, however, proved ineffective as he walked away from the biggest primary night with only 12 delegates. Sanders said during the press conference at his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vermont that he spoke to Elizabeth Warren on the phone a few hours earlier as she weighs whether to exit the running or not. The Massachusetts senator is in a distant third place in delegates count, and she failed to win the majority of votes in any of the first four early primary contest states or any of the 14 Super Tuesday states. She didn't even win her home state of Massachusetts, coming in in third place to the two frontrunners, Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is still in the running but in a distant third place with 36 delegates She didn't win any states yet, including Super Tuesday state of Massachusetts, which she represents in the U.S. Senate Sanders said he had spoken to Warren on the phone, but claimed she deserved time to make her own decision on whether she wants to continue on in the presidential race 'Yes we did speak on the phone a few hours ago. And what Senator Warren told me is that she is assessing her campaign,' Sanders said, sharing what is already known. 'She has not made any decisions as of this point.' 'And it is important, I think, for all of us certainly me, who has known Elizabeth Warren for many, many years to respect the time and the space she needs to make her decision,' he continued in his press conference. He showered praise on the senator as it has become clear she is unable to clinch the nomination as the alternative progressive candidate to Sanders. 'Look, Elizabeth Warren is a very, very excellent senator. She has run a strong campaign,' Sanders lauded. 'She will make her own decision in her own time. And in terms of vitriol on the online I'm disgusted by it, alright? Look, you know, I think the, you know, Twitter world is an opportunity for people to debate issues have good, honest debates about issues but not to make vitriolic attacks on somebody because you disagree with them.' Warren has faced pressure to drop out of the campaign as she takes away delegates and votes from Sanders and Biden who have made it clear after Super Tuesday they are in a two-horse race for the nomination. Candidates need a majority of delegates to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention this summer to be on the general election ballot. If candidate do not reach that threshold, so-called superdelegates are then able to cast ballots whichever way they wish a Democratic policy that could sway the outcome of the nominating contest. Sanders is the only one who believes that whoever wins the plurality, rather than the majority, of delegates should automatically win the nomination especially as delegates were divide more greatly in the four first nominating states. Former candidate Pete Buttigieg won in Iowa, taking the most delegates there, and walked away with a hefty amount in New Hampshire, as well. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 02:50:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIRANA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 49 Albanian citizens were repatriated from France and Luxembourg after their requests for asylum were rejected, state police said in a press release issued on Tuesday. According to the press release, the repatriation operation was organized in coordination with the Albanian Border Police and police authorities in France and Luxembourg. The 49 Albanian nationals, including family members with children, were repatriated with charter flights. According to the police, the repatriation operations has been going on every week for Albanian citizens who have been refused asylum or have violated the rules of residence in the Schengen area. "The Interior Ministry and the State Police appeal once again to all those citizens who intend to travel to the Schengen area in order to seek asylum, to make no vain efforts, as the chances of obtaining asylum in the European Union are zero," read the statement. The Border Police in Albania has increased the measures during interviews at all border crossings over the reasons for moving to Schengen area, as well as to the green border. Enditem Ahead of International Women's Day, GODIVA launches charitable initiative to further its commitment to empowering women around the world NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GODIVA, the global leader in premium chocolate, announced today the launch of The Lady GODIVA Initiative, a purpose-driven program designed to support charitable organizations that empower women around the world. Launching just before International Women's Day, The Lady GODIVA Initiative pays tribute to one of the most empowered women in history, Lady GODIVA, by asking its chocolatiers to nominate their favorite charitable organizations that embody the spirit of this heroine. Through this organic strategy, GODIVA plans to identify organizations that are in the greatest need of corporate support. Nearly 1,000 years ago, Lady GODIVA showed the world what it meant to be brave when she protested the unfair taxation of her citizens by riding through the streets of Coventry, England naked on horseback. In that powerful act, she stood up for what she believed in, and gave a voice to the voiceless. Her legacy is grounded in strength, boldness, and doing what's right for her community. Lady GODIVA is more than the inspiration behind the iconic brand's name and more than its delicious chocolate; she is the embodiment of using a position of power to do good. From the nominated nonprofits, GODIVA will select five organizations, one in the US, Canada, Belgium, England, and China, that will each receive a $25,000 grant to continue their inspirational work to empower women. "At GODIVA, we aim to bring the spirit and values of Lady GODIVA to life through our company culture and the way we do business every single day," said Annie Young-Scrivner, CEO, GODIVA. "This International Women's Day, we are honored to launch The Lady Godiva Initiative to recognize and reward charitable organizations across the globe that are changing women's lives for the better and making the world a more wonderful place." Consumers are encouraged to share their own stories about women who have inspired and empowered them, using the hashtag MyLadyGodiva on social media. If they visit a GODIVA boutique or cafe and show the chocolatiers their posts, consumers will receive a special gift. For more information on The Lady GODIVA Initiative, please visit the GODIVA Cares section of GODIVA.com. About GODIVA Chocolatier GODIVA Chocolatier is the global leader in premium, artisanal chocolate. The company was founded in Brussels in 1926 by Belgian Chocolatier, Pierre Draps. Nearly a century later, every piece of GODIVA is still bursting with quality, Belgian craftsmanship, and the world's finest ingredients. GODIVA has distribution in more than 100 countries across the globe. Customers can experience GODIVA at the iconic brand's chocolate boutiques, GODIVA Cafes, GODIVA.com, and at many fine retailers. GODIVA is committed to innovative and delicious food and beverage products that exceed consumer expectations and create wonderful moments. From its famous truffles and shell-moulded chocolate pieces to its European-style biscuits, individually wrapped chocolates, Croiffles , gourmet coffees and teas, hot cocoa, soft serve and other indulgences, GODIVA is dedicated to bringing the ultimate chocolate experience to the world. As a socially responsible business, GODIVA has global practices and programs designed to provide meaningful support to cocoa farmers, safeguard our environment, and empower the communities where we live and work. To learn more about these powerful initiatives, visit GODIVA Cares. Contacts: Tara McTeague Head of Global Corporate Communications Tara.McTeague@GODIVA.com 212-984-6441 Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1098745/Godiva_Annie_Lady_Godiva_IWD.mp4 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097238/LadyGodivaInitiative_Logo.jpg Gujarat Assembly Speaker on Wednesday reprimanded Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani for failing to prove his allegation that the BJP government has paid Rs 162 crore extra for the purchase around three lakh 4G calling tablets. A proposal to reprimand the Congress leader was moved by the BJP government and accepted by Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on Wednesday. As Dhanani was not present in the House, Deputy Leader of Opposition Shailesh Parmar urged the speaker to discuss the issue in Dhanani's presence on Thursday. However, state Parliamentary and Legislative Affairs Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama urged the speaker not to show any leniency, claiming that although Dhanani was given three days, he did not produce any proof to back his charge. "Leader of opposition is a position that carries a lot of responsibility. Political leaders must remain honest in public life. One must never mislead the House. There is no harm in saying sorry if you had said a lie. You cannot level allegations without any proofs," Trivedi said. "The papers submitted to me by Dhanani do not back his claim that a tablet is available for Rs 1,400. Dhanani only tried to defame the government. "This is a serious matter for me. Although he was given time, he neither submitted any proof nor tendered an apology for telling a lie. Thus, I accept the government's proposal to reprimand him," the speaker added. On February 27, Dhanani had claimed in the Assembly that the BJP government has paid Rs 162 crore more than the actual price to the vendor as the Lenovo tablet is available at much cheaper rate than the amount paid by the administration after tendering process. While the government paid Rs 6,667 per piece, it is available for Rs 1,400 on e-commerce platforms, Dhanani had alleged, adding that the government paid Rs 5,200 more for each unit. These tablets are to be given to around three lakh first year college students under a state government scheme launched three years back. When Chudasama confronted him the next day saying the Congress leader mistook a 7-inch touchscreen as a tablet, Dhanani had sought time to check the government's claim. Chudasama said it is the touchscreen, a replacement part of the tablet, which is sold for Rs 1,400, not the Lenovo tablet. He said the same tablet is priced at Rs 7,000 on e- commerce portals. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had on Tuesday asked Dhanani to either submit the proof or tender an apology. After a heated debate, Dhanani had said he will submit the proof to the speaker. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), presidential candidate Masis Mayilyans political team has refuted the news about a ban on entry into the Russian Federation spread by mass media outlets. Mr. Mayilyan has already declared that this is misinformation. It is a classic example of black PR that certain mass media outlets have been using against Masis Mayilyan for several months now, Gegham Baghdasaryan, representative of Mayilyans political team, told Armenian News-NEWS.am today. Earlier, the presses had released information according to which the Russian Federation has prohibited the entry of Masis Mayilyan and Samvel Babayan for a five-year period. During a conversation with Hraparak newspaper (website), the Embassy of Russia in Armenia refused to comment on the press releases regarding the ban on the entry of Masis Mayilyan and Samvel Babayan into the Russian Federation. Diplomatically speaking, if they dont comment, they confirm, and they simply dont want to repeat what you wrote in words, the website reported. The Dixie Chicks are back with an empowering new song called Gaslighter. The country trio - made up of musicians Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire - debuted their latest track Wednesday, marking their first release since 2006. The band's new single is a girl-power anthem, partially inspired by Maines' messy split from actor Adrian Pasdar. Fire starters: The Dixie Chicks just released the new track Gaslighter, their first song in over 14-years Along with the song the Dixies shared a dramatic music video for the track, which was full of fascinating vintage footage interspersed with scenes of the songstresses in military garb. Gaslighter - produced by Jack Antonoff - opens with a bang, slamming an evil ex with lyrics like: 'Gaslighter, denier. Doin' anything to get your a** farther. Gaslight, big timer. Repeating all of the mistakes of your father.' The song is the titled track off their forthcoming album, which is set for a May 1 release. Much of the album was said to be inspired by Maines' 2017 break-up and the messy divorce battle that followed. Visuals: Along with the song the Dixies shared a dramatic music video for the track, which was full of fascinating vintage footage interspersed with scenes of the songstresses in military garb Exes: Gaslighter - produced by Jack Antonoff - opens with a bang, slamming an evil ex with lyrics like: 'Gaslighter, denier. Doin' anything to get your a** farther. Gaslight, big timer. Repeating all of the mistakes of your father' Heartbreak: Much of the album was said to be inspired by Maines' 2017 break-up and the messy divorce battle that followed 'When I was getting a divorce, I had a lot to say,' the songwriter revealed during an interview on the podcast Spiritualgasm from last September. It seems to be a subject all of the women can relate to. Since the release of their last album, Strayer and McGuire also went through divorces. While the lead track was about heartbreak, many fans are hoping the Dixie Chick show their political stripes on the new album. The outspoken country group sparked outrage back in 2003 after Maines spoke out against President George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq during a show in the UK. Speaking out: The outspoken country group sparked outrage back in 2003 after Maines spoke out against President George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq during a show in the UK. Above in 2003 Riled up: Her comments enraged their largely conservative fanbase, leading to a boycott of their music which devastated album sales and tanked their position on the charts. Above protesters from a May 2003 concert in Knoxville, Tennessee are seen Her comments enraged their largely conservative fanbase, leading to a boycott of their music which devastated album sales and tanked their position on the charts. Maines' comments even resulted in death threats towards the band, prompting them to beef up security presence during their 2003 Top Of The World Tour. Feeling rejected by the country community, Maguire told the German publication Der Spiegel: 'We don't feel a part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore... We now consider ourselves part of the big rock 'n' roll family.' Following years of backlash over the comments, the group released the album Taking The Long Way in 2006. Hit! The group released the album Taking The Long Way in 2006 and despite worries controversy would still plague the stars, the album was both a critical and commercial success Despite worries the controversy would still plague the stars, the album was both a critical and commercial success. Taking The Long Way debuted at number one on both the US pop album and country album charts. At the 2007 Grammy Awards, the band won five trophies, including Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year. While the group has performed on and off in the years since, they've largely been out of the spotlight since Taking The Long Way - save for a few high-profile awards and festival appearances. Gaslighter, The Dixie Chicks first album in 14-years, is set for release May 1, 2020. NOVI SANZHARY, Ukraine By the time the riot police turned up, things were already out of control. In this rural Ukrainian town of about 8,000 people, residents reacted with anger after evacuees from the center of the coronavirus outbreak in China were airlifted to a nearby medical facility last month. As a fog of confusion and disinformation fueled by social media swirled around, protesters blocked roads with vehicles and threw stones at buses carrying the evacuees. The national guard and armored personnel carriers joined riot police in trying to calm the situation. After a tense standoff, authorities eventually managed to unblock the road. Police said that nine officers were injured and that 24 people were arrested. Five were charged with organizing the riots. Several countries were evacuating their citizens from China at the same time but such a violent reaction wasn't seen anywhere else. Image: A schoolgirl sits in an empty classroom in Novi Sanzhary, Ukraine The incident shows that as the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the world, infecting nearly 90,000 people and killing at least 3,000 of them, various forms of misinformation follows it. Governments are fighting not just the disease but also rising panic. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak On Feb. 20, 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign national evacuees were airlifted to Kharkiv from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus is thought to have originated. As the rumors started to swirl on social media, fears began to grow among the residents of Novi Sanzhary, a town 110 miles away in central Ukraine, that the evacuees could be headed here. "It was a Viber message my friend sent to me and somebody sent to her before," Tetiana Artamonova, 45, an entrepreneur, said in an interview. The confirmation that the evacuees were, indeed, going to be quarantined at a nearby national guard medical center spread like wildfire, according to Artamonova, who lives nearby. Also circulating was the rumor that some of the evacuees had contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Ukraine didn't confirm its first case of the disease until Tuesday, March 3. Story continues Criticizing the protests the next day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: "We keep saying that Ukraine is Europe. Yesterday it seemed that we are medieval Europe." But Artamonova said a lack of information from authorities stoked anger and fear among local people, which was heightened by social media reports and speculation by politicians. She and other people NBC News spoke to said they would have reacted differently if the government had prepared them for the evacuees' arrivals. "Nobody warned us," said Inna Koba, 53, the head of Novi Sanzhary's council. "Because of the media, people knew that it was a deadly virus, and they wanted to protect their kids. "I don't support the aggressive people, but I can understand them. They didn't mean to be violent. They were scared. Information waves went out of control." Ukrainian Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska said the government decided to keep the details about the evacuations secret because it was concerned about the safety of those traveling. Insisting that the government had done everything it could to keep people safe, she said: "You can always blame the government. However, if certain people want to organize provocations, they would do it anyway." She added that the government had been informing people about the coronavirus before the evacuees arrived. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics Politicians in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and the regions of Lviv, Ternopil and Poltava, where Novi Sanzhary is, had also been briefing and posting information on social media about the outbreak in a bid to stop it from spreading. And the national government also told people that none of the evacuees had been diagnosed with the coronavirus on the day of their arrival. But it wasn't enough to prevent panic. Koba admitted that she had failed to keep residents of Novi Sanzhary informed about the coronavirus, but she said she had assumed that it would not affect them. Image: Inna Koba "Coronavirus was so far away from us. People prayed it would never come to our town," she said. Koba, who said she learned about the evacuation from Facebook, blamed Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Poltava region, for not having informed her. But the governor said he did not learn of the evacuation until the morning of Feb. 20, saying Koba should have called him first, as soon as she knew that protests were starting in town. He admitted, however, that he had not called the central government to find out more and had instead waited for official information. He said the people of Novi Sanzhary were "provoked." "Fake news about the government's plans to bring sick people into their town started spreading on February 19. Police are investigating who started it," he said. Image: Activists at president's office in Kyiv As for Zelenskiy, his office said it has been conducting daily briefings on the coronavirus situation at home and abroad both before and after the Novi Sanzhary incident. "The medical status of the evacuees could change, and Ukraine had to be ready to receive its citizens if they were healthy or infected or even if they were extremely ill," said Zelenskiy's spokeswoman, Yulia Mendel. "The decision on which medical institution a person should be sent to depends on the medical condition," she added. Mendel said the president's office was in touch with social media companies to prevent the spread of similar disinformation in the future, while a police investigation is underway to trace the source of any disinformation campaign. Meanwhile, back in Novi Sanzhary, residents are hoping life will return to normal on Thursday, the last day the evacuees are due to leave if they are clear of the illness. Medical tests proved that all the evacuees were healthy, the Health Ministry said last week. Image: Vasyl Tsarenko and Vitalii Maksiuk in Novi Sanzhary However, Italy is a longstanding destination for Ukrainians seeking work, and about 70,000 live in the Italian provinces of Lombardy and Veneto, where most of Italy's 1,694 cases so far have emerged and several towns are on lockdown. As a result, the Ukrainian government has started strengthening border controls at airports and land crossings. "We've been expecting this threat from Asia, but it emerged it is coming from Europe, too," Syniehubov said. An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital, Co Antrim in Northern Ireland. Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire A Queen's University student is one of two new cases of the coronavirus diagnosed in Northern Ireland. Both patients are adults and the two cases are not connected. One individual recently travelled from northern Italy. The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive for the virus. The two new cases were confirmed by the Northern Ireland Department of Health on Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, a Queen's University spokesperson said they are working with the Public Health Agency to identify anyone who has been in contact with the student infected. They said they are taking all appropriate steps to contain any further spread of the virus and protect the welfare of all those within the university community and the wider public. "The university remains open and is operating as normal. The university will continue to monitor the situation," the spokesperson added. Read More "The university has provided online guidance for staff and students and encourages all members of the Queen's community to follow the latest official guidance from the Public Health Agency and other relevant authorities. "The university's Major Incident Team has been convened and is putting in place the appropriate contingency measures which will be communicated to staff and students when appropriate." The two new cases bring the confirmed number of cases on the island of Ireland to five after the first case was diagnosed in Northern Ireland last week, with two in the Republic of Ireland. Public Health Agency personnel are "working rapidly to identify contacts they may have had, with the aim of preventing further spread". The test outcomes have been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification. Expand Close An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire Northern Ireland's Department of Health's Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said the new cases had "no implications" for the Republic of Ireland and that the second case had not resulted from "person to person contact within Northern Ireland". "What we are now doing is following up very detailed contact tracing, how that person travelled from northern Italy into Northern Ireland and taking appropriate steps so those who need a follow up will be contacted by our colleagues in the Public Health Agency," he said. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health, said they are keen to inform the public about coronavirus in a bid to tackle harmful stereotypes. "We now understand there are three confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, five in total on the island of Ireland. Given that COVID-19 is a new disease it is understandable that its emergence may give rise to anxiety and fear among the general public. These factors can also give rise to harmful stereotypes. "This virus knows no borders, or race. Restricting travel into Ireland does not form a component of our current response. We must continue to focus on ensuring that everyone is informed, and knows what to do in the event they develop symptoms "It is essential that any decisions regarding responses to COVID-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate," Dr Holohan said. One school has closed, following the confirmation of the first case of coronavirus in the Republic, a male student who recently returned from an at-risk region in northern Italy. Following a risk assessment, all pupils and teachers are being treated as close contacts of the confirmed case and the post-primary school in the east of the country has been shut for 14 days. The Republic's second case of coronavirus was confirmed yesterday in a woman in the east of the country. It is understood she returned from northern Italy in recent days but is not believed to have been in contact with a Dublin student who is currently being treated in hospital. Up to Tuesday some 397 people were tested for the Covid-19 in the Republic but just one tested positive. Northern Ireland health authorities are planning to send Covid-19 patients to England if they require further clinical treatment. Dr Seamus OReilly, medical director for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said: If the test comes back positive there is a very well-rehearsed process that we do in conjunction with our colleagues in England. That involves assessing whether the patient requires care in a hospital then planning the logistics of the move. We identify an infectious diseases bed in England, if possible, to transfer the patient to. If we cannot transfer the patient across for whatever reason, the infectious diseases beds in the Royal (The Royal Victoria in west Belfast) will be used for that purpose, that is ward 7A. Tests are analysed in Belfasts virology lab and the number which can be conducted has been increased. Results will be ready within four hours, Dr OReilly added. A demonstration on testing for the virus was held in Northern Ireland at Antrim Area Hospital on Wednesday. Members of the media were given a walk through of the process of how suspected coronavirus patients would be tested. Patients suspected of having the disease will be referred by their GP to the hybrid testing facility at Antrim Area Hospital. People can be tested in their car or in a special coronavirus assessment pod by medical staff wearing protective masks and clothing. Testing is currently taking place daily between 9 and 10am, with swabs taken from the patients nose and mouth and sent for testing, with results taking around five hours. The area for taking coronavirus test samples at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, January 31, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. The time it takes Vietnamese experts to test for coronavirus infection has come down from four or five days to one. It now takes experts at Hanoi's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) just 10-11 hours to make an accurate diagnosis from DNA sequencing. At the beginning of the outbreak patients had to wait several days for the result. NIHE has built up large stocks of test kits for screening Vietnamese nationals returning from South Korea, one of the main epidemic-hit nations and with a death toll so far of 33. A Vietnamese is among the 5,328 diagnosed there as infected as of Wednesday. Vuong Duc Cuong, a researcher at NIHE's virology department, said the institute currently receives around 70 samples a day on average, requiring its personnel to work overtime to deliver results quickly. After cultivating and isolating the virus, NIHE transfers positive samples to a number of units to develop rapid test kits. The state-owned Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 company has already started research to find vaccines using the samples. There are 30 facilities including hospitals approved by the Ministry of Health to test for Covid-19, and all of them use NIHE test kits. On Wednesday the number of people suspected to have the coronavirus infection in Vietnam was 77. None of them are in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang, the countrys three largest cities. Over 10,000 people have so far been quarantined in field hospitals or monitored. While no new cases have been detected since February 13 in Vietnam, and all 16 who had tested positive have been discharged, the global death toll continues to climb, with the epidemic now reaching 76 countries and territories. The death toll is 3,203, 2981 in mainland China, 79 in Italy, 77 in Iran, 33 in South Korea, nine in the U.S., and 12 in Japan, including six on a cruise ship. Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a moratorium on charter-school funding. Fortunately, even if he were president, hed have little to no control to effect such a thing. Its an issue left to the states, and even the incumbent, Donald Trump, has called for collapsing the small amount of federal money allocated to charter schools into a block grant. Teachers unions, on the other hand, have deep political leverage in many states, and they have shown the ability to stop and even turn back charter-school growth in individual states. Some of them do so based on the argument that charter schools are not real public schools. But what makes a school public? Its a far fuzzier distinction than many politicians and union leaders would have you think. Public education is not Americas civic religion, nor is it the rock upon which our democratic institutions were built. It is a work in progress, emerging some 60 years after the Declaration of Independence and only really taking root in the 20th century. In the 100 years since the end of World War I, public education has grown and evolved adding grades and admitting whole groups of Americans who had previously been denied access. That process continues to this day. Horace Mann, appointed as Massachusettss secretary of education in 1837, is generally credited with defining what we now think of as public education. Mann famously argued that Citizens cannot maintain both ignorance and freedom. Therefore, he said, education should be paid for, controlled and maintained by the public, provided in schools that embrace children from varying backgrounds, and nonsectarian. Manns first tenet is simple, while the second remains a great challenge. The third represents the emerging front in the evolution of public education. Despite years of effort at integration, many of our nations school districts are homogenous, home to students of mostly the same race and socioeconomic status. In the wealthiest school districts (median family income of at least $166,000), public schools serve few black and Hispanic families and only a handful of middle- and low-income families. Seventy percent of families in these districts earn more than $100,000 a year. The same number are white, and only 13 percent are black or Hispanic. The majority (65 percent) of adults possess a bachelors degree or higher. Story continues At the opposite end of the spectrum, in districts with a median family income below $55,000, the story is starkly different. Most families in these districts earn less than $50,000, close to 56 percent of residents are black or Hispanic, and only about 12 percent hold a bachelors degree or higher. No amount of effort in large urban school districts can change this. Those with means will always be able to choose where they send their children to school, whether that means paying tuition directly for a private education or paying high taxes and home prices to live in a district with top-notch schools. Sadly, it is the families without economic means who are stuck. They cant afford to access the same public schools as their wealthy neighbors a district over, and without options like charters or tuition tax credits, theyre left with no choice but their district school. To paraphrase George Orwell, all public-school educations are equal, but some are more equal than others. New Yorks 732 school districts are a good example of this conundrum. As I found in a recent study for the Manhattan Institute, in areas of New York City where the average family makes at least $150,000, only 46 percent of students attend their local public school, while the rest choose a private option instead. Meanwhile, outside the city, high-income families tuition funds are spent instead on homes in areas with high taxes that fund the high-achieving public schools that 85 percent of students in these affluent districts attend. Arguments against school choice, in all its forms charter schools, tuition tax credits, vouchers, or public magnet schools are based on the assertion that these schools are not public in the truest sense. But what is truly public about affluent suburban school districts, with their restrictive zoning and high price of admission in the form of housing prices and taxes? These districts allow parents to exercise choice, to opt for the type of education they want for their children, and vote to pay taxes in support of these schools. Charter schools, tuition tax credits, and school vouchers create this kind of option for families who dont make enough to afford private-school tuition or a home in Scarsdale. They provide freedom to families who could not otherwise afford it. They wont gain them entry into wealthy suburban enclaves, but they can support and spur the creation of alternatives to neighborhood schools for urban parents who desire them. In other words, they give students in the less equal districts a choice, and at least a fighting chance at equality. More from National Review [March 04, 2020] Never Miss the School Bus Again North Carolina Virtual Academy Now Accepting Enrollment Applications for the 2020-2021 School Year North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA), a public charter school authorized by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, is accepting enrollment applications for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year. NCVA offers a tuition-free education to students statewide in kindergarten through 12th grade. NCVA also offers families an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar learning environment. Combining online instruction, a rigorous curriculum and the support of state-licensed teachers, NCVA provides a personalized learning experience for every student. "We're really proud of our track record in helping students fulfill their academic and personal goals," said NCVA Head of School Lauren Acome. "NCVA's unique platform gives students the opportunity to pursue a passion for learning in a supportive environment that recognizes their individual approaches to success." NCVA students across all grade levels are offered a full course load in the core subjects of English/language arts, math, science, history, art, music and physical education, as well as electives and world languages. NCVA teachers facilitate live, interactive online classes, which allow students to enjoy a safe learning environment anywhere with an iternet connection. In addition to scheduled classes, teachers regularly communicate with students and families via phone and email in order to ensure they are supported and appropriately challenged. Resources are available to help NCVA students and families navigate the online and blended learning experience. "My son was severely struggling with math. He tried to avoid it at all costs," said parent Elizabeth Quinn, whose fourth-grader attends NCVA. "Now with the help of the wonderful teachers at NCVA he is starting to enjoy math. His self-confidence is growing and he does not avoid it." Many families and students are choosing NCVA because it provides an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar education. Athletes, advanced learners, and all types of students can balance a full academic load along with extracurricular pursuits or any other specialized needs. Throughout the school year, NCVA hosts field trips and social outings and celebrates graduating seniors with an in-person commencement ceremony in the spring. Virtual clubs and organizations allow students to further explore shared interests together. NCVA's lottery application window will close at 5:00 pm on Monday, April 20, 2020. The lottery will be held at 10:00 am on Friday, April 24, 2020 online and in the administrative offices. Students not offered a seat during the lottery will be placed on a wait list for their grade level. Families are encouraged to attend an in-person or online information session hosted by the school. For more information on NCVA, how to enroll and for a schedule of upcoming events, visit ncva.k12.com. About North Carolina Virtual Academy North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA) is a full-time public school program that serves students in grades K-12. As an authorized public charter school in North Carolina, NCVA is tuition-free, and gives families the choice to access curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN). For more information about NCVA, visit ncva.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005043/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Find all our Student Opinion questions here. Has anyone ever said that you were a good person? Is being good something you strive to be or aspire toward? In How to Be Good, Simran Sethi sought out a therapist, a scholar, a monk, a C.E.O. and others to learn about bringing our best to everything we do, every day. She begins by exploring the meaning of goodness: Rachana Kamtekar, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University, explained goodness by way of ancient Greek philosophy: For Plato, goodness is the same as happiness. We desire appetitively because of our bodies. We desire emotionally because of our sense of self in contact with other human beings. And we also have rational desires to understand how to do whats best. Our goodness requires all of these capacities to be developed and then expressed. This can be a lifelong process something that is never perfectly realized but should always be struggled for. Goodness is impermanent and organic, meaning it can progress as well as regress, said Chan Phap Dung, a senior monk at the Plum Village meditation center founded by the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. And that is why, he said, we have to be steadfast in caring for ourselves and the world at large. In politics and culture, in the media and corporations, we have cultivated conditions that have produced a lot of violence, discrimination and despair for which there is a collective level of responsibility. Because many of us have a complicated relationship with what it means to be good, it can help to reframe the subject and widen it. Some people flinch when they ponder whether or not they or others are good because the words good and goodness have long been associated with obedience, the author and former Dear Sugars podcast host Cheryl Strayed shared in response to a query from The Times. I reject that definition, she said. Goodness is expressed through lovingkindness, generosity of spirit and deed, and the thoughtful consideration of others. It can be as simple as offering to let someone ahead of you in line and as complicated as making yearslong sacrifices of your freedom because someone you love needs your help. Over the course of a lifetime, most of us do both. Ms. Sethi shared the insights of a variety of people who think a lot about what it means to be good. Here are four of their suggestions: Be kind. Harriet Lerner, psychologist and author Kindness is at the center of what it means to be good. It may require very little from us, or the opposite. It may require words and action, or restraint and silence. Everything that can be said can be said with kindness. Every tough position we have to take can be taken with kindness. No exceptions. Being a good person requires that we work toward that unrealized world where the dignity and integrity of all human beings, all life, are honored and respected. Pay attention. Brother Chan Phap Dung, senior monk, Plum Village In the Buddhist tradition, the training starts with learning how to stop and come back to the present moment and enjoy our breathing. We stop to recognize what is happening within us and around us: our feelings, our thinking, whether our body is relaxed or in tension, who is there in front of us or what are we doing. With repetition, we begin to see and understand ourselves better and choose to do one thing rather than another. Ask hard questions. The Rev. William J. Barber II, civil rights activist As a public theologian, I tend to look at what has lifted us when we found ourselves at our lowest what has called us to a better place. How are we, as a nation and as a people, using life itself to create good for the poor and broken and captive and for those who are made to feel unaccepted? We must constantly raise that question as we live life seeking to answer it not only individually, but together. We need to embrace those deepest moral values that call us to, first and foremost, seek love, truth, justice and concern for others. Hold yourself accountable. Rachana Kamtekar, professor of philosophy, Cornell University You have to know what your different motivations are, know how strong they are and if you can get some of them to pull against the others. I was a smoker in my 20s and 30s. Like many smokers, I resolved to quit on multiple occasions. When I was 40, I told my son and his buddies that I had been a smoker and had quit. I knew if I ever smoked again, I was going to have to tell them. My aversion to those kids thinking of me as a smoker swamped any desire I had to smoke. When I added to my rational resolution this prospect of something like shame that I was going to have to face these kids and say, I am a smoker it changed. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you feel you are a good person? Why or why not? Are there ways you wish you were better? Cheryl Strayed said that goodness can be as simple as offering to let someone ahead of you in line and as complicated as making yearslong sacrifices of your freedom because someone you love needs your help. Do you agree? What is your definition of goodness? Which insights and suggestions from the article resonated with you most? Explain why. Where do your ideas about goodness, and morals more generally, come from? Have they been shaped by friends and family, culture or religious beliefs? Has anyone ever said that you were a good person? If yes, what do you think they meant? How did that make you feel? Nick Hornby said, I think all one can ever really do is to try and keep goodness close to you as an ambition make sure that its one of the ways in which you think. Is goodness an important goal for you? Do you strive to be good? What suggestions would you give to others who seek to be good? Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. Countries voted on Wednesday to put the head of Singapore's national patent agency in charge of global intellectual property, replacing Australian Francis Gurry at of the helm of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. After a hotly contested and at times politicised race, Daren Tang won over five other candidates, including Chinese national Wang Binying, who has served as deputy chief of the UN agency for a decade. In a second and final round of voting by the 83 members of WIPO's coordination committee, Tang took 55 votes over 28 for Wang. The vote still needs to be confirmed during the agency's full general assembly in May, but that is traditionally a formality. Once confirmed, he will replace Gurry when he steps down at the end of September after 12 years at the helm. "It really is an honour," Tang, 47, told reporters after the vote, adding that his candidacy had received "support from every part of the world." "We hope to bring to WIPO the spirit of inclusiveness, the spirit of Singapore as a bridge to connect east and west and north and south.... We are here to serve all regions, all countries," he said. His message of unity contrasted with politicised statements by some countries in the lead-up to the vote. Washington, which threw its weight behind Tang, warned ahead of the election against the prospect of putting a Chinese national in charge of global intellectual property protection. "We want a candidate who comes from a country with a history of protecting IP," US Ambassador Andrew Bremberg told AFP in a recent interview. "China does not have that history," he said. Beijing meanwhile has accused Washington of turning the election "into a political game". Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu told reporters in Geneva last week that "the Americans are trying to do whatever they can and... they exert pressures (to vote for) anyone but China." But after Wednesday's vote the tone was more conciliatory. "We congratulate the elected, and we will continue our cooperation and the participation in WIPO," Chen told reporters. "It is not defeat," he said, adding that Beijing's active engagement and participation in the process should be seen as "a very strong indication of China's readiness to make more contributions to the international community." Wednesday's process had been expected to take far longer, with a separate round of voting to eliminate each of the five other candidates. But after a first round, during which a delegation from each of WIPO's 83 member states walked to the front of the room to put their ballot in the voting box, all but two candidates dropped out. Tang hailed all of the candidates, saying they had "run in a spirit of mutual respect", and said the unusually large number of candidates initially in the race showed "how important WIPO is to the global community." If confirmed as head of the agency, he vowed to "connect IP much closer to the community, much more closer to the people, make IP more relevant to the man in the street." "Innovation, creativity, technology, digitalisation...will transform our lives, and IP is a very important part of that," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Smaller companies looking for exits in the UCaaS space are seeing multiples of about one-two times revenue. As these companies get larger, the multiples increase. This law of large numbers is not exclusive to UCaaS it also plays in many services businesses like dentistry, podiatry, etc. It is why there is a thirst to acquire. Cheap money and expanded multiples as you grow fuels the market for M&A and then the financial results of these transactions find their way back into startups as seed rounds, Series A, etc. We suspect these are some of the reasons behind the latest news of the UCaaS day. UCaaS vendor 4Voice with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses announced the acquisition of nexVortexs hosted voice business. We broke the news last September that nexVortex launched mConnect SD-WAN for smaller businesses. At the time we told you: Amruth Laxman, CEO and founding partner, 4Voice mConnect uses nexVortexs patent-pending QAV technology to deliver a better cloud experience by managing the customers WAN circuits. It does this by improving service resiliency, increasing the connection quality, and providing greater visibility into operations; and, with more efficient management of network resources, operational costs are driven down. nexVortexs expertise in hosted voice services and geographical reach will accelerate our ability to deliver high-quality, cost-effective solutions, said Amruth Laxman, CEO and founding partner, 4Voice. Both nexVortex and 4Voice share similar missions and are customer-centric companies. Our newly acquired hosted voice customers can be confident that we will focus on supporting their unique needs just as we do with each and every customer we serve. Wes Rogers, chief operating officer and founder, nexVortex As a result of the acquisition, 4Voice will continue to support and maintain nexVortexs hosted voice business solutions. 4Voice is also acquiring nexVortexs entire hosted voice team, ensuring a seamless transition for customers and channel partners. The acquisition grows 4Voices cloud services business and allows nexVortex to focus resources on its rapidly growing Managed SIP Trunking business. We appreciate the trust that our hosted voice customers have placed in us over the years, said Wes Rogers, chief operating officer and founder, nexVortex. Our culture of delivering Uncommon Service will be continued by 4Voice and combined with an impressive set of business solutions that I know customers will value. See the ONLY Contact Center, Tech and Communications companies that matter at the ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW: 2020 participants included: Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, ClearlyIP, Avaya, Vonage, 88, Comcast Business, BlueJeans, CoreDial, Dell, Edify, Epygi, FreeSWITCH, Grandstream, Granite, Intrado, Frontier Business, Fujitsu, Jenne, West, Konftel, Intelisys, Martello, NetSapiens, OOMA, Oracle, OpenVox, Peerless Network, Phone Sentry, Phone.com, Poly, QuestBlue, RingByName, Sangoma, SingTel, Spracht, Spectrum, Sprint, Tallac, Tech Data, Telarus, TCG, Teledynamics, Teli, Telinta, Telispire, Telstra, TransNexus, Unified Office, Vital PBX, VoIP Supply, Voxbone, VoIP.MS, Windstream, XCALY, XORCOM, Yealink, Yubox, and ZYCOO. Full List. Join 8K others with $25B+ in IT buying power who plan 2021 budgets! Including 3,500+ resellers! A unique experience with a collocated Future of Work Expo, SD-WAN Expo, and MSP Expo June 22-25, 2021, Miami Register now. After returning wounded from the American War during the seventies, many military physicians decided to continue their mission to help people in need. Retired doctor gives free treatment for patients Cho Ray Hospital doctor devotes self to the poor Tran Van Dong, right, with his colleague at the charitable health clinic in Khanh Hoa Province. Photo suckhoedoisong.vn As a result, a charitable health clinic opened by the Khanh Hoa Veterans Association has been providing free medical treatment for thousands of poor and disadvantaged people. Tran Van Dong, 77, head of the clinic, said there are 15 doctors and medical workers working at the facility. Most of them are veterans who experienced the horrors of the battlefields. Now they all work voluntarily at the clinic. In the spring of 1966, Dong volunteered to join the army in Quang Nam - Da Nang, eager to fight the enemy. A year later, he was sent to the Hanoi Military Medical School to study to become a general doctor thanks to his dexterity and skill he displayed while bandaging his comrades on the battlefield. Every night, images of people and wounded soldiers urged Dong to become a good doctor and go to Quang Tri Province, where some of the fiercest fightings took place. "Determination can create miracles. I was also injured on the battlefield, but after patching myself up, I smiled and continued to fight," Dong told Suc khoe & oi song (Health and Life) newspaper. In 1980, he was appointed head of the military medical department at the Information Army Officer School. Dong said those were the years he will never forget. "I was living with my peers. They were like my family, he added. Going strong In the evenings and weekends, he gives free medical examinations to disadvantaged people. "Sometimes, he still tries to continue teaching in class while the wounds of war are torturing him," said Tran Van Nam, a colleague at the clinic, said. A former health worker at Military Hospital 87, Duong Cong Lien, 73, said he joined the army in 1968, along with 27 other men living in Nha Trang. Half of them died in the war. "I was luckier than my comrades. Many died during the war and many still face a tough life. "This motivated me to start working at the clinic immediately after I retired. I will continue to do this work as long as I can," Lien said. Dr Dong retired in 2000 after refusing lucrative offers to work for private clinics or hospitals. Since then he has devoted his life to offering free medical care for poor people, Agent Orange victims and disadvantaged soldiers. He said he will work until his health no longer allows him to. About 300 people receive regular free examinations and medicine at the centre, which is paid for by various sources mobilised by the Veterans Association of Khanh Hoa Province. Dong and his colleagues also organise free health checks for people in remote areas. Nearly 10 years into his retirement, Dong is still busy. He and his friends have helped people with disabilities enjoy better lives. "We all tell each other that happiness is to live for others," Dong said. Dong said the doctors and medical staff here are old. Some of them are no longer healthy enough to work, so they need a new volunteer team because many poor patients and victims of Agent Orange are still in need of help. VNS Japanese doctor brings light to visually-impaired Over the past 17 years, Japanese doctor Tadashi Hattori has become a friend to many visually-impaired patients in remote and disadvantaged areas of Vietnam. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:27:47|Editor: zyl Video Player Close KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, March 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 19 Afghan soldiers and police were feared killed in Taliban insurgents' overnight attacks in two provinces, authorities said Wednesday. Life.Church pastors Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald are being quarantined by local health authorities at home in Oklahoma after being exposed to the new coronavirus at a leadership training conference in Germany. Groeschel was a featured speaker at Willow Creek Deutschland Leitungskongress 2020, which took place Feb. 2729 in Karlsruhe, in southwest Germany. He attended the meeting with Gruenewald, Life.Churchs pastor of innovation and the founder of the popular YouVersion Bible app. The conference, which had about 7,400 attenders, was cut short after one presenter became ill with COVID-19, according to organizers. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the new coronavirus. As of Wednesday, more than 87,000 cases of the illness had been reported globally, according to the World Health Organization. Groeschel and Gruenewald learned of their need to be quarantined while traveling back to the US. The two went into quarantine for 14 days after returning to their homes in the Oklahoma City suburbs, where they have had no direct contact with church members or their families. Neither has shown any symptoms of COVID-19. Pastor Craig and I are at home and healthy, Gruenewald, innovation leader for Life.Church, told Religion News Service in a statement. While en route home from Germany, we were made aware of the situation at the conference. We immediately notified health authorities and have followed every recommendation. Out of an abundance of caution, we have been isolated in our homes the entire time, even limited from interaction with our families. We have no symptoms, and someone is checking on us regularly. Life.Church, which ranks as one of the biggest churches in the country with 34 campuses spread over 10 states, said it already has protocols in place to keep attendees healthy during flu season. The church is evaluating whether additional precautions are necessary, though Groeschel and Gruenewald themselves seemed determined to downplay their situation: The terms coronavirus and COVID-19 were notably absent from the pastors statements. Despite remaining active on social media, neither have posted about their quarantine. Gruenewald said he and Groeschel remain in good spirits despite their isolation. Were making the most of this time to focus on ministry work and even doing some extra situps and pushups. Groeschel, whose book Fight made the New York Times bestseller list in 2013, serves as champion for the Global Leadership Summit, hosted each summer by Willow Creek Community Church, the influential Chicago area megachurch. He became the public face of the training conference after the retirement of Bill Hybels, Willow Creeks founder. According to a statement from the German conference organizers, anyone who had direct contact with the ill speaker has been quarantined. The speaker is already on the mend, said the statement. However, a couple who had contact with the speaker before the conference has tested positive for the virus. The significant point is the German Leadership Summit was prematurely ended as a precaution and currently it is proving to be the right decision, said Tom De Vries, president and CEO of the Global Leadership Network, which organizes the summer event held at Willow Creek and other similar events in other countries. While disappointing, the participants at the Summit were appreciative of the time we experienced together, the protective steps taken to ensure the safety of the more than 7,400 people attending live in Karlsruhe, and were prayerful for those affected by contact with the speaker as well as the speaker himself. Scott Thumma, professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary, said megachurches like Life.Church are well prepared to deal with the absence of their pastor from worship. Since the church has more than one site, the preacher often appears by video during services. And if he wanted, Groeschel could preach from quarantine, said Thumma, who studies megachurches. Life.Church and similar megachurches also have extensive small group networks, where congregation members meet during the week, he noted. If there were a health crisis, they could keep doing church without the large group gatherings. Many megachurches already stream their services online and have online giving and ways to share prayer requests online, said Thumma. And unlike liturgical churches, where congregants need to be present to partake of sacraments such as Communion, megachurch congregations can still worship without being in a church building. So they could deal with health concerns and still do church. They could worship online for a month and not miss a beat, he said. Megachurches also have sophisticated security and safety practices and could easily take steps to reduce the risks of spreading the coronavirus, he said. Because Life.Churchs congregation is split into many smaller campusesrather than one large auditoriumtheres likely less risk of a virus spreading to large numbers of people. A megachurch in South Korea is suspected of contributing to the spread of the virus in that country. Government officials have linked a number of cases in South Korea to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, according to The Wall Street Journal. The male antechinus is a small Australian marsupial that looks a lot like a mouse and lives life at light speed. It has a lot to get through, you see, because its about to drop dead. University of NSW researcher Zoe Xirocostas studied the link between lifespans and sex chromosomes. Credit:Kate Geraghty Female antechinus typically live to the ripe old age of three, reproducing several times. Males get to the age of one, mate frantically, then drop dead. It is an extreme example of a trait that is widespread throughout the animal kingdom. India on Tuesday strongly condemned Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifs selective and tendentious statement describing the recent clashes in its National Capital Territory as organised violence against Muslims. New Delhi dismissed Iranian Foreign Ministers unwarranted statements on the violent clashes that resulted in the death of at least 42 people in the capital of India. Ali Chegeni, Ambassador of Iran to India, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi Tuesday. The senior officials of the MEA conveyed to him that the violence in parts of Delhi last week was an internal matter of India and the Government of India did not expect such comments from a country like Iran. Zarif on Monday called the recent clashes in Delhi as the wave of organised violence against Indian Muslims and stated that Iranian Government condemned it. For centuries, Iran has been a friend of India, the Iranian Foreign Minister tweeted He also added, We urge Indian authorities to ensure the well-being of ALL Indians & (and) not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful dialogue and rule of law. Iran condemns the wave of organized violence against Indian Muslims. For centuries, Iran has been a friend of India. We urge Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of ALL Indians & not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful dialogue and rule of law. Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 2, 2020 It was conveyed (to Iran's ambassador to India) that his (Iranian Foreign Minister's) selective and tendentious characterization of recent events in Delhi are not acceptable, Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said. We do not expect such comments from a country like Iran. After Modi Government on August 5, 2019 moved to strip Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) of its special status and reorganized the state into two Union Territories, Tehran kept its reaction limited to rather mildly expressing concerns over condition of people in the valley and urging New Delhi to adopt a fair policy towards the people of the region. Tehran also avoided taking Islamabad's side whenever tension between India and Pakistan escalated. Zarif had visited New Delhi in January and met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar just less than a fortnight after the United States had killed Iran's top military commander Lieutenant General Qaseem Soleimani in a drone attack near the international airport in the capital of Iraq. India had hosted him brushing aside the murmurs of disapproval from the United States. Jaishankar too had met Zarif in Tehran soon after he and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had held the 2+2 dialogue with their US counterparts in Washington D.C. in December 2019. hough New Delhi stopped buying crude oil from Iran to save its entities from United States sanctions, it continued its engagement with Tehran for its role in Chabahar Port in the West Asian Nation as the port would provide India sea-land access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. The violent clashes in the national capital territory already drew flak for Prime Minister Narendra Modis Government from certain sections of the international community, the strong critical remarks from Tehran came as a rare shock for New Delhi. Iran generally avoids taking a critical stand on any internal matter of India. She has been enjoying a sun-soaked trip to Greece. And Christine McGuinness looked radiant as she jetted back to Manchester on Wednesday afternoon following her getaway. The Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 31, cut a casual figure in an oversized pink T-shirt with her initials on it and matching leggings. Radiant: Christine McGuinness looked radiant as she jetted back to Manchester on Wednesday afternoon following her getaway Christine styled her blonde locks into a curly blow-dried hairdo, she added a slick of glamorous make-up. Adding some glamorous touches, she opted for a pair of oversized black sunglasses, diamond stud earrings, a white handbag and pink patterned trainers. Christine appeared in good spirits as she flashed a smile while making a glamorous arrival back to her beloved Manchester. Casual: The Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 31, cut a casual figure in an oversized pink T-shirt with her initials on it and matching leggings Glamour: Christine styled her blonde locks into a curly blow-dried hairdo, she added a slick of glamorous make-up Details: Adding some glamorous touches, she opted for a pair of oversized black sunglasses, diamond stud earrings, a white handbag and pink patterned trainers It comes after she shared a sun-kissed snap to Instagram earlier in the day during her Greece getaway. The Real Housewives of Cheshire star looked sensational in a glittering gold mini dress that clung to her toned frame. The glittering dress cinched in at her tiny waist and featured a sexy cut out on the back. The thigh-skimming garment showcased her tanned and toned pins, whilst a pair of strappy heels boosted her model frame. She's back! Christine appeared in good spirits as she flashed a smile while making a glamorous arrival back to her beloved Manchester Updates: It comes after she shared a sun-kissed snap to Instagram earlier in the day during her Greece getaway Golden girl: The Real Housewives of Cheshire star looked sensational in a glittering gold mini dress that clung to her toned frame Christine completed the look by styling her glossy golden locks in loose waves that cascaded down her shoulders. She captioned the snap: 'Leaving a little sparkle in Athens! 'I have laughed for 2 days with the girlies, exactly what I needed but it's time for Mama to go home to my babies, my hubby, my bed [sic]'. Roses are red... Christine has been sharing a slew of snaps from her girls' getaway, and on Monday she was sure to get pulses racing with a sultry shot Christine has been sharing a slew of snaps from her girls' getaway, and on Monday she was sure to get pulses racing with a sultry shot. The mother-of-three slipped into a sheer black bustier and stockings to pose seductively on a windowsill holding a red stem rose. Christine highlighted her ample cleavage in the negligee which comprised of a floral lace bra with double strap detailing on the bust and sheer panelling across her tiny midriff. She amped up the glamour with Louboutin heels and wore her blonde locks in tumbling curls which cascaded over her shoulders. Glamour: Another shot saw Christine cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in a green and white plaid crop top and matching flared trousers Christine seductively captioned the post: 'Treat me right, hold me tight, I'll keep you up all through the night.' Another shot saw Christine cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in a green and white plaid crop top and matching flared trousers. The TV personality displayed her taut midriff while she added height to her frame with white, open-toed heels. The star appeared to be enjoying her trip away with a group of gal pals as she shared another photo of herself along two friends, captioning it: 'Girls trip'. Dazzling: The Real Housewives of Cheshire star cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in the green and white crop top and matching flared trousers Sensational: Christine shared a further look at her outfit with restroom snaps uploaded to her Instagram stories The trip comes after Christine emotionally revealed she has no one to talk to after she discovered that her youngest daughter, Felicity, three, has autism three years after her twins, six, were diagnosed. In a candid new interview, the star also spoke about her marriage to presenter Paddy McGuinness, 46, and how there's 'no time' for them as a couple. Christine admitted that her 'heart breaks for all her children' but that Felicity and twins - Penelope and Leo, inspire her every day. Party: The star appeared to be enjoying her trip away with a group of gal pals as she shared another photo of herself along two friends, captioning it: 'Girls trip' The model also revealed that Paddy found Felicity's autism hard after he previously admitted that he is 'never happy in himself' since their twins were diagnosed. Speaking to OK! Magazine, Christine said it was 'heartbreaking' but clarified that it didn't mean Paddy wasn't happy with her or the children. She explained: 'There's no time for us as a couple, no quality time, no date nights. Not even time to have a laugh together. 'We're full-time carers and the kids come before everything. But we have to stay strong as a unit for our kids.' A glitzy hotel in Sydney's inner west is at the centre of a fraud allegation within weeks of opening after a building certifier claimed someone forged his signature while he was suspended to allow guests into the luxury complex. The Marsden Hotel, a 90-room venue, opened in Burwood to fanfare in December, but by mid-January police told the local council the bar was trading without a liquor licence, had no visible fire-exit signs, and had tables blocking fire escapes. The Marsden Hotel in Burwood is at the centre of a fraud claim in the Land and Environment Court. Credit:The Marsden Hotel Burwood Council officers returned with police to find levels two and 10 of the 11-storey hotel "resembled a building site", according to claims published by the Land and Environment Court. Council officers found no occupation certificate for the hotel on their records but received an interim certificate purportedly by veteran building certifier Valerio "Vic" Lilli on December 23, a day before the venue started trading. The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 2018 circular that barred banks from giving access to companies in trading in cryptocurrencies. A three-judge Bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, S Ravindra Bhat and V Ramasubramanian allowed the plea of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) challenging RBI's 2018 circular that directed regulated entities to not deal with cryptocurrencies. The IAMAI, whose members include cryptocurrency exchanges, and others had approached the top court objecting to a 2018 RBI circular directing regulated entities to not deal with cryptocurrencies. The petitioners had argued that the RBI's circular taking cryptocurrencies out of the banking channels would deplete the ability of law enforcement agencies to regulate illegal activities in the industry. IAMAI had claimed the move of RBI had effectively banned legitimate business activity via the virtual currencies (VCs). The RBI on April 6, 2018, had issued the circular that barred RBI-regulated entities from "providing any service in relation to virtual currencies, including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ended his presidential bid after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, throwing his support behind former Vice President Joe Biden. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said in a statement. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. Biden won more than half of Super Tuesdays 14 contests, while Bloomberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning, won only American Samoa and came in fourth when it comes to picking up delegates. Bloomberg said his decision was largely driven by data. Staying in the race, he said, would make a Democratic win come November more difficult. After yesterdays results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists, he said. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life. Bloomberg pledged to spend upwards of $1 billion to oust President Donald Trump from the White House. The financial and organizational support from Bloomberg could prove fruitful to Biden, as the primary appears to have quickly become a two-man race between the vice president and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won two out of the first three contests and nearly tied for a victory in Iowa. Sen. Elizabeth Warren lost her home state of Massachusetts and came in third on Super Tuesday in earning three dozen delegates, but that figure pales in comparison to the 400 and 340 picked up by Biden and Sanders. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page KASTANIES, Greece - Greece countered accusations from Turkey Wednesday that it was responsible for the death of a migrant, as its border authorities strove for a sixth day to keep thousands of migrants out by using tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Greek army operate as migrants try to enter Greece from Turkey at the Greek-Turkish border in Kastanies on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Facing a potential wave of nearly a million people fleeing fighting in northern Syria, Turkey has thrown open its borders with Greece to thousands of refugees and other migrants trying to enter Europe, and has threatened to send "millions" more. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) KASTANIES, Greece - Greece countered accusations from Turkey Wednesday that it was responsible for the death of a migrant, as its border authorities strove for a sixth day to keep thousands of migrants out by using tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons. The border tensions followed last week's decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to declare the country's gateways to Greece open, in an apparent attempt to pressure Europe into offering Turkey more support in dealing with the fallout from the Syrian war to its south. Turkish officials charged that Greek gunfire killed one migrant and wounded five others a claim that Athens flatly rejected. The office of Ekrem Canalp, governor for the Turkish border province of Edirne, said the death occurred on the Turkish side of the border close to the Kastanies or Pazarkule in Turkish crossing. An official at Edirne's Trakya University Hospital confirmed the death and injuries. Reporters on the Greek side heard what sounded like gunfire, though it was unclear whether live ammunition was used. People could be seen carrying what could have been a person between them, and running to the Turkish border post. Shortly afterward, at least one ambulance left. Greek border authorities also said Wednesday that Turkish police were firing tear gas at them, and supplied video they said backed their assertion. Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas categorically denied any migrants had been wounded or killed by Greek authorities. A Greek army officer detains migrants in the village of Ardanio at the Greek-Turkish border on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades Wednesday morning to repulse a push by migrants to cross its land border from Turkey, as pressure continued along its frontier after Turkey said its own border with Europe was open to whoever wanted to cross. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) The Turkish side creates and disperses fake news targeted against Greece, he said. There is no such incident with fire from the Greek authorities. Turkey had also claimed on Monday that a migrant was killed, which Athens again denied. The crisis at the border of the two NATO allies and historic regional rivals comes at a time when tensions were already high over offshore exploration rights. Erdogan's decision to open the border encouraged thousands of people seeking a better life in Europe to try their luck by land and sea. He has warned that millions of migrants may be headed Europe's way. He has claimed more than 100,000 people have successfully crossed into Greece, vastly above the numbers being reported by Greece or observed by reporters at the border. Greek authorities said Wednesday that more than 32,000 attempts to illegally cross the Evros border have been thwarted since Saturday morning, with 231 people mostly Afghans arrested. After a dip on Tuesday when top European Union officials visited the border, attempts roughly tripled to 4,600 Wednesday, while some 15,000 people were gathered along the frontier. The European Union has accused Erdogan of blackmail. Erdogan made the decision to open the border after a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive into Syrias northwestern Idlib province killed dozens of Turkish soldiers fighting in Syria and prompted nearly a million Syrian civilians to head toward Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan4 addresses the members of his ruling party in Parliament, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Erdogan called on Greece and other European nations to respect migrant's rights.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is very concerned about the situation on the border, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. As well as seeking to prevent migrants from crossing over land, Greece is having to patrol its waters as hundreds of migrants have headed for the eastern Aegean Sea islands from the nearby Turkish coast. Migrants cross in crammed and unseaworthy dinghies provided by smuggling rings. A child died when the boat he was in capsized off the island of Lesbos this week. Gale-force winds and rough seas hampered sea crossings Wednesday. The Greek government has called the situation a direct threat to national security and imposed emergency measures to carry out swift deportations and freeze asylum applications for one month. Migrants have been reporting being summarily pushed back across the border into Turkey. The mass movement towards Greece has appeared organized. Buses, minibuses, cars and taxis were provided in Istanbul to ferry people to the border, while some of those who managed to cross have said they were told by Turkish authorities to go to Greece. Meanwhile, Turkish officials closed the only other road crossing into Greece later Wednesday, citing technical work. European Union interior ministers held emergency talks to show solidarity with Greece and to raise more equipment to bolster the 27-country blocs border with Turkey. The European Commission has praised Greece as the shield on Europes external borders. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking at the French Senate, said the migratory pressure is at Europes door, ... That migratory pressure is being organized by President Erdogans regime to blackmail the European Union. The EU wont give in to blackmail. Turkey, for its part, accused Greece of mistreating refugees. Erdogan on Wednesday called on Greece and other European nations to respect migrants' rights. He also accused EU countries of hypocritical behaviour, saying they had rushed to Greece's help "with money, boats and soldiers" to prevent a new influx of migrants but ignored Turkey's plight concerning 3.7 millions Syrian refugees on its territory. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia pledged to help Greece to deal with pressure along its border. The four countries have been known for their tough stance against migrants and rejected an EU plan to redistribute refugees in member states. European Council head Charles Michel was meeting with Erdogan in Ankara Wednesday, while EU Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic were holding talks with Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Erdogan, Borell said that the EU delegation asked Turkey not to encourage the further movement of refugees and migrants toward the EU borders. Borell said Turkish officials' response was that Turkey was not encouraging people to move but that they cannot prevent people from doing so. ____ Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Edith Lederer at the UN and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report. SEATTLE It's not her birthday for another month, but Ruby Francisco has been singing "Happy Birthday" a lot lately. She does it every time she washes her hands. "That's what they said to do," said Francisco, who owns a jewelry store here. "I tell my grandchildren to sing when they wash their hands so they do it right." This is life in the age of the coronavirus: sifting through rumors, feverishly following updates and doing whatever it takes to avoid the virus, which has infected more than 89,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,100 of them. In Seattle, bracing for the coronavirus also means preparing for what could be a devastating economic impact. Business owners and residents have already seen a drop-off in tourists in areas of the city that heavily depend on foot traffic. "It's like a ghost town," Francisco said about the famous Pike Place Market where she has her shop. Nine people in the United Stated have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus all of them in Washington, which has reported 31 cases of the disease. Eight of the deaths were in an area of King County about 20 minutes from downtown Seattle, and one was in neighboring Snohomish County. "This is a very fluid, fast-moving situation as we aggressively respond to this outbreak," Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County Public Health, said in a statement. King County health officials said the concern is particularly high for people who are 60 and older or who have compromised immune systems. Children do not appear particularly susceptible to the virus, which originated in mainland China. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak As the death toll climbed Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, proclaimed a civil emergency. The declaration allows her to bypass regulations to increase city spending, contracting and borrowing to address the growing public health threat. It will also allow her office to close facilities and cancel events to prevent the virus from spreading further. Story continues Image: Public spaces in Seattle are increasingly quiet amid a coronavirus outbreak in nearby Kirkland, business owners say. "We know that our city will need additional resources from our state and federal government," she tweeted. "We are looking to our partners to increase the availability of testing in a way that does not overwhelm the health care system, but meets the growing need." She also asked residents to do their part by practicing good hygiene and making contingency plans at home and work. Community members say that the move suggests that local leaders are taking the threat seriously but that it also points to hard times ahead for businesses dependent on tourism and pedestrians. "It's our public duty to help people who are vulnerable," Tiia-Mai Redditt of Seattle said Tuesday while shopping for hand sanitizer at a Target. The store had been sold out for days, an employee said, and Redditt worried about a friend with a lung condition. She had already tried a nearby Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's. "I've never seen downtown so empty," she said, referring to the streets, not just the shelves. Across the street at Pike Place Market, Francisco wiped down the countertop at her jewelry store, Ruby's Seattle Gift Gallery. She usually keeps two doors open for customers. On Tuesday, one stayed closed because she was worried about germs. "It's so scary," she said. "I'm going to start praying not just for a cure, but for the families in mourning right now." Francisco's store has been in the same small corner for 43 years, she said. Before that, her mother owned a novelty shop in another spot of the usually bustling shopping area. Millions of people visit Pike Place Market annually. But the stalls are empty this week. Vendors aren't flinging fish to one another; instead, they're checking their phones or reading a book. Image: Public spaces in Seattle are increasingly quiet amid a coronavirus outbreak in nearby Kirkland, business owners say. Down a normally crowded hallway, Market Magic & Novelty Shop also remained quiet. A family bought a small keepsake and then walked out. No one came in after. "We're rethinking our business model, that's for sure," owner Sheila Lyon said. "People are scared. They don't want to be in public spaces." Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Lyon has been losing money most days. So has Francisco. Lyon and her husband make up a little money on the weekends, but every day seems to bring fewer and fewer customers. As a result, Lyon, who has owned her business for 47 years, is turning to social media to entice customers. But even that comes with a caveat, she said. "Our wholesaler gets his supplies from China," she said. "He told me he only has six months' worth of products left." Image: A lone pair of gloves inside a Kirkland Walgreens, less than a mile from nursing home where at least 6 people have died from COVID-19. Lyon is worried about how the emergency declaration will affect her bottom line. King County has already canceled big events scheduled for this week, such as the Womxn's Day Speaker Series and the Cultural Crossroads Festival. Across Lake Washington in Bellevue and Redmond, Microsoft canceled its Most Valuable Professional Summit. It will be held online, instead. This is all bad news for business owners. "We rely on them," Lyon said of the events. Francisco, meanwhile, is rethinking a coming birthday cruise to Mexico. She feels lucky to have avoided infection while traveling to Egypt in December and wonders whether it's worth risking exposure to the coronavirus. In Seattle, she's already avoiding many public places. She skips her morning jogs and warns her son to avoid the bus. Like many other Americans, Francisco searched all weekend for hand sanitizer and masks. Costco, Target and Walgreens were all sold out, she said. Standing behind her counter at Pike Place Market, Francisco fought the urge to hug the first customer she'd had in hours. "I like to hug," she said. "But, no offense, I just don't want to now." Confectionery manufacturer Mars Wrigley has apologised for a shortage of chocolate caused by a factory breakdown. On Tuesday 3 March, the food company released a statement on Twitter outlining why customers may have noticed certain chocolate items lacking in availability in stores. The firm, which owns brands including Maltesers, Bounty and Celebrations, issued an apology on the social media platform. You may have noticed that some of our chocolates arent as widely available in stores as they usually are. It goes without saying, were really sorry! the company stated. Its also important to us that you know why. Weve had a mechanical breakdown at our factory in Slough which means that we arent able to make as many treats as we would like. Recommended Lizzo wears chocolate wrapper dress on the red carpet at Brit Awards Mars UK explained that for the time being, consumers may not be able to find products including Maltesers, Revels and some Galaxy treats including Minstrels, Counters, Galaxy Milk and Ripple in stores. No other treats are affected, the firm added. We know its not ideal and we hate to disappoint, but please be assured that our engineers in the factory are working around the clock to ensure that we are back up and running to full capacity as soon as possible. Thank you for bearing with us. Mars Wrigley confirmed with The Independent that the availability of its Easter products is unaffected for the most part. Last year, Mars-owned brand Galaxy launched its first range of vegan chocolate bars. The chocolate bars come in three varieties: caramelised hazelnut, smooth orange and caramel and sea salt. Kerry Cavanaugh, marketing director at Galaxy manufacturer Mars Wrigley UK, said the company was so excited to introduce the Galaxy vegan range using a recipe that doesnt compromise on the brands signature smooth and creamy characteristics. Wherever you look you cant avoid the vegan buzz in the UK and with the launch of Galaxy Vegan were thrilled to be offering vegans, flexitarians and lovers of sweet treats even more ways to choose pleasure with a brand they love, he stated. Mars Wrigley collaborated with The Vegan Society on the launch of the chocolate bar range and its logo design. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/03/2020 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Clare Crawley 's Season 16 group of bachelors will reportedly be older than normal and not include any 20-somethings.ABC announced on Monday that Clare, a 38-year-old hairstylist who has appeared on The Bachelor franchise four times, will look for love -- again -- on the next edition of when it premieres on Monday, May 18 at 8PM ET/PT.According to multiple reports, Season 15 star Hannah Brown had been the show's top choice to star on Season 16, but she wanted more money than the producers were willing to pay to return for a second season, resulting in Clare being cast in the role instead.However, as they usually do, producers had already begun casting men for the upcoming season before deciding on a Bachelorette -- resulting in the show now needing to do some last-minute recasting so the bachelors will be "more age-appropriate" for Clare, E! News reported Similar to The Bachelor, traditionally casts a pool of bachelors that are mostly in their twenties.Prior to Clare, who turns 39 later this month, Rachel Lindsay had been 's oldest lead ever (Rachel was 32 at the time), and Hannah was only 24 years old when she starred on 's fifteenth season last year.The full scope of 's last-minute casting scramble became obvious when it ran a promo asking men interested in appearing on Clare's season -- which is reportedly scheduled to begin filming late next week -- to apply on ABC's website during Monday night's The Bachelor: The Women Tell All broadcast.According to an E! News source close to production, the age of Clare's youngest suitor will be 30."This time, producers wanted to try with someone older, more mature," an insider told the website, with another confirming producers had also met with Tia Booth and Tayshia Adams after Hannah declined the opportunity to be the Bachelorette again.Another insider added, "They wanted someone who was older, more mature and had more life experience."A source close to the show explained Clare is known to be "very emotional and vulnerable" so producers are convinced "they are going to get a good season."Us Weekly also reported on Sunday that has rejected numerous guys in their early twenties for the new season solely because of their ages.When Clare was announced as 's upcoming star Monday on Good Morning America, she joked she could be the mother of most of Peter's bachelorettes.Clare said, however, she feels her age is an advantage when it comes to starring on the ABC franchise."I feel like a lot of people put [age] out there as this negative thing, but for me, it just is more years under my belt, more learning and knowing what I want, what I don't want, and what I won't settle for," Clare said.But Clare shared she doesn't really care about the ages of men who are cast on her season."I have been known to date younger guys. So, that's not a problem for me," Clare revealed on GMA."The thing is, I'm wondering if they're ready for me -- for my age. So I feel like that would be more of an issue than me being okay with them. I feel so younger at heart than my actual age."Clare added she is "proud" of her age but simply feels "younger."Clare apparently didn't find out she had been chosen as 's next leading lady until Saturday, February 29, just two days before her GMA appearance."[It was] so unexpected," Clare gushed. "I cannot believe it. I mean, six years later. What is happening?"Clare was a 32-year-old hairstylist from Sacramento, CA, when she was first introduced to Bachelor Nation on Juan Pablo Galavis ' season of The Bachelor in 2014. She finished as his runner-up.Clare then unsuccessfully continued to search for love on Seasons 1 and 2 of Bachelor in Paradise, which aired on ABC in 2014 and 2015.After three years away, Clare then returned for The Bachelor Winter Games, which aired in early 2018, when she was 36 years old. She met a 31-year-old French Canadian bachelor Benoit Beausejour-Savard on Winter Games, but they broke up during filming.However, Clare and Benoit, who appeared on the first season of Canada, reunited once cameras stopped rolling and fell in love after dating for a couple of months. They subsequently got engaged during the Tell-All reunion special for The Bachelor Winter Games.However, Clare and Benoit came to realize marriage wasn't in the cards for them and split up in April 2018, only six weeks after the Tell-All special aired on ABC. Clare and Benoit apparently remain friends to this day.In terms of what she's looking for, Clare said on GMA, "I want a man who is strong, who is willing to take off the body armor, open himself up and be vulnerable. I think that is some serious strength right there... to let someone in."Clare, who will be turning 39 on March 20, is the oldest star in the franchise's history -- by far.Prior to Rachel's season of in 2017, Jillian Harris and Kaitlyn Bristowe , who were each 29 years old during their seasons, are 's next-oldest former leads.The 10 remaining stars have all ranged between 24 and 28, with the majority 25 or 26 years old. Hannah was the youngest Bachelorette ever, so the show will be going from one extreme to the other this year.Clare will not be the oldest lead in Bachelor Nation history, however. That title is held by The Bachelor Season 6 star Byron Velvick , who was 40 years old during his 2004 season.The Bachelor has featured several other 35-plus leads over the years, including Brad Womack , who was 38 years old when he starred on Season 15 of The Bachelor in 2011. Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Nick Viall also each turned 36 years old during the production of their respective The Bachelor seasons, Season 22 which aired on 2018 and Season 21 which aired in 2017.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 17) An interview with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan by Chris Yelland, managing director, EE Business Intelligence Following a comprehensive interview with Minerals & Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on energy and electricity policy in South Africa two weeks ago, energy analyst Chris Yelland tackles the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, on the big elephant in the room Eskom. The interview covers Eskom debt, the regulatory framework, rising electricity prices, the need for bailouts and cost-cutting, declining plant performance, Medupi and Kusile, environmental sustainability, unbundling and restructuring, the end-state of the electricity supply industry, the utility death spiral, and issues of transparency and accountability. Key take-outs from the interview with Pravin Gordhan include: Integrated plan to restructure Eskoms debt and operations likely by mid-2020. Eskom must modify its dynamic of pushing tariffs up each year. Improvement of EAF to between 73% and 75% said to be realistic. Internal appeal mechanism to be introduced into the Nersa regulatory framework. Medupi and Kusile will not become stranded assets. Vertically integrated national electricity entity not the only answer. Independent transmission entity needed. More transparency to be provided on operational performance. Money stolen from Eskom during state-capture period to be recovered. Salaries and benefits of top management under scrutiny. Review of procurement contracts needed. SOEs must be self-sustaining. Eskom debt the missing plan? The unsustainable level of Eskom debt has been highlighted for the last few years, with several credible options for debt restructuring and refinancing now on the table. As minister of public enterprises, what is your preference, and how would you see this being resolved? When will the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the Minister of Finance be taking the necessary hard decisions to give some certainty all round, including to the financial community and rating agencies? As far as the debt question is concerned, as the Ramaphosa administration, we had two immediate priorities in getting to grips with the challenges that Eskom is facing. The first was to provide whatever fiscal support could be given, and thats the R23-billion per year, plus the current appropriations indicated in the budget. The second was to ensure immediate operational improvements, including cost savings within the Eskom framework itself. The next phase was to formulate the various options for managing Eskoms debt portfolio. That work was done in the latter part of last year. The third phase will be to focus further on operational improvements, while seeking an integrated way of dealing with Eskoms debt, including the options of climate finance and other creative mechanisms, as well as the restructuring of Eskom in line with the Eskom roadmap, When will all of this come to some kind of convergence? I think towards the middle of the year we will have a better appreciation of the options and the kind of direction that we want to take. Electricity price too high or too low? You yourself, the Minister of Minerals & Energy, and customers have indicated that the price of electricity is too high. Eskom on the other hand says the price of electricity is too low, and must rise by 30% to be cost-reflective. The utility is fighting in court for higher annual electricity tariffs, and to claw back over R100-billion from customers to cover a debt hole that is growing by about R50-billion a year. Are electricity prices in South Africa too high or too low, and if so, what is to be done about this? Electricity prices are part of what we would call administered prices in the economy. The goal of government is set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), which states that we need to reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa. That would include port charges, freight charges, electricity, water and other tariffs that are generally within government control, as well as other more market-related costs. International comparisons seem to indicate that, objectively speaking, electricity prices in South Africa are not too high. At the same time, South Africa has its own structural challenges in terms of certain industries like mining and manufacturing, and the difficulties in these sectors need to be taken into account by Eskom itself. Equally, Eskom has its own internal dynamic that it needs to modify. This internal dynamic keeps pushing tariffs up, and weve seen the numbers over the last ten years, or so. Whilst there has been no increase in energy delivered, there has been a fourfold increase in revenue, largely resulting from tariff increases. The flip side of this coin is managing costs within Eskom itself, so that its pricing can be kept as low as possible to ensure a competitive economy at the end of the day. Pricing and energy supply are one side of the equation. The other side is energy efficiency. There has to be a greater focus and push from industry to become more energy-efficient in the way our limited electricity resources are used, and also to contribute to our climate-change goals. Nersa is the regulatory framework fit-for-purpose? Currently we see Nersas fourth multi-year price determination (MYPD4), being challenged in court, along with Nersas revenue determination for the 2018/19 financial year, and the regulatory clearing account (RCA) determinations for the 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 years. Eskom blames Nersa for the utilitys dire financial and operational state. Are the current regulatory processes, and Nersas pace and cost-plus recovery methodology, really fit for purpose today? I think the general principle of having a Regulator that objectively determines pricing is a well-held and well-accepted principle. But there is currently the Nersa Amendment Bill that the Minister of Minerals & Energy is taking through parliament, which would introduce an internal appeal mechanism into the regulatory framework, where a tribunal would adjudicate or arbitrate disputes without a court process. Court processes between government entities, such as the Regulator and an operator like Eskom, should not happen too often in the context of the corporate governance chapter of our constitution. But there is still a dynamic within Eskom that endeavours to recover as much possible via the tariffs, and thats a culture shift that we need to make under the new Eskom CEO and board that will come into place. We need a shift towards greater cost-efficiency, and a review of all contracts that contribute to cost inefficiency. We need to track down the different forms of corruption, and recover money that was stolen from Eskom during the state-capture period. All this will ultimately contribute to a different dynamic between the Regulator and Eskom as a regulated entity. Cost cutting where are the opportunities? Both you and Minister Mantashe have suggested negotiations to reduce coal costs and IPP tariffs for renewable energy delivered to Eskom. The World Bank and Nersa have both indicated excessive staffing at Eskom. Operating and maintenance costs, interest and depreciation continue to increase. Eskom says cost cutting opportunities are limited. So where are the cost-cutting opportunities to be found, and are the kind of public sector staff remuneration cuts announced in the budget the appropriate response? There are numerous cost-cutting opportunities, and I wouldnt be able to list all of them here. But in the first instance, the salary scales and benefits of top management are the subject of public debate and calls for review. If you look at the aviation industry right now in the context of the Corona virus crisis, Singapore airlines has just said it is cutting the salaries of top executives by 15% and middle layers by 7%, while certain staff are on placed on paid and unpaid leave. Various other airlines are following that model as well in the context of a crisis. So, weve all got to work out what kind of sacrifices we can make during the Eskom crisis period. There is also the broad area of procurement. Some of the excessive things that happened in the state-capture period have been curtailed, but there are still huge opportunities here. There is a general demand that we review all contracts, whether for coal, diesel or spares for maintenance and refurbishment processes. Eskom needs to review the arrangements it has with contractors, such as those who do maintenance, including the quality of the maintenance that is actually conducted. There are many other forms of wastage that you are going to find in any organisation whether in the public or private sector, but in particular in a monopoly like Eskom. So, the opportunities are certainly there, and I am confident that as the new CEO settles in and builds the right team around him, we will see the results of that introspection and careful examination of costs within Eskom. Equity, bailouts and cash injections or are these just ongoing subsidies? A senior executive at Eskom recently told me to stop using the word bailouts and cash injections, as these were misnomers for what are really ongoing government subsidies for electricity tariffs that are not cost-reflective. Are these subsidies here to stay, and what are the conditionalities to the R230-billion of government bailouts to Eskom over the next ten years that were confirmed by the Minister of Finance in his 2020 budget speech? The conditionalities from the Treasury are set out in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS), and in correspondence between the Minister of Finance and Eskom. Amongst those are requirements for operational efficiency, cost cutting and other measures that Eskom itself needs to make. But to come back to the main point: state-owned entities (SOEs) need be able to stand on their own, with sustainable financing and effective operations. There should be no need for government to put in any kind of money if the entity is operating efficiently. In the case of Eskom, the dependence on the fiscus will take some time to resolve but this dependence must be removed completely. All SOEs must be self-sustaining, save to the extent that a specific developmental mandate may be given to an SOE, which could be reimbursed either through cross-subsidisation, or on the understanding that no dividends are payable to the state, but are instead used for developmental purposes. It is in this context that we need to reposition the mindsets of boards and management within institutions like Eskom. They must head in the direction of a normal business enterprise that is able to sustain itself and any investments needed, based on what its revenue and the competence of its staff allow. So, words like bailouts, and so on, must begin to disappear from our vocabulary as we go forward. Declining EAF and load shedding the diminishing returns of maintenance? The recently published IRP 2019 and the Eskom roadmap made assumptions of Eskoms energy availability factor (EAF) increasing to 75%, while the trend is already showing a continued declining EAF as a result of aging old plant, poorly performing new plant, and increased maintenance that takes more units out of service. Surely it is time to be more realistic in planning, to acknowledge the high cost and diminishing returns of increased maintenance on aging plant, and to put greater emphasis on new, non-Eskom generation capacity? Weve already had a recognition in government, both by the Minister of Minerals & Energy and the President, in various addresses in recent times, that generation must become less and less of an Eskom monopoly as we go forward. So, I think the loosening of the knot, so to speak, has begun through the concepts self-generation and embedded generation, plus the kind of investments that are happening in renewables, and in other areas as well. I believe there are still possibilities for improving the EAF, even in old plant, provided that there is a more careful diagnostic of the problem. This is what the ministerial technical task team has been doing in recent times. If Eskom doesnt have the right kind of people or management skills, the new CEO will have to start recruiting certain types of engineers and artisans to get that right. Eskom must revolutionise the maintenance approach and strategy in terms of the quality of maintenance done and the type of contractors that are utilised. There must be penalties for contractors if they do a shabby job which seems to be the case as some of the more recent data is showing. These micro diagnostics that the ministerial technical task team has been performing is now of increasing benefit to the Eskom leadership and management. So, if you put all of these efforts together, I believe an EAF of between 73% and 75% is still a realistic possibility. As I understand it, not everything can be attributed to old and aging plant it is also about people and the consequences of poor management. Already some of the managers at power station level are feeling the heat because there has been too relaxed an atmosphere. At the same time, those who perform well at certain power stations like Matimba and Koeberg where the plant actually runs properly those people must be rewarded and recognised. Medupi and Kusile bringing Eskom to its knees? After a recent visit to Medupi, President Ramaphosa said the mega-project is a fitting symbol of the importance of our state-owned enterprises. In reality, however, the Medupi and Kusile projects are experiencing massive cost and time overruns that have brought Eskom to its knees, and resulted in the current loadshedding that is damaging the economy. What has to be done to fix these projects, and are they likely to become white elephants and stranded assets in future years? Clearly, stranded assets and white elephants are what we need to avoid. Eskom management has now produced a maintenance plan which involves taking each of the six generation units at Medupi out of service, one at a time, for up to 75 days between now and the end of the year, so that they can undergo a proper design optimisation and maintenance programme. This would cover the various areas that have proved problematic, from conveyor belts to mills, boilers, fabric filters and whatever. There is no doubt that these two mega-projects have had a massive impact on Eskoms debt issue. But our immediate goal is to achieve some level of operational stability. This might not be as optimal as originally designed, but at least stability at a new level of optimality. In this way, Medupi, and in due course Kusile, will still contribute whatever they can to meet the electricity needs of South Africa, and not become white elephants or stranded assets. This means the investments have opportunity to recoup their costs, and we can also learn important lessons about these sorts of projects going forward. Environment the sacrificial lamb? Since 2010, Eskom has been obtaining exemptions from compliance with South Africas environmental legislation and regulations, and in the meantime the utility has done little to address its ongoing non-compliance with limits for atmospheric emissions. As Eskom holds the country to ransom, is environmental sustainability, and the lives and health of Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo communities, set to become the sacrificial lamb of the utilitys environmental mismanagement? There seems to be no doubt that there has been, what you call, environmental mismanagement. Both from a government and an Eskom point of view, we are completely revamping the approach to compliance with environmental requirements and minimum emission standards. Some of the coal-fired power plant closures that are indicated in the integrated resource plan for electricity, IRP 2019, will contribute to a reduction of air pollution in the form of toxic NOx, SO2 and particulate emissions in the areas that you have mentioned, as well as a reduction in carbon emissions that contribute to climate-change. We need to recognise that, in the South African context, we dont have easily available alternatives to coal at this point of time. The best we can do is to start the process towards compliance with minimum emission requirements, and to making the right contribution to South Africas commitments to the climate-change process, both within the country and outside. In the next few weeks, Eskom management, the DPE and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) will be interacting in order to find the right balance going forward. Restructuring the roadmap to the end-state of the ESI? Eskoms CEO has said the utility has started a process of divisionalisation, which is little different from the status quo. How will this enable structural reform, where an independent transmission system and market operator (ITSMO) can procure electricity from a diversified, competitive generation sector on economic grounds and at least cost? Is it reasonable to expect a dominant incumbent to restructure itself? Should government not be providing more urgent leadership? I think the President has been very clear, from the time that he has taken office in 2018, that Eskom is not going to be able to trade itself out of its troubles. On the advice of the Presidents sustainability task team, it is clear too that Eskom needs to be restructured and repositioned as a utility. We needed a roadmap towards the end-state of the electricity supply industry, which we now have at a structural level. In the context of this roadmap, there are various transitions that are occurring both within and outside of Eskom. Firstly, there is an energy transition away from toxic emissions into the environment that result from the burning of coal. Secondly, you have the utility transition, with divisionalisation being just one step to towards the ultimate separation of generation, transmission and distribution. Thirdly, the transmission is beginning to undergo its own transformation, as we begin to recognise that a vertically integrated national electricity utility is not the only way of transmitting electricity. There are different solutions to which we will have to adapt, whilst recognising that transmission is an important strategic asset in any nations electricity reticulation process. We do see the buying office as an important component in the future scenario one the plays the role of purchasing electricity into the grid, with the financial capability to actually do so. Ultimately, we will have an independent transmission entity, and we foresee a future where there isnt this 95% dependence on Eskom as a generator. On the distribution side it is more complex, with about 60% of electricity sales taking place through municipalities. There is a constitutional issue that we have to resolve here, and this reality will take more time to resolve, both from a fiscal policy point of view in terms of how much money is allocated to national, provincial and local government, and from an operational point of view as well. So, I think that South Africa is well on its way on a journey that will incorporate various forms of transitions that are already occurring. It is the dynamism and the interaction between these different transition trajectories needing to be managed over the next five to ten years that will be crucial to the success of this project. Death spiral where is all this self-generation heading? The parting shot from the outgoing former Eskom CEO, Phakamani Hadebe, was that Eskom is in a death spiral of rising costs and electricity prices, and declining sales volumes. Eskoms ambitions to increase the electricity price by 30%, and the immediate solutions to capacity constraints of self-generation, municipal generation and IPPs, are set to accelerate this death spiral. Where does all this leave Eskom as an electricity utility of the future? Essentially, if we leave the decline of Eskom to its own dynamic, then we will inevitably have harmed the utility itself. So, managing the different trajectories of transition on the one hand, and having the financial models that underpin the transition on the other, will ultimately ensure financial stability and sustainability of the outcome. And institutional stability and sustainability is crucial to success. So again, this is not an area where one looks at just one dimension of the challenge. You have got to look at all of the dimensions, how they interact with each other the institution, the plant, the financial aspect, whats happening currently in different markets, in the wider energy and electricity environments, and the global dynamics such as climate change. The challenge is how to integrate all of the above into a transition path that ensures an outcome which meets all the requirements, including financial and institutional sustainability. Transparency a driver for accountability and performance? Since completion of work on Eskom by the Presidents sustainability task team, the ministerial technical task team and the chief restructuring officer (CRO), their reports have never been made known. At the same time, in contrast to Eskoms peers globally, there is an almost total lack of transparency on Eskoms operational performance in sufficient granular detail and time resolution. Do Eskom and the DPE not recognise how such transparency can drive accountability and improved performance throughout the organisation? We certainly recognise that transparency is crucial to accountability. It is crucial in a public entity like Eskom, and there is no doubt that accountability is crucial to getting the right kind of performance, and to ensure there are consequences if the right performance is not delivered. So, on the principle of transparency, there is absolutely no argument with that. Of course, we must decide on how the necessary information, and what level of information, is made available to the public. The engineering fraternity and those in the energy sector would need the micro-details, but I think the general public would require a different set of information. Getting the general public to understand the performance of each of the power plants, the different parts of the system, and the system as a whole, is certainly a challenge that Eskom must meet in the coming year. Whether it is nuclear power at Koeberg, the coal-fired power stations, pumped-storage stations, open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), wind or solar, we need to understand what contributes what, and over what period. This understanding will then also give rise to the right kinds of debate and questioning. So, its a constructive process that I think we should initiate. Once we have bedded down the new Eskom management team, I think this is the next stage we need to get into. But there is always a resistance in monopolies, whether private or public, in terms of making information and indeed reliable information available. But the goal of accountability and transparency is one that is non-negotiable. Related Articles Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday dismissed a US offer to help the Islamic republic fight its coronavirus outbreak, charging that "vicious" American sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. Iran has scrambled to halt the rapid spread of the virus that has claimed 92 lives out of 2,922 confirmed infections in the past two weeks. It has shut schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events, and cut back on work hours. "Those who have deprived the people of even medicine and food through sanctions, who have done the most vicious things... they appear with a mask of sympathy and say that we want to help the nation of Iran," Rouhani said, in a clear reference to the United States. US President Donald Trump had said Saturday he was ready to aid Iran with the virus outbreak if the Islamic republic asked for assistance. "Our people know well that you are lying," Rouhani said in response, speaking at the weekly meeting of his cabinet in remarks aired on state television. Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran in 2018. Humanitarian goods, especially medicine and medical equipment, are technically exempt. But international purchases of such supplies are forestalled by banks wary of conducting any business with Iran for fear of falling foul of the US sanctions. Rouhani said the US must first lift sanctions blocking medicine purchases to prove its honest intent to help. "This is the first step... to free banking relations for purchasing medicine, transferring medicine and shipping medicine and food," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two bike-borne men snatched a womans purse in the Sarabha Nagar market on Tuesday night. However, they soon learnt they had bitten off more than they could chew when the woman and her daughter over powered the pillion rider and retrieved the purse. The accused, Sachin Sharma, a resident of Baba Balak Nath Mandir near Ghumar Mandi, and his unidentified accomplice, who lives in Haibowal, attempted to snatch the womans purse around 9pm, said investigating officer Jasvir Singh. Both the woman and her daughter requested that their names be kept confidential. Sharma, who was riding pillion, snatched the purse in the busy market. However, the woman did not let go off the purse, causing her to be dragged along with the motorcycle as the snatchers tried to flee. At that point, the victims daughter came to her rescue and chased after the snatcher, and the women managed to overpower Sharma. However, his accomplice managed to flee on the two-wheeler. Once caught, Sharma, was thrashed by the public before being handed over to the police. Bystanders shot a video of the incident. In the video, Sharma can be heard telling police officials that he was high on drugs and had tried to snatch the purse to support his habit. Richa Rani, station house officer, Division Number 5, said Sharma had been arrested and booked for snatching under the Indian Penal Code on the complaint of the womans son. The incident has yet again brought to fore the prevailing menace of drug abuse in the city, which has led to increase in the citys crime rate. Coronavirus (Representative image) India has so far reported 28 positive cases of coronavirus so far, which includes 16 Italian tourists, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on March 4 and announced that all international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports for the disease. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were being screened at the airports. Vardhan held a meeting with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and civic body officials on March 4 and urged them to augment facilities of isolation wards in city hospitals if more cases of coronavirus gets recorded. "We have to work as a unit to combat the COVID-19 threat to the nation. A coordinated, collective effort in a mission mode is required," he said at the meeting. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Giving a breakup of those who tested positive for the virus, the Union health minister said of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one is a 45-year-old man from Delhi's Mayur Vihar and six are his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited. They are all being treated at the Safdarjung hospital. A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad has also tested positive for coronavirus and has been isolated. Besides, 16 members of a tourist group from Italy and their Indian driver have been found infected with the virus. While an Italian man and his wife are being treated at Jaipur's SMS Hospital, 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. According to health ministry officials, the Italian tourists wanted to go back to their country after the first person in their group tested positive in Jaipur, but authorities advised them to stay in India. Three coronavirus patients reported in Kerala earlier have already been discharged. The ministry also said that two cases with high viral load have been detected in Telangana. Vardhan said that so far, 5,89,000 people have been screened at airports, over 15,000 at major and minor sea ports, around 10 lakh at borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently under community surveillance. As part of the country's preparedness for containing the spread of the disease, the Union health minister said that all the foreign nationals, and not just those from 12 countries listed earlier, will henceforth be screened for COVID-19 at 21 designated airports. Addressing the media, he said the government has adopted a cluster approach, as a part of which health authorities will check and sensitise every household within 3 km-radius of the house of the infected person, to prevent community spread of the virus. Vardhan said that at present, 15 laboratories in India are conducting tests for coronavirus. Nineteen more laboratories are being established, he said, adding seven to eight labs started functioning on March 3 and rest will be made operation by March 4. Health ministry officials said during contact tracing procedure, the ministry's Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) have identified 66 people who had come in contact with the Delhi man who have been tested positive for corona virus, while 88 people who had come in contact with the 24-year-old Hyderabad man have been identified. Vardhan further said the government intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so that Indians there can be tested for a possible exposure to novel coronavirus before being brought back. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran currently. While coronavirus infection is showing signs of receding in China with 38 new fatalities, taking total number of deaths to 2,981, in Iran, over 2,000 coronavirus cases and 77 deaths have been reported. "If the Iranian government lends its support, a testing facility could be set up there as well, so that Indians there can be tested before they can be brought back," the Union health minister said. One scientist from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has been sent to Iran while three more from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will leave at 4 pm today to check the feasibility of setting up a laboratory there for conducting coronavirus test. Vardhan urged people to avoid crowded places and physical contact with people. Responding to a question over shortage of masks across the country, the Union health minister said, "We have ensured that the export of N95 masks and personal protective equipment, etcetera, are banned and taken care of. The ministry has taken adequate measures to ensure there is no scarcity of these." He urged the states and Union Territories to strengthen core capacities for disease preparedness and response like surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, hospital preparedness, logistic management, capacity building and risk communication. Vardhan also said that the states need to identify isolation facilities, to accommodate confirmed and suspected cases if and when identified in each district, as well as logistics requirement and to enhance community awareness through print, electronic and social media. In Maharashtra, meanwhile, the state's health department said that 161 travelers who were admitted to isolation wards of hospitals in Maharashtra tested negative for COVID-19 and currently only nine persons are quarantined in the state. Globally, travel demand still rose 2.4 percent in January, compared with the same period the year before, the group said. Those figures only partially reflected the impact of travel restrictions, some of which did not begin until late January, the group said. Still, it marked the lowest increase in demand for travel since April 2010, during the volcanic ash cloud crisis in Europe that led to massive airspace closures and flight cancellations. She's the Australian actress and environmental activist who started her career on Home and Away. And on Thursday, Isabel Lucas, revealed her surprising new role living in the sleepy town of Byron Bay. 'I'm a beekeeper in Byron, it's my way to support healthy bee populations and natural pollination,' she told The Daily Telegraph. 'I'm a beekeeper in Byron': Former Home and Away star Isabel Lucas (pictured) revealed her surprising new role while living in the sleepy town of Byron Bay on Thursday 'I prioritise and practise conscious healthy living,' the 35-year-old Transformers star continued. The actress started her career on Home and Away in 2003 before being cast in a slew of Hollywood hits such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Daybreakers. Reflecting on her success in the competitive industry during an interview with Stellar in September, Isabel revealed the best piece of career advice she's received. Doing her thing for the environment! 'It's my way to support healthy bee populations and natural pollination,' she told The Daily Telegraph 'It's not all about making money, it's about growth and being an artist. 'Sometimes you need to take some time out and replenish,' she continued. The actress explained that knowing she has the power to say 'no' is something she's put into practice over the years. 'It's not all about making money, it's about growth and being an artist. Sometimes you need to take some time out and replenish,' she said. Pictured alongside her former Home and Away castmates (left to right) Ada Nicodemou, Jason Smith, Laurie Foell and Chris Hemsworth Isabel's most recent role was in the Australian comedy drama Chasing Comets, alongside Dan Ewing, George Houvardas and Stan Walker. She relocated from Los Angeles to the coastal enclave of Byron Bay in 2016. She regularly travels back and forth between Australia and the U.S. for work. The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Development recommended accepting a letter of resignation of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. The corresponding decision was approved by Committee members at a meeting on Wednesday morning, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. As reported, an extraordinary Parliament sitting, convened at the request of the President, will start on Wednesday at 16:00. According to the sitting agenda, the membership of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will be considered. Last night, it became known after the meeting of the Servant of the People party faction that Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk had submitted a letter of resignation to the Verkhovna Rada. According to MP Dubinsky, members of the Servant of the People party faction plan to accept it. Incumbent Vice Prime Minister, Minister for Community Development and Territories Denys Shmyhal is expected to be appointed to the position of the Prime Minister. Honcharuk was appointed as the Prime Minister on August 29, 2019. Prior to that, he headed the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO). On October 4, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved the Government's Action Plan proposed by Honcharuk. According to the Law of Ukraine On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, after the action plan is approved, the Parliament cannot consider the issue of Government's responsibility and dismiss it within 12 months. The dismissal is possible only if the Prime Minister writes a letter of resignation. ol Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) The Senate on Wednesday adopted a resolution backing the issuance of a provisional authority to ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries, which will allow the network to continue to operate beyond the expiry of its franchise. After nearly two hours of discussions, senators agreed to the proposed resolution "expressing the sense" of the chamber that it wants the National Telecommunications Commission to grant a provisional authority to the Lopez-owned network, which will serve as the legal basis for the media giant to remain on air even if its existing franchise lapses by May 4. Senator Franklin Drilon clarified during the discussions that the prescribed wording meant that is still up to the NTC to decide if it will grant the temporary license or not. Several Senate resolutions seek to allow ABS-CBN to continue operating until Congress makes a decision on whether or not it will grant another 25-year franchise to the network. There were no objections. Senators said that they could not go straight to passing the bills that grant a fresh franchise to the TV conglomerate as the rules dictate that such measures should be approved first by the House of Representatives. This early, Senate President Tito Sotto III as well as Senators Villanueva, Richard Gordon, and Manny Pacquiao explicitly said they will vote to renew the network's franchise. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 8 filed also on Wednesday, seeks too the extension of cable TV provider Sky Cable, another company owned by the Lopez family. Villanueva said they decided to file the resolution for the sake of the 11,071 workers in ABS-CBN whose jobs are in peril with its license to operate expiring. "There is an urgent need to devise government interventions to ensure that ABS-CBN will continue its operations pending Congress deliberations of the networks franchise renewal," the resolution read. It also said the shutdown of ABS-CBN, which is seen as a market leader, will affect the broadcast industry and the country's economy. READ: ABS-CBN workers union asks Duterte to take action in franchise renewal case RELATED: Bato on ABS-CBN fate: What is 11,000 jobs lost compared to the whole Filipino nation? Through the measure, Congress said it wants ABS-CBN and Sky Cable to continue operating "under the terms of their existing franchises" pending the approval of bills that would renew their legislative franchises. The House of Representatives has also formally asked the NTC to give ABS-CBN a provisional permit so it can continue operating while Congress has yet to decide on its franchise renewal bid. TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise House Committee on Legislative Franchises chair Franz Alvarez sent the NTC a letter on February 26, concurred by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano. They enjoined NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba to grant ABS-CBN provisional authority to stay on air when its franchise expires until such time that Congress decides on its application for a new one. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra previously said at a Senate hearing that Congress, through a concurrent resolution, can authorize the NTC to grant ABS-CBN provisional authority, allowing it to continue operating even after its franchise expires. Cordoba then said it would be easier for the regulator to issue the temporary franchise if the order comes from Congress. Sotto said a concurrent resolution should no longer be necessary since the NTC has in the past granted provisional permits without Congress resolutions. "What's bugging the NTC? Are they afraid to displease the President?" he asked. Gordon raised the same question, saying that asking Congress to issue resolutions supporting the grant of a provisional authority for media companies could be abused and may be a breeding ground for corruption. Duterte has been publicly ranting against ABS-CBN since assuming office, saying that the network refused to carry his campaign commercials even if they have been already paid for. He even told the Lopezes to just sell the company to a new owner just to boost its chances of operating. Last month, the President accepted the apology offered by ABS-CBN President Carlo Katigbak for airing an anti-Duterte ad during the 2016 campaign which was paid for by the opposition. READ: ABS-CBN to donate Duterte refund for unaired ads In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, GMA Network clarified that it did not operate with an expired franchise contrary to reports. The Gozon-led firm said its fresh franchise was signed into law on April 21, 2017, which was 22 days before its previous one lapsed. The NTC in the past has allowed other organizationsincluding the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to operate, even while their renewal cases were still being tackled by the legislature. A 1994 agreement between the House, the NTC, and the broadcasters group Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas provides a mechanism for media entities with expiring Congressional franchises. The memorandum of understanding states that the NTC "shall continue to issue and grant permits or authorizations to operate" for radio and TV stations for a two-year period as long as there is a pending bill seeking to renew its franchise. However, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno said this could no longer be done, since a 2003 Supreme Court decision, which he himself penned, had ruled that there is a need for an existing license before a corporation can operate. This means the only way for ABS-CBN to stay on air is for Congress to finally renew its 25-year franchise; and a provisional permit from the NTC, even if allowed by Congress, would not be executory. There are 12 House bills seeking to renew ABS-CBN's franchise, but all remain pending before the Committee on Legislative Franchises. A joint resolution seeking to extend the Lopez-owned network's existing franchise until June 30, 2022 was filed in the House last week by Cebu City Representative Raul Del Mar. A similar measure filed by Cagayan De Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez seeks to extend the TV giant's franchise until May 4, 2021. RELATED: SolGen wants Supreme Court to forfeit ABS-CBN franchise Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a press briefing on Wednesday said that instead of a resolution, Congress should pass a measure granting ABS-CBN another franchise, so President Rodrigo Duterte can sign it into law. Despite Duterte's public pronouncements against the network, Malacanang maintains he does not have anything to do with the delay in the legislative action on its franchise. With drug resistance a major challenge in the fight against cancer, a discovery by University of California, Irvine biologists could offer new approaches to overcoming the obstacle. Their research reveals that a mechanism enabling the diseased cells to scavenge dead cell debris for nourishment holds a pivotal role. The study by Aimee Edinger, associate professor of developmental & cell biology, and researcher Vaishali Jayashankar appears in Nature Communications. Cancer cells require a tremendous amount of nutrients. Chemotherapy and other treatments that damage DNA force tumor cells to rev up their metabolism to make the repairs necessary to survive and grow. Targeting DNA metabolism in this way often works for a while, but in virtually all patients, tumor cells become resistant and the treatment becomes ineffective." Aimee Edinger, associate professor of developmental & cell biology, University of California - Irvine In probing the problem, the two scientists examined a process called macropinocytosis. It enables a cancer cell desperate for nourishment to scoop up dead cell material within a tumor and feed on it. "Tumors contain a lot of dead cells because the blood supply is abnormal, causing many cancer cells to starve to death," Edinger said. "Using this method of scavenging, cancer cells can obtain the amino acids, sugars, fatty acids and nucleotides they require to keep growing." This new research revealed that macropinocytosis makes a previously unappreciated contribution to breast cancer drug-resistance. Edinger and Jayashankar also demonstrated that the same process could thwart treatments for pancreas and prostate cancer. "What we see is that blocking macropinocytosis can help us to treat many different cancers more effectively," Edinger said. "This knowledge could enable better biomarker selection in clinical drug trials currently underway, leading to improved response to pharmaceutical combinations. It also provides a strong rationale for developing drugs that target and block macropinocytosis." Aldi Australia is set to release a high-end robotic vacuum cleaner with a unique special feature. Not only can the new Deebot Ozmo 900 'smart robot' vacuum and mop the floor but it is fully equipped with a 'mapping' function, allowing you to control the areas it cleans through the Ecovacs Home App. This updated technology creates a thorough map of your home and enables the device to work more efficiently, as users can customise a plan by directing the robot to clean or avoid specific areas. The product will launch on March 11th as part of the Aldi Special Buys and will retail for only $399 instead of $999. Aldi Australia is set to release a high-end robotic vacuum cleaner with a unique 'mapping feature' that the user can controlled through a phone app This three-in-one feature adds versatility to the product and means homeowners will spend less time cleaning than ever before. Shay Stearnes, Buying Director of Aldi Australia, said: 'The Deebot Ozmo Robotic Vacuum Special Buy received amazing feedback from Aldi shoppers last year. Given its incredible popularity, we are excited to once again partner with Ecovas Robotics to offer a more advanced model at an extremely low price'. Both Aldi and Ecovacs have 'no doubt' shoppers will be impressed with the inventive vacuum and the new mapping technology. This 'mapping' technology creates a thorough map of your home and enables the robot to work more efficiently, as users can customise the cleaning plan by directing the robot to clean or avoid specific areas This three-in-one feature adds versatility to the product and means homeowners will spend less time cleaning than ever before. The product (pictured above) will launch on March 11th as part of the Aldi Special Buys and will retail for only $399 instead of $999 The robotic vacuum scans the home and creates a visual map in the new Ecovacs Home App. The product then automatically creates an efficient cleaning path that best suits your home environment. Through 'obstacle detection technology', the smart robot uses anti-collision sensors to keep your walls and furniture safe from marks and scuffs. It can also be voice controlled with Google Home or Amazon Alexa. 'Ecovacs Robotics continues to innovate and deliver smart cleaning systems which can understand and adapt to everyone's own home environment, to suit your individual cleaning needs and schedule,' said Karen Powell, Head of Ecovacs Robotics ANZ. How does the mapping function work? The robotic vacuum scans the home and creates a visual map in the new Ecovacs Home App After generating a visual map, the product will automatically create an efficient cleaning path that best suits your home environment With 'obstacle detection technology', the robot uses anti-collision sensors to avoid walls and furniture Advertisement This isn't the first time Aldi has sold a high-tech Ecovacs product, last year they released a similar robotic vacuum for $299 also part of the Special Buys. Both items contain similar features, though the latest product contains updated functions and technology. Similarly to the new product, the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 610 vacuums and mops all floor surfaces with the touch of a button, so you will never have to lift a finger again. The two-in-one product promises to deep clean your home without any human interaction. This isn't the first time Aldi has sold a high-tech Ecovacs product, last year they released a similar robotic vacuum for $299 also part of the Special Buys You can effortlessly schedule cleaning times and set cleaning modes, monitor the cleaning status, and enjoy all the convenience of automated housework from your phone Other similar high-tech robotic vacuums with mop on the market, costing anywhere between $600 to $1,400. But for a fraction of the price, you can grab one at your nearest Aldi Australian store for just $399. For a limited time only, the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 900 goes on sale on March 11 until March 25, while stocks last. Mr. Trumps frequent complaints about surveillance whipped up new levels of support among some of his congressional allies for broad new restrictions on the F.B.I. The president has pointed to its wiretapping of his former campaign adviser Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, as evidence that the bureau abused its power in an effort to undermine him. Though an inspector general inquiry found serious mistakes with the wiretapping of Mr. Page, it did not find evidence to support the narrative pushed by Mr. Trump and his allies that the high-level F.B.I. officials conspired to weaponize FISA against him. Before the meeting, Mr. McConnell said he would try to prevent an outcome in which gridlock allowed the provisions to lapse, but acknowledged significant differences of opinion among members of Congress. Whether we can resolve those and pass new legislation is unclear, Mr. McConnell said at his weekly news conference in the Capitol. If we are unable to resolve our differences, my preference would be for another extension, which would give us more time to talk. While Mr. McConnell and many Republican senators want to largely leave the surveillance powers intact, deferring to Mr. Barr to make policy changes within the Justice Department to address concerns raised by Mr. Trump, some of their most vocal opponents come from within Republican ranks. Before the meeting, Mr. Lee said that extending the expiring provisions without revising the FISA law was one of the dumbest things we could do. He called such a move policy and political malpractice and said it would happen over my dead body. Democrats have their own internal disputes, with national security-minded moderates facing off with progressives driven by what they see as undue infringement on civil liberties. The tensions burst into the open last week, when a senior Democratic lawmaker effectively derailed a bill negotiated by two House chairmen that would have extended most of the expiring powers while putting in place some new limits to FISA and allowing a dysfunctional and defunct National Security Agency call records program to lapse. SINGAPORE, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxonrow is excited to share our native coin, MXW, listing on its second exchange, GRXTrade. GRXTrade, powered by Growdex, describes itself as a crypto exchange platform that delivers more than just the standard product features of a trading platform by reimagining digital asset management. GRXTrade uses MAX-Wallet and CipherTrace to enhance security and harness the power of blockchain to incubate B2G projects that bridge fintech to traditional finance with innovative financial instruments that are poised to disrupt digital economies, serving emerging economies globally. A Unique Opportunity to Win 10 MXW GRXTrade and Maxonrow are celebrating the beginning of their partnership by awarding the first 10,000 users who register on GRXTrade using MAX-Register, a new function in MAX-Wallet, and refer one friend, 10 MXW. "We are looking forward to our users discovering the benefits of our technologies. Our affiliate program generates perpetual, passive income from referrals and followers, up to four levels, with the potential to earn a lucrative percentage of up to 40% of smart income. GRXTrade is both user-friendly and user-focused and offers one of the lowest market trading fees, going as low as 0.04% and having the most sought-after trading pairs." said Ryan Fellal, CEO of GRXTrade. GRXTrade is the First Stop for MXW in 2020 After a successful listing of the MXW with the Kucoin Exchange, Maxonrow is ready to take its coin to more exchanges. GRXTrade is not only the second exchange MXW will be listed on but also an exchange that will adopt MAX-Wallet's latest function, MAX-Register for simple sign-up and login. It's Maxonrow's answer to the plight. "GRXTrade adopts MAX-Wallet - our native mobile app that uses our proprietary real-name Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification systems. Our KYC process provides an added layer of protection as we have incorporated constant end-to-end security enhancements to improve auditing processes and to reduce "surface hacking" of our infrastructure." said Carlo Chung, Maxonrow's CTO. "We are pleased to be using the MAX-Register feature of MAX-Wallet because it solves a long time pain point in the finance industry. Intuitively connecting your financial apps is a must and a key advantage of MAX-Wallet. This implementation will on top of providing good user experience, also aids in reducing our operational costs." added Ryan Fellal, GRXTrade CEO. The MXW coin will begin trading in GRXTrade starting March 6th, 2020. You can find out more about Maxonrow, its products and upcoming releases by visiting their website or interacting with their team directly on the official Telegram channel. SOURCE Maxonrow Barnett confessed to the crime and was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life in prison without parole sentences were unconstitutional for teens under the age of 18. Four years later, in Montgomery v. Louisiana, the court made the decision retroactive. In 2016, Missouri made juvenile offenders eligible for parole after serving 25 years on the premise that their brains are not fully formed. These traits apply just as well to all teenagers, Percival said, arguing the current cutoff should be reconsidered. We need to reassess that line, she told the court. David Barnett provides an excellent example of why its needed. Judge Zel Fischer asked what kind of test could be used to help jurors and judges determine whether a 19-year-old was mature enough to know the outcome of his or her actions. For example, he said, There is a striking difference between men and women. Russia deployed nearly 90,000 troops, 1,100 tanks, 2,500 armored fighting vehicles, 1,600 artillery and missile systems, 340 combat aircraft and other weapons and equipment on the border with Ukraine. "In total, about 87,000-90,000 servicepersons (in particular, more than 35,000 members of the 1st and the 2nd army corps) of the Armed Forces of Russia are stationed along the state border of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk regions and Crimea. There are also 1,100 tanks, 2,500 armored fighting vehicles, 1,600 artillery and missile systems, 340 combat aircraft, 240 combat helicopters, more than 50 ships/boats and 6 submarines," Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Obozrevatel media outlet. He also noted that those groups could be strengthened by three mobilization deployment operations centers that could mobilize about 40,000 people. In the immediate vicinity of Ukraine's borders, such centers were established in the town of Boguchar (Belgorod region in Russia), the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky (Rostov region in Russia) and in the village of Novoozerne in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. ol ST. IGNACE TOWNSHIP, MI Police have arrested a 54-year-old St. Ignace man accused of breaking into a Loyal Order of Moose lodge in the Upper Peninsula. Troopers from the Michigan State Police St. Ignace Post responded to a breaking and entering complaint at a lodge in St. Ignace Township on Wednesday. Troopers identified a suspect after a shirt investigation and later located him near the lodge. Police also found items suspected of being stolen from the scene. The man was arrested and lodged in the Mackinac County Jail pending arraignment. The Michigan State Police was assisted at the scene by the Mackinac County Sherriff Department. Founded in 1888 by Dr. Henry Wilson in Louisville, Kentucky, the Loyal Order of Moose and Women of the Moose now includes more than 100,000 members who gather at lodges in all 50 states, four Canadian provinces and Great Britain. The Moose organization contributes between $75 to $100 million worth of community service, counting monetary donations, volunteer hours worked and miles driven, annually, according to its website. The European Union will not give in to "blackmail" by Turkey and borders will remain closed to migrants despite Ankara's threat to let them pass, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday. "The borders of Greece and the Schengen Area are closed, and we will ensure they stay closed" despite attempts to enter by thousands of migrants who have massed on Turkey's frontier since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they would be allowed to cross into the EU, Le Drian told senators. Erdogan has warned Europe that it must support his "solutions" to end the conflict in Syria if it wants to avoid a new migrant crisis, despite a 2016 deal to stop the flow of refugees in exchange for billions of euros. Tensions have soared over Ankara launched an offensive against Syria's Russia-backed forces after more than 50 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib Province in recent weeks. Close to one million people in Idlib have been displaced by the Syrian government assault, which is backed by Russian air power, though they are currently blocked from entering Turkey. Le Drian said Erdogan needs to clarify his intentions with his allies in the NATO alliance, instead of demanding their support only after taking unilateral action in Syria. "We will need to quickly have a frank and serious public discussion with Turkey to know where each stands and where our common interests lie, otherwise we will not get out of this," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The U.S. economy continues to move forward but faces risks from both the presidential election and the feared spread of the novel coronavirus, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. In the central bank's periodic "Beige Book" report from its member districts, officials saw activity growing at a "modest to moderate pace." Threats from the coronavirus specifically did not seem to pose a major threat yet, though business contacts said they were worried about potential ramifications to come. "There were indications that the coronavirus was negatively impacting travel and tourism in the U.S.," the report said. "Manufacturing activity expanded in most parts of the country; however, some supply chain delays were reported as a result of the coronavirus and several Districts said that producers feared further disruptions in the coming weeks." The data in the report includes the period through Feb. 24, so it was before some of the recent intensifying of the disease spread and extreme volatility in financial markets. There have been more than 94,000 cases of COVID-19 reported around the world and more than 3,200 deaths. Wall Street has seen a stock market correction that has come amid worries that the disease's epicenter in China could cause a supply chain constraint through the world that will slow growth substantially. "Outlooks for the near-term were mostly for modest growth with the coronavirus and the upcoming presidential election cited as potential risks," the report stated. Across individual districts, Philadelphia reported worries that the coronavirus "has increased uncertainty" about growth prospects, while Richmond saw concerns about lowering imports from China. Chicago, however, reported "little effect." On the election, multiple districts reported general uncertainty over business conditions related to the political landscape. MICRO-SEGMENTATION: Security For Every Data Center Despite a heightened focus and increasing investment into cybersecurity, data breaches continue to plague organizations. Recent attacks on large businesses like Home Depot, Target and Sony underscore one simple truth: No business is safe. To date, firewalls have been the primary security method for protecting data centers. However, firewalls are only effective at blocking external threats. So, what do you do in the event of a threat making it past your firewall? This solution brief provides an in-depth look at the features, capabilities and benefits of VMwares microsegmentation platform. Read on to learn more about securing your network amidst a firewall collapse. The European Commission on Monday slammed a Belgian street parade for featuring anti-Semitic floats that it said were "incompatible" with EU values. The Aalst carnival, a centuries-old event in central Belgium long known for mocking public figures, has in recent years been accused of parading insulting and derogatory depictions of Jews. Last year it lost its place on a UNESCO heritage list because of anti-Semitism. On Sunday, the parade included caricatures of Jews with hooked noses, obsessed with money and dressed up like insects. "It should indeed be self-evident that such images as what we've seen should not parade European streets, 75 years after the Shoah," a Commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz, told journalists. He said the European Union executive had received "a number of complaints" over the Aalst event, but that it was up to Belgian national authorities to take action. As far as the European Commission was concerned, Jahnz said, "we stand firmly against all forms of anti-Semitism" and view the parade's floats as "incompatible with the values and principles in which the EU is founded". Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas said the Aalst carnival was a "shame". "It needs to stop. No place for this in Europe," Schinas wrote on Twitter. The carnival attracts tens of thousands of people over the three days leading to the Catholic holiday of Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. It takes pride in its provocative, no-holds-barred approach. - 'Politically correct censorship' - Aalst mayor Christoph D'Haese defended the event, insisting it was not anti-Semitic. He said it was important to take the "overall context" into account, comparing the parade to a "ritual of reversal" in which over three days "the poor become rich, the rich poor, men become women and women become men". "Here we laugh at everything -- the royal family, Brexit, local and national politics and every religion -- Islam, Judaism and Catholicism," he said. A float depicting puppets of hook-nosed orthodox Jews with rats sitting on money bags at the 2019 carnival caused uproar and led to UNESCO withdrawing it from its "intangible cultural heritage" list. But carnival-goers interviewed by AFP on Sunday were unrepentant, with one who refused to be named saying the controversy was "completely exaggerated". Another, doctor Guy Verhuslt, said it was a shame that "Jews don't have a sense of humour". Others wore muzzles to protest against what they called "politically correct censorship", while UNESCO's decision attracted mockery, with floats casting the UN cultural agency as a snooping, vengeful "Big Brother". Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes said the carnival "was causing damage to our values and the reputation of our country". Looking for life traditionally starts with finding a planet with the right temperature to host liquid water but scientists are working to find new criteria for tracking down potentially habitable worlds. One technique could locate promising planets for closer examination based on the chemistry of the host star itself, even before astronomers know anything about a planet directly. That's possible because stellar and planetary compositions are related. And life as we know it requires some very precise chemistry. And while scientists tend to focus on the big-name elements like carbon and oxygen, there are some other, lower-profile flavors that are vital. Those elements include phosphorus, fluorine and potassium, among others. "They're elements we should care about but haven't yet because we didn't realize we needed to," Natalie Hinkel, a planetary astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, told Space.com. Related: 7 ways to discover alien planets Hinkel and her co-author, an oceanographer, presented initial findings from their analyses in January at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu. They focused on phosphorus in particular because the process that turns sunlight into stored energy that organisms from algae to elephants can use requires phosphorus, albeit in small amounts. "It's like baking a cake: If the cake calls for four eggs and you only have three, then you don't get a cake," Hinkel said. "But in this cake of life, phosphorus is really hard [to find] so like getting those eggs." So if you're looking for Earth-like life, the scientists figured, find stars with a hint of phosphorus in them and study planets in those systems first. There's just one little problem: Phosphorus is hard to measure in stars because of a fluke that puts its signature in a wavelength of light that is difficult to observe from Earth or using existing space-based instruments. That's why, when Hinkel turned to a database where she gathers observations of stellar chemistry, just 90 stars included measurements of phosphorus amounts, out of more than 6,000 stars in the database . (For comparison, some elemental abundances have been observed for 1,400 of those stars.) Only 12 of those stars are known to host planets that could help them understand the nuances of how phosphorus in the star and planet relate. A similar problem plagues other elements that are biologically important in small quantities, she said. The data shortages mean that Hinkel and her colleague aren't really pointing to this approach as a feasible technique for selecting interesting exoplanets right now. Instead, they're hoping their research will serve as a call to scientists to work on the problem of gathering data about these tricky elements as well as the old favorites. Not knowing about phosphorus may not be a deal breaker, of course. Extraterrestrial life , if it exists, may not require phosphorus at all. "There could be certain pathways to life that might not need phosphorus specifically, but we know that life exists with phosphorus and we know that we exist, so it makes the most sense, given what we know now," Hinkel said. But she argued that it could be a much more useful type of observation than previously recognized. And that, she said, makes it worthwhile for astronomers to put more effort into trying to make measurements of phosphorus and other biologically important but difficult-to-measure elements. "They're all hard for a reason, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't go after it," Hinkel said. "If anything, I've learned that we should go after it all the more." After all, scientists are going to need every observation they can get their hands on if they want to track down potential life in other solar systems. "Habitability is really difficult to figure out," Hinkel said. "It's not like we can go and get a scoop of the planet , so modeling is pretty much all we're going to have for a very long time." Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . Telecom companies swear by user privacy - Chinadaily.com.cn Chinese technology companies using big data and analytics to bolster the epidemic fight are taking every care to comply with user data privacy laws. Han Xia, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the nation's top industry regulator, said China's laws and regulations highlight user privacy protection in data mining. According to Han, when telecom carriers use data for analysis, they have to go through a sophisticated regulatory mechanism and must abide by China's laws and regulations. They just use statistical data which are based on a large number of telecom network signals to track traffic flow among provinces and cities. The move is designed to help local governments predict possible spread directions of the epidemic and protect regions that are vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, Han said. "There is only statistical analysis about an overall situation, and no specific personal information is involved," Han said, adding that all the identifying information is removed. Also, concrete efforts have been made to ensure that companies only collect as less data as possible, in accordance with the principle of minimization, to help fight the epidemic. All the data are only allowed to be used for epidemic prevention, the ministry said. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom said they have adopted a string of anti-attack and anti-theft measures, such as deploying encryptors, leak-scanning systems, and database audit systems, during transmission and storage of the data. Mai Yanzhou, deputy general manager of China Unicom, said the company always accords data security and user privacy top priority and has the technological prowess to engage in big data analysis on the prerequisite of protecting users' data privacy. "We have a complicated management process in monitoring the use of big data analysis. Also, we have data security gateways, data traceability system, automated data encryption and other control measures in place," Mai said. The country's telecom carriers have been working hard to assist local governments in epidemic prevention. On the prerequisite of safeguarding privacy, they leverage the data pool of China's billion-plus smartphone users to offer insights. As people travel to big cities to resume work amid the outbreak, telecom carriers can help monitor the traffic to help local governments take better precautionary measures. Yu Rundong, an engineer at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, said currently, a number of technical measures can be taken to protect user privacy in data mining, such as de-identifying personal data, data cleansing, and employing sophisticated encryption mechanisms. New Delhi, March 4 : India's leading digital payment platform Paytm on Wednesday decided to shut its offices in Gurugram and Noida for at least two days after one of its employees who had recently travelled to Italy was tested positive with COVID-19. In an official statement, the company informed that it has suggested team members of the COVID-19 patient to get their health tests done immediately, while all their offices will remain shut for sanitising purposes. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurugram office, who recently returned from Italy post a vacation, has now been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment and we are extending complete support to his family," a Paytm spokesperson told IANS. "As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," the spokesperson added. The company said it has advised all employees to work from home for a couple of days while the offices are sanitised. "However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual," the spokesperson added. With 25 fresh confirmed cases of coronavirus in India, the tech industry in India is withdrawing into a shell, with Paytm, Nearbuy, Wipro, TCS and HCL announcing action plan to safeguard their employees. Nearbuy, which claims to be India's first hyper-local online platform that enables customers and local merchants to discover and engage with each other, has decided to close its Gurugram office for at least 14 days as a precautionary measure. The company has told its employees to work from home during the period and also keep a proper check on their health. Global software giant Wipro on Wednesday announced that it has suspended employee travel to coronavirus-stricken China, Hong Kong and Macau. The company also said that any employee who has travelled to an affected place in China in the last few days has been advised to work from home for 14 days before resuming work in office. "We have advised our employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently," said Wipro. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also claimed that it was working closely with all relevant global and regional and local health institutions to tackle COVID-19 outbreak. While HCL Technologies said it has invoked an epidemic contingency plan in the impacted geographies and is providing full support to employees, wherever possible. The Tripura government has decided to provide Rs 5000 to 14,608 students of the final year of the undergraduate level for buying Smartphone, a senior state minister said on Wednesday. The ruling BJP had made a poll-pledge in 2018 to make available smartphones to the youths if the saffron party was elected to power in the state. State minister and cabinet spokesperson, Ratan Lal Nath said, the decision was taken in the recently concluded meeting of the council of ministers. "We have selected 14,608 students in the final year of undergratuate level in 38 educational institutions which include 22 government degree colleges of the state. "They will be given Rs 5,000 each under the 'Mukhyamantri Yuba Yogayog Yojana' scheme for buying smartphone," he told reporters during the day. The money would be directly sent to their bank accounts, he added. The BJP with its ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) had formed a government in the Northeastern state in March 2018, ending the 25-year rule of the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He said, smartphone is helpful in opening up huge opportunities for developing skills, finding resources to enhance knowledge and availing employment opportunities. This will empower them digitally and help them leverage the advantages of an interconnected world, the minister added. Nath said the scheme will be implemented from the financial year 2020-2021 and the benefit would be once in a lifetime. He added a total of Rs 7.30 crore would be spent on the scheme. The students have to file applications online with all details like their date of birth, address, Adhaar number, College or institutes name and account number of Bank, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has issued a partial summary judgment blocking Michigans new Medicaid work requirements, based on a higher courts decision on similar requirements in other states. Todays ruling means Michigan cannot enforce the work requirements, which went into effect Jan. 1. The decision by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was termed a great victory by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer , who requested the summary judgment in a court filing last month. Whitmer asks judge to throw out Healthy Michigan work requirements Whitmers administration had previously urged the legislature to hold off on implementing the requirements while legal challenges were pending. I asked the legislature to pause because we knew this was going to happen, and they wouldnt, she said. Im grateful that the decision came in such a timely way so that we havent created a lot of unnecessary anxiety and waste of taxpayer dollars. Republican lawmakers have defended the law, which was passed in 2018 and signed into law by former Gov. Rick Snyder. It requires able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid under the Healthy Michigan Plan must do 20 hours per week, or 80 hours per month, of workforce engagement -- things like working or going to school. Amber McCann, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, said he was "disappointed, but not surprised by this ruling." The Majority Leaders support for the policy has not wavered, she said. He sincerely believes it is necessary to help people lead healthy lives and reach their highest personal productivity. Senator Shirkey is committed to working with the federal government to forge a path forward to maintain the goals of the work engagement policy. A lawsuit filed late last year by a coalition of state and national health-care advocates sought to stop the state from implementing the new requirements by arguing the federal approval for the state to implement them was invalid. Related: Lawsuit challenges Michigans Medicaid work requirements Whitmer has noted that similar work requirements in other states have been ruled illegal by the U.S. Court of Appeals. In asking Boasberg for the summary judgment, she argued that since it was inevitable the courts will also find Michigans work requirements unlawful, "we should not move forward with implementation. Doing so would waste millions of taxpayer dollars and cause senseless confusion for tens of thousands of families. Its the second time recently Whitmer has called for winding back the states work requirements. In December, she urged the legislature to suspend them before they started. The legislature declined to do so. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon previously said his department was implementing the law but called it an unproductive exercise. More time and stress for Michiganders complying with reporting requirements, more energy from our staff and partners implementing them, and more than $1 million each month funding these efforts, on top of more than $30 million spent alreadyall of this is going to be wasted, Gordon said. The case, Young v. Azar, was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs are four Michigan residents represented by the Michigan Center for Civil Justice, National Health Law Program and the Michigan Poverty Law Program. The defendants are U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Seema Verma, as well as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Related: Whitmer signs bill to change Medicaid work requirement reporting, says legislature should do more Gov. Whitmer asks legislature to halt Medicaid work requirements Michigan lawmakers to Whitmer: Were not pausing Medicaid work requirements Lawsuit challenges Michigans Medicaid work requirements Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday stated that no positive case of Coronavirus has been reported in the State to date. As per the news agency ANI, Minister said, "No positive case of Coronavirus till now. People are advised not to spread or believe in rumors". The Maharashtra State has reported two suspected cases of coronavirus. While one suspected patient is admitted in Mumbai, the other is admitted in Pune. The test results of the two patients are expected by the evening. READ | Officials suspect coronavirus case in Himachal Pradesh, CM Thakur assures about tests The Government of Maharashtra has assured that the State has put into place all possible measures to counter coronavirus. Tope sought to maintain basic hand hygiene. He further asked people to not believe in rumours. Health Minister said, "We are taking measures and are alert. As of now, no anti-viral durg is available, and so precautions must be taken by the people." READ | Coronavirus Live Updates: 28 confirmed cases in India, 14 Italian nationals test positive The government has set-up isolation wards in every district and 10 extra beds have been placed in every hospital The government has informed that the travelers arriving at the airport from 12 countries which include China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Iran, and Italy are screened. It said that 401 travellers have arrived in the state from the coronavirus affected regions. READ | 11 quarantined at Jaipur hospital, samples sent for testing coronavirus infection: Officials The State has informed that the following are the precautionary measures taken by the government in Maharashtra: 1. All the passengers coming from Wuhan province of China are to be kept for 14 days in Quarantine wards. 2. All the travellers coming from the affected areas are asked for a mandatory 14 day home isolation. 3. The follow-up of all the travellers coming from the affected countries is taken continuously for 14 days and information on a daily basis is gathered to know whether they have developed some symptoms related to coronavirus. 4. If the symptoms of coronavirus are found in any person during the day to day follow up, they are admitted to the Quarantine wards. Iran's First Vice President has reportedly contracted coronavirus as the death toll soared to 92 today, exceeding Italy's, with the worsening contagion prompting the regime to cancel Friday prayers. Tehran announced total infections rose to 2,922 on Wednesday and it was said the country's most senior VP, Eshaq Jahangiri, was the latest high-profile figure to contract the disease. Iranians were told Friday prayers - deeply significant in the Islamic Republic - were to be cancelled in the capital and in other areas after the death toll became the highest from the virus outside mainland China. The judiciary meanwhile said it was freeing 54,000 inmates who have tested negative for the virus and posted bail. It added that these would not include 'security prisoners' jailed for more than five years. An Iranian medic treats a patient infected with the COVID-19 virus at a hospital in Tehran on Sunday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (right) makes a statement on coronavirus at a cabinet meeting in Tehran earlier this month with the First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri sitting just feet from him. It has been reported today that Jahangiri is the latest high-profile figure to contract the disease 'This calamity is not that big of a deal, and that there have been bigger ones in the past,' Khamenei said yesterday while wearing a pair of protective gloves. 'I do not want to underestimate this issue of course, but let us not overestimate it either' It comes amid fears that British-Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, might have been infected after her husband Richard Ratcliffe said she was suffering from cold-like symptoms over the weekend but had not been tested. A judiciary spokesman poured scorn on the concerns yesterday and said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in good health. The Ayotallah meanwhile has been putting up a similarly combative front despite one of his most trusted advisers dying and eight percent of his parliament becoming infected. 'This calamity is not that big of a deal, and that there have been bigger ones in the past,' Khamenei said yesterday while wearing a pair of protective gloves. 'I do not want to underestimate this issue of course, but let us not overestimate it either.' The Foreign Office has called on the Iranian government to immediately see to it that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was jailed on spurious espionage charges, be assessed by medical professionals. Yesterday, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been granted a furlough either yesterday or today to visit her family. British-Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, might have the deadly contagion her husband said as the Foreign Office calls on Tehran to provide medical intervention Richard Ratcliffe and the couples daughter Gabriella. Ratcliffe has intensified his calls on the British Government to secure his wife's release However, the Iranian ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad referred opaquely to a 'security prisoner' being released on furlough and later deleted his tweet. On Friday, Mr Ratcliffe said he was concerned about the health of his wife who already suffers from from unexplained collapses to irregular heartbeats. Sources suggest that she already has coronavirus but warned authorities are likely to supress this information and may deny her tests to prove whether she has it. Another inmate is believed to have died from the virus and at least four others are said to have it. Khamenei yesterday reiterated the importance of Islamic faith in guiding the nation after one of his top brass Mohammad Mirmohammadi, member of the Expediency Council which is hand-picked by the Supreme Leader, died aged 71 on Monday. 'Prayer can solve many problems,' the Ayatollah said. Despite this, Iran's supreme leader has put the Islamic Republic's armed forces on alert to assist health officials in combating the outbreak. After downplaying the coronavirus as recently as last week, Iranian authorities have now said they had plans to potentially mobilize 300,000 soldiers and volunteers to confront the virus. Iranian media reported that 23 members of parliament now had the virus, as well as the head of the country's emergency services. Hampstead and Kilburn's Tulip Siddiq aid she hoped Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe would no longer be used as a bargaining chip by the British and Iranian government 'Whatever helps public health and prevents the spread of the disease is good and what helps to spread it is sin,' Khamenei said, who has not worn gloves at past arbor day plantings. Khamenei also urged citizens to follow the health authorities' instructions and praised their 'honesty' and 'transparency,' saying they have been keeping the public up to date since day one. Mohammad Mirmohammadi is one of several regime members to have caught the virus, after vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar and visibly struggling health minister Iraj Harirchi were also infected. It comes as the Iranian regime was accused of 'endangering the lives of Iranians and the world' after alarming videos of worshippers licking a shrine emerged online. There are also fears that Iran is covering up the true scale of the crisis, with official figures showing a suspiciously high death rate - suggesting there may be more infections than the regime is willing to admit. Iran's claims to have the virus under control lost further credibility last week when the deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, was taken into quarantine, just a day after sweating profusely at a press conference (pictured) Mohammad Mirmohammadi (pictured left), a member of the Expediency Council which is hand-picked by the Supreme Leader of Iran, died aged 71 after falling sick with coronavirus. In this picture he is seated alongside two other officials, including Ali Akbar Velayti (centre) The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has claimed that the death toll is as high as 650 - nearly ten times the official count. Experts worry Iran's percentage of deaths to infections, now around 3.3%, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be far greater than current figures show. Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicenter of the outbreak. State media announced Mirmohammadi's death yesterday morning in the virus's most direct blow to the regime so far. An Iranian medic treats a patient infected with the COVID-19 virus at a hospital in Tehran on March 1 Medical experts, wearing masks and hazmat suits, take care of a patient infected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) at a hospital in Tehran, Iran on Monday The Expediency Council which he sat on advises the Ayatollah and helps to settle disputes between the Supreme Leader and the Iranian parliament. He previously served as the head of the presidency under former Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei, now the country's supreme leader. Mirmohammadi's mother had died of the coronavirus in recent days as well, Iranian media reported. Those sick also include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar and Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who tried to downplay the virus before falling ill. NORWALK The school district continues to outperform other urban districts on a statewide measure of success known as the Next Generation Accountability System. But as the high-needs population continues to grow, the district will need increased resources to allow students to continue to excel, Superintendent of Schools Steven J. Adamowski said during a Tuesday Board of Education presentation, putting the conversation in the context of an ongoing budget battle between the city and the schools. I know were in the midst of this budget struggle, Adamowski said. It is not possible to sustain these results as our need increases. Our resources are not funded at an adequate level. I think thats the challenge the district will face going forward. According to the report, results from which were released by the state in January, Norwalk is the highest performing of Connecticuts 10 largest cities. With a 2018-19 index score of 75.6 percent, the district outperformed other comparable districts like Stamford (72.6 percent) and Danbury (72.6 percent). The system is meant to go beyond test scores and graduation rates to measure how districts are preparing students for college and careers, as well as growth over time. The Next Generation Accountability system was established in 2015. It measures 12 indicators on a balanced scorecard, Adamowski said. And its really the basis for which all school improvement planning, our own goals, all the things we do to close the achievement gap, raise the bar for our students and provide them with greater opportunities, revolves around the measurements of. Connecticut schools are sorted into four categories based on their scores, with category one being the highest. Norwalk had no category one schools in 2018-19 (the district had two category ones in 2016-17 and 2017-18) but had eight category two schools. In terms of breakdown, almost 60 percent of our schools are in category three and 40 percent are in category two, Norwalk Public Schools Director of Research Accountability Diane Filardo said. The district also had two schools of distinction, which are highlighted for their year-over-year growth in assessment areas. The board celebrated both Tracey Elementary School, which was named a school of distinction for the math results of it high-needs students, and Marvin Elementary School, which earned distinction status for general math growth and growth in high-needs students. District-wide, there was a 1.2 percent drop in total accountability score year-over-year. All three high schools (the P-TECH Academy is still included as part of Norwalk High), two middle schools and five elementary schools saw decreases. Adamowski linked those declines with a district-wide 4 percent increase in the high-needs population, which affected some schools more than others. The number of high-needs students in Norwalk is expected to continue to rise. Where you see those very small decreases in ELA (English and language arts) and math on the school level, those are all schools that had a 4 to 6 percent increase in high needs students, Adamowski said. So what you see emerging here is a profile in which our schools are holding their own, holding their achievement level given an increase in high-needs students. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blowfish Malibu, the contemporary California-based shoe brand, has launched the 4Earth campaign as part of its effort to make more conscious decisions that will make a positive impact on the environment. Acknowledging its role in the estimated 300 million pairs of shoes that end up in landfills every year (source: WWD), Blowfish Malibu has begun a deep-dive into its manufacturing, marketing and design practices. Formalizing a commitment to alleviate the brand's footprint on the planet through conscious decisions that go beyond just shoes with corporate practices including removing use of single use plastic in its headquarters. This spring, Blowfish Malibu will launch the 4Earth Collection, a capsule collection of two new, stylish styles with uppers made from recycled plastic bottles and distributed in plastic free packaging. The brand will donate $1 from every pair sold through January 2021 to the non-profit organization Oceana, with a minimum donation of $50,000. "We are proud to partner with Oceana to positively impact what is arguably our planet's most important resource, our oceans," said Don Weiss, President of Blowfish Malibu. "4Earth is just the beginning of Blowfish Malibu's journey to become a more conscious brand," Weiss continued. "We are committed to doing our best to ensure our on-trend and affordable shoes are as good for the planet as they are for the soul." "We're grateful for Blowfish Malibu's support for Oceana," said Jon Frank, Director, Global Corporate & Celebrity Partnerships, Oceana. "Their efforts will help Oceana campaign for and win more victories for our seas." Blowfish Malibu 4Earth Styles start at $44.99 and are available for purchase from select retailers, including Famous Footwear, Shoe Carnival, DSW, Zappos and a range of boutiques around the country and worldwide. About Blowfish Malibu: Over a decade ago, two famed footwear executives decided to combine their business and creative talents to create a unique brand of shoes. Their goal was simple: make quality fashionable shoes and sell them at affordable prices. Every season since, Blowfish Malibu has delighted shoe lovers with on-trend styles that embody emerging fashion trends from Europe and Asia and capture the fresh youthful spirit and casual living that is distinctively Southern California. About Oceana: Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-third of the world's wild fish catch. With more than 225 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles and sharks, Oceana's campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal, every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit www.oceana.org to learn more. SOURCE Blowfish Malibu Related Links http://blowfishshoes.com China Aviation Daily | Mar. 04, 2020 Sheremetyevo International Airport has won two awards at the prestigious Business Traveller Russia and CIS Awards in the categories of "Best airport in Russia and CIS" and "Best Business Lounge in Russia and CIS" (The Moscow Lounge). The awards ceremony took place on February 28, 2020. Business Traveller Russia and CIS Awards was established by the Russian edition of the Business Traveller magazine. The winners were selected following online voting by the magazine's readers, many of whom are frequent users of the Sheremetyevo VIP and business lounges. Denis Nuzhdin, Deputy Director General for Corporate Development of JSC SIA (Sheremetyevo International Airport), remarked in his acceptance speech, "We are grateful to both guests and experts for the recognition of our work. The most valued and demanding passengers have confirmed the high-quality standards of the premium services provided by Sheremetyevo. A number of independent evaluations and authoritative rankings have shown that Sheremetyevo airport offers one of the best infrastructures for VIP and business travelers in Europe. Our aim is to provide our guests with all the necessary conditions for both productive work and relaxation." Sheremetyevo airport offers a comfortable, high-tech, and welcoming environment to all categories of passengers. Aiming to offer a high-quality service, the airport has undertaken a dynamic infrastructure development program utilizing the latest digital technologies and expanding the range of services constantly, including: - 13 business lounges and 6 VIP lounges, each with its own specific features - 60+ boutiques and monobrand stores from Sheremetyevo Duty Free Heinemann - 120+ various food outlets, from budget-friendly to concept restaurants - 4 superior-comfort lounges for passengers with disabilities - 24/7 comfortable baby care rooms in all terminals - Navigation and information systems in three languages (Russian, English and Chinese) - Digital self-service and information services for passengers Special attention is devoted to the modernization of VIP and business services. In 2019, the business lounges at Sheremetyevo were visited by 3,484,000 travelers--a 17% increase over 2018. The two-floor Moscow Lounge is located in the waiting area for international departures in Terminal D. The interior of the business lounge is decorated in natural pastel colors using high-end materials. The first-floor self-service buffet serves a wide variety of dishes, snacks, desserts, and drinks. The second floor offers a buffet, bar, massage chairs, four comfortable sleep boxes, showers, two meeting rooms, and a children's playroom. The Clarins Skin Spa in the business lounge is the brand's first express-service spa. Contributed by Sheremetyevo International Airport Late Wednesday, New Jersey officials announced the states first case of the coronavirus, a man in his 30s who had been hospitalized since Tuesday in Bergen County, just across the Hudson River from New York City. Gov. Philip D. Murphy said in a statement that the states Department of Health had gotten a presumptive positive result from a sample that was being submitted to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further confirmation. No information was provided about how the man might have become infected with the virus. The nine new cases in New York on Wednesday included the Westchester mans wife; his son, a 20-year-old college student in Manhattan; his daughter, 14; and a neighbor who drove the man to the hospital. A friend of the man who spent time in close proximity with him also tested positive for the virus, as did that friends wife and three of their children, Mr. Cuomo said. Officials said they were still uncertain how the man, 50, who had not been to any areas with widespread transmission of the virus, had become infected. He became ill on Feb. 22 and was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., five days later. Mr. Cobbs notable projects included the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles (1989), long that citys tallest; the World Trade Center Barcelona (1999), inspired by a boat; and the Torre Espacio (2008), a Madrid skyscraper that resembles a rocket. In 2009, he completed the Goldman Sachs headquarters, at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, which was widely praised for its discreet elegance, and a dormitory complex at Princeton University, known as Butler College, which replicates the intimacy of the campuss gothic dormitories but in modernist form. (In recent decades, Mr. Cobb shared design credit with several of the firms younger partners.) Mr. Cobb did not have the high profile of contemporaries like Frank Gehry or Mr. Pei. He called them formgivers and himself a problem-solver. Yet he was an architect of immense creativity, Mr. Goldberger wrote, and a major influence on the profession as an educator and mentor. Mr. Campbell said that Mr. Cobbs great intelligence and great integrity which he wielded with a gentlemanly manner were as important to his status as the buildings he designed. Henry Nichols Cobb was born on April 8, 1926, the second of three sons of Charles Kane Cobb, an investment counselor, and Elsie Quincy (Nichols) Cobb. He traced his roots to another Henry Cobb, who was born in Kent, England, in 1596 and landed on Cape Cod in 1626. But his family wasnt wealthy, Mr. Cobb, said, and his mother went to work during the Depression to help support the family. Still, his parents managed to take him to Europe when he was 9 a trip, he said, that began his lifelong fascination with architecture. Nine, he said, is the perfect age: You are mature enough to take a lot in, but not yet preoccupied with yourself, the way you become very shortly thereafter. Mr. Cobb graduated from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1944, had an accelerated undergraduate education at Harvard College, graduating in 1947, and then studied at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. As an undergraduate he joined the naval R.O.T.C. on campus. 04.03.2020 LISTEN The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) has condemned the killing of the Assembly Member for the Sogakope South electoral area, Marcus Mawuli Adzahli, popularly known as Mac Greenline. In a statement signed by its General Secretary, Kokro Amankwah, the Association expressed disgust at the incident, saying it was rather barbaric for people to resort to killing public officers. NALAG bemoans all forms of threats, harassments, humiliations and undue frustrations on our Members and other public officers which frowns on their fundamental human rights, the statement read. The group called on security authorities to rise to protect members of the various assemblies, and the general public to help the security agencies fish out people who commit such crimes so they can be sanctioned accordingly. NALAG further asked its members to remain calm and remain committed to the national development agenda for the good of the country whiles being cautious of their personal safety at all times. Click here to read the full statement. Background The Assemblyman for the Sogakope South Electoral Area, Marcus Mawutor Adzahli, was shot dead on Sunday, March 1, 2020 at his residence in Sogakope. The assailants, numbering about eight, reportedly stormed the victim's house wielding guns and cement blocks amidst sporadic shooting. A resident of Sogakope, Yao Amekor, told Citi News that the shooting scared neighbours of the deceased and onlookers. Marcus Adzahli sustained gunshot and stab wounds in the attack. The deceased's wife is also reported to have sustained gunshot wounds. On the back of this, the residents have in various ways, expressed their displeasure by blocking the Aflao-Accra road at the end of the Lower Volta bridge at Sogakope. They also raided the police station in the town with claims that the police lack urgency when tackling crime. According to them, when the assemblymans house was invaded, the police were called but took over 30 minutes to arrive at the scene, making it too late to save the assemblyman and his family. Police officers had to fire warning shots to disperse the protestors who had besieged the police station. The police opened fire after protestors started pelting stones at the officers, shooting some of the protestors in the process. Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive of the South Tongu local assembly, Emmanuel Luis Agamah has put a GHS10,000 bounty on the heads of perpetrators involved in the murder of the Assemblyman. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has also done same with a GH25,000 bounty . citinewsroom San Antonio private equity firm EnCap Flatrock Midstream has funded its third energy-related startup in less than four months, committing $500 million to Tatanka Midstream LLC. Tatanka also will be located in San Antonio. Headed by CEO Keith Casey, a former executive vice president at Andeavor, Tatanka officials said they plan to acquire midstream assets, such as pipelines and storage terminals, as well as build new oil and gas infrastructure. The company said it plans to improve the operations, maintenance and overall efficiency of acquired businesses as well as developing highly competitive new assets. Two other one-time Andeavor executives, Nate Weeks and Carlos Mata, will serve as president and chief financial officer, respectively. EnCap spokeswoman Casey Nikoloric said the new companys key focus will be on buying existing midstream assets throughout North America. The strategy would allow Tatanka Midstream to acquire pipelines and storage facilities at low prices from overleveraged operators, said Dennis Elam, an accounting professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Elam, who specialize in oil and gas accounting, said an advantage of buying operating pipelines is knowing how much revenue that comes in from contracts already in place. Its less speculative than building your own pipeline, he said. EnCap specializes in bankrolling companies in the oil and gas pipeline and storage sector, and has received around $9 billion from several hundred institutional investors for its four private equity funds. In January, EnCap invested $400 million in Edgewater Midstream, a Houston-based logistics company focusing on refiners, producers and marketers of crude oil and refined products. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio-based EnCap makes $400M bet on rising oil prices And in November, EnCap Flatrock kicked in $400 million at Ironwood Energy Partners II, an offshoot of a San Antonio pipeline company. Ironwood II said it was acquiring two crude-oil pipeline systems in South Texas Eagle Ford Shale. Tatanka and the two other companies are part of the EnCap Flatrock Midstream Fund IV, a $3.25 billion fund that became fully subscribed by institutional investors in January 2018. Investors include pension plans such as the California State Teachers Retirement System, the Indiana Public Retirement System and the Alaska Permanent Fund. The funds initial returns have been promising. CalSTRS statistics show investors earned a return of more than 13 percent in the year ending March 31, 2019. The pension system has invested $91 million in the fund. Randy Diamond covers aviation, energy and manufacturing in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read his stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | randy.diamond@express-news.net A COUNCILLOR has praised the Trojan work of the army and council workers for their efforts to prevent flooding disaster during Storm Jorge at the weekend. The severe storm, which brought violent winds and flooding to towns and communities along the west coast, brought strong gales to Limerick for around three hours on Saturday afternoon. This followed a rare Status Red wind alert in Clare and Galway, which put the two counties in lockdown that afternoon. Meanwhile, the rest of the country was bracing for Status Orange conditions until 7pm that evening. And while there was significant impact, all eyes were on vulnerable areas in the east of County Limerick and city side of Clare, after a week of flooding devastation. A number of members of the public had their homes completely cut off due to the floods, and needed the assistance of volunteers from the Civil Defence, a spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said on Monday. Green Party councillor Sean Hartigan, who was closely monitoring the flood risk at the weekend, strongly praised the Defence Forces and council workers for preventing another disaster. He said the water levels were very high and it was causing widespread worry for people in in flood-prone spots such as Meadowbrook, Mountshannon Road, and Brookhaven in Montpelier. He said the river in Montpelier and OBriens Bridge looked like the sea with the wind creating waves. He said the personnel were doing Trojan work, pumping water off the roads, sand bagging and manning the pumps in terrible weather conditions. They deserve to be properly paid for the work they are doing, if they weren't there over the last week there would have been serious flooding, hopefully they can continue to prevent damage to peoples homes. Meanwhile, as water begins to level off following Storm Jorge, flood defences remain in Castleconnell, Montpelier, Annacotty and Mountshannon Road. The road in Castleconnell from Charcos to Worlds End and Castleconnell Boat Club remains closed. The Red Path in Corbally remains closed until further notice as does the cycleway/ walkway from Irish Estates, through to the Guinness Bridge, and onwards to the University of Limerick. Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media NEW HAVEN A man was struck by a CT Transit bus and injured Tuesday after falling near the curb, according to New Haven police. Officers responded to the intersection of Elm and York streets at approximately 5:42 p.m. for a report of a pedestrian struck by a bus, Capt. Anthony Duff said Wednesday. Think Gin ambassador David T Smith previews the event Think Gin 2020 will take place on April 28 and this year, for the first time, it will run alongside a number of spirits events as part of Think Spirits 2020. DRN caught up with Think Gins ambassador and gin specialist David T Smith, to have a chat about all things gin: What do you think retailers should do to enhance their gin ranges? Because there is now such a great range of gins compared to ten years ago, it means there are now more choices of where you can buy your gin than ever before. So it makes sense for retailers to look at this carefully and rather than just stocking a huge collection of gins they should try to develop a more a select and curated collection. I would recommend that retailers try to understand what people might want different gins for. People might be looking for exclusives or for some interesting and different gins, for example. So retailers should spend the time going through and picking what works for them. That expertise is useful for consumers and I have come across places where this has worked quite well. And how can retailers encourage consumers to explore and learn about the category? There are different categories of gin and some of that can be confusing so what is useful is having some sort of signposting. There are consumers who prefer the traditional, London Dry styles of gin whereas others might have a preference for pink or fruit-flavoured gins, so making a clear distinction between these and where they are merchandised in store would help people to find what they want. Consumers need to be able to have an understanding about what the main characteristics of that gin are. It doesnt have to be really in-depth or technical information but having a simple way of describing the characteristics of the gin can work really well for consumers. And it can also help to give some suggestions about how a particular gin could be served and that could also be a way to help consumers navigate the gin category. A newsletter or magazine can help to highlight the differences between each brand, and give ideas about different garnishes. Waitrose publications do this quite well and they also give ideas about simple cocktails that can be made at home. What are the strengths of the gin category in the UK? Gin continues to be popular and also it is quite accessible for lots of people. There are many different types of gin so there is a lot to explore. One of the biggest strengths is it has managed to do the cocktail thing well. It is a lot easier to do it for gin than a lot of other products. The gin category has seen lots of new and good quality products and this is partly because it doesnt require a big investment to start producing gin, as it does for many of the other spirit categories. Some of the gin distilleries that have sprung up are in tiny spaces, but they are able to produce a spirit quickly and it doesnt need time to sit around ageing for years before producers can start to make profits. The use of local botanicals is also a strength for this category and this has worked very well for producers around the UK, who have been able to highlight locally-specific botanicals. I continue to see some really interesting products appearing in gin with more coming from the less traditional gin producing countries and so consumers are being introduced to new, exotic botanicals and flavours. I have seen some really good stuff recently coming from places such as New Zealand, Australia, Italy, India and South America. I think there is still a lot of potential for consumers to find some really good gins that are priced at accessible price points such as 25 to 30. What are the weaknesses of the overall category, particularly for the off-trade? One is there is a lot of gin out there, which is both a strength and a weakness of the category at the same time. So it is being able to navigate through what is good and what is not so good is one of the challenges for both buyers and consumers. Why should spirits buyers attend an event such as Think Spirits? One of the advantages of going to Think Spirits is that buyers are able to see a range of stuff that has been selected because it is interesting and of course you can go and talk directly to the producers all in one place. A buyer can make an initial judgment about a product when they first see it but at this event they can also then add to this by tasting it and then finding out more about it, and then they can really get all the details straight away instead of over a longer period of time. Related articles: YEREVAN. The man who tried to set himself on fire in front of the Yerevan Municipality was taken from the police station to a medical facility. The Armenia Police press service told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am. When asked which particular institution he was taken to, the police responded that they could not answer that question. As reported earlier, a middle-aged man tried to set himself on fire near the entrance to Yerevan Municipality today. He poured a bottle gasoline on himself, but police prevented further development and transferred him to a police station with handcuffs. Police said this was not the first time he had come to the city hall, and noted that they will try to find out why he had come this time. Those gathered in the area said the man had not come to the municipality alone, and his three young children were with him. Man with 3 kids attempts to set self on fire in front of Yerevan Municipality A day after several Congress MLAs raked up the issue of the denial of rooms in Block A of Punjab Bhawan in New Delhi, another ruling party legislator on Wednesday sought recovery of rental charges from the Chief Secretary and Advocate General for booking of permanent rooms in their names. Block A in the Punjab Bhawan is reserved for VIPs, including the ministers and top bureaucrats, whereas other legislators are accommodated in Block B. Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the budget session here, Gurdaspur MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra lamented that he had no information yet about the status of the booking of a room in Punjab Bhawan from March 4 to 6. It is not a question of a room. It is a matter of the MLA's dignity,' Pahra said inside the Punjab Assembly. Intervening in the matter, Speaker Rana K P Singh again assured the House that it was his responsibility to secure the rights of MLAs. Pahra told the Speaker that it was shameful that he was not entitled for having a permanent room at Delhi's Punjab Bhawan. The Chief Secretary has a permanent room there. Atul Nanda ji (AG) has permanent room there. It is my request to recover rent from them for the last three years, Pahra said. The Gurdaspur legislator further pointed out that he had not been able to get a flat in Chandigarh for the last three years. The CS and other officers are entitled for houses at Sector 39, then, why not MLAs?, he asked. Pahra said MLAs were accountable to people but questioned where the accountability of bureaucracy was. On Tuesday, several ruling party MLAs had raised the issue of the denial of rooms in Block A of Punjab Bhawan in the state assembly and even demanded action against the officials concerned. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ST. PAUL Former Vice President Joe Biden overcame Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Minnesota's presidential primary contest Tuesday, March 3, to win the state's 75 delegates. Early results indicated Biden led the field in Minnesota's first Democratic presidential primary contest in nearly three decades with nearly 38% of the vote. Meanwhile, Sanders carried 30% with 76.62% of precincts reporting as of 10:20 p.m. The Associated Press at 8:45 p.m. called the race for Biden. At a watch party in Minneapolis, Biden supporters cheered and hugged as the news came across the television at Elsie's bar. Meanwhile across the river in St. Paul, attendees of a Sanders watch party at BlackStack Brewery booed as the news flashed across a projector. Several in Biden's camp credited the state for holding a decisive place in the campaign as Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a day prior ended her campaign and threw her support behind Biden. And Sanders, who rallied in the state a day earlier, appeared unable to capture it as he did in 2016. "We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar," Biden said in televised remarks from an event in Los Angeles. ADVERTISEMENT And supporters and campaign advisers echoed that assertion Tuesday night as results from across the country came in. Corey Day, senior adviser for Biden's campaign in Minnesota, said the last-minute endorsement paved the way for Biden to win the state. "Getting Mayor Pete (Buttigieg) and obviously, especially, Sen. Klobuchar's support, that just lifted us," Day said. "It was a very big deal." Justin Buoen, campaign manager for Klobuchar, said the senator had decided to end her bid after it became clear she wouldn't have a path to the nomination. And Buoen said Klobuchar would continue stumping for Biden around the country. The vice president on Tuesday night called Klobuchar at her home to thank her for her support. Minnesota, along with 13 other states and one territory, held partisan presidential primaries on Super Tuesday, and combined, the contests are set to determine who will bank one-third of total delegates in the presidential nominating contests. As of 10 p.m., Biden had racked up wins in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia while Sanders notched victories in Colorado and Vermont. In the wake of several last-minute decisions by Democratic candidates to drop out of the race, Minnesota voters said they had to change their decisions heading into the polls. Bob Whitney, a musician and business owner who was celebrating his 76th birthday by going to the polls in New London Township, said he voted for Biden. But if Klobuchar hadnt dropped out of the race, he said he would have had a hard time deciding. "I was torn between the two," Whitney said, but Klobuchar "simplified" the decision for him when she dropped out. "I think she did the right thing." The landscape shifted with just hours before Minnesota voters were set to start casting their ballots. Klobuchar on Monday announced that she would suspend her campaign. And she, along with former Democratic hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke endorsed Biden at a rally in Dallas. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, on Monday night, Sanders stumped at an arena in St. Paul, inviting Klobuchar and Buttigieg's backers to cast their ballots for him and urging Minnesotans not to join the moderate coalition aiming to block his path to the nomination. Ave Green, 56, said her choice between the Democratic candidates changed several times before she made her final decision at a St. Paul precinct on Tuesday. She declined to share who she ultimately picked, but said she hopes to see a new president "who has a sense of dignity, inclusion and kindness" come January 2021. Within recent years, Green said she sees a spike in hatred and bigotry, which she views as "in essence, backed by the president, what he says and does." She said she worries for her three teenage children and the future of the country. "Im worried about the racism. Im worried about the temperature what you can say and do now, and its OK," Green said. "Im worried about young adolescents and the younger generation with that, and how its coloring their life." For other voters, the choice was clearer as they went to the polls. Eric Clapp, of Wadena, said he supported Elizabeth Warren because he appreciated her detailed plans and work with underserved communities. Warren garnered 16% of the vote with 60% of Minnesota precincts reporting. "(She knows) youre not going to overthrow the whole system but that there are ways that the system can work better for everyone, and I think thats a really important thing," Clapp said. "And she with the plans that shes released and has and the way that shes spoken in the debates, she has a finger on that pulse of kind of what levers to pull within the system to make it more equitable." The Republican primary left voters with less uncertainty about who to pick as only one candidate appeared on the ballot. GOP voters said they were glad to help re-elect President Donald Trump. With 66.64% of precincts reporting, Trump appeared poised to win the contest. ADVERTISEMENT While there were some technical issues reported at polling locations, the primaries appeared to go off without a major issue on Tuesday. Some election officials reported low-turnout for both contests, but voters said they welcomed the return of the presidential primary over partisan caucuses. "I like the primary," Aaron Pearson, of Pequot Lakes, said outside his polling location. "I think that more people are able to participate in a primary and I really appreciate that because I think more people should be involved in the political process. I do miss the caucus craziness a little bit, and feeling like you can make your voice heard a little bit more in the caucus, but the caucus is still happening. " Pine and Lakes Echo Journal reporter Travis Grimler, Fargo Forum reporter Dave Olson, West Central Tribune reporter Carolyn Lange and Wadena Pioneer Journal reporter Rebecca Mitchell contributed to this article. New insights into factors that affect bone strength in chickens could improve the health of hens that lay eggs, researchers say. Scientists have discovered a gene linked to bone quality, in a finding that could inform selective breeding. It could lead to better health in hens that lay eggs, which are at risk of osteoporosis. The discovery, from a team of scientists including from the UK's Roslin Institute, confirms the importance of a key biological molecule for healthy bones and may be relevant for other species, including humans. Researchers looked in detail at a region of chicken DNA, which was known from previous studies to be linked to risk of bone fractures. They studied generations of hens, looking at the level of activity in genes and the strength of the hens bones. The team was able to pinpoint a key gene, named cystathionine beta synthase (CBS), which was associated with better quality bones. Hens with a particular version of the gene had bones with raised mineral content and cross-linking of collagen protein, suggesting that these factors may be important for the differences in bone quality. Professor Ian Dunn, of the Roslin Institute, said: "Hens that produce eggs, especially those that are free range, carry a risk to their bones because of the resources they need for laying. "Our findings highlight the importance of a key gene, cystathionine beta synthase (CBS), for healthy bones. Further work may show whether other nearby genes on the chicken genome are also of significance." The study, published in Genetics Selection Evolution, was carried out in collaboration with scientists in Sweden, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic and China. A solicitors insurer is seeking judgment for some 4.9m allegedly outstanding under a 2011 settlement with Bloxham stockbrokers of proceedings over heavy losses suffered after investing in a bond which fell 97 per cent in value. The Solicitors Mutual Defence Fund (SMDF) Ltd , now R & Q Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee, claims it lost almost all of its then reserves of 8.4m due to negligence of Bloxham. Its chairman Patrick Dorgan said in an affidavit it had to get a 5m guarantee from the Law Society to protect its position, had ceased offering indemnity to solicitors in 2012 and is now in run-off. It ultimately had to apply to the Law Society to fund a rescue package of up to 13m and finalised a run-off agreement with R&Q in November 2016, he added. The insurer has applied to the High Court for leave to re-enter proceedings, initiated in 2009 against Bloxham, which collapsed in 2012, for the purpose of seeking judgment for 4.9m arising from the 2011 settlement. As well as the re-entry application, the SMDF recently issued fresh proceedings for specific performance of the 2011 settlement agreement. When the re-entry application came before Mr Justice Denis McDonald on Wednesday, it was resisted by lawyers representing five former Bloxham partners. Gary McCarthy SC, with Hugh OFlaherty BL, representing Arthur Quinlan, Stradbrook Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin, and Angus McDonnell, Ballymoney Park, Kilbride, Co Wicklow; Joe Jeffers BL, representing Pramit Ghose, St Marys Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, and Martin Harte, Idrone Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin; and Andrew Walker BL, representing Anne Barrett, Shrewsbury Park, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, all opposed re-entry. It was argued a High Court order of January 31st2011, made when the settlement was announced, stated the proceedings were struck out with liberty to re-enter. The words struck out prevented any matter other than the original cause of action being re-entered, it was submitted. The settlement agreement was not part of the original case and was not made a rule of court, it was argued. The SMDF said the settlement was not made a rule of court for reasons including some Bloxham partners wanted its terms to remain confidential to avoid adverse publicity. The court heard the case was listed for hearing on February 1st 2011 but had settled between the sides on January 28th. The sides agreed the settlement could be mentioned at 2pm on January 31st 2011 before a commercial court judge where no media presence was expected. Because a journalist was there, and another journalist was in a second commercial court, the 2pm mention was not possible. Solicitors were described in an email as staking out both courts for an opportunity to discreetly mention the matter and it was ultimately mentioned before Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan. Andrew Fitzpatrick SC, for the SMDF, disputed the words struck out meant the proceedings could not be re-entered for the purpose of seeking judgment. The liberty to re-enter meant the case could be re-entered for a purpose connected with the proceedings, he said. Having heard the sides, Mr Justice McDonald reserved judgment on the re-entry application. In an affidavit, Patrick Dorgan, chairman of the SMDF, said it changed its name in 2016 to R&Q Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee. He said Bloxhams had been retained by the fund from about 1991 for investment advice and, in reliance on that advice, the fund invested some 8.5m in January 2005 in a bond which later lost 97 per cent of its value. The fund later issued proceedings against Bloxham. On foot of applications by various Bloxham defendants, Morgan Stanley & Co International plc, Saturns Investments Europe plc, Morgan Stanley Capital Services Inc and Deutsche Trustee Company ltd were joined as third parties. A settlement agreement was reached in 2011 with Bloxham under which 7.3m was to be paid in instalments on specified dates from 2011 to 2016. It also provided the SMDF might get monies under proceedings in England between various noteholders and the third parties. He said some 3.3m was paid up to 2012 under the settlement agreement, plus a further sum of 178,723 under the English proceedings. Because the settlement provided the fund would in circumstances of default, be entitled to obtain judgment against the relevant defendants for some 8.4m, that left some 4.9m due and owing, Mr Dorgan said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda, on Wednesday said that they would not attend any Holi Milan function in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The Prime Minister tweeted that he would not celebrate Holi as experts have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of coronavirus. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence this year, I have decided not to participate in any Holi milan programme, Modi tweeted. Holi is on March 10. Following Modis announcement, Nadda, Shah and other senior party leaders also said that they would not participate in any Holi Milan function due to concerns over spread of coronavirus. The world is battling COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus. The countries & medical fraternity are jointly making efforts to contain its spread. Keeping this in mind, this year, I will neither celebrate Holi nor organise Holi Milan. Stay safe, Stay Healthy, Nadda tweeted. According to sources, he has also written to all state unit presidents, asking them to avoid holding Holi milan programmes as a precautionary measure. Similarly the partys senior leader and Union Home Minister Shah urged the people to avoid public gatherings. Holi is a very important festival for Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take good care of yourself and your family, he said on Twitter. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said in view of the prime ministers decision and outbreak of coronavirus, he is also cancelling the Holi Milan programme that was scheduled to be held at Miller School in Patna on March 7. Countries across the world are making efforts to contain the spread of the disease, Nadda said on Twitter about an hour after the prime ministers announcement. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too said that he will not take part in Holi milan later this month in public interest and appealed to all the people of the state to refrain from attending social functions. I will also stay away from holy festivities of Holi milan in wider public interest. Stay safe, stay healthy, he said on Twitter. In a related tweet, the chief minister said, Coronavirus is infectious, therefore, protection is more important than treatment. It is my appeal to all the people of the state to refrain from attending social functions and take good care of themselves and their families with full responsibility. However, all the party leaders and Union Ministers said the country is well prepared and taking precautionary steps to contain the spread of coronavirus. The Maharashtra BJP has suspended the chairperson of a party-ruled municipal council and deputy head of another local body which recently passed resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act. BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye posted the suspension letters on his Twitter handle on Wednesday. As per the letters, issued on Tuesday, the Parbhani- based Selu Municipal Council's chairperson Vinod Borade and Palam Municipal Council's deputy chairperson Balasaheb Rokade have been suspended by the party. BJP state president Chandrakant Patil has stated in the letters that both the party workers showed indiscipline by voting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), hence they have been suspended from the party. The letters did not specify the period of suspension. The Selu Municipal Council is ruled by the BJP. The CAA, which was passed by Parliament in December last year, grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who had settled in India before December 31, 2014. The new citizenship law triggered protests in many parts of the country since then despite the repeated claims made by the ruling BJP that it will not take away anybody's citizenship. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kathmandu, March 4 The main opposition party, Nepali Congress, on Wednesday, announced that it had decided to put on hold all scheduled meetings, gatherings and events till the next notice amid growing fears of coronavirus spread in the country. The partys spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma made the statement during a press meet in Kathmandu today. He said the partys sister organisations also would not do any such activity during this period. The party would help the government controlling and countering the risk of coronavirus infection, according to Sharma. The leader announced that the party would launch an awareness campaign on the virus. The party, however, clarified that it would not stop distributing and renewing the active membership for the upcoming 14th general convention. At least 54,000 prisoners who test negative will be released on bail . The measure does not concern prisoners sentenced to five or more years for security related offenses. To date, there are 2336 and 77 confirmed cases, but the number may be higher. A WHO team in the country to stem the epidemic. Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - To counter the spread of the new coronavirus in the country and especially in critical places such as overcrowded prisons, the Iranian authorities have ordered the temporary release of about 54 thousand prisoners. Judge spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili reported that the released people were only able to leave theor cell after testing negative for Covid-19. However, the provision does not apply to those imprisoned for "security issues" who have been sentenced to five or more years in prison. Those who could soon regain their freedom include the British citizen of Iranian origins Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose conviction triggered a hard clash between London and Tehran. The British Foreign Ministry calls for free access of health workers to prisons to "check the health status of dual nationality prisoners." According to official estimates, 2,336 infections of the new coronavirus occurred in less than two weeks in Iran. There are 77 confirmed victims, while the people 291 recovered. Yesterday the number of cases increased by more than 50% for the second consecutive day. Analysts and experts say that the number of people affected is far greater and cases related to the Islamic Republic have occurred in Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Oman. High-ranking officials are also among those with new coronavirus, including the head of the Emergency Department Pirhossein Kolivand. 23 of the 290 members of Parliament also tested positive and a close associate of the supreme leader, the great Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 71-year-old Mohammad Mirmohammadi died on 2 March. Meanwhile, a nationwide campaign should start today, as announced by Health Minister Saeed Namaki. Expert groups will visit suspected cases of Covid-19 and those unable to access medical treatment, in a country where the lack of drugs has long been reported due to U.S. sanctions. In support of local authorities there is also a team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who has come to the country in recent days. On board the plane there was also a supply of medicines and health equipment, as well as protective masks for at least 15 thousand operators in the sector along with tests for the diagnosis that should include up to 100 thousand people. State Treasurer Tim Pallas says he did nothing wrong in 'introducing" a lawyer who is now at the centre of corruption allegations at Casey Council to a senior public servant in 2018. The Treasurer says there is no moral equivalence between his dealings with an associate of controversial developer John Woodman and receiving brown paper bags full of money from Mr Woodmans company, as some former Casey councillors are alleged to have done. Treasurer Tim Pallas says has done nothing wrong. Credit:AAP Mr Pallas was responding on Wednesday morning to phone-tap evidence at the corruption inquiry into Casey that captured Megan Schutz, Mr Woodman's lawyer, boasting of her access to Mr Pallas and Premier Daniel Andrews. Of Republican Sen. Joseph Raymond McCarthy (19081957) of Wisconsin, President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, I will not get in the gutter with that guy, but Jersey-born, two-time Tony Award-winning playwright and lyricist Joe DiPietro has used a confrontation between McCarthy and fellow Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (1897 1995) of Maine as the basis for a four-character play called Conscience, now onstage at the Arthur Laurents Theatre of New Brunswicks George Street Playhouse through March 29. Director David Saint, fresh from his directorial duties on GSPs previous production of Midwives and his participation as representative of the estate of playwright Arthur Laurents in the current Broadway and Hollywood productions of West Side Story, is proud of GSPs long association with playwright DiPietro since GSP has presented not only DiPietro musicals like The Toxic Avenger, but has also staged dramas such as Creating Claire and The Second Mrs. Wilson. I think people who know his work only from his musicals like Memphis or All Shook Up are surprised by what a fine dramatist he is, said Saint, but I know what a versatile talent he is. We share a love of reading, research and history as he demonstrated in The Second Mrs. Wilson which was about President Wilsons second wife who practically ran the country during his illness. We shared several books on 20th century American politics when he was just starting out on this. What always surprises me though is how much humor he finds in these dramatic situations and how well he uses that to help tell what are really impressive stories. In addition to McCarthy, played by Lee Sellars, and Smith, played by Harriet Harris, the cast includes Mark Junek as William Lewis, Jr., Smiths longtime strategist and campaign manager; and Cathryn Wake as Jean Kerr, McCarthys assistant and later wife. All four cast members have added to the research done by playwright DiPietro and director Saint by doing research of their own into their real life characters. The action of the play takes place just before and just after Smith took the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered her 15-minute speech which became known as her Declaration of Conscience in a historic moment of political courage by speaking out, without naming McCarthy, against the tactics being used by a colleague. She said, I dont want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear. But McCarthys investigations continued and included revenge against Smith, who McCarthy had replaced as a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy continued to fuel the tensions of the Cold War by alleging that numerous Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated not only the U.S. federal government but also universities, the film industry, and other areas. In 1954, McCarthys allegations included members of the U.S. Army as well as a member of the law firm of Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation for Communist activities; Welch then uttered the famous line, Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. At long last, have you left no sense of decency? Historians have labeled this time in the Cold War as the Red Scare era, and McCarthys investigations also included the rooting out of homosexuals from positions of power. On Dec. 12, 1954, however, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy, one of the few times a senator has been so disciplined, by a vote of 67 to 22. The censure votes included Chases. Among her other many accomplishments, Chase was Maines first woman senator and the first woman to serve Congress in both houses, first as a representative from 1940 to 1947 and then as a senator from 1949 to 1973. For audiences, her stand against McCarthy will be a behind-the-scenes look into what goes into such historic incidents as well as portraits of four people who created one such event. In playing McCarthy, Lee Sellars adds another bad guy to his repertoire. This is his sixth GSP appearance, most recently in Midwives, and he called the new GSP home absolutely gorgeous. It isnt any easier playing a bad guy, said Sellars, but it can be more fun. The bad guy doesnt usually think of himself as the bad guy although others see him that way. I think Joe McCarthy actually thought he was saving his country. You must remember that we were in the decade after the end of World War II, and McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, needed something to make him stand out. Communism was his ticket to fame, and he certainly enjoyed that fame and attention even if it turned out to be at the expense of others. But the good guy usually comes out on top in the end. The play began, as most do, with a reading, but Sellars doesnt believe the script has changed much, if at all, during rehearsals because, as Sellers said, DiPietro is an incredibly skilled playwright who understands whats too much and whats too little. Joe McCarthy was very good at using what he had to his own ends. During the war, he was in charge of debriefing pilots when they returned from missions, but when he came home, all those missions and all that action were suddenly his. He said things without proof, without evidence, and it wasnt until later that his deceptions were discovered, said Sellars who cites Col. Jessep in A Few Good Men as one of his favorite roles, and hell add McCarthy to that list too. Cathryn Wake, who is making her GSP debut as Jean Kerr, did as much research on Kerr as possible, noting There isnt too much thats accessible about her, but I wanted to hear her speak, some first person dialogue, but the best I was able to do was the transcript of her later appearance before a Senate subcommittee which was investigating the involvement of McCarthy and Kerr in a political campaign. I found that she was the brains behind these attacks on a senator in retaliation for something that senator had done to McCarthy. She was first a research assistant to McCarthy, then his chief of staff, then his wife, and finally his widow. Jean was a virulent anti-Communist, said Wake, and she used McCarthy to implement those beliefs. IF YOU GO Conscience Patented lens modules and chipsets to unleash new era of aero terminals and inflight connectivity READING, England, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Isotropic Systems, a leading developer of transformational broadband terminal technologies, today announced it is licensing patented core components of its scalable, cost-effective multi-beam antennas to leading aeronautical and defense system integrators to accelerate customized designs, certifications, and deployments of next-generation terminals aboard commercial, business, and government aircraft around the world. Early collaborative licensing discussions are underway, as aircraft manufacturers, terminal developers, and systems integrators review the benefits of Isotropic Systems' groundbreaking optical beam-forming lens modules and chipsets capable of unleashing a new era of inflight connectivity. The flexible platform conforms to the fuselage or radome for a tailored terminal that provides a continuous make-before-break connection for maximum performance throughout a commercial flight or government operation by linking with multiple satellites in multiple orbits while using far less power than other flat panel or electronically-steered antennas. The Isotropic Systems terminal platform is also customizable to the size of the aircraft and the mission it is flying - whether it's enabling commercial airline passengers to finally realize home-like two-way email, social media, and video streaming services in flight, or high-definition video surveillance transmitted from an unmanned UAV. The platform offers unparalleled all-electronic scanning performance at low power consumption that meets ARINC standards. "Our optical multi-beam antennas provide customized high-performance connectivity seamlessly across multiple satellites and orbits at low power consumption, which delivers big advantages over single beam antennas to both commercial and government aircraft operators - from airlines to UAVs and every form of aircraft in between," explained John Finney, Isotropic Systems Founder and CEO. "Isotropic Systems' optical lens modules can be conformed to the size and shape of the fuselage or radome for a tailored low-profile solution that meets the requirements that government and commercial markets value the most as they look to unleash a new level of capabilities from their inflight connectivity (IFC) systems." "More than five billion people will fly this year with their smart phones in hand and growing expectations for a connected travel experience like the one they enjoy on the ground," said Christopher Baugh, President of Northern Sky Research (NSR), a leader in satcoms research and producer of the Aeronautical Satcom Markets report. "Terminal advancements made in 2020 will play a pivotal role in bringing new LEO and MEO high throughput satellite capacity to the aero market, bringing long-awaited IFC expectations more closely in line with the technical realities and capabilities aboard commercial, business and government aircraft." Aeronautical and defense system integrators that license Isotropic Systems' multi-beam antenna technologies will be working toward the integration of patented lens modules and chipsets into their terminal platforms throughout 2020, with trials set for the first half of 2021. The commercial launch timeframe of 2021 and 2022 aligns well with new high throughput LEO and MEO constellations expected to initiate services in 2022. Isotropic Systems will showcase the company's latest innovations at the Satellite 2020 Conference and Exhibition at the Washington Convention Center, East Overlook Room, Level 2, on March 9-12 in Washington, DC. Isotropic Systems Founder and CEO John Finney will share his view of the rapidly evolving marketplace with multiple high-throughput constellations in multiple orbits that will require multi-beam, multi-orbit terminals and ground infrastructure to meet the potential and unprecedented demand for tailored bandwidth. You can catch John on Monday, March 9, 9:30am-10:30am, during the conference's first panel titled, The Great Satellite Financing Debate in Room 146 A/B. He will also be featured on Thursday, March 12, 9:00am-10:00am, in an Executive Roundtable titled, Ground Systems CEOs' Five-Year Tech Forecast in Room 146 A/B. About Isotropic Systems Isotropic Systems is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminals designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services. The company's team of industry experts and scientists has pioneered several firsts in satellite terminal design resulting in a line of terminals that are customizable to meet the performance, cost and power requirements of countless applications - from the most complex government defense systems and mobile backhaul solutions capable of extending 5G, to next-gen connected experiences aboard commercial airliners, cruise ships, offshore rigs, and even small fishing boats at sea. Isotropic Systems' Series A funding was led by Boeing to advance space-based connectivity. Further information is available at www.isotropicsystems.com For further information please contact: Melanie Dickie VP Global Marketing Tel. +31 6 14 22 97 62 mdickie@isotropicsystems.com The new funds were given two months after Ukrainian authorities asked the FBI to assist in investigating an attack on Ukrainian gas company Burisma by Russian military hackers. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday announced that the U.S. would give Ukraine US$8 million in cybersecurity assistance funds as part of a "cyber dialogue" held in Kyiv between officials from the two countries. The US$8 million will go toward funding a new cybersecurity project sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the project setting a goal of eventually investing US$38 million over the next four years in boosting Ukraine's cybersecurity capabilities, such as through cyber workforce development and regulatory reforms, The Hill said. The U.S. previously gave Ukraine US$10 million in cybersecurity assistance funds in 2017 as part of the first U.S.-Ukraine cyber dialogue summit, with officials from the two countries meeting again in 2018 to review cybersecurity projects between the two countries. Read alsoUkraine asks FBI for help to probe suspected Russian hack of Burisma media The State Department said in a statement on Tuesday that the most recent cyber dialogue was meant reaffirm "our shared commitment to ensure an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure cyberspace in which all states behave responsibly." American officials who participated in the cybersecurity dialogue included Joseph Pennington, the acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, officials from the FBI, and officials from the Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and Treasury departments. The officials also discussed cybersecurity issues including strengthening critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, 5G network security, and cyber incident response plans. The new funds were given two months after Ukrainian authorities asked the FBI to assist in investigating an attack on Ukrainian gas company Burisma by Russian military hackers. VANCOUVERWash your hands has been the usual advice during flu season but hands off may well be the new mantra to reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus as social norms like shaking hands are shunned for nods, smiles and tapping of feet. Some churches in Canada have replaced handshakes with other gestures as COVID-19 spreads around the world. Melissa Godbout, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Vancouver, said the archbishop has sent a letter to priests saying parishioners could be advised to replace handshakes with other ways of acknowledging each other during the sign of peace portion at mass. She said her parish priest in nearby Chilliwack has acknowledged the virus as the dioceses watches for recommendations from the provincial government. We are monitoring the situation closely and checking in with the Ministry of Health multiple times a day and we will be working on updating the policy should we deem it necessary, Godbout said. At my parish .... this past weekend our priest said if we feel comfortable we should just bow or nod instead of shaking hands so thats what we did. The number of COVID-19 cases in South Korea had reportedly spiked on Tuesday to nearly 5,200, with many of them clustered around a local church in the city of Daegu. The death toll had risen to at least 28 in that country. As of Wednesday, Canada had 34 cases of the virus 20 in Ontario, 13 in British Columbia and one in Quebec. Neil MacCarthy, who speaks for the archdiocese of Toronto, said some parishes began shunning handshakes in 2003 during the SARS outbreak and have never returned to that nicety as parishioners have used smiling, nodding, bowing or holding up the peace sign to greet each other. What were really trying to stress is that people who are distributing communion are washing their hands before and after, he said. Some parishes have hand sanitizer available when people come into the church. Health officials in Toronto have not advised any other changes, MacCarthy said, adding parishes recommend people stay home if they are sick and watch mass online. The archdiocese released a statement this week to all parishes and staff saying the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses can be prevented by washing hands, not touching the eyes, mouth or nose and avoiding contact with people who are sick the same advice health officials around the world have given. The archdiocese of Montreal is in the process of preparing an advisory that will be sent to parishes before the weekend regarding precautions that can be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19, said spokesman Eric Durocher. Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer in British Columbia, said she has stopped shaking hands and advised people to use another form of acknowledgment, such as putting their hands in prayer, bowing or just smiling and looking someone in the eyes when saying hello. It is an extraordinary time and its challenging for all of us, she said, adding the change away from handshaking is a gesture of solidarity during the global spread of the virus. Its a small gesture but a gesture that shows that we are paying attention to whats going on and its something that we can do in our community. Henry said she worked on the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 1999, when people replaced hugs and handshakes with tapping of their feet. B.C. Premier John Horgan said Thursday he has taken to touching elbows with people he meets while Quebec's health minister said residents of the province where the two-cheek kiss is customary should avoid it for now. "I think temporarily, we should be very careful," Danielle McCann said in Montreal. "And we'll come back to it later, probably. I think at this point, it's a good measure, especially with vulnerable people, older people, people who have illnesses. Let's be careful with them." Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer of health, said he wouldnt generally encourage a lot of handshaking during the regular flu season. If youre going to shake my hand you dont know what I did just before, he said. We tend to say not usually unless youre pretty sure (about whose hand youre shaking) or youre going to be washing your hands afterwards and not going to touch your face. Kei Esmaeilpour, spokesman for the Civic Association of Iranian Canadians of B.C., said members have begun holding out their hands to each other instead of shaking hands. Everybody knows why and this is not rude, he said. This is about caring for each other. If youre not handshaking, your friend will not be unhappy. He or she will just understand that you are caring for them. Esmaeilpour said Iranian-Canadians in the Vancouver area and Toronto are also considering cancelling Persian New Year festivities slated for later this month to avoid large gatherings that could more easily spread a respiratory illness. On Tuesday, officials in British Columbia asked travellers from China and Iran to isolate themselves for 14 days when they return home to Canada. Esmaeilpour said many community members have already started voluntarily isolating themselves at home for that length of time after returning from Iran. On Monday, some Iranian-Canadians in the Vancouver area joined forces to start a new campaign to try and help people who would be stuck at home in quarantine. A group of 147 people had signed up on an app with days and times they would be available to drop off groceries or assist in other ways, Esmaeilpour said. Michael Bloomberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to self-fund his 2020 presidential run, announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign after a poor performance on Super Tuesday and will endorse Joe Biden. What he's saying: "Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said in a statement. "Ive known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs." The state of play: Bloomberg opted to skip campaigning in early states, staking his candidacy on a string of Super Tuesday victories to launch him to frontrunner status, but that plan was ultimately felled by the resurgence of Joe Biden's campaign. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar both exited the race between the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday and chose to back Biden along with Beto O'Rourke. On Super Tuesday, Biden scored surprise victories in states like Texas, Massachusetts and Minnesota and racked up huge wins across the South. While Bloomberg was viable in multiple states, he didn't win any and his only victory was in the territory of American Samoa. Bloomberg and Biden spoke on the phone on Wednesday, according to a Bloomberg campaign official. The big picture: Bloomberg's self-funding drew backlash from an increasingly progressive party that is skeptical of the role of big money in politics. Bloomberg was one of two billionaires in the race, joined by Tom Steyer, who dropped out over the weekend. Bloomberg's record as mayor of New York City drew controversy, particularly his support of stop-and-frisk. He apologized for the policy in November, acknowledging that it unfairly targeted people of color. He faced criticism for his use of non-disclosure agreements after being accused of harassment and gender discrimination by former female employees of Bloomberg LP. He also faced an ethical conflict related to his ownership of Bloomberg News. The eponymous founder refused to allow his company's journalism arm to investigate him as a candidate, forcing it to extend that policy to all 2020 Democrats. Bloomberg moved to directly take on President Trump from the start of his run. Both campaigns took out 60-second ad slots during the Super Bowl, and Bloomberg became a repeated target of Trump's tweets. Trump gave Bloomberg a signature nickname "Mini Mike" and said he "is going nowhere, just wasting his money." After Bloomberg dropped out, Trump tweeted that he "could have told him long ago that he didnt have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joes campaign, hoping to save face. It wont work!" What's next: Bloomberg has pledged to pay his massive staff to continue to work through November to support whoever becomes the eventual Democratic nominee. Go deeper: Obaseki, who has been at daggers drawn with Oshiomhole over the soul of the party in Edo State described the ruling as Gods plan and a right decision for the party which calls for a thanksgiving to celebrate the it. [March 04, 2020] New eCommerce Survey Report Identifies Key Online Retail Initiatives and Innovation Trends For 2020 Yottaa, Inc., the leading cloud platform for accelerating eCommerce, today announced the publication of a new research report titled, "2020 eCommerce Leaders Survey: Site Performance & Innovation Trends." The objective of the research was to gather data from online retail executives to identify their key eCommerce initiatives for 2020, particularly in the area of website performance and site optimization. For this research report, which is now in its third year, Yottaa interviewed 120 leaders from a wide range of eCommerce sites. In order to measure the direct impact eCommerce technologies have on the bottom line, the research focused on executive titles from the line of business, such as Vice President of eCommerce, rather than IT executives. Data was collected both online and via telephone during a two-week period in December of 2019. Key Findings 3 rd party eCommerce technologies continue to grow but threaten privacy compliance, shopper experience, an site performance. 92% of survey respondents stated they will invest in new 3 rd party technologies in 2020. 67% worry that customer data captured by 3 rd parties on their sites will impact privacy law compliance. party eCommerce technologies continue to grow but threaten privacy compliance, shopper experience, an site performance. 92% of survey respondents stated they will invest in new 3 party technologies in 2020. 67% worry that customer data captured by 3 parties on their sites will impact privacy law compliance. Online brands continue to look for ways to effectively compete with Amazon. For example, 46% would consider merging their fulfillment networks with other brands to help compete against the eCommerce giant. Fast site performance is critical to increasing online conversion and improving shopper experience. 61% believe faster web performance results in higher conversion. Since 2012 the industry has been talking about modern microservices architecture and in 2020 headless commerce will finally become a reality. 61% of retailers surveyed they are either currently leveraging or planning to leverage a headless commerce architecture in 2020. rd party technologies, optimizing site performance to improve online conversion, developing new strategies to compete against Amazon, or moving to a headless commerce architecture, these initiatives are critical for online brands to compete and succeed in the eCommerce arena in the coming year and beyond." Click here to download the full report "2020 eCommerce Leaders Survey: Site Performance & Innovation Trends." About Yottaa Leading brands such as Ann, Inc., Carter's, Express, Lands' End, Mattress Firm, Nutrisystem, Party City, Ralph Lauren, and Samsonite rely on Yottaa to accelerate, optimize, and control 3rd party eCommerce technologies, high resolution images, and other website elements, resulting in superior customer experiences, up to 60% faster web performance, and up to 20% increases in online conversion. To learn more about how Yottaa can optimize every page load on your eCommerce site and increase conversions, please visit www.yottaa.com or follow @yottaa on Twitter (News - Alert). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005531/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:10:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NANJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A supercomputing center for the innovation and application of related industries was launched Tuesday at the Suzhou Industrial Park in east China's Jiangsu Province to further satisfy the growing demand for computing power. Supported by the Suzhou International Science-Park Data Center, the newly launched supercomputing center will be built in two phases with a total investment of 210 million yuan (about 30 million U.S. dollars). The first phase of construction started in 2019 and is currently finished with nearly 200 servers in over 50 cabinets performing a peak single-precision floating-point of 2,657 TFLOPs. "The center is equipped with more GPUs to enhance its abilities of parallel processing and deep learning," said Michael Gu, deputy general manager of the Suzhou Supercomputing Center Co., Ltd. Established in 1994, Suzhou Industrial Park has attracted a dozen high-tech enterprises in the fields of AI, biomedicine, nanotechnology and intelligent manufacturing that are in need of supercomputing support in product R&D and use. "After more than three months of customer tests and optimization, the center is now basically able to meet the requirements of enterprises based in the Suzhou Industrial Park," Gu said. By pushing forward with the second phase, the center aims to provide stronger support for the technological innovation of IT applications, as well as bolster strategic emerging industries and smart city construction. The COVID-19 virus has already forced cancellation of major technology conferences, Mobile World Congress being the first and most notable, and others could follow, but there are more immediate effects on IT professionals. The availability of servers is projected to be reduced due to scaled back or halted production in China, where efforts to contain the coronavirus include closing factories. The center of the outbreak, Wuhan, is also the center of display production. Processor manufacturer Nvidia acknowledges the effects of the virus on its production and predicts a $100 million revenue hit next quarter because of it. Hear more about the impact of COVID-19 on tech in this video: Scientists have developed a new digital security algorithm which they say can help prevent fraudulent online transactions by increasing the randomness in the generation of user-authenticity tests like one-time passwords (OTPs) and CAPTCHA. The algorithm, called BaReNPI, uses a software-based random number generator that makes it more difficult for cyber-attackers to crack compared to Advanced Encryption Standard 256 (AES 256) -- the current gold standard for electronic cryptographic encryption, the researchers said. Lead scientist Geetha G, from Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Punjab, explained that BaReNPI is named after its unique properties -- balancedness, resiliency, non-linearity, propagation, and immunity. "The main difference between our technology and the existing technologies are these properties. The existing technologies do not consider these five properties simultaneously, therefore, the outcomes of those technologies are application specific," Geetha told PTI. The technology involves random number generation with symmetric properties which are required by the security algorithms for the development of ciphers, or algorithms for performing encryption or decryption, as suggested by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Geetha explained. She said that security algorithms like BaReNPI are used by messaging apps like WhatsApp and many signal programmes like VeraCrypt in addition to a range of hardware and other applications to transmit data securely. The need for such a system is not only applicable in India, it's a worldwide requirement to enhance the security of the existing ciphers by incorporating randomness in their features, the scientists said. Geetha noted that NIST, which is one of the premier bodies for standardising the security algorithms, has also urged for randomness in ciphers which can be used for internet traffic easily. "The security of internet surfing is primarily dependent upon security algorithms applied in transport layer. All such cryptographic security algorithms are facing the problem of cryptanalysis, and therefore their robustness is required to be enhanced with the help of such BaReNPI," she said. The researchers, including Rahul Saha and Gulshan Kumar, both Associate Professors at LPU, said that they have used properties of random numbers to develop a solution in the form of Symmetric Random Function Generator (SRFG) which brings randomness in the key generation process, thereby making their solution more efficient. Noting that the algorithm may help make the security algorithms better in terms of performance and resistance to cyber attacks, the LPU scientist said in the coming days of internet of things (IoT), BaReNPI may be very useful with various devices for generating OTPs. The scientists added that the SRFG offers three times better confusion property, which is the degree of ambiguity, and 53.7 per cent better avalanche effect -- a small change in input leading to a big change in output. According to the research, published in the journal Security and Communication Networks, this makes BaReNPI better than AES on key parameters like nonlinearity, resiliency, balancedness, propagation characteristics, and immunity. "In the current digital economy, computer system and network security are intended to achieve many purposes including confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation and access control by the use of various security algorithms," Geetha said. "BaReNPI has opened the path for further improvement of these security algorithms which eventually leads to better digital security and more secure social and economic encounters, she said. The researchers added that web browser security algorithms can also be strengthened with BaReNPI. Geetha said her team has filed a US-patent, and has bagged funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the hardware implementation of the algorithm. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [March 04, 2020] PAI Health Awarded Contract to Develop and Manage Technology Platform for the World's Largest Exercise Study VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PAI Health , a heart health software company, has been awarded the contract to develop the technology platform for the largest exercise intervention study ever performed. The study, called The Norwegian Trial of Physical Exercise after Myocardial Infarction (NorEx), will be undertaken at NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. NorEx is a registry-based multicenter and multiregional randomized controlled trial for secondary prevention and rehabilitation of patients who have suffered myocardial infarction (MI). The research involves ensuring exercise adherence of approximately 4,500 participants across Norway for a period of four years. The study will involve 50 hospitals, 85 personal trainers and more than 100 physicians. The NorEx platform will be launched in August 2020. The primary objective of NorEx is to determine the efficacy of physical exercise using the PAI system on mortality and cardiovascular morbidity in patients with MI. The secondary objectives are to determine the efficacy of physical exercise on cause-specific mortality, cardiovascular diseases, risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, cancers, hospitalization, use of primary health care resources, use of prescription drugs, and to evaluate cost-effectiveness of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with MI. Patients will be given Huami Amazfit wearable devices that will track heart rate in addition to many other biometric parameters. Data will be converted to PAI Scores as a measurement of their physical activity levels, with the ideal goal being 100 PAI for maximum risk reduction of cardiovascular disease mortality. The technology platform will provide researchers with the ability to monitor and engage with the participants in real-time throughout the intervention. System algorithms will also detect users needing support and the support team can quickly follow up. The goal of the intervention is to encourage people to maintain activity levels at 100 PAI or greater over the duration ofthe trial. PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) is the first scientifically validated and published score that prescribes a personalized, weekly plan for physical activity. It has been proven those who maintain 100 PAI saw a significant reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality and other lifestyle diseases. The results of the NorEx study could potentially change treatment of heart patients all over the world, and we are delighted to have PAI Health on board developing the technological solutions needed to perform the study. The mobile application and web portal developed and managed by PAI Health will enable us to follow up on exercise adherence in 4,500 persons over four years. The contract strengthens the healthy collaboration established between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and PAI Health over the past few years, says ystein Risa, Head of Department of Circulation and Imaging that is the host institution of NorEx. We are honoured to be selected as the technology provider for such an important, extensive study, says Sally Powell, Chief Commercial Officer of PAI Health. We look forward to learning the best practices for administering an exercise-based intervention program for cardiac rehab patients and the resulting health outcomes. This will accelerate our progress towards helping people optimize their path to better health through our proprietary PAI metric that has the promise of becoming a new global standard for physical activity. About PAI Health PAI Health is a heart health software company that offers data insights rooted in the proven science of cardiorespiratory fitness. PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) is the first scientifically validated metric that provides a personalized prescription for physical activity for optimal health. PAI allows organizations to assess and guide their people to better health through device-agnostic software is based on heart rate taken from wearables. The companys vision is to become the global health standard for physical activity making PAI available world-wide through partnerships with corporate wellness programs, health platforms, insurers, and health providers. For more information, visit www.paihealth.com and click here to download the PAI Health app compatible with Apple Watch and Fitbit devices. PAI Health Media Contact Tricia Burton VP, Marketing [email protected] About NorEx The Norwegian Trial of Physical Exercise After Myocardial Infarction (NorEx) aims to determine if long-term exercise increases longevity and reduces the risk of new cardiovascular events following a myocardial infarction. The study is organized by the renowned Cardiac Exercise Research Group of the Nobel Prize winning Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Myocardial infarction is the most common cause of death worldwide, and survivors are at high risk of a new event. Physically active heart patients live longer than inactive patients, but no study to date has established that exercise per se prolongs life. A total of 13,500 patients (including a control group) will be included in NorEx, making it the largest exercise study ever. NorEx will use state-of-the-art digital solutions and scientifically proven exercise recommendations to follow up exercise adherence and motivate the 4,500 patients randomized to the exercise intervention. NorEx Media Contact Torunn Varmdal General Manager, NorEx [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted seven persons, including expelled BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in a case pertaining to murder of Unnao rape survivor`s father. District Judge Dharmesh Sharma held them guilty under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for offences such as conspiracy, culpable homicide, disappearance of evidence, framing incorrect record and wrongfully restraining a person, and the Arms Act. The court, however, acquitted four persons by according them a "benefit of doubt". "It is apparent that too many persons behind the curtains were supporting, assisting or abetting the gruesome act but then each one cannot be held culpable as per law on mere suspicion," the judge said in the judgement. The case pertains the death of rape survivor`s father in custody on April 9, 2018. The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. The court had, on December 20 last year, sent him to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping her. In the case pertaining to death of her father, the court on Wednesday observed that Sengar, along with four others, entered into "criminal conspiracy to teach a lesson to victim who dared to raise his head against him". "The sequence of events establish beyond reasonable doubt that under the patronage of kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother, along with foot soldiers assaulted the victim with leg and fist blows and by intermittently hitting him in a piercing manner with the barrel of rifle," the court stated. The judge, while pronouncing the order, observed that Sengar had no intention to kill the rape victim`s father. "He (victim) was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death." The court stated that Police Station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria and another police officer named K.P Singh, who are also convicted in the case, did not intervene or save the victim from the clutches of the assailants. "Police officers should have intervened and tried to save the person," the Judge noted. The accused persons also hatched conspiracy to foist a false case upon victim by planting a country made him and four cartridges, he stated. The court further said that later there was a gross medical negligence and doctors acted like butchers, leading to his death. According to the charge sheet in July 2018, the survivor`s father and his co-worker were returning to their village when they asked for lift from Shashi Pratap Singh. He denied it which then lead to an altercation. Singh then called his associates, including Sengar`s brother Atul and others, who beat up the survivor`s father. He was taken to jail instead of the hospital even though he was grievously injured and died two days later in police custody. Kuldeep Sengar was in touch the whole time with the district police chief and Makhi police station incharge Bhadauria. He later also talked to the doctor who examined the father.The matter came to light after a video clip showing Atul Sengar beating the father went viral on the social media. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court`s directions in August last year. Kuldeep Singh Sengar was recently disqualified from the membership of the UP assembly, following his conviction in the rape case. One of the world's most recognized concrete jungles, New York City in the United States is home to many interesting architectural buildings, museums and places to visit. Visiting New York for the first time made me realize that there were so many things to see and never enough time to do it all. Thankfully, the city's official marketing, tourism and partnership organization, NYC & Company was able to ensure that we saw the famous gems of New York in the span of only four days. The Met One of the highlights of the trip was, of course, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, known as the Met. The Met is around a 30-minute walk from our hotel residence at AKA Central Park. However, it was 1 degree Celsius that morning, so several reporters and decided to take a taxi to the museum. Entering the front door of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, I could not help but stand in awe while gazing at Welcoming the Newcomers, a massive painting 3.4 meters by 6.7 m by Canadian artist Kent Monkman. The painting features Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, who was introduced as Kents gender-fluid alter ego, a representation of indigenous Two Spirit traditions. In the picture, Miss Chief is seen reaching out to help exhausted figures out of a tumultuous ocean and onto a small patch of land. Kent created two paintings for the Met, both featuring Miss Chief as a way of adding an indigenous voice to Western art history. The two paintings were first installed in December last year and will be at the right and left side of the Mets great hall until April. If you are like me and have only a few hours to spend at the Met, you may want to visit its website and do some advance research to choose the exhibitions you want to visit. This year, the Met will celebrate its 150th anniversary. If you are planning to visit New York, make sure to visit an exhibition called Making the Met, 1870-2020, which will be shown to the public from March 30 to Aug. 2. Emmy Squared Pizza Upper East Side New York is often referred to as the home of pizza in America. So, I made sure to sample as many of them as I could during the trip. Only an eight-minute walk from the Met museum is Emmy Squared Pizza on 1426 3rd Ave, which is known for its signature Detroit-style pizza marked by its square shape, crispy bottom, fluffy dough and cheesy crust. If you are a burger lover, you should also try Emmys famous double-stack burger, dubbed Le Big Matt. If you are lucky, you can also chat with Emily Hyland, the cofounder of the restaurant, who sometimes visits some of her restaurants and greets customers who share their love of pizzas. The Ride When my tour guide said we were going on a bus trip, I thought it would be quite boring. But there is nothing boring about the Ride. Experiencing the Ride was not just about enjoying the heart of Manhattan, we also watched stand-up comedians, joined a quiz show and enjoyed art performances. The bus was equipped with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and stadium-style seating with 40 LCD TV screens, 3,000 LED lights and surround sound. We were welcomed on board by two hilarious comedians who guided us throughout the 75-minute route through Midtown Manhattan and Times Square. The trip began and ended at the Ride boards in front of Patricks Restaurant (near Five Guys Restaurant) at 42 St and 8th Ave in Midtown Manhattan. The bus stopped several times as we enjoyed the performance of several rappers, musicians and ballet dancers on the side of the street. The performances were, of course, staged, but they blended with the street life so well. I knew I had fun because when I got off the bus, I realized that my jaw was sore from laughing too much. Staten Island On the last day of the trip, we left our second hotel, Hotel Indigo Williamsburg and took the subway to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The ferry is free and operates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Without spending a dollar, while riding the ferry I was mesmerized by the view of the Statue of Liberty and the beautiful lower Manhattan skyline. When we arrived on the island, as we walked through the peaceful roads near the ferry terminal, Colleen Siuzdak, the manager of Visit Staten Island who accompanied us, said that for years, Staten Island was known as the forgotten borough, separated from the rest of New York, across the harbor from Manhattan. The Staten Island Borough office has been trying to change the image of the island, rebranding it with the motto, the Unexpected Borough of New York City. If you havent seen Staten Island, you havent really seen New York, Siuzdak said. One of the places I recommend on the island is a little but important museum called the National Lighthouse Museum. If you are a lighthouse enthusiast, this is a great place to see. When you visit the museum, you will meet Bob, a staff member who will enthusiastically tell you about the museums collection and the history of lighthouses across the US. Its free for children to visit the museum, but for general admission, adult visitors must pay US$5. The museums exhibits include Beacons Through Time, Supplying the Nations Light Stations: The General Depot, Optics: Projecting the Light and Life at the Light: Lighthouse Keepers. ___________ NYC & Company in a collaboration with Singapore Airlines recently invited The Jakarta Post on a trip to New York, visiting a number of the citys iconic tourist attractions. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:44:12|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close KABUL, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. forces in Afghanistan conducted a defensive airstrike in support of Afghan security forces in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, the first raid after a U.S.-Taliban deal was signed. The strike was launched against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e-Saraj district after their attack on an Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) checkpoint, Colonel Sonny Leggetta, a U.S.-Forces Afghanistan spokesman, tweeted. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our first strike against the Taliban in 11 days," he said. On Feb. 29, Taliban's political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and U.S. Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad signed the peace deal in Doha, Qatar. Under the accord, the United States and NATO will completely pull out their troops from Afghanistan in 14 months, while the Taliban would start an intra-Afghan dialogue. "To be clear, we are committed to peace, however we have the responsibility to defend our ANDSF partners," said the spokesman. "Taliban leadership promised the int'l community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." According to Leggetta, on Tuesday alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on ANDSF checkpoints in Helmand, 555 km south of Kabul. Earlier in the day, an Afghan special force command, without providing details, said one Taliban key member was killed following an airstrike in Nahr-e-Saraj. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period ending on Feb. 29 when the peace deal was signed. However, the Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashed with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal was signed. At least 19 Afghan security force members and several Taliban militants were killed in separate predawn clashes on Wednesday in two northern provinces. BISHKEK -- Preliminary closed-door hearings have begun into deadly clashes in and near former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev's compound last year in a Bishkek suburb. Atambaev and 13 other defendants were present as the hearings kicked off on March 3 at the Birinchi Mai district court. Atambaev, however, was not present when the proceedings restarted on March 4, according to people at the hearings. Last August, security officials were sent to Atambaev's compound in the settlement of Koi-Tash near Bishkek after he refused to obey three subpoenas calling him to the Interior Ministry for questioning in an investigation over his alleged involvement in the illegal release of a jailed organized-crime boss in 2013. Atambaev was arrested on August 8 after he surrendered to police following a violent two-day resistance. The resistance by the former president and his supporters resulted in the death of a 47-year-old security officer, Usenbek Niyazbekov, and injuries to more than 170 others, including 79 law enforcement officers. The charges against Atambaev and his 13 co-defendants included murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting authorities' representatives, and hostage taking. All 14 defendants pleaded not guilty and called the case against them politically motivated. Five more defendants in the case made plea deals with investigators and will be tried separately. The clashes underscored a power struggle between Atambaev and his handpicked successor, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, which raised fears of instability in the Central Asian nation. The Automobile Dealers Union Ghana (ADUG) has described the governments decision to ban car dealers from importing second hand vehicles older than 10 years as unfortunate. The Customs Amendment Bill was passed on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at the second reading stage in Parliament. Per the Bill, the government will stop the importation of used vehicles that are older than 10 years and salvaged cars. However, the Automobile Dealers Union finds this decision unfair. If the cars fender, bonnet, boot, or other part is broken which somebody can buy and import into the country, I dont think that those ones should be banned. But the ones that cannot be driven at all, a vehicle that has been damaged or caught by fire or the body is totally condemned, nobody will even invest their money in and buy them to import them into this country. So if you go on to say that there is a broken part and for that matter, those things are not going to be allowed, then I think that its rather unfortunate. We have a lot of cars that are even older, even more than 40 to 50 years old, and they are still allowed to be driven on our roads. What are you going to do with those ones but you say you are going to ban a car that has just a few parts broken, the Secretary of the Union, Clifford Ansu stated on Eyewitness News. He further noted that they would have a roundtable discussion with the government to come to favourable conclusions with them on the decision. If per what he [the Infomation Minister] said is what is going to happen, then we have to meet government and deliberate with them on the way forward. Background The passing of the Customs Amendment Bill in Parliament on Tuesday means government will prevent anyone from importing used vehicles that are older than 10 years. The government will also place a total ban on the import of salvaged cars, also known as accident cars. According to the joint report of the Joint Committee on Finance and Trade, Industry and Tourism, the government has predicted an estimated revenue loss of GHS802 million over the next three years after the review of the policy that is in line with the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Development Programme. The amendment is to provide incentives for automotive manufacturers and assemblers registered under the Ghana Manufacturing Development Programme. A clause in the amendment empowers the Minister of Finance to specify the date on which the ban will come into place. Car dealers to protest Before the passing of the Customs Amendment Bill, the Automobile Dealers Union had threatened to demonstrate against the possible ban on the importation of some categories of salvaged and second-hand vehicles. This was after the Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu revealed government's plan in Parliament a few weeks ago. Disagreeing to this, Mr. Ansu said they would protest if their concerns are not addressed within a stipulated time. We want him [Majority Leader] to come out and tell us why he said the cars we import into this country cause accident on our roads. We are going to do a demonstration exercise to kick against that ban in Parliament. Within a few days time, from now up to Monday we expect to hear positive news from them [government] and if we don't receive that, then we start from there. But the Union later rescinded its decision and rather opted for dialogue with the government. citinewsroom Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other publications. She has a degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology. The lawmaker posted a photo of the document on Telegram. Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Kachura has said Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted a letter of resignation. The lawmaker posted a photo of the document via Telegram. According to Ukrainian legislation, within 12 months after the adoption of the government's program, i.e. until September 2020, the parliament has no right to dismiss the Cabinet. However, this can be done if a prime minister resigns. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of the Servant of the People faction on Tuesday proposed that Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk be dismissed and Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal be appointed to this post. The Polish citizen also gave a representation to the FRRO praying for reconsideration since he had only four months left to complete his full-time Masters' programme at the university Kolkata: A Polish student, who was asked by authorities to leave India for allegedly participating in an anti-CAA rally, moved the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday seeking a restraining order against the Union government and a recall of its directive. Kamil Siedczynski, the student from Poland who is enrolled for a Masters' degree in the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, was served a 'Leave India Notice'" dated 14 February from the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Kolkata. In his petition before the high court, the student prayed for restraining the authorities from giving effect to the notice, which asked him to leave India within 14 days of its receipt. The notice alleged the petitioner was engaged in anti-government activities in violation of visa rules, a charge the student has denied. The student's lawyer, Jayanta Mitra, submitted before the court that on 19 December, 2019, while on an outing, he was persuaded to accompany other students of Jadavpur University to an event in the New Market area of the city. Claiming that he did so unwittingly and out of curiosity, Mitra submitted that it transpired that the event was a peaceful protest held by different sections of people. He claimed that the student soon got separated from the group and stood on the sidelines as an onlooker. The student claimed he was asked a few questions by a person, who also clicked his photograph, and it later transpired he was a photojournalist of a Bengali daily, where his photo and some related news was published. Mitra claimed that some statements had been wrongly attributed to Siedczynski in the report. Mitra claimed before the court of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya that the order, which was communicated to the student on 24 February when he went to the FRRO on being asked to, was arbitrary and contrary to principles of natural justice and violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The senior lawyer submitted that the petitioner was neither afforded a reasonable opportunity of being heard nor was he formally informed about the specific charges against him prior to the issue of the notice. He submitted that it is not in consonance with India's obligations and is in derogation from the principles enunciated under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (1966), which are applicable to all people. Siedczynski, who hails from Szczecin in Poland, has been studying in India since 2016. He had obtained post graduate diploma in Sanskrit from Visva-Bharati on scholarship before enrolling for the course at Jadavpur University. His counsel said he is in the final semester and his examinations are scheduled to be completed by August 2020. According to the petition, the Polish citizen also gave a representation to the FRRO praying for reconsideration since he had only four months left to complete his full-time Masters' programme at the university. Siedczynski expressed "remorse" and said he had learnt a lot from his "mistake" and gave an undertaking that he will not repeat it. The hearing was adjourned for the day and will resume on Thursday when lawyers for the Union of India and FRRO will present their arguments. Hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape case, Tihar jail authorities on Wednesday (March 4) moved Patiala House Court seeking a fresh date for the hanging of the four convicts on the death row in this case. The court has issued notices to the convicts and will hear the matter at 2 pm on Thursday. President Kovind has already rejected the mercy petition of the three other convicts -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh. Notably, the Patiala House Court had issued the death warrants for the four convicts three times in the recent past. With the rejection of Pawan's mercy petition, the appeals, reconsideration petitions, curative petitions and mercy petitions of all the four convicts in the case have been exhausted, i.e., all the legal rights of the four convicts have been exercised. The court had on February 17 had issued a fresh death warrant for the four convicts - Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) - be hanged on March 3. The case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in the national capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Washington, DC:, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Washington, DC: On Friday, March 27th, Former First Lady and When We All Vote Co-chair Michelle Obama will host the organization's first rally of 2020 in Detroit, Michigan at the University of Detroit Mercy. Mrs. Obama launched When We All Vote, a national non-partisan voter participation initiative, in 2018 to increase voting in every election. The rally is free and open to When We All Vote volunteers, partners, local high schoolers eligible to vote, leaders in our My School Votes program and 2020 Prom Challenge, college students, and educators. Tickets will be required. This past November, Michelle Obama released a video message to mark one year out until the general election and to announce 7 new co-chairs, over 50 media, corporate and community partners all joining When We All Vote, and the Voting Squad volunteer program to kick off this election season. In that video she said Millions of new voters made their voices heard [in 2018] for the first time. Now the stakes are even higher and we are looking to you. Our countryour democracyis counting on you. This will be When We All Votes first rally in 2020 and an opportunity to engage and inspire thousands of eligible voters in Michigan and across the country. When We All Vote will hold a contest to give away tickets to two people and their guests to meet Michelle Obama backstage at the event. The winners will also receive travel accommodations to Detroit. Members of the public can ENTER HERE for their chance to win. Individuals interested in getting more information about attending the event should sign up HERE. Press interested in covering the event must RSVP HERE. To sign up for When We All Votes updates and to get involved, you can get started here. DETAILS: When We All Vote Rally with Michelle Obama Friday, March 27, 2020 Doors Open at 4PM Calihan Hall, University of Detroit Mercy 4001 W McNichols Rd, Detroit, MI 48221 COMPETITION DISCLAIMER: No contribution necessary to win. Void w/ prohibited. Ends 3/17/20. Approx. prize value $2,000. Subject to Official Rules. Individuals interested in getting more information about attending the event should sign up HERE. ABOUT When We All Vote: When We All Vote is a national, nonpartisan, non-profit that brings together citizens, institutions, brands, influential voices and organizations to increase participation in every election. We are committed to closing the race and age voting gap and empowering all eligible voters to cast their ballot by harnessing grassroots energy, establishing strategic partnerships, and implementing innovative digital organizing strategies. Launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill, and Tim McGraw, When We All Vote is changing the culture around voting using a data-driven and multifaceted approach to increase participation in elections. In the months directly before the 2018 midterm elections, When We All Vote organized 2,500 local voter registration events across the country, engaged 200 million Americans online about the significance of voting, and texted nearly four million voters the resources to register and get out to vote. In 2019, When We All Vote announced its new celebrity co-chairs and media partners who will help to reach people where they are and ultimately change the culture around voting. ### Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:33:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TIANJIN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd AG launched a direct freight route Wednesday linking north China's Tianjin port with northern Europe, according to the company's local branch. The route is expected to further increase the shipment exported from Tianjin to European ports and European goods will also arrive in Tianjin through the direct route, said Tian Liqiang, with Hapag-Lloyd's Tianjin branch. The port of Tianjin, a major link in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, saw its container throughput rise 8.1 percent year on year in 2019, according to the Tianjin Port Group Co., Ltd. Headquartered in Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd AG is a leading global liner shipping company that reaches 600 ports worldwide. New Delhi, March 4 : Bollywood actress Sobhita Dhulipala says she endorses the "acceptance of time", adding that "vanity is unhealthy and I have grown up treating beauty as an outward celebration of how one feels on the inside." The "Made in Heaven" star has been roped in as the face of Los Angeles-based beauty brand Smashbox which unveils its own exclusive Always On Liquid Lipstick shade GULA-BAE, created especially for the women of India. IANSlife got in a conversation with Sobhita to know more about her beauty preferences, her collaboration with the brand, upcoming projects and more. Read on: Q: What does beauty mean to you? And what do you think is your biggest beauty learning over the last few years? Sobhita: Beauty is something that lasts, something that doesn't fade with time. When I see someone with a sense of self and grace that comes with age, I find them incredibly beautiful. I strongly endorse the acceptance of time and it's many doings. Children should look like children, teens absolutely like teens and basically everybody, their age. Vanity is unhealthy and I have grown up treating beauty as an outward celebration of how one feels on the inside. Q: What is so special in GULA-BAE, India exclusive shade from Smashbox? Sobhita: Here is a brand that is walking the walk, showing in example their interest in inclusivity. With our brown skin, it has been tough finding the right shade of pink - that is changing now. GULA-BAE is a pink meant for India's lush Browns. I find this empowering. Q: How would you style Gula-Bae? Sobhita: I would mix it with balm and smear it on the lips and cheeks for a monotone flush whether day or night. Since it's not loud, it allows one to wear it with any kind of style - Indian or western. Q: How have beauty standards evolved over the years? Sobhita: Absolutely have. I aspire to look good and feel complete without any/ with as little makeup as possible. There is a general consciousness and a non-binary approach that has come about with regards to beauty and fashion in my life. Q: A beauty trend that you like and dislike the most? Sobhita: Bare face with a red lip - it's a classic I love. Anything that looks like a tons of makeup and I can't see their skin or actual features - dislike very much. Q: What is your skincare and make up routine like? Sobhita: I have normal to dry skin so I moisturize my face, put some primer on after primer. Then I conceal my under-eyes slightly and put on a pinkish-nude lip-color and add a glossy balm for a lush color. That's that. Q: One beauty product which you think is overrated? Sobhita: Contour-ey things. I don't like that they alter face shapes and can make everybody look the same. Q: On work front, what's next for you? Sobhita: My next release is going to be "Kurup" with Dulquer Salmaan in Malayalam. In terms of projects, I'm currently working on - "Ponniyin Selvan" with Mani Ratnam in four languages, a Telugu film I can't reveal much about yet and this lovely film called 'Sitara' with Rsvp. And then I move on to shoot for "Made in Heaven" Season 2. It's an exciting time to be alive! (Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in) -- Syndicated from IANS Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Truston Yu (The Jakarta Post) Hong Kong Wed, March 4, 2020 11:47 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20682d043 3 Opinion COVID-19,Asia,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Wuhan-coronavirus Free On Monday, President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced the first two confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, breaking Indonesias record of zero reported cases. In a way, this is reassuring as it disproves the implausible notion that Indonesia, as the worlds fourth-most-populous country, is immune to the virus. Critics were concerned about two major factors that might have led to Indonesias record of no positive cases in the past two months, the first being competence and the second one being transparency. Some initially suspected that Indonesia was incapable of detecting the virus. Indeed, the scarcity and high price of viral testing kits may have been a consideration in deciding how many and which cases were tested. Moreover, reports have shown that simply checking for fever and respiratory symptoms may not be completely effective, as people carrying the virus may not immediately show symptoms, or not fall ill at all, while still being able to infect others. Now that the first two cases have been announced, the government is taking active measures to cure the infected patients and prevent further transmission by tracking down those who were in contact with Indonesias patient zero. This helps to alleviate both domestic and international concern over Indonesias competence and determination in fighting the outbreak. The issue of transparency is of utmost importance when it comes to mitigating an epidemic. Governments may be incentivized to keep the number of reported cases as low as possible to avoid panic or having other countries issue travel warnings and travel bans on them. However, this would be detrimental: citizens in need may not be receiving adequate diagnosis and treatment; the disease is more likely to spread within and beyond the country; and finally, this would result in the international communitys lack of confidence in the country. The contrast between South Korea's and Japans response to the outbreak serves as a good example. Korea has been actively testing potential cases of the virus and maintaining transparency, with over 121,000 cases being tested. This has come at the cost of Koreas international image. Inevitably, testing a high number of cases means that more positive cases would be reported - the total number of infections in Korea now exceeds 4,800. As a result, at least 13 countries have imposed travel bans or travel restrictions on South Koreans. The fact that cases go undetected and/or unreported does not mean that they do not exist. It is even more dangerous to have undetected patients spreading the virus. In contrast with Korea, Japans response to the outbreak has been criticized as being passive, inflexible and opaque. An op-ed article in the New York Times criticized the Shinzo Abe administrations policy in face of the looming pandemic. The Diamond Princess cruise ship incident has been a public relations disaster - some Japanese nationals on board were allowed to go free without quarantine or tests. And so the Japanese people have been told not to seek testing, nor bother visiting medical institutions unless their symptoms are severe and lasting. Understandably, this may have something to do with Japans culture of denial and silence - if no one brings up the problem, then it could be treated as nonexistent. Some speculate that it may also be related to fears that the upcoming summer Olympics, scheduled to be held in Tokyo, could be affected. It should be clear that refusing to detect cases or not disclosing the relevant figures could only harm a countrys image in the long run. It may look good on the table to have a lower number of confirmed cases - but if this phenomenon is the result of incompetence or a deliberate attempt to conceal, confidence in the governments capability and even integrity would be lost. Thus politics may come into play in how a government fights the outbreak. In fact, some have been worried about Southeast Asias response to the epidemic given its close relations with China. A TIME article pointed out inadequacies in the measures taken by Southeast Asian governments. At the beginning of the outbreak, several of these governments downplayed the severity of the threat, publicly voicing their wariness of offending the superpower upon whom their economies rely. Cambodia, in particular, shares the closest ties with China among Southeast Asian countries. Prime Minister Hun Sen has refused to issue travel bans or evacuate citizens stranded in Wuhan, and even flew into China himself in February. Fears are that politics may have even corrupted the worlds highest authority in health issues. The World Health Organization is under fire for its position in the current crisis. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly praised China for its response to the virus outbreak, saying that China is setting a new standard for outbreak control. This contrasts with the WHOs criticism of other countries regarding the epidemic. The WHO belatedly declared the disease a global health emergency. Tedros stance on China goes against international criticism of its authorities, who arrested eight whistleblowers in Wuhan for rumor-mongering. WHO emergency committee member John Mackenzie called Chinas responses reprehensible, suggesting that there was a period of very poor reporting, or very poor communication. This has led to criticisms of WHOs professionalism and credibility. Governments should not let politics interfere with their work in disease prevention. The world should also show more appreciation to countries and authorities that are dedicating efforts and resources into the testing of potential cases, even at the cost of their image. At the Munich Security Conference Tedros proclaimed, The greatest enemy we face is not the virus itself; its the stigma that turns us against each other. We must stop stigma and hate. In fact, there is another factor bigger than stigma. In face of the global pandemic, transparency and integrity in governance is the antidote for this stigma and hate; the lack of these would only exacerbate the current crisis. As for Indonesia, it is official that the virus is now within the country. The government must maintain a high level of transparency to ensure public confidence. Science, not politics, should be the utmost guiding principle in this battle. We shall show to the world that Indonesia is not a threat but a trustworthy partner in fighting what looks like a looming pandemic. *** The writer is a junior research assistant on Southeast Asian politics at the University of Hong Kong. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. One day after a disastrous showing in Tuesdays primaries, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, announced he was suspending his unconventional bid for president and would endorse Super Tuesdays surprise winner, Joe Biden. Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult, Bloomberg said in a statement released by his campaign. Im a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterdays results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. Bloomberg won a smattering of delegates in several races Tuesday, including four in American Samoa, the only contest he won, but fell far short in states he had pinned his hopes on, especially North Carolina, where he was struggling to reach the 15 percent threshold of viability. Biden won that state, along with most of the rest of the South. A late entrant in the race, Bloomberg was a contender for the Democratic nomination for just under four months. In that time, he used his massive personal fortune estimated to be around $60 billion to bombard the nation with ads. Reuters estimated that Bloomberg spent a record-shattering $452 million toward his run, $312 million of that on advertising alone. Bloomberg spent just shy of $200 million on television ads in Super Tuesday states. The campaign was betting that this unprecedented investment would be enough to win in a divided Democratic field. Michael Bloomberg at his Super Tuesday rally in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Marco Bello/Reuters) Bloombergs big bet, however, never paid off. The former mayor enjoyed some strong polling earlier in the year. But after a pair of rocky debate performances in February, his standing began to dip. Last-minute dropouts and endorsements threw a wrench into Bloombergs plans as well. He had hoped to consolidate the moderate voters wary of progressive candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders. But on Saturday, in one of the contests Bloomberg elected to skip, Biden won the South Carolina primary, reinvigorating his campaign. Story continues In throwing his support to Biden, Bloomberg said: Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, two other candidates competing for moderate Democrats, dropped out in the days after South Carolinas primary and endorsed Biden. Former Texas Rep. Beto ORourke, another former presidential candidate, threw his support behind Biden as well. Biden quickly surged in the polls and emerged as the centrist alternative to Sanders, who had performed strongly in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. As Democratic moderates began to coalesce around Biden following the South Carolina primary, Bloombergs reasons for staying in the race became more difficult to articulate. In a testy back-and-forth with reporters Tuesday morning, he denied that he would exit the race and said that Biden was taking voters from him, not the other way around. Joes taking votes away from me, Bloomberg said in Miamis Little Havana. Have you asked Joe whether hes going to drop out? I have no intention of dropping out, Bloomberg said. Bloomberg spent Super Tuesday crisscrossing Florida, a state that doesnt vote until March 17. When asked about his thoughts on the possibility of a contested Democratic convention this summer, he admitted: Well, I dont think I can win any other way. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: WEST SPRINGFIELD - A Ware man is facing drug possession and trafficking charges after he was found on Riverdale Street early Sunday with a backpack containing 380 packets of heroin stamped with the brand of Al Bruno. Police charged David R. Brodeur of Gilbertville Road, Ware with four counts of possession and a single count of trafficking cocaine in excess of 18 grams. He was stopped by police at 1:15 a.m. when they spotted him acting erratically in the area of Riverdale Street and Highland Avenue. At the time, temperatures were in the mid-teens, and Brodeur was making physical efforts to warm himself, police said. He told officers he had nowhere to go. Officers detected he appeared to be showing signs of opioid use, and found hypodermic needles in his possession. They also found a backpack near him, and when they inspected it they found 380 packets of heroin, 21 grams of cocaine, and 73 tablets of prescription medication. They also found drug paraphernalia and $322 in cash. Police said Brodeur denied the bag was his but officers found several documents inside with his name. Bruno was the Springfield crime boss who was gunned down outside the South End Community Center in November 2003. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page The U.S. death toll from coronavirus has risen to nine. All of the U.S. deaths are in Washington state, including eight in King County near Seattle. More than 230 people in the state are being monitored for symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Four of the Washington state deaths are tied to a nursing care and rehabilitation facility in the Seattle suburbs. Heres the latest on coronavirus and how to prepare: Trump donates salary President Donald Trump has donated his quarterly salary to the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with combating coronavirus. The president receives $100,000 quarterly which has been donated to various agencies throughout his term, including Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and the Department of Transportation. President @realDonaldTrump made a commitment to donate his salary while in office. Honoring that promise and to further protect the American people, he is donating his 2019 Q4 salary to @HHSGov to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/R6KUQmBRl1 Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) March 3, 2020 Alabama nursing home group speaks out Brandon Farmer, Alabama Nursing Home Association President and CEO, said the group is closely monitoring updates related to COVID-19. (Nursing homes) take this threat seriously and are working to ensure the safety and well-being of their residents, patients and staff. Our facilities are aggressively following directives such as the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities and regulations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Farmer asked that anyone who is ill not visit a nursing home. We ask that anyone who is sick to refrain from visiting nursing homes and use alternative methods to check on their loved ones. This helps minimize the risk to our residents, patients and staff. Drug co-developed by UAB professor treating coronavirus patients Hundreds of Chinese patients with the coronavirus are being treated with a drug developed in part by a UAB professor. You can read more here. Third confirmed case in Florida .@GovRonDeSantis confirms a third presumptive #COVID19 case in Hillsborough; this individual resided with another who is confirmed as COVID-19. Helen Aguirre Ferre (@helenaguirrefer) March 3, 2020 Two cases confirmed in Georgia Two cases of coronavirus both in metro Atlanta have been confirmed in Georgia. Latest CDC numbers The latest numbers from the CDC show a total of 60 coronavirus cases from 12 states. Twenty-two of the cases are travel-related; 11 are from person-to-person spread; and 27 remain under investigation. New York subway trains to be sanitized New Yorks Metro Transit Authority is conducting a deep cleaning of the citys subway trains every three days to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. The cleaning will include subway turnstiles, station handrails, MetroCard and ticket vending machines. There has only been one confirmed case of coronavirus in New York. A 39-year-old Manhattan woman tested positive for the virus last week after she returned from a visit to Iran. The woman is quarantined in her home. How to stock your kitchen The government suggests keeping a 14-day supply of food in the event of an emergency or a pandemic. What does that look like? You can see more here. YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan assures that the meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in the foreign ministry of Turkey was part of the routine and Armenia has no concerns over this fact. Turkey can have no role in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process, ARMENPRESS reports Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs have their working routine which includes also meetings with representatives of the OSCE member states and the Minsk Group in case of necessity. He emphasized that such meetings are not something new and there is nothing bizarre there. ''This is not the 1st meeting. They met with a number of other countries before and other meetings are scheduled. This is normal and we have no concerns regarding the Minsk Group Co-chairs. Maybe the difference is that Turkey made some comments. By the way, to be honest, the comments did not include anything that we had never heard in the past. And we made an announcement about this. Everybody knows that approach, which is Turkey with its unfriendly policy towards Armenia and the Armenian people, which in Nagorno Karabakh conflict is reflected also by the one-sided military assistance to Azerbaijan, can have no direct role in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process, FM Mnatsakanyan said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan A court at Kundapur in Udupi district on Wednesday directed police to arrange for providing medical treatment to the man who raised pro-Pakistan slogans at the mini Vidhan Soudha there two days ago. The man, arrested for shouting 'Pakistan Zindabad' several times at the Kundapur mini Vidhan Soudha (a complex housing government offices) on Monday, was later charged with sedition and remanded to judicial custody till March 16. When the plea for bail to the accused came up, counsel argued that his client had a known mental illness and had behaved as such without any motive. Counsel wanted the court to grant him bail for seeking medical treatment. Hearing the plea, the court ordered that the district medical officer provide treatment to the accused till March 13 and submit a report to the court. The court also directed police to give him adequate security cover during the period. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Wont Extend FISA Spy Powers Without Reforms, Sen. Paul Says President Donald Trump wants to see reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance process before he endorses extending spying powers that are slated to expire in less than two weeks, according to one of the senators who met with Trump on the topic. Trump made it exceedingly clear that he wont accept a straight reauthorization, said Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), who has led efforts to curtail the federal governments ability to spy on Americans. The president said hes not signing without something happening, Paul told reporters after the nearly 90-minute meeting with top lawmakers. He pushed back very vigorously and said, Were not doing this. Another person familiar with the meeting confirmed the account; the person was unauthorized to discuss the meeting and requested anonymity. Concerns over FISA have been brought to the forefront with the December report by the Justice Department (DOJ) watchdog, which identified at least 17 significant errors and omissions in FISA warrants taken out in 2016 and 2017 by the FBI on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The DOJ determined that at least two of the three renewals of the initial warrant were so flawed as to render them invalid. FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged to Congress the warrants resulted in illegal surveillance. During the March 3 meeting with Trump, Attorney General William Barr made the case that the DOJ could make regulatory changes to satisfy the critics of the surveillance programs. The authorities could be renewed first and reforms worked out later. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who also were present, preferred such an approach, those involved said. The president didnt accept that, Paul said. Instead, Trump sided with other attendants, including Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who wanted reforms first. No resolution was reached March 3, those involved said. Paul indicated the president may be willing to consider a stopgap measure that continues the surveillance provisions for another week or so if talks are progressing. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), another attendee, has said hes working with Democrats in the House and is optimistic that reforms can be hammered out in time for a vote before the provisions expire. McCarthy told Trump as much at the meeting, Paul said. Lone Wolf The spying authorities set to expire on March 15 arent directly related to the issues with the Page warrants, although they carry controversies of their own. The first one, dubbed a Lone Wolf provision, allows spying on suspected foreign terrorists even when the government cant prove a connection to a specific terror organization. The government has never used it, Brad Wiegmann, deputy assistant attorney general in the National Security Division, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in November. Roving Wiretap The second provision, called the roving wiretap, allows the government to automatically continue surveillance of a target who switches phone providers without needing to ask the FISA court to order the new company to provide the wiretap. Some critics have argued that authority violates the Fourth Amendment requirement that warrants have to particularly describ[e] the place to be searched, noted George Croner, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in a Nov. 7 article. Business Records The third provision allows the government to obtain business records, such as hotel and shipping records, of targets of national security investigations. In most cases, the government can obtain such records through a grand jury subpoena, but that requires opening a criminal probe. National security investigations dont necessarily involve a crime. It could be purely an intelligence matter, Wiegmann said. Indeed, Page was never charged with a crime. The warrant against him was based on a suspicion that he was an agent of a foreign power. The FBI made its case against him using the Steele dossier, a collection of unsubstantiated claims of TrumpRussia collusion paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The business records provision allows targeting of not only foreign agents, but also of any individual in contact with, or known to, a suspected agent of a foreign power. The government uses this authority several dozen times a year on average, Wiegmann said. Phone Records Part of the provision is also the program to collect phone records of foreign powers engaged in international terrorism and their agents. The program drew controversy because it allowed a second hop, meaning the collection of records of not only the targeted phone number, but also the records of all the numbers the first number communicated with. The NSA shuttered the program in 2019 and acknowledged that, aside from repeated compliance issues, it proved not particularly useful, producing a basis for a single investigation since 2015 while raking up costs of over $100 million. The Associated Press contributed to this report. New Covid curbs in UP: Government and private employees to work at 50 per cent capacity Night curfew in Andhra Pradesh: Know timings, guidelines, rules; What is allowed, what is not allowed 46 Covid deaths in 5 days in Delhi, 34 patients had comorbidities, 25 aged above 60: Govt data Contacts of confirmed cases don't need to get tested unless identified as high risk: Govt Omicron has clear growth advantage over Delta with highest level of immune escape: INSACOG Coronavirus: 15 Italian tourists test positive in India, confirmed cases rise to 21 India oi-Mousumi Dash New Delhi, Mar 04: The total number of positive coronavirus cases in India reached to 21 after 15 Italian tourists were tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. On Wednesday, after an Italian tourist in Jaipur was tested positive for the virus and his wife showed initial symptoms of the virus. The Italian couple was part of a tourist group touring Rajasthan. Reportedly, the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi confirmed 15 more Italian tourists were quarantined on arrival and today they have tested positive for the virus. Coronavirus: Govt releases 247 helpline number, email id to report any suspected cases Since Tuesday afternoon, all 15 Italian tourists were kept in preventive isolation ans now they have been kept at the ITBP facility at Chhawla. While the confirmed cases jumped to 21, three people from Kerala, who were initially tested positive, have recovered. Meanwhile, a man from New Delhi was also tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 Two schools in Noida subsequently suspended classes as some students of the schools attended a birthday party hosted by the same man. Coronavirus: 6 self-quarantined people in Noida test negative According to reports, as of now 438 persons in India have been reported as suspects, of which 225 have completed 28 days of surveillance and 189 are still under observation. As per an official record. over 89 people have been kept in isolation. Out of which 118 tested, 103 have been found negative and results of 14 are awaited. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 11:24 [IST] by Austin Bay March 3, 2020 In a Feb. 28 press statement, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a remarkable offer. America "stands with the people of Iran during the public health crisis caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)," the statement said. The U.S. government "is prepared to assist the Iranian people in their response efforts." The ayatollah regime quickly rejected the offer, calling it "a political-psychological game." Pompeo's offer certainly had a public relations facet. It all but said for the dictatorship to step aside and let those who can do. But to cynically dismiss the offer as mere public relations and psychological manipulation is a destructive act. The World Health Organization calls the novel coronavirus a global health threat that requires global cooperation to combat. The organization wants to contain the disease where possible and slow its spread so health systems can prepare and not be overwhelmed if it appears. That means national leaders must be honest and open with information. Chinese leaders were dishonest in the epidemic's early stages, denying its existence even as the disease infected the city of Wuhan. To slow the rate of transmission, local care facilities must respond immediately, before 10 cases become 100. The World Health Organization is particularly concerned about nations with mediocre (or worse) health systems. They need to stock masks, gloves, medicine and antiseptics now. The World Health Organization estimates slowing the spread will require 89 million medical masks a month. The Trump administration's COVID-19 funding request includes aid packages to vulnerable countries lacking resources. On March 3, the World Health Organization warned that protective equipment shortages endanger "health workers worldwide." It has "shipped half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 47 countries," but that is a stopgap. In the context of proliferating contagion and human suffering, the U.S. offer to Iran of aid and selective sanctions relief was an act of real generosity, despite the nations' political antagonism. "Slow war" better describes U.S.-Iran relations. Two months ago, the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, a professional terrorist and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. As chief architect of Iran's worldwide proxy terror organizations, Soleimani was another type of global health threat. Iran retaliated by striking U.S. facilities in Iraq with ballistic missiles. After the barrage, Iranian surface to air missiles under Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps command downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. The civilian aircraft had just taken off from Tehran's main airport. However, incompetent Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers decided the plane was a U.S. bomber. So, they fired and killed 176 innocent people. For days, the government lied and denied its forces destroyed the plane until overwhelming evidence forced a confession. When COVID-19 struck Iran, the ayatollahs followed the same script. They lied and denied, and the contagion began to kill. Pompeo's insinuation that the regime harmed its own people had a factual basis. The day before he offered help, evidence emerged that Iran was a COVID-19 hotspot. Moreover, infected Iranians had spread the pathogen to several other countries. Pompeo challenged the dictatorship to act responsibly and let competent international actors provide direct aid. Dictatorships like Iran's use aid as a political tool. They deny aid to dissidents. Iranian political authorities, from low to high, also have a notorious reputation for stealing food and medical aid to either sell on the black market or use themselves. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is reportedly hoarding masks. No one knows how many Iranians have contracted the virus, though that applies to 50 other nations as well. But Iran has a lot. Estimates range from 2,400 to 10,000. Senior leaders themselves may be responsible for spreading the disease. Iran's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and vice president for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar have COVID-19. An Iranian website reported Ebtekar met with President Hassan Rouhani and other ministers shortly before testing positive. One report says 23 members of parliament have the virus. The Chinese Communist dictatorship's lack of transparency delayed China's response to the epidemic. Iran's ayatollah despots repeated that mistake. America offers lifesaving aid. That puts the "death to America" ayatollahs in a bind. New Delhi: India`s leading digital payment platform Paytm on Wednesday decided to shut its offices in Gurugram and Noida for at least two days after one of its employees who had recently travelled to Italy was tested positive with COVID-19. In an official statement, the company informed that it has suggested team members of the COVID-19 patient to get their health tests done immediately, while all their offices will remain shut for sanitising purposes. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurugram office, who recently returned from Italy post a vacation, has now been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment and we are extending complete support to his family," a Paytm spokesperson told IANS. "As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," the spokesperson added. The company said it has advised all employees to work from home for a couple of days while the offices are sanitised. "However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual," the spokesperson added. With 25 fresh confirmed cases of coronavirus in India, the tech industry in India is withdrawing into a shell, with Paytm, Nearbuy, Wipro, TCS and HCL announcing action plan to safeguard their employees. Nearbuy, which claims to be India`s first hyper-local online platform that enables customers and local merchants to discover and engage with each other, has decided to close its Gurugram office for at least 14 days as a precautionary measure. The company has told its employees to work from home during the period and also keep a proper check on their health. Global software giant Wipro on Wednesday announced that it has suspended employee travel to coronavirus-stricken China, Hong Kong and Macau. The company also said that any employee who has travelled to an affected place in China in the last few days has been advised to work from home for 14 days before resuming work in office. "We have advised our employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently," said Wipro. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also claimed that it was working closely with all relevant global and regional and local health institutions to tackle COVID-19 outbreak. While HCL Technologies said it has invoked an epidemic contingency plan in the impacted geographies and is providing full support to employees, wherever possible. This is an opinion piece: Dear Governor Ivey, As your office is aware, my request to speak with you on the phone, in private, was denied. I stand with the hundreds of thousands of Americans across Alabama and the nation, pleading with you not to execute Nathanial Woods. In just 2 days, your state, and the state I was born in, is set to kill a man who is very likely innocent. 55 years ago, my father, Martin Luther King, Jr., lead a march from Selma, Alabama, where he and fellow civil rights activists were killed and beaten. Under your watch, Alabama is about to produce yet another tragic injustice. It is about time we learn from our past, and be on the right side of history. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Nate Woods is about to be executed in Alabama. This is an injustice, and we need to make sure the public is aware. Please retweet, tag @GovernorKayIvey, and use the hashtag #SaveNate. This is my letter to the Governor after she denied my phone call. pic.twitter.com/JNUIMhxV4O Martin Luther King III (@OfficialMLK3) March 3, 2020 Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice. Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed? On top of that, so much information has been brought forward which has yet to be accurately reviewed and considered. Nathaniel has never had a chance at a fair trial. He was convicted as an accomplice despite the fact that the shooter has always maintained that he acted alone. So before you allow the execution of Nathaniel Woods, I urge you to grant him a reprieve. We must allow the time to accurately review the new evidence. With all of the concerns expressed by the public, his case requires the highest level of scrutiny possible. In closing, my father said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and so I pray that God grants you the courage to do the right thing: to delay his execution. Respectfully yours, Martin Luther King III Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that saliva is the main carrier of coronavirus. The Union Minister warned people against taking part in huge gatherings and advised them to avoid crowded places. The minister was addressing a press conference on COVID-19. In this presser, the minister also stated that the number of coronavirus cases in India as of now is 28. This figure includes the 3 patients who were discharged from a Kerala hospital after recovery in February 2019. The remaining 25 cases were reported this week. These include a 45-year old man who returned from Europe, 24-year old techie who travelled to Hyderabad after landing from Dubai, 6 people from Agra who got infected after coming in contact with the Delhi patient, 16 Italian tourists and an Indian driver accompanying the tourists. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan: We had screened about 5,89,000 at our airports, over 15,000 at minor and major seaports and over 10 lakhs at the border of Nepal, till yesterday. #Coronavirus https://t.co/0tK8Vm7rfl ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 He also announced all flights and passengers will be a part of the universal screening and not just the 12 countries that were listed earlier. Around 5.89 lakh passengers at airports, over 15 thousand at major and minor seaports and approximately 10 lakh people at the borders of Nepal were screened till March 3, 2020, according to the health minister. To avoid any further damage, around 27 thousand were under community surveillance. In a tweet, the central government had released a lowdown on all the precautions that need to be taken in order to protect yourself from the deadly coronavirus. In the same tweet, dedicated control room number and an email id for all those who have any doubts regarding the novel coronavirus was also mentioned. Coronavirus death toll in China has crossed the 3,100 mark and more than 90,000 cases have reported globally. Also read: Coronavirus in India: How do I check if I have been infected? INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WLFI)-One bill working its way through the legislature is being called land-lord friendly. Senate Bill 340 originally addressed the issue of condemned properties. An added amendment would require the state legislature; approve any local ordinances a city passes in regards to regulating rental properties. The bill is something local state representative Chris Campbell says in an overstep. "It is really not our job to pass local ordinances. We are supposed to be doing things at the state level that affect the state as a whole we don't write special legislation that is for 1 city only or one town or one location," said representative Campbell. The bill would also force tenants who lose a claim against a landlord to be required to pay court and legal l fees for both sides. But if a tenant wins, they would only be awarded one months rent "The landlords are awarded attorneys fees under this bill but the tenants aren't, the renters wouldn't be able to get their attorneys fees which means you are going to have to try and find an attorney that's willing represent you when you have to split that one months rent," said Duran Keller a local attorney. Keller has represented tenants seeking damages against landlords in the past. He says if this bill becomes law, it could make renters more intimidated to seek justice against landlords providing poor living conditions. "This significantly makes it more difficult for a tenant who has a valid cause of action to be able to get assistance and of course they could represent themselves but good luck because there are so many pitfalls there," added Keller. One local lawmaker says this would add a burden to the state legislature as well. "This would be overly burdensome and not good for tenants trying to address issues from the properties they are trying to rent added Campbell. The House passed the amended bill. It was then sent back to the original author in the Senate, who is pushing it to a conference committee. Once the bill is out of committee it will go back to both the House and Senate for another vote. WLFI reached out to several landlords in the area for comment on the bill but we did not receive a response. To read the bill click here. Sixty is the new 45, 80 is the new 60, and 100 is well, really dang old. But even centenarians know that once you stop learning, you star... Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, we are living in the United States of Propaganda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conversations at Fastmarkets International Copper Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on February 26-28 revolved around the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on copper production and procurement chain, as well as logistics disruptions. Coronavirus spreads to Europe The event made use of technology to enable panelists from Italys KME, Germanys Aurubis and Chinas Jiangxi Copper to present their views via video-call despite global travel restrictions. In Italy, KME chief metal officer Marco Calamia said the climbing Covid-19 cases have not had an impact on operations so far. The country has reported a surge in infections in recent weeks, including in the Italian regions of Lombardy and Piedmont, where the copper fabricator has staff. Nonetheless, Calamia said more support measures could be implemented if production and logistics disruptions eventually arise due to the spreading virus over the coming months. In China, the prolonged containment policies have led to a rise in Shanghai Futures Exchange base metals inventory. Stockpiles of copper are expected to build up to about 2.5 times the average seasonal first-quarter volume seen over the past five years, because of sustained production and a lack of downstream demand, according to a research note by JP Morgan dated February 27. Logistics have resumed across provinces, aiding a restart of operations at some copper fabricators, smelters and refineries. As a result, there has been a pick-up in demand for copper intermediate products from smelters hoping to make up for the lost output the month earlier. Reduced European consumption Even prior to the virus outbreak in Europe, demand for copper had already dropped significantly in several major European economies, in particular in Germany and Belgium. Europe, typically, consumes 16% of all global refined copper, but endured a torrid 2019 when demand for the metal dropped significantly in several major economies. A reduced need for copper in the continent shaves yet more units off of what was expected to be a period of deficit for the metal globally, with February's prolonged quarantine also hitting Chinese consumption. Imbalanced trade terms While uncertainties remain for the recovery in Chinas copper industry, panelists at the conference highlighted concerns over the imbalance in trade terms between the west and China, the biggest copper importer and refined copper producer. This has led to louder calls for the European copper industry to guard their interests. Oriol Guixa, chief executive officer of Spanish copper producer La Farga, cited the low barrier for Chinese buyers to pick up Europe-origin copper scrap compared with the internal quotation system compiled by Chinese domestic scrap suppliers as an example. Chinas scrap renaming policy This year, the market continued to follow Chinas plan to reclassify copper scrap as copper renewable materials from July this year and the impact on copper scrap inflows to China. Zark Huang, analyst with Jiangxi Coppers research arm, said 90% of the current copper scrap imports could match the renaming criterion. The policy aims to exclude the inflow of lower-quality scrap, and Huang expects this to be realized, forecasting an improved copper content in imported metal scrap products from July. Higher barriers to mining approvals And processing of copper scrap is not the only part of the chain facing stricter environmental measures. Over the past two decades, mining approval for both greenfield and brownfield exploration has moved from an average of one year, to around five years due to a rise in community opposition as well as water treatment and issues that could vary across regions. Additional reporting by Archie Hunter and Hassan Butt in London. Even the most mundane of our daily interactions have become infected with fears about coronavirus. Simple things like sitting on the bus beside someone coughing and spluttering with no tissue has taken on a whole new set of connotations since the outbreak of covid-19. And the outbreak is already changing how we live our lives - and how we expect others to live theirs. So just what are the new social and ethical dilemmas we face in a world obsessed with the threat of a pandemic? The great face-mask debate Is that surgical mask you've taken to wearing the outward sign of a polite, concerned citizen doing everything in her power to prevent the spread of infectious disease - or is it the sign of a self-obsessed hypochondriac who is potentially depriving health workers of crucial kit? The official HSE advice is that you should wear a mask if you have or may have coronavirus; are in close contact with someone who has it or you're a healthcare worker in close contact with people who have it. But despite this, masks have been going like the proverbial hotcakes, with pharmacies around the country reporting they are now sold out. Read More "The evidence on how useful masks are is mixed," says Dr Kim Roberts, assistant professor of Virology at Trinity College, Dublin. "They only last a few hours - as soon as they become wet with droplets of moisture they become useless. More specifically there is research to say that masks improperly worn can increase your chances of infection because when you're fiddling around with the mask, you are touching your face." Dr Roberts points out that because there is a global shortage of masks, buying them up means they are not available to frontline medical staff who need them most. Kerry GP Eamonn Shanahan says it's better to take practical hygiene steps instead. By regularly washing your hands and coughing into tissues or your elbow if you haven't got a tissue you safeguard your own health and that of others you come into contact with. Should I stockpile food - or is that selfish panic-buying? So-called 'prepping' has never been so fashionable, if social media is anything to go by. Online images show empty supermarket shelves as panicked shoppers stockpile tinned foods and cleaning supplies. So if you're one of those people who has a year's supply of tinned meatballs and baked beans in your kitchen cupboard, are you just being sensible - or are you guilty of spreading panic, and even worse, leaving other people with no chance of getting their hands on grocery essentials? Medical historian Dr Ida Milne, who lectures in Carlow College, says history has taught us that being prepared is always a good idea. "Stocking up on items like wipes and making a medical toolkit is a good idea. Things like tissues, Paracetamol and Nurofen are a good idea to have to hand - enough to do for a fortnight. If you have a prescription, do you have a back supply?" asks Dr Milne. Virologist Dr Roberts says there's no need to do an all-out panic shop, but warns we may soon experience delays in the supply chain as more and more people get sick. "You don't need to clear the shelves of toilet roll and bread but if you're doing your shopping put in an extra couple of cans of non-perishable foods that you would eat anyway," she says. IS hand-shaking a big faux pas? Bad news for the royals - the hand-shake is increasingly unacceptable. The sign of peace has been banned at Mass, and even German chancellor Angela Merkel had her efforts to shake hands rebuffed by one of her own cabinet members. And forget about kissing on the cheek, in the French fashion - the more restrained your greeting in this febrile climate, the better. In fact, the WHO has gone so far as to advise that elbow bumps, a shake of the foot or a wave of the hand are the safest alternatives. Of course in Ireland we can simply resort to a good old fashioned nod and a wink, or the raised finger at the steering wheel so beloved of rural drivers. Noel Cunningham, manager of Harvey's Point Hotel in Co Donegal and author of a guide on modern Irish manners, believes the virus could change our behaviour for the better. He is encouraging his hotel staff to bow, smile and nod at guests as opposed to grabbing them by the hand. In his book he explored manners in other cultures and found that a gesture like a hand to the heart was a beautiful greeting. "As for kissing, it's gotten out of hand. I go to events where everyone is kissing. It's just not acceptable. Etiquette demands that you behave in a way that doesn't impinge on people's privacy and health," says Cunningham. "I think something like this makes people realise they don't have to cover someone in kisses when they just meet them at a cocktail party." Should you go on that holiday you've already paid for? You've just overheard Donal from accounts saying that he's determined to go on that ski holiday to Italy regardless - as it cost him a fortune. But won't selfish Donal be putting his co-workers at risk if he travels? On the other hand, if everyone decided to stay at home in the morning, the economy would grind to a halt. So what's the right thing to do? The official advice is that non-essential travel to and within China is not recommended, and should be avoided altogether if you have an underlying medical condition. Irish citizens are also being advised by the Department of Foreign Affairs not to travel to areas of Italy affected by the coronavirus outbreak there. But what about holidays generally? Should we be forgoing them this year, in a bid to contain the sperad of the virus? The WHO continues to advise against the travel or trade restrictions to countries experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks but says it's wise for travellers who are sick to delay or avoid travel to affected areas, in particular for elderly travellers and people with chronic diseases or underlying health conditions. According to clinical psychologist, Sarah O'Doherty, while people have to consider their own travel plans, the coronavirus outbreak will lead to people being more conscious of fellow travellers. "It's making people reflect on their behaviour and the role they have in being considerate of others," she says. Don't stand so close to me Social media is awash with hygiene horror stories and public transport is the epicentre of the many people's fear and loathing. Twitter is filled with enraged commuters complaining that fellow passengers are pressed up against them or sneezing in their direction. But with our crowded public transport system, there's little alternative. Dermot O'Leary, the General Secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU), said it was "impossible to follow the advice of maintaining three feet from another person if they are coughing or sneezing". "If you're travelling on a DART or a suburban train any morning or evening, three feet is a premium, you can't even get three inches never mind three feet," he said. All you can do is be mindful of others, as Eamonn Shanahan, of the Farranfore Medical Centre in Kerry, advises: cover your face when you cough, wash your hands and don't touch your eyes, nose or mouth; measures that are good hygiene practice whether you're on the bus or simply walking down the street. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 15:19:42|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NEW YORK, March 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. health authorities on Tuesday reported a total of 108 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and a death toll of nine in the country. New Hampshire, Georgia and North Carolina were the most recent to have joined the list of states with first confirmed cases reported. All nine deaths occurred in the Seattle area of Washington state. A long-term care facility in the state's Kirkland city is considered to be the site of an outbreak, as a growing number of confirmed cases are from there. In New York state, a man from the Westchester County just outside of New York City was diagnosed with COVID-19, bringing the state's confirmed cases to two, local authorities said Tuesday. The patient, a 50-year-old man who works in Manhattan, is currently hospitalized and in serious condition. The man has not traveled to any countries or regions at the nexus of the COVID-19 outbreak. Authorities are trying to find out how he got infected and who might have been infected because of him. At least two schools in New York City and surrounding areas were closed on Tuesday due to the second confirmed case. To quell fear and panic, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo stressed that 80 percent of those infected will recover by themselves. "They may not even know they had the virus. It would be like a flu with mild symptoms," he said. Meanwhile, he acknowledged that there would be a continuing spread, which demonstrates the importance of strengthening capacity for testing. The state health department will share its testing protocol with private laboratories to increase the capacity, he added. Due to concerns over a further spread of the virus, several major events scheduled for March in the country have been removed from the calendar. In the island state of Hawaii, a premier cultural event, the 26th annual Honolulu Festival, has been canceled. The Honolulu Festival Foundation announced in a statement on Tuesday that the move is in response to recommendations made by government health officials. The three-day event was expected to draw thousands of visitors from throughout the region, including more than 100 groups who would share their culture through music, dance and arts in free performances. In Chicago, the Inspired Home Show, which was scheduled for March 14-17 and expected to attract around 2,200 exhibitors and some 52,000 visitors, has been canceled by the event's organizer. Meanwhile, a person suspected of being infected with COVID-19 is being treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center and awaiting lab tests, the hospital said Tuesday. Cats and dogs cannot pass the new coronavirus on to humans, but they can test positive for low levels of the pathogen if they catch it from their owners. That's the conclusion of Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department after a dog in quarantine tested weak positive for the virus Feb. 27, Feb. 28 and March 2, using the canine's nasal and oral cavity samples. An unidentified spokesman for the department was quoted in a news release as saying. "There is currently no evidence that pet animals can be a source of infection of COVID-19 or that they become sick." Scientists suspect the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease originated in bats before passing it on to another species, possibly a small wild mammal, that passed it on to humans. However, experts from the School of Public Health of The University of Hong Kong, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences of the City University of Hong Kong and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have unanimously agreed that the dog has a low-level of infection and it is "likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission." The dog, and another also in quarantine which has tested negative for the virus, will be tested again before being released. The department suggested any pets, including dogs and cats, from households where someone has tested positive for the virus should be put into quarantine. In general, pet owners should maintain good hygiene, including washing hands before and after handling animals, their food and supplies and no kissing them. People who are sick should avoid contact with pets and a veterinarian's advice should be sought if changes in a pet's health conditions are detected. "Apart from maintaining good hygiene practices, pet owners need not be overly concerned and under no circumstances should they abandon their pets," the spokesman said. AP Proposition A, an $845 million bond measure for building repairs and equipment at City College of San Francisco, won handily Tuesday. The measure needed 55% voter approval to pass, but surpassed that margin early and continued widening its support throughout the evening. With nearly all precincts reporting, the measures endorsement topped 70%. Prop. A is an opportunity to repair and retrofit decaying City College facilities, Board of Trustees President Shanell Williams said during the campaign. Opponents, notably the San Francisco Republican Party, which argued against Prop. A in the citys ballot book, said the bond would unfairly burden property owners with the cost of campus repairs. Through an increase in the citys property tax, homeowners will pay off the $845 million bond, plus 89% in interest, for a total of $1.6 billion over three decades. The city controller has estimated that annual property taxes could grow by $11 per $100,000 of assessed property value through mid-2053. The college of 65,000 full- and part-time students has nine sites across San Francisco, including its 7-year-old Chinatown campus, an 85-year-old main campus on Ocean Avenue and classrooms at San Francisco International Airport. All need help, employees and students have said. The facilities at CCSF are pretty awful, said student Jess Nguyen, who studies floristry. There have been lots of problems with leaky roofs, large holes in ceilings in the creative arts buildings where bathrooms had to be closed for over a year and rat problems, Nguyen said. The heating doesnt work, and students sometimes are left freezing in classrooms and cant even concentrate on their classwork. COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California. When Nguyen and other students asked the colleges facilities department in 2018 to fix an air compressor they needed for a metal arts class, they were told to get in line the department had 40,000 others requests ahead of them, she said. The air compressor got fixed, Nguyen said, but it took weeks. Through City College, city taxpayers still owe nearly $248 million on two prior facilities bonds in 2001 and 2005 for which the college paid more than $19 million in debt service last year. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov Travelers arrive to the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) wearing masks for protection against COVID-19 in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2020. (David McNew/Getty Images) More Countries Facing Travel Restrictions Amid Coronavirus, TSA Chief Says Further travel restrictions will be announced relatively soon to prevent coronavirus from spreading, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief David Pekoske said on March 3. Speaking to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committees homeland security panel, Pekoske did not identify which countries the restrictions may apply to, but confirmed that there will be additional countries. Im sure, as we continue to work with the task force, and I think those announcements will be relatively soon, he said. Pekoske said carriers will question passengers on their way to the United States and check their passports to ensure they have not traveled to China or Iran in the past 14 days. Then, passengers entering the United States at the gate will also be screened. U.S. citizens who have been to either of these countries in the past two weeks can only arrive at one of 11 airports across the country for a health checkup. Non-U.S. citizens who have been to these two restricted countries will not be permitted to enter the country. Pekoske added that not a large number of these passengers have been denied entry. Earlier on March 3, President Donald Trump told reporters that his administration will be making additional decisions regarding further travel restrictions on other countries hit hard by the coronavirus and hinted that his administration was considering adding Japan to the list of countries that face travel restrictions. Were watching Italy very closely, South Korea very closely, even Japan very closely, he said. And well make the right determination at the right time. Weve cut it off, as you know, with numerous other countries. They are the hot spots right now. Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump named leader of the coronavirus task force in February, has also announced 100 percent travel screenings for passengers on direct flights from certain regions of Italy and South Korea, where the coronavirus has spread widely. U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington on Feb. 29, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) The Trump administration also raised the travel warning level 4, the highest level, regarding travel to affected areas of Italy, including Lombardy and Veneto, and Daegu in South Korea. Coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has so far infected people in more than 74 countries since it was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. However, the Chinese regime has reportedly confirmed fewer novel coronavirus diagnoses throughout the country in a bid to make it seem as though the outbreak is leveling off. There are now 128 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States and nine deaths, all in Washington state. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 can be caught via people who have the infection and is spread through small droplets from the nose or mouth when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose, or mouth. People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets. They advise staying more than 1 meter (3 feet) away from a person who is sick. The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Nov. 4, 2009. (Jason Reed/AP-File) One Million US Coronavirus Tests to Be Available by End of Week: FDA Official U.S. laboratories should have the materials capable of performing about a million coronavirus tests by the end of the week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn claimed, as cases across the nation rose to more than 100 and health officials warned of a surge in numbers. Hahn said at a Senate committee hearing that by Friday, manufacturers should be able to supply around 2,500 kits to laboratories across the United States. He explained that each kit could allow labs to perform up to 500 tests. The kits are reportedly being produced by an outside manufacturer, Integrated DNA Technologies, and distributed to public laboratories and a variety of academic, health care, and commercial labs around the country, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times Tuesday. With this new policy weve heard from multiple companies and multiple academic centers, and we expect to have a substantial increase in the number of tests this week, next week, and throughout the month, Hahn said. The estimates that were getting from industry right now, by the end of this week close to one million tests will be able to be performed. The announcement came as Hahnwho recently joined the White House coronavirus task forcesaid that the FDA has introduced a new policy which would allow specific laboratories to develop and use their own validated COVID-19 screening tests before receiving authorization from the agency, in a bid to accelerate testing capacity in the United States. Federally certified laboratories will be able to develop and use their own molecular diagnostics tests for the virus without waiting for an emergency use authorization to be issued by the FDA, the agency explained in a release. Although the labs tests will still need to go to the agency for approval, the FDA will provide a grace period of 15 business days during which the labs can use the tests to screen patients while submissions are gathered. We believe this policy strikes the right balance during this public health emergency, Hahn said in a statement. We will continue to help to ensure sound science prior to clinical testing and follow-up with the critical, independent review from the FDA, while quickly expanding testing capabilities in the U.S. This action today reflects our public health commitment to addressing critical public health needs and rapidly responding and adapting to this dynamic and evolving situation. The CDC previously advised only testing individuals who either had a history of travel to affected countries or had come into contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case. Meanwhile, testing kits distributed to state and local labs, which were developed by the CDC, had faulty components and produced inconclusive results. Only seven state labs had the ability to test for the coronavirus locally as of Feb. 26, while the CDC worked on manufacturing new kits that produce more reliable results. Meanwhile, Eric Blank, the chief program officer at the Association of Public Health Laboratories told The New York Times that it is more likely to take a couple of weeks for one million tests to be deployed. The process of getting a test kit out and putting it into production is not something that happens literally overnight, in particular when youre talking about a million tests, he said. Its a nice thing to say, and its a simple thing to say, but the reality is we are a couple of weeks away from being able to deploy a million tests through this process. Concerns of community spread of the virus across the United States continue to escalate, with at least 12 states across the country reporting cases. Washington stateone of the states most impacted by the virus so farconfirmed 27 cases and nine deaths as of Tuesday. Cases have also been detected in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. What are the important movements in the sci-tech market in 2019, and what changes have been made to the legal framework to facilitate businesses? Tran Van Tung, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology In 2019, the focus of developing the market was to establish the necessary environment for stakeholders to conduct transactions and to encourage demand by helping businesses improve their technical capacity. Additionally, the orientations included increasing the supply of goods by promoting the commercialisation of research and development (R&D) achievements and encouraging the creation of intermediary services in the sci-tech market, such as agencies and technology transfer consultants. This helps link up supply with demand and encourages the establishment of joint ventures between research areas and businesses via international-scale exhibitions. To this effect, in 2019 the government enacted a series of legal documents, including Decree No.13/2019/ND-CP on sci-tech business, institutionalising the National Assembly and governments orientation which centres businesses in the countrys innovation ecosystem with a series of important solutions. These solutions include simplifying administrative procedures in the registration of businesses, applying post-inspection instead of pre-inspection in document appraisal, and specifying the administrative procedures for access to incentive policies, as well as encouraging startups to register as sci-tech firms. For instance, sci-tech firms having manufacturing and business of products resulted from sci-tech research and development enjoy exemption of corporate income tax (CIT) in first four years, and a reduction of 50 per cent in CIT in the following nine years. Also in 2019 the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No.10/2019/TT-BTC guiding the evaluation of assets produced as a result of state-funded sci-tech projects. This circular is the premise for organisations, individuals, and businesses to deal with their assets developed through sci-tech, thus boosting their application and commercialisation, as well as technology transfer via stake contributions and joint ventures. Last year a number of events were held for the sci-tech market such as techmart, techdemo, and techfest to introduce new technologies to businesses, and create connectivity between business and research institutes, and universities, as well as the others involvers. Another important step forward was the development of intermediary units in the sci-tech market. Together with improving the capacity of traditional intermediary units such as sci-tech transaction floors, promotion of technology transfer via training, and technology infrastructure support, the development of new intermediary units was also a priority task. Innovative businesses play an increasing role in the countrys economic development, especially in the digital age. How can the government support this, and lure more venture funds into this ecosystem? The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) has co-ordinated with ministries and agencies to work on the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises 2017 and Decree No.39/2018/ND-CP guiding the Law, with some policies supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in conducting innovative business activities. In addition, SMEs also receive financial support for legal consultancy at state agencies under Decree No.55/2019/ND-CP dated June 2019. This decree also outlines the supporting policies for household businesses which change their business model into SMEs, innovative SMEs, SMEs joining industrial links, and the value chain in line with Decree 39. Regarding investment policies for innovative businesses, the MoST worked with the Ministry of Planning and Investment on consulting the government to enact Decree No.38/2018/ND-CP dated March 11, 2018 guiding investment policies for innovative businesses, and Decree No.34/2018/ND-CP dated March 8, 2018 on the establishment, organisation, and operation of a credit guarantee fund for SMEs. For sci-tech development funds of enterprises to invest in innovative businesses, the MoST also compiled the Law on Technology Transfer 2017 and Decree No.76/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 to guide some regulations of the law. Additionally, the MoST consulted the government on the enactment of Document No.1128/TTg-DMDN dated August 31, 2018 on attracting domestic and international investment in innovative businesses, while working with other ministries and agencies on new policies to attract private investment such as the testing mechanism on calling community funding and peer-to-peer lending; appointing Vietnams representative of innovative business in developed countries; simplification of administrative procedures for investment and foreign labourers in Vietnam. In early 2019, the government issued Resolution No.01/NQ-CP on the key tasks and solutions to fulfil the socio-economic development targets and state budget estimate in 2019, and Resolution No.02/NQ-CP on continuing to take key tasks and solutions to improve the business climate and increase national competitiveness in 2019 with orientations towards 2021. These include policies for developing innovative businesses. For instance, they set the task of adding regulations for innovative businesses to receive state funding; and establishment of national startups centres. We will develop high-quality service complex for innovative businesses, promote development of innovative businesses in different sectors and areas of expertise such as fintech, digital technology, and big data; develop networks between Vietnam and the world, especially with experts and successful Vietnamese enterprises abroad via co-operation and exchange programmes, and international techfests; strengthen market development for the countrys innovative businesses, especially international markets; and encourage powerful groups and public sectors to place orders for innovative businesses. What are the countrys key tasks and orientations to spur the sci-tech market development in 2020 and the following years? A number of tasks will be focused on in 2020. They are improvements to the legal framework and promotional activities. Regarding the legal framework, the MoST will work on a master plan on sci-tech market development by 2030 with a focus on increasing the efficiency of technology transfer, the commercialisation of the results of sci-tech research, the establishment of a network of intermediary units connecting with international partners to strengthen information exchange, and the promotion of joint ventures and co-operation in R&D among institutes, schools, and businesses. The ministry will also check and complete the regulations related to the capitalisation of intellectual property (capital contribution, evaluation, guaranteed transactions, and intellectual property audit) and propose new policies on finance and credit, thus promoting the application and commercialisation of research results, and intellectual property assets developed from state-funded sci-tech projects. In addition, the MoST will organise promotion events to support the development of the sci-tech market. Specially, these annual events will focus on increasing the efficiency of technology transfer, the commercialisation of research results and intellectual property assets at home and abroad with policies to ensure information update and enhance post-promotion transactions while boosting the mechanisms to call for private investment. At the same time, a number of groups will head abroad to stage promotional events, which will help to connect with the international technology market and link Vietnamese intermediary units with global counterparts. The group, led by Premier Li Keqiang, also demanded efforts to coordinate the prevention and control measures and the spring farming. The positive trend of the prevention and control situation should be expanded, according to a meeting of the group held Monday. Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presided over the meeting. It is now the most crucial moment to curb the spread of the epidemic, so the prevention and control work should not be relaxed at all, according to the meeting. Hubei Province and Wuhan, as the centers of the epidemic, should continue to strictly implement prevention and control measures, boost prevention and control from the source in communities, improve the level of treatment and ensure the timely and accurate release of information on the epidemic, the meeting said. Beijing and other cities with large population mobility should have channels, communities and ports watched over to prevent the inflow and spread of the epidemic, the meeting said. Other regions should adjust the emergency response levels based on the actual situations and combine them with the differentiated prevention and control at the county level, precisely implement the prevention and control measures after the resumption of work, reduce unnecessary crowd gatherings and restore normal production and life in an orderly way, the meeting said. The meeting also called for greater efforts to advance development of fast and convenient detection kits, the development and testing of major drugs and the development of effective vaccines in a bid to promote scientific and accurate prevention and control. At present, the epidemic situation in China is generally at a relatively low level except for Hubei, showing a positive trend. Community prevention and control, however, is an important gateway and foundation to further control the spread of the epidemic and prevent sporadic outbreaks. People working at urban and rural communities have contributed remarkably to the fight against the epidemic, and local regions should pay more attention to them and care for them. The protection conditions of community workers shall be improved, including provision of reasonable amount of masks, protective clothing, and well-considered arrangements be made to help them continue their work. The meeting also urged a balance between epidemic prevention and control work and spring farming, adding that Hubei should also carry out agricultural production in an orderly way while maintaining solid work in epidemic prevention and control. Wang Huning, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, attended the meeting. *Chinese health authority said Tuesday (March 3) it received reports of 125 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 31 deaths on Monday on the Chinese mainland. All the deaths were in Hubei Province, according to the National Health Commission. * On Monday, 2,742 people were discharged from hospital after recovery from novel coronavirus infection, while the number of severe cases decreased by 304 to 6,806. * The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,151 by the end of Monday, including 30,004 patients who were still being treated, 47,204 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 2,943 people who had died of the disease. * By the end of Monday, 100 confirmed cases including two deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 41 in Taiwan, including one death. Thirty-six patients in Hong Kong, eight in Macao and 12 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery. * "About 80 to 90 percent of the newly confirmed infections in Wuhan were previously suspected cases," said Liang Wannian, head of the Chinese expert panel on outbreak response and disposal. "These cases are all under our control," Liang said. Some new infections are also related to close contacts of the confirmed cases. The China-World Health Organization joint expert team said about 1 to 5 percent of close contacts have later been confirmed to have the disease. * All the passengers and crew members aboard flight CA440 tested negative for the novel coronavirus after their flight landed in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from Seoul on Sunday. Four people on the flight, with 10 crew members and 79 passengers including 22 from the Republic of Korea, were found to have feverish symptoms during entry quarantine. The four passengers, all Chongqing citizens, were sent to a designated hospital for treatment. The rest were under medical observation. Nucleic acid tests were negative for all aboard. Another test will be conducted on the four feverish passengers after 24 hours. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Associated Press California reported its first death from the coronavirus on Wednesday: an elderly patient in Placer County, near Sacramento, who had underlying health problems. Ten others in the US have died from the virus, all in Washington state. "Jennifer and I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this death in Placer County," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health." The patient had recently returned from a cruise on the Grand Princess, a Princess Cruises ship that departed from San Francisco and went to Mexico. Princess Cruises also owns the Diamond Princess, which hosted one of the largest outbreaks of the new coronavirus outside China. Passengers on that ship were quarantined for two weeks in February after a man tested positive for the coronavirus six days after departing the vessel. More than 700 people on board wound up infected, and six people have died. The California patient who died on Wednesday traveled on the Grand Princess from February 11 to 21. The Placer County Health Department said other passengers on the cruise may have been exposed to the virus. The department added that it is working closely with the Sacramento County Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify and contact those passengers. Story continues Princess Cruises said the ship would turn around at sea since the CDC is investigating a "small cluster" of coronavirus cases in Northern California related to the previous voyage. At least one other confirmed coronavirus patient a person in Sonoma County was also on the Grand Princess cruise at the same time as the Placer County patient who died. Passengers who remained on board after the last voyage were told to stay in their rooms until they're cleared by medical staff. In the meantime, they're allowed to order room service. The ship is set to arrive in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon. A Princess Cruise ship. Princess Cruises The California patient who died had minimal contact with others in the Sacramento community after returning from the cruise, health officials said. The person was admitted to the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Roseville last Thursday after arriving by ambulance. "While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see," Placer County Public Health Officer Aimee Sisson said in a statement. The Placer County Health Department said at least 10 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers and five emergency responders had contact with the patient before the person was isolated; they're being quarantined but haven't shown symptoms of the virus. Because the patient was elderly, they were at a higher risk of developing a severe case of the virus. A recent study from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 15% of people older than 80 who had the virus died. The US has reported nearly 150 coronavirus cases, some of which are mild. All the people who have died in the US were elderly or had preexisting health problems. "If you are healthy and not at higher risk, please look out for friends and loved ones who would be considered more vulnerable and offer support," Sisson said. "We are working with our state and federal partners to limit the impacts of this disease to our community, but we need the public's help as well." Read the original article on Business Insider Donald Trump has accused Democratic moderates of trying to rig the presidential nomination race against Bernie Sanders after a string of last-minute endorsements for his rival Joe Biden. The US president attempted to widen the divisions in the party as voters went to the polls in 14 different states yesterday, known as Super Tuesday, to pick who they want to be their candidate. Speaking at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina the night before voting, Mr Trump said: "It's being rigged against Crazy Bernie. Crazy Bernie's going to go crazy." He accused Joe Biden - the former US vice-president who was endorsed by three of his previous rivals in the race - of orchestrating an attempt to stop the Vermont senator. "They both supported Sleepy Joe. You know why? They made a deal," Mr Trump told his supporters. He wrote on Twitter: "They are staging a coup against Bernie!" The attacks came as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr Biden. Beto O'Rourke, who quit in November, also endorsed him. Their backing was seen as a huge boost for Mr Biden. Mr Trump has repeatedly played up the idea that Mr Sanders, a democratic socialist who sits in the Senate as an independent, is being denied the nomination by the Democratic Party establishment. MORRISTOWN, N.J., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. (the Company or Melinta), a commercial-stage company focused on the development and commercialization of novel antibiotics to treat serious bacterial infections, confirmed today that the Companys agreement with funds managed by Deerfield Management Company, L.P., the lenders under the Companys senior credit facility (Deerfield), has been designated as the highest and best offer for the Company and its assets following the completion of a formal marketing process. The auction scheduled for March 6, 2020 will not proceed, as no party submitted a higher and better bid in accordance with the bidding procedures established by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the Court). Under the terms of the previously announced Restructuring Support Agreement, Deerfield will acquire the Company as a going concern by exchanging its secured claims arising under its senior credit facility for 100 percent of the equity to be issued by the reorganized Company pursuant to a pre-negotiated chapter 11 plan of reorganization. The Company will seek Court approval to assume its agreement with Deerfield on March 13, 2020, and expects that the chapter 11 plan implementing the Deerfield transaction will be confirmed by the Court on April 2, 2020. The transaction is expected to go effective shortly after the Court confirms the chapter 11 plan. In addition, pursuant to a settlement negotiated among the Company and major case constituents, and subject to various conditions set forth therein and in the chapter 11 plan, on the effective date of the chapter 11 plan, $3.5 million will be contributed to a trust for the benefit of general unsecured creditors of the Company. Existing equity interests in the Company would be cancelled upon the effective date of the chapter 11 plan and equity holders will receive no recovery. Since filing for chapter 11 in December 27, 2019, Melinta has continued to operate its business in the normal course with no disruption to product supply, distribution, or support of the Companys antibiotic portfolio: BAXDELA (delafloxacin), VABOMERE (meropenem and vaborbactam), ORBACTIV (oritavancin), and MINOCIN (minocycline) for Injection. Melinta is advised in this transaction by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, McDermott, Will & Emory, Portage Point Partners, LLC and Jefferies, LLC. Deerfield is advised in this transaction by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Landis Rath & Cobb LLP and Houlihan Lokey. Additional information about this process, including documents related to the restructuring and reorganization proceedings, is available through Melintas claims agent Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC at www.kccllc.net/Melinta. About Melinta Therapeutics Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. is the largest pure-play antibiotics company, dedicated to saving lives threatened by the global public health crisis of bacterial infections through the development and commercialization of novel antibiotics that provide new therapeutic solutions. Its four marketed products include Baxdela (delafloxacin), Vabomere (meropenem and vaborbactam), Orbactiv (oritavancin), and Minocin (minocycline) for Injection. This portfolio provides Melinta with the unique ability to provide providers and patients with a range of solutions that can meet the tremendous need for novel antibiotics treating serious infections. Visit www.melinta.com for more information. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this communication constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act and are usually identified by the use of words such as anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, intends, may, plans, projects, seeks, should, will, and variations of such words or similar expressions, including statements related to guidance. The Company intends these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act and are making this statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements reflect the Companys current views about its plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to it and on assumptions it has made and include statements regarding: the terms and timing of and the ability to consummate the sale of the Company to Deerfield and the transactions contemplated by the pre-negotiated chapter 11 plan of reorganization; the ability to obtain the Courts approval of the chapter 11 plan; the terms of and ability to consummate the settlement negotiated among the Company and major case constituents; any anticipated recovery of creditors, including pursuant to the negotiated settlement; the expected treatment of the equity of the Company, including no expected recovery of existing equity; the timing and ability of the Company to emerge from the chapter 11 proceedings as a going concern and any statements or assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Although the Company believes that its plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations, strategies or prospects will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond the Companys control. Risks and uncertainties for the Company include, but are not limited to, the decisions of the Court; negotiations with the Companys debtholders, the Companys creditors and the official committee of unsecured creditors and any other committee appointed in the chapter 11 cases; risks and uncertainties associated with chapter 11 proceedings; the Companys ability to meet the requirements, and compliance with the terms, including restrictive covenants, of the Restructuring Support Agreement, the settlement agreement with general unsecured creditors of the Company and any other settlement or arrangement while in chapter 11 proceedings and risks associated with such compliance; the Companys ability to discharge claims in chapter 11 proceedings; and the risk that the Companys chapter 11 cases may be converted to cases under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. Many of these factors that will determine actual results are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. Other risks and uncertainties are more fully described in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, its Definitive Proxy Statement filed April 30, 2019, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2019, June 30, 2019, and September 30, 2019, and in other filings that the Company makes and will make with the SEC. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The statements made in this press release speak only as of the date stated herein, and subsequent events and developments may cause the Companys expectations and beliefs to change. While the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements publicly at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Companys views as of any date after the date stated herein. For More Information: Investor Inquiries: Susan Blum (312) 767-0296 ir@melinta.com Ankaras defiant reaction to the Syrian armys advances in the northwestern province of Idlib has led the Syrian crisis toward one of its most critical phases in the past several years, pushing Ankara and Damascus to the verge of a full-scale war. The latest round of escalation began Feb. 27, when at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian military airstrike in a rebel-held area of Idlib province. While Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accused the Syrian government of deliberately targeting Turkish soldiers despite warnings, Assads ally Russia claimed the Turkish forces were in the battle formations of terrorist groups. However, the Syrian governments other major ally, Iran, showed a rather neutral reaction, stressing the need to immediately manage and calm the current tense situation. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also called for holding a new Iranian-Russian-Turkish summit within the framework of the Astana process. Nonetheless, the situation became even more complex when the Turkish militarys retaliatory operation against the Syrian army positions led to the death of several Iran-backed forces in Syrias northwest, along with the Syrian soldiers. According to the reports published in the Iranian media, at least four fighters affiliated with Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as 21 members of Fatemiyoun and Zainebiyoun brigades which consist of Afghan and Pakistani Shiite forces supported by the Islamic Republic were killed in the Turkish strikes. Hours after the strikes on Feb. 29, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the Iranian side called for resolving the Idlib issue through dialogue. Rouhani also once again proposed hosting the Turkish and Russian presidents for a new Astana summit to discuss the ongoing crisis. However, Rouhanis diplomatic call for compromise was supplemented by a direct warning against Ankara by the Islamic Republics military command in Syria. Irans advisory center in northern Syria issued a statement March 1 saying that the Turkish military continues to attack positions belonging to the center. While warning that Turkish soldiers in Syria are within firing range of the Iranian forces, the center asked the Turkish military to act wisely so as not to trigger a retaliatory move by the Iranian side. While the two above-mentioned positions might appear contradictory at first glance, each of them shows main aspects of Irans overall approach toward the Idlib issue. The Iranian advisory centers statement came as a surprise to those following Irans involvement in the Syrian crisis, as almost nobody had previously heard of the existence of such a center. While the Islamic Republic had always refused to admit its involvement in the Idlib battles, the statement was a clear confirmation of the active role of Iranian and Iran-backed forces in that part of Syria. As such, Irans decision to publicize its presence in Idlib could be seen as an attempt to declare that it has a set of interests in Syrias northwest, which should be respected by the other actors, especially Turkey. In fact, the statement was quite clear in defining those interests, as well as Irans red lines in Idlib. According to the Iranian advisory center, forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) along with Hezbollah and other resistance forces have been involved in securing the Syrian governments control over the strategic M5 highway that connects Damascus with Aleppo. It also underlines that the same forces continued to cooperate with the Syrian army in the face of the armed forces supported by the Turkish military, who wanted to retake the highway. It appears that guaranteeing the Assad governments control over the M5 highway is one of Irans main priorities in that area. Meanwhile, although Iran used to depict its proxies fighting in Syria as voluntary groups formed to fight the terrorists, the latest statement makes no distinction between the IRGC forces on the ground and those Iran-backed forces, which it calls resistance groups. The statement seems to contain a tacit warning that any Turkish targeting of these groups would be considered an attack on the Iranian military. The statement also indicates a shift in Irans approach toward the role of Russia in Idlib. In the past, Tehran used to rely on the Russian channel for de-escalating the conflicts between the Syrian army and Turkish-backed forces in Idlib. Clear evidence of this approach was Iran's endorsement of the Sochi deal between Moscow and Ankara in September 2018 on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib. However, this time Iran seems to be dissatisfied with Russia's unwillingness to more strongly support the Assad government in the face of frequent Turkish attacks, something that is seen as possibly indicating a kind of back-channel deal between Ankara and Moscow. Therefore, Iran appears to be trying to define a role for itself in Idlib independent of Russia. However, the fact that the Iranian president and Foreign Ministry continue to insist on the role of diplomacy and dialogue is a sign that Iran is aware of the potential risks of an over-defiant approach in Syria. On the one hand, Iran has serious concerns over the possible collapse of the Astana process as a result of the current tensions. After all, the Astana process is the only UN-backed international peace process for Syria, in which Iran has a decisive role. Therefore, its collapse would deprive Iran of a valuable diplomatic asset with regard to Syria. On the other hand, Iran is worried that further destabilization of the situation in Syria would provide Israel with an opportunity to double down on its offensive actions against the Islamic Republic and its allies in Syria. The latest Israeli strike against the Syrian army positions in Quneitra in southwestern Syria on March. 2 showed that Tehrans concerns are not baseless. Moreover, Iran is concerned over Washingtons potential agreement to directly support Ankara in Idlib. As the Islamic Republic has defined the expulsion of American forces from the region as its main regional priority after the assassination of the IRGC Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by the United States earlier this year, any American involvement in Idlib would create new challenges for Iran in advancing its plans. As a result, while actively trying to make the other parties accept and respect its interests and red lines in Idlib, Iran is not expected to enter into an open confrontation with Turkey over this issue. Instead, it will try to translate its active military presence in the area into political gains for itself and its allies in future diplomatic talks. Narration: The coronavirus outbreak has caused a shortage of surgical masks in the U.S. because China stopped selling. But is the U.S. exposed to bigger risks? Simone Gao: If China cuts its supply today in how long the U.S. the American people wouldnt be able to buy generic drugs from this store? Rosemary Gibson: I think in a matter of a couple of months wed be really seeing some problems. Ms. Gao: What kind of drugs are we relying on? China Ms. Gibson: Thousands. Ms. Gao: It wasnt like this before. According to your book. Um, in the 1990s America, Europe and Japan produces 90% of the global supply of key ingredients as her medicine and vitamins and now the number is 80% of them is made in China and India. How did that change happen? Narration: Amidst the coronavirus epidemic, I sat down with Rosemary Gibson, author of China RX: exposing the risks of Americas dependence on China for medicine.We discussed how this dependence happened; what danger it would bring to the American public if the coronavirus epidemic continues for an extensive period of time; and if such dominance in medicine could be weaponized by the Chinese government after all? Host: I am Simone Gao and you are watching Zooming In. Rosemary Gibson: Coronavirus Exposes Americas Heavy Reliance on China for Medicines Ms. Gao: After the coronavirus epidemic started, there has been a shortage of surgical masks and I have firsthand experience. I went to the CVS several times last month, every one, every time I went they were out. But this is just one thing I want to get your assessment of whether this epidemic has started to impact the American pharmaceutical industry. Ms. Gibson: What were seeing with regard to the masks is that companies that were producing masks for the U.S. and other countries, those company manufacturers were ordered not to export masks because they were needed in China. And thats understandable. But this is a consequence of the global supply chain being concentrated in a single country. If there is an outbreak in other countries, where are the masks going to come from? This is why one of the recommendations in China RX is that we diversify our manufacturing base, that we get supplies from multiple countries and in some cases were going to have to each develop our own manufacturing capability. Because if theres an outbreak in Europe, or Canada, or Australia, now were in the future. Each country is going to want to keep product for their own people and thats perfectly understandable, but it leaves everybody else vulnerable. So I hope the coronavirus issue, as terrible as it has been for so many people, I hope it raises awareness about the need to decentralize our manufacturing so that people around the world, the next time something happens or hopefully this doesnt achieve an outbreak elsewhere, that theres enough to go around that people have the medicines that they need, the masks, and other protective equipment. Now your question was also about what else are we seeing. Ms. Gao: Its relatively small, right? Ms. Gibson: Right. But theres the protective gear, the boots, the hats, where does the material come from to make that? Ms. Gao: Its from China. Ms. Gibson: Right. So that presents yet another challenge of centralizing global supply in a single country. When it comes to medicines, what Im hearing is that hospitals have yet to have problems obtaining medicines. The question is how long will that be the case? Whats happening in China is production is shut down because people are not going to work. Transportation routes are shut down. And the longer this goes on, the longer that there isnt a production, the existing inventories will dry up. There was a fascinating report in the Indian media saying that Indias generic industry, it depends heavilythis is the generic pharmaceutical industryit depends heavily on chemicals coming from China for their generic medicines. They supply, India supplies 25% of the U.S. market and they are very concerned about production in China. Some of that production that India relies on is in Wuhan, for antibiotics for certain vitamins. So the longer that this persists, the risks of a global shortage of really important medicines escalates rapidly and we hope that no other country has an outbreak because then well be really, really in a difficult situation. Ms. Gao: Can you give us a time estimate, like if China cuts its supply today, in how long the U.S. the American people wouldnt be able to buy generic drugs from the store? Ms. Gibson: Thats hard to tell. It might vary and it depends on inventory and were not hearing transparency from companies. They may not want to raise concern among the public, but I think in a matter of a couple of months wed be really seeing some problems if it persists and if demand persists in China. Itll be a whole other issue if the outbreak gains a foothold here in the United States, which the CDC, the centers for disease control and prevention has suggested could happen. So hopefully for a couple of months, we are already hearing that hospitals and their suppliers are being careful about allocating existing supplies. With rationing basically. Ms. Gao: Right. Ms. Gibson: In anticipation. Ms. Gao: What kind of pharmaceutical products are we reliant on China? Ms. Gibson: Thousands. Antibiotics. Ill say penicillin. So many of the antibiotics, lets take the example of a patient with coronavirus whos very seriously ill and they need to be hospitalized. If they have trouble breathing, which a small percentage of them do, they might be put on a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe. And these things are done to help people recover. And the good news is many people are recovering. So this is really important care that theyre receiving. So theyll be given a sedative, it might be propofol or fentanyl. And if they develop a secondary infection thats bacterial, they might be treated with an antibiotic. If they go into shock, they might be given other medicines like epinephrine or dopamine. So I asked those who make, or actually do the manufacturing of these generic medicines, Where do the materials come? The chemicals come to make them? And all of them have said that 90% of those core materials, the raw materials come from China. So this is, and these are standard medicines used in any hospital intensive care unit for all kinds of patients. So that really shows the concentration of our supply chain in a single country. Ms. Gao: So you are talking aboutwe are talking about if China cuts its supply in a matter of a couple of months, the U.S. hospitals will cease to operate and the American people wouldnt be able to buy generic drugs from the store. Ms. Gibson: I think that it may start with certain products, not across the board, but well certainly see shortages of very, very important medicines. Bear in mind that in the United States we already have hundreds of medicines that are currently in shortage, and this is pre-coronavirus, and theres lots of reasons for that and the coronavirus outbreak, if it continues, that will put even more pressure. We need a much better system in this country. And I suspect other countries do too to predict. I mean this is predictable. Ms. Gao: Right? Ms. Gibson: This is, this could happen, it will happen again at some point in the future. We dont want it to, but it could happen in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and we have to plan, we have to predict, and prepare. So we have some manufacturing capability here in this country and perhaps we can help other countries by exporting medicines to them when they need them. So we really have to diversify our manufacturing base and have some degree of self sufficiency for some group of essential medicines. Ms. Gao: It wasnt like this before. According to your book, in the 1990s America, Europe, and Japan produced 90% of the global supply of key ingredients of the medicines and vitamins and now the number is 80% of them are made in China and India. How did that change happen? Ms. Gibson: It happened and for a couple of reasons. One, the United States had a law allowing generic drugs, which means that drugs that have been off on patent with patent protection, theyre no longer on patent protection to make them cheaper for people. So manufacturers wanted a cheaper way to make them and so they moved East. That began in the 80s, late eighties, early nineties. The other very important event was when the United States opened up free trade with China in 2000, and China joined WTO in 2001. Its remarkable in China RX, I noticed a pattern that when we opened up free trade with China and they joined the WTO, within a year or two, thats when we lost the last aspirin plant in the United States. Its when our last penicillin plant closed. Its when our last vitamin C plant closed. Its when a very important blood thinner called heparin, when U.S. companies began to source the raw material from China. So the trade policy who knew its trade policy has such a profound impact and our medicine supply. But its not just trade, what we saw, and theres a chapter in China RX about the penicillin and vitamin C cartels, China was cheating it dumped product, sold it to the United States and other countries at below market prices and drove out the other producers. Ms. Gao: Right. And after that, what did they do? Ms. Gibson: Then they raised prices and they have global dominance. This was a consistent pattern, when it was for penicillin, the last us plant shut down in 2004 and that was the year that wed have data to show in China RX, thats the year when China began dumping it on the global market. And that even drove out producers in India. So India depends on China for very important antibiotics as well because of these unfair trade practices. And of course China subsidizes its domestic companies making it very difficult for companies and other countries to compete. Ms. Gao: So havent the pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., for example, learn the lesson? They know what China is going to do. Have they benefited? Are they still, are they still benefiting from outsourcing production to China? Ms. Gibson: The focus in China RX has been on the generic drugs, which are 90% of the medicines people take. And the truth is that theyre competing in an unlevel playing field. If we talk about, you talked about FDA inspections in China, while we have FDA inspections here in the U.S. and frankly theyre much more rigorous. The FDA can walk into your plant and they may spend a week or 10 days there. In China, they get advanced notice and they may be there just a couple of days. So thats a lot different in terms of unleveled playing field. And again, how do you compete when China can undercut on price? So it can be very, very challenging. But its also true, youre right, that people want to pay manufacturers very low prices so they can make more money on the margin and sell them higher to the consumer. And so what theyve been doing is hammering down on the price paid to manufacturers, and thats whats driving out Western companies making generic drugs. So now China has 9% of the generic drug sold in the United States. That market share used to have zero in 2007 and its ramping up quickly and our manufacturing base in the U.S. to make our own medicines is collapsing. Its falling apart. Same in Europe. And so were exacerbating, you know, the concentration of the supply of finished drugs, the pills we take. And Chinas aim is to become the pharmacy to the world as we see if theres a global pandemic or natural disaster, thats not a very smart thing to do to centralize it in any single country. Ms. Gao: Its China raising the price for the generic drugs that they produce. Ms. Gibson: I dont know the answer to that, but I would be surprised that they would do that now. I suspect they would wait until they have a larger share of the market, and then do that. And at that point, and Ive warned about this in China RX, that the United States will be the price taker and China will be the price setter. We are approaching that point where that will happen. Ms. Gao: Dont you think the pharmaceutical companies also see this and they dont care? Ms. Gibson: Well, um, theyre into shareholder value. And the next quarterly earnings report, the question is whos looking out in the long term for the interests of the public, if there is a public health crisis or natural disaster? And that Im really delighted to say that China RX has really stimulated that conversation in the executive branch and the legislative branch here in Washington. You know, this strategic national stockpile, which has so many different medicines here in the United States. So much of that depends on China. Is that really a smart thing to do? Ms. Gao: So, walk me through what happens to an American pharmaceutical company if it outsources a key ingredient of its product to a Chinese company, what happens? And then, the question is, can the FDA in China stay on top of what happens in China? Ms. Gibson: Companies that purchased ingredients from China, they might be the chemical molecules, the FDA doesnt inspect those plants and it doesnt know where they are. Thats why theyre scrambling now to figure out where our vulnerability is. The FDA does inspect these active ingredient plants in China, and they have found some concerns with a number of manufacturing facilities. They go in and they haveit should be a very thorough inspection to meet those standardsAnd again, that theres often difficulty in translation, those inspections may not be as long, and of course the Chinese government has to grant a visa to the U.S. Federal employee thats going to China to conduct an inspection. The other thing I think to think about is picture yourself as, as an inspector in China and you see some problems and you write them up, that could result in a ban on products being exported by that company and theyd be losing a lot of money. Its just one or two people that stand between that product getting in, leaving that plant or not. The question is with the FDA, with the Chinese company and the Chinese government want that inspector back in China the next time. Ms. Gao: No. Ms. Gibson: Do they really want rigorous inspections? Ms. Gao: So what would they do? Ms. Gibson: Well thats a good question. Ms. Gao: They would deny visas to those inspectors. Ms. Gibson: Well, we do know that China in the past has not given visas, even though the U S government has requested for more people to be stationed in China to work there. I think the United States and perhaps other countries have to look to a time in the not too distant future where we will not be able to rely on the FDA to do the job on behalf of the American people that we want it to do. Ill give you an example. Already the FDA and European regulators are having to make trade-offs between allowing defective products into the United States and preventing shortages. An example, this is a very important antibiotic to treat a life-threatening condition called sepsis. A chemical plant in China exploded and there was a global shortage of this very critical antibiotic. The company built another plant. The FDA went in and the European inspectors, the FDA approved it. The Europeans went in, they also approved it, but they have right on top of the inspection report, and do not meet good manufacturing standards. And they said they did it to avert a shortage. This is the situation we are now where our standards are being lowered because of the concentration in a single country and thats simply unacceptable. Ms. Gao: This has cost American people, right? There have been accidents in America, drug poisoning. Ms. Gibson: Well, certainly with the Hepthere was a blood thinner that was contaminated. It was done for economic reasons in China and that resulted in the lossof hundreds of deaths here in the United States in 2007 and 2008. Its very concerning. And plus the blood pressure medicine recalls that happened went on for months and months and months. Theres some people that dont want to take their medicine because they cant trust it. Thats a very, very terrible situation that weve gotten ourselves into. Ms. Gao: Tell me about the presence of the FDA in China. How many branches do they have? How many offices do they have in China? How many personnel are there? Ms. Gibson: My understanding is that theres one main headquarters and thats by the, affiliated with the U S embassy and the number of staff. Its very hard to get that information as to how many people are actually there. How many are inspecting food versus how many are inspecting medicine plants. Its pretty much well-kept secret. One figure I saw recently Ms. Gao: Why is it secret? Ms. Gibson: Thats a good question. Ms. Gao: I mean, why do you know its a secret? Because you wouldnt be able to get it? Ms. Gibson: We should have a lot more transparency about this whole marketplace. You know, if you think about it, the United States and other countries dont have shortages of anything. Thats because we allow the market to work and if you pay people a fair price, theyll make product for you, whether its food, clothing, whatever. But we have shortages of vital medicine in the United States. I just got an email from a physician who said that, heres a list of about 30 medicines that are needed to treat newborns and their moms when theyre in the hospital and theyre in shortage. And whats the real reason, were not really being told the real reason that these are in shortage. Ms. Gao: Whats the real reason? Ms. Gibson: Theres a number of different reasons. One of which is companies that buy from manufacturers, they pay them a very low price to make more profit. And so the companies cant do it well. And if one plant shuts down, then we have shortages. Ms. Gao: Were talking about plants in China Ms. Gibson: China, and they could also be in other countries as well. Its not just China. Okay, and we also have shortages, just because of this concentration, because Chinas aim in becoming the pharmacy to the world is to have a small number of very large companies making medicines for the people at home and for people around the world. And that concentration just doesnt make sense. You know, we wouldnt have 80% of the worlds oil sourced from a single country, nor have 80% of the refining capacity in a single country. Thats what we have with our medicine supply globally, every country. We need to change that. Ms. Gao: Do you think China could weaponize the ability to produce 80% of the worlds drugs and vitamins? Ms. Gibson: Well, we saw what happened with rare earths where China used that as leverage over Japan a number of years ago. So the control of global supply of antibiotics, the control of medicines that are life-sustaining. When you control that, you control the world. Ms. Gao: Including America? Ms. Gibson: Including America, you can call up the head of state, the president, thats huge leverage. We have to de-leverage it. Ms. Gao: What does it take to change that? Does it take a lot of the effort? Does it take a long time to change that? Ms. Gibson: It took us a long time to get here and its going to take a while to get us back. We have to make a strategic decision certainly in this country. And that is do we want to continue down this path? And that path is going to be increased dependence and that path will be another coronavirus or something like it in years to come or natural disaster. My term is it will hit the fan someday and it will be devastating. And I, and I hope, I hope it doesnt happen. Im talking, you know, another event that could happen five, 10 years from now or sooner. I dont want that to happen to our country. Ms. Gao: Right. So if China controls the production of the 80%, 90% of the antibiotics, if there is a outbreak Ms. Gibson: Absolutely. Ms. Gao: In the U.S., China can definitely, absolutely weaponize that. Right? Ms. Gibson: These are medicines used to treat pneumonia, ear infections in children, last, last resort, antibiotics to treat very, very serious antibiotic-resistant bacteria. So, thats one way. But what do we need to do here? We need to try to bring some of that manufacturing back home and to create jobs, revitalize communities, share product with other countries that may not have that same investment capability or large enough market and other countries ought to be doing the same thing. Australia, Europe, Canada, and Brazil develop their own manufacturing capability. Its going to take a while because that whole industrial base, a lot of its just been wiped out and we have to do this quickly to ensure that we have the people who still have the knowledge and skills to make these medicines are still around to do it for us, and to teach the next generation. Ms. Gao: Okay, so we are risking not even having the people around? Ms. Gibson: We need the workforce to be able to make our medicines. Ms. Gao: Another thing is the Chinese government has the ability and probably the will to weaponize this, but the Chinese people are the victims as well the melamine contamination. Ms. Gibson: Absolutely. Ms. Gao: So thousands of Chinese babies were infected and then, and some of them killed. So this practice is not helping the Chinese people as well. I just dont think this whole system can last. Whats your opinion? Ms. Gibson: I think youre right that many Chinese people suffer from substandard medicines and people die. What were seeing now is China cracking down. They arrest a lot of people in China after the vaccine scandal. So theyre taking a harder line on it. The strategy, the Chinese government is to sell medicines in the United States and to tell the Chinese people, well, Americans are taking our medicines than it must be good, good enough for the people of China. I do think China is working hard to ramp up the quality of production. There are some, you know, Western standard manufacturing plants in China. To its credit, its moved up quickly, but that has to be consistent and across the board, its also the case that China is getting rid of some of the, what Ill call the rogue suppliers, but it still has a long way to go. I think the challenge were going to see is that theres the notion of export quality. In some countries, export quality means you export your best. Ive heard from two people in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in Western countries saying export quality from China means actually lower standards, that they dont care what they send. Ms. Gao: Last question. Do you think the Trump administration or Capitol Hill is on top of this problem? Ms. Gibson: Ive been very impressed that the first recommendation I have in China RX is that thered be a whole government review of our vulnerability. And I can say with certainty that that is absolutely underway. Now the challenge is, what are we going to do? Will we bring some manufacturing back home? The market itself wont do that, so we may need some public investment to help jump start production here in the United States. And I hope that happens. We dont have to make everything but we need some level of self sufficiency. Ms. Gao: So you are essentially talking about not replacing China with India, but moving all the manufacturers home. Ms. Gibson: Well I think, India is going to have a tough time in the future trying to compete with China. About 70% of the core ingredients that India needs for its industry Ms. Gao: Its from China? Ms. Gibson: Right. Ms. Gao: So theyve got a problem. Ms. Gibson: So even India is dependent on China, and I think because China subsidizes its industry and can undercut, I think India should watch out very carefully. China could overtake India in generic drug production. Ms. Gao: Just like what happened Ms. Gibson: In the ingredient market, exactly right. Ms. Gao: Okay. All right, thank you so much. Ms. Gibson: Well, thank you so much for having me, Simone. It was a pleasure to talk with you. What does it mean to be a mother? Does it mean giving your body, your time? Does it mean sacrificing everything dreams, a career, stability, sanity? Do you have to provide the best that money has to offer, or is love enough? And what will you do for your child? These questions are at the forefront of the new spellbinding Hulu miniseries, Little Fires Everywhere, which premieres with the first three episodes on the streaming service on March 18, 2020. Throughout eight episodes, the lives of two families, led by Kerry Washingtons Mia Warren and Reese Witherspoons Elena Richardson, as they are forever changed by one another. What is Little Fires Everwhere about? Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) and Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) in Little Fires Everywhere | Erin Simkin/Hulu The series stars the two actresses as women living in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1997. Elena appears to have it all together. She is the wife of a successful lawyer, Bill (Joshua Jackson); mother to four teenage children, and works part-time at a small, local newspaper. One summer day, she crosses paths with Mia Warren, and her life is never the same. Mia, meanwhile, lives a very different kind of life. She and her teenage daughter, Pearl, move from town to town. Mia is an artist (photography, mostly), but she does other odd jobs to get by. Now, Pearl is desperate to settle down and live a normal life. And Elena offers her a way to make that happen. When and where does Little Fires Everywhere take place? The setting is key to the story. Shaker Heights is the picture of an all-American town, guaranteeing a top-notch education and all the trimmings. From the moment Mia and Pearl arrive, they discover that there are strict rules in place, and everyone looks out for one another, so to speak. But that doesnt mean race and class dont play into the conversation. The year in which it takes place is important, too. From the characters clothes to their attitudes on hot topics, the series makes it clear that its acknowledging this is the past, despite issues that remain current. Pop culture references, music queues, and other signs of the times are frequent, and are only occasionally highlighted a bit more than is necessary. Who are the young stars of Little Fires Everywhere? Pearl (Lexi Underwood) and Moody (Gavin Lewis) in Little Fires Everywhere | Erin Simkin/Hulu The story depicted here is a labyrinth of increasingly shocking discoveries. So who brings these emotions to the surface? Without a doubt, Witherspoon and Washington are at the heart of it all. But there are so many incredible supporting players deserving of recognition, especially the youngest ones. Each of the Richardson children Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn), Trip (Jordan Elsass), Moody (Gavin Lewis), and Izzy (Megan Stott) have shining moments, especially Pettyjohn and Stott, who both experience different kinds of heartbreak throughout the series. And Lexi Underwood as Pearl showcases a range of emotions required of few young actors. The message of Little Fires Everywhere Returning to the original question: What makes a mother? Washington and Witherspoons characters are at the center of this, as are the younger versions of them (played to perfection by Tiffany Boone and AnnaSophia Robb, respectively), along with Huang Lus Bebe Chow and Rosemarie DeWitts Linda McCullough. Because only episodes 1-7 were available at the time of this review, we cant say that this question has been answered entirely. But the message is clear: No matter the hand you have been dealt, there are always going to be difficult choices to make, as a mother, as a woman, and as a person in our society. And as much as wed like it not to be true, others will see us as our choices. MILLBURY An Arizona man and a Boston resident were arrested on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of an unlawful gun after a traffic stop on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Isaac Payne, 28, of Show Low, Arizona, and David Wilson, 30, of Boston, were arrested on multiple charges including trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, possession of ammunition without a permit, receiving stolen property, conspiracy to violate the drug law and on motor vehicle charges. Wilson was also charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, Massachusetts State Police said. The two were pulled over at about 9 a.m., Friday, after Trooper Daniel Lawlor noticed the Honda Accord they were in had illegal window tint and the license plate was unreadable because it was covered with debris, police said. Lawlor and Trooper David Meulenaere, who arrived to assist, felt the two men were acting suspiciously and, through a subsequent investigation, searched their car. During the search, they found several bags containing what is believed to be crystal methamphetamine weighing a total of 325 grams, a .357 Magnum revolver, two boxes of ammunition and drug paraphernalia, police said. A later search of the serial number on the gun showed it had previously been reported stolen, police said. The two were held on $30,000 bail apiece and were arraigned in Westborough District Court on Monday, police said. Some 170 MPs' signatures have been collected to convene the special meeting. Ukraine's parliament plans to decide on Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka's dismissal on March 5. A draft resolution was registered in parliament to hold a special parliamentary meeting on this issue on Thursday, MP Maksym Buzhansky of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction told reporters, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read alsoDraft resolution on no confidence in Ukraine's prosecutor general registered in parliament "It has been registered already, 170 [MPs'] signatures have been collected to convene the special meeting with the minimum being 150 signatures," he said. According to him, the meeting is to begin at 18:30 Kyiv time on March 5. Commenting on the likelihood of Riaboshapka's dismissal, Chairman of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction David Arakhamia said: "The parliament is set to do this with a majority of votes." He added that he would personally vote for Riaboshapka's dismissal. Asked by journalists whether there was a candidate for the Prosecutor Generals' post, Arakhamia said: "We will look for [the nominee] together with the President's Office, but the faction has a unanimous position on Serhiy Ionushas. A lot of people support this member of our team." At the same time, Arakhamia added that he was not sure whether Ionushas would become a nominee, but if he was nominated, "he would definitely get votes." Asked what was the last straw to dismiss Riaboshapka, Arakhamia mentioned the fact that the Prosecutor General's Office did not sign documents to serve ex-President Petro Poroshenko with charges. "The last straw ... that's a very good question. It seems like ... well ... No, I don't know for sure. Perhaps the signing of papers to serve Mr. Poroshenko with charges perhaps this was the last straw. Everything is ready to sign them, but for some reason no one has done this. We have a great deal of questions to ask Mr. Riaboshapka. We have questions to ask everyone and we will ask them," he said, according to LBTV. The Prosecutor General's Office reportedly refused to accept documents prepared by investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation to serve the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, with charges because of "they had poorly been prepared." Hyderabad: Under the second phase of collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad is proposing an increased collaboration with the Japanese industry and academia besides research laboratories. Major emphasis is being placed on exchange of Ph.D. students, Joint Masters and Ph.D. programs, IIT Hyderabad said on Friday. IIT Hyderabad is seeking to build a long-term sustainable collaboration with JICA, which is a governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance for the government of Japan. JICA officials recently visited the IIT Hyderabad campus for the terminal evaluation of the FRIENDSHIP project of IITH with JICA, which is ending in March 2020. They expressed happiness with the outcome of the project. The collaboration between IIT Hyderabad and Japan started in August 2007 based on the commitment between the prime ministers of India and Japan. A Project for Future Researchers at IIT Hyderabad to Enhance Network Development with Scholarship of Japan (FRIENDSHIP) was initiated by JICA in July 2010. The FRIENDSHIP program involved JICA support for student and faculty exchanges and collaborative projects between IIT-H and Japanese universities and industry. JICA had dispatched 5 long-term experts to coordinate the project. "As the current FRIENDSHIP project is ending soon, we are enthusiastically looking forward to the sanction of Phase II of the FRIENDSHIP project so that we can continue to have this remarkable collaboration and take it to the greater heights for the mutual benefit of both Japan and India," said Prof B.S. Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad. IIT Hyderabad received significant assistance for research in five areas - Next Generation Communication Technologies (NGCT), Design and Manufacturing (DM), Sustainable Development (SD), Environment and Energy (EE), and Nano Technology and Nano Science (NTNC). JICA has also supported the construction of buildings and the procurement of equipment necessary for high-end research. IIT-Hyderabad researchers applied for 51 patents under the project. Under Collaboration Kickstarter Program (CKP), seven research projects have been selected and about Rs 2.67 crore disbursed so far. A total of 116 IIT-H students received the FRIENDSHIP scholarship to study in 14 universities of Japan. As many as 88 IIT-H graduates have obtained various positions at a Japanese academic institutions or industry besides this program. The project has resulted in signing of 56 MOUs between IIT-H and Japanese universities, research labs and industries. The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday said it would celebrate its "victory" in the Ram temple case in the Supreme Court by organising various programmes at over 200 places in the country between March 25 to April 8. The right-wing organisation also urged the Centre to take strict action against those indulging in riots "against the Hindu community" in Delhi. In November last year, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of Ram temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh. The Centre had last month constituted an independent 15-member trust to oversee the construction of the temple. "After a long-drawn fight spearheaded by the VHP, the Supreme Court ruled in our favour. Now when the Centre has formed an independent trust, we hope that a grand Ram temple will be constructed in Ayodhya soon," VHP general secretary Milind Parande told reporters here. "We will organise massive celebrations from March 25 to April 8 for the SC verdict in favour of Ram temple. We will take out big rathyatras, organise felicitation programmes for those who had taken part in kar seva of 1992 and 1994, and hold functions in over 200 places during that period," he said. When asked if the VHP will go ahead with its planned programmes despite the coronavirus scare, Parande said all the functions will be held after taking necessary health precautions. On the ongoing stirs against the new citizenship law at Shaheen Bagh and the violence in Delhi, the VHP leader said the protests have turned "anti-Hindu" and many Hindus have lost their lives in the riots in the national capital. "Many political leaders are going to protest sites like Shaheen Bagh and holding rallies to target Hindus in the name of CAA," he said. "A small fry like Waris Pathan has the guts to say that some number of Muslims can finish Hindus...We urge the central and state governments to take strict action against such elements, be it rioters or those who incite violence," Parande said. He was referring to the '15 crore Muslims can be heavy on 100 crore' remark recently made in Karnataka by Pathan, an AIMIM leader. "The Hindu community has been fighting such terrorists and radical elements since the past many centuries- from the first attack by the Islamic forces in India till today...and has always defeated or gobbled them up," he said. Hailing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) as a "very good step", he said, "We would like to say that no Indian Muslim will be affected by it." "VHP estimates that around three crore Hindus, Sikhs and members of some other religions will be benefited by the CAA. Before the amended legislation, VHP had worked hard to give citizenship under the old law to 8,500 Hindus, who had come from Pakistan. Now, we will help all the others who are left out to get citizenship," he said. The VHP general secretary also warned the Congress dispensation in Madhya Pradesh and the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra against giving reservation on religious basis to Muslims, calling it as "unconstitutional". Parande also said that the AAP government in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy should stop giving hefty salary to Muslim clerics from the tax-payers money. According to him, the VHP registered over 30 lakh members across the country during its recent membership drive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party MP Harnath Singh Yadav on Wednesday gave Zero Hour Notice in Rajya Sabha over 'demand for a law to curb the growing population'. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's in his Independence Day speech last year also talked about controlling the explosive growth of population in the country. The second half of Parliament's Budget Session resumed on March 2. The first half of the Budget Session of Parliament, which began on January 31 with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to a joint sitting of two Houses, had seen protests over the CAA. The Budget Session is scheduled to conclude on April 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) lenscap67/iStock(NEW YORK) -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes with refillable cartridges, but some teens have found a way to still get their vaping fix. A loophole in the FDA's new rule, which went into effect in February, allows disposable e-cigarettes, which come in flavors like watermelon and blue raspberry, to remain on the market. The disposable e-cigarettes are as potent and dangerous as your average vaping products, experts say. "If you smell it, you'll realize what it is," Matt Meyers, the President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids told Good Morning America about disposable e-cigarettes. The disposable products contain just as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes and even higher nicotine levels than Juul, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Juul voluntarily stopped selling flavored vaping cartridges in 2019, shortly before the FDA's ban on all flavored e-cigarettes with refillable cartridges was announced. High school sophomores Niki McClure and Nate Albritten, of Paducah, Kentucky, know all too well the negative effects of disposable e-cigarettes. "You saw them everywhere," Albritten told GMA. "That's what everyone was talking about." The two friends started using Puff Bars but quickly realized the one-time use quality of the products was burning a hole in their wallets. "I calculated all the money that I've used on Puff Bars in the last two months, and it was like $300," said McClure. "It just makes me mad at myself almost, because I hate that. And I don't want to be addicted." After realizing how dangerous the outcome could be after using disposable e-cigarettes, the two teens are urging Congress to close the loophole. Last week, McClure and Albritten attended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press conference ahead of the vote on H.R. 213-195, the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act, to support the bill, which will work to ban traditional flavored tobacco products, flavored cigars and reduce youth tobacco use. The House approved the bill, 213-195, and it will now move to the Senate. "Tobacco companies will not give up, but we will not, either," said Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., a former Health and Human Services secretary who co-sponsored the bill and said that younger people would not use e-cigarettes without the assorted flavors. Cool Clouds, the company that owns Puff Bar, told ABC News it is "vehemently opposed to illegal use of the Puff Bar by minors, has not engaged in any marketing, and does not operate any e-commerce websites or social media." The company also said it is no longer distributing Puff Bar products in the U.S. But McClure and Albritten hope that the bill will prevent other teens from becoming addicted and struggling to quit. "It's just the hardest thing to do," said Albritten. "Because once you finally feel like you're getting somewhere, it just pulls you back in." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Actor Ben Woods, left, is up for an Offie award for his role as Young Scrooge, pictured right. Actor Ben Woods tells Gill Sutherland about how treading the RSC boards as a youngster led him into an acting career and how his latest role as young Scrooge has seen him become a finalist for a prestigious Offie theatre award. Theres tons of theatre awards about your Olivier, Critics Circle, Evening Standard These big guns are all very well, but its the annual Offie Awards which has Herald arts on tenterhooks currently. You see Stratfords very own Ben Woods is up for the prestigious award this year with the winners being announced on 8th March at a do at Battersea Arts Centre. The Offie Awards were established ten years ago to recognise the talent involved in independent off West End theatres across London. More than 80 theatres participate in the awards, with around 400 productions being considered. How brilliant then that Ben was nominated, along with 13 others, for the male performance in a supporting role category for his performance as young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol which ran at the Bridge House Theatre SE20 at the end of 2019. In January he learned that he had been put forward as one of three finalists. Telling Herald arts about it, Ben says: Its an extraordinary thing! Ive got an award ceremony to go to. Everyones saying that Ive got to write an acceptance speech just in case I win. But I dont know if I want to jinx it! Ben grew up in Stratford, where he started his acting career playing the young Duke of York in Richard III at the RSC aged 12. Speaking about his first steps treading the boards, he says: My first acting role was playing Joseph at the Broad Street Primary nativity aged six. I auditioned for the RSC maybe three or four times through open casting calls and I got to know their childrens casting director Barbara Roberts. In 2003, because I had been in several times to audition, she actually contacted my mum and said she had a part for me, which was the Young Duke of York, and could I go in to audition... I got the role and that was my first professional acting job. To me it was the best thing since slice bread. We took it on tour to Newcastle. Ben says he was encouraged by his fellow cast members to believe that he had the talent to make an acting career possible. So at 18 he auditioned and won a place at Mountview, where he did a BA in acting and graduated in 2012. However it was two years before Ben would find work as an actor. He explains: I ended up working as a fine jewellery salesman on Bond Street. I had a friend in the industry that worked in the diamond trade and he offered me the job. Its funny because I feel like actors are innately very good salespeople. I mean my suit was my costume and the shop floor was my stage. The money was great and the experience was lovely but it wasnt what I wanted to do. After a nerve-wrecking five recalls, Ben ended up landing a role in the epic Netflix series Borgia. Ben picks up the story: So that was my first job out of drama school. I was still working on Bond Street when I got a call from my agent saying youve got the job, and the next day I flew to Prague at 6am for a five-month shoot. I played the popes grandson Aurelio Borgia, and it was just an amazing time and became a home away from home and the family that I had over there Im still very close to. Bens good fortune continued: On the way back from shooting Borgia I got a role in a film called Chosen with Harvey Keitel, a World War II thriller and we filmed that in Romania. It was a beautiful story that needed to be told. Since then Ben has done a lot of theatre and the odd small part in TV. What would winning the Offie mean to him? Oh my gosh, just that level of recognition. Its a big deal for an actor. You dont do this to get recognition, but its someone saying to me youre doing a really great job keep doing it. Now Ive got goosebumps thinking about it! Go Ben, Stratford is rooting for you! A Talk With Voters at Californias Primaries California is an important Democratic stronghold and it has positioned itself as an opponent to the Trump administration on many issues. Its primary on March 3 was a significant win for Bernie Sanders. With 415 delegates at stake, Californias Democratic primary represented the biggest haul in the country. The state is arguably the most liberal in the nation, though it has some more centrist regions, including Orange County. The Epoch Times spoke to voters in Orange County as they entered the voting centers. We also spoke with voters in the Bay Areain San Francisco and Santa Clara Countiesa more strongly Democratic region. Many young Democrats in both regions spoke of differences between themselves and their Republican parents and families. Many voters said they would support the Democrats in the general election even if their candidates lose the nomination. Health care was a top issue for many, and several older voters said that Bidens experience as vice president made them choose him. A voting center at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters in San Jose, Calif., on March 3, 2020. (David Lam/The Epoch Times) Results Results are preliminary with votes still being counted, but as of March 4, Bernie Sanders had won with just over a million votes in the Democratic primary, and Joe Biden trailed him with about 740,000 votes. About 1.5 million turned out to vote for Trump, who won the Republican primary. Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden speak during a break at the Democratic presidential primary debate at the Charleston Gaillard Center on Feb. 25, 2020 in Charleston, S.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) President Donald Trump speaks at the CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 29, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) In Orange County, more voters turned out to vote for Donald Trump in the Republican primaryabout 178,000than for the top three candidates combined in the Democratic primary, about 169,000. In San Francisco, only about 7,500 turned out for Trump. About 92,000 combined voted for the top three Democrats (with about 40,000 for Sanders). In Santa Clara, 39,000 voted for Trump and about 111,000 for top three Democrats (with about 51,000 for Sanders). Young Voters and Their Republican Families Jeremy, who preferred not to give his full name, is a science major at California State University, Fullerton. He voted for Sanders at the Irvine Valley College voting center in Orange County. His family also lives in Orange County and he said some of them are die-hard Republicans. They dont like Bernie Sanders because of his socialist views, he said. But its my opinion that were going to get taxed, [and] Id rather that money go to something thats going to benefit us, he said. Going to war with other countries shouldnt be our focus. Education, making sure everyone has health care, that should be the focus. He said he doesnt really like any of the other Democratic candidates, but whoever ends up being the democratic candidate, Ill probably support them. Voters line up at the Irvine City Hall voting center in Irvine, Orange County, on March 3, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) Cecilia, who is also a student and did not want to give her full name, voted for Sanders at the Irvine Valley College voting center. My dad was like, Youre voting for a communist, she said. [Everyone asks] where the money is coming from in terms of paying for health care and alleviating student debt. But, she said, If we dont make those sacrifices for the youth, then the youth is going to be really messed up. Shes Vietnamese and when she sees socialism in action there. I could see how it would resonate fear into people here, because [here] were living freely, she said. But I dont necessarily think [Sanders] would be that radical. Bjorn Thyrring, 21, is a political science and religious studies student who voted for Sanders at a voting center at Santa Clara University. But he said much of his family supports Trump. He said he doesnt think the country is tangibly better due to Trumps administration, but I still think its still worth recognizing why [Trump supporters] all think it is instead of writing them off as uneducated or not up-to-date on the issues or racist. I think there are more reasons for why. If Sanders doesnt win, Thyrring isnt sure hell vote. He criticized Bidens role in the Iraq war and criticized him for not being in strong enough support of abortion, same-sex marriage, ending mass incarceration, and other issues important to Thyrring. Another issue important to Thyrring is health care. Health Care Growing up, my family, we didnt have health care for most of my life, Thyrring said. My dad or my mom didnt get it through their employment. My dad is self-employed as a carpenter. My moms a waitress, part-time. I didnt have access to health care and that affected my family in a lot of negative ways. He wants the Medicare for All championed by Sanders. When I was a high school athlete, I tore my knee my junior year. We didnt have health insurance, so we didnt have the money to have surgery to have it repaired. I lost the ability to run [and] weight-lift. He has since studied in the U.K. for a period of time and received free access to health care there, so he says he thinks its a good idea and possible to offer care in the United States. Erik Bartik, 39, a TV producer, voted for Sanders at the Orange County Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana. He praised the health care system in Canada, where hes originally from. I come from so-called socialized medicine and everyone tells me how bad it is, but it was great, he said. A volunteer helps a voter at the Orange County Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 3, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times) Of Sanders, he said, I think hes an old crazy guy and hes passionate and sometimes thats a good thing and sometimes its a bad thing. He wants to see radical change. Its a great country, dont get me wrong, theres a lot of amazing things here, but I think you have to shake the tree hard and make a lot of things fall before it gets fixed. Other reasons cited by voters for supporting Sanders included his stance on climate change action and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). John McCormick, 26, works for a non-profit in San Francisco and has supported Sanders since the 2016 election. Outside the San Francisco City Hall polling site, he told The Epoch Times, When he was running in the 2016 election, the question on the debate stage was, What is the most pressing issue and why? And Bernie was the only person on the stage who said climate change. That really struck me because as a young person, climate change is the most important issue to me. San Francisco City Hall, where a voting center was set up for primaries on March 3, 2020. (Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times) Victoria Eng, a 26 year-old software engineer, was a long time Warren supporter but decided to support Sanders recently. He seems to be willing to say slightly more radical things, she said. Hes the only candidate that said he would abolish ICE. So I really think thats interesting. I know there are a lot of people who live in fear of things like deportation and losing coverage of maybe their basic health rights, she said. Bidens Experience Bidens experience brought voters to his side. Paul Quon, 51, works for the State of California and voted for Biden at the San Francisco City Hall voting center. He was the vice president before, so I figured experience counts, Quon said. Hes probably going to continue Obamacare, because a lot of issues I see [are] a lot of mental issues, health issues, a lot of homeless. So hopefully he can make things better. Preliminary estimates from exit polls show about 62 percent people under 44 years of age voted for Sanders. Whereas, voters 45 and older leaned more toward Biden. Judy Munoz, 66, a retired customer service rep, voted for Biden at the Orange County Registrar of Voters. To me, hes just more experienced, she said. Thats what set him apart, though she said all the Democratic candidates had good debates at one point or another. Of course, Ive got to stay with the party, she said. Esther Lopez, 84, a retired teacher, also voted for Biden at the Orange County Registrars. [Biden] knows D.C. D.C. is a snakepit. If you know how Washington, D.C., works, then [youll] be successful, she said. I liked what every single Democratic candidate had to say, and it was very difficult, so in the end [Biden] is more experienced, more rooted, [more] stable for the people. Epoch Times staff members Chris Karr, Jamie Joseph, Ilene Eng, and David Lam contributed to this report. Northeast Philadelphias large Chinese community often relies on news and social media from its home country, and stories about that nations active and crippling coronavirus outbreak have stoked fears of the same happening here. Some Chinese people, they dont speak English, said Salina Ko, owner of China Gourmet, a restaurant off Roosevelt Boulevard in Mayfair. Theyre only trusting the media from the Chinese. As a result, the Chinese customers she depends on are eating out less. Her business, which has garnered citywide acclaim, has declined as much as 30% in the last two weeks, Ko said. She has moved her closing time to 10 p.m. from midnight and cut her staffs shifts by eight to 10 hours per week. People in the community, and those representing it, believe the loss of business that Ko is experiencing is happening throughout the citys largest Chinese population center. Philadelphia has 22,000 residents who identify as Chinese, according to Census data twice as many as two decades ago. Of those, more than 20% live in the Northeast neighborhoods of Oxford Circle/Castor and Mayfair. Staff for City Councilmember Bobby Henon said theyve been told of businesses being hurt. We dont have any evidence to show that yet, but we hear from our business owners thats the case, said Courtney Voss, Henons chief of staff. Coronavirus is a respiratory illness that has spread to more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The virus originated in the Chinese city Wuhan, but has spread to at least 70 other countries. As of Tuesday night, more than 120 cases had been identified and nine deaths reported in the United States, according to authorities. One possible case of coronavirus, the first in the area, was reported by Philadelphia health officials Tuesday night. Concerns about the illness prompted a public meeting Monday night at the Free Library of Philadelphias main branch, Parkway Central, with a panel of medical and public health experts. About 60 people, including some from the Chinese community attended. They wanted to know about transmission of the illness and how to protect themselves, said Curtis Miyamoto, a physician with Temple Universitys Lewis Katz School of Medicine who was one of the panelists, and they said they had seen some discrimination since coronavirus became worldwide news. One woman who lives in a high-rise apartment building with a large number of Chinese residents said delivery people have been reluctant to come inside. One of the questions I was asked was, Would you come to our building? Miyamoto said. And my answer was Absolutely. He emphasized that anyone is at risk of catching coronavirus, and cautioned against identifying it as having a particular connection to the Asian community. He cited reports that because of coronavirus fears, doctors who looked Asian were asked to stay away from a child in Melbourne, Australia, and a person of Asian descent was struck on the head with a bottle at a gas station in Italy. I think there are some distinct prejudices out there that this is an Asian disease vs. a disease that affects everybody, Miyamoto said. He also tried to tamp down misinformation about the illness. Ko, the China Gourmet owner, was among the people who have been buying protective surgical masks though in her case, they were not for herself but for family in Hong Kong, where masks have been hard to find. She joked that she spent $370 to ship masks manufactured in China back to China. It probably wasnt money well spent, though, Miyamoto said. Wearing a mask to protect themselves, just a regular mask, is not going to really be useful," he said. Leaders in the Chinese community said they must balance the dissemination of health information with the risk of spreading unnecessary fear. A report of a coronavirus case in New York City led to a run on rice at supermarkets last Friday, said Mingchu Pearl Huynh, president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chinese Association. I myself think its an overreaction, but I dont want to tell people to go out, Huynh said. I personally, myself, I go out and shop more and spend more money on eating out this month. I think we should help the economy. She maintains a channel on WeChat, a social media service similar to Facebook thats popular in China, with deep reach in the Chinese community in Philadelphia. She has used it to provide information on symptoms and the prevention of infection, but she has also seen rumors shared there that the United States is refusing to help China. Whoever spread that kind of thing, I kick them out of my group, she said. I tell people, Dont spread this kind of rumor, its not healthy. On Cottman Avenue, Sam Tang refused to let coronavirus get in the way of his plans to debut his new Szechuan restaurant and karaoke bar, Voix. He acknowledged that people in the Chinese community are nervous about being at increased risk of exposure to the virus. Theyre not scared of Americans, he said. Theyre scared of people coming from China. The karaoke bar opened about two months ago, and the restaurant began serving Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, the restaurant portion was empty but for one family, but the karaoke business has been brisk, he said. Here, I dont feel any hurt, Tang said. The young generation comes here. They dont care. New Delhi: The most keenly awaited election for anyone would now be the Assembly polls of West Bengal next year. This time, it's on top of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for one-on-one meetings with all state MPs over the next few days. At least eight to nine parliamentarians have already met Modi the meetings have lasted from anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes, focusing not only on constituency-specific issues but also on the political scenario in the state. The MPs who have met Modi told News18 they have discussed threadbare the issues concerning their regions. Modi is said to be keen to know about the impact of the central government schemes despite a strong opposition from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress dispensation in Bengal. He has also reportedly taken feedback on what could be further done to help citizens. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who met Modi on Wednesday, said, Our task is pretty much cut out. We are lucky to be guided by our top brass who have their ears strongly to the ground." Ghosh was recently re-elected as state unit chief despite being criticised even by party MPs for repeatedly making controversial statements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bengal MPs Dr Jayanta Ray and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato in New Delhi on Wednesday. (News18) Another MP, Khagen Murmu, said Modi has stressed upon the need to further focus on strengthening the organisation. The goal is well defined Bengal needs paribartan (change), he said. Modi is said to have told Darjeeling MP Raju Bista "'desh ke hit mein Bengal jeetna hi hoga' (in the interest of the nation, we need to win Bengal)". Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah and national party president JP Nadda toured the state and held a rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Kolkata on March 1. The ruling camp, led by Banerjee, has been vehemently protesting against the CAA, the National Population Register (NPR), and the proposed implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Nadda held a meeting with senior party functionaries after the rally and exhorted them to target victory in at least 200 Assembly seats in the state. Shah has told the Bengal leaders that he would spend at least three days with them every month for now, and from October, this would go up to no less than eight days. In the 294-member Assembly, the TMC has 210 legislators, while the opposition Congress has 42 MLAs, the Left Front 28 and the BJP 14. But over the last few years, the saffron camp has made huge inroads in the state, having won 18 Lok Sabha seats in the elections last year, up from just two in 2014. Banerjee, who overthrew the 34-year-old Left Front government in the state in 2011 after successfully leading the Singur and Nandigram movements, is serving her second term as chief minister. Yahoo Life Shopping Get with it-- lawn games are all the rage, and this one is safe enough for indoor fun. Now it's $12 off at Amazon! Patients will be offered video appointments to prevent them turning up at overstretched and overcrowded hospitals. As the entire NHS was put on the highest level of alert to deal with coronavirus, it emerged Skype calls will be given to those with long-term conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, who attend regular outpatient clinics. Meanwhile, hospitals are being urged to prepare 'coronavirus wards' for large groups of infected patients to prevent the spread of the virus to other wards. It comes as the NHS has been put on Operation Level 4 the highest level of demand in anticipation of a surge in cases over the next few weeks. The measures were set out in a letter to health managers from the NHS's strategic incident director for coronavirus Professor Keith Willett. He urges chief executives to carry out coronavirus 'test runs' to practise dealing with a sudden influx of patients. NHS staff wait for suspected coronavirus patients to arrive at a Milton Keynes compound where tests were conducted on Wuhan evacuees Coronavirus assessment pods at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire Boris Johnson visiting staff at Kettering General Hospital where he reviewed their coronavirus preparations Staff should also be fully trained in putting on hazmat suits, as well as the basics of washing their hands between patients. And NHS regional trusts have also been told to set up COVID-19 Incident Coordination Centres, which will work seven days a week to provide advice to hospitals, ambulance services and GPs. Professor Willett's letter, sent on Monday, states: 'As you will be aware, the current outbreak of a novel coronavirus is resulting in national and international preparations to be stepped up. 'In declaring a Level 4 incident, NHS England and NHS Improvement have established an incident management team with an operational incident coordination centre established seven days a week, working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England and other Government departments.' Until now, coronavirus patients have been taken to one of four specialised infectious disease centres: Guy's and St Thomas's and the Royal Free in London, the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. But the letter explains that, should the number of cases escalate as expected, all hospitals in England will be required to treat patients. In this event, it states 'we will need to use all acute units, for example through the cohorting of patients'. The term 'cohorting' refers to setting up specialist coronavirus wards to prevent patients infecting others, particularly the elderly who are the most vulnerable. Face masks have become an increasingly common sight on the streets of London as concern about coronavirus rises Coronavirus fears have gripped Britain, as a pedestrian is pictured wearing a protective facemask while taking a bus in Westminster, London Professor Willett also urges managers to treat patients at home wherever possible through the use of 'remote consultations' such as video or phone calls. He writes: 'Where possible, consider implementing alternative models such as remote consultations for those patients who can be supported at home and review arrangements to support vulnerable individuals in alternative settings, including in the community.' Such patients would include those with long-term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, lung conditions or osteoporosis. Not only will this reduce demand, it will also ensure that vulnerable individuals are not coming into hospitals and exposing themselves to the virus. Professor Willett's letter instructs care homes to ensure they have regular contact with GPs and pharmacists to ensure residents do not suddenly become unwell and end up in hospital. He tells them to prepare to 'locally manage their residents', rather than referring them to hospital. They must also put 'infection control measures' in place to ensure the virus is not brought into care homes by a member of staff or visiting relatives. An NHS spokesman last night pointed out that it has been on a Level 4 alert for at least a month since cases started escalating in China. Restaurants and canteens around China have launched a one person per table policy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after citizens started to leave their homes and go back to work. A noodle shop is seen taping up table seats to stop the customers from sitting next to each other in Nanning, Guangxi Province of southern China. This came after the quarantined restaurant had recently re-opened. 'It doesn't look very nice, but I think it's better to do this out of safety concerns,' the noodle shop owner, Su Yali, told the press. Restaurants around China have launched a one person per table policy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after citizens started to leave their homes and go back to work A noodle shop is seen taping up the seats to allow only one customer per table in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China. The picture shows the seats being taped to divide the tables The restaurant owner said diners are suggested to come back later or order the food as takeaways if the restaurant gets 'full'. One customer described the new rule was 'even stricter than school tests' while he was eating in a restaurant in Changsha, Hunan Province of southern China. 'It feels like I'm taking my university entrance exam,' he told Pear Video. Diners are suggested to come back later or order the food as takeaway if the restaurant gets full, the owner of the noodle shop said. The restaurant has recently launched the new policy The new rule came after people started to leave homes and return to workplaces. A man is pictured sitting in the noodle shop where the seats are taped up to separate the customers Another company has also launched the policy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after employees started to return to work. The picture shows the workers having their meals Another company has also launched the policy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after employees started to return to work. A place card that reads 'one person per table, facing the south and sitting on the right-hand side' is displayed on each dining table. Security guards wearing face masks are seen patrolling the company's canteen whilst the workers eat alone in their tables. Security guards wearing face masks are seen patrolling the company's canteen whilst the workers eat alone in their own tables after the company launched the one person per table rule Chinese officials have advised their citizens to keep a minimum distance of 1.5 metres (4.92 feet) away from one another in public. A guard is pictured patrolling the company's canteen Chinese officials have advised their citizens to keep a minimum distance of 1.5 metres (4.92 feet) away from one another in public. The coronavirus, which is believed to originate from Wuhan late last year, has claimed 2,981 deaths and infected nearing 80,300 people in China. Although China has recently seen a sharp fall in the number of new patients, other countries are experiencing sustained rises in cases. Medics wearing protective clothing carry a patient to a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province A lone commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge (left) in the capital this morning, while a student at University College London (right) also chooses to cover her mouth Protective masks have become an increasingly common sight in the streets of London The total number of confirmed cases globally has surpassed 94,200 today with 3,220 deaths. Thirty-four new coronavirus cases were recorded in the UK today in the biggest daily spike recorded on British soil, taking the number of infected patients to 85. It came after England's chief medical officer this morning warned the coronavirus will kill Britons and added an epidemic was 'highly likely' as the outbreak in Britain continues to accelerate. Newstalk ZB reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an interview Sunday did not reveal any details of a potential historic meeting between President Donald Trump and leaders of the Taliban. Trump said during a news conference a day earlier that he would meet with leaders from the militant group in the not too distant future following the signing earlier Saturday of a historic agreement between the US and the Taliban which sets into motion the potential of a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and could pave the way to ending Americas longest-fought war. The deal is the least bad option, from what I can see. After 18 years, it is hard to see what more one could do to stabilise the country with troops. So a deal with the Taliban is a necessary evil. Of course if Obama had struck such a deal, many in the GOP would condemn him as a traitor and surrendering to the enemy. Im not optimistic the Taliban will stick to their end of the deal, and what will be interesting is how the US then responds. But if the US and NATO can withdraw their troops, and Afghanistan doesnt become a worst place to live for the locals, then thats a good outcome. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for a reception hosted by the British Ambassador to Ireland at the Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, during their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire The Duke of Cambridge has joked about unwittingly "spreading" the coronavirus while meeting well-wishers during his Irish tour. William poked fun at himself after he questioned a paramedic about whether he thought coverage of the illness was "being a little hyped up" in the media. The duke's comments came as it emerged the royal and his wife, who are on a three-day visit to Ireland, are taking advice on the coronavirus threat, but will continue meeting people as usual. Read More Earlier, the Queen wore gloves to present honours during an investiture ceremony, but Buckingham Palace declined to confirm whether the monarch was taking the precaution because of the outbreak. William talked about the infection as he chatted to emergency workers at a reception hosted by Britain's Ambassador to Ireland Robin Barnett in the Gravity Bar at Dublin's Guinness Storehouse. He asked Joe Mooney, an advance paramedic with the National Ambulance Service: "I bet everyone's like 'I've got coronavirus, I'm dying', and you're like 'no, you've just got a cough'. "Does it seem quite dramatic about coronavirus at the moment? Is it being a little bit hyped up do you think in the media?" Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet with the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina at Aras an Uachtarain, Dublin, during their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday March 3, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Colin Keegan/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet with the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina at Aras an Uachtarain, Dublin, during their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday March 3, 2020. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Colin Keegan/PA Wire Later he grimaced with mock horror as he said: "By the way, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spreading coronavirus, Sorry. "We're keeping an eye on that, so do tell us if we need to stop." The couple shook hands with dozens of people on the first day of their tour and are expected to continue to do so, based on advice they are being given. A royal source said last night the couple were following guidance from Public Health England and the Department of Health and that meant "business as usual" for now. "This is a discussion we have been having and everything we are doing should continue as usual," said the source. T he future of shopping centres giant Intu was plunged into doubt on Wednesday after it failed in its bid to raise an emergency 1.5 billion from investors. Shares in the cash-strapped Lakeside mall owner, facing a near 4.7 billion debt pile, crashed more than 24% to just 8p following the update. The fall came as the firm also warned that depending on the performance of the business and further falls in valuations, there is a risk it might breach certain bank covenants when they are next tested in July. Intu, whose shares are worth just 109 million, had been hoping to raise between 1 and 1.5 billion. Like rivals, it has suffered from retailers closing shops or demanding rent cuts. Competition from online brands has also hammered the sector, and Intu today said the value of its portfolio plunged 22% to 6.6 billion in 2019. Intu said: The board believes the current uncertainty in the equity markets and retail property investment markets precluded a number of potential investors from committing capital into the business. Up until last month it had been in talks with Hong Kong real estate giant Link about the fund-raiser, as well as property tycoon John Whittakers Peel Group, which is the firms largest shareholder with a 27% stake. Peel today said it remains fully supportive of Intu. Intu said it received several expressions of interest to explore capital structures and asset disposals. Chief executive Matthew Roberts said: Some existing shareholders and new investors made alternative proposals, including them making outright purchases of some centres, buying stakes in some, or investing in the PLC. He added: We are not embarking on any immediate sales but will look to consider an orderly disposal programme of some assets in whole or in part. PwC and Rothschild are advising. Roberts said footfall rose in the first eight weeks of this year. He added: There is a disconnect between the value of the business and what is happening on the ground, with good new lettings at higher rents and more new openings planned. Technavio has been monitoring the feed acidulants market and it is poised to grow by USD 826.41 mn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005292/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Kemin Industries Inc., Kemira Oyj, Novus International Inc., Tate Lyle Plc and Yara International ASA. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Rise in disease outbreaks in livestock has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Feed Acidulants Market is segmented as below: Animal Type Poultry Ruminant Swine Aquaculture Others Geographic Segmentation APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40711 Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our feed acidulants market report covers the following areas: Feed Acidulants Market Size Feed Acidulants Market Trends Feed Acidulants Market Industry Analysis This study identifies adoption of new technologies as one of the prime reasons driving the feed acidulants market growth during the next few years. Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the feed acidulants market, including some of the vendors such as Kemin Industries Inc., Kemira Oyj, Novus International Inc., Tate Lyle Plc and Yara International ASA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the feed acidulants market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist feed acidulants market growth during the next five years Estimation of the feed acidulants market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the feed acidulants market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of feed acidulants market vendors Table of Content PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis Value Chain Analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market Outlook PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 07: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY ANIMAL TYPE Market segmentation by animal type Comparison by animal type Poultry Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Ruminant Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Swine Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Aquaculture Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by animal type PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Adoption of new technologies Increasing investments and focus on expanding production capabilities Increasing demand for natural feed additives PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Anpario Plc BASF SE BIOMIN Holding GmbH Corbion NV Impextraco NV Kemin Industries Inc. Kemira Oyj Novus International Inc. Tate Lyle Plc Yara International ASA PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005292/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ The government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom companies towards AGR liabilities, placing the remaining dues at Rs 1,30,440.4 crore, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday New Delhi: The government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom companies towards AGR liabilities, placing the remaining dues at Rs 1,30,440.4 crore, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. To another question on whether the government intends to propose a plan for future development in the telecom sector in view of the huge Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) fees required to be paid by telcos, Minister of State for Communications, Sanjay Dhotre said there is "no such plan at present". On speculations regarding shutting down of Vodafone Idea, Dhotre said no such information is available with the government. On whether the government proposes to initiate any action over non-compliance of order on payment of dues by telcos, Dhotre pointed out that the Centre had directed the licensees to make the payments in accordance with 24 October order of the Supreme Court. "As per license agreement, the Government takes action against licensees including Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) over non-compliance of Supreme Court order dated 24 October, 2019 on payment of dues of Department of Telecommunication," he said. Detailing out payments made by telecom companies to the DoT towards statutory dues, Dhotre informed that against the provisional total dues of Rs 1,46,336.9 crore, payment to the tune of Rs 15,896.5 crore have been received. The balance dues are about Rs 1,30,440.47 crore, the minister said. However, the number does not appear to reflect the latest tranche of payment made by Bharti Airtel on 29 February. It has placed Bharti Airtel's payments (including Telenor) at Rs 10,000 crore, with balance dues at Rs 27,740 crore. As per the data available, Reliance Communication/Reliance Telecommunication have made payment of Rs 3.96 crore, with remaining dues pegged at Rs 21,135.6 crore. Giving out TSPs-wise payments and provisional balance dues, Dhotre informed that Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore, putting the balance dues at Rs 49,538 crore. The due amounts may be revised once AGR figures are finalised and assessments are accordingly done and also subject to C&AG Audit/Special Audit, it said. According to the information presented, Tata Group has paid Rs 2,197.3 crore, and its balance dues are at Rs 11,625 crore. In case of Reliance Jio, the payment of Rs 195.18 crore received and exceeded dues of Rs 60.52 crore, the information showed. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mananagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have not made any payments towards their liabilities. The balance dues of BSNL remains at Rs 4,989.4 crore and of MTNL at Rs 3,122.8 crore. Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) such as GAIL, Oil India and others represented to Department of Telecom that the AGR judgment is not applicable on them and therefore they do not owe any dues to the department. The minister also noted that the Supreme Court has detached the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgement of October, 2019 and directed them to seek relief from appropriate forum. "After the Supreme Court order dated 14.02.2020, the Government abides by the orders of Supreme Court," Dhotre said. [March 04, 2020] Plug and Play Kicks Off New Office in Fargo, North Dakota Focused on Agtech SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plug and Play has announced its newest location in Fargo, North Dakota with a focus in agriculture technology. This office will launch with four Founding Partners: Bremer Bank, CHS, Microsoft Corp., and The OCP Group. Full operations are scheduled to kick off in late May. "Being on the ground in North Dakota alongside our partners will help attract emerging agtech startups to the region that will benefit not only our growing network, but the farming community as a whole," said Michael Olmstead, CRO of Plug and Play. "With the support of our Founding Partners, we are excited to build this ecosystem and find the next unicorn in this space," added Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play. "We're grateful to Plug and Play and its corporate partners for their investment in North Dakota's entrepreneurial ecosystem. As a national leader in agriculture and farm technology, North Dakota is an ideal place for startups from around the globe to test their technology, grow their companies and advance agriculture for our nation and world," commented Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakota. Plug and Play has offices in over 25 cities worldwide and works with hundreds of startups per year. Under their existing Food & Beverage program, Plug and Play North Dakota will run two, three-month programs a year. Startups accepted into the programs will have the opportunity to not only work with the corporate partners, but also test their technology at the Grand Farm Test Site. Grand Farm is Emerging Prairie's largest agtech initiative and is already a globally-recognized project located just south of Fargo. Emerging Prairie aims to grow the potential in agriculture and technology industries and supports the entrepreneurial ecosystem alongside Plug and Play. As part of that support, Grand Farm, with the help of Plug and Play and its partner network, will bring together businesses and startups to create the farm of the future. Microsoft is supporting Plug and Play through its support of the Grand Farm project. "Plug and Play's expansion to Fargo, alongside Emerging Prairie's Grand Farm initiative, drives us one step closer to forming a world-class agtech ecosystem to spark the next generation of innovation in our state. Microsoft TechSpark's mission to drive economic development and job creation will undoubtedly be enhanced by the dynamic partnerships cultivated with Plug and Play's presence in North Dakota," said Taya Spelhaug, TechSprk Manager at Microsoft. "We're so excited to have Plug and Play right here in Fargo. The expertise, energy and excitement they bring will have a multiplier effect on the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the entire region," shared Grand Farm Director, Brian Carroll. "All of the hard work to make this happen will bring a positive force in our community. The collaboration of Plug and Play and its partnersCHS, Microsoft, The OCP Group, and Bremer Bankwill create success stories that will be shared around the worldall broadcast from right here. On behalf of our community, we welcome our new partners with open arms and look forward to great things." "Serving agriculture customers and investing in farming communities has been a part of Bremer's DNA for over 75 years," said Jeanne Crain, President and CEO of Bremer Bank. "We are thrilled to welcome Plug and Play to this effort as we work together to find new technologies and strategies that help our local farmers achieve and grow." "As the nation's leading agricultural cooperative, CHS creates connections to empower agriculture for our local cooperatives and individual owners. Leveraging innovation, technology, and thought leadership helps our farmers and cooperatives grow their businesses," said Nick Colbert, Director of Corporate Development at CHS, the nation's leading agricultural cooperative. "We've been in farming and committed to farming for 90 years, and we're committed to being here for the next 90 years. We know farming will look different than it does today, and this partnership helps our owners ensure they are positioned for the future." "As part of our engagement with the global agtech innovation ecosystem, the OCP Group is proud to become a founding partner of Plug and Play's newest accelerator in Fargo, North Dakota. This partnership highlights our commitment to spur innovation that will help OCP, and the broader agricultural value chain, sustainably feed a growing world population," said Kerry McNamara, CEO of OCP North America. Startups and corporations interested in this new location can apply here: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/join/ About Plug and Play Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 25 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 300 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/ About Emerging Prairie Emerging Prairie is an organization that focuses on connecting and celebrating the entrepreneurial ecosystem through innovative initiatives, programming and events that move the needle and ignite economic growth for our region. With our principles, mission and vision as a guiding force, we strive to support the founders, creators and community builders. Founded in 2013, Emerging Prairie continues to take risks to support those across the region to be curious and relentless in their pursuits. About CHS Inc. CHS Inc. ( www.chsinc.com ) is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, agronomy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to creating connections to empower agriculture, helping its farmer-owners, customers and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, seed, crop protection products, grain marketing services, production and agricultural services, animal nutrition products, foods and food ingredients, and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries and pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products. About OCP Group The OCP Group (https://www.ocpgroup.ma/en) is a major global plant nutrition company headquartered in Morocco. The company is integrated across the entire phosphate value chain, extracting, marketing and selling phosphate and its derivatives, phosphoric acid and customized fertilizers to customers on five continents. In Morocco, the OCP Group is the largest corporate employer, with more than 21,000 employees and an annual turnover of $6Bn in 2018. While its origins are in the plant nutrition sector, the OCP Group has been diversifying into a range of complementary sectors with a focus on sustainable farmer solutions, education and data analytics. OCP is championing innovation throughout the world including advanced R&D on the African continent through its incubation of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (https://www.um6p.ma/en/about), a world-class African research and teaching institution that has partnered with premier universities around the globe. Media Contact [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plug-and-play-kicks-off-new-office-in-fargo-north-dakota-focused-on-agtech-301016449.html SOURCE Plug and Play [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Gardai are appealing for assistance in tracing the whereabouts of a teenager missing from Co Clare. Larisa Maria Rostas, 15, has been missing from her home in Ennis since Tuesday, February 25. (Photo : Thought Catalog on Unsplash ) Don't Open Facebook and Google Today; Over Millions of Websites Pose 'Insecure' Warnings Due to Failed Security (Photo : Nahel Abdul Hadi on Unsplash ) Don't Open Facebook and Google Today; Over Millions of Websites Pose 'Insecure' Warnings Due to Failed Security Today, Mar. 4 seemed to be the best day to lessen your internet consumption as reports said that leading non-profit certificate authority accidentally leaked millions of security certificates of the most visited websites all over the world. Yup, Facebook, and even Google might be part of this long list of unsecured websites due to security failure. Hack warning! March 4 is NO Facebook or Google Day with this pose security threat As reported via the BBC, most of the well-known websites that you visit every day might be unsecured for you to use today. This is due to the reason that famous free certificate authority named Let's Encrypt said that it would invoke three million Transport Layer Security or TLS certificates on Wednesday, Mar. 3. "Unfortunately, this means we need to revoke the certificates that were affected by this bug, which includes one or more of your certificates. To avoid disruption, you'll need to renew and replace your affected certificate(s) by Wednesday, Mar. 4. We sincerely apologize for the issue." Digital certificates are one of the most important detail in creating websites. They contain small pieces of codes that are created with complicated engineering, which assures that devices and sites are in harmony and an encrypted manner for hackers not quickly to enter the system. Every time a certificate distributor releases these digital certificates, only limited time is allotted for the certificates to be expired. Once this is gone, websites that do not have security certificates might cause millions of them to be open and more prone to hacking and may not easily protect sensitive data from the said websites. No worries, though, if you happen to open a website that was revoked with the certificate, the website will flash you a warning saying that the site is 'insecure' and may affect your personal data once used for a long time. Which websites will be affected by the breach? Unfortunately, Let's Encrypt did not list down all the websites that are now prone to internet hacking due to security failure. However, the company was said to have high-profile backers like Facebook, Google, and Cisco. Though it is not yet verified whether these popular websites were part of the said certificate revoking, users might have to be careful about using them today. Clients of Let's Encrypt are not happy with this Most of the clients of Let's Encrypt said that they are not satisfied with how the company handles this massive security breach. As interviewed by ThreatPost, certificate owners were disappointed with the company since they were only given 24 hours to fix and update their digital certificates. "I manage 200 domains across 20 servers and have until the end of the day to fix the problem," said Mark Engelhardt, IT consultant with Intuitive Engineering, in Montpelier, Vt. "Let's Encrypt did not handle this in an ideal fashion at all." Let's Encrypt executive director Josh Aas explained that the 24 hours allotted time to fix the bug is only dictated to them, and they need to follow in order for most websites to be secured immediately. "There are certainly some hardships here, and we recognize that. But, the timeline in which we are operating is dictated to us," Aas said. "We have a certain amount of time after we learned about an incident to respond." 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The US government said on Wednesday it had charged a Defense Department linguist with transmitting classified intelligence to a Lebanese national linked to Hezbollah, saying she revealed the names of key American assets and put their lives at risk. Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was arrested by FBI agents at an overseas military base in Erbil, Iraq, on February 27. She was due to make an initial appearance on Wednesday in US District Court for the District of Columbia. While in a war zone, the defendant allegedly gave sensitive national defense information, including the names of individuals helping the United States, to a Lebanese national located overseas, John Demers, the Justice Departments assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement. If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished. The Justice Department said that during its investigation, it discovered audit logs showing a notable shift in Thompsons network activity on the Defense Departments classified systems. The discovery came on December 30, 2019, a day after the US launched air raids against Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and the same day that protesters there stormed the US embassy in response. The information Thompson was looking up involved dozens of files on human intelligence sources she had no need to access, including their names, photographs and other personally identifiable information, the department said. In February, FBI agents searched her living quarters on the base and discovered a note, handwritten in Arabic, under her mattress, according to a sworn statement from an FBI agent contained in a court filing. The note had the names of US intelligence informants. The note said these sources were collecting information for the US, and suggested that their phones be monitored and their target should be warned, according to the sworn statement. In subsequent interviews with the FBI, Thompson waived her Miranda rights and told the agents she had passed along the information from the note to a Lebanese foreign national, according to the statement. Court documents identify the person only as a co-conspirator in whom Thompson had a romantic interest. She told the FBI she did not know he was connected with Hezbollah, which was first designated as a terrorist group by the US in 1997, according to the court filing. To share the intelligence, Thompson claimed she had memorised the classified information, wrote it down and conveyed it to the co-conspirator through a secure messaging application on her phone, according to the filing. She apparently later amended her statement, saying she was 70 percent sure she had not transmitted the note. However, investigators said in the court filing that they had developed solid evidence to suggest Thompson was sending details to the individual about the human intelligence sources, including information she wrote on a second Arabic note. People walk by the New York Stock Exchange in New York City on March 3, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Second Case of Coronavirus in New York City Is Community Spread The second confirmed case of the new coronavirus in New York City contracted the virus via an unknown source, health officials said. The first patient in New York was a 39-year-old health care worker who worked in Iran, where the virus has spread rapidly, before returning to America. The second patient, in contrast, has no history of travel to countries where the virus is spreading and has been classified as a case of community spread, meaning the source of his infection is unknown. The patient, a Westchester resident in his 50s, works at the Lewis and Garbuz law firm in the Manhattan borough of New York City, health officials said. Hes is currently in severe condition at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan. The man started showing symptoms of the new virus on Feb. 27 at a hospital in Westchester. Symptoms of the virus are similar to those with the flu and include fever and coughing. The patient has two children with connections to the city, health officials said. His daughter attends SAR Acadamy and High School in the Bronx borough while his son attends Yeshiva University in Manhattan. Officials at the Bronx school shut it down voluntarily. Yeshiva University said in a health alert that all classes on the Wilf Campus were canceled on March 4. The male student is in self-quarantine at home, it said. The man was last on campus on Feb. 27. The male student was showing symptoms, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that both children were being tested for the virus. The student tested positive for the virus, the university added on Wednesday. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, deputy commissioner for disease control at the citys department of health, said the male patient first became ill on Feb. 22. He was admitted to the hospital in Westchester on Feb. 27 and was transferred to the Manhattan hospital on March 2. The patient traveled to Miami, Florida, in early February but there appears to be no recent travel nexus to an infected area, de Blasio said. The man has had respiratory issues for the past month, he said. The symptoms became much more severe in recent days. People wear surgical masks in fear of the coronavirus in Flushing, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens on Feb. 3, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) This appears to be an example of community spread, he said. Were very concerned. The current crisis will unfold over the following months, not weeks, de Blasio said. He said he wanted to remind people that the manifestation of the virus for the vast majority of people would feel like what most feel while going through the flu or a cold. For a much smaller number of people, it can be a very serious threat, he said. Asked if the new patient traveled on the train or subway to work, de Blasio said any such travel wouldnt matter because casual contact doesnt spread the virus. Disease detectives from the citys Health Department are tracing people who had close contact with the male patient and his children, including people who worked closely with the man. Did you have regular, prolonged contact? de Blasio told reporters. Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot in a statement said that New Yorkers can limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease that the virus causes, by calling their doctor if they have symptoms like cough, fever, or shortness of breath. Of the 10 people tested in the city, eight have tested negative and one tested positive. One test is currently pending. The virus emerged in China late last year and has spread to 70 countries and territories, a federal official told lawmakers on Tuesday. There is no vaccine or proven treatment at this time, though some patients have recovered after rest and medical care. The virus primarily spreads through close contactdefined as being within six feetthrough respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or spreads. The incubation period, or time until symptoms show, is estimated at 1 to 14 days. Ways to avoid contracting the virus include avoiding sick people and frequently washing hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Top environmental lawyers are warning a key measure of the Morrison government's plan to meet Australia's international climate change obligations is "legally baseless in international law". Nine professors in law at Australian universities on Tuesday night sent a joint statement to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor, arguing that emissions reductions banked from 2008 under the Kyoto Protocol don't apply to a more recent international treaty, the Paris Agreement which was struck in 2015. A group of lawyers is warning the federal government there is no legal provision in the Paris Agreement that enables it to use carryover credits from the Kyoto Protocol. Credit:Nine Kyoto credits come from overachieving on greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set down under the Kyoto agreement, which is set to expire this year. The government says it will use carryover credits from Kyoto if it needs to make up the shortfall in emissions reduction required by Australia's commitment to the Paris target, which requires at least a 26 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2030. A total of 28 people have been tested positive for COVID-19 in India, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said. Apart from 16 Italian nationals, their Indian driver, six people in Agra, three people in Kerala and one person each in Delhi and Telangana are undergoing treatment A total of 28 people have been tested positive for COVID-19 in India, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters on Wednesday. Apart from 16 Italian nationals, their Indian driver, six people in Agra, three people in Kerala and one person each in Delhi and Telangana are among those who are undergoing treatment for the virus. The minister added that the three initial cases of coronavirus which were detected in Kerala in February are now cured. 14 the Italian nationals have been sent to the ITBP quarantine facility in Delhis Chhawla, which had housed Indians rescued from Wuhan last month. An Italian tourist and his wife found to have been infected with coronavirus have been kept in isolation at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur. The patients in Agra were infected after coming in contact with a man who was tested positive in Delhi, who has travel history to Italy. Six others, including three children, whose samples were taken in Noida, had also come in contact with the patient during a party thrown by him. They were tested negative for the virus. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that the government has earmarked 230 beds in isolation wards being set up at 25 hospitals, as several city schools sent advisories to parents listing precautionary measures. He further said 3.5 lakh N95 masks were being arranged and the government has 8,000 separation kits for staff treating coronavirus patients. Additionally, Vardhan said that India intends to establish a testing laboratory in Iran, where Indian citizens can undergo thorough screening before being brought back to the country. In the wake of a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda said that they will not take part in any Holi celebration programmes this year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Modi, asking him to quit wasting India's time playing the clown with your social media accounts, when India is facing an emergency. He shared a video of the Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loongs message to the people of his country on how to deal with coronavirus. Dear @PMOIndia, Quit wasting India's time playing the clown with your social media accounts, when India is facing an emergency. Focus the attention of every Indian on taking on the Corona virus challenge. Here's how it's done..#coronavirusindia pic.twitter.com/jLZG5ISjwt Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 3, 2020 The health minister announced that all international passengers will be screened for COVID-19, and not just those belonging to the 12 countries that had been listed in a government advisory earlier. We had screened about 5,89,000 people at our airports, over 15,000 at minor and major seaports and over 10 lakhs at the border of Nepal till Tuesday, he said. Currently, Air India has suspended flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong until 30 June, while Vistara Airlines has temporarily reduced flights to and from Bangkok and Singapore. The DGCA on Tuesday asked airlines and airports to take specific measures such as providing protective gears like surgical masks and gloves to ground staff, crew members and passengers and having multiple hand sanitising points at terminals. The aviation regulator stated that airports and airlines must ensure that each aircraft arriving from South Korea, Japan and Italy is subjected to disinfection process before boarding begins for the next flight on the plane. While no cases of coronavirus have been reported in Gujarat yet, 1,582 people who came from foreign countries recently have been screened till now and 25 samples have been collected. No cases have come to light in Maharashtra either, but NCP MP Supriya Sule said 34 people from the state are stranded in Iran amid the virus scare there. The Telangana and Karnataka governments on Tuesday reviewed their coronavirus preparedness, while the Andhra Pradesh government said there was no impact of the deadly virus in the state but the health machinery was on full alert to handle the situation. The Telangana government says it has decided to undertake various measures, including a campaign to promote cleanliness in public transport. Karnataka health minister B Srirumulu has appealed to people not to pay heed to rumours about coronavirus, while the Odisha government has issued dos and donts asking people to avoid hugging, shaking hands while greeting and keeping their workplace clean to ward off the virus. A 25-year-old man, who returned to Kerala from Malaysia on Monday, is under observation at the isolation ward of a government medical college hospital in Ernakulam district. Eleven people, including two Italians, one Japanese, one from Hong Kong and seven Indians, were quarantined at Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) hospital on Tuesday. The four foreigners have travel history to Japan and countries in southeast Asia that have reported coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, Twitter has asked its employees to work from home while other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies instructed staff to avoid non-essential travel as IT firms put in place measures to safeguard workers against the deadly coronavirus. Intel said one of its employees in Bengaluru "potentially been exposed" to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. In Noida and Greater Noida, people claimed surgical masks which usually sell for Rs 10 were being sold for Rs 40 or higher, and N95 masks which sell for around Rs 150 were being sold for up to Rs 500, PTI reported. People also complained about shortage of hand-sanitising gel in the market. Gautam Buddh Nagar Chemists Association president Anoop Khanna said the demand shot up around 10 am on Tuesday after news of suspected coronavirus cases in Noida started doing rounds on news and social media. India, which is the largest supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including Paracetamol, a common pain reliever. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70 percent of the APIs for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on, Reuters reported. The World Health Organisation warned the protective gear needed to fight the disease was "rapidly depleting". The prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, while the cost for ventilators had tripled, he added. In an effort to aid aid fast, effective action against the virus, the World Bank unveiled a $12 billion aid package. More than 3,000 people have died of coronavirus across the world a majority of them in China. Over 90,000 have been infected. With inputs from agencies By Trend Azerbaijan is a country with high potential for the development of renewable energy, Director of the Energy Efficiency and Ecology Department of Azerbaijans Energy Ministry Alasgar Hasanov told Trend. Thus, the potential capacity of renewable energy sources, which are economically viable and technically available in Azerbaijan, is estimated at 26,940 megawatts, including 3,000 megawatts of wind energy, 23,040 megawatts of solar energy, 380 megawatts of bioenergy and 520 megawatts of mountain river hydropower, the department director added. Hasanov said that the total production capacity of power plants in terms of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan is 7,556 megawatts, including 1,276 megawatts of major hydropower plants, which is equivalent to 17 percent of the total capacity. "Electricity generated in Azerbaijan last year amounted to 26.1 billion kilowatt hours, 1.9 billion kilowatt hours of which accounted for renewable energy sources," the department director noted. Some 105.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity were generated for 2019 by wind power plants, and 44.2 million kilowatt hours at solar power plants, while 195.9 million kilowatt hours were generated at the solid domestic waste incineration plant, Hasanov added. "Electricity generated from renewable sources amounted to 7.3 percent of the total production volume," said the department director. "Some 53.6 million kilowatt hours were generated at small hydropower plants (with total capacity of 25.3 megawatts). Electricity generated from renewable sources, excluding major hydropower plants, last year amounted to 1.5 percent of the total electricity production in the amount of 399.1 million kilowatt hours. The figures show that although Azerbaijan has rich wind and solar energy potential, the results achieved in this area are insufficient." At the same time, Hasanov noted that most of the work done was carried out through public investment. "The main goal is to create favorable investment environment for attracting business entities into the development of the renewable energy industry," the department director added. "To this end, the first steps are being taken to improve the legislative framework. Azerbaijans draft law "On the use of renewable energy sources in the production of electricity" has been developed, which is currently at the consideration stage. At the same time, close cooperation was established with foreign companies, and negotiations began on the implementation of projects in Azerbaijan." "As a result of negotiations and deliberate selection from the proposals of the companies on Jan. 9 this year, Azerbaijans Cabinet of Ministers signed executive agreements between the Energy Ministry and the companies of ACWA Power of Saudi Arabia and Masdar of the UAE with the aim of implementing test projects for the construction of power plants based on wind and solar energy," said Hasanov. "The agreement signed with ACWA Power company includes the construction of a 240 megawatt wind farm and a 200 megawatt solar power plant," Hasanov added. "Within these two projects, it is planned to generate about 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity during the year," director of the department said. "The investments on these projects are estimated at $400 million." "In accordance with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs order dated December 5, 2019 #1673 "On measures for the implementation of pilot projects in the field of the use of renewable energy", Azerbaijan continues to carry out legal and technical activity within the Commission established to coordinate and implement pilot projects related to the construction of wind and solar power plants," Hasanov said. While giving forecasts on the development of nuclear energy sources in Azerbaijan, Hasanov pointed to ensuring of production of clean electricity, as well as commissioning of new generating capacities, namely, 350 megawatts of wind energy, 50 megawatts of solar energy and 420 megawatts of renewable energy, 20 megawatts of bioenergy as strategic goals. "At the same time, the goal is to bring the share of renewable energy sources in power production up to 30 percent by 2030," the director of the department added. "The president has reiterated this in his speeches." Hasanov stressed that renewable energy holds an important place in supplying the Azerbaijani population and economy with electricity for a long time. "Despite that a major share of renewable energy sources is held by water resources, major power plants that operate using other sources of energy also generate electricity," said Hasanov. "Projects being implemented in the field of alternative and renewable energy sources have allowed Azerbaijan to effectively use the countrys renewable energy potential and increase energy production. The commissioning of power plants in accordance with modern requirements indicates the beginning of a new stage in the development of the energy sector." These power plants, including the Baku plant for solid waste incineration with capacity of 37 megawatts (operating since Dec. 19, 2012), the solar power plant with capacity of 20 megawatts in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (operating since Dec. 1, 2015), the wind power fleet with capacity of 50 megawatts (commissioned by Azerishiq OJSC in 2018) are designed for fully ensuring the population with electricity and energy security of the country, noted the director of the department. "At the same time, as a result of operation of these power plants, use of natural gas and other resources in the electricity generation decreases," Hasanov added. "In addition, Azerbaijan has a great number of low-power solar and wind power plants." "The population also showed interest in this area, as a result of the installation of solar panels and collectors, the use of renewable energy sources and hot water was expanded," said the department director. "Along with large-scale projects, there are plans to introduce a mechanism to support active consumers in order to attract their interest in using renewable energy sources for own consumption. The reduction in the use of natural gas as a result of these projects will also have a positive impact on the fulfilment of Azerbaijans commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." "The use of other renewable energy sources, including wind energy, bioenergy, geothermy, energy of waves and sea bubbles is widely used throughout the world," the director of the department said. "In some cases, energy is simply replaced depending on the reporting period; in other cases, consumers sell energy back to the network at guaranteed tariffs." "The tariff is planned to be replaced during a certain reporting period in Azerbaijan," Hasanov said. "At the end of the reporting period, the difference is planned to be paid for energy received from the network upon the retail tariff while the difference for energy which is supplied to the network - at the wholesale tariff." "The ministry, together with international companies, conducts relevant research in the field of the use of wind energy at sea," the director of the department added. "In case of economic efficiency, such projects can be implemented in the Caspian Sea." At the same time, Hasanov emphasizes that although solid waste is processed in Azerbaijan, other options are being considered. "The research is being conducted to use the energy of the resources (waste) of agriculture, forestry and other industries," director of the department said. "Despite the economically inappropriate consumption of energy from geothermal sources of the country is not considered economically efficient, the research in this sphere is also underway with the relevant institutions." "The use of the energy of waves and sea bubbles is a pilot project that will serve the practical purposes throughout the world and requires technological development for this energy to become cost-effective and widely used on an industrial scale," Hasanov said. Regarding the development of renewable energy sources for small and medium-sized enterprises, the director of the department said that upon the presidents order, there was a good start to stimulate the use of renewable energy sources, create a favorable investment environment in this sphere and support the private entrepreneurship. "The incentive mechanisms for the aforementioned purposes were proposed to be made in legislative drafts prepared and presented by the ministry," the director of the department added. "Along with the large-scale projects, it is planned to introduce a mechanism to support active consumers to attract their interest in using renewable energy sources for own consumption," Hasanov said. "The mechanism of support for active consumers in Azerbaijan can be applied not only to the population, but also by entrepreneurs working in small and medium-sized enterprises." Hasanov emphasizes the benefits of this sphere for ordinary citizens. "The main goal here is to provide consumers with access to the renewable energy network by using a dual meter and a mechanism for supplying or receiving energy in the network depending on demand," the director of the department added. "The mechanism does not pursue an entrepreneurial goal, but implies the elimination of the need to install devices and equipment that require additional storage costs," Hasanov said. "These costs are quite high and are currently the factors preventing the use of renewable energy sources among consumers in Azerbaijan." In conclusion, Hasanov said that the ministry intends to create the territories of renewable energy sources in the areas with high potential and to provide entrepreneurs with them through an auction in the future. "In these territories, the proposals on the exemption of activity from taxes and duties were prepared and submitted," the director of the department added. "Moreover, other incentive mechanisms are envisaged to be made in the prepared legislative acts, which ultimately will make it possible to effectively use the potential of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan and ensure the development of the sector," Hasanov added. ---- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Updated Thursday at 3:30 p.m. As the coronavirus makes its way closer to the New York-Connecticut border, health officials are making preparations for the inevitable first cases. They have one message for residents, however: Keep calm and educate yourself. There is no reason to panic or be afraid, Greenwich Department of Health Caroline Baisley said. Its a situation that has heightened anxiety and instilled fear in people. Two months since the first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, the virus has spread to 76 other countries. As of Thursday, there are 97,841 confirmed cases, 3,347 deaths and 53,786 recoveries, according to a map by John Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The U.S. has 177 confirmed cases across the country, including 18 in Westchester County, three in New York City and one in Nassau County. This brings the total to 22 confirmed and active cases in New York State. So far, there have been 11 deaths in the United States: one in California and all others in Seattle. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Thursday the opening of a statewide emergency operation center in Albany, as well as two emergency operations center outposts in Westchester County: one in Hawthorne and another in New Rochelle. At the outposts, Office of Emergency Management and Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services personnel can coordinate with Department of Health experts to monitor and respond to the outbreak, provide updates and coordinate response efforts with other agencies. The outposts will operate until this outbreak subsides. Dr. Michael Parry, chairman of infectious diseases at Stamford Hospital, said Wednesday afternoon that he is ready to call the spread of coronavirus a pandemic. I dont think the World Health Organization has officially pulled that trigger yet, but the definition of a pandemic is multiple countries with local spread on multiple continents, Parry said in an interview. Were there. Whether we want to admit were there is another question. The Connecticut Department of Public Health said four state residents were tested for the coronavirus and all four tested negative, pushing the total number of tests for coronavirus in the state to eight. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the family of a 50-year-old man from New Rochelle, who tested positive for coronavirus Tuesday, has also tested positive for the virus. His wife and two of their children, a 20-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter, remain under quarantine in their home in Westchester County as they recover. The man, who works as a lawyer in New York City, was in critical condition, with an underlying respiratory illness possibly worsening the effects of the virus, at a New York City hospital, Cuomo said during a press conference in White Plains. The mans son, an undergraduate at Yeshiva University who lived on campus, had not been seen on campus since Feb. 27. The school announced Wednesday that all classes at its Washington Heights campus were canceled through Friday. The daughter is a student at Modern Orthodox Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School in Riverdale, or SAR High School, which will be closed through Purim, which ends March 10. Cuomo instructed people who had contacted the daughter to self-quarantine at home and limit their exposure to other people through this Friday. A neighbor, 45, who had driven the man earlier to the New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville also tested positive and is at home. His wife, 46, and their two sons and one daughter, all tested positive by Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo said in a tweet. The entire family is under self-quarantine, he said. The children all attend Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, which was closed Tuesday. Together, the new diagnoses bring New Yorks total of confirmed cases to 11. The first was a 39-year-old health-care worker in Manhattan who was traveling in Iran. Her husband tested negative for the virus. About 1,000 people who may have come in contact with the family through services at the synagogue the family goes to or the schools the children attend have been asked by state and county health departments to self-quarantine, Cuomo said. In the trenches, the hospitals preparations resemble getting ready for an influenza pandemic, but with a few more unknowns, Parry said. Researchers do not know how many people are infected with COVID-19 and have the symptoms of a cold or no symptoms at all. The death rate as of now is calculated by knowing the number of confirmed cases and the number of deaths, but that rate could change if more people with mild to no symptoms test positive, Parry said. Surrounded by cases So far, Baisleys department in Greenwich has not been instructed to find people who may have interacted with the midtown lawyer who tested positive. If no one is calling me, and no one is contacting me to look into contacts here, then there arent any cases, she said. Thats not to say there wont be some in the future. As Connecticut is surrounded by states New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island with confirmed cases, however, it is only a matter of time, Baisley said. In preparation, the Greenwich health department has launched a webpage with all the information residents need to know about the disease, how it is spread and how to protect themselves, so that they feel comfortable and knowledgeable about coronavirus. Next week, the department will also launch a hotline, she said. Baisley said she is also working with area hospitals to form the towns response so that people who need medical care can receive it in the community. Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo also directed her department to come up with a continuity plan for businesses, so they have an outline of steps to take if they are confronted with high absenteeism among workers. Stamford Hospital is taking steps to prepare for handling patients with coronavirus. First, doctors checked the condition of protective gear, which had been stockpiled over the years to handle H1N1, Ebola, anthrax and SARS. The coronavirus is likely spread the way the flu spreads, through droplets, Parry said. When people cough or sneeze, droplets are projected up to six feet and drop to the ground or other surfaces. To protect against droplet spread, health professionals and patients wear surgical masks and gloves and wash their hands frequently. Since health experts are still learning more about coronavirus, professionals are donning gear used for airborne illnesses, where the virus hangs in the air, rather than falling to the ground. In these cases, doctors wear tightly fitting masks and gloves. For an added precaution, they are also wearing gowns and eyewear. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is urging all residents who have traveled out of the country recently or are planning international travel to follow guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding coronavirus. Transmission by travel? As of Wednesday, the CDC is advising anyone who has recently returned from a country designated as Level 3 which currently includes China, Iran, Italy and South Korea to self-monitor in their homes for 14 days upon returning to the United States. Anyone who has recently returned from a country designated as Level 2 which currently includes Japan should limit their interactions with others for 14 days after returning to the United States. The CDC also recommends travelers avoid all nonessential travel to countries designated as Level 2 and Level 3. Anyone who is planning travel, particularly internationally, is strongly urged to follow the CDCs ongoing guidance and take it seriously, Lamont said in a statement. The New Rochelle man is a Manhattan attorney who commutes to work on the New Haven Line of Metro-North. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has begun disinfecting surfaces of all its public transportation lines. New York City Transit, MTA buses, Access-A-Ride, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad are significantly increasing the frequency and intensity of sanitizing procedures at each of its stations and on its full fleet of rolling stock. Trains, cars and buses will undergo daily cleanings, with the MTAs full fleet receiving sanitization every 72 hours. Frequently used surfaces in stations, such as turnstiles, MetroCard and ticket vending machines, and handrails, will be disinfected daily. MTA will use EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants. At the moment, buses and trains are low-risk, Parry said. Public transportation exists on a continuum of risk based on the prevalence of the illness. Since the prevalence is still low in New York, people will not be likely to catch it while using public transit, he said. As coronavirus likely spreads by droplets up to six feet away, only the people seated closest to sick people could catch the illness. Possible exposure at synagogue Westchester County Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler also directed Young Israel of New Rochelle to halt all services immediately and for the foreseeable future due to potential exposure connected to the New Rochelle man. Congregants of Young Israel who attended services Feb. 22, and a funeral and a bat mitzvah at the temple on Feb. 23, were directed to self-quarantine until at least March 8. Those who do not self-quarantine will be mandated to by the County Department of Health to do so. The temple will be closed Wednesday through Sunday, Rabbi Reuven Fink said in a Facebook post. This is a very emotionally trying time for us all, Fink said. When we first heard of the coronavirus, it seemed so remote. It has now come not only to our doorstep, but has pierced our lives. Clearly, this entire episode is frightening and difficult, but let us not lose sight, however, that we are following the procedures mandated by our states health department to try to prevent the spread of this virus. That is a sacred obligation that we all must take very seriously. Without a vaccine, infection prevention techniques such as social-distancing are the most effective way to avoid getting sick, or getting others sick, Parry said. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com Delhi Police Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against activist Harsh Mander and sought initiation of contempt proceedings against him for his alleged "derogatory remarks" making insinuations against the apex court and its judges. The affidavit was filed after the Centre's allegation before a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde that Mander, who has sought lodging of FIRs against some BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to recent violence in Delhi, himself made certain objectionable remarks against the top court, "majesty of law", the government and Parliament. "It is submitted that I have come across a video clip showing Harsh Mander delivering a speech which is not only instigating the violence but is also seriously contemptuous as it makes derogatory remarks against the Supreme Court of India to a huge gathering of people," said the six-page affidavit filed by Rajesh Deo, Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police, Legal cell. "This clip is freely available on social media. Harsh Mander is known for taking contemptuous stand and bringing the judiciary, as an institution and individual judges to disrepute," it further said, and annexed the detailed order of the apex court passed earlier against Mander on his PIL related to detention of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam. The apex court, in May 2019, had come down heavily on Mander for seeking recusal of the then CJI from hearing his PIL saying that it would not allow anybody to "browbeat" and "damage the institution". The then CJI Ranjan Gogoi had struck off Mander's name as the petitioner and had rather appointed his lawyer Prashant Bhushan as the amicus curiae in the case. In its affidavit, the Delhi Police said that the petition filed by Mander "may kindly be dismissed with exemplary cost and proceedings for contempt of court be initiated against him". The affidavit was filed in pursuance to the order passed earlier in the day by the bench which has kept to itself the plea filed by Mander while transferring other petition related to the violence to the Delhi High Court. The apex court had said that the affidavit along with transcripts of the alleged hate speech has to be served to Mander's counsel who had denied that the activist made any such statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The third finalist to lead the College of Humanities and Sciences visited campus Tuesday to make her pitch about how she would lead UMs largest college, and how shed use data to grow make it grow. Judy Ledgerwood, who currently serves as Northern Illinois Universitys College of Liberal Arts and Sciences acting dean, met with campus groups Tuesday and presented her five-year vision for the college, as all four candidates were asked to do, at an afternoon forum. The college, which contains 23 departments at UM ranging from biochemistry to creative writing, has been under interim leadership since Chris Comer stepped down from the role to return to teaching in 2018. The interim dean, Jenny McNulty, is also a finalist for the position, and will present her five-year vision for the college Wednesday afternoon at the University Center Theater. Ledgerwood, an anthropologist with expertise on Cambodian culture, worked her way up from her position as a professor at Northern Illinois University into the administrative ranks over the past 24 years at the university. While her presentation to campus was structured less as a cohesive vision for the college, as she said she wasnt able to know the intricacies of the college yet, she focused on her experiences at NIU as a department chair and acting dean to demonstrate successes there that she said could help accomplish some of the UMs current goals. Many of her approaches to improving retention, enrollment and cost-efficiency were reliant on having high-quality data for every class offered. During the question-and-answer time, faculty in the audience pointed out that UM has struggled to produce accurate data for many programs over the past few years as it worked through budget cuts and reorganizing academic programs. Not having good data to work with would be a setback, she acknowledged, but was optimistic about UM's financial stability. When I look at the University of Montana just in this short visit, so many things are outstanding. For your financial situation: Your grant funding is amazing, your foundation funding and your support from alumni is amazing, your state funding is stable, at least from my conversation with the president yesterday he said he thought so, she said. So you have these key essentials, but what you really need to work on is the student recruitment and retention part. You have to get them here and keep them once you get them in the door. Ledgerwood earned her master's degree, as well as her doctorate, from Cornell University, both in anthropology, with her doctorate focused on Southeast Asian studies. NIU is similar to UM, in that it also saw an enrollment decline in its recent past, and Ledgerwood said she had worked with the administration on finding ways to rework programs to make them more attractive to incoming students, which didn't always include cutting programs, but rather reinventing them to fit students' desired futures. Interim dean Jenny McNulty will present on Wednesday, March 4, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the University Center Theater. Velmer Burton, who currently serves as a senior vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Larry Hufford, a botany professor and former acting dean at Washington State University, interviewed last week. The candidates curricula vitae and letters of interest, as well as a feedback submission form are available on the Provost's website. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Sexual sadist Jaymes Todd has launched a high-stakes bid to be released from jail before he is 54, after he brutally raped and murdered Melbourne woman Eurydice Dixon in a public park in 2018. Todd, now 21, was sentenced to life behind bars with a non-parole period of 35 years, for actions Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye described in September as "pure and unmitigated evil". He was diagnosed with a sexual sadism disorder while in custody. Jaymes Todd after his arrest. Credit:AAP In the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Todd's legal team argued Justice Kaye's imposition of a life sentence was "manifestly excessive", and said Todd's sentence should be cut because of his young age, guilty plea, "good character", dysfunctional upbringing, remorse, and autism spectrum disorder. Shiv Sena took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his tweet about giving up social media accounts. In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday, the Sena advised PM Modi to emulate Ratan Tata and use the social media platforms positively by taking up issues of the people. PM Modi had tweeted on Monday, This Sunday, thinking of giving up my social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube. Will keep you all posted. The tweet sent many in a tizzy if the PM was contemplating social media detox. However, he tweeted on Tuesday that he would give away social media accounts to women on International Womens Day on March 8. The Sena on Wednesday said, Many Modi-bhakts were worried for a few hours... but after all social media platforms are BJPs oxygen and it is impossible that Prime Minister Modi would cut this lifeline. In reality, social media can be used for positive things. This was shown by Ratan Tata recently when he showed the ordeal of a sanitation workers daughter on social media. Instead of rumours of about quitting social media, Modi should walk on Tatas path. But if he does that, what would happen to his cyber warriors? the Sena said in the editorial. It further said that the BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with social media by using Goebbels propaganda. It added that the social media weapon is now turning against the BJP. The editorial said, The BJPs cyber warriors lost Jharkhand. In Delhi, despite deploying a huge cyber army, it got defeated. It ran a campaign saying those against the CAA are anti-nationals, but the people did not accept it... The cyber weapon is turning against the BJP now, perhaps was that the reason why Mr Modi was looking at social media renunciation? SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON (TNS) As people frantically stock up to prepare for possible coronavirus home quarantines, some are outsourcing their panic buying, using delivery services like Postmates or Instacart for groceries, Amazon for a wide variety of goods and DoorDash or Uber Eats for restaurant meals.Whether delivery companies can keep up is another question.Amazon notified customers of its Prime Now delivery service on Monday that it's taking longer than normal to deliver orders, with the app sometimes displaying a message that no delivery windows were available. The scarcity of couriers also affected Amazon Fresh, according to, which attributed the delays to a surge in demand."It's like it's Christmas all over again," said Nestor Vela, a full-time Amazon delivery driver in California's East Bay who works for ONCI Logistics, an Amazon contractor. "Our loads are a lot heavier and there's been a bunch of big orders."Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Instacart, the grocery delivery service headquartered in San Francisco, has also seen a wave of orders, against a backdrop of store shelves emptied by people preparing for a possible pandemic."Over the last few days, we've seen a surge in customer demand for household essentials such as bottled water, as well as personal care products like hand sanitizer," the company said, adding that it remained "fully operational across North America and aimed for uninterrupted service.Relying on others for shopping may be a positive, said Karan Girotra, a professor of operations and technology at Cornell Tech in New York."Going into a large public place like a grocery store is less desirable," because of the risk of contagion, he said. "Delivery services can serve an important role by decreasing how much people get together in big stores."Of course, the delivery workers themselves may be at risk if they're bringing goods to the homes of sick people. For the gig workers responding to app orders, who generally are independent contractors, there's another wrinkle: They only get paid if they work, which means they have to balance making money versus the possibility of exposure."Most of the prepper orders I did, the customer didn't tip well, they don't want to go to the store (because) they might get sick, but they think nothing of the person who is shopping in that store for them," said Krystal Asche, an East Bay Instacart shopper and delivery driver, in an email. "I have been coughed on and sneezed on so many times these past few days."She's also concerned about hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes being sold out and wishes stores would limit quantities to prevent hoarding."I need that stuff to do my job, so I don't pass anything onto somebody with a compromised immune system," Asche said. "I have enough hand sanitizer for a few more days, after that I don't know what I will do. Driving around shopping and delivering, I don't have access to a sink to wash my hands all the time."For the gig companies, there's a delicate balance: They may be limited in what they can tell workers because exerting control is among the factors that could result in workers being reclassified as employees under AB5, California's new gig-work law. No on-demand companies responded to questions about whether they are concerned about this, or whether they're noticing reluctance among workers even while demand surges.DoorDash, Uber, Instacart, Postmates, UPS and FedEx all said they are informing their drivers and couriers about public-health officials' recommended hygiene precautions, such as frequent hand washings and staying home if sick."The safety and health of our community of employees, merchants and Dashers is always our top priority," DoorDash said. "We are closely monitoring this situation and have shared the CDC guidelines with Dashers and merchants. We will remain in close contact with them as we learn more."Uber likewise said safety is a top priority. "We have formed a dedicated global team of Uber operations, security and safety executives, guided by the advice of a consulting public health expert, to respond as needed in each market where we operate around the world," it said.UPS noted that, according to the World Health Organization, packages are not at risk of contamination. "From previous analysis, we know coronaviruses do not survive long on objects, such as letters or packages," the company said.San Rafael cannabis delivery company Moonflower Delivery said it is keeping antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer in vehicles for drivers to use after deliveries, since payment involves using a touchscreen."We also have drivers disinfect the phone screens since customers have to sign the digital receipt," co-owner Alexa Wall wrote in an email.In China, where millions are under home quarantine, delivery people have become essential. While most households can only send someone out for supplies every three days, scooter-driving couriers are still allowed on the streets.The couriers have become a lifeline for food and necessities -- but also are particularly vulnerable to infection. The government has ordered them to hang packages on doorknobs or leave them outside gates, rather than handing them over in person, according to the Wall Street Journal.Bay Area public health officials didn't respond to questions about whether they were developing extra protocols for delivery drivers here."A lot of the delivery folks will become frontline individuals supplying things to people and protecting them from the spread of the virus, as we saw in China," said Girotra, the Cornell Tech professor. Companies "should expect more business and should protect their (workers), providing personal protective equipment as much as they can. These are high-risk jobs." Ulsan Hyundai on Wednesday said Lee joined the club on a three-year deal from VfL Bochum in Germany's second-tier league. The club did not disclose specific terms but said they made their best offer to secure the transfer. Footballer Lee Chung-yong has returned to the K-League after playing in Europe for more than a decade. Lee joined FC Seoul in 2004 and made his European debut with Bolton Wanderers in 2009, when they were in the English Premier League. They were later relegated to lower tiers. In his first year there, he won a number of awards including the North West Premier League Player of the Year. After playing for Bolton for six seasons, Lee moved to Crystal Palace in the EPL in 2014 and joined Bochum in 2018. Lee's contract with the German club had been due to end in June. "Bochum were reluctant to release Lee at first," a staffer at Ulsan Hyundai said. The two clubs eventually reached an agreement on a small transfer fee estimated to be worth W100 million (US$1=W1,194). "I am very excited to return to the K-League," Lee said. "I decided to join Ulsan Hyundai due to their continued interest and support." Lee's 2009 transfer contract from FC Seoul to Bolton included a provision requiring him to rejoin the Seoul club upon his return to Korea. The same clause thwarted a bid by another former FC Seoul player, Ki Sung-yueng, to return to the K-League. Ki eventually joined Real Mallorca in Spain's La Liga. In Lee's case the clause proved not to be a deal breaker, as the penalty for violating it was only W600 million, relatively small compared to the W2.6 billion set for Ki. "I'd also like to thank FC Seoul and the fans for supporting me to become a better player," Lee said. Joe Biden is projected to win the North Carolina and Alabama Primaries, multiple networks reported moments after polls closed. The former vice president is poised to claim victory in the Tar Heel state, which boasts 110 delegates the most of any state besides California and Texas while Alabama has 52 delegates up for grabs. Biden has also been projected to win the Virginia Primary, while Senator Bernie Sanders will win his home state of Vermont. African American voters were key to Bidens two victories, with around 60 percent choosing the former vice president in both states according to CNN. Biden was given a late boost in the Super Tuesday primaries after fellow moderate candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday. While the former vice president is projected carry the primaries of southern states, RealClearPolitics polling averages from Texas and California show Sanders in the lead. The two states have a combined 643 delegates. Texas voting has already ended, while California will close its voting booths at 11 p.m. eastern time. More from National Review Mumbai, March 4 : Taapsee Pannu's latest release "Thappad" has won critical acclaim as well as positive response from the film fraternity. The film has started a conversation on domestic violence from an entirely new perspective among niche viewers, and director Anubhav Sinha feels overwhelmed by all the love. "The last time I started getting thousands of good words was after the release of 'Article 15'. I ran away to Gulmarg, to the mountains where there was no network! I get scared of such love where people come out of the theatre and say, 'this is the best work of Anubav Sinha till date'. I feel the pressure and wonder what will I do next. Now I think I cannot deliver anything that is average," Sinha told IANS. He added: "It is not easy to deliver a good film and take the expectation of the audience one level higher every time. I am overwhelmed and pressured. I cannot deal with so much love! Thank you so much (to the audience) but I want to disappear!" the filmmaker said, with a deep breath. Also Watch: Thappad Movie Public Review Starting his career on television, Anubhav directed basic commercial stuff in Bollywood during his early phase, which saw releases such as "Tum Bin" (2001), "Dus" (2005), "Tathastu" (2006), "Cash" (2007) and "Ra.One" (2011). His turnaround film was "Mulk" in 2018, followed by "Article 15" last year and "Thappad" now. At a pre-release screening for select media, Sinha had said his last three releases -- "Mulk", "Article 15" and "Thappad" -- define a discrimination trilogy of sorts, representing oppression on grounds of religion, caste and gender respectively. Did he ever imagine he could one day narrate a Bollywood film entirely around a slap? "This is a fantastic time for us, storyteller. When I started my career in television, there was a certain type of stories that were told. Who would have thought that one day I would get a chance to make a film on a story that is based on nothing, just a slap -- a habit or practice that has been normalised for so long that if the woman gets upset over it, society says she is 'over-reacting'. I would say that the credit goes to audience who has given us the confidence to tell stories and raise questions on a subject that matter to us, that too in mainstream space." On the co-existence of a variety of cinema and on how every film is finding an audience, he said: "Just look at these past three weeks. On February 21, a film like 'Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan' released, which is a gay love story. Next released my film 'Thappad' and in the coming Friday, a commercial Bollywood formula film like 'Baaghi 3' is releasing. We all have our diverse audience." Not long back, Sinha took a stand against CAA and student violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Along with several intellectuals and common citizens, he hit the road to be part of a peaceful protest. Being a filmmaker, what kind of responsibility does he feel he owes to society, beyond the films he makes? "There is a difference between an activist and a celebrity and filmmaker. Do not take us that seriously! I am a responsible, opinionated citizen who raises questions on things that matters through his cinema. It is that simple. I want people to start a conversation and ask a question after watching my film. That is it. We (filmmakers) really do not have a responsibility beyond that. We only try to inspire people positively," Sinha signed off. (Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in) -- Syndicated from IANS Multiple Carnival cruise ships are changing course in a bid to avoid destinations where there is a risk of being turned away, according to the cruise line. In an emailed statement, Carnival Cruise Line said there was "no health situation on board" that caused the change, but that the company wants to avoid any possibility of disruption. The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a trial court in Ramanagara district of Karnataka to ensure the presence of absconding self-styled godman Swami Nithyananda to face trial in a 2010 rape case. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde also allowed a plea by K Lenin alias Nithya Dharmananda, former driver of Nithyananda and had filed a complaint against Nithyananda, for cancellation of non-bailable warrants issued against him. The apex court ordered the cancellation of the non-bailable warrants issued against the complainant in the case on the condition he shows up before the trial court in Ramanagara district today itself. He had challenged the Karnataka High Court's February order where non-bailable warrants were issued against Lenin for not appearing before the court for recording evidence. "Having heard the counsel appearing for the petitioner and upon perusal of the record, we see no reason to interfere with the judgment and order passed by the High Court, which merely directs the petitioner to give evidence in support of his complaint," read the apex court order passed on Tuesday. The Bench also directed that "the concerned trial court shall make every effort to ensure the presence of accused (Nithyananda) to face the proceedings." The Karnataka High Court had last month cancelled the bail granted to Nithyananda, even as the state police claimed the absconding godman was on a 'spiritual tour'. Nithyananda is facing charges of rape and indulging in unnatural sex. He was arrested on April 22, 2010, however, granted bail on June 11, the same year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak. "Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community," the company said. The company had said on Monday would move its annual cloud conference online. Google becomes the second FAANG member after Facebook Inc to cancel its conference as the virus, that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spreads globally. More new cases of the virus are now appearing outside China. There are almost 91,000 cases globally of which more than 80,000 are in the country. The event was to take place between May 12 and May 14 and is Google`s most important event of the year, where it highlights new services and products. HALIFAX - Education administrators in Nova Scotia have decided to cancel all school-organized student trips to international destinations until April 30 because of the evolving situation around the novel coronavirus. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill speaks during a press conference in Halifax on Wednesday, January 24, 2018. Churchill says the government will move ahead with a recommendation to eliminate all of the province's seven English language regional school boards. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese HALIFAX - Education administrators in Nova Scotia have decided to cancel all school-organized student trips to international destinations until April 30 because of the evolving situation around the novel coronavirus. Education Minister Zach Churchill says he fully supports the move made Wednesday by the province's regional centres for education. Churchill says cancelling all trips for the time being is considered a "low-risk approach," and the move was decided after the regional centres consulted with the province's chief medical officer of health. The minister says the idea to prohibit travel, even to areas of the world that are not currently deemed a high risk, is to minimize the overall risk of moving through international airports. Churchill says because the situation with the novel coronavirus is fluid, the ban will be reviewed once it expires. He says school principals are in the process of informing families about the decision. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 14:31 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206837e0c 2 People Ronan-Farrow,Dylan-Farrow,Woody-Allen,memoir,MeToo,Book,assault,film Free An investigative journalist who chronicled Hollywood sex abuse claims that implicated his estranged father Woody Allen has parted ways with his publisher over its decision to release the director's memoirs. The filmmaker behind Annie Hall and Manhattan has long been accused of molesting his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow when she was seven years old in the early 1990s. The 84-year-old was cleared of the charges, first leveled by his then-partner Mia Farrow, after two separate months-long investigations, and has steadfastly denied the abuse. But Dylan, now an adult, maintains she was molested. Her brother Ronan Farrow revived the allegations in 2016 and lashed out at the media for failing to ask hard questions about the director. Farrow later helped spark the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment with his reporting on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault by a New York court last month. His book-length account of that investigation, Catch and Kill, was released last year by publisher Hachette and became an overnight bestseller. But Farrow said Monday he was dismayed to learn that a subsidiary of the company had acquired the rights to Allen's memoirs, which it will release next month. "Hachette did not fact check the Woody Allen book," said Farrow in a statement posted on Twitter. Hey, just wanted to share my thoughts on some recent news: pic.twitter.com/ovPczgx8pB Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) March 4, 2020 He alleged that the publisher was "wildly unprofessional" for never contacting his sister for her side of the story. "It also shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse," said Farrow. "I've also told Hachette that a publisher that would conduct itself in this way is one I can't work with in good conscience." Hachette chief executive Michael Pietsch defended the decision to release Allen's memoirs in a phone interview with the New York Times. "We do not allow anyone's publishing program to interfere with anyone else's," Pietsch told the newspaper. The majority of dairy farmers should be looking at converting to organic, according to Glenisk managing director Vincent Cleary. It now seems environmental regulations, he says, will determine how much any dairy farmer can produce in the future and organic production could enhance the viability of many farms. "This idea of factory farming where you can get possibly up to 1,000 cows on a very small holding and everything is done almost on a factory-like basis, that will not work for the majority of farmers in this country. "Therefore I would say the majority of farmers in this country should be looking at organic as a ways and means of not only enhancing the viability of their own family farm, but then partaking in something bigger." The company, which hit sales of 23m last year, recently received planning permission to almost double the size of its factory. "We hope to start building in the coming months. We are trying to build in advance of taking on customers. Milk constrains are probably holding us back a little at the moment, but definitely I envisage another 15-20pc growth for this year and next year. All we need is more farmers to come on board." Glenisk, he says to his knowledge, pays more than any other milk purchaser in the country and the company could double its supply of organic yogurt if it had sufficient milk supplies. Exports are not a big part of Glenisk's business, with Ireland accounting for 90pc plus of its business. "I'd like to think we are the local champion." He also says the company has been pounding the environmental drum since the mid-1990s when it wanted to differentiate themselves. "Surprise, surprise it has only taken 25 years before it has caught up with mainstream consumers, "I saw it 25 years ago - that the world was in crisis - but the world apparently didn't realise it was in crisis until very recently." His advice to farmers thinking of going into organic production is to look and see how another farmer is performing. "So we always encourage any farmer to have a look at one of our existing suppliers and see what they are doing." Secretary of State for Global Affairs and Diplomatic Strategies Cornel Feruta on Wednesday talked with the Regional Director of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)'s Regional Office for the EU, Norway and Switzerland Ola Henrikson, on a visit to Romania, the talks being focused on the cooperation between the Romanian Government and the IOM, a release by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) sent to AGERPRES informs. Cornel Feruta brought to mind the steady cooperation between the Romanian gov't and the International Organisation for Migration, materialised in particular in the Emergency Regime Transit Centre in Timisoara, the two senior officials saying that the centre is an important tool for the international policy of refugee protection and it creates the starting point for the development of the bilateral cooperation.The Romanian dignitary stressed the importance of the IOM as a worldwide leader organisation in the migration phenomenon's management, especially in the current int'l context marked by significant flows of migrants and refugees. In this respect, Cornel Feruta appreciated the IOM's assistance in the joint operations of repatriating the Romanian citizens found in vulnerable situations and expressed the openness of the Romanian side to continue the dialogue and to identify the possibilities of cooperation at bilateral and multilateral level.The year 2015 saw the inking of the Collaboration Agreement between the MAE and the IOM, an accord that provides for the coordination of the activities in connection with the assisted repatriation of the Romanian citizens in vulnerable situations, the source says.AGERPRES 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Lee Greenwood Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Lee Greenwood Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Country music legend Lee Greenwood will be playing a free concert at Central Green in LaCenterra on April 18 from 7-9 p.m. Central Green, which is a part of the Willowfork Drainage District, is committed to bringing free, family-friendly events to the community. While there is no cost for admission, Yvonne Arceneaux, director of Central Green, asks concert goers to bring a nonperishable food donation to Katy Christian Ministries. Greenwood is perhaps most famous for his patriotic single, God Bless the USA, but he has more than 30 albums to his name. According to a release from Greenwoods publicist, with seven No.1 songs and 25 charted singles, his hits include: It Turns Me Inside Out, Ring On Her Finger Time on Her Hands, Shes Lyin, I dont Mind the Thorns if Youre the Rose, Dixie Road, Somebodys Gonna Love You, Going Going Gone, You Got A Good Love Comin, Fools Gold, and Mornin Ride. Several genre crossover hits include, Touch and Go Crazy, IOU and the duet with Barbara Mandrell, To Me. An additional duet with Suzie Boggus, Hopelessly Yours, was nominated for a Grammy. The CD American Patriot, recorded & released in 1992. Greenwoods latest CD is: "I Want to be in Your World." He wrote three of the seven songs and plays saxophone on the original track, Here Comes Love There Goes My Heart. He also covered the Michael McDonald/Kenny Loggins ballad, You Can Let Go Now. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:41:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BUCHAREST, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Victor Costache, health minister of Romania's caretaker government, announced on Wednesday that a fifth case of COVID-19 infection was confirmed and that the new patient was a close contact with the one tested positive a day ago. The new patient, a 16-year-old, is the nephew of the fourth infected person confirmed in Timisoara on Tuesday, according to the Strategic Communication Group, a government agency authorized to publish official public information. The young man is asymptomatic just like his uncle, a 47-year-old man who sat beside a woman in a plane returning from Italy. The woman was confirmed of infection after returning home. Thus, all infected people so far in Romania can be traced back to Italy. "The epidemiological investigation is useful. These people are identified and put under treatment quickly," Costache said. Romania confirmed the first case of novel coronavirus last Wednesday after a 20-year-old Romanian was infected by a visiting Italian. As of Wednesday morning, 35 people are currently in institutional quarantine in Romania nationwide, and 10,094 are monitored at home. Romania has frequent people exchange with Italy. As of 2019, over 1.2 million Romanian citizens are living in Italy -- the largest Romanian immigrant population in any country, also the largest immigrant group within Italy. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - MAX RESOURCE CORP. (TSXV: MXR) (OTC Pink: MXROF) (FSE: M1D2) ("Max" or the "Company") is pleased to report a high-grade outcrop discovery within AM North's flat-lying, stratabound copper + silver mineralized system. Assays from AMN-2 returned 24.8% copper + 230 g/t silver from a 4-metre by 1-metre rock chip panel. AMN-2 lies 1.8-km along strike from the AMN-1 discovery. The copper mineralization consisted of malachite, azurite, and chalcocite within the sandstone. Both discoveries at the CESAR copper + silver project, approximately 420-km north of Bogota, Colombia are open-ended and dip 20 degrees NW (refer to Figures 1, 2 and 3). The CESAR mineralized zones appear to resemble a large sub-horizontal sheet, with the edges partly exposed. Max is using rock chip sampling on the extensive surface exposure to identify structures, confirm strike continuity and establish thickness, prior to drilling. The Company considers rock chip panel sampling to be representative across their reported widths. CESAR consists of two distinct areas: AM North, located 40-km north of AM South, appears to share the same mineralized trend; The stratabound copper + silver mineralization at both, AM North and AM South, are hosted in a bedded sandstone-siltstone similar to Kupferschiefer in Poland. Max cautions investors the copper + silver mineralization at Kupferschiefer is not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization at Cesar. "We were pleasantly surprised that the AM North discovery was made in just a one-day field reconnaissance. Given the early stage success at both, AM North and AM South, we are confident in further exploration successes in 2020," Max CEO, Brett Matich, commented. "While the spectacular results reported today are noteworthy, we are working on the premise of an average target grade of plus 1.5% copper with associated silver. Our exploration success continues to support our belief that CESAR is a large-scale copper + silver mineralized system. Our field teams continue to expand the known mineralization," Mr. Matich continued. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_001full.jpg To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_002full.jpg To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_003full.jpg CESAR Copper + Silver Project The wholly-owned CESAR Project is located in north east Colombia within Jurassic sediments and volcaniclastics that extend the length of northern South America and also host significant stratabound copper + silver mineralization found both in Ecuador and Peru. CESAR lies along a historic 120-km copper-belt within a sedimentary basin, the district has extensive infrastructure, major oil-gas and coal operations, ports, townships, railways and roadways. Considering the first pass exploration at CESAR commenced only in mid-November 2019, the Company has enjoyed considerable success. Max's exploration strategy is to unlock the potential of the CESAR district as an up and coming world class copper and silver producing region. PGE Americas Metals Corp Max recently established "PGE Americas Metals Corp." as a wholly-owned subsidiary, to hold its PGE Choco Project. This is the first step towards building a portfolio of PGE assets with a focus on palladium, platinum and rhodium. The intent is to unlock this value in a timely manner (refer to news release February 25, 2020). The PGE Choco project is located 120-km SW of Medellin Colombia, within a district with historical platinum production of one million ounces (1906-1990) by Choco Pacific Mining. Compilation of historical records revealed the potential for related PGE's particularly palladium and rhodium. In addition, recent field work in 2019 by Max resulted in concentrate values of 114 g/t platinum (refer to news release April 16, 2019). Colombia was the world's main source of platinum until 1820 and was world's largest producer between 1917 and 1923.Source: R.J. Fletcher and Associates (2011) Review of Gold and Platinum Exploration and Production in Choco Province Colombia Part 3. Private Report for Condo to Platinum NL. North Choco Gold and Copper Project North Choco consists of wholly-owned mineral applications, located approximately 80-km SW of Medellin, Colombia. The NW Gold-Copper Discovery (refer to October29, 2019 news release) outcrop reported 1-metre of 49.8 g/t gold and 4.3% copper, continuing under cover in both directions. Future work will focus on mapping and sampling along strike to extend the zone and on locating additional parallel zones. Quality Assurance The rock chip samples were shipped to ALS Lab's sample preparation facility in Medellin, Columbia. Sample pulps are sent to Lima, Peru for analysis. All samples were analyzed using ALS procedure ME-MS41, a four-acid digestion with ICP finish. Over limit copper and silver were determined by ALS procedure OG-62, a four-acid digestion with an AAS finish. ALS Labs is independent from Max. Max is not aware of any other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data referred to herein. About Max Resource Corp. Max, a mineral exploration company with an experienced and successful management team, is focused on advancing its copper, silver and precious metals landholdings in the rich mineral belts of Colombia, with potential for the discovery of large-scale mineral deposits that can attract major partners. Tim Henneberry, P Geo (British Columbia), a member of the Max Resource Advisory Board, is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release on behalf of the Company. For more information visit: https://www.maxresource.com/ For additional information contact: Max Resource Corp. Tim McNulty E: info@maxresource.com T: (604) 290-8100 Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the TSXV. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for Max Resources Corp. described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53125 Miley Cyrus is not the only one who is enjoying a new life with someone new. Even Liam Hemsworth found peace away from his ex-wife, thanks to Gabriella Brooks! Nearly three months since Liam started his romantic relationship with Gabriella Brooks, a source claims that the two have a stable relationship and are in a good place together already. Speaking to Us Weekly, the source said: "He feels more at home with Gabriella than he did with Miley [Cyrus] and feels like he can be his complete self without any drama." The 30-year-old actor ended his almost 10-year romance with the "Hannah Montana" star last year. They agreed to separate in August 2019 and eventually finalized their divorce earlier this 2020. The insider went on and explained Liam's relationship status with Gabriella. They source said that the young model helped Hemsworth build his confidence and even played an "encouraging role" in his life following his catastrophic marriage with the 27-year-old "Party in the U.S.A" hitmaker. "They are very happy together, and it's comfortable and easy," the source continued. Compared to his relationship with Cyrus, which was on and off numerous times, Hemsworth's romance with Brooks right now is the most stable he had in his life. And he seems to be determined to keep the relationship going and make it even stronger as days go by. When Did They Make It Official? After his short-lived romance with Maddison Brown, Liam led the 21-year-old Australian model to meet his parents, Craig and Leonie, over lunch in Byron. The Hemsworth parents reportedly approved and liked Gabriella so much. Since the meeting, the model has been receiving so much support from Craig and Leonie, something Cyrus did not get before. Their relationship progressed even more while Liam's divorce process was still on-going. In fact, when Hemsworth held an extended 30th birthday celebration on Jan. 13, he chose to spend the day with Brooks. New Idea luckily photographed the "Isn't It Romantic" actor and his then-rumored new girlfriend at Byron Bay beach in New South Wales, Australia. The photographs revealed that the two got already more comfortable -- and steamy, at the same time -- with each other. In the photos, Liam and Gabriella can be seen lying side by side on the sand, sharing a kiss, doing all the PDA, and hugging each other. More PDA-filled moments emerged online, which only proved that Hemsworth is truly happy now without her ex-wife. Miley is Happy, Too! Before this news, a different source close to Cyrus and Simpson told Hollywood Life that the couple's families have been supportive of their blooming romance despite only dating for a few months. "There's no drama or fighting between them at all. They're both homebodies a lot of the time. It's just easy," the insider said. The source also revealed that the couple is happy with years-old friendship, which turned into the foundation of their relationship. Moreover, Miley and Cody's common hobbies and interests strengthened their relationship even more. A 95-year-old resident of a Sydney aged care facility at the centre of a coronavirus scare who died this week has tested positive for the disease, NSW Health said. The elderly woman is the first person in NSW to die with COVID-19 and the second in Australia, after a 78-year-old West Australian man died from the virus on Sunday. NSW Health confirmed six more coronavirus cases on Wednesday night, bringing the total number of positive infections in the state to 22. As of Wednesday midnight, there are a total of 52 cases nationally. The new cases include an elderly female resident at a Macquarie Park nursing facility, a female doctor who works at Liverpool Hospital, a female patient from the Northern Beaches, a male from Cronulla and a female who is believed to have returned from the Philippines. Another angle: The Federal Reserve on Tuesday approved its biggest one-time rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis. But our economics correspondent Peter Goodman says the move was the equivalent of handing coupons to shoppers and sending them to a store that is closed. Here are the latest market updates. A closer look at the virus We spoke with Donald McNeil, a Times health reporter, about what its like to contract the coronavirus, based on what weve learned from China. What does this illness look like? Some people compare it to the flu. No, its different from the flu. Its a lung disease. Ninety percent of people get a fever, 80 percent get a dry cough and then it drops down to 30 percent get shortness of breath and malaise you know, being tired. A runny nose shows up in only 4 percent, and that may be people who also happen to have a cold or a flu. Weve been told that 80 percent of cases are mild. But you said that could include pneumonia? Yes. Chinese health officials define mild as a positive test thats fever, shortness of breath and possibly pneumonia, but not so bad that you need to be hospitalized. Once you need oxygen, you go into the severe category. What are we learning about asymptomatic cases? The good news is that a large study from China suggests that less than 1 percent of cases are asymptomatic. Almost all people get sick. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, criticized Washingtons effort, saying it was doing all it can to pressure other countries to give up their support for the Chinese candidate. Chinas ambassador in Geneva, Chen Xu, told reporters last week that the United States had threatened smaller countries with loss of World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans. Ms. Wang, who holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a law diploma from Columbia Law School, was the most qualified candidate, he said, citing her nearly 30 years of service at the United Nations intellectual property office where she is a deputy to the departing director, Francis Gurry of Australia. Americas opposition to her candidacy was totally irrational, he added. But campaigning for the United Nations post touched a nerve in the White House. The Trump administration has accused China of outright theft of American technology and trade secrets and invoked those charges as justification for the trade war with China. The Justice Department recently unveiled charges of racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets against Huawei, one of Chinas biggest telecom equipment makers, accusing it of trying to steal source code and other trade secrets from six American companies. While a trade agreement reached between America and China early this year included pledges by Beijing to halt some of the practices that Washington has objected to, it did not allay the administrations deep misgivings at the prospect of Chinas candidate taking the top job at the intellectual property organization. Peter Navarro, Mr. Trumps trade adviser, has been critical of electing a Chinese official to run the intellectual property office. After the U.S.-China trade deal, Mr. Navarro has been focused on ensuring that the Chinese government keeps its promises to protect intellectual property. As part of that, he has been spearheading proposals to curb the flow of counterfeit products from China that are sold on American e-commerce platforms. Were talking about over 100,000 packages a day coming into the U.S. from China that can defraud, harm or even kill Americans, Mr. Navarro said in January. He also raised the specter of growing Chinese influence across the United Nations organization. Control of its intellectual property office would have given China power over five of the U.N.s 15 specialized agencies, Mr. Navarro noted. The four already led by China include the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. No other country was in charge of more than one, he said. Alan Rappeport and Lara Jakes contributed reporting from Washington. Generational Group Expands with New Office in Charlotte, NC Generational Group, a leading middle market investment bank for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce the continued expansion of the firm with the opening of a new office in Charlotte, North Carolina. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, the firm now has 13 offices in North America. The new office is led by Jack Sluiter. Mr. Sluiter serves as Managing Director, Mergers & Acquisitions in the South Eastern region at Generational, and works directly with private middle-market business owners in developing and executing exit strategies. Sluiter's focus is connecting sellers with the right buyers at an optimal price and deal structure. He is a commercial real estate broker licensed in North and South Carolina. Prior to working with Generational, Sluiter owned a brokerage firm that specialized in the marketing and sale of main street and lower middle-market businesses. During this time he earned multiple awards including the 100 Winners Circle Award and the Presidents Club Award for 3 consecutive years. Sluiter currently serves on the board of Parkwater Aviation, and has been an active board member for several non-profits including Parkwater Foundation and International Association of Missionary Aviation. Sluiter and his family worked 17 years in the international non-profit world where Jack served many roles, from mission pilot in South America, to CFO. "This new office is part of our strategy to enhance our M&A Advisory practice serving the technology industry, and specifically, the area's Research Triangle," said Brenen Hofstadter, Chief M&A Officer of Generational. "This location, along with the other offices we have added the past two years, bolsters are visibility and coverage of the East Coast business community and M&A markets." Generational Group is one of the leading M&A advisory firms in North America, having won multiple industry awards incluing Investment Banking Firm of the Year in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and Valuation Firm of the Year in 2015 and 2014. According to the 2019 Refinitiv/Thomson M&A rankings, the firm was #1 in transactions valued up to $25 million, #2 up to $100 million and #9 up to $500 million. No M&A advisor has closed more deals in the lower middle market than Generational over the past decade. The Charlotte office is located at: 11220 Elm Lane Suite 200 Charlotte, NC 28277 About Generational Group Generational Equity, Generational Capital Markets (member FINRA/SIPC), Generational Wealth Advisors, and DealForce are part of the Generational Group, which is headquartered in Dallas and is one of the leading middle market investment banks in North America. With over 250 professionals located throughout North America, the companies help business owners increase and release the wealth of their business by providing merger, acquisition, and wealth management services. Their five-step approach features exit planning education, business valuation, value enhancement strategies, M&A transactional services, and wealth management. For more information, visit https://www.generational.com or the Generational Group press room. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005195/en/ Eroding shorelines of the Wedge and Grey communities along the Mid West coast have prompted the state to progress its plan for residents managed retreat. Owners of the approximately 450 off-grid shacks about 30 minutes north of Lancelin have fought off repeated bureaucratic attempts to force them off the land in recent years, but now face another imminent threat: coastal erosion. One shack slipped into the ocean in 2018 and its next-door neighbour was issued with a demolition notice for safety reasons, though the owners reportedly resisted eviction. Now the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has issued a tender for a coastal engineer to help it make tough decisions on the managed retreat of those shacks within metres of the water. COLUMBUS, OhioBlack Ohioans are more conservative than many people might think, favoring small government, taxpayer funding for private schools, gun rights over gun control, and private health insurance over a single-payer system, a sweeping new poll has found. The survey of 1,500 black Ohioans, unveiled Wednesday by the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation and the University of Akrons Bliss Institute, offers a first-of-its-kind statewide look into the political thoughts of Ohios 1.7 million black residents. Sixty percent of those polled said they prefer small state government, with fewer services and lower taxes, over larger state government. In addition, 53 percent agreed with protecting the right of citizens to own guns, compared with 47 percent who agreed with restricting the right of citizens to own guns. That finding was surprising, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Seventy percent of those polled preferred a health-care system that mixes public programs and private insurance, as opposed to 30 percent who back a single-payer insurance system. The poll found 61 percent support for taxpayer funding for not just public schools, but also charter, religious, and private schools. Those numbers are notable given the historical support for Democratic candidates by black voters in Ohio and around the country. They show that Ohios black population is not monolithic and are conservative on a number of issues, Green said. On some other issues, black views are in keeping with the platform of mainstream Democrats. More than three-quarters of those surveyed backed abortion rights, and 75 percent agreed that strict environmental laws are worth the cost for better health and quality of life. Two-thirds said they believe that public assistance does more good than harm. More than 15 percent of those polled said crime was the most important problem in Ohio right now, followed by drugs (12.6 percent), the need for more jobs (10.2 percent) and guns/gun control (6.8 percent). State Rep. Stephanie Howse, a Cleveland Democrat who heads the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, told reporters the polls findings support, rather than conflict with, the voting records of caucus members, who are all Democrats who have supported tighter gun-control measures. Howse said while the poll quizzed black Ohioans about their overarching thoughts on various issues, that doesnt necessarily reflect their views about specific policy ideas. We believe -- I believe -- that everyone should actually be able to own a gun. ...Theres no disagreement on that, Howse said. "It is a very different thing when youre talking the implementation of a stand your ground bill and to pass the no duty of retreat.' The poll was conducted in December 2019 and January 2020 via phone and online. The surveys margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points. Indonesian police seized over half a million face masks from a Jakarta-area warehouse after the country's first confirmed cases of coronavirus sparked panic buying and sent prices for prevention products skyrocketing. Authorities were questioning two people after the Tuesday evening raid at a warehouse in satellite city Tangerang, where nearly 600,000 surgical masks were found. The owners did not have permission to distribute the masks, police said. "Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public's expense," Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP Wednesday. Those convicted of hoarding masks could face up to five years in jail and hefty fines, police said. The warehouse raid came after hundreds of boxes of surgical masks were also seized Tuesday at a Jakarta apartment. And police said they busted a factory at the weekend allegedly making and distributing counterfeit masks that did not meet health standards "Those masks are useless," Yunus said. "They won't protect people who use them." The crackdown was ordered by Indonesian president Joko Widodo who has called on citizens to avoid panic buying -- even as store shelves are cleared and prices soar for masks and hand sanitisers. Major cities including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney have also seen panic buying sparked by the virus. Indonesians, meanwhile, are scooping up a traditional herbal tonic known as jamu and in one city sellers dressed as Batman and local superhero Gundala were handing out the drink to motorists. "My sales have more than doubled since Monday," said Nur Hidayati, 29, a jamu seller in Bogor near Jakarta. "People tell me they want jamu to stay healthy and immune from the virus." On Monday, Indonesia confirmed its first coronavirus cases, saying a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, 31, tested positive. Globally, coronavirus has infected more than 90,000 people and killed at least 3,100 people. But Indonesia -- a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 260 million -- had yet to report a confirmed case until this week. Vendors wearing outfits of local superhero Gundala and Batman hawk traditional Indonesian herbal drinks known as "jamu" in traffic in Solo, Indonesia, ostensibly to protect against coronavirus infection Vendors in fancy dress offer samples of a local herbal tonic to motorists in Solo, Indonesia The anonymous letters turning up in Ohio with references to missing New Jersey 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez are apparently arriving in New Jersey mailboxes, too. More than five months after Dulce disappeared from a Bridgeton park during a family outing in September, letters were sent to two businesses and a library in Ohio referencing the missing girl. A tip scribbled on an index card mailed to a racetrack and casino in Austintown Township prompted a search of a wooded area using dogs and drones last weekend, but nothing was found. Jackie Rodriguez, who has been acting as a spokeswoman for Dulces family, reported Wednesday afternoon that she received a letter postmarked Cleveland, Ohio, that contained seven slips of paper filled with scribbled phrases - but nothing specific about Dulce. She could make out words in the barely legible writing, including Alaska, Mexico, border, 1776 and civil war. Other words include New England town and kids homes orphanage. Rodriguez turned the item over to police for investigation. While he hadnt seen that letter yet, Bridgeton Police Chief Michael Gaimari said Wednesday afternoon that investigators believe this is likely related to the letters received in Ohio. The letter had no return address and arrived in her post office box. My husband said that it looked like a childs handwriting, Rodriguez said, but to her it looked like something familiar. Since Dulces disappearance, Rodriguez said she has frequently received random messages via social media from people claiming to be psychics with information about the child. People inbox me because they get visions that they know where she is, she said. Theyve sent me information like that before. A group of residents recently searched a field behind Dulces school based on a tip from a psychic, but nothing was found. Police also acknowledged getting similar tips. Rodriguez is worried that someone has contacted her so directly in such a strange way. Its scary, because now its near my family, she said. Rodriguez feels the letters need to be taken seriously until they can be ruled out as evidence. If these are phony leads, however, she wants to see someone held accountable. I really hope they do get whoever this is and press some kind of charges against them. What theyre doing is interfering with the investigation," she said. "The detectives are concentrating on facts and then this comes in and makes it even more difficult. Handwriting on the three items received in the eastern Ohio communities appears similar, authorities said. An index card addressed to Manager Hollywood Gaming at the Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course advised police to search a nearby wooded area close to a truck stop along Interstate 80. The writer states 76 truck stop dead end St. entrance woods. Please look. The search turned up nothing, but investigators want to take another look with K-9s once the weather warms up. The area is currently snow-covered. While the return address on that index card is illegible, the ZIP code comes back to the town of Culiacan, Mexico. Investigators said they dont know if thats really the source of the card. The cards mailed to the casino and an ice cream shop in nearby Weathersfield dont have postmarks, but a letter mailed to Austintown Library had a Cleveland postmark. Investigators confirmed the card sent to Hollywood Gaming was delivered by a postal worker. As for the Weathersfield card, the ice cream shop owner found it in her mailbox Monday and took it to police. That card mentions Dulce by name, but does not suggest she could be in Ohio, according to police in that community. The contents of the card didnt prompt any fresh searches, Weathersfield Police Capt. Kris Hodge confirmed in an email on Thursday. The card, which he said was turned over to Austintown Police and the FBI, contains no postmark, return address or ZIP code. A reward for information about Dulce stands at $75,000 and the FBI is working with local, county and state agencies in New Jersey to crack the case. Authorities ask anyone with information about Dulce to call the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at 609-882-2000, ext. 2554, or the Bridgeton police at 856-451-0033. Tips may also be phoned in to 1-800-CALL-FBI and select option 4, then select option 8. Anonymous tips may be sent by text to TIP411 with Bridgeton in the message line. Jackie Rodriguez is acting as a spokesperson for Dulce's family. Here she relays instructions to volunteers through an interpreter during a search for the child in October.David Gard | For NJ Advance Media Editors Note: This story was updated on March 5, 2020 with information from police in Ohio. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. On the occasion of International Women's Day, a special edition by Zee News on 'Naari Shakti' focuses on how women have finally made breakthroughs in several areas where their participation was not seen earlier. From an all-women crew in Bengaluru running the train to Tanya Shergill breaking stereotypes and leading the woman parade on Republic Daythis year saw many firsts by female power. Let's take a close look at some of the women achievers so far in their respective fields and hail their spirit: The Indian Railways have taken a few vital steps towards encouraging women empowerment. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal posted a video on social media of Mysore Rajya Rani Express train which was run by a women-crew on March 1, 2020. The train runs from Bengaluru to Mysore. Also, Mumbai's Matunga railway station is country's first all-women railway station. From station master to ticket collector - all charges and duties are managed by female staff. Similarly, Gandhi Nagar railway station in Rajasthan is also managed by an all-women team of workers. On January 26, 2020, captain Tanya Shergill became first Indian woman Parade Adjutant to lead an all-man contingent at 72nd Army Day parade. She led an all-man contingent during the ceremonial Republic Day parade at Rajpath, New Delhi. For the first time ever on Republic Day this year, an all-women bikers contingent of the CRPF made its debut and performed daredevil stunts during the parade. Earlier, only the male riders performed such breathtaking acts. As many as 106 women commandos on 26 bikes performed the daredevil stunts at a 3 kilometre stretch from Vijay Chowk to India Gate in New Delhi. The six women officers of Indian Navy of Navika Sagar Parikrama completed a 254-day expedition covering 22,000 nautical miles, facing rough seas, bad weather during their historic journey in 2018. Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi led the first all-women crew of Indian Navy's sailing vessel INSV Tarini. Even in the remotest parts of the country, female folk have worked their way out and achieved the unthinkable. The Jeevika Didis of Damdaha from Bihar's Purnia district present an inspiring tale for other females across the globe. Females of Damdaha's Kisanpur village battled the problems arising from floods for very many years but with the help of government, they formed Mulberry productions groups. They produced silk threads with it and later made exclusive silk sarees. Many such Jeevika didis of Purnia are not only facilitating other womenfolk to work and make silk sarees for livelihood but also put up stalls at various fairs for an easy sale. There are many more inspirational tales of women working hard and battling all odds to achieve the impossible. Let's celebrate the spirit of 'Naari Shakti' on this International Women's Day! Fifteen Italian tourists in India have been tested positive for coronavirus. With these new cases, the total number of cases confirmed in India has gone up to 18. On Tuesday night, 21 Italian nationals had been brought down from a hotel to ITBP's quarantine facility in South Delhi for preventive isolation. Samples were taken from them by the authorities for testing. The development comes a day after an Italian tourist, in Jaipur was tested positive for coronavirus and his wife showed initial symptoms of the virus. The Italian couple was part of a tourist group touring Rajasthan. Later, the wife was also tested positive for coronavirus at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital. The couple was part of a group of 23 Italian Nationals who were touring Rajasthan. The Rajasthan health authorities had feared that the couple would have infected more people as they had visited prominent tourist places in the state. Hence, the other 21 members of the tourist group were sent to Delhi to be quarantined and tested. This morning, 15 of the 21 Italian tourists have now been confirmed positive for coronavirus. The first three cases of coronavirus cases in India were detected in Kerala, all three were treated and discharged from the hospitals a few days later. On Monday, two new cases of coronavirus were detected in India, one in Delhi and the other in Telangana. Authorities have been trying to trace the movement and the people encountered by these patients. So far, two schools in Noida have been closed as a few of their students had attended the birthday party of the son of the Delhi patient. The family of the Delhi patient has been quarantined at Safdarganj Hospital in Delhi. Till now, 79 people have died in Italy due to COVID19. So far, it is the worst-hit country in Europe. The virus which originated in Wuhan, China has claimed 2,981 lives so far in Mainland China. Also Read: Coronavirus Outbreak Live Updates: Covid-19 cases in India rise to 6; China death toll touches 2,981 Also Read: Coronavirus in Noida: What Delhi-NCR residents should know Police stand near the site where 39 bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry in Thurrock, England. The lorry was discovered early Wednesday morning in Waterglade Industrial Park on Eastern Avenue in the town of Grays. Authorities said they believed the lorry originated in Bulgaria and entered the country at Holyhead on October 19. The suspected driver was arrested in connection with the investigation Getty Images Hours after Additional Commissioner of Police Ajit Kumar Singla claimed that expelled AAP leader Tahir Hussain was rescued as mobs wreaked havoc in northeast Delhi, Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said that the former MLA did not need to be rescued Hours after Additional Commissioner of Police Ajit Kumar Singla claimed that expelled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Tahir Hussain was rescued as mobs wreaked havoc in northeast Delhi, Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said that the former MLA did not need to be rescued. "There are some media reports that Tahir Hussain was rescued by police. The fact is that on 24 February night we received information that a Councillor is trapped and surrounded but when police checked he was found at his home," Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said. CLARIFICATION: Delhi Police Sources now clarify that Tahir Hussain did not require rescuing; on the intervening night of 24-25 Feb, news of the councillor being stuck was received by police, upon investigation it was found the councillor was safe in his house. pic.twitter.com/8smMI8WWtm ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2020 The tweet came after Delhi Police confirmed on Tuesday that Hussain was rescued from his home in northeast Delhi on 24 February. Singla had said, On 24 February, around 11 pm to midnight, some people told us that a councillor is stuck and feeling insecure. He was then rescued, Singla said. The Delhi Police on Tuesday said that attempts are being made to arrest Hussain as soon as possible, even as he remains absconding after being named for alleged involvement in the killing of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma. Through his lawyers, Hussain moved a Delhi court on Tuesday for an anticipatory bail in connection with an FIR lodged against him. Advocate Mukesh Kalia representing Tahir Hussain moved the anticipatory bail which is now listed for hearing before district and sessions Judge Sudhir Kumar Jain on Wednesday. Anticipatory bail means that an individual can seek or request to the court to get bail in anticipation or in expectation of being named or accused of having committed a non-bailable offence. The expelled Councillor is an accused in the FIR lodged over the killing of Sharma whose body was recovered from a drain in Chand Bagh on 26 February during the violence in northeast Delhi. The deceased's father, Ravinder Kumar, on whose complaint the FIR was lodged, has named the AAP leader as an accused. He has alleged that Hussain, whose office is located near Chand Bagh Pulia, had gathered men who were pelting stones and petrol bombs during the violence which led to tension and fear among the residents. "On 26 February, when IB officer Ankit Sharma's body was found and his family made allegations, Tahir became the main accused. After that Tahir's house was searched and evidence was gathered. Police are conducting raids and trying to arrest him as soon as possible," Randhawa added. At least 47 people including Ankit Sharma and Police Head Constable Rattan Lal have died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for three days in north-east Delhi. With inputs from agencies Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is holding two campaign rallies in Michigan before the March 10 primary next week. Sanders campaign announced the Vermont senator will attend a March 6 rally in Detroit and Sunday, March 8 rally in Grand Rapids. The events will tally his ninth and 10th visits to Michigan as he attempts to win the states primary for again after pulling off a surprise victory in 2016. The Detroit event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday from TCF Center, with doors opening at 5 p.m. The Grand Rapids event is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. in Calder Plaza, located at 351 Ottawa Ave. NW. Doors open to the public at 11 a.m. Democratic candidates have begun announcing a series of events across the state with less than a week left before votes are counted in the Michigan primary. Sanders is considered the favorite to win Michigan, but the race quickly became more competitive with the departure of moderate candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., held a high-energy rally in Detroit on Tuesday, March 3. She will come back to Michigan for a March 6 rally in Lansing, scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. at Lansing Community College. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is planning to visit Michigan on Thursday, March 5. His campaign announced a noon rally at Futuramic Tool and Engineering in Warren, located at 24727 Gibson Dr. Former Vice President Joe Biden, whose campaign sprung back to life after a strong victory in South Carolina, has not yet announced any stops in Michigan before the primary. Read more on MLive: Elizabeth Warren tells Michigan shes the woman to beat Donald Trump at Super Tuesday campaign rally Bloombergs Michigan agenda includes more funding for Great Lakes, roads and housing What happens if I voted for someone who dropped out of Michigans presidential primary? What Michigan voters need to know about absentee ballots for March 10 primary Bernie Sanders could seize second Michigan presidential primary win, this time as Democratic front-runner BUCKS COUNTY >> Police in Northampton, Lower Southampton and Upper Makefield townships report the following incidents and arrests: Lower Southampton THEFT >> In the early morning hours on Monday, Jan. 10 two individuals made off with the entire change machine from the Feasterville Laundromat along Bustleton Pike. The male appears to be "cracking himself up" while he hatches his scheme... A number of border gates resume customs clearance Although import-export activities at Huu Nghi Border Gate have returned to normal, the progress in clearance has not seen much improvement because the two sides are still intensifying measures in the prevention and control of Covid-19 epidemic, according to the Department of Industry and Trade of Lang Son Province. In particular, the number of Chinese labourers in charge of loading and unloading of goods is small while the number of vehicles transporting goods through the border gate is only equivalent to 40% of the time before the spread of the epidemic. As many as 319 container trucks carrying agricultural products, including jackfruit, dragon fruit, mango, longan, chili and other commodities, remained stuck at Tan Thanh Border Gate on February 25, despite the reopening of the border gate on February 20. 43 trucks of watermelon, dragon fruit, banana and mango have been exported to China while Vietnam has imported 11 trucks of ginger, onion, potato, and fresh mushroom from the Chinese side. 110 trucks (mainly dragon fruit and watermelon) remain waiting for export procedures. Meanwhile, 11 trucks carrying peanuts, groceries, cowhide, cosmetics, and frozen fish are stuck at Coc Nam Border Gate. According to the Customs Branch of the Dong Dang International Railway, hundreds of carriages carrying over 1,000tonnes of Vietnamese fresh dragon fruit have been piloted to export to China through the railway since the beginning of February. Accordingly, for the first time, agricultural containers were loaded onto freight trains to be shipped to Pingxiang Railway Station in China. The move has helped goods to be moved quickly while reducing costs and avoiding congestion. Phung Quang Hoi, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Lang Son Province, said that the department will coordinate with relevant units to continue implementing solutions to speed up the clearance of goods, contributing to the promotion of goods export and consumption of agricultural and aquatic products. The Customs Branch of Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh, has set up four working groups to support import-export activities. Head of the Customs Branch Nguyen Van Hoan said that a temporary pontoon bridge has been set up at the ICD Thanh Dat port to facilitate the import and export of goods. A temporary pontoon bridge on Ka Long River officially resumed its operation on February 25 which helped to export five tonnes of lobster, worth VND1.2 billion (US$52,000). Meanwhile, goods valued at over US$5 million have passed through Bac Luan II Bridge since February 7. The current priority export items include fresh fruits, agricultural products, fresh aquatic products, cashew nuts, and cassava starch. In addition, the border market of Hoanh Mo in Binh Lieu District, Quang Ninh Province, has resumed the clearance of goods after a temporary suspension due to Covid-19, with the initial clearance provided for seafood, agricultural and forestry products. Synchronous solutions to be promptly implemented At Kim Thanh Border Gate, connecting Vietnams Lao Cai with China Ha Khau (Hekou), agricultural products have been facing huge stockpiles due to the Covid-19 epidemic, creating adverse impacts on the production and lives of peoples of both countries. The functional forces of Vietnam and China are working together to remove difficulties and accelerate the clearance of goods. By closely monitoring the situation, the two sides came up with suitable solutions. The Management Board of Lao Cai Economic Zone has established "designated transit driver teams" to transport imported and exported goods through Kim Thanh Border Gate no.2.The initiative helps to shorten the clearance time and increase the clearance capacity at the border gate. An average 130 trucks are now cleared at the border gate each day, an increase of 40 trucks compared to the previous time. In addition, the Lao Cai Railway Transport Branch has also set up a "specialised train operation team in a bid to quickly handle import and export goods. Chairman of the Lao Cai Economic Zone Management Board Nguyen Ngoc Khai said that nearly 20,000 tonnes of goods, mainly dragon fruit, watermelon, jackfruit and banana, have been exported to China through Kim Thanh Border Gate no.2,with a total import-export turnover of overUS$32 million. Export and import activities are expected to increase in the coming days. The Management Board of Lao Cai Economic Zone has developed a plan to establish more areas to gather trucks into the Kim Thanh logistics warehouse with a capacity of up to 1,000 vehicles to facilitate the clearance of goods. Meanwhile, Chairman of the People's Committee of Mong Cai City Nguyen Tien Dung said the city has talked with Dongxing City in China to actively build plans to resume the clearance of goods through the shared border. The city also requires warehouse businesses to have a preferential policy for enterprises who have to preserve their goods while waiting to be exported to China. At the same time, the city will investigate and monitor the market situation to have a plan to connect domestic enterprises and prepare goods to export immediately after the border gate is opened. Director of the Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Phan Van Chinh said that the provincial Departments of Industry and Trade have closely coordinated with the Import and Export Department and functional units of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to promptly update the import and export situation through border gates as well as create favourable conditions for enterprises to accelerate the clearance of goods. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will also work together with relevant ministries, sectors and localities to continue removing difficulties for import and export activities and boosting the consumption of goods, especially agricultural and aquatic products. The ministry will also work to deal with the shortage of raw materials for domestic manufacturing and processing due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic spreading to many countries around the world. Damboa, headquarters of a local government area in Borno, is currently under Boko Haram attack. The insurgents, villagers said, ca... Damboa, headquarters of a local government area in Borno, is currently under Boko Haram attack. The insurgents, villagers said, came in large numbers around 6:30 am on Wednesday and started shooting sporadically. One of the residents said for over an hour troops from the armys 25 task force brigade in Damboa have been exchanging gunfire with the insurgents. They came in plenty of hilux trucks. We saw about 20 before we started running towards the bush, one of the fleeing residents said. Soldiers from the 25 task force came in about 30 minutes and right now, over an hour, they are still exchanging gunshots with the insurgents. The attack comes a day after the insurgents attacked Bwalakila, a neighbouring village in Chibok local government area. A resident of the village dislosed that the insurgents were repelled by troops of the 117 task force battalion in Chibok, but that they had already stolen tons of food items from the villagers. Sagir Musa, armys spokesperson, could not be reached for comments on the attack in Damboa. A soldier from the battalion, however, said that troops are already securing the area as they are being assisted by the air force. A fighter jet has been sent from the theatre command in Maiduguri, he said. So now we have air support, and we are pushing the enemies out of the place and securing the area. Some of them are still within but we have now outnumbered their forces. London: The most striking part of how Europe has responded to the economic threat posed by coronavirus is the lack of any actual response. So far, central bankers are holding their nerve as the US Federal Reserve and Reserve Bank of Australia fire their own monetary cannons. America's surprise interest rate cut - its first unscheduled reduction since 2008 and largest in the years since - is raising expectations of an imminent similar slicing across the Atlantic. The messages coming from Europe's top bankers suggest otherwise. For the time being, they are prepared to let the stock market convulse while a considered policy response is formulated and the economic impacts of the outbreak are properly calculated. It's a risky strategy for such a rapidly escalating crisis but it could make sense. For a while on Tuesday, the Fed's decision to cut rates sent the market skyward. But investors soon reached the view that the decision may have been made too early and will only really work in combination with some sort of yet-to-materialise stimulus from the White House. The gains evaporated and the market went backwards. The result gave some credibility to Europe's approach but the go-slow can't hold much longer. Last Thursdays strike on a Turkish position that claimed the lives of some three dozen soldiers in Syrias northern Idlib province has already led to a new refugee crisis on Turkey's western border. Just after the attack, in an attempt to blackmail the European NATO powers into backing Ankaras war aims in Syria, Turkish officials indicated that Ankara would no longer block some 3.5 million refugees from leaving the country for Europe. Before the attack, Ankara also repeatedly claimed that over two million immigrants had departed from Idlib. On Friday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said that developments in Idlib, which have displaced hundreds of thousands, had increased the pressure on Turkey, adding that some asylum seekers and immigrants in our country, who are concerned about the developments, started to move towards our western borders. He added, If the situation worsens, this risk will continue to rise. Syrian refugees arrive on a dinghy after crossing from Turkey to Lesbos island, Greece in 2015 [Source: Flickr.com] In the next few days, state media broadcast videos of refugees taking to boats on the Aegean Sea and marching to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Greek police fired deterrent tear gas at hundreds of refugees who entered the demarcation zone between Greece and Turkey, while Bulgaria announced that it would send 1,000 troops to the border. Turkeys Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claimed on Twitter that 76,358 migrants had passed through the border city of Edirne by Sunday morning, on their way to the border crossing with Greece. According to Kathimerini, Greeces foreign ministry says Turkey is engaged in a disinformation campaign on the number of migrants who have entered Greek territory from Turkey. The ministry claimed that no one can cross the Greek borders. All those attempting illegal entry, are effectively prevented from entering. Numbers cited by Turkish authorities are entirely false and misleading. The paper also added, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that 10,000 migrants had been prevented from entering Greece and that 73 who managed to enter from early Saturday to early Sunday had been arrested. None of them are from the Syrian city of Idlib. To justify its presence in Idlib, Turkey claims it is creating a safe zone, protecting Syrians from the Assad regime and stopping the flow of asylum seekers. In fact, Ankara is lashing out, seeking a military solution to intractable ethnic and class conflicts inflamed by decades of imperialist war. It aims to seize northern Syria, forcibly populate it with millions of Syrian Arab refugees living in Turkey and thus prevent the consolidation of a Kurdish state along the Turkish-Syrian border. Syrian refugees, forced to flee to countries around the Middle East to save their lives from the NATO-led proxy war in their country, face increasing chauvinist attacks in addition to rising social misery. In Turkey, the entire capitalist political establishment denounces them, while in Greece they are targeted by far-right groups. Nearly 3.5 million Syrian refugees, forced to flee the war to Turkey, now live in crowded apartments rented at exorbitant rates, sleep in parks, and work for Turkish capitalists at extremely low wages if they are to escape utter destitution. Conditions in Greece are no less brutal. Tens of thousands of refugees are interned across Greece. They languish in deplorable conditions on the islands of Chios, Samos, Lesbos, Kos and Leros and are squeezed into detention centers, which are de facto concentration camps, designed to only hold a fraction of their current populations. The Moria camp on Lesbos was described by the BBC as the worst refugee camp in the world. The persecution of asylum seekers in Turkey and Greecewhich fight with each other about the flow of immigrantsis the product of the EUs brutal policies. Both countries are EU outposts against refugees. A rotten deal between the EU, Turkey and Greece in March 2016 established Greece as the EUs jailer of refugees and obliged the Erdogan regime to ensure that refugees from the war zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan will not make their way to Europe. The agreement mandates all refugees entering Greece via irregular routesthat is, those making the dangerous journey via boat from Turkey to Greecewill be deported back to Turkey. Only those who can prove that they would be persecuted in Turkey can obtain asylum in Greece. Once in Greece, they are interned until their applications for asylum are processed; a majority are denied and sent back to Turkey. Refugees deported to Turkey have little hope of ever reaching Europe again. The agreement contains a provision placing asylum applications from people who have previously entered Europe illegally at the bottom of the asylum list. Every European government, with Germany and France in the lead, has collaborated in erecting a Fortress Europe with barbed wire and machine guns defending the EUs borders and a ruthless campaign to end the rescue missions in the Mediterranean. Last month, the foreign ministers of all 27 EU countries agreed to launch a new military mission in Libya in order to enforce the arms embargo agreed in Berlin in January. But if the warships are in a position to rescue refugees, the mission can be stopped immediately. If pull factors (i.e., factors encouraging migrants to take to the sea in the hope of being rescued and taken to Europe) regarding migration are identified, the maritime elements will be withdrawn, according to the agreement. The Syrian war refugees trapped between Turkey and Greece are only a fraction of the over 70 million global population of refugees fleeing wars across the Middle East and Africa, as well as poverty and hunger afflicting growing masses of people worldwide. A network of concentration camps for refugees from imperialist wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and beyond now spans the Near East, the Mediterranean, and much of North Africa. Largely funded by the European Union, these camps hold millions in horrific conditions, subject to abuse, rape, slavery and even murder. The fate of Syrian refugees in Turkey underscores how the struggle to defend immigrants is inseparable from the struggle to oppose imperialist war. The plight of these refugees, expelled from their homes by the bloody operations of imperialism, exposes the vindictive policies of Washington, the EU powers and Ankara. Refugees are held up as targets of chauvinist hatred by bourgeois politicians, whose hands are dripping in blood. Syrian refugees are class brothers and sisters of workers in Turkey and in the European countries where they aim to find refuge, and they must have the right to settle in the country of their choice and study, live, and work as they please. Khartoum, Sudan (PANA)- Sudan on Wednesday said it has completely evacuated its students from the Chinese coronavirus epicentre, Wuhan, but they will spend the quarantine period in the United Arab Emirates health facilities before being flown home Pennsylvania has a contender in the annual Cadbury Bunny Tryouts. Last year Cadbury began inviting all kinds of pets to enter the contest wearing costumes, hats, ears, whatever. The Cadbury Bunny for 2019 was Henri, a bulldog from North Carolina. This year, Conswala of York Springs, is ready to give the others a run for their money. Conswala is a no-drama llama and she is one of the 10 finalists. Last year she also was a finalist. Conswala lives at Lucky Us Farm. According to its Facebook page, Lucky Us is a 12-acre hobby farm where the owners manage alpacas, llamas and rescue dogs. The Cadbury contest website says that Conswala is a quirky and whimsical no-drama llama who makes everybody smile. She rocks the rainbow ears like no bunnys business. Conswala is a compassionate registered therapy llama and regularly visits schools, senior centers and even consoled grievers in a funeral receiving line! No probllama, everybody loves this llama. The other contestants are: Lunchbox, a cat from Oklahoma City, Okla. Lieutenant Dan, a disabled dog from New Richmond, Ohio Donald Ducky, a Pomeranian from Huntington Beach, Calif. Ginger, a hamster from Brentwood, Ohio Dilly Bar Dabbler, a duck from Springfield, Mo. Ricky Bobby, a miniature horse from Ocala, Fla. Ducksong, a pig from Daytona Beach, Fla. Eggbert, a disabled cat from Herndon, Va. Dodger, a dog from Scottsdale, Ariz. People can vote once a day for their favorites until March 18. The winner will be featured in a Cadbury advertisement and the owners will receive $5,000. Cadbury also will donate $10,000 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The winner will be announced on March 24. Conswala the llama from Lucky Us Farm in York Springs is one of 10 finalists in the Cadbury Bunny Tryouts. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Humans are known to adapt themselves to the rapid changes in the environment. They are also known to make decisions based on information, predictions and much more. But seems like it is just not just humans who have the ability to do so. A recent study has proved that the New Zealand birds which are known as Keas, also have the cognitive ability for the same. As per reports, this is the very first time that a demonstration for a cognitive ability test has been made on species apart from an ape. This test was taken to understand the intelligence of wildlife animals. The New Zealand birds, Keas was known to be troublesome birds as they peck their beak through bags in search of food and slashing wipers off cars. These New Zealand birds were also reported to feast on sheep. A recent study was held by a practising doctor, Amalia Bastos, and her colleagues at the University of Auckland to know the intelligence of the New Zealand birds. They took six New Zealand birds, Keas for the study from the wildlife reserve in New Zealand. It was then reported that the researchers taught the New Zealand birds that a black token was always found in tasty jars, while the orange token was not tasty compared to the black token. Also read | World Wildlife Day 2020: 10 Insects With Incredible Camouflaging Skills Later when the researchers placed two big transparent containers near the New Zealand birds that contained black and orange token, the New Zealand birds went on to pick from the jar that had more black tokens than the orange. The experiment was further carried on with various ways of placing the token in front of the New Zealand birds to know if they have accomplished the study and it was reported that the New Zealand birds are capable of true statistical inference. Watch the video below. Also read | World Wildlife Day 2020: Overexploiting Wildlife Endangers Survival Of Species, Says UN Also read | World Wildlife Day 2020: Sudarsan Pattnaik, Dia Mirza Celebrate Biodiversity Also read | World Wildlife Day 2020: UN Chief Calls For 'more Caring' Relationship With Nature Also read | World Wildlife Day 2020: How To Help Animal Species Under Threat Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. A jailed Chadian journalist is on hunger strike after claiming the authorities manipulated the charges against him. Martin Inoua Doulguet, who was sentenced to three years in jail in August 2019, is protesting against what he claims are various forms of manipulation of his case. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned his imprisonment on unsubstantiated charges and without a fair and transparent trial. The editor of the Salam Info quarterly, Inoua Martin Doulguet, started his hunger strike on March 2 to protest against the judicial manipulation of his case, according to news reports. Doulguet was initially arrested after the former Health Minister Toupte Boguena, filed a defamation complaint against him. Salam Info published an article describing accusations of witchcraft and sexual abuse involving the minister. A month after his arrest, on September 23, Doulguet was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of defamation. As Chads laws do not allow for imprisoning journalists for media offences, the authorities decided to add the charge of association for the purpose of computer crime, which does allow for his imprisonment. His appeal trial began on Monday, March 2, in Chads capital city Ndjamena. However, the case was moved from a regular chamber to the office of the General Prosecutor. No explanation was provided for this sudden change. His lawyer, Mr. Emmanuel Ravanas, said he was excluded from making any comments of these procedures. The case has been now adjourned until March 12. Doulguet refused to attend the hearing and has been on hunger strike since 2 March. In a letter sent to the director of the Amsinene prison in Ndjamena, Doulguet writes: I hereby come to inform you that I am going on hunger strike as of Monday, March 2, 2020, to protest against the various manipulations to which my judicial file has been subjected since the start of the proceedings up to this date. The IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger said: It is a outrage for authorities to jail journalists on trumped-up charges and bend the law to accommodate their whims and wishes. We demand the immediate release of Inoua Martin Doulguet and for the state to abide by the rule of law. A medal awarded to a former heavyweight boxer for helping to thwart the attempted kidnapping of Queen Elizabeth II's daughter Anne sold for 50,000 pounds (USD 64,000, 57,900 euros) at an auction on Wednesday. Ronnie Russell was given the George Medal -- Britain's highest civilian award for bravery -- for punching assailant Ian Bell twice in the head when he tried to seize Princess Anne in 1974. The burly former fighter, 72, put the award up for sale to pay for funeral costs after falling ill. The medal had been expected to fetch up to 20,000 pounds when it went under the hammer at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb. But a private collector bought it for 50,000 pounds. "For something I thought that I would never sell, I never believed it would sell for this amount," Russell said after the sale. "I am absolutely blown away with this price and it gives me opportunities to do things that I never thought we could." The queen told Russell when he received the award: "The medal is from the Queen but I want to thank you as Anne's mother." The medal was sold with other items, including a letter from Downing Street and the head of the Metropolitan Police, and a telegram from Anne, who was aged 23 at the time. Russell was working at a central London cleaning company when Ball blocked the princess' car as it drove along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace on the evening of March 20, 1974. He fired shots through the back window. Russell rushed to help when he realised what was happening. He recalled the princess telling Ball, "Just go away and don't be such a silly man" as he tried to drag her from the vehicle, which was also carrying her then-husband Mark Phillips. "I hit him (Ball) as hard as I could -- if he had been a tree he would have fallen over -- and he was flat on the floor face down," Russell said. Neither Anne or her husband were injured but her personal detective, chauffeur, a police officer and a journalist were shot by Ball, who was carrying two pistols. A judge later ordered him to be sent to a psychiatric unit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gardai have completed their inquiries into the murder of trainee teacher Deirdre Jacob nearly 22 years ago and have submitted a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Investigating officers have recommended that a murder charge should arise from the outcome of their inquiries, which focused on a small number of suspects in the past few years. They included the main "person of interest" Larry Murphy, who served 10 years of a 15-year prison sentence after he was convicted in 2001 of the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a woman, who was found in the boot of his car in the Dublin mountains. Ms Jacob was last seen crossing the road towards the entrance to her home at Roseberry, Newbridge, Co Kildare, at around 3pm on July 28, 1998. She was 18-years-old at the time. Her disappearance was treated officially by gardai as a missing persons case until August 2018, when it was formally upgraded to a murder investigation. This decision to reclassify the case followed the emergence of new information. The name of one person, in particular, had been mentioned at previous case conferences, but until then officers had been unable to unearth any firm evidence that potentially implicated this person in the disappearance. The additional information was regarded as substantial enough by senior investigators, Chief Superintendent Brian Sutton and Superintendent Martin Walker, to officially launch a murder investigation with the assistance of members of the garda cold case unit. Murphy became a person of interest after it emerged he had visited the shop owned by Ms Jacob's grandmother, Bridget O'Grady, in Newbridge. Ms Jacob was a regular visitor to the shop and had called in there on the day she disappeared. Murphy was interviewed in prison by gardai involved in the case, but denied any involvement in her disappearance. Helpful Officers also flew to London in 2018 and put further questions to Murphy, but he refused to answer them. However, they did interview an associate of Murphy in relation to information which they believed might be helpful. Lines of inquiry involving other persons of interest were also fully pursued. Last month, officers decided they had exhausted all avenues open to them and put the finishing touches to the file, which was submitted to the DPP in the past fortnight. To the editor: Dear Rep. Moolenaar, You were present at a hearing on Feb. 29 when U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the Trump administration is seeking a reduction of $6 billion, almost 8%, from the FY 2021 Education budget, eliminating programs that serve vulnerable youth, while dedicating $5 billion in tax credits for private school vouchers. President Trump and Betsy DeVos have previously proposed drastic cuts to the Education Budget. The Center for American Progress estimates these proposed cuts would cost the state of Michigan a loss of $79,373,835, which is equivalent to the salaries of 1,276 teachers. Rep. Moolenaar, what is your plan to support public school students and teachers, instead of the interests of those who profit from private charter schools? KATHY MCCREEDY Midland The driver that was alleged to have driven him to Abeokuta said he did not do so.The passengers on the plane in which he flew into Nigeria cannot be traced. Outside Asia, Canada was the country hardest hit by the SARS coronavirus. By the end of the 2003 global epidemic, there were 438 cases of SARS in Canada, resulting in 44 deaths. Most cases were concentrated in Toronto, as were all fatalities. More than 100 health-care workers became ill and three died, including two nurses. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Outside Asia, Canada was the country hardest hit by the SARS coronavirus. By the end of the 2003 global epidemic, there were 438 cases of SARS in Canada, resulting in 44 deaths. Most cases were concentrated in Toronto, as were all fatalities. More than 100 health-care workers became ill and three died, including two nurses. Ontarios independent commission to investigate the introduction and spread of SARS identified a key lesson: in the absence of scientific certainty about how an infectious illness is transmitted, reasonable precautions must be taken. Justice Archie Campbell, who served as the commissions chair, explained that this precautionary principle places the emphasis on safety, rather than science. In other words, if we dont know exactly how a virus spreads, we shouldnt wait for the science to be settled to protect health-care workers. Despite this important lesson from the SARS epidemic, the Canadian government now seems content to wait for conclusive evidence on how the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is transmitted before taking the necessary steps to protect frontline health-care workers. As provinces brace for a potential outbreak of COVID-19, nurses unions are speaking out about the threat to health-care workers. Notably, the Public Health Agency of Canada is failing to properly prepare frontline workers in acute-care settings and overlooking the clear lessons learned from our previous experience with pandemics. The federal agency was created in the wake of the SARS epidemic to provide national leadership and clarity during public-health crises. However, it has never embraced this mandate. During the 2003 pandemic, frontline workers received conflicting messages and were often confused about how best to protect themselves and their patients. History may repeat itself if the Public Health Agency of Canada continues to provide weak leadership. In particular, its disappointing that the agency has failed to advise acute-care facilities to adopt the precautionary principle the key lesson from SARS. Meanwhile, national public-health agencies in the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have called for contact, droplet and airborne precautions to protect health-care workers, deeming the illness of one health-care worker to be one too many. In response to COVID-19, these agencies are recommending an N-95 respirator, which is custom-fitted to a health-care workers face to prevent any leakage. The province of Ontario, which experienced the worst of SARS, is also choosing to mandate the N-95 respirator for health-care workers, in light of the current scientific uncertainty about how the virus is transmitted. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In contrast, the Public Health Agency of Canada is recommending surgical masks for health-care workers a device designed to protect the patient from the wearers respiratory issues, not the reverse. Canada can and should do better. The agencys position is quite simply an abdication of leadership. Unprotected, health-care workers can easily transmit viruses throughout acute-care facilities. Recent evidence published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, recommends "aggressive" protection for health-care workers caring for presumed and confirmed cases of COVID-19. The study noted that even a non-symptomatic person can spread COVID-19 "with high efficiency"; face masks and other conventional forms of protection, according to the article, "provide insufficient protection." As nurses, we know that patient safety starts with worker safety. If our health-care workers are safe, then our patients are safe. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions has asked the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadas health minister to act out of an abundance of caution and carefully consider the lessons learned from the SARS epidemic. Canada should follow the precautions being taken in the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well in the province of Ontario. We can and should do our best to protect our health-care workers, and by extension, our vulnerable patient populations. Linda Silas is a nurse and president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, representing nearly 200,000 nurses and student nurses across the country. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:36:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Unexpected heavy rains in different parts of Kenya present fresh challenges to farmers battling invasion of desert locusts, which have spread to at least 20 of the 47 counties in the east African nation. The country is currently experiencing heavy rains that the meteorological department has warned would continue for the next two months. Areas that are receiving heavy rains, according to the meteorological director Stella Aura, are western, the coast, northeastern, central and southern regions. The rains usher in a little earlier Kenya's annual long rains season that normally starts from mid-March to May. "The long rains season begins early over most parts of the country. The forecast for March-April-May indicates that much of the country, especially most of the western and southern sectors, are likely to experience generally enhanced rainfall," said Aura in the latest weather forecast seen on Tuesday. While most farmers have been caught unaware because they are yet to complete preparing farms for the first planting season, a majority are a lot worried. The heavy rains are expected to trigger growth of vegetation, which would support the development and production of more desert locusts, worsening the current crisis. Kenyan farmers may thus experience a fresh round of locust attack on their crops in the coming months as the eggs hatch and the hatchlings find new vegetation to devour. According to United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), locust eggs require moist soil conditions, absorbing moisture to complete their development. "When plentiful rainfalls and annual green vegetation develops, desert locusts can increase rapidly in number and within a month or two, start to concentrate and become gregarious," notes FAO in a bulletin on the insects. It added that most adults start to mature when they arrive in an area that received significant rains recently, with the hardening of the soft wings of the locust stimulated by rainfall. FAO in its Locust Watch update for March 2 observes that in the past weeks, there has been widespread locust swarm breeding happening in central and northern counties in Kenya, leading to a new generation of the insects. "This represents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods at the beginning of the upcoming cropping season," says FAO. The rains and the impact it would have on the locusts is what is worrying farmers and agriculture experts, especially in counties that have already infestations as the voracious insects may return. Beatrice Ngari, a farmer in Embu, central Kenya, whose cowpeas, beans and green grams were ravaged by two locust invasions in January and February, noted that with the ongoing rains, the insects may return and finish what is left on the farms. "I welcome the rains but I am worried as a farmer in an arid area. They will hatch in the high rainfall areas and migrate to dry regions like this one to thrive and destroy crops," she said. Her sentiments capturing fears of thousands of Kenyan farmers. The locusts have also invaded the neighboring Nyeri, Isiolo, Meru and Laikipia counties twice, with farmers losing cash crops like coffee, khat and tea to the insects. Beatrice Macharia, an agronomist with Growth Point, an agro-consultancy in Kajiado County, noted that if the rains would be too heavy causing floods, the water may wash away locust egg. "But that is not a guarantee that the insects would not invade crops because swarms may come from even neighboring countries and thrive on the fresh vegetation," Macharia said. Congress leader Jitu Patwari on Wednesday alleged that former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the "mastermind" of the "conspiracy" to bring down Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government and asserted that there is no threat to the government. "BJP wants to murder mandate and democracy. Narendra Modi talked about different kind of So, this is his different Different promises were made to MLAs. Rs. 50-60 crores are being offered to our MLAs. Where did they get this money? Some of our MLAs are in Bengaluru but they are with us," Congress leader Jitu Patwari told ANI. "When we went to the hotel, MLAs were beaten up. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the mastermind of this conspiracy. Several videos and audios are viral now which reveal his role in everything that is happening. All MLAs who were contacted by them will reveal details soon. There is no threat to the government," he said. It has been alleged BJP held at least eight Madhya Pradesh MLAs against their will at a Gurugram hotel. On Tuesday night, Madhya Pradesh Ministers and Congress leaders Jitu Patwari and Jaivardhan Singh were seen coming out of the ITC Resort in Gurugram's Manesar along with suspended BSP MLA Ramabai. Earlier, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said that one of those lawmakers, suspended BSP MLA Ramabai, has come back despite BJP leaders trying to stop her. He also said that Ramabai was brought to the capital by a charter flight on Monday by a BJP leader. On Monday, Digvijaya Singh had alleged that BJP leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narottam Mishra were offering bribes of Rs 25-35 crore to Congress MLAs in order to bring down the Congress government in the state. Singh on Tuesday again accused BJP of resorting to horse-trading in order to bring down the Kamal Nath government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde has visited Donbas, where she got acquainted with the consequences of Russian aggression, the security situation in the region and the work of checkpoints. Accompanied Swedens Foreign Minister Ann Linde on a trip to Donbas. Visited Stanytsia Luhanska, witnessed results of Russias aggression, inspected security situation after disengagement, working check-point and restored bridge. Grateful to Swedish friends for support, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yehor Bozhok wrote on his Twitter account. In turn, the Swedish foreign minister posted on Twitter pictures from the bridge over the contact line at Stanytsia Luhanska. The Russian aggression has caused tragic devastation and suffering. Still, the OSCE SMM & hum partners such as UN Ukraine do an impressive work. Highly motivated for Swedens OSCE chairpersonship 2021, she wrote. As reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden Ann Linde is on a working visit to Ukraine on March 2-3. ish Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:35:49|Editor: zyl Video Player Close Cascade Elementary School students show their poster to cheer on China's fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak, in the town of Orem in the U.S. state of Utah, on Feb. 7, 2020. (Photo by Zheng Yamin/Xinhua) by Julia Pierrepont III, Gao Shan LOS ANGELES, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Fifty 4th-graders from Cascade Elementary School in the town of Orem made their home state Utah in the western United States very proud recently, when Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a letter in reply to the many Happy Chinese New Year cards they all sent him. "Cool! I can invite President Xi to eat doughnuts together if he visits Utah in the future," said 9-year-old Sarah, while some of her classmates noted that they would rather invite the Chinese president to come ski in the Beehive state. "We are so proud. It's big news here," said Cascade Elementary School Office Secretary Marci Nichols. The idea of writing to the Chinese president came from those students and was supported by their Mandarin teacher Zheng Yamin, who also gives lectures on Chinese culture and festivals at the Salt Lake City Public Library in Utah's capital. "I love the kids," she told Xinhua about her students. "They are so eager to learn and love many things about Chinese culture." Their favorite things? "Pandas," she laughed. "And Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings)." Believing that writing letters to China can enable the students to apply their Chinese language skills to real-life situations, she suggested they become pen pals with people in China, an idea the students happily embraced. "I was very surprised when the kids suggested, 'Why don't we write to someone really important? Like President Xi!'" She told Xinhua. Days before the Spring Festival, her students wrote Chinese New Year greeting cards to Xi in Chinese, told him about their Chinese language studies and personal hobbies, and expressed their love for the Chinese culture, as well as their hope for a chance to visit China. Everyone was flabbergasted when Xi wrote back. "Dear Boys and Girls," he wrote to them. "I am so happy to get the lovely cards from you on the Chinese New Year. I have read them all. Thank you for the wonderful thought." In his reply letter dated Feb. 15, Xi told the children that like the United States, China is a big country, that the Chinese civilization has a history of more than 5,000 years, and the Chinese people are as warm-hearted and friendly as the American people. "I've been to the United States multiple times, but not yet to Utah. I hope there will be an opportunity for me to be there and, if so, to visit you all in person," the president said, adding that he is also fond of reading and sports. His letter delighted the faculty, staff and students of the elementary school. "It's an amazing thing for our students to get a personal letter from the president of China," Cascade Elemantary School Principal Darrin Johnson enthused. "President Xi said he hopes to visit us here one day, but we also hope to follow up with a visit of our students to China next year so they can see for themselves how interesting and beautiful China is." "I think it's a great honor. The Chinese president is incredibly busy, running a country and dealing with the new coronavirus," added Johnson. He appreciated Xi for taking time out of his busy schedule to write to the students. In his letter, Xi also praised the children for the fluency of their Chinese language skills and for being able to write Chinese characters so beautifully. "By learning it, you may know more about Chinese history and culture," Xi noted. "I hope you will keep at it, make even bigger progress and become young 'ambassadors' for Sino-American friendship." "I wish you all happiness, health and progress in the new year," Xi concluded his letter. "You're most welcome to visit China." Utah is a sparsely-populated state in the western United States but surprisingly forward-looking on education. State lawmakers created 12 years ago a comprehensive language immersion program for Utah's entire public-school system featuring several languages, including Mandarin Chinese. The program begins in first grade with 6-year-olds and carries on all the way through to the graduating high school seniors around 18 years old. "They were ahead of their time," Principal Johnson said of Utah's public officials and school administrators. "And the immersion program is run in an exciting and fun way." The learning program impacts all their courses. For half a day, every day, students are taught every subject in Mandarin -- science, math, social studies and so on, and then switch to English for the other half of the day. Zheng keeps her students up to date on current events and the school recently posted a video on its Facebook page of the children singing a song that sends hope and well-wishes to the brave citizens of China's Wuhan city who are fighting the novel coronavirus. "We love our Chinese immersion program. We are wishing the people of China our best. We hope that you are able to overcome the virus quickly," Cascade Elementary School wrote this week on the school's Facebook page. Established in 1967, the public school is one of the first schools in Utah to offer a Chinese immersion program, which involves more than half of its students. In total, Utah now teaches one-fifth of all Chinese language learning public school students in the United States. The state's Chinese immersion program began in 2009 and is now available in 76 elementary and secondary schools. In a statement, police said, many of the chickens were found in a manner consistent with their preparation for fighting. Police officials also said that the chickens were being bred, raised and housed on the property for the purposes of being shipped. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday left the doors ajar for cryptocurrency in India as it quashed the 2018 circular by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) putting a complete ban on banking services for the virtual currency. A three-judge bench held the 2018 circular as unreasonable and disproportionate. The 2018 circular had stated that the entities regulated by the RBI are prohibited from providing any service in relation to virtual currencies, including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies. The top court has found the complete prohibition as bad in law and disproportionate to the objectives sought to be achieved by the apex banking regulator, RBI. With this judgment, decks should be cleared for a regulatory regime of cryptocurrency in India instead of a complete ban. In a separate bunch of petitions, the Supreme Court is also examining the issues related to regulation of cryptocurrency. The judgment on Wednesday will have an impact on the pending case too. The petition, filed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, said the RBI had banned cryptocurrencies on moral grounds since no prior studies were conducted to analyse the effect of these virtual currencies on the economy. IAMAI had added that the block-chain technology adopted in these virtual currencies was not disputed and, therefore, a blanket ban was "arbitrary, unfair and unconstitutional". RBI, in its response, had stated that it had not directly banned virtual currencies and that the ban was only applicable to regulated entities under the RBI. The regulator said the prohibition was to protect entities from activities that pose reputational and financial risks along with other legal and operational risks. The RBI also said there were risks of terror financing and money laundering through cryptocurrency. The total number of Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases reported in India has risen to 28 on Wednesday after 15 people who were part of an Italian tourist group tested positive for the viral infection. 24 people including three Indians who were part of the group was taken to the quarantine facility of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chhawla near Delhi, where they were tested positive for Covid-19. AFP Another Italian national who also came to India with the same group had tested positive in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Among the 14 newly confirmed cases include the wife of the man tested positive in Jaipur. The driver of their bus, an Indian national has also been tested positive. AFP Addressing the media on Wednesday, Union minister Harsh Vardhan also said that six others from Agra who are related to the first Coronavirus patient in Delhi have contracted the virus from him. "On conducting contact tracing of the person tested positive in Delhi, we came to know that he infected 6 members of his family who are in Agra. All 6 members tested positive for coronavirus," the minister said. Six others including three children, whose samples were taken in Noida for suspected coronavirus have tested negative. The six have, however, been kept self-quarantined at their home for the next 14 days and if symptoms for Covid-19 develop, they would be retested. "We have asked the Delhi government to ensure that all hospitals must provide high-quality isolation facilities for suspected coronavirus cases," he said. 34 labs in total had been set up for testing cases, and if needed the number could reach 50, the minister said. Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain had earlier said that the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) and Safdarjung hospitals had been made nodal offices to deal with a possible outbreak. AFP "Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) and Safdarjung hospitals have been made nodal offices for the programme. The government has arranged over 3 lakh N95 masks for medical staff, patients and others," he said. Harsh Vardhan also stated that all flights from abroad will be screened. On Wednesday, as many as 459 passengers of the Italian luxury cruise ship 'Costa Victoria', which was docked in Kochi, were screened for respiratory symptoms and fever. Kerala had reported the first three cases of Covid-19 in India, all of them were medical students in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. AFP On Wednesday, PM Modi said that "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme". Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 23:16:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Wednesday launched a nationwide campaign against teenage pregnancies. Torome Saitoti, principal secretary in the State Department of Planning, told journalists in Nairobi that the country is facing a social crisis as 18 percent of girls between 15 and 19 have either had a live birth or have been pregnant with their first child. "The campaign will seek to galvanize communities on the need to end teenage pregnancies given its negative socio-economic effects," Saitoti said. According to government data, teenage pregnancy rates are as high as 40 percent in some counties. Teenage pregnancies lead to many girls' dropping out of school, limiting their opportunities for future employment, Saitoti said. He said the government is keen to make necessary investments to ensure transition from primary to secondary school as well as to fully support school re-entry of girls who drop out due to early pregnancies. Enditem Spiritual guru and former Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson branded Joe Biden's Super Tuesday success a 'coup' in a now-deleted tweet. Former Vice President Biden dramatically won nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House candidate in Super Tuesday voting. But Texan author Williamson, who ended her campaign for president earlier this year and has since thrown her support behind Bernie Sanders, blasted pundits who claimed Biden's campaign was a 'resurrection'. In a now-deleted tweet that is circulating online, she claimed that the former vice president's surge in success last night was a 'coup' and vowed to 'push back'. Spiritual guru and former Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson called Joe Biden's success on Super Tuesday a 'coup' in a now-deleted Tweet 'This was not a resurrection; it was a coup. Russiagate was not a coup. Mueller was not a coup. Impeachment was not a coup. What happened yesterday was a coup. And we will push back,' she wrote. Spiritual guru Williamson had a much-Googled run for the White House, but never became a serious contender. She dropped out of the 2020 presidential race last month. She came from the self-help world, penning best-sellers including 'A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles,' of which Oprah Winfrey was a big fan. On the campaign trail and on the debate stage, she talked about big picture ideas, like paying reparations for slavery, creating a Department of Peace and getting rid of corporate political donations entirely. In a now-deleted that is circulating online, she claimed that the former vice president's surge in success last night was a 'coup' and vowed to 'push back' Former Vice President Biden dramatically swept to victory across the country, winning nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House candidate Texan author Williamson, who ended her her campaign for president earlier this year and has since thrown her support behind Bernie Sanders, blasted pundits who claimed Biden's campaign was a 'resurrection' Joe Biden dramatically won Texas while people were still waiting to vote in the state in a sensational end to a Super Tuesday which upended the Democratic race making it effectively a two-horse race with the former vice president ahead of Bernie Sanders. Sanders seized a victory in California after Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all. Just after polls closed at 8pm PST - 11pm EST - , the state was called for Sanders, his fourth victory of the night. That left Texas in play and for hours a nail-bitingly close count played out, while huge turnout prompted long lines and polling stations were kept open to deal with backlog. Bernie Sanders seized a victory in California in the last act of a dramatic Super Tuesday which saw Joe Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all Biden's comeback left the party's rival establishment candidate's campaign for dead. For Mike Bloomberg, a disastrous night appeared to spell the end of a campaign which has burned through $1 billion in three months, leaving him with one victory American Samoa to show for it. His aides said he was discussing whether to drop out, and he tweeted an ambiguous 'thank you' to supporters saying 'we're more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,' hardly a commitment to stay in the race. For the two frontrunners, Sanders' win in California threatened to upend the narrative of the night being a sensational comeback for Biden. As many as 291 lawmakers backed his appointment. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has voted to appoint Denys Shmyhal as the country's prime minister. The decision was backed by 291 lawmakers out of the 405 MPs registered in the session hall on March 4, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read alsoUkraine's parliament votes to accept PM Honcharuk's resignation, Cabinet disbands As many as 242 members of the Servant of the People parliament faction voted for Shmyhal's appointment, while 18 votes in his favor were given by the For Future group and 17 votes came from the Dovira group. Moreover, 14 independent MPs backed his appointment. The Opposition Platform For Life Party, Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna Party, Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity Party, and the Holos (Voice) Party did not give any vote in support of Shmyhal. Fifty-nine lawmakers voted against, 46 abstained, and nine did not vote. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's parliament on March 4 passed a resolution to accept Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk's resignation, and the entire Cabinet of Ministers disbanded. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says more people who were in contact with a Westchester County lawyer who has coronavirus have also tested positive for the virus. That lawyers wife, two children -- ages 20 and 14 -- and neighbor have tested positive, Cuomo said this morning from Albany. The neighbor had driven the lawyer to the hospital, officials said. The lawyer, who is 50, is hospitalized, state officials said. The other five people whove tested positive are not in the hospital, Cuomo said. Theyre home on self-quarantine, he said. Cuomo also announced the state is bringing home SUNY and CUNY students who are studying in five countries: China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea. About 300 students and staff will be flown back on a chartered plane, he said. They will be quarantined for 14 days in a yet-to-be-determined dorm setting, he said. The governor cautioned for people to remain calm while being more vigilant about personal precautions. He also had good news: People in Buffalo and the two people in Oneida recently tested do not have the virus. The husband of a healthcare worker who returned to New York City from Iran with the virus also has tested negative, he said. That healthcare worker is feeling better, Cuomo said. The son of the lawyer who has coronavirus is a student at Yeshiva University. The private Jewish university said it is canceling classes at the upper Manhattan campus where the student is enrolled, the Associated Press reported. The daughter goes to the SAR Academy in Riverdale, Cuomo said. That school is also closed. The governor is traveling to Westchester County and expected to give an update at 12:30 p.m. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Jakarta: Indonesian police seized over half a million face masks from a Jakarta warehouse after the country's first confirmed cases of Coronavirus sparked panic buying and sent prices for preventive products skyrocketing. Authorities questioned two people after the Tuesday evening raid at a warehouse in satellite city Tangerang, where nearly 600,000 surgical masks were found. The owners did not have permission to distribute the masks, police said. "Mask prices have skyrocketed everywhere and there are shortages, most likely because hoarders are trying to make money at the public's expense," Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP. Those convicted of hoarding masks could face up to five years in jail and hefty fines, police said. The warehouse raid came after hundreds of boxes of surgical masks were seized on Tuesday from a Jakarta apartment. Police said they also busted a factory for allegedly making and distributing counterfeit masks that did not meet health standards. "Those masks are useless, they wont protect people," Yunus said. The crackdown was ordered by Indonesian president Joko Widodo who has called on citizens to avoid panic buying even as store shelves are emptying fast and prices of masks and hand sanitizers keep soaring. Major cities including Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney have also seen panic buying sparked by the virus scare. Indonesians, meanwhile are scooping up a traditional herbal tonic known as 'jamu' and in one city sellers dressed as Batman and local superhero Gundala were handing out the drink to motorists. "My sales have more than doubled since Monday," said Nur Hidayati, 29, a jamu seller in Bogor near Jakarta. "People tell me they want jamu to stay healthy." On Monday, Indonesia confirmed its first Coronavirus cases, saying a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, 31, tested positive. Globally, Coronavirus has infected more than 90,000 people and killed at least 3,100 people. But Indonesia, a southeast Asian archipelago of more than 260 million didn't report a confirmed case until this week. M ore than 54,000 prisoners have been released to combat the spread of coronavirus in crowded jails across Iran. The country has the highest death toll outside of China and 92 people have perished and 2,922 have been infected. The virus has sickened top leaders inside Irans civilian government and Shiite theocracy and a confidant of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is among the dead. Thousands of inmates who tested negative for Covid-19 were allowed to leave but they did have to post bail, the nations Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. Released inmates were made to pay bail / Pixabay/ Tracy Lundgrn Convicts who were classed as "security prisoners" and had a sentence of more than five years would remain behind bars, the BBC reported. Irans judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, said some people are stockpiling medical supplies for profit and urged prosecutors to show no mercy towards hoarder who are "playing with peoples lives" "Hoarding sanitising items is playing with peoples lives, and it is not ignorable," he said. Back in Britain Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq announced that jailed British national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be soon released. Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband said on Saturday that authorities were refusing to test her for the strain. Taking to Twitter the MP said: News from Iranian Ambassador that my constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be released on furlough today or tomorrow from prison in Iran. If this is true, Nazanin would welcome leaving Evin jail, but weve been here before. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, holding her daughter Gabriella. / PA If this furlough happens, the British government have an obligation to make it permanent, and not let her be used as a bargaining chip in the weeks to come. I remain concerned that Nazanin has told her family that she has still not been tested for coronavirus. Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of espionage charges - which she and the UK denies and sent to Iranian prison for five years in 2016. This resource is no longer available This resource is no longer available. Return to previous page. Hudson, NY (12534) Today A few clouds. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 7F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 7F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville extended its AGC Build Tennessee Subcontractor Project of the Year winning streak to seven straight for its Old Dominion Freight Line project, and the Community Service Award for its Old School Farm Good Friday Service Project, at the 2020 AGC Build Tennessee Awards. "The 2020 AGC Subcontractor Project of the Year, an incredible seventh in a row, and Community Service Award, are exemplary demonstrations of both successful installations and sharing our best-in-class service with others," said Derek Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville. Pictured from left to right: Mark Dunn, Scott Eggers, Troy Phillippie, Glenn Barbee, Hunter Newton, Allison Nash, Debbie Vincion The Old Dominion Freight Line installation, in Cartersville, Georgia, including 4,086 total linear feet of 8-foot-high chain-link fence, five aluminum cantilever gates, and one single swing gate, was completed in under four weeks, working through the challenges of weather delays, change orders, and even damaged materials from multiple subcontractors sharing space on the job site. "Regardless of the size and scope of the project, your team has exemplified quality work and a willingness to get the job done," said Greg Estes, Construction Manager, D.F. Chase, Inc., in a post-installation communication. Going further, Estes noted Rio Grande employees "continue to show expertise, great attitudes, and commitment in all areas of our projects together, making our working relationships productive and enjoyable. It often seems more like a partnership than a contractual relationship." The Old School Farm installation, RGF's annual Good Friday Service Project in Nashville, Tennessee, donated 830 total linear feet of 10-foot-high commercial fence at the 1.7-acre micro-farm, which produces farm-to-table food while providing employment to individuals of all abilities. All 47 of RGF's employees participated for a combined 316 man-hours. "We look forward to reclaiming nearly $20,000 in sellable produce every year, having our new fence," said Dustin Jacobson, Executive Director of Old School Farm. "The exceptional generosity of Rio Grande Fence Co. will help us continue our mission of growing and providing sustainable food and jobs at our farm." Media Contact: Mark Dunn Phone: 615-244-4766 Email: [email protected] Related Images rio-grande-fence-co-of-nashville.jpg Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville Team Members Accepting 2020 AGC Build Tennessee Award Pictured from left to right: Mark Dunn, Scott Eggers, Troy Phillippie, Glenn Barbee, Hunter Newton, Allison Nash, Debbie Vincion commercial-fence-installation-at.jpg Commercial Fence Installation at ODFL in Cartersville, GA Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville installed 8'H galvanized chain link fence with three strands of barbed wire on top for additional security. rgfs-annual-good-friday-service.jpg RGF's Annual Good Friday Service Project - Old School Farm in Nashville, TN Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville donated and installed an 830-total-linear-foot, 10-foot-high commercial chain link fence at the Old School Farm in Nashville's Bells Bend area on Good Friday, April 19, 2019. Related Links 2019 RGF Service Project Video RGF Website SOURCE Rio Grande Fence Co. of Nashville Heather Searles, a building director for UNITY of Greater New Orleans, has long wanted her now 5-year-old twins, Crosby and Jax, to become fluent in a second language. So she submitted their kindergarten applications for International School of Louisiana and Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans, two high-performing local public schools well-known for specializing in Spanish and French immersion programs. But in February, Searles wasn't feeling very optimistic about her boys' prospects, as the public schools she liked the most have also traditionally been among the hardest to get into through OneApp, the city's lottery enrollment system for public schools. Orleans Parish school district data show her flagging confidence might be justified. This year, Searles was among 414 parents to put in a kindergarten application to ISL for Spanish-language immersion, her top choice for her two boys; last year, there were only 81 spots available for that program. "We applied to the same schools everyone else does," Searles, 47, said in an interview. "So we don't have a lot of hope." Searles is among thousands of anxious parents currently waiting to hear if their children have been matched with the schools of their choice through the school district's unified enrollment system, or whether they've even secured a spot at a public school at all through the first round of the lottery, which closed in January. Results should be made public sometime this month, according to NOLA Public Schools. But the application numbers show that while some parents will be happy with the results, more should prepare for disappointment. Applications have poured in for kindergarten spots at 10 of the citys most coveted public charter schools. Like last year, Hynes Charter School in Lakeview tops the list. The school received 670 applications this year. Last year, there were 829 applications for just 55 available seats. The numbers of seats for the 2020-21 school year aren't yet available for any schools, according to district officials. In addition to ISL and Hynes, other heavily desired schools at least according to OneApp include Audubon Gentilly, Bricolage Academy and the Hynes UNO campus. For high school, the numbers are even more dramatic: 2,208 applications have come in for Warren Easton High, a school that had just 262 available spots last year. Hundreds more came in for Edna Karr High School, Eleanor McMain Secondary School and several others on the most-coveted list. Part of the issue, Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. has said, is that while there are enough public school seats for every student in the city, the applications become "ultra-concentrated" at just a handful of coveted schools. In the past, officials have urged parents to diversify their options by applying to schools that might have appealing curricula or programs, not just because they got an A or B rating from the state or are among the most popular with other parents. But the numbers show that, in a district where 49% of the district's schools were rated D or F by the Louisiana Department of Education last year about 20% got an A or B parents were willing to literally play the lottery for a chance to get their child into one of the city's top-rated schools, rather than have a better chance at a place where students tend to perform poorly on standardized tests. That's true even when factoring in the location, which means many students every year travel outside of their geographic zone to get to their school. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The data provided by NOLA Public Schools show at least eight schools had more available spots than applications for kindergarten. All of those schools were rated D or F. Among the least applied-to high schools, just three Walter L. Cohen Prep, ReNEW Accelerated High School and The NET Charter High School in Central City had more seats than applications. Cohen is rated F, and the other two are alternative schools for students who have trouble staying elsewhere. Lycee Francais was also on the list of least applied-to high schools, but board member David Amoss said that was likely because few students would actually qualify to enter the French immersion school in the 9th grade. The school requires language testing for 1st grade and above. The lack of highly rated options has in recent years led to critiques of OneApp, which is run through a process called EnrollNOLA and was established in 2011 with the aim of increasing equity and convenience for families. It now manages admissions for almost all New Orleans public schools, 75 of which are overseen by the Orleans Parish School Board. Through the process, families can apply to up to 12 participating schools anywhere in the city during two rounds. Various enrollment criteria and priorities, such as geographical and sibling priority, can affect whether a student receives one of their three choices. Last year, for example, NOLA Public Schools passed a rule that allowed greater priority for families living within a half-mile of most elementary schools. If parents aren't satisfied with the "main round" results, which will become available later in the spring, they can try for another school during a second round, but chances for the most coveted schools get much slimmer. According to OneApp results from last year, 68% of students were matched to one of their top three choices, and 75% were matched to any of the 12 possible schools listed on their application. Four selective-admissions schools weren't included in the OneApp process this year: Benjamin Franklin High School, Lake Forest Elementary Charter School, Lusher Charter School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. In the past, those schools have also been competitive. According to Tara Huddleston, the community outreach director for the local media company New Orleans Moms, the local education landscape lends itself to plenty of parental angst, which plays out every spring on the social media feeds of the company's multiple parent groups, which include more than 35,000 parents. "Moms with children approaching pre-K and kindergarten are anxious and stressed about the entire process, and rightfully so," Huddleston said in a statement. "It is somewhat of a mystery as to what school your child will attend, with families completing the application and then hoping for the best." Huddleston said she frequently hears of parents paying deposits at private or parochial schools to secure a spot somewhere while they wait for OneApp results to come back, or accepting a third choice or worse for their child because they can't afford a private school. "All of this leads to overwhelmed and stressed families who generally feel like the process is truly out of their control," Huddleston said. Searles agrees with a lot of the critiques of OneApp, but despite the system's flaws, she said she still likes the prospect of choice, and of public schools, which tend to have more students who look like her biracial kids. "We want them to be in a diverse environment," she said. Editor's note: This story was updated to include comment from David Amoss, a member of the board of directors for Lycee Francais. According to the current analysis of Reports and Data, the Global Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Therapy Market was valued at USD 40.52 million in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 71.18 million by the year 2026, at a CAGR of 7.2%. Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Therapy has become the treatment of choice for most congenital heart disease patients with degeneration of a previous right ventricular outflow tract repair. To avoid the need for repeat median sternotomy procedures, less invasive catheter-based interventions have been developed for the treatment of pulmonary valve dysfunction. Request free sample of this research report at: https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/1067 The global market is being fuelled by rising incidences of congenital heart diseases and increasing awareness about TPV Therapy. For instance, in the United States, congenital heart defects range between 4 to 10 cases per 1000 people, clustering around 8 cases per 1000 live births. Continental variations in birth have been reported in about 6.9 cases per 1000 births in Europe as compared to 9.3 cases per 1000 births in Asia. However, the relationship between valve size and balloon waist might affect selection and procedural bias, which is expected to hinder market growth. Further key findings of the report suggest Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Therapy Market is mounting at a substantial growth rate of 7.2% in the Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and Europe. Surging incidences of cardiovascular diseases might boost the demand for the market in the forecast period across all regions. The Balloon Expanded Transcatheter Valve Market was worth USD 34.48 million in 2019 and is expected to reach the valuation of USD 56.35 million by 2027. The benefits provided by Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Therapy is a significant factor propelling the increasing adoption of the therapy and subsequently boosting market growth. Asia Pacific is expected to record a CAGR of 12.9% in the forecast period. The emerging sectors of China and Japan are likely to witness considerable growth. Regional reimbursement scenario is another vital regulatory aspect influencing the adoption and growth of transcatheter pulmonary valve therapy in the region. Key participants in the market include Medtronic, Edward Lifesciences, Cryolife Inc, and Venus Medtech. Order Your Copy Now: https://www.reportsanddata.com/checkout-form/1067 For this report, Reports and Data segments the Global Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Therapy Market based on product, piling method, and region: Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027) Balloon expanded Self-expanded Transcatheter Valve Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027) Hospitals Cardiology Centers Others To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/transcatheter-pulmonary-valves-tpv-therapy-market Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027) North America S. Canada Europe Germany France K. The Netherlands Spain Italy Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America Brazil About Reports and Data Reports and Data is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. Our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help clients make a smarter business decision. We offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a multiple industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Power, and Energy. We consistently update our research offerings to ensure our clients are aware about the latest trends existent in the market. Reports and Data has a strong base of experienced analysts from varied areas of expertise. Contact Us: John Watson Head of Business Development Reports And Data | Web: www.reportsanddata.com Direct Line: +1-212-710-1370 E-mail: sales@reportsanddata.com Congress MPs from Karnataka on Wednesday strongly objected to an RSS resolution mentioned in a memorandum of the Kannada Development Authority which was submitted to the central government. The memorandum comprises key proposals seeking the Centre's focus on promoting Kannada language in education and jobs. Even as the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) organised a meeting in the national capital to seek support of all state MPs on the memorandum, Congress MPs raised objections to the inclusion of a pro-Hindu group RSS' 2018 resolution in the memorandum. All nine Congress MPs, including Rajeev Gowda and former KDA chairman L Hanumanthaiah, walked out of the meeting. A total of 26 MPs attended the meeting. Union ministers Sadananda Gowda and Suresh Angadi who represent Karnataka in the cabinet were also present in the meeting. The Authority, however, defended the inclusion of the RSS resolution, saying there was nothing wrong in the resolution that stressed on promoting all Indian languages. KDA chairman T S Nagabharana said the content of the RSS' 2018 resolution is about the "need to protect and promote Indian languages" and there was nothing wrong in using it as a reference. "English may be a working language, but state languages and mother tongue need to be promoted in order to protect our culture and tradition," he said. Rajya Sabha Congress MP Rajeev Gowda contended that his party was upset with using a private organisation as a reference in the memorandum. "The entire memorandum has reference of official documents supporting each proposals, but one document related to a RSS resolution was not required at all. We are upset with the Authority for using a private organisation and that too RSS' resolution as reference for promoting Kannada language," he told reporters. The Congress members placed their objections in the meeting, but no convincing response was given by KDA chairman T S Nagabharana and therefore, were forced to stage a walk out, he said. "The authority had never referred to any private organisation earlier. There are many organisations working for protection and promotion of Kannada language. RSS works for promoting Hindi and Sanskrit. This shows the intension of the government," ex-chairman of KDA Hanumanthaiah said. Kannada film director Prakash Belavadi, who was part of the team which submitted the memorandum to the Centre, said there is apprehension that RSS stands for "Hindu and Hindutva", but it is important to note that its 2018 resolution recognises plurality of the society and many Indian languages. "There is nothing wrong in using the RSS resolution," he said and added that the Congress should look at the content of the resolution. Actress and BJP spokesperson Malavika Avinash said, "Opposing for the sake of opposition is not good. The Congress should look at the content of the resolution. It should not oppose just looking at the name RSS in the memorandum." The KDA chief, Belavadi, Avinash were among the nine members' delegation which met various central ministers and submitted the memorandum. In its memorandum, the KDA has requested the Centre to ensure that the National Recruitment Agency, which is yet to be set up, conducts common eligibility tests for hiring non-gazetted staff to banks and central government departments in scheduled languages of constitution apart from Hindi and English. It also requested the government to terminate services of those candidates required after the 2015 notification who are not averse to proper communication in the local language. Besides, it urged the government to come out with a comprehensive language policy and a national employment policy that protects regional interest among others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a significant breakthrough in the murder of rationalist and social activist Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead by unidentified men in Pune in August 2013, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recovered a pistol that may have been used in the killing from the Arabian Sea with the help of Norwegian deep-sea explorers and technology, two senior officers aware of the development said. The weapon has been sent for a forensic examination to establish if it was indeed used in the murder of Dabholkar. The agency, in August 2019, informed a Pune court that it needed to scour the sea at Kharegaon Creek near Thane to look for the weapon. Seven people, including Virendra Tade, an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon, advocate Sanjeev Punalekar, Vikram Bhave, Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure, were named by CBI as the key accused in the murder of Dabholkar, who was shot dead while on a morning walk. We have found a pistol after days of exploration. The ballistics experts will now examine it with the bullet size/type mentioned in the post mortem report of Dabholkar, one of the two senior officers cited above said on condition of anonymity. Dubai-based Envitech Marine Consultants, engaged by CBI for the exploration, transported its machinery from Norway for finding the weapon. The experts used a magnetic sledge to explore the area near Kharegaon Creek as part of an exploration survey called Topographical and Level Survey, in which the silt top and silt depth levels were checked, said the officer. As part of the survey, several methods known as Electronic Distance Measuring, Angle Measurement, and Level Measurement were used, he added. The central agency arranged the whole operation, starting from getting permission from the state government to securing environment clearances. It even got customs duty worth around ~95 lakh waived for bringing the machinery from Norway. The cost of exploration operation is estimated at Rs 7.5 crore. CBI is committed to taking the case to its logical conclusion, the officer said. CBI and the Karnataka and Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squads (ATS) are likely to jointly bear the cost of exploration as three murder cases in the two states Dabholkar in Pune, and Gauri Lankesh and MM Kalburgi in Karnataka are linked. I must, at this point, say that I cannot comment on portion of investigation that has not been presented in the court. But if indeed such a development has occurred, I hope by April or in the next 10 days, they should start the trial. I personally do not know when the divers came and the process happened. Interestingly enough, the search has been going on for a year. It is not an ocean, just a creek. I fail to understand why it took so long. Only after Dharmadhikari resigned, a statement was made by the investigation authority that we will complete the investigation by March-end, said advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, a defence lawyer in the Dabholkar case. Bombay high court justice Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari, who had been hearing the Dabholkar case, had tendered his resignation last month citing personal reasons. Justice Dharmadhikari had issued multiple orders in the case pulling up CBI for the slow pace of investigation. Dabholkar was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants on August 20, 2013, on the Omkareshwar bridge in Pune around 7.30am. In 2014, the investigation was handed over to CBI. The first charge sheet in the matter was filed on September 6, 2016, naming Virendra Tawade as the main conspirator and Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters. A supplementary charge sheet in the case was filed on February 13, 2019, naming Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar as the two shooters. Another charge sheet was filed on November 20, 2019, against advocate Sanjiv Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave, naming them as co-conspirators in the murder. Of the seven people named in the case, Tawade, Kalaskar, Andure and Bhave are in jail. Akolkar and Pawar are yet to be arrested. Advocate Punalekar and Bhave were arrested on May 25, 2019. Punalekar was granted bail on July 5, 2019. Kalaskar and Andure are being investigated by the CBI in the Dabholkar murder case as well as the Karnataka special investigation team probing the Gauri Lankesh murder. Its official. Massachusetts high schools and colleges should cancel their organized international trips for the spring, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday. Baker said the recommendation comes after a conference call with local colleges and universities on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. He said he understands the trips have cost students and their families money, but that canceling these plans will help keep the global outbreak from spreading across Massachusetts. Taking this precaution will help protect both the students and the commonwealth as we are home to some of the largest number of colleges and universities, he said. Massachusetts has seen one presumptive positive case and one confirmed case of the coronavirus. The latter was a UMass Boston student who returned from China in January and is recovering. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services had recently referenced a CDC guideline stating schools may want to cancel their trips, but state officials stopped short of directing schools and colleges to take those steps earlier this week. Multiple public schools have issued warnings to students and staff, asking them to stay home if theyve recently traveled abroad and presented symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control is instructing travelers returning from countries with Level-3 alerts China, South Korea, Italy and Iran to self-quarantine for two weeks after returning to the U.S. The CDC also advises travelers arriving from countries with a Level-2 alert, such as Japan, to monitor their health and limit their public interactions for 14 days. Health Secretary Marylou Sudders said the state has seen 719 instances of people undergoing self-quarantine, up from 608 self-quarantines last week. Of those, 470 people completed their self-quarantine, and the other 259 are still at home. UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy said the university has kept its residence halls and dining halls open for the universitys 3,400 international students in case they dont want to travel. The university might consider keeping its residence halls and dining halls open in the summer if the novel coronavirus remains a concern. UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy says residence halls and dining halls remain open during spring break for international students who don't wish to travel. He may consider keeping them open during the summer if coronavirus concerns persist. We are encouraging them to stay and will provide continuing education, Subbaswamy said during the news conference Wednesday morning. The university was also keeping an eye on its roughly 750 students who were involved in study abroad programs this semester. Before the CDC adopted this rule, we were requiring two-week self-quarantine for anyone returning from a Level 3 country, he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party and its right-wing and religious allies emerged victorious in Mondays general election, but were left two seats short of an overall majority in the 120 seat Knesset. The result, which strengthens Netanyahus position, presages a turn to dictatorial rule amid a bitter constitutional and economic crisis and the escalating threat of war against Iran and its allies. Netanyahu is focusing all his efforts on persuading Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition Blue and White party, or at least some members of his party, to dump their pledge not to serve under an indicted prime minister and join a national unity government. He is banking on their reluctance to face a fourth election. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu (Credit: en.kremlin.ru) With 90 percent of votes counted in a poll that saw voter turnout of around 71 percent, similar to Septembers deadlocked vote, Netanyahus Likud party secured 36 seats, restoring the partys position to that before the first inconclusive election in April. This, together with the seats of his right-wing and religious allies, gives him 59 seats. The opposition bloc, Gantzs Blue and White party and his political allies, which includes the Gesher, made up of Likud dissidents and other right-wingers, and the remnants of the Labor and Meretz Parties, captured just 39 seats. The ongoing collapse in the Labor/Gesher/Meretz vote from 11 to 7 in Septembers election reflects the political demise of the two state solution that had become their sole raison detre. Gantzs other potential supporters include the Joint List, an alliance of four Palestinian Israeli parties, which increased its seats to 15. However, Gantz has ruled out any coalition with the Joint List. His third failure to unseat Netanyahu puts his political survival and that of his party on the line. Netanyahu is due in court on March 17 to defend himself against criminal charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases that have dragged on for years. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in jail. He is determined to hold onto office in order to change Israels judicial system and prevent his prosecution. He has called for Israels citizens to investigate the investigators, telling them they were witnessing an attempted coup. There is now an all-out war between the countrys top prosecutor and the prime minister as each accuses the other of subverting the rule of law. Netanyahu wants to avoid any dependency on Avigdor Lieberman, whose Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is our Home) Party won seven seats. It was Lieberman whose resignation from the Likud-led coalition in November 2018 precipitated the three elections. He has previously refused to join a Netanyahu-led coalition unless it reduced the role of the religious authorities in Israeli society and introduced legislation to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the Israel Defence Forces, and called for a broad liberal unity government that would include Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud and Blue and White. Now, this long-time Netanyahu ally has said he is determined to prevent a fourth election. Netanyahu has been able to continue in office firstly because the law does not require an indicted prime minister, as opposed to other ministers, to resignthanks to a legal oversight in its draftingand secondly because the opposition bloc shares his foreign and domestic policy agendas. Both blocs are equally committed to Israels expansion into the occupied West Bank. Throughout the election campaign, he made repeated appeals to his right-wing base. He lauded US President Donald Trumps deal of the century, which was timed to bolster a key Washington and Persian Gulf ally and Trump soulmate against Iran. The deal, by recognizing the facts on the ground established by relentless Israeli aggression and land grabs in the occupied Palestinian territories, gave Netanyahu the go-ahead to formally annex these territories and consolidate an apartheid regime. He immediately announced plans to establish new national parks in the West Bank and build 7,000 new homes in east Jerusalem and 3,000 in the settlements, while demolishing 700 Palestinian homes, and promised to begin the formal annexation of parts of the West Bank. Netanyahu fought a vicious campaign, escalating his incitement against Israels Palestinian citizens, smearing a Blue and White-led coalition dependent on the support of the Joint List as illegitimate. He named and attacked members of the Knesset, Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, who have since received death threats. He launched one slanderous attack after another on Gantz, attacking his patriotism, mental health and financial and personal integrity. Gantz offered voters nothing but a change in personnel, and they are largely discredited former Netanyahu allies. With policies in relation to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Gaza and Iran that did not differ from Netanyahus, he had little to say about combating the increasing social inequality, poverty, social exclusion and racism that characterise Israeli society. The remaining 400,000 votes from contested ballots, prisoners, soldiers, quarantined patients and diplomats still to be counted are not expected to change the overall results significantly. President Reuven Rivlin has announced that he will wait for the official results from the Central Elections Committee next Tuesday before starting consultations over who to ask to form a government. Rivlin, a Likud member turned opponent of Netanyahu, is acutely aware that should he nominate Netanyahu to form a government and his horse trading succeeds in assembling a 61-seat majority, he will face a legal challenge to his decision, given that Netanyahu is an indicted criminal. Should Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, a former political ally and appointee of Netanyahu, the Supreme Court or Rivlin rule against him forming a new government, this will spark an unprecedented clash between the Knesset, the judicial system and Netanyahus right-wing and fascistic supporters, leading to a breakdown of the entire political system and civil war. Netanyahu has abandoned the idea of an immunity bill as his get-out-of-jail card. Instead, he intends to introduce a law banning the High Court, which has overturned a number of key government decisions, from ruling against laws or administrative decisions on grounds of unreasonableness. This would allow his coalition to ignore any High Court ruling that it doesnt like, making the judicial system subservient to the Prime Ministers Office. Having neutered the High Court, Netanyahu intends to appoint a new attorney general, more sympathetic to himself and his fascistic cronies, whose task will be to delay the legal proceedings against Netanyahu, using his existing powers under Section 231(a) of the Criminal Procedure Law, cancelling the trial. Any attempts by the public or other authorities to appeal the delay would come up against the governments power to overrule any High Court decision. In addition to the pending constitutional crisis, Israel faces a downturn in the economy, amid declining prospects for the world economy which threatens to bring the vital tourism sector to a standstill. El Al, the national airline, has started laying off employees, following revenue losses due to the Covid-19 outbreak, just days after reports that it planned to sack 1,000 of its 6,300 workforce. The government, lacking the majority to pass a budget for 2020, has been extending the 2019 austerity budget on a month-by-month basis, which must be kept by law to a maximum of 2.5 percent of GDP and 2.25 percent in 2021. While Netanyahu had planned to increase the maximum permitted deficit, the slowing economy will require an even higher deficit. Treasury officials had previously forecast cuts of $5.7 billion for the 2020 budget to reduce the deficit, but this did not account for the promised increase in allowances for the disabled due in April, subsidies for after-school programmes, or for the IDFs budget. The Finance Ministry plans to raise taxes and cut expenditure, including raising tax rates, reducing tax benefits, raising the pension age for women, congestion fees at peak traffic hours, a law enabling the establishment of a metropolitan transit network for greater Tel Aviv, and taxes on sugary drinks. The IDF has already secured approval from Netanyahu and the defence and finance ministers for a massive $440 million budget supplement for the next two years that has not yet been budgeted for. A shopper has allegedly pulled a knife on another customer during an argument over toilet paper at a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney's west - as 'panic-buying' shoppers clear shelves across the country. A New South Wales Police spokeswoman said officers were called to a 'disturbance' at the Westfield Parramatta store about 1.30pm on Wednesday. Staff members said a man and a woman had a fight over toilet tissue. One was carrying a knife, a Woolworths worker said. At least six police officers were at the scene and a woman was seen being spoken to by investigators. No one was injured, police said. A Woolworths employee told Daily Mail Australia the woman involved in the incident had communication difficulties and police were trying to get to the bottom of what caused the scuffle. Supermarkets are now enforcing strict restrictions on toilet paper purchases as shoppers, driven by fears of a global coronavirus pandemic, cleared supermarket shelves across Australia. Police officers speak to shoppers after an incident involving a knife at Westfield Parramatta, in Sydney's west, about 1.30pm on Wednesday A woman pushing a trolley speaks to officers in the wake of the incident at Woolworths Parramatta this afternoon This is the almost-empty toilet paper aisle at Woolworths Parramatta where the alleged knife incident occurred A witness to the incident said: 'There was a fight over toilet paper - you could hear a commotion coming from down the end aisle. 'There was a knife pulled and the people started running around. 'It was all over in a few moments, security were here and police came and talked to a woman.' Earlier on Wednesday, Woolworths announced that customers are banned from purchasing more than four packs per person. Worried shoppers have raided stores of toilet paper, hand sanitiser, pasta, rice and bottled water, with supermarkets desperately stocking up on essentials. Footage showed shoppers madly grabbing toilet paper at a separate Woolworths supermarket in Revesby, in the city's south-west. In what was dubbed a 'stampede', anxious shoppers were seen piling packets of toilet paper into their trolleys, some carrying two packs of 12 at a time. NSW POLICE STATEMENT ON PARRAMATTA INCIDENT A NSW Police spokeswoman said: 'About 1.30pm today, police were called to a supermarket on Campbell St, Parramatta following reports of a disturbance in an aisle. 'Officers from Parramatta City Police Area Command attended and spoke to a person at the scene. 'It was established there was a dispute. 'No people were injured and no arrests were made.' Advertisement At warehouse store Costco - where customers typically buy in bulk - customers were seen paying for trolley-loads of toilet paper. A store in Lidcombe was completely emptied of toilet paper when Daily Mail Australia visited early on Wednesday afternoon. One Aldi store has even enforced a radical one-pack per person toilet paper limit as pictures of bare supermarket shelves flood social media. Meanwhile, sustainable toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap has run out of stock for 'all its products' due to what it described as 'panic buying madness'. The company claimed purchases were up 800 per cent. 'Scalpers' have even started selling packs for marked up prices on Facebook Marketplace. WHY AUSTRALIA'S GONE POTTY FOR TOILET PAPER By Josh Hanrahan A handful of the thousands of Australians who have stormed supermarkets to stock up on toilet paper have revealed why they felt the need to stockpile loo roll. Daily Mail Australia visited several Sydney supermarkets on Wednesday where manic shoppers were clearing out aisles, including an entire Costco warehouse in the city's west. As the coronavirus scare widens - with 43 confirmed diagnoses in Australia - a father and son were among dozens of shoppers to empty a supermarket shelf at Lidcombe Shopping Centre within 10 minutes of it being restocked. Oscar Andres, 46, said he and his son Ivan, 18, from Bondi had made an urgent trip to the shops to stock up on 'rare commodities' - including six packets of toilet paper. Oscar Andres, 46, said he and his son Ivan, 18, from Bondi had made an urgent trip to the shops to stock up on 'rare commodities' - including six packets of toilet paper Within 10 minutes of it being stocked, this shelf at Woolworths in Lidcombe Shopping Centre was completely empty But admitted they did not desperately need toilet paper and had largely been caught up in the hype that is sweeping the nation, despite authorities urging people to stop. 'It's a little bit scary, especially seeing the way everyone is behaving,' Mr Andres said. 'We are from Bondi but we heard on the radio about how everyone was selling out so we had to come and get some urgently. 'My son said people are buying up on rice too so I told him to get some of that too. We don't want to miss out!' While some had just run out at home or were doing their weekly shop, others admitted the hype surrounding coronavirus had them worried. Four shoppers make the most of the new arrival of toilet paper at Woolworths in Lidcombe on Wednesday A family carts four super-sized packs of toilet paper out of the supermarket 'It's because of the coronavirus, it's very scary,' Angelo Vargas told Daily Mail Australia. 'Everyone is buying toilet paper and I think everyone is a bit caught up in in and you don't want to miss out. 'I think if you get stuck in your house for a few weeks it's the only safe way to clean yourself.' Jeanette Timsans, Mary Delaveris and Rebecca Kastrantas left Woolworths with none empty trolleys and said people should only be able to buy one packet each. 'It's ridiculous, people are coming in and taking four rolls each - there's groups of people leaving with dozens,' Ms Delaveris said. 'Woolies should be limiting it to one per person.' Advertisement A despairing shopper posted to Instagram with a photo of the Woolworths aisle, earlier that day An Aldi in Epping, Sydney has placed a one toilet packet per person rule on shoppers At Costco warehouses, shoppers loaded up their trolleys with extra-large packs of toilet tissue Health officials have confirmed only 43 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Australia as of Wednesday afternoon. One man has died and a 95-year-old woman may have also died after coming into contact with an infected nursing home carer. The country's chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, told Parliament panic buying toilet paper wasn't a 'proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time'. 'We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time,' Prof Murphy told a Senate hearing on Wednesday. 'We are a well-prepared health system but even the best-prepared health systems can face a challenge if you have large outbreaks.' NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there was no reason for panicked stockpiling, saying he was 'in the middle of all of this' and 'I'm certainly not out buying up.' But several shoppers today told Daily Mail Australia they were stocking up on toilet paper out of fear they may 'miss out' amid the frenzy. 'It's a little bit scary, especially seeing the way everyone is behaving,' said Oscar Andres, who drove 25km from Bondi to Lidcombe to stock up. 'We are from Bondi but we heard on the radio about how everyone was selling out so we had to come and get some urgently. 'My son said people are buying up on rice too so I told him to get some of that too. 'We don't want to miss out!' Supermarket workers reported re-stocking shelves with toilet paper only for it to sell out within 10 minutes. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, a strategy of containment was supposed to protect Washington State from the coronavirus. It didnt. Mike Baker on what led to the first major outbreak in the U.S. Its Thursday, March 5th. Mike, tell me about how this outbreak in Washington State starts. mike baker So it really began January 20. michael barbaro Tonight, the C.D.C. is confirming the first case in the U.S. of a new and deadly coronavirus. A man in Washington State has the same virus that has sickened about 300 people in China, killing at least six. mike baker That was when the officials here announced that the first case of coronavirus in the United States was in Washington State. It was in north of Seattle. There was a man in his 40s who had been traveling to the Wuhan region in China. He had come back. He had developed symptoms after he returned to the United States. And as kind of a savvy guy, he certainly made the connection that he was potentially infected with the coronavirus, and presented himself at a health clinic in the area to ask for some help. michael barbaro And what happens to him? How is he treated? mike baker Officials there, the doctors take a sample. Theyre sending it off to the C.D.C. Theres certainly an awareness this very likely could be a case. He ends up being taken to the hospital and quarantined there in a special portion of the hospital. At that point, you have health officials sort of tracking down who was he on the plane with when he returned? How did he get from the airport back to his house? What was he doing in the hours and days after he landed? So theres a huge effort just to find out who might have been in contact with him, to make sure that this wasnt going to be spreading further. michael barbaro And what were the results of those efforts to track people he might have been in contact with? mike baker They ended up tracking dozens of people. And I dont believe any of them ended up developing symptoms. We went six weeks here in Washington State without another case popping up. There were a number of tests done on a couple dozen people, and none came back positive. So there was certainly a sense that the case that had shown up on the shores here was one that was contained. michael barbaro So far, so good. mike baker Yes. In fact, there was a press conference last Thursday where the state still just had one confirmed case, the first case. And they talked publicly about how the risk to the general public remained low. michael barbaro OK, so what happens next? mike baker On Friday, Im working, helping colleagues around the west coast track coronavirus cases that are starting to emerge. And theres cases in California, cases in Oregon. And then I get a notification that at 8:00 PM on Friday night, the health officials here in Washington State were going to have a press conference. And 8:00 PM press conferences generally are not a sign that good information is about to come out. michael barbaro Fair. archived recording (jeff duchin) Im Jeff Duchin. Im the Health Officer for Public Health, Seattle and King County. And Im here to share with you that we have a preliminary positive result for COVID-19. mike baker So at that meeting, they announced two new cases. archived recording (jeff duchin) A woman in her 50s, a female who traveled to South Korea, was visiting. mike baker They have a woman who was traveling in South Korea came back and tested positive. archived recording (jeff duchin) And noted symptoms at the end of the workday when she got home on Tuesday. And on Wednesday evening, her husband called to report her symptoms and travel history to us. And we had her tested yesterday. mike baker And then they also had a teenager. archived recording (jeff duchin) As Dr. Lofy mentioned, we do have a new case of coronavirus in Snohomish County. mike baker A high schooler in the area, whose tests came back positive, as well. archived recording (jeff duchin) have today for a school-aged adolescent. This individual became ill on Monday with fever, body aches and a headache. mike baker The remarkable thing about those two cases is here, the state and federal governments had been spending much of their time focused on tracking people who had come back from Wuhan or from mainland China. Those are the people are getting screened at the airports. Those are the people who are getting tested. And here we had two cases that really didnt fit that pattern at all, they werent really on that standard set of guidelines where testing would have taken place. archived recording (jeff duchin) There was no travel history associated with this case. Our team is still in the midst of the contact investigation, so we do not yet know the possible source of infection. mike baker Along with cases in Oregon and California, were sort of setting this new standard that this wasnt just people coming back from China anymore. There were people who were in our communities who are getting the virus. And no one really knew where it was coming from. And so in the middle of these questions about whether were testing the right people, whether the regimen around the country is going to catch the cases that might be here already, there is an escalation in the news. archived recording (jeff duchin) Today Public Health, Seattle and King County is announcing three new presumptive positive cases of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, including one person who died. And I want to just start by expressing our deep and sincere condolences to the family members and loved ones of the person who died. mike baker A Washington State man has now died of the coronavirus. Its the first death in the United States. Its a man in his 50s in the Seattle area who lived at a nursing home. archived recording (jeff duchin) The person who died was a patient at Evergreen Hospital who had underlying health conditions. mike baker And he had not traveled abroad, either. We now have got three cases in Washington State not connected to China, two of which appear to have developed the virus within the community somewhere. And so the announcements come out. Governor Jay Inslee declares a state of emergency. The governor suggests the use of, potentially, the National Guard if needed. michael barbaro Wow. mike baker And then the main area of focus that emerged at that point was this nursing facility in Kirkland, in the Seattle suburbs, owned by a company called Life Care. Officials were reporting that potentially dozens of people were sick there. They were showing signs and symptoms, a mix of both residents and staff. And obviously, this is its a terrible place for a coronavirus to take root. I mean, youve got people who are elderly, who have medical issues. I mean, those are the exact types of people who would be most vulnerable to any kind of illness. And there was an immediate sense that theres potential disaster ahead, with people there who are infected and spreading. We started talking then to a number of different family members of people, who were obviously worried and trying to figure out how to support their family members that are inside the facility. And one of those people that I talked to one of those first days was Bridget Parkhill. michael barbaro And I called Bridget. And from the first moment we were on the phone, it was clear that she was very frustrated with this experience. michael barbaro Hi, Bridget. bridget parkhill Yes. michael barbaro Hey, its Michael Barbaro. How are you? bridget parkhill Im fabulous. How are you. michael barbaro Im reading a little facetiousness in your voice. bridget parkhill Yes, just a bit. Its been a pretty rough week. michael barbaro I imagine it has been. bridget parkhill Yeah. mike baker Her mother was in the facility trying to recover from knee surgery. Shed been there for a few months. And Bridget and others were just trying to get a handle on what was going on inside. michael barbaro Bridget what are you thinking when you hear that this nursing home is suddenly in the news and is connected to the coronavirus? bridget parkhill Well, it is extremely scary to me. My mom has been a resident there since November when she had her knee replaced. And then all of a sudden, Im getting frantic phone calls from my sister saying that two people had tested positive for this coronavirus. One was an employee and one was another resident, and that they were on lockdown. michael barbaro So as you get this information, what are you thinking to yourself? bridget parkhill Im thinking, my god, moms had a cough since last Tuesday and she needs to get tested right away. So when I called them, I said, has my mother been tested yet? And it was the social worker I spoke with. And she pulled up moms chart, and she said, no. Were going to test 50 people and your mom hasnt had a fever. And she told me moms last three temperatures and they were fine. And at that point, they were taking them, I believe, every four hours. michael barbaro Bridgets pressing them to get her mom tested to get a real answer it here on whether or not she has the coronavirus. Theres a great fear from her and the rest of the family that this could get much worse and. If she does, in fact, catch the coronavirus, shes someone who was a really high risk of dying. michael barbaro So what happens? What happens next? bridget parkhill Well, we just kept trying to call. We called the King County Health Department, because we were told to go through them to see should we be self-quarantined? Should we be doing something? michael barbaro Basically, should you, yourself, be quarantined? bridget parkhill Yes, exactly. And I couldnt get a hold of anyone. My sister got a hold of someone, and they said, oh, this is the wrong number. This is the emergency line. You need to call this other number. So they were giving us the run-around. And so finally, this guy said, OK, Ill take your information and someone will give you a call back. But no one did. michael barbaro No one called back. bridget parkhill No one called back. So she finally got a hold of someone, and they said, oh, no, if your mom doesnt have a fever, no, you dont have to do anything. Youre just fine. michael barbaro And you would explained that your mom was in a facility where coronavirus was known to have infected people. bridget parkhill Yes. michael barbaro And that you had been there. bridget parkhill Yes. michael barbaro Did any of that reaction surprise you? bridget parkhill Very much so. Very much so. They just acted like it was no big deal. mike baker And thats a theme that were hearing from a lot of the family members, who are feeling like theyre just in an information black hole right now at a time when it seems like there is an extreme risk to the health and lives of the people they love. I mean, were seeing an email chain thats going around from Life Care where they emailed a bunch of family members, and actually kept all the email addresses open to each other. And subsequently, the family members have been responding over and over again with their outrage, and frustration, and concern theyre not getting the information they want. They have a lot of questions that are not getting answered. There is undoubtedly extreme concern about how people are doing in the facility, their health, and their exposure, and what kind of protection is available to them. It has been heartbreaking to listen to, because they feel so helpless. They feel like their family members are in this facility, and just sitting ducks waiting for this virus to come through. So as the family members are struggling to get the information and answers that they feel like they need, we get another bout of terrifying information. Some researchers here in the Seattle area had been working to trace the genetic sequences of two cases of coronavirus. They looked at both the first one that showed up in mid-January six weeks ago now. And then they looked at another case that showed up last week. And in their analysis, they can see that these two cases appear to be linked. michael barbaro And what do these genetic sequences of this virus tell us? mike baker So what it indicates is that after the first person who got the coronavirus in Washington State six weeks ago, there appears to have been a series of transmissions, a number that we cant even count at this point, that then led to a new person showing up with the virus in more recent days. So theres a sign here that this has been spreading throughout the community undetected for weeks. michael barbaro Wow. So theyre saying that that first case and that last case, theyre not isolated cases. The genetics show that they are, in fact, linked through some vast number of transmissions that mean that somehow, that first person gave it to somebody else, who gave it to somebody else, who gave it to somebody else, and eventually gives it to this last person. mike baker Thats right. So these researchers now believe that if, in fact, this virus has been spreading throughout the region for six weeks essentially undetected, that there are likely 300 to 500 other cases out there that we dont know about, but potentially up to 1,500. Well be right back. archived recording Two people are now dead in a Seattle suburb today from the coronavirus, after state officials confirmed that COVID-19 has been spreading quietly for weeks. Six weeks six weeks in Washington State. That means hundreds of undiagnosed cases could be out there. And experts suggest there are many more cases circulating than have been detected so far. People have to remember confirmed cases are not the number of cases. Confirmed cases just means that we went through the big rigmarole to get them tested. Youve heard that theres about michael barbaro Mike, once it becomes clear that were dealing with a real outbreak here and according to those projections that you just mentioned could be 100, could be thousands of people infected does access to testing for the coronavirus change? mike baker So the local health officials here were talking very ambitiously about how they were going to be increasing testing. And it was more significant. They were doing about 100 tests a day, but at the same time, thats 100 per day for the whole state. Their goal is to increase that capacity as time goes on to the point where maybe were doing more than 1,000 a day. michael barbaro But why arent they able to suddenly deploy thousands of tests more or less immediately? What holds that back? mike baker Well, part of it is a capacity issue. But the other thing is that while the C.D.C. guidelines on who should be tested have broadened, its still relatively narrow. The new guidelines essentially say that if youre someone who is hospitalized with unexplained flu-like symptoms, you would get a test. But if youre just a random person who has flu-like symptoms, and youre concerned that you might have had coronavirus, thats not enough for you to go to your doctor and be put in the pipeline to get tested. michael barbaro So basically, there are just restrictions still on whos eligible to be tested. And that seems quite stringent. mike baker Thats right. Their official guidance is not everyone needs to be tested. michael barbaro So at this point, whats happening to people like Bridgets mother, who has not yet been tested, may have been exposed to this virus? What is the protocol for people like her? What happens to her? mike baker So right now, a lot of these people are essentially theyre isolated in their rooms. Theyre getting food delivered to them by people in protective gear. Theyre trying to stay in touch with family through video chats and phone conversations. michael barbaro And what is she saying that thats been like? bridget parkhill She said this is like solitary confinement. And we laughed about, wow, mom, I dont know what your crime was, but youre doing hard time. And she laughs, you know. My mom has a very big, bright personality, laughing all the time. Shes that kind of person. And so shes trying to make light of it. But at the end of the conversations, she says, Im just really lonely. mike baker And theres hearing, through these family members, a lot of concern about how this is being handled, how long theyre going to be in isolation, and when this might end, and the larger, more concerning question how is this going to end for them? michael barbaro Meaning are their family members going to survive this. mike baker Thats on their minds all day long. One of the things thats a real struggle for the family members like Bridget was that they cant see their family members right now. They cant go into the facility, because its in quarantine. bridget parkhill So we were told that they were under lockdown, but I really needed to see my mom. So my sister and I decided to meet there, and bring her a little care package, because they said that we could certainly bring her food, or books, or whatever we wanted to, and just to call them when we got there. mike baker So Bridget talks about how the other day, she went to the facility, went to the front door. bridget parkhill So I called, and they said that someone would be right out. And there were signs that said, No admittance, that they were having a respiratory outbreak. So a woman came out and said that she would take it to mom. And I said, wait a minute. We cant go in. Is there any way that I can go around outside to her window, and just see her, just wave at her so she knows that Im here? mike baker Would it be OK If she walked around the exterior of the building just so she could have a chance to see her mom. bridget parkhill And she said, oh, sure, no problem. So she took the goody bag down to mom and my sister and I went around the side. She opened up the blinds, and there was my mom. With all this stuff going on, just seeing her gave me so much relief, just because we are getting so little information from Life Care Center that we dont know. Is she able to sit up? Is she laying in a bed? You know we had no idea. So it was just thrilling to see her sitting up, and smiling, and waving. michael barbaro When do you think youre going to be allowed to see your mother? Are they giving you any kind of frame? bridget parkhill Theyve given me no time frame whatsoever. They dont know. Theres ambulances going in there. And they take people out, and take them to the hospital. So Im just waiting for that call to say that my mom is one of those people. michael barbaro Oh, no. bridget parkhill [CHOKED UP] Its really hard. michael barbaro So Mike, by the end of this past weekend, from everything youve said, the government in Washington has pronounced a state of emergency. Its acknowledging that things are quite serious. Testing is still very limited. People are furious about that. And from the projections you described, its clear that the virus has been spreading and spreading, and maybe, at this point, kind of out of control. So what is the plan by the authorities there to wrap their hands around this crisis? mike baker So there was really a major shift that was happening, because the news was just cascading worse and worse every time. I mean, every time they would give us an update, it was more people in critical condition. It was another death, more deaths. You had this growing cacophony of horrible news coming out from the region. And so then on Monday morning, we really see that sort of change in direction and messaging. archived recording This morning, we are in final negotiations to purchase a motel in which we can place patients who are in need of isolation and a place to recover. mike baker The county executive here in the Seattle area comes out, and says, theyre now going to be going out to buy a motel in the region that he could repurpose for the sake of isolating people who have coronavirus. michael barbaro Wow. archived recording The risk for all of us of becoming infected will be increasing. mike baker The county health officer here was talking about how the number of cases here are growing so much that at some point, coronavirus cases are going to outpace the number of flu cases in the area. archived recording And theres a potential for many people to become ill at the same time. mike baker And that means a whole different strategy. Now theres so many cases that they no longer have the ability to track individual people and retrace their steps. archived recording So we are making both individual and community-level recommendations to limit the spread of this disease. And our community-level recommendations are very similar to what we recommend for influenza. mike baker Theyre shifting to a community-level approach here, that youve got to sort of address the problem at a bigger scale. michael barbaro Wow. So basically, theyre giving up on the idea of containing this by tracking each person who has it. mike baker Right. Now, I just got a message that came in, that said the latest guidance is that they are recommending that older residents with underlying health problems in the community stay in their homes. michael barbaro So Mike, in a span of really just a few days here, the State of Washington has gone from just a handful of cases to a pretty extraordinary outbreak. And it feels like a kind of terrifying demonstration of just how fast this virus can take hold across a relatively small geographical area. mike baker It is. I mean, we went from one known case a week ago to today, the latest was 39 total infections and 10 people dead. You can sense the growing fear around here. I mean, we have guidance that employers encourage people to telecommute instead of coming into an office. Youve got schools preparing to educate students remotely if the virus continues to spread. michael barbaro Wow. archived recording That could expand, also, to include, again, discouraging mass gatherings as we call them sporting events, the high school basketball game, the hockey game, the convention. These things could end up becoming temporarily discouraged, if not possibly prohibited, depending on the escalation of concern. michael barbaro Mike, how reasonable is it to fear that what happened there in Washington, and the speed with which it happened, is going to be the story of how this unfolds pretty much everywhere else in the United States? mike baker I mean, were certainly seeing the spread everywhere at this point. One thing that Ive stopped to think about a number of times in the last few days is, did this region just get really unlucky to have the epicenter of the outbreak take root in a nursing home, among the most vulnerable people in the region? And is that why the death toll is so high here? At the same time, the reality is the virus is continuing to spread. And the public health experts we talked to expect it to continue that way. And theres going to be more places just like this that are going to get hit. michael barbaro Mike, thank you very much, and stay safe. mike baker Thanks. michael barbaro Bridget, for a lot of people the coronavirus is a kind of distant news story. Its very scary, but its not yet a reality in a lot of places. In the Seattle area, and definitely in this nursing home, it is a reality and a very scary reality. And I wonder as somebody who has experienced it in a very personal and visceral way, what this experience has taught you about what its like when this virus does come into your life. bridget parkhill Well, when it comes to your own family, I cant express to you what it is like. Its fear. Its every bad emotion you could have. And she calls me first thing in the morning when she wakes up. Just hearing her voice, its like, OK, everythings good for another day. But is it going to be fine in an hour? Is it going to be fine in three hours? Is she going to make it through the night, because its so fast when the severe illness hits, that I dont know. michael barbaro The Times reports that in February, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributed a test for the coronavirus to state and local laboratories, but that flaws in that test led to inconclusive results. A replacement test was promised, but was never distributed. As a result, most diagnostic testing was only conducted at C.D.C.s labs in Atlanta, whose results took days. Last week, amid growing criticism from doctors across the country, the Food and Drug Administration finally broke the logjam by allowing state and local officials to conduct initial testing on their own. But tests remain scarce. archived recording Chairman, this is really a frightening time. Im hearing from people who are sick, who want to get tested, who are not being told where to go. Im hearing that even when people do get tested, and its very few so far, the results are taking way longer to get back to them. michael barbaro During a hearing on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Patty Murray of Washington State lashed out at federal health officials over the shortage of test kits on behalf of her constituents. archived recording (patty murray) The administration has had months to prepare for this. And its unacceptable that people in my state and nationwide cant even get an answer as to whether or not they are infected. To put it simply, if someone at the White House or in this administration is actually in charge of responding to the coronavirus, it would be news to anybody in my state. And Ive been on michael barbaro As of Wednesday, there were 44 cases of the virus in Washington State, and more than 150 in the U.S. Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording (michael bloomberg) If you remember, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. And today, I am leaving the race for the same reason to defeat Donald Trump, because staying in would make it more difficult to achieve that goal. michael barbaro On Wednesday, Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race after a poor performance on Super Tuesday, in which he failed to win a single state, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on his campaign. From the start, Bloombergs candidacy hinged on Joe Bidens campaign collapsing, something that never happened. On Wednesday, Bloomberg endorsed Biden, becoming the latest moderate candidate to do so. archived recording (michael bloomberg) Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. And after yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend, and a great American, Joe Biden. [CHEERS] michael barbaro Charles Mihle went to the Feb. 26 meeting of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors to complain about an Entergy Texas utility construction project near his home in the Village of Panther Creek. He received a response he was not expecting officials from the township, who showed up the next day to repair a damaged foot-bridge he had spoken about, and a in-home visit from two high-ranking executives from Entergy Texas. Mihle, who lives on Yewleaf Drive, spoke at the meeting to complain about damage to a forest buffer area near his home he alleged was done by workers from a company called Volt, which is a subcontractor being used by Entergy Texas for underground repairs and improvements to the companys electrical infrastructure. Mihle told directors the Volt crews had haphazardly cut down trees, destroyed sod and other green buffer areas and also damaged a small footbridge that was constructed by a local Boy Scouts of America troop. Im here to comment on the recent construction activity in Panther Creek with regard to replacing underground electric lines. I support improvements in the infrastructure, but recently Entergy has been replacing the underground power lines in our neighborhood. They have subcontracted with Volt, Mihle said. They have created quite a mess and damage to the area. Can the board tell me what steps were taken ahead of time to mitigate the environmental impact of this work? Mihle said it would have been prudent for Entergy officials and other public or government officials to have taken several steps to be good stewards of the environment, namely suggesting they contact residents before work like he described begins and informing residents what was being done; fixing the damage the workers cause to the forest buffer and other green areas; and for better planning of the repairs. Related: Entergy construction project causing traffic delays in Woodlands With their small bulldozers, (Volt workers) carried an 8-foot diameter steel ring of heavy plastic tubing over the plank bridge next to our house. As I watched in real time, I could hear the snapping of supports and deep valleys were created in the planking causing up to a half-inch droops in the plankings. One planking snapped my wife tripped on it the other day. Now, it gives a spongy feeling, he explained. This footbridge was rebuilt by a Boy Scouts troop about 15 years ago. They would be saddened about what happened to their generous work. The Volt power company was repeatedly driving over this foot-bridge until I complained. There seemed to be no supervision. After describing several other aspects of the damage done by the Volt crews, as well as asking what entity could repair the environmental damage caused by the utility work, Mihle got a surprising response from township board Chairman Gordy Bunch, who said the land in question was under the authority of Montgomery County. The county is the entity that currently manages the easements, Bunch said. We will work with the county and our staff to address the issues you mentioned. In the days after the meeting, Bunchs claim that the land in question was under the authority of Montgomery County officials was contradicted by Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack, who said Bunchs claims were misleading. Noack said there are three areas of concern in relation to Mihles complaints county managed road right-of-ways, utility easements managed by various firms such as Entergy and then township owned land or property. The damage that was caused, he said, was to township property and his office had no role in the work. After Noacks rebuttal, Nick Wolda, the public communications officer for The Woodlands, said Montgomery County, owns and manages most of the road right-of-way in the Woodlands Township, but admitted township officials were still probing Mihles complaint to determine which entity was indeed responsible. An individual appeared at the board meeting on Feb. 26, 2020 with concerns about the quality of the utility work being done in his area. Township staff is evaluating the residents complaint. If the work in question is in the road right of way, Montgomery County issues the permit to the contractor. If the work in question is in the utility easement, the utility company has the right to enter and perform utility work per the property deed, Wolda wrote in an email to The Villager. If the work in question is on township owned property such as pathways or open space reserves, township permission is required. Township staff believes that the utility work in this particular situation may have occurred in the road right of way, the utility easement and may have impacted township owned property. Quick response In a lengthy email to The Villager, Mihle described the reaction to his comments at the Wednesday night meeting, stating that all heck breaks loose, at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 27 with township workers on the scene near his home working to repair the damaged foot-bridge. The workers supposedly told Mihle theyd been ordered to fix the structure by Chris Nunes, the manager of the parks and recreation department for the township. Mihle said workers told him they would order some additional supplies and continue repairs to the bridge over the coming weeks while other crews would begin working to reforest the area that was destroyed by the Volt crews. I felt good that some positive action was taking place, Mihle wrote. In truth, I was amazed at the speed of the response. On Feb. 28, Mihle said he and his wife were stunned when two executives from Entergy Texas showed up unannounced at his home. Sallie Ranier, who is the CEO of Entergy Texas, and Stuart Barrett, the vice president of Entergy Texas, asked his wife numerous questions before taking photographs of the damage and offering them help with solutions to the problem in the future. Mihle also said on Feb. 29, Noack and one of his staff, Andy DuBois, also arrived at the scene of the damage and examined the bridge and other damaged forest areas, telling him the land in question was not under his authority as a county commissioner. Overall, the response to his complaint was both unexpected and surprising notably the speed at which things occurred after his public comment. He also said having Entergy executives in his home when he had not contacted them was refreshing. To have these high-level people (from Entergy) in my living room was odd to say the least, Mihle added. Allie Payne, a senior communications specialist with Entergy Texas, said on March 4 that the company was working to be better stewards of the environment and would assist as necessary to repair any damages from utility work. Volt crews are working on Entergys behalf to conduct reliability upgrades within Entergys easements in the Panther Creek neighborhood. The upgrades are a part of Entergys ongoing effort to maintain our equipment, Payne wrote in an email to The Villager. After first learning about Mr. Mihles concerns at The Woodlands Township meeting last week, Entergy executives did stop by to see the area in which crews were working and to directly hear the homeowners concerns. Crews are close to completing their work and will begin efforts to clean up the area as quickly as possible. Entergy takes pride in serving our communities, and we are continuing to work with the Mihles and The Township to address any repairs that may need to be made following the completion of the work. jeff.forward@chron.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:53:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISHKEK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank is ready to assist Kyrgyzstan should an outbreak of the coronavirus occur in the country, Lilia Burunciuc, regional director of the World Bank for Central Asia, said here on Wednesday. The Kyrgyz president's press service reported that during a meeting, President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Burunciuc exchanged views on vital areas of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the World Bank. Burunciuc said the World Bank is planning to create a fund to assist developing countries to combat the coronavirus. Kyrgyzstan has so far reported no cases of the disease. The Kyrgyz president emphasized that the World Bank is one of the country's strategic partners, providing significant support to improve the investment climate and advanced sectors of the economy, particularly in energy, transport, digitalization, and the construction of educational and social facilities. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 19:43:55|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close PAZARKULE, Turkey, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's sudden decision to open the gates to Europe for refugees exposes Ankara's frustration over the lack of support and the failure of a distracted European Union (EU) to agree on a common migration policy, experts said. Turkey announced last week it would not block the passage of refugees hoping to go to Europe amid the escalating violence in northwestern Syria, which could lead to a fresh influx of refugees fleeing the war-torn country through its southern border. The move also threatens to unravel a deal Turkey signed with the EU in 2016 to stop the inflow of refugees to Europe in exchange for funds allocated to help Ankara deal with the millions of Syrian refugees it hosts. Following the opening of the Turkish side of the border, which came after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers by Syrian government's air raids, thousands of refugees have crossed into neighbouring Greece, an EU member, causing violent clashes at the Pazarkule land border in Edirne province. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide: close to 4.1 million, including 3.7 million Syrians and nearly 400,000 asylum seekers and refugees of other nationalities such as Iranians and Afghans. Migration experts agree that Turkey's move is mainly motivated by the lack of international support to Turkey in dealing with the refugee crisis and by the mounting domestic pressure on the refugee issue. "It is impossible for Turkey to assume the burden of the refugees its hosts on its own, and of another additional exodus from northern Syria, thus Ankara has taken an emotional decision and opened its borders in what can only be described as an act of desperation," Didem Isci, an expert from the Ankara-based Bosphorus Migration Studies (BMS), told Xinhua. Turkey aims to push the EU to finally act on the refugee crisis, a move that was generally hailed by the Turkish population, whose anti-refugee sentiment is rising amid a fragile economy, Isci said. He added that, from the human rights' aspect, Turkey's decision could backfire. "We came with 16 of our friends as soon as we heard that the border was open, but we have been pushed back for five days now by Greek riot police who shot tear gas canisters at nearly point blank," an Iranian refugee, who only identified himself as Reza, told Xinhua at the Pazarkule border crossing. "We want to go to Europe, and I still have hope to cross over, you can not live without hope," Reza added. In the past, Ankara had been accused of using Syrian refugees as as a tool of pressure in dealing with the EU. These accusations have been revived after Turkey recently launched its major offensive against the Russian-backed Syrian army, for which Ankara has sought the EU's backing. Turkey had threatened many times in the past to go ahead with such a move, accusing the EU of not fulfilling its promises, a dissatisfaction also admitted by the Europeans distracted by a messy Brexit that blocked an agreement on a new asylum system that would ease the burden on frontline sates, such as Greece. "Greece has been left alone by other EU member states who are not particularly vulnerable by a migratory flow, a situation that has prevented the bloc to confront the issue," Isci said. In a statement on her Twitter account, European Parliament's former Turkey rapporteur, Kati Piri, criticized the bloc for failing to fulfill its pledges made to Turkey. Piri shared a long list of promises not kept by the EU, including the failure to implement a visa-free policy for Turkish citizens, even though it was supposed to be in place by the end of 2016. She added that only 25,000 refugees have been resettled in three years, even though the deal promised large-scale resettlement in EU member states. "Our generosity and hospitality toward Syrians has clearly been misinterpreted by the EU, we have done our fair share in hosting that many migrants, this couldn't go on forever," a Turkish source close to the government told Xinhua. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the bloc had not made "good use of the four years that passed since our (2016) agreement to find common ground for an efficient (asylum) policy." Turkish officials and TV commentators have criticized Greek border patrol's moves to prevent refugees from entering the country by land and sea. On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the EU must stop "trampling" on the rights of the migrants and must support Turkey in Syria if it wants a solution to the current refugee flow. "Our Greek neighbors, who try all means to bar migrants like drowning them at sea or shooting them to death, shouldn't forget that one day they might need the same mercy," the Turkish leader said in a speech in the parliament. Ankara is seeking EU's support for establishing safe zones inside Syria to facilitate "voluntary returns" for the refugees it hosts, but such calls are ignored. Turkey controls swaths of land in northern Syria following three operations it carried out in recent years targeting Kurdish fighters. On Tuesday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Twitter that nearly 136,000 refugees had left Turkey for Greece, but the number has been strongly disputed by Greek authorities. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe For Los Angeles' influential teachers union, Tuesday night could've been a lot worse. Despite being badly outspent by rival charter school advocates, United Teachers Los Angeles' endorsed candidates appear to have held their own in the most expensive primary in the history of the L.A. Unified School Board. UTLA-backed incumbent Jackie Goldberg appears on track to fend off challenger Christina Martinez Duran in Board District 5. In Board District 7, early returns show the union's pick, Patricia Castellanos, has a shot at emerging from a crowded five-candidate field to make the November runoff between the top-two finishers. Three others are vying for the second runoff spot: Tanya Ortiz Franklin, Lydia Gutierrez and Mike Lansing -- a former school board member aiming to reclaim the BD7 seat. UTLA had hoped Board District 3 incumbent Scott Schmerelson could avoid a long slog to November in his bid to retain his seat. Instead, early returns show Schmerelson leading challengers Marilyn Koziatek and Elizabeth Badger -- but not quite by enough to avoid a runoff. IT'S STILL EARLY The early vote tallies reported Tuesday night reflected the earliest vote-by-mail ballot returns as well as some results from in-person voting. If the November 2018 midterms are any indication, union-backed candidates are likely to win greater shares of the vote from candidates who voted later or in-person. (In 2018, teachers unions' preferred state schools superintendent candidate, Tony Thurmond, trailed Marshall Tuck in early counts; but later returns broke in Thurmond's favor.) "The votes we work to turn out," said Castellanos, "are primarily working class, communities of color, that typically vote at the polls so I do expect our numbers will go up." Regardless, the process of counting mail-in ballots takes days if not weeks -- which means especially in BD7, clear results might not emerge for some time. (KPCC/LAist Analysis) THE MOST EXPENSIVE PRIMARY EVER Across the three races, UTLA only mustered $1.8 million in spending on advertising or phone-banking. The largest chunk of that money -- almost $800,000 -- was spent supporting Castellanos in BD7. Compare that figure with charter school advocates' totals: they spent $6.5 million attempting to sway the three races -- including $3.8 million from frequent political donor and noted charter school ally Bill Bloomfield. Bloomfield spent most of that money in the race in BD7 -- a constituency that runs from South L.A. to San Pedro. He spent almost $2.5 million trying to sway this race, including $1.3 million to support Ortiz Franklin's candidacy. Ortiz Franklin herself found Bloomfield's support baffling, saying in an interview Tuesday night that she'd never met the Manhattan Beach businessman. "I'm not exactly sure why he chose to spend money on me," the first-time political candidate said. While the campaign finances of LAUSD elections often pit charter schools against teachers unions, the actual operating dynamics of the school board are much more nuanced -- and Ortiz Franklin said she finds the "false dichotomy" to be "frustrating." "A school board member," Ortiz Franklin said, "really needs to serve all of their students, all of their schools, all of their communities, regardless of model [charter or district-run school], well. ... The overwhelming majority [of students] are and will continue to be in our traditional schools." Meanwhile -- unable to keep pace with charters' pace of spending -- UTLA officials say the union focused on its traditional strength: its in-person outreach or 'ground game.' "We believe in people," said Cecily Myart-Cruz, the union's vice president, in an interview Tuesday. "We have educators, students, parents that are out in the streets and actually talking to people and to folks in the neighborhood." NEGATIVE ADVERTISING This year's LAUSD campaign was not only the most expensive primary ever -- the race saw unprecedented amounts of negative advertising for an LAUSD primary. Since January, charter school advocates have spent more than $2.6 million on attack ads in this year's Los Angeles Unified School Board races. No candidate was hit harder than Schmerelson in the West San Fernando Valley. #LAUSD ELECTION AD CLAIM: @ScottAtLAUSD held stock in McDonald's, BP, and "the owner of JUUL." ACCURATE? Yes, according to his own financial disclosures. -Schmerelson says the ad is anti-Semitic -@SpeakUpParents says there's more to the storyhttps://t.co/BUMYXt5egg pic.twitter.com/6pby8MuoYJ Kyle Stokes (@kystokes) February 26, 2020 The California Charter Schools Association's political arm has endorsed a challenger, Marilyn Koziatek, and also poured more than $1 million into ads attacking Schmerelson. One CCSA ad portrayed Schmerelson, who's Jewish, in gold chains with a fanned-out wad of cash. Schmerelson's campaign has called that mailer "anti-Semitic." And in BD5, which covers areas north and southeast of downtown L.A., Bloomfield paid for $744,000 in attack ads against Goldberg. "Garbage politics," Myart-Cruz called it. Bernie Sanders looked to take command of the Democratic presidential race as voting on the nominating campaign's biggest day got underway yesterday, while top rival Joe Biden aimed to gain ground by muscling aside upstart Michael Bloomberg and consolidating moderate support. In Super Tuesday contests across 14 states, from tiny Maine in the east to the delegate-rich prize of California in the west, the Democratic battle to find a challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election became a national competition for the first time. The rush of primary elections could provide some clarity at last in a muddled White House race that has seen several candidates rise and fall, leaving many Democratic voters torn and uncertain. Mr Sanders, the front-runner and a progressive senator from Vermont, hoped to take a huge step toward the nomination on Super Tuesday yesterday, when more than one-third of the delegates who will pick the eventual nominee in July were up for grabs. But Mr Biden has emerged as Mr Sanders' top threat. The former vice-president's big win in South Carolina on Saturday generated a flood of endorsements from party officials worried that Mr Sanders' democratic socialist proposals to restructure the economy would doom the party in November. Mr Biden gained fresh momentum on the eve of Super Tuesday as moderate presidential rivals Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, endorsed him after withdrawing from the race. Mr Buttigieg and Ms Klobuchar backed Mr Biden at rallies in Dallas on Monday. Peter Victoratos, a 23-year-old software engineer voting in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, yesterday morning, decided on Monday night to vote for Mr Biden. He said the endorsements of Mr Biden by some of his rivals helped him make up his mind. "I like them all," he said. Mr Biden's goal was to stay within reach of Mr Sanders in delegates, giving him a chance to make up ground as the race moves on. Tennessee is one of the Super Tuesday states where Mr Biden hopes to do well. But a powerful, deadly tornado in the Nashville area delayed the opening of polls there by an hour, and forced officials to relocate some polling locations. Mr Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, remained a wild card as he joins the competition for the first time. The moderate skipped the first four contests and spent more than half a billion dollars of his own money to bombard Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads, but his poll numbers slipped after a poor first debate. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive ally of Mr Sanders, also remains in the running and could score a victory in her home state of Massachusetts. Opinion polls show her trailing in other states, leaving her campaign hopes uncertain. The pace of the Democratic race will now accelerate after Super Tuesday, with 11 more states voting by the end of March. By then, nearly two-thirds of the total delegates will have been allotted. Mr Sanders headed into Super Tuesday with a 60-54 delegate advantage over Mr Biden after the first four contests in the state-by-state nominating fight. Mr Sanders managed a virtual tie with Mr Buttigieg in Iowa and wins in New Hampshire and Nevada. At least 1,991 delegates to the party's convention in July are needed to win the nomination outright. Mr Sanders has focused heavily on rolling up big margins in liberal California, which has 415 delegates available. He led there in opinion polls and heavily outspent Mr Biden on ads and in building a campaign organisation. Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma informed the House on Wednesday that at least 215 people came in contact with the COVID-19 affected group of Italian tourists that had visited various places in the state. Replying to an adjournment motion in the state Assembly, Sharma said swab samples of 93 people have been taken. A total of 51 suspected patients have been tested negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said. Fifty-three people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 76 people in Jaipur came in contact with the group. The minister informed the members of the House that the 15 Italian tourists who had reached Delhi, via Jaipur and Agra, have been tested positive for COVID-19. He said that though there is no prescribed medication or vaccine to treat the disease, the suspected patients in the state are being given swine flu medication as a precautionary measure. Purchase orders have been given for 50,000 personal protective equipment kits and 5 lakh each of N95 and triple layer masks to deal with the problem, the minister said. He said that Italy has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world and tourists should have been screened earlier. The tourists entered Rajasthan via road from Delhi, he said, adding that that the state did not receive information about screening and travel plans of the tourists. Listing out the measures taken by the Health department, he said that teams have been alerted to thoroughly screen passengers at airports while rapid response teams have been formed in the medical colleges and associated hospitals. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said the entire opposition stands with the government and whatever precautions are required should be taken. The state government should track the places where the tourists had visited in the state, he said adding that this is not the time to blame the government and administration. Kataria said land should be earmarked if there was any need to build isolation wards. It is a problem and people of the state should fight against the virus together, he said. Fear and panic prevailing among the people should also be mitigated, he added. Opposition members Rajendra Rathore, Kalicharan Saraf and Ashok Lahoti also expressed their views on the coronavirus issue. Rajendra Pareek, who was in the Speaker's chair, said homeopathy practitioners in the clinic inside the Assembly have informed him about preventive medicine in homeopathy and his views can be also be noted. He said that there was no harm in taking opinion of the practitioners. To this, the health minister said they would follow guidelines issued by the Centre and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to decide the future course of action. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The commander called the killing of such a young child exponentially tragic and he said it is something we are having a tough time trying to understand, and the community is having a tough time trying to understand. Whatever the motive, he said, it comes down to the same common factor a handgun is introduced and somebody is tragically harmed or killed. . . . Our emphasis is getting these guns off the streets. All international passengers arriving at the city airport will be screened for coronavirus, from now on, Karnataka Medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar said here on Wednesday. "Till now we were screening international passengers coming from Covid-19 affected nations, but from today onwards all passengers will be screened," he told the legislative Council on Wednesday. The decision comes after a techie, who tested positive for the coronavirus in Hyderabad, had travelled from the city. Health Minister B Srirumulu had earlier in the day said the apartment where the software engineer was staying has been sanitised. Later speaking to reporters, Sudhakar said the techie's room mate was asymptomatic and he had tested negative. "There were 25 people working with the techie, of whom one developed a symptom, adding that all of them were quarantined. An Iranian national, who had symptoms of Covid-19 had tested negative, the minister added. He said five people with suspected symptoms of Covid-19 have so far been admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Disease (RJICD). The government, he said, had ordered supply of masks and medicines for the next six months to ensure there was no shortage. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told reporters later that there was not a single coronavirus case in the state and hence there was no need for the people to worry A government release said Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar held a high-level meeting, where he discussed issues related to establishing quarantine facilities,extending medical facilities in government, private and defence hospitals, connecting officers for inter-departmental coordination for containment activities, taking military and paramilitary support and help from medical associations and private hospitals. It said the Border Security Force at Yelahanka near Bengaluru, is ready with three barracks of 100 beds each, to extend quarantine facilities for 300 members, in case of emergency on the directions of the union government. The Department of Health and Family Welfare has already chalked out a plan todeploy the required trained doctors 24x7 and the State Drug Controller has been asked to provide necessary facial masks, hand gloves and personal protection equipments, besides, required medicines, the statement read. The Chief Secretary had a video conferencewith Deputy Commissioners and District Magistrates and asked them to earmark isolation wardsin all hospitalsand monitor places of mass gatherings like airports, bus stations, ports, railway stations, malls and multiplexes, which are exposed to risk and where there is chance of local transmission ofthis 'imported virus' when people from virus-affected countries visit such places. He asked them to prepare a Cluster Containment Plan to act swiftly at short notice,to keep District Surveillance Plan and District Disaster Teams ready to face last minute challenges. He directed airport authorities to take a declaration from passengers about their visits abroad, sojourn and people who came in contact with them to help take preventive measures. Vijay Bhaskar also directed officers to ensure ventilators in good condition in all government Hospitals and pay attention to scientific disposal of biomedical waste Meanwhile, a parent appealed to people not to panic about the coronavirus in the techie's apartment, where his son too resides. "My son is from the same apartment.To update everyone, there is absolutely nothing wrong here. It was more of panic on social media that created this," he said in a message. He said the man who is in Telengana and tested positive stayed in this building on February 21. "His roommate was taken to hospital and has tested negative," he said. It is been two weeks since the incident. The virus can survive only for 48 hours under optimal conditions, he noted. "Everyone in this building is safe. Please educate yourself. Refrain from spreading panic and misinformation," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amazon has now confirmed its first case of coronavirus in the US. according to recent reports. The employee in question has not been named but worked out of the companys Seattle offices. The employee did not exhibit any symptoms when they left the office on February 25. But workers were subsequently told about the infection via email after it was reported to Amazon. The report stems from one of the USs hardest-hit regions, Washington state. As of this writing, at least 21 individuals have been confirmed to have contracted coronavirus and at least eight have died. Thats in the wider King County region of the state. Thats compared to the global infection rate and death tolls, with figures coming in at over 92,000 infections and 3,161 deaths, respectively. The most recent outbreak for Amazon seems to have impacted one of its office spaces, with Seattle serving as home to the online shipping company and tech giants headquarters. Amazons warehouses appear to remain free of the coronavirus for the time being. Advertisement How is Amazon responding to the coronavirus threat? Amazon isnt the only major tech company to report coronavirus among its workers. Google also reported that one of its employees tested positive for the disease back in late February. That was reported to have happened at the search giants Zurich office in Switzerland. But Amazons response has been similar to its competitors. Google opted to begin by restricting the travel of its employees to Iran and Italy, before doing the same for South Korea and Japan. It also canceled its Google News Initiative Global Summit because of the disease spread. Later on, it opted to cancel one of its biggest shows of the year namely, Google I/O 2020. The most prominent parallel here, however, was Googles decision to reach out to its employees. Advertisement Amazon, in addition to US business travel restrictions and an end to warehouse tours, reached out to all of its employees. It also ensured that all co-workers who may have had contact with the employee. Specifically, thats other employees who were at its South Lake Union office complex in Seattle. The online retailer also has begun conducting at least some of its interviews virtually rather than face-to-face. The larger impact on the tech industry The coverage of the effect of coronavirus on the rest of the tech industry has already been widespread. Aside from Google. Mobile OEMs have canceled or backed out of major world events, GMSAs MWC 2020 was nixed, and even Facebook halted its F8 Conference. Some device manufacturers, such as LG, have gone so far as to shut down some production. Advertisement Amazon has also previously been impacted by the disease, which brings similar typical symptoms and risks as the flu. Two Amazon employees in Italy were previously confirmed to have contracted the virus earlier in March. Those workers were placed in quarantine. The tech industry has, in effect, been put on its heels by the spread of coronavirus, with growth and revenue taking a back seat to companies working to keep their employees safe. Maryland is known as the Free State, reflecting its tradition of political freedom and religious tolerance, along with its resistance to Prohibition. Talk to retirees, though, and theyll tell you the nickname is a misnomer, at least as far as taxes are concerned. While Maryland excludes from taxes up to $31,100 in income from pensions and 401(k) plans, state and local taxes on other types of incomeincluding distributions from IRAscan run as high as 9%. Fortunately for Marylanders willing to relocate, a number of other states give retirees a break. For example, nearby Delaware and Virginia are both friendlier to tax-conscious seniors, according to Kiplingers state-by-state guide to taxes on retirees. Alternatively, Marylanders can join the thousands of retirees that have stowed their snow shovels and moved to Florida, which has no income tax and is on Kiplingers list of most-tax-friendly states. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan says high tax rates are driving out lifelong Marylanders who still have much to offer the state besides a steady stream of tax revenue. Hogan, a Republican, has introduced legislation that would eliminate state taxes on the first $50,000 of income for retirees making up to $100,000 in federally adjusted gross income. Retirees with income of $50,000 or less would pay no state tax. Hogan also wants to exempt from tax all pension and retirement income paid to veterans and first responders. The tax cuts, which would cost an estimated $1 billion, would be phased in over five years, beginning in fiscal year 2022. The legislation faces an uncertain future in the states Democratic-controlled general assembly, where lawmakers have raised concerns about how the state would make up the revenue from the tax reductions. Other states are also looking at ways to keep retirees from decamping to lower-tax states. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed legislation that will make it easier for seniors in Cook Countywhich includes Chicago and is the states most populous jurisdictionto apply for a property tax break of up to $8,000 a year. Kiplinger has designated Illinois as one of the least tax-friendly states for retirees, primarily because of its sky-high property taxes. West Virginia, which gets a mixed rating from Kiplinger for the way it taxes retirees, is phasing out taxes on Social Security benefits over three years, starting in 2020. In New Mexico, which also gets a mixed rating, lawmakers are considering several bills that would repeal or reduce taxes on Social Security. The Gray Migration States where the most retirees are moving, based on the number of people age 60 and older who moved into a state versus the number of people who moved out. State Net Migration Florida 68,918 Arizona 31,201 South Carolina 12,001 North Carolina 9,209 Nevada 8,582 Tennessee 8,259 Texas 8,296 Washington 3,964 Idaho 2,966 Delaware 2,605 Source: SmartAsset analysis of 2017 census data Even states that already have low taxes are looking at ways to become more appealing to retirees. For example, Arizona Governor Doug Duceys proposed budget for 2020 would eliminate state income taxes on military pensions. Arizona is one of Kiplingers most tax-friendly states for retirees. Economic benefit or burden? The independent research organization Think New Mexico contends that eliminating or reducing taxes on Social Security benefits would give retirees more money to spend, which would boost New Mexicos economy. Think New Mexico estimates that every dollar of Social Security income generates about $1.71 in spending on food, clothing, transportation and health care. ICE have criticized the NYPD after its officers arrested an illegal immigrant who had been released despite being charged with child rape. Miguel Federico Ajqui-Ajtzalam was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday after originally being arrested in New York last Thursday, the agency said. The 20-year-old was released from custody by the NYPD after his arraignment despite ICE issuing a detainer. But the detainer was ignored because of New York's 'sanctuary city' status and Ajqui-Ajtzalam was released from custody. ICE slammed the city's sanctuary policy and said it was 'inconceivable' that the alleged rapist was sent back into the community. Immigration and Customs Enforcement criticized the NYPD for releasing Miguel Federico Ajqui-Ajtzalam. Pictured an ICE officer during an operation in July Ajqui-Ajtzalam was charged with raping a 13-year-old in Brooklyn when he was 19, police said in a criminal report. Border Patrol initially encountered Ajqui-Ajtzalam in September 2016 after he illegally entered the US without inspection and he was processed as an unaccompanied child, ICE said. He was still on the run when he allegedly raped the teenage girl between October and December 2018, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court. Officials at ICE criticized the NYPD's decision to release him and said the Guatemalan national should have been transferred to their custody. In a statement the agency said the released was 'as a result of New York City's sanctuary policies'. The NYPD said they do not honor ICE detainers unless a warrant has been issued by a federal judge or the suspect has been convicted with a 'violent or serious crime' in the last five years. Immigration advocacy groups, faith leaders, elected officials and supporters gathered at Foley Square, Manhattan, last month to protest against ICE's harassment of immigrant communities A spokesperson said: 'The NYPD does not conduct civil immigration enforcement and we will only honor immigration detainers under the following circumstances: ICE presents a warrant issued by a federal judge establishing that there is probable cause to take the person into custody, and the person has been convicted of a ''violent or serious crime'' within five years of the arrest or is a possible match on the terrorist watch list.' Ajqui-Ajtzalam is currently being held in custody by ICE pending removal proceedings before a federal immigration judge. In January, ICE blamed the death of a 92-year-old Queens woman on New York's sanctuary city status. The policy in some cases allows the city to shield undocumented immigrants who have broken the law from deportation requests, . Another area event celebrating the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethovens birth will take place Sunday, March 8, and it offers the chance to see the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra and a dynamic soloist in concert. The orchestra, led by maestro Philip T. Ventre, will perform a Beethoven program at 2 p.m. in the new Ann and George Colony Hall at Choate Rosemary Hall, featuring two masterworks, Symphony No. 3 Eroica and Piano Concerto No. 5, also known as Emperor. The WSO opens the program with the Eroica, first publicly performed in 1805, Ventre says in an email. The powerful and ground-breaking piece, composed while Beethoven was battling his hearing loss, ushered the musical world into the Romantic Era and changed the form of the symphony for the next two centuries, noted Ventre. The majestic Emperor Concerto, first performed in 1811 in Vienna, demands virtuoso performance by the soloist and subtle orchestral colors and changes leading to a triumphant conclusion. Karine Poghosyan, an Armenian-American pianist who has done two other solos for the WSO, will be the piano soloist for the concerto. She has has appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall and with concert orchestras in the United States, Canada and in Vienna, Austria. The Emperor is the absolute epitome of Beethovens Heroic Period, Poghosyan said in an email exchange. It truly has it all deep soulful lyricism, bright touches of humor and, ultimately, the most empowering message of victory we all so often need. Tickets ($25) are available on the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra website, by calling 203-697-2261 or at the door an hour before the concert. Shuttle buses will be available for audience using spaces on the Choate campus and at the Moses Y. Beach School. The Wallingford Symphony was founded in 1974 by Ventre and Terrence Netter, director of the Paul Mellon Arts Center. In addition to its regular season, the WSO presents special concerts in Wallingford and has presented concerts in nine Connecticut communities, including the outdoor summer July Pops Concerts in Wallingford for 45 years and in Madison for 27 years. Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Brain Tumor Drugs Global Market Report 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global brain tumor drugs market was valued at about $2.4 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to $3.41 billion at a CAGR of 9.2% through 2022. Major players in the market are Pfizer, Shimadzu Corporation, Toshiba Medical Systems, Merck & Co, and AstraZeneca. North America was the largest region in the brain tumor drugs market in 2018. This region is expected to remain the largest during the next five years. The brain tumor drugs market in Asia-Pacific is forecasted to register the highest CAGR during 2018-2023. The major driving factor responsible for the growth of Brain Tumor market is the increasing prevalence of Neurological Disorders, worldwide. Neurological Disorders are identified as one of the most prevalent disorders, due to longer life expectancy, increasing exposure to infections and sedentary lifestyle. In 2015, these disorders were ranked as the leading cause group of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), which is the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. For example, as per the North American Brain Tumor Society, around 700,000 people in the region were suffering from Brain Tumors in 2015, which increased by around 78,000 people in 2016. The increasing number of patients with neurological disorders including brain tumor, is leading to a rise in the demand for the drugs used in their treatment. Increasing use of targeted therapies is acting as a restraint on the Brain Tumor drugs market. Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or substances which block the growth of cancer by interfering with molecules that are more specifically involved in cancer cell progression than in normal cell activity. The goal of targeted cancer therapies is to eliminate cancerous cells in the body while leaving normal cells unharmed. By focusing on changes in the cell that are specific to cancer, this therapy may prove to be more effective than traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For example, Everolimus is a targeted therapy that specially blocks the cancer cells from growing and spreading. Similarly, Bevacizumab prevents regeneration of cancer cells unlike chemical drugs which cannot prevent regeneration. This rising popularity of targeted therapies is expected to affect the sales of conventional chemical Brain Tumor drugs, thus restraining the growth of the market during the forecast period. Companies in the brain tumor market are focusing on the use of nanotechnology for treatment. The nanoparticles are being used to carry drugs in combination, directly to the cancer cells or into the tumor. This technology has also led to a reduction in dosage of the drugs, improved shelf life and reduce toxicity. A few nanodrugs are proving to be useful in overcoming the blood-brain barrier, which was a significant challenge in the treatment of Brain tumors. For instance, Liposomes nanoparticles facilitate easy delivery of drugs to the core cancer cells, these particles if coated with transferrin can even pass through the blood-brain barrier. Companies like GE Healthcare, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Company, Pfizer, and Celgene Corporation are adopting this technology to improve the available techniques of medication and treatment. The Brain Tumor market is governed by regulatory authorities such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulatory body requires the companies in the industry to adhere to same rules for conducting clinical trials, consistently throughout the region. These rules are relating to transparency of information and maintaining safety standards while conducting clinical trials of newly discovered drugs and therapies throughout the EU. The regulation also encourages cross-border cooperation for making the scope of these clinical tests wider. In 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired Celgene Corporation for an equity value of approximately $74 billion. Celgene Corporation is a biotechnology company that focuses on discovering and commercializing medicines for Cancer and inflammatory disorders. Celgene was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New Jersey, United States. The acquisition is expected to help Bristol-Myers Squibb in expediting the development of drugs for oncology, inflammatory, cardiovascular and immunologic diseases. The acquisition also enhanced reach and scalability of the existing firms. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 2. Brain Tumor Drugs Market Characteristics 3. Brain Tumor Drugs Market Size And Growth 3.1. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Historic Market, 2015 - 2019, $ Billion 3.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.1.2. Restraints On The Market 3.2. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Forecast Market, 2019 - 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 3.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.2.2. Restraints On the Market 4. Brain Tumor Drugs Market Segmentation 4.1. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Market, Segmentation By Drugs, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Temozolomide Carmustine Cisplatin Bevacizumab Geftinib Erlotinib 4.2. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Market, Segmentation By End User, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Hospital Pharmacies Clinics Others 5. Brain Tumor Drugs Market Regional And Country Analysis 5.1. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2. Global Brain Tumor Drugs Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2022F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned AbbVie Antisense Pharma Astellas Pharma AstraZeneca Bristol-Myers Squibb Carestream Health Celgene Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd. GE Healthcare Genetech U.S.A Hitachi Medical Corporation Hoffmann-La Roche Johnson & Johnson Macleods Pharmaceutical Limited Mankind Pharma Merck & Co. Inc. Novartis AG Pfizer Inc. Philips Healthcare Shimadzu Corporation Siemens Healthineers Toshiba Medical Systems For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qhw9xs Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. The tussle over who governs Imo State for another four years ended yesterday as the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the ousted governor, Emeka Ihedioha, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They had approached the apex court, seeking a review of the judgment that removed Ihedioha from office.But six out of the seven justices of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammed, dismissed the application on the ground that the court could not reverse itself. In the judgment read by Justice Olukayode Ariwola, the court held that revisiting its January 14 verdict would open the floodgate of similar applications.He said: The application was an invitation for the Supreme Court to sit on appeal over its own final judgment. Granting the request of the applicants will open the floodgate by parties to all kinds of litigation. The general law is that the court has no power under any provision order to review any application unless to correct an error. This court has on each occasion stated that it lacks jurisdiction to do that. We cannot sit as an appeal court. We have no hearing power in respect of the matter. The court does not have the competence and lacks the jurisdiction to review its own judgment. The finality of the Supreme Court is inherent in the constitution. To ask us to set it aside means an appeal for us to sit on our own decision, which we have no jurisdiction over. The application is hereby dismissed and parties are to bear their respective costs. But another member of the panel, Justice Chima Centus Nweze, in a dissenting tone, delivered an opposing judgment that attracted loud cheers , an action that defied the tradition of the court. In a very detailed judgment, Nweze maintained that the Supreme Court had the inherent power to revisit its judgment, and asked his colleagues to do so in the interest of justice. Describing the January 14 judgment that sacked Ihedioha as a wonder that shall never end, the justice asked the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction and redeem its image. He also confronted his colleagues with instances in the Nigerias Supreme Court and other supreme courts, including those of the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US) and Australia, where the courts had exercised their powers to over-rule themselves, and consequently urged his colleagues to visit the recent judgment in the interest of justice. Justice Nweze added that except the judgment recently delivered was set aside, it would continue to hurt the nations electoral jurisprudence. Revisiting the Imo State judgment, Justice Nweze pointed out that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hope Uzodinma, in his petition, presented his case without the record of accredited voters. According to the justice, Uzodinma misled the court to accept the results of the election from his angle. He said: There were over 129,340 votes in excess of accredited voters. The court can redeem its image by setting aside its judgment. If not, this will continue to hurt our electoral jurisprudence. It is awkward and embarrassing to the court. He misled the court. When the appellant presented his table of exhibit, he mischievously excluded the votes of others and the court declared him winner. I am of the firm view that this court should set aside the initial judgment and restore the judgment of the lower court. Justice Nweze added that the apex court had a duty in the interest of justice to set aside its decision that was given in error. To him, the judgment that declared Uzodinma winner was entered in error. Ihedioha had on February 5 approached the court for a review of the ruling that sacked him and returned Uzodinma of the APC as the duly elected governor. At the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to Ihedioha and PDP, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), asked the court to set aside its earlier judgment and uphold the verdict of the lower court which upheld the election of Ihedioha. He noted that an error was discovered in the judgment as the total number of votes cast exceeded that of accreditation by over 100,000. Agabi argued that Uzodinma was granted the request he did not pray for. He prayed for fresh election in 388 polling units, he got what he did not seek. Agabi then asked the court to set aside the judgment and restore the verdict of the court of appeal. But counsel to Uzodinma and his APC, Damian Dodo (SAN), asked the court to dismiss the application for review for lacking in competence and merit.He argued that the apex court lacked jurisdiction to revisit its earlier judgment, adding that the verdict was clear without any ambiguity. We want the court to dismiss the application for incompetence and lack of merit. The thrust of this objection is that there is a total lack of jurisdiction of this court to revisit its judgment of 14th February 2020, irrespective of whether the application is characterised as an application for review or classified as an application to set aside or however dressed. This court has consistently and rightly so held that there is lack of jurisdiction to sit on appeal over its judgment. The only exception is if there was a slip or that the judgment rendered does not reflect the intention of the court, but it is not so in this case. Therefore, the invitation to review is not tenable, he argued. According to Dodo, There is no ambiguity in the judgment. It is clear and categorical. No one can invite this court to reconsider this appeal. The application is incompetent because there is no jurisdiction. Although Justice Nwezes position was overridden by the majority judgment of the other six members of the panel, it appeared to have provided the needed soothing balm on the losing side of the divide. In fact, the court lost the usual excitement and noise that often herald victory of this sort. There was an unusual quietness as people filed outside the court. In its reaction, PDP described yesterdays verdict of the Supreme Court as a disconcerting endorsement of electoral fraud, which places a huge burden on the court and the justices. The PDP, in a reaction to the judgment by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted however that in the face of the sad verdict, Justice Nwezes judgment presents a glimpse of hope for our nations judiciary. Our party abides completely by every word of the judgment of Justice Nweze as treated facts, which are truly sacred. Justice Nwezes pronouncement, which went straight into the substance of our application, represents a universal view about the travesty of justice that occurred in the Imo State governorship election judgment, the party added. According to the PDP, it is indeed unfortunate that the Supreme Court had the wholesome opportunity to redeem itself and correct its errors, but chzose to hide behind technicality to justify and endorse an electoral fraud. What Nigerians expected of the Supreme Court, since the error in its earlier judgment had been fully established, was to summon the courage to affirm its infallibility by correcting the errors and handing over victory to the rightful winner. Sadly, it failed to do so. What the Supreme Court had done in this judgment is to uphold and legalise the writing of election results by individual contestants against the will of the people as expressed at the poll. As a party, we hold that on this judgment, all election stakeholders must rally to create remedies for this pathetic situation created by the Supreme Court in the Imo governorship election before our entire electoral process becomes vanquished. This judgment will continue to haunt the Supreme Court. It has created a burden of precedent and fallibility on the court, the statement stressed. The PDP said that more distressing is the fact that the judgment has heavily detracted from the confidence Nigerians and the international community reposed in the Supreme Court and our entire jurisprudence. In Imo State yesterday, it was sadness for supporters of Ihedioha, but joy for those in the governors camp. In some streets in Owerri, the state capital, some persons who wore long faces said they had expected the sacked governor to have been reinstated. But in some areas, especially the ever- busy Wethdral Road, scores of Uzodinmas supporters were spotted dancing and marching on the streets. A chieftain of the APC, Chief Chekwas Okorie, described the judgment as a welcome development that no one could ever upturn again. He said the dissenting judgment from one of the seven judges was insignificant considering the history of Supreme Court judgments, which is replete with dissenting judges. Okorie expressed the hope that the latest judgment would restrain politicians and other people with mischievous intentions from approaching the apex court to seek a review of its earlier decisions or seek to downgrade the supremacy of the court. On his part, the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, said the apex courts decision was a Daniel come to judgment because, regardless of how anyone or party felt, the Supreme Court ought to be given its due as the highest court of the land. Okechukwu said: For anybody or group, whether they were injured or not, to decide to ridicule the Supreme Court is not ideal for the society. All of us would come and go. This pains us particularly because these are some of the things that lead to the erosion of democracy. Some eminent citizens under the auspices of Third Force Movement faulted the Supreme Court for rejecting the review of its judgment on the Imo governorship election. After an emergency meeting yesterday, the group, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Dr. Olusegun Obe, said the latest ruling of the Supreme Court, ran contrary to precedent set by the same court on the matter of review. According to the group, the court violated the spirit and principle of justice which is the whole essence of the necessity for the judiciary and so may heighten the political tension in Imo and the southeast at large The group said it would internationalise the matter by immediately sending a petition to the United Nations (UN), United States, United Kingdom, African Union and European Union, among other world powers. Some observers are of the view that PDP has itself to blame and not the Supreme Court for the failure of Ihedioha to reclaim his mandate handed out to the APC . Signs that Ihedioha had a good case emerged when Justice Nweze dissented to deliver a minority judgment on the review of the earlier ruling. While the court, in its lead judgment read by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola held that the application was an invitation for the Supreme Court to sit on appeal over its own final judgment, it was obvious that PDPs decision to reopen the presidential election petition matter frightened the apex court. But for the PDPs hint on reopening the case between its presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari, Justice Nwezes ruling would have been the majority decision. Justice Nweze had, in disagreeing with the lead judgment, allowed Ihediohas application, stressing that not only was the judgment that declared Uzodinma winner entered in error, but also that the Supreme Court has a duty to set aside its decision that was given in error in the interest of justice. The PDP had in a moment of emotional reprisal put together a committee to review the Atiku versus Buhari election dispute shortly after the APC filed an application before the apex court to revisit its ruling on the Bayelsa State governorship pre-election matter. Announcing the partys decision at a press conference, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ologbodiyan, disclosed that the National Working Committee (NWC) had also resolved to seek a review of the governorship polls it lost in Osun, Kaduna and Kogi states. Affirming the Appeal Court ruling on the presidential election tribunal, the Supreme Court held that PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku, failed to prove the grounds of their case against Buharis victory. It is perhaps out of concerns that granting Ihediohas application could open the door to a rash of similar review appeals that the apex court swallowed its spit in the Imo governorship election despite obvious shortcomings. PDP had through its spokesman explained that it had to seek a review of the case following what it called the desperation by APC to annex the Supreme Court, and direct judicial determinations to suit their selfish ends. Meanwhile, the APC has called for immediate parliamentary amendment of the Electoral Act to make it an offence for courts to impose on the electorate a rejected candidate during a democratic election. The national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole said: Court should not impose. If the court finds out that the preferred candidate did not win, for me the only democratic option, legal option will be to repeat the exercise. The very best the court can do is to order that the exercise be repeated, because in a democracy, nobody, other than the people, can choose who governs them, not the courts. Oshiomhole spoke to State House correspondents yesterday after the Supreme Court dismissed the application of Ihedioha. The APC chairman, who lauded the ruling, said the apex court had affirmed that the choice of the people of Imo State had been respected. Oshiomhole said the National Assembly should quickly amend the law to strip the court of the power, such that no matter what happens, when people have voted, their choice would not be dismissed. What I think that we must discuss as a people, which concerns you and I as Nigerians, who believe in democracy, is that the law should be amended, such that no matter what happens, when people have voted, they cannot be dismissed as April Fool. Post Views: 23 A former White House physician whose nomination by President Trump to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs was derailed by allegations of drinking on the job and over-prescribing drugs has advanced to a Republican runoff for a rural Texas congressional seat. Former Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson emerged Tuesday from a crowded GOP primary as one of the top candidates in a comfortably Republican district that covers much of North Texas and the Panhandle. Jackson will face agriculture advocate Josh Winegarner in the May runoff. Jackson had worked as White House physician from 2006 to 2018 and was a surprise nomination by Trump to lead the VA. Trump had said he was impressed by Jackson when the doctor gave a glowing report on the president's health and mental well-being. Jackson had extolled Trump's "incredible genes" and joked the president might have lived to 200 years old if he had eaten healthier. Jackson withdrew from consideration at Veterans Affairs after allegations of misconduct surfaced, which he denied. He returned to the White House medical office. He retired from the Navy in 2019 and launched his congressional bid. Despite his history with Trump, the president waited a long time to endorsed Jackson in the crowded GOP field to replace retiring Rep. Mac Thornberry. Trump tweeted this past weekend he hoped Jackson would make it to a runoff. Jackson is a native of Levelland in the Texas Panhandle. He earned a marine biology from Texas A&M before graduating from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1995. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) COVID-19 in India: 28 confirmed cases, PM Modi to skip Holi event and other updates Passengers being screened at Chennai airport. Photo courtesy: Twitter/aaichnairport The novel coronavirus infection has infected over 92,000 and killed over 3200 people across more than 70 countries and territories so far. India has now reported as many as 28 confirmed cases, with a large number being a group of Italian tourists. Here are some updates from India on the coronavirus. 28 confirmed cases in India Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has confirmed that India now has 28 cases of the COVID-19 infection. Of these 15 are Italian citizens who were a part of a group of 23 tourists who landed in Delhi and traveled to Rajasthan last month. One Indian who was travelling with them has also tested positive. These patients are quarantined at Delhis ITBP quarantine centre. One of the tourists had tested positive on Tuesday and is in Jaipur. His wife has also tested positive. Patients being screened for symptoms at the ITBP quarantine centre in Delhi. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@ITBP_official Additionally, the health minister has confirmed that the patient who tested positive in Delhi on Monday has also infected six members of his family who are in Agra. Union Health Min @drharshvardhan at the media briefing on #COVID19: emphasis now on cluster management, hospital mangt, effective surveillance, enhanced awareness, universal screening. All are advised to follow simple measures of personal hygiene. #CoronaVirusUpdate pic.twitter.com/avWSlBAz7Q Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 4, 2020 COVID-19 cases in India: 1 in Delhi 6 in Agra (family members of Delhi patient) 16 Italian tourists 1 Indian bus driver (traveled with the Italian tourists) 1 in Telangana 3 in Kerala (have recovered and been discharged) India has also decided to screen all international passengers coming into the country and not just those from the 12 countries listed earlier. PM Modi to skip Holi event Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he will skip Holi celebrations in view of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 The Prime Minister tweeted to say that he had made this decision as experts around the world are recommending that large gatherings be avoided. Samples of six people in Noida test negative Six people in Noida, who came into contact with the Delhi resident who tested positive for COVID-19, have tested negative for the virus. They had all attended a birthday party hosted by the Delhi resident. Six people from Noida who had been put under observation for suspected Coronavirus infection after they attended a birthday party hosted by an infected Delhi resident, have tested negative for the virus. District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar: The samples taken from 6 contacts in Noida have tested negative but they will need to be under home quarantine for next 14 days and if symptoms develop, can be retested again. Government &administration is keeping a watch. No need to panic ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 4, 2020 ANI reports District Magistrate BN Singh saying that these people have nonetheless been put under home quarantine for the next 14 days. Four people quarantined in Bengaluru Four people, who came into contact with the confirmed case of COVID-19 who travelled from Bengaluru to Telangana, have been placed under quarantine in Bengaluru. As per media reports, one is from Saudi Arabia, one from Japan, one roommate and one colleague of the Telangana patient. The patient, a techie from Bengaluru, had travelled to Telangana on an IndiGo flight on February 20. The crew of the flight have also been placed under observation. Italian cruise ship passengers screened in Kochi An Italian luxury cruise ship called Costa Victoria docked in Kochi on Tuesday. Kochi Port Trust PRO, Jijo Thomas has said that all passengers on board were checked for symptoms of the virus. "A total of 459 passengers disembarked out of which 305 are Indians. All passengers were screened for respiratory symptoms and fever," he said. Indian Navy postpone mega naval exercise The Indian Navy has decided to postpone a multi-national mega naval exercise that was scheduled to take place from March 18-28. Called Milan 2020, the exercise was to see the participation of more than 40 countries and was to take place off the coast of Visakhapatnam. The exercise has been postponed taking into consideration the "safety of all participants and travel restrictions imposed due to the spread of COVID-19", officials said. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference to discuss the first positive case of novel coronavirus or COVID-19 in New York State on March 2, 2020 in New York City. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed five new COVID-19 cases in the state Wednesday hours after he said that a family of four in Westchester all had the virus, bringing the state's total to at least 11. "There was another person who has been tested who came in contact with the 50 -year-old lawyer," Cuomo said a press conference Wednesday afternoon. It was "a friend of the lawyer who spent time with and in close proximity in a number of situations. That person also tested positive, we then tested that person's wife, two sons and daughter and they all tested positive." The cases all stem from a Westchester lawyer who worked in Manhattan and is in critical condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cuomo said. His case was confirmed Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, Cuomo said his family and a neighbor all contracted the virus. Cuomo then announced, around 4 p.m., that the lawyer also passed the virus on to a friend who passed it on to the rest of his family, Cuomo said, adding that the three children all attend the West Torah Academy. Photo: Courtesy of Twitter Updated July 14, 2021: So about that exciting new Twitter feature called fleets Today, Twitter channeled the essence of Sam Richardson in Baby of the Year when he says, You know what? This was dumb. Dump it. Trash it. This was garbage, when they announced that they are shutting down the feature, which could generously be described as store brand Insta Stories. The official bird app account tweeted, were removing Fleets on August 3, working on some new stuff, followed by a legit depressing, were sorry or youre welcome. A mere eight months after the feature was launched straight to the top of our feeds last November, theyre burying it like so many E.T. Atari games in the desert. A whole Quibisworth and change. Twitter Fleets, we hardly knew ye(et). we're removing Fleets on August 3, working on some new stuff we're sorry or you're welcome Twitter (@Twitter) July 14, 2021 Three years ago, there was this meme about how everything was getting stories . Snapchat. (The originator. Credit where credit is due!) Instagram. Facebook. YouTube . Owen Wilsons teeth ! A year later, LinkedIn even got in on the trend . It seemed like by now everybody who needed stories and a lot of platforms who didnt had them. And yet Now, Twitter is currently testing its own version of stories with users in Brazil, the company announced in a blog post earlier Wednesday . It brings me no joy to tell you this, but they are called fleets. A name so heavy-handed I will not insult your intelligence by explaining its meaning. Product lead Kayvon Beykpour called fleets a way to share fleeting thoughts. (He, apparently was not above insulting your intelligence.) Unlike Tweets, Fleets disappear after 24 hours and dont get Retweets, Likes, or public replies people can only react to your Fleets with DMs, he added, of course, on Twitter where tweets last forever unless you delete them . Theres a world where fleets could be a great thing. Plenty of people electively purge all their tweets on a scheduled basis. Not having a years-long record of every moronic thing youve said on the internet actually seems like a good idea. Putting more protection around those dumb thoughts and making them ephemeral? Sounds good to me. But, of course, this probably isnt going to eclipse Twitters core product. The one where people joke and yell and fight and nag and troll and display their racism all out in the open and on the record. Though Twitter, if the tests go over well, might be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Instagram, where stories radically changed how people use the platform . But thats a big wait and see scenario. Like on every other platform with stories, you can see a persons, ugh , fleets, by clicking their avatar or looking at a feed at the very top of the app. In a later tweet , Beykpour said he hoped the new feature would encourage engagement from people who might previously have been unlikely to tweet. Because what Twitter really, definitely needs is more people engaging. Yall fleet fleet motherfuckers . Trump Had 'Very Good Talk' With Taliban Leader By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan March 03, 2020 KABUL U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone call with a Taliban leader after the two sides signed an agreement aimed at ending the nearly 19-year war in Afghanistan. "I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a good conversation. We've agreed there is no violence," Trump told reporters at the White House on March 3. "We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban," he added. Earlier, the Taliban issued a statement saying that the head of the Taliban's office in Qatar, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had held a 35-minute phone call with Trump. Other members of the Taliban negotiating team, as well as Washington's chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, were present during the call, the statement said. Under the terms of the agreement signed on February 29 in the Qatari capital, Doha, U.S. and allied forces will leave Afghanistan within 14 months, in return for various security commitments from the Taliban and a pledge to hold talks with the Afghan government -- which the extremist militant group so far has refused to do. However, the agreement is threatening to unravel over disputes about key issues. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has warned he was not committed to a key clause in the deal involving the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The Taliban said it would not take part in intra-Afghan talks until that provision was met. And on March 2, the militant group ordered its fighters to resume operations against Afghan forces, saying that the weeklong partial truce between the Taliban, U.S., and Afghan forces that preceded the Doha agreement was "over." The Taliban has since carried out attacks, including an assault on an Afghan military base in the eastern province of Logar on March 3 that killed at least five soldiers. With reporting by AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-says-he -had-very-good-talk-with-taliban- leader/30467098.htmll Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Cancun International Airport strengthens its preventive measures to avoid the entry of the infectious coronavirus that has affected more than 70 countries around the world. The infectious coronavirus is one of the growing concerns of almost all countries around the world. This virus led some countries to set precautionary measures to control its spread. In China alone, where the virus originated, they have locked down one of their provinces by not allowing anyone to get inside or to go out of the province. In the previous report of Latin Post, China's Director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Yang Gonghua, said that the right thing to do is to lock down Hubei province in the hope of controlling the spread of the infectious virus. Yang also added that if this will not be done, infected people will seek medication outside the province and can be the cause of a global epidemic. However, the infectious virus has already spread across the globe. It has recorded thousands of death and many are still under observation and quarantined in the hospital. The effect of the infectious virus is very devastating. There were schools who decided to shut down, some businesses have to decrease their employees due to loss of income like hotels and airlines, medical supplies like surgical mask are running out of stock, even NBA needs to advise its players to avoid high-fives and not to take items for autographs, and among others. This time, the top airport in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Cancun International Airport, decided to strengthen its preventive measures to avoid the entry of the coronavirus. According to Mexicanist, during the meeting which was spearheaded by the National Health early this week together with the airline's committee, they decided to close the ranks and drill will also be conducted on how to care for a passenger who is suspected carrying the virus. They believed that this will help prevent and control the entry and spread of the virus in the country. The preventive measures in the airport were decided after the United States of America restricted the entry of passengers from China for a few weeks. Moreover, there were other countries also who did the same in the hope to control the spread of coronavirus. The infectious virus has also negatively impacted the global economy. Latin Post is one of the news outlets who first reported a detailed economic impact of coronavirus in the region's economy. Weeks after, it was reported in different national news sources that establishments of countries who are affected with the virus decided to shut down and global trades were also reportedly affected. Moreover, state secretary of health Alejandra Aguirre Crespo has been in close coordination with the representatives of airlines that have direct flights in countries that have confirmed cases of coronavirus 2019. The move of the Cancun International Airport is a great way to prevent the spread and entry of the infectious virus. This is also to make sure that the country is virus-free most especially that many are planning to visit Mexico's best tourist spots. This action is expected to be emulated by other airports in the country. [March 04, 2020] New Accenture Research Finds Leaders and Employees Hold Differing Views on Progress Toward Equality A significant gap exists between the way leaders and employees view progress toward equality in their organizations, according to new research from Accenture (News - Alert) (NYSE:ACN). Closing the gap will yield substantial benefits for companies and their employees. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005895/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) The report, "Getting to Equal 2020: The Hidden Value of Culture Makers," which includes research across 28 countries, found that organizations are at an inflection point: Today's workforce cares increasingly about workplace culture and believes it is critical to helping them thrive in the workplace (reported by 77% of women and 67% of men), and a majority of leaders (68%) believe an inclusive workplace culture is vital to the success of their business. At the same time, there is a perception gap: Two thirds of leaders (68%) feel they create empowering environments where people have a sense of belonging, yet just one third (36%) of employees agree. Additionally, the proportion of employees who do not feel included in their organizations is 10x higher than leaders believe (20% vs 2%, respectively). Most leaders also rank diversity and workplace culture low on their list of top organizational priorities. Approximately three-quarters of leaders ranked financial performance and brand recognition and quality at the top of their list of priorities (76% and 72%, respectively), while only 34% ranked diversity and 21% ranked culture at the top. "Creating a culture of equality must be at the top of the business agenda. It starts with the belief that diversity is not only the right thing to do, but a business imperative that is treated the same as any other strategic priority," said Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture. "When a strong, equal workplace culture is prioritized, everyone benefits - and as a result, organizations unlock greater innovation and growth." Narrow the gap, accelerate progress Aligning leaders' perceptions with those of their employees would yield significant upsides. Everyone - both women and men - would advance faster, and global profits would increase by US$3.7 trillion. If the gap were closed by half: The proportion of women who feel like a key member of theirteam with real influence over decisions would rise from 1-in-4 to more than 1-in-3. The annual retention rate would increase by 5% for women and by 1% for men. The proportion of women who aim to reach a leadership position in their organization would climb by 21%. "Closing the perception gap starts with leaders understanding there is a gap," said Ellyn Shook, Accenture's Chief Leadership and Human Resources Officer. "It is an opportunity for leaders to connect with and involve their people - to truly understand how they feel at work. Based on what matters most to their people, leaders can prioritize and take action to close the gap, accelerating true equality for all in their organization." The Culture Makers The report identified a small percentage of leaders - 'Culture Makers' - who are more committed to building equal cultures. These leaders recognize the importance of factors such as pay transparency, family leave and the freedom to be creative in helping employees thrive. Culture Makers are much more likely to have spoken out on a range of workplace issues, including gender equality (52% vs. 35% of all leaders) and sexual harassment/discrimination (51% vs. 30%). They hold themselves accountable, leading organizations that are nearly twice as likely to have publicly announced a target to hire and retain more women. While just 6% of leaders surveyed are Culture Makers, they represent a more gender-balanced group compared to the broader group of leaders surveyed (45% women vs 32% of all leaders, respectively). Additionally, a full 68% of them are Millennials, compared to 59% of all leaders. They are more likely to lead organizations where people advance, focus on innovation and remain committed - and their organizations' profits are nearly three times higher than those of their peers. Achieving a culture of equality The report lays out steps to help close perception gaps and drive progress toward a more equal culture that benefits everyone and enables leaders to continuously evolve their strategies to meet changing needs. The research reaffirms that bold leadership, comprehensive action and an empowering environment are proven anchors for creating a culture of equality: Bold Leadership - Leaders must truly believe that culture matters and prioritize it. For example, benchmark progress toward a culture of equality by setting and publishing targets; and reward and recognize leaders and teams on progress. A culture of equality starts at the top. For example, benchmark progress toward a culture of equality by setting and publishing targets; and reward and recognize leaders and teams on progress. A culture of equality starts at the top. Comprehensive Action - Go beyond the data. Leaders should engage in a meaningful, continuous dialogue with employees. Consider face-to-face meetings, focus groups, town halls. Conducting ongoing, real-time conversations with employees helps to capture feedback and empower leadership to quickly drive change. Leaders should engage in a meaningful, continuous dialogue with employees. Consider face-to-face meetings, focus groups, town halls. Conducting ongoing, real-time conversations with employees helps to capture feedback and empower leadership to quickly drive change. Empowering Environment - Encourage and cultivate Culture Makers. Create opportunities for future Culture Makers to opt-in and take on specific culture-related roles within their organizations and find ways to bring leaders and culture-minded employees together to develop specific, actionable solutions. Read the global report at: accenture.com/gettingtoequal Methodology Building on previous Accenture research that has explored how to build a workplace culture of equality and the benefits for organizations and employees, the report is based on a global survey of more than 30,000 professionals in 28 countries; a survey of more than 1,700 senior executives; and a model that combines employee survey results with published labor force data. Accenture leveraged it's Getting to Equal research from 2018 and 2019 to create new data and analysis using three steps: quantifying the perception gap, measuring the impact of the perception gap on employee outcomes, and measuring the impact of closing the perception gap. About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries - powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005895/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law ratifying the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Lithuania on employment and cooperation in the field of labor migration. The relevant information has been posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada. On March 3, the law on ratification of the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on employment and cooperation in the field of labor migration was "returned with the presidents signature". The agreement is aimed at strengthening cooperation and providing mutual assistance in protecting the rights and interests of workers of both countries. On February 5, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law ratifying the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Lithuania on employment and cooperation in the field of labor migration. A total of 324 MPs voted for the document at a parliament meeting. ish Halifax, NS, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has gathered support from thousands of Nova Scotians through a postcard campaign and petition calling on the Government of Nova Scotia to provide adults with access to flavoured nicotine e-liquids. Over 1,400 postcards from Nova Scotians across the province have been sent to the Department of Health and close to 4,000 signatures have been collected through adult only vape shops in Nova Scotia, says Darryl Tempest, Executive Director, The Canadian Vaping Association. This is a clear message to the government from adult vapers that they need and want access to flavoured e-liquids to keep them from returning to combustible tobacco. The Government of Nova Scotia, without any consultation with industry, announced last fall a complete ban on flavoured e-liquids in the province effective April 1, 2020. The government then introduced a new tax on e-liquids by volume. This means the small pod systems with extremely high nicotine concentrations that are addicting todays youth, and that are sold primarily by big tobacco, will be taxed at very low rates. At the same time, the low and even zero nicotine e-liquids that dominate the adult market will now be taxed at rates that will make these products more expensive than cigarettes. The CVA shares the publics concerns over youth vaping and has recommended multiple practical solutions to prevent youth access to vaping products. Vaping should only be used by adults trying to stop smoking. Youth should not have access to vaping products, period. Policies implemented in BC, Ontario, PEI and Alberta are properly targeting the issues of youth uptake and access, while the policies being introduced in Nova Scotia are completely different and instead target adult ex-smokers. More than 90% of adult vapers use flavoured e-liquids to assist in their efforts to quit smoking. The Nova Scotia governments flavour ban along with the new tax by volume will drive ex-smokers back to combustible tobacco use and all of the devastating health consequences associated with smoking, says Darryl Tempest. The CVA formally requests that the Province of Nova Scotia please set aside Bill 233, delay the introduction of the April 1st flavour ban and sit down with our industry experts to develop a workable policy framework that will effectively curb youth use and access to vaping products while ensuring that adults can continue to utilize this far less harmful alternative to smoking throughout Nova Scotia. About the Canadian Vaping Association The Canadian Vaping Association (thecva.org) is a registered national, not-for-profit organization, established as the voice for the burgeoning Canadian vaping industry. Founded in 2014, the CVA represents over 300 retail and online vaping businesses in Canada, not including tobacco companies or affiliates. The association is the primary liaison with the federal and provincial governments on all legislative and regulatory issues related to the industry. The primary goal of CVA is to ensure that government regulation is reasonable and practical, through the strategy of professional proactive communication and education supplied bilingually to health officers, media, and elected officials. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 02:30:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The UN Security Council holds a meeting on the Iraq issue at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, March 3, 2020. China's UN envoy on Tuesday called for a "good atmosphere" to be created for political dialogue and national reconciliation in Iraq. Speaking at a Security Council meeting on the unrest-torn country, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said as the internal political process in Iraq is at an important juncture, the international community should support Iraq in independently managing its own internal affairs and responding to the challenges by playing a constructive role and creating an enabling environment. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China's UN envoy on Tuesday called for a "good atmosphere" to be created for political dialogue and national reconciliation in Iraq. Speaking at a Security Council meeting on the unrest-torn country, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said as the internal political process in Iraq is at an important juncture, the international community should support Iraq in independently managing its own internal affairs and responding to the challenges by playing a constructive role and creating an enabling environment. "We are firmly against interference in Iraq's internal affairs," he said, adding any military action on Iraq's territory must be subject to the consent of the government of the country to avoid Iraq becoming a victim of geo-politics. He said engaging in peaceful and meaningful dialogue toward inclusive reconciliation and harmonious coexistence is in the fundamental interest of the Iraqi people. "We welcome further improvement of relations between the central government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government as well as their continuation of communication and dialogue on oil revenue sharing and security arrangements," he said. The day started calmly enough. At about 10:30 a.m., I arrived at a voting center in MacArthur Park, where the line was only about a dozen deep. I waltzed in, slid my own vote-by-mail ballot into a locked black box, then headed back outside onto the shadeless sidewalk to talk to a handful of voters, including Shirbey Greene, 80, and her daughter-in-law, Lydia Johnson, 49. Huge turnout, Ms. Johnson said, surveying the line. Really great to see. Soon, though, there were reports of the countys new voting machines malfunctioning, of the new tablets that check in voters causing bottlenecks, and of voters standing in the sun, crowding into gyms and eating donated pizza as the sun set. All this began frustrating voters, campaign staff members and advocates. [Read the full story about long lines to vote in Los Angeles.] Early on Tuesday afternoon, Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorders office, which runs the countys elections, told me that waits of two hours at the University of California, Los Angeles, were probably attributable to larger numbers of student voters registering on-site a new option for the states voters. But at sites across the county, voters reported similarly long lines. At a vote center in Carthay Circle, a line snaked from an elementary school hallway and around the edge of a tiny parking lot. Update: Two doctors in Oneida County test negative for coronavirus. Two travelers from Oneida County are being tested for the coronavirus, according to a news release from the county. The Oneida County Health Department is currently waiting for testing results, the release said. More information is expected to be released tomorrow. Two cases of the coronavirus have been reported in New York State, including one in Manhattan and one in Westchester County. The patient from Manhattan, a 39-year-old health care worker, had traveled to Iran. She was the first confirmed case in New York on Sunday. Officials said the woman has respiratory symptoms, but they are mild. Her husband, who is also a health care professional, is also being tested. The patient in Westchester County is a 50-year-old man who commuted to Manhattan for work and lives in a home with school-age children, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Long Island radio station 103.9. The man was diagnosed Monday at a city hospital, according to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the man was diagnosed Monday at a city hospital. Coronavirus supplies: How to make hand sanitizer with ingredients you have at home Cuomo said the man apparently had an underlying respiratory illness and no known travel history to China or other countries on the virus watch list. More than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 have occurred worldwide since the virus emerged in China. About 3,000 people have died. The illness is characterized by fever and coughing and, in serious cases, shortness of breath or pneumonia. Two families in Buffalo that traveled to Italy are being quarantined and being tested for the virus, Cuomo said. Coronavirus checklist: Is your home ready for new COVID-19 virus quarantine? Youre going to see an increasing spread, Cuomo said. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. 2020 Primary and California Local Races Its Wednesday, March 4, equally important to Super Tuesday because election results are coming in. Action News Now has the latest numbers on national, state, and local races. In the race for the white house, with 93% of precinct returns in California, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is currently in the lead. Joe Biden is in second, with Michael Bloomberg as the third. Second case of coronavirus confirmed in Placer County Another case of coronavirus in northern California, the Placer County Public Health Department said a patient has tested positive but that must still be confirmed from the centers for disease control. This new case is an older adult, health reps say exposure likely came from that person traveling on a Princess cruise ship in February. Doctors say the patient is critically ill and in isolation. Placer County has declared a local health emergency. Crews battling the 'Grizzly Fire' fire near Black Butte Lake This morning, Cal Fire crews will be back at it attacking the Grizzly Fire burning near Black Butte Lake fire crews said it is at 154 acres with containment at 50%. The fire started Monday afternoon in the grizzly flats area. At this time, no structures are threatened. Wildfire triggers evacuations in inland Southern California In southern California, a fast-moving brush fire has burned at least 175 acres in the dry Santa Ana river bottom in Riverside County today. Firefighters are calling it the Mann Fire, it prompted mandatory evacuation orders on Tuesday. More than 200 firefighters were battling the blaze, with the help of helicopters. Some 500 homes are threatened and at least two people have been hurt. Some mandatory evacuations have been issued. The fire's cause is unknown. City of Biggs may switch to BCSO for police services The city of Biggs is thinking about switching to the Butte County Sheriff for police services. They are pushing the final decision for a contract to next weeks Biggs city council meeting. As of now, the Gridley Police Department patrols Biggs. The sheriff's office says it could do the job for less money, but they'd also offer fewer patrol hours within the city of Biggs. Chico State Day of Giving 2020 New this morning and happening today, a chance to lend a helping hand to local university students. Wednesday is the Chico State day of giving. It's a chance to financially support students by pledging the amount you can. Dollars go into a flexible fund that can be used to help students with housing, basic needs, tutoring, food and more. In some cases, the university will match donated funds for an even larger impact. For more information on how you can help, Click Here. Chico State promotes students to vote with 'Cast Your Vote, Pet a Goat' A voting assistance center set up on the Chico State campus had a special way to draw in voter participation; goats! The furry little kids are part of the "Cast your Vote, Pet a Goat" campaign. The school hosted on Trinity Commons throughout the week. Sean Murphy with Chico state says the goats were a way to promote non-partisan participation in voting, and maybe cut some politically charged tensions. Pro Romania Chairman Victor Ponta told a press conference in Buzau on Wednesday that "the trouble with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) isn't its Chairman, but the coterie of marauders in Dragnea, Dancila, or now Ciolacu's tow and the fact that they no longer see the people because of the plunderers who leech off." "We, the Pro Romania party, don't enter agreements with those who have sold off PSD piece by piece during Dragnea's time, in Dancila's time or in Ciolacu's time. I thought that they will hold their congress on Saturday and will do some clean-up, make a new beginning with different people. But they didn't call the congress and when they will, it is my understanding that they will do it with Dragnea and Dancila's clique. (...) I kept assuming that maybe they'll change, maybe they'll realize what they did wrong, but yesterday was an eye opener, judging by the people who remain at PSD's helm," Ponta said.He added that the right-wing parties, "although they cannot stand each other, have figured out to unite and will join forces - the National Liberal Party with the Save Romania Union, and with the People's Movement Party." AGERPRES Dublin, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Blood Banking and Blood Products - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Blood Banking and Blood Products market worldwide is projected to grow by US$12.7 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 4.2%. Blood Components & Plasma Products, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 4.4%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$40.6 Billion by the year 2025, Blood Components & Plasma Products will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth. Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 3.3% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$455.3 Million to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$368.6 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from Rest of Europe markets. In Japan, Blood Components & Plasma Products will reach a market size of US$2.4 Billion by the close of the analysis period. As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 6.7% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$3.6 Billion in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders. Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio. Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. Competitors identified in this market include, among others, AABB America's Blood Centers American Red Cross Canadian Blood Services Japan Red Cross Society New York Blood Center Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation Abbott Laboratories Beckman Coulter, Inc. Becton Dickinson and Company bioMrieux SA Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. Cerus Corporation CSL Behring LLC Fresenius Kabi AG Fenwal Inc. Haemonetics Corporation Immucor Inc. Kawasumi Laboratories, Inc. MacoPharma SA Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. Terumo BCT Inc. Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Co., Ltd. Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd. Bio Products Laboratory Ltd. Biotest AG China Biologic Products, Inc. Grifols S.A. Huanlan Biological Engineering Inc. Kedrion S.p.A. LFB Group Octapharma AG Shanghai RAAS Blood Products Co., Ltd. Shire plc Sichuan Yuanda Shuyang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Key Topics Covered: I. Introduction, Methodology & Report Scope II. Executive Summary III. Market Analysis IV. Competition For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qsi1al About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. She commanded attention in a selection of skimpy bikinis on 2018's Love Island. And Georgia Steel continued to turn heads as she stepped out in an eye-popping gold mini-dress for a dinner date with her beau Callum Izzard in Manchester on Tuesday. The frock was printed with a bronze flower motif and boasted dropped straps which highlighted 21-year-old Georgia's petite figure. Golden girl: Georgia Steel, 21, turned heads as she stepped out in an eye-popping gold minidress for a dinner date with beau Callum Izzard, 23, in Manchester on Tuesday Georgia teamed the frock with a pair of snakeskin mules, a Louis Vuitton bag and a gold necklace which spelled her name in individual letters. The Celebs Go Dating star left her chestnut tresses cascading down her back and sported her signature full make up as she strolled along hand-in-hand with partner Callum, 23. The pair met Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love in August 2019 and quickly became smitten, with rumours circulating that Callum proposed just a month later. Ibiza Weekender star Callum looked understatedly stylish in a pair of ankle-grazing check trousers with a drawstring waist and a tight black T.shirt which clung to his sculpted torso. Loved up: Callum and Georgia met Ex on the Beach: Peak of Love in August 2019 and quickly became smitten, with rumours circulating that Callum proposed just a month later Doncaster born Callum slung a Burberry shoulder over his chest and donned a black felt fedora fore the pair's night out. He and Georgia enjoyed a romantic rendezvous at popular celebrity hotspot, Peter Street Kitchen in Manchester. Yorkshire Lass Georgia took to her Instagram stories to share updates on their intimate evening, posting a clip of their dinner table captioned 'Date night'. Fine dining: Yorkshire Lass Georgia took to her Instagram stories to share updates on their intimate evening, posting a clip of their marble topped dinner table captioned 'Date night' Brunette beauty Georgia's 1.6 million followers were treated to a glimpse of Callum's chiseled side profile as the tattooed star rested his elbow on the marble topped table. The pair looked every inch the young couple in love, with Georgia having put her tumultuous relationship with ex-boyfriend Medi Abalimba firmly behind her. In April 2019, Georgia claimed her convicted conman ex Medi had stolen tens of thousands of pounds from her bank account. In September 2019, Abalimba was sent sent back to prison for breaching the terms of his licence TORONTO, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North Bud Farms Inc. (CSE: NBUD) (OTCQB: NOBDF) ("NORTHBUD" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its U.S. subsidiary, Bonfire Brands USA Inc., has signed a letter of intent (the LOI) for a master lease and operations agreement with an experienced California-licensed operator (the Cultivator) to operate the cultivation facilities at the Companys Salinas, California farm. Terms of the LOI As per the terms of the LOI, the companies will work together towards completing a definitive agreement before May 1, 2020, in which the Cultivator will lease the Companys cultivation facilities at its Salinas farm for 5 years, with options to extend the lease for up to an additional 5 years, and Bonfire Brands USA will receive the following consideration: Lease payments starting at approximately USD$1 million per year in year 1, with incremental increases that could bring the annual rent to as high as USD$1.8 million per year; A royalty equal to 3% of the gross revenue generated by the Cultivator from its use of the Salinas farm; and The right to acquire up to 15% of all the product harvested by the Cultivator on the farm at a discount to market rate with extended payment terms. During the term of the proposed agreement, the Cultivator will be responsible for 100% of the costs associated with staffing, operations, licensing and compliance with respect to the farms cultivation facilities; moreover, the Cultivator is committed to fund and manage the build-out of an additional 230,000 sq. ft. of licensed cultivation space over the first 24 months of the proposed agreement. Our objective when we acquired the Salinas farm was to secure access to the high-quality, low-cost cannabis that has always been grown in that area, known as the salad bowl of America, said Justin Braune, President of Bonfire Brands USA. This proposed agreement will allow the Company to immediately achieve EBITDA-positive operations at our largest facility without incurring the significant capital investments that have debilitated many companies in our industry. By retaining preferential purchasing terms, the Company can focus on its branded product distribution business on the back of the estimated 40,000 pounds of production capacity that the Cultivator will bring online over the next 24 months. Sean Homuth, NORTHBUDs CEO added: Partnering with a proven licensed cultivator who has been operating in Salinas for multiple years achieves the following objectives: it significantly de-risks our California operations while allowing the Company to increase its asset value; it reduces our capital expenditure requirements while still generating significant revenue; and it builds EBITDA-positive operations without limiting our access to a cost-efficient and reliable supply chain on which to build our branded product portfolio within the state of California. About North Bud Farms Inc. NORTHBUD, through its U.S. subsidiary Bonfire Brands USA, has acquired cannabis production facilities in California and Nevada. The Salinas, California 11-acre farm is actively cultivating cannabis in its 60,000 sq. ft. of licensed greenhouse production space, and also has active distribution and processing licenses. The Reno, Nevada property contains a world-class cannabis production, research and development facility with 5,000 sq. ft. of indoor cultivation, and holds medical and adult-use licenses for cultivation, extraction and distribution. Through its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, GrowPros MMP Inc., the Company is pursuing a license under The Cannabis Act, to cultivate in its state-of-the-art purpose-built cannabis production facility located on 135 acres of agricultural land in Low, Quebec, Canada. For more information visit: www.northbud.com Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking statements Certain statements and information included in this press release that, to the extent they are not historical fact, constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements, include but are not limited to those identified by the expressions anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, should and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. Forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, those regarding the closing of the definitive agreement with the Cultivator, the success of the Companys licence application with Health Canada, the Companys ability to execute its strategic plan, conditions in the cannabis market, the Company entering agreements in connection with the B2B supply of cannabis and the Companys transition into a revenue-generating operational phase of development are based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in the Companys final long form prospectus dated August 21, 2018, which is available under the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com . Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect information, events, results, circumstances or otherwise after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law including securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities of the Company. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: North Bud Farms Inc. Edward Miller VP, IR & Communications Office: (855) 628-3420 ext. 3 investors@northbud.com The US Army has begun screening all new recruits at four basic training centers around the country for coronavirus. Recruits will undergo the screenings at Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; or Fort Jackson, South Carolina. They will not be screened at one basic training center, Fort Knox in Kentucky, but no explanation was given as to why, According to Army Gen Paul Funk, head of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, the enhanced health screenings will affect as many at 1,000 recruits per week. That number will grow later this spring and summer because more soldier enlist in the service during these seasons. It comes just one week after a solider stationed abroad in South Korea and his wife both tested positive for the highly-contagious disease. The US Army will begin screening as many as 1,000 new recruits per week at either Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; or Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Pictured: Soldiers stationed on US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea undergo screenings, February 26 The recruits will be asked questions about their travel history, if they've been in contact with anyone who has the virus and whether they have had any symptoms. Pictured: Soldiers stationed on US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea perform screenings, February 26 In the US, the virus has infected more than 150 people in at least 16 states and 11 people have died - 10 in Washington and one in California 'We're using prudent measures to ensure we are screening,' Funk told a group of reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday. Under the new process, recruits will be asked a series of questions, including about their travel history to various parts of Asia. They'll also be asked if they've been in contact with anyone who has the virus and whether they have had any symptoms, such as coughing, sore throat, stomach problems and muscle aches. Recruits will also have their temperatures taken. If the soldiers answer 'no' to all the questions and don't have a temperature higher than 99.4 degrees, they will be allowed to enter basic training. If they say yes, exhibit symptoms or have a fever, medical personnel will separate them from the others and move them to health care facilities on the bases. The Marine Corps said it has done some of the same things out of an abundance of caution to preserve the wellness of the force. According to Marine Capt Christopher Harrison, preliminary screenings have been implemented for incoming recruits at the Marine Corps recruit depots. The Navy said there have been no changes to its screening process yet, and the Air Force had no information on any changes. As of Wednesday, no Army recruits have tested positive for coronavirus. The news comes just a week after an American soldier stationed in South Korea and his wife both tested positive for the disease. If the soldiers say no to all the questions and don't have a temperature higher than 99.4F, they will be allowed to enter basic training. Pictured: Soldiers stationed on US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea perform screenings, February 26 But if they say yes to any of the questions or have a temperature higher than 99.4F, they will be quarantined on base. Pictured: Soldiers stationed on US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea perform screenings, February 26 Last week, a 23-year-old soldier based in South Korea and his wife both tested positive for coronavirus. Pictured: A soldier wearing a mask stands guard at US Army Garrison Casey, February 26 The 23-year-old is the first US service member to be infected and is currently in self quarantine at his off-base residence. He was originally based in Camp Carroll in a town near the southeastern city of Daegu, where most of South Korea's virus cases are clustered. His wife was transported to a US military hospital where she'll remain in isolation, according to a statement from United States Forces Korea. Approximately 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea. South Korea is the country with the most cases outside of China, with 5,621 people infected and around 35 deaths. To control the spread of the virus, the new school term across of South Korea has been delayed by one week, and three weeks in Daegu. In addition, the US and South Korean militaries have postponed upcoming joint exercises until at least June. Lucy Fallon attends The British Soap Awards at The Lowry Theatre on June 3, 2017 in Manchester, England. The Soap Awards will be aired on June 6 on ITV at 8pm. (Photo by Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage) Lucy Fallon's mother wasn't best pleased when her daughter told her she would be leaving her role on Coronation Street after five years on the ITV soap. The 24-year-old will be departing the cobbles soon as her final scenes as Bethany Platt are set to air this week after she announced her exit in May 2019. Speaking on This Morning with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, she said of her mum's reaction: "I don't actually think she was very happy really. She wanted me to stay." Read more: Corrie welcomes back much-loved character The cameras turned to her mother Angela, who was in the studio, as she explained it was "for the security". Lucy Fallon discussed her Coronation Street career on This Morning. (ITV) The actor went on: "As a mum she probably worries about me, that I might not get another job and I might not work again." In the interview, Fallon confirmed that she was looking for other things and that she was "open to whatever". Fallon explained the reason behind her decision to leave after five years on the programme, noting that it was her "first job" and "it was now or never". Bethany Platt is leaving Coronation Street behind. (ITV) "I didn't want to get so far down the line, look back and think I wish I'd gone and tried other things. You know, it might not work out. I might not work again, but I need to try, because if I don't try I never know," she shared. Fallon won the role of Bethany after the actor originally hired to play her upon the character's return to Weatherfield in 2015 was revealed to be 25-years-old and not 19 as her management had claimed. The part had previously been played by three child actors, twins Amy and Emily Walton and Mia Cookson. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Manila, Philippines Wed, March 4, 2020 17:05 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206842601 2 SE Asia Philippines,drug-policy,drug-war,urban-poor,family Free Relatives of some of the thousands killed in the Philippines' war on drugs acted out their journey of loss and healing in a theatre performance in Manila on Wednesday, capping a month-long therapy program for grieving urban poor families. Bereaved mothers, wives and children took to the stage at a high school in the business center of the capital in front of a crowd of 500, most of them students. They danced to pop songs, and performed monologues and political sketches. "If you would look at the performers, there are so many smiles. They were dancing in joy," said organizer Flavie Villanueva, a former drug user-turned-priest who is critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign. "The first time they came to me, there was nothing but tears, anguish and anger," said Villanueva, who launched 'Paghilom' - 'healing' in Tagalog - in 2016 to comfort grieving families. More than 5,600 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed in police anti-narcotics operations since Duterte took office in July 2016, according to government data. Thousands more died in mysterious circumstances, some shot dead by masked gunmen riding pillion on motorcycles. Rights group said the police summarily executed suspects. But police said they acted in self defense after suspects violently resisted arrest. "Through 'Paghilom,' I let out all my tears," said Analyn Mamot, 33, whose husband, an illegal drugs user, was killed by unidentified gunmen two years ago. "Now I feel new, like a new personality is alive in me." Two of the deaths occurred on Feb. 26 and another happened Monday, county health officials said in a news release. One victim was an 80-year-old woman who died at her family home. Another was a 54-year-old man who died at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, two days after he was admitted directly from the nursing home, according to the hospital. The third patient, a woman in her 70s, died at the EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, officials said. Following the cancellation of MWC, several smartphone manufacturers were forced to change their upcoming device announcement plans. HMD Global was one of those companies and we were left in the dark as to when the new Nokia phones would be launched. Thanks to a new tweet from HMD Global VP Juho Sarvikas, we now have an event to look forward to which will take place on March 19 in London. No Time To Wait. We have something very special lined up for you. #nokiamobilelive pic.twitter.com/xQAZWok0v6 Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) March 3, 2020 The short promo does come with a James Bond twist which hints at a possible collaboration with the storied movie franchise. There are rumors about limited edition Bond accessories for Nokia handsets as well as some speculation on a 007 edition" Nokia phone. As to what we can expect, we should see the companys first 5G handset - the Nokia 8.2 5G tipped to come with the Snapdragon 765G chipset. Alongside it, we should be getting a new midrange Nokia 5.2 and entry-level Nokia 1.3. As usual, well make sure to update you with more intel leading up to the event. DETROIT General Motors' North American vehicle production could be impacted by the coronavirus as early as this month. GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said Wednesday that the automaker has enough parts to continue production uninterrupted "deep into this month." A task force of employees, she said, is continuing to monitor the COVID-19 epidemic and make contingency plans in an effort to reduce or eliminate production disruptions. She described the situation as "rapidly evolving." "We're covered quite far into this month and every day they make that better, but it depends what happens around the world," Barra told reporters during an "EV Day" for the automaker. "The team will just keep adjusting." The impact of the coronavirus on the auto industry has been widespread, including causing factories in South Korea, Japan and other countries to temporarily shutter or adjust production due to parts shortages. The virus also has taken its toll on auto sales. Moody's Investor Service cut its global vehicle sales forecast last week due to the coronavirus to a decline of 2.5% in 2020 instead of a 0.9% drop. WASHINGTON (AP) A resurgent Joe Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. But his rival Bernie Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California that ensured he and his embrace of democratic socialism would drive the Democrats nomination fight for the foreseeable future. And suddenly, the Democratic Party's presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest. Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America's future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party's 2020 presidential nomination fight. It could take weeks or months for the party to pick one of them to take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night. "People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders and other family members, speaks during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vt., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont. "You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics," Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. "This will become a contrast in ideas." Trump took to Twitter Wednesday to call Biden's strong Super Tuesday showing "a perfect storm" and amplify his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination. "The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN!" Trump tweeted. Biden's victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45. Sanders' success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decadeslong political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast. The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half-billion dollars to score one victory in American Samoa. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., emerges from the booth with her ballot as she votes on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)AP On Twitter, Trump called Warren "selfish" for staying in the race because it "hurts Bernie badly." The balance of Super Tuesday's battlefield with Biden winning at least eight states and Sanders four raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats' establishment wing. The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a victory in Massachusetts. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado. Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. The Democratic race has shifted dramatically as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump. Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party's far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nation's political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party's Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change. FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg addresses supporters during a campaign stop in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)AP Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country. "We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016," Bloomberg said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida. The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Warren was also fighting to be optimistic. Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan before news of her disappointing home-state finish was announced, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she's willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn't claim an outright victory anywhere. "Here's my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart," Warren declared. She added: "You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight." With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 453 delegates to Biden, 382 to Sanders, 50 to Warren, 44 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. By STEVE PEOPLES and WILL WEISSERT, The Associated Press BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the State Symbols Museum in Tovuz. The president cut the ribbon symbolizing the inauguration of the museum. President Aliyev was informed about the exhibits, which are demonstrated in the museum. The San Antonio crime story that gripped the city and had people siding between a wife and her husband and his mistress will be relived on national television Thursday on "The Dr. Oz Show." Frances Hall was convicted of killing her husband, Bill Hall, during an October 2013 car chase on South Loop 1604 involving his mistress, Bonnie Contreras. "The Dr. Oz Show" describes that day's deadly encounter as "jealous wife chases down husband's lover in a car and he ends up dead" for the promotion of the episode titled "Deadly Collision." Frances Hall, who served two years and was released in 2018, will discuss the drama that unfolded surrounding her 32-year marriage that ended in her husband's death. "Taunted with thousands of messages by her husbands mistress, a wife finally confronts her during a high-speed car chase," the show describes the October day's deadly confrontation between the three. "What happened next led to the death of her husband and a prison sentence for her." FROM OUR SUBSCRIBER SITE: Frances Hall, convicted of killing husband 2 years ago, heads back to San Antonio The jury handed down the lightest prison term possible two years for murder and two for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for ramming her Cadillac Escalade into the Range Rover owned by the Halls but driven by Contreras. The sentences were served concurrently. After the sentencing in a case that had so much interest presiding Judge Jefferson Moore had to allow the galley to spill over into the hallway, the decision was debated. Some were glad Frances Hall would walk free after two years to reunite with her children and grandchildren, others felt she deserved a heftier punishment. Some also questioned why Contreras wasn't punished. True crime junkies worldwide tuned into coverage of the case from "Dateline," "48 Hours" and "True Crime Daily" in the months and years following the case. On "Dr. Oz," Frances Hall will have the chance to talk about her motives, her arrest and what she wishes she could tell her husband. "That I love him more than the day I met him, that I miss him tremendously. That if I could, Id take his place. You dont understand the void that I have. Im literally broken, Im lost," she tells the show's host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in the promo. "Dr. Oz" airs at 3 p.m. on WOAI. Madalyn Mendoza is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @MaddySkye The coronavirus outbreak's impact on the economy could potentially spill over to the housing market, slowing building approvals later this year, according to an economist. The COVID-19 was at the crux of the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lower the cash rate to a historic low of 0.5%. "While COVID-19 has increased downside risk for the economy as a whole, including the housing market, any impact on building approvals is likely to fall more into the second half of 2020," said Maree Kilroy, an economist at BIS Oxford Economics. In a separate analysis last month, Trent Wiltshire, an economist at Domain, said the coronavirus outbreak could have impact on Australia's economy, albeit only in the short term. "It will hit the tourism and education sectors particularly hard. But it's possible the outbreak will be much more severe and cause a significant economic slowdown in China, which would have a big impact on Australia's economy," he said. Also read: Price Growth ''Likely To Slow'' Still, building approvals went up by 4.9% over the three months to January. Despite this, however, approvals remain 2.3% lower than the same time last year. The recent approvals data seem to indicate that the residential building market reached a turning point mid-way through 2019, fuelled by the series of rate cuts, said Angela Lillicrap, an economist at the Housing Industry Association. "Approvals have stabilised at historically high levels. The 'trough' is comparable with the peaks of previous building cycles," she said. Lillicrap said the stable condition of approvals during the month is indicative of the strong confidence in the market due to the growth in prices and low-rate environment. "Restricted access to finance for first-home buyers will continue to be the biggest impediment to future growth in building approvals," she said. However, on a seasonally adjusted basis, dwelling approvals fell by 15.3%, dragged by the 35.5% decline in the approvals for attached houses. On a trend basis, the number of approvals rose by 0.5%, brought about by the 0.8% uptick in the detached-house segment. "Meanwhile, private-sector dwellings excluding houses fell 0.1%. A significant fall in the number of apartments approved in January has offset the strength recorded in late 2019," said Daniel Rossi, director of construction statistics at ABS. Across states and territories, approvals rose only in the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Northern Territory. However, the strong showing in Victoria's approvals appears to have already waned, said Kilroy. "The surge in apartment approvals seen recently in Victoria has stalled with the fall in high-density approvals in the state, acting as the driving force behind the weak national result," she said. Addition of Budweiser and Bud Light gives C&C exclusive distribution of Budweiser Brewing Group's complete portfolio C&C Group plc ('C&C' or the 'Group'), a leading, vertically integrated premium drinks company which manufactures, markets and distributes branded beer, cider, wine, spirits and soft drinks across the UK and Ireland, and Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I ('Budweiser Brewing Group'), a proud part of AB InBev, today announce the expansion of their existing multi-year partnership, to include exclusive distribution of Budweiser and Bud Light on the island of Ireland. With the addition of Budweiser and Bud Light, from 01 July 2020, C&C will have responsibility for the sale and distribution of Budweiser Brewing Group's complete beer brand portfolio across Ireland. C&C and Budweiser Brewing Group will collaborate on the marketing of the portfolio which also includes Stella Artois, Beck's, Corona, Leffe and Hoegaarden. This will mean an end to Budweiser Brewing Group's relationship with Diageo in Ireland. C&C has been working with Budweiser Brewing Group since 2009 and has been responsible for brewing and distributing a selection of the brewer's brands in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The expanded partnership will see the kegging of Budweiser in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. The deal will see an enhanced focus on Budweiser throughout Ireland. The lager, AB InBev's largest brand in Europe and present in 85 countries globally, is poised for further growth following recent launches in France and the Netherlands, while in the UK, Budweiser is the official beer of the Premier League. The brand will be further strengthened by utilising an extensive suite of Budweiser marketing assets. Tom McCusker, Managing Director of C&C Group Ireland, commented: "This agreement marks an exciting new phase in our partnership with Budweiser Brewing Group. With a portfolio of some of the world's most iconic beer brands, we look forward to optimising the portfolio and distribution strengths of our two businesses for the benefit of our mutual customers across Ireland". Paula Lindenberg, President, Budweiser Brewing Group said: "We are happy to announce today that we're strengthening our relationship with C&C Group, who is already a close, strategic partner for us. This deal, part of our wider expansion strategy, will utilise C&C's expertise across Ireland to bring our loved brands, now under one unified portfolio, to even more customers and consumers. As we look to the future, we'll be working closely to ensure a smooth transition to our customers, and we are hugely grateful to Diageo for a positive working relationship over the years." -ENDS- About C&C Group plc C&C Group plc is a leading, vertically integrated premium drinks company which manufactures, markets and distributes branded beer, cider, wine, spirits, and soft drinks across the UK and Ireland. C&C Group's portfolio of owned/exclusive brands include: Bulmers, the leading Irish cider brand; Tennent's, the leading Scottish beer brand; Magners the premium international cider brand; as well as a range of fast-growing, super-premium and craft ciders and beers, such as Heverlee, Menabrea and Orchard Pig. C&C Group has own brand and contract manufacturing/packing operations in Co. Tipperary, Ireland; Glasgow, Scotland; and Vermont, United States, where it manufactures Woodchuck, a leading craft cider brand in the United States. C&C Group is the No.#1 drinks distributor to the UK and Ireland hospitality sectors. Operating under the Matthew Clark, Bibendum, Tennent's and C&C Gleeson brands, the C&C Group supplies over 35,000 pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels, and is a key route-to-market for major international beverage companies. C&C Group also has a minority investment in the Admiral Taverns tenanted pub group, which owns over 1,000 pubs across England and Wales and exports its Magners and Tennent's brands to over 60 countries worldwide. C&C is a FTSE 250 company, headquartered in Dublin and listed on the London Stock Exchange. About Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I is the trading name of AB InBev UK Limited, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, a publicly traded company (Euronext: ABI) based in Leuven, Belgium, with secondary listings on the Mexico (MEXBOL: ABI) and South Africa (JSE: ANB) stock exchanges and with American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUD). Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I remains a proud part of AB InBev globally. In the UK, Budweiser Brewing Group employs 1,000 people in our three breweries in Magor, South Wales, Samlesbury, Lancashire and Enfield, North London and in our local headquarters in Central London. We are committed to building great brands that stand the test of time and to brewing the best beers using the finest natural ingredients. We are proud to offer the UK's leading premium beer and cider brands, including global brands Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois; international brands Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Beck's, Leffe, and Hoegaarden; and local champions Bass and Boddingtons Our Dream is to bring people together for a better world. Learn more at: www.budweiserbrewinggroup.co.uk or on Twitter through @BudBrewingUKI For more information about Anheuser-Busch InBev, please visit www.ABInBev.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005359/en/ Contacts: C&C Group plc Patrick McMahon, Group Strategy Director Email: patrick.mcmahon@candcgroup.ie FTI Consulting Jonathan Neilan/Paddy Berkery Tel: +353 1 765 0886/0884 Email: CandCGroup@fticonsulting.com Novella Communications Tim Robertson Tel: +44 203 151 7008 Email: TimR@novella-comms.com Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I Maeve Atkins Tel: +44 75844 75312 Email: maeve.atkins@ab-inbev.com 4 Mar Alex Diaz recently admitted that he found the romance rumours linking him to Tony Labrusca hilarious. As reported on Push, the actor, who spoke about the previous rumours that sparked in January 2019, shared that he is just happy to be able to set the record straight when it comes to his friendship with the actor. Said Diaz, "It's so funny because before the airport incident, we had an obstacle course training a year ago, so we had a lot of pictures. We were in the same race in Cebu. We got close and then when the airport incident happened, we were both arriving from Canada. Because I live in Calgary, Alberta, and he lives in Vancouver, so I said, 'Bro, I'm going to the Philippines again. Let's go bungee jumping." "So there was a layover in Vancouver to get home. So I stopped in Vancouver, then went bungee jumping, before we went home," he shared. As for Labrusca's previous airport incident, where the actor had a confrontation with the immigration over his Philippine citizenship, Diaz said the issue was very unfair. "The effect on his career has been unreasonable. I'm never going to be silent when one of my friends is being persecuted. Even if it means I will be persecuted as well. So you have to defend your friends. If I don't defend them, of course what the masses want to believe they will believe. So that's what happened," he shared. (Photo Source: Alex Diaz Instagram) This combined photo shows the three sons of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn. From left, eldest to youngest, are Dong-kwan, Dong-won and Dong-seon. Korea Times file By Nam Hyun-woo Hanwha Group heirs Kim Dong-kwan and Kim Dong-won will show a greater presence in the group's leadership, as they move to take charge of the conglomerate's main businesses of solar energy and finance, respectively. Hanwha Solution plans to hold an annual general meeting on March 24 and approve a board proposal to appoint Kim Dong-kwan as a member. Kim Dong-kwan is the eldest son of Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn and the vice president of Hanwha Solution, an entity created in the merger between Hanwha Chemical, Hanwha Q Cells and Hanwha Advanced Materials. The appointment is expected to provide Kim Dong-kwan with a stronger grip on the group's chemical and solar energy businesses, which the group have identified as its next growth engines. Last year, Hanwha Solution posted 9.5 trillion won ($7.98 billion) in sales, up 5.1 percent year-on-year. Its operating profit also jumped by 6.8 percent to 378.3 million won during the same period. The revenue growth was largely thanks to increased sales in the firm's solar power business. During the last quarter of 2019, the company reported 2.45 trillion won in sales with its solar energy business generating 1.05 trillion won. Kim Dong-kwan joined the country's mid-tier industrial conglomerate in 2010 and has served in key positions at Hanwha's photovoltaics units. In 2012, he led Hanwha in the acquisition of German solar cell maker Q Cells, which was later renamed as Hanwha Q Cells. Eldest-son Kim has now been asked to explore possible ways to strengthen the group's position in the lucrative solar business. Hanwha Group is restructuring its units by merging solar-related firms into Hanwha Solution, in a bid to brush off Chinese rivals and consolidate its presence as a solar power giant in the global market. According to market tracker PV InfoLink, Hanwha Q Cells ranked fifth in 2019 in terms of global module shipment volume, down two notches from a year earlier. This ranking comes as the Chinese government's support for its home-grown solar power firms enables them to provide modules more cheaply. While Chinese firms dominate the global solar power market with their aggressively-low prices, Hanwha Solution decided to give up producing polysilicon a key material for solar cells in Korea, recognizing that it cannot outcompete Chinese companies in cost competitiveness. Holding the key to Hanwha's fate in the photovoltaics business is the planned operation of a Hanwha Q Cells plant in Georgia, U.S., which opened in September last year. Hanwha invested 170 billion won in the facility, which can produce up to 12,000 solar modules per day. Once the Georgia factory is fully operational, analysts and Hanwha officials expect it to significantly help the firm boost its operating profits. "Hanwha Solution will identify itself as a photovoltaics firm this year, and its operating profit in the solar business is expected to account for 60 percent of the total," Hana Financial Investment analyst Yoon Jae-sung said. "This year, the company plans to expand its solar module, energy storage system and solar power plant construction business, which will allow the company to seek 18 trillion won in sales in 2025." While Kim Dong-kwan is the heir to Hanwha's solar and chemical businesses, his younger brother and Hanwha Life Insurance Chief Digital Strategy Officer Kim Dong-won is expected to lead the group's financial portfolio, given the recent government drive to have conglomerates separate commerce from finance. Kim Dong-won joined Hanwha Group in 2014 and has been focusing on pushing digitalization in the group's financial units, in order to strengthen their agility. Under his leadership, six Hanwha financial units, including the flagship Hanwha Life, introduced Objective and Key Results strategy a management methodology aimed at clearly defining objectives and achieving them through measurable actions. The strategy gained international awareness as it was adopted by renowned info-tech firms including Google, Facebook and YouTube. Meanwhile, Chairman Kim Seung-youn's youngest son, Kim Dong-seon is yet to show noticeable moves to return to Hanwha. Kim Dong-seon is a former new growth engine team leader at the group's construction affiliate Hanwha Engineering & Construction. Initially, he was expected to take charge of the group's construction and leisure business, but stepped down from his post and moved to Germany after facing a charge for violence in 2017. He reportedly returned to South Korea at the end of last year. Former NSW premier Mike Baird has told associates he has no intention of returning to politics after stepping down as chief customer officer of the National Australia Bank after three years at the lender. Mr Baird joined NAB six weeks after stepping down from state politics in 2017 to lead the institutional arm of the bank and moved to consumer banking the following year. The bank said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday morning Mr Baird will leave the role on April 15 and take a break before considering new opportunities. Former NSW premier Mike Baird is leaving NAB. Credit:Penny Stephens Mr Baird stood by NAB as its reputation took a hit during the banking royal commission, including harsh criticism of former chief executive Andrew Thorburn and chairman Ken Henry in commissioner Kenneth Hayne's final report. Mr Baird was rumoured to be among the candidates for the chief executive role after Mr Thorburn's departure following the commission's scathing findings, but the bank eventually tasked former Commonwealth Bank retail boss Ross McEwan with rebuilding its battered reputation as its new CEO. She began her search for love earlier this week. And Alison Hammond is serenaded with a rap on Wednesday's episode of Celebs Go Dating. The This Morning presenter, 45, enjoys a romantic dinner date with her new love interest Bobby Ray. Serenaded: Alison Hammond is serenaded with a rap on Wednesday's episode of Celebs Go Dating And it's not long until Bobby Ray decides to serenade Alison with a romantic rap to which the hilarious TV star beatboxes along. Yet despite the impressive gesture, Alison is left unsure about her new love interest after their date. Speaking behind-the-scenes, the This Morning star admits: 'I'm still not quite sure about Bobby Ray but at least he's warming up a bit!' Date night: The This Morning presenter, 45, enjoys a romantic dinner date with her new love interest Bobby Ray Work it: And it's not long until Bobby Ray decides to serenade Alison with a romantic rap to which the hilarious TV star beatboxes along It comes after Alison accidentally revealed that her time on the E4 dating show has been unsuccessful, as she joined Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Monday's episode of This Morning. The former Big Brother star revealed she was left 'absolutely devastated' and headed straight to the gym after James Lock, 33, told her she is his 'perfect girlfriend, personality-wise.' Alison spoke of how, for the final episode of Celebs Go Dating, they travelled to the Dominican Republic where she fell in love with the TOWIE hunk. Devastated! Alison, 45, recently revealed she was left 'absolutely devastated' and headed to the gym after James Lock, 33, told her she is his 'perfect girlfriend, personality-wise' She said: 'I fell in love with James Lock. I was like, this Greek god is on the show. He made my heart sing. 'He actually said, "Alison, you're my perfect girlfriend personality-wise." - I was absolutely devastated. So I went to the gym and worked out! So personality-wise I'm his perfect girl.' Holly exclaimed: 'That's so rude!' which left Alison asking 'Do you think?', with Holly asserting: 'Yes I do. Cheeky. No, don't you change, ever!' Oops! The former Big Brother star accidentally revealed that her time on the E4 dating show has been unsuccessful, as she appeared on Monday's episode of This Morning Aww! Alison spoke of the final episode of Celebs Go Dating in the Dominican Republic, saying: 'I fell in love with James Lock. I was like, this Greek god is on the show. He made my heart sing!' On what she's looking for in a partner, Alison admitted: 'Just someone who would love me really and me love them. Just someone to share my life with. It makes me emosh! 'I don't have the time to look, I don't even think about that. And if I did look, I always flirt with people and they think I'm joking I can never get past that It's really hard.' Holly asked if she used her sense of humour as a self-protection mechanism. To which Alison replied: 'What's hard about it is that it's kind of my job to build a rapport with people dead quick and so I find dating quite easy, to be honest with you. 'But at what point do you go, 'Do you know what, I've got a connection here.' I can never tell, I'm rubbish I can't do it.' What!? 'He actually said, "Alison, you're my perfect girlfriend personality-wise." - I was absolutely devastated!' Devastated: 'So I went to the gym and worked out! So personality-wise I'm his perfect girl,' said the hurt Big Brother star Holly insisted: 'You deserve to meet a really lovely, kind man, you really do.' Asked what her type is, Alison commented: 'Someone who makes my heart sing, someone who makes me laugh. I know exactly when I like someone because I get really excitable 'He's buzzy, he's amazing, he's got a job, that would be nice! I'm not bothered what job he's got as long as he's driven with it 'He can tell me about myself like, 'Shut up now Alison, you're embarrassing yourself!' Rude! 'That's so rude!' exclaimed Holly, which left Alison asking 'Do you think?', with Holly asserting: 'Yes I do. Cheeky. No, don't you change, ever!' Co-stars: Alison is currently starring alongside James in Celebs Go Dating And on what she doesn't want Alison continued: 'I don't want someone too controlling I want someone who just gets my lifestyle. 'If I don't call you or text you it's because I'm busy. Not because I'm with someone else. [I want] someone who is secure in themselves so they can see me flirting with The Rock and they're okay about it. I know my list!' To which Holly exclaimed: 'You are an absolute prize for someone out there!' before revealing that she filmed with Alison as part of Celebs Go Dating and they discussed how Alison was worried about kissing on camera. Alison explained: 'You've got to remember, I've got a 15-year-old son who is in school. I don't want him to get teased. I can't snog on camera 'So a couple of times they would go in for the kiss and I would give them the neck and then it was all awkward, it was just embarrassing. I couldn't do a full on snog on TV. I'm not saying I didn't do a snog' Alabama country artist Riley Green says hes countin down the days to March 9 beach concert at the Flora-Bama, and its easy to believe. Green, whos from Jacksonville, Ala., has a lot going on: Hes touring aggressively, hes fresh off his biggest hit with I Wish Grandpas Never Died and the breakout year he had in 2019 is being recognized by the industry. Hes among the nominees for the Academy of Country Musics new male artist of the year award and for best new country artist at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards. I dont know if its sunk in yet, he said of the realization that he could be collecting trophies in the near future. But playing a special event at the Flora-Bamas beach stage during spring break? Not much about that has to sink in. He knows the place from days when he was too young to spend the evening there. My parents always went down to Orange Beach, thats where we went on vacation, he said. They loved the venue and as he got older, he got to experience it for himself. When he started making music, he said, that was one of the places I wanted to play. He did, and he got an education. Green said there was one year where he performed at the venue ever day for about three weeks during spring break. I think it took about 10 years off my life, he said. The Flora-Bama also was where someone involved with the casting of the reality show Redneck Island got a look at him and approached him about joining the cast. He never really auditioned for the show, which he and a partner went on to win. Compared to (possibly) stepping onto an awards-show stage, his return to the famed state-line honky-tonk will be a homecoming. Which isnt to say itll be old hat. Doing the big stage by the beach, I mean, thats what Kenny Chesney did, Green said. Green said he isnt exactly nervous, just eager to entertain. His 2019 album Different Round Here has been out long enough for some live favorites to emerge, and fans can expect them to be in the set list. They include Same Old Song, the title track, and In Love By Now. Thats always been one thats sung back to me, he said of the last. Fans also might get a taste of new music. His hopes for 2020 include spending some time in the studio. Im always itching to put out new music, he said. Ive done a lot of writing over the last year. Beyond that, he said, just be ready for a lot of beers to be held up in the air. Show details: Opening acts will start at 3 p.m. on March 9, a Monday, with Green scheduled to take the stage at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at www.florabama.com/tickets. Tickets are $39.50 plus taxes and fees in advance; they will be $45 at the gate if any remain available. Children must be at least 10 to attend. Those ages 10-15 must have a ticket and must be accompanied by a legal guardian. Ticketholders ages 16 and up must have a government-issued ID. Schools on break the week of March 9 include Auburn University and the University of Georgia. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Setiawan SEA (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 10:14 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068270b6 3 Opinion opinions,COVID-19,novel-coronavirus,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,#coronavirus Free With President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announcing Indonesias first two confirmed COVID-19 cases, speculation about the country being immune to this lethal virus and about the governments lack of transparency should end. However, the question of how many others have been infected but remain undetected lingers on. Many still believe there are more cases in the country that have not been reported yet, and doubts about the effectiveness of the governments monitoring, testing and contact tracing efforts are unabated. The skepticism is understandable in view of the announcement by Singapores Health Ministry last Sunday that two Singaporeans and one Myanmar national visiting the Riau Islands of Batam on the third week of February had tested positive for the virus. With this in mind, concerns about the governments ability to deal with the virus are not without grounds. All this leads to the very basic question of the degree of the governments readiness and capability in terms of crisis management. Crisis, whatever forms it takes, presents both a threat to the performance of any organization and an opportunity for its development. Any crisis, from the positive viewpoint, provides the government opportunities to expand its capabilities in overcoming the crisis before it reaches its full scale. A lesson learned from such a crisis situation will develop the governments abilities in finding and implementing a set of specific decisions aiming to raise public awareness about the crisis and its possible development while minimizing adverse consequences. It is unfortunate if we treat a crisis purely as a threat. Despite the fact that the social and economic impacts of the outbreak may lead to mass hysteria, as reflected in the panic buying of essentials and stockpiling of masks and hand sanitizer, this is just the right time for the government to extract and distill real lessons in crisis management. No doubt the government is very serious in handling this crisis. However, we must understand that this is not simply a matter of transparency and seriousness. Rather, this is something to do with not only mindsets but skillsets and toolsets. It is the deficit in these aspects that has sparked the publics doubt about whether the government really possesses the required capabilities and tools to overcome the epidemic. The challenge for the government is to prove it has an adequate and effective crisis management system ready to be activated in such a crisis situation. This can be done by communicating with and educating the wider public about the big picture of the outbreak, instead of simply updating them about whats in the news. Information on, for example, the next likely phase of the epidemic, what to do in such a situation, including the scenario where many more people actually have been affected but are undetected, what anticrisis plan will be adopted and implemented, etc. are of more benefit than issuing statements that seem to understate the danger of the virus. More real, workable and concerted efforts between the government and other stakeholders in this particular crisis, such as schools, universities and especially business players, will be more appreciated than statements about divine intervention protecting this religious nation. Our reputation as a nation is at stake. The way the public responds to the governments measures may look exaggerated or restless. However, the public has the right to know the governments real strategy and mitigation plans to overcome the crisis. This is not to say that the government has not taken any proper precautions and measures to contain the virus. Rather, we do not expect the government to fall into overconfidence. Such a hubristic attitude has proven to offer no solution as in the case of the major floods that have hit Jakarta twice this year. We must realize that the COVID-19 is not a one-off issue or challenge. We should expect additional, further phases to the current epidemic or other epidemics in the future, and one variable most predictive of eventual success is preparation and preemption. To be effective, our crisis management mechanism must include preparation for the next crisis or the next phase of the current crisis, rather than simply an ad hoc, reactive response. We do hope that our government has a war room set up with capable and reliable risk management personnel as well an anticrisis mechanism ready for activation when a new crisis occurs. Again, this is not simply a matter of seriousness or transparency. Transparency, anyway, is not a window that can be opened and shut at the governments will when it finds it useful. We are facing a crisis requiring the right mindset, skillsets and toolsets reflected in the existence of an effective crisis management system. We are adult citizens expecting an adult government able to help the nation go through this crisis. Otherwise, we really have a serious crisis in our current crisis management system. *** Adviser in organizational and human capital with Rajawali Group. The views expressed are his own. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. The foldable smartphone market is tipped to grow many folds over the next few years, and so will the demand for those foldable displays that make such smartphones possible. Samsung, one of the frontrunners in this market, is apparently planning to ramp up the production of foldable displays. Samsung Display, the South Korean conglomerates display manufacturing arm, currently produces around 260,000 units of foldable displays per month. The company plans to more than double those numbers to 600,000 units per month by the end of May 2020. And come the year-end, Samsung Display expects the production capacity to rise up to million units a month. This means the company is looking to nearly quadruple its current production capacity. Advertisement Several smartphone makers around the world are working on their own version of a foldable smartphone. Samsung Display wants to supply foldable display panels to them as well, and not only to Samsung Electronics. The company is planning to build additional facilities to boost production. Samsung expanding foldable display production Samsung is two foldable phones strong and has already achieved a breakthrough in foldable displays. Its first foldable, the Galaxy Fold, featured a plastic-made foldable display that could be easily scratched even with fingernails. However, for the Galaxy Z Flip, the company created Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) that can bend. A UTG panel offers better protection against scratches compared to plastic ones and hence is more durable. This gives Samsung an upper hand over its OLED display manufacturing rivals. The company is now looking to grab this opportunity in the best possible way, by producing more foldable displays so that its always ready to meet the ever-growing demand for such displays. Advertisement For this, Samsung is going to build additional facilities with its module plants in Vietnam, with more such facilities planned for the second half of this year. Philoptics, an equipment manufacturer that supplies cutting equipment to Samsung Display, says it will supply $13.8 million and $5.84 million worth of equipment to the company by the end of both May and July, respectively. This is indicative of the increasing scales of operations that Samsung is planning for. The manufacturing process of foldable OLED panels is apparently similar to that of normal flexible OLED panels. However, it differs when it comes to the module manufacturing step as components and materials are attached to it. This is one of the reasons why Samsung is investing in its module lines. Samsung will likely launch a successor to the Galaxy Fold this year, featuring a UTG panel. Huawei and Motorola are the only other companies with foldable phones on the market. However, it should be safe to expect many more OEMs joining them over the next few years. Cubic Transportation Systems wins Europe-wide call for tenders to implement and operate new platform for five years Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB) today announced its Cubic Transportation Systems business division (CTS) was awarded a contract worth more than US$3 million, from Aachener Verkehrsverbund (AVV), to deliver a central mobility platform for the City of Aachen, Aachen City Region, District of Duren and the District of Heinsberg in Germany. The new central platform will provide ticketing and additional services to all digital sales channels in the region. It will interface with all sales channels and mobility partners to ensure a consistent and convenient service for the associated transport operators as well as other mobility providers such as car and bike sharing. The scheduled go-live for the first phase of the new platform is September 2020. "The AVV's association-wide mobility platform represents a very future-oriented approach that will simplify and modernize sales, while opening the door for connecting new services and offerings," said Stefan Jacobs, managing director of Cubic Transportation Systems (Deutschland) GmbH. "Our team is looking forward to creating the technical basis for this technology with the AVV." "In partnership with Cubic, transport companies and the local public transport Rhineland (NVR), we aim to create a network for all transport systems," says Hans-Peter Geulen, managing director of AVV. "We will create a modern and digital mobility platform that incorporates timetable information, multimodal offers and various mobility apps. This will result in a solution that will be the key to future-oriented mobility." This year, functionalities such as mobile ticketing, web shop and customer service portal will be implemented through the new platform. By the end of 2021, season tickets will be available so that ticketing information, booking, use and billing of public transport, car and bike sharing and other mobility offers will be possible from a single account. Cubic has served Germany since 2009, supporting Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), one of Europe's largest transport associations. Cubic was also awarded a mobile ticketing contract in 2017 from Kolner Verkehrs-Betriebe AG (KVB) to service Germany's Rhein-Sieg area. About Cubic Corporation Cubic is a technology-driven, market-leading provider of integrated solutions that increase situational understanding for transportation, defense C4ISR and training customers worldwide to decrease urban congestion and improve the militaries' effectiveness and operational readiness. Our teams innovate to make a positive difference in people's lives. We simplify their daily journeys. We promote mission success and safety for those who serve their nation. For more information about Cubic, please visit www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005206/en/ Contacts: Media Contact Crystal Nguyen Cubic Corporation PH: +1 858-505-2593 Crystal.Nguyen@cubic.com Prima Foods files US$220 million IPO The move by the Brazilian meatpacker marks another listed company owned by the Barista family, which also has a controlling stake in JBS SA, reported Reuters. According to the filing, Jose Batista Junior, Prima Foods owner will sell his shares in the company. His siblings Wesley Batista and Joesley Batista partly owned meatpacker JBS SA. Two sources said the share offering will hit 1 billion BRL (~US$222 million; 1 BRL = US$0.22). Prima Foods slaughters 2,600 head of cattle daily and in located in Minas Gerais, Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul states in Brazil. In 2019, Prima Foods achieved 2 billion BRL (~US$445.35 million) in revenue with a net income of 241.2 million BRL (~US$53 million). Close to 65% of its sales last year were attributed to exports, mostly to China. Banco BTG Pactual SA, Banco Bradesco BBI and Banco Santander Brasil are the investment banking units hired by Prima Foods to facilitate the IPO. The other listed meatpackers in Brazil are JBS SA, Marfig Global Foods SA and Minerva SA. The Jose Batista-owned JBJ Agropecuaria, which is the controlling shareholder of Prima Foods, is currently a CADE (Brazil antitrust watchdog) decision that Batista was not allowed to acquire Prima. Batista is currently contesting the decision in civil courts. The offering prospectus has disclosed this risk. - Reuters Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu member of the US Congress, got her first delegate as she fought the Democratic Party's nomination race to challenge President Donald Trump in the presidential election in November. Gabbard, who is the Hawaii representative, won a delegate from American Samoa, a US territory covering seven South Pacific islands and atolls. But 38-year-old Gabbard, who is American Samoan, did not win the territory. American Samoa was won by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, CNN reported. She won nearly 30 per cent of the vote, enough to open her account. It might also earn her a spot on the next Democratic debate, US media reports said. Bloomberg won 49.9 per cent of the votes in American Samoa on "Super Tuesday" when 14 US states went to polls to elect a Democrat who will fight President Trump, a Republican in the November 3 election. Despite being born in American Samoa, Gabbard failed to capture the endorsement of Samoan Chief Fa'alagiga Nina Tua'au-Glaude - a key indicator of success in the US territory. The prized endorsement instead went to Bloomberg, upping his chances of capturing a majority of the six delegates up for grabs there, the Politico reported. While Gabbard has pitched herself to voters in American Samoa, Bloomberg used his resources as he did across the US, airing television and radio ads in the territory, the report said. Gabbard's campaign website notes that she is the first female combat veteran to ever run for president. "Tulsi's military experience has given her first-hand insight into the challenges with wasteful wars. Her primary mission is to end wars abroad and bring back the much-needed resources to build a cleaner, healthier and safer America," it says. In 2013, she took oath of office with her personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a surprising turn of events, Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo has offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. DeAngelo, who is suspected of killing at least 13 people, has been incarcerated in the Sacramento County Main Jail since his arrest in April 2018. According to DeAngelo's defense team, he would be willing to plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the table. "Mr. DeAngelo is 74 years old," his defense wrote in a motion filed this week. "He has offered to plead to the charges with a lifetime sentence." No other details about the conditions of such a deal were made public. CBS13 reported the Sacramento County public defender's office recently sent a letter to victims and their families. "Criminal cases often take many years to resolve by trial," the letter obtained by CBS13 reads. "The trial process is often very stressful for victims and their families. This particular case is exceedingly complex due to the number of charged crimes and the diverse locations of the charged crimes. We would like to reach a resolution of the case that avoids a trial, satisfies all parties and provides a more immediate resolution of the case." Capital punishment is currently suspended in California due to an executive order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March 2019. The order put a moratorium on executions for the duration of Newsom's governorship. In order to fully repeal the death penalty, state voters would have to weigh in. PREVIOUSLY: 'I named him Mister Happy': Cafe owner recalls interactions with Golden State Killer suspect DeAngelo has been charged with 13 counts of murder, among other charges, and investigators believe the former California police officer may have raped over 50 women from 1975-86. The crime spree, which spanned Sacramento, Contra Costa, Orange, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties, created panic in the Sacramento area as dozens of women were victimized. Gun sales rose dramatically and backyard lights were installed all over the county as locals tried to arm themselves against a suspect dubbed the East Area Rapist. Only later police realized the man's range wasn't confined to the eastern part of Sacramento; his prowling extended all over the state. The Golden State Killer was known for creating personal connections to victims, including telling one victim he had seen her at the lake. It's hard to know if the killer really had links to his victims, however. He broke into victims' homes before he attacked, giving him ample access to family photos, letters and other identifying details. The terror did not end with rape, however. In some cases, the rapist called his victims afterward. One victim, at the request of police, kept her phone number for years in the hopes the attacker would call and reveal identifying information. Decades after the last case went cold, investigators announced DNA led them to a break in the case. Detectives say they submitted the killer's DNA to an open-source genealogy website called GEDmatch, where it found a match with a relative who also used the service. Detectives were then able to narrow their list of suspects, eventually arresting DeAngelo. DeAngelo is due next in court on March 12 at 1:30 p.m. Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd The Cabinet approved the amalgamation of the 10 public sector banks (PSB) into 4 PSBs that was announced on August 30, 2019. The nod was given today and the merger would come into effect from April 1, 2020. The Cabinet's approval will lead to the merger of - Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank According to the government, the merger of the 10 banks will lead to the creation of stronger establishments that will be able to meet the challenge of a $ 5 trillion economy. The number of branches of the banks will compound, giving existing customers more than 3,000 stations to do their banking from. The investment in technology-enabled smart banking will lead to improvements such as paperless tab-banking, faster loan processing, banking from home, and customer-need driven credit offers. "Businesses and industry will benefit through increased lending capacity, with the regulatory ceiling for lending individual borrowers increasing by over Rs 1,500 crores to Rs 3,000 crores," the government release said. This merger would follow in the example of the amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, and Dena Bank last year. As a result of this amalgamation, the number of PSBs will get consolidated from 27 banks in 2017 to 12 banks in 2020. The amalgamation of the two banks into Bank of Baroda was extremely successful, according to the government. Bank of Baroda, after the merger, had posted strong financial results as compared to results before the merger with the operating profit up by 11.4% (Rs. 1,487 crore), deposits increasing by 8.8%, capital ratio increasing by 171 basis points, and retail lending growing by 15.3%. The government expects that the amalgamation of the 10 PSBs will yield similar results as the Bank of Borda. According to the government, the banks are ready for the transition and the process should be smooth. The banks will adopt approaches through which the salary and other benefits of the of the employees would be safeguarded. Also Read: Supreme Court quashes RBI's ban on cryptocurrency Also Read: Lok Sabha approves Vivad se Vishwas Bill The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed banks and financial institutions from providing services related to cryptocurrencies by setting aside the RBI's 2018 circular which had prohibited them. Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of their units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice R F Nariman, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular is liable to be set aside on the ground of "proportionality". "Accordingly, the writ petitions are allowed and the circular dated April 6, 2018 is set aside," said the bench, also comprising justices Aniruddha Bose and V Ramasubramanian. "When the consistent stand of RBI is that they have not banned VCs (virtual currencies) and when the Government of India is unable to take a call despite several committees coming up with several proposals including two draft bills, both of which advocated exactly opposite positions, it is not possible for us to hold that the impugned measure is proportionate," the bench said in its 180-page verdict. The apex court delivered the verdict on pleas challenging the RBI circular. According to the circular, the entities regulated by the RBI were prohibited from "providing any service in relation to virtual currencies including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies". The petitioner, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), had argued in the top court that the RBI had banned cryptocurrencies on "moral grounds" as no prior studies were conducted to analyse their effect on the economy. It had contended that the RBI barred all the entities regulated by it from providing services to any individual or business dealing in virtual currencies. In 2013, the RBI in an advisory cautioned users, holders, and traders of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection, and security-related risks that they were exposing themselves to. On July 3, 2018 while hearing IMAI's plea, the top court had refused to stay the RBI circular prohibiting banks and financial institutions from dealing with the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. It had sought response from the RBI, Finance Ministry and Union ministry of Information and Technology on the plea. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ISTANBUL - At least one migrant has died and five others were wounded in clashes on Wednesday morning with Greek police at the border with Turkey where thousands of people are trying to cross into the EU, according to the prefect of the Turkish border province of Edirne. The prefect accused Greek police of ''firing with live ammunition'. Greece, through government spokesman Stelios Petsas ''categorically denies'' that its officers shot at migrants at the border. One of the migrants was hit in the head, another in the groin area, Turkish authorities said. A man wounded in the chest, who has not been identified yet, died in hospital, according to the report. Members of the human rights commission of the Turkish parliament reportedly saw the clashes. The delegation was on the ground on Wednesday morning for an inspection. Local prosecutors have opened an investigation. With the ongoing bankruptcy proceeding of the Diocese of Harrisburg, local Roman Catholic parishioners may be wondering if the assets of their parish could be tapped to satisfy the dioceses outstanding financial liabilities. The short answer is no, in all likelihood, based on previous church bankruptcies across the nation. But that doesnt mean that local parishes like Saint Patrick Church in Carlisle and Saint Joseph Church in Mechanicsburg wont have to take action in court to ensure that their local congregations arent affected, depending on how the first diocesan Chapter 11 filing in Pennsylvania progresses. The issue arises out of the overlapping structures of canonical and secular law that govern the church something that can be seen all the way down to local parishes such as St. Patricks and St. Josephs and the way that the Diocese of Harrisburg and its creditors may portray that legal structure in bankruptcy court. The critical assertion in the Diocese of Harrisburgs bankruptcy filing is that the amount of church property under the bishop of Harrisburgs direct control, and thus subject to creditors claims in bankruptcy, is extremely limited, and that parish trusts are separate organs that creditors cannot indemnify. Thats an argument Ive seen over and over again, and depending on how the bankruptcy goes, theres a certain appeal to it, said Marie Reilly, a Penn State law professor who has studied church bankruptcy cases. Creditors But the ultimate outcome of such an argument is equally dependent on the dioceses creditors, who may likewise make the case to a bankruptcy judge that the scope of relevant assets is much wider than the diocese would prefer to let on. The bankruptcy experts weve been in touch with have expertise in examining what is contended to be assets that have been conveyed, and piercing those where the assets really are the dioceses but have been transferred to escape liability and responsibility, said Richard Serbin, an attorney representing some of the sexual abuse claimants whom the diocese lists as creditors. In petitioning for bankruptcy last month, the Diocese of Harrisburg argued that Chapter 11 is the most equitable way of disbursing its available funds to survivors of sexual abuse by clergy, given the projected volume of claims and the cost of litigating them individually. The dioceses bankruptcy petition states that at least 200 claims for abuse-related compensation are outstanding, with an estimated price tag of between $50 million and $100 million. In August of last year, the diocese had also reported that 106 abuse survivors had accepted offers totaling $12.1 million through its voluntary survivor compensation program. A court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 would allow the diocese to successfully emerge from bankruptcy and continue its charitable mission with the benefit of a full and final resolution of the claims related to clergy sexual abuse and the related savings in substantial defense costs, the diocese wrote in its Feb. 21 bankruptcy brief. Ultimately, attorneys such as Serbin have a critical interest in convincing a bankruptcy judge that the scale of diocesan assets should be broadened; if more assets are roped into the dioceses orbit, there are more assets that can be used to compensate victims. The larger the pot, the more there is to satisfy unsecured creditors, Serbin said. In this case, the creditors are sexual abuse survivors. But in previous church bankruptcies related to clerical sexual abuse, it has never been successfully argued that such a pot includes local parish holdings. The fact that the bishop has ecclesiastic authority in some sense over the parishes has been argued by sexual abuse claimants as reason to treat all of the property in one pot, but that argument has not been all that successful, Reilly said. Canon law The legal question involved is not an easy one when dealing with the Catholic Church. The relationships between church entities are governed by canon law, which is not always analogous to modern, secular law. The Diocese of Harrisburgs initial bankruptcy brief relies on the concept of juridic persons, which under canon law are entities, comprised of physical persons, with corporate agency. While a juridic person may own property under canon law, that property has the character of church property, and the ownership is represented by canonical administrators who serve as stewards of the property in trust of the juridic person. Under canon law, dioceses and parishes are public juridic persons having separate and distinct canonical legal existence from each other and from the church, the Diocese of Harrisburg asserts in its legal brief. Further, each parish in the Diocese of Harrisburg has created a charitable trust to replicate the canonical concept of juridic person in the form of secular civil law, according to the dioceses brief. While the bishop is the trustee, the beneficial ownership is the congregation as a collective whole. This structure is seen in how the church writes its deeds. The land of St. Patricks in Carlisle was deeded in 1897 to Bishop Thomas McGovern in trust for Saint Patricks Church of Carlisle, and later expansions of the Carlisle church refer to its owner as the Roman Catholic Congregation of St. Patricks Church. Church land in Mechanicsburg is likewise deeded to the current Bishop of Harrisburg in trust for the Roman Catholic Congregation of St. Josephs Church of Mechanicsburg. In previous church bankruptcies, creditors have scrutinized the timing of a diocese transferring assets to discrete trusts, arguing that recent moves to codify canon law relationships in secular law were driven by liability concerns following the nation-wide church sexual abuse scandal. I think were going to see that some of these transfers were what we call fraudulent conveyances, Serbin said. Assets In its bankruptcy petition, the Diocese of Harrisburg estimated its assets between $1 million and $10 million. But an audit of the diocese, published online by the diocese itself, put the value of the diocesan administrative entities at $183 million in 2018. This is likely because the audit included entities that the diocese argues in its bankruptcy filing are not subject to claims by its creditors, including the dioceses separate corporate entities for publishing and administrative services, its pension fund, and others. Critically, the bankruptcy filing also argues for the insulation of the dioceses trust, which receives and disburses funds received from parishes, under an irrevocable trust agreement executed on Feb. 27, 2018. Parish assets within the irrevocable trust were not included in the 2018 audit, according to that document, but deposits in the trust payable on demand to the parishes topped $78 million. Even if the dioceses creditors are successful in piercing the formal trust agreements, parishes could still argue in court that they have the predominant beneficial interest in the funds. This is what happened in the bankruptcy of the Spokane, Washington, diocese, according to a study by Reilly. Parishioners there successfully argued that, although no formal trust entity existed, a resulting trust had been formed given that the diocese was in control of parish property despite parishioners being the ones paying for it. This was proved by overwhelming affidavit testimony from parishioners themselves, Reilly said, concerning the amount of time and money they had put into their local institution. Its not a weird artifact of Washington law, she said, its a compelling argument that the person who pays for the property and has been paying to maintain the property and for all purposes treats it as their own and is responsible for it, but their name is not on the deed, has some kind of interest in the property that rises to the level of an interest that the court will respect against the claim of a creditor. Courts have been widely respectful of this relationship, Reilly said. But the vagaries of canon law mean that parishioners should be prepared that the legal issue is not buttoned up nicely. Email Zack at zhoopes@cumberlink.com. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. My recent article on biblical criticism and 1 Timothy 2:11-15 has generated some helpful conversations regarding the contemporary issue of women in leadership. The issue of how Christians interpret the bible, or the hermeneutical process, is one that has caused debates, church splits and heated disagreements since the first century. In the coming weeks, I will narrow my focus to one group of Christians, Churches of Christ, and examine their historical and contemporary hermeneutic as I continue to engage the topic of women in leadership in the church. See the recent Christian Chronicle articles as an example of the dialogue most Churches of Christ are engaging in right now. https://christianchronicle.org/women/ First, you should know, I grew up Church of Christ. (I left the Church of Christ about a year ago because of their prohibition on women in leadership. You can read part of my story here, https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2019/october/leaving-my-church-by-kelly-edmiston.html) I currently serve as a Pastor in the Vineyard Church but I am still Church of Christ. For those of us born into it, we are always Church of Christers. What do I mean by this? I currently serve as a Pastor in the Vineyard Church but I am still Church of Christ. For those of us born into it, we are always Church of Christers. What do I mean by this? My great, great grandparents were members of Churches of Christ in west Texas, where my great grandparents were born. My great grandparents went on to serve faithfully in their local Church of Christ. When my grandmother was born she grew up Church of Christ. When she met my granddad they went on to serve their local Church of Christ for their entire married life, with my grandfather serving as an elder for many of those years. My mother, aunt and uncle all grew up in Churches of Christ, and went on to raise their families in Churches of Christ. My parents met at a Church of Christ school, Abilene Christian University. They were leaders at Highland Church of Christ where my mother attended for forty years. I went to Abilene Christian University, along with most of my cousins, for my undergraduate degree in Social Work. Years later, I went back to seminary at ACU to do my Masters in Divinity. I also served as a minister in a Church of Christ for a decade. Because of this Church of Christ legacy, I grew up loving the bible and cherishing it as the Word of God. As a pre-schooler and even before I could read, I grew up memorizing bible verses every week and getting stickers for it at church as a child. I grew up participating in Church of Christ bible competitions. Yes, we really have these. Instead of summer camp, we met up in a metropolitan area with other Churches of Christ and competed in scripture memory and scripture trivia competitions, complete with medals and everything! This led me, throughout my early teenage years and into my college years, to read through the entire bible, cover to cover, many times (yes, even every word of Leviticus!) I went on to memorize much of the gospel of Matthew and all of the book of Ephesians and Philippians as well as large chunks of other New Testament books. The word was truly hidden and buried in my heart. And it is to this day. Now, in my adult life, when I preach, I do so almost exclusively exegetically, beginning with the Hebrew or Greek and translating it myself to make sure that I can get at the heart of the text. But the bible is not just academic to me. I almost always include the bible in my daily spiritual practices. I teach my young children to read and memorize the bible in our morning family bible studies. For us Church of Christers, the bible is a big deal. We value it. We love it. We believe it is instructive for church practice. And even though I no longer attend a Church of Christ, I still hold to a similar hermeneutic as I approach the bible. Hermeneutics is a fancy word for the process by which we interpret the bible. The issue of women in leadership in Churches of Christ is primarily a hermeneutical issue. What do I mean by women in leadership in Churches of Christ? What do I mean by women in leadership in Churches of Christ? The vast majority of Churches of Christ today prohibit women from: Preaching/teaching in the assembly. Leading songs, prayers or reading scripture. Teaching the bible in mixed-gender settings of people older than 10-12. Serving as deacons or elders. Serving communion in the assembly Giving any sort of announcement, testimony or knowledge in the assembly. Churches of Christ have arrived at these prohibitions because of their biblical hermeneutic. Let me explain by first beginning with a little Church of Christ history. Churches of Christ (along with Disciples of Christ and Christian Churches) were born out of the Restoration Movement that began in the 19th century led primarily by Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. These men sought to unite the church by looking at the bible and the apostolic church as their guide for church practice. One of the legacies of this movement was establishing a hermeneutic that Church of Christ historians call a public, populist hermeneutic (The Stone-Campbell Movement Williams, Foster, Blowers. p. 82). What they mean by public is that we dont need church creeds, clergy or advanced degrees to interpret the bible properly (even though most of the leaders themselves were highly educated). What they mean by populist is that we believe the bible should be studied in the congregation where the common people could come to a plain meaning of the text (Ibib, pg. 82). We believe that good common sense and rational thinking in community can lead to a right and plain biblical interpretation. (Campbell also went on to develop 7 principles of interpretation that all seek a historical/critical reading of the text. I will cover these principles in weeks to come.) The problem was, from the very beginning this public populist hermeneutic never led to a plain meaning of the text, especially in regards to women in leadership. The problem was, from the very beginning this public populist hermeneutic never led to a plain meaning of the text, especially in regards to women in leadership. The irony of the current prohibition on women leaders is that it was precisely this public, populist hermeneutic that led to the rise of women leaders and preachers in the early days of the movement. The rationale was, because any common person could interpret the bible, then any common person, (even a woman!), could preach. It was also contrary to common sense that a woman gifted to preach should not preach the word of God to the community of faith. Therefore, women were ordained, preached, and led publicly in the early Restoration Movement churches. To name only a few: Ellen Grant Gustin and Emi B. Frank were ordained in 1873. Melissa Garrett Terrell, Laura D. Garst, Mary L. Adams and Josephine W. Smith were all ordained as ministers and served in public roles. Clara Hale Babcock is commonly credited with being the first woman ordained for preaching. In the early days, there were so many women in leadership that The International Womens Preachers Association was created to support women (Ibid. 779). Women preachers and women serving in public roles was common, although not without controversy. David Lipscomb was very influential in the eventual exclusion of women from leadership. He used the same public populist hermeneutic to say that a plain meaning of the text, specifically 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15, prohibited women from preaching, even in a setting of only women. Lipscomb argued that to disobey Pauls clear commands on silence would lead women to eternal death. By the end of the 20th century, women in Churches of Christ rarely led in public roles. Eternal death is a pretty scary threat! Today, Churches of Christ have continued in the spirit of David Lipscomb to exclude women from leadership in the church, only it is a nuanced exclusion that does not honor the public, populist hermeneutic on which the movement was founded. They dont believe what they say they believe. On the one hand, they have forsaken the belief of many of the founders: that anyone, even a woman, can interpret and preach the text. And on the other hand, they have forsaken the plain meaning of the text that the hermeneutical process should lead to. If Churches of Christ are to remain faithful to this plain meaning of the text then they should require women to be silent in the church, as the bible says. Instead, most Churches of Christ have opted for a contextualized and nuanced silence that is entirely divergent from the texts they are using to silence women (1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15). Consider this very common excerpt from a Church of Christ Womens Roles policy statement: The Churchs elders recognize that the label complementarian contains contextual variations. To outline female ministerial expression, a few common examples should be noted encouragements first, followed by restrictions. We believe the Bible permits women to serve as Ministers: We will encourage women to serve in paid ministering roles. We believe the Bible permits women to serve as Administrators: We will encourage women to serve in paid administrative roles on staff (they later clarify that if they are under the authority of a man). We will encourage women to serve in volunteer roles. We believe the Bible permits women to teach in a way that does not usurp the authority of our male leaders: We will encourage women to teach womens Bible studies. We will encourage women to teach womens Small Groups. We will encourage women to teach some mixed-gendered classes. (According to expertise.) The problem with all of these encouragements is that none of them are in the bible. The bible does not permit a woman to teach or to serve as a Minister (1 Timothy 2:11-15). The role of a Minister, in any church, is to exercise spiritual authority over both men and women congregants. The bible does not permit a woman to be a Womens Small Group Leader. Nor does the bible address any such thing as a Womens Bible Study. There is no place in the bible where a woman is permitted to serve as an administrator (volunteer or paid). These encouragements are divergent from the plain meaning of the text. If Churches of Christ insist on a plain reading 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15, then their Womens Roles Policy statement should read as follows. We believe the bible prohibits women from speaking in the church (1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35). We will not allow women to hold a microphone to sing as a part of the worship team. In this she could sing louder than a man and usurp his authority. (1 Timothy 2:12) We will not allow a women to serve in a Childrens or Youth ministry classroom if it requires that she will be teaching or reading the bible out loud, lest she be disgraced. As Paul says, it is disgraceful for a women to speak in the church (1 Corinthians 14: 35). We will not allow a woman to teach a womans bible class, just as David Lipscomb said. And effective immediately, all womens small groups and classes are cancelled for fear of eternal death. We believe the bible is clear that men were created to lead and women to follow. We encourage all women to stay home and raise their children for we know that women will be saved through child-bearing (1 Timothy 2:15, Ephesians 5:22). We do not allow a woman to obtain advanced degrees where they will be tempted by their professors to use their knowledge somewhere other than in their homes. If a women has a question she can ask her husband once they are at home (1 Corinthians 14:35). I am calling Churches of Christ to return to the public, populist hermeneutic of Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell and believe what they say they believe. Can the common person interpret the text and preach from it or not? Does it make good common, rational sense for women to be allowed to lead fortune 500 companies, run for president, hold Ph.D.s in biblical languages, and lead in all other areas of life and yet not be allowed to preach in the church? Either the Bible permits women to speak and therefore preach and lead publicly, as they did at the beginning of the movement, or the bible doesnt, as David Lipscomb insisted. It is time to stop all the adaptations from the command to remain silent and return to the plain meaning of the text. Appointment 4 March 2020 Kathrin Schissler is to become General Manager of the IntercityHotel Hauptbahnhof Berlin, also from 1 April 2020. Kathrin Schissler took over as General Manager at the IntercityHotel Ulm in 2016 having previously served as Executive Director Commercial at IntercityHotel GmbH. In January 2019, she returned to the city of her birth when she was appointed General Manager of the IntercityHotel Rostock. Credit Transfer CC Deal with Southern New Hampshire U Could Hurt In-State Universities Should community colleges sign agreements with four-year institutions that could compete with their in-state brethren? That's the question posed in a column published by Hechinger Report, which recently examined the articulation agreement signed between the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges and Southern New Hampshire University. Under the agreement, students from all 14 Pennsylvania community colleges will be able to transfer up to 90 credits "seamlessly" to SNHU, and receive a 10 percent tuition reduction on the completion of their bachelor's degree. SNHU's program is online and currently has 100,000-plus students. But the deal could have downstream consequences for four-year institutions within Pennsylvania, suggested Jill Barshay, author of the column. As she noted, Moody's Investors Service, which rates the financial standing of many institutions around the country, put out a report for subscribers calling the agreement "credit negative" for the state's four-year schools. Students who might have chosen to transfer from their community college to one of the in-state options "might be enticed by the cheaper tuition, the convenience of online learning and the easy credit transfer policy," choosing to enroll at SNHU instead, wrote Barshay. Currently, some 25,000 students make the transfer from two-year schools to four-year schools, Barshay stated. "Losing even some of them is going to hurt Pennsylvania colleges, which are already struggling with declining numbers of high school graduates." Plus, said Barshay, the deal puts more pressure on market conditions for state universities that are considering expanding their own online degree programs. Why did the Commission sign with an out-of-state provider? Elizabeth Bolden, president and CEO of the Commission, told Barshay that one of the missions of community colleges is to help students move into a four-year institution. But there's nobody else that has come along offering such a "simple" transfer process. A website intended to help students plan their college transfer within Pennsylvania is anything but simple, Barshay wrote. Now, the Commission has additional proposals from other out-of-state online providers that are also under consideration. As Bolden explained, "My students cannot wait for those offers [from in-state universities] to arrive on my desk. So while I wait, I will continue to ensure that our students have the opportunities they need to get a degree, get a job and move their families forward." The entire article is openly available on the Hechinger Report website. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexico will reinstate a solar tax credit and prepare to modernize its energy grid under a package of bills signed into law Tuesday. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the legislation will make solar power more accessible and support jobs in renewable energy. Climate change is a monumental challenge that requires innovative solutions, Lujan Grisham said in a written statement. She approved three bills Tuesday each of which picked up significant bipartisan support in the 2020 legislative session. The legislation includes making electric transmission lines eligible for certain tax breaks, reinstating a solar tax credit for homeowners and small businesses, and charting a long-term strategy to improve the states aging, centralized energy grid. This bill will help bring New Mexicos electric grid into the 21st century to ensure we have a reliable, resilient and secure energy future, Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of Albuquerque said. Parts of the legislative package drew opposition during the session from Republican lawmakers who said the solar energy industry should stand on its own, without the adoption of financial incentives that cost the state revenue. On Tuesday, Lujan Grisham signed: Senate Bill 29, reestablishing a tax credit for up to 10% of the cost of installing a solar-energy system, with a $6,000 limit per household. A similar credit expired in 2016. The credit is expected to cost the state roughly $3.4 million to $7.5 million in revenue a year. The legislation was sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, and Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo. House Bill 50, which makes electric transmission lines eligible for industrial revenue bonds, a mechanism generally used to provide property tax breaks. The law will allow the state and county government to approve the bonds for private developers building transmission lines, not just transmission stations. Legislative analysts said the potential loss of government revenue is difficult to estimate. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces. House Bill 233, which calls on state executives to develop a broad strategy to update the states energy grid, partly to better handle renewable energy. The bill also creates a grant program to help finance grid-modernization projects, and it allows the Public Regulation Commission to approve changes to energy rates to finance similar projects carried out by some utilities. The measure was sponsored by Stansbury, Small, Stewart, Democratic Rep. Abbas Akhil of Albuquerque and Republican Sen. Pat Woods of Broadview. SEATTLE Washington state reported a total of nine coronavirus deaths Tuesday as news broke that an Amazon employee in Seattle had tested positive. Meanwhile, area schools considered teaching students online in the event of prolonged closures over health concerns. The schools took the steps after researchers said the virus that causes the disease called COVID-19 may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the state. Experts said more cases will probably be reported soon. The Washington state Department of Health says there are 27 confirmed cases, all in the Seattle area. The nine deaths include five tied to a suburban Seattle care facility that has reported multiple virus cases and deaths. Health officials in North Carolina reported Tuesday that a person from Wake County tested positive for the illness after visiting the long-term care facility in Kirkland, Washington, where many of the state's cases originated. The person is in isolation and is doing well, according to the North Carolina health department. Among the new cases reported Tuesday were two men in their 20s who were hospitalized in Issaquah. It wasn't known how they were exposed. An Amazon employee who works in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood tested positive for the new virus, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday afternoon, citing a message from the company. "We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. The employee went home feeling ill on Feb. 25 and has not returned to work since, the message from Amazon to employees said. The message said Amazon was told Tuesday that the employee tested positive for COVID-19. Other employees working in close contact with the affected employee have been notified, the message said. Among the newly reported deaths was a man in his 50s who had been a resident of Life Care Center in Kirkland, who died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Feb. 26. Tests later determined he died of COVID-19. Hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said some hospital staff may have been exposed while treating the patient, but officials don't believe other patients were exposed. The hospital staff are being monitored and screened daily. In an updated message on the nursing home's website, Life Care Center said it is screening workers for symptoms before they start work and as they leave. Residents with symptoms are placed in isolation. The facility is still prohibiting visits from family and has set up an email for news media questions to keep phone lines open for family members with questions. A federal immigration field office near Tukwila also closed after an employee visited the Life Care Center. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the decision was made "out of an abundance of caution" and that it would remain closed for 14 days. The Eastside Preperatory private school in Kirkland said it would have students stay home and do online classes because of virus concerns. The school for grades 5 through 12 of nearly 500 students said on its website it had no known cases or suspected cases connected to the campus, but "we do not feel it is prudent to wait until there is a known case to take action." The school said it would conduct online classes through March 27. Meanwhile the Northshore School District, which has about 22,000 students just north of Seattle, was closed Tuesday so its teachers could also get ready to teach remotely if the need arises. Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a letter to students' families that the district was also making plans to help students who don't have computers or internet access at home. Seattle Public Schools has so far said it will not close, but it is monitoring the situation. Local and state health officials have not recommended school closures or cancellation of activities but said they respect the decisions of local school leaders. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence the virus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected. If true, that could mean that there are hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. Officials at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport announced new protocols to help keep travelers safe. They installed more than 45 hand sanitizers throughout the airport and plan to add another 90 soon. They are also intensifying cleaning on "high-touch points," such as handrails, elevator buttons, arm rests, doorknobs and the food court areas. King County moved the first of 14 modular units on Tuesday to a site in White Center. They plan to house COVID-19 patients in the units so they can receive treatment in isolation. And the state House on Tuesday unanimously passed a measure that would draw $100 million from the state's emergency "rainy day" fund to help pay for the response. The move by the House comes a day after Secretary of Health John Wiesman asked lawmakers for $100 million in emergency funding to deal with the growing costs of the state's response. Wiesman said that $3.5 million has already been spent on coronavirus efforts, with $2.3 million of that being spent by the state and the remainder by local health jurisdictions. The measure now heads to the Senate, where a similar measure was introduced yesterday. Lawmakers are working to finalize their supplemental budget plans before the Legislature adjourns March 12. -- The Associated Press Government Statement on COVID-19 Earlier today, the GHA confirmed that a person in Gibraltar has been identified as having the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This person and their partner (who has had no symptoms) are a young couple. When they returned from Northern Italy, neither the person nor their partner had any symptoms of COVID-19. Government have stressed that that the person who has been confirmed to have the virus was not in the category of people that Public Health England advised should be tested for it. They returned to Gibraltar from Northern Italy before the date that Public Health England advised was relevant for testing people from that area. The person was tested as a precaution when they were showing symptoms. "This is evidence of the efficiency of the preparedness of Gibraltars health professionals and the extra precautions taken in Gibraltar over and above the minimum recommendations." The Government continues to follow the best advice and guidance of our Public Health professionals. Our advice locally largely follows the same lines as that of the UK. The Government and all relevant agencies have been preparing for this scenario for the last few weeks. Plans are in place and are currently being implemented to take all necessary and reasonable steps to slow the spread of the virus as far as possible. In this respect, as the Government considers its options to increase the amount of social space between individuals, a decision may be taken in the next few days to limit large public events as a precaution. In relation to schools, the current advice is that because children are not badly affected by COVID- 19, closing schools would only serve to increase pressure on the GHA and other public services because children would need to be cared for at home. Whilst this is under constant review, the decision has been taken to keep schools open at this stage and this is very unlikely to change. In their statement, Govt said "Noting the understandable concerns being expressed by many in our community arising from the international media focus on this virus, the Government emphasises the fact that this first case was announced by the GHA itself via the Governments media office. The Government asks that the public take care only to look to official sources for reliable information. As was done today, any further cases will be announced as soon as the Government and the GHA are able to and the Government and GHA will be open and transparent at all times. The Government and the GHA strongly believe that keeping the community well informed is one of the best ways to keep Gibraltar safe. The Government therefore asks people to refrain from engaging in speculation on social media and keep themselves informed using official Government sources." Public Health Gibraltar are in direct contact with Public Health England, who in turn report to other European and international bodies. Gibraltars authorities are also working with Spanish public health bodies to ensure full transparency, communication, coordination and co-operation against this global concern. The Director of Public Health, Sohail Bhatti said: We have anticipated this event. We had been expecting the virus to arrive in Gibraltar and we have been busy developing our plans to tackle it. In fact, we identified the case even though it did not fit into the criteria advised by Public Health England, whose advice we are mirroring. Our infection control practitioner tested the patient through an abundance of caution. I think this shows we are working hard to keep our community safe. The Government thanks all those who are subjecting themselves to self-isolation which is onerous in itself, in order to protect the rest of the community from even the potential for the virus to spread more quickly. The Minister for Public Health, Hon Professor John Cortes, said: The communication between us and Public Health England has been very fluid. I have also been in touch with colleagues in Spain. The presence of the virus in Gibraltar has been reported through relevant public health channels internationally and at a European level. It is important that we work to coordinate and communicate in order to properly cooperate, and that is what we have done. That is what builds confidence and will ensure that our community can continue to operate with the minimum possible disruption. The Chief Minister, Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, said: The work that colleagues in Public Health and the GHA have been doing, together with all other relevant Government agencies, has meant that we have been fully prepared for this first positive test result for COVID-19 in Gibraltar. It is important that we recognise the reasons for concern but that no one should be allowed to exaggerate the circumstances we are dealing with. We have also been the first to announce the news of the arrival of the virus in Gibraltar within hours of the test result being made known to us and just after the patient was advised. That shows the public that we are not out to hide anything at all and we, and the established media through which we communicate our message, can be trusted to be the reliable source of information on this outbreak. The public need not seek to rely on information from unofficial sources who are often more concerned to alarm and to reach notoriety than they are to provide reliable information. The GHA is dealing with the issues that arise very well and is fully prepared to deal with the spread of the virus. To avoid unnecessary pressure building up, we need to work together as a community to slow the spread of the virus. We also need to be very conscious about which are the most at risk categories and try to avoid exposing them to the virus as much as possible. That means avoiding unnecessary contact with the elderly or the infirm. It is important to follow the advice of the professionals and not to jump at the most alarmist posts on social media. We all have a role to play in controlling the spread of the virus and what we are each asked to do is not overly onerous. We need to wash our hands well with soapy water for as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice and to bin tissues. We need to cough into our sleeves and not expectorate over others, surfaces or foodstuffs. This is basic hygiene and we should continue to act in this way even after this virus has become a distant memory. Our health workers now need our support and practising these basic hygiene measures seems trivial but is hugely important. You will do more for Gibraltar by washing your hands, properly binning your tissues and coughing into your sleeve than by speculating on Facebook or Twitter. I know I am joined by all in Gibraltar in thanking our health and public health professionals, and all those who are self-isolating and in wishing the patient in question a full and speedy recovery. The Government says it is confident that Gibraltar is as ready as possible for the impact of the virus. The Government continues to take the advice of our Public Health professionals and the situation is under constant review. The best thing that everyone can do to protect themselves and their loved ones is to wash hands regularly and well with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. It is also a good idea not to shake hands, hug or give kisses when greeting colleagues, friends and relatives for the time being, especially if they are over 70. We know that the elderly and people with chronic health conditions are the most vulnerable, so we must all do our part to keep ourselves and our loved ones out of harms way. If you do not feel well, please do not go to the Primary Care Centre or to St Bernards Hospital as this puts you and others at greater risk. Go home, avoid public transport and call 111 as soon as you can to tell us about your symptoms. For almost 90% of people, the symptoms will be very mild and most people who contract the virus will be able to recover well and quickly at home. 99% of people will likely fully recover. The focus now is to increase the distance between people in order to try to slow the spread as much as possible, and to take extra care with older and vulnerable friends and relatives. Think twice before you pay them a visit and strongly consider whether you could phone or video call them instead. Please look to official sources for advice, particularly www.wuhan.gi PROTECT your loved ones call, dont visit WASH your hands CALL 111 if you feel unwell The inflatable tent by the Hospitals ambulance bays has been put up in preparation for an exercise scheduled for tomorrow. If it is ever needed, this will be used as a decontamination area where Ambulance crews will put on and take off personal protective equipment to avoid this being taken into the Hospital building. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out poor planning and execution and financial irregularities in the works of over Rs 2,000 crore carried out by City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the Maharashtra government's infrastructure agency. The CAG report for the period ending March 2018 mainly referred to three projects -- Navi Mumbai international airport, Nerul-Uran railway project and Navi Mumbai Metro. Asked about the CAG's observations, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was chief minister between 2014 to 2019, said tenders of railway and metro projects were issued during the earlier Congress-NCP combine's rule. Further, the chief minister or other ministers do not control CIDCO which is an autonomous body, he said. The CAG report on public sector undertakings (PSUs) was tabled in the state legislature on Wednesday. The infrastructure works carried out by CIDCO did not emerge out ofa "systematic and comprehensive" plan, with the result that proposals were sanctioned on case-to-case basis, the CAG said. The planning for Nerul-Uran railway project and Navi Mumbai Metro was inadequate, the CAG said. Global tendersfor projectsincludingthe Navi Mumbai international airportand Navi Mumbai Metro were not publishedin international publications, it pointed out. Advertisements of 16 tenders, eachwith estimated costof Rs 50 croreor more, were not issued in leading newspapers at the national level in violation of guidelines, the report said. In the case of six contracts with estimated cost of Rs 890.42 crore, the selected contractors did not possessthe minimum prescribed work value experience, the CAG alleged. In ten contracts worth Rs 429.89 crore, existing contractorswere awarded additional works of Rs 69.38 crore without inviting fresh tenders in violation of guidelines, it added. In a contract worth Rs1,328 crorerelated to the Navi Mumbai Metro, excess'mobilisation advance' of Rs 25.33 crore was paid in violation of contract conditions, the CAG said. In 22 contracts worth Rs 4,759.94 crore, CIDCO did notrecover compensation for delay amounting to Rs 185.97 crore from the contractors, nor did it recover liquidated damages from consultants for Navi Mumbai Metro andNerul-Uran rail projects, the CAG said. In three contracts valued at Rs 2,033.72 crore for the airportproject, CIDCO paid Rs 22.08 croreas "price variationonmaterial component" though these works were carried out by cutting the hill and using the rocks obtained from the hill, the report said. Talking to reporters, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis denied that the then BJP-led government under him was to blame for the alleged irregularities. "The CAG report reviews several CIDCO works carried out during April 2013 and March 2018....tenders of two projects, Navi Mumbai Metro and Nerul-Uran railway, were issued before 2014 (before he became chief minister in the October of that year)," the BJP leader said. "All decisions regarding the projects were taken prior to 2014. Some objections have been raised (by the CAG) about it too. The decision of giving advances was taken in September 2014 and tenders were issued in August 2014," Fadnavis told reporters outside the state legislature building here. Further, it is CIDCO's governing board which issues and awards tenders while officials sanction advances to contractors, he said. The Public Accounts Committee of the legislature will go through the CAG's objections before action is taken, he noted. "The irregularities must be probed, whether committed during our period or theirs (NCP and Congress). But I also say that the chief minister or minister is not directly linked to it," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coinciding with World Obesity Day, over 100 medical and scientific organisations have today pledged their support for a consensus statement that recognises unscientific public narratives of obesity as a major cause of weight stigma and calls for strong policies and legislation to prevent weight-based discrimination. In a paper published today in Nature Medicine, a team of experts, led by Professor Francesco Rubino from King's College London, outline a joint international consensus statement and a related Pledge to Eradicate Weight Stigma. The statement was developed through an international conference jointly organised by the World Obesity Federation, American Diabetes Association, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Association for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Diabetes UK, European Association for the Study of Obesity, International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders, Obesity Action Coalition, Obesity Canada, The Obesity Society. Previous evidence indicates that weight stigma can cause both physical and psychological harm, and that affected individuals are less likely to seek and receive adequate care. Often perceived as lazy, gluttonous, lacking will power and self-discipline, people with obesity are vulnerable to stigma and discrimination in the workplace, education, and in healthcare settings. "Weight stigma is a public health problem, undermines human and social rights and is a major stumbling block in the fight against the epidemic of obesity," said lead author Professor Francesco Rubino, Chair of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery at King's College London. "The objective of this initiative was to gather a broad group of experts and scientific organisations and, for the first time, speak with one voice to unambiguously condemn weight stigma and expose the misconceptions that contribute to weight bias." Main issues discussed in the statement include: Healthcare providers are a common source of weight stigma. The group calls on academic institutions and professional bodies to incorporate formal teaching on the causes, mechanisms, and treatments of obesity, including stigma-free skills and practices. Social stigma is based on the typically unproven assumption that obesity derives primarily from a lack self-discipline and personal responsibility. Such portrayal is inconsistent with current scientific evidence demonstrating that body weight regulation is not entirely under volitional control, and that biological, genetic and environmental factors critically contribute to obesity. The media portrayal of obesity is influential; it plays an important role in shaping public attitudes and beliefs about people with obesity. The group calls on the media to produce fair, scientifically accurate, and non-stigmatising portrayals of obesity. Public health practices and messages that use stigmatising approaches to promote anti-obesity campaigns are objectively harmful. The group calls for public health authorities to bring such practices to an end and increase scientific rigour in obesity-related public policy. "Weight stigma occurs in almost every aspect of our society, including the health care setting," said co-author Professor Rebecca Puhl, Deputy Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at University of Connecticut, USA. "It is critical that efforts to address this problem include support and action from the medical community." "Challenging and changing widespread, deep-rooted beliefs, longstanding preconceptions, and prevailing mindsets requires a new public narrative of obesity that is coherent with modern scientific knowledge," said Professor Rubino. "History shows us with examples such the plague, cholera and HIV/AIDS that stigma can interfere with public heath efforts to control epidemics. Initiatives aimed at combatting stigma and social exclusion were as important then as they are now." Those signed up to pledge include more than 100 organisations worldwide, including scientific societies, academic institutions, medical centres, scientific journals (including all Nature journals), industry, including WW (Weight Watchers) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity, a group of cross-party members of the House of Commons and House of Lords of the British Parliament. ### Individuals and organisations are welcome to join and take the pledge at http://www.pledge2endobesitystigma.org #pledge2endobesitystigma #WorldObesityDay In 2018-19, FDI in the defence sector was aggregated at $2.18 million, according to the data provided by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. New Delhi: India's defence industry received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $8.82 million (Rs 51.93 crore) during April 2000 and December 2019, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. In 2018-19, FDI in the defence sector was aggregated at $2.18 million, according to the data provided by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Foreign fund inflows in retail trading stood at $2 billion during April 2000 and December 2019, the data showed. The top countries from where India attracted maximum FDI during the period include Mauritius, Singapore, Japan, Netherlands and the US. In a separate reply, the minister said total merchandise imports from China were $76.3 billion in 2017-18, which decreased to $70.3 billion in 2018-19. Total imports from China during 2019-20 (April-January) were $57.9 billion, he said. Trade remedial measures were taken against as many as 89 products like EVA sheets, electrical insulators and Flax yarn against China, the minister informed. Similarly, six countervailing measures and one safeguard steps have been taken against the neighbouring country. We won't have to call NASA's next Red Planet rover " Mars 2020 " for much longer. On Thursday (March 5), NASA will reveal the official name of the car-size robot, which is scheduled to launch this July and land inside Mars' 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021. The unveiling will occur during a live event at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), which will be followed at 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) by a news conference about the name and the rover's mission. You can watch both of these events live here at Space.com , courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency . Related: NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission in pictures Like NASA's previous Red Planet rovers, Mars 2020 is getting its official moniker via a student naming competition. The contest, which kicked off last year, generated more than 28,000 essay submissions from K-12 students representing every U.S. state and territory, NASA officials said. That initial pool was whittled down to 155 semifinalists, which in January were culled to nine finalists, three in each of three age categories (grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12). These nine contenders, and the students who proposed them, are: Endurance, K-4, Oliver Jacobs of Virgina. Tenacity, K-4, Eamon Reilly of Pennsylvania. Promise, K-4, Amira Shanshiry of Massachusetts. Perseverance, 5-8, Alexander Mather of Virginia. Vision, 5-8, Hadley Green of Mississippi. Clarity, 5-8, Nora Benitez of California. Ingenuity, 9-12, Vaneeza Rupani of Alabama. Fortitude, 9-12, Anthony Yoon of Oklahoma. Courage, 9-12, Tori Gray of Louisiana. NASA encouraged the public to vote for their favorite of these nine through the end of last month. But the final decision was made by Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, agency officials wrote in an update on Tuesday (March 3). Zurbuchen will attend the name-unveiling event on Thursday, as will Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington; Deanne Bell, the founder and CEO of California-based organization Future Engineers, which ran the naming contest in partnership with NASA and Ohio-based Battelle Education; and the student who submitted the winning name. Mars 2020's chief task involves hunting for signs of ancient life in Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and river delta billions of years ago. The six-wheeled rover will also collect and store samples for future return to Earth , where scientists can analyze the pristine Mars material in great detail. The $2.5 billion mission also features several technology demonstrations, including a small helicopter scout and an instrument that will generate oxygen from the Red Planet's thin, carbon-dioxide-dominated atmosphere. NASA already has an active rover on the Martian surface, Curiosity , which landed inside the 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater in August 2012. Curiosity has determined that Gale hosted a potentially life-supporting lake-and-stream system for long stretches in the ancient past. Curiosity was named in 2009 by Clara Ma, then a sixth grader in Kansas. Ma graduated from Yale University last year. Mike Wall is the author of " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate ), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook . Brynne Kennedy and Tom McClintock View Photo Sonora, CA The candidates in the District Four Congressional race are reacting to yesterdays election results. The top-two vote-getters, regardless of party, face off in the November General Election. Republican incumbent Tom McClintock received 54-percent of the vote and Democratic Challenger Brynne Kennedy had 36-percent. Republican Julianne Benzel was a distant third with 4.2-percent. McClintock has reacted, by stating, I am deeply grateful to the people of Californias Gold Country and Sierra Nevada for their vote of confidence in yesterdays primary election. Once again, they have spoken clearly for individual liberty, constitutionally limited government and secure borders. The voters of the Fourth District shine as a beacon of hope against the socialist policies that are destroying California and threatening our nation. I couldnt be prouder to stand with them and to stand with the President as we continue our work to restore Americas prosperity, security and greatness. Kennedy has put out a counter-statement, arguing, November will be a choice between a successful business person who sets partisanship aside to put our community first, and a career politician who has repeatedly surrendered to the demands of party bosses and big moneyed, special interests. Our campaign is for everyone who has been left behind or ignored by Tom McClintock. Its for Republicans, Democrats and Independents who share our belief that a Representatives job is to work for everyone not just the people who fund them. Its about uniting our community, not dividing it. Its for those who want more health care choices, lower-cost prescription drugs, practical solutions to the wildfire and home insurance crises, and tax reform that is fair to our district. Click here to view additional election results. District Four covers the Mother Lode region. The hedge fund managed by millionaire Crispin Odey is talking up the prospect of a bidding war breaking out for Sirius Minerals. Sirius shareholders on Tuesday approved a 405million rescue takeover of the Yorkshire potash firm by FTSE 100-listed miner Anglo American. But Odey Asset Management, which has a 1.4 per cent stake in Sirius and like many retail shareholders opposed the Anglo deal, has not given up hope of a better offer. Crispin Odey's hedge fund Odey Asset Management - which has a 1.4% stake in Sirius and like many retail shareholders opposed the Anglo deal - has not given up hope of a better offer The hedge fund believes another group such as Canadian potash producer Canpotex could swoop. Henry Steel, a portfolio manager at Odey, said: 'Now comes the fun part where we wait and see if Canpotex or the Belarusians turn up to take control of this project.' He added: 'We could end up in a bidding war.' Analysts were sceptical, however. John Meyer, mining specialist and head of research at corporate broker SP Angel, said the prospect of another bid 'seems relatively unlikely'. He added: 'Building the mine is a technical challenge which should not be underestimated. 'The marketing and sale of 10m tons a year of Sirius's fertiliser product is an even bigger challenge than the mining. 'You can have all the sales contracts you want but if the farmers decide they don't want to buy that much new fertiliser, then they won't and your product will go unsold. 'Added to that, in the short-term the coronavirus outbreak means acquisitions are not top of anyone's agenda at the moment.' Sirius founder pockets 7m from Anglo takeover Struck gold: Sirius chief exec Chris Fraser will trouser 6.8m from the Anglo deal Sirius Minerals chief executive Chris Fraser walks away from the deal with 6.8million for 124m shares. When the stock peaked at nearly 44p in 2016, his holding was worth 54million. He was handed the bulk of his shares when he reversed his company, York Potash, into a firm called Sirius that was already listed on the London Stock Exchange. Fraser, 45, was paid 18.6million in shares for York Potash by Sirius in 2011 and stays in his role for at least a year once the takeover completes. Anglo American has said there will be no changes to his salary, set to be 486,400 in 2019. He will earn the same in benefits and pension, which were 13,000 and 8,000 respectively in 2018, as well as being eligible for annual bonuses and long-term incentive plans. He added: 'Everyone's battening down the hatches.' The vote to approve Anglo's takeover ended a tense stand-off between many retail shareholders who wanted a better deal and the company, which supported the 5.5p a share offer. Odey joined forces with private investors in slamming Anglo's bid for being too cheap branding it a 'mockery'. He built up a 1.4 per cent stake in the company in the run-up to this week's crunch vote and voted against the takeover, saying Anglo's offer should be at least 7p per share. The average price Odey paid when it bought Sirius stock was 4.9p cheaper than the 5.5p Anglo bid. Odey could have made as much as 1million from the deal but would stand to make even more if a higher offer came in. Sirius needed rescuing after it failed to secure 400million worth of funding last September. This was crucial to unlocking another 1.9billion that it needed to finish building its 4billion Woodsmith mine, close to the seaside town of Whitby, which would feature a tunnel leading to a processing plant on Teesside. After the bungled funding round Sirius said it would go back to the drawing board and either bring on a strategic investor or work out another way to tap the City for cash. Anglo swooped in with its proposal in January, after it declined to become a strategic investor and said it wanted to buy the whole thing. Under the current timetable Sirius's shares will be delisted from the stock market on Monday, March 16. Anglo got the approval of 80 per cent of Sirius shareholders who voted on the deal. It needed to secure at least 75 per cent of the votes. Sirius shares had languished below 5p per share in the days running up to the vote, indicating there was some unease about whether the deal would go through. But its stock jumped last night by 17.5 per cent, or 0.82p, to 5.49p. MOSCOW - A day after an attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, he received a supportive phone call from a surprising source. Russian President Vladimir Putin reached out even before Turkey's Western allies. The gesture helped restore bonds that were severely frayed a year earlier by Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Turkey-Syria border. But Syria is again testing relations between Putin and Erdogan, who are on either side of an escalating and unpredictable showdown in the country's Idlib province. A planned meeting Thursday in Moscow will mark their first face-to-face encounter since Syrian government forces - backed by ally Russia - launched a major offensive in Idlib, the last rebel foothold after nine years of conflict. NATO member Turkey has deployed thousands of troops to prevent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from defeating rebel groups, including Turkish-backed factions, and consolidating Syrian control in Idlib along the Turkish border. Last week, 36 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike Turkey blames on Syrian government forces. Erdogan, who fears that refugees fleeing the Syrian offensive could spill across the border, has threatened to escalate military attacks on Syria if its forces do not retreat. Ankara retaliated by shooting down three Syrian warplanes and inflicting losses on Syrian ground forces in recent days. But the Kremlin appears wary of straining its relationship with Turkey. Russia refrained from intervening on Syria's behalf for the first time since the Idlib fighting first erupted late last year. Previous talks between Putin and Erdogan have produced stopgap measures on Syria, but nothing sustainable. Moscow and Ankara have accused each other of breaching the terms of a 2018 deal. A key point of the pact was the withdrawal of anti-Assad forces - which Putin refers to as "radical militants" - from Idlib. "The Russians will be talking very tough," said Dmitri Trenin, head of the Moscow Carnegie Center. "Putin will mince no words, and basically he will be leaning hard on Erdogan so that he leans harder" on the rebel fighters. Trenin said the events of the past week, including the Turkish troop deaths, were a "reality check on the relationship" between Putin and Erdogan. Still, there is a longer-range strategy for Russia. It took shape after the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Putin swiftly and publicly backed Erdogan, who at the same time accused the West of siding with the organizers of the putsch. The frequency of calls between Erdogan and Putin increased sharply, with Erdogan phoning Putin more than any other world leader, Turkey analyst Soner Cagaptay said. "The Kremlin had a dream to pull back the wayward [Erdogan] from the West, decisively weaken NATO, change the entire strategic alignment in the all-important southwest direction and secure the Black Sea," Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer wrote in a commentary for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Erdogan, too, saw value in strengthening ties with Putin, Cagaptay said, especially after Erdogan observed how partnership with the Kremlin bolstered the regimes of Assad and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. Erdogan showed his commitment to Putin by purchasing Russia's S-400 surface-to-air defense system last year, antagonizing the United States and other Western allies in the process. "It's kind of protection money, right?" said Cagaptay, author of "Erdogan's Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East." "I think it's very difficult for Erdogan to walk away from that purchase, because if he did, he would lose Putin's backing." "And I think Erdogan's takeaway from that after the coup was, 'Whatever I do, I should always make sure that I have Putin cover my back,' " Cagaptay said. "Because look at other threatened leaders globally. I mean, five years ago, who thought Assad would survive?" Even as Russia and Turkey have edged toward directly clashing in northwest Syria, they're still jointly patrolling northeast Syria as part of last fall's deal between the two countries that forced Syrian Kurdish fighters away from a swath of territory near Turkey's border. Another wrinkle is that the countries have backed rival factions in Libya's civil war, an issue that could give Russia leverage during Thursday's talks, Cagaptay said. Russian mercenaries - which the Kremlin denies any relationship to - are helping eastern warlord Khalifa Hifter, who also has the backing of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Ankara is supporting the U.N.-installed government in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Turkey has significant financial interests invested in Tripoli - a preliminary $2.7 billion compensation deal for work carried out in Libya before the 2011 civil war as well as an agreement to carve out gas drilling rights in the Mediterranean Sea. "There's more at stake for Turkey in Libya than there is in Syria," Cagaptay said. Lee Nak-yon, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's special committee to deal with COVID-19, speaks during a meeting with government and Cheong Wa Dae officials at the National Assembly, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap By Do Je-hae The government said, Wednesday, it would take all possible measures to secure sufficient supply of masks for protection against COVID-19, amid soaring public anger over a shortage. During a meeting at the National Assembly, Wednesday, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), the government and Cheong Wa Dae discussed ways to improve the supply of masks as the epidemic shows no signs of easing. "In reality, it is true that we are currently unable to keep up with the demand of more than 30 million masks per day," presidential policy chief Kim Sang-jo said at the meeting. "We will take responsibility for the failure to quickly supply masks. We will increase production as much as possible and reduce speculative demand while securing the right amount for public distribution. These measures will help the people acquire masks more equitably." They said mask manufacturers will be encouraged to work on weekends and mask exports will be restricted. They added they are devising measures to prevent mask hoarding and improve distribution channels so people won't have to queue for hours to buy a handful of masks. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun also said, in a meeting with reporters in Daegu, that the government would come up with an almost ration-like mask distribution solution. One of the ways the government is considering is to include masks in the Drug Utilization Review (DUR), a system used at pharmacies to keep track of purchase records of prescribed drugs. Currently, non-prescription items such as masks are not subject to any system. If applied to masks, consumers would need to present their ID numbers before purchasing them at pharmacies, and a pharmacy would be able to check whether a customer has already bought their quota of masks at other pharmacies. The adoption of the DUR system to masks has gained much public attention after it was suggested in a recent petition on Cheong Wa Dae's website by a pharmacist from North Gyeongsang Province. During an interpellation session at the National Assembly, Tuesday, Finance Minister said that such a system will be ready within a few days. The measures to deal with the mask shortage came after President Moon Jae-in ordered solutions to deal with it during a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday. Moon apologized for the mask situation which has caused grave inconveniences for the public. Headlines have been filled with stories of people lining up for hours to get masks. "We regret the public inconvenience from the failure to supply masks quickly and sufficiently," the President said. "With the soaring number of confirmed cases and the rise in infections in communities, the supply has not been able to keep up with the increased demand. There are certainly difficulties in importing the masks. I urge the government to explain the situation to the people and urge their understanding and support." New Delhi/Kabul, March 4 : Since the US and Taliban inked their peace deal, Afghanistan has been fast heading towards greater instability and political turmoil. While the violence has resumed at the same level as it was before February 21, when the week-long 'reduction in violence' pact between the US and Taliban came into effect, the Afghan government scheduled to begin its talks with the Taliban on March 10, is yet to announce its negotiating team. Two days after the peace treaty was signed, the Afghan militant group ordered its members to launch terror attacks against the Afghanistan government. The Taliban after it got the go-ahead from its leadership, killed three people in a bomb blast on Monday and three civilians on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Taliban launched 33 attacks in 17 provinces, killing over 16 soldiers and five civilians were killed amid the "reduction in violence" pact between the US and the Taliban. As per the "peace treaty", the US and Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the Taliban fulfills its side of the deal. Around 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan security force prisoners are to be swapped by March 10. However, it is not clear whether the prisoners will be exchanged since Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Sunday rejected Taliban's demand for the release of the detainees within ten days. Ghani has taken a stand that any precondition for the intra-Afghan talks is unacceptable to him. His posturing stands in contrast to Abdullah Abdullah, the self-declared president of Afghanistan, who disputed the results of the elections which were held last year and re-elected Ashraf Ghani. Abdullah, sources told IANS, has appointed Hizb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the governor of Badkhshan province bordering China and Pakistan. Hekmatyar, who served as Afghan prime minister twice, is an Islamist warlord accused of committing numerous atrocities. His group is the second largest militant outfit in Afghanistan. Ghani and Abdullah also disagree over the formation of a negotiating team with the former keen on not having more than eight members. Abdullah has accused Ghani of monopolising the peace process. Interestingly, Abdullah has been accused of receiving funds from Pakistani agencies. Meanwhile, the political chief of the Afghan Taliban, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai in a rare interview to media said that the militant group has got invite from several countries in Asia and Europe to hold intra-Afghan dialogue. He said the group was yet to decide the venue, but would certainly hold one round of talks in Pakistan. Since the beginning of the talks, Pakistan had been proposing that the eastern and southern Afghanistan, already in control of Taliban, be handed over to them officially. On Tuesday even as US President Donald Trump said that he has had a good phone conversation with Taliban chief Mullah Biradar, the spokesperson for the US forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday declared that the US will defend its allies in the country, indicating that it still stands by Ashraf Ghani government. "As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required," spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan, Col. Sonny Leggett said. Britain Warns of Wider Coronavirus Threat By Jamie Dettmer March 03, 2020 British officials are trying to ready the country for a "more widespread transmission" of coronavirus and have warned that in the event of a major spread cities could be locked down and public transport suspended. But they are being buffeted by a headwind of criticism either being blamed for sowing the seeds of panic, or for not acting more decisively to try stem the virus from reaching Britain in the first place. Some critics question why the example of Italy was not copied and flights from China were not banned earlier. Others suggest the government has been laggardly in cutting flights to and from Italy a move London is still reluctant to do, in contrast to British-based airlines, which have announced a drastic reduction in the number of flights. | If police lose "significant staff" numbers to illness, they would "concentrate on responding to serious crimes and maintaining public order," according to a government battle plan unveiled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday. And if coronavirus becomes established, there will be a focus on essential services and helping those "most at risk to access the right treatment." The armed forces will provide support as needed. Containing threat, and panic The country early Tuesday had a total of 40 confirmed cases, a fraction of the numbers in Italy, Europe's coronavirus epicenter. But with some cases in Britain now not linked to travel to China or to north Italy, fears are mounting of so-called "community transmission," or infection by people in their own city or neighborhood rather than by those coming from outside. After chairing Monday a COBRA cross-department meeting about COVID-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the outbreak is "likely" to become "more significant" across Britain in the coming days and weeks. "We've agreed a plan so that if and when it starts to spread, as I'm afraid it looks likely it will, we are in a position to take the steps that will be necessary," he said. Johnson has, though, sought to allay public fears, adding that Britons should "go about business as usual" for the time being and assuring them the health and emergency services are "very, very well-prepared." But as Italian politicians are discovering, there is a dilemma in trying to contain the virus as well as lay the groundwork for coping with broader contagion, while at the same time avoiding sparking further public alarm. Government officials say privately it could be months and not just weeks before the outbreak in Britain peaks, presenting another conundrum: how to balance what needs to be done to curb the outbreak while inflicting as little as damage as possible on an economy that is already trying to brace for the possible consequences of Brexit? The World Health Organization, WHO, is warning that the "window of opportunity" to contain the virus is "narrowing" and officials say that while many observers are focused on Italy, which has taken the most decisive action of any European country so far, there will be more shocks in store elsewhere on the continent. Almost nine times as many coronavirus cases were reported outside China as inside in the previous 24 hours, they say. The risk posed by coronavirus in the European Union was raised to its second highest level Monday. Phased response The focus in Britain is still on containment, but the government is planning different phases of reaction and response in line with a strategy of "contain, delay, research and mitigate" the threat. The main aim is to avoid major spikes of patients that could overwhelm the country's health services. In case it cannot, the government is planning to return retired doctors and nurses to work. A wider spread, depending on its reach and severity, will trigger, ministers have said publicly, more urgent and drastic responses. New emergency plans are being prepared to give schools and local authorities' powers to suspend laws to cope with a pandemic. Businesses will be told to encourage employees to work from home. Whole cities could be shuttered, large gatherings banned and public transport suspended, if needed. "Under the worst case scenario we would have to take some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption," the country's health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the BBC. "It may be necessary to close some schools and other population distancing measures," he added. Asked if the government might follow the Chinese and Italian strategy of isolating individual cities and towns with large outbreaks, he said: "There's clearly a huge economic and social downside to that but we don't take anything off the table at this stage because you have got to make sure you have all the tools available if necessary." France announced Sunday a ban on public gatherings of more than 5,000 people. A team of scientists and media consultants is also to be set up to handle a public information campaign with posters and social media ads telling people to wash their hands and other steps to take to reduce their risk of contracting the virus. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Health authorities in Argentina and Chile on Tuesday confirmed their first cases of the Novel Coronavirus, as the number of infection cases continued to spread across South America. A 43-year-old man who recently returned to the capital Buenos Aires on Sunday from a trip to Italy, while a 33-year-old Chilean man who had spent a month in South-East Asia were confirmed as the first coronavirus cases in the Latin American neighbours, Xinhua news agency reported. "The man visited several places in Europe, but mainly Italy," Argentina Health Minister Gines Gonzalez was quoted as saying at a press conference. The patient told healthcare workers that he lives alone and had not gone out socially, so the chances of having infected others were low. In Latin America, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have also reported cases of the Coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the Supreme Court ruling on its application for a review on the judgement that sacked Emeka Ihedioha as governor as an endorsement of electoral fraud. This was contained in a long statement released via the official Twitter handle of the party. The Party wrote: PDP: S/Court Verdict On Imo, An Endorsement of Electoral Fraud The @OfficialPDPNig says the verdict of the Supreme Court on the review of its judgment on the Imo state governorship election is a disconcerting endorsement of electoral fraud, which places a huge burden on the court and the Lord Justices. The @OfficialPDPNig however notes that in the face of the sad verdict, Justice Chima Nwezes judgment presents a glimpse of hope for our nations judiciary. Our party abides completely by every word of the judgment of Justice Nweze as treated facts, which are truly sacred. Justice Nwezes pronouncement, which went straight into the substance of our application represents a universal view about the travesty of justice that occurred in the Imo state governorship election judgment. It is indeed unfortunate that the Supreme Court had the wholesome opportunity to redeem itself and correct its errors, but choose to hide behind technicality to justify and endorse an electoral fraud. What Nigerians expected of the Supreme Court, since the error in its earlier judgment had been fully established, was to summon the courage to affirm its infallibility by correcting the errors and handing over victory to the rightful winner. Sadly, it failed to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, what the Supreme Court had done in this judgment is to uphold and legalize the writing of election results by individual contestants against the will of the people as expressed at the poll. As a party, we hold that on this judgment, all election stakeholders must rally to create remedies for this pathetic situation created by the Supreme Court in the Imo governorship election before our entire electoral process becomes vanquished. This judgment will continue to haunt the Supreme Court. It has created a burden of precedence and fallibility on the Court. PDP: S/Court Verdict On Imo, An Endorsement of Electoral Fraud The @OfficialPDPNig says the verdict of the Supreme Court on the review of its judgment on the Imo state governorship election pic.twitter.com/1oLAhy9Rnn Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) March 3, 2020 is a disconcerting endorsement of electoral fraud, which places a huge burden on the court and the Lord Justices. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) March 3, 2020 The @OfficialPDPNig however notes that in the face of the sad verdict, Justice Chima Nwezes judgment presents a glimpse of hope for our nations judiciary. Our party abides completely by every word of the judgment of Justice Nweze as treated facts, which are truly sacred. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) March 3, 2020 Justice Nwezes pronouncement, which went straight into the substance of our application represents a universal view about the travesty of justice that occurred in the Imo state governorship election judgment. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) March 3, 2020 What Nigerians expected of the Supreme Court, since the error in its earlier judgment had been fully established, was to summon the courage to affirm its infallibility by correcting the errors and handing over victory to the rightful winner. Sadly, it failed to do so. Official PDP Nigeria (@OfficialPDPNig) March 3, 2020 Marines with 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, fire an M777 Howitzer at known targets during training August 9, 2018, at Mount Bundey Training Area, Australia. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Wetzel The US military is putting blast gauges on body armor to detect whether or not a US service member has been exposed to a potentially harmful blast. Pentagon officials recently revealed information on the sensor program in a briefing on the traumatic brain injuries US service members suffered after an Iranian missile attack in January. The system involves three blast sensors, one for the head, the chest, and a shoulder, that provide blast overpressure data, which could be used to determine if an affected service member might be in need of medical evaluation. The program is still a trial program with more testing planned for the next year and a half to two years. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The US military is putting sensors on body armor to detect whether troops have been exposed to potentially harmful blasts. In the wake of an Iranian missile attack on US forces in Iraq in early January, 110 US troops were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries. Initial reports indicated there were no injuries, due in large part to the difficulty of detecting and diagnosing TBIs, Defense Department officials have explained. The body armor blast sensors, still a part of a US military trial program, could make it easier to tell if a service member needs medical evaluation by measuring blast overpressure exposure. BlackBox Biometrics blast gauge Courtesy of BlackBox "It's three sensors ... that will detect whether you were exposed to a blast event," Joseph Ludovici, the principal director for military community and family policy, told reporters at the Pentagon recently. He explained that even if a warfighter does not have any immediate symptoms, "if your tracker shows that you were exposed to a blast event, then we're going ahead and evaluating those folks to see whether they have traumatic brain injury." A total of 58 military units consisting of 12 to 360 individuals have been equipped with a total of 4,408 sets of B3G7 sensors (BlackBox Biometrics 7th generation blast gauges). These sensors are being tested as part of the Combat in training Queryable exposure/Event Repository (CONQUER) program. Story continues Each service member gets three gauges, one for the helmet, one for the chest, and one for the shoulder. BlackBox Biometrics blast gauges Courtesy of BlackBox "What these blast gauges read is the blast overpressure wave, which is measured in pounds per square inch or PSI," Kathy Lee, the special assistant for TBI matters for the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told reporters Wednesday. "So, we're getting PSI values from three different places on wearable sensors that the service member has." Each of the blast gauges have green, yellow, and red lights. In a blast scenario, one to four PSI is green, four to sixteen is yellow, and greater than sixteen is red. Green is better than red, but it doesn't mean someone is good to go. The blast sensors give warfighters, as well as medical personnel, data to better understand what they were exposed to. To diagnose a TBI, medical professionals use the MACE II tool, which is a comprehensive evaluation tool. As part of the ongoing testing of the blast sensors, military researchers are also looking at how the various sensor readouts match up with certain neurological and cognitive impacts associated with TBIs to get a better grasp of what the readings mean from a health and performance standpoint. Previous analysis of traumatic blast events focused on static measurements in open fields, but the new system looks at dynamic measurements for individual service members, Lee said. The blast sensors are currently being tested in training environments to evaluate the impact of certain weapons and munitions, but within the next 18 to 24 months, the sensors will be tested down range in operational environments. At the end of the testing, recommendations will be submitted to the department on how to proceed. Read the original article on Business Insider The headquarter of the WIPO is pictured in Geneva By Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - A Singaporean beat a Chinese candidate in the race to lead the world patent office, heading off Beijing's bid for a fifth U.N. leadership role, much to the satisfaction of the United States. Daren Tang defeated fellow legal expert Wang Binying in a closed-door vote by dozens of countries to become director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property. Intellectual property has been at the heart of a trade war between Washington and Beijing. Washington, along with many other Western countries, had backed Tang for the job and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that Washington was following the patent office vote "very, very closely". Tang was chosen in a vote of WIPO's coordinating committee, a group of 83 countries chaired by France which said the breakdown was 55 for Tang and 28 for the Chinese candidate. "We are very pleased with the election outcome," said Andrew Bremberg, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "We believe that today's overwhelming vote was a clear demonstration of the importance of protecting intellectual property and the entire independence of WIPO in the international community," he added. Chinese ambassador Chen Xu told Reuters: "We express our gratitude for all who supported us, and congratulate who was elected. We are ready to continue our participation, involvement and contributions to this important international agency." The 193-member U.N. agency, based in Geneva, oversees a patent system in which China and its companies have a growing stake. Under the leadership of outgoing Australian head Francis Gurry, WIPO has overseen an explosion in patent filings and has begun preliminary talks on whether artificial intelligence, or machines, can be inventors. WIPO, in contrast to many other U.N. agencies which are underfunded, expects revenues of 880 million Swiss francs ($921 million) in 2020-2021, mostly due to patent filing fees. Story continues China already has its nationals heading four U.N. agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. That is more than any other member state and Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group think-tank, said it was part of Beijing's drive to win more influence within the United Nations, especially in economic and development fields. (Additional reporting by Vincent Lee in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robert Birsel and Pravin Char) Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead in Bellurgan, Co Louth in 2013 Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was on an armed cash escort during a previous robbery at the same credit union where he was shot dead 17 months later, a trial has heard. Evidence was given at the Central Criminal Court of an armed raid at Lordship Credit Union in August 2011 during which 22,500 was stolen in 23 seconds. The jury was told it is not the prosecution's case that Aaron Brady (29), on trial for the capital murder of Det Gda Donohoe, was involved in the earlier robbery. Mr Brady (29) has pleaded not guilty to the murder Adrian Donohoe (41), who was then a member of An Garda Siochana acting in the course of his duty at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013. Expand Close Aaron Brady has denied murder / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Aaron Brady has denied murder The accused, of New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, also denies the robbery of approximately 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques from Pat Bellew at the same location on the same date. Credit union volunteer John Kenwright told the court that he was working on the evening of August 5, 2011, at the Lordship branch. He exited the building with other staff at around 9.30pm and the front door was locked. That evening, Mr Kenwright said, he was responsible for bringing the day's cash takings totalling approximately 22,500 in cash and 35,000 in cheques to Dundalk where they were to be deposited. The court heard that Det Gda Adrian Donohoe was providing the armed cash escort for credit unions on the Carlingford Peninsula that night but that at he was still at the Cooley branch when the robbery took place. Mr Kenwright said that at the time it was normal practice for the staff member transporting the cash takings to sit in their car and wait for the armed escort to arrive from the other credit unions. The witness said that two minutes after his colleagues had left the car park he heard a "high-powered" vehicle approach from the direction of Ballymacscanlon Roundabout. He agreed with Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that the car drove up behind his own vehicle very fast and that it screeched as it came to a stop. CCTV footage was played to the court which showed the black coloured car entering the car park and exiting 23 seconds later. Mr Kenwright said that he looked out of his side-view mirror and saw the driver get out and point a sawn-off shotgun at him. The raider was shouting "give me the money" and a second armed man emerged at the passenger side door. This man was also carrying a gun and smashed the passenger side window with the butt of the weapon, the court heard, before grabbing the money bag on the passenger seat. Mr Kenwright described both men as being in their early 20s, around 5'9 in height and as having local accents. He recalled ringing 999 and being in shock, saying: "It wasn't the nicest thing to happen." Det Gda Stacey Linnane, of Dundalk Garda Station, gave evidence of responding to a report of an armed robbery at Lordship Credit Union that night. She said that during the course of the investigation she became aware that a black Audi A3 was stolen in a creeper burglary in Silverbridge, Co Down, earlier that day and used in the robbery. This vehicle was later found burnt out in the Flagstaff area of Co Down near a forest that runs along by Carlingford across the Border. She said that a full forensic examination as well as fingerprinting was carried out but that no probative evidence was recovered. Det Gda Linnane agreed with Mr Grehan that there was a Garda escort due from Cooley Credit Union at the Lordship branch that night which was being provided by Det Gda Adrian Donohoe. The 14-person jury were told that the court would be dealing with legal issues in their absence and that they will be required again next week. Key indices opened higher buy swiftly fell into the negative territory on select selling in index stocks. At 9:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 50.180 points or 0.13% at 38,573.52. The Nifty 50 index was down 13.65 points or 0.12% at 11,289.65. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.74%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.55%. Both these indices underperformed the BSE Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 415 shares rose and 633 shares fell. A total of 58 shares were unchanged. Stocks in news: Hindustan Aeronautics fell 3.56%. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has informed that the company has received a notice from International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on request for Arbitration from RUAG Aerospace Services GMBH. The company has initiated necessary action w.r.t. arbitration process. The amount in dispute partially quantified by the opponent party is US$ 21,872,500 (i.e. EUR 20,000,000) against alleged damages on breach of agreement regarding supply of structural parts for production of Dornier-228, by HAL. Tech Mahindra rose 0.48%. Tech Mahindra said the company's subsidiary Comviva Technologies has agreed to sell its 100% shareholding in Terra Payment Services (Netherlands) BV along with its subsidiaries. HFCL was up 1.73%. HFCL said the company has received the purchase order worth Rs 196 crore from Larsen & Toubro for supply of Optical Fibre Cables (OFC) for construction of Telangana Fiber Grid (T-Fiber) by them under Bharat Net Phase-II Programme of the Government of India, in the State of Telangana. Newgen Software Technologies added 1.71%. Newgen Software Technologies announced that the US Patent Office has issued a patent for its mark detection system and methodology. The mark detection system is used to identify marks, like tick and cross marks, on document images. Canara Bank shed 1.27%. Canara Bank said CARE Ratings has assigned 'AAA' rating (Credit watch with developing implications) to the bank's Tier-II bonds. Global Markets: Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading lower on Wednesday as an emergency rate cut from the US Federal Reserve did little to soothe investor fears over the coronavirus's widening fallout. In US, stocks finished sharply lower on Tuesday, after a volatile trading session, and Treasury yields fell to historic lows, with Wall Street deeming a surprise inter-meeting interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve insufficient to restore confidence in a market that has been rocked by worries about the spread of coronavirus world-wide. The decline for markets came as the Fed announced a half-a-percentage-point rate cut, reportedly saying that while the economy's fundamentals remain strong, the coronavirus-poses evolving risks to economic activity. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China issued a guideline Tuesday to build a modern environmental governance system in a bid to provide institutional support for a better ecological environment. The guideline, jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, aimed to put in place by 2025 a sound environmental governance system that specifies responsibilities of governments at all levels and firms, encourages public participation and features stronger government supervision. Efforts will be made to build an open and regulated environmental treatment market. The country will offer a level playing field for all types of enterprises and guide capital to participate in the investment, construction and operation of environmental governance. Greener approach of production shall be promoted among firms, and innovative technologies strengthened to reduce pollutants, while firms will be required to disclose their pollution-related information and held responsible for its authenticity, according to the guideline. China will also boost financial support for environmental protection and establish a fund dedicated to green development, the guideline said. Tightening travel restrictions as cases of Coronavirus surge, India on Wednesday suspended all the visas granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan on or before February 03. In a new advisory, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, also suspended the visas to foreign nationals travelled to China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan issued to them on or after February 2. The advisory comes hours after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that India has 28 cases of Coronavirus. Diplomats, officials of UN and other international bodies, OCI cardholders and Aircrew from the above countries are exempted from restriction on entry. However, they will have to undergo medical screening. "All regular visas and e-Visa (including VoA for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and issued on or before 03.03.2020 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect. Those requiring to travel to India due to compelling reasons may seek fresh visa from nearest Indian Embassy/ Consulate," read the advisory. "Regular (sticker) visa / e-Visa granted to nationals of Peoples Republic of China, issued on or before 05.02.2020 were suspended earlier. It shall remain in force. Those needing to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for a fresh visa to the nearest Indian Embassy or Consulate," added the advisory. The ministry also announced that all passengers other than those restricted countries, arriving directly or indirectly from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan must undergo medical screening at the port of entry. It advised Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and Japan advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-15 affected countries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Queensland's Tourism Minister hopes her federal counterpart comes this week with "cash in a bag" as the novel coronavirus continues to savage the industry. Australia's tourism ministers will meet on Friday to discuss the effects of the global outbreak that has already sucked about $100 million from Queensland's tourism industry. Queensland's tourism industry has been wiped out to the tune of $100 million. Credit:Michelle Smith Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg have flagged plans bolster the economy against the coronavirus in the "not too distant future" but the details of the "targeted" measures were yet to be announced. Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones said at the very least the federal government should match the state's $27 million rescue package for tourism operators, announced last month. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A jury on Tuesday convicted a New Brighton man of possessing a loaded gun inside a car in West Brighton last year. Jaime Medina, 31, was arrested on Feb. 5, 2019, said a criminal complaint. Medina was seated in the rear left side of a car which cops had pulled over for an alleged license-plate violation at about 7:55 p.m. on the 1000 block of Castleton Avenue, according to police and a criminal complaint. The location is between North Burgher Avenue and Broadway. A lit marijuana cigarette allegedly was in the defendants hand, and a strong odor of pot emanated from the vehicle, the complaint said. Medinas hand was touching a backpack, which was placed directly beside his seat, the complaint said. Inside the backpack, cops found a loaded black Glock Model 17 9 mm handgun with a laser-sight attachment, said the complaint. Sixteen rounds were inside the magazine, the complaint said. Medina was arrested and charged with criminal weapon possession and criminal marijuana possession. The marijuana charges were ultimately dismissed. The jury, which began deliberating on Friday, convicted Medina of the sole count submitted to them - second-degree criminal weapon possession. The defendant potentially faces up to 15 years behind bars when sentenced on May 4 in state Supreme Court, St. George. Medina, who testified on his own behalf, remains free on his own recognizance. Reached by phone, defense lawyer John Buza said the defendant will appeal. Mr. Medina maintains his innocence, said Buza. We think the jury got it wrong. District Attorney Michael E. McMahon praised the jurors decision. This verdict is a testament to my offices commitment to keeping illegal guns out of our communities and off our streets, said McMahon. We will continue to work closely with our partners in the NYPD to prevent gun violence and keep Staten Island safe. The D.A. thanked Assistant District Attorneys Kate Malloy and Matthew Gamberg for securing the conviction and their tireless efforts on the case. The defendant has a criminal record. In July 2018, he was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession and sentenced to a conditional discharge, said court papers. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:31:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RAMALLAH, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Wednesday slammed senior U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for remarks supporting settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. During the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday, Pompeo said that the U.S. will take action against the UN Human Rights Council "blacklist" of the businesses working in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Pompeo chose to criticize the parties that criticize the American bias and champion international law and legitimacy," said the Foreign Ministry in a statement. "He poured his outrage on the UN Human Rights Council and threatened to carry out punitive measures to all those who harm American companies working in settlements," it said. The ministry warned that Pompeo's remarks undermine any chance for achieving peace based on the two-state solution and on international terms of reference. Boris Johnson heaped praise on Priti Patel at PMQs today despite fresh claims she bullied civil servants. Ms Patel was seated next to Mr Johnson for PMQs as he voiced 'confidence' in her and said she is doing an 'outstanding job'. Challenged by Jeremy Corbyn on the issues, Mr Johnson said it was right that complaints were being looked at by the Cabinet Office. But he added: 'The Home Secretary is doing an outstanding job - delivering change, putting police on the streets, cutting crime and delivering a new immigration system - and I'm sticking by her.' He added that he would 'take no lessons about bullying' from the leader of a party where 'female MPs were bullied so badly in the manner of anti-Semitism they actually left the party'. Home Secretary Priti Patel at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, March 4 Ms Patel was seated next to Mr Johnson for PMQs as he voiced 'confidence' in her and said she is doing an 'outstanding job' Challenged by Jeremy Corbyn on the issues, Mr Johnson said it was right that complaints were being looked at by the Cabinet Office The latest claims revolve around Ms Patel's time at the Department for International Development. Officials in her private office are said to have made a 'tsunami' of complaints about her behaviour. She has been accused of ridiculing and belittling staff, and exerting 'heavy pressure' in emails. Two senior civil servants at DfID were reportedly aware of bullying complaints against Ms Patel. The latest allegations - furiously denied by Ms Patel - follows the resignation at the weekend of the top official at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, over similar claims. Ms Patel tried to cool the situation last night by sending a joint email to staff with interim permanent secretary Shona Dunn, voicing 'regret' at Sir Philip's decision. They urged the department to come together as 'one team'. But Labour today claimed the party had been contacted in the past 24 hours by Government staff with fresh bullying allegations. Priti Patel (left) was seated next to Boris Johnson for PMQs after he voiced confidence in her Ms Patel (pictured on the green benches behind Mr Johnson at PMQs) has furiously denied the allegations of bullying Claims against Ms Patel include the allegation she 'dressed down' staff in front of their colleagues and asked: 'Why is everyone so f***ing useless?' In the chamber Mr Corbyn squared up to the PM as Ms Patel sat by him, saying: 'The Prime Minister said ''if there are allegations'' - is he completely unaware of all the allegations that have been made in the last few days? 'Is he completely unaware of the resignation of a permanent secretary because of his treatment by the Home Secretary? 'We have a part-time Prime Minister who barely turns up but is determined to cover up for bullies in his Government. 'When his Home Secretary has been accused of repeated bullying and harassment, leading to hard-working staff attempting suicide by overdose, he gave her his full support. 'How can the people of this country have faith in a Prime Minister who can't be bothered to turn up, and when he does has no shame in defending bullying in his own Government?' Mr Johnson replied: 'That is a question from a full-time neo-Marxist who has failed to stamp out bullying in his own party.' Mr Corbyn's spokesman later told a Westminster briefing: 'We've had Government staff contact our office directly with information and allegations about bullying in the Home Office by Priti Patel.' He would not be drawn on how many people had contacted Labour, but said staff from the Home Office and other departments had contacted the party in the last 24 hours. Priti Patel 'regrets' resignation of Home Office mandarin Philip Rutnam in email to staff Home Secretary Priti Patel has expressed her 'regret' at the decision of the senior civil servant at the Home Office to quit and urged staff in the department to come together as 'one team'. In a joint email to staff written with Sir Philip's interim successor Shona Dunn, Ms Patel insisted they cared about the wellbeing of all employees. They expressed their gratitude to the staff for their continuing hard work and 'commitment to deliver the Government's priorities'. 'We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the well-being of all our staff. It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team,' they wrote. 'We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. 'Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld.' They added: 'We both regret Sir Philip's decision to resign. He had a long and dedicated career of public service for which we thank him.' Advertisement The allegations relate to Ms Patel and another former minister, the spokesman said. He added: 'They are bullying and harassment allegations of Government staff and they simply build up the picture that has already accumulated in recent days. 'It is quite clear this is not an isolated allegation by one individual about one incident or one set of incidents.' A former aide at the Department for Works and Pensions is also reported to have received a 25,000 payout from the Government after claiming she was bullied by Ms Patel when she was employment minister. Repeatedly tackled by Mr Corbyn and Labour MPs on the allegations about Ms Patel today, Mr Johnson said: 'The Home Secretary is doing an outstanding job, I have every confidence in her. 'If there are allegations, of course it's right they should be properly investigated by the Cabinet Office and that is what is happening.' He added he 'takes no lessons about bullying' from the leader of a party where 'female MPs were bullied so badly in the manner of anti-Semitism they actually left the party'. But Mr Corbyn shot back: 'The Prime Minister said if there are allegations - is he completely unaware of all the allegations that have been made in the last few days? Is he completely unaware of the resignation of a permanent secretary because of his treatment by the Home Secretary?' The latest claims, reported by the BBC's Newsnight, relate to the period around 2017 when Ms Patel was sacked by Theresa May from DfID over unauthorised contacts with the Israeli government. Following her dismissal, a senior official was said to have approached staff in her private offices about allegations that they had heard of bullying. The senior figure was said to have been told of multiple claims of staff being humiliated and coming under heavy pressure in emails - similar to the allegations made about Ms Patel's conduct at the Home Office. The senior figure then went to see another senior figure in DfID and urged them to contact the then cabinet secretary - the late Sir Jeremy Heywood - so that her conduct recorded was 'in the system' if she ever returned to government. Although the individual making the claims has not been named, they were said to be prepared to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry currently under way into allegations she broke the ministerial code. The individual concerned was also said to be ready to give evidence in support of Sir Philip - who is claiming constructive dismissal - if his case goes to an industrial tribunal. However, a Tory source told the BBC's Newsnight there was a 'concerted effort' by sections of the Civil Service to undermine Ms Patel and that 'dark forces' were trying to influence the investigation. A spokesman for Ms Patel said: 'The Home Secretary categorically denies all of these allegations.' The decision by two more civil servants to publicly criticise Ms Patel will increase pressure on the embattled Home Secretary, who is facing calls to temporarily step down while an inquiry is underway into her contact. According to The Times, Sir Mark Lowcock, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of DfID, witnessed bullying behaviour. Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark when he started a new role at the UN, was also reportedly made aware of complaints against Ms Patel. The newspaper said Downing Street aides were also informed of the complaints made by civil servants working for Ms Patel. 'We certainly knew the relationship with her civil servants was not easy,' a special adviser in No 10 reportedly said. 'There were concerns about her methods of working'. According to The Times, Sir Mark Lowcock, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of DfID, witnessed bullying behaviour Allies of Priti Patel yesterday blamed Sir Philip Rutnam for dragging her into a row about an aide who took an overdose amid claims of bullying. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was 'ludicrous' to accuse her of being responsible for the woman's legal case against the Government, arguing that it had started long before Ms Patel took office. The minister has been under fire for weeks after being accused of bullying staff during her time as a minister, and the Cabinet Office is leading an inquiry to 'establish the facts' over whether she breached the ministerial code in her dealings with aides. Ms Patel came under renewed pressure on Monday when it emerged that one of her former aides when she was employment minister took an overdose and received a 25,000 payout from the Government. She shouted at the woman in her private office and told her to 'get lost' and 'get out of her face', legal correspondence alleges. The minister is described in the woman's formal grievance complaint as having acted 'without warning' and with an 'unprovoked level of aggression'. The Department for Work and Pensions did not admit liability and the case did not come before a tribunal, the BBC reported. Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark, was reportedly made aware of the bullying complaints against Ms Patel But yesterday Ms Patel's allies hit back. One said: 'What we are seeing is a concerted effort by certain sections of the Civil Service to undermine a Home Secretary trying to deliver what people want on crime and immigration. 'It is deeply disturbing that dark forces are trying to influence the findings of a Cabinet Office inquiry.' In a joint email to staff written with Sir Philip's interim successor Shona Dunn, Ms Patel insisted they cared about the wellbeing of all employees. They expressed their gratitude to the staff for their continuing hard work and 'commitment to deliver the Government's priorities'. 'We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the well-being of all our staff. It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team,' they wrote. 'We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. 'Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld.' Challenged by Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) on the issues, Mr Johnson said it was right that complaints were being looked at by the Cabinet Office Sir Philip resigned on Saturday following an extraordinary briefing row with Ms Patel after he accused her of belittling staff in the department. He said he had become the 'target of a vicious and orchestrated campaign against him', which he alleged she was involved in. But Ms Patel's friend said: 'It's actually very serious that a civil servant had mental health issues and attempted to take her own life because of the way she was treated by her civil service colleagues. 'And it's childish and stupid for anonymous friends of Philip Rutnam to push around false stories about civil service mistakes which she [Ms Patel] had nothing to do with.' The row came after Boris Johnson asked the Cabinet Office to 'establish the facts' around bullying claims. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the inquiry will examine all the complaints, although it is unclear if the Department for Work and Pensions claim is included. The PM has already offered his support, calling her a 'fantastic Home Secretary'. Yesterday, it emerged she has sent an internal email to staff saying she regretted Sir Philip's resignation and calling on her department to pull together. Former Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir Philip Rutnam (pictured appearing before the Home Affairs Committee in February last year) quit at the weekend Asked yesterday if Mr Johnson knew about the DWP allegation, his official spokesman said: 'The Home Secretary denies any allegations of bullying and the PM has expressed full confidence in her. An inquiry is under way.' Boris Johnson has expressed his full confidence in Ms Patel, who he promoted to one of the great offices of state after she had previously been sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May. However, some Tory MPs have questioned how much longer she can carry on in the job, while Labour has complained the inquiry into her conduct - to be carried out by the Cabinet Office - is not fully independent. In the 18th century there was an epidemic of alcoholism in England, with cheap gin as one of the contributing factors. In some parts of London more than one in 10 of the buildings was a gin shop and, in 1751, the artist William Hogarth depicted the problem with a painting entitled Gin Lane. It showed a gin shop with the slogan "Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence and clean straw (to lie on) for nothing". Even then price mattered. It still matters and minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol has just been introduced in Wales in an effort to reduce the harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption. There is, rightly, a particular focus today on illegal drugs and the misuse of prescription drugs, but alcohol abuse remains a major contributor to illness, both physical and mental, and to premature deaths. The introduction of minimum unit pricing in Wales is a move which is supported by health professionals and by international evidence of a negative relationship between price, consumption and alcohol-related harms. The World Health Organisation has identified price and controls on promotion and availability as key methods for addressing alcohol-related health harms. Wales is following the lead of Scotland, where the Scottish Parliament passed the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) Bill in 2012. At the time it was stated that the intervention was intended to reduce alcohol consumption and related harms. However, the new law faced robust opposition from the alcohol industry, which fought a long-running battle in the courts. Their case was based on European Union legislation, but in the end they lost and MUP was introduced in Scotland in May 2018 with a minimum of 50p per unit, the same figure being used in Wales. Subsequently, an early study published in the British Medical Journal confirmed that it had resulted in a reduction in consumption, with the biggest fall being among the heaviest drinkers. The effects were greatest in households who purchased the most alcohol and there was no evidence of a differential negative impact on expenditure on lower-income groups. There is almost no impact on moderate drinkers or on licensed premises. The impact is on those who consume large volumes of cheap alcohol, usually purchased in off-licences and supermarkets. As regards wider society, around half of all violent crime is alcohol-related and it places an additional burden on the police service and the health service Of course, there are ideological libertarians who complain about a "nanny state". They oppose MUP, just as they opposed compulsory seat-belts for car passengers, plain packaging and health warnings for cigarettes and the smoking ban in cars where there are children in the vehicle. Ultra-libertarians would even want to legalise heroin. Personal liberty is important, but alcohol-related harm does not merely concern the individual. It affects partners, families, parents, children and wider society. Around 7,000 babies are born every year in the UK with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a condition that can harm the child, physically, mentally and behaviourally. As regards wider society, around half of all violent crime is alcohol-related and it places an additional burden on the police service and the health service. There is a growing public awareness of alcohol abuse and Scotland and Wales are not the end of the story for MUP in the British Isles. Last July the UK Government said that while it had no plans to introduce MUP in England, it was watching to see what would happen in Scotland. Meanwhile, the Irish Republic has already taken a first step and the Public Health Alcohol Act, which became law in 2018, contains a provision for MUP as one of a series of measures. It is being implemented incrementally and already there are restrictions on alcohol advertising on public transport, on children's clothing and near schools. However, the implementation of MUP has been delayed pending similar legislation in Northern Ireland. Some years ago a DUP Health Minister supported the move and a lot of the preparatory work was done at that time. However, he was waiting - quite correctly - to see the outcome of the legal challenge in Scotland, a matter that is now settled. So, with the restoration of devolution it will be interesting to see if new Health Minister Robin Swann takes this forward. It is not the magic solution to alcohol abuse, but it is a step in the right direction and could form part of a strategy to reduce the harm caused by alcohol abuse. By John W. Whitehead If, as it seems, we are in the process of becoming a totalitarian society in which the state apparatus is all-powerful, the ethics most important for the survival of the true, free, human individual would be: cheat, lie, evade, fake it, be elsewhere, forge documents, build improved electronic gadgets in your garage thatll outwit the gadgets used by the authorities.Philip K. Dick March 04, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Emboldened by the citizenrys inattention and willingness to tolerate its abuses, the government has weaponized one national crisis after another in order to expands its powers. The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school safety schemes, eminent domain: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the police states hands. It doesnt even matter what the nature of the crisis might becivil unrest, the national emergencies, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disastersas long as it allows the government to justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security. Now we find ourselves on the brink of a possible coronavirus contagion. Ill leave the media and the medical community to speculate about the impact the coronavirus will have on the nations health, but how will the governments War on the Coronavirus impact our freedoms? For a hint of whats in store, you can look to Chinaour role model for all things dystopianwhere the contagion started. In an attempt to fight the epidemic, the government has given its surveillance state apparatuswhich boasts the most expansive and sophisticated surveillance system in the worldfree rein. Thermal scanners using artificial intelligence (AI) have been installed at train stations in major cities to assess body temperatures and identify anyone with a fever. Facial recognition cameras and cell phone carriers track peoples movements constantly, reporting in real time to data centers that can be accessed by government agents and employers alike. And coded color alerts (red, yellow and green) sort people into health categories that correspond to the amount of freedom of movement theyre allowed: Green code, travel freely. Red or yellow, report immediately. Mind you, prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese surveillance state had already been hard at work tracking its citizens through the use of some 200 million security cameras installed nationwide. Equipped with facial recognition technology, the cameras allow authorities to track so-called criminal acts, such as jaywalking, which factor into a persons social credit score. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Social media credit scores assigned to Chinese individuals and businesses categorize them on whether or not they are good citizens. A real-name systemwhich requires people to use government-issued ID cards to buy mobile sims, obtain social media accounts, take a train, board a plane, or even buy groceriescoupled with social media credit scores ensures that those blacklisted as unworthy are banned from accessing financial markets, buying real estate or travelling by air or train. Among the activities that can get you labeled unworthy are taking reserved seats on trains or causing trouble in hospitals. That same social credit score technology used to identify, track and segregate citizens is now one of Chinas chief weapons in its fight to contain the coronavirus from spreading. However, it is far from infallible and a prime example of the difficulties involved in navigating an autonomous system where disembodied AI systems call the shots. For instance, one woman, who has no symptoms of the virus but was assigned a red code based on a visit to her hometown, has been blocked from returning to her home and job until her color code changes. She has been stuck in this state of limbo for weeks with no means of challenging the color code or knowing exactly why shes been assigned a red code. Fighting the coronavirus epidemic has given China the perfect excuse for unleashing the full force of its surveillance and data collection powers. The problem, as Eamon Barrett acknowledges in Fortune magazine, is what happens after: Once the outbreak is controlled, its unclear whether the government will retract its new powers. The lesson for the ages: once any government is allowed to expand its powers, its almost impossible to pull back. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the government thus far has limited its coronavirus preparations to missives advising the public to stay calm, wash their hands, and cover their mouths when they cough and sneeze. Dont go underestimating the governments ability to lock the nation down if the coronavirus turns into a pandemic, however. After all, the government has been planning and preparing for such a crisis for years now. The building blocks are already in place for such an eventuality: the surveillance networks, fusion centers and government contractors that already share information in real time; the governments massive biometric databases that can identify individuals based on genetic and biological markers; the militarized police, working in conjunction with federal agencies, ready and able to coordinate with the federal government when its time to round up the targeted individuals; the courts that will sanction the governments methods, no matter how unlawful, as long as its done in the name of national security; and the detention facilities, whether private prisons or FEMA internment camps, that have been built and are waiting to be filled. Now all of this may sound far-fetched to you now, but weve already arrived at the dystopian futures prophesied by George Orwells 1984, Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, and Philip K. Dicks Minority Report. It wont take much more to push us over the edge into Neill Blomkamps Elysium, in which the majority of humanity is relegated to an overpopulated, diseased, warring planet where the government employs technologies such as drones, tasers and biometric scanners to track, target and control the populace. Mind you, while these technologies are already in use today and being hailed for their potentially life-saving, cost-saving, time-saving benefits, it wont be long before the drawbacks to having a government equipped with technology that makes it all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerfulhelped along by the citizenryfar outdistance the benefits. On a daily basis, Americans are relinquishing (in many cases, voluntarily) the most intimate details of who we aretheir biological makeup, our genetic blueprints, and our biometrics (facial characteristics and structure, fingerprints, iris scans, etc.)in order to navigate an increasingly technologically-enabled world. Consider all the ways you continue to be tracked, hunted, hounded, and stalked by the government and its dubious agents: By tapping into your phone lines and cell phone communications, the government knows what you say. By uploading all of your emails, opening your mail, and reading your Facebook posts and text messages, the government knows what you write. By monitoring your movements with the use of license plate readers, surveillance cameras and other tracking devices, the government knows where you go. By churning through all of the detritus of your lifewhat you read, where you go, what you saythe government can predict what you will do. By mapping the synapses in your brain, scientistsand in turn, the governmentwill soon know what you remember. By mapping your biometricsyour face-printand storing the information in a massive, shared government database available to bureaucratic agencies, police and the military, the governments goal is to use facial recognition software to identify you (and every other person in the country) and track your movements, wherever you go. And by accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they dont already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc. Of course, none of these technologies are foolproof. Nor are they immune from tampering, hacking or user bias. Nevertheless, they have become a convenient tool in the hands of government agents to render null and void the Constitutions requirements of privacy and its prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures. The ramifications of a governmentany governmenthaving this much unregulated, unaccountable power to target, track, round up and detain its citizens is beyond chilling. Imagine what a totalitarian regime such as Nazi Germany could have done with this kind of unadulterated power. Imagine what the next police state to follow in Germanys footsteps will do with this kind of power. Society is rapidly moving in that direction. Weve made it so easy for the government to watch us. Government eyes see your every move: what you read, how much you spend, where you go, with whom you interact, when you wake up in the morning, what youre watching on television and reading on the internet. Every move you make is being monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. Chances are, as the Washington Post has reported, you have already been assigned a color-coded threat assessment scoregreen, yellow or redso police are forewarned about your potential inclination to be a troublemaker depending on whether youve had a career in the military, posted a comment perceived as threatening on Facebook, suffer from a particular medical condition, or know someone who knows someone who might have committed a crime. In other words, youre most likely already flagged in a government database somewhere. The government has the know-how. Indeed, for years now, the FBI and Justice Department have conspired to acquire near-limitless power and control over biometric information collected on law-abiding individuals, millions of whom have never been accused of a crime. Going far beyond the scope of those with criminal backgrounds, the FBIs Next Generation Identification database (NGID), a billion dollar boondoggle that is aimed at dramatically expanding the governments ID database from a fingerprint system to a vast data storehouse of iris scans, photos searchable with face recognition technology, palm prints, and measures of gait and voice recordings alongside records of fingerprints, scars, and tattoos. Launched in 2008, the NGID is a massive biometric database that contains more than 100 million fingerprints and 45 million facial photos gathered from a variety of sources ranging from criminal suspects and convicts to daycare workers and visa applicants, including millions of people who have never committed or even been accused of a crime. In other words, innocent American citizens are now automatically placed in a suspect database. For a long time, the government was required to at least observe some basic restrictions on when, where and how it could access someones biometrics and DNA and use it against them. That is no longer the case. The information is being amassed through a variety of routine procedures, with the police leading the way as prime collectors of biometrics for something as non-threatening as a simple moving violation. The nations courts are also doing their part to build the database, requiring biometric information as a precursor to more lenient sentences. And of course Corporate America (including Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.) has made it so easy to use ones biometrics to access everything from bank accounts to cell phones. Weve made it so easy for the government to target, identify and track us. Add pre-crime programs into the mix with government agencies and corporations working in tandem to determine who is a potential danger and spin a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged words, and suspicious activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies, and you having the makings for a perfect dystopian nightmare. This is the kind of oppressive pre-crime and pre-thought crime package foreshadowed by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Phillip K. Dick. Remember, even the most well-intentioned government law or program can beand has beenperverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. In the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes. Surveillance, digital stalking and the data mining of the American people add up to a society in which theres little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence. This is the creepy, calculating yet diabolical genius of the American police state: the very technology we hailed as revolutionary and liberating has become our prison, jailer, probation officer, Big Brother and Father Knows Best all rolled into one. It turns out that we are Soylent Green. The 1973 film of the same name, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson, is set in 2022 in an overpopulated, polluted, starving New York City whose inhabitants depend on synthetic foods manufactured by the Soylent Corporation for survival. Heston plays a policeman investigating a murder, who discovers the grisly truth about the primary ingredient in the wafer, soylent green, which is the principal source of nourishment for a starved population. Its people. Soylent Green is made out of people, declares Hestons character. Theyre making our food out of people. Next thing theyll be breeding us like cattle for food. Oh, how right he was. Soylent Green is indeed people or, in our case, Soylent Green is our own personal data, repossessed, repackaged and used by corporations and the government to entrap us. Without constitutional protections in place to guard against encroachments on our rights when power, technology and militaristic governance converge, it wont be long before we find ourselves, much like Edward G. Robinsons character in Soylent Green, looking back on the past with longing, back to an age where we could speak to whom we wanted, buy what we wanted, think what we wanted, and go where we wanted without those thoughts, words and movements being tracked, processed and stored by corporate giants such as Google, sold to government agencies such as the NSA and CIA, and used against us by militarized police with their army of futuristic technologies. Were not quite there yet. But that moment of reckoning is getting closer by the minute. In the meantime, weve got an epidemic to survive, so go ahead and wash your hands. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. And stock up on whatever you might need to survive this virus if it spreads to your community. We are indeed at our most vulnerable right now, but as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, its the American Surveillance Statenot the coronavirusthat poses the greatest threat to our freedoms. Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People is available at www.amazon.com . Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Recently discharged bankrupt Nathan Tinkler is almost as famous for his love of horses as he is for struggling to pay some of his biggest debtors. Just ask Gerry Harvey. Nathan Tinkler. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit: It was only earlier this year, as the Herald reported, that other companies associated with Tinkler owned and operated by his father Les Tinkler were being pursued by debt collectors. And Racing NSW, the racing regulator, continues its probe into the ownership of the horses owned by the family company. But are things looking up for the former mining magnate? This column's correspondents spotted Tinkler in the well-heeled Queensland hamlet of Maleny recently where online bookie Dean Shannon is flogging his farm. Shannon who made a motza at Ladbrokes and later at rival punting outfit Neds has had his Sunshine Coast hinterland property Montana Park on the market for several years after buying it a decade ago for $7 million. (Newser) When the Trump administration took the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the idea was to instead impose sanctions to pressure Iran to stop developing its nuclear program. Now, "the numbers suggest a different reality"that Iran "now has a pathway to a bomb," the New York Times reports. That pathway, per confidential reports released by the International Atomic Energy Agency to its 171 member states, has now opened up because Iran has both upped its low-enriched uranium stockpile and denied IAEA inspectors access to three vital nuclear sites. Although for much of 2019 Iran had kept its stockpile of uranium fuel to 300 kilograms, or 660 poundsbelow the threshold needed to build one nuclear bombthe new figures indicate Iran has more than 1,000 kilograms, or 2,200 pounds, of uranium enriched up to 4.5%. story continues below Boost that enrichment up to 90%, and that's enough fuel for a nuclear weapon, though Iran has long insisted it doesn't plan to build one. It's the first time Tehran has reached such a benchmark since the nuclear accord went into effect, says the IAEA, which reports to the United Nations. The Guardian notes that, under the 2015 deal, Iran was permitted to keep a uranium stockpile of just shy of 203 kilograms, or about 450 pounds. Experts say Iran's actions are a deliberate move to put the screws to European nations and get the US to back down on the sanctions. "It's worrisome," nuclear proliferation expert David Albright tells the Times, adding that Iran might need just three or four months to enrich the uranium for use in a nuclear warhead. "We didn't expect Iran to be at the 1,000-kilogram mark. ... I'm sure it sent a shiver through the international community." (Read more Iran stories.) To understand the impulses at work that prompted Mamata to make such a statement, we need to put her comments in context of her opposition to the Centre's Citizenship Amendment Act. The Bengal chief minister has been a staunch and vocal critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act and has vowed not to let CAA (and NRC, if and when it is promulgated) be implemented in Bengal. This is curious. On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee made a startling comment that underlines the way the ideological war, ahead of 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal, may shape up. Speaking at a rally in Kaliaganj, she said "all Bangladeshis living in the state are Indian citizens". The implications of this statement cannot be overstated. In advocating for a de facto open border with Bangladesh, Mamata has ended up undermining India's sovereignty and the right of a nation to determine who to allow and not to allow to settle and enjoy the rights and benefits of being an Indian citizen. Such rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, but this guarantee extends to rightful citizens of the country, not illegal immigrants. No nation in the world allows unfettered entry of illegal migrants because a nation's citizens have the first right to its resources. In the US, for example, Donald Trump's immigration policy "protects American workers, taxpayers, and sovereignty." In the UK which has severed ties with the European Union through Brexit the Boris Johnson government has tweaked immigration laws to keep out low-skilled workers and allow only high-skilled immigrants through a point-based system not unlike that of Australia. In European Union itself where migration and asylum have become hot button political issues and have seen rise and fall of governments - the Schengen Borders Code states that "irregular immigrants can and should be refused entry". In 2005, Mamata, then a MP from Bengal and a chief minister-aspirant in a state still ruled by the Left Front, had thrown a sheaf of papers at the Lok Sabha Speaker's podium and "submitted her resignation" as an MP because she claimed her voice was stifled on the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Mamata had brought up the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh getting voting rights in the state. A report from The Telegraph's 4 August, 2005 edition, quoted Mamata as saying, "Illegal migrants from Bangladesh are also part of the voters' list in West Bengal. The state government has done nothing about it. Therefore, the issue must be discussed." Cut to 2020, and Bengal chief minister Mamata now says: "Those who have come to India from Bangladesh are all Indian citizens, they have citizenship. Where is the need to give new citizenship? They have been voting in one election after another... electing Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers and then it is said they are not citizens...no need to believe them." The reason behind this volte-face by the Trinamool Congress chief on the issue of illegal immigration lies in the fact that Mamata is now in power and has benefitted from the "vote-bank" politics of allowing illegal migrants to settle in the state and allowing them voter rights and some privileges (exactly what she opposed in 2005). This perversion of democracy and undermining of the Constitution isn't new, but it is only now that Mamata has been forced to come out in the open about it. To understand the impulses at work that prompted Mamata to make such a statement, we need to put her comments in context of her opposition to the Centre's Citizenship Amendment Act. The Bengal chief minister has been a staunch and vocal critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act and has vowed not to let CAA (and NRC, if and when it is promulgated) be implemented in Bengal. This is curious. Why would a leader who openly declare support for migrants from Bangladesh and be against a law giving expedited citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from India's neighbourhood states (that also includes Bangladesh)? The answer throws light on the political nature of the anti-CAA protests and why politicians such as Mamata are opposed to it. The CAA offers a citizenship to persecuted minorities who have been forced to flee from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and seek refuge in India. It does not offer fast-track citizenship to migrants who have illegally entered India for better economic opportunities. Since a majority of illegal immigrants, who have come for economic opportunities, are Muslims (in the specific case of Bengal), any movement towards amending India's citizenship laws and detecting illegal immigrants threatens to upset the symbiotic relationship between the illegal aliens and the political parties in power who benefit from 'vote-bank politics'. Notably, the CAA does nothing to detect illegal migrants. It is only a legislation for according citizenship rights. Yet, it has triggered paranoia among the likes of Mamata Banerjee because they perceive it as a threat to a policy that the Trinamool Congress chief had opposed in the past but now as the incumbent, finds convenient. This, however, still doesn't explain the reason behind Mamata's open declaration of support for illegal immigrants. The motivation lies in the need for consolidation of Muslim votes that at 31 percent can affect the results in 90 out of Bengal's 294 Assembly seats. Mamata wouldn't have had to worry about this crucial vote bank, had it not been for the rise of Hyderabad-based outfit All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), whose leader Asaduddin Owaisi sees Bengal as a fertile ground his brand of identity politics. This poses a unique problem for Mamata, because if the AIMIM even marginally eats away a share of the Muslim vote pie, then it becomes difficult for the TMC in a three-way battle between the BJP, TMC and AIMIM. Even a minor swing in favour of AIMIM could work to BJP's advantage. This is the context which has led to Mamata declaring open support for Bangladeshi nationals settled in India for better pecuniary options, and also the reason why she called the Delhi riots a "state-sponsored genocide". The riots have seen mobs of both sides clashing against each other but painting the riots as a "pogrom" helps build the political narrative that only side was victimised. This mis-categorisation of the riots reinforces further the fear-psychosis among the minds of Muslims, and politicians make cynical use of the anxiety. Mamata perhaps is hopeful that it may prevent bleeding of her 'votebank' in the face of more blatant identity politics. This creates the ground for a brand of toxic politics that may become more poisonous as we approach 2021. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 04:17:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close AMMAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday highlighted the role played by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in preserving World Heritage Sites in danger, especially the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls. The king made the remarks at a meeting in Amman with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, during which they discussed advancing cooperation, especially in safeguarding the cultural heritage, said a Royal Court statement. The Jordanian king commended UNESCO's role in safeguarding heritage sites in Jordan, especially the ancient Nabataean city of Petra, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For her part, Azoulay, who is currently in Jordan on her first official visit, highlighted the UN agency's role around the world, and its cooperation with Jordan. She also underlined the importance of bolstering this cooperation in future. The royal pair visit the Guinness Storehouse before sampling a pint of the black stuff. Photo: James Whatling - WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince William and wife Kate Middleton enjoyed a pint of stout as they toured the Guinness Storehouse last night. Kate, who provided a masterclass in diplomatic dressing on the first day of the royal couple's visit to Ireland, continued the theme by stepping out in a sparkling green dress. Along with Prince William, she mingled and chatted with guests including actors Liam Cunningham and Robert Sheehan. The duke told the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, a dhaoine uaisle. "Catherine and I are delighted to be here tonight. "Ireland is a country that we have both heard so much about, so we are really excited to be here with you to see it first-hand ourselves. "In coming to the Guinness Storehouse we are both retracing the footsteps of my grandmother, who was shown how to pour the perfect pint here in 2011. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you it is not often that I find myself following the queen to the pub. "But I am looking forward to testing for myself the theory that Guinness tastes even better in Ireland than overseas." Tea Earlier the royals visited Aras an Uachtarain where they met President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina. This was Kate's first time meeting Mr Higgins - the Prince had met him twice before. The royal couple were warmly welcomed by Mr and Mrs Higgins and signed the visitors' book in the State Reception at the Aras. The group then took part in a tea party, where they were joined by the British ambassador to Ireland, Robin Barnett, and Ireland's ambassador to Britain, Adrian O'Neill, as well as Claire Power, adviser to Mr Higgins, and Art O'Leary, secretary general to the President. The Cambridges rang the Peace Bell in the grounds of the Aras and were shown a young oak tree planted by Queen Elizabeth nine years ago. Kate wore a dark green Catherine Walker coat and an Alessandra Rich green floral pattern dress, with a green floral pattern, to meet the President. The royal couple also met the President's dog Brod. However, Sioda, Mr Higgins' other dog, was not able to attend as she recently had surgery on her paw. A 10-car fleet, as well as several garda motorcycles and two media buses, escorted the royal couple to Government Buildings for their second engagement of the day, where they met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner, Dr Matthew Barrett. They were given a brief tour of the building before Mr Varadkar invited the couple to sign the visitors' book, explaining that it asked for one's name and address, to which William asked: "Would you like an address?" The Taoiseach quipped back: "What's the postcode for Kensington Palace?" When Mr Varadkar then light-heartedly asked Mr Barrett if he would like to sign the guest book, he laughed "no". The four then sat down for a 25-minute private discussion. Speaking to the Herald outside Government Buildings, Marino residents and royal fans Holly Forbes and Ciara O'Donoghue were buzzing with excitement to see William and Kate's car pass by. "I'm extremely excited, can't wait to see them," Ms Forbes said. "I saw the queen when she came to Stormont. I do like the royal family a lot." However, there were less than two dozen people waiting at the gates. "We could have had a bit more support for them. I would have liked more walkabouts," said Ms O'Donoghue. Offaly residents Mary Horan and John O'Callaghan were in Dublin for the day and stopped by to see the royal visitors on their way to the train station. "We're not particularly big fans. We just happened to be passing by as we're here for the day," said Ms Horan. "I would have expected there to be more people around to see them." The U.K. government is to consult on introducing a lower carbon fuel to gas stations, a move that could cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the transport sector. The fuel in question is called E10, which contains as much as 10% bioethanol in its mix. At the moment, E10 is not available in the U.K., although the government said Wednesday that the blend was used in a number of other countries including Germany, France and Finland. Currently, unleaded petrol in the U.K. has up to 5% bioethanol in its mix, with this type of fuel called E5. The government said the E10 blend could potentially reduce CO2 emissions from transport by 750,000 tons annually, which equates to removing approximately 350,000 cars off the road. "The next 15 years will be absolutely crucial for slashing emissions from our roads, as we all start to feel the benefits of the transition to a zero-emission future," Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said in a statement Wednesday. "But before electric cars become the norm, we want to take advantage of reduced CO2 emissions today," he added. "This small switch to petrol containing bioethanol at 10% will help drivers across country reduce the environmental impact of every journey." A Tory peer has warned that kissing could be potentially dangerous among the coronavirus outbreak. Conservative Lord Bethell has said that even kisses on cheeks should be avoided to help battle the risk of Covid-19 spreading. The intervention came after scientist Lord Winston spoke of how he had avoided being kissed twice in one day. The Labour peer said it was something we should not be doing. Lord Bethell - a whip in the upper house - agreed and pointed out the real problem was people touching their nose on average up to 100 times a day. Lord Winston said two people had tried to kiss him in a day / PA It comes as it was revealed that a total of 85 people in the UK have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Speaking at Westminster on Tuesday, Lord Bethell said: Kissing is wonderful but potentially dangerous. Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP He added: We have had detailed conversations about kissing, shaking hands, fist-bumping and all manner of social intercourse. The guidance from the chief medical officer is clear. It is the touching of your own nose that is the real problem. The average person touches their own nose between 70 and 100 times a day. That is why we focus on the message of washing hands. Because if your hands are clean, it doesnt matter how many times you touch your nose. But if they are dirty, whether through shaking hands or by touching a door handle or whatever it is, the germs are there and they can be conveyed. That is why we focus on that. Lord Winston said: It seems to me that simply not shaking hands is only part of the problem. Social kissing seems, to me, something that we should not be doing. Its very easy to do that. Somebody has tried to kiss me twice today and I dont mean in a way that my wife, who might be listening, is concerned. We have to realise we should not be touching our nose, our mouth, our eyes. The Government has stressed the importance of the public washing their hands thoroughly on a regular basis in an effort to prevent infection. The Conservative peer made his comments as the House of Lords questioned the Government over its battle plan to tackle the spread of Covid-19. City of Ganja and EBRD agree to work together on urban improvements Bank stands ready to finance infrastructure upgrades in Azerbaijans second city Ganja intends to join urban sustainability programme EBRD Green Cities More than 300,000 people living in Azerbaijans second-largest city could benefit from improvements in their urban environment, thanks to a partnership between the municipality and the EBRD. Improving infrastructure and lives in Ganja was the focus of a meeting between Mayor Niyazi Bayramov and EBRD First Vice President Jurgen Rigterink in Baku today. The western Azerbaijani city expressed interest in joining EBRD Green Cities, a successful urban sustainability programme that is already helping transform 40 cities across economies where the Bank invests. As part of the programme, the EBRD stands ready to help Ganja develop a Green City Action Plan to identify, prioritise and address environmental challenges. The Bank is also prepared to finance upgrades of street lighting, urban transport, water and wastewater services, solid waste management, district heating and renewable energy infrastructure. EBRD Green Cities was conceived to offer tangible support that helps cities improve the quality of life of their residents. All participating cities embark on a trigger project to improve their local environment. Then, with EBRD help, they develop an action plan to identify further investments and policy changes that are best suited to their needs. Cities, which account for 70 per cent of energy use and 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, represent a big opportunity to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. This is particularly true of cities in the EBRD regions, where obsolete urban infrastructure is degrading quality of life, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and preventing communities from adapting to climate change. The EBRD is an important institutional investor in Azerbaijan. To date, the Bank has invested 3.3 billion through 170 projects in the country. It also provides business advice to local small and medium-sized enterprises and has helped more than 1,000 firms to improve their performance and growth. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses a meeting of the Environment Council at the European Parliament in Brussels (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys) Climate activist Greta Thunberg accused European Union governments and institutions on Wednesday of only "pretending" to urgently tackle the climate crisis. EU leaders say they are spearheading some of the most ambitious climate change policies in the world, and on Wednesday the bloc's executive unveiled a planned climate law to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. "When your house is on fire, you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet this is what the Commission is proposing today," Thunberg told the European Parliament's environment committee. The 17-year-old Swedish activist said that, by fixing its climate law around an emissions target three decades in the future, the EU was ignoring reality. "Here you are, trying to create laws and policies once again ignoring it. Pretending that your plan or policy disregarding the united science will somehow solve the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced," she said. "Pretending that a law that no one has to follow ... is a law. Pretending that you can be a climate leader and still go on building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure," Thunberg said, drawing applause from European lawmakers. The climate law would give the executive Commission powers to set tougher goals for governments every five years. But these powers would only kick in after 2030 - too late, according to environment groups. "We will not be satisfied with anything less than a science-based pathway which gives us the best possible chance to safeguard the future living conditions for humanity and life on earth as we know it," Thunberg said. The EU accounts for less than 10% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. But Thunberg said the bloc had a moral obligation to lead the way, because developed economies that have been polluting for longest should cut emissions first and fastest. The European Parliament has banned external visitors for the next three weeks as a precaution against the fast-spreading coronavirus, but waived its own rule for Thunberg's visit. Thunberg is in Brussels this week to meet EU leaders and lead a climate school strike on Friday. "For over one-and-a-half years we have been sacrificing our education to protest against your inaction," Thunberg said. She began missing school in 2018 to sit outside the Swedish parliament in a solitary protest. Since then, Thunberg has galvanised a global movement of young people, inspiring millions to take to the streets to demand that world leaders act urgently to tackle the climate crisis. YEREVAN, 4 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 4 march, USD exchange rate up by 0.25 drams to 479.12 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 1.62 drams to 534.51 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.08 drams to 7.29 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.13 drams to 612.41 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price up by 257.02 drams to 24885.27 drams. Silver price down by 1.48 drams to 258.94 drams. Platinum price up by 83.91 drams to 13278.3 drams. House lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to a deal to allocate roughly $8 billion to help the federal government fight the coronavirus, which has killed at least nine people and infected more than 100 in the United States, according to the office of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby. The House is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday before it goes to the Republican-controlled Senate later in the day. Delivering remarks shortly on the Senate floor regarding the $7.767 billion #Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental. Tune in! This shouldn't be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people. I urge my colleagues to support the package without delay. Richard Shelby (@SenShelby) March 4, 2020 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is optimistic lawmakers can approve legislation this week and send it to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it. The bipartisan measure includes funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. It also includes money to help develop a vaccine for protective and medical equipment, as well as aid to state and local governments dealing with the virus. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday the bill will include $950 million for state and local governments, including $350 million for hot spot areas affected by the outbreak, $500 million for masks, protective equipment and other medical supplies for states, local governments and hospitals, and $100 million for community health centers and funding for training and beds. 2020 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Voters also were winnowing the fields for lieutenant governor, schools superintendent and other Council of State positions. Democratic primary voters in two congressional districts now favoring the party after a recent redistricting were picking nominees who stood a strong chance to reach Capitol Hill next year. Three Republicans were competing in the primary for attorney general, including Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill, Christine Mumma and Sam Hayes. ONeill led handily, followed by Hayes and Mumma. The winner will face incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in the general election. Cunningham was endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and benefited from more than $9 million in outside spending from two super PACs. Unaffiliated voter Bob De Andrade, 64, of Durham, said he voted Tuesday for Cunningham because he believes he would stand up to Donald Trump or whoever is president. I thought he was offering the change Id like to see, said De Andrade, a tour bus driver. Hes not accepting the status quo of allowing the president to run roughshod over the institutions. To understand establishment Democrats' idea that all that matters is a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump, imagine needing a car to get to work. One, a 2016 Turkey, is unsafe, expensive to run, uncomfortable and polluting. You don't want the Turkey. The salesman says, "Well, we do have a different model, and it's cheaper than the Turkey." "OK," you say, "What are its features?" "Don't worry about that, it's cheaper. All you want is a car you can afford that's not a Turkey, right?" One hopes you would expect and demand more than that. Similarly, as 2020 offers the electorate the possibility of another four years of the 2016 Trump, one hopes we can do better than just "not Trump." Amy Klobuchar, avoiding big ideas as the path to beating Trump, dismisses Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All, saying two-thirds of Democrats in the Senate do not support it. Klobuchar may have missed the transformation of Senate Republicans from a vehement anti-Trump force into slavish supporters of the Trump agenda. I suspect a President Sanders, after public hearings on health care showing our system with costs double other nations, costs growing faster than incomes, millions without insurance, poor health statistics, medical bankruptcies, etc., might find a more congenial Senate. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. If we wind up with far less than the needed change through election strategy theories, Trump will have won, even if he is defeated. Frank Stoppenbach Red Hook TORONTO, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JDRF Canada, the leading global funder of type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, welcomes the release of the Standing Committee on Finances report and its recommendations to address the diabetes epidemic. We particularly welcome its recommendation that the government support the development of a new national diabetes strategy (Diabetes 360), as well as changes in the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) criteria that would allow for those requiring insulin therapy to automatically qualify. The mandate of the Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) is to study and report on all matters relating to the mandate, management and operation of selected federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency, and to conduct pre-budget consultations. JDRF is calling on the government to adopt FINAs recommendations in Budget 2020. Its positive to see the committee acknowledging the enormous burden that diabetes imposes on individuals and on society, said Dave Prowten, President and CEO of JDRF Canada. Canadians with type 1 diabetes spend up to $15,000 annually in out of pocket costs managing their disease. Billions more are spent by taxpayers in managing the cost of complications. Access to the DTC would provide families some much-needed financial relief and a national strategy would help to tackle health care spending. We hope the Government will move quickly to adopt the Committees recommendations. FINAs recommendation to make qualification for the DTC automatic for those who require life-sustaining therapy follows a similar recommendation by the Disability Advisory Committee last spring. It would address problems with the current eligibility criteria that have led to confusion and inequity and represent a significant barrier to access for Canadians with insulin-dependent diabetes and other chronic diseases. Access to the DTC continues to be a challenge some two years after the government reversed controversial changes that resulted in all adults with type 1 diabetes being denied the credit. Story continues Other positive recommendations we welcome are making the DTC a refundable tax credit so those with low or no income can also benefit from it, as well as uncoupling the DTC and the Registered Disability Savings Plan to end the clawback on RDSP contributions. The government announced as part of Budget 2019 that it would end the clawback; however, changes to the Income Tax Act have yet to be enacted. About JDRF JDRF is the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Our mission is to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications. To accomplish this, JDRF has invested more than $2.2 billion in research funding since our inception. We are an organization built on a grassroots model of people connecting in their local communities, collaborating regionally for efficiency and broader fundraising impact, and uniting on a national stage to pool resources, passion, and energy. We collaborate with academic institutions, governments, and corporate and industry partners to develop and deliver a pipeline of innovative therapies to people living with T1D. Our staff and volunteers throughout Canada and six international affiliates are dedicated to advocacy, community engagement and our vision of a world without T1D. For more information, please visit jdrf.ca . Freedom Mortgage is closing its San Dimas, Calif., call center and slashing 171 mortgage-servicing jobs. According to a notice to the state of California, employees will be laid off starting June 1, with layoffs continuing throughout the month. One employee, who requested anonymity, told the Southern California News Group that the staff was informed in February that they would be losing their jobs. No severance packages or opportunities to relocate were offered, the employee said. The San Dimas office is New Jersey-based Freedom Mortgages only West Coast office, according to a report by The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. While the company will continue to service mortgages for California homeowners, those mortgages will now be serviced at other locations, the Daily Bulletin reported. DENVER, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Home Captain, a financial technology company that streamlines communication between the homeowner and all other parties in the purchase or sale of a home, today announced that it has acquired Redefy Holdings, Inc., a consumer-focused real estate technology company that is transforming the way people buy and sell residential real estate. "We are extremely excited for the opportunity to have a proven market leader join us in our journey!" said Grant Moon, Chief Executive Officer of Home Captain. "The combining of the two companies greatly accelerates our roadmap in delivering unparalleled customer value in buying and selling a home particularly for mortgage banks and mortgage portfolio customers." Over 60% of all homes in the United States currently belong to a mortgage portfolio. Banks and financial firms that own these mortgage portfolios face significant financial run-off when people sell their homes; many homeowners that sell their homes buy a new house but do not arrange a mortgage with their original lender. Mortgage servicers have historically struggled with retaining customers who sell their home and purchase a new home. Through the acquisition, Home Captain can now provide customizable programs to banks and mortgage servicers that allow their customers to sell and buy a home through a proprietary "pick your path" real estate experience. This results in an improved customer experience, significant cost savings, and increased brand loyalty to the lending institution. Ultimately, this will reduce run off and increase customer retention. "We at Redefy are elated to be joining the Home Captain team!" said Chris Rediger, Chief Executive Officer of Redefy. "The blending of our two companies will add another element to Home Captain's already impressive technology stack. Together, we aim to improve the real estate transaction for not only home buyers and sellers but also for real estate agents, lenders, insurance providers and title companies." "Home Captain and Redefy are incredibly complementary organizations," said Raymond Wong, Managing Director and Head of the Growth Equity Group at Spring Mountain Capital. "We are excited to now back a combined company that is able to drive significantly more value to all constituents across the home buying and home selling journey." About Redefy Corporation Redefy is a consumer-driver company that seeks to transform the way people buy and sell residential real estate by leveraging technology and data to help customers transact at a significant cost-advantage. The company offers a complete range of real estate services that enable homeowners to keep thousands of dollars of home equity in their pockets, compared with selling a home using traditional methods. Redefy conducts business in key states and major metro markets across the United States. For more information about our company, please visit: Redefy.com About Home Captain Home Captain is a financial technology company providing tools, services and the data lenders need in a competitive and ever-changing digital world. Within its suite of products and services, Home Captain boasts a web and mobile MLS-integrated home search app, an AI-powered chatbot for re-engaging mortgage leads, world-class real estate concierge services, portfolio retention services and patent-pending agent match technology. For more information about our company, please visit: HomeCaptain.com About Spring Mountain Capital Founded in 2001 by John L. ("Launny") Steffens and located in New York City, Spring Mountain Capital, LP ("SMC") is a private investment management firm that focuses on alternative asset investing. SMC's Growth Equity Group provides expansion capital to companies that are capitalizing on breakthrough innovations, paradigm shifts, or fundamental market or behavioral changes. The Growth Equity Group at SMC focuses on two sectors of the U.S. economy undergoing the most change and with the highest growth potential: technology-enabled and healthcare businesses. For more information, please visit: springmountaincapital.com/growth-equity/ Safe Harbor Statement The information posted in this release may contain forward-thinking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "plans", "explores", "expects", "anticipates", "continues", "estimates", "projects", "intends", and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in methods of marketing, delays in manufacturing or distribution, changes in customer order patterns, changes in customer offering mix, and various other factors beyond the company's control. Michael Perry Marketing Director, Home Captain [email protected] Related Images home-captain.png Home Captain Related Links Home Captain Redefy SOURCE Home Captain Related Links http://www.HomeCaptain.com A family is mourning the woman hit and killed by multiple cars, and their pain is compounded by the fact no one stopped, dragging some of her remains for miles. Why did you not stop to see if you could help? Why? Accidents happen, but why did you not stop? a cousin of 29-year-old Alexandra Ridgway, the woman hit and killed early Monday in a brutal, multiple hit and run in Bucks County, Pa. That cousin, Lisa Janda, made the comments to CBSPhilly.com as her family mourns Ridgway and now seeks to bury her. But the very thought of their loved one struck by multiple cars and ultimately killed while either walking on or attempting to cross the southbound lanes of Route 1 in Bucks County -- then some of her remains, including a severed arm, being dragged for miles by fleeing vehicles -- is almost too much to take. Its just a tragedy. She was such a sweet girl. She worked in home health care. She did everything she could to help other people, Janda told CBS3 in Philly. The police investigation searching for the multiple vehicles involved in Ridgways fatal hit and run is in high gear. Middletown Township police say their investigation now spans multiple regions, including Philadelphia and Montgomery County, where some of Ridgways remains were found. CBSPhilly reports police say they have three vehicles in their possession that drove through the crash site, but they say none of the vehicles was the one that made the initial impact. They tell the TV news station it was likely a truck that initially hit Ridgway. The incident closed all lanes of US 1 near Neshaminy High School in Middletown Township much of Monday morning. But that wasnt the only crime scene in this case. Philadelphia police say they discovered human remains -- what turned out to be Ridgways severed arm -- along the 8800 block of Pine Road in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia shortly after 8:30 Monday morning. Police are asking anyone who was in the area of Route 1 near the Turnpike Interchange around 3:30 a.m. Monday to give them a call at 215-750-3800. Meanwhile, a family is preparing to lay to rest their loved one, whose last moments were anything but peaceful. As CBS3 writes, Ridgways family created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. In less than 24 hours, donations topped $10,000. On behalf of my family, I would like to thank everyone that donated to that to help my aunt and cousins out with funeral expenses, Janda told CBS3. It does mean a lot there is some kindness and humanity left. READ MORE: Cops say Pa. mom laughed after suffocating infant by falling asleep in recliner while high Pair of Pa. cops are honorary uncles after delivering baby by side of road Jailed Pa. mom blamed toddlers brain injury, broken bones on family dog: state police 5 Pa. schools close over suspected coronavirus exposure Pa. woman guilty of helping convicted cop killer get rid of smoking gun Female fight at Pa. Dollar General ends with woman stabbed 10 times: cops 4 dead cats lead to criminal charges against Pa. pet-sitter Man posing as cop accused of sexually assaulting Pa. college woman he escorted home Port-a-potty-jumping Pa. man faces charges for trashing toilet in viral video Dr. Cyril Wecht is fighting DUI-by-medical-marijuana charges against Pa. woman Lifetime sex offender accused of sexually assaulting 2 Pa. children being babysat by his mom Pa.s newest Chick-fil-A gets feathers ruffled as customer plows car into building Woman hit, killed by multiple cars on Pa. highway; none stopped, dragging her remains for miles Body found behind CoreLife restaurant is man, 22 House flippers in this Pa. city are pocketing biggest profits in U.S.: study Serial thief preying on Pa. university students: cops Panera Bread in Pa. cited for fly infestation: Uncontrolled pests in a food prep area Woman in BMW crashes into Pa. daycare during nap time; 4 injured, 1 critical Drunk Pa. man exposes himself after police are called to Ruby Tuesdays Pa. judge who called black juror Aunt Jemima made other racial comments, transcripts show Pa. couple accused of locking son, 9, in closet to go out to party: state cops Pa. mom in Cookie Monster costume arrested after ODing in car: cops After his comments in which he said Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would pay the price, Schumer added: We will tell President Trump and Senate Republicans who have stacked the courts with right-wing ideologues that youre going to be gone in November, and youll never be able to do what youre trying to do now ever, ever again. You hear that over there on the far right? Youre gone in November. The committee, in its report, has mentioned that the present stock-inhand of the APIs may be sufficient for 2 to 3 months to manufacture formulations and also given certain recommendations Department of Pharmaceuticals has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Eshwara Reddy, Joint Drugs Controller, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to address the issues of drug security in the country in the context of Novel Coronavirus outbreak in China. The committee, in its report, has mentioned that the present stock-inhand of the APIs may be sufficient for 2 to 3 months to manufacture formulations and also given certain recommendations. The committee further mentioned that there is no need to panic so far as drug security is concerned. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, the department has issued necessary instructions to National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and State Governments to ensure adequate supply of APIs and formulations at affordable prices in the market and to prevent black-marketing, illegal hoarding, creating artificial shortages in the country. NPPA has also written to Chief Secretaries of States with copies to Principal Secretaries Health and State Drug Controllers requesting them to closely monitor the production and availability of APIs and formulations to prevent the black marketing and hoarding in their States and UTs as well as to ensure that there is no violation of provisions of Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 with regard to compliance of ceiling prices/ permissible increase in prices of scheduled/ non-scheduled formulations respectively. In this regard, Department of Pharmaceuticals has written to DGFT to restrict exports of 13 API and formulations made using these APIs. These APIs are primarily made in Hubei province of China. As per the latest available information, most of the Chinese companies manufacturing pharmaceutical ingredients (excluding those in Hubei province) have now resumed operations partially and expected to resume fully by end of March. There are no restrictions on the export of APIs from China. The Chinese companies are willing to export to India, however logistics sector has not yet resumed operations fully. It is observed from Port offices of CDSCO that APIs are being imported from China. As per the information received from port offices of CDSCO, 56 consignments of APIs are imported during 26th and 27th Feb 2020. Out of 56, 40 consignments are from China and rest are from countries other than China. Two doctors from Oneida County have tested negative for coronavirus, county health officials said today. The pair had been tested earlier in the week over concerns about their recent travel history to Italy, which has the most cases of the virus reported in Europe. The two doctors returned from a trip to Italy over the weekend, County Executive Anthony Picente said, and checked in with the health department, adhering to the coronavirus protocol. The two began seeing patients Monday morning, and one of them later that day started showing symptoms consistent with the virus, Picente said. He said he did not know how many patients the doctors saw before one of them became ill. Because the two doctors had traveled together, Picente said, both were tested. The good news is they came back negative, said Picente, who had just recently returned to work after his own two-week bout with the flu. The doctors, who were not identified, have agreed to stay under a 14-day home quarantine, Oneida County Public Health Director Phyllis Ellis said. Picente said the two are the only county residents who have been tested to date for the virus, known as COVID-19, but added they likely wont be the last. The chances of another person being tested is very high, he said. Were going to see a case somewhere down the line in every community in the state. Oneida County public health director Phyllis Ellis: The two residents will remain on voluntary 14-day quarantine. If their health status changes, county will notify state health department. Glenn Coin (@glenncoin) March 4, 2020 Ellis said doctors who return from high-risk coronoavirus countries are allowed to see patients right away as long as the doctors arent showing symptoms of an illness. Italy has reported that 2,992 people have been infected and 79 people have died from the virus. The death toll increased by 27 in Italy over the past 24 hours, according to Italian health officials. Italy has more cases of COVID-19 than any country outside of Asia. Cuomo: Total of 6 coronavirus cases in New York now, nearly all traced back to one patient Staff writer Glenn Coin contributed to this report. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Naga Mothers' Association, the apex women's body in Nagaland, urged the state government to review a legislation, that banned liquor in the state 30 years ago, and ensure its strict implementation. Voicing concern over the easy availability of spurious liquor in violation of the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act of 1989, the NMA, in a statement said alcoholism has claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the state. It said the sale of liquor is thriving because of the alcohol syndicates' widespread network that includes state agencies. "The reason why mothers move so strongly against sale of liquor is that we live with the everyday reality of domestic violence due to alcohol and poverty because of hard-earned money being spent on liquor," it said. The NMA urged the state government to include the Church in the deliberations to review the Act. It said the NMA had supported the Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC) in the 1980s to press for the implementation of the NLTP Act. "Looking into the grim reality, reviewing the existing Act should be the priority of the state government," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When energy minnow OneSelect went bust, another small firm successfully bid for its 36,000 customers and took on their accounts. It meant the Dunbartonshire-based Together Energy, which had just 100 staff of its own and outsourced a further 40 in South Africa, increased its customer total by 60 per cent from 60,000 to 96,000 overnight. But since then, the three-year-old firm has crashed to the bottom of consumer group Which?'s ratings table. Refund: Jan and Bill Burrough found out Together Energy had taken over their account in December 2018 but the supplier took seven months before it gave her a first bill Together now has 150,000 customers 1 per cent the size of British Gas's 15 million. But the number of letters and emails Money Mail has received about the supplier dwarfs several of its Big Six rivals. Industry experts and customers are asking why regulator Ofgem ever allowed such a small firm to take on so many customers. This newspaper has now handed a dossier of complaints to the supplier and Ofgem, many from readers who have been unable to get through to the supplier's customer service team, or their emails and letters have been ignored. Mark Todd, co-founder of price comparison site Energyhelpline, says: 'Ofgem should make sure suppliers who take on failed customer bases are able to cope with the increased customer service demands this brings.' He adds: 'Often for a small company it's a cheap way to get a large number of customers at once.' Farmer Jan Burrough had to go to the Ombudsman to get 1,120 back from Together Energy a year after the supplier took over her OneSelect account. When energy minnow OneSelect went bust, Together Energy, which had just 100 staff of its own and outsourced a further 40 in South Africa, increased its customer total by 60 per cent She had been with OneSelect for two years and had built up a large amount of credit, partly due to the fact the supplier had failed to adjust her 176-a-month bill after her son moved his business from her Devon property and her usage dropped. Jan, 67, and husband Bill, 72, found out Together Energy had taken over their account in December 2018, and a month later she began asking for her credit refund. She says: 'I called and emailed, but I'd rarely get someone to pick up the phone or reply to an email. 'When they did, I was told they were still waiting on a final bill from OneSelect.' Jan had submitted her monthly readings through Together Energy's website. But the supplier took seven months before it gave her a first bill, which finally brought her bills down to 40. Yet she was still waiting for her OneSelect balance refund, and eventually she went to the Ombudsman. It ruled in her favour, but she didn't get her 1,120 refund until December, plus a 40 goodwill gesture. Together Energy later found that Jan's OneSelect balance had been incorrect and she was actually owed a further 1,100. This refund arrived in Jan's bank account last night. She says: 'They never gave us a choice when One Select went bust, but I think I'd have preferred to be switched to a Big Six supplier.' Another former OneSelect customer, John Lyons, had to wait a year for his 239 refund. The retired postal worker applied for the credit in January 2019, and eventually took his case to the Ombudsman, which ruled in his favour in August. But John, 73, from Southminster, Essex, didn't receive the money until December, plus 75 compensation ordered by the Ombudsman. Energy companies can bid to take on a collapsed firm's customers and become a 'supplier of last resort'. Ofgem has the final say, but says a new supplier would have to ensure a 'smooth transition for customers'. Last month Together Energy's chief executive Paul Richards apologised to customers, hours before the supplier was featured on the BBC's Rip Off Britain show. Together has 150,000 customers - 1% the size of British Gas's 15 million. But the number of letters and emails we have received about the supplier dwarfs several of its Big Six rivals In a statement on the company's website, he wrote: 'Taking on these customers has been a challenge... consequently, we have been late in processing final bills, our communications have deteriorated, and email response has been slow. For that I am very sorry.' When Money Mail asked Together Energy whether, as a small supplier, it had had the resources to take on so many customers at once, it pointed the finger at OneSelect. It said it inherited a lot of 'wrongly calculated bills' from OneSelect, and the supplier had been at the bottom of Citizens Advice customer service table when it collapsed. An Ofgem spokesman says: 'We are aware of customer concerns and continue to engage closely with Together Energy as it works to improve its performance.' f.parker@dailymail.co.uk Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told CNBC on Wednesday that he's "certainly grateful" his home state of Texas did not vote for fellow Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. "I serve with Bernie. He's a true believer. But he is a socialist," said Cruz, a Cuban American, criticizing Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, for saying in an interview on the CBS program "60 Minutes" last month that dictator Fidel Castro was not all bad for Cuba. U.S. stocks opened sharply higher Wednesday on Wall Street, with investors encouraged by the resurgence of moderate Democrat Joe Biden. "Bernie scares me," Cruz said on "Squawk Box," the day after the former vice president won at least nine of the 14 Super Tuesday nominating contests, including Texas. No matter who emerges with the most delegates, Biden and Sanders will likely be in a dead heat. The Vermont senator leads in California as the primary votes continued to be counted. With the delegates there yet to be allocated, Biden has 508 total delegates and Sanders has 458, according to NBC News. "I know a lot of Republicans that are celebrating every time that Bernie wins: 'Yay, let us run against Bernie. He's so extreme that Trump gets reelected,'" Cruz said. "But we're a divided country. There is a chance that this country could elect a wild-eyed socialist." Cruz, who believes President Donald Trump can beat Sanders or Biden, said, "I'd rather not even roll the dice." He added that a Sanders presidency, as unlikely as it is, would hurt America. The Texas senator said his colleague's proposals from a wealth tax to massive social programs such as "Medicare For All" and the "Green New Deal" would do "devastation to our economy and people's lives." "Personally, I'd rather Biden because he's at least ... slightly closer to rational. He's still very liberal. What qualifies as moderate in today's Democratic field has moved dramatically," said Cruz, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Mike Bloomberg, who joined the race late and banked his personal war chest on Super Tuesday races, dropped out Wednesday morning and endorsed Biden. The billionaire former New York mayor won only in American Samoa. The Sanders and Biden campaigns were not immediately available to respond to CNBC's requests for comments on Cruz's "Squawk Box" interview. Cameroons military has hit back at criticism about its conduct in the countrys Anglophone regions in response to reporting by RFI on alleged abuses by Cameroonian soldiers. An army spokesperson says Cameroon security forces operate with professionalism, discipline, honour and loyalty, furthermore, foreign non-governmental organisations are supporting Anglophone secessionists. Our defense forces have always known how to respect these principles, necessary for the smooth running of operations, spokesperson Cyrille Atonfack Guemo told RFI. Cameroonian soldiers are focused on taking care of the armed bandits claiming to be a secessionist movement and are operating in strict respect of international humanitarian law, according to the military spokesperson. RFI published a report this week detailing alleged abuses by both Cameroonian troops and Anglophone rebel groups based on testimonies from people in Buea, Kumba and Mamfe in the South West region. Cameroons army spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about soldiers using taxis as transport during combat, the armys definition of combatants in this theatre of operations and whether soldiers were giving out compensation to the families of victims killed. Comment was also specifically requested by RFI regarding the killing in February of a pregnant woman and her four children in the jungle surrounding the village of Talangai, the killing of a woman in the Sand Pit neighbourhood of Buea and the transport of her remains in a military vehicle, as well as the soldiers entering a hospital to search for injured civilians. Military spokesperson Atonfack Guemo did not address these specific questions, but reiterated that the main aim of the armys security operations are to help return things to normal in these two regions, despite allegations to the contrary. Humanitarian situation Local humanitarian organisations had told RFI that they felt as if both the army and separatists viewed them as trying to help the other side, being branded a spy. Despite efforts to maintain neutrality, both sides in the conflict were ignoring humanitarian law, according to local NGOs. Story continues Preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid is inconceivable, according to military spokesperson Atonfack Guemo, especially given the armys mandate to try and improve living conditions in the Anglophone regions and protect people at risk. The Cameroonian authorities have always known how to respond favourably and provide all the necessary security assistance to the humanitarian organisations having requested to work in the so-called Anglophone area, said Atonfack Guemo in emailed comments. Furthermore, the military communications official took aim at international organisations who he says are responsible for helping the secessionist cause. Ambulances belonging to an NGO such as Medecins Sans Frontiere [Doctors Without Borders] were sometimes found abandoned in the forest, either carrying armed combatants, as well as ammunition, said the spokesperson. Atonfack Guemo accused rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of sponsoring attacks carried out by the secessionist groups against the Cameroonian authorities. The most resounding case was seen at the end of January with the arson of the residence of Achiri [sic] Kilo, secretary general in the ministry of secondary school education, said Atonfack Guemo. There again, these NGOs were behind this act through the manipulation of the separatists they have taken on to shift the blame onto our defense forces. Truly, a false flag strategy, he added. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both recently criticised the Cameroonian army over alleged rights abuses. HRW in late February detailed the alleged killing of at least 21 people in Ngarbuh village by security forces. Amnesty International in early February wrote about an alleged rise in killings in the Anglophone regions ahead of parliamentary elections. Atonfack Guemo also accused a high-ranking official of the World Food Programme of carrying out a campaign of disinformation specifically designed to tarnish the reputation of the Cameroonian armed forces. He referred to an incident in Ekona and accusations of blocking the distribution of food aid levelled at the Cameroonian army as well as a killing. The real version of events, according to Atonfack Guemo, involved a WFP food truck getting caught in the crossfire between Cameroonian soldiers and separatist fighters on 21 February. Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), headed by its unchallenged president and state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, will complete two decades in power on March 5 -- a day that coincides with the birth anniversary of former Odisha CM Biju Patnaik. Patnaik's BJD has been in power in Odisha for over 20 years -- a feat, which several observers believe, is largely credited to governance marked by its focus on the welfare of the poor, including the launch of several welfare schemes over the years. While these schemes have often been criticised for their "over-dependence factor" and rising debt burden over the years, their implementation has come against the backdrop of a growth rate. The BJD claims it has pulled out more than 80 lakh people out of poverty and has doubled the farmer's income over the last 10 years. Part of it has to do with initiatives like KALIA Yojana, under which the government supports about 50 lakh small and marginal farmer families and about 25 lakh landless agricultural households. The state has undergone a transformation in various fields through the years. From being a state known for mishandling natural disasters leading to loss of thousands of lives, to successfully meeting the challenge posed by cyclone Fani last year, Odisha has come a long way. The state which depended on food grains from Punjab and Haryana to feed its own people, now is the country's third-largest contributor to the PDS; thus playing a major role in the food security of the country. Among the major achievement of the BJD's governance include: the international recognition by United Nations for Zero Casualty relief, rescue and rehabilitation work in the aftermath of Phailin Cyclone in 2013; bringing 35 lakh women under the Mission Shakti fold; and the rolling out of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana -- a health coverage programme. One such achievement is the inclusion of 22 departments of the state government under the ambit of the 'Mo Sarkar' programme, which was launched last year, with an aim to provide service with dignity to people who are coming to government offices. As Patnaik put it: "Under Mo Sarkar, the citizen will not chase the Government. The Government will follow up with the complainant as to how he was treated in the Government Offices and how his complaint was dealt with." "People are the soul of democracy. Each institution in this democracy is for the people, created by their money, to empower and serve the people. Every institution exists for serving the people, they own the institutions. Every person visiting any institution will be treated with dignity and his issues have to be treated in a professional and ethical manner. People are the masters and those who work are paid by the people," Patnaik remarked. The Mo Sarkar programme was launched on October 2 -- the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who Patnaik sees as a constant source of inspiration. Last year, as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebration of the Mahatma, Patnaik dedicated Gandhi's Talisman at Loka Seva Bhavan Palm Court. One of the keys to Patnaik's and the BJD's 20-year-long success has been the launch of several initiatives focused on women empowerment in the state. In 2001, the government launched the Mission Shakti project, which has since transformed into a movement with over 70 lakh women and 6 lakh Self Help Groups, helping in changing the socio-economic landscape of the state. "From the day I assumed office in 2000, my Government has always been conscious of the great role women can play," Patnaik once noted. "As far as the political empowerment of women is concerned, Late Biju Patnaik was a pioneer who made 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies. My Government has increased it to 50 percent and its heartening to know that its more than 50 percent," he added. Part of BJD's success is also often attributed to its chief's clean image with sharp political instinct. Patnaik has been elected the party's president for eight consecutive times -- a remarkable achievement for a once reluctant inheritor to Biju Patnaik's legacy. The BJD's celebration for 20 years in power would coincide with the birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik -- the man who lived a diverse life, from an eminent freedom fighter -- who among other things, played a stellar role at a crucial juncture in Indonesia's struggle for independence -- to serving Chief Minister of Odisha twice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Alabama Department of Transportation is contemplating permanently moving the closed section of U.S. 231 in Morgan County away from the substantial damage beneath the highway that has led to its indefinite closure. In essence, ALDOT would be rebuilding a section of the four-lane highway on the side of Brindlee Mountain in a new location as a better option to repairing the road where it currently runs. ALDOT clarified Thursday night that option would move the northbound lanes to the right and then building new southbound lanes immediately adjacent to the northbound lanes. Related: No quick solution expected to repair closed Highway 231 Consideration of such a dramatic solution underscores the seriousness of the deteriorating ground beneath the highway, which the ongoing study of the site has revealed stabilization issues as much as 70 feet below the surface. In an interview Tuesday with AL.com, ALDOT engineer Curtis Vincent repeatedly described the slide of the ground to be substantial. It also is more than just topsoil Vincent said it also includes rocks beneath the surface. Vincent declined to estimate how much longer U.S. 231 would be closed in Morgan County, saying a more definitive timetable would be available once ALDOT determines its corrective course of action. Vincent said that decision should come later this week. The closed section of the road is about 7 miles south of Huntsville and the detour has created traffic headaches for commuters. The four-lane highway has been replaced by a series of two-lane roads and the installation of temporary traffic lights at two intersections on Alabama Highway 36. The problem began about three weeks ago as cracks appeared in the southbound lanes and quickly worsened as well as developing on the northbound lanes on the side of the mountain. After initially attempting repairs, ALDOT closed the road as the cracks grew bigger along about 1,000 feet of roadway in both directions. Related: Extended closure expected for Highway 231 south of Huntsville Since then, the highway department has been studying the problem. "In this case, it's actually rock and according to the geologists, there's been movement there on the side of the mountain for years," Vincent said. "It hasn't been noticeable in the roadway up until this major event. Our challenge now is to figure out how to fix it, how to prevent that mass of rock and soil and roadway from moving again." Meetings are scheduled for Wednesday to work to identifying a solution, Vincent said. "As you can imagine, there are several options out there on the table that are being considered," he said. "There's different types of repairs being considered." While making the most cost-effective decision is a factor, Vincent declined to speculate on how much the solution would cost. "Do you move all four lanes further up the mountain? If you do, you have to make connections, youve got to make connections back down to the existing road in both directions. So you have to consider that cost. If you make the repairs and leave the roadways where they are, there's additional things that come into play there. You can't just look at one piece and say this piece is less expensive. You've got to look at the overall, entire fix." Vincent explained how the depth of the problem beneath the road is a challenge to resolve. "It appears what I'll call a slip plain the area between solid rock and the colluvial rock on top is about 65 feet below the surface," he said. "If you can picture the magnitude of what we're talking about, 1,000 feet of roadway, a depth of 65 feet below the surface, a mixture of soil, rock and water has moved. You have to say how do you repair it? Youve got to put something back thats solid, something thats anchored, something that will never move again. In order to do that, you have to have some means of tying down into solid limestone at a depth of more than 65 to 70 feet deep. Updated today, March 4, 2020, at 10:08 p.m. with clarification from ALDOT on the option to build a new road at the site of the issue. Officials with the World Health Organization say consumers should consider using paperless methods of paying for items as dirty banknotes may help led to the spread of the coronavirus. According to Yahoo UK, health officials say cash isnt any more or any less likely to carry the disease than say a door handle or hand railing, but it can spread germs on contact. We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses, said a WHO spokesman who spoke with The Telegraph. We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes, and avoid touching their face. When possible it would also be advisable to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of transmission. The fear of using cash is spreading as popular attractions such as the Louvre in Paris is no longer accepting cash as it hopes to encourage employees to return to work, according to ABC News. Banks in China and Korea began using ultraviolet light and high temperature to disinfect and sterilize banknotes last month. Then the cash is sealed and stored for up to 14 days before being recirculated. A representative for The Bank of England says there are no current plans to do anything similar in England. For more of MLives coverage on the coronavirus, click here. The spread of the disease continues across the globe as more reports of confirmed cases pop up each day. In the U.S., 60 cases have been confirmed according to the Center for Disease Control and six deaths have been attributed to the virus. The cases have been confirmed in: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. PREVENTION TIPS Much like how you would try to prevent the flu, you want to stay away from people who are sick and practice good hygiene, says the CDC. The latter means thoroughly washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the bathroom and before eating. Avoid touching your mouth or face unless your hands are clean. Use household cleaners to disinfect commonly touched objects and surfaces. Use disinfectant wipes to clean your hands or surfaces such as shopping-cart handles when out in public. Some people are going the extra step and using smartphone sanitizers as a precaution, but a disinfecting wipe used lightly on the outside will likely work fine, too. READ MORE: Coronavirus Q&A, 15 things to know about COVID-19s spread The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] New Delhi, March 4 : The crime branch of Delhi Police is running pillar to post in search of suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain. The Councillor is accused in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma during the Delhi violence last week. Hussain is absconding and following the murder charges, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has suspended him. He is also seeking an anticipatory bail in the case and the hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Amid this chaos, Addition Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) on Tuesday informed the media persons that it was the Delhi Police which saved Hussain from being killed during the violence. Now, he is a 'murderer'. But the life journey of this eighth class drop-out crorepati is quite interesting and one would rarely believe that he left home for Delhi in the search of livelihood. Interesting, in 20 years he has made a good wealth and during the civic election 2017 he had declared his total assets worth Rs 17 crore. 43-year-old Hussain was born to a poor family in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district. He faced all the adversaries, first poverty, then unsecured childhood and moreover, a stepmother. In this condition he had no option than living the home in search of a better life. During initial days, he had to do a lot of struggle but Hussain left no stone unturned to change his fate. He worked in a furniture repairing shop. After being perfect in work, he started own furniture factory and also helped marginalised, poor, uneducated and less-educated people by giving them an opportunity in his factory. Thereafter, the life took a swing and catapulted him to the helm of success. Being financial capable was not enough for Hussain, hence, he entered the politics. In 2017, he won the civic elections from Ward number 59, Nehru Vihar, which comes under Mustafabad Assembly constituency in east Delhi. Hopeful with his success, Hussain had sold his ancestral house sometimes back. But now, when he is wanted in the murder case of an IB staffer, the police is expecting that Hussain must be hidden in his old house. "Delhi Police have not contacted us in connection with Hussain. If the Delhi Police have approached to Pourara (Hussain's village), they would have contacted us. But it has not happened so far," the Adampur SHO told IANS over phone. Paurara village falls under the Adampur police station. It can not be ruled out that Hussain is hiding somewhere in Delhi and he himself has spread the rumours about his missing. Whatever is the truth, but Hussain, who was once saved by the Delhi Police from being killed during the Delhi riots, is now an accused in the police record itself. (Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@ians.in) The Duchess of Cambridge made a dazzling entrance to kick off her three-day tour to Ireland yesterday, wearing a pair of daisy-shaped diamond earrings worth 17,300. Kate Middleton, 38, wore the Asprey stud earrings, which appeared to be a new addition to her jewellery collection, to her first official visit to the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday. The royal teamed them with a 1,567 designer dress by Alessandra Rich and a chic black velvet headband. However the mother-of-three soon proved she could work both designer and budget, swapping the diamond studs for 6 H&M gold drop earrings as she attended the evenings reception at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. The Duchess of Cambridge made a dazzling entrance to kick off her three day tour to Ireland yesterday, wearing a pair of daisy-shaped diamond earrings worth 17,300 Last night Kate teamed her staetment gold hooped earrings with a 1,595 emerald 'Falconetti' gown by designer The Vampire's Wife. The royal paired the frock with a pair of 525 Manolo Blahnik heels, a 245 Wilbur and Gussie Charlie Gold Glitter Classic Clutch to match her earrings. Kate famously enjoys mixing designer pieces with high street steals, often looking to H&M and Zara for bargain deals. the mother-of-three soon proved she could work both designer and budget, swapping the diamond studs for 6 H&M gold drop earrings as she attended the evenings reception at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland In January Kate wore a 89.99 printed black and white flowing, long-sleeved dress with belt detail from Zara, which quickly sold out after being reduced to 15.99, on visit to Bradford However yesterday Kate went for two high end esigner dresses, kicking off the day in an emerald green Catherine Walker coat and a 1,567 Alessandra Rich dress. Kate and Prince William, 37, are currently on a three day tour of Ireland, which kicked off on Tuesday. They will return to the UK on Friday, meaning they will miss Prince Harry's Endeavour Fund Awards in London, which the Duke of Sussex will be attending with Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Cambridge (pictured) donned a black and white flowing, long-sleeved dress with belt detail from Zara, that has since been reduced to 15.99 KYODO NEWS - Mar 4, 2020 - 08:19 | All, Japan, World, Coronavirus U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that his administration may consider expanding travel restrictions to countries including Japan to counter the spread of the new coronavirus. "We're watching Italy very closely, South Korea very closely, even Japan very closely, and we'll make the right determination at the right time," Trump said in response to a reporter's question about the possibility of cutting off travel to and from South Korea and Italy, two countries hit hard by the deadly virus. [UPI/Kyodo] The U.S. government has so far barred the entry of foreign nationals who have visited mainland China, where the virus originated, or Iran, which has also seen a major outbreak, within the past 14 days. As for travelers from the United States, the government in late February raised its alert for Japan to level 2 on the four-level advisory scale, calling for "increased caution." Japan has confirmed around 1,000 infection cases, although a large portion of them were crew members or passengers on the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that saw the transmission of the virus while it was quarantined near Tokyo. With less than five months left before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, Trump said it is up to Japan whether to decide to hold the event as planned. "I think I'm going to leave that to Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe. He's a friend of mine. He's built a beautiful venue...They've spent billions of dollars," he said. The president sounded less upbeat than in late February when he told reporters that he hopes Tokyo will host the Olympics, which run from July 24 to Aug. 9. U.S. travel advisories for South Korea and Italy are now at level 3, which calls for citizens to "reconsider travel," while parts of the two countries are designated as level 4, which asks that citizens "do not travel" there. The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh appears to have survived a poaching bid, with senior party leaders on Wednesday blaming the BJP for the alleged move and Chief Minister Kamal Nath asserting that there was no threat to his regime. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. State minister Jitu Patwari said BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh took the eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath-led government. The BJP has denied the charge. Nath said his government, which came to power in December 2017 by ousting the BJP, has an absolute majority and it has proved this in the state Assembly on several occasions. He said the BJP "faced defeat every time" and this time also, its plans will prove to be like "Mungerilal's dream", referring to the famous fictional character from a television serial. Nath also accused the BJP of plotting a conspiracy to come back to power in the state in an "undemocratic manner". Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia accused the BJP of orchestrating a move to "poach" the legislators of his party in Madhya Pradesh, but asserted that Congress government in the state was "completely secure and stable". Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior BJP leader took a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that poaching attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. "Senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others forcibly took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy," Patwari told PTI. "The MLAs told us that they were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders," he said. According to the Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who were taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is an independent and the rest are from BSP and SP. They said BSP MLA Rambai was allegedly manhandled when Congress ministers reached the hotel to meet her. Digvijaya Singh had on Monday alleged his party MLAs were being offered a "huge amount of money" by BJP leaders as part of its attempts to destabilise the Kamal Nath government. Nath said the BJP "killed democracy and constitutional values" in many states, including Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, and it is trying to replicate the same in Madhya Pradesh. "We have full faith in all our MLAs, we have no doubt on their integrity, honesty. The truth of this black money earned from corruption and scams has been revealed and all BJP's conspiracies will fall flat on its face only," he added. On the alleged poaching episode, Scindia said, "This is 100 per cent an attempt to poach (MLAs). We are united and our government is stable. We have counted the numbers and there is no threat to the government (in Madhya Pradesh)." The Congress general secretary and former Union minister told PTI that the incidents of late Tuesday night in Gurgaon near Delhi were orchestrated by the BJP. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. The BJP denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Terming the charge as "unfortunate", Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma said the allegations were unfortunate. "The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," Sharma told reporters here, when asked about Congress' allegation of attempts to destabilise the state government. Sharma said this is the Congress' "internal tussle" and the answer should come from Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. The Congress is leveling allegations against the BJP as it is unable to manage its own MLAs, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. "We have been saying this from the beginning that we are not involved in any such (poaching) activity, but if the Congress government falls on its own, they will be responsible for it," Chouhan told reporters. In Indore, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya denied his party's role in the alleged horse-trading of MLAs supporting the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government. He claimed that whatever is happening in the state's shows the frustration of the ruling Congress MLAs and their anger towards Kamal Nath. Meanwhile, a Vayapam scam whistle-blower released a purported video of a 'sting operation' involving senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra, and claimed that the former minister offered Rs 100 crore and ministerial posts to some Congress MLAs for toppling the Kamal Nath government. While the authenticity of the video has not yet been verified independently, the BJP dubbed it fake and misleading, and said it has been released to tarnish Mishra's image. The Congress will issue a whip to its MLAs for the March 26 polls to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, a minister said. "We are going to issue a whip and if any of our lawmakers violates it, his membership will be scrapped in just one hour," state Legislative Affairs Minister Govind Singh told reporters here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a major success, Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested a person from Jammu who was working for Pakistani Intelligence agency ISI. SSP Jammu Sridhar Patil, IPS, told Republic Media Network that based on a specific input, a team of Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police launched an operation and detained the person involved in an exchange of vital information to handlers of an intelligence agency in Pakistan. 'He was in constant touch with handlers across the border' The person has been identified as Pankaj Sharma, a native of Samba district of Jammu. He was working as an operative of Pakistani intelligence agencies and was in constant touch with handlers across the border since last few years, he said. SSP Jammu further added that during this period, he had sent across photos and videos of vital areas and security installations of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts to his handlers in Pakistan via social media platforms in lieu of monetary gains. During questioning, he has confessed his involvement in passing the crucial information of vital installations including sensitive bridges on National Highway and in border areas to his Pakistan handlers, he added. Further investigation in the case is going on In the operation jointly supervised by SSP Jammu Sridhar Patil and SSP SOG Jammu Sandeep Mehta, initial probe indicates some monetary transactions in the two bank accounts of the alleged accused. His bank accounts are being further analyzed for more suspicious transactions. A case under relevant sections of law has been registered against the said accused. Further investigation in the case is going on. READ | President Kovind to visit J&K in March, first since abrogation of Article 370 READ | NIA probing Hizbul hand in Pulwama terror attack Earlier in December 2018, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent Sehran Sheikh alias Abu Zubair who was planning terror attacks in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. During the investigation, he admitted that he was gathering information about the security establishments of forces deployed in Kishtwar and was passing off the same information to Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). READ | Akali Dal calls surplus budget claim of Punjab govt a lie, says 'it is a web of deceit' READ | Terror outfits planned to target Panchayat candidates in Valley (Image credits: PTI) Pence Spokeswoman Says He Didnt Have Contact With Student Quarantined for Coronavirus Vice President Mike Pences office responded to reports he didnt have contact with a student who was later quarantined for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Pence, confirmed that the vice president did not meet or come into contact at all with this student who was later quarantined along with his mother. Pence allegedly shook hands with the students classmates at the Sarasota Military Academy in Sarasota, Florida, according to a Bloomberg News report. Can we take a deep breath? Miller asked. In a statement on Monday, the academy confirmed that our student and his mother currently are not showing any symptoms and are in good health and spirits Can we all take a deep breath? @Mike_Pence did not meet or come into contact at all with this student. https://t.co/uLzvnVcoS4 Katie Miller (@VPPressSec) March 3, 2020 We are continuing to disinfect all classrooms and common areas as we have previously done due to flu season. We will continue to work with the District and the Sarasota County Health Department for advisement after an 11 a.m. conference call, according to the academy. Aides for the vice president, meanwhile, told Bloomberg News that Pence is mindful about washing his hands, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) guidelines for preventing the spread of the virus. On Monday, the vice president was asked about possibly canceling travel plans. I travel across this country all the time. My kids live all over the country, he said. And look, this is a time to use common sense. Good time to wash your hands, Pence continued. But this time of year thats always a good decision. But as weve said, the risk remains low. A worker shields a patient on a stretcher being taken to an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington state on Feb. 29, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images) President Donald Trump approved Pence to oversee the administrations response to the spread of COVID-19 in the country. So far, nine people have died from the virus, all coming from Washington state. Most of the patients and deaths in Washington have been traced back to a nursing home, Life Care Center, in Kirkland, according to officials in King County. Other cases have been reported in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Illinois, Oregon, and Rhode Island, according to the CDCs website. Some American evacuees from Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have emerged last year, as well as the Diamond Princess cruise ship are being held in quarantine on military bases and in medical facilities in other states. According to health officials, most COVID-19 sufferers experience flu-like symptoms and recover, but those who are older, have underlying health problems, or compromised immune systems might be more at risk. The CDC calls on people to cover their mouths while coughing or sneezing and washing hands thoroughly. A man on the Jubilee line of the London Underground tube network wearing a protective facemask. (PA) The chief medical officer has warned the coronavirus will result in some deaths in the UK as two more people in Scotland tested positive. Chris Whitty, who also acts as the chief medical adviser to the government, warned of a significant number of cases of the illness, officially known as Covid-19, to come in the next six weeks. He told Sky News it is "sensible" to plan for up to 20% of people to be sick at one time, while warning that some of those with the disease will die. Chris Whitty has warned of 'some deaths' from coronavirus in the UK. (PA) Further cases in Scotland Officials were told overnight of two more people in Scotland testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total testing positive in the UK to 53. Read more: UK coronavirus worst-case scenario of 80% infection rate 'highly unlikely' Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman said she could not say yet if the new cases of Covid-19 were linked to the first one north of the border, in Tayside. She told BBC Radio Scotland: "We now have three cases in Scotland. Brits have been urged to wash their hands to prevent transmission of coronavirus. (Getty) Transmission Professor Whitty said community transmission of coronavirus is likely to be happening already. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's when it's going from person to person to person and then we pick it up that's what we mean by community transmission. "It is likely that will be happening, if not now, but soon. I think it's likely to be happening at the moment, not definite. Prevention The government is launching a renewed public information campaign urging people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Adverts will seek to drive home the message that regular hand-washing is the single most important action individuals can take in the fight against Covid-19. It comes the day after the government launched its "battle plan" to combat the outbreak with a warning that up to a fifth of the UK workforce could be off sick when the virus hits its peak. Countries with confirmed cases of the coronavirus. (PA) The latest adverts to be rolled out across print, radio, online and billboards will reinforce the message that people should be washing their hands more often. Story continues That includes when they come in from home or work, after they blow their nose, cough or sneeze, and before they eat or handle food. The adverts say washing should be for 20 seconds, using soap and water or hand sanitiser. Read more: 11 myths and conspiracy theories around coronavirus debunked Health secretary Matt Hancock said: "We all have a role to play in stopping this disease and that's what this expanded campaign is all about making sure the public knows exactly what they should be doing to keep themselves and others safe. "Washing hands regularly is the single most important thing that an individual can do." Matt Hancock said Britons 'have a role to play' in preventing the spread of coronavirus. (Getty) Significant escalation NHS England has ordered hospitals to review their intensive care bed numbers and how they could be increased to cope with a surge in cases. In a letter to NHS bosses, strategic incident director Keith Willett said a level four incident the highest category had been declared. Boris Johnson outlined the government's plans to tackle Covid-19 on Tuesday. (PA) He raised the prospect that infected patients may soon start being treated on hospital wards as the numbers grow. Read more: Five ways the government's coronavirus action plan could affect you Hospitals have been told to draw up plans to segregate wards such as A&E departments in the event of a "significant escalation" in cases. All adults and children in intensive care with any kind of respiratory infection must also now be tested for the virus. Officials are still working to delay the peak of the virus until the warmer months, when health services are less busy coping with seasonal flu. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Desalination plant proposal a threat to fishermens livelihood in Andhra Pradesh March 04,2020 | Source: The Hindu Yuva Bharat Force, a voluntary organisation, has appealed to the State government to reconsider the proposal of setting up desalination plants along the coastal cities including Visakhapatnam, claiming that the move would affect the livelihood of fishermen. Israeli firm IDE Technologies, during a recent meeting with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has offered the technology to set up desalination plants in the State. Plankton growth The desalination plants will release brine. The high concentration of salt in brine will take a toll on the fish growth. It will also take a toll on the growth of plankton, a major feed of fish, thereby forcing the migration of fish species into the deep sea. Brine will restrict the growth in the 70 to 80 km of desalination plants, Yuva Bharat Force president Mohammed Sadiq told the media here on Monday. Groundwater contamination He further said that the effluent will also resulting in the increase in underwater temperature, posing a threat to the marine biodiversity, apart from contaminating the groundwater. Citing an estimate, Mr. Sadiq said that fishing was providing direct and indirect employment to around 14.5 lakh people in the State. Fisheries sector contributes 0.4% to the GDP. Establishing desalination plants will result in loss of livelihood of fishermen, he said. Mr. Sadiq further pointed out that desalination plants were successful in less populous countries where the dependence on fisheries was negligible. Population of Israel is less than 1 crore when compared to 4.5 crore in Andhra Pradesh. Israel needs only 65,000 tonnes of fish as the country imports about 65% of its requirement, he said. Research findings Quoting findings of a research conducted in Mediterranean Sea, he said fishery resources were being affected owing to the effluents discharged from desalination plants. Yuva Bharat Force members Devarakonda Markendile was present on the occasion. Washington: President Donald Trump on Wednesday complained that anti-coronavirus measures are leaving him out of touch -- with his own face. Trump spoke at a White House meeting with airline executives and administration officials on sanitary measures taken to try and stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Executives explained their enhanced cleaning operations on passenger planes. Then Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, reminded "the common sense of washing your hands, not touching your face". To which Trump, a self-acknowledged germophobe, joked: "I haven't touched my face in weeks, in weeks! I miss it!" ISC (Class 12) students under the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) appeared in the board exams for history paper on Wednesday. In Lucknow, the students said the paper was average and met their expectations. Jahnavi, a student of City Montessori School, LDA branch said, Section A comprised easy objective questions and Im hoping to score well in that. Another student Tathagat said, The paper was moderate and Im sure to get a good score. Vaidehi, a CMS student said, The standard of the paper was good but not very easy. Unnati added, Section B contained questions which were lengthy but direct. The syllabus was well covered. For most of the students the paper was comparatively easy and the students were satisfied and happy. Subject expert Dhirendra claimed that the paper was balanced and an average student can achieve good score if he has thoroughly prepared both the sections. School principal Dr Vineeta Kamran was happy with the unflinching determination and efforts put in by her students and teachers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rajeev Mullick Rajeev Mullick is a Special Correspondent, he writes on education, telecom and heads city bureau at Lucknow. Love travelling ...view detail The Cork county board and the Pairc Ui Chaoimh stadium board will jointly make three business-related appointments the latest step in the coming together of the two bodies. With the secondment of Michelle McAleer as Pairc Ui Chaoimh stadium manager coming to an end following the completion of the stadium audit, the two boards have agreed to jointly fund three short-term positions in the commercial, facilities, and accounting areas. The respective roles will cover the workings of both Cork county board and Pairc Ui Chaoimh. This joint-up approach, as well as the future running and financing of both the stadium and county board, will be mapped out in the business plan currently being drawn up by business advisory firm BDO. The county board executive is hopeful of this business plan being delivered by early summer. At the February meeting of the county board, secretary Kevin ODonovan informed delegates that the executive had made strenuous attempts in recent times to stop the separation of Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Cork GAA". "We know it originated in Croke Park. They provided great support previously and continue to do so. That support is still there and it is bona fide. We would like the stadium to become more part of Cork GAA. And in view of that, we are in discussion with Croke Park and different fundraising partners to see if we can pull this whole thing together and put it on a sounder footing for the future. ODonovan said he did not see Pairc Ui Chaoimh debt as being separate to the county boards 2019 losses totalling 560k. To me, it is Cork GAA; one big problem. It was announced at Tuesdays meeting of the board that talks have commenced between the Cork county board executive, the stadium board, supporters group Cairde Chorcai, the financial advisory and planning sub-committee, and other independent persons, with regard to the rolling out of a coordinated financing approach. This fundraising structure may be ready for unveiling at next months gathering of the board. GAA Podcast: Seamus Moynihan, Kingdom royalty on obsession, O Ses, Clifford & those Kerry fans Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:23:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities said on Wednesday a ban imposed on the importation of rice and other food crops has not been lifted. "The ban on rice imports and other food crops is still in force," Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe said at a meeting on boosting rice production in the capital, Dodoma. The government will continue to make sure that there are no imports of rice in the country to protect local farmers from a competitive market suffocated by cheap imports, he said. "Tanzania is currently producing one million tonnes of rice annually and our strategy should focus on producing three to four million tonnes of rice annually," Bashe told the meeting. He said strategies to boost production of rice in the country should entail heavy investment in irrigation farming and production of high quality seeds. Rice is the second most cultivated food and commercial crop in Tanzania after maize, with a cultivated area of about 681,000 hectares, which represents 18 percent of the cultivated land. However, yields are generally very low, at between one and one and a half tonnes per hectare, due to the use of mostly traditional farming methods. WASHINGTON Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesdays biggest prize with a victory in California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition as the Democratic Partys once-crowded presidential field transformed into a two-man contest. The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for Americas future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys 2020 presidential nomination fight. The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democratic battle will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. The former vice president and the three-term senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders signature lines. And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics, Sanders said, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Mike Bloombergs sole victory was in the territory of American Samoa. The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation. Elizabeth Warren posted no wins and lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden in a devastating defeat. She ultimately finished third in the state. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, as well as California, Utah and Colorado. Yet Biden scored wins in Warrens native Oklahoma, along with Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, signaling he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats establishment wing. In a sign of his strength across the country, Biden also won Minnesota, a state Sanders had hoped to put in his column. Biden racked up the victories despite being dramatically outspent by moderate rival Bloomberg, who poured more than $19 million into television advertising in Virginia. Biden, meanwhile, spent less than $200,000. A key to Bidens success: black voters. Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obamas vice president, won 60% of the black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate on Tuesday. Bloomberg earned 25%, and Sanders won about 10% of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate. The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns and endorsed Biden. Bidens win in South Carolina, his first in the 2020 election season, rescued his campaign from the brink after three consecutive weak finishes last month. Sanders had predicted victory in California, the days largest delegate prize. The state, like delegate-rich Texas, plays to his strengths, given its significant factions of liberal white voters, large urban areas with younger voters and strong Latino populations. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against President Donald Trump in November. Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his partys far-left flank that embraces his decadeslong fight to transform the nations political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his partys Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change. Across the Super Tuesday states, there were early questions about Sanders claims that he is growing his support from his 2016 bid. Biden bested him in Oklahoma, although Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. And in Virginia, where Democratic turnout surpassed 2016 by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders vote share dropped significantly. Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country. Warren was also fighting to be optimistic. Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist shes willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesnt claim an outright victory anywhere. The number of coronavirus infections in Hyderabad rose to three on Wednesday with two persons testing positive in preliminary checks, an official statement from Telanganas Public Health and Family Welfare department said. The latest infection also forced a tech company to evacuate two of its campuses in the city after one of its employees tested positive. The samples of the two persons have been sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune for confirmation. Of the two, one has travel history to Italy. The other is a contact of the 24-year old techie who tested positive for the virus on Monday. The two had undergone preliminary tests at Hyderabads state-run Gandhi hospital. The state public health and family welfare department said that the results of additional tests on the two sent to NVL, Pune are expected on Thursday. More than 40 people who had come in contact with the affected techie have been kept under observation. On Monday, 47 people including these people had undergone the tests. While 45 tested negative, two tested positive. One of the two person who has tested positive is an employee of DSM Shared Services and the company in a statement said, We would like to inform you that one of our DSM colleagues in our Hyderabad office at Mindspace building has been diagnosed with Coronavirus. This diagnosis was confirmed early this morning. We are regularly checking on the colleague who is in hospital as well as family members to ensure everyone is doing fine. Also watch: Coronavirus: 28 positive cases in India; PM Modi to skip Holi Milan events The companys offices in two tech campuses of the city Raheja Mindspace and Brightspace are being cleansed and disinfected thoroughly, the company added. It said till everything was sorted out it had asked its employees to work from home as the sites were closed. The Telangana government has put in place 3,000 beds for isolation and close to 300 beds for patients requiring treatment. The health officials also began publicising the preventive measures being taken to ensure that the virus doesnt spread. Meanwhile the BJP announced that a public rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah which was scheduled for 15 March in Hyderabad has been postponed to a future date. Partys Chief Spokesperson for Telangana said This decision was taken to reduce mass physical contact of people during the public rally in the current context of serious precautions being undertaken by the Centre to arrest spread of Corona virus. A couple of schools in the area where the techie lives , remained shut as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, a software engineer from Hyderabad has been quarantined and is being treated at the district Government General Hospital in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh after he complained of cough. He had recently gone to South Korea and was visiting his in-laws at Kakinada. District authorities have sent his samples for tests to Hyderabad and he is currently under observation, according to district collector Muralidhara Reddy. The virus was first detected in India in Kerala in January when three people tested positive. All three later recovered. The infection has surged recently with 14 people including an Indian testing positive at the ITBPs quarantine facility at Chhawla near Delhi on Wednesday. They were among 21 Italians and three Indians at the quarantine facility. Two Italian tourists in Jaipur have also been confirmed positive for coronavirus. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has announced that passengers from all countries will be screened at airports as a precautionary measure to stop the virus from spreading. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON YEREVAN, MARH 4, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Arsen Torosyan had a telephone conversation with Georgian Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs Ekaterine Tikaradze to discuss the situation in the two countries caused by the novel coronavirus. Minister Tikaradze told me that three persons are infected with coronavirus in Georgia and no new cases were confirmed in recent days. They all feel good, like our patient. I also introduced the situation in our country and the ongoing actions. Wishing success to our brotherly Georgian people on overcoming this situation, we agreed to keep contacts between the ministers and the two ministries so that our actions will be maximally in accordance with one another and effective, the Armenian minister said. First case of coroavirus has been confirmed in Armenia on March 1. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan A Clay County man who was the subject of a statewide Missing Senior Alert was found dead, and police now say he was the victim of homicide. On Monday, Ashland police were notified that 64-year-old Ross J. Brand was missing. His son, Rodney Brand, notified police about 1:30 p.m. that he had not seen or heard from his father since they both went to bed about 10 p.m. on Sunday, said Ashland Police Chief Joseph Stanford. The son told investigators his father was showing signs of mild dementia and was known to walk around town. Ashland officer responded to the area and began searching for Brand. Stanford said the search began to spread out and without any results. Fearing that Brand might have been confused and gotten in the car with someone, officers began the process of getting a Missing Senior Alert issued by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency which was issued at 3 p.m. Monday. As police continued their search, Southeastern Search and Rescue out of Shelby County joined in, bringing one of their tracking dogs. The search team hit the ground about 7 p.m. Monday, Stanford said. The dog was able to get a scent trail and followed it to where officers found Mr. Ross Brand deceased, the chief said. The scene was cordoned off, and investigators including Jacksonville State Universitys Applied Forensics Team, along with the 40th Judicial Circuit District Attorneys Office, responded to the location. The scene was processed, and Stanford said they deemed Brands death was a homicide. He said because of the sensitive nature of the case, no additional information is being released at this time. Anyone with information is asked to call Ashland police at 256-354-2122 or contact investigators at ashlandpd@outlook.com. Police said they will work with tipsters who wish to remain anonymous. Ex-detectives have blasted Bristol officers for 'an abuse of policing' for pandering to eco-warrior Greta Thunberg. The 17-year-old Swedish activist was chauffeured to her protest in the city in an electric car courtesy of the force. Former Met Police Senior Investigating Officer on murders Colin Sutton said it was inappropriate for officers to take a side in protests. He sarcastically suggested that one day police would be providing replicas of Adolf Hitler's Mercedes-Benz complete with swastikas for right-wing groups. Ex-detectives have blasted Bristol officers for 'an abuse of policing' for pandering to eco-warrior Greta Thunberg (pictured in the city on Friday) Under a picture of the model of car, he wrote: 'I wonder how they will collect other protest leaders in future? Maybe they can find one of these for the EDL?' Ex-Met Police detective Norman Brennan said: 'I agree Colin this girl has been given a platform where many others wouldnt have she directs her abuse & insults at adults why not children? 'Her PR team & others drive & advise her she speaks but its others who are doing the talking! She is an unwell girl suffering MH issues!' An estimated 30,000 people gathered on Bristol's College Green on Friday for the demonstration. On Friday, an estimated 30,000 people gathered on Bristols College Green (Greta is circled) But residents were left furious at the state they left the historic lawn in following the Strike 4 Climate event. The teenager told thousands of children who skipped school: 'We are being betrayed by those in power I will not be silenced while the world is on fire.' Some were less than impressed, with one Twitter user saying: 'Thanks kids. Destroying green spaces. What a gift to the people of Bristol' Another tweeted: 'Greta and her mates have literally destroyed College Green.' Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives on the Greater London Assembly, said: 'This is an utter disgrace, children being bussed in from all over the country great for emissions. 'Not to mention that these children should be at school where they are safe, not encouraged to skip their education.' One Thunberg supporter posted: 'Grass will grow back. Our ozone layer, icecaps, coral reefs, Australian bush and the Amazon Rainforest will not.' A criminal justice system exists to protect people and property. We already noted that in San Francisco, the criminal justice system no longer protects people. However, it's not just San Francisco that has a problem. The whole of California does, and there's a video making the rounds now showing what happens when the government withdraws its protection from law-abiding citizens. In 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which downgraded certain felonies to misdemeanors. Significantly, the new measure mandated that any theft below $950 would be a misdemeanor. A year after the law passed, Stanford University's Justice Advocacy Project put out a report with one of its authors having co-written Prop. 47 stating that there were now 13,000 fewer people in California's prisons and that the state had already saved $150 million. The study, though, forgot to look at the cost to California's citizens. The reality is that civic law enforcement seldom tries to investigate or prosecute misdemeanors. It's too much effort for too small an ultimate consequence for the malefactor. This is especially true, as we'll see, when the prosecutor has leftist ideas about what constitutes justice. Already in 2016, California retailers were complaining about the new law's effect on their businesses: Anything below $950 keeps the crime a misdemeanor and likely means the thieves face no pursuit and no punishment, say retailers and law enforcement officials. Large retailers including Safeway, Target, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies say shoplifting increased at least 15 percent, and in some cases, doubled since voters approved Proposition 47 and ended the possibility of charging shoplifting as a felony with the potential for a prison sentence. Shoplifting reports to the Los Angeles Police Department jumped by a quarter in the first year, according to statistics the department compiled for The Associated Press. In San Francisco, the problems from Prop. 47 have been compounded by the fact that last November voters elected Chesa Boudin to be their District Attorney. Boudin is the son of two terrorists from the 1960s group the Weather Underground, both of whom went to prison for felony murder. Boudin was therefore raised by two other Weather Underground members: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. He is a revolutionary Marxist at a level most Americans cannot even comprehend. While Boudin made a big deal about refusing to prosecute "lifestyle crimes," such as prostitution, public urination and defecation, and public drug use, he's quietly been pushing another revolution in criminal injustice: to the frustration of San Francisco's police officers, he's refusing to prosecute misdemeanors. That brings us to the latest video out of San Francisco. For once, this isn't showing someone defecating in the street or shooting up in a BART station. Instead, this shows criminals just walking into a local Walgreens and stripping the shelves bare. Once upon a time, this Walgreens was located in a very nice middle-class neighborhood. Now it's a sitting duck for crime: As Democrats position themselves to challenge Trump for the presidency, keep this video in mind. Bernie has pushed the party so far to the left that, even if the candidate is Biden or Bloomberg, the party's ethos is to follow California's and San Francisco's lead on justice or rather, criminal injustice. (Bloomberg, with his groveling apologies for stop-and-frisk, which saved many lives, is going to swing as hard to the left as anyone else to keep the base placated.) Their hard-left voter base wants to see America as a whole enact the criminal justice policies that are making life in California miserable for law-abiding citizens. With a Bernie, Biden, or Bloomberg in the White House, this video might one day be taken anywhere in America, not just on the crazy left coast. A group of millennials have revealed all the mundane items they sold to other children at school for extra money, including a rock in newspaper disguised as a 'lucky dip' prize and club 'memberships' just to hang out. The hilarious admissions come as ABC's Triple J radio station asked Australian listeners to text in with their memories from that time, with some being innocent examples of the childhood imagination and others the beginning of a pyramid scheme. From painting two five cent pieces gold and passing them off as a $2 coin to cutting up grass on the playground and selling it as 'weed', these were some of the best. From painting two five cent pieces gold and passing them off as a $2 coin to cutting up grass on the playground and selling it as weed, these were some of the best money making schemes 1. Selling finger buns for $1 Sarah from Castle Hill, Sydney, decided to sell finger buns at her school because her parents owned a popular bakery in the local area. Another child was selling soft drink for a dollar at the same time so Sarah decided to team up with a special deal. Now they had a mini 'meal' to offer their pupils, which they were selling for $3. 2. Asking for cash to grow a 'money tree' A primary school duo started growing a money tree by digging a hole and planting coins in the ground. They 'didn't have enough' in total so they asked others to invest in the tree, which they were hoping would be profitable. But when it didn't grow Ben, who is from Canberra, and his friend used the money to buy themselves a frozen drink every week for the rest of the year. 3. Creating a clothing range for Beanie Babies Over a decade ago Beanie Babies were the ultimate plush toy gift for any child, and they have become collectables since. So one business venture almost started when a group of school children decided to 'open a shop that made clothing and accessories for Beanie Babies'. 'Should have gone through with it, I could be a millionaire now,' the anonymous caller said. Over a decade ago Beanie Babies were the ultimate plush toy gift for any child, and they have become collectables since 3. Charging money to pull out teeth It's not fun waiting for your teeth to finally fall out as a child after years of wiggling them. So to speed up the process Tilly from Wollongong, Sydney, charged Year One kids 20 cents a tooth to pull them out. With her earnings she purchasing a Tina Arena album on cassette tape. 4. Eau de per-fraud Two friends decided to make 'perfume' out of water and flowers they mixed together at home. They would pour the dully scented liquid into old shampoo and conditioner bottles to sell on the street. Their business profited $20 while in operation, before they pulled the plug. 6. Burning CDs as a side hustle In an age where everyone listens to music on their smartphone 'burning' a CD would be a concept entirely lost on the current generation. But back when that was the only way to listen to your favourite tracks, Dean from the NSW Central Coast decided to make a business around it. 'My friend and I had a list of CDs we or our parents owned and we would sell burnt copies for $5-$10. It was a lucrative little racket,' he said. In an age where everyone listens to music on their smartphone 'burning' a CD would be a concept entirely lost on the current generation What other things did children sell in the school playground? * Wrapped a rock in newspaper and sold them as lucky door prizes. * Grabbed grass from the school playground and sold it as 'weed'. * Stole lemons from their neighbours backyard to make lemonade and sell it for a tidy profit. * Sold some of their home cooked lunch for a small fee. Advertisement 7. Forging notes for a price When your sister has neat handwriting it's worth your while taxing in on her talent. Kat from Engadine, Sydney, sold forged notes written by her 18-year-old sibling so that children at her school could 'leave for an appointment'. It was made to look like a parent's handwriting so they went virtually undetected. When your sister has neat handwriting it's worth your while taxing in on her talent (stock image) 8. Paying for a secret 'club membership' One man leveraged his popularity by selling membership to a 'club' that allowed other people to hang out with him on the playground. 'It got exposed when kids went home asking for the money from their parents,' he said. Needless to say his parents weren't impressed by the money making scheme. The Historic U.S.-Taliban Deal May Already Be Unraveling Over These Two Key Issues By Frud Bezhan March 03, 2020 The historic U.S.-Taliban agreement aimed at ending the long war in Afghanistan is only a few days old, but the deal is already threatening to unravel over disputes about key issues. The United States and the Taliban signed a deal on February 29 that will trigger the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in exchange for security commitments from the extremist militant group. Part of the deal is the launch of direct negotiations between Afghans and the Taliban over a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing arrangement. But those intra-Afghan talks have been thrown into doubt because of disagreement over two key tenets of the deal. The Taliban has demanded that the Afghan government free 5,000 of its captured fighters, a claim rejected by Kabul. Meanwhile, the militants have refuted the government's claim that violence nationwide must remain low during intra-Afghan talks. 'Very Difficult Issue' The disputes have been fueled by the United States using different language in separate documents it agreed with the Taliban and the Afghan government. The text of the U.S.-Taliban agreement said Washington was committed to the release of "up to 5,000" Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government and "up to 1,000...prisoners of the other side will be released" by March 10, when intra-Afghan meetings are slated to begin. But a joint U.S.-Afghan declaration signed on February 29 only said the Kabul government will take part in discussions on the "feasibility of releasing significant numbers of prisoners on both sides" and did not mention a specific number of prisoners to be released or a time frame. Kabul, which was not a signatory to the bilateral U.S.-Taliban deal, said it had not committed to a prisoner swap. President Ashraf Ghani said the prisoner swap could be "included in the agenda of the intra-Afghan talks but cannot be a prerequisite for talks." But the Taliban said on March 2 that it would not take part in intra-Afghan talks before some 5,000 of its fighters were freed. Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said the issue had become a stumbling block instead of a confidence-building measure. "At this stage, political pressure is needed to resolve this issue with a formula that all sides can agree with," said Samad. "One option is to agree to a gradual and staggered release before and after intra-Afghan talks." A senior U.S. administration official on March 2 signaled that Washington expected a compromise from the Taliban and the Afghan government on the issue. "There are aspirational numbers and timelines in the agreement," said the unidentified official at a special briefing at the State Department. "This is a very difficult issue. Both parties have strongly held views and we are going to try and help broker a positive outcome." "There is a lot of ambiguity [in the text of the U.S.-Taliban deal], even when it comes to very particular points," said Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group. "This ambiguity can be a good thing; it allows for flexibility." There are fears that the release of thousands of Taliban fighters could deprive the Kabul government of a key amount of leverage and undercut the peace process by strengthening the Taliban's position on the battlefield. There are an estimated 10,000 Taliban prisoners being held in Afghanistan. "Prisoner releases can be leverage to secure other gains, but the Afghan government's leverage in talks will come from the support of the international community, the Afghan people, and their political leaders," said Watkins. There have been several high-profile prisoner swaps and releases of insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime. The most recent was in November, when two Western hostages were released from Taliban custody in exchange for three senior Taliban prisoners, including Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction. Reduction In Violence The Afghan government and the Taliban are also locked in a dispute about allowable levels of violence and attacks during intra-Afghan talks, which are expected to be complex and protracted. The Taliban ordered its fighters on March 2 to resume operations against Afghan forces as the militants said the weeklong partial truce between the Taliban, U.S., and Afghan forces that preceded the February 29 agreement was "over." The Taliban has since carried out deadly attacks across Afghanistan, including an attack on an Afghan military base in Logar Province on March 3 that killed at least five soldiers. Ghani said on March 1 that the reduction in violence would be extended and eventually transformed into a cease-fire. He said if the Taliban "backs away from" an extended reduction of violence, it would be "openly violating the condition set for them." The text of the U.S.-Taliban deal made no mention of a Taliban commitment to reduce violence during intra-Afghan talks. But U.S. General Scott Miller, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said on March 2 that the United States expected that "violence must remain low" during negotiations among the Afghan parties. Samad said that with the weeklong reduction of violence period over, the rules and procedures were not clear and were open to interpretation. "Reduction of violence has to be treated as a confidence-building measure, but, in negotiations, it's also used as leverage tied to give-and-take," he said. "At this stage, with other stumbling blocks and possible concession-seeking tactics being used by Ghani, the Taliban will most likely use the reduction of violence as a pressure point." Ghani sent a government delegation to Qatar to open what the government said were "initial contacts" with the militants, with experts saying that this could open communication lines between the warring sides over the levels of violence and what each side expected if the deal was to hold. But the Taliban said on March 3 that it would not meet Kabul's representatives in Qatar except to discuss the release of their prisoners. "I suspect that there will be some sort of middle ground, where the Taliban attempt to demonstrate to their own fighters as well as the Afghan government that it will continue to fight for 'an Islamic system' by resuming some combat operations but also keeping them confined or reduced in certain ways," Watkins said. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/the-historic-us--taliban- deal-may-be-unraveling-over-these -two-key-issues/30466970.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Nevada Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case weighing how state regulators should consider public trust values the environment or recreation when the sustainability of lakes or rivers could be harmed by how the state has allocated water rights. The questions before the court stem from ongoing federal litigation over the use of water in the Walker River. But the case has received significant attention because it could provide an opportunity for the states top court to bolster legal protections for the environment. At the same time, agricultural groups, businesses and municipal water users fear a broad ruling could upend their existing water rights. In this case, the court really has the opportunity to define what the Public Trust Doctrine means when applied to water rights in Nevada, said Bret Birdsong, a UNLV law professor and a former deputy solicitor for the Department of Interior who filed an amicus brief in the case. The Public Trust Doctrine is a legal concept essentially stating that governments are responsible for protecting natural resources for the publics benefit. Although the Supreme Court has recognized the Public Trust Doctrine, it has not definitively stated how it should apply to settled water rights, seen as a form of property. Can the responsibility to protect the public trust outweigh existing rights? In 2018, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals formally asked the Nevada Supreme Court to weigh in. And the hearing on Tuesday was the first step in getting an answer from the courts seven justices. At the center of the case is Walker Lake outside of Hawthorne in Mineral County. Over more than a century, as upstream irrigators diverted water from the river, less and less water flowed from Walker River into the lake. Reductions in inflows led to changes in the lakes chemical properties. Scientists observed sharp increases in salinity over past decades, leading to a loss of fish habitat. As the shoreline receded, fewer anglers came to the lake to recreate. By the 1990s, Mineral County had had enough. It asked a court to require state regulators to maintain the public trust in Walker Lake by ensuring enough water reached the lake to support native fish. To do so, the county sought to apply the Public Trust Doctrine to Nevada water law. On Tuesday, Mineral County lawyer Simeon Herskovits said that the Public Trust Doctrine is an inherent component of every single water right in this state and exists to protect Walker Lake. But, he added, the protection has never been vindicated or acted on by the state, despite its fiduciary duty under the legal doctrine. Instead, the state let Walker Lakes shoreline recede. On the other side of the equation are agricultural irrigators. To ensure that more water reaches Walker Lake, Nevada water regulators might require irrigators to forgo their existing state-issued water rights. By invoking the Public Trust Doctrine, irrigators worry they could see reduced water use. State agencies and the Walker River Irrigation District oppose its use in the Walker River. They argue that public interest values were taken into consideration at the time that the water rights were issued. Solicitor General Heidi Parry Stern said that Mineral County seeks to use the doctrine as a sledgehammer to undo [water rights] that have been made through Nevada law. Stern said the state, through statute, already considers the public interest in appropriating water for uses that include ranching, farming, mining, municipal development and wildlife protection. The state and irrigation district said it was the Legislatures role not the courts role to determine what uses of water state regulators should prioritize and what is in the public interest. The Legislature decides what the public trust values are, and they are multiple and they are changing, Stern said. The Legislature is the appropriate place for the people to make heard their opinions on what the public trust values currently are. Those are then incorporated into all of the decisions by the state engineer. (The state engineer is Nevadas top water regulator). Herskovits called that argument misplaced. He said it was the courts role to rule on the legal doctrine, a fiduciary responsibility that is not fully fulfilled by Nevada statutes. Although Walker Lake is central to the particular case, water users from across the state worry that a ruling from the court could have broader consequences. Municipal water users, irrigation districts and trade groups for ranching, agriculture and mining all filed amicus briefs in the case. Many worry Mineral Countys interpretation of the doctrine could undermine the existing system. In one brief, the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation, Nevada Cattlemens Association, Lyon County Farm Bureau and Elko County Farm Bureau, said the county seeks to have this court upend the [water rights] system and authorize the re-opening of already-settled water decrees. Such a request has implications that stretch beyond the facts and circumstances of this case. But Herskovits said that was not the intention. States that have applied the Public Trust Doctrine to water rights have shown no history no record whatsoever of those kinds of disruptions, he noted. The Public Trust Doctrine, he said, only calls for a type of balancing test. He cast it as a tool for states to protect natural resources but not one that always requires the reshuffling of long-standing rights. An amicus brief from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Western Resource Advocates, National Wildlife Federation and Nevada Wildlife Federation similarly argued that recognizing the doctrine should have only a modest practical impact on water users. Both Herskovits and the environmental nonprofits pointed to a landmark California Supreme Court case, National Audubon Society v. Superior Court. That case, with similar facts to those in the Walker River case, allowed state regulators to revisit a water right held by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power because it conflicted with Californias responsibility to protect Mono Lake. There have been none of the types of aggressive interferences or wholesale changing of entities or individuals ability to use their water rights in California, Herskovits said. The solicitor general and the Walker River Irrigation District urged the court to use Nevada law as its guide in answering the public trust question, rather than looking to California and Hawaii, the two Western states that have invoked the doctrine to change an existing water right. Gordon DePaoli, a lawyer for the irrigation district, noted that other Western states with similar laws to Nevada have said the public trust doctrine does not apply to the appropriation of water. The Legislature, DePaoli said, is best suited to answer the public trust question. These are very difficult policy decisions, he said. They have to be made by the people that the Nevadans have elected to make those tough decisions, and thats their Legislature. As the court considers the issues, there is currently a program in place to boost the elevation of Walker Lake. For years, the Walker Basin Conservancy has used federal funding to purchase water rights from farmers and ranchers within the Walker River Basin. Their goal is to retire the water from agricultural irrigation, allowing it to remain in the river and flow freely into the lake. Throughout the hearing, lawyers cited the program as an example of how current law provides a remedy for environmental restoration at Walker Lake. Herskovits said that was a red herring. The program, he noted, would not alone restore enough flows to make Walker Lake sustainable. The fact is that that remedy is not going to be complete, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Today, the Orange County Board of Education will vote on the future of the Orange County School of the Arts. The County Department of Education staff recommended the board approve the charter, with conditions. We know what they had to say because those draft conditions are included in an agenda released ahead of the meeting, Among them: "Revise admissions policies and procedures in charter petition" to get rid of placement activities, letters of recommendation, resumes, essays, and portfolios and instead select students - after filling certain preferences - by public random drawing. "Revise the Parent Voluntary Contribution Agreement" to emphasize that these donations are "voluntary and not required for a student to participate in any conservatory or academic program." "Revising the governance structure and bylaws" to prevent conflicts of interests and to be transparent. Those recommendations echo similar critiques made by the school's current authorizer, Santa Ana Unified. You can read the whole report and recommended conditions in our update from last week. When we published our special report on the battle over the charter renewal, we invited your questions. Here are some answers: ADMISSIONS AND WHO'S APPLYING "Since OCSA is an arts magnet school, it would have made this story much more interesting if you had compared OCSA's application and admissions policies with those of an academic magnet school ..." OCSA is not a magnet school. It's a charter school. Both are types of public schools but their rules are not the same. As a charter school OCSA must ask its authorizer -- which for 20 years has been Santa Ana Unified -- for approval of its charter renewal petition every five years. OCSA's current charter with Santa Ana Unified expires on June 30. That process, which has been going on for several months, is what we reported on on air and online last week. The distinction between a charter and magnet school is not insignificant. I talked to a charter expert about this -- Myrna Castrejon, president and chief executive officer of the California Charter Schools Association. Her organization wrote a guide to admissions for charter schools. Castrejon noted when it comes to magnet schools "districts are allowed to have practices that do weigh academic performance, grades ... or admissions on other criteria that charter schools are very clearly not allowed to do." "What demographic percentage are applying?" We don't know the racial or income demographics of applicants - the school doesn't ask for race or income on the application forms we've seen. We do know where applicants come from, from raw admission data the school provided to us. For the current school year, we know: 1,559 young people applied. 7% of applicants come from Santa Ana, where the school is located. Of those 7%, 35% were offered enrollment. Overall, 39% of applicants were offered enrollment. Around 80% of applicants come from Orange County and around 11% of applicants come from Los Angeles County. That's what we mapped out in our story. If you click on different cities, you can see how many applicants were accepted, denied, and waitlisted. The California Department of Education does track the demographics of enrolled students - you can click around the department's data here. Related to that, we also got this comment: "Perhaps a school such as this, that reflects and draws students from the County as a whole, should be overseen by the OCDE, rather than the local jurisdiction." That's the argument the school made after Santa Ana Unified approved OCSA's charter with conditions, including revisions to admissions and fundraising practices. OCSA officials pushed back on those demands -- saying it amounted to denying the charter renewal -- and appealed, which is how the matter came before the OCDE. A January news release from the school reads: "OCSA has grown from a local program to a regional program, drawing students from more than 30 cities in Orange County (and more than 100 across Southern California). Therefore, an OCBE charter is a more appropriate partnership at this point in OCSA's history." Santa Ana Unified argued that it did not deny the charter and that the County board did not have grounds to hear an appeal. But OCDE staff decided to recommend that the County Board of Education grant OCSA's request to become the school's authorizer -- while expressing similar concerns as Santa Ana Unified when it came to admissions and fundraising. FUNDING AND FUNDRAISING We got a couple related questions about funding and fund-raising: "Did you discover on the parent funding agreement that the amount is a suggested donation and that each family is asked to pledge an amount they can afford? We never were able to pledge the full amount, and never received any backlash." "I'm an OCSA parent and SA resident. Why is the OCSA PFA questionable, but fundraisers from [traditional] public schools are not? Both are optional & don't affect enrollment; extracurricular activities aren't free at other public schools either." According to OCSA's charter renewal petition, parent contributions are the second largest revenue source for the school. OCSA calls itself a "tuition-free, donation dependent" school. We talked about the fund to cover arts costs for students who can't afford to give, and we spoke to a student whose family couldn't afford to give and said he never felt any repercussions. We also talked to a family whose parents said they took extra jobs in order to contribute toward the costs of the arts programs. According to the most recent charter renewal petition, the school assumes that on average parents will give $3,349 when writing its budgets. Santa Ana Unified assessed the funding model that relies heavily on parent donations -- the school asks for contributions of over $4,000 per student -- and determined it could be a barrier for families unable to meet the recommended donation levels. That finding played a role in the district's consideration of whether to approve the school's charter in December. District staff wrote in that report that "parents who cannot afford to contribute are likely not to apply for admission." Since then, we've gotten a glimpse at the Orange County Department of Education staff's conclusions after reviewing the fundraising practices themselves. Here's what the OCDE staff wrote in response to the petition: As for fundraising in general, it's true that schools can and do ask for contributions to fund school activities, often for programs considered to be extra to the normal curriculum. State law does allow for "voluntary donations" and "voluntary participation in fundraising activities." The reliance on parent donations at OCSA is distinct because that money funds a range of conservatories that, as the OCDE staff wrote in their report, "are an integral part of the OCSA charter petition and are required for all students enrolled." While the last line of this year's form indicates that individual families' contributions are voluntary, OCSA makes clear that without parents' donations, conservatories could be at risk. "At the beginning of the school year, if there are conservatories with low parent donations/fundraising commitments those conservatory programs will be budgeted to have a modified or reduced program," the parent packet reads. ACCESS TO THE ARTS I got a couple questions related to access to the arts -- which is something we've covered for over six years at KPCC. Readers summed it up like this: "Why aren't other schools in Santa Ana being held responsible for providing arts education as well? Isn't access to arts also attending events put on by the school? SA residents are able to do that." "We lack serious art education in our education system. THAT is the story." California education law does require access to the arts in schools, though as we've reported in the past, it's a law with no teeth since districts are left to police themselves. Statewide data from Create CA, an arts education coalition, show that schools with high populations of poor students have low arts participation rates. Santa Ana Unified specifically is home to two Turnaround Arts: California schools: Sierra Preparatory Academy and Willard Intermediate. That means these schools get help bringing the arts to their students. We reported that the OCSA does offer free arts programming after school on Fridays for Santa Ana Unified kids. Over the past 20 years, the school says it has served 5,000 Santa Ana children through this Camp OCSA programming and has enrolled 3,200 Santa Ana students. We Love To Answer Your Questions President Akufo-Addo has expressed his satisfaction with the measures Government has put in place to deal with the threat of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). President Akufo-Addo made this known on Wednesday, 4th March 2020, when he paid visits to the Kotoka International Airport, the Tema General Hospital and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. Accompanied by the Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the President's first port of call was the arrival terminal of the Kotoka International Airport. It was revealed by the Health Minister that several stakeholder engagements with the Ghana Airport Company Limited, Ghana Immigration Services, Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority, at all the country's ports of entry, have been held to strengthen Ghana's COVID-19 preparedness and surveillance. The Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Ltd, Mr. Yaw Kwakwa, told President Akufo-Addo that, on arrival at the airport, all passengers are screened using thermal scanning devices at the airport, and passengers are also required to fill a health declaration forms. Additionally, the GACL boss indicated that point of entry staff at the airport have been sensitised on case detection and infection prevention and control, together with the creation of a holding room at the airport which is to be utilised to hold suspected COVID-19 cases. At the Tema General Hospital, one of the hospitals designated as a treatment /isolation centre for the COVID-19 disease, the Medical Director of hospital, Dr. Richard Anthony, told President Akufo-Addo that the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Hospital is readily prepared for the COVID-19. We have an emergency response team made up of nurses, pharmacists, administrators on standby. The President was taken on a tour of the clean room encompassing a changing area for the nurses, as well as the main ward, which did not have any patients as at the time of the visit. We have not had any suspected or cases tested in Tema General, he added. At the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, another hospital designated as a treatment /isolation centre for the COVID-19 disease, President Akufo-Addo was told that the infectious diseases centre of the hospital is a full unit, purposely-built and well-designed to hold and quarantine an infectious case. The President was made aware of the fact that the emergency response team at the hospital has been activated, with basic medical checks undertaken on every patient who visits the hospital. If there is any positive indication of the contraction of a disease, we keep you and we make arrangement for the patient to be transported to this centre. We conduct a test, which involves taking samples and sending it to Noguchi. To date, we have tested about seventeen people who fitted into the case definition. However, luckily, none of them tested positive, the head of the Centre told President Akufo-Addo In briefing the President, the Minister of Health stated that public health emergency management structures at all levels, i.e. national, regional, district have been activated and placed on high alert, in addition to the holding of National Technical Co-ordinating Committee meetings. He added that emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been activated, alerts have been sent to all regions to activate Public Health Emergency Management Committees (PHEMCs) to initiate preparedness activities and enhance surveillance for respiratory diseases. Thus far, Kwaku Agyeman Manu told President Akufo-Addo that forty (40) suspected coronavirus cases have been reported and tested. All forty (40), he stressed have tested negative for COVID-19 from Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) and Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR). ---citinewsroom Getty Images On the craps table of this campaign, there's a $500 million chip sitting on "Super Tuesday." The bettor's name is mike - small "m," according to the visual design of his campaign, like he's your modest neighbour from the split-level down the block instead of a titan of media and finance with estates in Bermuda and Southampton. That's Bloomberg. Mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013. Democrat, then Republican, then independent, then Democrat. Purveyor of fancy data terminals. Ninth-richest person in the world. A few months ago Bloomberg saw a moribund field of candidates and thought he could vault his way to the nomination through a delegate grab on Super Tuesday. So now it's mike, responsible presidential candidate, asking for the car keys as the nation stumbles around. Is he trying to save the party, or accidentally sabotaging it? Is "mike" just a proxy for Bloomberg as he tries to buy the presidency? "My first answer to that all the time is: What's the right price to save democracy from Donald Trump?" said Tim O'Brien, a senior adviser to mike, at a Bloomberg house party in McLean, Virginia, Thursday night. There, Northern Virginians sipped Chianti and canned Perrier and whispered about Joe Biden as if he were an uncle in hospice care (this was 48 hours before his defibrillation in South Carolina). They shuddered at the thought of Bernie Sanders, democratic socialist, for his perceived radicalism and dismissed Elizabeth Warren, capitalist reformer, for her vendetta against mike. What's a democracy worth? A year ago, before mike arrived on the scene, Bloomberg pledged a half billion to vanquishing Trump. In Virginia, over the past three years, he spent $3.5 million to help flip the statehouse to Democrats, whose gun-control advocates now speak of him with reverence. So far this year, Bloomberg has spent $50 million to pepper online platforms with advertising. Now, mike is in your Facebook feed. He's in your Google search results. Every time you glance at the television, he's there. The 2020 presidential candidates have spent $26 million on TV ads in Texas alone; 80 percent of that was for mike, according to Advertising Analytics. One ad cost $4.3 million all by itself, and said that mike has "la fuerza para enfrentar a Trump" (the strength to face Trump). Story continues He's created an entire economy. mike's campaign officially began 13 weeks ago, but already Bloomberg has spent more on his campaign than the Texas city of Arlington (population: 400,000) has in its annual budget. The least senior members of his staff of 2,000 make $6,000 a month (nearly twice their counterparts' wages on Team Warren and Team Sanders). He has deployed an army of meme makers, enlisted mural artists to transform campaign spaces and hired at least one comedian to secretly punch up his speeches. This past weekend he zoomed to Super Tuesday states in private jets to headline campaign events with free booze and barbecue. He knows money might not buy him love, but maybe it can buy him like. "He's the best person to win," said Rennea Henn, 71, standing in a sea of "I LIKE MIKE" signs at a rally at a former airfield in San Antonio Sunday night. She doesn't like Sanders and that "gimme gimme" mentality she believes he instills in the kids. She would happily vote for Biden, but even after the former vice president's boffo victory in South Carolina, she is concerned about his unevenness. "He said he had four women he wanted to pick for VP, and he couldn't even remember their names," Henn said. Rewind to Friday, when mike hopscotched eastward across Tennessee in private jets: He rallied 1,000 people in downtown Memphis, where a handful of protesters hoisted signs that said "Oligarch," "What is your price?" and "Our Democracy is not for sale." At a distillery in Clarksville, near the Kentucky border, mike corked a barrel of bourbon in front of a friendly crowd, while a couple of dozen protesters outside carried Trump-Pence flags and signs like "Mini Mike take a hike." "I won't talk until the cows come home," mike said inside, pausing for laughter that didn't come. Then: "They told me that would work in Arkansas." (He'd been in Arkansas the previous day.) mike knows he can't land a joke. mike knows that he's not charismatic. mike knows that the New York City Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy got out of control when Bloomberg was mayor, and mike is sorry about that. But he would like you know that he's good in a crisis, that's he a "pragmatic problem-solver," that he can bedevil Trump while consolidating support to defeat him. Bloomberg's millions have helped solve at least one problem, which has to do with mike's age. When 38-year-old Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign Sunday night - thereby stepping on mike's paid prime-time "address" on the coronavirus - the top of the field got hopelessly geriatric, with Warren as spring chicken at age 70. At 78, mike is older than Biden by nine months, and younger than Sanders by five, but Bloomberg's $500 million investment has bestowed mike with the appearance of vigour, steadiness and omnipresence. It has threatened to render sentimental and obsolete the retail politics of Iowa and New Hampshire. Americans shop online and buy what's on TV, and that's where mike is meeting them. He never looks tired. It has also bought a ground game for the virtual candidate. "We've built the biggest infrastructure that Texas has ever seen," said Ashlea Turner, mike's state director. On the ground in Texas he's got 19 field offices and 180 paid staffers, including Amanda Salas, 33, who grew up conservative, supported John McCain in 2008, Bernie Sanders in 2016, and now has settled in the middle with mike. "I gotta look at what people in my electorate are looking at: solid Democrat but pretty conservative," said Salas, while door-knocking Saturday in a Hispanic neighbourhood of San Antonio. The mike campaign has seven full-time staffers in the remote islands of American Samoa, according to CNN, as part of a play to lock down the U.S. territory's six delegates. Tennesseans, who vote Tuesday, are shocked to be lavished with attention by a Democratic candidate at this stage. mike has seven offices in Tennessee, including ones in Jackson and Johnson City, in largely rural areas on either side of the state that rarely see this kind of action from a presidential candidate. Ernest Brooks, a councilman from the city of Jackson in West Tennessee, accepted Bloomberg's apology for stop-and-frisk and praised his economic initiatives for black Americans. "It's been many, many presidential cycles" since a candidate set up an office in his county, said Brooks, a paid surrogate. "Decades." On Friday in Blountville, near the Virginia border, mike spoke in a Trumpian setting: an aeroplane hangar with a gargantuan American flag behind him. Included in the buffet of pulled pork and casserole were two vats of banana pudding so big that the candidate could've bathed in them. There were a couple MAGA hats in the crowd of 350. A man under one of them was named Craig Widner. I don't like hardly any of what Mike Bloomberg stands for," said Widner, who owns an insurance business, "but I do respect that he had the guts to show up in East Tennessee for an event that's probably not gonna work out well for him." The main goal was not to win outright but to walk away with delegates, and to be prepared for a brokered national convention in Milwaukee in July. Last week, popular distaste with this strategy manifested in spray paint ("Eat the Rich") on the campaign office in Johnson City, Tenn. "When people make comments that he's buying the election, I'm very put off by that," said regional field organiser Kristi Carr. "Because all I have is awe that a candidate would invest their own money in my home state and my home region that has never had that kind of investment before." Out in Kingsport, mike's sole canvasser Friday was a 16-year-old named Carrson Everett. He's the founder of his high school's club for Democrats (membership: 15) and president of the county's society for young Democrats (membership: five). Carrson was originally for Bernie Sanders, but was turned off by his supporters and liked what he heard at the opening ceremony for mike's office in Johnson City. Carrson can't vote, but he can knock on doors. "I get irritated with Democrats who are not in red areas because I think they feel like, 'Well, I just don't need to do anything,' " he said while canvassing in Kingsport. "And I'm like, 'We are working our butts off out here!' " Speaking of red areas, did you know mike's favourite colour is maroon? You would if you'd went to his "women for mike" rally Saturday morning at a hotel ballroom in McLean, Virginia. Bloomberg trivia looped on flat-screen TVs as supporters feasted on croissants, coffee and speared cantaloupe. Arlington, Virginia, resident Twana Barber was undecided until last week, when she was persuaded by mike's work on gun violence and the endorsement of a former mayor of Alexandria, Virginia. As for stop-and-frisk and mike's history of sexist comments, Barber said she is a Christian who believes in forgiveness and second chances. "We've all had a past, and we've all said things that we wish we could take back," said Barber, who works in public relations. "I want to see what he's going to do for us going forward. And sometimes that ugly past makes us better human beings." mike was introduced by a dozen women who have been working for Bloomberg LP for years. He took the stage to U2's "Beautiful Day" and said: "Good morning, women for mike. I am mike for women. Nice to meet you."He talked about getting "it" done, and getting "things" done. He talked about decency, honesty and sanity. He talked about having the resources to defeat Trump. The price of a democracy - whether one intends to save it or merely acquire a controlling interest - cannot be estimated easily. There are some things money can't buy, they say. "I know he's done all these commercials on what he's doing for black businesses and how he's promoted women," said Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., a Biden supporter who has taken potshots at Bloomberg on Twitter, "but that doesn't relieve the angst, especially among younger voters." Enthusiasm. Fervour. Youthful idealism. Bernie Sanders supporters have it, and it's not for sale. One poll of Virginia, which also votes Tuesday, had mike tied for first with Sanders earlier this month; a more recent poll placed him third, with Biden at the top. mike was polling third in Texas, which had the largest population increase of any state in the country from 2018 to 2019. It's diverse, and getting more so: Last year for every new white resident, there were nine new Hispanic residents - a demographic mike has been courting. The state is young and getting younger (median age 34). Each year it inches toward becoming a blue state, and mike thinks he can finally wrest it away from Republicans. In Texas, on the final weekend before Super Tuesday, the campaign decided that San Antonio should be home to one of their biggest pushes in the state. On Saturday morning, marine biologist Paige Newman, 55, showed up to Bloomberg HQ and quickly realized that she was the only person not being paid to be there. This was the first time Newman had ever volunteered for a campaign. She wants Trump out and thinks that mike is the most credible candidate on climate change. His candidacy is not a high-stakes gamble, Newman believes. It's a smart bet She walked down Coyote Hill Road and Mustang Ridge, in the northeast suburbs of San Antonio, her phone open to mike's canvassing app. In one driveway was a man with a long brown beard, sleeves of tattoos and a shirt that read: "So far this is the oldest I've ever been." Newman approached. "Nope, nope, nope," said Atticus McCoy, 37. America has a rich guy in the White House, he said. "We don't need another." He said he prefers the candidate who believes that billionaires - including Bloomberg, and therefore "mike" - should not exist. "I like Bernie," McCoy told Newman, "but he's never going to win." The Washington Post Read more Follow all the latest polls as US Democrats head into Super Tuesday BERLIN, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Starting and scaling a successful business has always captivated people. The promise of financial freedom, traveling to beautiful countries while working, and having no boss to jerk you around just seems irresistible. So much so that it seems like nowadays, everybody wants to live the "entrepreneur lifestyle", without any real knowledge of what it really takes to become truly successful. Because here's the thing: although starting and scaling a new business has "technically" become easier than ever in the past few years, there are plenty of pitfalls, challenges, and painful mistakes that most entrepreneurs make during this journey - often setting them back years or even prompting them to give up before they had a chance to reach their full potential. So in this article, widely-successful entrepreneur Marvin Steinberg debunks 4 sneaky mistakes that 90% of startups make, while also giving away useful tips on how to avoid them, so ambitious startups can experience real success. But who exactly is Marvin Steinberg? He's a respected entrepreneur from Germany, best-known for revolutionizing the German energy industry by being the first to fully leverage the true potential of online marketing in a predominantly offline industry, at scale. As a result, his own distribution company "db swpro" together with the energy supplier "db swdirekt" built a scalable system involving over 25,000 people that generated millions of dollars in extra profit, within just a few years. In fact, the system was so valuable that Marvin even managed to make a successful exit and sell it to an American multinational after just 6 months. Today he's involved in dozens of companies in the software, tech, and the blockchain sector, and he's also helped hundreds of 7 and 8-figure startups scale to their next level through his accelerator company, Steinberg Invest. When asked about his mission in an interview, Marvin Steinberg said the following: "I know how hard it is to become successful as a startup. In today's uber-competitive world, it's difficult to get the funding, know-how, and network you need to turn your vision into a reality. And without these, it's impossible to scale, no matter how good your idea is. So I've made it my mission to find promising startups, and give them the opportunity they deserve to make it as the "next big thing". I do believe in unicorns, and I'm busy growing them". According to Marvin, these are the 4 most important mistakes that startups should avoid at all costs. Mistake #1: Not validating your proof of concept before scaling it By far the most common mistake new companies make is that they come up with an idea, build an expensive and time-consuming product around it, and then launch it to the market with a huge advertising budget - only to realize that nobody really wants it. This is a particularly sneaky mistake because we humans are very protective of our ideas. We believe that if we've given enough thought, care, and attention to something, then it MUST be good. Unfortunately, this usually isn't the case. The cruel reality is that your market doesn't care about your product or how much energy, time, and money you've invested in making it "perfect"... they only care about themselves and how this product of yours can help them get from their current situation to their ideal situation. That's it. Yet, most companies assume that their product *must" be good enough and if their target market isn't buying them, it means that they simply "don't get" the genius behind the product. And the sad thing is that dozens and dozens of companies go bankrupt because they can't let go of this irrational notion. So what's the solution? You have to properly validate your idea before launching it to the general public. Create a beta-version, observe how people actually interact with it in social groups you're in, and start meaningful conversations with members of your ideal customer groups to find out exactly what are their pains, fears, hopes, and dreams, and how you can position your product so that they'll see it as THE solution to your problems. Do this, and you'll see a massive shift in how people perceive your product. Mistake #2: Trying to "wing" your high-level marketing strategy Another common mistake: most entrepreneurs think that if the product is good enough (and it has been properly validated), then it should start selling on autopilot, just like that. Unfortunately, nowadays, competition is so strong and noise is so thick that there's a 95% chance nobody will even notice your product on its own - unless you invest some serious effort in your marketing. But not just any marketing because of this fierce competition, everybody is fighting for the same customers, and you have to simply be better than your competition. As the saying goes "whoever can spend the most to acquire a new customer, wins". And Google and Facebook, the 2 powerhouse marketing platforms on the planet know this all too well. Ad costs are constantly rising and it's not enough to "show up" anymore - you have to out-think and out-strategize others with better marketing campaigns. So, to succeed, make sure that you develop a customer journey that's optimized around conversions, from top to bottom, and uses the right marketing tactics for each stage of your funnel. This way you can lower ad costs and costs per acquisition while increasing brand loyalty and customer lifetime value at the same time. 80% of a startup's success is determined by the quality of their marketing, so don't neglect this. Either become world-class at marketer yourself or hire A-players who can help you get to the next level with their experience, network, and proven process. When it's time to realize your startup's true potential, you need proven solutions that guarantee success. Mistake #3: Not differentiating yourself enough from your competition through innovation Another common problem: being dime a dozen. Since there are so many new companies launched every single day in every industry imaginable, the only way for you to really stand out is to position yourself as something unique. Think about this: What's the 1 specific thing you do better than anyone else? And once you have your answer, create a unique selling proposition for yourself that will serve as the basis for your marketing. For example, CPI Technologies, one of Marvin Steinberg's companies has the following USP: "CPI Tech is the only high-frequency trading platform for cryptocurrencies, FIAT, and cryptonized real-world assets that combines rock-solid software with unprecedented profitability." Even though there are other companies out there who do similar things, CPI Technologies is the only one that focuses specifically on combining rock-solid software that's a pleasure to use with a conversion-optimized platform designed to be as profitable as possible - thus creating a positive ROI for CPI Tech's clients within months, or often within just a few days. But what if you're not the only one who's doing a certain thing? In that case, just innovate on an already-existing concept - simply make it better or different. For example, back when Marvin was leading his energy distribution company - an industry that routinely gave its sales force commissions to motivate them - he was the first to come up with the idea of offering his salespeople lifetime commissions. That way, he could pay less in front-end commissions and could compete with big rival companies such as EON or Vattenfall. Figure out something that nobody else is doing and start doing it. You'll see great results. Mistake #4: Being a perfectionist This is perhaps the sneakiest of all mistakes. Not because it's the biggest, but because it's so deceptive and so many people fall into it. And as a result, they end up achieving nothing since instead of actually doing things, they end up postponing action because "want to make everything perfect". The following meme perfectly encapsulates the problem: However, the real tragedy is that people who make this mistake think that they're actually doing the right thing, minimizing the chance for them to make mistakes. Oh, the irony. In reality, most companies never grow above 7-figures (not to mention 8 or 9-figures) precisely because they're afraid to get started with something before they think it's "perfect". And as a result, they miss out on countless opportunities, invaluable experience, and real-world testing. It has been demonstrated time and time again that if you start small and test, test, test, you'll end up way more successful than someone who is procrastinating under the guise of "perfectionism". However, it CAN be very scary to go out in the world and test, especially when you can lose a lot of money, reputation, and momentum doing so. And that's precisely why 9 out 10 successful startups have an accomplished mentor who can guide them through this challenge and help them figure out which opportunities are worth pursuing, and which ones should be ignored. Having such a mentor is the surest way to explode your growth and get the guidance you need to get to the next level. However, make sure to choose someone who has a proven track record and has built several successful companies before, because they are the people who really know what they're doing. - So there you have it, 4 powerful tips to make sure your startup won't make the 4 sneaky mistakes that could sabotage your growth. Make a conscious effort to abide by them and you'll be amazed how much faster you'll get to the next level with much less friction. Keep hustlin'. Media Contact: Concerned Person Name - Steve Barmer Official Email- hi@deepanshubhatt.com SOURCE: Deepanshu Bhatt View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578985/Is-Your-Startup-Making-Any-of-the-Following-4-Sneaky-Mistakes WASHINGTON, D.C -- A Congressional hearing on tax issues in Indian Country is "historic" in more ways than one, according to a key lawmaker. The hearing on Wednesday morning marks the first time the House Committee on Ways and Means has looked at the impact of the tax code on Indian nations . That's important, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Michigan) said, because federal policy hasn't always treated tribes as sovereigns, hindering economic opportunities in the process. "Part of the issue is that the tax code, much of it was written in an era when tribal governments were barely recognized as legitimate governments," Kildee said in an interview on Tuesday. "The trust responsibility that we have hasn't been acknowledged by the United States to anywhere near the degree it should be until very recently." And while tribes have been coming to Capitol Hill for decades to seek equitable treatment for their governments, the hearing represents a major turning point in the nation-to-nation relationship. It's the first time that all four tribal citizens who serve in the U.S. Congress will be appearing together on the same panel, Kildee noted. "It's really historic," Kildee said of the presence of Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico), who are the first two Native women in Congress , along with Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma). "It's sad that it's taken until the year 2020 for the U.S. Congress to recognize these inequities but it's never too late to do the right thing," said Kildee, who serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and whose uncle, former Rep. Dale Kildee, was known as a champion for Indian issues in the nation's capital. "It's really historic," Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Michigan), member of House Ways & Means, told https://t.co/0yYFAWzrcJ today. "It's sad that it's taken until the year 2020 for the US Congress to recognize these inequities but it's never too late to do the right thing." @RepDanKildee pic.twitter.com/pduhDkkGfD indianz.com (@indianz) March 3, 2020 Whether it's dual taxation of tribal business activities by states and local governments or disparities in the treatment of tax-exempt bonds issued by tribes , Indian Country's economic development needs are great. But tribes and their advocates say Congress missed a huge opportunity to address these inequities during passage of tax reform legislation more than two years ago. "Congress left Indian Country completely out of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp said in the State of Indian Nations , delivered in D.C. on February 10. The omission was all the more notable in light of "years of Hill advocacy by NCAI and our partners in promoting Indian Countrys tax reform priorities -- priorities that will clearly boost tribal efforts to build sustainable economies and grow local job opportunities," added Sharp, who will be among the witnesses at the hearing. The economic benefits are indeed immense, according to advocates like Dante Desiderio, a citizen of the Sappony Tribe who serves as the executive director of the Native American Finance Officers Association , another organization participating in the hearing. When it comes to tax-exempt bonds, for instance, tribes are missing out on the financial benefits already enjoyed by states and local governments. "This is a trillion-dollar market and Indian Country has this crazy caveat that they can only use this debt for 'essential government functions,'" Desiderio said at NCAI's winter session in D.C. last month, bringing up an issue that has been clouded in uncertainty for decades. "Nobody knows what that really means," Desiderio said of the test employed by the Internal Revenue Service This is going to bring a lot more money to Indian Country: Dante Desiderio (Sappony) of Native American Finance Officers Association says of legislative proposal to address Indian Country tax and finance issues. Tribes left out of 2017 tax reform. #ECWS2020 @nafoaorg @NCAI1944 pic.twitter.com/4T6lNx4U1P indianz.com (@indianz) February 12, 2020 "Nationwide, it's $40 billion of economic stimulus and it doesn't cost taxpayers a single dime," Gavin Clarkson , a citizen of the Choctaw Nation who is seeking the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico, said of the benefits of ending dual taxation during NCAI's meeting on February 12. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law in 2017, when Republicans were in control of both chambers in Congress. But with the bipartisan representation at Wednesday's hearing -- Democrats Davids and Haaland, plus Cole and Mullin from the GOP -- Kildee said the House Ways and Means Committee is putting Indian Country's interests on the front-burner for the first time since passage of the earlier measure. "We need to figure out what are the specific areas that we can align in the tax code to align with our nation-to-nation relationship and to treat tribal governments like we treat other governments when it comes to taxation," Kildee said. Going forward, all options for achieving parity for tribal nations should be on the table, Kildee said. Comprehensive legislation or specific fixes to the tax code are potential outcomes from the hearing. "There's all these areas where tax policy was written without even thinking of the effect on tribal governments and we want to fix that," Kildee told Indianz.Com. "My hope is that we can do as much as possible," Kildee added. Timing is going to be an issue, tribal leaders and advocates acknowledge. The current session of Congress will conclude at the end of this year, giving Indian Country several more months to advance potential fixes before having to start over again in 2021. "Indian Country has a unique opportunity to pass a tribal tax bill in the 116th Congress," Larry Wright Jr., the chairman of the Ponca Tribe said at NCAI's winter meeting last month. The organization has established a tax and finance task force, consisting of Wright and other tribal leaders, to take advantage of the current political climate. Chairman Larry Wright of Ponca Tribe is updating National Congress of American Indians on new efforts to include Indian Country in tax reform. Says tribes were left out of tax reform legislation enacted by Congress in 2017. #ECWS2020 @poncatribeofne @ncai1944 pic.twitter.com/pfat1alMN8 indianz.com (@indianz) February 12, 2020 And with the presidential campaign in full swing, attention will certainly draw minds away from D.C. Almost all of the Democrats who are still in the race have released Indian Country platforms that highlight infrastructure and economic needs in tribal communities. "Reorienting government policy to promote economic development isnt simply about removing barriers that have prevented Native Americans and indigenous people from accessing the economic opportunities they have been denied," Elizabeth Warren , the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, stated in her comprehensive agenda , which she announced last August. "It also requires streamlining and removing unnecessary administrative barriers that impede economic growth on Tribal lands, respecting tribal jurisdiction over tribal businesses, and promoting forward-looking efforts to ensure full access to new and emerging economic opportunities. The indigenous peoples of this land deserve respect respect for their sovereignty, respect for their right to self-governance, respect for their culture and thats what theyll receive when Im president," Mike Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City, said in releasing his tribal platform last week. "For decades, Joe Biden has worked to foster tribal sovereignty and prosperity, and to ensure the United States follows through on the commitments it has made to Indian Country," the former vice president's policy reads. "He knows that Tribal Nations should be empowered to govern Native communities and that the United States must work harder to meet its solemn trust and treaty obligations." National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp delivers the State of Indian Nations in Washington, D.C., on February 10, 2020. Photo by McKenzie Sadeghi / Cronkite News The hearing before the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee takes place at 10am Eastern in Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building. The witness list follows: The Honorable Sharice Davids Member of Congress PANEL 1The Honorable Sharice DavidsMember of Congress The Honorable Deb Haaland Member of Congress The Honorable Deb HaalandMember of Congress The Honorable Tom Cole Member of Congress The Honorable Tom ColeMember of Congress The Honorable Markwayne Mullin Member of Congress The Honorable Markwayne MullinMember of Congress PANEL 2 Fawn Sharp President, National Congress of American Indians PANEL 2Fawn SharpPresident, National Congress of American Indians Cristina Danforth President of the Board, Native American Financial Officers Association Cristina DanforthPresident of the Board, Native American Financial Officers Association Kenneth Kahn Chairman, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Kenneth KahnChairman, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Rodney Butler Chairman, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Rodney ButlerChairman, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Matthew Wesaw Chairman, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Matthew WesawChairman, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians House Committee on Ways and Means Notice Relevant Documents Join the Conversation Related Stories Dublin's St Patrick's Festival will go ahead - for now. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said last night that for now the centrepiece parade will go ahead despite the country's second confirmed case of coronavirus. Official advice on mass gatherings will be issued later this week by an expert group in the Department of Health. However, Dr Holohan said last night that until that advice is finalised, the parade is still on. A spokesperson for the festival, which includes the city parade, told the Herald that organisers are monitoring the situation. "We follow the advice and direction of relevant authorities in all matters of public safety," he said. Talks with health officials are due to be held today. Several delegations from abroad are expected to cancel due to a fear of flying at this time. The fast-evolving spread of the virus in other countries may also be experienced here in the coming weeks. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is not advising "at this stage" that St Patrick's Day parades be cancelled. Speaking earlier yesterday, before the second case was confirmed, he said there was only one confirmed case of the virus in the State "so we're not advising anyone to cancel any gatherings at this stage". "But bear in mind that the St Patrick's Day festival is two weeks away and a lot can happen between now and then," he added. However, a leading inter- national expert on viruses called yesterday for the St Patrick's Day parades to be cancelled because the virus is likely to be "spreading around". John Oxford, emeritus professor of virology at Queen Mary University of London, said everyone in Italy thought everything was fine until there was an "explosion" of the virus. Immense St Patrick's Day parades attract huge numbers of visitors from abroad, Prof Oxford told the Today with Sean O'Rourke show on RTE radio yesterday. If he was in the shoes of the Government, he would say: "I think we should postpone it. "It's not the end of the world for one year, but just don't have it this year. After all, the Chinese postponed the Chinese new year, which is immense, and then tried to quarantine 60 million people. "I would take advantage of the situation you're in - that you could prevent a big outbreak by taking these actions and I would go ahead and stop the parades." The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday suspended two officials for allegedly delaying the investigation into the death of 13 women who had undergone sterilization surgery in Bilaspur district in 2014. Congress MLAs Shailesh Pandey and Rashmi Ashish Singh raised the issue through a calling attention motion in the Assembly. A sterilization camp was organized on November 8, 2014, at village Pendari in Bilaspur district. As many as 83 women developed complications after the surgery and 13 of them lost their life. The MLAs alleged that the then BJP government had committed gross negligence in procurement of medicines. Report from a Kolkata-based laboratory concluded that Ciprocin (Ciprofloxacin) tablets, prescribed to patients after sterilization, were sub-standard, the MLAs said. But instead of taking action against people engaged in medicine procurement, the government took action against the doctor who had performed the surgeries, they claimed. As per the investigation report, medicine suppliers Mahawar Pharma, Raipur and Kavita Pharma, Bilaspur had supplied "poison" instead of medicine, the legislators said. Health Minister T S Singh Deo said in his reply that soon after receiving the report from the Kolkata lab, the Ciprocin medicine was banned in the state. Chief Medical and Health Officer, Bilaspur, Dr R K Bhange, who was responsible for the procurement of medicine, was dismissed. An FIR was lodged against Ramesh Mahawar and Sumit Mahawar of Mahawar Pharma. Contracts of Mahawar Pharma and Kavita Pharmaceuticals were cancelled, he said. Services of Dr R K Gupta, who carried out the surgeries, were terminated after it was found that he failed to follow the Standard Operating Procedure, while Block Medical Officer, Takhatpur, Dr Pramod Tiwari was suspended and Nodal Officer Family Welfare was also placed under suspension, he said. Assistant Drug Inspector Hemant Srivastava who had issued 'Good Manufacturing Practices Certificate' to Mahawar Pharma was also suspended. Legal proceeding against directors of Mahawar and Kavita Pharma were underway, the minister added. Pandey alleged that the government delayed submission of the case before the court, and so far the accused have not been convicted. He demanded an investigation of the matter by a House committee. Singh Deo accepted that there had been delay in the investigation, and announced the suspension of Drug Inspector Dharamveer Dhruv and Assistant Drug Inspector Rajesh Khatri. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 23:27:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Tunisian President Kais Saied (front, 2nd L) visits the International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (IADE) in Djerba, Tunisia, March 4, 2020. Tunisian President Kais Saied on Wednesday inaugurated the International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (IADE) in the southeastern Tunisian city of Djerba. (Photo by Tunisian Presidency/Xinhua) TUNIS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied on Wednesday inaugurated the International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (IADE) in the southeastern Tunisian city of Djerba. Organized for the first time in Tunisia, IADE brought together more than 100 international companies specialized in the aeronautical, civil and military aviation industries. The event, attended by Tunisian, Arab and foreign senior officials, began with an air show by the Tunisian Air Force with the participation of foreign forces, Xinhua correspondent said. The 100 exhibitors taking part in the event, to continue until March 8, are showcasing products in the presence of more than 40 Arab and foreign delegations representing the United States, France, Britain, Turkey, Pakistan and Russia among others. In an inaugural speech, Saied said this event will open up new opportunities for investment, exchange of know-how and to be updated on the latest developments in the field of aviation and defense. Chilean Authorities Confirm First Coronavirus Case Sputnik News 22:23 GMT 03.03.2020 SANTIAGO (Sputnik) - Chilean authorities confirmed the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, the Chilean Health Ministry said on Tuesday. "The minister confirmed the first case of the disease in the city of Talca", the Ministry said on Twitter. Talca is located some 160 miles south of the country's capital of Santiago in central Chile. This is not the first case of the viral disease in Latin America. It was previously found in Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, and Brazil. Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries of Latin America, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to adhere to aggressive containment of the COVID-19 while the number of cases in the region is still low. COVID-19 has infected nearly 93,000 people and killed more than 3,150 globally. Meanwhile, nearly 48,000 patients have recovered. China leads the global infection tally despite seeing a slowdown in the pace of reported cases. More than 60 countries have confirmed infections globally, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as virus hotbeds last month. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A Fall River firefighter was arrested in a sting operation after allegedly trying to solicit sexual acts from a child, Rhode Island State Police said. Authorities started investigating Edward Mathias, a 10-year veteran of the Fall River Fire Department, over allegations he was trying to get a 14-year-old Rhode Island girl to engage in sexual activities with him, Rhode Island State Police said in a statement. Mathias was taken into custody after responding to a prearranged location to meet the girl for sexual acts, the statement said. Fall River Fire Chief John Lynch said Mathias was placed on paid administrative leave. This is a dark day for FRFD, he added. We will follow the law according to Civil Service and will pursue unpaid administrative leave, which should be done in five days or less, the chief said in a statement to MassLive. "We are doing our own internal investigation as well as following the state police investigation. Depending on the official judicial disposition, further disciplinary action up to and including termination. The 40-year-old Fall River resident was arraigned Tuesday in the Third Division District Court of Rhode Island. He was charged with indecent solicitation of a child and electronically disseminating indecent material to a minor, according to state polices statement. He was released on $2,500 bail and ordered to have no contact with children. The Fall River man must also not use the internet, court documents show. Mathias is due back in court in May. He faces five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, state police said. A video of an adorable black Labrador smiling at people visiting an adoption centre went viral across the social media. In his bid to get attention and love, Burreaux used to flash his ensemble of teeth. Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana shared a 13-second video of the pup on Facebook. Burreaux begging for attention. Oh and this pup still needs a home. More information and an adoption application on hsnwla.com, reads the caption. The eight-week-old dogs video has crossed over 330,000 views as of now. The immense popularity of the video meant that Burreaux was adopted by a loving family. Emphasizing on the Labradors nature, Humane Society volunteer Sarrah Walton told The Dodo that he smiles whenever a person talks to him. She said it was probably his way of conveying come pet me, come love me. The pup was brought to the centre after being rescued from a kill shelter, said a report published in ladbible.com. The animal had to be rushed to an animal hospital as he was too sick. Along with Burreaux two other dogs, Joe and O, were also rescued. But by the time Burreaux returned from the hospital one of the two other dogs had been adopted. South Africa: Deputy President condemns land grabs Deputy President David Mabuza has condemned land grabs and assured the public that government has put in place legislative measures to ensure the efficient and orderly redistribution of land. The Deputy President reiterated governments plans for land redistribution during oral replies to the National Council of Provinces in Cape Town on Tuesday. We reiterate our call to the citizens of our country to exercise restraint, and to allow government to implement the necessary policy and constitutional reforms aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past as reflected in skewed and inequitable patterns of land access and ownership, he said. The Deputy President said legislation such as the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act which designates various land portions for specific use, is among the tools in place to ensure redistribution. It goes without saying that land grabs disrupt orderly and systematic planning and development, including the provision of requisite infrastructure to support land use decisions. As part of discouraging incitement to violence and land grabs, it is critical for municipalities to put in place by-laws to regulate processes for dealing with issues of land access and use in areas under their jurisdiction, he said. Mabuza said government is currently implementing a comprehensive land reform programme in a systematic, orderly, and responsible manner consistent with the rule of law. We have committed ourselves that through the release and redistribution of strategically located state-owned land, we will ensure that land is made available for agricultural development, human settlements, and economic development, including targeted focus on stimulating rural and township economies. There is no room for chaos and anarchy perpetrated under the guise of land reform. We are concerned about reports of sporadic land grabs in various areas around the country, including in the North West where Honourable Du Toit is coming from, he said. Where blatant violations, incitement of violence and land grabs occur, the Deputy President said the law will take its course. He backed the capacity of the countrys criminal justice system to enforce compliance, in line with the rules of the law. Government committed to stabilising energy supply On energy, the Deputy President said the Integrated Resource Plan published in 2019 will serve as a guide to respond to the electricity supply challenge. This Integrated Resource Plan is aimed at ensuring energy security by developing adequate generation capacity to meet the countrys electricity demand. To this end, one of the key interventions in the energy mix is the accelerated implementation of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Honourable Members would be aware that this Programme is already in the process of implementation. Bid Windows 1, 2 and 3 are already supplying power to the grid. The Department of Minerals and Energy is in talks with Independent Power Producers to explore options available to bring projects in Bid Window 4 on stream sooner than the originally expected date, in order to assist with the current supply constraints, said the Deputy President. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Seeking to address a problem that has led to a community outcry, Pearland City Council has moved toward approving a plan in which customers would pay back over 2 years what they owe in unbilled water consumption. The council on March 2 voted to give preliminary approval to the plan, which aims to collect $6 million in unbilled usage. At its March 16 meeting, the council may discuss the matter further and possibly give final approval to the measure. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Water billing mess has Pearland scrambling to plug $6 million budget gap Under the proposal, called the 32/30 plan, water meters would be read every 32 days and the billing schedule would be set on a 30-day cycle until all money due from a customer was paid. No customers would be double-billed in a single month, no late or delinquent fees would be charged and no ones water would be shut off. The payment process wouldnt be complete until the end of 2022. Once the money was collected in full, the city would read meters monthly on roughly the same day each month. The March 2 vote, which was unanimous but didn't include absent council members Trent Perez and Adrian Hernandez, included a stipulation that city staff devise some way in which water customers who wished could be informed what they owe and have an option to pay the money back all at once or via a payment plan. PEARLAND WATER ISSUE: Pearland council wants payment flexibility for water customers hit by botched billings The city provides water to approximately 38,000 customers. The problem stems from a city move in summer 2018 to standardize the meter reading cycle to an average of 28 days after discovery that some customers meters werent being read until after more than 32 days had lapsed. Since the billing was not changed from a once-a-month cycle, a gap developed between water usage and billing that increased over time up to a 59 days for some residents. The lag dates back to 2018, notably draining revenue from the city last year from June to September. City officials did not immediately realize the decrease in revenues were tied to billing as opposed to a decline in water consumption. The issue was discovered via audit late last year. As in previous council meetings in which the issue was discussed, residents voiced concerns at the meeting, with many berating the citys staff for allowing such an error to occur and continue unnoticed for nearly two years. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Pearland ponders what to do after water billing mess When residents Denise Hewitt and former council member Felicia Harris spoke out for a third-party, independent investigation into the situation, council members said an inquiry by the Olson and Olson Law Firm is underway through which former and current staff members were being questioned. We take your concerns very seriously, Councilman Luke Orlando told residents. We want (the investigation) to be complete, and then we will share those findings (with the public) and take action as appropriate. We are committed to handling this in a transparent manner. Councilman Tony Carbone said he thought it best to wait until the inquiry is complete before the council considers if any action is needed regarding city personnel. Instead, he said, the council now should focus on determining which controls were lacking that allowed the problem to occur and what the city can do to prevent it from happening again. This was a failure across the board; so (we have to figure out) what controls we are going to put in place going forward, he said. Other residents said that after reviewing past water bills, they believe they had been overcharged. The council directed staff members to review these claims and, if they check out, to give customers appropriate credit. Councilman J. David Little said he didnt believe anyone on the city staff was intentionally trying to harm citizens. (These unbilled charges) are for past water consumption. To the best of my knowledge, no one has been overbilled, he said. Theres been bad management, bad decisions, but nothing nefarious. Growing old is a genuine fear for many, but aging is inevitable. As Los Angeles alt-rock quintet Grouplove drives home in their nostalgic new single, "Youth," making the most of right now is ultimately what matters most. Today, the alt-rockers premiere the shimmering music video for their song, featuring Twin Peaks star Grace Zabriskie. The track is lifted off Grouplove's upcoming fourth album, Healer, out March 13. "Youth" opens with Zabriskie wandering city streets and observing young passersby, all played by different members of Grouplove. The band Hannah Hooper (vocals, keyboards), Christian Zucconi (vocals, guitar), Daniel Gleason (bass), Andrew Wessen (guitar, vocals) and Benjamin Homola (drums) take on a variety of outlandish characters that remind Zabriskie how different today's youth is from previous generations. "I tried to tell you/ Life is gonna pass you by," Hooper sings, as Zabriskie watches young people interact. "Stay in this moment/ Or you'll find yourself running out of time." Hooper and Zucconi first met Zabriskie when they were neighbors in Silver Lake. "We made this video with all our homies from the 'Deleter' video and feel so fortunate to have it starring our dear friend, the incomparable Grace Zabriskie," Grouplove says. "There is nothing like collaborating with friends the trust and camaraderie elevated this song to a level we are so proud of. Hope you enjoy it and feel the love." Zabriskie and Hooper, who is also a painter, first connected through art. "When Hannah and Christian moved into the neighborhood where my boyfriend Philip and I have lived for over 20 years, we were all too busy to get more than barely acquainted for a while," Zabriskie says. "It might have taken longer, but my daughter Marion, a painter, was visiting us when the moving van arrived. She spied large paintings on canvas, unframed, going into the house [...] she darted across the street to introduce herself." This bond between the band and iconic actress has proven to be mutually inspiring. Zabriskie continues, "We became familiar with each other's work, but maybe more to the point, life had some tough patches to deal with on both sides of our little street. I'll never know exactly how I helped them, and they'll never know how they helped us. But we all did manage to help and console one another in those ways that sooner or later turn out to be what people mean when they talk about 'silver linings,' I guess." Stream Grouplove's "Youth," below. Black Shark has announced two new gaming smartphones for the masses, and they seem to be packing a lot of features. The new Black Shark 3 and the 3 Pro are the latest products from the Xiaomi backed company right off the bat they look ridiculous (in a good way of course). Both the phones are loaded with the new Snapdragon 865 chipsets, offer 5G, AMOLED panels with 90Hz refresh rate, triple cameras at the back and some pins at the back to support magnetic charging. The more premium Black Shark 3 Pro comes with a massive 7.1-inch AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and 270Hz touch sampling rate. The display resolution is 3120x1440, which means sharper visuals. Instead of the air triggers, the handset now brings physical pop-up shoulder buttons. These 21-millimeter-wide buttons raise 1.5 millimeters from the main body of the phone and the company claims it can withstand over 3,00,000 lifts and over one million clicks. The smartphone also comes with a 5,000mAh battery which supports 65W fast charging. This means it can go from 0 to 100% in just 38 minutes. The pins at the back support a proprietory magnetic charger offering 18W fast charging. This can be useful if you need to charge the phone while gaming. The handset will be offered in 8GB RAM + 256GB of storage at 4,699 CNY(Rs 47,000 approx) while the higher 12GB RAM with the same amount of storage is priced at 4,999 CNY (Rs 50,000 approx). The non-pro variant comes with a smaller 6.67-inch AMOLED with a 2400x1080 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate and the same 270Hz touch sampling rate. This one comes with a smaller 4,720mAh battery that supports the same 65W fast charging and you get the same pins for magnetic charging at the back. This one is available in 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. The rest of the features are pretty much the same including the design, the processor and so on. Sadly the physical pop-up shoulder buttons are not available on the non-pro version. Pricing starts at 3,499 CNY (Rs 35,000 approx) going up to 3,999 CNY (Rs 40,000 approx). The smartphones also feature a triple camera setup at the back which includes a 64-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a five-megapixel depth-sensing camera. At the front, there is a 20-megapixel sensor, and you also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, something which was missing on the predecessor. The Black Shark 3 will be offered in Lightning Black, Armor Gray, and Star Silver colour options. It will start selling in China from March 6. The Black Shark 3 Pro will be available in Phantom Black and Armor Gray colours starting March 17. Global launch date for the handsets is yet to be confirmed. - The Rastafaris said it was unfortunate for politicians to associate them with crimes thus tarnishing their good image - The group in particular slammed Ruto for associating the music genre to satanism and bhang smoking besides other criminal activities - The DP said the country would forever be a Christian nation that upheld Godly principles, remarks that were targeted at Raila Odinga Kenyan reggae lovers have taken issue with remarks by Deputy President William Ruto that the country is God fearing and not a reggae nation. Under the banner of Reggae Fraternity of Kenya, the group slammed Ruto for associating the genre with satanism and bhang smoking besides other criminal activities. READ ALSO: Government yet to trace, isolate all 239 China plane passengers despite court order Ruto said the country would forever be a Christian nation that upheld Godly principles. Photo: William Samoei Ruto. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Uchunguzi waonyesha sajini Kenei alitiliwa dawa za kulevya kabla ya kupigwa risasi "We, the Reggae Fraternity of Kenya take deep offence with the ongoing rhetoric referring to reggae music as occult and associating it to criminal activities therein painting us as hooligans of this nation," the group stated. Though Ruto's comments were targeted at ODM leader Raila Odinga's "no nobody can stop reggae" Building Bridges Initiative slogan campaign, the Rastafarians warned politicians against rhetoric which portray them as social misfits. Ruto's comments were targeted at Raila who is fond of using "nobody can stop reggae" slogan. Photo: Raila Odinga. Source: Facebook "This is a reckless rhetoric that cannot be allowed to continue in whatever vote-searching quarters or rallies. We cannot be silent and have our beloved genre tarnished in the name of political hullabaloo,"the Rastafarians added. Speaking during a church service in Khwisero constituency, Kakamega county on Sunday, March 1, Ruto said the country would forever be a Christian nation that upheld Godly principles. "This is a God fearing country. It is not a country of reggae, bhang or witchcraft. Don't you worry because we will stop this reggae," he said. It was the second time Ruto was threatening to stop the Raila-led rallies further cementing the fact that he does not support the BBI report. A week ago, the DP said politicians were using the rallies to perpetuate hatred and negative ethnicity. "If the reggae is about propelling hate and negative ethnicity, my friends, the reggae will stop. This is a Christian nation and we will not be victimised by people who do not believe in God," he said. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Being a virgin in campus: University students tell us the benefits | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Jeremy Vine said he is sad that Victoria Derbyshires current affairs show has been axed (Lauren Hurley/PA) Jeremy Vine has said the BBC is currently facing its hardest time of the 33 years he has worked for the corporation. The BBC Radio 2 presenter predicted the organisation will have to justify itself all over again because of the debate around the TV licence fee. He added that supporters of the BBC cannot rely on arguments from the 70s and the 80s, and must prove its worth in the digital age. Jeremy Vine made the comments before the Audio & Radio Industry Awards (Lia Toby/PA) Speaking at the Audio & Radio Industry Awards (Arias), Vine said: Ive been there 33 years. This is the hardest time, I would say. Im not worried but I think the BBC needs to justify what it does all over again because the world has changed since we started. He added that the old idea was that people need to get from the BBC something that they now dont realise they like. I think thats difficult in the digital age because people really want what they want, and weve got to give people what they want and be really, really high-end about it, he added. Vine joined the BBC in 1987 (Steve Parsons/PA) Weve got to do Strictly and weve got to do the Proms and weve got to keep persuading people that they should fund both and its difficult. Video of the Day Its about funding something that you dont always listen to and watch yourself and its a very difficult argument in the modern age. Vine added that the BBC can more than get over the obstacles it currently faces, adding: I think well be stronger because well have to persuade the public again of what we do and why we do it. Changes to the licencing system have been mooted by the Government, with former culture secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan saying last month that the BBC must move with the times when she launched a consultation on the licence fee. However, a Downing Street spokesman later said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not looking to scrap all licence fees at this stage. Changes to the licence fee system are being considered (Paul Ellis/PA) Vine added that he is concerned about cuts to the BBCs news output, which will see the broadcaster make 80 million of savings, resulting in 450 job losses. However, he added that he thinks the BBCs journalism will remain of a high quality and said it is very well run. Look at the Prince Andrew interview: you can see were still punching above our weight in news, so I think well get through it, he said. Vine said he was really sad about the loss of Victoria Derbyshires programme, which has been axed from its morning slot on BBC2, adding that the journalist is a tremendous asset to the BBC. Vine joined the BBC in 1987 as a trainee in the news department. Indias National Security Adviser, no less, did night rounds to quell the unprecedented violence in Delhi last week, to restore a semblance of law and order and to reassure the terrified citizens, who were victims of mindless mob violence, of their safety and security. Where was Delhi Police, you might ask. What does this tell you of the state of safety, security and public order in the national capital or, indeed, in these contentious times, in other parts of the country? Lest we miss the wood for the trees, let us be clear, this is more than about protests for or against the CAA, even if the adversarial engagement between the two sides appears to be the proximate cause. What we are witnessing is Machiavellian evil. The violence in Delhi is a metaphor for how lawlessness works in the real world. It is also an allegorical tale of our times that must give us pause and compel us to reflect on what we are making of ourselves, our communities, and our country. The rough beast in our society slouches in steady, unfettered, progress towards a dystopian goal; and the social haemorrhaging is beginning to overtake us. In this surreal theatre of the absurd, by refusing to establish and enforce the rule of law, the so-called guardians of the law -- the police -- in state after state, are letting the mighty off the hook. This is proof, if the ordinary citizen needed it at all, of the unholy nexus between the politician and the police; of the precipitous decline in our public institutions; and, in consequence, of the demise of liberty, equality and justice, certainly for the poor, the disadvantaged and the vulnerable. What is the rule of law anyway? In India, time after time, it has meant that some are above the law while most citizens are below the law. But we are not unique in this. There are several other societies and communities where this is so. What should concern us in deep and troubling ways is the anatomy of violence and lawlessness. Consider the following: the Nelli massacre of 1983, the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, what happened at Godhra and what followed in Gujarat in 2002; and now Delhi in 2020. There is a common pattern in the anatomy of the violence in all these terrible episodes in our history. They are characterised by three features: First, an agency of rioters gets to work and responds to a drumbeat, as it were. The drummer decides when the violence must stop. Put simply, it is almost always orchestrated. Second, without exception, all of them were preceded by incendiary speeches by politicians of all hues, urging the supporters to proceed to set right a wrong or, worse still, to uphold the right. There is a frightening loss of responsibility as the size of the crowd grows and a point is reached when the demagogue loses control over the crowd. Third, the police whose constitutional duty it was to act with full force, failed to act. They either looked the other way or waited for orders from their political masters, with unconscionable consequences. The frightening part is best described in the prophetic words of WB Yeats: The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. There is a serious rule of law problem in how the law is enforced and public order is maintained. Fundamental to the rule of law is that like cases will be treated alike. This is why, respect for precedent is so important to our legal system -- it goes to the core of fairness and justice. In the absence of strong enforcement, it is precisely the elected representatives and local political leaders who, literally, get away with murder. The problem is the gradual but inexorable breakdown of the rule of law, preceded by the erosion of equality before the law, in our country. There are several reasons, including a dysfunctional electoral system based on the first past the post system; an increasingly ungovernable society; an overloaded, besieged and slow-moving judicial system; strong ideological interests without any real concern for national needs; concentration of wealth and influence in fewer and fewer hands; and the pathological evolution of powerful groups prepared to defy the law and use violence in pursuit of their goals. For the rule of law to be well established and enforced, we need to start at the very beginning -- mobilising our local communities. A strong, mobilized, civil society is a necessary condition to hold the State to account. It is not about one seemingly revolutionary protest, even if the well-meaning antagonists of the CAA genuinely believe so. When violence and lawlessness spill over into the streets and begin to constrain our work-a-day lives, as it has across India; when the police are routinely challenged by those on the wrong side of the law; when the police force is overworked and overwhelmed by political subterfuge, our society will be on the brink. As a society, we are currently engaged in a negative-sum game. The rule of law cannot, unlike riots, be engineered. It can only be practiced if we understand that liberty has to be balanced with equality; and pluralism entails a measure of negative liberty. Before we reach that point of no return, we must recognise that the rule of law is about day-to-day struggles, in which each of us has to commit to be subject to and uphold. It is a process of building voice and accountability, and we have a long way to travel. It is a process because the State and its power elite must learn to be more accountable; and we, as citizens, must learn to work together despite our differences. It is time both learn. (The writer is Director, Public Affairs Centre, Bengaluru) By Laman Ismayilova Poems by eminent Azerbaijani poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzade have been successfully published in South Korea. Vahabzades well-known poems "Gulustan", "Istiglal", "Shahidlar" are included in the book. The poems were translated into Korean by well-known professor Eunkyung Oh. The anthology in Korean was published by Azerbaijan's Embassy in Seoul, and supported by Dongduk Women's University, Institute of Turkish Studies (ITS) and Daesan Foundation. Bakhtiyar Vahabzade was the author of more than 70 poetry books, 20 epics, 2 monographs, 11 scientific books and hundreds of articles. The poet's works were translated into many languages, including English, French, German, and Farsi. His plays were staged not only in Azerbaijan but also far beyond its borders. Vahabzade's best known plays are "The Second Sound", "After the Rain", "Waste Man" and "Conscience". His well-known poetic works include "Book of Friendship", "Spring", "Nights at Moon", "Sea-Coast" and others. Moreover, Vahabzadeh translated Lord Byron's 1813 work Bride of Abydon. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Thieves often target iPhone owners as the device can easily be sold in the underground market. An iPhone X belonging to a woman from Madison, Wisconsin was stolen at a bar. As luck would have it she used Find My App on other device and successfully tracked down her iPhone X. The woman noticed that her iPhone X, debit card and driver license were stolen after she left a bar on Sunday. Soon she was notified that the card was used at a nearby store and she quickly got hold of security footage of the thief. At the same time, the victims mother used Find My App on her device. She quickly found that the device was near a store that bought used phones. With the Find My Phone app keeping tabs on the device, the victims mother realized there was a phone store near the location. The store purchases phones, so mother and daughter shared their information with store employee Chantal Schroeder. Schroeder says a few hours later, a guy walked in with a white, iPhone X, which matched the stolen phones description. The guy who was supposed to buy the phone switched it on. He immediately saw an alert and texted the victim. Furthermore, he bided time by stalling the victim. The woman apparently barricaded the store doors and stopped Eric Eisenhauer, the man with her iPhone X. What happened next is shocking, Eisenhauer assaulted the victims mother, in the end, the victim got her phone back. On the other hand, Eisenhauer was charged with felony ID theft, assault against the victims mother and other charges. This particular episode offers a bunch of takeaways. Always take time to activate Find My App on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It comes preinstalled and all you need to do is punch in some details and activate the same. Even if you lose your device, Find My App will come in handy. If your iPhone is stolen it is always advisable to call the cops first instead of trying to confront the thief all by yourself. [via WKOW The opposition Congress in Meghalaya on Wednesday demanded a "proper" inquiry into the attack on anti-CAA protesters in Ichamati that left a person dead. Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said that he is afraid that the manner in which the government is handling the situation, those behind the attack would go scot-free. "We would like to see that the government comes up with a proper inquiry into the whole background which led to that unfortunate avoidable incident," Sangma told reporters. He said the perpetrators must be brought to book without any attempt to manipulate or protect anybody. On the government-instituted inquiry, he said, "I am sorry I cannot trust this government and the magisterial inquiry maybe just an eye-wash." Shillong witnessed violent incidents in the past few days after members of the Khasi Students Union (KSU) were attacked by a group at Ichamati on February 28, leading to the death of its member, Lurshai Hyniewta. The incident had taken place after a meeting held there to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and demand implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime in the state. Earlier in the day, a delegation of the Congress was prevented from visiting the Ichamati area. "Our delegation had gone to Sohra and when some of our members wanted to go further (Ichamati), they were advised it was not the appropriate time," Sangma said. Meanwhile, the Congress has decided to table a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act during the upcoming budget session of the assembly that will begin on March 13. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Sharecast News) - London stocks had extended gains by midday on Wednesday as investors mulled a surprise 50 basis points rate cut by the Federal Reserve and pondered who might be next. The FTSE 100 was up 1.6% at 6,827.30. Stocks on Wall Street fell sharply after the Fed announced an emergency rate cut - its the first since the financial crisis in 2008 - to help counter the impact of the coronavirus. ING said: "There had been hopes among investors that the Fed's bold move would be accompanied by wider coordinated action. That hasn't happened yet, with some of the other major central banks signalling a preference to wait a little longer to gauge the fallout." It added that further action from central banks was "inevitable". "While we doubt rate cuts will make a meaningful boost to aggregative demand, they may help to mitigate some potential strains in the financial system and lift sentiment." Investors were also digesting the latest data out of China, which showed that activity in the services sector crashed in February, resulting in its worst month on record, as the coronavirus outbreak saw business grind to a halt. Services data was also in focus on home turf. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK services PMI business activity index came in at 53.2 in February. The reading has now been above the neutral mark of 50.0 for two successive months, indicating growth, and is the second-highest since September 2018. However, it was also marginally below January's reading of 53.9, as well as consensus and the flash estimate, both of which were 53.3. The main headwind cited by respondents was the coronavirus outbreak, through booking cancellations and delays to new projects among clients in Asia. There was also a renewed fall in total orders from abroad. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: "The post-election rebound in service sector growth lost some of its bounce in February, in part are due to coronavirus-related disruptions to sectors such as travel and tourism, but continued to expand at a encouragingly robust pace." In equity markets, packaging company DS Smith was a high riser as it said it had continued to progress "well" in the third quarter despite macroeconomic uncertainty, with corrugated box volume growth up in the second half of the year. Peers Smurfit Kappa and Mondi also racked up healthy gains. Legal & General reversed earlier losses after posting a better-than-expected rise in full-year operating profit. Budget airline Wizz Air was in the green after saying it was considering a 10% cut to capacity in the first quarter of the next fiscal year to counter the impact of the coronavirus, having already reduced flights to Italy. BHP was boosted by an upgrade to 'overweight' at JPMorgan and Rio Tinto was up after an upgrade to 'buy' at Societe Generale, with miners in general racking up healthy gains. Hill & Smith and Elementis were both trading up after well-received results, while Sirius Minerals rallied after its shareholders voted on Tuesday in favour of Anglo American's ?405m takeover, safeguarding its North Yorkshire polyhalite project. On the downside, British Airways parent IAG and Premier Inn owner Whitbread were weaker as worries about the impact of the coronavirus continued to weigh on the travel and leisure sector. Outside the FTSE 350, shares of shopping centre owner Intu Properties tumbled after it cancelled a ?1bn to ?1.5bn equity raising due to "the current uncertainty in equity markets". Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,827.30 1.62% FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,843.45 0.82% techMARK (TASX) 3,888.53 1.22% FTSE 100 - Risers Smith (DS) (SMDS) 335.50p 4.03% Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 182.55p 3.66% Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,950.00p 3.36% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,967.00p 3.13% Antofagasta (ANTO) 802.40p 3.06% Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,766.00p 3.06% Standard Chartered (STAN) 554.00p 2.94% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,574.00p 2.92% AstraZeneca (AZN) 7,376.00p 2.84% Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 212.00p 2.76% FTSE 100 - Fallers Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,351.00p -2.37% Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,496.50p -1.51% Whitbread (WTB) 3,711.00p -1.51% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 458.20p -1.34% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 628.40p -1.16% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,776.50p -0.98% Compass Group (CPG) 1,702.50p -0.61% Informa (INF) 653.40p -0.27% Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,276.00p -0.13% Rightmove (RMV) 625.20p -0.06% FTSE 250 - Risers Sirius Minerals (SXX) 5.49p 17.46% Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,448.00p 5.23% Frasers Group (FRAS) 377.80p 4.54% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 3,533.00p 4.37% Senior (SNR) 151.30p 4.27% Cineworld Group (CINE) 138.85p 3.66% Airtel Africa (AAF) 65.20p 3.57% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 372.60p 3.56% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 1,432.00p 3.47% Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 982.20p 3.39% FTSE 250 - Fallers Finablr (FIN) 48.00p -5.70% Signature Aviation (SIG) 272.40p -3.85% Vivo Energy (VVO) 100.20p -3.65% William Hill (WMH) 142.50p -2.60% Playtech (PTEC) 236.60p -2.43% Sirius Real Estate Ltd. (SRE) 83.00p -2.35% Ibstock (IBST) 246.80p -2.22% Restaurant Group (RTN) 96.15p -2.19% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 102.80p -2.10% Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,445.00p -1.87% (TNS) Learning the final outcome in a California election can take weeks but the reason for that delay laws that offer more time and methods to vote outweighs the frustration, according to a new statewide poll.The survey, conducted for theby the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, found that 64% of voters surveyed want to keep offering additional ways to cast a ballot even if it takes longer to finalize election results.Californians are actually OK with that, said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS poll. They put a much higher priority on giving voters maximum opportunities.Over the span of two decades, lawmakers and elections officials have revamped voting laws to allow more time and more places for the states eligible citizens to vote. In 2002, Californians were allowed to permanently register for voting by mail, erasing the traditional rules that required an excuse like travel or illness for casting an absentee ballot. Almost two-thirds of the states 20.6 million voters now receive a ballot in the mail for every election.And they often turn them in at the last minute. In 2015, a state law allowed any mailed ballot to be counted as long as it is postmarked by election day and arrives by the following Friday. Because local elections officials usually stop sorting mailed ballots the weekend before election day, they must start from scratch with millions more after the polls close at 8 p.m. on election day.The/Berkeley poll found 89% of voters approve the three-day law for counting ballots.Ballots are also easier to turn in than they once were, as some counties offer dozens of drop boxes and vote centers and one designated person can turn in multiple ballots of family members and acquaintances. Elections officials also now offer an absentee voter who forgot to sign the ballot envelope, or whose election signature doesnt closely match the one on a file, a chance to clear up the confusion.One of the most impactful laws is new to this weeks statewide primary, requiring all election sites to offer voter registration until the polls close on Tuesday. So-called same-day registration offers one more chance for Californians who become motivated to participate in the waning hours of the campaign season. In the poll, the 2019 law was supported by 83% of those surveyed.The only notable disagreement over the new laws was found by political party affiliation. While 76% of Democrats saw increased voter opportunity as more important than a fast count, only 39% of Republicans agreed. Sixty% of GOP voters in the poll favored a speedy tally of votes more than the laws designed to boost access. Voters unaffiliated with a political party largely agreed with Democrats in the survey, with 65% favoring expanded voter choices over how long it takes to count ballots.Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who has championed several of the laws expanding the rights of voters, said he hoped Californians would continue to gradually change their expectations of what used to be a one-day election process.The poll certainly reaffirms what weve believed for a long time, he said. Given the spotlight on elections in the last four years, its not a surprise that most people appreciate the value of these laws. The death of physicist Freeman Dyson on February 28 has been noted by many publications, all of which highlighted his many contributions to science. Dyson, 96, was, without doubt, a genius. He was a polymath whose interests included mathematics, number theory, biology, physics, nuclear energy, space travel, weaponry, and arms control. While all of those accomplishments are important, Dysons view of climate change or rather, his view on carbon dioxide, economic development, and what he called the humanist ethic also helped spark a new type of environmentalism, one that rejects the idea that carbon dioxide is the supreme villain. Dyson was a skeptic on the issue of catastrophic climate change, a fact that was prominently noted in the obituaries published in the Washington Post and the New York Times. The Post called it his apostasy on global warming. It went on, saying that while Dyson did not deny the Earth was warming, he broke ranks because he didnt believe global warming is particularly dangerous. That view, the Post said, is not shared by the overwhelming majority of scientists. The Times said Dyson confounded the scientific establishment by dismissing the consensus about the perils of man-made climate change. Dyson could afford to be a skeptic. Few academics dare to break from the orthodoxy on climate change because the pressure to hew to the majority view is so intense. For proof of that, look no further than the experiences of Judith Curry at Georgia Tech or of Roger Pielke Jr. at the University of Colorado, both of whom were effectively blacklisted for questioning that orthodoxy. Dyson had no such qualms. His position at Princetons Institute for Advanced Study, where he spent more than 60 years, was secure. That job security, and his own long history in science and physics, allowed him to carve his own path on climate issues. In 2007, he published an essay at Edge.org that is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was published. Story continues In the very first line, Dyson made his skepticism clear: My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. He went on, saying that the climate models do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. But the essence of Dysons argument wasnt about climate change or computer models. Instead, it was about values. Naturalists believe that nature knows best. For them the highest value is to respect the natural order of things. Any gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil. Excessive burning of fossil fuels is evil. Those lines encapsulate the views of many of the worlds highest-profile climate activists and environmental groups, who routinely demonize energy companies. Leading liberal politicians in the U.S., including senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have said they want to ban hydraulic fracturing, the process that has allowed the U.S. to double its production of both oil and gas over the past decade or so. Sanders also wants to prosecute oil and gas companies for producing the fuels that power the global economy. In January 2020, BlackRock, the worlds largest investment manager, with $7 trillion under management, announced it would quit financing fossil-fuel projects. The Sierra Club and other groups are pressuring commercial banks and the World Bank to quit financing all fossil-fuel projects. Rather than demonize energy and energy producers, Dyson focused on equity, human development, and the need for more energy so that more poverty-stricken people can live better lives. The humanist ethic begins with the belief that humans are an essential part of nature, he wrote. Humans have the right and the duty to reconstruct nature so that humans and biosphere can both survive and prosper. For humanists, the highest value is harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. With those lines about the right and the duty to reconstruct nature, Dyson presaged the rise of the ecomodernist movement. In 2015, a group of scientists, writers, and activists issued the ecomodernist manifesto, in which they declared that we are reshaping the planet and there is no going back. Humans are made from the Earth, and the Earth is remade by human hands, they wrote. The 18 original signers of the manifesto included Breakthrough Institute founders Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, as well as the University of Kolkatas Joyashree Roy, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, and philanthropist Rachel Pritzker. Climate change and other global ecological challenges are not the most important immediate concerns for the majority of the worlds people, they declared. Nor should they be. In that regard, the ecomodernists were echoing Dysons essay, which says that the greatest evils are poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment, disease and hunger, all the conditions that deprive people of opportunities and limit their freedoms. That sentence is particularly relevant now. The defining inequality in the world today is the vast disparity between the electricity-rich and the electricity-poor. As I explain in my new book, there are some 3 billion people on the planet who are living in places where per capita electricity use is less than whats used by an average American refrigerator. Rather than condemn the energy-poor to more poverty and deny financing to the developing countries that need to use fossil fuels to stimulate their economies, we need a humane response, one that recognizes the need for more development, and the use of more energy, and in particular more natural gas. The essential line in Dysons 2007 essay is this: The humanist ethic accepts an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a small price to pay, if world-wide industrial development can alleviate the miseries of the poorer half of humanity. To that I say, amen. More from National Review A former engineering student who turned to cocaine because he felt inadequate after barely passing his exams has avoided a conviction by making a charitable donation. Oisin Noonan (23) was caught with more than 600 worth of the drug at Rush Harbour. A positive probation report was handed in to court stating that the defendant had engaged with the services in a "positive manner". He also came up with 1,000 to offer as a charitable donation. Last year, Judge Dermot Dempsey ordered that Noonan continue under the Probation Service's supervision after noting he "was making a genuine effort". The defendant, of Tayleurs Point, Rush, pleaded guilty at Balbriggan District Court to being in unlawful possession of 640 worth of cocaine for sale or supply on October 15, 2018. He also pleaded guilty to being in possession of the drug. Noonan has no previous convictions and has not come to the garda's attention since the incident. Triggered Defence barrister Annette Kealy said the defendant made admissions immediately and had provided the court with clean urine analysis to prove he is not taking any drugs. "He was an engineering student and he barely passed his exams," said Ms Kealy. "As a result, he felt inadequate and had low self-esteem and began taking cocaine which he said made him feel normal again. However, it triggered psychosis." Ms Kealy said Noonan had not taken any drugs since October and wants to kick the habit. "His parents are distraught and he feels he has let them down," she added. Ms Kealy said the defendant also attended counselling. "He has 1,000 as a charitable donation and is anxious not to get a conviction," she said. Judge Dempsey said: "It's a very positive report." After the money was handed in to court, the judge allocated 500 to Merchant's Quay and 500 to Little Blue Heroes. He then struck the case out, leaving the defendant without a conviction. (Natural News) In recent years, many farmers have turned to the use of dangerous and toxic commercially available pesticides to help keep their farms pest-free, even though these chemicals are known to cause not just problems in the environment such as water contamination and the poisoning of local wildlife, but also diseases and health problems in humans. In a bid to do away with the negative effects of commercial pesticides, manufacturers have come up with other methods to help farmers raise more crops without resorting to toxic chemicals. One method takes inspiration from an old Japanese tradition, wherein rice farmers would tap the services of several feathery companions in this case, ducks to help manage their paddies. Raised on the rice paddies, the watefowls act as natural pest control, preying on insects that may infest and harm the precious crops. In addition, the ducks also discourage the growth of weeds by tearing their roots up with their constant paddling an action that also oxygenates the water and soil, thus making it more nutritious for the rice seedlings. Furthermore, the ducks droppings also become an important source of natural fertilizer. Now, an engineer working for the Japanese car brand Nissan has unveiled a plan to bring this traditional method of farm maintenance into the 21st century. The twist: hes using a robot. As reported by the tech website Nerdist, engineer Tetsuma Nakamura has developed a prototype of a robotic alternative to the feathery critters and is now testing his creation in the Yamagata Prefecture, in the northeastern part of Japan. Dubbed Aigamo, after the breed of duck used in the ancient farming practice, the robot weighs 1.5 kg and is about the size of a standard robot vacuum cleaner. It acts like one too: A video, uploaded by Nissan on its official Japanese channel, showed the robot navigating the surface of a rice paddy like a Roomba. According to Nakamura, the most difficult thing he encountered while building the robot was designing its rubber feet. Nakamura said he wanted something that could easily slip through the precious rice seedlings without pulling them out. Nakamura explained that the robot duck, which uses a set of rechargeable batteries, is capable of connecting to WiFi and GPS networks in order to map out and navigate the rice paddies. It is also capable of using solar power. There is one caveat, however: The roboduck wont be mass-produced anytime soon, as there are currently no plans for its commercialization. Those looking for a way to maintain their rice paddies without resorting to pesticides and other chemicals have another, more active and ultimately more fulfilling option: live ducks. (Related: Organic farming promotes better plant biodiversity.) The practice, first documented 600 years ago in China, was perfected by the Japanese in the 1980s thanks to the efforts of Takao Furuno, a farmer from the Fukuoka Prefecture. According to Furuno, who has written books on the method and even taught it to rice-growing countries such as South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Iran, farmers interested in implementing the Aigamo method in their farms will need the following: 15 to 20 ducks for every 1,000 square meters of farmland A shelter where the ducklings can rest and take refuge from the rain A fence to protect the ducks from dogs, cats, weasels Fishing line to ward off birds of prey For more stories on sustainable agriculture, head over to OrganicFarming.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk CBD.int TheVerge.com Nerdist.com Web-Japan.org BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4 Trend: Head of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Leyla Abdullayeva commented on the position of the Armenian Foreign Ministry in connection with the meeting of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Mevlut Cavusoghlu with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Ankara, Trend reports referring Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Actually, with such an absurd position, the Armenian side puts itself in a rather ridiculous position. Apparently, the rapidly developing events taking place in our region and around it either remain out of their field of vision and analysis or emotions prevail again. Although a sober and real analysis of the events taking place in the world and, in particular, in the region, would contribute to constructiveness in the approaches of the Armenian side in relation to neighbouring countries," she said. "Turkey is an active participant in all projects and processes in the region and is interested in the early settlement of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turkey has been a permanent member of the OSCE Minsk Group since the first day of its creation and has always actively participated in its work, as well as in consultations with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. It remains unclear why the Armenian side is not honest in assessing the meeting of Turkish high-ranking officials with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, even if the emotions are high, Abdullayeva added. ANN ARBOR -- The Michigan Fashion Media Summit will bring people from major brands in the fashion industry to the University of Michigan for panel discussions, deep dives, networking and student opportunities. From 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., March 20, 650 people will fill the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business for the event. Tickets are sold out, but updates will be posted on Instagram and a recap will be available on the Michigan Fashion Media Summit website. The summit will focus on possible career opportunities, where the industry is going and what its innovating in the upcoming year, said Delaney Walker, Michigan Fashion Media Summit co-president. In addition, a student showcase will include a competition, with the winner receiving the opportunity to present their brand during the networking hour. There are opportunities to make a career in the fashion industry whether you have a computer science, business or even sociology or English background, Cam Starwalt, the summits other co-president said. Theres places for all of us. Amy Tara Koch, TV personality, journalist and author, will host the summit. The keynote speakers throughout the day are Jenna Lyons and Kyle Deford of Lyons L.A.D. and Jeff Carvalho of Highsnobiety. Other companies represented are Forbes, Carhartt, Inc., Fendi Americas, StockX, Morning Brew, Dormify, Bustle Digital Group, Madhappy, Carbon38, SoulCycle and Shopify. Were the only event that brings people from fashion, media and a little tech to campus in a way that students can connect to it, said Katarina Kovac, COO of the Michigan Fashion Media Summit. Theyre big names too, people that have huge careers in the industry that normally you would have to find some sort of alternate way to get two seconds of their time. It is unclear how restrictions could affect the availability of common exported medicines including some antibiotics. India, the worlds main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including Paracetamol a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The Indian government urged calm and said there were enough stocks to manufacture formulations for two-to-three months. The governments list of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medicines accounts for 10 percent of all Indian pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12. It was unclear how the restriction would affect the availability of these medicines in the countries that import from India and also depend on China. In the United States, for instance, Indian imports accounted for 24 percent of medicines and 31 percent of medicine ingredients in 2018, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told US senators on Tuesday that the agency is working to determine how the restrictions will affect the US medical supply and the effect on essential medicines. The FDA last week announced the first coronavirus-related drug shortage in the US but declined to name the drug in question. Hahn said on Tuesday that drug was in shortage because of a lack of materials needed to make the API. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70 percent of the APIs for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on. Export of specified APIs and formulations made from these APIs is hereby restricted with immediate effect and till further orders, the director general of Foreign Trade said in a statement on Tuesday, without explaining the extent of the restrictions. Irrespective of the ban, some of these molecules may face shortages for the next couple of months, Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India, told Reuters News Agency. The council falls under the federal commerce ministry. If coronavirus is not contained, then, in that case, there could be acute shortages, Dua said. In a statement, the Indian federal government said state authorities had been asked to monitor the production and availability of APIs and formulations to prevent black marketing and hoarding. US drugmakers have said they are monitoring their supply chains and Mylan NV warned last week that there could be drug shortages. Eli Lilly and Co said on Tuesday it does not expect the coronavirus outbreak to result in shortages for any of its therapies, including insulin products. India monitoring patients Separately, the Indian government said on Tuesday it had detected high viral load in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the virus in New Delhi, the capital. The patient in New Delhi was being monitored and was stable, the government said. The six people have been kept in isolation and their samples are being sent to Indias National Institute of Virology for confirmation, the government said in a statement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to quell public fears. There is no need to panic, he said in a tweet. Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries & states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention, he added. Chile's capital has been rocked by its worst anti-government violence in weeks after stone-throwing protesters clashed with police in running battles across the city. Demonstrators returned to Santiago's Plaza Italia on Monday to rally against economic inequality and condemn the government of right-wing billionaire president Sebastian Pinera. By nightfall a group of hooded men clashed with riot officers in nearby streets, hurling rocks and firing projectiles with slingshots. Elsewhere in the city protesters built barricades and set them alight before being dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons. More than 30 people have died since protests began last October with the announcement of a modest hike in metro transport fares. The demonstrations have mushroomed to encompass wider discontent over social and economic woes. Around 23 police officers were injured last week during clashes with rioters at the Vina del Mar music festival west of the capital. Authorities fear a new round of rallies this month with the end of the summer holiday season. Protest organizers have circulated a calendar of demonstrations, including International Women's Day on March 8, and the anniversary of the deaths of two brothers murdered by the former Pinochet dictatorship on March 29. A 27-year old Australian woman was on Wednesday sentenced to seven years in jail for killing an Indian student-cum-delivery truck driver while she was speeding on a stolen car under the influence of drugs last year. 25-year-old Jatinder Brar Sophie Louise Brine was speeding through Salisbury South on January 4 last year when the stolen car she was driving under the influence of drugs hit and killed the 25-year-old Jatinder Brar, who was an accounting student but also worked as a supermarket delivery truck driver for chain Woolworths. 27-year old Sophie Louise Brine Earlier, Brine pleaded guilty in the Adelaide magistrates court to an aggravated charge of death by dangerous driving and leaving an accident scene. On Wednesday, district court judge Joanne Tracey sentenced Brine to seven years jail with a non-parole period of five years and seven months. Tracey banned Brine from driving indefinitely once released from prison, until a court order allowed her to do so and described Brines decision to leave the scene of the accident as reprehensible. This is serious offending - you were on drugs, evading police, in a stolen car and you were disqualified, Tracey said. The CCTV vision of your driving on that day would undoubtedly strike fear in any other road user. The footage demonstrates that it was inevitable that there was going to be a collision with another car or pedestrian sooner or later, the judge said. The court had previously heard that the vehicle involved in the crash was stolen from north-west of Adelaide few days before the accident. The court also heard that the local police spotted the stolen car on Port Wakefield Road about 10 minutes before the crash but Brine, who was disqualified from driving at that time, sped off in a dangerous manner. The police prosecutor told the court that a member of the public noticed the car clocking about 180 kilometres per hour shortly before hitting the truck, which hit a tree before rolling on Kings Road. The court heard Brine did not stop her vehicle and was tracked by the police helicopter and arrested. A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted the victim Brars friend Aman Dhillon saying that Brars death had been very tough on his family, particularly his mother Kulwinder Kaur, who had come from India to witness the sentencing. She says she cant forgive her because she ruined her world and this world is nothing for her now, Dhillon said, adding his mother is alone in the world now. She is crying every day now because he was calling her every day telling her how his day had been and what he had been doing and now she is not going to get any calls from him, he said. Dhillon said the family had expected the maximum life penalty for the accounting students death. Still, we respect the justice system. They did their best and hopefully Brine will turn around her life and be a better person for the society when she comes back, he said. Bombardier Inc. says it is concerned about a new report that links it and other companies to the alleged forced labour of Muslim minorities in China. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A Bombardier logo is shown at a Bombardier assembly plant in Mirabel, Que., on October 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes Bombardier Inc. says it is concerned about a new report that links it and other companies to the alleged forced labour of Muslim minorities in China. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says factories that claim to supply products to at least 83 global brands from Apple to Zara, Nike and Samsung exploited more than 80,000 Uighur Muslims who were transferred out of their home province "under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour" between 2017 and 2019. The think tank draws on satellite imagery, media reports and Chinese government documents to uncover the connection between international corporations and Uighur and other ethnic minorities being forcibly displaced to more than two-dozen plants across the country, a scheme operating under a central government policy known as Xinjiang Aid. Forty-one of those workers were transferred nearly 4,000 kilometres away to KTK Group, a Chinese company located west of Shanghai that makes rail equipment such as doors and seats and that counts Bombardier as a customer, states the report, titled "Uyghurs for sale." Bombardier says it contacted KTK after the report came out this week to confirm the manufacturer is adhering to the Bombardier code of ethics it signed, and is awaiting confirmation. "We take these allegations very seriously as all of our supplier contracts specifically preclude the use of forced labour," Bombardier said in an email. A spokesman added that KTK did not supply any of Bombardier's Canadian transportation projects, which include Toronto Transit Commission streetcars and Montreal subway cars. Human rights organizations have said that as many as one million ethnic Uighur Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region have been rounded up and placed in camps. China says it is trying to re-educate and integrate the Uighurs to make them better contributors to Chinese society. "In factories far away from home, they typically live in segregated dormitories, undergo organized Mandarin and ideological training outside working hours, are subject to constant surveillance, and are forbidden from participating in religious observances," the report states. The transferred workers are assigned minders and have limited freedom of movement, the investigation found. "This report exposes a new phase in Chinas social re-engineering campaign targeting minority citizens, revealing new evidence that some factories across China are using forced Uighur labour under a state-sponsored labour transfer scheme that is tainting the global supply chain." China's ambassador to Canada called reports of forced labour "a groundless accusation." "There was nothing like the concentration camps or forced labour," Cong Peiwu told reporters Wednesday at the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence. "There is a saying: Even (if) a rumour is repeated 1,000 times, it cannot become a truth." Cong portrayed events in Xinjiang as an attempt by regional governments to head off extremism and foster job skills. "They took measures to establish vocational training centres. Students not only learn the laws and regulations and language, but also the necessary skills," he said. "So that's good for stability in the region." The report paints a starkly different picture. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It is extremely difficult for Uighurs to refuse or escape these work assignments, which are enmeshed with the apparatus of detention and political indoctrination both inside and outside of Xinjiang," it states. The report authors also found that the threat of arbitrary detention hangs over minority citizens who refuse government-sponsored work assignments. "Most strikingly, local governments and private brokers are paid a price per head by the Xinjiang provincial government to organize the labour assignments. The job transfers are now an integral part of the re-education process, which the Chinese government calls vocational training,'" the report says. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:BBD.B) With files from Lee Berthiaume The Australian government on Wednesday issued strict guidelines for travellers returning back to the country from various coronavirus affected nations, especially Iran, to self-isolate themselves to contain the spread of the deadly infection. Australia has reported one death and 40 infections due to coronavirus. Federal health minister Greg Hunt said that two new cases were confirmed on Wednesday, including a 50-year-old woman in Sydney. The set of guidelines issued by the government has urged people returning from Iran after February 19 onwards to self isolate. "Today we are implementing additional measures to those that have been taken, requiring everybody who has arrived from Iran from February 19th to self isolate in Australia, Hunt told reporters. "It doesn't matter whether you're an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or a visitor from Iran - the message is very clear. You are now required to self isolate,'' he said. Noting that there are approximately 900 arrivals from Iran every month to Australia, he said the Border Force will be gathering those figures, assisting with the tracing and the contact. "At the same time, we are making contact through Farsi language media to assist with those that have come from Iran, and again, that's an additional measure to those that were announced on Saturday simply because it's absolutely clear that the caseload in Iran is very significant,'' Hunt said. At least 77 people have died due to the coronavirus outbreak in Iran with 2,336 confirmed cases. He said that eight of the cases that have been diagnosed in Australia have had some contact, either travelled directly from or been associated with people who have travelled directly from Iran. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has increased travel advisory to ''do not travel'' to Iran. Updated advisory has also been issued for Italy, Japan and South Korea to level two which means high alert and level three warnings which means 'reconsider your travel'' for Daegu in South Korea and Wuhan in China. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said that 21 of those who have had the virus had recovered now and were back in the community. "We got ahead of it at the start. We're working hard to stay ahead of it....we're on top of it, as is the state Government in New South Wales (NSW), and Queensland, and other places,'' he said. The new cases confirmed on Wednesday, included a 50-year-old woman in Sydney. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said an infected woman had contact with 13 residents of the aged-care home, and that two of them subsequently reported respiratory symptoms. One of those two residents, a 95-year-old woman, has died. "Whether or not it was related to corona, we don't know at this point," Hazzard said. Queensland's Chief health officer Jeannette Young said they were currently tracing nine people in connection with the most recent case of coronavirus in Queensland. In South Australia, a 40-year-old mother who had recently been in Iran has become the state's fourth confirmed case of coronavirus, according to authorities. Three other people in SA, who were tested positive since the outbreak, including a couple from Wuhan, have all been cleared and discharged from hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Old Couple Commit Suicide Together in Wuhan City Location: Wuhan City, Hubei Province Date: March 3, 2020 An old couple committed suicide together by jumping out of their high-level unit on March 3. According to their neighbors, they lived alone. Their community never showed any concern for elderly residents needing help to get daily necessities after the lockdown. Woman: There is even a suicide incident in our community! I guess they are elderly residents who do not live with their children, and no one offered them any help. The staff at our community office never checked with these elderly-only families to provide any help. So pitiable! Man: Why dont they call 110, the emergency line? Woman: It makes me feel very nervous now. Wuhan has been in the throes of a city-wide lockdown for 40 days. Local authorities continue to tighten preventative measures. Individuals are forbidden to go grocery shopping. Residents have to resort to online orders or form a social media group to order food together. Senior citizens who have no experience with online purchases are in deep despair. The Hanover Fair is postponed to the week of 13 to 17 July 2020. The Hanover Fair is postponed to the week of 13 to 17 July 2020. Deutsche Messe AG is thus responding to the global developments surrounding Covid-19, the Coronavirus. The decision to postpone the event until July 2020 was taken in close cooperation with the Hannover Region Health Authority, the Hannover Messe Exhibitors' Council and the partner associations VDMA (German Engineering Federation) and ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association). The Hannover Region Health Authority had strongly advised Deutsche Messe AG to follow the advice of the Robert Koch Institute. These contain comprehensive health protection actions for the organization of major events. These include fever measuring stations at all entrances and the implementation of the action not to admit participants from risk areas and to refuse access to events to participants who have had contact with people from risk areas. This would entail a comprehensive review of all trade fair participants - from exhibitors and visitors to service providers, booth builders and catering companies. Deutsche Messe does not consider the above actions to be feasible. In addition, their implementation would have the effect of impairing the smooth running of the event to such an extent that the purpose of the event intended by the planned organization could not be achieved, or only with considerable restrictions, either for exhibitors or for visitors. As the health of exhibitors, visitors, employees and the general public is a top priority for Deutsche Messe AG, the decision was taken in consultation with the exhibitor advisory councils of Hannover Messe to switch to the July date. "With the July date, we are offering our exhibitors the earliest possible time to present their innovations to a global audience and initiate business," explains Dr. Jochen Kockler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Messe AG. "In view of the global economic challenges triggered by the Coronavirus in the first half of the year, the new date offers considerable opportunities. After all, the world's most important industrial trade fair can provide important impetus for the global economy as early as July. This means that the Hanover Fair is and remains the figurehead of German industry." "The VDMA supports the decision of Deutsche Messe AG In view of the current difficulties caused by the Coronavirus, we consider it right to postpone Hanover Fair until July," says VDMA Chief Executive Thilo Brodtmann. "We assume that the situation will calm down in the coming months and that the mechanical engineering industry will then benefit from a reviving business situation". "Today's decision by Deutsche Messe AG to postpone Hanover Fair is right in content and comes at the right time," emphasizes Wolfgang Weber, Chairman of the ZVEI Management Board. "As an internationally important industrial trade show, it thrives in a special way on the encounter of people from all over the world. This can only happen if there are no health risks. It is important for the electrical industry to present its products for Industry 4.0, electrification and greater energy efficiency to the public this summer." From the euphoria of a possible expatriation to despair in the face of Athens' wall. The vanished dream of a free and dignified life. The violence of the Greek military, which pushes migrants back to no man's land. Athens or Ankara "is the same thing". The Turkish president uses migrants and refugees as a weapon of war against Brussels. Istanbul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Destroyed, demoralized, without knowing where to go, trapped in a no-man's land between Turkey and Greece, or Europe, unable to continue but - at the same time - without any desire to go back. In the space of a few days, thousands of migrants went from the euphoria of the green light for expatriation by Turkish government, to despair over the wall opposed by the Athens government and the violence of the Hellenic far right groups. They arrived, they say, at the border by train, on board buses, in taxis convinced "to get over to the other side". The dream of these people - not millions as threatened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but certainly several thousand - of leading a free and dignified life in Europe seems to have broken on the barbed wire of the Turkish border crossing of Pazarkule (Kastanies). "After being pounded with tear gas by the Greek police,"Mahmut, a young Iraqi father told Le Monde, "we have turned back back" and now "we don't know what will happen". Sitting on the curb, 29-year-old Hossein and 27-year-old Nafiseh, a young couple from Tehran, are so stunned that it is difficult to speak: It was very hard. After finding our hiding place, an abandoned house where we had taken refuge, masked Greek soldiers beat us. Then they stripped us of sleeping bags, wallets, cell phones and our documenments", concludes the girl, "we have nothing left". Ahmed, a young Afghan, was also subjected to violence and beatings after believing he had arrived "in Europe"; on the contrary, he was in no-man's-land between Greece and Turkey. Athens or Ankara, he says, for me it is the same thing. Whether on one side or the other, we are tossed about like bags of dirty laundry. " From 5 to 10 thousand migrants have been massed for three days in the buffer zone of Pazarkule, who refuse to leave still believing in a miracle. The Turks let them pass, while the Greeks repel them with water or tear gas to disperse them, in vain. Erdogan uses them as a weapon of war against Brussels, to which he has communicated that he has broken the controversial agreement on migrants signed in 2016, after benefiting from it in economic terms in recent years. "Soon - he warns - their number will become millions". The statements by the Turkish president raised the harsh reaction of Fevzi Pekcanli, Edirne representative of the Republican People's Party (Chp, opposition), inspired by Ataturk. Outraged by the fact that refugees have become an "instrument of pressure between states", he attacks Erdogan accusing him of spreading "totally false" data and of being careless in the face of the humanitarian drama in the region: "If it continues like this - he says - we will many Aylan Kurdi ". In the background, inert and unable to express a firm position, the European Union is called to face the most difficult, but certainly not unpredictable, scenario: a migratory wave from the southern border triggered by Turkish policies, while the more general indifference drama of thousands of human lives. Appointment 4 March 2020 Peter B. Mikkelsen has been appointed Area General Manager Berlin for Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts as of 1 March. This move means that Mr. Mikkelsen, who has just finished a successful stint as Managing Director of the Steigenberger Hotel Cologne, will be responsible in future for the Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt, the Steigenberger Hotel Berlin at Los Angeles Platz and the Steigenberger Airport Hotel in Berlin. He will also head up the Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt in the capacity of General Manager. Peter B. Mikkelsen began his career at the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin in Stuttgart, where he trained in the occupation of hotel specialist. He then went on to complete a degree in Hotel Administration before gathering experience at business hotels operated by Sheraton, Hilton and Rezidor and securing the position of General Manager at the Radisson Blu in Warsaw. Mr. Mikkelsen has been General Manager of the Steigenberger Hotel Cologne since 2016. Vietnamese scientists have been able to design a test kit for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that is on a par with those produced by the World Health Organization (WHO). The group of researchers led by Dr. Dong Van Quyen, deputy head of the Institute of Biotechnology under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), and Dr. Dinh Duy Khang, a senior member of the institute, announced on Tuesday they had successfully designed the test kit. The kit has been examined and cross-evaluated by the Military Preventive Medicine Institute under the Ministry of National Defense, and the result showed that the made-in-Vietnam test kit has similar testing capabilities as those provided by the WHO. Particularly, the Vietnam-made kit is capable of returning results within 80 minutes, with a specificity of 100 percent and sensitivity of five copies per reaction, according to the Military Preventive Medicine Institute. The Vietnamese scientists developed their kit using the RT-PCR (Real time-Polymerase chain reaction) technique and RNA samples of the SARS-CoV-2 provided by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. The VAST will coordinate with the Military Preventive Medicine Institute to mass-produce the test kit. A test kit for SARS-CoV-2 is developed at the Institute of Biotechnology, managed by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Photo: Nguyen Phuong / Tuoi Tre Experts believed this event is an important step in Vietnams efforts to diagnose and control the epidemic. The country will no longer rely on test kits provided by the WHO, which have become quite rare given the wide spread of the disease across the globe. Another test kit is being developed by the Vietnam Military Medical University and Viet A Corporation following a request from the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Hanoi University of Science and Technology previously succeeded in producing a SARS-CoV-2 test kit, but it does not utilize the RT-PCR technique as recommended by the WHO. The novel coronavirus disease has killed 3,165 people and infected over 92,900 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health. Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese. All of them have fully recovered and have been discharged from the hospital. The country has reported no new infections since February 13. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! YEREVAN, MARH 4, ARMENPRESS. On March 4, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the ceasefire regime on the border of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, in the north-east direction of the Hadrut region, the Artsakh foreign ministry told Armenpress. From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) Mihail Olaru (Moldova) and staff member of the Office of the CiO Personal Representative Martin Schuster (Germany). From the opposite side of the border, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE CiO Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova) and Personal Assistant to the CiO Personal Representative Simon Tiller (Great Britain). The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. However, the Azerbaijani side did not lead the OSCE mission to its frontline positions. From the Artsakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense. (Newser) The tight-knit community of Ultimate Frisbee is in mourning after three professional players suffered fatal injuries in a car crash in Michigan over the weekend. Kevin Coulter, 29; Andrew Piet, 28; and Michael Cannon, 24all members of the Detroit Mechanix, which is to begin its season in the 22-team American Ultimate Disc League next monthwere driving from Grand Rapids to Detroit for practice around 7pm Saturday when they came upon the scene of a crash on I-96 in Ionia County, reports MLive. Piet, who was driving a 2005 Toyota Camry, slowed down. But the vehicle behind him, a 2018 Honda CR-V, didn't, state police said Tuesday. Officers said the CR-Vdriven by a 34-year-old Detroit man, who was uninjuredstruck the Camry, which was propelled into the back of a 2019 Jeep Compass. story continues below Coulter, described as one of the best players in the country, died immediately in the back seat, reports Detroit News. Piet and front passenger Cannon were pronounced dead at area hospitals. Cannonwho only began practicing with the team this year, per Ultiworldremained on life support for organ donations as of Tuesday. A passenger in the Honda and two in the Jeep were injured, per MLive. "As a community, we are all still in shock at the unfair passing of these remarkable individuals, and would like to offer as much help and support as we can to the families," reads a statement from Grand Rapids Ultimate. Piet's mother says she's heartbroken but overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. "I had no idea that this was such a family, and I'm so glad that Drew was a part," she says, per People. (Read more Michigan stories.) By Kyle Lovern In the Bible, the apostle Paul reminded those who would listen of[Read More] President Muhammadu Buhari has sent warm greetings to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his 83rd birthday, March 5, 2020, congratulating him for a life of courage, dedication and service to Nigeria, Africa, and humanity in general a state house statement has said. President Buhari joins family members, friends and associates of the former president in celebrating the milestone, adding that Chief Obasanjos commitment to Nigerian nationhood remains outstanding and commendable, while also underscoring his sacrifices for the continent, including standing up for democracy in many countries, read the statement signed by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), on March 4. As the former president celebrates the auspicious occasion, President Buhari prays that the almighty God will grant him longer life, good health and strength to keep serving the nation and the continent. Mr Obasanjos vice president during his administration, Atiku Abubakar, also paid tribute to him on Wednesday. As you turn 83 today (March 5), my family and I felicitate with you and thank God for your life. No individual living or dead, has bestrode the Nigerian political space as positively and purposefully, as you have done, for good and better, in peace time and war, in times of austerity, and times of prosperity. It is not an exaggeration to describe you as the preeminent political colossus in Nigeria, a nation that owes so much to you. Indeed, many Nigerians would read about your birthday on their GSM devices, which are one of your legacies to the Nigerian people. Your love for Nigeria and commitment to her unity, good governance and stability has prevented you from retiring, a sacrifice that my family and I deeply appreciate. From The Congo, to South Africa, to Angola, to Liberia and Sao Tome and Principe, your democratic finger prints on the African continent is indelible. You have served and still serve as a beacon of democracy and a guardian of constitutionality. Nigeria owes you a debt that we cannot pay, because you led us to pay the foreign debts that we could not imagine paying. By that singular action, you planted trees for generations yet unborn. You hold the enviable and esteemed record of being the first African military ruler to have voluntarily, and without internal and external pressure, restored power to the government democratically elected by the Nigerian people. It was Not Your Will to be in office, but it was your will to bequeath democracy to Nigeria. And after 21 years of the Fourth Republic, Nigeria has cause to celebrate your democratic credentials. Happy birthday President Obasanjo. You are beloved now and forever, he said. She's used to making a splash on the runway. And Kendall Jenner was at it again as she posted several idyllic throwbacks from her recent girls' getaway to the Bahamas on Wednesday. In the photos, the model, 24, lounged about a boat in a neon green bikini with her younger sister Kylie Jenner, 24. Sister act! Kendall Jenner posted several idyllic throwbacks from her recent girls' getaway with Kylie Jenner to the Bahamas on Wednesday The siblings curled up together while sharing a bowl of snacks and taking in their gorgeous surroundings from beneath an awning. Kylie clung to her older sister as they laid out with a small stack of books at their disposal. Kendall was beaming as she rested her head against Kylie's hat. The catwalk queen was looking ready to kick back for a day on the high seas with a red and yellow bandanna and retro style sunglasses. Bikini fun! Also joining the famous siblings was their friend, Sofia Villarroel, who soaked up the sun in a tangerine orange string bikini with floppy hat propped atop her head Kylie was looking stylish in an arty Jean Paul Gaultier bathing suit, wide-brim hat, hoop earrings, blue shades and gold anklet adoring her right foot. Also joining the famous siblings was their friend, Sofia Villarroel, who soaked up the sun in a tangerine orange string bikini with floppy hat propped atop her head. Whether she was hanging out with Kylie or catching up with a good book, Kendall was the picture of relaxation. Read all about it: Jenner caught up with her reading during her relaxing boat day Kendall is now back in Los Angeles, but based on these pictures, is still in a vacation state-of-mind. The getaway was definitely well-deserved for the model, who only days earlier was taking the Versace runway by storm during Milan Fashion Week. The model showcased her svelte frame in the quirky strapless number which highlighted her gym-honed pins as she strutted down the runway while exhibiting the designer's Fall/Winter 2020 collection. She was joined on the catwalk by the likes of Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber. Exports of 13 APIs - including paracetamol, tinidazole, metronidazole, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, acyclovir, progesterone - along with formulations made from these APIs, would be restricted. In the wake of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak and supply disruptions from China, India on Tuesday restricted exports of 13 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their formulations to ensure there was no shortage of key drugs. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification issued on Tuesday that exports of 13 APIs - including paracetamol, tinidazole (antibiotic), metronidazole (antibiotic), vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, acyclovir (anti-viral), progesterone (hormone) - along with formulations made from these APIs, would be restricted. A senior government official said this was not an export ban. Exporters of these items would now have to take government approval before they can export. "This will help to ensure that key drugs and their raw materials are not exported in large quantities from the country and there is no shortage here, he said. This is a temporary measure, he added. Supplies have started coming from China, but factories in Hubei province are still not functioning normally. "Therefore, as a precautionary measure, the government has taken this step. We will lift the restrictions as soon the situation normalises, the official said. The managing director of a Mumbai-based mid-sized firm, which exports to the US, said the move would practically stall exports of these APIs and formulations. The DGFT notification refers to Schedule 2 of the ITC (HS) Export Policy, 2018, which deals with restricted items. "To secure the necessary no objection certificate from the relevant departments would involve a four-stage process that takes at least 30-45 days to complete, he said. In such a situation, exports would nearly come to a standstill for a month or so. Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), said they were waiting for the finer details on how the restrictions would be imposed. The department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) had formed a panel to examine the situation, and it had recommended restrictions be imposed on exports of 12 APIs. Industry claimed that there was enough stock of raw material in the country to take care of immediate needs. A Vaidheesh, managing director of GSK India, said the government was cautious given the uncertainty about supplies and the decision would help if there was a big outbreak here. According to Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) estimates, India is set to beat financial year 2018-19s (FY19s) export figures this year. Between April and December, pharma exports clocked an 11.5 per cent growth over the corresponding period the previous year, and the December quarter was particularly buoyant (clocking a 14.6 per cent growth). Total exports were likely to touch $22 billion in FY20, beating FY19s $19.13 billion. Exports account for about half the Indian pharma industry, estimated to be worth $39-40 billion. Pharmexcil has requested relaxation in restrictions. It said if restrictions are imposed with immediate effect it could result in financial losses for exporters. Pharmexcil said failure to meet commitments could result in cancellation of entire orders or huge penalties. Pharmexcil has requested DGFT to allow free export of drugs manufactured before the notification and those lying at ports. It also requested DGFT consider the feasibility to exempt drugs manufactured for exports to be exempted. New Zealand police said Tuesday they were investigating a threat made this week against one of the Christchurch mosques where 51 Muslim worshippers were killed in a mass shooting a year ago. Amid plans to mark the one-year anniversary of the March 15 massacre, police said the threat to Christchurch's Al Noor mosque was posted this week on encrypted messaging app Telegram. Reports said the message showed a man in a balaclava sitting in a car outside the mosque accompanied by threatening text and a gun emoji. "We have strong leads that we're following up and I'm confident that we will establish who this person is," Canterbury police commander superintendent John Price told Radio New Zealand, adding, "We're very close". Al Noor was one of two mosques targeted by a self-avowed white supremacist last year in what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as "an unprecedented act of terror (that) shattered our small country". The timing of the latest threat comes at a sensitive time as planning is underway for a memorial service in Christchurch to mark the anniversary. Details of the service at the city's Hagley Park have not yet been finalised but Ardern is set to attend after gaining international praise for her compassionate handling of the attacks. Ardern said Tuesday that she found it hard to believe that New Zealand's Muslim community was still being subjected to such hatred. "I will be amongst many New Zealanders who will be devastated to see that as we head towards the one-year anniversary of a most horrific terror attack on the Muslim community, that they should then be the target of this kind of activity," she told reporters. Price said he was encouraged that a member of the public had reported the threat, saying that people were acting to stamp out such online activity when they saw it. "That's the way we'll conquer this issue in our society, is by everyone standing up and saying this is not OK," he said. The alleged mosque attacker Brenton Tarrant, an Australian national, is due to go on trial on June 2 facing terrorism charges plus 51 counts of murder and 40 of attempted murder over the killings. Facebooks FB digital currency Libra may be a point of debate among government officials and media but the new venture holds promise with growing adoption of digital payment systems over traditional ones by smartphone users globally. Notably, the cryptocurrency market is expected to reach $1.40 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 6.18% between 2019 and 2024, per Markets and Markets report. Facebooks cryptocurrency project will reportedly offer its users digital versions of government-backed currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the euro, in addition to the proposed Libra token when it is eventually completed and is ready for launch, per a recent Bloomberg report. Moreover, Facebooks Calibra digital wallet, originally slated to launch this summer, will now be launched in October 2020, per The Information report. Calibras core money-storing and transfer features are still set to be available on both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Following months of severe regulatory pressure and political pushback, the Calibra wallet will now support multiple currencies, of which Libra will be one. Facebook, Inc. Price and Consensus Facebook, Inc. Price and Consensus Facebook, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Facebook, Inc. Quote Regulatory Scrutiny to Boost User Confidence Facebooks Libra is expected to hurt the revenue model of banks and financial institutions worldwide. Libras low-fee transaction is most likely to encourage consumers to hold and use the digital currency. Facebook is also expected to use Libra to penetrate the underbanked population in regions like South-East Asia, East Africa and Latin America. This will further limit opportunities for banks in the long haul. Although regulation and scrutiny can act as hurdles, we believe intense scrutiny will improve consumer confidence in Libra. Facebooks initiative can be a game changer. Even if a fraction of the companys user base of 2.5 billion adopts the cryptocurrency, it will boost Libras credibility to a massive extent when compared with digital currencies like bitcoin. Furthermore, use of currency-pegged stablecoin is expected to provide faster, cheaper and more inclusive payment services, in line with Facebooks strategy. Libras low transaction fee is likely to attract consumers. Libra Association Adds New Members in 2020 Per a recent Techcrunch report, $28 million-funded crypto startup Tagomi will be the newest member of the Libra Association, following Shopify, which joined last month after PayPal, eBay, Visa, Stripe and other high-profile partners ditched the association governing Facebook-backed Libra stablecoin last year. Like Shopify, Tagomi will become a validator node operator, gain one vote on the Libra Association council and earn dividends from interest earned on the Libra reserve in proportion to its investment, which is $10 million at a minimum. Libra Faces Potential Competition Ahead of 2020 Launch A potential competitor to Libra in developing countries could be Chinas yuan-backed Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which can operate through the likes of Tencents TCEHY WeChat, Alibabas BABA AliPay and UnionPay. Reportedly, the Peoples Bank of China is viewing Tencent and Alibaba as prospective issuers of digital yuan, Chinas first cryptocurrency. This would give them first-mover advantage when the cryptocurrency finally hits the market. However, the expected launch of Libra and Walmarts WMT Stable Coin could pose a threat to WeChat Pay as it expands outside China. Further, other central banks, including the European Central Bank, South Koreas Bank of Korea and the Reserve Bank of India, are also reportedly looking into the potential of state-backed stable cryptocurrencies, which increases Libras prospects. Zacks Rank Currently, Facebook carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Tencent Holding Ltd. (TCEHY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research An ambitious project to build a potash mine in the North York Moors has been saved from collapse despite a backlash from furious shareholders. Sirius Minerals investors voted in favour of a 405million rescue takeover put forward by FTSE 100 mining giant Anglo American. Just over 80 per cent of votes were cast in favour and nearly 20 per cent against. That meant the result was close as Anglo needed to secure the support of 75 per cent of votes for it to pass. Sirius Minerals investors voted in favour of a 405m rescue takeover put forward by FTSE 100 mining giant Anglo American saving the North York Moors national park potash mine project It was expected to be a close call after angry retail investors pledged to vote it down because they felt it undervalued the company. Anglo offered 5.5p per share to buy Sirius, which is much less than many private shareholders will have paid for their stock. Sirius had an estimated 85,000 private investors who held around 50 per cent of its shares. This is a much higher proportion than for most companies. The voter turnout was around 43 per cent which is higher than the roughly one-third who tend to vote at Sirius meetings. Sirius bosses insisted it would run out of money and collapse within weeks if Anglo's offer wasn't voted through. It has spent years developing a huge mine in the North York Moors national park, near Whitby, to access a naturally occurring fertiliser called polyhalite. Compromise: Sirius chief exec Chris Fraser Chairman Russell Scrimshaw said: 'The positive outcome from today's meeting secures a return for shareholders, and provides greater certainty in terms of safeguarding the project, protecting the jobs of our employees, and allowing the community, region and the UK to continue to benefit from the project.' Sirius has estimated that its sprawling Woodsmith Mine would generate 100billion for the UK economy over the next 50 years. The result of the vote, which was released late last night, came after a meeting in London where angry shareholders grilled bosses about the deal and why the company has ended up on the brink of collapse. Sirius installed extra security guards at the meeting in the City after what Scrimshaw described as online 'abuse' and 'threats of violence' against management. Sirius was trading at 24p a share last April and peaked at around 44p in August 2016. But the shares collapsed last September after it failed to raise 400million that would have given it access to more cash needed to complete the mine, after the Government declined to commit to guaranteeing funding. Shareholders rallied together to urge the company to either get a better offer from Anglo or find an alternative deal that would have seen it stay on the stock market. Cliff Weight, a director at investor body ShareSoc who oversaw a Sirius Shareholder Group, said: 'Many individual shareholders will be thankful that they get 5.5p which was the only offer on the table. 'The 20 per cent backlash is very high and reflects the enormous dissatisfaction of many individuals who financed this project in its early stages and, very sadly, have now lost significant sums.' Major institutional shareholder Jupiter Asset Management urged the company to seek a better offer, and hedge fund Odey Asset Management last week said it would vote against the deal. Chief executive Chris Fraser yesterday said: 'This is not a great price, but it is the price, and the alternative is most likely administration.' Ten months after the company went into liquidation, unions say a new buyer will save steel production in the UK. Trade unions have welcomed news of the sale of British Steel to a Chinese firm, saying members will be feeling a sense of relief after months of uncertainty. Business Secretary Alok Sharma described the deal with Jingye as a significant milestone in securing the future of the major employer. Work continues towards completing the sale, which will give certainty to British Steels dedicated and talented workforce in Scunthorpe, Skinningrove and on Teesside, he said. The Unite union said the deal would preserve steel production at its headquarters in Scunthorpe. Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner said, Unites members at British Steel will be feeling a sense of relief today that the deal has finally been confirmed. The lives of the affected workers and their families have effectively been on hold for 10 months since the company went into compulsory liquidation. Some hard decisions have had to be made in order to ensure the deal went through. Jingyes offer was the only one which guaranteed the continuing operation of the blast furnace which was essential to the companys long-term future. Turner called on the government to protect the UKs steel industry so it can compete in the world market. He also called for procurement rules to be brought in to make sure steel produced in the UK is used in major domestic projects such as HS2, Royal Navy ships, hospitals and railways. Network Rail said the deal is likely to secure thousands of jobs in a key industry. A spokesman said: British Steel is a major supplier to Network Rail and we have given extensive support to the company and the Official Receiver throughout this process. The deal could be finalised within days after almost a years work, Tees Valleys elected mayor Ben Houchen said. He said: This is just the start for the return of steel on Teesside. We have the building blocks in place and were making great progress as an area. We cannot afford to go back to square one when were securing the investment that is creating the jobs local people need and deserve. She was an impoverished Jewish immigrant from Russia who had started working in a cigar factory at the age of 11; he was the scion of an old-money Episcopalian family who enjoyed a mansion on Madison Avenue and a weekend house with a bowling alley. When Rose Pastor married James Graham Phelps Stokes on the shores of Connecticut in 1905, the couple insisted on omitting the word obey from the ceremony. They became active members in the Socialist Party, lending their support to a labor movement under siege during a time of widening inequality. Roses socialist commitments were seamlessly aligned with her life experience; Grahams were more surprising, but he took to them with the ardor of a convert. Writing to his darling Mother, who like many women of her station put a lot of stock in her own charitable deeds, he asked whether she recognized the injustice of the system which provides you with your great income at the expense of others; and whether you recognized the relation between this system and the terribly widespread suffering which you endeavor so earnestly to relieve. Image Credit... Sonny Figueroa/The New York Times In Rebel Cinderella, Adam Hochschild writes movingly about an unlikely pair who also served as a potent symbol. The public was so fascinated by the couple that some Americans kept scrapbooks documenting Roses fairy-tale ascent. For several years, she was mentioned in the press more than any other American woman. Hochschild notes that as the Gilded Age yielded to the Progressive Era, Rose and Graham seemed like the ideal embodiment of socialist ambitions: What could better symbolize the hope of human brotherhood than such a marriage of rich and poor, native-born and immigrant, Gentile and Jew? Those of you who read what I write know what I have written about the political conundrum in Malaysia these last many months. You know I have written not... 4 months ago Just over five years ago, on February 26, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission took a historic vote to put rules enforcing net neutralitythe guarantee that even commercial internet providers must treat all data traffic equallyinto place at the federal level. But it took just three years and one election for the now-Republican dominated FCC to repeal the Obama-era rules. Now, with a flurry of sometimes bizarre developments since the net neutrality anniversary last week, chaos appears to reign in the battle over the open internet. In perhaps the strangest development, the Donald Trump administration issued a report claiming that, somehow, killing off net neutrality rules has been an economic bonanza, boosting real incomes by more that $50 billion per year, according to an Ars Technica summary. The White House report claims that by lifting vertical pricing restrictions and government oversight on communication services, the net neutrality repeal has somehow resulted in lower prices for internet consumers, a conclusion scoffed at by experts quoted in the Ars Technica report. "One of the fun things about how folks use pseudo-economics in public policy is that you can use it to justify all kinds of price gouging and other consumer harms, Harold Feld, a broadband industry expert and senior vice president of the of consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge, told Ars Technica. "Somehow, despite the fact that everyone paying for broadband can tell you their bill keeps going up, we are supposed to believe that when you look at the bill the right way you are actually paying less." Thomas Regrets Opinion Allowing Repeal At the same time, even one top conservative, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, said last week that he is now having second thoughts about the decision that allowed the repeal of net neutralitya decision he wrote 15 years ago, according to a TechDirt report. In a decision in the case National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Servicesor Brand X for shortthe majority decision allowed the FCC to classify online services as either information or telecommunications, switching back and forth as it saw fit. The Obama-era net neutrality rules took advantage of Brand X, switching the classification to telecommunications. That classification allowed heavier government regulationpermitting the FCC to impose net neutrality rules. But in 2018, under Trump-appointed Chair Ajit Pai, the FCC switched back, causing the rules to be ditched. In an opinion issued Monday, Thomas wrote that his earlier view was wronghis own Brand X decision gave federal agencies too much power to interpret federal laws, and appears to be inconsistent with the Constitution. But Thomass opinion came in a dissent, in a case involving the Internal Revenue Service, and as a result, has no effect on net neutrality decisions in the future. But it indicates that given a chance to overturn his previous rulingthe ruling that allowed net neutrality rules to be both enacted and, three years later, repealedhe would vote to reverse. FCC Suppressing Public Net Neutrality Comments So far, the Supreme Court has not heard any cases challenging the FCCs net neutrality repeal. But SCOTUS appears likely to at least be presented with a lawsuit by Mozilla, in which a Washington, D.C., appellate court upheld the repealbut ordered the FCC to answer several questions about the effect of its so-called Restoring Internet Freedom Order. The FCC was then forced to open up the public comment section of its website, and the net neutrality area of the site quickly became the busiest with 3,000 new commentsmost of them simply demanding that the FCC restore the net neutrality rules. But according to a report by The Progressive magazine, Pai set the shortest possible deadline for the public feedback, closing down the comment section on March 30, once again demonstrating that hes not interested in public input, wrote Paul Goodman, of the social justice nonprofit Greenlining Institute. Chairman Pai is thumbing his nose at the principle and thinks he can disregard public input, Goodman said. Wired magazine summarizes net neutrality as the basic principle that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. In other words, Wired wrote, companies shouldn't be able to block you from accessing a service like Skype, or slow down Netflix or Hulu, in order to encourage you to keep your cable package or buy a different video-streaming service. Photo by Camilo Sanchez / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain PORTLAND, Oregon, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Propionic Acid Market by Application (Herbicides, Rubber Products, Plasticizers, Food Preservative and Others) and End-User Industry (Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care, Food & Beverage, Agriculture, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026." According to the report, the global propionic acid industry generated $1.25 billion in 2018, and is estimated to garner $1.6 billion by 2026, witnessing a CAGR of 3.5% from 2019 to 2026. Prime determinants of growth: Significant increase in application in the food & beverage industry as a preservative and packaging of ready-to-eat food along with rise in demand for safe animal feed drive the global propionic acid market. However, adverse side effects on human health and concerns regarding usage of herbicides hinder the market growth. On the other hand, application of propionate esters as solvents and propionic acid as antibiotics provide new opportunities in next few years. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5692 The food preservative segment to dominate during the forecast period: Based on application, the food preservative segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the total share of the global propionic acid market in 2018, and is expected to dominate during the forecast period. This is attributed to preference for ready-to-eat food and demand for propionic acid to reduce spoilage. However, the rubber products segment is expected to maintain the highest CAGR of 5.1% from 2019 to 2026. This is due to surge in usage as intermediate for production of rubber from the automobile industry. The food & beverage segment to contribute its highest share by 2026: Based on end-use industry, the food & beverage segment held the largest share of the global propionic acid market, accounting for more than two-fifths of the total share in 2018, and is expected to contribute its highest share throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to application of propionic acid as a food preservative in breads, cheese, cakes, jams, non-alcoholic beverages, jellies, and other processed foods for preventing development of mold and bacteria. However, the agriculture segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 4.4% from 2019 to 2026. North America to grow the fastest: Based on region, North America is estimated to portray the largest CAGR of 4.0% from 2019 to 2026, owing to the growth of the agriculture sector and increase in demand for poultry products. However, Europe contributed to the highest market share in 2018, holding nearly two-fifths of the global propionic acid market, and is estimated to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2026. This is due to presence of many producers and suppliers of propionic acid and surge in investments in the food industry. For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5692 Leading market players: BASF SE Dow Inc. Eastman Chemical Company Perstorp Holding AB Hawkins, Inc. Corbion N.V. Otto Chemie Pvt. Ltd. Merck KGaA Oman Oil Company SAOC Celanese Corporation Avenue Basic Plan | Library Access | 1 Year Subscription | Sign up for Avenue subscription to access more than 12,000+ company profiles and 2,000+ niche industry market research reports at $699 per month, per seat. For a year, the client needs to purchase minimum 2 seat plan. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter Get more information: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Fluorochemicals Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026 UV Curable Resin Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026 Herbicides Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 2025 Seed Treatment Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): 1-800-792-5285, 1-503-894-6022, 1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allied-market-research SOURCE Allied Market Research CABI scientists, as part of an international team of researchers, have discovered a new biological control in the fight against the highly noxious and invasive weed parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) in Pakistan. As outlined in a new paper published in the journal BioInvasions Records, the scientists report the first record of the rust species Puccinia abrupta var. partheniicola - more commonly known as winter rust - in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provinces. The presence of winter rust marks the second natural enemy, in addition to the leaf-feeding beetle Zygogramma bicolorata Pallister (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), which could help the management of parthenium in Pakistan. According to the CABI Evidence Note 'Parthenium: Impacts and coping strategies in Central West Asia', parthenium is an aggressively-spreading weed, now classed as a 'superior weed', which is extremely prolific and capable of producing up to 30,000 seeds per plant. CABI scientists say parthenium can cause severe allergic reactions in humans and livestock, may harbour malaria-carrying mosquitoes, displace native plant species and reduce pasture carrying capacities by as much as 80% to 90% where in India, for example, the cost of restoring grazing land is around USD 6.7 billion per annum. The evidence note also highlights that parthenium weed can have a significant impact on crop yields - through direct competition as well as by inhibiting germination of seeds - where, for instance, in Ethiopia sorghum grain yield was reduced from 40 to 97 percent. The researchers conducted surveys for winter rust covering 65 sites in 19 districts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The species was recorded at 21 sites in 8 districts. The most severe attack was found in the northern part of Punjab including Lahore, Attock and Narowal districts, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa medium rust infection was recorded only in Manshera district. In other districts rust infection was considered low or absent. Dr Philip Weyl, a co-author on the paper and Research Scientist, Weed Biological Control at CABI, said, "Parthenium weed is considered to be a dominant weed species of natural ecosystems and agriculture in Pakistan and is also highly allergic to humans and toxic to livestock. "Management options in Pakistan are limited and have tended to focus on manual removal and the application of herbicides. However, manual removal of the weed without protective clothing is very risky due to contact dermatitis while large-scale control using herbicides is economically and environmentally unsustainable." The scientists reveal that while winter rust has previously been introduced deliberately to tackle parthenium in Australia in 1991 it has also appeared unintentionally in China, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal, South Africa and Tanzania. They believe the rust could have entered Pakistan via India or Nepal. Lead author Iram M. Iqbal, from the University of the Punjab, said, "While the winter rust may not kill the parthenium it can significantly reduce biomass and seed production, especially when applied at the rosette stage of the weed. "Furthermore, the suppressive effect of the rust was enhanced in the presence of competitive pasture plants and is likely to maintain its effectiveness under elevated CO2 concentrations. We believe that the presence of winter rust in Pakistan will aid the management of parthenium weed." ### Additional information Main photo: scientist examines parthenium weed - credit: Asim Hafeez. Full paper reference Iqbal IM, Ali K, Evans HC, Rehman A, Seier MK, Shabbir A, Weyl P, (2020) The first record of Puccinia abrupta var. partheniicola, on Parthenium hysterophorus an invasive alien plant species in Pakistan. BioInvasions Records 9 (in press). The paper is available as an open access publication in BioInvasions Records, a journal of the International Association for Open Knowledge on Invasive Alien Species (INVASIVESNET), and can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2020.9.1.01. For more information about INVASIVESNET, please visit their website (http://www.invasivesnet.org) or contact their Media and Communications Officer at media@invasivesnet.org. For more information on parthenium see the CABI Evidence Note: 'Parthenium: Impacts and coping strategies in Central West Asia', 2019. Three suspected cases of coronavirus have been reported in Himachal Pradesh so far while 214 people were kept under observation at their homes for 28 days, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur told the state assembly on Wednesday. The CM said while no confirmed coronavirus case has been reported from the state, 181 people from those kept under observation have completed their mandatory surveillance period. The CM told the House that the three suspected coronavirus patients in the state were admitted to two hospital on Tuesday. They had travelled to high-risk countries in the past 14 days and had complained of sore throat and fever. One of them was admitted to an isolation ward in Shimla's Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and the two others have been kept under observation at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College Hospital in Kangra's Tanda. The two patients admitted to the Tanda hospital had travelled to Italy whereas third patient came from South Korea on February 29, he added. The samples of all three patients have been sent to a Delhi laboratory for testing. The CM said the Centre had sent a list of 145 persons for keeping an eye from the coronavirus point of view on February 3. The district health officers kept all of them under surveillance. After this, 67 people, including several foreigners, reported themselves. The two people, who came from Wuhan, were reported by the Centre on February 18 and 22, he added. Earlier in the day, the Opposition Congress walked out of the assembly as an adjournment motion was not allowed to discuss the issue of coronavirus. Speaker Vipin Parmar informed the House before the question hour thatLeader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri had submitted a notice under Rule 67 to discuss the coronavirus issue but Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has decided to give a statement on it. As soon as he told the CM to give his statement, the Congress legislators opposed it. Agnihotri said the state government is not prepared to deal with the situation emerging out of the coronavirus outbreak. "It is a serious matter and it needs to be discussed on a priority," he added. The Congress MLAs were adamant on their demand for a discussion through an adjournment motion and said they should be allowed to speak first as they had given the notice. The House witnessed heated arguments. Later, raising slogans against the government, the opposition staged a walkout. At this, the CM condemned the walkout and said the opposition party tries to politicise every issue. The Congress members don't understand the seriousness and sensitivity of the issue, he added. "The test reports for suspected Coronavirus patients have not been received yet and the Congress is acting as if there is an outbreak of coronavirus in the state," he said. The Congress is expected to support the government on this issue but it is not doing so, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) High profile human rights barrister Julian Burnside will launch a bid on Thursday to replace Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale as one of the partys senators for Victoria. But the veteran lawyer is up against stiff competition for the prized seat in the Federal Parliaments upper house, with two former state MPs among a field of at least six senior Greens also expected to nominate when the contest officially opens today. Julian Burnside (left) has put his hand up to replace Greens leader Richard Di Natale (right) in the senate. Credit:JAMES ROSS /AAP Lidia Thorpe, the first indigenous woman to sit in the Victorian Parliament representing the Greens heartland of Northcote in Melbournes inner north, could be tough to beat and her former State Parliament colleague Huong Truong also looks set to mount a strong challenge. There has been a surge in the number of criminal suspects surrendered to Ireland from Britain under an EU-wide warrant system that the UK is leaving at the end of December. The Department of Justice said even if an alternative system to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is agreed, the new extradition process would be more cumbersome. Publishing its 2018 report on the EAW, the department said the departure of Britain from the EU has considerable consequences and that having a functioning extradition system in place is the key priority. The 2018 report shows: Some 69 warrants were transmitted to Britain in 2018, compared to 60 in 2017 and 57 in 2016, an increase of 21% over the three years; The 69 warrants accounted for 65% of all warrants issued by Ireland to EU countries; Some 49 people were surrendered from Britain to Ireland in 2018, compared to 35 in 2017 and 30 in 2016, a jump of 63%; The 49 cases accounted for 79% of surrenders from EU countries to Ireland. The report also shows the that the UK continues to be the biggest source of warrants sent to Ireland. Of the 398 cases received in 2018, 260 came from the UK, 65% of all such requests. This is up from 207 cases from Britain in 2017. The report warns that there has been a notable increase in EAWs from Britain since 2017 after the country began participating in the EUs Schengen Information System II an initiative for security and border management in Europe. As a result, Britain is sending EAWs to all EU states, including countries, like Ireland, who are not part of the Schengen system. The figure is therefore not reflective of the actual number of persons of interest to the UK that are resident in Ireland but rather those thought by the UK to be resident across the EU in general, it said. Figures for the number of people surrendered by Ireland to Britain stood at 71 in 2018, compared to 73 in 2017 and 82 in 2016. The report said considerable planning and preparation by department officials has gone into the implications resulting from Britains departure from the EU. In relation to replacing the EAW, it said Britain has said it is interested in negotiating a system based on the EU agreement with Norway and Iceland, which, it said, provides for similar arrangements. If this was agreed there would be very little change in the arrangements between the UK and Ireland, the report said. It noted there is also a 1957 Council of Europe Convention on Extradition which will allow for extradition with the UK and that the Brexit Omnibus Act 2019 will enable its immediate application. It said: While extradition under this process will be more cumbersome than existing arrangements, it will ensure that there is a workable system in place. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:16:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that if the U.S. really wants to help Iran fight novel coronavirus, it should lift the sanctions, including a ban on importing medical supplies. Rouhani rejected as a "lie" the U.S. offer of help for Iran in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. "Our people know well that you (the U.S. officials) are lying, that you are not telling the truth," Rouhani said at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Washington was willing to help the Iranians with the novel coronavirus problem. "All they have to do is ask," he said. Washington has been taking the most "sinister" of actions against the Iranians over the past two years by reimposing sanctions on their supplies of food and medicines and is now hiding behind "a mask of sympathy" claiming that it seeks to assist the Iranian nation, said Rouhani. "If you are really telling the truth, you should at least lift your sanctions on medicines. This would be the first step. And say that you have done wrong to the Iranian nation so far and offer an apology," Rouhani added. Iran announced the first cases of COVID-19 in the central city of Qom on Feb. 19. The Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education said Wednesday that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Iran has infected 2,922 people across the country, 92 of whom have died. A total of 552 people have recovered and left hospital, the ministry said in a statement. Cartoonist Noah Van Sciver has created three graphic novels about Fante Bukowski, a fictional writer whose comical delusions of literary greatness are matched only by his lack of talent for anything but drinking. Apparently, three books werent enough. This month, Van Sciver and Fantagraphics have teamed up to publish The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski, a hardcover compilation edition that includes the three previous works along with a cache of bonus new material. This new book is an authoritative, albeit tongue-in-check, account of the life, works, and dubious character of the fictional Bukowski. The new volume includes Fante Bukowski (2015), Fante Bukowski Two (2017), and Fante Bukowski Three: A Perfect Failure (2018), all published by Fantagraphics. Theres also a cheeky, passive aggressive foreword by novelist Ryan Boudinot, and a section of visual tributes to the character by cartoonists Box Brown, Nina Bunjevac, Ed Piskor, Leslie Stein, Simon Hanselmann, and others. Created in deference to the characters self-proclaimed literary geniusborn Kelly Perkins, he renamed himself for legendary tough-guy writers John Fante and Charles Bukowskithe new volume is tricked out to look like an iconic Library of America hardcover edition. The parody volume features LoAs distinctive black cover jacket, the famous type font and red/white/blue ribbon marker (running vertically down the cover rather than horizontal), as well as the aforementioned mock appreciation by Boudinot. PW talked with the Ignatz award-winning Van Sciver about the many qualities of Fante Bukowski. PW: Youve written three books about Fante Bukowski, a delusional, arrogant, and slovenly character. Do you find something admirable in his belief in his own greatness? NVS: Im always interested in people who are obsessed with one thing, like people who become obsessed with comics history. I think its admirable to dedicate your life to this role. But now I have to think about it. Is he admirable? Hes dedicated to being a drunken writer [laughing]. I dont know if thats admirable, though. Do you think deep down he may actually be a good writer? He doesnt have an interest in it. He doesnt have an interest in learning the craft. He has an interest in being a writer and just having that title. He has an interest in being an alcoholic. He thinks that seems really cool. He would never go to a writing workshop or anything like that. Because in his mind he doesnt need that. Hes already a great writer and hes not going to work on that. So hes more alcoholic than writer? Actually, no. He doesnt have the disease of alcoholism. I just think he thinks theres something cool about being downtrodden. But hes not. Hes someone who drinks and likes the typewriter. You use his megalomania as a comic foil. But can writers actually relate to his poverty and desperate need to be published? Sure. But I wasnt really trying to make a character that writers would relate to but a character that writers would run into. Like this was somebody that I knew in Denver, Colorado, this self-obsessed writer, the person whos like Im a genius. Absolutely. I mean, I have [met people like him] in real life. But they wouldnt see themselves as that. The books also lampoon the publishing industry via the character of the literary agent Ralph Bigsburgh. Does this reflect your publishing experiences? Yeah. A lot of that came from me. When I was in my twenties, I was a big self-promoter and it felt like I wasn't getting a fair share of attenion, I wasnt getting the attention I wanted. So, in self-defense I had an attitude of, They cant handle what Im doing, its too raw for people. That agent reflected how I felt people were dismissing me in my twenties. It was all about self-preservation. But if I hadnt had that dumb ego at that age, the kind of ego that blinded me to how bad my work was, I would have stopped doing comics and done something else. I needed that. It was almost like beer goggles for seeing the world. A lot of Fante comes from my own self-delusion. An artists self-delusion can be a form of armor that helps them survive the rejections. It must be especially tough as a graphic novelist. As a graphic novelist, its like, anybody can do it but the hard part is spending 10 years creating really bad work until you get to something that is passable. I had to build up that armor where it was like everybody was against me just to get through those years where I wasnt producing anything valuable or interesting. At first glance the new book looks like a Library of America edition. Would Fante approve of being a part of that list? Fante always felt like he deserved to be in it. But if he was actually given that kind of prestige, he might find some way to sabotage it. Youve said this will be the last of the Fante Bukowski books. Is that part of your creative career in the past? I think thats fair. I dont have the drive or desire to focus on that kind of character anymore. Im done analyzing that part of my life. The Croatian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the green light for Brodosplit Shipyard to start building the four remaining Omis-class inshore patrol craft (IPCs) for the countrys coastguard. The Croatian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the green light for Brodosplit Shipyard to start building the four remaining Omis-class inshore patrol craft (IPCs) for the countrys coastguard. Omis-class coastal patrol vessel (Picture source: Brodosplit) The Croatian defense ministry has signed a contract with shipbuilder Brodosplit for the delivery of an additional four Omis-class coastal patrol vessels to the Croatian Navy. The contract signing on February 17 followed the delivery of the lead boat in the class on December 7, 2018, after several years of delay. The newly-ordered boats are to be delivered between 2021 and 2023. The 43.5 m longship is equipped with a remote-controlled weapon station with an automatic 30mm cannon and two 12.7 m 4 hand-held machine guns and 4 portable anti-aircraft missile systems. The capacity of the ship is 17 people with a 10-day navigation autonomy. 28 knots are guaranteed by the main marine engines of 2 x 2525 kW or 2 x 3386 horsepower. It is also equipped with a stern ramp and a rigid hull for 6 crew members with a propulsion diesel engine that allows speeds up to 40 knots and 60 NM navigation autonomy. Omis-class vessels are designed for patrol, search and rescue, and EEZ protection missions. By expanding the airworthiness Croatian Navy will be able to participate in international search and rescue operations at sea. Telangana Health Minister E Rajender on Wednesday said there are no fresh coronavirus cases in the state and only one has been confirmed while samples of two people have been sent to a laboratory at Pune for confirmation. The samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune for further confirmation as their test results were on the "borderline" when tested in Hyderabad, a senior health official said. Speaking to reporters, the minister said: "Report of two people will come by tomorrow.It is only one patient (so far)...one case of coronavirus (in Telangana). There are no fresh cases," Rajender told reporters here. A 24-year-old techie from the city, who works in Bengaluru, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and he is undergoing treatment in an isolation ward at the state-run Gandhi hospital here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-04 00:31:25 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 608 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / March 3, 2020 / Prospera Energy Inc. (TSXV:PEI)(FRA:OF6A) ("Prospera" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Patrick Edward Simpson as a director of Prospera and member of the Corporation's audit committee with immediate effect. Mr. Simpson has over 15 years experience in corporate finance, working as an investment advisor with multiple financial institutions in Canada throughout his career.About ProsperaProspera Energy Inc. is a Canadian natural resource Corporation engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and gas properties with operations in Alberta and western Saskatchewan.For further information:Sarshar AhmadInterim Chief Executive Officer & DirectorEmail: sahmad@ prosperaenergy.com Tel: (403) 454-9010Website: www.prosperaenergy.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future operations of the Corporation and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Corporation, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.Although Prospera believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Prospera can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward- looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks), commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations and uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures.The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Prospera. As a result, Prospera cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Prospera does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward- looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law.Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.SOURCE: Prospera Energy Inc. The CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information makes a significant progress in nanomechanical resonators. A group led by Prof. GUO Guo-Ping, SONG Xiang-Xiang, DENG Guang-Wei (now at UESTC) in collaboration with Prof. TIAN Lin from University of California, Merced, and Origin Quantum Company Limited realized coherent phonon manipulations within spatially separated mechanical resonators. The research results were published online on March, 2nd, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. With the rapid development of nanotechnology, devices like surface acoustic wave resonators and nanomechanical resonators are found to be suitable for generation, storage, and manipulation of few or even single phonon, which can be further applied in both classical and quantum information process. The realization of the various applications requires coherent manipulation between different phonon modes. Coherent manipulations within neighbouring phonon modes have been reported previously, while controllable coherent information transfer between spatially separated phonon modes, remains technically challenging. Focusing on this goal, the researchers designed a novel device based on their previous achievements (Nano Lett.16, 5456 (2016)?Nano Lett.17, 915 (2017); Nat. Commun. 9, 383 (2018)). Taking advantages of the extraordinary electronic and mechanical properties of graphene, they realized tunable strong coupling between non-neighbouring phonon modes, mediated by the center phonon mode. By improving sample structure design and measurement technique, the coupling strengths and quality factors are enhanced by one and two orders of magnitude, respectively, comparing to their previous work. The cooperativity reaches 107, which is several orders of magnitude higher than other works. With combined properties of high tunablitiy, large coupling strength, and excellent coherence, the researchers demonstrated electrically tunable Rabi oscillations and Ramsey interferences between non-neighbouring phonon modes in this system. This work is the first experimental realization of tunable coherent phonon dynamics between non-neighbouring phonon modes. It shows new possibilities towards information storage and processing using phonon modes in nanomechanical resonators, and hybrid devices based on nano-phononics. Reviewers highly evaluated this work: "These results clearly go beyond what has been achieved thus far on the coherent manipulation of resonators in the classical regime." Taking advantages of the cooling technologies, this work also shed lights on coherent manipulations of phonons in the quantum regime and development of phonon-based novel quantum devices. ### Dr. ZHANG Zhuo-Zhi, Dr. SONG Xiang-Xiang, and Dr. LUO Gang are equally-contributed first authors. This work in China is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies. Part of the sample fabrication is performed at the USTC center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication. Union Minister for Health Dr Harsh Vardhan said Wednesday that henceforth, all passengers whether Indian or foreign arriving on international flights will be required to go through medical screening while entering India. This is a big departure from the screening process that was followed as of Tuesday when passengers arriving from 12 select countries were being screened at the airports across India. Speaking to reporters after a high-level meeting in the concerned officials, Dr Harsh Vardhan further stated that 5.89 lakh people have been screened at several airports so far where around 20 lakh have been screened at borders with Nepal and over 27,000 under community surveillance presently. Also Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Modi, Shah, Kejriwal say no to 'Holi' as COVID-19 cases spike to 28 in India Urging people not to panic, the health minister said that everyone must follow basic hygiene and those with flu-like symptoms should consult a doctor. He added that there are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far. These 28 confirmed cases comprise three patients from Kerala who were discharged after recovery last month. Meanwhile, the rest 25 cases were reported this week. These cases comprise: A 45-year-old Delhi resident who had returned from Europe recently. A 24-year-old techie from Bengaluru who travelled to Hyderabad from the city after landing from Dubai. Six people from Agra who caught the infection after coming in contact with the Delhi-based patient. A group of 16 Italian tourists who visited Rajasthan and Agra. One Indian driver who escorted the Italian tourists. All of these people who tested positive for coronavirus are currently placed in the isolation wards at several hospitals and quarantine facilities across the country. The health minister enunciated that the government is in the process of tracking people who came in contact with those infected by coronavirus. Also Read: Coronavirus: Passengers from more countries to be screened at Indian airports Also Read: Coronavirus update: Who can enter India, who cannot? Alabama pastor who shot wife, then turned gun on himself, struggled with mental illness, family says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Alabama pastor who fatally shot himself after shooting his estranged wife at a local church struggled desperately with mental illness, his sister claimed. On Sunday, Unice Woodard, owner of Alabamas famous Big White Wings and twin sister of the late Elder Ulysses Woodard, who led the True Word of Deliverance Church of God in Prichard, revealed in a statement on Facebook that her brother had been struggling with mental illness for a while and had reached out to his pastoral community for help but none came. To set everyone straight, my brother was a True Mighty Man of God. He gave and did so much for other people but when he needed help where were yall? He begged for his pastor friends or so called Christian friends for help before it came to the point of him taking his own life. There so many stories, lies and rumors going around about him, she wrote. Since yall know so much then why didnt yall know Buck was suffering from Mental Illness, Depression, Pain all day every day and the separation from his wife!!! But yall want to say well if he was a pastor then why did he take his own life. You BASTARDS wouldve last a day in his shoes, she said. Last Wednesday, Pastor Derek Scott Gandy and his wife Kula of True Cornerstone Church in Mobile, Alabama, recounted to The Christian Post how his friend, Ulysses Woodard, shot his wife, Prophetess Alisha Woodard, after a womens conference outside their church on Feb. 21. Pastor Gandy told CP that what happened on Feb. 21, he never saw coming. Elder Woodard, he said, wasnt a monster. I didnt see this coming. I didnt see this coming. He wasnt a monster, at least not that Ive ever seen, he said. He noted that his friend had vented to him about things in his relationship that he thought could have been helped with counseling but saw nothing that would lead to this that his friend would shoot his wife in the chest while standing right next to him. Unice Woodard accused Pastor Gandy and his wife who witnessed the tragedy unfold along with their three young daughters, of trying to profit from the tragedy and blamed them for not doing more to prevent the attempted murder-suicide from happening at their church. For the pastor and his wife that spoke out from Cornerstone Church. Yall will burn in HELL trying to get a monetary come up off this sad encounter. I hold yall responsible because yall shouldve been prayed up and your grounds shouldve ran them damn Demonic Spirits away, Unice Woodard said. While she was not at the scene of the crime when it unfolded, she also claimed that the reason her brother took his life was because he thought he killed his wife after his gun accidentally went off. He was trying to take her to get help but no one bothered to mention that. He couldnt bear the fact that he thought he killed his wife and then he took his own life. So what yall need to do is STFU talking bout my brother. I have been quiet for too long and I will no longer sit back and watch social media SLANDER my brothers name. I AM MY BROTHERS KEEPER!!!! she said. The Mobile Police Department said in a statement that at approximately 11:23 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, they responded to True Cornerstone Church on Halls Mill Road after receiving a report about a person being shot. When they got there, they saw a woman, later identified as Alisha Woodard, on the ground. She had been shot. The suspect, later identified as Ulysses Woodard, reportedly fled the scene as police arrived. He was pursued by authorities and subsequently returned to the church. As officers approached his vehicle, however, he shot himself. His car then crashed into the church. He was pronounced dead at the scene while his wife was taken to a local hospital, where she is recovering. Unice Woodard did not immediately respond to requests from CP for further comment Monday. When asked to comment further, Kula Gandy noted: "The only thing that I can testify of is what happened Friday night on our church grounds." In his sermon on Sunday, Pastor Derek Gandy responded to critics accusing him of trying to profit from the tragedy. This is a tragedy You know whats really peculiar about that and people expressing condemnation of our church and yalls pastor, those same people never reached out and say How are your children? We had our three daughters here. Our sons had left, Pastor Gandy explained. Our three daughters were here and they have not enquired about the well-being of our daughters who visually witnessed what was going on, he said. Youre mad because were rebuilding the wall? Youre the devil, he said further in addressing his critics. Thats the spirit of anti-Christ. Youd rather that the work of God stop for you to get in your feelings? But you have no concern for them who are still alive and whats happening with them. That was personal in this regard. Our daughters witnessed what happened. He noted that he and his wife did not pray to God asking for the tragedy to happen. It just happened, he said. I was here. I know what I heard, I saw, he said. While noting this part of his message was not connected in any way to the Woodards' relationship, Pastor Gandy also called on pastors in his sermon to stop abusing their wives. I do know that we have pastors who are abusive toward their wives. I know that. There are preachers, pastors, stand behind the pulpit after you cut the church up then you want to go home and beat on your wife. We ought not to beat on our wives, he said. Brussels (Peoples Daily) A French painter named Corine Lescop sent her best wishes to the Chinese people by writing the Chinese character for "spring". The artist who lives in Brussels, Belgium is fond of the Chinese language and writing. Calligraphy has become a source of inspiration that seeps through her own creations. Lescop now does exhibits in France and Belgium, and exposes calligraphy to a public unfamiliar with this form of expression. Lescop developed a taste for contemporary Chinese art. Her work has been influenced by Chinese figurative paintings, and she also sometimes adds ideograms purely for aesthetics. In her landscapes, poetic references give life to sceneries. During an exhibit in Paris at the Impression gallery in 2004, Lescop met Chinese artists who, seduced by her work, gave her a unique opportunity: to exhibit in Beijing on the occasion of the French-Chinese year of 2005 in the National Archives of the Forbidden City. Later, she had the privilege of being featured at the Central Institute of Fine Arts of Beijing and other art institutes throughout China. Her notoriety grows year after year in Chinese artistic circles, where her rare qualities as a calligrapher do not go unnoticed by the current actors of the discipline. A MOTHER-of-three accused of murdering a man in a knife attack has had her case adjourned after a judge was told she was too unwell to attend court. Christina Anderson (38) is charged with murdering father-of-seven Garreth Kelly (39), who died after he was stabbed in a housing estate in west Dublin last week. Mr Kelly had been trying to start his car to go to work when he sustained fatal wounds and died on the street. Ms Anderson was remanded in custody in her absence today by Judge Colin Daly at Dublin District Court. The accused, with an address at Brownsbarn Wood, Kingswood is charged with murdering Mr Kelly on February 25 last. Today was her second court date on the charge. Expand Close Garreth Kelly / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garreth Kelly Defence solicitor Michael Kelleher told Judge Daly he appeared for Ms Anderson, who was in custody and not present in court. "There is a note to say she is unwell, judge," he said. Detective Sergeant Dara Kenny told the court the investigation file was in preparation at the moment, and he asked for a further two-week adjournment. Mr Kelleher said that on the last date, the court had ordered reports and asked if it could be clarified whether this was a psychiatric or psychological report. Judge Daly said the order was for the accused to be medically and psychiatrically assessed and a separate psychiatric report for the court. He remanded the accused in her absence to appear in court again on March 18. When the accused first appeared in court last week, Det Sgt Kenny said Ms Anderson made no reply when charged and was handed a copy of the charge sheet. Ms Anderson sat with her head bowed throughout last week's brief hearing, in which she was flanked six prison officers. Her husband had been present on the last date and had listened to the proceedings from the back of the court. Mr Kelly, originally from Tallaght but who had been living in Clondalkin, was believed to have been staying over with his partner at another house in the Brownsbarn estate at the time of the incident. His car would not start when he came out to go to work at 7am and he was working on the engine when he sustained stab wounds. His body was removed to Dublin City Morgue for post-mortem examination. His Skoda was examined at the scene before it was removed for further investigations. Mr Kelly's funeral will take place this Friday. Two powerful tornadoes with winds up to 175 mph unleashed much of the destruction that left at least 24 people dead this week in central Tennessee. An EF-4 tornado hit Putnam County, and an EF-3 tornado slammed Davidson and Wilson counties before dawn Tuesday, the National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday. Twenty-four people were killed and hundreds of buildings were destroyed when the tornadoes tore through the state. Although some people were reported missing in Putnam County after the storms, all were accounted for Thursday morning, county spokeswoman Molly Brown said. Survey teams had reported damage in East Nashville, Donelson and in Mt. Juliet, about 20 miles east of Nashville, as well as extensive damage in the Putnam County city of Cookeville, but the weather service had not finalized its assessment. Prison where 'The Green Mile' filmed damaged When Meg Selby and her fiance emerged from their storm cellar, they found their first home, in Donelson, mostly destroyed. Most of the roof had been ripped off, the windows were blown out and their belongings had been tossed everywhere. 'It kind of just feels like it's all been taken from you,' Selby said. 'To not really have anything to show for it now is hard, and I, retrospectively, wish I had more pictures.' A day after the state's deadliest tornado day in seven years, the couple and hundreds of people across the state were assessing the damage. Selby and her fiance, Mac Warren, were sleeping when the storm alarms on their phones awoke them early Tuesday. They heard tornado sirens outside, so they corralled their dogs and headed to their storm cellar. The couple, whose wedding is set for March 28 and who had just bought their home in September, thought the storm would pass, but the local meteorologist warned the twister was headed their way. 'Listening to her talk about the path ... the tornado was on, it went from being kind of a precautionary thing to living through something very catastrophic,' Selby told CNN. Added Warren, 'It got quiet, and you could hear this sort of slow roar, and it just got gradually louder and louder.' The house started shaking, he said. The temperature dropped. The pressure intensified and his ears popped, he said. 'It was terrifying,' he said. Their wedding venue seems OK, Warren said, so the nuptials will go on as planned, but the couple say they are canceling their honeymoon to Hawaii to focus on making sure they have somewhere to live. Volunteers inspire Titans to donate $1 million Scores of people have come together to help those who lost their homes in the storms. Alex Vaughan said strangers have been picking up debris and helping her family go through the rubble of her East Nashville home. 'I don't think anyone told them to do that. I don't know any of them,' Vaughan told CNN. 'They just showed up and cleaned our greenhouse for us.' Vaughan's home and her flower shop were destroyed when the aluminum roof from a restaurant across the street landed on her home. They hid in the basement seconds before the tornado tore her home. 'I don't think we would have, not all of us, would have survived if we were upstairs,' she said. Inspired by the actions of many residents, the Tennessee Titans announced Wednesday it will donate $1 million to non-profit groups assisting those impacted by the storms. 'We are so encouraged about the amount of charity people have shown in the aftermath of Monday night's tragedy,' Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement. 'As leaders in the community, we want to lend our help to this cause of healing and rebuilding. Together we will help our neighbors through this long and difficult process. We are hopeful that others will join us in supporting this effort any way they can.' The NFL Foundation is donating $250,000 and will 'work with local schools to assess needs for football field repair and equipment replacement,' the Titans announced. In Putnam County, which suffered extensive damage, more than 2,500 volunteers helped clean up debris Wednesday, county officials said. At least 5 children among victims The 18 people who were killed in Putnam County were identified Wednesday as authorities continued searching through destroyed structures for survivors. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said five children younger than 13 were among the victims. The dead range from a child between 2 and 3 years old to a 67-year-old woman, the county said. Tornadoes in the Southeast are getting worse As of Wednesday evening, no additional bodies were found in Putnam, Porter said. Davidson County officials also reported finding no more bodies. Kyndel Morgan, 11, lost a classmate in the storm, she told CNN, and two friends are hospitalized. She woke up about 2 a.m. Tuesday and joined her family in rushing to their basement, the girl said. 'We weren't even in the basement for a few seconds and the lights just started flickering and it started hailing,' she said, speaking amid Cookeville's destruction Wednesday morning. 'I was just scared. I was tired and stuff, so I didn't really know what to do. ... I'm just praying for my friends and stuff, and their safety.' Besides Putnam, there were three deaths in Wilson County, two in Davidson County and one in Benton County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reported. The Davidson County deaths came in East Nashville, where a 36-year-old employee of the Attaboy cocktail bar had just left work with his girlfriend, 33, and they were fatally struck by debris early Tuesday, Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said. Power out for thousands, schools closed In East Nashville, residents had only a six-minute warning to get to safety, according to Davidson County. 'I got the warning, and in less than 10 minutes you could just feel the pressure, my ears were popping we all ran downstairs and just huddled together,' Danielle Theophile told CNN affiliate WSMV. 'It went by so fast.' Tuesday was the deadliest tornado day since May 6, 2013, when a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, according to the weather service. The tornadoes were reported several times along a 145-mile stretch of Middle Tennessee -- from Camden, about 80 miles west of Nashville, to the Cookeville area, about 80 miles east of Music City, the weather service said. More than 38,000 customers were without power Wednesday evening, most of them in Davidson county, TEMA said. Crews were having trouble getting to the affected areas because of downed power lines. Classes and all activities at Metro Nashville Public Schools were canceled Wednesday and the schools will remain closed for the rest of the week, the district said. More than a dozen schools don't have power, the district said. 'Nashvillians have experienced a traumatic event and we know it will take time to heal,' said Adrienne Battle, the school district's interim director. 'Closing the rest of the week will allow time for that healing process, allow our staff and students to volunteer in the community, and give our district a chance to prepare our facilities for normal operation starting on Monday.' One school will require a few days of repairs; another, up to several weeks, the district had said. The Volunteer State Those suffering from the damage aren't doing so alone; strangers and neighbors have come together to help each other out. Want to chip in yourself? 'We're called the Volunteer State, and there's a reason for that -- because Tennesseans have a real spirit of generosity and service to one another,' Lee told reporters. 'As governor, now I get to see it happen for real.' Theophile said both her home and her neighbor's home lost their roofs, and her neighbors, an elderly couple, had their roof collapse on them, she said. She worked to dig them out. Michelle Whitten was sleeping when a friend called her to say that she and her three children were in the tornado's path. She grabbed her children and rushed to a closet, she said. 'As soon as we did that, we hear the wind howling as it's over the house and hear something like a train over us. The house started to shake, and windows shattered. We could hear ... loud boom sounds,' she told CNN. 'I've never been so scared in my life!' In East Nashville, a neighbor came to help board up a large window at a Crye-Leike Realtors office that was blown out. 'That's just how East Nashville is. That's one of the reasons we like selling over here and living over here,' said a broker with the office. The storms fell on Super Tuesday, and many of the polling locations were in the storm's path, which required some precincts to extend voting hours. President Donald Trump will visit Nashville to tour the damage Friday, and the federal government will be assisting in recovery efforts, the White House said. Mumbai, March 4 : The Indian equity indices slumped on Wednesday afternoon with the BSE Sensex trading over 700 points lower, on persistent fears of coronavirus turning into a pandemic, along with increasing confirmed cases in India. There are at least 25 positive cases of COVID-19 in India at present, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed earlier during a press conference here. The rate cut by US Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday failed to enthuse the investor sentiments. The decline in the indices is in line with the subdued global trend. At 1.43 p.m., the BSE Sensex was trading at 37,879, lower by 744.70 points or 1.93 per cent from the previous close of 38,623.70 It had opened at 38,715.72 and has so far touched an intra-day high of 38,791.70 and a low of 37,846.10. The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 11,112.30, lower by 191 points or 1.69 per cent from its previous close. The major losers on the Sensex so far were Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank. On the other hand Sun Pharmaceuticals, Asian Paints, TCS, PowerGrid and Infosys. TDT | Manama Urging people to stay away from rumours, the Kingdoms Health Minister said the authorities concerned are maintaining 100 per cent transparency when it comes to anti-COVID-19 operations. This came as the National Task Force for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) yesterday held a press briefing at the Crown Prince Centre for Training and Medical Research to discuss the latest developments related to the COVID-19. Speaking on the occasion, Faeqa Al Saleh asked the public to seek information from reliable government sources. The Minister of Health hailed the support offered by HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister for all precautionary measures taken against COVID-19, and reserved special praise for the efforts of the National Task Force to Combat Coronavirus, headed by Lt.-Gen Dr Shaikh Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa. The minster noted that Bahrain continues to enhance its precautionary measures, alongside its coordination with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The minister outlined the integrated efforts of the Kingdoms medical personnel, noting their dedication, vigilance and tireless efforts towards combating the virus. Later, Lt Col Dr Manaf Al Qahtani, Infectious Diseases Consultant and Microbiologist at the BDF Hospital and Member of the National Task force for Combating COVID-19, outlined the measures Bahrain has taken amid global outbreak. They include setting up a special operations room, introducing a hotline for inquiries related to Corona infections, intensified passenger screening at Bahrain International Airport and despatch of mobile medical units. Dr Manaf noted that Bahrain will continue its epidemiological monitoring at entry points, and that the National Task Force for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to enhance its work-streams to increase testing, quarantine, isolation and treatment capacities. 1,200 covered The Ministry of Health has announced that the recently introduced mobile testing process has completed collecting samples from 1,200 individuals who returned from Iran before the country announced a Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in February. The samples collected are from individuals who have scheduled medical examination dates either electronically or by calling 444. The ministrys dedicated laboratories have completed testing 600 of the 1,200 samples collected thus far, all of which tested negative for COVID-19, and is working on testing the remaining samples. The Ministry of Healths mobile testing process is also currently working to visit the remaining registered returnees to collect samples. New webpage The Ministry of Health has introduced a new page on its website dedicated to showing up-to-date Coronavirus (COVID-19) information in the Kingdom. The dedicated webpage will provide live statistics on the total number of active cases, and the total number of quarantined cases and their health status. As part of its efforts to ensure citizens and residents have up-to-date health and travel information, the ministrys dedicated webpage will also include links to press releases and live coverage of press conferences translated into English, Urdu and Hindi, in addition to the original Arabic uploaded to YouTube. The webpage is accessible at: https://www.moh. gov.bh/COVID19. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:23:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The total merchandise import to Macao slid by 3.6 percent year-on-year to 8.48 billion patacas (about 1.06 billion U.S. dollars), the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistics service said here on Wednesday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the imports of motor cars and motorcycles, and mobile phones declined by 58.3 percent and 33.3 percent respectively. Meanwhile, those of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products, handbags and wallets expanded by 55.2 percent and 22.3 percent respectively. By place of origin, the merchandise imports from Chinese mainland decreased by 12.8 percent year-on-year to 2.73 billion patacas (about 340.74 million dollars) in January 2020. The imports from the European Union (2.66 billion patacas or 332.00 million dollars) and the Belt and Road countries (1.84 billion patacas or 229.66 million dollars) increased by 9.8 percent and 121.4 percent respectively, while the imports from the Portuguese-speaking countries dropped by 27.3 percent to 69 million patacas (about 9 million dollars). The DSEC reports added that the imports of consumer goods went up by 1.8 percent to 6.28 billion patacas (about 783.82 million dollars), with imports of beauty, cosmetic and skin-care products (788 million patacas or 98 million dollars) and handbags and wallets (549 million patacas or 69 million dollars) rising by 55.2 percent and 22.3 percent respectively. The imports of fuels and lubricants (567 million patacas or 71 million dollars) and mobile phones (445 million patacas or 56 million dollars) declined by 3.9 percent and 33.3 percent respectively, whereas imports of construction materials rose by 9.1 percent to 150 million patacas (about 19 million dollars). On March 3, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Georgia highlighted the importance of promoting human contacts and strengthening ties between societies, and in this regard, signed a Memorandum of Intent. This is what Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan said in response to a question regarding the visa facilitation between Armenia and Georgia. During the official visit of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan to Georgia, an agreement was reached on the visa facilitation between Armenia and Georgia, and this particularly concerns the possibility to travel with ID cards. When will this agreement enter into force? In response to this question, the Spokesperson stated the following: The signing of the Memorandum of Intent lays the foundation for the launch of talks over the conclusion of an international agreement between the two countries. The public will be properly notified in different stages of conclusion and entry into force of the agreement, in accordance with the legislation, this is stated in the response of the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Thank you for reading! To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99. Low-salinity brine injected into crude oil forms nanoscale droplets that help separate oil from rock in reservoirs, according to Rice University engineers. The black ring around the droplets, seen in a cryogenic electron microscope image, is asphaltene. Now there's evidence that oil and water do mix. Sort of. Scientists at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering show that microscopic saltwater droplets emulsify crude oil when each has the right composition. Understanding how they combine is important to enhanced oil recovery. Rice chemical and biological engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal and her colleagues went to great lengths to characterize the three elements most important to oil recovery: rock, water and the crude itself. They confirmed wells are more productive when water with the right salt concentration is carefully matched to both the oil and the rock, carbonate or sandstone formation. If the low-salinity brine can create emulsion droplets in a specific crude, the brine appears to also alter the wettability of the rock. The wettability determines how easily the rock will release oil. Co-lead author Jin Song said the first hints of seawater's effect came from wells in the North Sea. "Oil companies found that when they injected seawater, which has relatively low salinity, oil recovery was surprisingly good," he said. Even with that understanding, he said research has been limited. "Usually in the oil and gas industry, when they're looking into low-salinity water, they tend to focus on the effect of the brine and ignore the effect of the oil," said Song, who earned his Ph.D. at Rice this year and is now a researcher at Shell. "So people haven't been able to find a good indicator or any correlation between the effectiveness of low-salinity water and experimental conditions," he said. "Our work is the first to identify some of the properties of the oil that indicate how effective this technique can be in a specific field. The team tested how injected brine is dispersed and how it affects oils' interfacial tension and electrostatic interactions with rock. "How to characterize wettability accurately is a challenge," Biswal said. "Oftentimes, we assume that reservoir rock underground are under a mixed-wet state, with regions that are oil-wet and regions that are water-wet. "If you can alter your oil-wet sites to water-wet sites, then there's less of a driving force to hold the oil to the mineral surface," she said. "In low-salinity water injection, the brine is able to displace the trapped oil. As you change from oil-wet to water-wet, the oil is released from the mineral surface." The researchers tested two brines, one high-salinity and one with a quarter of the salinity of seawater, on Indiana limestone cores against six crude oils from the Gulf of Mexico, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and a seventh oil with added asphaltene. They found that high-salinity brine clearly inhibited water droplets from emulsifying in crude, unlike the low-salinity samples. To better understand the thermodynamic nature of the emulsion, Rice research scientist Wenhua Guo took cryogenic electron microscope images of about 100 mixtures of oil and water. Because oil is opaque, the samples had to be placed in very thin containers, and then frozen with liquid nitrogen to keep them stable for imaging. "This is the first time anyone has seen these water droplets inside crude oil," Biswal said. "They spontaneously arise inside the crude oil when you expose it to a low-salinity brine." The images revealed droplets varying in size from 70 to just over 700 nanometers. Biswal said chemical surfactants -- aka soap -- are also good at loosening oil in a reservoir, but are prohibitively expensive. "You can change the salt concentration to modify the composition of the brine and get the same effect as in including the detergent," she said. "So it's basically a low-cost technique trying to achieve the same goal as detergent." India's top pharmaceuticals export group said the government's curbs on some drug exports amid the spreading coronavirus outbreak has caused panic in Europe and will "severely impact" businesses in the sector. India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the medicines made from them, in a move seen aimed at tackling possible domestic shortages of medicine during the outbreak. On Wednesday, Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), said that some of the restricted APIs and medicines were widely exported to Europe and the United States. Read also: Explained | Things you need to know about Coronavirus and how to avoid infection "I am getting a huge number of calls from Europe because it is very sizeably dependent on Indian formulations and we control almost 26% of the European formulations in the generic space. So they are panicking," Dua said. India's list of restricted medicines account for 10% of its total pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, as well as Paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where Indian imports accounted for 24% of medicines in 2018, said on Tuesday it was working to determine how the restrictions will affect U.S. supplies. The restrictions could hurt India's image as a pharmacy to the world and would impact shipments which were already lined up for export at warehouses and ports, Pharmexcil argued in a letter to India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which was reviewed by Reuters. The DGFT did not respond to a request for comment. "The exporters not only suffer the monetary losses but also their credibility and reputation in the international market is at stake," said the letter, which urged the government to allow exports of drugs manufactured before the restrictions kicked in. "This would severely impact our members." Dua said there was $10 million worth of drugs currently at Indian ports or close to being ready for export. Pharmexcil counts dozens of pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer Ltd and Abbott among its members. The council falls under the federal commerce ministry. Novartis AG said on Wednesday it was monitoring the changes in Indian export policy and will "adopt measures as the situation evolves", though the company does not anticipate a supply chain disruption as of now. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70% of the APIs for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the coronavirus epidemic drags on. India - which has so far confirmed 28 cases of the coronavirus, including 16 Italians - has urged calm and said there were enough stocks to manufacture formulations for two to three months. Health Minister B Sriramulu appeals to people to not panic as the government and the health department have taken all the precautionary measures. The Karnataka government on Tuesday said it has taken all required precautionary measures to control the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state and requested people not to panic Health Minister B Sriramulu convened a meeting of top officials of his department following information that the man, who tested positive for the virus in Telangana, had travelled from the city A Health Department official said the man, who was working in Bengaluru, had travelled to Secunderabad on the night of 21 February in a private bus "All the passengers (of the bus) and (his) colleagues have been contacted and are under house-quarantine," the official said, adding, passengers who were with him on the flight from Dubai are also being contacted. Also, people who worked with the techie have been asked to work from home. "I appeal to people not to fear or panic. The government, the health and family welfare department and medical education department has taken all precautionary measures," Sriramulu told reporters here "We have taken precautionary measures at ports, airports and also conducting blood, required tests on people and tourists coming from other places," he said According to the minister, till now 39,391 foreign travellers have been screened and blood samples of 245 people collected Tests were conducted on 240 people and their result has come out as negative, he said, adding that report of two more was awaited, and "unofficially we have come to know they are also negative." The condition of the 24-year-old man, who tested positive for the virus, was stable and he was being treated in an isolated ward at the state-run Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, the Telangana government had said on Monday The man, a software engineer who works here, had been to Dubai last month on an official visit, where he is suspected to have contracted the virus The minister said, according to the information received, the IT employee working in Bengaluru had gone to Dubai on February 16. When he was tested on his return at the airport here, the result was negative, the minister said The man then travelled from Bengaluru to Hyderabad by bus after staying here for a couple of days. He had fever thereafter, contacted doctors there and tested positive for the infection, Sriramulu said About 23 people, who travelled with him, and his roommates have been screened and tests are being conducted as precautionary measure, according to sources There were 92 flats in the apartment in which he was staying and tests and precautionary measures are being taken regarding all of them, the minister said To a question about the company where he worked, Medical education minister K Sudhakar said the firm has been informed and it will ask their employees to work from home Meanwhile, budget carrier IndiGo in a statement said, four crew members, who were with the virus-infected passenger on the 20 February Dubai-Bengaluru flight, were under observation at home since 2 March Stating that two labs have been set up by the department for blood and other related tests, Sriramulu asserted that the health and family welfare and medical education departments have taken precautionary measures The minister said 630 beds have been kept ready in government hospitals while 1,689 in private hospitals to serve the purpose of isolation wards Citing five confirmed cases of the virus in the country so far, three from Kerala and the latest-one each in Delhi and Telangana, he said his department was taking all precautionary measures and will work round the clock to prevent the disease from entering the state All three Kerala patients were discharged from hospitals last month following recovery. It started with two insurance professionals, one binder and a promise to write profitable business across Australia, she told Insurance Business. We chose to re-mortgage our homes, invested everything we had into the business. We had a very simple business plan from the beginning - provide outstanding service to brokers alongside good, sound underwriting principals. Providing professional indemnity, general liability, management liability and accident and health insurance, Solution has grown over the years to become a trusted underwriting agency. Focused on forging long-term relationships with Australias brokers, Solution has a unique space in the market. Owned by its directors and wholly independent, the core focus of Solution has remained the same for 10 years attempting to provide unparalleled service in everything it does. Our philosophy hasnt changed since day one, said Mills. Our point of difference from day one, was service, Mills explained. Thats what we built our business around and that is a big part of why were still here 10 years later. As Solution has grown from an office of two to around 20 with Lane and Mills still personally interviewing each prospective hire so has the challenge to remain as service-centred as possible. Thats the big challenge, to maintain that level and benchmark of service as weve grown, said Mills. But I think that it has been a large part of our success. Its straightforward to maintain great service in your first year of operation, to maintain that level going forward, however, is the hard part. Another important aspect of the way Solution operates is the dedication of its two directors, and also its whole staff line-up they have thrown themselves into every aspect required to make Solution a success. We didnt expect our staff to love our business as much as we do but they do, said Lane. I see every day the amount of effort and skill our team put into their jobs its incredible. Mills explained that he and Lane make sure that any prospective employee will fit in with the culture and philosophy that Solution cultivates. Looking back, it has been a successful 10 years for Solution but the two co-founders believe they are just getting started. There has been lots of ups over the years, but many downs, said Mills. Not every day is a great day but I wouldnt want it any other way! Noem came back this year with a bill that cleaned up the state's criminal and civil penalties for riot and incitement to riot, arguing that she is making sure everyone stays safe in the state. She is also pushing civil penalties so that the state, counties or municipalities can recoup damages caused by riots. The governor's staffers argued that the bill does not infringe on people's rights to protest, but seeks to protect property and people from violence. Katie Hruska, a lawyer with Noem's office, explained that the bill is designed to pass what's known as the Brandenburg test for free speech, which stipulates that authorities cant prosecute speech unless the speech is intended to cause force or violence, is likely to cause it, and the action is imminent. Law enforcement groups, including the South Dakota Police Chiefs Association and the Sheriff's Association, spoke in support of the bill. As long as people dont incite lawless action, there is nothing to fear from this bill," said Dick Tieszen, a lobbyist for the Sheriff's Association. The Starr Conspiracy, a B2B marketing agency for workplace innovators, places Fortay.ai at No. 1 on its Brandscape 2020 Top 10 Startups to Watch in Employee Engagement for culture enablement. We are honored for the recognition. It is an exciting time in our space as business leaders are increasingly making a concerted effort to improve their companys organizational health. Leaders recognize that equitable people decisions support sustainable diverse and inclusive cultures. We are proud to be their partners in their journey for a stronger competitive advantage that dramatically improves team performance and financial metrics as a result. replied Marlina Kinnersley, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fortay.ai. The Starr Conspiracy is the premier agency focused on companies creating the future of work. The Startups to Watch list focuses on the most innovative companies and pioneering leaders with respect to the future of work. Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/39rzGHu. Marlina Kinnersley explains, Driving a culture where everyone feels they belong is a gateway to innovation and high performance. In only two years, one of our customers, SkyWatch was able to improve their underrepresented talent by 4.5X while increasing employee engagement and retention since implementing our people and culture success platform. The Startups to Watch list ranks the early-stage innovative brands that could become the industry leaders of tomorrow, replied Steve Smith, Partner and Chief Marketing Officer of The Starr Conspiracy. Building a strong, healthy culture is essential for any competitive business today. We see Fortay as an employee engagement startup to watch because it moves cultural measurement and alignment to the front of the hiring process. This approach improves scaling of company culture and offers engagement insights throughout the full employee journey." Fortays innovative patent-pending technology helps companies build diverse teams efficiently while reducing recruiting bias. Integrated analytics within Fortays platform also provides actionable insights to improve culture health, people success and overall organizational performance. Fortay has notably received this recognition after being awarded a coveted Women Entrepreneurship Strategy grant from the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. ABOUT FORTAY.AI Fortay.ai is a people and culture success platform that helps innovative organizations build strong, diverse, and healthy workplace cultures for improved performance where everyone can thrive. People-first companies successfully grow with Fortay by hiring for values alignment, driving team effectiveness, and measuring the people experience to improve their culture health. Our platform is driven by industry-leading research, modern organizational psychology, and ethical machine learning. Learn more at https://fortay.ai. For more information, please contact Marlina Kinnersley, CEO, Fortay.ai marlina@fortay.co. ABOUT THE STARR CONSPIRACY Youre busy creating the future of work. You dont have time to teach an agency what you do. At The Starr Conspiracy, your work is our business. Brand or demand. Traction or scale. We accelerate results. Learn more at https://thestarrconspiracy.com/. For more information, please contact Steve Smith, Partner/CMO, The Starr Conspiracy steve@thestarrconspiracy.com. Follow Us On Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortay.co https://www.facebook.com/FortayApp https://twitter.com/Fortayapp The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong has issued a stern warning to the Pan Africa International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association not to step foot in Ghana since our laws frown upon their acts. Speaking on Oman FMs Boiling Point show and monitored by ghbeyondpolitics.com, the NPP firebrand stated clearly that inasmuch as the LGBTQ group feel they are entitled to hold such gatherings, the masses against their act, are also entitled to speak and prevent them from using our country. There have been plans by the Pan Africa International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association to hold an international in Ghana. The Conference according to an announcement placed on the associations website reads Our 5th Regional Conference, 27 31 July 2020 in Accra, Ghana. This will the first PAI conference in West Africa. Ghanas history as the centre of Pan Africanist thought and ideas holds special significance for PAI. The SANKOFA Bird, a historic national symbol of Ghana has been chosen as our logo. The symbol speaks to the importance of going back to fetch that which should not be left behind, find knowledge in our past, and build a future. Thus, we will be: Looking Back to Our Roots Reclaiming Our Rights! Source: ghbeyondpolitics.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video MEXICO CITY - Mexican federal officials say they are investigating a tainted batch of an anti-clotting medication given to dialysis patients at a hospital run by the state-owned oil company that has so far resulted in two deaths. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is from Tabasco state where the hospital is located, said Wednesday he would ask federal health officials to address the situation and he called the deaths very unfortunate. The Petroleos Mexicanos hospital in Villahermosa is monitoring 52 patients who received the tainted medication, including five who remain in intensive care and 30 hospitalized in stable condition, according to a statement this week from Pemex Wednesday night. Six patients have been moved to a specialized hospital in Mexico City. The company said federal investigations had been opened into both deaths to determine who was responsible. More than 60 dialysis patients at the Pemex Regional Hospital last week received the heparin sodium medication that later tested positive for the bacteria Klebsiella spp, according to Pemex. Pemex operates its own healthcare system, including hospitals, for employees, retirees and their families. The gulf coast state of Tabasco is one of its primary centres of operations. The Joint Technical Committee of the OPEC+ group, meeting before the regular OPEC meeting that is happening this week in Vienna, considered bigger oil production cutsbetween 600,000 bpd and 1 million bpd, two Reuters sources said on Tuesday afternoon. The group ended up recommending additional cuts of at least 600,000 bpd. But according to Energy Intel, OPEC+ ministers will not shake hands on a deal that involves increasing the production cuts. There will be no handshakes when Opec-plus oil ministers meet, but delegates are hopeful a deal will be struck to counter the impact of the coronavirus. FX Street reported on Tuesday afternoon, citing Energy Intel sources. But that doesnt mean a deal isnt forthcoming. Rather, the handshake is likely meant in the literal sense, due to the coronavirus safety precautions that will be present at the meeting. Media has been banned from the OPEC meetings on virus concerns, and ministers will undergo medical screenings as they enter the building. In addition to the no-handshake safety precautions, a no-hugs policy has also been advised, according to an image of OPEC meeting signage posted by Bloomberg News Managing Editor for the Middle East and North Africa Nayla Razzouk. As the coronavirus continues to claim new lives and new cases on a daily basis, OPEC and its allies are in search of a solution to the oil demand problem that has caused oil prices to fall to lows not seen in years. The 600,000 bpd recommendation was to take place in the second quarter of the year. OPEC President and Algerian Oil Minister Mohamed Arkab confirmed on Tuesday that OPEC discussions this week would be new, substantial cuts to oil production. WTI crude was trading up on Tuesday afternoon at $46.91 (+0.34%), showing a hint of optimism on a new deal. Brent crude was trading down at $51.61 (-0.56%) By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: David Ginsberg decided he would try to escape. The Philadelphia-area lawyer had been living and practicing international law for years in Shenzhen, a city in southeastern China that connects Hong Kong to Chinas mainland. But after the novel coronavirus came to the public attention, the 57-year-old didnt see a way out. It hadnt reached that global scale yet, but Ginsberg already saw it heading that way. His efforts to escape, recounted in Facebook posts and in an interview with The Inquirer, illustrate the global worries over the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The next day he found a way. I can barely breathe as I type this, and it is not from the virus. I just made desperate plane reservations out of here, he wrote on Feb. 5. He booked a flight to Phnom Penh, the capital. He wasnt sure if Cambodia would accept travelers from China, but gambled hed be allowed in. I have no choice but to leave everything I know, my home, my friends, my relationships, my apartment and belongings, my job, and evacuate (if possible). Even though this was his escape from a virus killing thousands in China, he was about to end up in a Cambodian hospital and almost die from something else. At first, he felt relieved. He saw how the situation in China had deteriorated, and kept running into people who had fled. But soon, he would become critically ill. That same week he was found unconscious in his hotel room. He woke up in the intensive care unit of a Cambodian hospital, with his wrists tied to the bed. He had rapidly lost blood from severe abdominal bleeding. He didnt know why he was sick. No one explained to him what happened. He asked for someone to call the U.S. Embassy, but no one agreed. Eventually, he was untied, but, he said, the hospital continued to treat him like a dog. His son, Etan, a 21-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania, flew to Cambodia, arriving last week. Ginsberg almost died of blood loss, and its still not entirely clear why. The hospital, Ginsberg said, was refusing to give him more blood. To get any blood, he said, the hospital would make a friend or relative donate it. He said he didnt get painkillers. If I could, I would go back to China and take the virus over this hell, he wrote to his Facebook friends on Feb. 25. Two days later, he explained: I was at death's door and I kind of wanted the agony to stop even if I just died. His son found a hospital run by Japanese doctors, where his father was transferred in hopes of better care. Ginsberg learned a tear from profuse vomiting caused the first bleeding. Doctors are still not sure what caused the bleeding the second time. But the Japanese hospital staff was taking care of him. I am in a MUCH BETTER facility and the initial news looks promising. I hope they can treat some problems they saw with medication. There is currently no active bleeding, he updated his Facebook friends Saturday. I am so alone and far away but you all spanned the distance and surrounded me with love and helped save my life. Ginsberg was released from the hospital this week, his son still with him and helping him recover. Hes planning to go back to China eventually. The only issue, he said, is the timing with respect to the virus." He will be living in Cambodia and checking in with his doctor from the hospital once a week until April. He hopes this gives China time to get the virus under control. He is finally recovering. He doesnt want to get sick again. A commune in the northern Vietnamese province of Vinh Phuc is no longer zoned off after a 20-day lockdown imposed on it to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was lifted at 12:00 am on Wednesday. The Peoples Committee of Binh Xuyen District in Vinh Phuc Province on Tuesday evening announced the decision to bring the operation of 12 disease-control checkpoints around its Son Loi Commune to an end. Tuesday was the 20th day since Son Loi, a commune of 10,600 people in Binh Xuyen, Vinh Phuc, was sealed off and quarantined to contain the spread of COVID-19. Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese. Eleven of them hail from Vinh Phuc. Six of the provinces patients are Son Loi residents. The patients in Vinh Phuc allegedly contracted the virus from a group of eight local workers who had recently returned to Vietnam after attending a vocational training seminar in the central Chinese city of Wuhan -- ground zero for the COVID-19 outbreak. Vinh Phuc, particularly Son Loi, has thus been labeled the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam. Authorities remove barriers previously deployed around Son Loi Commune, Binh Xuyen District in Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam at 12:00 am on March 4, 2020. Photo: Vu Tuan / Tuoi Tre In a bid to contain the COVID-19 spread, authorities began sealing off the entire commune of Son Loi on February 13, the same day when a 50-year-old man in the commune was confirmed to be infected with the viral disease. No new infecton has since been recorded in Son Loi and across Vietnam, while the man was discharged from the hospital on February 26. All of Vietnams COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital, while no new infections have been reported nationwide since February 13. Activities in Son Loi have returned to normal as of Wednesday, with military, police, and medical personnel no longer manning the commune. But even after the lockdown has been lifted, the previously-confirmed patients in Son Loi would still be monitored for at least 14 days after their hospital release as officials are on alert for any new infection, local authorities said. Disease-prevention and quick response teams will also remain in duty in the commune. Residents in Son Loi Commune in Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam react as a COVID-19 lockdown imposed on their community since February 13 is lifted on March 4, 2020. Photo: Vu Tuan / Tuoi Tre COVID-19, which first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 92,500 people and killed 3,174 globally as of Wednesday morning, according to the South China Morning Post. South Korea has confirmed 32 deaths from nearly 5,300 positive cases so far, becoming the biggest cluster of infections outside China. Meanwhile, Iran and Italy are reporting the highest death rates from COVID-19 as tolls in the two nations have reached 77 out of 2,336 confirmed cases and 52 out of 2,036 infections, respectively, according to the same source. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! In February 2020, Russian-led forces fired over 1,500 shells at positions of the Joint Forces using weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, which is twice as many as the previous month, the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports. "The Ukrainian side of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) on ceasefire and stabilization of the demarcation line reports on an increase in the number of shellings of the positions of the Joint Forces from weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements. According to the JFO Headquarters, in February 2020, the armed formations of the Russian Federation used 152mm and 122mm artillery systems, 82mm and 120mm mortars banned under the Minsk agreements, and tank weapons, having fired more than 1,500 shells, which is twice as many as the previous month," the report reads. The most tense situation was observed in the area of Orikhove (57km north-west of Luhansk), near which the invaders fired a third of the total shells at the Ukrainian positions. ish "I've felt like a cat for a long time," says the comedian Louie Anderson. Warming to the subject of his feline characteristics, Anderson says, "I'm always cleaning myself with my tongue." This must produce a mental self-image of his rotund, 5-foot-7 frame in a cat contortion, because Anderson chuckles at his own joke before continuing. He says, "I'm always lying around, and I always want to know what's going on, but I pretend not to care." And so, he says, it makes perfect sense that his next TV role, after playing a senior-citizen woman on the FX comedy "Baskets," is to be the title character in "Tigsley," about a talking cat that hurls insults at its human family. Created by Anderson and Mike Sikowitz, a veteran TV writer and producer with credits including "The Goldbergs" and "Dr. Ken," "Tigsley" has been green-lighted by Fox and a pilot has been written but not shot, Anderson says. "It's not going to be me in a big cat suit," says Anderson, chatting on the phone recently to promote his stand-up show on Thursday night at Universal Preservation Hall. He says, "He's just a talking cat who wants to run the family." Anderson, who turns 67 this month, grew up as one of 11 kids in Minnesota, and family life has long been part of his comedy routines. He gained additional perspective on family roles and dynamics during the four-season run of "Baskets." He won an Emmy Award as the mother of series co-creator Zach Galifianakis, who starred as twins on the sitcom. Anderson says he based his character, Christine Baskets, on his own mother, Ora, who gave birth to 16 children but lost five in childbirth. "I knew she was the rock of the family, but never realized how much my mother did for me did for all of us," says Anderson. Becoming Christine Baskets deepened his understanding, he says, and that's how he felt about the role: He wasn't Louie Anderson in drag; he felt like a woman playing a woman a mother and he asked to be addressed as "Christine" while on the set. He also occasionally went out during shooting breaks, still in Christine's costume and makeup, to nearby shops and eateries. "I was definitely treated differently as a woman," citing doors being opened for Christine as a regular if minor example. "People sometimes were suspicious or did a double-take," he says, especially when he spoke, "but they mostly seemed to accept me as a woman with a low voice." Although Anderson loves to eat "Food is my cocaine," he says he has lately been working on more healthful choices. "I still pine for my mother's pot roast, vegetables, gravy and my father mashing a cauldron of mashed potatoes with his big arms," Anderson says, sounding like he's channeling a memory from six decades ago. "But I also love kale salad. How weird is that? Kale used to be a garnish, something that I used to shoot at my brother," says Anderson. He also has been more mindful about fitness. "I work out three times a week with a physical therapist" when he's at home in Las Vegas, says Anderson, who has lived in Vegas for a dozen years. "I can't really do a trainer at my size," he says. "They don't know how to work with big people, so I see a physical therapist. I'm trying to get back to what I was at 50. I was still pretty spry at 50 at least as I remember it, anyway." He's feeling his age in other ways, too, particularly in how late he's willing to stay out. Although comedians can often have late-night sets, "My preferred start time is 7 p.m.," he says laughing at the absurdly early hour. (The UPH show starts at 8 p.m.) "I still think I can stay up really late, then when I think it is late, I look and it's only 9:30," he says. "People will call me and say, 'Hey, do you want to go to the club?' And I'm like, 'What is it, a sleepover? It better be I'm already in my pajamas.'" sbarnes@timesunion.com 518-454-5489 blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping @Tablehopping facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic The Haryana Assembly on Wednesday passed eight Bills, including the Punjab Excise (Haryana Amendment) Bill, a stringent law aimed to prevent adulteration and illicit manufacture of liquor. The Punjab Excise (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2020, aims to ensure complete check on manufacturing or sale of spurious liquor, thwarting attempts of evasion of excise levies and optimisation of revenue. Introducing the Bill, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, who holds the Excise department portfolio, said it was imperative to that the law regarding unlawful import, export, transport, manufacture and possession of liquor be made more stringent. Major offences under the amended Act will mean adulteration, possession, transport and sale of non-duty paid liquor, illicit manufacture, unlawful possession, transport, transit and sale of liquor. Other major offences will also include tampering with sealed bottles and sale to minor. Also, under the new law, whosoever imports, exports, transports, manufactures, collects or possesses any intoxicant, or uses or has in his possession any material for the purpose of manufacturing any intoxicant, shall be punished for every such offence with prison term which may extend to three years and with fine, which may extend to Rs 10 lakh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) I remember our first victory in 1996 was historic, but this time is even sweeter because it is a victory against all odds, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu March 2 after the release of the television exit polls. It was no coincidence that Netanyahu decided to begin his election night speech by comparing what had just happened to his 1996 victory after Yitzhak Rabins assassination. By doing this, he encompassed the entire story of the 2020 election. While Netanyahu failed to win 61 seats and a decisive victory, he could take credit for an enormous achievement. He succeeded in restoring the Likuds status as the largest party in the Knesset, and he strengthened his right-wing, ultra-Orthodox bloc, which emerged from the election with three more seats than it won in September 2019. It is still too early to know what the next few days will bring and whether a fourth round of elections is a real option. What is certain, however, is that the alliance between the victims of discrimination, which brought a 46-year-old Netanyahu to power in May 1996, is the same alliance, with a few tweaks, which is helping him keep the Prime Ministers Office for the foreseeable future, even if it is just days before the start of his trial for bribery, fraud and the violation of trust, scheduled for March 17. Thanks to the support he received from the ultra-Orthodox, Mizrahim (of Middle Eastern origin), Ethiopian immigrants, periphery towns and the middle class, Netanyahu will not be evacuating his residence on Balfour Street in the foreseeable future. All it takes is a quick scan of the voter breakdown to see that the Likuds major centers of support are, once again, the towns and villages in the countrys north and south the poorer, periphery towns. They even include towns like Sderot that are being battered by rockets from Gaza. Netanyahu got stronger in all of these places, helped along by his campaign message that he is being persecuted by the left, the police and the media. Of course, this campaign reached new heights as his legal proceedings got even more tangled. Netanyahu did it with a revivalist campaign of sorts that he carried the length and breadth of the country. In the last few days alone, he actually contacted people personally through phone calls and even knocking on doors. In contrast, the Blue and White party did not manage to fill the role it chose for itself from that partys very inception. It never succeeded in becoming a warm home for disenchanted Likud supporters. In this election, it actually got weaker in the traditional Likud bastions. Instead, it earned the reputation of being a draw for established, wealthy Ashkenazi voters with left-wing leanings who live in the influential big cities. There were, of course, many Mizrahi Jews who voted Blue and White and Ashkenazim who voted Likud. But what it really means is that Likud, ultra-Orthodox, and Yamina voters all share that same sense of exclusion, which helps to shape their political identity. That is why a comparison with 1996 is so instructive, even from the perspective of Netanyahus experience. We stood up against enormous forces. They already delivered our eulogy. Our rivals said the Netanyahu era is over, but together we turned it around; we made lemonade out of lemons, quipped Netanyahu almost a quarter of a century later. He was practically moved to tears when he said it too. He was on the verge of defeat in 1996 too. Rabin's assassination shook up Israeli society and caused the Likud to crash in the polls. Netanyahu and the right at large were seen as guilty for inciting against the prime minister. Young Likud activists on the countrys campuses felt as if they were suddenly taboo. Mizrahi religious students at Bar Ilan University were despondent. After all, that was where the assassin Yigal Amir, son of a religious family of Yemenite immigrants, went to school. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Russia, many of whom opposed the Oslo Accords, revolted against what they interpreted as an attempt by the left-wing elites to keep them from thinking independently in a democratic country after they uprooted themselves to live here. The ultra-Orthodox and settlers felt like they were in the same boat. And then there was Netanyahu himself. He felt persecuted by the media, the elites and the left. He believed that as leader of the right, he was the victim of a cruel and effective delegitimization campaign. Netanyahu was quick to realize that he was not alone in this campaign and that the collective feeling of victimhood has the potential to turn into overwhelming political vitality. It could be what would rally the camp around him again. It did, in fact, turn everything upside down. When Israel went to the polls in 1996, it was the first time that the country voted separately for prime minister. Netanyahu won the coveted prize by a single percentage point. It took just 29,457 votes to decide the election in Netanyahus favor and change the countrys political history, despite all the assessments, despite all the odds. Back then, Netanyahu also traversed the country, going from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood, evoking the same feeling of victimhood. He gave it shape, identity and a clear goal: saving Israel from the Oslo Accords and the left. In the current election, it was his personal and legal fate, which he managed to link intrinsically with the fate of over 2 million voters. On the night of the current election, Netanyahu hoped that it would be the smaller numbers little groups and individual voters that would give a total (i.e., decisive) victory, just as they did in 1996. It is now clear that this is not what happened. The future still portends an intense political and social battle over the next few weeks. Once again, the media is now focused on the question of who are those people who follow Netanyahu so fervently, who tattoo his face on their arms and sing a hoarse rendition of Bibi, King of Israel. Once again, the question is being raised: How did he, the wealthy white son of a professor, who hobnobs with billionaires and is entangled in all sorts of corruption charges, manage to make a home for himself in the hearts of the second Israel? The subtext hints at a blind, herd mentality. What this perspective fails to see is the very heart of this connection, which is so authentic and powerful and which will persist even after the Netanyahu era is over. It will certainly be there during his trial. Netanyahu is the unchallenged leader of those groups in Israeli society whose identity is rooted, at least in part, in discrimination. This is true even if those people feeling victimhood have since become rich and now live in spacious homes. It is no wonder that the civil society moves being taken against Netanyahu because of his indictments are being led by the old elites, pilots, officers in top commando units, jurists and the high-tech sector in other words, the throbbing, vibrant heart of the first Israel. They write resounding letters to the president and members of the Knesset alike, warning that the end of the state is right around the corner. And yet, without even noticing it, they have appropriated the state for themselves by determining that they know what is better for it than Mizrahi voter Masouda from Sderot. Their problem really is that once they get to the ballot box, every vote counts the same and every choice is worthy. That is why anyone who thinks that the struggle over the countrys character will end with Netanyahus downfall, or alternately, with him continuing in office, is ultimately wrong. It may take another generation. Netanyahu understands this alliance of the victims of discrimination down to its most profound levels, because deep inside, Netanyahu feels that he is one of them. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Dametrio Maldonado and his daughter were on their way to help with preparations for an annual Memorial Day race in Acoma Pueblo in May when they came upon a woman whod crashed her car. As a result of his call for help, Maldonado says, he was handcuffed and slammed into a cruiser by a New Mexico State Police officer who ultimately cited him for unlawful parking. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state District Court in Santa Fe, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union call what happened to Maldonado a textbook example of a police officer misusing the power entrusted to him. It was not clear whether Sondre Loberg, the officer named as a defendant in the suit, has hired an attorney, and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. A spokesman for the State Police said the agency does not comment on pending lawsuits, but he confirmed that Loberg remains employed by NMSP as a patrolman stationed in Grants. The lawsuit alleges Maldonado pulled over when he saw the wrecked vehicle and a woman sitting in the street screaming. He spoke to dispatchers as his daughter went to check on the woman. Acoma Tribal Police soon arrived, followed by officer Loberg, who yelled at Maldonado to leave. Maldonado said he was waiting for his daughter, who was speaking to another officer. At that point, in a display of deference to the officer, Mr. Maldonado politely smiled at defendant Loberg and proceeded to drive forward to comply with the officers directives, the suit says. Loberg followed Maldonado, told him to get out of his car, and then set to work trying to handcuff him. Because of Maldonados stature, the handcuffs didnt close easily and Maldonado says he struggled to keep his balance as the officer tried to cuff him. Loberg violently pushed Mr. Maldonado face down onto the hood of his patrol car with enough force to shatter his cellphone screen, the ACLU alleges. After keeping Maldonado in the back seat of his police vehicle for around 20 minutes, Loberg let him out and accused him of failing to comply with his orders. He told Maldonado that he perceived his smile as a big F.U. But he agreed to release Maldonado at the request of the Acoma officer. Loberg issued Maldonado a citation for unlawful parking, which was later dismissed. Preston Sanchez, an attorney with ACLU New Mexico, said Maldonado did the right thing by stopping and the encounter that followed blatantly reflects a system of policing in New Mexico that is racially biased. We hope it highlights some of the issues between law enforcement and their treatment of Indigenous people, Sanchez said of the lawsuit. We hope it brings that issue to the forefront. Maldonado says he had to go to the emergency room as a result of the interaction, followed by physical therapy, and he was unable to farm during the subsequent season. He is asking the court to award damages and other relief. Mr Conway has been an outspoken critic of the president: Getty The husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has donated the maximum amount permitted for an individual to Joe Bidens presidential campaign and mocked Donald Trump with the receipt. George Conway, a devoted critic of Mr Trumps, donated $2,800 to Mr Biden on Super Tuesday as the former vice president stormed to victory in at least nine states. Explaining his decision to donate, he told New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi: The nation cant afford four more years with a megalomaniacal moron in the White House. Mr Conway has now made the receipt for the donation his Twitter banner image. He has made a campaign of sorts out of railing against Mr Trump, criticising him as a threat to the future of the republic and a chief executive unfit for office. In a piece for the Atlantic last October, Mr Conway wrote: You dont need to be a mental-health professional to see that somethings very seriously off with Trump. No president in recent memory and likely no president ever has prompted more discussion about his mental stability and connection with reality. As Super Tuesdays results came in, Mr Trump tweeted a stream of seemingly disconnected musings and claims, and Mr Conway responded hawkishly to each one. This is a man who put fidelity to the law over personal loyalty, he wrote, and the fact that you cant comprehend that is one of countless illustrations why youre entirely unfit for public office, @realDonaldTrump. Weve never seen a stupider president than @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/9kY9PYz6O6 George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 4, 2020 Make America Sane Again. Get rid of this psychobozo. https://t.co/14OWBSYqbt George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 4, 2020 Mr Conway also suggested that Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg, who has ploughed more than $500m of his own money into his campaign to little avail, should set up a Super PAC to plough money into the the election. To a tweet from Mr Trump mocking Mr Bloombergs spending, Mr Conway replied: Mikes going to get his moneys worth spending twice that trashing you from now until November 3. Enjoy! BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: Entry into Kazakhstans Aktau and Kuryk ports in the Caspian Sea is to be suspended from March 5 for preventing the the spread of coronavirus. Kazakhstan has informed shipping companies, including the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO), Trend reports citing ASCO. The entry of passengers, drivers, carriage conductors, as well as wheeled vehicles into the country is suspended for an indefinite period. This is while ferry transportation of wagons will continue, reads the message. In this regard, ASCO informs that the ticket sales have been suspended. Additional information will be provided after lifting the restriction. ASCO carries out anti-epidemic preventive measures over the threat of coronavirus spread. Disinfection work has been intensified on ships, as well as in the structural departments of the company. As part of preventive measures, the staff of 13 ferries and 2 Ro-Ro ferries sailing to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan is provided with protective equipment. A boat full of refugees from Turkey approaches the port of Thermi, on the island of Lesvos, Greece, on March 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the border between Greece and Turkey, after Ankara said it could no longer prevent them from reaching Europe's borders. Greece will receive an additional 700 million euros of financial aid for the management of the crisis, announced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "It is the responsibility of Europe as a whole and we will manage it in an orderly way, with unity, solidarity and determination," the EU leader said. ATHENS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of European Union (EU) institutions expressed on Tuesday their support for Greece and determination for a common European response to the refugee, migrant challenge after a visit to the Greek-Turkish land border. European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President David Sassoli, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic attended the press conference held in the town of Kastanies in the Evros region with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after being briefed on the crisis unfolding on the Greek-Turkish land border since last Friday. Migrants and refugees are seen behind a wired fence at the borderline between Greece and Turkey near the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where thousands gathered near the Evros River in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the border, after Ankara said it could no longer prevent them from reaching Europe's borders. Greek police and armed forces have been strengthened on the border and until Monday evening they had prevented over 24,000 illegal crossings and detained 183 persons who crossed the border, according to Greek government sources. In the past few days, the Greek government has repeatedly stated that it faces a national security threat and therefore has stepped up patrols on land and sea borders and requested the immediate substantial aid from other EU member states. "The Greek borders are the European borders and what you are doing is important for Greece and crucial as well for the future of the EU. We are together, because we consider borders protection is essential," Charles Michel said on Tuesday. "We have come here today to send a very clear statement of European solidarity and support to Greece," von der Leyen stated. Greece will receive an additional 700 million euros (784 million U.S dollars) of financial aid for the management of the crisis, she announced, noting that European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is already getting ready to deploy a rapid border intervention unit to assist Greece in dealing with the situation. "It is the responsibility of Europe as a whole and we will manage it in an orderly way, with unity, solidarity and determination. Those who seek to test European unity will be disappointed," she added. Photo taken on March 2, 2020 shows a woman with a child just arriving at Skala Sikaminias, in the island of Lesvos, Greece.(Xinhua/Marios Lolos) "Turkey is not an enemy and people are not just means to reach a goal," she stressed, expressing her compassion for people who reached Europe's borders on false promises, as she noted. Sassoli, on his part, highlighted the need for a strong common European approach on the issue which is on the table for the past five years, since the first mass flows started to cross the Aegean Sea. Greek soldiers patrol near the fence at the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where refugees and migrants gathered on the borderline between Greece and Turkey from the Turkish side, near the Evros River, in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Over one million reached Greece since 2015, fleeing wars and extreme poverty and continued their journey to other European countries until the closure of borders along the Balkan route in the winter of 2016 and the signing of EU-Turkey agreement aimed to stem the influx. Under the deal, Turkey would be provided with financial assistance to accommodate the millions of refugees and migrants hosted in the country in return for increased efforts to deal with the human smuggling networks operating in the region. "We need -- we see it every day -- to strengthen our common policy framework to deal with migration on a European level. We are here today for one more reason, to tell Turkey that we do not want more talks, but that Turkey respects what has been agreed," Sassoli said on Tuesday. A boat with refugees and migrants arrives at Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Feb. 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Stressing that nobody wishes to see a replay of the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, Plenkovic also voiced support for Greece, calling for determination to give a European response to the new challenge. "Greece is now the shield of the external borders of the EU... We will send a message to Turkey that good relations between Turkey and the EU depend on both of us. We will seek to find political and diplomatic solution to deescalate the situation we have today here," the Croatian prime minister told the press briefing. Migrants and refugees are seen behind a wired fence at the borderline between Greece and Turkey near the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where thousands gathered near the Evros River in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Greece has demonstrated solidarity to people in need for years and is currently hosting about 100,000 already, but cannot shoulder alone all the burden of safeguarding Europe's borders from more massive flows, said Greek prime minister. "Greece expects tangible solidarity from the EU and I can tell you that the presence of the entire leadership of the EU here at the outer border of Europe sends a clear signal to everyone. But let's be honest. Europe has not been up to the task of dealing with the migrant crisis. I hope this crisis will serve as a wakeup call for everyone to assume their responsibilities," Mitsotakis stated. "We stand ready to support Turkey in dealing with its refugee problem and find a solution to the Syria conundrum, but not under these circumstances... Migrants and refugees cannot be used as instruments, as pawns in a geopolitical game," the Greek leader concluded. (1 euro= 1.12 U.S. dollars) Saudi bans Umrah pilgrimage, Iran cancels Friday prayers and Singapore Muslims are urged to bring own mats to mosques. People around the world are avoiding crowded places, cutting back on inessential travel and taking precautionary measures such as working from home to avoid catching the new coronavirus. Several countries have also urged their citizens to change the way they greet one another, or celebrate certain festivities. Religious authorities, meanwhile, are advising people how to pray or mark holy days without risking spreading COVID-19 further. The virus, which originated in China, has so far infected more than 93,000 people globally and killed more than 3,000. Here are some examples of the new measures and advice from Muslim countries, organisations and Islamic sites for worshippers and pilgrims. Muslims wearing masks pray for coronavirus patients at a mosque in Ahmedabad, India, on January 31, 2020 [Amit Dave/Reuters] Saudi bans Umrah pilgrimage, stops foreigners visiting Islams holiest sites The kingdom on Wednesday banned Umrah for residents and citizens, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Umrah, which can be completed in a few hours, is a pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time of year, unlike the much more intensive and time-consuming Hajj one of the five pillars of Islam performed during a few specific days each year. The move was in line with the precautionary measures taken by Saudi authorities to prevent the spread of the virus in the Gulf state, SPA said. Last week, Saudi Arabia said it was preventing foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the building at the centre of the Great Mosque. It also said travel was suspended to Prophet Muhammads mosque in Medina. This years Hajj, which usually brings about three million people to Mecca, is expected to take place from July 28 to August 2. Authorities have not yet announced any restrictive measures; more than 60,000 people have applied to participate in this years event already. The kingdom has two reported cases of coronavirus. Muslim pilgrims wear protective face masks to prevent contracting coronavirus, as they pray at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia [Ganoo Essa/Reuters] Iran halts Friday prayers in major cities Iran is struggling to contain the virus, with a rising number of cases and deaths each day. As of Wednesday evening, those totalled 2,922 and 92, respectively. Friday prayers in all provincial capitals have been halted. This disease is a widespread one, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his cabinet, according to a transcript. It encompasses almost all of our provinces and is, in a sense, a global disease that many countries in the world have become infected with, and we must work together to tackle this problem as quickly as possible. A member of a medical team sprays disinfectant to sanitise the inside of Imam Rezas holy shrine, following the coronavirus outbreak, in Mashhad, Iran on February 27, 2020 [West Asia News Agency via Reuters] Singapore Muslim leader advises worshippers to use own prayer mats, avoid shaking hands According to The Straits Times, Masagos Zulkifli, a minister in charge of Muslim affairs in Singapore, has advised Muslims to bring their own prayer mats to mosques and refrain from shaking hands with one another. In these circumstances, we will not be shaking hands. But if you do, wash your hands, and then make sure you dont touch your face. This is just a precaution for many of us who always forget that, he said. While it remains logistically difficult to take worshippers temperatures at mosques, some of which attract thousands of people, Masagos said Muslims should stay at home if they showed any coronavirus symptoms. There have been more than 100 cases of coronavirus in Singapore, and the majority of patients have recovered. UK group calls on Muslim institutions to follow hygiene advice The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), one of the United Kingdoms largest Muslim umbrella organisations, has called on mosques and Islamic schools to keep your congregations safe, by following the governments advice. Much of this advice, and an emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene is in line with Islamic tradition. Abu Malik Al-Ash`ari (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Peace Be Upon Him) said: Purity is half of iman (faith), MCB said on its website, referring to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad. It advised madrassas, or schools, to encourage handwashing and said mosques should have enough soap and hand sanitisers available, especially near ablution areas. The number of people infected in the UK has risen to 87. Tajikistan asks Muslims to pray at home Tajikistan, which so far has no reported cases, has suspended Friday prayers. The Muslim-majority country of nine million has shut its border to neighbours China and Afghanistan as well as South Korea, Iran and Italy. It is also cancelling celebrations for Nowruz or the Persian New Year, which is celebrated from March 21 to 25. The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Thane Police Crime Branch not to take any coercive action against former BJP MLA Narendra Mehta who is accused of raping a woman corporator. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice B P Dharmadhikari and Justice N R Borkar was hearing a petition filed by Mehta, seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him on February 28 by a corporator of the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation in Thane district. While initially the Mira Road police was probing the case, the investigation was transferred to the Thane Police's Crime Branch earlier this week after the woman complained that she was being threatened. Mehta's counsel Aabad Ponda on Wednesday argued that the woman and the accused were married since 1999 and also have a son. "The rape case has been filed after 20 years because in the recently held civic body election, Mehta supported another candidate and not the victim," Ponda said. Ponda sought interim protection from arrest for Mehta, pending hearing of the petition. The woman's advocate Rizwan Merchant opposed the plea, saying Mehta had taken advantage of her condition in 1999 when she separated from her first husband. "The accused got married to the victim in 1999, but told her not to reveal the same to anyone. The victim did not agree to this, but still stayed in the relationship as the accused had promised to reveal their marriage to everyone when his political career takes off," Merchant said. The woman had also alleged that Mehta passed casteist slurs at her last year. The bench, after hearing the arguments, directed the police to file their affidavit in response to Mehta's plea by March 20. "No coercive steps shall be taken if he (Mehta) cooperates with the investigation," the court said. Mehta announced his resignation from all party posts last month. He has been booked under Section 376 (rape) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 5.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Joe Bidens presidential campaign was on life support just weeks ago, but his post-South Carolina momentum carried him to victory on Tuesday night in North Carolina, a state where Bernie Sanders was leading just a week ago. According to NBC News, the former vice president is projected to carry the Tar Heel State, showing that his victory in South Carolina was no fluke and the surge of Biden momentum is very real. Joe Biden wins North Carolina in another landslide. Sanders is getting crushed with African-American voters in NC. #SuperTuesdayResults pic.twitter.com/2PiDRUqgWm PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 4, 2020 The victory in North Carolina comes after Virginia another big Super Tuesday prize went for the former vice president on Tuesday night. The timing of the call is important for Biden Of the 14 states and one U.S. territory voting on Tuesday, North Carolina has the third most delegates (110), trailing just California (415) and Texas (228). The fact that the state was called so quickly for Biden just like Virginia means not only that itll be a victory on paper for the vice president, but also that hell likely net a fair amount of delegates out of the state. At the end of this primary contest, its all about delegate math, and Bidens victory in a delegate-rich state like North Carolina likely has his campaign feeling good about their chances in other areas of the Super Tuesday map and other states further down the line. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter Shrenu Parikh photos: Ishqbaaaz actress hitting the headlines for her latest post, where she can be seen chilling in the USA with brother Shubham Pariva. In the photos, she is seen smiling ear to ear. Check the post here Shrenu Parikh photos: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, Ishqbaaaz actress Shrenu Parikh totally believes in this phrase, as she took a mini travel break from her work life. The diva recently posted some of her videos and photos, where she can be seen chilling out on the streets of USA. With all these photos, she is giving major travel goals to all of her fans. Parikh visited the famous Niagara falls of Canada, which is currently covered in snow. However, Parikhs travel diary would be incomplete without wine tasting session, so she visited in one of the famous Vineyards with brother Shubham Pariva, Two Sisters Vineyards in Canada. From there, she posted every bit of the trip, with that she also made some new friends, as her Instagram latest video is proof of it! The photo caption reads: Someone with some kind of craziness is just perfect. More than 1 million people follow her on Instagram, and by going through her profile, seems like she loves to travel. On the professional front, the stunner is garnering a lot of praises for her work in Ek Bhram Sarvagun Sampanna, as she played Janhvi Sharmas role. Also Read: Bigg Boss 13: The Khabri calls Asim Riaz Ehsaan Faramosh, says he manipulated trends with celebrity tweets Check the post: Also Read: Kasautii Zindagii Kay: After Karan Singh Grovers smashing entry, fans trend #WelcomeBackMrBajaj Also Read: Kasautii Zindagii Kay 4th March, 2020 Preview: Prerna reminds Mr Bajaj of her deal, wishes to go back to Kolkata to take her revenge For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App Highlights SC to hear petitions that sought FIR for hate speeches Petitioners had accused BJP leaders of hate speeches Delhi High Court had put off hearing in this case to April The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a petition which seeks immediate registration of FIRs against political leaders for inflammatory speeches and slogans. The petition filed by 10 victims of the violence was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde which said it would be heard on Wednesday. We read newspapers blaming us. There is so much pressure on us. But we cannot prevent such things. We dont want people to die We want peace. But the court has never been able to curb such violence, the CJI had said when senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioners, sought urgent listing of the plea on Monday. Gonsalves had underlined that the FIRs should be registered immediately since nearly 10 people were dying every day. Last night 6 or 7 people died, he told the bench. The urgency is that 5 or 6 personalities are going around encouraging it, Gonsalves had said. Facts Damage due to Delhi riots - 745 Households - 112 Shops - 322 Vehicles - 301 The petitioners have named BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra and Abhay Verma and other leaders for their purported inflammatory speeches. A bench of the Delhi High Court led by Chief Justice DN Patel and justice C Hari Shankar had last week given the police four weeks to respond to petitioned that hate speeches by some political leaders had incited the protesters, leading to the riots in the national capital. Forty-six people died in the riots and over 300 were injured. We will hear it. But you must understand we are not equipped to prevent such things from happening, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde The Supreme Court agreed to hear the request at an early date but underlined that courts could not prevent such riots. We will hear it. But you must understand we are not equipped to prevent such things from happening. We can only come into the scene after such riots have happened Court can never prevent such things, CJI Bobde had said. On Harsh Manders petition in the high court, a bench of justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh had initially come down hard on the police asking them to review all the video tapes of hate speeches and report back to the court within 24 hours with its decision on registration of cases. Orders to transfer Justice S Muralidhar were issued before this 24-hour deadline ended. The next day, a bench led by Chief Justice Patel of the high court gave the police four weeks after Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta repeated that the atmosphere was not conducive to file cases at the moment. Mehta had taken a similar stand when the case was heard by Justice Muralidhars bench but it had criticised the police for inaction, asked them to do a review, take a decision, and reply the next day. Margaret Crotty, CEO, Partnership with Children Together, we will provide even deeper programming in schools, engage students and families, and partner with principals as a leading provider in the community school movement.-- Partnership with Children CEO Margaret Crotty Partnership with Children (PWC), New York Citys leading provider of school-based integrated support services and community school programming, announced its affiliation with The Center for Arts Education (CAE), which provides research-based arts programming in schools and professional development for school leaders. The organizations have results-oriented and complementary programs that enhance childrens social-emotional learning, communication, and critical thinking skills; increase parent engagement, and improve school environments and educational outcomes. Together, the two organizations work with over 100 schools and reach over 30,000 students, with a broad range of federal, state and city contracts as well as private support. The new affiliation will enable the mission-aligned organizations to increase their collective footprint of New York City schools, reach more children, provide a broader array of programs, and make a deeper impact on the lives of students and their families across the five boroughs. The partnership will expand both organizations delivery of programs to children in under-resourced schools across New York City. Both nonprofits will retain their brands and identities, and Margaret Crotty, CEO of Partnership with Children, will lead both organizations. They will benefit from operational excellence and shared resources such as executive, administrative, financial, and HR functions. Partnership with Children is proud to collaborate with The Center for Arts Education as a thought leader in its field. Its foundational principal that the arts can reach young people in a unique way and can transform the culture of a school is very much aligned with PWCs efforts to build community schools and ensure that no child slips through the cracks, Crotty said. Together, we will provide even deeper programming in schools, engage students and families, and partner with principals as a leading provider in the community school movement. We couldnt be more thrilled to announce our affiliation with Partnership with Children, a deeply respected nonprofit that has, for over a century, strengthened schools and enhanced students emotional, social and cognitive skills, said Jill Braufman, Chair of the Board at CAE. PWCs impressive executive leadership and financial and administrative management will allow CAE to grow as the leading provider of high-quality arts programming in schools, and to help more students reach their full potential. Partnership with Children was founded in 1908 and has a long history of placing social workers and community school directors in schools to improve young peoples social-emotional and cognitive skills, and to ensure that schools are safe and conducive to learning. Guided by neuroscience, PWCs staff are embedded fulltime in schools to provide consistent, trauma-informed care, oversee enrichment programming, and work with school staff and families. Its whole child programs increase attendance, promotion and graduation rates, and student achievement rates. For over two decades, CAE has brought comprehensive and effective arts education and professional development to students, teachers and administrators in pre-K-12 schools across New York City. CAE will stay true to its brand, providing innovative programs that increase skills in arts disciplines and improve learning across multiple subject areas. CAE will remain committed to ensuring that all New York City public school students receive the quality arts instruction they deserve. http://www.partnershipwithchildren.org http://www.centerforartsed.org Shoppers have flooded to drugstores to stock up on hand sanitizer as the coronavirus outbreak in the United States has worsened, leaving shelves barren of the product for those who weren't quick off the mark. How to make homemade hand sanitizer Place 2/3 cup of rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol) in a bowl Add 1/3 cup of aloe vera gel and mix well Add 5-10 drops of essential oil and mix again Ensure alcohol equals to 60% of mixture Use a funnel to transfer to a liquid soap container Ensure container is tightly sealed Ethanol can be used instead of rubbing alcohol Alternative non-alcohol methods swap one tablespoon of witch hazel and half a teaspoon of tea tree oil for the rubbing alcohol Advertisement In the past week, demand for hand sanitizer has soared 1,400% with some stores limiting the amount of a customer can purchase at one time and others jacking up prices looking to make a profit off the global panic. Amazon has banned 10,000 users for price gouging as the panic buying intensifies. While public health experts are advising that routinely and effectively washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to warn off coronavirus germs, there are ways to make your own hand sanitizer for those times when you just can't get to a sink. 'Homemade hand sanitizers are just as effective as what you buy as long as you used the right percentage of alcohol,' Dr. David Agus told CBS MoneyWatch. 'This is a good way to get around people price-gouging for Purell.' In order for any good home hand sanitizer to work, it needs to be compromised of at least 60 percent alcohol. Recommended for use is rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol) while ethanol will also make a suitable variation. In order to protect your skin, aloe vera gel is added to the rubbing alcohol and a few drops of essential oil will give it a nicer smell. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Hand sanitizer can be made at home by using rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel Empty shelves of sanitizing wipes in the Walgreens in Boston as concerned shoppers stock up There have been eleven deaths in Washington state and California as a result of the virus To make your own hand sanitizer, take 2/3 cup of rubbing alcohol and mix in a large bowl with 1/3 cup of aloe vera gel and 5-10 drops of the essential oil of your choice. A two-ounce spray bottle or a liquid soap container can be used to hold the mixture to take on your commute or leave in your home or office. If made properly and sealed tightly in its container, a homemade hand sanitizer can last for weeks. 'If you make it well, it's about as effective as using soap and water,' Dr. Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York, told CBS. 'We know it works just make sure it has enough alcohol in it.' While health experts say that DIYers should ensure the solution is at least 60 percent alcohol, some claim an alcohol-free version can be made using witch hazel and tea tree oil. Rubbing alcohol should be mixed with aloe vera gel and a few drops of an essential oil Rubbing alcohol, aloe vera gel and a few drops of essential oil are mixed together If properly made and sealed, homemade sanitizer can be kept for several weeks In this case, one cup of aloe vera gel should be mixed with one tablespoon of witch hazel, half a teaspoon of tea tree oil, a drop of vitamin E oil and a few drops of an essential oil. The witch hazel is said to be a non-drying cleanser while tea tree oil will take on germs. The Vitamin E oil is used to add moisture. According to Miryam Warham, a biology professor at William Paterson University, hand washing is still the best method to rid yourself of germs. By washing your hands you are removing all germs from your skin. Hand sanitizer aims to kill the germs but does not remove them. 'Handwashing is the most important first step, and you shouldn't be bashful about it,' Wahrman told Business Insider. The death toll from the coronavisrus in the United States has now reached eleven people. At least 137 people have been diagnosed. Amazon says it has banned 10,000 sellers attempting to price-gouge on bottles of hand sanitizer and other cleaning products as stocks run low amid the coronavirus outbreak There have now been over 3,200 deaths related to the virus globally and over 93,000 infected. The Center of Disease Control continues to advise people to wash their hands regularly with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds, or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, to prevent the spread. Hand sanitizer does not kill all viruses but is effective against the coronavirus. On Wednesday, Amazon banned 10,000 users for price gouging and removed one million products for making spurious health claims amid the global coronavirus outbreak. Unscrupulous online traders have tried to cash in on the health emergency as stocks of hand sanitizer and face masks have run low in stores amid panic-buying. Two-packs of Purrell hand sanitizer, which typically sell for $12, were marked up at $119.99 on Amazon this week as people tried to protect themselves from the virus. A company spokesman told ABC: 'There is no place for price gouging on Amazon.' Before most Americans even heard of the coronavirus, Avi Schiffmann was closely tracking it. When the high school junior, who lives near Seattle, learned of the mystery virus spreading in China, he decided to build a website that would monitor cases and provide facts about it. It has become wildly popular as the world has braced for the epidemic: Since Christmas, the site has had more than 3 million unique visitors. I thought it would be cool if there was a website that could pull in all the information from all kinds of (sources), he told TODAY Parents. I mainly wanted to create something that would show the data as accurately as possible because there has been a lot of misinformation. Avi Schiffman isn't particularly excited about health analytics. Instead, the high school junior is always looking for challenging projects that help him hone his coding skills. (Courtesy Avi Schiffmann) The site collects data from various sources, such as local health departments, and cross checks the data with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The dashboard includes quick facts, including total number of confirmed cases, number of confirmed cases outside China, number of deaths, number of people recovered and total countries with coronavirus. Schiffmann a self-taught coder who participates in hackathons and hopes to "create something really big" one day created a program that updates these numbers every 10 minutes. While the data updates automatically, he devotes about six hours a day to improving the site. Im always adding new features. Its going to adapt as it goes along," he explained. "In the future it might be less interesting to know there are five cases in France. We might be more interested in knowing the percentage increase from last week to this week. When Avi Schiffmann isn't creating new projects to improve his coding skills, he enjoys ski racing. (Courtesy Avi Schiffmann) That constant evolution explains why Schiffmanns site includes the number of people who have recovered. He receives about 125 emails a day and heard from some who thought the site was too negative. I thought it would be cool if we could have the numbers of those who recovered, he said. It shows that it is not all negative. The recovery number is big. Story continues And, he expects to have a table with cases from every U.S. state and a vaccine tracker in the near future. He's able to keep working on it thanks to donations. (A button at the top of the site allows people to buy him a coffee.) With as much as he understands about coronavirus, he still felt worried when cases of it were reported in a nearby city in Washington state. It has been pretty scary, honestly, he said. Not many people are prepared. When Avi Schiffmann had a bug on his site that doubled the numbers of coronavirus cases, he received hundreds of panicked emails. Normally, though, people suggest tweaks to make the site easier to use. (Courtesy Avi Schiffmann) Thats one of the big things hes noticed from observing coronavirus: Many countries are poorly equipped to handle it. It is really concerning how unprepared the world is, Schiffmann said. In the future the world needs to be a lot more prepared for a pandemic. Some countries, such as South Korea, seem to be managing it better than others, such as Iran, hes noticed. A lot of countries are not really transparent with their population, he said. There are tons of countries under-reporting their numbers not to freak out their population. Avi Schiffmann (Courtesy Avi Schiffmann) While it is easy to feel panicked or focus on negatives, Schiffmann said he enjoys hearing how his site is helping other people. Most of my emails are really cool. One of my favorite emails was this guy that was traveling in Beijing and he got quarantined there and he emailed me saying how he used my site all the time to get information, Schiffmann said. There are a lot of people who use my website if they are going to travel and they want to know if they are going to be safe. It is really neat to see all that stuff. CORRECTION (March 5, 2020, 9:30 a.m. EST) : An earlier version of this story misspelled Avi Shiffmann's name. By Akbar Mammadov The Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies is hosting the 2nd International Cyber Security Week to be held in Baku between March 2 and 6. Addressing the first event of the Week - The Cyber Security Conference, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communication and High Technologies Elmir Velizadeh said that Azerbaijan is undergoing fast digital transformation. Today, digital transformation in our country is proceeding rapidly Implementation of the adopted National Strategy, Strategic Roadmap, relevant decrees and orders will provide significant results in this direction. Fibre-optic, LTE network is expanding. Preparatory work is underway for the transition to 5G, testing is ongoing, Velizadeh said. He added that there is substantial infrastructure in the country. Information systems of national importance are used in public administration, education, healthcare, energy, security, defence, justice, agriculture, banking and finance and other areas. Data centres are operating, Government Cloud is being created, and today 80 per cent of Azerbaijans population are internet users, the deputy minister said. Noting the Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe by Azerbaijan in 2008, he also said that security agencies responsible for cyber security, including the Electronic Security Service under the Ministry operate in this field. Based on international standards, 18 national standards for information security have been developed and registered. Licensing of software used by government agencies is carried out. Various conferences, workshops, pieces of training on cyber security are held. Cyber Security Week is a good example of this, he added. The deputy minister emphasized that one of the main targets of cyber attacks is personal and other confidential information. In recent years, serious steps have been taken in the European Union and other developed countries to improve the legislative framework in this area. In our country, this work is underway. The Ministry is working with relevant authorities to improve the legislative framework. Certification of work on the processing and protection of personal data is provided, as well as informing the relevant bodies and personal data subjects in case of violation of the law. We believe that these steps will contribute to the overall cyber security. He also mentioned that these issues are reflected in the draft National Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Information Security and Cyber Security for 2020-2025, which is being developed jointly with relevant authorities. Noting the key role of cyber security in the ITUs activities, ITU Regional Director for the CIS Natalia Mochu said that as a member of the ITU Council, Azerbaijan is an active partner of the organization. Cyber Security Week, organized by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, will make a valuable contribution to the exchange of knowledge and experience in this field by experts, added Natalia Mochu. Talking about the importance of the benefits of digital economics, online education and virtual communication, UNDP Resident Representative for Azerbaijan Alessandro Fracassetti expressed confidence that in a series of events that will be held during the week, valuable information on the work in the field will be obtained, and the exchange of knowledge and experience between local and international experts will be useful to overcome the digital divide and protect from cyber attacks. During his speech, President of the Azerbaijan Banks Association Zakir Nuriyev stated that the challenge facing the financial sector today is not only the introduction of high technology. Twenty-seven of the banks operating in Azerbaijan provide banking applications to their customers, and 23 banks provide mobile banking Internet services using mobile technologies. One of the challenges facing us today is to reduce the cost of new technologies that we use, the cost of services provided and their implementation in economic entities, Zakir Nuriyev added. Making a presentation on The National Cyber security Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities, co-founder of Cyber Security Group Doron Tamir noted that cyber security issues should be seen as a factor in economic growth. Cyber security knowledge should be acquired from secondary schools. The transfer of professional knowledge is an important factor in the training of highly qualified personnel. the Israeli experience, Doron Tamir said. Presenting a report on the topic Cyber security of smart cities, Regional director Trend Micro in CIS, Georgia and Mongolia German Pozankov said that by 2050, about 70% of the population will live in smart cities. Subsystems of smart cities, such as smart vehicles, smart factories and smart government can be subjected to various attacks by cybercriminals depending on their goals and objectives, he added. The Conference on Cyber security was attended by more than 250 authorized persons and industry experts: representatives of government agencies, private organizations, academia and universities, international organizations, mobile operators, banks, ICT companies, Internet service providers and operators, diplomatic corps, NGOs, civil society and the Internet community from the USA, Hungary, Israel, Belarus, Russia, India and other countries. In parallel with the conference, the Cyber Village exhibition was held, at which 15 local and international companies presented their cyber security solutions. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz For the second time in three months, the United States interdicted a boat off Yemens coast carrying Iranian-made weapons destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen. Shipping arms to Yemen is a violation of a United Nations arms embargo. The latest arms cache was seized February 9, after a team from the USS Normandy, conducting routine maritime security operations, boarded a sailing ship in accordance with international law. As U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook explained in a briefing, the cache included 150 Dehlavieh Iranian-made anti-tank missiles as well as three Iranian-designed and manufactured surface-to-air missiles: There were also Iranian-made thermal optical sights and components for the Houthis to assemble numerous waterborne improvised explosive devices. These weapons pose a very real threat to commercial navigation and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. In November, Mr. Hook noted, the U.S. Navy seized a large cache of advanced Iranian weapons and Iranian components intended for the Houthis in Yemen, including the same types of anti-tank missiles and surface-to-air missiles that were interdicted in February. Navy Captain William Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told reporters recently that extensive inspection of the weapons and weapon components determined that these weapons are of Iranian manufacture and are consistent with known Iranian weapons: The Houthis have used these Iranian-designed systems to conduct lethal attacks against civil, commercial, and military targets on the Arabian Peninsula." Special Representative Hook said the seizure by the United States of weapons caches headed for Yemen, exposes Irans duplicity: While the regime claims that it supports a diplomatic solution to the conflict, its actions prove otherwise. Guided missiles and improvised explosive devices are not the tools of diplomacy; they are the weapons of war, and they are what Iran brings to the table. The United States will continue to stand with our partners in the region to counter Irans malign activity, said Special Representative Hook. The international community should apply more pressure on Iran until it stops providing arms, training, and funding to proxy groups in the gray zone. Failing to do so, he added, will undermine peace in the region. It will embolden Iran, allow it to grow its arsenal even further, and deepen its role in ongoing conflicts. SPRINGFIELD The State Fire Marshal is reminding Illinoisans to test and replace the batteries in their smoke alarms as daylight saving time begins this weekend and they turn their clocks forward one hour. The time change serves as a bi-annual reminder to test all smoke and CO alarms in your home, said State Fire Marshal Matt Perez. If you find an alarm that is not working or is expired, replace the alarm immediately. Review your fire-escape plan with your family and hold a drill to practice your plan. The Think Blue, Live Green awareness campaign for sustainable and clean communities proudly supported by the Embassy of Sweden Monrovia and organized by Miss Boss Lady (MBL) International got underway on the weekend of February 29, 2020 with a one-day youth forum in Marshall City, Margibi County. The event brought together more than 150 students and youth from the City of Marshall, and the cadets from the Liberia Maritime Training Institute to talk about the significance of our waters, its natural and financial resources and the importance of keeping it clean in order for our communities to stay healthy. The campaign asks everyone to, think blue, and live green! Mr. Donald T. Gwaikolo, a professor from the Liberia Maritime Training Institute (LMTI), informed the students about the relevance of the different aspects of the "Think Blue, Live Green" including thinking blue: blue economy, blue ocean and blue skies; green environment and clean marine ecosystem that Liberia is endowed with. He said despite the West African nation being blessed with long Coastline unlike its neighbors, little is being done to tap on the economic advantages the country's marine resources hold. "This is because we are not "thinking blue. Mr. Gwaikolo indicated that the youth workshop will enlighten young people to begin taking actions that would help them sustainably take care of marine resources and their environment given the fact that Liberia is naturally gifted. "The long Coastline Liberia has is a reservoir of wealth, health and money if utilized," the Instructor added. According to Mr. Gwaikolo, there are many resources under the ocean that can be mined for the greater good of the country but Liberians are either not interested or aware. The team leader of MBL Group, Marcelle G. Yhap told participants that the intent of the Think Blue, Live Green initiative is to rally communities on the importance of keeping their surroundings clean since most of the trash is wasted into the ocean; hence causing pollution that result to adverse effects on marine ecosystem and the very communities that created them. "We want to make sure that Liberia has clean communities especially along the coast. A lot of our resources come from the water. We have fish and port facilities that depend on the water, we depend on water everyday, so we have to think about how we are affecting our waters" she stated. According to the MBL Group Team leader at the Youth Forum, MBL with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia is going to various communities across selected coastal areas to educate residents, students and young people about the need to keep their beaches and communities clean. She disclosed that the team will go to Grand Cape Mount and Grand Bassa Counties to conduct similar forums and beach clean-ups as part of Think Blue, Live Green awareness exercise. Marshall City, she noted, is privileged to be the first place to benefit from the initiative that would go a long way in helping young people to be aware of the danger that pollution poses to the waters around them and the environment. At the end of the day long event, the Special Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Marshall, McArthur Williams thanked MBL Group for the initiative and Swedish Embassy in Monrovia for the support that provided the young people of the coastal city the opportunity to acquire new knowledge about the management of marine ecosystem and the environment. Two large trash and recycle bins were donated to be used by the Marshall City Hall and to LMTI to store trash for proper disposal. As a part of the campaign we will be highlighting various companies and organizations who are already doing the work in line with the Think Blue, Live Green campaign, if you have any information, or would like to be a part of this movement please follow us on all social media platforms. Instagram @ThinkBlue_LiveGreen_Lib or Facebook at Think Blue, Live Green Libera and Twitter @thinkbluelib or by email at [email protected] Look out for more events! Think Blue Live Green is an awareness campaign in Liberia undertaken by MBL Group with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia to encourage youth participation and support the underserved through engagement and activities for clean and sustainable communities. To see this principle validated, you can check out Dr. Cialdinis supermarket study in which he found that saying only three per customer was twice as effective as any other promotion. Yet scarcity in professional writing is so, well, scarce that its absence is easier to illustrate than its presence. Think of your relentless notifications, your overcrowded inbox, your mounting to-do list, the blinking red badges that cry out. Within that cacophony The less we write, the more valuable our writing becomes. The key lies in a twofold approach. First, keep your casual conversations quarantined from professional channels (except with those co-workers with whom you share nonprofessional bonds). Second, discipline yourself against the very mediums we use. Armed with technologies like smartphones, Slack and Skype, its easy to operate in rapid-response mode, said Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. Each is short, but the cumulative word count wreaks havoc, she said, leaving us continually rejiggering priorities and searching for the signal in the noise. To combat this tendency, Ms. Wiseman recommends a 24-hour waiting period. When another recipient could or should answer, give that person the right of first response. If they dont respond, she said, I jump in. Not with a reply, but with clarification that Im looking to them to jump in. More than a batching tactic, ruthlessly ask yourself: Do I need to send this now? If not, do I need to send it at all? If so, does more than one person really need it? Use fewer words. Brevity, Shakespeare wrote, is the soul of wit. Or, if you prefer your aphorism a bit more down-home, Mark Twain captured the same ethos: I didnt have time to write a short letter. So, I wrote a long one instead. [March 04, 2020] Wireless Telecom Group Showcases Products for Enabling 4G/5G Satellite Communications in Innovative Demonstration at SATELLITE 2020 Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wireless Telecom Group (NYSE American: WTT ), will be showcasing its latest products and technologies across all its segments that enable 4G/5G communications for satellite networks in a demonstration at SATELLITE 2020 in Washington, DC. Satellite network providers, developers, and users face challenges of advancing communication standards coupled with an increased number of satellites sharing limited resources. The demonstration features solutions in signal generation, transport, impairment, monitoring, and measurement over a simulated satellite network, highlighting how products across all Wireless Telecom Group segments can meet end-to-end needs of advancing satellite systems to support 4G/5G communications. The in-booth demonstration features products and solutions across all Wireless Telecom Group brands: For more information, visit booth 2231 where you can speak to one of the companys engineers and see the demonstration, or visit our website at wirelesstelecomgroup.com . About Wireless Telecom Group Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton , CommAgility , Holzworth , Microlab , and Noisecom , is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems, and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, semiconductor, and medical industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across existing and emerging wireless technologies. With a product portfolio including peak power meters, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, signal processing modules, LTE PHY/stack software, power splitters and combiners, GPS repeaters, public safety components, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group supports the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.s website address is www.wtcom.com . Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Such risks and uncertainties are identified in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. Wireless Telecom Group Inc. 25 Eastmans Road Parsippany, NJ 07054 Tel: (973) 386-9696 Fax: (973) 386-9191 www.wtcom.com Marketing Contact Maria Droge: +1 (973) 386-9696 President Donald Trump has spoken on the telephone with a Taliban leader, the first known conversation between a U.S. president and a top Taliban official. Tuesday's call, which the Taliban said lasted 35 minutes, came days after the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement calling for the withdrawal of American troops - allowing Trump to make progress on a key campaign pledge to extract the U.S. from 'endless wars' and paving the way for all-Afghan talks to begin on Tuesday. Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first U.S. president believed to ever speak directly with the militant group that harbored al-Qaida before the 9/11 attacks and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. 'We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended. I think we all have a very common interest,' Trump said. 'We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.' President Donald Trump has spoken on the telephone with a Taliban leader, the first known conversation between a U.S. president and a top Taliban official Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar leaves after signing an agreement with the United States during a ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday Trump suggested the phone call was not his first. Asked if Tuesday was his first conversation with a leader of the Taliban, Trump said, 'I don't want to say that.' Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the president had spoken on the phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar. 'The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah,' Trump said. 'We had a good long conversation today and, you know, they want to cease the violence. They'd like to cease violence also.' The Taliban claimed that Trump told Baradar: 'You are a tough people and have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland. We have been there for 19 years and that is a very long time and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan now is in the interest of everyone.' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo witnessed the agreement, which was signed last Saturday in Doha, Qatar, by chief negotiators from the two sides. According to the deal, all 13,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan within 14 months if the Taliban meet their obligations to America. Those promises are tied to fighting terrorism, preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists, denouncing terrorist groups, severing past links with the likes of al-Qaida and helping fight the Islamic State group affiliate. It also envisioned talks between Afghans on both sides of the conflict starting March 10, most likely in Oslo, Norway. But so far there's no confirmation that important next step will take place. The U.S. withdrawal is not tied to Afghanistan's warring sides figuring out how to talk to each other, let alone coming to an agreement on what peace among them will look like. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad (2-L) and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (2-R) sign the US-Taliban peace agreement Already there are hurdles. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which the agreement said would happen before the start of the so-called intra-Afghan negotiations next week. The Ghani administration claims those releases will be part of negotiations. The Taliban are to release up to 1,000 Afghan government and military captives. Trump said it's still unclear what the Afghans will do when and if they sit with the Taliban and attempt to draft a peaceful political future for the nation. 'The country really has to get it ended. We've been there for 20 years. Other presidents have tried and they were unsuccessful,' he said. In addition to the tweet, the Afghan Taliban also released a statement, saying the phone call took place shortly after 9:30 a.m. EST. SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications from militant organizations, said the Taliban statement claimed the call was held in the presence of a number of members of the Taliban negotiating committee and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy who negotiated the deal. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad (L) and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shake hands during the signing ceremony According to the statement, the phone conversation was about how both sides will implement the agreement. Baradar assured Trump that if the United States honored the agreement, then the U.S. and the Taliban will have 'positive bilateral relations,' the statement said. The statement said the Taliban leader told Trump: 'Mr. President! Take determined actions in regards to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and do not allow anyone to take actions that violate the terms of the agreement thus embroiling you even further in this prolonged war.' The White House provided no additional details about what was said on the call. In the past, people have wrongly believed that President Ronald Reagan had a meeting with the Taliban. In 1983, Reagan hosted five 'Afghan freedom fighters' in the Oval Office. At the time, the U.S. was backing these Afghan fighters battling the Soviet Union. The Taliban was not formed until the 1990s. In the 1980s, the U.S. was among those who encouraged hundreds of Arab fighters to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Afghan mujahedeen, or holy warriors, against the Soviet Union's forces there. Today, many of those fighters make up the Taliban leadership, while others are in power in the U.S.-backed Afghan government. As the war came to a close in 1988, many of the Arab fighters united to follow the wealthy Saudi leader Osama bin Laden to create al-Qaida, which orchestrated the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Foreign ministers of the five countries which citizens died in the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines plane in Iran on January 8 held a conference call. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said this during a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne in Kyiv on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Along with Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, we held a conference call with our colleagues from UK, Sweden, and Afghanistan regarding the process of investigation for PS752. Our priorities remain the same: investigation, bringing those responsible to justice and fair compensation for families," Prystaiko wrote on his Twitter account. In turn, the Canadian foreign minister recalled that the International Coordination and Response Group on the plane crash near Tehran is in the process of discussing compensation. In addition, he said that another goal of the Groups activities is to investigate the tragedy transparently, including to decode the aircrafts flight recorders. A Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, January 8. There were 176 people on board nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner. ish In a historic call, US president Trump spoke to Taliban leader, urgung peace Kabul: The Taliban killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP, hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin March 10 according to a US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on Saturday, but a dispute over a prisoner swap has raised questions about whether they will go ahead. The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. US President Donald Trump spoke to deputy Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the White House has said, the first known call between an American president and the militant group. The historic telephonic conversation took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country, raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10. During the call on Tuesday, Trump emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29, the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation. The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said. He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war, the White House said. I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a very good talk, Trump told reporters. After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months. The ranks of Irelands super rich swelled by a third over the past five years. Ireland is now ranked 31st in the list of the worlds ultra-wealthy, according to the latest Wealth Report by consultant agency Knight Frank, which predicts that the number of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) anyone worth at least $30m or 27m will rise by 17% over the next five years. More than 1,343 UHNWI were counted in the country last year. The number of high net worth (HNW) people anyone worth more than $1m or 900,000 in Ireland rose by 49% between 2014 and 2019. And more than 100,000 HNW individuals were registered in Ireland last year. Ireland now has nine billionaires four more than in 2014. All three classifications are expected to rise again in the next five years the rich by 35%, the ultra-rich by 17%, and the billionaires by 33% Despite geopolitical uncertainty, the worlds super-rich grew even wealthier in 2019, their profits boosted by rising global stock markets and increased property prices. Although the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global GDP growth from 3.5% in January 2019 to just 2.9% in January 2020 a 10-year low the worlds ultra-wealthy rose by 6.4%, the report found. And the next 10 years look set to be the new roaring twenties, according to Rory Penn of Knight Frank. Asia is quickly closing the wealth gap on Europe. The company predicts that by 2024, Asia will be the worlds second largest wealth hub, with forecast five-year growth of 44%. But even with this growth, Asias UHNWI cohort will still only be half the size of North Americas, which is forecast to grow by 22% over the same period, according to the report. Globally, over the next five years, UHNWI numbers are predicted to grow by 27%. Of the top 20 fastest growing countries measured, six are located in Asia, led by India with 73% growth, five are in Europe, led by Sweden with 47% growth, and three are in Africa, led by Egypt with 66% growth. Stocks and property makes up a large portion of the super-richs wealth while geopolitical uncertainty sparked a rise in the value of safe haven assets with gold hitting a six-year high in September and, by the end of 2019, prices were some 16% higher than they had been 12 months previously. The technology industry is tipped to continue to grow as is the wellbeing or longevity industry. The longevity business has quickly moved from wacky land to serious science and within just a couple of decades we expect average life expectancy in the developed world to rise to around 110, wrote Jim Mellon, an investor and author. This is the biggest money fountain that I have ever seen. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday regularised 119 refugee colonies in the state and said their inhabitants were Indians and their citizenship "cannot be snatched away". She also asserted they need not obtain citizenship afresh. Lakhs of people, both Hindus and Muslims, had migrated to West Bengal from Pakistan during and after Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. "They all are citizens. Nobody will be able to snatch away the citizenship of the refugees. There is no need to give them fresh citizenship. You all are citizens of this country... don't be misled by the false statements of the BJP," she told a public meeting here. She said the people have residential address proof, voter card, ration card and don't need the certificate of citizenship given by the BJP. You have seen that all those (refugees) who have come from Bangladesh are all citizens ...They have got citizenship. You don't need to apply for citizenship again. "You have been casting your votes in elections, electing PM and CM, Assembly, Zila Parishad... Now they are saying that you are not citizens. You all are bonafide citizens of this country," she said. Banerjee also asserted she will not let "even a single person" to be driven out of Bengal. "You have an address, ration card, voter card, driving license. There is no need to get this new card of the BJP. Don't worry, you will always find this didi beside you. Your family is my family. I will not let anybody take away the rights of our people," she asserted. The TMC supremo said her government was doing everything for the development of backward sections like Rajbongshi, Kurmi, Kujur and Urdu Alichiki. She also accused the BJP government in Assam of excluding a large number of genuine Bengali, Rajbongshi, and Muslim citizens from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that seeks to weed out infiltrators, particularly from Bangladesh. Hitting out at the central government over the Delhi violence, the TMC boss said,"Don't forget this is Bengal. What happened in Delhi will never be allowed to happen here. We do not want Bengal to turn into another Delhi or another Uttar Pradesh." The BJP has often accused Banerjee of "Muslim appeasement" and pandering to the interests of the minority community for "vote bank politics". Later, chairing an administrative meeting, Banerjee told officers that her government has decided not to implement the CAA and the NRC or update the National Population Register (NPR). Top state officials like the chief secretary, home secretary and those of North Dinajpur district attended the meeting. Image Credits: PTI The Indian Navy, Air Force and Army reported 95 cases of suicide by their personnel in 2019, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. In a written reply, he informed the House that the Navy reported two cases, Air Force 20 cases and Army 73 cases of suicide last year. In 2018, there were 8, 16 and 83 suicide cases in the three forces, respectively, the minister said. The Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR), after conducting a number of studies since 2006, has listed domestic and personal problems, marital discord, stress and financial trouble as the major causes of suicides by armed forces personnel. In 2017, the number of suicide cases were 5, 21 and 77 in Navy, Air Force and Army, respectively, Naik added. The central government has taken several steps towards stress amelioration amongst troops like deployment of trained psychological counsellors, improvement in the quality of food and clothing, training in stress management and provision of recreational facilities, he said. "Buddy system, leave concessions, approachability of seniors, facilities for movement of troops from border areas and establishing grievance redressal mechanism at various levels are some of the other steps that have been taken," the minister added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Board changes and development partnership with DavosPharma also announced; DavosPharma will oversee the preparation of clinical supplies and regulatory clearances to advance PCLX-001 through development for Phase I clinical trials. EDMONTON, ALBERTA / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / PACYLEX PHARMACEUTICALS INC. (Pacylex), a pre-clinical pharmaceutical company, announces it raised over US$3.9M in a 2020 convertible note financing led by a group of Canadian angel investors from Edmonton. These funds will support advancing the Company's first product, PCLX-001, to clinical trials anticipated to start later this year. PCLX-001 targets hematologic cancers and is a new, first-in-class therapeutic. Pacylex previously raised approximately US $2 million in convertible note financings in 2018 and 2019 from a mix of US and Canadian angel investors. To view the full interactive multimedia news release, click here. Key Takeaways $3.9 M US to advance the Company's first product, PCLX-001, to clinical trials Rapid, now funded development - on path for IND filing within 6-9 months. DavosPharma to oversee the preparation of clinical supplies and regulatory clearances to advance PCLX-001 through development for Phase I clinical trials. About Pacylex Pacylex is a pre-clinical pharmaceutical company targeting hematologic cancers with a new first-in-class therapeutic, and is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. Pacylex's technology combines new insights from Dr. Luc Berthiaume of the University of Alberta, connecting myristoylation to cancer, with a family of high-quality myristoylation inhibitors developed for African sleeping sickness by the University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit in a program funded by Wellcome Trust. Pacylex licensed the molecules from the University of Dundee in 2015 to develop in oncology. PCLX-001 is the lead drug in a new class of NMT inhibitors, exploiting this new clinical target for cancer treatment. Pacylex plans to begin clinical studies of PCLX-001 in 2020 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and solid tumors. Pacylex is part of the Merck Invention Accelerator at TEC Edmonton and part of the current Creative Destruction Labs HealthWest 2019-2020 cohort. About Davos DavosPharma is a contract management organization engaged in pharmaceutical development for over 48 years. Through its established portfolio of strategic partners and internal expertise, DavosPharma has developed a broad scope of capabilities ranging from early discovery (medicinal chemistry, genomics, target validation, and assay development), through development operations (toxicology, pharmacology, formulation and API manufacturing) of small molecules and biologics. DavosPharma believes it is uniquely positioned to provide IND / NDA development support through its fully integrated translational turn-key approach that has enabled its pharmaceutical clients to achieve filings on a strict timeline. With biologists and chemists on staff, DavosPharma provides guidance and manufacturing capabilities for both small molecule (including cytotoxic and high potency) and biologics (antibodies, ADC's, protein and peptide therapeutics). Formulation experience includes IV, Oral, Sub Q, IP, Ocular, Dermal, Intranasal and Inhalation routes of administration. DavosPharma offers CMC, toxicology and clinical regulatory support for writing and execution of IND's and updates through NDA with the FDA. DavosPharma is responsible for the launch of over 20 commercial drugs. For more information: Michael J. Weickert CEO Michael.weickert@pacylex.com 650-218-1840 Follow Pacylex on Twitter and LinkedIn Click https://pacylex.com/ for more information about Pacylex SOURCE: Pacylex View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578994/UPDATE-Pacylex-Raises-US-39-Million-To-Advance-New-Cancer-Therapy-PCLX-001-Towards-Clinical-Trials Neanderthals may have buried and honored their dead, a new study suggests. The early human ancestors may have even used flowers in burials. Scientists recently announced their discovery in the publication Antiquity. The scientists found the bones of an adult in Shanidar Cave, in the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq. The Neanderthal, called Shanidar Z, is believed to have lived up to 70,000 years ago. The individual was possibly in his or her 40s or 50s. Scientists do not yet know the sex of the individual. The cave where the bones were found is already famous in archaeology. In 1960, archaeologist Ralph Solecki discovered the remains of 10 Neanderthals - seven adults and three children. At the time, small amounts of flower pollen were found in soil around the remains. The discovery led Solecki to propose that Neanderthals buried their dead and even had funeral ceremonies with flowers. Critics later doubted the flower burial explanation. They argued that the pollen could have been modern contamination from people, animals or insects. Shanidar Zs bones were found in soil containing ancient pollen and plant remains, suggesting the possibility of flower burials. Scientists are now further examining the materials. Scholars have argued for years about whether Neanderthals buried their dead with funeral ceremonies. Emma Pomeroy studies ancient humans at the University of Cambridge. She was the lead writer of the recent study. She said that what is important about the burial is the aim or purpose behind it. You might bury a body for purely practical reasons, in order to avoid attracting dangerous scavengers, she said. Pomeroy added that if more is done it is important because that indicates more complex, symbolic and abstract thinking, compassion and care for the dead, and perhaps feelings of mourning and loss. Shanidar Z appears to have been placed in an area cut into the soil. The area has a group of four individuals. Graeme Barker, a University of Cambridge archeologist, helped write the study. He said the cave may have been used as a burial place for a long period of time. It seems clear that Shanidar was a special place, with bodies being placed just in one part of a large cave, he said. Neanderthals were more strongly built than modern humans, or Homo sapiens. They lived in Eurasia from about 400,000 years ago until around 40,000 years ago. They then disappeared after modern humans became established. Modern non-African human populations are believed to carry small amounts of Neanderthal genetic material known as DNA. Im John Russell. Will Dunham reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story Neanderthal n. a type of early human being that existed very long ago archaeology n. science that deals with past human life and activities by studying the bones, tools, etc., of ancient people pollen n. the very fine usually yellow dust that is produced by a plant and that is carried to other plants of the same kind usually by wind or insects so that the plants can produce seeds contamination n. to make (something) dangerous, dirty, or impure by adding something harmful or undesirable to it practical -- adj. logical and reasonable in a particular situation scavenger -- n. an animal that eats waste, junk, dead animals, etc. indicate -- v. to show that (something) exists or is true abstract adj. relating to or involving general ideas or qualities rather than specific people, objects, or actions of art : expressing ideas and emotions by using elements such as colors and lines without attempting to create a realistic picture We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. Kim Kardashian has set up a meeting with President Trump to discuss criminal justice reform. According to USA Today, the reality star, 39, will meet with the leader, and three newly freed prisoners, at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the subject. The ex-prisoners, Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron, were granted clemency by the President due to the reform. Meeting; Kim Kardashian is set to meet with President Trump and three newly freed prisoners at The White House on Wednesday to discuss criminal justice reform Tynice, 36, served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs. A statement released by the White House stated the mother had 'accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has worked hard to rehabilitate herself.' Crystal, 38, served 12 years of a 19 year sentence for her role in a marijuana smuggling ring. Gamble: Kim previously revealed that she had been warned that meeting Trump would 'ruin' her career, but she has continued to have several encounters with him The statement read: 'During this time, she has mentored people working to better their lives, volunteered with a hospice program, and demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to rehabilitation.' Meanwhile, Judith, 48, served eight years of her 35-year sentence for her role as a minority-owner of a healthcare company engaged in a scheme to defraud the Federal Government. The statement said she 'spent this time working to improve her life and the lives of her fellow inmates.' Speaking out: Kim has visited the White House in the past and made speeches about a subject she is passionate about, criminal justice reform Kim previously revealed that she had been warned that meeting Trump would 'ruin' her career. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has met with him in the past, and urged him to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, who spent 21 years in prison before being released in 2018. Kim recalled: 'Once I started to learn more about the system, I realised there are so many thousands of people in her situation.' She continued: 'Everyone told me I would ruin my career if I went to the White House, but that doesn't mean anything to me. My reputation over someone's life? That didn't make any sense. 'People talk s**t all day long: I felt confident that I could handle a news story that would cycle for a day or a week, tops. 'But the chance to change someone's life? Backing out was not an option for me.' Kim visited the White House in July, thought to be about seeking justice for rapper A$AP Rocky, who was jailed in Sweden on July 3. The month before, Kim shared photos from her visit to Trump's workplace in Washington D.C. where she gave a speech about criminal justice reform issues. Legally glam! Kim is currently studying to become a lawyer, and is gearing up to take the California bar exam Kim is currently studying to become a lawyer, and is gearing up to take the California bar exam. Though Kim is not attending law school, she is eligible to take the bar through an alternative path known as 'reading the law', apprenticing through a practicing lawyer or judge. Kim revealed to Vogue back in April she had been mentoring with practicing attorneys with the hopes of taking the infamously difficult test in 2022. At the time, Kim said the legal concepts had been coming easily to her. Defendant in Russias Primorye Oceanarium embezzlement case gets 12 years in jail RAPSI 12:12 04/03/2020 MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) Andrey Poplavsky, the former CEO of a state organization established to oversee the implementation of a presidential decree on the construction of the Primorye Oceanarium, has received 12 years in a high-security penal colony for large-scale embezzlement, the Investigative Committees press service reports. Additionally, he has been fined 400 million rubles ($6 million), the statement reads. According to investigators, Poplavsky aided by Oleg Shishov, the former CEO of Mostovik construction company, and CEO of Kosandra company Alexander Kosyachenko stole a large sum of money allocated for the oceanarium construction. Earlier, investigators claimed that the amount of embezzled funds exceeded one billion rubles (over $15 million). Moreover, Poplavsky received a bribe worth over 145 million rubles ($2.2 million) from Kosyachenko and Shishov for taking over of oceanarium construction works. Poplavsky served as a director at the Direction on construction management in the Far Eastern Federal District, which was established in 2005. In March 2016, Shishov was sentenced to three years in prison for complicity in embezzlement at the Primorye Oceanarium. The businessman, whose company was involved in the construction of facilities for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testified against Poplavsky. Initially, the Primorye Oceanarium was planned to open at the beginning of the APEC 2012 summit in Vladivostok, but the commissioning date was postponed several times. Mars never ceases to push the boundaries of human imagination - one of the reasons why efforts to get a closer look of the Red Planet has been indefatigable. A photo of an unusual hole on the planet, which was discovered in 2011, was recently posted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The image depicts the dusty slopes of Mars Pavonis Mons volcano. The image was taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which currently circles the planet. Interestingly, such Martian pits appear to be relatively good candidates to contain life as they have interior caves that remain relatively protected from the planets harsh surface, NASA said in its blog earlier this week. Also Watch: NASA is now accepting applications for aspiring astronauts These holes are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers, read the blog which was published on March 1. Also read: All aboard the Starship! Elon Musk aims to send 10 lakh people to Mars by 2050 The image suggests the hole to be an opening about 35 meters across to an underground cavern which is estimated to be around 20 meters deep. While the full extent of the crater is being studied, experts speculate why is there a circular crater surrounding this hole. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and has a very thin atmosphere. It is also one of the most explored in the solar system. The environment of the Red Planet is characterised as dusty and cold, almost desert-like. Explorers have found out that billions of years ago, the planet was much wetter, warmer with the denser atmosphere. While India and the European Space Agency (ESA) have their spacecraft in orbit above Mars, NASA has three spacecraft in orbit, one rover and one lander on the Martian surface. New Delhi, March 4 : The Committee of Creditors (COC) has approved the Reliance Communications (RCom) resolution plan under which the lenders will receive 70 per cent or Rs 23,000 crore of their total outstanding dues of Rs 33,000 crore. This is the highest-ever recovery of dues by financial creditors in the telecom sector which has seen the exit or shut down of 11 out of 12 telcos since 2012. The Resolution plans of Reliance Communication (RCOM), Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL), and Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL) have been approved with an absolute majority (100 per cent) by the lenders at the COC meeting, as against the mandatory requirement of 66 per cent. The 38 lenders of RCOM will recover over 70 percent or Rs 23,000 crore of their outstanding of Rs 33,000 crore of secured debt. The Resolution Professional will file the plan with the NCLT on Thursday. Jio and UVARC were the highest bidders for RCOM assets at the COC meeting held on January 13, 2019. Jio had bid Rs 4,700 crore for the tower and fibre assets of RITL. The UVARC had bid Rs 14,000 crore for spectrum, real estate assets as well as the enterprise and datacentre businesses, held in RCom and RTL. In addition, the lenders will clawback the priority payments of Rs 4,300 crore made to Chinese lenders for Rs 1,300 crore and Indian lenders of Rs 3,000 crore. The bidders have committed to pay 30 per cent of the proceeds of Rs 7,500 crore within 90 days. The loans of Chinese lenders will reduce by nearly 65 percent by Rs 8,000 crore from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 4,000 crore. Apart from the highest-ever recovery of dues by financial creditors in the telecom sector, this would also rank amongst the highest recoveries by way of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) across sectors, as per data published by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). In the case of Bhushan Steel and Essar Steel, the recovery to lenders were 63 and 60 per cent respectively, as per IBBI website. Of the 2,542 cases admitted under IBC since December 2016, only 156 plans have been approved, 587 went to liquidation and 1,497 CIRPs are still on-going. The recovery of financial creditors in plans approved is around 41 per cent and the overall recovery is less than 10 per cent. As many as 70,000 people have been screened for the deadly coronavirus in Punjab so far, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu informed the state assembly on Wednesday. "Their test reports have been found negative," he said during the Zero Hour. The health minister further informed the House that medical teams have been deputed at the Amritsar and Mohali airports for screening of passengers. Besides, medical teams have also been deputed at the Attari-Wagah border and the Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur. "Isolation wards have been set up in all district hospitals," Sidhu said, while highlighting the state's health department's preparedness in dealing with the emergent situation. Earlier in the House, Amloh MLA Randeep Singh raised the issues related to coronavirus and expressed concern over it. He said the virus that started from China has spread to other countries including South Korea and Iran. Singh urged that thermal sensors be used at all airports for screening of passengers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden narrowly won Texas during Super Tuesdays primaries after sweeping several southern states, ending a highly successful night for his campaign. Besides Texas with its 228 delegates, the former vice president snagged nine other victories in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and Maine. Biden also bested fellow 2020 candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren in her home state of Massachusetts. However, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took California, the nights biggest prize with its 415 delegates, as well as Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the other major candidate in the race to the Democratic nomination, finished with anemic numbers. Longshot candidate Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard won no states. Only a week ago, Bidens campaign looked to be on the verge of non-viability after Sanders won the New Hampshire and Nevada nominating contests and tied with former 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg in the Iowa caucuses. However, after Bidens Super Tuesday blitz and a slew of prominent nominations, the Democratic primary is close to becoming a two-man race. Im here to report that we are very much alive, Biden told a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles Tuesday evening.. This campaign is taking off. Biden now leads Sanders in delegates, of which each candidate needs 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention in July. More from National Review JPMorgan Chase is asking 10% of its consumer bank staff to work from home as part of a test for the bank's coronavirus contingency plan, according to a report by Bloomberg. The plan, code-named "Project Kennedy" according to the report, is part of preparation for a scenario in which the bank closes its US offices because of a further coronavirus spread. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. JPMorgan Chase is requesting that thousands of its employees in the US work from home as a test-run for its coronavirus contingency plan, according to a report by Bloomberg's Michelle F Davis. The bank has asked around 10% of its consumer banking staff to work remotely as it tests the plan, which was codenamed "Project Kennedy," according to the report. Jamie Dimon, chairman & CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co Reuters The plan would prepare the bank for a possible shutdown of its US offices if the coronavirus spreads further. JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bank's test comes amid news of numerous companies around the world restricting employee travel and temporarily closing offices as part of efforts to combat the rise in cases of COVID-19, the disease spread by the novel coronavirus. In February, companies in London asked hundreds of employees to work from home, including 300 Chevron employees. Ford told Business Insider on Tuesday that it is restricting company travel globally until March 27. Business Insider's Rob Price reported on Tuesday that Google has stopped international business travel after an employee in the company's Zurich office tested positive for the coronavirus. Read the original article on Business Insider An Iranian medic treats a patient infected with the COVID-19 virus at a hospital in Tehran on Mar 1, 2020. (Photo: AFP/KOOSHA MAHSHID FALAHI / MIZAN NEWS AGENCY) Iran has scrambled to halt the rapid spread of the virus, shutting schools and universities, suspending major cultural and sporting events, and cutting back on work hours. On Tuesday it announced another 11 deaths and 835 new infections -- the biggest increase in a single day since the COVID-19 outbreak began in the Islamic republic nearly two weeks ago. "According to the latest figures, 835 new patients have been added" to the overall number of infections, Iran's stand-in deputy health minister Alireza Raisi said. "Unfortunately, we have 11 new deaths, and with this amount we have reached 2,336 new confirmed cases and a total of 77 dead," he said in remarks aired live on state television. The national emergency services chief Pirhossein Kolivand was the latest high-profile official to contract the illness, a spokesman for the services told AFP. Confirmation of his infection came a day after Tasnim news agency reported that the virus claimed the life of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 72, a member of the Expediency Council which advises Iran's supreme leader. It also comes a week after the country's original deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, fell ill with COVID-19. Harirchi admitted he had tested positive a day after he had coughed and wiped sweat from his brow during a news conference that was beamed live around the country on February 25. UK-IRANIAN PRISONER 'IN PERFECT HEALTH' But the judiciary said a jailed British-Iranian woman, whose husband said she feared she had been infected behind bars in Tehran, was "in perfect health". Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016, is serving a five-year term for sedition at Evin prison. "Yesterday she talked to her family by phone. There has been news about her recently that was fake news," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. Iran announced on Feb 19 its first two deaths from the coronavirus in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims from abroad. The country now has the highest death toll for any country outside China, where the virus has killed more than 2,900 people since late December. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to stick to hygiene guidelines to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading. "The health care guidelines for preventing infection from this virus should be observed," said Khamenei, who was seen on state television wearing gloves as he planted a tree. Khamenei said Iran was being transparent with its figures on the outbreak and accused other countries of trying to conceal them. "The #Coronavirus has affected many countries," he was quoted as saying on his official Twitter account. "Our officials have reported with sincerity and transparency since day one. "However, some countries where the outbreak has been more serious have tried to hide it. "Of course, we ask God to heal the sick in those countries too," he added. Iran on Saturday dismissed a BBC Persian report that the real number of coronavirus deaths in the country was more than 200. The United States and Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have accused Iran of concealing information about the outbreak. New Delhi: 'Sax God' is how Ranveer Singh reacted to photos of Hrithik Roshan wearing a towel as a lungi. For those who don't know, here's a refresher. Ranveer's famous out-of-the-box fashion sense seemed to have inspired Hrithik, who is currently vacationing in Dubai. In a recent post, Hrithik was seen wearing a red tee along with a white towel that he has wrapped like a lungi. "Fashion inspiration courtesy: I guess Ranveer Singh," Hrithik said in the caption, prompting hilarious reactions from his colleagues and fans. Ranveer was a day late in responding to Hrithik's post but his comment totally made it up for it. Isn't it? He also added a drooling emoticon to his comment. Take a look at how Ranveer inspired Hrithik's style statement. A look at the picture closely reveals that Hrithik has an injury on his right ankle which is covered with a bandage. His 'Super 30' co-star Mrunal Thakur expressed concern and said that she loves the funny caption and added: "What happened to your foot?" Commenting on Hrithik's post, a fan called him "Fashion icon" while another user suggested that the actor is looking nice in his "lungi" and he should try his luck in South films Meanwhile, both Ranveer and his actress wife Deepika Padukone shared a mutual admiration club for Hrithik. During the release of 'War', Deepika tweeted to say, "Hrithik in 'WAR' is like Death by Chocolate." They also partied together with other stars but pictures of them together broke the internet. The five luckiest bison in California, spared from the fate that awaits many bison in a hungry world, were getting used to their new digs in San Francisco on Tuesday. They seemed to like their historic, 7-acre spread in Golden Gate Park and were learning the lay of the land, which included not brushing up against the electrified inner fence designed to keep them from getting too cozy with their equally excited human pals. Theyre eating and theyre drinking and theyre checking each other out, said bison keeper Elizabeth Kitazono. It helps that theyre all females. Fortunately for all concerned, the five yearlings and the five other bison who already occupy the enclosure have been spared the nuisance of having males around, a situation known to alter dynamics among mammals, regardless of species. The new bison, the first addition to the park herd since 2012, have been lying low since catching a truck from an undisclosed Northern California commercial bison ranch last week along with catching the biggest break that a bison can catch. They were selected for the good life in San Francisco instead of qualifying to be the raw materials of what one ranch was billing on its recipe list as grilled bison skewers and savory bison oven roasted meatballs. Kitazono, an animal keeper at the San Francisco Zoo, said the non-breeding bison herd was low maintenance compared with the rhinoceroses she also looks after at the zoo. Bison care falls under the auspices of the zoo, even though the bison enclosure is located in the park. Cleaning up after the rhinos in their zoo enclosure, the keeper said, involves plenty of shovels and wheelbarrows. Their expansive pen on Kennedy Drive isnt regularly shoveled, a policy Kitazono found no fault with. Now Playing: Five new bison have been introduced to the already existing herd at Golden Gate Park. Video: Manjula Varghese Being vegans, the bison should fit right in with their new town. One flake of hay per animal per day, Kitazono said. About a third of a bucket of grain. They do their own thing. Thats easy. The new arrivals weigh about 550 pounds each, about half their anticipated adult weight. They were purchased for the city through a gift from Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum. The Democratic senator is not up for re-election in California until 2024, when the bison will be full grown. Buying bison runs deep in that particular family in 1984, Blum donated other bison in his wifes honor, too. Bison have been in Golden Gate Park since 1892 and, given their lifespan of about 24 years, there has been a fair amount of turnover. The original bison was named Sarah Bernhardt, and later arrivals were known as William McKinley and Grover Cleveland presidents who hardly ever get things named for them any longer. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. More recent bison were named for Shakespearean characters and Native Americans. Two of the current crop answer to Bellatrix and Buttercup. Another B bison a sweet critter named Brunhilda died last year of kidney failure. The five new arrivals and what keepers were calling the five old ladies will be separated by a fence for a month. If all goes well, they will come together as one big family just in time for the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park on April 4. A bison is often called a buffalo by the uninformed. Bison, native to the United States, have bigger heads and humps on their backs. Buffalo, native to Asia and Africa, have bigger horns. A bison is the critter featured on the flip side of the old coin known as a buffalo nickel, back when a nickel was good for something. The confusion is not going away any time soon. Zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan said the two terms were interchangeable even though buffalo was a misnomer. Meanwhile, on its website, Golden Gate Park has diplomatically, or slyly, taken to calling the animals buffalo paddock bison. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF Former New York City mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg during the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington on Jan. 22, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Bloomberg Drops Out of 2020 Race, Endorses Biden After Costly Campaign Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg withdrew from the Democratic presidential race on March 4, hours after finishing well behind in states that voted on Super Tuesday. Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump, Bloomberg, 78, said in a statement. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trumpbecause it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult. In announcing his withdrawal, Bloomberg endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, for the Democratic nomination. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), 59, also endorsed Biden after ending their bids in recent days. Bloomberg, who has an estimated net worth of $61 billion, spent more than $500 million of his own money on his campaign after announcing his entry into the field in late 2019. He sought to provide voters with a moderate option to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 78, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 73, but failed to convince people that he was a better choice than Biden, whose messaging has in part focused on his differences with Sanders. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden, Bloomberg said in the statement, saying Biden is honest and decent. Biden, Bloomberg added, is committed to the issues that are so important to our countryincluding gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs. The withdrawal leaves Biden and Sanders fighting for the nomination, absent a brokered convention, which is triggered if no candidate gets a majority of delegates leading up to the convention or in the first round of voting by delegates. Candidates need at least 1,991 delegates to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention July 1316 in Milwaukee. Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles on March 3, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is joined by his family onstage during a rally in Essex Junction, Vt., at the Champlain Valley Expo on March 3, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Biden collected a narrow victory in Texas and several decisive wins on Super Tuesday, although Sanders won some states, including California. Biden now has 548 delegates, according to RealClearPolitics data, leading Sanders, who has 486. Warren is a distant third with 56. Bloomberg earned 50, including five for winning in American Samoa, before his exit. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), 38, earned her first delegate on March 3, also from American Samoa. Biden won nine states on Super Tuesday, including Alabama, Texas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Sanders took Colorado, Vermont, and Utah in addition to California. No other candidate won a Super Tuesday state. Biden previously took South Carolina after Sanders won Nevada and tied with Buttigieg for first in New Hampshire. Buttigieg won by a slim margin over Sanders in Iowa. The next primaries are slated from March 10, when voters in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington state head to the polls. New Delhi: Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are ramping up their production and optimising distribution channels to meet the rising demand for hand sanitisers amid the coronavirus outbreak. Some FMCG firms are also educating consumers by engaging their brands to communicate with the consumers, through special campaigns on digital and mainstream media, to make them aware about the benefits of regular hands wash as prevention for coronavirus. The companies have assured that they have enough stocks to tackle the situation. "We have ramped up our production capacity. We are also trying to ramp up through our vendors also," Godrej Consumer Products Ltd CEO (India and SAARC) Sunil Kataria told PTI. However, he also added that hand santisers are premium products in India. "The way we have to address this problem is through that we all need to communicate the right education to the people and send messages to the consumers that best precaution and prevention from coronavirus is regularly washing hands," he added. GCPL, which had Godrej Protekt brand in the segment, has started a digital campaign to create awareness about it. ITC, which is present in the segment through its brand Savlon, said it is ensuring that there is an adequate supply of hygiene products in the market. "ITC is ensuring adequate supply of Savlon hygiene products in the market. Savlon continues to focus on enhancing awareness about hand hygiene and urges consumers to maintain good hygiene practices," according to an ITC spokesperson. FMCG major HUL, which is present in the segment with Lifebuoy hand sanitisers, is also ensuring its products' availability to the consumers. "Given the surge in demand for hygiene products, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure that consumers have access to products that keep them safe such as Lifebuoy hand sanitisers and hand wash," said an HUL spokesperson. While Dabur is running a series of awareness campaigns across digital platforms and social and mainstream media to educate the public about how to keep themselves safe from coronavirus. "Our key healthcare brands such as Dabur Chyawanprash, ImmunoDab and Giloy Ghanvati are running informative campaigns to drive awareness about staying protected from such illnesses," said Dabur India Marketing Head (Healthcare) Mukesh Mishra. Mishra also said the company is also organising a question-and-answer session, particularly for mothers, with ayurvedic doctors on digital media platforms to address their queries regarding coronavirus and how to keep their families protected from it. However, FMCG major RB India (erstwhile Reckitt Benckiser), which is one of the leading player in the segment with its brand Dettol, has declined to comment on the issue. Hand sanitisers have vanished from general shop and chemist shops in many areas of the national capital and adjoining towns as people resorted to panic buying amid the coronavirus outbreak. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders solidified themselves as the Democratic Partys top candidates after 14 states all voted for their choices on Super Tuesday, setting up a one-on-one race for the partys presidential nomination and the opportunity to run against President Donald Trump in the November general election. Bidens campaign rebounded mightily: With the wind of Saturdays big South Carolina win at his back, he won at least seven states as of Tuesday night, with more results still being counted. Sanders, who came into Tuesday with wins in Nevada and New Hampshire, won at least three states. No other candidate, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, won a state, though Bloomberg did win America Samoas caucus. The close results between Biden, 77, and Sanders, 78, sets up a race between the Democratic Partys more moderate center and its more progressive left as the rest of the primary season plays out in 32 states over the next three months. We were told when we got to Super Tuesday that it was going to be over, Biden told supporters in California on Tuesday. Well, now it might be over for the other guy. RELATED: See Whos Winning Super Tuesday and Getting Closer to Facing Trump in the Election Getty (4) From left: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren Biden, who has built his campaign on the argument that he is the most electable candidate to face Trump and return the country to the legacy of President Barack Obama, made a strong push to overtake Sanders this week following his momentous win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Crucially, to some observers, that double-digit victory was followed up by endorsements from former rivals Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who dropped out of the race after South Carolina. The former vice presidents renewed success comes after poor showings in the first two primaries coming in fourth place in the Iowa Caucus and a distant fifth in the New Hampshire primary. Story continues But Biden picked up momentum with a second-place finish in Nevada, behind Sanders. Its looking good, Biden said Tuesday night. Im here to report: We are very much alive. Sanders lost his lead over Biden in the national polls, according to RealClearPolitics, as votes were still being counted Tuesday night. The Sanders campaign is now looking to regain momentum surrounding his campaign as nearly three dozen states still wait to hold their primaries. We are not only taking on the corporate establishment, we are taking on the political establishment, Sanders, who built his presidential ambitions on bold policy proposals to address health care, education and more, told supporters in Vermont. It is our movement that is best positioned to beat Trump, Sanders said. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics. RELATED: Who Is Still Running for President in 2020 Win McNamee/Getty Images From left: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden at a February debate The next Democratic primary contests will be held Tuesday, when Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington all vote. Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Ohio hold their state primaries the following Tuesday, March 17. Primaries for the remaining states will continue to take place until early June, ahead of the mid-July Democratic National Convention where the party will officially nominate its candidate to run against Trump for the presidency. The eventual Democratic nominee will need at least 1,991 delegates to earn the nomination. More than 1,300 of those were up for grabs across 14 states on Super Tuesday. Sanders turned his attention to Biden on Tuesday night without directly naming his competitor, telling supporters: This [race] will become a contrast in ideas. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq youre looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. Biden did the same, telling supporters that they should elect a proud Democrat, while both candidates predicted they would win the Democratic nomination and defeat President Trump in November. But the Trump campaign waved off the Democratic candidates rally against the president, who spent Tuesday night making fun of billionaire Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg on Twitter and repeating a racist nickname referring to Warren. President Trump will wipe the floor with whatever Democrat is unlucky enough to be the nominee, campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement Tuesday night. See the updated results from Super Tuesday here. As India strengthens its defences to fight the spread of coronavirus, three more suspected cases of the disease have been reported across the country. An Indian couple, working in a Singaporean cargo ship, was on Tuesday admitted to a hospital in Odisha after the man developed mild fever on his arrival at Paradip port from China where the coronavirus death toll has reached 2,943, news agency PTI reported. The authorities of the Paradip port referred the couple from Uttar Pradesh to the SCB Medical College Hospital (SCBMCH) in Cuttack after their screening, PTI further said. The cargo ship with 23 crew members, including the couple, started their voyage from China on February 15 and arrived at Paradip Port on March 1. The ship also travelled to South Korea and Singapore en route. Since the ship travelled through some countries hit by the deadly novel coronavirus, the couple has been referred to the SCBMCH, Port Hospitals chief medical officer Prahallad Panda said. Before shifting them to the SCBMCH, the man and his wife had been quarantined in the ship itself, he added. In Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Tuesday said that a suspected case of coronavirus has come to their knowledge. Its not right to jump to conclusions. Tests will be done, factual position will be clear only after his (suspected patients) reports come in. We have come to know that the person is from Bilaspur, Thakur said while speaking to the reporters. So far, six positive cases of deadly coronavirus (Covid-19) have been reported in India, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the ministry, the fresh cases of Covid-19 have been reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan where an Italian national has been found positive with the infection in Jaipur. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala - who have now recovered and discharged from hospital. Coronavirus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then spread to several countries across the world. The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an international health emergency. WASHINGTON - The mother of a U.S. Navy veteran imprisoned in Iran is calling on the Tehran government to release her son immediately, saying she is concerned for his well-being because of the coronavirus thats been blamed for dozens of deaths in Iran. She also wants the Trump administration to step up its pressure. If somethings not done, hes going to die over there, Joanne White said in an interview with The Associated Press. It breaks my heart when I think about my son being mentally tortured. Her son, Michael White of Imperial Beach, California, has cancer and has been imprisoned since July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Irans supreme leader and posting private information online, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Joanne White said she had recently learned that her son had been transferred for a short period at the end of January to Irans Evin prison before being returned to the jail where hed been earlier held. A lawyer for Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American held at Evin prison, has said a prisoner in Namazis ward tested positive for coronavirus, possibly exposing other prisoners in the cell. Its unfathomable that Michael will not contract coronavirus if he hasnt already, said Jon Franks, a spokesman for the White family. They cant even keep their own government regime officials safe. The White family is also seeking proof that Michael White is alive after Iranians cancelled a visit that Swiss officials had scheduled with White this week. It is also long past time for the administration my son so proudly voted for to to something to bring him home, Joanne White said in a statement. ____ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP Local kids pose for a group photo at the opening ceremony of the Parapeti Bridge on the under-construction El Espino-Charagua-Boyuibe Highway in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Feb. 7, 2020. Nearly 50 percent complete, according to the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC), the 160-km El Espino-Charagua-Boyuibe Highway will directly link the country's eastern departments of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija with each other and with neighboring Paraguay and Argentina. (Xinhua/Xin Yuewei) MEXICO CITY, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- An ambitious China-backed roadway project in Bolivia will make it faster and easier to transport local goods regionally and internationally, boosting production and benefiting Bolivians, South Americans and eventually Chinese consumers across the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 50 percent complete, according to the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC), the 160-km El Espino-Charagua-Boyuibe Highway will directly link the country's eastern departments of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija with each other and with neighboring Paraguay and Argentina. As a flagship project within the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the El Espino highway program in Bolivia is a prominent symbol of how win-win cooperation between China and Latin America helps all sides make progress and realize common development in an effort to build a community with a shared future for mankind. It is also a concrete proof of the viability and potential of the BRI to stimulate the world economy through increased trade, enhanced infrastructure and expanded integration. The El Espino highway is a high-impact infrastructure project that has brought benefits to communities along the route by hiring local work force, the ABC's regional manager for Santa Cruz, Enrique Concepcion, has said. In the lead-up to this week's opening ceremony of the 306-meter-long Parapeti Bridge, one of the highway's four longest bridges, Concepcion said multiple regions and industries would stand to benefit from the project. "Once the roadway is finished, it will reduce travel time from Santa Cruz to the towns of Charagua and Boyuibe, connecting the departments of Chuquisaca and Tarija, and internationally with Paraguay and Argentina, in addition to spurring regional agriculture and cattle-ranching, as well as tourism," Concepcion said. As an international public good based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation, the BRI is a welcome formula for Latin America. Today, China has become the second-largest trade partner of Latin America, and Chinese enterprises have created over 1.8 million jobs in the region. Products from Latin America and the Caribbean region, such as Mexican avocado, Chilean cherry, Ecuadorian shrimp and Bolivian organic quinoa, have been enjoying huge popularity in China, which is in a new era of opening-up and forging closer ties with other countries. From highways to ports, from high-tech products to financial services, cooperation between Latin America and China in various fields has brought benefits to the two peoples. Just as Brazilian economist Elias Jabbour has said, as one of the engines of the global economy, "China has the economic and financial conditions to bring prosperity to Latin America." Though geographically far apart from each other, China's efforts to localize the BRI in Latin America and the Caribbean region have been widely recognized by local people and the El Espino highway program is just a telling example of their cooperation. As Guillermo Holzmann, political analyst and professor with the University of Chile and the Adolfo Ibanez University, has pointed out, China behaves pragmatically in Latin America ... without intervening in the internal politics of Latin American countries and without exerting pressure. The El Espino highway is a road for development, but far beyond a road. The win-win cooperation between China and Latin America within the framework of jointly building the BRI will surely serve as a model for South-South cooperation, injecting new impetus to building a community with a shared future for mankind. Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, recognized as one of the best business leaders of all time, passed away this week. He will be missed by many. I had the privilege of working for Jack and GE for 15 years. He drove his employees hard counseling out the bottom 5 percent of performers every year. Some called this harsh. But it was right for the company, its shareholders, and the employees who were not going to succeed there. Any organization that doesnt complete rigorous reviews to prevent excess cost from seeping in will ultimately fail. And Jack knew that. Jack put the interests of his shareholders above all else. He felt a moral responsibility to those who entrusted him with the money for their childrens education, the weddings they hoped were coming someday, or the savings they were counting on for their retirement. Jack knew the value of saying no. He knew that sometimes doing nothing was much better than doing something that would hurt the company he loved so much. For Jack it wasnt about tolls, taxing groceries, or raising the minimum wage. It was about mergers, acquisitions, or new product launches. And some of his best calls were saying no because he knew it would be bad for GE and bad for his shareholders. Jack insisted on a suit and tie every day. If you dress casually, you work casually. And he didnt want that. He wanted you to respect the company, and dressing casually was disrespectful. He demanded discipline. He demanded order. He demanded results. Headquartered in Fairfield, Jack took advantage of what Connecticut used to offer. He brought thousands of jobs to workers attracted to a state with great schools, rising home values and zero income taxes. People were pleased to be part of the prosperity of GE and a growing, vibrant Connecticut. So, what can Connecticut learn from the Welch legacy? With a $20 billion annual budget and 50,000 state employees, Connecticut is the equivalent size of a Fortune 500 Company. Taxpayers are, in effect, the states shareholders and Gov. Ned Lamont is our CEO. Why doesnt our state government feel the same responsibility to us that Jack Welch felt for his shareholders? Out-of-control spending, protection of special interest voting blocks and broken campaign promises are all issues the shareholders of Connecticut have been forced to endure with little recourse to correct. Residents cant sell their stock in Connecticut or stop paying taxes. They cant remove the CEO. They cant even influence the salaries or benefits of their own representatives. So, what are they doing? They are voting their feet Connecticut has the third highest migration rate out in the country. What can our CEO, Gov. Lamont do to stop the exodus and rescue his shareholders? First, recognize that he has a responsibility to all the citizens of Connecticut, not just those who agree with him. Jack never distinguished between his shareholders. Whether they were Democrats, Independent or Republicans, liberal or conservative, they had entrusted him with their assets. He had an obligation to listen to every one of them. Gov. Lamont is entitled to disagree with the positions of notollsct.org, but he simply cant call his own constituents a grass roots movement to do nothing. State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, can disagree with a religious exemption on vaccines, but he simply cant call its supporters the most aggressive, hostile, rudest, and threatening group of people he has ever experienced. Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz can disagree with towns such as Enfield that voted in no tolls resolutions, but hes simply cant call them morons. Its disrespectful, embarrassing and beneath the dignity expected from our governor or any state elected official to do so. Can you imagine if Jack Welch called a major shareholder a moron or complained they were too noisy? He would never get away with it. Why should our public officials be allowed to? Second, be a true fiduciary of the states assets. Connecticut takes tens of billions of dollars from residents every year. Our elected officials have an obligation to be as efficient with this money as they can possibly be. Lavish dinners by the Port Authority, $300,000 roles to lead the Dalio Education partnership, and a new, gas guzzling SUV for state Attorney General William Tong are a direct insult to the taxpayers funding these outrageous and irresponsible costs. And finally, show some true leadership. Jack Welch took a position and stood by it. He didnt waffle, vacillate or change his mind. He had a moral compass that always guided his decisions. This built confidence and loyalty with employees, customers and shareholders of GE. Jack is gone, but his principles around leadership endure. We need to apply them now, before the stock of our great state falls any further. Bob Stefanowski was the Republican candidate for governor in Connecticut in 2018. Amid the threat of Covid-19, Jodhpur District Collector Prakash Rajpurohit on Wednesday issued an advisory to tourists and hotel owners ahead of Holi festival. "To prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Holi celebrations where a huge gathering of domestic and international tourists is expected are to be cancelled," said the advisory. Regarding hotel owners, the Jodhpur District Collector said that a proper check of every foreign tourist must be done. "Tourists coming from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Nepal need to contact Chief Medical and Health Officer in Jodhpur for immediate screening process," he added. Besides, Rajpurohit said that the hotel owners need to ensure proper sanitisation as per the state government norms. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, March 4 : The government has received Rs 15,896.5 crore payment from telecom companies towards AGR liabilities, with dues of Rs 1,30,440.4 crore remaining, Parliament was told on Wednesday. Responding to a question if the government intends to propose a plan for future development in the telecom sector in view of the huge Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) fees required to be paid by telcos, Minister of State for Communications Sanjay Dhotre told the Lok Sabha that said there is "no such plan at present". To reports regarding shutting down of Vodafone Idea, he said that there is no such information with the government. On whether the government proposes to initiate any action over non-compliance of order on payment of dues by telcos, Dhotre pointed out that the Centre had directed the licensees to make the payments in accordance with October 24 order of the Supreme Court. "As per license agreement, the Government takes action against licensees including Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) over non-compliance of Supreme Court order dated October 24, 2019 on payment of dues of Department of Telecommunication," he said. Detailing out payments made by telecom companies to the DoT towards statutory dues, Dhotre informed that against the provisional total dues of Rs 1,46,336.9 crore, payment to the tune of Rs 15,896.5 crore have been received. The balance dues are about Rs 1,30,440.47 crore, the minister said. However, the number does not appear to reflect the latest tranche of payment made by Bharti Airtel on February 29. It has placed Bharti Airtel's payments (including Telenor) at Rs 10,000 crore, with balance dues at Rs 27,740crore. Reliance Communication/Reliance Telecommunication have made payment of Rs 3.96 crore, with remaining dues pegged at Rs 21,135.6 crore. Dhotre informed that Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 3,500 crore, putting the balance dues at Rs 49,538 crore. The due amounts may be revised once AGR figures are finalised and assessments are accordingly done and also subject to C&AG Audit/Special Audit, it said. According to the information presented, Tata Group has paid Rs 2,197.3 crore, and its balance dues are at Rs 11,625 crore. In case of Reliance Jio, the payment of Rs 195.18 crore received and exceeded dues of Rs 60.52 crore, the information showed. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mananagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have not made any payments towards their liabilities.The balance dues of BSNL remains at Rs 4,989.4 crore and of MTNL at Rs 3,122.8 crore. Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) such as GAIL, Oil India and others represented to Department of Telecom that the AGR judgment is not applicable on them and therefore they do not owe any dues to the department. The Supreme Court has detached the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) from the AGR judgement of October, 2019 and directed them to seek relief from appropriate forum , he said. He said that the government abides by the Supreme Court order dated February 14. INVITATION We are pleased to invite you to a presentation of Contextvision AB and its 4th quarter and full year 2019 figures and give an update on the ongoing projects. The meeting will be held at the offices of Norne Securities AS (Oslo Office), Roald Amundsens gt. 6, Oslo. Tuesday, March 10th at 11.30 Lunch will be served We are very encouraged by Context Vision's developments during 2019 and look forward to give an update of the major achievements. Fredrik Palm, CEO, and Ann-Charlotte Linderoth, CFO, will represent the management. You are welcome to ask questions during or after the presentation. You are most welcome! Best regards, Fredrik Palm CEO, ContextVision AB Please sign up for participation at the presentation by e-mail: ann-charlotte.linderoth@contextvision.se The presentation is free, but we need your registration on March 9th by the latest. Please visit www.contextvision.com for more information about the company or to subscribe to press releases and financial information. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Attachment (TNS) A few years back, San Diego approved a plan to install energy-saving, and money-saving, LED street lights.San Diego was deploying what was billed as the world's largest smart-city platform, powered by thousands of cutting-edge, data-gathering sensors. The plan was to track movements of cars and people, particularly in busy urban areas. Deeper understanding of mobility could follow. Parking and traffic might be eased. Apps could be developed.All that data-gathering required the installation of cameras on what is so far a little more than 3,000 streetlights, covering about 5 percent of the city's public rights-of-way. For the public, that information came as a surprise as did the revelation that police had access to the footage.Many critics didn't trust the system. They feared the existence of a mass surveillance network, which some said could lead to targeting communities of color and potential civil rights abuses. And they've raised questions about where the cameras were installed, how those locations were selected and whose movements are most likely to be recorded.Police officials have said that the cameras are not live monitored, that they are accessed in limited instances. The city said the locations were selected for mobility traffic, pedestrian, parking, bicycle and environmental factors, and that the selection had nothing to do with the makeup of the neighborhoods they were in.The Union-Tribune analyzed demographics in areas where San Diego's smart streetlights are located, including nearly 230 that have been accessed by police since summer 2018.While the streetlight cameras were well distributed among the city's racial and economic populations, the analysis showed a greater proportion of black residents and poor residents live in neighborhoods where smart streetlights have been accessed by police.In an effort to better understand the demographics of the neighborhoods containing smart streetlights, the Union-Tribune mapped each light and noted which census block group it fell within. Block groups, as opposed to much larger census tracts, are small geographic zones generally with populations between 600 and 3,000 people as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.Data show that more than 946,000 people about two-thirds of San Diego's total population live in a block group where the city has placed a smart streetlight camera.Among the city residents who live near a camera, about 46 percent are white, 25 percent are Hispanic, 18 percent are Asian and 6 percent are black. The remaining 5 percent are Native American, Pacific Islander or another race.San Diego's total population is about 42 percent white, 30 percent Latino, 17 percent Asian, 6 percent black, and 5 percent other races. Considering these totals, white residents are slightly over-represented and Hispanic residents are slightly under-represented in neighborhoods where the smart streetlights are located.The Union-Tribune also found that the distribution of streetlight cameras matched the city's distribution of household incomes.There's a much denser concentration of camera-equipped streetlights in downtown San Diego than anywhere else in the city. There is a reason for that, according to Erik Caldwell, deputy chief operations officer for the city's Smart and Sustainable Communities division.The cameras are part of a system that uses artificial intelligence to track data. In downtown San Diego, the city wanted granular information about parking and mobility. That meant the cameras needed to be in close proximity to one another, in some cases less than 100 feet apart.There are 12 census block groups in which the city placed more than 50 street lights. All 12 are downtown.There are about 31,000 people living in those areas. Of that number, about 56 percent are white, 23 percent are Latino, 9 percent are Asian, 8 percent are black and 4 percent are other races.San Diego police praise the cameras as a game-changer for investigating serious or violent crimes. In several cases when police accessed the cameras, arrests have followed.Police have credited the cameras with helping them to quickly identify a suspect in a shooting last year that killed one employee and injured two others at an Otay Mesa Church's Chicken restaurant. The cameras helped clear a man under investigation for a downtown homicide, after the footage revealed the killing had happened in self-defense.Through the middle of last month, investigators had accessed the cameras in 246 cases. Sometimes multiple cameras in an area are accessed as part of one case.Based on information provided by police, the Union-Tribune mapped the approximate locations of all but 22 of those incidents. Police did not disclose information in 19 cases, citing ongoing investigations. Another three sites provided by police listed only a street name, so the location of the incident couldn't be placed in a census block.About 262,000 people live in the areas where police have accessed the streetlight cameras. Of those residents, 9 percent are black, compared with the city's overall black population of 6 percent.Hispanic or Latino residents are also somewhat over-represented in these areas. Thirty-three percent of residents who live in areas with streetlights that have been accessed by police are Latino, compared with the city's Latino population of 30 percent.White people make up about 42 of San Diego's population, and Asians make up 17 percent. In areas where police accessed cameras, about 39 percent of the residents are white and 16 percent are Asian.Other races account for 5 percent of the city's residents. In areas where police accessed cameras, those other races make up 4 percent.Police have accessed cameras across the city, including many in downtown San Diego. In an area near the convention center, police have accessed cameras 12 times. In an area in downtown's Core-Columbia community, sandwiched between Ash Street and Broadway, investigators have accessed cameras there nine times.These two neighborhoods also see some of the highest violent crime numbers in the city. More than 300 violent crimes, including two homicides, were reported in the Core-Columbia area between 2014 and 2018. In the area near the convention center, more than 600 violent crimes, including nearly 50 rapes and attempted rapes, were committed between 2014 and 2018.Critics of the program say that they are interested in public safety, but argue that a move toward greater public safety shouldn't come at the expense of privacy and civil rights. Pitting those interests against one another other is unreasonable, they argue."No one has ever said that we don't want safer communities. It's the use of this intrusive surveillance technology without proper oversight (that is troubling)," Genevieve Jones-Wright with TRUST SD, a vocal critic of the program, told the Union-Tribune late last year.San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit has said he understands the concern that the cameras could be used to racially profile or otherwise discriminate against people. But he said those fears are unwarranted and stressed that there is no live monitoring of the camera footage."As long as there is not a crime, we are not looking at video," he told the Union-Tribune last year.The chief said police used the cameras "very sparingly, for only the worst type of cases, very violent type of cases, or serious or fatal injury collisions." He said they are used as "a reactive tool, as an investigative tip to lead us in the path of who is responsible for the crime. It actually lets us narrow our focus."Of the 224 cases about which police provided information, most involved serious crimes. The most common crimes to prompt streetlight access: fatal or serious injury collisions, robberies, assaults with deadly weapons and homicides.Through mid-January, San Diego police have accessed cameras during 23 homicide investigations.According to the department's smart streetlight policy, the decision to view the footage is driven by several considerations, including how serious the crime was and how significant the threat to the public."We are looking at incidents that have resulted in a life being lost or placed at significant risk, as well as property crimes with exceptional damages that threaten the safety of our communities," said San Diego police Capt. Jeffrey Jordon.Data show that the types of cases that prompt police to access streetlight footage are similar across communities. In census block groups where people of color make up 51 percent or more of the population and census block groups that were predominately white, police most commonly used streetlights cameras to investigate serious or deadly crimes, from robbery to homicide.Dave Maass, a senior researcher for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the Union-Tribune's findings didn't surprise him and that he has seen trends where surveillance technology has a higher impact on communities of color.He said there are several factors that could explain why police access cameras in some communities more than others. Maybe those communities experience more crime or residents are less likely to work with police. It could be related to the nexus between crime and poverty.According to the Union-Tribune's analysis, of more than 100,000 households located in areas where police had accessed smart streetlights, about 23 percent of homes reported household incomes of less than $30,000 a year. About 18 percent of San Diego households bring in less than $30,000 a year.With the streetlight cameras, Maass said, "the risks could be racial bias, change in service or crimes they solve.""Suddenly it becomes very easy to prosecute jaywalking cases," Maass noted as an extreme example of risks associated with cameras. "If it makes it easier to do one thing than another, police may gravitate toward low hanging fruit."Jordon stressed that the department accesses streetlight sensors usually after a violent crime has been committed. He added that according to the department's crime statistics, 36 percent of violent crime victims are Hispanic and 19 percent are black a larger percentage than their population estimates. Given these statistics, Jordon said it's reasonable to expect a greater proportion of violent crimes investigated through streetlight sensors would involve Hispanic or black residents."Smart Streetlights enhance (the department's) ability to investigate violent crimes, and reduce their traumatic impact in our neighborhoods regardless of race or socio-economic status," Jordon said.Cody Hooven, who heads up the city's Sustainability Department, which oversees the Smart Street Lights program, said in a statement to the Union-Tribune that the decision about where to place street light sensors came after a joint assessment between the city and GE Current, the company the city is partnering with on the project. (Until April 2019, GE owned Current. It is now owned by a private equity firm, American Industrial Partners.)She said locations were analyzed by their ability to collect data on traffic, parking, bicycle and environmental factors. She said the locations "have a cross-section of activity and had nothing to do the makeup of the neighborhoods they currently serve."Caldwell said one driver of where the sensors were put was the physical condition of the streetlights, and whether they had enough voltage to handle the sensors. That's why none of the smart streetlights are in pedestrian-heavy Balboa Park."That was a great example of very early on saying 'Hey, it would be fantastic to capture pedestrian data as people are moving through the park and getting some really more accurate information more than we have today,'" Caldwell said. "But the voltages were wrong (in Balboa Park's street-light circuits), and that was just not possible."Caldwell said the department "could have done better in the actual selection of locations by seeking input from outside interests."He and others have said repeatedly that San Diego police had no input in the selection of the locations. Police officials were not even aware the cameras existed until April 2018. Caldwell said police officials have told him that had they been asked for input, they would have suggested different locations.The Police Department has penned a policy outlining the situations in which investigators inside the department and outside law enforcement agencies can access the camera footage.In addition to the more than 3,000 smart streetlights already installed around the city, another 1,200 had been slated to be put in later this year. That has since been put on hold, given the community push back.City Council President Georgette Gomez said she has "on multiple occasions expressed serious reservations about the smart streetlights program regarding both the community's concerns about how it's used and its increasing cost."She said she wants the council to take up discussion on the streetlight cameras.The city had proposed drafting a policy to govern the streetlights program. But in January, a City Council committee said it wanted to go further. It wanted an ordinance one that would set rules not just for the smart streetlight cameras but other current and future forms of surveillance.The city is working to draft that ordinance. People wearing protective face masks on the train in Singapore. (Photo: Getty Images) By Sangeeta Mulchand SINGAPORE As the fight to control the spread of COVID-19 continues, heres a look at some of the other outbreaks that have directly or indirectly impacted Singapore in recent years, and how much of a threat they remain today. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) The first epidemic of the 21st century originated in Guangdong province, China, arriving in Singapore in early 2003 via three holiday-makers who had come into contact with it at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel. The then-unknown virus hit Singapore hard and spread swiftly, infecting primarily those in closest contact with patients healthcare workers (40.8 per cent of the final count) and family members (23.8 per cent). SARS prompted many of the containment measures in place today, including contact tracing, quarantine and screening of incoming travelers. The virus was brought under control in May 2003. In all, 238 people were infected, and 33 died. H1N1 Before COVID-19, Code Orange had last been declared in Singapore in 2009, during the H1N1, or swine flu pandemic. H1N1 shares another similarity with COVID-19 - while less deadly than SARS, it is far more infectious. At its height, Singapores doctors were seeing more than 2,000 H1N1 cases a day. By the time Code Green was reinstated in February 2010, 415,000 people had been infected, with 18 fatalities. Besides those infected, another 420,000 had been vaccinated, giving both groups immunity. H1N1 is still circulating, but is for the most part a mild disease. It is the predominant influenza strain in the world today. H5N1 To date, there have been no cases of H5N1 infection - also known as avian or bird flu - in Singapore, even though there are ongoing outbreaks elsewhere. The virus does not usually infect people unless through direct and close contact with infected birds and contaminated surfaces. Human-to-human transmission remains rare. However, when infected, H5N1 is fatal in 60 per cent of cases. H5N1 has been kept out of Singapore by four main measures: prohibition of imports from affected countries; poultry inspections at the port of entry; local control measures including keeping migratory birds away from commercial breeding stocks; and emergency preparedness if the virus should mutate to become more easily transmissible to humans. Story continues Nipah Virus The Nipah virus first surfaced in 1999 in an outbreak affecting Malaysia and Singapore, in which 103 Malaysians and one Singaporean died. It is transmitted through direct exposure to infected bats, pigs or people, and mortality rates in Malaysia, Bangladesh and India have been between 40 and 90 percent. While currently confined to south and southeast Asia, it is one of eight categories of diseases that the WHO has identified as epidemic threats in need of prioritisation. Zika Virus The Zika virus resurfaced in Singapore in September last year after a nearly two-year absence, with three reported cases. First seen in 2016, with a total of 455 cases reported over three months, the Zika virus is transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, and can be passed through sexual contact, and from a pregnant woman to her foetus. The numbers have largely declined over time, with 67 cases reported in 2017 and just one in 2018. The disease itself is generally mild - four in five people who become infected do not show any symptoms but is associated with microcephaly, which can cause babies to be born with a smaller head. Related stories COVID-19: Sharp spike in cases in other countries can happen in Singapore - Lawrence Wong COVID-19: Singapore confirms 2 new cases, 1 linked to Wizlearn cluster; total 110 COVID-19: Singapore extends travel ban to new visitors from South Korea, Iran, northern Italy COVID-19: New swab test at Singapore checkpoints for travellers showing respiratory symptoms, fever In the wake of killings by Boko Haram, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria call for the attention of the Nigerian government and international media to prevent continued violence. By Benedict Mayaki Several hundred Catholic faithful led by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria braved the rain on 1 March 2020 in a peaceful protest against the brutal killing of innocent Nigerians and the high level of insecurity in the country. The march, which took place in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, started from the National Christian Center and saw many people carrying placards expressing their demands for a safer society. The procession was preceded by the opening Mass of Bishops Conference plenary session during which Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja noted that Nigeria was facing a number of crises including murderous insurgents ravaging rural communities and lives in the North East and herdsmen laying waste to towns and villages. Speaking during the protest, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Archbishop Augustine Akubeze said: We are protesting against the brutal killing of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram, and terrorist herdsmenWe are gathered to mourn the women, children, babies, and men who have been killed by the terrorists. Silence of Nigerian Government Archbishop Akubeze lamented the poor response of the Nigerian government to the incessant attacks on defenseless people by Boko Haram; referring to it as far below average. He added: We are gathered to let the Federal Government of Nigeria know that we are tired of hearing from them that Boko Haram has been technically defeated even when they still attack with impunity The failure to protect innocent people from relentless attacks is evil. The lack of prosecution of terrorists is evil. Your silence is breeding and sowing seeds of mistrust and the longer it stays this way, the more you lose those who could have given you the benefit of doubt, he said. Silence of International press Expressing his criticism of the sparse coverage of the crisis, the CBCN President noted: If the Western media give comprehensive steadfast coverage to the atrocities happening in Nigeria, they will discover that people are dying daily in Nigeria from the hands of Boko Haram. We, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, call on the International community to come to the aid of Nigeria. We must see ourselves as a global family in the world. The tears and pains of helpless, persecuted Christians in Nigeria should be well reported in the West. Western journalists and Western political leaders should expose the evil of Boko Haram the way they have exposed the evil of other terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, he added. Call for hope Archbishop Akubeze ended with calls for optimism, solidarity and trust in God in the face of the situation. As we march, we want all Catholics in Nigeria not to be hopeless. We want Catholics and all other well-meaning Patriotic Nigerians to stand together to fight this terrorism. We must speak out against government inaction and poor response. We must work and pray for change to happen in Nigeria. As we entrust our country Nigeria to God, let us also entrust the terrorists into the hands of God. God can change their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Let us pray for their conversion. Let us pray to God to help our leaders to have the wisdom and courage to do what is good for every Nigerian. Let us eschew every form of hate speech or incitement of violence. Only love can conquer violence and hatred. Past Attacks Boko Haram has killed more than 27,000 people making Nigeria the third most dangerous country after Afghanistan and Iraq on the 2019 Global Terrorism Index. Recently, on January 21, a regional leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was beheaded by Boko Haram. Also, In February 2018, over 100 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Dapchi, northern Nigeria. South Korea is seeking to send three "rapid response" teams to Vietnam to help some 270 citizens in quarantine over coronavirus concerns, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Yonhap South Korea is seeking to send three "rapid response" teams to Vietnam to help some 270 citizens in quarantine over coronavirus concerns, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. In Vietnam, 276 South Koreans have been put under a quarantine program at military installations, health care facilities or hotels, as the number of COVID-19 infections here has risen to 5,328, with the death toll standing at 32. Vietnam has imposed the entry ban on people who have traveled to Korea's southeastern city of Daegu and nearby North Gyeongsang Province, both the focus of Seoul's quarantine efforts, in the last two weeks. Those from other parts of Korea are to face a 14-day quarantine. "As soon as conditions are met, South Korea plans to send three rapid response teams to Vietnam," a foreign ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. South Korea has been in talks with Vietnam over the possibility of quarantine exemptions for the rapid response teams. The team members plan to carry medical documents showing they have tested negative for the novel virus. Each team consists of four people from the foreign ministry and other related government agencies. The teams will be dispatched to three areas of responsibility for the South Korean Embassy in Hanoi and consulate generals in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. The top priority for the teams will be to help those quarantined at public facilities shift to self-quarantine and provide sufficient consular support for those who want to return to South Korea, the official said. In China, there are about 830 South Koreans in quarantine. But the ministry does not plan to send any support teams as its staff at the China-based missions can handle the consular and other affairs related to them. (Yonhap) A month ago Huawei unveiled the Y7p Thailand, an entry-level phone with a 48MP main camera. Now this phone has made its way to Europe as the Huawei P40 Lite E. Its available right now on Huaweis Polish site and costs PLN 700 a temporary discount from PLN 1,168 (163, down from 272). This is for a phone with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage. Also, youre getting a free Huawei Band 4. Shipments start on March 12. As you might expect, the phone comes with Huaweis AppGallery instead of the Google Play Store (and similar Huawei-branded replacements for Googles apps). Huawei AppGallery In case you didn't pay attention to the Y7p, heres a quick rundown of the specs. The Huawei P40 Lite E features a 6.39 IPS LCD with 720p+ resolution. Theres an 8MP punch hole selfie camera in the upper left. On the back, theres a triple camera with a 48MP main module (f/1.8 aperture), plus an 8MP ultra wide-angle camera and a 2MP depth sensor. Theres fingerprint reader. AI-powered stabilization enables handheld night shots with up to 6 seconds exposure. Additional AI smarts organize photos into 280 categories, allowing easy search in the gallery. The P40 Lite E is an LTE phone and supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 5.0, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB. The latter is used to charge the 4,000mAh battery at 10W. The phone is powered by the Kirin 710F chipset and runs EMUI 9.1 out of the box. A microSD card slot is available to expand the built in 64GB of storage (cards up to 512GB are supported). Huawei P40 Lite E in Black and Aurora Blue (with Huawei Band 4 pre-order bonus) So far the Huawei P40 Lite E is available only on the Polish site, though we imagine it will spread out to other EU countries as well. The phone comes in Black and Aurora Blue. Source (in Polish) | Via An act by Mumbai Police has left the internet in absolute awe. A Mumbai Police personnel on Tuesday, helped a student find an auto-rickshaw as she was getting late for her SSC exam that began in Maharashtra on March 3. This kind gesture was shared by a person on micro-blogging site Twitter, wherein he described the whole incident. Rahull Raut, who was an eye witness to the entire episode, stated that the student was anxiously waiting in queue outside Khar Station while going through the notes as a part of last-minute preparation. It was at this point in time an official noticed the student and asked her if she was appearing for SSC exams, to which she said yes. The personnel after that stopped an autorickshaw for her and wished her luck for the exam. Rahul tweeted: Witnessed the sweetest, kindest act today. At Khat Station theres always a long queue for Rickshaws. A few students nervously waited while going through their notes. You know how last minute glances like these are important. Witnessed the sweetest, kindest act today.At Khat Station theres always a long queue for Rickshaws. A few students nervously waited while going through their notes. You know how last minute glances like these are important.... Rahull Raut (@MisterRatty) March 3, 2020 A @MumbaiPolice traffic cop noticed this and asked the student if she had exams today, the student promptly nodded. He asked her to step out of the line, stopped a rickshaw for her and sent her away with a Good luck for your exams! saving her valuable time. Rahull Raut (@MisterRatty) March 3, 2020 Describing the incident in detail, he added in another tweet, A @MumbaiPolice traffic cop noticed this and asked the student if she had exams today, the student promptly nodded. He asked her to step out of the line, stopped a rickshaw for her and sent her away with a Good luck for your exams! saving her valuable time. The Mumbai Polices official Twitter handle took cognizance of the tweet and shared it on their handle in the form of an image that they put in graphic wishing students all the best. The graphic read, Our Small Effort In Appreciation Of All Your Hard Work ALL THE BEST #SSCExams The post was captioned as, First day of exam has its own share of challenges. We are happy to have been able to help a student in overcoming at least one of them! Mumbai Police sends best wishes to all the students appearing for SSC Board Exams starting today. #AllTheBest #sscexams @MisterRatty First day of exam has its own share of challenges. We are happy to have been able to help a student in overcoming at least one of them!Mumbai Police sends best wishes to all the students appearing for SSC Board Exams starting today. #AllTheBest #sscexams @MisterRatty pic.twitter.com/vBut2QVOkk Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) March 3, 2020 It comes as no surprise that Twitterati were all praises of the gesture. Mumbai Police - expect such delightful gestures. LT (@LarchungT) March 3, 2020 These milestones indicate the progress AuntMinnieEurope.com has made in delivering its unique mix of news and educational content to European radiology professionals. Radiology portal AuntMinnieEurope.com has launched Board Review, a new online interactive educational section that enables European radiologists to prepare for their board certification exams. At the same time, the site reported that 30,000 unique members were active in the past year, and it also recorded over 1 million page views a month for the first time. Board Review consists of dozens of questions on important radiology topics that are designed to test an applicant's knowledge of radiology. Questions include relevant medical images, clinical histories, and discussion of findings. Board Review was developed in cooperation with the European Board of Radiology (EBR) and is designed to help European radiologists prepare for the European Diploma in Radiology (EDiR), an international diploma issued by the EBR that certifies a radiologist to have the knowledge and competence in compliance with accepted standards. Board Review content is specifically based on questions in the EDiR certifying exam, giving radiology trainees the most realistic test preparation experience. Revising for exams is incredibly tough these days for busy, young working doctors, so we wanted to do our bit to help them prepare in a practical way, said Philip Ward, editor in chief of AuntMinnieEurope.com. Were very proud to link up with the EBR on this new project. To date, over 4,500 candidates from all over the world have taken the EDiR examination since its inception in 2011, with a pass rate of 66%, according to Prof. Laura Oleaga Zufiria, PhD, scientific director of EDiR. Over 900 candidates will be taking the EDiR examination in 2020 in 10 different cities: Vienna, Paris, Warsaw, Barcelona, Orebro, Ankara, Islamabad, Cairo, Moscow, and New Delhi. "EDiR is the perfect way for radiologists to consolidate the knowledge gained during their training. Especially for young radiologists, preparing for the EDiR not only means taking a step further in their professional careers but also receiving a boost of self-confidence," Oleaga said. "We are very happy that AuntMinnieEurope.com is participating in this process and to help candidates obtain this certificate of excellence." AuntMinnieEurope's Board Review can be found at http://boardreview.auntminnieeurope.com. In addition to Board Review, AuntMinnieEurope.com announced that for the first time, over 30,000 unique radiology professionals have been active on the site in the past year. And finally, February 2020 was the first full month in which page views for AuntMinnieEurope.com exceeded 1 million on a 30-day basis. "These milestones indicate the progress AuntMinnieEurope.com has made in delivering its unique mix of news and educational content to European radiology professionals," said Craig Overpeck, CEO of Science and Medicine Group. "We are gratified at the reception that the site has received and are looking forward to continued success with our new Board Review feature." About AuntMinnieEurope.com AuntMinnieEurope.com is the premier online destination for radiologists, radiation therapists, interventional radiologists, and related professionals in the European medical imaging industry. AuntMinnieEurope.com and AuntMinnie.com feature the latest news, communities, continuing medical education, and board review education for medical imaging physicians, clinicians, residents, and medical students across the world. AuntMinnieEurope.com and AuntMinnie.com are part of Science and Medicine Group, the leading research and advisory firm serving the life science, analytical instrument, diagnostic, healthcare, radiology, and dental industries. On Friday, U.S. authorities shut down the bustling Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border bridge after more than a hundred mostly Cuban migrants attempted to cross the border. This is in response to a court ruling suspending an asylum policy; an appeals court ruled to block one President Donald Trump's trademark immigration policies the government claims has helped to restrain migration on the southern border. The stringent Trump administration border policy is still keeping thousands of asylum seekers trapped in Mexico. The federal appeals court decision on Friday resulted in a chaotic day for thousands of migrants in Mexico's border cities -- at Good Samaritan and other shelters in Ciudad Juarez, at ports of entry in Tijuana and Matamoros and international bridges. The panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nullified a program that obligates Central American migrants to wait outside the US while their asylum cases are pending. According to authorities, more than 100 migrants marched to the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border bridge as word of the ruling spread in the Mexican camps where at least 25,000 asylum-seekers are waiting. According to the Trump administration on Friday, at least 25,000 migrants who returned through the program were still in Mexico and that halting the program "could prompt a rush on the southern border." Also Read: Obamacare Immigrants: $750 Million In Subsidies Paid To 500,000 Ineligible Immigrants (REPORT) The U.S. appeals court blocked the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, sending about 60,000 asylum seekers to return to Mexico to await the outcome of their case. About 25,000 migrants returned through the program were still in Mexico. While some migrants were on the Mexican side of the border heading towards the bridge, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were wearing riot gear. A Cuban asylum seeker said, "I've been waiting in Juarez for ten months." On Twitter, CBP confirmed that it had shut down the Paso Del Norte Bridge to stop a group of migrants from illegally and forcefully entering the United States. The MPP called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings. This was part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to reduce the record of migration surge among Central American families. In Mexico, they are vulnerable to kidnapping, rape, robbery and other crimes while living in at times unsanitary conditions. The "Remain in Mexico" policy was found to be legally invalid, a ruling that prompted the initial cheering at Good Samaritan. It has forced migrants to wait in Mexico for months as their asylum cases are reviewed. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to end the policy, labeling it "unspeakably cruel." An emergency motion from the Trump administration said an end to the program "could prompt a rush on the southern border." The court put its ruling on hold in response. According to Enrique Valenzuela, head of the population council of the Chihuahua state government, "It's time for everyone to start going home, no one is going to cross tonight." He told migrants that the suspension has been suspended and that MPP is back as he walked through the crowd at the base of the bridge. Several people were still present when CBP tweeted the bridge would remain closed overnight. Related Article: Hillary Clinton Was 'Adamantly' Against Illegal Immigrants In 2003; Wanted To Build Fence To Keep Them Out In 2006 (VIDEO) @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The two people killed Monday in a head-on crash on the Seward Highway were a father and daughter, Anchorage police announced. Paul Matson, 66, and Lea Matson, 25, died in the crash, police said. Patrol officers with the Anchorage Police Department shortly after 10:30 a.m. Monday responded to a call of a crash at Mile 102 Seward Highway near Bird Creek. Investigators determined that a sport utility vehicle driven north by Paul Matson slid into the southbound lane and struck a pickup. Paul Matson died at the scene. Lea Matson was critically injured and transported to a hospital, where she died. Two adults and a child in the pickup were transported to a hospital with what police called non-life-threatening injuries. Winter conditions were a factor in the crash, police said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revealed he will hand over his social media accounts to women whose work and life inspire us on March 8, thereby laying to rest the speculations which had been triggered by a cryptic tweet on Monday. This Women's Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life & work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions. Are you such a woman or do you know such inspiring women? Share such stories using #SheInspiresUs, Modi said. This Women's Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life & work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions.Are you such a woman or do you know such inspiring women? Share such stories using #SheInspiresUs. pic.twitter.com/CnuvmFAKEu Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 3, 2020 The PM had triggered buzz of a break from social media on Monday night when he said he was thinking of giving up his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts this Sunday. Soon after supporters of Modi had begun trending #NoSir and other similar trends to suggest that they too would follow suit and delete their accounts if the PM did. In his tweet on Tuesday, Modi urges women, whose work may inspire thousand others, to post about their achievements on social media or shoot a video and upload it on social media. Women who are fortunate enough to get selected would be able to take over the Prime Minister's social media accounts on Women's Day. In a way, PM Modi's gesture captures the right spirit of Women's Day; not only will the selected women get a chance to narrate their stories, but will also be able to voice their opinions and speak for all the women in the country on a public platform. And for once, people might actually listen, given that the tweets will be coming from the Prime Minister's own Twitter account. Let's also not forget that PM Modi also became the third most followed world leader on Twitter in 2019, behind only US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama. He is also one of the most-followed world leaders on social media. He has 53.3 million followers on Twitter, 44 million on Facebook and 35.2 million on Instagram. In fact, PM Modi sets quite an example for other leaders and politicians, who too could use their popularity and influence to catapult a change and actually help pave the way for women to break shackles of patriarchy. Maybe world leaders, including Modi's US counterpart, President Donald Trump, could take note too. This year, six women are running for the Presidential elections from the Democratic party. While it may seem bewildering that only a handful of women have been given the ticket, let us remind you that this is the highest number of women candidates ever. Yes, that's right! Data showed that while women do have more representation in American politics, men still find it easier to climb the ladder to the top as compared to women. The same study also reveals that a majority of women feel that the reason women are underrepresented in leadership roles is because they have to work harder to prove themselves. Not just America, there is a stark gender gap in corporate culture and in politics around the world. Data by the United Nations showed that among Parliamentarians around the world, only 24.3 percent were women. Yet, a study by the UN also reveals that participation of women in politics and decision making processes often proves to be beneficial. One can only hope that other global leaders take a cue from PM Mod. While his move may not entirely eradicate misogyny or sexism rampant in the country, it certainly sets an example and is a much-needed step forward. He's the illustrious producer behind the Real Housewives empire, Project Runway, on top of being a doting father to his son Benjamin. But Andy Cohen is also a proud dog dad to Wacha, and he made time on Tuesday to take the rescue pup out. The 51-year-old Bravo mega-producer multitasked on his cellphone while walking through the streets of New York City. Dog time: Andy Cohen took his dog Wacha out for a walk on Tuesday in New York City Cohen bundled up for some cold weather in the Big Apple, donning a plush black utility coat with a white fluffy extra high collar. He teamed it with black joggers and matching black and grey sneakers. Cohen seemed to have wireless earbuds in as he walked and added some black rimmed glasses. The Watch What Happens Live host snuggled what appeared to be a blue jar of peanut butter into his packet as he walked. Is that Skippy in your pocket? The Bravo host seemed to snuggle a jar of peanut butter in his pocket He followed alongside his pup via a red leash. Wacha, known as Wacha Cohen on Instagram seemed to enjoy some time outside. Cohen adopted Wacha in 2013 from a kill shelter in West Virginia that November. The dog's name is after former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha, Cohen of course hails from St. Louis. Longtime love: Cohen adopted Wacha in 2013 from a kill shelter in West Virginia that November Speaking on his pup to Today back in 2016 Cohen said he was initially hesitant to take in dog, never having one growing up and due to the responsibility. Adding: '"I was thinking that if I get this dog, I'm going to be with it for the rest of his life. And that scared me.' But within moments of bringing Wacha home to the West Village, he knew it was love. Saying: 'I thought I was saving Wacha, but he really rescued me.' Other baby: Along with Wacha, Cohen is also father to his one year old son Benjamin, who he welcomed via surrogate in February 2019 Wacha isn't Cohen's only (fur) baby, he also welcomed his son Benjamin, aged one, last February. Since welcoming Benjamin in February via surrogate, Cohen opened up about the possibilities of having a second child. While chatting with Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis on SiriusXM Radio Andys Jeff Lewis Live show last month, the Watch What Happens Live Host revealed that he has 'at least one' embryo left to be used if he desires, and that he's 'thinking about' having another child. During the guest appearance, as reported by People Magazine, Lewis asked Cohen about whether there was another 'baby cooking right now.' Maybe more: Cohen has since spoke on the possibility of welcoming a second child 'Im thinking about it,' was Andy's response, and when Jeff pressed further, asking about whether he had any more embryos left, Andy revealed a bit more. 'I have at least one,' was all he would say on the matter. This isn't the first time Cohen has voiced a desire to grow his family as early as June, he told Extra that 'I might consider having another [child] Im thinking about it.' Cohen recently appeared on the cover of People Magazine with his son, where he opened up about his experience as a gay single father. Crane operator Jason Nash filmed the moment he got stuck 375ft in the air as a twister ripped through Nashville, Tennessee Terrifying video footage shows the moment a tower crane operator helplessly watches a Tennessee tornado spiral towards him as he's stuck over 300 feet in the air. Kentucky man Jason Nash was working in a high tower crane in Nashville on early Tuesday when a tornado appeared and started to tear through the city. Nash frantically recorded the moment he panicked as he was suspended 375 feet in the air in the crane cab as the winds began to roar and bright lights started to flash in the distance. 'Carla, There is a real tornado right there. Oh my god,' Nash says as he records the scene of downtown Nashville sprawled out below him. Fearing for his life he then tries to send a message of love to his family and friends. Nash frantically recorded the moment he panicked as he was suspended 375 feet in the air in the crane cab as the winds began to roar and bright lights started to flash in the distance 'Carla, There is a real tornado right there. Oh my god,' Nash says as he records the scene of downtown Nashville sprawled out below him. In the distance bright lights started to flash blue red and white 'If something happens make sure everybody knows I love them, Carla,' he said. 'This is no joke. There's a real tornado right there, right f***ing there! Oh my God!' he added. Nash said he had just a two-minute warning about the tornado before the dangerous twister emerged. He said it took him 15 minutes to climb down the crane and get to safety. Another video emerged showing the downtown Nashville skyline and a single crane tower all lit up. It's not clear if Nash was in that specific crane. At least two deadly twisters razed through the state after midnight on Tuesday. The tornadoes roared through Davidson, Putnam Benton and Wilson counties, killing at least 24 people in its path of destruction that stretched across 50 miles. 'If something happens make sure everybody knows I love them, Carla,' he said in the heart-stopping video. 'This is no joke. There's a real tornado right there, right f***ing there! Oh my God!' This video shows downtown Nashville as the storm struck and one lit up standing high tower crane. However, it's not clear if Nash was in that particular crane This video posted by another Tennessee resident shows how the clear night sky was showered with dust as the twister swirled through The video shows how Nashville was shrouded in darkness in Tuesday's twister On Wednesday residents returned to their obliterated homes and rescue crews and the National Guard sifted threw the shredded remains of neighborhoods looking for survivors. In Putnam County, one of the areas hit hardest by the storms, the search is on for 22 unaccounted for people. Eighty-eight people were injured in Putnam county and more than 140 buildings were decimated. 'Today has been a horrific day in Putnam County,' Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. 'Massive damage has been done to numerous homes, some of them destroyed as if they never existed.' HOUSTON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Affinity has released its Fraud Monitoring software for consumers. The service includes a $1 million no deductible Identity Theft Insurance Policy, Lost Wallet Assistance, Fully Assisted Identity Restoration Services, SuperHerotm Support, Credit and Fraud Monitoring. Splitsm combines credit and fraud monitoring with a community platform designed to inform and educate consumers. Prices start at $9.75 per month. Discounts are included in annual and family plans. The company provides curated and custom content including the "Bob's video series," memes, and blog posts on its own social platform (www.my-split.com) as well as its Google My Business page, and on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Consumer Affinity, Inc. Consumer Affinity, Inc. Consumer Affinity's community site is free for anyone to use and includes a wide range of content related to consumer-oriented threats including: scams, fraud, phishing, and best practices. Launched in late 2018 by founder Steve R. Smith, Consumer Affinity entertains, educates, and protects consumers with a platform designed to provide a seamless and unified information security solution. The company was founded to address the gap in consumer awareness and education related to cybersecurity issues. "We're continuing to make progress in our attempt to reach our goal of reversing the trend of victimization that consumers continue to experience. Unfortunately, these issues are only getting worse and consumers need more tools and better educational resources," stated Consumer Affinity's Founder and CEO, Steve R. Smith. The company is continuing development on its Fraud Monitoring solutions including iOS and Android apps. To learn more, please visit us at: www.my-split.info www.my-split.com www.consumeraffinity.com For more information, please contact: Steve R. Smith, Founder and CEO, Consumer Affinity Email: [email protected] (833) 331-HERO SOURCE Consumer Affinity, Inc. Related Links http://www.consumeraffinity.com No one who saw Bryony Sadler's reaction, after being informed that floodwater had poured into her family's smallholding - a handsome Victorian rectory set on a seven-acre plot in the Somerset Levels - will easily forget her anguish. Having remained in the house for a month, watching the inexorable advance of a foul green tide from the swollen River Tone, four miles away, she had just been evacuated along with her husband, Gavin, their two young children, and their menagerie of animals: dozens of chickens, a pony, rabbits, guinea pigs and two dogs. And in a scene that became an emblem of the catastrophe that had beset hundreds of families living on the Levels, as violent storms battered western England, a BBC camera crew captured the moment the police phoned her with the news she had been dreading. Mrs Sadler's first reaction was to clasp her head in her hands in despair. 'We've virtually lost it all, then,' she uttered through tear-stained fingers, envisaging the end of an idyllic rural lifestyle that had taken years to build. That was in the winter of 2014, when the Levels - a vast, low-lying natural drain for the network of tidal rivers flowing off the surrounding hills, and prone to serious flooding - were deluged by some of the worst floods in memory. Moorland, in Somerset (pictured), was devastated by floods in 2014 which set the tourism industry more than 200million, it was claimed at the time Despite successive weekends of storms battering Britain, Moorlands (pictured) survived this year's deluges by ignoring 'modern eco-zealots', David Jones argues As the 160,000-acre expanse was submerged, hundreds of homes were destroyed and the farmland became a vast lake. The village of Muchelney was turned into an island - intrepid former Mail reporter Paul Harris got there by rowing boat. What an extraordinary contrast with the scene that greeted me in the Levels. While many areas of England and Wales have been inundated after huge rainstorms - this week it was the turn of towns in East Yorkshire along the River Aire, last week it was Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, and Worcester along the River Severn - in the Levels, by some small miracle, the streets and houses are dry. Admittedly, rainfall in the area in January and February 2014 was almost twice as heavy as it has been in the first two months of 2020, yet this month's rain was still 70 percent above average. Furthermore, the autumn of 2019, when 526.9mm of rain fell, was far wetter than that of 2013, when 389.5mm did, so we might have expected the water-table to rise even higher this time around. Given such wet weather, 44-year-old Mrs Sadler feels sure that the roads and fields would have been underwater in bygone years. Muchelney in Somerset was cut off for over a month by floodwater in January 2014 (pictured, a schoolboy waiting to be picked up by a humanitarian support boat) Yet although her Alexa smart speaker annoyingly parrots the latest flood alerts, there is not the slightest sign of the disastrous 6ft surge that forced her family to 'live out of boxes' for nine months, until their home and business were restored by way of a 500,000 insurance pay-out (some Levels residents had no coverage and are still suffering the consequences). 'You can see a few puddles on the fields, and the ground around the house is a bit soggy,' she told me, gesturing through the window. 'But it really isn't much, considering the amount of rain we've had.' It certainly isn't, as I saw when strolling down the road people rowed along in 2014. Yes, water lapped the hedgerows, but this is normal for the Levels in winter. It would have needed to rise by many feet before impeding passing cars. David Jones (pictured) argues Moorland escaped the worst of this year's deluges by taking common-sense measures in defiance of EU-directed environmental regulations Since new Environment Secretary George Eustice was attacked by the Farmers' Union for the Government's perceived tardiness in tackling the flooding crisis (he responded by pledging to spend 'record' amounts on defences, but laid much of the blame on climate change), this begs some pertinent questions. How have the Levels managed to the hold back the torrents? Why is the area better protected now than in 2014? And could the methods that worked here be used with similar effect elsewhere? Of course, when it comes to topography, no two areas are alike; and the means of combating upstream floods, for example, will differ from tactics used in an area such as the Levels, which lie close to the coast and rise only a few feet above sea-level. Nonetheless, according to David Hall, chairman of the Somerset Rivers Authority, the work that has reduced the risk of flooding in this unusual West Country swathe, with its Dutch-style man-made dykes, could be adapted as a 'template' for other flood-prone areas. And he believes they could learn invaluable lessons by studying the intriguing story behind the great Levels flood of 2014. At the heart of the story lies an ideological power struggle between a powerful Green lobby - hidebound by idealistic but dangerously impractical EU wildlife directives - and more traditional guardians of the countryside. The Levels have been flooded periodically since early medieval times, when monks first reclaimed the boggy land for farming. However, until 25 years ago, a water-management system, modernised and refined over the centuries, ensured its houses largely remained dry. It hinged on regularly dredging the silt that washes up from the Bristol Channel and slows the flow of the four main rivers. Unless this is removed, during heavy rainfall it can cause them to burst their banks. A series of pumping stations also removed excess water. But matters changed when stewardship of rural England's land, rivers and coastline fell under the remit of the Environment Agency, formed in 1995. The work of local drainage boards was hampered by the new agency's zealous enforcement of EU waste-removal regulations, with habitat directives placing 'sustainability' and 'biodiversity' ahead of the need to safeguard homes, businesses and farmland. These Brussels-concocted rules made it almost impossible to dispose of tonnes of dredged-up silt. Matters worsened considerably after 2000, as many locals recall, when Baroness Young of Old Scone, a Labour peeress who had previously run the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Natural England, became chief executive of the EA. Intent on creating havens where wildlife could flourish, she determined to transform the Levels into a vast wetland suitable for water-voles and wading birds. To this end, she actively promoted flooding by withdrawing funds for dredging and pumping. If she had her way, she remarked, she would plant 'a limpet-mine on every pumping station'. Indeed, in a lecture to a House of Lords Committee, she said her recipe was cheap and simple: 'For instant wildlife, just add water'. However, people living on the Levels will tell you that her tenure was a recipe for disaster. Baroness Young is unmoved. She insists that dredging has not stopped the Levels flooding. 'The Somerset Levels were intended to be flood plains,' she says. 'Dredging the Levels for farming at all costs is not my idea of a balanced solution. You have got to take into account issues of biodiversity and climate change. I feel I have been vindicated quite substantially over the past few years. 'People were desperate just to do something, but dredging doesn't solve anything. It just moves the flow of water down to the next pinch point. 'What was always needed was systems ... that hold back the flow of water, so that it comes down gradually, rather than in a rush. 'These effective solutions that I was thinking about in my time at the EA are what people are now talking about. So I am not lying awake thinking I have done something wrong.' A bold assertion. However, by 2012, two years before the tumultuous floods, Mrs Sadler, who lives in Moorland, near Bridgwater, and other Levels residents were so concerned by rising water levels they formed a pressure group to lobby for a resumption of silt dredging. A local farmer also wrote to then Prime Minister David Cameron, warning of impending disaster. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. The result was a flood so devastating that it cost Somerset 200million in lost tourism revenue alone. Ruined farmland and crops, damage to property, and the massive evacuation and mopping-up operation cost hundreds more millions. It also cost then Environment Secretary Owen Paterson his job. Partly because he was ridiculed by the media for wearing town shoes, rather than wellingtons, when he went to inspect the flooded Levels, Mr Cameron deemed Paterson to have 'had a bad flood' and sacked him soon afterwards. In the eyes of many Levels-dwellers, however, the North Shropshire MP is a hero. Mrs Sadler, for one, says she 'adores him'. For while Mr Cameron was seen flitting about in a helicopter, and delivered suitable soundbites, Paterson instigated an innovative and effective action plan. It was implemented that same summer, soon after the floodwater had subsided - a refreshing departure given that government schemes are usually mired for an eternity in red-tape. Though dredging was recommenced, after 20 years, there is far more to it than that. New pumping stations have been built, sumps dug to hold excess water, sluice-gates put in place; some villages are now protected by walls known as 'bunds'. Further upstream, the cascade of river water has been slowed by erecting barriers called 'leaky dams', planting more trees, and encouraging farms to plough the land so that run-off sinks into it. In all, 150 preventative actions have been taken, overseen by the Somerset Rivers Authority, a body which Mr Paterson also created. By 2024, his plan should have its piece de resistance: a 100million tidal barrier stretching across the River Parrett estuary. Much of this is being funded by a special levy added to Somerset's council tax; some residents outside the Levels object to paying this. Yet floods indirectly affect everyone in the county by hitting the local economy and transport, and it is cheaper to fund improvements than repair widespread damage. All this is a salutary reminder to Boris Johnson and Mr Eustice - who have faced criticism in recent days for their tardy response to the floods - of what can be done with sufficient drive and good will. When I spoke to Mr Paterson this week, he was clearly still angry at being scapegoated by Cameron, and dismissed as the 'Wally without Wellies' ('I had two pairs with me in the car,' he fumed). In truth, he said, he had rushed to the Levels of his own accord when the full extent of the disaster became evident. Looking for solutions, he consulted farmers and landowners. A broad outline of the emergency plan was written that same night. 'It is all about listening to the people who really know how to manage the countryside,' he told me, suggesting the same should be done at the latest flood flashpoints. Though this is disputed by some engineers, he believes the fundamentals of his Levels flood prevention plan would apply elsewhere. 'It's like having a huge bath with a blocked plughole. If you just un-bung it, the water will drain away,' he says. Mr Paterson is scathing of Baroness Young's 'catastrophic' policies, and dismissive of those who argue that flooding is the inevitable result of climate change, implying that it cannot be eradicated. With Britain having just left the EU, he argues, we have the opportunity to manage the environment, free of European diktat. In this, he is looking to his successor, Mr Eustice, to take a strong lead. Is he doing enough to fight the floods? 'He's only been in the job a few weeks - give him a chance!' Back in her renovated old rectory, Bryony Sadler agrees that other flood-hit areas could learn from experiences on the Levels. 'There's no point deciding what to do from an office in London,' she says. 'You have got to engage with the community. Earlier this week, her heart sank when a nearby river suddenly rose. It happened because two of the four pumps were switched off, she says. When the EA was alerted, they were turned on again. 'It shows how the flooding we had in 2014 could happen again without proper management,' she says. 'If the people in power hadn't listened to us, we might have been in the same situation as the rest of the country this week. 'But if they stop maintaining the rivers in the Levels, it could happen again here, too.' J oe Biden has now established himself as the frontrunner to challenge Donald Trump in the presidential election, as he far exceeded expectations on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of voting in the Democratic primaries. Despite limited funds and a slapdash approach, Biden came from behind to win several Southern states, building on strong support among suburban and African-American voters. But he also reached far beyond his assumed base by beating Senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, in her home state of Massachusetts. The results indicated that Democrats have concluded Biden, 77, is their best hope for defeating Trump. Although Barack Obama has yet to endorse his former vice-president, Biden has become the candidate of the Obama restoration. While Senator Bernie Sanders, 78, was predicted to win California the biggest prize of the night Biden took the next biggest, Texas. Overall, he vaulted ahead of Sanders , his main rival, who had won the three earliest primaries. Sanders was hoping to gain a commanding number of the delegates who will choose the Democratic presidential nominee at their July convention in Milwaukee. Instead, Biden came roaring back galvanised by endorsements from his former opponents Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar and convinced voters that the best challenge to Trump will come from the centre of the party. His performance will have come as a huge relief to many Democrats, who were worried that Bernie Sanderss brand of socialism would be brushed aside by Trump in Novembers election. Loading.... Rather than feeling any great love for Biden, many Democrats simply want the candidate most likely to prevent four more years of Trump. Biden is a reminder of a more consensual, mainstream politics, away from the extremes of the current President on the Right and Sanders on the Left. Sanders turned on Biden last night, painting him as an establishment throwback, the relic of a best-forgotten past. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics, he said. A re-energised Biden argued that he, not the socialist Sanders, was the true revolutionary. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, he said. The results validated his decision to bet everything on victory in South Carolina last week. His convincing win changed the energy of his campaign. In many states, he had little money to spend and no formal organisation, but suddenly emerged as the safest choice. Super Tuesday - In pictures 1 /18 Super Tuesday - In pictures Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden arrives onstage with his wife Jill and sister Valerie (right) at a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally AP Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with supporters after addressing a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to supporters during a rally Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg waves to his supporters at his Super Tuesday night event Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (L) arrives with wife Jill (C) and sister Valerie (R) at a Super Tuesday campaign event at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center o Getty Images Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., endorses Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives at a primary night election rally AP Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, Californi Bloomberg via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, and his wife Jill attend a primary election night rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets supporters during a primary night election rally i AP Democratic presidential hopeful former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg greets supporters after speaking during a rally at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Super Tuesday AFP via Getty Images Over the weekend, the Sanders campaign issued a memo saying that the stark choice is now between Sanders and Biden. The next primaries are on March 10, in several states including Michigan and Washington. Then, on March 17, all eyes will be on Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Arizona. Sanderss campaign events have always been much livelier than Bidens. His crowds are largely young and enthused by his plans to raise taxes on the rich, increase access to healthcare and offer free university education. Bidens rallies were dozy until the last few days. He hopes that he can carry last nights momentum forwards. At a rally in St Paul, Minnesota, on Monday night, Sanders said of Biden: Hes just wrong on the issues. Hes just wrong with regard to his vision for the future. He said Bidens support for free trade had led to job losses. Last night was also a big disappointment for former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78, whose only win was in tiny American Samoa. He has taken an unorthodox route through these primaries, waiting until yesterdays votes to put his name on the ballot. He dipped into his personal fortune to vastly outspend all of his rivals, hoping that he could tiptoe through the wreckage of a vicious primary season. Loading.... His strategy appeared to have legs until his weak performances in two television debates. The real Mike Bloomberg came across as frail and crotchety nothing like the swaggering Bloomberg shown in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of television ads. He will have to decide if it is worth staying in the race until the July convention, but hopes that he can emerge as a compromise candidate if the bad blood between Biden and Sanders supporters continues. In a Fox News town hall event on Monday, Bloomberg dismissed Biden as a legislator rather than a leader and said that Sanderss ideas were crazy. Sanders has stoked the theory that the Democratic establishment is conspiring to deprive him of the nomination Earlier this week, Bloomberg said: The most likely scenario for the Democratic Party is that nobody has a majority and then it goes to a convention where theres horse-trading and everybody decides to compromise. It doesnt even have to be one of the two leading candidates. It could be somebody that had only a small number of delegates. But if Biden rolls into Milwaukee with a strong delegate lead, Bloombergs hopes will be dashed. Sanders has stoked the theory that the Democratic establishment is conspiring to deprive him of the nomination. On CNN on Monday, he said: From day one we have been taking on the establishment, whether it is the corporate establishment on Wall Street, the drug companies, the insurance companies, the fossil-fuel industry, or the political establishment. That theory was repeated by Trumps campaign manager, Brad Parscale, last night: The media is hyperventilating about Joe Biden but everyone should remember that he is just as terrible a candidate right now as he was a few days ago. At the same time, establishment Democrats have ganged up to try to deny Bernie Sanders the nomination, which is causing even more mayhem. Sanders has argued that he is the only candidate capable of mustering up the excitement Democrats need to defeat Trump, saying: To defeat Donald Trump, were going to have the highest voter turnout in the history of this country and I think our campaign is uniquely suited to be able to do that. Trump made his now-customary pre-vote intervention on Monday night, by holding a rally in Charlotte in North Carolina, one of the Super Tuesday voting states. He was buoyant about the stock market rebound following the coronavirus crash last week. One of his key campaign messages in November will be on the strength of the economy during his presidency. He taunted Biden for calling Super Tuesday Super Thursday and mixing up the states he visits. Yesterday, Trump tweeted out a Fox News compilation of Bidens gaffes, adding: WOW! Sleepy Joe doesnt know where he is, or what hes doing. Honestly, I dont think he even knows what office hes running for! He also went after Mike Bloomberg, tweeting: Mini Mike Bloomberg can never recover from his incompetent debate performances. Also, as mayor he was very bad under pressure a choker! While millions of Americans are stocking up on hand sanitizer and toilet paper amid the coronavirus outbreak, other crafty citizens are trying to capitalize on the crisis. Creative vendors on Amazon and Etsy are producing their own coronavirus merchandise, poking fun at the epidemic by selling coffee mugs, tote bags, key chains and stress balls. T-shirts referencing the outbreak are also popular in many online stores, with sellers showing off their wit by splashing slogans across the garments. One shirt riffs on the advice of experts to avoid social gatherings by featuring the phrase: 'Coronavirus Vegan: I Avoid Meet'. 'This is a funny t-shirt to wear to have a little smile when things aren't so bright out,' seller IntelliDesigns claims on their Etsy page. They further describe the shirt, which retails for $24.90, as 'great for vegans, vegetarians and anti-social friends'. Creative vendors on Amazon and Etsy are producing their own coronavirus merchandise, poking fun at the epidemic by selling t-shirts coffee mugs, tote bags, key chains and stress balls Given the heightened anxieties of the general population, coronavirus themed stress balls are likely to be hot sellers Proving that nothing is sacred when it comes to commercializing the coronavirus, holy cards are also being sold on Etsy Topical accessory! A crocheted germ microbe for sale on Esty for $19 can be hooked on to the side of a handbag A a canvas tote bag, retailing for $23.28, also makes for a topical accessory as it sums up the worldwide health crisis with a striking graphic image That'll keep the co-workers from stealing your coffee cup: This $12.99 mug is for sale on Etsy Another slogan shirt features a can of Corona beer with a lime sticking out of its top, accompanied by the words: 'I have coronavirus and lyme disease'. Elsewhere, other t-shirts also for sale on Etsy appear humorously designed to stoke fears about the outbreak. 'I ordered this t-shirt from China...' one $22 shirt reads, referencing the fact the coronavirus originated in the Asian country. 'Straight outta Wuhan', another of the t-shirts state - playing on the NWA song 'Straight Outta Compton'. Other shirts, however, are designed to ease the anxieties of nervous citizens. 'Calm Down and Wash Your Hands' and 'Keep Calm and Resist Coronavirus' are two popular options on Etsy, retailing for $18 and $20 respectively. Some shirts for sale on Etsy appear humorously designed to stoke fears about the outbreak Straight outta Wuhan', another of the t-shirts state - playing on the NWA song 'Straight Outta Compton'. The garment retails on Etsy for $20.67 plus shipping Some shirts are designed to ease the anxieties of citizens who have been left panic stricken by the spread of the virus Meanwhile, a plethora of other items also appear designed to clam the nerves of residents. A coronavirus stress ball, which looks like a germ microbe, is retailing on Etsy's ToysDollCrochet store for $19.00. Also on Etsy, one crafty vendor is selling instructions for a 'Coronavirus Crochet Pattern' for $3.99. 'Crochet replicate of #Corona virus. This version is one of a kind and can't be reproduce in laboratories or in nature, it is 100% safe and trusted,' the humorous production description reads. One witty vendor in Montreal is selling this shirt on Etsy for $21.84 plus shipping Once stitched, the ball can also be attached to a key ring and added to a handbag or backpack - making it a topical accessory. Elsewhere, a canvas tote bag, retailing for $23.28, also makes for a topical accessory as it sums up the worldwide health crisis with a striking graphic image. The bag features an image of the globe with a bright red medical mask wrapped around it. One crafty vendor is selling instructions for a 'Coronavirus Crochet Pattern' for $3.99 Given that many will stay indoors and self-quarantine in the wake of the outbreak, coronavirus themed books have also started popping up for sale on Amazon. One self-published children's book warns of the dangers of poor hygiene, and is bluntly titled: 'You're Going To Camp Coronavirus Because You Didn't Wash Your Hands'. Elsewhere, writer Bradley Hume has published 'Keep Calm and Survive Coronavirus', which is also selling on Amazon for $6. 'Coronavirus is here, and it's spreading fast. But you DON'T have to be a victim. In Bradley Hume's candid and down to earth discussion of common-sense survival methods, you will find a method of planning that will serve you well should this new infection come to your town,' the blurb reads. Writer Bradley Hume has published 'Keep Calm and Survive Coronavirus', which is also selling on Amazon for $6. Coronavirus themed coffee mugs are also selling fast, with office workers now finding a clever way to keep co-workers from stealing their crockery. 'I survived coronavirus and all I got was this stupid mug,' one $12.999 coffee cup reads. And proving that nothing is sacred when it comes to commercializing the coronavirus, holy cards are also being sold on Etsy. StJudeReligious store is selling a pack of 25 laminated cards for $12.99. The product description reads: 'Highest quality on Etsy, beautifully laminated to last a lifetime!' As of lunch time Wednesday, 142 Americans have tested positive to the virus - 11 have died. Health officials in Los Angeles County declared a health emergency on Wednesday after six new cases were confirmed, bringing the total in the city to seven. With just days before his new drama The Way Back premieres, Ben Affleck is continuing his publicity tour on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The 47-year-old actor was spotted waving to fans as he arrived at the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio in Hollywood on Tuesday afternoon. His appearance also comes after appearing on Sirius XM's The Jess Cagle Show, where he jokingly took credit for Matt Damon's acting career. Ben arrives: With just days before his new drama The Way Back premieres, Ben Affleck is continuing his publicity tour on Jimmy Kimmel Live Affleck was spotted wearing a dark grey shirt under a black coat with black pants and white sneakers. The star was spotted sporting a bit of a five-o-clock shadow as he walked into the studio, flanked by security personnel. The actor was in good spirits as he gets ready to release his new film The Way Back, arriving in theaters March 6. Ben's look: Affleck was spotted wearing a dark grey shirt under a black coat with black pants and white sneakers Before arriving at Kimmel's facility in Hollywood, Affleck opened up about getting his start as a child actor in Boston. 'When I was really young, my mom's best friend, who sadly just passed away last week, named Patty Collins Egelson, who I love and adore, was a local casting director in Boston,' Affleck began.' He added her husband Jan Egelson was an independent filmmaker in Boston, who, 'needed a little kid to basically be an extra,' which resulted in his first role in the 1981 film The Dark End of the Street. Opening up: Before arriving at Kimmel's facility in Hollywood, Affleck opened up about getting his start as a child actor in Boston After that role, the casting director was casting a, 'kids science and math adventure, sort of pre-Dora the Explorer show for PBS, and had me come and audition.' 'I was seven or eight, and ended up getting the part, and then the show went on sporadically,' adding he was glad he wasn't 'carted off to Hollywood as a young kid' and he's glad he got to have, 'a normal childhood.' 'Periodically, I would leave town, and go do this series, The Voyage of the Mimi. It was cheesy, and I was embarrassed about it. It wasnt like I was coming back home and being like, "You guys gotta see this! Im so cool!"' Science: After that role, the casting director was casting a, 'kids science and math adventure, sort of pre-Dora the Explorer show for PBS, and had me come and audition' He added that those early roles did two things for him, the first being they instilled 'a deep love and affection for this art and craft and line of work,' while also making his childhood friend Matt Damon, 'so incredibly jealous.' Affleck added that his early roles made Damon jealous and thus, 'drove him into a career in cinema. So I really take credit for that.' Damon made his acting debut in 1988's Mystic Pizza, before starring with Affleck in School Ties and Glory Daze before their breakthrough in 1997's Good Will Hunting, which earned them both Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and launched their acting careers as well. Early roles: He added that those early roles did two things for him, the first being they instilled 'a deep love and affection for this art and craft and line of work,' while also making his childhood friend Matt Damon, 'so incredibly jealous' Jealous: Affleck added that his early roles made Damon jealous and thus, 'drove him into a career in cinema. So I really take credit for that' President Donald Trump took a break from thanking Republican primary voters who handed him a string of easy victories on Super Tuesday to deem former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as the losers" of the night. Trump took to Twitter and declared that Bloomberg, by far, was the biggest loser on the critical primary day, when voters in 14 states picked their top Democratic candidate to face Trump. His political consultants took him for a ride, Trump said. Seven-hundred million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike! The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg. His political consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 Bloomberg had picked up a win in American Samoa and was looking at a few second-place finishes as results came in late Tuesday night. But former Vice President Joe Biden had already amassed at least seven wins and the most delegates of the night, trailed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Trump then targeted Warren, blasting her with a racist nickname and saying she didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer! Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 With more than half the precincts reporting in Massachusetts, Warren had 20% support, putting her in third place under Sanders at 27% and Biden at 33%. Biden had picked up strong support from moderates after former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out and endorsed him over the weekend. Xi stresses COVID-19 scientific research during Beijing inspection People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:10, March 03, 2020 Xi stressed the pivotal role of science and technology in curing more patients, reducing mortality and eventually defeating the epidemic. BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed coordinately advancing the scientific research on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to provide support for winning the battle against the epidemic. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University in Beijing. During his visit, Xi learned about the progress of research and application of the vaccines, anti-bodies, medicines and fast testing kits. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi extended sincere gratitude and greetings to frontline science and technology personnel. SCIENCE AS MOST POWERFUL WEAPON "Science and technology are the most powerful weapon in humanity's battle against diseases," Xi said. "Mankind can not defeat a major disaster or epidemic without scientific development and technological innovation." Xi said the COVID-19 research must be taken as a major and pressing task, calling for accelerating its progress and overcoming major difficulties in epidemic prevention and control at an earlier date. On Monday afternoon, Xi first went to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, where he heard a report on the academy's COVID-19 scientific research and inspected a contingency medicine research lab for major epidemic outbreaks. Xi stressed the pivotal role of science and technology in curing more patients, reducing mortality and eventually defeating the epidemic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the academy's contingency scientific research efforts have delivered positive results, he said. Xi urged prompt efforts to develop safe and effective vaccines, drugs and testing kits to help fight the virus. He also called for more core technologies with own intellectual property rights and strong products after the tough battle against the coronavirus. While inspecting the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University, Xi noted coordination between the frontline battle against the epidemic and scientific research and material production. He called for accelerating the development of new-type testing kits, antibody medicines, vaccines, and diagnosis and treatment plans. Xi also required efforts to reinforce the national surveillance network for major epidemics, improve the legal and regulatory system, promote the research of cutting-edge technologies and cultivate top-notch professionals to raise the country's ability to respond to major public health emergencies. SAVING LIVES MOST PRESSING TASK Chairing a symposium at Tsinghua University, Xi heard reports and gave an important speech. He noted the progress made by the country's scientific and technological front in just over a month, saying it has provided forceful support to epidemic prevention and control. At the moment, winning the people's war against the epidemic still requires hard work, Xi said, stressing more efforts to seek solutions through science. "Saving the lives of more patients is the most pressing and important task," he continued. Xi stressed linking the research on medicines and medical equipment with clinical treatment as well as giving priority to the clinical application of scientific research achievements. Treatment should combine traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, more effective drugs be applied and new treatment methods explored to prevent patients with mild symptoms from becoming severely ill, he said. Advanced treatments using convalescent plasma, stem cells and monoclonal antibodies should also be applied to treat severe and critically ill patients, he added. On vaccine, Xi said it is vital to epidemic prevention and control, with its safety the top priority. He called for speeding up the vaccine research and development while closely tracking the progress of related research overseas. Xi urged early clinical trial and application of vaccines, as well as linking research and development with industrial-chain production. He also required building a national reserve system for vaccines. Xi stressed the importance of coordinating research on virus source tracing and transmission routes and evaluating whether some suspected animals are intermediate hosts. Xi pointed out that new technologies, including artificial intelligence and big data, should be applied to epidemiological investigation and virus source tracing to figure out where the virus comes from and how it will develop. Xi also underscored psychological intervention to help patients recover. DOUBLE DOWN ON KEY, CORE TECHNOLOGIES Bio-security should be included in the overall national security as an important part, Xi said, calling for strengthening the system and capacity building of epidemic prevention and control and scientific research on public health. Xi called for improving the epidemic warning and forecast systems to gather information in a timely manner and quickly take response measures. He emphasized concentrating nationwide resources to double down on key and core technology research and urged breakthroughs in developing high-end medical equipment to accelerate fixing the country's "weak link" in this sector. Xi also emphasized resolutely eradicating the bad habit of eating wild animals to promote a civilized, healthy and environmentally-friendly lifestyle. Public health security is a common challenge faced by humanity, and all countries should join hands to cope with it, Xi said. Noting that the COVID-19 outbreaks have emerged in many countries, Xi said it is important to step up communication and exchange with the World Health Organization and carry out scientific research cooperation on source tracing, drugs, vaccines, testing and other fields with other countries, especially those hit hard by the virus. Xi called on countries to share research data and jointly work out response strategies to contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As claimed by Texas State Historical (TSHA), the representatives for the convention gathered to reflect and weigh their decisions regarding the continuing dispute between them and the government of Mexico. During the Battle of Gonzales in October, a Texas revolution occurred. It was a revolution where a cannon from the camp was almost taken and impounded by Mexican soldiers Temporarily, the Constitution, a governmental organization created an interim government. The management was distressingly vague, but Mexico's General Council still decided to hold an election of representatives to get together in Washington. George Campbell Childress, a politician, lawyer, and the Texas Declaration Indepence's key author decided to reside in Texas for good after a few days the General Council announced the election. As what the TSHA has reported, Sterling C. Robert was building a new community and was paid a visit in Texas by a resident of Tennessee, Childress, his nephew came back to Tennessee in 1835 to gather and allocate funds and aides or assistants to help the Texas army. After a year, both he and his nephew were delegated as representatives to the Washington-on-the-Brazos committee. The Texan representatives held an assembly at the small local community in a building that isn't developed and finished. During the assembly, Childress has started a movement for the independence of Texas. His determination and perseverance was recognized and was declared to lead a council to enlist the constitution. As what the TSHA has stated, Childress pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and announced the things stated on it during the assembly. The statement was the same as the United States Declaration of Independence. The Texas Declaration of Independence, which was originally from Thomas Jefferson and John Locke, was granted to Childress and has exhibited its grounds. It supports human rights and is an obligation of the next generation. It also aims to overthrow a regime and replace it with another. There was an agreement between all representatives at the start of the proclamation all representatives in case an administration abandons its people and their freedom. The Texans finished the proclamation similarly to the declaration of the United States of Declaration of Independence, which acquires a strong and stable faith towards the blessed Providence. They stated that they boldly and optimistically entrust the matter to the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations as they are conscious of the integrity of their objectives. The representatives to the convention were in disagreement with the outline of the declaration of Childress but still ended up approving it. They believed that the Republic of Texas has begun. After the convention proceeded with the drafting of the constitution for the new government and established a temporary administration, they heard a piece of news about Alamo and his death on March 17. They retreated from Washington-on-the-Brazos as the Mexican armies made their move. The copies of the Texan Declaration of Independence were distributed to municipalities like San Felipe, state archives, and the public. Car crash victims who used no-win, no-fee lawyers to fight personal injury claims may have been ripped off to the tune of hundreds of pounds. One claims firm estimates that more than two million may have been overcharged by solicitors who asked clients to pay top rates for the most straightforward cases. No-win, no-fee claims have boomed ever since the Government began to restrict and later abolish legal aid for personal injury cases in the 1990s. No-win, no-fee sharks: One claims firm estimates that more than two million may have been overcharged by solicitors who asked clients to pay top rates for straightforward cases Under current laws, solicitors make their money on cases they win with a 'basic charge' usually 600 paid by the other driver's insurance company for claims worth less than 10,000 and a 'success fee' that comes out of their client's damages. This success fee is calculated as a percentage of the basic charge, so should not exceed 600 in most cases. And a Ministry of Justice cap also means that success fees should not be higher than 25 per cent of the damages the claimant has won. The fee must also reflect the risk taken in fighting the case. So an open-and-shut case should not require a huge success fee. But costs recovery firm Checkmylegalfees.com says many personal injury lawyers have been ignoring how the success fee should be charged and taking a 'blanket rate' of 25 per cent against the compensation, rather than properly calculating the success fee. It means that claimants with low-risk cases have been made to pay the same rates as those with claims less likely to succeed. And some solicitors are charging 25 per cent of the damages automatically. A landmark Court of Appeal ruling last year found that one no-win, no-fee firm was not entitled to charge the maximum fee. A judge also found no clear evidence that the claimant had approved the costs incurred. The former director of the Liverpool firm involved in the case, Hampson Hughes, confirmed that the company imposed a blanket rate of success fees across all similar claims. I won 3,000 for whiplash but had to pay law firm 673 Natayla Cowell: 'It was intimidating' Natayla Cowell recovered 613.75 from a personal injury firm which cold-called her ten months after she was involved in a crash. The carer had been driving into work in 2016, when another car hit her Ford Focus. Natayla, then 25, began to feel whiplash pains across her shoulders a few days later but it wasn't until Cheshire-based Thorneycroft Solicitors called her that she thought she would be entitled to compensation. The mother-of-two says: 'I asked them how they got my number and they said it was from a database. They kept saying I deserved the money.' Natayla felt hurried into making a decision and decided to sign a conditional fee agreement with the firm. She had no idea that personal injury claimants have three years to make a claim. Thorneycroft proceeded with the case by submitting a claim form through the online road traffic accident portal. The other driver's insurer went on to admit liability just under two weeks later. Natayla, 29, who lives in Telford, Shropshire, ended up winning back 2,995 in damages. But the firm took 673.75 in fees from her compensation. She went on to instruct Check mylegalfees.com in December 2017. But when the firm requested papers from Natayla's case, Thorneycroft wrote directly to her and said that it would be seeking 'unrecovered' costs of 731 because she had made a claim against it. Natayla says: 'It was intimidating.' She continued pursuing her claim. But it was not until July last year that a judge ruled that she had been overcharged and Thorneycroft was ordered to pay her 613.75 plus 88.65 interest. She says: 'I feel they took advantage of my ignorance.' Thorneycroft did not respond to requests for comment. In his witness statement he said: 'I also know that many of our competitors charge success fees in the same way that we do.' Checkmylegalfees.com represents people who believe they have been overcharged by solicitors. The firm is understood to have won more than 100 cases in the past two-and-a-half years and has used the Court of Appeal judgment to win back fees for many of its clients. It has recovered 750 on average for each claimant. However, it can also charge success fees which are capped in the same way as personal injury claims. This means claimants will be charged up to 25 per cent of their damages through claiming their money back. Mark Carlisle, founder of Checkmylegalfees.com, says that more than two million people may have been overcharged by a personal injury company. He says: 'We conservatively estimate that the no-win, no-fee law firms have overcharged road traffic accident injury victims 2 billion.' The overcharging may go back as far as 2013 when the 25 per cent cap was introduced. It's understood that many firms have changed their charging practices since the Court of Appeal case, in a bid to avoid further claims. Guide: How to claim If you think you have been overcharged by a law firm, your first port of call should be the firm you used to pursue your claim. Ask for a full breakdown of costs and make sure you understand what each charge relates to. If you don't feel you are getting anywhere, take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman for free. You usually have six years to lodge a case. Write to: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or call 0300 555 0333. You could also take your case to a cost recovery firm such as CheckMyLegalFees.com Peter Corbett, 46, was approached by a secretary working for Raims Law within minutes of his accident in Manchester in February 2017. He says a young employee of the firm ran over to the self-employed joiner after she saw another car go into the back of his Vauxhall Vivaro in stationary traffic. Peter adds: 'I felt harangued. I didn't think she would go away unless I went with her back to the office.' The Stockport resident ended up signing a conditional fee agreement in which he was told he would pay the firm 25 per cent of his compensation if he won but nothing more in legal costs. However, he was not told that the costs Raims Law could recover from the other motorist's insurer were likely to be fixed at 600 and that he could end up paying a shortfall for the firm's hourly rate charges. Peter ended up receiving 3,700 in damages in June 2017, but he instructed Checkmy legalfees.com when he realised Raims Law had taken a success fee of 925. The High Court in Sheffield eventually ordered an 835 refund along with 60.53 in interest. A Raims Law spokesman says that while it does not comment on individual cases, the practice of charging success fees was 'not particularly clear' before the April 2019 Court of Appeal case. How to save on insurance bills now Millions of people are needlessly overpaying when their insurance automatically renews. But you don't have to and it's easier than you might think to fight back to beat the loyalty penalty. With our new partner, Compare the Market, you can compare insurance and exclusive deals and get rewarded with Meerkat Meals and Meerkat Movies* when you buy a qualifying product through them. You could save hundreds of pounds a year on your home insurance, car insurance, travel insurance as well as pet, motorbike and van insurance. >> Check to see if you can start saving money now *Meerkat Meals and Meerkat Movies are available with qualifying purchases. Ts and Cs apply He adds: 'That decision has assisted solicitors with the way in which certain features of charging success fees is explained to their clients, and most solicitors have made the appropriate changes to their practices to avoid the types of problems that arose in [the case].' A Law Society spokesman says: 'Every case is unique and personal injury solicitors entering into a conditional fee agreement should never assume a success fee of 25 per cent applies to all cases.' An Association of Personal Injury Lawyers spokesman says: 'Solicitors must act in the best interest of their clients and this includes providing a clear explanation of their fees.' Rise of 'free' firms used by millions No-win, no-fee claims firms emerged in the Nineties, when the government restricted and later abolished Legal Aid for personal injury cases. It meant those who signed the new Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) could make a personal injury claim without having to worry about paying legal costs if they lost. The no-win, no-fee deals were first allowed for a range of court cases in England and Wales in 1995. No-win, no-fee claims firms emerged in the Nineties, when the government restricted and later abolished Legal Aid for personal injury cases Three years later, a move was made to extend them to all civil cases, with the exception of family courts. It wasn't long before TV adverts showing people falling from ladders or being involved in car accidents became commonplace. The personal injury market is now valued at nearly 4 billion a year. But the practice has come under considerable criticism from those who believe they make money out of a 'compensation culture'. And the firms which use the agreements have been accused of making money from those who make claims against publicly funded bodies, such as the NHS. Lawyers who use CFAs will say there is no gravy train, because firms lose money from unsuccessful cases. In the past, these firms have also been accused of using unscrupulous means to get leads for new claimants. Cold calls from staff asking whether you've been involved in an accident are still common. However, in 2012 a law was introduced to forbid companies who deal with drivers after a car crash, including mechanics and car-hire firms, from selling on clients' details to personal injury lawyers. Insurers have also become unlikely victims of the industry. Trade body the Association of British Insurers has blamed personal injury lawyers for soaring car premiums. It says many insurers have had no choice but to increase the cost of cover, to meet the demand of payouts to claimants for injuries such as whiplash. In a bid to tackle the high number and cost of whiplash claims and tackle fraud, the Government is planning to implement a Whiplash Reform Programme. f.parker@dailymail.co.uk Despite talking tough, early indications suggest that Israels Netanyahu will not easily be able to form a government following Mondays general elections the third in less than a year Do not put your faith in either of the two main contenders in the Israeli elections (Benjamin Netanyahus Likud coalition and Benny Gantzs Blue and White), Palestinian analysts caution Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. Both are hostile to the Palestinian people and their national rights. The two are different sides of the same coin. The only dependable party is the Palestinian people who have made enormous sacrifices for their national cause and are ever ready to make more. Voters in Israel headed to the polls Monday in the third Knesset election in less than a year. Opinion polls give the Likud a lead, but not enough to be able to form a government on its own (at least 61 out of the 120 Knesset seats). Once again, Netanyahu will have to try to win over smaller parties, such as Avigdor Liebermans Yisrael Beiteinu, in order to form a government. Netanyahu will likely lead a new coalition government and continue to dodge corruption charges. His Likud party won 36 out of 58 seats gained by the right-wing bloc, which also includes Shas, UTJ and Yamina. The Joint List, an alliance of the Arab-majority political parties in Israel, won 15 seats, while Yisrael Beytenu now has seven seats. For the center-left bloc, including Blue and White and Labor-Gesher-Meretz, it won 40 seats. He will do everything in his power to ensure that the trial scheduled to begin 17 March will drag on and on. On the off-chance that the Likud manages to hammer together a coalition government by bringing other like-minded parties into his ultra-right racist coalition, he will remain prime minister until the end of his term, unless forced to resign by unseen circumstances, and his trial will be put on hold indefinitely, again. Analysts see little chance of the Blue and White teaming up with the Likud in a coalition at this point. Gantz would have to relinquish his demand that the Likud nominate anyone else but Netanyahu as prime minister. Neither the Likud nor any of its ultra-conservative allies are prepared to relinquish their support for Netanyahu. Israeli public opinion polls have also had their say: a majority would rather have Netanyahu as prime minister, regardless of corruption allegations. In the opinion of Palestinian analysts, it wont make a difference to Palestinians either way. The race between Netanyahu and Gantz is a race between the racist ultra-right and the conservative right. Neither want peace and neither will recognise Palestinian national rights. Netanyahu revealed his intentions decades ago. Throughout his career he has worked single-mindedly to undermine all prospects of a peace, bury the Palestinian cause and perpetuate the Israeli occupation forever. Gantz is not much different. He supports the Deal of the Century and has vowed to implement it if he wins the elections, which means, among other things, Israels annexation of settlement pockets, the Jordan Valley and other large chunks of the West Bank. None of the rightwing parties have a candidate that can rival Netanyahu, said Ziad Abu Zayyad, a Palestinian lawyer, journalist and politician. They havent even begun to think about finding such a candidate because they believe that Netanyahu is the one who is best able to carry out the right-wing agenda, which is to expand settlements, perpetuate the occupation, annex more Palestinian territory to Israel, prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and terminate the Palestinian Authority. Abu Zayyad, a former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a former minister in the Palestinian Authority, pointed out that if Netanyahu fails to form a government, we need to understand that the alternative is Gantz who warmly welcomed the initiative of Trump and vowed to annex the Jordan Valley. He is also aligned with the right because his party includes individuals from the far right who belong in the Likud but who havent joined it for personal reasons. Therefore, in both cases we have either a right-wing government or a more right-wing government. Neither will work towards a just solution or peace with the Palestinians. What have we done to prepare for this scenario? Abu Zayyad asked. President Abbas said that no matter what they do to us, we wont resort to violence. But will that work? What guarantee is there that the Palestinian people will continue to passively submit to the rampages of the extreme right? According to Ramallah-based political analyst Abdel-Majid Sweilam: Governments are made not by votes but by the intrigues and betrayals that lead to schisms and shifts in allegiance. For Netanyahu, a fourth round is yet another chance to buy time and reorganise his offensives against his adversaries. However, this is contingent on the cohesion of the right-wing bloc. Any fracture in that cohesion means the end of Netanyahu and maybe the worst possible end, Sweilam said. In his opinion, there are solutions that no one in Israel has ventured to mention openly. They would entail changing the electoral system if a government fails to materialise the third time around. One possibility would be to abandon the simple majority (60 seats plus 1) principle for forming a government and introduce new regulations. Another possibility would be to shift from the national to the geographic constituency system whereby each constituency would be accorded a certain percentage of seats in the Knesset. A third would be to adopt the bicameral system. All such alternatives run up against formidable legal obstacles. Whatever the case, Sweilam said, it is palpably clear that Netanyahu succeeded in dragging the whole of Israel into his own predicament. In Sweilams view the failure of the right to form a government would not only be disastrous for the Likud and the right. It would also turn the tables on the Deal of the Century, Trump and Washingtons entire Middle East policy which Trump has hinged on the perpetuation of a powerful and cohesive Israeli right which he believes is also crucial to his electoral prospects. Sweilam notes that the Israeli centre and left have not been able to rival Netanyahu in championing Israeli security and its higher interests. If it werent for his personal crisis, it would be impossible to speak of a balance of forces between the two sides. In fact, this might be part of a greater problem for Israel. The crisis in Israel on the surface is a crisis in its system of government. But it goes much deeper. It is about the identity of Israel. The right is the majority. But the unity of the right has become entwined with the survival of a single individual, Netanyahu. According to Ali Awar, an Israeli affairs researcher, nothing will alter the general ideological map in Israel. The only difference will reside in the power of Gantz and Lieberman to hamper Netanyahus ability to form a narrowly based right-wing government. The final results will tell us how great that power is. In his opinion, the main reason why the Likuds lead in this third round was stronger than in the last was Netanyahus ability to play to Israeli ultranationalist sentiments and to drive home a number of points having to do with annexing land and expanding settlements. He boasted of being the only one who could bring the Jordan Valley, the area north of the Dead Sea, and Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories under Israel sovereignty, and he vowed to start implementing the Deal of the Century as soon as the elections were over. Two days before the election, Netanyahu announced plans to build 10,000 new settler units in Jebel Abu Ghneim and to add thousands of more units to the Givat Hamatos settlement, the effect of which will be to sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank, as part of the plan to turn the West Bank into disconnected Palestinian cantons and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. He also said that he would create a new settlement on the land of Qalandia Airport north of Jerusalem. He made it clear that he didnt care how President Abbas, the PA or anyone else felt about annexations. In short, he cast himself not as a political pragmatist and not just as a nationalist and not even as an ideological fanatic, but as a prophet destined to fulfill the Zionist founding vision. That was music to the ears of voters from the Israeli religious, conservative and ultra-right. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty ImagesAtlanta Governor Brian Kemp on Monday confirmed two cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Fulton County. It wasn't long before 2 Chainz reacted to the news in an Instagram post. "Mannnnn yal done brought that s*** to Wakanda," he captioned a screenshot of the news. Fellow ATLien T.I. chimed in with "U B*********n!!!!" message, while Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah blamed it on "THEM D*** DEVILS!!!! SMH." Governor Kemp explained that two individuals believed to be infected with the virus reside in the same household and are currently being kept in isolation inside their home with their family. One recently returned from a trip to Italy, where cases are accelerating by 50% and have reached 34 confirmed deaths. However, Kemp assured locals there was no reason to panic. "Georgians should remain calm. We were ready for today. We have been preparing for weeks now and so far, every development has come forward just as we expected it would," he said. In other news, 2 Chainz recently dropped the video his Def Jam release "No TV." Last month, he released trap banger "Dead Man Walkin" with another fellow ATLien Future. The song is likely the first single from his upcoming and final album with Def Jam. 2 Chaniz's label T.R.U. (The Real University), a joint partnership with Atlantic Records, also released a complication album titled No Face No Case that showcases four emerging artists from Atlanta, and songs from his #TRUsday singles series that began in January. Amir Hossein Moradi, a peaceful protester arrested during the uprising in November 2019 and sentenced to death, was moved to Suite 11 of Ward 1 of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary after testing positive for the virus. Nineteen other protesters arrested in November and suspected of contracting Coronavirus, including Saeed Tamjidi, Mohammad Rajabi, Milad Arsanjani, and Jamil Ghahremani, have been moved to the same room, following Moradis positive test result. Tamjidi and Rajabi have also been sentenced to death for taking part in the November uprising. They were told that they were being taken to the hospital of Yaftabad, according to a source close to the family of one of these prisoners, but in the last moments before leaving the prison, they were told that plans had changed and they were being moved to Ward 1, which is where dangerous criminals are held. The political prisoners are being kept in a room next door to inmates convicted of violent offenses, which is a violation of the principle of separating prisoners into different categories. This puts the political prisoners in real danger because of the history of the regime authorities using violent criminals to murder prisoners of conscience, like the case of Alireza Shir Mohammadi. He was stabbed to death in June 2019 by violent offenders on Ward 1. Not only are the political prisoners less safe, but Ward 1 also has fewer facilities than other parts of the prison. For instance, it does not have a store where they could buy soap to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. (The regime barely provides running water, let alone soap.) Coronavirus is an issue in prisons all over Iran as the enclosed, overcrowded space, with a lack of access to medical and health resources or healthy food, makes it much easier for the virus to spread. In some prisons, like Khorramabad and Sanandaj, inmates have been holding protests, threating to go on hunger strike, and demanding that authorities provide medical and health resources and quarantine those infected (of suspected to be infected) with the Coronavirus. In other prisons, like Karaj, Urmia, Tabriz, and Tehran, the situation is described as volatile. On February 29, prisoners in Baz Prison of Khorramabad protested the authorities refusal to send them on leave despite the outbreak of Coronavirus in this prison. Read More: Dozens of Detainees of the November Protests Have Died in Irans Prisons Joe Biden will win the North Carolina Democratic primary, according to an NBC News projection, giving him another one of the biggest states on Super Tuesday. After his win in South Carolina on Saturday and his projected win in Virginia earlier Tuesday, the latest victory represents continued dominance in southern states for the former vice president. With 110 delegates up for grabs, the Tar Heel state boasts one of the biggest prizes of any of the 14 primary elections held on Super Tuesday. Only Texas and California award more delegates. NBC News projected early that Biden would win at least 30 of the state's delegates. Exit polling data showed that Biden was blowing away Sen. Bernie Sanders among black voters. Biden won 63% of that group in North Carolina, according to NBC's exit polls. Sanders was projected to win at least eight delegates. The result appeared to mark a dramatic turnaround. An NBC/Marist poll released Sunday showed a tight race in the state between Biden and Sanders. Billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who skipped the four prior state contests, came in third in the poll, followed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. North Carolina may only grow more competitive in the general election. The state went for President Donald Trump in 2016 but NBC's poll showed both Sanders and Biden beating the incumbent Republican in a hypothetical matchup in the state. Just a handful of Democratic candidates remained to compete for North Carolina's delegates on Super Tuesday. At its height, more than two dozen Democrats jockeyed for position in the race to take on Trump in 2020. Just two days before Super Tuesday, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced he would drop out of the contest. Buttigieg, the youngest candidate in the race who as a small-town mayor outperformed expectations with a win in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, called it quits after a fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary Saturday. Billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer threw in the towel a day before Buttigieg, and just hours after it became clear that the tens of millions of dollars Steyer spent in South Carolina would fail to net him any delegates there. By the end of January, Steyer spent a total of $253.7 million on his campaign, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. Biden's much-needed victory in South Carolina sent a gust of wind into his campaign's sail and helped him close the delegate gap with Sanders less than a week before the Tuesday elections. Still, Sanders was considered the front-runner coming into Super Tuesday. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:42:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The first COVID-19 case in Lebanon has recovered and is expected to return home on Wednesday, a source from the health ministry told Xinhua on Tuesday. "Rafic Hariri Hospital will test the patient again tomorrow. The result is expected to be negative like previous ones and the patient will leave the hospital," the source said on condition of anonymity. The patient, a woman, has moved to a regular room at the hospital, the source added. Lebanon has so far reported 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases. A 42-year-old Massachusetts man has been arrested in the hit and run of two marshals outside Manchester Superior Court on Tuesday. One judicial marshal sustained serious, life-threatening injuries and the second judicial marshal sustained injuries. Both were treated at Hartford Hospital, where the seriously injured marshal remains under intensive care. Jose Antonio Lopez was charged with first and second-degree assault, assault on a public safety officer, operating a motor vehicle while under suspension and evading responsibility. He is being held on a $750,000 bond. Lopez was informed inside the courthouse that he had an active arrest warrant for violation of probation. Lopez subsequently fled the courthouse, entered his vehicle, and struck two judicial marshals while fleeing the scene. Numerous witnesses, both civilian and judicial employees, remained on the scene and provided information to responding troopers and detectives. Central District Major Crime detectives assumed control of the investigation and coordinated closely with Massachussets State Police and the Springfield and Wilbraham, Mass. police departments. In the early morning hours on Tuesday, Massachusetts Violent Fugitive Task Force detectives located Lopez and took him into custody as a fugitive from justice on the outstanding, extraditable violation of probation warrants. Massachusetts detectives conducted an interview with Lopez at the Hampden County District Attorney's Office, where he subsequently provided a written confession. Lopez was presented at the Hampden County court, where he waived extradition on the violation of probation warrants and was He is scheduled to be arraigned at Hartford Superior Court on Wednesday. In the meantime, an arrest warrant was obtained by Connecticut detectives for the Manchester incident. On Wednesday detectives arrested Lopez. As concerns mounted over spike in coronavirus cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday formed a task force and said efforts are on to screen the people who came in contact with the infected Delhi man and 16 Italian tourists, while many resident welfare associations and schools in the city and its outskirts cancelled events involving gatherings. Isolation wards in 19 government and six private hospitals are being readied in case of need across the national capital and thermal scanning of all passengers landing from abroad is being conducted at the airport, Kejriwal said. The man from Delhi, who tested positive on Monday, was among 28 confirmed cases in the country. Also 16 Italian tourists, who have tested positive, had travelled by road and stayed at two hostels here. Despite appeal by authorities not to panic, several people complained that masks and sanitiser were unavailable at chemist and other shops and even online sellers were showing them out of stock. Asked about alleged black-marketing of masks and hand sanitiser in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, Kejriwal said the government will look into it and take all necessary preventive steps. He asserted there is no shortage of masks. Worried over the spread of virus, three schools in the national capital and adjoining areas announced holidays for students and staff, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. Most of the schools have cancelled their planned events and several were planning to sanitise premises. A large number of people commuting through the metro were seen wearing masks or covering their faces. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said it would increase the frequency of cleaning on its premises in view of the coronavirus outbreak. It has also issued Do's and Dont's in both English and Hindi regarding the virus. Atul Goyal, president of URJA - United Residents Joint Action, the apex body of RWAs in Delhi -- said it has also issued an advisory to all RWAs to not have public engagements or 'Holi Milan' due to coronavirus scare. "Holi is approaching but most of the RWAs will not be celebrating Holi. We have issued an advisory to all RWAs to not have public engagements and avoid use of water in view of the coronavirus scare," he said. Sports and recreational classes were also being cancelled by some organisers. Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said a state-level taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the emerging situation and there is no need to panic. "We are concerned about the situation but there is no need to panic. We are doing whatever we can to check the coronavirus from spreading... members of all the important departments in Delhi, state officials, and police officials have been included in the task force," he said. A coronovirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, the chief minister said. "We have one confirmed case in Delhi till now and the patient has been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital. He is the resident of Mayur Vihar, who had travelled first from Italy to Budapest and then from Vienna to Delhi. "We have identified 88 people who he came in contact with after coming back to India. We are trying to conduct screening on all those 88 identified people," he told reporters. Kejriwal said thermal scanning of all the passengers landing from abroad is being conducted on the airports. They are referred to the RML hospital in case any symptoms are observed, Kejriwal added. Until now, 1,16,579 patients have been screened at the airport. On the Italian tourists, he said, they "had come from Italy and were staying in Surya hotel. But we have also traced and identified the people who had come in contact with those passengers and they have been kept in isolation". Around 13-14 rooms of the hotel have been sealed to ensure that they properly sanitised before putting into use," he said. "The same steps have been taken in the Grand Hotel, where they stayed afterward. The passengers are currently in Chhawla ITBP camp and we are preparing to transfer them to Safdarjung Hospital for treatment as they have been found positive," he said. Municipal bodies are also contacting and screening tourists from four countries -- China, Iran, Italy and South Korea -- where most cases of the infection have come to light. The screening is being done at hotels and guesthouses in the city, he said. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) said it has formed two rapid response teams for screening of residents who visited coronavirus affected countries after January 15 and has already screened 56 houses. The NDMC area has residences of lawmakers and other VIPs, besides the Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, diplomatic enclave and five-star hotels. The civic body has also asked all hotels and guest houses in the area to send report regarding guests coming from the affected countries or any person showing symptoms of fever or flu. On Tuesday, a five-star hotel asked its staff, who were present at one of its restaurants where an individual tested positive for coronavirus dined on February 28, to go on self-quarantine for 14 days. Earlier in the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and civic body officials and urged them to augment facilities of isolation wards in city hospitals if more cases are confirmed. Kejriwal said school children also need to be made aware of coronavirus and steps to prevent the disease from spreading. The Jamia Millia Islamia organised an awareness lecture on COVID-19 which was attended by over 200 students. The traders' association were doing their bit including procuring masks and distributing them to customers. Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar mini market traders' association, said they will also put up banners in the market informing people about various precautions to be taken in the wake of the current situation. "We will be distributing masks to customers who visit the market. We are planning to procure 1,000 to 2,000 masks in the next few days and will be distributing them to customers. Atul Bhargava of the New Delhi Traders' Association (NDTA), under which the Connaught Place market comes, said he has been creating awareness among traders of the market by sending messages on two WhatsApp groups of their association. The Khan Market sees a high footfall of foreign tourists. Sanjeev Mehra of the Khan Market Traders' Association said the tourists visiting the market themselves are quite aware and can be seen wearing masks. Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has urged the police to suspend the use of breath analyser tests for alcohol consumption. Giving a break-up of those who have tested positive for the virus, Harsh Vardhan had said out of the total 28 COVID-19 cases in India, one person is from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) First Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Ukraine - Health Ministry Sputnik News 09:23 GMT 03.03.2020(updated 09:59 GMT 03.03.2020) The day before, Saudi Arabia's health ministry confirmed, as quoted by the state-run news agency, the first case of coronavirus after an infected person had arrived from Iran through Bahrain. Acting Head of the Ukrainian Health Ministry Igor Kuzin confirmed on Tuesday the first case of coronavirus in the country. According to the official, a man, diagnosed with the coronavirus was hospitalised on Saturday after returning to Ukraine from Italy via Romania. Since the beginning of the spread of coronavirus, Italy has become the worst-hit country outside of Asia. The country has suspended all flights to and from China and put around a dozen towns in the north, where most of the cases are clustered, under lockdown. Public events have also been cancelled across the country, most notably the Venice carnival, Milan Fashion Week, and the International Journalism Festival in Perugia. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CNN Philippines (March 4) Starting March 8, Kuwait will require expatriates who visited the Philippines and nine other countries to present proof that they are free of the novel coronavirus infection or COVID-19, according to a state authority. Kuwait announced the new travel restrictions for the Philippines, India, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon on Thursday through a Twitter post by the countrys Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Kuwait has previously imposed the same protocol for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Foreign workers must be tested for the virus and present medical certificates showing they yielded a negative result before being allowed to enter the Gulf state, the official said. These certificates must come from health centers approved by Kuwaiti embassies or health authorities in countries covered by the rule. Should they fail to comply with the new procedure, the expatriates will be sent back to their country of origin without the state bearing any financial costs via the same air carrier. The airline company will also be fined for violating Kuwaits order. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti citizens are exempted from the protocol as they will be tested for the new virus at the Kuwait International Airport. Kuwaiti authorities have already suspended flights to and from Singapore, Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Thailand and Italy as the global threat of the COVID-19 persists. Expats who have visited Iraq, South Korea, Thailand and Italy in the preceding two weeks will not be allowed to enter Kuwait. Non-Kuwaitis who visited Singapore and Japan over the past two weeks will also be denied entry. Kuwait has reported 56 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday morning. Delhi High Court on Wednesday adjourned till May 12 hearing in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea challenging trial court's order granting bail to former union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis case. A bench of Justice Anu Malhotra allowed the plea filed by the father-son duo seeking more time to file their reply on ED's plea challenging their bail. On September 5 last year, a trial court had granted anticipatory bail to the Chidambaram and his son Karti in connection with the Aircel-Maxis cases filed by both the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Judge OP Saini, while passing the judgment, had observed that the entire evidence related to the commission of the crime by the two accused was documentary in nature and is not liable to be tampered with by the two accused. "Both the accused are Members of Parliament and P Chidambaram is also the former finance and home minister of the country. Considering these factors there is no apparent possibility of the accused fleeing from justice," the court said. The case, which is being probed by the CBI and ED, relates to alleged irregularities in grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. The FIPB approval was allegedly granted in 2006 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Preparations to launch the ExoMars rover to the Red Planet this summer are in a crunch as critical parachute tests have again been delayed. According to a media report from SpaceNews, the ExoMars mission "could be condemned to delay" even before the crucial parachute tests are performed in late March. The heads of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, the two main partners on the mission, are supposed to meet on March 12 to discuss mission progress. The ExoMars rover's two big parachutes failed multiple high-altitude drop tests in 2019, when they sustained significant damage as they ripped through the atmosphere while simulating the rover's descent to the Martian surface. Related: Europe's ExoMars missions to Mars in pictures ExoMars 2020 parachute deployment sequence. (Image credit: ESA) ExoMars 2020, scheduled to launch to the Red Planet in July, is the second part of the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program, which started out with the launch of the Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander in 2016. A delay would mean that the rover, named Rosalind Franklin, may have to wait another 2.5 years for launch until late 2022 to make the journey to the Red Planet. Missions to Mars happen only when Earth is close enough to send a spacecraft there without using undue fuel to complete the journey. Such alignments happen only every 26 months, with launch windows lasting only a few weeks. Looming over the discussions is what happened the last time ESA and Rocosmos tried to land something on Mars. On Oct. 19, 2016, the Schiaparelli lander crashed into the surface due to a data glitch that caused the craft's parachute to deploy prematurely. Schiaparelli was supposed to be an entry, descent and landing test probe for the ExoMars program, since both participating agencies lack direct experience landing on the Red Planet. Now, they will have to try again with their main payload, Rosalind Franklin. And in recent months, the pressure mounted even more when parachute problems emerged during testing for the mission, which is supposed to hunt for organics and signs of habitability on Mars. An artist's depiction of the Rosalind Franklin rover, which Europe plans to place on the Martian surface in March 2021. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab) High-altitude drop tests of a 50-foot (15 meters) supersonic parachute and a 114-foot (35 m) subsonic parachute both failed, in May and August last year, SpaceNews noted. Since the parachute tests must be passed before Rosalind Franklin launches, these problems could result in a delay. ESA asked inspectors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a group that successfully landed four rovers on Mars so far, for help in pinpointing the cause. JPL found that parachute damage happened when the chutes were extracted from their bags, SpaceNews added. ESA told SpaceNews that the next high-altitude drop tests of these parachutes will take place at the end of March, just three months before the launch window opens, on July 25. These tests had previously been scheduled for December 2019 and February 2020 but were recently pushed back despite the fact that the six most recent ground tests, conducted late last year, showed that the parachutes have been extracting safely, ESA officials said in a statement. A closeup view of a parachute bag containing one of the two test parachutes of the ExoMars 2020 mission using a NASA test rig powered by compressed air. The image shows the new configuration of the parachute bag, which releases the parachute from the center outward, with the bag opening in a petal-like fashion. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Another factor in all these issues, the agency said, is the Roscosmos lander, named Kazachok. Derived from the Schiaparelli lander, Kazachok is a landing platform that will deliver Rosalind Franklin to the Martian surface. The ExoMars parachutes must be large and complex to bring the heavy lander down safely, as the lander does not have downward-facing thrusters to slow it down as it descends onto the surface of the Red Planet. Another, smaller issue could cause delays if it is not addressed as planned. Engineers found "minor de-bonding in part of the solar array" on Rosalind Franklin during tests subjecting the rover to simulated Martian environmental conditions, an ESA spokesperson told SpaceNews. The agency, however, plans to make a mechanical fix, and the spokesperson added, "It is not seen as a serious problem." Even if ESA's ExoMars mission doesn't make the journey in 2020, other agencies are lining up to go to Mars this summer. NASA's Mars 2020 rover and missions from Japan and China are all expected to lift off between July and August. Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. The Taliban killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had a very good chat with the insurgents political chief. Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police, said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governors spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded. ISTANBUL, March 3 (Reuters) - Turkey shot down a Syrian government warplane on Tuesday over northwest Syria, where fighting has intensified in recent weeks as Turkish forces have intervened in the battle over the last remaining area under rebel control. It was the third Syrian warplane Turkey has shot down since Sunday in an escalating campaign against President Bashar al-Assad's forces that threatens to bring NATO-member Turkey into direct confrontation with Assad's superpower ally Russia. With more than a million refugees amassing since December on the Turkish border, the battle for Idlib has brought what the United Nations fears might be the worst humanitarian crisis of the nine-year-old Syrian civil war. Turkish-backed rebels have fought back and forth in recent weeks against government forces backed by Russia and Iran for control of the strategic crossroads town of Saraqeb. The town controls access both to Syria's biggest city Aleppo, held by the government, and to Idlib, the last major rebel-held city. Last week, a Syrian air strike killed at least 34 Turkish soldiers in the deadliest attack on the Turkish army in decades. Moscow, which has anti-aircraft missiles in Syria, has since warned Turkey that it cannot guarantee the safety of Turkish planes in Syrian skies. The Turkish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had shot down a Syrian L-39 ground attack jet. Syria's state-run SANA news agency confirmed the plane had been shot down over Idlib province by missiles fired from Turkish warplanes. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's Vladimir Putin are due to meet on Thursday to try to find ways to avert conflict. Asked about the prospect of direct clashes with Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We hope that we're able to absolutely minimise this risk thanks to the close contact between the two countries' militaries." Turkey, already home to 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says it cannot take any more. It wants to push Assad's forces back to lines agreed in a 2017 deal brokered with Russia and Iran, which left a buffer zone in northern Syria near its border. Since last week, Turkey has thrown open its frontiers with Greece and Bulgaria to allow migrants to enter the EU, a move apparently aimed at putting pressure on European countries to back it in Syria. Some 10,000 migrants have tried to cross into Greece by land in recent days and more than 1,000 have arrived by sea at Greek islands, creating fears of a repeat of the 2015-2016 migration crisis, when more than 1 million people crossed into Greece and 4,000 drowned in the Aegean. (Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by William Maclean) Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu failed to mention that any conflict connected with Nagorno-Karabakh must be settled exclusively through peace. This is what deputy of the My Step faction of the National Assembly Hovhannes Igityan told reporters today, touching upon the meeting of the Turkish foreign minister and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs didnt issue a statement on the meeting, but they used to issue statements. I dont think they will since Cavusoglus statements go against the statements that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have been making over the past twenty years, he said. Talking about the relations between Turkey and Russia, Igityan stated that he hasnt noticed escalation and that Turkey is not part of the plans of its partners and allies. Turkey has violated the agreement with its partners and allies, and its not just about Russia. Its clear that Turkey and Russia have problems because the whole world has a plan to achieve peace in Syria, but Turkey violated the plan, he said. Coronavirus Death Toll Reaches at Least 9 in Washington State Sputnik News 19:54 GMT 03.03.2020(updated 20:21 GMT 03.03.2020) Health officials from Washington state announced Tuesday that a total of nine deaths related to the COVID-19 coronavirus have been confirmed there. According to the Washington State Department of Health website, there have been at least 27 positive cases of the novel coronavirus and a total of nine deaths statewide. As of the state's latest update, two counties have been impacted by the coronavirus: Snohomish County, which has six reported cases and one death, and King County, with 21 confirmed cases and eight fatalities. The latest reporting from health officials is a significant uptick from Monday's count of 18 cases and six deaths. Harborview Medical Center spokesperson Susan Gregg revealed that one of the deaths confirmed on March 3 actually occurred six days ago, but the deceased individual's diagnosis was not known until recently. Due to this particular case, some employees of the King County facility will be both monitored and screened by a health team daily. "In coordination with Public Health Seattle & King County, we have determined that some staff may have been exposed while working in an intensive care unit where the patient had been treated. We don't believe that other patients were potentially exposed," Gregg told KOMO News. "This is a very fluid, fast-moving situation as we aggressively respond to this outbreak," said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for public health for Seattle & King County, in a Tuesday news release. "People with suspected or confirmed exposure to COVID-19 should reach out to their healthcare provider." Another 231 individuals are "under public health supervision" by the state due to their exposure to the novel coronavirus or recent return to the US from China, where the viral outbreak began. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A man was killed here on Tuesday for allegedly refusing to provide "packet of hashish" to three men, the police said. The deceased has been identified as Amin Patel. The incident took place near Cotton Green station last night at around 11:15 pm. The accused have been arrested by police under Section 302, 397, 324 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The incident came to light after the deceased's friend Bunty Kamble, who was with him at the time of the incident, filed a complaint with Kalachowky police. Further, an investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Writing the 20th anniversary edition of my 1994 book The Digital Economy was a sobering experience. The book was very positive about the promise of the internet, and to be sure the web has brought about many great innovations. But the book has a small section about The Dark Side things that could go wrong. Rereading it 20 years later, I was shocked to see that every danger I hypothesized has materialized. Our privacy has been undermined. The digital economy has created a system of digital feudalism, wherein a tiny few have appropriated the largesse of this new era of prosperity. Data, the oil of the 21st century, is not owned by those who create it. Rather, its controlled by an increasingly centralized group of digital landlords who collect, aggregate and profit from the data that collectively constitutes our digital identities. Exploiting our data has enabled them to achieve unprecedented wealth, while at the same the middle class and prosperity are stalled. In 1994, I hoped the internet would create new industries and jobs and, for a while, it did. But today technology is wiping out entire industries. Underemployment and the threat of structural employment is fuelling unrest. Trucking, one of Canadas largest sources of employment, will likely be automated within a decade. Digitized networks enable outsourcing, offshoring and the globalization of labour. Within the second era of the digital age one centred on blockchain technologies, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things many core functions of knowledge work are in jeopardy. Yes, there is a new wave of entrepreneurism in Canada, but our regulations were designed for the old industrial economy and hamper success. Canada ranks dead last for creating billion-dollar companies in the 36 member OECD countries. With national economic borders becoming porous the old ways of protecting our cultural industries dont work, nor do old ways of taxing foreign companies doing business in Canada. The increased transparency enabled by the internet has also revealed deep problems in society. Canada is learning the truth about the horrific history of our Indigenous population, which in turn now has tools to speak out and organize collective action. We also understand deeply how climate change threatens civilization on this planet, especially young people, who will suffer most and who are now organizing to re-industralize the country and the world. I had hoped the internet would bring us together as societies and improve our democracies. But the opposite has occurred. We are often exposed solely to information and perspectives that reinforce our own views, with information and perspectives filtered to accommodate our pre-existing biases. The upshot has been more fracturous and divisive public discourse and democratic institutions eroding before our eyes, as trust in politicians and the legitimacy of our governments is at an all-time low. Populist rhetoric becomes more appealing in these conditions, and many are vulnerable to scapegoating and xenophobia. People everywhere are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. As such they have become vulnerable to populism, xenophobia and scapegoating minority ethnic groups, races and religions for problems. Centrist parties are in rapid decline and extremist right-wing parties from Hungary and Poland to France and Germany are on the rise. Perhaps as unthinkable as the success of Donald Trump is the rise of Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist who is odds-on favourite to win the democratic presidential nomination. The unfolding story is one of growing discontent with the deepening economic crisis and the old establishment that created it. Conversely, the next era of the digital economy could bring epoch prosperity, with new networked models of global problem-solving to realize such a dream. To meet these new challenges, the time has come for Canada to reimagine its social contract the basic expectation between business, government and civil society. When Canada evolved from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, we developed a new social contract for the times public education, a social safety net, securities legislation, laws about pollution, crime, traffic, workplace safety and countless non-governmental civil society organizations arose to help solve problems. It is time to update these agreements, create new institutions and renew the expectations and responsibilities that citizens should have about society. We need new models of identity, moving away from the industrial-age system of stamps, seals and signatures we depend on to this day. We need to protect the security of personhood and end the system of digital feudalism. Individuals should own and profit from the data they create. We need new laws for autonomous vehicles, robots, drones and technology. Our basic expectations of work are shifting, but our systems designed to support workers have not. Gone are the days when a worker might expect to do the same job or work in the same field their whole career. Students today are preparing for unprecedented lifelong learning, with the knowledge that technology will likely force them to reimagine their role in the workforce. In the face of new models of work, we need to update our educational institutions to prepare for this kind of lifelong learning, and establish a universal basic income to support transition periods, providing a foundation for entrepreneurialism and investing in the potential of Canadians. We must adopt new models for citizen engagement in our government. In blockchain we have found one such model, with the possibility of embedding electoral promises into smart contracts. Meanwhile, it enables secure outlets for online voting and other forms of direct democracy using the platforms voters use every day. Networks enable citizens to participate fully in their own governance, and we can now move to a second era of democracy based on a culture of public deliberation and active citizenship. Mandatory voting encourages active, engaged and responsible citizens. Its also time for business leaders to participate responsibly for their own long-term survival and the health of the economy overall. Even or especially in a time of exploding information online, we need scientists, researchers and a professional Fourth Estate of journalists to seek the truth, examine options and inform the ongoing public discourse. We each have new responsibilities to inform ourselves in a world where the old ways are failing. Are these expectations overly ambitious or even utopian? We think not. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and the challenges facing our economic and political institutions today warrant such a change. Now is the time for real, meaningful action, and for Canada to play a role as a global model for this new social contract. The time has come for a 21st-century royal commission on the digital economy, to engage stakeholders from across the reimagine our basic expectations. The challenges of our era demand audacious solutions. Now more than ever, Canada has a responsibility to take on a leadership role in the new digital age. The full version of Don Tapscott s The New Social Contract can be downloaded here Read more about: Jeff Bezos and fiancee Lauren Sanchez were spotted on a romantic date just days after the Amazon chief saw his net worth plummet by $11.9billion amid coronavirus panic. The 56-year-old and his partner were seen leaving the exclusive Carbone restaurant in New York City on Monday before quickly making their way to a car outside. Former broadcast news anchor Sanchez, 50, flashed her diamond engagement ring as she walked ahead of Bezos, the world's richest man, flanked by security. The romantic Italian-American restaurant is a popular haunt for celebrities in Greenwich Village. It comes just days after fears of coronavirus sent global stock markets plummeting while eating into the fortune of some of the world's wealthiest moguls. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancee Lauren Sanchez were spotted enjoying date night just days after the billionaire saw his fortune plummet by almost $11.9billion amid coronavirus chaos Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reported the biggest loss of his net worth - seeing it drop by $11.9billion, according to Bloomberg. Since the start of the year, the world's 500 wealthiest people added $78billion to their fortunes. Those gains were wiped away in the last few days. It comes after Bezos was accused of 'greenwashing' after pledging $10billion to help fight climate change, while his e-commerce company pumps out the carbon equivalent to some small countries. The richest man in America unveiled the Bezos Earth Fund to be set up with his vast funds. Amazon paid federal income tax this year for the first time since 2016, shelling out $162 million, a mere 1.2 percent of its $13.9billion income for 2019. Former broadcast news anchor Sanchez flashed her diamond engagement ring as she walked ahead of Bezos, the world's richest man, flanked by security Earlier this month Bezos spent more than that on a Beverly Hills mansion worth $165million. Not only have people criticized Bezos for the taxes he pays, but many claimed that $10billion from his $130billion fortune was not nearly enough to offset the company's massive carbon emissions. Amazon said it emitted 44.4million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, which is more than some small countries. Furthermore, critics questioned how the initiative would operate, it being privately funded, Bezos will be have full control and its activities will not necessarily be transparent. In outlining his project Bezos only provided rudimentary details saying it 'will fund scientists, activists, NGOs.' (CNN) Google is canceling its biggest event of the year because of concerns about the coronavirus. The 2020 edition of Google I/O, an annual developer conference originally scheduled for May 12-14 at Google's Mountainview headquarters, will no longer take place, the company confirmed on Tuesday. "Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event," a company spokesperson told CNN Business. Google is currently weighing other options to engage with its developer audience. People who have already purchased tickets for the conference will receive a full refund by March 13 and will not have to re-register to buy a ticket for I/O 2021, Google said on the conference website. The annual developer event is the latest in a rapidly growing list of tech events that have been shelved because of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 3,100 people around the world, including nine in the United States. Facebook canceled two conferences in recent weeks, including its big annual event, F8, weeks after the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was also canceled. Companies like Microsoft and Apple have said the virus could result in a hit to their sales. PENNELLVILLE, N.Y. A 77-year-old man with Alzheimers disease went missing Tuesday afternoon, and he may be in need of medical attention, according to New York State Police. Robert W. Shield was last seen driving a 2019 gray Nissan Rogue on Oneida River Road in the hamlet of Pennellville in Oswego County at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, troopers said. Its license plate number is JEM-1426. Shield is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 145 lbs with blond hair and blue eyes. Troopers believe he may be in the Binghamton area or may travel to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Troopers ask anyone with information to call (315)366-6000 or 911. Patrick Lohmann covers breaking news and many other topics. He can be reached via email at PLohmann@Syracuse.com or phone at (315)766-6670. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday after disappointing Super Tuesday results and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. Bloomberg won the U.S. territory the American Samoa but failed to gain momentum elsewhere. Sea level rise and hurricanes are a threat to sea turtle nesting habitat along national seashores in the Southeast, but a new study predicts the greatest impact to turtles will be at Canaveral National Seashore ORLANDO, March 4, 2020 - Sea level rise and hurricanes are a threat to sea turtle nesting habitat along national seashores in the Southeast, but a new study predicts the greatest impact to turtles will be at Canaveral National Seashore. The University of Central Florida-led study, which was published recently in the journal Ecological Applications, examined loggerhead and green sea turtle nests to predict the amount of beach habitat loss at Canaveral, Cumberland Island, Cape Lookout, and Cape Hatteras national seashores by the year 2100. Sea turtles help maintain the coastal ecosystem and are indicators for the health of sandy beaches. When comparing sea turtle nesting density with predicted beach loss at the sites, they found nesting habitat loss would not be equal. The researchers predicted that by 2100, Canaveral would lose about 1 percent of its loggerhead habitat, while the three other seashores will lose between approximately 2.5 to 6.7 percent each. Although Canaveral's percentage loss is smaller, the impact at this national seashore will be greater because of its nesting density. "Canaveral is part of the core loggerhead nesting area for the Southeast," says Marta Lyons, a preeminent postdoctoral fellow in UCF's Department of Biology and the study's lead author. "The nests are already pretty well packed in there, so even a small loss of area can have a big impact on nesting sea turtle populations." To determine beach loss at the study sites, the researchers used sea level rise and storm surge estimates and considered the effects of impervious structures along the shorelines, such as roads and buildings, in restricting natural beach movement. To do this, they developed a new method to calculate current and future sea turtle nesting areas that takes into account nesting data, beach length and width, and the impact of impervious surfaces. Lyons says one of the goals was to create digital maps for the National Park Service to understand how sea turtle nesting areas will change with sea level rise and how resources could be managed. "As the National Park Service thinks about future developments, whether that's putting in a new lifeguard station or new bathrooms, this method of calculating current and future sea turtle nesting area can help them decide where to put them," she says. ### The study was funded by the National Park Service and the University of Central Florida's Preeminent Postdoctoral Program. Study co-authors were Betsy von Holle, a program director with the National Science Foundation; Maria A. Caffrey, a climate specialist based in Denver, and John F. Weishampel, a program director with the National Science Foundation. CONTACT: Robert H. Wells, Office of Research, 407-823-0861, robert.wells@ucf.edu The information deleted from Senate documents included details on the purpose of the chambers expenses, including travel, meetings, and conferences. Read more Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG Top officials with the Pennsylvania Senate scrubbed thousands of detailed explanations about its expenses from official records provided to two news organizations, raising alarm among open records and good-government advocates. In turning over the documents, requested by The Caucus and Spotlight PA, Senate officials did not black out the explanations, but instead edited them out, making it appear as though they never existed. The officials also did not disclose that they had removed the information. You cant just delete things from public records, said Terry Mutchler, the first director of the states Office of Open Records and a prominent First Amendment lawyer. It is absolutely flabbergasting. Its a new level of anti-transparency. We are now in the anti-transparency Olympics. The records were requested as part of an ongoing effort to document exactly how the nations largest full-time legislature spends the roughly $360 million in taxpayer money it receives each year, including more than $100 million allocated to the Senate. Donetta DInnocenzo, the Senates chief clerk and open records officer, did not return calls or emails seeking comment about how or why the information was removed. Michael Sarfert, the Senates open records lawyer, said in an email that the chamber removed the spending details because the news organizations did not specifically state that they wanted to know the purpose of the Senates expenditures. The news organizations asked for all expenses, from all Senate accounts. Pennsylvanias open records law requires government agencies to search for all records that are relevant to a request. The law exempts certain records from release and allows government agencies to black out, or redact, portions of documents. The law does not, however, appear to give agencies the authority to erase information without disclosing it. A bill pending in the House would make it a third-degree felony to alter government documents after a public records request has been made. Rep. Cris Dush (R., Jefferson), the sponsor of the legislation, said it would absolutely prevent the Senate and other government agencies from scrubbing information. If theyre producing a record, then the record in full should be subject to the law, he said. The information deleted from Senate documents included details on the purpose of the chambers expenses, including travel, meetings, conferences, and other outings by senators and their staffers, as well as other top officers in the chamber. Initially, Senate officials blacked out some of those details, arguing they were subject to legislative privilege and did not have to be disclosed to the public. The news organizations appealed and eventually submitted a new request for many of the same records. This time, however, Senate officials simply erased information rather than redact it, giving the impression it was never part of the official record. For instance, a January 2018 expense for $60 incurred by the Senates then-top lawyer, Drew Crompton, was originally described as: Parking & tolls, Overnight Parking, Washington D.C. - attend meeting on [REDACTED]. In the new set of records, it became just Parking & tolls. In another instance, a staffers $27.27 lunch charge in August 2018 was described as Legislative meals, Lunch, Bellefonte, to attend the [REDACTED]. In the new documents, it was described merely as Legislative meals. Other seemingly trivial details that hadnt been redacted originally were also removed. For example: The original documents showed a staffer charged $3 for Other travel expenses, Gratuities, Maid service. The new documents erased the description, listing it simply as Other travel expenses. Senate officials did not answer questions about whether they made the edits to the original documents, or just to copies of records turned over in response to the news organizations' request. The news organizations requested access to the entire database used to track the Senates spending. But officials refused, contending they are not required to give the public access to data or records that would subject them to alteration or manipulation. Erik Arneson, who runs Pennsylvanias Office of Open Records, said the agency has handled 25,000 appeals since the public records law went into effect. (The legislature answers to appeals officers it appoints, not to Arnesons office.) He could not recall any appeals involving records that have been scrubbed of information without an explanation. Simply leaving it out of the response is not an appropriate way to proceed, Arneson said. Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, called the move disturbing. If they are going to withhold information from a public record, they have to justify it not just erase it, Melewsky said. The Caucus and Spotlight PA sent similar public records requests to the House of Representatives. The House turned over thousands of pages of documents, many containing redactions for information it claims is exempt from disclosure. The news organizations have appealed, arguing taxpayers have a right to know how and why the money was spent. When asked for additional records, the House did not edit out details, but did continue to black out portions of the records. Though the legislature passed a sweeping open records law in 2008, Pennsylvania still earns low marks for transparency and public accountability. The Center for Public Integrity in 2015 gave the state an F in its 50-state assessment of laws and other systems in place to deter corruption. Researchers cited, in part, a lack of legislative and executive accountability. Meanwhile, lawmakers in recent years have repeatedly declined to take up bills that advocates say could improve transparency. Spotlight PA receives funding from nonprofit institutions and readers like you who are committed to investigative journalism that gets results. Give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:07:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHENZHEN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines said it will reopen Shenzhen-Bangkok service starting from March 13, the company's first resumed international flight departing from Shenzhen following a large-scale suspension of flights caused by the coronavirus outbreak. According to the company's Shenzhen branch, the restored round-trip flight will be operated on Airbus A320 daily. As of Wednesday afternoon, China Southern Airlines has made plans to restart more than 460 domestic and international flights departing from Shenzhen. The company said more suspended flights will be restored at an accelerated pace. An increase in testing for the new coronavirus in the United States may show how the illness has spread. More testing will bring more confirmed cases, experts say. But that does not mean the virus is gaining speed, they note. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, says the disease COVID-19 been confirmed in at least 12 states. COVID is the name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Officials in Washington state have announced at least nine deaths. At least four people died at a nursing home in the city of Kirkland. The county where Kirkland is located has announced plans to buy a hotel that it will turn into a hospital for infected patients. The deaths at the nursing home are troubling to health care experts because the sick and elderly are especially vulnerable to the disease. The CDC recently expanded its guidelines for who should be tested. It now recommends testing on people with signs of the illness but without a travel history to virus outbreak areas. In Seattle, Washington, schools and some businesses have closed. But health experts say that closures are not always helpful. Closing schools and canceling large gatherings are considered what is called social distancing. That is the idea that keeping people apart will reduce the spread of the illness. The evidence supporting the use of those steps is not as strong as we would like it to be, said Jennifer Nuzzo, who is with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Measures such as school closures have been used during flu outbreaks. But the new coronavirus is not acting exactly like the flu, and such steps are not guaranteed to work. Maybe it makes people more likely to stay at home. Maybe it doesnt if people re-congregate elsewhere, Nuzzo said. There are no proven treatments for COVID-19. In China, scientists have been testing a combination of HIV drugs against the new virus, as well as an experimental drug named remdesivir that was in development to fight Ebola. In the U.S., the University of Nebraska Medical Center also began testing remdesivir in some Americans who were found to have COVID-19 after being taken off a passenger ship in Japan. It is not clear how quickly such efforts will provide answers about the new drugs. Many patients recover without needing any treatment. The biggest concern is how to help the small number of people who become severely ill. In Washington, D.C., lawmakers are negotiating legislation that would provide money for efforts to contain the virus. The measure would provide money for both federal and state response efforts. It would support the federal governments efforts to develop and produce a vaccine. And it would offer Small Business Administration disaster loans to help businesses directly affected by the virus crisis. Im Ashley Thompson. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story located - v. to be in a certain area or place vulnerable adj. easily hurt or harmed guidelines n. rules or instruction that shows or tells how something should be done outbreak n. a sudden start or increase of fighting or disease re-congregate v. to come together in a group or crowd another time or somewhere else response n. something that is done as a reaction to something else But many of the people who cause problems are likely the ones who could benefit from a long-term city partnership with a mental health service provider. A resurgent Joe Biden has scored sweeping victories across the United States with the backing of a diverse coalition and progressive rival Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesdays biggest prize with a win in California as the Democratic Partys once-crowded presidential field became a two-man contest. The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for the USs future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one US territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys 2020 presidential nomination fight. The winner of the primary season will take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. The exit of Michael Bloomberg from the race on Wednesday morning left Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as the last barrier between either man and the nomination. Warren, who finished in a disappointing third place in her home state, was said to reassessing her candidacy on Wednesday. The contours of a nomination fight pitting Biden against Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, were crystallising by days end as the former vice president and the three-term senator spoke of and to each other through duelling victory speeches 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) apart on Tuesday night, even if they avoided using each others name. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally [Chris Carlson/AP Photo] People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders signature calls for a political revolution. Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas, he added. Were going to win the Democratic nomination and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country. Stark choice The balance of Super Tuesdays battlefield with Biden winning at least nine states and Sanders four raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. Bidens strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. His victory there prompted former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar to drop out of the race and endorse the former vice president. Biden showed strength in the Northeast with a win in Massachusetts, won Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in addition to Oklahoma. He gained an unexpected victory in Texas, where he was neck-and-neck with Sanders for much of the night, and the New England state of Maine was not called in his favour until Wednesday afternoon. Sanders opened Super Tuesday as the undisputed Democratic frontrunner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the nights biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, accompanied by his wife Jane OMeara Sanders, speaks during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vermont [Matt Rourke/AP Photo] Still, Sanders proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decades-long political career. His success was built on a base of energised liberals, young people and Latinos. And his conclusive win in California marks a huge reversal in a state he lost four years ago. In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump. Sanders is a 78-year-old, self-described democratic socialist who relies on an energised coalition of his partys far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nations political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his partys Washington establishment who emphasises a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like healthcare and climate change. Voting stickers are seen at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Los Angeles, California [Lucy Nicholson/Reuters] Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $19m into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000. Bloomberg spent more than half-a-billion dollars in Super Tuesday states overall. Black voters have been key to Bidens success. Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obamas vice president, won 60 percent of the black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate on Tuesday. Bloomberg earned 25 percent and Sanders won about 10 percent of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate. Long, long lines Perhaps another theme of the night was long lines. Some voters in Texas reported waiting up to five hours to vote. By 11:30pm in the state, lines were reported in several places, including Texas Southern University. Its 11:30 PM and there are still voters in line at TSU. This is unacceptable! VOTING SHOULD BE EASY and not take 4+ hours. pic.twitter.com/Y0lP7EbW3V Jolt Action (@JoltAction) March 4, 2020 The unusually long lines are a result of the reduction of polling stations after hundreds were closed over recent years, with rights groups saying the closures disproportionately affected minority groups. I think the story tonight is really about the closure of polling places across Texas and across the country, said Charlie Bonner, communications manager for MOVE Texas, a nonpartisan organisation that encourages young people to vote. Were seeing [closures] predominately in black and brown communities across Texas, he told Al Jazeera. And its having a disproportionate effect on our young people. Voters wait in line to cast their ballot in the Democratic primary at a polling station in Houston, Texas [Callaghan OHare/Reuters] Long lines were also reported in California. The Sanders campaign requested an emergency injunction on Tuesday, asking for polls in Los Angeles County to stay open for an extra two hours after reports of delays and long lines. The county is one of several big jurisdictions in California that used new voting machines and procedures in the 14-state Super Tuesday primary, a day when millions turned out to vote. If youre in line to vote, stay in line! Sanders tweeted late in the night. It was not immediately clear if the injunction had been granted. As the results continue to come in, Tuesdays delegate counts are expected to continue to shift, perhaps dramatically. Some candidates continue to hover around the 15 percent vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates. The ultimate nominee must ultimately claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. The contracts concluded for the provision of services or for the utility supply can be expressed only in lei, if both the issuers and the recipients are Romanian residents, stipulates a legislative proposal initiated by Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senator Daniel Zamfir. "As promised, I submitted the draft law on contracts and payment of invoices on Romania's territory. All contracts will be expressed in lei and, consequently, the invoices will no longer be reported at the euro exchange rate on the day of issue. That is enough! The devaluation of the domestic currency must be supported by both the service provider and the consumer!" Zamfir wrote on Facebook.According to the draft regarding the consolidation of the national currency as the single payment currency on the Romanian territory, the utilities are defined as water supply, sewage and wastewater treatment, the collection, drainage and evacuation of rainwater, thermal energy supply in centralized system, the sanitation of localities, public lighting, natural gas supply, local public passenger transport, landline or mobile telephony, internet, cable or digital television and the like.The legislative proposal concerns any other payments, receipts, transfers, transactions in current accounts and the like resulting from the sales of goods and the provision of services between residents, including loans, credits, leasing, insurance, service, freight or passenger transport, parcel services, courier or mailing, whether they are recorded or not by invoices."Payments, receipts, transfers and any other such transactions between residents, which are the subject of trade in goods and services, are conducted only in the domestic currency, with the exception of the categories of residents who may carry out transactions in foreign currency. All other transactions between residents, which are not the subject of trade in goods and services, can be freely carried out, either in the national currency (RON) or in foreign currency, but only based on the parties' deliberate agreement," the draft further envisages.AGERPRES Chengdu, China Over the past few days, China has been reporting a slowdown in new coronavirus cases at home; except for Hubei, where the virus first appeared late last year, the vast majority of the provinces on the mainland have had no new infections. But with more than 1,000 cases now being reported outside the country every day, China has a new worry: that Chinese nationals returning home from trips overseas, or foreigners visiting the mainland, will bring the infection with them. So far, there have been 15 confirmed imported cases, nearly half involving a group of Chinese people who worked at a restaurant in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, as well as people travelling from Iran and a man who came from the United Kingdom via Hong Kong. We anticipated the beginning but failed to anticipate the end, said Dr Zhang Wenhong, director of Huashan Hospitals Department of Infectious Disease. We thought as long as China controlled the situation, the world would be spared the disaster; but now that the outbreak in China is gradually under control, a mess is growing in the world. Dr Zhang said it was worrying to see the sudden rise in confirmed cases around the world, which raised the risk of fuelling a new surge of cases in China. The World Health Organization (WHO) raised its risk assessment for the global COVID-19 outbreak from high to very high on Friday, the highest alert level. The WHO stopped using pandemic, the previous highest alert, after the 2009 H1N1 global epidemic. With the confirmation of community spread in a number of countries outside China, Beijing is stepping up its quarantine efforts aimed at those travelling to China from overseas. Monitoring risk We currently do not have a special procedure for people arriving from other countries other than the 14-day quarantine, Wang Xue, an official at Chengdu Entry and Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, told Al Jazeera. But if we have someone who arrives from high-risk areas, such as South Korea, Iran, or Italy, we have staff who will closely follow up with the passengers during their quarantine period to ensure there is no risk of virus transmission. China imposed tough measures to try and bring the coronavirus outbreak under control but as infections rise outside China it worries travellers will become a source of new infections [File: Stringer/EPA] Among all the countries battling COVID-19, Iran, with more than 2,000 infected and more than 70 deaths, has the potential to export a large number of confirmed cases back to China. Ties between the two countries have expanded as US-led sanctions squeezed Irans economy. More than 700 Chinese students are studying in Qom, the epicentre of the Iran outbreak, according to a Chinese student at the University of Qom who preferred to remain anonymous. The capital city, Tehran, is host to an even larger Chinese community that works in construction, catering, and other industries, including many students at the University of Tehran. With the Iranian governments waiving of visa requirements in September 2019, a growing number of tourists have also been visiting: Between September and December last year, the number of Chinese tourists entering Iran rose by 130,000 compared with the same period in the previous year, according to Irans official news agency, IRNA. To try and avoid further spread of the virus and with the increased difficulty in tracking passengers travel history posed by indirect flights, all Chinese citizens in Iran have been advised to fly directly back to China rather than transiting through another location. Evacuation from Iran A Chinese student who studies at the University of Tehran confirmed with Al Jazeera that the Chinese Embassy in Tehran had liaised with China Southern Airlines to evacuate Chinese citizens in Iran, two weeks after Iran reported its first COVID-19 case. The first flight departed Tehran on the night of March 3 with seats for approximately 200 people. The student said that, according to the message sent by the Chinese embassy, priority was given to students who were stuck in Qom and that the flight would fly direct from Tehran to Lanzhou a city in Chinas far west. Previously, the embassy had advised Chinese citizens to refrain from travelling via a third country and to wait for the official charter flight, according to a statement shared with Al Jazeera by the student. Yang, a Chinese student at the university, returned from Iran before the embassy issued the statement. In her apartment in Beijing, she recalled her trip home. We received the news of the first confirmed cases in Iran on February 19 and two deaths were reported that night already, so I immediately felt the situation was going to be tricky, Yang, requesting to be identified only by her surname, said from home while exercising a 14-day self-quarantine. As more countries started to close their borders with Iran, I thought I needed to get out as soon as possible. Similar to the route used by a Chinese citizen who returned from Iran and was later confirmed to be infected, Yang took a flight to Moscow and then on to Beijing on February 28 a day before the first imported case was reported in China. China has developed close ties in business and tourism with Iran and hundreds of Chinese study at Iranian universities [File: West Asia News Agency via Reuters] There were no confirmed cases on our flight, and no one was having any fever, so we went through the normal procedure and got our temperatures checked before being let back home, Yang recalled of the relatively smooth journey. Now I have a card attached to my front door that says: This household has a person(s) who has recently returned to Beijing and is exercising self-quarantine from February 28 to March 12.' Working in Italy As of March 3, Qingtian county in Zhejiang province had reported a total of 8 imported cases from Italy the highest in the country so far. More than 300,000 people from Qingtian county are known to have gone overseas to work, some 100,000 of them to Italy, which recorded the highest number of deaths after China. So far, more than 100 people have returned to Qingtian from Italy but the local government has tried to persuade those still there to stay put. Those who return to Qingtian are not only running risk of getting infected or spreading virus on the way back to China, but also posing an additional challenge to the health of their family and our city, the government said in a notice. The alert also laid out quarantine rules for those who are returning or already made their way home: All returning overseas Chinese should register with the government to clarify whether they have been to any virus-infected areas in the past 14 days, and everyone returning will also be put under a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Such measures are being taken in other provinces and cities, too. Travellers from South Korea, Japan, and Italy are also seen as a risk, as Chinas own outbreak still the worlds largest appears to be coming under control. 75 passengers entering #China have been #positive in nucleic acid test, said China's General Administration of Customs, revealing the data for the first time on Wednesday, amid rising concerns over the #coronavirus spread worldwide. #COVID19 https://t.co/BR1irnvRzt pic.twitter.com/nU2N2SdkyJ Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 4, 2020 Qingdao, a coastal city in northeastern China that has close commercial ties with South Korea and Japan, received more than 20,000 travellers from overseas between January 24 and February 24. The city government has categorised them into four groups for different levels of quarantine: people with travel history to infected countries; people who have come into close contact with confirmed patients while overseas; passengers who took the same flight with someone who has symptoms; and people who are found to have a fever at the border inspection. Only exit, no entry In Jilin, a northern Chinese province with close ties to South Korea, passengers travelling from areas with confirmed cases are asked to sign a declaration agreeing to a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Provinces such as Zhejiang, Ningxia, and Guangdong are also adopting similar measures with a focus on citizens returning home. Some border crossings have begun denying entry to foreigners. We are currently adopting the only exit, no entry policy: Only people who wish to exit Shenzhen can leave, and no foreigner can enter, Li Shuntao, a border inspection official at Shenzhens Shekou border crossing which has connections with Hong Kong and Macau, told Al Jazeera. This policy had been in place since February 29. By sealing off millions of people who live in Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province, China has already shown its willingness to take aggressive measures to curb the outbreak. Those who fail to comply with orders risk breaking civil and criminal laws, depending on the specific situation. But, while some countries have blocked entry to Chinese and stopped flights and some of its own local governments appear to be doing the same, Beijing insists it will not seal itself off from the world. In the current international environment, there is no way we will practice prevention and control by closing up China, Zhao Lijian. spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news conference on March 2. Only through global collaboration can we succeed in defeating the virus. ALBANY Ashar, who lives in Latham, was alarmed by recent reports about young people even children being rounded up and arrested during a demonstration in Bijnor, a district in the northern part of India, that was one of a series of events across the nation set up to protest a controversial set of laws passed in December that are widely seen as an effort to strip Muslims of their Indian citizenship. To Ashar's horror, a family friend was among the people jailed. The young man told him he had been beaten while in custody, and was released only after a month behind bars. Now the protest over the new laws has reached around the world to Albany, where the city's Common Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning India's citizenship initiative. The Indian laws first created a national register that requires people to provide documents proving they are citizens. Individuals must show evidence they have ancestors that have been in India since 1971 or earlier, which is difficult for low-income, homeless or illiterate people to provide. Indian documents that are the equivalent of an American passport or Social Security card are not acceptable documents under the new law. In December, the Indian parliament passed a second piece of legislation, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), that provides a track to citizenship for those who dont have those documents but only if they are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsis or Christian. The exclusion of Muslims from the amended law has sparked protests across India, which is currently led by longtime Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A group called Muslim Advocacy Council of New York (MACNY) formed in December with the goal of raising awareness about the issue. Members of the group learned that city councils in various U.S. communities including Seattle, Wash., and Cambridge, Mass. had passed resolutions condemning the law, and pressed for Albany to follow suit. Syd of MACNY said not enough people know about the impact of the new law. The resolutions themselves will not have any effect on U.S. foreign policy, but what it says is this city is raising its voice against what is going on in India, Syd said. We have to take action. There is no other way unless we Americans stand against it. The resolution states that "the Common Council expresses solidarity with the City of Albanys South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, acknowledging the pain and hurt felt by members of the South Asian community as a result of these policies." Councilman Alfredo Balarin, who represents the 11th Ward, sponsored the resolution. India has been a friend and partner to U.S. for as long as most of us have been born," Balarin said. "Its the largest democracy, and it has a constitution ... that speaks of freedom of speech and religion. Thats why its important for us to denounce our friends when they act against our values." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The Indian government has argued that the CAA makes it easier for religious minorities from three neighboring Muslim-majority countries who came to India before 2015 to get Indian citizenship. But Muslims, who are excluded from the law's easing of document requirements, make up about 14 percent of India 220 million people, according to the 2011 Census of India. MACNY held an informational session about the law at William K. Sanford Town Library in which one of its members, Tabassum, described the details of the law and raised some disturbing parallels. Some of the documentation that can be used for proof of citizenship for the National Register include a grandparent's birth certificate, or proof of land ownership from parents or grandparents. Insaf compared the National Register to Germany's Nazi-era Nuremberg Laws, which disenfranchised Jewish citizens from the political, social and economic fabric of that nation. A large segment of Indian Muslims now face the prospect of becoming stateless if they fail to produce the necessary documents. Several news outlets have reported on the construction of detention centers that could be used to hold them. We are trying to make the point that history repeats itself, Tabassum said. We need to pay attention to whats going on in India because its based on the same injustice that has already happened. Editor's note: The surnames of the individuals quoted were taken out to protect their privacy. While Bernie Sanders emerged with Super Tuesdays biggest prize, the delegate-heavy California, a reanimated Joe Biden scored crucial wins across the South, propelled by endorsements from his former opponents who left the race after his long-predicted big win in South Carolina. Before Super Tuesday polls were even closed on the West Coast, the former vice president was claiming wins and championing his reinvigorated campaign to supporters in Los Angeles. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing, he said. Its a good night and its going to get even better. Days after it looked as if Mr Bidens once-likely nomination to lead the Democratic party to face Donald Trump had seen its end, Mr Biden won a state in which he invested significantly, relying on decades-old alliances and moderate appeal. That last-minute show of support gave the former vice president a late surge from undecided voters, pushing Mr Biden into a series of early wins across the US. Super Tuesday represents roughly a third of all delegates who will cast votes for the nominee. After claiming wins in nine states, Mr Biden is projected to become a clear frontrunner in the race from this point forward. But Bernie Sanders is also expected to pick up scores of delegates from Tuesday's vote. A candidate must earn 1,991 delegates to become the Democratic nominee. With the Democratic institution coalescing around Mr Biden, and Mr Sanders remaining a frontrunner who has promised a new kind of politics to replace the status quo, the race appears to be back where it started. People are talking about a revolution, Mr Biden told supporters. We started a movement. Should Mr Biden continue his momentum, the campaign will have to answer to Mr Sanders supporters demanding an urgency to address the climate crisis, economic inequities and healthcare. While the race tightens between Mr Sanders and Mr Biden, exit polls on Tuesday showed that healthcare remains voters chief concern, and popularity for Medicare for All remains high. But a majority of voters said their priority was electing a candidate who can oust Mr Trump from office. You cannot beat Trump with the same ol, same ol kind of politics, Mr Sanders told supporters in Vermont. What we need is a new politics that brings working class people into our political movement, that brings young people into our political movement, and in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history. After struggling in early primary states, Elizabeth Warren passed the threshold for delegate eligibility in several Super Tuesday states, keeping her candidacy alive as her campaign divides progressive support, potentially pulling votes away from Mr Sanders while the moderate camp hopes to overwhelm the race. The Massachusetts senator didnt claim victories in any state, including her own. Democratic primaries: Who won where? Show all 27 1 /27 Democratic primaries: Who won where? Democratic primaries: Who won where? Arizona: Biden wins Joe Biden: 39 delegates Bernie Sanders: 28 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Alabama: Biden wins Joe Biden: 41 delegates Bernie Sanders: 7 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Arkansas: Biden wins Joe Biden: 17 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 5 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? California: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 179 delegates Joe Biden: 127 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 15 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 5 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Colorado: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 20 delegates Joe Biden: 9 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 9 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Florida: Biden wins Joe Biden: 152 delegates Bernie Sanders: 53 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Idaho: Biden wins Joe Biden: 11 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates EPA Democratic primaries: Who won where? Illinois: Biden wins Joe Biden: 95 delegates Bernie Sanders: 59 delegates AFP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Iowa: Buttigieg wins Pete Buttigieg: 14 delegates Bernie Sanders: 12 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 8 delegates Joe Biden: 6 delegates Amy Klobuchar: 1 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Maine: Biden wins Joe Biden: 11 delegates Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 4 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Massachussetts: Biden wins Joe Biden: 37 delegates Bernie Sanders: 29 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 25 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Michigan: Biden wins Joe Biden: 72 delegates Bernie Sanders: 52 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Minnesota: Biden wins Joe Biden: 38 delegates Bernie Sanders: 27 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 10 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Mississippi: Biden wins Joe Biden: 34 delegates Bernie Sanders: 2 delegates AFP via Getty Images Democratic primaries: Who won where? Missouri: Biden wins Joe Biden: 44 delegates Bernie Sanders: 24 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Nevada: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 24 delegates Joe Biden: 9 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? New Hampshire: Sanders/Buttigieg tie Bernie Sanders: 9 delegates Pete Buttigieg: 9 delegates Amy Klobuchar: 6 delegates EPA Democratic primaries: Who won where? North Carolina: Biden wins Joe Biden: 66 delegates Bernie Sanders: 36 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 2 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? North Dakota: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 8 delegates Joe Biden: 6 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Oklahoma: Biden wins Joe Biden: 21 delegates Bernie Sanders: 13 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Florida: Biden wins Joe Biden: 152 delegates Bernie Sanders: 53 delegates Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Tennessee: Biden wins Joe Biden: 33 delegates Bernie Sanders: 18 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 10 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 1 delegate Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Texas: Biden wins Joe Biden: 111 delegates Bernie Sanders: 102 delegates Michael Bloomberg: 10 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 5 delegates Reuters Democratic primaries: Who won where? Utah: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 12 delegates Joe Biden: 2 delegate Michael Bloomberg: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Vermont: Sanders wins Bernie Sanders: 11 delegates Joe Biden: 5 delegates AP Democratic primaries: Who won where? Virginia: Biden wins Joe Biden: 66 delegates Bernie Sanders: 31 delegates Elizabeth Warren: 2 delegates AFP/Getty Democratic primaries: Who won where? Washington: Biden wins Joe Biden: 46 delegates Bernie Sanders: 43 delegates AP She entered Super Tuesday with just eight delegates, after she fell from third place to back-to-back fourth place finishes in early primary states before falling to fifth place in South Carolina. She is expected to get 15 delegate votes on Tuesday. She urged her supporters to vote from your heart. You dont get what you dont fight for. I am in this fight, she said. Meanwhile, after spending half a billion on advertising, billionaire Michael Bloomberg banking on making a big splash on Super Tuesday ballots after looming throughout the race and being an unavoidable face on television across the US ultimately won only one election: American Samoa, with five delegates. After claiming his only path to victory is at a contested Democratic convention, with no clear delegate majority among the candidates, his campaign is now mulling whether the former New York mayor and his vast wealth will drop out of the race. Tulsi Gabbard, still in the race, received one Super Tuesday delegate after finishing second in American Samoa. Entering Tuesday as the fields clear frontrunner, Mr Sanders won victories in Utah, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. Mr Biden, meanwhile, followed his South Carolina victory with wins in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas and cutting into a state that Mr Sanders had hoped to win Minnesota. He also won Oklahoma, Ms Warrens home state. Voters queued for hours after polls closed in Texas, leaving the states massive delegate count in limbo, with early predictions pitting Mr Biden and Mr Sanders in a tight race as the fluid vote count shifts the results. The Nigerian Army are currently repelling the attack of Boko Haram insurgents in Damboa, headquarters of a local government area in Borno State. The insurgents were said to have came in large numbers around 6:30 am on Wednesday and started shooting sporadically, forcing residents to flee for safety. One of the residents said for over an hour troops from the armys 25 task force brigade in Damboa have been exchanging gunfire with the insurgents. They came in plenty of hilux trucks. We saw about 20 before we started running towards the bush, one of the fleeing residents told TheCable. They came in two batches. One came in through the north Sambisa and the other from Alagaruno. Soldiers from the 25 task force came in about 30 minutes and right now, over an hour, they are still exchanging gunshots with the insurgents. The attack comes a day after the insurgents attacked Bwalakila, a neighbouring village in Chibok local government area. A resident of the village said that the insurgents were repelled by troops of the 117 task force battalion in Chibok, but that they had already stolen tons of food items from the villagers. ALSO READ: Serious Tension In Adamawa As Nigerian Army And Boko Haram Engages In Fierce Gun Battle Traders work after the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 5, 2019 in New York City. JOHANNES EISELE / AFP / Getty Images Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbles 785 points The Dow dropped 785.91 points, or 2.94%, to 25,917.41. The S&P 500 plummeted 2.81% to 3,003.37. The Nasdaq Composite cratered by 2.99% to 8,684.09. A Federal Reserve rate cut of 50 basis points failed to assuage concerns of a global economic slowdown. Fed cuts rates The Federal Reserve cut rates in between its scheduled meetings for the first time since the financial crisis. Traders had already priced in a cut of that magnitude, but most didn't expect the Fed to lower the rates on Tuesday specifically. The Fed noted the coronavirus poses a material risk to the global economy. However, Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was not prepared to use any other tools aside from rate cuts to stem the economic slowdown. Stocks briefly rallied on news of the rate cut, but later turned sharply lower as investors dumped equities in favor of bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 1% for the first time ever. FAANG and big banks drop The so-called FAANG stocks Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all fell between 2.30%. and 5.56%. Bank stocks also dropped as the 10-year rate fell to a record low. Bank of America closed 5.52% lower while JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup slid 3.75% and 3.76%, respectively. What happens next? By Trend Ukrainian and Moldovan customs officers are on a visit to Azerbaijan to study the experience of Azerbaijan customs in the field of information technologies, Trend reports referring to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. The visit is organized with the support of the International Organization for Migration under the project on equipping Ukraine-Moldova border checkpoint video surveillance system. At a meeting with the guests, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, customs service Major General Igbal Babayev told them about the reforms in the country's customs system and the role of IT in the successful implementation of these reforms. The Committees deputy chairman noted that modern information technologies are widely used in the country for effective management, simple and quick implementation of the customs procedures, ensuring transparency and minimizing contacts of entrepreneurs with officials. As a part of the five-day visit, Ukrainian and Moldovan customs officers will be provided with information on projects implemented in connection with the use of information technologies at Azerbaijani customs. The guests will also visit of various territorial and specialized customs departments and posts to get familiarized with the innovations. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz A thief has been caught on camera hooking a gold necklace with a fishing rod in a brazen nighttime theft from an Australian designer store. The thief, captured on CCTV, broke the store window in Melbournes central business district before using a fishing rod to hook the Versace necklace, local police said Wednesday. But it took the inner-city angler nearly three hours to land his catch. After first attempts with a smaller rod failed, the man decided to get a bigger rod, eventually snagging the gold $700 piece from a mannequins neck in a crime police described as -- until now -- unseen. Its fairly blatant and its quite bold as well, to have someone attend with a fishing rod in the middle of the night, Victoria Police Senior Constable Bede Whitty said. Police released the footage as they attempt to net the balding, middle-aged thief. Here it is: WATCH: Security footage shows a man using a fishing rod to remove a Versace necklace from a mannequin within the store just after 2am. pic.twitter.com/9S103jZjv4 Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) March 3, 2020 Twitter users had amusing responses to the video. One user replied to the polices official Tweet stating, If hes got a fishing license this is 100% legit angling. Other users also followed the fishing theme with one saying, Something fishy going on there. While one account claimed that the culprit looked identical to Bill Murray; others spoke about his fashion sense. One Twitter user was eager to find out where the man got his shoes from. They tweeted, Is there footage of him stealing those dope blue sneakers to match his top? What are your thoughts on this? Does this mans technique remind you more of Hrithik Roshan from Dhoom 3 or Shahrukh Khan from Happy New Year? 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On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/ "Getting online car insurance quotes is not just a trend, it is a necessity in our modern world. Time is valuable and it should not be wasted on old-school methods. Why lose hours, or even days, when you can get results in just a couple of minutes?" said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing Company Person for contact: Gurgu C Phone Number: (818) 359-3898 Email: cgurgu@internetmarketingcompany.biz Website: https://compare-autoinsurance.org/ SOURCE: Internet Marketing Company View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578901/Best-Car-Insurance-2020--Why-Online-Quotes-are-Better-than-Phone-Quotes By Caitlin Johnstone March 03, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Back in January, well before the Democratic primary race had taken on its current composition, independent journalist Ruth Ann Oskolkoff reported that a source had heard from high-level Democratic Party insiders that they were planning to install Joe Biden as the partys nominee, and to smear Bernie Sanders as a Russian asset. On January 20, 2020 at 8:20 p.m. PDT I received a communication from a reliable source, Oskolkoff wrote. This person had interactions earlier that evening with high level party members and associates of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who said that they have now selected Biden as the Democratic Party nominee, with Warren as the VP. They also said the plan is to smear Bernie as a Russian asset. Now, immediately before Super Tuesday, we are seeing establishment candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar drop out of the race, both of whom, along with former candidate Beto ORourke, are now suddenly endorsing Biden. Elizabeth Warren, the only top-level candidate besides Sanders who could be labeled vaguely left by any stretch of the imagination, has meanwhile outraged progressives by remaining in the race, to the Vermont senators detriment. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The day before Super Tuesday also saw The Daily Beast, whose corporate owner IAC has Chelsea Clinton on its board of directors, publishing an article titled Kremlin Media Still Like Bernie, Cause They Love Trump which aggressively smears Sanders as a tool of the Kremlin Prior to the South Carolina primary, Russian state media were touting Bernie Sanders as the most likely Democratic nominee, and it wont be surprising if they do the same after Super Tuesday https://t.co/mH98PVmcjr The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 2, 2020 This latter development is becoming a conspicuously common line of attack against Sanders and, while were on the subject, also tracks with a prediction made by journalist Max Blumenthal back in July of 2017. Blumenthal told Foxs Tucker Carlson that this Russia hysteria will be re-purposed by the political establishment to attack the left and anyone on the lefta Bernie Sanders-like politician who steps out of line on the issues of permanent war or corporate free trade, things like thatwill be painted as Russia puppets. So this is very dangerous, and people who are progressive who are falling into it need to know what the long-term consequences of this cynical narrative are. So were seeing things unfold exactly as some have predicted. Were seeing the clear frontrunner smeared as a tool of Vladimir Putin, accompanied by a deluge of op-eds and think pieces from all the usual warmongering mass media narrative managers calling on so-called moderates to rally around the former Vice President on Super Tuesday. Sanders has not been pulling in anywhere near the numbers hed need to pull to prevent a contested convention. This means that even if he gets more votes than any of his primary opponents, party leaders can still overrule those votes and appoint Biden as their nominee to run against Trump. Establishment spinmeisters as well as all Sanders primary opponents have been working to normalize this ahead of time. "Whatever the case for either Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren...neither is going to be the nominee. And...its not going to be Mike Bloomberg either. So its Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden." Tomorrow, if you live in one of 14 states, you can choose Biden.https://t.co/btuPbGtWxG Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 2, 2020 The only problem? Bidens brain is turning into sauerkraut. There are two new clips of video footage making the rounds today, one featuring Biden at a rally telling his supporters that tomorrow is Super Thursday, and another featuring the former VP saying (and this is a direct quote), We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by the you know, you know the thing. Ive written about Bidens recent struggles to form coherent sentences before, and it seems to be getting worse. Theres simply no comparing the befuddled, fuzz-brained man we see before us today with the sharp, lucid speaker we were seeing even a few years ago. The mans brain does not work. And yeah, its unpleasant to have to keep pointing this out. Im not loving it myself. I resent Bidens handlers and the Democratic Party establishment for making it necessary to continually point out an old mans obvious symptoms of cognitive decline. But it does need to be pointed to, and its creepy and weird that theyre continuing to prop up this crumbling husk of a man while pretending that everythings fine. Imagine putting all your eggs in the Joe Biden basket. https://t.co/nRPX4gqol5 Krystal Ball (@krystalball) March 3, 2020 Not that Biden would be an acceptable leader of the most powerful government on earth even with a working brain; hes a horrible war hawk with an inexcusable track record of advancing right-wing policies. But even rank-and-file Americans who dont pay attention to that stuff would plainly see a man on the debate stage opposite Trump who shouldnt be permitted near a pair of scissors, much less the nuclear codes. And Trump will happily point that out. Its been obvious since 2016 that the Dems were going to once again sabotage the only candidate with a chance of beating Trump in favor of a scandalously inappropriate candidate, but wheeling out an actual, literal dementia patient for the role is something not even I would have imagined. 2020 is weird, folks. And its going to get a whole lot weirder. Buckle up. Caitlin's articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast, throwing some money into her hat on Patreon or Paypal, or buying her book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. https://caitlinjohnstone.com By Dong Sun-hwa A-list actress Jun Ji-hyun is in talks to return to the small screen after four years, according to Jun's agency Culture Depot, Tuesday. The actress was "positively considering" starring in a drama tentatively titled "Mount Jiri," penned by star writer Kim Eun-hee, the agency said. Kim was behind the success of tvN's popular soap opera "Signal" (2016) and Netflix's Korean Zombie series "Kingdom," which premiered last year. Jun will also make a cameo appearance for the second season of "Kingdom" that will air in March. "'Mount Jiri' is set to premiere late this year or early next year," an industry source was quoted as saying. The drama revolves around Mount Jiri, in the southern region of South Korea, the second-tallest mountain (1,915 meters). The highest mountain is Mount Halla (1950 meters) on Jeju Island. But details about the plot are under wraps. Jun appeared in dozens of hits including "My Sassy Girl" (2001) and the drama "My Love from the Star" in 2013-14. The actress has not been seen on the small screen since featuring in SBS's "Legend of the Blue Sea" in 2016. Strategic prioritization of the oncology business. Signature of a major agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop digital therapeutics based on the Theraxium Oncology platform. Significant contribution of the new oncology collaborations to revenues as of 2020. Reorientation of the diabetes business towards a new partnership strategy and discontinuation of direct commercialization. Reduction of operational expenses and update of the objectives communicated by the Group in line with the new roadmap. Regulatory News: Voluntis (Paris:VTX) (Euronext Paris, Ticker: VTX ISIN: FR0004183960) announces today its new strategic roadmap. Pierre Leurent, CEO of the Voluntis Group ( Voluntis or the Group ): "We recently executed major new partnerships that reinforce Voluntis' lead in the field of digital therapeutics, with one of the largest portfolios of pharmaceutical collaborations. Our commercial momentum in oncology demonstrates both the relevance of our approach and the unique profile of the Group's assets. With regard to diabetes, we are suspending investments linked to direct commercialization in the United States, as their profitability horizon proves to be too distant in view of the Group's objective of financial break-even. However, Voluntis' diabetes solutions address significant unmet needs and we aim to execute new commercial partnerships that can fully exploit the potential of these assets. The primary focus on the oncology business, the renewal of the partnership approach in diabetes and the adaptation of the cost structure are the key levers of Voluntis' path to profitable growth." Strong commercial traction of the oncology business with new major collaborations Voluntis recently inked two new partnerships related to its Theraxium Oncology platform with Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb1. In addition to these new collaborations, which complement the existing partnership with AstraZeneca, Voluntis is in discussion with several other pharmaceutical companies to improve patients' experience with many types of cancer treatments. These commercial successes confirm, in the Group's opinion, the unique value of the Theraxium Oncology platform to accelerate the development of digital therapeutics. Indeed, the platform integrates a standard library of clinical algorithms, which can be customized with specific modules to accelerate the design, development and validation of these algorithms. Theraxium Oncology also includes modules for optimizing the ergonomics of applications, analyzing data collected from patients and operating digital therapeutics. The new commercial partnerships signed by the Group will generate upfront and, as the case may be, milestones payments, and, in the case of a commercial rollout, annual payments linked to the number of users. These collaborations will have a significant contribution to the Group's revenues as of 2020. 1 Please refer to the news released today by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Voluntis Strategic Prioritization of the Oncology business The Group's offer is perfectly adapted to the new models of cancer care. Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide: every year, more than 14 million cancers are diagnosed2. The development of outpatient care and personalized medicine is leading to a rethinking of healthcare pathways. In addition, the symptoms associated with the disease and its treatments affect nearly 90% of patients and alter their quality of life. This can result in temporary or permanent treatment interruptions and unplanned hospitalizations. Improving the management of these symptoms is a priority in terms of clinical practice and cost optimization for healthcare teams. Voluntis' digital therapeutics are in line with these market trends and are designed to address these challenges. They contribute to improving care by supporting personalized symptom management at home, thanks to recommendations automated by intelligent clinical algorithms. These digital therapeutics enable a collaborative approach between patient and healthcare team thanks to remote monitoring and identification of situations requiring the intervention of healthcare professionals. Oleena, Voluntis' proprietary multi-cancer digital therapy, which targets a wide range of cancer-related symptoms, uses the technological foundation of Theraxium Oncology. The Group plans to make Oleena available to several cancer centers in the U.S. in the first half of 2020 to generate new real-world data and reinforce its experience with integration into clinical workflows. The Group is now prioritizing its oncology business with a view to asserting its position in this sector with high growth potential. Reorientation of the diabetes business towards a new partnership strategy Discontinuation of investment in direct commercialization in the United States For direct distribution of Insulia in the United States, the introduction of reimbursement schemes in January 2019 by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been a key success factor. In the second half of 2019, the Group started contracting with healthcare providers by leveraging this new framework. However, the effective implementation of these reimbursement schemes within medical practices, which has significant operating costs, takes longer than the Group initially anticipated. Given the more distant horizon than expected for return on investment of this approach, which undermines its financial sustainability, the Group has decided to suspend all investments related to direct commercialization in the United States of its products in the field of diabetes. These investments represent approximately 15% of the Group's operating expenses. In this context, the Group also decided to postpone the additional developments required by the Food and Drug Administration's feedbacks on the version of Insulia adapted to insulin NPH during the process of application of this product in the United States. The Group reserves the right to file a new application of this version of the product at a later stage. Evolution of the partnership with Sanofi With regards to Insulia, the scope of the global distribution contract with Sanofi has been refocused on the French territory only, in line with Sanofi's new strategic directions in diabetes. The partnership related to Diabeo, a solution developed with Sanofi France and CERITD, will end in December 2020, in accordance with its contractual term. The results of the Telesage study, conducted in France, were also the subject of a first communication at the last ATTD congress in the form of abstracts. 2 https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics Prioritizing a new partnership approach to roll out the Group's diabetes solutions at scale The Group intends to establish new privileged partnerships to distribute its Insulia solution on a large scale, primarily in North America and Europe. The Group has already initiated new discussions to this end. In the event of a new partnership, the Group may contemplate the development of a version of Insulia extended to patients treated with a combination of basal and bolus insulin, as well as integrating NPH insulins for the US market. Reduction of operational expenses and update of the objectives communicated by the Group in line with the new roadmap In view of the priority allocation of resources to oncology and the projected operating loss for the 2019 financial year, which is of a similar order of magnitude to 2018, the Group is contemplating the implementation of a significant cost reduction plan in order to achieve its objective of financial break-even in 20213. The information and consultation process starting with the work council in the coming days will enable the Group to present its proposals for achieving this objective. Voluntis therefore confirms its objective of financial break-even (EBITDA) in 2021, for invoiced revenues in 2021 ranging between Euro 8 and 12 million and an annual cost base of the same order, following the prioritization of the oncology business and the adaptation of the cost structure. About Voluntis Voluntis creates digital therapeutics that empower people suffering from chronic conditions to self- manage their treatment every day, thus improving real-world outcomes. Combining mobile and web apps, Voluntis' solutions deliver personalized recommendations to the patient and the care team so that they can, for example, adjust treatment dosage, manage side effects or monitor symptoms. These real-time recommendations are based on digitized clinical algorithms. Leveraging its Theraxium technology platform, Voluntis has designed and operates multiple digital therapeutics, especially in diabetes and oncology. Voluntis has long-standing partnerships with leading life science companies. Based out of Boston and Paris, France, Voluntis is a founding member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. For more information, please visit: www.voluntis.com Mnemo: VTX ISIN: FR0004183960 3 See section 12.2 of Voluntis reference document registered with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) under number R.19-013 on April 26, 2019 (in French) (stating an objective of financial break-even (EBITDA) reached in 2021 on the basis of 2021 revenues of Euro 40 million). Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Voluntis group and its business, including its prospects and product candidate development. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Voluntis considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the estimates contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which estimates are subject to numerous risks including the risks set forth in the reference document of Voluntis registered with the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers) under number R.19-013 on April 26, 2019 (a copy of which is available on www.voluntis.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Voluntis operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Voluntis or not currently considered material by Voluntis. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Voluntis to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. Voluntis expressly declines any obligation to update such forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303006066/en/ Contacts: NewCap Media relations Nicolas Merigeau voluntis@newcap.eu +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98 NewCap Investor relations Louis-Victor Delouvrier voluntis@newcap.eu +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 Voluntis Matthieu Plessis Directeur Administratif et Financier investisseurs@voluntis.com +33 (0)1 41 38 39 20 New York leaders sought to calm jittery nerves Monday after the city recorded its first confirmed case of the new coronavirus, saying the disease while dangerous is a manageable threat. The state is increasing its testing capacity and telling people to expect the smell of bleach as it steps up cleaning in schools and public transit, all while underscoring that the diagnosed womans symptoms are so mild that she can recover at home, not in a hospital. In this situation, the facts defeat fear. Because the reality is reassuring. It is deep-breath time, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. The 39-year-old health care worker who tested positive wasnt believed to have been contagious when she returned Tuesday from a trip to Iran, a new seat of the outbreak, Cuomo said at a news conference with health officials and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The woman took a car service from the airport to her home in Manhattan and secluded herself immediately, officials said. Still, officials will contact people who were on her flight and the driver who brought her home, Cuomo said. The woman began showing symptoms Saturday and arranged to be tested that day, Demetre Daskalakis, a deputy New York City health commissioner, said at a second briefing the mayor led later in the day. The woman has respiratory symptoms, but they are mild, officials said. Her husband, who is also a health care professional, is also being tested. Results arent back yet, but Cuomo said officials are assuming he also has the virus and he has also been isolated at home. Officials had said for weeks they anticipated the virus would surface eventually in the nations biggest city. Still, the development brought questions about the potential for sickness to spread quickly in a city of close quarters from apartment buildings to subway cars and officials sought to tamp down fears. We want New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives use the subway, take the bus, etc., city Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said, explaining that COVID-19 is not an illness that can be easily spread through casual contact. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the virus is thought to spread mainly via respiratory droplets among close contacts such as coming directly into contact with the droplets or certain other bodily fluids from a patient, or being within about 6 feet of a patient for a prolonged period. More than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 have occurred worldwide since the virus emerged in China. About 3,000 people have died. The illness is characterized by fever and coughing and, in serious cases, shortness of breath or pneumonia. De Blasio said he was confident residents would go about their regular lives. New Yorkers do not scare easily, he said. At the same time, he and other officials stressed that people who develop suspicious symptoms should get health care right away, and they urged everyone to take such precautions as hand washing and covering coughs or sneezes. And officials said they expect to see more cases in the city at some point. De Blasio said New York City would be deploying an early detection system that would let medical providers pool and share information about suspected cases and symptoms. New Yorks state lab began testing for the virus only over the weekend, but Cuomo said he has set a goal of being able to do 1,000 tests per day within a week. The citys lab began tests Monday. Our challenge now is to test as many people as you can. You are not going to eliminate the spread, but you can limit the spread, Cuomo said. Later Monday, he announced the state was ordering health insurers to waive patient cost sharing including copayments, coinsurance and deductibles for coronavirus tests in many situations. With the new cleaning protocols for public transportation and schools, Cuomo said people shouldnt be alarmed if they smell bleach. Its not bad cologne or perfume; it is bleach, Cuomo said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday night it would ensure its nearly 9,000 subway and commuter rail cars and 5,700 buses were fully cleaned at least once every three days. The agency said turnstiles, ticket vending machines, handrails and other often-touched surfaces in over 700 subway stations and rail platforms would be disinfected daily. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 New York RTHK: US senator dubs TikTok a 'major security risk' US officials on Wednesday stepped up warnings about the potential security risks from the fast-growing, Chinese-owned TikTok as a lawmaker unveiled legislation to ban the social media app from government devices. At a Senate hearing, officials from the FBI, the US Justice Department and Homeland Security said the video-sharing app could become another tool exploited by Chinese intelligence services. Senator Josh Hawley, who convened the hearing, said he was introducing a bill to ban TikTok from all US government devices, calling it "a major security risk for the American people". TikTok, which is especially popular with teenagers, is believed to have been the most downloaded app worldwide last year, but US officials have expressed concern over its connections with the government in Beijing. "TikTok is one example of an application where the average citizen doesn't understand the implications of what's behind it," Clyde Wallace, an official in the FBI's cyber division, told the hearing. "It's basically controlled by a state-sponsored actor." While the various data points collected by TikTok may not seem sensitive, Wallace said the information may be aggregated and "used for many purposes." In his written testimony, Wallace said Chinese-owned social media applications may collect personal data including biometrics, contact lists, location data and bank and credit card details. "Any and all data can be transferred to other locations and associated entities to include the Chinese parent company," he said. Bryan Ware, a cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security, echoed those fears, saying that TikTok data could become part of a large database exploited by China. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Lori Vallow has been ordered back to Idaho to face felony charges of child abandonment in the case of her two children who have been missing for six months. Vallow appeared smiling with wavy hair and blue nail polish still on her toes as she appeared in court on the island of Kauai Wednesday, six months after her seven-year-old son Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan were reported missing. She wore an orange jumpsuit and jail sandals as she chatted with her attorney after he evoked her fifth amendment rights for the journey back to Idaho that evening. Vallow remained with closed body language, her arms crossed and looking away from the camera as her lawyer approached the judge who Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar had told a judge that Idaho authorities would be returning her to the state. Lori Vallow appeared smiling with curly hair as she chatted to her attorney in a Hawaii court Wednesday Seven-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan have not been seen since September. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they 'strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger' Lori Vallow was in court on the island of Kauai, where a prosecutor told a judge that Idaho authorities would be returning her to the state later Wednesday The mother's toenails were painted blue and her ankles were shackled. She kept her arms folded Defense attorney Craig De Costa said in court that Vallow should not be questioned without an attorney 'during the transit, while waiting for the plane, or when they land in Idaho.' She is being held on $5 million bail, and her first court appearance in Idaho is Friday. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they 'strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger.' Police also have said Vallow, 46, and her husband, Chad Daybell, have lied about the children's whereabouts. Chad Daybell has insisted that his wife's two missing children are not in danger. Authorities tracked the couple down in Princeville, Hawaii, and served Lori with a court order on January 25 requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho within five days. Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest on February 20. She looked down as her attorney spoke to the judge. He said she was evoking Fifth Amendment rights The mother looked away from the camera as her attorney approached the judge to speak She is pictured having a conversation with her legal representation before exiting court The bizarre case that has attracted worldwide attention with revelations of her doomsday beliefs and a series of mysterious deaths. The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallow's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December. Vallow moved her family from Arizona to Idaho in August. In October, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy Daybell's death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed. This February 21, 2020, photo provided by the Hawaii Department of Public Safety shows Lori Vallow, the mother of two Idaho children missing since September Test results on Daybell's remains and toxicology results from Cox have not yet been released. Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview, the couple had left town. In December, Idaho authorities asked police in Hawaii for help finding the couple. On January 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville. Vallow reportedly believes she is 'a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020,' according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death. She and Chad Daybell were involved in a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times. The prolific doomsday author opened up last Thursday, when he was approached by ABC News reporters at Lihue Airport in Hawaii. 'The kids are safe,' Chad said minutes before he boarded a flight back to Rexburg, Idaho. He declined to go into any further detail about where the children are. He was earlier seen packing up the couple's apartment in Princeville, Hawaii, before he caught the flight to Idaho the following day. Police have conducted a multi-state search for the juveniles. Lori's estranged husband Charles Vallow (pictured together) was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 11 In October Chad Daybell's wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under mysterious circumstances, just two weeks before he married Lori Watertown, NY (13601) Today Scattered snow flurries and snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low -8F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%.. Tonight Scattered snow flurries and snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low -8F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%. The region does become a character in your films. It all depends on the subject. I love Zoya Akhtars versatility. I always thought she was a Bandra girl. But she understands the marginalised segment (Gully Boy) as well as she knows the upper segment (Dil Dhadakne Do). I try to choose a film with a new setting each time. Ive not done subjects set in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat Hawaizaada had a Maharashtrian backdrop but it didnt work. Also, Meri Pyaari Bindu, set in Bengal, didnt work. So I can do those again. Having said that, the flavour of Uttar Pradesh can never go out of fashion. You relate to it because it has a pan-India vibe. How do you acclimatise yourself with your diverse characters? Im not someone, who reads the script a thousand times. I soak in the backdrop. I read literature on the subject and interact with people belonging to that background. I was always sensitised about the lower sections of society. I support an NGO called Gulmeher. When I mentioned this to Anubhav sir, he was excited. He said no one thinks about caste and other issues in our fraternity. My upbringing has exposed me to various sections. Some members of my extended family live in the villages of Punjab. While some are rich, living in Canada, the US and Delhi. Ive grown with a good mix of people around me. So, I can adapt easily. Also, while Ive schooled in English, Ive done theatre in Hindi. That gives me a balance. You incorporate these experiences in your performances. Maine Ramleela bhi ki hai. As kids, wed be part of the vaanar sena (monkey army). Would you call yourself a natural, spontaneous or method actor? During my theatre days, I was a method actor. But over the years, radio and television have made me more natural. Also, your method changes with time. I believe method acting could be dangerous. You need to come out of the character. Its important to preserve your sanity. Of course, I imbibed a certain method for AndhaDhun. I met a lot of blind students. Method chahiye hota hai when the subject is alien for you. When you started off, did you expect this kind of success? After Vicky Donor... yeah. I believed it would happen. But when three films after that flopped (Hawaizaada, Bewakoofiyaan and Nautanki Saala), it left me shaken. Id often ask my wife (Tahira Kashyap) whether Id ever become a star. You do aspire for the stars. At the same time, I was realistic. I was like theek hai yaar nothing is permanent. Then Bareilly Ki Barfi and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan happened. Is this kind of success scary? Of course its slightly scary. But it has also taught me detachment. Normally, I dont do things, which leave me overwhelmed. I dont watch my film with the audience. I watch it in the edit or with the cast and crew. I had to watch Bala in Benaras because I hadnt seen it. It was an overpowering experience. When you get used to the love and suddenly if youre left devoid of it, you can go mad. Earlier Id roam around without security. When I shot in smaller cities, Id walk from the vanity van to the car. Now, there are people around. Thats the difference. Im aware the industry is fickle. So, I stay close to my college friends and family. It keeps you stable. I know theyll be there even if Im no longer a star. Does the pressure increase with each film? Yes theres pressure to excel with every successful film. Par mujhe mazaa aata hai. This credibility has given me courage to play unsafe. I dont know whether I was ready for Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan four years ago. Success just gives you the balls to take more risks. Actually, Ive built my entire career on risks. For me, not doing a risky subject is a risk. People want me to do conventional cinema. They say do a film, which steers away from taboo, something not necessarily socially relevant. They want me to do what is being done by others. While that would be different for me, I want to give something thats different for the audience. Now Id like to attempt an action thriller. I havent signed it yet but have zeroed in on it. Will you be able to handle a flop now? I really dont know. But when you see adversities early in life, youre more equipped to deal with them later on. I dont follow the big names or big banners. I go with the content, even if its coming from the freshest of directors or scriptwriters. Big names dont overwhelm me anymore. Usse farak hi nahi padta. Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao... youll have established the common man as a hero? We just take ourselves too seriously. Larger-than-life heroes will never go out of fashion. Ranveer Singh ne jaise Simmba kiya woh hit ho gayi. War was also a huge hit. But star power alone cannot make a film work As long as its entertaining it will work. You can be a common man or a larger-than-life hero. A film should be engaging and entertaining. Its all about the script. Are the actors of the 90s still stuck in there? Yeah, maybe. Actually, I dont know. Akshay sir (Kumar) is trying to do good stuff. Hes an expert. He has the sixth sense. He marries content and commerce. Critical acclaim or box-office success? A mix of both. Audience love is the most important to survive. Like Filmfare reviews a film like an audience, not a purist. Im not a rocket scientist. Im an artiste. Eventually, the film should make the audience happy. You should be able to entertain them for two hours. Just one-liners wont work. Do you get time to concentrate on your music and poetry? Ive taken a break. Ill be shooting in April now. Gulabo Sitabo will release after two-three months. I have just two films this year. Also, I can write anywhere, anytime. I just need to get an idea. Seven hits back-to-back. What would you attribute This crazy success to?I guess choosing scripts is my thing. Its again scary because content is changing every year. If you dont move or evolve with time, youll be lagging behind. I dont want to get stuck in time. Thats why I make it a point to interact with people on the sets and around it. Like when in Benaras, Id talk to the paanwala, the cab driver, the pandit I did that earlier too. But today its agenda-driven. If I remain distant from the person, whos the consumer of my film or whose life Im portraying on screen, how will I portray that correctly?I dont understand numbers. But I understand a good film and a bad film. When Vicky Donor released, producer Ram Mirchandani explained to me that Monday is bigger than Friday. After Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Adi sir (Aditya Chopra) told me that make a promise to the people that youll do good films. Then youre home.Your last three releases have all been different from each otherDoing Article 15 immediately after AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho was a risk. It wasnt a commercial film. It was my first film in the dark zone. AndhaDhun was a dark comedy, not a dark film.I believed Article 15 would make decent money. But I didnt expect it to make 65 crores. That was a defining moment. Multiplex audiences watch my films. But I feared Dream Girl was risky as it was slapstick. Fortunately, Dream Girl ushered me towards the single screens. Bala was middle-ground. It was safe. Im glad to have done these three different films.Werent you nervous about Article 15?Article 15 was a surprise. I expected it to win critical acclaim. But it won commercial success as well. A top actor would have hesitated to do such a film. Hed look for a commercial angle, add songs... But I believed it was my responsibility to do such a film. I said we shouldnt dilute the message and do an unadulterated film on casteism, hinging on satire. But Anubhav sir (Sinha, director) said, No, we have to show this as a dark film because its a dark film. So far, no film has presented things so blatantly. I also applaud Gaurav Solanki, whos co-written the film with Anubahv sir.Were you advised not to do such a hard-hitting subject?Initially, Id look for suggestions while signing films. But now I follow my gut. If I like a script I go ahead and do it. During AndhaDhun, some people werent happy with the remuneration I was getting. I was like, Sir (Sriram Raghavan) aap jo marzi de do. I want to do this film and work with you. I told myself Id earn money by singing at gigs if needed. But Ill do movies for myself. I surprised myself with Article 15. I loved the scenes towards the climax, particularly those with the CBI officer. It was both subtle and respectful.Many believe that Bala is a better film than Article 15.Bala was a wholesome experience. It gave me so much elbowroom to perform. In Article 15, it was all internal. To show internalised emotions is difficult. You need to show the internal struggle on camera with just your eyes, without saying a word. With Bala, I had the arsenal to perform. Amar Kaushik based the character around me. He wrote it with Niren Bhatt. He said, Tu bata kya karna hai? I suggested that we shouldnt make Bala into a gullible, back-footed character. I said I could mimic. So he made me a stand-up comedian. He said mimic Shah Rukh Khan, mimic whoever you want. Bala is my most satisfying performance.Dream Girl what appealed to you about it?I was laughing throughout the narration. The director, Raj Shandaliya, has written Comedy Nights With Kapil. People cautioned me saying that hed not directed before. But the way he narrated the script, I wanted only him to direct it. Who would understand comedy better than him? Instinctively, I felt the film would be a blockbuster.Did you hesitate, even for a second, before signing Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan based on homosexuality?No. Guys take their manliness too seriously. If I see two girls kissing each other, will I be repulsed by them? No. Theyre just in love. And it doesnt make them undesirable. Its a myth in a straight guys conventional mind.There are kisses in the filmYeah. I met Hitesh Kewaliya (director) at an event last to last year. He mentioned, Kuchh tod fod likh raha hoon. I suspected it could be about homosexuality. Later, Aanand sir (Aanand L Rai, producer) told me about it. I asked if there was a kissing scene. He said yes. I was game. The gay story is not incidental to the film. Its the main story the love story of two boys.Were you worried about the backlash from the Dogmatists?No. Ch****e hain woh sab. Unhi ko toh seedha karna hai. I was a borderline homophobic in college.I was in an all-boys school. Then I went to an all-boys college. There was this underground gay club in college. Everyone knew about it but no one spoke about the club. They invited me for a party as their guest of honour saying, We find you cute. Can you sing for us? I was scared and said no. After coming to Mumbai, I realised weve changed as a society. Weve evolved as people. Earlier, I was a typical small-town conventional guy. Mujhe lagta tha yeh galat hai. Today if Ive evolved, others can too. They should just be sensitised towards something. Till the subject is not made mainstream they wont accept it as normal.Have your films impacted peoples lives?After Badhaai Ho, I got so many DMs on Twitter thanking me for doing the film. They said now that the film has normalised it (middle-age pregnancy), no one will make fun of it. I have a friend in Canada. His father is my grandfathers age. His eldest brother is my fathers age. So such things do happen. Then a friend of mine told me that he wants to take his parents for Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan for them to come to terms with his homosexuality. The dialogue in the film is path-breaking. Without being preachy, weve explained everything to the common folk. But some things weve left blurred. Like whos the guy in the relationship. People believe being effeminate is part of being gay. But here, hes being himself.Most gays do come across as straightI had a roommate when I was staying in a guest house in Mumbai in my early days. Three years back he called me and said hed come out of the closet and that he was gay. (Laughs) I joked that we had shared the bed for so long. Kabhi sote sote feeling toh nahi aayi na? His family didnt accept it initially. But now theyve come to terms with it.Your son Virajveer is now around eight. How does he react to your films?He loved Dream Girl. But the kind of realism I portray, the joke is always on me. As a son, you want your father to be a hero. When I appear vulnerable on screen, he doesnt like it. When he saw Sanjay Mishra beating me with a chappal in Dum Laga Ke Haisha, he was sad. He was just four then. He said, Papa, youre not strong. I explained to him that its just acting. He was happy watching Dream Girl. I was taking peoples case there. I was making people laugh. In the first half of Bala, he walked out of the theatre. He couldnt watch it. My daughter Varushka, whos six, is cool. She loves films. Shes desi. The older one is a bit anglicised. He listens to Beatles. Recently, we visited the Bahamas. We were staying at a luxury hotel. Paul McCartney, who was part of Beatles, was in the room next to us. Naturally, he got excited. Virajveers learning to play the piano. His teachers a Catholic. So hes imbibed those influences.Now, theyll be watching Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, which deals with homosexuality. Theyll be aware of things quite early in life...They should be. Of course theyll be asking a lot of questions. Were okay with the PDA of a couple kissing. So a guy kissing a guy and a girl kissing a girl should also be viewed as normal. When that happens, then were home. Once we were shooting in a mall for Dream Girl. It was a night shift. Late at night, we saw a gay couple kissing each other. After seeing us, they became slightly conscious. I thought this is it man. Were ready for the film.How did your parents react to the trailer of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan?They were extremely happy and proud. I have noticed a shift in them too. Theyve become accepting. Times are changing and they get it.What was the experience like working with Amitabh Bachchan in Gulabo Sitabo?Hes a little reserved. But if youre able to break that wall, then hes like a friend. I realised that if youre reserved with him then even he remains so. You need to take that step. He comes on the sets prepared. He knows his lines, my lines everything. If something is going wrong, hell tell you aise karke dekh. Of course, you get nervous in front of him.I get star struck every time I see Amitji (Bachchan), Shah Rukh (Khan) sir. But Im glad he wasnt looking like himself in the film. So it was less intimidating. He plays the landlord, while Im the tenant. Its a light, slice-of-life film.Are you confident about Gulabo Sitabo as well?Yaar, whatever Shoojit (Sircar) sir offers me, Ill do. Hes my mentor. Ill even do a passing shot in his film. Gulabo Sitabo is a good film. Generally, the tonality of his films is subtle. This is in your face. I loved sirs Piku. Its spiritual. How can you make a film, based on digestion, which connects with you spiritually? Unbelievable! Piku is his best film. The film becomes even more beautiful when the narrative shifts to Kolkata.King Of Content does the title given to you make you feel proud?Surprisingly, Im being offered better content now and with established directors. I never got that in the past. Apart from established filmmakers like Sriram Raghavan and Shoojit Sircar, Ive worked with Sharad Kataria (Dum Laga Ke Haisha), Ashwini Iyer Tiwari (Bareilly Ki Barfi) and Amit Sharma (Badhaai Ho). Our country is plagued by social stigmas and taboos. We just need to pick these subjects. People remark why my films are mostly set in middle-class North India? Middle-class means the janta. That section faces the maximum conflict. Humour too stems from there. Hindi cinema is mostly set in the North because its the Hindi belt. The flavour is best captured there. The Mobile Greyhound bus station is unremarkable and has a distinctly utilitarian feel to it. The blue and off-white colored tiles give it the look of a high school canteen or a hospital waiting room. More places where people come and go. Its rows of thinly cushioned seats are not designed for long or comfortable stays. The arm rests prevent you stretching out for a nap. And thats okay, its a bus station. But every day, refugees traveling from detention centers along the Texas border with Mexico arrive in Mobile by bus to eat, rest and salvage any kind of home comfort before the next bus leaves, taking them to a new place where fresh uncertainty awaits. But also closer to hope. Asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, are released from Customs and Border Patrol detention centers daily. Most are sent on their way with nothing but the clothes they wore when they crossed the U.S. border and a piece of paper with a court date. The rest is up to them. Clothing for refugees at the Mobile Greyhound bus station. Typically relatives sponsor the individual refugee or family and usually provide a bus ticket, but food and appropriate clothing are not always available, and many families go days without eating properly, according to immigrant charities who spoke with AL.com. However, thanks to an unlikely group of grandmothers, refugees traversing this country in search of a better life are now being helped at Greyhound bus stations nationwide. We give them food and blankets, because it gets so cold on the buses, said Kitty Emery, a member of the Mobile chapter of Grannies Respond, a nationwide grassroots charity that aims to provide safe and secure passage throughout the United States for refugees and other immigrants. In Spanish they are known as Abuelas Responden. The babies often need formula because sometime the mother isnt nursing, and the baby might not have eaten for days. Razors, shoelaces, belts, coats. They take those things away at the detention centers. We give a lot of lotion away. And the children, because we want them to be contented on the bus, we give coloring books and toys. Usually little toys that arent going to be disturbing to the other passengers. First aid supplies as well. The Grannies, as they liked to be called, started out in Spring 2018. After hearing about the separation of families seeking asylum at the southern border, and children being taken away from parents, a group of outraged grandmothers in New York state decided to do something. Thirty women embarked on a six-city, 2,000-mile trip to McAllen, Texas, home of the largest U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention center for undocumented immigrants. It was there where they planned to protest. Juan Torres along with women from the Grannies Respond group at the Greyhound bus station in Mobile. The Grannies started their journey from New York Citys Union Square in two 15-seat vans and a camper. Along the way, thanks to social media, they picked up fellow protesters in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois and Louisiana. Those people joined in their own vehicles on the historic journey. Over time the group has expanded to 12 cities covering the length and breadth of the country, including Sacramento, New York, Mobile and Columbus. On this particular Friday in Mobile, Emery arrived with her fellow volunteer Gladys Ortega, who first came to United States from Venezuela four years ago. She is the best translator the group has in Mobile, although sometimes Spanish doesnt always help. Guatemalan families come here who dont speak Spanish, they speak regional dialects that are different, said Ortega. The two women, who are part of a larger group of volunteers in Mobile, have developed a good relationship with the Greyhound staff. They are allowed to set up a table inside the station twice a day. Their routine is swift, simple and doesnt interfere with daily operations. They usually carry a fabric beach wagon in the back of the car. The wheels fold down and a handle pops up. Its already packed with shoes, belts, first aid kits, diapers, baby formula and toys, among other items. They set up at the back of the station and wait for the bus coming from New Orleans via Houston. We usually know whos on the bus from New Orleans and what items we might need to provide that they couldnt get them in Louisiana, said Emery, who was also hosting three fellow Grannies from Atlanta. It was a solidarity visit. But thats not always what happens, and we have to be ready for anything. Riding the Greyhound bus across any part of this country is one of the great quintessential American experiences, and has been since the company first began operations 106 years ago. It was once the way home for college students, a rite-of-passage for those taking a new job, or for anyone starting over. But its bus service has also become an architect of change in how migration works in the U.S., carrying many of the most vulnerable people away from danger to a place they desperately want to call home. The first bus of the day arrives shortly before noon. The 1246 from Houston. Its not easy to spot the people were trying to help, said Juan Torres, founder of the Mobile-based immigrant charity Belong and partner of Grannies Respond. But its really important we find them. Sometimes you see a person who looks like they are from Central or South America, but it turns out they are maybe from Miami and going home after a vacation. We look for families, but the clothing and bags are a giveaway, and the people often look confused when they arrive. Enforcing his belief that everyone should at least be approached and offered help, Torres told the story of how in 2016 he got a call from the hospital about an immigrant woman who turned up at the Greyhound station in Mobile with an unconscious baby. It was just a few months old and hadnt eaten in days, he said. The women had no way of feeding but the Greyhound staff here noticed she looked worried. They were both kept in hospital and released the next day to continue their journey to Miami. Although it was a non-refundable ticket, Greyhound staff made sure the woman was able to board for free. Just being able to see small signs of distress can save a life, he added. But staff arent always able to cater for such specific needs. Emery and Gladys have tried hard to get staff at the station to use Spanish when announcing bus times. They did it for a little while but now we try to teach the immigrants phonetically how to listen for the times and bus numbers, said Emery. Its a huge problem in Atlanta, said Betty Jo Stevens, one of the Grannies down from Atlanta. They often cant work out when the bus is coming or going. In past years, the Greyhound stations would be packed with dozens of people who had made the journey from the detention centers in Texas, said Joan DeWitt, another of the visiting Grannies, who also made the original journey to McAllen in 2018. Those large numbers have gone down considerably, she added. Its been a mix of things, said DeWitt. Stricter immigration policies making it harder to cross the border, longer asylum procedures, but also ICE agents boarding the buses has deterred people from buying tickets. They look for other ways now. But Greyhound ended that earlier this week, said Sandra Stimpson, another visiting member of the Grannies, who will be a real grandmother later this year. They wont allow ICE on without a warrant. Thats what they said in the news. Recently the volunteers at the Mobile station have had buses arrive with no refugees at all. But today, their efforts were not wasted. Not long after the 1246 turned off its engine, a young couple walked through the doors with their two children. Emery and Ortega, spotting they looked disheveled and tired, approached them to ask if they were hungry or needed supplies. Then suddenly Ortega and the father of the family embraced in a hug. Gladys Ortega hugs a fellow Venezuelan who just arrived in Mobile. It was the kind of hug you might give your mother after not seeing her for years. Hes from Venezuela, shrieked Ortega. By that point the children were playing with toys Emery had given them from one of her boxes. The mother, heavily pregnant, was guided to a seat nearby. Its so rare to see a family from Venezuela, said Torres, whose wife is also from the same country. They have a much harder time leaving their country right now because of the political situation and the huge journey they face coming here. Kitty Emery gives toys to two refugee children from Venezuela. The father later told Ortega that his family flew on expired passports from Venezuela into Mexico and then later to Arizona. It was there where they applied for asylum and were detained. The father was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor and the whole family was released. Venezuelans are permitted to travel into the United States on passports that are not more than five years expired, according to a state department rules. While the Greyhound bus station in Mobile gave the small and growing family a short rest and showed them some friendly faces on their long journey, the huge glare of the arrival and departure board reminded everyone that this was not the end for them. This was not home, and there was no telling when they might find it. They hugged the Grannies and joined the line for the 1262 to Miami. P residential hopeful Michael Bloomberg has dropped out of the Democratic nomination process. The billionaire has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden following Super Tuesday. Mr Bloomberg, who spent at least half a billion dollars of his own cash on running, failed to win any states in the primary. He did manage to win the territory of American Samoa. Following the balloting of more than a dozen sates on Tuesday, Mr Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have emerged as the two contenders for the Democratic ticket to face off against Donald Trump in November. Super Tuesday - In pictures 1 /18 Super Tuesday - In pictures Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden arrives onstage with his wife Jill and sister Valerie (right) at a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally AP Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with supporters after addressing a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to supporters during a rally Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg waves to his supporters at his Super Tuesday night event Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (L) arrives with wife Jill (C) and sister Valerie (R) at a Super Tuesday campaign event at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center o Getty Images Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., endorses Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives at a primary night election rally AP Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, Californi Bloomberg via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, and his wife Jill attend a primary election night rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets supporters during a primary night election rally i AP Democratic presidential hopeful former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg greets supporters after speaking during a rally at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Super Tuesday AFP via Getty Images Two of Mr Bidens former Democratic rivals, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race and endorsed the former Vice President as the moderate alternative to Mr Sanders the day before Super Tuesday. Mr Bloomberg ran an unprecedented campaign from the start. His late entrance into the race in November prompted him to skip campaigning in the first four voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He hung his success on Super Tuesday, spending at least $180 million (140 million) on advertising in those states, but had planned to continue deep into the primary calendar, already spending millions on advertising in states like Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Before results poured in on Tuesday, he projected confidence while campaigning in Florida, only to have his aides say the campaign would reassess the next day. The president, for his part, paid close attention to the Democratic nominating contest and had been especially fixated on Mr Bloomberg. President Trump regularly railed against his fellow New Yorker on Twitter, mocking his short stature by calling him "Mini Mike" and claiming Mr Bloomberg was the candidate he wanted to run against. Bernie Sanders, left, and Joe Biden are the two contenders for the Democratic nomination to run against Donald Trump On Tuesday, he called the results a "complete destruction" of Mr Bloomberg's reputation. Bloomberg, 78, is one of the world's richest men, worth an estimated $61 billion (48 billion). His fortune comes from the financial data and media company that bears his name, which he started in the 1980s. In addition to serving 12 years as New York mayor, he endeared himself to progressive groups by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting climate change and curbing gun violence. In the early weeks of his campaign, he used his vast fortune to introduce himself to voters outside New York on his own terms, and his rivals accused him of trying to buy the party's nomination and the White House. As voting drew closer, the former Republican was forced to confront his Democratic rivals head on by appearing alongside them on a debate stage. It was a shaky performance that led voters to view him with a more critical eye. Donald Trump branded him 'Mini Mike' / Getty Images He proved unable to overcome consistent criticism of New York's use of the stop-and-frisk - known as stop-and-search in the UK - practice under his tenure as mayor. It disproportionately targeted young black and Latino men for searches aimed at finding weapons. The practice ended after a federal judge declared it unconstitutional, and Bloomberg apologised for using it weeks before announcing his presidential run. He similarly faced pointed criticism - primarily from rival Elizabeth Warren - about the treatment of women at his company, Bloomberg LP. Under pressure from Warren, he said in mid-February he would release three women who sued him for harassment or discrimination complaints from confidentiality agreements. Women who worked for Mr Bloomberg were featured in a commercial praising Mr Bloomberg's and the company's treatment of women, and his longtime partner Diana Taylor defended him as a champion of women. Mr Bloomberg was dogged by accusations he was trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination. His vast fortune proved a perfect foil for Mr Sanders, who has said billionaires should not exist at all. That, combined with Mr Biden's resurgence in South Carolina and the rallying of the party's moderate wing behind him, doomed Bloomberg's case that he was the best candidate to take on both Mr Sanders and President Trump. Mr Bloomberg had a vast circle of influence from his spending on key causes like gun control as well as his philanthropic efforts. What's next for Mr Bloomberg is unclear. He'd pledged to keep campaign offices open in key general election battleground states to help the Democrats defeat President Trump even if he lost the party's nomination. Mr Sanders' campaign has said they do not want the help. 04.03.2020 LISTEN The Z O Hunter Ministerial Associates has threatened court injunction on the upcoming Lesbians Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) conference from being held in Ghana. The regional conference of the LGBT community is scheduled to be held in the country from 27-31 July 2020. A statement signed by the Chairman of Z O Hunter Ministerial Associates, Apostle Dr Z O Hunter, noted that the scheduled conference is aimed at the introduction of homosexuality in the country and reminded the government that the agenda is against our culture. The ministry, therefore, called on other religious groups such as The Christian Council, the Peace Council, the Charismatic Bishop Council, the Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Traditional Council, the National House of Chiefs, the Regional House of Chiefs, the Islamic Council, the Africa Indigenous Council to counter the agenda of homosexuality in the country. It further called on members and the Speaker of Parliament to speak against it. As a Reverend Minister and Speaker of Parliament, you will agree with us that Leviticus 18:22-23 frowns on that, the statement said adding that if nothing is done, they will march and protest to Parliament and Jubilee House and also go to Court and seek for an injunction on the said matter. ----classfmonline Subscriber content preview By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas As mass sexual assault scandals, some dating back decades, roil universities across the country, the schools are seemingly drawing from the same playbook in their responses. Whether a large state school like the University of Michigan, or a private one like Baylor University in Texas, the typical moves include hiring an outside law firm to investigate, usually with a promise of some level of transparency; a hotline for victims to relate their stories; and an offer of free survivor counseling. Some hire outside public relations firms to manage the flow of information to the media. . . . The Ministry of National Defence made the first public appearance for Level-2 Field Hospital No. 3, which will be deployed to the UN mission in South Sudan, at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on March 4. browser not support iframe. It is subordinate to the HCM City-based Central Military Hospital 175 and consists of 70 members. Addressing the event, Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh spoke highly of efforts by units of the Defence Ministry, the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Central Military Hospital 175 in readying the field hospital, especially in terms of personnel, for replacing Level-2 Field Hospital No. 2 which is performing duties at the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. He asked the relevant parties to keep close coordination to perfect the hospitals apparatus and continue training for its staff so that the hospital will fulfill its tasks even better than its predecessors. On this occasion, Vinh also appreciated other countries and international partners support for Vietnam during the building, training and deployment of its peacekeeping force for UN operations. Deputy head of the EU Delegation to Vietnam Axelle Nicaise congratulated the peacekeeping force of Vietnam on their achievements, which have helped promote the countrys stature and prestige in the international arena. She said the EU and Vietnam share the same wish to ensure regional and global security and peace. The EU will always stand ready to support and assist Vietnam in peacekeeping activities, the diplomat said, adding that it also hopes Level-2 Field Hospital No. 3 and future units of Vietnams peacekeeping force will receive more assistance from international friends, including the EU. At a meeting earlier the same day, Maj. Gen. Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, reported that Level-2 Field Hospital No. 2 in the UN mission in South Sudan has been performing their duties well. In three months working in Bentiu, it provided checks and treatments to 527 patients, successfully conducted six surgeries, and airlifted three patients in critical conditions to higher-level hospitals./.VNA 63 military personnel at Level 2 Field Hospital honoured Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has commended 63 military personnel of the Level 2 Field Hospital Rotation 1 for accomplishing their mission during the UN's international peacekeeping operation in South Sudan. Yves here. I dont like seeming like a scaremonger, but I see way too much evidence that people are not taking coronavirus risk seriously enough. For instance, I have been e-mailing the service that employs my mothers home health care aides about handwashing every time they come in the door. Ive had to send the WHO video to make sure they are actually washing thoroughly enough (unfortunately, my pressing the aides goes over less well than directives from their bosses). And I am certain they are not taking precautions when they are out, like avoiding touching their faces and cleaning handles they touch or grabbing them using a tissue or paper towel. And this place has mainly nurses as managers! Similarly, in my gym, which has at least 20% medical professionals among its membership, I see zero change in behavior, no greater use of hand sanitizers on the floor (and note the FDA recently challenged Purells claims, perhaps in part because hand sanitizers are mostly useless as deployed by real people), nor any curiosity as to whether the spray bottles on the floor have stuff in it that will actually kill germs (they are hardly used and the purpose really seems to be wipe sweat off benches and cardio machines. They dont contain alcohol and even bleach diluted to the level the NIH recommends for wiping down surfaces takes more than ten minutes to kill viruses. 10% bleach is more deadly but also pretty corrosive and thus cant be used on quite a few surfaces). And no, its not as if people are staying home. Exercise classes and games are very well attended. In other words, it appears that more people need to get the message that the coronavirus is dangerous and they need to take meaningful precautions. This short post might help in conveying that message. By George Washington, formerly of Washingtons Blog The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the mortality rate from the Wuhan Coronavirus (formally known as 2019 nCoV) is 3.4% globally. The Spanish Flu of 1918 which killed between tens of millions of people had a lower mortality rate, estimated by the WHO as between 2 and 3%. But surely, you say, the Coronavirus is not as contagious as the Spanish Flu Unfortunately, its more contagious. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy notes: The novel coronavirus has an R0 of 2.2, meaning each case patient could infect more than 2 other people. If accurate, this makes the 2019 nCoV more infectious than the 1918 influenza pandemic virus, which had an R0 of Based on calculations, the authors of the larger study estimate the novel coronavirus has an R0 of 2.2, meaning each case patient could infect more than 2 other people. If accurate, this makes the 2019 nCoV more infectious than the 1918 influenza pandemic virus, which had an R0 of 1.80 . WHO says that the R0 of Coronavirus in China was initially between 2 and 2.5.< But scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory said that the R0 for the Coronavirus is actually between 4.7 to 6.6 (although that number drops to between 2.3 and 3 after quarantines and social distancing are implemented). According to the Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others, Coronavirus can be spread even when people have no symptoms. On the one hand, this is bad news, as it is very hard to screen and locate carriers when they are symptom-free or have only mild, cold or flu-like symptoms. On the other hand, this means that the real R0 might be much higher than WHO estimates which would make the mortality rate lower. If the number of people with Coronavirus is a lot higher than is being reported, that means the mortality is a lot lower i.e. a smaller percentage of the larger population of people infected have died. Indeed, China only tests a portion of those who are really sick, and the United States has tested less than 500 people total for Coronavirus (American doctors have to beg to get their sick patients tested). So far, WHO has rejected the theory that there are more people who have Coronavirus than reported: One of the hopes of people watching Chinas coronavirus outbreak was that the alarming picture of its lethality is probably exaggerated because a lot of mild cases are likely being missed. But on [February 25th], a World Health Organization expert suggested that does not appear to be the case. Bruce Aylward, who led an international mission to China to learn about the virus and Chinas response, said the specialists did not see evidence that a large number of mild cases of the novel disease called Covid-19 are evading detection. But one cant assess whether mild cases are being missed without a widespread testing program. Especially since many cases are mild, and some cases are wholly asymptomatic. The bottom line is that we dont yet have the core data we need to determine how lethal the Coronavirus is. Our best bet at reaching an accurate estimate is probably to follow whats happening in South Korea. As of last week, South Korea had already tested 66,652 people for Coronavirus. And its testing more than 10,000 new people a day. South Korea also has a modern healthcare system. So keeping track of the mortality rate in South Korea will be a good indicator of the real lethality of this virus. Postscript: Some have claimed that Asians are more vulnerable to Coronavirus than other races. However, I wrote to the international agency which is claimed to have gathered the data, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EMI), which sponsors the 1000 Genomes Project. Paul Flicek Associate Director and Senior Scientist and Head of Genes, Genomes & Variation Services at EMBL-EMI explained to me that the data was hogwash. In any event, given that Italians, Americans and others are dying of the Coronavirus, I dont know why people keep claiming that Asians are more vulnerable. By PTI NEW DELHI: An expenditure of Rs 446.52 crore has been incurred on the foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last five year, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the expenditure includes cost of chartered flights. According to the data given by him, a cost of Rs 121.85 crore was incurred in 2015-16 while an expenditure of Rs 78.52 crore was incurred in 2016-17. In 2017-18, a cost of Rs 99.90 crore was incurred while in 2018-19, an expenditure of Rs 100.02 crore was incurred, according to the data given by him. In 2019-20, a cost of Rs 46.23 crore has been incurred on the prime minister's foreign visits, it said. Fighting in northwest Syria has rendered large parts of the region uninhabitable for civilians now crammed into an ever-shrinking area where conditions are dire, says a report released Wednesday. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's Signal Program analysed satellite imagery of towns and camps in Idlib province, where the Syrian regime has been pressing a devastating offensive since December. "In the areas examined, the researchers estimate that nearly one-third of buildings have been significantly damaged or destroyed," said a statement released with the report, which Harvard produced with Save the Children and World Vision. "With most of these areas' inhabitants having fled before or during the offensive, the destruction of homes and vital civilian infrastructure will make it nearly impossible for families to return in the near future," the statement added. The satellite imagery analysed in the report shows agricultural fields filling up with camps for the displaced in a matter of months, as well as levelled villages and towns. Regime and allied forces backed by Russian air strikes have clawed back significant territory since December, triggering a massive exodus of a scope yet unseen in the nine-year-old Syrian conflict. Routing bombing of schools and hospitals has forced civilians to flee town after town, heading towards the Turkish border. Some three million people are now trapped in the ever-shriking enclave in dire conditions. The area still controlled by Turkish-backed rebels and jihadists is roughly the size of Majorca and is the last major opposition bastion in Syria. - 'Targeted civilian infrastructure' - "In the best case scenario, which is an immediate ceasefire, it will take months if not years to first physically rebuild the destroyed civilian infrastructure and then rebuild the trust for these communities to go back home," Save the Children spokeswoman Joelle Bassoul said. A report released Monday by the UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Syria suggested the regime had intentionally targeted civilian infrastructure to scare the population away and facilitate its military reconquest. "Attacks carried out by pro-government forces targeted civilian infrastructure, including specially protected objects," the UN commission said. "As a result, civilian areas were rendered uninhabitable," it added, citing the key Idlib province towns of Maaret al-Numan and Khan Sheikhun. It said the levelling of certain towns was carried out "in an apparent effort to accelerate capture of strategic motorways". More than half of the nearly one million people displaced over the past three months are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in the bitter cold. The presidents of Turkey and Russia, the two main foreign brokers in a conflict that will enter its tenth year this month, are due to meet in Moscow on Thursday and may discuss a ceasefire. Satellite imagery analysed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative shows agricultural fields filling up with camps for the displaced in Syria's northwestern Idlib province where regime forces have been pressing an offensive since December Displaced Syrian children walked through one of the bombed-out schools reportedly targeted in regime air strikes in Idlib province Syrian civilians have emptied town after town, fleeing north towards the Turkish border, now blocked by a concrete wall, barbed wire and watchtowers to prevent crossings A bill which seeks to confer the status of Institution of National Importance to five Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) was introduced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid an uproar created by the opposition over the Delhi violence. Minister of State for HRD Sanjay Dhotre introduced the bill when the House met at 2 PM after two adjournments. The five IIITs set up on public-private partnership mode in Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala and Raichur will now be able to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) or Master of Technology (M.Tech) or PhD degree, according to the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020. Once passed, the law will also enable the institutes to attract enough students required to develop a strong research base in the country in the field of information technology. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Wednesday's trading session based on latest developments. Telecom Stocks: Shares of telecom companies will be under investors radar following reports that the telecom majors have paid part of their deferred spectrum dues to the government. Where Vodafone Idea paid around Rs 3,043 crore, Airtel has paid Rs 1,950 crore and Rs 1,053 crore payment has been made ny Reliance Jio. IT stocks: Shares of IT companies will be under invetsors' focus today after the Indian currency benchmark Rupee fell to a 16-month low on Tuesday, declining 39 paise or 0.55% to Rs 73.0775 against the US dollar on Tuesday. NBCC: The Allahabad bench of NCLT on Tuesday approved NBCC's bid for the acquisistion of Jaypee Infratech. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals: The company announced that it has appointed Sridhar Venkatesh as MD & vice president of GSK India. He succeeds Mr. Annaswamy Vaidheesh who will retire from the Company effective 31 March 2020, the filing added. Newgen Software: The company informed the exchanges that it has received patent for mark detection system and methodology from US Patent Office. IRB Infrastructure Developers: The company informed the exchanges that it has redeemed NCDs worth Rs 1,400 crore. The company had issued secured, redeemable, unlisted non-convertible debentures (NCD) on private placement basis in December 2019. Consequently, the company doesn't have any outstanding borrowing by way of NCDs, the filing added. Hindustan Aeronautics: The company has received a notice from International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on request for Arbitration from RUAG Aerospace Services GMBH. The company has initiated necessary action for the arbitration process. The amount in dispute partially quantified by the opponent party is US$ 21,872,500 (i.e. EUR 20,000,000) against alleged damages on breach of agreement regarding supply of structural parts for production of Dornier-228, by HAL, the filing added. Supreme Leader Urges Iranians To Support Battle Against Coronavirus As Death Toll Rises By RFE/RL's Radio Farda March 03, 2020 Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Iranians to support the government in its battle against an outbreak of the coronavirus as the death toll rose to 77, the highest outside of China. "Don't violate the recommendations and instructions of the responsible authorities in terms of prevention, in terms of keeping hands, face, and living environment clean and not infecting these and preventing the infection of these," he said in a March 3 broadcast on state television. After the broadcast, the Islamic republic announced that Khamenei had put the country's armed forces on alert to help the Health Ministry combat the outbreak. Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said 2,336 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Iran. "Based on the latest statistics that have been compiled, there have been an additional 835 definite new infections. Unfortunately, we have 11 new deaths," he told state TV. The outbreak has reached the upper echelons of Iran's leadership, adding to fears that officials were slow to react to the virus amid accusations of a cover-up. Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi died in a Tehran hospital of the virus, making the close confidant of Khamenei the highest-ranking official in the country to perish from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The virus earlier killed lawmaker Hadi Khosroshahi, Iran's former ambassador to the Vatican. Among other officials who are infected are Vice President Masumeh Ebtekar and Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who tried to downplay the virus before falling ill. In all, 23 members of Iran's parliament have tested positive for the virus, lawmaker Abdolreza Mesri said on state television on March 3. The head of Iran's emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand, has also been infected, a spokesman for the services told AFP. Globally there have been more than 90,000 confirmations of infections of the coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Almost 3,000 people have died from COVID-19 since the outbreak began. Across the Middle East, more than 1,150 cases of the virus have been documented, most of which link back to Iran, prompting a wave of aid and pledges of more. Six World Health Organization (WHO) employees arrived in Tehran on March 2 along with 7.5 tons of medical gear, including protective gloves, face masks, and respirators. Germany, France, and Britain have said they will shuttle medical supplies to Tehran. Ukraine, meanwhile, has confirmed its first case of coronavirus after a male who recently traveled to Italy tested positive. Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on March 3 that the unidentified man arrived home in the southwestern city of Chernivtsi from a trip abroad and was subsequently diagnosed as having the coronavirus. Two Ukrainian nationals tested positive for the virus, but they were passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and not in the country. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/male-who-returned- from-italy-trip-is-first-coronavirus-case- confirmed-in-ukraine/30466491.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address While conducting live, on-the-street interviews with U.S. immigrants, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur was visibly shocked to learn that some Latinos do in fact support President Donald Trump. While talking to a Latino man in East Los Angeles, Katy assumed everything was going her way. The gentleman, who does not speak fluent English and was required to use an interpreter, expressed his support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. When asked why he plans to support Sanders, he said he doesn't know, but he will be supporting him. However, when asked about his daughter and her political views, the gentleman stated that his daughter supports the current president, and will be voting for him in November. "Oh wow!" said the interpreter with apparent nervous laughter following. Surprised by the man's answer, Tur had to make sure she had heard him correctly. "Your daughter's going to vote for Donald Trump?" she said bewildered. "Yea," he said nodding his head. She then asked him directly, "Por que?" "I don't know, she loves him," the man said in Spanish, he then explained that it is due to the booming U.S. economy that his daughter will be supporting President Trump in the upcoming election. Joining Tur with a look of surprise was the interpreter assigned to the segment. As the two continued down the busy LA street they discussed the Latino community's ongoing support of President Trump. The interpreter continued to express his surprise by saying the man's response was "fascinating." He continued by saying that "you don't see that too much," referring to the percentage of conservative Latinos and went on to tell Tur that there is a "stubborn" 10 to 15 percent that continue to support Donald Trump. When Tur then asked him why he thinks it's that way, the interpreter confessed that in his own family, there are Trump supporters. "In my family, some [of the Trump supporters] are members of law enforcement, and some are just really, really focused on the economy," he said. Although the interpreter finishes up by saying that he's not sure why the Latino community has a significant number of Trump supporters, it seems to be rather obvious. In a recently published article from Latin Post, it was noted that Latinos open more small businesses in the United States than any other group. ALSO READ: Latino-Owned Businesses are Growing at a Fast Pace In an unrelated article from The Hill, it was stated that an estimated 27 million workers will leave their full-time jobs to start businesses this year. The number of self-employed entrepreneurs in the U.S. is expected to climb to as many as 42 million by the end of 2020. According to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, roughly 30 percent-not 10 to 15 percent as stated by the interpreter-of Latinos support Donald Trump. This only makes sense seeing as how small businesses, and small business owners, are experiencing growth and success under the Trump Administration. And with Latinos leading the way in entrepreneurial endeavors in the U.S., a large number of Trump supporters in this demographic is to be expected. When the University of North Georgia (UNG) re-established and expanded its poultry science pathway a decade ago, students in the program had three options after earning an associate degree. They could enter the workforce, transfer to a school with a bachelor's degree in poultry science, or stay and obtain a bachelor's degree in biology at UNG. Recently, a fourth option has emerged. Thanks to a collaboration between the College of Science and Mathematics and the Mike Cottrell College of Business (MCCB), students with an Associate of Science (AS) degree in poultry science may transition to a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree at UNG. "Going from an AS to a BBA is not something that most people think of," said Dr. Linda Purvis, assistant professor of biology at UNG. "But since this AS has prerequisites in the business area like accounting and economics, the two programs matched up well." Purvis' partnership in recent years with Elaine Fitzpatrick, internship coordinator for the Mike Cottrell College of Business, has also netted returns for business students and the poultry industry. "Dr. Purvis reached out to me because she knew what the poultry industry needed in general," Fitzpatrick said. "They needed students for information systems, cyber security, sales, management, supply chain and marketing, and we have those students." Since then, the pair along with Michael McCaffrey, academic adviser for the MCCB, have created an educated workforce to meet the needs of the state's multi-billion-dollar poultry industry. Fitzpatrick said it comes at an ideal time since Gainesville, Georgia, has been deemed an inland port. The city also is dubbed the "Poultry Capital of the World." Georgia leads the nation in the production of chickens and is one of the top producers of eggs, according to Georgia Farm Bureau. The poultry industry contributes more than $18.4 billion to the Georgia economy each year, according to the Georgia Poultry Federation. McCaffrey applauded Purvis for noticing the overlap between poultry science and business programs. Together they have devised course recommendations to streamline the transition between the two programs. "We want to save our students money and time," he said. Since this partnership started in spring 2019, three more poultry science students have moved into the BBA program. This small influx of poultry science students transitioning to the Mike Cottrell College of Business has had an unforeseen but positive side effect. Students pursuing business degrees have exhibited an increased interest in the poultry industry. For example, last year, two business students accompanied Purvis and her poultry science students to the annual International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta. In January 2020, five business students attended the expo. Both trips resulted in positive outcomes, Fitzpatrick said. "Students who have attended the poultry expo have had several interviews," she said. "It is a great way to meet poultry employers and representatives and be exposed to the industry." Fitzpatrick has collaborated with Purvis since 2018 to land students internships in the poultry industry. Purvis said the collaboration between the poultry and business program meets students' needs. "It matches the university's mission to be student-focused," she said. "If the students have a desire, then we will see what we can figure out to meet it." [March 04, 2020] Speaker and Social Entrepreneur Igor Beuker Joins Brightmerge Advisory Board TEL AVIV, Israel and AMSTERDAM, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightmerge, the Tel Aviv-based developer of a SaaS platform for optimizing renewable energy microgrids, has appointed Igor Beuker to join its advisory board. Beuker will support the company's drive into scaling its marketing and innovation programs. Igor Beuker is a top Amsterdam-based marketing innovation keynote speaker and activist, known for his foresight on trends and technologies that impact business, economy, and society. Behind the scenes, Beuker is a social entrepreneur with five exits and 24 Angel investments in social enterprises, an award-winning marketing strategist for brands like Amazon, L'Oreal, Nike and Unilever, and a new breed trend-watcher for Fortune 500s, the World Economic Forum and the European Union. Brightmerge CEO and founder Daniel Schwab commented: "I have worked with Igor in the past and he is a man who pushes big dreams into action, spurring massive cultural and technological change. A recognized socil entrepreneur who's giving back to humanity, and I'm convinced Igor will be able to help us achieve our mission." Igor Beuker added: "I'm really excited to work with Brightmerge, because it's a highly advanced Israeli clean energy platform, applying the technologies under the hood of Industry 4.0 to guide the rapidly transforming energy industry. With my Israeli descent, it feels like going back to my roots." The Brightmerge Advisory Board now consists of four members in addition to Igor Beuker: Seth Kiner, Global Energy and Utility Strategic Advisor; Mark Schneider, Renewable Financing specialist; Shalom Flank, Microgrid System engineer and thought leader and Eitan Katz, Blockchain and FinTech expert. About Brightmerge Brightmerge, a Tel Aviv-based startup, provides an enterprise SaaS platform based on proprietary machine learning and big data decision-making to automate and optimize the design, development, build and operation of energy microgrid systems. The company was recently given a rating of 76-80/100 by Early Metrics. This puts Brightmerge among the top 20% of the 3,000 Start-ups rated so far. Early Metrics: www.earlymetrics.com More info about Brightmerge at www.brightmerge.com More info about Igor Beuker at www.igorbeuker.com Media Information: Elkana Pressler, Executive VP Business Development [email protected] www.brightmerge.com/ View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/speaker-and-social-entrepreneur-igor-beuker-joins-brightmerge-advisory-board-301016332.html SOURCE Brightmerge Located in Sichuan Province, Guang'an is a city next to Chongqing. Boasting an excellent living environment, it is elegant and has been rated as China's Excellent Tourist City and China's Civilized City. Moreover, this tranquil and gorgeous town is the home of Deng Xiaoping, one of China's greatest men. Deng Xiaoping, known as the chief architect of China's socialist reform, opening up and modernization drive, had a significant impact on China and even the world. He was born in Guang'an and grew up here until he was 15 years old. He left his hometown to study in France in 1920, and left footprints in Paris, Montargis and other places. There is no doubt that his experience as a teenager in Guang'an and France was the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's new education and understanding of the world. But it is hard to know which place appeared more frequently in his memory during his turbulent life. If you want to learn about the childhood of this great man, visiting Guang'an is undoubtedly the best choice. Deng Xiaoping's Hometown Scenic Spot in Guang'an is the world's only memorial park in memory of him. 20 places in the park, including the former residence of Deng Xiaoping, silkworm house yard, Hanlin courtyard, Dezheng Palace, the tomb of Deng Shaochang, had been renovated according to the historical original appearance. Strolling here, we seem to be able to go through time and space, touch the life imprint of Deng Xiaoping's teenage years here. The core of Deng Xiaoping's Hometown Scenic Spot has a memorial hall that integrates natural ecology and historical culture. It is the Exhibition Hall of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence, where displays the legendary life of the great man who devoted himself to revolution and reform and opening up. Nowadays, Guang'an has become the leading Red Tourism in Sichuan Province and an important destination of China's Red Tour. It has been included in "12 Major Red Tourism Areas" and "30 Red Tourist Boutique Lines" in China. Would you like to explore Deng Xiaoping's life here? Recommended Tour Route: Deng Xiaoping's Hometown Scenic Spot Hanlin Courtyard Beishan Primary School Guang'an County School Si Yuan Amphitheatre Qujiang Dongmen wharf View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005297/en/ Contacts: Cassie Liu cassie@proexpo.cc Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has a simple message for voters: cast your ballot for the candidate you like best. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate was in Detroit on Tuesday evening, visiting Michigan one week ahead of the state's March 10 primary. She has yet to win a Democratic primary, and was looking for a strong showing Tuesday night in California, Texas, and her home state of Massachusetts. Warren has been arguing that despite trailing in polls, she could win the Democratic nomination and go on to defeat President Trump in November. She told the crowd in Detroit that people need to set aside their worries about "electability" and support the candidate whose beliefs and values align with their own. "Cast the vote that will make you proud," she said. "Cast the vote from your heart. And vote for the person you think would be the best president of the United States." More stories from theweek.com The anybody-but-Bernie comeback It's 2020 and women are exhausted Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are nervous at how much Trump thinks he's nailed the coronavirus response Cancel-for-any-reason policies must be purchased at the time of booking or shortly thereafter. Some travel insurance providers have stopped offering those policies, but that doesnt mean travelers are out of luck. One insurance company reported there werent many claims because travelers affected by the outbreak were being reimbursed by airlines and other travel suppliers, said Kasara Barto, spokeswoman for travel insurance website Squaremouth. Its time to replace fax with etherFAX, Paul Banco, CEO and co-founder of etherFAX said. With the ability to transmit unstructured data fast and securely, we are redefining document delivery within the healthcare industry." etherFAX today announced that it will exhibit its patented hybrid-cloud fax technology at the HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition on March 9-13, 2020 in Orlando. This year at HIMSS, etherFAX will showcase DirectFax via the etherFAX Secure Exchange Network (SEN), integrations with Slack, Teams, and mobile, the etherFAX API, and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities with GLYNT.AI. Each of these secure document delivery solutions easily integrate with existing IT infrastructure and electronic medical record (EMR) applications and devices. etherFAX SEN is the world's largest fax network, leveraging military-grade encryption and hybrid cloud technology to provide 100 percent secure communications. Supporting every major fax server, application and fax-enabled device, etherFAX has more connected endpoints providing end-to-end encryption than any other service. etherFAX SEN securely transports unstructured data with HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOC 2 compliance. DirectFax via etherFAX SEN enables organizations to send and receive protected health information (PHI) directly to healthcare applications and devices with guaranteed delivery, high resolution, and end-to-end encryption. Its time to replace fax with etherFAX, Paul Banco, CEO and co-founder of etherFAX said. With the ability to transmit unstructured data fast and securely, we are redefining document delivery within the healthcare industry. As a cloud-based and virtual solution, etherFAX enables healthcare organizations to send and receive information from a number of endpoints and devices. Best of all, DirectFax guarantees that electronic health records can be easily and securely shared, accessed, and analyzed. etherFAX will also exhibit its new mobile and device integrations. etherFAX now allows organizations to send and receive high-resolution documents from todays popular fax servers as well as third-party messaging platforms including Slack, Teams, and mobile applications. Leveraging etherFAX SEN, organizations can send and receive faxes and PHI documents on Android and iOS mobile phones with near-diagnostic image quality. Through its partnership with GLYNT.AI, a leading provider of advanced machine learning solutions that transform documents into data, etherFAX is improving interoperability within the healthcare industry and enabling business-critical data, PHI, and high-resolution digital content to be exchanged, interpreted, and utilized cohesively. Together, etherFAX and GLYNT.AI are solving one of the biggest challenges with workflow automation the ability to identify and extract the silos of data trapped in paper and fax documents for downstream use. To seamlessly fax-enable any application, the etherFAX API, a web interface based on REST semantics, allows healthcare organizations to integrate fax and document delivery services into their applications in short order. As a scalable and highly available service, the etherFAX API enables organizations to send and receive a high volume of faxes with ultra-fast transmission speeds and guaranteed delivery. For more information, visit etherFAX at HIMSS Booth #941. About etherFAX Founded in 2009, etherFAX offers a unique solution that extends existing fax server solutions to the cloud. By eliminating the need for costly network fax systems, such as fax boards and recurring telephony fees, etherFAXs patented technology leverages the Internet to manage all business-critical fax communications. For more information, visit http://www.etherfax.net, follow us out on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etherfax, call us at 877-384-9866, or email sales@etherfax.net. # # # Kabir Khan's sports-drama, '83 is touted to be one of the most anticipated movies of 2020. The film has Ranveer Singh and Saqib Saleem sharing screen space for the first time. Recently, while speaking with a news agency, Saqib was all praise for his '83 co-star. While Ranveer plays the role of Kapil Dev, Saqib essays Mohinder Amarnath in this Kabir Khan directorial. Talking about his equation with Ranveer, the Dishoom actor told IANS, "Ranveer is such an easy guy that we didn't have to work on it. It just came so naturally because he is just a loving and open guy. He comes to you with arms open to hug you all the time, so he is that warm guy. I don't think we had to work on that equation at all." Saqib further added, "He made it very easy. I have to give him credit where it is due that he is one of the nicest and most co-operative co-stars anybody can work with. He is not only a good actor but he makes sure that the other actor also gives his 200 per cent. He always used to discuss scenes with other actors. So, he is very much alive in every scene and it really helped me while working with him." To prep for his role, Saqib interacted extensively with Mohinder Amarnath. Revealing details about it, he said, "I used to irritate him a lot. I have had long chats with him. When we were training in Dharamshala for 10 days so, Jimmy sir was there for a week. I would have one-on-one interactions with him from six in the morning till whenever he wanted to sleep. I could ask him any and everything under the sun." Helmed by Kabir Khan, '83 stars Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Saqib Saleem, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Ammy Virk, Harrdy Sandhu, Chirag Patil, Adinath M. Kothare and others. The film is slated to release on April 10, 2020. '83: Ranveer Singh Shares Deepika Padukone's Look As Romi Dev Aka 'The Heart Of The Hurricane' EXCLUSIVE! Tahir Raj Bhasin On Ranveer Singh: He Is Treating '83 Like The Biggest Film Of His Career Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 19:05 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684f2b1 1 Business kimia-farma,hand-sanitizer,mask,COVID-19,erick-thohir Free State-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma has limited the number of masks and hand sanitizer available for purchase at its 1,300 stores nationwide to ensure the products availability in the long run amid panic buying prompted by the COVID-19 spread in Indonesia. "Kimia Farma carried out the measure starting Jan. 10 to anticipate the coronavirus outbreak, State-owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said during a site visit to a Kimia Farma outlet in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday. I have checked that both masks and hand sanitizer are available in Kimia Farma stores but they have started to limit the products. Erick said he wanted to make sure that stores do not inflate the price of the products. Panic buying has triggered a price surge for the items both online and offline in the last two days. A box of face masks now selling for an average of Rp 300,000 (US$ 21) a whopping 1,500 percent increase from the original average of Rp 20,000 per box. Read also: Panic buying hits Jakarta supermarkets as govt announces first COVID-19 cases Following the rationing action, one person can only buy two masks at Kimia Farma outlets at a price point of Rp 2,000 per piece and a 500-ml bottle of antiseptic gel at a price of Rp 50,200 per bottle. Kimia Farma president director Verdi Budidarmo said the company had 4,000 boxes or 215,000 masks, adding that it had ordered more. "We are currently ordering as many as 7.2 million masks for future needs," said Verdi. Masks and hand sanitizers are among the most-sought after items in the country. Customers have been swarming supermarkets and drugstores following President Joko Jokowi Widodo's announcement of the country's first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Erick called on the private sector to participate in maintaining the stock and availability of masks and hand sanitizer in the market by not hoarding goods or trying to mark up the prices amid the increasing demand. A fresh wave of allegations about bullying have been levelled at Home Secretary Priti Patel from staff in a third government department. A Department for International Development (DfID) senior official told the BBC2's Newsnight about several allegations of abuse by officials in her private office when she was secretary of state. Ms Patel categorically denies these claims, a spokesman said. The allegations come after the top official at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned at the weekend after accusing her of bullying subordinates. Newsnight quoted a Tory source as saying there was a concerted effort by sections of the Civil Service to undermine Ms Patel and that dark forces were trying to influence a Cabinet Office inquiry into her conduct. Priti Patel denies the latest claims / PA The latest claims relate to the period around 2017 when Ms Patel was sacked by Theresa May as international development secretary over unauthorised contacts with the Israeli government. Following her dismissal, a senior figure in DfID was said to have approached staff in her private offices about allegations that they had heard of bullying. The senior figure was said to have been told of multiple claims of staff being humiliated and coming under heavy pressure in emails similar to the allegations made about Ms Patels conduct at the Home Office. Sir Philip Rutnam resigned at the weekend / PA The senior figure then went to see another senior figure in DfID and urged them to contact the then cabinet secretary the late Sir Jeremy Heywood so that her conduct recorded was in the system if she ever returned to government. Although the person making the claims has not been named, they were said to be prepared to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry currently under way into allegations she broke the ministerial code. The individual concerned was also said to be ready to give evidence in support of Sir Philip who is claiming constructive dismissal if his case goes to an industrial tribunal. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his full confidence in Ms Patel / PA A Tory source, quoted by Newsnight, hit back, saying: What we are seeing is a concerted effort by certain sections of the Civil Service to undermine a Home Secretary trying to deliver what people want on crime and immigration. It is deeply disturbing that dark forces are trying to influence the findings of a Cabinet Office inquiry. In a joint email to staff written with Sir Philips interim successor Shona Dunn, she insisted they cared about the wellbeing of all employees. They expressed their gratitude to the staff for their continuing hard work and commitment to deliver the Governments priorities. We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the well-being of all our staff. It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team, they wrote. We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld. Boris Johnson has expressed his full confidence in Ms Patel, who he promoted to one of the great offices of state after she had previously been sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May. However, some Tory MPs have questioned how much longer she can carry on in the job, while Labour has complained the inquiry into her conduct to be carried out by the Cabinet Office is not fully independent. For many of the artists and venues in this year's Asia TOPA festival in Melbourne, the spread of the novel coronavirus couldn't have been more badly timed. The triennial festival of performing arts, spread over three months from January to March, features acts from across the Asia-Pacific region. As travel bans, flight cancellations and misinformation accompanied the virus' spread, artists were left scrambling to make it to Melbourne in time for their shows. Some did not make it. Vietnamese circus A O Lang Pho was an Asia TOPA hit. But while Australian toilet paper sales might suggest a paranoid local response to the outbreak, Melbourne audiences have proved they have intestinal fortitude. Organisers report the festival is close to achieving its budgeted box office with more than three weeks of events remaining, and is comfortably on track to beat its targets. A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Jabi on Wednesday ordered the suspension of the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, pending the determination of a substantive suit. The judge, Danlami Senchi, gave the order following an application of interlocutory injunction asking the court to suspend Mr Oshiomhole, having been suspended as a member of the APC by the party in Edo State. The application was filed by an applicant, Oluwale Afolabi. While Mr Oshiomhole is the first respondent, the APC is the second respondent. Mr Afolabi in his application dated and filed on January 16 had contended that Mr Oshiomhole is currently suspended by the party and has not challenged the suspension. According to Mr Afolabi, Mr Oshiomholes rights as an APC member is currently abated and he cannot continue to act as chairman of the party. He argued that Mr Oshiomhole cannot continue to enjoy benefits from the APC, despite his suspension as a member of the party. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Damian Dodo, is the lawyer representing Mr Oshiomhole and the APC. In his ruling on Wednesday, Justice Senchi held that the first and second respondents wrongfully kept Mr Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the party. The court also ordered that Mr Oshiomole should stop parading himself as the chairman of the APC. He urged the APC to desist from acknowledging him as the chairman of the party The court has also given the APC orders not to grant Mr Oshiomhole access to the party secretariat. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Oshiomhole was controversially suspended by the APC in Edo State after he was suspended by the partys leadership in his ward in the state. The former Edo State governor and the APC national leadership, however, discountenanced the suspension, saying it was invalid. They said only the party headquarters could suspend national officers of the party including the chairman. Mr Oshiomhole is having a crisis with his successor in Edo and fellow party member, Governor Godwin Obaseki. Apologies, it seems we cant find what you were looking for. The content has either moved or no longer exists. Maybe try a search JERUSALEM What does Benjamin Netanyahu have to do to get defeated? Two weeks before his trial on bribery and other serious corruption charges, it might have been reasonable to expect Israels embattled prime minister to struggle merely to avoid disaster in Israels parliamentary election on Monday. His chief rival, Benny Gantz, nearly defeated him twice last year, before Mr. Netanyahu had even been indicted. But Mr. Netanyahus relationship with his fervent political base Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent may be even stronger than Donald Trumps support from white working-class Americans. Thanks to them, Mr. Netanyahu Bibi, as he is known to Israelis seems unsinkable. He won a plurality in Mondays vote, according to still-incomplete returns, giving him a decent shot at forming a government and earning a record fifth term. He clobbered Mr. Gantz, and his conservative Likud party won some 175,000 more voters than it did in Septembers election, analysts said. (Newser) President Trumps campaign on Tuesday sued the the Washington Post, alleging defamation in two opinion articles published last year that it said falsely claimed the campaign conspired with Russia. The lawsuit cites a June 13 opinion piece by Greg Sargent that said Trump tried to conspire with a sweeping and systematic attack by Russia against the 2016 US presidential election. It also cites a June 20 opinion piece by Paul Waldman that asked who knows what sort of aid Russia and North Korea will give to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their assistance? The statements were and are 100% false and defamatory, Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement cited by the AP. story continues below Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications at the Post, said it was disappointing to see the presidents campaign committee resorting to these types of tactics and we will vigorously defend this case. Trump has chafed at media scrutiny and repeatedly lashed out against the newspaper and its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The lawsuit came a week after the campaign sued the New York Times for defamation over an op-ed that claimed a quid pro quo between Trump and Russia. The American Civil Liberties Union called both lawsuits meritless. Anyone who cares about the First Amendment should be troubled by the Trump campaigns repeated attempts to punish and intimidate the presidents critics, said Brian Hauss, staff attorney for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. (Read more President Trump stories.) Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty WEST PALM BEACH, FloridaMike Bloomberg stood inside a Florida convention center on Tuesday night looking at a crowd of strangers eating his food, drinking his wine, and waiting to celebrate a string of successes that would never come. After walking on stage to U2s Beautiful Day blaring from the speakers, he waved sheepishly at a group whose main cause to cheer at that point was that more than $463 million in self funding helped buy him a victory in American Samoa. No matter how many delegates we win tonight we have done something no one else thought was possible, Bloomberg said. In just three months, weve gone from 1 percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. Contender, of course, was a stretch. While the night was far from over and the prospect of more delegates loomed in his future, there would not be enough to win a state and likely not even enough to fill the ballroom where he stood. He had come into the primary to be the solution to a party that couldnt figure itself out. He could have been the Democratic savior, even though he wasnt always a Democrat. He could have been the best chance to beat an incumbent president, even though he had never shown electoral success outside of New York City. His late entry to the race mattered only as much as one could try and avoid seeing his face and advertisements on a television screen. By the time Super Tuesday votes began to come in, he had little to show for it. Still, the voters inside his West Palm Beach event found plenty of reasons to defend the man who footed the bill. After all, Florida wasnt on the Super Tuesdays docket, and the states March 17 contest presents Bloomberg with another opportunity to see if his wealth can help him to a win. Hes sacrificing his personal time, energy, and fortune for the good of the country, Jeff Lichterman, a 58-year-old Bloomberg backer, said. So I admire him tremendously. His supporters also werent racing to urge the New Yorker to leave the race and concede the moderate lane to former Vice President Joe Biden. Story continues It's almost a why not? Paul Warner, a 77-year-old Bloomberg supporter, said of him staying in the race. He has both feet in so he might as well commit. Plus he can afford to do it. 100 Days, 500 Million Dollars, and American Samoa: The Mike Bloomberg Story His wealth was on full display at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. The older crowd that filled Bloombergs evening event were greeted by a tunnel of freebies, from a cascade of Bloomberg t-shirts to a slew of cups of Cabernet Sauvignon and cans of Budweiser and Bud Light on ice. Mini cheeseburgers, short rib with a fontina cheese slider, and pulled chicken on a biscuit helped keep the crowd content as a DJ worked away on stage. This race is only just getting started, a Bloomberg staffer said as the event began. We cant be sentimental, Judge Judy Sheindlin of television fame called to the crowd later. This is not a time for a sentimental candidate. Never one to dwell on sentiment or convention himself, the 78-year-old former mayor skipped the first four states and bet the tail end of his political career on making something special happen on Super Tuesday. So what if other attempts to skip the first four contests had failed? No other candidate had the personal wealth to fill the airwaves with a message of stability and competence. But while television ads can make someone ubiquitous, they couldnt save Bloomberg from facing the realities of the 2020 landscape: his rivals ready to pounce on his record with women and minorities, the candidate himself growing testy when pressed about how he fit into the race. He was supposed to be the alternative to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), but Bidens resurgence following the South Carolina primary couldnt have come at a worse time for a billionaire trying to catch a break. It wasnt long before Bloomberg vocalized those gripes to reporters who joined him at several stops aimed at wooing Floridians. Joe's taking votes away from me," Bloomberg complained to reporters at the campaigns Little Havana field office before declaring he had no intention of dropping out. I have no intention of dropping out, Bloomberg said. Were in it to win it. After the Super Tuesday night event ended, packs of voters hung around to watch results come in on CNN. There was enough in the data for voters leaving Bloombergs production to cling to hope or find reason to worry about his downfall. Concerns about Bloomberg helping Sanders at Bidens expense were voiced anew. I hope that he moves up and I would like him to be our nominee, said Stacy Scheinberg, a 60-year-old Bloomberg supporter. But if hes taking away from Biden, well have to see. I dont want Bernie Sanders. For others like 77-year-old Ronnie Serlin, the Super Tuesday results were fast becoming critical to her voting decision. Watching CNNs coverage, she said she hopes the former mayor throws his support behind Biden. I hope he mans up, she said. Trevor Noah Dunks on Bloombergs Massive Super Tuesday Fail Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 15:47:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHONGQING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- International students from a primary school in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality are cheering for Wuhan. "Our students have presented what they've learned about the virus and prevention work in the form of artworks, in which sincere wishes were sent to those fighting on the frontlines," said Dino Gisiano, principal of the KL International School of Chongqing Bashu. Escher Gisiano, Dino's son, is a grade three student at the school. Although he has only lived in China for a short time, he has developed a deep affection for China and Chongqing. "I live in Chongqing, and I love it here. I wish Wuhan the best of luck. Wuhan is not alone!" The grade four students, mainly from countries including Slovakia, the Republic of Korea and Japan, said that the virus is the enemy of all mankind, wishing that everyone in Wuhan stays healthy and safe. School resumption has been delayed due to the coronavirus, but everything has been going well, Dino said. "Everything was fine with our daily life. The school adopted online teaching and everyone felt at ease. I believe China will win this battle soon," he added. The American principal said that after the novel coronavirus outbreak, the school has also launched online cloud consulting services to ensure that all work is carried out in an orderly manner. The school has timely and effectively conveyed relevant epidemic prevention knowledge, official policies and measures to teachers and students and actively provided various up-to-date information for foreigners. Up to now, no confirmed or suspected cases have been reported among all the faculty and students. "The medical staff fighting on the frontlines are highly admirable. Let's cheer for Wuhan and China! We are one!" Dino said. (Alliance News) - Vivo Energy PLC on Wednesday doubled its 2019 dividend amid a rise in profit and revenue for the year driven by the integration of Engen-branded markets. For the year, Vivo - a downstream petroleum company which sells branded products from Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Engen Petroleum - reported a pretax profit of USD246.0 million, up 7.2% from USD229.4 million the year before. This was on revenue that grew by 10% to USD8.30 billion from USD7.55 billion, driven by the integration of Engen-branded products, as well as growth in Shell-branded volumes. In March 2019, Vivo completed its acquisition of Engen Holdings (Pty) Ltd's operations in a number of African countries. In December 2017, Vivo agreed to buy the operations of Engen in ten African nations: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Reunion, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Then, in September, Vivo and Engen confirmed they had restructured the deal, worth USD204 million, to initially complete with all but the DRC operations. Total volumes were up 11% to 10.42 billion litres from 9.35 billion litres, following the integration of Engen and the opening of 96 new service stations, 15 of which under the Engen brand. Vivo Energy declared a final dividend of 2.7 US cents per share, bringing the total payout to 3.8 cents, doubled from the prior year. Looking aheAd, Vivo Energy said it expects to deliver a mid-single digit rise in gross cash profit for 2020, driven by improved volume growth in Shell and Engen-branded markets. "These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model and our disciplined approach as we delivered strong adjusted free cash flow in the year, and have recommended a final dividend of 2.7 cents per share. We have built momentum into 2020 and are excited about the 12 months ahead, as we look forward to delivering another year of strong growth," said Chief Executive Officer Christian Chammas. Shares in Vivo Energy were down 1.9% at 102.0 pence on Wednesday in London, while its Johannesburg shares remained untraded at ZAR20.50. By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. With the recent withdrawals from three major contenders for the Democratic nomination, voters in Arkansas will be joining larger states across the US to decide who will go up against President Donald Trump in November. The Southern state, which has a population of just three million, contributes among the fewest delegates 31 of the total 1,357 delegates awarded from Super Tuesday states. As a result, presidential hopefuls rarely visit the state or spend noticeable amounts of money on television ads. Unlike in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, which go first, or larger states like Texas and California, Arkansans are accustomed to choosing their candidate without ever hearing them speak in person. For Nick Bradford, a Little Rock resident and marketing specialist for a global company, his heart has always been set on Elizabeth Warren, who only just made her first visit to Arkansas over the weekend. "I'm very excited about my candidate. I voted for Elizabeth Warren and I want better representation. I believe that it's time for a woman to be president, said Bradford, who also voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. My partner also voted for Elizabeth Warren, and my mom donates to her campaign. For the last decade, Arkansas has been trending conservative, aside from some major cities and the Delta. Once home to President Bill Clinton (then governor) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both senators and four congressional representatives at the national level are all Republican. Internally, there is a Republican governor and Republicans also control the state legislature. It is widely expected that the state will again go for Trump, as it did in 2016. Polling data on who is in the lead in Arkansas is scarce, as fewer polls are conducted for the state than in other battlegrounds. A TalkBusiness/Hendrix College poll from early February gave former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg a slim lead, back when businessman Andrew Yang, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar were still in the running and before Biden succeeded in South Carolina. Its unknown how Biden, a familiar moderate face who has run for president before, could do. Though he could sop up some votes from Klobuchar and Buttigieg who withdrew after early voting had begun, Biden never set foot in the state this cycle. In an interview with the New York Times last month, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas said that Arkansas was a default Biden state, but that his campaign is the least organized of all the contenders. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has yet to earn a single delegate anywhere, but has gained traction with Arkansans. He raised eyebrows last fall when he filed to run in the state ahead of any formal announcement about his candidacy. It was in stark contrast to the fact that even some of the declared candidates at the time, such as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, hadnt filed at all. Bloomberg has since spent millions of dollars in advertising in the state and has visited three times more than any other candidate. For many Arkansans, who are used to seeing few TV ads during each election cycle, it seems as though Bloombergs ads are always on. Mike Bloomberg says he didn't realize Elizabeth Warren was still in the race Acknowledging the controversial stop-and-frisk policy Bloomberg implemented in his hometown, the former mayor has especially sought to endear himself to black voters, who reliably vote Democrat here. In January, he marched alongside other Arkansans to commemorate civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and has secured the endorsement of Frank Scott, the first black mayor of Little Rock who is now a co-chair of the Mike for Black America National Leadership Council. Political strategist Brian Richardson said that even with Tuesdays turnout expected to be lower than usual, the results could be hotly contested and that voters will be looking for personality and stability. Richardson is especially interested to see how well Bloomberg does, especially given the extra TLC the former mayor has given the state. I expect for him to have a decent showing, said Richardson. I guess we'll find out if that investment pays off. New Delhi: The number of coronavirus cases in India on Wednesday rose to 29, including 16 Italians touring Rajasthan, said the government, adding that all international passengers will now be screened at airports as concerns mount over the spread of the respiratory infection. As of February 3, six coronavirus cases, including one Italian, was reported in the country. Giving a break-up of the 28 cases, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said one patient is from Delhi; six more, his relatives, are from Agra; one is from Telangana and there are 16 Italians as well as their Indian driver in Rajasthan. The figure includes the first three cases in the country from Kerala last month who have since recovered. Later on Wednesday, e-commerce payment system Paytm said an employee in its Gurgaon office has tested positive, bringing the total up to 29. In a statement, the company said the infected person had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-hit countries from coronavirus, and advised its employees to work from home for the next couple of days. With the number of cases rising, the Union Health Ministry issued an advisory to all schools asking them to avoid any large gathering of students in premises. It said that any student or staff with travel history to any COVID-19 affected country or in contact with such persons in the last 28 days should be monitored and quarantined at home for 14 days. Class teachers have been asked to remain alert of any possible signs and symptoms among students like coughing, fever or difficulty in breathing and immediately inform the parents to get them tested. "Ask parents not to send child back to school till advised so by the treating doctor," the advisory said, asking schools to place alcohol-based hand sanitiser at various spots and advised monitoring students staying in hostels. The ministry also asked them to ensure availability of soap and water in restrooms at all times. At his press conference, Vardhan said all international passengers will now be screened at airports. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened for the contagious disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide. Seventeen Indians abroad have been infected -- 16 from a cruise ship in Japan being treated at onshore medical facilities and one from the United Arab Emirates said the Ministry of External Affairs. PM, ministers to skip Holi gatherings With Holi less than a week away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said they would not celebrate the festival of colours or hold Holi Milan gatherings. President Ram Nath Kovinds office also said that the Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold any celebrations on the occasion. Vardhan said the government has adopted a cluster approach as part of which health authorities will check and sensitise every household within a three-kilometre radius of the house of the infected person. The government also intends to set up a laboratory in Iran to facilitate testing of Indians there before they are brought back. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran. An inter-ministerial meeting chaired by PMs Principal Secretary PK Mishra decided that all government departments will consult the Health Ministry before organising conferences and international meets in the country in the coming days. At a meeting of the Union Cabinet, minister Prakash Javadekar said more than six lakh people had been screened for coronavirus symptoms at 21 airports. He said that more than 10 lakh people, who have entered the country via open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, have also been screened. While only the Pune-based National Virology Institute (NVI) is fit for conducting coronavirus tests, the government has now set up 15 more labs and is in the process of establishing 19 additional centres, said Javadekar. The government is proactively engaged in dealing with coronavirus. The prime minister is monitoring the situation daily, he added. States up surveillance Several state governments, including Rajasthan and Delhi, screened visitors and others for the disease in hotels and guesthouses. With 16 Italian tourists, who came to Rajasthan by road from Delhi, testing positive, the desert state swung into action to contain the infection. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said in Assembly that at least 215 people had come into contact with the group. These included 53 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur, and 76 people in Jaipur. Swab samples of 93 people were taken with 51 suspected patients tested negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said, adding that Italy has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world and the tourists should have been screened earlier. A 69-year-old man was the first one in the group to test positive for the disease. His wife then also tested positive at Jaipurs Sawai Man Singh Hospital where the couple is now admitted. The other 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. In Delhi, Kejriwal said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus. (With inputs from PTI) By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) under the Ministry of Economic Development organized nine export missions in seven countries in 2019 for the purpose of promoting national products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand, president of AZPROMO Yusif Abdullayev said on March 2. The countries where the brand was promoted are the UAE, China, Poland, Latvia, Qatar, Switzerland and Russia. Addressing the presser to sum up the results of 2019, Abdullayev said that reforms aimed at increasing non-oil products export and favorable environment provided for exporters helped the promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign countries and encouragement of attracting foreign investments throughout the year. Azerbaijani companies showcased their products in over 30 exhibitions worldwide under Made in Azerbaijan brand in 2019. The companies showcased their products on a common country stand at international exhibitions in Germany, International Green Week 2019, Fruit Logistics 2019, Anuga 2019, in Russia, Prodexpo 2019, Worldfood Moscow 2019, MosBuild 2019, in the UAE, Gulfood 2019, in China Sial China 2019, Prowine China 2019, China International Import Exhibition and Food and Hotel. While 33 export missions have been held so far, to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand and to encourage export, 9 export missions to 7 seven countries, including China, Poland, Latvia, Qatar, Switzerland, Russia and the UAE, were implemented the last year. It was also mentioned that export encouragement of 9 million Azerbaijani manats was allocated to entrepreneurs based on applications related to the payment of export encouragement in 2019. Providing information about Houses of Azerbaijan operating in foreign countries, Yusif Abdullayev noted that to promote local products in foreign countries, Azerbaijan Trade House in Dubai, the UAE, and Azerbaijan Wine House in Yekaterinburg, Russia were opened in 2019. Moreover, Azrbaycan nemtlri (Azerbaijani gifts) shop in the concept of Trade House in Moscow started to operate, he added. Additionally, it was informed that AZPROMO is working on building new relations and strengthening cooperation with numerous investment promotion agencies, trade and industry chambers and other relevant institutions. AZPROMO has signed 11 agreements with 10 analogous organizations from 6 countries last year. It was mentioned the press conference that AZPROMO signed memorandums of understanding with Italy Trade Agency (ICE), Export Credit Agency (Simest) and K-BEKSPORT SRL company of Italy as part of Ilham Aliyevs state visit to Italy, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogans visit to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani companies operating on construction and construction products will participate in the international exhibition MosBuilld 2020 to be held in Moscow, Russia, with the support of Ministry of Economy and organization of AZPROMO. In addition, South Korea, France, Russia, China, the UAE and other countries will host exhibitions in which Azerbaijani products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand will be demonstrated in a common country stand. It is also planned to organize export missions to Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and Gulf countries, as well as to South Korea, China, Turkey and other countries. Interestingly, Azerbaijan will also host a buyer mission on food, wine and other alcoholic beverages, in which entrepreneurs from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Croatia are expected to participate. -- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Honoring our Coffee Past by Mentoring the Future: Women's Center for Entrepreneurship Giving back has been at the heart of Peet's since it first opened its doors on April 1 in 1966. Through this commitment, the craft roaster has devoted decades to caring for farmers at origin. As part of this mission, in 2019, Peet's partnered with Coocentral cooperative and Sustainable Harvest to establish The Women's Center for Entrepreneurship. With a $50,000 USD startup donation from Peet's, the launch program provided business training to one hundred women, empowering them through courses on income diversification and improving financial resiliency. "For many, betting on and investing in education is complicated because it is a process that is not necessarily tangible," said Karla Ly, Social Impact Coordinator, Sustainable Harvest. "The Women's Center for Entrepreneurship aims to address the permeating lack of business skills and tools accessible to women coffee farmers. Through a tailored curriculum, graduates can achieve and promote gender parity and education equality, becoming referents to imitate." The Center has now supported over 100 graduates. These women have gone on to design over 50 business plans that they are actively implementing. To enable the enrollment of a fresh class in 2020, Peet's will donate $1.00 USD (up to $50,000) for every pound of Anniversary 2020 coffee sold to the Center. "Our Anniversary 2020 single-origin underscores the journey we are on to ensure, in equal measure, that we are supporting our farmers while also securing remarkable quality coffees," said Doug Welsh, Roastmaster, Peet's Coffee. "From the Mujeres Cafeteras in the highlands of Huila, Colombia, this dark roast balances at the height of bright and sweet, with a hint of berry that reminds us of the coffee fruit. Perhaps the finest coffee in Colombia's finest coffee region, it happens to be grown by remarkable women." A washed coffee, Anniversary 2020 features a profile of fine chocolate with a velvety finish. It can be purchased starting 2/26/2020, while supplies last, at Peet's coffeebars, on www.peets.com, and at participating California grocery stores in March. Prices vary. To learn more, visit www.peets.com/anniversary. About Peet's Coffee: Founded in Berkeley, California in 1966 by Alfred Peet, the "Big Bang of coffee," Peet's Coffee introduced an artisan movement by sourcing the world's best beans, hand-roasting in small batches, and crafting beverages by hand. With rich, complex, superior quality roasts unlike anything Americans ever tasted before, Peet's influenced generations of coffee entrepreneurs and connoisseurs. Today, Peet's is uncompromisingly dedicated to its founding tenets and asserts a strict standard of freshness, ensuring optimum flavor with a team that personally vets the beans and ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee available at 15,000 grocery and convenience stores nationwide. Peet's operates from the first LEED Gold certified roastery in the United States and grows its business through retail, grocery, on-premise, and e-commerce channels. For more information, visit www.peets.com . Stay connected to Peet's: @peetscoffee on Twitter and Instagram and facebook.com/peets . About Sustainable Harvest: Founded in 1997, Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers is a Portland, Oregon-based green coffee trading company that provides roasters in North America and Europe with the highest quality certified organic and fair trade specialty coffee. The company is dedicated to improving coffee supply chain practices by pioneering a new paradigm for global trade called Relationship Coffee and reinventing the purpose and actions of the middleman by building systems for farmer training, transparency and impact. SOURCE Peet's Coffee Inc. Related Links http://www.peets.com LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to the defence of his interior minister on Wednesday, after several civil servants accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of bullying. The home secretary is doing an outstanding job, Johnson told lawmakers during the prime ministers weekly House of Commons question period, with Patel seated prominently beside him. Im sticking by her. Patel has been accused of fostering an environment of fear by the former top civil servant in her department, Philip Rutnam. He quit on Saturday, accusing Patel of bullying and unreasonable behaviour towards staff. Rutnam also announced he is suing the Home Office for allegedly forcing him out of his job. Since then, U.K. media have reported that staff in two other departments formerly headed by Patel - the Department for International Development and the Department of Work and Pensions had also complained of abusive behaviour. The BBC said one official at the work and pensions department received a payout of 25,000 pounds ($32,000 at todays prices) from the government after accusing Patel of bullying in 2015. II said other officials accused Patel of humiliating staff members while she was international development secretary in 2016-2017. A spokesman for Patel said she categorically denies all of these allegations. Patel, a hardliner on crime and immigration, was among ministers who held onto their jobs when Johnson shook up his Cabinet on Feb. 13 following his sweeping election victory in December. She was fired as International Development Secretary by Johnsons predecessor, Theresa May, for holding unauthorized meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials during a private trip to the country. Opposition lawmakers said Rutnams resignation laid bare failings in Johnsons government. Johnsons top aide, Dominic Cummings, has also been accused of heavy-handed treatment of government advisers. The government has launched an internal investigation into the allegations against Patel. Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that was not good enough and called for an independent probe led by a lawyer. A government cannot be judge and jury over its own conduct, he said. The US State Department cleared the sale to Morocco of 25 of BAE Systems M88 recovery vehicles for a total cost of $239.4 million. Under the same deal, Morocco will receive 50 caliber machine guns, M239 or M250 smoke grenade launchers, 1,800 M76 or L8A1/A3 smoke grenade rounds, 25 SINCGARS radios, AN/PSN-13A GPS receivers (DAGR), and 30 AN/VAS-5B Driver Vision Enhancer kits, the US Security Defense Cooperation Agency said. This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major non-NATO ally that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in North Africa, it said. The new equipment will help the Royal Armed Forces strengthen capabilities in terms of combat vehicles and training as well as to modernize its arsenal. Morocco will have no difficulty absorbing these vehicles into its armed forces, the agency said. The deal comes in a series of advanced acquisitions by Morocco of US military equipment. Last November, the US State department cleared the sale of36 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and related equipment for an estimated cost of $4.25 billion. Earlier in September last year, the US approved the sale to Morocco of additional F-16 ammunition for an estimated cost of $209 million. The US State Department also made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Morocco of various TOW-2A missiles for an estimated cost of $776 million. Morocco also sealed last January contracts worth 400 million with France to acquire Caesar self-propelled howitzer and related ammunition. Morocco is one of the biggest arms buyers in Africa and maintains one of the largest and technically advanced armies on the continent as it also seeks to set up its own military industry to reduce imports. Thousands of foreign military students who train at U.S. bases will be subject to tighter screening before they arrive, as well as intensive efforts to stop them from obtaining firearms while they are here. The moves follow the attack by a Saudi national that killed three sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. The immediate challenge is to close "what looks like a loophole" in existing gun laws that allowed 21-year-old Saudi Royal Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani to legally purchase the Glock 45 9mm handgun he used in the Dec. 6 rampage, said Pentagon intelligence official Garry Reid. He also listed several security shortcomings in how the Defense Department works with the State Department to screen and vet foreign military students before they are accepted into military training programs and how they are monitored when they arrive. The Defense Department is now working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on methods to block foreign military trainees from keeping or buying personal weapons, said Reid, director of Defense Intelligence (Counterintelligence, Law Enforcement, and Security) at the Pentagon. Related: Navy Resumes Flight Training for Saudi Troops After Pensacola Terror Attack In addition, the service branches have begun acting on their own to limit the access of foreign military students to firearms. On Jan. 31, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly released guidance to prohibit foreign military students training in the U.S. from owning personal firearms. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the subcommittee's chair, noted that Alshamrani had obtained a Florida hunting license, which made it legal for him to purchase firearms in the state. Reid and Army Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said that the hunting license exception was a focus of the department's review, ordered by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, of security procedures for foreign military trainees following the Pensacola attack. Without giving specifics, Reid said the review found that "policies for student possession of firearms varied at the installation level, and that at the federal level there are ways to bypass firearms restrictions for non-immigrant visa holders." "We also found that DoD programs meant to detect and mitigate events such as the Pensacola attack did not cover international military students -- for instance, our insider threat programs," he said. The hearing went into a classified closed session after 45 minutes to allow Reid and Hooper to go into detail on where the department has fallen short and how the new procedures will boost security. In his opening testimony, Reid said that all of the estimated 800 Saudi nationals training in the U.S., including about 150 at Pensacola, were put through additional screening as part of a "Personnel Vetting Transformation Initiative" immediately after the Dec. 6 shootings. The screenings, which are continuing for all 5,000 foreign students from more than 100 countries, turned up a "small number" of individuals who were of concern, but "none that triggered any remedial action or further investigation by federal authorities," Reid said. Alshamrani and several of his Saudi student associates at Pensacola were not subject to the DoD review since they were already being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department, he added. In all, 21 Saudi military officers in training in the U.S. were sent home as a result of the review for unspecified "misconduct." Overall, "we found that DoD has been overly reliant on the vetting conducted by Department of State," mainly by U.S. ambassadors overseas, of foreign military students before they arrive in the U.S., he said. He added that the DoD is working to improve information sharing with the State Department and conducting wider data searches to detect signs of extremist ideology among applicants for training programs. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, questioned how the department would prevent extremists from entering the training programs. He noted that Alshamrani had evidenced signs of adherence to extremist ideology in social media postings before coming to the U.S. In response, Hooper said that "the Saudis have agreed to do a number of things differently" in their own screening of applicants, including increased psychological and behavioral testing "to uncover ideological, social or family issues and anxieties." In addition, he said the U.S. is asking the Saudis "to consider the individual's personal opinions or attitudes toward the U.S. government, U.S. policies and Western culture and respect for persons of different race, gender, religion, national origin or sexual orientation" before permitting them into training programs in the U.S. Hooper and Reid rejected assertions by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, that the U.S. may have deferred to the Saudis by refusing to label Alshamrani's actions in killing three sailors and wounding eight others in a Pensacola classroom building as terrorism. Reid pointed out that U.S. Attorney General William Barr had labeled the attack an act of terrorism motivated by "jihadist ideology." Hooper said the attack was "unequivocally identified as an act of terrorism" by the FBI and the Justice Department. Both Reid and Hooper testified to the "strategic" value to the U.S. of the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, through which more than one million foreign military students have trained in the U.S., including more than 28,000 Saudis. In the program, the foreign nationals "are exposed to our values, our culture and our people" in ways that produce long-lasting results in terms of strengthening alliances and cooperation with partners worldwide, Hooper said. However, the DoD owes it to the families of the three sailors killed at Pensacola to tighten up security procedures to weed out potential extremists, Reid said. In the Pensacola attack, Alshamrani fired randomly, fatally wounding Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, of Enterprise, Alabama; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Florida; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia. Shortly after the attack, Navy Capt. Timothy Kinsella, the Pensacola base commander, said all three took actions to try to stop the shooter and had saved "countless lives." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Read more: She Helped Save Capt. Phillips from Somali Pirates. Then Became the First Female 4-Star Admiral Shelves where disinfectant wipes are usually displayed is nearly empty at a Target store on March 02, 2020 in Novato, California. County officials said the patient was likely exposed during international travel from Feb. 11 to Feb. 21 on a Princess cruise ship that departed from San Francisco and traveled to Mexico. Placer County officials said the patient arrived at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center by ambulance on Feb. 27 and was in isolation at the hospital. "We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient," Placer County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said in a statement. "While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see." The patient was an elderly adult with underlying health conditions, county officials said, adding that the person was the second confirmed COVID-19 case in the county and is now the first death related to the virus in the state. As of Wednesday, there are 53 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California, including 24 from repatriation flights. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California has more cases of the virus than any other state. Placer County, which is in northern California near Sacramento, is monitoring ten health care workers from the hospital, the county said, and five emergency responders who were exposed prior to the patient being placed in isolation. The county said none of them are exhibiting symptoms. The county said other passengers from the cruise may have also been exposed. "While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms," Dr. Sisson added, "this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions." The news comes after Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 outbreak, announced the country's tenth death. CNBC has confirmed that the tenth death was in Washington state, where all of the first nine deaths occurred as well. "The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "This case demonstrates the need for continued local, state and federal partnership to identify and slow the spread of this virus." Earlier Wednesday, Los Angeles-area officials announced six new COVID-19 cases in the county over the past 48 hours, prompting that southern California county to declare a local emergency to help free up federal and state funding. Officials said at the announcement that there were no community spread cases in Los Angeles county, meaning that all cases could be traced back to a known or suspected source. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) San Francisco, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 07:22 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068151f1 2 World Google,tech-companies,developer,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Google on Tuesday cancelled its major annual gathering of software developers amid concerns over the deadly coronavirus. The internet giant said it nixed the festival-like event Google I/O event scheduled for May a short distance from the "Googleplex" in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View. "Due to concerns around the coronavirus [COVID-19], we've decided to cancel this year's physical event at Shoreline Amphitheatre," a Google statement said. A Google developers' account tweeted: "It's sad that we won't be able to gather as a developer community but your health and safety is our priority." Google added it is exploring other ways for its developer community to connect and collaborate. The annual Google I/O conference typically attracts thousands of developers from around the world who get to mingle with one another and engineers from the internet company on ways to synchronize software and services to its array of offerings. It joins a growing list of global events that have been cancelled as the virus spreads around the world. A game developers conference in San Francisco was postponed last week, after Facebook and Microsoft withdrew from the event due to concerns about the spread of novel coronavirus. Facebook recently canceled its F8 developers conference, the biggest annual event for the US tech giant, due to virus worries. Like Google I/O, the F8 gathering in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose typically draws throngs of software makers from around the world who collaborate with the tech giant on its platform. Face-to-face interaction at San Jose conference center will be replaced with online presentations. Boise, Idaho Idaho has no state inheritance or estate tax. However, like all other states, it has its own inheritance laws, including the ones that cover what happens if the decedent dies without a valid will. This article goes over topics that include probate, how to successfully create a valid will in Idaho, and what happens to your property if you die without a will. If you want professional guidance for your estate planning after reading this article, or just need help investing your inheritance, its a good idea to work with a financial advisor. The SmartAsset advisor matching tool can find you a financial advisor in your area who meets your needs. Does Idaho have an Inheritance Tax or an Estate Tax? Idaho does not levy an inheritance tax or an estate tax. Keep in mind that if you inherit property from another state, that state may have an estate tax that applies. You will also likely have to file some taxes on behalf of the deceased. And if your estate is large enough, it may be subject to the federal estate tax. Other Necessary Tax Filings When you die, there are many federal and estate tax situations that need to become a priority for those who survive you. Besides the state estate tax, you need to look out for the following: Final individual federal and state income tax returns the federal and state tax returns are due by Tax Day of the year following the individuals death. Federal estate/trust income tax return due by April 15 of the year following the individuals death Federal estate tax return due nine months after the individuals death, though an automatic six-month extension is available if asked for prior to the conclusion of the nine-month period This is required only of individual estates that exceed a gross asset and prior taxable gift value of $11.58 million in 2020 To file any of these estate-based returns, youll need to apply for an employer identification number (EIN) with the IRS. You can do this online, by fax or via mail. Story continues Dying with a Will in Idaho To make your will legitimate in Idaho, you must sign your will in front of two witnesses. The witnesses must see you sign the will, or you must tell them that the document is your will. Your witnesses must also sign your will. You do not have to notarize your will in order to make it legal. However, you can make your will self-proving, which helps to speed up the probate process. In order to do that you will need to go to a notary. A self-proving will speeds up the probate process because the court can accept the will without contacting the signing witnesses. You can make your will self-proving if you and your witnesses go to a notary and sign an affidavit that states who you are and that each of you knew you were signing the will. Once the will is determined to be valid, the next step is the probate process. Idaho is one of the states with the Uniform Probate Code, which means theres a standard set of rules that applies to Idaho and other states. Probate proceedings are usually only required if the deceased person owned any assets in their name only. Other assets, also known as non-probate property, can generally be transferred to the other owner without probate. Idaho offers a simplified probate procedure and an affidavit procedure that allows heirs to completely skip probate. If the affidavit procedure is used, there is no need to use the simplified probate process. You can use the affidavit procedure when there is no real property that needs to be property, such as a house, home or land, and the value of all personal property left is less than $100,000. The value of the personal property left behind is calculated after all liens and encumbrances have been subtracted. You can also use the affidavit procedure if all the real property avoids probate through a living trust or right of survivorship, such as joint tenancy, and the value of the personal property is less than $100,000. To use this procedure the heir must prepare a short affidavit, signed under oath, stating that he or she is entitled to certain property. When the person or institution holding the property gets the affidavit and a copy of the death certificate, it releases the asset to the inheritor. The states Department of Health and Welfare can make a claim for medical assistance amounts provided for the decedent against the amount requested in the affidavit. There is a 30-day waiting period when this process is used. If you do not qualify for the affidavit process, there is still a simplified probate process for small estates. You can qualify for the simplified small estate process if the value of the decedents estate, after liens and encumbrances are subtracted, does not exceed the value of the exempt property, homestead allowance, family allowance, costs of administration, medical expenses of the last illness, and reasonable funeral expenses. In this case, you do not have to give notice to creditors. However, you must prepare a closing statement that states the value of the state meets the qualifications to use this procedure, and that you distributed and gave a full accounting of the assets to the heirs. You will also need to give a copy of the statement to all inheritors as well as any creditors you. know about that have not been paid. You can also use this procedure if the surviving spouse inherits everything. They can then file a petition with the court, which will issue a decree to that effect. To use the simplified procedure, the executor files a written request to use it with the local probate court. The court can then allow the executor to distribute the assets without needing to do regular probate. Dying without a Will in Idaho Boise, Idaho, at night Dying without a will isnt the best situation if what happens to your assets after your death matters to you. Idaho laws label these types of estates intestate, which means there is no will, or no valid will. The court then has to follow intestate succession laws to determine who inherits your property, and how much of it. If there isnt a will, the court will appoint someone, usually an adult child or surviving spouse, to be the executor, commonly known as the personal representative. It is the job of the executor or personal representative to protect the decedents property until taxes and debts, if any, have been paid, and then transfer what is left to the heirs. Although there are often extenuating factors when someone dies intestate, but its best not to die intestate and put your loved ones through that kind of stress. If youre not sure what kind of estate plan you want to make, you can seek the help of a financial advisor specializing in legacy planning. Spouses in Idaho Inheritance Law In Idaho, if you die with a spouse but without a will, the amount your spouse inherits partially depends on how much of the decedents property was community property, and how much was separate property. As a general rule, community property is property you got while you were married, and separate property is property you got before you were married. However, gifts and inheritances given to one of the spouses counts as separate property, even if they are given during your marriage. If you die with a surviving spouse, but no parents or descendants, your spouse inherits everything. If you have a surviving spouse and parents, but no descendants, the surviving spouse will inherit all of your community property and half of your separate property. Your parents will then inherit the rest of the separate property. Keep in mind that in Idaho, if you and your spouse are legally separated, but not yet divorced, and you die intestate, your spouse will not be entitled to your property. If you have questions or concerns about this area of Idaho inheritance law, you may want to talk to an attorney. Children in Idaho Inheritance Law Young girl in a field in Idaho If you have descendants, such as children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren, but no surviving spouse, they will inherit all of your intestate property. If you have descendants and a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse will inherit all of your community property and half of your separate property. Your descendants will then inherit the rest of the separate property. Intestate Succession: Spouses and Children Inheritance Situation Who Inherits Your Property Children but no spouse Children inherit everything Spouse but no descendants or parents Spouse inherits everything Spouse and descendants Spouse inherits all community property and half of separate property Children/descendants inherit rest of separate property Spouse and parents Spouse inherits all community property and half of separate property Parents inherit rest of separate property Under Idaho law, adopted children have just as much right to their share of intestate inheritance as biological children do. In addition, if the decedent placed their child up for adoption and that child was adopted by another family other than your spouse they are not legally eligible to receive intestate inheritance from the decedent, unless the decree of adoption specifically includes continuation of inheritance rights. However, foster children and stepchildren who were never legally adopted by the decedent are not eligible to receive a share as the decedents child. Children born outside of marriage still receive their share if you participated in a marriage ceremony with their mother that later turned out to be void, your paternity was legally established while you were alive, or your paternity is legally established after your death with clear and convincing proof. The decedents children can still receive their share if they are born within ten after the decedents death. Grandchildren will receive a share only if their parent is not alive to inherit. Unmarried Individuals Without Children in Idaho Inheritance Law In Idaho, if you die without a spouse or descendants, your parents will end up inheriting everything. Intestate Succession: Extended Family Inheritance Situation Who Inherits Your Property Parents but no spouse or descendants Parents inherit everything No parents, spouse, ordescendants Grandparents, siblings, nieces, nephews then cousins inherit everything Idaho has an intestate process designed to make sure your family inherits. However, it is usually best to write your own will to ensure that all of your property ends up in the hands you want it in. If no eligible relatives can be found, the state of Idaho will end up inheriting your property. Non-Probate Idaho Inheritances A snow-capped mountain along the Sawtooth Scenic Byway in Idaho Since the probate process can be expensive and difficult, its important to know what your options are when it comes to avoiding probate in Idaho. Listed below are some of the assets that will not have to go through probate and instead go directly to the beneficiaries. Other Situations in Idaho Inheritance Law Idaho has a survivorship period. In order to inherit under Idahos intestate succession statutes, the heir in question must survive you by at least 120 hours. In addition, relatives conceived before you die but born after you die, known as posthumous relatives, are eligible to inherit as if they had been born while you were alive, as long as they are born within ten months of your death. This includes relatives conceived by artificial insemination. Immigration status is irrelevant when it comes to inheritance. If a relative of yours is entitled to a share of your assets, they can inherit no matter what their citizenship status is. Half-relatives inherit as much as whole relatives. For example, your half-sibling would get the same share as any other sibling. If you gave gifts or property to a relative during your lifetime, the value of those gifts are only subtracted from the relatives share if you wrote this down at the time you gave the gift, or the relative admits this in writing. If they are subtracted from the relatives share, they are known as advancements. Resources for Estate Planning Managing your own estate, or handling the intricacies of inheriting money from the estate of a loved one, can get complicated. Thats why many people choose to work with a professional. The SmartAsset financial advisor matching tool will pair you with as many as three nearby financial advisors equipped to handle your estate and inheritance planning needs. If youre ready to work with a financial advisor in your area, get started now. Photo credit: iStock.com/vkbhat, iStock.com/Joecho-16, iStock.com/AdamSilver, iStock.com/tristanbnz The post Idaho Inheritance Laws: What You Should Know appeared first on SmartAsset Blog. Stratford Place is a four-storey apartment building in Stratford that will contain 61 units 30 of which will be affordable units that will be leased to the PEI Housing Corporation who in turn will lease the units to people on their waitlist on a rent-geared-to-income basis. The remaining 31 units will be rented to the general population at market rates. Meanwhile, Montague Place is a three-storey apartment building in Montague that will contain 45 units, 30 of which will be affordable units that will be leased to the PEI Housing Corporation for people on their waitlist. The remaining units will be rented to the general population at market rates. Through the National Housing Strategy, more Canadian families will find safe, accessible and affordable homes in communities where their families can thrive and children learn and grow, said Ahmed Hussen, the minister responsible for CHMC. This investment is wonderful news for the Montague and Stratford families that will move into these new affordable rental housing units. Our government is committed to increasing the supply of rental units for Canadians through projects like the ones we are announcing today." We are excited to partner with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Province of Prince Edward Island and recognize their financial investments in these affordable housing projects for residents and future residents of Stratford and Three Rivers (Montague), said Tim Banks, president of Pan American Properties. These projects will help both communities grow and prosper. We believe these affordable housing projects will play an important contribution to the housing crisis we are facing on Prince Edward Island and we applaud community leaders in Stratford and Three Rivers (Montague) for their encouragement and support to help make these projects a reality. We live here and we're proud of what we build here. The historic U.S.-Taliban agreement aimed at ending the long war in Afghanistan is only a few days old, but the deal is already threatening to unravel over disputes about key issues. The United States and the Taliban signed a deal on February 29 that will trigger the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in exchange for security commitments from the extremist militant group. Part of the deal is the launch of direct negotiations between Afghans and the Taliban over a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing arrangement. But those intra-Afghan talks have been thrown into doubt because of disagreement over two key tenets of the deal. The Taliban has demanded that the Afghan government free 5,000 of its captured fighters, a claim rejected by Kabul. Meanwhile, the militants have refuted the governments claim that violence nationwide must remain low during intra-Afghan talks. 'Very Difficult Issue' The disputes have been fueled by the United States using different language in separate documents it agreed with the Taliban and the Afghan government. The text of the U.S.-Taliban agreement said Washington was committed to the release of "up to 5,000" Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government and "up to 1,000...prisoners of the other side will be released by March 10, when intra-Afghan meetings are slated to begin. But a joint U.S.-Afghan declaration signed on February 29 only said the Kabul government will take part in discussions on the "feasibility of releasing significant numbers of prisoners on both sides" and did not mention a specific number of prisoners to be released or a time frame. Kabul, which was not a signatory to the bilateral U.S.-Taliban deal, said it had not committed to a prisoner swap. President Ashraf Ghani said the prisoner swap could be included in the agenda of the intra-Afghan talks but cannot be a prerequisite for talks." But the Taliban said on March 2 that it would not take part in intra-Afghan talks before some 5,000 of its fighters were freed. Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said the issue had become a stumbling block instead of a confidence-building measure. "At this stage, political pressure is needed to resolve this issue with a formula that all sides can agree with," said Samad. "One option is to agree to a gradual and staggered release before and after intra-Afghan talks." A senior U.S. administration official on March 2 signaled that Washington expected a compromise from the Taliban and the Afghan government on the issue. "There are aspirational numbers and timelines in the agreement," said the unidentified official at a special briefing at the State Department. "This is a very difficult issue. Both parties have strongly held views and we are going to try and help broker a positive outcome." There is a lot of ambiguity [in the text of the U.S.-Taliban deal], even when it comes to very particular points, said Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group. This ambiguity can be a good thing; it allows for flexibility. There are fears that the release of thousands of Taliban fighters could deprive the Kabul government of a key amount of leverage and undercut the peace process by strengthening the Talibans position on the battlefield. There are an estimated 10,000 Taliban prisoners being held in Afghanistan. Prisoner releases can be leverage to secure other gains, but the Afghan governments leverage in talks will come from the support of the international community, the Afghan people, and their political leaders, said Watkins. There have been several high-profile prisoner swaps and releases of insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime. The most recent was in November, when two Western hostages were released from Taliban custody in exchange for three senior Taliban prisoners, including Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction. Reduction In Violence The Afghan government and the Taliban are also locked in a dispute about allowable levels of violence and attacks during intra-Afghan talks, which are expected to be complex and protracted. The Taliban ordered its fighters on March 2 to resume operations against Afghan forces as the militants said the weeklong partial truce between the Taliban, U.S., and Afghan forces that preceded the February 29 agreement was "over." The Taliban has since carried out deadly attacks across Afghanistan, including an attack on an Afghan military base in Logar Province on March 3 that killed at least five soldiers. Ghani said on March 1 that the reduction in violence would be extended and eventually transformed into a cease-fire. He said if the Taliban backs away from an extended reduction of violence, it would be openly violating the condition set for them. The text of the U.S.-Taliban deal made no mention of a Taliban commitment to reduce violence during intra-Afghan talks. But U.S. General Scott Miller, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said on March 2 that the United States expected that violence must remain low during negotiations among the Afghan parties. Samad said that with the weeklong reduction of violence period over, the rules and procedures were not clear and were open to interpretation. Reduction of violence has to be treated as a confidence-building measure, but, in negotiations, it's also used as leverage tied to give-and-take, he said. At this stage, with other stumbling blocks and possible concession-seeking tactics being used by Ghani, the Taliban will most likely use the reduction of violence as a pressure point. Ghani sent a government delegation to Qatar to open what the government said were initial contacts with the militants, with experts saying that this could open communication lines between the warring sides over the levels of violence and what each side expected if the deal was to hold. But the Taliban said on March 3 that it would not meet Kabul's representatives in Qatar except to discuss the release of their prisoners. I suspect that there will be some sort of middle ground, where the Taliban attempt to demonstrate to their own fighters as well as the Afghan government that it will continue to fight for an Islamic system by resuming some combat operations but also keeping them confined or reduced in certain ways, Watkins said. Tensions are running high in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been under total lockdown since the coronavirus epidemic emerged there more than a month ago, with local residents complaining of food shortages and rising prices. While health officials reported 38 new deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, there was a fall in newly confirmed cases for the third day running in mainland China. A total of 2,981 have died in mainland China, with more than 80,200 people infected in total, the National Health Commission said, citing 115 new cases in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, and only four elsewhere in the country. In a video that went viral on social media on Tuesday, urban management officials, or chengguan, were seen beating up a man later identified as the employee of a supermarket in Wuhan's Jianghan district. The officers, who are tasked with maintaining a pleasant and litter-free urban environment, but who have a reputation for brutality against some of China's most vulnerable people, beat Li Feng after he set baskets of newly delivered vegetables outside the door to save space. "It's not easy for local residents to buy groceries," Li told local media. "Our store has limited floor space, and there is also very high demand." "We had placed several baskets of vegetables at the door ... but they said we weren't allowed to put it outside because it spoiled the appearance of the neighborhood," Li said. Li was surrounded by around 10 people and beaten after the chengguan called for backup, he said, adding that he had put his hand out to try to stop one of them from taking a photo of him. Public anger at beating The social media reaction to the video was largely angry, with some comments accusing the chengguan of abuse of power, and others suggesting they may have been trying to take the vegetables for their own use or profit. "It was a very brutal attack by law enforcement, and hard to watch," Bruce Lui, a journalism professor at Hong Kong's Baptist University, told RFA. "This kind of violence will only be exacerbated given the kinds of pressures that people in Wuhan are under right now." "People can't speak out because of tight security, but I'm guessing there'll be a very strong backlash [against the ruling Chinese Communist Party] in future," Lui said. "Official cover-ups meant that the epidemic was allowed to spread ... there is no cure, and many people are just waiting to die." "A lot of this is down to official inaction, and people will figure out the reason," he said. Wuhan last month implemented a system of internal passes and permits which strictly limit how far people living in gated residential communities can travel to shop. Residents resorted to online deliveries and group-buying programs, but some have complained that group-buying is an even more expensive way to shop than going to the local store. Hong Kong residents flown home Meanwhile, authorities in Hong Kong on Wednesday chartered two planes to bring home more than 200 of the city's residents who had been stranded in Hubei and Wuhan. The city's mainland affairs secretary Patrick Nip said 244 Hongkongers arrived back in their home city on two chartered flights on Wednesday, although three were denied permission to board because they were running a fever. He said 200 passengers were evacuated from Wuhan, while the other 44 had been in other locations in Hubei. They included pregnant women, students with exams coming up, and people with urgent medical needs. Two more flights are scheduled to bring home more Hongkongers on Thursday, as an estimated 3,800 Hong Kong residents remain in 37 towns and cities across Hubei, Nip said. "We're back in Hong Kong!" exclaimed one passenger as the Cathay Pacific plane docked at Hong Kong's International Airport. A passenger surnamed Yip said she was enormously relieved to be back after being stuck in Wuhan for more than 40 days. "I arrived in Wuhan on Jan. 17, so I'm pretty happy to be back," Yip said. Hong Kong's Hospital Authority said it would convert some general wards in government hospitals into isolation rooms, freeing up to 500 additional beds for coronavirus patients. But it said that only around 30 percent of its 1,200 isolation beds are currently occupied. Many residents have been wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping social distance for weeks. According to Ho Pak Leung, clinical associate professor at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong medical school, there has been a dramatic fall in all forms of respiratory infections in the city during February, which he attributed to the wearing of masks in public places. Some 99 percent of Hongkongers are believed to have worn masks outside last month in spite of government claims that it was unnecessary to do so. Reported by Gao Feng, Man Hoi-tsan, Tseng Yat-yiu, Lu Xi and Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. By Indranil Sarkar and Sachin Ravikumar (Reuters) - British recruiting firm Robert Walters warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus outbreak could hurt profits in 2020, while also reporting a fall in pre-tax earnings for 2019. The small-cap firm's shares, which eked out a 1% gain last year as recruiters struggled with a hiring slowdown, were down 4.5% on Tuesday by 1045 GMT. The coronavirus, which has spread quickly to dozens of countries after originating in China late last year, has disrupted global business supply chains and forced many companies to put off recruitment plans. Robert Walters, which operates in over 30 countries, said the outbreak was making the global recruitment market unpredictable. "The virus has slowed things down, particularly in certain countries, obviously China being one," Robert Walters, chief executive of the eponymous company, said in a telephone interview. "Prior to the coronavirus, we were quite optimistic. Because the coronavirus (situation) is going to change day-to-day, we are just obviously more cautious." For 2019, Robert Walters reported a 3.5% year-over-year fall in pre-tax profit to 47.4 million pounds ($60.6 million). Brexit, the Sino-U.S. trade war and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong caused much political and economic uncertainty, hitting confidence among businesses and resulting in a recruitment slowdown for much of 2019. Although Robert Walters' overall net fee income rose 3% in 2019, it was well below the previous year's 14% growth as Brexit- and British election-related uncertainty led to a 9% drop in net fee income within Britain. The company's British business was doing "reasonably" well since the election in December, Walters said. "I won't say it is fantastic, because there is still some uncertainty around the negotiations about Brexit," he added. Rival recruiters Hays and PageGroup also had a challenging 2019, with weakness in hiring seen in markets including China, Britain, France and Germany. Story continues The group's overall headcount fell 3% to 4,027 in 2019, with most cuts focused in its recruitment process outsourcing business. It also announced a 3% increase to its final dividend to 11 pence per share. (Reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Sachin Ravikumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr, Vinay Dwivedi and Andrew Cawthorne) The World Health Organisation (WHO) has accused suppliers of medical equipment including face masks and gloves of raising prices in response to the healthcare emergency posed by the Covid-19 coronavirus. More than 90,000 people have been infected by the disease since its emergence in Wuhan, China in December 2019, with 3110 deaths reported globally. However officials in the UNs global health wing have accused suppliers of price gouging when it comes to protective gear amid global shortages. Prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, N95 respirators have more than tripled, and gowns cost twice as much, the WHOs chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Supplies can take months to deliver, market manipulation is widespread, and stocks are often sold to the highest bidder. The body estimates 89 million masks will be required every month to respond to the epidemic, as well as 76 million examination gloves, and 1.6 million pairs of goggles. The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Show all 11 1 /11 The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Visitors with suspected symptoms of the new coronavirus, inside of a car, bottom right, get virus test by members of medical team as others queue in their cars at a "drive-through" test facility at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Workers move equipment into containers set up as a makeshift medical facility to accommodate COVID-19 patients at a hospital's grounds in Daegu, South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea People wait in line to buy face masks in front of a store at Dongseongro shopping district in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical workers wearing protective gears comfort each other outside a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on 28 February 2020 REUTERS The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical staff in protective gears arrive for a duty shift at Dongsan Hospital in Daegu South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A man wears a mask and goggles as he waits in line to buy face masks from a post office near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea South Korean medical workers wearing protective gear visit a residence of people with suspected symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus to take samples, near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean army vehicle sprays disinfectant on a road to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea on Thursday 27 February 2020. AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Troops set up makeshift partitions and beds at the Armed Forces Hospital in Daegu South Korea 28 February 2020 EPA To meet demand, the global production of protective equipment will need to be increased by 40 per cent. Mr Tedros added: We are concerned that countries abilities to respond are being compromised by the severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment caused by rising demand, hoarding and misuse. Shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers. It comes as governments have increasingly been forced to step in to ensure healthcare professionals are adequately equipped to tackle the virus as the spread of Covid-19 teeters on the precipice of becoming a global pandemic. Recommended New York to sanitise trains every three days to combat coronavirus In France the government has begun to requisition all current and future stocks of protective masks to ensure they are distributed to infected patients and healthcare workers after widespread hoarding. Meanwhile China has increased face mask production by 12 times following mass shortages and counterfeiting across the country at the height of the virus spread. The nation manufactures much of the worlds supplies of the breathing devices, averagely producing 20 million per day however state news outlet Xinhua news reported on Monday production had increased to 116 million on a daily basis. Incidents of building collapse claimed 106 lives in Mumbai during 2015 to 2019, the Maharashtra Legislative Council was informed on Wednesday. The information was given by Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde in a written reply to a question by Congress's Husnabanu Khalife. "There were 1,472 incidents of building collapse (in Mumbai city and suburbs) during 2015 to 2019 in which 106 people lost their lives while another 344 were injured," said the reply. One of the major incidents of building collapse was the crashing of Siddhi Sai building in suburban Ghatkopar in July 2017 in which 17 residents were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Read the full article on Motorious The Florida sun is the perfect setting for this stunning convertibles to cross the auction block. Barrett-Jackson is heading to the Sunshine State with a docket of unique and desirable convertibles during the 18th Annual Palm Beach Auction April 16-14, 2020, at the South Florida Fairgrounds. Among some of the noteworthy drop-tops crossing the block in the Orange State is a stunning Larkspur Harbor Blue 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible. The nut-and-bolt restored Bel Air is powered by a 283ci Power Pack V8 engine with a 4-barrel carburetor and dual exhaust. If youre behind the wheel, or just along for the ride, convertibles connect us with the road in a very intimate way, said Craig Jackson, chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson. Whether you call it a convertible, volante or roadster, these drop-top vehicles are coveted among collectors for their design, style and driving experience. We couldnt be more excited about our Palm Beach Auction docket, which will include some of the most coveted classic, late-model and exotic convertibles all selling at No Reserve. Convertibles crossing the block in April include a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible Resto-Mod built by Jeff Hayes Customs. This metallic silver Corvette rides on an Art Morrison chassis, is equipped with Vintage Air and has a powerful a 540-horsepower LS3 Hot Cam V8 engine. A matching-numbers, rotisserie-restored 1953 Buick Skylark finished in red with a white power convertible top is highly optioned and is powered by a 322ci V8 engine. Joining the Buick is a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger convertible powered by an upgraded pro-built 302ci V8 engine and authenticated by the Sunbeam Tiger Owners Association. Finished in Carnival Red, it comes equipped with an upgraded Connolly leather interior and British Wilton carpet. Were incredibly proud of the measures we take to build dockets that resonate with our buyers, said Steve Davis , president of Barrett-Jackson. Florida is a known for its beautiful beaches, endless days of sunshine and tropical climate that make it the perfect for drop-top driving. This years Palm Beach docket is going to deliver some of the finest convertibles, giving our bidders the chance to chase the sunshine in the convertible of their dreams. Story continues Select roadsters selling at the Palm Beach Auction include a fully restored 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190SL. Powered by a 1.9-liter inline-4 engine mated to a 4-speed manual transmission, this classic 190SL is finished in white over a red leather interior and features whitewall tires. Another unique roadster is a one-owner 2012 Morgan 3-Wheeler with a 1910cc S&S V-twin engine. This unique aluminum-bodied roadster features the factory Bright Package, consisting of polished chrome surfaces on the exhaust system, roll hoops, cowl, engine and headlights. A special roadster crossing the block in Palm Beach is the first of 100 production 2020 Shelby 289 Cobra Cinema Series. This 1963 Ken Miles edition Slabside Cobra CSX8198 replicates one of the cars used in the epic film Ford v Ferrari and is based on the initial street Cobras converted for racing. This model will include a Carroll Shelby engraved wrench and a spare cracked race windshield (as seen in the movie). The Cobra has a stroked 331ci Shelby 289 engine producing 450 horsepower sending power to the rear wheels via a 5-speed TREMEC manual transmission. Other convertibles crossing the auction block in Palm Beach include: 2014 Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake Convertible Powered by a 750-horsepower 5.8-liter V8 engine with a 6-speed manual transmission, this widebody convertible has 12,432 actual miles. 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Custom Convertible Professional nut-and-bolt rotisserie restoration powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 LSA engine and 6-speed manual transmission. 1965 Amphicar 770 convertible - Completely restored, powered by a 4-cylinder 80-horsepower engine with a 4-speed manual transmission. Features a new top and interior. 1941 Packard 110 Custom Convertible Features a chopped, channeled and sectioned steel body. Powered by 502ci Ram Jet V8 engine mated to a 700 R4 automatic transmission. Beginning with this years Palm Beach Auction, enthusiasts can catch the live auction broadcast on FYI and HISTORY. To catch all the cars all the time, Barrett-Jackson auctions can also be streamed online at www.Barrett-Jackson.com . Source: Barrett-Jackson Sign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. ANN ARBOR, MI A former University of Michigan wrestler has filed the first lawsuit against UM alleging sexual abuse at the hands of late athletic doctor Robert Anderson. Livonia attorney Mike Cox said Wednesday he has filed the first of 11 planned federal lawsuits against UM and expects to file the rest through Wednesday evening. My 20 or so clients, who are all Michigan men and bleed maize and blue, found out two weeks ago that weird acts by Dr. Anderson were in fact motivated by his deviant sexual desires, No. 1, Cox said. No. 2, that the University of Michigan foisted this sexual predator. Former NHL, UM football athletes among victims of late doctor Robert Anderson, lawyer says A majority of the former students he is representing attend UM under athletic scholarships and were forced to see Anderson and endure the exact same assaults that the young ladies in the (Larry) Nassar case endured. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the plaintiff, who remains anonymous, received a wrestling scholarship in 1984 to attend UM. When seeking medical care, Anderson sexually assaulted, abused and molested plaintiff by nonconsensual digital anal penetration and excessive genital fondling and manipulation under the guise of medical treatment. Lawyers of Larry Nassar victims hired in University of Michigan doctor sexual misconduct case The plaintiff filed the suit anonymously because of the extremely sensitive nature of the case, Cox said. The lawsuit alleges Anderson abused the wrestler on at least 35 occasions, "or 70 total acts of nonconsensual anal penetration and genital fondling, between 1984 and 1989. The wrestler was between the ages of 17 and 22 at the time, according to the lawsuit. Anderson worked at UM from 1968 to 2003 and is now being investigated after a 2018 letter from former wrestler Tad Deluca detailed sexual abuse in the 1970s, which included unwarranted hernia and prostate checks during medical exams. Three former UM wrestlers speak out on sexual abuse allegations against late doctor Other students and athletes endured similar abuse, which included instances described as fondling, and Anderson exposing himself during examinations, according to an extensive police report compiled by UM police. The Washtenaw County Prosecutors office declined to issue any charges in the case, noting that Anderson died in 2008. UM announced a hotline for victims to report any abuse on Feb. 19 and has received more than 100 calls as of Feb. 28. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees and corrective actions by the university to ensure something like this never happens again, Cox said. Multiple UM staffers heard rumors of abusive doctor, including one who thought he fired him UM President Mark Schlissel last month apologized on behalf of the university to those who were harmed by Anderson and created a hotline for victims to report their abuse. The university is also offering free counseling to those affected by Anderson or Provost Martin Philbert, who is on administrative leave amid an investigation into separate claims of sexual misconduct. The university encourages anyone who may have been affected by Anderson to call the hotline at 866-990-0111 or the Steptoe & Johnson law firm at 202-419-5162 or UofM@steptoe.com. The Steptoe & Johnson law firm was retained not to defend the university, but to conduct an independent, external investigation, UM spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said. We recognize the enormous strength and courage it takes for survivors to come forward and share their stories, said UM spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen after the lawsuit was filed Wednesday. The university continues to encourage those who have been harmed by Robert E. Anderson or who have evidence of his misconduct, to come forward. Its important that the University of Michigan hear your voices." MORE UM NEWS: Late UM doctor needlessly probed patients, was known as Dr. Drop Your Drawers,' former students say Former NHL, UM football athletes among victims of late doctor Robert Anderson, lawyer says More than 100 complaints now logged against former University of Michigan doctor Robert Anderson The 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Van is now available at Mercedes-Benz Arrowhead Sprinter Mercedes-Benz Arrowhead Sprinter, a Mercedes-Benz dealership that sells cargo, passenger and crew vans, is promoting its inventory of 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Vans. The dealership, located in the Phoenix area, invites businesses to consider the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Van for their companies. Customers who are interested in purchasing a work van like the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Van, are encouraged to learn more on the dealerships website, arrowheadmbsprinter.com. Hovering over New at the top of the website will trigger a drop-down menu with several tools for van research. Customers can learn more about Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Metris vans with research or comparison pages. In order to learn about the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Van, customers are directed to select Metris Model Research from the drop-down menu and to select 2020 Metris from the first list of research pages. This page will tell customers about the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris cargo, crew and passenger vans, helping them to get an idea of which van would best suit their business. More information on the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris Cargo Van can be found on the dealerships blog, which can be accessed by hovering over Contact Us at the top of the site and selecting Our Blog from the drop-down menu. Other online features include the online inventory, which shows customers which vans are currently available, along with prices and other general information. Customers may also contact the dealerships sales team with any questions or concerns. She's gearing up to be the next Cinderella, and partied in style to ring in her 23rd trip around the sun. But Camila Cabello took some time on her birthday on Tuesday to think about those a lot less fortunate than her namely, the youth of Syria. The Havana songstress posted a heartfelt message to her Instagram for the occasion, alongside a reflective selfie, in which she called upon her fans to help displaced families affected by the ongoing war in Syria and specifically in the city of Idlib. Heartfelt: Camila Cabello took some time on her birthday on Tuesday to think about those a lot less fortunate than her namely, the youth of Syria 'ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!! guys thank u for all of the birthday love, I absolutely love you guys and am so thankful for you,' she wrote alongside a sweet selfie in which she's dressed in a purple ribbed turtleneck, her trademark brunette tresses cascading down over her shoulders. 'for my birthday I wanna bring attention to one of the worst humanitarian crises happening in the world right now, in Syria,' she continued. '950,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the violence in Idlib some with only the clothes on their backs. Most of them are children. Now, theyre living in displacement camps in freezing cold temperatures. families shouldnt have to choose between dying from bombs or freezing cold temperatures', Cabello added, before making a call to action. Responsible partying: The songstress took time out of her celebrating to make a call to action to her fans regarding the situation in Syria 'Save the Children is working to provide displaced families with food, blankets and warmth. They are trying to keep kids families safe, but they need our help. so for my birthday, it would mean the world to me if you would consider supporting Save the Childrens response to this humanitarian crisis. Go to savethechildren.org to help Save the Children reach children in need. I love u ,' the Cuban-born songbird concluded. She also uploaded a similar message to her Instagram Story, after various video snippets showing her partying with friends and family for her big day. One video revealed a cake in the style of the pumpkin carriage from Cinderella, which is a nod to the musical movie she's currently filming in England. Pumpkin carriage: She uploaded various video snippets to her Instagram Story, showing her partying with friends and family for her big day, with one video revealing a cake in the style of the pumpkin carriage from Cinderella Cutting the rug: It was a nod to the musical movie she's currently filming in England Another clip showed a very different birthday prop: a giant ice sculpture in the form of a towering stiletto heel. Late last month, Camila also retweeted an alert from Save The Children, which is endeavoring to get the message out about the humanitarian crisis in Syria due to ongoing civil war and conflicts there. According to Save The Children's website, the crisis in Idlib has reached 'a new level of horror' as 10 schools have been hit in a ruthless attack, causing mass displacement and '900,000 vulnerable people in northwest Syria facing a brutally cold winter. Children are dying every day from freezing temperatures.' Opulence: Another clip showed a very different birthday prop a giant ice sculpture in the form of a towering stiletto heel During the last week of February, House and Senate Republicans joined members of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association for a news conference to denounce Gov. J.B. Pritzker's decision to end cooperation and communication with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The governor's policy shift now allows for the release of non-citizen, violent offenders back into our communities without any notice to law enforcement. Throughout 2019, several county sheriff's offices across the state of Illinois worked in cooperation with the Illinois Department of Corrections to coordinate the detainment and transfer of these criminals into the custody of ICE. With zero notice or explanation to the public or to law enforcement officials, Gov. Pritzker's administration has ended the policy of cooperating with ICE on following through with deportation orders. Let us be clear: The criminals that are being released are not all small-time purse snatchers. In 2019, 223 individuals were transferred from IDOC custody to federal immigration authorities. Of those 223, 36 were found guilty of sexual offenses against minors, including crimes against individuals as young as 5 years old; 11 were found guilty of murder, attempted murder or intent to kill or injure; and 33 were found guilty of a criminal offense involving a weapon. Southern Illinois is home to several state-run correctional facilities that house convicted criminals that also happen to have a deportation order waiting for them upon their release. These include Shawnee, Big Muddy, Pinckneyville, Menard, and Vienna correctional centers. Instead of working with local law enforcement and the proper authorities of the federal government to deport violent criminals, Gov. Pritzker has decided to release dangerous felons into our communities despite requests from federal immigration authorities to hold them. This decision endangers public safety. We join the Illinois Sheriffs' Association in denouncing this reckless change in policy and demand it be reversed. Furthermore, the governor has placed a high priority on reforming Illinois criminal justice system. He has willing partners on the Democrat side of the aisle that now want an end to cash bail for inmates awaiting court dates. The governors own Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton even appeared before a joint committee of the House and Senates Judiciary Criminal Law Committee earlier in February in Chicago to endorse the end of cash bail. We feel ending cash-bail would be a mistake, and fear the consequences of any such move will result in offenders re-offending. The criminal justice system is not perfect, but the governors most recent policy changes and proposals to make even further changes are not going to make any of our communities safer. We call on Gov. Pritzker to end his policy to release non-citizen, convicted felons facing deportation into Illinois communities without notifying the proper authorities. This is a critical issue of enforcing law and order and protecting public safety in Illinois. Terri Bryant, Dave Severin and Patrick Windhorst are Republican House representatives in Southern Illinois. Bryant represents Illinois' 115th District, Severin the 117th and Windhorst the 118th. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Following the outbreak of the coronavirus in Japan, a woman wearing a protective mask is seen at the scramble crossing in Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo on March 3, 2020. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters) Japans Takeda Starts Work on Coronavirus Drug Japanese drugmaker Takeda said its started work on a drug that could treat people infected with the new coronavirus. The experimental therapy will be derived from the blood of people who became infected with the new virus but have recovered from the disease. As a company dedicated to the health and well-being of people around the world, we will do all that we can to address the novel coronavirus threat, Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takedas Vaccine Business Unit, said in a statement. We have identified relevant assets and capabilities across the company and are hopeful that we can expand the treatment options for patients with COVID-19 and the providers caring for them. Takeda is in discussions with national health and regulatory agencies and health care partners in the United States, Asia, and Europe to fast-track research into its potential treatment for the new virus, labeled as TAK-888. A key aspect of creating the treatment will be accessing plasma from people who recovered from COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, or from people who have been vaccinated once a vaccine is developed. A doctor treats a patient infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan in Chinas central Hubei province, on Feb. 24, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) These convalescent donors have developed antibodies to the virus that could potentially mitigate severity of illness in COVID-19 patients and possibly prevent it, the company said in a press release. The antibodies might help a new patients immune system respond to to the virus. The company plans to initially produce the treatment in a segregated area in its manufacturing facility in Georgia. A number of drugmakers are working on vaccines or treatments for the virus, including Sanofi, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Pharmaceutical executives said at the White House in Washington this week that treatments could be available in months, once testing is complete, if tests are successful. Vaccines are further out, experts and executives said. None will hit the market for at least a year, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top official at the National Institutes of Health, said. (Natural News) Dr. Hugo Lopez-Gatell, one of Mexicos undersecretaries for health, announced on Friday that Americas southern neighbor has two confirmed cases of COVID-19. Lopez-Gatell, speaking on behalf of the Mexican government, stated that one of the patients is currently in Mexico City while the other is in an undisclosed location in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. The first case, a 35-year-old Italian man residing in Mexico City, showed a positive initial test result, which was then confirmed by a second test. The man is currently in isolation, and five of his family members who have been in contact with him have also been placed under quarantine and are under analysis. The second case, a 41-year-old man, who traveled with the first case to Italy, also showed a positive initial test result. However, the Mexican health department is still waiting on the results of a second test. Lopez-Gatell has stated that they are treating the case as basically confirmed. The patient is currently being kept in isolation at a hotel. According to Spanish news website Infobae, the two men probably contracted the disease during their visit to the city of Bergamo, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. Italy currently has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of Asia, with their government website reporting 888 confirmed cases, 21 deaths and 46 recoveries, as of writing. During the visit of the two men, they confirmed that they had been in direct contact with an Italian person who lived in Malaysia. The two men returned to Mexico sometime between February 14 and 22. President of Mexico dismissive of the seriousness of COVID-19 As the Mexican government urges the public to remain calm, their president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (referred to as AMLO) is downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak. He has been quoted as saying that it isnt even equivalent to flu, which has infected far more people and has a lower mortality rate than COVID-19. I repeat, according to the available information, it is not something terrible, fatal, said AMLO. There shouldnt be any yellow journalism, or exaggerations, to cause a mass psychosis of fear, of terror. (Related: Costco runs out of emergency food kits following coronavirus outbreak.) However, perhaps as a way to water down his own dismissal of the situation, he has also stated that the Mexican government is prepared to handle the coming crisis. We have the doctors, the specialists, the hospitals, the capacity to face this. In addition to the almost nightly news conferences that AMLO holds, his health ministry has also pledged to hold nightly press briefings to keep the Mexican public updated with the situation. Six other countries have reported their first case on the same day Along with Mexico, February 28 saw six other countries report on their first confirmed cases of COVID-19: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Iceland, Lithuania, Monaco and New Zealand. Russian news website Interfax stated that a Russian citizen who arrived in Azerbaijan from Iran is the countrys first COVID-19 case. The patient is currently stable and is confined in a hospital. In Belarus, an international student who recently came home from Iran has been confirmed to be the Eastern European countrys first case. The Belarussian Ministry of Healthcare reported their findings after a series of tests conducted the previous day. According to Icelands Directorate of Health, their first COVID-19 case is an Icelandic male in his forties who recently returned from a trip to Northern Italy, where he most likely caught the disease. He is currently confined in Landspitali, the countrys only university hospital. In a tweet, the Principality of Monacos Department of Health and Social Affairs confirmed that a Monegasque man currently confined in the Princess Grace Hospital Centre tested positive for COVID-19. To avoid panic, they have also stated that this shouldnt be a cause for concern for the city state smaller than New Yorks Central Park. [#Coronavirus] Les autorites sanitaires de la Principaute ont ete informees quune personne prise en charge dans la matinee et conduite au Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace etait positive au COVID 19.Son etat de sante ninspire pas dinquietude. pic.twitter.com/FAFqdDOdll Gouvernement Monaco (@GvtMonaco) February 28, 2020 In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that a New Zealander in their 60s who recently traveled to Iran tested positive for COVID-19. The persons condition is reportedly improving, however they are still being kept in isolation in Auckland Hospital in the countrys most populated city. Lastly, while they arent sovereign countries in their own right, Wales and Quebec, within the U.K. and Canada, respectively, have also confirmed their first cases of COVID-19. The Welsh patient had traveled to Italy, and efforts are being taken to identify and quarantine anybody who had come into close contact with him. The Quebecois patient, meanwhile, is a woman who recently returned from a trip to Iran. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly worldwide. To keep up with the latest news on the outbreak, visit Pandemic.news today. Sources include: APNews.com AlJazeera.com LATimes.com Infobae.com Salute.gov.IT Interfax.ru Reuters.com IcelandReview.com Twitter.com RNZ.co.nz BBC.com CBC.ca Update March 4, 2020 1:29 p.m.: The three victims have been identified but their names have not been released. The Oconee County coroner told The State newspaper the three are Texas businessmen. Update 6:34 p.m.: Authorities said they believe three people have been killed in the crash. They are still working on identifying the dead and notifying their families. Original story: Multiple people have been killed Tuesday when a plane bound for Alabama crashed near Athens, Georgia, according to authorities and the FAA. The plane, a Piper PA-46, crashed 10 miles southwest of Athens around 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, the FAA said. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane as it was flying over Oconee County in Georgia. The plane took off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina and was en route to Tuscaloosa National Airport when it crashed. The identities and number of victims was unclear. The Oconee County Sheriffs Office said multiple people died in the crash and that a news conference was scheduled. The Metropolitan Police has said today there is no need to investigate officers over Caroline Flack's death after the watchdog said there was no 'causal link' between their actions and the tragedy. Officers last had contact with the 40-year-old television presenter on December 13, 2019 when she was in custody following an alleged assault. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said there was 'no indication of a causal link - directly or indirectly - between the actions or omissions of the police and Caroline Flack's tragic death'. The Love Island host killed herself on February 15 just one day after she found out the Crown Prosecution Service was pursuing a court case against her. The Met made a mandatory referral to IOPC in the wake of her death, but has confirmed today that no formal investigation is needed in to officers' contact with late TV presenter. Caroline Flack pictured leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court in North London in December 2019 A statement from the Met Police today said: 'On Wednesday, 19 February the Metropolitan Police Service made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct following the death of Caroline Flack. 'The referral was made following a review by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) of all previous police contact with Ms Flack. 'This is standard practice when a member of the public dies or is seriously injured and has had recent contact with police. 'The IOPC, having independently assessed the circumstances, has informed the MPS and Ms Flack's family that an IOPC investigation is not required. 'The IOPC said it does not consider it reasonable or proportionate based on the evidence provided to suggest officer involvement caused or contributed to Ms Flack's death. 'The IOPC has referred the matter back to the MPS for the DPS to decide whether any further investigation or review into the circumstances is needed. 'The DPS has concluded that a formal investigation is not required. A comprehensive review of the circumstances surrounding all police contact with Ms Flack following her arrest and detention has already taken place as part of the referral process. The decision follows criticism over the CPS's handling of the case, including from Flack's boyfriend Lewis Burton (pictured together) who said he 'never supported' a prosecution 'No conduct has been identified on the part of any officer. In line with normal processes, if any new information should come to light it will be considered and action taken as appropriate.' Full Independent Office For Police Conduct statement Having considered a mandatory referral from the Metropolitan Police (MPS), we decided the matter did not require investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct because there was no indication of a causal link - directly or indirectly - between the actions or omissions of the police and Caroline Flack's tragic death. The referral outlined police contact prior to her death. MPS officers last had contact with Ms Flack on 13 December 2019, when she was in custody, nearly two months before her death. While in custody on 13 December, officers arranged for her to see a health care professional and relevant policy and procedure was followed to give her further guidance. On this basis, we have returned this referral to the MPS' Department for Professional Standards for them to deal with the matter in whatever manner they decide. Advertisement However there will now be 'a post-case review panel conducted by a deputy chief crown prosecutor' to determine whether it should have pursued the case, a freedom of information request has revealed. It follows criticism over the CPS's handling of the case, including from Flack's boyfriend Lewis Burton who said he 'never supported' a prosecution. A spokesman for the CPS told the Mirror: 'The review will look at the general CPS handling of the case and, obviously, the decisions behind charging is part of that.' In the days after her death Flack's management team described her as 'vulnerable' and criticised the CPS for pushing ahead with the case despite her boyfriend Lewis Burton saying he did not want to press charges. He had said she hit him with a lamp at her former home in Islington in December and as part of her bail conditions the pair were banned from contacting each other. But he later spoke out in defence of Flack, saying she has become the subject of a 'witch hunt' following her arrest. A member of Flack's management team said the CPS should 'look at themselves' and how they pursued a trial 'without merit' which resulted in 'significant distress to Caroline'. The saga surrounding her court case saw her 'step down' from hosting Love Island. The Love Island host (pictured) killed herself on February 15 just one day after she found out the Crown Prosecution Service was pursuing the court case against her Friends of the presenter, who was paid a 1.2million salary for Love Island, said she had been terrified of her impending court date. 'She was on her own. She couldn't take it anymore. Her family are devastated,' one friend told The Mirror. Another added: 'Caroline couldn't bear the thought of going through the court case. She felt her career would never recover from this - and she felt humiliated in front of the world. In the end she just couldn't see a way out. She didn't know how to fix herself.' Flack's friends were said to be furious that the CPS pursued the presenter's prosecution despite Burton making it clear he did not want the case to go to trial as there had been no serious injury. Her management criticised the CPS in a statement. Francis Ridley, of Money Talent Management, said: 'We are devastated at the loss of our client and friend Caroline Flack. 'The Crown Prosecution Service pursued this when they knew not only how very vulnerable Caroline was but also that the alleged victim did not support the prosecution and had disputed the CPS version of events. 'The CPS should look at themselves today and how they pursued a show trial that was not only without merit but not in the public interest. And ultimately resulted in significant distress to Caroline. Our thoughts are with Caroline's family at this time. 'An immensely talented young woman who was at the top of her game professionally and loved by television viewers across the country. In recent months Caroline had been under huge pressure because of an ongoing case and potential trial which has been well reported.' The CPS told MailOnline in a statement at the time: 'Our deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of Caroline Flack. Given the tragic circumstances, we will not comment on the specifics of this case at this stage.' For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and the Chairman of the Turkmengas State Concern Myrat Archaev will pay an official visit to Morocco, Trend reports via the State News Agency of Turkmenistan. According to the decree of the President of Turkmenistan, the visit will take place on March 4-6, 2020 to hold Turkmen-Moroccan inter-MFA consultations and discuss issues of developing cooperation between the two countries. During the visit, on behalf of the Turkmen president, the king of Morocco will be invited to take part in the festivities timed to the 25th anniversary of the country's neutrality. The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, earlier in a letter to the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed confidence that Turkmen-Moroccan relations will go on strengthening and developing on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation. The Turkmen foreign minister, previously noting the important role of cooperation with African countries, expressed his commitment to developing relations with the African Union, an international organization uniting 55 states of the continent. Lucknow, March 4 : The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is all set to celebrate three years in office on March 18. The state government is planning to hold a function on March 18 and efforts are on to ensure the presence of BJP president J.P. Nadda at the same. The function will also celebrate Yogi Adityanath as the longest serving BJP chief minister in Uttar Pradesh. The earlier BJP chief minister including Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh had tenures less than three years at a stretch. The state information department is busy publishing a book highlighting the work done by the Yogi Adityanath government after it came to power in March 2017. All legislators have been asked to submit their report card of the work done in their respective constituencies and this will be published in the book. Since most opposition legislators are in no mood to submit any such information, the book will mainly comprise the work done by the BJP legislators. "This book will be a Bible for our candidates in the 2022 assembly election campaign. It will carry a comprehensive account of various schemes implemented by the Yogi government and also the work done by the legislators," said a BJP functionary. The book will also enhance the chief minister's image as a tough administrator and his zero-tolerance policy against corruption. On the law and order front, the book will detail how high-profile criminal cases have been worked out and solved within days with the accused being jailed. After celebrating the completion of three years in office on March 18, chief minister Yogi Adityanath will embark on a tour of the various districts from March 19. He will visit the districts in a random manner to take stock of the impact of his schemes at ground zero. The BJP is also planning to unleash a publicity blitzkrieg on the social media to mark the occasion. The social media will witness a windfall of the good work done by the UP government and present the yogi regime as a model for good governance and development. Connecticut may be considering ending religious exemptions to vaccinations, but it appears Main voters beat the Nutmeg State to the punch. As of Wednesday afternoon, with almost 80 percent of polling places reporting, 73 percent of voters decided to prevent all unvaccinated children from attending public schools, regardless of religious beliefs, as the Portland Press Herald reported. This vote means that parents of vulnerable kids, parents of infants, and older adults dont have to fear anymore. This vote has brought back hope and has brought back sanity, Caitlin Gilmet, co-chair of Maine Families for Vaccines, to the Press Herald. Maine is one of only five states with a similar rule, including California, New York, Mississippi and West Virginia. Connecticut may be poised to be the sixth. The situation in Connecticut is very different. As thousands of protesters gathered at the Capitol last month, the General Assemblys public health committee narrowly voted to eliminate the religious exemption, mostly along party lines. All Republicans and two Democrats joined to oppose eliminating the exemption, in a 14-11 vote. The bill was also watered down to allow students already in school under the religious exemptions to remain there, and lawmakers said they will broaden the medical exemptions. The measure now awaits votes in the House and Senate, which might not happen amid opposition. Under the proposed bill, people would need to be immunized or placed on a modified immunization schedule prior to the first day of the 2020-21 school year. President Donald Trump walks up to speak to the media before departing from the White House in Washington, on Feb. 3, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Trump: Sanders Would Have Easily Won More States Without Warren in Race President Donald Trump, in continuing to defend Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that 2020 Democratic candidate could have won more states during the Super Tuesday contest if Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wasnt in the race. Warren and Sanders, who are both from northeastern states, are running on similar, progressive platforms. Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasnt in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states, the president wrote on Twitter Wednesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has styled himself as a moderate in the face of Sanderss progressivism, took those three states. Warren, he added, wont go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER! Trumps Wednesday comment about Warren has continued a trend of the president avoiding direct attacks on Sanders while claiming that the establishment wing of the Democratic party is attempting to rig the election against Sanders, who has a significant grassroots following. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is joined by his family on stage during a rally in Essex Junction, Vermont at the Champlain Valley Expo on March 3, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) After the Super Tuesday results came in, Warren announced that her campaign would reassess their strategy going forward. The senator hasnt won a single state, including her home state of Massachusetts, but picked up 42 delegates on Tuesday. So far, Biden has acquired the most delegates in the race so far, coming after former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) dropped out of the race before the Super Tuesday contests. Buttigieg and Klobuchar both endorsed Biden, while the former vice president also picked up an endorsement from former Democratic 2020 candidate Beto ORourke when he spoke during a Biden campaign rally in Texas. Biden is projected to win nine states, including Texas, while Sanders is poised to win four, including California. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) The ex-vice presidents strong performance on Tuesday also prompted billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has spent the most on advertising, to drop out of the race after just over three months. Bloomberg only picked up a handful of delegates and won no states. The four remaining candidates are Warren, Sanders, Biden, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Gabbard hasnt won any state and has won just a single delegate. By Laman Ismayilova Azerbaijan State Academic Musical Theater intends to cooperate with volunteers. The initiative was approved at the meeting held between the theater's director Aligismet Lalayev and volunteers. The newly created structure will be led by a young pianist Aluda Shakarova, who has extensive experience as a coordinator for working with volunteers in many significant international events held in the country. A number of trainings will be organized for volunteers within three months. Volunteers will be involved inthe theater's activities, taking part in theater's promotion campaigns, stage design, preparation of performances and much more. At the end of the theatrical season, program participants will be handed internship certificates. Azerbaijan takes necessary steps in order to promote volunteer movement. Azerbaijani volunteers successfully participated in holding such large-scale international events as the Eurovision Song Contest, First European Games, Formula-1, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, etc. The year 2020 is declared as the Volunteer Year in Azerbaijan. The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan Republic was charged with preparation and submission to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev within one month of the plan of activities related to this announcement. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz New Jerseys attorney general concluded that State Police acted appropriately when they forcibly removed an activist from a high-profile state Senate hearing late last year. Sue Altman, head of New Jersey Working Families, was dragged out of the Statehouse by troopers in November, before South Jersey powerbroker George E. Norcross III testified about the states controversial multi-billion-dollar tax break program. Altman has criticized how Norcross has benefited from tax breaks. There is no credible evidence to indicate that the State Troopers involved in the removal were motivated by political considerations, Gurbir Grewal wrote Tuesday to the commission that oversees the Statehouse. Troopers who removed Ms. Altman did so because they believed that she was being disruptive during the hearing and refusing to respond to the instructions of law enforcement," he said. The letter was first reported by Politico. However, Grewal added that the capitol lacks clear, well-defined rules about what actions constitute disorderly or disruptive conduct." He recommended that State Police meet with the State Capitol Joint Management Commission to clarify what was allowed. In a statement, acting Gov. Sheila Oliver said she welcomed the suggestions. As a former Speaker of the State Assembly, I know how crucial it is for the public to be able to participate in our legislative process, she said. "We expect the State Capitol Joint Management Commission ... to establish a process for members of the public to share their experiences and concerns so that we can strengthen public confidence in our democratic process. Grewal also asked the Mercer County Prosecutors Office to dismiss the disorderly conduct charge against Altman, despite having serious concerns with Altmans initial refusal to leave. Altman said she had no ill will toward the officers. I have never really been overly concerned about the particular troopers, Altman wrote in an email. Im much more interested in the overarching problems with that hearing, specifically how members of the public were shut out. Altman and others who attended have said that some Norcross critics appeared to be arbitrarily kept out. Details about who was allowed in remain in dispute, the letter said, although it acknowledged that groups have voiced similar concerns during other events. Norcross has denied that he had anything to do with Altmans removal. At least two investigations were launched after the incident, and Grewals letter represents a portion of the findings. Grewal previously said he would fight lawmakers who wanted to see the full review, to protect the integrity of internal investigations. A representative for state Senate Democrats did not immediately respond to a question about whether lawmakers would be placated by this summary. State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Corral the products you use the most. Cavin-Winfrey likes to use a small tray or platter that can hold dish soap, a sponge and a brush. You often already have something like this in your kitchen, she says, and its nice if its ceramic so you can pop it into your dishwasher. If you want to go a little fancier, West Elm offers several small trays in marble, such as the Foundations Tray ($29-$49) or Marble Vanity Tray ($34). She likes to have a small dish near the sink for rings and watches; a simple dip or sauce bowl in olivewood, brass or blue-and-white china are nice choices, she says. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid heightened concerns about traveling due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the leading online Jewish dating site JWed is developing an innovative initiative to facilitate virtual dates for marriage-minded singles across the globe. JWed CEO Ben Rabizadehwho holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from Rutgers Universityhas closely monitored the spread of the Coronavirus since mid-January. Rabizadeh acknowledges the possibility of the virus inducing a new, temporary stay-at-home lifestyle, and the impact it may have on dating. "JWed is doing everything we can to mitigate the toll the virus may have on the dating lives of Jewish singles. By providing the option to date from home, JWed can continue to help singles find their soulmates during these challenging times," Rabizadeh said. JWed's virtual dating initiative will offer a suite of features including a video chat and a date scheduler to simulate in-person dates with JWed users anywhere in the world. "We envision a virtual dating experience that mirrors the authenticity of a night out in Central Parkdaters will still dress up, have stimulating conversations, and engage in the same witty banter that they'd expect on an in-person date. The only difference will be the screen between them," Rabizadeh said. JWed connects like-minded Jewish singles from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds of varying ages and interests. The site employs a "location graph" that allows users to specify where they grew up, want to live, and their future vacation plans. This feature enables members to appear in multiple location searches, facilitating more possible matches. JWed is working around the clock to launch the virtual dating initiative as soon as possible. In the highly unlikely event that city-wide quarantines are enforced, JWed will ease its users' minds by offering those unable to leave their home a partial rebate for the service. About JWed: JWed is the #1 online dating service for authentically Jewish singles seeking committed relationships. Our innovative and proprietary filters ensure a comfortable environment for singles of all backgrounds including from Reform and Unaffiliated to Conservative, Orthodox, or Hassidic communities. JWed is a family-owned company, with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, run by Jews for Jews. We've brought thousands of Jewish singles together in marriage since 2001. For more information, please visit https://www.jwed.com/ SOURCE JWed Related Links http://www.jwed.com Leading HR Tech Solutions Provider Taking Necessary Precautions Against Coronavirus for March 23 Event The fourth edition of the FuelX Career Experience Conference is being held in London later this month on March 23. FuelX by Fuel50, the award-winning career experience platform, is an intimate, small-scale event celebrating best-in-class career experiences and employee journeys at leading organizations around the world. Watch and listen to industry-leading analyst, Josh Bersin, as he delivers the current state of HR and "world of work" alongside those working to create truly agile workforces in their organization the agenda features Allied Irish Bank (AIB), Travelodge, Blue Prism, Symphony RetailAI, Ericsson and Josh Bersin. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005829/en/ Fuel50, Leading HR Tech Solutions Provide, Prepares for FuelX Career Experience Conference in London on March 23 (Graphic: Business Wire) Fuel50 is aware of the potential impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and is taking all necessary precautions and measures to protect attendees at its signature event, FuelX. A representative of Fuel50 stated, "We have minimized the international factor to only one overseas speaker Josh Bersin, whom we are in regular contact with," whilst also disclosing that the attendees are local, coming entirely from the United Kingdom with three people from New Zealand via Los Angeles, one of the least affected countries to date, and one from Sweden, also similarly unaffected. Fuel50 will be sending out communications to all those attending, ensuring that a 'anti-handshake' environment is encouraged and, should anyone not feel they are at full health, to then stay home and self-isolate as recommended by local health authorities. "FuelX will be livestreamed on our website for all those who have registered," said Fuel50's CEO and Founder Anne Fulton. "We will be doing everything possible to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our guests and speakers, and will be monitoring the coronavirus status in the United Kingdom and surrounding areas should we feel it necessary to change plans." Hand sanitizer, tissues and other hygiene support will be supplied at the event. To all those planning to attend, please monitor any official event communications by email, social media or Fuel50's official website. Registration is still open for FuelX London. For more information and to sign up, visit https://fuel50.com/fuelx/london or email events@fuel50.com. About Fuel50: Fuel50 is an award-winning career experience platform that mobilizes talent, delivers career path transparency and evolves an organization's workforce for the future. Featuring AI-driven talent and skills forecasting from the world's fastest-growing talent experience platform, Fuel50 is the future of work. For more information, please visit www.fuel50.com and join the conversation on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005829/en/ Contacts: Alvin Arquisola alvin@venturepr.co (310) 968-8677 Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions. The government will order employers to pay three more days of sick pay for staff self-isolating over the coronavirus, amid concerns some workers are choosing between health and hardship. Prime minister Boris Johnson announced emergency legislation will see employees receiving sick pay from day one rather than after three days as under current law. He said people who self-isolate are helping all of us by slowing the spread of the virus, but could lose out financially from going without pay for several days. Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing, he said during prime ministers questions (PMQs) on Wednesday. Josh Hardie, depuy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), called it an important first step in employers response to the outbreak. Read more: UK government says one in five could be off work over coronavirus But some argue the reforms do not go far enough, and Johnson said the measures were only on a temporary basis. This extra support will not help the UKs five million self-employed workers who arent entitled to statutory sick pay, along with around two million low-paid employees who dont earn enough to qualify, said Laura Gardiner, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation. No changes have yet been announced to support such workers, despite growing pressure and the prime minister saying all options were under review. With the government warning one in five workers could be absent if the outbreak escalates, there are concerns self-isolation or work-from-home rules could still leave many worse-off. Frances OGrady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), wrote to ministers this week and launched a petition, calling not only for day-one sick pay but also coverage to be expanded to the low-paid. TUC analysis suggests one in 10 women, a third of zero-hour contract workers and almost two-thirds of workers under 25 dont earn enough to qualify. She also argued the current rate, 94.25 a week, should increase to the National Living Wage rate, currently 8.21 per hour. Many people wont be able to meet basic living costs if they stay home from work. This is an impossible choice that has serious implications for us all, OGrady said. Story continues Uncovered workers face a perverse incentive to come into work even if they are ill, according to Rehana Azam, GMB national secretary. The union has been campaigning for employers to voluntarily expand coverage, and wants the government to support small firms to cover costs if necessary. Read more: Hand sanitiser sales soar 255% as coronavirus fears grow The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has said the government could instead launch hardship or compensation funds for the self-employed and low-paid. Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the HR body, told the BBC it would minimise the risk of anyone infected coming into work. MPs had debated the issue on Tuesday. Labours shadow employment rights secretary Rachael Maskell urged the government to also ensure self-isolation is always treated as sick leave, preventing choices between health and hardship. Business secretary Alok Sharma told her some workers may be able to claim benefits to compensate for lost earnings. A spokesperson for the department for work and pensions said before Johnsons announcement the government would take appropriate measures, with the situation under review. Employers have been urged to make sure they use their discretion and respect the medical need to self-isolate in making decisions about sick pay, she added. The government had outlined plans last year to make sick pay better enforced and more flexible, as well as extending it to the lower-paid. But it has not published any plans since a consultation ended in October. An Idaho woman who is currently behind bars for embezzlement - has been indicted on murder charges for allegedly giving her husband a fatal dose of Benadryl and dumping his body over the side of their boat before claiming he fell overboard and drowned. Laurcene 'Lori' Barnes Isenberg was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday in the slaying of 68-year-old Larry Isenberg, almost two years after she first told police he had drowned in a tragic boat accident. Retired forester Larry was reported missing and assumed drowned in Lake Coeur d'Alene on February 13 2018 by his wife, who told officers he had fallen off the boat while trying to fix the motor. His body was found 16 days later on March 1, just days after his wife was arrested on unrelated embezzling charges. Laurcene 'Lori' Barnes Isenberg was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday in the slaying of 68-year-old Larry Isenberg (pictured together), almost two years after she first told police he had drowned in a tragic boat accident An autopsy showed no 'visible' signs of stroke or drowning, but that he had died of a drug overdose, after he had ingested more than seven times the safe limit of diphenhydramine or Benadryl. Fingers were pointed at Lori, especially after in a bizarre plot twist - she was arrested in February on suspicion of embezzling half a million dollars from her workplace. It then emerged that Larry's will had been altered around a month before he died with handwritten changes stipulating that Lori's children would receive 80 per cent while Larry's own children would get 20 per cent of his money. A two-year investigation finally led to Lori's arrest for first-degree murder last week. She was arraigned Tuesday and stayed silent during her court appearance when asked for a plea, according to KREM. The judge entered her plea as not guilty in response. The bizarre events began when the Isenbergs set off on their boat on Lake Coeur d'Alene on the morning of February 13 2018. A two-year investigation finally led to Lori's arrest for first-degree murder last week. She was arraigned Tuesday and stayed silent during her court appearance when asked for a plea Lori called police a few hours later claiming her husband had accidentally fallen overboard while fixing the boat's motor. She made the call two hours after the alleged incident, saying she had left her phone onshore. She told officers her husband wasn't feeling well and likely had a medical episode, causing him to fall into the water on that fateful day. Detectives later said Lori's account of her husband's health didn't match up to that of his friends and questions were also raised over messages sent from Larry's phone in the hours leading up to his disappearance and death. One friend said they had received a text message from Larry's phone that morning saying he felt better following his bout with the flu where he thought he might have suffered a 'mini-stroke'. That friend said Lori had told him the same thing during a conversation but that Larry himself had made no mention of illness before. A message from Larry that day also included a 'thumbs-up' emoji something that seemed unusual as Larry never used emojis but Lori regularly did. Lori who is currently behind bars for embezzlement - is accused of giving her husband a fatal dose of Benadryl and dumping his body over the side of their boat. She told police he had fallen off their boat into Lake Coeur d'Alene on February 13 2018 while trying to fix the motor His body was found 16 days later on March 1, just days after his wife was arrested for embezzling half a million dollars from her workplace, North Idaho Housing Coalition. She was convicted in May 2019 of embezzlement and sentenced to five years On February 18, five days after he went missing, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office received two reports of suspicious behavior at the Isenberg's home where callers said people were moving things out of the home and overhead Lori saying she needed to sell the home as fast as possible. Then, just days before her husband's body was discovered, the suspected killer was arrested for embezzlement from her workplace, the non-profit North Idaho Housing Coalition (NIHC), after an accountant found checks with board members' names forged on them. One of her adult daughters, Amber Hosking, also worked for the organisation as well. They were both later fired from their roles. Hosking and Lori's other adult daughter from a previous marriage - Jessica Barnes then also became suspects in their stepfather's death after Larry's will was found doctored with handwritten changes that altered the percentages his children would receive. Larry's will was later found doctored with handwritten changes that altered the percentages his children would receive - handing 80 percent of his money to Lori's children Amber Hosking (left) and Jessica Barnes (right) The victim's friends said this seemed strange, amid tensions between the married couple over giving her daughters money. The plot thickened further when the coroner's report listed the 68-year-old's cause of death as diphenhydramine toxicity, a fatal overdose of over-the-counter medicine Benadryl. Larry had 7,100 nanograms of diphenhydramine in his system, while 100 nanograms to 1,000 nanograms is considered normal. In May 2019, while still under investigation for Larry's death, Lori was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison. She pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud after evidence showed she had embezzled more than half a million dollars (about $580,000) over three years from the NIHC. Her two daughters were also sentenced for assisting their mother in the crimes. Officers arrested Lori on February 24 for murder while she is serving time on the embezzlement charges. She refused to enter a plea at the Kootenai County judge hearing on Tuesday, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. She currently remains in the Kootenai County Jail on $2 million bail. Santiago, March 4 : Chilean health authorities on Tuesday announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country. The case involves a 33-year-old man in the city of Talca in central Chile's Maule region who recently travelled extensively through Asia and returned via Europe, according to the Institute of Public Health (ISP). The patient "was travelling for an extended period of time, almost a month, in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Maldives, Spain and then returned to Chile," the Xinhua news agency quoted Alfredo Donoso, head of the Talca Hospital, as saying. "He returned February 25 and on March 1 began to have respiratory symptoms," said Donoso, adding the proper steps were taken to treat the patient after he tested positive for COVID-19. CNN reports that the spread of the coronavirus has greatly reduced demand for oil, "as schools and offices close, airlines cancel flights worldwide and a growing number of people hunker down at home." "This is a sudden, instant demand shock and the scale of the decline is unprecedented," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit. The warning comes ahead of a critical meeting Thursday for OPEC members and allied producers in Vienna. The cartel, is under pressure to announce yet another round of coordinated production cuts, its preferred method of propping up prices. Coronavirus fears have already driven oil into a bear market, with Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, trading at $52.65 per barrel, more than 23% below their recent peak in early January. US oil is trading at $48.22, nearly 24% below recent highs. Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg is suspending his campaign after a dismal Super Tuesday showing, saying Wednesday that he would endorse former vice president Joe Biden. Three months ago, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump. It is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult, Bloomberg said in a statement. He added that Biden is the candidate with the best shot of defeating President Trump. Ive known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs, the former mayor said. Three months ago, I entered the race to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I'm leaving for the same reason. Defeating Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. It's clear that is my friend and a great American, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/cNJDIQHS75 Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) March 4, 2020 Reports broke Tuesday night that Bloomberg would reexamine his role in the race after an all-in strategy to win Super Tuesday states backfired. Despite spending over $500 million to fund a national advertising campaign and a host of staff, Bloomberg failed to win a single state among the 14 in contention on Tuesday, only capturing a victory in American Samoa. Bloomberg spent over $100 million alone on California and Texas, the days biggest prizes, in the buildup to the primaries, but finished third in both states to Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.). Heres what is clear, Bloomberg told supporters in Florida on Tuesday night. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible: In just three months, weve gone from 1 percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. Story continues Bloomberg rose in the polls last month despite controversial comments on racial police profiling during his time as mayor, and qualified for the Nevada debate. But Bloomberg suffered a poor performance at the hands of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who slammed him for sexist comments and his billionaire status, and never recovered his momentum. President Trump, who has dogged Bloomberg with the nickname Mini Mike, reacted to the news on Twitter. Mini Mike Bloomberg just quit the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didnt have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joes campaign, hoping to save face. It wont work! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 More from National Review Embattled Home Secretary Priti Patel is under fresh pressure amid claims she bullied staff at a third government department. Ms Patel is facing allegations she humiliated civil servants and fostered a sense that 'everyone is hopeless' while in charge of the Department for International Development. There is said to have been a 'tsunami' of complaints by officials in her private office when she was at DfID. She has been accused of ridiculing and belittling staff, and exerting 'heavy pressure' in emails. There are reports that two senior civil servants at DfID were aware of bullying complaints against Ms Patel. The latest allegations - furiously denied by Ms Patel - follows the resignation at the weekend of the top official at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, over similar claims. Ms Patel tried to cool the situation last night by sending a joint email to staff with interim permanent secretary Shona Dunn, voicing 'regret' at Sir Philip's decision. They urged the department to come together as 'one team'. Home Secretary Priti Patel arrives at The Home Office yesterday after attending a Cabinet Meeting A former aide at the Department for Works and Pensions is also reported to have received a 25,000 payout from the Government after claiming she was bullied by Ms Patel when she was employment minister. The latest claims, reported by the BBC's Newsnight, relate to the period around 2017 when Ms Patel was sacked by Theresa May from DfID over unauthorised contacts with the Israeli government. Priti Patel 'regrets' resignation of Home Office mandarin Philip Rutnam in email to staff Home Secretary Priti Patel has expressed her 'regret' at the decision of the senior civil servant at the Home Office to quit and urged staff in the department to come together as 'one team'. In a joint email to staff written with Sir Philip's interim successor Shona Dunn, Ms Patel insisted they cared about the wellbeing of all employees. They expressed their gratitude to the staff for their continuing hard work and 'commitment to deliver the Government's priorities'. 'We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the well-being of all our staff. It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team,' they wrote. 'We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. 'Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld.' They added: 'We both regret Sir Philip's decision to resign. He had a long and dedicated career of public service for which we thank him.' Advertisement Following her dismissal, a senior official was said to have approached staff in her private offices about allegations that they had heard of bullying. The senior figure was said to have been told of multiple claims of staff being humiliated and coming under heavy pressure in emails - similar to the allegations made about Ms Patel's conduct at the Home Office. The senior figure then went to see another senior figure in DfID and urged them to contact the then cabinet secretary - the late Sir Jeremy Heywood - so that her conduct recorded was 'in the system' if she ever returned to government. Although the person making the claims has not been named, they were said to be prepared to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry currently under way into allegations she broke the ministerial code. The individual concerned was also said to be ready to give evidence in support of Sir Philip - who is claiming constructive dismissal - if his case goes to an industrial tribunal. However, a Tory source told the BBC's Newsnight there was a 'concerted effort' by sections of the Civil Service to undermine Ms Patel and that 'dark forces' were trying to influence the investigation. A spokesman for Ms Patel said: 'The Home Secretary categorically denies all of these allegations.' According to The Times, Sir Mark Lowcock, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of DfID, witnessed bullying behaviour. Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark when he started a new role at the UN, was also reportedly made aware of complaints against Ms Patel. The newspaper said Downing Street aides were also informed of the complaints made by civil servants working for Ms Patel. 'We certainly knew the relationship with her civil servants was not easy,' a special adviser in No 10 reportedly said. 'There were concerns about her methods of working'. Sir Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaks at a press conference in December last year. Sir Mark, Ms Patel's permanent secretary while she was head of DfID said that he personally witnessed bullying behaviour Allies of Priti Patel yesterday blamed Sir Philip Rutnam for dragging her into a row about an aide who took an overdose amid claims of bullying. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was 'ludicrous' to accuse her of being responsible for the woman's legal case against the Government, arguing that it had started long before Ms Patel took office. The minister has been under fire for weeks after being accused of bullying staff during her time as a minister, and the Cabinet Office is leading an inquiry to 'establish the facts' over whether she breached the ministerial code in her dealings with aides. Ms Patel came under renewed pressure on Monday when it emerged that one of her former aides when she was employment minister took an overdose and received a 25,000 payout from the Government. She shouted at the woman in her private office and told her to 'get lost' and 'get out of her face', legal correspondence alleges. The minister is described in the woman's formal grievance complaint as having acted 'without warning' and with an 'unprovoked level of aggression'. The Department for Work and Pensions did not admit liability and the case did not come before a tribunal, the BBC reported. Nick Dyer, who took over from Sir Mark, said he was made aware of the bullying complaints against Ms Patel But yesterday Ms Patel's allies hit back. One said: 'What we are seeing is a concerted effort by certain sections of the Civil Service to undermine a Home Secretary trying to deliver what people want on crime and immigration. 'It is deeply disturbing that dark forces are trying to influence the findings of a Cabinet Office inquiry.' In a joint email to staff written with Sir Philip's interim successor Shona Dunn, Ms Patel insisted they cared about the wellbeing of all employees. They expressed their gratitude to the staff for their continuing hard work and 'commitment to deliver the Government's priorities'. 'We both deeply value the work that every person in this department does and care about the well-being of all our staff. It is therefore a time for us all to come together as one team,' they wrote. 'We also recognise the importance of candour, confidentiality and courtesy in building trust and confidence between ministers and civil servants. 'Both of us are fully committed to making sure the professionalism you would expect to support this is upheld.' Priti Patel arrives at Downing Street in London, Britain on February 13, 2020. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was 'ludicrous' to accuse her of being responsible for the woman's legal case against the Government, arguing that it had started long before Miss Patel took office Sir Philip resigned on Saturday following an extraordinary briefing row with Ms Patel after he accused her of belittling staff in the department. He said he had become the 'target of a vicious and orchestrated campaign against him', which he alleged she was involved in. But Ms Patel's friend said: 'It's actually very serious that a civil servant had mental health issues and attempted to take her own life because of the way she was treated by her civil service colleagues. 'And it's childish and stupid for anonymous friends of Philip Rutnam to push around false stories about civil service mistakes which she [Ms Patel] had nothing to do with.' The row came after Boris Johnson asked the Cabinet Office to 'establish the facts' around bullying claims. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the inquiry will examine all the complaints, although it is unclear if the Department for Work and Pensions claim is included. The PM has already offered his support, calling her a 'fantastic Home Secretary'. Yesterday, it emerged she has sent an internal email to staff saying she regretted Sir Philip's resignation and calling on her department to pull together. A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain's former Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam speaking before the Home Affairs Committee in Parliament, central London on February 27, 2019 Asked yesterday if Mr Johnson knew about the DWP allegation, his official spokesman said: 'The Home Secretary denies any allegations of bullying and the PM has expressed full confidence in her. An inquiry is under way.' Boris Johnson has expressed his full confidence in Ms Patel, who he promoted to one of the great offices of state after she had previously been sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May. However, some Tory MPs have questioned how much longer she can carry on in the job, while Labour has complained the inquiry into her conduct - to be carried out by the Cabinet Office - is not fully independent. An appeals court has halted an attempt by San Antonio officials to implement paid sick leave, instead siding with business groups who oppose the new law. The city had gone to the Texas 4th Court of Appeals, asking it to overturn a lower court decision that stopped the ordinance from taking effect while it was being challenged by a coalition of local firms and business groups. Business groups urged the appeals court to wait until the Texas Supreme Court weighs in on a similar ordinance in Austin before taking up the San Antonio case. On ExpressNews.com: Garcia: Paid sick leave court battle continues without MOVE Texas On Wednesday, the court sided with business groups. The law, now called the safe and sick leave ordinance, requires employers citywide to give their workers paid time off if theyre sick. It had been scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, providing paid sick leave to an estimated 354,000 workers who dont get the benefit. But the coalition sued the city in a quest to invalidate the ordinance. In November, state District Judge Peter Sakai issued a temporary injunction blocking the laws implementation while the suit made its way through the legal system. That decision spurred the citys request to the appeals court. Another appeals court has ruled the Austin law unconstitutional, but the state Supreme Court hasnt decided yet whether to take up the case. Attorneys for San Antonio argued that whatever decision the Supreme Court arrives at in the Austin case will likely have nothing to do with their appeal, which deals only with Sakais temporary injunction. But the appeals court ultimately agreed with the business groups. The San Antonio ordinance would require all companies and nonprofits to give part-time and full-time employees one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked a mandate sought by progressive activists but fervently opposed by San Antonio business leaders. The ordinance stems from efforts by progressive groups, including MOVE Texas and Texas Organizing Project, to get paid sick leave on the November 2018 ballot. They collected more than 140,000 signatures in a petition drive. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonios paid sick leave law will cost small businesses but bring many benefits, study finds But City Council instead adopted the ordinance outright in order to avoid complicating a ballot that already had three contentious city charter amendments. Council members also thought the state Legislature would invalidate the law during last years session. But Texas lawmakers adjourned without doing so. Outside the courtroom, city policymakers have sought ways to make sure San Antonio workers get paid sick leave in some form. In the wake of Sakais November ruling, District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval rolled out a proposal to explore whether the city along with city-owned utilities CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System could require businesses who get city and utility contracts to provide the benefit to their employees. The city attorneys office is reviewing the proposal, a spokesman for Sandoval said. Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio city government and politics. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports A romance scammer who fleeced a woman out of $300,000 after they met on Tinder has been jailed for two years. Andrew Charlton Tonks, 39, pleaded guilty to charges of theft in a special relationship at New Zealand's Invercargill District Court on Tuesday. He will spend two years and four months behind bars after using the dating app to romance the New Zealand woman before defrauding her. Tonks' victim revealed she's still 'paralysed by the thought of letting someone in my life again,' according to StuffNZ. A romance scammer who fleeced a woman out of $300,000 after they met on Tinder has been jailed for two years (stock image) His lover described the web of lies Tonks spun to convince her to part with thousands of dollars. 'I recognise he set out on Tinder with criminal intent,' she read from a victim impact statement during court proceedings. She said as well as Tonks using a fake name to romance her and their communications were full of lies. They initially met on the dating app and then started up a relationship before he began trying to get her to part with her cash. The scammer encouraged his victim to give him money for investments after showing her fake documents lying about his financial position. Andrew Charlton Tonks, 39, pleaded guilty to charges of theft in a special relationship at Invercargill District Court on Tuesday (stock image) But the victim's family eventually realised Tonks had a history of deceit, having changed his name after spending time in jail for fraud. Tonks spent 22 months in prison in 2016 after scamming a rental car company he was working for by selling the rental cars for his own person gain. He also had seven previous convictions in Tasmania, Australia. During court proceedings on Tuesday Tonks pleaded guilty to two charges of theft in a special relationship and two charges of using a forged document. In total he was convicted for stealing $300,000 and ordered to pay $70,00 in compensation to his victim's on top of his jail time. He was also found guilty of managing a company while prohibited and making a false statement with a shareholder consent form. Judge John Brandts-Giesen described his behaviour as despicable and refuted claims by his defence he was genuinely remorseful for his behaviour. He said it was clear he was intentionally taking advantage of his victims. 'Conmen and women come across as totally credible, which is the evil they portray,' Judge Brants-Giesen said handing down his verdict. The judge issued a scathing recommendation for him to use prison to become a better person. Pennsylvanians went a different direction in 2016, voting Republican for president for the first time since 1988. They have been rewarded mightily for that decision. The Democrat Party used to dominate presidential politics in the Keystone State, but times have changed millions of forgotten Pennsylvania workers turned to Donald Trump after being let down by Democrat politicians who consistently failed to keep their promises. For almost 10 years, our state suffered one of the weakest economic recoveries in history. President Obama told us to accept economic decline as the new normal. But President Trump has given the Commonwealth hope it hasnt felt in decades. We are now in the midst of a blue-collar boom that has lifted our friends and neighbors out of poverty and restored their dignity through work. Our economic engine is roaring because President Trump and Congressional Republicans cut taxes for the middle class, saving Pennsylvania workers an average of $1,427 on their federal income taxes in 2018. Moreover, the presidents elimination of Obama-era regulations have led to massive growth, especially in the energy sector. At the tail end of Obamas presidency, the number of jobs in the oil and gas industries had shrunk by 32 percent, but things quickly turned around when Donald Trump took office. By 2018, Pennsylvanias natural gas production was once again setting all-time highs. As a result, Pennsylvanians no longer depend on foreign nations to heat their homes, and theyre back to work producing natural gas for sale abroad, because America is now the worlds largest energy exporter. Other sectors of the energy industry are also booming. Fracking, which supports thousands of jobs and generates tens of billions of dollars in economic activity in our state, has particularly benefited from this the presidents commitment to eliminating harmful regulations. Speaking of exports, President Trump has successfully negotiated better trade deals that promote American workers with some of our largest trading partners. He promised to end the failed North American Free Trade Agreement that shipped so many Pennsylvania jobs to Mexico and Canada, and the ink is now dry on its replacement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The president also committed to standing up to China for its unfair trade practices, and he recently signed the Phase One agreement that is a first step toward re-balancing the U.S.-China trade relationship. Future trade deals with Great Britain and the European Union will yield even more gains for working families. Predictably, all of these economic successes have had a transformative effect on the Keystone State. Pennsylvanias unemployment rate has plummeted. In fact, our manufacturing, construction, and mining sectors are all better off today than they were just three short years ago a clear sign that the economic policies of this administration are getting the results the president promised. Of course, the ongoing blue-collar boom extends far beyond the Commonwealth. Nationwide, the bottom 50 percent of wage-earners have enjoyed a 47 percent increase in their net worth since 2017, outpacing net wealth accumulation of the richest 1 percent. The median household income has increased by more than $5,000, an all-time high. Workers are now experiencing greater wage growth than their managers and supervisors. The president noted this in a recent rally when he said: Under the Trump economy, the lowest paid earners are reaping the fastest gains of anybody! Furthermore, the Council of Economic Advisers recently highlighted that real total nonprofit and household net wealth in America has increased by more than $12 trillion in the first 11 quarters under President Trump yet another economic record. Remarkably, Democrats are telling workers that they arent really better off. Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of the presidents recent State of the Union Address, calling it a manifesto of mistruths. Her desire for power and disdain for this president have led her party to deny the obvious fact that this is the best American economy in half a century. Instead of working with Republicans to build on this success, they want to repeal and rescind the policies that got us here, throwing tantrums along the way. We cant let that happen. Americans finally have a president that keeps his promises and believes in them, and he is promising now that the best is yet to come. If we continue these policies, he will be right. We must keep Pennsylvania red and re-elect President Donald Trump in November. He is standing up for our values and fighting harder than any previous president to make America - and the Keystone State - great again. Mike Kelly is a U.S. Representative for Pennsylvanias 16th congressional district and is running for re-election. The Federal Reserve announced a rate cut of 50 basis points on Tuesday, springing into action as the global economy has suddenly slammed on the brakes. The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong, the U.S. Federal Reserve said in a statement. However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The central bank cut the federal funds rate to between 1 and 1.25 percent, lowering its target by a half percentage point. The bank also said that it would act again if the situation deteriorated. The move could ease the path for more central banks around the world to loosen monetary policy, likely setting off a wave of rate cuts. While the Fed said that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong, that message is slightly undercut by the fact that the action was the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008 that the bank cut rates by 50 basis points. Also, it comes two weeks before the committee was set to meet. Obviously, the Fed believed the situation couldnt wait until then. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell admitted as much in a press conference, saying that the central bank judged that the risks to the U.S. outlook have changed materially. However, monetary policy does not cure the coronavirus. We do recognize a rate cut will not reduce the rate of infection, it wont fix a broken supply chain. We get that, Powell said. But we do believe that our action will provide a meaningful boost to the economy. More specifically, it will support accommodative financial conditions and avoid a tightening of financial conditions which can weigh on activity and will help boost household and business confidence. Related: Whats Next For Omani Oil? President Trump wasnt satisfied, calling for More easing and cutting! JPMorgan Chase said that there is a 50 percent chance that the Fed cuts rates to zero later this year. The immediate reaction to the Feds move was positive. Financial markets rallied and oil prices rose by more than 1 percent during midday trading. But markets turned negative as Tuesday wore on. Either way, the spread of the virus continues. It has hit lawmakers in the Iranian parliament. It is spreading in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and new cases have popped up in New York. India has reported five cases, as of Monday. Japan suggested that the Tokyo Olympics might be delayed. In short, the spread of the virus will continue, inflicting on uncertain toll on the global economy. For oil demand, the forecasts continue to be revised down by analysts. Earlier this year, the IEA said that oil demand would increase by 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2020. By February, the IEA cut that figure to 0.825 mb/d. Others are more pessimistic and more downward revisions are inevitable. Oil consultancy FGE said on March 3 that it expects oil demand to fall by 220,000 bpd. Its worth dwelling on that for a second. The firm is not merely cutting its growth forecast; its saying global oil consumption will actually shrink in 2020 by 220,000 bpd. Related: Putin Hints Russia May Participate In Newest Round Of OPEC Cuts If that forecast is close to the mark, it would be catastrophic for oil producers. The market was already facing a potential oversupply situation heading into 2020 which is why OPEC+ cut deeper in December before the coronavirus hit. Erasing 1.2 mb/d or more of expected oil demand for the full year would leave a mess for OPEC+ and for U.S. shale producers. The OPEC+ coalition is set to gather in Vienna this week, where they may agree to an additional production cut of 1 mb/d. As the FT notes, cash-strapped U.S. shale drillers are praying for the cartel to cut deeper. OPEC actually has the chance to deal a knock-out blow to embattled shale drillers, but the fiscal crunch on their own budgets is apparently too much to bear. If I were in their position I wouldnt be cutting more, Doug King, London-based chairman of RCMA Capitals Merchant Commodity Fund, told the FT. Id sit it out and watch what happens. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Adrian Monroy | Medios y Media (Getty Images) The artist LL Cool J will no longer appear at the 2020 Illinois State Fair Grandstand, according to social media posts by the fair. A statement on the fairs Facebook page and the Grandstands web page said, LL Cool J is no longer able to perform at the 2020 Illinois State Fair. The Department of Agriculture will announce another performer in the weeks ahead and looks forward to welcoming popular artists like Toby Keith, Chris Young and Kane Brown to the Grandstand this August. Slate Plus members get more Care and Feeding from Jamilah Lemieux every week. Dear Care and Feeding, Im a first-generation immigrant living in a very Republican area. Im also a naturalized American citizen; my husband is still in our home country, awaiting his turn to legally join me (itll take several years, since the new administration slowed down all immigrant visa processing). We have a 2-year-old son who was born in the U.S. and lives with me. Im visibly Latina and have a heavy Spanish accent. In recent years, the anti-immigrant sentiment in our area has grown so much that it is impacting every aspect of life. Advertisement My once close American friends are now merely acquaintances. At work, l get passed over for promotions in favor of less qualified white candidates and continually talked down by almost everyone, from the (white) management to the (white) trainees. Highly offensive jokes, sometimes delivered in President Donald Trumps voice, have become commonplace. At public places and local businesses, random white people are rude for no reason, even in front of my small child. People seem to assume Im an illegal immigrant who doesnt own a credit card or a drivers license. If l use a credit card, l invariably get asked for my ID, while no other customer is asked. I still tip well and treat service people with over-the-top kindness, especially if my toddler is looking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps the worst experience thus far was having to move on from my sons pediatrician because she continually dismissed my concerns (while giving excellent care to a few white families we know). This was the person I had trusted with my childs health, and she wouldnt even let me finish a sentence during visits without declaring that he was OK and rushing us out of the office. The first time this happened, we ended up in the emergency room with salmonella; the second time we finally switched to a Hispanic doctor, who referred us to an allergist who ran tests on my son and prescribed an EpiPen. How do l protect my child, who will be growing up in this environment, from realizing we are treated as second-class citizens here? Moving is not an option right now. Im considering sending him to a day care annexed to a synagogue. We arent Jewish, but they welcomed him warmly, and it feels safer than other centers l toured in the area. I want him to make friends and play with children his age and hope he will be less exposed to xenophobia if he goes there. My Catholic upbringing and cultural pride arent even a factor at this point; Im in survival mode and very scared. I will really appreciate your honest opinion and advice. Advertisement A Fellow American Dear AFA, All in all, we must empower our children with the truth about the world around them so that they can acquire the tools they need to survive and thrive. You have a few years before you need to become painfully precise when it comes to how you describe that worldand its relationship to people who represent what the American dream purports to be without being extended the privileges and rights that should come with itbut in the meantime, you can focus on instilling a deep sense of pride in who he is and whom/where he comes from. Advertisement Advertisement Celebrate the heritage that very well wont be adequately observed or taught in most of the schools hell attend in your current community, one that may indeed be challenged or demeaned by so-called friends or even adults much sooner than youd have anticipated. Ensure that he (and you) are so deeply rooted in loving and appreciating your culture, your history, and your unique identities that when those potential blows to his self-image begin, he can rightly identify who is deficient (the bigots, the ignorant ones, the ones who dont love who he is) and who is sufficient (himself, his people, other marginalized folks, and those who recognize the shared humanity that crosses the lines that often divide us). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Always, always remember who the villains are here. Remember that while it isnt your job to constantly perform good citizenship or humanity in order to prove to some racists that you, too, are an American, the need of people of color to sometimes prioritize survival over dignity is not a referendum on where we belong in society, but merely an act of self-preservation. Remember that minority does not mean inferiorityjust merely outnumberedand that those whod reduce you to the former are outnumbered globally (and, technically, as well) and have established a system to do so because of their own inadequacies. Do not feel that you should forgive those who dont recognize or affirm your belonging in this raggedy-ass country. Do not feel that you have to be the sort of first- and second-generation Americans who must prove the worth of immigrants; your ancestors have paid any debts you may owe for being here long, long ago, and their blood, sweat, and contributions to what is good about this complicated experiment of a nation make her your birthright. And pass that on. Advertisement Advertisement Challenge doctors, teachers, and other figures who fall short of delivering the sort of care, service, and protection your family deserves, and teach your child to do the same. Seek out resources to connect with folks who are dedicated to serving immigrants and other so-called minority populations effectively. Be intentional about creating community with people who share your background. Be intentional about creating community with those who do not but who have similar struggles, and with those who have truly learned what it means to be an ally to us all. Caution him not to fall into the trap of believing awful notions about other marginalized people in order to feel better about his own place in the proverbial pecking order. Advertisement Advertisement Raise your son to love those who love him, respect those who respect him, and move around those who do not with a sense of regard for himself and his background. Train him to be savvy and aware, not paranoid and cynical. Hell see the worst of this place often because America often shows her worst side, but that doesnt mean thats all there is to see. Let him know its OK to feel deeply complicated about his country and that he doesnt have to have some sort of unwavering love and loyalty to a nation that only extends as much to the smallest minority of its inhabitants. Help him to see both the threats hes up against and the beauty that surrounds him. Be honest about who he isand what this country isand create the happiest life you can for him within these circumstances. You and your family deserve to be here and to enjoy a good life here, and while it is unfairly difficult to achieve that for those of us who are not white, cisgender, heterosexual, male, able-bodied, and class-mobile, our challenges do not represent all that the world has to offer us. Give your son the truth and hell be best prepared to truly understand that. Solidarity and strength to you, lady. Jamilah MANZINI Massive retrenchments and layoffs are on the cards for textile factory workers in light of the coronavirus outbreak in China. The outbreak of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has hit local textile factories hard as business activity and transportation was restricted in many Chinese cities. This has left many textile firms with minimal stock as the shutdown lasted slightly over a-month-and-a half. According to an insider in one of the major textile factories in Matsapha, a high number of the factories import some of their raw material from China. This raw material, according to the informant, includes buttons, fabric, cotton yarn, zippers and collar stiffers. Killed According to the source, the prevailing situation in China along with the uncertainty of production commencing was posing a major threat for local manufacturers who were dependent on supply of raw material from the Asian country, where the virus has killed thousands of people. According to tradingeconomics.com, imports of cotton yarn from China by the country increased to E6 296 949.12 (US$403 392) in December 2019 from E5 862 085.74 (US$375 534) in November 2019. Worth noting is that manufacturing accounts for 37 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. The insider said the shortage of raw materials would result in the firms implementing retrenchments and prolonged layoffs as there would be no raw materials to produce apparel to sell to their markets. He said the country did not have the capacity to produce accessories like buttons, zippers, hangers and needles. Eswatini does not have the domestic supply base to cater for such a huge demand of these raw materials, the source said. Due to the epidemic of the virus, some Chinese textile factories halted operations since the Chinese New Year. If the spread of the virus continues, the countrys garment manufacturers would need to look at other alternatives, which in turn could increase the finished goods cost drastically. The unfortunate part is, we may have to pay customers whom we will not fulfil our obligation to supply their orders. He also said the other challenge was that identifying vendors in such a short space of time could take a toll on lead times, quality and cost. The source said the retrenchments were inevitable because most companies would be coerced to pay their customers for breach of contract and thus have their profit margins tremendously affected. Material The source wondered what would be the need to keep a high volume of employees would be when the raw material was not available. The companies producing fabric in the country supply material produced from wool and not all the other specifics ordered by suppliers. To set up a factory to produce other types of fabric is expensive and even if that were easy, most of the machines are manufactured in China and to ship goods from the Asian country takes about 45 days, which will mean textile firms would pay employees for doing nothing, he said. He also pointed out that annually, in March, textile firms implemented lay-offs due to minimal orders. Last year, at this time, scores of textile workers were thrown into deep financial woes as mass layoffs were introduced. Layoffs There were 2 850 workers affected by the layoffs from three factories. These companies were Fashion International Eswatini, which has about 1 600 workers, Kasumi Apparels with over 750 employees and Leo Garments Swaziland, which employs over 500 emaSwati. The main reason for the layoffs was that during this calendar period, there were no orders as it was the low season in the sector. The companies are said to usually run short of orders from their buyers, especially in the South African market. The major cause of the layoffs is largely due to a failure by the companies to secure certain orders, which are very crucial and critical to its continued operations, the source said. They said it was anticipated that all employees in the factories would be affected by the layoffs. However, they assured stakeholders that the management of the different factories would undertake to keep them informed of any further developments either positive or otherwise. The managers in the sector highlighted that the low season started during the month of February but they had been able to keep the employees working by sewing stock for readily available customers. They said for this stock, they reused fabric when doing their orders. Fashion International Factory Operations Manager Victor Royce confirmed that the fabric suppliers in Mainland China were four weeks behind in production as they stopped manufacturing fabric after the coronavirus outbreak. He said even though they have enough stock for now, they were not sure what would happen later on. Insiders within Tex Ray Group of Companies also confirmed that the supply of fabric from Mainland China could have a negative impact on textile factories in the country and other countries in the world. Charles Chuck Trimble, a former leader of the National Congress of American Indians and founder of the American Indian Press Association, has died at age 84. The Oglala Lakota journalist and activist died of natural causes Monday in Omaha, Nebraska, his daughter, Kaiti Fenz-Trimble, said on Facebook. Trimble was born in Wanblee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and attended the then-Holy Rosary Mission boarding school. He graduated from the University of South Dakota, served in the U.S. Army and later studied journalism at the University of Colorado. Trimble founded the American Indian Press Association in the 1970s, citing a lack of coverage of Native American issues, Indian Country Today reported. It operated a news service for tribal newspapers across the U.S. He was then elected executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, an organization established to protect tribes sovereign rights. He held the position from 1972 to 1978, calling it both a stressful and deeply rewarding time. I was fortunate to have served through the decade most prolific in the enactment of legislation for new policy, programs, and resources, as well as executive actions favorable to Indian tribes and off-reservation Indian communities, Trimble wrote in an address for the groups 2009 convention. These included the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Financing Act, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and unprecedented return of significant lands to tribes. Among his many accomplishments, Trimble helped start a newspaper on the Colville Reservation in Washington state to inform people about the implication of termination, the federal governments effort from the 1940s to the 1960s to disband tribes, Indian Country Today reported. It chronicled the tribes eventual rejection of the policy. He was also known for his columns on topics ranging from tribal politics and languages to aging. His passing has left a big hole in the field of Native American journalism, fellow Oglala Lakota journalist and publisher Tim Giago wrote in the Rapid City Journal. Trimble was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2013 and received several honorary degrees. Jack Marsh, former Argus Leader editor and Freedom Forum executive, said Trimble was admired by Native and non-Native journalists alike. He was an honorable, fine and decent man who did much to promote reconciliation and advance a greater understanding of Native people and Native issues, Marsh wrote on Facebook. He was a role model for many in the field of media and journalism, including me, a gifted teacher and an excellent writer. In addition to his daughter and her husband, Trimble is survived by his wife, Anne. Sima Ladjevardian and Elisa Cardnell were the top candidates in the three-way Democratic race to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw. A Houston-based lawyer and former Beto O'Rourke adviser, Ladjevardian was a late entrant to the primary. She took nearly 48 percent of the vote narrowly missing the 50 percent threshold that would have made her the nominee, according to results posted at 1:45 a.m. with more than 90 percent of the vote tallied. BCCT fires up first Phuket event for 2020 PHUKET: The British Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (BCCT), in cooperation with American, Australian, Canadian, EABC, French, German, Netherlands and Singapore Chambers of Commerce, will hold its first Phuket event of 2020 at the Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort on Mar 27. economicstourism By The Phuket News Wednesday 4 March 2020, 09:28AM Birgit Hansl, The World Banks Country Manager for Thailand, will be the guest speaker. Image: BCCT UPDATE: BCCT has decided to postpone this event due to COVID-19. A new date for the event has yet to be announced. Birgit Hansl, Country Manager for Thailand, East Asia and Pacific, The World Bank will share her insight on Thai Economy in 2020 given the many external and domestic challenges currently in play. After the briefing, will be the business networking event, providing an excellent opportunity to connect with other business folk while enjoying food and drinks. The briefing will be held from 5-6pm, followed by the networking from 6:30-9pm The briefing is free to attend but pre-registration is required. Entry to the networking event costs B500 for BCCT members and participating chambers and B900 for non-members, payable at the door. Price includes food and free flow beverages. To book attendance at the event email banthita@bccthai.com The Phuket News and Window on Phuket are proud media sponsors of the BCCT Phuket Briefing & Networking series. A Newark man with a lengthy criminal history was sentenced to 31 years in prison for robbing a Verizon store employee at a gunpoint in 2017, authorities said. Wahiddudin Kimbrough, 34, and an unidentified man went into the Verizon store on the 700 block of Broad Street during the evening on Dec. 19, 2017 and robbed the store employee of more than $1,000, a display phone, an iPad and SIM cards, acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said Wednesday. Both men fled the store while the employee locked himself in the bathroom and called 911. Kimbrough was arrested by Newark police on Feb. 2, 2018 after his photo was circulated, authorities said. He tried to escape custody while being processed by police after giving a recorded statement, authorities said. He was convicted in Superior Court of Essex County of first-degree robbery, second-degree conspiracy and third-degree attempted escape. He was eligible for an extended term of up to life in prison and a minimum sentence of 20 years. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin sentenced Kimbrough to 31 years, the same amount of time the prosecutor on the case had asked for based on his age and seven prior convictions. Kimbrough will have to serve 85% of his sentence before he is eligible for parole under the No Early Release Act. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico. According to the latest media reports, Randeep Hooda is all set to marry his longtime girlfriend Lin Laishram. The duo is said to be dating since 2016 and has been snapped together ever since on various occasions and industry events. And now, the couple is planning on making it official, as they are ready to take their relationship to the next level. A SpotBoyE report claims that Randeep is planning on introducing his girlfriend to his parents who reside in Haryana. He plans on getting married at the earliest. For the uninitiated, Lin Laishram is a popular model and actress from Manipur. She also starred in films alongside Priyanka Chopra in Omung Kumars Mary Kom (2014) and since then has been a part of several other films including Umrika (2015), Rangoon (2017), and Ava Maria (2020) to name a few. It must also be recollected that Lin has been the brand ambassador of a popular New York-based jewellery brand whilst also featuring as a Kingfisher Calendar Girl. In the meantime, Randeep Hooda is all set to make his Hollywood debut with Netflixs upcoming film Extraction. The actor is currently busy working on Salman Khans Radhe: The Most Wanted Bhai. He was last seen on screen in Imtiaz Alis Love Aaj Kal featuring Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan in lead roles. ALSO READ: Extraction First Look: Randeep Hooda To Star Alongside Chris Hemsworth In His Hollywood Debut ALSO READ: Chris Hemsworth On Shooting In India And Working With Randeep Hooda In Netflix Film Extraction What just happened? Amazon has confirmed that one of its employees at the companys Seattle, Washington, headquarters has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In an email to employees in Seattle and Bellevue, the companys health and safety office said the infected worker was based in the Brazil (SEA53) building, part of the South Lake Union Campus. The email states that the individual went home feeling unwell on Tuesday, February 25, and has not entered the Amazon offices since then. The person tested positive for COVID-19 on March 3. A spokesperson said Amazon is supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine. The firm has notified workers who have been in close contact with the infected person, advising anyone experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus to stay at home and seek medical attention. Its also conducting enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization at the office. "The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low," the email said. Amazon earlier this week confirmed that two of its workers in Italy had contracted the coronavirus and were in quarantine. The company has asked its 798,000 employees to avoid any non-essential travel inside the US and abroad, a tactic used by other firms, including Facebook, Google, and Apple. Amazon is dealing with coronavirus-related issues on its store, having banned more than a million products in recent weeks that claimed to cure or defend against the virus. Its also taken down tens of thousands of listings that have been price gouging. At least 47 people were killed and around 200 sustained injuries in the violence that hit northeast Delhi last month Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not allowing discussion in Parliament on the issue of recent violence in northeast Delhi. A statement by TMC Parliamentary Party said, "In both the Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the Mo-Sha (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) duo have given the direction to not let any discussion happen. They have been trying to kill every institution in this country. And now the attack is on the Parliament." "What is happening is unprecedented. Yesterday the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha said the Government is ready for a discussion. All the opposition parties are ready for a discussion. Floor leaders of the three largest opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha all gave notices today under 267. However, the subject was not readout," the statement said. The statement further said, "The Government does not want the subject to be readout. And now they have said that they will discuss it next week. The Home Minister was supposed to lay a paper on the table of the House. He ran away from that also. Instead, he got his junior to read and lay it." "Trinamool's notice today said the message of healing after the Delhi genocide has to go from Parliament. This is a sad state of affairs where Parliament is being treated like another back office of the BJP. But we will keep up the fight," it added. At least 47 people were killed and around 200 sustained injuries in the violence that hit northeast Delhi last month. As the weather starts to remind us of the upcoming gardening season, its a great time to experiment with a do-it-yourself home hydroponics system. Most people have heard of hydroponics, but believe that using this method to grow plants is too difficult. The use of hydroponics has been documented as far back as the first century when Roman Emperor Tiberius grew off-season cucumbers under what was described as transparent stone. Indoor hydroponics systems can be constructed with items such as a five-gallon bucket with lid, net pots, a growing medium, an air stone and an aquarium pump. Studies have shown that plants grow up to 30% to 40% faster than a plant in soil, and there is a greater yield. Hydroponics allows plants to thrive in environments where there is no soil or the soil is contaminated, such as roof tops, abandoned buildings, vacated urban lands, etc. Weeding is not necessary, less water is used--up to 10 times less--and exposure to insects and other pests is decreased in indoor hydroponic systems. There are two categories of home hydroponics systems. The passive hydroponic system relies on the capillary effect or what is sometimes referred to as wicking. The capillary effect helps bring nutrient rich fluid up into the roots. In a passive hydroponic system, the fluid is drawn up and absorbed by the growing medium. An active hydroponic system relies on the nutrient solution to be delivered to the roots by a pump, and any excess solution simply drains away. A growing medium in not necessary in an active system. Hydroponic growing allows us to grow in locations or at times that would not be possible with the typical growing of plants outside in the soil, said Doug Gucker, University of Illinois Extension Local Food Systems and Small Farms Educator. In addition for the do-it-yourselfer, there are many plans for repurposing plastic buckets and other containers into easy to use hydroponic growing systems for the use indoors or outdoors on a balcony or porch. To find out how to build an indoor passive hydroponics system read this months Know How Know More blog post by Extension educator Doug Gucker at extension.illinois.edu/blogs/know-how-know-more. University of Illinois Extension is the flagship outreach effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offering educational programs to residents of all of Illinois 102 counties and far beyond. Extension provides practical education you can trust to help people, businesses, and communities solve problems, develop skills and build a better future. Extension offers educational programs in five broad areas: energy and environmental stewardship, food safety and security, economic development and workforce preparedness, family health, financial security and wellness and youth development. Find us on Facebook or Twitter. For more information on this article, contact Doug Gucker, University of Illinois Extension, Local Food Systems and Small Farms Educator serving DeWitt, Macon and Piatt Counties at 217-877-6042 or ducker@illinois.edu. Doug is a Certified Crop Advisor and works to help producers improve their profitability and sustainability with programs and feedback on farm management, soil health, nutrient management, integrated pest management and grazing. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The moment epitomizes the most compelling aspect of this production, originally directed with terrific fluency by Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton), who won a choreography Tony (his third) for Bandstand. (Gina Rattan is tour director.) Featuring swing-inflected music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Rob Taylor and Oberacker, Bandstand offers a heartstring-tugging, pull-for-the-underdog narrative that feels overfamiliar, despite appealing performances by Zack Zaromatidis as Donny and his castmates. What really distinguishes the show, especially early on, are ingenious bits of movement that fit seamlessly into the bustling whole yet capture the characters internal turmoil: bursts of nervy, angular hoofin; cameos by GIs who manhandle objects or people and appear to be specters; a gun-cleaning ritual by a distraught Marine. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A month ago, when Mohammed Tawfik Allawi was nominated to the prime ministership of Iraq, I predicted he wouldnt last long. Turns out, I was wildly optimistic. After four weeks of flailing efforts to form a cabinet, culminating in two failed attempts to get parliament to approve his choices, Allawi has thrown in the towel. And Adel Abdul Mahdi, who had been caretaker prime minister since his resignation in November, has announced he will stay on, but will not discharge most official duties, including steering cabinet meetings. This leaves Iraqs government in limbo. President Barham Salih has said he will propose another prime minister in 15 days. But if Allawi couldnt make the cut, despite being the compromise candidate backed by Iraqs most powerful Shiite leaders, who would? Abdul Mahdi has proposed that the job be temporarily assigned to one of his deputies or a member of his cabinet, and that a general election be held in early December. That is too long to wait. Never entirely free of crises, Iraq now faces too many to be entrusted to a substitute leader operating within a dysfunctional political system. All of the countrys challenges from an economy hobbled by soft oil prices and endemic corruption to growing unemployment and widespread anger over state failures are made more acute by the coronavirus epidemic. The government says 19 Iraqis have contracted the virus, but this is almost certainly an undercount. Neighboring Iran accounts for more deaths than any country outside China, where the virus originated; while the regime in Tehran lied about the extent of the outbreak, hundreds of thousands of people may have crossed the border, in both directions. It wasnt until Feb. 20 that Iraq barred Iranians from entry and Iraqi Airways stopped flights, but the ban is not being strictly enforced: Plenty of Iraqis who had gone to Iran, for pilgrimage or business, are finding ways to return. And thats not counting the Shiite militias, trained and armed by the Iranian regime, who travel unchecked. Story continues The coronavirus epidemic is a body-blow for the economy. Millions of pilgrims, the lifeblood of the Iraqi tourism industry, may drop plans to visit shrine cities like Najaf, Karbala and Samarra. Border closures will hurt trade with Iran and other neighbors. If the virus spreads, it will overwhelm the Iraqi medical system: There are fewer than 10 doctors per 10,000 people, and hospitals struggle even to deal with a normal demand for beds. Such a failure would add to a long list of grievances driving the street protests that prompted Abdul Mahdis resignation, and which have kept going ever since. (For now, the virus has contributed to a thinning of the protests.) And then there are the crises that the virus has yet to affect. Islamic State is regrouping. The reconstruction of cities destroyed in the war against the terrorist group has been tardy, fueling resentment especially among Sunnis. The conflict between the U.S. and Iran brings its own set of problems for Iraq. These would challenge the strongest leader with a popular mandate, never mind a caretaker appointed by bickering political factions. Indeed, the sorry fate of Abdul Mahdi and Allawi allows for no optimism that another compromise prime minister will be able to govern at all. This was clear long before the coronavirus escaped from China. Back in December, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraqs senior-most Shiite cleric, said that early elections were the only way out of the political impasse. A few days later, the parliament approved an electoral law that would allow Iraqis to vote for individual candidates, instead of party slates. This change holds out the prospect of a new generation of politicians, answerable to their voters, not beholden to sectarian political factions. That cant happen soon enough. If anything, the coronavirus has made Sistanis original prescription even more urgent. To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Towards an integrated and prosperous and peaceful Africa This report first presents the historical context of the African integration process and the progress of African leaders towards achieving a united, integrated and prosperous continent under the Abuja Treaty and AU Agenda 2063. The Abuja Treaty, signed in 1991, lays the groundwork for the creation of African Economic Community (AEC), whereby the economies of the member states of the AU will be fully integrated and an African Economic Community created. The goal of the AEC is to transform the fifty-five (55) African economies into a single economic and monetary union, with a common currency and free mobility of capital and labour. The Sirte Declaration, signed in 1999, and the Constitutive Act of the African Union aim at fast-tracking Africas integration through the creation of key institutions such as the African Central Bank, an African Monetary Fund, an African Investment Bank, the African Court of Justice and the Pan-African Parliament. Establishing the three continental financial institutions has been slow because member states have been slow to ratify the relevant instruments. Although the other institutionsthe African Court of Justice and the Pan-African Parliamentare in place, they have limited powers to carry out their mandates specified in the Abuja Treaty. According to the Abuja Treaty objectives, Africas integration process is expected to be completed by the creation of the African Economic Community (AEC), following a six-step sequential approach over 34 years. With the AU Commission playing a coordination role, the realisation of the AEC is predicated on the progress achieved by regional economic communities (RECs), the key pillars of Africas integration process. While some RECs have made significant progress, others are far from achieving their visions and goals, as specified in their founding treaties. Overlapping memberships in many RECs continue to pose a significant challenge and remain an intractable obstacle to deeper regional and continental integration. Overlapping memberships not only exacerbate persistent funding and human capacity problems in support of regional programmes, but also lead to challenges of effective coordination of policies and programmes to foster closer regional and continental integration. While some progress has been achieved, significant bottlenecks stand in the way of deeper integration, including narrow markets, poor infrastructure networks, cumbersome administrative procedures that impede trade integration, in diversified production bases coupled with weak backward and forward linkages between agriculture and industry, as well as weak institutional and legal mechanisms for implementing regional and continental programmes and projects. In addition, the reluctance of member states to cede sovereignty to key organs of the African Union stands in the way of accelerated African integration. Persistent conflicts in Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, Northern Africa and West Africa also present challenges to integration. Despite these challenges, important objectives have been reached. The signing of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) on 22 October 2008 in Kampala, Uganda, was a big step in the right direction. That FTA encompasses 26 countries of its three RECs with a combined population of 527 million, a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 624 billion and a GDP per capita of USD 1,184. The three RECs make up nearly half the African Unions membership of 55 countries, contribute more than 58% of the continents GDP and account for 57% of the total population of the African Union. The Tripartite FTA is established on a tariff-free, quota-free and exemption basis, and adopts the principle of variable geometry by simply combining the existing FTAs COMESA, EAC and SADC into a single FTA. This inter-REC FTA is expected to eliminate the problem of multiple memberships, increase the critical mass of trading instruments, cushion and mitigate persistent internal and external trading shocks, enlarge markets for goods and services for member states concerned, promote inter-REC and intra-African trade, and enhance the economic and social well-being of the people of the region. It is also expected to stimulate the formation of other FTAs in other regions of Africa. Most RECs have completed milestones in compliance with the various stages of the Abuja Treaty. The free movement of people is now a reality in most RECs. The landmark signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and Free Movement of Persons in March 2017 by the AU Heads of State and Government is a good move. However, although key institutions have been established in line with the Abuja Treaty, their powers remain limited owing to the reluctance of member states to cede sovereignty. Multiple memberships are costly in both financial and human terms and prevent advancing to deeper forms of regional and continental integration. Decision-making based on consensus is problematic because decisions signed are not legally binding, and countries that do not implement decisions face no sanctions of any form. The current method of financing regional and continental integration is both unpredictable and unsustainable. That donors fund most of these programmes requires a major shift. The division of labour between the AUC and RECs has not been clarified and remains a work in progress. And persistent conflicts slow the pace of integration and divert limited resources earmarked for development. This report was prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), African Union Commission, in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). UTICA, N.Y. (UPDATED) -- Two Oneida County physicians, recently back from Italy, have tested negative for the coronavirus; one was symptomatic. The tests were hand-delivered to Wadsworth Lab, in Albany, Tuesday night. Governor Andrew Cuomo released the negative results Wednesday morning. County leaders will take that win, but are not letting down their guard. "Clearly this is something that we're gonna be dealing with for a while," said County Executive, Anthony Picente, Jr. "The chances of ...another person being tested is very high. We don't have anything at present." The two physicians are not the only local people to recently visit any of the countries of concern: China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran. The Oneida County Health Department is currently talking with colleges and parents of college students who've recently returned from the countries. "They're gonna be monitored for 14 days, which means voluntarily you will stay in your own location, whether it's your school or home, with private bedroom and bathroom, so that you can isolate yourself from the rest of your family. We will be monitoring you twice a day. You will be taking your temperature," said Phyllis Ellis, Oneida County Director of Public Health. Ellis says one can be exposed to the virus, and never know. "If you're young and healthy or older and healthy and you have no medical history, you're not compromised, you might have been exposed to this virus and you'll never know." Ellis says it's not difficult to protect yourself. "Cover your cough with your sleeve, if you use a tissue, wash your hands afterwards. Hand washing is the biggest prevention item you can do." Ellis says if you're recently back from one of the countries of concern and have no symptoms, call the County Health Department for direction. If you're recently back from one of the countries and are having symtpoms, like coughing, fever and shortness of breath, call your healthcare provider. County Executive Picente wouldn't confirm whether the two physicians work at the MVHS medical office, in Rome. The office was closed Tuesday and Wednesday, but MVHS officials say it will re-open Thursday. Avengers star Chris Hemsworth says he was "blown away" by the welcome he received in India while shooting for his upcoming action-drama Extraction, which is predominantly set in the subcontinent. Hemsworth, who enjoys a huge fan following in the country thanks to his portrayal of God of Thunder Thor, had shared videos of hundreds of people who had lined up the streets of Ahmedabad and Mumbai to watch him shoot the film. The fan mania and logistics were partly responsible for the production to be shifted to a quiet suburb near Bangkok, Thailand, but Hemsworth has fond memories of the time he spent in India. "We had such a great time in India. People were beyond welcoming. I've never had that kind of response. I was blown away. I thought I was Beatles or something," the actor told PTI during an interaction with select international media on the sets of the Netflix film. "It gives you a false sense of security. I felt more important than I was. When I go back to Australia, no one really cares," the 36-year-old actor added. Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a black market mercenary in the film, who embarks on a deadly mission when he's enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord. The film, based on an original script by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo, is scheduled to release on April 24. Chris Hemsworth plays a fearless black market mercenary who embarks on the most deadly mission of his career. Get your first look at Extraction (via @usatodaylife) premiering April 24 pic.twitter.com/s2G8XiYcBD Netflix US (@netflix) February 18, 2020 The film marks the directorial debut of Sam Hargrave, who has worked as a stunt coordinator as well as the body double of Captain America star Chris Evans. Indian actor Randeep Hooda plays a key role in the film, so does newcomer Rudhraksh Jaiswal. Hemsworth is confident that the film will appeal to an international audience as it is produced by the Russo Brothers and is set in the Indian subcontinent. "It was something that I haven't seen a lot in this setting. It has some beautiful set pieces and it gave me a chance to work and interact with wonderful people. We had such a great time in India, the actor recalled. The Australian star had some of the kindest things to say about his Indian co-stars, praising Hooda for his stillness and Jaiswal for his emotional performance in the film. "With Randeep, it's wonderful. Our first introduction was We had three weeks of fighting each other and we both had our fair share of cuts and bruises. And actually a couple of times I nicked him, but it was by accident and I felt very embarrassed, he said describing the intense combat sequences they shot in hot weather. "He (Randeep) wasn't angry at me," Hemsworth said with a laugh, adding, "He has been great to work with. And then we've had little moments of quiet dialogue." The actor, who shares a lot of screen time with Jaiswal, said the young actor reduced people on the sets to tears with his acting. "Rudy is amazing. I'm blown away by that kid The way he takes direction is better than a lot of adults... With all honesty, he had us in tears a number of times. We would be chatting and just out of nowhere he pours his heart out and I'm like, 'I'm not supposed to be upset in this scene' He will have a big career. He's very talented and just super eager to learn." The working title of the film was Dhaka and that's where most of the action takes place but the production team shot a majority of the scenes in India and then in a street near Bangkok, which was made to resemble a typically chaotic market in Bangladesh. Extraction First Look: Randeep Hooda To Star Alongside Chris Hemsworth In His Hollywood Debut Chris Hemsworth Returns As A Mercenary For Netflix's Extraction; First Look Out Now By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday widened the ability of states to use criminal laws against illegal immigrants and other people who do not have work authorization in the United States in a ruling involving identity theft prosecutions in Kansas. In the decision, the justices upheld the authority of states to prosecute immigrants for identity theft when applying for a job. The court found that Kansas did not unlawfully encroach on federal authority over immigration policy in charging three men accused of using other people's Social Security numbers. President Donald Trump's administration backed Kansas in the case. Trump has made his hardline policies toward immigration a centerpiece of his presidency and 2020 re-election campaign. Kansas is one of several conservative states that have sought to crack down on illegal immigrants. The justices overturned a 2017 Kansas Supreme Court decision that had voided the convictions of the three restaurant workers, finding that a 1986 federal law called the Immigration Reform and Control Act did not prevent states from pursuing such prosecutions. Though immigration-related employment fraud is a federal matter, Kansas contended that its prosecutions were not immigration-related and did not conflict with federal immigration law. Kansas had argued that a ruling in favor of the immigrants would undermine its ability to combat the growing problem of identity theft. Immigrant rights groups have said that giving states power to prosecute employment fraud would let them take immigration policy into their own hands. The three men - Ramiro Garcia, Donaldo Morales and Guadalupe Ochoa-Lara - were not authorized to work in the United States and provided their employers Social Security numbers that were not their own. A Social Security number is used to identify people for employment and tax purposes. People who enter the country illegally do not get assigned Social Security numbers, which are given by the U.S. government to all legal residents. Story continues The case focused on the employment verification process under federal immigration law requiring employers, on a form known as the I-9, to attest that an employee is authorized to work. The law also states that the form "may not be used for purposes other than for enforcement of this act." While the federal government has the sole authority to prosecute individuals for providing fraudulent information during the I-9 employment verification process, the state prosecuted the three men for using the same false information on different forms used to withhold wages for tax purposes. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham) Heaven just got sweeter as Carl Edmond Brooks Pa waltzed through the pearly gates on March 1, 2020, leaving behind 45 members of his boisterous and loving family that will miss him terribly. When God said, "Go forth and multiply", Carl, being a man of the Air Force, took that as direct orders. He and his wife of 65 years had five children and began a family tree that resulted in a family forest. Carl was quick-witted, inclusive of everyone in his path, and kept everyone guessing what he would say next. He spent his life loving his wife, family, church and anyone in need of a good laugh. He will always be known for his zeal for life and never lacking for a good clean joke. Carl was born in Buhl, Idaho, on Dec. 5, 1931, the son of Oscar and Eunice (Dorman) Brooks. Later his family moved to Portland, Or., where he completed school and entered the Air Force. Initially he was sent to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage Alaska, then to McGhee Tyson AFB near Knoxville. It was here that he would meet the love of his life Mary Frances Slagle on a blind date. After marriage, he was transferred to Flintstone Air Force Station on Lookout Mountain where he and Mary would live in Lookout Valley, making this their forever home and raise their five children. Carl worked for National Life and American General Insurance, retiring after 38 years as general manager and then continued to consult part-time up into his 80s. He was a faithful member of Wauhatchie United Methodist Church for 59 years where he served in a multitude of capacities including Sunday School teacher, song leader, youth leader and Administrative Council chair. He was preceded in death by his parents; his son, Gregory Steven Brooks; brothers and sisters, Ruth, Helen, Herbert, Jim, Catherine, Dorothy and David; favorite parent in-laws Connie and Eula Slagle. He is survived by his wife, Mary Frances Slagle Brooks, his children, Melia (Eddie) Reeves, Barry (Alyce) Brooks, Mary Jane (Stuart) Goza and Susan (Randy) OMary; 11 grandchildren and their spouses; 16 great-grandchildren; and many dear, beloved family members across the country. The family would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and staff of Life Care of East Ridge, Memorial Hospital and Hearth Hospice for their extraordinary care over the past few weeks. Memorial gifts can be made to Wauhatchie United Methodist Church Memorial Fund, 3401 Cummings Highway, Chattanooga, Tn. 37419. Visitation will be held at Chattanooga Funeral Home, East Chapel on Wednesday, March 4, from 4-8 p.m. and from 12:30-2 p.m. on Thursday at the church. Services will be held on Thursday, March 5, at Wauhatchie United Methodist Church at 2 p.m. with Pastor Tommy Messer officiating. Please share your thoughts and memories of Carl at www.chattanoogaeastchapel.com. Arrangements are by the East Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 404 S. Moore Road, East Ridge, Tn. 37412. (CNN) Severe storms and at least one tornado slammed through central Tennessee, killing 24 people and wrecking hundreds of buildings hours before dawn on Tuesday. "It's a tragic day in our state," Gov. Bill Lee told reporters. "It's heartbreaking." Initial surveys indicated EF-3 tornado damage in East Nashville, Nashville's Donelson neighborhood and in Mt. Juliet, a town about 20 miles east of Nashville, the National Weather Service said. Among the victims was a couple who was hit by debris shortly after they left the Attaboy Lounge, an East Nashville cocktail bar where one of them worked, the Metro Nashville Police Department said. They were identified as Michael Dolfini, 36, and his girlfriend, Albree Sexton, 33. As of Tuesday evening, 18 people were reported dead in Putnam County, three in Wilson County, two in Davidson County and one in Benton County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Authority said. The agency said one death previously reported in Putnam County was not storm related. Putnam County officials have said they are working to locate 77 people who are unaccounted for. Hours after the powerful storm hit the area, local officials were still searching through piles of rubble for survivors. And volunteers began to clean up the numerous homes, restaurants and churches, like the East End United Methodist in Nashville, that were left in ruins. "We've got to go through that and make sure that nobody was left behind," said Mayor John Cooper, adding that 48 buildings collapsed, others were damaged and about 150 people were taken to hospitals because of the storm. In Nashville's Germantown area alone, parts of apartment and other multi-story buildings were ripped open, with bricks, roofing material and glass strewn about, images from CNN affiliate WTVF showed. 'I've never been so scared in life,' resident says Michelle Whitten and her three children rushed to hide in a closet in her Nashville home right before the walls began to shake. "As soon as we did that, we hear the wind howling, as it's over the house and hear something like a train over us. The house started to shake and windows shattered, we could hear ... loud boom sounds," she told CNN. "I've never been so scared in my life!" Whitten said she was sleeping when a friend called her, warning her that they could be in the tornado's path. In Germantown, scraps of wood and metal lined the street as people stood outside in their pajamas with their pets surveying the damage. Robin Fugett and her husband ran to the basement of their East Nashville home early Tuesday when they heard swirling wind. Seconds later, her home was momentarily lifted off its foundation, she told CNN. Her home is standing, with roof and siding damage. Houses a block away were flattened, she said. "I've never felt anything like that before. I am ... very lucky that I was able to come to work today," said Fugett, a convenience store employee. Country music artist Taylor Hicks, Season 5 winner of "American Idol" in 2006, told HLN the tornado damaged homes near where he lives in Germantown. "There's homes leveled. There's churches that have been hit by this. There's been a lot of people that's been affected in downtown Nashville. It's been a rough night," Hicks said. Nighttime tornadoes are not unusual in the Southeast, where tornado season extends into the winter months, when daylight is shorter. President Trump said he intended to visit Tennessee on Friday; details weren't immediately released. "We send our love and our prayers of the nation to every family that was affected, and ... we will recover and will rebuild," Trump said Tuesday at the National Association of Counties conference in Washington. Homes are destroyed in Mt. Juliet The damage stretched far beyond Nashville and across several counties. Tornadoes were reported several times along a 145-mile stretch, including in the small city of Camden just after 11 p.m. CT; in Nashville after midnight; and in the Cookeville area in Putnam County shortly before 2 a.m., the National Weather Service said. It wasn't immediately clear how many tornadoes struck the region, as the same tornado might have hit multiple areas, the weather service said. In Mt. Juliet, the storm tore apart homes and other buildings, obliterating their roofs and scattering debris across yards, aerial video from CNN affiliate WSMV showed. A tornado that came from the Nashville area entered Wilson County, home to Mt. Juliet, and appeared to have stayed on the ground as it traversed the county eastward near Interstate 40, Wilson County Emergency Management Director Joey Cooper said. Several subdivisions were destroyed and hundreds of people in Wilson County have been displaced, Cooper said. An unspecified number of people were injured in Mt. Juliet, and police were searching for others who might be hurt, police said. Schools in Wilson County will be closed for the rest of the week because of storm damage, the county sheriff's office said. The storm flattened parts of West Wilson Middle School, video from WSMV showed. Further to the east, a tornado wreaked havoc in Putnam County, where so far most of the deaths have been reported. A tornado touched down between the cities of Cookeville and Baxter, the Putnam County Sheriff's Department said. Some of the worst-hit areas are in Charleton Square, Plunk Whitson, Echo Valley and Prosperity Point, the department said. "We have multiple homes that have been destroyed. ... Some of the roads are impassable," Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. Search and rescue teams are trying to inspect damaged homes "to make sure we haven't missed anyone," Porter said. Voting delayed in Davidson and Wilson Counties The storms came as Tennessee prepared to join other states for Super Tuesday presidential primary voting. In Davidson County, where Nashville is, and Wilson County, voting was delayed one hour because of the storms, officials said. A county judge ruled Tuesday afternoon that all polling locations in Davidson will stay open for an extra hour after a lawsuit was filed by the Democratic Party and the four top presidential campaigns. More than 35,000 customers in Nashville remained without power as of Tuesday evening, according to the Nashville Electric Service. The utility said power poles were destroyed or damaged in the storms and crews were "having trouble getting to impacted areas." Metro Nashville Public Schools are closed due to tornado damage throughout the city, the district said. Election polling sites at school facilities will be open unless otherwise noted, it said. Several shelters in the area have been opened for displaced people, the Nashville Emergency Operations Center said. John C. Tune Airport in West Nashville also "sustained significant damage," according to a tweet from Nashville International Airport, which did not suffer any apparent damage. Correction: This story has been updated with the correct number of victims, following an update from Tennessee's emergency management officials. This story was first published on CNN.com "24 people are dead after a tornado ripped through Tennessee and destroyed numerous homes" TUSCALOOSA, Ala. A judge in Alabama has delayed the reckless murder trial of a former NASA astronaut charged in a crash that killed two girls four years ago, court records show. Former space shuttle commander James Halsell of Huntsville was set to go on trial Monday. But the defense requested a postponement citing the death of the father of lead attorney Jim Sturdivant, and a judge agreed in an order filed Sunday. No new date was set. Halsell, 63, was arrested after a car crash killed two sisters, 11-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrick Parler, in 2016 and severely injured their father and a woman. Authorities contend he was under the influence of alcohol, but the defense blames the wreck on sleeping medication. Halsell, who is free on bond, flew five shuttle missions before retiring from NASA in 2006 with more than 1,200 hours in space. He worked in the private aerospace industry before the crash. The staff representatives claim that the medium posted misleading information about Trump's ties with Russia and applying pressure on the electoral process in 2016 President Donald Trump was visibly elated on Wednesday as Muellers testimony in back-to-back hearings unfolded on national television/Alex Brandon/AP Photo AP photo The electoral staff of U.S. President Donald Trump sued The Washington Post, charging the outlet with spreading deliberately false information. The Hill posted that on March 3. The lawsuit was filed on Monday. According to the staff members, the newspaper posted misleading information about Trump's ties with Russia and applying pressure on the electoral process during the election in 2016. "The lawsuit cites two Washington Post opinion pieces from June 2019, one which said that then-special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the Trump campaign tried to conspire with a sweeping and systematic attack by Russia in the 2016 election", reads the story. According to The Hill, "the lawsuit faces long odds in court. To succeed, the campaign will have to carry the heavy burden of proving that the Posts claims were false statements of fact, and were published with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth". Earlier, Donald Trump said that he would like to see reconciliation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. "I would like them to agree. If they ... got along with each other, it would be wonderful for the whole world", he said. (Newser) Three people died Tuesday when a small plane crashed and burst into flames on Interstate 55 in central Illinois, state police say. Mindy Carroll of the Illinois State Police said in a statement that all three occupants of the plane were killed in the crash in Lincoln, 170 miles southwest of Chicago, at about 8:49am, the AP reports. "The plane became fully engulfed upon impact in the middle of the interstate," police said. The National Transportation Safety Board described the aircraft as a single-engine Cessna 172. Authorities have not described what caused the crash. The NTSB said it is investigating. Police said multiple law enforcement agencies responded and I-55 was closed to traffic for several hours. (Read more plane crash stories.) Press Release March 4, 2020 Senate adopts resolution allowing ABS-CBN to operate beyond franchise expiration The Senate on Wednesday adopted a resolution "expressing the sense of the Senate" to allow television giant ABS-CBN Corp. and its subsidiaries to operate beyond the expiration of its franchise set on May 4, 2020. Senate Resolution 6, filed by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on February 26, 2020, expresses the sense of the Senate that ABS-CBN "should continue to operate pending final determination of the renewal of its franchise by the 18th Congress." The resolution, in consideration with Senate Resolutions 7, 8 and 344 filed by "almost all" senators, was adopted without any objection from among those present in plenary. The adopted resolution can be used as basis by the National Telecommunications Commission to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority to continue its broadcast operations after the franchise expires. During the previous hearing of the Committee on Public Services, chaired by Sen. Grace Poe, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra suggested that Congress should allow, through a resolution, NTC to issue a provisional authority to operate to ABS-CBN Corp. During interpellation and period of amendments, Drilon agreed that his concurrent resolution be made a simple resolution since the same does not have "the force and effect of the law." Replying to the question of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, Drilon explained that the concurrent resolution does not have the force and effect of a law. "It only formally conveys the sense of the Senate about extending the franchise and does not need the signature of the President," Drilon said. Senate President Vicente Sotto III, at the start of the interpellation, asked why the NTC needs Congress to come out with a resolution when it issued in the past provisional authorities to operate to several corporate giants such as GMA 7, Smart Communications and CBCP, among others. Drilon said the resolution, though just an expression of the sense of the Senate, "would give some degree of legal stability" if Congress could issue authority to the NTC. Asked by Sen. Francis Tolentino as to how it would affect the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, Drilon said the matter before the Supreme Court is separate from the resolution to be adopted by the Senate. "Let the ABS-CBN defend its position before the Supreme Court... (and) it's the look-out of the Supreme Court (Justices) if they will be influenced (by the resolution)," Drilon said. Yves here. I firmed up Richard Murphys headline a bit but its clear he thinks the economy will go into freefall if individuals have to foot too much of the costs of the probable coronavirus pandemic. He already discussed the obvious, that a rate cut never stopped a virus. More generally, its important now to start staking out how losses should be apportioned. Readers recognize the banks got away with the greatest looting of the public purse in history in 2008 and 2009. We cant afford societally to let something like that happen again. And to Murphys targets, banks and landlords, Americans need to add the health care industry, particularly supposedly not for profit hospital chains with lavishly-paid executives, and Big Pharma. But the health care sector as a whole is fairly highly leveraged. So expect them to bleat about possible failure to avert the attention from the need to curtail top level pay and staffing levels. By Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and a political economist. He has been described by the Guardian newspaper as an anti-poverty campaigner and tax expert. He is Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London and Director of Tax Research UK. He is a non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics. He is a member of the Progressive Economy Forum. Originally published at Tax Research UK I have already discussed the potential economic implications of coronavirus this morning. The purpose of this blog is to summarise the underlying economic logic of what I have said. We will have an economic crisis in 2020 as a result of coronavirus. There can now be no doubt of that; the likelihood that this epidemic can now be contained seems to be very low indeed. The evidence from China is that the impact on productivity and the economy at large is enormous. Whether we can survive the impact of this epidemic without major economic consequences arising is largely dependent upon the effectiveness of the planning that the government undertakes now. What is apparent is that at present there are a few signs that this planning is taking place. We can hope for it in the forthcoming budget, but the signs are, so far, not good. The key issue that the government has to decide upon is who will bear the economic consequences of what is to happen. I have already indicated in my first post on this issue that I think that the consequences of this epidemic will fall upon three clearly identifiable groups, which are individuals, businesses and government. However, when appraising who will bear the cost the criteria are slightly different. It is unacceptable that individuals bear the cost of this crisis. There is simply too little economic resilience within the population as a whole for that to be the case. Far too many people have too few savings to survive major periods of economic inactivity without massive prejudice to their short-term and long-term well-being. In addition, it is unacceptable that many businesses should fail through no fault of their own but that is what will happen unless the government steps in to prevent the major economic downturn that might happen this year. Cash flow issues will cripple many companies. In that case it would seem that consequences of what might happen will fall, in the first instance, on the government. As I explained in my previous post, the government can afford to bear a substantial cost from this epidemic precisely because it alone in the economy can suffer a cash flow crisis without risk arising. That is because the government of a country like the UK which has its own central bank and its own currency always has the means to create as much cash as their economy needs. This is, if ever there was a time to do so, the moment to appreciate that fact and use that ability. But that is not to say that there are no costs to an epidemic: clearly there are. In that case the question has to be asked as to who should bear that cost. There are three groups who should. Firstly, landlords should. I have already suggested that should the epidemic spread then as a matter of statutory right any tenant should be provided with a minimum three-month rent-free period to ease the stress upon them whilst this crisis last. I would suggest that the grant of that extension should be automatic to anyone who does not make a due payment of rent on the required date during the period of the epidemic. They should be automatically granted this extension by the landlord without having to make any further application or to complete any additional paperwork. I stress that the cost of this will fall directly upon the landlords in question. I am quite deliberately suggesting that they should bear the heaviest burden of dealing with the epidemic. The reason is simple and is that whatever happens they will still have an asset at the end of this period, and no other sector can guarantee that at present. As a consequence they have the greatest capacity to bear this cost. And, if it so happens that some landlords do fail as a consequence, the assets that they have owned will still exist after this failure and so the economy can manage the consequences of this. Second, I suggest that the costs of this crisis fall upon the finance sector. This is because, as I have also noted in my previous post, I think that anyone who has a mortgage or loan (including a lease) that they cannot afford to meet during the course of the epidemic period should be granted an automatic three-month extension to their loan period, which period might again be extended if the epidemic lasts longer than is expected. Once more I suggest that there should be no need to apply for this extension: simple default should be enough to trigger it. I am not in this case suggesting that the interest owing not be due though: it could be settled at the end of the loan. What I am saying is that cash flow must be eased. What these two, straightforward, recommendations suggest is that it is those with wealth, and not those with low incomes or tight cash flows who should bear the burden of this crisis. That meets any definition of justice that I know of. But in both cases I am also being realistic: the value of financial assets of banks and other lenders is being preserved by this recommendation when if loan waivers were not in place it is likely that they would be prejudiced, whilst the value of land assets is not in any way diminished as a result of there being a rent-free period imposed for an external reason. To be blunt, given the risk that both the financial and rental sectors face as a result of an epidemic the proposed automatic waivers leave them in a better position than they would be in without them. And what of government, which is the third party to suffer a loss? Its risk can be covered by coronavirus quantitative easing. A plan of this sort is urgently needed, and now. Reuters Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday to allow banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from exchanges and traders, overturning a ban on such dealings by the central bank that had come as a major blow to the thriving industry. The Reserve Bank of India had ordered financial institutions to break off all ties with individuals or businesses dealing in virtual currency such as Bitcoin within three months, in April 2018. (Also read: Facebook Libra: Here's how it could impact the Indian regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies) The ban led to plummeting trade volumes and exchanges shutting their businesses. Investments had stopped and start-ups were staying away from starting business in the crypto and blockchain space in India which will change now that the Supreme Court has said that the RBI circular was unconstitutional, said Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange. However, the industry still faces hurdles as a government panel, appointed to look into the matter, has recommended that India ought to ban all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies. The government though is yet to act on these recommendations and is yet to finalse regulations around cryptocurrencies. On several occasions, the government along with the central bank, had cautioned the public about the risks of cryptocurrencies. If the government follows the panels recommendations, it could signal the end of the road for these digital currencies in India. Kabul: The US hit Taliban fighters with an air strike for the first time in 11 days in response to an insurgent attack on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, an American military spokesman said. "The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted. Taliban militants killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials said on Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had a "very good" chat with their political chief. Famous Knife Angel sculpture to be displayed in Wrexham town centre in July This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 News that the famous Knife Angel will be on display in Wrexham town centre later this summer has been welcomed. Last week it was announced that the sculpture will be coming to Queens Square in July thanks to a partnership between North Wales Police, Coleg Cambria and the British Ironworks. The Angel, which is made up of more than 100,000 seized knives, aims to raise awareness of the negative effects and impacts on peoples lives that violent behaviour and knife crime can have. Leader of Wrexham Council, councillor Mark Pritchard, said he was delighted that a nationally significant piece of art with a very serious message would be in display within the town. We have been working with the British Ironworks over the last few months, explained Cllr Pritchard. The hosting of such a high profile event by Wrexham shows the significance and the key role that Wrexham plays in Wales and the North Wales Region. I would like to thank everyone involved in bringing this important piece of art to Wrexham. Councillor Terry Evans, lead member for economy and regeneration, said: This is great news for the town centre both in terms of having another high profile event to support our regeneration programme for the town but also supports the message we want to encourage people to heed in terms of the danger of carrying a knife and the potential consequences. The angels time in Wrexham will also include a 28-days of intensive educational programmes and workshops for young people. Host locations are asked to utilise the angel as a point of tuition in order to ignite conversation over difficult subjects surrounding aggressive behaviour, carrying weaponry, and using violence as a resource for addressing problems. Following Newtowns success with their campaign, Wrexham will also be committed to hopefully deputising a minimum of 10,000 children and young people into becoming Anti-Violence Champions. Additionally, Wrexham will be provided with a knife bank during the angels stay. Following their hosting period, all blades collected through this amnesty will be handed back to ourselves by the North Wales Police and will be used to create and continue the Angels legacy within Wales. Councillor Hugh Jones Lead Member for Community Safety stated The Knife Angel will enable us to get our the community safety message about the potential consequences of knife carrying not just in terms of a one off event, but in terms of a full educational programme for our local communities. Inspector Vic Powell of North Wales Police added: The Knife Angel is a crucially important concept and seeks to remind all of us of the potential tragedy associated with knife crime. It is incumbent on the community to come together to understand the significance of this event and use the Angel as a starting point in making North Wales an even safer place in which to live, work and visit. WASHINGTON - Senate leaders and the Trump administration have reached an election-year deal to double spending on a popular conservation program and devote more than a $1 billion a year to clear a growing maintenance backlog at national parks. The deal, announced Wednesday by senators from both parties, would spend about $2.2 billion per year on conservation and outdoor recreation projects and park maintenance across the country. If approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, the bill will be the most significant conservation legislation enacted by Congress in nearly half a century, said veteran Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Alexander was one of 12 senators from both parties who hailed the bill at a news conference Wednesday. The breakthrough, which is supported by the leaders of both parties, came as Trump tweeted support for the proposal despite repeatedly trying to slash spending for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in recent years. The program uses federal royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for conservation and public recreation projects around the country. The 55-year-old-fund is authorized to collect $900 million a year but generally receives less than half that amount from Congress. The plan announced Wednesday would fully fund the conservation program and add $1.3 billion a year for deferred park maintenance. The proposed $900 million for land and water conservation is nearly double the $485 million Congress approved this year and 60 times larger than the $15 million Trump proposed in his 2021 budget last month. Trump credited Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines of Montana for his change of heart. ALL thanks to @SenCoryGardner and @SteveDaines, two GREAT Conservative Leaders! Trump tweeted. Both Daines and Gardner are seeking reelection this year, and Gardner is considered one of the Senates most vulnerable incumbents. Gardner, who went to the White House with Daines last week to lobby Trump on the bill, denied that politics played a role in the presidents reversal. He and Daines said they showed Trump pictures and maps of their states and stressed the importance of conservation in the West. They also noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backs the bill. Im not going to try to play politics or point partisan fingers, Gardner told reporters Wednesday. Im going to focus on the good the great outdoors does. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he didnt care about the plans politics, only that it helped his state and others across the country. Politics be dammed, lets get this done, Manchin said, standing next to Gardner at a Capitol news conference. Daines also downplayed the bills politics, saying, This is a bipartisan moment. This is about doing the right thing for America, added Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, the Democratic front-runner to challenge Gardner, said in a tweet that Gardner supported cuts to the conservation fund as recently as 2018. Gardner also voted to confirm former oil and coal lobbyist David Bernhardt as interior secretary. Only President Trump would praise a record like this, Hickenlooper said. Trump predicted Congress will approve the plan, which helps address a $12 billion backlog in maintenance of national parks. When I sign it into law, it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands, Trump said in a tweet. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., called Trumps tweet good news, but added, Its almost too good to be true. At a budget hearing Wednesday, Bernhardt joked that Trumps tweet caused heart palpitations at the White House budget office, but said he and the rest of Trumps administration support full funding for the conservation program and for clearing the maintenance backlog, a longtime priority of interior secretaries of both parties. The president made his comment and Im pretty 100% confident everybodys getting in line, Bernhardt said. He called the proposal a tremendous opportunity for conservation in America and urged Congress to seize the day. Udall praised Trumps political instincts, saying, the president was right to sense that this is a popular issue. A recent poll found that 70% of Westerners, including majorities of both parties, support full funding of the conservation program. If the president is sincere in abandoning his administrations previous attempts to gut the fund, he and other Democrats are eager to work across party lines to get this done for the American people and for future generations, Udall said. Sen. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash., called the Land and Water Conservation Fund the nations most successful conservation program. The late Washington Sen. Henry Scoop Jackson helped create the program in the mid-1960s, but over the years it has been shortchanged by more than $20 billion, Cantwell said. Thats why I am so grateful that our years of effort to get full and permanent funding for LWCF now has the bipartisan support we need to make it the law of the land. At the same time, the bill will address an unacceptable maintenance backlog at national parks like Olympic and Mount Rainier in her state, Cantwell said. Passing this legislation will be a huge boost for the outdoor recreation economy, she said. Bills to boost the conservation fund and address the maintenance backlog have bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled House. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Home was the theme of Mayor Rosalynn Bliss 2020 State of the City address as she recapped 2019 and previewed the year to come. The fifth-year mayor said Grand Rapids isnt just a nice place to live; Its the best place to live. Our mission is to make sure there is a space for everyone, Bliss said. "A space where people feel safe and where they feel they belong. We want them to choose this community to live, work, raise their families and retire. We want to be a home for business and economic vitality. And we want all of our residents including our most vulnerable: those who are sick, struggling with poverty or homeless to have a safe place to call home. Bliss gave a nearly 45-minute speech Tuesday evening, March 3, in front of a packed crowd of invited guests at The High Five event venue at 19 La Grave Ave. SE. Tuesdays address was also streamed on Facebook Live, here. The mayor didnt introduce any new initiatives. She used the annual community address to highlight city achievements from 2019, and outline priorities for the coming year. She touched on common themes from previous addresses including affordable housing, economic growth, strengthening neighborhoods, reducing lead poisoning, improving parks, fostering equity, reducing homelessness, and improving environmental sustainability. Grand Rapids Community College President Bill Pink introduced Bliss to the stage Tuesday evening. He called the mayor a partner in progress who, despite being a part-time mayor, works overtime to provide leadership in the community. Here are five takeaways from what Bliss said Tuesday night: 1. Addressing homelessness Individual adults experiencing homelessness decreased between 2016 and 2018, but families coming into the homeless system increased by 47 percent during that time. Bliss said there are nearly as many children in the homeless system in Kent County as the number of third grade students who are proficient in reading in the county. This has been and continues to be unacceptable," Bliss said. And yet it happens here, in West Michigan, every day. Even in the bitter cold of winter. There are real lives behind these statistics. Real hopes and dreams that may not be realized because of tragic circumstances. And as an increasing number of people call Grand Rapids home its more important than ever to make sure families have a place to call home. City officials are working with K Connect and other community stakeholders to identify root causes of homelessness and analyze the local system to determine if there are gaps that individuals are falling through. In 2020, Bliss said the city hopes to create a homeless outreach team made up of members trained by the police, fire and community development departments to more effectively respond to individuals struggling with mental health and/or substance abuse. We want them to get the help they need and not end up in our jail or emergency rooms, Bliss said. Ultimately, we want them to have a place to call home. During the first half of the year, the mayor is working with the Housing Stability Alliance to establish an action plan to improve the system. In the meantime, a recent network known as GRACE -- Gather Resources and Align Community Effort -- was created earlier this year to connect more than a dozen social service agencies in Grand Rapids with the shared goal of ending homelessness. Our community is building bridges across fields to make housing opportunities and community wellness a shared priority, Bliss said. 2. Recruiting and retaining businesses Bliss called small businesses the heart of our local economy. In 2019, city officials made it a goal to diversify the business community by supporting more minority- and women-owned businesses. The city did so, through the Downtown Development Authority, with more than $200,000 in grants. Success stories touted by Bliss on Tuesday included Ambiance, Mosbys Popcorn, Mel Styles, GR Noir, Oh Hello, and Art Caribbean. The city also partnered with the Grand Rapids Chamber and the Downtown Development Authority on a retail retention and recruitment initiative. The project includes a citywide market analysis. It also includes the hiring of a specialist to support current and new small businesses by removing barriers at City Hall and helping entrepreneurs through the permit and approval processes. All of these initiatives are pointing us in the right direction for a better future, Bliss said. Yet our hometown is more than just our vibrant economic development plans. We know better than most other cities that a hometown is nothing without strong and safe neighborhoods. 3. Supporting neighborhoods Each year, Bliss said the city supports neighborhood associations with about $600,000 in community development block grant funding. In 2019, more than $96,000 was allocated from the neighborhood match fund and awarded to 46 neighborhood-driven projects. Bliss gave The Black Book Exchange House as an example of one of those projects. The project aims to build awareness of African-American culture and creativity by creating spaces for black literature like the taxi Cab in Madison Square and Out of Africa in Easttown. For our neighborhoods to be truly strong, we need to make home ownership affordable, Bliss said. Over the last two years, Grand Rapids has seen an increase of 250 affordable housing units and another 800 are under construction or planned. This is a move in a positive direction but represents just a fraction of the affordable housing we need in our community which is why we will continue our work on this critical issue this year, Bliss said. In August, the city contracted with the United Way of Ottawa Countys Housing Next initiative to conduct a county-wide housing analysis to gauge the housing supply and demand. The bill for the study is about $20,900. The city will also pay $92,625 for nine months of coordination and housing analysis work led by Housing Next CEO Ryan Kilpatrick. 4. Tackling lead poisoning New businesses, better neighborhoods and more affordable housing doesnt mean much if our homes are toxic, Bliss said. Last year, the city partnered with Kent County on a lead poisoning public awareness and education campaign. Grand Rapids also received a $4.2 million federal grant to remediate lead in homes. Those effort will continue into 2020, but Bliss said the city will also look to implement recommendations from the Lead Free Kids Committee to improve the housing code, inspections and enforcement procedures. To move this work forward and ensure progress, we must take a multi-jurisdictional approach that combines efforts from the city, county and state, Bliss said. 5. Marijuana Marijuana -- both recreational and medical -- have been significant topics of conversation at the city commission level in recent years. Last month, city officials reached a standstill when some wanted to press pause on accepting any more marijuana business applications until the medical marijuana ordinance could be improved and a recreational marijuana ordinance could be created. On Tuesday, Bliss assured residents that there have been no changes to the medical marijuana approval process. In regards to recreational marijuana, the commission continues our work as local ownership and equity are important factors in moving forward, she said. The citys timeline for recreational marijuana sales remains in limbo after commissioners couldnt reach an agreement at their Feb. 25 meeting. Theyll likely discuss the issue again at their next commission meeting on Tuesday, March 17. Read more: A look back at Rosalynn Bliss first term as Grand Rapids mayor How residents evaluated police, education, life in Grand Rapids State police identify 3 Ultimate Frisbee teammates killed in crash The government published its plans to contain the coronavirus. (PA) Up to a fifth of the entire workforce could be absent from work if the coronavirus outbreak significantly escalates in the UK, according to the government. The government published its plan for tackling the coronavirus on Tuesday, with a plan to research, contain, delay and mitigate the virus. The plan says previous disease outbreaks mean widespread exposure may be inevitable in the UK, but says slowing down its spread is still key. The report says officials are uncertain about the impact on UK businesses, but say it is possible as many as one in five employees could be absent in a stretching scenario. Police could be forced to concentrate on serious crimes and maintaining public order if a significant number of officers and staff are forced to stay at home. Read more: Hand sanitiser sales soar 255% as coronavirus fears grow The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK is now at 51, health secretary Matt Hancock has said. Meanwhile NHS and Northern Irish health services may delay non-urgent care and bring staff on leave and even retired workers back on duty if they suffer similar staffing problems. All the emergency services are drawing up contingency plans to sustain their critical functions if available staff numbers drop. The government may consider actively encouraging UK employees to work from home if the disease becomes more established in the UK. Official advice has been released for employers, with some firms already closing their offices after cases have been confirmed among individual staff. The report notes that lower staffing levels mean everyone will face increased pressures at work, and says supporting staff welfare is critical. Read more: World Health Organization (WHO) urges people to use cards not banknotes to avoid spreading virus Other radical measures the government may consider if the situation deteriorates include reducing the number of large-scale gatherings and wider school closures. Prime minister Boris Johnson said in a press conference on Tuesday morning the army was ready to back-fill to assist the police if needed, but stressed that was in a reasonable worst-case scenario. Story continues Official NHS advice is for people with potential symptoms to call the 111 coronavirus advice line rather than attending a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. They may then be asked to self-isolate for up to 14 days, staying away from work, public transport and avoiding visitors. The public have been urged to wash their hands with soap regularly, only share reliable information and check up on family, friends and neighbours. Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, who spoke alongside Johnson at the press conference, that around 1% of people who contract the virus might end up dying. The vulnerable and elderly are particularly at risk. But Johnson sought to reassure the public after outlining the governments plans and advice. I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual, he said. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK The United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., on Sept. 19, 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) China Vies to Run UN Patent Office in Bid for Fifth Leadership GENEVAA Chinese lawyer is one of two Asian favorites to head the world patent office, a post that would give Beijing its fifth UN leadership role and, according to its critics, an unprecedented level of influence over new technologies. Voting opened on Mar. 4 at the 193-member Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property and oversees a patent system in which China and its firms, like telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, have a growing stake. The Coordinating Committee, a group of 83 countries chaired by France, met behind closed doors to choose a nominee. Whoever is chosen needs to be confirmed at a general assembly in May. Chinas Wang Binying, a career diplomat and a senior manager at the agency, and Singapores Daren Tang are among the favorites of six candidates, diplomats and former employees say, in what one of them described as a polarized election. Under the leadership of outgoing Australian Director-General Francis Gurry, WIPO has overseen an explosion in patent filings and has begun preliminary talks on whether artificial intelligence, or machines, can be inventors. The U.N. agency, unlike many others which are underfunded, expects revenues of 880 million Swiss francs ($921 million) in 2020-2021, mostly due to patent filing fees, it says on its website. China already has its nationals heading four UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. That is more than any other member state in what the International Crisis Groups Richard Gowan described as part of a bid to win more influence within the world body, especially in economic and development fields. Watching Very, Very Closely Intellectual property (IP) has been at the heart of a trade war between the United States, which along with other Western countries backs Tang, and China. However, a January trade deal includes stronger Chinese legal protections for patents. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters last month that Washington was following the vote very, very closely and would make sure that whoever runs that organization understands the importance of enforcing intellectual property rights across nations and across boundaries. The other candidates in the running are from Ghana, Peru, Colombia and Kazakhstan. Candidates have been showcased at cocktail parties and missions have exchanged note verbale with vote pledges in recent weeks, diplomats said. WIPO members vote by secret ballot and campaign videos have not been made public. By Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay Thousands of protesters demonstrated Tuesday in Paris and in the provinces against as the French parliament was preparing to vote on a no-confidence motion against the adoption of article 49-3 that would allow the government to push through controversial pension reforms. Initially labour unions had planned a day of action on March 31, but after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe invoked article 49-3 of the constitution, which allows the government to force the adoption of a law over the weekend, they decided to take the streets earlier. Philippe invoked the article out of frustration after opposition parties filed a staggering 41,000 amendments to the governments' reform plans in an attempt to slow down the process. A general strike was announced on Monday, but on Tuesday, public transport worked normally throughout the country. The demonstrators marched from Place de la Republique to the Madeleine Church. Organizers estimated the total participants at some 20.000. Votes of no confidence Article 49-3 can only be stopped by a vote of no confidence. Opposition parties submitted two motions of no-confidence, one sponsored by the right wing Les Republicains (LR) which was also backed by the ultra right Rassemblement National (ex Front National) of Marine Le Pen, the other by a group of left wing parties, including the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the hard-left La France Insoumise of Jean-Luc Melenchon. However, it is unlikely that either motion will pass, as the ruling parte of Emmanuel Macron, La Republique En Marche (LREM) enjoys an absolute majority of 297 seats in the 577 seat parliament. However, the reform proposals will face hurdles when they are presented to the 348 seat senate, where LREM has only 21 seats, against LR 146 and the combined left wing 93 seats. When the Senate fails to agree with the proposals, they can be referred back to parliament. 49-3 degrees Earlier in the day, demonstrators carried slogans saying that the Coronavirus temperature has risen to 49-3 degrees, and we won't stop until the law has been withdrawn. People were shocked when the government surprised everybody by invoking 49-3, commented Catherine Perret, of the hardline CGT labor union. France is dealing with the coronavirus. It forced us to react quickly, it didn't leave us much time organize strikes. We will have to continue our actions. There is a lot of anger among employees, it is democracy denied, says Benoit Teste of the teachers union FSU. Funeral march In other places there were demonstrations as well. In Lille, in the north of France, some 400 people gathered in the city center. In Rennes, 80 lawyers (out of 900 registered at the bar) marched through the streets in a funeral march where the carried a coffin marked our beloved justice. In Bordeaux, about one thousand people demonstrated in front of the city hall. Some were wearing surgical masks marked, in red 49-3, referring to the constitutional article invoked by the government to push through the pension reforms. In Marseille, several thousand people marched in the morning, including the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez. Bernie Sanders has the grassroots backing a Democrat will need to win the presidential election in November. US Democratic presidential hopefuls Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg have ended their campaigns to unite moderate Democrats around Joe Biden, the candidate many party insiders and various pundits think has the best chance to take on US President Donald Trump in the US presidential elections in November. Biden-backers, Florida Democrats and James Carville, the Democratic Party strategist, all contend that Bernie Sanders has no chance of winning. Bidens Super Tuesday surge seems to indicate the support of Democratic delegates. But here is the thing they are wrong. The data suggests the exact opposite: Sanders is uniquely positioned to win the general election. The multiracial, working-class coalition emerging around Sanders particularly among Latinos, young people and Trump defectors could well propel the Vermont senator to victory. The task is mobilising these key constituencies, which the Sanders campaign is best positioned to do. The danger is not that he is too radical. The real challenge for Sanders and the Democrats is that if their organisers rely too much on technology identifying previous voters and not enough on working with groups on the ground to get out the vote, it will not be enough. Why is the ground game so important this year? One reason is the makeup of this years electorate, which is unlike any we have seen in past years. First, this year there will be more Latino voters than in the past. According to the Pew Research Center, there will be close to five million more Latino voters in 2020 than in 2016. From 2014 to 2018, the non-profit, Voto Latino, found 295 percent growth in Latinos registered voters (so, nearly four times as many) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. If what we saw in the Nevada caucus, where more than half of Latinos supported Sanders, plays out elsewhere in the nation, then Bernie should gain thousands of new supporters in states where Trump eked out a win in 2016. There is also young people, who feel the Bern perhaps more than any other group. The numbers speak for themselves; upwards of 60 percent of Democrat voters under the age of 30 support either Bernie or Elizabeth Warren. And when we look at the general electorate as a whole, young people under 30 will comprise 37 percent of the electorate in 2020, up from 31 percent in 2016. Then there are the folks who voted for Trump in the last election. In 2016, some of Sanders primary voters went for Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. It is hard to say if this group will defect in the event of a Sanders nomination, yet the central issues that Sanders continues to trumpet, such as affordable healthcare and increased wages, should appeal to disaffected Midwesterners who turned to Trump in 2016. The Sanders camp will need to avoid following the standard Democrat rulebook for getting out the vote, with its over-reliance on technology, however, or Trump will be re-elected. From the Clinton campaign in 2016 to date, most Democratic operations have relied on a broad range of technologies to identify and target prime voters those who are registered and have voted previously. While such technologies may help locate already-registered voters, many young people and Latinos have never voted before. How do you identify them? The only way is to engage actively with grassroots organisations. Approximately 15 million people have participated in protests since the 2016 presidential election. These actions have not only been against Trump; they include the Fight for $15 campaign on the minimum wage, movements pushing for immigrant rights, a resurgent womens movement and groups of young people who are concerned with the lack of government action concerning climate change. Historically, protest movements have raised new issues which were then taken up by political parties, which then sharply increased voter turnout. From 1840 to 1900, up to 80 percent of eligible voters regularly participated in elections. The ingredients are there again now and experts predict a record turnout in 2020. Crucially, protest movements have formed electoral wings. Out of the immigrant rights movement has come Mi Familia Vota, which encourages citizens to use their vote and is active in Florida and Texas where there are large Latino populations. Meanwhile, Indivisible, a grassroots movement with a mission to get more progressive leaders elected, has formed hundreds of local chapters around the country which not only support Democrats but also lean towards either Warren or Sanders. The Sunrise Movement, which focuses on climate change, galvanises young people to knock on doors and raise funds for candidates. And the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which claims nearly two million members, is devoting unprecedented resources to unseat Trump this year. The point is that these groups and their grassroots infrastructure more closely align with the Sanders campaign than with any other Democrat challenger. Whether we are discussing climate change, inequality and economic justice, racism and immigration reform, or solutions to the rising costs of healthcare and education debt crises, Bernie is at the forefront of championing these struggles. The political maths indicates that Bernie is the Democrat best placed to win. Numbers do not move themselves they need momentum. That is why Sanders grassroots-powered campaign is the most likely among the Democratic challengers to mobilise enough voters to beat Trump in November. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. The Delhi government has convened a special parent-teacher meeting (PTM) on March 4 and 5 in schools located in the violence-hit areas of northeast Delhi. "Special PTM has been convened in schools in northeast Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday. The Directorate of Education has said that on both days the PTM will be held in schools in the northeast and Shahdara districts. All children, teachers and parents are invited to these PTM meetings," said Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia. He said during this two-day PTM, students will be counselled. This will help build confidence in them. This is the reason that the Directorate of Education has decided to make students also a part of this PTM. Sisodia said, "The special PTM has been organised for the schools from the violence affected areas, in which schools and parents will get together to run the school smoothly and instil confidence in children." The Delhi government has kept the theme of this two-day special PTM as 'Come together and rekindle confidence in each other.' All the schools in the violence-hit northeast Delhi were closed by the Delhi government till March 7. As such, educational programmes were not currently being organised in these schools. Except for the Class 10 and 12 Board examinations, the Delhi government had also cancelled the examinations in all the schools in northeast Delhi till March 7. The findings of an inquest into the death of a mentally ill Ghanaian in the UK indicates that the deceased died from dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia "in plain sight" at an immigration centre. The 31-year-old Prince Kwabena Fosu's death was partly due to "gross failure" by agencies at the centre, the jury at West London Coroners Court said. Mr Fosu arrived in the UK from Ghana in April 2012 on a valid business visa, but it was cancelled at Heathrow Airport. He appealed but in September 2012, his appeal was rejected. In October, he was arrested: a passer-by called police after seeing him walking naked on a road in Kettering, Northamptonshire. At Corby police station, officers said he continued to act bizarrely and kept undressing, but medical professionals said he did not need to be sectioned. CCTV footage from within the station recorded him being told: "You're going to an immigration centre. They are going to look after you. Yeah?" Six days later he was dead in a filthy isolation cell at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. A BBC report indicates that Mr Fosu was left in an isolation cell for six days without bedding while he suffered from a psychotic illness. According to the report, Home Office said the standard of care had been "unacceptable" and new safeguarding steps had been introduced. Coroner Chinyere Inyama said that "almost unbelievably" Mr Fosu died "in plain sight" of many people at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. The jury found that procedures to protect vulnerable detainees at the centre were "grossly ineffective". Agencies running the centre and its healthcare failed to recognise, monitor and respond to the worsening condition of someone who was unable to look after himself, they found. Stripping the bedding and mattress from his cell without any lawful written authority was an indication of the "casual approach" of centre staff to Mr Fosu's welfare, the jury said in its conclusions. Speaking after the inquest, prisons and probations ombudsman Sue McAllister said it was "inhuman and degrading" for Mr Fosu to have been "segregated, living naked in a room dirty with faeces, urine and uneaten food" with no justification or review of the isolation. At the centre, healthcare services were in "chaos" after the previous provider had been "sacked" the year before, a healthcare manager told the inquest. A nurse assessed Mr Fosu in five minutes without seeing his medical notes, later telling the inquest she had done a "completely inadequate assessment" and was "out of her depth". Mr Fosu was seen by a cellmate to be acting oddly and talking to himself in the mirror. When approached by staff, Mr Fosu assaulted one of them and had to be restrained by at least three officers. Labelled as being disruptive and placed in segregation, Mr Fosu had no mattress or bedding and lay naked in his cell. The jury heard evidence that suggested he barely ate. Records showed that he drank a sip of tea and he appeared to sleep for only 45 minutes in six days. In less than a week, he lost 18 pounds (8kg), weighing 7 stone 6 pounds (47kg) when he died. 'Dirty protester' Detention centre staff records referred to him shuffling on his bottom, talking to himself in a language people couldn't understand, defecating in his cell and throwing food. Staff told the inquest they thought he was protesting about his removal, but no-one asked him about his behaviour. Because he urinated in his police cell before his transfer, he was labelled a "dirty protester". The inquest heard that there were five layers of subcontracting in the provision of healthcare for detainees. The Home Office contracted the running of the centre to GEO Group UK Ltd, which contracted healthcare to Nestor Primecare Services Ltd. It in turn contracted the recruitment of doctors to The Jersey Practice - a GP surgery in west London - which used a locum agency, Beacon Care Services Ltd. The jury said police, Home Office staff and GEO staff all failed to spot Mr Fosu's worsening condition and behaviour. GEO staff showed a "casual approach" to his welfare when they removed his bedding and mattress, which contributed to his hypothermia, they concluded. 'Ineffective and inadequate' The jury said the failure of Primecare staff to effectively provide healthcare to Mr Fosu was "inexplicable", while the GPs showed "insufficient professional curiosity". The Independent Monitoring Board, which was at the centre to monitor standards, was "ineffective and inadequate", the jury also concluded. Detention centre staff repeatedly said at the inquest that they expected healthcare staff to identify problems with detainees. The jury heard that Steve Scott, head of residence for GEO, had told an investigation into the death that he thought at the time that Mr Fosu was a "prat". Mental health nurse Lesley Dube said he could not remember seeing Mr Fosu but had written in detention centre notes that he had no mental health issues. He told the inquest he had not carried out a full mental health assessment, nor was he asked to. During Mr Fosu's time in isolation, he was seen by four family doctors, who were unfamiliar with all relevant detention centre rules and could not recall seeing Mr Fosu face-to-face in his cell. Two of those doctors made no notes about him in the GP records, while the other two noted he had declined to be seen but did not assess whether he was well enough to make that decision. The BBC has learned that three of these family doctors have since been referred to their regulator, the General Medical Council. The jury also found that staff at Corby police station "failed to react to Mr Fosu's challenging behaviour" and re-refer him to medical staff. It also concluded that opportunities were missed by the station's mental health team to fully look into Mr Fosu's medical background and history, "resulting in an inadequate mental health assessment". The Home Office conceded it had failed Mr Fosu with "tragic consequences", the jury heard. Philip Riley, director of detention and escorting services in immigration enforcement, said at the time staff did not have sufficient training or know how to manage detainees with potentially complex mental health issues, adding that the centre was severely short-staffed. A Home Office investigation identified learning opportunities on detainees in segregation and food and fluid refusal policies. A key failure identified had been healthcare and Home Office staff not seeing Mr Fosu in person. Responding to the inquest's findings, the department issued a statement in which it offered its "deepest condolences" to Mr Fosu's family. "The standard of care Mr Fosu received was unacceptable, and we must never allow this to happen again," a spokesman said. "Since Mr Fosu's death we have increased the number of staff in immigration removal centres, improved how detainees are managed and safeguarded, including the introduction of the Adults at Risk policy and increased monitoring of vulnerable people in detention." The Crown Prosecution Service had decided to charge GEO Group UK Ltd and Nestor Primecare Services Ltd with breaches in health and safety legislation but the charges were dropped in 2018. Since 2014, healthcare in removal centres has been commissioned by NHS England. But lawyers and charities working with detainees told the BBC they were still seeing cases where centres do not recognise the seriousness of mental illnesses and failings like some of those in the case of Mr Fosu recur. Mr Fosu's father, Prince Charles Obeng, told the BBC it had always been his son's wish to come to the UK. Now he is buried in a south London cemetery alongside three others, his father was told. There is a plaque with his name marking the grave, but Mr Obeng wants the government to pay for a headstone. "If someone is placed in an immigration centre, you have to check whether the person is eating, whether the person is sleeping, whether the person is sick - you try to take care of the person," he told the BBC. At his grave, Mr Obeng tells his son he prays that God will give him a better place to stay. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A married nursery worker, 20, who had sex with a 13-year-old boy and had his baby is facing jail after being found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child. Leah Cordice from Windsor, Berkshire, falsely claimed that the teenager raped her but a jury at Reading Crown Court rejected her version of events. Following the verdict, a judge told the court that if Cordice was a male 'custody would be almost inevitable'. Married nursery worker Leah Cordice, of Windsor, Berkshire, who had sex with a boy, 13, and had his baby sent the teen 'I love you' messages on WhatsApp, a court has been told Cordice - who was 17 when she seduced the victim - showed no emotion as the unanimous conviction was delivered today. Judge Peter Clarke QC then told the jury: 'I have got to consider a custodial sentence. 'To be sexist about this, if Leah was a young man of 17 years and the complainant was a 13-year-old girl, the sentence would be almost inevitable as far as custody is concerned. 'It is all very unfortunate for everyone, herself included, but I was struck, as I suspect you were, by her lack of self-awareness of what she was doing to the victim. Cordice also sent the boy messages complaining that he did not speak to her enough and she thought his new social media picture looked 'cute' 'It seems to me that one of the evils here is that, for the rest of his life, the victim will know that that baby girl is laying somewhere that he does not know about and that - I can say as a man - would be as scarring for a father as for a mother. That is a further matter I need to consider and the impact that it has had on him.' Cordice seduced the boy while he played on his Xbox in his bedroom, where she had pulled down his trousers and asked for sex. She also sent the teenager complimentary text messages and bought him presents of fish and chips. The victim will attend court with his parents to see Cordice sentenced next month and has prepared a victim impact statement. Cordice, 20, had met up with the boy twice a month for sex, the jury at Reading Crown Court heard Tara McCarthy, who was defending Cordice, said: 'This is a very sad situation all around and obviously, Your Honour, I will address you in terms of mitigation.' Cordice, who appeared in court wearing a camouflage jacket and a black top, was released on bail to await sentencing. Judge Clarke told her: 'I need to know more about you and your present circumstances. You should understand that I have to be considering an immediate custodial sentence.' He adjourned the case so that a probation report could be created about Cordice. She had sex with the boy twice a month for a period of time but the jury decided the affair had stopped before Cordice turned 18 years. They acquitted her of two other counts of sexual activity with a child which were alleged to have taken place when Cordice was 18. 17 Shares Share An outbreak of coronavirus disease in a nursing home near Seattle is prompting urgent calls for precautionary tactics at Americas elder care facilities, where residents are at heightened risk of serious complications from the illness because of the dual threat of age and close living conditions. As of Monday afternoon, the emergence of the novel contagious illness at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, had left four residents dead and others hospitalized, local health officials said. A health care worker also has been hospitalized. In total, Washington state has reported six deaths, officials said. Officials previously said that of the nursing homes 108 residents and 180 staff members, more than 50 have shown signs of possible COVID-19 infections, the name given the illness caused by a novel coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, China, late last year. Visits from families, volunteers and vendors have been halted and new admissions placed on hold, according to a statement from Ellie Basham, the centers executive director. Current residents and associates are being monitored closely, and any with symptoms or who were potentially exposed are quarantined, she wrote. The cluster of illness is the first of its type in the U.S., where 2.2 million people live in long-term care settings and may be at heightened risk because of age and underlying health conditions. We are very concerned about an outbreak in a setting where there are many older people, said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for the Seattle and King County public health agency. The American Health Care Association, which represents 13,500 nonprofit and for-profit facilities for seniors and disabled people, issued updated guidelines Saturday, in response to the Washington outbreak. The new virus is thought to spread primarily via droplets in the air, and the guidelines largely echo strategies recommended to stem the spread of other respiratory viruses, such as influenza. That includes frequent hand sanitation among staff and visitors, grouping people who become ill in the same room or wing, and asking family members who are sick to avoid in-person visits. But members had been anticipating cases of the new virus, said Dr. David Gifford, AHCAs chief medical officer and senior vice president of quality and regulatory affairs. Clearly, it signaled that its here and that what people knew was likely to come is closer to them than before, he said. COVID-19 has been identified in more than 85,000 people worldwide and led to nearly 3,000 deaths, including the first U.S. death reported Saturday in another Washington state man in his 50s. That man was not associated with the Kirkland nursing center, officials said. Studies of hospitalized patients in China suggest the median age of infection is in the 50s and that about 80% of COVID-19 cases are mild. However, a new summary in the journal JAMA reported that the virus has a case fatality rate of 1% to 2% overall and as high as 8% to 15% in older patients in China. That is alarming news for U.S. residents in long-term care settings, where illnesses caused by more common pathogens like norovirus and seasonal influenza often spread rapidly among residents, causing severe complications. Immune response wanes as people age, leaving them more vulnerable to infections of all types. Dr. Karl Steinberg, a geriatrician who serves as medical director for two nursing homes and as chief medical officer for a chain of 20 others in Southern California, said the news of COVID-19 cases at the Washington state nursing center is worrisome. Thats very scary, Steinberg said. It worries me that once it gets going, it will be really hard to control the spread. The situation may be akin to the spread of coronavirus on cruise ships, such as the Diamond Princess that was quarantined off the coast of Japan, with one key exception, Steinberg said. People on cruise ships can be confined to their rooms with minimal interaction with staff and fellow residents. People in nursing centers are there because they need help with activities of daily living, he noted. In the Washington state center, Duchin said, officials are advising health workers to separate cohorts of sick patients from those who remain well and to don personal protective gear, including eye protection, to avoid infection. Its a very challenging environment with so many vulnerable patients to manage an outbreak, he said. Duchin urged older people and those with health conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes to pay close attention to precautions such as washing hands frequently, keeping their hands away from their faces and avoiding people who show signs of illness. Just-released guidelines from the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine call for increasing hand hygiene, isolating infected patients and making plans to ensure that health care workers stay home if theyre sick. The guidelines also call for screening visitors and daily temperature checks for residents and staff. Individual centers should remain in close contact with local health officials about appropriate actions, Gifford said. Authorities and families should think carefully before taking steps such as removing patients from nursing centers during an outbreak. Evacuating a facility is not a benign event, he said, noting that moving can be traumatic to frail and elderly people. The nursing home cases are examples of community transmission of the virus, meaning the patients did not have a known history of travel to other nations where the virus is spreading or contact with a traveler diagnosed with the illness. Community transmission has now been detected in multiple states, including California. However, Seattle researchers reported late Saturday that new genomic analysis suggests the virus may have been spreading in Washington state since mid-January, when a 35-year-old Snohomish County man who had visited Wuhan, China, was confirmed as the first U.S. case of the infection. This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington state for the past 6 weeks, tweeted Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who is tracking the virus. He estimated there could be a few hundred infections in the state. At least 70 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed or presumed positive in the U.S., and officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans should expect to hear more reports of illness in the coming days and weeks. The new Washington cases and the first reported U.S. deaths were identified only after the CDC expanded the definition of who could be tested for the virus and after states and hospitals were given more leeway and supplies to conduct their own tests. What that says to us is that as we test more, were more likely to find cases of the disease, Duchin said. A team from the CDC has been sent to help local and state health officials investigate the Life Care Center outbreak. We have a large investigation ahead of us, a complicated investigation ahead of us, Duchin said. In the meantime, Steinberg said he and others will take precautions to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 cases in long-term care settings and act swiftly to contain them, if necessary. I guess theres not much to do but hunker down and hope its not too bad, he said. JoNel Aleccia is a senior correspondent, Kaiser Health News. Image credit: Shutterstock.com A senior naxal leader and his wife were arrested in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district on Wednesday, the police said. Elsewhere, a naxal camp was destroyed in this eastern Maharashtra district, the police added. Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested Korchi Dalam divisional committee member Dinkar Gota and his wife and Korchi Dalam member, Sunanda Koretti, said Superintendent of Police Shailesh Balkawde. Gota was involved in the burning of 36 vehicles in Dadapur-Kurkheda and was also one of the main conspirators of the Jambhulkheda blast last year in which 15 policemen and a civilian driver were killed, he said. At least 108 serious offences, including 33 murder cases, are registered against Gota in Gadchiroli, the SP added. Gota was carrying a reward of Rs 16 lakh on his head, while Koretti had a Rs two lakh reward on her head, he said, adding that 38 serious offences registered against her. Earlier on Wednesday morning the district police also destroyed a naxal camp, forcing around 70 naxals to flee into Khobramendhajungles, Balkawde said. It was suspected that the rebels were planning a big attack in Kurkheda tehsil as the police recovered a huge cache of ammunition from the camp, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When Bill and Colette Smedley left for a cruise to celebrate their 33rd anniversary in January, they had no idea they would end up spending most of February in quarantine after a coronavirus outbreak. But the Dillsburg couple, who have tested negative for what is now called COVID-19 throughout their time in isolation, are now relieved to be home. The couple was on the last day of their cruise aboard the Diamond Princess Feb. 3, touring Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan, when the coronavirus was detected on the ship. The 3,700 passengers were quarantined in their cabins, getting out on the deck for about an hour every other day, in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. But as more and more people tested positive on the ship docked in Japan, the 300 or so Americans onboard were evacuated back to the states, with one group to be quarantined for two more weeks in California and Smedleys group to be quarantined in a hotel-style barracks at the Joint Base Antonio-Lackland in San Antonio, Texas. They were in Texas for two weeks, and on the day they were supposed to fly home Monday, news broke about a Wuhan, China evacuee, who was also in San Antonio, being released from quarantine by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only to have a positive test come back after her release. This prompted San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg to declare a public health emergency Monday and request all Diamond Princess evacuees be held for another test, delaying the Smedleys departure. Bill and Colette Smedley. But on Tuesday, the CDC said it would strengthen its protocol for releasing people from quarantine, allowing the Smedleys to finally head home. They flew home Tuesday afternoon and were greeted by friends, gift baskets and a big banner in front of their house bearing a slogan theyve longed to hear. Welcome home. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. For Biden, the challenge is to avoid playing into Trumps game of dividing Democrats from the outside. Bidens core weakness, and its a big one, is with younger voters, who backed Sanders in droves. Trump renewed his faux sympathy for Sanders on Wednesday, tweeting that he had been crushed by the Democrat establishment. More efforts to demobilize the young and the left are coming. TORONTO - A teenaged boy helped other teens immobilize a fellow student as the victim was sexually assaulted with a broom handle at a prestigious Toronto high school in November 2018, court heard Wednesday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. St. Michael's College School is shown in Toronto on Thursday, November 15, 2018. The trial of a teen accused of sexually assaulting two students at a prestigious Toronto high school is expected to get underway today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn TORONTO - A teenaged boy helped other teens immobilize a fellow student as the victim was sexually assaulted with a broom handle at a prestigious Toronto high school in November 2018, court heard Wednesday. The accused, a former student of the all-boys St. Michael's College School, pleaded not guilty to two counts each of gang sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, and assault with a weapon. The alleged incidents two sex assaults and an assault occurred on campus in the fall of 2018. Det. Const. Daniel Sunghing with the Toronto police sex crimes unit, the lead investigator on the case, walked court through a cellphone video taken on Nov. 7, 2018, that shows a boy being sexually assaulted as others cheered and laughed. Screams are also heard in the video, which was taken in the locker room of one of the school's football teams and lasts 22 seconds. The video was widely shared on social media, court heard. It shows the victim trying to block the broom handle with his hands, which are then grabbed and held back by one of the boys surrounding him. Sunghing said the boy holding the victim's hands is the accused. "You can see that the facial features match that of (the accused)," Sunghing said. The detective also identified the accused in surveillance videos outside the locker room that he says show the accused walking into the locker room with the complainant at 6:32 p.m. The clothing and shoes in the surveillance video matched that of the accused in the cellphone video, Sunghing said. Surveillance video also shows the accused teen leaving the locker room at 6:43 p.m. and the victim leaving a minute later, court heard. "As (the victim) exits the locker room, he appears to check himself, adjust his pants before going up the stairs," Sunghing said. The accused teen's lawyer, Geary Tomlinson, has not conceded that the boy in the video is his client. None of the boys involved can be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The teen on trial is also accused of sexually assaulting another student in a similar fashion on Oct. 17, 2018, but little evidence of that incident was presented on Wednesday. Tomlinson told court about an alibi for his client that day. He said his client's transit card was used at 5:30 p.m. at Union Station in downtown Toronto about the same time the alleged sexual assault occurred. "If this was (the accused's) card and if he did use this card, it would be next to impossible to be in two places at once," Tomlinson said to Sunghing. "Next to impossible, yes," Sunghing said. The detective said police only became aware of the accused's possible alibi in late January, and that no surveillance videos had been retained by transit authorities that could corroborate it. Four teens have already pleaded guilty in the St. Michael's case, which sparked a national conversation about bullying and had a profound effect on the school's community. In October, three teens pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a weapon and assault with a weapon for their roles. They were sentenced to two years of probation. One of them also pleaded guilty to making child pornography for recording one of the sex assaults the Nov. 7 incident in a video that was then shared widely. Charges against two other students were dropped, while another received a two-year probationary sentence with no jail time after pleading guilty last summer. Police began investigating in mid-November 2018, after media inquired about the cellphone video, Sunghing said Wednesday. He said he visited the school, spoke to the principal and examined the locker room. He interviewed the first complainant the next day. Wednesday morning's proceedings were plagued by technical issues showing the videos, which stalled several dozen times and prompted an early recess. The trial continues April 1. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Hyderabad, March 4 : At least 23 colleagues of a woman software engineer, suspected to be Covid-19 positive, were advised home isolation for two weeks, health officials said on Wednesday. The woman's husband working for another company will also remain in self-isolation. However, officials said other employees in the two companies or other firms need not panic. The Information Technology department also clarified that only one building in Mindspace Raheja IT Park at Madhapur was shut on Wednesday for sanitising and that all the companies would function normally from Thursday. The woman techie, who recently returned from Italy, is one of the two persons suspected to be Covid-19 positive. Director of Health G. Srinivas Rao said their samples were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for further testing. The techie is working in a firm on the 9th Floor of Building Number 20 in Mindspace. Telangana's Information Technology Secretary Jayesh Ranjan told reporters that the company has 350 employees but only 23 of them were employed in the section where she was working. The techie's husband is employed in a British firm which has its office in Purva Summit near Mindspace. This company, which has 65 employees, also declared 'WFH' (work from home) while the techie's husband was advised self-isolation as a precautionary measure. Jayesh Ranjan said that a couple other companies also asked their employees to work from home. "This was not necessary as it creates unnecessary panic among people," he said. He asked the IT companies to consult the department, Cyberabad Police Commissioner or the Cyberabad Security Council before taking any such decision. Cyberabad Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar said some people were spreading rumours over social media that the entire Mindspace was shut. He said all companies would function as usual from Thursday. Srinivas Rao urged the IT companies to avoid sending their employees abroad in view of the prevailing situation due to the spread of Covid-19. 04.03.2020 LISTEN The Ghanaian detest for homosexuality has attracted national discourse for some time now. The debate heightened last year when the Ministry of Education (MoE) and for that matter the Ghana Education Service (GES) attempted to introduce Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) into the educational curricula in Ghana. The discourse so far has pointed to the direction that on grounds of their cherished culture and respect for God, Ghanaians abhor homosexuality. The abhorrence for the evil practice cuts across the various religious sects (Christian, Islamic and Traditional) in the country. As such, most of the people wish that the current President would speak out boldly against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) just as the late President Atta Mills did. In this article, we will examine the upcoming LGBT conference in Accra and file our displeasure for it on grounds of Ghanaian culture and Christian religious beliefs. Our Christian Religious Leaders Must Speak Against The Upcoming ILGA Conference In Accra In July 2020 Currently, it is public knowledge that the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association (ILGA) has scheduled its 5th Regional Conference to take place in Accra from 27th to 31st July 2020. This is an international conference. It means that our Government is aware of it because the participants coming from other countries will require Ghanaian Visa to enter the country. It is suggestive therefore that while we claim we are building a national cathedral for the Lord God in the hearts of the national capital (Accra), we are again inviting a satanic group like ILGA for conviviality. Yes, LGBT is devilish by all standards. From creation until now, we are aware that we have only two genders (Male and Female). As commanded by God, a man must not have sexual intercourse with another man and a woman must not do so with another woman. We know of the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorra. We know that God destroyed those two cities with fire from above as a punishment for their practice of homosexuality or Sodomy. In fact, Sodomy means anal intercourse and its related sins and it originated from Sodom. In Mathew 6:24, Jesus said, No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other, you cannot serve God and mammon. Contrary to this admonition by the Messiah and the son of the Living God, Ghana trying to serve two masters (God in the Cathedral and the devilish LGBT Community). With one hand, we are building a cathedral for the Lord in Accra and with another hand; we have beckoned practitioners of Sodomy to come to the same city and dialogue in favour of what they call their human right and what I call their Sodomy and devilish right. Is there any country that will gladly and openly permit a conference of rebels or terrorists on its land? ILGA must be deemed and treated as a socio-cultural terrorist. Where are the Christian religious gatekeepers in this country, some of whom advised the President or supported his decision to build a cathedral for the Lord in Accra? Archbishop Duncan- Williams, Rev, Agyin Asare, Pastor Otabil, Prophet Annor, Prof. Martey, Pastor Dag Heward-Mills, Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palma-Buckle, Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, Rev. Lawrence Tetteh, Rev. Eastwood Anaba, Rev. Owusu Bempah and many other high standing clergy in this country, where are you and why are you silent on the upcoming ILGA Conference? Does your Bible support homosexuality? Why are you mute over the matter and not speaking out? The pulpit is meant to condemn such abominable happenings in society. If as the religious gatekeepers in this country you see evil being invited to our into our midst and you are mute over it, then what else can you do to save your flock in the face of adversity? Must Ghana go that low because of financial aid? Revered Clergymen, let the light in you overcome the darkness in the world. The upcoming ILGA Conference is darkness. Lest I forget. Where is the Gifty Afenyi- Dadzie Womens Aglow that keeps praying fervently for the nation to overcome evil? Evil now stares at us devouringly in the form of LGBT. The time to pray and save the nation is now. The time to tell our leadership that your prayers cannot be in vain is now. Renowned Clergymen of Ghana, serve God and not politics. Your political affiliations should not prevent you from speaking against devilish things like LGBT. Remember that Jesus said in Luke 9: 62 that No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God. As such, it will be desecrating to your pulpits and grievous for the religious health of the nation that you should allow such a devilish gathering to take place in the physical realm in Ghana under your clerical watch. Then of what essence is the national cathedral? Of what essence are your pulpits? Of what essence are your incessant prayers? Of what essence are your prophecies and exorcisms? Or have you forgotten that LGBT is sinful? You need to speak out and I dare you do so quickly. Take a persistent note that in the presence of an adult with sovereignty of thoughts, a pregnant goat should not be allowed to give birth to its young ones while tethered to a tree. At least, let the poor goat bear the labour pains in liberty. As such, the flock must not be tied to a tree under your watch so the devil can easily sieve them. Treat LGBT as a weed in the vineyard. Christian Council of Ghana, Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, Ghana Bar Association, Ghana Medical Association, Association of Health Service Administrators, Ghana and many other nationalistic groupings need to wake up from their silence and speak overtly against this evil. Former Presidents And Traditional Leaders Must Speak Against The Upcoming ILGA Conference In Accra Former Presidents Rawlings, Kufuor and Mahama, you need to speak against this evil and support President Akuffo Addo not to bow to any LGBT pressure that will destroy our nation. We are already confronted with a lot of challenges. We should not worsen our plights with LGBT. President Mahama, even if your two predecessors are mute over this matter, you need to speak out because you are the substantive presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). You want to be our President for the second time and I do not think whatsoever that you would like to superintend over a homosexual nation should you win the 2020 elections. Article 11 of the 1992 Constitution spells out customary law as one of the sources of law in Ghana. The constitution defines customary law as the rules of law, which by custom are applicable to particular communities in Ghana. Homosexuality or Sodomy was not part of the Ghanaian customs or communities when the Constitution was framed. I do not also think that the framers of the Constitution had such an immoral practice in mind when they enshrined customary law in the Constitution. Our chiefs are said to be the custodians of our customs and traditions so they must not be voiceless when evil is being made as a significant part of our culture. I therefore call on the eminent Asantehene, Awomefia, Ya-Na, Torgbe Afede and so many other traditional leaders to condemn the upcoming LGBT Conference in Accra and make frantic efforts to forestall its holding. Our cherished customs must not be stained under your watch from the throne rooms. Let us witness the powers of the stools and the skins once more. Homosexuality Is A Mental Sickness Methinks that homosexuality is either a mental sickness or a personality disorder of a sort. It is devilish, antichrist, and insane. It is also an aspect of occultism. LGBT also works against the sustainability of the human race. It is far below animalistic behavior because even animals in the wild or the domestic ones do not mate with breeds of the same sex or gender. A male goat does not do fubbb to another male goat. It does so to only female goats. It is therefore surprising that human beings who are made in the image of God will go that low to have sexual encounters with persons of same sex or gender. Again, we need sexual intercourse between a man and a woman to continue procreation and the human race. Even in artificial insemination, the female ovary must be fertilized. We therefore need the Atta Mills voice in our contemporary political leadership to speak against this evil. Lets be mindful of the wrath of God in our dealings. I think that it is better to be a doormat in the kingdom of God than to be a king in the devilish kingdom of the ever-deceptive Satan. A Passionate Appeal To Ghanaian Electorates Elected officials are employees of the people who elected them into office and the Constitution of Ghana stipulates clearly that all powers of Government spring from the Sovereign Will of the People. Allowing homosexual international conference in Accra is sin not only against God but also against humanity in general and the Ghanaian culture in particular. A government that permits such an abominable gathering in the land of the Lord where we want to build a cathedral does not deserve to be given the authority again to rule the land. Fortunately, the LGBT conference is about to be held in this 2020 and it is an election year in Ghana. I hope this time, Ghanaians come out clear to point to our leaders that it is not every pill they can push down our throats. To the Majority and Minority MPs, you represent the people. Get united for once and speak against the upcoming ILGA conference in Accra in July 2020. The time to demonstrate the honourable in you is now. It will be a great disgrace to your cherished title if under your representative watch such an LGBT gathering should be given a venue in Ghana and for that matter Accra. I hope this article gets to you and I hope you stand up as honourable men and prevent the conference from taking place in our land. It should not be lost on you that the electorates are watching you. You need the votes again, remember? Conclusion I hope avidly that our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo who values the Ghanaian culture will do all that he humanly can, to forestall the holding of the ILGA Conference in Accra. This is because just like King Solomon, he is building a temple for the Lord, so he will want to maintain the sanctity of the land. He will stand out as Lot and therefore he will not permit an act of sodomy or any gathering meant to make Sodomy flourish. About four years ago, the courts sentenced Dr. Sulley Ali Gabass (a medical practitioner) to a 25 year jail term for committing Sodomy and he is still in prison. If indeed, the political leadership of this nation can permit an LGBT Conference in Accra, then Dr. Gabass deserves amnesty or a presidential pardon and a national apology. This is because we cannot jail him for Sodomy and welcome the same Sodomy in another form. ~Asante Sana ~ Author: Philip Afeti Korto. Email: [email protected] WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will host Kim Kardashian West at the White House on Wednesday to draw attention to criminal justice reform through star power and to meet three women whose prison sentences he recently commuted. West has become an advocate for criminal justice issues and has worked closely with the White House on the issue. West's visit was confirmed by two officials who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity because the meeting has not yet been made public. West will be accompanied by newly freed ex-prisoners Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron. West is a friend of Ivanka Trump, who introduced her to her husband and presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner. Together, they worked on obtaining a commutation for Alice Johnson, who in turn brought other cases to the White Houses attention. Johnson will also attend Wednesdays meeting with Trump, Kardashian, and the three former inmates. Kardashian, a businesswoman and reality television star, spoke at a White House event in June. She pushed for the commutation of Johnsons prison sentence that Trump granted in 2018. At that time, Johnson was a 63-year-old great-grandmother serving a life sentence for a first drug offense. Trump announced a wave of commutations and pardons last month, including for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Trump has also often touted the "First Step Act," developed by Kushner and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, to improve rehabilitation programs for former prisoners. Trump signed that law in late 2018. More: Who got pardoned, who got shorter prison sentences under Trump's clemency? Hall of Texas served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs. Munoz, of Odessa, Texas, spent the past 12 years in prison after she was convicted for her role in a marijuana smuggling ring. Negron, the owner of a Miami-area mental health company, was sentenced in 2011 to 35 years in prison for orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme. Story continues Contributing: John Fritze President Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump to host Kim Kardashian at White House to highlight pardons A special MP/MLA court in Chennai on Wednesday convicted and sentenced former AIADMK MP KN Ramachandran and two others guilty in connection with a bank fraud case. Special Court Judge T Lingeswaran convicted and sentenced Ramachandran and his son KN Ramachandran to seven years imprisonment and Rs 1.1 crore fine each. The bank manager, identified as Thiyagarajan, was convicted and sentenced to undergo five years of imprisonment and Rs 13.10 lacks fine. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the case, the three were allegedly involved in bribery and defrauding a central bank to the tune of Rs 20 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led right-wing bloc on Wednesday further slipped away from gaining a majority in Parliament, while his rival Benny Gantz's Blue and White party gained a seat, closing gaps with the ruling Likud party after 99 per cent of the vote count. Israelis voted on Monday for the third time in less than a year to break the deadlock on government formation, with the country's longest-serving premier Netanyahu fighting for his political survival amid indictments on graft charges, which he denies. Netanyahu, 70, had support of 60 members in the 120-member house after the April 9 polls, the first out of the three within a year, but he could not manage to win just one more member to form a government. The Central Election Committee (CEC) completed uploading 4,552,743 votes from 10,576 of the 10,631 regular polling stations, some 99.5 per cent of all polling stations, and less than half of the absentee ballots, The Jerusalem Post reported. The results will only be made official next Monday, after a recount of some 25 polling stations where there were anomalies and problems, it added. Netanyahu's bloc will remain at the 58 seats in the current vote count, three away from obtaining a 61-seat majority in the next Knesset, the paper said, citing sources in the CEC. His Likud party, however, holds firm with 36 seats. Blue and White party gained one seat at the expense of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, bringing the centrist party's tally to 33 seats and the Shas' to nine. The Israeli Arabs backed Joint List political alliance has emerged as the third largest party in Israel with 15 seats, as per the latest tally. The votes remaining to be counted are an estimated 340,000 absentee ballots from military polling stations, overseas diplomats and more than 4,000 votes cast at sixteen insulated polls for voters who are currently staying in quarantine due fears of spreading the deadly coronavirus. Meanwhile, amid repetitive claims by Likud party officials that they have managed to convince parliamentarians from the Centrist and Left of Centre parties to switch sides and back Netanyahu, which have been denied by almost all of them, Gantz's Kahol Lavan party and the Labour-Meretz-Gesher coalition are considering to bring a legislation to prevent Netanyahu from serving as Prime Minister under indictment. This is under the assumption that majority of the lawmakers in the newly elected Knesset are opposed to him leading the next government even though they cannot come together to form a coalition as well. "We'll have a majority in the new Knesset to pass a law preventing a Prime minister from serving under indictment," Meretz leader, Nitzan Horowitz, was quoted by Ha'aretz as saying. "It reflects the will of the public, and it's the moral thing to do," he stressed. The move has been condemned by leaders from the right-wing bloc. Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamina party (part of Netanyahu's right-wing bloc) dubbed it "anti-democratic" amounting to "spitting in the face of half of the country". "Two days ago there were elections and they are already trying to circumvent the will the people," said Bennett, the defence minister. Ultra-orthodox Shas party leader Arye Dery also lashed out at the initiative saying "passing a personal-tailored law to prevent Netanyahu from serving as prime minister after the public has expressed its faith him is a disgrace and breaking the rules of the political game". Netanyahu on Tuesday began talks with lawmakers to form a "strong" national coalition government led by him. "This is a night of great victory," Netanyahu said in a victory speech at his party headquarters hours after exit polls showed his Likud had an upper hand. He is now seeking a record fifth term, having been in office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009. The elections were largely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu who will go on trial later this month for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, but is thought to be seeking support for a legislative mechanism to grant him immunity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fire safety experts feared the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower would make 'a c**p condition worse' five years before the fire which killed 72, an inquiry has heard. Internal emails from fire safety company Exova detailed concerns from 2012 about the design for the 1970s north Kensington block by architects Studio E. The design, which was 'adding additional levels which merges uses around a single stair', was described by fire safety experts as 'not great'. Messages sent by Cate Cooney, a senior Exova consultant, to another colleague following a conversation with architect Bruce Sounes five years before the blaze also highlighted that Studio E had no intention of installing sprinklers. Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in the Grenfell Tower apartment block at Latimer Road in West London on June 14, 2017 Read to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry today, the email said: 'Basically I have told him we can massage the proposals to something acceptable with separation, lobbies etc... 'They are making an existing crap condition worse, so it's a matter of working the worse bits out and making the new stuff work.' Ms Cooney's email added: 'No sprinklers wanted.' Architect Mr Sounes said the email 'raises a level of concern I was not aware of', telling the hearing: 'I don't think I was aware of it, even in the report.' He was also asked whether Studio E had considered installing sprinklers in the 24-storey block, but said 'it wouldn't be something we would hold a view on'. Women look at a hoarding covered in messages of condolence at the base of Grenfell tower two years after the fire in London, June 14, 2019 The skeleton of the Grenfell Tower stands covered with banners with moving messages at the top of the 24-storey building, London on June 8, 2018 Mr Sounes told the inquiry: 'We would have expected the fire consultant to recommend or building control to advise any requirement. 'I don't recall sprinklers being discussed or raised as something that may be needed. 'That's not to say it wasn't discussed.' Exova was recruited by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) to give fire safety advice on the Grenfell refurbishment. Yesterday, the inquiry into the 2017 fire heard Mr Sounes couldn't 'recall' whether he knew there were different fire regulations for high-rise buildings. Mr Sounes was asked by Kate Grange QC, counsel to the inquiry: 'Were you aware that there might be different rules that applied to buildings over 18 metres...?' He replied: 'No, I was aware that they may exist but I did not refer to [the document] at the time. I can't recall if I was aware of that.' When asked whether he read the Government guidelines on building and fire regulations during the Grenfell project, Mr Sounes said: 'I referred to it on occasion but I certainly didn't read it from start to finish. 'Because it's so wide ranging, an architect will find themselves referring to specific sections to try and understand whether they are meeting their requirements.' The ongoing inquiry was ordered by then Prime Minister Theresa May in the aftermath of the fire which killed 72 people and destroyed the apartment block. Mrs May said the inquiry, announced the day after the June 2017 fire, would seek to 'establish the facts of what happened at Grenfell Tower in order to take the necessary action to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again'. She also promised that 'no stone will be left unturned'. Hearings for Phase One, which addressed the events of the night of the fire, were held between June and December 2018 in Holborn. The report for the findings was published last October. The hearings for Phase Two commenced on January 28 this year at a location in Paddington. The hearings continue. Hearings of the ministers picked to be part of the Citu Government continue today by the specialist committees of Parliament. According to the schedule approved by the Standing Bureaus in a joint sitting, the picks to be heard today are Bogdan Gheorghiu for minister of culture; Lucian Bode for minister of transport, infrastructure and communications ; Victor Costache for health minister; Ionut Stroe for minister of youth and sports; Monica Anisie for minister of education and research, and Violeta Alexandru for minister of labour and social security.On Tuesday, on the first day of hearings, six of the picks for the Citu Cabinet answered questions in Parliament.Winning a positive opinion from the relevant specialist committees were Nicolae Ciuca for defence minister; Costel Alexe for minister of the environment, water and forestry, and Adrian Oros for minister of agriculture and rural development.Getting negative opinions were Lucian Heius for finance minister; Catalin Predoiu for justice minister, and Ion Stefan for minister of public works, development and administration.On Thursday, the last day of hearings, the committees will hear Bogdan Aurescu for foreign minister; Marcel Bolos for minister of European funds; Virgil Popescu for minister of economy, energy and the business environment, and Marcel Vela for interior minister.***According to the regulations of the joint sessions of Parliament, each candidate for the position of minister is heard in a joint meeting by the standing committees of the two Chambers whose activity object corresponds to the area of competence of the future minister.After the hearings, the committees will draw up a joint, reasoned advisory opinion.Parliament will convene in a plenary sitting to put the new cabinet up for a vote at a date to be set at the beginning of next week. Parliamentary sources say the plenary meeting might happen on March 9.Parliament expresses its confidence in the government by a majority vote of the lawmakers. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) will host its 2020 investor day today in New York City. Encompass Health President & Chief Executive Officer Mark Tarr will outline the integrated healthcare service provider's longer term business outlook for the Company. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Coltharp, Executive Vice President and President of Inpatient Hospitals Barb Jacobsmeyer, Chief Executive Officer Home Health & Hospice April Anthony, President Home Health & Hospice Luke James, and Chief Information Officer Rusty Yeager will join Tarr in providing updates for their respective areas of the business. Encompass Health's last investor day in 2015 focused on strategy changes and the Company's acquisition of Dallas-based Encompass Home Health & Hospice. Today, the Company will focus on three of the six primary elements of its strategy: sustained growth, advanced technology and quality. Growth strategy The Company's growth strategy is supported by a demographic tailwind of an aging U.S. population that is expected to continue to increase the demand for the types of services the Company provides. The growth strategy is further supported by the increasing preference of seniors to age at home. Encompass Health's executive team will discuss the new growth targets for the next five years. Advanced technology During the presentation, the Company's executive team will also take a deeper dive into how the Company leverages its clinical expertise, large and proprietary clinical datasets, and proven capabilities in data and predictive analytics to drive clinical and business processes that help the Company provide cost-effective care for payors, providers and patients. Quality Additionally, the team will discuss how Encompass Health's unique combination of facility-based and home-based assets coupled with its investments in technology allow the Company to provide high-quality, cost-effective integrated care. This includes a discussion of how the Company's integrated care model and use of predictive analytics are reducing readmissions, and thus improving outcomes and reducing the overall cost of care. Live and recorded webcasts of the investor day presentation and accompanying materials will be available at https://investor.encompasshealth.com. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 134 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook. Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as the Company's growth strategy and targets, and the growing demand for post-acute care services, are forward-looking statements. In addition, Encompass Health, through its senior management, may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those estimated by Encompass Health include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to comply with extensive, complex, and ever-changing federal, state and local regulations and sub-regulatory guidance in both business in general and the healthcare industry specifically; restrictive interpretations of the regulations governing the claims that are reimbursable by Medicare; any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings involving the Company, including any matters related to yet undiscovered issues, if any, in acquired operations; the Company's ability to attract and retain key management personnel; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of the Company's or its vendors' or partners' information systems, including unauthorized access to or theft of patient, business associate, or other sensitive information or inability to provide patient care because of system unavailability as well as unforeseen issues, if any, related to integration of systems of any acquired companies; the Company's ability to successfully complete and integrate de novo developments, acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures consistent with its growth strategy; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for the Company's services by governmental or private payors; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels, including as part of national healthcare reform and deficit reduction (such as the Patient-Driven Groupings Model for home health, the new patient assessment measures, which we refer to as "Section GG functional measures," for inpatient rehabilitation, and other payment system reforms) and the Company's ability to adapt operations to those changes; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and the Company's response thereto; the Company's ability to obtain and retain favorable arrangements with third-party payors; adverse effects resulting from coverage determinations made by Medicare Administrative Contractors regarding its Medicare reimbursement claims and lengthening delays in the Company's ability to recover improperly denied or recouped claims through the administrative appeals process on a timely basis; the Company's ability to adapt to changes in the healthcare delivery system, including site-neutral value-based purchasing and involvement in coordinated care initiatives or programs that may arise with its referral sources; a pandemic, epidemic, or other widespread outbreak of an infectious disease or other public health crisis, which could decrease our patient volumes and revenues and lead to staffing and supply shortages and associated cost increases; general conditions in the economy and capital markets, including any disruption, instability, or uncertainty related to armed conflict or an act of terrorism, a governmental impasse over approval of the United States federal budget, an increase to the debt ceiling, an international trade war, a sovereign debt crisis, or a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10 K for the year ended December 31, 2019. Media Contact: Hillary Carnel | 205 970-5912 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact: Crissy Carlisle | 205 970-5860 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Corp. Related Links http://www.encompasshealth.com/ CLEVELAND, Ohio - As the coronavirus continues to spread to more states, health officials have had their hands full trying to identify patients and stem the spread. Issues with the original diagnostic test have been fixed, but reports indicate it could still be weeks before many labs around the country are ready to process more tests, at least on the scale required in a major outbreak. Internationally, the focus appears to be shifting a bit to Italy as multiple countries are reporting new infections linked to visits there. Live coronavirus tracker Coronavirus news in the U.S. Amazon confirms Seattle employee is in quarantine with coronavirus (The Verge) New Hampshire patient breaks isolation, potentially exposing others (NBC News) Children have come down with COVID-19, but usually with milder symptoms (cleveland.com) US Navy to self-quarantine ships in Europe due to coronavirus (CNN) New coronavirus case confirmed in Los Angeles (LA Times) First case confirmed in North Carolina (WLOS) No cases in Iowa yet, but local businesses already feeling impact (Des Moines Register) Coronavirus news around the globe FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 file photo, travelers wearing protective masks arrive at the Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel. A steep drop in business travel could be a gut punch to a tourism industry already reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, as big companies like Amazon try to keep employees healthy by banning trips. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)AP Report: New coronavirus cases in China linked to Italy (NY Post) WHO warns of global medical equipment shortage as world braces for coronavirus spread (CNN) Japan eyes emergency legislation as infections top 1,000 (Kyodo News) Why Iran is such a coronavirus threat (Politico) Indonesia reports two coronavirus cases; scientists worry there are many more (ScienceMag) Local coronavirus news 8th Ohioan being tested for coronavirus (cleveland.com) Columbus Arnold Sports Festival partially canceled due to coronavirus fears Coronavirus in Ohio: Health Director Dr. Amy Acton runs down latest facts GOJO Industries, makers of Purell, ramp up production to meet increased demand due to coronavirus concerns Testing kits expected later this week (Fox 8) Read complete prior coronavirus coverage on cleveland.com Hyderabad: Ryan, the US-based leading global tax services and software provider, on Tuesday announced the opening of its second facility in Hyderabad and plans to have an integrated campus by almost doubling the headcount to 900. "Our operations in Hyderabad have now become the largest globally. It has surpassed our operations in Dallas, Texas, headquarters," Ryan Chairman and CEO G. Brint Ryan said here. Ryan, which invested around $3 million over the last few years to expand its operation in Hyderabad, opened its second facility of 19,000 square feet, located in Salarpuria Sattva Knowledge City. He said the second facility, which can seat an additional 200 employees, will be sufficient to meet the requirements for the next 18 months. It plans to have a larger centralised location in the city to bring together all team members. "We have continued plans to invest in Hyderabad. We have already made significant investment in technology and committed to make additional investments to make sure that our operations here are fully technology-enabled," he said. Hyderabad, which is one of the two major service centres globally, supports all aspects of Ryan's business. "The work our India team performs moved from back-office operations in 2013 to sophisticated high level frontline client service work by 2019," he said. Stating that India operations are critical to the success of Ryan, he said the company expects India to grow as technology hub for Ryan as it accelerates its efforts to enable all business services through technology. Brint Ryan said the large diverse talent pool offered by Hyderabad made the company locate its India centre here. The company, which had a 166-member team in Hyderabad in 2013, increased it to 522 by the end of 2019. With current hiring plans, the headcount is expected to go up to 580 by the end of 2020. Ryan, which is the largest firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes, has 15,000 clients and 2,700 employees in 50 countries. Its revenues for 2019 were just little under $600 million. Its services resulted in estimated $2.5 billion annual tax savings for its clients. Though Ryan does not provide frontline services to Indian clients, he said they were looking at that possibility. New Delhi: The mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya case, has been rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind. Earlier on Monday, Pawan's curative petition from the Supreme Court was dismissed. The prosecution is ready to move an application in the Patiala High Court for fresh date of execution, shortly. With this mercy plea rejection, the appeals, reconsideration petitions, curative petitions and mercy petitions of all the four convicts in the case have been exhausted, i.e., all the legal rights of the four convicts have been exercised. The Patiala House trial court had on February 17 issued a death warrant against the four convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay and Akshay Kumar to hanged on March 3 but Pawan's mercy petition was pending with the President. Now the trial court will issue a new death warrant for the convicts after 14 days. A newborn girl was rescued by emergency workers moments after she was delivered by her mother, who tossed her out of her apartment and left her wedged between two building walls in Mexico City. According to Mexican news outlet Noticieros Televisa, authorities discovered the lifeless body of a newborn, believed to be her twin brother, on a pile of garbage outside the home Tuesday night. Their mother, identified as Jacqueline, was under arrest and hospitalized at a medical facility in the borough of Benito Juarez. The woman's husband, Jose, remains at-large. Video of the rescue mission released by the Secretariat of Public Security showed the moment firefighters pulled the baby to safety after drilling through a wall at a home in Iztacalco after several hours of work. Rescue workers arrived at the single-story house after residents reported loud crying noises. The girl still had her umbilical cord attached when she was discovered lying in a nine-foot deep hole surrounded by pipes and bricks. Emergency workers in Mexico City rescued a newborn girl after her mother tossed her into a nine-foot deep hole. The baby is now said to be in stable condition Eloisa Herrera, a 19-year veteran paramedic and mother-of-two, holds the abandoned newborn girl after a unit of Mexico City's Rescue and Emergency Medical Squad saved the baby A rescue worker with the baby (center), before the team managed to pull her to safety The search and rescue team had to enter a neighbor's home and cut through the property's wall in order to reach the baby without harming her. Medical tests showed that the newborn had early signs of hypothermia. Paramedic Eloisa Herrera, a mother-of-two who has been a rescue worker for 19 years, breastfed the baby as she was rushed to a local hospital. 'Her heart rate kept going down. It came to my mind that fasting, low glucose in babies is also a cause that puts their lives at risk,' Herrera told ForoTV. 'I am breastfeeding my baby and I decided to share my baby's milk to start raising her temperature and have a little glucose in your system.' The newborn girl's arm can be seen dangling after she was abandoned by her mother Herrera said she 'decided to share my baby's milk' with the newborn girl to raise her body temperature Rescue workers tear down a wall inside the property in order to gain access to the infant Herrera estimated the baby consumed six millimeters during the ambulance ride and got some color on her face. 'It was a joint operation with all of my colleagues,' she said. The newborn was listed in stable condition. She was the picture of edgy style as she hit the runway for Miu Miu's Paris Fashion Week presentation on Tuesday. And Rita Ora proved there's no rest for the wicked as she arrived at London's St Pancras International via Eurostar, where she was mobbed by delighted fans on Wednesday evening. The Hot Right Now hitmaker, 29, looked typically chic as she slipped into brown knitted co-ords, teamed with a turtleneck jumper and a matching maxi skirt. She's back: Rita Ora arrived at London's St Pancras International via Eurostar on Wednesday following her Paris Fashion Week appearance Wrapping up against the chilly climes of the English capital, the songstress kept warm in a cream teddy bear coat. The media personality took a walk on the wild side as she boosted her frame in a pair of crocodile print heeled boots, and rounded off her outfit with square-framed shades. With her blonde locks styled into a side-swept ponytail, the Your Song artist showcased her fresh-faced complexion as she went make-up free. Hi there! The Hot Right Now hitmaker, 29, was mobbed by delighted fans at the train station Off they go: Rita was guided by her bodyguard as they headed to their next destination Sweet: Despite her busy schedule, the warm-hearted celeb couldn't help but flash wide grins at her fans Style savvy: The belter looked typically chic as she slipped into brown knitted co-ords, teamed with a turtleneck jumper and a matching maxi skirt Rita's outing came after she drifted apart from Twist co-star Rafferty Law, 23. The pair began dating in December while working together on the Oliver Twist remake, before going public at the British Fashion Awards. A source told The Sun at the time: 'They grew close while they were both working in London, although they were just taking each day as it came and werent in a rush to label anything or move too quickly. 'But Rita has spent so long out of the country now and theyre not talking as much as they were, let alone doing the things couples do when theyre together.' Cosy: Wrapping up against the chilly climes of the English capital, the songstress kept warm in a cream teddy bear coat Standing tall: The media personality took a walk on the wild side as she boosted her frame in a pair of crocodile print heeled boots All about the accessories: The blonde rounded off her outfit with square-framed shades Less is more: With her blonde locks styled into a side-swept ponytail, the Your Song artist showcased her fresh-faced complexion as she went make-up free Celeb appearance: Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour was also spotted at the train station following the international Fashion Weeks The insider added: 'Things are on ice until theyre back in the same country. They might pick up again then, but at the moment they are more like friends.' Twist will be available on Sky Cinema on the same day as its theatrical release later this year. Before her romance with celebrity offspring Rafferty, Rita dated musician Andrew Watt on-off for a year, as well as a brief fling with Hollywood actor Andrew Garfield. FILE PHOTO: Indigenous people from the Mura tribe show a deforested area in unmarked indigenous lands, inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita By Jake Spring BRASILIA (Reuters) - Over the past year Brazil exported thousands of cargoes of wood from an Amazonian port without authorization from the federal environment agency, increasing the risk they originated from illegally deforested land, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. After customs officials in Europe and the United States alerted Brazil of the issue, the president of the Brazilian environment agency known as Ibama changed regulations to do away with previously required export authorisations, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The changes made by Ibama President Eduardo Bim overruled a technical opinion by five Ibama analysts who argued the export approvals should remain in place. The two Ibama sources, who have both worked directly on wood inspection and spoke on the condition of anonymity due to concerns about professional repercussions, said the changes further weaken Brazil's ability to control the export of illegally deforested wood. Ibama responded to questions from Reuters with a detailed technical description of the current process for exporting wood, not mentioning the previous need for a separate authorization from the agency. Ibama referred to export clearances given by the federal Revenue Service, saying they are only granted after cross referencing with the country's system for overseeing wood to verify that it is of legitimate origin. Ibama is still able to make spot inspections of wood cargos headed for export, it said. Para, the Amazonian state from where the thousands of unchecked shipments of wood and lumber were exported, is a hotbed of deforestation. For the 12 months through July 2019, Para accounted for 40% of all illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, according to government data. The 3,862 square kilometres (1,491 square miles) destroyed there in one year is an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to curbing climate change because of the vast amount of greenhouse gas that it absorbs and stores. Story continues Destruction of the Amazon surged last year, provoking a global outcry, with some foreign leaders and environmentalists blaming the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro for emboldening illegal loggers, ranchers and land speculators. Bolsonaro has said he is unfairly demonized and the fact that so much of the Amazon is still standing shows Brazil is a model for conservation. FIVE CARGOES The rule change scrapping Ibama's authorisations for most timber exports came after five cargoes of wood arrived in U.S. and European ports earlier this year without Ibama authorization, the two sources said. Foreign authorities contacted Brazil to ask about the missing authorisations, with the head of Ibama in Para then retroactively granting the authorisations, the sources said. The problem, however, is much more widespread than just the five shipments. In Para state, more than half of the roughly 3,000 officially registered shipments in the past year, containing an estimated 54,000 cubic meters of wood, that left one port did not have authorization, one of the Ibama employees with direct knowledge of the matter said. Companies had requested authorisations from Ibama for those shipments but exported them before the agency had time to respond, the person said. Beyond that, many shipments were exported without seeking approval from Ibama in the first place, but the exact number is unknown, the source said. Shipments went to the United States, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and possibly other countries, the person said. Ibama agents are investigating the matter with results imminent, the second Ibama source said. Before the rules changed, Ibama was required to give authorization to all wood exports before they leave port. Most of the shipments needed only the proper paperwork in order to be given the green light, but certain cargoes would be randomly selected for physical inspection. This allowed agents to catch cargoes that contain prohibited types of wood or shipments that have been stuffed with extra illegal wood beyond the amount described on the manifest, a common practice for hiding illegal shipments. "Without export authorization, it weakens the ability for someone to know whether the wood they're buying is really of legal origin or not," the second Ibama source said. Brazil was the world's ninth-largest exporter of forestry products in 2018, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Brazilian law demands that property owners preserve 80% of their land in the Amazon as natural vegetation. Selective logging is allowed in some areas under concessions that provide for only a few trees to be extracted from each hectare of land every 20 years or so. While wood produced in violation of these rules is illegal, non-government organization Greenpeace says that in practice it can be difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal wood due to various forms of fraud and poor oversight. RULE CHANGE In an order signed on Feb. 25 and seen by Reuters, Ibama President Bim reinterpreted existing rules and laws, saying that wood exports in most cases do not need export approval from Ibama. In doing so, Bim overruled a Feb. 13 technical opinion by five Ibama analysts who argued that the export approvals should remain in place. Bim decided that existing systems in Brazil requiring registration of wood for transportation, processing, commerce, consumption and storage meant that a separate export authorization was not needed. He allowed for some exceptions, ruling that five products still need export authorization. But one of the Ibama sources said that those categories only account for a small fraction of Brazil's forestry exports. Threatened species of wood also remain subject to special controls. (Reporting by Jake Spring in Brasilia; additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin) STAFFORD A man, wanted for identity theft in Ohio, nearly hit law enforcement officers when he fled a traffic stop on Route 32 Tuesday morning, Connecticut State Police said. Troopers are seeking the publics help as they search for 25-year-old Troy Burgess and his vehicle, a red 2009 Lincoln sedan with Ohio registration HYL2576 and damage to the front left bumper area, according to post on the departments Facebook page. The incident began about 9:35 a.m. when troopers stopped the suspect on Route 32 in the Stafford Springs section of Stafford. The town is on the Massachusetts line. Troopers stopped Burgess for a seat belt violation and a woman and two small children were in the car. As troopers and Stafford police officers approached, Burgess allegedly put the vehicle into reverse and then drove away at a high rate of speed, nearly striking them. Burgess, who lives in Stafford, has a suspended license and a fully extraditable arrest warrant for identity theft in the State of Ohio. Those who see Burgess or know where he might be are asked to contact Troop C in Tolland at 860-896-3200 or the Stafford Resident State Troopers Office at 860-684-3777 immediately. Calls can be made anonymously. Two Ford Motor employees in China were quarantined after being diagnosed with coronavirus and have made a full recovery, but the company declined to provide details about the situation or the patients. "The coronavirus has had the attention of Ford senior executives from (CEO) Jim (Hackett) on down since late January," spokesman T.R. Reid said Wednesday. "We identified the potential for an issue and the need to be on top of it from the start." After confirming two employees had been infected, Reid said Ford continues coordinating safety precautions with Chinese government officials, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ford and its joint venture partners have 10 manufacturing plants in China, none in Wuhan or the immediate area, Reid said. Most of the factories are auto assemblies, and some build vehicle components. Airline staff wear face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus at the Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 29. Ford and other manufacturers initially closed operations after the Chinese New Year on Jan. 25 and encouraged employees to work from home. "That was by government mandate as they tried to get control of the situation," Reid said. "Folks have returned to offices. We're applying good health practices in all locations as recommended by Chinese authorities." Hackett emailed a letter to employees Tuesday that said the company meets daily to "review the effects of the Coronavirus: Covid19." Will the bull market make it to 11? Coronavirus fears may end the stock market's longest run Coronavirus: Concerns lead to hoarding, panic buying to stock 'panic pantries,' Nielsen says Possible impacts He wrote, "Every one of those meetings starts with the question of impacts of the virus on our people and what steps can we take to enhance their safety given its likely spread. ... We have moved now to discussing the virus impact on our travel, (product) launch plans and other aspects of our business lives that depend on us being able to move around." Story continues Ford plans to reveal a series of high-profile products in 2020, including the Ford Bronco. The new vehicle lineup has been a cornerstone of financial reports. "I have met with our top team to gain input, listened to proclamations from health and disease specialists in the government, and talked with (executive chairman) Bill Ford," Hackett wrote. "We have also been monitoring the policies of other corporations, many of whom are suppliers to us." The company announced an immediate restriction on all domestic and international air travel: No travel within countries or no travel between countries. It's essentially a shelter-in-place advisory until at least March 27. Exemptions will be granted only if essential to operations and might include situations such as plant, supplier and marketing readiness for product launches, Hackett said. No handshakes Ford is "assessing" visits to sites by suppliers and others the company doesn't want to "inadvertently bring the coronavirus into Ford," Hackett wrote. The company discourages handshakes and encourages the regular use of hand sanitizer. "If youre in a queue, keep a yard or meter between you and the next person," he wrote. Ford Motor CEO Jim Hackett cautions employees about the coronavirus. Ford employees were asked to look at the calendar for "at least 90 days and find creative ways to complete work without traveling or having people needlessly come to us. We can use the phone and email, and technologies like Webex, Skype and Bluescape, to meet and collaborate virtually. Some meetings or gatherings may have to be cancelled or rescheduled." The Geneva auto show was canceled and the Beijing auto show postponed. There are no plans to cancel the Detroit auto show. Spokesmen for General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Wednesday there are no known cases of coronavirus within their companies. GM asked people who traveled to China, South Korea, Iran, Japan and Italy within the past 14 days to not attend meetings at any GM facility in North America. GM confirmed Wednesday "isolation" guidelines for all employees who returned from or had a layover in the above countries. They are not to enter any GM facility until the quarantine period has passed. If a person has had close contact with someone diagnosed, the "isolation period" starts the day after the last contact, GM said. "Visitors, vendors, suppliers and contractors must comply with this guidance as well," GM said in a statement. More: Ford's secret weapon has a passion for batteries and came from NASA More: Pressure mounts on Ford CEO Jim Hackett as stock drops to 52-week low More: At Ford, COO Jim Farley looks to speed as he plans to move company into the future Wednesday, the UAW announced a domestic and international travel ban for all staff as a precaution related to the fast-moving contagion. This is a precautionary action not meant to elicit concern, but to help in dealing with the spread of this epidemic, Rory Gamble, president of the UAW, said in a statement. Road travel will be permitted." He said, "The UAW continues to review in all our sectors the supply chain and status of our workplaces." BMW quarantine Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who closely monitors the automotive industry, said the coronavirus will directly affect production and sales. "Ford employs about 37,000 people in China, where production and other economic activities have shut down due to this public health threat," Masters said. "Public health is a major risk factor for businesses in any industry, but especially those like auto with globally interdependent supply chains." Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said, "The auto industry is inextricably linked to China and other global markets, and that means exposure to globally circulating viruses like this one." She noted that BMW announced it was quarantining employees in Germany on Tuesday. "With viral spread and travel restrictions, auto will see a slowdown in industry activity, parts shortages and greater exposure to the financial impacts of this virus than other less globally integrated industries," she said. The timing couldn't be worse for the automotive industry, which was already seeing an economic slowdown heading into 2020. "Ford is not alone in this," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader. "The COVID-19 is yet another challenge for business in general. For the auto industry, it comes at a time when sales are softening and automakers are also focusing on investments for the future." Peter Koveos, a finance professor at Syracuse University who travels frequently to China, said in a statement Wednesday, "For China, of course, this came at a very inopportune time. The (Chinese) economy was slowing down, anyway. The Trade War had made an additional negative impact on Chinas and our economies. ... It is not going to make any future relations between China and the U.S. any friendlier. For us, of course, China is a very convenient scapegoat. Contributing: Jamie Lareau Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus: Ford bans air travel after workers in China diagnosed In Daegu, Coronavirus Keeps Koreans and Foreigners Indoors By Kim Hyung-jin March 03, 2020 On December 24, local authorities in Daegu, South Korea, adopted the slogan "Colorful Daegu" to capture the city's "diversity, inclusiveness, vivacity, passion, and energy of progress." Less than two months later, Daegu is at the center of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak. The largest outside China, the nation has 5,186 confirmed cases and 31 deaths as of Tuesday. Daegu is largely shut down with the mayor asking residents to remain indoors, a request that turned the bustling city into an eerily empty urban center permeated by fear. "It's really noticeable that there are fewer people around," said Na Yo-seop, a Daegu resident who spoke to VOA Korean at Cheongna Hill Station. "For example, when I got on [the train], I could barely count five people. I also see fewer cars but in a way, I'm happier to see few cars out." Most people are inside because "everyone is nervous and scared," said Nguyen Dang Cu, 28, a graduate business student from Vietnam at Keimyung University, one of more than a dozen colleges and universities that draw students from throughout the region and beyond, much as the city's factories draw migrant workers. At Daegu University alone, there are about 500 international students from 29 countries. "My parents in Ha Trinh wanted me to return home, but I said I'm fine here," Cu told VOA Vietnamese. "I think going back to Vietnam is not necessarily a good plan at the moment because I am at the center of the epidemic. That means I may spread the virus to my family ... back home." Thai Thi Ngoc Bich, a Vietnamese woman who is married to a South Korean man, has lived in Daegu for nine years. She works for the city's multicultural center and lives "not too far" from the Shincheonji Church that is at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea. She opted to remain in Daegu despite calls from her mother and siblings urging her to return home to Can Tho. "I feel safe here because I trust South Korea's medical service," she told VOA Vietnamese. Several thousand Cambodians work in Daegu's factories. Tim Vanny told VOA Khmer by phone last week that he and five Cambodians working in a steel factory trust the health measures put in place by the authorities to contain the spread of COVID-19. "There is water for washing hands and antibacterial spray around the factory," said Tim Vanny, who is from Kampng Spea province. Authorities have issued guidelines for taking preventative measure outside work "and send text message by phone to us almost every hour urging us to follow their preventative measures." Yim Sinorm, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Movement in South Korea, told VOA Khmer: "Generally, there is no indication that they want to leave Korea to go back to Cambodia because they think that if Cambodia suffers an outbreak, the Korean government would shut down flights from there, and they would lose their jobs and benefits." Some 50,000 Cambodians work in factories, food production and agriculture throughout South Korea. Kim Mary from Cambodia's eastern Tbong Khmum province has been married to a South Korean for more than 10 years. She told VOA Khmer,"I feel safe here ... because there are many ways to protect us" despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 in South Korea. However, Kim Mary has not been outside her home for more than a week. That lifestyle change is "stifling," said Kim Ki-dong, 70, a resident of Daegu's Dong-gu neighborhood. "We have errands to do, like going to the bank. We're used to traveling back and forth freely but because we can't go outside, it's very inconvenient." Elvira Fidelia Tanjung is an Indonesian who earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Daegu's Kyungpook National University. She remained there for post-doctoral research. She told VOA Indonesia the government has "urged all places of worship" to restrict gatherings. "Local churches are doing online services through Facebook or webinar. The Korean Muslim Federation has also urged Muslims to stop doing congregational prayer or any other activities." Hla Yamin Eain, a Burmese actor who works in Daegu's television production sector, told VOA Burmese that many local restaurants, "popular places, usually with lots of people, are deserted. All the streets are only used by food delivery people because people are staying indoors and ordering food to eat at home. Right now, we still have food to eat, and the restaurants are still there," she said. "I don't think we will need to worry about food supply even if the government shuts down the city." For people like Kim Bong-son, 60, who lives in Daegu's Buk-gu neighborhood, deliveries of food and other daily necessities are troubling. "We're even afraid to receive them," she told VOA Korean. "We go out to get them wearing a mask a while after they're delivered. We don't take the boxes inside. We open the boxes with scissors outside and bring the products in. It's very scary." Kim Hyung-jin of VOA Korean reported from Daegu, South Korea. An Hai and Khanh An of VOA Vietnamese, Kimseng Men of VOA Khmer, Dhania Iman of VOA Indonesian, Yan Wynn of VOA Burmese and Christy Lee of VOA Korean contributed to this report from Washington. It originated with VOA Korea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address An article from Airdrie Today, the Vatican is planning to send two of its top experts in investigating sex crimes in Mexico. They will be on a quest to find facts about the issues involved with years of clergy sex abuse and cover-up. Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu and Archbishop Charles Scicluna had partnered in 2018 to investigate the Church in Chile and its significant number record of pedophile priests protection. New Mission in Mexico The new mission to Mexico will take effect from March 20 to March 2, announced by the Vatican and Mexico on Monday. Officials stated that not totally an investigation but an assistance mission to assist the church in Mexico with its fight with Mexico sex crimes. The Vatican embassy in Mexico City had requested the victims of abuse to converse with the two prelates. The victims will be provided with an email address to schedule a meeting or send their testimony. A phone number will also be given to the victims in case they want to give their testimonies through a phone call. This will offer complete privacy and confidentiality to the information. Bertomeu and Scicluna will be available to receive the testimonies. They will be there to share their experiences and offer help and direction. The 2018 Trip to Chile In 2018, Bertomeu and Scicluna went to Chile. They investigated abuse coverup cases. During that period, they were able to acquire testimonies from at least 60 abuse victims. The testimonies they gathered were enough to fill 2,600 pages of a dossier. The report was important in assisting Pope Francis to realize that he had misinterpreted the church's issue with sex abuse and coverup. The Argentine Jesuit had repeatedly said their apologies. Additionally, they took measures to attempt to instill additional accountability among bishops. The Mission in Mexico Scicluna and Bertomeu will have a conference with bishops in Mexico and other high ranking religious orders in Mexico. Also, they will meet with the survivors of Mexico's sex crimes. The Mexican bishops conference stated that it had requested for the mission. They revealed that it will provide benefits to children. They are the most vulnerable in Mexico. A statement by the bishops said that they are sure that it will help them provide better responses to the abuse cases. They aim to search for civil and canonical justice for the victims. They aim to go by the 'zero tolerance' principles. They want to emphasize that there is no exemption for the church with such crimes. The mission comes after the Mexican church is being asked to make a count of the years of sex abuse and coverup cases. Recently, it had confessed to Mexico sex crimes and investigations of 271 priests in the past decade. Mexico is the second-biggest Catholic nation after Brazil. The knowledge of Vatican officials regarding its total numbers of sexual abuse cases is only a fraction of the actual and true number. The Mexican church is powerful. Many of the sexual abuse and coverup victims had been ordered to keep quiet. With his unlikely romp across the Super Tuesday map, Joe Biden reshaped the 2020 Democratic primary and got the two-person race against Bernie Sanders that seemed like a pipe dream a few days ago. Ive never seen anybody mount a comeback like this ever, Matt Seyfang, an expert delegate counter who had worked for Pete Buttigieg, said of Bidens unexpected surge. Mike Bloombergs poor showing after spending nearly $600 million on advertising has him already considering dropping out. And Elizabeth Warrens argument to win the nomination in a contested convention lost steam as the Massachusetts senator performed far below expectations, including with her embarrassing third-place finish in her home state. Obviously, Bloomberg and Warren have some soul-searching to do, Seyfang said. Bernie Sanders claimed the biggest prize of the night, California, though with vote tallies still out, it was unclear how the delegate count there would shake out. But in terms of the expectations game, it was undeniably Biden's night, as he won at least nine of 14 states including a shocker of a win in Texas and in Massachusetts, where he never held a campaign event or opened a field office. Also, Biden and Sanders expected he would trail in delegates by the end of Super Tuesday, but Biden ended the night projected to be ahead. The scale of his win was big geographically running from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia to the West Texas plains as well as demographically. Biden won black voters by huge margins, but also got more support from women than the only woman in the race. He scored in the suburbs and rural areas of the South and West. His major weaknesses were with young people and Latinos, with whom Sanders mopped up in California, Colorado and parts of Texas. The sudden momentum driving Bidens wave across the 14 states came after his decisive win in South Carolina, demonstrating he was the only moderate in a still-crowded field who appealed to African American voters. That led to quick exits by Pete Buttigieg then Amy Klobuchar, who along with Beto ORourke, starred at a raucous, televised rally in Dallas. Story continues With no ad budget to speak of and a shoestring organization, Biden put on a three-day exhibition of how to leverage pure momentum into a massive victory. He also showed that his abysmal showings in predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire didn't matter much, after all. In Democratic presidential primaries, some candidates underestimate the importance of African American and older voters, said Steve Ayscue, a Democratic strategist. Conventional political wisdom isnt always right. But this has been pretty consistent. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives at a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vt., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. As Sanders underperformed on Tuesday, pressure ramped up on Warren to drop out of the race. "Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won?" Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Sanders surrogate, wrote on Twitter. The Super Tuesday states fell like dominoes to Biden: Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia and Massachusetts. The Bay State was the biggest shocker, given that it's home to Warren and neighbor to Vermont Sen. Sanders. That is, until Biden landed Texas. For a candidate once considered toast, Biden defied expectations, beat better-funded rivals and made a statement win Tuesday thats expected to slingshot him into the next round of states with electorates that match Bidens voter profile. They could help him build a lead over Sanders as the presidential primary narrows to a de facto, two-man race. Super Tuesday showed Biden really is the guy who builds the coalition and puts together the pieces of the Democratic Party. All the momentum is with Biden until the convention, said Matt Angle, a Texas Democratic strategist. This is a story of momentum and people being set in their jaw. Its a Texas expression: Im gonna clench my teeth and get in this fight to beat Donald Trump, Angle said. Voters dont want perfect. But they want a fighter with them. Super Tuesday wasnt a total victory for Biden. Sanders won the megaprize of California, despite spending little time or money there, as well as Colorado and Vermont. The sheer size of the Golden State gave Sanders a boost in delegates to help him remain in contention with Biden. But Super Tuesday also showed the limits of Sanders appeal relative to his 2016 candidacy. Two of the states he lost Minnesota and Oklahoma Sanders had won in 2016. He was also trailing in Maine, another state he won that year. California, which he lost in 2016, was a glaring exception. Biden had downplayed expectations heading into Super Tuesday. He wasnt focusing on winning states, the campaign said, and was instead concentrating on picking off select congressional districts especially ones with heavy African American populations to maximize his strengths and spend his limited dollars. That strategy wont change, although Bidens finances and position in the polls likely will. Our strategy for Super Tuesday and moving forward has always been focused around delegates. If you look at our media-buying, it was always focused on congressional districts, said Anita Dunn, Bidens top campaign adviser. So were up in targeted districts in Mississippi and Missouri and were going there. While it expects a huge infusion of contributions, the ad-buys so far have been small for the cash-strapped campaign. Biden, for instance, spent just $25,000 to advertise in Little Rock, Ark., targeting black voters. In Michigan, the campaign has reserved just $500,0000 in TV ad time, half of which is slated for Detroit and the rest spread around Lansing, Grand Rapids and Flint. Another $455,000 was reserved in Missouri, nearly half of which is St. Louis and a quarter in Kansas City. Bernie spent over $20 million on Super Tuesday advertising and there was a period of time we didnt have anything to spend on air, Dunn pointed out. The next big batch of states vote on March 17: Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio. Polls consistently indicate Biden will beat Sanders handily in Florida. Bidens going to win Florida. I have no doubt about it, said Steve Schale, a top Florida Democratic consultant who heads the pro-Biden super PAC, Unite the Country. Schale, who helped guide the Obama-Biden campaigns in Florida in 2008 and 2012, said Bidens surge after his lopsided win in South Carolina helped the PAC fund $1.4 million in ads on black radio and targeted TV spots in Super Tuesday states to supplement the campaigns spending. Ohio is personal for Bidens campaign: Its the home state of campaign manager Greg Schultz, who led Obama-Biden campaign operations there while Schale was in Florida. In Ohio and Illinois, Biden is again counting on a coalition of working-class whites and African Americans to surge ahead. Arizona, a libertarian-leaning state with a moderate Democratic electorate, could also favor Biden, although Sanders campaign says his appeal with Latinos could allow him to carry the state. The World Bank has announced a package of emergency funding for developing countries to respond to the spread of the Coronavirus Amid the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) global outbreak, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have decided to hold their spring meetings virtually, using telecommunications capabilities instead of live meetings, according to a joint statement issued Tuesday. The spring meetings are expected to be held 17-19 April in Washington. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass said that the two institutions stand ready to help their member countries address the human tragedy and economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 virus. We are engaged actively with international institutions and country authorities, with special attention to poor countries where health systems are the weakest and people are most vulnerable, the joint statement added. We will use our available instruments to the fullest extent possible, including emergency financing, policy advice, and technical assistance. In particular, we have rapid financing facilities that, collectively, can help countries respond to a wide range of needs. The strengthening of country health surveillance and response systems is crucial to contain the spread of this and any future outbreaks. The statement asserted that international cooperation is essential to cope with the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 virus. Meanwhile, the World Bank announced Tuesday that it has allocated an initial package of up to $12 billion in immediate support to assist developing countries to counter the health and economic impacts of the global outbreak. According to a statement sent to Ahram Online, the COVID-19 support package comprises up to $2.7 billion in new financing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), $1.3 billion from the International Development Association (IDA), and reprioritisation of $2 billion of the Banks existing portfolio, in addition to $6 billion from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), including $2 billion from existing trade facilities. The package will provide grants and low-interest loans from the IDA for low income countries and loans from the IBRD for middle income countries, using all of the Banks operational instruments on a fast track basis. Search Keywords: Short link: Brisbane's mayoral hopefuls have discovered where their name will be on the ballot slip filled out by voters on March 28. Queensland Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen drew the ballot for all nine candidates on Wednesday morning, revealing the Animal Justice Party's Karagh-Mae Kelly at number one. Queensland Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen and ECQ staff begin the ballot draw for Brisbane lord mayor. Credit:Lucy Stone Second on the ballot paper will be independent candidate John Dobinson, who has vowed to keep the Victoria Park Golf Course if elected. Kath Angus for the Greens was drawn at three, followed by independent Frank Jordan. Christina Milian has not slowed down since welcoming a baby boy with partner Matt Pokora in late January. The 38-year-old triple threat, who also shares a nine-year-old daughter with The-Dream, beamed next to her man, as he tenderly held onto their newborn in a striped baby carrier on Wednesday in Paris, France. Traveling to the City of Love is particularly romantic for the pair, as the musicians first met in France after a restaurant manager pushed to introduce them in 2017. City of love: Christina Milian, 38, who also shares a nine-year-old daughter with The-Dream, beamed next to her man, as he tenderly held onto their newborn in a striped baby carrier on Wednesday in Paris, France While traveling with their son for the first time overseas, Milian looked relaxed in a classic white t-shirt, distressed light-wash jeans and a pair of white trainers. The prepared mama carried a grey baby bag on one arm and kept warm in her cropped denim bottoms, a black overcoat and a funky cheetah-patterned scarf. Her 34-year-old baby daddy looked chic in a flannel, puffer vest and grey beanie, as they navigated the Parisian streets with their little man. Chic: While traveling with their son for the first time overseas, Milian looked relaxed in a classic white t-shirt, distressed light-wash jeans and a pair of white trainers On their fateful meeting, the Falling Inn Love star revealed her partner predicted they would have a son on E! News' Daily Pop. 'He told me, 'We're going to have a child together,' she recalled, adding when she said she already had a daughter, he replied, 'Well, you don't have a son.' She added: 'I was like uh! Oh my gosh. Panty dropper! He got me. From the beginning, he was interested in meeting my daughter, he was interested in meeting Violet. He was on it. It was so nice. I've never seen anybody be like that.' Family first: On their fateful meeting, the Falling Inn Love star revealed her partner predicted they would have a son and she hinted to wanting to travel the world with her little family Their unlikely meeting came after the manager of the restaurant 'insisted' she meet Matt because he was also a performer. 'I was like, 'Aw, that's okay.' I didn't even see what he looked like,' she reflected to the talk show. 'Then he happened to pass me and then next thing you know I was like, whoa! He looks like that? Okay!'' The Fashion Nova partner also predicted they would travel back to France with their bundle of joy, as it is the city the love of her life is originally from. 'So Im going to go to France for a little while, were going to come back over here, have the baby here, so were just going to be traveling. The babys going to be a little rock star baby,' she said in the same August interview with Daily Pop. It is the second day of the official Irish visit by Britain's Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. William and Kate will visit locations in Dublin, Kildare and Meath later, before departing for Galway. The British Royals spent last night in Farmleigh after a trip to the Guinness Storehouse ended their first day of engagements. While yesterday's itinerary was diplomatic in nature, with meetings with the Taoiseach and the President, their remaining engagements will be more relaxed. William and Kate will visit mental health charity Jigsaw in Temple Bar, a youth programme called Extern in Prosperous in Kildare, The Howth Marine Institute, and the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation centre in Grange in Meath. They British royals will also visit the Museum of Literature Ireland on St. Stephen's Green, which draws its inspiration from James Joyce. ...and from Brod the Bernese Mountain Dog! #RoyalVisitIreland pic.twitter.com/R89IrFAkTK The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 3, 2020 Dublin's Essex Street will be closed to traffic until 11am, while gardai say the royal visit to Meath and Kildare will have a limited impact on traffic. The royal couple will then depart for Galway to visit the city centre and a local GAA club on Thursday. The three-day visit is part of a diplomatic effort to highlight the many ties between the UK and Ireland. Kensington Palace has described the trip as an opportunity to build a lasting friendship with the Irish people. Villagers look at an unexploded rocket from fighting between Myanmar forces and the Arakan Army in Mrauk-U township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, March 16, 2019. Fighting in war-torn Rakhine state on Thursday drove residents and students from villages in Mrauk-U township as Myanmar soldiers looted and destroyed property, said affected residents as rights groups warned of deteriorating conditions for civilians. Clashes ensued in the townships Kyauktwin Gone village following a mine blast targeting government soldiers who are battling the rebel Arakan Army (AA), a mostly ethnic Rakhine force that seeks greater autonomy in the state, villagers said. The military regiment was resting near Poephyu Kyun village, said a Kyauktwin Gone resident who requested anonymity for fear of his safety. They were trying to cross the [Kaladan] river to Panmyaung village on other side by motorboat. The first boat transported 50 soldiers, but when it returned to pick up the others, the landmine exploded, he said. Right after the explosion, we heard the firing of heavy and light artillery, the villager said. No one was hit, though several houses were. I think they randomly fired back in the direction from which the blast came. Some mortar shells from the fighting fell into Kyauktwin Gone village, prompting residents to immediately hide, while those from Poephyu Kyun and nearby Myayeik Kyun villages fled. Other members of the Myanmar military regiment, which has been stationed in Panmyaung village on the other side of the river, also fired at the AA, the local said. The clashes forced the cancellation of examinations at Panmyaung High School scheduled to begin Wednesday. The Myanmar military also said Wednesday that it had arrested 14 people suspected of assisting the AA in attacking a government army convoy as it passed though Myaungbwe village in Mrauk-U township on Saturday, the Myanmar Times reported. The suspects have been turned over to township police and face criminal charges. The AA used remote-controlled landmines to blow up several military vehicles and then fired at the soldiers, injuring several and destroying two trucks, said the report, citing a statement issued by the Myanmar military. It also said that the bodies of two AA soldiers were found after the clash. Residents flee villages in Myebon Eleven consecutive days of fighting in Sanyin village of Rakhines Myebon township meanwhile forced residents to flee, residents said, adding that Myanmar soldiers troops entered the community in late February and destroyed their property. Resident Shwe Than Aye said those who remained behind to try to prevent the theft and damage of their property now face food shortages. They would enter the village when no one was here, and then destroy property, she said. Thats why I could not flee my home and decided to remain. Mortar shells from heavy artillery fired during a battle about a mile away from the village on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning exploded in the community, she said Sometimes we have to hide in the bomb shelter to survive the shelling blasts, Shwe Than Aye said. The Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), a relief group tallying the number of displaced and dead civilians, said that the fighting has displaced about 130,000 people in Rakhine and adjacent Chin state since early 2019, and has caused more than 100 deaths and about 300 injuries. The Rakhine state government estimates that about 50,000 people have been displaced since fighting escalated in 2019, counting only those who are housed in displacement camps and not villagers who have sought shelter in villages and monasteries. Fourteen civilians were killed and 25 injured in the seven-day period from Feb. 26 to March 3, according to a tally by RFA. Civilians have blamed the casualties on Myanmar troops, who in turn have denied they caused the deaths and injuries. But REC secretary Zaw Zaw Tun said both armies are responsible. Weve heard all kinds of news about the armed conflict, [but] there has been shooting from both sides near the villages, he told RFA. The ethnic armed groups should avoid all kinds of military activities near the villages. Both sides are responsible for the casualties. AA spokesman Khine Thukha said Arakan soldiers have never initiated offensives near villages and have tried to protect civilians. We have plans to protect our civilians as much as possible, he said. The Myanmar military is massacring Rakhine civilians who are not involved in the fighting out of retribution and racial hatred. If they keep doing that, the Rakhine people will lose their patience, and then they will see the consequences, he added, but did not elaborate. Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told RFA Tuesday that government forces only launch attacks in response to shooting by the AA. No one would waste the bullets if there was no initial shooting. Thats very obvious, he said. We fire back only if there is a battle, he added. They have undertaken many provocative actions such as mine attacks and ambush shooting against our troops. Military troops will fire back if they have been shot at first. Horrible human rights violations Attorney Zaw Zaw Min from the Rakhine Human Rights Promotion Group said the government must step in to stop the armed conflict from taking a toll on civilians. The government should get involved, he said. We have witnessed horrible human rights violations during the conflict such as civilian casualties and the detention of those suspected of [aiding the enemy]. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement about the last months surge in fighting in Rakhine state on Wednesday, echoing the call for action to end the deteriorating situation. HRW also called on government officials to end a mobile internet blackout that has slowed information-gathering and affected about one million people. The Myanmar military and the Arakan Army need to take immediate steps to minimize harm to civilians during the fighting and allow aid to reach all villages and communities in need, said Phil Robertson, HRWs deputy Asia director. The government should immediately restore full internet access so that abuses can be reported, and aid agencies can do their jobs. On Feb. 3, officials reinstated a blockade of internet services in Rakhines Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and Myebon townships and in Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state. Four other Rakhine townships Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Minbya have had mobile internet service blocked since June 2019. HRW also noted that the fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA is governed by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, which apply to both national armed forces and non-state armies. These laws prohibit the warring parties from attacking civilians and damaging their property, and obligate them to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid and ensure the free movement of relief workers, the group said. Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Khaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. There was a 12 per cent increase in the number of accidents involving buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) during 2018-19, the state government said on Wednesday. As per a written reply filed in the Legislative Assembly by Transport Minister Anil Parab, the number of accidents involving MSRTC buses went on increasing from 2016-17 to 2018-19. There were 3,310 accidents of MSRTC buses in 2018-19, 2,933 in 2017-18 and 2,772 in 2016-17, the reply said. The minister also informed that 17 accidents involving air-conditioned Shiv Shahi buses were recorded between April to September 2019 in the Pune division. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haitian diaspora is critical to advocate for stronger healthcare policy and investment across Haiti. The Haiti Renewal Alliance (HRA) in partnership with the United Nations Foundation and the Embassy of Haiti will host a Haiti Health Town Hall focused on the fight against malaria, a preventable illness that threatens half the worlds population and kills a child every two minutes. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the last malaria-endemic countries in the Caribbean, though targeted intervention has cut transmission rates there dramatically. The town hall, Integrating the Diaspora to Advance Community Health and Malaria Elimination Initiatives in Haiti, will feature a conversation among public and private sector leaders exploring new thinking in malaria elimination. The Haitian diaspora is critical to advocate for stronger healthcare policy and investment across Haiti. The event, in conjunction with the United Nations Foundations Nothing But Nets campaign Leadership Summit, will highlight sustainable solutions to end malaria for good. WHEN: 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 WHERE: Embassy of Haiti, 2311 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008 WHO: U.S. and Haitian health officials, non-profit leaders, advocates, and healthcare providers REGISTER: http://www.haitirenew.org/townhall About Nothing But Nets Nothing But Nets is the worlds largest grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria. Nothing But Nets has raised over $70 million to help deliver more than 13 million bed nets and other crucial malaria interventions to families. In addition to raising funds for UN partners, Nothing But Nets raises awareness and voices to advocate for critical malaria funding for the UN, the U.S. Presidents Malaria Initiative, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as collaborates with the Malaria Zero Alliance to support malaria elimination efforts in Hispaniola. Learn more Nothing But Nets work in Haiti at http://nothingbutnets.net. About Haiti Renewal Alliance (HRA) HRA is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable development and investment in Haiti. HRA facilitates innovative development strategies and planning throughout the Caribbean and within its Diaspora communities by leveraging financial, human, and social capital to support economic development. Learn more at http://haitirenew.org. About The United Nations Foundation The United Nations Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to the UN to deliver a better world for all. Founded in 1998 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner, the UN Foundation works with philanthropic, corporate, government, and individual partners across various strategic initiatives, campaigns, and alliances. The United Nations Foundation has invested in Haitis acceleration to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by supporting the countrys journey towards malaria elimination through its global malaria campaign Nothing But Nets. Learn more at http://unfoundation.org. Hours after President Donald Trump spoke by phone with a top leader of the Taliban about peace in Afghanistan, the U.S. conducted an airstrike against the militant group while it was attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province. U.S. military spokesman Sonny Leggett confirmed the airstrikes on Twitter, calling on the Taliban to stop "needless" attacks. "To be clear -- we are committed to peace," he tweeted, noting that Afghans and the U.S. had complied with the recently-signed agreement, while the Taliban "appear intent on squandering this opportunity and ignoring the will of the people for peace." As he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump called the conversation a "very good talk" and said the two sides had reiterated commitments to reduce violence in a peace agreement reached in Qatar on Saturday. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "We had a good conversation," Trump said of the call, believed to be the first direct communication between an American president and a senior official from the militant group since America's longest war began 19 years ago. "We've agreed there's no violence, we don't want violence, we'll see what happens, they're dealing with Afghanistan, but we'll see what happens." U.S. officials were skeptical that they'd see a reduction in violence and before the president's phone call were prepared to respond to defend Americans, allies and Afghan partners, according to people familiar who asked for anonymity to discuss internal discussions. Commanders on the ground will assess whether the violence has decreased or if it shows some signs of Taliban interest in advancing the talks, the people said. On March 3 alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on Afghan forces' checkpoints in Helmand, Leggett said. Earlier Wednesday, the Taliban launched attacks against Afghan forces across the country, after resuming military operations on Monday. In two separate assaults in northern Kunduz province in the past 24 hours, at least 20 Afghan forces were killed, said Fawzia Yaftali, a member of Kunduz provincial council, by phone. The White House provided a statement on the call between Trump and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the peace accord. In addition to urging a continuing reduction in violence, according to the statement, the president encouraged the Taliban to participate in talks with the Afghan government. The Taliban said in a statement that Trump called Afghans a "tough people" who "have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland." The group said it foresees "positive bilateral relations" with the U.S. and other nations. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed earlier confirmed the phone call. At the time of the U.S. invasion, the Taliban ruled the country and refused to surrender al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who eventually fled to neighboring Pakistan before being killed by U.S. forces in 2011. Trump has shown a penchant for being open to talking or meeting with foreign leaders at odds with the U.S. He broke decades of precedent when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018 in an effort to jump start talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program. He's also lavished praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. The president, speaking Saturday in a press conference at the White House, said he plans to meet personally with Taliban leaders "in the not-too-distant future." "I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we're not all wasting time," Trump said. "If bad things happen, we'll go back." The peace deal signed on Saturday helps Trump fulfill a 2016 campaign promise to begin pulling American forces out of what he's called "endless wars." The agreement calls for U.S. troop levels to fall to 8,600 within 135 days, from about 13,000 now, and for all U.S. forces to withdraw in 14 months if the accord holds. In exchange for the initial U.S. troop drawdown, the Taliban pledge to cut ties with all terrorists and prevent Afghan territories from becoming militant havens. Despite almost two decades of war and $900 billion in spending by the U.S., the Taliban are at their strongest since being ousted by American forces. The Doha deal -- which followed a seven-day reduction in violence -- is expected to pave the way toward direct talks between Taliban officials and Afghan leaders in Oslo as soon as next week. Expected March 10, talks between the Taliban and Ghani's administration are at a stalemate as both sides have set conditions. The militant group says Ghani's administration must release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while Ghani has asked the Taliban to leave Pakistan. "If the Taliban talk prisoner release and have it as a condition, we also have conditions, they should tell me when will they leave Pakistan?," Ghani told a gathering yesterday during a visit to eastern Nangarhar province. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called the agreement in Doha "the best opportunity for peace in a generation." But it faced criticism from some Republicans, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton. "Signing this agreement with Taliban is an unacceptable risk to America's civilian population," Bolton tweeted Saturday, describing it as an "Obama-style deal." - - - With assistance from Bloomberg's Justin Sink. MARYSVILLE, Ohio An Arizona mountaineer is under federal investigation after an expedition to the Himalayas to recover the remains of the crew of a B-25 bomber shot down in World War II, a newspaper reported. Clayton Kuhles was met by federal agents when he returned from India to the United States in January with small plastic bags containing what he said were human remains, The Columbus Dispatch reported Tuesday. The remains should have been turned over to the U.S. Embassy in India for verification so they could be returned in flag-draped coffins, said J.R. Rausch, a city council member in Marysville, Ohio, whose residents had raised $44,000 to fund the expedition and return the remains of the airmen, two of whom were from Marysville. Archaeologists did not accompany Kuhles, who argued that he has not done anything wrong, The Dispatch reported. Kuhles left Nov. 4 and said everyone knew he had a small window because of concerns about winter in the mountains. Two archaeologists who wanted to go with him to the site in the Arunachal Pradesh province of India said they could not travel until mid-December, Kuhles said. What did they think, that they would just show up in India and get a cab or take an Uber? he said. Kuhles, of Prescott, Arizona, said that he trekked 82 miles out of the mountains in the snow, and that he had no time to take the remains to a consulate or embassy. Indian officials checked Kuhles bags before he left the country, and he was cleared to leave, Kuhles said. Those involved say both the FBI and the Homeland Security are investigating, but no federal agency would confirm that, The Dispatch reported. The B-25 was shot down Dec. 10, 1943. Five men died in the crash, including the pilot, Capt. John Porter, and the flight engineer, Sgt. Harold W. Neibler, both of Marysville. Pune, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Polystyrene Film Market report provides detailed analysis and competitive analysis by region and other main information like a manufacturing process, raw material, and equipment suppliers, various manufacturing associated costs, historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data, the actual process. Polystyrene Film report offers a detailed analysis of the industry, with market size forecasts covering the next four years. The Report contains complete coverage, intensive analysis, and actionable market insights to spot opportunities in existing and potential markets. Get a Sample Copy of the Report - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/request-sample/14537224 List of the Top Manufactures of Polystyrene Film Market: Tekra Transcendia Ohishi Sangyo Multi-Pastics Plastic Suppliers Sigma-Aldrich Cheever Specialty Market Analysis and Insights: Global Polystyrene Film MarketThe global Polystyrene Film market, growing at a CAGR.Global Polystyrene Film Market: Drivers and RestrainsThe research report has incorporated the analysis of different factors that augment the markets growth. It constitutes trends, restraints, and drivers that transform the market in either a positive or negative manner. This section also provides the scope of different segments and applications that can potentially influence the market in the future. The detailed information is based on current trends and historic milestones. This section also provides an analysis of the volume of production about the global market and also about each type from 2015 to 2026. This section mentions the volume of production by region from 2015 to 2026. Pricing analysis is included in the report according to each type from the year 2015 to 2026, manufacturer from 2015 to 2020, region from 2015 to 2020, and global price from 2015 to 2026.A thorough evaluation of the restrains included in the report portrays the contrast to drivers and gives room for strategic planning. Factors that overshadow the market growth are pivotal as they can be understood to devise different bends for getting hold of the lucrative opportunities that are present in the ever-growing market. Additionally, insights into market experts opinions have been taken to understand the market better. The Global Polystyrene Film market 2020 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications, and industry chain structure. The Global Polystyrene Film market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue, and gross margins. Enquire Before Purchasing this Report - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/14537224 The Global analysis is provided for the international markets including development Polystyrene Film market trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue, and gross margins. The report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Polystyrene Film market providing information such as company profiles, product picture, and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis are also carried out. The Global Polystyrene Film market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Polystyrene Film market, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market. The report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Polystyrene Film market providing information such as company profiles, product picture, and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. This report focuses on Polystyrene Film volume and value at a global level, regional level, and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents the overall Polystyrene Film market size by analyzing historical data and future prospects. Purchase this Report (Price 2900 USD for Single User License) - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/purchase/14537224 On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into ThicknessBelow 50m Thickness 50-100m ThicknessAbove 100m On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including Electronics Manufacturing Food and Beverage Other Major Points from Table of Contents: 1 Study Coverage 1.1 Polystyrene Film Product 1.2 Key Market Segments in This Study 1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered 1.4 Market by Type 1.4.1 Global Polystyrene Film Market Size Growth Rate by Type 1.4.2 Stainless Steel Type 1.4.3 Steel Type 1.5 Market by Application 1.5.1 Global Polystyrene Film Market Size Growth Rate by Application 1.5.2 Road 1.5.3 Parking Lot 1.5.4 Others 1.6 Study Objectives 1.7 Years Considered 2 Executive Summary 2.1 Global Polystyrene Film Production 2.1.1 Global Polystyrene Film Revenue 2014-2026 2.2 Polystyrene Film Growth Rate (CAGR) 2020-2026 2.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape 2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI) 2.3.2 Key Polystyrene Film Manufacturers 2.4 Market Drivers, Trends and Issues 2.5 Macroscopic Indicator 2.5.1 GDP for Major Regions 2.5.2 Price of Raw Materials in Dollars: Evolution 3 Market Size by Manufacturers 3.1 Polystyrene Film Production by Manufacturers 3.1.1 Polystyrene Film Production by Manufacturers 3.1.2 Polystyrene Film Production Market Share by Manufacturers 3.2 Polystyrene Film Revenue by Manufacturers 3.2.1 Polystyrene Film Revenue by Manufacturers (2014-2020) 3.2.2 Polystyrene Film Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2014-2020) 3.3 Polystyrene Film Price by Manufacturers 3.4 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans 4 Polystyrene Film Production by Regions 4.1 Global Polystyrene Film Production by Regions 4.1.1 Global Polystyrene Film Production Market Share by Regions 4.1.2 Global Polystyrene Film Revenue Market Share by Regions 5 Polystyrene Film Consumption by Regions 5.1 Global Polystyrene Film Consumption by Regions 5.1.1 Global Polystyrene Film Consumption by Regions 5.1.2 Global Polystyrene Film Consumption Market Share by Regions 6 Market Size by Type 6.1 Global Polystyrene Film Breakdown Dada by Type 6.2 Global Polystyrene Film Revenue by Type 6.3 Polystyrene Film Price by Type 7 Market Size by Application 7.1 Overview 7.2 Global Polystyrene Film Breakdown Dada by Application 7.2.1 Global Polystyrene Film Consumption by Application 7.2.2 Global Polystyrene Film Consumption Market Share by Application (2014-2020) 8 Manufacturers Profiles 8.1 Company Description 9 Production Forecasts 9.1 Polystyrene Film Production and Revenue Forecast 9.1.1 Global Polystyrene Film Production Forecast 2020-2026 9.1.2 Global Polystyrene Film Revenue Forecast 2020-2026 9.2 Polystyrene Film Production and Revenue Forecast by Regions 10 Consumption Forecast 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors 12.1 Market Opportunities 12.2 Market Challenges 12.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 13 Key Findings 14 Appendix 14.1 Research Methodology 14.1.1 Methodology/Research Approach Author List Disclosure Section Research Methodology Data Source To Continued...... Browse complete table of contents at - https://www.marketreportsworld.com/TOC/14537224 About Us: Market reports world is an upscale platform to help key personnel in the business world in strategizing and taking visionary decisions based on facts and figures derived from in-depth market research. We are one of the top report resellers in the market, dedicated to bringing you an ingenious concoction of data parameters. * China, Singapore candidates seen as favourites * Rich U.N. body oversees patents, new technologies * Beijing seen as seeking more influence within UN By Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, March 4 (Reuters) - A Chinese lawyer is one of two Asian favourites to head the world patent office, a post that would give Beijing its fifth U.N. leadership role and, according to its critics, an unprecedented level of influence over new technologies. Voting opened on Wednesday at the 193-member Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property and oversees a patent system in which China and its firms, like telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, have a growing stake. The Coordinating Committee, a group of 83 countries chaired by France, met behind closed doors to choose a nominee. Whoever is chosen needs to be confirmed at a general assembly in May. China's Wang Binying, a career diplomat and a senior manager at the agency, and Singapore's Daren Tang are among the favourites of six candidates, diplomats and former employees say, in what one of them described as a "polarised election". Under the leadership of outgoing Australian Director-General Francis Gurry, WIPO has overseen an explosion in patent filings and has begun preliminary talks on whether artificial intelligence, or machines, can be inventors. The U.N. agency, unlike many others which are underfunded, expects revenues of 880 million Swiss francs ($921 million) in 2020-2021, mostly due to patent filing fees, it says on its website. China already has its nationals heading four U.N. agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. That is more than any other member state in what the International Crisis Group's Richard Gowan described as part of a bid "to win more influence" within the world body, especially in economic and development fields. Story continues However, Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the United Nations, said three of them would leave office within two years. "There is no ... intention to dominate, at least in terms of the numbers, over international organisations," he said. WATCHING 'VERY, VERY CLOSELY' Intellectual property (IP) has been at the heart of a trade war between the United States, which along with other Western countries backs Tang, and China. However, a January trade deal includes stronger Chinese legal protections for patents. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters last month that Washington was following the vote "very, very closely" and would "make sure that whoever runs that organization understands the importance of enforcing intellectual property rights across nations and across boundaries". Chen described Wang as "highly competent" and stressed the country's commitment to cooperation on IP. The other candidates in the running are from Ghana, Peru, Colombia and Kazakhstan. Candidates have been showcased at cocktail parties and missions have exchanged "note verbale" with vote pledges in recent weeks, diplomats said. WIPO members vote by secret ballot and campaign videos have not been made public. ($1 = 0.9556 Swiss francs) (Additional reporting by Vincent Lee in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Emma Farge Editing by Robert Birsel) WASHINGTON - The drive to political revolution has hit a big speed bump. In the first coast-to-coast, multistate primary of the 2020 campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden swept across the South and battled Sen. Bernie Sanders to a draw in key Northern states because of overwhelming support from African Americans and a surge from voters who decided just in the last few days whom to support. The result dashed Sanders' hope of becoming the prohibitive front-runner as a result of the Super Tuesday voting - an ambition that seemed within his grasp until Biden resurrected his campaign Saturday in South Carolina. The Vermont senator was slowed, but not stopped, by a newly energized party establishment that has rallied behind Biden in the last four days. As a result, the Democratic Party that just days ago wondered whether Sanders would emerge from Super Tuesday with an insurmountable delegate lead is now girding for a protracted two-man fight. It will pit an establishment-backed, old-school Democrat against an independent progressive who wants to upend the party. The results dealt a potentially fatal blow to the campaign of former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who will be under pressure to abandon his campaign after spending more than $660 million to garner just a handful of delegates. In North Carolina, for example, the billionaire candidate invested heavily. Biden crushed him, cruising to an easy victory and relegating Bloomberg to a distant third. ADVERTISEMENT Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lost her home state to Biden. Although she has vowed to continue her campaign, her future seems limited. The primaries over the remainder of this month - especially in big, delegate-rich states including Michigan, which votes next week, and Ohio, Illinois, Georgia and Florida - will test the ability of both the leading candidates to reach beyond their comfort zones. So far, each has drawn strength from different swaths of the electorate. Biden's coalition of blacks, older voters and suburban moderates helped him trounce Sanders across the South. Sanders' coalition of young people, Latinos and urban voters boosted him in the West. He won Colorado and Utah and was projected to win California, where the vote count will continue late into the month as officials sort through millions of late-arriving mail-in and provisional ballots. Texas, where the two candidates' coalitions are both well represented, proved to be a close battleground: The two seemed poised to split the prize in that state, which has the second-largest delegation to the party's nominating convention. Biden's performance on Super Tuesday was a remarkable demonstration of how his breakthrough in South Carolina and the endorsements that followed could compensate for glaring weaknesses that had contributed to poor showings in the first three states to vote. He had a thinly staffed organization throughout Super Tuesday states, anemic fundraising and little advertising, leading many analysts to question whether he would have the resources to capitalize on his South Carolina win. ADVERTISEMENT In the end, none of that mattered. Even without traditional campaign infrastructure, Biden's abrupt change of fortune after South Carolina had a big impact on a Democratic primary electorate that included many late deciders - voters who opposed Sanders' policies or doubted he could beat President Donald Trump, but who had a hard time deciding on the best alternative. In Virginia, for example, preliminary exit polls found that about half of voters chose their candidate in the last few days - a share that was considerably larger than typical. Half of these voters chose Biden. Similarly, in Massachusetts, half of the voters decided in the last few days. Among them, Biden was supported by more than 4 in 10 - more than any other candidate, according to the exit poll done for the major television networks by Edison Research. One of the day's late deciders was Yolanda Lampkin, a 62-year-old travel agent in Alabama who was still trying to pick a candidate when she parked at her polling station. She'd been considering voting for Warren or Sanders, she said, but had just heard a radio ad in which Alabama Sen. Doug Jones urged support for Biden as the best candidate to beat Trump. "OK," she told herself. "I'm going to go with Biden." One of the clearest examples of how late-deciding voters could swing an election came in Virginia. The state allows only very limited early voting, so Biden harvested the full impact of his South Carolina victory and the late endorsements of two of the state's most popular Democrats, Sen. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Warren and Bloomberg also made strong plays for well-educated suburban voters in the state, and as recently as last week polls found both of them potentially competitive. But Biden swept Virginia, taking 53% of the vote in nearly complete returns, to 23% for Sanders. Bloomberg and Warren both ended up well below the 15% threshold for winning statewide delegates there. ADVERTISEMENT Biden was helped by voters like Dwight Robinson, a 66-year-old retiree from Herndon. He almost voted for Sanders but worried the Vermont senator wouldn't be able to beat Trump. Instead, he cast his ballot for Biden, although he told a reporter that Biden needed to "get the fire in his belly" to win the general election. The Super Tuesday returns put to rest questions about whether Biden's big win in South Carolina - and his landslide among black voters - was a one-shot triumph thanks to his endorsement by the influential South Carolina party leader, Rep. James E. Clyburn. Across the South, exit polls found that about two-thirds of African American voters in Super Tuesday states supported Biden, compared with about one-sixth who backed Sanders. Exit polls also pointed to the ideological division within the party that will define the coming debate between Biden and Sanders: Just over 4 in 10 voters said they wanted the next president to return to the policies of the Obama era - a legacy that is embraced by Biden; just under 4 in 10 wanted more liberal policies, as Sanders has advocated; 1 in 10 wanted more conservative policies. While Sanders has struggled to gain traction among black voters, Latinos have become an important part of his coalition, which is a big part of why he had been expected to run strong in California, Colorado and Texas. Sanders won Colorado, but three other candidates - Biden, Warren and Bloomberg - were also on track to claim a share of the state's delegates. In Texas, Biden drew support from moderates like Antonio Brinkley, 57, an administrator who works with at-risk youth, who doesn't like big government and opposed Sanders. "He can bring in moderates" and beat Trump, Brinkley said. Sanders tapped into young voters like Erek John, a University of Houston student who thinks the progressive senator can drive turnout among young and minority voters. "He has a way of galvanizing his base the way Trump does that Biden just doesn't," said John, 21. Some analysts argue that Sanders' strong progressive agenda could create a ceiling on the support he can garner, while Biden may have more room to grow among independent and Republican voters. But as the exit polls on Super Tuesday showed, both Biden and Sanders have complementary weak spots: Biden excels among older voters, but flags among the young; Sanders has strong support among young voters, not so much among older ones. And both will have work to do to connect with college-educated white women - a swath of voters that may be up for grabs if Warren drops out of the race. The coming contests will be a test of whether either of them can address their weak spots and reach beyond their bases to close the deal on the nomination - and to unite their party for the coming battle against Trump. --- (Times staff writers Molly Hennessey-Fiske contributed to this report from Houston, Jenny Jarvie from Birmingham, Ala., and Erin Logan from Herndon, Va.) --- (c)2020 Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Democrats solidified their pick in the race to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, but the GOP candidates for his seat are headed for a runoff. Whoever Republicans pick, the fight for the district in the Texas borderlands is sure to be another pitched battle come November. Gina Ortiz Jones who nearly knocked off Hurd in 2018, coming fewer than 1,000 votes short trounced her four Democratic opponents vying to fill the congressional seat, according to returns released by the Texas Secretary of States office. Jones, 39, a San Antonio native and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, pulled down nearly 67 percent of the votes. We look forward to making sure that this district is finally well-represented, Jones said at a Democratic watch party at Augies Alamo City BBQ Steakhouse. On ExpressNews.com: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden compete in tight race in Texas The two leading Republicans jostling for Hurds spot on the ticket are headed for a runoff, returns show. Navy veteran Tony Gonzales, a 38-year-old San Antonio native who is Hurds favorite to take the seat, was leading the nine-candidate Republican field with 28.1 percent. Gonzales touted backing from key Texas Republicans including U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. At the end of the day, I think theres an opportunity to really circle the Republican Party around us and get us stronger as we head into November, Gonzales said. Dropping from an early lead into second place with 23.4 percent was Raul Reyes, 49, of Castroville, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. Reyes is an immigration hardliner and a sharp critic of Hurd. He consistently voted with Democrats in his last tenure here, Reyes said of Hurd. And thats why he lost his base. Candidates were still waiting on returns from several counties, including Bexar, Medina and Val Verde. Both men said they support President Donald Trumps proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The two Republicans also provided a preview of how they would run against Jones: tying her to a Democratic Party they see as moving further left. I think the constituents of District 23 do not embrace socialism and I think thats what she brings to the table, Gonzales said. Shes in the same image and mirror of Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi. Reyes echoed that. Youve got Bernie, youve got Biden, youve got a lot of socialist Democrats running on a platform to give everything away for free, Reyes said. And shes part of that party. That does not match well for this district. For her part, Jones painted any GOP candidate as a rubber-stamp for Trumps policies. Unfortunately, most of these folks have turned into lapdogs for this president, Jones said. Democratic Party leaders have fretted that a Sanders candidacy could hurt Democrats fighting in tough downballot races. Jones shrugged off those concerns Tuesday night. Im making the case for why I should represent this district and thats what were focused on, she said. On ExpressNews.com: Puro Politics: Coverage and commentary of the 2020 primary election Texas 23rd congressional district stretches for 550 miles from San Antonio to El Paso along the U.S.-Mexico border. With 795,000 residents, the district has been a hotly-contested partisan battleground, flipping between Democrats and Republicans four times since 2006. Hurd, a Republican, took the seat from Democrat Pete Gallego in 2014 and has since held onto it, albeit by smaller and smaller margins. Hurd announced he would not seek reelection last year and has since thrown his weight behind Gonzales to succeed him. But it was Jones who entered the primary with more name recognition and a bigger cash advantage. As of Feb. 12, she had more than $2 million in her campaign coffers. Gonzales had about $205,000 and Reyes had $19,000. Republicans fought hard to keep the seat in 2018. The National Republican Congressional Committee alone spent $2.1 million to head off Jones. All told, campaigns and outside groups pumped more than $20 million into the race. Jones a veteran of the war in Iraq who was deployed for three years would be the first openly gay Texan in Congress if elected. Gonzales, a retired Navy cryptologist, was deployed multiple times in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also a Department of Defense legislative fellow for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio city government and politics. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports VANCOUVERThe disconnect between graduating medical students and a health-care system desperately in need of more doctors was laid bare Tuesday. Match day annually pairs approximately 3,000 graduating medical students with resident doctor positions they cant work as fully qualified doctors until theyve completed a paid residency in a particular field. Family medicine, surgery or internal medicine, for example. On Tuesday, almost all of Canadas graduating medical students found out where they will complete their residencies. However, this year, 223 positions were left vacant. Thats 223 doctor jobs unwanted by Canadas medical graduates or programs that didnt want the graduates on offer this year. Until a second match takes place later this month, that means 170 family medicine jobs are unfilled while almost five million Canadians go without access to primary care physicians. Family doctors have patient rosters of, on average, about 1,500 people, so those 170 unfilled positions could equal about 250,000 patients without a dedicated general practitioner. Tuesday, the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) released data showing 223 spots have gone unfilled after the first of its two rounds of matching graduating medical students to residency spots. CaRMS said it wouldnt release the number of unmatched graduates until after the second round later this month, but the association representing medical students across the country told The Star the number is about 150. Its a difficult time (for unmatched grads) because theyre processing that they havent gotten matched to a program, and they have to put together an application that is competitive for the second round, said Victor Do, president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students. Graduating medical students are matched to available residency positions by the nationwide Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) algorithm in two rounds. Students rank their top program choices, and medical schools, which run the residency programs, rank their top candidates. In some cases, grads were ranked too low, or not at all, by their own choices, leading them to go unmatched. Some, but not all of the 150 unmatched graduates will get one of the vacant positions in the second round match. The difference is that now they must compete for those spots with medical graduates from around the world, including Canadians who studied abroad, in addition to the other unmatched Canadian graduates from previous years. Last year, 65 of the 174 Canadian medical graduates who did not match after the first round remained unmatched after the second. The phenomenon of unemployed medical grads takes a toll on both students and the health care system. Training one doctor costs provinces hundreds of thousands of dollars a huge liability if they do not go on to serve as doctors right away. Unmatched grads from previous years tend to apply for positions in lower rates. Some further their studies with masters degrees, others go into research, some apply for positions in the U.S. Those who go unmatched live in limbo for at least a year as they wait to see whether they will get a match in the next year. Robert Chu, 25, was passed over twice and wrote about the distress he experienced in a letter shortly before he died by suicide in 2016. Its a problem related to physician resource planning. For a number of reasons, each year, fewer Canadian medical student graduates apply for or are prepared for the family medicine posts that are available. How can we align the needs of the medical professionals with the needs of the community? Do said. The future of medicine is the people who matched today and the people who havent matched yet. Read more about: Infosys rose 0.88% to Rs 752.85 after the company announced a strategic long-term partnership with K+S AG to support the latter's 'Shaping 2030 Strategy'. K+S AG is world's largest salt manufacturer and Europe's biggest supplier of Potash. Infosys will support K+S AG's 'Shaping 2030 Strategy' -by preparing an agile and flexible IT infrastructure foundation to enable their digital roadmap. As part of this partnership, Infosys will help K+S become more sustainable by navigating them to a next generation hybrid cloud datacenter. Infosys will setup two state-of-the-art, centralized and dedicated datacentres in Kassel, Germany and 16 regional datacentres in Europe, USA, Canada, and South America along with a public cloud ecosystem. Infosys will deliver critical infrastructure services in a hybrid cloud and manage these centres end-to-end.This will ensure seamless operations, value and consistency in the quality of services deliveredacross locations worldwide. Infosys will also be responsible for managing the IT landscape of K+S across 100+ sitesfor over 9000 end users, across 25+ countries globally. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday, 3 March 2020. Infosys' consolidated net profit soared 12.23% to Rs 4,457 crore on a 2.04% rise in net sales to Rs 23,092 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q2 September 2019. Infosys is engaged in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SASKATOON March 3, 2020 Canada Jim Carr $3 million University of Saskatchewan $1.7-million $1.2-million Alberta Canada Canada Jane Alcorn University of Saskatchewan Tracy Wasylak Alberta's Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts three months or more and is associated with significant emotional distress and/or functional disability. It is a malfunctioning of the pain signalling pathways of the nervous system. The pain may first emerge as a symptom of an injury or other health condition, but it can also occur without another underlying illness or injury. Some Canadian populations, such as women, older Canadians, Veterans and Indigenous populations are disproportionally affected by chronic pain. In addition to the creation of the Canadian Pain Task Force, more than $88 million has been invested in pain research through the Canadian Institute of Health Research. has been invested in pain research through the Canadian Institute of Health Research. The Canadian Pain Task Force is an external advisory body that is helping the Government of Canada better understand and address the needs of Canadians living with pain. The Task Force is currently seeking input from all Canadians to improve how we understand, prevent and manage pain in Canada . Their online consultation will be open until April 17, 2020 . Canada /CNW/ - Chronic pain is a serious health issue that affects both the physical and mental health of too many Canadians. The Government ofknows the importance of ensuring that people living with pain have access to the care and support they need.That's why today, on behalf of the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health,, Member of Parliament and Special Representative for the Prairies, announced almostto improve access to care and services for people living with chronic pain.Through Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP), thewill receiveto increase access to chronic pain services. Through this project, pharmacists will receive special training to work with patients living with chronic pain. These pharmacists will provide ongoing advice and support, and ensure that patients have the information they need to use their pain medication safely.Alberta Health Services (AHS) will also receiveto implement and evaluate pathways to care for people living with pain and those with opioid use disorders. Alberta Health Services will work with theCollege of Family Physicians and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health to improve care delivery including opioid prescribing practices.The Government ofis committed to supporting programs and initiatives that aim to prevent, treat and reduce harm of substance use issues. This funding will provide Canadians and health care practitioners with specific tools, training, and strategies related to chronic pain management."Anyone who lives with chronic pain knows the toll it can take on one's daily life. Persistent pain can make it hard to go to school or work. It can make it hard to take part in everyday activities with friends and family. That's why our government is committed to helping Canadians living with chronic pain. Whether it's developing chronic pain management strategies or tools to inform on opioids, this funding will help millions of Canadians affected by chronic pain."This innovative approach in which pharmacists, in consultation with physicians, help patients to use pain medication safely, will reduce barriers to care for people living with chronic pain. This new way of health professionals working together will ensure that pain management is both effective and accessible, and will have relevance across.""By creating a standardized evidence based provincial approach to managing pain and opioid prescribing, this project, Opioid Care Pathways: Knowledge Translation Learning Collaboratives, will save lives and improve quality of life for Albertans. The pathways will be co-designed and reviewed by a multi-stakeholder group including physicians, healthcare providers, operational staff, and patients and families, to ensure that this meets the needs of Albertans in a meaningful and relevant way. Collaboration is key to this project's success."Substance Use and Addictions Program Canadian Pain Task Force Consulting on ways to improve how we understand, prevent and manage pain inTalking to your health care provider about opioidsSOURCE Health Canada SpendEdge has been monitoring the global die casting equipment market and the market is poised to experience spend growth of more than USD 20 billion between 2017-2022 at a CAGR of over 6% during the forecast period. Request Free Sample Pages. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005337/en/ Read the 79-page research report with TOC and LOE on "The Global Die Casting Equipment Market, Pricing Outlook in Geographies that include APAC, North America, South America, and MEA, and insights into best practices to optimize procurement spend." Die casting equipment finds extensive usage in the automotive industry for the manufacturing of lightweight automotive components. This will act as a major demand driver in the global die casting equipment market. The gradual shift of the end-user industries towards automation will continue to create a substantial demand for automated CNC die casting equipment, resulting in the overall market spend growth during the forecast period. APAC is home to the largest die casting equipment market which will witness a stable spend growth owing to the increase in automobile production and rise in the establishment of manufacturing industries in the region. Second to APAC is Europe where the market will witness a substantial spend growth. This growth will be attributed to the concentration of heavy manufacturing companies. Countries such as Germany, Italy, and France have the presence of a number of luxury automobiles and heavy manufacturing industries. Subscribe to our procurement platform to get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment. The Top Die Casting Equipment Suppliers Enlisted in this Report: Forecasts of increase in the prices of raw materials such as aluminum, steel, copper, and iron that are used to manufacture this equipment will propel die casting equipment suppliers' manufacturing expenses at a significant rate. This will compel them to increase the price of the finished product, thereby inflating the overall die casting equipment market price. Considering this probability, this report has listed the top die casting equipment suppliers, SLA agreement insights, and the selection and negotiation strategies that buyers must undertake to achieve optimal and cost-effective procurement in this market. Buhler- Buyers are advised to assess the ability of this supplier to implement modification with respect to legacy equipment. This will assist buyers to minimize operational costs with respect to the upgrade of casting surface patterns, change in motor, and customized display of die casting equipment. Toshiba machine- Ensuring the provision of predictive maintenance services from this supplier is critical considering the nature of this product. These services minimize the chances of an abrupt failure of die casting equipment and reduce the interruption of buyers' operations. In addition, offering such services will reduce the total cost of ownership for the buyer in the die casting equipment market. Dynacast- Engagement with suppliers who provide technologically upgraded die casting equipment on leasing or rental basis will result in achieving significant reductions in capital costs borne by buyers. It will create opportunities for buyers to utilize the upgraded equipment through low-upfront costs. In addition, leasing will enable buyers from small and medium enterprises to procure and utilize technologically upgraded die casting equipment to enhance the efficiency of their production process. Buy 1 report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 reports and get the third for free. Download the free sample of this report on the die casting equipment market. Some of the key topics covered in this report are: Die casting equipment market spend segmentation by region Die casting equipment supply market analysis Regional spend opportunity for die casting equipment suppliers Die casting equipment suppliers cost structure Total cost of ownership analysis in the die casting equipment market Die casting equipment pricing models analysis Category management objectives Cost saving opportunities in the die casting equipment market Free sample of reports that you may like: Global Metal Enclosures Market Procurement Intelligence Report Global Custom Assembly Equipment Market Procurement Intelligence Report About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more, https://www.spendedge.com/request-free-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005337/en/ Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 984 7340 UK: +44 148 459 9299 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Real-Time Innovations (RTI) , the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company, today announced it has joined the Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC) . RTI joins leading OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and semiconductor companies in their collaborative effort to accelerate the delivery of safe and affordable autonomous vehicles at scale. RTI brings extensive expertise in autonomy through its work with over 50 commercial autonomous system developers including Aptiv, Baidu and Xpeng Motors, among others. RTI will collaborate with the AVCC to define the architecture to develop and run highly-autonomous vehicles, and support development phases from research to production. The amount of technological innovation required to develop highly-autonomous vehicles demands collaboration at an industry level. This requires the availability of a common architecture that these systems can be based on, regardless of the manufacturer, hardware or software selected. In mid 2019, industry leaders united to form the AVCC to help solve the challenge of deploying safe self-driving vehicles. The AVCCs primary purpose is to develop a computing platform designed specifically to move todays prototype systems to deployment at scale. The group will also develop the requirements for software connectivity interfaces for each building block in an autonomous vehicle. RTI is the global leader in data-centric connectivity software. RTI Connext DDS is built on Data Distribution Service (DDS), the proven software connectivity standard. RTIs newest product, Connext Drive , is the first and only software framework that can integrate multiple automotive specifications. RTI automotive experts will work with AVCC members on interface standards, real-time communication and next generation system architecture to advance the state-of-the-art in vehicle design. Autonomous vehicles are highly complex systems. Manufacturers need to ensure their systems can operate in diverse real-time environments, meet safety and security requirements, scale and interoperate within all autonomous vehicle systems, said Bob Leigh, Senior Director of Market Development, Autonomous Systems at RTI. Were looking forward to actively collaborating with the AVCC and fellow industry leaders to tackle these technological challenges facing the higher levels of autonomous operation. The AVCC is excited to welcome RTI in the Consortium. We value RTIs expertise in the autonomous vehicle and connectivity framework space and the Consortium is looking forward to their technical contributions to the working groups and to overall AVCC activities, said Massimo Osella (General Motors), Chairman of the AVCC. Read more about RTIs work in the autonomous vehicle industry here . About RTI Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company. The RTI Connext Databus is a software framework that shares information in real time, making applications work together as one integrated system. It connects across field, fog and cloud. Its reliability, security, performance and scalability are proven in the most demanding industrial systems. Deployed systems include medical devices and imaging; wind, hydro and solar power; autonomous planes, trains and cars; traffic control; Oil and Gas; robotics, ships, and defense. RTI is the largest vendor of products based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Download a free 30-day trial of the latest, fully-functional Connext DDS software today: https://www.rti.com/downloads . Media Contacts: Madeline Kalicka Karbo Communications for RTI 240-427-8961 rti@karbocom.com I recently had the opportunity to listen to two Canadian citizens discuss the Canadian health care system and their personal experiences within it. They were a very successful, middle-aged couple who had been involved in a motor vehicle accident in the United States while driving to Florida. The accident in which they were involved was quite serious. The wife suffered fractured ribs and a fractured sternum. She also experienced pain in her shoulder, which wasn't initially detected or diagnosed due to the extent of whole-body pain she was in. She was taken to a nearby hospital. Her husband was more seriously injured. He was trapped in the vehicle and had to be cut out by emergency personnel. He was taken by helicopter to one of the premier shock trauma centers in the state, where he remained hospitalized for four days. A broken leg and a shattered wrist and forearm necessitated surgeries, with hardware permanently implanted. The husband received excellent care, as did the wife, whose injuries were not of a kind that are easily treated. After four days, they returned to Canada and began their recovery. Had they lived in the United States, their recovery would have progressed entirely differently from how it eventually did in Canada. In the United States, they would have been seen within days by their primary care physician. The husband's surgeon would have followed up with him. Additional scans and studies, including MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays, would have been performed to determine if his fractures were healing, if the bones were forming new growth where they had been joined with plates and screws. The extent of any nerve damage would have been determined by EMG studies. As soon as he was ready, he would have been started on a course of physical therapy directed to rehabilitating his many injuries, and returning him as closely as possible to his prior level of function, or that level that a maximum medical recovery would have allowed. Such therapy would likely have been administered at least twice, and more likely three times or more, per week. The progress would have been recorded, and the surgeon and primary care doctor, or another orthopedic specialist, would have been copied on the reports. A team approach to this man's healing would have brought about the greatest degree of recovery and resumption of function that it was possible to achieve. In Canada, none of that happened. Upon their return home, the couple's actual care virtually ceased. They had a primary care doctor in Canada and saw him within a month of returning. Initially, he prescribed physical therapy once a week for the husband. Eventually, this was reduced to once every two weeks, and then once a month. Finally, therapy was stopped. Given the nature and extent of this man's injuries, that frequency of therapy is therapeutically meaningless. The benefits of therapy are cumulative, so the fewer sessions there are, and the more spaced apart they are, the less effect they will have. In addition, especially at the beginning stages of recovery, when care is most important, movement is painful, and most patients will not have the will to induce that pain or the knowledge of what to do, how to do it, and when to do it to achieve the most gain. Without immediate rehabilitation of the injuries by trained professionals, they become chronically painful. The pain inhibits further movement, which leads to reductions in ranges of motion, limitations in function, and diminishment in daily activities. The complications cascade thereafter weight gain, sleep disturbance, medication reliance, etc. In the United States, had there been other treatment needed if therapy proved unsuccessful, or had he needed further studies to determine the best diagnosis and treatment, the husband would have had them. In Canada, he got none of this, because it is too expensive and is actively discouraged. The wife explained this through her "treatment" upon returning to Canada. Eventually, her shoulder became severely painful, and now she is unable to lift her arm above a certain height. Her sternum still hurts daily. I asked what diagnostic tests had been done since she returned to Canada to determine the cause of her complaints. She smiled and said there had been none. She had asked her doctor about undergoing an MRI of her shoulder, which likely has a tear within it, to diagnose and treat what is wrong, but she was strongly discouraged from pursuing such a test. When she persisted, she was informed that she could be put on a waiting list, and perhaps within six to nine months, she might be instructed to travel several hours to another city, where an MRI facility might have an appointment in the early morning hours, perhaps 3:00 A.M. or so. The wife confirmed for me that the last diagnostic scan that had been done of her was in the emergency room immediately after her accident in the United States. The husband had had none since, either. Both of these people, living in a modern and progressive country that relies on socialized medicine, now live with chronic, constant pain; are severely limited in function; and will endure these for the rest of their lives. While it is true that the husband would likely always have had some degree of pain and limitation, his current situation would probably have been mitigated by immediate therapeutic care administered when it would have been most productive. Similarly, the wife's shoulder pain, whether caused by muscular injuries or the tear of a rotator cuff, would have been addressed and corrected within months of the accident. None of this happened, because medical care within socialized medicine is incomplete, rationed, and discouraged. When asked about the push for socialized medicine in the United States, their answer was "don't let it happen if you can prevent it." The myth of free health care is that the care you get now will continue, but it will be "free." Advocates of socialized medicine aren't interested in telling the truth about what will really happen when care is rationed, treatments are discouraged, and doctors and nurses become disillusioned and quit, leaving fewer health care providers to meet skyrocketing demand. We think Canada, which is just as modern and civilized as the United States, must have figured this all out, because a modern citizenry expects modern care. Yet they don't have it, because socialism cares nothing for modernity. Despite having imposed government control over medical care, it is still an environment subject to supply and demand. This reality is further exacerbated when one contemplates not only socialized medicine for a country the size of the United States, but the open borders that every Democrat candidate for president proudly demands. Canada strictly controls its borders, has a fraction of the population of the Unites States, and is failing its citizens completely. The end of modern health care in the United States, should we have socialized medicine forced upon us, will be catastrophic. Think "Cuber," as Sanders touts. As we have come to ask about so many other myths, exactly how many deaths will be enough to pay for this ridiculous lie? US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign sued the Washington Post for libel on Tuesday over two opinion pieces that it said suggested improper ties between the campaign and Russia, North Korea or both New York: US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign sued the Washington Post for libel on Tuesday over two opinion pieces that it said suggested improper ties between the campaign and Russia, North Korea or both. The campaign filed its lawsuit six days after filing a separate libel lawsuit against the New York Times, over an opinion piece it said falsely suggested a quid pro quo between Russian officials and Trump's 2016 campaign. Both lawsuits escalate the Republican president's long-running battle with news media he believes demonstrate bias against him, a list also including CNN and MSNBC and which he frequently brands "fake news." Trump's campaign is seeking millions of dollars in damages in both lawsuits. Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications at the Post, said in a statement: "It's disappointing to see the President's campaign committee resorting to these types of tactics and we will vigorously defend this case." The Post is owned by Amazon.com Inc's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos. Tuesday's complaint focused on alleged false and defamatory statements contained in opinions published last 13 June by Greg Sargent and 20 June by Paul Waldman, who both write for the Post's Plum Line blog. The campaign objected to what it called Sargent's statement that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, concluded that Trump's campaign "tried to conspire with" a "sweeping and systemic" attack by Russia against that election. It said Mueller's report, released last 18 April, actually concluded there was "no conspiracy" between the campaign and the Russian government, and that no US person intentionally coordinated with Russian efforts to interfere with the election. The campaign also objected to Waldman's statement "who knows what sort of aid Russia and North Korea will give to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their assistance." It said no one associated with the campaign or the White House ever invited those countries to help the campaign in 2019 or 2020, and no one has reported any contact between the campaign and North Korea concerning any US election. The campaign said the Post was "well aware" the challenged statements were untrue when published, and said the pieces were part of its "systematic pattern of bias" against the campaign, and designed to ultimately cause its failure. Sargent's piece was titled "Trump just invited another Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is making one more likely," referring to the Republican Senate majority leader. Waldman's piece was titled "Trump: I can win reelection with just my base." Trump is seeking re-election on 3 November. He sometimes attacks news media at campaign rallies, where his comments often generate applause and his supporters sometimes jeer journalists. The lawsuit against the New York Times was filed in a New York state court in Manhattan over a March 2019 piece by Max Frankel, that paper's executive editor from 1986 to 1994. Beijing municipality has required people arriving in the city as a destination from countries with serious coronavirus outbreaks to be quarantined for 14 days, local authorities said Tuesday. The rule applies to both Chinese nationals and foreigners who enter the border in the city from countries including the Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan, said Chen Bei, deputy secretary-general of the municipal government. Beijing, as an important border entry point in China, is under great pressure to prevent the outbreak from being imported into the country, Chen said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that a state-level task force has been formed, which includes all relevant agencies and corporations, to deal with the Coronavirus situation in the capital. The task force will be headed by the Chief Minister. "A state-level task force has been formed which will be headed by me. All relevant agencies and corporations are part of it. All important departments have also been included," Kejriwal said at a press conference. "One meeting has taken place where they were told to deal with the situation at an emergency level. Because this virus spreads so rapidly that it would become really difficult for us to control the situation if it breaks out," he added. He also informed about the status of the single confirmed case in the capital."Till now there is one confirmed case in Delhi who is admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital. He had arrived from Vienna. We are reaching out to 88 people who came in contact with him after he arrived in Delhi," he said. Talking about the preparedness against the virus, Kejriwal said, "All people that are coming from foreign countries are being thermally scanned. And if any symptoms are found, then that passenger is shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Till now 1,16,589 passengers have been screened at the airport." He further said: "At least 19 government hospitals and 6 government hospital have been equipped with a capacity for isolation beds or isolation wards. "Commenting on the worldwide shortage of the protective mask, he said, "We have sufficient N-95 masks. Efforts are being made to make people aware. We have even asked the education ministry to create awareness among the school children." The Chief Minister further said that he will not be celebrating Hoil in view of the Delhi violence and the spread of coronavirus. "I will not celebrate Hoil in view of the Delhi violence and the spread of coronavirus. I would ask the people of Delhi to avoid going to a large gathering. And I will ask all my ministers to do the same." he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WASHINGTON - Mainstream Democrats were rejoicing over Joe Bidens rousing Super Tuesday performance that bolstered his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, easing worries over the havoc they fear awaits down-ticket moderates should Sen. Bernie Sanders become the partys standard-bearer. He can hurt the whole Democratic Party, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., an early backer of the former vice-president, said Wednesday about Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont. And our single most significant cause celebre is removing Donald Trump. He can hurt that. Now, Cleaver said, I think were going to win. The remarkably abrupt coalescing of the once-unwieldy Democratic presidential field into essentially a two-person race was underscored Wednesday as Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, ended his costly bid for the nomination and endorsed Biden. Bloomberg had spent over $500 million of his own money a huge sum in politics but a relative trifle for the billionaire but proved to be barely a blip during the contest. We would have lost Florida, Rep. Donna Shalala said Wednesday of a Sanders candidacy, which remains possible but seems less likely than it did just days ago. She recently joined fellow South Florida Democrats in criticizing Sanders for praising the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for establishing what Sanders called a massive literacy program. South Florida is home to large Cuban and Venezuelan populations, and they dont like socialism for a good reason, Shalala said. She said shes detected considerable relief from voters back home about Bidens rise. In one gauge of the growing Biden bandwagon, his list of endorsements from House and Senate Democrats grew Wednesday by at least nine and surpassed 60, according to the website Fivethirtyeight. Sanders has nine. Yet while Biden won 10 of the 14 Super Tuesday states, including delegate-rich Texas and a broad swath of the South, Sanders demonstrated his strength by winning California, the nations most populous state. And there were no signs that the rift between Democratic moderates and liberals thats fueled their presidential contest has been healed. Indeed, it remained unclear how long it will take for Democrats to decide which of their two front-runners will grab the nomination. Moderates are concerned that might presage a risky, fractious period until the partys Milwaukee nominating convention in July. Bernie Sanders isnt going away, predicted former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a Biden supporter. So theyll have to fight this to the convention. He did that with Hillary, and hes going to do it again. In 2016, Sanders didnt concede the nomination to Hillary Clinton until shortly before the partys convention, even though shed already amassed enough delegates to win. Now, Sanders supporters are showing no signs of surrender for a candidate they still insist will energize throngs of young voters and drive the party to victory in the fall. I think that there was a lot of scare put out there about what a Bernie Sanders presidency might do, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., whos endorsed the senator. People really have to think about whoever the nominee is, have to think about how we inspire. Noting Sanders won four states on Tuesday, including a decisive victory in California, Jayapal said, I think that this is going to be a hot race until the end. Another illustration of the lefts defiance came from Jessica Cisneros, a 26-year-old immigration attorney who narrowly missed toppling eight-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar and grabbing the Democratic nomination for his sprawling South Texas district. This is just the beginning, Cisneros said Wednesday. The first thing we had to defeat was the culture of fear, and our movement was victorious in proving were within striking distance of bringing fundamental change to South Texas. Republicans said they were undeterred by Bidens big day and showed no signs of abandoning whats already one of their 2020 campaign themes painting all Democrats as beholden to a socialist agenda. As evidence, theyve cited some Democrats support for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, proposals that many Democrats have opposed. If you look at those people, theyre worse than Bernie in terms of being radical left, Trump told reporters Wednesday about Biden supporters. Democrats said the socialist label would be much harder for Republicans to pin on Biden. And centrists said while Biden would be able to deliver an economic populist message as the nominee such as calls for raising taxes on the rich to finance initiatives the same message by Sanders would be more polarizing. They worry that Sanders penchant for aggressive, sweeping calls for change would sow cultural divisions among voters. Democrats also said the narrowing of the field should accelerate the nomination process, giving the party more time to heal the sometimes-bitter internal differences. The big risk is if Bernie becomes very hostile toward Joe and tries to draw some blood, said former Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who chaired House Democrats campaign arm early last decade. Hed be playing right into President Trumps hands by wounding Biden and hardening internal Democratic differences, Israel said. The faster we can get through to a winner, the faster we can heal and unify and focus on what really matters, which is defeating Trump, said John Lapp, a longtime Democratic consultant. Republicans will need to gain 18 seats on Election Day in their uphill fight to win back control of the House, assuming they retain three seats held by GOP lawmakers who hae left office prematurely. The GOP controls the Senate, 53-47. In both chambers, the nature of this Novembers political battleground spotlights why centrists have been petrified of a Sanders presidential bid. Democrats captured the House majority in 2018 by gaining 42 seats. Of those, 29 are from districts Trump either won in 2016 or lost by a narrow 5 percentage points or less, and most are from districts where moderate suburban voters will be key. In addition, Democrats hopes of grabbing the Senate majority will hinge on their toppling GOP incumbents in closely divided swing states, including Arizona, Maine, North Carolina and Colorado, where moderate voters are crucial. ___ Associated Press writer Padmananda Rama contributed to this report from Washington. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. By Jun Ji-hye The Ministry of Justice has banned 14,500 citizens, who are self-quarantined at home after having contact with COVID-19 patients, from leaving the country in a bid to prevent any further spread of the virus and restore the trust of the international community, ministry officials said Wednesday. The self-isolated people are banned from leaving the country for 14 days from the day they had contact with confirmed coronavirus patients under the assumption that the incubation period of the virus is two weeks. The travel bans were imposed at the request of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). "The KCDC carries out epidemiological investigations into newly confirmed patients and decides on who should be self-quarantined. The KCDC can request the justice ministry to place travel bans on them in accordance with the Immigration Control Law," a ministry official said. The ministry did not need to place travel bans on confirmed patients as they have already been quarantined by the health authorities at hospitals and other facilities run by the government. Notifications of travel bans have been already sent to the residences of 8,100 self-quarantining people as of Monday by registered mail that must be transferred in-person, which later provoked controversy that the ministry was overlooking the risk of infection facing postmen. The Korean Postman Worker's Union affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions claimed in a statement, "Postmen have not been protected as they were not informed of the fact that they were coming face to face with self-quarantined people to deliver registered mail." The union called on the ministry to allow postmen to avoid face-to-face encounters with notification recipients. Amid mounting criticism, the ministry belatedly consulted with Korea Post and changed the method of delivery, allowing postmen to put the notifications in mailboxes and use text messages to tell people of the completion of delivery. "We changed the delivery method Tuesday considering concerns over postmen getting infected," the ministry official said. "Once postmen report date and time of delivery to the ministry, the notification has the same force as registered mail." As thousands of confirmed cases have appeared in recent weeks here, the government has maintained the country's alert level for COVID-19 at its highest since Feb. 23, setting up a central disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters under the prime minister. The government has also postponed national civil service examinations as a number of applicants seeking to become public servants gather at test sites and are exposed to the risk of infection. According to Ministry of Personnel Management, a written test to select the lowest ranked grade nine civil servants, originally scheduled for March 28, has been put off until after May. The government has also postponed the first round of tests to select diplomats and public servants for grade five until after April. The headquarter of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 3, 2020. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Singaporean Defeats Chinese Candidate to Head UN Patent Office GENEVAA Singaporean beat a Chinese candidate in the race to lead the world patent office, heading off Beijings bid for a fifth UN leadership role. Daren Tang defeated fellow legal expert Wang Binying in a closed-door vote on Mar. 4 by dozens of countries to become director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property. Intellectual property has been at the heart of a trade war between Washington and Beijing. The United States, along with many other Western countries, had backed Tang for the job. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that Washington was following the patent office vote very, very closely and would make sure that whoever runs that organization understands the importance of enforcing intellectual property rights across nations and across boundaries. Tang was chosen in a vote of WIPOs coordinating committee, a group of 83 countries chaired by France which said the breakdown was 55 for Tang and 28 for the Chinese candidate. We are very pleased with the election outcome, said Andrew Bremberg, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. We believe that todays overwhelming vote was a clear demonstration of the importance of protecting intellectual property and the entire independence of WIPO in the international community, he added. Chinese ambassador Chen Xu told Reuters: We express our gratitude for all who supported us, and congratulate who was elected. We are ready to continue our participation, involvement and contributions to this important international agency. The 193-member UN agency, based in Geneva, oversees a patent system in which China and its companies have a growing stake. Under the leadership of outgoing Australian head Francis Gurry, WIPO has overseen an explosion in patent filings and has begun preliminary talks on whether artificial intelligence, or machines, can be inventors. WIPO, in contrast to many other UN agencies which are underfunded, expects revenues of 880 million Swiss francs ($921 million) in 2020-2021, mostly due to patent filing fees. China already has its nationals heading four UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. That is more than any other member state in what the International Crisis Groups Richard Gowan described as part of a bid to win more influence within the world body, especially in economic and development fields. ($1 = 0.9556 Swiss francs) By Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay Europe unveils a landmark law on Wednesday to achieve "climate neutrality" by 2050, under the stern gaze of teenage activist Greta Thunberg, in Brussels on a well-timed visit. The Swedish eco-warrior, who is in the Belgian capital for a Friday protest, will attend a meeting of European Commissioners, the top EU officials who will greenlight the draft law. Thunberg will also appear before a European Parliament committee, a visit that has angered many MEPs, as it takes place despite a ban on visitors and key staff due to the coronavirus outbreak. According to a leaked draft seen by AFP, the proposed text aims to enshrine into law the EU's grand ambition of zero net carbon emissions by mid-century and would give the EU executive new powers to impose emission targets on member state governments. "One of the added values is to get out of the current situation where climate objectives are taken unanimously by the European Council" which brings together heads of state and government, said French liberal MEP Pascal Canfin. But this political shift to the commission faces almost certain opposition from the national governments and the European Parliament, both of which will have their chance to modify the law over the coming months. "Member states and parliament will hate it," said Quentin Genard of climate think tank E3G in a blog post. "Even the more pro-European and pro-climate action countries want to keep oversight over climate policies." The ambition for climate neutrality, which would make it bind the EU's 27 member states to balance polluting emissions and removals of greenhouse gases by 2050, was approved by EU leaders at a rocky summit in June with coal-dependent Poland the only holdout. The commission, which proposes EU law, has hailed the draft has the cornerstone of a European Green New Deal that also plans a major investment drive to decarbonise the European economy. But, on Tuesday, Thurnberg said the widely leaked proposal does "absolutely nothing" for the climate emergency, in a joint letter with other young activists. "Net zero emissions by 2050 for the EU equals surrender. It means giving up," the letter said. "We don't just need goals for just 2030 or 2050. We, above all, need them for 2020 and every following month and year to come," it said. In addition, critics say the goal depends too deeply on technology that does not exist and creates a false hope that climate change can be fixed without fundamentally changing the economy or human behaviour. Also angering activists, the proposal steps back from the commission's original ambition to order countries to cut emissions by 50 percent or even 55 percent from 1990 levels by the end of the decade. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Houston businesses across all sectors are cutting back on business travel, implementing travel bans and skipping conferences as they make contingency plans to keep employees safe and business running amid growing concern about the spreading coronavirus. This impact probably will be long term in many ways, said Haiyang Li, a professor of strategic management and innovation at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Its an opportunity for many companies to think about what they need to do for the future. How they are going to align their resources for the black swan, a low-probability, high-impact event like the coronavirus. Nobody predicted this, but it happened. On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston, heres what you need to know about the coronavirus The cost of these disruptions is still being calculated, as the fast-moving outbreak that began in China in January has spread to 74 countries, infected nearly 92,000 people and taken more than 3,100 lives, according to the World Health Organization. No cases have yet been reported in Houston. Local companies would like to keep it that way. Global oil field service and energy companies Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes each said they were placing limits on travel in an effort to limit employee exposure to the virus. Halliburton, which operates in 80 countries, said in a Tuesday statement that it had restricted all noncritical global business travel; Schlumberger said it had put in place travel restrictions and was following guidance provided by WHO; and Baker Hughes said it was temporarily restricting nonessential travel globally as it took measures to protect employees and minimize impacts to its operations. Among locally based oil companies, Phillips 66 has suspended business travel to China and South Korea, and it is limiting travel to other affected areas, according to a company spokesman. Hess Corp. did not disclose specific measures relating to travel, but in a statement said, We are monitoring the coronavirus situation closely, including the recommendations of public health agencies, and implementing precautionary measures as appropriate. Kinder Morgan, a midstream company based in Houston, said it was continuing to monitor news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO about the novel coronavirus, which can cause a respiratory disease called COVID-19. We have an enterprisewide pandemic preparedness plan as well as extensive business continuity plans in place for all of our KM operations, which are updated and revised regularly and can be scaled up or down depending on the size and scope of the situation, it said in a statement. On HoustonChronicle.com: Coronavirus fears spark panic buying at Houston-area retailers The international reach of Houston companies extends well beyond the oil and gas sector, and real estate, technology and finance businesses were taking steps to protect employees by limiting travel. Hines, a global real estate firm with offices in 205 cities in 24 countries, is restricting travel to and from all areas with sustained transmission of the coronavirus, according to spokesman Mark Clegg. The company, which has 4,560 employees, has offices in China, Italy, Japan and South Korea, among the countries most severely affected by the outbreak. The company last week canceled its attendance at the annual MIPIM real estate conference in Cannes, France; on Sunday, organizers of the June conference rescheduled the four-day event. Conference impacts Other than regular-course-of-business travel, international conferences such as MIPIM have been particularly hard hit. Applied Optoelectronics Inc., a provider of fiber-optic access network products based in Sugar Land, canceled its plan to send people to attend the Optic Fiber Communications Conference next week in San Diego, its first absence in 20 years. AOI has taken a number of proactive steps to limit the chances for its employees and partners to be infected by COVID-19, Thompson Lin, Applied Optoelectronics chief executive, said in an announcement. These measures include travel restrictions, heightened employee monitoring, self-quarantine of some employees who have recently traveled and additional disinfection protocols. And while the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is going on as scheduled, the annual CERAWeek conference, which draws 5,500 attendees to Houston from around the globe, was canceled by organizer IHS Markit. Breaking News: Get email alerts from Chron.com sent directly to your inbox The CERAWeek cancellation, said Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of the Greater Houston Partnership, could nevertheless end up resulting in a net gain for the region. For example, companies that budgeted for the CERAWeek may use those funds for events such as the much larger World Petroleum Congress, which will be held in Houston in December. We still need to meet in the industry, Jankowski said. We still need to exchange ideas. Its just going to be pushed a little further down the road. Lesser impact Companies whose employees dont travel abroad for business are less affected by the coronavirus but are nevertheless taking precautions. Camden Property Trust, which owns and operates apartments across the U.S., has not restricted travel, but Ric Campo, its chief executive, said in a statement that it had been prompted to refresh and review its existing crisis management plan. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has restricted employee travel to China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy, based on guidance from WHO, but has otherwise not banned travel. MD Anderson employees are still able to travel to countries other than those on the CDC list, spokesman Clayton Boldt said. I dont have the specific screening questions, but they would be trying to find out if an individual has traveled to any of the countries on the CDC list within the recent past and/or if the individual has had any COVID-19-related symptoms. katherine.feser@chron.com twitter.com/kfeser Staff writers Sergio Chapa, Erin Douglas, Nancy Sarnoff, R.A. Schuetz, Dwight Silverman, L.M. Sixel, Paul Takahashi and Gwendolyn Wu contributed to this report. Robert Kubica thinks he would still be racing in Formula 1 if he had enjoyed a better car for his return to the grid last year. Instead, the Pole is now Alfa Romeo's new reserve driver, and he will combine that 2020 role with a race seat in the German touring car series DTM. He told Gosc Radia Zet: "It is possible that if I had a better car last year, I would not be sitting here, I would be preparing to race in Australia. "At Williams, I found a group of people who know what they are doing, but there were others who could have done better work." However, the 35-year-old insists he is still grateful that he got the opportunity to return to F1 after an eight-year break to recover from serious injury. "I think I'm lucky anyway, because many of my colleagues with great talent never got to Formula 1," Kubica said. Williams boss Claire Williams said the Grove based team is not missing Kubica so far. "No," she told Przeglad Sportowy. "I am very happy with the lineup we have this year. "Nicholas (Latifi) is doing a fantastic job. It's his first season, but he is a little older than the other rookies and has great experience from the junior categories. "Everything I saw in him as our reserve driver showed that he was fully capable of taking the race seat," Williams added. (GMM) Joe Biden confused his wife with his sister in yet another gaffe during a Super Tuesday victory speech in California. The former Vice President was addressing supporters with wife Jill and sister Valerie standing behind him after a bumper showing saw his political fortunes reversed as he leap-frogged Bernie Sanders into first place in the Presidential race. At one point he went to introduce his sister to the crowd, but accidentally took his wife's hand before realizing his error. The rally was then interrupted moments later when a vegan protester rushed the stage and had to be bundled off. The presidential hopeful was addressing crowds in Los Angeles, when a protester for California-based animal rights group 'Direct Action Everywhere' leaped on stage shouting 'Let dairy die!' When a second protester leaped on stage, Biden's wife Jill wrestled the woman off-stage An activist from the California-based animal rights group 'Direct Action Everywhere' leaped on stage shouting 'Let dairy die!' The woman was quickly removed from the stage only to be replaced by a second who jumped up waving a sign with the same slogan and shouting. The first protester clearly took the presidential candidate's wife Jill by surprise as she jumped out of the way, grabbing her husband by the arm. But, when the second fancied their chances, she stepped into action, wrestling the activist away. Biden's senior adviser Symone Sanders also rushed up to grab the woman, who was then escorted away by security. It's not the first time Jill Biden has acted as security at her husband's events. On the eve of the first primary in New Hampshire last month, a man was heckling her husband and recording it on his cellphone. The incident occurred as Biden swept nine of 14 primaries on Super Tuesday The first woman was quickly removed by security after taking the former vice-president and his wife by surprise The second woman being taken away by security - after Jill Biden beat them to saving the day. It's not the first time Jill Biden has acted as security at her husband's events. On the eve of the first primary in New Hampshire last month, she helped remove a heckler Again, it was Jill who saved the day and beat security to the heckler, hopping up from her seat and keeping him at bay before he could be removed. After the event, she joked to reporters that: 'I'm a good Philly girl.' But it seems her ability to take on several identities during her husband's campaign trail has confused her husband. Just moments earlier the former vice president made yet another campaign gaffe when he mixed up Jill and sister Valerie, who had both joined him at the podium. Just moments before the activists took to the stage, the former vice president made yet another campaign gaffe when he grabbed his wife's hand and told the crowd: 'By the way, this is my little sister, Valerie' He then told the pair he thought they were on the other sides of him: 'You've switched on me' as Jill and Valerie were seen exchanging awkward laughs with each other Biden grabbed his wife's hand and told the crowd: 'By the way, this is my little sister, Valerie.' When he realized his mistake, Biden pointed to Valerie and said: 'Oh, no, this is her.' He then told the pair he thought they were on the other sides of him: 'You've switched on me.' Jill and Valerie were seen exchanging awkward laughs with each other. President Trump seized on the opportunity to mock his rival, retweeting a social media post from Townhall.com that mocked Biden's blunder. President Trump seized on the opportunity to mock his rival's latest blunder Trump had earlier mocked Biden for his ever-expanding series of campaign blunders, saying he would need to be 'put into a home' if he won the White House. The president took aim at Biden, 77, when speaking to a crowd in North Carolina on Tuesday, singling out the Democrat's error on Monday where he called Super Tuesday 'Super Thursday'. Trump told the crowd: 'Super Tuesday - not Super Thursday. Oh he said Super Thursday. You can't do these things. Can you imagine if I said Super Thursday? It would be over, right?' 'I honestly don't think he knows what office he's running for,' Trump added. If Biden becomes president 'they're going to put him into a home and other people are going to be running the country and they're going to be super left radical crazies,' he said. Despite the blunder and unexpected guests, Biden had a strong Super Tuesday, sweeping seven of the 14 primaries and winning the endorsement of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar who dropped out of the Democrats race this week. Biden took a Super Tuesday victory lap in Los Angeles, after strong showings in southern states and with surprising wins like Minnesota Supporters of Joe Biden wait to get into his campaign rally Tuesday night in Los Angeles, at a venue located right off Obama Boulevard Speaking at the podium for under 15 minutes before the polls closed in California, Biden credited his comeback to the quartet of big endorsements that saved South Carolina for him - and then helped him edge out Sanders Tuesday night. 'We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar,' he said. 'And we're doing well in Texas because of Beto O'Rourke.' He also gave a hat-tip to Pete Buttigieg, commending his 'character, intellect and courage,' even though the former South Bend mayor's home state of Indiana didn't vote Tuesday night. He also went on to mention Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina. As the third most powerful Democrat in the House and the most powerful African-American lawmaker, Clyburn's endorsement of Biden on Wednesday changed the race's trajectory, as South Carolina voters cited it as a big factor in their choice. On Sunday and Monday Klobuchar and Buttigieg cleared the way for Biden to consolidate support. And he picked up the bonus endorsement of O'Rourke who's been out of the presidential race since November. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Wed, March 4, 2020 17:01 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206840e26 1 National umrah,umrah-pilgrims,Saudi-Arabia,travel-ban,West-Java,coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak Free The West Java Religious Affairs Office is tracking down 90 umrah (minor hajj) pilgrims who left for Saudi Arabia from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Thursday a day before Saudi Arabia announced a temporary ban on pilgrims to limit the spread of the coronavirus. On Friday, the Saudi kingdom placed Indonesia on a list of countries whose citizens were barred from visiting the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina amid the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus. The decision left thousands of Indonesians stranded, some on their way to Saudi Arabia, others checked in at airports and still others arriving in the country. Read also: Banning or wooing travelers in time of novel coronavirus The offices hajj and umrah division head Ajam Mustajam said 700 umrah pilgrims from the province had returned home. However, there were 90 pilgrims who booked their pilgrimage with four travel agencies in West Java whose whereabout remained unknown. "We are still figuring out whether the 90 people have reached the holy land [of Mecca] or are still in transit in another country, he said in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday during a coordination meeting regarding COVID-19 handling. Ajam added that the religious affairs office was continuing to coordinate with the religious affairs ministry to check the computerized integrated umrah and hajj system, which holds data on the registration, departure and return of pilgrims. "Were also coordinating with the travel agencies because they were the ones who managed their departure process, he said, adding that he hoped the pilgrims were in good health. It has been six days since they left Indonesia for Saudi Arabia. An umrah trip usually lasts about 12 days. Read also: Saudi's sudden 'umrah' ban leaves pilgrims heartbroken Ajam said there was a possibility that some of the 90 worshipers were not West Java citizens but had departed using services from travel agencies in the region. Responding to the matter, West Java governor Ridwan Kamil demanded the regional religious affairs office coordinate with Saudi Arabian government. Presidential spokesperson Fadjroel Rachman said on Friday that 1,685 Indonesian pilgrims were stranded in third countries during transit and that they were in the process of being flown back home by their respective airlines. Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, contributed the second-highest number of umrah pilgrims last year with 443,879 arrivals, according to the Saudi Hajj and Umrah Ministry. Saudi Arabia, on average, welcomes nearly 7 million umrah pilgrims annually. (eyc) Environmentalists say vast carbon sinks could be unleashed if Republic of Congos peatlands are drilled for oil. Activists are warning that oil drilling in the Republic of the Congos peatlands would devastate the global environment if allowed. Oil companies last year discovered vast oil reserves beneath these peatland forests which contain one of the worlds largest carbon sinks. The government, however, has assured it will protect the peatlands despite allowing companies to conduct oil exploration there. Al Jazeeras Malcolm Webb reports from the Republic of the Congos capital, Brazzaville. 5.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Former Vice President Joe Biden could leave Super Tuesday with an insurmountable delegate lead as he is on track for a big night. Dave Wasserman tweeted: Folks, Joe Biden could be on track to win a clear plurality (if not majority) of the 1,357 Super Tuesday delegates at stake. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 4, 2020 And: If Biden can win TX and keep CA within single digits, he'll likely exit Super Tuesday with a delegate lead that's close to insurmountable. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 4, 2020 The Sanders pledge to bring in new and young voters has not happened: Younger and new voters aren't showing up for Sanders. Biden got 31% of the vote with younger voters in NC. #SuperTuesdayResults pic.twitter.com/9UGrRq9XQY Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 4, 2020 The Biden momentum is real, and it is already clear that Mike Bloomberg is a big bust, and the Bernie Sanders expanded coalition was more hot air and wishful thinking than a reality. Joe Biden is on his way to flipping the entire narrative of the primary, and could leave Tuesday rolling toward the Democratic nomination. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook A total of 1,144 people in 962 cases had been prosecuted in China over criminal offenses related to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday. Prosecutors around the country engaged in the investigation and evidence collection of 6,428 epidemic-related criminal cases that concerned 8,595 people in total as of Tuesday, the SPP said. They intervened and handled 330 cases involving transmission of the novel coronavirus due to refusal to take preventive measures, 925 cases of manufacturing or selling fake or inferior products such as substandard medical equipment, 153 cases of illegal business operations including price gouging and 605 cases of damaging wildlife resources such as illegal hunting, killing or selling precious or endangered wild animals and their products. Other cases intervened and handled by prosecutors included crimes such as obstructing official duties, intentional injuries, fraud, fabricating and intentionally transmitting false information, the SPP said. The coup de grace came that same day, when journalist Laura Bassett published an essay in GQ alleging that Matthews made boorish comments (Why havent I fallen in love with you yet?) to her and other women when they were guests on his show. The piece reawakened old whispers about Matthewss serial insensitivity and inappropriate behavior claims NBC News has quietly been defending him against for decades. NBC is particularly sensitive to harassment allegations these days, given its pledges to employees to not tolerate the type of crass sexual exploitation for which longtime Today anchor Matt Lauer was dismissed in 2017. Egypt has announced the launch of a three-year Egyptian weapons manufacturing plan to achieve self-sufficiency and export Egyptian weapons abroad. On Feb. 25, Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed al-Assar announced a plan to develop the arms and ammunition production of the companies affiliated with the ministry, with a total investment of about 7.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($479 million). Assar said in the statement, The plan includes the modernization and addition of 84 production lines. After its implementation, Egypt will not import a single round of ammunition. Egypt wants Egyptians to manufacture their own weapons and the plan needs three years to be properly implemented. On Feb. 17, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated Military Factory 300 operating under Abu Zaabal Company for Specialized Industries, which manufactures multiple small- and medium-caliber weapons ammunition and missiles. Sisi opened a number of other new projects for military production in the military factories of Banha Company for Electronic Industries (Factory 144), Kaha Company for Chemical Industries (Factory 270) and Helwan Machinery and Equipment Company (999 Military Factory). On Feb. 17, Sisi also inspected the manufacture of an Egyptian armored vehicle, dubbed the Sinai 200. Assar said in his Feb. 25 statement, It is a very efficient armored vehicle to meet the needs of the Egyptian army. It is fast and flexible and has a strong network for risk prevention during mission execution. Egypt is currently working to develop the arms industry and locally produce weapons to export them. In December 2018, Egypt organized the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX), during which the Egyptian armored vehicle, Temsah-3 (Arabic for crocodile) was presented to the participants. The vehicle consists of six seats so the driver, the commander of the vehicle and four soldiers can fit in, making it easier to carry out combing operations and raids. IDEX 2018 also showcased drones made by the Egyptian armys Arab Organization for Industrialization, in an attempt to enter the world market for the manufacture of drones, where Turkey occupies an important position. In December 2018, the Egyptian naval forces announced the first Egyptian naval weapon, the Egyptian Gowind corvette. The Egyptian army stated back then that it aims to strengthen capabilities in achieving maritime security, border protection and economic interests in the Red Sea and Mediterranean. On Dec. 19, 2019, the Egyptian army released a video of a number of weapons manufactured in the factories affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and Military Production, such as Temsah-3 and vehicles ST-100/ST-500, the armored vehicle Fahd-300 and the modified Egyptian 13 mm gun M-46. Meanwhile, Egypt plans to hold IDEX 2020 in December. The Ministry of Defense and Military Production announced that new Egyptian weapons will be showcased at this exhibition, and also revealed a plan to produce the M1A1 Abrams tank. The Egyptian governments plan to develop the arms industry includes exporting Egyptian weapons to African countries in order to further extend Egyptian influence in the continent. In this context, an exhibition of arms and military products was organized in the presence of Egyptian military industries companies in December 2019 with the participation of defense ministers, chiefs of staff and military experts of African countries. On Feb. 19, Assar announced a cooperation agreement with the Senegalese minister of armed forces, Sidiki Kaba, during his visit to Cairo for the supply to Senegal of military equipment, weapons and ammunition. Yahya al-Kadwani, member of the Defense and National Security Commission in the Egyptian parliament, said, "The state is seeking to achieve self-sufficiency in the field of weapons since it has to import large amounts of weapons to build an army capable of addressing terrorism risks. Kadwani told Al-Monitor, Proposing a self-sufficiency plan to manufacture weapons is part of challenges facing Egypt, especially Turkish threats to build military bases in Libya. He noted, The African market is ready to benefit from Egyptian weapons, as Cairo is interested in being present in Africa politically and through military cooperation. African states need Egyptian weapons because of their good quality and low price and because they suit the nature of African people and Africas geography. He added, The parliamentary Defense and National Security Commission is coordinating with the Ministry of Defense and Military Production to draft plans that can hone the skills of the Egyptian army and boost local production of weapons. Former Assistant Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Mohamed Nour al-Din told Al-Monitor, Egypt is in dire need of a plan to manufacture weapons locally, in light of the state policy to develop the capacities of the Egyptian army and supply it with weapons and equipment. He said, The weapons manufactured in Egypt are in line with the needs of the police and army in their operations. The Egyptian armored vehicles suit the desert geography of the areas of operations in the Sinai Peninsula and meet the requirements of the security forces that might not be available in imported weapons. Nour al-Din added, Developing the manufacture of weapons in Egypt will add a source of national income through exports to neighboring countries, be they Arab or African. He noted, The plan to manufacture weapons will benefit African countries facing weapons shortages due to the high prices of weapons imported from the West. Egyptian arms will meet their needs and cater to their circumstances, given the African challenges to confront terrorist and extremist groups. He said that funding was [in the past] the main obstacle facing the Egyptian plan to produce weapons. But today the country has a clear political will to direct the required funding to the army and to the production of weapons, especially in light of the internal and external terrorism threat and the neighboring [crises]. Nour al-Din concluded, The biggest accomplishment in the plan to develop Egyptian arms was the opening of the Military Factory 300 to produce ammunition. When we trained [armed] forces, we suffered from a lack of ammunition, which limited the scope of training. But local ammunition production will secure large quantities of products and boost the training of forces with the needed ammunition. When social science researchers asked children to draw a scientist in the 1960s and 1970s, more than 99 percent of the scientists they drew were men. That percentage has dropped over time, but kids still overwhelmingly think of scientists as men. Mission Unstoppable With Miranda Cosgrove, which airs Saturday mornings on CBS, could help change that. Powered by women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, the TV series recasts science as womens work. The government is proactively engaged in tackling the situation related to coronavirus and 10 lakh people have been screened at India's open borders with Nepal and Bhutan in the last one month, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation and the Cabinet Secretary was holding meetings with concerned officials every day. Javadekar said that coronavirus issue was discussed after the cabinet meeting and this has been the practice in the last four cabinet meetings. "The government is proactively engaged to tackle the situation. The Prime Minister himself is monitoring the situation," he said. Javadekar said that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was also keeping a close eye on the situation. "We have started screening at 21 airports and six lakh passengers have been screened. The open borders along Nepal and Bhutan, in the last one month more than 10 lakh have been screened. And border area towns are also being screened. There was only one virology lab in Pune. We have set up 15 more and 19 are going to be established shortly," he said. He added that two batches of Indians have come from Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus spread, people have also been brought from the ship docked off the coast of Japan. "We brought them safely here. We have issued necessary advisories to guide Indian passengers and those travelling from abroad. For a certain period from many countries the visa on arrival has been suspended," the Union Minister said. Javadekar said the main job was to create awareness among the society and all sections need to take precautions which are simple but important. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cyprus fears a huge influx of migrants after Ankara allowed refugees to leave for the European Union and people massed on the Turkish-Greek border. Turkey hosts some four million refugees and faces another huge influx from the civil war in Syria. The use of refugees and migrants in a geopolitical discussion and political discourses has to be very carefully monitored, says Nicos Trimikliniotis of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights. Erdogan is doing it, and in response, Greece is doing exactly the same thing. This is completely unacceptable. If they want to end the dictatorship which Erdogan is imposing on Turkey, they should state it rather than pretend that the refugees are an invading army and that this is dangerous, he says. In a report titled Cyprus as a new refugee hotspot in Europe? published by a centre-left German political foundation, Trimikliniotis argues that there is little evidence that Cyprus will become a new migration route to Europe. But the number of immigrants into Cyprus is certainly growing, with 13,200 asylum applications in 2019 alone, the highest number ever recorded. Grave concern On 4 March, the Greek Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades said he conveyed to Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci the Greek Cypriot sides grave concern over the increasing flow of migrants, citing concerns that Turkeys decision to open the borders could be also aimed at altering the demographic character of Cyprus. Also on 4 March, 101 migrants arrived in Cyprus on board a 15-meter boat, while a further hundred crossed through the green zone separating northern and southern Cyprus. The Mediterranean island is split between the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, and a breakaway Turkish entity in the north, recognised only by Ankara. Geopolitical game It is a geopolitical game, resulting from the fact that the relationship between Turkey and the EU is not good. The EU has paid only half of the money promised to keep the refugees in Turkey. This is a very problematic agreement from the perspective of human rights because it eventually treats all refugees as migrants." Story continues Trimikliniotis says the situation is being exploited by politicians, especially those on the extreme right, including the Elam, a neo-Nazi political group that is linked to Greeces Golden Dawn. They attempt to connect the Cyprus problem, where the island is politically split between Turkey and a Greek Cypriot part, to what is going on in Greece, whats going on in Turkey. It creates a discourse of fear. If they connect it, the other side will do the same. They say that we are under threat and that we are going to be destroyed by the Islamists who are coming to take over our country. But this discourse is not only in Cyprus, it is all over Europe, it is all around the world, he says. DALLAS, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parks Associates today announced the topics and first confirmed keynote speakers for the 15th annual CONNECTIONS Europe: Strategies for Security and Smart Home , 10-11 November at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel. KPN Ventures and Alarm.com will keynote the event, providing insight into the growing opportunities and challenges in the smart home, security, and controls market. CONNECTIONS Europe hosts executives from the top European and international companies in the connected home ecosystems, focusing on new business models, distribution channels, industry partnerships, and technology advancements for smart home solutions, cloud services, and value-added services. Alarm.com is an early sponsor of the event. Video and interactive services have boosted ARPU for monitored security services in Europe to nearly 6%, even though the growth rate of subscribers is much slower, said Elizabeth Parks , President, Parks Associates. Smart home products, innovations in DIY and cloud services, and developments in AI are creating new service opportunities, and new sources of revenue, for traditional players and new entrants in the connected home space. We are excited to have Alarm.com back on stage and welcome KPN Ventures to keynote this years conference. Keynote speakers : Samir Ahmad, Investment Manager, KPN Ventures Anne Ferguson, VP, Marketing, Alarm.com Topics Marketing and Business Models Smart Home Solutions: Channel Expansion Business Models: A Service Driven Market Independent Living: Serving Seniors and Chronically Ill Monitoring: Expanding Beyond Security Voice and User Interfaces: Integration and Control Data Sharing: Trust-Based Models and Best Practices Technology and Market Growth AI and the Connected Home: Proactive and Predictive Intelligence DIY and DIFM: Impact on Smart Home and Security Interoperability: Expanding the Smart Home Home Network and Wi-Fi: Connectivity Driving the Experience Support: Onboarding and Ongoing Services Privacy and Security: Getting it Right for Consumers About CONNECTIONS Europe CONNECTIONS Europe is an executive conference focused on innovative business models, industry partnerships, and technology advancements for smart home solutions, cloud services, and value-added services, including energy management and connected health services. The conference combines networking opportunities with visionary keynotes and conference sessions focused on technology adoption and trends, consumer research, and new business strategies. www.connectionseurope.com A week after the communal violence in northeast Delhi, the residents are slowly picking up the pieces as the government's relief and rehabilitation measures have kicked in amid tight vigil by security forces. IMAGE: Families displaced in recent communal riots take shelter at eidgah relief camp in Mustafabad area of northeast Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo The police have been conducting flag marches and holding meetings with the locals in Jafrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajanpura, Yamuna Vihar and Mustafabad where the violence, that sparked from protests over the amended Citizenship Act, was the most intense. In Mustafabad, an Eidgah has been turned into a relief camp, and the locals too have opened their homes for those seeking shelter. Many families have sought refuge at the relief camps in Mustafabad and Shri Ram Colony, with others preferring their relative's house. Students are appearing for board exams that was postponed in the riot-affected. Special parent-teacher meetings are being organised in government and aided schools, officials said. IMAGE: An injured displaced riot victim takes shelter at eidgah relief camp in Mustafabad. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo "The teachers will counsel parents and students in view of the violence in the area," a senior Directorate of Education official said. The police and paramilitary personnel are maintaining a tight vigil outside the centres. However, government schools in the area will remain closed till March 7. Some people are visiting their burnt out homes to assess the damage. IMAGE: A crane carries charred remains of vehicles set ablaze by rioters, in violence-affected Shiv Vihar Tiraha area. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Many of those who fled during the violence are still fearful about returning and say they would wait for a week more before deciding anything. The Delhi Police has registered 436 FIRs and arrested or detained 1,427 people in connection with the communal violence that claimed 42 lives and left over 200 injured. an officer had said on Tuesday, adding 45 cases were registered under the Arms Act. The situation in the riot-affected areas was under control and the police control room have not received calls regarding rioting in the past six days, the force said. On Tuesday, Mohammed Shahrukh, who was seen confronting an unarmed police personnel during violence at Maujpur last week, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, police said. NEW DELHI: Mohd Tahir Hussain, the expelled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor who has been accused in the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma during the recent violence in northeast Delhi, has been named in two more caeses of violence in Delhi. According to reports, Hussain has been mentioned in two more FIRs, though not as an accused, in connection with the northeast Delhi violence that left over 40 people dead and more than 200 injured last week. The FIRs in which Hussain has been named were registered at Dayalpur and Khajoori Khas police stations in connection with the violence in these areas. Earlier on Wednesday, a Delhi court deferred the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of Hussain, who is currently absconding, in connection with an FIR lodged against him in the alleged killing of IB staffer Ankit Sharma. The expelled Councillor has been accused of involvement in the alleged murder of Sharma, whose body was recovered from a drain in Chand Bagh on February 26 during the violence in northeast Delhi. The deceased`s father, Ravinder Kumar, on whose complaint the FIR was lodged, has named the expelled AAP corporater as an accused. He has alleged that Hussain, whose office is located near Chand Bagh Pulia, had gathered men who were pelting stones and petrol bombs during the violence which led to tension and fear among the residents. Meanwhile, Delhi Police had on Tuesday said that all attempts are being made to arrest Hussain as soon as possible. At least 47 people have been killed and more than 200 people sustained serious injuries in the communal violence in north-east Delhi. In a shift in San Francisco judicial politics, two deputy public defenders, Maria Evangelista and Michelle Tong, won elections Tuesday night over opponents endorsed by most of the citys Superior Court judges, including their predecessors. A third race was too close to call. With all but one precinct reporting, Evangelista, the daughter of undocumented immigrant farm workers and a public defender since 2003, had 64.5% of the vote to 35.2% for Pang Ly, a court commissioner and mediator since 2010. The remaining votes were for write-in candidates. The seat is being vacated by the retirement of Judge Peter Busch, who endorsed Ly. In the election for Seat 18, Tong had 56.4% of the vote to 43.2% for Dorothy Chou Proudfoot, an administrative law judge who hears cases for the San Francisco Rent Board. Retiring Judge James Robertson backed Proudfoot. In Seat 21, opened up by the retirement of Judge John Stewart, Carolyn Gold, a longtime tenant lawyer and founder of the Eviction Defense Collaborative, had 51.3% of the vote to 48.3% for Karolulvindar Rani Singh, a prosecutor in the district attorneys office for more than 20 years. Superior Court judges serve six-year terms. Of the 52 seats in San Francisco, 25 were up for election this year, but 22 incumbent judges will be automatically re-elected because no one signed up to run against them. The election comes two years after four deputy public defenders, including Evangelista, tried to shake up the judiciary by running against incumbent judges, whom they targeted because all four had been appointed by Republican governors, though all were registered Democrats.The challenges were unsuccessful. In Tuesdays election, most of the incumbent judges supported Ly, Proudfoot and Singh, while their opponents won endorsements from the San Francisco Democratic Party. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Ly, Evaneglistas opponent, is a commissioner who handles cases on asbestos and environmental issues. She fled Vietnam with her parents as a child in 1979. Tong is the daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong and has spent her legal career handling criminal cases in the public defenders office since 2005. Proudfoot, her opponent, is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and is a former longtime prosecutor. As an administrative law judge, she presides over cases on rent control and landlord-tenant disputes. In the campaign for Stewarts seat, Gold has represented tenants for 30 years and is the founder and litigation director of a nonprofit that provides free legal representation for low-income renters. Singh, her opponent, is the daughter of an Indian refugee who has been a prosecutor throughout her legal career. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko New Delhi: In a big decision, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) approved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the civil aviation sector, allowing the Non-Resident Indias (NRIs) to buy up to 100 per cent stake in disinvestment-bound Air India. The decision to this effect was taken during the Union Cabinet meeting, which was later announced by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in his routine press briefing. The decision comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 per cent stake sale in the national carrier. Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved allowing Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to hold up to 100 per cent stake in Air India. Allowing 100 per cent investment by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the carrier would also not be in violation of SOEC norms. NRI investments would be treated as domestic investments. Under the Substantial Ownership and Effective Control (SOEC) framework, which is followed in the airline industry globally, a carrier that flies overseas from a particular country should be substantially owned by that country's government or its nationals. Currently, NRIs can acquire only 49 per cent in Air India. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the airline is also 49 per cent through the government approval route. As per the existing norms, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in scheduled domestic carriers, subject to certain conditions, including that it would not be applicable for overseas airlines. In the case of scheduled airlines, 49 per cent FDI is permitted through automatic approval route and any such investment beyond that level requires government nod. On January 27, the government came out with a Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for Air India disinvestment. It has proposed selling 100 per cent stake in Air India along with budget airline Air India Express and the national carrier's 50 per cent stake in AISATS, an equal joint venture with Singapore Airlines. Under the latest disinvestment plan, the successful bidder would have to take over only debt worth Rs 23,286.5 crore while the liabilities would be decided depending on current assets at the time of closing of the transaction. This is the second attempt by the government in as many years to divest Air India, which has been in the red for long. Among other decisions, the Union Cabinet also gave a go-ahead to the proposal for the merger of 10 public sector banks into four. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the exercise of consolidation of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) into four is on course and the merger will come into effect from April 1, 2020. (With Agency Inputs ) HOUSTON - (March 4, 2020) - Step by step, scientists are figuring out new ways to extend Moore's Law. The latest reveals a path toward integrated circuits with two-dimensional transistors. A Rice University scientist and his collaborators in Taiwan and China reported in Nature today that they have successfully grown atom-thick sheets of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as two-inch diameter crystals across a wafer. Surprisingly, they achieved the long-sought goal of making perfectly ordered crystals of hBN, a wide band gap semiconductor, by taking advantage of disorder among the meandering steps on a copper substrate. The random steps keep the hBN in line. Set into chips as a dielectric between layers of nanoscale transistors, wafer-scale hBN would excel in damping electron scattering and trapping that limit the efficiency of an integrated circuit. But until now, nobody has been able to make perfectly ordered hBN crystals that are large enough -- in this case, on a wafer -- to be useful. Brown School of Engineering materials theorist Boris Yakobson is co-lead scientist on the study with Lain-Jong (Lance) Li of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and his team. Yakobson and Chih-Piao Chuu of TSMC performed theoretical analysis and first principles calculations to unravel the mechanisms of what their co-authors saw in experiments. As a proof of concept for manufacturing, experimentalists at TSMC and Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University grew a two-inch, 2D hBN film, transferred it to silicon and then placed a layer of field-effect transistors patterned onto 2D molybdenum disulfide atop the hBN. "The main discovery in this work is that a monocrystal across a wafer can be achieved, and then they can move it," Yakobson said. "Then they can make devices." "There is no existing method that can produce hBN monolayer dielectrics with extremely high reproducibility on a wafer, which is necessary for the electronics industry," Li added. "This paper reveals the scientific reasons why we can achieve this." Yakobson hopes the technique may also apply broadly to other 2D materials, with some trial and error. "I think the underlying physics is pretty general," he said. "Boron nitride is a big-deal material for dielectrics, but many desirable 2D materials, like the 50 or so transition metal dichalcogenides, have the same issues with growth and transfer, and may benefit from what we discovered." In 1975, Intel's Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every two years. But as integrated circuit architectures get smaller, with circuit lines down to a few nanometers, the pace of progress has been hard to maintain. The ability to stack 2D layers, each with millions of transistors, may overcome such limitations if they can be isolated from one other. Insulating hBN is a prime candidate for that purpose because of its wide band gap. Despite having "hexagonal" in its name, monolayers of hBN as seen from above appear as a superposition of two distinct triangular lattices of boron and nitrogen atoms. For the material to perform up to spec, hBN crystals must be perfect; that is, the triangles have to be connected and all point in the same direction. Non-perfect crystals have grain boundaries that degrade the material's electronic properties. For hBN to become perfect, its atoms have to precisely align with those on the substrate below. The researchers found that copper in a (111) arrangement -- the number refers to how the crystal surface is oriented -- does the job, but only after the copper is annealed at high temperature on a sapphire substrate and in the presence of hydrogen. Annealing eliminates grain boundaries in the copper, leaving a single crystal. Such a perfect surface would, however, be "way too smooth" to enforce the hBN orientation, Yakobson said. Yakobson reported on research last year to grow pristine borophene on silver (111), and also a theoretical prediction that copper can align hBN by virtue of the complementary steps on its surface. The copper surface was vicinal -- that is, slightly miscut to expose atomic steps between the expansive terraces. That paper caught the attention of industrial researchers in Taiwan, who approached the professor after a talk there last year. "They said, 'We read your paper,'" Yakobson recalled. "'We see something strange in our experiments. Can we talk?' That's how it started." Informed by his earlier experience, Yakobson suggested that thermal fluctuations allow copper (111) to retain step-like terraces across its surface, even when its own grain boundaries are eliminated. The atoms in these meandering "steps" present just the right interfacial energies to bind and constrain hBN, which then grows in one direction while it attaches to the copper plane via the very weak van der Waals force. "Every surface has steps, but in the prior work, the steps were on a hard-engineered vicinal surface, which means they all go down, or all up," he said. "But on copper (111), the steps are up and down, by just an atom or two randomly, offered by the fundamental thermodynamics." Because of the copper's orientation, the horizontal atomic planes are offset by a fraction to the lattice underneath. "The surface step-edges look the same, but they're not exact mirror-twins," Yakobson explained. "There's a larger overlap with the layer below on one side than on the opposite." That makes the binding energies on each side of the copper plateau different by a minute 0.23 electron volts (per every quarter-nanometer of contact), which is enough to force docking hBN nuclei to grow in the same direction, he said. The experimental team found the optimal copper thickness was 500 nanometers, enough to prevent its evaporation during hBN growth via chemical vapor deposition of ammonia borane on a copper (111)/sapphire substrate. ### Tse-An Chen of TSMC is co-lead author of the paper. Co-authors are Chien-Chih Tseng, Chao-Kai Wen, Wei-Chen Chueh and Wen-Hao Chang of Chiao Tung; H.-S. Philip Wong and Tsu-Ang Chao of TSMC; Shuangyuan Pan and Yanfeng Zhang of Peking University, China; Qiang Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China; and Rongtan Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry at Rice. Chang is a professor at Chiao Tung and director of the university's Center for Emergent Functional Matter Science. Li is Director, Corporate Research, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The research was supported by TSMC, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy. -30- Read the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2009-2. This news release can be found online at https://news.rice.edu/2020/03/04/a-small-step-for-atoms-a-giant-leap-for-microelectronics/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Borophene on silver grows freely into an atomic 'skin': http://news.rice.edu/2019/09/30/borophene-on-silver-grows-freely-into-an-atomic-skin-2/ Step right up for bigger 2D sheets: http://news.rice.edu/2019/03/04/step-right-up-for-bigger-2d-sheets-2/ Yakobson Research Group: https://biygroup.blogs.rice.edu Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: https://msne.rice.edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu Images for download: https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/03/0209_TRANSISTOR-1-web.jpg Scientists have achieved the long-sought goal of growing an ideal hexagonal boron nitride crystal by taking advantage of disorder among the meandering steps on a copper substrate, as reported in Nature. The random steps keep the hBN in line and make it useful as a dielectric for two-dimensional electronics. (Credit: Yakobson Research Group/Rice University) https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/03/0209_TRANSISTOR-2-web.jpg Researchers in Taiwan, China and at Rice University made wafer-sized, two-dimensional sheets of hexagonal boron nitride, as reported in Nature. The material may be removed from its copper substrate and used as a dielectric for two-dimensional electronics. https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/03/0209_TRANSISTOR-3-web.jpg Rice University materials theorist Boris Yakobson and a collaborator performed a theoretical analysis to unravel the mechanisms behind a technique to make large sheets of hexagonal boron nitride on a wafer. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Jeff Falk 713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu Mike Williams 713-348-6728 mikewilliams@rice.edu A young Brisbane man has drowned while bodyboarding off North Stradbroke Island. The 20-year-old Brisbane man was with a group of people at the time and within 10 minutes of him entering the water, he was spotted face down about 60 metres offshore. Frenchmans Beach at Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island. Credit:Google Maps - mephisto411 Emergency services were called about 1.15pm on Wednesday and paramedics tried desperately to save the man's life at Frenchmans Beach at Point Lookout. A rescue helicopter was initially dispatched to the scene from the mainland, but the man was later declared dead at the scene. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other top BJP leaders will skip the Holi celebrations in view of the coronavirus outbreak even as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced not to celebrate Holi and cited incidents of communal violence in the national capital among the reasons. Later, President Ram Nath Kovind's office also tweeted that the Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold the traditional Holi gatherings as a precautionary measure as with "alertness and safeguards, we all can help contain the outbreak of COVID-19". Announcing his decision to not celeberate Holi, Modi tweeted,"experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme." Following Prime Minister Modi's example, Shah and BJP president J P Nadda also took to Twitter to announce their decision to not celebrate Holi or hold any Holi gatherings in view of the coronavirus outbreak. "Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, i have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself and your family," Shah tweeted. In his tweet, Nadda said,"the world is battling COVID -19 Novel Coronavirus. The countries and medical fraternity are jointly making efforts to contain its spread. Keeping this in mind, this year, I will neither celebrate Holi nor organise Holi Milan. Stay safe, stay healthy. Holi is on March 10 this year. However, Kejriwal and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari cited communal violence in northeast Delhi among the reasons for not celebrating this year. Responding to a question at a press conference, Kejriwal said, "I am not celebrating Holi due to both reasons (violence and coronavirus). In violence, several people were killed in Delhi...There are families which are in distress due to these riots. I am not celebrating Holi. Our ministers and MLAs will also not celebrate Holi this year." At least 42 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in communal violence in northeast Delhi, triggered after clashes between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and anti-CAA protestors. Expressing concern over what he termed as "an assault on the social harmony and brotherhood", Tiwari tweeted in view of these incidents, Delhi BJP has decided not to celebrate Holi. His tweet was in Hindi. Later, a Delhi BJP statement said the party MLAs will also not attend Holi gathering as they "endorsed the decision of Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Shah and party president Nadda." According to BJP sources, Nadda has also written to all state unit presidents, asking them to avoid holding Holi programmes as a precautionary measure. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said in view of the prime minister's decision and outbreak of coronavirus, he is also cancelling the Holi programme that was scheduled to be held at Miller School in Patna on March 7. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too said that he will not take part in 'Holi milan' (gathering) later this month in "public interest" and appealed to all the people of the state to refrain from attending social functions. "I will also stay away from holy festivities of Holi in wider public interest. Stay safe, stay healthy," he tweeted in Hindi. He further tweeted that, "the coronavirus is infectious, therefore, protection is more important than treatment."It is my appeal to all the people of the state to refrain from attending social functions and take good care of themselves and their families with full responsibility." However, all BJP leaders and Union ministers said the country was well prepared, and taking precautionary steps to contain the spread of the coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Guwahati/IBNS: Assam Finance minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma asked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to campaign in Bangladesh, not in West Bengal. On Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee said in a public meeting held at Kaliaganj, that all the people who came from Bangladesh and have been casting votes in the elections were Indian citizens. Reacting over the West Bengal Chief Ministers remarks on Bangladeshis, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that, it clearly indicates that Mamata Banerjee is standing for Bangladeshi infiltrators. She is trying to redefine the citizenship clause ensign in the constitution of India. I think, next time she will not campaign in West Bengal, she will campaign in Bangladesh. She will say please come and elect me again and again, Sarma said. The Assam minister said that Mamata Banerjee has no genuine concern about the scares resource, the limited resource available with the West Bengal government should have been used for the poor and needy. Instead of that, she is openly inviting a particular section of Bangladeshi infiltrators to India, Sarma added. On the other hand, former Assam Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi said that, Mamata Banerjee only spoke about West Bengal and she knows about her own state. The voters are Indian citizens and the Election Commission has found them as Indian citizens and as a result of which their names are enumerated in the voter list. They are Indian citizens, Tarun Gogoi said. Gogoi further said that, if any illegal Bangladeshi got voter card then the Election Commission will be responsible for it. The Election Commission of India has issued voter card and enumerated their names in the voter list and voter can only be the Indian citizen. So, the Election Commission should take proper and adequate steps, Tarun Gogoi said. The former Assam Chief Minister said that in Assam there were made intensive revision of electoral rolls twice by linking with the 1966 voter list. (By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati) Popular human rights activist, Deji Adeyanju has taken to his Twitter handle to mock the suspended National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole. Recall that it was earlier reported that Justice Danlami Senchi of an Abuja High Court sitting in Jabi, suspended Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Also Read: Court Suspends Oshiomhole As APC National Chairman The suspension order, according to the judge, is to subsist till the final determination of the substantive suit seeking the removal of the former Edo State governor as APC national chair. Reacting to this development, Adeyanju queried how the former Edo Governor will react to the ruling of the court. See his tweet below: She's about to be paid millions upon millions of dollars to appear with a bunch of her Friends for a reunion special. But Courteney Cox, made world-famous thanks to her role of Monica Geller in the classic '90s sitcom Friends, kept her usual low profile on Tuesday, while she was seen out in somewhat colorless sweats as she ran errands in Beverly Hills, California. Cox, 55, donned a blue-grey long-sleeved top and matching cropped sweat pants for the day outing, for which she carried a black leather shoulder bag and a very large white shopping bag from upscale retailer Celine Paris. Monica carrying Celine: Courteney Cox kept her usual low profile on Tuesday, while she was seen out in somewhat colorless sweats as she ran errands in Beverly Hills The Scream actress wore her well-known raven hair down, and in a half-ponytail. Courteney eschewed socks, and tread the sidewalk in black Asics sneakers. She wore minimal gold jewelry, including small hoop earrings and a pendant. Cox also sported chic clear grey aviator sunglasses. On the go: Cox donned a blue-grey long-sleeved top and matching cropped sweat pants for the day outing At another point, she was seen without her shopping bag, holding her black Hydroflask water bottle presumably on her way to work out. The TV star also reportedly hit up a nail salon, before making her way to a shoe repair shop. Courteney also made time to vote in the California Primary elections on Tuesday as seen on her Instagram Story in which she posed with the 'I Voted' sticker on her face. Civic duty, check: Courteney also made time to vote in the California Primary elections on Tuesday as seen on her Instagram Story Late last month, her Friends reunion special was finally made official as part of the slate on the upcoming HBO Max. The reunion special was first announced in November, but it was only confirmed in February, with Cox returning alongside Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. Part of the delay was due to the six actors demanding a high paycheck for each of them to partake in the interview special, which will be shot on Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. lot, where Friends was originally shot. TORONTO, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Itafos (TSX-V: IFOS) (the Company) announced today the appointment of Rory ONeill and Ricardo De Armas to its Board of Directors. The Companys principal shareholder, CL Fertilizers Holding LLC (CLF), designated Mr. ONeill and Mr. De Armas as its nominees to the Companys Board of Directors pursuant to the previously announced investor rights agreement entered into on December 31, 2019, between the Company and CLF. CLF is an investment entity of private funds managed by Castlelake, L.P. (Castlelake), a global private investment firm. Mr. ONeill is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Castlelake. Mr. ONeill founded Castlelake in 2005 and is responsible for the firms overall direction, including all investment and operational activities, as well as establishing the firms vision, culture and investment approach. Mr. ONeill also serves as chair of Castlelakes Investment Review Committee and has overseen more than $25 billion of global investments in more than 60 countries across a variety of sectors including agribusiness, minerals, energy and transportation. Prior to founding Castlelake, Mr. ONeill was a senior managing director at Cargill Value Investment (now CarVal Investors) where he helped establish and grow the firms global investment business. Early in his career, Mr. ONeill was a certified public accountant at KPMG. Mr. O'Neill serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas. Mr. ONeill holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration and biology from the University of St. Thomas and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. De Armas is a Director at Castlelake. Mr. De Armas joined Castlelake in 2016 as part of the Global Special Situations team and is responsible for investments in emerging markets across a variety of sectors including agribusiness and metals and mining. Prior to joining Castlelake, Mr. De Armas was Vice President at De Jong Capital and Principal at Zaff Capital where he was instrumental in the acquisitions and restructurings that ultimately resulted in the formation of Itafos. Prior to joining Zaff Capital, Mr. De Armas was an investment banker at Citigroup where he focused on investments in Latin America across a variety of sectors including agribusiness and metals and mining. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. De Armas was a financial analyst at Procter & Gamble. Mr. De Armas serves on numerous boards, including Heron Resources Limited and North River Resources Plc. Mr. De Armas holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Universidad Metropolitana and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. About Itafos The Company is a vertically integrated phosphate fertilizers and specialty products company with an attractive portfolio of long-term strategic businesses and projects located in key fertilizer markets worldwide. The Company owns, operates and is developing the following businesses and projects: Itafos Conda a vertically integrated phosphate mine and fertilizer business with production and sales capacity of approximately 550kt per year of monoammonium phosphate ( MAP ), MAP with micronutrients ( MAP+ ), superphosphoric acid ( SPA ), merchant grade phosphoric acid ( MGA ) and specialty products including ammonium polyphosphate ( APP ) located in Idaho, US; ), MAP with micronutrients ( ), superphosphoric acid ( ), merchant grade phosphoric acid ( ) and specialty products including ammonium polyphosphate ( ) located in Idaho, US; Itafos Arraias a phosphate fertilizer business with production and sales capacity of approximately 500kt per year of single superphosphate ( SSP ), SSP with micronutrients ( SSP+ ), premium PK compounds and approximately 40kt per year of excess sulfuric acid located in Tocantins, Brazil; ), SSP with micronutrients ( ), premium PK compounds and approximately 40kt per year of excess sulfuric acid located in Tocantins, Brazil; Itafos Farim a high-grade phosphate mine project located in Farim, Guinea-Bissau; Itafos Paris Hills a high-grade phosphate mine project located in Idaho, US; Itafos Santana a vertically integrated high-grade phosphate mine and fertilizer plant project located in Para, Brazil; Itafos Mantaro a large phosphate mine project located in Junin, Peru; and Itafos Araxa a vertically integrated rare earth elements and niobium mine and extraction plant project located in Minas Gerais, Brazil. For more information, or to join the Companys mailing list to receive notification of future news releases, please visit the Companys website, www.itafos.com . Forward Looking Information Certain information contained in this news release constitutes forward looking information. All information other than information of historical fact is forward looking information. The use of any of the words intend, anticipate, plan, continue, estimate, expect, may, will, project, should, would, believe, predict and potential and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking information. This information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward looking information. No assurance can be given that this information will prove to be correct and such forward looking information included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. Forward looking information is subject to a number of risks and other factors that could cause actual results and events to vary materially from that anticipated by such forward looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expected results described in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those risk factors set out in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure documents available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks, uncertainties and assumptions are not exhaustive. 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Wells novella has spurred a new wave of interest in becoming invisible, no matter the cost, consequences, or insult to God. So whether you personally suffer from visibility, know someone who does, or are just trying to follow the water cooler chatter from co-workers weighing the pros and cons of having their visibility treated, heres a look back at the history of this complicated, controversial medical procedure. Advertisement The Invisible Man (1897) H.G. Wells 1897 novella contains a detailed description of the first successful invisibility treatment, and today it serves as a reminder that being the first patient to survive a procedure, although undeniably preferable to being the last patient to die on the table, isnt really where you want to aim, medically speaking. Unlike most advances in medical science, the Griffin Invisibility Operation was the product of reckless self-experimentation, which makes The Invisible Man an oddity in 19th-century surgical literature, in that it considers the possibility that patients might be capable of feeling pain. Subjected to a literal taste of his own medicine, Griffin even wound up feeling sympathy for nonhuman mammals! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But it was all horrible. I had not expected the suffering. A night of racking anguish, sickness and fainting. I set my teeth, though my skin was presently afire; all my body afire; but I lay there like grim death. I understood now how it was the cat had howled until I chloroformed it. Lucky it was I lived alone and untended in my room. There were times when I sobbed and groaned and talked. But I stuck to it. I became insensible and woke languid in the darkness. The pain had passed. I thought I was killing myself and I did not care. Advertisement Advertisement Not only was the Griffin Invisibility Operation excruciating, it was unsuitable for the vast majority of patients suffering from visibility. A standard GIO had two stages: a series of injections to alter the pigment of the subjects blood, followed by prolonged exposure to two radiating centres of a sort of ethereal vibration. You can see the problem: Griffins great breakthrough was developing a practical method to bleach hemoglobin, but melanin stumped him entirely. If not for the happy accident that Griffin was, himself, almost an albino with a pink and white face and red eyes, he might never have discovered invisibility, might never have terrorized the English countryside, and might never even have gotten himself beaten to death by enraged villagers. Even for the lucky albinos who were good candidates for invisibility procedures, the Griffin Invisibility Operation had downsides: Food took some time to become invisible after being eaten, the subtle differences between being invisible and running around completely nude in inclement weather took time for patients to appreciate, plus also everyone who underwent the procedure became a full-blown homicidal maniac in a matter of days. But they became invisible homicidal maniacs, which was a great leap forward for medical science. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Invisible Man (1933) It took 36 years for scientists to develop an invisibility procedure that worked reliably on nonalbinosanother example of the human cost of a medical system that assumes whiteness by defaultand by 1933, the Griffin Invisibility Operation had waned in popularity to the point that it was rare to see an Invisible Man at all. So when Dr. Jack Griffin announced that he had developed a new method that broadened the candidate pool for invisibility procedures to include the full spectrum of human coloration, from albinism all the way to Claude Rains, it astonished the world. Not because the Dr. Jack Griffin Invisibility Operation (DJ-GIO) brought invisibility to the masses, but because Dr. Jack Griffin focused all of his attention on pigmentation while making no effort at all to address the homicidal mania. As a result, Griffin became rather a poor advocate for his own ideas, and his efforts to explain his work were frankly unsettling: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But despite Dr. Jack Griffins fate, his fearless research paved the way for the explosion of advances in the invisible sciences in the 1940s, and Invisible Men of every color and gender owe him a debt of gratitude. Advertisement Advertisement The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Dr. Frank Griffin was the first invisibiologist to make serious progress on the mental health side effects associated with invisibility procedures, although any account of those advances comes with a giant asterisk next to it: While Griffin and Dr. Jack Griffin limited their research to animal testing and self-experimentation, Dr. Frank Griffin experimented on death row inmates. Its easy to decry that as an ethical lapse in 2020, and even easier to note that Frank Griffins test subject rather predictably used his newfound powers of invisibility to escape, but the peculiar technical requirements of Griffins experimentsa fast-acting invisibility serum that could be administered in nonsterile environments like a prison cell, one that worked reliably even without access to radiating centers or ethereal vibrationspushed his research in directions that would pay off handsomely for the Allies during World War II. But the easiest way to see how important Frank Griffins research was, however dubious its origins, is to examine footage of a patient whose visibility he treated. Advertisement Griffin and Dr. Jack Griffin both became murderers as a consequence of their invisibility treatments; Dr. Frank Griffins patient was already a convicted murderer (albeit unjustly convicted), but all invisibility did was turn him into a boorish dinner party host. Thats real progress! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Invisible Woman (1940) Its a measure of Americas deeply ingrained misogyny that invisibility procedures were available to men on death row before scientists even attempted to treat a female patient for a case of visibility. Even then, it happened by accident: Professor Gibbs assumed only men would ask to be the subjects of his demented experiment; Kitty Carroll, the first Invisible Woman, chose not to specify her gender on her application in an effort to avoid being sexually harassed. We know all of this because Gibbs was the first scientist to film himself performing an invisibility procedure, but its one of those films that tells a modern viewer more about professor Gibbs than he perhaps intended to tell us: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even through the fog of vintage sexism, you can see how much effort professor Gibbs made to make invisibility procedures more welcoming to women: developing a bedside manner that involves answering his patients questions instead of ranting about a new Reign of Terror, turning lots of giant dials so everyone could see how scientific invisibility is, and of course, hiring Margaret Wicked Witch of the West Hamilton as a nurse, so that patients could see a friendly, familiar face when waking up from anesthesia. And speaking of anesthesia, there isnt any. Professor Gibbs still used the same basic injection-followed-by-ethereal-vibration method that caused Griffin so much pain, but by simply increasing power on the radiating centers until the vibrations reverse polarity in the patients axons, he was able to reduce the pain to a harmless tickling sensation, plus liver cancer 10 years later. Kitty Carroll primarily wanted to become invisible in order to play pranks on her boss, so whos to say the trade-off wasnt worth it? Advertisement Advertisement Invisible Agent (1942) Dr. Frank Griffins earlier work developing an invisibility procedure that could be used to break murderers out of prison came in handy in 1942, when it was used to smuggle Dr. Frank Griffin Jr. into occupied Germany. The militarys famous Syringe Ready to Invisiblify kits were not only shelf-stable, battlefield-tested, and mom-approved, they made the entire process of being permanently cured of visibility as simple and painless as stripping buck naked while tumbling through the sky toward Nazi Germany without taking off your parachute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr. Frank Griffin Jr.s invisibility procedure became impractical after the fall of Berlin, because he insisted that parachuting naked into Nazi Germany was an essential part of his method. The Invisible Mans Revenge (1944) Dr. Peter Drury was, in many ways, an even less ethical invisibiologist than Dr. Frank Griffin. Griffin experimented on a death row inmate, who promptly escaped from prison; Drury experimented on a mental patient who had already escaped. Still, he gets some points for trying to establish a bedside manner, even if it mostly consisted of exclaiming things like, I have outstripped the immortals of science! when he thought his patient had passed out: Advertisement Advertisement The scientific advances here may not be obvious, but Drurys innovations in customer service are still visible on every visit to a high-end barber shop. Without Drurys brandy-heavy treatment methods, would we ever have had the wonderful experience of being served an excellent Scotch in a room that reeks of Barbicide? The Invisible Mouse (1947) Easily the simplest invisibility procedure known to medical science. Like Griffins original invisibility procedure, the Jerry Process was developed through a combination of self-experimentation and animal testing. In this case, however, that Venn diagram was a circle: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the fact that the Jerry Process was as simple as taking a bath in invisible ink, it took decades before researchers were able to create a topical solution that was strong enough for a cartoon mouse but pH balanced for a human. Visibility patients who were aware of the simplicity of the Jerry Process were sometimes unwilling to have their condition treated with a Drury Operation, betting that a human Jerry Process was just around the corner. Unfortunately, the result of their hesitation was the collapse of the entire industry, as once-ubiquitous invisibility clinics disappeared overnight and research was derailed for decades. Now You See Him, Now You Dont (1972) When the long-sought-after human Jerry Process was finally discovered in 1972, it was as much of an accident as the mouse version. But while Jerrys delight at having discovered a topical invisibility spray was somewhat tempered by the presence of a cartoon cat desperately trying to murder him, Dexter Rileys breakthrough was pure science. It remains one of the most thrilling depictions of the scientific method ever captured on film, and the bold series of experiments Riley constructed to test his hypothesis (Hypothesis: I am young and I look like Kurt Russell and I will live forever) was single-handedly responsible for the fingerless gloves on fingerless scientists craze of the 1980s. Advertisement Advertisement Talk about outstripping the immortals of science! The Invisible Man (1975) Advertisement If you have any doubt that the Department of Defense is a bloated dinosaur, check out the invisibility procedure they paid the Klae Corp. to develop in the 1970s. This is three years after Dexter Riley developed the just plunge your hand into the mystery liquid method at Medfield College, and defense contractors were still out there fucking around with radiating centers and ethereal vibrations like it was the 1890s. Its no wonder Dr. Daniel Weston wanted to destroy his own research: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Klae Procedure is the ED-209 of invisibility methods, and everyone involved in its construction should be murdered by RoboCop for wasting taxpayer money. Son of the Invisible Man (Excerpted in Amazon Women on the Moon, 1987) Perhaps the saddest story in the history of invisibility, the mysterious Son of the Invisible Man caused an absolute sensation in the scientific world when he announced that he had perfected the invisibility procedure originally devised by his father. In retrospect, there were a number of red flags, most obviously that the Son of the Invisible Man was never too clear on which Invisible Man he was the son of. Griffin? Dr. Jack Griffin? Dr. Frank Griffin? Dr. Frank Griffin, Jr.? Jerry from Tom and Jerry? Whatever the answer, it quickly became obvious that the Son of the Invisible Man had not completely eliminated the procedures side effects: Advertisement Advertisement Although his method was ultimately not successful, the Son of the Invisible Mans experiments werent a total wash: His unique insights into the challenges and dangers posed by Invisible Men led to a long and lucrative career as a security consultant, and completing the three-day-long A Shirt Making a Phone Call Is Actually Not All That Scary, so Dont Lose Your Cool and Start Blabbing Classified Information Invisibility Defense training program he developed is still a prerequisite for a federal security clearance. Advertisement Hollow Man (2000) Advertisement Advertisement Again: Dexter Riley of Medfield College developed a painless, topical invisibility formula in 1972. Sebastian Caine was clearly a brilliant scientist, but what kind of a person sets himself the goal of making a simple medical procedure into something more painful, more expensive, and more reminiscent of Body Worlds? Advertisement Advertisement Caine would subsequently claim that he was conducting an experiment to see how much money the government would pay for technology that makes everything worse, as though this werent the same government that spent months researching the possibility of nuking the moon to impress people. How to Disappear Completely (2000) Advertisement The good news is that Radioheads procedure for becoming invisible is simple, affordable, and requires no special knowledge or equipment. The bad news is that singing, Im not here, this isnt happening to yourself over and over again is not so much a procedure for becoming invisible as it is a procedure for disassociating during trauma or severe depression. Technically, it wont make you invisible, but if you practice it long enough, you can eventually become someone you dont recognize in the mirror. Advertisement Advertisement The Invisible Man (2020) Even his harshest critics have to admit that Adrian Griffins revolutionary approach to invisibility has changed the visibility game forever. The Griffin Treatment for visibility is just as effective as any of the invasive procedures that preceded it, with almost none of the downsides. Heres whats different about the latest invisibility treatment: Its a suit of clothing. A matrix of cameras and flexible screens stitched into a bodysuit produce the invisibility effect, but the advantage is what it doesnt produce. The excruciating pain of invisibility serum bleaching your hemoglobin? Gone! Exposing yourself to vaguely defined ethereal vibrations? Gone! Running around the English countryside naked in the middle of winter? This thing is literally clothing, so: gone! Creepy nurse that looks like the Wicked Witch of the West chatting you up while you undergo treatment for your visibility? Do creepy nurses routinely watch you get dressed? And that abrupt descent into madness? Well, that could happen at any time, but dont blame your bullshit on the Griffin invisibility suit. You get out of it what you put into it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now that theres a safe, noninvasive, clinically proven way to treat chronic visibility sufferers, it might be time to ask your doctor if a Griffin Invisibility Suit is right for you. In the worst-case-scenarioyour doctor approves immediate invisibility treatment, your insurance only covers the Hollow Man procedure, the surgeon misunderstandsyou can take some comfort in the fact that at least there will be fewer visible people running around, even if you, personally, go mad in the most painful way imaginable. And who knows? If we get enough invisibility suits into enough invisible hands, theres a chance that someone, somewhere, someday will discover one of those positive benefits of invisibility that scientists have been promising us for centuries, usually only moments before those same scientists use their newfound powers of invisibility to go on nude killing sprees across the English countryside. Is it a mistake to trust scientists to consider the ethical implications of new invisibility technologies before they deploy them? You might as well ask if its a mistake to assume that scientific progress only moves forward. Maybe it isbut I dont see it. As Easter approaches, the Anglican Church of Canada is changing the way mass is celebrated to avoid the spread of novel coronavirus. Rev. Andrew Asbil, the Anglican bishop of Toronto, advised churchgoers in a letter this week to refrain from shaking hands or offering hugs during mass when peace offerings are exchanged. The church is suspending the sharing of wine in the communal cup. But communion bread will continue to be given out during mass, Asbil wrote. These measures were also put in place in 2003, during the SARS outbreak. Parishes are being asked to replenish holy water daily, or discontinue their use. Churchgoers are advised to regularly wash their hands and stay at home if feeling unwell. Together all of us can help mitigate both risk and fear in our communities by exercising this due diligence, Asbil wrote. Our normal liturgical customs are important to us, and we hope to reinstate them as soon as we are advised that the risk of transmission has been better contained. Neil MacCarthy, who speaks for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said some parishes began shunning handshakes in 2003 during the SARS outbreak and have never returned to that nicety as parishioners have used smiling, nodding, bowing or holding up the peace sign to greet each other. What were really trying to stress is that people who are distributing communion are washing their hands before and after, he said. Some parishes have hand sanitizer available when people come into the church. Health officials in Toronto have not advised any other changes, MacCarthy said, adding parishes recommend people stay home if they are sick and watch mass online. With files from The Canadian Press New Zealand police arrested a 19-year-old man over an "abhorrent" threat made this week against one of the Christchurch mosques targeted in a mass shooting last year. As New Zealand prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of the massacre by a self-avowed white supremacist that killed 51 Muslim worshippers, police condemned the threat and increased patrols at two mosques that were attacked. The intimidating message made on an encrypted messaging app reportedly showed a man in a balaclava sitting in a car outside the Al Noor mosque accompanied by threatening text and a gun emoji. "This type of imagery has no place in Aotearoa New Zealand -- it is abhorrent and will not be tolerated," Canterbury police commander superintendent John Price said in a statement, referring to the country by both its Maori and English names. He said the man, who has not been named, was arrested after police executed a search warrant at a Christchurch address and located several items, including a vehicle. Price said the man had been charged on an unrelated matter, which was not disclosed, and police were still gathering evidence over the mosque threat. He said police had also increased patrols around the Al Noor and Linwood mosques and would be maintaining "a visible presence" as the March 15 anniversary approaches. "The safety of the community is our utmost priority," he said. Price praised members of the public who reported the threatening image and warned against sharing it online. He said the image had been referred to New Zealand's chief censor David Shanks to see if it should be classified as objectionable material, which would make sharing it a crime punishable by up to 14 years in jail. Shanks last year outlawed video livestreamed on social media during the shooting and a Christchurch man who later shared it was jailed for six months. The alleged mosque attacker Brenton Tarrant, an Australian national, is due to go on trial on June 2 facing terrorism charges plus 51 counts of murder and 40 of attempted murder over the killings. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An asteroid large enough to cause global effects to the planet will pass the Earths orbital path late next month, according to NASA, and is projected to miss the planet by approximately three million miles about 12 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. The newly discovered asteroid, 1998 OR2, was found alongside another potentially dangerous asteroid, called 1998 OH, NASA said in a release. Both measure about one mile in diameter. The more imminent asteroid is set to be closest to Earth on April 29 and will be traveling at approximately 19,461 mph, according to NASAs tracking data. The asteroids were found by NASAs Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system, which is designed to track potentially dangerous asteroids and comets before they reach Earth. These discoveries come on the heels of last months installation of new state-of-the-art computing and data analysis hardware that speeds our search for near-Earth objects, said NEAT Project Manager Dr. Steven Pravdo of JPL. This shows that our efforts to find near-Earth objects are paying off. Follow-up observations made by Dr. David L. Rabinowitz of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory showed that neither asteroid posed a threat to Earth, according to NASA. Our goal is to discover and track all the potentially dangerous asteroids and comets long before they are likely to approach Earth, said NEAT Principal Investigator Eleanor Helin. The discovery of these two asteroids illustrates how NEAT is doing precisely what it is supposed to do. Gov. Phil Murphy will undergo surgery Wednesday morning to remove a likely cancerous tumor from his kidney, his office said. Murphy, 62, revealed last month he was diagnosed with a 3-centimeter tumor on his left kidney that is 92 percent likely to be malignant. He said doctors wouldnt know until if its cancerous after his surgery. The governors office disclosed the date of the surgery Tuesday afternoon. Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver will serve as acting governor until further notice, Murphys office said. Murphy has said doctors believe his prognosis is good. We caught it early, he told NJ Advance Media in an interview at his Middletown home last month. We consider ourselves incredibly lucky. The governor will undergo a procedure called a partial nephrectomy, which means doctors will remove part of the kidney but not the whole organ. The invasive surgery, which involves doctors freezing the kidney to extract the tumor, will take a few hours, Murphy said. Murphy said he expected to be in the hospital for a few days and then spend a few weeks after that recovering at home. Patients with kidney cancer that has not spread beyond the organ have a 93 percent chance of surviving at the five-year mark. Murphys surgery will take place at an undisclosed New York City hospital. The governor said thats not a slight on New Jerseys hospitals his longtime doctor and the doctors associated are based in the city. Murphy, a progressive Democrat, has used his illness to draw attention to the fight to improve health care in America. I am lucky to have a small piece of plastic in my wallet that provides me real peace of mind a health care policy membership card that provides benefits which are actually worth more than the card my name is printed on, the governor said during a speech in Washington, D.C., last week. And I am lucky that I am not one of the countless thousands upon thousands of New Jerseyans who cannot say the same," he added. And that angers me. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The Delhi High Court directed the AAP government and the police on Wednesday to ensure there is no breach of security at board exam centres till all the examinations are over in northeast Delhi where violence over the amended citizenship law has left at least 42 people dead and over 250 injured. Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the police to continue providing security till the board examinations of class 10th and 12th are over. The court passed the direction while disposing of a plea by a private school here that the centre allotted to them by the CBSE was 16 km away from their school and situated in Chandu Nagar-Karawal Nagar road, one of the violence-hit areas and it was difficult for the students to reach there and write the exams in such a situation. The court had earlier also directed the Delhi government and the police to ensure that there is no breach of security at board exam centres in northeast Delhi. Advocate Kamal Gupta, appearing for private school Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir at Surya Niketan in east Delhi, told the court that with the presence of police officials outside the centres, the exams were held peacefully. The CBSE had on February 28 told the court that it had postponed the board exams for class 10th and 12th which were to be held on February 28 and 29 at 86 centres in north east Delhi. The board had told the court that it had no plan to shift the centres to some other location in the national capital. The court had earlier taken note of the "worsening situation" in the area and had directed the CBSE to come up with a plan to re-schedule them or change the affected centres. The petitioners, including some students of class 10 and 12, have said it would be hard for them to reach the Centre due to violent clashes and riots in the area. They had urged the court to direct the CBSE to change the examination centre from New Sandhya Public School to a centre located in east Delhi district with proper infrastructure and security. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 12 Afghan soldiers and seven policemen were feared killed in Taliban insurgents' overnight attacks in two provinces, authorities said on Wednesday. In one attack in Kunduz province, 12 Afghan army soldiers were killed and four others wounded after Taliban stormed an army base in Bagh-e-Sherkat, a locality in the outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city, Fawzia Jawad from the provincial council told Xinhua news agency. Jawad said several Taliban militants were also killed and wounded during the fierce midnight clashes. In a separate Taliban attack, four Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel and three militants were killed after militants attacked security checkpoints in Tapa-e-Muarch area in the east of the city, according to ALP official Mohammad Yaseen. The attacks in Kunduz were reportedly launched by Taliban's so-called Sara Keta or Red Unit. In the neighbouring Balkh province, three ALP police personnel were killed after clashes erupted in Samarqandyan village. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period, ending on February 29 when a US-Taliban peace deal was signed in Qatari capital of Doha. However, Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashes with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal, which framed American troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan, was signed. Republicans in the Oregon Legislature continued their walkout on Tuesday, marking the seventh day they shut down voting in the Senate and the sixth in the House in order to block a climate change bill. There are just five full days left before lawmakers must adjourn the short session at midnight Sunday. With just three bills passed so far, dozens are waiting in the queue for floor votes. Most Senate Republicans have fled the state in order to prevent Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, from holding a vote on the plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Senate President Peter Courtney has said that, unlike last year, there are now enough votes in his chamber to pass the climate plan. Courtney, who has drawn fire over the years from fellow Democrats for his insistence on getting bipartisan support for most bills, took absent Republicans to task Tuesday for being out of the state as coronavirus spreads and turning walkouts into a routine political tactic. You get back here, Courtney said. Youve used the walkout once too many for Peter Michael Coleman Courtney. No more! Without a two-thirds quorum, Democrats cannot vote on bills and they need at least two Republicans present in each chamber to meet that bar. One House Republican and one Senate Republican have remained at the Capitol, Rep. Cheri Helt and Sen. Tim Knopp, both from Bend swing districts. You better come back here, Courtney continued, because now my state has another monster on its hands. He predicted the Oregon Legislature would also have to act to bolster the states coronavirus response, as lawmakers in Washington are currently doing. Courtney wrapped up by suggesting that people should not run for the Legislature if they plan to boycott and shut down voting. If you do not want to go to committees and/or legislative sessions, then dont run for the Oregon Legislature, Courtney said. Dont do it. Dont do it. Senate Republicans twice walked out during the 2019 legislative session, first to stop a new business tax to fund education and the second time to halt a previous version of the cap-and-trade plan. The tax ultimately passed after Gov. Kate Brown agreed to kill vaccine and gun control bills in exchange for Republicans return; the climate change bill died after Courtney conceded he lacked the votes in his own caucus to pass it. This years cap-and-trade plan, Senate Bill 1530, was just days from a Senate floor vote when all but one GOP senator walked out of the Capitol on Feb. 24. It was unclear how long it would take the bill to come up in the House, assuming it ever received a Senate vote. But most House Republicans walked out anyway on Feb. 25. House Republicans had already boycotted an evening floor session earlier in the month that was scheduled to catch up on bill reading, since the GOP insisted that bills be read in full on the House floor. The goal of the quorum denial was to further slow House business and allow time for lawmakers to understand the cap-and-trade bill, Republicans said. On Tuesday, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby and Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass sent a letter to House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, responding to the Democratic leaders joint statement Monday. In that statement, Courtney and Kotek said they would not agree to any deal to kill certain bills in order bring Republicans back, something Gov. Kate Brown did last year. We were disappointed to read your joint statement on Monday that suggested you were no longer interested in working with members of the minority party to find a bipartisan path forward this session, they wrote. Opportunities for bipartisanship continue to exist if you are willing to work together." In comments from the House dais Tuesday, Kotek said she believes lawmakers are bound by their oaths of office to show up for floor votes and that "is a nonpartisan issue. Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The history of Lems Bar-B-Q and the legendary Lemons brothers goes back for decades (indeed, the business celebrated its 65th year last summer), but when the last brother, the great pitmaster James Lemons, died in 2015, his daughters were there to keep the torch aloft. Owner Carmen Lemons and sister, Lynn Walker Harvey, who began working at Lems at 20 years old, not only have maintained the restaurants sky-high standards, theyve also worked to improve the place, completing a five-month renovation (remarkably, without shutting down) featuring new cabinetry, quartz tiles and doors. Eventually, the duo hopes to bring Lems famed sauce, seasoning and hot links to retail markets. So many iconic Chicago operations vanish once the founder steps down or passes on. Its rare for someone to step up and keep the flame burning, and more rare to see it done this well. Army Chief General MM Naravane on Wednesday said the Indian Army is determined to stay abreast of the changing paradigm as also to lead and shape battle spaces of tomorrow. "Even as we strengthen our traditional capacities, we are equally cognizant of changes in the character of war and the impact of new technologies. The Indian Army is determined to stay abreast of the changing paradigm as also to lead and shape the battle spaces of tomorrow," Naravane said while addressing an event here. The Army Chief said the process of "IBG-isation" is the force's response to the changing character of war. An Integrated Battle Group (IBG), which will be a little smaller than a division, will integrate the existing elements of infantry, tank regiments, artillery, engineers and signals. It will comprise six battalions of these elements and will be directly under a Corps. "We have analysed carefully the changing character of war within the overall framework of conflict, as relevant to the Indian context. The Grey Zone and its varied nuances are receiving our concerted attention. Apart from strengthening our conventional prowess, we are also focusing on dynamic response -- actions below the threshold of All Out War -- and are refining our plans and capacities in this regard, both along the LoC and LAC. We are developing kinetic and non-kinetic responses to address the threat," the Army Chief said. Once the Army converts all its required fighting formations into IBGs, it would lead to the elimination of the brigades in the fighting structure. "The process of IBG-isation, similarly, is our response to the changing character of war. Creation of lean, agile and tailor-made structures to achieve operational objectives in diverse terrain is what IBG-isation is all about," said Army chief. Stressing that the Indian Army is laying emphasis on innovation, General Naravane said: "The military leveraging of emerging, disruptive domains is also receiving our concerted attention. Capacities in Space, Cyber and EW, similarly, are being given a boost. We are also looking at tapping Block Chain Technologies, Lasers and Directed Energy Weapons for possible military use." The Army Chief said while the nature of war remains constant, the character keeps evolving and changing. "The nature of war in terms of the organised nature of violence, in terms of the blood and gore, in terms of the victor imposing his will on the vanquished, is constant and unchanging," he said while adding that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact the way wars will be fought substantially - the character of war, but not the nature of war itself. The Army Chief said since, the nature of war is unchanging, force and violence will not disappear. "They will only manifest in newer forms. Hard power will always be relevant, it will, however, have to constantly discover newer ways of being utilitarian and adapt to the changing strategic context," he said. General Naravane asserted that the uniformed community will have to make a determined effort therefore, to keep pace and stay ahead of the change. Recalling the first battle of Panipat fought between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi, the Army Chief said: "In older days, wars had a clear end state. The victory was the king or kingdom centric, involving 'complete defeat of the enemy', in which the winner was able to completely eradicate the opposition through winning it over, removing it or causing it to surrender." Highlighting that the first half of the 20th century witnessed unresolved political and ideological disputes settled in the military arena, through the medium of professional militaries, the Army Chief said wars were tools to settle ideological disputes, decisively and unambiguously. Talking about non-contact warfare, the Army Chief said that the Chinese way of war, epitomised by thinkers like Sun Tzu, has given "new lease of life" to the concept of Non-Contact or Grey Zone Warfare, where "you shed the binary approach to conflict, wherein you are either at war or peace, you either win or you lose". Giving example of Chinese activities in the South China Sea, the Army Chief said in the Grey Zone, ambiguity and careful risk escalation are key. "Moves in the Grey Zone domain are sufficiently ambiguous so as to leave target countries unsure as to how to respond. If the target does too little, it faces the prospect of a series of small but cumulatively significant defeats. If it does too much, it risks being held responsible for the reckless escalation. In the Grey Zone, militaries play to the edge. Geo-strategic spaces are being constricted without altering the state of peace; geo-strategic realities are being altered without a shot being fired," he said. "We are also seeing a new phenomenon - the availability of sufficient space for demonstration of military prowess/ascendancy below the threshold of an all-out conflict -- supposed acts of war not leading to war," the Army Chief said recalling the Houthi rebel attack on Saudi oil facilities. Talking about the IAF airstrike on JeM terror camp last year, General Narvane said: "The Balakot airstrike saw these short, intense, escalatory cycles of military activity in full media glare, where sophisticated information narratives played an equally important role. For years we were told that if and when air crosses the International Border, it would escalate to a full-fledged war. Balakot demonstrated that if you play the escalatory game with skill, military ascendancy can be established in short cycles of conflict that do not necessarily lead to war." Talking about the technological changes, the Army Chief said that today the three domains - land, sea and air, have merged with a fourth (space) and a fifth (cyber) emerging as additional points of impact and fusion. Citing the example of Gulf War II where American air and artillery assaults led to large scale destruction of Iraqi mechanized forces and artillery, the Army Chief said: "Combat is no longer confined to the physical domain - it is as much a feature of the informational and cognitive domains." "Technological leadership need not necessarily be demonstrated through live conflict and wars. China has not been involved in real, hardcore combat for a few decades now; yet the regular showcasing of military might have created this aura of China being the undisputed military leader in key technological domains - with a deterrence logic of its own. Technology is also tipping doctrinal cycles. Doctrines are now chasing technologies," he said. The Army Chief said the battle-winning factor in future combat may not be numerical equivalence but technological superiority. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior government adviser Dr Tim Leunig's recent controversial remarks are 'alarming and concerning', the National Sheep Association has said. The group joined other industry bodies in disputing the comments, in which he states controversially that Britain doesnt need farmers. The senior Treasury adviser argued that the agricultural and fishery sectors were not 'critically important', only making a negligible contribution to the economy. In his comments, he also suggested that farmers should not be given tax breaks denied to other industries. But the National Sheep Association said any move to abandon the UK farming industry is 'almost too ridiculous to believe'. "We have to take views and comments such as this seriously," NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker said. "If supposedly intelligent people in positions of influence think this way then the views are probably more deeply held than we realise." He added: "It is important to remember, a nation that cannot feed itself is one to be pitied but one that chooses not to feed itself is foolish and has no soul. Industry bodies are now reminding government officials of the role the agricultural sector has on UK economics and everyday life. Farmers produce over 60% of the food that is consumed in the UK, and exports of agri-food products amount to over 18 billion annually. Around 500,000 people rely on agriculture for employment either directly or through supply chains, but when the broader agri-food sector is taken into account, the workforce exceeds 3.5 million people, which is about 13% of the UK total workforce. Mr Stocker said: Our sector is one to be proud of, one that is capable of supplying the highest quality nutrition, grown and reared using environmentally friendly, sustainable methods to its population." UH Hilo professor's marine animal biodiversity research featured in Science A team of researchers led by the Biology Department at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo has its new study on animal biodiversity patterns on the planet featured in the February 28, 2020 issue of the journal Science. Dr. Matthew Knope, assistant professor of biology, is lead author of "Ecologically diverse clades dominate the oceans via extinction resistance," which demonstrates that animal biodiversity in the modern oceans is best explained by lower extinction rates in animal groups that are ecologically diverse, rather than by higher origination rates, as previously predicted. Co-authors include Andrew M. Bush, University of Connecticut, Luke O. Frishkoff, University of Texas at Arlington, Noel A. Heim, Tufts University, and Jonathan L. Payne, Stanford University. "Animals in the oceans today are more diverse than they have ever been in the history of life on Earth and scientists have long worked to describe how they have come to be that way," Knope said. The study examined approximately 20,000 genera of fossil marine animals across the past 500 million years, and approximately 30,000 genera of living marine animals. "Our findings clearly show that the most ecologically diverse animal groups are also the most dominate animals in terms of numbers of genera in the modern oceans," Knope noted. "Being a member of an ecologically flexible group makes you resistant to extinction, particular during mass extinctions, that primarly impacted ecologically homogenous groups. The oceans we see today are filled with a dizzying array of species in groups like fishes, arthropods, and mollusks, not because they had higher origination rates than groups that are less common, but because they had lower extintion rates over very long intervals of time." Rosemary Gillespie, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study, explained, "Understanding how biodiversity is structured, both in space and time, has always been a major focus in biology. A significant difficulty in doing so is that current patterns of biodiversity are dictated both by origination and extinction, and while we can infer origination rates through examination of extant biodiversity, elucidating the role of extinction is notoriously difficult. This study represents some of the most detailed and careful analyses of the fossil record to date, showing very clearly the importance of the 'slow and steady' development of lineages through time has been a key factor in dictating which lineages have achieved the highest diversity." Further, Michal Kowalewski, professor of invertebrate paleontology at the University of Florida, who was also not involved with the study, said, "In a clever analysis of massive data derived from the fossil record, Knope and colleagues directly address one of the critical questions of biology, as to why do certain types of animals occupy exceptionally broad spectra of ecological niches. As importantly, the study highlights the truly unique value of paleontological data for assessing core questions of biology and exploring historical roots of the modern biosphere." Knope further explained, "Perhaps the fable of the tortoise and the hare is apt in explaining marine animal diversification: some groups jumped out to an early diversity lead only to be surpassed by other groups that were more ecologically diverse and less evolutionarily volatile, with steady diversification rates and strong resistance to mass extinctions." The entire study is available at: https:/ / science. sciencemag. org/ cgi/ doi/ 10. 1126/ science. aax6398 . ### This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. by Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see Disclose and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information. As with most things, flying for the very first time via private jet can seem daunting. This is true even for people who have flown before. Reason being, you just dont know what to expect aboard a private jet. What can you carry or not carry onto a private jet? How do you deal with the long hours in transatlantic flights? How will you communicate with French speakers when totally unfamiliar with the language? Well, this article answers all your queries on things to consider before booking a private flight to France. Whether you are a first-time flyer or someone who wants to up their travel game, the travel tips below should be invaluable. Choice of Private Jet Hire Company A flight to France from the US is a trans-Atlantic crossing that takes over 8 hours on commercial airliners. By opting for a chartered jet flight to France, you reduce the expected travel time to only 6 hours. Thats a 2-hour time difference which translates to lower jet lag upon arrival. However, it is possible to decrease overall travel time even further by choosing a private hire company with the latest and newest jets such as the Cessna Citation X+. This jet is capable of attaining an air speed of 617 mph and can cover the 3, 638 mile distance from New York to Paris in 5 hours. You can get information on private charter companies with the Cessna Citation X and other fast jets on Jetapp.com. With JetApp fly with a private jet to France in time by up to 3 hours. Luggage You have to be especially keen when choosing what to take on your chartered flight to France. Reason being, private jets have lower onboard cargo space due to their smaller size. It is, therefore, advisable to limit your packing to the essentials. If you are planning on visiting the pristine beaches of the French Riviera, then it should not be difficult to pack a few light clothing items. If you are heading to Europe for business, then two well-tailored suits should suffice. It would be best if you can fit all your stuff into one carry-on bag. This way you dont end up taking stuff you wont even use. However, a long vacation stay might make it necessary to take more than one large bag of clothes. In this scenario, it is advisable make your bags as conspicuous as possible through the use of stickers and colored bands. Doing so makes it easier to pick out your bag from others in the luggage claims. TSA Restrictions While private jet hire companies use exclusive boarding facilities, these private passenger terminals do have to comply with several TSA regulations. These restrictions affect what you take with you on your chartered flight to France. Fortunately, First and foremost, you cannot bring any fluids exceeding 100ml or 3.4 oz onto the plane either in your carry-on bag or other checked bag. This restriction applies to carbonated beverages, alcoholic drinks, aerosol cans, face creams, body lotions and toothpaste. You can only pack these items if you have them in the appropriate volume. If not, then you will have to make a few purchases before your upcoming trip to France. Second, some items are completely prohibited aboard flights except under specific conditions. These items include firearms, ammunition, compressed air guns, flare guns, gun powder, firearm replicas, 140 proof alcohol, axes, hatchets, cattle prods, box cutters, darts, pocket knives, aerosol insecticide, arrows, brass knuckles, billy clubs and other such items. Fortunately, unless you are a gourmet chef and have to carry your knives, you wont have trouble complying with TSA security restrictions. Tourists Attractions in France France has plenty to offer you irrespective of whether you are visiting this Mediterranean nation on business or pressure. This country is endowed with breath-taking landscapes from pristine sandy beaches and sun-drenched rolling hills with lush olive groves along the coast, to the vast snow-covered slopes of the French Alps. If you plan on vacationing in the French Riviera, you get to enjoy perfect days on pristine beaches. Some of the most beautiful beaches that you should certainly visit include Antibes in the French Riviera, Cap Coz in Britany, Les Calanques de Cassis in Provence, Plage de la Cote des Basques and Deauvilles beach in Normandy. You have the option of visiting several historic monuments and sites as a way of augmenting your trip. You can visit the romantic chateaux located in the Loire Valley, take epic photos of the Eiffel tower in Paris and explore magnificent medieval cathedrals in Paris, Laon, Picardy and Strasbourg. While in France, you also get a chance to enjoy world-famous French wine, chocolate and food. You have the option of visiting restaurants run by renowned master chefs such as the Le Parc 45, the Chevre dor and the Jan, all in the Riviera. A trip to the Bordeaux valley will satiate your appetite for exotic French wine while a visit to Bayonne will let you sample some of the tastiest chocolate on the planet. Finally, adrenaline junkies get to ski on the vast slopes of the French Alps, enjoy bungee jumping from colossal chalk cliffs and experience the thrill of surfing the phenomenal waves on the Mediterranean. Communicating with the French The final huddle in your plans to visit France is basic because it revolves communication. Fortunately, there are only two things you need to know for you to have an easy time while visiting this beautiful Mediterranean nation. First, the French do get put off when you speak to them in English, be it in the city or in the county side. This reaction is not because these people dont understand English but due to a cultural attachment to formality. As a consequence, and the second thing, you need to make your intent to communicate in English using formal French. You do this using the phrase Parlez-vous anglais? which means Do you speak English?. In the vast majority scenarios, the person you are speaking will reply in English. Conclusion While the above list is not exhaustive, it does provide you with the essentials of what you need to consider before booking a private flight to France. The cost of private jet charter service is yet another consideration worth mentioning. Flybe has struggled to stay afloat. (Pro Shots/Sipa USA) UK regional airline Flybe has reportedly warned the government it could collapse within days because of a slump in bookings brought about by the coronavirus crisis. The domestic carrier, which was saved from collapse earlier this year, has urgently asked the government for more money, according to ITV News. Flybe could fall into administration within days, but last minute talks with shareholders and the government were ongoing, Sky News reported. A spokesperson for Flybe declined to comment when contacted by Yahoo Finance UK. The department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) also declined to comment. A government source called the reports pure speculation. One source with knowledge of the negotiations told Yahoo Finance UK talks had been held recently between Flybes leadership team and the government. Flybe is said to have been pushing for a 100m ($128m) loan, as well as further tax relief on air passenger duty in the governments Budget next week. But the source appeared to play down reports the request had been declined, saying there had not yet been a fixed outcome. Read more: Ryanair threatens legal action against UK government over Flybe bailout Flybe serves around 170 destinations and has a major presence at UK airports such as Aberdeen, Belfast City, Manchester and Southampton. It flies most UK domestic routes between airports outside London. The airline was thought to have negotiated an extension on more than 100m in unpaid air passenger duties in January, but Flybe said it had agreed a payment plan for a debt of less than 10m. With additional reporting from Tom McArthur Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 13:39 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683544d 1 City COVID-19,coronavirus,outbreak,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,Sulianti-Saroso-Hospital,international-school-jakarta,suspension,private-school Free ACG School Jakarta, a Joint Cooperation School (SPK) in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, has suspended classes and all extracurricular activities after one of its teachers was suspected of having the novel coronavirus, which leads to COVID-19. In a statement released on Monday, the school announced it would halt operations starting on Tuesday. The teacher has been tested for COVID-19 and the school is currently waiting for the results. As a precaution, we have already put in place a 14-day self-quarantine period for all students and staff, except a few staff members who are overseeing cleaning, security and other key services. Our students will continue learning and carrying out class work from home via our online learning platforms. Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of the school and wider community, said ACG principal Shawn Hutchinson. "If you or any of your family exhibit flu-like symptoms, please seek medical advice immediately and update us as soon as possible," Hutchinson said. Read also: Indonesia to test more people for COVID-19 He went on to say that that advice applied to all pupils, parents, staff and visitors. We urge the school and wider community to follow World Health Organization guidance to protect themselves and help prevent the spread of the virus, he added. He added that the school would provide students with a guided online curriculum and online teaching support throughout the closure. The school offers kindergarten, elementary and secondary education programs and employs foreign as well as local teachers. As of Monday, the Health Ministry has tested 155 suspected COVID-19 patients, of which two are positive and currently being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital in North Jakarta. Four patients are being retested for the novel coronavirus, while the remaining patients have been declared virus-free. (ars) Editors Note: The article has been updated to clarify the statement by ACG principal Shawn Hutchinson. COL Troy Ewing Being a retired Military Officer myself, I know the Corporate Fellowship Program will help Troy ease the transition, especially the cultural transition from military to civilian life, such as new routines, commutes, wardrobe, and social environments, said Manny Rivera, President/ CEO for RiVidium RiVidium, Inc. (dba TripleCyber) today announced that as part of the Military Hiring Our Heroes (HoH) Corporate Fellowship Program (CFP), COL Troy Lorenzo Ewing will join the RiVidium team. The CFP is an innovative 12-week program that provides transitioning service members with professional training and hands-on experience in the civilian workforce. The professional development offered through the CFP prepares candidates for a smooth transition into meaningful civilian careers. RiVidium will have the benefit of COL Ewing as part of the CFP and temporarily gains a valuable team member, who is among the best and brightest transitioning service members. COL Ewings area of expertise in Military Intelligence will support RiVidiums Intelligence Division under Richard Trimber, Chief Delivery Officer (CDO). COL Ewing is a seasoned Military Officer with the US Army who has more than 26 years of Military Intelligence and Military Police experience. He most recently served with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as the Deputy Director for the Analysis, Technology, and Tradecraft Directorate program, responsible for providing strategic transformational leadership to geospatial programs that advance analytic tradecraft and technologies. In addition, he was the Deputy Director for NGAs Mission Management Integration Group, responsible for the integration of intelligence operations across various mission sets, disciplines, and organizations throughout NGAs Geospatial-Intelligence Enterprise. "Being a retired Military Officer myself, I know the Corporate Fellowship Program will help Troy ease the transition, especially the cultural transition from military to civilian life, such as new routines, commutes, wardrobe, and social environments, said Manny Rivera, President/ CEO for RiVidium. It will also give Troy a preview of corporate industry and the Government contracting world, which will be very helpful when its time for Troy to make a shift into the corporate market. There will be plenty of opportunity for Troy to learn about himself and understand what he truly wants to do once he transitions into the civilian sector. I am excited to join RiVidium's team as part of the Corporate Fellowship Program and I look forward to learning the business culture, the corporate market, and applying the experiences I have gained as a military officer to the civilian sector, said Colonel Ewing. This is a remarkable opportunity to collaborate with an outstanding company, and I look forward to maximizing my potential as I move into a new phase in my career path." As Strategic Intelligence Officer with the US Army, Troy has led diverse teams of open-source intelligence analysts, data scientists, and analytic methodologists to support policy and doctrine development. He has served in numerous Joint and International assignments, to include serving as an Executive Officer to Commanding Generals, Intelligence Analyst at the White House National Security Council, and Intelligence Plans Director (J25) for Special Joint Operations Forces-Afghanistan. He holds a PhD in International Relations, Master of Science, and an MBA, and is expert in the strategic analysis of international relations and comparative regional studies. About RiVidium. RiVidium, the leader in IT, Logistics, Cyber, Intel, and Human Capital Management (HCM), offers a robust portfolio of capabilities, featuring patented cyber and security platforms as well as libraries for HCM employee decision support tools for new hires. RiVidiums technologies are accessible from any device through RiVidiums cloud support infrastructure. These technologies provide security, interactive user experience, and deep analytics on user engagement. By transforming traditional methods used to communicate on the Internet, RiVidium significantly increases customer and individual security while decreasing the personal exposure footprint on the Internet. For more information please visit http://www.rividium.com. Vietnam's third largest airport Da Nang is set to stop announcing flight information in the domestic terminal from May 1. It will become the second airport in Vietnam to turn off its public address system after Tan Son Nhat in Saigon, which did so at its international terminals last July and domestic terminal last October. The Airports Corporation of Vietnam said all information would be displayed on screens in both Vietnamese and English, adding passengers should follow them to know their flight status, and reach the boarding gate in time. The move is aimed at improving service quality at overloaded Vietnamese airports, including Da Nang, which handled 15 million passengers last year against its designed capacity of just 10 million. Noise from repeated announcements has become a major issue at Vietnamese airports at a time when going silent is becoming a global trend. They served nearly 116 million passengers last year, up 12 percent from 2018. Calling all underwater explorers. The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is accepting entries for its annual Underwater Photography Contest, which has a category exclusively for University students. The submission deadline is noon on Monday, August 3, and winners will be announced in the fall. Open to amateur photographers who earn no more than 20 percent of their income from photography, the contest has five other categories, including a new marine conservation category for images that capture the connection between humanity and the marine environment. The other categories include Fish or Marine Animal Portrait, Macro, Wide Angle, and Best Overall. The top prize, which goes to the Best Overall photo, was to have been a trip on Blackbeards Cruises, departing from Nassau to the Exuma Cays, Bahamas, but given the evolving situation over COVID-19, that is subject to change. Contestants who place first, second, and third in each of the other categories will receive monetary awards. Everette Joseph, the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, discussed Actionable Earth System Science, on March 3, but the other scheduled lectures in the Rosenstiel School's popular Sea Secrets series were cancelled. Judged by a panel of professional photographers and marine scientists, the photo contest has drawn thousands of entrants from across the globe since its inception in 2005, and is supported by Canon USA. Visit the contest rules for an entry form and more details. Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday he would welcome the "lunatics" of the Green Party entering government in Ireland as part of ongoing coalition talks as this would mean they would be forced to "confront reality." The Green Party says it is in the interests of business to introduce sharp cuts to carbon emissions to avoid hugely costly disruption to global climate patterns. A key measure it is planning is the re-introduction of an Irish air passenger travel tax, which was scrapped in 2011. With 12 of 160 parliamentary seats, the Green Party likely to be a kingmaker when it comes to forming a government and is expected to join two of the three big parties - center-right Fine Gael and Fianna Fail or left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein - which each have just under a quarter of the seats. But forming a government could take months. It took 70 days to form an administration after the last election in 2016. O'Leary, whose airline Ryanair is one of the biggest carbon emitters in Europe, has in the past called environmentalists "luddites." "By all means I think you put all the lunatics in government and let them deal with reality. It's a far better outcome than keeping them on opposition benches where they never have to confront reality," O'Leary told Reuters. "I've never been concerned about the Greens entering government in any of the European countries." "In many respects it's good to have the Greens in government because you tend to have more sensible polices than the wish-lists they produce in opposition." O'Leary said he was similarly sanguine about Sinn Fein in government, whose economic policies he described as "nuts." Sinn Fein stunned the establishment by beating the two center-right parties that have led every government in Ireland's history, attracting a new generation of voters with promises on housing, childcare and insurance costs, alongside its historic goal of reunifying the British region of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. "I think by all means ... let them loose in government and say, right, now let's see how you do. I think they'll do particularly badly and they'll roll back on most of their policy initiatives," he said "As they say, campaigning is poetry and governing is prose." (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Three people died on March 3 morning when a small plane crashed and burst into flames on Interstate 55 in central Illinois, state police said. Mindy Carroll of the Illinois State Police said in a statement that all three occupants of the plane were killed in the crash in Lincoln at about 8:49 a.m. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) described the aircraft as a single-engine Cessna 172. Authorities have not described what caused the crash. The NTSB said it is investigating. The Federal Aviation Administration has been notified and is responding to the scene. The Logan County Coroners office was dispatched to the scene. Police said multiple law enforcement agencies responded and that I-55 would remain closed to traffic for several hours. Lincoln is about 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) examined 55 witnesses in support of the case while the defence examined nine witnesses. New Delhi: A court in Delhi Wednesday convicted expelled Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape victims father. The rape victims father had died in judicial custody on April 9, 2018. District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said that Sengar had no intention of killing the victims father. He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death, the judge said. The court had, on December 20, sent Sengar to jail for the remainder of his natural biological life for raping the woman in 2017 when she was a minor. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) examined 55 witnesses in support of the case while the defence examined nine witnesses. The court recorded the statements of the rape survivors uncle, mother, sister and one of her fathers colleague who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident. According to the CBI, on April 3, 2018, there was an altercation between the rape victims father and one Shashi Pratap Singh. The chargesheet filed on July 13, 2018, said that the victims father and his co-worker were returning to their village, Makhi, when they asked Singh for a lift. Singh denied them the lift, triggering an altercation among them. Singh called his associates following which Sengars brother Atul Singh Sengar reached the spot along with others and beat up the womans father and his co-worker. The womans father was subsequently taken to the police station by them where a FIR was lodged against him and he was arrested. Houstonians looking for a quick and cheap tropical getaway have one more day to book a flight under Southwest Airlines' beach sale. Southwest's "Book it to the Beach Sale" is currently offering nonstop flights for as low as $99 from Hobby Airport to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The sale ends at 11:50 p.m. Pacific Time Thursday, according to the airline's website. As global technology giants put in place work-from-home policies in the face of coronavirus, Australian startups are also turning their minds to formalising a game plan for how their staff would work remotely if required. The situation has prompted warnings from some in the tech space that more established companies will find it tough if they have to transition to working remotely, and that existing remote work technologies can't always be relied on. Perth entrepreneur Amir Farhand said his aerial mapping company was grappling with the realities of remote work, as some staff are housebound due to the coronavirus. Most offices across Australia have not told staff to stay home in the face of the virus, though global tech players are making this move. On Tuesday night, Twitter confirmed in a statement that working from home will be mandatory for employees in its Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea offices due, in part, to government restrictions, with the social media platform highlighting that, despite the already remote nature of its workforce, the shift to all work being out of the office would be a big one. Trustees Select Seidel as UWs 28th President Edward Seidel A distinguished scholar who has led academic, research and innovation programs at multiple universities has been named the 28th president of the University of Wyoming. Edward Seidel, currently the vice president for economic development and innovation for the University of Illinois System, was offered a contract by a unanimous vote of the UW Board of Trustees today (Wednesday) and has accepted the position. He will take office in July. I am honored and thrilled to be selected by the Board of Trustees to take on this important role for both the university and the state of Wyoming, Seidel says. UW is such an incredibly strong and vibrant institution, and it will have an enormous impact on the future of the state and region. Gabrielle and I are excited to be joining the university and community. The terms of Seidels contract are still being finalized, but it will be a three-year contract with an annual base salary of $365,000, a $60,000 housing allowance and a $50,000 contribution to a deferred compensation plan. We are excited to welcome Dr. Seidel and are confident that he will provide strong leadership for our states university, Board of Trustees Chairman Dave True says. We express appreciation to those who participated in the presidential search process, which resulted in a field of strong candidates and allowed us to make an outstanding choice for the universitys new leader. In his current post in Illinois, Seidel has overseen economic development and innovation activities that build on the University of Illinois Systems education and research capacity. As a member of the universitys senior leadership team, he has built and supported programs that engage university, public and private partners -- strengthening the links among higher education, research and business to stimulate economic development across the state. He oversees the systems commercialization pipeline, including the Offices of Technology Management at the Universities of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago, and the early-stage technology investment firm Illinois Ventures, which has catalyzed over $1.7 billion in venture funding for companies. Seidels long record of leadership experience includes more than three years as director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was among the original co-principal investigators for Blue Waters, a federally funded project that brought one of the worlds most powerful supercomputers to Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was the senior vice president for research and innovation for the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, Russia, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before that, he directed the Office of Cyberinfrastructure and led the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences as National Science Foundation assistant director. He also led the Center for Computation & Technology at Louisiana State University and directed the numerical relativity group at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Germany. I have had the good fortune in my career to be in positions that have enabled me both to develop the education and research capacity of great institutions, like UW, and to harness their strengths to advance the economic well-being of the regions they serve, Seidel says. I see UW as the centerpiece of an all-of-state effort to diversify and grow Wyomings economy. Seidel says he looks forward to traveling around Wyoming to become more familiar with its people and issues facing the state. His top priorities include building on the portfolio of excellence in education and scholarship already at UW, and deepening partnerships with communities, schools, community colleges and companies to enhance student-centered programs and educational pipelines that grow UWs enrollment and strengthen the states workforce for the 21st century economy. Seidel received his Ph.D. in relativistic astrophysics from Yale University, earned a masters degree in physics at the University of Pennsylvania, and received a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics from the College of William and Mary. He is Founder Professor in the Department of Physics, professor in the Department of Astronomy and research professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has supervised dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in physics, astronomy, computer science and other disciplines, and has published about 200 papers in professional journals. A fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he has earned a number of awards, including the 2006 IEEE Computer Societys Sidney Fernbach Award; the Association for Computing Machinerys 2001 Gordon Bell prize; the 1998 Heinz Billing Prize of the Max Planck Society for his work in research; and the 2018 Business Leadership Award of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce for work in economic development. Seidel and his partner, Gabrielle Allen -- who is associate dean for research in the College of Education, professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Curriculum and Instruction, and research professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- both look forward to joining the UW community. Seidel grew up in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, while Allen hails from Barking, England. The trustees vote completed a process that began in July, when a 16-member committee was appointed to lead the search for UWs next president. That committee was composed of UW trustees, faculty, staff and students, along with a former governor; an alumnus whos a recently retired corporate CEO; a former state auditor and current electrical utility executive; and a former UW student body president who works in the oil and gas industry. After conducting three listening sessions, the committee worked with a consulting firm to solicit candidates for the presidency, and more than 60 people applied. The committee conducted video interviews of about 10 candidates and forwarded a list of six semifinalists to the Board of Trustees last month. After interviewing the semifinalists Feb. 12-13, the board publicly identified Seidel and two other finalists and brought them to campus for public forums last week. Each forum on the main campus attracted 40-50 faculty members and 50-75 staff members, and forums conducted at UW-Casper were attended by about 24 people each. The forums were streamed via UWs WyoCast system, and the live and on-demand views totaled 2,404. The trustees solicited input on each finalist, and a total of 376 evaluations were submitted online. The leaders of UWs faculty, staff and student senates participated in the interviews and Board of Trustees discussions, and they have praise for the process used to select the new president. One of the finalists told the trustees that The process used for this search was impeccable. I agree, says Faculty Senate Chair Ken Chestek. Parker Executive Search did a fantastic job of recruiting a strong field of applicants. Substantial input from many faculty members on the search committee then helped produce a list of six strong candidates to send forward to the trustees; at no time was the search committee under any pressure to move in any particular direction. The public presentations by the three finalists allowed for additional important input from the entire faculty. The trustees received and, I believe, carefully considered all of that input in making their final selection, Chestek adds. I am confident that the trustees selection will be welcomed to campus by all faculty, because the process has been fair and open to faculty input. The Board of Trustees did a great job of including many constituents on the presidential search committee, offering varying perspectives that are representative of our state and its interests and future, Staff Senate President James Wheeler says. The committee sorted through an impressive number of qualified applicants and passed along six strong candidates. At every step of the process, the board sought out feedback from faculty, staff and community stakeholders. I appreciate how strong the process has been and how helpful Parker Executive was, Associated Students of UW President Jason Wilkins says. Im sure that this process and the input from faculty, staff and students informed the trustees decision. In a major discovery for film buffs, the Cinematheque Francaise, Paris, has handed over a 1930 black-and-white silent film shot by two foreign technicians, Madhabi Kankan, to the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). This is the second Indian Image Source: IANS News In a major discovery for film buffs, the Cinematheque Francaise, Paris, has handed over a 1930 black-and-white silent film shot by two foreign technicians, Madhabi Kankan, to the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). This is the second Indian Image Source: IANS News Pune, March 4 : In a major discovery for film buffs, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has obtained a 1930 black-and-white silent film "Madhabi Kankan", shot by two foreign technicians, from Paris-based Cinematheque Francaise, Paris a top official said here on Wednesday. This is the second Indian silent film to be found in recent years which added to the NFAI's meagre collection of 31 surviving films of the silent era when around 1,300 films were believed to have been made. In 2018, it had acquired the footage of "Bilwamangal" (1919) from Cinematheque Francaise, NFAI Director Prakash Magdum said. "Madhabi Kankan" (Agra Slavegirl) was produced by Madan Theatres Ltd, Kolkata, and was directed by Jyotish Bannerjee. The film starred Nawab, Mumtaz Begum, Lalita Devi, Bhanu Bannerjee, Leelavati, Jainarayan Mukherjee and Farida Begum. After the release, "Madhabi Kankan" was banned, then re-censored and released again in 1932, for reasons not clear, and only 13 minutes of its digitised footage now survives, said Magdum. It was shot by two foreigners -- Charles Creed and Marconi -- for Madan Theatres Ltd, which was one of the biggest companies during the silent films era, but nothing has remained in terms of its productions, barring the two aforementioned films. Adapted from R.C. Dutt's famed Bengali novel, the plot of "Madhabi Kankan" revolved around the historical events of the 17th century when the sons of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan fought for his throne. While leading star of the silent films era Nawab portrays the role of Emperor Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Begum enacts the role of Jahanara, and one of the surviving scenes shot shows the Taj Mahal in the background with the River Yamuna flowing by. The 'Filmland' magazine, in its 1933 edition, had taken note of the film and said: "If not for any other merits, this picture certainly claims a high place for its superb locations." Magdum said since the footage of "Madhabi Kankan" film does not have credits or inter-titles, they are seeking assistance from historians and appealed to all others to come forward and help with such films, footages, posters, books, pictures, songs, etc to preserve them for posterity. After the discovery of "Bilwamangal" in 2017, the NFAI was searching for other such silent era Indian films and learnt of "Madhabi Kankan" which is now in its possession, Magdum added. "This is a rare and wonderful find from the early Indian cinema point of view, and will give a fillip to film studies and research on Indian film history," he said. The defendant was protected by and had access to his brother, the current sitting president of Honduras, a man who himself has received millions of dollars in drug money bribes bribes he received from some of the largest cocaine traffickers in the world, bribes he received from men like El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel who personally delivered $1 million to the defendant for his brother, prosecutor Jason Richman argued in court, according to an Associated Press account of the proceedings. Twice as many Virginia voters cast absentee ballots compared to the March 2016 Democratic primary. Analysis by VPAP shows that as of Monday, nearly 55,000 voters had cast absentee ballots, compared to a total of 26,000 in March 2016. Roughly 70% of those votes were cast by people over the age of 41, according to VPAP. Virginias primary kicked off Tuesday without significant issues at polling places, state elections officials said. Roanoke County and the city of Petersburg experienced power outages Tuesday, but no voting was delayed as a result, Virginia Elections Commissioner Chris Piper said. Ive worked in Virginia elections on and off since 2003, but I will say, in all of those years, I have not experienced a more smooth election, Piper added. This is a real credit to the election officials out there in the field. Piper said that despite rumors of massive absences among poll workers due to COVID-19 concerns, the state did not receive messages from localities about shortages. Antonio Campinos EPO president Antonio Campinos has conceded that the proposed unitary patent may appear less attractive without the UK, but has insisted that with the political will to make it happen the project can still be a success. Describing the UK governments decision to no longer seek membership of the unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) as a great pity, Campinos said: Some will say the decision is a blow to the whole system, but is it a decisive blow? No. He added: Yes, no longer having the UK as a member may make it less attractive but it still has huge benefits to offer, especially when you consider the economic benefits and the potential reach. Whether it has 25, 22 or 20 member states, the UPC makes sense. Campinos was speaking at Managing IPs International Patent Forum in London today. The UK governments admission last week that it no longer wanted to be a part of the UPC could be a major blow to the proposed system. A spokesperson for the prime ministers office said that joining a system that has oversight from the Court of Justice of the EU was inconsistent with its aim of being a self-governing nation. A pending complaint in Germanys Federal Constitutional Court could yet throw more doubt over the project. A judgment is expected in that case in the next month or so. Legally there is also doubt over the UPCs future as the UK, France and Germany are all required to ratify the project before it can come into force. Campinos added that although people could now find ways not to pursue the UPC, with the right political will and support there are also 1,000 reasons why it should continue. Campinos, who took over as EPO president from Benoit Battistelli in 2018, also spoke of the importance of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) in the EPOs everyday work. Despite the EPO decision to reject a patent application listing AI as an inventor, Campinos predicted that this is a subject that will come under much discussion in the coming years. We can expect to see more of these applications, he said, adding: These are challenges we are going to have to face. AI will also be used to assist EPO staff in their everyday work, Campinos suggested, adding that AI assistance will be used by examiners as part of the offices commitment to quality. The material on this site is for law firms, companies and other IP specialists. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs. Share this article If it were not for the reunion with his brother who works in Wuhan, Kang Tiejun would not have come to the epicenter of the novel outbreak before the Spring Festival, which fell on Jan. 25 this year. On the night of January 22, Kang drove his mother from their hometown Ganzhou, eastern China's Jiangxi Province, to Wuhan, after his wife and two sons had arrived there by high-speed train in the afternoon, the Xinhua news agency. Before the trip, Kang's mother specially told him to call his brother to understand the situation in Wuhan as news of the outbreak spread. "Come on, it's not that bad," answered his brother, like most Wuhan citizens who did not realise the severity of the epidemic at that time. Unexpectedly, the day after their arrival, the city declared an unprecedented lockdown. Moreover, Kang began to develop a fever and sometimes chest tightness and cough on January 29. "I only went out twice, both times wearing a mask, after arriving here, and I thought I just had a common cold," he recalled. It was not until February 6 that he was urged by his family to go to the hospital as his fever never improved. When he climbed the stairs at the hospital that day, his chest was so tight that he had to take off his mask to catch his breath. "At that moment, I was so scared," he said. Three days later, the 41-year-old man was shocked by his positive nucleic acid test result. He was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was sent to a designated isolation point and later transferred to a temporary hospital converted from an expo center in Wuhan on the night of Feb. 11. The temporary hospital had a total of 960 beds, with some 20 beds in each unit. Kang was assigned to Unit Seven, in which there were 19 patients including elderly, young people and children. Kang said the atmosphere in the unit was kind of awkward in the beginning, with only a few people inquiring about each other's illnesses. Some people even turned away when they heard coughing. The day after Kang was admitted to the hospital, he was appointed head of the unit by the medical staff when he was helping the in his unit get their daily necessities. At first, the undereducated patient thought he was not qualified and refused it. However, they told him that all he needed was a warm heart. Even though he did not know how to be a temporary "leader," he began to take charge of getting food and fruit, as well as registering information, for people in his unit every day. He would also advise the patients who spent most of their time on their cell phones in bed to do some exercise and comfort those who had lost their loved ones in the outbreak. To help his ward mates maintain a positive attitude, Kang often cracked jokes with and shared the three sets of aerobics he learned from China's video-sharing app Douyin, also known as TikTok, with people who were interested in. Gradually, under his "leadership," the patients in the unit, who had been forced together by the virus, became more and more like a family and showed optimism about the disease. After two nucleic acid tests and a computed tomography (CT) scan, the first four people, including Kang, in the unit were approved to be discharged from the hospital after recovery. The day before their departure, the ward mates in their unit had a "ceremony" for them: Boxes of milk were placed in a heart shape, and the patients toasted with milk instead of wine. "I was so moved at that moment," Kang said. "Your snoring is our lullaby. We won't sleep well without your snoring when you're gone," some aunties quipped. The "leader" also chose a patient in the unit to take his place. He believed the conscientious young man could continue to lead other patients through the difficulties and to be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible. When Kang walked out of the temporary hospital on February 21, together with other 52 cured COVID-19 patients, he could not help shouting, "Wuhan stay strong! China stay strong!" He was then put under quarantine at a designated hotel for 14 days in accordance with the statement issued by the local authorities. Now, Kang enjoys his life at the hotel. Apart from doing aerobics and viewing short videos on Douyin, he talks more with his family on the phone or China's social media platform WeChat. He even set up a WeChat group for his unit to invite the patients discharged from the hospital to share their latest situation and cheer each other on. "My biggest wish right now is to reunite with my family and resume my normal life as soon as possible," Kang said, adding that he would donate blood after his quarantine ends to help cure more patients. Two people, including a special police officer (SPO) were killed on Wednesday in a militant attack in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Militants opened fire at a police party in Sopore, that left SPO Wajahat Ahmad and Showkat Khandey and a civilian Omar Subhan injured. The injured were taken to a hospital where Wajahat and Subhan were declared brought dead. Superintendent of Police in Sopore Javid Iqbal said: A SPO and another person were killed in the attack. Subhan was running a shop and got hit by a bullet when militants fired towards the SPOs from a distant place. The gunmen later fled from the spot. Another civilian Showkat Ahmad also sustained minor injuries in the area. After the attack, security forces launched a cordon and search operation in area to track down the gunmen. A health official confirmed that two bodies were brought to sub district hospital Sopore.Both the persons had bullet injuries and were brought dead to the hospital. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON With growing health concerns across the globe amid the COVID-19 emergency, people have found themselves in a bit of a bob-and-weave situation when it comes to simple gestures like hugs and handshakes. PHOTO: Medical personnel in protective suits wave hands to a patient who is discharged from the Leishenshan Hospital after recovering from the novel coronavirus, in Wuhan, China, March 1, 2020. (China Daily/Reuters) From China to Germany, here are some of the awkward interactions and alternate moves that have replaced physical greetings. MORE: Coronavirus live updates: Los Angeles County becomes 2nd to declare state of emergency PHOTO: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee bumps elbows with a worker at the seafood counter of the Uwajimaya Asian Food and Gift Market, March 3, 2020, in Seattle's International District. (Ted S. Warren/AP) England: Queen adds white gloves to royal wardrobe The queen wore gloves during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, during which members of the royal family place medals on people and shake hands with award recipients. PHOTO: Queen Elizabeth wears gloves as she awards the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) to Harry Billinge from St Austell, during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London, March 3, 2020. (Dominic Lipinski/AP) ABC News royals contributor Robert Jobson said after 30 years covering the royal family it was "the first time" in memory "that Her Majesty has worn gloves for an investiture." "It is clear that she is acting on advice and her doctors are taking no chances," he added. MORE: Queen Elizabeth wears gloves at investiture ceremony amid coronavirus scare Queen Elizabeth, 93, does often wear gloves at other royal engagements, but wearing them for an investiture ceremony was very unusual. Panama: 'Footshake' for now -- or take a bow Walter Cotte W., regional director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent for America and the Caribbean, shared a few alternatives first suggested by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Health officials suggest a wave, a pat on the back or even just a look in the eye are safer alternatives than many traditional greetings. Germany: Strong eye contact instead of an extended appendage PHOTO: German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer refuses to shake the hand of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for hygienic reasons before a migration summit at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 2, 2020. (Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters) German chancellor Angela Merkel was waved off by interior minister Horst Seehofer when she went in for a handshake at a meeting on migration Monday. Story continues The pair were seen smiling immediately after, and Seehofer reportedly said he's stopped offering handshakes amid coronavirus. Expert takeaways to stay away from germs COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is a respiratory illness spread primarily from person to person by people in close contact with one another -- about 6 feet. Adults over 65, young children, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems from autoimmune diseases or chronic heart, lung or kidney conditions are at an increased risk of complications. While it's inevitable for handshakes to transmit microorganisms through human-to-human contact, Nicky Milner, director of medical education at Anglia Ruskin University's School of Medicine, told ABC News that it's actually longer forms of contact that present a problem. "On most occasions, this will cause no harm at all," she explained. "Greetings which have a longer contact time between people, or involve using a larger surface area, such as hand shaking, result in transmission of higher numbers of microorganisms. If any of these organisms have the ability to cause disease then our greetings can play a role in the transmission from person to person." "It is important to recognize that we each have a role to play in limiting the spread of infections," she added. Cultural shift Although the World Health Organization has endorsed some of these optional greetings in a fairly tongue-in-cheek way, now is a good time to consider serious changes. Milner said while it can be a challenge to have the public widely implement new greeting methods, especially if it requires a "shift in culture," there's a new range of possibilities "being observed and recommended." "Being mindful that other people who you are greeting may not choose to shake hands and this is not considered to be rude," she said. "If a permanent ban on handshaking were to be introduced, I think that this would be very difficult to implement. However, raising awareness of our individual responsibility to wash our hands effectively is an important message to communicate to the members of the public." MORE: How to prepare for coronavirus in your community MORE: Americans hoarding hand sanitizer, face masks and oat milk amid coronavirus fears Although, when CDC-recommended handwashing is practiced, a handshake could be better than some more tactile greetings in the U.K. and much of Europe. "The culture of kissing is a common form of greeting in some countries. During widespread respiratory outbreaks, this is perhaps not an ideal form of greeting, and a handshake might be seen to be to be lower risk," Milner explained. "Although it is recognized that this is not always possible." Best practices worldwide "Raising awareness of the importance of effective handwashing is considered to be the most effective strategy when trying to minimize the spread of infections at all times," Milner said. As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus continues, short-term changes like waving off handshake culture could prove effective. Check out more here on how to properly wash your hands and keep your areas, especially in the workplace, clean. ABC News' Guy Davies contributed to this report. Wave goodbye to handshakes during coronavirus emergency originally appeared on abcnews.go.com B oris Johnson rallied to defend Home Secretary Priti Patel after she was accused of bullying staff in a third government department today. Mr Johnson received huge cheers from the Tory benches as he defended Ms Patel during Prime Ministers Questions today, telling the Commons: She is keeping this country safe. The Home Secretary is doing an outstanding job. I have every confidence in her. The new claims date back to Ms Patels time as International Development Secretary from 2016 to 2017 and come after similar allegations from her stints in two other Whitehall departments. A senior official at the Department for International Development (DfID) reported a tsunami of allegations of abuse from officials in her private office when Ms Patel worked there as secretary of state, according to BBCs Newsnight. She resigned from the post in 2017 over unauthorised contacts with the Israeli government. Afterwards, a senior figure in DfID was said to have approached staff in her private office about allegations of bullying. The senior figure was said to have been told of multiple claims of staff being humiliated and coming under heavy pressure in emails. They reported this to another senior figure in the department and urged them to contact the then cabinet secretary, the late Sir Jeremy Heywood, so that the allegations were in the system if Ms Patel ever returned to government. The person, currently unnamed, is said to be prepared to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry into allegations Ms Patel broke the ministerial code. A Tory source told Newsnight there was a concerted effort by sections of the civil service to undermine the Home Secretary. DfID said: All ministers are subject to the ministerial code. It comes after Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Offices most senior official, resigned accusing Ms Patel of leading a vicious campaign to oust him. A left-wing commentator finds the governments coronavirus emergency plans wanting. A pro-government columnist welcomes the governments decision to temporarily suspend entry to two Transit Zones on the Hungary-Serbia border, as one of a series of measures to reduce the risk of coronavirus entering the country. In Nepszava, Rudolf Ungvary accuses the government of not being proactive enough in its preparations for a potential coronavirus emergency. The liberal writer scorns the government for not providing GPs with face masks, and the breathing apparatus that severe coronavirus patients may need if an epidemic erupts. Ungvary adds that opposition parties also have no specific plans for handling a possible pandemic crisis. The best way to prevent large scale panic would be to keep people informed and work out clear protocols to handle all eventualities, Ungvary concludes. Magyar Nemzets Laszlo Szocs welcomes the governments decision to temporarily stop new entries to the transit zones on Hungarys southern border, as he suggests the new migrant wave from Turkey also increases the coronavirus threat. The pro-government commentator claims that another huge migration crisis would deepen the economic and social implications of the coronavirus threat, and would create a situation in which even civil war could not be ruled out. Szocs goes so far as to suggest that anyone who fails to grasp that illegal migration needs to be stopped is a threat to social peace. This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online. Click here to Share Your Story MTI Photo: Ujvari Sandor Joe Biden scored four significant victories in the first round of Super Tuesday results, winning the Democratic primaries in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma. Bernie Sanders won his home state of Vermont and Colorado. Television networks declared Biden the winner in the three southern states shortly after polls closed, an indication that his victories there were decisive and could net him a large portion of the total available delegates. But states with polls closing later, particularly Texas and California, could aid Sanders, who had overtaken Biden as the front-runner in national polls. Were feeling optimistic, Biden said in Los Angeles after the Virginia race was called. I think were going to do well in some other states as well. The results are a remarkable turnabout for the former vice president whose candidacy was on the ropes just days ago. A decisive win on Saturday in South Carolina rallied the Democratic Party leadership around Biden as the moderate alternative to Sanders, whos seen by the party establishment as a candidate who cant beat President Donald Trump. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar fell in line, dropping out and endorsing Biden. Tuesdays contests across 14 states, plus American Samoa, will award more than a third of all delegates to the Democratic convention in July in Milwaukee. The biggest day of the presidential primary calendar will define the nomination fight for Sanders and Biden and determine whether Michael Bloomberg -- who collected his first delegates by winning American Samoa -- and Elizabeth Warren have a rationale for carrying on their campaigns. The Super Tuesday round of primaries marks the first time Bloomberg has appeared on the Democratic presidential ballot. He and Warren, whose best performance to date was third in the Iowa caucuses, will confront the question of whether to continue in the race if they dont collect a substantial number of delegates. (Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.) Sanders and Biden headed into the night close in delegate tallies. Sanders emerged from the first four contests with 60 delegates, but Bidens big win in South Carolina on Saturday brought him within six delegates of his chief rival. That victory also brought Biden a clearer field through the endorsements of Klobuchar and Buttigieg, who had been competing with him for the votes of centrist Democrats. That still might not be enough. Sanders went into key tests in delegate-rich Texas and California leading in the polls, while Bloomberg threatens to play spoiler by snagging delegates in multiple states. Biden is counting on his support from African-American voters, who make up a sizable portion of the Democratic electorate in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Arkansas. He won 63% of the black vote in Virginia and North Carolina, according to network exit polls reported by CNN. Beyond Super Tuesday, several major caches of delegates will be available later this month with Michigan, Florida, Illinois and Ohio among the states holding primaries. After Super Tuesday theyre all opportunities. I think Ill do well in Florida, Michigan, it goes down the line, Biden said Tuesday. Delivery of some results may be affected by vote-counting and weather. The outcome in California, the biggest prize of the night, may not be known for hours after polls close or even days as officials wait for mail-in ballots to arrive and be counted. In Tennessee, polling places in some parts of Nashville will stay open until 10 p.m. local time after tornadoes that swept through the area caused extensive damage and killed at least 22 people. Warren and Bloomberg have so far indicated they planned to stay in the race. Some party leaders have been calling for Bloomberg to drop out to clear the way for Biden. The former New York mayor brushed off questions Tuesday about withdrawing. Joes taking votes away from me, he said. Have you asked Joe whether hes going to drop out? Bloomberg acknowledged that the only way he can secure the Democratic nomination is if neither Biden nor Sanders wins a majority of delegates and the decision is left to a battle at the party convention in July. Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist who many in the party establishment fear would return Trump to the White House. Sanders argues that the country is hungry for a political revolution, and he has grown a diverse base with promises of free health care, free housing, free college tuition and free child care, as well as plans to levy steep taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Sanders is likely to emerge Tuesday still holding the most delegates. Bidens task is to win enough support to stand as a credible challenger to Sanders as the primary calendar moves to contests that stretch through June, a task that would be made easier by the growing support hes received just since Saturday night. What Sanders, Biden and Others Need to Win on Super Tuesday The Vermont senator will no longer benefit from a broad field of contenders for moderate voters, and it will be up to Biden to harness the momentum from his South Carolina victory and turn Klobuchars and Buttigiegs endorsements into actual votes. Yet the former vice president has repeatedly bungled advantages throughout the nominating contest, and the impact of the last-minute withdrawals might be muted with millions of early-voting ballots already cast. In 2016 in California, 60% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day by early or mail-in voting. The stakes couldnt be higher for a party thats still reeling from Trumps 2016 victory and is weighing diametrically opposite approaches to winning back the blue-collar, working-class voters along the Rust Belt that had long served as its electoral firewall -- Bidens centrist vision or Sanders populist one. And if voters Tuesday fail to winnow the field, the odds of a contested convention a political occurrence unseen in almost 70 years - will soar, further emboldening the incumbent president and diminishing the odds of a successful opposition challenge. ROSEBURG, Ore. and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- FiberCore/NL and Orenco Composites/USA have signed an agreement to license the application of the InfraCore technology in the USA. This special collaboration provides wonderful opportunities for both companies. Orenco will not only increase its market share in the USA, but with its enormous knowledge of the engineering and production of large composite products will also grow the InfraCore technology itself. "InfraCore Inside was developed in the Netherlands," says Eric Ball, Senior Vice President of Orenco Composites. "Now, we're combining this innovative technology with our state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities to create uniquely robust composite structures. Bridges with InfraCore Inside are distinguished by incredible adhesion throughout their structure. They require only a minimal foundation, and because they're relatively lightweight, they're easy to install. These bridges are sustainable, reliable, virtually maintenance-free, and designed to last over 50 years." According to Simon de Jong, co-founder/CEO of FiberCore (the developer of InfraCore Inside), "The InfraCore technology has successfully solved one of the major challenges of the fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) community: making delamination of FRP sandwich structures, especially due to fatigue after impact, inconsequential by creating a continuous structural connection of glass fibers between the top and bottom of the structure. The construction contains no internal glues or bolted connections." He continues, "The strength comes entirely from the fibers, which themselves are much stronger than steel. Besides bridges and lock gates, our technology is used today in [sea] ship construction and offshore wind energy projects. This year, we expect to start our first project in the aerospace industry. Our cooperation with Orenco shows yet another application of our versatile technologies." Orenco Composites is a division of Orenco Systems, Inc. The company's engineers are nationally recognized experts in the fields of fiberglass product development and manufacturing. Research, product development, and sales support are handled out of a 26-acre (10.5-hectare) facility in Sutherlin, Oregon, USA. Orenco's three state-of-the-art production facilities include over 400,000 square feet (37,000+ square meters) of manufacturing space. Orenco Composites uses filament winding and two types of closed-molding processes - resin transfer molding (RTM) and vacuum infusion - to produce high-quality, FRP composite parts. The company has taken the fiberglass technology developed for wastewater markets and created high-quality buildings, basins, tanks, and enclosures for telecommunications, utilities, railroad, aviation, food, and many more industries. Orenco Composites also offers design, development, and manufacturing for custom OEM products. InfraCore technology is developed and patented by FiberCore/NL and has been proven in more than 1,000 heavy-traffic bridges and lock gates worldwide. InfraCore technology offers a standardized and modular structural approach. This enables the realization of proven and validated cost-effective (both OPEX/CAPEX) FRP structures that are easily scalable, lightweight, durable, maintenance-free, heavy-duty, damage-tolerant, and load-bearing. FiberCore is now developing and marketing new cross-sector product-market combinations based on InfraCore, in collaboration with strategic partners in the constructive maritime, off-shore, oil & gas, energy, and other industries worldwide. InfraCore technology is already implemented in the EU-SUREbridge project and in the EU-Ramses project (heavy-duty ship decks, rudders for sea vessels, and interior walls on cruise ships). www.orenco.com www.orencocomposites.com www.infracore-company.com www.fibercore-europe.com Press photos free to use: https://www.infracore-company.com/press-and-publicity/ https://www.infracore-company.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/InfraCore-pedestrian-bridge-Excersitiesingel-Rotterdam-NL.jpg https://www.infracore-company.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Orenco-factories-Oregon-USA.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1098750/FiberCore_Orenco_factories_Oregon_USA.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1098749/FiberCore_InfraCore_Europoort_NL.jpg Bhutans regulator has set out its roadmap towards 5G adoption, with deployments expected to begin in 2022. The Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA) has published the Regulator Framework for 5G Deployment in Bhutan. The framework advocates waiting until other markets have deployed the technology so that Bhutan is able to learn from their experiences and take advantage of the increasingly mature 5G mobile ecosystem. BICMA expects to see the first commercial deployments begin in 2022 ahead of a broader rollout from 2024. It has set an agenda to foster the development of a 5G ecosystem in the market, pledging to ensure sustainable competition, follow international standards, price spectrum competitively, and enforce network resilience requirements. The regulator has also promised to encourage innovation to education around 5G technology in the market. To this end, it will grant permits for 5G research and allow operators to conduct 5G trials via the 2600MHz, 3.5GHz and 26GHz bands without paying licence or spectrum fees. A wide range of bands are under consideration of 5G usage, including the 700MHz, 2100MHz, 2600MHz, 3.5GHz, 4.5GHz and 26GHz bands. The 2100MHz band is currently used for 3G services and BICMA expects this to be the case until 2025 and beyond, while the 2600MHz band is also in use for fixed-wireless broadband and multichannel multipoint distribution services. As a result, the 3.5GHz is seen by BICMA as the current frontrunner 5G band. The regulator noted that the 26GHz band is also a contender but would require wider deployment of small cells due to its propagation nature. The 4.5GHz band is currently in use, and so would not be available for 5G purposes until all current users had been migrated which BICMA expects would take two to four years. Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya onWednesday denied his party's role in the alleged horse-trading of MLAs supporting the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government, and said the ongoing political developments are a result of "infighting" in the ruling party. The BJP national general secretary claimed that many leaders associated with the ruling Congress in the state are in touch with the saffron party. Asked about the Congress' allegations of horse- trading by the BJP, Vijayvargiya told reporters here, "The BJP has nothing to do with this matter. In fact, it is the result of the ongoing infighting among Congress leaders." The BJP leader claimed that whatever is currently happening in the state's politics, shows the "frustration" of the ruling Congress MLAs and their "anger" towards Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Asked about the future of the Kamal Nath government, which has completed 15 months of its tenure (since its formation in December 2018), Vijayvargiya said, "Look, what happens next." He said if the BJP wanted, it could have formed its government in the state after the last Assembly polls because it was "short of only four to five MLAs" and people were ready to come to support it. "But we do not believe in these things," he said. Vijayvargiya claimed many leaders associated with the Congress are still in touch with the BJP. "Young Congress MLAs, especially, are worried as their party leadership is not good both in Delhi and Bhopal, and in such a situation what will happen to their future?" he said. The senior BJP leader also alleged that the ruling Congress in the state "failed" to keep its promises made to people during the Assembly elections in 2018. In the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP-107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ITHACA, N.Y. - "Scooter clutter" has been a concern amplified by media reports in urban areas where micromobility has entered the landscape, with large numbers of dockless scooters and shared e-bikes on city streets and sidewalks. But a recent study finds that motor vehicles are still the main offender by far when it comes to blocking access by other travelers. Research co-authored by Nicholas Klein, assistant professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University, offers data on the impacts of scooters and bikeshare vehicles in five American cities. The research is translatable and replicable, to help inform cities' efforts in reimagining public streets and sidewalks. Some cities are considering new parking regulations and seeking other planning and policy solutions for these shared scooters and bikes, which have been introduced to more than 100 cities since 2018. A paper, published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, investigated scooter, bike and car parking behavior in Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco and Santa Monica, California; and Washington, D.C. The research was led by Anne Brown of the University of Oregon School of Planning, Public Policy and Management. Researchers collected 3,666 observations of e-scooters, bikes, motor vehicles and "sidewalk objects" such as sandwich boards. Research assistants recorded parking behavior on both sides of a busy commercial corridor for three days, eight hours each day. They observed parked cars, scooters and bicycles, as well as sidewalk furniture including advertising, construction materials and sidewalk-mounted elevator or stair-access doors. The study found that parking noncompliance rates across the five cities were far higher for motor vehicles (24.7% of 2,631 motor vehicles observed) than for micromobility vehicles (0.8% of 865 scooter and bike observations). Food delivery and ride-hailing vehicles accounted for a disproportionate number of improper parking incidents impeding access or mobility for other travelers, Klein said. Most of these violations occurred while dropping off or picking up people or food, including double parking, occupying "No Parking" or restricted areas and blocking driveways. The findings suggest that the presence of micromobility companies and other technology-enabled transportation services should motivate cities to rethink their parking policies, the researchers said. ### For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story. Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews supporting full HD, ISDN and web-based platforms. Myanmar cracks down on illegal fishing in Myeik March 04,2020 | Source: Myanmar Times The government will set up a vessel-monitoring system control centre (VMS) in Myeik city in Tanintharyi Region in an effort to combat illegal fishing, a senior Fisheries Department official said. U Than Chaung, head of the department in Tanintharyi, said the system will be able to identify fishing vessels that are operating legally in the area. All fishing vessels will have to enter specified checkpoints for mandatory inspections, and we will be able to determine whether they have the necessary permits, he said. The VMS control centre can prevent illegal fishing, he added. The centre, which is under construction in Myeik, can monitor the movements of not only vessels off Tanintharyi but also across the nation. The three-storey centre will take one year to construct and will be paid for by the regional government. The Tanintharyi coast in southern Myanmar is the longest of the countrys three coasts. More than 1,500 fishing and carrier boats and 47,000 fishermen operate off the Tanintharyi coast, according to the department. On Monday, the department announced a second marine-protected area in Tanintharyi to boost efforts to save endangered fish and marine habitat. The area covers the coastal waters between Kawthoung township and Kau-ye island, it said in a statement. Myanmar Marine Fisheries Law prohibits commercial fishing in the protected zone, and villagers living there must engage only in regulated and sustainable fishing. The department said the protected area is of international significance because of its biodiversity, including several newly discovered fish species. Environmentalists and conservationists said Myanmars marine resources are under severe stress due to over exploitation. Recent studies said Myanmar coral reefs declined by 70 percent in Rakhine State and Tanintharyi, in particular the offshore islands of the Myeik archipelago, considered the most favourable grounds for coral. Fish inhabiting the surface waters of Myanmar declined by about 80pc between 1980 and 2018, and there was a steep drop in commercially important fish on the seabed, according to a 2019 report on research by Myanmar and Norwegian scientists. The estimated one million tonnes of surface fish in 1979-80 dropped by up to 80pc by 2018, the report said. Myanmar coastline stretches 2831 kilometres, from the Nat River, which forms the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, to Kawthoung town, which borders Thailand. On its southern coastline lies the Myeik archipelago of more than 800 islands. [March 04, 2020] Financial services organisations struggling to utilise customer data LONDON, March 4, 2020 /CNW/ -- A disconnect exists between the goals of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) within financial services organisations and their legal departments when it comes to repurposing data for secondary use, according to new research released today. Based on the views of over 400 CDOs from multinational companies attending FIMA Europe 2019 (Europe's leading financial data management event) a new survey revealed that 90% of CDOs are currently repurposing data or plan to in the next year. However, over half (53%) of the CDOs in attendance also revealed that within the last six months they have been told by their legal departments that their organisation cannot use the data in the ways that they want to. The research, which was conducted by Anonos , the leading data privacy and enablement technology provider, shines a light on the challenges financial services organisations face from regulations including the GDPR and PSD2. In many cases, companies can no longer rey on the processing grounds of anonymisation, consent and contract when they want to repurpose customer data for big data analytics, machine learning and AI. Gary LaFever, CEO and General Counsel at Anonos, said: "In many ways, the role of Chief Data Officers is changing from policing and controlling data usage to enabling new business avenues driven by data and analytics. However, as this research highlights, CDOs are facing a struggle with their legal department when it comes to generating revenues from the trove of data their organisation possesses." "Possession of data doesn't give companies the right to process data, and most companies are now realising that they cannot repurpose data in the ways that they want to maximise value. This puts them in a difficult position: to gain a competitive edge, or even to compete in their industry at all, repurposing of data is not only important, but in many cases necessary." Gary added: "Traditional data protection methods such as anonymisation leave personal data open to re-identification , which exposes you to GDPR non-compliance risks. "However, in contrast, the GDPR highlights pseudonymisation as a technological solution in more than a dozen places, linking it to express statutory benefits and as a recommended safeguard for enabling greater privacy-respectful use of data in today's 'big data' world." The survey also revealed that 83% of CDOs believe opportunities for leveraging customer data for innovation can be significantly increased through utilising technical controls for privacy rights management within their organisations. About Anonos: Anonos enables lawful analytics, AI & ML that preserve 100% of data accuracy while expanding opportunities to ethically share & combine data. Anonos Pseudonymisation & Data Protection by Design & by Default technology enables the use of Legitimate Interests to lawfully process, combine and share personal data while protecting the rights of individuals & achieving business objectives. Anonos patented Variant Twins enable sharing, enrichment, analysis, and relinking of personal data by technologically enforcing dynamic, fine-grained privacy, security & data protection policies in compliance with the GDPR, CCPA and other evolving data privacy regulations. Learn more at https://www.anonos.com and https://www.pseudonymisation.com . MEDIA CONTACTS Liberty Communications on behalf of Anonos [email protected] +44 207 751 4444 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/financial-services-organisations-struggling-to-utilise-customer-data-301016405.html SOURCE Anonos [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Kea may be best known for their irritating cry and tomfoolery, but it turns out the tricky green parrot isn't so different to humans when it comes to problem solving. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, University of Auckland experts found the birds can judge statistical odds in a way only ever seen before in infants and great apes. In a range of tests at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, kea worked out that choosing a particular coloured token always led to a food reward, and even managed to learn which of their rangers was most likely to pick the token they wanted. Study co-author Alex Taylor, a psychologist who studies intelligence in animals and birds, says the behaviour they saw was unprecedented in birds. "The kea and chimpanzees and humans are all showing this ability to reason. "I think the reason that they're showing this curiosity, this playfulness, is because there's this really interesting intelligence going on in their minds which is a lot smarter than we thought it was." In a range of experiments, Alex and PhD student Amalia Bastos tested six kea using different coloured rods. The kea learned that choosing a black rod over an orange rod would lead to a treat, and were able to predict which jar would most likely result in their ranger pulling out a black rod. Amalia says the kea remembered which ranger was more likely to choose the rod or token they wanted, even when there were very few black rods in a jar. "Kea were looking at the biased experimenter, understanding that they had a bias for a particular type of token, and then selecting this person when both experimenters had the same populations of tokens." She says the findings helped us understand more of their social structure. "We were very surprised to find that kea can use social cues even from humans, to make these judgements." To date, only humans and chimpanzees have been shown to blend social and frequency information in this way. "This is the first evidence that a bird can make true statistical inferences and integrate different types of information into their predictions of uncertain events." Willowbank's head of native species Nick Ackroyd, who has worked with captive kea for 11 years, says he is not surprised by this level of brainpower. The alpine parrots are perhaps best known for using their hooded bills to pinch shiny things from mountain travellers and historically were known for attacking sheep in the paddocks of early settlers. Nick says there is a clear level of planning that goes into their tomfoolery. "They're good at using other kea as decoys while they go through a family's possessions looking for things that they might like. You can tell they're pretty smart." Occasionally, they would go as far as to pilfer car keys from unlucky tourists and drop them in a pond, "which makes leaving the park quite difficult," Nick says. Alex is hopeful that more research to better understand their intelligence could help to preserve this species, which are nationally endangered. One of the best ways they could be protected is to avoid feeding wild kea, as that can lead them to play with toxic bait, or hunt for food near highways where they can easily get injured. Alex says although it is a pain when they attack cars and keys, it is a playfulness people should cherish. "We still haven't really compared them to other birds to find if they're the smartest, but right now they're definitely the world leaders when it comes to thinking in this type of way." So, next time a big green parrot takes off screaming with your car keys, rest assured you've been pranked by one of the world's smartest birds. Rachel Thomas/RNZ. On a CNN panel on Monday, host John King spoke with Politico reporter Alex Thompson about the possibility of Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard qualifying on Super Tuesday for the partys primary debate in Phoenix later this month. I will note this, shes from Hawaii, King said of Gabbard. Shes a congresswoman from Hawaii; American Samoa votes on Super Tuesday. The rules as they now stand, if you get a delegate, youre back in the debates. As of now. Correct? Yeah, they havent, I mean, thats been the rule for every single debate, Thompson replied. And the DNC has not released their official guidance for the March 15 debate in Phoenix, but it would be very obvious that they are trying to cancel Tulsi, who theyre scared of a third party run, if they then change the rules to prevent her to rejoin the debate stage. And indeed, as the smoke clears from the Super Tuesday frenzy, this is precisely what appears to have transpired. The Gabbard campaign said it was informed that it would net two delegates from the caucuses in American Samoa, which will allocate a total of six pledged delegates, The Hill reports today. However, a report from CNN said that the candidate will receive only one delegate from the territory on Tuesday evening. Tulsi Gabbard may have just qualified for the next Democratic debate thanks to American Samoa, reads a fresh Business Insider headline. Under the most recent rules, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii may have qualified for the next televised debate by snagging a delegate in American Samoas primary. If Tulsi Gabbard gets a delegate out of American Samoa, as it appears she has done, she will likely qualify for the next Democratic debate, tweeted Washington Posts Dave Weigel. We dont have new debate rules yet, but party has been inviting any candidate who gets a delegate. Rank-and-file supporters of the Hawaii congresswoman enjoyed a brief celebration on social media, before having their hopes dashed minutes later by an announcement from the DNCs Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa that the threshold will go up. We have two more debates of course the threshold will go up, tweeted Hinojosa literally minutes after Gabbard was awarded the delegate. By the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has. DNC wastes no time in announcing they will rig the next debates to exclude Tulsi, journalist Michael Tracey tweeted in response. This outcome surprised nobody, least of all Gabbard supporters. The blackout on the Tulsi 2020 campaign has reached such extreme heights this year that you now routinely see pundits saying things like there are no more people of color in the race, or that Elizabeth Warren is the only woman remaining in the primary. Theyre not just ignoring her, theyre actually erasing her. Theyre weaving a whole alternative reality out of narrative in which she is literally, officially, no longer in the race. After Gabbard announced her presidential candidacy in January of last year I wrote an article explaining that I was excited about her campaign because she would severely disrupt establishment narratives, and, for the remainder of 2019, thats exactly what she did. She spoke unauthorized truths about Syria, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, she drew attention to the plight of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and said shed drop all charges against both men if elected, she destroyed the hawkish, jingoistic positions of fellow candidates on the debate stage and arguably single-handedly destroyed Kamala Harris run. The narrative managers had their hands full with her. The Russia smears were relentless, the fact that she met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was brought up at every possible opportunity in every debate and interview, and she was scoffed at and derided at every turn. Now, in 2020, none of that is happening. Theres a near-total media blackout on the Gabbard campaign, such that I now routinely encounter rank-and-file liberals on social media who tell me they honestly had no idea shes still running. Shes been completely redacted out of the narrative matrix. So its unsurprising that the DNC felt comfortable striding forward and openly announcing a change in the debate threshold literally the very moment Gabbard crossed it. These people understand narrative control, and they know full well that they have secured enough of it on the Tulsi Problem that theyll be able to brazenly rig her right off the stage without suffering any meaningful consequences. The establishment narrative warfare against Gabbards campaign dwarfs anything weve seen against Sanders, and the loathing and dismissal theyve been able to generate have severely hamstrung her run. It turns out that a presidential candidate can get away with talking about economic justice and plutocracy when it comes to domestic policy, and some light dissent on matters of foreign policy will be tolerated, but aggressively attacking the heart of the actual bipartisan foreign policy consensus will get you shut down, smeared and shunned like nothing else. This is partly because US presidents have a lot more authority over foreign affairs than domestic, and its also because endless war is the glue which holds the empire together. And now theyre working to install a corrupt, right-wing warmongering dementia patient as the partys nominee. And from the looks of the numbers Ive seen from Super Tuesday so far, it looks entirely likely that those manipulations will prove successful. All this means is that the machine is exposing its mechanics to the view of the mainstream public. Both the Gabbard campaign and the Sanders campaign have been useful primarily in this way; not because the establishment would ever let them actually become president, but because they force the unelected manipulators who really run things in the most powerful government on earth to show the public their box of dirty tricks. ___________________________ Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what Im trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else Ive written) in any way they like free of charge. Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call En espanol | Proposed nearly a century ago, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is periodically propelled forward with a new burst of enthusiasm and a flurry of footwork. Suffragist and lawyer Alice Paul, who was born about a dozen miles east of Philadelphia in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, introduced the ERA in 1923 to guarantee women equal rights under federal law. Many thought it quickly would become the 20th Amendment right after the 19th, which had secured women's right to vote in 1920. But it was only in the early 70s that the ERA mustered the required backing of two-thirds of Congress to move it toward the states for ratification. Then the National Organization for Women fanned out across the country, passionately advocating for the ERA's passage in the states. But when the clock ran out, only 35 of the 38 states required had signed on. Activists: The ERA's time is now Today's political climate and the #MeToo movement have added renewed urgency. Within the past three years Nevada, Illinois and Virginia became the 36th, 37th and 38th states to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, but it must surmount additional legal hurdles before it can be added to the U.S. Constitution. "It's hard to get equal rights when you don't have equal rights, says Julie C. Suk, a dean and professor of sociology at the City University of New York. Masked robbers have been caught on camera bungling a series of burglaries across the New South Wales Central Coast. The thieves targeted three separate service stations in the early hours of Tuesday morning, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage but leaving each largely empty-handed. During the first at, they tried to ram their way inside the Starlight Power service station with a truck, but it was too tall to reach the shopfront. In another at Lackmac Petroleum the thieves drove a ute through the shopfront, with one masked bandit tying a rope to an ATM inside and attempting to pull it away. He twice slipped in the wreckage and the trio fled the scene empty-handed. The thieves targeted three separate service stations in the early hours of Tuesday morning, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage but leaving each largely empty-handed Shattered glass and thousands of dollars worth of snacks littered across the floor had to be cleaned up by staff the next day. When the masked criminals targeted Starlite Power just up the road, they were more successful. They smashed their way into the service station through an external toilet door. They fled the scene with a sum of money, cigarettes and a bottle of coke from the fridge, according to 7 News. Vikas Nassa from Starlite Power said he's 'still in shock' and the incident has 'made a big hole in his business' after the service station was trashed. In one of the attempted robberies a thief is thrown to the ground after slipping among the wreckage (pictured) 'Very angry, very frustrated. I want to kill them to be very frank. I don't want to use this word but I really want to kill them,' she said. Each robbery was caught on CCTV cameras from each of the Central Coast stores. Police say the robberies were also conducted using a number of stolen vehicles. They are urging anyone with information to come forward. The Congress on Wednesday attacked the BJP government in Gujarat over the death of over 15,000 infants during treatment at newborn care units across the state in the last two years and demanded Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's resignation over the issue. Responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who also holds the Health portfolio, said that out of the 1.06 lakh infants admitted to such units during 2018 and 2019 across the state, 15,013 babies died during treatment. These deaths were reported from sick newborn care units set up in almost all districts of the state. On Wednesday, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala held the BJP government responsible for these deaths. "15,013 infants died. Everyday 20 infants are dying. The maximum number of infant deaths -- 4,322 -- in Ahmedabad. This is Amit Shah's parliamentary constituency," he said in a tweet. "Will the cries of babies be heard? Will anyone raise questions? Will the TV media show courage?" Surjewala asked. Speaking with reporters outside Parliament, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said there are guidelines for sick newborn care units like two newborns should be three metres apart so that infection does not spread. "But when we visited these centres, we saw babies being put next to one another," he said. Gohil hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for not showing "sensitivity" towards the issue. The second most number of infant deaths are from Rajkot from where Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was elected to the Assembly. The chief minister has no right to stay on in the post and he should resign, Gohil said. Congress MP Amee Yajnik said, "When you talk about Gujarat's social indicators, when you talk about Gujarat's health system, you see that utmost insensitivity is shown towards them." "Over 15,000 infant deaths, the responsibility also lies with the state government to haul up these hospitals, to haul up these healthcare facilities," she said. Least sensitivity is expected from the prime minister and the home minister on the issue, considering their past record, Yajnik said. Gujarat is shown as a development model, but its social indicators speak otherwise, she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twenty-one Italian tourists and their three Indian tour operators have been shifted out from an ITBP quarantine centre here on Wednesday as they were exposed to novel coronavirus, officials said. They said the foreigners have been sent to a private hospital in Gurgaon and a centre in the national capital while the Indians have been transferred to the Safdarjung Hospital. Fourteen Italians and an Indian (driver), who were in the same group as the affected Italian couple, tested positive for the virus as per information provided by the Health Ministry. These people will be further quarantined while the rest in this group will be kept in preventive isolation, they said. The Italian tourists and three Indians were admitted to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force centre in Chhawla on Tuesday. The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane from China's Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus. The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Keuchels choice of the Lakeview neighborhood in the heart of Cubs territory also is unusual among White Sox homebuyers. Apart from Konerko, one of the few other North Side homeowners over the years has been one-time White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who paid $1.63 million in 2006 for a four-bedroom house in Lincoln Park. He and his wife sold that house in 2013 for $1.68 million. BIRMINGHAM (dpa-AFX) - Severn Trent Plc (SVT.L), a UK-based water and waste water company, announced Wednesday its plan to invest 1.2 billion pounds to deliver sustainability commitments for the future. In its Capital Markets Day, the company revealed a number of ambitious commitments for a sustainable long-term future for its business. The company plans to deliver Triple Carbon Pledge of Net Zero emissions, 100 percent energy from renewable sources and 100 percent electric fleet, all by 2030. Further, the company will develop science based targets with real reductions in carbon across scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. The company plans to achieve 100 percent renewable energy target by April 1, 2020 with over 50 percent coming from self- generation and the balance purchased through REGO-backed renewable sources. From now on, the company will purchase only electric cars, while it will buy only electric vans from 2023. Liv Garfield, Chief Executive of Severn Trent, said, 'By committing to invest 1.2 billion in the next five years we believe we can make a real difference to the environment and people we serve while delivering strong business outcomes at the same time.' In London, Severn Trent shares were trading at 2,638 pence, up 1.70 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. On the morning of March 4, Julie Rikelman will enter the Supreme Court with the rights of at least 1 million women of reproductive age resting on her shoulders. Maybe she will think of the employees at the abortion clinic she is representing, who walk into work through throngs of protesters who shout the workers' childrens names menacingly. Maybe she will visualize the patients at the clinic, who come from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, or even from overseas army bases, to seek an abortion. If she loses the case, the state of Louisiana will be left with just a single abortion doctor. Maybe she will think of her parents, who immigrated with her to the United States from Ukraine when she was a child, seeking civil rights. Maybe she will tell herself that in a few years her two preteen daughters will be proud of her. She will prepare to argue her first case before the Supreme Court. She will wear a navy blue suit. She will try to not be nervous. I care, Rikelman, litigation director at the Center for Reproductive Rights, reminds herself when she imagines arguing the first major abortion-rights case before the new, conservative-leaning Supreme Court. I do have an expertise in this area of the lawI live and breathe what the constitutional law is on these issues. Rikelmanalong with T.J. Tu, her cocounselare under pressure. If the Supreme Court upholds the law in the case they are bringing on behalf of their client, June Medical Services, LLC, abortion will be almost completely inaccessible in Louisiana. The ruling will set a precedent that, as Tu describes it, states like Louisiana can effectively ban abortion without overturning Roe v. Wade. Abortion may remain legal. But it will also be, for all intents and purposes, banned. The situation will be very dire, Rikelman has said. GL-CP At stake are two of only three abortion clinics serving women in Louisiana and surrounding states, where abortion is all but banned. If the Supreme Court allows the Louisiana state ruling to stand, it will leave only a single physician to provide abortion care to women in the state. Im gonna make it my mission in life to make sure that this law doesnt shut this clinic down, Tu told workers at Hope Medical Group in Shreveport, Louisiana, the plaintiff in the case, when he was assigned to it. Womens lives are on the line. Story continues Tu was raised in Omaha. His father, who came to the U.S. as a child from Shanghai, instilled in me that do-gooder attitude, he says. He came out as gay in college in Iowa (I realized there were important fights that were worth having), becoming an activist for queer rights and reproductive rights, and working at the ACLU before applying to law school. At New York University, he became editor of the law review, and after he graduated, Tu clerked for now Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor when she was a judge in the court of appeals. He became an expert in false-advertising litigation. He made partner. He kept up his pro bono work. He served as cocounsel on a Supreme Court case about pomegranate juice. It was, by all accounts, a very fancy career. Then Donald Trump was elected. I was asking myself, What can I do? Can I give money to organizations that I care about? Can I march in the streets? And then he remembered: He is a lawyer. He thought, he says, Well, thats what I know how to do; where can that be helpful? He reached out to Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. I said, Can I be useful? And she said, Absolutely. Leaving a lucrative corporate job as partner to join a nonprofit was, even to some of his more supportive colleagues, a head-scratcher, Tu says. The next day Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his own departurefrom the Supreme Court. (His empty position was later filled by Brett Kavanaugh.) People stopped asking if I was crazy, he says. Some people may still have thought it was a goofy decision, but they no longer said that to my face. GL-CP Legal abortion is the law of the landtechnically. In Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision of 1973, the court found that the right to abortion falls under the right to privacy, which is protected by the constitution. The decision to carry a pregnancy or to terminate it is private, and the government cannot make it for you, the majority of the all-male justices on the Supreme Court of 1973 argued. To the casualish observersay, a woman who would consider an abortion if she had an unplanned pregnancytrying to follow the uninterrupted flow of news stories about abortion restrictions is both numbing and confusing. Two seemingly opposite things are true: Abortion is a constitutionally protected right. Its also, in many states, almost impossible to access. How can something be both legal and almost completely restricted? It feels like an old-timey riddle, except instead of a question from a mythical creature, its a question that can determine the course of a womans life. What does it mean to a patient in Louisiana if Roe is technically on the books but the state is able to completely get rid of all the abortion providers? Tu says. In that case, Roe is just an illusion of having a constitutional right. Nearly 450 abortion-restricting laws have been passed into law in the U.S. just since 2011, according to the center. The organizations lawyers have been key in stopping many of these laws from taking effect. In just the last year, the center successfully blocked abortion restrictions in Virginia, North Dakota, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, Alaska, Kansas, and Mississippi. They have sued to block abortion-ban laws in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Arizona, to name a few. The center has been involved with every Supreme Court case involving abortion since its founding. If you like having the government stay out of your underwear, you might want to thank the Center for Reproductive Rights. In June v. Russo, as in many abortion cases, lawmakers have created a powerful illusion. The case centers on a requirement that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for safety reasons. Admitting privileges conjures an image of a doctor in a crisp white coat, clean walls, and medical excellence. It certainly sounds like something you would like your doctor to have. In reality, an admitting privilege is a business relationship between a physician and a hospital. It is not a medical license or a merit-based credential. Who could argue with the idea that admitting privileges are a good idea? Tu says. Well, all the leading medical organizations. The American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and 12 other major groups of physicians have come out strongly against the law, writing, Admitting privileges serve no relevant credentialing function, and physicians and other clinicians are frequently denied privileges for reasons unrelated to their competency. A landmark report on abortion safety by the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 found that abortion-related mortality is lower than maternal mortality rates for birth, as well as mortality rates for colonoscopies. GL-CP The dark genius of passing a law that doesnt allow abortion providers to practice unless they have admitting privileges is that it sounds like a commonsense safety measurebut in reality it has no medical benefit. Instead, it is a substantial roadblock that would leave the 10,000 women who seek abortion annually in Louisiana with only one legal provider. Laws like this are called TRAP lawsTargeted Regulations of Abortion Providers. Critics like the lawyers at the center say that lawmakers write these laws with the intent of closing clinics. The admitting privileges, no doubt, is a way to close clinics in Louisiana, Kathaleen Pittman, the clinic administrator at Hope who has worked in abortion health care in Louisiana for almost 28 years, said at a press briefing weeks before the Supreme Court date. The law fits perfectly with the playbook Louisiana lawmakers have proudly laid out. We've been named the top pro-life state in America for the last three years, at least, former Louisiana representative Frank Hoffmann said at a press conference in 2014. And we do it through making it tough to get an abortion. Until Roe is overturned, he added, "we want to make it as difficult as possible." GL-CP When Tu arrived at the center in 2018, he was given several assignments, including the June case. I remember reading the file and thinking, Well, Im gonna need something else to do; this is gonna be a total nothing-burger, Tu says. Because heres the thing: Less than five years ago, the Supreme Court heard a nearly identical case concerning a Texas lawand promptly struck it down as unconstitutional. In 2016 the Supreme Court ruled in the Centers favor on Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, a case about a Texas admitting-privileges law. That law is almost interchangeable, to the word, with the Louisiana case being argued this month. In fact, Louisianas law was actually written based on the Texas law. Its an identical law, literally identical law, Rikelman says. Admitting privilegesas well as surgical-center requirements, another part of the Texas law[do not confer] medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes, the Supreme Court found in 2016. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access. Courtesy of the Center for Reproductive Rights Two weeks after Tu was assigned to the nothing-burger case he was sure would be struck down due to the clear precedent, the Fifth Circuit court upheld the Louisiana law, shocking legal scholars. The center was headed to the Supreme Court. Again. Center staff compare their lives right nowspending hundreds of hours preparing for a case theyve already, essentially, wonto Groundhog Day. Its maddening. Its frustrating, says Northup. Its disappointing that after winning the case which was so important in 2016, that really set a standard to make clear that you cant have these un-medically-justified regulations that are shutting down clinics, that Louisiana was in open defiance of that ruling. The idea that the Supreme Court might reverse precedent only four years later on an identical law is alarming, and the centers lawyers argue that this is a rule-of-law issue that extends far beyond abortionthat if the Supreme Court abandons such a recent precedent, it will shake the foundations of the American legal system. Every federal district court that has held a trial on a similar law has found that these laws have no benefits and have restricted access, Rikelman says. In fact, the Supreme Court struck down the Texas law because the court found that it would close more than half of the clinics in the state. The Louisiana law would close two thirds. GL-CP A few weeks before her Supreme Court date, Julie Rikelman sat in her office in lower Manhattan, which has a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and sits just above an art installation of adult-size seesaws. She spoke about falling in love with constitutional law, of clerking for the first female justice on the Alaska Supreme Court, of getting a fellowship at the Center for Reproductive Rights as a young lawyer, of becoming the vice president of litigation at NBC, then returning to the center almost 10 years ago as a senior staff member. Shes an outstanding lawyer, just the best that there is in terms of an attorney, Northup says. Rikelmans colleagues point out, with some awe, her extreme sense of calm. She comes across as the kind of person who could easily weather several hours in line at the DMV and then spend the rest of the day at Ikea. She cares. Shes very committed to making a fairer world for her girls, Northup says. Rikelman says she didnt imagine herself arguing before the Supreme Court. But she knew shed be doing justice work. I think Im working on pretty much what people would have expected Id be working on from when I was a teenager, she says. Rikelman estimates that she works 60 hours a weekmore, as the trial draws nearer. She wakes up at 6:30 in the morning to take her kids to school, works all week, and on the weekends she works from the couch with her kids next to her. They still feel like its time together even if were sort of snuggling next to each other and theyre reading a book and Im reading a brief, she says. Tus workload has lessened slightly, because hes filed his briefs and wont be the one actually delivering oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court, but for a while he put in 80- to 100-hour weeks. Cassie Basford But Northup might be the busiest of all. In the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court argument, she led the center in cohosting a presidential forum in New Hampshire at which the Democratic candidates gave long-form public interviews about the judiciary with a focus on reproductive rights. She testified before Congress in support of the Womens Health Protection Act, a bill that, in different variations, has been introduced to Congress every year since 2013 that would codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, not just leave it as legal precedent. She hung out with Busy Philipps. She spent time with her children and stepchildren. Northup has been CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights since 2003, and under her leadership it has won both abortion-rights cases it argued before the Supreme Court, taken on international cases, and multiplied its budget sixfold. June v. Russo may set a new precedent for womens abortion rights (or lack thereof), but its hardly Northups only concernthe center is litigating 30 other cases in 19 states, as well as a slew of international cases. Twenty years ago I used to say, Wear pearls, raise hell, Northup tells me, on a day in between testifying before Congress, taking her team to the Supreme Court, and overseeing the centers annual fundraiser, which Maya Rudolph emceed, in the last weekend of February. I asked Northup why she doesnt use that phrase anymore, wondering if shes going to say that she no longer thinks traditional femininity mixes well with feminism. Well, she says, scrutinizing me as if Im a squirrelly congressman. I stopped wearing pearls. (Shes wearing a matte gold chain by Marco Bicego.) Northup was a prosecutor and now shes a CEO and a mother, and she has brought cases before the U.N. Shes a deadly serious advocate. When, inevitably, casting directors debate about whom to call in to play her in a historical drama, Annette Benings name will come up. GL-CP When Rikelman and Tu speak about June v. Russo, they dispassionately break down the unconstitutional undue burden that it places on women and the threat to rule of law that they believe could weaken the entire judicial system. Northup does this too, but when asked to explain why abortion is an issue that brings out such primal rage in so many people, especially male lawmakers, her eyes flicker. You have to understand that the issue about womens control over their own bodies is situated in a very long history of patriarchy, she says. 1965 was the first Supreme Court case that said that states cant tell married people they cant use contraception. Think about that. Women have had the right to vote in this country for only 100 years, she points out, and women of color have had it in earnest only since the 1960s. Marital rape wasnt legally a crime until the 70s. This notion that you have a separate physical being that is yours and not either the governments or your husbands or any other mans to control is very deep-rooted. Northup isnt an obvious abortion-rights advocateshe was raised partially in the South in what she calls a bipartisan household, with a Republican businessman father and a Democratic social worker mother. And shes a deeply religious churchgoer. Im very aware that, for some people, its been very painful and theyve been denied their humanity by their religious traditions, she says. But growing up, her churchshes a Unitarian Universalistwas active in the civil rights movement and prided itself on its history of abolitionism and suffragism. The first principle of my church is to promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, she says. Sitting in church pews as an undergraduate, not knowing that in her future she would have three trips to the Supreme Court, or visits to Congress or U.N. hearings, she would think, How am I gonna live my life? How am I going to be a moral person? How am I going to live a life that contributes in a positive way to the world, in this very long arc of the struggle for equality, fairness, and hoping that each human being can live a life of potential? Despite her gold statement necklace, cat-eye glasses, corner office, and date with the Supreme Court, Northrup says she is fundamentally a shy person. The fact that there is a direct line between her and millions of womens abilities to control their own body is stressful, she acknowledges: 100%. How does she handle it? Its actually a churchy concept, which is that we are stewards for an institution, she says. I take very seriously, and with great gratitude, the fact that I am able to be in this role as a steward for this institution at this time, and someday it will be someone else who will take the mantle from there. But for now, the mantle is heavy around her shouldersand Tus and Rikelmans. Two weeks before their Supreme Court date, the three of them sit in a conference room at the center for a press conference. An all-women camera crew collects footage for a documentary on the center. Northup introduces everyone, and then invites the Hope Medical Group administrator, Kathaleen Pittman, to speak from Shreveport via conference call. With the increase in the anti-abortion rhetoric, weve seen an increase in protest activity, she says in a buttery Louisiana accent. Our concern for our patients, our staff, our physicians, its very real. There is very little we can do to protect ourselves. GL-CP For women in Louisiana, access is nearly impossible. And for physicians, providing abortion access is dangerous. I get to go to work every day in the relative comfort of an office here in New York, Tu says. I know they have to go into a building where theyve had to brick up all the windows because theyve been the subject of Molotov cocktails, bomb threats, acid attacks. A man wielding a sledgehammer once came into the clinic. Rikelman isnt afraid for her own or her familys lives, she says, but shes afraid for the Louisiana workers. People are protesting at their childrens school or outside their house, she says. They really have to feel for their childrens safety. But providers continue on out of concern for their patientsPittman told journalists gathered for the press briefing that, once, the clinic suffered an acid attack and tried to close for the day because of acid fumes. Even though poison hung in the air, not a single woman wanted to reschedule, she says. The Hope doctors, who serve as plaintiffs in the case, are labeled in the court filings as John Does for their protection. If the Supreme Court rules against the center, all but one of the providers will be out of work. The Hope clinic will likely close, and abortion will be out of reach for more than 1 million women. Roe becomes meaningless if there is no access to abortion, Pittman said at the briefing. These women that we work with now do not have the means to travel, to fly out of state. They have every right to receive their care here in Louisiana. Rikelman and Tu have Supreme Court precedent on their side. They have put years of work into this case. They have given their lives to it. They are ready. But the thing is, even an abortion-rights win in the Supreme Court this spring doesnt ensure a happy ending. Even though the Texas admitting-privileges law was struck down by the Supreme Court in Whole Womans Health, by that time half the clinics in the state had already closed. Years after that victory, the majority of the Texas clinics that closed havent reopened. Even when abortion rights win, anti-abortion lawmakers get consolation prizes. We believe that we should win this case, Northup says. But were not folks that say, Well, if we lose the case, its game over. GL-CP We are not going back, Northup frequently says when she discusses abortion law. She means that no matter what happens with Hope, or with the Womens Health Protection Act, or even with Roe, Were not going to go back to women not being able to control their own reproductive health care. But its hard not to feelwith the waiting periods, the threat of the shifting Supreme Court, and the seeming infinity of new TRAP lawsthat we havent lost ground already. Women around the country will have to put their hopes on Julie Rikelman, on T.J. Tu, on Nancy Northup, and on the anonymous, endangered physicians testifying in their case. I care, they will remind themselves, as arguments begin. I have expertise, they will think, as they set the course for the health and well-being of millions of women. And as Northrup says, they will remind themselves, Women are not going back. Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. Originally Appeared on Glamour The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday witnessed unruly scenes when several Congress legislators took on Akali MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu after he allegedly made some objectionable comments against Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. Tempers ran high in the House when many ruling party legislators pushed and manhandled Tinu on the floor of the House, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings for 15 minutes. Later, the House passed a privilege motion against Tinu and the matter was referred to the privilege committee. Earlier, Adampur MLA Tinu had protested against not being given time for raising an issue related SC scholarships. Though Speaker Rana KP Singh asked an AAP legislator to speak on his call attention notice, Tinu went to the well of the House carrying a placard. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brham Mohindra described Tinu's behaviour unacceptable and condemnable, urging the speaker to take appropriate action. Tinu showed the placard to the chair and then reached near the bench of Badal after crossing the floor. The Akali MLA also showed the placard to Badal and allegedly made some comments, prompting the finance minister to rise from his seat and react angrily. Taking notice of Tinu's behaviour, several Congress MLAs, including Kulbir Singh Zira, Barindermeet Singh Pahra and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, came to the floor of the House. Zira and Pahra, who made angry gestures, even pushed Tinu and tried to snatch the placard from him. Heated exchanges took place between the Congress MLAs and Tinu. Sensing trouble, Akali MLAs Sukhwinder Kumar, Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra, Baldev Singh Khaira and BJP's Arun Narang tried to calm down the Congress legislators. Ruling party MLA Pargat Singh also intervened and tried to pacify his fellow members. After the 15-minute adjournment when the House reassembled, ministers Mohindra and Charanjit Singh Channi described Tinu's conduct "shameful" and said he made some personal and objectionable remarks against Badal. "I have never seen the FM getting provoked this way. You can well understand that what would have been said which forced the FM to stand up from his seat and react," said Mohindra, bringing the privilege motion. Later, Akali Dal legislative wing leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon claimed that Tinu was manhandled and abused. Dhillon urged the speaker to hold a meeting in his chamber to resolve the issue. Later talking to the media, Tinu alleged that the finance minister used a cuss word against him. Tinu said he was just asking the finance minister why funds meant for the SC community, particularly the scholarship, were not being disbursed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TORONTO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI) today announced the appointment of Kirk Koenigsbauer to the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. "For more than three decades, Kirk has been at the vanguard of information-enabled software and tools for some of the world's most recognized brands," said David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters. "Kirk is a proven leader who inspires teamwork and creativity in those around him. These attributes, combined with his digital expertise and experience building signature, cloud-based platforms, will add important perspective in our boardroom." Koenigsbauer, 52, is chief operating officer and corporate vice president of the Experiences and Devices group at Microsoft Corporation. Koenigsbauer joined Microsoft in 1992 after beginning his career as a consultant at Accenture. He left Microsoft in 1998 for Amazon.com where he held the roles of general manager, Software & Video Games Stores and director of Product Management, Auctions. Koenigsbauer returned to Microsoft in 2002 and held the roles of corporate vice president of Office Product Management, corporate vice president of Office Apps Engineering and corporate vice president, Microsoft 365 prior to his current post. Koenigsbauer was appointed to the Thomson Reuters Board's Audit Committee and Risk Committee. Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world's most global news service Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com. CONTACTS MEDIA David Girardin Vice President, Corporate Affairs +1 646 223 4870 [email protected] INVESTORS Frank J. Golden Head of Investor Relations +1 646 223 5288 [email protected] SOURCE Thomson Reuters Pablo Picasso was many things an artistic genius, one of the most important, talented and prolific painters of the 20th century and, according to reviewers of the latest exhibition of his work, Picasso And Paper, at the Royal Academy, 'corruscatingly brilliant'. But he was also a violent bully who changed his sexual partners as often as his painting style, beat up lovers, drove two of them to suicide and declared that women 'were machines made for suffering'. Even his own granddaughter described him as a misogynist who 'submitted women to his animal sexuality, tamed them, ingested them and crushed them onto his canvas'. But 85-year-old Lydia Corbett will not hear a single word against him. Lydia Corbett, 85, (pictured) who lives in Devon, reflected on posing for Pablo Picasso's paintings in the summer of 1954 'I am the only one who says good things about him,' she says. 'He was always gentle with me he put me at ease, like a proper father figure.' Theirs was an unusual pairing that spanned just a few sun-drenched weeks in the pottery town of Vallauris on the Cote d'Azur back in 1954. 'He was so kind and funny and did everything to give me my confidence back,' she says. 'He gave me so much. I will always love him.' Today, she lives in a cosy house in Devon awash with paintings, sculptures and pottery. Back then, she was Sylvette David aka, Picasso's Girl With The Ponytail, the study of more than 60 portraits a 19-year-old blonde bombshell engaged to a furniture designer called Toby Jellinek. With her high ponytail and slender, freckled neck, she was ethereally beautiful, but also cripplingly shy, naive and emotionally damaged. 'I was shut in, very shut in young, innocent and full of fear,' she says in her accented English. 'I had been given too much freedom as a child and abused by my mother's husband it shook me for life. I think he could feel that I was broken.' Picasso, meanwhile, was 73 and mired in his own crisis. Lydia who was then known as Sylvette David, 19, was spotted by the 73-year-old painter while chatting in the sun with friends. Pictured: Lydia with Picaso in 1954 He had been dumped by his long-term partner Francoise Gilot, whom he'd been dating since he was 61 and she 21 and who had likened him to Bluebeard, the folktale serial killer. She was the first of all his women to leave him and he was bruised, vulnerable and felt close to death. Then, in April, he spotted the beautiful Sylvette chatting in the sun with friends, felt invigorated by her youth and knew he had to paint her. So he sketched a large charcoal likeness and dangled it over a wall behind which she was chatting. 'I could not believe he wanted to paint me,' she says. 'I could not believe he had noticed me!' Frankly, it's hard to believe anyone not noticing her particularly not a painter with a penchant for much younger partners. But she insists her self-confidence was at rock bottom. 'I had bad legs and thick ankles!' she says. 'I was always covered in long skirts and long sleeves.' Lydia claims that she never saw Picasso drunk and unlike most old men, he didn't smell of garlic or wine. Pictured: 'Grey period': a nude from picasso's The Girl With The ponytail series Over the following weeks, Sylvette sat for six hours a day as he created a series of portraits in various media drawings, sculptures and paintings and the result, known as his 'grey period' because most of the works were in greys, blacks and whites, was the most intense series of portraits he ever did with one model. It wasn't easy for her. 'I was afraid of old men. I ran away from them so he was a real test.' But despite his bullying reputation, she insists Picasso was different. 'He was young-looking and brown and clean as a fiddle. He didn't smell of garlic or wine like most old men I never saw him drinking, or drunk. He smelled of roses.' Each day, she'd sit for hours in the studio, gazing out of the window as Picasso painted in utter silence. When he was creating, he was prolific and focused. He'd work quietly and steadily confident, never tutting or swearing at the end of each day showing her the finished work and the next, starting a new piece. 'He used to say that when he went into the studio he left his body outside,' she says. Lydia said that sex never crossed her mind and she wouldn't take any money in case Picasso wanted her to pose nude for him. Pictured: Lydia with Picasso in 1965 She meanwhile, would empty her mind. 'I didn't think much. I was really quite simple. I'd just sit.' She loved the peace among the mess of frames, metal, stones and bits of old timber. When he wasn't painting, Picasso was extraordinarily energetic. He'd dress up and put on funny glasses, don a moustache or a cowboy hat and prance about. He'd paint spiders so lifelike on the studio floor, he would scare himself silly. 'He was always trying to make me laugh,' she says. Very occasionally, he succeeded. But she insists their relationship was never more than that. 'No, no, no,' she says with a stern look. 'It was never that. I was hopeless at the sex. Sex never crossed my mind and I never talked about it. I wouldn't take any money in case he wanted me to pose nude for him.' Though the old goat did once paint her from his imagination. 'I think maybe he was hoping I'd say: 'Oh alright then.' But I was such a prude. I'd been brought up on a nudist colony but I'd never been comfortable taking my clothes off.' Lydia claims that as a 19-year-old Picasso seemed like a granddad or father figure. Pictured: Picasso not long after meeting Sylvette There was one moment when things could have turned. When he took her by the hand and led her up the stairs to a tiny bedroom with a chair and a bed, on which he started leaping about and beckoning to her. 'I thought: 'Well I'm not going to jump on the bed, too!' If you're 19 and he's 73, he's like a granddad or at the very least a father figure.' Albeit not, perhaps, in his head. (Of his lovers, many had been young and vulnerable. He cheated on his partners, beat at least one unconscious and once said: 'There are only two kinds of women goddesses and doormats.') These calm weeks were not to last. In June, he met Jacqueline Roque, 26, and she became his new inspiration and second wife. But not before news of Picasso's beautiful blonde muse had leaked out to the world, and she became briefly famous in her own right. The Sylvette series was exhibited in Paris to critical acclaim with Time magazine announcing a new epoch in Picasso's creativity his 'ponytail period'. Lydia gave Picasso a handmade clay sculpture of a woman, without making a dramatic farewell. Pictured: Lydia, formerly know as Sylvette David in the 1950s Brigitte Bardot copied the ponytail and soon everyone was doing 'a Sylvette'. Journalists and fashion writers turned up from all over. 'I used to hide in the cupboard at home when they came, and shout: 'Send them away, mummy!' ' There were also love letters from all over the world 'most of them were asking me to marry them.' There was no big, dramatic farewell with Picasso. 'I thanked him for giving me so much he gave me immortality, confidence, memories and love.' She gave him a rather lovely handmade clay sculpture of a woman, which is still in the family archive, and he gave her the pick of his paintings of her, and she chose a beautiful, lifelike study. And that was that. He moved to Cannes with Jacqueline and Sylvette to England with Toby. Three years later, when Toby was in hospital, she sold the painting for 11,000 to an American. 'He was very nice and said he'd maybe leave it to me when he died,' she says. 'But he went senile.' Still, she has no regrets. Lydia who changed her name after finding solace in God, last saw Picaso in 1965. Pictured: Lydia with Picasso and his sons Sadly, things didn't last with Toby. When she was 27, he fell in love with her best friend. Her heart broken, she found solace in God and changed her name to Lydia. She saw Picasso once more, in 1965. She was 31 and he was 85, was still smoking like a chimney and now deaf. 'He had aged well and was pleased to see me,' she says. She didn't see him again, though she thought of him often. When he died, aged 91, in 1973, and more and more stories emerged about his bullying, his drinking, his horrible behaviour towards women people started looking for Sylvette to tell her story. But she was now Lydia, a mother of two, living in Devon. A second husband, Rawdon Corbett, cheated on her, but she pulled herself up and, aged 45, took up painting. Now she has exhibited at the Tate and has two more coming up over the next few months. Lydia (pictured) questions if people don't talk about her period with Picasso because there wasn't any sex 'We touched each other's lives in a lovely way,' she says. There was no doubt he was touched by her. When later Bardot by then a huge star begged him to paint her, Picasso retorted sharply: 'No. I've done Sylvette now!' But what does she think of the others the women who were beaten and cheated on? 'I don't know. I don't understand it,' she says. 'I remember Francoise was a bit upset she didn't come and say hello. Jacqueline was very nice to me she wasn't even jealous. But of course she started drinking and killed herself . . .' Despite producing at least 60 works during that heady summer, Picasso's grey period has been all but wiped from his biographies. 'I don't know why people don't talk about my period,' she says. 'Maybe they don't think it's interesting because there was no sex.' Or perhaps that is exactly what makes it so very poignant. Iwassylvette.com 03.03.2020 LISTEN The negotiations are open: Britons and Europeans argue about how their relationship will look after 2021. Katarina Barley, Vice-President of the European Parliament, warns London against exuberance. Now it's all about speed: London and Brussels are in the middle of the brexite transition period. They need to negotiate a free trade agreement by the end of the year and agree on other areas to shape their future relations. If you subtract the time it will take all 27 remaining EU countries to ratify the agreements, it is a tight schedule. And the negotiating partners have not exactly come closer since the brexite on 31 January. On the contrary, at the presentation of the British negotiating mandate last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he would break off talks altogether if no agreement was in sight by the end of June. Instead, he would then want the hard brexite. Most recently, the British car industry also called on the government to conclude a comprehensive free trade agreement. And it remained unclear what leverage London could use to push the negotiations in the desired direction. In Brussels, they look forward to the coming months with a relaxed attitude. Nor does Johnson's announcement to make Great Britain a tax haven for companies shock the Europeans. "Why should we grant you unlimited access to our internal market when at the same time you are trying to outdo us with such competitive advantages," says Katarina Barley, Vice-President of the European Parliament, in an interview with t-online.de. "We like you, but we are not stupid." Mrs Barley, the negotiations between the EU and Great Britain on the post-brexite era have begun. What do the British and Europeans argue most fiercely about? Katarina Barley: There are three main points of contention. The biggest construction site is trade, because the British side has so far been acting as if it can still gain access to the single market while failing to meet European Union standards. That will not work. There will also be major discussions on fishing rights. This is a side issue, but it is very important for the relationship between the EU and Britain. It is also important for us as an EU how the rights of EU citizens are protected in Britain after the brexite. Is it imperative that agreement be reached on all these issues this year? Definitely in these three areas. Britain must commit to the extent to which it wants to comply with standards in consumer, environmental and health protection. That is absolutely inseparable from the three aspects I have mentioned. There will be no cherry-picking. London must not say: I would like to agree on these things, on others, for example fishing rights, oh, there is still time for that. On the subject of health: what minimum standards must be observed? In the EU, we have very clear guidelines; for example, in the case of meat, we lay down what treatment the animals may or may not have received. Let me give you an example: We are against growth hormones in beef production. If the British now say that we want firstly to apply these hormones ourselves and secondly perhaps import hormone-treated beef from the USA, process it and then export it to the EU - we in the EU cannot allow that. All the requirements for health protection for EU citizens must be met on a 1:1 basis. There are probably dozens of other examples Yes, for example, equipment safety. In Europe we maintain certain standards. These define: We consider these devices to be safe, others not. The manufacturers undergo complex, lengthy and expensive certification procedures. Under no circumstances can we impose these requirements on the British or allow British goods to be less strictly controlled. The British wanted less bureaucracy through the brexite. That has always been the argument against the EU. In fact, they will get more bureaucracy. On Twitter recently a Briton got annoyed about the lengthy border controls at Amsterdam airport. He did not vote for this brexite, he wrote - and earned ridicule. This year it won't be as noticeable yet, because a lot is still being played by the old rules. By 2021 at the latest, however, many Britons will realise what this actually means. In mid-February, the British minister responsible presented new immigration rules. Now only people who can prove a certain minimum salary can immigrate for work. This salary is higher than what a nurse earns in the state health service, but even more so than what is paid in agriculture. British agriculture, like our own, is already having difficulty in finding harvest workers. The British Minister for Agriculture has said that unemployed British people should be trained for this. I look forward to the outcome of this experiment. In Germany, this approach has failed miserably Without the helpers from Eastern Europe, nothing will work. With this law, they will no longer have any immigration of care workers either. So I am very curious about the future of British hospitals - which already have a problem with a lack of staff anyway. All I can say is that we in the EU warmly welcome those nurses who would otherwise have gone to the UK. On Twitter recently a Briton got annoyed about the lengthy border controls at Amsterdam airport. He did not vote for this brexite, he wrote - and earned ridicule. "Absolutely disgusting service at Schiphol airport. 55 minutes we have been stood in the immigration queue. This isnt the Brexit I voted for". This year it won't be as noticeable yet, because a lot is still being played by the old rules. By 2021 at the latest, however, many Britons will realise what this actually means. In mid-February, the British minister responsible presented new immigration rules. Now only people who can prove a certain minimum salary can immigrate for work. This salary is higher than what a nurse earns in the state health service, but even more so than what is paid in agriculture. British agriculture, like our own, is already having difficulty in finding harvest workers. The British Minister for Agriculture has said that unemployed British people should be trained for this. I look forward to the outcome of this experiment. How realistic is it to actually get an agreement in the course of this year? Very difficult. First of all, it is not just these three areas. There is also, for example, the security aspect, such as the exchange of data on terror suspects, but also the mutual execution of arrest warrants. The second is that we do not even have a year! We are now starting negotiations. At the end of the year, ratification is still required. So we have about eight months net. That is so short that it can really only work if, at the end of it, we say that we will leave certain areas as they are, in accordance with European law. Which ones could they be? That is difficult to say. It could happen, especially if the standards are complied with. So far the British have done quite well with consumer protection. As far as worker protection is concerned, things are already getting tighter. At the beginning of the year, the original law stipulated that London would continue to comply with all the employee protection regulations that had been adopted under the EU. Boris Johnson has had this deleted. To say that we continue to comply with the agreements would be a quick fix at many levels. The more the British want to deviate from them, the longer the negotiations will take. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has reshuffled his cabinet. What effect could this have on the negotiations? That remains to be seen. The tendency is clear: Johnson will get rid of anyone who might contradict him. He prefers a streamlined force around him. The influence of Dominic Cummings should not be underestimated. You mean Chief Aide to Boris Johnson. Cummings is a hardcore Brexiteer. In my view, the Cabinet reshuffle serves only this purpose: Johnson wants to get through the hard line that he and Cummings have in mind. If the tight schedule fails, what does that mean for the EU? Then there are two possibilities: Either Johnson deviates from his dogma that he does not want to be associated with the EU beyond 2020. Let me say quite honestly: I could imagine that if only the ratifications are still outstanding and agreement has been reached on the substance. I would be surprised if it were only to fail because of the ratification phase. The other possibility is a hard brexite, one without an agreement. It is no secret that some on the British side want that. It would mean that the clocks on trade and relations with the UK would be set to zero overnight. "There will be no cherry-picking," says Katarina Barley, Vice-President of the European Parliament, about the brexite negotiations. How great is the fear in the EU of a tax haven on their own doorstep? According to Johnson, the UK will try to gain competitive advantages by offering particularly attractive conditions. Everyone here in Brussels has a clear position on this, from the Council to the Parliament to the Commission: if London wants to go down this road, it will not get privileged access to the internal market. I am not so sure whether it is attractive for a company to be in the British Isles with slightly lower taxes but with no or only very bureaucratic, expensive access to the European internal market of 450 million people. We also have very different tax rates within the EU. Companies are more likely to look for a country within the EU that has low taxes. That sounds like a challenge to Boris Johnson. I'm half British. I want nothing but good for this country. But I don't want them to think we're idiots. Sometimes I think we are. I always say then: why should we give you unlimited access to our internal market when at the same time you are trying to outdo us with such competitive advantages? We like you, but we are not stupid. Francis Tawiah (Duisburg - Germany) Spain approves U.S. extradition of Venezuela's ex-spy-chief: The Spanish government has approved the extradition of Venezuela's former military intelligence chief to the United States, where Hugo Carvajal faces charges of drug and weapon trafficking. Two cases are open against him in New York and Florida over alleged ties with the rebel group FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and over alleged drug smuggling into the United States, the Spanish government said. In November, Spain's high court ruled in favor of the extradition, though Carvajal disappeared at the time. He is still missing, the government said. The introduction of high-speed Internet on the railway is possible with a significant increase in the number of towers along the train route. According to the website of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the corresponding opinion was expressed during a meeting of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Infrastructure, administration of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, mobile operators and Ukrzaliznytsia on Tuesday. "We have already discussed ideas on providing passengers with the Internet. It will be either via Wi-Fi or using LTE technology, but this needs to be done, because covering Ukraine with high-speed Internet is one of the goals of the government. This is exactly what citizens expect," the press service said, citing Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Shelest. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance said that the difficulty in providing high-speed Internet is the need to ensure uninterrupted access to the Internet for passengers in a moving train. According to experts, there are several options for resolving the issue of providing passengers with the Internet, in particular using LTE technology or by connecting via Wi-Fi. To select the most optimal option, specialists carry out calculations, which will be presented at the next meeting. OLD FORGE, NY -- Town of Webb residents voted against the four part proposed capital project for Town of Webb Union Free School District. Proposition 1 is the part of the project that tackles major building, safety and security upgrades. This proposition was seen as being the most critical and it must be passed before all other propositions can be considered. Proposition one was defeated: 595-276. Proposition 2 introduced program enhancements to our school facility in the form of a regulation-size gymnasium and a 400-seat auditorium. It was defeated 671-198. Both propositions 1 and 2 would've needed to pass before either of the remaining propositions could be considered. The relevant decision was made at a committee meeting on March 4. The Verkhovna Rada's Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development has recommended that parliament accept the resignation of Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. The relevant decision was made at a committee meeting on March 4, according to an UNIAN correspondent. It was noted the committee had received Honcharuk's letter of resignation. Read alsoUkraine's PM Honcharuk submits resignation letter MP (Photo) The prime minister is dismissed from the date of the parliament's decision on his resignation. The committee will also meet to consider the president's submission on the appointment of a new prime minister. The European Commission proposed on Wednesday enshrining the European Green Deals commitment for carbon neutrality by 2050 into legislation, as part of the European Unions heightened focus on climate action and policy. Under a European Climate Law, the 2050 carbon neutrality target would become legally binding, and all EU institutions and member states will be collectively bound to take the necessary measures at EU and national level to meet that target. The Climate Law would enshrine into law the EUs political pledge to become climate neutral by 2050, the Commission said, noting that the proposed law is a crucial part of the European Green Deal, which the EUs executive arm proposed at the end of last year. We are acting today to make the EU the worlds first climate neutral continent by 2050, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Wednesday. The Climate Law is the legal translation of our political commitment, and sets us irreversibly on the path to a more sustainable future. It is the heart of the European Green Deal. It offers predictability and transparency for European industry and investors. And it gives direction to our green growth strategy and guarantees that the transition will be gradual and fair, von der Leyen noted. Under the Green Deal, the EU will support investments in sustainable businesses, technologies, and solutions and in greener energy and electricity generation. The Deal also includes a so-called Just Transition Fund to support with money packages regions and/or countries heavily reliant on coal. The deal is a watershed moment for the energy sector, Wood Mackenzie said after the 2050 carbon neutrality goal was first announced in December. Pressure on European fossil fuel producers to commit to net-zero carbon, including Scope 3 emissions, will continue to ramp up, said Valentina Kretzschmar, Wood Mackenzie Director - Corporate Research. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Michael Fesser, the black Portland man who sued West Linn police over his arrest in 2017, brought his wife, two teenage sons and friends Tuesday to the predominantly white community that for so long he felt didnt want me and hurt me. About 60 residents sat on pews inside West Linn Lutheran Church and listened to Fesser and his wife, Tanisha Wells, talk about how his arrest in Portland affected their family. We need to help others so this doesnt happen to any man, especially a black man, Fesser told them. If you guys want change, we have to do it together. We cant just still talk about it. We need action. Litigation from Fessers civil suit uncovered that West Linn police investigated and arrested him as a favor to a fishing buddy of then-Police Chief Terry Timeus. Timeus buddy was Fessers boss, Eric Benson, owner of A&B Towing in Southeast Portland. Fesser, 48, argued that the arrest was retaliation for his complaints about a racially hostile work environment at the towing company. Theft charges against Fesser ultimately were dropped. The city paid out $600,000 to Fesser to settle the suit and Benson and his company paid out $415,000 to settle a separate discrimination and retaliation suit. Several of those gathered at the church apologized for the West Linn police. Others asked how they could help and vowed to do what they can to educate their friends and relatives. Some of the few African American residents in the crowd shared their own accounts of facing racial discrimination in the Clackamas County town of about 25,000. Im so naive and Im so ashamed, said Mary Jo Chapman, who has lived in West Linn for just over 20 years. My stomach is sickened by what our police have done to you and your family. Im completely ashamed of the police department in our neighborhood. Rene DuBoise, an African American woman who also has lived in West Linn for about 20 years, thanked the Fesser family for having the courage to stand up to the police. She shared that others have done double takes when they see her out walking her dog, as if she doesnt belong in the neighborhood. Its us who are living here that need to make the change, she said. Resident Terence Shoemaker, who is white, said you only have to read the local police log showing calls about suspicious strangers in neighborhoods to glean that some residents seem to want a safe, clean, white community. Look twice at yourselves and your community, Shoemaker said to the crowd. The nearly two-hour meeting followed a private sit-down session that Fesser, his wife, sons and lawyer had at City Hall with Mayor Russ Axelrod, Police Chief Terry Kruger, Police Capt. Oddis Rollins, Interim City Manager John Williams, City Attorney Tim Ramis and the citys insurance provider attorney Andrew Campbell. They met in a second-floor conference room in chairs assembled in a circle for about an hour and forty minutes. Fesser, a Portland native, had asked for the meeting as part of his civil settlement. He said he wanted West Linn officials to understand the impact of his arrest, not only to him, but to his family and the African American community in his hometown. They really do not know this man, Tanisha Wells said before the meeting. Every day, hes helping others, with no pay. If they only knew how much he sacrifices. Fesser said he also seeks healing and asked for buy-in from the city for his nonprofit agency called Going Home II, which works to support inmates both while theyre in prison and once theyre out. Fesser brought his close friend, Jahaeel Hardy, 39, with him to the meetings. Hardy is the son of Fessers longtime mentor, the late Rev. W.G. Hardy Jr. of Highland Christian Church in Portland. Fesser has attended the church since he was 6 months old. Hardy said he told the mayor and city officials that theyve got to get rid of any remnant of any officer or official who is in any way tied to Fessers arrest and unwarranted investigation. I cant say, under the situation, its a pleasure to be here, Hardy later said, addressing the community gathering. Its not new to us. We havent felt the most welcome in West Linn. Fesser and Hardy said they issued a challenge to the city officials to essentially establish a bridge to help break down the racial divide that can put men of color on edge when they drive through West Linn. Fesser, his lawyer and Hardy said the mayor seemed genuinely empathetic and apologetic. When Kruger, the current chief, spoke about steps hes taking to diversify his force and spoke about how it takes time to move the needle, Hardy said he interjected. We as a people have been told for 100s of years that change takes time, Hardy said. But he noted that its about time for the community to respect the civil rights of men of color so they can feel safe driving home from work without getting pulled over or arrested without justification. Paul Buchanan, Fessers civil lawyer, said while city leaders seemed sincere in wanting change, he questioned how so many red flags went unaddressed. He cited not only Fessers unwarranted arrest by West Linn police acting outside their jurisdiction but also the officers audio surveillance of Fesser at work without a court order. Fesser, his wife, Hardy and Buchanan heard from Kruger that he was not looking for a job, having retired from Portland Police Bureau in 2016, when other West Linn officers reached out to him as someone who should lead the towns police department. He took over as West Linns police chief in June 2018. Buchanan wondered why Kruger, who had shot two men on the job as a Portland cop, including the fatal shooting of a black man in the back, was selected. Fessers wife asked the city officials and chief, Whos policing the police? And Buchanan said: I didnt hear any satisfactory answer to that question. Its a great thing when litigation accomplishes more than just a payout. And Im pleased by some initial signs that that this may be happening in this case, Buchanan said. Its wonderful and heartening to see the West Linn community pushing their leaders for real change. We saw that this afternoon at the meeting of the Lutheran Church. Its from pressure of that kind that real change may yet come about. West Linn Mayor Russ Axelrod referred questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive to his Facebook page. He wrote: "I thank Mr. Michael Fesser for sitting down today with us at the City to begin the important work we have ahead. Thank you for bringing your family and friends to join us in this meeting. Ive been in meetings all day until this moment and only now am able to share how important todays meeting was, and my commitment to you for following through on the plans we discussed to move forward in bridging our communities.'' A group called Concerned Citizens of West Linn organized in response to Fessers case and helped plan the community gathering. The group also is planning a March Against Racism in West Linn at 2 p.m. March 14. It is expected to start at the old Albertsons location and end at the West Linn Police Department. Marchers expect to present a list of demands to city officials and the police department. The group wants the resignation of Kruger and the investigation of Timeus as well as West Linn Sgt. Tony Reeves, former West Linn Lt. Mike Stradley and former West Linn Detective Mike Boyd for their handling of Fessers case. The group also wants the community to be notified of any Brady-type violations regarding the officers involved. The Brady law requires police and prosecutors to inform defense attorneys of an officer's past record of any falsification of reports and all "credible allegations'' of untruthfulness that could affect their credibility as a witness. Its a start, Fesser said. Lets see what happens. As Fesser walked out of the church sanctuary with one of the churchs pastors, the Rev. Donna Herzfeldt-Kamprath, he paused and asked, Have you prayed for Eric? She looked perplexed. Fesser told her Eric lives in West Linn and was his ex-boss at the towing company, the chum of the former West Linn police chief. He lives right down the street, another woman motioned. The pastor said she hadnt. Will you please? Fesser asked. She nodded that she would. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Subscribe to Facebook page [March 04, 2020] Fusion Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Steven Gannon to Board of Directors Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing next-generation radiopharmaceuticals as precision medicines to treat a broad range of cancers, today announced the appointment of Steven Gannon to its Board of Directors. Mr. Gannon will also serve as chair of Fusion's Audit Committee. "Mr. Gannon brings to Fusion deep corporate finance and operational expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry and his proven execution of business development and strategic transactions will be invaluable as we advance our Fast-Clear Linker technology platform to deliver novel therapies," said Damian Lamb, chairman of the board of directors. "We are pleased to add his financial and operational acumen as an independent member of our board." Mr. Gannon was most recently chief financial officer, senior vice president of finance and treasurer at Aptalis Pharma Inc., until it was acquired by Forest Laboratories Inc. Prior to joining Aptalis, Mr. Gannon served as chief financial officer for Cryocath Technologies Inc., which was acquired by Medtronic Inc. Prior to Cryocath, Mr. Gannon served as head of finance and administration of the research division o AstraZeneca Canada Inc. and chief financial officer of Mallinckrodt Medical Inc.'s Canadian operations. Mr. Gannon currently serves on the boards of directors and as chairman of the audit committees of Aerogen, enGene Inc., and LABORIE Medical Technologies, and on the board of directors and as a member of the audit committee of Xenon Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he served on the board of directors of Advanced Accelerator Applications SA. He received a bachelor of commerce from Concordia University in Montreal and completed the Executive Program at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Gannon is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Accountant (CA (News - Alert)). "Fusion is differentiated within the oncology space with a proprietary platform technology to develop next-generation radiopharmaceuticals for precision oncology and established manufacturing and supply chain capabilities," said Mr. Gannon. "The company is well positioned for growth and I look forward to helping guide the strategic direction." About Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Fusion Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing targeted alpha therapeutics to treat cancer. Using its proprietary Fast-Clear Linker Technology platform, the company attaches alpha particle emitting isotopes to targeting molecules to create novel, next-generation radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer. In preclinical studies, the company has shown the ability to precisely target and effectively kill solid tumor cells while minimizing the impact to healthy tissue. Fusion's lead program, FPI-1434, is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The company completed an oversubscribed $125M Series B financing that will be used to advance FPI-1434 and initiate preclinical and clinical development on multiple new product candidates. To further leverage its proprietary platform, Fusion is actively evaluating opportunities to in-license targeting molecules and form strategic partnerships to expand its pipeline of cancer therapies. For more information, please visit www.fusionpharma.com or contact [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005628/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] It began with the sale of the family farm. Thats what David Roswell remembers as the moment when he first began to see himself in opposition to his familys capitalist legacy. Though his parents objected to the decision to relinquish the property to developers, the extended family went ahead, selling off most of the 89-hectare piecemeal starting in 1998. Roswell, then only seven years old, showed his displeasure by shoving rocks into the tailpipes of the bulldozers that came to dig up the pastoral expanse outside Baltimore to make way for new construction. He remembers watching as this gorgeous farm that was my everything was torn up and turned into a subdivision. He saw it, he told me, as a decision of people in my family to value money over the environment, over people, over family. Years later, as a student at Oberlin College, Roswell organized classmates to pressure the school to invest its endowment in environmentally sustainable ways. At the same time, he kept his own wealth under wraps, as did many of his well-to-do peers who, he says, didnt know how to feel integrity and be wealthy, so they just pretended they werent. Roswell felt an added burden because of his wealths origins and scale: His great-grandfather was Louis Blaustein, founder of the American Oil Co., or Amoco. Though the family is largely out of the oil business today, its net worth some $2.2 billion (U.S.) makes it one of the richest in the United States. The extended family manages at least six foundations with nearly $290 million in assets. Roswell finally outed himself as rich when he volunteered to front the travel costs for a group of Oberlin students who wanted to attend a climate-change conference. Thats when two housemates told him about an organization called Resource Generation (RG). A non-profit group based in New York, Resource Generation focuses on organizing wealthy young people to recognize their unearned privilege, make peace with it and then relinquish much of it by giving away a large percentage of their money. Roswell read an RG book titled Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change and began attending meetings of the group in Durham, North Carolina, where hed moved with his girlfriend, Maggie Heraty, after graduation. Up to that point, he had given away maybe $100 or $500 a year, he recalls. In 2014, as I started to get aware, I gave $10,000. In 2015, it was $30,000 or $50,000. By 2016, as Maggie and I were really starting to do this, we gave away $200,000. So far, Roswell, now 29, has given away about $1.6 million of the $7.5 million he knows he will inherit. Before he learned about Resource Generation, Roswell recalls, I didnt understand how to be activated as an organizer and as a wealthy person. I didnt know what my place was. The same can be said for most of RGs 700 members, wealthy millennials and Gen-Zers between 18 and 35 who have an uneasy relationship with their money and the privilege that underpins it. Got class privilege and want social justice? reads the slogan on the organizations website. Resource Generation wants to help. In 1998, Tracy Hewat and Lynne Gerber, two well-to-do young Boston-area women who felt alienated from the established world of philanthropy because of their youth, formed a group they called Comfort Zone. They conceived it as a place to talk about being a wealthy, privileged young person who nevertheless wanted a more equitable society. Comfort Zone changed its name to Resource Generation in 2000. It was a practical change the youngest members of the board said that (the old name) sounded too much like a shoe brand, Hewat once said but it also represented a change in purpose. Until then, the organization had served mainly as a place for wealthy people to talk about bringing their identity in line with their values, but now it would push them to give. Today, Resource Generation has 16 chapters nationwide and 14 full-time employees. Members pay annual dues that start at $250 and vary depending on their level of wealth. (Dues are limited to 10 per cent of a members giving to make sure they are donating primarily to other organizations.) The group asks its members to give generously to grassroots organizations that they believe will do the long-term, nitty-gritty work to meaningfully change the circumstances that lead to wealth inequality from establishing affordable housing and improving educational opportunities to serving at-risk youth, addressing climate injustice and supporting workers rights. In the process, Resource Generation aims to change the conversation about how the rich got their privilege and what they can do to spread the wealth. The idea, says Resource Generations executive director, Iimay Ho, is to do voluntary redistribution in service of involuntary redistribution. The hope, she says, is that voluntary redistribution will give more economic and political power to those who typically dont have it: low-wage workers, the formerly incarcerated, the homeless, the poor. That might then lead to policies a livable minimum wage, equitable education that could help decrease wealth inequality. At conferences, in webinars and in local working groups, and through RG books and peer-to-peer mentorship, members learn how to shed entitled assumptions. One bedrock Resource Generation practice is educating members to work closely with community organizations in what it calls right relationship not dictating how donated funds should be used, but supporting local leaders, who are often poor or working class and are closest to the problems they seek to address. The goal is not to be in circles of young people with wealth deciding how money and resources are distributed, former executive director Elspeth Gilmore told me. Thats the status quo. Thats how power is maintained. Striving to change the status quo through charitable giving has a fraught history. Philanthropy has been a controversial pursuit since at least the Gilded Age, when workers began to organize in response to widening wealth inequality as industrial capitalism took hold. Critics at the time argued that robber barons such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were elevating their own position in society by depressing workers incomes and using philanthropy to dictate where profits went and to which causes. Traditional philanthropy, says Ho, reinforces the idea that the wealthy know best how to solve social ills, when the reality is that the wealthy elite cause a lot of the problems in the first place. As Peter Buffett (son of Warren) wrote in a 2013 New York Times opinion piece, philanthropy has become big business. High-profile foundations and non-profit organizations, constrained by donor desires and restrictive grant conditions, often oppose the initiatives most likely to actually mitigate inequality, such as raising taxes or lobbying for a higher minimum wage. As of 2009, only about three per cent to five per cent of charitable foundation giving was estimated to go to organizations serving the neediest, and even less to efforts to change circumstances rather than relieve them job training vs. food banks, for instance. The rest goes to institutions that arent directly devoted to relieving poverty or wealth inequality: universities, hospitals and arts organizations. Furthermore, charitable giving comes with tax deductions that are usually only accessible to the wealthy. And philanthropy famously yields social returns, as donors are rewarded with their names on buildings or board rosters and the chance to rub shoulders at social events. Philanthropy is all about class privilege, says Hilary Pennington, executive vice president for programs at the 84-year-old Ford Foundation. Anyone with power doesnt give power up easily. Its a question of how do you use your privilege? Thats whats very admirable about RG. Theyre really open to hearing answers that might be really uncomfortable and hard. To its critics, traditional philanthropy lets the wealthy feel as though theyre contributing to a more just and equal society without giving up any of their comforts. Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, describes the prevailing rules of philanthropy as follows: Inspire the rich to do more good, but never, ever tell them to do less harm; inspire them to give back, but never, ever tell them to take less. He suggests that more-ethical philanthropists would fund causes that directly undermine the class-based stratification that put them in their privileged positions to begin with for example, rooting out tax havens or taking legal action to divorce public-school funding from property taxes, a system that gives wealthy areas better schools. Doing right on these issues, he says, would hurt the wealthy. Resource Generation believes or hopes that young people are more willing to betray their own class privilege than previous generations. Giridharadas told me that he routinely receives letters from younger people who find themselves plutocrats, whether by inheritance or (because) they made money, who are in many cases very tortured and confused by the position in which they stand. What has changed is that a lot of people are interested in making a different choice but dont quite know how. Millennials straddle the American wealth divide in complicated ways. On the one hand, they have inherited increased economic uncertainty: depressed wages, soaring student loan debt, the insecurity of the gig economy. Many find themselves in a more economically precarious position than their parents. On the other hand, there are more than 11 million millennial households with incomes of $100,000 or more, and millennials stand to inherit some $30 trillion in family wealth over the coming decades, according to AARP statistics. Resource Generation positions itself as the natural gathering place for the wealthiest end of this emergent socioeconomic class. Although it is majority white by a large margin, mirroring the racial wealth gap, 13 per cent of its members are people of colour closely tracking the 12 per cent of wealthy young Americans who are Black or brown and nearly 60 per cent identify as LGBTQ. Nearly two in three members are women. Andrea Pien is a 33-year-old college counsellor at a private high school in San Francisco who is active in her local chapter of Resource Generation. Piens wealth comes from her father, a Taiwanese immigrant who made a fortune in biotech and pharmaceuticals. Although she stands to inherit as much as $12 million, she doesnt have access to that money now, nor, like many members of Resource Generation, does she know her familys exact worth. The money she does have is managed by a financial adviser her father selected. Pien owns a home in San Francisco. She shares a car with her husband, though she mainly uses public transportation. She rarely eats out and travels modestly, but she divulged (somewhat apologetically) that she sometimes takes a yoga class or a Lyft ride. Some of those things people would criticize as luxuries, she says, but part of that is self-care that everyone deserves. And thats what helps me have the energy to do a lot of the work I do for Resource Generation. Listening to Pien and others sort out how to reconcile their desire for equality with their lifestyles, I sometimes heard a reflexive defensiveness. Temptations were everywhere: whether to buy property (especially in gentrifying areas), whether it was OK to hoard money for a rainy day, whether to maintain small lifestyle luxuries even while spending down inherited wealth. Pien is especially conflicted about betraying her fathers pride in being a successful immigrant, feelings that she has been working through with Resource Generation. She feels sure that she owes society some of what shes inherited, but, she wonders, Can I be a good steward of the wealth the first generation created? She speaks of an internalized model-minority narrative in which people of colour need to be at the top to make way for other minorities or POC. She worries that giving away her money would mean there would be one fewer Asian American represented among the top 10 per cent but is that a net negative? Shes not sure. There are lots of mixed messages from meritocracy capitalism, Pien says. Exactly how minority dynamics should feature in RGs mission and practice is a topic of conversation. For many folks of colour it can be a point of pride that your family worked really hard, and that youre the first generation to have these particular benefits or educational achievements, says Nicole Lewis, a former Resource Generation national organizer, who is black. While the group routinely focuses discussion on members feelings of guilt about their unearned wealth, a lot of those feelings are not mirrored in communities of colour. Members of colour often rank sharing money with family or their communities as more important than donating to organizations and these are valid feelings, Lewis says. From that perspective, the default position that wealth that you didnt generate from your own work has to be given away felt to Lewis like a very simplistic analysis. Over time, RG has acknowledged the need for greater nuance and has devoted resources to being more inclusive. (At the groups behest, Lewis, who now works as a journalist, wrote a book on the subject, titled Between a Silver Spoon and the Struggle: Reflections on the Intersection of Racism and Class Privilege.) Lewiss assessment echoes other criticisms of the organization as a place for wealthy young (mostly white) liberals to launder their feelings of guilt and shame a kind of woke philanthropic self-help group. A 2017 HuffPost article, for example, name-checked Resource Generation as one of a slew of predominantly white-led groups that are precisely the kinds of organizations racial justice organizing doesnt need. Katie Wang, a Los Angeles-based RG organizer, remembers attending the groups marquee conference, Making Money Make Change, in 2017. A signature activity at the conference is calculating attendees total wealth and then contrasting how much members are already giving with their giving potential. Its meant to be a galvanizing moment: This is what we can do if we do it together. Wang was buoyed by the activity, but later, a black woman invited to lead a session as someone doing the kind of work the group hopes to support brought Wang back to earth. Being one of the only nonwealthy people of colour in the room was deeply uncomfortable for her, the woman confessed. For Wang, the feel-good moment had been edifying, but it doesnt make those power dynamics, and these truths, go away. In the fall of 2018, Resource Generation announced a giving pledge, encouraging its members to establish an annual donation goal with an eye toward redistributing all or almost all inherited wealth and/or excess income. It was a deliberate attempt to evolve beyond the organizations sometimes squishy reputation as a place for members to work through their feelings without imposing measurable benchmarks. The groups new guidelines encourage all members to increase the amount they give. The first step is to calculate how much a member is giving relative to assets and income. To start with, members might give away one per cent to seven per cent of their assets annually. Seven per cent represents an important threshold: Its the average annual return on stock market investments, so if members give less than that, theyre still making money off their wealth a big no-no. One feature of Resource Generations target demographic is that many members dont yet have children. Giving away an inheritance means there will be significantly less for any progeny. After that, RG asks members to begin to spend down their wealth, giving 10 per cent or more of their assets and income a year. From there, RG continues to encourage members to double their giving every one to three years. Choose an amount that will make you feel proud, like youve really showed up, the group advises. Give enough that it feels risky if you feel comfortable, youre probably not stretching enough. If you feel destabilized, it might be too much. One feature of Resource Generations target demographic is that many members dont yet have children. Giving away an inheritance means there will be significantly less for any progeny a financial decision that many RG skeptics see as irresponsible, unrealistic or a potential source of regret. One criticism of the groups focus on adults younger than 35 is that the model indoctrinates wealthy progressives before they feel the urge to pass their assets to their offspring. The idea of redistributing your wealth rather than giving it to your heirs can be much more difficult to stomach if children are in the picture. Theres a way in which the rubber hits the road in stopping intergenerational wealth transfer if you have kids, says Ho. Still, many members and alumni maintain that, having established a giving practice with Resource Generation, they wont change their plans if they add children to the mix. RG staff and members see this as part of their commitment to redistribution. I have a partner and plan to have a child, says former director Gilmore, and though I know complicated choices lie ahead, I also know that ... a child who is connected to other people, the planet and justice will have a better shot at being happy and giving back than one that has more resources than anyone around them. I spoke with Chuck Collins, a progressive activist and author and an heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune, who gave away his half-million-dollar inheritance (the equivalent of more than $1.1 million today) when he was 26. Collins, now 60, works as director of the inequality program at the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based think tank. He describes himself as an honorary elder of Resource Generation, whose members often seek his perspective. I asked if he had regrets about giving away his inheritance. On the contrary, he responded. Hed achieved what he set out to do: to knit himself into a broader community. His children graduated from college with debt. Its a burden he wishes nobody would have to bear, but making these problems your own is essentially putting your stake with the commonwealth, he said. Resource Generations giving pledge netted a commitment of $25 million in the first six months, Ho says. Several members I spoke with give 10 per cent of their wealth a year. Pien is among them: She distributes about $15,000 each year to organizations such as the Black Organizing Project, which, among other goals, works to diminish police presence in Oakland schools, and Critical Resistance, a prison abolition group. Since she doesnt have access to her full inheritance, that level of giving feels sustainable to her. Laura Wernick, a professor in Fordham Universitys Graduate School of Social Service who studies Resource Generations philanthropic model, told me that most of the members she has surveyed over the past 10 years ended up giving more than they had planned, including those with their own forms of instability (a child with a disability, for instance). She also said that Resource Generation measurably influences more than just charitable giving. Members enrolled in law school shift to public interest work, for example, and those working in non-profit organizations or traditional philanthropy begin to gravitate toward movement-oriented work. For his part, David Roswell who in addition to his political organizing spends his days working as a ceramist plans to redistribute all his inherited wealth or excess income. He concedes thats a moving target: Trust funds mature, companies are liquidated and relatives die and all these events will funnel more money his way. I dont think I will ever be in a place of really hitting that enough boundary, he told me. Roswell remains committed to the principles he learned through Resource Generation. Over the past several years, hes been involved in efforts to create permanent affordable housing in the Durham area and to elect working-class people and people of colour to local leadership. Resource Generation has also made him a skilled fundraiser: With the connections he has made, he says, he can raise $15,000 in a matter of days. This past summer, he and Heraty were busy setting up an independent community fund for North and South Carolina called the Cypress Fund. Following RG principles, they will recruit donors, but they wont stipulate where the donors money will go; community members from across the class spectrum will make those decisions. Because so much wealth is concentrated in the Northeast and on the West Coast, Roswell says, the South historically has fewer philanthropic dollars and even less devoted to grassroots organizing. For a long time weve heard people saying, If only there was a social justice fund that did democratic giving in the South, wed be all over it, Roswell says. Finally it made sense to make it happen. Roswell has also persuaded his family to carve out a dedicated climate justice fund from their philanthropic giving, which he and several cousins of his generation will control. He hasnt been able to persuade his family to spend down their foundations endowment, but he says theyre actively thinking about what reparations means for an oil family trying to repair harm that weve caused in the Gulf South and across the world. Not that these conversations have been without tension. According to Roswell, his mother, for one, worries that he is moving too quickly, making reckless decisions about enormous sums. Other relatives are more pointed: There are messages from my grandparents and other people that my great-grandfather made this wealth so my children and my childrens children could go to the same private schools I went to, Roswell says. To that end, Roswells grandparents have already set up trust funds of about $3 million for his nonexistent children and grandchildren. (He says he doesnt know whether hell have kids.) Still, hes optimistic: I think the mirror Ive been holding up has been helpful, and that my family is changing how theyre approaching their own giving. Ultimately, however, philanthropys real goal, he says, should be to make itself not exist anymore. CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With 3.6 million parent borrowers collectively owing the federal government $96.1 billion in Parent PLUS Loans, online student debt platform Student Loan Hero, released its latest report highlighting the top 101 U.S. colleges and universities where parents generally borrow less. Parents who borrowed federal loans for their children to attend one of the 101 institutions featured in the analysis reported an average disbursement of $8,571 for a single school year. Unsurprisingly, 81 of the top 101 institutions ranked for the lowest parent borrowing rates were public colleges and universities, as private schools typically have higher price tags, leading to increased student borrowing overall. Key Findings Six colleges of the 1,348 we analyzed three public and three private registered zero Parent PLUS Loan borrowing : Berea College in Kentucky , God's Bible School & College in Ohio , Highline and Yakima Valley Colleges in Washington , North American University in Texas and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York . : in , in , Highline and Yakima Valley Colleges in , North in and the in . The majority (81) of colleges on our top 101 list are public schools. Just 2% of students under 25 had parents borrow federal loans on their behalf to attend one of the top 101 schools. had parents borrow federal loans on their behalf to attend one of the top 101 schools. Despite lower rates of borrowing, parents who took on debt for one of the top 101 schools still received substantial loans: They averaged a 2017-2018 disbursement of $8,571 . The Top 20 U.S. Colleges With The Lowest Rates of Parent Borrowing Berea College , Berea , KY God's Bible School and College , Cincinnati, Ohio Highline College , Des Moines, WA North American University , Stafford, TX United States Merchant Marine Academy , Kings Point, NY Yakima Valley College, Yakima, WA Bellevue College , Bellevue, WA CUNY York College , Queens , NY Wenatchee Valley College , Wenatchee , WA Green River College , Auburn, WA CUNY New York City College of Technology, Brooklyn, NY Spokane Falls Community College , Spokane, WA Clark College , Vancouver, WA Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA Snow College , Ephraim, UT The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX Bismarck State College , Bismarck, ND Whatcom Community College , Bellingham, WA Westcliff University, Irvine, CA Valley City State University , Valley City, ND To view the full report, visit: https://studentloanhero.com/featured/101-colleges-where-parents-borrow-less/ Survey Methodology Using data from the National Center of Education Statistics and Federal Student Aid for the 2017-2018 academic year, analysts calculated the number of Parent PLUS loan borrowers per undergraduate under the age of 25, as well as the average amount borrowed per school. The analysis was drawn from 1,329 schools listed by Federal Student Aid, but limited to those schools that had at least 100 undergraduates under 22, with at least 50% of those undergrads being full-time students under 25. More information is available in our Parent PLUS report: https://studentloanhero.com/featured/top-banks-consolidate-refinance-parent-plus-loans/#101 About Student Loan Hero Student Loan Hero , a subsidiary of LendingTree, combines easy-to-use tools with financial education to help the millions of Americans living with student loan debt manage and pay off their loans. The website provides information about repayment options, including refinancing, income-driven repayment, and deferment. Student Loan Hero has helped more than 250,000 borrowers manage and eliminate over $3.5 billion in student loan debt since 2012 and assists over 3.5 million people in becoming more financially healthy every year. Founded in 2012 by CEO Andrew Josuweit, who himself had over $100,000 in student loans, Student Loan Hero operates on the belief that all loan help and recommendations should come with honesty and no hidden agenda. For more information, visit https://studentloanhero.com . MEDIA CONTACT [email protected] SOURCE Student Loan Hero GROUNDED AIRPLANES: United Airlines will cut international and U.S. flying, freeze hiring and ask employees to volunteer for unpaid leave as it struggles with weak demand for travel because of the new virus outbreak. United said Wednesday it will reduce passenger-carrying capacity 20% on international routes and 10% to 12% in the U.S. United executives expect the reductions will carry into May. Beyond that, it depends what happens to bookings over the next few weeks. United's CEO and president say they hope the moves are enough, but the nature of the outbreak requires the airline to be flexible in how it responds. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Monday, March 2, 2020 file photo, a health alert for people traveling to China is shown at a TSA security checkpoint at the Denver International Airport in Denver. A steep drop in business travel could be a gut punch to a tourism industry already reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, as big companies like Amazon try to keep employees healthy by banning trips. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) GROUNDED AIRPLANES: United Airlines will cut international and U.S. flying, freeze hiring and ask employees to volunteer for unpaid leave as it struggles with weak demand for travel because of the new virus outbreak. United said Wednesday it will reduce passenger-carrying capacity 20% on international routes and 10% to 12% in the U.S. United executives expect the reductions will carry into May. Beyond that, it depends what happens to bookings over the next few weeks. United's CEO and president say they hope the moves are enough, but the nature of the outbreak requires the airline to be flexible in how it responds. ALTERED EXPECTATIONS: General Electric Co. General Electric believes the viral outbreak could have a negative impact of about $300 million to $500 million on its first-quarter industrial free cash flow. Operating profit for the period could be hurt by about $200 million to $300 million. GE said that the expectations are incorporated into its full-year 2020 outlook. Major corporations like Apple, Microsoft and Visa have already cut expectations. RATIONING: Kroger Co., the nation's biggest independent grocer, is placing limits on the number of certain products that customers buy as its shelves are cleared by people doing heavy stocking in preparation for any spread of the virus. Due to high demand and to support all customers, we will be limiting the number of sanitization, cold and flu related products to 5 each per order. Your order may be modified at time of pickup or delivery, the company said on its website. Amazon is warning same-day grocery customers that delivery may be limited. Target and Walmart are scrambling to replenish shelves with basics like canned goods, toilet paper and other household essentials, but have yet to announce rationing. TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: The International Air Transport Association says that January had the slowest monthly year-over-year growth since April 2010, at the time of the volcanic ash cloud crisis in Europe that led to massive airspace closures and flight cancellations. January was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the traffic impacts we are seeing owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, given that major travel restrictions in China did not begin until 23 January, said Alexandre de Juniac, the group director general. Delta will reduce its weekly flying schedule to Japan through April 30 and suspend summer seasonal service between Seattle and Osaka for 2020 in response to reduced demand due to COVID-19. A gate agent pulls down her mask to speak on a radio at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in SeaTac, Wash. Six of the 18 Western Washington residents with the coronavirus have died as health officials rush to test more suspected cases and communities brace for spread of the disease. All confirmed cases of the virus in Washington are in Snohomish and King counties. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) Amazon has asked its 800,000 employees worldwide to postpone non-essential travel. It is also conducting some job interviews on video conference calls instead of in its offices. Ford Motor Co. has banned all domestic and international travel, unless approved at the highest levels of the company. General Motors CEO Mary Barra said Wednesday that all international travel by employees has been restricted. Texas Instruments has cancelled its March 13-15 Teachers Teaching with Technology International Conference because of coronavirus concerns. Dallas-based TI had set aside 2,500 room nights at a downtown Dallas convention hotel for the annual event. NETWORKING IS NOT WORKING: Starbucks converted its big annual shareholders meeting in hometown Seattle to a virtual only event due to concerns about the virus. The meeting will still be held on March 18 as originally planned. The party-like event which attracted 4,000 shareholders last year was supposed to be held at a theatre in downtown Seattle. A virus cluster has emerged in Washington state, however, with nine deaths reported. The 40th Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, scheduled for later this month in Boston, has been postponed. The largest such event in North America typically attracts about 20,000 people. Organizers cited concerns about safety and travel restrictions. The event takes place in Boston's Seaport district. The International Monetary Fund said its spring meetings in Washington, D.C., along with those of the World Bank, will now be virtual" to limit the risk from travelling. Travelers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport wear masks Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in SeaTac, Wash. Six of the 18 Western Washington residents with the coronavirus have died as health officials rush to test more suspected cases and communities brace for spread of the disease. All confirmed cases of the virus in Washington are in Snohomish and King counties. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) The Global Gaming Expo Asia scheduled for later this month in Macao has been pushed back to the end of July. More than 13,000 people attended last years expo. General Motors asked employees who have travelled within the past 14 days to China, South Korea, Japan, Iran or Italy to skip this week's high-profile roll out of the company's new slate of electric vehicles, according to CEO Mary Barra. F5 Networks Inc. postponed its analyst and investor event due to the virus outbreak. The company was scheduled to hold the event in New York this week. The cloud technology company, based in Seattle, also postponed its annual user conference scheduled for mid-March in Orlando, Florida. CLOSE TO HOME: Amazon says one of its employees in Seattle has contracted the new coronavirus. We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine, it said in a prepared statement. Amazon said earlier this week that two of its employees in Milan, Italy, have contracted the virus and are quarantined. Aflac announced Wednesday that a temporary worker at its call centre in Kobe, Japan is infected with the virus. The individual had attended an event in Osaka where multiple participants also contracted the virus. The company said it's continuing to monitor the recovery of the infected individual, who is being instructed to refrain from coming into the office. STAFF REDUCTIONS: Finnish national carrier Finnair is planning temporary layoffs between 14 days up to one month for its entire staff based in Finland due to the economic impact caused by coronavirus to the airline's operations. Travelers Meredith Ponder, left, and Coleby Hanisch, both of Des Moines, Iowa, wear masks to remind them not to touch their faces as they ride a train at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in SeaTac, Wash. Six of the 18 Western Washington residents with the coronavirus have died as health officials rush to test more suspected cases and communities brace for spread of the disease. All confirmed cases of the virus in Washington are in Snohomish and King counties. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) More than 6,000 Finnair employees will be affected. The Finnish flag carrier, which has a total staff of nearly 7,000, has strongly focused on Europe to Asia flights from its Helsinki hub and has been forced to temporarily cancel flights to mainland China and other Asian destinations because of the coronavirus. THE MACRO VIEW: The head of the 189-nation International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that the economic impact of the spreading coronavirus will be more serious than originally thought. The IMF is now prepared to make rapid support available to low-income countries through a $50 billion emergency fund that the group maintains to help nations facing an economic crisis, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. We unfortunately over the past week have seen a shift to a more adverse scenario for the global economy, said Georgieva. The IMFs forecast in January that the global economy would rebound to growth of 3.3% this year, up from 2.9% last year, is no longer reliable. We know the disease is spreading quickly with over one-third of our membership affected directly, Georgieva said. This is no longer a regional issue. It is a global issue calling for a global response. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. SHORT SUPPLY: A U.N. agency estimated Wednesday that a shortage of industrial parts from China caused by the coronavirus outbreak has set off a ripple effect that caused exports from other countries around the world to drop by $47 billion last month. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says that figures from Chinese businesses suggest an annualized 2% decline in output in China. That has led to shrinking supplies for automotive, chemicals, communications and other industries in many countries, in turn reducing their export capacity. The agency says the preliminary figures show that industries outside of China that rely on components, parts and other inputs from the country aren't able to export goods as much as they had before the virus erupted. The outbreak began in the city of Wuhan, shutting down factories and quarantining workers at home. The drop in Chinese output results in a ripple effect throughout the global economy that rises "to the tune of a $50 billion fall in exports across the world, said said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, director of the UNCTAD international trade and commodities division. Exports from the European Union alone made up for about one third of that, or nearly $15.6 billion. Exports of the United States were second, at nearly $5.8 billion, and Japan was third at almost $5.2 billion. SHAKEN: The release of the James Bond film No Time To Die is being pushed back several months because of concerns about coronavirus. MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on Twitter Wednesday that the film will be released in November, rather than next month as originally planned. No Time To Die will now hit theatres in the U.K. on Nov. 12 and worldwide on Nov. 25. Publicity plans for the film in China, Japan and South Korea had already been cancelled because of the outbreak. Theatres are empty in regions afflicted by the virus. House Passes $8.3 Billion Bill to Fight Coronavirus The House Wednesday, in a bipartisan 415-2 vote, passed a more than $8 billion spending package for emergency COVID-19 coronavirus funding. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) announced the move and funding in a press release, explaining that its not a political matterbut a public safety concern. This should not be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people from a potential pandemic, said Shelby in a statement. We worked together to craft an aggressive and comprehensive response that provides the resources the experts say they need to combat this crisis. I thank my colleagues for their cooperation and appreciate President Trumps eagerness to sign this legislation and get the funding out the door without delay. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noted that Americans urgently need a coordinated, fully-funded, whole-of-government response to keep us safe from the widening coronavirus epidemic, while adding that $3 billion is being spent on the development of treatments, $300 million will be used to provide a free vaccine, $2.2 billion will be used on public funding and prevention, and other measures. The emergency funding package was clinched as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have reported well over 100 cases of the new virus in the country. Nine deaths have been reported in Washington state, as officials there struggle to contain an outbreak mainly centered at a nursing home in King County. The proposal provides a total of $8.3 billion to combat the coronavirus outbreak, and the majority of that funding85 percentwill be spent domestically, Shelbys statement said. Passengers walk with protective masks at the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, in Santiago, Chile, on Mar. 3, 2020. (Javier Torres/AFP via Getty Images) It came after negotiations between Shelby and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). The bill will first need to pass the House and the Senate before it is signed into law by President Donald Trump. The $8.3 billion proposed to combat the coronavirus is more than three times more than the $2.5 billion initially requested by the White House. Later, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded with an $8.5 billion proposal, saying Tuesday that he expected the package to be in the range of $7 billion and $8 billion. Schumer, during his remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, noted that Vice President Mike Pence, who was named the head of Trumps coronavirus response team, met with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans this week. Meanwhile, top health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday. A stretcher is moved from an AMR ambulance to the Life Care Center of Kirkland where one associate and one resident were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in Kirkland, Washington state, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images) We need to know who is infected in order to contain the spread of the virus and treat any American affected by the diseases. We asked the administration about the availability of testing kits but they could not answer how soon hospitals, medical labs, and public health centers would receive the tests, and if they would have enough of them to do the amount of testing required, fast enough, Schumer said on the floor. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has said that he would be happy if lawmakers were willing to propose $8.5 billion. I think I should say, Ill take it, said Trump on Tuesday at an event. On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County officials announced they would declare a state of emergency that would affect more than 10 million people after several new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the county. The virus is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, late last year, prompting what critics of the Chinese regime have said are harsh measures to curb its spread. Earlier this week, both Florida and Washington state declared public health emergencies, respectively, following the confirmation of more virus patients. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday told reporters that three family members and the neighbor of a Westchester County man also tested positive for COVID-19, the disease the new coronavirus causes. North Carolina, on Tuesday, also confirmed its first case. Officials said a man who had traveled from the Washington state nursing home returned back to the state before he was confirmed to have been infected. Beverage cans are run through machinery during a tour at a Canopy Growth facility that produces cannabis derivatives in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Blair Gable Quebecs provincial cannabis retailer expects Canopy Growths (WEED.TO)(CGC) long-awaited pot-infused beverages to launch this month. A spokesperson for Societe quebecoise du cannabis (SQDC) told Yahoo Finance Canada product is expected to become available in the coming weeks, but could not offer a more specific date. The SQDC plans to have a drink from Canopy Growth available during the month of March, Mathieu Gaudreault wrote in an email on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I do not have a more precise time frame as of today. Canopy, the worlds largest cannabis company by market value, has experienced significant delays in producing pot-infused beverages at scale. The Smiths Falls, Ont.-based company revealed several THC and CBD-infused beverages last October, including a product designed to be mixed with non-alcoholic beverages at home, and a line of sparkling drinks designed by actor Seth Rogen. The company said in December that its first batch of beverages, Tweed Houndstooth & Soda, Houseplant Grapefruit, and Houseplant Lemon, would hit the market in January. On Jan. 17, it abruptly delayed the launch, offering few details at the time. Chief executive officer David Klein told Yahoo Finance Canada on Feb. 14 that he expected beverages to hit store shelves in a few months. A Canopy Growth spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. Meanwhile, other provincial cannabis authorities have provided Yahoo Finance Canada with launch timelines similar to Quebecs. A spokesperson for Cannabis NB, New Brunswicks provincial recreational cannabis retailer, said he expects Canopys drinks to arrive in mid-April. The Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation, which distributes recreational cannabis in that province, said it expects Canopy drinks to be available by the end of the month. Retail chain Fire & Flower (FAF.TO) said its Saskatchewan distribution arm Open Fields is expecting to see Canopys beverages in very late March to early April. More to follow. Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene has said any school principals concerned about upcoming trips should get in contact with the Department of Education. She was responding to a call from MLA Justin McNulty that the Executive must issue a blanket ban on school trips planned for countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Mrs Foster hit back at claims from Mr McNulty that there had been a lack of "clear and unambiguous" guidance from education authorities to parents and schools with trips booked to Italy in the coming weeks. The SDLP representative said he has been contacted in recent days by worried parents - some of whom have paid 1,000 per child for the trips - and who are unhappy letting their children fly to Italy, where the death toll hit 79 on Tuesday. Read More Last week a number of schools here were forced to send pupils home who had recently participated in ski trips. Expand Close Dr Michael McBride (centre), Dr Miriam McCarthy and Dr Gerry Waldron at the Public Health Agency headquarters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Michael McBride (centre), Dr Miriam McCarthy and Dr Gerry Waldron at the Public Health Agency headquarters Mrs Foster said the chief medical officer Michael McBride had spoken with some principals last week. She said it was important to be "led by the science" and for people to listen carefully to experts on the matter. Mrs Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill announced on Tuesday they have scaled back their St Patrick's Day trip to the US in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill cancelled plans for the New York leg of their itinerary next week but still intend to meet political and business leaders in Washington. Read More A second case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, while two new cases were confirmed in Scotland on Wednesday. "Our top priority as the leaders of the executive is to ensure that we are in a good position in relation to Covid-19 and the coronavirus and that we have all the planning in place," Arlene Foster said. "We took the decision over the weekend that we need to be here for emergency meetings that are taking place on Monday next week." The DUP leader said it was still too soon to make any decisions about large scale events in Northern Ireland. "It's important we are prepared in Northern Ireland for what may happen," she said. "We will be looking at all the plans for large scale events over this period of time. As the chief medical officer said, we should be led by the science... he is of the opinion is too soon to make a decision in relation to these matters." The Executive Office has established its own civil contingencies operations room in response to the outbreak, she said . The UK government revealed its action plan on Tuesday. It's thought up to a fifth of the workforce may be off sick at the peak of the epidemic. Mrs Foster added: "This is not just a matter for the health department, it's a matter for the whole of government. Planning has been stepped up to ensure we have a coordinated response from all of our sectors. "We are leading on work on essential services and making sure we have key sectors ready to deal with what may come to fruition." A Florida woman who has been jailed since last November for the killing of her fellow gym member after a bar outing could be released on bond after having her murder charge downgraded. Yvonne Serrano, 51, appeared in Broward County Court on Wednesday asking a judge to set a bond for her release, more than three months after she was arrested for the shooting death of 21-year-old Daniela Tabares. Tabares was found dead in Serrano's driveway in Coral Springs, hanging out of a car with a gunshot to her head. Yvonne Serrano, 51 (left), is seeking to have a bond set more than three months after her arrest for the killing of fellow gym member Daniela Tabares, 21 (right) Tabares was found dead in Serrano's driveway in Coral Springs, Florida (pictured), hanging out of a car with a gunshot to her head on November 23 Serrano's defense lawyers argued in court that she is entitled to a bond, now that prosecutors have reduced her original charge of second-degree murder to second-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. According to a statement announcing the decision in December 2019, the Broward State Attorneys Office reviewed all available evidence before filing the lesser manslaughter with firearm charge, along with two evidence tampering counts, reported Sun Sentinel. Had Serrano been charged with and convicted of murder, she could have faced up to life in prison. Today's hearing, which was attended by dozens of Tabares' family and friends, ended without a ruling on Serrano's bond request, reported Local10. The judge ordered the defense to produce all of the defendant's financial statements and show proof she she will have a place to stay if she is granted and makes bond. Serrano and Tabares knew each other through their gym, Training for Warriors Coral Springs. Pictured: Tabares celebrating her 21st birthday at the gym in May 2019 After watching a movie as a group on November 22, 2019, gym members, among them Serrano and Tabares, headed to the World of Beer pub (pictured) Serrano will be back in court on March 12, when the judge is expected to make a decision on her release. If she is freed on bond, Serrano will be under house arrest and will be required to wear a device that detects alcohol consumption. Tabares' loved ones have been vocal in their opposition to Serrano's release. Last week, a group of 50 people staged a protest calling for keeping her in jail pending trial. In interviews with the Sun Sentinel last week, fellow members at Serrano and Tabares' gym, Training For Warriors, described the suspect, a military wife and mother of grown children, as 'intense' and a 'loner' who did not fit into the tight-knit and supportive community of fitness enthusiasts. On the evening of November 22, 2019, a large group of people from the gym, including Serrano and Tabares, had gone to Silverspot Cinema to watch the drama 21 Bridges, before they all headed to the World of Beer pub, an affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com said. The pair were 'conversing, laughing and drinking for several hours,' the court document said. A friend of Tabares' told the Sun Sentinel she got a text from her at 1.25am saying: 'I'm taking Yvonne home.' Serrano called 911 the next morning saying she found a dead woman in her driveway. At first she claimed she did not know Tabares, but later she changed her story Serrano and Tabares were filmed by surveillance cameras leaving the pub together and further footage showed them pulling into Serrano's driveway at 2am. At 5.55am on November 23, Tabares was found fatally on Serrano's property. Serrano called police to say there was a dead woman in front of her Coral Springs home. She initially claimed she did not know Tabares, but later admitted she did. Family and friends of Tabares have spoken out against releasing Serrano on bond When detectives arrived later in the morning, Serrano told them she had left the house in the 1600 block of Northwest 100th Drive in Maplewood Isles to go to the gym but called the police 'immediately' upon finding the body. She said she had 'blacked out' at World of Beer and had no idea how she got home when she woke up in her bed. Serrano later reportedly changed her story, telling detectives that she woke up sitting in a passenger seat in Tabares' car. Investigators found she had recently washed a blood-stained dark tank top and also deleted Ring video footage filmed on a smart doorbell. Serrano has a concealed carry permit and owns three handguns. Two 9mm pistols and a .45 caliber one. She also told police said she had taken her Sig Sauer P365 to the pub. The gun, which was in Serrano's bedroom, fires 9mm rounds. The shell casing outside Maya's Nissan came from a 9mm round. Blood was found on the Sig Sauer and its holster, reported Local10. [March 04, 2020] Sontiq Wins 2020 Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year Sontiq, an enterprise high-tech security and identity protection company, today announced it has won a Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year in the Consumer Products & Services category. More than 2,600 nominations from organizations in 48 nations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service competition. "We are so honored to have earned a coveted Gold Stevie Award for the world-class services our Customer Service and Support team delivers to our members, customers, and partners every day," said Angela Murphy, Chief Operating Officer at Sontiq. "It's no longer a matter of if, but when, your personal or business information will be compromised by a cyber thief or scammer - and recent news shows that everyone, even celebrities, are at a high risk. Our team takes tremendous pride in delivering excellence in everything we do, and at Sontiq, we truly believe that owning an identity is a serious responsibility." Sontiq's Customer Service and Support team is also focused on ensuring that the customer feedback loop is closed, while converting the customer voice into frontline action. The company's Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a perfect example. Using a traditional NPS model, Sontiq separates its customers into three groups - promoters, passives, and detractors - enabling an immediate understanding of where there is a positive customer experience or where there was a point of failure, and why. The company's NPS is 77, which is considered excellent; the average NPS score in its industry ranges between 20 and 30. Sontiq's Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score was a 9.4/10 through the end of 2019. Both NPS score and CSAT were calculated based on nearly 3,000 surveys completed in 2019. The news of the Gold Stevie win is on the heels of Sontiq being named as the "Best in Class" provider in the 2019 Identity Protection Service Provider Scorecard published by research and advisory firm Javelin Strategy & Research, where resolution capabilities is one of the evaluation categories. About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com. About Sontiq Sontiq, headquartered in Nottingham, Maryland, is a high-tech security and identity protection company arming businesses and consumers with award-winning products built to protect what matters most. Sontiq's brands, EZShield and IdentityForce, provide a full range of identity monitoring, restoration, and response products and services that empower customers to be less vulnerable to the financial and emotional consequences of identity theft and cybercrimes. Sontiq is a portfolio company of the Wicks Group. Learn more at www.sontiq.com or engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube. 2020 Sontiq, Inc. All other trademarks or trade names are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005713/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Amy Nolan An Post is considering closing its northside and southside delivery offices in Churchfield and Togher and redeploying staff to the soon-to-be-vacant Cork Mail Centre in Little Island, The Echo has learned. Last June, the phased closure of the Cork Mail Centre in Little Island was announced, with the decision affecting 240 people. The distribution centre may now have a new purpose, however, if An Post moves ahead with proposals to centralise delivery offices in a shared location. In a statement issued by An Post they outlined that the Cork Mail Centre will close as planned at the end of March, but that some Cork delivery offices may be relocated to the Little Island premises in the near future. This would mean the closure of delivery offices in Churchfield and Togher. The closure of the Cork Mail Centre requires An Post to re-engineer our mails infrastructure in the region which traditionally centred around the former Cork Mail Centre building. Part of that work may involve gathering some of our Cork delivery offices in a shared location. "The possible use of the soon-to-be vacant Cork Mail Centre building is one of the options open to An Post, a spokesperson said. Cork North Central TD Mick Barry said the news comes in stark contrast to what An Post originally said would happen. An Post told the world last summer that they were shutting the Cork Mail Central and axing jobs as part of a plan which involved selling or renting the Little Island premises. "Now it turns out that the plan is very different - this all flies in the face of what was said before, he said. Sinn Fein councillor Mick Nugent said he would be concerned that any re-alignment of An Post services may discommode staff and customers. An Post has stated that no decision will be taken without the involvement and co-operation of our trade unions and in the best interest of customers and staff. This story first appeared on EchoLive.ie Indias Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from exchanges and traders, overturning a ban on such dealings by the central bank that had come as a major blow to the thriving industry. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had ordered financial institutions to break off all ties with individuals or businesses dealing in virtual currency such as Bitcoin within three months, in April 2018. The ban led to plummeting trade volumes and exchanges shutting their businesses. Investments had stopped and start-ups were staying away from starting business in the crypto and blockchain space in India which will change now that the Supreme Court has said that the RBI circular was unconstitutional, said Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange. However, the industry still faces hurdles as a government panel, appointed to look into the matter, has recommended that India ought to ban all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies. The government though is yet to act on these recommendations and is yet to finalise regulations around cryptocurrencies. On several occasions, the government along with the central bank, had cautioned the public about the risks of cryptocurrencies. If the government follows the panels recommendations, it could signal the end of the road for these digital currencies in India. There continues to be an overarching fear that the government may come out with a law which may be unfavorable but for now this is a good move as the exchanges can go back to crypto-to-fiat trade which had stopped, said Anirudh Rastogi, Founder at Ikigai Law, a firm that represented crypto exchanges in the lawsuit. Governments around the world have been looking into ways to regulate cryptocurrencies and no major economy has taken the drastic step of placing a blanket ban on owning digital currencies, even though concerns have been raised on the misuse of consumer data and its likely impact on the financial system. The need for regulations surrounding digital currencies has also gained momentum after Facebook Inc announced plans to launch its cryptocurrency, Libra. Several central banks around the world are also considering issuing their own digital currencies in the next few years, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in a report in January this year. Indias government-appointed committee had also recommended considering the launch of an officially-backed digital currency for use in the country which can function like bank notes and be regulated by the central bank. Eyes will now be on the RBI to see if they come up with new regulations surrounding digital currencies that can address regulatory concerns as well as aid growth in the ecosystem, said L Viswanathan, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a law firm. This (ruling) might also catalyse the potential for the use of blockchain in diverse areas, Viswanathan added. A Clatskanie-area ethanol plant that once shipped crude oil is seeking permission to move green diesel as well, a proposal that is making environmentalists uneasy. Global Partners, which owns the Columbia Pacific Biorefinery at Port Westward, says it can move to a cleaner, greener product with a committed term of five years while maintaining about 25 jobs at the plant. An undisclosed customer wants to contract Global to ship it renewable diesel, spokeswoman Catie Kerns said last week. Columbia Riverkeeper, a Hood River, Ore.-based conservation group, says it wants written assurances that the company will abandon crude oil altogether, saying it could be a ploy to distract from plans to resume crude oil shipments. There is a track record of Global switching from one thing to crude oil trains, and the community in Columbia County needs durable protection against that, said Dan Serres, Riverkeepers conservation director. Renewable diesel is chemically similar to petroleum-based diesel but is made of organic materials, such as cooking oil or animal tallow. Generally it is less flammable than ethanol or crude oil and is easier to clean up, according to the Oregon state Department of Environmental Quality. It also burns cleaner than regular diesel, but data about its benefits for climate change conflict between studies. Global said the fuel has an estimated 50% to 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over burning conventional diesel, but a 2018 government-funded National Renewable Energy Laboratory study found the reduction 4.2%. Nonetheless, California has increasingly used renewable diesel to meet its statewide Low Carbon Fuel Standards, according to a 2018 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By handling products like renewable diesel, Global can help play a role in the low-carbon future, Kerns said. Global is seeking clearance to take train shipments of biodiesel, using the same single-track Columbia County railway, and transfer it to storage tanks at Port Westward. Then it would pipe it onto marine barges and ship it out. Global must get permission from the Port of Columbia County (its landlord) and DEQ. DEQ will incorporate Globals Feb. 3 request to ship green diesel into a renewal application for shipping crude oil and ethanol and expand storage capacity, said DEQ spokeswoman Lauren Wirtis. Global also submitted draft amendments to its port lease last week. It will host a public open house about its proposal from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on March 10 at Meriwether Place (1070 Columbia Blvd., St. Helens, Ore.). Port of Columbia County Executive Director Douglas Hayes said port commissioners and the community appear to be more pleased with green diesel than previous proposals by Global. The company came under fire in 2013 after DEQ fined it for shipping six times more crude oil than the incidental amount it was allowed under state permits. Global now holds two permits: one for ethanol production and one for shipping ethanol and crude oil. The company has not shipped crude oil from the plant since 2015, and Kerns said there are no immediate plans to resume ethanol manufacturing. In December 2018, the port OKd global to ship more dense oils than its lease originally allowed. About a year later, Global renewed its ethanol production permit with DEQ, despite concerns from Riverkeeper and others that the company wanted to restart crude oil operations. Put together, all of Globals requests certainly paints the picture that Global has been making concrete steps to handling and shipping crude oil, Serres said. If they are serious about shifting away from crude oil trains, that would probably be a welcome thing. But right now we cant take Global at its word. Riverkeepers fundamental concern is crude oil trains that present very serious repercussions from a derailment, a spill or a fire, Serres said. He pointed to a 2016 derailment in Mosier, Ore., that spilled 42,000 gallons of oil, sparked a large fire and leaked small amounts of oil into the Columbia River. Kerns was unavailable last week to respond to Riverkeepers demand for written promises to abandon crude oil. In earlier interviews she emphasized that the company would be bound by a five-year contract to ship renewable diesel, should the port and state approve its proposal. Global can use the same equipment to ship and store renewable diesel as it does crude oil and ethanol, but it must clean the storage tanks and piping every time it switches substances. If it does get approved, this is a multi-year contract, so there would be no shipment of crude oil during this current request by Global, Hayes said. The reason being is you have to clean the pipes (between substances). But (when) you have a contract to ship one commodity out, thats the commodity they will have to ship. The port has supported green diesel projects in the past, including leasing property to NEXT Renewables, a renewable diesel production company. Hayes said the two companies have talked about the feasibility Global shipping NEXTs product, but no formal agreements have been signed. Kerns said Global has no plans to partner with NEXT at this time. Clatskanie City Manager Greg Hinkelman said he backs whatever commodity that keeps jobs there. He added. Anything that keeps that plant in operation and keeps those jobs viable, I am all for. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. RICHMOND, Va. Virginians showed up in record numbers for Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary, leading a national wave of strong voter turnout that analysts said is all about defeating President Donald Trump. Roughly 1.3 million Virginia voters cast ballots, about 21% of the electorate, according to an analysis of unofficial results. That's up from the previous record of about 986,000 votes and 18% of the electorate in 2008, when Barack Obama was challenging Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination. Back then, voters sensed history in Obama potentially becoming the first African American nominated by a major party. Tuesday's turnout was different. Exit polling showed that most voters were seeking a candidate any candidate to defeat Trump. Virginia, which has undergone a dramatic blue shift since Trump's win in 2016, responded more eagerly than any other state. Its turnout represented nearly a 69% increase over the 2016 primary, roughly double the increases seen nationwide compared to an average jump of 33% across nine Super Tuesday states in which the vote count is complete or has been projected by Edison Media Research. The second-biggest increase was 60%, in Texas.. "The interest . . . in defeating Donald Trump is so intense that it's almost unprecedented," Richmond political scientist Bob Holsworth said. Former vice president Joe Biden was the beneficiary of the Virginia groundswell, easily beating Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and three other hopefuls as he won nine of the 14 Super Tuesday states. "It's just extraordinary. In the commonwealth of Virginia, folks are fired up. They want to beat Trump," Democratic former governor Terry McAuliffe said in an interview. He pointed to massive jumps in turnout in the once-purple Washington D.C. suburbs, which he said reflected "the intensity of the anti-Trump feeling in Northern Virginia." Based on preliminary totals at the Virginia Department of Elections, Loudoun County reported nearly 72,000 people casting votes up from a little more than 52,000 who voted in both the Democratic and Republican primaries in 2008. Prince William County's turnout was just shy of 71,000, up from 57,500 in the earlier contests. Biden won both counties by a wide margin. Polling places across the state reported steady, heavy turnout all day. Cities with large African American populations also registered strong gains, with black voters accounting for a quarter of all ballots cast. Richmond reported more than 55,000 voters, according to the early results, up from just over 41,000 in the two 2008 primaries. Norfolk's unofficial total of nearly 34,000 voters was more than the 30,000 Democrats who voted in 2008, but just under the 38,000 total that year when the Republican primary is included. "Anything to get Trump out of office," Richmond voter Tara Raigns, 41, said Tuesday, after casting her ballot for former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race Wednesday and endorsed Biden. Raigns said she would support anyone nominated by the Democrats this fall. Biden won all but three localities in Virginia. Floyd County in the far Southwest and the cities of Harrisonburg and Charlottesville went for Sanders. The Democratic Party of Virginia crowed about the results on Wednesday. "Virginia Democrats aren't taking their foot off the gas," party spokesman Grant Fox said in an emailed statement. "Surges in Democratic turnout over the past few years have propelled us to massive victories, and these results are another sign that Virginia Democrats are fired up and ready to beat Donald Trump." Democrats have gained steadily in Virginia since 2016 and now control most of the state's congressional delegation as well as the governor's mansion and both chambers of the General Assembly the first time in a generation the party has consolidated power in Richmond. "It was a great turnout, and I think it's a sign that people in Virginia are ready for a new president," Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday. The Republican Party of Virginia dismissed Biden's win as selecting the candidate "to ultimately lose to Donald Trump." In an emailed statement Tuesday night, state GOP chairman Jack Wilson praised Trump's agenda for making "America a better place for all people." Democrats, he said, "want to destroy all of the accomplishments this administration has made, but we won't let that happen. We made America great again in 2016 and we're going to keep it great in 2020." - - - The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella and Scott Clement contributed to this report. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Unlike some real estate developers who are grappling with liquidity issues, Godrej Properties is planning to deploy around Rs 6,000 crore over the next two years into buying land, signing development management contracts and launch 17 new projects. "We have Rs 3,000 crore cash in our balance sheet. We will deploy Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 crore over the next two to three years. This would be largely for residential majority for residential. We are looking at the downturn in the sector as a great opportunity to pick up high quality assets at deep discounts and we are following the counter cyclical investment strategy. We are in talks with many other companies across the country to pick up land parcels," Mohit Malhotra, Managing Director and CEO, Godrej Properties Limited, told Moneycontrol. The company is planning to launch close to 17 projects in the top four cities. "Close to 17 new launches are planned for the financial year FY 2020 in the top four cities - NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Nine launches are happening in Q4 itself in these four cities. This year, we have signed closed 8 projects and we are in talks with many new projects which we could expect to announce in the future as and when these get completed," he added. Asked when would real estate sector finally see shoots of recovery, Malhotra said that the downturn in the sector has already lasted close to eight years. "We are now at the bottom of the cycle. When does that recovery happen difficult to answer but my personal view is that over the next two years we may see a positive change in the environment. It all depends on how the macro economy is doing and there is no disruption because of the global issues such as corona virus," he said. He is optimistic that the segment to recover first would be the residential segment. "The residential sector should see the fastest recovery, specially the mid-segment. Subsequently, the luxury segment will show signs of revival, he said. In February, the company entered into an agreement to purchase land in the micro-market of Chandivali, Mumbai. Spread across approximately 3 acres, the project will offer 0.45 million square feet of saleable area comprising primarily of residential apartments of various configurations with a small amount of retail space. The land parcel is located close to the suburb of Powai The same month, it acquired a land parcel from Railway Land Development Authority in Delhis Ashok Vihar area for 1,359 crore. The land parcel is spread across 26.58 acre. This will be a luxury development spread across 3.3 mn sq ft. We are currently in the design phase of this development. We will like to target to launch it next financial year, Malhotra told Moneycontrol. In December, Godrej Properties added four new residential projects to its development portfolio. Three projects are located in MMR and one in Bengaluru. The four projects added approximately 1.18 million square metres (12.70 million sq. ft.) of new development potential. In January, the company launched Godrej RKS at the iconic RK Studios, Chembur, Mumbai. "We acquired the project last year and launched it this year. We plan to do an iconic development there considering the quality of the land parcel. It will be a luxury project," Malhotra said. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are ramping up their production and optimising distribution channels to meet the rising demand for hand sanitizers amid the coronavirus outbreak. Some FMCG firms are also educating consumers by engaging their brands to communicate with the consumers, through special campaigns on digital and mainstream media, to make them aware about the benefits of regular hands wash as prevention for coronavirus. The companies have assured that they have enough stocks to tackle the situation. "We have ramped up our production capacity. We are also trying to ramp up through our vendors also," Godrej Consumer Products Ltd CEO (India and SAARC) Sunil Kataria told PTI. However, he also added that hand santizers are premium products in India. "The way we have to address this problem is through that we all need to communicate the right education to the people and send messages to the consumers that best precaution and prevention from coronavirus is regularly washing hands," he added. GCPL, which had Godrej Protekt brand in the segment, has started a digital campaign to create awareness about it. ITC, which is present in the segment through its brand Savlon, said it is ensuring that there is an adequate supply of hygiene products in the market. "ITC is ensuring adequate supply of Savlon hygiene products in the market. Savlon continues to focus on enhancing awareness about hand hygiene and urges consumers to maintain good hygiene practices," according to an ITC spokesperson. FMCG major HUL, which is present in the segment with Lifebuoy hand sanitizers, is also ensuring its products' availability to the consumers. "Given the surge in demand for hygiene products, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure that consumers have access to products that keep them safe such as Lifebuoy hand sanitizers and hand wash," said an HUL spokesperson. While Dabur is running a series of awareness campaigns across digital platforms and social and mainstream media to educate the public about how to keep themselves safe from coronavirus. "Our key healthcare brands such as Dabur Chyawanprash, ImmunoDab and Giloy Ghanvati are running informative campaigns to drive awareness about staying protected from such illnesses," said Dabur India Marketing Head (Healthcare) Mukesh Mishra. Mishra also said the company is also organising a question-and-answer session, particularly for mothers, with ayurvedic doctors on digital media platforms to address their queries regarding coronavirus and how to keep their families protected from it. However, FMCG major RB India (erstwhile Reckitt Benckiser), which is one of the leading player in the segment with its brand Dettol, has declined to comment on the issue. Hand sanitizers have vanished from general shop and chemist shops in many areas of the national capital and adjoining towns as people resorted to panic buying amid the coronavirus outbreak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Africa: More charges for human trafficking suspects The seven Chinese nationals arrested last year for alleged human trafficking and violation of South Africas labour laws will learn the outcome of their bail application in two weeks. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Department of Employment and Labour said the outcome will be made after Magistrate Basimane Molwana heard the bail hearing at the Johannesburg Magistrate Court. Kevin Tsao, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying, and Zhang Zhilian are accused of illegally operating a factory Beautiful City Pty Ltd in Village Deep in Johannesburg. The seven Chinese nationals were arrested on 12 November 2019 in a joint operation conducted by the Departments Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) in conjunction with the police, Home Affairs and the Hawks. The arrests followed a tip-off that the Chinese nationals were allegedly involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants and subjecting them to forced labour, said Department spokesperson Tebogo Thejane. During the blitz, 91 Malawian nationals were found in the factory, 37 of whom were children. The Court has since heard that the Malawians working in the factory were transported to South Africa using containers. The Malawians are alleged to have been brought to South Africa by a middleman known as 'the transporter' who is still on the run, said the department. In an affidavit submitted by the SAPS and the Hawks in Court, the authorities intend to charge the accused with schedule six offences. The accused will face charges ranging from human trafficking, debt bondage, kidnapping and pointing of a firearm. It emerged in Court that the Department of Home Affairs was in the process of serving papers to the six of the accused cancelling their visas, said Thejane. Thejane said the department has also submitted a statement requesting the additional charges, including those of contravention of labour laws. The department is demanding R7-million owed by the accused for violating the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, contravening the Unemployment Insurance Act, the Unemployment Insurance Contribution Act, contravening the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the National Minimum Wage Act, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The filing came after a steady stream of complaints throughout the county of faulty machines and two-hour waits in neighborhoods including Westwood, the San Fernando Valley, Los Feliz and the east side of Los Angeles. The sign-in process to check voters against the voting rolls was taking hours at several sites. Earlier in the day, a power failure in West Los Angeles had raised worries that the voting process could be delayed. For weeks, state and county officials have been warning of long lines on Election Day, in part because of the new system and also because voters could register in person on Tuesday. There were reports of two-hour waits at several polling places throughout Los Angeles County, with poll workers directing voters to other sites that had equally long waits. Several machines reportedly failed, leaving many voting booths sitting empty and leading to even longer waits. At one polling place, a poll worker handed out candy to weary voters, and campaigns sent pizza to several voting sites at the University of California campuses. [Sanders files emergency motion to keep polling places open in L.A., after delays.] The line outside the Claude Pepper Senior Citizen Center in West Los Angeles curled around a courtyard that was mostly in the shade by late afternoon. An election worker at the facility said its five voting machines were working fine, but having just one check-in tablet computer created a bottleneck, leaving two or three of the voting machines empty. Vickie Trosclair, 85, was inside the building near the front of the line, and said she had been waiting to vote for over two and a half hours. She is a day care provider, and was worried she would not be back by the time parents came to fetch their kids. I thought I could just do this and be back, she said. This operation is much too slow. The line is too long, its too crowded. In a blow to Indian public sector banks, the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal has ordered the liquidation of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's scam-scarred firm, Firestar Diamond International Pvt. Ltd. (FDIPL). The fugitive diamond merchant is wanted in a multi-crore PNB fraud case. The decision to liquidate Nirav Modi's company was delivered last week by the Mumbai NCLT bench, headed by Suchitra Kanuparthi (Member-Judicial) and V. Nallasenapathy (Member-Technical), news agency IANS reported. According to experts and officials, this was the first-ever liquidation order for any company embroiled in the fraud schemed by the Modi-Choksi before they fled the country, the agency reported. Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are key accused in Rs 14,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) case. While Nirav Modi is currently lodged in a British jail, Mehul Choksi is residing in Antigua and Barbuda. Nirav Modi has been behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest on March 19 on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government. Modi's extradition trial is scheduled between May 11 and 15 this year, with the case management hearings in the matter set to begin once all the evidence has been handed in to the court for the trial. Last month, market regulator SEBI had slapped a total fine of Rs 5 crore on absconding businessman Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems and another individuals for violating various regulations, including listing norms. Choksi is the promoter and managing director of Gitanjali Gems. Also Read: PNB fraud case: Nirav Modi's remand extended by UK court till March 24 Also Read: SEBI imposes Rs 5 cr fine on Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems, another individual Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ankara, Turkey Wed, March 4, 2020 16:03 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683b010 2 World #Turkey,#Syria,conflict,soldiers,killed Free Two Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian government forces in the northwestern region of Idlib, Turkey's defence ministry said Wednesday. Six others were wounded in the shelling, it said, adding that Turkish forces "immediately" retaliated against regime targets. The ministry also said late Tuesday on Twitter that one Turkish soldier was killed by Syrian fire and nine others had been injured. More than 50 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the rebel-held region in recent weeks, including 34 who died in an air strike on Thursday. Turkey officially declared an operation against the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, named 'Spring Shield'. It has since downed three Syrian warplanes, and killed dozens of regime soldiers and allied fighters -- mostly through drone strikes -- according to monitors. Turkey, which backs certain rebel groups in Idlib, has sought to push back Syrian forces behind lines agreed under a 2018 deal with Russia, which established 12 Turkish observation posts in the province. But Syrian forces, supported by Russian air power, has retaken swathes of territory since launching its offensive in December, killing hundreds of civilians and forcing nearly a million to flee their homes. Despite being on opposite sides of the war, Ankara and Moscow have kept lines of negotiation open, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday in search of a new ceasefire. Turkey, which already hosts some four million refugees, wants to prevent another influx from Idlib. It has pressured Europe for greater assistance by announcing that migrants and refugees would no longer be prevented from trying to enter the EU via the Greek border. The nine-year Syrian conflict has killed over 380,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. President Xi Jinping urges fast development of coronavirus vaccine PLA Daily Source: CGTN.COM Editor: Chen Zhuo 2020-03-03 08:23:12 Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Monday for the fast development of effective vaccine and treatment drugs for the novel coronavirus during an inspection tour of two major institutions currently researching COVID-19. Technology is the major way to conquer the battle against the epidemic, President Xi pointed out as he learned about the progress on a potential vaccine and treatment options. "We need to command more core technologies with our own intellectual property," he stressed. The coronavirus, first discovered in central China's Hubei Province last December, has infected nearly 90,000 people worldwide, over 80,100 of whom in China. There is currently no vaccine for the new coronavirus, although several are ready for tests. The military as a major force in the COVID-19 battle Since the outbreak, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences has firmly adhered to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission, President Xi noted, praising their hard work during this time. This fully shows that our military is loyal to the Party and the people, he said. Since early February, China has sent out over 10,000 military medics to the front lines of Hubei Province, the epicenter of the epidemic. Authorities confirmed on Monday that no military personnel has been infected so far. Xi urged military medics, the major force in the battle, to develop effective vaccine, medicines and fast testing kits as soon as possible. Monitoring network for major outbreaks needed President Xi ordered the establishment of a monitoring network for major epidemics and stressed its importance in preventing public health crises for a country as populous as China. He also called for coordination between front-line medics and researchers elsewhere. "There are two main task fronts in this battle," he said, "one is disease prevention on the front-line, another is research and medical supply." Research into drugs and medical devices should happen along with clinical treatment as the priority is to save more patients, President Xi pointed out in a later symposium with Science and Technology Ministry officials at Tsinghua University. Source of COVID-19 needs to be identified The Chinese president stressed that the source of the pneumonia-like disease needs to be traced by utilizing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analysis to improve accuracy and efficiency during the curing process. Scientists found earlier that bats are most likely the natural host for COVID-19, and pangolins the intermediate host. Both animals could be found in Hubei's Huanan Seafood Market, where the virus is believed to have originated from. The consumption of wild animals must be abstained, President Xi noted. Just days ago, China's top legislature had approved a decision to outlaw the trade of wild animals in direct response to the outbreak. Mental health at this time needs to be taken seriously Many mental health problems may arise during this time and we need to take that into serious consideration, President Xi said. Chinese authorities have advised residents to stay indoors as much as possible, and the coronavirus epicenter Wuhan remains under lockdown. We need to encourage a civilized, healthy and environmental-friendly lifestyle, the president said. This is a challenge for us human beings as a whole, and it needs joint efforts from across the world, Xi noted. He also pledged to strengthen communication with the international community. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia is not on board with a proposal of OPEC leader Saudi Arabia that the OPEC+ coalition deepen the collective cut by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), Summer Said, Senior Middle East Correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, tweeted on Wednesday from Vienna, quoting sources. The energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia, Alexander Novak and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, are meeting in Vienna at the time of writing, before a panel of the OPEC+ group, including the two ministers, convenes to discuss how the coalition should react to the depressed global oil demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi Arabia and OPEC are trying to convince Russia to sign up to a massive deeper cut in Q2. So far Russia has appeared uncommitted, although Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested this weekend that Moscow would continue to play ball and cooperate with OPEC, even though it sees current oil prices as acceptable. Russia is looking to have its participation in any fresh cut at the minimum possible level, a source told Reuters on Wednesday. However, Saudi Arabia wants the OPEC+ coalition to agree to a collective cut of more than 1 million bpd, delegates told Bloomberg on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Joint Technical Committee of the OPEC+ group, meeting before the regular OPEC meeting, considered bigger oil production cutsbetween 600,000 bpd and 1 million bpd, and ended up recommending additional cuts of at least 600,000 bpd. OPECs smallest producer, Equatorial Guinea, thinks that the OPEC+ group may consider rolling over the current cuts for another year and deepening the cuts in Q2, Equatorial Guineas energy minister Gabriel Obiang Lima told S&P Global Platts on Wednesday, noting that an additional cut of 1 million bpd would send a very clear message and we just need to meet to confirm that. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Naxals killed a former colleague who was working as a police informer after surrendering in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said on Wednesday. Rebels attacked Hunga Kawasi with a sharp weapon near Palem village under Kukanar police station limits late on Tuesday night, a senior police official said. After leaving the outlawed CPI (Maoist) party last year, Kawasi was working as a 'gopniya sainik' (secret soldier), providing information to the police and assisting them in counter-insurgency operations, he said. Kawasi had gone to a local fair in Palem, when the rebels abducted him and took him to the nearby forest, the official said. The victim's body was found by some villagers and the police were subsequently informed, the official said. A police team launched a combing operation in the area, he said, adding that the deceased's body was sent for post-mortem. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ALBANY Local highway superintendents and their workers visited the Capitol Wednesday calling on the state to increase funding to repair and maintain local roads, bridges and culverts. More than 700 people clad in bright orange T-shirts gathered at the Million Dollar staircase with state lawmakers urging an increase in the states Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) by $150 million, to a total of $588 million funding which has remained flat since 2013. The stagnant CHIPS funding has been buoyed by PAVE-NY and BRIDGE-NY programs established in 2016, but highway department employees say the state should strengthen its commitment to local transportation by increasing CHIPS aid. Municipalities providing road and bridge maintenance each receive a chunk of CHIPS funding annually, based off a calculation in state Highway Law. While several factors are considered, the two most influential in how much is doled out are the inventory of roadways and motor vehicle registrations, according to the state Department of Transportation. The call for additional funding to CHIPS comes as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has promised in his proposed executive budget to have the nations most aggressive $275 billion infrastructure program. We believe that New York states investment in local transportation infrastructure must be a foundation of the nations most aggressive infrastructure program in order for this program to achieve its envisioned goals, highway workers and state lawmakers said in a letter delivered to Cuomo. We once again stress that New York states direct investment in local roads and bridges through CHIPS remains fundamental to the mission. ... It deserves priority consideration in the final allocation of the record level of state investment the executive proposes for the 2020-21 fiscal year. The Local Roads Matter coalition, which led the rally Wednesday, pointed to a 2017 state comptroller's report that estimated locally owned bridges need at least $27.4 billion in repairs. Meanwhile, an earlier comptroller's report called 32 percent of the states local bridges deficient and 40 percent of local roads in fair or poor condition. A 2018 Times Union review of bridge conditions in the Capital Region showed nearly 30 percent needed repair. Joel Kie, president of the state Association of Town Superintendents of Highways and a highway superintendent in Broome County, said 87 percent of the states roads and over half its bridges are owned and maintained by local government. The association "supports a $150-million increase in CHIPS and the restoration of $65 million in Extreme Winter Recovery Funding to support local roads, bridges and culverts, Kie said in a statement. This requested additional infrastructure funding is necessary to provide the public with a safe and functional statewide transportation system, one that supports jobs and economic growth for our communities. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Assemblywoman Marjorie Byrnes, R-Caledonia, joined several of her colleagues in supporting the increase. CHIPS funding is an issue that falls by the wayside every year, she said. The governor has proposed maintaining instead of increasing funding for local roads. The governor has also proposed cutting Extreme Winter Recovery funding which is necessary after long, upstate winters. Gov. Cuomo is once again demonstrating that he doesnt care about anything north of New York City, and I intend to fight for those of us who do. The coalition also wants the $65 million Extreme Winter Recovery funding restored, which is eliminated in Cuomos proposed budget. They also call on Cuomo and legislative leaders to: Achieve parity in the five-year capital plans between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Department of Transportation as well as parity between the two for percentage funding increases. Double PAVE-NY and BRIDGE-NY local funding each to $200 million annually, with additional funding for culverts. Gerry Geist, executive director of the state Association of Towns, said quality roads are imperative. Our local highway departments are out there with the postal workers, in the sun, sleet, humidity, snow and ice, ensuring New Yorkers can get where theyre going quickly and safely, Geist said. Of the $1.4 billion towns spend annually on their road care and repair, just $130 million comes from CHIPS. Investing in our roads today will ensure that New Yorkers are not just using them on their way out of the state, but to our schools, businesses and landmarks. Ratings agency Icra on Wednesday said it is maintaining negative outlook on the cotton spinning sector amid uncertainty over the extent and duration of the coronavirus outbreak. It added that operating profitability for the domestic spinning sector in FY20 is expected at multi-year lows, closer to the level last witnessed in FY12, when most players suffered sizeable losses on inventory due to a steep unexpected correction in cotton prices. "With no meaningful recovery in sight and continued uncertainty on the extent and duration of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, we are maintaining the 'negative' outlook on the cotton spinning sector assigned in August 2019," Icra Senior Vice-President and Group Head, Corporate Sector Ratings, Jayanta Roy said. "Even though domestic cotton fibre prices continue to be competitive vis-a-vis international cotton prices at present with a price spread of 4 per cent (reduced from 9 per cent in Feb-20), a further correction in international cotton prices amid demand-side uncertainties could render domestic spinners uncompetitive in the international markets, similar to the situation which was witnessed in H1 FY20," Roy added. The domestic cotton spinning industry is highly dependent on exports, especially to China where 30 per cent of the cotton yarn produced in the country is exported, Icra said. China has accounted for nearly one-third of the shipments in recent years, it added. The outbreak of the coronavirus in China and the consequent lockout in parts of the country has resulted in a shutdown of production units in India, trickling down to lower demand for the yarn. The resultant correction in realisations, even as cotton prices have remained relatively stable on the back of scaled-up market interventions by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), are expected to contract spinners' contribution margins again, compared to the previous three months. Movement in domestic cotton prices contrasts with the international trend wherein uncertainties on demand have resulted in a sharper correction in cotton fibre prices in recent weeks, Icra added. As for the performance of the Indian cotton spinning industry, it has already been severely constrained in the current fiscal amid multiple headwinds, including a demand slowdown in the domestic as well as export markets and unfavourable raw material prices, Icra said. While the industry was pinning hopes on a gradual recovery in cotton yarn exports from Q4 FY20 onwards, aided by softening of domestic cotton prices, the recent developments could prolong tough times for the domestic spinners, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pennridge to vote on one textbook; further review on other one [March 04, 2020] Insight Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Ready to Help Families Enroll for the 2020-2021 School Year Insight Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (Insight PA), an online public-school serving K-12 students throughout the state, is ready to welcome students to enroll for the 2020-2021 school year beginning February 27. Insight PA gives your student a personalized learning experience designed to assist those who seek alternative pathways to education. With over 3 years as a trusted education program, Insight PA is available to all students who reside in Pennsylvania. Authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and delivered entirely online, Insight PA combines online instruction, rigorous curriculum and the support of state-licensed teachers. In addition to working towards their high school diplomas, Insight PA students can participate in the Destinations Career Program, which allows them to discover exciting options for their future in career fields like Accounting, Programming and Gaming, Pharmacy Tech, and Certified Nurse Assistant. As an example, Insight PA has partnered with Pennsylvania College of Technology to provide students with the opportunity to earn the Manufacturing Technician Level 1 certification from the Manufacturing Skills Institute. Students who complete the Advanced Manufacturing Pre-pprenticeship Program will possess the essential skills to enter the manufacturing workforce as an entry-level technician. More information can be found at www.pct.edu/pre-apprenticeships. In addition, students can join a pre-apprenticeship program with The Association of Builders and Contractors, which gives students the skills and knowledge to enter the construction industry. Students can also earn college credits through partnerships with local colleges and prepare to take industry-recognized certification exams upon graduation. "With college costs spiraling out of control nationwide, it's good to get an idea of what you want to do before you get there. Our career program lets students try new things and get a sense for the options they have, while still in high school, helping Pennsylvania students take charge of their own future," says Insight PA CEO, Eileen Cannistraci. Overall, Insight PA offers challenging academic curriculum focused on college preparation. Students take a full course load in the core subjects of math, science, English language arts, history, art and music. Electives include world languages, as well as high school honors courses. Insight PA also offers student clubs, in-person field trips, and social gatherings to foster a sense of school community. Virtual classes are taught by Pennsylvania-licensed teachers who provide instruction during live online class sessions, and are available to students via phone, email and one-to-one meetings. "The faculty at this school have been a shining light, a beacon of hope and a spiritual compass who have brought my daughter back from a very dark and dismal place in her life and in her education," said Mr. David Marsh, father of an Insight PA 7th grader. "Together, they have rekindled the fire that was dulled to a flickering spark as a result of bullying in her previous brick and mortar school. My daughter now dreams again, now plays again, and now has hope of a promising tomorrow. Their dedication and undying support have given my family a new, stronger, foundation to build upon and I stand behind them 100%." Students choose online school for a variety of reasons including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs. Insight PA's online platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment and at an appropriate pace for their learning style. Insight PA is now accepting enrollments for the 2020-2021 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online or in-person information session hosted by the school. More information on Insight PA, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events can be found at pa.insightschools.net. About Insight Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Insight Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (Insight PA) is an online public charter school authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education that serves students in grades K through 12th grade. As part of the Pennsylvania public school system, Insight PA is public school, giving parents and families the choice to access the engaging curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about Insight PA, visit pa.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005006/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Steadfast implementation of the Policy and Action Plan-2015 has resulted in a consistent decline in both left-wing extremism (LWE) and geographical spread of its influence, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy informed Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. "On the development front, apart from flagship schemes of the Central Government, several initiatives have been taken for the development of roads, installation of mobile towers, skill development, improving the network of banks and post offices, besides strengthening of health and education facilities. Steadfast implementation of the Policy and Action Plan-2015 has resulted in a consistent decline in both LWE violence and geographical spread of LWE influence, Reddy stated" a statement from Home Ministry read. Union Home Minister held a meeting to review Left Wing Extremism (LWE) scenario with the Chief Ministers of the affected States on August 26 last year, Reddy informed the Upper House. The written reply came into a question on discussion with Chief Ministers on steps to curb Maoists, Home Ministry said in a statement. "During the meeting, various security measures and development interventions taken up by the Central and State Governments to implement the multi-pronged Policy and Action Plan - 2015 were discussed in detail," the Home Ministry said. The Union Home Minister assured the States of all the support needed for the in the endeavour to fight LWE. "Reddy also informed that no Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are being withdrawn from Left Wing Extremism theatre. However, depending on dynamic security scenario CAPFs are redeployed from one area to another," the Home Ministry said. As per the Seventh schedule of Constitution of India, 'Police' and 'Public Order' are State subjects. However, the Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments over a wide range of measures including security, development and ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is supporting the State Governments extensively by the deployment of CAPF Battalions, provision of helicopters, the sanction of India Reserve Battalions (IRBs)/ Special India Reserve Battalions (SIRBs) etc. Funds are provided under Modernization of Police Force (MPF) Scheme, Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS) for modernization and training of State Police, the Home Ministry said. New Delhi [India], Mar 5 (ANI): With India, Indonesia and Thailand confirming new cases of coronavirus, World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged the countries in its South-East Asia region to strengthen preparedness for all possible scenarios and ensure early containment measures. "Top priority of countries should be to be ready to roll out speedy response to the first case, first cluster, and the first evidence of community transmission. Early containment measures can help countries stop transmission," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia region. Singh added, "The risk of the new coronavirus is very high across the world. More cases can be expected. Rapidly identifying these cases, isolating them and following their contacts are important initiatives to help limit person to person transmission. The speed of our response is critical, which is only possible if we are prepared." She also added that there are three priorities for country readiness - protecting health workers, engaging with communities and empowering them with timely and accurate information to enable them take protective measures, especially those at highest risk; and doing our best to contain epidemics in the most vulnerable countries. Outlining preparedness and response measures and capacities in the WHO South-East Asia Region, Singh said: "WHO is assisting countries in preparedness and response planning, in coordination with other partner organization; as per updated global guidelines." She added, "All member countries have rolled out a series of measures to prevent the disease and protect their nationals." "Nine of the 11 countries now have capacities to test for COVID-19. WHO is supporting countries with supplies for laboratories. For countries unable to test, WHO is assisting in the shipping of their samples to global referral laboratories, three of them in the region - two in Thailand and one in India," WHO said in a release. It added that nearly 300, 000 pieces of personal protective equipment comprising of caps, goggles, surgical masks, gloves gowns etc, have been supplied to member countries, and nearly 200, 000 more pieces are being procured. (ANI) Three more Israelis have been diagnosed with coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 15, the Health Ministry said in a statement. "There are another three patients with coronavirus," read the statement as reported by Sputnik. The Health Ministry added that one of the patients returned from Italy on February 29 and all three have been quarantined. The Health Organization (WHO) has registered over 1,700 new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection outside of China while the total number of infected people have exceeded 10,000. The WHO said, in its coronavirus disease situation report, that the number of confirmed cases outside of China had risen by 1,792 to 10,566 in 72 countries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Russia Tire Market, By Vehicle Type, By Demand Category, By Radial vs Bias, By Summer Tire vs Winter Tire, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p04646992/?utm_source=GNW Government of Russia has been taking various initiatives for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in various sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure and transportation & tourism. Demand for tires in Russia is expected to increase at a moderate pace in the coming years, owing to expanding vehicle fleet and rising per capita income levels. As of 2018 Russia tire market stood at over 58 million and the market is expected to surpass 90 million tires by 2025.Russia tire market can be broadly classified based on vehicle type, demand category, and radial vs bias. Based on the vehicle type, the market can be bifurcated into Passenger Car tires, Two-Wheeler tires, LCV tires, M&HCV tires and OTR tires. Passenger car tires accounted for the largest share and the segment is poised to grow at an impressive rate during the forecast period as well, as the number of passenger cars is increasing in the country. Major players operating in Russia tires market include Michelin Russia and CIS, Continental Kaluga Limited Liability Company, Hankook Tire Rus Limited Liability Company, Bridgestone C.I.S Limited Liability Company, Nizhnekamskshina Joint Stock Company, Pirelli Tyre Russia Limited Liability Company, Nokian Tyres PLC, Altai Tyre Open Joint Stock Company, Belshina Open Joint Stock Company, among others. Years considered for this report: Historical Period: 2015-2018 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Period: 20212025 Objective of the Study: To assess the demand-supply scenario of automotive tires, which covers production, demand and supply of automotive tires in Russia. To analyze and forecast the market size of Russia tire market. To classify and forecast Russia tire market based on vehicle type, demand category, radial vs bias, and regional distribution. To identify drivers and challenges for Russia tire market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in Russia tire market. To conduct the pricing analysis for tires. To identify and analyse the profile of leading players involved in the manufacturing of Russian tires. To perform the study, the analyst conducted primary as well as exhaustive secondary research.Initially, the analyst prepared an exhaustive list of tires players operating in Russia. Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys, which included primary calls, email responses, etc., with the identified companies. While interviewing, the respondents were also asked about their major competitors. Through this technique, the analyst could include manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The analyst examined product offerings and regional presence of all major tires suppliers across the globe. The analyst calculated the market size for Russia tires by using a bottom-up technique, wherein manufacturers volume sales data for different applications, was recorded as well as forecast for the future years. The analyst sourced these values from industry experts and company representatives, and externally validated through analysing historical sales data of respective manufacturers to arrive at the overall market size. Multiple secondary sources such as directories, company websites, company annual reports, white papers, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied by the analyst. Key Target Audience: Tires manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and other stakeholders Associations, organizations, forums and alliances related to tires Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Market research and consulting firms The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for industry stakeholders such as tires manufacturers, customers and policy makers. The study would also help them to target the growing segments over the coming years, thereby aiding the stakeholders in taking investment decisions and facilitating their expansion. Report Scope: In this report, Russia tires market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Market, By Vehicle Type: o Passenger Car o Two-Wheeler o LCV o M&HCV o OTR Market, By Demand Category: o OEM o Replacement Market, By Radial vs Bias: o Radial o Bias Market, By Region: o Eastern Region o North-West Region o North Region o Siberian Region o Ural Region o South Region & Crimean Region o Volga Region o Central Region Competitive Landscape Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in tires. Available Customizations: With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: Company Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five). Profit Margin Analysis Profit margin analysis in case of direct and indirect sales channel. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04646992/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ A student who claims he suffered a burn injury to his eye when another schoolboy shone a laser beam in the classroom has sued the school in the High Court. Dillon Breen told the High Court he has to wear glasses for life after a part of the retina of his right eye was burned in the incident at St Kevins College, Finglas, Dublin eight years ago when he was a fifth year student. The other school boy he said did not mean to do something hurtful to him but shone the laser pen beam in his right eye. "I was doing exam papers and focussing down. He shone it in my right eye. I felt a burning sensation immediately. I didnt tell anybody, I didnt want to be a rat on anybody," he told Mr Justice Michael Hanna. He said he later had headaches and went to hospital where he was told: "had melted part of my retina". He added: "I had perfect 20:20 vision before. Now, I have a tick in my vision of the centre of my right eye. It has taken ten per cent of my vision." Dillon Breen, 24, Ferndale Avenue, Glasnevin, Dublin has sued the board of management of St Kevins College, Ballygall Road, Finglas, Dublin and the producer and distributor of the sky green beam laser pointer pen Syncron Limited, Rosemount Business Park, Ballycoolin, Dublin over the laser pen incident on May 25, 2012. The court heard that judgement had been obtained previously against Syncron Ltd in default of appearance. Mr Breen has claimed the school allegedly caused the pupils under their care to remain unsupervised and the school allegedly failed to notice in sufficient time or at all or have any adequate regard to the fact that the pupils had upon their person dangerous products which could foreseeable cause harm to fellow pupils. It was further claimed there was an alleged failure to forbid or properly warn pupils that products which were known or ought reasonably to have been known to be in circulation and dangerous were not to be brought upon school property. It was also claimed there was an alleged failure to supervise or otherwise control the school environment and its pupils in a safe and effective manner to so as to ensure no injury would be caused to Mr Breen. The claims are denied. In evidence Mr Breen said the incident happened when the teacher was away from the classroom and had asked the students to fill in exam questions. He said he was aware another student had brought a laser pen which had cost about 10 in to school as it had been shone on walls in classrooms. Cross examined by Finbarr Fox SC for the school Mr Breen agreed he did not say directly what happened to the teacher on his return to the classroom but he said his mother did bring it to the principals attention later. Mr Breens mother Martina Breen told the court her son never had any problems with his eyes before the accident. She said he had come home from school with a headache and went to bed. When he got up it was still sore and he was brought to hospital. On the way home she said she called in to the school and told them what had happened. She said there was no follow up from the school and she said she was never contacted about the incident. The case before Mr Justice Michael Hanna continues tomorrow. According to policy research, minorities in the U.S. have less access to mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of mental health care. According to policy research, minorities in the U.S. have less access to mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of mental health care. In an increasingly diverse world, there is belief that there must be stronger considerations of how to serve those from diverse communities in equitable ways to overcome barriers to treatment that exists for individuals in marginalized groups. In a workshop to be presented at the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (iaedp) 2020 Symposium, presenters will demonstrate how eating disorder treatment programs, advocates and clinicians can work together to ensure all individuals with eating disorders can access safe and intersectional treatment options needed for recovery. Marcella Raimondo, PhD, MPH, SJ Thompson, BS, QMHA, CBTP, CPWS and Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD, CEDS-S, FAED will address the challenges diverse groups face when seeking treatment in eating disorders during the workshop, Close up in Social Justice: Developing Partnerships for Treatment Access for Marginalized Populations, which will be presented during 2020 iaedp Symposium slated for March 26-29 at the Omni at ChampionsGate in Orlando. For registration information, visit iaedp.com. Dr. Raimondo is a licensed Psychologist for Kaiser Permanentes adult eating disorder clinic in Oakland and part of a regional leadership team. She runs her own practice in Oakland. She is also on the Board for EDRS, advisory board for ASDAH, Board of Founders for About-Face and conference committee for BEDA. Marcella herself recovered from anorexia nervosa over 15 years ago. Her recovery and her martial arts training inspires her dedication to multicultural body nurturance and community celebration. Thompson is a thought leader in the Health at Every Size, Body Trust, eating disorder treatment and recovery, body image and LGBTQIA+ communities. Currently, she is a group therapist at Monte Nido & Affiliates The Eating Disorder Center of Portland. Thompson also is the author of the popular blog, Resilient Fat Goddex, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Blood + Milk, and SELF. Dr. Muhlheim is a psychologist, fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS) and approved supervisor for the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp). She directs Eating Disorder Therapy LA in Los Angeles, is certified in Family-Based Treatment (FBT) for adolescent eating disorders and is the author of When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder, published in 2018. She has presented internationally on eating disorders and is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University. About the iaedp Foundation: Since 1985, the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals has provided education and training standards to an international and multidisciplinary group of various healthcare treatment providers and helping professions. MemberSHARE.iaedp.com is an iaedp business journal and online member resource to learn about noteworthy member achievements, continuing education webinars and U.S. and international chapter activity and events; for more information, visit MemberSHARE. The Presidents Council provides iaedp support and includes: Center for Change; Center for Hope of the Sierras; Center for Discovery; Eating Recovery Center; Willow Place; Laureate Eating Disorders Program; McCallum Place Eating Disorder Centers; The Meadows Ranch; Rogers Behavioral Health; Rosewood Centers for Eating Disorders; Selah House; The Renfrew Center; Timberline Knolls; Veritas Collaborative; Alsana Eating Disorder Treatment & Recovery Centers; Silver Hill Hospital, Walden Behavioral Care and KIPU. The 2020 iaedp Symposium is proud to announce Bronze Sponsors: ViaMar Health, Eating Disorder Recovery Specialists, Simple Practice, Transcend ED, Fairwinds Treatment Center and Montecatini. New Jersey miscalculated one school districts proposed state funding, but will fix the $2 million error, Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet said Wednesday. The state Department of Education did not have finalized 2019 tax data last month when it calculated how much state funding every school district should receive, Repollet said. By using 2018 tax data for one specific calculation, the state incorrectly reduced Pemberton Township School Districts funding by $4 million rather than $2 million. The department now has the 2019 tax data it needed and will send every district an updated state aid notice, though only Pemberton Townships proposed funding will change, Repollet said. He stressed that the outdated data was used for only one calculation: Determining what districts are fully or partially exempt from state aid reductions because their municipal tax rates are exceptionally high. Again, Pemberton is the only school district thats projected state aid will be impacted by this revision, Repollet said at a state Board of Education meeting. The fix follows an uproar in Pemberton, one of 194 districts seeing a reduction in state aid under Gov. Phil Murphys 2021 budget proposal. New Jersey is in the process of reallocating school funding, shifting money away from districts that receive too much aid according to the state funding formula. Pemberton expected its state aid reduction would be partially offset by recent tax hikes that pushed the district over the threshold for whats called municipal overburden. Districts with total equalized tax rates higher than state average are either fully or partially exempt from state aid cuts, depending on other financial factors. But since Murphys administration used the 2018 tax data, Pemberton didnt qualify for an exemption. The proposed $4 million reduction in Pembertons state funding was the fifth-largest reduction in the state. The district appreciates how quickly the state addressed the error, Pemberton Superintendent Tony Trongone said. The state did not explain the delay in the Education Department getting access to 2019 tax rate data. The information is typically published online in January or February of the following year, but has yet to be released in 2020. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The long-awaited report on the beef sector by economist Jim Power will be presented at the IFA's National Council today. Power was commissioned by the IFA in January 2019 to report on the beef sector to determine if there is money to be made in beef and if so, who is making it. The report was initially due to be released last autumn, but was put on hold, with one IFA source saying the organisation was hoping to include additional work in it. The report was presented on Friday to members of the IFA national executive and is understood to point the finger of blame for low producer prices at retailers. However, the amount of information received from the factories for the report is also understood to be limited. It's also understood that there was no 'pot of gold uncovered' for beef farmers. Margins The report found that factories are operating a low-margin business across the board. It's understood that the commitment by the Minister of Agriculture, Michael Creed, to examine the QPS grid has meant that this aspect of the trade is not covered in the report. Meanwhile, IFA has extended the deadline for staff to respond to an early retirement scheme. It's understood that seven of the 16 staff who were offered the package are based in IFA headquarters in Bluebell, while nine are regionally based. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that there is no need to panic from coronavirus and all possible arrangements have been made by the government to deal with the situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has also informed about country's preparedness against the coronavirus. "There is no room for panic. All the arrangement that could have possibly been made, have been made against coronavirus. Prime Minister has said and the Health Minister has said that we are fully prepared for handling this situation," Puri told reporters. "From identifying the source countries to imposing a travel restriction on people coming from those countries -- every measure has been put in place. Screening at airports, lab facilities, clinical testing, and the quarantine facilities -- all are being done," he added. He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan have gone on record to talk about the coronavirus preparedness of the country. Six positive cases of deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan where an Italian has been found positive with the infection in Jaipur. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and discharged from hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Syrian warplane was shot down by a Turkish fighter jet on Tuesday in the northwestern Idlib province, leaving the pilot dead. This was confirmed by the Turkish defence ministry in a tweet, an L-39 plane belonging to the Syrian regime has been downed. The attack was the third in three days. Previous attacks Turkey on Sunday shot down two Syrian Sukhoi jets, its military said, according to Aljazeera. The planes were shot down in retaliation after a Turkish drone was brought down by loyalists of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. In a tweet, the Turkey ministry of national defence confirmed they were responsible and did it in retaliation. Reports by Syrias SANA news agency revealed that no one was hurt in the attack. Raging war On Sunday, Turkey declared war on Syria. The declaration was made three days after at least 36 soldiers were killed and more than 30 wounded in an attack by Syrian and Russian air and artillery strikes. According to New York Times Turkey suffered its worse military losses in a single attack of war, leading Turkish President Recep Erdogan to vow retaliation. Turkeys involvement in Syria Turkey has been actively (diplomatically and militarily) involved in the Syrian war since 2011 (its outbreak) with a plan to re-settle at least a million refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war and currently living in Turkey in the zone. Haaretz an Israeli newspaper said the two goals of Turkey in northwestern Syria is to drive the Kurdish YPG militia away from their border and create a space inside Syria where 2 million Syria refugees currently hosting in Turkey can settle. Turkey sees the Kurdish YPG militia group as a major security threat because they reside very close to the Turkish border, it is also feared that the area could become a safe haven for rebels fleeing Turkey. Despite the heightened dispute between Turkey and Syria, talks aimed at achieving a cease fire will be held on March 5. Coronavirus update: The Prime Minister's Office held another review meeting to gauge preparedness to fight the spread of coronavirus. Earlier, Indian rupee and equity markets bore the brunt of rising coronavirus cases in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda and other leaders like AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal have said they'll not celebrate Holi due to the coronavirus spread in the country. Kejriwal said neither he nor his party's leaders would celebrate Holi in view of recent violence and the virus outbreak. Modi and his party leaders cancelled all 'Holi Milan' events in wake of the outbreak across India. Number of confirmed coronavirus cases spiked to 28 on Wednesday. Of these 16 are Italians while 12 are Indian nationals. More than 3,100 people have died, most of them in China, and over 90,000 have been infected worldwide by the virus. Check BusinessToday.In live blog to get all the latest updates on coronavirus outbreak 9:30 PM: Gurugram Paytm employee tests positive for coronavirus A Paytm employee in Gurugram, who returned from Italy, has been tested positive for novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The company has advised all its employees to work from home for the next couple of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised. 8:47 PM: Reports for 6 suspected patients awaited, says Maharashtra Public Health Dept Public Health Department, Maharashtra: Report of 6 are awaited. At present 9 travellers are still in hospital, 7 at Mumbai & 1 each at Nashik and Nanded. (2/2) https://t.co/AO5J4Mecr5 ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 8:38 PM: Paytm employee in tests positive for coronavirus Paytm revealed in a statement on Wednesday that one of its employees based out of Gurugram has been tested positive for coronavirus and is receiving appropriate treatment. His team members have been asked to get health check-ups done. reports suggest that Paytm's Gurugram office will be closed for two days and employees have been asked to work from home as the premises will be sanitised. Paytm: One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy has sadly been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately. pic.twitter.com/gXol1a4vOU ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 8:10 PM: Directorate of Health Services, Uttar Pradesh, revealed that total number of passengers from China visited and found residing in the state is 2,203 and those from 12 specified countries under observation, as on today, are 633. Directorate of Health Services, Uttar Pradesh: 2 symptomatic contacts from Agra are hospitalized at Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi. 15 asymptomatic contacts are hospitalized- 4 from Agra at Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, 6 from Noida at GB Nagar, 5 at district hospital,Bulandshahar. https://t.co/58fpmfZQtn ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 4, 2020 8:07 PM: In light of coronavirus outbreak, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) allows examinees to carry sanitisers, face maks inside exam halls during ongoing 10th and 12th Board examinations. 7:39 PM: Coronavirus news: WHO warns against shortage of medical equipment The World Health Organisation (WHO) has cauioned against a global shortage and price gouging for protective equipment to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The Uniited Nations agency asked companies and governments to increase production by 40 per cent as the death toll due to the deadly virus mounted. About 3.4% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, far above seasonal flu's fatality rate of under 1%, but the virus can be contained, the WHO chief said on Tuesday. "To summarise, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. (With Reuters input) 7:31 PM: RBI may have an ace up its sleeve in fight against coronavirus: report The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering using unconventional policy tools to spur lending, according to government sources, amid fears that the coronavirus outbreak will derail any revival of economic growth. RBI is planning to infuse fresh cash liquidity into the system through a second round of long-term repo operations (LTRO), anonymous sources told Reuters. One of the officials said the Reserve Bank of India might inject as much as 1 trillion rupees ($13.62 billion) in a new round of LTROs that begin as early as April. The RBI said on Tuesday it was monitoring global and domestic developments closely and stood ready to act to maintain market confidence and preserve financial stability. (Reuters) 7:26 PM: All suspected coronavirus cases, including 21 Italians and 3 Indians, brought to ITBP's quarantine facility in Chhawla, Delhi yesterday, left this on Wednesday. Positive cases will be sent to designated hospitals for treatment, whereas others will be kept under preventive isolation at a different location. ITBP: All 24 members comprising 21 Italians & 3 Indians brought to the quarantine facility in Chhawla, Delhi yesterday, left this evening. Positive cases to be treated at designated hospitals and others to be kept under preventive isolation at a different location. pic.twitter.com/7VoePuhlFU ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 7:14 PM: No new coronavirus cases in Telangana, says State Health Minister Telangana Health Minister E Rajender said there were no fresh coronavirus cases in the state apart from the one that has been confirmed. Samples of two people have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune for confirmation as their test results were on the "borderline" when tested in Hyderabad. Speaking to reporters, Rajender said: "Report of two people will come by tomorrow. It is only one patient (so far)...one case of coronavirus (in Telangana). There are no fresh cases." A 24-year-old techie from the city, who works in Bengaluru, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and he is undergoing treatment in an isolation ward at the state-run Gandhi hospital here. (PTI) 7:00 PM: Coronavirus treatment: Chinese doctors offer insight to Indian counterparts As the dreaded coronavirus appeared to spread in India, top Chinese doctors treating patients in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, on Wednesday advised their Indian counterparts to prepare plans, train medical staff and educate the public about wearing masks and washing of hands to contain the disease. Four top medical specialists, who were selected to treat coronavirus cases in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan in the last two months, interacted with the foreign and domestic media for the first time through an online press conference from the virus-hit Wuhan city on Wednesday. The training should include how to protect themselves putting on the protective clothing and take it off and prepare the much-needed equipment ready for both invasive and non-invasive treatment. A total of 28 COVID-19 cases were detected in India so far. Among them, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala. (PTI) 6:51 PM: coronavirus impact: Sitharaman allays fears over economic disruptions The government is working intensively to ensure meaningful intervention, if needed, to deal with the impact of unfolding coronavirus crisis on the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. Asked about the assessment of impact of coronavvirus on the economy, Sitharaman said she has held meetings with industry representatives along with secretaries and the inputs have shared with different ministries. 6:47 PM: Saudi Arabia bans umrah pilgrimage over coronavirus fears Saudi Arabia has banned citizens and residents from performing the Muslim pilgrimage of umrah in Mecca due to fears over the new coronavirus. It gave no time frame for how long the suspension will stand. Last week, Saudi Arabia had closed off the holiest sites in Islam to foreign pilgrims amid the coronavirus outbreak. 6:46 PM:Coronavirus news: FIBA 3X3 basketball Olympic qualifier in Bengaluru called off The FIBA 3x3 basketball Olympic qualifying tournament, scheduled to be held here from March 18 to 22, was on Wednesday postponed in view of the coronvirus outbreak. This is the first sporting event to be put off in India owing to the virus outbreak that has so far claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 94000 people across the world after being first detected in Wuhan, China. "The FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualification Tournament, which was scheduled to be held in Bengaluru, India, from March 18 to 22, 2020, has been postponed," F d ration Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) said in a statement. "FIBA is now working in close collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, on the best solution possible in the circumstances, considering that this tournament needs to take place before the FIBA 3x3 Universality Olympic Qualifier Tournament scheduled to be played in Budapest, Hungary, from April 24 to 26, 2020," it further said. Twenty teams each in men's and women's events were to participate in the event jointly organised by FIBA and Basketball Federation of India in a year which will witness the Olympic debut of 3x3 basketball. (PTI) 6:44 PM: Coronavirus update: EU official in Brussels tests positive A first European Union official working in the bloc's Brussels administration has tested positive for coronavirus infection. "We have confirmation of the case," EU Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant told news agency AFP. A spokeswoman for the European Defence Agency confirmed that a male public servant of the agency had returned from Italy on February 23 and subsequently tested positive. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union and home to many of its institutions, including the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament. 6:36 PM: HRD Ministry directs Chief Secretaries of states, CBSE to spread awareness among students on basic measures to protect themselves against coronavirus. Ministry of Human Resource Development issues advisory for schools regarding #Coronaviruspic.twitter.com/GnIffxOR1p ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020 6:34 PM: Coronavirus news: Rajasthan govt on alert after 16 Italian tourists test positive Labs were analysing blood samples and hotel staff disinfecting rooms along the Rajasthan tourist trail followed by a group of Italian travellers, 16 of whom have now tested positive for coronavirus. Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma told the assembly on Wednesday that at least 215 people came in contact with the Italian tourists who visited several places in the state from February 21 to 28. Informing about the measures taken by the state Health Department, he said teams have been alerted to thoroughly screen passengers at airports and rapid response teams have been formed in the medical colleges and associated hospitals. (PTI) 6:30 PM: Saudi suspends umrah pilgrimage to Mecca over coronavirus fears. 6:07 PM: PMO reviews corona virus response and preparedness Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra today chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to review preparedness and response on the corona virus issue. Today's meeting was the latest in a series of stock-taking meetings at the PMO. Two important decisions taken today by the government and mentioned at the meeting include introduction of universal screening at all international airports and sea-ports through use of thermal imagery equipment, and mandatory filling of declaration forms of places visited by tourists and travellers returning from abroad. The meeting identified specific areas of responsibility for various public authorities at the Centre, state and local levels. Emphasis was on greater participation of the private sector and the community at large, through a Jan Bhagidari approach. Decisions taken during the meeting include expanding testing facilities and developing a GIS database for mapping disease hotspots and available medical facilities. 5:50 PM: No Holi gala at Rashtrapati Bhavan this year In a statement on Wednesday, President Ram Nath Kovind said that traditional Holi gathering at Rashtrapati Bhavan will not happen this year in view of the ongoing coronavirus menace. With alertness and safeguards, we all can help contain the outbreak of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. In a precautionary measure, the Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold the traditional Holi gatherings. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) March 4, 2020 5:49 PM: Coronavirus news: Iran refuses US helping hand amid sanctions Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday dismissed a US offer to help the Islamic republic fight its coronavirus outbreak, charging that "vicious" American sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. Iran has scrambled to halt the rapid spread of the virus that has claimed 92 lives out of 2,922 confirmed infections in the past two weeks. It has shut schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events, and cut back on work hours. "Those who have deprived the people of even medicine and food through sanctions, who have done the most vicious things... they appear with a mask of sympathy and say that we want to help the nation of Iran," Rouhani said, in a clear reference to the United States. US President Donald Trump had said Saturday he was ready to aid Iran with the virus outbreak if the Islamic republic asked for assistance. (PTI) 5:45 PM: Coronavirus update: 3 schools closed in Delhi-NCR Three schools in the national capital and adjoining areas have announced holiday for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of coronavirus, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. On Tuesday, a day after the Union Health Ministry reported two fresh cases of coronavirus in the country with one of them in Delhi, two Noida schools sent messages to parents announcing their closure. One of the two schools, where the infected Delhi man's son is a student in a primary class, said it will remain shut from March 4 to March 6. A health department team fumigated and sanitised the school campus on Tuesday. A school in Delhi has announced it will be closed from Thursday while its two branches in Gurgaon have advanced their spring break and will now close from Saturday. Amity International Schools (AIS) in Delhi-NCR have have fumigated their classrooms and sent advisories to parents detailing the dos and don'ts. (PTI) 5:38 PM: Rupee tanks amid coronavirus crisis Extending decline for the third straight session, rupee on Wednesday turned volatile and slipped further after the government confirmed fresh cases of coronavirus in India. The local currency was trading at 73.22 against the US dollar, down 11 paise against its previous close of 73.29. On Wednesday, government confirmed 15 new coronavirus cases in India, taking the total number of patients to 28. Equity markets also bore the brunt of rapidly spreading coronavirus infection. 5:28 PM: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that "some people and channels" are trying to create panic over coronavirus in country to divert attention from the communal riots Delhi. 5:19 PM: Coronavirus update: Two samples from Telangana sent to Pune Samples of two persons have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune for confirmation of coronavirus as the government stepped up precautionary measures. The two persons are among the 47 whose samples were tested at the state-run Gandhi hospital here on Tuesday. Out of them, 45 samples tested negative, said State Health Minister E Rajender. The two persons are - a foreigner who came from Italy and another who moved closely with the man who tested positive for the virus, Rajender said. The state reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, had tested positive for the virus. (PTI) 5:15 PM: Symptoms of COVID-19 infections and precautions to take: (Credit: IANS) 5:09 PM: Delhi Metro staff sensitised about coronavirus Delhi Metro staff has been sensitised and guidelines have been circulated regarding Do's and Dont's to prevent the spread of coronavirus, DMRC told ANI. Instructions are being issued to increase the frequency of cleaning within the metro premises, the aouthority further added. 5:00 PM: Health Minister chairs high-level meet as number of cases reaches 28 Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired a high-level meeting on the coronavirus outbreak, with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and civic body officials in attendance. Vardhan announced that all international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports for the disease. Giving a breakup of those who tested positive for the virus, the Union health minister said that total 28 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in India. One is a 45-year-old man from Delhi's Mayur Vihar and six are his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited. They are all being treated at the Safdarjung hospital. A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad has also tested positive for coronavirus and has been isolated. Besides, 16 members of a tourist group from Italy and their Indian driver have been found infected with the virus. While an Italian man and his wife are being treated at Jaipur's SMS Hospital, 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. Three coronavirus patients reported in Kerala earlier have already been discharged. Health Ministry also said that two cases with high viral load have been detected in Telangana. (PTI) 5:00 PM: Iran reports 15 new Coronavirus deaths, taking the death toll t0 92, reported AFP. 4:45 PM: Wearing masks is not the only solution, says Union Minister Prakash Javadekar On shortage of masks, Prakash Javadekar said that wearing masks is not the only solution and is not necessary for everyone. Other things are -- keeping your hands clean, taking precautions in public places, and doing namaskar, he added. 4:40 PM: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has confirmed that 17 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad. 4:35 PM: Coronavirus deaths in Iran rises to 92 Iran reports 15 new Coronavirus deaths, casualties from the virus reaches 92. Iran is the worst-affected country from the coronavirus outside Asia, in terms of the number of deaths from the deadly virus. 4.25PM: 3 students who returned from Wuhan (China) and tested positive for #Coronavirus are stable and at home. Their isolation period is also over: Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja 4.15PM: Iraq announces first coronavirus death Iraq said a 70-year-old Muslim cleric died on Wednesday from the novel coronavirus, the first death from the outbreak in a country where 31 people have been infected. 4.05PM: 215 people came in touch with COVID-19 affected Italian group: Rajasthan minister Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma informed the House on Wednesday that at least 215 people came in contact with the COVID-19 affected group of Italian tourists that had visited various places in the state. A total of 51 suspected patients have been tested negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said. 4.00PM: Delhi hospitals are prepared to tackle any situation arising out of the novel coronavirus outbreak: CM Kejriwal 3.55PM: China's car sales fall 80 per cent February on coronavirus epidemic The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said in a statement that China's overall passenger car sales dropped 80 per cnet on Wednesday, Reuters reported. 3.50PM: Seventeen Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad: MEA 3.45PM: Govt intends to set up coronavirus testing facility for Indians in Iran: Harsh Vardhan India intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so that Indians there can be tested for a possible exposure to novel coronavirus before being brought back, Health Minister said. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran currently. 3.39PM: Over 6 lakh people screened at 21 airports for coronavirus: Prakash Javadekar 3.36 PM: Two buildings in the Hyderabad IT park, where an employee working in Raheja Mindspace was detected positive for coronavirus, have been partially closed over the coronavirus fears, The Times of India reported. 3.31 PM: Ministry of Health and Family Affairs on new coronavirus cases "Third case in Jaipur, wife of the already confirmed Italian patient, has been confirmed for COVID-19. Total 14 Italians and one Indian, who were part of the team of the Jaipur COVID-19 confirmed case, are also initially confirmed positive for COVID-19. Six (6) family members at Agra, who are family members of the COVID19 confirmed case from Delhi, are confirmed for COVID-19. In addition, two cases with high viral load have been detected in Telangana." 3.18 PM: Sensex tanks over coronavirus fears Equity market resumed selling streak and dipped 1.93% on Wednesday, with Sensex dropping below 38,000 level and Nifty closing in to 11,000 mark. Barring pharma, all the other indices were trading in red, with major declines recorded media, metal and banking stocks. BSE 30-share S&P Sensex traded 650 points lower at 38,015 and Nifty50 traded 195 points lower at 11,107. 3.13 PM: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that saliva is the main carrier of coronavirus. The Union Minister warned people against taking part in huge gatherings and advised them to avoid crowded places. The minister was addressing a press conference on COVID-19. In this presser, the minister also stated that the number of coronavirus cases in India as of now is 28. Read More: Coronavirus: Avoid crowded places, says Health Minister Harsh Vardhan 3.02 PM: BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda has written to all BJP state presidents, asking them to not hold Holi programmes in wake of coronavirus. 2.37 PM: Kejriwal says he's not celebrating Holi because of coronavirus and the recent violence that took place in Delhi in which many people lost their lives. "People are in pain that is why neither I nor any minister or MLA will celebrate Holi," he adds. 2.34 PM: Amazon confirms that an employee who works in the internet giant's home city of Seattle in the United States has been quarantined after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. 2.26 PM: Tech giant Intel says one of its employees in Bengaluru "potentially been exposed" to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. 2.24 PM: The Gujarat Health Department says none of the 1,582 people kept under observation after returning from coronavirus-hit countries has so far been found to be infected by the potentially deadly virus. 2.20 PM: Here's the updated advisories on COVID19. 2.14 PM: Task force on coronavirus formed under my leadership, all concerned stakeholders will be part of it, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal 2.08 PM: Jai Prakash Shivhare, Health Commissioner, Health and Welfare Department, Gujarat: "As many as 1,582 people who came from foreign countries recently have been screened till now. 25 samples collected. Isolation wards have been set up in medical colleges." 2.04 PM: Some people 'shouting corona, corona a bit too much': Mamata West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says some people are "shouting corona, corona a bit too much...yes it is a dreaded disease...but don't create panic...some channels are hyping it to suppress the Delhi incident...do report when it occurs...we don't want it to spread but do remember all those who died in Delhi did not die of Corona!!" 1.51 PM: 29 suspected patients admitted in Delhi hospitals: Health ministry Health ministry says at least 25 people suspected of coronavirus have been admitted at Safdarjung Hospital, while four have been kept in isolation at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi. 1.45 PM: Ravi Shankar Prasad: "PM Modi has decided not to participate in any Holi Milan Programme this time as experts have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid spread of Coronavirus. In view of this, we are cancelling Holi Milan prog that we were organising at Miller School Patna on 7th March." 1.41 PM: Indians who have been affected due to coronavirus: 12 Man who came in contact with Italian tourists; he was their driver One person from Telangana and 1 person from Delhi 6 family members of the Delhi patient 3 others from Kerala; they have finally recovered 1.38 PM: Coronavirus outbreak in India: here's a breakup Total cases: 28 Indian nationals: 12 Italians: 16 1.23 PM: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on reports of an increase in the price of N95 masks: If people are taking advantage and misusing this time, then they should be labeled as "black sheep" and a mechanism to punish them should be implemented. 1.12 PM: Amit Shah not to attend Holi events Home Minister Amit Shah: "Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, i have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of yourself & your family." 1.07 PM: New measures put in place A meeting of a group of Union Ministers on coronavirus to be held today at Nirman Bhawan. From now on, all flights and passengers will be part of universal screening, not just the 12 countries which we were listed earlier. 12.54 PM: Harsh Vardhan says all six patients in Agra have been tested positive for coronavirus. "On conducting contact tracing of the person tested positive in Delhi, we came to know that he infected 6 members of his family who are in Agra. All 6 members tested positive for coronavirus," the Union Health Minister says. 12.52PM: Till yesterday, the government has screened around 15,000 people at sea ports; over 10 lakh people at the Nepal borders and 5 lakh across airports: Harsh Vardhan 12.50PM: Union Health Minister says "saliva is the primary carrier of infection followed by hand contact"; says people should avoid taking part in large gatherings. 12.47PM: No need for panic, precautions and right information is more important. Total 15 labs have been prepared in the first phase and 19 additional ones will soon be ready. India can conduct up to 25,000 tests: Health minister Harsh Vardhan 12.45PM: "An Italian group came to India on February 21, one member of group identified with virus, other members of the group in Jaipur have been isolated," says Harsh Vardhan. 12.40PM: 14 out of 21 Italian nationals have found positive for coronavirus. They have been sent to at Indo-Tibetan Border Police's quarantine facility in Chhawla: Harsh Vardhan 12.35PM: India has total 28 cases, including 17 Italians: Health minister 12.30PM: Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on Wednesday, convened meeting with Delhi's ministers and health officials over coronavirus outbreak. Harsh Vardhan has asked them to develop good quality isolation wards, in order to stay prepared if more cases of coronavirus are suspected in the national capital. 12.25PM: Will not celebrate Holi: JP Nadda National President of Bharatiya Janata Party, JP Nadda, stated that he would not celebrate Holi this year over coronavirus outbreak. The world is battling COVID -19 Novel Corona Virus. The countries & medical fraternity are jointly making efforts to contain its spread. Keeping this in mind, this year, I will neither celebrate Holi nor organise Holi Milan. Stay safe, Stay Healthy. Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) March 4, 2020 12.20PM: Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Modi at 12.30 pm today to review preparedness for dealing with coronavirus situation in the country, PIB tweeted. 12.10 PM: China to Roche Holding AG arthritis drug to treat some coronavirus patients China will use a Roche Holding AG arthritis drug to treat some coronavirus patients in severe conditions, health authorities said on Wednesday, as the country seeks to build up treatment regiments to help the infected recover. Tocilizumab, sold by the Swiss pharma giant under the trade name Actemra, can be prescribed to coronavirus patients who show serious lung damage and show elevated level of a protein called Interleukin 6, which could indicate inflammation or immunological diseases, the National Health Commission said in the latest version of its treatment guidelines published online, reports Reuters. 11.54 AM: Union Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan chairs a high-level meeting of Delhi government officials. He will soon brief the media over the coronavirus outbreak. 11.48 AM: Italian tourists to be shifted to Safdarjung Hospital The Italian tourists who have been tested positive for COVID-19 virus will likely be shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. The government is yet to take a call weather they'll be sent back to Italy or treated here. All 21 tourists are under watch. The group members -- mostly in late 50s and early 60s -- have been together for past two weeks, and hence their chances of testing positive for the deadly virus are high. 11.40 AM: Govt to soon brief media Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar to brief the media on Cabinet decisions at 3 PM today i.e. 4.3.2020 at PIB Conference Hall, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi. 11.37 AM: PM Modi not to take part in 'Holi Milan' event "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme," tweets the PM. 11.29 AM: Prices of masks surge manifold Prices of masks have surged manifold in Delhi and other metropolitan areas. A major reason for this is a huge supply hit from China. The demand for masks and hand senitisers have risen across India amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak. 11.21 AM: Coronavirus claims 9 lives in the US Three more deaths from the coronavirus were reported by Washington state on Tuesday as the nation's largest and only fatal outbreak of the respiratory disease reached beyond the Seattle area. The total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus in the greater Seattle area rose to 27 on Tuesday, including nine deaths, the state Department of Health said. -- Reuters 11.19 AM: Mahindra and Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra on coronavrus: "The crisis will pass, but I think it's making the world press a permanent 'Reset' button. 1) It'll accelerate working from home 2) lead to more digital 'virtual' conferences 3) More video calls, less meetings.4) Less air travel, leading to a greener footprint." 11.13 AM: No need to panic: Karanataka CM BS Yediyurappa "There are no coronavirus cases in Karnataka. There's a difference in what appears in the media and what is happening on ground. There is no need to panic. PM Modi too is looking into it. Our health minister spoke to the media and no one needs to panic. We are ready to tackle the situation," says the Karnataka CM. 11.08 AM: After Twitter, HCL, TCS tell employees to avoid non-essential travels After Twitter, TCS, HCL Tech has asked its employees to avoid non-essential travel and are implementing all the required guidelines on the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Twitter on Monday asked over 5,000 of its employees to work from home. The San Francisco-based social media giant has said it was operating out of "caution" and utmost dedication to keep its employees healthy. "Beginning today, we are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they're able. Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us - and the world around us," Twitter said. 10.55 AM: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)has temporarily shut all its schools as a precaution owing to threat of coronavirus, officials said on Wednesday. 10.52AM: 459 passengers of Italian cruise ship screened in Kochi A total of 459 passengers of the Italian luxury cruise ship, "Costa Victoria," which was docked in Kochi, were screened on Wednesday. 10.50AM: Coronavirus infection cases reach 1,000 in Japan The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Japan reached the 1,000 mark on Wednesday. Of those, 706 are from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, while 12 have died, the health ministry said. 10.45AM: South Korea reports 516 new coronavirus cases South Korea reported 516 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. The new cases bring South Korea's total to 5,328, with at least 32 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. Most cases were in and around Daegu, the country's fourth largest city, where the flu-like virus has spread rapidly through members of a fringe Christian group, Reuters reported. 10.38AM: Around 2,000 face masks stolen from French hospital Around 2,000 surgical masks have been stolen from a hospital in the southern French city of Marseille in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, according to AFP. 10.32 AM:Don't say 'hello', say 'Namaskar' Goa BJP leader Siddharth Kunkolienkar says people should take adequate precautions, adopt Indian style of greeting with 'Namaskar'. 10.24 AM: World Bank unveils $12 billion aid package The World Bank unveils a $12 billion aid package for combating the coronavirus outbreak. "The goal is to provide fast, effective action that responds to country needs," World Bank President David Malpass said. He said it was critical to "recognise the extra burden on poor countries" least equipped in the struggle to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. -- AFP 10.14 AM: 5 schools shut over coronavirus fears Five schools in Noida have been shut due to the growing fears over coronavirus outbreak. Two private schools -- Shriram Millennium School, Noida, and Shiv Nadar School, Noida -- and two branches one of the schools in South Delhi and Gurugram announced closure on Wednesday amid the outbreak reports, The Times of India reported. 10.07 AM: Two suspected cases in Maharashtra Two more suspected cases under observation in Maharashtra - one in Mumbai and another in Pune. The authorities will soon release their health results. 10.05 AM: Around 25% drop likely in bookings due to coronavirus: Yatra "Southeast Asia and Italy being one of the most preferred destinations for Indians, we can anticipate a drop of about 20-25 percent in terms of future bookings, though it is too early to predict any drastic impact. They are wary of making fresh bookings to the affected locations and airfares to these destinations have dropped by 20-30 percent," Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder, Yatra.com said in a statement. 10.00 AM: Fresh suspected case from Bengaluru A fresh case of suspected coronavirus has been reported from Bengaluru. A passenger, who came from Saudi Arabia and reached Bengaluru airport, has shown some symptoms of fever. He has been quarantined and is under examination. 9.51 AM: An army officer has been admitted to isolation ward of military hospital at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh for suspected exposure to coronavirus after returning from Iran. -PTI 9.49 AM: Six people from Noida, who were quarantined after they attended a birthday party hosted by a Delhi resident who was tested positive, have tested negative, district magistrate BN Singh says. 9.43 AM: A total of 15 Italian tourists have been confirmed positive at AIIMs; total Covid-19 cases have risen to 18 in India now. 9.36 AM: One confirmed case in Jaipur: One case has been confirmed as positive for COVID-19 from Jaipur. "The patient is in isolation and is stable," the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs says. 9.35 AM: Govt issues advisory to private news channels, FM radio channels The advisory seeks assistance and contribution of private TV channels and FM radio channels to reach out to people across the country. All such channels and their associations are requested to give adequate publicity to the Revised Travel Advisory issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 9.30 AM: Travel advisory on COVID-19: The government has revised its travel advisory. Update on COVID-19: revised travel advisory issued for immediate implementation#CoronaVirusIndia#Coronaviruspic.twitter.com/wbSvzxUqnh PIB India (@PIB_India) March 3, 2020 9.25 AM: Do's and Don'ts for protection from coronavirus #coronavirus can be kept at bay. Here are a few simple Do's and Don'ts for your protection. #Covid_19pic.twitter.com/CPjNVhmy6v PIB India (@PIB_India) March 3, 2020 9.26 AM: India restricts export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including Paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70% of the APIs for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on. -- Reuters 9.21 AM: Measures to take to protect yourself from coronavirus Observe basic measures to protect yourself from #coronavirus. Take care of your health and protect others by doing the following#Covid19#coronavirusindiapic.twitter.com/6zkrb3FwRE PIB India (@PIB_India) March 3, 2020 9.18 AM: Noida administration issues helpline Following the shutting down of two schools in Noida over fears of coronavirus transmission, the Noida District Magistrate (DM) BN Singh along with Chief Medical Officer Dr Anurag Bhargava requested people not to panic and believe any rumours concerning the coronavirus outbreak in Delhi-NCR. Issuing helpline numbers for citizen related queries (8076623612 / 6396776904) Singh said the UP government was taking all necessary precautions to deal with the coronavirus scare in Noida. 9.08 AM: Noida DM says six samples tested for coronavirus have been tested negative but the persons concerned have been asked to stay at home for next 14 days. The administration has not given any order for the closure of schools, say the authorities. 8.59 AM: Agra administration issues warning After six positive cases of COVID 19 were detected in Agra, the district administration has appealed people to avoid to go to crowded places. A day after a Delhi man was found positive for the deadly coronavirus, six of his family members whom he met in Agra have been quarantined. Those infected had reportedly come in contact with the patient. These six people have also been kept in isolation at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. The Health Ministry has said these six cases with "high-viral load" were detected during sample testing in Agra. Hotels and authorities at tourist places in Agra have been told to inform the Chief Medical Officer's office as soon as visitors from Italy, Iran or China arrive, so that they can be screened for coronavirus infection. 8.58 AM: Gujarat opens 'isolation wards' in all 33 districts The Gujarat government has decided to open "isolation wards" in each of the 33 districts for treatment of any suspected novel coronavirus case, while 87 people, who recently returned from the virus-hit Iran, have been kept under observation, say officials. Total 87 people, who had recently returned from Iran, have been kept under home quarantine, said Commissioner of Health, Jai Prakash Shivahare, said. 8.52 AM: China reports 119 new cases Mainland China had 119 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the country's National Health Commission said on Wednesday, down slightly from 125 on the previous day. The total number of cases on the mainland has now reached 80,270. The number of deaths rose by 38 to bring the total mainland China death toll to 2,981 by March 3. Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 37 new deaths and 115 new cases on Tuesday. -- Reuters 8.45 AM: WHO issues warning: The World Health Organisation has warned of a global shortage and price gouging for protective equipment to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus and asked companies and governments to increase production by 40 per cent as the death toll from the respiratory illness mounted. 8.39 AM: Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur: "A suspected case of coronavirus has come to our knowledge, it's not right to jump to conclusions. Tests will be done, factual position will be clear only after his reports come in. We have come to know that the person is from Bilaspur." 8.35 AM: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will hold a meeting with senior officials from the Delhi government for the management and preparedness of coronavirus. 8.31 AM: In wake of coronavirus outbreak, UP Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh has chaired a meeting with the top officials of the health department to review state's preparedness. A 23- member outbreak response committee has also been formed to deal with virus outbreak. 8.30 AM: UP govt medical bulletin on coronavirus: No confirmed case of coronavirus has been reported from UP to date, says the government. "One traveller from Noida who came in contact with a positive case of German origin has been admitted at the RML Hospital in Delhi. His condition is stable ad his test result is negative for Novel Corona." 8.28 AM: The Rajasthan government says 13 patients with symptoms of coronavirus have been admitted in Jaipur today. 8.23 AM: As per official sources, an Italian group comprising 21 people was taken to the ITBP quarantine facility in Chhawla, New Delhi, for preventive isolation on Tuesday afternoon. Their samples are being analysed. 8.15 AM: As of March 3, the Mumbai airport has screened approximately 64,621 passengers across 549 flights at the airport. 8.00 AM: Government advisory: All aircraft arriving from South Korea, Japan and Italy should be disinfected upon arrival. All inbound international flights prior to the movement of aircraft should undergo thermal scanning. Finnish English Municipality Finance Plc Stock Exchange Release 4 March 2020 at 1.30 pm (EET) Proposals to the Annual General Meeting of Municipality Finance Plc The Board of Directors (hereinafter the Board) and the Shareholders Nomination Committee have made the following proposals to the Annual General Meeting (the AGM) convening on 25 March 2020 at 10:00 (EET): Use of profit shown on the balance sheet Municipality Finance Plc (MuniFin) has distributable funds of EUR 135,368,162.93 of which the profit for the financial year totaled EUR 7,750,348.23. The Board proposes to the AGM that a dividend of EUR 0.16 per share, totaling EUR 6,250,207.68, shall be paid out and that the remainder of distributable funds of EUR 129,117,955.25 be retained in equity. In recent years, the company has been consistently preparing for the anticipated entering into force of banking regulation related capital ratio requirements, the leverage ratio requirement in particular. The Board estimates that distribution of dividends will not place the fulfilment of the capital requirements or the company's liquidity in jeopardy. MuniFin clearly fulfils all the prudential requirements set to it. Dividends will be paid to shareholders who are recorded in the company's list of shareholders on 1 April 2020. The Board proposes that the dividends be paid on 6 April 2020. Remuneration and composition of the Board of Directors The Shareholders Nomination Committee proposes to the AGM the following remuneration of the Board of Directors for the term from the closing of the 2020 AGM, to the closing of the next AGM (the Term 20202021): annual fixed remuneration of a Board member EUR 20,000; annual fixed remuneration of the Vice Chairperson of the Board EUR 23,000; annual fixed remuneration of the Chairperson of the Risk or Audit Committee EUR 25,000; annual fixed remuneration of the Chairperson of the Board EUR 35,000; to the members, a fee of EUR 500 per Board and committee meeting attended; and to the chairpersons, EUR 800 per meeting attended. The Shareholders Nomination Committee also proposes to the AGM that such fees are also paid per each meeting required by authorities. The remuneration proposal means an increase of EUR 5,000 to the present remuneration of the Chairpersons of the Risk and Audit Committee. Otherwise, the proposed remuneration corresponds to the remuneration for the term 20192020. The Shareholders Nomination Committee proposes to the AGM that eight members will be elected to the Board of Directors for the Term 20202021 and that the following current members will be re-elected: Ms. Maaria Eriksson, Mr. Markku Koponen, Mr. Kari Laukkanen, Ms. Vivi Marttila, Ms. Tuula Saxholm and Ms. Helena Wallden. Further, the Shareholders Nomination Committee proposes the election of Mr. Denis Strandell and Mr. Kimmo Viertola as new members of the Board for the Term 20202021. Denis Strandell is the Mayor of the city of Hanko with a long prior experience from various positions in the financial sector. He has comprehensive expertise and experience in market risks and investment services in particular. Kimmo Viertola is the Director General of the Governments Ownership Steering Department. Viertola has a long experience from operations in the financial sector, including his work at Suomen Teollisuussijoitus Oy and in the banking sector. The Shareholders Nomination Committee proposes to the Board of Directors to be elected by the AGM to appoint Helena Wallden as the Chairperson and Tuula Saxholm as the Vice Chairperson. Election and remuneration of the Auditor The Board of Directors proposes to the AGM to re-elect KPMG Oy Ab as the companys auditor for the term 20202021. KPMG Oy Ab has announced that in the event they are elected as the companys auditor, Ms. Tiia Kataja, APA, will act as the principal auditor. Tiia Kataja has acted as the principal auditor during the previous term as well. The Board proposes to the AGM that the auditors fees will be paid against reasonable invoices. The invitation to the AGM, including relevant appendices, is available on MuniFins website in Finnish. MUNICIPALITY FINANCE PLC Esa Kallio President and CEO tel. +358 50 337 7953 MuniFin (Municipality Finance Plc) is one of Finland's largest credit institutions: the company's balance sheet totals nearly EUR 39 billion. The company is owned by Finnish municipalities, the public sector pension fund Keva and the Republic of Finland. MuniFin's mission is to build a better future in line with the principles of responsibility and in cooperation with its customers. MuniFin's customers are Finnish municipalities, municipal federations, municipally controlled entities and non-profit housing organisations. Lending is used for environmentally and socially responsible investment targets such as public transportation, sustainable buildings, hospitals and healthcare centres, schools and day care centres, and homes for people with special needs. MuniFin's customers are domestic but the company operates in a completely global business environment. It is the most active Finnish bond issuer in international capital markets and the first Finnish green bond issuer. The funding is exclusively guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board. The Municipality Finance Group also includes the subsidiary company, Financial Advisory Services Inspira Lt. Read more: www.munifin.fi [March 04, 2020] tasjeel and Hubpreneur Announce Partnership UAE Domain Registrar and Web Host tasjeel Announced as the Official Digital Partner of Hubpreneur The Hub for Entrepreneurship DUBAI, UAE, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today sees the announcement of a new partnership between tasjeel and Hubpreneur. tasjeel will serve as Hubpreneur's official digital partner throughout 2020, offering discounts on a range of digital tools and services for the start-up community. tasjeel CEO Wahid Aziz will feature as a guest speaker at a series of Hubpreneur events, sharing his expertise in areas such as online branding, web development and social media marketing. Of the new partnership, Aziz said: "My team and I have spent much of 2019 positioning tasjeel as the go-to company for start-ups in the UAE. We already cover the basics including domain registrations and web hosting but 2020 will see us introduce a far wider range of services. With web design, SEO, PCC management and listing services all coming soon, this felt like the moment to build partnerships with the start-up communities that can benefit most from what we offer." Farba Zoulfaghari, founder of Hubpreneur, is equally enthusiastic about the new partnership: "We are super excited to announce our strategic alliance with tasjeel, it will open the door for Hubpreneur members to launch or upgrade their online presence by gaining access to a huge range of online services, provided by a local start-up that understands their needs; high-value at low-cost. After launching Hubpreneur in August 2019 with the intention to demystify the myths of entrepreneurship and focus on cultivating collaboration, all our activities focus on creating through collaboration. This partnership continues to reinforce our key message; starting or scaling is easier with collaborations that are aligned to your core values." About tasjeel: tasjeel is a leading .aeDA-accredited domain registrar and web hosting company, with a special focus on serving UAE start-ups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Since its launch in 2009, tasjeel has become one of the fastest growing domain registrars in the UAE. A relentless focus on customer service has seen the company achieve an 'Excellent' rating on Trustpilot.com, and tasjeel is now recognised as a primary disruptor in the marketplace. Learn more: tasjeel.ae About Hubpreneur: Hubpreneur connects like-minded entrepreneurs, freelancers and business owners across the Middle East through a mobile application available on Google PlayStore and iOS Store. Hubpreneur organises a variety of events, seminars and workshops to bridge the gap between the digital world and physical need for entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate. The focus continues to remain on cultivating entrepreneurship at the early stage of starting out or scaling up through sharing know-how from diverse range of speakers and trainers. Regular updates and event details are available through the Hubpreneur website and app. Learn more: hubpreneur.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Wally Wilkerson may have been pushed out as the longtime chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party, but his preferred successor claimed victory Tuesday. Bryan Christ, 44, will take over from Wilkerson as head of the county party that he has chaired for 56 years and built into a suburban GOP stronghold known throughout the state. The win marks a significant victory for Wilkerson, who announced he would not seek reelection after some party members stripped him of many powers. A faction aligned with the tea party had risen up against him, saying power needed to be decentralized. Christs only opponent for the seat was Jon Bouche, a tea party-backed candidate who was critical of Wilkersons leadership. Wilkerson was chosen to be county GOP chairman in 1964 and by 1978 the local party had elected the countys first Republican to office in more than 100 years. By 1995, all elected positions in the county were held by Republicans. He is credited with helping to elect George W. Bush as Texas governor. I want to thank each of you for your support of our party, Wilkerson wrote precinct chairs last year. In my 55 years as your Republican Party Chairman, we have seen a lot of change. The new party leader now faces the task of uniting a fractured party. Wilkerson, 89, had said he planned to stay involved if Christ won election. Election Day was a nail-biter, said Christ, who felt the outcome in the deeply red county could go either way. Indeed, his victory was not by a huge margin. On Wednesday, he was at work scheduling meetings with opponents he hoped to convince to work with him. Were on a high note today, but the relief, the deep sigh, is going to be short-lived because theres a lot of work to be done, Christ said. Read More: In conservative stronghold of Montgomery County, the Republican party turned on itself Actor Natacha Karam, best known for "911: Lone Star", is set to share screen space with veteran action star Sylvester Stallone in "Samaritan". According to The Hollywood Reporter, the superhero-based adventure drama hails from MGM and will be directed by "Overlord" helmer Julius Avery. Set 20 years after an epic battle that left a city's villain and hero missing or worse, the film will chronicle the story of a boy who tries to find the hero. Stallone, 73, will essay the role of Stanley Kominski, a sanitation worker trying to live a normal life while harbouring a deep secret. Karam, 26, will portray a dangerous and unpredictable henchperson to the story's antagonist, played by "Game of Thrones" actor Johan "Pilou" Asbake. "Samaritan" will also feature Javon Walton and Martin Starr. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CLEVELAND, Ohio - The administration of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish has begun its annual review of disaster plans more than a month early in anticipation of a possible outbreak of coronavirus in the county. Public Safety Director Alex Pellom told County Council on Tuesday that planning focuses on how to maintain critical government operations in the event large numbers of employees become ill or are advised to stay home to avoid becoming infected. Among the considerations would be how purchases could be authorized and employees hired. County policy allows workers to telecommute in certain circumstances, but Ohios Open Meetings Law does not allow for council meetings to be held via teleconference, Pellom said. The countys Office of Emergency Management typically undertakes its annual review of disaster plans in April or May. Those reviews usually focus on natural disasters or terrorist attacks that render buildings inaccessible or compromised. The coronavirus presents a different set of considerations. The challenge that presents here is we may have our building, but a reduced workforce, Pellom told cleveland.com after a Tuesday committee meeting about the coronavirus. If we have a reduced workforce, how do we go about performing central functions. She is known to show off her incredibly toned figure on social media. But on Monday, Kate Beckinsale was all covered up in a long cream cardigan. The 46-year-old was spotted out in Los Angeles, running errands with a friend. Wrapped up: On Monday, Kate Beckinsale covered up in a long cardigan and seemed to have her right wrist wrapped tightly in a bandage The Underworld star's cream colored cardigan reached past her knees, with two large pocket and wide sleeves. She wore it over a plain white T-shirt and slouchy white sweats. The British actress carried a black leather tote on her shoulder and seemed to have two paired of glasses in her hand, with her cellphone. Accessories: The British actress carried a black leather tote on her shoulder and seemed to have two pairs of glasses in her hand, with her cellphone She recently shared a video of her looking sensational in a tiny white bandeau when she treated one of her fur-babies to a impromptu Bananarama performance in her Los Angeles home on Sunday evening. The actress, 46, displayed her washboard abs in the matching crop top and pants in the kooky video posted to her Instagram page. She danced to Love In The First Degree with a hilariously choreographed routine, while a very unamused Willow lay in her banana shaped bed on the marble kitchen counter. Cat's life: Kate treated one of her fur-babies to a impromptu Bananarama performance in her Los Angeles home on Sunday evening Kate captioned the funny video: 'Willow fully getting sick of banana related teasing now. Sidebar: performed this in assembly aged 13 with eerily similar audience response.' The British beauty wore her hair pulled back into a bouncy ponytail as she mouthed along to the throwback tune. Last week, Kate shared another video of Clive curled up in what she described as 'the Birkin bag of this house.' Work it: The actress, 46, displayed her washboard abs in a matching white crop top and pants in the kooky video posted to her Instagram page Not impressed: All the while a very unamused Willow lay in her banana shaped bed on the marble kitchen counter The banana-themed bed comes after many videos and photos have been shared of Willow laying down in her fruit bowl. Kate often gives fans a hilarious insight into her Persian cats sleeping wherever they see fit in the house - and even discussed Willow's bowel issues on a recent episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden. The actress told amused host James Corden that she had enlisted the help of a feline behavioural expert called The Cat Daddy. She said: 'I inherited a cat from a friend of mine, didn't ask too many questions at the time about why she was giving it to me - now I know why! From the accounts tricking out of the man found to be positive for coronavirus, it appears that seven people around him have tested positive and are in isolation. Stitching the sequence of events, sources said that there was no birthday party but 7-8 families went for dinner at Hyatt. The patient who flew in from Budapest landed in Delhi and there was no check up as such and he was not showing any symptoms. But the next day itself he had fever so he went for check up with a doctor. His fever was not dropping so they advised him that since you have been travelling so please get a check up done. From there, he went to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital for a proper check up. At RML also, before the check up he said he wanted to get a corona test done. At that point, they put him in isolation and when the reports came they were positive. At this point, the government officials visited him and asked him from the time he came back from Italy who all has he met where all has he gone and who has come in contact with him. It transpires that seven people around him have come positive for Seven of the people are positive and are in isolation now. He also went to Agra to his brother or brother in laws house and that family has also come positive. It is not clear what is the status of his kids who go to a Noida school. Despite voters in some precincts waiting hours to cast their ballots after polls were set to close, Joe Biden is expected to win the Democratic primary in Texas, securing his share of the second-largest trove of delegates on Super Tuesday. The former vice president's win in the state was supported by undecided late voters who ultimately backed Mr Biden. According to exit polls, nearly half of voters who picked their candidate in the last few days supported Mr Biden, while one in five of those voters - representing roughly a quarter of the Democratic electorate - backed Bernie Sanders, who was narrowly defeated in the state after securing California, home to the largest share of delegates. Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, who dropped out of the presidential race late last year, gave Mr Biden a last-minute endorsement on Monday, potentially giving him a boost as he collected endorsements from other former opponents Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Voters queued for hours, some as long as five hours after polls had already been scheduled to close, though people in line were able to cast their ballots once they made it in line before the deadline. The state holds 228 delegates, the second-most after California. Voting officials will take some considerable time to divvy up delegates as they parse through votes. Though he effectively "won" the state, his share of delegates in the delegate-rich state will likely be smaller than in states where he over-performed. NBC News estimates Mr Biden will pick up 30 delegates, while Mr Sanders will net 23. More than 1,300 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday, representing a third of delegates through the primary season ahead of the Democratic National Convention to select the nominee to face Donald Trump in November. The eventual nominee will need to get 1,991 delegates to secure the nomination. Mr Fraser officially conceded defeat just after 1 am, then stunned the nation by announcing his resignation as Liberal leader. Halfway through his short announcement, he stopped, hung his head, bit his lip, and appeared to be in tears. Mr Hawke, who claimed victory just after midnight, will have a majority of between 19 and 25 seats in the House of Representatives. The Labor Party won yesterday's Federal election and Mr Bob Hawke will be Australia's next Prime Minister. First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on March 6, 1983 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser cries after losing the 1983 election. March 5, 1983 Credit:Paul Wright As he claimed victory, Mr Hawke promised that his Government would be a government for all Australians irrespective of how they voted. "From this moment I commit our Government to undertaking the task of national reconciliation," he said. "I ask you all now to give us your trust, your confidence and your co-operation." When told that Labor supporters all over the country were popping champagne corks, Mr Hawke was asked if just this once he would have a victory drink. "Yes", he quipped, "I will be having a double dash of lime in my mineral water." After taking a three year sabbatical, French-Algerian acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist and composer Pierre Bensusan returns to the USA and Canada to present the music of his new album "Azwan," as well as his new book containing all scores from this new CD. His March 13 concert at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga marks the official release date of the recording and Mr. Bensusan invites the audience to join him for a celebration with refreshments and cake after the show. "Its as if the guitar has been given free reign to play itself! French-Algerian acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist and composer Pierre Bensusan, nicknamed 'Mr. DADGAD,' has taken his unique sound to all corners of the globe," organizers said. "Winner of the Independent Music Awards for his triple live album "Encore", voted Best World Music guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine readers Poll and winner of the Rose dOr at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century." The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available here. About Pierre Bensusan: Born in Oran, French-Algeria, in 1957 when France was decolonizing its Empire, Pierre Bensusan's family moved to Paris when he was four. He began formal studies on piano at the age of seven, and at 11 taught himself guitar. Influenced in those early days by the folk revival blooming in Britain, France and North America, Bensusan began first to explore his own diverse musical heritage and then moved to the horizons beyond. He signed his first recording contract at 17 and one year later his first album, "Pres de Paris" won the Grand Prix du Disque upon his debut at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland. Described by the L.A. Times as "one of the most unique and brilliant acoustic guitar veterans in the world music scene today," Pierre's name became synonymous with contemporary acoustic guitar genius long before the terms New Age or World Music were invented. He has literally created a style of playing with the ability to make a single guitar sound like an entire band as he brings the audience on a mesmerizing musical journey. And yet, Bensusan is more than what any musician or music lover expects from a guitarist. He is a composer as well as a bilingual and original and improvisational vocalist with his own scat technique. Immortalized by the tune Bensusan written in tribute by the late Michael Hedges, and referenced as an important inspiration to many other great musicians, Pierre Bensusan is a one-of-a-kind artist whose music transcends genre and time, with an uninhibited sense of musical freedom and expression, a sense of something both playful and serious, otherworldly yet right here; right now. His "manner" of playing defies classification - crossing world, classical, jazz, traditional, folk, pop and more. None can be isolated as simply World Music, Celtic, "Arabic" or French; rather, they represent Pierres genuine vocabulary and the best part of our world in its current state, a world sharing itself. Not to be missed! About the CD "Azwan": During a three year hiatus from international touring, Pierre Bensusan has been writing exciting new material and perfecting his guitar-playing for his new instrumental CD "Azwan"- to be released on March 13, in time for a 90 concert North American tour from March through July, followed by tours in China, Japan and Europe. In a departure from his more recent solo recordings, Pierre wished to bring other sounds and mixtures into his compositions, so he has enlisted a "cream of the crop" of musicians whom he loves - to add texture on duets, trios and ensemble pieces. They include Didier Malherbe (soprano sax & flutes), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Mark O-Connor (violin), Vincent Peirani (accordion), Christophe Cravero (alto violin, Keyboards, strings arrangement), Bobby Thomas Jr (hand drums), Stephane Kerecki (upright bass), Emmanual Binet (freyless bass), a string quartet and Jean Marie Ecay (electric guitar) who also produces this CD. Still, the majority of the songs are written in a manner in which he can perform them beautifully in solo concert. "I chose to work with a French producer, Jean-Marie Ecay, who happens to be one of the most in-demand electric guitarists on the French jazz scene (tours with Jean-Luc Ponty, Richard Galliano) so that I may take advantage of his ears, experience and suggestions to bring the music in a different direction." says Pierre. Scores from "Azwan" plus a selection of popular performances pieces, technical considerations and insights have just been published in a new book "The Pierre Bensusan Guitar Collection", released worldwide by Hal Leonard (*except by "Fingerstyle China": for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). The El Nido area is a showcase of the Philippines' geological and biological diversity. Travellers looking to visit the Philippines can rejoice in some outrageously cheap flights on offer in a flash sale to rival all flash sales. Between March 3rd and March 5th, Cebu Pacific is selling one-way flights to Manila for less than $200, and you can return for less than $100! For travellers leaving from Melbourne the fares start at $139, while travellers from Sydney can nab their flight for as little as $159. Travel dates must lie between September 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. Cebu Pacific is offering the flights as international travel nose dives. Photo: Getty Images Return flights from Manila in the same period can be picked up for as little at $115 from Manila to Sydney and $91 to Melbourne. Yep, you could get a return fare for an impromptu holiday for as little as $230. Cebu is encouraging flyers to indulge in the island havens the south-east Asian nation has to offer. Surf destination Siargao is one of the places the airline hopes tourists will visit. photo: Getty images From Manila the tropical paradise that is Palawan, or surf central Siargao are just a hop, skip and a jump away. The sale comes as international travel is in decline due to the Coronavirus. While travel is currently not among our top priorities, a holiday in 2021 but be exactly what you need. With the sale expiring in 24 hours we suggest you dive for your credit card before all these budget fares are snapped up. Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com. EXPERT OBSERVER As Westpac predicted yesterday, the Reserve Bank Board decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 0.50 per cent at its March meeting. In discussing the reasons behind the decision, the Governor highlighted three themes that are all linked to the coronavirus. Firstly, In most economies, including the United States, there is an expectation of further monetary stimulus over coming months. Secondly, the Australian Government has also indicated that it will assist areas of the economy most affected by the coronavirus. And finally The uncertainty that it is creating is also likely to affect domestic spending. As a result, GDP growth in the March quarter is likely to be noticeably weaker than earlier expected. In fact, around two thirds of the statement are devoted to the theme of the coronavirus, while the usual themes around unemployment; wages; and the housing market attract only limited attention with no real change from previous statements. The final sentences of the statement are important: It (the Board) will continue to monitor developments closely and to assess the implications of the coronavirus for the economy. The Board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to support the Australian economy. With the virus impacting an economy that was already weak it was absolutely necessary to provide more support although the Reserve Bank does not recognise that risk in the Governors Statement. Conclusion It has been Westpacs forecast that the RBA will act again in April for much the same reasons that we have seen today helping to assist the Australian economy to deal with the shocks associated with the virus; falling into line with other central banks stimulatory policies, particularly to ensure that the Australian dollar remains competitive and working in conjunction with the Australian Government to deal with the issues. It seems that the coronavirus has brought the Government and the Reserve Bank together to address the risks with complementary policies. That partnership is unlikely to end with this single move by the RBA. This article was first published on WestpacIQ Five people have been charged over a tonne of MDMA - more than twice the amount used in NSW last year - which was seized after police and Australian Border Force officials realised all was not as it seemed with a consignment of tiling grout shipped to Sydney from South Korea. A check by Border Force officers revealed that, of the 648 plastic tubs of adhesive that arrived in Australia on January 11, 176 allegedly contained six kilograms of MDMA powder. More than a tonne of MDMA has been seized and five people charged in relation to its importation and intended distribution. Credit:ABF Police say the different coloured tubs - white for those allegedly containing MDMA, beige for the ones carrying just grout - helped Border Force officials detect the shipment, acting Commander of Investigations Garry Lowe told reporters on Wednesday. The drugs seized weighed 1053 kilograms and represented a potential 3 million MDMA tablets, police said. Supplier News 4 March 2020 San Francisco - Today Beekeeper is announcing an innovation partnership with Whispr that uses voice and mobile app technology as an augmented-reality component to increase productivity of hotel housekeepers. As part of its new "Innovation Labs" initiative, the award-winning operational communication company is exploring use cases on how Augmented Reality (AR) can support its customers. "Through AR we believe that Beekeeper can make personalized information available to employees exactly when they need it and in a format they are most comfortable with," said Andrada Paraschiv, Beekeeper Head of Hospitality. "Our first innovation pilot will soon be underway at Marriott's first tri-brand hotel in Nashville, operated by North Point Hospitality. By tying Whispr's operational solution to the Beekeeper app, we will demonstrate how this multi-property campus (AC Hotel Nashville Downtown, Residence Inn Nashville Downtown/Convention Center, and SpringHill Suites Nashville Downtown/Convention Center) can improve the workflow of its housekeeping departments with voice-guided checklists." Beekeeper has been connecting operational systems and communication channels at all North Point Hospitality hotels over the last year using one secure, intuitive platform. It links colleagues across locations and departments in real time via mobile or desktop devices and provides North Point Hospitality with an intelligent dashboard to help them improve internal communication and streamline business processes. Anticipating the needs of its customers, Beekeeper proactively identified Whispr as the right innovation partner to introduce AR and voice technology to North Point Hospitality. The Whispr app uses combinations of voice and on-screen technology to ensure that housekeepers are always up to speed. By delivering information and guidance in their native language, workers don't get left in the dark. It assigns tasks to housekeepers, highlights any special notes, sends real-time feedback to management teams on how work is progressing, and scales that information to workers when they need it. No more struggling through the chaos with pen and paper. "Together Beekeeper and Whispr will help frontline workers learn their jobs more quickly and add consistency to everything they do," Paraschiv said. "Whispr will help motivate housekeeping teams by transmitting audio messages through Beekeeper, such as 'Today the hotel is at full occupancy. We count on YOU to help to provide our guests with a truly exceptional experience. Thank you for delivering your very best effort today!' Having an audio version of the daily message is a time saver and a convenient way to rally the troops. Like Beekeeper, Whispr also reduces onboarding time and gives management an unprecedented data-led view of operations." Through this innovation partnership, room attendants can communicate with management and each other in an innovative and authentic way. To ensure quality is being maintained, Whispr can be used to assist with room inspections by prompting "Hey, (Name of team member)], have you washed the coffee pot and changed the towels?" By using this integration, housekeepers can let the engineering team know about maintenance issues in real time. By coupling communications with a workflow system, NPH will ensure that every worker is connected. "This innovation project is going to be awesome," said Hugh O'Flanagan, Whispr CEO. "Beekeeper and NPH are industry leaders in their own fields. Now we get to bring Whispr into the mix and deliver operational efficiencies across a nearly 500-room operation in Nashville. We know that bringing technology to frontline workers is beneficial to everyone. This project is proving that, and we're incredibly excited about the future with Whispr, North Point Hospitality, and Beekeeper working together." Nashville is a thriving market, ranked No. 8 in '20 Domestic Markets to Watch in 2020' with occupancy, RevPAR and average daily rate at an all-time high due to the market's ability to attract business and leisure travelers. With 37 hotels currently under construction, this innovation pilot will give North Point Hospitality the competitive advantage it needs to compete effectively and remain a market leader. "North Point Hospitality is dedicated to communicating closely with our team members to foster a culture of contagious employee loyalty and to continue elevating our long-standing tradition of guest service excellence," said Christy Shapard, North Point Hospitalitiy Vice President of Human Resources. "We value our relationship with Beekeeper and look forward to experiencing new efficiencies that Whispr will bring through this innovation partnership." Pending completion of the innovation pilot, North Point Hospitality plans to roll out Whispr to all properties in its multi-brand portfolio, as it did with Beekeeper. About Beekeeper Beekeeper's mission is to transform the way 2 billion frontline employees work with a mobile-first communication platform that reaches every shift, location, and language through real-time one-on-one and group messaging. Dedicated streams deliver important operational communications to your entire workforce or specific subgroups. Managers keep staff productive and turnover low by automating workflows and messaging to their teams, while leveraging an analytics dashboard to measure engagement. Quick to implement and even easier to use, Beekeeper integrates with the existing operational systems you rely on and makes them accessible to everyone in one central access point. Learn more at beekeeper.io. The company is based in Zurich and San Francisco and supports users in more than 130 countries. Clients include Heathrow Airport, Seaboard Foods, and Marriott. About Whispr Whispr is an operational platform using the latest advancements in AI and Natural Language Processing to make work life better in frontline industries. By giving managers a platform to handle the chaos of every day and an app for workers to always know what to do and how to do it, Whispr ensures no time is lost and no more pen and paper floats around businesses. It's real-time information to workers and real-time data for managers for consistently better output. Learn more at whispr.ai. The company is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Shincheonji religious group is the heresy recognized as the main culprit behind the spread of the Coronavirus crisis in Korea. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on March 3rd (local time) that it is currently in the process of canceling the corporation aggregate in Shincheonji, adding that it will cancel the plan after hearing the case next week. Yoo Yeon-sik, head of the cultural director of Seoul City Hall, said in a daily news briefing, "We believe that Shincheonji has done harm to the public interest." Yoo said, The Corona crisis, which threatens the lives and health of the people, has reached a serious situation. In this regard, Shincheonji submitted the list of names in a belated and false manner despite its obligation to actively cooperate with the government quarantine authorities," he said. Moreover, he said, "they are rejecting or making false statements to the entire investigation and continue to hold meetings through various camouflage facilities. When we put all of these together, we see this as an act of harming the public interest." In addition, if they decide to cancel (approval of the corporation aggregate), they will be notified of their decision. "Then, the corporation will lose its character as a corporation and be reduced to a voluntary organization," he added. Televangelist wonders if liberal whitewashing of sin is the 'Great Apostasy' before Christ's return Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Georgia megachurch pastor and televangelist Michael Youssef fears that the tendency today among some Christian leaders to water down the Gospel to make it palatable for todays culture could be a sign of the great apostasy before the return of Christ. Youssef, the 71-year-old founder of Leading The Way television ministry and pastor of the 3,000-member Church of The Apostles in Atlanta, issued sharp words of warning in his new book released Tuesday. Not only does Youssef question what he considers to be heresies spewed by prominent left-leaning Christian thinkers who are trying to make the Bible more relevant in todays political environment, but he also pulled from his own experiences growing up under the Arab Socialist Union in Egypt to warn about the dangers of socialism as he sees more young people embrace socialist ideals through their support of 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I feel and sense in my spirit, as well as experientially, I am seeing more and more evangelical pastors who are turning their back on the faith, Youssef told The Christian Post in an interview about his new book, Saving Christianity?: The Danger in Undermining our Faith and What You Can Do About It And while sometimes when the news comes out and shocks everybody, in reality, those little baby steps have been taken for many years. I want to warn the young pastors and the people in the pews to be aware of these little foxes that can destroy the vine. Be aware of the little things that water down the Gospel, modify the Gospel, and make it palatable to our culture [or else they are] going to end up like our friend, Rob Bell, in Michigan. Youssef, who has authored over 40 books and whose programs are broadcast in 26 languages worldwide, explained to CP that he felt inspired to write Saving Christianity? after seeing too many evangelical pastors such as Bell renounce their evangelical beliefs and compromise biblical truths related to sinful behavior over the years. In the last year, headlines were made as other influential figures such as Maryland megachurch pastor and author of the 1997 book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris, announced he was falling away from his faith. Harris has also openly embraced LGBT advocacy. While the debate over the issue of sexual sin has been had in many mainline denominations, Youssef believes that a similar debate is coming for evangelical churches and leaders. Saving Christianity? highlights a number of former evangelicals who have gained prominence by criticizing conservative evangelical theology. Among many mentioned in the book are the late Rachel Held Evans and Brian McLaren. Among those who have given up on conservative evangelical beliefs, Youssef said there seems to be a common theme of wanting to be loving and accepting of everybody no matter what their sins might be. [Y]ou have to go and change the Bible in order to make that acceptance of sin possible, Youssef said. And so they basically bring down on the authenticity and the infallibility of the Word of God. Youssef recalled his own time serving as an Episcopal priest in the 1980s. The Episcopal Church had for years debated the affirmation of homosexuality and in 2015 voted to formally approve same-sex marriages in the denomination. I fought those battles in the mainline denominations. And so, it's almost like 'Groundhog Day' for me, Youssef explained, referencing the 1993 Bill Murray movie. You know, this is deja vu all over again. I'm seeing it now in the evangelical church. And that makes me wonder: Are we really experiencing what the Bible talks about as the Great Apostasy before the return of Christ? In fact, Jesus Himself asks in the Gospel of Luke, When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the Earth? Youssef added. The Great Apostasy is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2, where the Apostle Paul tells the church in Thessalonica that a great apostasy must happen before Jesus Christ returns. Paul wrote, that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first. Youssef stresses that there is going to be a battle for our generation as some Christian leaders run the risk of destroying Christianity by rejecting age-old truths with modern-day heresies. Most of these modern-day heresies are basically old ones that are being dressed up and they put lipstick on it, Youssef said. You can put lipstick and it is still a pig. And all of these old heresies from Sabellianism to Arianism, to modernism and all those isms they are basically all heresies that go back to the second or third century that the Church fought tenaciously. "Social justice" has become a popular term among many millennials looking to get behind a cause in hopes of making the world a better place. Youssef criticized what has become of the social gospel a call for Christians to create and promote solutions to society's social injustices. Youssef decried that many young people today support Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, because they see him as a social justice candidate who will support some of the societys most vulnerable populations. What [Sanders] wants to do, he wants the government to replace the Church, Youssef asserted. And that is always a temptation throughout history. That [temptation] is having a program that's going to replace the call of the Church. The Church takes the Gospel and preaches it. When there is a need, it meets it. But when you say, No, no, no, we got to give you everything, we got to hand you everything, you don't need God. Youssef contended that under a socialist regime, the state essentially becomes God. I know some wonderful millennials who are strong [believers], Youssef said. But there's some that have been misled into thinking this is compassion. But it is not. It's destroying the very core upon which this nation is built. Youssef spent the first 18 years of his life through the 1950s and 1960s living in Egypt before he escaped with nothing but the clothes on his back. When socialism in Egypt started, this country used to be the breadbasket of the world. It ended up being a basket case, Youssef said. The country really is rearing under 20 years of massive socialism. Same thing with [Hugo] Chavez in [Venezuela]. Chavez took the richest nation in South America, and because he promised he was going to give everybody freebies, they destroyed it to make it the second poorest nation in the world. Ultimately, Youssef said, his hope is not in any political party or in any type of governance structure. He places his hope in Jesus Christ alone. "I tell pastors, Don't be afraid, God will honor you. In Samuel, he says, I honor those who honor me, says the Lord,'" Youssef said. "For the layman who's sitting there listening to heresies and false teaching, run, get out, find a Bible-believing church and support it and be part of it and be involved in it." Former AIADMK MP K N Ramachandran and his son were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment by a special court here on Wednesday for causing wrongful loss of Rs 17.28 crore to a nationalised bank. Judge D Lingeshwaran of the Special Court for MPs and MLAs also sentenced then senior regional manager of the Central Bank of India R.Thiagarajan, the first accused, to five years rigorous imprisonment in the case probed by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Judge held all the three, including Ramachandran's son R Rajasekar, guilty under Indian Penal Code section 120 B (conspiracy) read with relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He imposed a fine of Rs 13.10 lakh on the bank official and Rs 1.11 crore each on the former Sriperumbudur MP, and his son and Rs 15.20 crore on Kannamal Educational Trust, headed by Ramachandran. According to prosecution, Ramachandran, chairman-cum- managing Trustee of Kannamal Education Trust, and other other two had entered into a criminal conspiracy during July, 2012 and September, 2013 and availed term loans from the bank in the name of the trust, which runs an engineering college, in excess of permissible limit. They caused wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 17.28 crore to the bank and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It used to be that getting a foot in the door of premier institute abroad was half the battle won for a successful career. You could either land a job in the host country or get back to India and find one. Over the years, this is slowly changing as graduates seek to either permanently settle in the host country or stay back for a couple of years, recover costs and gain international work experience. In the last five years, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand have re-worked and extended their post-study work visas to attract and retain international students. When Theresa May abolished their post study work permit from two years after graduating, to just four months in 2012, the numbers of Indian students who were considering going to the UK dropped drastically, says education consultant Karan Gupta. A similar pattern could be observed in the US as well. After the Trump administration took over in 2017, number of students who apply to US universities dropped due to uncertainty around work permits after graduation. In September last year, Mays successor Boris Johnson reversed the restrictive immigration policy. The new work permit will allow students who study any field at any degree level at accredited universities in the UK to work for 2 years after they complete their course. At present, international students pursuing Bachelors and Masters degrees only get the permission to stay and work for four months. This has come as a response to boost education tourism in the post-BREXIT era, says Tripti Singh, education guidance counsellor and head of post-graduate services at The Red Pen. While details around implementation of this new policy are not clear yet, enrolments from the 2020-21 academic year are expected to benefit. Town and country All these countries have learnt over a period of time, that students who have studied under their education systems, are likely to be more ready for the culture, says Rohit Sethi, director, ESS Global, a study abroad consultant. High revenues are generated from student tuition fees, theres increased spending by them on multiple other expenses and value addition by an international talent for the employer corporations. So theyre seen as a more productive immigrant than an offshore graduate. The Australian government on the other hand, is using their migration programme to back regional Australian cities and remove pressure from overburdened cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Since November, the new visa allows post-study work rights for international students up to 4 years in regional Australia Adelaide, Perth and Gold Coast. The post-study work visa in these cities can extend by 2 to 4 years, depending on the qualification. Also, the graduates in Darwin city can stay for two more years and PhD graduates can stay up to six years, says Sethi. The same kind of incentive is given by the New Zealand government. If you work away from Auckland, you will get a year or couple of years more than a person in Auckland. Around the end of 2017, Ireland further extended the 12-month stay to 24 months for masters and PHD students, says Singh of Red Pen. Previously, for some employment sectors in Ireland, the short duration of work visas of international students, deterred companies from hiring them. The new extension is welcomed as a way to fill the skills gap and to improve the employability of postgraduate students emerging from Irish higher education institutions. International influence In France, immigration rules state that a student must leave the country upon completing their studies. However, the student can apply for a residence permit if she or he has paid employment. This is applicable for the bachelors, masters and post graduate research programmes and students have to apply for a work permit, says Gupta. But that changed for Indian students, in 2015 when French President Francois Hollande and Indian Prime Minister Narendra signed an agreement. Now, Indian post graduate students are allowed the benefit of a 2-year special residence permit in France and 250 French students are permitted yearly for a maximum stay of 2 years in India to join French companies operating here. In the coming year, the Swedish government is proposing to extend the post-study work rights of graduates from Swedish universities. International graduates are currently given six months to find work. This might be extended to a 12 month period for work post-graduation. Matilda Ernkrans, the countrys minister for higher education and research, said in a statement, The proposals are an important part of the work to improve Swedish companies access to talent. Research is international in its nature and rules are therefore intended to make it easier for researchers and students. But what happens if a student doesnt secure a job within the stipulated time? He or she can extend their student visa for some other course, however in this case they wont be eligible for PGWP again, says Sethi. If nothing gets through, coming back to India is an option. Apply for jobs early, use your foreign-student status to your advantage You may have language or enhanced numeracy skills that home students dont have, check if your employer is registered to sponsor students, and always have a backup plan in your home country. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Geely Technology Group, the technology development arm of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), celebrated on Mar. 2 the first spade cut for a satellite R&D base in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, signifying the take-off of aerospace industry for the city. According to a press release, the newly-launched project will build China's first smart AIT (assembly, integration and testing) center of pulsating modular satellite, involving the satellite R&D hub, intelligent component manufacturing facility, measurement & control center and cloud-computing big data platform, etc. Leveraging the advanced assembly technologies used in automobile industry, Geely will construct a smart flexible manufacturing factory where the assembly and test for multi-type satellites can be conducted there. The Taizhou project is part of Geely's deployment in satellite field. With growing investment in digital technology domain, Geely Holding is ambitious to build a multi-layered mobility ecosystem and turbo-charge its shift to being an innovative technology company. In 2018, Geely pumped its strategic investment in GEESPACE, which focuses on the R&D of satellite communications system, and technologies about communications and data processing, starting the building of its space-ground integrated mobility ecosystem. Up until now, GEESPACE has finished the qualification tests of two low-orbit satellites, which are set to be launched this year to provide more accurate data for higher-level intelligent driving vehicles. Besides, the tech subsidiary intends to carry out in 2020 the validation of the world's first low-orbit augmented navigation system for commercial use with all of core technologies independently controlled (photo source: Geely). Churches take precautions as WHO warns disease caused by coronavirus now deadlier than flu Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Churches and other religious groups are now ramping up measures to protect their congregants from the Covid-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus as the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that it's now deadlier than the flu. Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported Covid-19 cases have died, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHOs director general, said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected. As of Tuesday more than 90,000 people had been infected with the new coronavirus with more than 3,100 deaths globally. This virus is not SARS, its not MERS, and its not influenza, Tedros emphasized at the news conference. It is a unique virus with unique characteristics. Tedros also highlighted other differences between the coronavirus and the flu, which are both primarily spread from small droplets from the nose or mouth. For instance, a lot of the transmission of the flu is driven by infected people who arent showing symptoms. In the case of the coronavirus, infected people not showing symptoms only accounts for a small fraction of the spread. The spread of the coronavirus can also be contained, unlike the flu. The new strain of coronavirus causes more severe illness than the flu, Tedros said, because there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics which is why we must do everything we can to contain it. And as at least 15 states in the U.S. reported coronavirus cases, religious leaders have been responding as needed as the warnings against the disease grow more urgent. Instead of shaking hands during Sunday mass at St. Mary Catholic Church in southeastern Wisconsin, hundreds of parishioners, on the advice of their pastor, greeted each other with gentle bows for the sign of peace ritual, The New York Times reported. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, the Episcopal bishop of Indianapolis, Indiana, announced changes to worship in a note to members on Friday, including a switch from ceramic chalices to metal in an effort to limit the spread of germs. Its all about education and trying to help, both putting people at ease and giving them what they need to make good decisions about their well-being, Bishop Baskerville-Burrows told The New York Times. The Rev. Roman Stikel, pastor at St. Mary in Kenosha, Wisconsin, also recently robocalled to his parishioners to warn them not to shake hands. If the coronavirus becomes a widespread emergency, he is also preparing for the possibility of canceling mass. For people who are very committed to coming to mass and praying together as a community, this is going to be difficult for them, he said. What well hope and pray for is that this is something that will pass. In his sermon on the weekend, the Rev. Matt Paul, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Port Angeles, Washington, discussed the coronavirus. When more infections were announced in his state on Monday, he told the NY Times that he was counting on scientists to develop a vaccine, but noted that only God can save lives. Just the act of being together to worship is somewhat an act of faith and an act of risk, he said. Were reminded of our humanity and the frailty of life. People wear surgical masks in fear of the coronavirus in Flushing, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens on Feb. 3, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) Los Angeles County Declares Emergency Over Coronavirus A local and public state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles County, which is home to more than 10 million people, after several cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus were discovered in the county. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Department of Health made the declaration on Wednesday morning. I have just signed a proclamation declaring the existence of a local emergency. I want to reiterate that this is not a response rooted in panic, Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said during a press conference in announcing the new measure. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said the emergency was declared to allow us to further draw down resources from both the federal and state level of government. But Solis also cautioned against the spreading of rumors and misinformation about COVID-19, which emerged late last year in mainland China and prompted what critics have described as harsh measures to curb the virus spread there. The last thing we want is more fear in our community, Solis said during the press conference. Fear will not drive our responses to save lives. People wear face masks as they pass a traffic policeman in the Flushing area of Queens in New York City on March 2, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) The emergency declaration was made so that local officials can further obtain more funding and resources from the state and federal government, according to Solis. We need every tool at our disposal to be able to support any coronavirus patients who are diagnosed and prevent any further spread, said Solis. Other county officials indicated that Los Angeles should prepare for more cases to emerge in the coming days. But they said that more testing kits are being delivered to the county. So far, seven COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Los Angeles County, adding that one person was hospitalized while the others are being isolated and monitored at home, said Barger. She noted that one patient was confirmed to have contracted the virus back in January, and they had traveled to virus outbreak epicenter Wuhan in China. Three of the new Los Angeles cases had traveled to Italy, the site of another outbreak, in recent days, while two others contracted the virus from a family member who doesnt live in Los Angeles. The other person contracted the virus because their job involves heavy travel and contact with people from around the world, Barger added. All the cases are throughout the county, she said, adding that officials will not provide their locations or identities. The significant homeless population in Los Angeles is also of concern, Barger said, adding that county and state officials are going to attempt to monitor that population. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that officials are monitoring 8,400 people in California for potential coronavirus symptoms. More than 100 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the United States, but all of the nine U.S. deaths have occurred in Washington state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding people who appear to be sick and calls on people to cover their mouths while sneezing or coughing. Health officials also recommend people wash their hands thoroughly and frequently. The US Department of State announced on March 2, local time, that it is imposing a cap on the number of Chinese employees of five Chinas major state-run media outlets operating within the United States. This move, a groundless and unreasonable de-facto expulsion of Chinese journalists, is in nature a political crackdown by the US out of its Cold War mentality and ideological bias. It exposes the American hypocrisy of the so-called freedom of the press, and its stark double standards, hegemony and bullying. The Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly condemns this move, and urges the US side to immediately change its course and correct its wrongdoings. The Chinese side reserves the right to respond and take further actions. The media is an important bridge and bond that facilitates the communication and deepens the understanding of people of all countries. For all these years, Chinese journalists in the US have always complied with the American laws and rules, upheld their professional ethics and followed the principles of objectivity, fairness, truthfulness and accuracy, and their professionalism has been widely acknowledged by their peers in the US. Chinese journalists in the US have played a positive role in helping the Chinese and Americans to know more about each other, promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, and boosting the development of bilateral ties. Where is the freedom of press that the US always boasts about? It baselessly obstructs the normal operation of Chinese media outlets in the country, which speaks volumes of its hypocrisy. First Washington required some Chinese media outlets to register as "foreign agents, then it designated five Chinese media outlets as foreign missions, and now it launched a de-facto expulsion of Chinese journalists in the US by imposing a so-called personnel cap. Washingtons escalating suppression of Chinese media would seriously affect Chinese media's normal coverage in the US, and seriously disrupt normal people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. America has laid bare its hypocrisy and arbitrary attitude toward the media to the international community. ARTICLE 19, an international NGO, pointed out in a published article on its website that the environment of journalism in the US has kept deteriorating. Journalists are being attacked, searched, arrested, intercepted on borders, and restricted in the release of public information from time to time. Thomas Hughes, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, commented that the threat to the freedom of the press in the US has been rising appallingly in recent years. Our goal is reciprocity, said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, in a statement. As we have done in other areas of the US-China relationship. But in reality, it is nothing but an excuse to discriminate against, expel and oppress the Chinese media groups. As a matter of fact there are only nine Chinese media agencies in the US as opposed to 29 American ones in China. China has never imposed limits on the number of US media outlets' China offices and their employees. How many journalists they send to China is a decision made by those media agencies independently rather than the result of Chinas limitation. Yet the US side has played little tricks constantly to impose non-reciprocal treatment on Chinese media. Its been restricting Chinese reporters' normal travel by denying or delaying their visas since 2018, and the visa applications of at least 21 journalists had been denied since 2019. While American journalists have multiple entries to China as long as their visa is valid, the US has insisted on issuing single-entry visas to Chinese journalists, which is nothing but discrimination. Incontrovertible facts have fully demonstrated how ludicrous the excuse of reciprocity sounds. To tell the truth, those who still cling to the Cold War mentality and ideological bias have lost confidence. What they are challenging now is exactly what they are afraid of - the international discourse power of China thats built on fairness and justice. The US has torn down the mask of freedom of the press and unscrupulously wielded its big sticks to harm the international relations and cooperation for political purposes that are only too self-evident. Public opinions in the world all describe this personnel cap on Chinese media outlets as an all-out crackdown on China in the media field, which may plunge the China-US ties into a dangerous cycle of tit-for-tat. Some media even warned that while all countries are busy coping with the COVID-19 outbreak, such a move on the American part may block the flow of information and undermine the global fight against the virus. It is a basic international rule and duty to recognize the medias active role in promoting international communication and collaboration and to facilitate their normal activities in todays world. Its clear to all that a cold war, zero-sum game mindset will find no place among the global mainstream today. We advise the US to stop its political oppression of Chinese media immediately and do more to enhance the mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries for common interests. Congress leader Shobha Oza on Wednesday said that more than half of the 8 party MLAs, who were allegedly taken hostage by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) have been freed. Talking to ANI, she said: "BJP had held hostage our 8 MLAs in ITC Resort in Gurugram's Manesar. More than half of them are released now.BJP took a few of them to Bengaluru. We will ensure their release too." "From Day one, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath challenged the BJP to show their strength through a floor test. But they did not dare to do so. Now, they are resorting to horse-trading in order to bring down the government," she added. The remark came after allegations were leveled against the BJP for reportedly holding at least eight Madhya Pradesh MLAs against their will at a Gurugram hotel. In 2018 Assembly results, Congress, which won 114 seats in the 230-member Assembly formed the government with the support of four Independent MLAs and two BSP MLAs and a legislator from the Samajwadi Party (SP). The BJP had secured 109 seats in the state Assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Curfew was relaxed in Police Bazaar and Anjali Cinema areas in the Meghalaya capital for four hours on Wednesday following improvement in law and order, police said. The curfew, imposed on Saturday in the wake of clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups which claimed three lives, was relaxed in these two areas since 12 noon. However, the curfew continues in Iew Mawlong despite it being relaxed in several areas. Night curfew has been relaxed at 6 am all over Shillong city on Wednesday except Police Bazaar and Anjali Cinema areas where it was relaxed for four hours, Assistant Inspector General of Police G Iangrai said in a statement. East Khasi Hills district administration had promulgated night curfew from 9 pm on Tuesday till 6 am on Wednesday as a precautinary measure following the death of three persons and sporadic attacks on persons and property belonging to non-tribals since Saturday. Clashes had broken out between Khasi Students Union (KSU) members and non-tribals during a rally organised against the Citizenship Amendment Act and to demand implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP), at Ichamati area close to the India-Bangladesh border on Friday. The state government on Tuesday had lifted the ban on mobile internet services in two Jaintia Hills districts. Mobile internet and messaging services were withdrawn in six districts of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region since Friday evening. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the coronavirus continuing to spread across the country, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure proper measures are taken to prevent the spread of the virus to those who are most vulnerable to the disease. Neal, of Springfield, and committee member U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, signed a letter Tuesday asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services - about procedures being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities. Coronavirus has been the most severe in the elderly who suffer from cardiovascular disease or diabetes. In the United States there have been at least nine deaths from the virus and seven have been residents of the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, where an outbreak occurred and may have infected more than 50 residents and staff, the letter said. In China the case fatality rate was 2.3 percent on average but was as high as 14.8 percent in those aged 80 years and older and 10.5 percent for those with chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, the letter said. Neal, a Democrat, released the letter the day after officials for the Massachusetts Department of Health announced a woman in her 20s who lives in Norfolk County tested positive for the coronavirus after developing symptoms shortly after returning from a school trip to Italy. The case, the second in the state, is considered presumptive until the federal Center for Disease Control confirms the results. The only other confirmed case of the virus in Massachusetts was found in a Boston college student who suffered symptoms of the virus in January after returning from a trip to Wuhan, China, where the disease originated. He was quarantined at his home until cleared by public health officials. The number of infections in the U.S. overall climbed past 100 and has been scattered across at least 15 states. To ensure the Trump Administration is taking all necessary steps to protect this particularly vulnerable population, Chairman Neal and Congresswoman DelBene asked Administrator (Seema) Verma to detail the current procedures CMS has in place to assist skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities to address the spread of viruses among nursing home residents and front-line workers, according to a statement. It also asked for information about any action the agencys coronavirus task force takes on issues related to nursing facilities. In the letter, Neal and DelBene asked for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to provide information to multiple questions including the types of testing and prevention protocol nursing homes are being required to follow, isolation protocol that nursing homes must follow if an outbreak occurs and how workers are to be protected in the case that a patient becomes ill. The committee is also requesting all relevant documentation and correspondence related to the spread of the coronavirus in the Life Care Center and information to the agencys response to the Washington state outbreak, the letter said. The Committee is asking for answers and information about the current procedures the Center has in place within 72 hours, the letter said. Kim Kardashian is under fire once again for her decision to wear braids at Paris Fashion Week. Yesterday, Kim uploaded an Instagram video and paparazzi photos of herself on the way to Kanye West's Yeezy season 8 show, in which she's wearing waist-length braids to "match" daughter North and niece Penelope Disick's hairstyles. Not only that, but Kim also simultaneously posted a throwback photo of her "Bo Derek braids" a much-derided look that incurred substantial backlash and widespread charges of cultural appropriation. Needless to say, it didn't take long for criticism of her new braids to surface with many accusing her of "Blackfishing" once again. Yeezy Season 8 pic.twitter.com/KGptFecHNC Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 3, 2020 Kim, North, Kourtney, and Penelope pulling up to the #YeezySeason8 show in Paris! | #PFW pic.twitter.com/CryLZI8vIJ Photos Of KimYe (@PhotosOfKanye) March 2, 2020 "This is straight up Blackfishing," one person tweeted, while another person responded directly to Kim by writing, "Bruh why do you keep doing this? You think she'd learn. Put your hair up in a high pony and go to the fashion show like everyone else." okay at first I was defending her saying she may be trying to go for the brown middle eastern look since she can pass for looking middle eastern, but this is straight up blackfishing though Kim Dizzy @KimKardashian #kimkardarshian Kim k braids pic.twitter.com/3C9nxHoowM Jasmine (@aladdinsqueen) March 2, 2020 YOU ARE NOT BLACK Misa Jaymes (@MisaJaymes) March 3, 2020 I cant stand Kim k and her damn braids like bitch when are yall gonna stop appropriating our culture. Djeny (@KvuittonD) March 3, 2020 Bruh why do you keep doing this? You think shed learn. Put your hair up in a high pony and go to the fashion show like everyone else. DaenerysSTAN _ (@AlexanderRoko) March 3, 2020 Meanwhile, similar sentiments began popping up in regards to her Instagram throwback with commenters saying things like "plz not the braids jesus christ" and "Kim really said: 'Kylie is getting too much engagement for Blackfishing not fair, it's my turn! Hey guys, I did it too a few months ago.'" On a related note, this particular conversation also led to some speculation that Kim was purposefully doing these things "for attention." As one Twitter user wrote, "and kim got the braids in again cause nobody was talking about her... like clockwork." "She real wack... she posted this and then popped up with braids AGAIN," as another person said. "Does she not get tired of stealing Black women? kim kardashian is relying on Black outrage to keep her relevant and it fucking shows." She real wack... she posted this and then popped up with braids AGAIN... Does she not get tired of stealing Black women? kim kardashian is relying on Black outrage to keep her relevant and it fucking shows https://t.co/VU1KWzEqfo JASON (@_yaysun) March 2, 2020 and kim got the braids in again cause nobody was talking about her... like clockwork. boo boo the fool (@amandaoee_) March 2, 2020 And though Kim has yet to respond to this latest controversy, she previously defended her "Bo Derek braids" in 2018 to Bustle by saying, "Obviously know they're called Fulani braids and I know the origin of where they came from and I'm totally respectful of that." "I'm not tone deaf to where I don't get it," she continued. "I do get itIn no way am I ever trying to disrespect anyone's culture by wearing braids." In the past three months, regulators appointed by President Donald Trump have disrupted ambitious plans to combat climate change in electric grids serving 85 million people in the U.S., from Chicago to New York to Washington. It was easy: An agency just rewrote some obscure pricing rules. With that, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cranked up to a new boil the simmering debate over whether the U.S. should get its electricity from fossil fuels or sources that dont spew carbon. The commissions Republican majority decided the playing field should be leveled so no one generator gets special treatment. Theyre taking these markets in a totally different direction than states want to go, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. It could backfire quickly. The rulings set up a battle over whether left-leaning states including New York, New Jersey and Illinois can effectively promote clean power. Wind and solar have long depended on state quotas and subsidies for growth, and those incentives could now be hobbled. Trump, who campaigned on promises to revive the troubled coal industry, has tried before to prop up that fuel in power systems, and to keep natural gas as a major generating engine too. Most efforts had limited impact. His decision to pull out of the Paris accord on climate change, for instance, did nothing to reverse the lousy economics of coal plants. A push to subsidize struggling coal plants failed in 2018.With the new rules, though, regulators have found a potentially potent lever to pull. The markets affected are massive and feed households in places where renewable energy is backed with incentives and nuclear power is subsidized. FERC can thwart ambitions to strip carbon emissions out of the power-making process because its the agency that decides how electricity is bought and sold in wholesale marketswhich is where most utilities get their power. The U.S. could be left holding the bag with high-cost resources while the rest of the world makes the transition to low-carbon energy, said Jules Kortenhorst, chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Institute, which advocates a no-carbon future. He accused regulators of trying to suppress clean energy. What the agency did was impose an expanded minimum price floor for bids from providers that sell in the so-called capacity market, where deliveries are promised years in the future so utilities and grids can plan for meeting peak demand. For the first time, renewable generators and nuclear plants that get boosts from subsidies or other incentives cant bid below that price, eliminating an advantage theyve had. Among those at risk of losing out are massive wind farms off the East Coast that are scheduled to come on line starting in 2022 and that states up and down the Atlantic seaboard are planning to rely on to curb carbon emissions. FERC Commissioner Richard Glick, a Democrat, voted against the new rules, saying they would slow the transition to a clean energy future. FERCs chairman, Republican Neil Chatterjee, defended the agencys action as in the interest of the public and the free market.While FERC is an independent agency, the president appoints the commissioners. Up to three of the five seats may be occupied by members of the president's party. FERC currently has two Republican commissioners and one Democrat; the other seats are vacant. Trump has nominated one commissioner, Republican James Danly. Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, called on the president Tuesday to nominate a Democrat, too. Filling the Republican seat while leaving the Democratic seat vacant is not in keeping with the longstanding practice of this committee or the need to keep the commission bipartisan,'' Manchin, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. The White House referred questions on the floor-price rulings to FERC. A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment. The National Mining Association, which represents coal companies, is among those supporting the new rules, saying theyll put coal plants on a level playing field with subsidized wind and solar farms. The commissions order is necessary to ensure that these resources are finally able to compete fairly, Rich Nolan, the groups chief executive officer, said in a Feb. 3 letter to FERC.Since the agency changed the price rules, both New Jersey and Illinois, which cap the northeastern and western ends of the giant grid operated by PJM Interconnection, have threatened to exit the PJM capacity market because new solar and offshore wind projects will lose their edges. And PJM has asked FERC to overturn parts of its rule. FERC also approved new price-floor rules for the operators that oversees New York state's grid. The state has vowed to eliminate carbon emissions from power plants by 2040. Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, blasted FERC on Twitter, saying it has become a wholly-owned GOP subsidiary, doing the bidding of the biggest polluters. The new price rules could hit customers when utilities start to get charged in years ahead for the capacity they will be buying in upcoming auctions. For PJM alone, those additional costs to support fossil fuel plants could balloon to as much as $2.4 billion a year, according to FERCs Glick.Brianna Lazerwitz, an analyst at BloombergNEF, calculated that as much as 22 gigawatts of carbon-free electricityenough to power about 18 million homescould be taken out of the market. At the same time, as much as 13.3 gigawatts of mostly coal power that had been at risk of retirement might be saved. What FERC did, she said, will, artificially increase the cost. Chatterjee, the FERC chairman, said during a hearing in December that it was far too early to predict what the impact on consumers might be, dismissing what he called back-of-the-envelope estimates. (Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, has committed $500 million to launch Beyond Carbon, a campaign aimed at closing the remaining coal-powered plants in the U.S. by 2030 and slowing the construction of new gas plants.) To contact the author of this story: Chris Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net 2020 Bloomberg L.P. "Climate change is the most immediate and devastating challenge facing our planet's future. We have to solve this now. It's not that my generation wants to be the most passionate about this issue, it's that we have to be," said organizer Divya Nair, The Tech Student Board president and senior at Notre Dame High School. The youth summit is organized by 13 students from 11 different Bay Area high schools. Teens will work together to develop policy and tech-based solutions to challenges like deforestation, plastic pollution and clean energy. "We are thrilled to empower young leaders in their quest to make our world a better place," said Anna Schlegel, Vice President, NetApp. Activities also include a United Nations climate negotiations simulation, sustainable foods tasting, escape room, advocacy storytelling workshop and more. A leader with the Popeloutchom peoples will also discuss the threats climate change poses to local indigenous culture. The summit is part of The Tech's Tech for Global Good program, designed to create the next generation of innovators ready to tackle the toughest challenges facing our planet. The Tech will also preview a portion of its next exhibition about living sustainably. Youth Climate Action Summit Saturday, March 7. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Tech Interactive 201 S. Market St. San Jose, CA 95113 Tickets are $10 at techclimatesummit.org About The Tech Interactive The Tech Interactive is a family-friendly science and technology center in the heart of downtown San Jose. Our hands-on activities, experimental labs and design challenge experiences empower people to innovate with creativity, curiosity and compassion. The Tech is a world leader in the creation of immersive STEAM education resources to develop the next generation of problem-solvers locally, nationally and globally. We believe that everyone is born an innovator who can change the world for the better. Inspiring the innovator in everyone. | thetech.org SOURCE The Tech Interactive Related Links https://www.thetech.org WASHINGTON Joe Biden didnt just stay alive Tuesday. He had an unprecedented comeback, winning the majority of states including some where he hadnt campaigned as late-deciding voters fueled the Democratic Partys consolidation behind an alternative to Bernie Sanders. As the results from state after state poured in, the narrative surrounding the former vice presidents campaign was entirely rewritten. After enduring embarrassing results in Iowa and New Hampshire, and a bevy of media coverage suggesting his campaign was all but over, Biden emerged from the fray with momentum that analysts said could propel him in upcoming states such as Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi. Live Super Tuesday updates: How Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dominated the Super Tuesday results Biden not only delivered big in competitive states, but also pulled upsets. He swept the South, relying heavily on African American support in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. He even trounced his opponents in Massachusetts, the home state of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and where Sanders, who hails from neighboring Vermont, had campaigned heavily. And in the biggest upset of the night, he beat Sanders in delegate-rich Texas. Just a few days ago, it was uncertain if Biden could stay competitive enough to stop the Vermont senator from effectively locking up the nomination on Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday vote: Who's in, who's out, and how did we get here? "We were told that when you got to Super Tuesday it might be over. But it may be over for the other guy," Biden said to a small but enthusiastic crowd on a Los Angeles basketball court when the polls were still open there but after he'd already won a slew of states. "Im here to report, we are very much alive. Sanders won California, the biggest prize of the night. But Biden dominated in most of the other states. Momentum that money can't buy Biden had been outspent and out-organized. Still, the desire by many Democrats to coalesce behind one alternative to Sanders gave the former vice president the momentum that money can't buy as the party tries to pick the strongest candidate to take on President Donald Trump. Story continues "It's a comeback, perhaps one of the biggest of all time, and also proof that Democrats can be organized strategically if they set their minds to it," tweeted Rachel Bitecofer, an analyst and senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in Washington. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden buys a pie at Buttercup Diner in Oakland, California on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Virginia and North Carolina gave the first signs that Biden got a huge boost not just from his decisive South Carolina victory Saturday but also from the consolidation behind him from party leaders such as former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and former competitors Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Young voters: Many young voters sat out Super Tuesday, contributing to Bernie Sanders' losses Those endorsements, and others, came Monday, after many voters had already cast early ballots for the biggest day on the primary calendar. Still, both Virginia and North Carolina were called for Biden as the polls closed. '"Who doesn't love a good comeback story? That's been the story of his life," Marc Broklawski, a Democratic National Committee member from Virginia said at a gathering of Biden supporters in Alexandria, Va. Early exit polls in Virginia showed Biden won among whites without a college degree, a demographic Sanders did best with in the first four states. In North Carolina, the two were running close with that group, exit polls suggested. Clyburn endorsement: Backing of South Carolina icon helped Biden score his big comeback That's important as the race moves into the Rust Belt where Michigan is the top prize on March 10 and Illinois and Ohio have huge delegate caches a week later. Those states will be a test of how Sanders' appeal to blue-collar voters, where his longstanding opposition to trade deals is a strength, matches up against Biden's ability to connect with those who share his families' working class roots in Scranton, Pa. Biden has already started running ads in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi touting praise from former President Barack Obama. He should get a boost March 17 in Florida where Sanders' positive comments about a literacy program in Fidel Castro's Cuba have not gone over well with the state's Cuban American community, Sanders is hammering away at Biden's vote to authorize the war in Iraq, his record on trade issues and Social Security. Key Super Tuesday moments: Biden's big night, Sanders takes California and other key moments from Super Tuesday "One of us has spent his entire life fighting against cuts in Social Security," Sanders said at his victory celebration in his home state of Vermont. "One of us led the opposition to disastrous trade agreements which cost us millions of good paying jobs and thats me." Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, with his wife Jane, speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) While Sanders argues he has the strongest general election message, many Democrats who united behind Biden worry that Sanders a democratic socialist is a risky choice to put up against Trump and could also hurt Democrats in down-ballot races. A rocket, not a firewall The push to pick a center-left candidate to take on Sanders surged after Biden ran away with South Carolina following disappointing showings in the first three states. "South Carolina wasn't a firewall, it was a rocket," tweeted John Weaver, a Republican consultant who worked for President George H.W. Bush and Sen. John McCain. Super Tuesday confirmed that the race is now squarely a contest between Biden and Sanders. Super Tuesday stunner: Sanders' rise interrupted as Biden surges in a race transformed | Analysis Warren didn't win any states. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg carried only the territory of American Samoa. Bloomberg wasn't even a significant contender in Virginia despite spending heavily there as he did elsewhere and despite the good will generated through his past financial contributions that helped Democrats capture the state legislature in 2018. "Obviously Bloomberg and Warren are not long for this world," Democratic consultant James Carville said on CNN. Tuesday was the first time Bloomberg, who skipped the first two states, was on the ballot. He'd entered the race late, when Biden's campaign was faltering. But his shaky debate performances, where he was a top target of Warren, kept many Democrats from seeing him as a savior. "If Michael Bloomberg hadn't made it on the debate stage, he would be pulling a significant chunk of votes tonight. He'd be hurting Biden. Bernie would probably be the nominee," tweeted Danny Barefoot, a partner at the political consulting firm Anvil Strategies. "Warren maybe indirectly saved Biden by exposing Bloomberg on live TV. Politics is wild." Warren loses home state Massachusetts: Bad night for Elizabeth Warren capped by losing home state of Massachusetts As votes were still being counted in later time zones, Bloomberg told supporters he's pressing onward. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible," he said, to applause from his supporters in West Palm Beach, Fla. In just three months, weve gone from 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination. Speaking to a crowd in Detroit Tuesday, Warren urged supporters to forget about strategic voting and stay strong when Michiganders go to the polls next week. "Cast a vote that will make you proud," she said. "Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States." Contributing: Kathleen Grey, Detroit Free Press; Ryan Miller and Chris Woodyard, USA Today. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Tuesday: How Joe Biden roared back, what it means for Sanders Sun Laichun, founder of the domestic skincare brand Forest Cabin, describes the past few weeks as the "darkest hours" for the company as its offline sales volume during the Spring Festival holiday was only about 5 percent of the same period last year. The first case of coronavirus at the EU's offices in Brussels has been confirmed. An employee of the European Defence Agency tested positive after returning from Italy. Here, efforts are continuing to trace anyone who came into contact with a woman from the east of the country, who's the second person in Ireland to have Covid 19. The Department of Foreign Affairs is now advising against all non-essential travel to Italy. An expert in immunology, Prof Kingston Mills has called for more stringent measures to deal with the coronavirus and has asked if flights should still be going to Italy. Commenting on the Governments advice that people should only travel to Italy if their visit is essential, Prof Kingston asked what is essential? How does an individual judge? Prof Mills agreed it might be a good idea for diplomatic channels to suggest to the Italian government that it ask its citizens not to travel to Ireland. It comes as Ryanair confirms "a notable drop" in flight bookings for the end of March and into next month. "We will proactively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. "We will continue to comply fully with guidelines from National Governments, the WHO and EASA as they are updated on a regular basis, and will update the market in due course on any significant developments." The World Customs Organization organized, with the support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Japan, a national workshop on Customs valuation for the benefit of the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia (GDCE). The workshop was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 24 to 28 February 2020 and was attended by 53 Customs officials from different units within the GDCE. At the opening ceremony, the Deputy Director General of the GDCE, Mr. PHA Eng Veng, highlighted the importance of Customs valuation in revenue collection and trade facilitation, as well as the challenges confronted by Customs in this regard. He thanked the WCO for providing technical assistance and encouraged active participation of Customs officials in the workshop. The workshop was co-facilitated by an expert from the WCO Secretariat and two experts from Japan Customs. The five-day programme consisted of refresher sessions on the provisions of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement and presentations on a number of key technical valuation topics such as related parties, assists, royalties and licence fees, as well as Customs valuation control initiatives including post clearance audit and advance rulings. The participants had the opportunity to compare Cambodia's valuation legislation with those of a couple of WTO Members, and discussed a number of case studies to deepen their understanding of the practical application of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement. In her first known official statement, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday levelled diatribes and insults on South Korea for protesting over her countrys latest live-fire exercises. Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo Jong is in charge of propaganda affairs and has frequently appeared at her brothers major public events including summits with US President Donald Trump and other regional leaders. But her statement carried by state media, the first in kind, indicated her political status has been further elevated. In the statement, she criticised South Koreas presidential office of Blue House for expressing strong concerns over the Norths firing drills and urging it to stop such an act that doesnt contribute to efforts to reduce military animosities. As far as I know, the Southside is also fond of joint military exercises and it is preoccupied with all the disgusting acts like purchasing ultra-modern military hardware, Kim Yo Jong said. They meant they need to get militarily prepared but we should be discouraged from military exercises. Such a gangster-like assertion can never be expected from those with a normal way of thinking. Describing the Blue House as a mere child and a burnt child dreading fire, she went on to say that: How can all its words and acts be so perfectly foolish in detail. Kim Yo Jong still didnt mention by name liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whom she met several times. She only said: The South sides response is so regretful and disappointing but it is somewhat fortunate that it was not direct statement of the president. Earlier Tuesday, state media said Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire rocket artillery exercise in an apparent reference to the two short-range ballistic missile launches reported by South Koreas military a day earlier. On Saturday, North Korea said Kim Jong Un also guided an artillery drill aimed at testing the combat readiness of military units. The back-to-back firing exercises were an apparent show of force by Kim, who had earlier vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent and warned of shocking action over now-stalled nuclear negotiations with Trump. The latest firing drills were his first weapons tests since late November. Kim Yo Jongs statement was issued in her capacity as a first vice-department director of the Workers Partys Central Committee. She also serves as an alternate member of the Norths powerful Politburo and a member of the rubber-stamp parliament. South Korean officials and experts say shes virtually the Norths top propaganda official. Kim Yo Jongs statement suggests that her status and influence have been expanded to such an extent as to express her opinions externally and beyond playing a role of assisting Chairman Kim Jong Un on his public activities, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at South Koreas private Sejong Institute. Kim Yo Jong took a prominent role in Kim Jong Uns series of summits with Trump and Moon since North Korean entered talks on the fate of its advancing nuclear arsenal in 2018. During one of the three summits with Moon in 2018, Kim Yo Jong handed her brother a pen when he signed the guestbook, and took his gloves after he shovelled dirt on a ceremonial tree and a bouquet of flowers that hed been handed at the border. Her proximity to her brother during the summit sparked outside speculation that she may be the No. 2 in the North after her brother executed and purged potential rivals who could pose a threat to his familys rule. Earlier in 2018, she came to South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, becoming the first member of the Norths ruling family to visit the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. At the time, she met Moon and conveyed her brothers invitation to meet in Pyongyang. Associated Press Director Homi Adajania has come out a better person after working with Irrfan Khan on Angrezi Medium, as the time he spent with the actor gave him a new perspective on life. Irrfan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour in 2018. The actor stayed away from the public eye as he underwent treatment in the UK. He started filming for Angrezi Medium in April last year. "Angrezi Medium has changed me as a person. It has made me a better, lighter person. The way I would approach a film before, I was finicky about the actor not giving me right pitch and things that are not in your control. All that has gone out of the window." "I will probably make films more often now as I have realised that there is a light way of making films. One should chill, have fun, enjoy while making a movie and it will all come through. This is the way one should be. I am not going to take these characters home and cry, fret and shout, it is not necessary. As a life lesson I learnt why do we make things complicated and fret about it," Homi told PTI in an interview. The filmmaker, best known for films Being Cyrus, Cocktail and Finding Fanny, believes Irrfan has played a huge part in his transformation. "That is the only reason to change. The resilience, strength and spirit that guy has, considering he was under treatment and to be able to see that, who are you to complain about anything? Bizarrely we were feeding off his strength rather than him feeding off ours. It was a different experience for everyone who was involved. It was a magical journey." Homi said the team of film never 'tip-toed' around the actor's health issues. "We never lied about it. Irrfan didn't want pity or sympathy from us, he just wanted love and support. Suddenly when everyone was being like that, it gave us a glimpse that the world can be like this. And there was never tip-toeing about the matter." "He loved the fact that we could cry, laugh about him being sick and sometimes get frustrated about him being sick but there was never any filter." The director said Irrfan has seen the rough cut of Angrezi Medium and he thoroughly enjoyed it. "When I went and showed him the trailer, he chuckled like a baby. It was so good to see it. He enjoyed the rough cut of the movie and more than that it brought back the memories of the shoot. At some level, it was an experience which we didn't want it to get over. When it got over there was so much to take away." Angrezi Medium is a sequel to 2017's sleeper hit Hindi Medium, which talked about the class divide. The new film, Homi said, explores parent-child relationship. The film focuses on a father (Irrfan) and his daughter (Radhika Madan), who wishes to study abroad. It chronicles the difficulties he faces in order to fulfil her dream. Produced by Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films, Angrezi Medium, also features Deepak Dobriyal, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranvir Shorey, Dimple Kapadia, Zakir Hussain, and Pankaj Tripathi. It is scheduled to be released on March 13. Follow @News18Movies for more By Andrew Galbraith and David Stanway SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Scientists in China studying the outbreak of disease caused by the new coronavirus say they have found that two main strains of the virus are circulating in humans and causing infections. The researchers, from Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned that their study looked only at a limited range of data, and said follow-up studies of larger data sets were needed to better understand the virus's evolution. The preliminary study found that a more aggressive strain of the new coronavirus associated with the outbreak in Wuhan accounted for about 70% of analysed cases, while 30% were linked to a less aggressive type. The prevalence of the more aggressive virus type decreased after early January 2020, they said. "These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)," they wrote in a study published on Tuesday in the National Science Review, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Experts not directly involved in the study said its findings were interesting, but cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from such preliminary research. "It's difficult to confirm studies like this without a direct side-by-side comparison of pathogenicity and spread in, ideally, an animal model, or at least a greatly extended epidemiological study," said Stephen Griffin, a professor and expert in infection and immunity at Britain's Leeds University. Also on Wednesday, one of China's top medical associations said that the median incubation period of the coronavirus is five to seven days and the maximum 14 days. The remarks by Du Bin, chairman of the critical care medical branch of the Chinese Medical Association, mark the most conclusive assessment of the virus' incubation period by a government-affiliated medical organisation to date. Story continues The revelations came amid a fall in new coronavirus cases following crippling restrictions imposed on the world's second largest economy to stop its spread, including transport suspensions and the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday. NEW CASES DOWN Mainland China had 119 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the National Health Commission said, down from 125 the previous day, in a broad trend that has seen numbers of new cases fall from the middle of February. The total number of cases on the mainland has now reached 80,270. The number of deaths rose by 38 to bring the total toll for mainland China to 2,981 by March 3. All but one new death occurred in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. With the number of new daily infections overseas now exceeding new cases in China, Chinese officials have begun to seek ways to control the spread of the virus outside of China and guard against future outbreaks. Authorities have asked overseas Chinese hoping to return home to reconsider their travel plans, while cities across the country have set up quarantine rules for those entering from high-risk places. An infected person is known to have arrived in China from Iran, one of the virus' new hotspots, last week. China is encouraging domestic producers of medical protective equipment to export protective suits to meet overseas demand as the virus spreads, Cao Xuejun, an official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. China's health authorities are also studying setting up emergency reserves for medical resources and protective materials, Mao Qunan, an official at China's National Health Commission said at the same briefing. (Reporting by David Stanway, Sophie Yu, Muyu Xu, Se Young Lee, Engen ThamJosh Horwitz, Andrew Galbraith and Kate Kelland; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Mike Collett-White and Andrew Cawthorne) Not even the Royal Family has power over the weather, and the saying "There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing is something the Queen and her dresser Angela Kelly appear to have adopted. So she's ready to do a walkabout come rain or shine, the monarch has an impressive arsenal of over a hundred colour coordinated umbrellas. There's a touching reason why Queen Elizabeth always uses the same transparent umbrella, with varying strips of colour at the bottom. Getty Images All of them are created by Fulton, who have held a Royal Warrant since 2008, but they were first designed twenty years earlier than that at the request of ER's mother: the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother / Tony Weaver/ANL/Shutterstock Speaking to Vanity Fair, Fulton owner Nigel Fulton said, We were approached in 1988 by the Queen Mother to make a clear domed birdcage umbrella. Its sturdy and very good for standing up to the elements. He added, The point of the birdcage is that the royal can see out and people can see them. The Queen is our most famous customer. We started working with the Queens dress maker [Angela Kelly] in 2003 and we were awarded the royal warrant in 2008 which was a great honour. Sali Hughes, the author of Our Rainbow Queen, revealed in her book that Queen Elizabeth designs her wardrobe with the crowds she is greeting in mind. Besides her transparent umbrella, Hughes wrote, [Queen Elizabeth] wears bright colours because she believes its her duty to be seen by the people whove waited, wet and cold, behind barriers for hours at a time. Getty Images She understands her job is to be seen and, standing at just 53[she] needs all the help she can get, Hughes finished. Fulton added that they work incredibly closely with the Queens close friend and dresser Angela Kelly before her appearances, so that the brollies not only serve a function but become a colour coordinated fashion statement. He said, We are shown colours or pattern references before the Queen wears her outfits and we simply follow instructions from her team. We match the trim, the handle, the tips, and the ferrule (the pointy bit at the end) in the desired fabric or colour. The umbrellas are understated we dont want the umbrella to be the part of the outfit that shouts the loudest, he continued. Getty Images The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth were seen carrying clear umbrellas in the 70s and 80s before Fulton developed its birdcage umbrella. The Queen Mother was seen in 1990 on her way to Ascot carrying around one of the domed umbrellas, as well as a grey raincoat. Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock In 1991 the Queen matched her beige trench coat to the beige accent on her umbrella at a visit to an air force base in Tampa. Another early instance of her colour coordination was in 1995 at Sandringham, when her navy outfit was matched to an umbrella that a young Prince Harry held over her and the Queen Mother. ( Photographer Assignments/Shutterstock) / Photographer Assignments/Shutterstock The same year, she was seen carrying a beige umbrella matched to the hue of her hat over the course of her South Africa tour. As her colour choices grew bolder and more neon, so did her umbrella accents. In 2006, she carried a bright purple umbrella and the year following she went for a cobalt blue one. Getty Images Her lower-key looks get the same matchy-matchy treatment. Fulton were able to deliver on a grey umbrella in 2012 when she visited an exhibition in Richmond, while in 2012 on a visit to a Welsh school her all-white look was a hit. Getty Images Things got pretty interesting in 2015 when the Queen began to innovate her classic look, as Fulton added transparency to the bottom strip of her umbrellas - meaning that she could be seen no matter what. Getty Images On the rare occasion the Queen isnt feeling a single colour, shell sometimes match her umbrellas to her white or black gloves instead. It appears that her love of Fulton birdcage umbrellas has been passed down through the family, as Camilla Parker-Bowles and Kate Middleton have been seen carrying them around. Although they havent quite cracked the level of coordination that Queen Elizabeth has, Kate and Prince William carried a black one to go with their black gown and suit to the premiere of War Horse. Getty Images The umbrellas retail on the Fulton site for 21+ and are available in a variety of colours, with special limited editions created by the likes of Lulu Guinness. However some of the colour ways that Queen Elizabeth carries arent available on the site. Where to buy Queen Elizabeth's umbrellas Fulton Umbrellas Birdcage-1 in Black 21 | Fulton Umbrellas | Buy it now Fulton Umbrellas Birdcage-2 in Luxe Digital Blossom 22 | Fulton Umbrellas | Buy it now Fulton Umbrellas Birdcage-1 in Red 21 | Fulton Umbrellas | Buy it now Fulton Umbrellas Birdcage-2 in Candy Leopard Currently, businesses from different industries that aim to put their industrial projects in technological platforms can begin the procedure by starting with the National Industry 4.0 Laboratory and Blockchain of the LANIB Industrial Innovation Center. The production industry for Amaranth in Mexico is one sector that will benefit from this project. This was created by both public and private organizations in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development. An article from Mexicanist stated that an investment of $713,812 came from public and private sources. The laboratory primarily offers comprehensive, advanced, and innovative services. It aims to assist customers to formulate plans and strategies to innovate 4.0. Additionally, it targets to add value to the business process and improve the overall operations of the business. According to the Vice President of Digital Market Development and Government at the National Council of Clusters mxTI Oscar Rivera Rodriguez, the total value of the project was 14 million Mexican pesos. The project was divided into the construction of two laboratories. The first one is in the Universidad Metropolitana in the Hidalgo State. The other laboratory is in Mexico City. The Project for Amaranth Rodriguez said that there is a project for amaranth in Mexico. The project will be from the production of the Amaranth crop to its sale. The project for amaranth in Mexico will be connected to the blockchain. The Segments of the Project The laboratory will be welcoming any companies. It had set no limits to which types of companies can use the services of the project. It aims to help companies that want to shift to innovative production and business operation. The primary segments for the project where it will be implemented are in the entire Vallejo industrial region where work will be performed in an industrial technology area (iVallejo). This is where many important industrial innovation groups in the Metropolitan area of the Mexican Valley is proposed. Plans for the Project Additionally, Rodriguez revealed that the project aims to collaborate with the iVallejo project. The iVallejo project is strategic in the technology cluster region of the country. The partnership will be in support of the different sectors in the region. However, there are also plans for projects in Xochimilco involving the resolution of farming issues. Job Creation Opportunities The company is aiming to assist with the job creation problems in the regions where the project will be implemented. According to Rodriguez, there are currently 17 types of jobs that will be opened to various sectors. These new job opportunities will also include work in academic institutions. These new jobs will be beneficial for the success of the innovative project. Furthermore, the business is currently in the process of planning for the training of job opportunities to be opened by the project. Networking with Educational Institutions Rodriguez stressed that collaboration with academia is an important part of the project. Primarily, the project starts with the Metropolitan Polytechnic University in the state of Hidalgo. Then, a strong network will be created with the National Technological System. Furthermore, other polytechnic universities and other higher education institutions will receive the same network efforts by the project. Its fair to say all of us were really happy to see that there was not more wrong with the carillon, and we were delighted to see that it was something that really could be cared for well at what I think was a reasonable price, Councilwoman Judy Brodhead said. LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For nearly 100 years, popcorn has been the country's favorite cinema snack. Today, ArcLight Cinemas, the premium theater chain, announces a year-long, multi-faceted program designed to redefine what the future popcorn experience can be. POPPED will introduce ArcLight Cinemas guests to new popcorn flavors, product creations and exclusive events, offering moviegoers a chance to 'Experience Popcorn Now'. To accomplish this, ArcLight Cinemas sought out the help of the country's emerging culinary brands and award-winning chefs to join in this delicious journey. As the first exhibitor to introduce reserved seating and the first to allow alcohol into the auditorium, ArcLight Cinemas will once again disrupt the moviegoing industry by bringing new ideas about food experiences and building bridges to today's creative culinary community to surprise and delight movie-goers. A group of the most exciting names in the food industry will partner with ArcLight Cinemas, including modern Mexican fast-casual restaurant group Tocaya Organica, non-alcoholic spirit brand Seedlip, Momofuku's fried chicken concept Fuku, and star chefs from across the country and all four ArcLight Cinemas markets, including Chef Abe Conlon of Fat Rice in Chicago, Chef Kwame Onwuachi of Kith/Kin in Washington, DC, Chef Karen Akunowicz of Fox & the Knife in Boston and Chef Jude Parra-Sickels of Majordomo in Los Angeles. "When we started to look at popcorn and how its flavors and experiences haven't changed much since the first Cretors popcorn carts were positioned outside cinemas in the 1920s, we knew it was time to innovate across the board," said Vince Szwajkowski, Chief Marketing Officer, ArcLight Cinemas. "From our concessions and bars to our core operations, we're offering guests a chance to get a taste for what the future of popcorn could be, such as popcorn-inspired non-alcoholic cocktails and new approaches to popcorn chicken. Throughout the year, roughly every quarter, we'll feature a series of new collaborations with chefs and culinary brands, as well as introduce new innovations in sustainability and creative activations centering around popcorn," Szwajkowski explained. "We are committed to pushing culinary boundaries." In March, the first of these partnerships will debut at ArcLight Cinemas around the country. ArcLight Cinemas will collaborate with innovative restaurant group Tocaya Organica, known for its signature fusion of vegan-inspired healthy cuisine using classic Mexican ingredients and flavors. For ArcLight Cinemas' POPPED project, Tocaya Organica have developed an exclusive popcorn seasoning, a reimagined rendition of Mexican Street (pop)Corn. To match Tocaya Organica's commitment to organic, natural and sustainable ingredients, ArcLight Cinemas will introduce organic corn kernels for the first time. At select sites, such as the ArcLight Cinemas location in La Jolla, California, a popcorn cart will circulate between ArcLight Cinemas and Tocaya Organica, offering film and food lovers alike a chance to taste this new collaborative culinary creation. Another major trend emerging in today's culinary culture is non-alcoholic cocktails. As more people choose not to consume alcohol for health and lifestyle choices, many still want a beverage experience that reflects 'cocktail culture'. ArcLight Cinemas, understanding the changing tastes of its guests, approached Seedlip, the world's first distilled non-alcoholic spirits, to create three custom popcorn-inspired cocktails for POPPED. Featured on all ArcLight Cinemas Bar menus at all 11 ArcLight Cinemas sites, guests will be able to experience Seedlip as the first movie theater brand to carry the spirit. Seedlip will also host pop-up bars and retail activations to introduce moviegoers to new craft cocktail experiences. In April, ArcLight Cinemas will introduce its first sustainable approach to packaging: reusable popcorn tubs. As the general public has become aware of the need for more sustainable options for all types of packaging, ArcLight Cinemas knew that it was important to try new ways of presenting popcorn for its guests. The new ArcLight Cinemas reusable popcorn tub is made of durable, washable silicone and can be collapsed to easily to carry from home to theater and back again. As a way to recognize and rewards guests who opt to use ArcLight Cinemas' branded sustainable packaging, guests will receive $1 off a large popcorn purchase each time they bring their reusable popcorn tub to ArcLight Cinemas. Beginning in May, four of America's most exciting chefs will create new spice flavor profiles for ArcLight Cinemas popcorn. Each custom flavor will be inspired by each chef's signature cuisine. "An important goal for us is to continuously innovate and introduce our guests to new ideas and experiences, not just in film but also food," explained Szwajkowski. "By partnering with these four chefs, nationally recognized for their innovative takes on cuisine, ArcLight Cinemas will be bringing new flavors and food trends to moviegoers, many of whom don't have the opportunity to experience these great chefs' cuisine." ArcLight Cinemas' chef partners are Chef Abe Conlon of Fat Rice in Chicago, Chef Kwame Onwuachi of Kith/Kin in Washington, DC, Chef Karen Akunowicz of Fox & the Knife in Boston and Chef Jude Parra-Sickels of Majordomo in Los Angeles. "Going to the movies was a big part of growing up in Los Angeles. There were so many unique theaters all over town, but The Cinerama Dome was my favorite," said Jude Parra-Sickels. "Years later, I'm very excited and grateful to create a popcorn seasoning for ArcLight Cinemas and add to a small part of movie-going culture." But these activations are just the beginning; throughout the year, new culinary partnerships, sustainability initiatives and events will debut in ArcLight Cinemas locations across the country. ABOUT ARCLIGHT CINEMAS From exclusive cast Q&As to screen-inspired food and drink, rotating costume exhibits, and more, ArcLight Cinemas has long been an industry pioneer, striving to go beyond the traditional moviegoing experience. The first ArcLight Cinemas opened its doors in the heart of Hollywood in 2002, incorporating the world-famous Cinerama Domea Los Angeles landmark and host to more than 50 years of premieres, blockbusters, and cinematic advancements. This flagship location has become an essential part of the Hollywood fabric and the center of ArcLight Cinemas' ongoing mission to innovate and celebrate its passion for movie craftsmanship. Today, with locations in Chicago, DC, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Boston, ArcLight Cinemas seeks to foster more meaningful moviegoing experiences at the intersection of film, food, and music. With ad-free environments, all-reserved seating, and world-class sight and sound, guests can enjoy movies as the filmmakers intended. For more information, current programing, and reserved seat ticketing, please visit us at www.arclightcinemas.com. Follow ArcLight Cinemas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ABOUT OUR PARTNERS To learn more about ArcLight Cinemas diverse group of partners, please visit their websites, linked below. TOCAYA ORGANICA: tocayaorganica.com SEEDLIP: seedlipdrinks.com Chef Abe Conlon of Fat Rice in Chicago: eatfatrice.com Chef Kwame Onwuachi of Kith/Kin in Washington, DC: kithandkindc.com Chef Karen Akunowicz of Fox & the Knife in Boston: foxandtheknife.com Chef Jude Parra-Sickels of Majordomo in Los Angeles: majordomola.com SOURCE ArcLight Cinemas Related Links http://www.arclightcinemas.com Health care costs were rising. People couldn't afford coverage. So, in Connecticut, state lawmakers took action. Their solution was to attempt to create a public health insurance option, managed by the state, which would ostensibly serve as a low-cost alternative for people who couldn't afford private plans. Immediately, an aggressive industry mobilized to kill the idea. Despite months of lobbying, debate and organizing, the proposal was dead on arrival. "That bill was met with a steam train of opposition," recalled state Rep. Sean Scanlon, who chairs the legislature's insurance and real estate committee. Through a string of presidential debates, the idea of a public option was championed by moderate Democrats - such as former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden - as an alternative to a single-payer "Medicare for All" model. Those center-left candidates again touted the idea during the Feb. 25 Democratic debate in South Carolina, with Buttigieg arguing such an approach would deliver universal care without the political baggage. (Buttigieg and Klobuchar have since ended their presidential bids.) The public option has a common-sense appeal for many Americans who list health care costs as a top political concern: If the market doesn't offer patients an affordable health care insurance they like, why not give them the option to buy into a government-run health plan? But the stunning 2019 defeat of a plan to implement such a policy in Connecticut a solidly blue, or liberal-leaning, state shows how difficult it may be to enact even "moderate" solutions that threaten some of America's most powerful and lucrative industries. The health insurance industry's fear: If the average American could weigh a public option Medicare or Medicaid or some amalgam of the two against commercial plans on the market, they might find the latter wanting. That fear has long blocked political action, said Colleen Grogan, a professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration, because "insurance companies are at the table" when health care reform legislation gets proposed. To be sure, the state calculus is different from what a federal one would be. In the statehouse, a single industry can have an outsize influence and legislators are more skittish about job loss. In Connecticut, that was an especially potent force. Cigna and Aetna are among the state's top 10 employers. "They became aware of the bill, and they moved immediately to kill it," said Frances Padilla, who heads the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut and worked to generate support for the public option. And those strategies have been replicated at the national level as a national coalition of health industry players ramps up lobbying against Democratic proposals. Beyond insurance, health care systems and hospitals have joined in mobilizing against both public option and single-payer proposals, for fear a government-backed plan would pay far less than the rates of commercial insurance. Many states are exploring implementing a public option, and once one is successful, others may well follow, opening the door to a federal program. "State action is always a precursor for federal action," said Trish Riley, the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. "There's a long history of that." Virginia state delegate Ibraheem Samirah introduced a new public option bill this session. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis is spearheading an effort. And Washington state is the furthest along it approved a public option last year, and the state-offered plan will be available next year. But in 2019, Connecticut's legislators were stuck between two diametrically opposed constituencies, both distinctly local. Health costs had skyrocketed. Across the state, Scanlon said, small-business owners worried that the high price of insurance was squeezing their margins. A state-provided health plan, the logic went, would be highly regulated and offer lower premiums and stable benefits, providing a viable, affordable alternative to businesses and individuals. (It could also pressure private insurance to offer cheaper plans.) A coalition of state legislators came together around a proposal: Let small businesses and individuals buy into the state employee health benefit plan. Insurers' response was swift. Lobbyists from the insurance industry swarmed the Capitol, recalled Kevin Lembo, the state comptroller. "There was a lot of pressure put on the legislature and governor's office not to do this." State ethics filings make it impossible to tease out how much of Aetna and Cigna's lobbying dollars were spent on the public option legislation specifically. In the 2019-20 period, Aetna spent almost $158,000 in total lobbying: $93,000 lobbying the Statehouse, and $65,000 on the governor's office. Cigna spent about $157,000: $84,000 went to the legislature, and $73,000 to the executive. Anthem, another large insurance company, spent almost $147,000 lobbying during that same period $23,545 to the governor, and $123,045 to the legislature. Padilla recalled that Anthem also made its opposition clear, though it was less vocal than the other companies. (Anthem did not respond to requests for comment.) A coalition of insurance companies and business trade groups rolled out an online campaign, commissioning reports and promoting op-eds that argued the state proposal would devastate the local economy. Lawmakers also received scores of similarly worded emails from Cigna and Aetna employees, voicing concern that a public option would eliminate their jobs, according to documents shared with Kaiser Health News. Cigna declined to comment on those emails, and Aetna never responded to requests for comment. Connecticut's first public option bill which would let people directly buy into the publicly run state employee health plan - flamed out. So lawmakers put forth a compromise proposal: The state would contract with private plans to administer the government health option, allowing insurance companies to participate in the system. The night before voting, that too fell apart. Accounts of what happened vary. Some say Cigna threatened to pull its business out of the state if a public option were implemented. Publicly, Cigna has said it never issued such a threat but made clear that a public option would harm its bottom line. The company would not elaborate when contacted by KHN. Now, months later, both Scanlon and Lembo said another attempt is in the works, pegged to legislation resembling last year's compromise bill. But state lawmakers work only from February through early May, which is not a lot of time for a major bill. Meanwhile, other states are making similar pushes, fighting their own uphill battles. "It really depends on whether there are other countervailing pressures in the state that allow politicians to be able to go for a public option," Grogan said. And, nationally, if a public option appears to gain national traction, Blendon said, insurance companies "are clearly going to battle." They're going to go after every Republican, every moderate Democrat, to try to say that it's a backdoor way to have the government take over insurance," he said. Still, when President Barack Obama first proposed the idea of a public option as part of the Affordable Care Act, it was put aside as too radical. Less than a decade later, support for the idea - every Democratic candidate backs either an optional public health plan or Medicare for All - is stronger than it ever has been. So strong, Grogan said, that it is hard for people to understand "the true extent" of the resistance that must be overcome to realize such a plan. But in Connecticut, politicians say they're up for a new battle in 2020. "We can't accept the status quo. People are literally dying and going bankrupt," Scanlon said. "A public option at the state level is the leading fight we can be taking." The gallerys director says if we continue with deforestation, there will be no trees left on the planet in 600 years. Trees are vital for life on earth, but in many parts of the world, deforestation continues unabated. Now, artists are branching out to challenge the way people see the natural world. In London, Al Jazeeras Jessica Baldwin went to have a look. Alphabet Inc said on Tuesday it has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, amid concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak. "Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community," the company said. The company had said on Monday would move its annual cloud conference online. Google becomes the second FAANG member after Facebook Inc to cancel its conference as the virus, that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spreads globally. More new cases of the virus are ... Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended Umrah pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for Saudi citizens as part of the measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus in the country, an official source in the Saudi Interior Ministry told state news agency SPA. The report further said that the decision will be assessed regularly and reversed when the situation changes. The move comes a day after Saudi Arabia reported its first case of coronavirus, involving a person who had arrived in the country from Iran through Bahrain. The Kingdom had been free of the deadly virus for more than three months. Almost all those who had been infected in the Middle East have had either a travel history to Iran, or had been in contact with someone who had been there. Iran has been one of the worst-affected countries from coronavirus, having reported the most fatalities from the infection outside of China. The virus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then spread to more than 60 countries across the world, including India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 13:55:35|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close SEOUL, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 36 people were confirmed injured on Wednesday in a chemical plant explosion in South Korea's southwestern region, Yonhap news agency reported citing the firefighting authorities. The explosion occurred at about 2:59 a.m. local time in a petrochemical factory of Lotte Chemical in the southwest city of Seosan, South Chungcheong province. The explosion caused a fire, which was extinguished about two hours later. Thirty-six people, including factory workers and villagers near the plant, were injured. Among the total, two were in critical conditions as of 10:00 a.m. local time. The explosion was believed to have been caused by the leak of a compressor pipe to produce petrochemicals from naphtha. The exact cause of the incident was under investigation. Tens of houses and shopping malls near the factory were affected by the explosion, with windows broken and the exterior walls of some buildings pulled down, according to the report. Royal Visit to Teagasc Grange Paul Crosson and Edward O Riordan, beef researchers at Teagasc Grange talking to TRHs The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to Teagasc Grange on Wednesday, 4 March 2020 View Full Gallery of Photographs here The Royal couple were met and welcomed to Teagasc by Michael Creed T.D., Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Liam Herlihy, Chairman of Teagasc, on Wednesday, 4 March 2020. They were introduced to Professor Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc, Councillor Wayne Harding, Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council and Jackie Maguire, Chief Executive of Meath County Council. Members of the Teagasc Authority were also present. Paul Crosson and Edward O Riordan, beef researchers at Teagasc Grange showed the royal couple, three cows, each with twin calves, which are part of the Derrypatrick demonstration suckler herd at the Teagasc Animal and Grassland, Research and Innovation centre in Grange, County Meath. The steps taken on Irish cattle farms to ensure beef is produced in an environmentally sustainable way were outlined by Paul Crosson and Edward O Riordan who also spoke about the technologies that have been developed and adopted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the herd. The royal couple were introduced to Catherine Keena, Teagasc Countryside Management specialist who spoke about the initiatives on this farm and on other farms around the country to promote biodiversity and develop hedgerows so they are fit for both birds and bees, providing suitable nesting sites and berries for the birds, and plenty of flowers for pollinators. The couple then met Teagasc Advisors Eilish Burke and William Byrne who introduced them to farmers, Ronan Hughes, Justin Walsh, Teleri Thomas, David Hannon, and Donal Keane who spoke about what they are doing to farm with nature on their respective farms. They told their stories of how they are using the best animal genetics, using grass based production systems, focused on reseeding and good paddock systems and in the case of Donal Keane how he is an Organic Demonstration farmer. Eileen OReilly, the Principal of the Kiltale National School, Dunsany, County Meath, with 10 sixth class students were also in Grange to meet the Royal couple. The pupils had completed projects on farm to fork, food production and sustainability. Before departing, the Royal couple were presented with a gift by Teagasc chairman, Liam Herlihy. New Delhi [India], Mar 4 (ANI): The government is proactively engaged in tackling the situation related to coronavirus and 10 lakh people have been screened at India's open borders with Nepal and Bhutan in the last one month, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation and the Cabinet Secretary was holding meetings with concerned officials every day. Javadekar said that coronavirus issue was discussed after the cabinet meeting and this has been the practice in the last four cabinet meetings. "The government is proactively engaged to tackle the situation. The Prime Minister himself is monitoring the situation," he said. Javadekar said that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was also keeping a close eye on the situation. "We have started screening at 21 airports and six lakh passengers have been screened. The open borders along Nepal and Bhutan, in the last one month more than 10 lakh have been screened. And border area towns are also being screened. There was only one virology lab in Pune. We have set up 15 more and 19 are going to be established shortly," he said. He added that two batches of Indians have come from Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus spread, people have also been brought from the ship docked off the coast of Japan. "We brought them safely here. We have issued necessary advisories to guide Indian passengers and those travelling from abroad. For a certain period from many countries the visa on arrival has been suspended," the Union Minister said. Javadekar said the main job was to create awareness among the society and all sections need to take precautions which are simple but important. (ANI) Mumbai, March 5 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a fresh case of money laundering against Naresh Goyal, former chairman of the grounded Jet Airways, and the airlines. A source said that the money laundering case was registered against Goyal and Jet Airways. Earlier, the financial probe agency had registered a case of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations against the airline and Goyal last year. The source said that earlier in the day, Goyal was questioned by the central probe agency at its office here and then he was taken to his residence for carrying out searches. Fresh case has been registered to probe the alleged irregularities committed by the grounded airline, including diversion of funds, the source said. Last year in August, the ED carried out searches at the residence of Goyal and has got details of 19 companies held by him of which five are located abroad and how money was siphoned off to other countries through dubious transactions. During searches last year, the ED seized several incriminating documents related to the payments made to foreign companies and digital evidences have been seized. The official said the agency has taken up the investigation into alleged violation of the FEMA against Jet Airways and Goyal based on complaints from various sources. According to ED, the business empire of Goyal, who stepped down from the post of chairman of the airline in March last year, includes 19 privately-held companies of which 14 are registered in India and five are registered abroad. An ED official had earlier said, Goyal "indirectly controls" various entities "abroad" some of which are in tax havens. A full-service carrier, Jet Airways shuttered operations on April 17 after running out of funds. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and the airline's slots and aircraft were leased out to competitors on a temporary basis. Amazon, Vevo, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter Join Growing SXSW Coronavirus Cancellations A growing number of major companies are pulling out of SXSW due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus. The annual event will bring several hundred thousand participants to Austin, Texas from March 11-22. Amazon Studios, Facebook, Vevo, Intel, TikTok, Twitter, and Mashable have all publically canceled plans to attend. After careful consideration of all known and unknowns regarding the coronavirus, said a Vevo spokesman, Vevo has decided to cancel its annual SXSW event this year. Wed like to thank our partners for their support and understanding. We hope to see you next year. Hundreds of thousands flock to Austin each year and its economic impact to Austin was estimated at $355.9 million in 2019. 47,000+ Sign Petition As of Wednesday, more than 47,000 have signed a Change.org petition, calling for SXSW cancellation with the declaration that having an event like this is irresponsible amid an outbreak. Even some Austin business people are calling on organizers to cancel. If you bring a half a million people together in Austin, you tremendously increase your chance of an untraceable corona outbreak, said Garrett Wood, President and Founder of GetSales. Lastest Statement From SXSW SXSW last statement on the outbreak was released on Monday and as of then the conference was claiming that the impact was minimal At this time, we have a small number of cancellations from participants., said SXSW in a Monday post. This includes attendees who were traveling from heavily affected areas, registrants whose companies have instituted travel bans, and those who have opted out due to personal preference. SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event, the conference said in a separate statement. As a result of this dialogue and the recommendations of Austin Public Health, the 2020 event is proceeding with safety as a top priority. Share on: PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EpiVax Inc., a Rhode Island company, announces a collaboration to develop a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine with University of Georgia (UGA, Athens GA) vaccine expert Ted Ross (Director, Center for Vaccines and Immunology (CVI)). The COVID-19 virus emerged in January 2020, impacting over 94,000 individuals, in China and 70 additional countries, while dealing a significant blow to the global economy. EpiVax has prepared for this challenge, developing proprietary in silico (computational) tools that identify the key regions of viral sequences that should be included in vaccines to keep individuals safe from infection, while excluding other sequences that make the vaccine less effective or safe. EpiVax has already applied their vaccine reengineering approach to Avian influenza (H7N9) in an NIH funded program with UGA, and UMASS Medical School to address pandemic preparedness. Rapid analysis and vaccine design have proven effective for H7N9 and will likely boost the success of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. As a result, EpiVax and the Ross lab have applied to the NIH for additional funds to apply their rapid vaccine development process to the novel COVID-19 virus, recapitulating the proven success of the H7N9 program. At UGA, Dr. Ross's lab is ready to get started, having already obtained the COVID-19 virus for testing. Working in the high-security containment facility, the Ross Lab can produce and test the reengineered vaccine, expecting to show that the optimized candidate is more effective at providing protection in animal models. EpiVax and the Ross lab are rising to the challenge, improving global preparedness while working to protect human life, everywhere. About EpiVax EpiVax is a world leader in the fields of immune engineering and vaccine design. EpiVax's immunogenicity screening tools are used by a global roster of companies to design and optimize therapeutic proteins and vaccines. www.epivax.com About UGA The researchers at CVI at UGA focus on expanding their understanding of the immunology of infectious diseases and how vaccines work in different populations based upon age, gender and ethnicity. The Center emphasizes student education, training future research scientists to ensure a pipeline of academic, public health, and industrial vaccine programs. The CVI promotes the development of regional, national, and international partnerships, strengthening ties to corporate partners and licensing vaccine technology. Press Contacts: Annie De Groot, MD CEO/CSO EpiVax, Inc. T: 401-272-2123 E: [email protected] Lisa Herrmann Director of Communications UGA T: 706-583-5485 E: [email protected] SOURCE EpiVax Inc. Related Links www.epivax.com Itto Outini is a journalist living in Fayetteville, Ark. This column was originally published in The Chicago Tribune. First the New York Times. Now, The Washington Post finds itself in litigation with the sitting president of the United States, Donald Trump. The president's re-election campaign filed the Post suit in federal court on Tuesday, basing its allegations on two articles. The campaign alleges both pieces contain false claims even though both are labelled online as "Opinion" pieces at the top of both pages. In one, written by Paul Waldman, the campaign takes umbrage with the author's opinion that "who knows what sort of aid" Russia and North Korea might give Mr Trump's re-election bid after he invited their help. The president's campaign contends both Post pieces are defamatory. Last week, when asked about the Times piece, Mr Trump told a reporter he sued because it went beyond just an opinion. There are plenty of passages that likely upset the president, but several stand out. The Times piece, penned by former executive editor Max Frankel, ends by alleging "despite great resistance in Congress, President Trump has watered down the sanctions and otherwise appeased Russian interests, even at the expense of America's allies. Call it the art of the deal." Mr Trump routinely spends time at political rallies in front of thousands of supporters railing against the "fake news" media, contending media outlets are both incompetent and in collusion with Democratic politicians. Casual Dining Competitive Study Exceptional brands tend to have exceptional cultures with an emphasis on people and performance at their core. Companies seeing remarkable success are better at hiring, training, managing, rewarding, and firing when necessary than their peers." Scott Griffith Every year Market Force Information studies the top multi-unit brands across several industries to uncover the best of the best. Through Market Forces unique approach to analytics, they determine what matters most to consumers and how top brands compare across several dimensions of the customer experience. For Market Force clients, this expertise is then applied in combination with technology and data science to provide guidance that helps brands improve their sales, profitability, and appeal to consumers. This unique capability has been recognized by industry analysts and is applied by global brands to deliver continuous performance improvement. Market Force Casual Dining Review 2019 According to Market Force data, the casual dining sector appears to be hitting a plateau, with constant or declining customer satisfaction levels in nearly every category vs. their performance in the 2018 study. Creating the perfect environment for innovative brands to capture market share, putting pressure on mature players. According to the latest restaurant industry study, there is a new leader in Casual Dining! First Watch has been selected as Americas new favorite restaurant brand. Further, National Restaurant News data shows the corresponding financial impact of industry leadership with First Watch posting year over year growth of 33.04% as compared to the prior years growth of 30.83%, a tremendous accomplishment. The annual study of nearly 6,600 consumers reveals diners favorite casual dining restaurants in seven categories including Breakfast, Buffet, Italian, Pizza, Seafood, and Steakhouse. For an in-depth review of the study in its entirety, please get in touch to learn more. Winners and Losers The hottest category, in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty, continues to be Steakhouses with a composite loyalty index (CLI) score of 56.65%. Steakhouses continue to lead the way, while restaurants offering general menu and buffet offerings struggle to delight consumers. With a difference of nearly 14% on the rating scale, the Steakhouse is 32% higher than the CLI score for the lowest-performing category of General Menu. At the top of the Steakhouse leaderboard is Texas Roadhouse featuring a repeat victory. In an interview with Scott Griffith, Market Forces SVP of Global Innovation, he cited that From an operations perspective, they are one of the few brands who have been able to execute a platform of hospitality consistently. With special touches such as using customer names, engaging in conversation, and truly getting to know patrons, they have developed a leading service platform. This platform led to a unique advantaged position, from a customer experience perspective, helping to deliver 9.55% sales growth year over year. The reality is that top-performing brands understand the importance of customer experience better than their rivals do. This understanding paired with customer experience management systems and processes (that include the following: employee engagement and recognition with compensation programs, customer surveys and support with loyalty programs, mystery shopping, social media monitoring, and internal audits), ensure guest satisfaction is measured from every angle. With a solid foundation of data to measure execution at the front lines, brands that are successful at delivering consistent guest experiences earn trust from diners leading to brand loyalty and repeat visits. According to Scott Griffith, Exceptional brands also tend to have exceptional cultures with an emphasis on people and performance at their core. Companies that are seeing remarkable success today are better at hiring, training, managing, rewarding, and firing when necessary than their peers. They become talent magnets while their peers struggle to find quality employees. Brands that struggle with front-line execution also tend to struggle with sales growth as they lose market share to more disciplined competitors. To compensate for lost market share, struggling brands may turn their focus to advertising and discounting practices to bring customers in, only to disappoint them with a second-rate customer experience, lack-luster food quality, and dirty aging facilities. A financially risky game to play! Brands that neglect improving front-line execution remain at risk of further margin erosion, whereas merely focusing on operational performance can be a far more effective path to sustainable organic growth. This challenge is precisely what Market Force addresses with its global clientele. According to Brad Christian, the companys Chief Customer Officer, The first step in delivering consistency is an accurate assessment of reality so that brands can create a strategy based on the priorities that are most likely to influence their financial performance. By executing industry-focused annual competitive research studies, Market Force provides industry executives with an objective consumer perspective on their brands ability to perform across critical dimensions of the customer experience. With a true education in market perception, it becomes easier for industry leaders to allocate dollars appropriately for operations and marketing initiatives to optimize the performance of their respective businesses. The Top 4 Brands Were Category Winners in Their Respective Categories 1. First Watch dominated the breakfast category creating a massive gap between themselves and the competition. Not only winning breakfast, First Watch claimed the top overall ranking in Market Forces 2019 Casual Dining Study. 2. Pappadeaux dominated the seafood category with a CLI of 64%, 8 points above the next highest ranked, BoneFish with a 56% CLI. 3. Texas Roadhouse won top honors in the Steakhouse category with a CLI of 61% due to its outstanding service platform delivering the trifecta of friendly, fast, and experiential service. 4. MOD Pizza and Mellow Mushroom were neck and neck in the pizza category with CLIs of 59.8% and 59.7%, respectively. In 2019, MOD held on to the top spot but fell significantly from its 2018 position of dominance. Rapid growth is the most likely culprit as they were the fastest-growing brand in our study, with 44.7% sales growth year over year, as reported by National Restaurant News. The Biggest Movers The top three brands that changed their stars to improve CLI scores significantly were California Pizza Kitchen moving up 13%, Pizza Hut for their buffet offering at plus 11%, and First Watch with a 10% gain over 2018 results. Brands that experienced challenges included MOD pizza with a 16% slip, Cracker Barrel down 11%, and Cheddars Scratch Kitchen that experienced a 9% drop, in comparison to 2018 results. Significant changes in performance validate the industrys sensitivity to fluctuations in execution across key food dimensions like quality, service, and facilities. Mature brands that drive positive change are rewarded for improvements, while up and coming stars often lose their way under the pressures of growth and expansion. First Watch continues to post impressive numbers with growth at 33%+, and California Pizza Kitchen and Pizza Hut both transitioned from negative to positive sales growth in 2019. They are demonstrating that improving customer experience can precipitate continued growth and a progressive turnaround. Methodology To develop the list of brand rankings, Market Force asked survey participants to rate their last experience at a casual dining chain and their likelihood to recommend it to others. That data was averaged to evaluate each brand on an aggregation of the two measures creating the Composite Loyalty Index (CLI). Only brands that received 100 or more reviews were included in the rankings. Survey Demographics The survey was conducted online in November 2019 across the United States. The pool of 6,598 respondents represented a cross-section of the four Census regions and reflected a broad spectrum of income levels, with 58% reporting household incomes of more than $50,000 a year. Respondent ages ranged from 18 to over 65. Approximately 73% were female, 26% were male, and 1% preferred not to answer. About Market Force Information Market Force Information is a customer experience consultancy that works with leading restaurant and retail organizations, from the C-suite to front line team members, to empower business outcomes that enable sustainable growth in customer satisfaction and financial performance. Operating globally to serve over 200 clients, Market Force is recognized by the AMA Gold Report as a top 50 market research organization and CIO Applications as a Top 10 Analytics Solutions Providers. To learn more about our story and services, please visit us online at http://www.marketforce.com. The Director-General of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has been quarantined for 14 days as part of measures to stop the Coronavirus from spreading into the country. This was made known by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, while briefing the leadership of the Senate on efforts being made to curb the spread of the disease in Nigeria on Tuesday. Also Read: Pastor Sells Holy Oil To Protect Members Against Coronavirus The minister pointed out that the DG had to be isolated in his residence since he just returned from China as a delegate for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Wuhan, China to understudy the behavioural pattern of the COVID-19. Holding her almost four-month-old daughter, Freeya, in her lap, actress Danielle Brooks recounts some of the biggest lessons she's learned about money over the years. Brooks rose to stardom playing fan favorite Taystee on the Netflix hit series "Orange is the New Black," often shortened to "OITNB." Since, she's had roles in "Master of None" and was nominated for a Tony award for her portrayal of Sofia in "The Color Purple." It's an envy-worthy career, though Brooks does have one regret, she says: Not advocating for herself and owning her worth in the final seasons of "OITNB." "When you come to find out the 'Stranger Things' kids are making more than you are in your final season, that's heartbreaking," Brooks tells CNBC Make It. The lead child actors on the Netflix show "Stranger Things" earned upwards of $200,000 per episode for their third season, Deadline reported. "A part of me feels like it's a little bit my fault because I should have fought more, I should have put my foot down." She believes in herself more now, and is comfortable walking away from situations where she doesn't feel valued, which she acknowledges is a privilege. "As a woman, I wish I would have stood by what numbers I wanted from jobs, and not fluctuated." The road to Netflix Brooks is confident in her finances these days and readily offers up tips on everything from buying New York City real estate to budgeting every last dollar. She's also a spokesperson for Intuit Turbo's Real Money Talk campaign. Some of that knowledge she credits to her upbringing; the rest she learned over the past few years as her career, and paychecks, took off. Brooks grew up, as she describes it, in a middle class family in South Carolina before moving to New York to attend Julliard. She recalls sitting on the floor of her apartment after graduation, crying over her student loans and asking her mom what she was going to do. It would take her a year to land "OITNB." In the interim, she took on "a lot of odd jobs, hustling here and there to make it work," earning $25 at a hair styling gig one day and $20 an hour to babysit the next. Even when she eventually landed "Orange is the New Black," financial stability didn't come overnight. She wasn't a series regular the first season, earning a day rate despite her extensive screen time. Living in New York is hard enough for any fresh-faced college grad; add an irregular paycheck and student loan debt, and it can seem even more overwhelming. To combat her financial anxiety, Brooks relied on a budgeting technique her mother taught her when she was growing up, called the 80-10-10 system: 10% of income goes to church, 10% goes to savings and 80% goes to bills and other necessities. She coupled that with the envelope method of budgeting, separating all the money she'd need for various expenses into different envelopes: $600 for rent, $100 a week for food, and so on, so she always knew exactly where her money was going. Those systems kept her head above water when times were lean, as did the faith she had in herself that, eventually, she'd earn enough to knock out her student debt completely. "It wasn't until the end of season two, I had saved up my money to pay off that loan," she says. "I remember the excitement that I felt to call my business manager at the time...I was like, oh now I can move on to my next goal." Learning to advocate for herself As supermarket shelves are being stripped bare of every essential item from toilet paper to hand sanitiser with panic buyers stocking up in preparation for a coronavirus worst-case scenario, one Perth man has been ready for years. And it's a pretty fair bet few are as prepared for anything as Jim Greer. Jim Greer has a truck stocked up and ready to go in his backyard in the event of an emergency. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola A long-time survivalist, or prepper, Mr Greer has an eight-tonne truck ready to go at a moment's notice if an emergency hits. It could be fire or flood, a pandemic, or a third world war; it could be all of these things together. It wouldn't matter. Former President, John Dramani Mahama has called for the quick mplementation of aggressive preventive measures to tackle the outbreak of the Coronavirus, as it has penetrated some African countries. Nigeria, recorded its first of the virus in February 2020, with other African countries like Senegal and Algeria also recording cases. Taking to his social media handles, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer said there should be immediate preventive methods deployed as efforts are ongoing to find a cure. Africa is vulnerable and has not been spared. The first case reported in West Africa has been in Nigeria. This must be a period for the implementation of aggressive preventive measures while we stamp out specific incidences. In portions of his release, he also asked global health authorities and other stakeholders to identify steps aimed at ending the deadly disease. I, passionately, call on all stakeholders- Governments, the United Nations System, Health Professionals, Academia, Multinational Corporations, International and Local NGOs and CSOs to immediately take a united, bold and definite stance against this Coronavirus disease, raise and pool resources in order to halt the spread of the deadly disease and end it. Find below John Mahamas full statement: The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is posing a serious threat to global security, economy, trade, and transport. While the WHO has not yet declared it a pandemic, they urge countries to take aggressive containment measures. Unfortunately, the international response had been lukewarm from the time of the outbreak from its original source in Wuhan, China. In the late 20th and early 21st century, we appear to be experiencing an emergence of many new infectious diseases- Zika, Ebola, MERS, SARS among others. This is scary. But it is consistent with the changing nature of infectious diseases as a result of increasing population, poverty, migration, conflicts, economic and technological development, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, inadequate health infrastructure and public health policies. These multiple contributory factors are daunting but not insurmountable if the global community, which has become intricately linked due to globalisation will act decisively together. Unfortunately, we are yet to see the kind of leadership, definite and concerted actions, which were mounted against the Ebola virus disease infection in West Africa a few years ago. As I said at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, during the Ebola crisis, that Ebola is a problem that belongs to the world because it is a disease that knows no boundaries, we have similarly seen a rapid transnational spread of Coronavirus disease over the past few months. Indeed referring to the Coronavirus disease, the WHO says its not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Africa is vulnerable and has not been spared. The first case reported in West Africa has been in Nigeria. This must be a period for the implementation of aggressive preventive measures while we stamp out specific incidences. We must mount a strong educational and awareness campaign on the nature and mode of transmission of COVID-19 as was done in the period of the Ebola disease outbreak. Discouraging handshaking, frequent handwashing, use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers at public gatherings such as churches, mosques, funerals etc. should be promoted as soon as possible. Measures such as the establishment of quarantine centres, provision of hazmat suits, temperature monitoring and traveller tracking are urgently required. I, passionately, call on all stakeholders- Governments, the United Nations System, Health Professionals, Academia, Multinational Corporations, International and Local NGOs and CSOs to immediately take a united, bold and definite stance against this Coronavirus disease, raise and pool resources in order to halt the spread of the deadly disease and end it. While we take bold action to prevent the spread of this COVID-19 disease, we must also offer intercessory prayers to the almighty to grant as a passover. citinewsroom International Airlines Groups outgoing boss Willie Walsh saw his pay jump to 3.2m last year (PA) International Airlines Groups outgoing boss Willie Walsh saw his pay jump to 3.2 million last year despite tumbling profits at the British Airways owner and stands to retire with millions due in share bonuses. The groups annual report showed Mr Walsh enjoyed the 5.5% pay hike, up from 3.03 million in 2018, as he landed an 883,000 annual bonus and 1.2 million in shares under a long-term incentive scheme. Its long-serving boss also stands to pick up a potential 1.1 million shares worth 5.2 million under previously awarded long-term bonus schemes over the next four years, if performance targets are met. A further 258,910 deferred shares worth around 1.1 million are due in annual payouts due between this month and March 2022. This is on top of 288,000 for pay and benefits for the first three months of 2020 alone before he steps down on March 26, while he is also eligible for a proportion of the 2020 annual bonus worth up to 425,000. Details of his pay perks come just a week after IAG posted a 33.6% plunge in operating profits to 2.6 billion for 2019. It also warned that earnings so far in the new financial year have been hit by weaker demand as a result of coronavirus, followed by news on Monday that it was cancelling more than 400 flights due to the outbreak. Mr Walsh is retiring after a 15-year career with the firm, having orchestrated the creation of International Airlines Group (IAG) through the merger of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia. While he will step down from the role and board of IAG this month, he does not officially retire until June 30. The annual report shows that Mr Walsh earns 72 times the average IAG employee, despite not taking a basic annual salary increase since 2014. His successor, Luis Gallego, will receive a base salary of 820,000 versus Mr Walshs 850,000, as well as possible cash and share bonuses worth up to 3.3 million a year. Good Morning America The Biden administration's plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free is an historic undertaking, but one that will take weeks or months to fully execute, recently released contracts and interviews with seven test manufacturers suggest. Contracts for the first two batches of tests were announced on Friday, one for 13.3 million kits from a health technology company and another for an undisclosed amount from a distribution company in Virginia that had extras on hand -- all to be distributed in an effort to reduce the massive testing shortage in the U.S. Tests won't be available to be ordered through a government website until later this month, the official said, meaning it's unlikely the average American will get free tests delivered in time for the January peak of omicron cases predicted by most models. The Verkhovna Rada has appointed Denys Shmyhal as Ukraine's prime minister. A total of 291 lawmakers voted for such a decision at a snap parliament meeting on Wednesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. Shmyhal was born in Lviv on October 15, 1975. In 1997, he graduated from Lviv Polytechnic State University with a degree in production management (mechanical engineering). Between 1995 and 2009, he occupied senior positions at Lviv enterprises. Between 2009 and 2013, he transferred to the civil service at Lviv Regional State Administration. In 2014, he became deputy chief of the main office of the Ministry of Revenues and Duties in Lviv region. During 2015-2017, Shmyhal held the posts of advisor, vice president, director general and member of the supervisory board of Lvivkholod Trade Manufacturing Company. In 2017-2019, he worked as deputy director general for social issues at PJSC DTEK Zakhidenergo, director of DTEK Burshtyn TPP and acting deputy director general for social issues at DTEK Zakhidenergo. From August 2019 to February 2020, Shmyhal served as head of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration. On February 4, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada appointed him deputy prime minister and minister for communities and territories development. op MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russia's communications regulator said on Tuesday documents have been submitted to court which accuse the BBC World News channel of violating broadcasting requirements within Russia. In monitoring the channel, the regulator, Roskomnadzor, said it detected violations of an order concerning the protection of children from information that is harmful to their health and development. Roskomnadzor said the court session was scheduled for March 12. (Reporting by Nadezhda Tsydenova, Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Alison Williams) A Meath national school, which took the decision to close today 'as a precaution' will re-open tomorrow. On its Facebook page, O Growney NS Parents Association in Athboy posted: "We have closed the school as a precaution and are awaiting further instructions from the HSE." In a statement this morning, the HSE said it has not advised the school to close. As part of the ongoing contact tracing the HSE has not advised any further closure of schools beyond the one school that was shut on Sunday last. A spokesperson for the Department of Education and Skills said it had been in contact with the school and it will reopen tomorrow. It said: "Public Health Officials have confirmed that no school has been closed as part of the ongoing contact tracing process regarding the second confirmed case of Covid19 (Coronavirus) It is essential that any decisions regarding school closures in relation to Covid-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate. The Departments of Health and Education are in constant communication regarding Ireland's responsiveness to Covid19. The Department of Education and Skills has been in contact with one school which closed to pupils today. This school will re-open tomorrow. Earlier, local Cllr David Gilroy defended the school's decision and said it was the right decision and urged people not to speculate too early. "It's absolutely the right thing to do and shows strong decision making by the school, which has about 350 pupils "There are a lot of rumours flying about the town and I would just like to say that speculation this early is unhelpful "Expert advice is being sought and should be respected. "Anyone who may be unwell could just have the normal flu and we are dealing with people here so I'd advise everyone again to be careful with what they say until we know more." The unexpected closure of the school comes after the second case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the east of the country last night. The US Department of State has announced a $7 million reward to anyone who has an information leading to the arrest of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau. They made this known via their twitter handle. They also gave their whatsapp and telegram contacts. The tweet reads; The United States Department of State offers a #reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the arrest of #terrorist Abubakar #Shekau , leader of #Boko_Haram . #Whatsapp : +1 202 975 9195 #Telegram : @RFJ_Francais_bot Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates The Morris County school district where a school bus driver was recently charged with sexually assaulting two students during games of hide-and-seek on the bus is reviewing the addition of onboard cameras to buses and hiring bus aides, officials said. Kinnelon Superintendent Diane DiGiuseppe told NJ Advance Media the cameras and aides were just some steps the district was taking following the arrest of Thomas Thomasevich, a driver who was employed by privately-owned transportation service First Student. The company provides the vast majority of the buses for the district. Thomasevich is accused of assaulting two girls while students waited on the bus before school started, officials said. That wait time is the result of the scheduling of the bus drop-offs, which gets students to school before the teachers contracted start time. The district is planning to reschedule drop-off times to eliminate that lag time for the next school year, DiGuiseppe said. In the meantime, students will now wait in front of their classrooms ahead of the first bell, instead of on the bus, DiGiuseppe said. Several teachers will receive additional pay or flex time in exchange for supervising the students ahead of class. Cameras and bus aides will likely not be in place this school year and there is no timeline in place yet, she said. Board meetings are needed to approve the contracts. We want to do it right, we dont want to have a knee-jerk reaction and put something in place thats not affordable and feasible, DiGiuseppe said. First Student is open to the idea of cameras, but is not willing to pay for them, DiGiuseppe said. We think its important enough to put cameras on buses that we are willing to pay for it, she said. The district is still in the early stages of exploring the legal issues of installing district-owned cameras on a third-party bus. Where the videos would be stored is another legal issue the district would have to iron out, she said. Kinnelon already has cameras on the handful of buses owned by the district. Those cameras feed into a district server, DiGiuseppe said. A spokesman for First Student said the company was in talks with the school board to add cameras, and has provided all requested information to the district for their review and process." He did not respond to a request for additional information. Several parents said First Students refusal to pay for the cameras made them nervous about putting their children back on the school bus. It makes me a little uneasy to think youve gone up to them about the cameras, and theyve said no. What else are they hiding? What are they not telling us? What else are they trying to keep on the down low so that we dont find out whats going on? Carolina Dematos said at a recent school board meeting. Denisse Mora, a Kinnelon mom of six, said she supported the installation of cameras on the bus. This whole situation has made my children and I extremely uncomfortable. I have to worry about the safety of my children and my peace of mind will never be at ease, she told NJ Advance Media. Her children will continue to take the bus to school, she said. The addition of bus aides would cost the district around $600,000, but DiGiuseppe said money is not a concern when it comes to student safety. A job listing was posted over the weekend, and the school has received one applicant so far, she said. They would need aides to cover at least 60 bus runs. As for changing bus providers, thats not really an option due to a state-wide shortage of bus drivers, DiGuiseppe said. First Student is the only game in town, DiGuiseppe said, and even they have a hard time employing enough bus drivers. A sudden spate of resignations over Labor Day weekend left First Student struggling to cover all of its routes in the first days of class, she said. While Kinnelon is looking to make changes to keep students safe, DiGuiseppe stressed that this is the first incident of its kind in the district, describing it as an awful, horrible tarnish on the transportation department. One First Student bus driver, who spoke at a recent Board of Education meeting while choking back tears, called the allegations heartbreaking. "Its my job to keep your guys kids safe. We dont want to hurt them, so, please, remember some of us out there that are driving your kids and loving it too. Theyre great kids, and we enjoy it, she said, to parent applause. Thomasevish drove for the district through First Student since 2012, and passed a State Police and FBI background check as recently as November, DiGiuseppe said. There are no reprimands in his file, he has a clean sheet and is well liked by the community, so this is particularly shocking and frustrating, DiGiuseppe said at a board of education meeting. Thomasevish has no prior criminal history. The alleged abuse was reported to the district on Jan. 16, when a student went to a guidance counselor at the end of the school day, authorities said. Thomasevich was immediately pulled from his route, and a substitute driver covered that afternoon, DiGiuseppe. The Division of Child Protection and Permanency was contacted and began an investigation that day, DiGuiseppe said. Police were soon notified, as were parents of students who were on the bus, and the Morris County Prosecutors Office took over the investigation the next day. Officials said the alleged abuse happened nearly every day beginning in October. Thomasevich is accused of touching two female students under the guise of playing hide-and-seek, telling the students any touches were accidental because his eyes were closed, officials said. A lawyer representing Thomasevich called the allegations a huge misunderstanding, and said Thomasevich cared deeply for the students on his bus. Thomasevich has been suspended from his position, a First Student spokesman said. He is currently being held in the Morris County Correctional Facility as the charges against him are pending. Thomasevich has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, including four counts of sexual assault. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Yemets held the same post in 2010-2011, under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych Zoryana Skaletska has left the post of Minister of Health and was replaced by a heart surgeon and Honored Doctor of Ukraine Ilya Yemets. By the way, this post is not new for him - in 2010-2011 (under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych) Yemets already headed the Health Ministry. Who is Ilya Yemets? Ilya Yemets was born on February 21, 1956 in Vorkuta (Russia), in a large Ukrainian family. In 1979 he graduated from the Kyiv Medical Institute with a degree in pediatrics. In 1979 - 1985 the young man passed postgraduate training - clinical residency in cardiovascular surgery at the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. Since 1992 Yemets had been the founder of the Rotary International club in Kyiv, where he led the medical humanitarian program. In 1993, he became the founder and president of the first International Children's Charity Fund in Ukraine - Children's Heart, which helps kids with congenital heart diseases. From 1993 to 1996, Yemets worked as a heart surgeon in Australia and Canada. In 1996, he headed the department of intensive care and cardiac surgery at the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. Since 2003, Yemets had been the director of the Scientific and Practical Medical Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. h From December 21, 2010 to May 17, 2011 (the period of the Viktor Yanukovych presidency) Yemets had been the Minister of Health of Ukraine. Since 1992, Ilya Yemets was the first in Ukraine and in the post-Soviet space to successfully operate newborns with complex heart defects, to introduce plastic surgery on heart valves without the use of artificial materials into practice. For the first time in the world, he introduced surgical treatment of prenatally diagnosed complex congenital heart defects in the first hours of life in newborns using autologous cord blood instead of donor blood. He reated a school of cardiology and cardiac surgery of newborns in Ukraine. Declaration of Ilya Yemets According to the income declaration for 2018, the ministers family owns two apartments, a residential building and a land plot in Kyiv, a land plot and a residential building in Yalta in the annexed Crimea. Also, Yemets has a land plot in Ostrog, Rivne region. The wife of Yemets has Porsche Macan worth about 1 780 000 UAH (72 358 USD). In 2018, the ministers family income amounted to about 850 000 UAH (34 553 USD). On bank accounts, Yemets has 92 000 UAH (3 740 USD), 3 500 dollars and about 12 000 euros. The Ministers family keeps in cash about one million hryvnias (40 650 USD), 111 000 dollars and 86 000 euros. LONDON, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global cloud communications software and solutions provider IMImobile PLC today announced that Hyundai India has integrated WhatsApp as part of their customer service strategy. Using WhatsApp, Hyundai wanted to streamline the vehicle service booking process, provide service updates and documentation all in one place via their customers preferred communication channel. The WhatsApp Business solution enables businesses to connect with 2 billion users in a simple, reliable, and private way across 180 countries worldwide. As an approved WhatsApp Business solution provider, IMImobiles multi-channel Enterprise CPaaS (Communications Platform-as-a-Service) offering, IMIconnect, enables enterprises to seamlessly integrate WhatsApp Business into their customer communications strategies and drive engagement through intelligent and context-aware messaging. Hyundai will use WhatsApp Business for booking a car service , providing service updates, sending rich media content, sending repair invoices and capturing customer feedback. To build consumer trust and allow Hyundai customers to verify that they are interacting with an official account Hyundai uses a verified business profile on WhatsApp. As an asynchronous channel, WhatsApp Business is convenient for consumers and allows customer service agents to handle more conversations at the same time. Sudarshan Dharmapuri, EVP Products at IMImobile, commented, WhatsApp Business offers a new and more convenient way for consumers to communicate with brands. Hyundai recognizes the importance of embracing newer, effective digital communication channels to improve customer experience and create differentiation from their competitors. Conversational customer engagement, service and support present a huge opportunity for businesses, more so now than at any other time. We look forward to working with Hyundai to further optimize the customer service experience. For more information about WhatsApp Business please click here: https://imimobile.com/solutions/whatsapp-business About IMImobile PLC IMImobile is a communications software provider whose solutions enable enterprises to automate digital customer communications and interactions to improve customer experience and reduce operating costs. IMImobile's enterprise cloud communications software platform orchestrates customer interactions, connecting existing business systems with digital communications channels. Organisations that trust us to deliver smarter digital customer engagement include Hermes, Centrica, AA, O2, EE, BT, Vauxhall, Vodafone, MTN, three of the major retail banks in the UK and public-sector organisations globally. IMImobile is headquartered in London with offices across the UK, Hyderabad, Toronto, Florida, Dubai and Johannesburg and has over 1,100 employees worldwide. IMImobile is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market with the TIDM code IMO. A Lufthansa pilot caused hilarity yesterday after steering his plane on a very rude-looking flight path in Germany. Flight LH350 circled above Bremen yesterday morning in a diversion that left an unusual route map - which the airline insists was 'completely coincidental'. After flying over the airport, the Airbus A320 looped back on itself twice before heading eastward, then doubling back to complete the phallic outline. Air traffic website FlightRadar24 shared a picture of the flight path on Twitter, confirming its authenticity. The rude-looking flight path of LH350 in the moments before it landed in Bremen yesterday - after the Airbus A320 circled over the city in the north of Germany 'LH350 landed on second landing attempt', the flight tracking website remarked yesterday morning. The plane had arrived from Frankfurt on an early-morning flight, finally landing in Bremen at around 7.45am. One Twitter user who saw the picture commented: 'So they c***ed up their first pass?'. Another joked: 'Landing a plane is HARDER than people think'. A Lufthansa spokesman insisted to German media that the flight path was 'completely coincidental'. 'There are no hidden messages', the spokesman told regional news outlet Hessenschau, blaming winds for the diversion. Air traffic website FlightRadar24 shared a picture of the flight path on Twitter, confirming its authenticity In 2017, the US Navy was forced to apologise after two pilots deliberately drew a giant penis in the sky with their plane's contrails. The giant symbol was visible from the ground in Washington state, where the pilots had taken off from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The pair were reprimanded after an investigating officer said the stunt had 'caused the United States Navy severe embarrassment in the public arena'. The same year, an RAF pilot left plane enthusiasts shocked after mapping out a similarly rude image over Lincolnshire. Similar efforts have appeared over Florida and Sweden in the past. Lee and Woods chose to introduce their product in Staten Island, sometimes known as "the forgotten borough," to honor the memory of 9/11 first responders who worked tirelessly and selflessly to save lives. Many first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, came from firehouses and police precincts in Staten Island. Cheryl Lee and Maryann Woods met in 2014, after the deaths of their husbands who worked together as New Jersey Firefighters. Cheryl Lee, founder of RocaBella, said: "My husband of more than 30 years, Jersey City Fire Department Captain Mark V. Lee, Sr., was a generous, compassionate and understanding soul who always put everyone's needs before his own. For years, I thought about a unique way of honoring my husband's love of family and community and the memory of each and every one of the first responders who sacrificed their lives for us all, including Maryann Woods' husband, Jersey City Fire Department Captain James Woods. It is in this spirit that I decided to create a product that would honor our husbands' legacy, those they served and those we lost." RocaBella brings a refreshing and innovative approach to the world of craft spirit. The first vodka of its kind, RocaBella is a mouth-watering, spirits brand which boasts a smooth sensation that captivates, by leaving a refreshing and exotic taste of the tropics on your palate. About RocaBella Cheryl Lee and Maryann Woods were inspired by their husbands' legacy of love of family, and the value and importance of selflessness. They decided to create a brand that represents the emotional and physical strength characteristic of first responders. A proud American brand, RocaBella is an organic, gluten-free, corn-based vodka that has as its ultimate mission to help the families of first responders. For more information visit: http://rocabellabrands.com/ Media Contact: Michelle Estrada, Marketing Coordinator 954-470-2543 [email protected] SOURCE RocaBella Related Links http://rocabellabrands.com/ Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 22:12:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Ministry of Petroleum announced Wednesday that the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country since two weeks ago has not affected Iran's oil and gas production. "Despite a decline in transportation and consumption (of gas and oil) inside the cities (of Iran), it (COVID-19) has had no effect on Iran's oil production and we are producing as before," said Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Wednesday, according to Press TV. Zanganeh made the remarks before departing to Vienna to attend a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Also, deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Farrokh Alikhani said Wednesday that "the production and distribution of Iranian oil and gas is carried out without any effect from the virus outbreak," according to the report. Since the initial announcement of infections with COVID-19 in Iran, the illness has affected 2,922 people across the country, 92 of whom have died. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Four close contacts of the second confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) case in New York have also been confirmed for the virus bringing the total in the state to six, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday morning. Three family members and a neighbor of the second confirmed case a 50-year-old Westchester man who works at a small law firm located only hundreds of feet away from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan tested positive, Cuomo said. The mans wife, his 20-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter and neighbor, who initially drove the man to the hospital, all tested positive, Cuomo said. The mans wife works at the aforementioned law firm, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference Wednesday. The schools the mans two children attend, SAR Academy and High School in the Bronx and Yeshiva University in Manhattan, have both been shut down for Wednesday, Cuomo said. De Blasio said two students at Yeshiva University have met the threshold for testing for the virus; the results of those tests are pending. Seven coworkers at the law firm and one intern are also being tested for the virus at various locations, de Blasio said. The 50-year-old man was initially taken to Lawrence Hospital in Westchester, officials said, but was later hospitalized at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan and in serious condition. The man had underlying respiratory illnesses, officials said, contributing to his current condition. The most recent cases are now triggering Health Department disease detectives to try to make as many connections as possible to ascertain who came into contact with the latest patients. UPDATE: There are four additional confirmed cases of #COVID19 in NYS, bringing the total to six. The new #coronavirus cases are tied to the 50-year-old patient from New Rochelle announced yesterday: his wife, two of his children, and his neighbor who drove him to the hospital. Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 4, 2020 At a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Cuomo said detectives are looking for prolonged contact, adding that the global medical community believes you cannot contract the virus through casual contact," adding, so the subway is not the issue. The issue of the train is not the issue, de Blasio said. The issue is prolonged, consistent contact. Still, the MTAs mass transit divisions New York City Transit, MTA Bus, Access-A-Ride, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North have significantly ramped up the frequency and intensity of their sanitizing efforts, using EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants, the Advance previously reported. Frequently-touched station surfaces like turnstiles, handrails and MetroCard vending machines will be disinfected daily, with the agencys full fleet of trains, cars and buses undergoing full sanitization every 72 hours. SUNY, CUNY STUDENTS IN FIVE COUNTRIES RECALLED Cuomo said that SUNY and CUNY students studying abroad in five countries would be recalled, brought back to the United States on a chartered plane and then quarantined in a dormitory setting for two weeks. Students studying in China, Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea, will be quarantined out of an abundance of caution, Cuomo wrote on Twitter. The students will return to New York Stewart International Airport SWF in New Windsor, N.Y., Cuomo said. We are bringing home @SUNY & @CUNY students studying abroad in China, Italy, Japan, Iran or South Korea. They will be quarantined for 14 days out of an abundance of caution. Remember: We have been expecting more cases & we are fully prepared. There is no cause for undue anxiety. Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 4, 2020 A PANDEMIC OF FEAR Cuomo cautioned that the rise of confirmed cases in New York should not cause panic. Remember: We have been expecting more cases & we are fully prepared. There is no cause for undue anxiety, he said, adding, "We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus but a pandemic caused by fear." Cuomo said the context of the recent cases, which showed four individuals in close contact with the second confirmed case in the state, shows that the virus is behaving as expected. Additionally, the 39-year-old health worker from Manhattan who was the first confirmed coronavirus case in New York is getting better, Cuomo said. The womans husband tested negative for the virus, Cuomo announced. Tested cases in Buffalo, Oneida and Suffolk also came back negative, he added. Those are the facts, Cuomo said. If you understand the facts, there is no reason for undue anxiety. Globally, there have been over 93,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization, and over 100 cases have been confirmed in the United States. The Washington State Department of Health announced on Tuesday that nine deaths have been confirmed in the state the only state currently with confirmed deaths. A boy selects a boxed Lego A/S toy at an E-Mart Co. store, a subsidiary of Shinsegae Co., in Incheon, South Korea, on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. Model fire stations and garbage trucks helped Lego defy a shrinking toy market with a rise in sales last year, as the plastic brick maker outpaced rivals with the latest versions of its classic kits, as well as new stores and a revamped website. After a decade of double-digit sales growth skidded to a halt in 2017, family-owned Lego has returned to form since chief executive Niels Christiansen took the helm that year. The company, which fights for market share in the global toy industry with the likes of Barbie maker Mattel and Hasbro, said on Wednesday sales rose 6% last year to 38.5 billion Danish crowns ($5.7 billion), up from 3% growth in 2018. "It was a strong year where we outperformed the toy industry," Christiansen said in a statement. In February, Mattel reported flat annual net sales, while Hasbro, the firm behind My Little Pony, saw net revenue rise 3%. Lego estimates the global toy market contracted 3% last year. But it grew sales in all its major markets, including "strong" double-digit growth in China, it said. The firm, which has 570 stores worldwide, more than doubled its number of stores in China last year to 140. It sees that number rising to 220 this year. Christiansen told Reuters he would aim for single-digit revenue growth again in 2020, to allow for further investments into IT, new stores and production innovation. Net profit in 2019 rose just 2.8% to 8.3 billion crowns, partly due to higher expenses, which increased 8.2%. Despite strong sales from popular licensed Lego products such as "Harry Potter" and Marvel's "Avengers", the top-selling products were from ranges such as Lego City, Lego Classic and Lego Technic that have been around for decades. "Of course, those are older themes, but as you know, we replace 60% of our products each year," Christiansen said. "We actually consider these themes 'evergreen', which constantly need to be relevant," he said, adding they gave "play experiences like the one you would get outside your door." But Lego, an abbreviation of "leg godt" meaning "play well" in Danish, is also banking on technology to stay up to date with new generations. It saw 27% more traffic on its recently transformed website, and launched "Hidden Side" last year, which combines regular building sets with augmented reality. India has granted citizenship to nearly 19,000 people from five neighbouring countries, including 15,036 Bangladeshi nationals, since 2014, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said those who were granted Indian citizenship belonged to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. Among the 18,999 people who were granted Indian citizenship, a total of 15,036 were from Bangladesh, he said in a written reply. The highest number of Bangaldeshi nationals -- 14,864 people -- were granted Indian citizenship in 2015 under the section 7 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 following the signing of the Indo- land boundary agreement. A total of 2,935 Pakistani, 914 Afghan and 113 Sri Lankan citizens and one Myanmar were granted Indian citizenship from 2014 to 2019, Rai said. Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, who was shot dead during a credit union robbery, was due to give an escort to an employee of the same credit union when it was robbed 17 months previously, the Central Criminal Court has heard. John Kenwright today revealed how two armed men drove into Lordship Credit Union car park in Co Louth as he waited in his car with the day's takings for a garda escort to take him to an AIB bank in Dundalk. One of the men pointed a shotgun at Mr Kenwright and shouted "give me the money" before a second man smashed the passenger side window of Mr Kenwright's car with the butt of a firearm and grabbed the bags containing 22,500 in cash and 35,000 in cheques. The men then made off in their car, leaving 23 seconds after they entered the car park. Aaron Brady (29) from New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Det Gda Donohoe (41) who was then a member of An Garda Siochana on active duty shortly before 9.30pm on January 25, 2013 at Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth. Mr Brady has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbing approximately 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques on the same date and at the same location. Mr Kenwright told prosecuting counsel Brendan Grehan SC that he was a volunteer with the credit union and in 2011 was chairman. The Friday night routine was that once all the day's takings were counted they would be placed in a bag and either Mr Kenwright or one of his colleagues would wait in the car park for a garda escort to take them to an AIB branch on Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk. On August 5, 2011 Mr Kenwright said he left the credit union at 21.37 and his colleagues drove off, leaving him in his car with the bag containing the cash and cheques. After about two minutes he heard a "high-powered" engine "revving up" coming from the direction of the Ballymascanlon roundabout. He then saw the car enter the main gate of the car park and drive up behind his car "very fast before the brakes screeched" and it stopped behind him. Looking at his side-view mirror Mr Kenwright saw a man get out of the car with a sawn-off shotgun and walk straight to the witness's door. He said: "He was pointing it at me through the window. I could just see the black barrel." The witness remembered the man was wearing a brown jacket with a hood but he couldn't see his face. He added: "It was all a blur at the time." He said the man was shouting: "Give me the money, give me the money," and then another man emerged from the car and went to the passenger side door, shouting the same thing. The second man also had a gun but the witness couldn't remember what kind. He used the butt of the gun to smash the passenger side window. "The glass came in on top of me," the witness said. He described the men as five feet and nine or ten inches tall, of stocky build and he said they had "local enough" accents. He added: "The way they moved and that, I thought they were youngish men." Having smashed the window one of the men grabbed the money bags from the front passenger seat and they "jumped immediately back into their car." They reversed towards the gate of the car park and drove off in the direction of the Ballymascanlon roundabout. Mr Grehan showed CCTV footage of the incident which was timed at 23 seconds. Mr Kenwright said the raiders' car had yellow Northern Irish registration plates, the first three letters of which were KIM. He also told gardai that the raiders were "professional and weren't a bit nervous". Det Gda Stacey Linnane told Mr Grehan that she was working at Dundalk Garda Station in 2011 and attended the scene following an emergency call from Mr Kenwright. He was, she said, "very shaken". She confirmed that the car used in the robbery was found burnt out in Northern Ireland close to the border and despite forensic examination no evidence was found. She spoke to the owner of the car who said it had been stolen in a "creeper" style burglary. Gda Linnane also confirmed that gardai were due to escort Mr Kenwright to Dundalk and that Det Garda Adrian Donohoe was to provide that escort. He was, at the time, in Cooley where he was picking up other credit union employees who were also part of the escort. Mr Justice Michael White told the jury of seven men and seven women that legal issues are to be dealt with in their absence and they are not required until next Monday. The New York stage offers an eclectic variety of attractions this March, and I've highlighted six shows that you should consider. My list includes a cooking competition comedy, an experimental gay-themed play, a local government thriller, a gender-bending classic musical, an immigration drama, and a brand-new opera. No matter your theatrical desires, there's something playing in New York that fits the bill. Nicco Annan, Korey Jackson, and Toussaint Jeanlouis star in Katori Hall's The Hot Wing King, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, at Signature Theatre. ( Monique Carboni) 1. The Hot Wing King (running until March 22) This world-premiere comedy takes place around the annual "Hot Wang Festival" in Memphis, Tennessee, where Cordell Crutchfield is frying up wings that he knows will make him king. He receives an assist from his partner, Dwayne, and their chosen family. But when a troubled member of Dwayne's biological family shows up, things get complicated. Playwright Katori Hall has performed magic at Signature Theatre before with Our Lady of Kibeho. This new play offers a close look at a type of family rarely portrayed onstage, with a language all its own. Fleece, Hope Ward, Melissa Navia, Lucille Duncan, and Laura Jordan star in J. Julian Christopher's Bundle of Sticks, directed by Lou Moreno, at INTAR Theatre. ( Carol Rosegg) 2. Bundle of Sticks (running until March 22) This wildly imaginative new play by J. Julian Christopher is about an underground gay conversion therapy program in Australia. "[The] characters are gay men," explains director Lou Moreno. "We have cast it without cis male actors. We hope the play will reveal why." I hope so too! I still think about Christopher's last show at INTAR, Locusts Have No King, which presented as one thing in the beginning before transforming into something entirely different. That element of theatrical surprise can sometimes yield the most startling revelations. Austin Pendleton, Danny McCarthy, K. Todd Freeman, Jeff Still, Tracy Letts, Jessie Mueller, Armie Hammer, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, Sally Murphy, and Ian Barford appear in The Minutes. Anna D. Shapiro directs. ( David Gordon) 3. The Minutes (currently running) What begins as a satire of local government and the eccentric personalities it attracts gradually transforms into something far more serious in Tracy Letts's gripping new drama, which debuted at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre before moving to Broadway under the direction of Anna D. Shapiro. Letts and Shapiro are the team behind the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning drama August: Osage County. They've recruited a cast of some of the most fascinating stage actors in America, including Armie Hammer, Jessie Mueller, and Austin Pendleton. Expect this to be in the running for a Tony later this year. Patti LuPone starred in Company in London. She reprises her role on Broadway. ( Brinkhoff/Moegenburg) 4. Company (currently running) This is a revival of Stephen Sondheim's landmark musical about relationships, cohabitation, and being alive but it's a little different from how you might remember it: Tony winner Katrina Lenk (The Band's Visit) plays Bobbie, a single 35-year-old who is usually played by a male actor as "Bobby." Patti LuPone plays Joanne and sings "The Ladies Who Lunch," while Matt Doyle will play "Jamie" (usually Amy), a spouse-to-be who has cold feet on his wedding day. This gender-rearranging revival is from director Marianne Elliott (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), who always brings a fresh perspective to everything she touches. Lynn Nottage adapted her 2003 play into the libretto for Intimate Apparel A New Opera. ( Tricia Baron) 5. Intimate Apparel A New Opera (running until May 3) Composer Ricky Ian Gordon has collaborated with playwright Lynn Nottage to create a new opera based on Nottage's 2003 play about a seamstress who creates ladies' undergarments in early 20th century New York, and who carries on a passionate correspondence with a laborer working on the Panama Canal. Created in association with the Metropolitan Opera, this is a rare opportunity to experience opera in the relatively intimate setting of Lincoln Center Theater's Newhouse Theater. Bartlett Sher, who has had success as a director at both LCT (The King and I) and the Met (Otello), helms the production, which is sure to be a visual feast. Martyna Majok is the writer of Sanctuary City. ( Tricia Baron) 6. Sanctuary City (running until April 12) This world premiere drama by Martyna Majok is about a new citizen of the United States who marries her undocumented best friend in order to keep him in the country. Majok won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for her play, Cost of Living. Born in Poland but raised in the United States, she has explored immigration issues in her earlier plays, Ironbound and queens. Shrewdly perceptive, Majok is the ideal playwright to take on this marriage story that touches the anxieties haunting so many young Americans today. English French MONTREAL, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Critical Elements Lithium Corporation (the Corporation or Critical Elements) (TSX-V: CRE) (US OTCQX: CRECF) (FSE: F12) wishes to provide an update on the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project (Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project or the Project). The Rose property (where the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project is proposed) is located in northern Quebecs administrative region, on the territory of Eeyou Istchee James Bay. It is located on Category III land, on the Traditional Lands of the Cree Nation of Eastmain. The Project consists in the operation of an open pit in order to extract lithium and tantalum found in the Rose deposit. Lithium and tantalum are world renowned in manufacturing and automotive industrial sectors, including for, among others, the market of hybrid and electric cars in this era of increasing interest for energy transition. The Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project could play a significant role in greening our futures economy. Critical Elements has always considered developing the Project through a sustainable development approach, respecting Cree traditional activities and ensuring the promotion of Cree economic and social development. As early as 2012, Critical Elements entered into a pre-development agreement (PDA) with the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee), the Cree Nation Government (then the Cree Regional Authority) and the Cree Nation of Eastmain, which laid out the basis for the building of a cooperative and mutually respectful relationship between the parties. Pursuant to the PDA, the Crees agreed to cooperate with Critical Elements in the preparation of all necessary environmental and social impact assessment studies for all components of the project and to use their best efforts to ensure that the project proceeds through the environmental and social assessment process provided for in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and, if the environmental and social concerns are met, to assist Critical Elements Corporation in obtaining the required governmental approvals in relation to the Project. Since the signing of the PDA, Critical Elements has participated in multiple meetings with the leadership of the Cree Nation of Eastmain, and in various community meetings and information sessions in Eastmain. The PDA also confirmed the parties commitment to pursuing their discussions to develop and sign an impact and benefit agreement (IBA) in respect of the development and operation of the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project. The negotiations leading to the IBA allowed the Parties to gain an understanding of each others values and to share preferred approach for the development of the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project. The Cree Nation of Eastmain, the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee), the Cree Nation Government and Critical Elements announced the signing of the IBA, referred to as the Pikhuutaau Agreement (the "Pikhuutaau Agreement"), in July 2019. The Pikhuutaau Agreement marked a significant milestone in the fostering of a long-term working relationship between the parties while respecting Cree traditional activities and ensuring the promotion of Cree economic and social development based on mutual trust and respect during all phases of the Project through a sustainable development approach. It provides for training, employment and business opportunities for the Crees and particularly the Crees of Eastmain at the Project, as well as for the cooperation and involvement of the Cree parties with Critical Elements in the environmental monitoring during all phases of the Project. The Pikhuutaau Agreement also ensures financial benefits for the Cree parties on a long term basis, consistent with the Cree Nation Mining Policy and with Critical Elements approach to develop the Project while ensuring the promotion of Cree economic and social development in a mutually beneficial manner. Collaboration between Critical Elements and local communities is also effected in the Eastmain River Lake Sturgeon Spawning Ground Enhancement Project, which was proposed in the environmental impact study filed by Critical Elements with the COMEX and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (now the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada) to compensate the potential impacts of the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project on fish habitat (the Fish Habitat Project). The Fish Habitat Project aims at bringing back the lake sturgeon in the Eastmain River. In February 2018, Critical Elements announced the execution of an agreement with the Cree Nation of Eastmain and the Niskamoon Corporation which provides for the implementation of the Fish Habitat Project by the Niskamoon Corporation and contemplates consultation with and participation of the Cree Nation of Eastmain, including potentially employment and business opportunities for the Cree Nation of Eastmain with a view to promote maximum participation of local manpower and other resources. Critical Elements is currently engaged in the impact assessment process regarding the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project. The environmental impact statement for the Project was deemed complete by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (now the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada) in March 2019. Consultation and assessment by governmental authorities including the COMEX are under way. Jean-Sebastien Lavallee, Critical Elements Chief Executive Officer declared, Since the early stages of the development of the Project, it has always been a high priority of Critical Elements to collaborate with local communities and particularly the Cree Nation of Eastmain. We strive to develop the Project through a sustainable development approach so as to make a significant contribution for the futures economy which we hope will be greener and more sustainable. The signature of the Pikhuutaau Agreement marked a tangible step forward in the active participation of the Cree Nation of Eastmain, as partner, in the economic and social development of Eeyou Istchee. This conclusion of this Agreement demonstrates, yet again, that the Crees welcome development in Eeyou Istchee, provided that it respects the rights of the Crees, is environmentally and socially sustainable, procures real benefits for the Crees and provides for their active involvement. The Cree Nation of Eastmain welcomes the approach taken by Critical Elements Lithium Corporation and acknowledges the cooperative approach shown by its team, which sets Critical Elements as a leader and visionary in the mining industry, stated Chief Kenneth Cheezo of the Cree Nation of Eastmain. About Critical Elements Lithium Corporation Critical Elements Lithium Corporation is a mining exploration company owning several mining properties in Quebec. The Company is focused on lithium. It has achieved its objective with the Rose Lithium-Tantalum project, which is currently at the advanced exploration stage. Based on the work programs developed and positive results, Critical Elements Lithium Corporation is aiming to put the Rose lithium-tantalum project into production rapidly. The Company flagship project is well located in Quebec with on-site access to infrastructures like: powerline, roads, airport, railway access and camp. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jacques Martineau Annexe Communications 514-601-2502 jacques.martineau@annexecommunications.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Delhi Police crime branch will only investigate murder cases that were filed after the violence in northeast part of the national capital, sources said on Wednesday. They said the cases of riots with section pertaining to murder will be investigated by the special investigation team (SIT) of the crime branch, while regular police teams would probe rest of the cases. Police have registered four FIRs against expelled AAP councilor Tahir Hussain and his house was searched and he was found absconding, police said, adding efforts are being made to arrest him. Shahrukh Pathan, whose picture of pointing a gun at an unarmed policeman during the communal riots in Northeast Delhi went viral, was on Tuesday arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district. On Wednesday, Pathan was taken to Shamli for the recovery of pistol and other things he used him during the period. Police said the pistol that he had used during the violence to open fire, is yet to be recovered. They are also verifying if any police cases were registered against him outside Delhi. On February 23, clashes broke out between pro and anti-CAA groups near Jaffrabad in northeast Delhi. The violence in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar and Mustafabad areas of northeast Delhi claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured. A large number of properties have been damaged as frenzied mobs had torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fired in a fit of rage, Sharukh Pathan tells cops India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Mar 04: Sharukh Pathan, the 23 year old man arrested for wielding a gun during the Delhi riots has told the police that he fired in a fit of rage. The police is however yet to recover the pistol. It may be recalled that images of Pathan wielding a gun during the riots at Jafrabad-Maujpur had gone viral. The police said that Pathan had fired three rounds. During his interrogation, he said that he had fired in a fit of rage and on the spur of the moment. Following his arrest, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), A K Singhla said that Pathan was planning to flee from Shamli before he was nabbed. He had procured a 7.65 mm pistol and ammunition around two years back. He was fond of pistols and the one he used during the riots was purchased from Munger in Bihar. Delhi riot: 436 cases filed, over 1,400 held or detained The police are now probing whether he was involved with any gang. The cops are also questioning him on who instigated him to be part of the riots. He runs a shop that sells socks in northeast Delhi's Ghonda area. On February 24, the cops had identified the man in a red T-shirt, who had opened fire at the police, as Shahrukh. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 In a video that went viral last week, the 33-year-old man, could be seen pointing his country-made pistol at the policeman on the Jafrabad-Maujpur road on February 24. The man fired eight rounds in the presence of police personnel. Delhi violence: Shahrukh, man who pointed gun at policeman arrested At least 47 people, including a police head constable Ratan Lal and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma, have died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged in northeast Delhi. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 7:57 [IST] Samsung Executive Joins Si2 Board of Directors Jung Yun Choi, corporate vice president for the Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Design Technology team, has been elected to the Silicon Integration Initiative board of directors. A 17-year Samsung veteran, Choi leads the team responsible for developing all design tools and methodologies for Samsung memory products: technlogies and environments impacting product values, new process and package technologies, new applications and new working environments such as the Cloud. Since joining Samsung, he has contributed to the development of low-power design methodologies for mobile devices, RTL-to-GDS implementation and sign-off methodologies. Choi joined Samsung Electronics in 2003 after receiving his doctorate in electrical engineering at the Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University in 2012. John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO, said, "Doctor Choi brings a unique, IDM and foundry perspective to Si2. His in-depth understanding of fundamental semiconductor principles, along with his hands-on experience in product development, including our current thrust in system-level power modeling for low-power design, will be extremely valuable as we develop our direction for the future." About Si2 Founded in 1988, Si2 is a leading research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. All Si2 activities are carried out under the auspices of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the fundamental law that defines R&D joint ventures and offers them a large measure of protection against federal antitrust laws. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005245/en/ When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican Partys presidential nomination last summer, many dismissed him as a joke. Yet he has become the frontrunner for his partys nomination by engaging in explicit racial demagoguery, calling entire groups of people rapists, terrorists or criminals. Such rhetoric was unacceptable in American public discourse. Even as George W Bush was commencing his aggressive wars after 9/11, he was emphatic in his public statements that Islam as a religion was not to blame and that Muslims in America should not be targeted. Trump espouses no such reservations. There is a consensus amongst political pundits that even if he was to win the nomination, Trumps views are too extreme to win a general election. This may be naive: right-wing politicians who project themselves as strong men often do better than conventional wisdom expects. Few people, even in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), expected the mandate with which Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. A more apt parallel might be with Ronald Reagan, who at the end of 1979 was considered too right-wing for the American mainstream and a bit of a buffoon. Not only did Reagan sweep to the Presidency, he changed the contours of American politics for a generation to come. The Trump candidacy is by now a real enough political phenomenon that one cannot discount the possibility of a Trump presidency and all its attendant consequences. While Trumps campaign has been cynical and his core constituency deeply xenophobic, understanding its success must go beyond romanticising or vilifying the candidate himself to accounting for the articulation of three historical movements: first, the transformation of America from an industrial to a service economy that has privileged the educated elite and limited the possibilities of social mobility for those without higher education; second, the growing economic and political power of corporate and financial capital, leading to levels of economic inequality and inequality of opportunity that have not been seen since the Great Depression; and third, the massive demographic transformations in the country, which will see America become a Hispanic-majority nation within the next three decades. Trumps candidacy is the ugly confluence of these three trajectories. There is a second more hopeful trajectory that this confluence results in, which is playing out in the equally meteoric rise of Bernie Sanders as a serious candidate for the Democratic Party nomination. I will first elaborate upon the anatomy of right-wing politics that leads to Trumps popularity, before reflecting upon the progressive, alternative trajectory that Sanders represents. Anatomy of the American Political Right Even as political pundits dismiss Trump as being unelectable in a general election, there is a segment that worries about the possibility of a Trump presidency under certain circumstances. This is based on Trumps consistent poll numbers through the Republican primary campaign, Hillary Clintons ability to polarise an electorate, and the boost that a Trump candidacy would receive in the event of an Islamist terrorist attack in the United States in 2016, which would potentially broaden the anti-Muslim sentiment that he is preaching. While these are genuine concerns, such poll-driven analysis overestimates white, middle-class voter preference, and assumes a rational voter weighing issues, strengths and weaknesses of different candidates. Electoral political dynamics in America today are not thus constituted. Most likely voters are already committed to one party or another, a function of the complete polarisation of American politics over the past two decades. The mythic independent voter considered pivotal to elections in the 1990s and early 2000s is today largely irrelevant, even if s/he exists. This election will instead be decided by the power centres within the two parties. In each case, these are constituted by a plutocratic establishment that is in tension with a politically engaged and demanding populist grassroots base. While divisions between these factions in the Democratic Party are substantive, they are also for the most part civil. On the other hand, the differences between the factions of the Republican Party are threatening to tear it apart. It is worth unpacking the anatomy of right-wing representative politics in America today, and the dangerous and untenable contradictions it faces. The Reagan counter-revolution was configured by the coming together of three forces. At the centre were big money, big business and corporate power. This was articulated by the rising power of evangelical Christianity, and fueled by the growth of right-wing media. At the edges of this alliance was the far-right militia, often constituted by disgruntled white men who felt like they were losing their positions of traditional entitlement in a demographically changing country; and who were losing their capacity for economic stability and mobility in a country transformed by corporatised agricultural and deindustrialised service economies. Through the 1980s and 1990s, such militias were strongest in those parts of the country, such as the South and West, where organised labour was weakest. While there was broad ideological kinship between the plutocracy and evangelicals on the one hand, and the xenophobic militia on the other, it took the form of a centre-fringe perception, where the latter was tolerated, even encouraged, but kept at arms length. Now this fringe demographic constitutes the heart of Trumps support base and threatens to constitute the heart of the Republican Party as well. Furthermore, it is not just constituted by those who are formally associated with white supremacist or neo-Nazi ideologies, as was usually the case with fringe militias. It draws from a much larger (but still exclusively white) sociological base, roughly four-fifths of which is constituted by people without a high school degree. What unites this base is not so much ideological purity as economic disenfranchisement that gets coded as social disenfranchisement. At the heart of this is the spread of economic immobility in the US over the past three decades. An earlier broad-based meritocracy, which allowed for social mobility across domains, has been replaced by a much narrower-based meritocracy that privileges an educated elite equipped for work in the knowledge/service economy, alongside an informalised labour force for low-paying manual and service work that is increasingly drawn from immigrant populations. Blue-collar white Americans have been severely impacted by this transformation; they see their jobs disappearing, even as they find themselves without the skills to succeed in the new economy. In addition, the attack on trade unions alongside large-scale deindustrialisation in the mid-West has taken away a major source of political community for industrial workers, at the very moment when their livelihoods have come to be more precarious than ever. What is left is a once-socially privileged but now economically disenfranchised demographic that sees no opportunity, only threatto both livelihood and entitlement -- often from others who do not look like them. The cynicism with which Trump has parlayed this into a politics of fear and hate is undoubtedly repugnant. However, the structural ingredients for this were actively cultivated by the Republican Party as a central element of the Reagan counter-revolution. Hence, the pious denunciation of Trumps rhetoric by the Republican Party establishment is not a repudiation of what he says as much as it is fear that he is saying these things in ways that the traditional party plutocracy is unable to control. Trump represents the Frankensteinian monster they created, which now threatens to devour them. The story of the Trump-possessed Republican Party is one of a corporatist party that has lost control of its xenophobic foot-soldiers, ironically engineered by a New York-based corporate mogul. Further, Trumps base does not adhere to the ideological purity and corporatist extremism of the party plutocracy on core economic issues. For instance, many Trump supporters are not evangelicals. Cutting government programmes, which is the Holy Grail of some of the most influential power brokers in the Party, is not such a vital concern for them. (In his campaign speeches, Trump has even promised to grow social security, which Republicans have sought to do away with for at least three decades). What we are seeing therefore is a dissolution of the right-wing social coalition that has existed since Reagan, the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as we know it. Regardless of who wins the nomination, winning the general election is extremely difficult for the Republicans because of the other major reconfiguration in American politics: the growing clout of the Hispanic electorate, the largest growing demographic in the US. In 2012, Obama won 71% of the Hispanic vote. If that margin is maintained by the Democratic candidate in 2016, then the Republican candidate will have to win the white vote by an approximately 30% margin in order to win the Presidencya virtually insurmountable margin of electoral math. This math is not helped by Trump, whose single-point harping on immigration is virtually ensuring that the Democratic candidate will win an even larger chunk of the Hispanic vote than Obama did. Trumps campaign has put the Republican Party between a rock and a hard place. Their own base wants walls and deportation, and anything less will be seen as betrayal. Yet pandering to that base will ensure defeat, regardless of white middle-class voter sentiment, not just in this election but for generations to come. Sanders and the Democratic Primary Just because the Democrats have the demographic ingredients for a long-term hold on the Presidency does not mean that they will make the most of it. Here, one must understand the significance of the second populist resurgence happening in America alongside Trumps, which is Bernie Sanders campaign. This represents emergent trajectories of progressive politics that foregrounds economic and racial inequality, and is born out of or in dialogue with social movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. While grassroots progressives mobilising for Sanders may not detest Clinton the way Tea Party activists detest establishment Republican candidates, this too is a serious intra-party battle between plutocracy and populism. For all her social liberalism, Clinton too is the candidate of a powerful plutocracy, and it is estimated that over 80% of her donations come from big donors. The Sanders campaign has brought the burgeoning national debate on economic inequality into the heart of Democratic Party politics. This is not the crusade of a single man, but a reflection of one core constituency of the party, which finds expression in the Senate through Elizabeth Warren and her allies, and increasingly in urban politics (Bill de Blasios tenure as mayor of New York being especially significant). But corporate capital has quietly engineered a coup detat in America over the past four decades, and the Democratic Party is fundamentally a corporatist party. This is a face of the Party that Barack Obama, for all his social idealism, immediately made peace with. Clinton is an establishment candidate who will do important things in furthering social equality, but in ways that will at best be mildly reformist of economic structures based on corporate power. The degree to which the Democrats can take advantage of electoral demographics over the long term will depend significantly upon the extent to which such a reformist corporatist agenda can successfully address structures of economic inequality. Conclusions Even as the plutocracies of the two parties represent the same kinds of power interests, there are huge policy differences between even the most corporatist Democrats and the most moderate Republicans, especially on social issues. Even if Clinton and establishment Republicans might stand with some of the same interests, they stand for very different things. Nonetheless, unless the hold that corporate and financial power has come to exercise on the American state is challenged, the Presidency itself will have a diminished role in social and economic transformation. This can only lead to the eruption of populist forms of politics that are ever harder to control or predict, in ways that put representative democracy itself at risk. The legislature in America has already become a broken institution, distorted by decades of political gerrymandering and pandering to the most extremist elements of the Republican base after the Tea Party takeover of Congress in 2010. Ideally, executive power in a Presidential system should represent popular interests, with the potential to historically transform the direction of national politics in ways that broadly represents the will of the majority. Legislative power is meant to temper that and provide a space whereby the translation of executive vision into law and policy happens through dialogue, negotiation and compromise. America today sees an executive captured by corporate interests and a legislature paralysed by uncompromising ideological purity. It is such a structure that makes Sanders call for political revolution ever more urgent and important, even as it renders his vision unrealisable as policy. In the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx reminded us that while men make history, it is a function of the forces and relations of production prevalent at the time. There is uncanny congruence between the contemporary American political economic structures to those that Marx described for mid-19th century Francedivision between country and city, a capitalist takeover of the state, the threat of genuine structural transformation driven by the working class, consolidations and divisions between different forces of capital, a dysfunctional legislature, a mobilised lumpen proletariat, and a peasantry disenfranchised by changing economic conditions and reposing faith in a counter-revolutionary personage. Trump is the Bonapartist figure rising from the ashes of such a time, even as Sanders keeps open the possibility of a populism that leads to stronger, not weaker, structures of democracy. Max Verstappen has hit out at the way he is portrayed in the Netflix series Drive to Survive. With unprecedented access in the paddock and the team garages, the Netflix crew has put together a popular series whose second season has just been released. But not everyone is a fan. "I don't think it was the real me," Verstappen said of the way he is portrayed. "The problem is they will always position you in the way they want," he told ABTalks. "It's a series. Whatever you say they will try to make you look reckless, or try to make you into whatever fits the story of the series. It's all about excitement and it needs to be exciting, so they position you and whatever fits to the episode. "You're interviewed and they use the words also under different circumstances so it never really fits," said the outspoken Dutchman. "I never really liked that. I prefer to just have a one-on-one interview with the person who would like to know me." Although highly popular, Verstappen remains a controversial figure who does not hide his preference for a plain-speaking persona over PR or politicking. "I like to be just myself," said the Red Bull-Honda driver. "I speak when I need to speak, and if I don't have anything to say then I won't say anything. "I don't think I show a lot of emotion. I'm just easy going, but I'm also very determined to win. "I try to do everything for it because my life, it's my passion. Sometimes it might seem arrogant or whatever, but I'm there to win," he added. (GMM) When Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex officially step down from the role within the royal family, they will face a whole new set of challenges even they couldnt have predicted. One of those involves their security detail. As senior royals, the pair always had protection officers with them, which was funded by the taxpayers. But when they leave royal life behind having that luxury will fall on them to pay for, and that could present another problem going forward. Read on to find out what a former royal bodyguard to Harrys family had to say about the security risks, plus who will pay for the duke and duchess protection post-Megxit. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Chris Jackson Pool/Getty Images Canada will stop paying for the couples security after Megxit Currently, Canada is taking care of Prince Harry and Meghans protection and has been for the past few months. However, that will change soon. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police [have] been engaged with officials in the U.K. from the very beginning regarding security considerations. As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in a statement to CBC News. The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status. Former royal guard says Meghan and Harry could face serious risks Former protection officer Simon Morgan, who worked as a bodyguard for the royal family from 2007 until 2013, spoke to Insider about the problems that could arise if Meghan and Harry go with a private firm following Megxit. Morgan stated that royal protection officers have up to six months training when transitioning from the police, while those at a private firm only have to do a two-week course. He explained that there could be serious risks to the prince and former actress if they dont get the right security detail. Protection done well is a lifestyle choice. Not many people have experience dealing with members of the royal family, Morgan noted. Its not as though any old private security company could work for them, they wouldnt have the experience or contacts to work at their level. And in terms of the threats the Sussexes may face, the former bodyguard now working as the Director of Operations and Training at a private security firm himself added, The threat will remain constant. In regards to political and religious terrorism, the threat remains the same [as before]. However, day-to-day threats in regards to intrusion whether that be from ordinary people or the media may increase. Who will pay for the Sussexes protection when they step down? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Richard Martin-Roberts/Getty Images So with Canada refusing to pick up the tab, who will pay for the Sussexes security when theyre no longer senior royals? There have been rumblings that the hefty costs will be paid for by Harrys father, Prince Charles. Other reports claim it will fall on the British taxpayers again until a permanent protection plan is in place. However, the palace will not comment on security matters. What is clear is that the couple will continue to have a security team after they officially step down on March 31. It is agreed that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son, a statement on their website read. This is based on The dukes public profile by virtue of being born into the royal family, his military service, the duchess own independent profile, and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years. Read more: Did Queen Elizabeth II Just Make Up Her Own Rules For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Fears of the coronavirus, deadly tornadoes and other issues temporarily disrupted voting on Super Tuesday in a number of states. In Travis County, Texas, home to Austin, many election workers did not show up, with some citing fears of contracting the virus, according to the county clerk's office. The election office said it implemented emergency procedures, with elections staff and other employees filling in as poll workers. Another county, in California, addressed concerns over the coronavirus by sending bottles of hand sanitizer to polling places and asking poll workers to post fliers from the public health department on how to avoid spreading the virus. Jesse Salinas, the chief elections official in Yolo County, just west of Sacramento, said about 10 percent of poll workers backed out at the last minute, and he pointed to concerns about getting the virus. He said that's about double what is normal for an election, and sent his team scrambling for replacements. In Travis County, Texas, home to Austin (Above), many election workers did not show up, with some citing fears of contracting the virus, according to the county clerk's office A woman wears a face mask as she lines up to vote at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Santa Monica, California 'We are hoping people remain calm and still participate in the election process,' Salinas said. Meanwhile, just hours before polls were set to open in Tennessee, tornadoes tore through parts of the state, killing at least 24. With more than a dozen polling sites in Nashville's Davidson County damaged, voters were sent to other locations, where some of them encountered long lines. The Tennessee Democratic Party and the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren successfully sued Davidson County election officials and the secretary of state's office to extend voting for three hours beyond the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time. Aside from the tornado-ravaged counties in the South, the two biggest Super Tuesday prizes of California and Texas appeared to have most of the voting-related problems. Voter file databases were down or excruciatingly slow in some counties in California and Texas, leading to massive lines and long waits at the polls. Will Green sits amid the debris of a house where he lives with his father, that was damaged when a tornado struck Nashville, Tennessee early on Tuesday A polling location is closed due to no power after deadly storms passed through the state, in Nashville. As Super Tuesday voting got underway, deadly storms that spawned tornadoes and heavy rains left treacherous conditions in at least two of the 14 states holding primaries In Los Angeles County, electronic pollbooks that are connected to the state's voter database were operating slowly because of the high number of voters, County Registrar-Recorder spokesman Mike Sanchez said. The county brought in technicians and added devices in some polling places to move lines along. Even so, delays were two hours or longer in some locations. Beverly Hills City Councilman Julian Gold said waiting times there were 2 1/2 to 3 hours. He said he was told the delays were related to voter check-in. 'There's a lot of frustration (and) people walk away,' he said. 'I don't know if they'll come back. I hope they do.' At a vote center in Silver Lake, near downtown Los Angeles, poll workers said computer network issues slowed the voter check-in process and made some machines unusable. About one-third of the approximately 40 machines were being used, and some had 'out of order' signs taped to them. The resulting line meant it took about an hour for voters to cast their ballot. In Texas, elections officials in the Houston area were sending additional voting machines to polling places after people reported hourslong wait times. A voting-rights group said the problem seemed most acute in heavily black and Latino neighborhoods. Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, described problems with pollbooks around the country as 'intermittent I.T. issues' that had since been resolved. 'We're not aware of any persistent, long-term issues associated with the election infrastructure of the United States right now,' he said. This was the scene in Downtown Los Angeles an hour and a half after polls were due to close at 8pm PST Get in line: Voters faced a long wait at the University of Southern California, as problems with voting swept the nation's largest state In Minnesota, a poll-finding tool on the secretary of state's website was briefly inaccessible on Tuesday. Republicans cried foul when visitors to the site were redirected to a left-leaning website that also supplied polling place information. Secretary of State Steve Simon said a staff member had linked to the partisan site in what he called 'a serious lapse of judgment.' U.S. intelligence chiefs have warned that foreign interference remains a threat for the 2020 election, but the national agency that oversees election security said Tuesday it had not detected any notable uptick in either misinformation by foreign nations or targeted attacks on voting equipment. That doesn't mean Super Tuesday was free of mischief. The Texas Secretary of State's Office had reports that voters were receiving robocalls stating - incorrectly - that Republicans would vote on Tuesday while Democrats and independents would vote on Wednesday. Spokesman Stephen Chang said the office has the number from which the calls were made and has reported them to federal authorities. He said it was unclear who was responsible for the calls, which were made across the state. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Equal Protection Under Law, said her organization filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission about the robocalls. An official with the federal cybersecurity agency said they were aware of the Texas robocalls and were investigating. The Delhi government on Wednesday moved a city court seeking a fresh date for execution of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the last remaining mercy plea in the case. According to Delhi Prison Rules, a 14-day period has to be given to a death row convict after the dismissal of a clemency plea before the prisoner can be hanged. All the four men are to be hanged together. A Union Home Ministry official said President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of 25-year-old Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four condemned prisoners. The Delhi government told Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana that all legal remedies of the convicts have been exhausted and nothing survives now. The judge then directed the convicts to file their response by tomorrow even as the lawyer for the prosecution said no notice was required. While issuing the notice, the court said principles of natural justice are part of Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and the sacrosanct principle of "Audi alteram partem" (listen to the other side) cannot be ignored. The hanging of Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) besides Pawan previously scheduled for March 3 was deferred for the third time in six weeks by the court on Monday in yet another twist in the case marked by apparent delaying tactics by the condemned prisoners. The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. The court on Monday postponed the hanging till further orders. Nirbhaya's father expressed the hope that the convicts will be hanged this month. "He(Pawan) has one option left -- that is to challenge the mercy plea in Supreme Court as the others have done. Let's see what happens next, but we are confident of getting justice," he told PTI over phone. "We are hopeful that the convicts will be hanged this month and justice will be finally delivered to us after a long wait," he said. The first date of execution--January 22--fixed on January 7 was postponed by the court to February 1. But on January 31, the court indefinitely postponed the hanging. On February 17, the court again issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am. The Delhi High Court, meanwhile, declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) to intervene and enquire into the mental and physical state of the four death row convicts. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said the petition was not maintainable as it should have been first filed before the NHRC. Asking the petitioner to move the NHRC, the bench disposed of his plea. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. The case has witnessed a series of twists and turns right after a Delhi court on September 13, 2013 awarded the death sentence to the four convicts, less than one year after the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital. Review petitions and curative petitions were then filed in a staggered manner in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order on March 13, 2014 confirming the death sentence. The last option of mercy petition before the President to escape the gallows was exercised by the convicts one by one. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Life insurance and pension giant Legal & General has raked in around 155million worth of extra profit from people not living as long as they were expected to in the last year. Nigel Wilson, Legal & General's boss, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that people were 'not living as long as we expected them to, and we've taken a release as a consequence of that'. He added: 'People are going on about the coronavirus, but actually the bigger problem we are having at a societal level is that lots of poorer people are not living as long as we expect. Bottom line: Legal & General has raked in more cash from people dying sooner than expected 'Life expectancy in some of the poorer areas in 58, the life expectancy of the richer areas is 85, and that's a difference which has evolved over the last 20 years.' Wilson said he wants to see people lead healthier longer lives and for people to be able to save and invest more, while enjoying real wage growth. Across all its operations, L&G saw its operating profit rise 17 per cent to 2.5billion in the last year. The company's annuity sales increased by 22 per cent to 970million over the period. In 2019, Hargreaves Lansdown branded annuity rates a 'horror show' for retirees after they fell to dismally low levels. L&G has increasingly focused on bulk annuities, insuring company final salary, or defined benefit, pension schemes. Many schemes are in deficit and companies are looking to offload them to clean up their balance sheets. L&G boss Nigel Wilson said: 'People are going on about the coronavirus, but actually the bigger problem we are having at a societal level is that lots of poorer people are not living as long as we expect' Sick pay: L&G's boss confirmed that the group would pay sick pay if staff self-isolate due to the coronavirus The group's dividend was increased by 7 per cent to 17.57p in the last year, while return on equity saw a modest decline from 22.7 per cent to 20.4 per cent. FTSE 100-listed L&G's share price is on the up this morning, currently standing up 1.4 per cent or 3.7p to 268.80p. Finance chief Jeff Davies said today that recent market movements caused by growing fears of a coronavirus pandemic had knocked 'around 10 per cent' from its solvency ratio. Davies said L&G was not heavily exposed to areas that have been hit hard by the outbreak such as airlines, but said the company was examining the macro-economic risks caused by the spread of the virus. The company's boss told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme that the company would pay staff sick pay if they were forced to self-isolate as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Wilson said in the group's results: 'Legal & General's strategy of Inclusive Capitalism, underpinned by structural growth drivers, has enabled us to achieve our five year EPS growth ambition in four years, growing 58 per cent since 2015. 'Our five growing, profitable and increasingly international businesses compete in attractive, growing markets and work together to deliver economically and socially useful customer solutions. 'Society's increasing focus on net zero carbon, ESG investing and levelling up through investment in all regions plays to our strengths, creating future growth opportunities. 'Having delivered EPS growth of 16 per cent to 28.7p, dividends up 7 per cent to 17.57p, and a 20 per cent plus ROE, we are wellpositioned for the future and we remain ambitious.' Speaking to This is Money, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'A tenth consecutive increase in its annual dividend looks to prove the value of chief executive Nigel Wilsons growth strategy at Legal & General, even as investors fret about the effect of stock market falls and increased mortality rates (and thus a hit to its capital strength), thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak. 'The firm did book a 155 million gain from the reassessment of mortality rates, as more people died earlier than expected, but this was down from 433 million the year before and it too early to tell what impact COVID-19 will have upon 2020s financial performance.' CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexential, a leading provider of data center colocation and hybrid IT solutions, announced today that CRN , a brand of The Channel Company , has recognized Flexential on its 2020 Data Center 50 list, which represents an elite group of suppliers who expertly support data centers within the IT landscape. CRN's Data Center 50 list is a trusted resource for solution providers in search of the best offerings to meet their data center needs. When considering technology suppliers for this annual list, CRN editors weigh multiple factors, including the company's overall impact, its influence on the channel, and the services it brings to the market. These technology suppliers offer best-in-class solutions and services for premier data center management, protection and support. "On behalf of our team, I want to congratulate the elite technology suppliers named to CRN's 2020 Data Center 50 list," said Bob Skelley, CEO, The Channel Company. "These companies consistently drive efficiencies and innovative solutions for their partners. Their commitment to ongoing R&D, customization and security for data center infrastructure is driving significant technology advancements for solution providers to leverage with their customers." Flexential has a 3.1 million square foot data center footprint in more than 20 markets, including seven of the ten fastest-growing states in the U.S. as identified by the U.S. Census Bureau. The company's geographically dispersed national platform provides broad reach to serve the needs of current and future deployments, fulfilling edge and near-edge requirements. Flexential also goes beyond the four walls of the data center to offer a highly-connected FlexAnywhere network that delivers high-capacity, low-latency and reliable connectivity, anywhere that is needed. "At Flexential, we are committed to delivering the highest quality, consultative approach to our customers, and we are proud to be recognized by CRN as best-in-class," said Chris Downie, CEO, Flexential. "As the only company on the list with 'flexible' in our name, we believe our flexibility and tailored solutions will continue to set Flexential apart with our customers and partners. This year marks a pivotal time for the data center market as customers seek hybrid IT and multi-cloud solutions. Flexential is here to partner, offering a unique ability to support high-density AI workloads and with our FlexAnywhere platform, giving customers more connection choices. We do not believe in one-size-fits-all solutions; we work with our customers to empower their IT infrastructure journey to get them to where they need to go today, and as they scale." The Data Center 50 list is featured online at www.crn.com/datacenter50 . About Flexential Flexential offers flexible and essential services that help organizations optimize their journey of IT transformation while simultaneously balancing cost, scalability, compliance and security. The company, co-headquartered in Charlotte and Denver, is committed to building trusted relationships and delivering tailored solutions that suit the individual needs of its customers. Flexential is deeply invested in the success of its customers, who trust it to deliver core data center solutions of colocation and connectivity, as well as, cloud, managed solutions and professional services. Flexential's robust suite of assets spans more than 20 markets and comprises 40 highly redundant and connectivity-rich data centers. For more information on Flexential, please visit www.flexential.com. Flexential is a registered trademark of the Flexential Corp. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter , LinkedIn and Facebook . Copyright 2020. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Contact: Lori Stafford-Thomas Senior Director, Corporate Marketing, Flexential [email protected] 720-891-1070 The Channel Company Contact: Jennifer Hogan The Channel Company [email protected] SOURCE Flexential Related Links http://www.flexential.com Britain's biggest car maker has promised an incredible 40,000 volunteers to join the Great British Spring Clean. Jaguar Land Rovers pledge comes as the total number of volunteers joining the war on litter hit an amazing 468,299 yesterday with 11,385 events registered. The company will organise dedicated events at its six main UK manufacturing and engineering sites and encourage their enormous workforce to get involved in the war on litter. Jaguar Land Rover encouraging all of our 40,000 UK employees to get involved in the Great British Spring Clean either in their own time, or by joining one of our company organised events. Pictured: Employees at Jaguar Land Rover in an undated photo Chief executive, professor Sir Ralf Speth, said improving the environment was an integral part of the companys mission and that his staff could make a real difference. The number signed up to this years spring clean massively eclipses the number of volunteers who signed up in 2018, which stood at 370,000 and we still have weeks of the campaign to go. Jaguar Land Rover said it will ask employees to use their 16 paid volunteer hours to take part in our litter campaign, run in conjunction with Keep Britain Tidy. The company will organise litter pick events throughout March and April, while the Great British Spring Clean is underway. These will take place around its main sites in the UK including in Solihull, Birmingham and Merseyside. Sir Ralf said: Improving both the environment and the lives of residents in the communities we call home is an integral part of Jaguar Land Rovers Destination Zero mission our ambition to make our societies safer and our environment cleaner. Grim tide: A gull tries to eat a polystyrene takeaway container thrown into the harbour in the Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth As the UKs largest automotive manufacturer our colleagues can make a real difference to our local communities and a positive impact on the environment. JLR is encouraging all 40,000 employees to get on-board, either in their own time or by joining an organised event. Last year, staff at the company donated 75,000 volunteer hours to good causes across the UK. Their announcement comes as Reckitt Benckiser, a consumer goods giant whose brands include Dettol, Strepsils and Durex have pledged to clean up the local area around its global headquarters as part of our campaign. They said two teams of 100 volunteers will spend an afternoon litter picking around the Science and Innovation Centre in Hull and near its headquarters in Slough. Susan Egstrand, head of Reckitt Benckiser UK and Ireland, said: The Great British Spring Clean is a fantastic initiative and we applaud the Daily Mail for its leadership on such an important issue. At Reckitt Benckiser we are all committed to creating a cleaner world so well be rolling up our sleeves and taking part over the coming weeks. Many influential companies and organisations have pledged to get involved with the Great British Spring Clean. Unsightly Edinburgh: Litter is snagged in grass at the side of a road in Scotland Shameful sight in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: A burnt-out bin spews rubbish on to a pavement HSBC, Hargreaves Lansdown and Barratt Developments are also on board, and have promised to encourage their tens of thousands of staff members to take part in litter picks. Last year our campaign, which runs from March 20 to April 13, enlisted almost 600,000 people across the country to take part in tackling Britains litter. This year we hope to do even bigger and better aiming to get as close to a million volunteers as we can. FILE PHOTO: Medical staff with protective clothing are seen inside a ward specialised in receiving any person who may have been infected with coronavirus, at the Rajiv Ghandhi Government General hospital in Chennai By Neha Dasgupta and Ludwig Burger NEW DELHI/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - India's top pharmaceuticals export group said a government curb on some drug exports as the coronavirus outbreak spreads has caused panic in Europe and will "severely impact" businesses in the sector. The world's main supplier of generic drugs has restricted the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the medicines made from them, in a move seen as aimed at tackling possible domestic shortages of medicine during the outbreak. On Wednesday, Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), told Reuters that some of the restricted APIs and medicines were widely exported to Europe and the United States. "I am getting a huge number of calls from Europe because it is very sizeably dependent on Indian formulations and we control almost 26% of the European formulations in the generic space. So they are panicking," Dua said. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70% of the APIs for their medicines. The list of restricted medicines accounts for 10% of India's total pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, as well as Paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen. "We are very alarmed that other countries would pursue other, more narrow strategies, which won't solve the issue," said Adrian van den Hoven, director general of the Medicines for Europe association of the region's generic and biosimilar drugmakers. He added that the restrictions did not seem to affect large export volumes to Europe and stockpiles would last a few months. The European Union's drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where Indian imports accounted for 24% of medicines in 2018, said on Tuesday it was working to determine how the restrictions will affect U.S. supplies. Story continues The restrictions could hurt India's image as a pharmacy to the world and would effect shipments already lined up for export at warehouses and ports, Pharmexcil argued in a letter to India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which was seen by Reuters. The DGFT did not respond to a request for comment. "The exporters not only suffer the monetary losses but also their credibility and reputation in the international market is at stake," said the letter, which urged the government to allow exports of drugs manufactured before the restrictions kicked in. Dua told Reuters there were $10 million worth of drugs currently at Indian ports or close to being readied for export. Pharmexcil counts dozens of pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer Ltd and Abbott among its members. The council falls under the federal commerce ministry. Novartis AG said on Wednesday it would adapt measures as the Indian export situation evolves, although it does not currently anticipate supply chain disruption. India - which has so far confirmed 28 cases of the coronavirus, including 16 Italians - has urged calm and said there were enough stocks to manufacture formulations for two to three months. (Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Aditya Kalra, Kim Coghill, Kirsten Donovan) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 17:41 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206844b92 1 World coronavirus,Diamond-Princess,Foreign-Affairs-Ministry,Foreign-Minister-Retno-Marsudi,cruise-ship,cruise-ships,Iran,Italy,Japan,South-Korea,yokohama,Wuhan-coronavirus,Retno-Marsudi Free Four of the nine Indonesian citizens who tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan have since recovered, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Tuesday. Four out of nine positive Indonesians have been declared negative [recovered] and the remaining five are still undergoing treatment in the hospitals and they are in a stable condition, Retno told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday. The nine Indonesians are crew members of the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship that had been docked in the port of Yokohama, Japan. Sixty-nine of their fellow crew members who tested negative for the disease have been evacuated from the ship and are currently quarantined in Sebaru Island, Thousand Islands regency, Jakarta. Retno said the Foreign Ministry was closely monitoring the well-being of Indonesians in countries that were hardest hit by the virus. Our focus is on the countries that have had a significant increase of [confirmed] cases [] We are intensively communicating with our missions abroad in Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan [as countries with significant surges in cases], she said. Our embassies are also consistently showing support for the [governments] of the affected countries, Retno added. Read also: Jakarta steps up efforts to tackle COVID-19 following two confirmed cases Separately, the ministrys director for citizen protection, Judha Nugraha, said on Wednesday that the recovered Indonesian crew members were still hospitalized to undergo a second test except for one who has already taken the two tests and had been evacuated along with the other crew members who tested negative. As of Wednesday, real-time data from the Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) recorded 93,158 confirmed cases worldwide, with a total death toll of 3,198. South Korea bears the second-highest number of cases, second only to China, with 5,328 confirmed cases. Meanwhile, Italy has 2,502 cases, Iran has 2,336 cases and Japan has 293 cases so far. More than 50,600 people worldwide have recovered from the disease. NEW YORK Gov. Phil Murphys surgery Wednesday morning to remove a likely cancerous tumor was successful, acting Gov. Sheila Oliver announced. Earlier today, Governor Murphy underwent a successful surgery to remove a tumor on his kidney," Oliver, the states lieutenant governor, who is acting governor while Murphy is incapacitated, said in a statement shortly after 1 p.m. He is currently resting at a hospital in New York City, she added. Oliver did not say if the extracted tumor was found to be cancerous, nor did she provide any other details. Doctors likely have to perform a biopsy on the tumor. First Lady Tammy Murphy took to Twitter to say her husband is on the mend and thank New Jerseyans for their support on behalf of their family. Incredibly grateful to everyone who has sent kind messages and prayers. Phil is on the mend now and no looking back! Much love to our New Jersey family from all six of us. https://t.co/5875STiunG Tammy Murphy (@FirstLadyNJ) March 4, 2020 Murphy, 62, is expected to spend the next few days in the hospital where the procedure was performed. After that, hell recover at home for a few weeks. Murphys office did not disclose what hospital he is at. The governor revealed last month he was diagnosed with a 3-centimeter tumor on his left kidney that is 92 percent likely to be malignant. Doctors wouldnt know if the tumor is cancerous until after the surgery, Murphys office said. But Murphy has said doctors believe his prognosis is good. We caught it early, Murphy told NJ Advance Media in an interview at his Middletown home last month. We consider ourselves incredibly lucky. The governor underwent a procedure called a partial nephrectomy, in which doctors remove part of the kidney but not the whole organ. The hours-long invasive surgery involves doctors freezing the kidney to extract the tumor. Murphy has said doctors were optimistic theyd be able to completely remove the tumor, and he is not expected to need chemotherapy. People with kidney cancer that has not spread beyond the organ have a 93 percent chance of surviving at the five-year mark. During an unrelated event in Trenton on Wednesday morning, Oliver asked residents to pull for Murphy. I just want the public to keep Gov. Murphy in their thoughts, and his family Oliver told reporters afterward. Murphy has already scheduled an event 10 days from now: the inaugural summit of the States for Gun Safety coalition, a group he co-founded with nearby states to combat gun violence. He will host governors and delegations from those states March 13 in Newark, Murphys office said. NJ Advance Media staff writer Blake Nelson contributed to this report. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. [March 04, 2020] Students Invited to Set College and Career Goals at Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy (OVCA) is now accepting enrollments for the 2020-2021 school year. A tuition-free public charter school, OVCA serves students statewide in kindergarten through 12th grade. With innovative technology, inspiring teachers and an interactive curriculum, OVCA's online and blended learning and instruction platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment that recognizes their individual learning styles. "At OVCA, we're providing a personalized learning environment that goes beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to instruction," said Audra Plummer, Head of School. "We are giving our students the academic and social experiences that will prepare them for a bright future and motivate them to discover all thatthey are capable of achieving." OVCA students access the school's curriculum anywhere with an internet connection, and attend live virtual classes taught by state-certified teachers. Students are offered a yearlong full course load in the core subjects of English/language arts, math, science and history, as well as elective options such as world languages, arts, music, technology and career exploration. Within the first few weeks of the school year, high school students work with staff to create a graduation plan, which might include concurrent college enrollment, Advanced Placement coursework, or internships outside of school. "Working as their partners from the very first day of school helps our students create a roadmap towards their college and career goals from the start," said Ms. Plummer. Students choose to attend public school at home for a variety of reasons, including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs while focusing on academic goals. To support academic success, OVCA families are connected via the school's Community Family Advisor program. Families are assigned an OVCA Community Family Advisor to help connect with other students and families in their local communities. OVCA also offers virtual student organizations and in-person field trips, social outings, and other activities throughout the year, and will host in-person tutoring around the state for the 2020-2021 school year. The school also hosts an in-person graduation ceremony and high school prom each spring. OVCA is available tuition-free to students in grades K-12 who reside anywhere in Oklahoma. To learn more about the school, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events visit ovca.k12.com. About Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy (OVCA) is a full-time public charter school authorized by the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board and serving Oklahoma students in kindergarten through 12th grade. As part of the Oklahoma public school system, OVCA is tuition-free and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For enrollment information visit ovca.k12.com or call 866-467-0848. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005048/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Following a comprehensive interview with Minerals & Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on energy and electricity policy in South Africa two weeks ago, energy analyst Chris Yelland tackles the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, on the big elephant in the room Eskom. The interview covers Eskom debt, the regulatory framework, rising electricity prices, the need for bailouts and cost-cutting, declining plant performance, Medupi and Kusile, environmental sustainability, unbundling and restructuring, the end-state of the electricity supply industry, the utility death spiral, and issues of transparency and accountability. Key take-outs from the interview with Pravin Gordhan include: Integrated plan to restructure Eskoms debt and operations likely by mid-2020. Eskom must modify its dynamic of pushing tariffs up each year. Improvement of EAF to between 73% and 75% said to be realistic. Internal appeal mechanism to be introduced into the Nersa regulatory framework. Medupi and Kusile will not become stranded assets. Vertically integrated national electricity entity not the only answer. Independent transmission entity needed. More transparency to be provided on operational performance. Money stolen from Eskom during state-capture period to be recovered. Salaries and benefits of top management under scrutiny. Review of procurement contracts needed. SOEs must be self-sustaining. Eskom debt the missing plan? The unsustainable level of Eskom debt has been highlighted for the last few years, with several credible options for debt restructuring and refinancing now on the table. As minister of public enterprises, what is your preference, and how would you see this being resolved? When will the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the Minister of Finance be taking the necessary hard decisions to give some certainty all round, including to the financial community and rating agencies? As far as the debt question is concerned, as the Ramaphosa administration, we had two immediate priorities in getting to grips with the challenges that Eskom is facing. The first was to provide whatever fiscal support could be given, and thats the R23-billion per year, plus the current appropriations indicated in the budget. The second was to ensure immediate operational improvements, including cost savings within the Eskom framework itself. The next phase was to formulate the various options for managing Eskoms debt portfolio. That work was done in the latter part of last year. The third phase will be to focus further on operational improvements, while seeking an integrated way of dealing with Eskoms debt, including the options of climate finance and other creative mechanisms, as well as the restructuring of Eskom in line with the Eskom roadmap, When will all of this come to some kind of convergence? I think towards the middle of the year we will have a better appreciation of the options and the kind of direction that we want to take. Electricity price too high or too low? You yourself, the Minister of Minerals & Energy, and customers have indicated that the price of electricity is too high. Eskom on the other hand says the price of electricity is too low, and must rise by 30% to be cost-reflective. The utility is fighting in court for higher annual electricity tariffs, and to claw back over R100-billion from customers to cover a debt hole that is growing by about R50-billion a year. Are electricity prices in South Africa too high or too low, and if so, what is to be done about this? Electricity prices are part of what we would call administered prices in the economy. The goal of government is set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), which states that we need to reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa. That would include port charges, freight charges, electricity, water and other tariffs that are generally within government control, as well as other more market-related costs. International comparisons seem to indicate that, objectively speaking, electricity prices in South Africa are not too high. At the same time, South Africa has its own structural challenges in terms of certain industries like mining and manufacturing, and the difficulties in these sectors need to be taken into account by Eskom itself. Equally, Eskom has its own internal dynamic that it needs to modify. This internal dynamic keeps pushing tariffs up, and weve seen the numbers over the last ten years, or so. Whilst there has been no increase in energy delivered, there has been a fourfold increase in revenue, largely resulting from tariff increases. The flip side of this coin is managing costs within Eskom itself, so that its pricing can be kept as low as possible to ensure a competitive economy at the end of the day. Pricing and energy supply are one side of the equation. The other side is energy efficiency. There has to be a greater focus and push from industry to become more energy-efficient in the way our limited electricity resources are used, and also to contribute to our climate-change goals. Nersa is the regulatory framework fit-for-purpose? Currently we see Nersas fourth multi-year price determination (MYPD4), being challenged in court, along with Nersas revenue determination for the 2018/19 financial year, and the regulatory clearing account (RCA) determinations for the 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 years. Eskom blames Nersa for the utilitys dire financial and operational state. Are the current regulatory processes, and Nersas pace and cost-plus recovery methodology, really fit for purpose today? I think the general principle of having a Regulator that objectively determines pricing is a well-held and well-accepted principle. But there is currently the Nersa Amendment Bill that the Minister of Minerals & Energy is taking through parliament, which would introduce an internal appeal mechanism into the regulatory framework, where a tribunal would adjudicate or arbitrate disputes without a court process. Court processes between government entities, such as the Regulator and an operator like Eskom, should not happen too often in the context of the corporate governance chapter of our constitution. But there is still a dynamic within Eskom that endeavours to recover as much possible via the tariffs, and thats a culture shift that we need to make under the new Eskom CEO and board that will come into place. We need a shift towards greater cost-efficiency, and a review of all contracts that contribute to cost inefficiency. We need to track down the different forms of corruption, and recover money that was stolen from Eskom during the state-capture period. All this will ultimately contribute to a different dynamic between the Regulator and Eskom as a regulated entity. Cost cutting where are the opportunities? Both you and Minister Mantashe have suggested negotiations to reduce coal costs and IPP tariffs for renewable energy delivered to Eskom. The World Bank and Nersa have both indicated excessive staffing at Eskom. Operating and maintenance costs, interest and depreciation continue to increase. Eskom says cost cutting opportunities are limited. So where are the cost-cutting opportunities to be found, and are the kind of public sector staff remuneration cuts announced in the budget the appropriate response? There are numerous cost-cutting opportunities, and I wouldnt be able to list all of them here. But in the first instance, the salary scales and benefits of top management are the subject of public debate and calls for review. If you look at the aviation industry right now in the context of the Corona virus crisis, Singapore airlines has just said it is cutting the salaries of top executives by 15% and middle layers by 7%, while certain staff are on placed on paid and unpaid leave. Various other airlines are following that model as well in the context of a crisis. So, weve all got to work out what kind of sacrifices we can make during the Eskom crisis period. There is also the broad area of procurement. Some of the excessive things that happened in the state-capture period have been curtailed, but there are still huge opportunities here. There is a general demand that we review all contracts, whether for coal, diesel or spares for maintenance and refurbishment processes. Eskom needs to review the arrangements it has with contractors, such as those who do maintenance, including the quality of the maintenance that is actually conducted. There are many other forms of wastage that you are going to find in any organisation whether in the public or private sector, but in particular in a monopoly like Eskom. So, the opportunities are certainly there, and I am confident that as the new CEO settles in and builds the right team around him, we will see the results of that introspection and careful examination of costs within Eskom. Equity, bailouts and cash injections or are these just ongoing subsidies? A senior executive at Eskom recently told me to stop using the word bailouts and cash injections, as these were misnomers for what are really ongoing government subsidies for electricity tariffs that are not cost-reflective. Are these subsidies here to stay, and what are the conditionalities to the R230-billion of government bailouts to Eskom over the next ten years that were confirmed by the Minister of Finance in his 2020 budget speech? The conditionalities from the Treasury are set out in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS), and in correspondence between the Minister of Finance and Eskom. Amongst those are requirements for operational efficiency, cost cutting and other measures that Eskom itself needs to make. But to come back to the main point: state-owned entities (SOEs) need be able to stand on their own, with sustainable financing and effective operations. There should be no need for government to put in any kind of money if the entity is operating efficiently. In the case of Eskom, the dependence on the fiscus will take some time to resolve but this dependence must be removed completely. All SOEs must be self-sustaining, save to the extent that a specific developmental mandate may be given to an SOE, which could be reimbursed either through cross-subsidisation, or on the understanding that no dividends are payable to the state, but are instead used for developmental purposes. It is in this context that we need to reposition the mindsets of boards and management within institutions like Eskom. They must head in the direction of a normal business enterprise that is able to sustain itself and any investments needed, based on what its revenue and the competence of its staff allow. So, words like bailouts, and so on, must begin to disappear from our vocabulary as we go forward. Declining EAF and load shedding the diminishing returns of maintenance? The recently published IRP 2019 and the Eskom roadmap made assumptions of Eskoms energy availability factor (EAF) increasing to 75%, while the trend is already showing a continued declining EAF as a result of aging old plant, poorly performing new plant, and increased maintenance that takes more units out of service. Surely it is time to be more realistic in planning, to acknowledge the high cost and diminishing returns of increased maintenance on aging plant, and to put greater emphasis on new, non-Eskom generation capacity? Weve already had a recognition in government, both by the Minister of Minerals & Energy and the President, in various addresses in recent times, that generation must become less and less of an Eskom monopoly as we go forward. So, I think the loosening of the knot, so to speak, has begun through the concepts self-generation and embedded generation, plus the kind of investments that are happening in renewables, and in other areas as well. I believe there are still possibilities for improving the EAF, even in old plant, provided that there is a more careful diagnostic of the problem. This is what the ministerial technical task team has been doing in recent times. If Eskom doesnt have the right kind of people or management skills, the new CEO will have to start recruiting certain types of engineers and artisans to get that right. Eskom must revolutionise the maintenance approach and strategy in terms of the quality of maintenance done and the type of contractors that are utilised. There must be penalties for contractors if they do a shabby job which seems to be the case as some of the more recent data is showing. These micro diagnostics that the ministerial technical task team has been performing is now of increasing benefit to the Eskom leadership and management. So, if you put all of these efforts together, I believe an EAF of between 73% and 75% is still a realistic possibility. As I understand it, not everything can be attributed to old and aging plant it is also about people and the consequences of poor management. Already some of the managers at power station level are feeling the heat because there has been too relaxed an atmosphere. At the same time, those who perform well at certain power stations like Matimba and Koeberg where the plant actually runs properly those people must be rewarded and recognised. Medupi and Kusile bringing Eskom to its knees? After a recent visit to Medupi, President Ramaphosa said the mega-project is a fitting symbol of the importance of our state-owned enterprises. In reality, however, the Medupi and Kusile projects are experiencing massive cost and time overruns that have brought Eskom to its knees, and resulted in the current loadshedding that is damaging the economy. What has to be done to fix these projects, and are they likely to become white elephants and stranded assets in future years? Clearly, stranded assets and white elephants are what we need to avoid. Eskom management has now produced a maintenance plan which involves taking each of the six generation units at Medupi out of service, one at a time, for up to 75 days between now and the end of the year, so that they can undergo a proper design optimisation and maintenance programme. This would cover the various areas that have proved problematic, from conveyor belts to mills, boilers, fabric filters and whatever. There is no doubt that these two mega-projects have had a massive impact on Eskoms debt issue. But our immediate goal is to achieve some level of operational stability. This might not be as optimal as originally designed, but at least stability at a new level of optimality. In this way, Medupi, and in due course Kusile, will still contribute whatever they can to meet the electricity needs of South Africa, and not become white elephants or stranded assets. This means the investments have opportunity to recoup their costs, and we can also learn important lessons about these sorts of projects going forward. Environment the sacrificial lamb? Since 2010, Eskom has been obtaining exemptions from compliance with South Africas environmental legislation and regulations, and in the meantime the utility has done little to address its ongoing non-compliance with limits for atmospheric emissions. As Eskom holds the country to ransom, is environmental sustainability, and the lives and health of Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo communities, set to become the sacrificial lamb of the utilitys environmental mismanagement? There seems to be no doubt that there has been, what you call, environmental mismanagement. Both from a government and an Eskom point of view, we are completely revamping the approach to compliance with environmental requirements and minimum emission standards. Some of the coal-fired power plant closures that are indicated in the integrated resource plan for electricity, IRP 2019, will contribute to a reduction of air pollution in the form of toxic NOx, SO2 and particulate emissions in the areas that you have mentioned, as well as a reduction in carbon emissions that contribute to climate-change. We need to recognise that, in the South African context, we dont have easily available alternatives to coal at this point of time. The best we can do is to start the process towards compliance with minimum emission requirements, and to making the right contribution to South Africas commitments to the climate-change process, both within the country and outside. In the next few weeks, Eskom management, the DPE and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) will be interacting in order to find the right balance going forward. Restructuring the roadmap to the end-state of the ESI? Eskoms CEO has said the utility has started a process of divisionalisation, which is little different from the status quo. How will this enable structural reform, where an independent transmission system and market operator (ITSMO) can procure electricity from a diversified, competitive generation sector on economic grounds and at least cost? Is it reasonable to expect a dominant incumbent to restructure itself? Should government not be providing more urgent leadership? I think the President has been very clear, from the time that he has taken office in 2018, that Eskom is not going to be able to trade itself out of its troubles. On the advice of the Presidents sustainability task team, it is clear too that Eskom needs to be restructured and repositioned as a utility. We needed a roadmap towards the end-state of the electricity supply industry, which we now have at a structural level. In the context of this roadmap, there are various transitions that are occurring both within and outside of Eskom. Firstly, there is an energy transition away from toxic emissions into the environment that result from the burning of coal. Secondly, you have the utility transition, with divisionalisation being just one step to towards the ultimate separation of generation, transmission and distribution. Thirdly, the transmission is beginning to undergo its own transformation, as we begin to recognise that a vertically integrated national electricity utility is not the only way of transmitting electricity. There are different solutions to which we will have to adapt, whilst recognising that transmission is an important strategic asset in any nations electricity reticulation process. We do see the buying office as an important component in the future scenario one the plays the role of purchasing electricity into the grid, with the financial capability to actually do so. Ultimately, we will have an independent transmission entity, and we foresee a future where there isnt this 95% dependence on Eskom as a generator. On the distribution side it is more complex, with about 60% of electricity sales taking place through municipalities. There is a constitutional issue that we have to resolve here, and this reality will take more time to resolve, both from a fiscal policy point of view in terms of how much money is allocated to national, provincial and local government, and from an operational point of view as well. So, I think that South Africa is well on its way on a journey that will incorporate various forms of transitions that are already occurring. It is the dynamism and the interaction between these different transition trajectories needing to be managed over the next five to ten years that will be crucial to the success of this project. Death spiral where is all this self-generation heading? The parting shot from the outgoing former Eskom CEO, Phakamani Hadebe, was that Eskom is in a death spiral of rising costs and electricity prices, and declining sales volumes. Eskoms ambitions to increase the electricity price by 30%, and the immediate solutions to capacity constraints of self-generation, municipal generation and IPPs, are set to accelerate this death spiral. Where does all this leave Eskom as an electricity utility of the future? Essentially, if we leave the decline of Eskom to its own dynamic, then we will inevitably have harmed the utility itself. So, managing the different trajectories of transition on the one hand, and having the financial models that underpin the transition on the other, will ultimately ensure financial stability and sustainability of the outcome. And institutional stability and sustainability is crucial to success. So again, this is not an area where one looks at just one dimension of the challenge. You have got to look at all of the dimensions, how they interact with each other the institution, the plant, the financial aspect, whats happening currently in different markets, in the wider energy and electricity environments, and the global dynamics such as climate change. The challenge is how to integrate all of the above into a transition path that ensures an outcome which meets all the requirements, including financial and institutional sustainability. Transparency a driver for accountability and performance? Since completion of work on Eskom by the Presidents sustainability task team, the ministerial technical task team and the chief restructuring officer (CRO), their reports have never been made known. At the same time, in contrast to Eskoms peers globally, there is an almost total lack of transparency on Eskoms operational performance in sufficient granular detail and time resolution. Do Eskom and the DPE not recognise how such transparency can drive accountability and improved performance throughout the organisation? We certainly recognise that transparency is crucial to accountability. It is crucial in a public entity like Eskom, and there is no doubt that accountability is crucial to getting the right kind of performance, and to ensure there are consequences if the right performance is not delivered. So, on the principle of transparency, there is absolutely no argument with that. Of course, we must decide on how the necessary information, and what level of information, is made available to the public. The engineering fraternity and those in the energy sector would need the micro-details, but I think the general public would require a different set of information. Getting the general public to understand the performance of each of the power plants, the different parts of the system, and the system as a whole, is certainly a challenge that Eskom must meet in the coming year. Whether it is nuclear power at Koeberg, the coal-fired power stations, pumped-storage stations, open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), wind or solar, we need to understand what contributes what, and over what period. This understanding will then also give rise to the right kinds of debate and questioning. So, its a constructive process that I think we should initiate. Once we have bedded down the new Eskom management team, I think this is the next stage we need to get into. But there is always a resistance in monopolies, whether private or public, in terms of making information and indeed reliable information available. But the goal of accountability and transparency is one that is non-negotiable. Now read: The big interview with Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe He got a good taste of what its going to be like going door-to-door. Because people say, Oh, you need to get out, said one associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. He doesnt want to be a lobbyist or practice law. This is all he wants to do, so hes going to try to hang on. We have the tools we need to be prepared for that eventuality and the likelihood that there are cases in Colorado identified in the near future." UN Says Iran's Uranium Stockpile Surges, Seeks Clarity On Three Undeclared Sites By RFE/RL March 03, 2020 The UN's atomic watchdog says Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium over the past three months, in sharp violation of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with six world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said on March 3 that Iran appears to have three undeclared atomic sites. The IAEA said it is insisting on "clarifications" from Tehran. Iran in 2015 signed the nuclear accord with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the European Union. The United States abandoned the deal in 2018 and introduced new sanctions against Iranian officials and can punish entities that do business with Tehran. Iran has said it no longer considers itself bound by the agreement and has gradually reduced some of its commitments under the deal. It has said it would be willing to move back to full compliance with the deal if Europe provides "meaningful" economic benefits, but it has complained that Germany, France, and Britain have not done enough to mitigate the harm U.S. sanctions have caused. In its report, the IAEA said Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium had reached 1,020.9 kilograms, far above the limit of 300 kilograms allowed in the agreement. In its previous report, in November 2019, the IAEA said the stockpile was at 372.3 kilograms. Some experts have said Iran is reaching a level sufficient to produce a nuclear weapon, but they caution it would require several more steps -- including further enrichment -- to make the material suitable for use in a bomb. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is strictly for civilian and energy uses. The IAEA also said that Tehran refused to grant access to two of three suspected nuclear sites that the UN agency wanted to visit in late January. "The agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities," it said. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, told AFP that "Iran must decide to cooperate in a clearer manner with the agency to give the necessary clarifications." "The fact that we found traces [of uranium] is very important. That means there is the possibility of nuclear activities and material that are not under international supervision and about which we know not the origin or the intent," Grossi said. "That worries me," he added. With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-says-iran-s-uranium- stockpile-surges-seeks-clarity-on-three- undeclared-sites/30466806.html Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ranveer Singh Drools Over Hrithik Roshan's Quirky Ensemble Inspired By Him, Calls Him 'Sax God' Back in the days of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, this was known as the politics of joy. I enjoy life, Humphrey once said. Its a delight. You only live a short time. You ought to enjoy every fleeting moment. Humphrey was the quintessential Happy Warrior, although the phrase didnt originate with him. It was, in fact, coined by William Wordsworth back in the early 19th century, in a poem that Grover Cleveland is said to have loved so much that he wanted it read at his funeral. What is a Happy Warrior? Its someone for whom the battle itself is the source of joy. Or as Molly Ivins once wrote, You got to have fun while youre fightin for freedom, cause you dont always win. Thinking about it now, the idea of politician-as-Happy-Warrior seems quaint, like elbow-length evening gloves for women or men wearing stovepipe hats. Maybe Happy Warriors were a better fit back when the country was, you know, happier. There was a time when optimism about ourselves, about the nation, about our sense of history seemed baked into the American character. Senator Bernie Sanders is not a Happy Warrior. A warrior, definitely. Happy? Not so much. Not that there havent been moments of joy in his campaign. During his last run, a little sparrow landed on the podium while he was making a speech, and the Vermont senators face lit up. Then the sparrow took off, and for just a second Mr. Sanders watched it fly off and gestured with one hand toward the heavens. I think there may be some symbolism here, he said. Nice. Raices is due in court on Wednesday and Ortiz is due in court on Thursday. If they pay bond, both will be ordered not to have any contact with the woman, court records show. BURLINGTON, Vt. Bernie Sanders dismissed former Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday as a candidate backed by the corporate establishment, one day after Biden shocked the political world by winning 10 of 14 Super Tuesday contests in the Democratic presidential primary, and vaulting into the overall delegate lead. What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is, which side are you on, Sanders said as he began his remarks. Sanders went on to describe his campaign as unprecedented because it has taken on the entire corporate establishment and the entire political establishment. That is an establishment which is working frantically to try to defeat us, and theres not been a campaign I think that has been having to deal with the kind of venom were seeing from some in the corporate media, Sanders said. This campaign has been compared to the coronavirus on television. We have been described as the Nazi army marching across France, etcetera. Bernie Sanders at his Burlington, Vt., campaign headquarters on Wednesday. (Wilson Ring/AP) Sanders predicted he and Biden would ultimately be neck and neck once all the results are in from California and expressed confidence he would emerge victorious after the pair debate and discuss the differences that we have. While he sharply criticized Bidens policy positions, Sanders said he absolutely believes any candidate who wins a plurality of delegates should receive the partys nomination and expressed hope the campaign wouldnt degenerate into personal attacks. Sanders, who conceded that he did not turn out as many young voters on Tuesday as he had anticipated, went on to say he hoped the race ahead would remain an issue-oriented campaign. Joe Biden is somebody I have known for many years. I like Joe. I think hes a very decent human being. Joe and I have a very different voting record, Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country, and Joe and I are running very different campaigns, Sanders said. He then proceeded to outline some of his disagreements with Biden. He highlighted several elements of Bidens record, including his past vote in the Senate to authorize the Iraq War, his past support for cutting Social Security and his support of a Wall Street bailout following the 2007 financial crisis. Sanders also contrasted his own support for universal health care with what he characterized as Bidens desire to maintain what I consider to be a dysfunctional and cruel health care system. Story continues The senator from Vermont also went after Biden by attacking those who have donated to his presidential campaign, saying Biden has received funding from at least 60 billionaires. Joe Biden in Los Angeles on Wednesday. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP) So what does it mean when you have a campaign which is funded very significantly by the wealthy and the powerful? Does anyone seriously believe that the president backed by the corporate world is going to bring about the changes in this country that working families and the middle class and lower-income people desperately need? Sanders asked. Bidens campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sanderss remarks. Prior to the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Bidens campaign appeared to be in dire straits. Sanders had won victories in two of the three early states New Hampshire and Nevada while winning the popular vote in Iowa. Sanders had a delegate lead, and polls showed him poised to expand it on Super Tuesday. But after Biden won South Carolina by a wide margin, multiple other candidates dropped out and gave him their endorsements. It all contributed to momentum that helped Biden outperform expectations. Sanders won just four states on Super Tuesday, though his victory in California has helped keep the delegate race close. Still, with the results showing Biden leading the race, the onus to explain what happened on Super Tuesday fell on Sanders. His team announced his press conference roughly an hour before it took place on Wednesday afternoon. The event was held in a small room at his campaigns office here in his hometown. It was packed with reporters, many of whom sat on the floor in front of Sanders as he spoke. The reversal of fortune in the Democratic primary has raised questions about Sanderss views on how best to pick the partys presidential nominee. When it seemed all but assured that he would finish the race with the most delegates, Sanders said he believed any candidate with a plurality of delegates should receive the nomination even if they did not get a full majority of the various state delegates who select the nominee. With Biden taking the delegate lead, some observers wondered if Sanders would reverse this position. However, Sanders reaffirmed to Yahoo News that he absolutely thinks a plurality of delegates is the proper criterion for a nominee. Some critics have characterized Sanderss support for a plurality as a reversal of his position in 2016, when he continued to run against Hillary Clinton well after it was clear she would have the most delegates on the convention floor. At Wednesdays press conference, he suggested he believes it is unfair to compare his stance this year to his past position, since there have been rule changes to the Democratic primary process as part of a reform process that he pushed for. I get a little bit annoyed because, I think, the media has been distorting my record on this. You all know that the rules of the Democratic convention are different today than they were in 2016. Its something that we fought for, Sanders said. I believed then, and I believe now, that it should be the American people through the primary process who determine who the Democratic nominee is. Those rule changes included diminishing the role of superdelegates a group that largely includes party insiders and elected officials in the process. This year, superdelegates wont get to vote at the convention unless no nominee is selected on the first ballot. Last time around, superdelegates were able to weigh in throughout the process, and their decision was not bound by any primary result. Four years ago, before the first vote was cast in Iowa, Hillary Clinton had 500 superdelegates lined up, Sanders said. Its like starting a hundred-yard dash with one candidate on the 30-yard line. However, party insiders could still play a role this year if none of the candidates secures an outright majority of delegates on the first ballot. As he reiterated his support for the nomination going to the candidate with the most delegates even if its not a full majority Sanders predicted the public would be extremely upset if a candidate who did not have the best primary performance was selected at the convention. He painted a picture of this scenario. Elizabeth Warren in Charleston, S.C., last week. (Matt Rourke/AP) I just want all of you to think about what it would look like if candidate X and I dont know who that candidate X might be, I hope its me, could be somebody else goes into the convention in Milwaukee with the most votes, and then the party leadership and the insiders and the corporate world say, Oh, yes, the people voted for you you got more votes than your opponent, but we, the corporate world, the insiders, we dont think youre the candidate, and were going to select candidate Z. I think that would cause massive dismay within the American people, Sanders said. Bidens strong Super Tuesday was fueled by support from African-American voters in the South. While Sanders is supported by a majority of young voters, youth turnout has been low. As he discussed the campaign going forward, Sanders said he hopes youth turnout will improve. Have we been as successful as I had hoped in bringing young people in? The answer is no, he said. Were making some progress, but historically, everybody knows that young people do not vote in the kind of numbers that older people vote in. I think that will change in the general election, but to be honest with you, we have not done as well in bringing young people into the process. It is not easy. Sanders also addressed Bidens dominance with black voters. While he said that theres no denying that Joe Biden has done very well with the African-American community, Sanders suggested that, nationally, the picture is not as clear as it is in the South. He pointed out that he was victorious among people of color in California. We won that big time, big time, not even close, Sanders said. He also predicted he would do better with African-American voters going forward. While the race seems to be coming down to a contest between Sanders and Biden, Elizabeth Warren is, as of now, staying in it. Her campaign has said she would be reassessing her position on Wednesday. Sanders said he had had a phone call with Warren on Wednesday morning. What Sen. Warren told me is that she is assessing her campaign. She has not made any decisions as of this point, Sanders said. It is important, I think, for all of us certainly me, who has known Elizabeth Warren for many, many years to respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision. Both Warren and Sanders are staunch progressives. Her decision to remain in the race has frustrated some Sanders supporters who believe her presence helps Biden, who is more of a moderate. Many Sanders supporters have vented these frustrations online, which has contributed to the senators fan base being branded as particularly negative. At the press conference, Sanders told Yahoo News hes opposed to anyone pressuring Warren to leave and is disgusted by anyone engaging in personal attacks online. Elizabeth Warren is a very, very excellent senator. Shes run a strong campaign. She will make her own decision in her own time, Sanders said. In terms of vitriol online, Im disgusted by it. I think the Twitter world is an opportunity for people to debate issues but not to make vitriolic attacks on somebody because you disagree with them. Earlier on Wednesday, Sanderss campaign announced he is heading to Michigan on Friday. He won Michigan against Clinton in 2016, and the state is likely crucial to his chances of overtaking Biden. Sanders said he believes highlighting Bidens support for disastrous trade agreements that have been blamed for eliminating manufacturing jobs in Michigan will help him win support there. However, he rejected the notion that any single state is key to his path forward. Im asked every day, Do you have to win this state? Do you have to win that state? Sanders said, adding, I wish we could win all of the states. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Will Ronin return to the MCU? Maya Lopez, Blade, and Red Guardian have all worn the suit Learn the comic book history of Hawkeye's MCU Ronin identity and what it could mean for the future of the MCU Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders and other family members, speaks during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vermont. AP Photo Washington: Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesdays biggest prize with a victory in California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition as the Democratic Partys once-crowded presidential field transformed into a two-man contest. The two Democrats, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for Americas future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the partys 2020 presidential nomination fight. The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democratic battle will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner. The former vice president and the three-term senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) Tuesday night. People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement, Biden charged in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders signature lines. And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics, Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. This will become a contrast in ideas. Mike Bloombergs sole victory was in the territory of American Samoa. The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Elizabeth Warren had yet to post any early wins and lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden in a devastating defeat. She ultimately finished third in the state. With the results of Super Tuesday only hours away, America takes yet another giant step closer to the presidential election on November 3. TURNER BACKS BLOOMBERG: Mayor Sylvester Turner endorses Mike Bloomberg for president. Naturally, while you are waiting in line to vote, you'll perhaps scroll through social media and spot some of the celebrities you follow endorsing various candidates. HIDALGO STANDS WITH WARREN: County Judge Lina Hidalgo endorses Elizabeth Warren for president. Whether it has been through the aforementioned social media endorsements or through appearances at rallies, these celebrities have made their political affiliations known ahead of the pivotal upcoming election. Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked Delhi Police to provide proper security at all the exam centres in the violence-hit area in north-east Delhi. A bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdhar disposed of the plea filed by Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir and the parents of some of the students. The High Court has earlier observed that shifting board exam centres at this time was not a viable option. The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) had also informed the court that a list of exams centres has been shared with Delhi Police and Delhi government adding that the exams scheduled for February 28 and 29 have been cancelled but the ones from March 2 onwards will be held as scheduled. The board also said that they have sent to various agencies including Testing Authority, which holds IIT/Medical entrance exams, to ensure that their exams don't clash with future dates of CBSE board exams. The CBSE said that the decision to postpone the exams for 86 centres in northeast Delhi has been taken in consultation with the Centre, Delhi government and police owing to the violence. The petitioner said that two schools and several school buses were charred during the violence and asked that proper security be given to the exam centres. The development comes after at least 47 people, including a police head constable and an Intelligence Bureau officer, lost their lives while around 200 people were injured in the violence that rocked Delhi for three days last week. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) How should you invest through a crisis? Some may feel it is premature to ask that about coronavirus, but with stock markets tumbling hard and fast around the world last week and the Federal Reserve slashing 0.5 per cent off rates, there is clear concern that this isnt just any old correction. The FTSE 100 has regained some ground this week, but fell 11 per cent last week in series of big daily drops not seen since the financial crisis. What can investors do in a situation like this other than not panic - and is it too late to act by the time your portfolio is a sea of red? There is also the thorny question of what to when markets bounce back and how to spot if a rise like this week's will last. On this episode of the Investing Show, we talk to Bill Dinning, chief investment officer of Waverton Investment Management, and a man with decades of investing experience to draw on about the impact of coronavirus on investors. We ask how investors can position themselves for a correction, whether previously, high-flying markets make a prolonged downturn more likely and at what point you can start to ask if lower prices means that opportunity knocks? Bill also shares his concerns on why the supposed safe haven of government bonds no longer works properly for investors. Tension at the Greece-Turkey border is at boiling point after Ankara said it would not stop people heading for the EU. Greece has denied claims by Turkey that it fired live ammunition at refugees and migrants on their shared border, with several allegedly injured and one later dying. I deny it categorically, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters on Wednesday when asked about Turkeys allegation. Turkey fabricates and channels fake news against our country, Petsas said. It fabricated another piece of fake news today, concerning alleged injuries from Greek fire. The allegation was made by the office of the governor of Edirne, a northwestern Turkish province bordering Greece, earlier on Wednesday. Six men were injured after live bullets were used, the governors office said, adding one of the men later died of his injuries. The Edirne governor also said members of the Turkish Parliaments Human Rights Commission, among others, have witnessed the events. A video being circulated to journalists by the Turkish authorities also appears to show a tense standoff with a group of at least dozens of people, though exactly what level of violence may have occurred is not clear from the footage. Greece has accused Turkish authorities of systematically issuing misleading statements regarding the movement of asylum-seekers on the border after Ankara last week announced it would no longer block their passage to Europe. Petsas on Wednesday said a claim by Turkey that it allowed 100,000 people to cross the border was also false. Throughout the day, we have heard sound bombs, said Al Jazeeras Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from the Turkish side of the border. I have seen smoke, fire, and refugees coming back from the checkpoint have told us about heavy tear gas. We also saw multiple ambulances leaving the scene you could hear sirens for a good half an hour. The Greek government is saying no one was killed at the border today and they are not using live rounds. Greek riot police officers stand guard as tear gas is fired near Turkeys Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece [Florion Goga/Reuters] The refugees on the Turkish side of the border have been talking to Al Jazeera about their treatment at the hands of the Greek police. Many of them were able to cross into Greece, said Ghoneim. They say, once there, the police beat them, confiscated their phones, their money, their vital documents, and quickly deported them. That is in keeping with the Greek government policy of rapid deportations; they have banned the processing of asylum applications. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says countries must not use excessive or disproportionate force and that asylum applications must be processed in an orderly manner. Human Rights Watch is, meanwhile, expressing concern that under international law the refugees and migrants rights may be violated if theyre not able to file asylum applications. An animatronic Baby Yoda toy is pictured during a "Star Wars" advance product showcase in New York on February 20. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Hasbro has confirmed that the production of the company's Baby Yoda toys in China is being slowed by the coronavirus outbreak. Toy industry expert Jim Silver told CNN Business that there will be shortages if production isn't back to normal by June or July. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The coronavirus is causing shortages worldwide of hand sanitizer and surgical masks. Now the outbreak may even claim Baby Yoda, too. CNN Business reported Wednesday that Hasbro is seeing the production of their Baby Yoda toys impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, since quarantines and travel restrictions in China have temporarily prevented workers from assembling toys. Hasbro's line of the Star Wars toys, inspired by Disney's hit show "The Mandalorian," was expected to drop sometime this month. Some of the toys had already sold out in preorders. Baby Yoda in "The Mandalorian" season one finale Disney Plus A toy industry expert told CNN Business that it's probably not the first batch of toys that are under threat, but the continuing supply coming from China. He said that Hasbro is "close to being able to ship what they originally projected," but could see a 5-10% decline in output if production continues to be impacted by the outbreak. That decline could lead to a shortage of the toys. "If things aren't normal by the time June and July roll around, there will be shortages on a litany of toys," Jim Silver, CEO of toy industry review website Toys, Tots, Pets & More, told the outlet. One of the biggest issues Silver said, was being able to get the supplies necessary to make the toys, including resin and plastics that are mostly sourced in China. Factory workers wearing surgical masks in Jinjiang, China assemble toy cars for export on March 4, 2020. Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Hasbro CFO Deborah Thomas told investors and analysts on February 21 that the company is "working to mitigate the impact of our manufacturing partner factories being closed longer than anticipated, as well as to reschedule the shipments we have not been able to make." Story continues In a regulatory filing last week, Hasbro said that the virus "could have significant negative impact on our revenues, profitability, and business." Baby Yoda toys weren't put into production until after the character, officially known as "The Child," made its debut on the Disney+ show "The Mandalorian" in November. The show's creators made the decision to protect the character's surprise introduction. Thus fans of the breakout character weren't even able to buy Baby Yoda merchandise during the 2019 holiday season. One of the most anticipated toys that Hasbro is releasing is an animatronic Baby Yoda doll that moves and makes baby sounds. That toy is selling for $59.99 in pre-orders. Read the original article on Business Insider An outbreak of three tornadoes howled across as much as 150 miles of Tennessee early Tuesday leaving hundreds of homes shattered, destroyed or badly damaged and 25 people dead along its four-county path. The largest number of deaths came in Putnam County, where eighteen people are confirmed to have been killed, including several children, and 88 were left injured as the tornado tore the roofs off homes and flattened others. An emergency morgue was set up by the county to handle the dead. The storms northeasterly path included Benton County, 73 miles southwest of Davidson County, then Nashville, the states capital, through Mount Juliet in Wilson County before ending its deadly route in Putnam County, 71 miles east of Nashville. People are reflected in a mirror of a building destroyed by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) The tornado that ripped through Mount Juliet had winds up to 160 miles per hour. Warning sirens sounded across Nashville just before the tornado struck, catching many people while they were asleep in bed. Things started hitting the window, and my girlfriend and I shot out of bed and darted for the bathroom. We could hear objects slamming against the building ... it was terrifying, a Nashville resident told ABC News. They say tornadoes sound like a train ... they were not lying. The feeling in my head from the pressure was insane. I've never felt anything like it. We were shaking. The storm wreaked havoc on multiple neighborhoods of Nashville, including Germantown and the Five Points area of East Nashville, damaging restaurants and high-end homes and condominiums. Two people were killed and 156 were treated for injuries as buildings were damaged and the wreckage was thrown through the air. Metro Nashville police reported that Michael Dolfini, 36, and his girlfriend Albree Sexton, 33, were killed by flying debris as they left the East Nashville bar where Dolfini worked. In the old area of East Nashville there were historic buildings that also suffered the same fate of newly built tall-and-skinny homes, designed to fit two houses on old single housing lots to make the most out of the housing boom. Its this beautiful Richardsonian Romanesque church; the bell tower is gone, the triptych window of Jesus the Good Shepherd that they just restored and put back up a few weeks ago is gone, a resident told the Associated Press. The Nashville Electric Service (NES) reported that more than 44,000 customers lost their power early Tuesday. The 25-person death toll from Tuesdays storm may have been influenced by the twisters arrival in the early hours of the morning and a lack of advanced warning. A Facebook comment by Shawna Farmer from Putnam County provided an abbreviated but evocative image of the nights human suffering. I seen last night [people] were walking around dazed woken up out of sleep [because] there wasnt a warning before about this, just thought it was a hard rain and went to sleep. According to Putnam County sheriff Robert L. Langley Jr., the tornado struck between the city of Cookeville, the county seat, and the town of Baxter at about 2 a.m. Television aerial video of the Putnam County devastation showed severe damage to modest homes on small lots in subdivisions. Putnam County, home to Tennessee Tech University, is one of the poorest counties in the state, especially when compared to Metro Nashville and Wilson County. According to the last census, the household median income was only $33,092, compared to $65,919 for the greater Nashville area which includes Franklin and Murfreesboro. Wilson County, a bedroom community for Nashville, has a median household income of $66,123. Nearly one quarter of Putnam County residents, 23.3 percent, live in poverty. With a population of a little over 72,000, Putnam County was the most unequal county in the nation in 2013, according to a Huffington Post report. The impoverishment of a large share of Putnam Countys residents is certainly a significant factor in the higher death toll. A 2017 study published by Regional Science and Urban Economics found that in areas in the United States where tornadoes are more likely, it is the higher-poverty areas which are more likely to report fatalities. These areas have more cheaply constructed trailer homes and other types of housing, which are easily blow apart by tornadoes, and they lack appropriate emergency shelter. For each one percent increase in the poverty rate, the number of tornado fatalities increases by two percent. The study also found that increased inequality in a community also exacerbated the number of tornado deaths. A lack of advanced warning may also have played a role. Recent press reports indicate that there are now 113 active tornado sirens in Nashville but in Putnam County there appears to be an uncertain number and they are poorly maintained. The Cookeville Herald Citizen quoted an official last year on the patchwork state of the emergency warning system in the county: The outdoor warning siren at 15th and Brown Avenue was down for a period of time due to maintenance issues. The siren is back working as of January of this year. The City of Cookeville owns and maintains all outdoor warning sirens within the City of Cookeville, with the exception of Tennessee Techs outdoor warning sirens. Putnam County Emergency Management Agency does not maintain any of the sirens within each city in Putnam County. EMA only activates the sirens during tornado warnings issued for Putnam County. The police on Wednesday recovered the body of a 36-year-old man from a septic tank of a public toilet in Dombivli. The police on Wednesday recovered the body of a 36-year-old man from a septic tank of a public toilet in Dombivli. The body of Prakash Babu Gansawant was fished out by firemen of Kalyan-Dombivili Municipal Corporation and has been sent for post-mortem, said inspector AS Dhuri of Tilak Nagar police station. The deceased, who worked as a driver, suffered from fits and might have accidentally fallen down the toilet, which was not functional, the official said. The police have ruled out any foul play in the case, he said, adding that the deceaseds family had not reported him missing, as he would often go on tours. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is a relatively new astronomical observatory built on the Hawaiian island of Maui to monitor our parent star. With a 13-foot (4 meters) primary mirror, the DKIST is the largest and most capable solar telescope in the world. Over its planned lifetime, the DKIST will attempt to answer some of the biggest questions about the sun, such as why the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is far hotter than its visible surface, and what are the exact nature and origin of powerful blasts known as coronal mass ejections. If these explosions reach Earth, they can affect satellites and power grids, causing potentially catastrophic blackouts. In 2010, the National Science Foundation awarded a $298 million contract to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy to construct the DKIST atop the 10,062-foot (3,067 m) Mount Haleakala on Maui, according to a statement from the National Solar Observatory (NSO). At first, the facility was known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, but it was renamed for the late Hawaiian senator Daniel K. Inouye in December 2013, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation. The DKIST controversy The observatory faced opposition to its construction. Haleakala, which means "house of the sun" in Hawaiian, is a sacred site for native Hawaiians. In 2015 and 2017, hundreds of protesters gathered to block vehicles from traveling to the top of the peak, similar to the more recent outcry over the Thirty Meter Telescope on nearby Mauna Kea. As a consequence, the telescope's officials have met twice a year with a working group of native Hawaiians, and the peak remains open to native Hawaiians who wish to practice their religion on its slopes. NSO representatives have also developed sun-centered middle-school curricula that highlight Hawaii's long history of astronomy. While weathering these controversies, the DKIST's main dome was finished in 2016, and its large mirror arrived the next year, according to Science magazine. In December 2019, the telescope began its observations, and in January 2020, operators released its spectacular first close-up images of the sun, showing roiling convection cells on the surface. A close-up of the solar telescope's first published image. (Image credit: NSO/NSF/AURA) DKIST's capabilities Although it was already collecting data, the DKIST wasn't quite complete yet. For those initial images, only a single instrument was operational: the Visible Broadband Imager, which takes extremely high-resolution images of the solar surface and lower atmosphere. A second instrument, the Visible Spectro-Polarimeter, which splits the sun's light into its components like a prism, came online shortly thereafter. Other planned instruments include the Cryogenic Near-Infrared Spectra-Polarimeter, which will study the solar atmosphere at infrared wavelengths to probe magnetic-field lines; the Diffraction Limited Near Infrared Spectro-Polarimeter, which will measure spatial information about the sun; and the Visible Tunable Filter, which will capture very-high-resolution images of the sun while identifying the atoms and molecules present. "The real power in the Inouye Solar Telescope is its flexibility, its upgradability," Dave Boboltz, the program director for the National Science Foundation Astronomy Division, said during a news conference in January 2020. "It's like having a Swiss Army Knife to study the sun." The facility is meant to operate for at least 44 years, watching the sun go through multiple 11-year solar cycles, in which the star oscillates between periods of high and low activity. Scientists hope that, over the decades, the DKIST will help us understand much more about what it's like to live next to a giant and powerful entity like the sun. Additional resources: The Community Kitchen of North Iowa recently held its annual meeting. In 2019, 45,462 meals were served at the facility on North Monroe Avenue. Since 1997, more than 1.5 million meals have been served by the volunteer-run organization. "The Community Kitchen is very proud we are able to continue serving those who depend on us in our seven-county service area, said Jessica Reith, president of The Kitchen Board of Directors. "We are gratified to be able to be of service to our North Iowa communities for 38 years. Additionally, we are proud of the record of serving a million and a half meals in the past 23 years. Be assured, The Kitchen will continue to be at the forefront of the fight against hunger in our area. Larry Fitzgerald, of Mason City, was named 2019 Community Kitchen Volunteer of the Year during the meeting. The new 2020 Board of Directors was also announced at the meeting: Megan Studer, president; Linda Brunsvold, secretary-treasurer; and board members Michael Davis, Molly Raulie, Mary Lu Barnekow, The Rev. Father Kenneth Gehling, Michelle Jurgens, Wally Reidel, and Jessica Reith as the past-president. The need for The Community Kitchen is reinforced to us every day, said Amanda Ragan, Community Kitchen executive director. Last year we recorded 891 individual clients who ate with us at least once, if not more times. These were men, women, and children who have a hunger need in their lives. They know we are here to help them and have been for more than a third of a century. The Community Kitchen is a United Way of North Central Iowa participating agency. Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to The Community Kitchen can call 424-2316. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Indore: A Vayapam scam whistleblower has released a purported video of a 'sting operation' involving senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra, and claimed that the former minister offered Rs 100 crore and ministerial posts to some Congress MLAs for toppling the Kamal Nath government. While the authenticity of the video has not yet been verified independently, the BJP dubbed it as fake and misleading, and said it has been released to tarnish Mishra's image. Dr Anand Rai posted the video of the alleged sting operation, titled 'Horse Trading: BJP Exposed', on his Facebook account where he said, The attempt to buy public opinion failed, Rs 100 crore and the greed of the ministerial post could not buy our faith. Rai, who earlier blew the lid off the Vyapam scam pertaining to irregularities in exams held by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, has shared the video at a time when the Congress has accused the BJP of trying to poach its MLAs to destabilise the state government. Claiming the video is authentic, Rai said he is ready to get the audio-visual content involving Mishra probed by any agency. Talking to PTI, Rai claimed, This video was shot at a room in the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan located in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi which was recorded with an spy camera during my meeting with BJP leader Narottam Mishra last year. Without revealing names of the legislators concerned, Rai said, There are four Congress MLAs in the state who are in touch with me. Each MLA was offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore each in four installments, besides a ministerial post. Mishra had met me in Delhi at the behest of the top leadership of his party to topple the Kamal Nath government. The whistleblower claimed he released the video of Mishra's alleged sting operation so that voters could know the truth that efforts to buy public mandate started immediately after the formation of the Kamal Nath-led government. However, state BJP spokesperson Umesh Sharma termed the video as fake and misleading. The video posted by Rai on social media is fake and misleading which has been released to damage the image of former minister Narottam Mishra, he said. Sharma alleged that Rai specialises in political fraud and is a master of opportunism and shameless bargaining. (Natural News) Vice President Mike Pence turned some heads on Sunday when he told NBC News that local school districts could close over coronavirus, a huge hint that indeed that may be coming in the not too distant future, though it isnt clear that such closures would have to be based on actual outbreaks. I think the president would respect any decisions that are made at the state and local level, he said in an interview that aired March 1 on NBCs Meet the Press, hosted by uber-partisan Chuck Todd. During the interview, Pence, who was put in charge of the nations response to the emerging outbreak last month, was clear that the federal government would initially try to take a federalist that is, minimalist approach to its response to the virus, allowing for local governments and businesses to decide what restrictions they want to implement and to implement them when they believe they are necessary. Still, Pence repeated earlier calls for Americans not to panic or overreact, though for many, it is getting more difficult to take that advice. Those are decisions that governors, in consultation with local health officials, will make as they deem that necessary, Pence said when asked about how local schools should respond to the outbreak. But other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average American, the risk does remain low. Also, the vice president noted that the federal governments priority is to ensure the safety of the American people as he downplayed last weeks massive drop in the stock market. As Natural News reported, The U.S. stock market capped its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis on Friday, with all major stock indexes tanking over worries that COVID-19 could potentially end one of the longest economic expansions in history and send the global economy into recession. China-like economic slowdown from mass school closures What the president has told us to do on the task force, what he did when he initiated the suspension of all travel from China, the quarantining effort, is were leaning into this effort, Pence told NBC. Its all hands on deck. Because our effort here is to do everything possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. Pence made his comments less than 48 hours after the first reported coronavirus death in the United States. A man living in Washington state was reported to have perished from the virus in a care facility in Seattle. The VP told Todd that the man was in his 50s and had other high-risk factors. Of the now 22 Americans, including the man who sadly lost his life, the majority of them are recovering well, Pence said. The Epoch Times reports that officials in Washington state are now investigating a long-term health care facility in Kirkland following the death and a positive COVID-19 diagnosis of a health care worker there. People are clearly worried, however. As NewsTarget reported Sunday, Americans around the country are mobbing big box stores especially places like Costco and Sams Club, where food is sold to buy up provisions and supplies in anticipation of a major coronavirus outbreak. But the mere mention that schools around the country could shut down for any length of time was another indication that the virus outbreak may wind up being far worse than anyones been saying thus far. And where widespread closures to occur, imagine how much productivity would be lost around the country, since in most two-parent households, both spouses work outside the home. If the kids are off of school, one parent is most likely going to have to be home with them, causing not just lost production but lost wages. All of which would lead to an economic nightmare on the scale of China. Sources include: NBCNews.com NaturalNews.com NewsTarget.com TheEpochTimes.com A Laois Offaly secondary school has cancelled a trip to Italy for its students because of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreaks. Colaiste Iosagain in Portarlington made the announcement to students and to parents this Wednesday, March 4. It followed the latest advice given by the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday to avoid non-essential travel to the four regions of North Italy worst affected by the virus. About 45 Transition Year students were due to travel to Lake Garda and possible Venice in April, along with several teachers. On Tuesday night March 3 the school texted their parents to say it was going to make a decision and asked for their opinions. Almost all of the parents wanted to cancel the trip. Seamus Bennett is principal of the school which has over 1,000 boys and girls. "We made the call today, we told the students this morning and we emailed the parents this evening. It was easier to make the decision as the Department had advised against travelling. We were notified by the travel company USIT that if we left it any longer we would not get back any of the money," he told the Leinster Express on Wednesday. "We had to take into account the possible loss of money if we waiting longer to cancel, the advice from the department, the community back home if the virus was carried, and the dilemma if quarantine was required," the principal said. A partial refund is now expected but the TY Co-ordinator Clare Kelly is continuing to negotiate to get as much refunded as possible. The trip cost each student about 585 Mr Bennett said. "It would be a shocking loss to them, some kids were saving all year and looking forward to it. What we would like to do with is arrange an overnight trip in Ireland later instead," he said. Italy has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases outside of Asia. The death toll from coronavirus reached 79 on Tuesday March 3 and the number of confirmed cases rose to 2,263. BURLINGTON, Vt. The moderate presidential candidates are falling in line. The progressives are falling apart. After weeks of mainstream Democrats hand-wringing about finding a viable center-left alternative to Bernie Sanders, former 2020 contenders Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Beto ORourke all lined up behind Joe Biden on Monday. But the divide between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and their supporters deepened. After recently arguing Sanders consistently calls for things he fails to get done, Warren began airing a TV ad this week flashes images of Sanders, Biden and Mike Bloomberg while a narrator says, "Politicians and billionaires won't cut it. At a rally in her home state of Massachusetts on Saturday, Sanders said, "We don't have a super PAC, we don't want a super PAC, we don't need a super PAC. That was an implicit jab at outside spending for Warren and Biden, which has exceeded independent expenditure assistance Sanders has received. The deepening rift among the two progressive candidates threatens to lock the Democratic Partys left wing out of the White House. With hours to go until roughly a third of delegates are awarded, anxiety among progressive leaders is rising, and Warren, after her weak performance in the first four voting states, is under growing pressure to drop out from some Sanders supporters but notably not the Sanders campaign itself. If a candidate pulls ahead after [Tuesday], we need to put aside our differences and unite on behalf of economic and racial justice, Aimee Allison, founder of the organization She the People, said of Warren and Sanders. The country is ready for new ideas, and we have two leading progressive campaigns that have so much to offer millions of Democrats. The moderates are playing to win. Its time we rose up as a movement to play to win as well. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally Monday, March 2, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King) But the split may be difficult to mend. Warren allies and some aides have long felt Sanders could have done more to rein in his surrogates, staffers and supporters from attacking Warren and they were upset when grassroots Sanders backers hissed at the mention of her name and tweeted snake emojis at her. Story continues Some Sanders aides and allies, meanwhile, feel as if Warren's team is too sensitive to criticism from some campaign aides and is wrongly holding them responsible for tweets from people outside their operation. Others also still suspect she or people close to her planted a January CNN story about him allegedly telling her a woman couldn't beat President Donald Trump as a way to kneecap him. Sanders denied ever saying that. Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the left-wing group Justice Democrats, called on Warren to stop attacking Sanders and pledge to "give her delegates to him if he has more votes to ensure a progressive wins the nomination. Justice Democrats has not endorsed in the race. Evan Weber, national political director of the pro-Sanders Sunrise Movement, likewise said Warren and Sanders should publicly commit to grouping their delegates together at the convention in order to ensure that a progressive can win against the establishment if they both stay in the race after Super Tuesday. The Warren campaign did not respond to those statements. There was one ray of hope this week for progressives fearful of a divided front, particularly those who favor the Vermont senator: Democracy for America and The Nation both endorsed him Monday. The publication encouraged Sanders to "do more to discourage his supporters from engaging in personal attacks, while pressing Warren to recognize "criticism by her of Sanders or his record only benefits their common enemies." But some progressives remain split, even if they don't want to further the disconnect. Though for months liberal groups and officials have been coalescing behind Sanders, leading figures on the left have failed to consolidate in the past few days anywhere close to the degree moderate elected officials have. Despite finishing behind Buttigieg, who suspended his campaign Sunday and then endorsed Biden, Warren has shown no signs of exiting the race. Instead, she has promised to fight all the way to the convention. Some progressive activists are debating what to do about the predicament. One of the largest immigrants rights groups, United We Dream, issued a co-endorsement of Sanders and Warren this week. Its almost a mirror image of the place moderates found themselves in weeks ago, when centrist presidential candidates tore into each other in debates and attack ads while Sanders racked up victories. At the time, moderate insiders complained that they lacked a coordinated strategy to unite against Sanders and were mostly talking instead of doing. "There's a lot of, 'Oh, my god, what's going on?' networked chatter from person to person that I imagine will turn into deeper conversations over coming days, said a person involved in efforts to unify progressives. Tuesday could make things more clear or more confusing." Some of Sanders supporters in left-wing media have been calling on Warren to drop out for the good of the progressive cause. And some Warren supporters argue there will be a backlash to pushing out the last viable woman in the race. I think the media and other politicians are underestimating the unmitigated fury a lot of women like me will feel if Warren is forced out because of a massive pressure campaign to intimidate the millions of voters who actually prefer her," said Liat Olenick, a public school teacher and progressive activist in Brooklyn who supports Warren. "We need women to turn out in November." The Working Families Party and Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which support Warren, have argued that it is beneficial for Sanders to have her in the race because she attracts voters who would switch to Biden if she dropped out, a point even some Sanders supporters concede. Other Sanders backers believe that analysis doesnt take into account the boost he would receive if she simultaneously left the race and endorsed Sanders. A Morning Consult national poll found that Bidens support jumped by 10 percentage points after Buttigieg and Klobuchar exited the race and threw their weight behind him, putting him in the lead with 36 percent, followed by Sanders with 28 percent. Faiz Shakir, Sanders campaign manager, said his team has made calls to progressive groups and officials in recent days to build support as moderates consolidate. For anyone whos wondering whether we are making efforts to try to expand our tent, yes. We are doing so, he said. The prospect of Warren and Sanders and their supporters coming together could be made more difficult by the realities of the rocky primary, however. After attempting to stick to a nonaggression pact throughout most of the campaign, the relationship between the two camps has become increasingly fraught. Some Warren surrogates and aides long frustrated by what they considered cheap shots from Sanders team and supporters are increasingly hitting back. When Matt Bruenig, a prominent Sanders backer and founder of the left-wing think tank People's Policy Project, said that most of [Warrens] career was corporate bankruptcy, longtime Warren policy aide Bharat Ramamurti snapped back: This is an outright lie, as are many of the things you say about her and her ideas. Ramamurti quickly deleted the tweet, but it was further evidence of frayed nerves. Sanders aides and surrogates, too, have been aggravated by Warrens recent attacks on Sanders as well as her campaigns declaration that she will go all the way to the convention as her campaign predicts no candidate will have the required delegate majority. If your progressive candidate is running to be Joe Bidens vice president then maybe its time for a rethink. Like, before Tuesday, tweeted Sanders surrogate and professor Naomi Klein. (She later told POLITICO, I do not tweet as a surrogate.") But with Biden surging, the two progressives could have a common enemy to unite around. On Monday, Warren signaled that she is turning her attention to Biden, telling a crowd in Los Angeles, "No matter how many Washington insiders tell you to support [Biden], nominating their fellow Washington insider will not meet this moment. Nominating someone who wants to restore the world before Donald Trump, when the status quo has been leaving more and more people behind for decades, is a big risk for our party and our country. Sanders, too, declined repeatedly to take the bait this week at a news conference when asked about Warrens role in race and whether her super PAC is funded by special interests. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, predicted a shift in strategy in upcoming days. The issues that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are talking about are the issues that are energizing the Democratic base, she said, adding that after Super Tuesday, I think that a lot of people in the progressive movement will gladly talk about how we coalesce around the issues that we care about. Listening to its community of fans has always been priority of Spindrift and that's exactly how Pineapple came to be. Following years of fans asking for Pineapple through comments, messages, and tweets, Spindrift is ready to deliver one of its most-requested flavors to them first on drinkspindrift.com in April. "There has never been a sparkling water made with real pineapples- so we had no reference point for flavor. After trying pineapples from around the world, it was clear that the golden pineapple from Costa Rica was ideal," said Bill Creelman, founder and CEO of Spindrift. "Choosing the right ingredients is the most important step in the innovation process because we don't add sugar. Pineapples can be very rich and our taste profile is light and refreshing, so it took a lot of testing to get it right. We are thrilled with the round sweetness of Spindrift Pineapple and can't wait to hear what our community thinks." After its community-first release on drinkspindrift.com, Spindrift Pineapple will be available nationwide at Amazon, Target and your favorite regional retailers. Spindrift Pineapple is non-GMO verified, kosher, and certified gluten-free. Sales from Spindrift continue to support 1% for the Planet and $1 from each case of Spindrift Pineapple sold on drinkspindrift.com will be donated to Reforest the Tropics. Find a Golden Pineapple and Win To continue celebrating the launch of Pineapple with its community, Spindrift created the Golden Pineapple Sweepstakes*. While tropical fruit lovers may feel like they've already won sipping a Spindrift Pineapple, lucky fans will truly strike gold if they discover gilded cans in an 8-pack of Spindrift Pineapple's first batch. Thirteen winners will score a sweet prize including a year-supply of free Spindrift sparkling water, a custom mini-fridge and more. For more information about the sweepstake, rules and how to enter with no purchase necessary, check out drinkspindrift.com/golden-pineapple . For more information and to join the Spindrift community, visit drinkspindrift.com and follow @spindriftfresh on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. About Spindrift: Spindrift is the first sparkling water made with real, squeezed fruit. Founded in 2010, Spindrift celebrates simplicity, transparency, and the superior taste that only real ingredients can deliver. All products are free of added sweeteners or natural flavors, and only consist of water, just the right amount of bubbles, and real squeezed fruit yup, that's it. Spindrift works with family farms to source the best fruit to make the fresh juices and rich purees they use. The result is light, bright, and flavor-rich sparkling water that tastes just like the fruit in its name. Varieties include: Blackberry, Cranberry Raspberry, Cucumber, Half Tea & Half Lemon, Grapefruit, Lemon, Orange Mango, Strawberry, and Raspberry Lime. Spindrift sparkling water is available nationwide at grocery retailers and cafe-style restaurants, including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Starbucks, Kroger, Target, and online at Amazon and http://www.drinkspindrift.com. Spindrift was ranked #385 on Inc. Magazine's 2017 list of fastest-growing companies. The company donates to environmental not-for-profits through their membership to 1% For the Planet. Spindrift is headquartered in Newton, MA. Want to be the first to hear about flavor launches, exclusive discounts and the latest news? Join the Drifter community at drinkspindrift.com and follow @spindriftfresh on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. *NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A purchase does not increase your chances of winning. Must be 18 years or older and a resident of the contiguous United States or District of Columbia. Void where prohibited. Sweepstake begins 3/4/2020 and ends 4/23/2020. Visit www.drinkspindrift.com/gprules for details on how to play and for complete official rules. SOURCE Spindrift Related Links http://www.spindriftfresh.com MONTREAL, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A situation of concern In the last few weeks, the situation with a new virus called Coronavirus has become increasingly worrisome. Whether in Italy, China or France, several cases have been reported. Unfortunately, some people who have a weak immune system pass away due to their debilitate body that could not fight the disease. In the face of this global situation, all government institutions have prepared themselves for different types of situations. However, this is not sufficient as the collaboration of all inhabitants is essential to limit the spread. While the situation is frightening, it is not the time to panic. Thoughtful precautions can help limit the spread of the virus. Monitor body temperature A study by Accountemps also shows that 89% of professionals go to their offices even when they have flu or cold symptoms. Preventive measures and precaution are therefore essential to improve safety for all. Technologies such as a thermal imaging cameras, called Scan Fever, are used to everyones health safety. This system is designed for mass screening in public places to identify people with a high body temperature, which is an early warning symptom of the coronavirus. This is achieved by displaying a stream of thermal images with the corresponding body temperature on a monitor of every person passing in the field of view of the camera. Those readings are then compared to a threshold value (38.5C) which allows the security and health personnel to screen and hospitalize infected individuals. For more information, please contact us at 514-337-0008. Simple measures for better prevention We encourage all businesses to follow the below simple rules, to protect as many people as possible from that virus. The adage that prevention is better than a cure has never been more relevant. Accordingly, iMotion Security suggests that you communicate the following procedure to your employees: During this a pandemic, it is very important to observe the following measures to ensure not only your health, but also that of your colleagues: Cover your mouth and nose when coughing. Disinfect your hands with antibacterial fluid. Avoid public spaces and crowds. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. Avoid contact with farm or wild animals. Cook meat and eggs well. Consult a doctor if you experience flu symptoms. Avoid contact with people with signs of flu. According to Health Canada, the known symptoms are fever, cough, breathing difficulties and a possibility of pneumonia. For any emergencies or questions, you can contact the emergency line established by Health Canada or click on the following link . About iMotion Security As a leader in security technology, iMotion has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. iMotion Security offers a full range of security products and services including a variety of cameras, video management solutions, biometric and access control systems, and much more. With its experience and pride in its strategic partners, this company has forged deep ties with its many clients. Its team of experts can certainly help you carry out your projects. Submit the challenges you would like to meet by completing this form . For more information, visit imotion.ca and follow iMotion on LinkedIn , Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter . Also, you can contact us at imotion@imotion.ca | 514 337 0008 Would you pay $149 for a two-pack of 12-ounce bottles of Purell? How about a single container of Clorox wipes for $44.25, plus $14.59 shipping? As the coronavirus spreads and people rush to protect themselves and their families from getting sick, the U.S. is seeing heavy demand for everything from masks to hand sanitizer. Shoppers scouring the internet and Main Street for these critical supplies say they are being hit with eye-popping prices. Shipping costs have also skyrocketed, with one shopper being quoted $500 for ground and $5,000 for next-day air. Third-party sellers who stock the vast virtual shelves of Amazon.com, Walmart and eBay seem to be testing what the market will bear. And social media has been flooded with complaints. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the chorus Tuesday: "Seriously, @amazon? These prices are absurd." Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose state has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, said his office is investigating and asked for residents to file complaints if they spot gouging. We do not identify the targets of our investigations, but we are taking formal investigative actions, Ferguson said in a news release Wednesday. Coronavirus panic buying: Here's why we all need to calm down already Toilet paper, bottled water, face masks: Coronavirus fears empty store shelves as shoppers stock up Also on Wednesday, Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, said he would introduce legislation to crack down on major price hikes on medical supplies during a public health crisis. Under the proposal, the attorney general could penalize retailers, manufacturers and distributors who raise prices on supplies by more than 10% during an emergency. "We cant allow shady businesses to hike prices on the supplies New Yorkers need to stay safe and healthy, like hand sanitizer and face masks," Hoylman said in a news release. Amazon.com is cracking down, removing or blocking more than 1 million products on its platform for price gouging and misleading claims related to the outbreak. Amazon says it is also taking action on accounts that violate its policies, including suspending or removing selling privileges. Story continues EBay reminded sellers on Friday not to include health claims in listings. Words including "Coronavirus," "Covid-19," Virus, and "epidemic" were prohibited as well as listings that attempt to profit from tragedies and disasters and have inflated prices over market value. Both eBay and Walmart told USA TODAY that they are closely monitoring the situation and removing listings that go against policies. Coronavirus price gouging: 'Somebody is really profiteering out there' Over the weekend, Jack Arnest, 67, was hunting for N95 masks when he spotted an eBay listing for three boxes for $62. But when he got his order confirmation, he noticed he was getting only three masks. He speed-dialed eBay and demanded the order be canceled, but wondered how many shoppers were being misled by the photograph in the listing showing an individual mask leaning up against a box of 20. There is no return policy so if I had not canceled right away, I would have been stuck and it pissed me off. Thats a guy taking advantage of the fact that everyones panicking out there and most people are rushing to get something that is going fast and dont read the fine print," said Arnest, a retired project manager and engineer in the construction industry from Honolulu. There is no way that a box of 20 masks should cost $400. That was a pretty clear-cut instance of gouging. Somebody is really profiteering out there. Dr. Wendy Lu, a dentist in Cupertino, California, says she orders masks 20 or 40 boxes at a time to protect herself and her staff during examinations and procedures. When her January order was suddenly canceled, she was told to place the order again. When she did, the price had gone up fivefold. Lu says she switched to another vendor, but all vendors are now limiting how many boxes of face masks dentists can order. First it was five a week, now its two. Some vendors have run out of stock. Its annoying, but there is not much we can do, says Lu, 52. Its supply and demand. What may seem like mercenary or predatory pricing to some consumers is normal market behavior to economists. Price gouging refers to raising prices on goods and services to unfair levels, particularly during times of crisis. Vendors who jack up prices during a hurricane, earthquake or pandemic often blame market conditions. Michael Salinger, an economics professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business and former director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission, says they're right. The real problem is that there are too few masks available. Walgreens in Hoffman Estates, Ill. started stocking heavy duty face masks on Jan. 31, 2020. "Ideally, we would find a mechanism for making sure that those who are likely to be most vulnerable to the crisis such as the elderly and health workers get the available supplies. But laws that prevent prices from rising will not accomplish that goal," he says. Economists say a sharp increase in prices either by retailers or wholesalers is the natural response to such a sudden surge in demand and can help replenish supplies. These higher prices reward suppliers ready to meet that surge in demand either from existing stocks or by quickly ramping up production, says Michael Giberson, an economics professor with Texas Tech Universitys Rawls College of Business. Higher prices discourage consumers from hoarding masks that are vital for first responders and health care professionals or people at high risk of contracting coronavirus, keeping the available supplies in the hands of those who need them most, he said. Coronavirus, explained: Everything to know about COVID-19, the deadly virus alarming the world Price hikes also encourage manufacturers to accelerate production. "My guess is that the supply will be quite responsive to any price increases and that any shortages or major price increases are likely to be short-lived," Salinger said. How should we feel about price gouging? 'We are right to be angry' That's not much comfort to Sara Ann Tinder, 35, who says she has spotted many Amazon.com listings with marked-up prices, even for butane fuel, selling for $19 versus the $3 she paid at Walmart. Right now, people look at this as life or maybe death so they will buy items at the higher prices, says Tinder, who lives in Princeton, Illinois. Many states have anti-gouging laws on the books but they define gouging differently. Florida's law bans the sale of an "essential commodity" at an "unconscionable price." Florida Attorney General Ashley Moodys office is reaching out to retailers to help ensure Floridians can afford health-related products, press secretary Kylie Mason said in a statement to USA TODAY. Our office continues to review complaints and will aggressively pursue any misleading marketing regarding health claims or scams during this public health emergency, Mason said. Manufacturers and sellers should be forewarned that our office will pursue any complaints we find actionable. Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in California during which excessive and unjustified increases of more than 10% on basic goods and services including medical supplies is prohibited. Bottom line, however, investigations often conclude normal market forces are at work, not profiteering. Keeping your hands clean will help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Seriously, @amazon? These prices are absurd. pic.twitter.com/S10EcBMzWn Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 3, 2020 The normal rules should not apply in emergencies when demand outstrips supply of basic necessities, says Dana Radcliffe, senior lecturer in business ethics at Cornell University Johnson College and an adjunct professor of ethics and public policy at Syracuse University. A free and fair market does not exist because buyers dont have any other options, he says. Its not a textbook economic transaction with a willing seller and a willing buyer," he said. "One party has all the power because the other person is in a vulnerable situation of sometimes desperate need. Radcliffe says regulators should crack down on business owners who take advantage of their fellow citizens in a civic emergency. Not only is it unfair, its unpatriotic, he says. Its trying to profit off the fact that the people around you are in very serious need, when what we should be doing is helping our community get through it, rather than pursue our own interest at the expense of our fellow citizens," he says. "I think we are right to be angry about it." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus price gouging charges: Purell for $149? $20 face masks? GARDAI have issued an urgent alert to people in Limerick, Tipperary and Cork, about a scammer who is stealing debit cards and withdrawing cash from their accounts. Gardai said that the man is pretending to be from the company Phone Watch, and are urging the public to be vigilant following a number of scams in the three counties. In one incident in Clonmel on Saturday 29 at 3.30pm when the man, who is reported to have dark hair and glasses, called to a house in Clonmel, County Tipperary, and was invited in after claiming he was an employee at Phone Watch. This man, who possesses apparent Phone Watch paraphernalia and literature, stated he would upgrade their system for a fee. When the victim handed over his debit card for payment, the man asked the injured party to enter his pin number into a small device he was carrying. He then retained the debit card and handed back a different one. Cash was then withdrawn from a number of banks in Tipperary and Limerick on Saturday 29th February 2020 and Sunday 1st March 2020. While investigations are ongoing into these incidents, gardai are appealing to the public to always be careful providing details to anyone not known to them calling to their home, particularly bank details. If you are unsure about the bona fides of any caller, do not invite them into your home and contact your local Garda Station who will assist you in verifying their details. Anyone with information in relation to incidents of this nature are asked to contact their local Garda Station or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. With Texas standing as the last big Super Tuesday state undecided between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, voters were still waiting in line to cast ballots more than three hours after the scheduled poll closing time. Polls in Texas closed THREE HOURS AGO and people are still waiting in line to vote. Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) March 4, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Remaining long lines at Texas college campuses even an hour after polls "closed" A voter waiting at Texas State just called into @TXCivilRights hotline saying they're still facing 2 hours+ wait #TexasPrimary Alexa Ura (@alexazura) March 4, 2020 Long wait times plagued the Lone Star State all day. Following a 2013 Supreme Court decision to nullify the preclearance practice put in place under the Voting Rights Act, at least 750 Texas polling sites have been shuttered. In the absence of advance federal review of the potential discriminatory effect of such decisions, some of the counties that saw the highest number of closuresincluding Dallas, Travis, and Harris countiesalso have large Latino and Black populations. But without this essential component of the Voting Rights Act, its difficult to ascertain the effect these changes will have on communities of color. Advertisement Advertisement Earlier in the day, locations in Bexar and Dallas counties were either not open or were holding inconsistent hours. Other locations continued to see discouragingly long wait times. In Harris County, the wait timescoupled with a shortage of voting machinesappeared to be disproportionately affecting people of color. Once again, black and brown voters in #HarrisCo are facing unacceptable wait times in their communities. We know that some voters have already given up and gone home. This is not the first time this has happened. This is a predictable trend in election after election in Harris Co https://t.co/9TTMiVvIog Texas Civil Rights Project (@TXCivilRights) March 4, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement .@OrganizeTexas tells me that wait times are so long in Harris Countys Black and Latino neighborhoods that people are going from location to location, and some voters are giving up on voting Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) March 3, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Fernando Miranda, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, waited in line for 90 minutes earlier in the day, only to be turned away from the polling place when he returned just after 7 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Fernando Miranda, 19 y.o finance major was just turned away from the polls. He got here just after 7 but had previously queued for 1.5 hours earlier in the day but had to leave for class: pic.twitter.com/gsyVIIOZVZ Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 4, 2020 When placed within the context of racist gerrymandering and voter ID laws, its plain to see why the long lines are concerning advocates and observers. The Texas Civil Rights Project, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Election Protection initiative, and MOVE Texas have been encouraging voters to stay in line and report any instances of being turned away from polling sites. HONOLULU - A woman was expected to be sent from Hawaii to Idaho on Wednesday to face charges in the disappearance of her young son and teenage daughter. Lori Vallow was arrested last month in Hawaii on Idaho felony charges of child abandonment in a bizarre case that has attracted worldwide attention with revelations of her doomsday beliefs, a series of mysterious deaths and two children who have been missing for about six months. Vallow appeared briefly in a courtroom on the island of Kauai, where Kauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar told a judge that Idaho authorities would be returning her to the state later Wednesday. Defence attorney Craig De Costa said in court that Vallow should not be questioned without an attorney during the transit, while waiting for the plane, or when they land in Idaho. She is being held on $5 million bail, and her first court appearance in Idaho is Friday. Her children, 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, have not been seen since September. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they strongly believe that Joshua and Tylees lives are in danger. Police also have said Vallow, 46, and her husband, Chad Daybell, have lied about the childrens whereabouts. The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallows estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defence, died of unknown causes in December. Vallow moved her family from Arizona to Idaho in August. In October, Chad Daybells wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy Daybells death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed. Test results on Daybells remains and toxicology results from Cox have not yet been released. Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview, the couple had left town. In December, Idaho authorities asked police in Hawaii for help finding the couple. On Jan. 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville. Vallow reportedly believes she is a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christs second coming in July 2020, according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death. She and Chad Daybell were involved in a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times. ___ Associated Press writer Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story. The Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in the Volta Cocoa Region held farmers rally yesterday, 2nd March 2020 at Nkonya Bumbulla in the Biakoye District of the Oti Region. The rally, which was spearheaded by the Jasikan Cocoa District in close collaboration with Hohoe Cocoa District afforded actors in the Cocoa Industry to have face-to-face interactions on pertinent issues such as Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Diseases (CSSVD) operations; fertilizer issues; rehabilitation of cocoa farms; Gender and Women Empowerment in Cocoa; Child Labour in Cocoa; Bush fires and Environmental Sustainability in the Cocoa Industry. The Chairman of the rally, Mr. Stephen Gyanwodie, who is the District Cocoa Chief Farmer for Nkonya said, I am happy such a rally is taking place today. I have strong hope concerns of farmers will be addressed by Officers of COCOBOD present here. On issues of CSSVD and treatment of old cocoa trees, Mr. Noel Ayibor, the District Cocoa Officer for Jasikan said, farmers whose farms are over 50 years should register with the various Community Extension Agents (CEAs) in their communities to benefit from free treatment, maintenance of treated farms as well as compensation to farmer for two years. On fertilizer, the DCO stated that the current policy of COCOBOD is to subsidize our fertilizers and supply to farmers for them to pay in tranches. Currently, a bag is GHc 80. But for a farmer to obtain fertilizer on credit, he should belong to a Registered Cooperative under the Department of Cooperative. He said, if that is done, request from such cooperatives will be sent to COCOBOD and the farmers will have the fertilizer supplied to them. The payment will be 40% payment on Oct/Nov/Dec main harvest, then 20% in July/Aug light harvest and finally 40% in another Oct/Nov/Dec subsequent year. He said farmer Cooperative will be held liable for the inability of a member to pay for the fertilizer, with chasing the individual farmer. He encouraged every Cocoa Farmer to benefit from fertilizer and many other inputs that COCOBOD will be supplying. On seedlings for planting, the DCO added that COCOBOD has nursed some seedlings and will be distributed to farmers free of charge, and farmers who want seedlings should register with the CEAs in their respective communities. He said farmers should come together to dig wells to serve as a source of irrigation for the young seedlings that will be supplied. Enough shade trees (glyricidia and plantain as temporal shade) and other desirable economic trees were also recommended. The issues of Gender and Women Empowerment in Cocoa was deliberated in detail. Women are traditionally responsible for the nutrition needs of rural families, and women and their children suffer most when the husband passes on. As such, husbands were advised to carve a portion of their farms for their wives to ensure that, in an unfortunate situation when the man passes on, the woman can have a means to feed herself and the children left behind by the man. Traditional authorities (Chiefs) were also advised to make amendments in their customs and allow women to acquire lands easily for cocoa farming. Mr. James Azamela also presented on worst forms of Child Labour in Cocoa. He advised that, using children: as fulltime workers on the farm and not attending school or any vocational training; climbing and working on trees higher that 9ft (ie cutting mistletoe/ pruning with cutlass); child withdrawn from school during peak cocoa season to do farm work; children going to or returning from farm before 6:00 am and after 6:00 pm; children working with motorized mist blower and chain saw; carrying heavy loads beyond child's age and size, breaking cocoa pods with cutlass, working with agrochemicals and the likes. He however stated, there are permissible work, but the underlined word is, will this work being assigned to the child serve his/her future? Will it be in the interest of the Child's welfare? He added that worst forms of Child Labour in Cocoa is a worry because it leads to high illiteracy rates, low productivity and above all poverty in Cocoa Communities hence must be prevented. On issues of rampant bush fires engulfing most Cocoa Farms in the Region, School Children from EP JHS, Nkonya Bumbulla performed a on causes and prevention of bush fires. Among other things the children recommended the creation and extension of fire belts around cocoa farms, formation of volunteer fire fighters in all cocoa communities and enacting of stiffer punitive measures to curb indiscriminaate setting up of fires during dry season most especially. The issue of Environmentally Friendly Cocoa was discussed in details with the farmers. It was stated that, COCOBOD has banned the use of weedicides in Cocoa Farming, due to its effects on soil micro-organisms as well as residual chemical (24D ) left in Cocoa beans, as discovered in Oct, 2019 by Japan on Ghana's cocoa beans. The DCO said, Cocoa is a forest crop and encouraged farmers to plant both temporal shade (glyricidia 6mx6m) as well as permanent shade (Ofram), 10-18 per hectare farm. The Technical Officer for Nkonya, Mr. Francis Eshun, after the main forum, met with the farmer leadership from Nkonya Area (Nkonya Tayi, Nkonya Asakyiri, Nkonya Ntumda, Nkonya Ahenkro, Nkonya Ntsumuru and Nkonya Wurupong) and reiterated the need to speed up the formation and registration of more cooperatives, aside the Nkonya Wurupong Yonkudor Cooperative and Marketing Society Limited, to ensure that, they can access inputs directly from COCOBOD as discussed at the rally. The Rally was attended by over 250 farmers drawn from communities such as Kubease, Kwamekrom, Odormitor, Bowire Abetenase, Nkonya Bumbulla, Nkonya Wurupong, Nkonya Tepo, Nkonya Tayi, Nkonya Ntumda, Nkonya Ahenkro, Nkonya Nstumuru, Nkonya Ahondwo, and Nkonya Asakyiri in the Oti Region of Ghana. Assembly Members that graced the occasion are Assembly Members for Nkonya Wurupong, Hon. Francis Ampomah, Assembly Members for Kwamekrom, Hon. Michael Anumah, Assembly Members for Kwamekrom Zongo, Hon. Sandah Ibrahim, Assembly Members for Kwamekrom Hon. James Mawuli Peni. In closing remarks, farmers expressed their delight to COCOBOD for the opportunity offered them and promised to act on the directives and education received. Mr. Stephen Gyanwodie, the Chairman of the occasion stated further that, COCOBOD should keep engaging farmers on laudable programmes such as this to help the Cocoa Industry. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Last month, Netta dropped her newest single, "Ricki Lake" (via S-Curve Records/BMG), continuing the Israeli artist/composer/songwriter's exciting journey of making some of today's most experimentally brilliant pop music. Her brash but lovable personality is front & center on this song, which is ripe with a self-empowered spirit, a sense of humor, and an infectious beat. After winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with her Spotify chart-topping song "Toy", Netta has continued to turn heads with her electrifying visuals, genre-breaking quirk pop, infectious charisma, glass-shattering vocal prowess, and looping ingenuity. 2019 saw Netta on international stages and in unique situations including catwalks at leading fashion events and a stroll with Prince William during his visit to Israel. Her music and videos continue to gain popularity, notching over 600 million global streams to date. The video for "Ricki Lake" (over 2.1 million views on YouTube to date), which is a highly irreverent, junk food-laden, absurdist look at commercialism, serves as Netta's fascinating love letter to American culture. "I used to watch the 'Ricki Lake Show' obsessively when I was a teenager, and I was fascinated by all the colorful characters she featured in her show. It was a glimpse into the ultimate America at its best and worst. Like Ricki's guests, we're all seeking guidance, quick solutions and simple life hacks that would make us happy and would take away the sadness. A new jacket, a new nose, a happy meal or cellulite reduction," said Netta about the inspiration for both the video and song. As Netta noted, "'Ricki Lake', the song and the person, is about being a happy individual, listening to your gut instead of society's rules, and dancing to your own drum. Ricki Lake for me was always how the misfit became America's sweetheart, and this song and video are my cheesy, messy and greasy homage to her." NETTA ONLINE YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | FACEBOOK For more information on Netta, please contact Josh Page (jpage@shorefire.com) and Alena Joyiens (ajoyiens@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieah4V3gOCw Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099443/Netta_Ricki_Lake_Art.jpg Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:04:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LUSAKA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian cabinet has approved for the creation of a contingency fund for emergency preparedness, prevention and mitigation measures against the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The contingency fund was also meant to protect the public from the social, economic and cultural effects that the disease may cause. Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya said the move was a response to the World Health Organization's call for countries to respond to and abide by the international health regulations to facilitate the control of international spread of the disease. "Therefore, Zambia is expected to put in place measures to prevent, detect and respond to any potential outbreak," she said in a statement released after a cabinet meeting. Cabinet, she said, was concerned and wanted to ensure that the public was protected. By PTI NEW DELHI: Regulator Irdai on Wednesday asked insurers to expeditiously settle hospitalisation claims related to coronavirus disease under health policies. It also instructed insurance companies to come out with policies to cover treatment costs for coronavirus infection, which has impacted thousands of people worldwide. In order to provide need-based health insurance coverage, insurers are introducing products for various specific diseases, including vector borne diseases. ALSO READ | Coronavirus likely a permanent guest, summer may not contain spread, says top virologist "For the purpose of meeting health insurance requirements of various sections, insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus," Irdai said in a circular. There are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in India. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked insurers to expeditiously attend to claims for treatment of coronavirus. "Where hospitalisation is covered in a product, insurers shall ensure that the cases related to coronvirus disease (COVID-19) shall be expeditiously handled," it said. ALSO READ: 29 positive cases at home, 17 Indians infected abroad Also, the costs of admissible medical expenses during the course of treatment, including the treatment during quarantine period, should be settled in accordance to the applicable terms and conditions of policy contract and the extant regulatory framework. "All the claims reported under COVID-19 shall be thoroughly reviewed by review committee before repudiating the claims," the circular added. Over six lakh people have been screened for novel coronavirus at 21 airports. Also more than 10 lakh incoming people at India's open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have been screened as well. Commenting on the Irdai's ciruclar, Subramanyam Brahmajoysula, Head (Underwriting and Reinsurance), SBI General Insurance said that claims due to coronavirus are payable provided the concerned person is hospitalised for at least 24 hours. "Most of the health insurance policies in India do not cover outpatient treatment. However, if corona virus is declared as a pandemic by WHO or Indian government, then claims might not be payable as such claims are excluded under many health insurance policies," Brahmajoysula said. Ashish Mehrotra, MD and CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance said that any policyholder hospitalised for coronavirus condition will be insured under "our hospitalisation policies" and company will expedite claims for the treatment. However, the insurers are silent on whether they would be settling claims if a patient is being quarantined. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: As part of his visit to Aghstafa district, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of a military unit of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Minister of Internal Affairs Colonel General Vilayat Eyvazov reported to President, the Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. The head of state viewed conditions created at the military unit. Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung By Park Jae-hyuk Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung will file administrative litigation against the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) to prevent its punitive measures against him for the so-called "DLF fiasco" taking effect, the banking group said Wednesday. At a general meeting Wednesday, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) finalized sanctions against Woori and Hana banks over their failure to prevent major investor losses caused by the mis-selling of high-risk derivative-linked funds (DLFs). The FSC fined Woori 19.7 billion won ($16 million) and Hana 16.7 billion won, as well as banning them from selling private equity fund options for the next six months. The regulator also said the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will notify the bank executives of the sanctions imposed on them, which restrict them from working at financial companies. The punishments of the bank executives, which were finalized after approval by FSS Governor Yoon Suk-heun, Feb. 3, will take effect as soon as the executives receive notification. Woori said its chairman will file for administrative litigation in the capacity of an individual, as soon as he receives the notification, asking the court to dismiss the sanctions. "Our board of directors had no choice but to make such a decision to stabilize our governance structure," a Woori Financial Group spokesman said. "This is intended to ask the court about whether the heavy sanction was legitimate or not. We expect the court will make the right decision." Woori wants to reappoint Son as chairman at its general shareholder meeting scheduled for March 25. If the court grants an injunction before then, Son will be able to continue leading the group. Meanwhile, Hana has remained cautious about the FSC's decision, because it will select its new chairman later this year at the earliest. Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Ham Young-joo, heavily sanctioned along with Son, must file litigation within 90 days of receiving official notification, if he intends to lead the group. CLEVELAND, Ohio A Cleveland police officer is accused of stealing about $1,800 from two people during two different arrests. Lorenzo Brazzell Jr., 32, is charged with two counts of theft-in-office. A Cuyahoga County grand jury handed up the indictment on Tuesday. An arraignment date has not been set. The department suspended him without pay until the criminal case is finished. He was hired in March 2017 and worked in the citys Third District. The first incident happened June 16 during the arrest of a 31-year-old man on a carrying concealed weapons charge on East 31st Street and Payne Avenue. The man was not formally charged with a crime after the arrest. Prosecutors said Cleveland police stopped the car gun shots were fired in the area. Brazzell searched the man and took $2,100 in cash from the mans pockets, according to the indictment. Brazzell took the larger bills and kept them, court records say. When the man was booked into the Cuyahoga County Jail, Brazzell put $647 in with Brazzells property, court records say. On Aug. 14, another police officer stopped a womans car on Chester Avenue and East 17th Street during another call for shots fired in the area. The womans passenger was arrested, but she was not arrested or charged. Brazell was not initially part of the traffic stop but drove up to the scene, prosecutors said. He went into the womans car under the guise of shutting the car off so it could be towed, according to prosecutors. Brazell found $360 in the womans car and stole it, according to court records. Cleveland Police Patrolmens Association President Jeff Follmer did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Read more from cleveland.com: Abused inmates, convicted jail officers round out potential witnesses in trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director charged during rash of inmate deaths Woman who killed Garfield Heights man during robbery after meeting him on Plenty of Fish dating app sentenced to life in prison Surveillance photos show robbers who stole prescription drugs from Cleveland pharmacy, police say COLUMBUS, Ohio - The hospital system where an intensive care doctor was accused of ordering excessive painkiller doses for dozens of patients who died will be fined $400,000 for violating Ohio pharmacy law under a settlement announced Wednesday. The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System also agreed to pay more than $77,000 for the costs of the state Board of Pharmacys investigation involving Mount Carmel West hospital, which has since closed, and William Husel, the fired doctor now charged with murder in 25 patient deaths over several years. Husel has pleaded not guilty. He argues he was caring for dying patients, not trying to kill them. Mount Carmel was accused of violations related to policies and procedures for dispensing drugs, including instances where controls on automated dispensers were overridden to fulfil Husels orders. An operational license that has since been transferred from Mount Carmel West to the systems newer hospital in Grove City is being put under probation for three years, and the hospitals compliance with the pharmacy boards rules and regulations must be reviewed by a consulting pharmacist or pharmacy organization, according to the settlement. A statement from Mount Carmel said it appreciated the boards efforts to reach the settlement and help ensure such events never happen again. The statement noted that the hospital system has made changes, such as setting maximum doses for pain medication in its electronic medical record and permitting overrides on automated dispensers only in emergencies. Two pharmacists who were cited for verifying large doses of the powerful painkiller fentanyl were fined $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, under their own settlements with the board. Those agreements also require the pharmacists, Gregory White and Nathan Kochheiser, to take additional training in palliative care and pain management. A message seeking comment was left for their attorney. A third pharmacist was cited for supervisory failures in instances where nurses overrode controls on automated dispensers in non-emergencies to access drugs ordered by Husel, but the board said that case was dismissed. Mount Carmel wouldnt confirm whether it still employs any of those pharmacists. It has previously said it fired 23 nurses, pharmacists and managers after its internal investigation and referred more to their respective state boards for review. Twenty-five nurses still face administrative hearings and potential disciplinary action. Though the drugs were administered by others, Husel is the lone employee being criminally prosecuted. He was charged only in cases involving at least 500 micrograms of fentanyl because prosecutors said doses that large pointed to an intent to end lives. Husel has sued Mount Carmel for defamation, as have 10 of his former colleagues, some of whom also alleged wrongful termination. Mount Carmel has stood by the findings of its internal investigation and its subsequent responses. SXSW Will Go Ahead says Austin Public Health Chief SXSW will proceed as planned despite concerns over the coronavirus, Austin public health officials said during a press conference Wednesday. Its important for us to remember at this stage that were actively evaluating mass gatherings on a daily basis, said Mark Escott, the interim medical director for Austin Public Health. Right now theres no evidence that closing South by Southwest or other activities is going to make this community safer. Were constantly monitoring that situation. If we make the recommendation to shut down SXSW, people will still come here, without that organizational structure that SXSW provides, said Escott. All along SXSW has been extremely responsive. Cancellations Grow But a growing number of major companies are pulling out of the event despite assurances from public health officials. Share on: DOJs Battle Against Chinese Communist Infiltration Reaches Historic Scale The Justice Department (DOJ) campaign to counter the Chinese Communist Partys multifaceted onslaught on U.S. interests has ramped up to an unprecedented level, according to government officials and documents. As of February, the FBI was conducting roughly 1,000 investigations into Chinas attempted theft of trade secrets, just one of many fronts in the communist regimes wide-ranging campaign against the United States. Every FBI field office was working on trade-secret theft cases involving China, with potential victims spanning almost every sector and industry, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. With the DOJ and the FBI under relentless partisan fire over politically charged domestic investigations dating back to the 2016 presidential election, the initiative to counteract the offensive by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ramped up to a historic scale while going largely unnoticed. According to a review of DOJ press releases, the department has brought more indictments related to Chinese infiltration since 2019 than during the entire eight years of the Obama administration. We believe that no country poses a greater threat than communist China, John Brown, an assistant director at the FBI, said during a Feb. 6 conference. From our vantage point, the United States has not faced a similar threat like this since the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Today, investigations related to the government of China make up a greater percentage of our counterintelligence workload than at any other time in the FBIs history. In November 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched the effortformally known as the China Initiativeshortly before he submitted his resignation. The Trump administrations efforts in the matter had already ramped up prior to the formal launch. Sessions noted that no one was charged with spying for China during the last four years of the Obama administration and that the Trump administration indicted four alleged spies in 2017 alone. Sessions directed the DOJ to focus on a range of priorities related to Chinese infiltration, including identifying key trade-secret theft cases, developing a strategy to go after non-traditional intelligence collectors being co-opted by the communist regime, and to applying the Foreign Agents Registration Act against unregistered agents advancing the Chinese regimes interests. Since then, federal law enforcement authorities have brought charges on a number of landmark cases. The most recent indictments as part of the initiative provide a glimpse into the variety of methods the communist regime is using to steal from the United States. On Jan. 28, the DOJ charged a senior Harvard professor, a Chinese student at Boston University, and a Chinese researcher working at a medical center in Boston. The indictments exemplified how the Chinese regime is using a variety of approaches to target U.S. academic and research facilities. The Harvard professor, Charles Lieber, was charged with lying to federal authorities about being paid $50,000 a month through Chinas Thousand Talents program. The Boston University student allegedly lied about being a member of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army. The researcher allegedly stole vials containing cancer research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and attempted to smuggle them into China. The Chinese government is taking an all-tools and all-sectors approachand that demands our own all-tools and all-sectors approach in response, Wray said on Feb. 6. To be clear: This threat is not about the Chinese people as a whole, and certainly not about Chinese-Americans as a group. But it is about the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party made its ambitions public five years ago upon the announcement of its Made in China 2025 plan, a whole-of-society push to make China the world leader in information technology, robotics, green energy, aerospace, and other industries. According to senior U.S. officials, Chinas progress toward the goal has primarily relied on theft of innovation from the United States. The Chinese government is fighting a generational fight to surpass our country in economic and technological leadership. But not through legitimate innovation, not through fair and lawful competition, and not by giving their citizens the freedom of thought and speech and creativity we treasure here in the United States, Wray said. Instead, theyve shown that theyre willing to steal their way up the economic ladder at our expense. Since the 2015 announcement of the Made in China 2025 plan, the DOJ has brought trade-secret theft cases in 8 of the 10 technology sectors China is aspiring to dominate. The central planning under the communist regime stifles innovation, making the rapid advances called for by the China 2025 plan impossible without the systematic theft of trade secrets. The DOJs focus on the issue thus cuts to the core of the Chinese regimes central plan for global domination. While the number of FBI technology theft cases involving China has been on the rise since 2003, the investigations yielded just nine prosecutions during the eight years of the Obama administration, according to a review of DOJ indictments. By comparison, the Trump administration has already brought charges in 12 trade-secret theft cases. In the past, prior administrations and many in the private sector have too often been willing to countenance Chinas hardball tactics, Attorney General William Barr said on Feb. 6. It has been this administration that has finally moved to confront and counteract Chinas playbook. China is implicated in about 80 percent of all economic espionage charges brought by the DOJ and is connected to 60 percent of all trade-secret theft cases. While the number of total prosecutions is relatively small, the FBI and DOJ see the cases as a tool to motivate the private sector to take action. According to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, of the five U.S. attorneys assigned to the China Initiative, the recent prosecutions in the academic field are meant to jolt private-sector universities to wake up to the threat from China and tighten internal measures. The China Initiative has ramped up alongside the Trump administrations other efforts to counteract China, including the trade war and the escalation in the struggle against Chinese counterfeits. Many of the cases the FBI is investigating are based on leads from companies in the private sector. According to senior law enforcement officials, private companies are reluctant to state publicly that theyve been victimized by the Chinese regime, fearing repercussions to their business in China. Retaliation tactics include trumped-up antitrust charges against U.S. companies in China. According to Trevor Loudon, an expert on communist infiltration of the United States, the DOJs campaign to counteract the China threat is unprecedented, even in comparison to the investigative activity during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The FBI caseload against Soviet agents and so-called fellow travelers was spread out over many years and consisted largely of surveillance which rarely resulted in formal charges. This is pretty unprecedented. Even at the height of the Cold War, there were never more than a few dozen cases, Loudon said. Marc Ruskin, a former FBI special agent, pointed out that 1,000 cases spread across 56 FBI field offices is no staggering number. But he suggested that the total number may be higher considering the FBIs need to protect the integrity of investigations and to avoid tipping off suspects. There might be 5,000 cases. The public statements [Wray] is going to be able to make are influenced by security and strategic considerations, Ruskin said. The prosecutions since 2018 suggest that the DOJ has broadened the range of charges its willing to bring in cases related to Chinese infiltration. Espionage and trade-secret cases are relatively difficult to prove, and the U.S. government has shown its willing to work around the issue by bringing white-collar charges. Lieber, the Harvard professor, was charged with lying about his affiliation with a Chinese university. Last year, an associate professor at the University of Kansas was charged with wire fraud and program fraud for allegedly hiding the fact that he was working for a Chinese university. The bureau has shifted to using non-traditional tools in investigating and mitigating the activities of hostile intelligence services, Ruskin said. Diana West, an expert on communist sabotage of the United States, said that while the increase in investigations and prosecutions is great, much more needs to be done to counteract China from the perspective of policy. I think the proof is always in the indictments, the arrests, which never really seem to address the problem at the scale that is ongoing, West said, referring to the many investigations of atomic espionage dating back decades that have gone unprosecuted. When you actually see government policy changing or cases going to court, this becomes more of a measure of the government taking things seriously. According to U.S. Attorney Jay Town, one of the legislative changes the DOJ may benefit from is an amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act that would expand the definition of a foreign agent beyond political activity to include research on behalf of a foreign government. I do think it would be important to at least have sort of a point one, where it does apply not just to political activity but perhaps would apply to research activity and some other things and give some real teeth to what the president and what this Justice Department is trying to accomplish with prosecuting these individuals who are taking these grant moneys and perhaps using them for a nefarious purpose, Town said on Feb. 6. A giant line formed outside a Costco store in Honolulu on Saturday after the Hawaii Department of Health advised residents to stock up on food and necessities earlier in the week. Reuters/Duane Tanouye Consumers around the world are flocking to grocery stores to stock up long-lasting food items and basics as panic over coronavirus grows. Local authorities and government leaders have told consumers not to panic but many are preparing for the worst. These photos show empty shelves and long lines at various grocery stores in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Shoppers around the world are heading to grocery stores to stock up on food and basics as fear over the spread of coronavirus grows. While local authorities and government leaders in various parts of the world have urged consumers not to panic and have advised that there is no need to stock up, many are still preparing for the worst. These photos depict some of the scenes at stores across countries impacted by the virus: After the first coronavirus death was first reported in Wuhan, China in January and the virus began to spread, reports of empty supermarket shelves in nearby areas started to appear on social media. Walmart China 4 Courtesy of @ChinaMidnight via Twitter Read more: Dire photos show empty shelves inside a Wuhan Walmart as coronavirus fears grow Shoppers in the cities of Wuhan and Zhudhai shared videos and photographs showing the bare store shelves at local Walmart stores. "Things are getting desperate," one shopper wrote on Twitter, as reported by Business Insider's Bethany Biron. And as the virus spread elsewhere in the weeks that followed, shoppers around the globe started to react in the same way. Hong Kong coronavirus REUTERS/Tyrone Siu Local news organizations reported that Hong Kong supermarkets had begun selling out of certain long-lasting food items and hygiene products in early February after rumors circulated online that supplies could run out because of the slowdown of factories in mainland China. Story continues Hong Kong supermarket AP Photo/Vincent Yu Source: South China Morning Post The government insisted that suppliers were not impacted by the virus... Hong Kong coronavirus AP Photo/Kin Cheung ...but consumers continued to stock up. Toilet paper Hong Kong REUTERS/Tyrone Siu Some were clearly looking to profit on the panic and hoped that these items would become precious commodities. In one extreme example in mid-February, two robbers stole 600 rolls of toilet paper off a delivery driver in Hong Kong and were later arrested. It is a similar scene in the supermarkets in Singapore... Coronavirus Singapore REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo ...while the local authorities urged residents not to panic, supermarkets shelves were stripped bare. Coronavirus Singapore REUTERS/Edgar Su According to Bloomberg, online grocers such as Amazon and RedMart have also seen an uptick in demand. The same can be said in certain stores in Japan, where the number of reported coronavirus cases currently exceeds 200. Japan coronavirus Getty/The Asahi Shimbun Source: Business Insider As Japan cancels events and businesses tell employees to work from home, some residents have taken precautionary measures to prepare. Coronavirus Japan Carl Court/Getty Images A sudden surge in the number of coronavirus cases in northern Italy at the end of February caused panic among shoppers. Coronavirus Italy Reuters/Flavio Lo Scalzo Photos taken by locals in supermarkets in Milan show the empty shelves as customers stocked up on staple items such as pasta, bread, and tinned foods. Coronavirus Milan Twitter/@kevindakq via Reuters Read more: Photos show the scene inside northern Italy supermarkets as panicked shoppers stock up on supplies amid a surge of the coronavirus The spike in infections in the area prompted the local authorities to close schools and universities and ban public gatherings across northern Italy. Milan coronavirus AP Photo/Luca Bruno In early March, concerns about the spread of the virus intensified in the US after the country reported the first coronavirus death on US soil. Coronavirus New York REUTERS/Brendan McDermid This led to a rush to Costco stores across the US. The warehouse chain is an obvious choice for consumers to stock up in bulk. A giant line formed outside a Costco store in Honolulu on Saturday after the Hawaii Department of Health advised residents to stock up on food and necessities earlier in the week. Reuters/Duane Tanouye Reuters/Duane Tanouye As a result, Costco posted signs over the weekend informing shoppers that it had sold out of certain products. Costco coronavirus AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus While analysts expect public centers such as shopping malls, restaurants, and movie theaters to suffer from coronavirus, some grocery chains will likely benefit from the panic-buying. US coronavirus Anadolu Agency via Getty Images In a recent note, a group of UBS analysts said that Costco is one of the "better-positioned retailers." Costco coronavirus Reuters/Duane Tanouye "It's likely to serve as a place of constant stock up for members. As consumers prioritize a dwindling number of trips to stores, Costco will likely be at the top of the list," a group of UBS analysts wrote on Monday. Although European ministers have also insisted that there is "no reason to panic," shoppers have continued to rush to stores as the number of coronavirus cases continues to mount up. Coronavirus France AFP via Getty Source: RFI The German word Hamsterkauf, which is used to describing panic-buying, has been trending on social media over the past few days. Source: Quartz According to German news outlet Der Spiegel, two of the country's largest supermarket chains Lidl and Aldi have both acknowledged an increase in demand but assured customers that they are prepared for this. Source: Der Spiegel Australian consumers were accused of "overreacting" by an infectious disease expert, who told The Guardian that there is no need to panic buy. 2020 03 03T055901Z_814908111_RC25CF9MQ6NT_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH CORONAVIRUS AUSTRALIA.JPG Ammy Kwong via Reuters "People are really overreacting to this. We need to restore some balance here. In Australia, we produce more food than we can eat because we are a net exporter of food. You're not going to run out of food, you might not have the same choice of foods but you won't be left without," Peter Collignon, a professor who has worked as an adviser to the World Health Organization, told The Guardian. A spokesperson at one of Australia's largest supermarket chains, Woolworths, told The Guardian that increased demand for long-life food and healthcare products had led to temporary shortages but that these items would be restocked. Coronavirus Australia Adam Spence via Reuters Despite this, Woolworths rationed the amount of toilet paper customers could buy while it boosts stock levels. Coronavirus Australia Adam Spence via Reuters Source: The Guardian Read the original article on Business Insider Chick-fil-A has again ensured that customers who follow Lent will have a menu options to order with the return of the restaurants fish sandwich. Last week, the chicken chain confirmed that its seasonal fish sandwich - made with breaded cod fillets on a toasted buttered bun with pickles and tartar sauce - would be returning in time for Lent, which began on Wednesday, 26 February. Lent, which lasts 40 days, is when those that practise Catholicism abstain from eating meat on Fridays until Easter Sunday. According to the restaurant, select Chick-fil-A locations will offer the breaded fish between the 26th and Saturday, 11 April, with Lent ending on Thursday, 9 April this year. In addition to the Traditional Fish sandwich, which was first offered in 2016, the fast-food chain will also be selling a Deluxe Fish Sandwich and boxed two- and three-count fish fillet entrees and meals served with waffle fries and tartar sauce. The 20 best food scenes in film Show all 20 1 /20 The 20 best food scenes in film The 20 best food scenes in film Lady & the Tramp Who would have guessed one of the most romantic scenes in cinema would involve two dogs eating scraps in an alleyway? And, yet, the iconic spaghetti kiss from Disneys 1955 animated film has been oft imitated but never surpassed, as the two pups indulge in an Italian delicacy, all soundtracked to Sonny Burke and Peggy Lees Bella Notte. And, as Tramp proves, theres no greater act of chivalry than offering your date the last meatball Moviestore/Rex The 20 best food scenes in film Babette's Feast Gabriel Axels Oscar-winning 1987 Danish film is a visual treat for any self-confessed gourmand. The story sees two pious Protestant sisters offer refuge to a French woman fleeing the political tumult in Paris after the collapse of the Second Empire in 1871. They agree to hire her as a housekeeper, discovering later that shes the former chef of one of Pariss best restaurants. When she wins the lottery, she uses the funds to whip a meal to remember for her kindly hosts. The 20 best food scenes in film Hook All the very best chefs know that a dash of pure imagination is key to creating a true culinary wonder. Its a lesson well-taught in Steven Spielbergs 1991 classic, Hook, as a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) looks on in disbelief as the Lost Boys tuck into what appears to be nothing at all. Its only when he truly believes that he can see the brightly colour feast laid out before him. And what childish feast would be complete without an old fashioned food fight? Sony The 20 best food scenes in film Breakfast at Tiffany's Sure, the 1961 films title may be a little misleading. Its protagonist, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), in reality only has breakfast outside of Tiffanys, popping out of a cab in the early morning light to peer into the jewelry shop window, all while enjoying a pastry and some coffee in a paper. The moment has still remained the peak of glamour, decades later, so who cares if its all a little white lie? Keystone Features/Getty Images The 20 best food scenes in film The Godfather Its a classic scene that proves to be surprisingly instructional. Francis Ford Coppolas 1972 film has a full-blown recipe tucked within its elegant drama, as Vito Corleones close associate, Peter Clemenza (Richard Castellano), offers his version of the perfect pasta sauce. As he explains: You start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; you make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. And a little bit of wine, and a little bit of sugarthat's my trick." Rex Features The 20 best food scenes in film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Although the 1971 musical is, as a whole, a sugary delight, its hardest to resist the temptation of Willy Wonkas Fizzy Lifting Drinks, a soda described as so bubbly that it lifts anyone who drinks it right off the ground. Its no wonder that it was the one stop on the tour that ended up tempting the pure-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) and his grandfather (Jack Albertson). Now, the real question is: does it come in different flavours? Getty The 20 best food scenes in film Eat Pray Love For anyone who considers pizza to be the true love of their life, Ryan Murphys 2010 romcom is a perfect cinematic match. Its hard not to relate to the moment Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) bites into a piece of authentic Italian pizza, during the Naples stop on her global adventure of self-discovery, and declares: Im in love. Im in a relationship with my pizza. Rex Features The 20 best food scenes in film Beauty & the Beast Although we might not fully be convinced that the grey stuff is delicious, the dinner and show approach to Lumiere (Jerry Orbach)s hospitality is something we could certainly get used to. In Disneys 1991 animation, Belle (Paige O'Hara) is presented with a whole cavalcade of sumptuous dishes: including beef ragout, cheese souffle, pie and pudding "en flambe". And theres a sage piece of advice to go with it all, too: If you're stressed, it's fine dining we suggest! Indeed. Disney The 20 best food scenes in film Steel Magnolias While theres been a growing fad of ambitious, unusually themed cakes you need only look at the success of the TLC reality series Cake Boss there are few cinematic cakes that quite stick in the memory like Jackson (Dylan McDermott)s armadillo-shaped groom cake from 1989 comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, a spin on the tradition from the American South of having another cake separate to the main wedding cake. And did we mention that its red velvet on the inside? REX FEATURES The 20 best food scenes in film Marie Antoinette When it came to director Sofia Coppola conjuring the ultimate image of decadence for her 2006 biopic on the French queen, there was no more perfect treat than Ladurees famous macarons. Delicate and pastel-toned, the meringue-based confection has long been the speciality of the French bakery, first established in 1862. A new flavour was even created in honour of the film, with the Marie Antoinette offering a combination of rose and anise flavours. Columbia Pictures The 20 best food scenes in film The Hundred Foot Journey Food is often regarded as one of the best ways to understand a culture, and The Hundred-Foot Journey is wonderful for showing the efforts the talented, self-taught novice Hassan (Manish Dayal) goes to in order to comprehend that. During a picnic he reveals he has mastered the five mother sauces of French cuisine, and the delicate tasting process that follows demonstrates just how important food is to France. The 20 best food scenes in film Goodfellas In prison, dinner was always a big thing. So much so that the Wise Guys ate better than most people on the outside. Beyond the Sea plays in the background as the gangsters prepare their meal: Garlic sliced so thin with a razor blade that it would liquefy in the pan with just a little oil, meatballs in a tomato sauce thats a little too oniony, steak cooked medium rare, iced lobsters, prosciutto, salami, cheese, red wine and good Scotch. Maybe crime does pay after all. The 20 best food scenes in film Chocolat There are few pleasures in life more fulfilling than that of cooking for others. In Chocolat based on the book by Joanne Harris a slow-motion scene where dinner party guests tuck into the feast created by expert chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) is full of warmth and laughter. AP The 20 best food scenes in film Pulp Fiction In a world where people seem more than happy to fork out 15 for some mushy avocado on toast, $5 for a milkshake doesnt seem too unreasonable. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) takes his boss wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out to Jack Rabbit Slims for a burger, where she decides she wants the $5 dollar shake. You dont put bourbon in it or nothing? a bewildered Vincent asks the waiter. When it arrives, Mia takes a long sip: Yummy. I gotta know what a $5 shake tastes like, Vincent says. He takes a sip. Then another. Goddamn, thats a pretty f***ing good milkshake. Miramax/YouTube The 20 best food scenes in film Julie & Julia Nora Ephrons feature film based on the intertwining stories of chef Julia Child and Julie Powell, the blogger who rose to fame after documenting her pledge to cook all 524 recipes in Childs cookbook, is all about the joy one can find in food. It is some of the earlier scenes that capture this best, like when Julia (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) arrive in Paris and stop at a French restaurant, where Julia is served a sizzling platter of sole. It looked so mouth-watering in the final edit that Ephron wanted to call up Martin Scorcese and say, youve never shot a fish like that before. Rex The 20 best food scenes in film Ratatouille Fearsome critic Anton Ego takes a bite of ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood, where it was a favourite comfort food, in the best scene from Pixars wonderful animated film. The detail is superb, from the process of Remy the rat preparing the dish to the moment Egos pen falls to the ground as he remembers the power of a favourite meal in evoking memories we thought were lost. YouTube screengrab / Jeugos para ninos / Disney Pixar The 20 best food scenes in film Spinal Tap I dont want this, I want large bread but I can rise above it, Im a professional. The miniature bread catastrophe is a beautiful parody on every self-absorbed rock star to have kicked off over something as ludicrous as the food theyre served backstage. Guitarist Nigel Tufnell sits next to a tray of sandwiches looking baffled as his manager walks over. "Look," he says, picking up a sandwich. "This, this miniature bread. It's like... I've been working with this now for about half an hour. I can't figure it out. Let's say I want a bite, right, you've got this..." "Why do you keep folding it?" Ian asks. Nigel looks down at the broken bits of bread, then tries again: "This. I don't want this." He throws the sandwich to the ground, disgusted. "I want large bread!" Embassy Pictures The 20 best food scenes in film The Help After all the trauma she has been through at the hands of her abusive husband and a racist ex-employer Minny (Octavia Spencer) arrives at her employer Celia Foote to find a beautiful dinner cooked for her as a thank you for everything she has done for Celia and her husband. You see the care that has gone into it as Celia lays everything out on the table, from a mile high meringue to the fried chicken Minny taught her how to make. That table of food gave Minny the strength she needed, the narration explains. She took her babies out from under Leroy and never went back. AP Photo/Disney DreamWorks II, Dale Robinette The 20 best food scenes in film Five Easy Pieces Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) just wants some toast to go with his omelette, but the waitress is stubbornly sticking to the diners no substitutions rule. Ill make it as easy for you as I can, goes the famous order. Id like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast. No mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce and hold the chicken. Columbia Pictures The 20 best food scenes in film Big Night It was a scene that helped propel a revolution in American dining. Il Timpano, a dish inspired by the notoriously tricky-to-make Italian meal, is the star of a moment in Big Night where chef brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) prepares it as the centrepiece for a feast attended by their rival, Pascal. Goddamit, I should kill you, he screams, throwing his fork down after tasting Il Timpano. This is so f***ing good, I should kill you. On social media, the return of the sandwich was met with joy from customers who follow Lent as well as those who dont. I love Lent season because Chick-fil-A have the fish sandwich option, one person wrote on Twitter. Another said: Excited for Lent because that means the fish sandwich will be back at Chick-fil-A. Yum, best 40 days of the year! Chick-fil-A is not the only fast-food restaurant that adjusts its menu to cater to those who abstain from eating meat during Lent as Wendys, Arbys, and Bojangles all offer fish options during the religious period. You can find a list of participating Chick-fil-A locations here. Army Chief General MM Naravane on Wednesday, while emphasising on the changing character of warfare, said that icons of the 20th-century warfare like large main battle tanks and fighter aircraft are on their way out. "Icons of the 20th-century warfare like large main battle tanks and fighter aircraft are on their way out," the Army Chief said while addressing an event here. The Army Chief pointed out that the last large tank battle, one in which large armoured formations of two armies, manoeuvred against each other supported by artillery and air forces, took place in the 1973 Arab-Israel war on the Golan Heights in the deserts of Sinai. "In the five odd decades since - in Iraq, Lebanon, Georgia, Chechnya and Syria, armoured formations have either followed or supported the application of airpower and artillery, or else their units and sub-units have been committed in smaller tactical groupings as part of infantry - armour assaults in urban terrain," the Army Chief said. "During the war in the Donbass, a single-fire mission by Russian artillery destroyed two Ukranian mechanised battalions in a few minutes in what became known as the 'Battle of Zelenopillya'," he added. Referring to Arthashastra by Kautilya, the Army Chief said great strategic wisdom is contained within India's own ancient texts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Cub Scouts in Pack 3785 held its first Pinewood Derby and Blue & Gold Banquet on Feb. 29 at the Coleman VFW Post 1071 hall in Coleman. There were about 35 to 40 people in attendance. Assistant Scout Master Bob Houghton along with several Boy Scouts from Troop 785 assisted in the running of this derby. The fastest car was made by Quintin Germain, who was presented with a winner's certificate, and all seven of the Cub Scouts who participated in the making and decorating of their cars were presented a judge's certificate. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 11:17:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Jiang Li BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The novel coronavirus is spreading into more countries. As the window of opportunity to stop it from becoming a pandemic is closing up, it is time to hold hands. But some in the United States seem to disagree. Instead of joining the global fight, they are busy looking for someone to blame. China, unsurprisingly, became their primary target, in a renewed chapter of their long-running China-bashing game. Over the weekend, U.S. Senator for Florida Marco Rubio blamed China for "putting the world at risk," and attacked Beijing for lacking transparency and "necessary precautions at the onset of the outbreak." Other Washington politicians like U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro have also kept their China-smearing machines humming. Those China-bashers should be reminded that finding fault with China does not help slow down the spread of the virus or cure struggling patients. Only forceful actions and robust international cooperation can. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the Chinese government has acted in a rigorous, transparent and responsible manner to battle the deadly disease. So far, it has achieved steady and conspicuous headway in putting the epidemic under control. As a result, nations of the world have the chance to get better prepared. Beijing is also working to resume domestic work and production in a meticulously managed manner so as not to risk a reversal in the anti-epidemic fight, and to mitigate possible impact on the global supply chains. China's measures may not be entirely suitable for others as different countries are facing different situations, yet they do offer some useful reminders for decision-makers, medical professionals and ordinary people worldwide who are also battling the disease. Virus respects no borders. And it has been a global battle since the very start of the outbreak in this era of growing global interconnectivity. That makes international cooperation highly significant. Washington's fearmongers can only sow divisions and mistrust, and stoke hatred. To win this fight, nations of the world have at the moment three common priorities. One is to continue keeping each other updated on every useful piece of information, including the latest virological research results, infection numbers and vaccine developments; the second one is to jointly throttle, or at least slow down, the cross-border spread of the disease; the third is to resist the temptation of beggar-thy-neighbor policies. Over the long run, members of the international community need to work together to close the gaps in the existing global health security cooperation mechanism so as to better cope with similar challenges in the future. They should also get ready to rein in the knock-on effects of the epidemic on the global economy, and coordinate more closely to prevent anti-globalization sentiments from triggering a global recession. The recent roller-coaster rides in the stock markets worldwide have flashed a warning sign. Richard Partington, an economics correspondent with the British newspaper the Guardian, admitted in his recent article that globalization makes "the spread of viral disease easier and incubate many other social and economic ills," but he also warned that "lurching headlong into a protectionist and luddite world will not provide adequate and lasting solutions." As the clock ticks relentlessly away, the war on the disease rages on. Precious time should be spent on growing consensus and pooling strength globally rather than wantonly pointing fingers at others. That is the only way out. The ability of the worlds tropical forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years. A global research team, led by the University of Leeds, say they fear the worlds remaining undisturbed tropical forests may have already begun to switch from being a major carbon sink, to eventually becoming an overall source of carbon. Currently, tropical forests are well-known as a vital carbon absorber, slowing climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, a process known as carbon sequestration. Climate models typically predict this tropical forest carbon sink will continue for decades. But impacts such as droughts and high temperatures, which can slow growth and kill trees could mean the forests become net sources of CO2. Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Fire rages in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonina on August 23 Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billlows from burning tracts of the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Para on August 23 AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Fire rages in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonina on August 23 EPA Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Land in the Amazon rainforest left scorched in the fires in the Brazilian state of Rondonina on August 23 AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil on August 23 AFP Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Fire tears through a farm in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso AP Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures An area of the Amazon rainforest left scorched in the fires in the Brazilian state of Amazonas on August 24 AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Satellite images show a series of fires in the southwest Brazilian state of Rondonia on August 15 AP Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures A satellite image released by NASA shows the active fires that have been detected in the Amazon region EPA Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Amazonas, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Amazonas, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Indigenous people from the Mura tribe wallk in a deforested area inside the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Amazonas on August 20 Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Fire tears through a farm in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso AP Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows from a stretch of fire in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonia on 23 August AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in the state of Amazonas, Brazil Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Indigenous people from the Mura tribe wallk in a deforested area inside the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Amazonas on August 20 Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows from a stretch of fire in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonia on 23 August AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures A view of logs felled illegally in the Amazon rainforest are seen in sawmills in the Brazilian state of Amazonas on August 22 Reuters Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures A scorched patch of land in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil on 20 August EPA Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Several fires are seen burning in the Amazon rainforest in this satellite image taken by NASA on 11 August AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures Smoke billows from a stretch of fire in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonia on 23 August AFP/Getty Amazon rainforest swept by fires: In pictures The sunsets behind clouds and smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondonia on 18 August EPA Without carbon sequestration continuing, the impact on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could be devastating, the researchers warn. Senior author Professor Simon Lewis, from the School of Geography at Leeds said: One big concern for the future of humanity is when carbon-cycle feedbacks really kick in, with nature switching from slowing climate change to accelerating it. After years of work deep in the Congo and Amazon rainforests weve found that one of the most worrying impacts of climate change has already begun. This is decades ahead of even the most pessimistic climate models. The new analysis of three decades of tree growth and death from 565 undisturbed tropical forests across Africa and the Amazon found the overall uptake of carbon into the Earths intact tropical forests hit its peak in the 1990s. By the 2010s, on average, the ability of a tropical forest to absorb carbon had dropped by one-third. This switch is largely driven by carbon losses from trees dying, the researchers said. The study by almost 100 institutions provides the first large-scale evidence that carbon uptake by the worlds tropical forests has already started a worrying downward trend. Lead author of the study, Dr Wannes Hubau said: We show that peak carbon uptake into intact tropical forests occurred in the 1990s. By combining data from Africa and the Amazon we began to understand why these forests are changing, with carbon dioxide levels, temperature, drought, and forest dynamics being key. Extra carbon dioxide boosts tree growth, but every year this effect is being increasingly countered by the negative impacts of higher temperatures and droughts which slow growth and can kill trees. He added: Our modelling of these factors shows a long-term future decline in the African sink and that the Amazonian sink will continue to rapidly weaken, which we predict to become a carbon source in the mid-2030s. The study found that in the 1990s intact tropical forests removed roughly 46 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but this had plummeted to only around 25 billion tonnes in the 2010s. The lost capacity of the 2010s compared to the 1990s represents 21 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to a decade of fossil fuel emissions from the UK, Germany, France and Canada combined. Overall, intact tropical forests removed 17 per cent of human-made carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s, but that fell to just 6 per cent in the 2010s. This decline is because these forests were 33 per cent less able to absorb carbon and the area of intact forest declined by 19 per cent, while global carbon dioxide emissions soared by 46 per cent. But the research team said there is still time to act to prevent the feedback loop gaining momentum if humanity acts now to reduce emissions. Professor Lewis said: Intact tropical forests remain a vital carbon sink but this research reveals that unless policies are put in place to stabilise Earths climate it is only a matter of time until they are no longer able to sequester carbon. There is no time to lose in terms of tackling climate change. In order to calculate changes in carbon storage over the decades the scientists measured the diameter and estimated the height of every individual tree in 565 patches of forest, returning every few years to re-measure them. By calculating the carbon stored in the trees that survived and those that died, the researchers tracked the changes in carbon storage over time. After the final re-measurement, the study authors used a statistical model and trends in carbon dioxide emissions, temperature and rainfall to estimate changes in forest carbon storage until 2040. By combining data from two large research networks of forests observations across Africa and Amazonia, the authors show the Amazon sink began weakening first, starting in the mid-1990s, followed by a similar weakening of the African sink about 15 years later. The continental difference arises from a combination of Amazon forests being more dynamic than those in Africa, and Amazon forests facing stronger climate impacts, the researchers said. Sao Paulo pitched into darkness by smoke from forest fires Amazonian forests are exposed to higher temperatures, faster temperature increases and more regular and severe droughts, than African forests. Dr Hubau, Professor Lewis and their colleagues have spent years travelling to numerous remote field sites, including spending a week in a dug-out canoe to reach Salonga National Park in central Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr Hubau said: The ability of forests to slow climate change is a crucial element of understanding how the Earth system functions particularly how much carbon is absorbed by the Earth and how much is released into the atmosphere. Continued on-the-ground monitoring of intact tropical forests is required to track the effects of accelerating environmental change. We need this more than ever, as our planets last great tropical forests are threatened as never before. The authors also highlight that tropical forests are still huge reservoirs of carbon, storing 250 billion tonnes of carbon in their trees alone. This storage is equivalent to 90 years of global fossil fuel emissions at todays level. Study author Professor Bonaventure Sonke from the University of Yaounde I in Cameroon said: The speed and magnitude of change in these forests suggests that climate impacts in the tropics may become more severe than predicted. African countries and the international community will need to seriously invest in preparation for ongoing climate change impacts in tropical regions. As tropical forests are likely to sequester less carbon than predicted, carbon budgets and emissions targets may need reassessing to account for this. Professor Lewis said: The immediate threats to tropical forests are deforestation, logging and fires. These require urgent action. In addition, stabilising Earths climate is necessary to stabilise the carbon balance of intact tropical forests. By driving carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero even faster than currently envisaged, it would be possible to avoid intact tropical forests becoming a large source of carbon to the atmosphere. But that window of possibility is closing fast. The paper Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation in African and Amazonian Tropical Forests is published in the journal Nature. Both the Sanders and Biden campaigns were predicting just before Super Tuesday that the race would go far into the spring and possibly all the way to the July convention in Milwaukee. But the rapidly shifting terrain seen over the 48 hours before Tuesdays voting changed perceptions and expectations about the balance of strength between the two leading candidates and what it may foreshadow in the coming weeks and months. The Delhi Police have issued a sweet warning to people who are spreading hate messages on social media. DCP New Delhi posted a collage of screenshot on Twitter on Tuesday evening with same message being spread by different handles. Hey guys! Not done. You have taken the job of spreading hatred so brazenly. Rest assured, we are watching you all, and mighty well. While we know some of these are fake IDs, be sure of our capabilities to hunt you down. Take this as a sweet warning! the tweet said. Hey guys! Not done. You have taken the job of spreading so brazenly. Rest assured, we are watching you all, and mighty well. While we know some of these are fake IDs, be sure of our capabilities to hunt you down . Take this as a sweet warning!#DelhiPoliceNailsFake pic.twitter.com/ez2Z2kQN3S DCP New Delhi (@DCPNewDelhi) March 3, 2020 The Delhi Police are aggressively monitoring social media and spread of information on the internet in the wake of violence in Northeast Delhi in which 46 people have been killed. Authorities had said last week that they will invoke provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (under sections 153A and 505C) and the Information Technology Act to take strict action against those who are found circulating hate messages on WhatsApp, or other social media channels. Action is taken under Section 153A for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and Section 505C for making, publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community. The move is aimed at dealing with rumours on social media. A committee of the Delhi Assembly has even launched a WhatsApp number and an email ID where people can send complaints regarding hate messages or fake news from social media platforms. Today, we held the second meeting of the committee where we launched a WhatsApp number along with an email ID. People can share their complaints here against any hate messages which can cause communal disharmony. The phone number is 8950000946 and email ID is dvscommittee@delhi.gov.in, chairman of the committee and Greater Kailash MLA, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said on Tuesday. The violence in Jafrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajanpura and Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi has claimed at least 46 lives and left over 200 injured. A large number of properties have been damaged. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel. Kylie Blackwood's (pictured) daughters found her dying of stab wounds on the couch after walking home from school A killer who stabbed a mum in the chest and throat then left her in a pool of blood for her twin daughters to discover has begged for a lenient sentence. Scott Alan Murdoch, 42, stabbed Kylie Blackwood, 42, multiple times in her Pakenham home, south-east of Melbourne, on August 1, 2013. The woman's 11-year-old daughters found her stabbed and dying on the couch after walking home from school. In Murdoch's sentencing submission hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday, a letter read by his lawyer Jim Shaw on his behalf said, 'I hate myself for what has gone on', ABC reported. 'I know I've destroyed her [Ms Blackwood's] husband and kids' life. I'm sorry.' The prosecution lawyer argued for a life sentence in prison without parole. But Mr Shaw said Murdoch's guilty plea saved the dead woman's daughters from having to give evidence and that should reduce the sentence. He also claimed the trial could have lasted for two months with 100 witnesses had Murdoch pleaded not guilty. Scott Alan Murdoch, 42, stabbed Kylie Blackwood, 42, multiple times in her Pakenham home, south-east of Melbourne, on August 1, 2013 Scott Murdoch covers his face as he departs the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Monday, February 24 It comes just days after Mrs Blackwood's daughters gave emotional victim impact statements. 'After doing something like that, how could you call yourself a human being?,' one daughter said in the statement, as reported by The Herald Sun. 'I hope you suffer and get what's coming to you. My mother deserves justice,' she said. Her sister said the discovery of her mother's body still haunts her. 'The trauma, the grief will never leave me. My mother never deserved this,' she said. One daughter said she still has terrible nightmares about what happened to her mother. Ms Blackwood is survived by her two daughters, her son and her husband Peter (pictured) It comes just days after Mrs Blackwood's daughters gave emotional victim impact statements after finding their mother (pictured) dead in 2013 The now 17-year-old remembered her mother as a 'beautiful woman' and said it was unfair she has to live without her for the rest of her life. The hearing continues. Australia Could Detain Coronavirus Patients By Phil Mercer March 03, 2020 Australia is preparing to use strict biosecurity laws to force people suspected of carrying the coronavirus into hospitals or into quarantine. People at risk of spreading coronavirus could be detained by police under new laws expected to be introduced into the South Australian state parliament on Tuesday. Coronavirus patients could be forcibly detained in Australia. Under biosecurity laws passed in 2015, the authorities have the power to hold and decontaminate people with the Covid-19 virus and stop them going to sporting events, schools and shopping centers. Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that detaining patients would be a last resort. "I mean, there will be certain circumstances where there are penalties for failing to abide by an order. Detention can occur under the Act but it is rare and very much a last resort and it exists for the types of requirements like compelling someone to stop to a medical facility," he said. Australia has more than 30 verified cases of the disease, but experts believe a mass outbreak is still avoidable. For the first time person-to-person transmission has also been confirmed in two patients in Sydney. Australia's first coronavirus death was recorded at the weekend. The 78-year-old man died more than a week after being put into isolation in hospital in the city of Perth. He had been in quarantine since being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship held in the Japanese port of Yokohama. His wife has tested positive for the covid-19 virus, and is reported to be in a stable condition. Australia has imposed a travel ban on foreigners arriving from Iran because of the outbreak. Similar restrictions have applied to mainland China for more than a month. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Health care has become the framework that defines the broader ideological and stylistic divisions within the Democratic primary a contest between political revolution and Medicare for All vs. bipartisan compromise and a public option. Yes, but: It's kind of a false choice. Passing either of those health care plans would require a knock-down, drag-out party-line brawl just as intense as the fight over the Affordable Care Act. Why it matters: No single issue has highlighted the differences among the Democratic candidates more efficiently or more often than health care, and Medicare for All, specifically. Its more than simple policy differences; in some cases, the policies arent even all that different. It has, instead, become a core extension of each candidates bigger political identity whether they wanted it to or not. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have already clashed over Medicare for All vs. a public option that Biden brands as "building on Obamacare," and that surely will continue after Biden's strong showing last night. Ultimately, though, any Democratic president would run into many of the same brick walls trying to get any of these health care plans passed. The health care industry, led by hospitals, has already poured millions of dollars into ads in key primary states opposing not only Medicare for All, but also a public option and even the narrowest proposals to let some people buy into Medicare. Industry managed to kill a public option in the Affordable Care Act, when Democrats had 60 Senate seats. If they have a majority in 2021, itll likely be razor-thin. My thought bubble: Democrats' health care plans have so far mattered a lot as a prism through which the candidates and their supporters have expressed big-picture principles and their theories of change. The town we love so well was tainted in a critique of the planning and development of provincial Ireland in a recent Sunday Times magazine article. The piece by architect and commentator, Graham Hickey was published in the Culture magazine of the Sunday newspaper and caused a lot of people in Dundalk to stop in their tracks. In the piece, the author wrote how Dundalk town centre is 'rotting to the core' and how the 'grimness of the street scene in Dundalk town centre sums up the decline in our provincial hubs'. Hickey, who writes for many of the leading Irish broadsheets on matters like urban decline, architecture and town centre development, pulled no punches in the piece in criticising planners for many of their decisions to build the Marshes Shopping Centre, with its 'preposterous array of fake period facades, including a Russian winter palace, stuccoed Barbie houses, a colonial courthouse and a Playmobil mansion with feature tower, clad a behemoth modern shed' and describing the new Tesco Extra store on Hill Street as a 'sprawling splodge of vulgar red cladding, slanting roofs and proprietary glazing'. Not since the days of the troubles when Dundalk was described as 'El Paso' by a British newspaper editor has any such article evoked such reaction from townsfolk. Wounded by the article's headline and the opening remarks in the piece many jumped to defend the image of the town, but beyond the incorrect headline and colourful descriptive critique, thee are those who could only agree with the key points put forward. It was unfortunate for Dundalk's image beyond the town boundary, that the author had first hand knowledge of the town and thereby used his experience to base an article about urban development and decline which could apply to many provincial towns in Ireland post the celtic tiger era. During that period towns throughout Ireland developed out of town shopping centres and retail parks and Dundalk was no exception with the Retail Park on the Inner Relief Road, the Northlink Retail Park as well as the Marshes Shopping Centre which spread the town's retail sector further away from its traditional heart. The recession of the last number of years has exacerbated that problem with many small independent retailers closing down and there is no escaping that many units along the town's traditional shopping streets are empty. That is history, many mistakes were made in planning and development but the key now is what to do about the problem, bury our head in the sand, pretend it doesn't exist, whinge about articles such as the one in the Sunday Times which may make uncomfortable reading or find solutions to the issues raised. Those issues, such as out of town development and a fall in population in the town centre cannot be reversed overnight, but a start has to be made somewhere, sometime and soon. It must start with strategic policies about what we want in our town centre, not for tomorrow but for fiveand ten years time. Do we want a town centre that closes at 6pm or still has some life in the evening and at the weekend? In continental towns and cities, families live over shops, this was the case in Ireland many years ago, but as we got wealthier families moved out of their home over the shop to a larger home in the suburbs and the over the shop home became a store or vacant. How do you reverse that trend without support from council or government offering rates rebates to property owners who develop these premises into modern apartments and homes. We cannot knock down the retail parks, but government can develop a policy where future out of town centre retail developments will be restricted if a town centre retail occupancy rate is below a certain level. Our town centres do need a vision for their future to repair the damage of the celtic tiger era. 2 1 of 2 Jill Karnicki, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Jill Karnicki, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less WASHINGTON Mike Siegel, the Austin attorney who nearly unseated U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul in 2018, will compete in a runoff with Austin physician Pritesh Gandhi to decide who gets to challenge the longtime congressman. Siegel and Gandhi, who works as the associate chief medical officer for Peoples Community Clinic, an Austin-based nonprofit that provides health care services primarily to uninsured or underinsured patients, were the No. 1 and No. 2 candidates in Tuesdays primary. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:51:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A leading group of China's COVID-19 response has issued a circular to strengthen care for frontline community workers in the anti-coronavirus battle. An appropriate amount of subsidies will be given to frontline community workers while ensuring their current pay levels, read the circular. Community workers who fall ill or encounter accidents that result in injuries amid the epidemic prevention and control period, and in the meantime fits the work-related injury insurance regulations, should be recognized as "occupational injuries," the circular said. It calls for enhancing the protection for community workers by providing them necessary prevention equipment and facilities. Modern information technology are encouraged to improve the efficiency of prevention and control works in the community, and therefore alleviating burdens on community workers, it said. The document also underlines the physical and psychological health of community workers by requiring giving enough time for them to rest and offering them body checks and psychological counseling after the epidemic period. Pierce Bush, grandson to former President George HW Bush, became the first member of his prominent political family to lose a race for elected office in Texas in over 40 years on Super Tuesday. Two candidates who received more votes than the nonprofit CEO in Texas 22nd congressional district qualified for a runoff election, including Troy Nehls, who secured 40.5 percent of the vote, and Kathaleen Wall, who earned 19.4 percent support with 506 of 508 precincts reporting on Wednesday morning. Both candidates who bested the Republican were vocal supporters of Donald Trump, while Mr Bush whose family has won multiple presidential and gubernatorial elections, as well as bids for state land commissioner captured just 15.4 percent of support. The race was his to lose, with an endorsement from the outgoing Republican incumbent, Pete Olson, who announced his retirement last year. But there were reported concerns about how strongly the conservative backed the presidents agenda among GOP voters who support Mr Trump and his White House administration. Recommended Bernie Sanders releases ad touting ties to Obama after Super Tuesday While Mr Bush may not have pitched the same ardent loyalty to Mr Trump as his opponents, the 34-year-old echoed some of the presidents messaging along the campaign trail, lambasting the Democratic Party and suggesting socialism was threatening to take over the country. We face a very challenging time in our nation, Mr Bush said in announcing his candidacy last year. He said the US was on the brink of losing a generation to an idea that socialism and free stuff are the answers to their future. We all know that socialism has failed everywhere and everyone, he added. Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters Mr Bush, who heads the nonprofit Big Brothers Big Sisters, did not mention Mr Trump during his announcement video, while other candidates vying for the Republican nomination in the district quickly latched onto the presidents agenda. The president visited Texas last year and reportedly introduced George P Bush son of former Texas Governor Jeb Bush, who serves as the state land commissioner at an event by describing him as the only Bush that likes me. However, analysts have said the 22nd district is one of several throughout Texas that has seen significant changes in its demographics over the years, with some signs that it could be up for grabs by either party in 2020. Whoever wins the Republican runoff will then face Sri Kulkarni, who won the districts Democratic congressional primaries on Tuesday, in the general election. Reader praises Mitt Romney To the editor: For weeks, I've been watching this editorial page thinking surely at least one Midland County Republican would write a letter of praise for the courage Mitt Romney showed as the lone senator of his party to oppose the acquittal of President Trump. Mr. Romney has roots in Michigan, so maybe some of his courage to stand for his convictions was developed during his younger years here in Michigan. To think Mr. Trump would accuse him of hiding behind his religion was ridiculous. Anyone who followed the campaign for president in 2012 knew Mr. Romney was a man of faith. He was open about it then and still is. In the future, 21st Century authors will write their own versions of "Profiles in Courage." To be sure, Mitt Romney will be included. BLANCHE STARK Midland Reader concerned about proposed education cuts To the editor: Dear Rep. Moolenaar, You were present at a hearing on Feb. 29 when U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the Trump administration is seeking a reduction of $6 billion, almost 8%, from the FY 2021 Education budget, eliminating programs that serve vulnerable youth, while dedicating $5 billion in tax credits for private school vouchers. President Trump and Betsy DeVos have previously proposed drastic cuts to the Education Budget. The Center for American Progress estimates these proposed cuts would cost the state of Michigan a loss of $79,373,835, which is equivalent to the salaries of 1,276 teachers. Rep. Moolenaar, what is your plan to support public school students and teachers, instead of the interests of those who profit from private charter schools? KATHY MCCREEDY Midland Family thanks Midland Police Department To the editor: The families of Greg and Erika would like to give a heartfelt thank you to the Midland Police Department. On the morning of Feb. 1 at around 8 a.m. their home in town was broken into by a ex-felon. Both Greg and Erika were assaulted, with one going to the emergency room. Due to the quick police response, the assailant was caught in less than four hours, and placed in jail. We sincerely hope no officer was injured in the arrest. Again, thank you to all law enforcement involved in this crime. JOHN CORLEW SR. Midland Google will not host its annual I/O event, but the product launches will go ahead as planned. We expect to see the midranger lineup in two months time, and now we get the first alleged images of the Google Pixel 4a. The front of the phone appears to have a single punch hole in the upper left corner, while the back panel comes with a fingerprint scanner, along with one camera and one LED flash, positioned in on a big square base. Google Pixel 4a Perhaps Google is trying to unify the design across the Pixel 4 family - a relatively big square in the upper left corner of the back. Another reason could be this device is entirely fake and has nothing to do with Google - only time will tell. Sadly, leaked renders from the beginning of 2020 suggest Google is really going for such an appearance. We expect the small device to arrive with a 5.81 panel and given the fingerprint sensor is on the back, the screen will be of the LCD variety. The phone is likely to have a 3.5 mm audio jack on the top and a USB-C port on the bottom, positioned between two speaker grilles. Source Villagers of Armenias Vayots Dzor, Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces are boycotting the upcoming referendum for constitutional amendments, and farmer Tigran Yeghoyan confirmed the news today. According to him, over the past two years, there are 20% more villagers with loans, and all the actions of the government are making the farmers lose hope again. The problems with water supply havent been solved due to the activities of the hydroelectric station, veterinarians still receive low salaries, while ministers are already receiving tremendous amounts of money, and the government isnt raising these issues. Nikol Pashinyan continues to destroy Armenias villages, offend villagers and implement programs for the unification of communities to pursue political goals. Taking into consideration the fact that the villagers dont receive state support, I call on them to boycott the referendum for constitutional amendments, which has served as another occasion for more tension in the villages, he stated. In his turn, former Member of Parliament Lernik Aleksanyan stated that more than half of the problems in the agriculture sector are linked to organization of labor by the State and villagers and that this has been going on for 30 years now. The referendum for making amendments to an article of the Constitution of Armenia is scheduled for April 5. The authorities offer early termination of the powers of 9 members of the Constitutional Court, including the president of the Constitutional Court, referring to them as representatives of the former regime. Almost all political parties, except for the ruling My Step Alliance and former President Levon Ter-Petrosyans Armenian National Congress political party have refused to participate in the referendum. The referendum will succeed, if more than half of voters say YES to the amendments and if there is at least a quarter of voters on the voters list (650,000 people). Tuesday, March 3, marked the largest day of voting in the United States as voters in 14 states cast their votes for the Democratic Party primaries. The states involved are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Presidential candidate Joe Biden emerged winner after winning nine states Texas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Joe Biden is a 77 years old presidential candidate running under the democrats party in the US, he was the 47th vice president of the United States, serving in former president Barack Obamas administration, and a six-term senator from Delaware. Health care, according to The New York Times remains a top priority for him. On the other hand, candidate Bernie Sanders gained victory in three states, his home state Vermont, Utah, and Colorado. Sanders, 78, was the former mayor of Burlington. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 1990 and then elected into the Senate in 2006. In the 2016 Democratic presidential primary he was the runner-up to Hilary Clinton. The New York Times reports that he is a self-described democratic socialist, in that he has never joined the party he hopes to lead. Although no one has been declared victor over California, Mr Sanders is currently taking the lead. Other candidates, senator Elizabeth Warren and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, had poor representation in the primary elections. They, however, still remain in the race. Despite pouring more than half a billion dollars into his campaign, Mr Bloombergs only victory was in Samoa. Mr Bloombergs press secretary, Julie Wood, shared that the poor representation will not end his Democratic nomination bid. As our campaign manager said before the polls closed tonight, any campaign would reassess after tonight, after next week, after any time there was a vote, she said. Mr Bloomberg is the CEO of Bloomberg LP and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies. He has served as a former Wall Street executive and former three-term mayor of New York City (2002-2013). Delegation To win a nomination, candidates need a majority of delegates. A total of 1991 delegates is what it takes to win. NBC News as of 1:44pm on Wednesday, shows Mr Biden with the greatest number of delegates at 453, Mr Sanders at 373, Ms Warren at 39, Pete Buttigieg at 26, Mr Bloomberg at 7, and Tulsi Gabbard at 1. All Bangladeshis casting votes in India are our citizens: Mamata Banerjee India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Kolkata, Mar 04: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said all who came from Bangladesh and have been casting votes in elections were Indian citizens and did not require to apply for citizenship afresh. Banerjee also slammed the Modi government for its handling of the communal riots in Delhi which has claimed 42 lives so far, and asserted she will not allow West Bengal turn into another Delhi. "Those who have come from Bangladesh are citizens of India...they have got citizenship. You don't need to apply for citizenship again. You have been casting your votes in elections, electing PM and CM...now they are saying that you are not citizens...don't believe them," she told a public meeting here. WB: TMC launches new mass outreach campaign 'Banglar Gorbo Mamata' She also asserted she will not let "even a single person" to be driven out of Bengal. The West Bengal chief minister said no refugee living in the state will be deprived of citizenship. NEWS AT 3 PM MARCH 4th, 2020 Hitting out at the central government over the Delhi violence, the TMC boss said,"Don't forget this is Bengal. What happened in Delhi will never be allowed to happen here. We do not want Bengal to turn into another Delhi or another Uttar Pradesh." The BJP has often accused Banerjee of "Muslim appeasement" and pandering to the interests of the minority community for "vote bank politics". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 8:23 [IST] Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - This is a Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015 file photo of actor Daniel Craig poses for the media as he arrives for the German premiere of the James Bond movie 'Spectre' in Berlin, Germany. The release of the James Bond film No Time To Die has been pushed back several months because of global concerns about coronavirus. MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on Twitter Wednesday that the film would be pushed back from its April release to November 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn/File) The release of the James Bond film No Time To Die has been pushed back several months because of global concerns about coronavirus. MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on Twitter Wednesday that the film would be pushed back from its April release to November 2020. The announcement cited consideration of the global theatrical marketplace in the decision to delay the release of the film. No Time To Die will now hit theatres in the U.K. on Nov. 12 and worldwide on Nov. 25. The Bond films make a significant portion of their profits from international markets. The last film, Spectre, made over $679 million from overseas theatres in 2015 with over $84 million of that total coming from China. Concerns had already been brewing around the imminent release and the global outbreak. Publicity plans in China, Japan and South Korea had previously been cancelled. And on Monday, the popular James Bond fan site MI6-HQ published an open letter to the producers urging them to delay the film's rollout. It is time to put public health above marketing release schedules and the cost of cancelling publicity events, the letter said. Hollywood film release and production schedules have already been affected by the outbreak. Last week, Paramount Pictures halted production on the seventh Mission: Impossible film, which had been scheduled to shoot in Venice, Italy. The studio also postponed the Chinese release of Sonic the Hedgehog. The coronavirus outbreak emerged in China and has spread globally. In all, more than 94,000 people have contracted the virus worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths. Ilhan Omar has taken a swipe at Elizabeth Warren, claiming a 'united progressive movement' could have stopped Former Vice President Joe Biden's Super Tuesday success. The congresswoman appeared to question what would have happened if Senator Warren had endorsed Sanders - after Biden scored a surprise win in Minnesota. Warren remained in the race despite failing to win even her own state of Massachusetts and being urged to drop out as #WarrenEndorseBernie trended on Twitter. Minnesota Democrat Omar tweeted that Sanders may have won if the 'progressives consolidated last night like the moderates' did. Ilhan Omar has taken a swipe at Elizabeth Warren as she claims a 'united progressive movement' could have stopped Former Vice President Joe Biden's Super Tuesday success 'Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won?' Omar tweeted on Tuesday night. 'That's what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost.' Biden won nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House candidate in Super Tuesday voting. Sanders seized a victory in California after Biden win state after state in landslides across the nation only for his rival to take the biggest prize of all. Biden staged a dramatic rally in Dallas Monday where he secured high-profile endorsements from former presidential rivals Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O'Rourke. Warren remained in the race despite failing to win a single seat and being urged to drop out as #WarrenEndorseBernie trended on Twitter 'Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won?' Omar tweeted on Tuesday night Just after polls closed at 8pm PST - 11pm EST - the state was called for Sanders, his fourth victory of the night. That left Texas in play and for hours a nail-bitingly close count played out, while huge turnout prompted long lines and polling stations were kept open to deal with backlog. Biden's comeback left the party's rival establishment candidate's campaign for dead. For Mike Bloomberg, a disastrous night appeared to spell the end of a campaign which has burned through $1 billion in three months, leaving him with one victory American Samoa to show for it. The Minnesota Democrat, who endorsed Sanders, called on left-wing candidates to work together following Biden's Super Tuesday success Former Vice President Biden dramatically swept to victory across the country, winning nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House candidate She tweeted that Sanders may have won if the 'progressives consolidated last night like the moderates' did His aides said he was discussing whether to drop out, and he tweeted an ambiguous 'thank you' to supporters saying 'we're more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,' hardly a commitment to stay in the race. For the two frontrunners, Sanders' win in California threatened to upend the narrative of the night being a sensational comeback for Biden. However by the time a third of the vote was in, the state may not have been poised to deliver the kind of resounding win or delegate haul for Sanders that had been forecast. Sanders had a strong lead, with 30 per cent of the vote, with Biden running about 10 points behind. At that point, Sanders, Biden, and Bloomberg all looked to harvest delegates out of the state. A renowned British scientist has suggested people avoid kissing one another during the coronavirus outbreak to prevent transmissions. Speaking at a Westminster debate on Wednesday, Labour peer and Imperial College professor Lord Winston said people should temporarily refrain from the gesture, revealing that someone had tried to kiss him that day. It seems to me that simply not shaking hands is only part of the problem, Lord Winston said. Social kissing seems, to me, something that we should not be doing. Its very easy to do that. Somebody has tried to kiss me twice today and I dont mean in a way that my wife, who might be listening, is concerned. We have to realise we should not be touching our nose, our mouth, our eyes. Lord Winstons advice was reiterated by Conservative peer Lord Bethell, who described kissing as wonderful but potentially dangerous in light of how quickly coronavirus is spreading. We have had detailed conversations about kissing, shaking hands, fist-bumping and all manner of social intercourse, he said. The guidance from the chief medical officer is clear. It is the touching of your own nose that is the real problem. The average person touches their own nose between 70 and 100 times a day. That is why we focus on the message of washing hands. The comments come after a virologist also advised people to refrain from hugging, kissing and shaking hands to prevent contracting coronavirus. Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme last month, Professor John Oxford from Queen Mary University said people could protect themselves from contracting the deadly illness by reducing such physical social interactions. Its a social virus, Oxford said. I think we have to galvanise ourselves in our social actions how we interact with people. And I think that is extremely important; more so than wearing a mask. I think thats a total diversion. What we need to do is less of the handshaking, hugging, kissing, that sort of thing, because this virus looks like its spread by ordinary tidal breathing, not necessarily colds and coughing. To date, there are 51 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and more than 90,000 worldwide. Press Release 4 March 2020 WitWork, a community that transforms cafes, restaurants, and hotels into coworking spaces, has added the Rotana group of hotels to its portfolio. This strategic partnership will introduce several new coworking options to WitWork expansive list of prime venues. Advertisements Featuring over 15 Rotana venues in the United Arab Emirates, WitWorkers will enjoy flexible workspaces in sophisticated lounges, collaboration corners, and superior amenities at these venues. With over 40 coworking spaces in its portfolio spanning into Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah - the addition of Rotana hotels will make WitWork more accessible than ever. WitWorking at Rotana hotels Through forming a strategic partnership with Rotana, WitWorkers can choose from its diverse venues across the UAE. In Dubai, remote workers can go to the Vanilla Lobby Lounge at Al Bandar Rotana and Al Bandar Arjaan by Rotana in Dubai Creek, JB's Gastropub at Amwaj Rotana, C.Mondo at Centro Barsha, Boston at the Jumeirah Rotana, Channels at Media Rotana, Club Rotana Lounge at Rose Rayhaan by Rotana, and Long's at the Towers Rotana. WitWorkers can also choose from 11 coworking spaces at Rotana hotels in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Sharjah too. Commenting on this news, Guy Hutchinson, President & CEO of Rotana said, "Coworking is a growing trend and we are extremely pleased to be associated with WitWork, which presents the right platform for the community of freelancers and the young generation of entrepreneurs. Rotana offers some stunning venues and meeting rooms across its hotels and resorts and having those spaces available for WitWorkers will certainly benefit both parties and will allow us to bring in the footfall to our hotels. Our association is starting with the UAE and will soon be expanded to other countries across the region." WitWork - Anytime, anywhere Encouraging its members to "leave the office behind" - WitWork has unleashed a revolutionary change in the UAE's coworking community. Offering affordable membership packages, exclusive perks, special F&B discounts, bottomless coffee, and flexible options to its members, WitWork's clientele is a rapidly growing society of freelancers, startups, and digital nomads. "We are thrilled about this partnership with Rotana. It is another leading title in our portfolio, and we know our WitWorkers are going to love it. Coworking is a worldwide trend, that has been enthusiastically adopted in the UAE. With Rotana joining forces with us, our members will have access to a vast network of luxurious coworking spaces across the region. This collaboration is the result of WitWork's continuing effort to make its coworking spaces as central and accessible as possible," says Cynthia Rif, co-founder of WitWork. Becoming a WitWorker First-timers can give it a try with an AED 40 WitWalk day pass. The membership packages include WitWeek at AED 175, WitWorm at AED 400 per month, and WitWork at AED 1,000 per quarter. In addition to free coffee, high-speed wifi, 24/7 parking - WitPerks also include a discount on meeting room bookings, Food & Beverage, insider discounts, and various community and networking events and seminars. Digital workers can sign up for a membership at www.witwork.co Italy has not yet decided whether to close schools and universities over the novel coronavirus, Minister Lucia Azzolina said on Tuesday, after ANSA and other Italian agencies said they will be shut until mid-March. Azzolina came out of a government meeting where new measures were being discussed by top ministers to explain that a final ruling on schools and universities will come "in the next hours". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [March 04, 2020] Finance Professionals Focusing on Innovation and Adaptability in 2020 DENVER, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global cloud-based monetization and billing solution provider, BillingPlatform , today announced the results of its 2020 Trends in Finance study. Over 300 finance vice presidents or directors in US companies with at least $50 million in annual revenue participated in the survey. A key takeaway from the BillingPlatform research was that finance professionals are focusing on new ways to add value to their organizations. With a strong stock market, jobs growth, and few signs of slowdown in the economy, always-cautious finance professionals continue to look for ways to adapt and innovate. Among their areas of focus for 2020 are product development, business model changes, systems, and staffing. "The findings of our study are consistent with what our customers are telling us," said Dennis Wall, CEO of BillingPlatform. "The Finance function is a major contributor in generating new sources of revenue. Often these revenue sources come through new products and technology, but finance professionals know that new business models can contribute as well. BillingPlatform is eager to partner with these disruptive enterprises, providing a solution that enhances innovative business strategies while maintaining control over financial processes." Following are some of the study's highlights: CFOs are Seeking Innovative Ways to Bring in New Revenue Finance professionals surveyed by BillingPlatform indicated they are launching new products and services to increase market mix (60%), and 35% said they will leverage recurring or consumption-based billing to offer more attractive pricing on new products/services. They will have to overcome system constraints (23%), system cnsolidation (22%), and the transition of IT infrastructure (18%) to accomplish these goals. Companies are Trying to Squeeze More Value from the Same Resources Accomplishing more with the same or fewer resources is the highest priority challenge (18%) facing finance teams in 2020. Finance professionals are addressing this challenge by identifying ways to drive higher revenue through new products or services and reducing operating costs or capital investments (17%). They're also investing in cloud technologies as part of a broader digital transformation effort (11%), and automating through AI or robotics (10%). Finance Departments are Focusing on Tech Skills in Staffing Plans Only 45% of survey respondents said they're in great shape when it comes to their current team's skill as they head into 2020, while 55% said they were in anywhere from okay to bad shape. Hiring workers with technical experience is a focal point, with 26% of respondents indicating that support for digital capabilities and advanced analytics are the most important job skills for new hires on finance teams. Regulatory Concerns Remain at the Forefront for Finance Departments Despite being nearly 20 years old, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 remains a focus for finance professionals. Of those surveyed, 19% said the act, which set new or expanded requirements for all US public company boards, management, and public accounting firms, has been the most challenging regulatory change over the past three years. Curiously, 35% of respondents said this regulation was challenging to their departments because they had underestimated its impact. Meanwhile, Basel II/Basel III, a regulatory framework issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, was the second most challenging regulation, cited by 13% of survey respondents. Cybersecurity is a Major Concern, and Many Finance Pros Aren't Prepared 39% of survey respondents said cybersecurity is among their top concerns/risks. Making matters worse, only 33% of finance professionals said they were in great shape to handle cybersecurity issues. Finance professionals believe awareness is key to addressing the cybersecurity problem. Staff education on potential scams is a focus for 37% of respondents, and 30% said they would talk to the CEO and other leadership about the potential financial impact of cybersecurity issues. To access the complete BillingPlatform 2020 Trends in Finance study, go here. About BillingPlatform BillingPlatform's agile billing software solution gives innovative enterprises the freedom to effectively monetize and deliver creative products and services resulting in growth and competitive differentiation. This inventive, cloud-based platform adapts to every unique business model and pricing structure. BillingPlatform provides the most complete solution available including billing, revenue recognition, reporting, and other critical financial functions. With global customers across multiple industries including communications, transportation, manufacturing, banking, technology, energy, media, and software BillingPlatform processes billions of transactions and billions of dollars every year, enabling enterprises to grow revenue, reduce costs, and improve overall customer experience. To learn more visit https://billingplatform.com/ . Press Contact: Jeannie Zaemes BillingPlatform [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/finance-professionals-focusing-on-innovation-and-adaptability-in-2020-301016557.html SOURCE BillingPlatform [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The once-crowded race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States has narrowed into a battle between two men. It is widely expected that either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders will face President Donald Trump, a Republican, in the 2020 election. Former Vice President Joe Biden won 10 American states in voting on Super Tuesday, including a surprising victory over Bernie Sanders in Texas. Biden won all the southern states along with Minnesota in the midwest and Massachusetts in the northeast. But Senator Bernie Sanders won the state with the most delegates, California. Sanders also won in the western states of Colorado and Utah and his home state of Vermont. Sanders was considered a heavy favorite to win most of the delegates on Super Tuesday. However, after Biden won the recent primary in South Carolina, several other former candidates announced their support for him. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was the most recent to do so. He ended his brief campaign on Wednesday after poor results on Super Tuesday. The billionaire businessman spent more than $500 million of his own money to buy advertising and set up campaign organizations across the states. His effort resulted in one victory in the territory of American Samoa. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren did not win a single state. She came in third even in the state she represents. It could take weeks or months before Sanders or Biden can earn enough delegates to win the nomination. On March 4, the Associated Press estimated that Biden is leading the race with 566 delegates and Sanders is close behind with 500. A candidate will need 1,991 delegates in order to win the Democratic Party nomination for president. Bernie Sanders The 78-year-old Sanders began his political career as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. In 1990, voters in that state elected him to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Speaking from Vermont on Super Tuesday, Sanders said, "You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics. He added, What we need is a new politics that brings working class people into our political movement, which brings young people into our political movement, and which in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history. Sanders often describes himself as a democratic socialist. He has called for free college education for Americans and cancellation of current student loan debts. He wants the government to provide more money to needy seniors and people with disabilities. He also promises to seek free healthcare for everyone in America and supports the Green New Deal proposal to replace fossil fuels with reusable energy. Many young people and working-class Americans support Sanders because of his positions on these issues. Critics question how Sanders will find the money to pay for his plans. Joe Biden The 77-year-old Joe Biden often reminds supporters of his own working-class family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. At the age of 29, he became a U.S. Senator from the state of Delaware and later served for two terms as vice-president under Barack Obama. In his third try for the presidency, Biden describes his campaign as a battle for the soul of America. He says, Its time to treat each other with dignity. Build a middle class that works for everybody. Fight back against the incredible abuses of power were seeing. Biden often criticizes Trumps actions and comments. The former vice president calls for respected leadership on the world stage and dignified leadership at home. On Tuesday night, American broadcaster CNN reported that primary voters in Virginia and North Carolina said it was more important to choose a candidate who could beat Trump than one who would agree with them on issues. Biden won both states. "I'm here to report we are very much alive," Biden said at a campaign gathering in Los Angeles, California, Tuesday night. And Donald Trump For his part, Trump has commented almost daily about the Democratic race. He calls Sanders "Crazy Bernie," and Biden Sleepy Joe. As Democrats went to vote on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, "Whoever it is, I don't care. We'll take them on. The president then added that there was "no question the Democratic establishment is trying to take it away from Sanders. No question in my mind." I'm Jonathan Evans. And I'm Jill Robbins. Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story primary - n. an election in which members of the same political party run against each other for the chance to run in the larger general election senior - n. an older person working class - n. the class of people who are working to earn money and who are not rich or powerful soul - n. the central or most important part of something that makes it effective, valuable, etc. dignity - n. the quality of being worthy of honor and respect incredible - adj. difficult or impossible to believe stage - n. a place or area of activity that is of great interest to people FARGO, N.D. - Three attorneys who conducted an investigation into clergy sex abuse said Wednesday the North Dakota Legislature should open up the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits and demanded that the states two Roman Catholic dioceses release more files on accused priests. The Fargo and Bismarck dioceses in January released a list of 53 clergy members with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, but it did not include the assignment histories that were compiled and released Wednesday by attorneys Michael Bryant, Tatum OBrien and Tim OKeeffe. The lawyers said they hope their findings will help lay out timelines and encourage victims to come forward. I think that its really important for our victims to know and really important for the public to know where these priests were located at different times, said OKeeffe of Fargo. Obviously its a very private issue for the victims. Its a tough thing to talk about. The dioceses said in a statement they have permitted the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation to review the files for their deacons, priests and bishops, and said its investigation is almost complete. The dioceses are confident that this external review will confirm that they have no clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor remaining in ministry, and that they have had no substantiated allegations of any clerics sexual abuse of a minor for almost 20 years, the dioceses statement said. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem told The Associated Press the decision by the dioceses to open up their files speaks well of at least their present commitment to do the right thing. The lawyers also called for North Dakota to follow the path of several states that have passed laws creating a window for civil lawsuits on child sex abuse cases against churches and other institutions, in most instances for one or two years. Stenehjem, who led an effort to extend the statute of limitations on criminal cases of sexual abuse, said he would help promote that idea to lawmakers. The attorneys said the suits are about more than money because it could help victims get the emotional help they need and hold abusive priests accountable. I dont think this list is complete and theres other names that should be on it, said Bryant of Waite Park, Minnesota. Really, its about finding out whos still alive and whos still out there as a threat to the kids. "As I said on Friday, with the caveat that the video obviously doesnt tell you everything that happened, what I saw was concerning from the tactical issues before the shooting but the shooting itself and the circumstances that led to the use of lethal force," Lightfoot said. "Ive been following closely but I want to make sure the COPA investigation is thorough but expedited. Major Bay Area employers are telling employees to work from home to lessen the chance of spreading the new coronavirus, a concern that is growing among their workforces after an Amazon employee in Seattle tested positive for the virus. Microsoft is encouraging employees in the Bay Area and Washington state to work from home through Monday. The Redmond, Wash.-headquartered company has thousands of employees spread across multiple Bay Area campuses. On Monday, Twitter urged its roughly 5,000 global employees to work from home and made it mandatory in parts of Asia. The San Francisco payment processor Square also encouraged workers to work remotely. JPMorgan, the biggest American bank by assets, is having about 10% of its employees work from home, Bloomberg reported. It has nearly 3,000 employees in the Bay Area. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropy backed by doctor and educator Priscilla Chan and her husband, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said one of its workers was exposed to coronavirus recently. The Redwood City organization ordered employees to work from home this week while it engaged in a deep clean of all facilities, it said. The policy changes show a more aggressive stance to lessen contact between workers, even in areas with little or no cases of the virus. No cases have been reported as originating in San Francisco to date. Companies previously restricted travel and canceled conferences as the outbreak worsened. At the same time, tech companies with communication products are pitching them as a solution to staying productive when workers arent at the office. Microsoft is offering a six-month trial to other companies for the premium version of its Teams business chat app, which offers more storage than a free version. Google said it would give all customers of its G Suite business service videoconferencing access for up to 250 participants and video streaming for up to 100,000 people. It typically charges $25 a month per user for that many participants, along with $6 and $12 per month options for fewer participants. Google also told most employees to work from home instead of at its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, after a worker reported flu-like symptoms. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Jack Dorsey, CEO of both Twitter and Square, said Twitter had its first virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday using Google and Slack products. We had folks all around the world working from home, and some in our offices. Worked flawlessly, and enabled some things that werent possible before, Dorsey posted on Twitter. The California Independent System Operator, the state's main electrical grid operator, has restricted in-person meetings and will use teleconferencing or web meetings whenever possible. The nonprofit is headquartered in Folsom (Sacramento County). Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com By SA Commercial Prop News Telkom has tasked auction firm GoIndustry Dovebid to conduct the online auction for the 53 properties. Telecommunications provider Telkom has partnered with GoIndustry Dovebid SA to dispose of 53 properties on auction. The portfolio includes land, commercial and industrial buildings across South Africa. Bidding opens on 13 March and closes on 18 March 2020. Properties comprise vacant land, double-storey and single-storey buildings. The semi-privatised state owned entity said in a statement that it has been undergoing a process of modernising the network for some time. For on the Auction, Click here to view the list of the Properties. Telkom has been systematically selling off its properties over the past six years and has tasked auction firm GoIndustry Dovebid SA to conduct the online auction. Speaking to SA Commercial Prop News, Kim Faclier, MD of Property for GoIndustry Dovebid, part of Liquidity Services, said they have been working with Telkom since 2013 and are looking forward to another auction. "We handled more than 20 auctions for Telkom around South Africa for the past few years with resounding results," she said. The majority of the properties are in Gauteng which totals to 15, they include agricultural, commercial, and industrial zoned properties and are further divided into eight properties in Western Cape, three in Mpumalanga, five in KZN, one in Free State, eight in Limpopo, three in Mpumalanga, six in North West, two in Northern Cape, five in Eastern Cape. Telkoms 2019 integrated report shows that the company had an in-house portfolio of 1 332 properties by the end of March last year. But the company indicated that it was in the process of disposing non-core properties. For on the Auction, Call 0860 00 00 10. Email: sa.sales@go-dove.com or sa.sales@liquidityservices.com Click here to view the list of the Properties India is preparing to set up a make-shift laboratory in Iran to test 1,200 of its citizens stuck in the country before evacuating them, officials said on Wednesday. Those stranded in Iran are mostly students and pilgrims. Four scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research have reached Tehran, the Iranian capital, with equipment and testing kits to facilitate mandatory testing before the people board a plane to India. We are in touch with the Iran government, and are looking at the feasibility of setting up a lab there and arranging other logistics to be able to bring these people back. The local government there is already under pressure because of the increase in cases there, so its largely upon us to bring our people back. We have put a strategy in place to see how it can be managed smoothly, said Union health minister Harsh Vardhan. Cases in Iran are increasing rapidly so we have to be extra careful with the process, said the minister. It should take about 4-5 days before we get to know whether we will be able to test these people. Iran is dealing with a high case load itself so they are testing their own people on priority. We have the capacity to test, and we are ensuring that is done, but it will finally depend on local conditions, said a senior health ministry official, who did not wish to be named. India has so far evacuated 881 people in batches from the outbreak city of Wuhan in China and Japan. In the first batch, a total of 645 people were evacuated from Wuhan on February 1 and 2, and were housed at two quarantine facilities at the Indian Army-run camp in Haryanas Manesar and Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)-run Chhawla camp in the outskirts of Delhi. The ITBP facility had housed 406 people, mostly families and women and seven Maldivian nationals; and the remaining people were quarantined at the Manesar facility for 15 days. Another batch of Indians and other foreign nationals were evacuated from Wuhan and Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan on February 26. Three Chinese women, who are married to Indians and their three children, are among 36 foreign nationals evacuated with 76 Indians from the outbreak city of Wuhan, China, and placed under 14 day quarantine in the ITBPs Chhawla facility. Apart from the Chinese nationals, the foreigners in the Chhawla camp are from Bangladesh (23), Myanmar (2), Maldives (2), Madagascar (1), South Africa (1) and United States (1). These people were evacuated on an Indian Air Force plane. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON People of Kashmir heaved a sigh of relief as a ban on social media was lifted by the Jammu and Kashmir authorities on Wednesday. "Finally, we can connect with the rest of the world without using virtual private networks (VPNs)," Sajad Ahmad, a Srinagar resident, told PTI. Removing the ban on social media platforms, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday allowed access to all web sites on 2G mobile data services and fixed line internet in the Union Territory till March 17. There was disbelief among some netizens about the sudden restoration of access to social media applications and sites. "I do not know what has changed in the past few months that the government has lifted the ban. The ban in the first place was misplaced and unnecessary," Naveed Anjum, a software programmer, said. Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, also commented on the development. "Seems like J&K admin finally realised futility of ban on SM since Kashmiris circumvented it through VPNs. Simply became a cat & mouse chase where Kashmiris outwitted state apparatus i.e. Big Brother," she tweeted from her mother's Twitter handle. Earlier, only access to white-listed sites was allowed as the service was restored for a week on January 25 and subsequently extended from time to time, after being snapped on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status to the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories. The ban, however, was largely ineffective as people resorted to use of VPNs to bypass the curbs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Municipal League (IML) on Monday unveiled its Moving Cities Forward agenda which includes efforts to remove unfunded mandates on municipalities, protect local governments from lawsuits resulting from data breach and give non-home rule communities greater authority to tax and greater access to financially-distressed cities assistance. Its top priority is for full funding of the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) currently funded below statutory levels, according to IML Executive Director Brad Cole. City leaders from throughout the state understand the need for shared sacrifice in addressing the states budget woes, Cole said. However, municipal share of that sacrifice continues to grow and negatively impact the communities that provide for the health, safety and welfare of the residents. In two budget scenarios laid out by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month, the LGDF fund would be funded at either 95 percent or 90 percent of statutory levels for the fiscal year that begins July 1, depending upon the Nov. 3 vote on a constitutional amendment imposing a graduated income tax rate structure. Pritzkers budget leaves $1.4 billion in state spending authority in reserve, including $79 million to the LGDF, if the graduated tax amendment does not gain approval. Should it pass, an already-approved graduated rate structure would take effect and make the added spending authority possible, according to Pritzkers budget team. The group is also backing legislation to reinstate the original statutory requirement of 10 percent of income tax contributions to LGDF. Municipalities receive a prorated portion of 5.8 percent of personal income tax revenues and 6.5 percent of corporate tax revenues. It also announced backing for measures to increase the ability of non-home rule municipalities to levy certain taxes. Home rule is a status state law confers to any municipality with more than 25,000 residents or other municipalities that choose to adopt it by referendum giving them greater authority to control their own local affairs. According to IML, 217 of Illinois 1,298 incorporated municipalities including Alton, Edwardsville, Granite City and Collinsville have home rule powers. The IML is backing House Bill 5070 which would allow municipalities to impose a local sales tax up to 1 percent via an ordinance, rather than requiring the municipality to put the issue before voters in the form of a referendum. The group also supports Senate Bill 2978, which would allow non-home rule municipalities outside of Cook County to charge a local motor fuel tax of up to 3 cents per gallon. House Bill 825 is also on the agenda. It allows non-home rule municipalities to levy storm water utility charges to offset the cost of owning, maintaining, and improving local storm water infrastructure. Providing public safety services, improving municipal infrastructure and attracting and retaining economic development are issues of importance to every municipality, home rule status aside, Cole said. Yet state law hampers the ability of non-home rule communities to address these important issues. IML members also stumped for the elimination of a fee charged for the states administration of locally-imposed sales taxes. In Illinois, only the Department of Revenue is allowed to collect certain locally imposed sales taxes, and they then distribute them to the local government, said Cathy Adduci, mayor of suburban River Forest and vice president of IML. In fiscal year 2018, Adduci said, the state arbitrarily imposed a 2 percent fee for its collection and remittance efforts. In fiscal year 2019, it decreased that fee to 1.5 percent, which Adduci said shifted $45 million back to local governments. He, along with the group, also urged opening up of the states financially distressed cities law to non-home rule municipalities. That program makes cities in both the top 5 percent of aggregate property tax rate and bottom 5 percent in per capita tax yield eligible for state assistance. Adduci also addressed a bill supported by the IML to remove the liability of municipalities if they fall victim to cyberattacks. MBABANE - Nondumiso Dlamini is the new Miss Eswatini. Nondumiso has been left to attend to Miss Eswatini duties as the now former queen, Nosipho Dlamini, left the country for three years to study in Taichung, Taiwan at Providence University. Nosipho left last week. Nosiphos departure follows the second princess Sandra Mbhamali-Gamas resignation after she got married last year. It is worth noting that Gama resigned from the pageant before she got married, excusing herself from any duties. On the other hand, Nosipho has been officially removed as Miss Eswatini after she left for university. Meaning, currently, Nondumiso is the only active beauty queen under Miss Eswatini. Nondumiso is expected to carry out Nosiphos duties and crown the new queen in a few months. The mentioned three were crowned in an elegant and shimmery event on September 18, 2018 at the Royal Swazi Spa Convention Centre in Ezulwini. confirmed Nondumiso confirmed that she was the only active one in the pageant and said it felt normal. Nothing has really changed except that I have to do all the work by myself. I still receive the same support and that makes everything easy, said Nondumiso. She also said no duties had been added to what she had been doing in the past. When asked if she was geared for this change she said she was not. None of this was planned-life happened. I had no choice but to accept it without any complaints and be grateful for the growth, she said. Eswatini Pageants President Catriene Potgieter confirmed that Nondumiso was now Miss Eswatini. With Nosipho gone, Nondumiso is now the queen. She will be on the throne for the next few months until the new queen is crowned, she said. She highlighted that Nosipho was no longer the queen by virtue of not being in the country. When sought for comment, Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) CEO Stanley Dlaminis phone rang unanswered until we went to print. 1. Its Super Tuesday, the biggest Election Day on the Democrats primary calendar, with 14 states and one territory casting their ballots. Well have live results all night. Bernie Sanders is positioned strongly across the map. But his top rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is on the hottest stretch of his campaign. Todays voting includes the two states that award the most delegates California and Texas as well as several critical swing states. Here are six of the most interesting battlegrounds. Burma Myanmar Parliament to Vote on Proposed Constitutional Amendments Next Week Virus-wary military lawmakers attend the Union Parliament session on March 4 wearing face masks amid fears of the spread of coronavirus. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGONMyanmars Union Parliament will begin deciding whether to accept proposed changes to the undemocratic provisions of the Constitution on March 10, Speaker T Khun Myat announced on Wednesday. The announcement was made on the sixth day of often-heated parliamentary debate over the constitutional amendment proposals. Since Feb. 25, dozens of parliamentarians have been discussing amendment proposals submitted by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic parties, as well as those submitted by the unelected military lawmakers and their allied Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmakers. During the discussions, the military appointees and USDP lawmakers have raised strong objections to the NLD and ethnic parties proposals, in particular those that seek to reduce the roles of the military and its commander-in-chief in politics. While it is unknown how long the balloting will take, the vote will conclude a yearlong process, launched by the NLD in a bid to reform the military-drafted charter. The military has rejected the NLDs charter-reform process as unconstitutional from the outset. Under the current Constitution, any proposed amendment requires the approval of more than 75 percent of lawmakers to pass. As 25 percent of lawmakers are appointed by the military, not a single amendment can pass without at least some support from military lawmakers. While announcing the Parliaments schedule for voting on the proposed constitutional amendments, Speaker T Khun Myat called on lawmakers to work together to finish the process successfully. I hope everyone will follow parliaments laws and by-laws to finish the process successfully, he said. You may also like these stories: Kachin State Inks Border Business Park Deal With China-Myanmar Joint Venture This Week in Parliament Myanmar Parliament Speaker to MPs: Act Civil or Face Lawsuits Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 05:35:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday said over 50,000 migrants have voluntarily returned to their countries of origin from Libya since 2015. "Over 50,000 migrants received IOM Libya's Voluntary Humanitarian Return Assistance since 2015. The Voluntary Humanitarian Return flights continued to assist hundreds of people every month despite security challenges," IOM said. "Migrants voluntarily returned to 44 countries of origins across Africa and Asia. Prior to their departure, all migrants received medical screening to assess their fitness to travel," IOM added. Returnees are eligible to receive IOM's reintegration assistance once they arrive home, including vocational training and economic support, the organization said. The IOM runs the Voluntary Humanitarian Return program, which arranges the return of illegal immigrants stranded in Libya to their countries of origin. There are more than 650,000 illegal immigrants currently staying in Libya, including about 6,000 being held in detention centers, the IOM estimated. These illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe from Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled the late leader Muammar Gaddafi. The demonstration in Ala-Too square had started with 2 thousand people demanding the release of a jailed deputy . Government accused of collusion with foreign investors bent on the exploitation of the country's natural resources. Protesters from other regions come together. All available law enforcement agencies mobilised. Bishkek (AsiaNews) - A demonstration calling for the release of ex-deputy Sadyr Japarov was organized on March 2 in the Kyrgyz capital. The rally - which was attended by over 2 thousand people - ended with strong clashes between demonstrators and the police, following which 166 people were detained and 4 arrested. In addition to Japarov's release, the protesters presented a list of 20 requests to the authorities, effectively calling for regime change and free elections. The center of Bishkek is controlled by the army with armored vehicles, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rallies, and above all to avoid the assault on the White House, seat of the Kyrgyz government. The demonstration in Ala-Too square (see photo) had started with the cry "Freedom for Japarov!", And according to one of the organizers, the deputy Kanybek Osmonaliev, "after Japarov's release the movement in support of him will be dissolved" . He recalled that supporters of the ex-deputy appealed to President Sooronbai Jeenbekov many times without receiving an answer, and therefore decided to take to the streets. Sadyr Japarov was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in a lobor camp for organizing a rally in Karakol in 2013, and also taking a person hostage. The sentence was reduced to 10 years by the Kyrgyz Supreme Court, and the request for pardon was rejected by President Jeenbekov. The protesters asked for a personal meeting with the president, but could only speak with a presidential official, Sajakbaj Subanov, who explained that a special commission is at work on the Japarov issue, and conclusions are expected in days. The crowd did not accept the explanation, despite the appeals for moderation from Japarov himself, published on social media by his lawyer. He himself said he "fears the provocateurs", which could lead to extreme consequences. In fact, the demonstration soon turned into an attempted coup d'etat, with the request to hold new and free elections within the year, to subject the institutions to population control, starting with the government's resignation en masse. The initiative was taken by the ex-speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Murak Chollonbaev, who accused the government of collusion with foreign investors interested in exploiting the country's natural resources. Protesters from other regions of the country were added to the inhabitants of Bishkek, through appeals published on social networks. Law enforcement officers in turn summoned all available forces, including 2,000 sportsmen enlisted as an order service. The protesters are unlikely to overthrow the government and carry out a real coup d'etat, also due to the intolerance of the majority of the population for the constant unrest, but new demonstrations are expected in the coming weeks. (V.R.) Following the U.S. airstrike Wednesday, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the group is committed to act on all parts of the deal one by one to control the intensity of war. He added: The opposite side should also remove the hurdles in the deal to pave the way for complete peace. National Disease Control Chief refuses to clarify Phuket coronavirus report PHUKET: The Deputy Director-General of the national Department of Disease Control (DDC) Dr Kajohnsak Kaewjarus, flew to Phuket from Bangkok today only to refuse to confirm or deny whether a Chinese tourist in Phuket had contracted the COVID-19 coronavirus as confirmed by a report issued by the DDC last month. COVID-19CoronavirushealthChinese By The Phuket News Wednesday 4 March 2020, 07:32PM The DDC reports on pink letterheads were unreliable and had yet to be clarified and confirmed, Dr Kajohnsak said. Image: DDC Patient No 26 is marked as being placed in isolation at Vachira Phuket Hospital and confirmed by laboratory test as positive for COVID-19. Image: DDC Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control (DDC) Dr Kajohnsak Kaewjarus flew from Bangkok to face the press in Phuket today and still refused to confirm whether or not the Chinese national in Phuket had tested positive for COVID-19. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control (DDC) Dr Kajohnsak Kaewjarus flew from Bangkok to face the press in Phuket today and still refused to confirm whether or not the Chinese national in Phuket had tested positive for COVID-19. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot Dr Kajohnsak today (Mar 4) instead would only say that the information in the report was unreliable. He would not elaborate on which parts of the report were considered accurate. The report had been uploaded online by the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, but was later pulled down. Copies of the report posted online since the beginning of the week have since gone viral on Thai social media. The 11-page report marked as issued on Feb 12, Day 40 since MoPH began its virus-prevention campaign lists 33 patients confirmed as infected with COVID-19. Patient No 26 on the list is reported as a Chinese national, 35 years old, who on Feb 3 presented him or herself at a private hospital and was later isolated at Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town. Patient No 26 was reported as having a body temperature of 37.7C and a sore throat. In the reports column marked Result of laboratory test, Patient No 26, like all 32 others in the list, is marked: Coronavirus family: Detected Dr Kajohnsak said he had checked the report himself and confirmed it was a genuine report issued by the DDC. But the information inside this document is not reliable because it needs to clarified and updated before we publish it on our website, he said. Dr Kajohnsak said that the report, featured on official DDC letterhead with a pink background, included unfinished information. Reports with pink letterheads are not reliable to publish, he said. The DDC posts official daily Situation Updates (click here) and daily News Release Updates (click here) with blue letterheads, which Dr Kajohnsak explained were the reliable final versions. Of note, however, is that the pink letterhead report now leaked to the public contains listed information on the patients who apparently had already tested positive for the virus. None of the finalised blue reports issued to the public have ever included that information. As for the leaked pink report for Feb 12, the unreliable report includes all the exact same information as featured in the final blue report for Feb 12 except that the blue report features no information at all about any of the patients in Thailand who have tested positive for the virus. Asked specifically whether patient No 26 had tested positive for the virus, now that Dr Kajohnsak said that he himself had checked the report, the DDC Deputy Director refused to answer. He also refused to confirm whether any persons in Phuket had been confirmed as infected with the virus. I admit that there are Patients Under Investigation [PUI] at Vachira Phuket Hospital who are suspected of being having the virus, he said, while declining to confirm exactly how many people at the hospital were under investigation. During his visit to Vachira hospital today, Dr Kajohnsak toured the facilities and gave his encouragement to staff working at the hospital. Meanwhile, Rewat Areerob, assistant secretary to Deputy Public Health Minister, told The Phuket News, Thank you I will present this to the Public Health Minister soon to prove clearly what is true and what is false about the report. Dr Kajohnsaks visit today follows Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol yesterday taking reporters on a tour of the facilities at the hospital in response to a formal complaint accusing the hospital director of not taking appropriate measures to counter the spread of the coronavirus. The complaint, filed with Phuket City Police on Sunday, was filed by two doctors, including one who works at the hospital, Dr Chalermpong confirmed. Phuket City Police Chief Col Teerawat Liamsuwan confirmed to The Phuket News that the complaint was genuine, but declined to offer any further details, or a copy of the complaint. However, Col Teerawat did volunteer, This case also has been reported to the National Anti-Corruption Commission [NACC]. (See story here.) The offshore wind farm is being developed by the company Les Eoliennes en Mer d'Ile d'Yeu et Noirmoutier which was awarded around 500 MW capacity production by the French government. RTE, the French transmission system operator appointed by the French government, will design, build, maintain and operate the two 225 kV links (submarine and land) to connect the offshore wind farm to the grid. The offshore wind grid connection project will be able to export 500 MW of green and renewable energy, covering a submarine cable route of around 27 km and an underground cable route of around 30 km. Prysmian will provide its comprehensive turn-key approach for the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of two HVAC 225 kV three-core extruded export submarine cables with single-wire armouring which will reach the landfall area at La Barre-de-Monts beach. Prysmian will be also responsible for the supply and jointing of two HVAC 225 kV extruded land cables circuits that will link the landfall area to the substation at Soullans. Submarine cables will be produced at Prysmian's centres of excellence in Pikkala (Finland) and Arco Felice (Italy), while land cables will be manufactured in Gron (France). Installation operations will be performed by the Cable Enterprise, one of the three Group's state-of-the-art cable laying vessels. Delivery and commissioning are scheduled for 2023, conditional upon the receiving of the notice to proceed expected by March 2020 as regard the preliminary studies, and by June 2020 for the overall project. "We are proud to be contributing to the development of infrastructures of such great strategic importance," stated Hakan Ozmen, EVP, Projects Business Unit, Prysmian Group. "This contract not only consolidates our relationship with RTE, but also confirms Prysmian's worldwide leadership in addressing the increasing need for upgraded power grids to support the energy transition," concluded Ozmen. Prysmian is already playing an important role in providing RTE or other customers with efficient and sustainable power transmission solutions, having recently been involved in key projects in France like Fecamp, Courseulles-sur-Mer and St. Nazaire offshore wind farms and the Provence Grand Large floating offshore wind farm (awarded by EDF Renewables), in addition to the IFA2 interconnection linking the UK and France, the Piedmont-Savoy interconnection between Italy and France, and the INELFE interconnection linking Spain (Santa Llogaia) and France (Baixas). Prysmian Group Prysmian Group is world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry. With almost 140 years of experience, sales exceeding 11 billion, about 29,000 employees in over 50 countries and 112 plants, the Group is strongly positioned in high-tech markets and offers the widest possible range of products, services, technologies and know-how. It operates in the businesses of underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, of special cables for applications in many different industries and of medium and low voltage cables for the construction and infrastructure sectors. For the telecommunications industry, the Group manufactures cables and accessories for voice, video and data transmission, offering a comprehensive range of optical fibres, optical and copper cables and connectivity systems. Prysmian is a public company, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in the FTSE MIB index. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099476/Cable_Enterprise_vessel.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/888331/Prysmian_Group_Logo.jpg Media Relations Lorenzo Caruso Corporate and Business Communications Director Ph. +39-02-6449-1 [email protected] Investor Relations Cristina Bifulco Investor Relations Director Ph. +39-02-6449-1 [email protected] SOURCE Prysmain S.p.A Related Links https://www.prysmiangroup.com/ Parkrose High School crowned Brenda Ortegon Briceno as its 2020 Portland Rose Festival Court princess Tuesday during an assembly at the school. Born in Yucatan, Mexico, Brenda Ortegon Briceno is the daughter of Patricio Ortegon and Yolanda Briceno. A junior, she plans to focus on the sciences in college, according to the Portland Rose Festival. At Parkrose, shes involved in National Honors Society, MECHA, College Possible and the swim team. Each year, the Portland Rose Festival names up to 15 young women to its court. They receive one-on-one mentorship from women executives and a $3,500 scholarship provided by The Randall Group. Beginning the first week of May, the court travels together for five weeks, visiting community events, senior living centers, youth organizations and more. David Douglas kicked things off with its Rose Festival Court ceremony Friday and Cleveland High crowned junior Zoey Weesner on Monday. The process continues Wednesday, when the Metro East and West princesses will be announced, and will be complete March 20, when St. Marys Academy crowns its princess. The queen of the Rose Festival Court will be named June 6 just before the Grand Floral Parade takes to Portland streets. More about Parkroses princess, Brenda Ortegon Briceno, as told to the Portland Rose Festival. Brenda Ortegon Briceno was named as Parkrose High School's 2020 Portland Rose Festival Court princess Tuesday, March 3, during an assembly at the school. Seniors Haley Chang and Jhaylynne Doctolero were also candidates.Portland Rose Festival High School Activities & Honors: She is involved in NHS, MECHA, College Possible, and the swim team. She was awarded sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade Academic Excellence Awards, Most Inspirational Girl Swimmer Award and multiple attendance awards throughout her school years. She additionally earned Alfred Wegeners Resilience Award for demonstrating resilience in physical science and the Cybernetic Human trophy in AP Biology. Hobbies and special interest: She loves drawing, watching movies and spending time with her family and pets. She tries to go outside whenever she can, reading, and volunteering within her community. What is your favorite place to visit in Portland and why? I love visiting Washington Park because there are so many things to do there. Everything is so unbelievably beautiful and you can always tell that people have a good time there. I love that it is a place where I can relax and not have to think about anything else, I love being able to just live in the moment. What are you most proud of during your high school career? I am proud of being a good student who has given it her all. I am really proud that I got good grades and was able to make connections with people. The thing that I am most proud of is going outside my comfort zone and taking every opportunity I could. What is your favorite Rose Festival event and why? Im going to be honest, I dont think I have ever attended a Rose Festival event. This is one of the reasons why I am super excited about this opportunity. I want to get to know my city more and I want to see what it has to offer. I love exploring new places and learning different things. Kjerstin Gabrielson, kgabrielson@oregonian.com, @KjGabrielson Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. United Airlines announced on Wednesday that it was slashing domestic flights by 10 percent and international flights by 20 percent as part of its cost-cutting plans as it continues to battle the spread of coronavirus. The airline sent a letter to employees, Chicago-based United said it was reducing U.S. and Canadian flights by 10 percent and international flying by 20 percent in the month of April and eyeing similar cuts in May. In addition to a hiring freeze, the airline is delaying merit-based salary increases and offering employees the option of taking a voluntary unpaid leave of absence. Until now, United had reduced flying only to areas most hit by the coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has since spread around the world, with more new cases now appearing outside China than inside. The broader reductions follow moves recently announced by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and British Airways. 'The experience of these and other foreign carriers is a further sign that the impact of COVID-19 on our industry - both internationally and here in the U.S. - continues to evolve rapidly,' United said in the letter, signed by CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby. United Airlines announced on Wednesday it was cutting domestic flights by ten percent and international flights by 20 percent as part of the coronavirus crisis The rapid, global spread of the virus has forced airlines to abandon their usual strategies for crisis management. Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske said Tuesday that further restrictions will soon be announced. The countries to be targeted were not identified, with restrictions already in place and airlines suspending services to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy. President Trump ruled out any restrictions on domestic travel. What countries should you not fly to during the coronavirus outbreak? The U.S. State Department has placed travel restrictions on flights to China, Iran, Italy and South Korea Most commercial airlines have suspended their service to China which remains the hardest hit in the outbreak Travel to Iran is also not advised Delta and American Airlines have suspended service to Milan for several weeks as the Italian city is the capital of the region experiencing the countries worst outbreak Travel to regions is also not advised as the country struggles to control the spread Delta suspended US services to Shanghai and Beijing until April 30 and also reduced its service to Seoul in South Korea Advertisement Vice President Mike Pence is set to meet with airline executives Wednesday to discuss the coronavirus spread as major airlines such as Delta, United and American Airlines begin to waive change fees to virus hotspots because of traveler concerns. There are now 120 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States and nine deaths, all in Washington state. Health officials believe a quarter of the current coronavirus cases in the United States were transferred through US communities rather than travel. Airlines and the Trump administration are currently in a dispute over sharing information on international travelers. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a rule a few weeks ago as the coronavirus outbreak began to escalate globally, requiring airlines to provide certain information about international traveler. They are still putting pressure for more informative passenger lists to be shared as the deaths in the United States reached nine people on Tuesday. Airlines continue to fight the release of information claiming that a government-run project would provide better results. 'Building a website and developing an app will be the quickest way to obtain verifiable and accurate contact data,' Nick Calio, Airlines for America president, told Politico. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to meet with airline executives on Wednesday to discuss the coronavirus. The dispute continues as a lack of communication between different agencies and officials became evident on Tuesday. Florida's Department of Health hit out at New York City officials after they learned that a man who tested positive for the virus in Westchester County had recently traveled to Florida through media reports. They are now looking into his travel history. Industry Update Appointment 4 March 2020 Maribel Perez Appointed Senior Transient Sales Manager At Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel in Miami Beach - FL, USA Maribel joins Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel from one of Kimpton's LA properties, Kimpton Hotel Wilshire. She will oversee the corporate travel and leisure markets for Surfcomber and will be responsible for developing new retail travel leisure partners. Prior to joining Kimpton, Maribel worked in multiple Sales and Operational roles for companies such as Viceroy Hotels & Resorts, Starwood and Hyatt Hotels. Her background includes over 10 years of experience in hospitality. Maribel is an active member of industry associations and groups including GBTA, Millennials in Travel and MPI. IHG Hotels & Resorts IHG Hotels & Resorts [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global hospitality company, with a purpose to provide True Hospitality for Good. With a family of 17 hotel brands and IHG Rewards, one of the worlds largest hotel loyalty programmes, IHG has over 6,000 open hotels in more than 100 countries, and a further 1,800 in the development pipeline. more information Recent Appointments at IHG Hans Heijligers - General Manager 10 January 2022 Originally from the Netherlands, Hans Heijligers spent 35 years of his hotel career abroad. He mainly settled in Asia where he led the entire Western region of Japan while serving as Managing Director at InterContinental Osaka for 3 years. read more Dani Demerjian - General Manager 10 January 2022 InterContinental Abu Dhabi has announced the appointment of Dani Demerjian as general manager, marking his first permanent general manager position in the industry. Demerjian started his career with IHG - the operators of the InterContinental brand - and has worked for the company numerous times over the years. read more Kylie Jenner was named the youngest self-made billionaire of all time on Hurun Global Rich List 2020, thanks to the booming cosmetics company she founded a few years ago. Check out some of her coolest pictures that grabbed the eyeballs... American reality TV star Kylie Jenner is heating up social media with her sizzling bikini photos. (Image: Instagram) So-Called "Toxic Driving Culture" Stays Winning In Downtown Kansas City Kansas City Auto Show returns to Bartle Hall Car lovers, start your engines. The Kansas City Auto Show is back! The event is being held at Bartle Hall from March 4 to March 8. Tickets for adults are $12, juniors (ages 8 thru 12) are $6 and any child under 8 is free to get in. Talking Local Hobos & Love Seg 1: Downtown Homeless Shelter Closing | Seg 2: Politics & Love Segment 1: A lack of funds will soon lead to the closing of a 90-bed emergency shelter for single adults in Kansas City, Missouri. More than just a place to sleep, the reStart shelter on East Ninth Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, is open 24 hours a day and provides the needed ancillary services to transition a person to permanent housing. Kansas City Strategy Revealed KCDC Project Study offers development ideas for East Bottoms Community Architectural Design students from K- State in partnership with the Kansas City Design Center presented a variety of development concepts and amenities for the East Bottoms community Tuesday afternoon at a public open house event at the J. Reiger & Company Distillery. Show-Me Voters Locked-In Missouri absentee voters cannot change ballots KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the clock counting down until Missouri's presidential primary election, the democratic presidential primary field is getting narrower. Three candidates have suspended their presidential campaigns since South Carolina's primary on Saturday. Emerging Kansas Tornado Tech Could Save Lives New technology could improve tornado warnings in Kansas The statewide tornado drill will take place in Kansas on Tuesday at 10 a.m., as a part of Severe Weather Awareness Week. The goal is to prepare Kansans for the upcoming severe weather season and give you time to find your safe place - the basement or the most interior room of your home - should severe weather strike. Abby On Top Of Her Game MGA Games has turned Abigail Ratchford into the Queen of the Hyperrealism Series The company has just launched the casino slot machine "Abigail Ratchford's Treasure Quest" for the Spanish market. The newest MGA Games adventure was internationally launched last month with great success amongst online casino users. Abigail Ratchford, known as "The Queen of Instagram" has now become the Slot Machine Queen thanks to Spanish company MGA [...] Influencer Cash Awarded Fashion Nova Reportedly Spent $40 Million on Influencer Marketing in 2019 In 2019, according to a rundown of marketing dollars for the year, Fashion Nova spent more than $40 million on "influencer marketing." Late last month, Instascreener ran a piece highlighting the 2019 Influencer Marketing Report, which noted that brands in 2019 spent a total of $1.9 billion on this sector of marketing in the U.S. Turnout Is EVERYTHING Chris Wallace: Bernie and Trump's voters will 'walk through fire' for them "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace said on Tuesday that President Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders are the only two candidates who have a base with a "genuine grassroots enthusiasm" from ardent supporters that will "walk through fire for them." "You can't beat that," the host of " Fox News Sunday" told " Outnumbered Overtime." The Deal: Iran Now Has Enough Power For Nuke Bomb Iran triples stockpile of enriched uranium in breach of nuclear deal Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November in violation of its deal with world powers and is refusing to answer questions about three possible undeclared nuclear sites, the UN atomic watchdog agency has said. The International Atomic Energy Agency made the statement in a confidential report distributed to member countries that was seen by the Associated Press. Global Crackdown Underway Freedom House Report Finds Freedom On The Wane Worldwide For nearly a half century, Freedom House - the avowedly non-partisan democracy advocacy organization whose founders include Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie - has published an annual report on the state of freedom in the world. This year's edition, titled "A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy," is just out, and it is decidedly downbeat in its assessment of where worldwide freedom stands today. Kansas City Artsy Springtime Agenda Debuts New art shows to partake in, all through March Photo by Brandon Forrest Frederick Have you ever seen an art exhibit that just floored you? You couldn't stop thinking about it on the drive home, or days later, and even now, months or years later, you think: That show!! It really did something. Rearranged how you think about the world in some way. Two Weeks Until Spring Your StormTrack5 Daily Forecast Spring is still more than 2 weeks away but you will get a serious taste of mild air this evening. Skies will remain clear through the evening while a light breeze drifts in from the west northwest. Right nowinspires this quick peek at early morning items of interest with a focus on pop culture, community news and items from across the nation and around the world . . .is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . Daniel Hannan is a writer and columnist. He was a Conservative MEP from 1999 to 2020, and is now President of the Initiative for Free Trade. I used to chair a cross-party group made up of those extremely rare MEPs who had doubts about a United States of Europe. When, as sometimes happened, we succeeded in blocking or delaying some egregiously federalist proposal, we would hold a press conference to explain our actions. At these press conferences, the stringer for the Financial Times would always ask the same question: So does this mean you voted with Jean-Marie Le Pen? Ah, guilt by association. Where would lazy commentators be without it? You dont need to show that Person A has anything in common with Person B. You simply have to find some way to get them both into the same story, and then rely on your readers prejudice. Prejudice is the apt word here. Guilt by association addresses our instincts, not our intellect. It works on the primitive idea of moral contamination, itself a form of what the nineteenth-century Scottish anthropologist, Sir James George Frazer, called sympathetic magic. Here is how he put it in The Golden Bough: If we analyse the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. Thus, some societies believe that getting hold of someones hair or nail clippings can give you control over that person. Others believe that yellow sap might cure jaundice, or that a rhino horn (or other phallic shape) might reverse impotence. If you think that modern Westerners have moved beyond such superstitions, just read the newspapers. A Guardian article last weekend argued, in effect, that an interest in classical architecture was suspect, because it recalled the Nazi aesthetic. Ronald Sullivan, a black law professor, was forced to stand down as a Harvard dean because he was on Harvey Weinsteins defence team. (Imagine how Atticus Finch, the attorney hero of To Kill a Mockingbird, would fare under our present ethical code: instead of automatically believing the woman in the story, Finch stood stubbornly by the presumption of innocence.) Closer to home, Noah Carl, a mild-mannered and thoughtful academic, had his offer of a fellowship at St Edmunds College Cambridge revoked, not because of anything he had said or written, but because he had gone to the same conferences as scientists whose views on the heritability of intelligence were considered unacceptable. Jordan Peterson, the Canadian professor, also had a Cambridge post rescinded because he had appeared in a photograph with someone wearing an Islamophobic tee-shirt. To see the scale of the problem, look at Toby Youngs new initiative, the Free Speech Union and do, please, consider joining. Guilt by association is not new, of course. It is rooted in human nature, the product of a faulty bit of neural wiring. But the current fad for it has two striking features. First, the supposed contamination is usually to do with identity politics. You will rarely be no-platformed, let alone visited by the cops, for being an ultra-libertarian, or a Stalinist, or an admirer of Putin or of Kim Jong-un. But we have sacralised certain values, notably those to do with gender, sexual preference and, above all, race. By sacralised, I mean we have placed them beyond the rules of normal discourse so that the response to a dissenting opinion is not to engage but to exorcise. Second, it is concentrated in the last place we ought to find it, namely on campus. Universities are supposed to promote reason, empiricism and the scientific method. Yet, just as, centuries ago, they managed to think of themselves as defenders of the Enlightenment while barring those who failed to meet their religious tests, now they apply the same doublethink to the quasi-religion of identity politics. Heres the thing about magic, though. It only works if the victim believes in it. A shamans incantation depends on an acceptance that he is invoking metaphysical powers; otherwise it becomes a stream of gibberish. Many conservatives struggle with this point. Consider, for example, the anathematisation of Daniel Kawczynski, the Polish-born MP for Shrewsbury, after he attended a conference in Rome called God, Honour, Country: President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and the Freedom of Nations. As you would expect at such a conference, there was a wide diversity of delegates though almost all were sympathetic to the notion of national sovereignty. The chief organiser was Yoram Hazony, who runs the Herzl Centre in Jerusalem. You can find comprehensive reports of the event here and here. The Guardian decided that we ought to be upset about some of the delegates including representatives of the governing parties of Poland and Hungary. They were supposedly xenophobic and homophobic and anti-semitic and whatnot. That the paper illustrated its own story with a photograph of Kawcynski (who is both an immigrant and bisexual) speaking in front of the Star of David that represents the Herzl Centre did not seem to give anyone pause for thought. Incredibly, a Conservative spokesman responded to the article declaring that Kawczynskis attendance was unacceptable. What exactly was unacceptable was never specified, but that did not stop the Board of Deputies from rushing out a condemnation of the imagined anti-semitism. Again: the prime mover behind the event was Hazony, a patriotic Israeli Bible scholar. Without these panicky condemnations, the witchdoctors juju would not work. But, now that the Conservatives have declared the conference unacceptable, Leftist newspapers can run versions of the same story in perpetuity. Disgust as Sir Bufton Tufton meets with group declared unacceptable by his own party, etc. It is worth reiterating three fundamental truths. First, people can share a platform without agreeing. Second, there is a difference between disagreeing with something and shunning it. Third, hostile newspapers dont get to tell a political party who its allies should be. (It is worth noting, en passant, that the Guardian spent years claiming that leaving the European Peoples Party would mean abandoning the mainstream and sitting with unacceptable far-Right parties, yet now makes the same claim about the EPPs Hungarian party, Fidesz.) Those truths dont lose any of their force simply because a journalist is demanding an instant response. Guilt by association is a game you cant win. Dont play it. Police & Crime Commissioner welcomes funding for extra Tasers everybody has the right to protect themselves from being assaulted This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 The police and crime commissioner in North Wales says that securing funding for an extra 167 Tasers will help protect frontline officers as well as the public. The PCC Arfon Jones welcomed the additional 137,000 from a 10 million pot provided by Home Secretary Priti Patel. The cash will cover the cost of buying the new tasers. Meanwhile, money for batteries, holsters and training has been included in the budget for the remainder of this year and next by the commissioner. As well as having more Tasers available for officers, it will also mean more can be trained in how to use them Mr Jones has campaigned for extra funding for several years. He said: I am delighted that through a bid from my office we will be able to bring the force up to a more appropriate level in terms of equipping our officers. This is something I have been calling for so this is very welcome news and will help ensure that we are better able to protect the front line officers who protect us. A higher percentage of officers in North Wales carry Tasers than is the case in many forces, but I would it is right and proper that we will now see the majority of officers equipped with a Taser when they are out on the streets. This will help deter the growing number of attack on officers, women and men, who put their lives on the line to keep us safe. Everybody, whether they are a police officers or a member of the public, has the right to protect themselves from being assaulted. Police officers can only protect the public if they are properly equipped to protect themselves. I would also like to see the introduction of tougher sentences in the courts to send a clear message that these attacks on our front line officers will not be tolerated. The news was also welcomed by Chief Constable Carl Foulkes who said: Police officers do a difficult job and it is often the case that just having a Taser officer at a scene can diffuse a situation which might otherwise have escalated into a dangerous or violent confrontation. These additional Tasers will mean that more officers are better equipped to protect both themselves and the public. They will be deployed over time by highly trained officers in various departments across the force for use in situations which are lifesaving or to prevent serious injury. Mark Jones, General Secretary of North Wales Police Federation said: We welcome the announcement that funding for an additional 167 Tasers from the Home Office. The Police Federation has been passionately campaigning for our members to have the best possible equipment and training as they are sent to deal with the most violent of situations. Taser is an extremely effective means of dealing with the many dangerous situations that officers often face on the streets and is a less lethal option than more conventional firearms. Our commitment is to work with North Wales Police and the Police and Crime Commissioners Office to ensure that there will be a continual programme of wider rollout of Taser to our members. We appreciate that this takes time, resources and financial backing so we will ensure that the safety and wellbeing of our members is always number one priority. HALIFAXThe Nova Scotia government is reserving the right under proposed legislation tabled Wednesday to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors to recover costs to its health system from the overdose crisis. Health Minister Randy Delorey said the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act would give the province the option to launch its own lawsuit or eventually join a British Columbia-led class action. Delorey said while Nova Scotia has not seen the level of opioid-related deaths as some other provinces, it still registers about 60 deaths every year as a result of confirmed or probable opioid-related overdoses. Opioid overdose needlessly takes lives, places stress on communities and can overwhelm our emergency first responders and emergency departments, he said. It also puts a financial strain on our province in delivering those important health services. Delorey said the legislation would also allow the province to simplify the procedure for proving damages by allowing the use of aggregate health data instead of individual health records. He said B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Ontario have all passed similar legislation while Saskatchewan is expected to pass a bill this spring. Delorey said the government believes opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors need to be held accountable for the harmful impact of the drug, although a decision on a possible legal move is not imminent at this point. Current figures for the cost to the health system were not made available by the minister. Any legal submission as part of any potential future claim would be built and the evidence presented at that time, Delorey said. However, he did point to a 2014 study by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction that estimated the overall cost of opioid addiction in Nova Scotia to be $1.2 billion a year a figure that included health care, justice and lost productivity. Direct costs to the health system alone were estimated to be $24 million annually. The provinces Liberal government spent $5.68 million last year to treat opioid-use disorder, to provide naloxone for overdose reversal and to train health workers. According to the latest figures released by a national advisory committee studying the opioid crisis, close to 14,000 Canadians have been killed by the drugs over the last four years. Read more about: Ford is turning another one of its models into an electric vehicle after the F-150 and the Mustang. The automaker has announced that it will debut an all-electric Ford Transit cargo van for the 2022 model year in the US and Canada. Vans make up a big part of the automaker's business -- Ford's truck and van fleet sales have grown 33 percent since 2015 -- so it doesn't come as a surprise that it's electrifying its best-selling cargo van. Ford COO Jim Farley said: "Commercial vehicles are a critical component to our big bet on electrification. As leaders in this space, we are accelerating our plans to create solutions that help businesses run better, starting with our all-electric Transit and F-150. This Ford Transit isn't just about creating an electric drivetrain, it's about designing and developing a digital product that propels fleets forward." The all-electric transit will be built in the US using both domestic and foreign parts. Ford describes the van as "smart and connected," with the ability to provide fleet operators with cloud-based services. It will also come with a FordPass Connect modem and an LTE WiFi hotspot that can support up to 10 mobile devices. In addition, it will come with Ford's driver-assist technologies, such as pre-collision assist with automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection and lane-keeping system. The automaker hasn't announced its pricing and availability yet, but it promises to release more details about the vehicle at a later date. The Delhi High Court Wednesday declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the NHRC to intervene and enquire into the mental and physical state of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said the petition was not maintainable as it should have been first filed in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Asking the petitioner to move the NHRC, the bench disposed of his plea. The petitioner, advocate A Rajarajan, had claimed that the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- have been kept in solitary confinement under fear of death "on the whims and fancies" of the authorities and it can affect their mental stability. The petition had also referred to the allegations that the four were facing physical abuse in the prison. It had also claimed that the authorities acted contrary to law by not initiating process to execute death sentence of the four convicts after the expiry of 30 days from the dismissal of their appeals by the Supreme Court in May 2017. On January 7 death warrants were issued for the first time in the case to execute the four on January 22. However, on January 17 the trial court changed the date of execution to February 1 after one of them -- Mukesh -- moved a mercy plea before the President. Subsequently, on January 31 the trial court put on hold the execution after two more -- Akshay and Vinay -- moved mercy pleas. Thereafter, on February 17 the trial court set March 3 as the date of execution of the four. On March 2, the executions were put on hold for the third time as Pawan had moved a mercy plea, which was rejected on Wednesday. A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States lawmakers reach agreement on an $8.3bn emergency bill to help fund efforts to contain the virus. One more person has died of the new coronavirus in the Seattle, Washington area, bringing the total number of fatalities there to 10, health officials said on Wednesday, and new confirmed cases were reported around the two most populous cities in the United States four near New York and six in Los Angeles. The first California death from the virus was also announced on Wednesday. The person, an elderly adult with underlying health conditions, was the second confirmed case of the respiratory disease called COVID-19 in Placer County in Northern California, local health officials said. The total number of coronavirus cases in the greater Seattle area climbed to 39, up from 27 cases and nine deaths a day earlier, the Washington State Health Department announced. The Seattle area has the largest concentration of coronavirus cases detected to date in the US. Several cases were connected to a long-term care facility for the elderly in the Pacific Northwest state. In New York City, three family members and a neighbour of an infected man have tested positive, bringing the total in New York state to six, officials said. About 1,000 people in suburban Westchester County north of the city where the family lives were under self-quarantine orders because of possible exposure to the virus, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. We are, if anything, being over-cautious, Cuomo said. Empty shelves that usually contain cleaning products in a store in New York City in the United States [Brendan McDermid/Reuters] On the West Coast, Los Angeles officials announced six new confirmed travel-related cases in Los Angeles County, including three people who had been to northern Italy, one of the places hardest hit in the global outbreak. Of the six, only one has been hospitalised. The other five are recovering in home isolation. Los Angeles County declared a local emergency and a public health emergency in order to expand and hasten preparedness efforts. In Washington, DC, US lawmakers reached bipartisan agreement on an $8.3bn emergency bill to help fund efforts to contain the virus, a congressional aide said. The bill is expected to be introduced in the US House of Representatives later on Wednesday. Once the full House approves the bill, the Senate is expected to act quickly so President Donald Trump can sign the measure into law, putting funds into the pipeline to fight the virus. More than $3bn would be devoted to research and development of coronavirus vaccines, test kits and therapeutics. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the fast-spreading illness. In a bid to also help control the spread of the virus outside the US, $1.25bn would be set for international efforts, the aide said. Medics transport a man on a stretcher into an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, a long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases, in Kirkland, Washington, US [David Ryder/Reuters] The administration is working to allow laboratories to develop their own coronavirus tests without seeking regulatory approval first, US Health Secretary Alex Azar said. The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed 129 confirmed and presumed cases in the US, up from the previous 108. They included 80 reported by public health authorities in 13 states plus 49 among people repatriated from abroad, according to the CDC website. Those figures do not necessarily reflect Wednesdays updates from three states. Classes cancelled On Tuesday, officials said a man in his 50s who lives in a New York City suburb and works at a Manhattan law firm tested positive for the virus, the second identified case in the state. The four new cases there include three family members of the man, who is hospitalised, and a neighbour. Health authorities said one of the mans children was a student at Yeshiva University, which cancelled classes as a precautionary measure. The hospitalised patient had not travelled to countries with large numbers of cases. The first New York case, reported last week, was a woman who had returned from Iran, where at least 92 people have died. Cuomo said about 300 students from New Yorks college systems, SUNY and CUNY, were being recalled from five hard-hit countries China, Italy, Japan, Iran and South Korea and would be flown on a chartered plane and then be quarantined for 14 days. The Kerala unit of the Congress party on Wednesday alleged that a group of ruling party politicians and the bureaucrats is helping the illegal gold business thrive, causing huge losses to the exchequer. Senior Congress leader VD Satheesan, who had moved a notice for adjournment motion in the Assembly on the issue, told ANI: "As per the World Gold Council, 30 per cent of gold market is in India and out of which Kerala accounts for 80 per cent." "However, gold is being smuggled into Kerala and ornaments are made out of smuggled bullion. It is being sold by evading the GST and, hence, the state is facing huge monetary losses," he said. "Only Rs 40,000 crore accounted legal gold business is taking place in Kerala and about Rs 2 lakh crore gold businesses is taking place in the black market," he added. Satheesan also said that the period when India followed the Value Added Tax (VAT) system, the Kerala government earned Rs 700 crore in 2016-17. "As per the GST, the government should be earning more than Rs 3,000 crore but only Rs 300 crore is coming into the treasury," he added. He also said that huge tax evasion is being done in the gold market but the government did not take action for the last three years. "There are provisions in the GST Act to take action through inspection and raids but the government is not enforcing any of the provisions of the GST Act," he said. The Congress leader also alleged that this has been taking place for a very long time even though the government is facing a huge financial crisis. "As some of the political leaders and bureaucrats are behind the illegal gold deal, the government is not taking any action," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The coronavirus outbreak has turned into "a global pandemic", German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday, warning that worse was still to come. "The coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic," Sphan told German lawmakers. "The situation is changing very quickly," he said. "What's clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak." The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far stopped short of declaring a pandemic -- defined as an epidemic that spreads throughout the world through local transmission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Upserve , the industry's leading full-service Restaurant Management Platform, announced that it has appointed Aman Devgan as Chief Marketing Officer. "Were coming out of a year of rapid growth, and Amans experience building high-performance, scalable marketing teams will only help our numbers continue to soar, said CEO Sheryl Hoskins. Im thrilled to have him join the leadership team at Upserve. Devgan, formerly CMO at Kapitus, a SMB financing company, is a leader with a track record of successfully growing brands and driving market dominance. He has spent over a decade in the SMB market and brings valuable industry insights to the Upserve marketing organization. My last two teams brought cutting-edge, data-driven platforms to the SMB financing and marketing industries, said Devgan. A similar revolution is imminent in the POS space, and I believe Upserve is the company prepared to lead that charge. Devgan, originally from Delhi, began his career as a computer engineer, later transitioning to Product Management and Marketing in the SaaS and SMB space. He was previously CMO at Propel Marketing, Chief Sales and Markets Officer for 1&1 Internet in the US and UK, and SVP Marketing at Web.com. Devgan holds a masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from the University of Michigans Ross School of Business. Running any small business is really hard, and it is especially hard in the restaurant industry where youre strapped for time and your business depends on daily cash flow, Devgan said. Upserve is using technology to enhance guest experiences, streamline business management to free up time, and make cash flow visible, more easily managed and predictable, which solves key problems for any restaurant owner. Im here to help tell that story. About Upserve Upserve is the magic ingredient that helps restaurateurs become wildly successful, providing everything you need to manage a restaurant in a single hub. Upserve offers the market-leading cloud restaurant POS, actionable insights, transparent processing, automated inventory and ordering, workforce tools, and mobile restaurant management. Over 11,000 restaurants use Upserve to manage relationships with more than 57 million active diners, process over $11 billion in annual sales and serve over 36 million meals per month. Upserve is headquartered in Providence with additional offices in Denver and Tel Aviv. Lucinda Creighton's new political initiative, which was unveiled on Friday with neither name nor policies, left a lot of unanswered questions, but the biggest question of all will be whether it can make a tangible difference in Irish politics and in the lives of those she hopes to serve. The party was born out of dissaffection with our existing hide-bound party political system in general and in particular with the Fine Gael apparatus that denied Ms Creighton the right to vote according to her conscience on the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act of 2013 Ms Creighton's party - in its genesis at least - bears marked similarities to the Progressive Democrats, founded in 1985 by Des O'Malley and Mary Harney who couldn't abide Charlie Haughey's oppressive sway over Fianna Fail. The PDs went on to enjoy considerable political success, playing a part in government for half their brief existence before the party finally ended in 2008. But while the PDs had a significant impact in Irish politics, it couldn't be said that they brought about a reformation. It was during the period of their tenure that our political elite led the country by the nose into an economic abyss. What then of the Creighton party? So far they have no policies, only a broad set of aspirations that include: building a new economy that supports both enterprise and workers; developing a better work ethic in the public service; providing a minimum lifestyle standard for the nation's citizens; and reforming the political system to allow greater freedom of thought and action. These aims are to be fleshed out in greater detail in the next month or so after the party is officially formed but, with one exception, they are not new. Even if they haven't said so in the same formula of words, any of the existing political parties would support the idea of building a better economy, a better civil service and giving people a decent standard of living. Despite appearances, neither this government nor any of the aspirants are actually against us - they're just not capable of delivering. The one thing that is different about the Creighton party is the hope of allowing for political freedom of 'thought, difference and independence'. This could mean seeking the abolition of the iron fist party whip system that denies most government TDs any real say in the running of the country and of effectively representing their constituents. Abolishing the whip system would be a genuine reformation - albeit at the risk of seeing the Dail descend into chaos beyond that with which we are familiar. All that, of course, if for another day. For now Ms Creighton & Co. must focus on building support among the masses, many of whom are not happy with the fare being served up by our current stock of politicians. So far voter malaise has found expression in a wave of support for independents and Sinn Fein; both with a leaning to the left. Ms Creighton leans more to the right, but this might not be a disadvantage given the fickleness of Irish voters. Time will tell, but meanwhile there's another thorn in Enda Kenny's side. Time will tell there also. It was announced today that Enterprise Ireland (EI) approved a total of 1.14m joint funding to drive collaborative projects, or Challenges, between innovative companies and the public sector. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme encourages businesses to explore and co-design unique solutions with public sector teams, through competitive Challenges. A total of 23 applications from public sector bodies to participate in the SBIR programme were shortlisted to five Challenges. Enterprise Irelands approved SBIR Challenges for 2020 are: Climate Action Health Biodiversity Transport The new Challenges are expected to be live on e-tenders no later than May 1st 2020. More information on SBIR Ireland and the Challenges will be available soon on www.sbirireland.ie Speaking this week, Enterprise Irelands Executive Director, Stephen Creaner said, "The five Challenges, identified by the public sector bodies, are sectorally diverse and will ultimately benefit citizens needs both in Ireland and internationally. Enterprise Ireland encourages entrepreneurs, developers and researchers who have solutions in these spaces to take up the Challenge. We look forward to the exciting new concepts and innovative ideas that will emerge as a result of these Challenges." Source: www.businessworld.ie Michelle Kennedy arrived at lunch, nervous about the conversation she was about to have with her best friend. It was 2016, and Kennedy had just made a big career decision. She was going to leave her job as a tech exec and launch a new app for moms. It was exciting a new adventure, a massive market, a lot of potential upside. But the downside was this: Her best friend, BBC journalist Sophie Sulehria, had been struggling for years to have a baby. In fact, at the time, Sulehria had just completed her third failed round of in vitro fertilization, and it was taking a toll on her mental health. Kennedy didnt want to add to the burden. It was a very bad time. My husband and I were really suffering, says Sulehria. When Michelle said she had something to tell me, I thought, Oh God; shes having another baby! But she told me about the business, and she was so worried: I dont want to be your best friend whos not only got a kid but also has a mum business I dont want to alienate you. Related: 6 Reasons Moms Make the Best Entrepreneurs But Sulehria was supportive. She knew the business was a fantastic idea, even though her exclusion from its target audience was killing her. So she asked Kennedy for a favor, as a friend and as a hopeful mom. This would be the earliest feedback Kennedy would receive as an entrepreneur, and although she wouldnt know it yet, it would set the tone for how she would build her business by listening to, and quickly responding to, the needs of the community it serves. I said, Promise me one thing: When this app becomes successful, create a piece of it for people like me, a place where women having fertility issues can find support and friendship and discussions and information, because wouldnt that be fantastic? Sulehria recalls. And Michelle literally looked at me that day and said, I promise. Image Credit: Courtesy of Peanut App Today, Kennedys company is called Peanut, and it has a million users and $9.8 million in funding. But back in 2013, before Peanut was even a twinkle in its founders eye, Kennedy was a rising star in the dating app world. She was deputy CEO of a European dating network called Badoo, and she also had a role in launching the brand Bumble, which would go on to become one of the industrys major players. Kennedys life was changing. Her personal dating days were behind her. Shed just given birth to her son, Finlay, and didnt have many girlfriends with kids in her hometown of London. She wanted to find some like-minded women at a similar stage of life, but all she could find were archaic message boards and Facebook groups. The products available to me were all, quite frankly, crap, Kennedy says. Nothing represented me as a mother. At the same time, she was watching a flood of utility-based applications enter the market new ways to order food or pick up your dry cleaning and felt that a huge opportunity was being overlooked. Women are 50 percent of the population the last time I checked, and motherhood, in some way, will touch everyones life, she says. But no one is touching this space? She came up with an idea for a networking app for moms and called it Peanut, after her nickname for her baby bump when she was pregnant. But she didnt feel ready to take the leap until three years later. There were just signals in the market, she says. People were starting to talk about motherhood differently because wed started to talk about womanhood differently, and it just felt like the right time. In 2016, she began ideating in earnest, brought three trusted team members on board, and got to work. Peanut set out to embody the voice of modern, millennial motherhood. The team wanted it to function as a friend one who understands that being a mom is a big part of a womans identity, but its not her entire identity. They spent a lot of time defining its voice. Users, for example, would be addressed as Mama, which tracks in both the United Kingdom and the United States and has a playful edge. In February 2017, just a few months after she shared her plans with best friend Sulehria, Kennedy brought Peanut into the world, launching in the U.K. and the U.S. A simple beta version allowed women to create a profile, swipe to explore other womens profiles like on a dating app and chat. The reaction was instantaneous. Thanks to some earlier-than-planned press coverage from the London Evening Standard, thousands of women flooded the beta offering, and Kennedy had fast validation. But the new users also revealed a vulnerability. Much like with dating apps, where happy couples no longer need the app, women were ditching Peanut once theyd made a new friend. And why wouldnt they? Kennedy says. You dont need to make a new girlfriend every day and in that case, you maybe dont need to continue using Peanut. Related: Debunking Three Myths About Women in Tech This was a problem in need of solving. And as it turns out, users were already proposing a solution. A lot of our users were saying, Wait; how do I ask all the women on here a question? How do I share this article with all the women in my neighborhood? Kennedy says. We had always planned to build community-based features, but our users let us know that wed have to build them a lot quicker than planned. So the team hustled to launch community-wide message boards (called Peanut Pages) and group chats (Peanut Groups). Kennedy and her team thought they knew exactly how women would use these features; they expected to see chatter around the usual early-motherhood pain points, like getting babies to sleep or working through pregnancy discomfort. But they got something much different. Women were sharing about really intimate stuff: relationships, love, sex, work, money, housing, social issues, says Kennedy, whose team kept an eye on developing conversations via a combination of artificial intelligence and human monitoring of message boards. We had to stop and say, Wait a minute. Why are these conversations happening on Peanut? And its because they just arent happening anywhere else youre not going to post on a local Yahoo message board about postpartum sex or frustrations with your partner. This has to exist in a private network. While some popular topics did prove to be playful (boobs and books), the majority had a more solemn tone and one in particular was being discussed at a surprisingly high volume. So many women were talking about trying and struggling to conceive baby number two, says Kennedy. Maybe they were going through IVF, or had just suffered a loss, or found they were facing infertility, or had been diagnosed with endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome. Whatever it was, there was so much conversation. Kennedy immediately thought of her best friend, Sulehria. She knew the facts were brutal: One in eight women will be affected by fertility issues, and one in six will experience a miscarriage. She also knew that the emotional burden was vast. The most poignant thing Soph ever said to me was, You know, I could use someone other than you to talk to, Kennedy says. So now here we are with Peanut, and if all these women are talking about their struggles to conceive baby two or three, what about the women who havent had a baby at all? Kennedy planned to serve this audience someday; after all, shed made a promise to her friend. But she thought it would be a long time from now, and a small part of a much larger pie. Now, by following her users lead, she realized she had it wrong. She needed to fulfill this promise fast and the opportunity could be very big. Image Credit: Courtesy of Peanut App Women who struggle with fertility issues have already given their community a name: Its TTC, for trying to conceive. Across the internet, theres evidence of these women craving connection. Search #TTC on Instagram and youll find 1.4 million posts; #TTCcommunity has more than half a million posts; #TTCaftermiscarriage has nearly 82,000. But those makeshift communities, as the Peanut team saw it, werent working. These women are making use of existing social networks, but theyre not finding a real community, says Hannah Hastings, Peanuts head of growth and brand marketing. Instagram is a public space. If you choose to have a private profile, discovery is limited. So youre either sharing personal information publicly or cut off. It doesnt solve the need. Sulehria backed that up. She found no comfort in the major social media networks, and in-person support groups were too far from where she lived. Plus, the face-to-face thing is so daunting to walk into a room and say, Hi; Im having this mental health problem, she says. I just wanted something I could look at and engage with while I was lying in bed. Peanut had identified a problem worth solving, but the team knew it couldnt just create some new message boards called TTC and invite their users in. The psychological struggles facing the TTC community are significant and nuanced, and the internet can quickly become an emotional minefield. There are articles and articles out there saying, If youre going through [infertility], just get off Facebook, says Barbara Collura, president and CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association. Because the moment someone inevitably drops an ultrasound photo on there, its likeOh my God. Women feel bombarded by this day in, day out. People stop going to the mall, restaurants, family events. So in a digital space, they want to feel safe. Anyone whos trying to be inclusive to an audience of people who are trying to conceive has to be ubersensitive. Keeping these sensitivities in mind, Kennedy decided to shield the TTC community from the rest of the app. Peanut TTC would function almost like a separate platform and have its own onboarding process. That way, TTC users wouldnt accidentally stumble upon conversations from happy new moms (though they could opt in to see everything else if they wanted). After that, the Peanut team had to dive into the nuances of the TTC world, and they leaned heavily on Sulehria as a guiding voice and gut check. Kennedy also asked Sulehria to connect her with other women whod been struggling to conceive and may be willing to share their experience. Slowly but surely, a small but mighty focus group helped her build this new product with care. Related: How 2 Entrepreneurs Built a Membership Community for Working Moms The team learned, as an example, that there are plenty of tensions within the TTC community that Peanut would have to contend with. A woman whos been trying for five months and a woman whos been trying for five years are in very different positions, Kennedy says. To put them in one bucket? Thats not the experience we want to give users. Kennedy had started to see evidence of this earlier. On Peanut, where some women had created fertility-related message boards, there was a lot of debate about which posts belonged. A woman who had become pregnant posted an image of her positive pee stick, which can be really triggering for other women, she says. Wed get notifications and reports, and wed also see our users say to each other, Hey, maybe you should take it down, or post it somewhere else. So in Peanut TTC, the company created UX solutions for those sensitivities. Blurred filters can be applied to potentially sensitive content (flagged by the creator or other users), and women will have to opt in to see those messages or images. The team developed proprietary artificial intelligence, which monitors group discussions and flags any comments that may not suit the brands ethos. If a user is writing a comment and we detect an element of negativity, the app will say, Hey, are you sure you dont want to rephrase that? Peanut is a place of supportive conversation, explains Hastings. In November 2019, after nine months in development, the company launched Peanut TTC. The community grew quickly, and user engagement skyrocketed 60 percent above Peanuts typical engagement. Its a good start, but Kennedy knows theres a lot still left to do. She wants Peanut to expand its sensitivity features, improve how it matches women with relevant groups, and create room for TTC women to celebrate their pregnancies. And, more important, she also wants to keep following this line of thinking watching how people use her product, and reacting with new solutions. Shes already seeing many options: Women are using the app to talk about raising teenagers, fighting chronic health conditions, sex after the age of 50, and more. Women have all these different life stages, Kennedy says. We can be the product that helps you find other women like you at every stage. Image Credit: Courtesy of Peanut App Peanut is still in that early stage of a tech companys life, when user growth is prioritized over profit. Which is to say: The app is free to use and makes no money. But Kennedy is building a monetization strategy based on premium products or in-app purchases. Imagine a user paying a small fee for direct access to a respected doctor, or an expert who can quickly and personally respond to a health-related question. Maybe its a great idea. Maybe its not. Maybe women will be interested in using it, but not so interested in paying for it. Either way, Kennedy believes shell find her answer, so long as she keeps engaging and listening to her users. To do that, her team is hustling to repeat the success of TTC with other communities. Later in 2020, for example, theyll roll out Peanut Meno, for women approaching and going through menopause. They also go beyond just monitoring conversations on the app. Peanut formally recruited some of its most engaged users to serve as MVPs Most Valuable Peanuts. The brand ambassador program rewards some users with a tote bag or a sweatshirt when they share the app with other women. Other MVPs do more structured work, like distribute flyers at local coffee shops or the library, or organize a group meetup. The tasks are paid (If Id pay someone else to do the job, why wouldnt I pay my user? Kennedy says) and selected at the leisure of the user; some women have earned up to $500 in a month. In Kennedys eyes, its a small expense to elevate the insights of Peanuts most tuned-in community members. Her 1,500 current MVPs are, indeed, incredibly valuable. Theyre the women creating our product, she says. We look at the data, listen, engage, and implement. We get feedback, iterate, and do it again. And when we dont get it right, we have 1,500 women ready to tell us how to fix it. And those 1,500 women know, because they have direct access to our million women, engaging with them, organically and naturally, day after day. Related: Why Investing in Women-Led Startups Is the Smart Move Kennedy calls this a constant user feedback loop, and perhaps nobody better embodies that than an MVP named Tricia Bowden. Shes a former marketing exec who, in 2017, moved back to New York after spending a year on the West Coast. She had a 1-year-old son and was new to life as a stay-at-home mom, and a lot of the friends shed returned home to werent yet mothers. I googled Meeting mom friends and came across Peanut, Bowden says. She joined, started lining up playdates, and before too long had a reliable network of friends close by. Her passion for the brand grew fast, and Bowden soon became one of Peanuts most valuable MVPs, and one of the loud voices pushing Peanut to expand to the Meno community sooner than later. Kennedy was impressed and gave her a promotion: In January, Bowden started a full-time gig as Peanuts head of strategic growth and partnerships for the New York market, where the company will build out an office later this year. Bowdens first order of business is to optimize and scale the existing MVP program, rolling it out on a hyperlocal, local, and national level which is to say, Bowden basically became the feedback loop. Shes a user who helped shape Peanut, who then joined Peanut, who is now helping Peanut find and attract more people like her, who, of course, will then go on to shape Peanut anew. Related: WWE Superstar Mandy Rose on Building Her Body, Business and Future 5 Words to Try On for Women's History Month How Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake Learned to Embrace Her Power Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Department of Health and Human Services Part 1. Overview Information Participating Organization(s) National Institutes of Health (NIH) Components of Participating Organizations National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Funding Opportunity Title Integrated Preclinical / Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development Program (IPCAVD) (U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) Activity Code U19 Research Program Cooperative Agreements Announcement Type Reissue of PAR-15-330 Related Notices October 28, 2021 - Reminder: FORMS-G Grant Application Forms & Instructions Must be Used for Due Dates On or After January 25, 2022 - New Grant Application Instructions Now Available. See Notice NOT-OD-22-018. September 13, 2021 - Updates to the Non-Discrimination Legal Requirements for NIH Recipients. See Notice NOT-OD-21-181. August 5, 2021 - New NIH "FORMS-G" Grant Application Forms and Instructions Coming for Due Dates on or after January 25, 2022. See Notice NOT-OD-21-169. August 5, 2021 - Update: Notification of Upcoming Change in Federal-wide Unique Entity Identifier Requirements. See Notice NOT-OD-21-170 April 20, 2021 - Expanding Requirement for eRA Commons IDs to All Senior/Key Personnel. See Notice NOT-OD-21-109 June 19, 2020 - NIAID Late Application Policy for NIAID-Specific FOAs with Due Dates in July and August 2020. See Notice NOT-AI-20-054. NOT-OD-19-128, Changes to NIH Requirements Regarding Proposed Human Fetal Tissue Research. NOT-OD-19-137, Clarifying Competing Application Instructions and Notice of Publication of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Regarding Proposed Human Fetal Tissue Research. Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number PAR-20-120 Companion Funding Opportunity None Number of Applications See Section III. 3. Additional Information on Eligibility. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s) 93.855 Funding Opportunity Purpose The purpose of the Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development Program (IPCAVD) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to facilitate the translation of vaccine candidates into early clinical testing. The IPCAVD program is designed to enable a multi-disciplinary team to complete necessary steps from final down-selection of an advanced HIV-1 vaccine candidate through regulatory submissions needed for clinical trial(s). These steps include technology transfer, process development, optimization studies, assay development and qualification, analytical testing, Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) manufacture, quality assurance oversight, safety testing, product release and storage, drug substance and drug product stability testing program, IND-enabling studies, and regulatory submissions. This FOA will not provide funds for conducting the clinical studies; applicants are encouraged to collaborate with NIAID-supported clinical trial networks or to develop other relationships to support the clinical studies. Key Dates Posted Date March 3, 2020 Open Date (Earliest Submission Date) June 28, 2020 Letter of Intent Due Date(s) 30 days prior to the application due date Application Due Date(s) Only accepting applications for the AIDS Application Due Date(s) listed below. AIDS Application Due Date(s) July 28, 2020; March 9, 2021; March 9, 2022 All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of AIDS and AIDS-related applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on the listed date(s). Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date. Scientific Merit Review November 2020; July 2021; July 2022 Advisory Council Review January 2021; October 2021; October 2022 Earliest Start Date March 2021; December 2021; December 2022 Expiration Date March 10, 2022 Due Dates for E.O. 12372 Not Applicable Required Application Instructions It is critical that applicants follow the Multi-Project (M) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, except where instructed to do otherwise (in this FOA or in a Notice from the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts). Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the FOA) is required and strictly enforced. Applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions. Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review. There are several options available to submit your application through Grants.gov to NIH and Department of Health and Human Services partners. You must use one of these submission options to access the application forms for this opportunity. Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education Private Institutions of Higher Education The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education: o Hispanic-serving Institutions o Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) o Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs) o Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions o Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education) Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education) For-Profit Organizations Small Businesses For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses) Governments State Governments County Governments City or Township Governments Special District Governments Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized) Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized) Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government U.S. Territory or Possession Other Independent School Districts Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments) Faith-based or Community-based Organizations Regional Organizations Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) Foreign Institutions Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are eligible to apply. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are eligible to apply. Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. Required Registrations Applicant Organizations Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. The NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications states that failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission. Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) - All registrations require that applicants be issued a DUNS number. After obtaining a DUNS number, applicants can begin both SAM and eRA Commons registrations. The same DUNS number must be used for all registrations, as well as on the grant application. System for Award Management (SAM) Applicants must complete and maintain an active registration, which requires renewal at least annually . The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code. . The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code. o NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code Foreign organizations must obtain an NCAGE code (in lieu of a CAGE code) in order to register in SAM. eRA Commons - Applicants must have an active DUNS number to register in eRA Commons. Organizations can register with the eRA Commons as they are working through their SAM or Grants.gov registration, but all registrations must be in place by time of submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application. Grants.gov Applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the Grants.gov registration. Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s)) All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account. PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons.If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks. Eligible Individuals (Program Director/Principal Investigator) Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support. For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. 2. Cost Sharing This FOA does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. 3. Additional Information on Eligibility Number of Applications Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct. The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. This means that the NIH will not accept: A new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping new (A0) or resubmission (A1) application. A resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application. An application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see NOT-OD-11-101). Section IV. Application and Submission Information 1. Requesting an Application Package The application forms package specific to this opportunity must be accessed through ASSIST or an institutional system-to-system solution. A button to apply using ASSIST is available in Part 1 of this FOA. See your administrative office for instructions if you plan to use an institutional system-to-system solution. 2. Content and Form of Application Submission It is critical that applicants follow the Multi-Project (M) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, except where instructed in this funding opportunity announcement to do otherwise and where instructions in the Application Guide are directly related to the Grants.gov downloadable forms currently used with most NIH opportunities. Conformance to the requirements in the Application Guide is required and strictly enforced. Applications that are out of compliance with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review. Letter of Intent Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the information that it contains allows IC staff to estimate the potential review workload and plan the review. By the date listed in Part 1. Overview Information, prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent that includes the following information: Descriptive title of proposed activity Name(s), address(es), and telephone number(s) of the PD(s)/PI(s) Names of other key personnel Participating institution(s) Number and title of this funding opportunity The letter of intent should be sent to: Kumud K. Singh, Ph.D. Telephone: 301-761-7830 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Email: kumud.singh@nih.gov Page Limitations Available Component Types Research Strategy/Program Plan Page Limits Overall 12 pages Admin Core 6 pages Core (use for Scientific Core) 6 pages each Project 12 pages each Additional page limits described in the SF424 Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed. Instructions for the Submission of Multi-Component Applications The following section supplements the instructions found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, and should be used for preparing a multi-component application. The application should consist of the following components: Overall: required Administrative Core: required, 1 Scientific Core(s) (SC): optional Projects: required, minimum of 2; one must be a Product Manufacturing Project Overall Component When preparing your application, use Component Type Overall. All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions, as noted. SF424 (R&R) Cover (Overall) Complete entire form. PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement (Overall) Note: Human Embryonic Stem Cell lines from other components should be repeated in cell line table in Overall component. Research & Related Other Project Information (Overall) Follow standard instructions. Project/Performance Site Location(s) (Overall) Enter primary site only. A summary of Project/Performance Sites in the Overall section of the assembled application image in eRA Commons compiled from data collected in the other components will be generated upon submission. Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Overall) Include only the Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) and any multi-PDs/PIs (if applicable to this FOA) for the entire application. A summary of Senior/Key Persons followed by their Biographical Sketches in the Overall section of the assembled application image in eRA Commons will be generated upon submission. Budget (Overall) The only budget information included in the Overall component is the Estimated Project Funding section of the SF424 (R&R) Cover. A budget summary in the Overall section of the assembled application image in eRA Commons compiled from detailed budget data collected in the other components will be generated upon submission. PHS 398 Research Plan (Overall) Introduction to Application: For Resubmission applications, an Introduction to Application is required in the Overall component. Specific Aims: List in priority order, the broad, long-range overall objectives and goals of the proposed Program. Concisely and realistically describe the hypothesis or hypotheses to be tested. Research Strategy: This narrative section should provide a scientifically compelling summary of the overall research strategy. The multi-project application consists of interrelated research projects and cores, each capable of standing on its own scientific merit, but complementary to one another. Describe the coordination and synergy of individual Projects and Cores. This important section provides the multi-disciplinary group of investigators an opportunity to give conceptual wholeness to the overall program by defining the general concept and by laying out a broad strategy for approaching the questions to be tested. As the strategy develops, each Project and Core should be briefly described as to its place in the overall scheme. Summarize the features in the environment and/or resources that make this application strong or unique. Describe how the program goals are aligned with the goals in the FOA. Describe the advantages or likely benefit of combining these Projects and Cores together as a Program rather than individual applications to accomplish the goals of the FOA. The Program Overview of the multi-project application MUST include: The scientific question(s) or concepts that are being addressed in the application. The research design that summarizes and integrates the activities in the individual projects. A brief summary of the Product Development Plan that is described in detail in the Product Manufacturing Project. A collaborative team of investigators that will support an integrated effort through the product development and up to the start of a clinical trial. Documentation of the overall scientific and technical expertise of the team and organization to design and conduct the proposed studies and analyze product development activities, analytical assay development and assay qualification, including CGMP vaccine candidate production, quality assurance oversight, GLP toxicology studies, labeling, stability testing program per FDA guidance, and IND-enabling studies for regulatory submission, as applicable, without duplicating information in the biosketches. Demonstration of the PD/PIs leadership skills, experience and effort that contribute to the management, coordination and leadership of the program. Describe the skills and contributions of the key personnel to the Program as a whole and the integration of those efforts to achieve the goals of the proposed research, without duplicating information in the biosketches. The Clinical Development Plan that describes the general clinical strategy and identifies a clinical partner such as the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (www.hvtn.org) or other clinical partners to conduct the clinical trial no later than Year 5 of the award. The plan should include an overview of the clinical protocol outline including clinical strategy e.g. prime boost strategy, dosage, choice of adjuvant, timelines and major milestones, general regulatory strategy, proposed primary clinical endpoints, critical assays and statistical considerations. The clinical development plan must be included in the Overall section, and must not be included as a separate project or a core component or as a specific aim within a Project or Core. The Clinical Development Plan that describes the general clinical strategy and identifies a clinical partner such as the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (www.hvtn.org) or other clinical partners to conduct the clinical trial no later than Year 5 of the award. The plan should include an overview of the clinical protocol outline including clinical strategy e.g. prime boost strategy, dosage, choice of adjuvant, timelines and major milestones, general regulatory strategy, proposed primary clinical endpoints, critical assays and statistical considerations. Documentation of appropriate facilities for all activities including CGMP manufacturing. Overall Timelines and Milestones with clear delineation of goals with quantifiable metrics for the overall program, including detailed quantitative and qualitative criteria for go/no go decisions to support the advancement of vaccine concepts into clinical studies within the first 5 years of award. NIAID Program staff will assess accomplishment of go/no go milestones no later than the end of the third year of funding to determine whether large scale manufacturing is warranted. If manufacturing milestones are not met, funds related to manufacturing, toxicology studies, activities/studies related to regulatory submission, activities to support translational studies will not be provided. Plans for the remainder of the years will be negotiated between NIAID staff and the grantee. Dispute Resolution Plan: A dispute resolution plan related to publications, patents etc. is required for all aspects of the proposed research. Letters of Support: A letter of support from the clinical partner including the strategy for funding the trial is encouraged; however, it does not take the place of the Clinical Development Plan in the application. All letters of support should be provided under the Administrative Core. Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following modification: All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data Sharing Plan. Appendix: Only limited items are allowed in the Appendix. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide; any instructions provided here are in addition to the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide instructions. PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information (Overall) When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions: If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, there must be at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or a Delayed Onset Study record within the application. The study record(s) must be included in the component(s) where the work is being done, unless the same study spans multiple components. To avoid the creation of duplicate study records, a single study record with sufficient information for all involved components must be included in the Overall component when the same study spans multiple components. Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Delayed Onset Study Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start). All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. PHS Assignment Request Form (Overall) All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Administrative Core When preparing your application, use Component Type Admin Core . All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions, as noted. SF424 (R&R) Cover (Administrative Core) Complete only the following fields: Applicant Information Type of Applicant (optional) Descriptive Title of Applicants Project Proposed Project Start/Ending Dates PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement (Administrative Core) Enter Human Embryonic Stem Cells in each relevant component. Research & Related Other Project Information (Administrative Core) Human Subjects: Answer only the Are Human Subjects Involved? and 'Is the Project Exempt from Federal regulations? questions. Vertebrate Animals: Answer only the Are Vertebrate Animals Used? question. Project Narrative: Do not complete. Note: ASSIST screens will show an asterisk for this attachment indicating it is required. However, eRA systems only enforce this requirement in the Overall component and applications will not receive an error if omitted in other components. Project /Performance Site Location(s) (Administrative Core) List all performance sites that apply to the specific component. Note: The Project Performance Site form allows up to 300 sites, prior to using additional attachment for additional entries. Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Administrative Core) In the Project Director/Principal Investigator section of the form, use Project Role of Other with Category of Core Lead and provide a valid eRA Commons ID in the Credential field. In the additional Senior/Key Profiles section, list Senior/Key persons that are working in the component. Include a single Biographical Sketch for each Senior/Key person listed in the application regardless of the number of components in which they participate. When a Senior/Key person is listed in multiple components, the Biographical Sketch can be included in any one component. If more than 100 Senior/Key persons are included in a component, the Additional Senior Key Person attachments should be used. Budget (Administrative Core) Budget forms appropriate for the specific component will be included in the application package. Note: The R&R Budget form included in many of the component types allows for up to 100 Senior/Key Persons in section A and 100 Equipment Items in section C prior to using attachments for additional entries. All other SF424 (R&R) instructions apply. PHS 398 Research Plan (Administrative Core) Introduction to Application: For Resubmission applications, an Introduction to Application is allowed for each component. Specific Aims: List in priority order, the broad, long-range objectives, and goals of the Administrative Core. State the Cores relationship to the multi-project program goals and how it relates to the Research Projects and any other Cores in the application. Research Strategy: An Administrative Core is a resource to the Program, providing overall management, coordination, communication and supervision of the Program to ensure attainment of program objectives. Propose a Communication Plan that will address the interrelationships, scientific information sharing, material and reagent sharing across the Program. As part of the Administrative Core, provide a program management plan that includes a discussion of the structure and roles of administrative staff not included in key personnel, coordination, problem identification and resolution, training and experience of proposed staff. Describe the functions to be performed; fiscal accountability, allocation of funds and other resources. External Advisory Committee (EAC): The Administrative Core will coordinate the effort of an EAC. It is strongly recommended that at least 3 independent experts in the areas related to the Program, be identified soon after award to form the EAC. The EAC, together with the PD/PI, will be responsible for determining progress of the PD/PI and other investigators during the annual site visit. EAC members will attend the annual meetings, sponsored by the awardee, to review the progress of all Projects and Cores, provide a summary meeting report, and make recommendations for the direction of the Program to the PD/PI. Do NOT contact, recruit, or name potential EAC members. Applications may include the areas of expertise to be represented on the EAC. Letters of Support: A letter of support from the clinical partner addressing the strategy for funding the trial is encouraged; however, it does not take the place of the clinical development plan in the application. A letter of support should also be included to document institutional support for the program and should address laboratory and office space, equipment, and administrative resources. Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following modification: All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data Sharing Plan. Appendix: Only limited items are allowed in the Appendix.Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide; any instructions provided here are in addition to the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide instructions. PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information (Administrative Core) When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions: If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or a Delayed Onset Study record. Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed Delayed Onset Study Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start).All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed Scientific Core When preparing your application, use Component Type Core. All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions, as noted. SF424 (R&R) Cover (Scientific Core) Complete only the following fields: Applicant Information Type of Applicant (optional) Descriptive Title of Applicants Project Proposed Project Start/Ending Dates PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement (Scientific Core) Enter Human Embryonic Stem Cells in each relevant component. Research & Related Other Project Information (Scientific Core) Human Subjects: Answer only the Are Human Subjects Involved? and 'Is the Project Exempt from Federal regulations? questions. Vertebrate Animals: Answer only the Are Vertebrate Animals Used? question. Project Narrative: Do not complete. Note: ASSIST screens will show an asterisk for this attachment indicating it is required. However, eRA systems only enforce this requirement in the Overall component and applications will not receive an error if omitted in other components. Project /Performance Site Location(s) (Scientific Core) List all performance sites that apply to the specific component. Note: The Project Performance Site form allows up to 300 sites, prior to using additional attachment for additional entries. Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Scientific Core) In the Project Director/Principal Investigator section of the form, use Project Role of Other with Category of Project Lead and provide a valid eRA Commons ID in the Credential field. In the additional Senior/Key Profiles section, list Senior/Key persons that are working in the component. Include a single Biographical Sketch for each Senior/Key person listed in the application regardless of the number of components in which they participate. When a Senior/Key person is listed in multiple components, the Biographical Sketch can be included in any one component. If more than 100 Senior/Key persons are included in a component, the Additional Senior Key Person attachments should be used. Budget (Scientific Core) Budget forms appropriate for the specific component will be included in the application package. Note: The R&R Budget form included in many of the component types allows for up to 100 Senior/Key Persons in section A and 100 Equipment Items in section C prior to using attachments for additional entries. All other SF424 (R&R) instructions apply. PHS 398 Research Plan (Scientific Core) Introduction to Application: For Resubmission applications, an Introduction to Application is allowed for each component. Specific Aims: List in priority order, the broad, long-range objectives, and goals of the proposed Core. Describe the hypothesis or hypotheses, if any, to be tested. In addition, state the Cores relationship to the multi-project program goals and how it relates to the Projects or other Cores in the application. Research Strategy: Each Scientific Core must directly support at least two of the proposed Projects and must indicate the specific Projects that it will support. This section of the application should present a clear picture of the facilities, techniques, and skills that the Core will provide and describe the role of the Scientific Core Leader and each of the key participants. Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following modification: All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data Sharing Plan. Appendix: Only limited items are allowed in the Appendix. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information (Scientific Core) When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions: If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or a Delayed Onset Study record. Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Delayed Onset Study Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start). All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Projects When preparing your application, use Component Type Project. All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions, as noted. SF424 (R&R) Cover (Projects) Complete only the following fields: Applicant Information Type of Applicant (optional) Descriptive Title of Applicants Project Proposed Project Start/Ending Dates PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement (Projects) Enter Human Embryonic Stem Cells in each relevant component. Research & Related Other Project Information (Projects) Human Subjects: Answer only the Are Human Subjects Involved? and 'Is the Project Exempt from Federal regulations? questions. Vertebrate Animals: Answer only the Are Vertebrate Animals Used? question. Project Narrative: Do not complete. Note: ASSIST screens will show an asterisk for this attachment indicating it is required. However, eRA systems only enforce this requirement in the Overall component and applications will not receive an error if omitted in other components. Facilities and Other Resources: Include a thorough description of the infrastructure, facilities, and resources for both production of the vaccine under CGMP and performance of IND-enabling preclinical animal studies under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), 21 CFR Part 58. Briefly address the plan and process for Quality Systems Audit of the proposed manufacturing facility that will be conducted to assess acceptability of the facility design before initiation of CGMP activities. Project /Performance Site Location(s) (Projects) List all performance sites that apply to the specific component. Note: The Project Performance Site form allows up to 300 sites, prior to using additional attachment for additional entries. Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Projects) In the Project Director/Principal Investigator section of the form, use Project Role of Other with Category of Project Lead and provide a valid eRA Commons ID in the Credential field. In the additional Senior/Key Profiles section, list Senior/Key persons that are working in the component. Include a single Biographical Sketch for each Senior/Key person listed in the application regardless of the number of components in which they participate. When a Senior/Key person is listed in multiple components, the Biographical Sketch can be included in any one component. If more than 100 Senior/Key persons are included in a component, the Additional Senior Key Person attachments should be used. Budget (Projects) Budget forms appropriate for the specific component will be included in the application package. Note: The R&R Budget form included in many of the component types allows for up to 100 Senior/Key Persons in section A and 100 Equipment Items in section C prior to using attachments for additional entries. All other SF424 (R&R) instructions apply. PHS 398 Research Plan (Projects) Introduction to Application: For Resubmission applications, an Introduction to Application is allowed for each component. Specific Aims: List in priority order, the broad, long-range objectives and goals of the proposed Project. Describe the hypothesis or hypotheses to be tested. In addition, state the Project's relationship to the multi-project program goals and how it relates to other Projects or Cores. Research Strategy: Use this section to describe how the proposed research will contribute to meeting the Program's goals and objectives and explain the rationale for selecting the methods to accomplish the specific aims. In addition to stating the biological significance of the research, indicate the Project's relevance to the primary theme of the application. The Product Manufacturing Project must include a Product Development Plan. This should include: (1) a description of the conceptual framework, design, and iterative evaluation of the vaccine concept with rationale for how the proposed research strategy differs from existing approaches that are being tested; (2) a description of the proposed vaccine candidate, its stage of development and consideration of plans for inclusion of adjuvant(s) and formulations early in the planning stages; (3) data resulting from research conducted to date with respect to the potential for the proposed vaccine candidate to elicit the desired responses; (4) a plan for providing the necessary process development and CGMP skill sets into the Program (e.g., Biotech/Pharma or a CMO); (5) a clear delineation of the proposed product development activities to be undertaken; (6) a Risk Assessment plan with a discussion of potential limitations/obstacles in achieving project objectives; proposed alternative methods to deal with anticipated limitations/obstacles; (7) proposed steps for the maintenance of Quality Assurance oversight throughout the implementation and operation of the project including qualification of Vendors and CMOs and Quality Systems Audits of Vendor facilities; (8) a description of drug substance and or drug product stability testing program based on FDA guidance; and (9) a description of IND-enabling activities. Milestones and Timelines: As part of the requirements for each individual Project, the application must include Milestones and Timelines. This will include a clear delineation of goals with measurable milestones, including detailed quantitative and qualitative criteria for go/no go decision-making, and a timeline for the attainment of each goal and milestone. Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following modification: All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data Sharing Plan. Appendix: Only limited items are allowed in the Appendix. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information (Projects) When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions: If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or a Delayed Onset Study record. Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Delayed Onset Study Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start).All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. Foreign Institutions Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions described throughout the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. 3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) See Part 1. Section III.1 for information regarding the requirement for obtaining a unique entity identifier and for completing and maintaining active registrations in System for Award Management (SAM), NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (if applicable), eRA Commons, and Grants.gov. 4. Submission Dates and Times Part I. Overview Information contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day. Organizations must submit applications to Grants.gov (the online portal to find and apply for grants across all Federal agencies) using ASSIST or other electronic submission systems. Applicants must then complete the submission process by tracking the status of the application in the eRA Commons, NIHs electronic system for grants administration. NIH and Grants.gov systems check the application against many of the application instructions upon submission. Errors must be corrected and a changed/corrected application must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before the application due date and time. If a Changed/Corrected application is submitted after the deadline, the application will be considered late. Applications that miss the due date and time are subjected to the NIH Policy on Late Application Submission. Applicants are responsible for viewing their application before the due date in the eRA Commons to ensure accurate and successful submission. Information on the submission process and a definition of on-time submission are provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. 5. Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372) This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review. 6. Funding Restrictions All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. 7. Other Submission Requirements and Information Applications must be submitted electronically following the instructions described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. Paper applications will not be accepted. For information on how your application will be automatically assembled for review and funding consideration after submission go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ElectronicReceipt/files/Electronic_Multi-project_Application_Image_Assembly.pdf. Applicants must complete all required registrations before the application due date. Section III. Eligibility Information contains information about registration. For assistance with your electronic application or for more information on the electronic submission process, visit How to Apply Application Guide. If you encounter a system issue beyond your control that threatens your ability to complete the submission process on-time, you must follow the Dealing with System Issues guidance. For assistance with application submission, contact the Application Submission Contacts in Section VII. Important reminders: All PD(s)/PI(s) and component Project Leads must include their eRA Commons ID in the Credential field of the Senior/Key Person Profile Component of the SF424(R&R) Application Package. Failure to register in the Commons and to include a valid PD/PI Commons ID in the credential field will prevent the successful submission of an electronic application to NIH. The applicant organization must ensure that the DUNS number it provides on the application is the same number used in the organizations profile in the eRA Commons and for the System for Award Management (SAM). Additional information may be found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. See more tips for avoiding common errors. Upon receipt, applications will be evaluated for completeness and compliance with application instructions by the Center for Scientific Review, NIH. Applications that are incomplete or non-compliant will not be reviewed. Post Submission Materials Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy. Any instructions provided here are in addition to the instructions in the policy. Section V. Application Review Information 1. Criteria Only the review criteria described below will be considered in the review process. Applications submitted to the NIH in support of the NIH mission are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH peer review system. Overall Impact - Overall Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the program to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the program proposed). Scored Review Criteria - Overall Reviewers will consider each of the review criteria below in the determination of scientific merit, and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a program that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field. Significance Does the program address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? Is the prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project rigorous? If the aims of the program are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field? Are the PD(s)/PI(s), collaborators, and other researchers well suited to the program ? If Early Stage Investigators or those in the early stages of independent careers, do they have appropriate experience and training? If established, have they demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments that have advanced their field(s)? If the program is collaborative or multi-PD/PI, do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise; are their leadership approach, governance and organizational structure appropriate for the program? Specific to this FOA: Is there evidence of collaborative relationships between the investigators that will support an integrated effort? Does the PD/PI have the leadership and scientific ability to develop and sustain an integrated and focused research program? Will the PD/PI and other Project/Core Leaders devote adequate time and effort to the program? Innovation Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions? Are the concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense? Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed? Approach Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the program ? Have investigators included plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project? Have the investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach, as appropriate for the work proposed? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility and will particularly risky aspects be managed? Have the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects? If the program involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, are the plans to address: 1) the protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults), justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed? Specific to this FOA: Are the overall program goals clear, well-defined, and appropriately focused? Will the integration of the individual projects into a single program be more beneficial than pursuing each project independently? Are the administrative plans for the management of projects, including plans for resolving conflicts, appropriate? Is there adequate consideration for a Risk Assessment Plan for CGMP manufacturing related activities e.g. Quality Systems Audits of Vendors and CMOs? Are there adequate consideration and well-defined plan for a stability testing program based on FDA guidance? Milestones: Are the overall Timelines and proposed Milestones, including the Product Development Plan and Clinical Development Plan, well-defined with quantifiable measures and criteria that are appropriate for enabling clear go/no go decisions and assessing the success of the individual projects, cores, and overall program. Do the milestones support the goal of advancing vaccine concepts into clinical studies within the first five years of the award? Clinical Development Plan: Considering the clinical strategy, proposed clinical partner, and the clinical development plan how feasible is it that the program will result in implementation of a clinical trial in year five of the award? Does the clinical development plan adequately describe plans to implement a clinical trial in year 5? Does the application identify an appropriate clinical partner needed to conduct the trial? Is there an adequate plan for activities related to IND-enabling studies for regulatory submission? Environment Will the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success? Are the institutional support, equipment and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the program proposed? Will the program benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or collaborative arrangements? Specific to this FOA: How well do identified facilities for the CGMP project align with the needs of the program and the project period? How well does the institutional support meet the requirement of the program in terms of laboratory space, equipment and other resources? Overall Impact- Individual Projects Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following five scored review criteria, and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed). Scored Review Criteria Individual Projects Reviewers will consider each of the review criteria below in the determination of scientific merit and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a project that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field. Significance Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? Is the prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project rigorous? If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field? Investigator(s) Are the Project Leads(s), collaborators, and other researchers well suited to the project? If Early Stage Investigators or those in the early stages of independent careers, do they have appropriate experience and training? If established, have they demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments that have advanced their field(s)? If the project is collaborative or multi-PD/PI, do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise; are their leadership approach, governance and organizational structure appropriate for the project? Innovation Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions? Are the concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense? Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed? Approach Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Have investigators included plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project? Have the investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach, as appropriate for the work proposed? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility, and will particularly risky aspects be managed? Have the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects? If the project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, are the plans to address 1) the protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults), justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed? Environment Will the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success? Are the institutional support, equipment and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the project proposed? Will the project benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or collaborative arrangements? Overall Impact Administrative and Scientific Cores Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the Core to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following: Administrative Core The merit of the Administrative Core will be assessed based on the following questions: Is the administrative and organizational structure appropriate and adequate to the attainment of the objective(s) of the proposed program? Is the management plan for fiscal accountability and communication within the program appropriate? Are the plans for coordination, problem identification and resolution, and the establishment of a strong collaborative environment for the program appropriate? Are the experience, level of commitment, and availability of the Contact Program Director/Principal Investigator serving as the Administrative Core Leader and his/her administrative staff adequate to manage the program? Scientific Core(s) (if applicable): The merit of the Scientific Core(s) will be assessed based on the following questions: Does each Scientific Core make a strong contribution to the Projects, well justified and provided with needed resources? Are the criteria for core prioritization and usage appropriate? Are the qualifications, competence, and commitment of the Core Leader and key personnel appropriate? Additional Review Criteria - Overall, Cores and Projects As applicable for the program proposed, reviewers will evaluate the following additional items while determining scientific and technical merit, and in providing an overall impact score, but will not give separate scores for these items. Protections for Human Subjects For research that involves human subjects but does not involve one of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate the justification for involvement of human subjects and the proposed protections from research risk relating to their participation according to the following five review criteria: 1) risk to subjects, 2) adequacy of protection against risks, 3) potential benefits to the subjects and others, 4) importance of the knowledge to be gained, and 5) data and safety monitoring for clinical trials. For research that involves human subjects and meets the criteria for one or more of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate: 1) the justification for the exemption, 2) human subjects involvement and characteristics, and 3) sources of materials. For additional information on review of the Human Subjects section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Human Subjects. Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Individuals Across the Lifespan When the proposed program involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, the committee will evaluate the proposed plans for the inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults) to determine if it is justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed. For additional information on review of the Inclusion section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Inclusion in Clinical Research. Vertebrate Animals The committee will evaluate the involvement of live vertebrate animals as part of the scientific assessment according to the following criteria: (1) description of proposed procedures involving animals, including species, strains, ages, sex, and total number to be used; (2) justifications for the use of animals versus alternative models and for the appropriateness of the species proposed; (3) interventions to minimize discomfort, distress, pain and injury; and (4) justification for euthanasia method if NOT consistent with the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. Reviewers will assess the use of chimpanzees as they would any other application proposing the use of vertebrate animals. For additional information on review of the Vertebrate Animals section, please refer to the Worksheet for Review of the Vertebrate Animal Section. Biohazards Reviewers will assess whether materials or procedures proposed are potentially hazardous to research personnel and/or the environment, and if needed, determine whether adequate protection is proposed. Resubmissions For Resubmissions, the committee will evaluate the application as now presented, taking into consideration the responses to comments from the previous scientific review group and changes made to the project. Renewals Not Applicable Revisions Not Applicable Additional Review Considerations - Overall As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider each of the following items, but will not give scores for these items, and should not consider them in providing an overall impact score. Applications from Foreign Organizations Reviewers will assess whether the project presents special opportunities for furthering research programs through the use of unusual talent, resources, populations, or environmental conditions that exist in other countries and either are not readily available in the United States or augment existing U.S. resources. Select Agent Research Reviewers will assess the information provided in this section of the application, including 1) the Select Agent(s) to be used in the proposed research, 2) the registration status of all entities where Select Agent(s) will be used, 3) the procedures that will be used to monitor possession use and transfer of Select Agent(s), and 4) plans for appropriate biosafety, biocontainment, and security of the Select Agent(s). Resource Sharing Plans Reviewers will comment on whether the following Resource Sharing Plans, or the rationale for not sharing the following types of resources, are reasonable: 1) Data Sharing Plan; 2) Sharing Model Organisms; and 3) Genomic Data Sharing Plan . Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources For projects involving key biological and/or chemical resources, reviewers will comment on the brief plans proposed for identifying and ensuring the validity of those resources. Budget and Period of Support Reviewers will consider whether the budget and the requested period of support are fully justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed research. 2. Review and Selection Process Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s), convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in accordance with NIH peer review policy and procedures, using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a Scientific Review Group will be shown in the eRA Commons. As part of the scientific peer review, all applications: May undergo a selection process in which only those applications deemed to have the highest scientific and technical merit (generally the top half of applications under review) will be discussed and assigned an overall impact score. Will receive a written critique. Applications will be assigned on the basis of established PHS referral guidelines to the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications . Following initial peer review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the appropriate national Advisory Council or Board . The following will be considered in making funding decisions: Scientific and technical merit of the proposed project as determined by scientific peer review. Availability of funds. Relevance of the proposed project to program priorities. 3. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates After the peer review of the application is completed, the PD/PI will be able to access his or her Summary Statement (written critique) via the eRA Commons. Refer to Part 1 for dates for peer review, advisory council review, and earliest start date. Information regarding the disposition of applications is available in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Section VI. Award Administration Information 1. Award Notices If the application is under consideration for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the grantees business official. Awardees must comply with any funding restrictions described in Section IV.5. Funding Restrictions. Selection of an application for award is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk. These costs may be reimbursed only to the extent considered allowable pre-award costs. Any application awarded in response to this FOA will be subject to terms and conditions found on the Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants website. This includes any recent legislation and policy applicable to awards that is highlighted on this website. Institutional Review Board or Independent Ethics Committee Approval: Grantee institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC. To help ensure the safety of participants enrolled in NIH-funded studies, the awardee must provide NIH copies of documents related to all major changes in the status of ongoing protocols. 2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements All NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards include the NIH Grants Policy Statement as part of the NoA. For these terms of award, see the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: General and Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Grantees, and Activities. More information is provided at Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants. Recipients of federal financial assistance (FFA) from HHS must administer their programs in compliance with federal civil rights law. This means that recipients of HHS funds must ensure equal access to their programs without regard to a persons race, color, national origin, disability, age and, in some circumstances, sex and religion. This includes ensuring your programs are accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. HHS recognizes that research projects are often limited in scope for many reasons that are nondiscriminatory, such as the principal investigators scientific interest, funding limitations, recruitment requirements, and other considerations. Thus, criteria in research protocols that target or exclude certain populations are warranted where nondiscriminatory justifications establish that such criteria are appropriate with respect to the health or safety of the subjects, the scientific study design, or the purpose of the research. For additional guidance regarding how the provisions apply to NIH grant programs, please contact the Scientific/Research Contact that is identified in Section VII under Agency Contacts of this FOA. HHS provides general guidance to recipients of FFA on meeting their legal obligation to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to their programs by persons with limited English proficiency. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/special-topics/limited-english-proficiency/index.html. The HHS Office for Civil Rights also provides guidance on complying with civil rights laws enforced by HHS. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/section-1557/index.html; and https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/laws-regulations-guidance/index.html. Recipients of FFA also have specific legal obligations for serving qualified individuals with disabilities. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/disability/index.html. Please contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights for more information about obligations and prohibitions under federal civil rights laws at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/about-us/contact-us/index.html or call 1-800-368-1019 or TDD 1-800-537-7697. Also note it is an HHS Departmental goal to ensure access to quality, culturally competent care, including long-term services and supports, for vulnerable populations. For further guidance on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services, recipients should review the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care at http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53. In accordance with the statutory provisions contained in Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417), NIH awards will be subject to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) requirements. FAPIIS requires Federal award making officials to review and consider information about an applicant in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS) prior to making an award. An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and performance systems accessible through FAPIIS and comment on any information about itself that a Federal agency previously entered and is currently in FAPIIS. The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to other information in FAPIIS, in making a judgement about the applicants integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in 45 CFR Part 75.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants. This provision will apply to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements except fellowships. Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions of Award The following special terms of award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) administrative guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) grant administration regulations at 45 CFR Part 75, and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies. The administrative and funding instrument used for this program will be the cooperative agreement, an "assistance" mechanism, (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the awardees is anticipated during the performance of the activities. Under the cooperative agreement, the NIH purpose is to support and stimulate the recipients' activities by involvement in and otherwise working jointly with the award recipients in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime responsibility resides with the awardees for the project as a whole, although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the awardees and the NIH as defined below. The PD(s)/PI(s) will have the primary responsibility for: Defining the research objectives, approaches, and details of the projects within the guidelines of the FOA and for performing the scientific activities. Annual Site Visit Review: Each awardee is required to coordinate an annual site visit. The site visit will provide an update and progress of the grant in the last budget year and allow discussion of the future year plans. The site visit will be attended by the PD/PI, key personnel, the External Advisory Committee (see below under Collaborative Responsibilities) members, the NIAID/DAIDS Project Scientist (see below) and NIAID Program Official (see below). An update and summary of the results generated on each project will be presented by the PD/PI, Co-Investigators, and/or pertinent staff. These presentations should include summaries of all goals or milestones (refer to Other Submission Requirements section of the FOA) and a description of all problems encountered that may have an impact on the achievement of future goals and milestones. Intellectual Property: The successful development of tools for the evaluation of a prophylactic HIV/AIDS vaccine will require substantial investment and support of private sector industries and may also involve collaborations with multiple organizations, including academic and/or non-profit research institutions. It is the intent of this initiative to support the formation of the appropriate public-private partnerships that are essential to meet this critical public health need. NIAID recognizes that intellectual property rights are likely to play an important role in achieving the goals of this program. To this end: the awardee is solely responsible for the timely acquisition of all appropriate proprietary rights, including intellectual property rights, and all materials needed to perform the project. Awardees will retain custody of and have primary rights to the data and software developed under these awards, subject to Government rights of access consistent with current DHHS, PHS, and NIH policies. NIH staff will have substantial programmatic involvement that is above and beyond the normal stewardship role in awards, as described below: The NIAID Project Scientist will provide technical assistance, advice, and coordination, and interact with the PD/PI on a regular basis to monitor study progress, regulatory compliance, and quality assurance in order to ensure the production of high-quality, unbiased results. Monitoring may include: (1) regular communication with the PD/PI and staff, (2) periodic site visits for discussions with awardees research teams, and (3) observation of field data collection and management techniques, quality control, fiscal review, and other relevant matters, as well as, (4) attendance at and participation in annual site visit meetings and/or External Advisory Committee meetings. The NIAID retains, as an option, periodic review of progress. Such review and monitoring may be conducted through organizations contracted by, and acting on behalf of, NIAID. The NIAID Project Scientist will serve as a resource with respect to concurrent NIAID research and research support activities that may be relevant to the IPCAVD project, to facilitate compatibility, avoid unnecessary duplication, and potentially forge collaborations that may enhance the quality and breadth of the study. The NIAID Project Scientist will provide substantial assistance in design and coordination of preclinical research activities and clinical testing for awardees, including: (1) advice on the planning, management, and technical performance of the investigators, (2) access to and use of reagents and assays, and other resources available through NIAID contractors and grantees, including the independent non-clinical evaluation of the candidate vaccine, (3) technical advice and assistance for meeting Food and Drug Administration requirements for investigational drugs, (4) providing guidance (e.g., submission of the required documentation, etc.) for the NIAID clinical protocol review process. At the mid-point of the cooperative agreement (no later than the third year), the Program Official with assistance from the NIAID Project Scientist, will assess the likelihood of initiation of a clinical study by Year 5 of the grant through the accomplishment of the milestones, the immunologic parameters of the vaccine candidate as an efficacious prophylactic HIV/AIDS vaccine, and the feasibility that manufacture. The assessment will be based on the first two annual reports, the milestones included in the application and negotiated with the awardee prior to award (included in the Terms of Award) and any additional information that the PD/PI elects to submit. The release of funds for initiation of the manufacturing will be contingent upon the successful completion of a DAIDS-contracted GMP audit of the manufacturing facility and proof of concept, including preclinical and other analytical attributes of the down-selected product. Additionally, an agency program official or IC program director will be responsible for the normal scientific and programmatic stewardship of the award and will be named in the award notice. Areas of Joint Responsibilities include: Awardees and the NIAID Project Scientist shall share responsibility for the organization of an External Advisory Committee (EAC). The composition and membership of the EAC shall be determined by consensus between the PD/PI and the NIAID Project Scientist. The EAC will consist of a minimum of 3 members not directly affiliated with the research being conducted by the awardee. The EAC, together with the PD/PI, will be responsible for determining progress of the PD/PI/co-investigators during the annual site visit. Each EAC member will have one vote. Awardees will be required to accept and implement policies approved by the External Advisory Committee. The NIAID Project Scientists and Program Officials will participate as non-voting members of the EAC. Dispute Resolution: Any disagreements that may arise in scientific or programmatic matters (within the scope of the award) between award recipients and the NIH may be brought to Dispute Resolution. A Dispute Resolution Panel composed of three members will be convened. It will have three members: a designee of the EAC, one NIH designee, and a third designee with expertise in the relevant area that is chosen by the other two; in the case of individual disagreement, the first member may be chosen by the individual awardee. This dispute resolution procedure does not alter the awardee's right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in accordance with PHS regulation 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and DHHS regulation 45 CFR Part 16. 3. Reporting When multiple years are involved, awardees will be required to submit the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) annually and financial statements as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act), includes a requirement for awardees of Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards issued in FY2011 or later. All awardees of applicable NIH grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at www.fsrs.gov on all subawards over $25,000. See the NIH Grants Policy Statement for additional information on this reporting requirement. In accordance with the regulatory requirements provided at 45 CFR 75.113 and Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75, recipients that have currently active Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and procurement contracts from all Federal awarding agencies with a cumulative total value greater than $10,000,000 for any period of time during the period of performance of a Federal award, must report and maintain the currency of information reported in the System for Award Management (SAM) about civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings in connection with the award or performance of a Federal award that reached final disposition within the most recent five-year period. The recipient must also make semiannual disclosures regarding such proceedings. Proceedings information will be made publicly available in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS). This is a statutory requirement under section 872 of Public Law 110-417, as amended (41 U.S.C. 2313). As required by section 3010 of Public Law 111-212, all information posted in the designated integrity and performance system on or after April 15, 2011, except past performance reviews required for Federal procurement contracts, will be publicly available. Full reporting requirements and procedures are found in Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75 Award Term and Conditions for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters. Section VII. Agency Contacts We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants. Application Submission Contacts eRA Service Desk (Questions regarding ASSIST, eRA Commons, application errors and warnings, documenting system problems that threaten submission by the due date, and post-submission issues) Finding Help Online: http://grants.nih.gov/support/ (preferred method of contact) Telephone: 301-402-7469 or 866-504-9552 (Toll Free) General Grants Information (Questions regarding application instructions, application processes, and NIH grant resources) Email: GrantsInfo@nih.gov (preferred method of contact) Telephone: 301-945-7573 Grants.gov Customer Support (Questions regarding Grants.gov registration and Workspace) Contact Center Telephone: 800-518-4726 Email: support@grants.gov Scientific/Research Contact(s) Sujata Vijh, Ph.D. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Telephone: 301-761-7713 Email: vijhs@niaid.nih.gov Peer Review Contact(s) Kumud K. Singh, Ph.D. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Telephone: 301-761-7830 Email: kumud.singh@nih.gov Financial/Grants Management Contact(s) Ann Devine National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Telephone: 240-669-2988 Email: adevine@niaid.nih.gov Section VIII. Other Information Recently issued trans-NIH policy notices may affect your application submission. A full list of policy notices published by NIH is provided in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Authority and Regulations Awards are made under the authorization of Sections 301 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284) and under Federal Regulations 42 CFR Part 52 and 45 CFR Part 75. New IAEA report confirms JCPOA-related monitoring process underway in Iran: Envoy Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 6:14 PM Iran says a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows the UN nuclear watchdog has kept up its monitoring and verification process inside the country concerning a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, after the IAEA issued two reports one regular report on Tehran's current nuclear program and the other detailing what it claims to be Tehran's denial of access to two sites the agency wanted to visit. The IAEA is tasked with monitoring the technical implementation of the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six major world powers the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany in 2015. The IAEA's regular report "once again confirms that the agency's verification activities on the JCPOA have been going on since January 16, 2016," when the deal took effect, the official said. The US unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 and unleashed the "toughest ever" sanctions against the Islamic Republic in an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade. Under Washington's pressure, the three European signatories to the JCPOA have so far failed to protect Tehran's business interests. In response, Iran began last May to gradually reduce its commitments as part of its legal rights under the JCPOA to both retaliate for Washington's departure and prompt the European trio to respect their obligations towards Tehran. The country has so far taken five steps away from the deal under the IAEA's supervision, but says its counter-measures are reversible if the other parties begin to fulfill their side of the agreement. On the latest IAEA report, Gharibabadi said the document shows Iran continues its UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) activities at the Fordow nuclear plant and that the country's level of enrichment stands at up to 4.5 percent, he noted. Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA limit of 3.76 percent as part of its second step away from the accord. As part of its fourth step in November 2019, Iran said it had officially started injecting gas into hundreds of centrifuges at underground Fordow nuclear plant. The operation started with the transfer of a 2,800-kilogram cylinder containing 2,000 kilograms of UF6 from Natanz nuclear facility to Fordow - near the city of Qom, where 1,044 centrifuges are installed. The JCPOA allowed the first-generation IR-1 centrifuges at Fordow to spin without uranium gas. Gharibabdi further added that as confirmed by the IAEA report, Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, as of February 19, 2020, had reached 1020.9 kilograms, beyond the 202.8 kilograms set by the JCPOA. Iran stopped observing that limit as part of its first commitment reduction step. The official further said the IAEA report also acknowledged that Iran has installed new centrifuges based on its own announcement. Iran started up advanced centrifuges to boost the country's stockpile of enriched uranium and activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 centrifuges for research and development purposes as part of the third stage of its commitment suspension. "This report emphasizes that Iran still continues to voluntarily and temporarily implement the Additional Protocol and verification of non-diversion of the declared material and activities in Iran will continue," the Iranian envoy added. In another report released on Tuesday, the IAEA repeated the claim that it had identified three locations in Iran where the country possibly stored undeclared nuclear material or undertook nuclear-related activities without declaring it to international observers. It said it had sent questions to Iran in three separate letters but received no answers. "The agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran that had not been declared by Iran," the agency said in the report. Commenting on the claims, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi demanded Iran's "clarifications" over the so-called undeclared sites. Grossi told the AFP that "Iran must decide to cooperate in a clearer manner with the agency to give the necessary clarifications." "The fact that we found traces (of uranium) is very important. That means there is the possibility of nuclear activities and material that are not under international supervision and about which we know not the origin or the intent," claimed the IAEA's head. The IAEA has not specified the origin of the allegation, but since April 2018, the US and Israel have been busy making a fuss about unsubstantiated Tel Aviv-sourced allegations about undeclared nuclear activity by Tehran. Iran has repeatedly warned the agency against attempts by the US under President Donald Trump and Israel a staunch opponent of diplomacy with Iran to put pressure on the IAEA with the goal of killing the JCPOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - MAX RESOURCE CORP. (TSXV: MXR) (OTC Pink: MXROF) (FSE: M1D2) ("Max" or the "Company") is pleased to report a high-grade outcrop discovery within AM North's flat-lying, stratabound copper + silver mineralized system. Assays from AMN-2 returned 24.8% copper + 230 g/t silver from a 4-metre by 1-metre rock chip panel. AMN-2 lies 1.8-km along strike from the AMN-1 discovery. The copper mineralization consisted of malachite, azurite, and chalcocite within the sandstone. Both discoveries at the CESAR copper + silver project, approximately 420-km north of Bogota, Colombia are open-ended and dip 20 degrees NW (refer to Figures 1, 2 and 3). The CESAR mineralized zones appear to resemble a large sub-horizontal sheet, with the edges partly exposed. Max is using rock chip sampling on the extensive surface exposure to identify structures, confirm strike continuity and establish thickness, prior to drilling. The Company considers rock chip panel sampling to be representative across their reported widths. CESAR consists of two distinct areas: AM North, located 40-km north of AM South, appears to share the same mineralized trend; The stratabound copper + silver mineralization at both, AM North and AM South, are hosted in a bedded sandstone-siltstone similar to Kupferschiefer in Poland. Max cautions investors the copper + silver mineralization at Kupferschiefer is not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization at Cesar. "We were pleasantly surprised that the AM North discovery was made in just a one-day field reconnaissance. Given the early stage success at both, AM North and AM South, we are confident in further exploration successes in 2020," Max CEO, Brett Matich, commented. "While the spectacular results reported today are noteworthy, we are working on the premise of an average target grade of plus 1.5% copper with associated silver. Our exploration success continues to support our belief that CESAR is a large-scale copper + silver mineralized system. Our field teams continue to expand the known mineralization," Mr. Matich continued. Story continues To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_001full.jpg To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_002full.jpg To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3834/53125_4d8f80e5f422e839_003full.jpg CESAR Copper + Silver Project The wholly-owned CESAR Project is located in north east Colombia within Jurassic sediments and volcaniclastics that extend the length of northern South America and also host significant stratabound copper + silver mineralization found both in Ecuador and Peru. CESAR lies along a historic 120-km copper-belt within a sedimentary basin, the district has extensive infrastructure, major oil-gas and coal operations, ports, townships, railways and roadways. Considering the first pass exploration at CESAR commenced only in mid-November 2019, the Company has enjoyed considerable success. Max's exploration strategy is to unlock the potential of the CESAR district as an up and coming world class copper and silver producing region. PGE Americas Metals Corp Max recently established "PGE Americas Metals Corp." as a wholly-owned subsidiary, to hold its PGE Choco Project. This is the first step towards building a portfolio of PGE assets with a focus on palladium, platinum and rhodium. The intent is to unlock this value in a timely manner (refer to news release February 25, 2020). The PGE Choco project is located 120-km SW of Medellin Colombia, within a district with historical platinum production of one million ounces (1906-1990) by Choco Pacific Mining. Compilation of historical records revealed the potential for related PGE's particularly palladium and rhodium. In addition, recent field work in 2019 by Max resulted in concentrate values of 114 g/t platinum (refer to news release April 16, 2019). Colombia was the world's main source of platinum until 1820 and was world's largest producer between 1917 and 1923. Source: R.J. Fletcher and Associates (2011) Review of Gold and Platinum Exploration and Production in Choco Province Colombia Part 3. Private Report for Condo to Platinum NL. North Choco Gold and Copper Project North Choco consists of wholly-owned mineral applications, located approximately 80-km SW of Medellin, Colombia. The NW Gold-Copper Discovery (refer to October29, 2019 news release) outcrop reported 1-metre of 49.8 g/t gold and 4.3% copper, continuing under cover in both directions. Future work will focus on mapping and sampling along strike to extend the zone and on locating additional parallel zones. Quality Assurance The rock chip samples were shipped to ALS Lab's sample preparation facility in Medellin, Columbia. Sample pulps are sent to Lima, Peru for analysis. All samples were analyzed using ALS procedure ME-MS41, a four-acid digestion with ICP finish. Over limit copper and silver were determined by ALS procedure OG-62, a four-acid digestion with an AAS finish. ALS Labs is independent from Max. Max is not aware of any other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data referred to herein. About Max Resource Corp. Max, a mineral exploration company with an experienced and successful management team, is focused on advancing its copper, silver and precious metals landholdings in the rich mineral belts of Colombia, with potential for the discovery of large-scale mineral deposits that can attract major partners. Tim Henneberry, P Geo (British Columbia), a member of the Max Resource Advisory Board, is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release on behalf of the Company. For more information visit: https://www.maxresource.com/ For additional information contact: Max Resource Corp. Tim McNulty E: info@maxresource.com T: (604) 290-8100 Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the TSXV. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for Max Resources Corp. described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53125 Our politics team covers California government from Sacramento and national politics from the Bay Area and Washington, D.C. The guiding principle in choosing which stories to cover is: How does political and government news affect the Bay Area and California? Read more about how The Chronicle covers politics and what we do to ensure fairness in our reporting The UK government has reiterated its concern over the potential impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said it is continuing to follow the events in India closely. In response to an urgent question on Recent Violence in India tabled by Pakistani-origin Opposition Labour Party MP Khalid Mahmood in the House of Commons on Tuesday, UK's Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Nigel Adams said the UK engages with India at all levels, including on human rights, and also referred to the country's "proud history" of inclusive government and religious tolerance. "The UK government also have concerns about the potential impact of the legislation (CAA), said Adams, the Minister for Asia who was standing in for UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is on a visit to Turkey. "It is because of our close relationship with the government of India that we are able to discuss difficult issues with them and make clear our concerns where we have them, including on the rights of minorities. We will continue to follow events closely and to raise our concerns when we have with them, said the minister. The new citizenship law passed by the Indian Parliament in December 2019 offers citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. After the enactment of the law, protests erupted across the country over fears that it may marginalise the minority Muslim community. The Indian government has maintained that the CAA is an internal matter of the country and stressed that the goal is to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries. While Mahmood, who had tabled the urgent question for an FCO statement, described the government response as facile, another Pakistani-origin MP Nusrat Ghani called on the government to relay the UK Parliament's concerns to the Indian authorities. British Sikh Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi said the violence had brought back painful personal memories from the 1984 Sikh riots while he was studying in India and fellow Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill also referenced 1984 in her intervention. Other MPs sought to highlight the steps taken by the Indian authorities to restore peace and tranquillity in Delhi. He will be aware that it is not just Muslims who have been killed; Hindus have also been killed as part of the riots, said Conservative Party MP Bob Blackman. Scottish Party (SNP) MP Alyn Smith sought the UK government's intervention to share best practice around countering the online disinformation campaign being used in India to inflame tensions. We are in constant contact on these issues, and we know how important this is to Members of Parliament and their constituents, who may have family in the area, said Adams, in his response. Cruise ship passengers were kept on an ocean liner in yet another coronavirus scare at sea today after a former shipmate tested positive in Italy. Some 2,300 people - including 39 Britons - were called back on board the MSC Opera from an excursion in Athens today and told not to leave the ship. Once they returned, the captain revealed that an Austrian tourist who left the ship on February 28 had been infected with the virus. The virus patient, a man, had disembarked in Genoa in northern Italy, the region at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe. Passengers were kept the cruise liner MSC Opera (file photo) in yet another coronavirus scare at sea today after a former shipmate tested positive in Italy One passenger, Antonio Montalto, said guests had been told to return to the vessel 'immediately' from their excursion in Greece. The order was initially unexplained, and rumours even swirled that the delay was linked to the tensions on the Greece-Turkey border. However, the captain subsequently explained that passengers had been called back over virus fears. A letter from the captain, seen by the Mirror, said that the ship's crew was 'waiting for further clarity and guidelines' from Greek and Austrian authorities. Pictured: An announcement from MSC Opera captain Pietro Esposito regarding the passenger Pictured: Mike Knotts and his wife Charysse in Athens, the couple are travelling aboard the MSC Opera 'All passengers and crew are requested to remain on board until we have further clarity on the matter,' the letter says. 'Please note there is no reason for concern. We have no indication that suggests there may be an issue currently on board MSC Opera and there are no cases that suggest there may be a case of Covid-19.' A spokesperson for MSC Cruises later confirmed the ship was given permission from the Greek Health Authorities to continue its journey from Piraeus to Corfu, Greece at 1pm. A statement added 'no additional health measures were required to be taken'. Pictured: Passengers Mike and Charysse Knotts walk past the MSC Opera ahead of visiting Rhodes The ship was stopped in Piraeus, Greece before being allowed to carry on to Corfu at 1pm 'Health Authorities in Austria today informed us that a passenger of Austrian nationality, who had cruised with us on MSC Opera in the East Mediterranean from 17 to 28 February, tested positive yesterday for COVID-19,' a spokesman said. 'This passenger returned directly to Austria through northern Italy on 28 February immediately after disembarking from his cruise in Genoa, Italy. 'MSC Opera earlier today arrived in Piraeus, Greece, and we promptly informed the Greek Health Authorities about this reported case and asked for their guidelines. 'We requested at the same time that passengers, as a precautionary measure, remained on board while awaiting guidance from the local authorities.' Are you on board the MSC Opera? Email faith.ridler@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement MSC Cruises added there are 'no passengers or crew members currently on board the ship who have reported any flu-like symptoms.' 'The health and safety of our passengers and crew will always remain our top priority,' a statement said. There are currently 2,302 people on board the MSC Opera - 1,579 passengers and 723 crew members - 39 of whom are British. Health authorities have had a suspicious eye on cruise ships since hundreds of people tested positive on the Diamond Princess in Japan. Japan's attempted two-week quarantine on the Diamond Princess was widely criticised by experts after 705 people tested positive. Health authorities have had a suspicious eye on cruise ships since hundreds of people tested positive on the Diamond Princess (pictured) in Japan Japanese authorities had ordered a lockdown after a passenger who left the ship in Hong Kong in January tested positive for the virus. Two more cruises were disrupted yesterday after Myanmar turned a ship away and Norway kept a vessel in port while two passengers were tested. Norwegian authorities kept 1,200 tourists on board the Aida Aura at Haugesund harbour after fears were raised over two German travellers, although they later tested negative. Meanwhile Myanmar refused permission for the Silver Spirit to dock in Thilawa after 400 tourists arrived from nearby Thailand which has dozens of virus cases. Separately, the cruise ship Westerdam was turned away at five ports last month before it finally arrived in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville. There were no cases on board. Bidens stunning performance cemented a remarkable turnabout, remaking the Democratic presidential primary with head-spinning speed. A candidate once on the brink of collapse, Biden is now a favorite for his partys nomination. Once on the brink of collapse, Joe Biden makes a stunning turnabout; ex-VP, Bernie Sanders likely to emerge frontrunners in Democratic race Less than a month ago, Joe Biden's campaign was in free fall. Even after he mounted a comeback in South Carolina, he confronted the reality of competing in crucial Super Tuesday contests with little money and no discernible campaign infrastructure. It didnt matter. The former vice president swept to victory in Democratic primary contests across the country, from New England to the Atlantic seaboard swing states, from the Upper Midwest to the Deep South. His coalition was broad, with black voters, women, older and college-educated voters all drawn to his campaign. Bidens stunning performance cemented a remarkable turnabout, remaking the Democratic presidential primary with head-spinning speed. A candidate once on the brink of collapse, Biden is now a favorite for his partys nomination. "Im here to report, we are very much alive," Biden declared at a raucous rally in Los Angeles. California, the nights biggest prize, was one of the few states Biden lost to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But Biden picked off Texas, the second-biggest state up for grabs, as well as eight other contests. His victories in Virginia and North Carolina, two crucial general-election states, were particularly decisive. Bidens show of force puts him on a collision course with Sanders that will test who Democrats view as more electable in November. Sanders, a liberal firebrand, has spent decades calling for sweeping overhauls of economic and health care systems, while Biden, a moderate, is running less as an ideologue and more as a candidate who can reset the nation after President Donald Trumps divisive administration. Sanders fast start in this primary season he won in New Hampshire and Nevada and effectively tied in Iowa rattled centrist Democrats who fear he is out of step with vast swaths of the electorate and would not only cost the party the White House, but also the House and the Senate. Many in the party quickly recognized that Sanders was benefiting from a crowded field of more moderate candidates who were dividing up the rest of the Democratic electorate. But it wasnt until Bidens commanding victory in South Carolina on Saturday that they began to see him as the best alternative. The speed at which Bidens standing has shifted is virtually unprecedented in recent memory. In the days since South Carolina, high-profile Democrats have flocked to Bidens campaign with dizzying speed, including several former rivals whose campaigns once appeared promising. Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Beto ORourke all endorsed Biden on Monday in a forceful show of party unity. Much-needed money is also pouring in, including from some wealthy donors who have fretted for months about Bidens vulnerabilities coming off the sidelines. That influx of cash will allow Biden to build out the kind of campaign operations in upcoming states that he lacked in the Super Tuesday contests. Indeed, the resource gap between Biden and some of his rivals on Tuesday was staggering, making his successes all the more striking. In Minnesota and Massachusetts, billionaire Mike Bloomberg plunged roughly $17 million into TV. Biden carried both states without spending a dollar, according to TV advertising data released late last week. In Virginia, a key general election state where Biden won by more than 25 percentage points, the former vice president spent less than $200,000 to Bloombergs $12 million, the data shows. A similar pattern emerged in Texas, where Bloomberg spent $47.8 million to Bidens $291,000, and in North Carolina, where Bloomberg outspent Biden 28 times over. Bloomberg ended the night without winning a single state, though he picked up a smattering of delegates. He planned to huddle with advisers in New York on Wednesday to reassess whether to press on with his campaign. Also facing reality: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who finished a disappointing third in her home state. Though shes vowed to take her campaign to a contested convention, it was unclear how she would justify continuing with little to cling to out of the Super Tuesday results. That leaves Biden and Sanders, two white men in their late 70s, to battle it out to become the standard-bearer for an increasingly diverse party. The race has echoes of Sanders face-off in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, a more moderate candidate who was deemed a safer choice until her stunning loss to Trump in the general election. Sanders and his supporters are urging the party against taking a similar path this time around. But Bidens surge has underscored just how many Democrats fear the prospect of a Sanders nomination. If Bloomberg were to drop out in the coming days, its likely he would plunge his fortune into helping Biden and blasting Trump with millions of dollars in television advertising through the fall. To be sure, Biden remains a candidate with risk. He has struggled to mobilize young voters and at times seems out of step with his partys energized left flank. He has also proven to be an uneven campaigner, often delivering unwieldy, rambling speeches. But his vastly improved prospects appear to have refocused Biden. He was visibly energized as he blitzed the Super Tuesday states, relishing an outpouring of support from voters and party leaders who had appeared ready to send him into retirement just days ago. "They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing!" Biden exclaimed. BRUSSELSAmid fierce criticism from environmental activists, the European Commission is unveiling plans Wednesday for its first ever climate law the basis of the European Unions Green Deal aimed at making the 27-country bloc climate neutral by 2050. With its proposals, the EUs executive arm wants to make its ambition of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by mid-century irreversible, and legally binding for all member states. According to a leaked draft of the proposals establishing the 2050 goal, the European Commission is proposing a mechanism for regularly raising the EUs emissions reduction target over the next three decades, but there is no plan for an increase of the blocs overall emissions goal for 2030. This particular point has been harshly criticized by climate activists, who claim that delaying the upgraded 2030 target is detrimental to the blocs credibility in the fight against climate change. In the draft, the European Commission only said it would review the EUs current target of a 40 per cent greenhouse gas reduction by September and explore options for a new 2030 target of 50 per cent to 55 per cent emission reductions compared with 1990 levels. Environmental group Greenpeace said Wednesday that because of the absence of a 2030 goal, EU governments will find it extremely difficult to agree a new target before the UN climate talks that will be held in Glasgow in November. Invited by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to attend Wednesdays climate discussions with the college of EU commissioners, climate activist Greta Thunberg has already dismissed the proposed law. In an open letter signed by 34 youth climate activists, the group stressed that instead of setting long-term goals, the EU should focus on the CO2 budget which applies for today. Such C02 budgets are used to measure the additional emissions that can enter the atmosphere without global warming exceeding a certain level. World leaders agreed five years ago in Paris to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, ideally no more than 1.5 C by the end of the century. But scientists say countries will miss both of those goals by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions this year. Greenpeace also insists a 55 per cent reduction target for 2030 wouldnt be sufficient to limit global heating to 2 degrees Celsius, and WWF recommended to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65 per cent by 2030. WWF also urged EU leaders to ban subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels industries and to set up an independent scientific body to supervise the EUs climate changes plans. To set a common trajectory and impose revised targets to member states every five years from 2023, the European Commission is also planning to adopt legally binding legislation that can enter into force if the European Parliament and European Council have no objections. That mechanism could spark concerns among fossil fuel-dependent EU nations, which need to reorganize their economies in order to reach the 2050 target agreed last year by all EU members except Poland. Read more about: Concerns grew Tuesday among Portland restaurant owners about the potential for a significant slowdown days after the coronavirus first arrived in Oregon, even as most reported relatively normal business through the weekend. From fancy French restaurants to fried chicken-focused food carts, small business owners said weekend sales were typical for a quiet weekend in March, often one of the slowest months of the year for dining out. Some spent the days after Oregon officials announced the states first coronavirus case Friday reinforcing hand-washing protocols and encouraging employees to take time off if they felt sick. As of March 3, there were more than 100 confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in the United States, with three in Oregon. Local health officials have yet to recommend any widespread social-distancing methods, such as school closures, telecommuting or the cancellation of mass gatherings. And despite the occasional run on toilet paper and hand sanitizer at area grocery stores, Oregonians seem to be eating out at ordinary levels. CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: FULL COVERAGE Restaurants in the shadow of the Hillsboro hospital where Oregons first confirmed patient went for treament and where dozens of employees were later asked to self quarantine at home operated as usual through the weekend. Employees at Killer Burger and Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill in the Streets of Tanasbourne mall next to Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center reported busier than usual crowds Monday, while a staffer at Takumi Sushi & Bar said the lunch rush was typical. Still, Takumi employee Robert Melendez did notice one change. It seems like people are using more hand sanitizer, Melendez said. Before the outbreak, nobody really used it. Now everybodys using it. Next door theres a body shop where they sell soap, and they posted a sign that said, All sold out of hand sanitizer. Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, where the state's first coronavirus patient is being treated. Thats a little scary, Killer Burger manager Amy Thierbach said after learning that Oregons first coronavirus patient was housed just a short walk away. The hospital employees come here for lunch all the time. And people who are visiting their relatives come in with their visitor badges. Still, if anything, the home of the peanut butter-pickle bacon burger had seen an uptick in lunch sales Monday, Thierbach said. I thought wed be in for a relaxing couple of weeks, but were actually really busy right now, Thierbach said. People arent scared to be out and about yet. Give me a call in a week. Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: Email: Not everyone saw a rise in sales. Anecdotally, several Portland restaurants the upscale Italian eatery Mucca Osteria, the late-night Korean spot Revelry and the fast-casual Kashmiri restaurant Bhuna reported unusual sales drop offs through the weekend or on Monday. Meanwhile, Portland-area catering companies were dealing with last-minute requests for date changes and outright cancellations. Its (Portland) Dining Month, when we usually see a huge increase in covers and revenue, said Revelry co-owner Eric Bowler wrote in a message to The Oregonian/OregonLive.com. But so far, on day one we were down 35%. At least two Washington County restaurants werent waiting for health officials to take further precautions at their stores. Not long after learning of the novel coronavirus, Safou Atwi placed a sign in the door of his four-year-old Donut Palace, 3164 N.W. 185th Ave., asking customers who had recently visited China to wait 14 days before heading inside to grab a doughnut. Soon, that exclusion list grew to a dozen locales, including Korea; Italy; Japan; Atwis native Lebanon, where the first confirmed coronavirus case was announced on Feb. 21; Kirkland, Wash., where many of Washington States nine coronavirus-linked deaths have occurred; and any cruise ship Additionally, Atwi said he started double-washing all surfaces including underneath tables with a highly concentrated cleaning solution taking and bleaching customers money using gloves and tongs. We want to provide safety, Atwi said. We want people to come in and enjoy their doughnut without worrying about a virus. In Hillsboro, meanwhile, David Gadlin decided to shut the retail portion of his chocolate shop, Study of Sweets, entirely and focus his employees time on online sales instead. Gadlin made the decision in part after recognizing that some 15 percent of his customers were over 70 years old, but also because retail sales at the Staten Island natives store, 159 S.E. Second Ave., represented just a small portion of his overall business. I dont have a fear that this is going to turn into an apocalyptic scenario, and Im not worried about catching it, Gedlin said. My concern is for my staff and my customers. -- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The US launched an airstrike against Taliban fighters to defend Afghan forces Wednesday, an American military spokesman said, as violence spirals after a string of deadly attacks by the insurgents, throwing the country's nascent peace process into grave doubt. News of the airstrike in southern Helmand province -- the first in 11 days -- came hours after US President Donald Trump told reporters he had had a "very good" chat with the Taliban political chief, who on Saturday signed a historic deal with Washington to withdraw foreign forces. Since the signing in Doha however, the militants have ramped up violence against Afghan forces, ending a partial truce and casting a pall over peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, due to begin on March 10. US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted that the airstrike targeted Taliban fighters who were "actively attacking" an Afghan forces checkpoint in Helmand. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," he tweeted. "We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." He said insurgents had carried out 43 attacks on checkpoints in Helmand on Tuesday alone. Provincial police spokesman Mohammad Zaman Hamdard told AFP: "In the past two days we have witnessed the most intense Taliban attacks in Helmand." "They have attacked several districts and many military bases," he added. Elsewhere the insurgents killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a series of overnight attacks in other provinces, government officials told AFP Wednesday. "Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. A defence ministry official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the army toll, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities. The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: "Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded." News of the attacks emerged after Trump told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that he had a "very good" relationship with Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also," he said. But on Wednesday, US military spokesman Leggett warned that the "#Afghans & US have complied w/ our agreements; however, Talibs appear intent on squandering this (opportunity) and ignoring the will of the people for #peace." - 'Common interest' - Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with Kabul. The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start. Trump has said the Taliban and Washington both "have a very common interest" in ending the war. But Kabul-based political analyst Atta Noori said the Americans had apparently "failed so far to convince the Taliban -- who are thinking as victors -- to come to the negotiating table with the Afghan government". "All the parties (will) show their teeth, but in the end they have to sit and talk", he said. In the last 24 hours the Taliban conducted 30 attacks in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi tweeted. The insurgents, who have been known to exaggerate figures, claimed on their website to have killed 35 security forces since Tuesday night. Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open "initial contacts" with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives. Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators. The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners, while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives. - The Global Respiratory Inhalers Market 2020-2030 - Dry Powder Inhalers, Single-dose DPI, Multi-dose DPI, Metered Dose Inhalers, Nebulizers, Jet Nebulizers, Ultrasonic Nebulizers, Vibrating-mesh Nebulizers, Asthma, COPD, Others LONDON, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Visiongain estimates that the global respiratory inhalers market reached $32.6bn in 2019 and will grow at a CAGR of 3.9% in the first half of the forecast period. In 2019, the Dry Powder Inhalers submarket held 56% of the global respiratory inhalers market. How this report will benefit you Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector. In this brand new 168-page report you will receive 121 charts and 2 interviews- all unavailable elsewhere. The 168-page Visiongain report provides clear detailed insight into the respiratory inhalers market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market. By ordering and reading our brand-new report today you stay better informed and ready to act. To request sample pages from this report please contact Sara Peerun at sara.peerun@visiongain.com or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/the-global-respiratory-inhalers-market-2020-2030/download_sampe_div Report Scope Global Respiratory Inhalers Market from 2020-2030 Forecast of the Global Respiratory Inhalers market by Type of Product: Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs): Single-dose DPIs, Multi-dose DPIs Nebulizers: Jet Nebulizers, Ultrasonic Nebulizers, Vibrating-mesh Nebulizers Forecast of the Global Respiratory Inhalers market by Indication: Asthma COPD Other Respiratory Diseases This report provides individual revenue forecasts to 2030 for these national markets: The US Germany France UK Italy Spain Japan China India Russia Brazil Mexico Canada Our study discusses the selected leading companies that are the major players in the respiratory inhalers market: AstraZeneca Boehringer Ingelheim Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Merck & Co. Novartis Teva This report discusses factors that drive and restrain this market. As well as opportunities and challenges faced by this market. This report discusses the Porter's Five Forces Analysis of the respiratory inhalers market. Key questions answered by this report: How is the Respiratory Inhalers market evolving? What are the drivers and restraints for the growth of the Respiratory Inhalers market? What are the market shares of each segment of the overall Respiratory Inhalers market in 2020? How will each Respiratory Inhalers submarket segment grow over the forecast period and how much revenue will these submarkets account for in 2030? How will the market shares for each Respiratory Inhalers submarket develop from 2020 to 2030? What will be the main driver for the overall market from 2020 to 2030? How will the market shares of the national markets change by 2030 and which geographical region will lead the market in 2030? Who are the leading players and what are their prospects over the forecast period? How will the industry evolve during the period between 2020 and 2030? To request a report overview of this report please contact Sara Peerun at sara.peerun@visiongain.com or refer to our website: https://www.visiongain.com/report/the-global-respiratory-inhalers-market-2020-2030/ Did you know that we also offer a report add-on service? Email sara.peerun@visiongain.com to discuss any customized research needs you may have. Companies covered in the report include: 3M Drug Delivery Systems Actavis Adherium Limited Aerogen Agilent Technology Airssential Allied Healthcare Almirall Astrazeneca Boehringer Ingelheim Briggs Healthcare CareFusion Chiesi Circassia Pharmaceuticals plc Cipla Clement Clarke International Cohero Health DeVilbiss Healthcare Fexicare Gecko Health Innovations GF Health Products GlaxoSmithKline Heyer Medical Hikma IBM Watson Health Innovate Biomed Innoviva Inspiro Medical Mabis Healthcare Medline Surgical Merck MRK Healthcare Mylan Nexus 6 Nouvag AG Novartis Omron Healthcare Opko Health Orion Pharma PARI Medical Pfizer Philips Respironics Propeller Health Qualcomm Incorporated Roche Schering-Plough Sunovion Pharma Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Teva Pharmaceuticals Theravance Vectura Viatris List of Organizations Mentioned in the Report Academia Europaea American College of Chest Physicians American Thoracic Society British Lung Foundation Catholic University of Leuven Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centre for Devices and Radiological Health European Databank on Medical Devices European Medicines Agency European Respiratory Society Food and Drug Administration German Ministry of Health Global Initiative for Asthma Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease IBM Watson Health Imperial College, London Journal of COPD Foundation Kaohsiung Medical University Margaret Turner Warwick Education Centre Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Mount Sinai Hospital MRC Technology National Heart and Lung Institute National Institute for Health Research Royal College of Physicians Royal Society ServicioSanitarioNazionale Tampere University UK NHS the Universities of Athens University of Cambridge University of Ferrara University of Oxford Up-to-Date Pulmonary Diseases US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute US National Institutes of Health Weill Cornell Medicine World Health Organization (WHO) To see a report overview please e-mail Sara Peerun on sara.peerun@visiongain.com Related reports: Global Asthma & COPD Therapies Market 2019-2029 Pharma Leader Series: Top 20 Asthma & COPD Companies 2019-2029 Global Medical Device Contract Manufacturing Market Forecast 2019-2029 Top 20 Global Respiratory Inhalers Manufacturers 2019 Global Wearable Medical Devices Market Forecast 2019-2029 Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523989/Visiongain_Logo.jpg The US launched an airstrike against Taliban fighters to defend Afghan forces Wednesday, an American military spokesman said, as violence spirals after a string of deadly attacks by the insurgents, throwing the country's nascent peace process into grave doubt. of the airstrike in southern Helmand province -- the first in 11 days -- came hours after US President Donald Trump told reporters he had had a "very good" chat with the Taliban political chief, who on Saturday signed a historic deal with Washington to withdraw foreign forces. Since the signing in Doha however, the militants have ramped up violence against Afghan forces, ending a partial weeklong truce that provided a rare reprieve to war-weary residents. US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted that the airstrike took place against Taliban fighters who were "actively attacking" an Afghan forces checkpoint in Helmand province. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," he tweeted. "We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." He said insurgents had carried out 43 attacks on checkpoints in Helmand on Tuesday alone. The insurgents killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a series of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP Wednesday, casting a pall over peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, due to begin on March 10. "Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. A defence ministry official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the army toll, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities. The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: "Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded." The of the attacks came after Trump told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that he had a "very good" relationship with Taliban political chief Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also," he said. But on Wednesday, US military spokesman Leggett warned that the "#Afghans & US have complied w/ our agreements; however, Talibs appear intent on squandering this (opportunity) and ignoring the will of the people for #peace." Trump has touted the Doha deal as a way to end the bloody, 18-year US military presence in Afghanistan -- right in time for his November re-election bid. Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul. The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start. Trump has said the Taliban and Washington both "have a very common interest" in ending the war. Since Saturday's deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming "victory" over the US and on Monday they announced they would resume attacks on Afghan national forces. Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open "initial contacts" with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives. Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators. The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners, while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A New Jersey motorcyclist has been awarded $2.65 million for extensive injuries he suffered when he hit potholes while riding on a poorly-maintained Passaic County road, lost control and crashed into a minivan, according to his attorney. Roger Gates, now 67, of Sussex County, spent six weeks in the hospital, underwent multiple surgeries and had 10 weeks of inpatient rehabilitation after the April 14, 2016 crash on Oak Ridge Road in West Milford. Gates was once a physically-fit athlete, but now walks with a cane, his attorney Jeffrey Patti of Sparta, told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. In addition to the award, the six-member jury on Jan. 31 agreed Gates should be reimbursed $756,000 for medical expenses, according to NorthJersey.com, which first reported the verdict on Feb. 6. Gates came across a rough patch of pavement near the shoulder on Oak Ridge Road and was forced to ride closer to the middle of the lane, where he struck two large potholes as the road curved to the right, according to the lawsuit. His motorcycle veered into an oncoming lane and collided with a minivan, the suit states. Patti said Gates fractured his pelvis in multiple places, permanently damaged the nerves in his lower body and suffered breaks to his right shoulder and left wrist. He was flown from the crash to Hackensack University Medical Center, Patti said. The lawsuit contended the county knew the broken pavement was a recurring problem and, instead of fixing the road, filled the potholes with asphalt. We called it a bubble gum and rubber band fix, Patti said. For at least two years, this was a problem area known to the Passaic County road crews. Patti said the potholes were eliminated when the road was repaved in 2018, about two years after Gates was injured. Ronald Hunt, the lawyer for Passaic County, unsuccessfully sought to admit evidence about the countys overall road paving program, Patti said. Hunt also claimed Gates was speeding before the crash but that the jury did not believe the allegation, Patti said. Hunt did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. It's been seven years since Sydney ferry 'Radar' plied the waters of Sydney Harbour and for all that time she has sat in dry dock at her birthplace in McMahon's Point. Amid cloudy skies, christened not with a bottle of champagne but a traditional smoking ceremony on deck, the heritage ferry re-entered familiar waters on Wednesday, having undergone a stunning transformation for the upcoming Biennale of Sydney. Floating art: ferry owner Sean Langman with Grace Dlabik, founder of BE Collective. Credit:Nick Moir Almost 20,000 man-hours have gone into the $2 million refit by Noakes Boat and Shipyard, replacing the engine, resheathing the hull with fibreglass, and replacing the upper deck with timber from the World War II destroyer HMAS Adelaide. The ferry's traditional red and yellow trim has given way to a striking new lick of paint featuring traditional tattoo markings celebrating and honouring women of the Pacific Islands. Ukrainian army positions came under seven attacks over the past 24 hours; one soldier is dead and five are injured, the staff of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in a statement on Facebook on Wednesday morning. Six attacks happened within the zone of responsibility of the Skhid (Vostok) tactical group (in the vicinity of Shyrokyne, Zaitseve, and Lebedynske), the statement said. One attack was launched within the zone of responsibility of the Sever (Pivnich) tactical group near Luhanske, it said. SANTA FE Santa Fe city government has placed signs at eight busy intersections discouraging drivers from giving money to panhandlers and instead encouraging them to give to local charities. The signs went up as the city continues to seek solutions for homelessness and as some local people have complained about aggressive panhandlers around the city. This initiative is part of a larger approach to steer people in need to the appropriate services, the city said in a news release Tuesday. The City is working to establish a central fund to meet the needs of indigent people in a housing crisis, transportation crisis or food crisis, etc. The release urges people to contribute to such organizations as Life Link, the Food Depot and two homeless shelters: the Interfaith Community Shelter, also known as Petes Place, and the St. Elizabeth Shelter. Signs with the words Say no to panhandling, give to local charities are going up at Old Pecos Trail and St. Michaels Drive, North Guadalupe Street and Paseo de Peralta, Paseo de Peralta and St. Francis Drive, St. Francis Drive and Cordova Road, and Cerrillos Road intersections with Airport Road, Rodeo Road, St. Francis Drive and Zafarano Drive. Donations of time or money to local charities can go further and have a greater, longer-lasting impact on the homeless and needy than a single handout, the release says. We hope individuals can find a personal connection to our needy population working through local agencies and service providers. Santa Fe Constituent Services Director Kristine Mihelcic said Dublin, Ohio; Bakersfield, California; and Scottsdale, Arizona, have placed similar signs in their city. At a meeting with downtown merchants last month, several business owners told Mayor Alan Webber and leadership from the Santa Fe Police Department about concerns they have with the local population, including aggressive panhandlers. The city has in turn stepped up police patrols downtown. In September 2017, City Councilors Renee Villarreal and Signe Lindell introduced an ordinance that would ban panhandling within 20 feet of any business. But the city suspended enforcement of the ordinance after the ACLU of New Mexico complained the ordinance prohibited free speech. Federal High Court in Maiduguri on Tuesday admitted Aisha Wakil, popularly called Mama Boko Haram and three others to bail in the sum of N1.3 million each, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported. Wakil was arraigned before the court on Feb. 25, alongside three other accused persons, Tahiru Daura, Lawal Shoyade and Adamu Sani, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on two counts of conspiracy and obtaining N42 million by false pretenses. Delivering a ruling, Justice Jude Dagat, ordered the defendants to produce two sureties each. Dagat ordered that one of the sureties must be a substantive director with Borno State Civil Service and a relative of the accused persons. The court also ordered that one of the sureties must own a fully developed landed property in Maiduguri and must deposit the tittle documents with the registrar of the court for verification and custody. Justice Dagat adjourned the case until May 5 for trial. The Defence Counsel, Jubril Gunda and Z.M.Umar had on Feb. 27, prayed the court to admit Wakil and the three accused persons to bail on grounds of failing health. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates [March 04, 2020] Tauriga Sciences, Inc. Approved by Dutch Retail Conglomerate Ahold Delhaize to Become a Direct Supplier This Establishes Direct Distribution Channels to the Following Major U.S. Supermarket Chains: Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Giant, Food Lion, and Peapod NEW YORK, NY, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities and equity investments, today announced that it has been approved by the Dutch retail conglomerate Ahold Delhaize (Ahold) to become a Direct Supplier. As a result, the Company has established direct distribution channels to Aholds main U.S. based supermarket brands: Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Giant, Food Lion, and Peapod. Taurigas corporate profile, as well as products & product lines, are now accessible by Ahold buyers. The Company is continually focused on building direct distribution channels to the retail marketplace. Especially with respect to the larger retailers with regional or national footprints, as such efforts preserve strong gross margins as the core business continues to expand. The compilation of these substantial direct distribution channels also enhances the Companys position in consummating potential joint venture partnerships and synergistic mergers & acquisitions. The Company is currently in several substantive discussions with potential joint venture partners, with an aim towards creating new business opportunities and diversifying existing revenue streams. One such opportunity of particular interest relates to an innovative producer of plant-based meat product(s). The Company will notify its shareholders, via press release(s), should an agreement be completed. The Company has been designated the following credential(s) by Ahold Delhaize: Primary NAICS: 311340 (NONCHOCOLATE CONFECTIONERY MANUFACTURING) Supplier #: 052545183 Customer(s): Ahold USA Below -- Link to Aholds Brands in the United States: https://www.aholddelhaize.com/en/brands/united-states/our-brands-in-the-united-states/ ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES, INC. Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities. One such opportunity on which the Company has acted, involves the Company having entered into the cannabidiol (or CBD) infused chewing gum product business, as more fully described above and in prior press releases. This CBD infused chewing gum product has been branded under the following name: Tauri-Gum. The Company is currently in production of three distinct flavors of Tauri-Gum: MINT, BLOOD ORANGE, and POMEGRANATE. On December 6, 2019 the Company announced that it completed the initial production run (thereby expanding its existing product lines) with the introduction of a 25mg Vegan CBD Isolate Infused vegan gummy (gumdrop), branded under the name: Tauri-Gummies. Further, the Company continues to identify and evaluate additional potential opportunities to generate revenue, as well as shareholder value, and leverage its resources and expertise to build a diversified and sustainable business model. Please visit our corporate website at www.tauriga.com. The Company has also announced the development of a Cannabigerol (CBG) Isolate infused version of Tauri-Gum. The flavor that has been selected is Starfruit/Peach and each piece of gum will contain 10mg of CBG Isolate / Each blister pack will contain 80mg of CBG Isolate. The Company expects to commence production during its 4th Fiscal Quarter of 2020 (January 1, 2020 March 31, 2020). In addition, on March 11, 2019, the Company announced the official launch of its E-Commerce site - as part of its Tauri-Gum commercialization strategy. This site can be accessed by visiting the following URL address: www.taurigum.com The Company has established corporate offices in both New York City (USA) and Barcelona (Spain). DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. CONTACT INFORMATION Tauriga Sciences, Inc. 555 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor New York, NY 10022 Chief Executive Officer Mr. Seth M. Shaw Email: [email protected] cell # (917) 796 9926 Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Arun M By Express News Service Continuous crackdowns and strict action by Excise authorities have failed to deter drug peddlers from selling ganja and other narcotic products to students. There has been a rise in detection of sale of narcotics and tobacco substances from the premises of educational institutions, say officials with the Excise department, who intercepted 677 persons in the district for selling narcotic products. Across the state, 4,709 such cases were registered last year, with the highest number of cases 2,024 registered in Thiruvananthapuram district. With 820 cases, Kollam district was in second place, while Ernakulam district was in third. In January this year, the department confiscated more than 21kg of ganja and registered 67 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in the district. Besides ganja, 7.3gm of MDMA, 17.8gm of hashish, 1gm of brown sugar, 10 Nitrazepam tablets, four ampules of Buprenorphine and 0.165gm of LSD were also seized in the period. We are keeping a close watch on miscreants and conducting frequent raids to break the supply chain on the premises of educational institutions, said Sajith Kumar, assistant commissioner (Excise), Kochi. Recently, sleuths had arrested Malappuram natives Mohammed Suhail, 21, and Anees Mon, 23, from Aluva with 4kg of ganja. The officers said the duo was part of a racket that supplies drugs to students. Drug abuse on rise Increasing cases of drug abuse among students are another issue before the officials. They said anti-narcotics clubs, comprising police, students and teachers' representatives, have been set up in educational institutions to combat the trend. Officers said there was an increase in drug abuse among all categories of people, especially adolescents and children. Just the tip of the iceberg Kochi: Since 2018, there have been several major seizures of MDMA in the city. However, the seized MDMA is just 10 to 15 per cent of the actual quantity of the drug that is being brought here, said officials. The first major seizure was in September 2018 when Excise Enforcement and Anti-Narcotic Special Squad seized 30kg of MDMA worth I200 crore from a private courier service firm operating near Shenoys Junction on MG Road. In January 2019, Jaseem, 24, and Abdul Raheem, 22, of Kodungallur were arrested from Aluva for carrying 12gm of MDMA. The accused later confessed to sourcing the drug from a foreigner in Bengaluru. 4,709 cases of students being sold drugs registered across the state in 2019 2,024 cases registered in capital district in 2019 in connection with drugs being sold to students 820 such cases registered in Kollam last year 7.3gm MDMA seized by sleuths in January this year 2 Malappuram natives nabbed recently with 4kg of ganja. They are believed to be part of a racket that supplies ganja to students Students were Jentus main targets Excise inspector (Aluva range) T K Gopi said the drug mafia mainly targeted students as it was easy to turn them into drug peddlers. At first, dealers provide the ganja to students for free. When the students become addicts, the dealers start demanding money. Those unable to pay are forced to become drug peddlers. Students too take up peddling as there is good money in it. Since most students carry out the deals while wearing their uniforms, it is difficult to identify and nab them, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 12:51:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Over half of the capital goods monitored by the government posted lower prices in the last 10 days of February compared with the previous 10 days, official data showed. Of the 50 goods monitored by the government, including seamless steel tubes, gasoline, coal, fertilizer and some chemicals, 27 goods saw their prices fall during the period, with 22 posting an uptick in prices and one seeing its price unchanged, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Ferrous metals saw an overall decline in prices, while prices of coal products and agricultural means of production rose in general, data from NBS showed. Prices of pigs and sulfuric acid contracted sharply, while prices of Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), corrugated paper, peanuts and soybeans mostly gained. The reading, released every 10 days, is based on a survey of nearly 1,700 wholesalers and distributors in 24 provinces and regions. WASHINGTON - U.S. businesses added 183,000 jobs last month, a solid gain that shows the economy was largely healthy when the coronavirus outbreak spread further around the globe. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this Jan. 29, 2020, photo, chef Samara Henderson, left, works with trainee Anthony Redmond at Inspiration Kitchens in Chicago. Redmond, 44, started receiving food stamps when he was released from prison last summer. With the help, he was able to leave a halfway house and find his own place. After the training, he hopes to find employment and keep his benefits. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) WASHINGTON - U.S. businesses added 183,000 jobs last month, a solid gain that shows the economy was largely healthy when the coronavirus outbreak spread further around the globe. Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that February's hiring was down from 209,000 in the previous month. Manufacturing and mining firms shed jobs last month, while hiring in health care and a category mostly made up of hotels and restaurants was strong. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which helps prepare the report, said that the figures were compiled the week of February 12th, before the viral outbreak was widespread outside China. He also said warm weather likely boosted job gains in construction, which added 18,000 positions, and in the hotels and restaurants category, which gained 44,000. That suggests hiring in those industries could slip in the coming months. Economists forecast that the government will report on Friday that 173,000 jobs were added last month, according to data provider FactSet. The ADP report doesn't include government hiring and often diverges from the official figures. Zandi, like other economists, said the coronavirus would likely hamper growth in the coming months, as businesses and consumers cancel conferences and vacations. Growth should slow in the first six months of this year, he said, and hiring will likely stumble. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. We'll likely see much slower growth and recession risks will rise, he said. Still, he said that in more recent ADP data that has come in after the report was compiled, there haven't been signs that companies are shedding jobs. Large companies, with 500 or more employees, added roughly two-thirds of the jobs last month, ADP said, while hiring among smaller firms those with 49 or fewer was relatively weak. That could affect jobs numbers in the months ahead. Larger companies are more likely to be multinational firms with supply chains in China or elsewhere overseas that have been disrupted by the viral outbreak. That may force them to slow hiring or even cut workers. Zandi, however, also noted that larger firms have more resources and could likely weather a temporary hit from the virus more easily than smaller firms. Still, some smaller companies also import parts from overseas, and if they are forced to cut back on production, will have a harder time keeping workers on their payrolls, he said. Canara Bank on Tuesday said that CARE Ratings has assigned CARE AAA rating (Credit watch with developing implications) for proposed Rs 3000 crore Basel III Tier II Bonds. The ratings assigned to the bond issue of Canara Bank (CB) derives strength from majority ownership by Government of India (GoI) from which it has been receiving timely capital infusion, experienced management and governance, established retail franchise with strong network in southern states of India, comfortable capitalization levels with total CAR well above regulatory requirements post equity infusion during H1FY20, moderate resource profile with relatively low CASA share but high retail deposit and comfortable liquidity profile. These rating strengths are partially offset by moderate asset quality of the Bank with high NNPA resulting in relatively higher NNPA to net-worth compared to its peers though improving, continued slippages resulting in higher provisioning impacting profitability of the bank and modest provision coverage (including technical write-offs). Bank's profitability parameters have witnessed improvement during 9MF20 with improvement in recoveries. The rating is placed under watch with developing implications on account of ongoing amalgamation process of Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank following directive from Ministry of Finance, GOI. The amalgamated bank is likely to be the 4th largest PSB post amalgamation. The ratings agency said that it will continue to monitor the development including challenges in successful integration and take appropriate rating call once clarity emerges on the merged entity's financial and business risk profile. The announcement was made after market hours on Tuesday. Shares of Canara Bank was down 1.27% at Rs 139.90. It has fallen 24.70% in the past one month and 37.53% in the past three months. Canara Bank's net profit rose 3.81% to Rs 329.62 crore on 3.61% rise in total income to Rs 14,001.63 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Canara Bank is a state-owned commercial bank with headquarters in Bangalore. The Government of India holds a 78.52% stake in Canara Bank as of December 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Helena Maria Viramontes, author of Under the Feet of Jesus and Their Dogs Came with Them, has been nesting in her writing studio for a while. Its a mess right now, she says. That was late last week. On Thursday, shell be in San Antonio for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, along with writers, publishers and other book people from all over the country. Shes also reading at an outside event Saturday being organized by local Chicano writers. Viramontes admits being a little nervous. Shell deliver a keynote to the largest audience shes ever faced. Its title is My Insurgent Heart. She doesnt divulge too much of what shell say to the 2,000-plus crowd in the Lila Cockrell Theater. But she talks about how she comes to writing as an activist. A Chicana writer born in East Los Angeles in what she described as a bookless home, Viramontes graduated from Garfield High School, which was the backdrop of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, featuring the real-life story of mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante and his students, who defied odds in the low-income, low-performing school. Eighteen passed the Advanced Placement exam in calculus. It also was the site of Chicano student walkouts of 1968, in which Mexican American students throughout the Southwest, San Antonio included, walked out of schools to protest inadequate funding and unequal educational opportunity. That was the subject of the 2006 HBO movie Walkout. Related: Literary conference bringing the write stuff to town Viramontes was a student at Garfield in the 1970s, just after the walkouts, becoming part of a generation that followed the Chicano Movements impact on college graduates who became writers, professors and other professionals. She became a community activist and literary editor of ChismeArte, one of dozens of Chicano journals nationwide that captured stories the mainstream press didnt. Her insurgent heart draws on my perspective, my moral imperative, she says. Viramontes was influenced by a small group of mujeres, including authors Denise Chavez, Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros, who were doing work in the community because it was so essential. Eventually, Viramontes had to decide to stay in community activism or write. She chose the latter but dedicates it to capturing the stories of Mexican Americans whether working in the fields or living near freeways. Today, shes the Goldwin Smith Professor of English at Cornell University, where she directs the creative writing program. Shes the recipient of the Dos Passos Prize for Literature and the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. Viramontes won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and another from the Sundance Institute in which she attended a workshop given by writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Shes likely to speak about East L.A. and her family as the sources of continual inspiration. Her family history stretches back to California at the start of the last century. Viramontes says her goal is never to romanticize her familys history but reflect it the love, sadness and resistance in her fiction. Her work comes from a desire to reverse historical erasure, she says of the omission of Mexican Americans in the nations history. That drove her current project, Cemetery Boys, which in part inserts her uncle, who served in the Philippines, into the nations World War II history. She says shes working outside her comfort zone in Cemetery Boys, which encompasses three wars and the many ethnic groups that made East L.A. home. It required studying Yiddish, she said. The book was spurred by Ken Burns 2007 World War II documentary The War, which drew protests for initially leaving out Mexican American veterans. Before traveling to San Antonio and preparing for her keynote, she found refuge in reading. I find such relief in books, she said. I think of them as sacred. The written word is the only way I know how to pray. She offered another hint about her keynote. Toni Morrison, she said, Ill be quoting her left and right. eayala@express-news.net | @ElaineAyala At least three people were killed when a single-engine plane crashed on Tuesday evening in northwest Georgia, authorities confirmed. The Oconee County Sheriff's Office found no survivors after the aircraft went down deep in a wooded area west of Watkinsville around 4:30 pm on Tuesday, the agency said during a conference late that night. The office said it was not publicly identifying the victims at this time. The Piper PA-46 crashed 10 miles (16 miles) southwest of Athens after air traffic controllers lost contact with it over Oconee County, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane was coming from the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina and headed to the Tuscaloosa National Airport in Alabama, according to the federal agency. There were secondary explosions upon the plane's impact, the Oconee County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Tuesday. There were no injuries reported to anyone outside of the plane, or damage to nearby structures, the sheriff added. The FAA will investigate the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause, authorities said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Planning methodically to isolate the infected, tracking suspected cases and training healthcare workers should be key areas of focus for countries like India to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, top Chinese doctors currently working at the outbreak epicentre Wuhan said on Wednesday. Containing the outbreak is not the work of doctors alone, they said, adding that the police and transport departments should be involved in containing the virus, which until Wednesday had killed more than 3000 and infected over 93000 globally, the vast majority in China. Planning is the keyword, said Du Bin, director Medical ICU at Beijings Peking Union Medical College hospital. How many cases do you have? What is the plan to cope with the disease or the patients? The laboratory-confirmed cases as well as the close contacts; where to keep the close contacts and how to identify the probable (cases) or cases within the close contacts. I do believe it is a very tough job but it has to be done, Du said. Du said this at an interaction along with other three frontline doctors from Wuhan with journalists in Beijing via a video link on Wednesday afternoon. Not only done by the health care workers but other departments of the government have to be involved (such) as the public security, the police I mean, such as the transportation department or other departments. They have to work together. And, I think thats the only way to control the epidemic not only in China but also in other countries, Du said. Qiao Jie, president of Peking Universitys Third hospital, said both India and China were important countries in Asia and has similarities like population and traditional family-centric activities. She said it was important to train the healthcare workers to treat covid-19 cases, adding, for example, mild and severe cases need different training. It was critical for the medics to know how to put on and then take off protective clothing, she said Prepare the room. Use high power exhaust fans in the ward, changing (the) airflow for the patient and medical staff, Qiao said. Training the community population, she said. Even wearing the mask, washing handscan isolate the disease; all very important, she said. By the end of January, China had taken unprecedented and aggressive measures including virtually locking down the province of Hubei with a 60 million population to contain the spread of the virus. Wuhan, for example, was locked down on January 23, and remains so. The restrictions continue with hundreds of millions across China facing some kind of restrictions on their movements. The government and doctors say the results are showing as the outbreak continues to show signs of slowing in China. The Chinese mainland reported only four new confirmed cases of covid-19 on Tuesday outside Hubei Province, the epicentre of the outbreak, down from 890 on February 3, the national health commission (NHC) said. The number of people dead from the coronavirus epidemic in China is poised to cross 3000 with the death toll at reaching 2981 on Wednesday, health authorities said. By the end of Tuesday, a total of 80,270 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 had been reported on the mainland. Responding to a question on whether theres been a turnaround in the epidemic in China, Du said designated hospitals in Wuhan are seeing an increasing number of empty beds after a large number of virus patients were discharged. Du added, however, that theres always the possibility of another spike in new cases. Cao Bin, a doctor specialising in respiratory research in Wuhan since January, said: The war is not over. For a country like India, it may have only begun. After a two-week quarantine, they will undergo repeat tests. All Ukrainians who are crew members of the Diamond Princess cruise ship placed in quarantine off Yokohama port near Tokyo, Japan, over the China novel coronavirus have left the vessel and are now in a two-week quarantine in a Japanese hospital. "The transfer of the Diamond Princess crew members who tested negative for the coronavirus was over on March 1, 2020. These individuals have been placed in quarantine for two weeks, after which, if they repeatedly test negative, they will be able to leave Japan," Director of the Consular Service Department of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Serhiy Pohoreltsev said in a comment for UNIAN. Read alsoFirst Covid-19 coronavirus case reported in Ukraine (Updated) He recalled that 21 citizens of Ukraine were left on board the liner, since earlier four Ukrainians had signs of coronavirus infection and had been hospitalized. However, according to Pohoreltsev, three Ukrainian citizens from this ship who were diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus continue staying in hospital in Tokyo. "Our fellow citizens' condition is satisfactory now," the diplomat added. He recalled that the fourth Ukrainian citizen who had already received the necessary treatment was discharged from hospital on February 27 and is now in one of the local hotels. As UNIAN reported, after a person on board the ship tested positive for the COVID-19, the Diamond Princess liner was quarantined for two weeks on February 4 under a Japanese Health Ministry order. Doctors examined passengers and the crew. On board the ship there were 3,700 people from 56 countries, including 25 citizens of Ukraine (all are crew members). While the ship was in quarantine, at least 700 people tested positive for the coronavirus. Currently, Japan has confirmed 10 deaths from the coronavirus. As of February 27, the four Ukrainian crew members who tested positive for the COVID-19 were hospitalized in Tokyo. One Ukrainian from the Diamond Princess was discharged from hospital later. " " Feminism is far more complex than Rosie the Riveter. iStockphoto /Graffizone Ms. magazine hit stands for the first time in 1972 with the headline, "Wonder Woman For President," stretched above an image of the comic book heroine. Thirty-seven years later, a cover depicting Barack Obama in a Superman-like pose and wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed, "This is What a Feminist Looks Like," struck a chord among Ms. readers. Some applauded the clever twist, hailing Obama's progressive political platforms. Others derided the magazine for defining a feminist as a man. That reaction among the magazine's feminist readers demonstrated the inherent challenge of defining what feminism is precisely. Depending on the context, you can spin the term as a philosophy, social movement, history, badge of honor or an insult. While feminists have made radical strides toward gender equality and flung open many new doors for women, the movement and philosophy behind it have become culturally and politically polarizing. For instance, when conservative Alaska governor Sarah Palin told Katie Couric that she considers herself a feminist, shock waves rippled throughout the feminist community. As an outright opponent of abortion and sex education in schools, how could Gov. Palin possibly fit the feminist mold, some asked. But politics aside, a working mother of five running for vice president hardly seems antifeminist. Advertisement At its core, feminism is the belief in equality. It seeks to eliminate the social, cultural and legal barriers between men and women. Its goal is to create a truly egalitarian society. Beyond that, the waters grow murkier. Feminist factions disagree sometimes on what constitutes equality -- whether it's sexual freedom, career advancement or something else. Some people who label themselves feminists perceive that battle for equality as over and done with; others still view society as rife with patriarchal restrictions. Recently, a debate has stirred over whether feminism has become outdated as term and should even be used at all. So is feminism today a potent force for change? Or is it the "f-word," spit out like a bitter seed? By examining its unifying philosophies and causes, as well as the schisms within the movement, we can properly evaluate and answer those questions. Nath's comments came when he was asked about reports of alleged 'poaching' attempts being made by the opposition BJP in the state Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday asserted that there was no threat to his government. Nath's comments came when he was asked about reports of alleged 'poaching' attempts being made by the opposition BJP in the state. The legislators are telling me that they are being offered so much money. I am telling the MLAs to take it, if they are getting this free money, Nath told reporters here on the sidelines of a programme. Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Monday alleged that his party MLAs were being offered huge money by BJP leaders as part of the saffron party's poaching attempt to destablise the Kamal Nath government. When Nath was asked about any threat to the stability of his government in Madhya Pradesh, he said, There is nothing to worry about. Reacting to Nath's statement, state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI that his party has nothing to do with the allegations. In fact, these speculations and allegations are part of the internal bickering of among Congress leaders to get nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls, he said. After Digvijaya Singh's remarks on Monday, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress veteran of making false statements to create sensationalism. Speaking lies to create sensationalism is Digvijaya's habit. Probably some of his (Digivijaya's) works were not done and he wants to create pressure on the CM to get them done, Chouhan alleged. Roger Misso has a plan to address almost every major issue affecting central New Yorkers. Misso, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. John Katko in the 24th Congressional District, unveiled a comprehensive platform Tuesday. His policy positions cover a wide range of issues jobs and economic security, universal healthcare, climate change and the opioid crisis, to name a few. The highlights of his platform: He supports a $15 minimum wage, universal child care, transitioning to a single-payer healthcare system, a carbon dividend paid by polluters, restoring the federal assault weapons ban, a pregnant mothers' bill of rights, a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and equitable funding for public schools. There are 17 planks on Misso's platform, with dozens of policy positions and proposals under each heading. In an interview with The Citizen, he said it's the product of conversations long before he was a candidate for Congress. "I've got a lot of ideas and I think that there a lot of people who care a lot about specific policy areas," Misso said. "They deserve to see in their next member of Congress that I've given this a lot of thought and I'm ready to hit the ground running and get the job done in Congress." Misso's platform includes some of the traditional issues that receive attention from candidates, such as the economy, education and health care. But it also covers many subjects that tend to get overlooked in political campaigns. Under the heading "Justice For Our Communities," Misso pledges to address institutional racism. One of the lead points is a commitment to "dismantle racism in government policy and ensure future legislation considers and mitigates the impact of racism, prejudice and bias on the many diverse communities of central New York." Misso supports legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana, reducing mass incarceration and ending school disciplinary policies that studies have shown disproportionately affect students of color. The platform also includes another section, "Hope For All People," that summarizes Misso's stances on ending family separation programs at the border, prohibiting the federal government from using public money to build a border wall, overturning the so-called "Muslim Ban" imposed by the Trump administration and passing legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Misso hopes his policy agenda shows 24th district voters that he's the most experienced Democratic candidate in the field. "I understand the issues. I understand them because I grew up here," he said. "I understand them because I've lived these issues here in rural parts of the district. I didn't just come back here to run for Congress. I came back here to make a positive impact on the lives of folks." Although he has policy positions on dozens of issues, Misso noted that his platform isn't a "static document." He welcomes feedback from voters. "I know that I won't always agree with everybody and folks won't always agree with me, but I hope they know that they can always have a conversation with me," he said. Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. There are four more cases of the coronavirus in Ireland - bringing the total here up to six. There are two male and two female patients, from the western part of the country. The patients are all associated with travel from the same affected area in northern Italy. They travelled together. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer with the Department of Health, said: Tonight we can confirm there are now six cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. Contact tracing is underway for these four new cases. Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, added: There is still no evidence of widespread or sustained community transmission in Ireland, as seen in some other EU countries. While we now have six confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, we continue our containment efforts, central to which is that the public know what to do in the event they have symptoms. Meanwhile, two further positive Covid-19 cases have been detected in Northern Ireland. These tests were sent to England for confirmation. Speaking earlier this afternoon, Dr Holohan said that responses to the disease in Ireland should be "appropriate". "This virus knows no borders, or race. Restricting travel into Ireland does not form a component of our current response. We must continue to focus on ensuring that everyone is informed, and knows what to do in the event they develop symptoms," he said. "It is essential that any decisions regarding responses to Covid-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate. "The general public should continue to follow HSE.ie and Gov.ie/health for accurate and informative information regarding Irelands response to Covid-19. "I think the feeling is, if we make a change here, we're opening ourselves up to have this brought in in other land developments, and it's not something we really want to see in the village overlay district," said board... Portland, Oregon, USA, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With lockdowns in China, Iran, Italy and other countries around the world, media outlets and medical experts are speculating where the next shutdowns will occur and for how long travel standstills will continue. Business and leisure travelers, fearful of contagion of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), are postponing travel and avoiding high-traffic destinations. Conferences are being postponed or cancelled, leaving enormous revenue gaps which the industry will need to creatively fill. Visiting Media's TrueTour sales tool, the first-to-market immersive sales platform for the hospitality industry, empowers properties with unmatched top-to-bottom 360, 3D and virtual reality presentation, delivery and tracking capabilities. With TrueTour, properties can continue to upsell their luxury rooms & suites, showcase their event spaces and communicate with customers at a distance through the power of a state-of-the-art virtual toolbelt. Virtually performing walk-throughs and site tours at a distance provides a safer way to plan events and future travel. TrueTour provides companies a way to create true-to-life connections with prospects unable to meet in person ahead of events, experiencing spaces without ever leaving their home or office. As many properties shed costs in fear, TrueTour helps hotels maintain a market advantage by increasing average booking speeds, upsell rates and incremental revenue. Since meetings and vacations are traditionally planned months or years in advance, companies can prepare for normalization, recover much faster than competitors and stay ahead longer. Ben Powers, VP of Sales, Hotel & Resort Division for Visiting Media, is thrilled to provide solutions for companies leveraging TrueTour at a distance. Weve seen powerful results with properties already using TrueTour technology as they continue to book rooms and events despite travel being halted around the world. With the success seen so far with our current customers, its going to be extremely rewarding to help properties new to TrueTour remain more competitive and weather this downturn. Visiting Medias global content creator network allows new customers to be up and running with TrueTour within a matter of weeks, fully loaded with immersive visuals of their property in true-to-life 360/3D and virtual reality. Since Visiting Media leverages technicians across the Americas, Asia, Europe and beyond, Visiting Media can create virtual content for new customers with ease, versus other companies who rely on the deployment of technicians from their headquarters. One thing is for certain -- despite what everyone hopes is a swift recovery from the effects of the novel coronavirus, consumers travel confidence has been affected this year. With the use of true-to-life virtual technology, rapidly-deployed innovations will soften the blow to the bottom line and pay long lasting dividends over the months to come. About Visiting Media: Visiting Media is a technology and immersive content production company dedicated to delivering the worlds best visual selling tools to inspire, describe, promote and convey our customers spaces as early as possible in the buying cycle. We build innovative and powerful, yet simple solutions that deliver both traditional and immersive (360, 3D, virtual reality) content and focus on making selling easier, pragmatic and more joyful. Our products immediately increase conversions, selling speed, sales team efficiency and actionable data collection. (https://www.visitingmedia.com) --End-- New Delhi, March 4 : The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday dismissed the pleas of Deloitte Haskins & Sells and KPMG arm BSR & Associates challenging their impleadment in the case regarding fraud in IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN). Both Deloitte and BSR are former auditors of the fraud-hit IFIN. The judgement comes after the appellate tribunal in January reserved its verdict on the matter. The NCLAT judgement on Wednesday said: "The tribunal is empowered to pass order under Section 242 of the Companies Act, 2013 in a petition under Section 241(2) if it forms opinion that the affairs of the company have been conducted in a manner prejudicial to the public interest. Once such opinion is formed by the Tribunal, it may pass any order as it deem fit and proper." Referring to the economic impact caused due to IL&FS crisis, the two judge bench headed by NCLAT Chairperson S.J. Mukhopadhaya said that before passing any appropriate order in public interest and to save the economy of the country from collapse, if the tribunal is of the opinion that it requires to give appropriate hearing to the concerned parties, including those who audited IL&FS and those who have managed or were concerned with IL&FS or its group companies, it cannot be held to be illegal. "We find no merit in these appeals. They are accordingly dismissed," the orders said. The ministry had cited the interim report of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) alleging collusion by the auditors with the IFIN management in concealing information, among other charges. The ministry had sought freezing of the assets of the audit firms based on the allegations in the report. Counsel of both the audit firms had told the appellate tribunal that their clients cannot be prosecuted as they are no longer the statutory auditors of IFIN and were neither in the management. They also submitted that the SFIO's report is interim and, therefore, not admissible. July last year, the Mumbai-bench of NCLT had allowed the plea of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to implead the auditors and independent directors of IFIN. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In South Korea, the number of people who are confirmed to have been infected with Covid-19, the pandemic disease commonly known as coronavirus, has ballooned to over 5000 as of the time of this writing and will certainly continue to rise. In the U.S. the official number infected is only 118. But much of this difference may be an illusion, due to differences in how many people are getting tested. South Korea has made a concerted effort to identify all the people infected with the virus, creating drive-through testing stations. The U.S. testing efforts, in contrast, look almost comically bungled. The list of ways that U.S. institutions have fumbled the crisis reads like something out of a TV comedy: The number of test kits issued in the U.S. has been a tiny fraction of the number issued in South Korea. An early testing kit from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contained a faulty ingredient and had to be withdrawn. Regulatory hurdles have slowed the rollout of tests, with officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration only now discussing what to do. There are stories of possible coronavirus patients being denied testing due to maddeningly strict CDC limits on who can get a test. Some cities may have to wait weeks for tests to become widely available, during which time the populace will be left in the dark. Worst of all, the CDC has now stopped disclosing the number of people being tested, a move that seems likely to spread panic while reducing awareness. What are the reasons for this institutional breakdown? Its tempting to blame politics President Donald Trump is obviously mainly concerned with the health of the stock market, and conservative media outlets have worked to downplay the threat. But the failures of the U.S. coronavirus response happened far too quickly to lay most of the blame at the feet of the administration. Instead, it points to long-term decay in the quality of the countrys bureaucracy. Story continues Political scientist Francis Fukuyama has been sounding the alarm about the weakening of our bureaucracy for years now. He notes that the civil service has always been less powerful in the U.S. than in other advanced nations in Europe and East Asia, as the U.S. relies more on the courts. That may lend an imprimatur of fairness to government decisions, but courts are obviously ill-equipped to handle acute threats like pandemics. Fukuyama also points out that less bureaucratic power means more direct political control, which allows the wishes of civil servants to be overridden by the desires of lobbyists. All of these tendencies, he argues, have become worse in recent decades. A decline in institutional competence is hard to measure. But the amount of resources that the U.S. as a whole devotes to its bureaucracy is shrinking, in terms of both wages and number of employees: Very little of this decline is a function of our shrinking military. The civilian federal workforce is a much bigger factor, having fallen from about 4% of GDP in 1970 to under 2% today. Much of the work is now handled by contractors, or not done at all. State government cutbacks have also been big. A bureaucracy whose size doesnt grow in step with the overall economy means that civil service is not a promising career for young college graduates. Inflexible government pay structures also make it hard to reward excellence or get ahead. Salaries are uncompetitive at the top end, topping out at just under $200,000 for the most highly-paid senior bureaucrats -- only slightly more than an entry-level engineer makes at Google. Part of the problem is that its very difficult for the U.S. to compete with the private sector when the latter is so efficient. But thats not true everywhere: Singapore manages to have a thriving private sector alongside a highly effective bureaucracy that recruits the best and brightest. So its largely a question of political will. In the U.S. the public sector has come under sustained attack from the political right for many years. President Ronald Reagan famously declared that government is the problem, while anti-tax activist Grover Norquist stated that he wanted to drown [government] in a bathtub. Republican and Democratic presidents alike have enacted pay freezes for federal workers. Trump is continuing the assault on the civil service, proposing yet another pay freeze. In 2018 he fired an executive branch team responsible for responding to pandemics and attempted to decrease funding for public health. Economists, meanwhile, have been little help. The discipline focuses almost exclusively on incentives and markets, neglecting the details of building efficient government organizations. Its therefore little surprise that the policy establishment and commentariat, whose ideas are deeply influenced by economics, tends to treat the civil service as an invisible black box and focus instead on the details of regulation and taxes. Over time, all this neglect and hostility adds up, reducing the flow of talent into the civil service and hampering agencies effectiveness by creating uncertainty about future hiring and budgets. Poor responses to pandemics and natural disasters are only one bad result -- expensive and decaying infrastructure is another. Countries need efficient, talented, thriving bureaucracies. The U.S. is no exception. If the decline of the civil service isnt reversed, the coronavirus epidemic will not be the last disaster that the U.S. finds itself unprepared to handle. To contact the author of this story: Noah Smith at nsmith150@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nicole Torres at ntorres51@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. The environment secretary has warned the EU that the UK has taken sufficient steps to protect its waters after Brexit, as fears grow of a French blockade. The royal navy boasts three extra vessels, the Home Office will provide a further four and the government can call in help from the private sector, George Eustice said. A new control centre has been launched, 50 extra fishery protection officers have been recruited and there will be aerial surveillance, a House of Lords inquiry was told. We have significantly increased our enforcement capability, Mr Eustice said, adding: We think that is sufficient. The extra muscle was set out after the controversy of access for EU boats emerged as a key dispute in the post-Brexit trade talks, with Brussels demanding an agreement by the end of June. Ministers have reportedly been told of a nightmare scenario, in which French fishermen would blockade ports and paralyse cross-Channel trade at the end of the year. Officials are worried that Calais is uniquely vulnerable to even a small-scale protest against attempts to restrict the access of EU fishing fleets to UK waters. Amelie de Montchalin, Frances Europe minister, has warned that, without a deal, fishing could become a very nasty battle and could collapse the entire trade deal. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is believed to have warned other EU leaders that a failure to retain access to UK waters would trigger further street protests and civil unrest in his country. Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Show all 66 1 /66 Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A message projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover Sky News/AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The Union flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU EU Council staff removed the Union Jack-British flag from the European Council in Brussels, Belgium EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pedestrians pass in front of the Ministry of Defence Building on Whitehall, illuminated by red, white and blue lights in central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supporter shouts during a rally in London AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners take part in a 'Missing EU Already' rally outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A large pro-EU banner is projected onto Ramsgate cliff in Kent PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU supporters light candles in Smith Square in Westminster PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The five-year old Elisa Saemann, left, and her seven-year old sister Katie hold a placard during a rally by anti-Brexit protesters outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Europe supporters gather on Brexit day near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit protester hugs a man while holding a placard REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A decorated, old fashioned fire pump in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit Elvis impersonator performs at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexiteers stands with his dog in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Paddy from Bournemouth wears Union colours as he sits next to an EU flag decorated bag in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-EU activist plays a guitar decorated with the EU flag during a protest organised by civil rights group New Europeans outside Europe House, central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Pro Brexit supporter has a Union Jack painted onto his face at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Men hold placards celebrating Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters dance in the street draped with Union Jack flags at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexit demonstrator spreads his wings during a gathering near Downing Street AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters display a banner ' Here to Stay, Here to Fight, Migrants In, Tories Out' from Westminster bridge EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit supporters burn European Union flags at Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses for a picture on Parliament Square in a 'Brexit Day' t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man wears a pro-Brexit t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators visit Europe House to give flowers to the staff on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporter wears a novelty Union Jack top hat outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Customers Scott Jones and Laura Jones at the Sawmill Bar in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, where a Brexit party is being held throughout the day PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU activists protest Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit demonstrator burns a European Union flag AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supports holds a sign in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man carries an EU themed wreath Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Ann Widdecombe reacts with other members of the Brexit party as they leave en masse from the European Parliament PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters let off flares from Westminster Bridge Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British MEPs Jonathan Bullock, holding the Union Jack flag and Jake Pugh leave the European Parliament, in Brussels on the Brexit day AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Newspapers and other souvenirs at a store, near Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit supporters hold signs in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU French newspapers PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald with a Border Communities Against Brexit poster before its unveiling in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU National growers organisation British Apples & Pears has renamed a British apple to EOS, the Greek goddess of dawn, to commemorate Brexit day AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law on January 29, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers. After half a century of membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (23.00 GMT) on January 31 Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses with paintings on Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People sporting Union Flags gather in Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man walks with a St. George's flag at Westminster bridge on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs at a souvenir store Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British pro-brexit Members of the European Parliament leave the EU Parliament for the last time Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Jonathan Bullock waves the Union Jack as he leaves the European Parliament EPA Speaking to the Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee, Mr Eustice said enforcement capacity has been boosted five-fold, in line with fears, last year, of a no-deal Brexit. The planned decommissioning of older vessels had been shelved and more staff given training to board vessels, with warranted powers. Neil Hornby, director of marine and fisheries at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said border force vessels could be brought in if necessary. Mr Eustice also sought to dismiss fears that the entire trade deal could be lost over the fishing dispute, suggesting EU countries without fishing fleets in the North Sea would not allow it. But Lord Teverson, a Liberal Democrat former MEP, told the minister he needed to get real, saying there was not a snowballs chance in hell that the EU wont tie fisheries access to trade. The environment secretary said the UK was seeking an arrangement with the EU similar to Norways, with annual negotiations based on the scientific evidence on fish stocks, but possibly a multi-year framework. But, if no deal could be reached by the end of June, the UK would automatically become an independent coastal state from next January, with the power to determine access arrangements. We would automatically take back control of our exclusive economic zone and there would be an obligation on both us and the European Union to work towards a sensible annual negotiation at the end of this year, Mr Eustice said. ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean (ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 4 - These are the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean for today: ANKARA - Visit by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the commissioner for the management of the crisis, Janez Lenarcic, for 'high level' meetings with Turkish authorities. BRUSSELS - EU, European Commission presents its proposal of a 'Climate Law' for climate neutrality by 2050; Swedish activist Greta Thunberg will participate. ZAGREB - EU, defence ministers meeting. (ANSAmed). (Photo : Screenshot From Telling the Truth with Stuart, Jill, and Pete Briscoe Facebook Page) Parkland School Shooting A cruel man named Brandon Michael Fleury, who is 22 years old and is from Santa Ana, California, has been cyberstalking and harassing the families of the Parkland shooting victims by sending threatening messages through bogus accounts. Just recently, Brandon was sentenced to 66 months inside federal prison by the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Brandon targeted the families of the victims The relatives of those killed in the 2018 school shooting of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have received messages from fake accounts created by Brandon containing vulgar and threatening content, which even escalated to death threats and kidnapping threats to the families. This was a very shocking attack since these were already victims of the shootings and have already suffered a great loss. Read Also: [DRONE FOOTAGE] Nashville Tornado Kills 25 People and Leaves 45,000 Homes without Power Supply Brandon Fleury used different Instagram accounts to threated relatives Brandon Fleury has been using 13 different Instagram accounts to mess with the relatives from December of 2018 until January of 2019, according to what the Department of Justice has released about this matter. This form of cyberstalking and harassment is definitely insensitive and strictly punishable by law. Brandon Fleury thought he could hide his identity from the law, but they were able to trace his IP address and the emails he used to make these accounts to identify who he was. Brandon Fleury had unusual comparisons The names of the aliases which he used had references to the school shooter himself named Nikolas Cruz as well as one of the most famous serial killers of modern times named Ted Bundy. There was quite an emulation of the two in Brandon Fleury's fake accounts as he would even use pictures of the shooter Nikolas Cruz which was under the username "the Douglas shooter." These names were meant to strike fear into the families as they would see the face of the person who killed their children. The casualties of the Parkland shooting were tragic There were about 17 deaths, which included students and even faculty members during the Parkland shooting as Nikolas Cruz, who was then 19 at that time, walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and started open firing to everyone. In a chilling confession given on video, he confessed to the killings but rejected any plea of guilt, which was then met with a life sentence in prison. Read Also: Hackers Watch Kid and Couple through Smart Cameras! UK's Cyber-Defender Gives Serious Warning The families of the victims are still in pain up to this very day The families of the school shooting victims still feel the pain of losing their relatives during this school shooting and have had it even worse when Brandon Fleury started to cyberstalk and harass them even when they were going through recovery of the loss. Brandon Fleury's motives were not yet announced to the public, but it is clear that he wanted to strike even more fear to the hearts of the victim's families. Brandon Fleury will now be facing five years in prison for cyberstalking and harassment. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sam Aung Moon , John Geddie and Poppy McPherson (Reuters) Yangon, Myanmar/ Singapore Wed, March 4, 2020 10:37 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206827e37 2 SE Asia #Myanmar,#singapore,sand-mining,construction Free From a boat on the Salween River in southeastern Myanmar, Than Zaw Oo pointed to a brown stretch of water he said was once full of lush paddy fields. "This used to be my land," said the 51-year-old farmer, frowning at the murky waves. All but six of the 24 acres where he used to grow rice and vegetables have slipped into the water in recent years, he said. Another farmer, Than Tun, said he had lost 15 acres of his land to erosion. While official records were not available, other villagers backed their accounts. Farmers and politicians in Chaungzon township, just outside the southern town of Moulmein, worry that erosion in the area is being exacerbated by the ships that dredge its bed for sand each night. The sand is mainly bound for Singapore, the world's biggest importer, for use in reclamation and construction projects. Both the Myanmar government and the company whose ships do the dredging in Chaungzon deny the dredging is causing the erosion. But the dispute highlights the fractious issue of sand-mining in Southeast Asia as Singapore is forced to look farther afield to slake its thirst for the mineral following bans on the trade in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia over environmental concerns. Sand mining has been blamed by scientists for damaging sensitive ecosystems around the world, accelerating coastal and riverine erosion, and exacerbating the frequency and severity of floods and droughts, according to a 2019 report by the U.N Environment Programme. Malaysia, formerly the biggest source of sand for Singapore, in 2018 introduced an outright ban on the export of sea sand, used for land reclamation, and imposed tighter controls on river sand, used mostly in construction. Cambodia made a similar move in 2017, while Indonesia banned exports to Singapore in 2007, causing a "sand crisis" that brought building activity almost to a halt. Singapore, an island state that has grown 25 percent since its independence in 1965 thanks largely to aggressive land reclamation, has since bolstered its stockpiles, according to sand traders. Officials in Myanmar and industry sources in Singapore say the bans have prompted Singapore to seek new supplies from countries like Myanmar. Almost 1 million tonnes of sand went from Myanmar to Singapore in 2018, earning over $6 million, according to the most recent UN data on the trade. That amount is expected to have increased substantially following the Malaysia bans, according to the Myanmar government. "Since the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam almost completely stopped exporting sand to Singapore, the sand from Myanmar has become much more in demand," said Aye Lwin, joint secretary-general of the Myanmar Port Authority, which grants licenses for sand-mining operations. The benefits of the mining including tax revenues for the government outweighed the costs, he said. "I believe it only causes little environmental damage," Aye Lwin said. "But it generates funds for the government." 'AN EASY TARGET The Singapore-registered company dredging in Chaungzon, Starhigh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., has extracted hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sand since 2013, according to the local member of Parliament, Kyi Kyi Mya. She said at least 150,000 tonnes were extracted in 2018-2019, but did not have the exact number for other years. Starhigh dredges the sand legally through a licence with the local government that does not limit the amount of sand the company can extract. Most of the sand Starhigh extracts is sent to Singapore. The company last year bid to supply sand to JTC Corporation, a Singapore government agency for infrastructure development, according to a tender on a government procurement site. Starhigh also supplied sand for a JTC reclamation project in Singapore completed in 2018, according to Starhigh's managing director, Si Thu Phyo. He said the sand for that project came from Myanmar as well as Vietnam and the Philippines. JTC referred questions from Reuters to Singapore's Ministry of National Development, which said the country imports sand on a commercial basis and that suppliers are expected to abide by laws and regulations in source countries. The Myanmar government says the environmental impact of the dredging is minimal and necessary to clear waterways of built-up sediment. In 2014, the company paid compensation to local farmers who claimed that mining too close to the shore had led to landslides, according to Kyi Kyi Mya, the MP in Chaungzon. Starhigh did not comment on any compensation paid to farmers but said "whenever it is possible, we will help locals with small landfill work at our own cost." Si Thu Phyo, the Starhigh managing director, told Reuters that erosion was present in the area before dredging work started. "Dredging is always an easy target when it comes to environmental complaints," he said. "People don't understand and are worried." SECRETIVE INDUSTRY Riverbank erosion along the Salween is not an entirely new phenomenon, with factors including climate change worsening the problem by contributing to higher levels of flooding and siltation, said Vanessa Lamb, a geography lecturer at the University of Melbourne who has studied the river. She said that a lack of baseline data about the river made it difficult to track just how much sand dredging was affecting riverbank erosion. But in a 2019 research paper, Lamb said locals blamed accelerating erosion on the rise in sand-mining. It was not possible to verify those claims from local records or old photographs. Dr Aung Naing Oo, deputy speaker of the Mon state parliament and the author of a parliamentary report on sand extraction in the region, said there was little transparency around the industry. He said that there was no consistent monitoring process and that authorities were not checking how much sand was being extracted or whether companies were taking material only from agreed sites. For now, the government says it does not have plans to end the dredging or compensate farmers for lost land. Than Zaw Oo, the farmer in Chaungzon, said he is now in debt after borrowing more than $2,600 to pay for embankments in an attempt to keep erosion at bay. "I am lost and I don't know what to do," he said. "The sadness is just beyond words." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) President Rodrigo Duterte said the United States has been reaching out to him to discuss the abrogated Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries. During the oath-taking of newly-appointed officials on Tuesday, Duterte recalled his meeting with US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim. "Kaya sinabi ko kay Ambassador, it came to fore 'yung alitan ko sa kanila. Tinanggal ko 'yung VFA. Sila na naman ngayon ang lapit nang lapit," he said in a speech. [Translation: I told the Ambassador about my gripes. I terminated the VFA. Now they keep reaching out to me.] On February 11, Duterte unilaterally ordered the scrapping of the military deal between the US and the Philippines. On the same day, Foreign Affairs Secretary Tedoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin, Jr. sent the US a notice to terminate the VFA marking the start of the 180-day period after which it will be effectively scrapped. The 1998 agreement between Manila and Washington legally allows the entry of a large number of American troops, exempting them from passport and visa regulations so they can participate in joint military drills in the Philippines. Duterte also defended his administration's controversial war on drugs, which has drawn criticism for allegedly violating human rights. One of its critics include former US President Barack Obama. "Sinabi ko sa kanya, 'I don't care about 'yung extrajudicial killing. Wala akong pakialam diyan. You can bring all the charges you want but I will stick to my guns,'" he said. [Translation: I told him (Sung Kim) I don't care about extrajudicial killings. You can bring all the charges you want but I will stick to my guns.] He said the next president should be fearless enough to kill those who threaten to destroy the country. "Alam mo sa totoo lang, Presidente ka, hindi ka marunong pumatay at takot kang mamatay, eh huwag ka na mag-presidente. Walang mangyari sa iyo. Walang mangyari sa bayan," he said. [Translation: If you're a president but you don't know how to kill and you're scared to die, do not run for president. You won't bring any good to the country.] With this, he said he sees no viable successor when his term ends in 2022. Despite being told to stay isolated, the first New Hampshire resident to test positive for the coronavirus reportedly attended an invite-only party nearby in Vermont Friday. Management from The Engine Room, a public event space in White River Junction posted to Facebook Tuesday that they had been informed by the New Hampshire Department of Public Health that the individual had attended a party there. We have a professional cleaning company coming in to take care of this, the management said in the Facebook post. The post emphasized that both the New Hampshire Department of Public Health and the Vermont Department of Public Health had been in contact with the company. Both Health Departments stated that this is Low-Risk situation and recommended a thorough cleansing of The Engine Room to ensure the safety of all staff and guests, they said in the post. In a press conference Monday, New Hampshires state epidemiologist Benjamin Chan announced that the state has tested four people for coronavirus so far and one of those tests have come back positive for the disease caused by it, known as COVID-19. On Tuesday, they announced a second person was presumed to have it as well. According to NBC Boston, health officials say the second individual to contract the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus, was in close contact with the first patient. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire announce the second person to test positive for the virus was an employee of the hospital. As with the first patient identified on Monday, March 2, we have determined that this second patient has had no contact with patients, the hospital said in a statement. This patient was a close contact of the first identified patient and had gone into quarantine. Officials said they expect more coronavirus cases to be found. The single best thing for the public to do right now is to continue to follow typical flu prevention measures, including washing your hands often, avoiding touching your eyes, mouth or nose with unwashed hands and to avoid close contact with people who are sick," New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said at the press conference on Monday. According to management at The Engine Room, health officials said there was no reason to close the event space and that events would be going forward for the week and weekend. We just want to let the public know we are taking this seriously and following all the recommendations of the VT & NH Health Departments, they said in a post. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook page Related Content: A recent video from a live television debate has gone all sorts of viral on social media. It shows a panellist falling from his chair during the show and that has prompted hilarious reactions online. Shared by a Twitter user, the video shows four panellists engaged in a discussion. They are seen debating how Pakistans ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has performed till now. The party is led by Imran Khan, the present Prime Minister of the country. A few seconds into the video, the panellist falls down, probably because his chair broke. The host, however, handles the situation skillfully and quickly calls for an advertisement break. Take a look at the video which has now left people in splits. Since being shared, the video has gathered over 61,000 views. Additionally, it has also garnered more than 600 likes and over 170 retweets. People dropped varied comments on the post. Some even wanted to know what unveiled after the host called for a break. Whats happened after the break, wrote a Twitter user. Itna bhaari baat bola k khursi be jawab de diya [He said such heavy words, even the chair broke] commented another. Break ke Baad break le Liya! [A break for break] joked a third. What happened to him? asked a fourth. Full marks to anchor, wrote a fifth. What do you think of the video? SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Apart from strengthening its conventional prowess, India is focusing on a dynamic response along its western and northern borders that is below the threshold of an all-out war, Army chief Gen M M Naravane said on Wednesday. India's northern border is aligned with China and the western border with Pakistan. Addressing a seminar on land warfare here, the Army chief said the airstrikes on Balakot demonstrated that if one was skilful, escalation does not always lead to war. Moreover, he noted that the Indian Army was looking to tap blockchain technologies, lasers and directed energy weapons for possible military use. "On our part, that of the Indian Army, we have analysed carefully the changing character of war within the overall framework of conflict, as relevant to the Indian context," Gen Naravane said, adding, "The 'grey zone' and its varied nuances are receiving our concerted attention." "Apart from strengthening our conventional prowess, we are also focusing on dynamic response -- actions below the threshold of an all-out war - and are refining our plans and capacities in this regard both, along the western and northern borders," the Army chief said. He also said kinetic and non-kinetic responses were being developed to address the threat. The Army chief pointed out that Chinese dominance in the South China Sea showed small incremental steps -- none of them serious enough to warrant any action or reaction -- cumulatively achieved the aim without firing a single shot or inviting retaliatory action. The Chinese way of war, epitomised by thinkers such as Sun Tzu, has given a new lease and life to the concept of "non-contact or grey zone warfare", where one shed the binary approach to conflict, Naravane said. He also asserted that the rise of non-state actors such as terrorists demands that victory in war is formulated in a nuanced manner. "The rise of non-state actors, such as insurgents, terrorists, transnational criminal networks combined with greater focus on individual's status consequently demands that victory needs to be formulated and achieved in a more nuanced way," the Army chief noted. Victory no longer rests on the ability to inflict massive destruction but on the ability to wrestle popular support from one's opponent, he said. Terming it a "technological irony, Gen Naravane said the ISIS was far more adept in using social media for devastating effects as compared to the 21st century armies of the US and the UK. Talking about a new phenomenon of showing military prowess below the threshold of an all-out conflict, he said, "The Houthi rebels attack on Riyadh airport and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and closer home, the Balakot airstrike saw these short, intense and escalatory cycles of military activity in full media glare, where sophisticated information narratives played an equally important role." For years, Indians were told that if and when the International Border (IB) between India and Pakistan is crossed it would escalate to a full-fledged war, the Army chief noted. "Balakot demonstrated that if you play the escalatory game with skill, military ascendancy can be established in short cycles of conflict that do not necessarily lead to war," he said. Naravane said, "We have possibly entered the era of 'contested equality', wherein technology will make unequals, equal. Perhaps that is already happening -- the battle wining factor in future combat may not be numerical equivalence but technological superiority." "Brick and mortar military structures and capacities, will perhaps matter less; technological capacities in enabling domains like AI (artificial intelligence) and cyber will decisively tip the military balance," he said. "The Army is embracing low-hang technologies and inducting them with speed into our units and formations. "The military leveraging of emerging, disruptive domains is also receiving our concerted attention. Capacities in space, cyber and electronic warfare, similarly, are being given a boost. We are also looking at tapping blockchain technologies, lasers and directed energy weapons for possible military use," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In 2016, Donald Trump won the United States presidential election partially on the promise that he would clinch the best deals for the US in the international arena. Four years into his presidency, however, that pledge rings a bit hollow. Neither the phase one trade agreement he signed with China nor his newly unveiled deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan quite qualifies as a shining foreign policy coup. Could he score a major win in Europe, though? That is what he seems to be working towards. On Monday, Serbias President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovar counterpart Hashim Thaci were both in the White House for a meeting with National Security Advisor Robert OBrien and US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who has also been Trumps special envoy to Serbia and Kosovo since last October. Many Balkan watchers see the meeting as a clear sign that the US president has set his sights on getting Belgrade to normalise ties with Pristina. Relations between Serbia and Kosovo have been strained since the 1999 War, which claimed more than 10,000 lives and ended in 1999. NATO forces, led by the US, intervened to stop the conflict. Kosovos independence, declared in 2008, has not been recognised by Belgrade, Russia and five European Union nations. The US and more than 100 other countries have recognised Kosovos independence. Convincing Serbia to extend recognition to Kosovo, in exchange for concessions by Pristina, would expand US influence in the region and, locals speculate, may even secure Trump a Nobel Peace Prize down the road. A settlement of the protracted sovereignty dispute would also make the EU, a bloc for which the White Houses current occupant has no love lost, look bad by underlining its failure to resolve the spiralling tensions in its back yard. Grenell has already made some headway. On February 14, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, he oversaw the conclusion of a deal to restore railway travel and build a highway between Pristina and Belgrade. A month prior, Grenell had brokered another agreement that allowed for commercial flights to resume between the two Balkan neighbours. Trumps envoy then moved on to resolve an even more critical issue the punitive tariffs the Kosovars charge on Serbian imports. This is no trivial matter. The government in Pristina slapped a 100 percent tariff on Serbian imports back in November 2018 in response to Belgrades Russia-backed campaign to have countries around the globe withdraw their recognition of Kosovos independence. Since 2017, 15 nations, mostly in Africa, have withdrawn recognition. The US wants Kosovo to abolish the duties imposed on Serbia, which are in violation of CEFTA, a regional free-trade arrangement. And Pristina seems to be prepared to heed the call. On Monday, Kosovos Prime Minister Albin Kurti sent a letter to Trump informing him that his country will gradually remove the tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (which similarly does not recognise Kosovo, due to the pressure coming from the Serbs in the country) as a goodwill gesture. It is not surprising that US diplomacy works in Kosovo. Washington still carries a great deal of weight with the Albanian majority, as well as other Albanians living across the Balkans, thanks to the 1999 intervention. Even though many in Kosovo undoubtedly have misgivings about the lifting of trade sanctions, they see Washington as their foremost international ally, and do not want to upset it. By contrast, the EUs stock in the country is in steep decline. Brusselss reluctance to remove the visa requirement for Kosovos citizens, despite the countrys full implementation of all the necessary technical conditions, touches on a raw nerve. Everyone else in the Western Balkans, but also nationals of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, are entitled to enter the EU without a visa. Kosovars similarly begrudge the fact that Serbia is negotiating its accession to the union, while they are kept at arms length. Though things are clearly moving behind the scenes, normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia may not be in the offing yet. President Thaci, who is lobbying hard for a settlement, even floating the idea of a land swap to secure a deal, increasingly looks like a lame duck. Since the October 2019 elections, Thacis Democratic Party of Kosovo is in opposition. The new prime minister and leader of the Self Determination party, Albin Kurti, takes an uncompromising line on Serbia.He has castigated the plans proposed by Thaci and Vucic to exchange territory. Kurti has also been critical of the alternative foreseen by the EU-brokered Brussels Agreement from 2013 granting the Serbian community in Kosovo autonomy. Kurti is keen to take foreign policy out of Thacis hands. His foreign minister, Glauk Konjufca, recently dismissed ambassadors in several key capitals, including the one in Washington, DC. Kurti might occasionally give in to US demands as his letter to Trump demonstrates but he will not be rushing to cut a deal with Vucic. The ball may ultimately fall back in the EUs court. Trumps short attention span and the looming US presidential elections are sure to push Kosovo far down his administrations priorities in the coming days. Trumps envoy to Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Grenell, has recently been appointed as the acting director of national intelligence. His new duties will likely divert his energies away from the Balkans. The EU, meanwhile, will continue to engage closely with the tensions brewing in its back yard. In May, the Croatian presidency of the Council of the European Union will host the annual EU-Western Balkans summit in Zagreb. Croatia will no doubt put Kosovos visa liberalisation demands on the summits agenda. By taking immediate action on this contentious issue, the EU can win back Kosovos support and once again become the main instigator in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. Despite recent positive developments, a Trumpian grand bargain on Kosovo looks unlikely. But, as the success of recent diplomatic efforts demonstrates, much can be done to resuscitate the stalled normalisation talks between Belgrade and Pristina. As the Trump administration is unlikely to remain on course and conclude the negotiations, the EU should up its efforts to resolve the situation. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. An emergency services dispatcher in Cincinnati has been suspended after being accused of failing to send help for a man suffering a stroke that proved fatal. The shocking incident was revealed this week in a letter by Cincinnati City Manager Patrick A. Duhaney, informing the mayor and city council of the serious breach in procedure. According to Duhaney, on the night of January 12, a resident of an apartment complex on Groesbeck Road called 911 to report that one of their neighbors appeared to have suffered a stroke. The caller was on a different floor from the man suffering the stroke, and the dispatcher urged the caller to go to the patient and get further information from him. The shocking incident was revealed this week in a letter by Cincinnati City Manager Patrick A. Duhaney (above), informing the mayor and city council The Cincinnati Emergency Communications Center is seen above. An emergency services dispatcher in Cincinnati has been suspended over a January 12 call When the caller said that the patient might not want to answer any questions, the dispatcher told the caller 'we can't force ourselves on him,' according to the letter. 'If he doesn't want help, they won't do anything. He has to want to be helped,' the dispatcher said. An eight minute argument ensued, with the caller pleading with the dispatcher to send help, Duhaney said. The caller made various pleas for help, including: 'He is getting worse and worse' 'This is an emergency.' 'He's had a stroke.' 'He has a stroke and has another one coming. He's gonna die.' 'He's going to die here.' Eventually the caller, hung up. The dispatcher closed the call, and no help was sent, according to Duhaney. The following day, another 911 call came in with the information that the man who had suffered the medical emergency had died overnight. 'What took place on the night of January 12 is nothing short of a tragedy,' Duhaney wrote. 'It's unclear if the individual would have lived or died, but the actions of this call-taker undermined the possibility of a positive outcome in this situation.' An internal review revealed that the caller had provided a clear location in the first 45 second of the call, and clearly stated that someone was having a stroke. Duhaney said that dispatcher training clearly states that anyone appearing to be having a stroke 'must receive an immediate response that is not subject to delay.' In April 2018, 16-year-old Kyle Plush (above) died after he became trapped behind the folding seat in his family's Honda Odyssey minivan despite calling 911 twice The dispatcher was suspended with pay pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings, in accordance with union rules. The names of the dispatcher and the man who died have not been made public. It is not the first time a dispatcher in the area has made headlines for failing to send assistance. In April 2018, 16-year-old Kyle Plush died after he became trapped behind the folding seat in his family's Honda Odyssey minivan despite calling 911 twice saying he couldn't breathe. Plush's family is now suing the city, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and court-supervised reforms of the 911 system. THE INQUEST into the death of a pensioner is to be reopened for a full-week hearing later this year, following an eight-year battle by his heartbroken family. Michael Daly Snr, of Lee Estate, died aged 66 in April 2010, after he repeatedly presented to University Hospital Limerick, while complaining of pain and rectal bleeding. The Limerick Leader previously reported that Michael died of natural causes, a verdict that was reached at his inquest at Limerick Coroners Court in September 2012. His son Michael Daly Jnr, who was unhappy with the verdict, has been leading a massive campaign, determined to have the inquest reopened ever since. Its understood that a second inquest was to take place in late 2017, but a separate criminal investigation had been launched in connection with allegations made in relation to Mr Dalys death. It is understood that, provisionally, the second inquest could take as long as five days some time in September this year, eight years after the first inquest. It also understood that experts from the UK could give evidence at the hearing. Speaking to the Limerick Leader this week, Michael Daly Jnr said: As a family we've fought tooth and nail to have the truth come out about what happened to our dad. We welcome with open arms this second inquest and we believe it will result in the truth finally coming out, and we expect a different cause of death to be established, other then the initial cause of death in 2010 which was natural causes heart failure. He said: Under no circumstances did we ever think any of what occurred at the first inquest in 2010 was the fault of the Coroner. At the time, he had to concur with the evidence available to him from hospital consultants. It's been a long hard 10 years and finally we believe we shall see the truth by the latter end of this year. The coroner's office has been contact for comment. Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Sona Nanotech Inc. (CSE: SONA) (OTC PINK: LMTCF) ("Sona") and GE Healthcare Life Sciences will jointly complete test development of the Sona Covid-19 Coronavirus rapid response lateral flow test, and will use GE Healthcare Life Sciences' Fast Flow High Performance Membrane (FFHP) in production of the test. Sona will retain all commercial rights to the resulting test. The companies will work in parallel to complete the test prior to field testing. GE Healthcare Life Sciences will support Sona through their studies as they work to get their rapid-response Covid-19 lateral flow test introduced into markets as quickly as possible. The Sona Covid-19 lateral flow test will utilize GE Healthcare Life Sciences' FFHP Membrane, which is specifically designed to allow for multiple optimization techniques (potentially allowing the test to become market ready sooner) and fast flow performance (potentially allowing for faster individual test results). Darren Rowles, CEO of Sona Nanotech, said, "It is exciting to work with a best-in-class partner like GE Healthcare Life Sciences, drawing on their expertise and to use the new FFHP Membrane. With their help, we will be able to accelerate our work and hopefully bring this critical test to the market quicker." Klaus Hochleitner, Global Lead, Technology Product Specialist GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said, "This collaboration all started when Darren and I connected following my social media post offering to collaborate on a Covid-19 diagnostic. This ties in to our daily mission of advancing and accelerating therapeutics, by supporting the global scientific community working tirelessly to address the Covid-19 outbreak." Sona expects to provide near-term updates on the development of its rapid-response Covid-19 test. For More Information For more information about Sona, please contact: Darren Rowles President and Chief Executive Officer Telephone: (902) 442-0653 Email: Darren Rowles, darren@sonanano.com About Sona Nanotech Inc. Sona Nanotech Inc. is a nanotechnology life sciences firm that has developed two proprietary methods for the manufacture of rod-shaped gold nanoparticles. The principal business carried out and intended to be continued by Sona is the development and application of its proprietary technology for use in multiplex diagnostic testing platforms that will improve performance over existing tests in the market. Sona's gold nanorod particles are CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium) free, eliminating the toxicity risks associated with the use of other gold nanorod technologies in medical applications. It is expected that Sona's gold nanotechnologies may be adapted for use in applications, as a safe and effective delivery system for multiple medical treatments, pending the approval of various regulatory boards including Health Canada and the FDA. Sona is a publicly listed company on the Canadian Securities Exchange existing under the laws of Nova Scotia, with its operations in Nova Scotia. About GE Healthcare Life Science GE Healthcare Life Sciences helps therapy innovators, researchers and healthcare providers accelerate how precision diagnostics and therapies are invented, made and used. Our products enable biological analysis, research, development and the manufacture of advanced therapies and vaccines. Life Sciences is part of the $19.9 billion healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE). With over 100 years of experience in the healthcare industry and more than 50,000 employees globally, GE Healthcare helps efficiently improve outcomes for patients, healthcare providers, researchers, and life sciences companies around the world. Visit our website https://www.gelifesciences.com/about-us for more information. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. There are several important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to Sona's proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to Sona's operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to Sona and its business generally, such as infringement of intellectual property rights and conflicts of interest. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any time. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53128 Update: New York up to 11 cases, with 10 in Westchester County About 1,000 people who were possibly exposed to coronavirus are self-quarantining in Westchester County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. As of early this afternoon, New York state has six confirmed cases. All are in the New York City area, and five of those cases involve a lawyer, his family and his neighbor in New Rochelle. A few people in Upstate communities, including in Buffalo and Oneida County, have been tested; all those tests came back negative, the governor said earlier today. Still, the actions in Westchester County could give an indication of how health officials will respond should the virus spread to other New York communities. Cuomo again urged caution. Anxiety is outpacing the reality of the situation," he said, noting that in about 80 percent of cases, people have few symptoms and recover. Since the discovery of those cases, people who work with or came into contact with those with the virus are being tested, Cuomo said. Those contacts could have happened at a private academy and Yeshiva University, where a 20-year-old student who has tested positive was living on-campus, Cuomo said. Others include people who attended a local synagogue, he said. Eight people who work at Lawrence Hospital, where a 50-year-old New Rochelle lawyer first sought treatment, are also being tested. The schools were both children in the family -- including Yeshiva -- will be closed this week, Cuomo said. It is an imperfect science, Cuomo said of asking people to stay in their homes and limit contact with others. You do the best you can. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Eldar Janashvili Trend: A direct flight between Azerbaijans Baku city and Russias Rostov region will be launched, Governor of Rostov region Vasily Golubev told reporters in Baku, Trend reports on March 4. An agreement was signed between Russias Azimuth Airline and Azerbaijans PASHA Travel company for the development of passenger transportation and direct flights between Rostov and Baku within today's business forum entitled "Days of the Rostov Region in Azerbaijan", the governor added. The first flight will be launched on March 30. Golubev also stressed that in general, there are many opportunities for working in the transport and logistics sphere not only in air transport but also road transportation, as well as water transportation. Moreover, the launching of a direct flight between Azerbaijan and the Rostov region will positively affect the humanitarian sphere of bilateral cooperation, the governor added. "Six Azerbaijani universities and four universities of the Rostov region already have direct contacts, Golubev said. These universities are engaged in professional training and mutual exchange of students. The direct flights between Baku and Rostov will favorably affect the corresponding programs." Business forum entitled "Days of the Rostov region in Azerbaijan" was held in Baku on March 4. Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov and other officials attended the forum. Seven victims of the tornadoes that struck middle Tennessee this week are currently being treated at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga. According to hospital officials, one child and six adults who suffered injuries from the Tennessee storm, were transported to Erlangers downtown hospital, all by ground transport on Tuesday. Two residents of the Cookeville area who were injured in this weeks storm were transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center by Erlangers Sparta, Tn.-based LIFE FORCE 2 air ambulance. Robbie Tester, senior director of Erlanger LIFE FORCE and Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, also reported that the Sparta-based air ambulance flew Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton and Randy Porter, county executive for Putnam County, over Putnam County Tuesday to survey the storm damage. By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 03, 2020 | 11:02 PM | MURRAY Court documents alleged that from 2004 until 2014, 49-year-old Mark Whitaker worked with Charles Jones to conceal a scheme to defraud a federal E-Rate program. The program is an FCC program that sends money to schools and libraries for internet access, telecommunication services, and other equipment. Whitaker helped to manage two companies, Integrated Computer Solutions and Technology Associates, which acted as E-Rate program vendors for numerous public school districts across Tennessee and Missouri. Whitaker's position was reportedly to submit false certifications to the program at the direction of Jones, whose case is still pending in court. Whitaker reportedly submitted false certifications knowing they were going against the rules of the program, including falsely certifying that the schools had been invoiced for their required program co-pay, and falsely certifying that the companies had not paid any kickbacks to the schools or their agents. This comes after Jones had allegedly paid the schools' consultant bribes, and gave him valuable gifts. He also reportedly knew that Technology Associates and Integrated Computer Solutions did not bill the Missouri schools for their full required co-pays, but did not report it. Due to the fraud, the program allegedly paid the companies approximately $6.9 million. U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant shared his thoughts on the case. "Protection of federal grant programs that provide needed services and equipment to our schools in West Tennessee is a top priority of this office. When dishonest offenders conspire to defraud these programs for their own selfish gain and unjust enrichment, they not only steal tax dollars, but also hurt local schools in the process." Dunavant continued, "We will continue to work with our federal partners to root out and expose such fraud against the government, to hold offenders accountable, and to recover ill-gotten gains." Whitaker is set to be sentenced on July 23, before U.S. District Court Judge Mark S. Norris. He is facing a maximum of three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Wire fraud and conspiracy charges against Jones are still pending. A Murray man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a decade-long scheme and could face three years in prison. On the Net: Air India's international budget arm Air India Express on Wednesday said it will not charge any fee on re-booking of tickets by the passengers travelling to Kuwait between March 8-15 following the issuance of fresh instructions by the Kuwaiti government in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Such passengers can rebook a date that falls within seven days of the original booking date, Air India Express said in a statement. The instructions mandatorily require the passengers to undergo complete medical examination and to obtain a certificate from the health centres approved by the Kuwait Embassy in India to confirm that they are free from coronavirus before entering the Gulf country. The airline said there are five such centres each at Kozhikode and Kochi and another three centres at Mangalore. "In order to facilitate the compliance of this requirement, Air India Express has decided to allow free date modification to passengers who are booked to fly to Kuwait between March 8 and 15," the airline said. The global death toll due to the deadly disease has mounted to 3,123 and confirmed cases surpassed 91,783. India has so far reported 28 positive cases of coronavirus, which includes 16 Italian tourists. Besides, over six lakh people have already been screened at 21 airports for coronavirus. As per the recent update, Saudi Arabia is permitting passengers holding visit /family/business visa to travel to Dammam and Riyadh in addition to resident permit holders, Air India Express said. Passengers other than resident permit holders must hold a return ticket. Passengers holding Umrah visa and tourist visa are not permitted to travel to Saudi Arabia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two have been cleared to contest in the New Patriotic Partys (NPP) upcoming parliamentary primaries in the Dome Kwabenya Constituency of the Greater Accra Region. Both candidates, the incumbent Member of Parliament, Sarah Adjoa Sarfo and the High Commissioner to India Mike Oquaye Jnr. were given the green light on Monday by the partys vetting committee. This is the second time the two contestants are facing each other as they contested the same seat in the 2012 NPP primaries. In the 2016 primaries, Adwoa Safo was made to contest unopposed. The constituency chairman of the party in the Dome Kwabenya constituency, Robert Osei Bonsu in a Citi News interview said the vetting process has been peaceful. She [Adwoa Safo] was the first person to be called in front of the panel and a few questions were asked and she was cleared that she could go ahead and contest. And then, Mr. Mike Oquaye, the High Commissioner to India was called in. Same was done and he was also cleared. Normally the contestants have this cordial relationship. It's the supporters who sometimes do argue a little bit but apart from that, everything went on smoothly. Everyone wants their candidate to win so all manner of things have been said but I hope that after all is said and done, we can all put it behind us and move on. After the vetting the balloting was done, Jnr Oquaye picked one and Adwoa Safo picked two, he said. The vetting panel was made up of the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, the Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Obiri Boahen and the partys National Womens Organizer, Madam Kate Gyamfuah. NPP Parliamentary Party scheduled for April 25, 2020 The party has already held primaries for constituencies that do not have sitting Members of Parliament. The New Patriotic Party has slated April 25, 2020, to elect the remainder of its Parliamentary candidates. It will also be holding its Presidential Primaries on the same day. ---citinewsroom Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday said that there is no proposal before Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray yet regarding 5 percent reservations to Muslims in educational institutions in the state. "We had announced in the Vidhan Parishad regarding the quota in reply to a question. The department will make the proposal with consultation from the law and judiciary and then it will go before the Cabinet. The Chief Minister is absolutely right in saying that there is no proposal before him," Malik told ANI here. On Friday, Malik, who is the Minority Affairs Minister in the Maharashtra government, had announced that a law will be made to give reservation to Muslims in educational institutions in the state. The NCP leader further slammed BJP over its alleged bid to topple the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. "At any cost, BJP wants to come into power. The way 'Operation Lotus' had been started in Madhya Pradesh they do not have any democratic values. They have kept some MLAs in Gurugram hotel and definitely Congress will rescue them. This kind of act is not new, they always try to come into the power and they are not following the democratic values of this country," Malik said. He also condemned the attack on the office of Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, terming it an "attack on democracy" and said people "know well" who is behind these attacks. The security outside Chowdhury's residence was increased on Tuesday after some miscreants attacked MP's residence in the evening. "We had received a complaint regarding abuse and vandalisation by four people at the office of Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (which is attached to his residence)," the Delhi Police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) GST on textiles will not be increased from 5 to 12 per cent: FM Sitharaman Explained: What is Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019? India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Mar 04: The Cabinet on Wednesday has approved the Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bill removes criminality under the Act. "This Bill furthers ease of living for law-abiding corporates and de-clogs the criminal justice system in the country," Sitharaman said. So, what is The Companies (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019? The Bill would remove criminality under the Act in case of defaults which can be determined objectively and which, otherwise, lack the element of fraud or do not involve larger public interest. This would also lead to further de-clogging of the criminal justice system in the country. The Bill would also further ease of living for law abiding corporates. Here are the highlights of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019: Re-categorisation of certain Offences: The 2013 Act contains 81 compoundable offences punishable with fine or fine or imprisonment, or both. These offences are heard by courts. The Ordinance re-categorizes 16 of these offences as civil defaults, where adjudicating officers (appointed by the central government) may now levy penalties instead. These offences include: (i) issuance of shares at a discount, and, (ii) failure to file annual return. Issue of shares at a discount: The Act prohibits a company from issuing shares at a discount, except in certain cases. On failure to comply, the company is liable to pay a fine between one lakh rupees and five lakh rupees every officer in default may be punished with imprisonment up to six months or fine between one lakh rupees and five lakh rupees. The Ordinance changes this to remove imprisonment for officers as a punishment. Cabinet meeting: From coronavirus screening at 21 airports to PSU banks merger, here are highlights Further, the company and every officer in default will be liable to pay a penalty equal to the amount raised by the issue of shares at a discount or five lakh rupees, whichever is lower. The company will also be liable to refund the money received with interest at 12% per annum from the date of issue of the shares. Commencement of business The Ordinance states that a company may not commence business, unless it files a declaration within 180 days of incorporation, confirming that every subscriber to the Memorandum of the company has paid the value of shares agreed to be taken by him, and files a verification of its registered office address with the Registrar of Companies within 30 days of incorporation. If a company fails to comply with these provisions and is found not to be carrying out any business, the name of the Company may be removed from the Register of Companies. Change in approving authority: Under the Act, change in period of financial year for a company associated with a foreign company, has to be approved by the National Company Law Tribunal. Similarly, any alteration in the incorporation document of a public company which has the effect of converting it to a private company, has to be approved by the Tribunal. Under the Ordinance, these powers have been transferred to central government. Earlier, the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 amended certain provisions of the Act to remove difficulties faced in implementation of various provisions of the Act. Naim killed his girlfriend, Brenda Micaela Gordillo A 19-year-old man has been arrested after he confessed to killing his girlfriend. He also attempted to burn her body to cover his tracks during an argument about her being pregnant. The Argentine identified as claimed he had pushed his 24-year-old partner Brenda Micaela Gordillo down the stairs after a night out before attempting to burn her body on a grill. Her remains were found in a dumpster at the side of a road, though an autopsy later revealed that she was not pregnant. The pair had returned to their apartment in Catamarca, a northwestern province of Argentina, at around 4am on Saturday, newspaper Clarin reports. Naim told the police he had a row with Brenda and after she fell down the steps he wrapped her body in a blanket before trying to burn it. Officials have not confirmed whether Brenda was alive when her boyfriend burned her body, however, forensic experts believe she died by asphyxiation due to cloth placed in her mouth. A piece of Naims skin was also found under Brendas nail, suggesting she struggled with Vera before she died, according to investigators. Hugo Costilla, a prosecutor for Catamarca, told Argentine state news agency Telam that the victim was not pregnant and Vera had not chopped up her body, despite reports in some media. Veras father and lawyer went with him to the police station at around midday when he handed himself in, though Mr Costilla confirmed the teenager did not have any assistance in the alleged murder. CCTV footage shows the moment Naim Vera was driving his truck at 8.10am on Saturday along a road where part of his partners body was later found half buried. The authorities believe he was driving back home after discarding Brendas remains. Part way through the journey he was stopped at a police checkpoint and asked to produce the vehicles documents before he was allowed to continue. He is understood to have then returned to the apartment and called a lawyer friend and his father and confessing to both what he had done. Researchers at the University of Bristol have come up with a new type of nanoelectromechanical relay to enable reliable high-temperature, non-volatile memory. The work, which is reported in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with the University of Southampton and the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. The invention is an important development for all-electric vehicles and more-electric aircraft which require electronics with integrated data storage that can operate in extreme temperatures with high energy efficiency. As transistor leakage current increases with temperature, nanoelectromechanical relays have emerged as a promising alternative to transistors for such applications. However, until now, a reliable and scalable non-volatile relay that retains its state when powered off, to implement memory, has not been demonstrated. Dr Dinesh Pamunuwa, who leads a group that carries out research in the field of Microelectronics at the University of Bristol and is the lead investigator, explains: "Part of the challenge is the way electromechanical relays operate; when actuated, a beam anchored at one end moves under an electrostatic force. As the beam moves, the airgap between the actuation electrode and beam rapidly reduces while the capacitance increases. At a critical voltage called the pull-in voltage, the electrostatic force becomes much greater than the opposing spring force and the beam snaps in. This inherent electromechanical pull-in instability makes precise control of the moving beam, critical for non-volatile operation, very difficult. Now, though, Dr Pamunuwa and the team have demonstrated a rotational relay that maintains a constant airgap as the beam moves, eliminating this electromechanical pull-in instability. Using this relay, they have succeeded in demonstrating the first high-temperature non-volatile nanoelectromechanical relay operation, at 200 C. Dr.Pamunuwa said: "This is a truly exciting development as the need to develop technology that reduces our dependency on fossil fuels increases. This relay operation is a significant step forward in developing electronics for all-electric vehicles and energy-efficient more-electric aircraft, as well as for creating zero-standby power intelligent nodes for the IoT. "Electronics built from nano relays instead of transistors can work at much higher temperatures while also having zero standby power. Any digital electronic system needs logic and memory, and this relay makes it easier to build relay-based memory that retains the stored state when powered off, by using stiction. Maintaining a constant airgap as the relay switches allows very precise electrostatic control, and greatly improves reliability." ### The relays were designed by Dr. Sunil Rana and nanoscale prototypes were fabricated by Dr. Joao Mouro, both senior postdoctoral researchers in the Microelectronics group at the University of Bristol. Dr. Jamie Reynolds, a senior postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southampton carried out contact material deposition, testing and characterisation under Professor Harold Chong's supervision. Microscale prototypes were fabricated by Dr. Simon Bleiker of the Royal Institute of Technology under the supervision of Professor Frank Niklaus. This research was initiated in work supported by Innovate UK under award 61931-453231, and supported subsequently by a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship (IFS1718\29) and Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship (RCSRF1920-9-53) awarded to Dr. Pamunuwa. This work was also supported by the University of Bristol Cleanroom Facility and UK EPSRC grant QuPIC (EP/N015126/1), and the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre. The Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana is the No.1 law school in India, according to the subject-wise rankings of the worlds universities released by Britain-based education information firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) on Wednesday. JGLS has been ranked in the 101-150 band among the worlds top law schools according to QS World University Subject Rankings 2020 in law, while the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru has been ranked in the 151-200 band. Only two law schools from India have made it to the law subject rankings of QS. I am delighted that for the very first time, in our QS World University Rankings by Subject in Law, we not only have a young institution - but also one that is top in India, Ashwin Fernandes, Regional Director for QS in Middle East, North Africa & South Asia, said in a statement. This is truly a red letter day in the history of JGU and JGLS. The recognition of JGLS as the Number 1 law school in India and among the top 150 in the world by the reputed QS World University Rankings 2020 by subject is a historic achievement, said Naveen Jindal, the benefactor and founding Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University. QS Subject Ranking in Law measures the global relevance of institutions specifically in the area of research in law along with combining reputation from the academic community and employers. The methodology is subject sensitive and looks specifically at universities or institutions which have a strong focus in law. Hence only the best 300 law schools globally make it to the list, said Fernandes. Overall, 894 law schools were considered to be eligible by QS in these rankings, out of which only 300 were ranked. It is an extraordinary and unprecedented institutional moment for JGU to witness history as its first school, the Jindal Global Law School, is ranked Number 1 in India and among the top 101-150 in the world, said Professor Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, JGU. To produce the QS World University Rankings by subject area for this year, QS analysed over 22 million papers, producing close to 200 million citations. A total of 1,368 institutions have been ranked across 48 subjects in 5 broad categories across 159 locations. To Sam Johnsons many friends and family, he was the always happy guy who had life by the tail. Sam had a huge personality, a large smile and loved life, said his sister, Nicole Goggans. Then on Dec. 17, 2002, Sam called Nicole at about 2 a.m. and told her he was in trouble. She promised to come see him first thing in the morning and help him deal with whatever the problem was, she said. When she asked if that was OK, he said yes. A couple of hours later, State Troopers called and told her Sam had taken his own life. His family and friends never saw it coming. They searched and searched for answers, never finding them. Finally, they decided they had to do something to prevent other people from taking the road Sam took, and prevent other families from having to deal with the unanswered questions and grief theirs continues to feel. Sams family -- led by Goggans and Sams other sister, Julie Smith -- founded the SAM Foundation in his honor. SAM stands for Suicide Awareness Means Hope. The Fort Payne-based non-profit has programs that help people who are struggling, and help loved ones and friends know what to do when they recognize suicidal tendencies. They partner with community organizations in Limestone, Lawrence, Madison, Morgan, Limestone, Jackson and DeKalb counties, as well as Fulton County, Georgia, where Julie lives, to provide suicide prevention and awareness programs. To fund and expand the SAM Foundations footprint, the foundation hopes to create an Alabama license plate for suicide prevention. This tag is the only license plate in the state of Alabama that supports suicide prevention, and it will help those of us at the SAM Foundation provide more training programs throughout the state and help make our communities suicide safer, Goggans said. Every day, two people die from suicide in the state of Alabama, an 18% higher rate than the national average, she said. The SAM Foundation hopes, through the funding from this car tag, to expand its reach to every county in the state of Alabama. We just need to save some lives and train people in the community how to react and what to say to someone that may be suffering, Goggans said. But heres the catch. For the state to approve the suicide prevention license plate, 1,000 Alabama residents must reserve the tag by July 31. Even if you already have your 2020 tags, you can reserve one for 2021 now, and the state will issue you a voucher. It is crucial for Alabama residents to reserve the tag now, so we can meet our quota, said Goggans. Please join us in this effort to help educate our communities and reach more of those who may be in crisis and affected by suicide. Reserve your tag To reserve your license plate, and learn more about the SAM Foundation, visit www.SAMfound.org or click this link to go directly to the application. Shelly Haskins writes about points of pride statewide. Email your suggestions to shaskins@al.com, or tweet them to @Shelly_Haskins using #AlabamaProud. Reverse mortgage specialist Heartland Bank is taking on the main banks in the mortgage space and has launched series of new home loan rates, starting from a one-year fixed rate of 2.89%. Its two-year fixed rate is 2.97%, and it is also offering a three year fixed rate of 3.39%. The closest main bank competition is currently ASBs special one year rate of 3.39%. Heartlands products have no set-up fees, and require a minimum 20% deposit or the ownership of a home with at least 20% equity. The home needs to be a standalone house that is a freehold, cross lease or on a unit title in the areas of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Hastings, Kapiti Coast, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch or Dunedin. The coronavirus outbreak continues to develop in California, with Contra Costa and Placer counties each reporting an additional case of the illness Tuesday evening and the latter declaring a local health emergency. In separate statements, Placer County reported that an older adult patient is "critically ill" and in isolation at a local hospital, becoming that county's second reported case of the virus; and Contra Costa Health Services said it confirmed the first locally originating case of COVID-19 involving a resident of the East Bay Area county. Both are presumptive positives, tested by local public health labs and awaiting further confirmation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Placer officials say the patient there was likely exposed to the virus while on a Grand Princess cruise ship that went from San Francisco to Mexico between Feb. 11 and Feb. 22, according to the county news release. Another case linked to that cruise ship was reported by Sonoma County health officials, The Press Democrat reports. The Contra Costa case, though, is believed to be "community spread," with health officials saying in a Tuesday evening statement that the patient has no known contact with an infected individual and no known travel to a high-risk area. The case is the fourth for Contra Costa County, with the other three being treated in hospitals there after being repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship last month. Six new L.A. County cases in 48 hours Los Angeles County public health officials said in a Wednesday morning press conference there have been six new cases of the coronavirus confirmed in the past 48 hours, with Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, declaring a local health emergency. All six cases were linked to travel or known contact with a confirmed, existing case of COVID-19, health officials said. Two more in Santa Clara Santa Clara County on Tuesday also announced two additional cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total there to a California-leading 11. Health officials are still investigating the potential source of exposure for those two most recent cases, the county said in a news release, and has already had two cases "determined to be community transmission." Cases of the coronavirus that are believed to be contracted through community exposure have now been reported in Santa Clara, Solano, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties. According to ABC 7, the Contra Costa County patient is an adult male and is also in critical condition at a hospital. The Placer County coronavirus patient is the second case there in two days. The first was a Placer resident employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville who was among 93 health care workers exposed to a Solano County woman believed to be the first U.S. instance of community-transmitted coronavirus. Where in California has the coronavirus been reported? Public health officials have noted presumptive positive or CDC-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the following counties as of Tuesday evening. These include Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China, or the Diamond Princess, who have been treated at hospitals in California. -- Alameda -- Humboldt -- Los Angeles -- Orange -- Placer -- Sacramento -- San Benito -- San Diego -- Santa Clara -- San Mateo -- Solano -- Sonoma What are the U.S. and worldwide totals? As of Wednesday morning, a map maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed more than 94,000 cases of the coronavirus reported globally. More than 80,000 of those have been in mainland China, followed by South Korea with over 5,600, Iran with close to 3,000 and Italy with just over 2,500. The United States has surpassed 125 COVID-19 infections, which is about double the total reported late last week by Johns Hopkins. The majority of the 3,214 deaths have come in the Hubei province of China (more than 2,870 fatalities as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins). Nine deaths have been reported in the United States, all in Washington state. The World Health Organization has given the coronavirus outbreak a "very high" risk factor assessment but has not declared it a global pandemic, due to the high majority of virus activity occurring in China. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. With Mike Bloomberg out of the presidential race, Bloomberg LP reporters are free to investigate the Democrats still vying for the spot, Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait told employees in an email Wednesday afternoon. "Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump," Micklethwait wrote to Bloomberg's editorial and research staff in a memo that was obtained by CNBC. Mike Bloomberg is the founder and 89% shareholder in Bloomberg LP, a financial software company that owns Bloomberg News. When Bloomberg announced he was joining the race in November, Micklethwait said the company would continue its "tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation )" and would "extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries." The decision was criticized by some, including President Donald Trump. Tweet The former New York mayor earlier Wednesday dropped out of the presidential race after a poor performance in the Super Tuesday contests and immediately endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden's candidacy. Micklethwait said in the memo the company will "disclose Mike's financial support for other Democrats just as we have always done where his financial support for political causes is relevant to our reporting." He also highlighted the reporting the company's journalists have done since Bloomberg's decision to join the race. "As I pointed out back on November 24th, we found ourselves in an unprecedented situation: no other newsroom of our size has had to deal with anything similar. Since then, we have written around 1,100 articles on the contest and that does not include all the broadcast pieces and interviews, nor all the third party articles we have made available to our terminal customers." Read the full memo: Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump. We will disclose Mike's financial support for other Democrats just as we have always done where his financial support for political causes is relevant to our reporting. I would like to pay tribute to everybody who has covered the campaigns and the independent way that we have reported the race. As I pointed out back on November 24th, we found ourselves in an unprecedented situation: no other newsroom of our size has had to deal with anything similar. Since then, we have written around 1,100 articles on the contest and that does not include all the broadcast pieces and interviews, nor all the third party articles we have made available to our terminal customers. You can see an audit of our coverage up to March 2 on our website and the terminal, which we will continue to update. But I would like to thank everybody for all the hard work that this has involved and look forward to what lies ahead. John [March 04, 2020] Aventiv Technologies Reports Initial Progress On Reform Commitments DALLAS, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aventiv Technologies and its corrections-services subsidiary, Securus Technologies, today reported progress on key milestones of the transformation commitments announced in mid-January. Under the direction of President and CEO Dave Abel, the organization is undertaking an expansive and holistic transformation to make its products more accountable, affordable and accessible. The pace of the early progress in the multi-year effort highlights the company's ability to quickly adapt to the new vision and operating practices. "While we recognize that this work is just the first step in a long-term process, we are very proud of what we have already achieved," said Dave Abel, President and CEO of Aventiv Technologies. "I am dedicated to driving meaningful change in the organization, in the sector and in the communities we serve. We are continuing much-needed face-to-face conversations with all stakeholders - we need to work together on this." In the first sixty days since Aventiv made these commitments, the company took multiple steps towards full achievement of its goals, including: Developed and deployed new technology to reduce reliance on third-party payment services, eliminating thir fees and bringing savings to impacted consumers by an average of 30% in the total cost of each call. Negotiated new contract with a major county customer lowering the cost of phone calls by more than 60% for over 6,000 incarcerated individuals and their loved ones. Integrated commission-free and agency-paid options for telephone calls with both existing institutional customers and potential new institutional customers. Convened first quarterly consumer forum with formerly incarcerated individuals and their families in Detroit to hear firsthand about their experiences and how to better serve them which will be used to inform future development efforts. to hear firsthand about their experiences and how to better serve them which will be used to inform future development efforts. Met with leaders and participants of job-training and -placement organizations currently operating inside and outside of correctional facilities to learn about employment best practices and help guide development of re-entry support. Signed the Getting Talent Back to Work pledge from the Society for Human Resource Management and committed to give hiring opportunities to deserving individuals with a criminal record. pledge from the Society for Human Resource Management and committed to give hiring opportunities to deserving individuals with a criminal record. Sponsored the Second Annual Correctional Education Reentry Summit hosted by Ashland University and supported the participation of formerly incarcerated students of the University. said Todd Marshall , Vice President for Correctional Education and Innovation at Ashland University . "We have proudly worked with the organization for years and look forward to their participation in this year's Re-Entry Summit, leading the charge to building connections to improve the reintegration and reengagement of formerly incarcerated individuals back into their communities." Additional initiatives and progress on milestones will be publicly detailed quarterly. About Aventiv Technologies Headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Aventiv Technologies is the parent company for Securus Technologies, JPay and AllPaid. With nearly 2,000 associates, Aventiv serves the public sector by applying technology solutions to make complex connections more secure and simpler than ever before. For more information, please visit www.Aventiv.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aventiv-technologies-reports-initial-progress-on-reform-commitments-301016566.html SOURCE Aventiv Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Kyodo News) Tokyo Wed, March 4, 2020 09:09 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206820290 2 People Holocaust,history,Germany,nazi,Hitler Free Salomon Perel, who survived the Holocaust by leading a double life as a Jew and a Nazi, says the tragic history will repeat itself as Germans have not learned enough from the past. In a recent interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, Perel, 94, described his dilemma during the period as a boy who had diametrically opposite roles, one as victim and one as an assailant. He visited Japan in January for the first time to bring his "messages of peace" on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. "Survival was the utmost goal. I had no choice," said Perel, an Israeli author, who escaped from Germany to Poland in 1936 with his family but was later captured by German soldiers. As a means of survival, he masqueraded as an ethnic German. "That was my mother's strong belief that life is more important than religion. I just kept her promise, ignoring my father's order which was completely the opposite." "It was a time when, regardless if you are a high-ranking rabbi or an ordinary villager, everyone was forced to be brought to gas chambers as long as you are a Jew," Perel said. When the German army started attacking Poland, Perel and his brother left their family again to an orphanage facility in a safer region in Poland under the Soviet's influence. But then, war broke out between the Germans and Soviets. Perel escaped but was caught by German soldiers. That was when he declared himself as "ethnic German" to survive. They put him in the school for potential elites, educated to become a model "Aryan" Nazi, and he was under constant threat of having his identity revealed. Perel, who wrote his life story in the autobiography, "I was Hitler Youth Salomon," was a member of Hitlerjugent, or the Hitler Youth education organization of the Nazi Party. His life was depicted in the 1990 film "Europa Europa," adapted from his book. Read also: Holocaust survivors meet their savior 75 years later Perel expressed concern that populism and nationalism are growing across the world amid a surge of anti-Semitism just like the times of Adolf Hitler's ascendancy. "In a real sense, Germans have never confronted seriously enough against the past," he said, adding that is why there are "still dumb people supporting dumb politicians." "(German) President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was right when he told the audience in Jerusalem (in January) commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz that Germans have not completely learned lessons from history," Perel said. He went on to say that Germans may be on the same "wrong path we have gone through by electing the nationalists and populists. History can repeat itself." Recently in Germany, hate against refugees and minorities such as Jews and Muslims are growing. Last year, a regional official was killed in Hesse in the first assassination by a far-right extremist of a German politician since the Nazi regime. And in February, people in Hanau, a small city near cosmopolitan Frankfurt, were shocked when a far-right extremist opened fire, killing 10 people in two shisha bars, acting out of racism. "It is because of the far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) which promotes xenophobia after the arrival of thousands of Syrian and other refugees to Germany. They misused the situation in a populist means," Perel said. "A similar trend is appearing now. Neo-Nazi groups are doing the same things that happened when I was a kid. Communists were gunned down, socialists were stabbed and unionists were punched. At that time people played down those incidents as aberrations and did not think seriously which led to the rise of Hitler." "In order to achieve peace, I would like to tell my experiences to young students in Japan, that any type of hatred must be avoided and we should talk to other people with love, not hatred," he said. "So the most important secret for solution is to recollect and remember the past," Perel said. Topics : Holocaust history Germany nazi Hitler Andrew Yang. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider Having dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, Andrew Yang told BuzzFeed News that he is "looking at" potentially running for New York City mayor. "One of the things I'm most curious about is who are the other candidates in the race, and what the race would look like," said Yang, 45, of Schenectady, NY. Yang said one of the things he's looking out for is "if there's someone who's already running who would have a positive agenda that's very aligned with mine." The next New York City mayoral election will be held in November 2021 to replace Bill de Blasio. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Andrew Yang for Mayor? It's certainly not off the table, the former 2020 presidential candidate told BuzzFeed News. "You know, we're looking at it," the entrepreneur and newly minted CNN contributor said about possibly running for the top spot in New York City. "One of the things I'm most curious about is who are the other candidates in the race, and what the race would look like," Yang, of Schenectady, NY, told BuzzFeed News. The 45-year-old, though popular among voters who were undecided about the Democratic candidates, dropped out of the presidential race on February 11, the morning of the New Hampshire primary. "Because I tend to want to do something where I feel like I'm gonna have a big impact and add a lot of value, so if there's someone who's already running who would have a positive agenda that's very aligned with mine I'm not someone who is just driven by maximum political advantage. I wanna see how much value I can add," Yang noted. New Yorkers will choose their next mayor in November 2021 to replace Bill de Blasio, who cannot run for a third term. Yang said also that he is still undecided about which of the remaining presidential candidates he will endorse. Joe Biden's staff has been calling him, but Yang simply said, "At this point, I consider Joe a friend." Story continues He continued: "I don't have any plans to endorse as of this moment, but something could change at any moment, my phone could ring at any moment." Read the original article on Business Insider The Aug. 25 death of an Alabama woman who fell from a fourth floor hotel balcony has been ruled accidental. Jonathan Hurd, who said he was her husband, told Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies that he and Allie Cooper had been arguing and that she had become very intoxicated when they went to a local bar. RELATED: UPDATE: Alabama tourist falls 4 stories to her death, witness left traumatized Hurd told deputies that during the argument, she went out on the balcony despite being partially undressed. He said he was following her, but turned back into the room after the phone rang. Other guests had complaining about the volume of their argument and hotel management was calling to ask them to keep it down. Hurd then took a call from his wife, with whom he was in a polygamist living situation along with Cooper, according to the report. The two women were referred to as sister-wives, the report said. While on the phone with his wife, he heard Cooper scream, he told deputies. When he got to the balcony, Cooper was gone. A witness on the pool deck told deputies he saw Cooper put her leg over the balcony railing, at which point he yelled at her to step back. She continued to climb on the railing before losing her footing and falling, the report said. She grabbed the railing but was not able to hold herself up, the witness said. When investigators searched the room, they found paperwork that indicated deputies had been called there four days earlier for a domestic dispute. Hurd told investigators that Cooper had been having an affair and that they'd taken the vacation to work things out. Cooper, who was 25, lived in Eva, Alabama, at the same address as Hurd. 2020 the Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) Visit the Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) at www.nwfdailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Evidence in Robert Dursts murder trial will clearly and without any doubt prove that Bob Durst killed his wife Kathy Durst, prosecutor John Lewin told the court today. By early 1982, the Dursts marriage was in serious trouble and headed for divorce with Durst himself confessing in videotaped interviews to pushing, shoving and slapping Kathy. Mr Durst does not deny incidents of domestic violence, he freely admits to them, Lewin told the jury. Evidence will show that Kathy wanted a fair settlement and she wasnt going to leave the marriage till she got it. Sunday January 31 1982, Kathy vanished. That was the last day of Kathys life because that evening, her husband Bob was going to kill her. Real estate scion Robert Durst's murder trial began Wednesday in Los Angeles. Durst, 76, looked frail and shaky in court wearing a white button-down shirt and navy blue blazer Durst has pleaded not guilty to killing his close friend of many years, Susan Berman, at her home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles in 2000 (pictured together) The next day, February 1, Kathy was due to start a brand new job as a medic al staffer at a clinic inn the Bronx, New York. But Kathy never made it, said Lewin. And its been 38 years since then. Durst took four days to report Kathy missing, the court heard, and then he reported her disappearance to Manhattan cops, not police in South Salem, Westchester County where she had last been seen at the couples home there. Durst told police that he had a sandwich with his wife the evening of January 31 in South Salem then drove her to the station and put her on a train for New York City. But, said Lewin, There is no evidence that she ever got on that train. Lewin added that Durst later callously told police that whatever happened to Kathy was the result of her drug use, promiscuity and criminal companions. And Durst recruited his old friend Susan Berman as his spokesperson. Berman told cops that Kathy used quaaludes, her disappearance was something to do with drugs, and she spent $1,000 a week on drugs. Lewin countered, telling the court that Kathy was serious about her medical career and not a drug abuser - and she didnt have $1,000 a week to spend on drugs. 'Bob Durst himself is very honest about the fact that he believes the rules don't apply to him,' Lewin had told the jury of eight women and four men in his opening statement at the long-awaited trial that's expected to last for five months. 'That dictated how he treated people, how he got rid of them. Mr. Durst makes clear, 'I do whatever I want.' Durst, 76 - looking frail and shaky in court today and wearing a white button-down shirt and navy blue blazer - has pleaded not guilty to killing his close friend of many years, Susan Berman, at her home in Benedict Canyon, LA in 2000. Prosecutors say he ruthlessly shot her in the back of the head execution-style to prevent her from revealing to police what she knew about the mysterious disappearance - and suspected killing - of Durst's wife Kathy 18 years earlier. Photos of a young Robert Durst and Susan Berman are shown during opening statements in the Durst's murder trial Wednesday The bizarre case - in which more than 100 witnesses will be called - is also expected to feature Durst's gory 2001 slaying of his Galveston, Texas neighbor and friend Morris Black whose body he chopped up and dumped in the ocean. Durst admitted killing Black but claimed it was self defense and a jury acquitted him of murder in 2003. The wealthy real estate heir admitted killing and dismembering neighbor Morris Black (pictured) in Texas in 2001 but was acquitted after claiming he acted in self-defense Durst's notoriety and his suspected role in the three killings led HBO producers to make the 2015 series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst - in which Durst agreed to be interviewed on camera. Before the sixth and final episode aired on HBO, he was arrested and charged with murdering Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mob boss. Prosecutors contend that police had moved quickly to arrest Durst after learning he had 'confessed to killing multiple people' in the documentary and might try to run once The Jinx finale was broadcast. With little physical evidence in the case, prosecutors are expected to lean heavily on Durst's own words he allegedly said to friends and in recorded interviews he gave to the makers of The Jinx. 'Evidence will show that much of the most damning evidence against Durst comes from Mr. Durst's own mouth,' Lewin told Judge Mark Windham today at LA Superior Court Airport courthouse. Lewin said that the Durst case 'involves three different murders, the killing of Kathy Durst, the killing of Susan Berman and the killing of Morris Black.' He told of the 911 call on Christmas Eve, 2000, made by a neighbor of Berman, saying that her dog was running loose outside. LAPD responded to the small, run-down rental home in the quiet neighborhood close to Beverly Hills. Investigators have long suspected that he also murdered his first wife Kathie Durst, who disappeared in New York in 1982. Kathie's body has never been found and Durst has never been charged or convicted of his first wife's murder (couple above in their wedding photo) 'Evidence will show that much of the most damning evidence against Durst comes from Mr. Durst's own mouth,' Deputy District Attorney John Lewin (right) told the jury Durst was the subject of the HBO documentary series The Jinx in 2015 (pictured in court) where he was caught on microphone appearing to admit to murder 'This was a low-crime neighborhood and the last thing you would be expecting to find is a homicide case,' Lewin told the court. 'The officers who responded went around back of the house and found the door open. 'They went in and found Susan on the floor dead with a small pool of blood around her head. She is not moving and she is cold to the touch. She had been shot - there was a (bullet) casing on the floor. 'Evidence will show that the motive was not robbery. There was no forced entry. The locks were unbroken, no signs of ransacking or a struggle or that anything had been taken. Susan's purse, with her ID and cash in it was sitting on the kitchen counter. 'Evidence will show that Susan knew her killer and freely and voluntarily admitted her killer into her house. Susan was a kind of paranoid person who would never open her door to a stranger. 'She was shot from behind. She let her killer into the house and turned her back on him and then she was executed, shot in the back of the head at close range.' Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin appears in court next to the defendant Durst during the opening statements of his trial Judge Mark Windham presided over the opening statements today at LA Superior Court Airport courthouse Lewin made his opening statements in front of a screen showing a picture of the crime scene where Berman was murdered Lewin said that Berman's killer intended her body to be found because the previous day, December 23, he sent a letter to police which gave Berman's address, 1527 Benedict Canyon and said the word, 'Cadaver.' Noting that the word cadaver was not a normal word most people would use for a dead body, Lewin told the court that Durst had picked up the term from his wife Kathy who had worked with cadavers when she was a medical student. Durst became close friends with Berman in the mid 60s when both were students at UCLA and where, said Lewin, Durst was 'smoking marijuana and dodging the draft, in his own words.' For the next few decades he remained best buddies with Berman, whose gangster father, David Berman was a founding member of Murder Incorporated, the court heard, and who replaced notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel as boss of the Flamingo Casino is Las Vegas after Siegel was murdered by the Mafia Susan was very close to her father, who died when she was 12, and inherited from him his Mafia-style 'code of honor' that made her fiercely loyal to her friends, including Durst, said Lewin - whose case hinges partly on the prosecution's allegation that Derman provided Durst with an alibi for the time when his wife Kathy suspiciously disappeared. A Greek navy ship was sent to Lesbos on Wednesday to house hundreds of migrants who have landed on the island in recent days in an ongoing surge from Turkey, officials said. A Greek defence ministry source said the migrants would stay on the transport ship until a new facility to accommodate them is created on the mainland. Some 500 people, many of them families with small children, have been staying at the harbour since arriving from Turkey over the weekend. In an effort to curb the influx, which erupted after Ankara said last week it would no longer stop refugees from entering Europe, Athens has suspended asylum procedures and bolstered its borders. The new arrivals have exacerbated an already combustible situation on the Greek islands near Turkey. Lesbos hosts more than 19,000 refugees and migrants crammed into squalid conditions around a camp built to house fewer than 3,000, a legacy of the 2015 migration crisis. Fed up with shouldering the burden of Europe's over-stretched asylum system, locals have protested against the presence of the migrants on their shores, saying they threaten safety, public health and a tourism-dependent economy. That anger has spilled over into violence in recent days, with an extremist minority accused of leading attacks on newly arrived migrants, intimidating media and targeting aid workers, according to several groups based on Lesbos. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 23:23:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HELSINKI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish economy would not grow this year, due to exceptionally uncertain economic outlook, said OP Financial Group in a press release issued on Wednesday. OP, the largest financial services group in Finland, lowered its forecast for Finland's economic growth from 0.5 percent to zero. However, the forecast for next year remains unchanged at 0.5 percent. OP attributes the major reason for the revision to the novel coronavirus epidemic, saying that the problems caused by the coronavirus in the production chains are bigger than expected. In addition, the most recent information indicated that Finland's economic performance in 2019 was below the preliminary figures. This is also a reason for the economic slowdown this year, said OP. OP's economists did not change the forecast for next year, saying that the outlook for next year may improve if the dip is brief and economic policies are eased. HONG KONG The streets of this city, usually teeming with people, are practically empty, and no one knows when Hong Kong might recover from the coronavirus outbreak that has crippled the economy and devastated tourism. But Lindsay Jang, a Canadian restaurateur, said she is prepared to ride it out. Nine years ago, Ms. Jang and her partner, the chef Matt Abergel, opened Yardbird HK, a popular restaurant that has come to typify the citys most recent iteration of East meets West chic. She has lived in Hong Kong now for 11 years and is raising two young children. And like many of the citys residents, including its more than 600,000 expatriates, Ms. Jang has chosen to hunker down, hoping the outbreak will soon be brought under control. And even if its not, she said shes not all that worried. Its an attitude shared by many expatriates who have the means and the passports to leave but no intention of doing so. Call it blind faith, or call it experience. The city has been through SARS, swine flu and even the plague of 1894, which killed more than 5,000 people in less than a year. A charge of financial exploitation filed against a local home builder in 2017 is no longer pending after a deferred prosecution agreement was reached Tuesday in St. Francois County. Matthew Burgess, 36, of Farmington, was facing one count of the class A felony of financial exploitation of the elderly, and a jury trial had been scheduled to take place Tuesday. St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Gilliam said in regard to the charge against Burgess, a resolution to the case was reached. After speaking with the victim, considering the available evidence against Mr. Burgess and reviewing the elements of the offense of financial exploitation of the elderly, we believed that a deferred prosecution agreement for a period of two years is the appropriate outcome, said Gilliam. It ensured that the victim receives restitution for her loss while also balancing the states interest in holding Mr. Burgess accountable. He was required to pay substantial restitution to the victim and perform community service, in addition to facing a trial if he violates the conditions agreed upon, Gilliam explained. This agreement provides a known outcome for all involved. According to a probable cause statement, on June 14, 2017, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services received a request from St. Francois County Missouri Division of Senior and Disability Services to investigate the financial exploitation of Emma Wessel, an elderly resident of Farmington who had previously won a lawsuit against Burgess. The initial report said Wessel entered into a contractual agreement with Burgess and Zachary Govreau of MB Land Company for the construction of a home in 2016. Wessel paid the full purchase of the home prior to its construction, and construction was never completed. On Sept. 20, 2017, an investigation supervisor with the Special Investigation Unit met with Wessel at her residence. During an interview, she told the investigator she was the caregiver for her brother, who is a disabled veteran. Because of his medical conditions, he was facing the possibility of having to become a resident of an assisted living facility. Her brother asked if she would be willing to sell her current home to buy or build a house large enough to accommodate both of them, as well as daily caregivers who would be attending to him. Wessel agreed to do so and both of them agreed to fund the new home from an annuity held by her brother. The report said in February 2016, sometime after seeing a model home in the St. Francois County subdivision of the Highlands, the woman called the number displayed for the contracting company. After leaving a message, she was later contacted by Govreau, a project manager with Journey Home Builders a division of MB Land Company and an appointment was scheduled to discuss having the company build a home for her in the subdivision. Govreau reportedly told Wessel that the owner of MB Land Company was Burgess and that his father had been in the construction business locally for many years. Wessel was familiar with the Burgess family name and knew they had a good reputation in the community. On March 21, 2016, she met with Govreau at MB Land Companys office located in Farmington and signed a contract for the construction of her new home. At this meeting, per the agreement, she gave Govreau a check for $3,000 as a deposit and the construction was to begin soon thereafter, with an expected completion date of three months. The total contract cost for the completed home, not including the down payment, was to be $218,547. The home was to be built on Lot 12 off Wolf Creek Drive and the contract stated MB Land Company owned it. A written purchase-agreement was also reportedly executed. Wessel told Govreau that she would be paying the full amount at closing and that she would be setting up an escrow account to fund the project. She was told by Govreau that the company had set up its own account and, unless she didnt trust them, they could handle the funds. Wessel said she didnt think this was unusual, and because she was dealing with her brothers medical issues, she thought it would be easier to let them handle the escrow account. On April 20, 2016, she wrote MB Land Company a check for $218,547, which was to fund the escrow account. Progress on the home was slow, and Wessel reported barely ever seeing any workers on the job site. In August 2016, she was becoming very concerned about the project. After voicing her concerns to Govreau, she was told a new target move-in date would be Oct. 31, 2016. When the home still wasnt completed by that date, Wessel went to MB Land Companys office and asked for someone to call her about the project. She reportedly received a call from Burgess, advising he was giving her his personal word that her home would be done within the next two weeks. Prior to Wessel making a personal appearance at Burgesss office, Govreau had told her they were waiting on a delivery of cabinets from the local Hoods store to continue the completion of the home. Wessel called Hoods, and they told her they had not received payment for the cabinets, and they would not be delivered until the payment was received. The next two weeks passed with no communication from either Burgess or Govreau, at which point the woman contacted an attorney. A civil case was filed against Burgess, Govreau, and MB Land Company, and as part of the civil proceedings, MB Land Companys bank records were subpoenaed. Upon receiving the records, it was discovered that MB Land Companys escrow account was never funded, and Wessels check was deposited into an MB Land Company business account. All of the money was gone within eight days of her check being deposited, according to court records. It was also discovered during the civil proceedings that the property where her home sits did not belong to MB Land Company, as stated in the contract. Silas Properties, LLC actually owned the land and there was a lien on the property through First State Bank of St. Charles. Silas Properties, LLC is registered through the Missouri Secretary of States Office as a limited liability company and lists Burgess as the registered agent. A review of Burgess account revealed that between April 20-29, 2017, Burgess and/or Govreau made withdrawals from the account for Bill.com, Capital One, American Express, Chase, Graham Anderson, Missouri Land Rental, Butterfields Florist, Matt Burgess, Bret Burgess, Zack Govreau, and Jessica Burgess. None of the transactions were for payment costs associated with the construction of the house, but instead personal expenses of both Burgess and Govreau, according to the records. By April 29, 2017, the balance of the account was $538.88. As a result of the ongoing civil suit, Wessel was allowed to take possession of the home around Sept. 24, 2017. After assuming ownership, Wessel had to pay an additional $62,845 to local contractors to complete the construction of the home. Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 3 Sad 6 Angry 50 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Migrants: 'Sardines' launch social campaign, 'stay human' 'We are calling for abolishing the security decree, time to act' (ANSAmed) - BOLOGNA, MARCH 4 - The 'Sardines', a grassroots movement that sprung up around Italy in opposition to populist, anti-migrant policies such as those proposed by former interior minister and League party leader Matteo Salvini, have launched a social media campaign to denounce the migrant crisis at the Turkey-Greece border, where "paying the highest price are innocent men, women, and children", they said. The movement said that in order to participate, people need to "publish a photo of one of your hands raised, tagging the (Facebook) page '6000 sardine' and using the hashtag #restiamoumani (let's stay human)" because "raising hands doesn't only mean giving up, but it can also mean enough is enough. And we are saying enough to hate, hostility, violence and intolerance. We are saying enough to fear, even if we all have it sometimes. Defeating it and overcoming it, every day, with love and conscience". Artists and NGOs will also participate in the campaign. The 'Sardines' are also appealing to the Italian government to "abrogate the security decrees and suspend the accords with Libya: it's not enough to say enough, it's time to act". The movement said it is calling for "the end to the 'quarantine' for the boats saving lives at sea (which doesn't exist for commercial boats, to be emphasised)". The request comes at the end of three days in Palermo in which the movement met with the NGO Mediterranea. "Everyone we met in these three days practices humanity, believing in a virtuous model in the promotion of human relations," the Sardines said. "Ballaro is a multicultural neighbourhood where numerous associations working on integration coexist. Mediterranea is an association that fights every day to save lives at sea. Understanding these realities makes us reflect on the importance of joining our forces and our bodies," they said.(ANSAmed). Receiving Alexander Feldman, President and CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council, in Hanoi, Hien also said the two sides should further accelerate the implementation of measures aimed at intensifying the bilateral relations, especially in economy trade, defence security, science and technology, education and training, health care, environment, and humanitarian activities. Hien expressed his hope that the council will continue closely cooperating with and serve as an important bridge in bringing US businesses to Vietnam, thus helping strengthen the bilateral relations. He further affirmed that the Vietnamese NA supports, creates a favourable legal corridor and stands ready to facilitate foreign firms in investing and doing business in Vietnam, adding the country will continue perfecting its legal system to be suitable to international common practices and the commitments in international treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory. For his part, Feldman spoke highly of the Vietnamese NAs role in creating the legal corridor, adding that he hopes the country will continue the reform of its administrative procedures. The official, now on a working visit to Vietnam, also congratulated the host government on its successes in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic which create a safe environment for production and business operation. Human rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday accused the Iranian security forces of killing 23 children, mostly with live ammunition, during a November crackdown on anti-government protests. Protests broke out across Iran from November 15 after the announcement of a surprise petrol price rise. The authorities responded with a crackdown that Amnesty has already said left 304 people dead, a figure vehemently disputed by Tehran. Amnesty said in its new report it had evidence that at least 23 children were killed, with 22 of them killed by the security forces "unlawfully firing live ammunition at unarmed protesters and bystanders." The children killed included 22 boys, aged between 12 and 17, and a girl reportedly aged between eight and 12. "There must be independent and impartial investigations into these killings, and those suspected of ordering and carrying them out must be prosecuted in fair trials," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa. Twelve of the 23 deaths -- recorded in 13 cities in six provinces across the country --- took place on 16 November, a further eight on 17 November, and three on 18 November, according to Amnesty. "The fact that the vast majority of the children's deaths took place over just two days is further evidence that Iranian security forces went on a killing spree to quash dissent at any cost," said Luther. Amnesty International said it had written to Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli with the names of the 23 children recorded as killed but had received no response. It said relatives of some of the children killed described being subjected to harassment and intimidation, including surveillance and interrogations by intelligence and security officials. It said this corresponded with a broad pattern of families of those killed in protests being intimidated by the state to prevent them talking openly about the deaths. "Families of children killed during the protests are facing a ruthless campaign of harassment to intimidate them from speaking out," said Luther, denouncing a "state cover-up". Its report was based on evidence from videos and photographs, as well as death and burial certificates, accounts from eyewitnesses and victims' relatives as well as information gathered from human rights activists and journalists. In one child's case, there were conflicting reports on the cause of death, with one source referring to fatal head injuries sustained by beatings by security forces and another referring to the firing of metal pellets at the victim's face from a close distance, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Our goal is reciprocity," said Secretary Pompeo in a statement. "As we have done in other areas of the U.S.-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field. It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China." A senior State Department official said even after this cap is implemented, the five Chinese state media groups continue to employ more Chinese personnel in the U.S. than foreign reporters at all U.S. media outlets in China, combined. The five entities are determined by the U.S. as "explicit propaganda organs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)" and had been previously designated by the State Department as foreign missions of the Chinese government. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, issued a far more ominous warning on her Twitter feed, saying "Now the US kicked off the game, let's play." Chinese citizens working for other media organizations in the U.S. are not affected by the cap. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing Tuesday that the government strongly opposes the Trump administration's decision. Zhao says the move effectively expels the journalists, and warned that China "reserves the right" to respond and take further measures. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday a cap on citizens from five Chinese state-owned outlets -- Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network (CGTV), China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp., and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc. The reductions, which take effect March 13, will limit the number of Chinese nationals working at these outlets from 160 to 100. China is threatening to retaliate against the United States over its decision to limit the number of state media personnel allowed to work in the U.S. The U.S. has issued 3,000 I-1 visas to Chinese nationals working in the United States since 2015, said another senior Trump administration official. "By contrast, U.S. news outlets have only about 75 American or other non-Chinese citizens working for them inside of mainland China." I-1 visas are issued by the U.S. government for representatives of foreign media to work in the United States. The visas that the U.S. issues to Chinese journalists have no duration of stay. In contrast, Beijing currently imposes duration of stay on all foreign reporters in China, some as short as 30 days. After 30 days, some foreign reporters in China have to reapply for an extension. The U.S. decision comes after the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) published its annual media freedoms report, "Control, Halt, Delete: Reporting in China Under Threat of Expulsion," an in-depth examination of media freedoms in China in 2019. "The U.S. is taking this action in order to clearly communicate the severity of our concerns about the abusive, unfair and non-reciprocal treatment of international press in China," said a senior State Department official on Monday. The FCCC report finds Chinese authorities have weaponized visas against the foreign press, issuing truncated press credentials to a dozen journalists in 2019, and expelling four correspondents from China since August 2019. A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said the FCCC report was "inappropriate," and that China does not recognize the organization. The U.S. announcement Monday also comes after China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters, a move seen as a punishment for a recent opinion piece published by the U.S. newspaper. In the past few weeks, Chinese citizen journalists who have been chronicling the coronavirus outbreak and seen as defiant to the Beijing government were said to have "disappeared." On Feb. 28, outspoken Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai and two prominent opposition politicians were charged with illegal assembly over a pro-democracy gathering in 2019. Lai, who has made financial contributions to Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators, was later released on bail. On Feb. 24, China sentenced book publisher Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen who disappeared in 2015 and was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents in Thailand, to 10 years on charges of "providing intelligence" overseas. "We're witnessing an assault on free speech inside of China that goes even beyond what it was a decade ago," said a senior Trump administration official on Monday. The five Chinese state media groups' U.S. operations will have to disclose their personnel rosters, as well as hiring and firing decisions, according to the State Department. In addition, they are required to register properties that they rent or own in the U.S. China Daily is an English-language newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Hai Tian Development USA distributes the People's Daily, the official newspaper of CCP's Central Committee. U.S. officials have said there is "an awakening" to what they call Chinese propaganda outlets operating on U.S. soil. For example, CGTV, formerly known as China Central Television America (CCTV America), was once warmly welcomed to the State Department in an event in 2013, but now faces scrutiny as a Chinese foreign agent. At the State Department podium, Ma Jing, director general of CCTV America, touted CCTV as a bridge between the U.S. and China to promote knowledge and understanding. The United States conducted an airstrike against Taliban in Nahr-e Saraj of Helmand district, said US military spokesperson on Wednesday. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attacks, Pajhowk Afghan News reported citing the spokesperson. "The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an Afghan National Security Forces checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack. This was our 1st strike against the Taliban in 11 days," the spokesperson said. "To be clear- we are committed to peace, however we have the responsibility to defend our Afghan National Security Forces partners. Afghans and US have complied with our agreements," he added. This comes hours after more than 20 Afghan soldiers and police officers were killed in northern Afghanistan overnight in the latest Taliban attack. The increase in the violence comes follows the US President Donald Trump a telephonic conversation with Taliban leader c where the latter promised to reduce the violence in the country. The violence by the Taliban and counter-attack by the US jeopardise the peace deal signed four days back. The United States and Taliban signed a historic agreement with an aim to bring peace to Afghanistan by the withdrawal of US forces. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 3 1 of 3 Mike Sutter /Staff Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Mike Sutter /Staff Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Mos Irish Pub at the Alamo Quarry Market opened in time for St. Patricks Day last year. It will not make it to St. Paddys 2020. The lone San Antonio outlet of the Texas and Wisconsin chain has closed. A sign on the door of the pub at 255 E. Basse Road thanked customers and encouraged them to visit Mos in Houston. The chain still operates four locations in Texas and two locations in Wisconsin. KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Kalamazoo dispensary has filed a lawsuit against the city government, demanding that recreational marijuana facilities be allowed. Lume Cannabis Co. filed a lawsuit, under the business name Green Sunrise, alleging the city has been violating state law by passing Ordinance 2000, or the Adult Use Marihuana Ordinance, in October. The ordinance delayed the citys opt-in of permitting commercial recreational marijuana establishments and gave the city commission a new deadline of June 1, 2020. Lume, which has other locations in Owosso, Honor and Adrian, opened its 3406 Stadium Drive facility this fall with the intent to pivot to recreational sales, President and Chief Operating Officer Doug Hellyar said in November. The lawsuit alleges the ordinance halts this process. Lume interprets the ordinance as prohibiting businesses such as itself from operating a retail facility in the same location as a medical facility. The company attempted to work cooperatively with local leaders but ultimately decided to sue, said Nataniel Adkins, Lume Kalamazoo store manager said in a statement. With the support of several other local marijuana businesses, we have been in conversations with city officials for months in an effort to find a win-win solution that avoids litigation," Adkins said. We respectfully disagree with the citys interpretation of the MRTMA, and believe the ordinance preventing adult-use sales in Kalamazoo disregards the will of the voters across Michigan who overwhelmingly support both medical and recreational marijuana sales. Kalamazoo City Attorney Clyde J. Robinson said he could not comment on pending litigation, but clarified that the citys current ordinance does not address recreational marijuana businesses. Robinson said Kalamazoo is working on an ordinance addressing the licensing of recreational establishments, but that is several weeks away from completion, he said. A draft ordinance was posted online on Friday, Feb. 28, the same day the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit claims that by waiting to approve recreational sales the city has cost Lume both revenue and future customers as residents travel to the surrounding areas that have opted-in. Bangors first recreational retailer opened in February and Kalamazoo Township is making strides to be the first municipality in Kalamazoo County to have a recreational shop after it opted-in in January. In a January email included in the lawsuit, Robinson responded to Lumes threat of litigation saying an active may only serve to postpone the adoption of the relevant ordinance until after June 1, 2020. Also on MLive: Michigan recreational marijuana sales increased 29% in January Recreational marijuana stores draw buyers to Southwest Michigan Marijuana 'does a body good, says owner of new recreational pot shop Dominant source being cut from Michigan marijuana markets, possibly spurring higher prices Technavio has been monitoring the smoothies market and it is poised to grow by USD 10.14 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 9% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005789/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Smoothies Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. PepsiCo Inc., Smoothie King Franchises Inc., The Hain Celestial Group Inc., The Coca-Cola Co. and Tropical Smoothie Cafe LLC are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Awareness about health benefits of smoothies has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Smoothies Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Smoothies Market is segmented as below: Consumption pattern Out-of-home Consumption At-home Consumption Product Fruit-based Dairy-based Other Smoothies Geographic segmentation APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40259 Smoothies Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our smoothies market report covers the following areas: Smoothies Market Size Smoothies Market Trends Smoothies Market Industry Analysis This study identifies demand for organic and gluten-free smoothies as one of the prime reasons driving the smoothies market growth during the next few years. Smoothies Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the smoothies market, including some of the vendors such as PepsiCo Inc., Smoothie King Franchises Inc., The Hain Celestial Group Inc., The Coca-Cola Co. and Tropical Smoothie Cafe LLC. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the smoothies market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Smoothies Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist smoothies market growth during the next five years Estimation of the smoothies market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the smoothies market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of smoothies market vendors Table of Content PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis Value Chain Analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT Market segmentation by product Comparison by product Fruit-based Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Dairy-based Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Other smoothies Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by product PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY CONSUMPTION PATTERN Market segmentation by consumption pattern Comparison by consumption pattern Out-of-home consumption Market size and forecast 2019-2024 At-home consumption Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by consumption pattern PART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 12: MARKET TRENDS Product launches Increasing product innovations Increasing demand for organic and gluten-free smoothies PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Barfresh Food Group, Inc. Happy Planet Foods, Inc. International Dairy Queen Inc. J Sainsbury Plc Jamba Juice Franchisor SPV LLC PepsiCo Inc. Smoothie King Franchises, Inc. The Hain Celestial Group Inc. The Coca-Cola Co. Tropical Smoothie Cafe LLC PART 15: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 16: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005789/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Bachelor parties are synonymous with crazy events and off the wall shenanigans. For many soon to be married men these gatherings of close friends and loved ones are meant to be a grand last hurrah before entering the relatively more calm world of marriage. So, what exactly makes a destination a great one for partying? While it can largely depend on what a given group is looking for, at its core is usually a combination of booze and debauchery with lots of brotherly camaraderies thrown in to make for a great time. This list goes all around the world to find the best bachelor party destinations. 10. Reykjavik Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash This city is more of a starting point for visiting the country as a whole. Iceland is a location that is for nature lovers and outdoor adventurers. The beautiful and relatively small island is filled with sights to see and places to explore. From gorgeous glaciers to fabulous trails there's a lot to enjoy even on a short trip here. If desired, camping can be done all across space and there are even geothermal pools to lounge and relax in. And after it is all said and done you can curl up in a rustic cabin with plenty of alcohol to go around. 9. Rio de Janeiro Photo by John Arano on Unsplash A great beach vibe sets this Brazillian entry apart from most others on this list. It is the perfect place to go to get away from harsh winters and cold times and it has an amazing nightlife to boot. Great tourist attractions can be found in resorts whereas a more authentic feel can be found in surrounding neighborhoods. And the fantastic parties can range from underground samba shows to multi-floor nightclubs, especially in the Lapa district. This area is known to be the center of nightlife and is full of bars, pubs and night clubs for stag parties to enjoy. 8. Dubai Photo by Fredrik Ohlander on Unsplash This place, located in the United Arab Emirates, is massive and upscale in every way possible. Its buildings and attractions are the epitome of luxury and opulence and are sure to dazzle and amaze even the more experienced and jaded travelers within a group. Dubai is also an exceptionally safe place to visit, with few risks and dangers to fear while there. Enjoy the high-end buildings and establishments, partake in the varied cuisine, and of course make sure to take in the sun, sand, and surf. Top it off with some partying to make a good time even greater. 7. Amsterdam This Netherlands-based city boasts a variety of legal substances that can buoy your party to the next step of elevated consciousness. This canal-filled city is a great spot to party. Be sure to visit the red light district and to take advantage of the variety of bars that dot the landscape. And in between raucous hijinks and over-the-top celebrations, there's also a lot of cultures to absorb. This city is home to a variety of well-known museums like the Bansky building and the Van Gogh gallery, making it a well-rounded locale to visit. 6. Ibiza This island in Spain is so known for its nightlife that it quite literally has a song about partying there in the form of Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill in Ibiza." This party island is excellent for those who want house music to back up their crazy dances into the night. Fall into the flow of waking up, hitting the beach then dancing the night away at the discos and massive nightclubs that litter the island. These crowded spaces are both huge and jampacked with bodies, all enjoying the same night vibes that a bachelor party is sure to enjoy. 5. New Orleans This crazy city in the state of Louisiana in the United States and is another spot known for its over the top party scene. This city is one that stays up late and as one of the birthplaces of jazz hosts a variety of music clubs in addition to more traditional night spaces. Take a walk down Bourbon Street and soak in the busy crowded atmosphere of a town pulsing to the beat of its own drum. And depending on timing, a group might even be able to make it for the infamous Mardi Gras celebration. 4. Honolulu Photo by Channey on Unsplash Hawaii's capital city Honolulu is no sleeper when it comes to the nightlife scene. As the largest city of the American state, it boasts temperate climates that make it enjoyable to walk around and take in the sights. Great shopping opportunities, historic landmarks, and fine dining are accouterments that add to the tourist appeal of this spot. But for bachelor parties looking to get wild, there's also a lot of bars and clubs to enjoy. Top it all of with some luaus, sunset sails and stargazing to make this trip one to remember. 3. Berlin This German city is most known for its great techno nightclubs that appeal to a certain type of person. Hosted in leftover industrial spaces from the second World War, these spacious and towering clubs are some of the best in the world. Whether it is in the converted powerplant of the infamous Berghain or at the more risque KitKat club, these places can be infinitely memorable and mindblowing, provided you can get past the door. While recuperating from these crazy techno raves, enjoy the city's art and history, like at the East Side Gallery, and chow down on traditional German cuisine. 2. Montreal This party palace is in Canada is a cheaper destination to visit for most, mainly owing to favorable currency conversions. While this city is largely French-speaking, there is enough English knowledge for the average traveler to get by. Before diving into the nightlife make sure to try out the famous poutine, a delicious cheesy fry delight that likely will satisfy even the most ravenous visitors. Its also an artsy city, with a thrumming bohemian base that lends it an air of culture and trendiness. After all that, make way to the top-notch clubs, bars and performance venues to while your night away. 1. Las Vegas Photo by Ahmet Kemal on Unsplash This American hotspot is a classic destination when it comes to traveling and partying it up. In a way, given its mini recreations of other famous cities, visiting Las Vegas is like seeing a whole bunch of places at once. At the heart of this vibrant city is its decorated and wide-spanning casinos, so be sure to bring money to spend. Its also jampacked with clubs to visit, shows to see, upscale hotels to stay in and a constantly rotating wheel of events and activities to undertake. And don't forget to enjoy the amazing buffets. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Istanbul, March 4, 2020 Turkish authorities should immediately release journalists Bars Terkoglu and Hulya Klnc and drop any charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Earlier today, police in Istanbul arrested Terkoglu, news editor of the opposition news website Odatv, and police in Manisa arrested Klnc, a reporter at the website, according to a report by Odatv. Both journalists were accused of violating state intelligence laws by revealing the identity of a Turkish National Intelligence Organization operative in a story published by Odatv yesterday, according to that report. The story alleged that the intelligence officer was killed in Libya last month. According to Odatv, authorities charged Terkoglu with three counts of illegally obtaining and disseminating documents relating to intelligence activities. If convicted, he could face up to nine years in prison, according to Turkeys intelligence laws. Klnc was transferred from Manisa, in Turkeys west, to Istanbul for questioning this evening, according to Odatv. CPJ could not determine whether she has been charged. The officers name was previously mentioned by Umit Ozdag, a member of parliament in the opposition IYI Party, in a press conference on February 26. The officers name was also mentioned in reports in other news outlets on February 24 and February 26. The detentions of Odatv journalists Bars Terkoglu and Hulya Klnc are absurd, and they should be released immediately and all charges should be dropped, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. Reporting on matters of public interest should not land journalists in jail, especially if that information is already in the public domain. The Odatv story identified the intelligence officer by his first name and the initial of the last name, and said that he had been buried in his hometown of Manisa. The report featured photos of the officer and his funeral. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on February 25 that a few Turkish military personnel had died in Libya, but did not release their names, according to news reports. Turkeys Ministry of Interior did not immediately respond to CPJs emailed request for comment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jonathan Pincus (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 For Indonesias revolutionary leaders, public education was an essential building block of the nation. Universal access to schooling would forge a national identify from the archipelagos thousands of islands and hundreds of ethnic groups. The adoption of Indonesian as the language of instruction was an important milestone in the formation of a national culture, as fewer than 10 percent of the population spoke Indonesian as their mother tongue in 1945. The common experience of a national curriculum, school uniforms, flag-raising ceremonies and the commemoration of national milestones would awaken a national consciousness in the young generation, the first to grow up in a free and independent Indonesia. Under Dutch colonialism, most Indonesians had not had a chance to attend school. Good progress was made in the 1950s, as the new government doubled elementary school enrolment and sharply reduced the gender gap in school attendance. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. TheCoast Guard and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials on Wednesday recovered gold bars worth Rs 6.3 crore from the sea bed in the Gulf of Mannar off the Tamil Nadu coast. Two people have been arrested in this connection. The two day joint operation took place after DRI sources received a tip off that gold was being smuggled into India through sea from Sri Lanka. The team then approached the fishing boat on Tuesday and on seeing them, the two fishermen dropped the contraband covered in cloth bags mid-sea, the sources said. The fishermen were nabbed and their boat seized at Mandapam near Rameswaram on March 3, a defence release said. A DRI official said the team could not retrieve the gold as it was late in the evening and did so on Wednesday morning. In the joint operation, a team of officers in Coast Guard Hovercraft H-197 and interceptor craft IC-114 undertook diving operations in the Gulf of Mannar region and recovered more than 100 gold bars, totally weighing 15 kgs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coronavirus has killed 92 people in Iran, officials said on Wednesday, as the world's deadliest outbreak outside China spread to all but one of the country's provinces. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani meanwhile dismissed a US offer to help it fight the novel coronavirus outbreak, charging that Washington hides behind a "mask of sympathy" while sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. The Islamic republic reported 15 new deaths from COVID-19 and 586 additional cases, bringing the overall toll to 92 dead and 2,922 infected. "This virus doesn't have wings to fly. We're the ones spreading it," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, who gave the latest figures, told a televised conference. "We have to cut down on unnecessary interactions. We have to be extra careful in the coming weeks," he added, calling on the public to refrain from travelling and gathering at events such as weddings. The provinces of Tehran and Qom were the worst-hit with 253 and 101 new cases of COVID-19 respectively, according to the spokesman. The Shiite holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, is the epicentre of Iran's coronavirus outbreak and where its first deaths were reported on February 19. Authorities have since scrambled to halt its rapid spread. Schools have been shut, major cultural and sporting events suspended, and working hours reduced. Tehran's streets were considerably quieter than usual on Wednesday, with few shops open. Many people wore masks as they walked along streets hung with large posters on preventing infection. Despite the preventive measures, the novel coronavirus is now present in all but one of Iran's 31 provinces, according to the latest figures. The provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, North Khorasan and Zanjan were added to the list on Wednesday, leaving only Bushehr in the south unaffected. US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was ready to aid Iran with the virus outbreak. "If we can help the Iranians with this problem, we are certainly willing to do so...All they have to do is ask. We will have great professionals over there," he said. His counterpart in Tehran dismissed the offer, saying "our people know well that you are lying" with American sanctions still in place that block Iran's access to medicine. "Those who have deprived the people of even medicine and food through sanctions, who have done the most vicious things... they appear with a mask of sympathy and say that we want to help the nation of Iran," Rouhani said, in a clear reference to the United States. Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran in 2018. Humanitarian goods, especially medicine and medical equipment, are technically exempt. But international purchases of such supplies are forestalled by banks wary of conducting business with Iran for fear of falling foul of the US sanctions. Rouhani said the US must lift sanctions blocking medicine purchases to prove its honest intent to help. "This is the first step... to free banking relations for purchasing medicine, transferring medicine and shipping medicine and food," he said. The novel coronavirus has so far infected some high-profile Iranian officials. The national emergency services chief Pirhossein Kolivand was the latest such infection announced on Tuesday. It came a day after the virus claimed the life of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council which advises Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It also comes a week after the country's deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, fell ill with COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tests have confirmed nine more cases of coronavirus in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. Three of the individuals who tested positive for coronavirus are family members of a 50-year-old New Rochelle, Westchester County, man who has been hospitalized after contracting the illness. Cuomo said the wife, 20-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter are ill and at their home. The son is a student at Yeshiva University in New York City. The school closed Wednesday after learning of the positive test. A fourth person, one of the family's neighbors, has also tested positive for coronavirus. Cuomo said the neighbor, who is now self-quarantined at his home, drove the Westchester County man to the hospital. After the governor's initial announcement, he held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to reveal that five more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Westchester County. The five people are family members a husband, wife and three of their children. The husband is friends with the attorney who is receiving treatment for the illness. There are hundreds of people statewide who are voluntarily isolating themselves due to possible exposure to the virus. Cuomo noted that most coronavirus cases will resolve on their own. There are concerns about certain demographics, such as seniors and those with compromised immune systems. The symptoms of the virus include a cough, fever and shortness of breath. The 50-year-old Westchester County man, an attorney who works in Manhattan, is in stable condition at a New York City hospital. Cuomo repeated that the man had an "underlying respiratory illness" when he contracted the virus. Cuomo expects that there will be additional coronavirus cases in New York. "The more you test, the more people you will find who test positive," he said. There have been several negative tests for the virus. A pair of Buffalo-area families that recently returned from Italy tested negative for the illness. Two people in Oneida County were tested, but they don't have the virus. There was another negative test in Suffolk County. Cuomo revealed that the husband of the New York City health care worker the first case of coronavirus in the state also tested negative. The health care worker recently traveled to Iran, which is one of the countries where several cases of coronavirus have been reported. She self-quarantined at her home and is feeling better, Cuomo said. Some students in study abroad programs will return to New York. Cuomo said the State University of New York and City University of New York will recall students studying in China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea. The students will be quarantined for two weeks after returning to New York. Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Foreign companies expect a strong 2020 in China By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-03-04 16:51 Foreign companies and joint ventures expect a strong 2020 performance in China, despite the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Statistics show that 80% of foreign companies in Shanghai have resumed work since Feb. 10, and are now pushing forward the recovery and expansion of their production capacity. Coordinating with the government As one of Coca-Colas biggest bottling plants in Asia Pacific, Shanghai Shenmei Beverage and Food Company resumed work on Feb. 10, with 85% of employees having returned. Production of the companys two plants in Shanghai (one in Jinqiao and the other in Minhang) has fully begun, to meet the demands in Shanghai and other sales territories. (Bottles of Coca-Cola drinks on the production line) The main difficulties we ran into while preparing for the resumption of work included the absence of employees who had to travel back to Shanghai, and the blocked transportation of raw materials from other provinces, said a person in charge of the company. After learning of the situation, the authorities in Jinqiao and Pudong New Area assisted the company in obtaining a license to ensure timely transportation of supplies. As of Feb. 28, nearly 90% of the companys production capacity has recovered. The warehouse and logistics center are also fully stocked, demonstrating a strong belief in the rapid recovery of the market and in the Chinese economy after the epidemic is over. Many people working in Shanghai live in nearby provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, not far from Shanghai. Ms. Yu Xianmei, a resident in Taicang City in Jiangsu, is such a commuter. She is an employee of Amore Pacifics Beauty Campus in Shanghais Jiading District. Due to the shutdown of provincial crossing, she was unable to turn out for work. However, thanks to the long-distance commuting permit issued by the Jiading district government, she is now at work with the help of her company, after a 14-day home isolation. In my company, another five employees like me have all obtained the permit and come back to work, said Yu. Confidence in Chinese market In Waigaoqiao, a bonded warehouse of the logistics company C.H. Robinson is also back to its busy state. Located in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, it boasts a transportation network that covers the Eastern part of China and even stretches to the entire country. As of Feb. 28, the transportation capacity in the Central China region has been restored to 50%, and we are doing our best to ensure the smooth, safe and stable transportation of the stored goods, said Zhang Xiongwei, director of the Central China region. We have full confidence in the Chinese market, added Zhang. Despite the recent decrease of exports, the shipments will recover with factories gradual resumption of work. We know the demands for logistics will rise rapidly after the economic recovery, especially in the semiconductor and high-tech industries, as well as e-commerce logistics. All employees of C.H. Robinson will work hard to meet our customers demands, and together, we will strive for a recovered market. (A warehouse of C.H. Robinson in Waigaoqiao) With the steady resumption of work, many foreign companies have instilled strong impetus in production. On Feb. 24, the first car rolled off the production line after the restart of work in SAIC Volkswagens JV Anting Plant. So far, the companys production bases in Yizheng (in Jiangsu province), Ningbo (in Zhejiang) and Changsha (in Hunan) have also resumed production. Staff in R&D, quality assurance, procurement, security and other departments have all returned to their posts and are ready for the rapid restoration of production. Zeiss, another multinational whose Greater China headquarters is in Shanghai, also looks forward to the post-epidemic growth. Now, all companies under Zeiss China have restarted work, including five production bases across China, with R&D capability 100% restored. Due to the differences in prevention and control measures in different regions, it may take some time for the supply chain to fully recover. But we are optimistic. By March, all the factories production capacity will be expected to have been restored to 100%. Zeiss will continue to cultivate the Chinese market this year, as we believe after the epidemic, the Chinese market demand will soon recover and bring new opportunities for growth, the company said. (A plant of Zeiss Industrial Metrology in Shanghai Free Trade Zone) The Big 5 Construct Egypt, the Cairo-based edition of The Big 5, the largest portfolio of construction events in the Middle East region, has announced the formation of its new advisory board as it prepares to return for the third edition this September. The announcement comes on the back of the first advisory board meeting which took place last month in Cairo. The Big 5 Construct Egypt will run from September 22 to 24 at Egypt International Exhibition Centre in Cairo, giving a 360-degree view of the country's building industry, product and service sectors. The expo will cover the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP), plant machinery vehicles (PMV), building envelope and special construction, building interiors and finishes, as well as construction technology, tools and building materials sectors, said the organiser, dmg events. The 2020 advisory board includes members such as Engineer Khaled Abbas, Deputy Minister from the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities; Dr Ahmed Azim Youssef, Managing Director, Dar Al Handasah; Feras AlHumidi, Director General, Saudi Export Development Authority; Dr Mohamed Youssef, Executive Board Member, Arab Contractors; Mohamed Badr, Founder & Chief Designer, MB Designs; Mohamed Khodeir, Founder & Managing Partner, Khodeir & Partners and other senior stakeholders and leading experts from the construction industry. Commenting on the move, Dr Youssef said: "The Big 5 Construct Egypt advisory board meeting was a golden opportunity to meet with stakeholders and key personnel of the construction industry and, we at Dar Al Handasah are more than happy to support the event and send our engineers to be acquainted with the most up to date materials and technologies in the construction industry. Muhammed Kazi, VP (Construction Division) at dmg events, said: We are excited about our upcoming event The Big 5 Construct Egypt at a time when the country is experiencing unprecedented opportunities in the building, construction and infrastructure sector with well over $300 billion of known, planned and un-awarded projects. "Furthermore, we are dedicated to ensuring that we enable our exhibitors and visitors to secure maximum opportunities in the country by creating an event that best serves the local and international market," he stated. Kazi said as per the advisory boards suggestions, The Big 5 Construct Egypt will have new value-added features to the event. These include a VIP Hosted Buyers Programme bringing professionals with real purchasing power from Africa, a strategic high-level conference covering the latest trends and innovation in the construction industry, industry Awards celebrating construction excellence, and the Women in Construction sessions and awards celebrating diversity in the construction industry.-TradeArabia News Service By Express News Service CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday urged the scientists from Tamil Nadu to find a cure for coronavirus and set an example. After launching Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme (TNHSRP), funded by World Bank, he said These days there are lots of new diseases emerging and as you all are aware there is no medicine coronavirus. So, experts should by find medicine in the State and set an example for the rest of the country. He said TNHSRP will focus on three key areas improved quality of care, management of non-communicable diseases and injuries and reduced equity gaps in reproductive and child health. The World Bank has sanctioned `2,857 crore for implementing the five-year scheme. Kovai man in hospital The Coimbatore Health Department on Tuesday admitted a PhD scholar to the isolation ward created for handling COVID-19 patients at ESI Hospital after he manifested the diseases symptoms, including throat pain. Official sources said that the scholar is a native of Coimbatore and is pursuing higher studies in Japan. He came to Coimbatore on February 26. Photo credit: Pool/Samir Hussein - Getty Images From ELLE Kate Middleton loves a good fashion rewear, and she threw it way back to her pre-royal days this morning in Ireland when she stepped out in a white Reiss Olivia coat from 2008. Kate paired the piece with black skinny jeans and her Equipment polka dot blouse. Here's Kate first wearing the coat before she was engaged to William, back in 2008. She wore it during her January birthday then too; she had just turned 26. The couple got engaged in October 2010: Photo credit: Pool/Tim Graham Royal Photos - Getty Images Today, she wore the piece to Jigsaw, Ireland's National Centre for Youth Mental Health, in Dublin. Inside, she took the coat off to reveal her Equipment blouse. Photo credit: Pool - Getty Images Photo credit: Pool - Getty Images This is the Duchess of Cambridge's third look during her tour of Ireland this week. William and Kate will be touring the country today and tomorrow before they return to England. Ahead of their visit, the Palace announced their trip will "focus on the relationship between [the UK and Ireland], and build on the theme of remembrance and reconciliation." In addition to Dublin, Kate and William will also go to County Meath, County Kildare, and Galway during the visit. Kate has worn a largely green wardrobe in homage to the country so far. She arrived in an emerald green Catherine Walker coat with a lime green print Alessandra Rich dress. She wore a padded headband that day too. Photo credit: Pool/Samir Hussein - Getty Images That evening, Kate switched into her most formal look: a glittery The Vampire's Wife emerald dress. The Duchess visited the Gravity Bar at Guinness Storehouse for a reception. Photo credit: Pool/Samir Hussein - Getty Images You Might Also Like If you could transport yourself back to the Middle Ages and tell people that living things too small to see can cause disease, they'd think you were crazy. Seeing is believing, and, quite often, not seeing is not believing. Tragically, this phenomenon is also operative with the virus in our political system called Big Tech bias, which is unseen by most and with no paper trail, killing Republican electoral chances and remaking our nation. What if I told you Big Tech could have been responsible for President Trump's impeachment? What about the credible expert who warns that Big Tech can shift up to 15 million votes in November? Note here that over the last eight elections and 32 years, no president has won by more than 9.5 million votes. Shifting 15 million is easily enough to turn most any modern election. And what if it can be said with certitude that Big Tech will win numerous races for Democrats this fall? Do I have your attention yet? Are you skeptical? Well, I'm going to explain this in a way you haven't heard before. Conservatives understand vote fraud a subject I've reported on for years and are wary of it. But after studying Big Tech manipulation, I can tell you that vote fraud is small potatoes in comparison. The aforementioned expert, Dr. Robert Epstein, a Democrat-favoring liberal who is the senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, has warned for years that "Big Tech companies now have unprecedented power to sway elections." "In President Eisenhower's famous 1961 farewell address, he warned not only about the rise of a military-industrial complex," Epstein recently wrote; "he also warned about the rise of a 'technological elite' who could someday control our country without us knowing." "That day has come," he laments. I know what you may be thinking: "No tech nerd can change my vote." Heck, I hear all the time from conservatives who won't even use Facebook or Twitter. But it's not about you. It's not about me. We'll vote our passions regardless. It's about swaying undecided voters and a majority of Americans now get a good percentage of their news from Big Tech. Roughly speaking, approximately 35 percent of the electorate will vote Democrat and 35 percent Republican regardless. It's the 30 percent in between who'll "decide" the election. Capturing a majority of them will likely win you the day. Now, these are people who, like so many others, often make emotion-based voting decisions. They have no firm party allegiances and choose who they perceive is the best candidate. So if you alter their perception, you alter their vote. This is what Big Tech does. By exposing voters to just the right news at just the right time, Big Tech manipulates opinion. This is nothing new. Conservatives used to complain pre-internet/cable news/talk radio of how the mainstream media which then had a monopoly over information flow shaped public opinion. The difference is that with Big Tech collecting information on tens of millions of users, it can devise algorithms perfectly suited to the manipulation effort. It also can better effect an illusion of impartiality (Google just delivers what you search for, right? Yeah...). How effective is this? "As Epstein's previous studies have shown, this can have a huge impact on the decisions of undecided voters, who often assume that their [Google] search results are unbiased," reported Breitbart last year. In fact, Epstein found that Google bias alone assuredly won the Democrats seats in the 2018 midterms. He determined that this bias "could have influenced 4.6 million undecided voters to support Democrat candidates," Breitbart also relates and this is a low-end estimate. Moreover, this calculation doesn't even factor in Facebook, Twitter, and other tech giants. In other words, it's entirely conceivable that Big Tech could have won the House for the Democrats. If this is so, it also means that the tech leviathans are responsible for Trump's impeachment and the stymieing of his agenda, phenomena possible only because Nancy Pelosi holds the speaker's gavel. Worse still, Epstein reports that if the whole of Big Tech favors the same candidate, it can shift up to 15 million votes in November. I mentioned earlier how significant this figure is, and it's why Epstein wrote last month that Trump can't win "[n]o matter which weak candidate the Democrats ultimately nominate." I myself wouldn't be so sure; then again, maybe Epstein knows something I don't. The suspicious may suggest that Epstein is a manipulator himself who's trying to dishearten Trump-supporters. Forget that. I'm certain that Epstein is a straight shooter who's genuinely concerned about a dystopia-delivering tech oligarchy. Also know that he has his own conspiracy theory and an understandable reason to entertain it. Last year brought Epstein fame he's considered a Google "whistleblower" and testified before Congress in June and also tragedy: his wife was killed in a fatal car crash late December. A few weeks later, he tweeted the following: Last year, after I briefed a group of state AGs about #Google's power to rig elections, one of them said, "I think you're going to die in an accident in a few months." A few months later, my beautiful wife #Misti died a violent death. Makes you wonder. https://t.co/D2lw4e7QPI pic.twitter.com/c7zT1nn4K0 Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) January 20, 2020 Epstein now emphasizes in his antiBig Tech writings that he's "NOT suicidal." I'm fairly confident that his wife's tragedy was just an accident, but what I'm completely sure of is no conspiracy theory: Big Tech will win the Democrats millions of votes in November. While President Trump emphasized last year when asked about tech power that he "won" in 2016, the point is this: it's possible that more than Hillary Clinton's entire three-million popular vote advantage was attributable to Big Tech meddling (not to mention vote fraud). Thus, Big Tech might have handed the Democrats their puerile "she won!" talking point. Furthermore, what you can bet on in November is that however well the GOP does, it would have done better if not for Big Tech meddling. For instance, if Trump wins by two million votes, he would otherwise perhaps have won by 10 or 15 million. If the Democrats retain the House, they otherwise might have lost it. If they flip the Senate, the Republicans otherwise might have held it. No, I can't give you precise numbers (and it doesn't really matter); that's Epstein's domain. But this is a bit like illegal migration: it's hard to accurately measure something so shadowy it's not hard to know that it threatens your civilization. Big Tech censorship is nothing new, and I and millions of other traditionalists have long been victimized by it. But the tech leviathans, not wanting a 2016 repeat and smelling blood, are now putting the hammer (and sickle) down. They, not the Russians, are the ones literally hacking our republic. As Epstein warned when testifying before Congress, "democracy as originally conceived cannot survive Big Tech as currently empowered." It most certainly cannot and we ignore these warnings at our own peril. Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com. Photo credit: DARPA. A stormy day is again in progress across parts of Alabama. The National Weather Service has already issued multiple severe thunderstorm warnings for areas in south and south-central Alabama overnight, and more storms will be possible through the day in south Alabama. There are no tornado watches in effect for Alabama as of 1:30 p.m. A watch for southeast Alabama was canceled just before 1 p.m. In addition to the storms there will again be a chance for flooding, especially in south Alabama. Flash flood watches are in effect for south and central Alabama, where up to 4 inches of rain will be possible through Thursday evening. The threat for severe weather will be confined to south and south-central Alabama today. Severe storms arent expected farther to the north, however there will be the potential for moderate to heavy rain statewide. A flash flood watch is in effect for much of central and south Alabama today. The weather service said up to 4 inches of rain will be possible in Alabama, but those along and south of the Interstate 85 corridor have the potential to see the most through Thursday evening. Parts of south Alabama could get up to 4 inches of rain through Thursday evening. The rain and storms are expected to begin to move out of the state on Thursday, and Friday and the weekend look to be dry. Rain chances will enter the forecast again on Monday. IMAGE OF A NOTEBOOK WITH TFSA WRITTEN ON IT A key component of Canadas pension system is the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, which becomes available to Canadians who meet the legal status and resident requirements at age 65. The full basic benefit regardless of marital status is $613.53 per month, and this amount can increase because of guaranteed income supplements (GIS). If annual income is $79,054 or higher, the OAS clawback is triggered, whereby the benefit is reduced by $0.15 for every dollar in excess of the threshold amount. When yearly income exceeds $128,137, the OAS pension is reduced to zero. Avoid the OAS clawback For these reasons, it is important when planning for retirement to consider how to minimize your taxable income to maximize the pension benefits available. One way to do this is to establish a regularly recurring income stream from within a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). This is because any income, capital gains, and interest received from an investment held in a TFSA are not typically counted toward taxable income, and all withdrawals are tax-free. By maxing out your TFSA, you can create a reliable non-taxable source of passive income, which isnt counted toward the OAS income threshold, and, upon being withdrawn from your TFSA, it is tax-free. Compound investment returns A top Canadian dividend-growth stock that belongs in every TFSA Parkland Fuel (TSX:PKI). The company is the largest independent fuel and petroleum products distributor in North America has a proven history of delivering value for shareholders. Through a series of accretive acquisitions, including Chevrons Burnaby refinery, Parkland has become one of the largest fuel distributors in North America. A combination of organic growth initiatives and synergy captured from Parklands accretive asset purchases has bolstered earnings and saw the company increase its 2019 EBITDA guidance at the end of the third quarter by 6% to $1.24 billion. Parkland also completed two further additions since the end of the third quarter 2019, which will further boost earnings during 2020. Story continues What makes Parkland a particularly attractive stock for building long-term wealth in a TFSA is that it offers a dividend-reinvestment plan (DRIP), where not only can dividends be reinvested to acquire stock at no cost, but all shares purchased through the plan are issued at a 5% discount to their market value. That appeal is further enhanced by Parklands wide economic moat, defensive characteristics, and exceptionally low volatility evident from its beta of a mere 0.47. These attributes, along with a steadily growing monthly dividend, which Parkland has hiked for the last seven years straight to yield almost 3%, make it a top stock to own in any TFSA to build wealth. While past performance is no guarantee of future returns, Parkland has performed impressively over the last 10 years, delivering a 464% return if dividends were reinvested, which equates to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19%. Parklands CAGR over that period falls to 15% if the dividends were taken as cash. That is an incredible rate of return, far exceeding the performance of many other stocks and traditional income-producing assets such as bonds and rental properties. Foolish takeaway By investing your 2020 $6,000 TFSA contribution in Parkland, adding $6,000 annually, and reinvesting all dividends, you could easily amass a handy lump sum of $210,000 in as few as 10 years. If you ceased reinvesting the dividends and took them as cash, you would be generating $6,195 annually in tax-free passive income, which wouldnt be counted toward the OAS pension income threshold. Nonetheless, it is crucial to note that it is unwise to invest all your capital in a single stock and that diversification across companies as well as industries is an important tool for managing risk. The post Use Your TFSA to Build Wealth and Maximize the OAS Pension appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Matt Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/03/washington-state-risks-seeing-explosion-in-coronavirus-without-dramatic-action-new-analysis-says/ The genetic sequences of patients in the Seattle-King County region suggest the virus has been circulating there since about mid-January, when the first U.S. patient a man who returned from Wuhan was diagnosed, Bedford wrote in the analysis, published online. The spread of the virus has gone undetected in part because many infected people experience only mild infections that could be confused for a cold or the flu, and in part because of stumbles in the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions effort to develop test kits for state and local public health laboratories, which has meant very little testing has been done in the country until the past few days. On Capitol Hill, Washington Sen. Patty Murray (D) expressed deep frustration with the situation.The failure to develop and distribute working test kits to public health agencies has really cost us valuable time. I am hearing from people personally across our state who are frustrated, Murray said. They believe they have been exposed, they are sick, they want to get tested, they have nowhere to go, she added. People want to be safe and protected, they do not want to spread this, they want to take care of themselves but we dont have the capability right now to do it with the policies we have in place. Bedford said Seattle faces a stark choice take aggressive actions to slow down the spread of the new coronavirus now or face the type of outbreak that engulfed Wuhans health facilities and led to a lockdown of the city that remains in place six weeks later. 18 positive cases of deadly corona virus (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported from 15 Italian nationals who had been under observation in India. The Health Ministry has also stated that six persons with suspected COVID-19 have heavy viral load and are being quarantined and are stable. Their samples have been sent for testing. Also, 24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (including a bus driver, conductor and a tourist guide), who had come in contact with the Italian national in Jaipur, had been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Witnessing the seriousness of the situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tweeted that he has reviewed the situation of coronavirus and India's preparedness to deal with the global pandemic, assuring citizens that there was no reason to panic. The Cabinet Secretary held a review meeting through video conference with the secretaries of concerned ministries, chief secretaries and health secretaries of the States to review and assess action taken for containment of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the Delhi government has made full preparations to tackle the situation. For providing treatment to the patients, 25 Delhi hospitals -- including 19 government hospitals and six private hospitals -- have been equipped to handle the influx of patients in case of an emergency. ANI The coronavirus scare gripped the IT corridor in Hyderabad on Wednesday with one building in a complex, housing software firms, being vacated for sanitisation for a day as a precautionary measure after an employee there was suspected to have contracted the virus and other employees asked to work from home. The building being vacated triggered rumors, including on social media, about the spread of the virus, forcing the authorities to clarify that operations in the building would resume from Thursday. State Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan said the positive COVID-19 cases in the country are those with travel history to foreign countries. He said the IT firm's office in which the techie, who is suspected to have contracted the virus, worked, is located on the ninth floor of the building concerned. The firm employed 350 people and about 23 were part of the work group in which the techie worked. The sample of the employee concerned has been sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune. There is no truth in rumours that the entire building complex was evacuated, Ranjan said. All offices in the building would resume working from Thursday, he said. Observing that some IT firms which are not related to any sort of COVID-19 precautionary measures have also sent their employees home on Wednesday, he said such steps are not warranted. It would create a panic situation, he said. It would be better if the IT firms consulted the government before initiating any such steps, Ranjan added. Dismissing rumours about the IT corridor being vacated, Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar said the building concerned has been vacated only for a day for sanitisation and employees would resume working from Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The two measures on the ballot that would have overturned a ban on medical cannabis sales in Kern County both fared poorly in early election returns. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:20:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has said science and technology are mankind's most powerful weapon against diseases. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has also stressed the pivotal role of science and technology in eventually defeating the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic. Since the outbreak, he has made a series of instructions on advancing related scientific research. The following is a timeline of the instructions that have been made public. JANUARY 25 Xi chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on the COVID-19 prevention and control, which called for speeding up the research and development of drugs and vaccines. JANUARY 29 In an instruction made public on that day, Xi called on military research institutions to step up scientific research to contribute to the fight against the epidemic. FEBRUARY 3 At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi urged scientific efforts in virus source tracing. He also called for identifying the source of infection and the transmission routes at an earlier date, closely tracking the mutation of the virus and promptly developing strategies and measures on its prevention and control. FEBRUARY 10 During an inspection in Beijing, Xi required accelerating the selection, research and development of drugs with good clinical effects. He also called on universities, research institutes and enterprises to redouble efforts in the research and development of reagents, vaccines and drugs for early breakthroughs. FEBRUARY 12 Xi chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee which urged greater efforts in the research and development of drugs and vaccines. FEBRUARY 14 Addressing a meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform, Xi encouraged the use of digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing to support the epidemic surveillance and analysis, virus source tracing, epidemic prevention and control, disease treatment, and allocation of resources. FEBRUARY 21 Xi chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which called for more support for the research and development of reagents, drugs and vaccines. FEBRUARY 23 At a meeting on coordinating the COVID-19 prevention and control and economic and social development, Xi said "because COVID-19 is a new infectious disease, our understanding of it remains relatively preliminary." He called for multidisciplinary scientific research, highlighting the theoretical research on source of infection, transmission and pathogenesis to help produce more targeted and practical guidelines for COVID-19 prevention and control after work and production resume. He also called for strengthened international cooperation in the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. MARCH 2 During an inspection to two institutes in Beijing, Xi called for speeding up vaccine research and development while closely tracking the progress of related research overseas to strive for early clinical trial and application of vaccines. Xi stressed the importance of coordinating research on virus source tracing and transmission routes and evaluating whether some suspected animals are intermediate hosts. Xi also called on countries to share research data and jointly work out response strategies to contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity. WASHINGTON For a diplomat, Richard Grenell has a remarkable record of being undiplomatic. Facing rejection for a job a few years back at a global bank, he responded with a series of cutting email denunciations. Unhappy working as a foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romneys presidential campaign in 2012, he exited in a wave of recriminations. His confrontational style touches such raw nerves that one top Obama administration official, Susan E. Rice, recently called him one of the most nasty, dishonest people Ive ever encountered, and some German politicians demanded that he be recalled from his post as United States ambassador to Berlin. His career was built on media relations, but his Twitter attacks on journalists have led some to mute him or skip his briefings. Bombastic perseverance and ostentatious attention-seeking may be problematic traits for some employers, but they have helped fuel Mr. Grenells rapid rise under President Trump. In 2017, the president nominated him to be ambassador to Germany, a perch that Mr. Grenell has used to spread his brand of combative conservatism and emerge as an outspoken Trump loyalist. Last month, the president made Mr. Grenell the most powerful spymaster on earth, naming him the acting director of national intelligence for the United States the least-experienced, most overtly political person ever to occupy the post, which oversees the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and 15 other departments. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Updated on March 6: You can go here for the latest results in the DA's race and the other races. The contentious race to be L.A. County's next District Attorney remains in limbo, although updated returns suggest a November runoff is a possibility. Incumbent DA Jackie Lacey took a large lead in early returns Tuesday night, as she seeks to remain in charge of the nation's largest prosecutor's office for a third term. As of Friday evening, Lacey's lead had dwindled somewhat, and she was hovering just 16 votes below the 50%-plus-one-vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Former San Francisco DA George Gascon is in second with 27%, and former public defender Rachel Rossi is in third with 22%. L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan estimates there are a few hundred thousand ballots left to count, so the outcome may remain unclear for some time. George Gascon speaks to supporters at Union Station. (Chava Sanchez / LAist ) Rachel Rossi talks to us in Echo Park. (Chava Sanchez / LAist ) Speaking with us at his election night party at a bar next to Union Station, Gascon said his campaign "definitely amplified a message that would not have occurred." A few miles away at her party at an Echo Park restaurant, Rossi said no matter the outcome, she was gratified that her campaign "changed the face of what a DA could even look like in L.A. County, that we opened up people's imaginations a little bit about what a prosecutor can be and can stand for." Lacey had a much different election night. She cancelled her campaign party for security reasons after an incident Monday in which her husband pulled a gun on Black Lives Matter protestors who showed up at her front door before dawn. The DA spent the evening watching election returns at home. In a phone interview, she told us she feels good about her chances of winning a third term. "I feel like the message I had of reasonable reforms ... resonated with voters," she said. THE BIGGEST PRIZE IN A NATIONAL PUSH FOR REFORM The race has attracted national attention; a progressive tide has swept reformists into office in DA races across the country, and L.A. County -- home to the largest prosecutor's office in the U.S. -- is the biggest prize so far. Gascon and Rossi have portrayed Lacey as a traditional tough-on-crime prosecutor who is too resistant to modern reforms. Lacey has insisted she is a "reasonable reformer" committed to diverting people with mental health problems away from jail while championing crime victims. She also points to her creation of a Conviction Review Unit to assess claims of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence. Gascon has touted his support of a variety of reforms, including Prop 47, the statewide measure he co-authored that reduced a number of non-violent felonies to misdemeanors. He also backed Prop. 57, which made it easier for non-violent felons to get probation. Lacey opposed both; she argues that Prop. 47 led to an increase in property crime. Gascon says Lacey has not done enough to combat the wide racial disparities in prosecutions. While he was San Francisco DA, Gascon created a tool to mask the race of the defendant in cases his office handled. Lacey says it's important to take into account things like racial income disparities, but argues that people end up in the criminal justice system because they "make bad decisions." Gascon calls for the total abolition of cash bail. Lacey supports bail reform, but not its outright elimination. She supports the state law that would do away with cash bail in most situations (though that law is currently on hold pending the outcome of a November ballot initiative backed by the bail bonds industry that would kill it), while giving judges the opportunity to impose it in cases involving high-level misdemeanors or low-level felonies using a risk assessment tool. LAist only exists with your support. No paywalls here: just free, independent journalism for you and your city. Donate now. THE DEATH PENALTY AND POLICE SHOOTINGS Gascon and Lacey have clashed over the death penalty. She has continued to seek capital punishment in cases that she considers particularly egregious; Gascon has vowed to put an end to its use. The incumbent has also taken a tremendous amount of heat from Black Lives Matter and other activists over her handling of police shootings. Lacey has only prosecuted one law enforcement officer for an on-duty shooting of a civilian. Critics -- and Gascon -- also denounced her decision not to charge an LAPD officer for fatally shooting an unarmed homeless man, Brendon Glenn, in Venice in 2015, even though then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck publicly called for the officer's prosecution. Lacey says it's "very, very difficult" to successfully prosecute law enforcement officers for shootings. "It's not that we are pro-police or anti police," she told us in an interview earlier this year. "It's that we're looking at the facts and following the law." Lacey's troubles with Black Lives Matter nearly took a violent turn Monday as activists staged their pre-dawn anti-Lacey protest outside her home. When three of them knocked on her door to invite her out to talk to them, Lacey's husband answered with a handgun, threatening to shoot the protesters if they didn't leave. Im front of DA Jackie Laceys house for that community meeting she promised with the @BLMLA crew. Rang her bell to invite her. Her husband pulled a gun, cocked it, pointed it at my chest and said Ill shoot you. I dont care who you are. @WP4BL @RealJusticePAC @shaunking pic.twitter.com/WtazUWSJIC Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) March 2, 2020 A few hours later, an emotional Lacey told a news conference her husband was "profoundly sorry," saying he had acted out of fear. She suggested that her ongoing troubles with Black Lives Matter contributed to his state of mind. Jackie Lacey at a news conference. (Stefanie Dazio/AP) "I have received threats, some of them death threats," she said. "I have been followed, photographed with my family, confronted at an art museum, confronted at fundraisers, even at endorsement interviews, I've had people crash them and videotape them," Lacey said. She noted that at the Jan. 29 candidates debate -- which was disrupted several times by Black Lives Matter activists and others -- one man rushed the stage before being corralled by security guards. Lacey points out that Gascon didn't prosecute any police officers for shootings during his tenure as San Francisco DA. Gascon has highlighted his creation in San Francisco of an independent unit made up of civil rights and defense lawyers to investigate police uses of force. He also says it might make sense to use an independent "special prosecutor" to review police shootings. Both candidates support a new state law that tightens the legal definition of when an officer can use lethal force from when it's "reasonable" to when it's "necessary." ED BUCK AND HARVEY WEINSTEIN Lacey faced criticism for taking nearly two years to file charges against high-profile Democratic donor Ed Buck for the deaths of two black men from drug overdoses at his home. The DA's office faced challenges investigating the Buck case, including an "inadmissible search and seizure," according to the Los Angeles Times. Gascon questioned the timing of Lacey's announcement of sexual assault charges against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein on Jan. 6, the same day that jury selection began in his New York trial. Gascon noted it had been more than two years since the first accuser reported her allegations to the LAPD, and told Variety that bringing the charges "four weeks before absentee ballots come ... smacks of politics." The DA said it had been "very challenging to get some [of Weinstein's alleged] victims to open up." THE ENDORSEMENT AND MONEY BATTLE Lacey won the endorsements of the mayors of L.A. and Long Beach, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, eight members of the House of Representatives, four of the five L.A. County supervisors and numerous other local and state politicians. Gascon's backers include Sen. Kamala Harris, two members of the House, the California Democratic Party, the L.A. County Democratic Party and a number of local Democratic groups. Law enforcement groups have lined up strongly behind Lacey, including the unions that represent the rank-and-file of the LAPD and the L.A. Sheriff's Department, as well as the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), the union that represents the prosecutors who work in the DA's office. Those groups vehemently oppose Gascon's reformist agenda, arguing that it would lead to more crime. In an editorial in the ADDA newsletter, Deputy DA Marc Debbaudt wrote that electing Gascon or Rossi would make L.A. "the greatest haven for criminals in the nation." The race has generated a lot of spending: $4.3 million in contributions to independent committees supporting Lacey and Gascon. Nearly all of the $2.2 million in contributions to outside committees backing Lacey has come from law enforcement unions, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis. Two wealthy northern Californians who back criminal justice reform contributed three-quarters of the $2.1 million spent on outside groups that support Gascon, the Times found. UPDATES: March 5, 10:30 a.m.: This article was updated to reflect the latest vote count. March 6, 5:50 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect the latest vote count. This article was originally published March 4 at 5:46 a.m. A San Francisco ballot measure that would tax landlords of buildings with vacant storefronts believed to be one of the first proposals in the nation to explicitly target empty stores was slightly leading but too close to call Tuesday night. Under Proposition D, landlords who keep stores empty for more than six months would be subject to a vacancy tax. The measure was put on the ballot by Supervisor Aaron Peskin in an effort to curb storefront vacancies dotting San Francisco streets. Peskin said he wanted to change bad actor behavior by landlords by pressuring them to fill spaces to avoid paying the tax. He said the measure would create incentives for landlords to reduce rents to entice tenants into those storefronts. With nearly all precincts reporting, the measure had 68% of the vote, with 31% against. Passage required a 66.7% vote but mail ballots are still being counted. Opponents said the measure wouldnt fix larger factors at the root of storefront vacancies, including the high cost of labor and rent, lengthy permitting times and tight restrictions on where retail is allowed. Small businesses in San Francisco are facing unprecedented pressure and challenges, said Jay Cheng, policy director at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Prop. D fails to address the true causes of storefront vacancies: our restrictive zoning rules and permitting complexity in City Hall. We need to remove these roadblocks and allow small businesses to fill these storefronts. Prop. D sought to impose a tax on landlords whose space remains empty for more than 182 days. It would levy $250 per foot of sidewalk frontage in Year 1, increase to $500 per foot in Year 2 and then double to $1,000 per foot a year after that. The measure called for an effective date starting in January. For example, a small cafe space with a 10-foot-long storefront would pay $2,500 in the first year, and a grocery store with 70 feet of sidewalk frontage would pay $17,500. The tax will apply only in the citys more than 30 neighborhood commercial corridors including 12 that were newly designated in January. Union Square and much of downtown would not be subject to the tax. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The vacancy tax would raise an estimated $300,000 to $5 million a year, which is to go into a new small-business assistance fund. Peskin, however, said the goal was not to raise revenue but to change behavior. The city already requires landlords with empty stores to register the retail vacancy and pay a $711 annual fee. There were 817 empty stores in the city at the end of 2019, according to a survey, though some have tenants who are waiting for permits to open. Other efforts to fill empty stores are under way in San Francisco: Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced a measure last week for a temporary permit that would make it easier for nonprofits to operate in empty stores the city currently forbids such office uses in retail spaces. Peskin also recently proposed legislation to speed up special permits needed for some retail spaces. Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika Bitterroot Drugs pharmacy manager Dan Berk knows that people are concerned about the novel coronavirus arriving in the Bitterroot Valley. All he has to do is look at his shelves of his Hamilton store to verify that. His store has been out of face masks for about a week. His suppliers cant give him a date on when the next shipment will arrive. The surgeon general has asked the public to refrain from hoarding masks to ensure that health care providers and those diagnosed with the disease will have an ample supply. Common face masks will not keep people from becoming infected, but can help prevent the virus' spread if worn by people who have the disease. Bottles of hand sanitizer have been so hard to keep on the shelf that Berk is planning to start making his own to meet the needs of his customers. Thats not something that weve ever done before, Berk said. Theres not been that need. Were getting questions pretty frequently about it [coronavirus]. Its definitely something that people are concerned about. At this point, I think its a bit inflated, he said. People need to find that balance of having a bit of concern and not living in fear. Ravalli County Public Health Director Karyn Johnston agreed. It seems like everyone is panicking, Johnston said. They dont need to do that. Instead, Johnston people should follow the same hygiene they use to dampen the spread of influenza. Right now, we are still receiving a lot of reports of people with the flu, Johnston said. Were still seeing a lot of it. There is a lot of (influenza) A and some B. Theres so much flu going on right now and not everyone is getting tested. Johnston said the state now has testing for the novel coronavirus is available, but it has to be done through the criteria established by the CDC. As of Tuesday afternoon, cases of the fast-spreading coronavirus had climbed past 100 in the United States in at least 14 states. Nine people have died, all in Washington state. Four of the deaths were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. There have been no reported coronavirus cases reported in Montana. On Monday, Johnston met with Ravalli County school superintendents to help them develop plans should the coronavirus make its way here. They were getting calls from parents, Johnston said. I told them we are monitoring the situation. They had questions about the potential of closing schools or stopping activities. We are going to just have to wait and see what happens. Stevensville School Superintendent Bob Moore said the school district was already taking extra measures to disinfect common-use areas to dampen the spread of influenza. Our maintenance staff is fully trained in using disinfectants, Moore said. They are wiping down doorknobs, restroom fixtures and common areas regularly. We have teachers who are going through the Lysol wipes to disinfect student work areas. We are taking those extra steps already to address those usual cases of influenza A and B that we see every year. We cant necessarily prevent everything, but we can take action for that general disinfection of the entire campus. Moore said the school district works closely with the county health nurse and would take direction from that office should there be an outbreak of the coronavirus in the Bitterroot Valley. Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital has had an emergency preparedness plan in place for more than a decade that is reviewed and updated periodically. It would rely on that plan should there be an outbreak in the valley. Alida Merritt, the hospitals manager of quality improvement and infection control, said the hospital is in a constant state of preparedness for a situation that could bring an influx of patients to its doors. This year weve seen influenza. There was a pertussis outbreak in the community, Merritt said. We see other respiratory pathogens that can be just as detrimental to the community as coronavirus might be. For us, this is just a way of life, she said. With coronavirus in the news, Merritt said hospital employees have family and friends asking them for advice. She consistently refers people the Centers of Disease Control website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html) that provides people with current information on the novel coronavirus outbreak. Its really the optimal source, Merritt said. Rocky Mountain Laboratories Associate Director Marshall Bloom said the Hamilton laboratory doesnt have a role to play in helping city, county or state health officials prepare for a potential outbreak. Our role in this is to do the research, Bloom said. We have already made significant contributions on this topic. We will continue to do that. Stevensvilles Valley Drug and Variety store owner, Tracey Smith, said the rush on masks, hand sanitizer and antibacterial soaps started about two weeks ago. Its been crazy ever since, Smith said. The store has been out of masks for some time and is challenged to keep with the demand for hand sanitizer. Were really hoping the manufacturer will begin to release more, Smith said. We recently ordered 45 bottles of hand sanitizer and they only shipped 10. Were currently out of stock. When they do get some more, they are asking their customers to limit their purchases to what they need right away. Were just asking people not to buy all 12 of what we have on the shelf, she said. We want to try to save some everyone else. People need to realize that they dont need antibacterial soap or hand sanitizer to keep their hands clean of the virus, she said. Basic handwashing with soap will do the trick. We pass along the CDCs recommendations, Smith said. More hand-washing. Stay home if youre sick and cover your cough with your elbow. Winnipeg is adding new road construction rules with an eye to making its streets last longer. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/3/2020 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg is adding new road construction rules with an eye to making its streets last longer. The changes should allow concrete construction to last 25 per cent longer and add 15 per cent to the lifespan of asphalt, said Brad Neirinck, City of Winnipeg engineering manager, noting local construction standards have lagged behind those of other Canadian cities. "Were behind the times. Were trying to move our specifications up to match what other jurisdictions are doing and improve our life cycle," he said Tuesday. The new standards would ensure a higher quality of limestone, gravel and concrete are used to build certain roads, which would be stiffer and offer better drainage, helping them hold up better, said Ahmed Shalaby, a civil engineer who works with the city. "The improvement in performance is actually quite significant. Some of these materials can be twice as good as what we were using previously," Shalaby told reporters. The new standards should allow concrete construction to last 25 per cent longer and add 15 per cent to the lifespan of asphalt. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files) "It will drain faster, it will be stronger, it will have fewer cracks." During Tuesdays public works committee meeting, Shalaby warned councillors Winnipegs previous road standards were "in a way, obsolete." The higher standards should also prevent some streets from requiring repairs every five or 10 years, he said. Developers at the meeting raised a series of concerns, including the spectre of increased costs and sending more rejected road materials to the landfill. Other issues about the new material rules could make it difficult for contractors to budget for work, said Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association. "We dont know the extent to which its going to be subject to rejection That creates risk, uncertainty and a potential spike in prices," he said. The new standards would ensure a higher quality of limestone, gravel and concrete are used to build some roads, which would be stiffer and offer better drainage, helping them last longer. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) However, city councils public works chairman expects the changes will finally address citizen complaints that local roads havent been built to last. "We needed to get with the times and join other jurisdictions in building roads that are going to be built better and last longer," said Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface). Despite industry concerns, its not clear if the change would actually increase construction project costs, Allard said. Even though the city would require that higher-quality materials be used, projects may also use smaller amounts of them, he said. "We need to go into the field and apply it to know exactly how much its going to cost," Allard said. After hearing multiple presentations from concerned members of the construction industry, city staff said two key compromises should help address any potential issues: the higher standard for construction work will be implemented this year on contracts and subjected to ongoing review by a working group with industry members, and developers of some private-sector projects will be exempt from the new rules until 2021. In October, the citys public service is expected to provide an update on how the new standard works out. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 3, 2020) - good natured Products Inc. (TSXV: GDNP) (the "Company" or "good natured") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with the shareholders of Shepherd Thermoforming & Packaging Inc., ("Shepherd") a leading thermoformer with over 35 years' experience, to acquire 100% of Shepherd and all its real estate assets for CAD$9.5 million in cash (the "Share Purchase"). The assets include machinery, molds and a 42,000 square foot manufacturing facility, all located on 2.31 acres of land in the Greater Toronto Area of Brampton, Ontario. Shepherd designs custom packaging including engineering, mold production and final product manufacturing for both thin gauge and heavy gauge applications. Their customers include several Fortune 500 companies located throughout eastern Canada and the northeast United States. Shepherd operates six different thermoforming lines as well as two CNC machines at its fully integrated design, mold manufacturing, testing and manufacturing facility. "After nearly doubling our revenues in 2019, this transaction marks another significant milestone in the company's growth trajectory. The acquisition enables us to increase our production capacity and expand our plant-based packaging assortment to meet the needs of more customers," said Paul Antoniadis, CEO of good natured. "Whether it be through existing molds available at the Shepherd facility, or the ability for us to expand on the development of custom packaging solutions, one of our largest growth sectors, our production capacity and assortment has now increased significantly." Paul went on to add "the strategic location of Shepherd's facility also provides good natured with a strong and easily accessible entry point into Ontario and eastern Canada, as well as the northeastern United States." Story continues Paul concluded by saying, "We're delighted to welcome Mark and Todd Shepherd and the entire Shepherd team to the good natured family. We share a common vision to be leaders in the development and adoption of sustainable, planet-friendly packaging solutions in North America, so the combination of our collective expertise, people and manufacturing capability further positions the Company to execute against this ambition." Shepherd generated average annual revenue of over CAD$5.5 million and average annual adjusted EBITDA of CAD$420,000 in the prior three fiscal years. Completion of the Share Purchase remains subject to financing and a number of customary closing conditions in favor of good natured and TSX Venture Exchange approval. The acquisition is expected to be accretive during the current fiscal year. The Company is completing the final stages of financing required to close the Share Purchase with its financial partners, including Business Development Bank of Canada ("BDC"), under the terms and conditions of its previously announced BDC financing from June 2019. "We are very excited to partner with good natured and continue the legacy of our business that was started in 1984 by our father Barry Shepherd," said Todd Shepherd, President of Shepherd Thermoforming & Packaging Inc. "Our customers are increasingly requesting plant-based alternatives, so joining together with good natured, as we have on several projects over the past four to five years, will accelerate our ability to meet this growing demand." The closing of the transaction is expected to be not later than April 30, 2020. In addition to the $9.5 million payable in cash at closing, the Share Purchase contemplates an earnout payment of $2.25 million may be payable at some point between 42 and 60 months post-closing, upon satisfaction of a condition relating to increase in the value of the real estate purchased as part of the transaction. The Company also intends to redeem the remaining $1.18 million in principal amount of its convertible debentures issued February 2018 at the closing of the transaction. The definitive agreement governing the Share Purchase will be available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com subsequent to closing the transaction in accordance with TSX filing regulations. Acquisition Conference Call To provide more details on the Company's acquisition of Shepherd Thermoforming & Packaging Inc., the Company is pleased to host a live conference call with Paul Antoniadis, Executive Chair & CEO, and Don Holmstrom, Executive Vice President & CFO, on Wednesday, March 4 at 11:30am EST. In addition to discussing the Acquisition, Paul will provide an overview of the Company's acquisition strategy, while Don will talk to the financial aspects of the acquisition and what this means for the Company moving forward. Paul and Don will both be available to answer questions at the end of the call. To ask a question, use the question form on the webcast web page or email invest@goodnatured.ca. Conference call details Date: Wednesday, March 4 Time: 11:30am EST Link: http://www.gowebcasting.com/10526 About good natured Products Inc. good natured is producing and distributing one of North America's widest assortments of better everyday products made from the highest possible percentage of renewable, plant-based materials and no BPAs, phthalates or other chemicals of concern potentially harmful to human health and the environment. By combining cutting-edge renewable material technology and the latest sustainable design features, good natured creates planet-friendly products and packaging that do good for the planet, good for human health and good for business by driving incremental sales, minimizing waste and improving logistics, all bundled up in a fresh and friendly brand. For more information: goodnatured.ca About Shepherd Thermoforming & Packaging Inc. Shepherd Thermoforming is a family owned-and-operated business that has become a placeholder in the North American plastics industry since its inception in 1984. With a commitment to customer satisfaction, Shepherd has grown to become an all-in-one solution for custom thermoforming and vacuum forming needs. Shepherd's 42,000 square foot facility is home to industry leading sales, engineering and production teams. With a commitment to offer complete solutions for all clients, Shepherd applied for and attained SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification to go along with its fully integrated ISO 9001:2015 certificate. This means that Shepherd has the ability to produce custom, food safe clamshells, blister packs and other forms of thermoformed and vacuum formed packages to suit each customer's specific needs. On behalf of the Company: Paul Antoniadis - Chief Executive Officer Contact: 1-604-566-8466 Investor Contact: Jackson Spence Investor Relations Manager 1-877-286-0617 ext. 113 invest@goodnatured.ca Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibilities for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Information in this news release regarding the expected closing of the Share Purchase, the availability of BDC or other financing for the Share Purchase, redemption of convertible debentures and the payment of the earn-out payment constitutes forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the risk that the closing conditions for completion of the Share Purchase are not satisfied, including due to lack of financing. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. Other than as required under securities laws, we do not undertake to update this information at any particular time. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on our current estimates, expectations and projections regarding, among other things, sales volume and pricing which we believe are reasonable as of the current date. The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. All forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53083 There is an enduring debate over capitalizing the "m" in Earth's moon. Some organizations, like NASA, have the letter capitalized in their style guides. However, the Associated Press (AP) stylebook, considered the gold standard for setting style guidelines in journalism, downgrades our celestial next-door neighbor to a small "m." Will this brouhaha over editorial rules ever be resolved? Key individuals make their cases, both upper and lower. Related: Inside Earth's moon (infographic) Longtime style Webster's New World College Dictionary, which is AP's primary dictionary, uses lowercase "moon." So does the dictionary by Merriam-Webster, also revered for English word definitions, meanings and pronunciation. "The AP Stylebook decision to lowercase 'sun' and 'moon' was made years ago, so I can't speak to the discussions that were held then," AP Stylebook editor Paula Froke told Space.com. (Space.com follows AP style, which is why you see "sun" and "moon" in our stories.) "The current Stylebook and AP science teams know that many believe 'moon' should be capitalized," Froke said, "and many believe it should be lowercased. For now, we see no reason to change our longtime style. We would argue that the moon is a 'thing,' not a thing named 'Moon.'" Spelling it out from the AP Stylebook. (Image credit: AP) Capital decision NASA has a different point of view, which the agency lays out in its Style Guide for NASA History Authors and Editors: "Capitalize the names of planets (e.g., 'Earth,' 'Mars,' 'Jupiter'). Capitalize 'Moon' when referring to Earth's Moon; otherwise, lowercase 'moon' (e.g., 'The Moon orbits Earth,' 'Jupiter's moons'). Capitalize 'Sun' when referring to our Sun but not to other suns. Do not capitalize 'solar system' and 'universe.' Another note on usage: 'Earth,' when used as the name of the planet, is not preceded by 'the'; you would not say 'the Neptune' or 'the Venus.' When 'earth' is lowercased, it refers to soil or the ground, not the planet as a whole. Do use 'the' in front of 'Sun' and 'Moon' as applicable." Related: Solar system facts: A guide to things orbiting our sun Nitpicker To capitalize or not to capitalize? That is the question, wrote lunar expert Paul Spudis in a 2009 article for Air & Space magazine. Spudis was a senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. He passed away in 2018. "Interestingly, the AP Stylebook says to capitalize the Earth but not the Sun and Moon," Spudis wrote. "My guess is that some classically educated nitpicker who was forced to sit through endless hours on the joys of the ablative absolute in Latin class decided that the Roman-named objects of the universe were worthy of linguistic worship but the vulgar, barbarian Germanic names given to those other three bodies did not deserve to be capitalized." NASA, which sent a dozen astronauts to the lunar surface from 1969 to 1972, capitalizes the name of Earth's moon. (Image credit: NASA) Simply put, Spudis said, the AP Stylebook is wrong. "When referring to 'the Moon' that is, our Moon, Luna, site of Neil Armstrong's landing in 1969 the word should be capitalized," he wrote. "When referring to any moon, such as in 'the moons of Jupiter,' it becomes a generic descriptor and hence, should not be capitalized. Our Moon is a world with its own history, one intimately entwined with our own. It has the material and energy resources needed to help us bootstrap a true spacefaring capability. It will one day become a second home for humanity." Firestorm of letters Retired NASA lunar expert Wendell Mendell, a planetary scientist with a doctorate in the field and 50 years of experience with the space agency, weighed in on the debate as well. Mendell, among others, has been cognizant of a firestorm of letters from planetary scientists that appeared in email threads on this issue. For nonscientific individuals, Mendell said, "moon" is a noun referring to a unique object venerated for its romantic connotations. But "for a planetary scientist, it can be any one of hundreds of moons in the solar system, each one of which has a name," Mendell said. "The name in English for the principal satellite of Earth is 'the Moon.' This is the term used in professional papers and is so designated by the manual of the United States Government Printing Office, Section 3.31. It is listed in the style sheet of the American Geophysical Union for submitted manuscripts. The rule is similar for 'the Sun' when referring to the prominent star in our sky to distinguish it from billions of suns in the universe." Returning humans to the moon is a key part of NASA's vision for sending astronauts on to Mars in the 2030s. (Image credit: NASA) "End of story" "This is simple English," said Clive Neal, a lunar authority at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. "The name of Earth's only natural satellite is 'the Moon' it is a proper noun, so it is spelled with a capital 'M.' End of story," Neal told Space.com. If organizations profess to follow the English language, the Moon always has a capital 'M,' he added. "Otherwise, they follow a language I am not familiar with," Neal said. "The Associated Press (AP) does not follow the English language (note: no capital letters!)," he said. "Phobos is a natural satellite of Mars a moon. The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth it is a moon of Earth called the Moon." Cringe factor Even Apollo-era engineers are piping up on the issue. "Several of us Apollo veterans would like to point out that everyone should always capitalize the name of our nearest extraterrestrial neighbor, the 'Moon.' NASA does this in all of their web references. I hope that others will soon also accept this important and accurate way of portraying the Moon," said Ron Creel, an Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle team member. "It just makes us cringe whenever we see the name of our nearest celestial neighbor not capitalized," Creel said. "Someone at NASA must have felt the same way. To heck with the AP. What do they know?" Leonard David is the author of the book, "Moon Rush: The New Space Race," which was published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Teaching staff wait to offer aarthi to the examinees at Annadaneshwar Pre-University College in Naregal town in Gadag district of karnataka. Hubballi: The Annadaneshwar Pre-University College in Naregal town wore a festive look today. It was the beginning of the examination season after all. While students, parents and teachers undergo great stress at this time of the year, this college in Gadag district of Karnataka actually celebrates exams. Hundreds of students arriving to sit for the PUC examination were showered with petals from the terrace of the college building. Women lecturers wearing colourful saris performed an arathi to them as male lecturers wearing traditional dhotis stood by beaming. Each students forehead was daubed with vermilion (sindoor) and 54 candles were lit to mark 54 years of the founding of the institute. The exam halls were decorated with festoons and streamers. Attractive rangoli patterns was drawn at the gate of the college. The administration performed a pooja to Lord Ganesha and Saraswati and sweets were given to the examinees. Parents actively joined in in the celebration. Air freshener and mosquito repellent sprays were used liberally in all the examination halls to remove unpleasant odours and pesky insects. As many as 966 students from five colleges are sitting for their PUC exams in this institute; its the biggest examination centre in Gadag district. The institution also distributed pamphlets to students, educating them about exam preparations. CCTV cameras were installed in all the exam halls so officials can monitor the entire examination process. We are conducting the exams in a free and fair manner to instill confidence among the students. Securing a good result is the primary motto of the college, said principal Yallappagouda Patil. The college started with this innovative idea of celebrating exams five years ago after lecturers reported that students were gripped with fear and anxiety during the exam season. Doctors were called in to counsel the students, and they advised the management to hold exams in a unique style to remove the fear. Exam festivity yielded good results as the pass percentage gradually increased to 93 per cent in PUC against just 45 per cent a decade ago. Examination pressure causes adverse effects on students. So we decided to create a festive atmosphere at exam time remove the stress. Since we began this initiative, students eagerly wait for the examinations, said principal Patil. The college gives special attention to students from underprivileged sections; their aptitude is regularly tested and correctives are adopted. We have received an overwhelming response from both students and parents to our unique idea, said Mahantesh Somanakatti, general secretary of the institution. (Newser) Iran's coronavirus crisis is now so severe that tens of thousands of prisoners are being released. Authorities said Tuesday that to combat the spread of the virus in crowded prisons, around 54,000 inmates have been temporarily released after posting bail and testing negative for COVID-19, the BBC reports. There is a major shortage of testing kits in Iran, so it's not clear how many of the prisoners were actually tested, the New York Times reports. story continues below Authorities say "security prisoners" serving more than five years will not be released. Iran says 2,336 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and 77 have died, but the true number of people infected is believed to be much higher. Authorities say they plan to start a nationwide screening program Wednesday. (Almost 10% of Iran's lawmakers have been infected.) Lightfoot told reporters the Civilian Office of Police Accountabilitys recommendation is not a surprise: As I said on Friday, with the caveat that the video obviously doesnt tell you everything that happened, what I saw was concerning, from the tactical issues before the shooting but the shooting itself and the circumstances that led to the use of lethal force, Lightfoot told reporters this morning. "Ive been following closely, but I want to make sure the COPA investigation is thorough but expedited. A federal high court sitting in Abuja has suspended Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress(APC), Daily Trust reports. The presiding judge, Justice Danlami Senchi asked the former governor of Edo state to step down from his position at the ruling Party pending the determination of the substantive suit seeking his perpetual removal as the APC chairman. Read Also: Oshiomhole: PDP Felt They Could Impose Ihedioha On Imo Oshiomhole, who was once a labour leader has been in a running battle with some faction of the party who are opposed to his style of leadership. (Photo : REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann) The logo of U.S. technology company Apple is seen at a branch office in Basel, Switzerland March 2, 2020. The international coronavirus outbreak maintains to send markets on a rollercoaster ride. As delivery chain disruptions and consumer spending have whipsawed stocks, Apple should nonetheless see a historical income of its iPhone in the next economic year. Apple's robust ecosystem of gadgets and services, according to a distinguished Wall Street analyst, should see the business enterprise sell more than 231 million phones in 2021, beating the previous data of 231 million sets in 2015. In a notice on Tuesday, Mar. 3, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said taking a step back while the last few weeks have been an exogenous 'shock event' to Apple's ecosystem on both the supply and demand due to coronavirus outbreak. "We believe this will be short-lived as the longer-term 5G supercycle thesis and services re-rating remain the crux of our bull thesis on Apple for the next 12 to 18 months," Ives added. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook continues to play down the need to shift the tech giant's supply chain drastically. During an interview Thursday with Fox Business Network, Cook said unpredictable occasions are an aspect of modern business and said that Apple's operations group has previously faced with earthquakes, tsunamis, and other challenges. ALSO READ: Should We Believe Apple CEO Tim Cook Saying Coronavirus is 'Getting Under Control,'? Here's What Experts Have To Say Clean break with China 'impossible' Apple has recently commenced experimenting with small production operations out of China. These attempts and its plans to assemble wireless earbuds in Vietnam, iPhones in India, and Macbook Pro computers in the United States, have laid bare some of the difficulties. However, a clean break with China is impossible. Apple is predicated on a workforce of more than three million oblique employees in China. Its top manufacturer, Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, hires hundreds of seasonal employees in China. Dan Panzica, a former Foxconn executive, told WSJ that a lot of whom are skilled in manually inserting tiny screws and skinny printed circuit boards at some point in the iPhone assembly procedure. Tens of thousands of experienced manufacturing engineers oversee the manner. Panzica pointed out that Apple won't be able to look for mega-factories anywhere else apart from China. "You're going to have to break them up," he added. Factories are coming again online Like many consumer goods companies, Apple was hardly hit by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Thanks to its heavy reliance on the country's manufacturing abilities to drive its supply chain and its significant consumer base in the country. Foxconn, which produces the majority of Apple's iPhones in China, was forced to temporarily close its factories amid the Chinese government's order to extend the Lunar New Year in February and mass quarantining of millions inside the Wuhan place. Apple CEO Tim Cook told Fox Business in an interview that the company's manufacturing companions are continuing to ramp up their production abilities to help Apple build out its inventory of gadgets. China is likewise Apple's third-largest revenue generator with the aid of place behind Europe and the U.S., incomes the enterprise $13.58 billion of its total $91.81 billion sales in Q1 2020. During the peak of the outbreak, the company closed its shops throughout mainland China, appreciably limiting income within the country. As a result, on Feb. 17, Apple despatched a letter to investors saying the employer would omit its Q2 revenue steering, and chose not to set a new guidance range. Cook also hasn't said whether he believes the damage to Apple's backside line will be constrained to Q2, or if it'll bleed into Q3. ALSO READ: Ming-Chi Kuo Says Coronavirus May Negatively Affect Apple's Q1 Shipping Forecast 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- However messy the world gets, the only certainty is that we will still need couriers to deliver pizza. That was the vision of last years hit video-game Death Stranding, in which an armor-plated delivery man carries packages from bunker to bunker in post-apocalypse America. The current Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak is confirmation of sorts. As people stay cooped up at home in self-quarantine, whether by choice or by force, the occasional guilty pleasure of ordering food has become a lifeline. On the surface, that might seem like good news for those increasingly in-demand couriers. Orders on food-delivery apps in Hong Kong and South Korea grew at double-digit rates in January and February. But the reality is that in an increasingly global public-health crisis, especially one that is already dealing damage to the economy, its the foot soldiers of 21st-century capitalism Deliveroo riders, Uber drivers, TaskRabbit jobbers, zero-hours workers who look doubly vulnerable. The grim reality for gig workers is that they know they cant afford to get sick. While most people ordering burritos in self-imposed isolation have the comfort of relying on benefits, sick pay and employment law to protect them, those delivering the meals usually dont. The business model of the sharing economy depends on using not employees but rather cheap armies of contractors, or freelancers, or self-employed workers with far fewer rights and little to no vacation or sick pay. So at a time when people are being told to put their health first, gig workers are incentivized to do the opposite: work rather than self-isolate. The fact that an economic slowdown this year now looks inevitable serves as a double-whammy for those in crucial yet precarious roles, because it also means overall demand for their services will probably fall. The services based on matching customers to cheap laborers seem happier with quick-fix measures rather than reassuring or compensating workers. In China, food deliveries come with the body temperatures of those who handle them; ride-hailing firms have installed protective sheets separating drivers from passengers. The merest suspicion can lead to brutally efficient reactions. Uber recently suspended 240 customer accounts in Mexico after one passenger was suspected of infection. Story continues And in the U.K., where about 2 million workers do not earn the minimum 118 pounds ($151) a week to qualify for statutory sick pay, workers such as cleaners, truck drivers and bar staff are all under pressure to work or risk having next to nothing in the bank. This is too big a chunk of the economy to ignore. In the U.S., gig work has been estimated at 10% to 16% of the labor force. It could be as high as 20%, according to Vincent Deluard, strategist at broker INTL FCStone Financial Inc. It covers a population easily hit by earnings instability, judging by 2018 evidence that showed Uber and Lyft drivers often make less than minimum wage. The long-term solution will inevitably involve securing more rights for these workers, but that is a gradual multi-year process. A new law in California aiming to convert gig workers from independent contractors to employees with benefits is being challenged by firms such as Uber and Postmates Inc., while in the U.K. a legal fight over the employment status of Uber drivers backed by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain will be taken to the Supreme Court. The European Unions antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, last month told Bloomberg News she wanted to help gig workers fight for better pay and conditions. But more short-term measures are needed as evidenced by the U.S. Federal Reserves emergency rate cut and giving away money seems like an increasingly attractive idea. This week Laurence Boone, the OECDs chief economist, called for temporary direct transfers to compensate households exposed to the economic effects of the fight against Covid-19. Hong Kong might be trying that out soon. Its government is eyeing one-time handouts of HK$10,000 ($1,286) to all permanent residents over 18. This may turn out to be the perfect test case for the idea of a universal basic income, or similar suggestions. Facebook Inc. co-founder Chris Hughes has sung the praises of a guaranteed income of $500 a month for all Americans, financed through wealth taxes and moderate deficit spending. No job is permanent: The side-gigs that were around during the 1918 Spanish flu, like street sweepers and shoe shiners, are no longer so prevalent. But the fact that the new coronavirus scare is so quickly exposing deep iniquities within the economy should be a call to action. Armor-plated couriers putting their lives at risk to deliver pizza should remain firmly within the realms of fiction. To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Hyderabad, March 4 : Two more persons in Telangana have tested positive for coronavirus at a government-run hospital but their samples were sent to Punes National Institute of Virology (NIV) for furthest testing. Two days after Telangana reported first COVID-19 positive case, two persons were tested positive at Gandhi Hospital but the authorities sent their samples to NIV for confirmation. Officials said one has travel history to Italy while the second is the contact of first COVID-19 positive case. Director of Public Health and Family Welfare said 47 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and out of them 45 samples were found negative. "Two samples are being sent to NIV, Pune for further testing. The report is expected tomorrow. They are being kept in isolation at Gandhi Hospital," he said. The official said 45 persons who were negative were discharged and advised strict home isolation for 14 days. The 24-year-old techie, who was tested positive on Monday, is stable and in isolation at Gandhi Hospital. NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday (March 4, 2020) postponed the launch of Geo Imaging Satellite GISAT-1 onboard GSLV-F10, which was earlier planned for (Thursday) March 5, due to technical reasons. ISRO took to Twitter to share the information. Through a tweet, the ISRO informed that the launch of GISAT-1 onboard GSLV-F10, planned for March 05, 2020, has been postponed due to technical reasons. Revised launch date will be informed in due course. The launch of GISAT-1 onboard GSLV-F10, planned for March 05, 2020, is postponed due to technical reasons. Revised launch date will be informed in due course. ISRO (@isro) March 4, 2020 ISRO had earlier announced that the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F10) will launch the Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT-1) from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on March 5. The launch was tentatively scheduled at 5.43 PM(IST) subject to weather conditions. Weighing about 2275 kg, GISAT-1 is a state-of-the-art agile Earth observation satellite which will be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. Subsequently, the satellite will reach the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system. Operating from geostationary orbit, GISAT-1 will facilitate near real-time observation in India, under cloud-free condition, at frequent intervals. NEW YORK - President Donald Trumps lawyers urged a judge Wednesday to halt a lawsuit from a woman seeking Trumps DNA to help prove her claim that he raped her in the 1990s, though her lawyer offered to hold off the DNA request for a time. Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll is suing Trump for calling her a liar when she went public with her rape allegation last year. Trumps lawyers argue her case including the DNA request needs to wait until New Yorks highest court rules in a separate case against him. That ruling could take several months or longer. Judge Verna Saunders gave no indication Wednesday how or when she might rule on whether to pause Carrolls case. Carroll, who watched from the courtroom audience, said afterward shes pursuing the suit not just for myself but for every woman in America whos been grabbed, groped, harassed, sexually assaulted, and has spoken out and still has been disgraced, shamed or fired. Carroll says Trump assaulted her in a luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, after they bumped into each other and bantered about trying on a bodysuit. Trump said Carroll was totally lying to sell a memoir that was published last year, adding in one interview that shes not my type. He said hed never met Carroll, shrugging off a 1987 photo of them and their then-spouses at a social event as simply a snapshot of a moment when he was standing in a line. Carroll is seeking a DNA sample from Trump to see whether it matches as-yet-unidentified male genetic material found on a dress that she says she was wearing during the alleged attack. Carroll says she hasnt laundered the dress and donned it only once since, for a photo shoot last year. Trumps lawyers have asked a court to put her case on hold until New Yorks highest court rules in another womans defamation case against him whether an incumbent president can be sued in state courts over alleged conduct outside his official duties. Courts are required to give the president deference because of his national responsibilities, said one of his lawyers, Christine Montenegro. Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan offered Wednesday to postpone the DNA request and sworn pretrial questioning of Trump until after the state high court rules in the other case. But she asked the court to let other evidence-gathering continue. Trumps lawyers rebuffed the proposal. Carroll is seeking damages and a retraction of Trumps statements, which she says harmed her reputation and career. Elle magazine ended her contract in December, after 26 years. She said she was fired over her tangle with Trump; the magazines publisher told The New York Times the decision wasnt about politics. The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done. President Moon Jae-in. Yonhap The office of President Moon Jae-in is "prudently" analyzing the first reported statement by Kim Yo-jong, an influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, against South Korea, an official here said Wednesday. Cheong Wa Dae has no plan to respond formally to her scathing written criticism of Moon's office, according to the official. "We have no comment to give" on the issue, with an analysis of the statement under way "internally," the official said on the customary condition of anonymity. Repeatedly asked about whether Cheong Wa Dae or the Ministry of Unification, which is in charge of inter-Korean affairs, would issue a formal response, the official said the government is taking a "prudent" approach in consideration of "all (related) situations." Late Tuesday night, the North's state media carried Kim's highly unusual statement condemning Cheong Wa Dae for its "strong concern" about her country's latest rocket-artillery drills. Holding the title of the first vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, she is known as one of the most powerful aides to the North's leader. She visited Cheong Wa Dae in early 2018 as her brother's special envoy at the time of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. She had talks with Moon, leading to a reconciliatory mood between the two Koreas following years of sharp tensions. On Monday, the North fired two projectiles into the East Sea. Pyongyang described them as "long-range artillery pieces," which Seoul views as de facto short-range ballistic missiles. Cheong Wa Dae soon convened a meeting of security-related ministers. They voiced "strong concern" about the continued joint strike exercise by the North's military and urged it to halt such acts that are "not helpful to efforts to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula." Kim hit back, saying Cheong Wa Dae's response to the "routine" defense training is "truly shocking." "As far as I know, the South side is also fond of joint military exercises and it is preoccupied with all the disgusting acts like purchasing ultra-modern military hardware," she added. She likened Cheong Wa Dae to a "frightened dog barking noisier." Kim, however, said it's "somewhat fortunate" that it was not a "direct statement" of Moon, the president whom she has met a few times. In his New Year's address, Moon announced plans for full-scale efforts to resume inter-Korean economic projects. His administration was preparing to propose joint tour programs by South Korean individuals to the North. But the push has come to a halt as the communist neighbor sealed its border out of concern about the spread of COVID-19. South Korean officials agree that it's not an appropriate time to have consultations with the North on the tour projects. (Yonhap) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 4) lifts ban on cryptocurrency imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The apex court gave its ruling on the RBI's 2018 decision to ban banks from providing services to any individual or business entities dealing with cryptocurrencies, including bitcoins. A bench of justices Rohinton Nariman, Aniruddha Bose, and V Ramasubramanian pronounces the judgment on a petition by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), which had challenged the ban. The IAMAI argued that cryptocurrency is not strictly currency and is more in the nature of the commodity, therefore, RBI does not have powers to impose such a ban in the absence of a law in that regard. In April 2018, RBI had issued a notification to ban cryptocurrency trading in India, directing that all entities regulated by it shall not deal in virtual currencies or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling those. The RBI had also cautioned users, holders, and traders of virtual currencies, including bitcoins, regarding various risks associated in dealing with such virtual currencies. The RBI's April 6, 2018 circular was later challenged in the Supreme Court. On April 5, 2018, the RBI notification on cryptocurrency said, "Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer / receipt of money in accounts relating to purchase/ sale of VCs (virtual currencies)." Bitcoin, which is the most popular cryptocurrency, appreciated by almost half so far this year to regain the $10,000 mark against the US dollar for the first time since October 2019. Other major cryptocurrencies that tend to move in correlation with Bitcoin also gained this year. Ethereum has more than doubled, while Ripple's XRP is reported to be up over 75 per cent. On the international front, Facebook has decided to revamp its plans for digital currencies amid regulatory scrutiny. The social media company will offer digital versions of government-backed currencies including the dollar and euro, as well as its proposed Libra currency when it launches its digital wallet, said The Information report on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Information earlier reported that Facebook would not make Libra available on its own services but later corrected its article. A former General Hospital actor has trigged a lot of reactions on social media after he says he was blacklisted in the industry. Antonio Sabato Jr. says hes not getting acting jobs and was made to leave Hollywood due to his support of Donald Trump. Antonio Sabato Jr. in 2016 | Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Antonio Sabato Jr. as Jagger Cates on General Hospital Sabato Jr. starred as Jagger Cates on the soap opera from 1992-1994. He appeared again in 1995 for a short stint. He returned to General Hospital in 2018 and then took on a lead role on the General Hospital nighttime spinoff, General Hospital: Night Shift. The show ran for two seasons on the now-defunct cable network, SoapNet, which was owned by the DisneyABC Television Group. Jagger was most known for his romances with Karen Wexler and Brenda Barrett. Jaggers brother, Stone, was also a huge part of his storyline. Stone was HIV positive and died. When the character returned in 2018, he had a five-year-old son named after Stone. The actor says supporting Trump has effectively ended his Hollywood career Sabato Jr. was just one of a few actors in the industry who publicly supported Trump during the 2016 election. He was one of the only celebrities to give a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He even attempted to perpetuate Trumps birther conspiracy theories against former President Barack Obama, saying that Obama was Muslim. After this, he also ran for a GOP congressional seat in California and lost. The actor claims he was blacklisted after his support for Trump. What happened with Sabato Jr. post-Trump I had to sell everything. I had to pay all my debts. I was blacklisted, he said in an interview with Variety. All my representatives left me, from agents to managers to commercial agents. I literally had to move, find a new job to survive and take care of my kids. Its been terrible. Its mind-blowing. Its a disgrace. Its tough, because if youre in that environment in Hollywood and you have something to say that they dont like, theyre going to let you know. After he left Hollywood, he got a construction job in Florida, a far cry from his days on General Hospital and Melrose Place. Sabato Jr., who immigrated to the United States in 1985 from Italy, wasnt always a Republican and supported Bill Clinton in his first two elections. Still, he doesnt regret anything. I was the first one [celebrity] to say he was going to win. My integrity is intact. What I believe in is still intact. What doesnt break you makes you strongerthats what they say. So Im stronger than ever, and I didnt have to lie about who I am, he said. I know a lot of actors who are lying about who theyre going to vote for because they dont want the crap. They wont want to be talked about and fired from movie sets. This is serious. The actor says he called his former managers a few weeks ago, asking would they re-sign him, and they said no. General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. Gary has an emergency preparedness team in place and has identified three sites within the city that could be used for testing and other services should the need arise. Lake County also has an emergency response team in place, Lake County Health Department Director Chandana Vavilala said. They are hoping to perform a drill with all the participating entities in the coming weeks. India has banned exports of a number of key drugs, including paracetamol and some antibiotics, as it responds to the spreading global outbreak of coronavirus. The move has led to panicking in European markets where India accounts for 26 per cent of generic drug imports, one industry group said, while the US - which also relies on India for generic pharmaceuticals - said it was assessing what impact the move would have. The Indian government has not provided a reason for the export ban, simply stating that the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and the medicines made from them, was hereby restricted with immediate effect and till further orders. But with India itself sourcing 13 of the 26 APIs from Hubei province in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, it is widely assumed that India is moving to protect its own populace from any possible shortages. Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), told Reuters that if coronavirus is not contained, then in that case there could be acute shortages of the drugs in question. I am getting a huge number of calls from Europe because it is very sizably dependent on Indian formulations So they are panicking, Dua said. British officials moved on Wednesday to reassure the public that it was not currently experiencing any drug shortages, and that plans already in place to prepare for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit meant the UK was already fairly resilient to disruptions in the global supply of medicines. There are currently no medicine shortages as a result of Covid-19, a spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said. The country is well prepared to deal with any impacts of the coronavirus and we have stockpiles of generic drugs like paracetamol in the event of any supply issues. Sandra Gidley, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, urged individuals to resist the temptation to stockpile drugs themselves, saying this would only contribute towards potential shortages. She said the government had already said that precautionary steps are being taken to help ensure supply to the UK remains uninterrupted. The Brexit buffer of medicines that was created in preparation for a no-deal means that the UK is well prepared for any potential medicine shortages and has been able to stockpile to maintain access to medicines, she added. The FDA in the US said it was working to determine how the restrictions will affect US supplies. And the chief of WHO operations support and logistics, Paul Molinaro, said the organisation was setting up a group to look at further repercussions in the market that might stem from India's move. At the moment it's not as restrictive as we see right now with personal protective equipment, but the fear is that the ripple effects will make shortages in those medicines as well, Molinaro told a Geneva news conference. Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Indias own exposure to coronavirus has been relatively minor, until very recently registering just five in its official count of confirmed cases. That number leaped to 28 on Wednesday, however, including 15 members of a 21-strong group of Italian tourists visiting the state of Rajasthan. They had travelled to India from the worst-affected Italian region of Lombardy, and all - as well as their Indian driver - are being held in quarantine outside Delhi. Health minister Harsh Vardhan said India would increase screening measures to cover all international arrivals at airport. Previously he said, arrivals from only 12 countries were being screened. And ahead of next weeks Hindu festival of Holi, during which Indian families and neighbourhoods come together to throw colour and share food, authorities urged citizens to think twice about organising large gatherings. Prime minister Narendra Modi said he would not attend celebrations on 10 March, a national holiday to mark the festival. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the (virus) spread, Mr Modi said in a tweet. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate. SALEM, Ore. As a walkout by Republican lawmakers in the Oregon legislature drags into its second week, the Democrats left behind are discussing ways to make such a strategy completely ineffective in the future. On Tuesday, the remaining members of the Senate Committee on Rules heard testimony on a resolution that would change Oregon's quorum requirements the mechanism by which the Republican strategy has worked. In Oregon and only a handful of other U.S. states, two-thirds of a legislative chamber must be present for them to hold a vote on bills. Senate Joint Resolution 201 would change the quorum requirements to a simple majority, which would allow lawmakers to conduct business even if the minority party boycotts the chamber. At present, 46 other states in the country use this simple majority rule. RELATED: Oregon House Democrats issue subpoenas for absent Republican colleagues "This will ensure a minority walkout does not harm everyday Oregonians who are counting on lawmakers to do their jobs and pass critical Legislation," the Senate Majority Office said in a statement. A proposed amendment to SJR 201 would also change the Legislative Session calendar. Sessions in Oregon are set at 160 days for odd-numbered years and 35 days in even-numbered years, but those days are counted regardless of whether actual legislative business is conducted. The amendment would only count "session days," in which the Senate convenes in a floor session with a quorum in attendance. It would essentially stop the clock if lawmakers decide to walk out in order to wait out the session. RELATED: Oregon politicians spar as walkout delays recovery funds for areas hit by flooding Republicans walking off their taxpayer-paid jobs and running out the clock is an abuse of the system, said Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland. We need to prevent these elected lawmakers from completely destroying the Legislative Session when they abandon their oath of office for a taxpayer-paid vacation." The Committee plans to vote on the resolution Thursday. A joint resolution is different than a bill, and only applies to a limited number of circumstances. Resolutions can become the foundation for a constitutional amendment if they are referred to voters and receive sufficient support. As the clock runs out on the legislative session, Republican lawmakers continue to insist that Senate Bill 1530, the cap-and-trade bill aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the state, be dropped from the legislative session entirely or referred to voters. THE Balikatan exercises between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and US troops will push through as scheduled in May. Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, that the exercises will still fall within the 180-day period before the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). It will push through as scheduled. Ang gusto nating sabihin dito that is within the 180-period pa naman. Magpapatuloy ito as scheduled, he said. Walang mababawas sa original na plano ng number of attendees unless sa last minute may magsasabi na magbabago, he added. The official said a total of 10,875 soldiers will participate in the exercises, including 4,302 AFP personnel, 6,529 from the US forces and 44 from Australia. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier served to the United States Embassy in Manila a letter of intent to terminate the VFA. The Philippines is scrapping the agreement on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who was irked when the US canceled the visa of his loyal ally Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a former PNP chief who was the principal implementor of the governments drug war. (SunStar Philippines) Former Vice President Joe Biden swept to victories across southern states on Super Tuesday, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led in the biggest delegate reserve of the primary season: California. Biden won a majority of black voters in states across the South, like Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee, and handily defeated Sanders among older and more moderate voters there. Black voters had propelled Biden to victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. But Sanders opened up a wide lead among Latino voters in California, winning a majority in preliminary exit polls compared to only 2 in 10 for Biden. Latinos made up 3 in 10 voters in the state. Sanders also led among white voters in California, who made up a majority of the voters statewide. Biden won black voters, but they made up fewer than 1 in 10 voters in California. Visit CNN's Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race The 415 delegates at stake in California make up more than 10% of all the delegates available nationwide in the entire primary season. Biden's strength among older voters and more moderate voters showed across the South. He won three-quarters of voters over 65 years old in Virginia and Alabama, and a majority of that age group in North Carolina. In both Virginia and North Carolina, Biden handily won voters whose biggest priority is to unite the Democratic Party, with almost two-thirds of that group supporting him as the nominee in both states. Biden also drew large majorities of those who want a rewind. Around half of voters in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama said they wanted to return to the policies of former President Barack Obama, and Biden won three-quarters of those voters in Virginia and Alabama, as well as nearly six in 10 of them in Tennessee and North Carolina. Still, in California, Sanders won more than 7 in 10 voters under age 30, and he won liberal voters by a nearly 3-to-1 margin over Biden. A majority of California Democratic primary voters called for an overhaul of the economic system in the United States, expressing support for single-payer health care and free college. A majority said they had a favorable view of socialism. Biden, however, continued to show strength among older voters in California, winning voters over 65 by a 2-to-1 margin. Sanders won his home state of Vermont by a broad margin thanks to support among liberals and young voters, winning about seven in 10 of each group. He also won Colorado, earning the support of a majority of very liberal voters. Sanders had also been leading in pre-election polls in the delegate-rich state of California. Here's what else the exit polls tell us. Eleventh hour decisions Three quarters of voters in Texas decided who to support for the Democratic nomination before the last few days. Texas voters who decided who to support in the last few days broke for Biden, with around half of the group supporting him while Sanders drew around a third of those who made up their minds earlier. Around half of Minnesota voters decided who to support in the last few days -- and half of those went for Biden, a sign that he benefited from home Sen. Amy Klobuchar's decision to drop out of the Democratic on Monday. In Virginia, nearly half of Democratic primary voters said that they made up their minds about whom to support in the last few days before voting. In North Carolina, where about a third of votes were likely cast before Tuesday's voting, nearly 3 in 10 still said they made up their minds in the last few days. About 4 in 10 in each state said they made up their minds before early voting began in early February. In both states, white voters were more likely to say they made up their minds in the last few days than were black voters, including a majority of white voters in Virginia. Most black voters in both states said they had decided on their choice before February. A tight race in Texas As in other states, exit polls show black Democratic primary voters in Texas heavily favored Joe Biden, with roughly 6 in 10 supporting the former vice president -- but blacks make up only about a fifth of the Texas electorate. Sanders, on the other hand, drew more than 4 in 10 Hispanics, who account for just under a third of the Texas primary electorate. Voters in the Lone Star State also split by age group, giving Biden a way to make up the difference. He was heavily favored by voters over 45, who made up about two-thirds of the Democratic electorate, while those under 45 went for Sanders. Democratic voters focus on how to beat Trump As in early Democratic nominating contests, majorities of Democratic voters in every Super Tuesday state said they would prefer a nominee who can beat Trump over one with whom they agree on the issues. South Carolina has been the lowest state where exit polls have been conducted to prioritize beating Trump over agreeing on the issues, 53% who want a nominee who can beat the President in November. Deep red states still have a majority who prefer someone who can beat Trump, like in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Virginia where around 3 in 5 say so. Colorado and Texas exit polling finds a majority of Democratic voters in both states would rather nominate a candidate who can beat Donald Trump over someone who agrees with them on the issues, around 7 in 10 in Colorado and 6 in 10 in Texas. Health care tops the issue list for voters Health care was the most important issue to Democratic primary voters in Maine and Massachusetts, according to early exit polling from CNN. Almost half of voters in Maine and 2 in 5 in Massachusetts and Virginia said health care was the most important in deciding who to vote for, followed by around a quarter in those three states for climate change. A quarter in Virginia chose income inequality, compared to around 1 in 5 in Maine and Massachusetts. Fewer than 1 in 10 voters chose race relations in all three states. Health care has dominated the Democratic field, with Sen. Bernie Sanders championing 'Medicare-for-All,' which would replace private insurance with a government plan, with moderates including Biden favoring the expansion of a public option within the existing private insurance system. Almost three quarters of voters in Maine and around half in Massachusetts and Virginia support replacing private insurance with a single government plan. Key states for black voters Black voters made up about a quarter of the electorate in Tuesday's Democratic primaries in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. White voters made up about two-thirds in each state, while Latino voters were roughly 5% in each state. Black voters made up more than four in 10 voters in Alabama, and two in 10 in Texas. The Democratic primary electorate in South Carolina, which voted on Saturday and was the first Southern state to cast ballots in the primary, included 55% black voters, according to the CNN exit poll there. Black voters were key to Biden's success in that state. Looking for an overhaul of how the economic system works Inequality, which has been a major issue throughout the campaign, emerged as a major fissure for voters. Almost half of Democratic voters in Virginia think the economic system in the United States needs a complete overhaul, while around the same think it needs minor changes. One in 10 think it works well as is. Voters feel similarly in Colorado, where around half say it needs an overhaul and four in 10 say it needs minor changes. Voters choose between bringing needed change and uniting the country A plurality of voters in Maine said they prioritize nominating a candidate who can bring about needed change, while around 3 in 10 want a candidate who can unite the country, 1 in 6 want someone who cares about people like them, and around 1 in 10 want someone who is a fighter. In Alabama, more want a candidate that can bring about needed change, while another third want someone who can unite the country. Slightly less than 3 in 10 prefer someone who cares about people like them. Democratic voters are angry about Trump's administration The share of voters who are angry at the Trump administration ranges from about half in deep red states, but climbs to a big majority in more liberal places. Voters across the US are angry about the President Trump's administration, almost 8 in 10 who say so in Maine, 3 in 5 in North Carolina, and a little over half in Alabama, according to early exit polling. Around 3 in 10 Democratic voters are dissatisfied in Alabama, a quarter in North Carolina, and around 1 in 7 in Maine. Few, around 1 in 10, are enthusiastic or satisfied in each state. Ideology in the Mid-Atlantic The two Super Tuesday states appear significantly more liberal than South Carolina's electorate, according to these preliminary results. A majority of voters in each state described themselves as liberal in the early exit poll. In South Carolina, it was 47%. North Carolina's Democratic voters were a bit more apt than those in Virginia to describe themselves as conservative: Fewer than 1 in 10 said so in Virginia, while roughly 1 in 8 said so in North Carolina. Methodology CNN exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool in 12 states voting on March 3. Results are based on interviews conducted throughout the day with randomly selected Democratic primary voters at voting locations in Alabama, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. In California and Colorado, telephone polls were conducted to interview those who vote by mail. In North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, exit polls were conducted among randomly selected voters at early voting locations during the early voting period. Error margins vary by state, ranging from plus or minus 7 percentage points to plus or minus 4 percentage points. Results of early exit polls can shift as interviews with those who voted later in the day are incorporated into the results, and these numbers may change. March 1, 2020, Accra- Horseman Shoes in this month of March officially launches its new female shoe line SheBrogues For Her. This stylish collection which is the second edition after a successful maiden edition in 2016 comes in a cocktail of colors with new designs and agility. A great option for anything from everyday workwear that can be transitioned to casual style. Though not your usual girly shoes, the new range For Her gives ladies the necessary freedom of movement and comfort for an active and fun lifestyle. Speaking on the new collection, the CEO of Horseman Shoes, Tonyi Senayah said, without deviating from the concept of mens shoes, this new collection for her was designed first for our female clients some of who purchase for the men in their lives to have something for themselves as well, and to also provide a stylish, comfortable but easy slip-on with different variations in color and design that gives not only warmth and coziness to their feet, but also serve as a companion in their daily race to achieve their goals. Horseman Shoes is a leather product manufacturer of a range of authentically made in Ghana formal and casual footwear for young professionals and the working class. The brand has over the years been recognized for producing top-notch footwear since established in 2010. Awards which the company has won includes the 2015 CIMG Presidents Special Marketing Performance Award, The Global Achievers Award in 2011 and Outstanding Product Quality by the African leadership Magazine in 2013 amongst others. Horseman Shoes can be located and purchased at its main outlet in Kokomlemle or you can order via Facebook and Instagram at @horsemanshoes. They can also be contacted on phone on 233 244058758. OPPOs upcoming smartphone Find X2 series has been in the limelight for quite some time now. If you are unaware, the company had planned the launch at MWC 2020 in Barcelona, but following the conferences cancellation due to the Corona outbreak, the date has been postponed to March 6th. Back in 2018, OPPO launched its ambitious Find X with a motorised module equipping a selfie camera to avoid display notch. In the latest development, the OPPO India has tested 5G internally at their Hyderabad R&D center by conducting various drills, including Whatsapp video call, cloud gaming, movies download, and more on Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. Its worth mentioning that Tasleem Arif, VP & Head India R&D, OPPO, has tweeted on his official account showcasing 5G sign on the top right of the device. Another FIRST for @OPPOMobileIndia Our Hyderabad R&D center to conduct Whatsapp video call displaying 5G band & speed and demonstrating fast movie downloads & cloud gaming feature on #Snapdragon all at our 5G Lab! Thank you @qualcomm_in for your support! #5Gtesting #innovation pic.twitter.com/tWZnbbAMO1 Tasleem Arif (@tasleemarifk) March 4, 2020 Moving on, OPPO has confirmed that the phone will feature 6.78-inch (3168 x 1440 pixels) 3K OLED 513PPI screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. In the camera department, the OPPO Find X2 will feature a punch-hole front camera. For the rear camera, OPPO will use Sonys new 48MP IMX689 sensor with the all Pixel Omni-directional PDAF technology, which will improve the focusing speed. Furthermore, charging will also be one of its fastest with a 65W wired charger, same as Reno Ace. Rumors say that it will pack a 4065mAh battery as well. Commenting on this, Tasleem Arif, VP R&D, OPPO India said: James Nielsen/Staff Black baristas at Starbucks stores in George Bush Intercontinental Airport are typically paid much less per hour than white baristas, according to analysis of employee data by UNITE HERE, a labor union that represents service workers in the airport industry. The median pay for a black barista working for the HMSHost-operated Starbucks stores at IAH made $2.84 an hour less than the median wage paid to white baristas in March 2019, according to the union report. That gap was significantly larger than the gap the union identified for airport baristas nationally, which found that the median pay for black baristas was $1.85 an hour less than the median pay for white baristas employed by the airport food services companies. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 13:21 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683358e 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,privacy,privacy-violation,outbreak,outbreak-in-Indonesia,fake-news Free Indonesias first two confirmed COVID-19 patients say media coverage and discourse on social media have taken a greater toll than the disease itself, saying that the numerous breaches of privacy have left them mentally drained. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced on Monday that a 31-year-old woman (Case 1) and her 64-year-old mother (Case 2), both residents of Depok, West Java had tested positive for the novel coronavirus after coming into contact with a Japanese woman who later tested positive in Malaysia. Case 1 and Case 2 are currently receiving treatment in an isolation ward at Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital. The Presidents announcement came as a surprise not only to the public but to the patients themselves, Case 2 told kompas.com on Tuesday. We had not been [told that we had tested positive], she said. We only found out when [Jokowi announced it]. Worse than the surprise announcement was what followed. Soon after the news broke, personal details of the two patients popped up on WhatsApp groups and social media, with unclear origins. The details came in a viral message that started with the words "Spot Reports" and contained not only the patients' initials and ages but also their complete home address. The message also detailed their symptoms and chronology of events, starting from when they had supposedly contracted the virus to when they were eventually admitted to their current hospital. The Health Ministry has denied responsibility for the leak. Besides the message, photographs of the patients also spread like wildfire. Some were even forwarded with the ironic caption Please dont share. Some people went as far as to question the patient's profession, correlating it with how she might have contracted the virus. Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said on Monday that Case 1 was a dance teacher and had danced with the Japanese citizen, who he said was a close friend, in a club in Kemang, South Jakarta. Reporters swarmed the patients' house, taking footage from just a few feet away from the doorstep, prompting the police to set up a police line to drive them away. Read also: Activists, lawmakers criticize disclosure of personal information of COVID-19 patients The situation caused Case 1 to write a lengthy WhatsApp message to explain herself, which has also gone viral. In a further statement made on Wednesday, Case 1 shared her account on how she might have contracted the virus and what she did afterward--which differed from the one shared by authorities. Case 1 said she had started coughing and having a fever on Feb. 16 and decided to visit a private hospital along with her mother last Thursday. There, she was diagnosed with bronchopneumonia and her mother with typhus. The following day, her friend in Malaysia called her to let her know that a Japanese woman that had tested positive for the new virus on Feb. 26 had visited a restaurant in Jakarta where she had been hosting on Feb. 15. Case 1 also said that she had attended a dance event at a restaurant in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Feb. 15, not at a club in Kemang on Feb. 14. "For the sake of national security and health, I informed the doctor that I needed to be tested [for the virus], and that's why I've been isolated since Sunday. I don't even know nor am I acquainted with the Japanese citizen," she said. And I want to emphasize, the Japanese citizen is a woman, not a man that rented me like the gossip says, she added. I was just in a room with the Japanese woman without knowing who she was. Case 1 said she had given health authorities contacts of her family members and closest friends to be tested and to ensure that the virus would not spread further. Please respect me and my familys privacy, stop spreading our photos and fake news about us, she said. Read also: COVID-19: Jokowi urges people to remain calm and respect patient privacy The breach of the patients' personal data also affected their neighbors, who were also questioning how such detailed data of the patients could be disclosed to the public. "Even us as their close neighbors don't know those details about them. I wondered whether the authorities were responsible," one of the patients' neighbors, Anis Hidayah of Migrant Care, told the Post. She said people in the neighborhood regretted that media coverage had also disrupted their activities; some were not allowed to work by their employers, while app-based motorcycle taxi drivers were adamant about not accepting orders from the housing complex but even more so because it had framed people she knew personally in unfavorable ways. "I hope this accelerates the issuance of a regulation on personal data protection," Anis said. (ars) Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify Case 1's statement about how she came into contact with the Japanese patient. Tele2 has completed the sale of its Croatian unit to the United Group for EUR220 million (USD241 million). The deal was made public in June 2019, with Croatian regulators giving it the green light at the end of January this year. Following the divestment, Tele2 retains a presence in Eastern Europe via its units in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Conversely, United Group is building up its presence in the region, having signed an acquisition deal for Bulgarias Vivacom in November 2019. In addition to this, it operates telecom and pay-TV units in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia in addition to its newest market of Croatia. In Nevada, the protesters took the stage and interrupted Senator Bernie Sanders as he addressed a crowd of supporters last month. In Los Angeles, they disrupted Senator Elizabeth Warrens stump speech this week. And on Super Tuesday, activists campaigning against the dairy industry had their highest-profile moment yet when two women rushed onstage and crashed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.s rally in Los Angeles, screaming and holding images of a wide-eyed calf. Photos and videos of Mr. Bidens wife, Jill, and a senior campaign adviser, Symone Sanders, pulling the women offstage circulated online and on television morning shows, leading perplexed viewers to ask, What is Let Dairy Die, and why is it all over the Democratic primary race? It is a campaign led by Direct Action Everywhere, a coalition of animal rights activists who are trying to stop an industry that they say enslaves and tortures animals at the expense of the environment. The group has for years released videos, many taken surreptitiously, trying to expose bad practices in the meat industry. Resident Leighanne Savloff holds up a sign in protest during a press conference on the opening of a supervised-injection site in South Philadelphia at the Bellevue. Read more For the last week, Ive watched neighbors, politicians, and everyday Philadelphians respond with outrage to a city-supported plan to place a supervised injection site in South Philadelphia, near schools, day-care centers, businesses, and homes. I railed against the proposal on my radio show after Safehouse, the nonprofit seeking to open the site, revealed plans to utilize a South Philadelphia location without community input. When I did, calls and text messages flooded in from angry Philadelphians, as well as City Councilmembers David Oh, Kenyatta Johnson, Mark Squilla, Isaiah Thomas, Derek Green, and Katherine Gilmore Richardson. I also heard from State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams. Not all of the elected officials who contacted me expressed outright opposition to the site, but they were all upset at the prospect of a nonprofit, with the backing of Mayor Jim Kenneys administration, trying to sneak such a thing past neighbors and those who represent them. As for me, my opposition is more personal. Having been through an addiction of my own more than 23 years ago, I understand what comes with drugs. Violence and theft, prostitution and disease, death and the kind of helplessness that spreads like a contagion. Thats why, in my view, those who advocate for such sites without having lived in drug-infested neighborhoods will never understand the visceral nature of the opposition. And thats why I dont believe any method of outreach Safehouse employs will convince most Philadelphians to accept a supervised injection site in their community. READ MORE: Supervised injection site debate revives bill that would explicitly criminalize them, Philly politicians say Advocates say these sites, where the drug-addicted can be revived if they overdose and be offered services to help get them into treatment, have worked in other countries. They point to studies from places like Toronto that say crime does not increase when supervised injection sites are introduced in communities. However, Philadelphians point to our own experience. Weve lived with the gun violence from drug dealers fighting over corners. Weve seen our children shot down in the crossfire. Weve lived with the anger that comes with enduring crime, and felt the steady heartbreak of watching those we love sell their bodies and souls for a high. Ive often argued that the response to the so-called opioid crisis is driven by race. In 2018, non-Hispanic whites accounted for 76% of opioid overdoses nationally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The U.S. Census Bureau says that non-Hispanic whites only account for about 60% of the total population. While its clear that overdose rates are rising for black and Latino users, whites still make up the bulk of those who die from opioid overdoses both locally and nationally. Bottom line, this has disproportionately affected white people. And there was not the same compassion for drug addicts during the so-called War on Drugs, when black people were jailed in droves for what amounted to drug-related offenses. But this is not just an issue of race. It is also an issue of class. Those who support such sites tend to be liberals who wield their mastery of studies and statistics like weapons against everyday people. In the two years since I began studying this issue, Ive seen harm reduction advocates accuse neighbors of wanting people to die. Ive seen them dismiss opposition by saying supervised injection sites are backed by science. Ive seen them treat working-class whites who live in drug-infested communities as if theyre not qualified to advocate for their own neighborhoods. Thats why I was pleased when Anthony Giordano rose up to lead his South Philadelphia neighborhood in the effort to stop Safehouse from coming to his community. And I agreed with him when I heard what he told a crowd of hundreds of neighbors who came out to celebrate after the site opening was canceled. I wanted to send a message to whoever thinks that theyre going to open up, Giordano said, as reported by The Inquirer. This is whats going to happen to them, also. Were going to come out, were going to stand united, were going to have a positive, peaceful front. I dont believe the people fighting to help addicts shoot drugs to prevent them from overdosing are bad people. I do, however, believe theyre wrong. Those who run Safehouse have now committed to holding community meetings to explain their intentions. But such meetings cant erase the harsh reality. No neighborhood in Philadelphia wants drug activity on its doorstep, and no amount of explanation is likely to change that. Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan lost his re-election bid to Christian Menefee, a younger attorney who branded himself as a progressive advocate, according to unofficial results released Wednesday morning. Ryans large deficit was a departure from other down-ballot Harris County races. Most incumbent local Democrats were comfortably leading their spirited and often more progressive challengers. Menefee, a 31-year-old litigator with Kirkland & Ellis, said that people responded to his message of having a champion in the county attorneys office. SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: Who won and lost in Harris County elections on Super Tuesday 2020 I think people were attracted to having an advocate in that office, as opposed to someone who is pushing impartiality all the time, Menefee told the Chronicle. Ryan, who declined comment, has fielded criticism in some quarters for his stance on bail reform in the county. He has said he disagrees with a federal judges ruling that Harris Countys bail system was unconstitutional because it fundamentally was unfair to poor defendants. Menefee criticized Ryan for his defense of the system during the case and for his comments on the resulting ruling. The challenger also fielded endorsements from influential groups, including the Texas Organizing Project and the Houston GLBT Caucus. The winner will face John Nation, the lone GOP candidate, in the November general election. Pct. 3 Commissioner Spring Valley Mayor Tom Ramsey won the Republican nomination to replace Steve Radack on Harris County Commissioners Court. Radack, also a Republican, did not seek re-election in the Precinct 3 seat after holding it for more than 30 years. He endorsed Ramsey in the contest. I had no idea it would be that good, Ramsey said of the vote tallies. He attributed the success to his back-to-the-basics messaging. JOE TAKES TEXAS: Biden beats Sanders in tight Super Tuesday race in Texas Former Houston city council member Brenda Stardig and former West University Place Mayor Susan Sample trailed far behind him. Three Democrats vying for the seat, which the party hopes to flip in November, were all bunched together in the returns. Michael Moore, who was chief of staff to former Houston Mayor Bill White, was leading, though educator Diana Martinez Alexander and former state Rep. Kristi Thibaut were close behind. That means a runoff is likely for the Democrats, and it was not yet clear who would advance to that contest. Pct. 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis cruised to re-election to the Precinct 1 seat on commissioners court. Maria T. Jackson, a former state district judge, resigned from the bench to mount a campaign against Ellis. Ellis declared victory after the early returns. WHAT WE LEARNED: 5 takeaways from Super Tuesday in Texas In the last year on Commissioners Court, weve pushed for progressive policies that are inclusive of all of Harris County and I am excited to continue the fight alongside my colleagues, Ellis said. No Republican signed up to run, so Ellis will be unopposed in November. Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett fended off a pair of Democrats as the countys tax assessor-collector, which is responsible for levying and collecting property taxes. Her closest challenger was Jolanda Jones, a former Houston councilwoman and HISD trustee. She will now face Chris Daniel, the former Harris County district clerk and the only Republican candidate, in November. Sheriff Sheriff Ed Gonzalez easily secured the Democratic nomination over two challengers in his reelection bid. Three candidates Paul Day, Randy Rush and Joe Danna ran on the Republican side. Danna, who worked for nearly 20 years in the Precinct 1 constables office, was leading the pack, just above the threshold needed to win outright. Other races Incumbents were in trouble in some places further down the ballot. Harris County Precinct 2 Constable Chris Diaz was trailing opponent Jerry Garcia, though the partial results showed a runoff was likely. Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Russ Ridgway was trailing Mike Wolfe, a former Harris County Department of Education trustee. That race appeared headed for a runoff as well. dylan.mcguinness@chron.com Board members said they also favored capping how many retailers could open. Trustee Cynthia Berg said she was unsure how many state licenses might be available and whether the village would even see a dispensary. Agartala, March 4 : The BJP-led Tripura government has decided to provide financial aid to purchase smartphone to the students pursuing graduate courses, Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said here on Wednesday. The Minister said that to fulfil the pre-poll promise given by the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2018 Assembly elections, the council of ministers in its meeting here on Tuesday decided to provide Rs 5,000 to Rs 14,608 students to purchase a smartphone. "All the 14,608 students of 38 government-run higher education institutions pursuing graduate courses in medical, para-medical, engineering, science, arts, commerce, law, painting and music and nursing would get the one time financial support to purchase a smartphone," Nath told IANS. He said that the government will introduce a new scheme "Mukhya Mantri Yuba Jogajog Yojana" (Chief Minister Youth Communication Scheme) to provide the financial aid to purchase the smart phone from the 2020-2021 academic year. According to the minister, to implement the new scheme Rs 7.31 crore would incur annually from the government exchequer. "Through the smartphone, the student would gather the latest information about their academic curriculum and future career after completion of their graduate courses or when they pursue post graduate studies," the Education Minister added. The BJP in alliance with the tribal-based party Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) had won the Assembly polls two years ago thrashing the 25-year uninterrupted governance of the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front. ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders took aim at former Vice President Joe Biden, his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, at a rally here, as Super Tuesday results trickled in from across the country. Sanders did not utter Bidens name, but the senator predicted that he would win the nomination and defeat President Trump, because the race would become a contrast of ideas. He then laid into Bidens long record in Washington, which he compared with his own. One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq. Youre looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq. One of us has spent his entire life fighting against cuts in Social Security. ... The other candidate has been on the floor of the Senate calling for cuts to Social Security, Sanders said. Sanders continued attacking Biden, who scored numerous victories in Tuesdays contests and cemented his status as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination. One of us led the opposition to a disastrous trade agreement which cost millions of good-paying jobs, and the other candidate voted for disastrous trade agreements. One of us stood up for consumers and said, We will not support a disastrous bankruptcy bill, and another candidate represented the credit card companies and voted for that disastrous bill, he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders, accompanied by his wife, Jane, left, addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, on March 3. (Caitlin Ochs/Reuters) With strong performances in the first three states on the primary calendar Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada Sanders had emerged as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. However, on Feb. 29, Biden scored an overwhelming win in South Carolina that helped him catch up to Sanderss delegate lead and gave him much-needed momentum heading into Super Tuesday, when 14 states were holding primaries. As of this writing, Sanders has earned victories in Utah, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. He was also projected to win California, the biggest state up for grabs. Biden, meanwhile, won in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Minnesota, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas. As of 3 a.m., Maine was too close to call. Story continues Despite Bidens surge, Sanders declared in his speech that It is our campaign, our movement, which is best positioned to defeat Trump. You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics, Sanders said. What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement, which brings young people into our political movement and which, in November, will create the highest voter turnout in American political history. Supporters wait for a campaign rally for former Vice President Joe Biden on March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP) Sanders has made promising to transform the electorate with an influx of new voters a cornerstone of his campaign. But while he has succeeded in winning over Latino voters in the early states, overall turnout has not reached record levels, and young voters, who largely favor Sanders, have not come out in force. Sanders concluded his speech by expressing confidence in his chances of winning California. I dont know whats going to happen later tonight. Were doing well in Texas right now. We won Colorado, and Im cautiously optimistic that later in the evening we can win the largest state in this country, the state of California, he said. He went on to take one more thinly veiled shot at Biden. But no matter what happens ... if it comes out to be a campaign where we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, were going to win that election. And if we have another candidate who has received contributions from at least 60 billionaires, were going to win that election, Sanders said. Early on in his speech, Sanders noted it was the 31st anniversary of his first election as mayor of Burlington, Vt. He said he had not been expected to win that race, but ultimately prevailed by just 10 votes, a situation he compared to the presidential election. When we began this race for the presidency, everybody said it couldnt be done, Sanders said. But tonight, I tell you with absolute confidence, we are going to win the Democratic nomination, and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of our country. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Former 2020 U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke endorses former Vice President and Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden for president at a campaign event at Gilley's in Dallas, Texas, U.S., March 2, 2020. Joe Biden has picked up another huge Super Tuesday win. He will claim victory in the Texas Democratic primary, according to an NBC News projection. Only days ago, the former vice president trailed Sen. Bernie Sanders in Texas polling averages and looked set to lose the day's two biggest contests. But Biden appeared to benefit from a late swing his direction, after a convincing South Carolina primary win Saturday and the departure of two of his centrist rivals in Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. The Minnesota senator and former South Bend, Indiana mayor, along with former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas, endorsed Biden in Dallas on the eve of the Texas primary. Texas will award 228 delegates, second only to California among the 14 states holding primaries on Tuesday. Biden will win at least 56 delegates, while Sanders will win at least 47, according to an early projection from NBC. With 95% of the vote in, Biden led Sanders by about a 34% to 30% margin. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg lagged in a distant third with just under 15% of the vote hovering around the threshold needed to win delegates statewide. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts followed with more than 11% of support. Sanders' campaign set up a massive organizing presence in the state, and held a series of rallies there late last month as it tried to mobilize young and Latino voters. While Biden had a much smaller volunteer footprint in Texas, his presidential bid had the support of a range of local officials and U.S. House members in the state, from first-term representatives to long-serving stalwarts. As in other states, Biden dominated among older voters, while Sanders showed strength with young voters, according to exit polls. In the case of Texas, 62% of the electorate was older than 45, while 38% was between ages 18 and 44. Among Hispanic or Latino voters, who made up 31% of the electorate, Sanders garnered 45% of support versus 24% for Biden. But Biden, who notched big wins in several southern states with significant black electorates, had 60% of support among black voters in Texas, exit polls found. About half of all voters who said they decided who to support in the "last few days" backed the former vice president. Bloomberg, who appeared to cut into Biden's support among older Texas voters, used his billions to blanket the state with television ads. Warren outlined her strategy to take on the coronavirus outbreak during a rally in Houston over the weekend. The delegate allocations from Texas and California will decide how much of a lead Biden can build on Sanders after his Super Tuesday success. Along with Texas, Biden will win North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma and Arkansas, NBC projects. Sanders will carry Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont. While California is too early to call, the senator appeared to hold an early lead in the biggest delegate prize of the night, according to NBC. By Wednesday morning, Biden held a 453 to 373 pledged delegate lead over Sanders in the 2020 primary. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Storyful Birds swarmed over a Texas parking lot on January 8, perching on the cars in a scene worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.The unnerving sight was captured by Kenna Mitchell outside the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco.The footage shows birds perched atop parked cars, while others circle above in the foggy evening sky.We went to Stonebriar Mall just after dusk and the entrance by the Cheesecake Factory was overrun with thousands of birds, she told Storyful.These grackles were perched on cars, in the trees, and swarms were everywhere you looked. Other people in the lot were just amazed at the sheer number of birds, Mitchell said.Very loud and very gross, but still quite a site to see! Definitely in need of a car wash now! she added. Credit: Kenna Mitchell via Storyful Judge Monique Langhorne will remain on the bench for the next six years after easily prevailing in a rare ballot-box challenge for her seat. The incumbent Napa County Superior Court judge was well on her way to defeating challenger Clifford Blackman, receiving more than 77 percent of the early ballots counted Tuesday night. Langhorne had been appointed by former California Gov. Jerry Brown in November 2018. At her election night party in Napa, news of the convincing victory, relayed through a laptop computer, immediately touched off screams, cheers and hugs among more than 40 of Langhornes supporters, including her parents and nearly a dozen other relatives. This is what Ive wanted to do since I was 4 years old, the judge said, after embracing numerous well-wishers while fighting off tears. I had the confidence of the governor, and now I have the confidence of the voters of Napa County. I am hippopotamus-happy, elephant-excited and peacock-proud, her mother Shelia Johnson exclaimed before posing with her daughter and family members for celebratory photographs. Langhorne was one of five Napa judges up for election this year, but the only one to face an opponent. No judges seat in Napa County had gone before voters since 1984, when six candidates entered the primary election for a place on the municipal court. In November of that year, Judge Ron Young won the seat by gaining 63.8 percent of the vote in a two-person runoff. When Langhorne learned of Blackmans ballot challenge to her place on the Napa bench, my first thought was OMGseriously? she said minutes after election results came in. Id never run in an election; none of the sitting judges here had ever run in an election; and I didnt know who I could lean on to learn what to do. The first thing I told her was to calm down, recalled her mother. I said, You need to calm down and call Ray and get your strategy together referring to Ray Guadagni, the retired Napa County judge who quickly stepped in to manage the unexpected campaign. Guadagni and Langhorne soon decided to rack up as many endorsements as possible, as rapidly as possible. In time, the endorsements stacked up overwhelmingly on the judges side as she gained the support of numerous active and retired judges, local law enforcement chiefs, and elected officials up to state Sen. Bill Dodd, one of the guests at Langhornes election night gathering. Meanwhile, Blackmans campaign website listed only three endorsements, none from people with visible connections to the Napa Valley. She was a little bit in shock at first; it was a lonely feeling, said Guadagni. But in 24 hours she was saying, Lets win. The race also was marked by a stark contrast in work backgrounds between Langhorne, a Vallejo native with more than a quarter-century of service in Napa County government, and Blackman, a St. Helena resident who was vying for his first public position after more than 35 years as a trial attorney. After stints in Napa County working in Child Support Services and the District Attorneys Office, Langhorne became a county court commissioner in 2006. In that role, she oversaw cases involving restraining orders, child custody, misdemeanor arraignments, drug court and traffic violations responsibilities she later described as valuable preparation for her judgeship. I have the experience, because Ive done every area of the law you can as a Superior Court judge; Ive sat in so many different assignments, Langhorne, a law school graduate of UC Berkeley, said in a January interview with the Napa Valley Register. Blackman, a San Francisco Law School graduate who moved to the county from San Mateo in 2012, promoted his election campaign as a chance for voters to bolster the Napa courts expertise in civil law, his own specialty. However, he ran an unusually low-profile campaign, missing a candidate forum hosted by the Napa Valley Vintners and an editorial board meeting with the St. Helena Star absences he attributed to illness. Blackman also took part in a Register editorial board meeting by telephone rather than in person, saying he had traveled to Florida for medical tests. In 2017, Blackman ran afoul of authorities in his hometown of St. Helena after the city filed a complaint against him for illegally offering his home for short-term vacation rentals, despite a local ban on rentals of fewer than 30 days without a permit. Blackman, who paid St. Helena $105,000 in taxes and penalties, said the violations took place while he was spending time in Florida with his since-deceased mother and brother and a property manager listed the house on the VRBO home-hosting website. This story has been updated since first posting with additional vote totals on Tuesday night. You can reach Howard Yune at 707-256-2214 or hyune@napanews.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Pie Insurance, an insurtech offering workers compensation insurance to small businesses, has expanded its workers compensation insurance offering to Alaska. The addition increases Pies coverage area to 34 states and the District of Columbia. Pie works directly with small business owners to help them save up to 30%. With the addition of Alaska, the insurtech is on track to provide coast-to-coast coverage by the end of 2020. Pie Insurance provides workers compensation insurance directly to small businesses and also partners with local, regional, and national insurance agencies to provide coverage to their clients. The company began offering policies in 2018 with a goal of helping small businesses experience true savings and an unmatched level of service. Pie operates as a managing general agency for Sirius America Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Sirius Group, offering A.M. Best A (Excellent) rated workers compensation insurance. Pies investors include SVB Capital, Greycroft, Aspect Ventures, Sirius Group, Moxley Holdings, and Elefund. Topics Workers' Compensation Lopez, who is pursuing a bachelors degree from WGU Missouri, represented the online, nonprofit university at the forum Joseph Lopez, of Affton, was one of 98 collegiate students nominated to participate in the 33rd Annual Missouri Governors Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values held Feb. 14-16, 2020, in Jefferson City. Lopez is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management from WGU Missouri and represented the online, nonprofit university at the forum. The forum challenges students character development by encouraging them to reflect on their own decision-making skills, values and belief systems. Students learn about how to reconcile relationships, stand for truth and love others as they love themselves. The forums guiding principle is teaching students to embrace altruism rather than egotism. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft welcomed students to the annual forum that was created by his father, former Missouri Governor and 79th U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Students began the day having breakfast with Governor Mike Parson and First Lady Teresa Parson at the Missouri Governors Mansion. LONDON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's ex-private secretary and leading expert on China-UK relations said it is a bold decision for China to close down a major city of millions of people in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Charles Powell, a member of Britain's House of Lords and chairman of the Said Business School at Oxford University, spoke about the coronavirus, Brexit and Hong Kong in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua. IMPRESSIVE RESPONSE Powell said the Chinese government's response to the outbreak has been impressive. "It got off to a slightly slow start, but once the Chinese government swung into action, the scale of the action has been really very impressive," said Powell. "In lengthening the Chinese New Year holiday and keeping people at home, for a country of that size and scale to be able to do that is very remarkable." Other countries, he added, have tried to imitate China's response on a much smaller scale. "One is seeing how the Italian government is trying to isolate two parts of the country and whether it will work. I think people respect China's reaction," he said. NOISY POST-BREXIT TALKS The veteran politician and businessman said he believed there is a genuine wish by Britain's new prime minister Boris Johnson and his government to build further on the relationship with China. As Britain and the European Union (EU) prepared to kickstart talks on permanent post-Brexit trade agreements, Powell gave his own opinion on the likely outcome. Following the end of Britain's membership in the bloc on Jan. 31, links and trade between the two sides are continuing as normal as part of a transitional period during which Britain continues to follow rules made in Brussels, but all that will change on Dec. 31 when the transition arrangement ends. Powell believes the negotiations are going to be difficult. "They're going to be very noisy. It's a big challenge to get a conclusion across the board in the short time they've allowed." He said it helps because the Johnson government is looking for far fewer concessions from Europe than the previous government was. "So in that sense, the mountain is not quite as steep and as high as it might have been," added Powell. "I think it is perfectly possible we will end up with a minimal agreement. It means basically just trading on normal WTO terms. I hope we can avoid that...there's lots of incentives to reach agreements. But this journey is going to be tough." Powell said if he was really pressed to the wall, he's put the odds at striking a deal at 60-40. "I don't think there is going to be a comprehensive trade agreement," he said. "Obviously what worries the Europeans is that Britain will turn out to be more competitive outside the EU than it is when it was inside." But Powell did not think it would be the end of the world if Britain and the EU fail to reach an agreement. "Over the long term I believe Britain would continue to do well in the world. We would have advantages of being outside the EU. We will not be so tied down by regulation," he said. Powell admitted future UK-EU relations based on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms would be worse for Britain than the present terms. "Because we have completely tariff-free trade and so on. So there will be inconveniences and market obstacles as well. Any WTO arrangement is worse than what we have at present and worse than a Canada-style free trade agreement. But is it calamitously worse or really that much worse? The answer is no." Powell recalled that before the 2016 referendum on EU membership in Britain, a lot of people in the government, in the city and in business gave the impression that voting for Brexit would be a disaster for the British economy and terrible things would happen. But that hasn't happened very much. Fear-mongering generated by some critics of Brexit has actually turned out to be misjudged. Instead, Powell suggested, the British economy has been performing relatively well. CHINA-UK TRADE DEAL Powell believed China will first seek to reach an agreement with the EU while negotiations with the EU are going to take up a lot of the British government's time this year. "The idea of big new diplomatic initiatives, whether with China or with anyone, has to be regarded as patiently. Governments can only do so much at one time, even the government in the country the size of China. You can't do everything at once. So I wouldn't be looking for dramatic initiatives," Powell said. He did not see that as a lack of will. "I think there is a genuine wish on the prime minister's part and the government's part to build the relationship with China further." In its new position in the world after leaving the EU, Powell noted, Britain will continue to look for balanced policies and good relationships. And that includes wanting a good relationship with China. Powell served in the 1980s as private secretary and foreign affairs adviser to Margaret Thatcher when she was Britain's prime minister. Regarding Hong Kong, Powell told Xinhua: "I hope Thatcher would be pleased that the joint declaration signed between Britain and China had very largely been successful in practice, and I still believe this is the case." "The prosperity of Hong Kong has increased greatly, and China has abided by the obligations and the commitments it undertook in the joint declaration. She would have been worried by some of the demonstrations which have been going on, particularly where she would believe that they were based on ignorance of facts," said Powell. "I think Mrs. Thatcher would have been distressed by the violence, and she would condemn that very much," he added. Powell believed that the demonstrations will prove to be "a spasm" rather than a lasting and enduring phenomenon. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an agreement with Ivory Coast for cooperation in the field of health. The areas of cooperation will include exchange and training of medical doctors, officials, other health professionals and experts in the field of advanced medical technology, nuclear medicine, renal transplantation, cardiac surgery, hemodialysis and medical research and regulation of drugs and pharmaceutical products, an official statement said. It will also include assistance in development of human resources and setting up of health care facilities, management of healthcare sector and public health services including medical evacuations, procurement of generic and essential drugs and assistance in sourcing of drug supplies, collaboration and research in the field of HIV/AIDS and exchange of best practices in the field of primary health care among others. The MoU was signed between India's Health ministry and the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of the West African country, officially called Cote d'lvoire. A working group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this Memorandum of Understanding, the statement stated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In prior Democratic debates, any candidate with at least one delegate qualified for an appearance on the debate stage. As many on social media noted after the results from American Samoa's caucus rolled in, that is good news for one (extreme) long-shot contender for the nomination: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Six delegates were up for grabs in American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. On Tuesday evening, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, appeared to have won the territory with 49.9% of the vote, according to CNN, bringing him at least four delegates. Automatic suppression orders on the identities of alleged sex offenders in South Australia have been dumped. State parliament has passed laws scrapping the statutory suppressions which protected the identity of alleged offenders until they pleaded guilty or were committed for trial. Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman says the changes will increase transparency and support the public's right to know who has been accused of serious sexual offending. Automatic suppression orders on the identities of alleged sex offenders in South Australia have been dumped, Attorney-General Vickie Chapman (pictured) said the move was about transparency 'South Australia is one of the few jurisdictions that still automatically imposes a suppression order when an individual accused of a sex offence first appears before the courts,' Ms Chapman said. 'A defendant's identity is not automatically suppressed for any other type of offence, and this provision effectively stymies the public right to know who has been charged with offences that may very well be relevant to the broader community.' The new provisions will still protect the identity of victims and will allow for suppressions to be imposed on the names of alleged offenders in certain circumstances, such as when publication may reveal the identity of a victim or if investigations are ongoing. An added protection requires police to make all reasonable efforts to inform victims that defendants' names can be published after the first court appearance so they can be prepared. 'While I accept that suppression orders are a useful tool within our justice system, particularly to protect victims, I am pleased to see the number of suppressions imposed across the South Australian courts decline,' Ms Chapman said. MIAMI, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907-July 13, 1954) endured a life full of social standards and physical pain which sparked her need to reinvent herself away from her constricting reality. Betrayals, abortions, feminism, rebellion, and a terrible accident that left her in constant pain pushed her to transform her agony into art. She poured her physical pain and societal doctrines into her artistic expression and used her unique folk-art style to investigate questions about gender, identity, class, and race. She is still remembered and acclaimed for her primitive style and symbolism behind her self-portraits. Carlos Dorado, president of Frida Kahlo Corporation, a company owned by Italcambio Group, stated, 'Frida Kahlo, the creator of the 'SELFIE,' passed away over 60 years ago, but her revolutionary ideas still live amongst us. She represents, better than anyone, the empowered women of today.' Frida Kahlo is the most influential artist of Latin American modernism. Today, her personality inspires millions of women all around the world and her message resonates louder than ever. She started the conversation on gender equality and opened the door for millennials to reinvigorate her messages on beauty standards and women empowerment. She proudly defied any beauty standards imposed on her and embraced her indigenous beauty and cultural values. Carlos Dorado, president of Frida Kahlo Corporation, a company owned by Italcambio Group, stated, "Frida Kahlo, the creator of the 'SELFIE,' passed away over 60 years ago, but her revolutionary ideas still live amongst us. She represents, better than anyone, the empowered women of today. A strong woman, who transcended the barriers of culture, time, and society, and with her unique personality, encouraged the world to think differently." Ginarte's decision to feature Frida Kahlo on its "Most Universal and Famous Women in the World" series reiterates the modern relevance of her message and the ripples of her influence even half a century later. Ginarte focused on developing a purposeful and high-quality product that remains genuine to Frida Kahlo's history, emotions, and beliefs. The result is an astonishingly delicate handmade gin made from wild berries, capio corn, lavender, hibiscus, and "Apennines" pines from a Tuscan region in Italy. The solution is subjected to three levels of distillation and filtration to reach a gin that exhibits imposing aromatic qualities full of personality, then placed in an artistic bottle inspired by the talent and character of Frida Kahlo. The Frida Kahlo Corporation is grateful for the opportunity to spread Frida Kahlo's legacy and is honored to announce the release of Ginarte's Frida Kahlo edition this week in Milan and Rome. CONTACT: [email protected] Related Images frida-kahlo-ginarte.jpg FRIDA KAHLO GINARTE Carlos Dorado, president of Frida Kahlo Corporation, a company owned by Italcambio Group, stated, 'Frida Kahlo, the creator of the 'SELFIE,' passed away over 60 years ago, but her revolutionary ideas still live amongst us. She represents, better than anyone, the empowered women of today.' SOURCE Frida Kahlo Corporation When Dawson Reimer, the CEO of Cerebra Health Inc., says the Winnipeg digital health company is the world leader in measuring the digital metrics of sleep, it does not sound like hes bragging. It sounds more like hes honoured. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. When Dawson Reimer, the CEO of Cerebra Health Inc., says the Winnipeg digital health company is the world leader in measuring the digital metrics of sleep, it does not sound like hes bragging. It sounds more like hes honoured. The company was founded in 2017 to commercialize technology that was developed by Dr. Magdy Younes, the University of Manitoba professor emeritus whose research in respirology, critical care medicine and sleep medicine has appeared in countless important academic publications. Dr. Youness invention of the proportional assist ventilation earned the U of M more royalty revenues than any other intellectual property produced there for the past few decades. In 2017, Cerebra acquired a company Younes had established around some novel software algorithms that measure brain activity in sleep. Since then, Cerebra has developed a hardware and software platform that may very well revolutionize sleep study and fundamentally change the way we think about sleep. Its easy-to-use sleep study hardware is much less onerous than a conventional at-home sleep apnea apparatus and costs about the same for users. Whereas standard sleep studies effectively just monitor breathing levels during sleep to detect sleep apnea, Cerebras technology produces a detailed sleep study report. The company has just released a new product called Sleep which is a two-night assessment of the users sleep profile, sleep sensitivity, night-to-night patterns and insights into the underlying causes of their sleeping issues. "You can wait an extended period of time for a visit to a sleep lab, or choose an at-home option. Typically those studies are only focused on the respiratory side sleep apnea, with little or no attention paid to sleep itself," Reimer said. "Even when the patient goes to the sleep lab, the methods used to assess sleep are outdated and do not reflect the real dynamics of sleep." Cerebra is embarking on the next stage of development as a company as it begins a more concerted effort to broaden distribution and, according to Reimer and Cerebras executive chair Earl Gardiner, generally raising awareness of their amazing tool that can detect and detail all the nuances and intricacies of sleep, not to mention the vital effect it has on health and well being. "The ability to produce an objective measurement of sleep is fundamentally our core differentiation," Reimer said. "We are the world leaders in that." Reimer likes to reference the kind of reports that the DNA company 23andMe produces as an example of the kind of rich data Cerebra studies will produce. The company has raised more than $7 million over the past couple of years mostly through the provinces small business venture capital tax credit and generated more than $1 million in revenue during the 2019 calendar year, mostly from one-off sales and sales to companies developing other technologies that required sleep data as part of those third party development projects. Cerebra is now looking to partner with larger groups like insurance companies and benefits providers to introduce its technology that it believes fits into the health and well being platforms. For instance the Reh-Fit Centre will start asking its members about their sleep health and will refer people to Cerebra. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Gardiner, who is also the executive chairman and founder of RANA (which recently re-branded as Careica Health), a respiratory care company with locations throughout Western Canada. He said the potential applications for Cerebras technology are currently only scratching the surface. "Based on what we have got and where the world is at with sleep... we have to figure out ways to introduce it," he said. "One of the opportunities is with employers who are starting to understand that sleep impacts performance. We want people to get engaged and educated about their sleep so they can begin to understand why it is important and to have it assessed." Earlier this year, Cerebra partnered with Rubicon Pharmacies, operators of more than 100 pharmacies across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba under a number of different brand banners. It is the beginning of an aggressive outreach that Cerebra is embarking on. Jaynaya Mann, an official with Rubicon, is excited about giving Rubicons pharmacists the Cerebra tool. She said people come in suffering from all sorts of sleep issues. It is too early to tell what the takeup is at Rubicons pharmacies, but she believes it will be a great tool to help people figure out what is preventing people from getting a good solid night of sleep. "It is a very common complaint," she said. "Sometimes people suspect what is causing sleep disorders but dont know what it is and the wait to get into a sleep study can be really long... and Cerebra does an awesome job of supporting its customers." martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Former Indian American U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks on the epidemic of prescription drug addiction before the arrival of President Barack Obama at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit March 29, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) Officials from Grosse Ile Township Schools hope to combine technology with teaching to sniff out students who are vaping on school grounds. If voters approve a millage proposal on the March 10 ballot, the school district said it intends to deploy some of the revenue to install vape detectors in all high school and middle school bathrooms and locker rooms. Vaping and cigarette smoking are not permitted in Grosse Ile schools. Like a growing number of school districts across Michigan and the nation, Grosse Ile considers vape detectors to be a useful enforcement tool. The devices resemble smoke or carbon monoxide detectors and can detect vaping. Some can pick up sounds, as well. The devices would be part of a one-two punch to combat in-school vaping, said Marylou Jansen, assistant principal at Grosse Ile High School. The school recently modified its policy for students caught vaping. Previously, such students faced an automatic two-day suspension. Under new rules, offenders are first directed to spend six hours in an online information course about vaping and its adverse health impact. Students who fail to take the six-hour session conducted in the school counseling office face an additional day of suspension. We are educators and we want to use education to deal with vaping, Jansen said. We want students to understand the health hazard and we want the campus to be clear of anything that takes away from learning. Chris Wigent, executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, said Grosse Iles response is in line with districts addressing growing concerns about vaping. As things change, policies have to change, too, he said. Grosse Ile High School Principal Paul Szymanski said officials believe cigarette smoking among students has declined as the nationwide use of vape products has increased. Smoking is almost nonexistent on campus now, he said. Unfortunately, we have caught students vaping. He said officials are hopeful that the number of students vaping will begin to decline. Our main priority is to educate students and not remove them from school, he said. Vaping use expanded rapidly in the past decade. A University of Michigan study in 2018 said the number of high school users increased by more than 1 million from 2017. The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates 1 in 10 middle school students has used e-cigarettes. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported in mid-February that a fourth resident had died of a vaping-related lung injury since October. We urge Michigan residents to refrain from vaping until a definite source or sources have been identified, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Health care providers should remain vigilant in educating their patients about the potential risks associated with vaping. The federal Centers for Disease Control advises vape users to seek medical attention if they have shortness of breath, fever, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and cough. Michigan is among 39 states investigating the marketing and sales of Juul Labs, a leading maker of vaping products. We have to hold these companies accountable and do everything we can to keep vaping products out of the hands of youth, Khaldun said. Szymanski said Grosse Ile officials have been reviewing a number of vape detection devices, but have not yet decided which is best suited to the schools needs. We will see what voters do on the millage and go from there, he said. School officials are seeking voter approval for five years of 1 mill ($1 for each $1,000 of taxable property value) for a Building and Site Sinking Fund. Revenues from such funds may be spent in four areas: safety and security, school facilities improvements and maintenance, improvements to the student learning environment, and technology. Grosse Ile Township voters approved sinking funds in 2006, 2010 and 2015. The current fund expires in May 2020. The fund would generate about $627,500 annually, officials said. Voter approval of the sinking fund replacement proposal will enable the school district to continue making improvements and repairs to school facilities and to make other educational enhancements allowed under Michigan law, school Supt. Joanne Lelekatch said. For more information, visit the sinking fund segment of the districts website, gischools.org. HMD Global has announced a new event for March 18 in London where it is expected to launch new Nokia phones including its first 5G phone. HMD Global was expected to unveil its latest lineup of Nokia smartphones at MWC 2020. With the tech conference cancelled the Barcelona launch was a miss. The company has now scheduled an event for March 19 in London. Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer of HMD Global tweeted the announcement of the upcoming event. He didn't drop any hints on the products that will be launched but said that it will be "something very special". Going by the previous leaks, HMD Global was rumoured to launch a slew of Nokia phones. These include the Nokia 8.2, Nokia 5.2 and Nokia 1.3. Some reports also suggested the launch of the Nokia Original Series. No Time To Wait. We have something very special lined up for you. #nokiamobilelive pic.twitter.com/xQAZWok0v6 Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) March 3, 2020 Among these, Nokia 8.2 is expected to come with support for 5G powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 675 chipset. This would make the Nokia 5.2 the first Nokia phone with 5G. This smartphone is also expected to come with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage. It could house a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera. More expected specs on the Nokia 8.2 5G include a 3,500mAh battery and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. In the European market, the Nokia 5.2 5G could cost EUR 459 (36,000 approx). Nokia 5.2 will most likely fall in the budget category with an expected pricing of EUR 169 (13,200 approx). It could come with a 6.2-inch LCD display, Snapdragon 632 processor and a 3,500mAh battery. As for the Nokia 1.3, it is expected to launch with a 4,000mAh battery, a MediaTek processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage. Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar was left baffled after an audio glitch disrupted his interview on Wednesday's edition of Good Morning Britain. The actor, 61, who plays gaffer Superintendent Ted Hastings in the police procedural drama, looked shocked as his interview with hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid began with garbled intro music. The GMB theme began playing before a snippet of the Line Of Duty end theme started, which then abruptly cut off and was replaced with the daytime show theme once more. Scroll down for video Lol: Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar was left baffled after an audio glitch disrupted his interview on Wednesday's edition of Good Morning Britain Fan: Host Susanna Reid revealed she broke her coronavirus hugging ban to embrace Adrian at the studios Susanna exclaimed: 'What's going on? We need H! We need the fourth H!' as Adrian laughed out loud. The interview then got underway with Adrian discussing the hotly anticipated sixth series of the drama, currently filming in Belfast. He said: 'We're doing a Sport Relief special- we just finished our first week's work and they we got piled into an interrogation scene, it was great! 'It's a serious series, but we need to have a laugh to keep it all bubbling along.' Oh! The actor, 61, who plays gaffer Superintendent Ted Hastings in the police procedural drama, looked shocked as his interview with hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid began with garbled intro music Hmm: The GMB theme began playing before a snippet of the Line Of Duty end theme started, which then abruptly cut off and was replaced with the daytime show theme once more When asked if the coronavirus epidemic could affect filming, Adrian said: 'I haven't really thought about that to be honest, I'm of the opinion that it's a bad flu and if you're old or have respiratory problems then you should really be aware of it but just follow the advice.' Susanna then said: 'I did break my hugging ban when you came into the studio!' Piers retorted: 'That's Stockholm syndrome because he kidnapped you once.' Susanna and Adrian enjoyed something of a reunion as they recalled their joint appearance on 1984 crime-drama The Price, in which her character was kidnapped by the youthful actor. Susanna was aged 12 at the time. Going with it: Susanna exclaimed: 'What's going on? We need H! We need the fourth H!' as Adrian laughed out loud Speaking about Line of Duty, Susanna asked: 'You aren't allowed to know the script?' Adrian responded: 'Well possibly, we usually get the first few blocks and we know what's happening in episode four but not five and six.' He also said series six would be 'probably be at the end of the year or January/February time.' The series return will will see the reveal of H's true identity with creator Jed Mecurio teasing fans on Twitter last week when he shared a picture from filming. Insight: Discussing coronavirus precautions, such as avoiding physical contact and washing hands for 20 seconds, Susanna said: ' 'I did break my hugging ban when you came into the studio!' Reunion: Susanna and Adrian enjoyed something of a reunion as they recalled their joint appearance on 1984 crime-drama The Price Rooting out bent coppers: He also said series six would be 'probably be at the end of the year or January/February time' (above with Vicky McClure and Martin Compston) In the snap, Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) point guns at one another, while a passed-out Ted Hastings lies slumped on a chair between them. A giant 'H' lies against him, implying that he IS the infamous and mysterious villain, who masterminds the legion of 'bent coppers' who infiltrate AC-12. However, it's likely to be a playfully set up picture as there's no way Jed would make such a revelation before the series starts. He wrote: 'A great first week of filming #LineofDuty Series 6 @BBCOne. Heres a publicity shot thats been approved 100% spoiler free by @bbcpress.' The cast and crew of Line Of Duty started work on the sixth series last month. 'This is spoiler free': Line Of Duty creator Jed teased fans over H's true identity as he shared a 'shoot-out' picture with a giant letter placed against Ted Hastings on Twitter on Friday During our conversation with Ferdi Raquelsantos, the president of the Philippine Parts Maker Association (PPMA), we were informed that his organization is making a bid to expand their reach in the auto industry of the United States. For the auto parts industry of the Philippines, their fortunes could turn around in the future: they're looking to tap a major market to supply with Philippine-made auto parts. This year for the Philippine automotive industry has been a troubled one. Back to back natural disasters (storms, Taal), fears of an outbreak (Covid-19), and the closure of a major automobile assembly plant (Honda) are just some of the trials that the auto industry is facing in 2020, and we're not even done with the first quarter yet. "We have to look at other markets," said Raquelsantos. "We have a generally preferential status with the US, and that means we could be exporting with zero tariffs." The PPMA president said they weren't aiming to supply OEM (original equipment manufacturers) which would be automakers like Ford, General Motors, or Chrysler. Instead, they will be focusing their efforts on the automotive aftermarket industry in America. "Actually I'm flying over to the US to pitch our parts industry to prospective clients there, continued Raquelsantos. Even their automotive aftermarket is huge." Currently there is a trade issue (trade war, really) between the US and the PRC, and that means a tariff of up to 50% could be (or is being) imposed Chinese-made parts being imported into the US market. Also, the current situation regarding the Covid-19 outbreak in mainland Asia is also playing a significant role. The Philippine parts industry is jockeying to position itself as a viable source for parts to the automotive aftermarket industry in the United States. The parts industry of the Philippines is currently enduring troubled times given the current economic situation. Complete built-up units (CBU) imported from foreign countries, particularly from within the ASEAN free trade area as well as from countries that ASEAN has agreements with, are dominating the Philippine auto industry by sheer volume. Case in point: for every 5 units sold in the Philippines in 2019, only 1 is locally-assembled. Domestic car manufacturing is taking a big hit because of the zero (or near zero) tariff status on imported cars from FTA-covered countries. The better economies of scale and the larger parts industries in those countries also make it difficult for local manufacturing to compete on cost, and it makes more business sense to import than produce cars in the country. Ford made the decision to close their Santa Rosa, Laguna manufacturing plant in 2012 and sold the facility to Mitsubishi Motors when the latter decided to move from Cainta. Isuzu decided to stop assembling the D-Max in Binan, Laguna but still operate the factory to assemble trucks. Honda is closing their assembly plant this month. All of these factories had parts supplied from local parts manufacturers. Former vice president Joe Biden holds a lead over Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in Michigan ahead of the states March 10 primary, according to a poll commissioned by Detroit News and local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV. In all, the survey of 600 likely Democratic primary voters found Biden with 29 percent support versus 22.5 percent for Sanders. However, the poll also found that the race remains fluid, with one third of respondents supporting Biden or Sanders saying they could change their minds before primary day. The poll was conducted February 28 through March 2, overlapping Bidens victory in South Carolina but ending before Super Tuesday. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg received 10.5 percent in the poll, but has since dropped out of the primary race. About 16 percent of respondents said they had not yet chosen a candidate. What we saw in our numbers each night [of the poll] was a huge Biden surge, pollster Richard Czuba told Detroit News. But theres still great fluidity. This race is close in Michigan, and I think it will continue to be closeIts all going to be determined by who actually bothers to vote. Czuba indicated that this could present a problem for Sanders because Biden currently leads among voters over 50. The problem for Sanders folks is over 50 are more reliable, Czuba said. Older voters are the most motivated and are overwhelmingly casting absentee ballot votes already. Complicating matters, several of the states major universities will be on spring break during the primary. It makes it that much harder for Bernie Sanders campaign to turn out college voters. Because theyre just not there, Czuba said. The Sanders campaign announced on Wednesday that the Vermont senator was returning to Michigan following the Super Tuesday primaries. While Sanders jumped to a commanding lead in early state primaries, Biden trounced Sanders in the South Carolina Primary, buoyed by deep support among the states black voters. That support helped carry Biden to victory throughout several southern states on Super Tuesday, including Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. Story continues With most states reporting close to their final vote tallies, Biden has garnered 380 delegates to Sanderss 328 in Super Tuesday states. The former vice president now has 433 delegates in total, to Sanderss 388. More from National Review The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Wednesday signed the Ondo State Security Network and Amotekun Corps Bill into law. This is coming a day after the state assembly passed the bill. The signing took place at the states executive council chambers in Akure. The governor said the Amotekun Corps will complement other security agencies in the country. We wish to reiterate that the Amotekun Corps is a child of necessity and was purely borne out of the need to explore other means of securing our forests and protecting all those who do legitimate business within the South-west region, he said. For the umpteenth time, the Amotekun Corps is not an independent regional outfit but a complementary efforts by the governors of the South-west to engender unity, peace and security. Mr Akeredolu also said the Amotekun operatives will not be allowed for political purposes. Most importantly, the corps shall not be allowed for political purposes; it has no business at political rallies just as the police must continue to discharge its obligations and responsibilities to the people, he added. He appreciated Ondo state lawmakers for the speedy consideration and passage of the bill. NEW YORK, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Conversion Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: CVLB), a direct-to-consumer telemedicine and wellness company, has been invited to present at the 32nd Annual ROTH Conference being held at The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Orange County, California, on March 15-17, 2020. The conference will feature presentations from public and private companies across a variety of industry sectors. Last year, the ROTH Conference hosted close to 550 participating companies and more than 5,100 attendees, including institutional investors, analysts, family offices and high net worth investors. Conversion Labs president and CEO, Justin Schreiber, is scheduled to present in one-on-one meetings with institutional analysts and investors held throughout the day on March 17. He will be joined by the companys CFO, Juan Manuel Pineiro Dagnery, and its CTO and CMO, Stefan Galluppi. Management will discuss the companys accelerating growth and the recent launch of its first telehealth brand, Rex MD , and the anticipated introduction of other key brands. Conversion Labs earlier announced it expects a 47% increase in net sales for 2019 to approximately $12.2 million. Driven primarily by growth in the telemedicine business, the company expects revenue to grow by more than 145% in 2020, exceeding $30 million. To schedule a one-on-one meeting with Conversion Labs, please contact your ROTH representative. For any questions about the company, contact Ron Both of CMA at (949) 432-7557 or submit your request here . About Roth Capital Partners ROTH Capital Partners, LLC (ROTH), is a relationship-driven investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors. As a full-service investment bank, ROTH provides capital raising, M&A advisory, analytical research, trading, market-making services and corporate access. Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, ROTH is privately-held and employee owned, and maintains offices throughout the U.S. For more information on ROTH, please visit www.roth.com . About Conversion Labs Conversion Labs, Inc. is a health and wellness focused e-commerce company with a portfolio of online direct-to-consumer brands. The companys portfolio of brands includes proprietary over-the-counter products and prescription medications. It also provides online, virtual physician consultations to consumers in 48 states. In addition to its healthcare platform, Conversion Labs is the majority shareholder of PDF Simpli, a direct to consumer SaaS business for editing, signing, and sharing PDF documents. To learn more about Conversion Labs, please visit conversionlabs.com. For more about PDF Simpli, go to pdfsimpli.com. Forward-Looking Statements Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, among other thing, statements regarding the offering, the expected gross proceeds, the expected use of proceeds and the expected closing of the offering. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's ability to develop, market and sell its products; the expected benefits and efficacy of the Company's products; the availability of substantial additional funding for the Company to continue its operations and to conduct research and development, clinical studies and future product commercialization; and, the Company's business, research, product development, regulatory approval, marketing and distribution plans and strategies. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in our filings with the SEC, including, our current reports on Form 8-K. Company Contact: Juan Manuel Pineiro Dagnery CFO Email Contact Conversion Labs Investor & Media Relations Contact: Ron Both, CMA Tel (949) 432-7566 Email Contact Mumbai, March 4 : Actor Vijay Varma, who rose to fame with "Gully Boy" last year, claims his multilayered character in his upcoming film "Baaghi 3" will leave the audience surprised. Opening up on his character in the film starring Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor, Varma said: "My character is shown as the one who helps Tiger Shroff to reunite with his brother. He's a very interesting character, with various layers that would leave the audience surprised." "I am thrilled to be a part of this popular franchise and working with such talented people. With 'Baaghi 3', I have tried my hands at something new, and fans have never really seen me doing such a role. I'm quite confident about my part because it is really crucial in the film," added the actor. Varma further revealed that he had to undergo workshops in order to perfect his body language for the role. "The process to get into the skin of my character was different than usual since the character is in a different space. Once again it's something I haven't attempted before. Since my character is a multilayered one, to get into the skin I attended workshops to get the body language and diction correct. The reading session helped to improvise for the role," Varma said. Asked if we will see him packing some punches, "Baaghi 3" being an action film, the actor replied: "Not really!" He added: "But my character has its own beauty and uniqueness to it, which will leave the viewers fully entertained. He adds to the madness and leaves you liking him much more at the end of the movie." Directed by Ahmed Khan, "Baaghi 3" is scheduled to hit the theatres on March 6. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will host a voter participation rally in Detroit on March 27, according to a report from The Associated Press. Obama co-chairs the nonpartisan, nonprofit group When We All Vote. It was launched in 2018 and aims to increase voter participation in all elections. The event takes place at the University of Detroit Mercy and is free. However, attendees must get tickets (you can request them online here.) The event is open to the organizations volunteers and partners, educators, and voting-age high school and college students. The group and Obama encourage people to vote without making partisan appeals. In the 2016 presidential cycle, voter turnout was slightly up across the state as compared to the 2012 cycle, but lower in Wayne County and the city of Detroit, along with a few other areas. In Wayne County, 37,364 fewer people voted in 2016 as compared to in 2012. The rally takes place after Michigans March 10 presidential primary. Michiganders will also go to the polls on Aug. 4 for the state primary and Nov. 3 for the general election. Russia is holding top-secret trials of Tsirkon hypersonic missile. Media leaks have intentional omissions. However, it is possible to suggest when the important weapon may be accepted into service, the Vzglyad business daily writes. Admiral Gorshkov frigate (Picture source: TASS) Tsirkon test launch from a warship was scheduled in late 2019 but took place in January 2020. The Admiral Gorshkov frigate of project 22350 fired the missile from the Barents Sea. TASS quoted its sources as saying the missile flew over 500 km to a target at a range in the northern Urals. It was not specified whether the missile has reached the target and hit it. No official confirmation, no footage or other details were provided. Any missile has to undergo a specified cycle of trials ranging from pop-up tests to launches which have to confirm its operability in close to combat conditions. Tsirkon began trials several years ago. The Admiral Gorshkov was chosen for Tsirkon trials from the very beginning. It is armed with Kalibr and Onix missiles and its universal vertical launchers can fire hypersonic missiles. A successful Tsirkon test launch was held from a coastal platform in December 2018. Even the Americans acknowledged the fact and Mach 8 speed which no other missile in the world can develop. Media reports said the successful test launch allowed to begin sea trials. The Admiral Gorshkov is likely to be followed by submarines. The Americans claim it may happen in 2020. The Russian Defense Ministry also named the date. Forbes said the Kazan K-561 Yasen-M-class SSGN of project 885M can test fire Tsirkon. Tsirkon trials in January left many questions unanswered, including the announced 500-km flight. A map clearly shows a distance of at least a thousand kilometers from Northern fleet ranges in the Barents Sea to the range in northern Urals (President Vladimir Putin said in February 2019 Tsirkon range was over a thousand kilometers). Nothing was said about the time of supplies to the troops. There is not a single available Tsirkon image so far, as the missile is a top-secret of the Russian Defense Ministry. Its exterior can provide substantiated conclusions about combat characteristics. The expensive hypersonic missile has to have excellent combat effectiveness. No missile shield can intercept it and the strike will be like a lightning. In other words, a country with such military technologies can enjoy a major military-political edge. Copyright 2020 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Ive never deluded myself into thinking that hes in what Ive always considered that mythological place called heaven, looking down on my sister and me and the smattering of nieces, nephews and other kinfolk who still remember him. His death, 10 days before I turned 13, was so brutally final for me. I have never harbored the Christian promise of eternal life that has comforted so many in my family. I envy them for envisioning some eternal family potluck where well all be happy again. But the realm he does exist in for me is in dreams, consistently about every five years or so, where he is alive and has simply been taking time away from us a pause of 15, 30, 40 years, just because he needed to sort things out. Its as if in my dreamland of grief where I always seem to be childlike and confused even though Im aware of the years and decades that have passed its simply standard behavior for people to slip away but return in an instant. And sometimes we are going to visit him in his new, faraway home. And its in those moments that I know everything will be OK and that I will touch him and hear his war stories that I was too young to care about when he was alive. Image The author, at age 1, with his father and sister in 1964. Credit... Courtesy Debra Belcher Like my father, Ive traveled extensively in my life and career, much of it for work but mostly, admittedly, to run. Perhaps to run as my father did. Im not fleeing coal mines and Appalachian poverty, though that legacy haunts me. I think I am fleeing what my father must have been: the fear of an unfulfilled life, driven by the urgency that it could all be ripped away from me at any moment. Ill never know what motivated him to re-up for the military twice. It was no doubt to escape poverty, even after World War II when he returned to coal mining and a failed first marriage before the Korean War broke out. But he did decide, like millions of others, to settle down and have children as the Eisenhower-era boom created a middle-class bubble for those scarred by the Great Depression and perhaps their own great depression. My aloneness in my travels and my fear, at this semi-ripe age, that it could all go haywire for me too is, I suspect, common among grown children whose parents died young. Ive sought and still seek, in the age of 24-hour work cycles, hookup apps and boundless TV and escapism in every corner of the planet emotional refuge in all the places that feel safe and immediate. There is not much comfort in the future when its ripped away from you at a young age. Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images As the news broke that Senator Amy Klobuchar would be imminently announcing the end of her presidential campaign, perhaps you thought, Wow, Elizabeth Warren is the only woman left standing. But if you thought that, you would be wrong. Because Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard is still in the running, people. Did you forget? As the field of candidates narrows from over 20 to just 5, despite not yet securing a single pledged delegate in the first four Democratic primary races, and not polling high enough to appear on stage for a debate since November, Gabbard remains in the race. Though Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, and now Klobuchar, who all had significantly more demonstrable support among voters, have dropped out, Tulsi remains. She has not yet called time. Gabbards persistence is not totally surprising given that she has always been an unusual candidate. Her signature silver hair streak has long been a metaphor for, well, a renegade political streak, including some rather strident foreign policy views, sassy comments on the debate stage, having an outspoken sister who denounces the mainstream media, and fighting very publicly with Hillary Clinton. With very slim chances to get anywhere close to the nomination, even some sympathetic voters are wondering just what shes up to. With the frontrunners in the primary becoming clearer, Klobuchar and Buttigieg are supposedly backing Joe Biden. Gabbard endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016, but in order to do that this time around, she would have to drop out first. She is showing no sign of doing so, and released a campaign video on Twitter earlier today. Anyway, consider this a reminder that Tulsi Gabbard is still running for president, in case you needed one. Green activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday said an EU proposal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 was deeply insufficient and that Europe should not make false claims to be a leader on climate. The European Union must stop "pretending that you can be a climate leader and still go on building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure," the Swedish activist told a committee hearing at European Parliament. Thunberg addressed MEPs as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new draft law that Brussels hailed as a cornerstone of Europe's Green deal to fight climate change. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KYODO NEWS - Mar 3, 2020 - 22:30 | All, Japan Japan's senior vice justice minister said Tuesday he and Lebanon President Michel Aoun agreed on the need to resolve the case of former Nissan Motor Co. boss Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail and fled Japan to the Middle Eastern country. "I clearly conveyed the position of the Japanese government (to Lebanon) and both countries agreed completely that it's extremely important for both countries to resolve the fugitive case," Hiroyuki Yoshiie said at a press conference in Tokyo after returning from his meeting with Aoun in Lebanon on Monday. "I directly told (the president) that the Japanese government believes it's natural that defendant Ghosn face trial in a Japanese court" on allegations he misused Nissan funds and understated his remuneration by billions of yen for years, Yoshiie said. (Carlos Ghosn) Related coverage: Nissan ordered to pay 2.4 bil. yen fine over Ghosn pay scandal Japan to send vice justice minister to Lebanon over Carlos Ghosn France steps up Ghosn probe over alleged funds misuse at Renault Both sides will continue working-level discussions over the matter, he added. Ghosn has denied all allegations. Tokyo has been requesting Ghosn's extradition through Interpol, but Beirut has indicated it is unlikely to hand him over. Japan does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon. The 65-year-old former auto tycoon, arrested in 2018, was released on bail in April last year on conditions that included a ban on foreign travel. Japanese investigative sources say that on Dec. 29, Ghosn left from Kansai International Airport in Osaka on a private jet, traveling to Lebanon via Turkey. He holds Brazilian, French and Lebanese nationality. The prosecutors have obtained a new arrest warrant for Ghosn after he left Japan. Ghosn said he fled Japan to escape from what he described as a "rigged" justice system. The San Francisco Police Department is compliant with fewer than 15% of the reforms it pledged to adopt nearly four years ago, progress thats moving too slowly and delaying its promise to the community to transform policing in the city, officials with the state Department of Justice wrote in a report released Wednesday. The Police Department, however, has made major progress in decreasing use-of-force incidents since beginning the collaborative reform initiative in 2016. The effort, which emphasizes community policing, came after a string of controversial police killings, including the 2015 shooting of Mario Woods in the citys Bayview. Use-of-force incidents dropped by 24% in 2019, contributing to a 47% decline since 2016, according to the report. But officers continued to use force disproportionately against black and Latino people, with 39% of total incidents involving black men and 22% Latino men in the last quarter of 2019, the report found. Less than 5% of the citys population is African American, though use-of-force incidents are not always against city residents. We want to quicken the pace of our reform efforts, Chief Bill Scott told The Chronicle. For some people thats all that matters, but changes are happening. We see it. We feel it. We know things are getting better. The department is compliant with 40 of the 272 reform recommendations and has submitted 61 other recommendations that evaluators said need more progress. A major focus has been on revamping its policy on force, including prioritizing de-escalation tactics, and training officers in crisis intervention strategies. There has been one officer-involved shooting since June 2018. That happened when Jamaica Hampton allegedly attacked officers with a bottle in the Mission District in December. The department has decreased stops of African Americans by 29% and Latinos by 20% in the past year, police officials said, while expanding its community policing program. Many of the recommendations at which the department is failing involve internal reviews. The department was not found to be compliant in auditing arrest and use-of-force data, developing a strategy and training officers in addressing bias policing, and more than 200 other reforms. The state Department of Justice said the policy reforms go above and beyond traditional policing standards but it is concerned that SFPDs progress is too slow. The failure to implement a greater number of the recommendations is delaying the SFPDs fulfillment of its promise to the community to get this work done, officials wrote. Scott called the report a fair assessment, adding that he was disappointed in his departments pace on meeting the reform goals. I know how hard were working, he said. We asked (the state Department of Justice) to work with us to be an independent evaluator and whatever comes with that. Sometimes thats good news, and sometimes thats news you dont want to hear. While the slow-going reform process may raise questions about the chiefs performance, he has publicly had the support of the Police Commission and mayor, to whom he reports. The rank-and-file officers in the police union who have resisted many of the reforms have openly clashed with Scott. Wednesdays report analyzed the second phase of the Police Departments reform initiative that began when then-Police Chief Greg Suhr asked the Obama administrations Justice Department to review the department in April 2016. Suhr was facing pressure over the shooting of Woods and others and resigned after police fatally shot Jessica Williams in May 2016 as she tried to flee officers in her car. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The department has banned shooting at vehicles in most cases as part of its reforms. Then-Mayor Ed Lee tapped Scott from the Los Angeles Police Department to replace Suhr. Scott was an assistant chief and had spent 13 years working on reforming the LAPD as part of the citys consent decree. The San Francisco Police Department was among 14 law enforcement agencies around the country in the midst of reform under the U.S. Department of Justice when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions canceled the offices community policing program in September 2017. Scott pledged to continue with the efforts and asked the state attorney generals office to step in to oversee the reforms. Now, more than ever, we must step up our collaborative efforts to take on this challenge and meet the high standard expected of those who are sworn to protect and serve our communities, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky Vladimir Putin has submitted a range of proposed amendments to Russian's constitution that include a mention of God and describe marriage as a heterosexual union. The president first proposed amending the constitution in January's state-of-the-nation speech, saying it was necessary to broaden the powers of parliament and bolster democracy. Opponents have described the proposals as part of his efforts to remain in charge after his six-year term ends in 2024. The Kremlin-controlled parliament quickly endorsed his draft in the first of three required readings last month, and is set to give it final approval next week, setting the stage for a nationwide vote on April 22. Following up on proposals from a Kremlin working group that worked in parallel with legislators, Mr Putin on Monday presented 24 pages of additional amendments for the second reading set for March 10. Legislators say they include an article that points to a millennium-long Russian history and pledges homage to "ancestors who bequeathed to us their ideals and a belief in God". The amendment follows a proposal by the Russian Orthodox Church to add a reference to God to the constitution. Another amendment describes marriage as a "union of a man and a woman", a wording in sync with Mr Putin's long-stated opposition to same-sex marriage. He also responded to a working group member's suggestion to add wording that would prevent any future Russian ruler from giving away Crimea - annexed from Ukraine in 2014 - or any other territory. He added an amendment that prohibits surrendering any part of Russian territory and outlaws making calls for that. Another proposal underlines a special status of Russians as a "state-forming" ethnic group while pledging to protect the nation's other ethnic groups. After proposals to outlaw disparaging the Soviet role in the Second World War, Mr Putin added an article pledging to protect "historic truth" and forbid "belittling the people's heroic protection of the Motherland". The amendment comes as Russia prepares to celebrate the 75th anniversary of victory in the war - the nation's most important holiday. The new set of amendments does not offer any clue to what position Mr Putin may take to continue calling the shots after his term ends. The 67-year-old has been in power for more than 20 years, making him the nation's longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. ASPEN, Colo. A Colorado realtor was sentenced to 12 years in state prison for holding three men hostage at gunpoint and repeatedly threatening to kill them. Brolin McConnell was sentenced Monday for using two handguns to hold three young men on the Independence Pass mountain trail near Aspen in July 2015, The Aspen Times reported Monday. McConnell, 34, pleaded guilty in December to criminal attempt to commit first-degree kidnapping and felony menacing and faced between eight and 20 years imprisonment. McConnell initially pleaded not guilty to 18 felonies, including attempted first-degree murder, before changing his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. The change delayed the case another 14 months while psychiatrists at the state hospital in Pueblo examined him and eventually found him to be sane. Prosecutor Don Nottingham urged a judge to impose the maximum 20-year sentence. Harvey Steinberg, McConnells lawyer, told the judge his client had no prior criminal history and suffered from mental health issues. This case is driven by mental illness that clearly Mr. McConnell was suffering from at the time, Steinberg said. He simply lost it that day. C hannel 5 has announced that Susan Calman will be replacing Jane McDonald on both her Cruising With and Holidaying With series. The Scottish comedian, 45, will be filling McDonalds iconic role following the success of her popular series Secret Scotland With Susan Calman, also on Channel 5. Calman will also be remembered for partnering with Kevin Clifton during the 2017 series of Strictly Come Dancing, as well as fronting the latest series of The Great British Menu on BBC Two. Speaking about her new appointment, Calman said: Im over the moon to be working with Channel 5 on such a prestigious group of shows. Channel 5/Picselect "I cant wait to go on exciting voyages and incredible journeys and take the wonderful viewers with me. Its the start of a magnificent chapter and I cant wait to get going! Channel 5s Director of Programming Ben Frow added: Susan was my first and only choice for these shows and I am absolutely cock-a-hoop that she is doing more with Channel 5. "I have encouraged her to make both shows uniquely hers and I am genuinely excited to see how she evolves them in her own, inimitable style. The world is, literally, her oyster and I cant wait to travel it with her. McDonald has fronted her Cruising With series since it first started in 2017. Pride of place: Jane's Bafta is on display in her living room / Jeff Spicer/Getty Images In 2018, the series won the Bafta for Best Feature - making it the first ever Bafta win for a Channel 5 show. On her decision to step down from Cruising, 56-year-old McDonald explained she wanted to spend more time in the UK, as well as concentrating on her music career. I want to offer my most sincere thanks to everyone who has worked on all my shows, she said. PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-04 15:00:23 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 795 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ALEXANDRIA, VA / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Solei Systems, Inc. (OTC PINK:SOLI) announces that CareClix, Inc., an industry leader in telemedicine is expanding its operations into Chile. "CareClix Chile" represents the company's expansion into Chile through formal agreements with local companies designed to serve both public and private healthcare sectors in Chile. The company announced today the signing of a formal agreement with MC2 SALUD - HEALTHCARE ADVISERS. CareClix continues to expand through strategic partnerships with local partners and providers to expand within carefully selected markets."Chile leads the LatAm region in mobile device ownership and internet speeds. This represents a critical factor for rapid telemedicine adoption. Chile also has a well-developed private healthcare system with top regional clinics and highly respected medical professionals who supplement a strong nationwide network of public hospitals. Combined, we believe this represents a high growth environment for telemedicine", said Josh Flood, President of CareClix.CareClix specializes in empowering medical providers through robust telemedicine software and access toits extensive US physician and medical specialists' network. Working with MC2 SALUD's existing Chilean medical provider network for primary and specialists care visits, CareClix Chile offers significant potential to improve the population's access to quality treatment in real-time. This strategic expansion into Chile can provide potentially thousands of Chilean medical professionals the power of CareClix telemedicine to improve care outcomes and patient satisfaction.Rafael Caviedes, co-founder and partner of MC2 SALUD - HEALTHCARE ADVISERS said, "I am thrilled to work with CareClix in Chile to introduce the next evolution of virtual healthcare to the population as a whole, i.e. creating access to quality specialist attention even in the country's remotest regions. Telemedicine is the best way, in my view, to deliver the highest possible quality of virtual care." Rafael's partner and co-founder, Jonathan Callund, also commented, "CareClix has the proven track record and a Spanish-language solution needed. I expect to have a great impact on both the private and public healthcare sectors in Chile and possibly other markets in LatAm." About CareClix, Inc.CareClix is a leading telemedicine solutions firm that provides software applications and a multispecialty medical network to a wide variety of health care services stakeholders. CareClix's suite of services is revolutionizing the way hospitals, doctors, and clinical care providers can interact with an increasing number of patients. CareClix Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Solei Systems Inc. (OTCPINK:SOLI). Learn more about CareClix by visiting our website: www.careclix.com About MC2 SALUD - HEALTHCARE ADVISERSMC2 SALUD has been set up to provide technology solutions to the Chilean private and public health sector. Hitherto, Rafael Caviedes was Director of FONASA (the National Health Fund) and until recently President of the ASOCIACION DE ISAPRES, the private healthcare sector delivering insured programs to over 3 million Chileans. Jonathan Callund, with 30+ years as a leader in the development of employee benefits in Chile, has a career in healthcare and pensions, working with multinationals and providers throughout Latin America. He has also held positions in AIG and IFC/World Bank, developing corporate and retail business in the region.About SoleiSolei Systems, Inc. is a fully reporting, fully audited public holding company in the health and wellness field with its primary focus on telemedicine. Currently, Solei Systems, Inc is comprised of two wholly-owned subsidiaries: CareClix, Inc. and Clinical & Herbal Innovations, Inc: www.soleihealth.com Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Solei Systems Inc, and its wholly-owned subsidiary CareClix, Inc. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified using forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although Solei Systems, Inc believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Solei Systems, Inc's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Solei's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website ( www.sec.gov) . All forward-looking statements attributable to Solei Systems or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.CONTACT:Solei Systems, Inc206 N. Washington St. Suite 100Alexandria, VA 22314T: (703) 832-4473SOURCE: Solei Systems, Inc. Worried that an earthquake could collapse a big dam south of San Francisco, officials have ordered its reservoir to be completely drained by October to reduce the risk of floodwaters spilling into Silicon Valley. The 240-foot high earthen Anderson Dam, built in 1950 between San Jose and the community of Morgan Hill, poses too great a risk of collapse and must be fully drained by Oct. 1, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates dams, the Mercury News reported. It is unacceptable to maintain the reservoir at an elevation higher than necessary when it can be reduced, thereby decreasing the risk to public safety and the large population downstream, David Capka, director of the commissions Division of Dam Safety and Inspections, wrote last week in a letter to the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Since 2009, the dams water level has been kept at a maximum of 74 percent of capacity because of an assessment that it could fail in a 7.2 quake. The reservoir is built along the Calaveras Fault. On Monday, amid the threat of another drought in California, Anderson Reservoir was just 29% full. A seismic retrofit project has been underway because of its state classification in 2017 as being an extremely high downstream hazard. The Santa Clara Valley Water District said in a statement Monday that officials agree with the commissions assessment that the reservoir should be drained ahead of the retrofit project, which is complicated and time consuming. Valley Water has been working with several state and federal agencies through the years to secure the proper permits as the scope of the project has increased due to additional safety and design requirements, Valley Water CEO Norma Camacho said. A priority will be to design and build a large outlet pipe, which will provide greater control over the water levels and increase public safety, she added in the statement. Camacho said draining the largest reservoir in the district will likely kill wildlife downstream in Coyote Creek, including endangered steelhead trout, amphibians and reptiles. Coyote Creek flows from the dam through downtown San Jose to San Francisco Bay. If the dam collapsed, runoff could damage cities and rural areas from the San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the south, including much of Silicon Valley, the water district said in a statement. More than 14,000 residents had to be evacuated in 2017 as water from swollen Coyote Creek, downstream of the Anderson Reservoir, flooded homes and temporarily shut down a portion of a freeway. It came the same month as a spillway failed at the nations tallest dam, in Oroville in Northern California, leading officials to order the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people. The dam ultimately held, but an independent investigation cited a long-term systemic failure by regulators and the dam industry to recognize and address warning signs. California spent $1.1 billion repairing the Lake Oroville spillway, enacted new emergency plan requirements and launched a review of 93 other dams with similar spillways. An AP investigation last year identified at least 1,688 high-hazard dams rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition in 44 states and Puerto Rico. Complicating the issue this year, California may be heading into a new drought. Stored water is an important part of the south San Francisco Bay Areas supply _ with enough water for the annual needs of at least 130,000 people as well as what the district considers an emergency supply. While residents have done an excellent job of conserving water since 2013, another drought during this time frame could require everyone to significantly decrease their water use, Camacho said. The agency is exploring other sources of water from outside Santa Clara County, she said. Photo: In this Feb. 21, 2017 file photo, water from the Lake Anderson Reservoir gushes down a spillway in Morgan Hill, Calif. U.S. officials are worried that an earthquake could collapse a big dam near Silicon Valley. They ordered its reservoir to be completely drained by October 2020, due to concerns that the dam could send floodwaters into communities. Retrofit plans have been in the works for years and the dams water level has been kept at a maximum of 74% since 2009. As of Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, the reservoir was just 29% full. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Earthquake Whats for dinner? That dreaded question has plagued generations of working moms. But unlike the average at-home cook, women like Lindsey Noto, marketing associate at Sysco, and Megan Lankford, pastry chef at Bandit Patisserie, are happy to answer that questionwhen theyre on the clock, that is. Instead of feeling shackled to the stove, these ladies are fighting for their place in the kitchenspecifically the professional kitchen. Often charged with creating the household menu, women, ironically, are far less likely to be the ones calling the shots at a restaurant. Take Birmingham, for example. The names synonymous with the best food in townFrank Stitt, Chris Hastings, John Hall, etc.are predominately those of men. While Noto and Lankford say these celebrated chefs and their proteges are undoubtedly deserving of their repute, their female counterparts have gone largely unrecognized. This is, in part, due to the fact that women are grossly outnumbered in the culinary industry. Its easy to find women sharing their gastronomic talents in the blogging world, but why are they still underrepresented in the restaurant business? According to Noto, its the very idea of entering a male-dominated industry that has discouraged women from stepping out of their own kitchens. Its a really intimidating place. Its taken me years to get to a position where people are recognizing me as someone that knows how to cook, says Noto, who previously was the catering director for Saws BBQ and Post Office Pies. During her first stint as a head chef, which was in Panama City, Florida, Noto was unable to gain the respect of her all-male fry cooks until she rolled up her sleeves to show them a thing or two. And Lankford, who formerly headed up the pastry program at Hot and Hot Fish Club, admits she struggled with being the kitchens token female. Did a lot of my initial insecurities come solely from just being a female? Yes, Lankford says. Noto and Lankford first crossed paths during a perfect storm while working at Roots & Revelry, where Noto formerly was chef de cuisine. It was the shared experience of being a stereotype-squashing badass that led the pair to become fast friends. One day, after overhearing a conversation about womens limitations in the restaurant world, Lankford marched herself over to Notos expo line to dish out her frustrations. Having already been passed over for a promotion (which appeared to have been awarded during an after-work, guys-only outing), Lankford was at her wits end. The women of Birmingham, shed realized, would never have the same kind of access to upward mobility in the industry without a support network. So, Lankford and Noto, skilled in the art of proving people wrong, hatched a plan, later dubbed Bham Femme. They assembled a crew of the citys top female culinarians to create an elaborate six-course pop-up dinner benefiting the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (a cause close to Notos heart). The event, held last April, featured 11 chefs, mixologists, and restaurateurs from businesses around town, including Laura Newman, esteemed bartender and co-owner of Queens Park; veteran restaurant professional Angela Schmidt of Brat Brot; and Kristen Farmer Hall, owner of The Essential and Bandit Patisserie, as well as a 2018 James Beard Foundation boot camp participant. The inaugural class of Bham Femme crafted each course and an accompanying cocktail with fresh ingredients from local farms. Motivated to go against the grain, these kitchen queens worked alongside an all-female serving staff to artfully execute what was likely a historical first for Birmingham. Tickets to the dinner at the Thomas Jefferson Tower sold out. And the women, most of whom had never worked together, didnt disappoint. It was so well-done, and I attribute that to the communication and the lack of ego. It was a testament to why we need Bham Femme. We need to keep showing other women that their presence is necessary in this industry, Noto says. The event culminated with a standing ovation, but Bham Femme didnt pack up there, content to rest on its laurels after a dinner well done. After the applause, Noto and Lankford retreated to the kitchen for dish duty. They were up to their elbows in tableware, when an epiphany struck; what theyd created was beyond the scope of a good meal. Theyd managed to amass an incredibly experienced, diverse, and empowered talent poolan invaluable resource for the women of Birminghams food scene. Not all women have the opportunity to be surrounded by other women who kick ass and stand up to men when they need to, Lankford says. Wanting to formalize the network as a place where fellow industry members can receive advice and encouragement, the Bham Femme founders established a board of directors, and theyre working toward nonprofit status. In the meantime, theyre using their influence for good through charity projects like the Angel Tree, and theyre developing a service-training curriculum for women interested in hospitality careers. With a new year ahead of them, the group can now focus on its next joint gastronomic endeavor. Birmingham hasnt seen the last of the Femmes, Lankford promises. Leading Ladies The 11 participants of the inaugural Bham Femme Dinner Nico Berg of Savoie Catering Amanda Blake, formerly of Sprout & Pour Steva Casey of The Atomic Lounge, recognized by the James Beard Foundation as one of the Outstanding Bars in the South Kristen Farmer Hall, owner of The Essential and Bandit Patisserie Ashlee Jenkins of Roots & Revelry Adeeba Khan, co-owner of Shu Shop Megan Lankford, pastry chef at Bandit Patisserie Laura Newman, co-owner of Queens Park. Newman became the first woman to win the United States Bartenders Guild World Class Competition in 2018 Lindsey Noto, marketing associate at Sysco Rachael Roberts of The Atomic Lounge, recognized by the James Beard Foundation as one of the Outstanding Bars in the South Angela Schmidt of Brat Brot. Schmidt helped charter a Birmingham chapter of Les Dames dEscoffier This story appears in Birmingham magazines March 2020 issue. Subscribe today! Taliban raid Afghan army bases nationwide shortly after signing deal with US Iran Press TV Tuesday, 03 March 2020 2:52 PM The Taliban have carried out over a dozen attacks on Afghan military bases shortly after they signed a so-called peace deal with the United States. An unnamed Afghan Defense Ministry official told AFP on Tuesday that the militants had conducted attacks on government forces in 13 of the country's 34 provinces overnight. A government statement said two soldiers were killed in one of the attacks, which happened in southern Kandahar Province. A spokesman for the Logar Province governor, Didar Lawang, said an attack there killed five security forces. A week-long truce between the Taliban, the United States, and Afghan forces preceded the Saturday signing of the deal between the militant group and Washington in Qatar. The deal sets out a timetable for the foreign forces to quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to a pledge by the militants to hold talks with the Kabul government. The agreement calls for up to 5,000 jailed Taliban prisoners to be released in exchange for up to 1,000 Afghan government captives by March 10. The administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has since rejected that demand. Ghani said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had not asked for the release of the prisoners and that the issue had to be discussed as part of a comprehensive peace deal that includes the Kabul government. Reacting to the development on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the reduction in violence against Afghan security forces was "over." Since the deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly celebrating their "victory" over the United States. The militants have long demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops. About 2,400 US soldiers have been killed in the war. Over 100,000 Afghans have also been killed or injured since 2009, when the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began documenting casualties. The Taliban now control or hold influence over more Afghan territory than at any point since 2001. Experts say, however, that it is the Afghan government and the Taliban, rather than the US and the militant group, who should address important questions on the future of Afghanistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Less than a month ago, Elizabeth Warrens campaign expected to finish in the top two in eight of 14 Super Tuesday states, and in the top three in all of them. Even after disappointing fourth- and fifth-place finishes in New Hampshire and South Carolina, campaign manager Roger Lau said in a memo that internal projections continue to show Elizabeth winning delegates in nearly every state in play on Super Tuesday, and in a strong position to earn a sizable delegate haul coming out of the night. But by the end of Tuesday night, Warren finished in the top two in zero states not even her home state of Massachusetts, where just days ago she was in an assumed two-way battle against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont according to recent polls. Now, the campaign is reassessing their national strategy, keeping conversations internal among staff. Lau said the campaign fell well short of viability goals and projections, and we are disappointed in the results, in an email to staff obtained by ABC News. New: Elizabeth Warren's campaign manager Roger Lau has just sent an email to all staff, first thanking them, and also sharing this blunt assessment about last night: We fell well short of viability goals and projections, and we are disappointed in the results. MJ Lee (@mj_lee) March 4, 2020 Lau said the campaign is awaiting further results but said the senator is going to take time right now to think through the right way to continue this fight. This decision is in her hands, and its important that she has the time and space to consider what comes next," Lau wrote in the email. Former Vice President Joe Biden didnt actively campaign in Massachusetts - relying primarily on surrogates and endorsements from local leaders - or raise as much money as Warren or Sanders, but stormed to the top in the Bay State contest and won more than half of the Super Tuesday states. Bidens surge comes amid drop outs and endorsements by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, sparking some to switch their votes to Biden and consolidating moderate support for a well-known player in Washington, D.C. Some Sanders supporters have ramped up pressure for Warren to exit the race. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Tuesday said, Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won? Thats what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost. Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won? Thats what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost. https://t.co/lAj2mhI3GR Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 4, 2020 Warrens senior aides, and the candidate herself, have frequently said the campaign is in it for the long haul. The campaign has staff in almost three dozen states and more than 1,000 people on the ground. Warren was in Michigan on Tuesday night ahead of the battleground states primary on March 10. Comment on this story on MassLives Facebook Page North Bay voters on Tuesday defeated a sales tax measure that aimed to infuse the struggling SMART train with needed cash. Measure I would have extended a quarter-cent sales tax in Marin and Sonoma counties to 2059. It is set to expire in 2029. The tax raises an average of $40 million a year not enough to bolster SMARTs plans to build three stations, 25 miles of track and 11 miles of bike trail, even as officials try to beef up service and attract new riders. The failure most likely means cutbacks for Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, the 2-year-old passenger rail service that provides an alternative to stop-and-go traffic on Highway 101. Faced with mounting construction costs, SMART officials say the line could deplete its reserve funds by 2024 without the tax renewal. Opponents call the train a waste of taxpayer money and say it benefits only a small slice of the population in Marin and Sonoma counties. Records show that 2,847 passengers rode the transit system on weekdays in January, which is sparse compared with the 720,000 people on Muni. Unlike BART an older and established counterpart SMART doesnt connect directly to a major job center. Riders heading from North Bay suburbs to offices in San Francisco must transfer to a bus or ferry for the last leg of their trip. That design makes it difficult for SMART to lure commuters off the freeways. Despite the failure, officials will seek other attempts to extend the tax, the trains General Manager Farhad Mansourian said. A renewal would ensure long-term funding for the transit system, allowing managers to restructure its construction debt and free up $12.2 million annually that could go into operations. Measure I had support from a bevy of politicians in Marin and Sonoma counties, including two North Bay congressmen, five state legislators, several mayors, 11 supervisors and two school superintendents. Yet the opposition was fierce, propelled by hundreds of thousands of dollars from the daughter of an influential developer. Transparency, accountability, looking after taxpayer resources (these are) things the SMART board hasnt done, said Mike Arnold, a spokesman for the No on I campaign. They are going nine years early and asking for a 30-year extension, he added. It flies in the face of transparency and accountability. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. With Tuesdays rejection, SMART may have to reduce service, eliminate Wi-Fi on its trains, stall its extension north to Cloverdale and halt the expansion of a bike path that follows its tracks, Board of Directors chair Eric Lucan said. That path is 24 miles long, with another 10 miles planned and funded. Officials had pledged to lengthen it to 45 miles but need money to do it. The board will be presented with some very difficult decisions Lucan said. Without the financial reservoir guaranteed by the tax, SMART would be handicapped if it tried to compete for state and federal grants, Lucan added. He said that could hobble future capital projects. Nonetheless, he insisted that nobodys going to derail this train. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan There are plenty of reasons to not post your Starbucks cup with your name on it online, the biggest one being that no one, literally no one gives a f*ck, but well, sometimes it can also lead to police arresting criminals. After years of being able to outsmart the police, Delhi gangster Jitender Maan, aka Gogi, was ultimately caught after a picture of a Starbucks cup with his name on it was posted on Facebook. Okay, background story first, the guy in question is apparently one of the most wanted gangsters and extortionists in the city. He's known to extort huge amounts of money from rich businessmen and politicians alike and calling it "protection", and of course, he threatened them against calling the police. Back in 2016, the police did manage to catch him after a deadly stand-off between him and his rival, but unfortunately, he managed to escape the police custody. The police had not been able to catch him since then, but an innocent little Starbucks cup became his downfall. Just like every person who's ever had Starbucks, one of Gogi's close associates, Kuldeep Maan, aka Fajja also decided to share the picture of his cup online without realizing how much of a risk it was. After seeing that one of the cups in the picture had the name 'Gogi' on it, the police was able to get a lead on him and they went through all the Starbucks in the city before they found his whereabouts. Talking to The Indian Express, DCP (Special Cell) Manishi Chandra said, "We got information that Gogi and his gang members were living in a flat at Mapsko Casabella, Sector 82. Accompanied by a SWAT team, special cell personnel surrounded Block B-4. Finding no escape route, the men surrendered." What is the lesson here? Stop sharing your Starbucks cup pictures, no one cares! The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed banks and financial institutions to provide services related to cryptocurrencies by setting aside the RBI circular of 2018 which had prohibited them. Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of their units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice R F Nariman, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular is liable to be set aside on the ground of "proportionality". "Accordingly, the writ petitions are allowed and the circular dated April 6, 2018 is set aside," said the bench, also comprising justices Aniruddha Bose and V Ramasubramanian. "When the consistent stand of RBI is that they have not banned VCs (virtual currencies) and when the Government of India is unable to take a call despite several committees coming up with several proposals including two draft bills, both of which advocated exactly opposite positions, it is not possible for us to hold that the impugned measure is proportionate," the bench said in its 180-page verdict. The apex court delivered the verdict on pleas challenging the RBI circular. According to the circular, the entities regulated by the RBI were prohibited from "providing any service in relation to virtual currencies including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies". The court said there is no doubt that RBI has very wide powers not only in view of the statutory scheme, but also in view of the special place and role it has in the economy of the country. These powers can be exercised both in the form of preventive as well as curative measures but the availability of power is different from the manner and extent to which it can be exercised, it said. The petitioner, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), had argued in the top court that the RBI had banned cryptocurrencies on "moral grounds" as no prior studies were conducted to analyse their effect on the economy. It had contended that the RBI barred all the entities regulated by it from providing services to any individual or business dealing in virtual currencies. Regarding the petitioners' comparison with other countries on the issue, the bench said in its judgement that the judicial decision cannot be coloured by what other countries have done or not done. The court said the petitioners argument that most of the countries, except China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, UAE, have not imposed a ban (total or partial) may not take them anywhere as the list of nations where such a ban has been imposed discloses a commonality. "Almost all countries in the neighbourhood of India have adopted the same or similar approach (in essence India is ring fenced). In any case, our judicial decision cannot be coloured by what other countries have done or not done. "Comparative perspective helps only in relation to principles of judicial decision making and not for testing the validity of an action taken based on the existing statutory scheme," it said. There can also be no comparison with the approach adopted by countries such as UK, US, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada as they have developed economies capable of absorbing greater shocks, the bench said. "Indian economic conditions cannot be placed on par. Therefore, we will not test the correctness of the measure taken by RBI on the basis of the approach adopted by other countries, though we have, for better understanding of the complexities of the issues involved, undertaken a survey of how the regulators and courts of other countries have treated VCs,' it said. The court said persons who have suffered a deadly blow from the RBI's circular are only those running VC exchanges and not even those who are trading in VCs. "Persons trading in VCs, even now have different options.... But the VC exchanges do not appear to have found out any other means of survival (at least as of now) if they are disconnected from the banking channels," it said. The court also said that as on date VCs are not banned, but the trading in VCs and the functioning of VC exchanges are sent to comatose by the RBI's circular by disconnecting their lifeline, that is, the interface with the regular banking sector. The court noted that the RBI's concern is about the entities regulated by it and till now, it has not come out with a stand that any of the entities regulated by it, be it nationalised banks/ scheduled commercial banks/ cooperative banks or NBFCs, has suffered any loss or adverse effect directly or indirectly, on account of the interface that the VC exchanges had with any of them. It is not the case of RBI that any of the entities regulated by it has suffered on account of the provision of banking services to the online platforms running VC exchanges, it added. In 2013, the RBI in an advisory cautioned users, holders, and traders of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection, and security-related risks that they were exposing themselves to. On July 3, 2018 while hearing IMAI's plea, the top court had refused to stay the RBI circular prohibiting banks and financial institutions from dealing with the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump signaled to GOP lawmakers Tuesday that he will not sign an extension of federal surveillance laws unless the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process is reformed, telling lawmakers to work out a bipartisan deal. Trump met privately on Tuesday to discuss the expiring USA Freedom Act with Attorney General William Barr and House and Senate Republican leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as other lawmakers. It was a spirited discussion. The president made it exceedingly clear he will not accept a clean re-authorization without real reform, said libertarian Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican. He was told by the attorney general, we can massage around the edges and we can fix this through regulation, the president didnt accept that, pushed back very vigorously and said were not doing this.' Lawmakers are currently at an impasse over how and whether to extend three surveillance laws under the USA Freedom Act that expire March 15. Some GOP lawmakers have pushed for an extension of a month, so they have time to work out a deal with Democrats. Trump, however, reportedly appeared reluctant to agree to any extension that would last longer than a few weeks. My own preference is to extend these three or four expiring authorities, McConnell said. But there are differences among my members and among the Democrats on the way forward. Whether we can resolve those and pass new legislation is unclear. If were unable to resolve our differences, my preference would be for another extension. The Justice Departments inspector general concluded last year that the FBI omitted crucial details in its requests for warrants to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page, saying the agency neglected to mention that some information the warrant applications were based on was shaky. The FBI did not inform the FISA court that the controversial Steele dossier, cited in applications to spy on Page, was unreliable, and Horowitz found 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions in the warrants to spy on Page. Story continues Since then, Trump and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have raised the alarm about the FISA process and called for sweeping reforms in order to safeguard Americans from abuse. More from National Review Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar told the Bombay High Court here on Wednesday that courts can not order registration of a case against a particular person. The NCP leader had faced allegations of corruption in an alleged scam related to irrigation projects in Vidarbha. The Anti-Corruption Bureau of state police told the Nagpur bench of the HC last year that there was no evidence against Pawar. He filed the latest affidavit in response to an application by Atul Jagtap seeking that the court monitor the probe of the multi-crore scam. The application also demanded transfer of the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Pawar, during the Congress-NCP government in the state prior to 2014, was the head of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation in his capacity as irrigation minister. His affidavit said the state had already set the criminal law in motion, and the courts cannot look into or supervise the investigation in such a case. Moreover, the courts can not direct that a particular person be made an accused, it added. "There is no scope of judicial tailoring of a police investigation," the deputy CM said in the affidavit. A court supervises a probe only to ensure there is no undue delay and the investigation is carried out in a fair and just manner without external interference, it said. Pawar also averred that he had not indulged in any "corrupt, motivated or malafide acts" while discharging his duties as a minister. The high court had on February 13 refused to make CBI and ED respondents to Jagtap's plea while directing Pawar to file an affidavit-in-reply. The next hearing would be on March 13. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fans quickly expressed themselves on social media, with some criticizing the city both for overreacting and for delaying the announcement of their decision, and others following a "safety first" perspective. Many noted that fans booked flights and hotels many weeks in advance, and are likely to come to the city, where Miami Music Week will be taking place, regardless. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses a meeting of the Environment Council at the European Parliament in Brussels. (AP) Greta Thunberg has hit out at the EUs plan to combat climate change by branding it so weak that it amounts to surrender. The Swedish environmental campaigner told EU leaders at the European Parliament in Brussels that they should prove that you mean it when it comes to tackling the threat to life on Earth as we know it. Describing the blocs climate law as empty words, the 17-year-old said: "You said that this was an existential treat, now you must prove that you mean it. Great Thunberg accused the EU of 'empty words'. (AP) "We will not be satisfied with anything less than a science-based pathway that gives us the best possible chance to safeguard the future living conditions for humanity and life on earth as we know it. "Anything else is surrender: this climate law is surrender, because nature doesn't bargain, and you cannot make deals with physics. We will not allow you to surrender on our future. Read more: Greta Thunberg responds to explicit cartoon mocking her The EU has set a target of 2050 to reach net-zero carbon emissions - the same as the target set by the UK Government. However, the terms of the Paris climate agreement state that richer countries are expected to reach the target quicker something that Thunberg highlighted. She went on: "We don't just need goals for 2030 or 2050, we above all need them for 2020 and every year to come. The EU has set a target of 2050 to reach net-zero carbon emissions. (AP) We need to start cutting carbon emissions drastically at the source, now. Your distant targets will mean nothing is high emissions continue for business as usual even for just a few more years, because that will use up our remaining carbon budget before you have the chance to even deliver on your 2030 goals. She added: "When your house is on fire you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet, this is what the Commission are proposing today. Read more: Hidden island in Antarctica resurfaces as climate change melts ice "When the EU presents this climate law and net zero by 2050 you indirectly admit surrender: that you are giving up on the Paris agreement, giving up on your promises and giving up on doing everything that you possibly can to ensure a safe future for your children." Story continues European Commissioner for European Green Deal Frans Timmermans defended the EU's plans. (AP) Defending the new law, President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: We are acting today to make the EU the worlds first climate neutral economic bloc by 2050. Read more: Half of worlds sandy beaches could disappear by the end of the century The Climate Law is the legal translation of our political commitment, and sets us irreversibly on the path to a more sustainable future. It is the heart of the European Green Deal. Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, added: We are turning words into action today, to show our European citizens that we are serious about reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Climate Law will ensure we stay focused and disciplined, remain on the right track and are accountable for delivery. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK [Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race.] Senator Elizabeth Warren, who last summer rose to the top of polls in several presidential primary states, on Tuesday reached the nadir of her bid for the White House: a third-place finish in her home state, Massachusetts. Ms. Warren lost after liberal voters split sharply between her and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who flew into the state last weekend to campaign in hopes of dealing her a powerful setback. But instead it was former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. who came in first place in Massachusetts, winning voters over 50, moderates, black voters and even some liberals. The result represented her worst-case scenario. Ms. Warren had already finished in third place or worse in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. That left her on the sidelines after Mr. Sanders and Mr. Biden picked up momentum and dominated the 16 Super Tuesday contests, which included delegate-rich states like California, Texas and North Carolina, as well as Democratic strongholds like Massachusetts. Super Tuesday ended with the campaign effectively a contest between two clear front-runners, Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders, who have represented the partys moderate and liberal wings for most of the last year. Ms. Warren competed for months against Mr. Sanders to be the progressive standard-bearer in the race, but on Super Tuesday she did not win any contests. It was at a meeting in the Central Hall of Parliament on Wednesday where, among other issues, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi discussed how the Narendra Modi government was not allowing a discussion on the Delhi riots. Soon after, a decision was taken to make the point by directly reaching out to people. It was also decided that a small delegation of party leaders would visit some violence-hit areas. The team was carefully selected K Suresh and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were chosen as leaders of the Lok Sabha, KC Venugopal as organisation in-charge, Randeep Surjewala as communications in-charge, and Kumari Shelja to reach out to women victims. The Congress said Rahul was denied permission to visit the riot-affected area following which he decided to go to Brijpura. This was a carefully made choice as, sources say, he didnt want to stoke a controversy and also wanted to get the political nuance right by visiting a school. Sources also say he was moved after the visit and told his colleagues what has the country come to? Rahul has been criticised by the BJP leadership for politicising the communal riots. Hours after the visit, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the grand old party, which has a legacy (of instigating) over 5,000 riots, is provoking political tourism. Naqvi accused Rahul of Provoking "political tourism to disturb peace and harmony", tweeting that "peace and Harmony should be our priority and not provocative political propaganda. Provoking Political Tourism to disturb Peace & Harmony.. Peace & Harmony should be our priority not Provocative Political Propaganda.. Brand New Politics over unfortunate riots by Grand Old Party which has a Legacy of over 5000 riots. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (@naqvimukhtar) March 4, 2020 However, there is a reason why Rahul decided to lead a delegation to northeast Delhi to show that the Congress, with zero seats in the national capital, took the initiative at a time when BJP and AAP leaders chose to stay away. Also, focus on the silence of Home Minister Amit Shah. In fact, the Congress has been demanding the resignation of Shah, whose ministry is in charge of law and order in Delhi, since the riots broke out last week. A cue was set by the partys interim president, Sonia Gandhi, at a press conference she addressed last week over the riots. And, for Rahul, it is a part of his single-minded focus to repeat his stand that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is divisive and the BJP follows the mindset of its parent organisation. However, a section in the Congress is worried about the message put across through the visit. This will be in contradiction to our efforts to project our party with soft Hindutva leanings, said a Congress functionary. She was the picture of happiness as she spent time in New York with her boyfriend over the weekend. But, Camila Morrone, 22, came over all camera-shy as she stepped out without Leonardo DiCaprio, 45, for dinner in Los Angeles, on Tuesday night. The model and budding actress looked edgy in an all-black ensemble as she left celeb hotspot Madeo in Beverly Hills. Why so shy? Camila Morrone, 22, came over all camera-shy as she stepped out without Leonardo DiCaprio, 45, for dinner in Los Angeles, on Tuesday night Camila showcased her slim pins in skin-tight leather look trousers, which she teamed with strappy black stilettos. The star displayed her flair for fashion with an oversized leather-look blazer for maximum impact as she carried her belongings in a classic Chanel handbag. The Mickey and the Bear actress further amped up the sex appeal of her look with her brunette tresses styled into effortless waves. Camila's natural beauty was enhanced with a polished make-up look complete with thick cat eye liner. Stunning: The model and budding actress looked edgy in an all-black ensemble as she left celeb hotspot Madeo in Beverly Hills Sensational: Camila showcased her slim pins in skin-tight leather look trousers, which she teamed with strappy black stilettos The couple reportedly started dating in the ladder part of 2017 after meeting at an event in South Beach, Florida. Leonardo and Camila only appeared to confirm their romance in 2018 with a string of public outings. It wasn't until the 2020 Oscars that they made their official public debut in front of the sea of photographers. Designer diva: The star displayed her flair for fashion with an oversized leather-look blazer for maximum impact as she carried her belongings in a classic Chanel handbag Gorgeous: The Mickey and the Bear actress further amped up the sex appeal of her look with her brunette tresses styled into effortless waves It was then that there was that the Django Unchained star was finally getting ready to settle down. A source told US Weekly last November the couple were 'very serious' and 'everyone is saying that marriage could be soon for them.' 'Theyve talked about getting engaged,' with the source adding that Leonardo is now even, 'ready to have kids.' Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The official announcement was made just after 3am. But it had been clear from late on Wednesday that the airline was going out of business. Passengers with bookings for Thursdays flights were told by text at 2am: All Flybe and Stobart Air operated flights have been cancelled with immediate effect. Please do not travel to the airport as your flight will not be operating. If you are booked to travel on a Blue Islands or Eastern Airways operated flight, these are expected to still operate. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. This has been compounded by the outbreak of coronavirus which in the last few days has resulted in a significant impact on demand. Flybe has been a key part of the UK aviation industry for four decades, connecting regional communities, people and businesses across the entire nation. I thank all our partners and the communities we have been privileged to serve. Above all I would like to thank the Flybe team for their incredible commitment and dedication. A government spokesperson said: We have asked bus and train operators to accept Flybe tickets and other airlines to offer reduced rescue fares to ensure passengers can make their journeys as smoothly as possible. We know this will be a worrying time for Flybe staff and our Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service stands ready to help them find a new job as soon as possible. We are working closely with industry to minimise any disruption to routes operated by Flybe, including by looking urgently at how routes not already covered by other airlines can be re-established by the industry. Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority, said: This is a sad day for UK aviation and we know that Flybes decision to stop trading will be very distressing for all of its employees and customers. The Exeter-based airline was bought a year ago by a consortium headed by Virgin Atlantic, and involving Stobart Group and the US hedge fund Cyrus Capital. The owners put in at least 100m to keep Flybe afloat, but it was making such heavy losses that the money soon ran out. The consortium had asked the government for a loan, and to defer its payment of Air Passenger Duty. The continued spread of coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, has hit airlines around the world as people stop travelling. While the coronavirus crisis will be blamed for hastening the demise of Flybe, its business plan has been derided by competitors. Some of those rivals are now expected to set up short-notice replacement flights, especially for links to and from Belfast City airport which is heavily dependent on the failed carrier. A spokesperson for Birmingham airport said: We already have arrangements for two airlines to replace five of its routes in the next few weeks. We will continue to engage with other airlines to replace the remaining capacity for our region and customers. Flybe was selling tickets up to 10pm, despite aircraft already being impounded earlier in the evening. The Guernsey-based airline, Blue Islands, said its services which had been branded as Flybe will continue to operate. Passengers with bookings for travel on Blue Islands operated services are advised to check-in on time at the airport, it said. Visitors to the Flybe website on Wednesday evening were met with this message If you already have a booking for 5 March 2020, please check in on time. It will be possible to book any available seats on Blue Islands operated services at the airport. The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) blamed the government for the failure. The general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: A year ago Flybe was taken over by new owners with promises of funding for a bright future. Six weeks ago, when the ownership consortium lost confidence, the government promised a rescue package, apparently at that time recognising the value of Flybe to the regional economy of the UK. Throughout, pilots, cabin crew and ground staff have done their jobs brilliantly, while behind the scenes the owners and, sadly, government connived to walk away. Flybe staff will feel disgusted at this betrayal and these broken promises. Airlines that went bust Show all 12 1 /12 Airlines that went bust Airlines that went bust Air Berlin Air Berlin, which operated flights to and from Berlin Tegel, went bankrupt in 2017 Getty Airlines that went bust Small Planet Lithuanian airline Small Planet filed for insolvency at the end of 2018 Igor Dvurekov Airlines that went bust Monarch Airlines The airline ceased operations in October 2017 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust VLM Antwerp-based VLM went bankrupt in September 2018 Flo Weiss Airlines that went bust Germania German airline Germania filed for insolvency in February 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Kingfisher Founded in 2005 ceased flying in October 2012 AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust Cobalt Cobalt, based in Larnaca, Cyprus, stopped flying in October 2018 Steve Lynes Airlines that went bust Mexicana An airline that had been in operation since 1921, went bust in August 2010. It was Mexico's largest airline AFP/Getty Airlines that went bust WOW Air Icelandic Wow Air ceased operation in March 2019 Getty Airlines that went bust Primera Primera, known for its cheap transatlantic fares, went bust in October 2018 Getty Airlines that went bust Transaero A privately-owened airline founded in Russia, 1990 lasted until October 2015 Getty Airlines that went bust Malev After 66 years, Hungary's national airline went stopped flying in 2012 AFP/Getty Almost 1,000 staff were based at Flybes Exeter headquarters, with Birmingham, Manchester and Southampton important bases. It operated 119 routes, but the vast majority of its services connected UK airports. The collapse is the fourth notable failure of a UK airline in less than four years. Monarch went out of business in October 2017, Flybmi in February 2019 and Thomas Cook Airlines in September 2019. A second case of coronavirus (Covid-19) was The individual is a female who travelled home to the east of Ireland from northern Italy, where the first confirmed case had visited before they too returned home. The people in the two cases are not known to each other and had not been in contact. Department of Health officials, who said last night that they expect the number of isolated confirmed cases will increase further, were informed around 6pm. Department of Health chief medical officer Tony Holohan later told reporters: Were confirming Ireland has diagnosed one new case of Covid-19. The case arises in a female in the east of the country and is associated with travel from northern Italy. We have now 397 people in total who have been tested as of Monday, March 2. Health chiefs said as soon as they discovered the second case yesterday evening, they interviewed the woman and specifically asked her with whom she had been in contact. She was also asked to trace exactly where she had been and to give an idea of where she may have come into contact with other people. They said public health officials will then make contact with everybody she can identify, but they were unwilling to say how many people have had to be approached. As a result of this latest development, there will be a senior officials group meeting of a new committee that the Cabinet decided to establish yesterday. Dr Holohan said this would be to strengthen the national response in relation to coronavirus. There will also be a meeting of the previously-established expert advisory group. Dr Holohan said that the Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its travel advice. For Italy, the department is now advising against non-essential travel to the regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna. A shortage of antibacterial hand sanitizer on the shelves at a supermarket. (Joe Giddens/PA Wire) Dr Holohan said the health service chiefs expect to see more isolated cases but they are also preparing for worse-case scenarios. And he reiterated advice issued on Monday by the EUs European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. This stated: The risk for people from the EU/EEA and the UK travelling/resident in areas with more widespread local transmission is currently considered to be high. Dr Holohan said: We continue to expect to see isolated cases like the ones we have had. We dont necessarily plan on the basis that it is going to be confined to that. Into our planning assumptions, we build the risk assessment the ECDPC published on Monday. He reminded reporters that this advice says the risk of widespread community transfer transmission happening within weeks is a possibility somewhere else in the European region. However, he added: We are not necessarily saying we believe that is going to be in this country. There is no evidence of local transmission or community transmission having taken place in this country. He was asked about social media reports about a letter to a young band warning them to self-isolate that the HSE said was a hoax but that Health Minister Simon Harris had to later admit was not a hoax. Dr Holohan was also asked about large gatherings, like St Patricks Day parades. He said that, as things appear at the moment, he didnt see why there shouldnt be parades and events like it. Our advice in relation to mass gatherings may well change depending on the status of the infection. Our response will be guided by international advice but as things now stand, we see no reason why that wouldnt take place. TEL AVIV, Israel March 3, 2020 June 14-15 June 15-16, 2020 Saul Kaye About CannaTech About PsyTech Summit /PRNewswire/ -- In light of developing circumstances with the COVID-19 coronavirus and based on recommendations from the Israeli Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CannaTech Tel Aviv and PsyTech Summit are postponed. PsyTech Summit will take placeand CannaTech,, CEO of iCAN: Israel-Cannabis commented: "Our number one concern is the health and safety of our attendees and speakers, our partners, our colleagues and our vendors. While we are disappointed to postpone both CannaTech Tel Aviv & PsyTech Summit, we are very confident it will be worth the wait."We thank our sponsors and attendees for their understanding and wish all those affected by the virus our very best. We are fully committed to create beautifully crafted events in June that will showcase the brands and solutions that fuel this industry."CannaTech is the only Medical Cannabis event of its kind with a global focus that offers senior industry leaders, medical and scientific experts, and new ventures the platform to come together, drive innovation, form partnerships and promote knowledge exchange.Click here for more information about CannaTech.PsyTech Summit is the global industry event for innovation in psychedelic medicine. With renewed research interest in LSD, MDMA, Ketamine and psilocybin, and a growing normalization after decades of stigma, psychedelics are quickly becoming the next therapeutic frontier.Click here for more information about PsyTech Summit.For further information contact Laura Kam, laura@kamgs.com, +972-54-806-8613. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cannatech-tel-aviv--psytech-summit-postponed-301015876.html SOURCE CannaTech Debra Harrell (R) and her daughter Regina are seen in a recent Stossel TV video. (Screenshot/YouTube) Forbidden Parenting Commentary South Carolina mom Debra Harrell worked at McDonalds. She couldnt afford day care for Regina, her 9-year-old daughter, so she took her to work. But Regina was bored at McDonalds. One day, she asked if she could just play in the neighborhood park instead. I felt safe there, tells me in my new video, because I was with my friends and their parents. She had her cellphone, a pocketbook with money in it, says Debra. She had everything she needed. Regina was happy. Debra was happy. But one parent asked Regina where her mom was, and then called the police. Officers went to McDonalds and arrested Debra. In jail, they berated her. You cant leave a child who is 9 years old in the park by herself! said one officer. What if some sex offender came by? People interviewed by the media were also outraged. What if a man came and just snatched her? asked one. This day and time, you never know whos around! said another. But what are they talking about? Crime in America is way down, half what it was in the 90s. Reports of missing children are also down. If kids are kidnapped or molested, its almost always by a relative or an acquaintance, not by a stranger in a park. Nevertheless, prosecutors charged Debra Harrell with willful abandonment of a child, a crime that carries up to a 10-year sentence. They also took Regina away from her momfor two weeks. I would cry as night because I was really scared, Regina told me. I didnt know where I was, or what was going on. Fortunately, attorney Robert Phillips took Debras case for free. He didnt like the way police and media portrayed her. Here was this black female that society gives a hard time. Welfare queens, living at home, not getting a job! Well, thats what she was doing, he said. She was out working, trying the best she could to take care of her child. And now were beating her up because we didnt like the way she took care of her child. The cops said that Harrell should have sent her daughter to day care. But even if she could have afforded it, its not clear that day care is safer. We found 42 incidents of sexual molestations, rapes in day cares, said Phillips. We couldnt find (in South Carolina in the last 20 years) a single abduction in a park. Philips blames people in my business for scaring people about the wrong things. The media has brought up this stranger danger to where, if youre not under the protective wings of mom and dad 24/7, then youre exposing your child to some unknown danger. That has frightened police and child welfare workers into taking absurd steps when parents leave children alone. In Maryland, police accused parents of child neglect for letting their kids roam around their neighborhood. In Kentucky, after police reported a mom who left her kids in the car while she dashed into a store, child welfare workers strip-searched the kids to make sure they werent being abused. This doesnt protect kids. It mostly scares parents into depriving their kids of chances to learn. When you dont let them spread their wings, thats when they get in trouble! says Debra. She was fortunate that her case got enough attention that even Nikki Haley, then South Carolinas governor, asked that Regina be given back to her mom. Prosecutors finally dropped the child abandonment charge. Its just not right that when stranger kidnappings are increasingly rare, police and child welfare workers are more eager to punish parents who let kids play on their own. A Utah law guarantees that giving kids some reasonable independence isnt neglect, says Lenore Skenazy, of the nonprofit Let Grow, More states need this! Of course, some parents are so neglectful that government should intervene. But as lawyer Phillips put it, they should intervene only if you are subjecting your child to a real harm. We should not have unreasonable intrusions by the government telling us every little detail how to raise our children. John Stossel is an Award-winning news correspondent and best-selling author. His latest book is No, They Cant: Why Government FailsBut Individuals Succeed. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. DALLAS, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. (NYSE: WHG), a focused investment management boutique offering high-conviction equity and outcome-oriented solutions, announces today, that Westwood SmallCap mutual fund A Class (WHGAX) has been added to the Q1 2020 Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource Select List. Schwabs Mutual Fund OneSource Select List is comprised of funds available without a load or transaction fee through the Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource service that offer the best combination of factors such as performance, risk and expense. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory, Inc. (CSIA) conducts extensive research on the full range of actively managed funds available through Schwabs Mutual Fund OneSource service. We are pleased that one of our premier mutual funds has been added to the Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource Select List and is one of only five funds in its category, says Harvey Steele, Head of Intermediary at Westwood. The Westwood SmallCap Fund is indicative of our high-conviction approach and proprietary U.S. Equity research, which consistently results in strong investment performance. We appreciate CSIA recognizing this Fund and adding it to this exclusive list. Westwood SmallCap Fund Institutional Shares (WHGSX) and Class A (WHGAX) are four-star rated as of Dec. 31, 2019 (overall Morningstar rating against 630 funds in the Small Blend category based on risk-adjusted returns). The Fund is actively managed and utilizes a fundamental, bottom-up security selection process. Westwood SmallCap typically invests in 50 to 70 companies with market capitalizations between $100M and $2B that have conservative balance sheets, strong free cash flow and the potential for attractive future returns. Annualized Fund Performance As of 12/31/2019 A Share Class Trailing Year Performance YTD* 1-Yr Trailing 3-Yrs Trailing 5-Yrs Trailing 10 Yrs Trailing Since Inception** SmallCap Fund Net of Fees N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 11.46% Gross Expense Ratio: 1.20% Net Expense Ratio: 1.04%; the advisor has contractually agreed to reduce fees and reimburse expenses until Feb. 28, 2020. Institutional Share Class Trailing Year Performance YTD* 1-Yr Trailing 3-Yrs Trailing 5-Yrs Trailing 10 Yrs Trailing Since Inception SmallCap Fund Net of Fees 27.13% 31.13% 7.03% 8.16% 12.90% 7.94% Gross Expense Ratio: 1.08% Net Expense Ratio: 0.99%; the advisor has contractually agreed to reduce fees and reimburse expenses until Feb. 28, 2021. The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investors shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost, and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. For performance data current to the most recent month end, please call 1.877.FUND.WHG. *YTD figure is calculated as of the most recent month end. **The Westwood SmallCap Fund A Class Share (WHGAX) is available No Load, No Transaction Fee on Schwab OneSource. The Westwood SmallCap Fund I Class Share (WHGSX) is also available at Charles Schwab and is subject to a Transaction Fee. Please refer to the Funds Prospectus for additional information on fees and expenses. About Westwood Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. is a focused investment management boutique and wealth management firm. Westwood offers high-conviction equity and outcome-oriented solutions to institutional investors, private wealth clients and financial intermediaries. The firm specializes in three distinct investment capabilities: U.S. Value Equity, Multi-Asset and Emerging Markets Equity. To meet the full range of investors financial needs, access to these strategies is available through separate accounts, the Westwood Funds family of mutual funds, UCITS funds and other pooled vehicles. Westwood benefits from significant, broad-based employee ownership and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WHG. Based in Dallas, Westwood also maintains offices in Boston, Houston and Toronto. [1] Morningstar ran a search of Funds within the Market Neutral category, and none showed a Performance Fee within this data point. Please note this confirms our internal channel checks as well. To determine if this Fund is an appropriate investment for you, carefully consider the Funds investment objectives, risk factors and charges and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds prospectus which may be obtained by calling 877.FUND.WHG (877.386.3944). Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Mutual fund investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its stated objectives. There are specific risks inherent in small cap investing such as greater share price volatility as compared to other funds that invest in stocks of companies with larger and potentially more stable market capitalizations. Schwab, Mutual Fund OneSource, and Mutual Fund OneSource Select List are trademarks of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and used with permission. Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. are not affiliated. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC) receives remuneration from fund companies in the Mutual Fund OneSource service for recordkeeping and shareholder services, and other administrative services. Schwab also may receive remuneration from transaction fee fund companies for certain administrative services. The amount of fees Schwab or its affiliates receive from funds participating in the Mutual Fund OneSource service is not considered in the Select List selection, nor does any fund pay Schwab to be included in the Select List. 2020 Morningstar. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The Westwood Funds are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. (SIDCO). SIDCO is not affiliated with Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. or any other affiliate. SIDCO is located at 1 Freedom Valley Drive, Oaks PA 19456. The Morningstar Rating for funds, or star rating, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales load. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. As of 12/31/2019: WHGSX and WHGAX) were rated against the following numbers of U.S.-domiciled Small Blend funds over the following time periods: 630 funds in the last three years, 507 funds in the last five years and 367 funds in the last ten years. With respect to these Small Blend funds, the Westwood SmallCap Fund received a Morningstar Rating of 3 of 5 stars for the three-year period, 3 of 5 stars for the five-year period and 4 of 5 stars for the ten-year period. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Class A Morningstar Rating is an estimate based on the performance of the funds oldest share class, adjusted for fees. Other share class ratings may vary. Contact: Sheana Suek 214.756.6900 ssuek@westwoodgroup.com DETROIT - Lawyers urged the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday to clear the way for Flint residents to sue state officials over lead-contaminated water. The case at the states highest court is one of many in state and federal courts over the scandal. Whats unique, however, is that it could break ground in exposing public officials to liability over alleged violations of the state constitution. Justice Stephen Markman peppered lawyers on both sides with questions, acknowledging that the Flint water crisis was a terrible harm. But not every harm, he added, violates the constitution and deserves a remedy. The attorney generals office is appealing a 2018 decision by the state appeals court, which said that Flint residents could pursue a violation of their right to bodily integrity. Julie Hurwitz, an attorney for a large potential class of Flint residents, said the case involves tainted water but the issue is much broader: a right to have government tell citizens the truth. If we cannot hold this state accountable for its role in perpetuating an ongoing invasion of poison in our communities, I would suggest our constitution would not be worth the paper its written on, Hurwitz said. Flint used water from the Flint River in 2014-15 without treating it to reduce a corrosive effect on old pipes. As a result, lead leached into the system. The river was supposed to be a temporary step while a pipeline was built to Lake Huron. A panel appointed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder said the Snyder administration was fundamentally accountable for the crisis because of decisions made by environmental regulators. In remarks to the Supreme Court, Assistant Attorney General Nate Gambill said the appeals court ruling should be overturned. Hes representing Snyder and two state departments. There is no policy maker who authorized or mandated that low-level staffers go out and expose the plaintiffs to toxic water, Gambill argued. He also said Flint residents had a six-month window to file notice of a lawsuit and waited too long. Justice Richard Bernstein said the case will determine if Flint residents can at least get a foot in the courthouse. Thats the only thing before us, Bernstein said. ___ Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap The George Medal awarded to a former heavyweight boxer for helping to thwart an attempted kidnap of the Princess Royal has sold for 50,000 at auction. Ronnie Russell, 72, punched Ian Ball twice in the head as he tried to kidnap Anne at gunpoint in central London in March 1974. For his bravery, he was awarded the George Medal by the Queen, who told him: 'The medal is from the Queen, but I want to thank you as Anne's mother.' Mr Russell, who now lives in Bristol, has treasured the medal ever since but put it up for auction to pay for his funeral costs after suffering ill-health. Ronnie Russell, pictured, was presented with the George Medal for defending Princess Anne in an attempted kidnap in 1974 He was at auction house Dix Noonan Webb in central London on Wednesday to see the medal, which had been expected to fetch up to 20,000, sold for 50,000 to a private collector in the UK. Speaking afterwards, Mr Russell said: 'For something I thought that I would never sell, I never believed it would sell for this amount. 'I am absolutely blown away with this price and it gives me opportunities to do things that I never thought we could.' The medal was sold with related items, including a letter from 10 Downing Street informing Mr Russell of the award, a telegram from the Princess Royal and a letter from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The now 72-year-old former boxer, pictured here, second from right, in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace after the incident, received a special message from the Queen, also pictured, who told him: 'The medal is from the Queen, but I want to thank you as Anne's mother' Ian Ball had blocked the princess's car with his own as it drove along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, and fired a series of shots through the rear window, as this picture from the aftermath shows. Mr Russell, initially thought it was a road rage incident but rushed to Anne's assistance when he realised what was happening Mr Russell, pictured here in 1974, said he hit the assailant as hard as he could, adding: 'If he had been a tree he would have fallen over and he was flat on the floor face down' Mr Russell, who boxed at the Repton Club in Bethnal Green, east London, was an area manager for Exclusive Office Cleaning in the capital at the time of the kidnap attempt. He had been working in Princess Square on Pall Mall on the evening of March 20 in 1974 and set off back home to Strood, Kent, at about 8pm. Ball had blocked the princess's car with his own as it drove along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, and fired a series of shots through the rear window. Mr Russell, who is 6ft 2in and weighed 17 stone, initially thought it was a road rage incident but rushed to Anne's assistance when he realised what was happening. He later recalled how the princess told Ball 'Just go away and don't be such a silly man' as he tried to drag her from the car. 'I hit him as hard as I could if he had been a tree he would have fallen over and he was flat on the floor face down,' Mr Russell said. The medal, pictured, has been sold for 50,000 at auction after Mr Russell admitted he needed the money to pay for his funeral costs after suffering ill-health Anne and her then husband, Captain Mark Phillips, were unhurt during the ambush. But the princess's personal detective, chauffeur, a police constable and a journalist were all shot by Ball, who was armed with two revolvers. Ball was later sent to a psychiatric hospital by an Old Bailey judge. Reflecting on the incident, Mr Russell added: 'I honestly thought that I was going to die. But I didn't care. I still believe that the life of a member of the Royal Family is much more important than mine. 'I just stood rigid and braced myself, waiting for the shot I expected to come and hit me in the back.' Auctioneer Oliver Pepys, associate director of Dix Noonan Webb, said the price fetched by the medal reflected Mr Russell's remarkable story. 'Ronnie Russell displayed an outstanding act of gallantry, and it is fitting that his George Medal achieved such a fantastic price at today's auction a price that not only reflects the wonderful story of courage behind the medal, but also shows how strong the market for medals currently is,' Mr Pepys said. Nika was found on the side of a road halfway around the world, left for dead. But the spunky shepherd mix is a survivor, and now the pup is getting the care she needs in Pittsburgh. Meet Nika: Watch the report in the video player above. With her powerful front legs, Nika doesn't let the birth defect that left her unable to use her back legs keep her from being the energetic puppy she's meant to be. "She's a good little girl. She loves to play with toys and meet new people," said Debbie Raible, of Paws Across Pittsburgh. "She can go very, very fast. She hops like Tigger. She's a very busy little girl." Raible saw a Facebook post from a group of women in Armenia who found Nika thrown away with the trash. Those women nursed the dog back to health, and Paws Across Pittsburgh came to her rescue. It took three days and multiple flights to get here including being lost for three hours among the luggage at Dulles International Airport but Nika is in remarkably excellent health. "She gets along with other dogs very, very well, and loves to play," Raible said. "She does everything a normal dog does, except wear diapers and walk." Nika will see an orthopedic surgeon Wednesday to determine the next steps in her care, which may include amputating her hind legs. She will also be fitted with a wheelchair. Once the medical needs are addressed, Nika will be ready for her forever home and go up for adoption. "She's a beautiful little girl. She's going to make somebody a wonderful pet," Raible said. Nika is the 15th dog rescued by Paws Across Pittsburgh. The group's mission is to help injured and disabled dogs and cats and prepare them for their forever homes. Related video: This dogs rare condition requires her to eat meals in special highchair Houston fashion designer Danny Nguyen feels like hes watching his business die as news of the coronavirus continues to make headlines. Customers who once frequented his Chinatown-area boutique and atelier for custom prom gowns, bridal wear and mens suits are staying away. Im dying here, Nguyen said. My business is down 50 percent. People are afraid to come to Chinatown. They are afraid of the stigma. Nguyen has operated his boutique for 10 years in a strip center just south of Beltway 8 and Bellaire. He opened his bridal shop next door in 2018. Many shoppers seem to be wary of the area since news of the virus outbreak in late January. And his textile vendors in China have postponed or delayed shipments. Right now, Im not sure what to do, Nguyen said. I know people are looking for wedding and prom dresses, but they dont want to come here. Even my advertising that usually brings in a lot of customers might only get me one client, if that, now. Its really affecting my business. For Project Runway winner Chloe Dao, who has operated her Rice Village boutique for 20 years, business is brisk as usual, although a shipment of flower beads from China for one her designs has been delayed. With the uncertainty of Chinese imports, she plans on amping up her custom prom business just in case. Everything is made in China now. People dont realize how reliant we are on China, particularly when it comes to fashion, she said. Officials with the recent Quinceanera Expo said expo vendors were having issues getting fabrics, decorations, accessories and dresses made in China. All of the materials are pretty much from China, Quinceanera Expo director Jose Medrano told KHOU, Channel 11. At Karla Boutique Quince Bridal and Formal on Beechnut, business is normal, said store manager Janet Quezada. We havent felt it yet, but we may see it in the future, she said. Extending rally for the second consecutive session, pharma stocks ended higher on Wednesday, in an otherwise volatile market. The sector is tracking gains from the overseas trend, amid the virus scare that has infected over 94,240 people globally and caused 3,220 fatalities worldwide. Sun Pharma closed 3% higher, while other healthcare stocks such as J.B. Chemicals, Ajanta Pharma, Dr. Lal PathLabs, Novartis Industries, Torrent Pharma, Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma, Caplin Point and Albert David gained in the range of 2-2.5%. Overall, 20 out of 30 stocks closed in the green on S&P BSE Healthcare. On both the bourses, BSE and NSE, the pharma sector outperformed the broader market, which fell amid rising uncertainty among investors. In the month of March, the healthcare sector on BSE has overall gained 473 points or 3.5%. On BSE, Healthcare index gained 1.13% on back of gains in Indoco Remedies, Cipla, Sun Pharma Advanced Research and Company, IOL Chemicals and Shilpa Medicare that rose over 5% each. On a similar note, 6 out of 10 stocks ended in the green on Nifty Pharma. Where Cipla, Dr. Reddy labs closed 4% higher each, Sun Pharma, Glenmark, Lupin and Aurobindo Pharma gained 2% by Wednesday's closing bell on the NSE. On Tuesday, Nifty Pharma index was the sole gainer among the sectoral indices and closed 1.98% higher in a heavy selloff market. The rise in the share price of pharmaceutical companies is due to rise in demand for generics and branded generics. Further government declaring a ban on active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) also alarmed investors over the impact of coronavirus in the country. India has also put paracetamol, antibiotics, vitamins on export ban list to fight the virus outbreak. As of now, 28 people in India, including 16 foreigners have been infected by the COVID-19 virus in India. The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned countries of a global shortage and price gouging for protective equipment to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus. The specialised agency of the United Nations has asked companies and governments to increase production by 40% as the death toll from the virus has been on a continuous rise. Coronavirus Live Updates: PM Modi dives into coronavirus battle, review meet at PMO Rupee slips to 16-month low amid fresh cases of coronavirus in India BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4 Trend: Possibility to import Azerbaijani products to the Qatari market has been discussed in Qatar, Trend reports with reference to the Peninsula newspaper. The topic was discussed within the framework of the meeting between Qatar Chamber First Vice Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari and the visiting members of Azerbaijani delegation headed by Chairperson of Azerbaijans Agro Procurement and Supply OJSC under the Azerbaijans Ministry of Agriculture, Leyla Mammadova. During the meeting, two parties reviewed ways to support the cooperation between Qatari and Azerbaijani business circles and work to strengthen areas of cooperation in many sectors especially in food security and agriculture. The possibility to import Azerbaijani products to the Qatari market has also been reviewed. The Qatari side was briefed on Azerbaijani agricultural sector. Mohamed bin Towar Al Kuwari said that Qatar and Azerbaijan enjoy distinguished relations in many fields, noting that there is a scope for cooperation between the private sectors of both countries in food security. He affirmed that Qatar attaches a great interest to the food security sector and there are numerous mega projects being implemented in this sector such as the mega warehousing projects adjacent to the Hamad Port. He pointed out that there is a great interest on the part of Qatari investors in exploring the investment opportunities available in Azerbaijan. He explained that the time is appropriate for more partnerships between both sides, and to take advantage of advanced infrastructure in Qatar, in addition to the incentives and legislation that encourage investment, as well as the existence of economic zones and free zones that attract domestic and foreign investment. The head of the Azerbaijani delegation Leyla Mammadova said that the objective of the visit is to inform the Qatari private sector on the investment opportunities available in Azerbaijan and to urge Qatari investors to invest in Azerbaijan. She also said that Agro Procurement and Supply OJSC under the Ministry of Agriculture seeks to encourage Azerbaijani farmers and food producers to export, as well as to promote agricultural and food products abroad and explore their export opportunities. Libyan retired and rebel General Khalifa Haftar Tuesday opened a Libyan embassy in the Syria capital Damascus amid warming ties with the Bashar Al Assad regime in view of countering Turkeys influence. Haftar attended the ceremony, according to the Syrian state-run news agency, SANA. The opening of the mission came following a trip by a Libyan delegation of the Haftar-backed Libyan government to Syria on Sunday. The delegation headed by Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Abdel Rahman Al-Ahiresh and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Abdul-Hadi Al-Hawaij signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Syria to open a diplomatic mission and cooperate in the area of security. Diplomatic ties between Libya and Syria were cut in 2012 after the NATO-backed uprising killed Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Libyan eastern-based administration and the Syrian regime have been brought together by Turkish military ambitions in both Syria and Libya. The Haftar-backed Libyan administration is opposed to Ankara on several fronts including Turkeys military deployment to prop up the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and the maritime agreement signed between the GNA and Ankara in November last year. Turkey has reportedly recruited around 2,000 Syrian mercenaries opposed to al Assad to counter Haftars military push to take over capital Tripoli, the seat of the GNA. In Syria, Turkey has found itself in a full flesh war with the Syrian army, in Northwestern Idlib, near the Turkish border. The clash between the two armies escalated over the past few days with both sides trading accusations of violating the 2018 Sochi agreement making Idlib a de-escalation zone. Good morning and welcome to On Politics, a daily political analysis of the 2020 elections based on reporting by New York Times journalists. Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday. Just a week ago, Joe Bidens campaign seemed to be on deaths door. Today he wakes up as a front-runner again. Buoyed by endorsements from a slew of Democratic leaders, Biden sailed to victory in a majority of yesterdays Super Tuesday contests: He swept the South, scored upsets in the Northeast and the Midwest, and denied Bernie Sanders a crucial win in Texas. If theres one state that symbolizes what transpired last night across the country, its Minnesota. Less than two weeks ago, a Star Tribune/MPR News poll put Biden at just 8 percent there. But yesterday, he won nearly five times that share, soaring to a lopsided victory over Sanders. What made the difference? Mostly it was Amy Klobuchar, the states senior senator, who dropped out of the presidential race just a day earlier and endorsed Biden. After Minnesota was announced for Biden on Tuesday night, he called Klobuchar to thank her. In one of the nights biggest surprises, he even won handily in Massachusetts, leapfrogging both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who finished in a disappointing third place in her home state and now finds her campaign in dire straits. Biden won despite the fact that his lean operation had not spent a single dollar on TV ads in the state. Yet Sanders held on to win the biggest prize of the night in California. When all is said and done, he and Biden could each come out of Super Tuesday with a similar amount of delegates. So the playing field will be about even as the race enters a new phase. Its a Biden-Sanders contest now, and each candidate will have to confront weaknesses that have yet to be fully exploited. Going forward, Biden must find a way to keep the wind in his sails. While he soared on Super Tuesday thanks largely to the endorsements of other politicians, he has often struggled to generate enthusiasm or sustain supporters confidence when left to his own devices. And a big chunk of his voters on Tuesday decided on him at the last moment, with many attributing their decisions to the endorsements. There might be just one more endorsement with the power to inject decisive adrenaline into his campaign and that vote of confidence may not be coming, at least not soon. For Sanders, the challenge is clearer than ever. He will have to build support beyond his base from older, less liberal and African-American voters in particular in ways he has failed to do. Even in California, where he notched his most significant win, Sanders lost moderates to Biden by 10 points, and black voters by 20 points. Sanderss weaknesses were most apparent in Virginia, North Carolina and Massachusetts, states with relatively high suburban populations. Their races were supposed to be tight but ended with decisive Biden wins. What made an unexpectedly good night for Biden seem like an out-and-out rout was largely timing. Sanders underperformed in most Eastern states but did well in the West so most of his wins didnt become official until late. The slowness of the vote count in California didnt help him, either: Election officials there technically have 30 days to count ballots, so we may not know exactly how many delegates each candidate won for quite a while. Both Warren and Michael Bloomberg scored only a handful of delegates on Tuesday disappointing finishes, no matter how you slice it. Warren will inevitably face pressure from progressives to drop out and expand Sanderss lane, while moderates may increasingly call for Bloomberg to make way for Biden. In his first day on a primary ballot after spending more than $500 million of his own money on political ads, Bloomberg won only the caucus in American Samoa. And, like Sanders, he found that his stronger showings came in the Western states, meaning that by the time many people had gone to bed, his best news of the night was still to come. Get The Best Decatur Managed IT Solutions System Support Tech Solutions Looking for the best managed IT services in Decatur? TeamLogicIT offers the reliable and flexible solutions you need to keep your business communications and data management systems running smoothly!TeamLogicIT, an IT solutions company servicing Decatur, Georgia, announced an updated range of managed it services for local businesses looking for a proactive and reliable technology solution. 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And, Michelle Keegan, 32, looked pretty in prints as she tried on her new Very clothing collection on Tuesday, documenting all in a video posted to Instagram. The Our Girl actress enjoyed trying on items from her new range, after it was delivered to her home in a huge pink wardrobe on wheels, a la Beyonce. New! Michelle Keegan, 32, looked pretty in prints as she tried on her new Very clothing collection on Tuesday, documenting all in a video posted to Instagram Michelle had a camera follow her as the fuchsia pink portable wardrobe arrived at her home, with the soap star struggling as she pushed it towards her house. Once inside, The TV star gave her followers a glimpse of her collection as she flicked through the rack of clothing, pulling out different garments to look at more closely. Michelle then tried on a few key pieces, included a yellow devore mini dress boasting oversized sleeves and ruffle detailing. She then slipped into a blue floral frock before finally modelling a chic black number. Stepping into spring: Michelle looked sensational as she stepped out of the wardrobe in a blue floral frock from her new collection Pink parcel: The Our Girl actress enjoyed trying on items from her new range, after it was delivered to her home in a huge pink wardrobe on wheels, a la Beyonce Almost there! Michelle had a camera follow her as the fuchsia pink portable wardrobe arrived at her home, with the soap star struggling as she pushed it towards her house Ta-da! Once inside, The TV star gave her followers a glimpse of her collection as she flicked through the rack of clothing, pulling out different garments to look at more closely The former Coronation Street star's gorgeous designs included vibrant colours and stand-out prints. Speaking previously about another collection, Michelle said it was important to her to create clothes that she knew people 'would want to wear'. 'I always want to create pieces I and the people I know would want to wear so its been great to show the appeal and versatility of the range with this fab group of girls,' she said. Gorgeous: Michelle then tried on a few key pieces, included a yellow devore mini dress boasting oversized sleeves and ruffle detailing Careful! She finally modelled a chic black number from her new Very collection Yummy! The actress took to her Instagram stories to show off the sensational spread which had been put on her for by Grazing Ivy, to indulge in while shooting new collection photos Hollywood hunk: That evening, husband Mark Wright enjoyed a night out Bootsy Bellows in West Hollywood, LA For her fun modelling session, Michelle also styled her locks into loose waves and went barefoot to help with the quick changes in the wardrobe. The actress took to her Instagram stories to show off the sensational spread which had been put on her for by Grazing Ivy, to indulge in while shooting new collection photos. That evening, husband Mark Wright enjoyed a night out Bootsy Bellows in West Hollywood, LA. Inspiration: In January, Beyonce had her latest IVY PARK X Adidas collection delivered to some of her closest friends, like Kim Kardashian (pictured), in huge orange portable wardobes What is that? Michelle (left) pushed her pink wardrobe towards her house, while Reese Witherspoon (right) pushed an orange version from Beyonce into her driveway in January Michelle captioned her post: 'Special delivery! Huge thanks to my @veryuk family for this pre-event delivery this morning... 'not every day your new collection drops at the end of your driveway (cheers for that one guys) New collection launches next week. #ad #globalawards.' The delivery was remarkably similar to Beyonce's latest IVY PARK x Adidas campaign, which saw her gift her celebrity pals with huge orange wardrobes filled with clothes from the collection. Fashion friends: In January, Ashley Graham posted a video of herself receiving her own portable clothing rack from Beyonce Wow: Ellen also posted receiving her amazing care package from Beyonce, which was filled with track suits, pants, socks, sneakers, hoodies, jackets and workout gear In January, Beyonce had her latest IVY PARK X Adidas collection delivered to some of her closest friends - from Kelly Rowland to Reese Witherspoon - in huge orange portable wardrobes. The box was a veritable closet-size package that opens up to reveal a rack of the exclusive new active wear collection brought to life by Queen Bey and her brand, in collaboration with Adidas. Other stars who received the coveted orange wardrobe included Missy Elliott, Reese Witherspoon, Cardi B, Zendaya, Ellen DeGeneres, Janelle Monae and Hailey Bieber. Citing concerns about the potential spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Reed Exhibitions has canceled this year's London Book Fair (LBF). The the event was scheduled to start next week. While large numbers of attendees from abroad had canceled, yesterday Reed Exhibitions had said the show would proceed. The turning point seems to have come when major U.K. divisions of the large international publishers decided not to send their local staffs to the fair. Indeed, the news of the cancellation came less than an hour after HarperCollins became the latest publisher to pull its U.K. employees from the event. Penguin Random House, Hachette LIvre and Pan Macmillan all withdrew from LBF yesterday. Below is the full text of the statement, released by the fair's public relations team: "Reed Exhibitions has today announced that The London Book Fair 2020, scheduled to take place at Olympia, London, from 10 to 12 March will be cancelled following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Europe. "The effects, actual and projected, of Coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the UK and across the world, with many of our participants facing travel restrictions. We have been following UK government guidelines and working with the rolling advice from the public health authorities and other organisations, and so it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this years event. "We recognise that business has to continue. With this in mind, we will of course support and collaborate with exhibitors and visitors to keep our world moving during this difficult period. We thank all those from the UK and a multitude of other countries who have prepared over the last year to deliver what promised to be a wonderful book fair showcasing, as ever, the exciting best of the global book industry. The London Book Fair will return, better than ever, in 2021." Jacks Thomas, director of the London Book Fair, released a statement shortly thereafter. It reads: "Planning for each London Book Fair starts as the door closes on the previous edition and, collaborating with our partners and participants, a great deal of thought and work goes into each event; cancelling any event is a decision that is never taken lightly and LBF was no exception. The publishing and book community is networked and in touch but face-to-face gatherings remain vital to doing business and building relationships we therefore look forward eagerly to the 2021 edition of The London Book Fair that is our 50th birthday. Covid-19 has taken many of us into previously uncharted waters and we are grateful for the huge support and understanding the international publishing and book community has shown in this difficult and fast-moving situation. The decision to cancel the fair will be well received by American publishers and particularly agents, who were becoming frustrated about Reed's decision to go ahead and offering no refunds. The question of whether publishers and others will be refunded fees or otherwise compensated has yet to be addressed. Editor's Note: A version of this story appeared in BookBrunch. Some Connecticut dioceses are taking proactive measures in the face of the coronavirus, according to recent announcements. There have been more than 90,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, according to a Wednesday report from the World Health Organization. Although there are no confirmed cases of the illness in Connecticut, some churches are taking steps to protect parishioners, including discouraging parishioners from receiving communion on the tongue and suggesting no physical contact during the sign of peace during Mass. Around 7 p.m. Tuesday Bishop Frank Caggiano from the Diocese of Bridgeport shared an announcement about ways to prevent the spread of the illness. Caggiano said some members have reached out for directives linked to coronavirus and asked what preventative actions they can take when gathered for worship. He said from Tuesday going forward, he asks pastors to stop offering the blood of Christ at Mass. Pastors were asked to have low-gluten hosts available for those with an allergy. Rather than shaking hands at the sign of peace, pastors have been told to tell parishioners to use another gesture such as a nod of the head, a smile or a spoken greeting. Pastors have also been given the green light to omit the call for an exchange of the sign of peace. If the practice at the parish is to ask attendees to hold hands during the Our Father prayer, the pastor is urged to ask parishioners not to hold hands. The holy water in the church will be replaced more frequently. The church will ensure all handrails, bathrooms and the tops of pews are properly disinfected. Hand sanitizer will be made available at all church entrances. Pastors are also urged to remind their parishioners that they are not obligated to attend Sunday Mass if they are exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Please remember to pray for an end to this illness and to keep all those who have died from and who are adversely affected by the coronavirus in your prayers, Caggiano said. Similar measures are being implemented at the Archdiocese of Hartford. In an announcement Tuesday to priests and deacons, Archbishop Leonard P. Blair said communion on the tongue should be strongly discouraged. He said collection baskets should only be handled by ushers. Blair said those who pass out the Holy Communion are urged to practice good hygiene, including washing their hands before Mass begins. He said they could even consider using an alcohol-based antibacterial solution before and after distribution communion. I join you and your parishioners in working and praying for an end to this health threat, Blair said. Virginia is set to become the first state in the US south to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors. Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill on Monday, proposed by state Delegate Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington), that prohibits the discredited treatment which purports to change sexual orientation or gender identity. The General Assembly has also passed an identical Senate bill, proposed by Senator Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax). Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill on Monday, proposed by state Delegate Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington), that prohibits the discredited treatment which purports to change sexual orientation or gender identity Northam is expected to sign that measure as well, and is likely to do a ceremonial signing of the new law sometime after the General Assembly concludes its 60-day session on Saturday, reports the Washington Post. The ban takes effect July 1st, but will not apply to adults who choose to still use the therapy. Under the bill, therapists are prohibited from attempting conversion therapy on anyone under 18. Violation of the ban could bring on disciplinary action by state health regulators, reports the Post. The law's expected passage comes with support from Democrats, who control both chambers of the Virginia state legislature in this current session, and for the first time in a generation. Such measures were blocked in years past when Republicans were in control of at least one chamber. Northam, a Democrat as well as a pediatric neurologist 'who has cared for thousands of children,' said in a statement that the law's passage for him was 'personal.' A map showing the 20 states which have banned conversion therapy for minors, including Virginia, which was the latest to pass a law prohibiting the discredited treatment 'Conversion therapy is not only based in discriminatory junk-science, it is dangerous and causes lasting harm to our youth. No one should be made to feel wrong for who they are especially not a child. I'm proud to sign this ban into law.' Many people who have been through the therapy say it deepened feelings of depression and increased thoughts of suicide. Adam Trimmer, 30, who lives in the Richmond area, said he came out when he was a teenager and was made to undergo conversion therapy. The sessions, he told the Washington Post, left him convinced him that his homosexuality was the result of an 'overbearing' mother and emotionally distant father. Adam Trimmer, 30, who lives in the Richmond area, said he came out when he was a teenager and was made to undergo conversion therapy. The sessions left him convinced him that his homosexuality was the result of an 'overbearing' mother and emotionally distant father Trimmer said the practice 'wrecked his relationship' with his parents. He is now a Virginia ambassador for Born Perfect, a national campaign to end the practice. Others tell shocking stories of invasive procedures designed to rid homosexual people of their 'sinful' attraction to the same sex. One woman involved in a 2015 La Trobe University and Human Rights Law Centre research study on the therapy said she had electrical shocks sent through her genitals as part of her 'healing'. She was also forced into a bath filled with ice cubes and repeatedly read Bible verses, while one man was convinced he could 'pray the gay away.' The Virginia ban follows a similar prohibition in Utah, which was passed in January and which at the time was one of the most conservative states to prohibit the practice. Supporters navigated a winding path to passage of the law and some dissent remained afterward, but barring it in Utah was seen as giving a boost to similar efforts in other right-leaning states, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. 'Its really given people a lot of hope,' said Minter, whose group has pushed for bans around the US. The issue could also come up in this year in Texas and Kentucky, he said. North Carolina prohibits only the use of taxpayer dollars for the therapy, the Post reports. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg said his campaign has achieved something no one else thought was possible after winning his first Democratic primary delegates in the territory of American Samoa. The victory gave the former mayor of New York, who has spent more than half a billion dollars of his own money in his bid for the nomination, his first delegates of the primary race. "No matter how many we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible," he said, touting his rise from one percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president." Mike Bloomberg speaking at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida on Super Tuesday: AFP via Getty Images But even as he celebrated his first delegates on Super Tuesday, the key states targeted by Bloombergs campaign provided less than hopeful results. Despite spending more than $17 million on television advertising alone in North Carolina, and building a significant ground game, Bloomberg is projected to finish third in the state behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. One campaign aide blamed the former mayors poor performance in his debut debate in Las Vegas last month. "This isnt going as planned," a campaign adviser told CNNs Jeff Zeleny. "Things changed after Las Vegas debate and never recovered." In Virginia, too, the signs were bad. Bloomberg has a long history of spending heavily in Virginia politics, giving millions to help elect Democratic candidates over the years. His campaign has flooded the airwaves with television commercials in the past few months, and he has visited some seven times. But that effort has shown little reward so far, with polling currently placing him in fourth place with 9.5 percent. Despite the disappointing early results, campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told reporters that Bloomberg was absolutely not dropping out. Bloombergs spending has dwarfed that of his rivals, a strategy that is credited with propelling him in the polls from around 5 percent in November to around 15 percent today. Update 9:13 a.m. March 5: Hong Kong authorities confirmed that the pet dog that tested weak positive last week has now tested positive for the virus. It is the first reported case of transmission from human to animal. Latest story: Novel coronavirus infects dog in first reported case of human-to-animal transmission Original story, March 4, 2020: If youre worried about the spread of the coronavirus, youve probably already stocked up on nonperishable foods and hand sanitizer. But have you thought about how your pet factors into all of this? The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it hasnt received any reports to date of pets or other animals sick with COVID-19 the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus or that it has any indication that pets could be a source of infection, but people raised concerns when a dog in Hong Kong tested weak positive for the virus last week. We await further results from Hong Kong officials as they investigate the reported presence of COVID-19 in one pet dog, says Carla Drysdale, communications officer at the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on past experience with coronaviruses and our current understanding of COVID-19, we do not think common household pets are spreading the disease or making people sick. We will provide further updates as we learn more. In the meantime, we answer all the questions you may have on how the coronavirus can affect pets and pet owners. My pet isnt feeling well. Does it have the coronavirus? Any pet thats showing symptoms of respiratory disease, coughing, sneezing, not feeling well, decreased appetite needs to be seen by a veterinarian, says Dr. Lori Teller, DVM, DABVP, whos an associate veterinarian at Meyerland Animal Clinic in Houston and a clinical associate professor at Texas A&M University. However, she adds, there are many common respiratory diseases that your dog or cat is much more likely to have than the novel coronavirus, and that is what the vet will check for, such as kennel cough or feline upper airway disease. As confirmed by the CDC and the WHO, Teller reiterates that there is no evidence that your pet can get infected from the novel coronavirus. If your pet hasnt been exposed to someone who has COVID-19, then the chances of it testing positive are almost zero percent, she says. If pets cant get the coronavirus, why did that dog in Hong Kong test positive? The virus can live on surfaces and objects, and in the same way, can be present in your pet. The owner of the dog in Hong Kong a Pomeranian, says Teller had contracted COVID-19, so initial and follow-up tests indicated traces of the virus, but the dog had no symptoms. The test indicates exposure, it does not indicate disease, I think thats the biggest thing for people to know, she says. Should I put a mask on my pet, just in case? Not that it would necessarily hurt, but essentially, theres just no point. Theres no way to get a mask to fit appropriately over an animals face to actually seal any germs within it, says Teller. It makes a great photo opportunity, but its not helping with the spread of the disease. I dont have a pet, but I like socializing with other peoples animals. Should I stop? Dr. Teller thinks stopping is probably overkill, but adds that its always smart to have good hygiene around animals in general. Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer after youve interacted with a pet. Especially an unknown animal, where you dont know what its been exposed to, dont let it kiss you or lick you on the face, she says. This strain of coronavirus came from bats, right? Thats correct. [Bats] can be incubators for lots of different viruses that dont make them sick, but that could potentially spread to humans, says Teller. This isnt the first coronavirus that bats have been the original species for. Wait, there are several coronaviruses? There are hundreds of different kinds of coronaviruses, many affecting animals of all types. However, it is very rare that these viruses actually jump species, says Teller. Some exceptions include swine flu and avian flu, but none of those have we really seen in dogs and cats, its really rare, she adds. I have the coronavirus. What should I do with my pet? First, reach out to your vet and find out if your pet has actually been exposed. The CDC or another public health agency may want to quarantine the animal until its safe, if it even tests positive, Teller says. If it tests negative, then I would certainly look for a family member or friend to step up and help take care of that pet, she says. The USD 572-billion private equity giant Blackstone, which has pumped in USD 15.5 billion into scores of companies in the country since its entry 15 years ago, is bullish on the Indian market which has given it the strongest results globally. Of the USD 15.5 billion of total investments it has made into 40 companies (and only six record-breaking profitable exits), as much as USD 6 billion flowed into the country in 2019 alone, a record high for the firm. Addressing a select group of media over lunch here, Stephen A Schwarzman, the chairman, chief executive and co-founder of Blackstone, said, "India has given us the strongest results across the world. And am optimistic this (will) continue going forward." But Schwarzman, known for his 'don't lose money' way of risk taking, did not quantify the returns he has made from the India investments. Since his last formal visit to India in 2006, Schwarzman, who is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on philanthropy, education and the arts, also said the India he visited then is not the India of today. The country has "changed enormously. India is a highly unusual market... despite the problems it is facing today, which is exacerbated by the crisis in the banking system, this market can come around for the better." "India's education sector is doing well, producing seven times more engineers than the US does annually. So it means it has all the preconditions for expansive growth as the economy has reached an inflection point," said Schwarzman, who founded Blackstone 30 years ago with USD 400,000, which has since grown to a USD 572 billion Wall Street gorilla. "Despite some hiccups, growth is happening at a good pace. Last year was a record for us with USD 6 billion investments. I see the same level of investment growth happening this year as well," said Amit Dixit, one of the senior managing directors at Blackstone Advisors India. The PE giant's largest exit was Intelenet Global Services, which was sold to French outsourcing giant Teleperformance for USD 1 billion in August 2018. Blackstone acquired it in 2013 for around USD 385 million and the return was its largest exit in Asia then. Blackstone invested in Intelenet twice in the last decade. It first picked up a stake in 2007 before selling to Selco in 2011. In late 2015, it bought the company back for USD 385 million. Blackstone pumped in USD 6 billion into India 2019 when it picked up companies like Aadhar Housing Finance from the troubled DHFL group for Rs 3,000 crore, stake in Essel Propack from the debt-laden Zee Group for Rs 3,211 crore, Akash Education, Indiabulls realty arm (Rs 1,600 crore), the tony One BKC property (Rs 2,500 crore) and Future Lifestyle. Blackstone is the largest realty investor in the country through its joint venture with the Embassy group, having launched the country's first REITs. Embassy Office Parks, the JV of Blackstone and Embassy, launched the first real estate investment trust (REIT) in March 2019, raising Rs 4,000 crore. Embassy Office Parks has a portfolio over 33 million sq ft comprising seven business parks and four city-centric buildings spread across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Noida. Besides the Embassy Group, Blackstone has also partnered with developers like Salarpuria Sattva Group, Indiabulls Real Estate, Panchshil Realty and K Raheja Corp, among others, totalling over USD 10 billion investments in realty sector alone. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish coast guards rescue 78 migrants off Aegean coast Turkey continues to be a key transit point for migrants aiming to cross into Europe escaping from inhuman conditions. A total of 78 irregular migrants were rescued off Turkeys Aegean coast, sources said Wednesday. 40 OF THE MIGRANTS WERE AFGHAN-ORIGIN Coast Guard teams launched an operation and rescued 40 Afghan migrants who were in a rubber boat which had been directed to Turkish territorial waters by the Greek Coast Guard. Separately, Coast Guard teams also rescued 38 irregular migrants from a boat drifting off the Aegean coast. Turkey has been a key transit point for irregular migrants aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution. The family of a 50-year-old New Rochelle man, who tested positive for coronavirus Tuesday, has also tested positive for the virus, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced early Wednesday afternoon during a press conference in White Plains. His wife and two of their children, a son and daughter, remain under quarantine in their home in Westchester County. The man, a Manhattan attorney, has an underlying respiratory illness that could worsen the effects of the disease, and is in critical condition at a New York City hospital. A neighbor, 45, who drove the man earlier to the New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., also tested positive for the disease, and is at home. His wife, 46, and their two sons and one daughter, all tested positive, Cuomo said in a Tweet. The entire family is under self-quarantine, he said. The students all attend Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, which closed Tuesday. Together, the new diagnoses bring New Yorks total of confirmed cases to 11. The first was a 39-year-old health-care worker, who was traveling in Iran. Her husband tested negative for the virus. The New York State Health Department and the Westchester County Health Department are instructing people who may have come in contact with the family through services at the synagogue or the schools the children attend to stay home. Cuomo estimated that this number could be about 1,000 people. The mans son, 20, an undergraduate at Yeshiva University who lived on campus, had not been seen on campus since Feb. 27. The school announced Wednesday that all classes at its Washington Heights campus were canceled. Yeshiva will be closed through Friday, Cuomo said. Related story: Westchester lawyer who commutes to NYC tests positive for coronavirus Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected, Yeshiva University officials said in a statament on its website. We will continue to pray for full recovery for all those who are impacted by COVID-19. Canceling classes will allow us to work with city agencies and other professionals to best prepare our campus and ensure the uncompromised safety of our students, faculty and staff, officials said. The daughter, 14, is a student at Modern Orthodox Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School in Riverdale, or SAR High School, which announced its closure Monday. The high school will be closed through Purim, which ends March 10. Cuomo instructed people who had contacted the daughter to self-quarantine at home and limit their exposure to other people through this Friday. The academy will be closed through Friday. Individuals connected to the academy do not need to self-quarantine because there was less of a risk of exposure, Cuomo said. Three other Jewish day schools in New York followed suit, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The man used the New Haven Line of Metro-North to commute for work. The family has two other children who live in Israel. The familys neighbor, who drove the man to New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, also tested positive for the virus. We are so grateful in New Rochelle to be home to people of every tradition, circumstance and faith. That is something we are proudest of. We have large Jewish and Orthodox communities. This is a moment when we need to come together and support our neighbors, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said Tuesday. It is time for appropriate focus and concern that does not stray over into unjustified panic, which is only self-defeating. Westchester County Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler also directed Young Israel of New Rochelle to halt all services immediately and for the foreseeable future due to potential exposure connected to the man. Congregants of Young Israel who attended services Feb. 22, and a funeral and a bat mitzvah at the temple on Feb. 23, were directed to self-quarantine until at least March 8. Those who do not self-quarantine will be mandated to by the County Department of Health to do so. The temple will be closed Wednesday through Sunday, said rabbi Reuven Fink in a Facebook post. This is a very emotionally trying time for us all, Fink said. When we first heard of the Coronavirus, it seemed so remote. It has now come not only to our doorstep, but has pierced our lives. Clearly, this entire episode is frightening and difficult, but let us not lose sight, however, that we are following the procedures mandated by our states health department to try to prevent the spread of this virus. That is a sacred obligation that we all must take very seriously. The midtown-Manhattan attorney was New Yorks second confirmed case. The states first was a 39-year-old female health worker who was traveling in Iran with her husband. She is at home and her health is improving, Cuomo said. Her husband never tested positive for the disease, and he is getting better, Cuomo said. The first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019, according to the World Health Organization. As of Wednesday, there are 93,094 confirmed cases in 77 countries, and 3,198 deaths. The United States has more than 100 confirmed cases and 11 deaths, the most recent in California. This story will be updated. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 17:08 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20684265a 1 Parents KREAFEST-2020,children-festival,children,ruangrupa Free The annual KREAFEST 2020 children's festival is to be held from March 7 to 14 at Gudskul Ekosistem in Jagakarsa district, South Jakarta. Initiated by the RURU Kids and Gudskul Ekosistem arts schools, KREAFEST 2020 highlights the environment, economics and technology as its three main themes. Various activities are to be undertaken during the festival, such as exhibitions, workshops, a bazaar, music performances, film screenings and discussions. Attendees can take part in the following activities: a tie-dye workshop with Seratan Studio, a stop-motion video production workshop using clay with the Belantara Studio, a robot-making workshop with Diyro and a workshop for analyzing leaves and nature prints with Sekala Petualang. They are open for both children and teenagers, depending on the type of workshop. KREAFEST 2020 is to also feature performances by Sanggar Anak Akar, Duo Mobysade, PM TOH and Angan Dahooman. The festival aims to be a platform for parents, children, teachers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs to gather, share their knowledge, appreciate arts and get creative within the scope of art and culture. Those interested in participating in the workshops can call +62 896-3007-1038. (wir/wng) In 2019, China's wind power generation capacity exceeded 400 billion kilowatt-hours for the first time. Meanwhile, China's photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 224.3 billion kilowatt-hours in 2019, a year-on-year growth of 26.3 percent. An aerial view of the Weixin wind power farm in Pan'an County, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) In 2019, China generated 405.7 billion kilowatt-hours of wind power, which is almost equivalent to the total energy that would be generated by four Three Gorges Hydropower Station in the same year. While the proportion of installed and generated electricity, such as wind power and photovoltaic power generation, has increased rapidly in recent years, the utilization level of clean energy is approaching and partly exceeding the internationally recognized average level for what is thought to be reasonable. China's wind power and photovoltaic power generation industries have continued to develop steadily. By the end of last year, China had installed 210 million kilowatt-hours of wind power, including 204 million kilowatt-hours onshore and 5.9 million kilowatt-hours offshore, accounting for 10.4 percent of the total installed capacity. "Although the cumulative installed capacity is still concentrated in northeastern China, northern China and northwestern China, there is a clear trend that wind power installations are shifting toward the central and eastern regions of the country," said Li Qionghui, director of the new energy research department at the State Grid Energy Research Institute (SGERI). Meanwhile, China's photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 224.3 billion kilowatt-hours in 2019, demonstrating a year-on-year growth of 26.3 percent. The newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity was 30.1 million kilowatt-hours in 2019, down 31.6 percent year on year. Despite the year-on-year decline, China's new and cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity continues to maintain the world's leading position. Moreover, China's exports of photovoltaic products reached $20.8 billion in 2019, up 29 percent year on year, according to Wang Bohua, vice-chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association. WILLIAMSPORT A convicted bank robber from Texas has been accused of fatally injuring a fellow inmate at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary nearly five years ago. Lorenzo Scott, 46, was indicted Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court on charges of murder, assault with intent to commit murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. He is accused of striking, stomping and inflecting blunt force injuries to the head, neck and torso of Larry McCoullum on March 25, 2015. McCoullum died May 21, 2017, the indictment states. Scott is at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary serving a 14-year, 3-month sentence for robbing a bank in Richardson, Texas, with another man on July 31, 2006. According to a U.S. attorneys office news release from 2008 when Scott was sentenced, he and the other man entered the bank wearing security-type uniforms and brandishing firearms. They ordered everyone to lie on the floor as three tellers were ordered to place currency into a plastic shopping bag. Scott had pleaded guilty to bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. -- Recent John Beauge stories on PennLive Ex-Clinton County United Way executive director pleads guilty to theft, pledges full restitution Fuel that leaked from locomotive affecting Route 11 traffic near Northumberland Settlements reached with some defendants in Penn State hazing death suit Man accused of falsifying residency records to occupy constable seat in Mount Carmel Man accused of arson, threatening to kill girlfriend because she knew too much More details emerge about troopers alleged involvement in undercover drug probe scam Judge asked to OK $1.1 million settlement of suit over 2016 fatal plane crash in Potter County New Delhi, March 4 : If you are one of the lucky ones heading away on an amazing adventure to Europe, you arent the only one. An increasing number of Indians are travelling to beautiful Europe, thanks to the new guidelines of Schengen visa. A Schengen visa is undeniably one of the most imperative entry keys to Europe. Obtaining a Schengen visa by any of the 26 Schengen area member countries consents a visa holder to enter, travel within, and egress the Schengen territory from any of the member countries. Number of Schengen visa applications from India is among the highest in the world and Spain is one of the preferred Schengen destinations which witness a huge number of influxes from India. One of the probable reasons behind this immense footfall is India not being amongst the visa-exempt nations for the Schengen. Shikhar Aggarwal, JMD, BLS International writes some common things to consider while applying for a Schengen visa from India: As per the recent changes in the Schengen visa rules, applicants can now apply for the visa in 6 months advance, this allows you to plan your trip in advance. Know your port of entry and the visiting nation in the Schengen territory. Accordingly, you have to apply for a visa to the embassy of the respective country. Knowing your purpose of visit is another point of consideration for Schengen visa applicants. This helps you know which visa category you are entitled for. Once your purpose of visiting tallies your support, you are permitted to apply for Schengen or National visa. Next comes in; the number of entries. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of Schengen visa is the number of entries you are granted. Usually, there is single-entry, double-entry, or multiple-entry visa categories that one can apply as per the eligibility. Attend the appointment as per scheduled slot carrying all the documents and required fees. All applicants for Schengen visa must submit their biometrics, which is obligatory if not given in last 59 months. The processing time of Schengen visa is usually within 15 working days. However, under certain scenarios, it may take 30-60 days. The final decision to approve/delay/reject an application is at the discretion of the embassy. Although preparing for a holiday is not without its challenges, to make sure you get to your destination smoothly with as little stress as possible, visa services agencies are offering a plethora of services. They are designed to suit the evolving requirements of the new-age traveller, and to make the visa application process more convenient, exclusive, personalised, time saving and hassle-free. -- Syndicated from IANS Early in the afternoon of March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists smuggled pistols inside the U.S. Capitol, entered the visitors' gallery at the House of Representatives and opened fire on the floor below, where more than 240 members of Congress were voting on an immigration bill. As the attackers shouted slogans supporting Puerto Rican independence, attempted to unfurl a Puerto Rican flag and fired at random, some representatives believed that firecrackers had been set off. Speaker Joseph Martin, R-Mass., declared the House in recess, apparently trying to maintain decorum, and took cover behind a marble pillar on the rostrum. In the frantic minutes before the assailants were overpowered, they wounded five congressmen, all of whom survived. So, too, did the gunmen, one of whom Rafael Cancel Miranda died March 2 at 89. Alternately labeled a terrorist and freedom fighter, he had devoted his life to the cause of Puerto Rican independence and spent a quarter-century behind bars before President Jimmy Carter commuted his sentence. His death at home in San Juan, the U.S. territory's capital, was reported by the newspaper El Nuevo Dia and confirmed in a Facebook post by his son Rafael Cancel Vazquez, who did not cite a cause. While Cancel Miranda faded from memory in Washington, where the Capitol is now heavily fortified with metal detectors and police officers, he acquired a near-mythical status in Puerto Rico. Appearing in his trademark white guayabera summer shirt, he became a fixture of political rallies, wrote books and refused to apologize for a mass shooting that Martin once called "the wildest scene in the entire history of Congress." In interviews, Cancel Miranda and his gun-wielding associates Lolita Lebron, Andres Figueroa Cordero and Irvin Flores Rodriguez said they were fighting to free Puerto Ricans from the yoke of American colonialism. The island came under U.S. control after the Spanish-American War and became a commonwealth in 1952, although to Cancel Miranda and many others it never achieved true self-determination. "We never controlled our own country," he told The New York Times in 2016, as the independence movement sought to reassert itself in Puerto Rico. Earlier that year, Congress created a financial oversight panel to manage the island's crippling debt, drawing accusations that "a dictatorship" was deciding its fate and leading Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla to appear before a United Nations committee, where he effectively declared that Puerto Rico was still a U.S. colony. Cancel Miranda, who stood more than 6 feet tall but was known by the diminutive nickname Pito, was immersed in the independence movement from a young age. The son of a businessman and fiery Nationalist Party leader, he spent two years in a Florida prison after refusing to join the Army and was said to have listened to radio reports from behind bars as anti-colonial revolts rocked Puerto Rico in 1950. Later that year, followers of Harvard-educated nationalist Pedro Albizu Campos tried to assassinate President Harry Truman. Commonwealth status for the island soon followed, and in 1953 the United Nations removed Puerto Rico from its list of "non-self-governing territories." "That's when the nationalists said, 'We have to send a message,' " Cancel Miranda told The Times. "That was the reason for the attack on Congress." The shooting was reportedly orchestrated by Lebron, who later said she and her fellow attackers "went to die, not to kill." A note found in her purse called her group's actions "a cry for victory in our struggle for independence." Cancel Miranda, who was by then living in Brooklyn, said he had made his peace with death, and assumed he would never see his children again after buying a one-way train ticket to Washington. After lunching at Union Station, he and his fellow assailants got lost, asked a pedestrian for directions and eventually made their way to the Capitol. A security guard asked whether they were carrying cameras before allowing them into the House gallery, where they were seated near a group of sixth grade students and soon began firing Lugers and an automatic pistol as Lebron yelled, "Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" Some 16 shots were fired, according to a congressional history, before the attackers were subdued by a group including Rep. James Van Zandt, R-Pa., then handcuffed and dragged before reporters on the Capitol steps. "A few gangsters can't break up the friendship of great nations," Martin said the next day, as Puerto Rico's governor repudiated the attack and politicians urged unity. All five injured congressmen returned to the House, and the assailants received sentences that threatened to keep them behind bars until their deaths. Cancel Miranda, who said most of the wounded "got hurt by my gun," was sent to Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay and later to prisons in Kansas and Illinois. His sentence was commuted in 1979, along with those of Lebron, Flores and Oscar Collazo, who had tried to assassinate Truman. (Figueroa Cordero had been released two years earlier after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.) Newspaper accounts suggested their release was part of a prisoner swap for CIA agents jailed in Cuba the Carter administration cited "humane considerations" and the former prisoners embarked on a tour through the United States, appearing before crowds in Chicago and New York. While the popularity of the nationalist movement diminished during his prison term, Cancel Miranda insisted that he would continue to back violent actions in support of independence if necessary. "I'll work for the revolution until I die," he told The Washington Post after his release, "and if I'm lucky I may find a little time to sing to the children." Cancel Miranda was born in Mayaguez, on Puerto Rico's western coast, on July 18, 1930. His mother died when he was a child, and his father ran a furniture store while periodically hosting Albizu Campos at the family home. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available. On Facebook, Cancel Miranda's son Rafael recalled once asking his father how he managed to get on the train to Washington, despite knowing he would likely be killed. "The love, the love I feel for you, for your mom, for all Puerto Ricans," Cancel Miranda replied. "Courage is born of love and I love my people. I am Puerto Rican and for you I give my life. I prefer to hug and recite verses, but if the moment requires bullets, I would do it again." Maharashtra PWD Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday told the Legislative Council that no corruption has taken place in the proposed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial, but said he has noticed escalation of the project cost by around Rs 1,000 crore. The state government is building the memorial of the 17th century king off the Mumbai coast. "I have noticed cost escalation by at least Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore, but I will not term it as corruption immediately. There is a need to conduct a closer inspection of the all the developments," Chavan said in the House. "So far not a single rupee has been paid to L&T company (which is executing the project)," he added. Chavan, a Congress leader, was speaking while replying to a question raised by NCP member Hemant Takale. In the past, the Congress and the NCP, which now share power in the state with the Shiv Sena, had accused the then Devendra Fadnavis government of "serious irregularities" in awarding the contract for the project and demanded a judicial probe into the tendering process. They had also alleged conflict of interest and corruption to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore under the garb of bringing down costs of the memorial project. Chavan, in his reply, also said that the previous government had carried out negotiations with L&T and the height of the memorial had been fixed at 212 metres. "The reclamation area is 6.80 hectares. The final cost has been fixed at Rs 2,581 crore, excluding GST," he said. "Special leave petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court and verbal instructions are issued not to proceed with any work. Hence, no work has been undertaken on the project," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the memorial project, a flagship programme of the previous BJP-led government, and conducted 'jal poojan' off umbai coast in December 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People's Liberation Army soldiers unload groceries at a community in Wuhan, Hubei province, last month. (LIU BIN/FOR CHINA DAILY With the approval of the Central Military Commission, the Hubei provincial military command has mobilized 130 trucks and 260 soldiers to form a team to help transport food and other necessities for the 10 million residents in the city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei. Since the lockdown of the city on Jan 23, the transport of such goods has been a severe challenge, particularly because most local logistics companies were on vacation due to the Spring Festival. In order to meet residents' needs, the People's Liberation Army's transportation team is responsible for delivering supplies from the outskirts to downtown supermarkets scattered around the 8,500 square-kilometer city. "I have driven over 2,000 km in the past month, which is even longer than my past five years of driving," said Zhu Chunlei, a soldier on the team. "No matter how severe the epidemic situation is, the basic lives of the people must be fully safeguarded. This is our mission. I am a soldier to serve the people. When the country needs me, I will fulfill the mission." In order to ensure that fresh vegetables and other goods can reach residents as soon as possible, Zhu and his companions - most of whom participated in rescue efforts during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and floods in 2016 - usually set off early in the morning and return late in the afternoon. Wang Yujing, deputy manager of the fresh food division of Wuhan Zhongbai supermarket storage and logistics center, said that the PLA team is very efficient, as it could deliver up to 50 tons of goods in half an hour. "The arrival of the military transportation team is a boost not only for logistics but also for us all," Wang said. The Kano State House of Assembly has begun a fresh probe of the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi. The lawmakers said Wednesday that they received two petitions against the emir. During the assemblys plenary, the chairman of the committee on local government and chieftaincy affairs, Zubairu Hamza-Masu, said he received a petition from one Muhammad Mukhtar of Jaen Yamma quarters in Gwale Local Government Area. He said he received a second petition from the Kano State society for the promotion of education and culture headed by Muhammad Bello-Abdullahi. He said the petitioners accuse Mr Sanusi of unethical conducts that contradicted the culture and tradition of Kano people. Mr Hamza-Masu told his colleagues that the petitioners backed their claim with a copy of a video CD. PREMIUM TIMES is yet to see or review the petition and the CD to know the full content. According to the legislator, the petitioners requested the assembly to thoroughly investigate the matter and take appropriate action against the monarch. The Speaker of the House, Abdulaziz Gafasa, referred the petitions to the assemblys standing committee on public petition, and directed the committee to report back to the plenary in seven days. Mr Sanusi has had repeated problems with the Kano State Government over his public stance on several issues including governance and culture. The emir has condemned corruption and misgovernance among Northern elites, advocated family planning and spoken against polygamy by people who cannot afford to do so. Many of his views are believed to anger many residents of a largely conservative Northern Nigeria. Mr Sanusi has in the past been probed for corruption by the Kano government and has had his influence reduced after the government created new first-class emirates in the state. Before then, the Emir of Kano was the only first-class emir in the state. The state governor, Umar Ganduje, had also said he was considering dethroning the emir. Top Northern elders then intervened and asked both parties to sheathe their sword. Details later The Gulf Downstream Association (GDA), in collaboration with training partner Honeywell UOP, held a three-day workshop for 26 Bapco, KIPIC and Samref employees on Fired Heaters in Bahrain. The course, which was delivered by a senior UK-based UOP Fired Heater Specialist, Javed Hanson, was designed to provide participants with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to improve the operation, profitability and safety of a plants fired heaters. Attendees ranged in background from Heater Specialists, Process Engineers, Reliability Engineers, Energy Coordinators, Inspectors, and Senior Operations Personnel. The fully immersive course saw participants leave with the ability to identify and list the applicable codes and standards for fired heaters, recognise safety issues, explain key operating parameters, describe how fired heaters function, identify typical problems and possible causes and discuss inspection and turn around items. The course is part of the broad series of trainings designed by GDA and its training partners to support the training and development goals of the industry and its members. -- Tradearabia News Service DALLAS - March 4, 2020 - Integrating travel history information into routine medical assessments could help stem the rapidly widening COVID-19 epidemic, as well as future pandemics, infectious disease specialists recommend in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Trish Perl, M.D., M.Sc., Chief of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Connie Savor Price, M.D., of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, say it's time to add travel history to routine information such as temperature and blood pressure collected in electronic medical records. "We have the infrastructure to do this easily with the electronic medical record, we just need to implement it in a way to make it useful to the care teams," says Perl, who studies outbreaks and pandemics. "Once the infrastructure is built, we'll also need to communicate what is called 'situational awareness' to ensure that providers know what geographic areas have infections so that they can act accordingly." A simple, targeted travel history can help put infectious symptoms in context for physicians and caregiver teams, and, if deemed appropriate, trigger more detailed history, further testing, and rapid implementation of protective measures for others in affected households, co-workers or other daily contacts, and health care personnel. Shared electronic health records also can integrate travel history with computerized decision-making support to suggest specific diagnoses in recent travelers, the authors note, in much the same way as trained medical teams routinely ask about tobacco exposure to ascertain levels of cancer and heart disease risk. The emergence of novel respiratory diseases in the past two decades - including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012-2013, Western Africa-based Ebola in 2014, and now COVID-19 from China - demonstrate the need for change. With each wave, "the urgent threat of communicable diseases comes with significant morbidity and mortality, tremendous health care disruptions and resource utilization, and collateral economic and societal costs," Perl and Price write. "MERS and SARS were associated with very specific travel. MERS was associated with travel to the Arabian Peninsula, and SARS was associated with travel primarily to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Beijing," Perl says. "Currently COVID is similar in that there are geographic clusters, but those lines may be blurring as the outbreak expands. The challenges and potential stress on the public health infrastructure, including the hospitals which are part of this, will be notable in that we could see large numbers of patients. Our role will not only be to care for these patients but to communicate to them the strategies that they can use to protect themselves." The Annals commentary suggests that a simple script could be strategically and carefully developed to elicit clues for emerging infectious diseases and information about current emerging pathogen threats. The information could be collected along with the four gold standard vital signs - temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure - currently used to help U.S.-based medical teams assess patients' health status, triage to appropriate care, determine potential diagnoses, and predict recovery. "The current outbreak is an opportune time to consider adding travel history to the routine. The COVID outbreak is clearly moving at a tremendous pace, with new clusters appearing daily," says Perl, who holds the Jay P. Sanford Professorship in Infectious Diseases at UTSW. "This pace is a signal to us that it is a matter of time before we will see more of these infections in the U.S. What is different with this outbreak is that this virus is more fit and transmissible and hence there has been much more transmission." ### The article appears in the March 3 Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors reported no funding support or conflicts of interest. About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,500 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 3 million outpatient visits a year. New Delhi: The deadly coronavirus that has engulfed the world has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide and infected over 90,000 so far. To combat it from spreading further, here are all the precautions, symptoms and risks you need to know in order to protect yourself and your family from the virus. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has issued an advisory on the practices one can adhere to in order to keep themselves and their family protected against the virus. What is a novel coronavirus? A novel coronavirus (CoV) is a new strain of coronavirus. The disease caused by the novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan city in China, has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) CO stands for corona, VI for virus, and D for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV. The COVID-19 virus is a new virus linked to the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and some types of common cold. How does the COVID-19 virus spread? The virus is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an infected person (generated through coughing and sneezing), and touching surfaces contaminated with the virus. The COVID-19 virus may survive on surfaces for several hours, but simple disinfectants can kill it. What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Symptoms can include fever, cough and shortness of breath. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia or breathing difficulties. More rarely, the disease can be fatal. These symptoms are similar to the flu (influenza) or the common cold, which are a lot more common than COVID-19. This is why testing is required to confirm if someone has COVID-19. Its important to remember that key prevention measures are the same frequent hand washing, and respiratory hygiene (cover your cough or sneeze with a flexed elbow or tissue, then throw away the tissue into a closed bin). Also, there is a vaccine for the flu so remember to keep yourself and your child up to date with vaccinations. How can I avoid the risk of infection? Here are four precautions you and your family can take to avoid infection: 1.Wash your hands frequently using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub 2.Cover your mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue, when coughing or sneezing, and throw away the tissue into a closed bin 3.Avoid close contact with anyone who has cold or flu-like symptoms 4.Seek medical care early if you or your child has a fever, cough or difficulty breathing Should I wear a medical mask? The use of a medical mask is advised if you have respiratory symptoms (coughing or sneezing) to protect others. If you dont have any symptoms, then there is no need to wear a mask. If masks are worn, they must be used and disposed of properly to ensure their effectiveness and to avoid any increased risk of transmitting the virus. The use of a mask alone is not enough to stop infections and must be combined with frequent hand washing, covering sneezes and coughs, and avoiding close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms (coughing, sneezing, and fever). Does COVID-19 affect children? This is a new virus and we do not know enough yet about how it affects children or pregnant women. We know it is possible for people of any age to be infected with the virus, but so far there have been relatively few cases of COVID-19 reported among children. The virus is fatal in rare cases, so far mainly among older people with pre-existing medical conditions. What should I do if my child has symptoms of COVID-19? Seek medical attention, but remember that its flu season in the Northern Hemisphere, and symptoms of COVID-19 such as cough or fever can be similar to those of the flu, or the common cold which are a lot more frequent. Continue to follow good hand and respiratory hygiene practices like regular hand washing, and keep your child up to date with vaccinations so that your child is protected against other viruses and bacteria causing diseases. As with other respiratory infections like the flu, seek care early if you or your child are having symptoms, and try to avoid going to public places (workplace, schools, public transport), to prevent spread to others. What should I do if a family member displays symptoms? You should seek medical care early if you or your child has a fever, cough or difficulty breathing. Consider calling ahead to tell your health care provider if you have travelled to an area where COVID-19 has been reported, or if you have been in close contact with someone with who has travelled from one of these areas and has respiratory symptoms. Should I take my child out of school? If your child is having symptoms, seek medical care, and follow the instructions from the health care provider. Otherwise, as with other respiratory infections like the flu, keep your child well rested at home while symptomatic, and avoid going to public places, to prevent spread to others. If your child isnt displaying any symptoms such as a fever or cough and unless a public health advisory or other relevant warning or official advice has been issued affecting your childs school its best to keep your child in class. Instead of keeping children out of school, teach them good hand and respiratory hygiene practices for school and elsewhere, like frequent hand washing (see below), covering cough or sneeze with a flexed elbow or tissue, then throwing away the tissue into a closed bin, not touching their eyes, mouths or noses if they havent properly washed their hands. What is the best way to wash hands properly? Step 1: Wet hands with running water Step 2: Apply enough soap to cover wet hands Step 3: Scrub all surfaces of the hands including back of hands, between fingers and under nails for at least 20 seconds. Step 4: Rinse thoroughly with running water Step 5: Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel Wash your hands often, especially before eating; after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing; and going to the bathroom. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty. What precautions should I take for my family if we travel? Anyone planning a trip overseas should always check the travel advisory for their destination country for any restrictions on entry, quarantine requirements on entry, or other relevant travel advice. In addition to taking standard travel precautions, and in order to avoid being quarantined or denied re-entry into your home country, you are also advised to check the latest COVID-19 update on the International Air Transport Association website, which includes a list of countries and restriction measures. While traveling, all parents should follow standard hygiene measures for themselves and their children: Wash hands frequently or use an alcohol-based sanitizer with at least 60 per cent alcohol, practice good respiratory hygiene (cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze and immediately dispose of the used tissue) and avoid close contact with anyone who is coughing or sneezing. In addition, it is recommended that parents always carry a hand sanitizer, pack of disposable tissues, and disinfecting wipes. Additional recommendations include: Clean your seat, armrest, touchscreen, etc. with a disinfecting wipe once inside an aircraft or other vehicle. Also use a disinfecting wipe to clean key surfaces, doorknobs, remote controls, etc. at the hotel or other accommodation where you and your children are staying. Can pregnant women pass coronavirus to unborn children? At this time, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the virus is transmitted from a mother to her baby during pregnancy, or the potential impact this may have on the baby. This is currently being investigated. Pregnant women should continue to follow appropriate precautions to protect themselves from exposure to the virus, and seek medical care early, if experiencing symptoms, such as fever, cough or difficulty breathing. Is it safe for a mother to breastfeed if she is infected with coronavirus? All mothers in affected and at-risk areas who have symptoms of fever, cough or difficulty breathing, should seek medical care early, and follow instructions from a health care provider. Considering the benefits of breastfeeding and the insignificant role of breast milk in the transmission of other respiratory viruses, the mother can continue breastfeeding, while applying all the necessary precautions. For symptomatic mothers well enough to breastfeed, this includes wearing a mask when near a child (including during feeding), washing hands before and after contact with the child (including feeding), and cleaning/disinfecting contaminated surfaces as should be done in all cases where anyone with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 interacts with others, including children. If a mother is too ill, she should be encouraged to express milk and give it to the child via a clean cup and/or spoon all while following the same infection prevention methods. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the security situation in the Northeastern states has improved substantially since 2014 New Delhi: There has been a 70 percent reduction in insurgency incidents and an 80 percent drop in civilian deaths in the Northeast in 2019 compared to 2013, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the security situation in the Northeastern states has improved substantially since 2014 and there has been a 78 percent decline in casualties in security forces. "Compared to 2013, there has been 70 percent reduction in insurgency incidents, 80 percent in civilian deaths and 78 percent in security forces casualties in the year 2019," he said in a written reply. As many as 1,824 insurgents surrendered between 2014 and 2019. Reddy said recently 88 cadres of National Liberationist in Front of Tripura (Sabir Debbarma) (NLFT-SD) surrendered after an agreement with the outfit in August, 2019. He said 644 cadres of different outfits surrendered on 23 January, 2020 and 1,615 cadres of different factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) surrendered on 30 January, 2020 after signing of Memorandum of Settlement. Hisham Ashmawy, a former special forces officer turned top Islamist militant has been executed by Egypt for his involvement in several high-profile attacks. The Officer-turned-extremist was hanged on Wednesday morning in Cairo, said the army. The execution by hanging was carried out based on a decision by the military court and after taking all the relevant judicial procedures, said army spokesman Tamer al-Rifai. Mr. Ashmawy, who was accused of killing 54 people in total and was convicted on several charges, including plotting a 2014 attack that killed 22 military guards near the frontier with Libya. On Monday, a Cairo court sentenced him to death along with 36 others for 54 crimes including killing police officers and blowing up several security installations. Back in November, he was also convicted by a military court over his role in 14 crimes including the 2014 killing of 22 soldiers in a border post-attack, and a 2013 assassination attempt on a former interior minister, who survived the attack. Other charges against Ashmawy, who led the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Islamist militant group in the turbulent Sinai region included infiltrating to Libyan territories and forming an Al-Qaeda aligned militant group, al-Mourabitoun. BOSTON It was a disastrous Super Tuesday for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, headlined by an embarrassing loss in her home state of Massachusetts, where she finished a distant third and lost to former Vice President Joe Biden. The U.S. senator from Massachusetts all but disappeared on a night when the Democratic presidential primary turned into a head-to-head race between Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Warren not only won zero states; she didnt finish second in any primary. Her Massachusetts finish was actually her top performance and the only state where she won more than 20% of the vote as of 1:30 a.m. EST. But Warren's campaign signaled she has no plans to drop out of the race Tuesday night, reminding supporters in an email appealing for donations that results are still trickling in and six more primaries are a week away. Warren, who led national polls in the fall, appeared to finish above the 15% viability threshold in only a handful of states, meaning she will leave Super Tuesday with far fewer delegates than the two frontrunners. Biden was declared the winner of Massachusetts by the Associated Press. With 80% of the votes reporting, Biden had nearly 34% of the vote, followed by Sanders with 26% and Warren 21%. The former vice president did not campaign in Massachusetts, build out any organization or air any television ads in the state. In fact, a WBUR poll last Friday showed him polling at 9% in fifth place. Bidens rapid post-South Carolina surge was arguably on display in Massachusetts more than any other state. Strong in the South: Biden sweeps the south on Super Tuesday, building on South Carolina win Warren's lackluster performance even attracted the attention of President Donald Trump: Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer! Story continues Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts. Well, now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020 Warren, who has campaigned in the partys progressive lane, has lost support among the party's left to Sanders. Her campaign has instead focused on patching together delegates. But its hard to find a pathway for her to win a majority of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, meaning she would have to win a brokered convention. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren greets the crowd in Shed 5 at Eastern Market in Detroit Tuesday March 3, 2020. Nonetheless, she looked ahead in an early evening campaign speech in Detroit. "Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over," Warren said. "Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States. Are you registered to vote? Check your status or register online now Before the polls closed in Massachusetts Tuesday night, Warren's campaign forged ahead with an email outlining the senator's travel schedule this week. She plans to hold events in Michigan, Arizona and Idaho three states that vote later this month. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Tuesday: Bad night for Elizabeth Warren after losing Massachusetts Some say BJP trying to topple govt, others blame Digvijay-Scindia tussle for RS seat. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath leaves after a meeting with party MLAs and others in Bhopal on Wednesday.(Photo: PTI) Bhopal/New Delhi: In a mid-night drama on the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday, 10 MLAs of the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh did a disappearing act. While six were finally located and rescued from a hotel in Gurugram, Haryana, by senior party leaders, four are still missing, putting the state government on the edge. Some Congress leaders blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party of using its money power to topple the government, but many said that it was simply a tussle between two Congress leaders for Rajya Sabha nomination. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who was part of the rescue party, was the first to point a finger at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying it was trying to poach MLAs and topple the Kamal Nath government. But Congress leaders in the state, who appeared confident about the stability of the government, said the party is supposed to get two seats out of three in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls on March 26 and a feud is on within the party on the likely claimants. Senior Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijay Singh, both of whom lost last years Lok Sabha polls, are the two main contenders. Digvijay Singh is a sitting RS member and is retiring later this month. The Congress state leadership, i.e. chief minister Kamal Nath, is keen on inducting a local leader for one of the seats, leaving the fight open between Digvijay and Scindia for the one seat left. It was Digvijaya Singh, along with his son, state minister Jaivardhan Singh, state finance minister Tarun Bhanot and Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari who rescued the six MLAs from a hotel in Manesar, Gurugram, in a late night raid. Mr Patwari alleged that the 10 MLAs who included two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs, one Samajwadi Party (SP) legislator and two Independents were being held hostage by the BJP in a Gurgaon hotel, and were being wooed with the offer of money to dislodge the Kamal Nath government. Mr Scindia also accused the BJP of poaching legislators, but asserted that the Congress government in the state was completely secure and stable. The MLAs, who were apparently brought to Delhi on a chartered flight, were flown to Bhopal in a charter plane and taken to the chief ministers official residence in the state capital for a meeting. The chief minister and AICC general secretary in-charge of MP affairs Deepak Babaria had a long discussion with the six MLAs. The meeting was going on till last reports came in. The six MLAs who were flown back to Bhopal are Andel Singh Kansana and Ranveer Jatav (both of Congress), Rama Bai and Sanjeev Kushwaha (both of BSP), Rajendra Shukla of SP and independent MLA Kedar Dawar. The fate of the other four MLAs was still not clear with some Congress leaders saying they have been flown to Karnataka by the BJP and others claiming that they are back in MP. A senior Congress leader here said four other MLAs Raghuraj Kansana, Hardeep Singh Dank and Baishahulal Singh (all of Congress) and Surendra Singh Sera have already been contacted by the partys leaders and are being brought to Bhopal soon. The Congress has a tenuous majority in the 230-member state Assembly with only 114 seats and relies on the support of independents and BSP and SP MLAs to pull it through. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one Samajwadi Party MLA. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. The BJP has 107 MLAs in the state Assembly. State law minister P.C. Sharma told reporters here that BJP had resorted to dirty tricks to topple the Kamal Nath government by purchasing our MLAs. The MLAs were literally kidnapped and kept in a hotel in Haryana. They were now released. All these MLAs are with us and fully back the chief minister. The conspiracy to topple Kamal Nath government by BJP has been foiled, he added. Though many Congress leaders, who did not wish to speak on record, said that the kidnap drama was part of the jostle for Rajya Sabha seats, a telling giveaway about sentiments in the state unit was a tweet by Umang Shinghar, a minister in the state Cabinet. All is well in the Kamal Nath government, this is just a drama for going to the Rajya Sabha, he tweeted in Hindi. (Newser) A middle school student in New Jersey was hospitalized with a major concussion and two of his classmates were arrested after the "skullbreaker challenge" lived up to its name. In the dangerous prank, which has gone viral on TikTok and other video platforms, two people tell a third person standing between them that they're going to jump into the air togetherand then kick the third person's legs out from under them when they jump, often causing them to fall backwards and hit their head on the ground. Mother Stacy Shenker tells NBC that her 13-year-old son spent more than 24 hours in the hospital after the Jan. 24 incident. She says first responders told her that her son had a seizure. The school later told her about the prank. "It was really very scary," she says. story continues below Shenker says her son is back at school and "slowly making progress," but still hasn't made a full recovery. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office has charged the boy's two classmates with third-degree aggravated assault and third-degree endangering an injured victim. The latter charge suggests that the classmates, whose names and ages have not been released, left when their classmate was injured, WHYY reports. There have been numerous other cases of the "skullbreaker challenge" causing serious injuries in the US and internationally, the Washington Post reports. TikTok says it does not allow content that "encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury" and it will continue to remove such videos. (Read more TikTok stories.) Willi Chubbins Bussard, Sichawastewin (Mean but kind woman), was the first child born to William Bill Youpee, Sr. and Isabel Floretta Weinberger on July 10, 1939 in Poplar, Montana. She attended her early school years in Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Poplar High School in 1956. As a member of the Sisseton-Yankton Dakota, Willi grew up learning and living the ways of her ancestors. In her youth, she shared many a country journey with her grandparents, Helen and Joe Brushorn, in their horse-drawn buckboard wagon hunting and gathering wild berries, turnips, medicinal herbs and plants. Other times, the family would load up and make it to tribal celebrations in neighboring reservation communities in Montana, North Dakota, and Canada. Pitching tent, dancing, feasting and breaking camp was a familiar routine of Willi's family and relations. Willi began her academic career at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She was an alumna of Montana State University-Bozeman, along with her sister Helen and brothers Allen and Dwight. She was a member of the group of Indian students who founded the Council of American Indian Students at MSU in 1961, and was a member of the Montana State Delegation to the first National Indian Youth Conference in 1962. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Timothy Ghianni (Reuters) Nashville, Tennessee Wed, March 4, 2020 06:36 678 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068107c1 2 World tornado,Tennessee,Super-Tuesday,natural-disaster,US-presidential-race,US-presidential-election Free Powerful tornadoes tore through Nashville, Tennessee and surrounding counties early on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people, leaving others missing and reducing homes and businesses to rubble even as voters throughout the state cast ballots in the Super Tuesday presidential primary. The death toll may rise given the number of people who remain unaccounted for following the twisters, which struck about 1 a.m. central standard time (2 p.m. eastern) Governor William Lee said at a news briefing. Lee did not estimate how many people remained missing following his visit to devastated neighborhoods of Nashville, the state capitol, but said rescue teams were going door to door searching for trapped or injured residents. "We encourage all Tennesseans to join us in praying for the families across our state that are facing tragedy today. Thank you to our first responders for working around the clock to keep us safe on this difficult day, Lee said on Twitter, describing the damage as "surreal." The National Weather Service said eight tornadoes reportedly touched down in Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky but that number could change following further analysis. It was not yet clear how many landed a direct hit on Nashville. In addition to the fatalities, at least 30 people were injured and about 48 buildings were destroyed in Nashville, with many more damaged, Fire Department Director Chief William Swann said. Tens of thousands of people were left without power. "Severe weather and tornados have impacted several counties in Tennessee. Counties with the greatest impacts include Davidson, Wilson, and Putnam Counties," the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in a post on its website. The storm struck as many were sleeping in Nashville, home to 691,000 people and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Polling stations stay open Pictures and video posted on Twitter showed lightning illuminating the dark sky as the twisters roared through the country music capital, and daybreak revealed dozens of leveled houses and businesses. Tennessee is one 14 US states holding presidential primary elections on Super Tuesday and despite the destruction, polling sites were mostly open for voting, officials said. Crushed vehicles, piles of debris and broken power lines littered streets blocked by rescue vehicles. Residents carried away belongings from ravaged homes. Greg Poulson, a 61-year-old man who lives in a Nashville homeless encampment with about 85 other people, said wind gusts lifted him off the ground as he ran underneath a bridge. "I had a tree fall on my tent," Poulson said. "The storm dropped right on top of us. We were ground zero." Charlotte Cooper, a French teacher at a Nashville Classical Charter School, said she felt lucky a twister had skipped over her house, which still suffered cracked windows and a downed fence. "It's like a war zone," she said. Apart from the public buildings set to be used for polling, schools, district offices and courts were closed. Lee said he had spoken to the Trump administration about federal assistance. President Donald Trump said that he will go to Tennessee on Friday. The twister knocked down power lines, and one utility pole dangled horizontally in the street in the Donelson area, home to country music's most famous concert stage, the Grand Ole Opry. Nashville Electric, the city's public utility, said there were more than 47,000 customers without power, with damage to four substations, 15 primary distribution lines, and multiple power poles and lines. John C. Tune Airport, about 8 miles from downtown Nashville, "sustained significant damage" and several hangars were destroyed, the airport said on its website. Another 25,000 homes and businesses were without power elsewhere in Tennessee, emergency officials said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 07:22:21|Editor: ZD Video Player Close ROME, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Business leaders in the Italian island region of Sardinia say they are drafting plans to launch a new air carrier to help it stay in better contact with mainland Italy. Home to around 1.6 million residents, Sardinia is 187 kilometers from the Italian mainland, and is connected by air and maritime services. But after the collapse this year of Air Italy -- a regional airline based in the Sardinian city of Olbia -- locals are worrying that the island could become too economically and socially isolated. "Sardinia cannot continue for long the way it is going," Antonello Bombagi, a Sardinian businessman and one of the leaders of the movement seeking to create a new airline to fill the void left by Air Italy, told Xinhua. "Sardinia is an island but it is also part of Italy and it has to be connected to the mainland," he said. "If it isn't, the situation will become unbearable." Italy's flagship air carrier Alitalia continues to serve the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, and budget air carriers easyJet and Ryanair run a few routes to Sardinia from Rome and Milan. But the demise of Air Italy leaves a gap, according to Andrea Giuricin, a professor of public finance and mobility management at Milan Bicocca University. "The people of Sardinia clearly miss the routes out of Sardinia that Air Italy ran," Giuricin said in an interview. "This is a difficult period for airlines, and with reductions in tourism because of the outbreak of coronavirus, they will not get any easier." "It's within the realm of possibility that one or more of the airlines serving Sardinia could cut back on services and then the problems for the island will be even bigger," Giuricin added. Giuricin noted that Mobi, the main company running maritime ferry services between Sardinia and mainland Italy, is facing its own economic difficulties. The risk that Mobi could reduce its schedule to Sardinia further heightens the importance of air connections for the island. But Giuricin is not sure that creating a new airline to fill the gap left by a company that struggled for most of its existence is the way to go. "This is an extraordinarily challenging time to start an airline," Giuricin said. He suggested that rather than investing 50 million euros (56 million U.S. dollars) or more in a startup that would have a tough time surviving, Sardinian business leaders could instead subsidize the cost of air tickets for Sardinian residents buying seats on existing airlines serving the island. "Spain does something like this with the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands," Giuricin said. "Tourists and other visitors still pay regular prices, but residents can travel cheaply and the guaranteed business creates an incentive for the regular airlines to continue providing service to the islands." For his part, Bombagi is convinced a new airline is the best option for Sardinia. "The reasons Air Italy failed and the reasons Alitalia is struggling are because they were not run the way they should be run," Bombagi said. "We can create our own airline and learn from the mistakes of the airlines that came before." Tennessees legislative push to allow anyone over the age of 21 to carry a gun without a permit is simply nuts. If you support this constitutional carry lunacy, then please do the following. Give one of your guns to a person you know or a stranger who is in a custody battle, going through a divorce, facing some life altering situation like job loss or health issue, addicted to alcohol or other drugs, battling one or more mental issues or simply angry at the world. After you give them the gun and the bullets, let me know how much safer you feel. I suspect I would hear the same line that it is our constitutional right to do what you support. You will also say the law will really punish the bad folks with guns. Lets say I agree with you. Does that mean it makes sense or is what is best for our country and ALL the citizens you are supposed to represent?Remember, there are other rights protected by our Constitution. I have come to believe that support for this type of legislation is generated for only a few reasons. First, it is in alignment with your political party and leanings and it helps you raise money and keep your seat. Second, you grew up believing this and are unwilling to consider you might be wrong. Third, you think everyone who owns a gun or has a gun is just like you: sane, stable and reasonable. Guess what - they are not, and you may not be as sane as you think you are. Dewayne Belew Cleveland * * * Mr. Belew is not alone while making his complaint against Governor Lees push for so-called "Constitutional Carry" here in Tennessee; Roy Exum and Brenda Washington share his outrageand his faulty terminology. In their public postings here, each makes the same egregious (perhaps unknowing) error by leaving out one word or phrase Legal ownership. First this bill is not a Constitutional Carry" bill by any means. A careful reading of the Bill clarifies this: Quote (in part) (a) that a person is carrying, whether openly or concealed, a handgun and: (1) The person meets the qualifications for the issuance of an enhanced handgun carry permit under [Section] 39-17-1351(b) and (c); and (2) The person lawfully possesses the handgun; and (3) The person is in a place where the person has a right to be. Unquote [additions/deletions for clarity mine] Note it states lawfully possesses. Not only that but just giving a handgun to a friend or stranger is illegal under federal law, regardless of the circumstances. Finally, the bill clearly states penalties for violations. This is hardly a Wild Wild West bill that Ms Washington implies. R. Roland Smith * * * Mr. Belew uses imaginary scenarios (basically hyperbole and fear mongering) to make his case. Tennessee already allows almost anyone to have a gun in their home or car with no license at all. Mr. Belew's points address issues that the Carry Law barely, if at all, affects. Steve Campbell * * * Mssrs Smith and Campbell, Let me ask you a question. Does knowing that when you and/or your family drive down the street, go out to eat, take in a movie or go to the mall you are in close proximity to any number of people, any one of whom may be mentally unstable, who are armed or carry guns around in their cars make you feel safer? It surely doesnt make me feel that way. Harry M. Hays The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the complete ban on cryptocurrency imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI had decided to ban banks from providing services to people or businesses dealing with cryptocurrencies. The apex court allowed a plea challenging RBI's 2018 circular that barred banks from trading in cryptocurrencies. A three-judge Bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice V Ramasubramanian allowed the plea of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) challenging the order. The IAMAI had argued during the hearing that cryptocurrency is not strictly currency and is more in the nature of commodity, as mentioned in a report in Bar and Bench. RBI does not have powers to impose such a ban in the absence of a law in that regard, argued the association. Trade of VCs was legal within the ambit of the Constitution, it said. The IAMAI also stated that if cryptocurrency is banned then it would be removed from the formal economy but give rise to the same through black market transactions, as mentioned in the report. RBI had argued that it had been cautioning VC users that it considers cryptocurrencies a mode of digital payment. It argued that the use of cryptocurrencies had to be curbed so that it does not jeopardise the payment system. It stated that it was, hence, empowered to ban cryptocurrencies. The RBI issued a press release on April 5, 2018 stating that the cryptocurrencies raised concerns of consumer protection, market integrity and money laundering. The central bank then issued an order the following day asking entities regulated by it barring them not to deal with cryptocurrencies. "Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer / receipt of money in accounts relating to purchase/ sale of VCs (virtual currencies)", the notification had stated. Also read: Health Ministry springs into action after swine flu scare at Supreme Court Also read: Airtel does its own math on AGR, finds total dues to be much less Chris Matthews real sin, of course, was being old and unfashionable, remarked Fox News host Tucker Carlson yesterday. If Carlson had added white and male, his statement could have been complete but unfashionable itself. MSNBC personality Matthews stunned all and sundry Monday evening when he announced on air (video below) his retirement from the network and his show Hardball, which hed hosted for 25 years. He then left the studio during a commercial break, and fellow MSNBC journalist Steve Kornacki filled in for the remainder of the Hardball episode. And heres a stunned Kornacki taking the reins: And here's the shot when the commercial break ended and the camera cut to a stunned Steve Kornacki, who was obviously not prepared for Chris Matthews' announcement, nor to fill in the hour of airtime when #Hardball would usually run. pic.twitter.com/idqhwvi3rl Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) March 3, 2020 Yet while Matthews departure was shocking, it wasnt unexplainable. His surprise announcement came on the heels of a rough 10 days in which the 74-year-old host confused two prominent black politicians from different parties, apologized for comparing the Bernie Sanders campaign to the Nazi march on France, and was accused of making inappropriate comments to a former guest, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. My, its surprising theyre not seeking the death penalty. If it sounds to you like MSNBC just wanted Matthews gone, youre not alone. The aforementioned Carlson, for example, scoffed at the obvious double standard. Ive known Chris Matthews very well since 1995 when I started appearing on his show regularly, he said on his Monday night program. Hes everything you think he is. Groveling, in the end, couldnt save him. It never does. I would say his real sin, of course, was being old and unfashionable; thats why theyre making him leave. Why is Joy Reid still on the air, who lied and got the FBI implicated in her lie? Or Noah Oppenheim, the buddy of Harvey Weinstein? Or Andy Lack? Or Joe Scarborough, who still works there? Carlson went on to say, buttressing his case. Really? Amazing! So it would be worth asking what exactly is the standard were applying here that forced Chris Matthews Im not a fan, but just being honest that forced Chris Matthews off the air (video below). The Lefts reaction to Matthews is precisely what youd expect from people who simply dont like an individual and want him erased. Its as when a woman starts detesting her husband and desires separation. Everything he does how he chews his food, combs his hair, etc. actions shed find cute in a man she was smitten with, is a damning indictment. Like Carlson, Im no fan of Matthews, and he likely wouldnt give me the time of day. Yet the destruction of no man is a cause great enough to warrant destruction of knowledge of Truth. Lets examine the truth here. Matthews Nazi analogy was in reaction to Senator Bernie Sanders resounding Nevada caucus win. But he didnt liken the socialist or his supporters to Nazis; rather, his obvious point was that the victory was so complete and shocking, with Sanders routing the Democrat field, that it was like the WWII fall of France. His comments are below (relevant portion at 1:05). Of course, its absolutely true that the young woke crowd that objected never would have drawn the analogy. Its unlikely theyd even know the history Matthews referenced, and then theres this: The host expressed that hed been reading about Frances fall the night before in a book. A book. 'Nough said. Next we have Matthews confusing of Democrat Jaime Harrison, whos running against Senator Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.), with GOP senator Tim Scott of Florida (video below). Because both Harrison and Scott are black, this is supposed to be some unforgiveable trespass. Of course, since they also both have shaved heads, I would have said, I confess! Mercy! I think all bald men look alike! Then there are the allegations of improper sexual comments, accusations leveled mainly, it seems, by GQ columnist Laura Bassett. Yet reading Bassetts late February indictment of Matthews says as much about her as it does him. First let me say that flirtatious comments (which Matthews clearly made) from a married man (which he is) are always wrong. Its also clear that Matthews engaged in lamentably common juvenile habits, such as rating female guests attractiveness among his colleagues. Yet Bassett admits in her piece that shes pretty sure Matthewss behavior doesnt rise to the level of illegal sexual harassment, and the case she makes is pretty thin. She devotes much ink to complaining about how Matthews grilled Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) over her repeating of an allegation that fellow presidential contender Michael Bloomberg once told a female underling to kill her unborn baby. While I believe Bloomberg made the disgusting comment, Bassetts condemning of Matthews for pressing Warren is comical. Not only is that a journalists job, but Warren is an inveterate liar whose every utterance has been made suspect by her own prevarication. Bassett then condemns Matthews for remarking in 2011 that theres something electric and very attractive about the way former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin walks and moves, and noting in 2017 that acting attorney general Sally Yates is attractive, obviously. Has she forgotten that this is the man who also said that listening to Barack Obama gave him a thrill up his leg? Moreover, having written an article entitled That Presidential Look, Ill say that a commentator who doesnt understand the significance of public figures appearance in our shallow, image-is-everything world is wholly unqualified. Bassett later relates her own experience with Matthews. In 2016, right before I had to go on his show and talk about sexual-assault allegations against Donald Trump, Matthews looked over at me in the makeup chair next to him and said, Why havent I fallen in love with you yet? she writes. When I laughed nervously and said nothing, he followed up to the makeup artist. Keep putting makeup on her, Ill fall in love with her. Again, while this is inappropriate from a married man and unprofessional regardless, I cant say Id be beside myself if a woman said that to me. Yet while Bassetts point is that Matthews diminished women, what about her claim: His behavior undermined my ability to do my job well? Could it be that portraying working women as this fragile undermines them far more? To be clear, I consider Matthews to be like most liberals: pseudo-intellectual and relatively immature. But condemnation of him coming from the set that coddled sex offenders Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein is a little much. At the end of the day, Matthews real sin was being an unwoke, old white guy who had the temerity to criticize socialism as in the recent video below: He mentioned above that if the socialists had won the Cold War, he might have been one of the ones getting executed. But in a way they did win, which is not only why Matthews had a long journalistic career in the first place, but also is why hes now gone. Image of Chris Matthews: Screenshot of YouTube video by MSNBC Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The New American for more than a decade. He has also written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and many other print and online publications. In addition, he has contributed to college textbooks published by Gale-Cengage Learning, has appeared on television, and is a frequent guest on radio A medical research center affiliated with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it is testing a vaccine that promises to eradicate the killer coronavirus. According to Brig. Gen. Alireza Jalali, the president of Baqiatollah Medical Sciences University, the vaccine is awaiting permits from Irans Food and Drug Organization to enter the clinical phase. No further details have been released on the vaccine. But in a statement March 4, the Food and Drug Organization strongly denied all recent reports and rumors on social media that had claimed a breakthrough in the fight against the virus. Still, the organization, which has the final authority on the production and distribution of medicines in Iran, did not make specific reference to the IRGC announcement. The IRGC is also working to develop its own testing kits within 12 months. The scarcity of testing kits has been one of the impediments to proper handling of the outbreak in Iran. Last week, Health Minister Saeed Namaki confidently declared in a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iran will soon astonish the world by bringing the virus to its knees. Only two days later, he was lamenting domestic hoarding of medical supplies and how it is depriving ordinary Iranians and his colleagues at hospitals of face masks and other badly needed protective equipment. As of March 4, there were unconfirmed reports that First Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri and Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani had tested positive for the virus. The same day, the updated official death toll surged to 92 as the community of the infected Iranians topped 2,900. The highest-ranking official to have cast doubt on the daily statistics was pro-Reform Deputy Parliament Speaker Masoud Pezeshkian. A former health minister himself, Pezeshkian lashed out at the government for refusing to impose a lockdown on the city of Qom, which has been Iran's epicenter of the disease. In their latest containment measures, the authorities extended the unprecedented cancelation of Friday prayers in the provincial capitals for a second consecutive week. The sermons have traditionally been the key podium for the Islamic Republic to elucidate its political ideology and a venue for slogans against its top enemies, Israel and the United States. On the front lines in the overcrowded and chaotic hospitals, Iranian nurses attend an increasing number of patients and fight the virus often unprotected and unequipped. Nevertheless, they are also going the extra mile to stay cheerful and spread optimism among their communities. One trending social media campaign is a dance challenge. As dancing is banned in the Islamic Republic, medical workers are using their masks and gowns to hide their identities while dancing to lift the spirits of a shocked and distressed society. Amid vociferous protest by the Congress, the Haryana Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill to bifurcate 20 per cent seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in admission to higher educational institutions in the state. The Haryana Scheduled Castes (Reservation in Admission in Government Educational Institutions) Bill, 2020 was passed after an hour-long discussion, with senior Congress leader Geeta Bhukkal claiming it was "divisive"and "unconstitutional" and demanded that it be withdrawn. The bill, moved by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment O P Yadav, was passed to provide for reservation in admission in government educational institutions to people belonging to the Scheduled Castes in Haryana with special measures for "deprived Scheduled Castes". Slamming the government's move to bring the Bill, Bhukkal questioned the need for creating "this new category of deprived Scheduled Castes". "You have sub-categorised SCs, why are you dividing us, why are you dividing state into Jats, non-Jats, SC, BC and making other sub-categories..This Bill is unconstitutional, divisive and against the law and should be withdrawn," she said. However, the government defended the move and said there was nothing unconstitutional about it. The sub-classification of reservation would be applicable for graduation and post graduation-level courses in educational institutions maintained by the government or receiving government aid. As per the Bill, 20 per cent seats shall be reserved for the members of the Scheduled Castes while making admissions in government educational institutions. Fifty per cent of the 20 per cent seats reserved for SCs for admission in any government educational institutions shall be set aside for candidates belonging to "deprived Scheduled Castes". "Haryana provides 20 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes in admission in educational institutions as well in services. Analysis of employee data reveals that the total representation of a section of the Scheduled Castes in the government services in Haryana, herein after, referred to as "deprived Scheduled Castes" is only 4.7 per cent, 4.14 per cent and 6.27 per cent in Group A, Group B and Group C services, respectively, even though their population is about 11 per cent of the total state population. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved as many as 72 amendments to the Companies Act, including decriminalising various offences, a move which would protect corporates in case of genuine commercial failures. The Bill removes criminality under the Act in case of defaults which can be determined objectively and which, otherwise, lack the element of fraud or do not involve larger public interest. Speaking to media after Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "This Bill furthers ease of living for law-abiding corporates and de-clogs the criminal justice system in the country." The Union Cabinet has approved the Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 to amend the Companies Act, 2013. With the amendments, as many as 23 offences would be recategorised out of 66 compoundable offences under the Act, Sitharaman said. Adding to it, seven compoundable offences would also be omitted under the Act, she added. The FM said that government is removing the imprisonment angle and reducing the punishment proposed under the act. Besides, the quantum of penalty will also be reduced, she said. Also Read: Cabinet briefing Updates: Bank mergers not to affect customers, assures FM Sitharaman Earlier, the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 amended certain provisions of the Act to remove difficulties faced in implementation of various provisions of the Act. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised industrialists to protect in cases of genuine commercial failures. He had urged India Inc to "invest boldly" to boost economic growth. The Indian economy has decelerated to record low in the last few quarters, owing to a sharp slowdown in consumption demand. Also Read: Govt approves 100% FDI by NRIs in Air India Among others, the Cabinet has approved allowing Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to own up to 100 per cent stake in disinvestment-bound Air India. Currently, NRIs can acquire only 49 per cent in Air India. The announcement comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 per cent stake sale in the national carrier. By Chitranjan Kumar China Aviation Daily | Mar. 04, 2020 Air BP, the international aviation fuel products and services supplier, returns to the 5th Aviation Africa summit this week at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, Addis Ababa as sponsor and exhibitor (Stand # 67 & 68). The company will highlight its low carbon solutions and sustainability agenda as the African aviation market gears up to support a forecasted increase of 200 million passengers in the next two decades. Africa, which is the second fastest growing aviation market in the world is a key market for Air BP. It began operations on the continent 77 years ago in Mozambique and Zanzibar and now provides fuel at around 40 network locations across the continent. Low Carbon Solutions Air BP was the first aviation fuel supplier in the world to achieve carbon neutrality for its into-plane fuelling services across an international network of over 250 operated facilities and as such will be sharing its low carbon solutions with customers at the event. Air BP's carbon neutral operations in Africa includes both OR Tambo International and Cape Town International. Air BP has more than a decade of experience in the use of electric powered vehicles. It has also adopted innovative stop-start technology in its hydrant dispensers which constantly monitors power demands and reduces vehicle idling. At OR Tambo International airport Air BP deployed a bespoke engine start/stop system last year. This has been increased and extended to Cape Town International with each airport now operating six hydrant dispensers with stop/start technology. By shutting the fuel dispenser engine down whilst refuelling the aircraft, it has reduced carbon emissions from those engines by around 20 percent. Last year at Cape Town International Air BP introduced additional offloading points in the depot which has improved its supply operations planning and stock management thus considerably reducing inefficient vehicle idling and waiting during busy periods. In addition, Air BP has added variable controls to pumps in its Johannesburg rail siding operations which allows for more efficient use of electric power on pump motors during lower demand periods thereby reducing electricity consumption. Carbon Offsetting Supports Emission Reduction in Zambia Through its carbon offsetting programme BP Target Neutral, BP has supported emission reduction projects around the world. One such project includes the REDD+ Forest Protection Project in Zambia which is helping to conserve over 40k hectares of pristine forest from destruction as a result of charcoal production and the expansion of farmlands. BP Target Neutral's carbon finance supports forest wardens, sustainable charcoal production, education and alternative income sources like bee-keeping/honey production. The project has resulted in 943,469 tCO2e credits issued to date which is an average 137,000 tCO2e per year. Air BP's Anthony Leon, general manager, Southern Africa who will be attending Aviation Africa this week says: "We are pleased to be sharing our lower carbon solutions and sustainability agenda with our customers and delegates at Aviation Africa 2020. With the African continent anticipated to experience phenomenal growth, it is vital that we work together with our partners, suppliers, customers and operations teams to continue to develop innovative solutions to reduce our carbon footprint and neutralise emissions." Airfield Automation in Africa In other news, last year Air BP rolled out its Airfield Automation digital technology to nine locations in Africa. Designed to enhance safety, reliability and compliance in airport fuelling operations, it has been well received by operators in Africa who have reported increased speed and efficiency in fuelling. Airline customers in the region such as Airlink have been impressed with Airfield Automation and have reported improved turnaround times and enhanced accuracy in fuelling. Anthony Leon, adds: "We are delighted to receive such positive feedback from the installation of Airfield Automation in Africa. With this new technology, we are playing our part in ensuring that the fuelling process is fast, efficient and safe. Misfuelling is one of the biggest risks we face in our industry. Our global solution provides an engineering barrier to help prevent misfuelling, which is good news for Africa and good news for our industry." Air BP Grows Its Footprint in Africa Air BP continues to invest and grow its footprint in Africa. In November 2019, Air BP signed a technical services agreement with Sonangol, the state-owned oil company in Angola marking its entry into the country. Air BP will support Sonangol in assuring its operations to international standards, providing advice on product quality, operations, HSSE and engineering. Air BP further extended its reach last year with its first location in Nigeria at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. Air BP is working in collaboration with 11PLC (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria plc) to provide fuelling services at both the main terminal and the general aviation terminal. Additionally, Air BP is providing technical support and risk management expertise to the airport. Furthermore, Air BP's technical services team has supported 11PLC in the construction and commissioning of a new 20 million litre aviation jet fuel import tank including the laying of new jet fuel pipelines both of which were completed in 2019. Air BP currently supplies commercial, general and military aviation customers at nine locations in South Africa, 10 in Egypt, seven in Tunisia, seven in Mozambique, two in Morocco, two in Cape Verde and one each in Nigeria, Mauritius and Ivory Coast. The company's operations in Africa are supported by around 180 employees. Contributed by Air BP FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 04 March 2020 London & Associated Properties PLC ("LAP" or the "Company") Director/PDMR Shareholding The Company has today been notified that on 24 February 2020, Mr Clive Parritt (a non-executive director of the Company), sold 10,810 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") for a consideration of 20p per Ordinary Share. He then purchased for his personal ISA account 10,810 ordinary shares of 10 pence each for a consideration of 20p per Ordinary Share ("the Transactions") Following the Transactions Mr Clive Parritt and his family's holding remains unchanged at 36,168 shares in the company representing 0.04% of the issued share capital net of Treasury shares. The notification below, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation, provides further details of the Transactions. 1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name Mr Clive Parritt 2 Reason for the notification a) Position/status Mr Clive Parritt is a non-executive director of the Company b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name London & Associated Properties PLC b) LEI 213800GLCG54Q578EX51 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Identification code Ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") GB0001012045 b) Nature of the transactions Sale of Ordinary Shares by Mr Clive Parritt and subsequent purchase of Ordinary Shares into his personal ISA account. As a result of the Transactions his family holdings remain the same. c) Price(s) and volume(s) Price(s) Volume(s) 20p per share - sale 20p per share - purchase 10,810 Ordinary Shares 10,810 Ordinary Shares d) Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price N/A e) Date of the transaction 24/02/2020 f) Place of the transaction LSE Contact: Jonathan Mintz, Company Secretary 020 7415 5000 China will offer cash support to both domestic and foreign carriers to encourage them to restore services and not to suspend flights amid the coronavirus outbreak, the country's aviation regulator said on March 4. For every available seat kilometre, Beijing would award 0.0176 yuan for routes that have been shared by multiple carriers and 0.0528 yuan for routes that are only operated by one carrier, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said. The policy will be effective for flights between January 23 and June 30. We know that this ballot initiative can be won, but we cannot and do not want to do it when local activists are not interested in collaborating with our organization, Decriminalize Sex Work said in a statement. Divided in this way, we all lose. So, we are discontinuing our efforts to decriminalize sex work in the nations capital. Entertainer Masashi Tashiro was found guilty Wednesday of using and possessing illegal stimulants last November. The Sendai District Court sentenced Tashiro to 30 months in prison, six months of which were suspended for two years with probation for rehabilitation purposes. According to the ruling, Tashiro, 63, possessed cannabis and illegal stimulants at his condominium in Tokyo on Nov. 6 and used the stimulants around the same day. He was arrested Nov. 6. Prosecutors had sought 42 months in prison for Tashiro on charges of drug possession, while his defense team had asked for a suspended sentence with probation. In the first hearing of his trial on Feb. 13, he admitted to the charges. His suspected drug possession came to light after an accommodation facility in Miyagi Prefecture where Tashiro stayed informed police that aa customer forgot weird stuffa on Aug 24. The Sindhi Congress held a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Geneva to raise the issue of the persecution of minorities, especially the Hindus, in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Sindhis were joined by Pashtun, Kashmiri and Baloch political activists. They also raised concerns over the enforced disappearances of Sindhi political activists and shouted slogans against the Pakistani Army. "The Pakistani Army is supporting these fundamentalists who are kidnapping our minor Hindu girls. The persecution against the minorities has enormously increased in the past few months," said Hidayat Bhutto, a member of the Sindhi Congress. In recent years, several incidents of forced abduction and conversion of Hindu girls by the Muslims have shaken the minority community in Pakistan and they have demanded justice to save their religion, culture, and ethos. The protesters called Pakistan an abuser of human rights and demanded justice for Mehak Kumari. Mehak was abducted by a middle-aged man, Ali Raza, from the Jacobabad district of Sindh province on January 15. The girl said she was forced to accept Islam, causing a widespread furore among the Islamic fanatics. Some Pakistani clerics want the minor girl dead after she retracted her previous statement in the court, where she said that she had accepted Islam of her own free will. The clerics blamed 14-year old Mehak of murtad, or an act of Apostasy, and are demanding death punishment, accusing her of insulting Islam. Meanwhile, the court which is yet to announce the verdict has sent Mehak Kumari to a local Dar-ul-Aman in Larkana district of Sindh for eleven days. "This has happened to thousands of girls and not a single perpetrator has ever been punished. This is a systematic design to persecute Sindhis so that they leave. They want to occupy Sindh," said Lakhu Luhana, the Secretary-General of the Sindhi Congress. Luhana urged the world community to increase pressure on Pakistan to act on the perpetrators and stop the persecution of the Sindhi community. "We need the support of the international community. They should increase the pressure on Pakistan otherwise they would not listen and the people of Sindh would continue to suffer," he said. The abduction and forceful conversion of Hindu and Christian girls is widespread in Pakistan. Such incidents have sparked widespread criticism as many victim families are forced the migrate in foreign countries, including India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Campbell Soup CEO Mark Clouse said Wednesday that the company is increasing soup production in response to the coronavirus outbreak. "We made the decision last week to up production in certain areas where we're using a little bit the analogy of weather or natural disasters," Clouse said on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "Where do we see demand coming in a greater rate? And we've upped that level of production to be able to maximize our inventory to be prepared for whatever unfolds here." Consumers, particularly those closest to virus clusters, have been stockpiling canned soup and other shelf-stable foods as more cases of the disease are reported in the U.S. Hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies have also seen their sales surge, presenting a problem for grocery stores and other retailers, who may be unprepared by the sudden swing in demand. Clouse said the company has been talking with some retailers to better understand what demand could look like. Campbell's noticed an uptick in demand from both online and brick-and-mortar retailers over the weekend, but Clouse said it was still too early to call it a trend. The food company is also preparing to prevent any supply chain interruptions for products such as Goldfish crackers and Milano cookies. Only about 10% of its products are sourced outside of the U.S., with less than 2% in China. Campbell's is trying to find alternative sources or ingredients where possible, according to Clouse. Campbell's stock, which has a market value of $15.9 billion, closed Wednesday up 10% after its second-quarter earnings topped estimates and it raised its full-year outlook. Shares have been given a lift in recent days as investors forecast increased demand for its soup due to the outbreak. With officials acknowledging that two people who died last week were infected by coronavirus COVID-19, the official number of deaths in the United States has reached nine, with all of the fatalities in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington. There are now more than 115 known cases of coronavirus in at least a dozen US states. Internationally the number of known cases is approaching 100,000 with at least 3,000 deaths. The Trump administration, primarily concerned with the impact on the stock market, has sought to downplay the seriousness of the threat to public health. It is apparent, however, that American society is unprepared and ill-equipped to handle the spreading virus. Like every other crisis, whether triggered by hurricanes, tornados or other natural disasters or the global financial crash of 2008, it is the working class which will be most impacted by the coronavirus. The lack of a basic social safety net in the US, high levels of poverty and the proliferation of low-paid and precarious employment have combined with the growth of the uninsured and underinsured population and inability of workers to take time off, even when sick, to create a perfect storm. Detroit teachers sickout protests in 2016 to demand improved school conditions In workplaces, supervisors have given workers little, if any, instructions and it is clear no plans are in place. If schools were closed, like the one-month shutdown in Japan, workers have no idea who would care for their children or how they would afford it. With little or no paid leave, workers have no idea where their income would come from if they were furloughed. Tens of thousands of airline workers could face layoffs because of curtailed travel along with manufacturing workers if components from the global supply chain dry up. Autoworkers who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site in Detroit expressed particular concern about the danger. The pandemic started in Wuhan, a major manufacturing center, known as Chinas Motor City. Management hasnt given us any instructions concerning the coronavirus, Michael, a young Fiat Chrysler worker at the Sterling Heights Assembly plant in suburban Detroit, told the WSWS. The last company notice we got was about highway construction, but that was just so we dont show up late for work. If the coronavirus hit this plant everyone would get it. Were supposed to wash our hands but the bathrooms in the plant are filthy and were always fighting just to get soap in the dispenser, he said. If this virus got into the plant everyone would get sick, Anthony, a young Fiat Chrysler worker at the Jefferson plant in Detroit, said, No one can take a day off when they are sick. Its insane. A fast food worker gets the virus and comes to work, and we have zero chance of not getting it. Hand sanitizers are good, but they cant solve the issue. Its like bringing cases of water to Flint when the underlying problem is that the water is full of lead. There are so many uninsured Americans that people wont even go to the doctors to find out if they have it because it costs too much. There was a joke around social media, which said if you want to find out if you have coronavirus cough on a rich person and see what their doctor tells them. After decades of deindustrialization and wage-cutting aided and abetted by the unions, some 220,000 Detroiters, or one in three city residents, and half of the citys children live below the governments official poverty line. In Michigan, approximately 535,000 residents were uninsured in 2018, up by 25,000. Far more are underinsured, i.e., they are covered by employer-sponsored insurance plans but cannot afford the premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs. Out-of-pocket health care costs have steadily risen even as wages stagnated (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation) A 2019 survey conducted by the Los Angeles Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 40 percent of Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage still had difficulty affording the health plan or treatment. Average deductibles for employer-sponsored single coverage tripled from $584 in 2006 to $1,655 in 2019, according to a separate Kaiser study. How many residents would forgo a trip to the doctor, where the virus could be caught, because they could not afford it? While government officials are telling people that the best way to prevent the spread of infection is to thoroughly wash their hands, last year Detroit water officials disconnected 23,500 residents because they could not afford to pay their bills. As of January 15, 9,500 of those were still without water, according to city records. Last week, Michigans Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, rejected an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union and Detroit civic groups that she use emergency powers to halt the water shutoffs because of the threat to public health. On Monday, Nikolai Vitti, the superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, sent a perfunctory email to teachers and support staff trying to allay concerns and fears of the potential impact on the 50,000-student school district. Public health officials continue to advise that the risk to the public remains low, Vitti writes, before instructing workers and their families to practice good hygiene habits, including wash your hands for at least 20 seconds and stay home when you are sick. One Detroit teacher commented, The problem with teachers and students being told to wash their hands is that many schools do not have soap. This is widely known and was one of the reasons for the teacher sickouts in 2016. The lack of supplies has still not been resolved. We dont know which of our families do or do not have water. So, we have to anticipate that many of the students come to school without washing because their water was shut off. In school, we insist they wash their hands, but the water is poisoned with lead. So whatever advantages they get by getting rid of germs and virus, now we have to worry about their skin absorbing the lead through their skin, especially if they have abrasions or cuts. Parents are frequently working two or three jobs and they dont have sick leave or other paid time off and often send their children to school sick. Not all schools have school nurses. Even for those that do, if the nurses screen the child for fever or other illness, it is not guaranteed that the parent will be able to get off of work and pick them up. If there is a school with 5001,000 students and you have one student who is infected with coronavirus, it has the potential to be spread to all the students and their families, and to grow exponentially. This is especially true in an impoverished city like Detroit where going to an urgent care center or hospital emergency room is not affordable or easily accessible. In a February 29 article entitled, If coronavirus sweeps America, blame our brutal work and healthcare culture, Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik noted when the H1N1 flu virus hit the US in 2009, an estimated 26 million residents were infected during its peak months. Of these, an estimated 8 million continued to go to work while they were sick. By the following February, public health authorities reckoned that those carriers infected some 7 million co-workers, the Times wrote, adding, The problem was especially acute in the private sector, where paid sick leave was relatively rare. The phenomenon of working while sick is so common that US businesses have a term for it, presenteeism. The primary concern expressed by corporate management is how illnesses or other physical ailments undermine workplace productivity. A study by Pennsylvania State University cited by the Times concluded, Presenteeismattending work while illamong private sector employees without paid sick days may have extended the duration of the [2009 flu] outbreak. A quarter of American workers have no right to sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 58 percent of service workers, less than half of those in the lowest 25 percent of the income range, and only three in 10 of those in the lowest 10 percent of wage earners have sick leave, the Times notes. As opposed to other countries, where many workers receive paid sick leave, in the US time off is often unpaid. In Britain, workers are entitled to sick pay of at least $120 a week for up to seven months, at their employers expense. In France, the government and employers together cover 90% of a workers pay for up to 30 days of sick leave, 67% after that, the Times notes. In China, the epicenter of the developing outbreak, workers are guaranteed 60% to 100% of their salary for up to six months, depending on their seniority, and 40% to 60% for up to six years after that. Those liberal standards may have eased the pain for workers when authorities imposed stringent quarantines in Wuhan province, where the virus is thought to have originated. The coronavirus emergency has revealed the entirely irrational character of the capitalist system, which subordinates every aspect of life to the relentless pursuit of profit by giant corporations and blocks society from marshaling its scientific, technological and human resources around the world to combat this threat to public health. This underscores the need for the socialist reorganization of society, based on human need, not profit. Big Pharma will protect their profits by any means necessary, a veteran Fiat Chrysler worker in Detroit declared. All the countries should come together to tackle this. We need global healthcare. Former Vice-President Joe Biden had won or projected to win nine of the 14 states that voted in the Super Tuesday Democratic nominating contests, in a stunning comeback that started last week South Carolina and is propelled by, what his supporters are calling Joementum, built in part on continuing coalescence of moderates in the party around his candidacy. Senator Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner before the Super Tuesday contests picked up, or projected to, three states, including the biggest catch of the night California in terms of delegates, who will elect the nominee at the partys presidential convention in Milwaukee in Wisconsin state. Its good night, its a good night, an elated Biden told supporters at a campaign event in California, reminding them of pundits and experts declaring his candidacy dead. We are very much alive, make no mistake about it this campaign will send Donald Trump packing. Sanders also sounded optimistic at a rally in Vermont, his home state, where he pitched his campaign as the one that could potentially beat Trump and not his rivals, drawing stark contrast between himself and them on politics and campaign funding and key issues such as healthcare, trade deals. Senator Elizabeth Warren did not win any state, not even her home-state of Massachusetts. In fact, she finished third there. Billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg had win in the US territory of American Samoa to show for the millions he has spent on his campaign. He is said to be weighing his options now. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the fifth candidate in the fray, barely registered her presence. Biden started the night with a massive victory in Virginia, a key swing state that plays a crucial role in presidential elections, and went on to win North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Alabama and the prize state of Texas. He also led in Maine, but it had not been called. Sanders picked up home state Vermont, Utah, Colorado and, according to projections, California. This race is more than about winning states. Unlike the Republican primaries system of winner-takes-all delegates, Democrats split up delegates among the candidates (only those who cross the threshold of 15% of the votes polled) per the proportion of votes won. The target is 1,991 delegates of the 3,979 pledged delegates. A third of them, 1,357 delegates were up for grabs on Tuesday. With no or low possibility of any of the candidates wrapping up the contests before the conventions, talk has started about a contested convention in which 3,979 pledged delegates will vote to the elect the nominee in the first round. If there is still no winner, 771 super-delegates join the voting in the second round. The former vice-president finished the Super Tuesday with an overall tally of 453 delegates, 71 more than Sanderss 382. Warren stood at 50 and Bloomberg at 44. Gabbard has one, in her birthplace American Samoas. The Super Tuesday nominating contests had looked headed Sanderss way till a week ago. He was the frontrunner with victories in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. He had seemed set to be on his way to the party nomination this time, unlike his failed bid in 2016, when he lost to Hillary Clinton. Then came the South Carolina primaries, last Friday. This was going to be a make-or-break contest for Biden. He had finished poorly in the three nominating contests before and his campaign had begun to face serious life-expectancy questions because of his uninspiring debate performances and depleted war chest. Boosted by a key election-eve endorsement from Jim Clyburn, a senior African American congressman, Biden scooped up South Carolina, which has a large population of African Americans, with a massive victory margin. In the hours after, he picked up endorsements of former rivals ex-mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former congressman Beto ORourke. Moderates in the party were coalescing around Biden to stop Sanders, troubled by his progressive policies, which he packaged as Democratic socialism. They also feared he could have a debilitating impact on Democrats in other races, for the House of Representatives and US senate. Bidens stunning performance was fueled by the support of the African American community, specially in the souther states of Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama. But was not confined to it, as he also picked up predominantly white states of Minnesota, Oklahoma and Massachusetts. Sanders, on the other hand, struggled to retain his hold on his constituency. He had won Minnesota and Oklahoma in the 2016 primaries (though anti-Hillary Clinton votes may have been a factor at the time). And he even looked in danger of Texas, a state that was crucial to his Super Tuesday strategy. That knee-jerk media appellation actor and activist takes on severe meaning in the new film Seberg, a biopic about American actress Jean Seberg who became an international sensation in Jean-Luc Godards debut film Breathless (1960) and who died ignominiously a couple of decades later, after her involvement in anti-U.S. political activity and being under FBI surveillance. Director Benedict Andrews, screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, and actress Kristen Stewart (who plays Seberg) use the actor and activist label to indulge an idea of martyrdom that comes too easily to them. Its an extravagance of privileged Millennial media to combines self-righteous ideology with romanticism. Godard always saw through it (detailed below). The movie follows Sebergs career decline, presenting it as the summation of her doom and a consequence of American political subterfuge. (Speaking out against the perceived flaws of the government is a type of persecution, she protests.) That means the artistic part of Sebergs legacy gets short shrift, in favor of making a shady political critique: White, blond Seberg was investigated as part of the FBIs COINTELPRO project for her support of the Black Panther Party. Seberg helped fund the Panthers and also had an affair with black activist Hakim Jamal (played by Anthony Mackie), by whom she got pregnant. Interracial controversy is part of the films titillation. Sixties sexual mores are exposed in the plots contrast between Sebergs permissive radicalism and the guilt-ridden conservatism of the white FBI agent on her case, Jack Soloman (Jack OConnell) whose racial and sexual conflict strain his marriage (to Margaret Qualley). This narrative contrast reveals the filmmakers disposition (Shrapnel and Waterhouse wrote the fascinating 2016 film Race, about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which paralleled Jesse Owens with Leni Riefenstahl), but the pairing here seems unequal and, so, feels facile. Story continues Despite Sebergs international career, these European filmmakers cant catch the warp and woof of American political life. The private motivations that caused Seberg to join the NAACP as a teenager and Jamals family connection to Malcolm X dont come through. Scenes of Seberg in her striped Dior Breathless dress and Jamals tiger-striped shorts and beach shirt (the two glamorous ideologues seducing each other amid the paradox of Los AngelesHollywood high life) are more impressive than the rhetoric they babble. (She: I want to be a part of that revolution. He: Education leads to understanding, understanding leads to love, love leads to unity.) This Seberg-martyr figure takes no responsibility for her imprudence, projects her victim self-image onto blacks, and blames others. The filmmakers dont understand this reckless liberal type; they provide only sexual subtext. The affair turns sour, and the Deep States menace leads to Sebergs emotional breakdown (They will destroy you, your reputation, your career, your family!), challenging Agent Solomans empathy. The inevitable martyrdom, preceded by ugly paranoia (Put in a f*** wire. Hoover likes to hear the bedsprings), drags the film toward useless resentment not enlightenment about complex figures as seen in Race, but comfortable loathing of the system. Stewart, though miscast physically and vocally, plays Seberg as a tearful enigma, which is inappropriate for the actress and ironic American icon of the French New Wave that we know. Sebergs martyrdom is predetermined by the opening scene from her first movie, Otto Premingers Saint Joan, and the on-set accident that scared her body. This simple-minded metaphor cheats Seberg of her cultural triumphthe later great, uncanny performances in Premingers Bonjour Tristesse and especially Godards Breathless. Director Andrews restages a scene from Breathless not just an inept error, a scandal! Godard already preempted this politically motivated biopic in Breathless when Sebergs Patricia stared into the camera as she pondered the apercu To become immortal and then to die. *** Anna Karina in Le Petit Soldat When Godard made his second feature, Le Petit Soldat, he introduced the world to Anna Karina, his first wife. That film, just released on Criterion Blu-Ray, also introduced the concept of political poetry in its story of political assassin Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor), who falls in love with Veronica Dreyer (Karina), a liberal sympathizer with the National Liberation Front faction of the Algerian war. Forestiers own political ambivalence, the humanity opposing his robotic professional commitment, allows Godard to begin his great, complex exploration of mankinds the artists political contradictions. Le Petit Soldat concerns killing and torture as actions undertaken in political movements. Forestier also suffers for his spiritual yearning. When he ponders contrasting media images of terror and pop art that pervade his life like a dream, the visual tension is astonishing. And when he picks up a camera (instead of his gun) and takes photos of Veronica, the film gains an added dimension. The beauty of Karina/Veronica, her personal mystery and Godards fascination go past martyrdom to cinematic immortality. Through the film noir flashback in Le Petit Soldat, everything happens within the shadow of political history. Godards perspective proved poetic and prophetic: For me, the time for action has passed. Im older now. The time for reflection begins. More from National Review Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The state budget approved by lawmakers last month includes a multimillion-dollar boost in education spending. Along with that additional money, lawmakers are also trying to boost accountability efforts. One measure in the budget bill would increase the mandated amount of classroom spending in the states largest school district. Another piece of legislation would require a reporting system to monitor how money is spent at the school level. The most recent session resulted in a $216.8 million increase for public schools. Thats in addition to the extra $447 million that was infused into education last year. The increases come after a judge found the state wasnt meeting its constitutional obligation to provide a sufficient education for all students, especially students considered at risk a landmark ruling in whats known as the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit. Despite the infusion, there have been consistent pushes for more funding for students. Classroom spending Given the state spending uptick and the lawsuit, the budget bill that is awaiting the governors signature includes one sentence that targets about $574 million, or 80%, of Albuquerque Public Schools operating budget. The governor has until March 11 to act on the legislation. The bill says the state Public Education Department cant approve APS operating budget if it spends less than 80% of its general fund dollars on instruction, student support services and instructional support services. Although the bill says the provision is for districts with 50,000 students or more, APS is the only district that meets that threshold of students. Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who pushed for this clause, said its designed to make classroom spending the priority, which he said is especially important after the Yazzie-Martinez ruling. The word back we get from parents and teachers and principals on the ground is either that money is not making it into the classroom or is not making it across the district in an equitable fashion, he said. He said the 80% benchmark up from the previous 75% requirement was chosen after an examination of other districts instructional spending ratios. APS Board of Education President David Peercy said the district is now at about 78% and theres not major concern about the proposed new benchmark. But its too soon to say how the change will affect the district, he said. Candelaria said an increase of a few percentage points would have an impact. Given the size of their budget, that is a significant investment of actual dollars in the classroom, he said. The bill would allow an exception if APS demonstrates that its spending on instruction is up from the previous year and is sufficient to provide a free and appropriate public education to all students. School price tag Candelaria also co-sponsored Senate Bill 96, which focuses on education spending too, requiring an online financial reporting system that has school-level budgeting. That bill is also awaiting the governors approval. The bill would allow school-by-school and district-by-district comparisons of administrative, at-risk and special education funds through the statewide portal, which is required by Dec. 31, 2021. Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, who also sponsored the bill, said the tool would help paint a clearer picture on what rural and urban schools are getting and what they need. Lets say youre at a school in the West Side and it has a really high percentage of migrant students and they have a higher than state average of children with special needs. Are there extra dollars going to that school site? asked Dow, who said the bill aims to answer that question. Is the Northeast Heights school getting the same per student allocation as the one on the West Side? she asked. Candelaria said the Yazzie-Martinez case pointed out that the state lacks an ability to track dollars down to the school site level. He said more detailed reporting is critical to ensure money allocated for at-risk students ends up helping at-risk students. If APS is required to spend 80% of its operational money on instruction, the proposed SB 96 system would play a key role in tracking that spending at the school level. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act now requires school-level allocation tracking, too. Dow said the idea is for the reporting system to work in sync with new school digital profiles or dashboards coming to the state. Education nonprofit NewMexicoKidsCANs executive director, Amanda Aragon, who said she researched this issue and helped craft the bill, said the new system is pivotal for transparency and having a better understanding of school budgeting. She said Colorado, which has a K-12 financial transparency website, influenced the push for this legislation. Colorados online portal includes total spending at a school and per-student expenditures compared with the rest of the state. While we are excited about the increased investments (in New Mexico) that are meant to target our most under-served students, Im not confident that money is actually getting to them, she said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 Indonesias top oil company is looking to relocate a US$13.9 billion project over 2,000 kilometers away due to prolonged land acquisition problems at the original site. State-owned oil company Pertamina is conducting a study into moving its oil refinery and petrochemical plant project from Bontang city in East Kalimantan to Kuala Tanjung in North Sumatra. The plan follows the expiration of an agreement between Pertamina and Omani energy firm Overseas Oil and Gas LLC (OOG) to develop the facility in Bontang, where the enterprises face land acquisition problems. The one-year deal between the two enterprises ended December last year. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login China will refine the coordination mechanisms for stable performance in six key areas, namely, stability in employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and market expectations, to promote both effective outbreak response and steady economic and social progress. The decisions were made at the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang Tuesday. "The coordination mechanisms for stable performance in the six key areas have, since their launch, played an important role in forging inter-agency synergy to keep major economic indicators within the proper range. This year we may face even greater challenges, hence there is a higher need to refine these mechanisms to make our work across the six areas better targeted," Li said. The meeting underlined the need to advance epidemic control and economic and social development in parallel. It urged targeted steps in ensuring stability in the six key areas to more effectively manage the impact of the outbreak on the economy. Inter-agency coordination on macroeconomic policies, foreign trade and investment, and financial stability must be fully leveraged to formulate strong and effective response measures to boost the internal dynamism of the economy and keep major economic indicators within the proper range for the whole year. "The most pressing task now is to manage the impacts of the epidemic. Maintaining stability in the six key areas will help keep capital flowing and the industrial chain running, and contribute to an economic performance within the proper range," Li said. The meeting also adopted a host of policies for facilitating the restart of business activities in the logistics sector from transportation, shipment to express delivery services to provide a strong underpinning for epidemic control, help smooth the flow of economic activity, and meet people's daily needs. The meeting called for following the region-specific, tiered and targeted approach to encourage businesses to resume operation in an orderly way. Any arbitrary requirements on the resumption of work must be lifted. Face masks and other needed protective gear should be made available through coordination. Sub-national authorities are required to provide equal convenience for both postal and courier services providers under all types of ownership. "A major obstacle in current outbreak response and production resumption lies in logistics. Undue restrictions should be removed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the operation of both industrial and supply chains will be hampered," Li said. Further tax and fee cuts will be made to logistics-related services. Insurance companies will be encouraged to lower or exempt premiums for commercial vehicles, ships and aircraft whose operations are suspended during the outbreak, by way of extension of insurance period and deduction of policy renewal fees. For toll-road operators encountering difficulty in repaying their financial debts as a result of the toll-free pass policy, financial institutions will be guided toward providing support to them through deferring interest payment, extending principal repayment and rolling over maturing loans. "It is important to further cut costs for logistics companies, deferring or exempting relevant payments as needed. Such steps should also enable truck and taxi drivers to get tangible benefits," Li said. "We must enhance preparedness in terms of policies and projects, do everything we can to keep economic development and employment stable, and work hard to meet this year's targets for economic and social development," Li said. The government on Wednesday asked Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom companies to pay remaining AGR dues as per the Supreme Court order without further delay, according to sources. The telecom department wrote to all telcos asking them to pay balance dues "without delay" and submit detailed bifurcation of payments (explanation of self-assessed amounts), which it said are necessary for proper reconciliation of legitimate AGR dues. The government has so far received about Rs 26,000 crore from AGR payments, including adhoc/ buffer amounts given by telcos to meet any reconciliation differences with the telecom department. However, the amounts paid by telcos is woefully lower than the DoT's Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) calculations, prompting the telecom department's latest move. Sources privy to the development said that as the amount paid by telcos is based on their own self-assessment, the department has asked them to explain how they have arrived at the said calculation, and pay the balance amounts. They said the letter was not in nature of a 'threat' but rather seeking an explanation for the basis of companies' calculations and asking for remaining statutory payments. Bharti Airtel has submitted over Rs 18,000 crore to the DoT declaring that it has made full and final settlement towards its AGR liabilities but the amount is far less than Rs 37,500 crore (including Telenor) that the government estimates the company owes it. It is pertinent to mention here that Bharti Airtel on Saturday said it has made payment of Rs 8,004 crore towards AGR dues to the government, an amount over and above Rs 10,000 crore it has already paid earlier. The amount of Rs 8,004 crore includes Rs 3,004 crore towards full and final settlement on AGR dues based on self assessment, and a deposit of buffer Rs 5,000 crore to cover the DoT's reconciliation differences. Similarly, Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 2,197 crore in AGR dues, and earlier this week topped that up with additional Rs 2,000 crore to cover reconciliation differences, while DoT estimates its liabilities to be about Rs 14,000 crore. VIL has so far deposited Rs 3,500 crore in two tranches to the DoT but is still assessing its full AGR dues. According to the government's calculation, VIL owes Rs 53,000 crore in such liabilities. In all, 15 entities owed the government Rs 1.47 lakh crore in unpaid statutory dues -- Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges. Of the estimated dues that include interest and penalty for late payments, Airtel and VIL account for about 60 per cent. These dues arose after the Supreme Court, in October last year, upheld the government's position on including revenue from non-core businesses in calculating the annual AGR of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer. The Supreme Court last month rejected a plea by mobile carriers such as Bharti Airtel and VIL for extension in the payment schedule and asked companies to deposit their past dues for spectrum and licences. Since the February 14 tongue lashing that the Supreme Court gave telecom companies for missing its previous deadline of January 23 to pay past dues as well as the DoT for failing to enforce it, firms and the telecom ministry had been doing separate maths on the actual dues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a sure sign that spring is not far behind, the first Purple Martins of the year have been spotted in Tennessee. The birds were seen on February 21 in the southern Tennessee city of Cleveland by a Purple Martin enthusiast one of many people throughout the eastern and central United States who track and report on the birds annual migration on behalf of the Purple Martin Conservation Association. "The Purple Martins arrival in Tennessee show the birds are making steady progress northward since they first made landfall in Florida two days after Christmas, said Joe Siegrist, president of the Purple Martin Conservation Association. Tracking the migration is not only fun, it also provides us with valuable information that helps inform our research and strengthen our efforts to make sure were doing everything possible to sustain the population of these amazing birds. North Americas largest species of swallow, Purple Martins winter in the rainforests of Brazil before making up to a 7000-mile migration north into the eastern United States and Canada. The annual migration is a testament to the martins' resilience as well as the unwavering dedication of thousands of martin landlords who maintain multi-compartment nest 'condos' that are essential for the birds' survival. Once widespread in rural America, this species, that eats billions of flying insects annually, has been disappearing at an alarming rate, experiencing a loss of one-third of its population over the last 50 years. The decline seems to be the combination of a few factors: nesting habitat loss, competing invasive species, decreasing prey availability, and climate change, said Mr. Siegrist. Over the majority of the Purple Martins range, they are unable to nest naturally any longer. Human-provided nest boxes are the only thing keeping the species alive east of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Siegrist says the very survival of the species is due in large part to scores of dedicated conservationists who invest their time, money and hearts into maintaining housing for the martins. The landlords provide critical shelter for the martins, Mr. Siegrist said. In return, they are rewarded with a family-like bond with the birds who return to the same colony year after year like clockwork. US officials declare support for Turkey in Idlib "Turkey is one of the most important counterparts of the U.S. defense industry. As President Trump said, we will support Turkey," said a top US diplomat. The US could support Turkeys efforts in Syria with military, diplomatic, and humanitarian aid, and could also offer military equipment, including perhaps Patriot missiles, said three key US diplomats Tuesday visiting southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. US Ambassador to UN Kelly Craft said Syrians whom she saw are grateful to the US and Turkey, upon visiting the Altinozu refugee camp in Hatay, southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. "A PERMANENT CEASEFIRE HAS TO BE ACHIEVED" I will give the following message when I go back to the UN Security Council: This is enough. A permanent cease-fire has to be achieved [in Syria], said Craft. She said the Assad regime cannot go on in Syria. Craft touched on her visit to the White Helmets civil defense team in Syria, and teams working to educate Syrian children, and thanked Turkey for organizing the visits. "The most important thing I will emphasize in the Security Council is this: We have to keep the borders open, we need to make sure humanitarian aid reaches to all who are in Syria or Turkey, displaced from their homes. That is why negotiations should start right away." Citing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call for a new border passage, Craft said maybe there should even be a third border point for the flow of humanitarian aid. "Turkey is a NATO country and uses our equipment in its army to a great extent. If they need, we would like this equipment to be ready," James Jeffrey, the US Syria envoy and former ambassador to Turkey, told reporters while visiting camps housing refugees from Assad regime attacks. He added, "Turkey is one of the most important counterparts of the U.S. defense industry. As President Trump said, we will support Turkey," he said, emphasizing that the US exchanges intelligence with Turkey and supports it diplomatically. The US conducted Wednesday its first airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan since signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group. US military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the defensive strike was the first U.S. attack against the militants in 11 days. He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province. Leggett added that Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand. According to a spokesman for the province's governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one other wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand. Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the peace agreement signed on Feb. 29 between their leaders and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. The Afghan Interior Ministry says that four civilians and 11 troops were killed Wednesday in a wave of Taliban attacks across the country in the past 24 hours. According to ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, Afghan forces killed at least 17 Taliban during these clashes. The Afghan Defense Ministry earlier said that seven soldiers were killed when Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Kunduz province. Kandahar police spokesman Jamal Naser Barekzai told The Associated Press that a police officer was killed and one wounded in a string of Taliban attacks across the province. The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of these attacks so far or commented on the US airstrike Wednesday. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP Wednesday that a week of reduction in violence that started midnight on Feb 21 had ended. Based on the US-Taliban deal, peace negotiations between the warring Afghan sides are supposed to begin on March 10. However, the Afghan government has already rejected releasing Taliban prisoners ahead of launching the talks, a precondition which the militants say was part of the U.S. agreement. Leggett said that US forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies according to agreements between US and Afghan governments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Connor Reed, a 25-year-old expat from Llandudno in North Wales, has worked in a school in Wuhan, China, for almost a year. In November he became the first British man to catch the coronavirus. From coughs and aches to burning up and spending the night in hospital, heres how he beat the illness that is sweeping the globe. Day 1 Monday November 25: I have a cold. Im sneezing and my eyes are a bit bleary. It isnt bad enough to keep me off work. I arrived in this country to teach English as a foreign language but now Im a manager at a school in Wuhan, the city in central China where I have lived for the past seven months. I speak Mandarin well, and the job is interesting. My cold shouldnt be very contagious, so I have no qualms about going to work. And I live alone, so Im not likely to give it to anyone. There hasnt been anything in the news here about viruses. I have no cause for concern. Its just a sniffle. Connor Reed, a 25-year-old expat teacher from North Wales, was the first British man to contract the killer virus in November last year, while working at a school in Wuhan, China Day 2: I have a sore throat. Remembering what my mum used to do when I was a child, I mix myself a mug of honey in hot water. It does the trick. Day 3: I dont smoke and I hardly ever drink. But its important to me to get over this cold quickly, so that I can stay healthy for work. For medicinal purposes only, I put a splash of whisky in my honey drink. I think its called a hot toddy. Day 4: I slept like a baby last night. Chinese whisky is evidently a cure for all known ailments. I have another hot toddy in the evening. Day 5: Im over my cold. It really wasnt anything. Day 7: I spoke too soon. I feel dreadful. This is no longer just a cold. I ache all over, my head is thumping, my eyes are burning, my throat is constricted. The cold has travelled down to my chest and I have a hacking cough. This is flu, and its going to take more than a mug of hot honey, with or without the magic whisky ingredient, to make me feel better. Mr Reed said the symptoms of the disease 'hit me like a train' last year after he contracted the coronavirus in Wuhan, China The symptoms hit me this afternoon like a train and, unless theres an overnight miracle, I will not be going to work tomorrow. Its not just that I feel so ill I really dont want to give this flu to any of my colleagues. Day 8: I wont be in work today. Ive warned them Ill probably be off all week. Even my bones are aching. Its hard to imagine Im going to get over this soon. Even getting out of bed hurts. I am propped up on pillows, watching TV and trying not to cough too much because it is painful. Day 9: Even the kitten hanging around my apartment seems to be feeling under the weather. It isnt its usual lively self, and when I put down food it doesnt want to eat. I dont blame it Ive lost my appetite too. Day 10: Im still running a temperature. Ive finished the quarter-bottle of whisky, and I dont feel well enough to go out and get any more. It doesnt matter: I dont think hot toddies were making much difference. Day 11: Suddenly, Im feeling better, physically at least. The flu has lifted. But the poor kitten has died. I dont know whether it had what Ive got, or whether cats can even get human flu. I feel miserable. Day 12: Ive had a relapse. Just as I thought the flu was getting better, it has come back with a vengeance. My breathing is laboured. Just getting up and going to the bathroom leaves me panting and exhausted. Im sweating, burning up, dizzy and shivering. The television is on but I cant make sense of it. This is a nightmare. Even the kitten hanging around my apartment (pictured) seems to be feeling under the weather. It isnt its usual lively self, and when I put down food it doesnt want to eat. I dont blame it Ive lost my appetite too By the afternoon, I feel like I am suffocating. I have never been this ill in my life. I cant take more than sips of air and, when I breathe out, my lungs sound like a paper bag being crumpled up. This isnt right. I need to see a doctor. But if I call the emergency services, Ill have to pay for the ambulance call-out myself. Thats going to cost a fortune. Im ill, but I dont think Im dying am I? Surely I can survive a taxi journey. I decide to go to Zhongnan University Hospital because there are plenty of foreign doctors there, studying. It isnt rational but, in my feverish state, I want to see a British doctor. My Mandarin is pretty good, so I have no language problem when I call the taxi. Its a 20-minute ride. As soon as I get there, a doctor diagnoses pneumonia. So thats why my lungs are making that noise. I am sent for a battery of tests lasting six hours. Day 13: I arrived back at my apartment late yesterday evening. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for the pneumonia but Im reluctant to take them Im worried that my body will become resistant to the drugs and, if I ever get really ill and need them, they wont work. I prefer to beat this with traditional remedies if I can. It helps, simply knowing that this is pneumonia. Im only 25 and generally healthy: I tell myself theres no reason for alarm. I have some Tiger Balm. Its like Vicks vapour rub on steroids. I pour some into a bowl of hot water and sit with a towel over my head, inhaling the fumes. Im going old school. And Ive still got the antibiotics in reserve if I need them. Pictured: Connor and the cat that hangs around his apartment in Wuhan, China. Suddenly, Im feeling better, physically at least. The flu has lifted. But the poor kitten has died. I dont know whether it had what Ive got, or whether cats can even get human flu. I feel miserable Day 14: Boil a kettle. Add Tiger Balm. Towel over head. Breathe for an hour. Repeat. The government's battle plan has been divided into four stages 'Contain', 'delay', 'research' and 'mitigate' Day 15: All the days are now blurring into one. Day 16: I phone my mother in Australia. There was no point in calling her before now shed only worry and try to jump on a plane. That wouldnt work: it takes an age to get a visitors visa to China. Im glad to hear her voice, even if I cant do much more than croak, Mum, I feel so ill. Day 17: I am feeling slightly better, but I dont want to get my hopes up yet. Ive been here before. Day 18: My lungs no longer sound like bundles of broken twigs. Day 19: I am well enough to stagger out of doors to get more Tiger Balm. My nose has cleared enough to smell what my neighbours are cooking, and I think I might have an appetite for the first time in nearly two weeks. Day 22: I was hoping to be back at work today but no such luck. The pneumonia has gone but now I ache as if Ive been run over by a steamroller. My sinuses are agony, and my eardrums feel ready to pop. I know I shouldnt but Im massaging my inner ear with cotton buds, trying to take the pain away. Day 24: Hallelujah! I think Im better. Who knew flu could be as horrible as that, though? Medical staff treating a critical patient infected by the coronavirus at the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan, China on Sunday. The rumours were right. Everyone is being told to stay indoors. From what Ive heard, the virus is like a nasty dose of flu that can cause pneumonia. Well, that sounds familiar Day 36: A tip-off from a friend sends me hurrying to the shops. Apparently, the Chinese officials are concerned about a new virus that is taking hold in the city. There are rumours about a curfew or travel restrictions. I know what this will mean panic buying in the shops. I need to stock up on essentials before everyone else does. Day 37: The rumours were right. Everyone is being told to stay indoors. From what Ive heard, the virus is like a nasty dose of flu that can cause pneumonia. Well, that sounds familiar. Day 52: A notification from the hospital informs me that I was infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. I suppose I should be pleased that I cant catch it again Im immune now. However, I must still wear my face mask like everyone else if I leave the apartment, or risk arrest. The Chinese authorities are being very thorough about trying to contain the virus. Day 67: The whole world has now heard about coronavirus. Ive told a few friends about it, via Facebook, and somehow the news got out to the media. Woman wear masks as they shop in London, Britain today. Since the outbreak became international news, Ive seen hysterical reports (especially in the U.S. media) that exotic meats such as bat and even koala are on sale at the fish market. Ive never seen that My local paper back in Llandudno, North Wales, has been in touch with me. Maybe I caught the coronavirus at the fish market. Its a great place to get food on a budget, a part of the real Wuhan that ordinary Chinese people use every day, and I regularly do my shopping there. Since the outbreak became international news, Ive seen hysterical reports (especially in the U.S. media) that exotic meats such as bat and even koala are on sale at the fish market. Ive never seen that. The only slightly weird sight Ive seen is the whole pig and lamb carcasses for sale, with their heads on. Day 72 Tuesday, February 4: It seems the newspapers think its terrific that I tried to cure myself with hot toddies. I attempt to explain that I had no idea at the time what was wrong with me but that isnt what they want to hear. The headline in the New York Post says, UK teacher claims he beat coronavirus with hot whisky and honey. I wish it had been that easy. Damascus: President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday said parliamentary elections would be held in war-torn Syria on April 13. The polls, to be held across government-controlled parts of Syria, are the third such elections in the country since the start of its nine-year civil war. Assad's forces today hold more than 70 percent of Syrian soil following victories against rebels and jihadists with Russian backing since 2015. During the last polls in 2016, Syria's ruling Baath party and its allies won a majority of the chamber's 250 seats. The United Nations refused to recognise the results. The Baath party has governed Syria with an iron fist for the past half-century. But in 2012, Damascus for the first time allowed candidates from outside the party to run in legislative elections. Areas outside government control include the northwestern region of Idlib, where government forces are waging a deadly campaign against jihadists and Turkey-backed rebels. Turkish forces have become directly involved in fighting since last week, downing several regime jets as bombardment has killed dozens of troops on each side. Turkey also controls a large swathe of borderland in northeastern Syria, while US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters are present in the oil-rich east. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions since its start in 2011. The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States of the European Union (COREPER) has extended sanctions for ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and his associates for another year. A diplomatic source in Brussels told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday. However, it did not specify the details of the decision. At the same time, it became known earlier that ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and ex-Minister of Energy Eduard Stavytsky are excluded from the list, and sanctions against Yanukovych's son Oleksandr can be extended only for six months. Thus, former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and his son Artem, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Viktor Ratushniak, former First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov, ex-Minister for Income and Tax Oleksandr Klymenko, ex-Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk, and oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko will remain on the sanctions list. Sanctions imposed by the EU since March 5, 2014 against 18 senior officials of President Yanukovych's times in the form of a freeze of assets are extended for a year. However, many of the defendants in the sanctions list regularly appeal against the decision of the EU. The EU court has already made a number of decisions in its favor. At the same time, a number of ex-officials are excluded from the list. So, for example, last year Andriy Kliuyev was excluded from the sanctions list, who challenged this decision in the EU Court. After making a decision this year, 10 names will remain on the list. As reported, on March 5, 2014, the EU imposed sanctions in the form of assets freeze on 18 former senior officials of Ukraine for misappropriation of Ukrainian state funds or for abuse of office. More than 400 children in Northern Ireland are home-schooled, the Education Minister has revealed. Peter Weir said the actual number may be higher as parents are only required to notify the Education Authority (EA) under certain circumstances. The latest figure indicates that home-schooling appears to be gaining popularity in Northern Ireland. In 2013-14, a total of 249 children were registered for home education, according to statistics obtained by the BBC. By 2017-18, this figure had risen to 337, according to the EA. As of last month the number - revealed in an Assembly question posed by DUP Assembly member, Thomas Buchanan - had reached 428. Mr Weir said the actual number may be higher, as parents are only required to notify the Education Authority if their child has previously attended school or has a statement of special educational needs. The EA also does not record the data by constituency. Parents here legally have a right to educate their children at home. They must also ensure their child receives a full-time education from the age of four to 16. However, there is no obligation for home-schooled children to follow the Northern Ireland curriculum or enter for national tests. Parents or guardians also do not need to be a qualified teacher, according to the EA website. Education authorities across Northern retain the right to conduct annual home visits to give advice on a child's progression. If it appears that a child is not receiving a suitable education, the EA might serve a school attendance order. It can also provide guidance to parents. Outlining his answer, Mr Weir said there are options for parents on how children are educated. "Parents may choose what they consider to be the most appropriate educational setting for their child and that can include being home-schooled," the Education Minister said. The Education Authority has previously said that it has to develop standardised guidelines in collaboration with home education partners since, currently, there are none. Academic research conducted by a PhD candidate at Queen's University, Belfast has indicated why some parents choose to home school. Christine Bower said it was appealing to parents because of lifestyle choices, religious reasons or lack of support for the special needs of children, the BBC reported. 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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f04819996f8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0481e1b1c8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f04819996f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0481e1b1c8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f048199e928)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0481e1b1c8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f0481e1b1c8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f048145eeb0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f048145eb20)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f048145eb20)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 By Akbar Mammadov Turkey is an active participant in all projects and processes in the region and is interested in the early settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said at a presser on March 3. Leyla Abdullayeva made the remarks while commenting on hystria in Armenia over Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavushoghlus meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on March 2 where he urged the speedy resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with respect to Azerbaijans internationally-recognized borders. With such an absurd position, the Armenian side puts itself in a rather ridiculous position. Apparently, the rapidly developing events taking place in our region and around it either remain out of their field of vision and analysis or emotions prevail again. A sober and real analysis of the events taking place in the world and, in particular, in the region, would contribute to constructiveness in the approaches of the Armenian side in relation to neighbouring countries. Turkey is an active participant in all projects and processes in the region and is interested in the early settlement of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turkey has been a permanent member of the OSCE Minsk Group since the day of its creation and has always actively participated in its work, as well as in consultations with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Abdullayeva said. Head of Press Service Department added that it remains unclear why the Armenian side is not honest in assessing the meeting of Turkish high-ranking officials with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, even if the emotions are high. It should be noted that during the meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on March 2, Minister Cavushoglu stated that the OSCE Minsk Group should produce more in terms of a settlement for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and that this solution should be in full respect of the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijans breakaway region which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz In April 2018, RBI gave entities it regulated 3 months to snap all banking relationships with individuals dealing in virtual currency. Mumbai: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are now no longer banned in India. The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted the ban enforced by the Reserve Bank of India two years ago, permitting trading and banking transactions to henceforth be carried out in cryptocurrencies. The RBI had issued a circular on April 6, 2018 to banks and other financial institutions barring them from facilitating any service in relation to virtual currencies. Firms that had been dealing in virtual currencies at the time were told to wind up their services within three months, resulting in the shutdown of several startups. Cryptocurrency exchanges such as Zebpay had to stop deposits and withdrawals in Indian Rupees. There is now hope that these exchanges will be able to resume their business. The Internet and Mobile Association of India and other petitioners challenged the circular issued by the central bank and argued that India should follow the lead of other countries which had not only permitted transactions and trading in cryptocurrency but also launched their own virtual currencies. Supreme Court Justice Rohinton F Nariman overturned the RBI ban calling it disproportionate. Historic day for Crypto in India. We can now innovate. The entire country can participate in the Blockchain revolution, Nischal Shetty, Founder and Chief Executive of Bitcoin exchange platform WazirX, was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. Reality personality Chad Johnson's ex girlfriend Annalise Mishler is hitting back at the Bachelorette alum for accusing her of infidelity and trying to ruin his life. The YouTuber, 25, defended herself against Johnson, who followed up his recent domestic violence arrest and subsequent hospitalization by bashing his ex online, during a quick chat with TMZ Tuesday. Annalise said she wouldn't stand for Johnson's lies, telling the site he needs to take responsibility for his actions while seen out for the first time since Chad's arrest. Tough times: Bachelorette alum Chad Johnson's ex-girlfriend Annalise Mishler accused him of trying to ruin her life when talking to TMZ during her first public outing since his domestic violence arrest and subsequent hospitalization Mishler seemed to be keeping her chin up amid the trying circumstances, smiling as she fetched a coffee at Starbucks wearing ripped jeans and a tank top with firey red boots. But it's been tough for Annalise, who said the situation was 'one of the hardest things to go through.' 'I haven't slept much. It's been really difficult. I don't know how to describe how I feel, it's just one of the hardest things to go through,' she told the site. She went on to say Chad was trying to 'ruin her life' by accusing her of cheating and lying. 'I know I didn't [try to ruin his life] and I think it's pretty clear that I didn't,' Annalise explained. Hitting back: Mishler defended herself against what she called Johnson's 'clear' lies while also urging him to take responsibility for his actions Positive outlook: Mishler seemed to be keeping her chin up amid the trying circumstances, smiling as she fetched a coffee at Starbucks Difficult: Annalise said the situation was 'one of the hardest things to go through' She urged Chad to be accountable for his actions, saying: 'I think he did things that affected his life, I wouldn't say it's ruined, even though he did those things. You can't put that on another person.' Mishler had serious advice for any women thinking about dating Chad and anyone else displaying warning signs, saying: 'Anyone who's dating someone and they start to see red flags, get out sooner rather than later. And it's just gonna escalate.' Back on February 24, Chad was arrested for domestic violence and robbery after an altercation at Annalise's apartment. The robbery charge appears to stem from him taking her phone as she tried to call 911. Take responsibility: She urged Chad to be accountable for his actions, saying: 'I think he did things that affected his life, I wouldn't say it's ruined, even though he did those things. You can't put that on another person' Red flags: Mishler had serious advice for any women thinking about dating Chad and anyone else displaying warning signs, saying: 'Anyone who's dating someone and they start to see red flags, get out sooner rather than later. And it's just gonna escalate' Mishler called 911 after the heated argument from the night before continued to escalate. Upon their arrival authorities found fist-shaped holes in the wall and red marks on her face, enough to arrest him for felony domestic violence. Chad was initially contrite after his release, sharing a Instagram video where he apologized for his behavior but denied ever laying a hand on his ex. Days later, however, the reality bad boy took to social media to share some disturbing images of a rope with the caption 'It'll be okay,' resulting in a welfare check from police. Though initially not deemed a threat to himself, he was hospitalized for evaluation less than a day later after continuing his upsetting posts, many of which seemed to he aimed at Mishler. Legal trouble: Back on February 24, Chad was arrested for domestic violence and robbery after an altercation at Annalise's apartment Damage: Mishler called 911 after the heated argument from the night before continued to escalate. Upon their arrival authorities found fist-shaped holes in the wall and red marks on her face, enough to arrest him for felony domestic violence 'You timed this entire thing. You started posting dancing videos. You started marketing your nudes. You did all of this thinking it would help you get recognition. All you had to do was hug me. You destroyed my life and it didn't even workout for you,' he posted. Upon his release he continued to lash out at his ex, sharing a 16-minute YouTube video titled 'I found out the truth about Annalise mishler.' In the video he accused Mishler of using dating apps throughout the duration of their six-month relationship - a claim she also made about him. 'I found out some information about the girl that I was dating for six months and it just broke my heart,' he said in a video from Monday. 'The whole time we were dating, it was like something was off. She would disappear at night.' Explaining himself: Chad was initially contrite after his release, sharing a Instagram video where he apologized for his behavior but denied ever laying a hand on his ex He also accused her of trying to capitalize on his reality notoriety, saying she 'gaslit' him for their entire relationship. 'To be gaslit every single day for six months, to the point where you think youre insane it caused me to go crazy. I lost myself a few times,' Chad went on. 'I couldnt figure out why she was with me because it seemed like she hated me. But I was just so lonely. I just thought, "Stick it out. Itll get better."' Annalise responded via her favorite platform, posting an hour long rebuttal where she accused her ex of waging a 'bizarre smear campaign.' 'I have no desire to ruin lives or talk s*** about someone i loved a lot,' the post was captioned. 'I care about people and i care about things other than myself.' In the video she also revealed that she had a temporary restraining order against her ex, which she plans to have extended. Accusations: Upon his release, he continued to lash out at his ex, sharing a 16-minute YouTube video titled 'I found out the truth about Annalise mishler.' In the video he accused her a 'gaslighting' him and being unfaithful Exasperated: Annalise responded via her favorite platform, posting an hour long rebuttal where she accused her ex of waging a 'bizarre smear campaign' This isn't the first time Chad's violent temper has gotten him into trouble. The reality star first appeared on JoJo Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette in 2016 where he was portrayed as the villain and earned the nickname Bad Chad. He was invited back to Bachelor In Paradise the same year but was given the boot after he got drunk and slung violent threats at fellow cast members. Before hooking up with Annalise, Johnson was rumored to have had a relationship with former Playboy pinup Kendra Wilkinson. The formation of the next government could hinge on State funding for the countrys first charity air ambulance. This is because Danny Healy-Rae has made it a condition of any coalition deal he signs up to. It is totally wrong that this vital service has to lurch from one funding crisis to another because of a lack of funds, the Independent Kerry TD said. I feel so strongly about this that I have made it a red line issue for me. It is a condition of me agreeing to join with any party or group that stands a chance of forming the next government. It has to be a priority for any government because it is such a vital service for the people of Cork and Kerry and other remote parts of the south west. Although the National Ambulance Service (NAS) provides medical staff and coordinates the taskings, the charity needs 2 million-a-year to fund the helicopters, pilots, fuel and its airbase. It has said it has already raised over 700,000 through donations, benefactors and public fundraising campaigns. In January, the ICRR charity raised just 61,848 of a 400,000 target it set for a two-week GoFundMe campaign. When it launched it, it said it would ground its service if it couldnt reach the target. That didnt happen but the service was cut from seven to five days instead. This was to ensure it could carry on for another six weeks, during which time it said it would try and come up with more money. However, it - yet again - warned if it didnt raise enough funds, the service again faces being grounded. At the time, on January 21, the charity said the reduction was a temporary fix to ensure six weeks of continued service before the financial viability of the service is reviewed again. That six weeks is now up and it is unclear what the situation is now. Both Mr Healy-Rae and his brother Michael have championed the case for funding for the Irish Community Rapid Response charity air ambulance. They have also helped raise funds for it. They are both among a large group of independent TDs who are in informal talks with potential allies about how to progress their election wish-lists. They are part of the existing Rural Independents group from the last Dail. Health is one of their biggest bugbears, especially as they mostly represent a rural population that has often felt marginalised when it comes to resourcing health provision. Such is their importance that the last time Fine Gael had to form a government, Enda Kenny sounded Michael Healy-Rae out about being a minister for rural affairs. Coronavirus has spread to our country and has left citizens in complete panic-mode. A total of 28 confirmed cases have been reported in India which includes 15 Italian tourists who tested positive for the virus. Three Indians were a part of the same group and a total of 24 people were taken to the quarantine facility of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chhawla near Delhi, to get tested for COVID-19. Another Italian national who accompanied the group while travelling was tested positive for the deadly virus in Jaipur, Rajasthan. According to reports, the man's wife has also contracted the disease from her husband and so has the driver of their bus, who is an Indian national. Twitter Union Minister, Harsh Vardhan, said that six others who are related to the infected man have also been tested positive for the same. He said, "On conducting contact tracing of the person tested positive in Delhi, we came to know that he infected 6 members of his family who are in Agra. All 6 members tested positive for coronavirus." The first case to be reported in Delhi NCR is of a man from Noida who was diagnosed with the virus on Monday. The man in question here is the parent of a child who is a student of Shriram Millennium School in Noida's sector 135. According to several reports, the man who has been infected by the virus, organised a birthday party for his child, where other students from the school were also present. The health authorities ordered the parents to take their kids home on Tuesday after they received the infected man's reports which tested positive. The school premises are undergoing a sanitation treatment so that it does not put anybody at risk. The school will remain shut till March 9, 2020, until further notice. Twitter According to reports, the same man dined at Hyatt Regency in Delhi and ever since, the hotel has asked its staff to go on a 14-day quarantine. Aside from that, the hotel premises are being sanitised, with all restaurants going through a deep-cleaning procedure; every space in the hotel is being thoroughly cleaned. Kerala was the first state to report the first three cases of Covid-19 in India. All of them were medical students from Wuhan from where the virus originated. In an official statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme." BCCL A total of 438 people have been suspected, out of which 225 have completed 28 days of surveillance. 189 are being observed while 89 are in isolation. E xperts have warned that Australia faces a koala emergency after thousands perished in recent bushfires. At least 5,000 of the marsupials are said to have died after blazing wildfires tore though New South Wales at the end of 2019, a new report shows. Conservationists estimate around 12 percent of the states population perished between October to January with a warning the real figure is likely to be higher. International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) also said that two-thirds of the koala population has been lost in the past three generations due to drought, bushfires and human activity. Cleland Wildlife Park Rescues Koalas Who Lost Their Homes In Australian Bushfires Wildlife campaigners described the situation as a koala emergency and have called for urgent protection measures for the species, which is considered to be vulnerable to extinction. They want New South Wales koalas to be given an emergency endangered listing to increase their protection. IFAW wildlife campaigner Josey Sharrad said: Koalas were already living on the brink before these fires, with populations declining in many areas due to excessive land clearing, disease and roadkill and local extinctions already known to have occurred. This disaster and the ongoing nature of the threats could push koalas over the edge.This is a koala emergency. The Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park has treated more than 600 animals since the fires / Getty Images Climate change and the resulting wildfires pose an immediate, ongoing and significant threat of extinction to the koala population in the state, the report argues. It comes after 5.1 million hectares (12.6 million acres) of land burned in New South Wales as bushfires ravaged swathes of Australia. Ms Sharrad added: Koalas must be immediately uplisted to endangered on an emergency basis and a moratorium on all harmful activities impacting koalas enforced to allow surviving populations some breathing space while their capacity to recover is further assessed. Australia fires - In pictures 1 /78 Australia fires - In pictures A firefighter hosing down trees and flying embers in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales in December AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of bushfires burning south of Canberra Getty Images Adelaide wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk is seen with a koala rescued at a burning forest on Kangaroo Island in January Reuters German tourists Julia Wasmiller and Jessica Pryor pose for a photo at Mrs Macquarie's chair, wearing face masks due to heavy smoke in December Getty Images A small aircraft dumps fire retardant behind houses at the foot of Mount Tennant as the fire front of the Orroral Valley fire creeps through the Namadgi National Park on January 30, 2020 in Canberra, Australia Getty Images A pyrocumulonimbus cloud is generated by the intense Orroral Valley bushfire buring to the south of Canberra. Getty Images Eugenie Bouchard of Canada takes a moment to catch her breath during her qualifying match against Xiaodi You of China during 2020 Australian Open Qualifying at Melbourne Park Getty Images Bernard Tomic of Australia receives medical attention in his match against Denis Kudla of the USA during 2020 Australian Open Qualifying at Melbourne Park Getty Images Massive smoke rising from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria in January AP Smoke looms over Sydney A kangaroo jumps in a field amidst smoke from a bushfire at Snowy Valley, Australia in January AFP via Getty Images Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits a resident's property in an area devastated by bushfires in Sarsfield, Victoria state in January POOL/AFP via Getty Images An injured koala rests in a washing basket at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park in January Getty Images A pedestrian wears a mask as smoke shrouds the Australian capital of Canberra, Australia in January AP A large smoke plume is seen over a sheep property in the Parndana region in January Getty Images NSW's National Parks and Wildlife Service staff prepare to air-drop carrots for animals in bushfire-stricken areas, in Newnes, Wollemi National Park, New South Wales in January via Reuters A wallaby eats a carrot after NSW's National Parks and Wildlife Service staff air-dropped them in bushfire-stricken areas around Wollemi and Yengo National Parks, New South Wales in January via Reuters Nurses feed an injured male koala at Adelaide Koala Rescue in January Getty Images A woodchip mill burnt by bushfires is seen as smoke rises in Eden in Australia's New South Wales in January AFP via Getty Images Kylie Minogue donates to the cause @kylieminogue Cars line up to leave the town of Batemans Bay in New South Wales to head north in January AFP via Getty Images HMAS Choules off the coast of Victoria, Australia in January Reuters The property of Lyle Stewart is razed to the ground at Nerrigundah, Australia in January AP Rural Fire Service firefighter Trevor Stewart views a flank of in Tumburumba, Australia Getty Images A plane flies in the tobacco-coloured skies over Auckland, New Zealand, as smoke from the wildfires traveled from Australia in January Getty Images An orange glow darkens the sky in Auckland city from the wildfires in Australia Getty Images Kiahan Bellchambers and her brother Jesse Bellchambers looking for belongings amongst the ruins of their house destroyed during bushfires in Batlow, in Australia's New South Wales state in January AFP via Getty Images Lieutenant Kynan Lang from the 10th/27th Battalion visits the scene where his uncle and cousin died in a bushfire to place a memorial on Kangaroo Island, Australia in January via Reuters A firefighters backs away from the flames after lighting a controlled burn near Tomerong, Australia AP Black ash and fire debris is washed up on Boydtown Beach and the banks of the Nullica River in Eden, Australia REUTERS Barb Copus holds a rescued baby brushtail possum at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park in the Parndana region on Kangaroo Island, Australia Getty Images A burnt car is seen after bushfire in Batlow, in Australia's New South Wales state in January AFP via Getty Images A burning gum tree is felled to stop it from falling on a car in Corbago, as bushfires continue in New South Wales, Australia in January Reuters General view of the Dunn Road fire in January Getty Images Australian Army CH-47 Chinooks from the 5th Aviation Regiment deliver hay bales to remote bushfire-affected farms on Kangaroo Island, Australia via Reuters Volunteer and carer Tracy Dodd holds a kangaroo with burnt feet pads after being rescued from bushfires in Australia's Blue Mountains area in December Reuters Thick smoke from wildfires shroud the Sydney Opera House in December AP A property burns from bushfires in Balmoral, 150km southwest of Sydney in December AFP via Getty Images A fireman fights a bushfire to protect a property in Balmoral, 150km southwest of Sydney in December AFP via Getty Images Helicopters dump water on bushfires as they approach homes located on the outskirts of the town of Bargo in December Getty Images Australian wildfires turn sky red in December brendanh_au/Twitter Firemen inspect a house recently destroyed by bushfires on the outskirts of the town of Bargo in December Getty Images Firemen prepare as a bushfire approaches homes on the outskirts of the town of Bargo in December Getty Images Monitoring the Tianjara fire from a helicopter in the Moreton and Jerrawangala National Park in December Getty Images People wear face masks to protect from the pollution over Sydney Harbour in December Getty Images A fire approaches the village of Nerrigundah, Australia in December AP An old car burns from bushfires in Balmoral AFP via Getty Images The remains of burnt out buildings are seen along main street in the New South Wales town of Cobargo in December AFP via Getty Images Wildfires rage under plumes of smoke in Bairnsdale, Australia in December AP A horse trying to move away from nearby bushfires at a residential property near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales in December AFP via Getty Images Fire and thick smoke remains the village of Nerrigundah, Australia in December AP Gary Hinton stands amongst rubble after fires devastated the New South Wales town of Cobargo in December AFP via Getty Images A helicopter drops fire retardent to protect a property in Balmoral in December AFP via Getty Images The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia in December via Reuters A fire and rescue team inspect the damage around Torrington in Glen Innes, Australia in November Getty Images Flames from an out of control bushfire seen from a nearby residential area in Harrington, Australia in November AFP via Getty Images Bushfires taken from a plane in over north eastern New South Wales in November AFP via Getty Images An Air-crane water bombing helicopter drops water on a bushfire in Harrington, Australia in November Reuters Haze blanketing Manly Beach, Sydney in November Sydney Coaches via Reuters The analysis covered 15 weeks from October 1, 2019, to January 10, 2020, and is described as a conservative estimate. The conservationists also warned that further assessment to cover the month to February 10 means final figures are expected to be even worse. In an Acta Paediatrica study, exclusive breastfeeding for the first 3 months was linked with a lower risk of respiratory allergies and asthma when children reached 6 years of age. In the study of 1,177 mother-infant pairs, a third of the children were exclusively breastfed until the age of 3 months. By the age of 6 years, 20.8% of children had been diagnosed with respiratory allergies and 11.3% with asthma. Exclusive breastfeeding for 3 months was associated with a 23% lower relative risk of respiratory allergies at the age of 6 years. It was also associated with a 34% lower relative risk of asthma, but only if the children did not have a family history of asthma. Breastfeeding for 3 months, but not exclusively, was insufficient to reduce the risk of respiratory allergies or asthma. "Airway disorders such as respiratory allergies and some asthma may be prevented in some cases by encouraging exclusive breastfeeding for at least 3 months, as human milk was potentially beneficial in reducing the risk of airway disorders among children," said author Galya Bigman, PhD, of the University of Maryland, Institute of Human Virology, School of Medicine. ### The current government knows what to do, but knowing is not enough, Zelensky told parliament on Wednesday. This is the first government where there is no corruption, but not stealing is not enough. This is a government of new faces, but new faces are not enough. We need new brains and new hearts. Food, Wine, & Dining, Local News By Ls Cohen Published: March 04 2020 The company has sold more than 780 million donuts, and counting. Entenmanns is synonymous with delicious bakery items found in your local grocery store. What started out as a small bake shop in Brooklyn became a national brand over 120 year later. If youre from Long Island you definitely grew up with Entenmanns donuts and cookies in your house. And if you were from Bay Shore, well, that smell! Below we listed some great facts and historical tidbits about Long Islands own Entenmanns. Photo: Entenmann's Facebook page. In 1898, William Entenmann opened his first bakery in Brooklyn The first Entenmanns products were delivered by horse and carriage Following doctors advice, Entenmann relocated his bakery to Bay Shore after his son William Jr. contracted rheumatic fever Home delivery was a big part of the bakerys beginnings In 1951, William Entenmann Jr. suffered a fatal heart attack and his three sons (Charles, Robert and William) ran the business with their mother Martha In the 1950s, Frank Sinatra would call the Entenmanns Bay Shore bakery and place a weekly order for a crumb coffee cake In the 1950s they changed the business from home delivery to supermarket sales The famous see-through cake box was invented by Martha Entenmann in 1959 This design allowed customers to see the delicious bakery contents and boosted sales Photo: Entenmann's Website. Photo: Entenmann's Website. Entenmanns has been sold numerous times since then In 1978, the family sold Entenmann's to Warner-Lambert, a pharmaceutical company, for $233 million Afterward, Robert Entenmann, turned a Long Island potato farm into a vineyard in 1995 The winery was called Martha Clara Vineyards , named after his mother In 1982, the company was sold to General Foods for $315 million In 1985, General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris, and Entenmann's became a part of Kraft Foods Entenmanns is currently owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA The iconic Entenmanns factory in Bay Shore shut down in 2014 Photo: Entenmann's Facebook page. By Express News Service BHOPAL: The midnight political drama in Madhya Pradesh with its epicentre in Gurugram (Haryana) is far from over. While, the Congress claimed to have defused the crisis by making five to six Congress and allied MLAs (who were allegedly taken by the BJP leaders to hotels in Gurugram) return to the ruling party fold, at least four others, which possibly include three Congress MLAs and an independent MLA are missing and could have been shifted to Karnataka. READ | Amid poaching scare, Congress alleges BJP holding its MLAs hostage in Gurugram hotel According to key sources in the Congress who are camping in Delhi and Gurugram, around 8-10 MLAs, including four of the seven allied legislators (one BSP, one suspended BSP, one SP and one independent) and six Congress MLAs had been taken to two hotels in Gurugram and Panipat by powerful BJP leaders on Tuesday. While the 8-10 Congress and allied MLAs had been kept in at least two hotels in Haryana, six to seven senior state BJP leaders, including ex-Cm Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh, Rampal Singh, Sanjay Pathak, Vishwas Sarang have been camping in Delhi since Tuesday. Two more BJP leaders, including state party vice president and Ater (Bhind) MLA Arvind Bhadoria and senior organizational leader Arvind Menon too are said to be key part of entire operation titled among informed BJP circles as Operation Holi. According to informed sources within the Congress, six Congress and allied MLAs, among them Saniv Singh Kushwah (BSP), Rambai Thakur (suspended BSP MLA), Rajesh Shukla (SP), Ranvir Jatav, Kamlesh Jatav and Aidal Singh Kansana (all Congress) have returned to parent fold. All of them were allegedly kept by BJP leaders in a premier hotel in Gurugram. But at least four others, among them HS Dang, Bisahu Lal Singh and another Congress MLA and independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera are missing and are believed to have been shifted somewhere in Bengaluru or Chikmaglur hill station of Karnataka. The entire focus is now shifting to Delhi, as six MP ministers are camping there to defuse the crisis, while ex-CM Digvijaya Singh (who had dropped enough hints of BJPs Operation in MP on Monday) is likely to hold a detailed press conference later in the day. Chief Minister Kamal Nath too is likely to fly to Delhi in a short while. READ | Governments not formed on principles bound to meet this fate: BJP on Madhya Pradesh crisis In Delhi, Digvijaya Singh claimed a host of BJP leaders, led by ex-CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former ministers Narottam Mishra have masterminded entire operation to attempt bringing down the Kamal Nath government and also influence the March 26 Rajya Sabha polls for three seats in MP. Singh is among the three RS members (two others from BJP) from MP, whose term comes to end next month. BJP has become so replete with arrogance, power and money that they are trying to dislodge every non-BJP government, including Kamal Nath government in MP. If raids are conducted at BJP office and home minister Amit Shahs residence, huge cache of unaccounted money would be seized, alleged Digvijaya Singh in Delhi. In Delhi, senior Congress Rajya Sabha member PL Punia is likely to raise the issue of alleged BJP Operation Holi in MP in the upper house of the Parliament on Wednesday. Meanwhile, visibly embarrassed by the developments, the MP BJP unit tried hard to distance itself from the political drama allegedly scripted by their senior leaders. Both, Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava and state BJP chief VD Sharma made it clear that BJP had nothing to do with the political drama in Haryana. The government has been operating as an already blackmailed government and it has been exposed by what is happening now, newly appointed state BJP chief VD Sharma said. Though the actual strength of MP Vidhan Sabha is 230, but owing to death of two legislators, the total strength presently stands at 228, out of which Congress had 114 MLAs (two less than simple majority on own) and also had support of seven allied MLAs. BJP has 107 MLAs, two of whom Narayan Tripathi and Sharad Kol are said to be disgruntled and had skipped crucial party meeting at state BHP HQ in Bhopal on Tuesday. Army barracks and military schools in the country can serve the quarantine of up to 30,000 people, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, adding that strict quarantine is very important in preventing and containing contagious diseases. Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long Speaking at the Governments regular press conference on March 3, Deputy Minister Long cited the Son Loi commune in Vinh Phuc province as a good example for the effectiveness of good quarantine. He highlighted that Vietnam is doing well in controlling the spread of COVID-19. After the epidemic was reported to spread in the Republic of Korea (RoK), the national steering committee for prevention and control of COVID-19 has instructed suitable measures, including medical declaration at entry, suspension of visa-free entry for RoK citizens, and quarantine of all people who arrived from areas hit by COVID-19 especially the RoK. The countrys two biggest airports Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat suspended receiving flights carrying passengers from the RoK, and flights from the RoK are diverted to appointed airports. According to the deputy minister, only Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air are still operating a limited number of flights from the RoK to Vietnam, and the Vietnam Airlines has also asked for permission to suspend such flights from March 5. Minister, Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung told the press conference that the Government highly valued the work of the national steering committee for prevention and control of COVID-19 along with the efforts and comprehensive measures undertaken by all-level administrations, agencies, localities, business community and people across the country. However, he noted that the epidemic continues to spread worldwide with unpredictable developments, and urged keeping up vigilance. The minister also reported on the serious impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on social and economic life. Some sectors suffered from heavy losses, with the tourism industry expected to lose around 7 billion USD. So far, there have been 16 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Vietnam and all patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals. The country has reported no new case since February 13. Embassy in Thailand warns citizens against COVID-19 The Embassy of Vietnam in Thailand has urged Vietnamese citizens in there to take precautions against the acute respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), as the host country has designated it a dangerous communicable disease. In its latest announcement, the embassy asked Vietnamese citizens in Thailand not to travel to public and crowded places. If they are to attend workshops and events, they need to wear face masks and prepare hand sanitisers to protect themselves. Those who are sick or have respiratory problems should not participate in large activities. If they show symptoms of the disease, they should go to local medical establishments for timely checkup and treatment. In addition, Vietnamese citizens are also asked to avoid people with respiratory diseases, keep a close watch on and closely follow guidance and recommendations of local authorities on COVID-19 prevention. The embassy said it will continue following the COVID-19 situation and stay in touch with relevant agencies of Thailand for frequent updates. In case of emergency, it is recommended to contact the embassys citizen protection hotline (+66) 898966653 or (+66) 2650 8979 during office hours. Thailand has recorded 43 COVID-19 cases, with one death. Of the figure, 31 patients recovered and have been discharged from the hospital, while 11 others are still being treated./. VNA Quarantine top solution to prevent COVID-19: Hanoi leader Quarantine is still the top solution to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the COVID-19, according to Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee Vuong Dinh Hue. ATLANTA, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CryoLife, Inc. (NYSE: CRY), a leading cardiac and vascular surgery company focused on aortic disease, announced today that it has received CE Mark for the E-vita Open NEO, a hybrid stent graft system for the treatment of aortic arch disease. Aortic arch disease includes both aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections, which occur suddenly and usually without warning. Approximately 7,000 patients are surgically treated for thoracic aortic arch disease annually in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Many patients with either an aneurysm or dissection in the aortic arch also present with a dissected or aneurysmal descending thoracic aorta. Often these two conditions are repaired in a two-stage procedure one to repair the arch and the next to repair the descending thoracic aorta. The Company's hybrid stent graft technologies, which include the E-vita Open NEO and the E-vita Open Plus, enable a one-stage procedure treatment of this condition by combining the surgical arch repair and the endovascular descending thoracic repair, providing a more cost effective solution for the health system and allowing the patient to avoid a second surgery. It is anticipated that the E-vita Open NEO often will be used in combination with JOTEC's thoracic stent graft offering, E-nya. "We are pleased to have received CE Mark for E-vita Open NEO, our newest hybrid stent graft technology for aortic arch and descending thoracic aorta repair. This new design features a single tri-branched vessel that enhances ease-of-use and implantation that reduces surgical time and allows for a potentially safer procedure, thereby increasing the likelihood that more patients can benefit from the procedure and patient access to these therapies," remarked Pat Mackin, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of CryoLife. PD. Dr. med. Konstantinos Tsagakis and Prof. Dr. med. Arjang Ruhparwar in Essen, Germany commented, "15 years ago, the introduction of the Evita Open Plus hybrid stent graft changed conventional open aortic arch surgery. The device concept is simple - it combines the open surgical approach for the arch with an endovascular treatment of the descending thoracic aorta. In our 350 patient experience in Essen, the ability of this device to address the major challenge of this surgery has translated into better outcomes for the patient, including an improved 5-year survival rate. CryoLife's next generation hybrid stent graft, the E-vita Open NEO, will continue to advance this procedure by providing surgeons with more options for treating the most complex patient anatomies in a safe and reproducible manner." About CryoLife Headquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, CryoLife is a leader in the manufacturing, processing, and distribution of medical devices and implantable tissues used in cardiac and vascular surgical procedures focused on aortic repair. CryoLife markets and sells products in more than 100 countries worldwide. For additional information about CryoLife, visit our website, www.cryolife.com. Contacts: CryoLife Gilmartin Group LLC D. Ashley Lee Greg Chodaczek / Lynn Lewis Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Phone: 646-924-1769 [email protected] Phone: 770-419-3355 SOURCE CryoLife, Inc. Related Links http://www.cryolife.com Prabhas is taking a huge risk by heading to Europe even as the coronavirus epidemic is fast spreading. On Wednesday, he was spotted at Hyderabad airport leaving for Europe to participate in the new shoot schedule of his current film Jaan. He was spotted wearing a mask to his face as protection. Fans captured him on their mobile phones and posted them on social media. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 14:23 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20683670c 1 City coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,outbreak-in-Indonesia,COVID-19,panic-buying,face-mask,Grogol-Petamburan,West-Jakarta,National-Police Free The Jakarta Police seized 350 boxes of face masks during a raid on the residence of a suspected hoarder in Tanjung Duren, Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta in the wake of panic buying that hit the capital city on Monday following the announcement of the countrys first confirmed COVID-19 cases. The Tanjung Duren Police have confiscated 350 boxes of face masks from various brands at an apartment in Grogol, Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com. Separately, West Jakarta Polices general crimes unit head, Comr. Teuku Arsya, confirmed the raid had taken place. However, he was still tight-lipped about the number of suspects apprehended. President Joko Jokowi Widodos announcement of the countrys first confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases on Monday rattled many Jakartans, some of whom reacted to the news by frantically flocking to stores across the city to stock up on medical supplies and other essentials, including face masks and hand sanitizer. Panic buying has prompted a price surge for such items both online and offline in the last two days, with a box of face masks now selling for an average of Rp 300,000 (US$ 21) a whopping 1,500 percent increase from the original average of Rp 20,000 per box. In response to the phenomenon, the National Police have announced that it will bring those known to have hoarded masks and hand sanitizer to justice. We are carrying out an investigation to sniff out any illegal stockpiling, said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Argo Yuwono. (rfa) Amid forecast for fresh snowfall and rain, no fresh vehicular traffic was allowed on the arterial 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Wednesday, traffic department officials said. However, thousands of vehicles including trucks which got stranded on the highway following a landslide on Tuesday at Peera between Nashri and Ramban were allowed to move towards their destinations after the road was made navigable, the officials said. "No vehicle either from Srinagar or Jammu was allowed on the highway this morning as authorities had decided to clear the stranded vehicles first," a traffic department official said. He said vehicular traffic on the highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, resumed late on Tuesday after the debris from the landslide was removed in a six-hour long road clearance operation by the agencies concerned. "There was no disruption despite intermittent rains in Ramban-Banihal sector. The traffic is moving smoothly when last reports were received," the official said. He said a decision to allow vehicular traffic, either from Srinagar or Jammu, would be taken later on Wednesday night after fresh assessment of the situation. The traffic on the highway plies alternatively from Jammu and Srinagar to facilitate smooth movement of commuters in view of the ongoing work on the four-laning highway project. The meteorological department has predicted moderate rain and snow in Jammu and Kashmir and at scattered places of Ladakh region from March 5 to 7. "Light rain and snow will commence at a few places of Kashmir division on March 5 morning and intensify thereafter in intensity and distribution with main activity on March 6 and 7," an official of the meteorological department said. He warned of possible landslides between Ramban and Banihal leading to closure of the highway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wolf Hall author Dame Hilary Mantel says she's been 'ill for most of my life' and says the endometriosis she has endured since she was 19 caused the break-up of her marriage. The Booker Prize-winning writer, 67, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Emma Barnett that the condition hampered her life so much that it caused her to separate from husband Gerald McEwan, only to marry him again two years later. Mantel, who's about to pubish the final installment of her bestselling Tudor trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, said that the painful condition, which causes uterine tissue to grow outside of the uterus, 'confiscated her fertility at 27' and left her 'besieged'. Scroll down for video In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Emma Barnett, Wolf Hall writer Dame Hilary Mantel said she had been ill for most of her life with chronic pain caused by endometriosis (pictured on Radio 5 Live yesterday) The author, about to publish a new book The Mirror & the Light, also told the presenter how the condition caused the break-down of her marriage to husband Gerald McEwan, who she'd wed as a 20-year-old but was divorced from at 30, only for the couple to re-unite two years later Speaking on how endometriosis has affected her, she told the presenter: 'You have to find a way of living with it and living around it. I have been ill most of my life, certainly since I was 19.' At 27, she underwent a procedure that 'confiscated her fertility'. She said the treatments doctors had offered her 'have done their own damage' adding: 'I don't have a family, I didn't have a chance at having children but I've tried to make my life as full as possible.' Revealing that she shared her first date with husband Gerald 50 years ago this week, Mantel also told how her illness had contributed to the temporary end of her marriage, saying: 'We got married when we were very young, we were 19,20 and still students. 'Everyone predicted doom, it wasn't doom, it worked but my illness and the crisis it occasioned was too difficult for us to surmount and we we broke up and divorced for a couple of years.' The best-selling British writer also revealed that the couple had shared their first date 50 years ago this week, and said she'd learned to live with the condition that has 'besieged' her life Radio 5 Live tweeted the interview, which has now been viewed more than 24,000 times on the radio programme's Twitter account (Pictured: host Emma Barnett) When the couple re-met at 30, they took their vows again and have been together ever since. The writer says her job has helped her to create a full life and she works around the chronic pain that often 'besieges' her. The writer is also featured in Harper's Bazaar this month. Photographed for the society magazine at Hampton Court Palace, the author commented on Meghan and Prince Harry's marriage, saying she was pleased that it had survived the couples decision to stand down as senior royals. Dame Hilary explained: 'Im pleased that its the marriage thats surviving and the connection with the monarchy that has to go because I think almost all of us would have bet that if she [the Duchess of Sussex] left, shed have to leave alone.' Dame Hilary Mantel, 67, called Meghan Markle, 38, a 'smiling face in a dull institution' as she said she feared the Duchess would be forced to leave the royal family alone The British Booker Prize-winning author suggested 'abominable racism' was involved in the Duchess of Sussex's decision to leave the UK (pictured, the Duchess on her final royal engagement before announcing her plans to step back from the family in January) She added: 'Though, none of us know the details of how this is going to work out.' 'I think that Meghan was too good to be true,' Hilary admitted. 'She was a smiling face in a dull institution, she cheered the nation up no end, or at least men and women of good will.' Harry and Meghan rocked the Royal Family in January when they announced they would step down as senior royals, less than two years after their marriage. They intend to split their time between the UK and Canada. Speaking about the treatment of Meghan, Hilary insisted: 'I do think abominable racism has been involved. People who say that's got nothing to do with it well, they need to check their privilege!' The author (pictured) spoke with Harper's Bazaar to celebrate the publication of the final instalment of her bestselling Tudor trilogy, The Mirror & the Light Talking to the BBC this week, Hilary reiterated her belief that racism had played a part in the criticism aimed at the Duchess. The author said: 'I hesitate to call her a victim. But I think there has been an element of racism in the invective against her. I think it's more deeply embedded in people's consciousness than any of us are willing to admit.' She added: 'There's an intense concentration on the bodies of royal women. If anyone doubts that, we only have to look at what happens when our royal ladies are pregnant and when they give birth. 'They are perceived as public property in the same way that Tudor women were perceived.' Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan (pictured) rocked the Royal Family in January when they announced they would step down as senior royals, less than two years after their marriage The treatment of royal women was 'sad' and 'objectionable', she said, because 'it is simply turning the individual woman back into a breeder'. Asked about the duchess, she said that scrutiny of royal bodies 'does include the skin'. In 2016, Harry said media coverage of Meghan had 'racial undertones' and novelist Sir Philip Pullman claimed Meghan 'is attacked by the British press because she's black'. In 2013 Dame Hilary came under fire for likening the Duchess of Cambridge to a shop window mannequin who would become a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung. The April issue of Harper's Bazaar (pictured) is on sale from 04 March 2020 The comments were condemned by then prime minister David Cameron as completely misguided, although she said her words had been taken out of context. Despite Hilary winning a Booker Prize for both her first and second novel in her series about Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII, she says it never matters at the time of writing. She explained to Harper's Bazaar: 'I'm keeping my eye on the content of the book, and asking, "Does that succeed with readers?" 'The whole issue of prizes, bestseller lists and so on is out of my hands. When you're actually writing day-by-day, I don't find any of that matters.' She also revealed how it felt writing her protagonist Thomas Cromwell's death, admitting she broke down into tears. 'Actually, it's really embarrassing, this, but when it came into my head how it must go, I was in Sainsbury's at the checkout,' she recalled. 'My hands were packing and tears were falling really, really fast onto my hands. And by the time I got into the car park, I'd done it. It was emotionally processed.' The Mirror & the Light (25, Fourth Estate) is published on 5 March. The April issue of Harper's Bazaar is on sale from 04 March 2020. Dangerous Democrats With the number of Trump supporters and businesses who support President Trump being trashed on social media, mainstream media and in person by the resistance, can you imagine what it would be like if a Democrat, let alone a socialist Democrat, got into the presidency? We had a little taste of that when Obama was in office, with conservative people and businesses being targeted by the IRS. It is unconscionable to believe that in a constitutional republic we are seeing such hatred and vitriol between the parties. Not only that, but it is the Democrats, liberals and the mainstream media who preach that we must all be tolerant of each other, yet it is the Democrats, liberals and the mainstream media who provoke and attack the opposing side and then blame the other side for these same actions. The Democrats say they need to change what is happening in this country. To what? They dont like an economy that is working? They dont like a low unemployment rate for women, African Americans, Hispanics? They dont like the laws being enforced? They dont like the USA being a powerhouse? YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. Reporter Dana Mazalova who interviewed former president of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov and published the article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta reaffirms that irrespective of the efforts of the incumbent president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to distort the reality, her article is in full compliance with what former Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov said during the interview which took place in April, 1992. The reporter regrets that she was unable to preserve the recording due to technical reasons. There was no internet, there were no computers, but I reaffirm that what I wrote back then are what Ayaz Mutalibov said, I have not added anything. Now he can deny it as he wants, but he said it the way it is printed in Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper. I have the copy of that newspaper and its available on the net, Ayaz Mutalibov has said it, Dana Mazalova said in an exclusive interview with ARMENPRESS. Mutalibov gave an interview to Dana Mazalova after 1 month following his resignation. Mazalova heard about the tragic events of Khojaly from the video recordings of cameraman Chingiz Mustafayev, who had personally made exclusive records. Chingiz, whom I met in Kislovodsk, told me in his apartment how those people were killed, they were hurting their knees so they couldn't go. The knees the most vulnerable place on humans body. I was scheduled to take an interview from Ayaz Mutalibov the next day. I could not help asking him what I had seen in the records made by Chingiz. Of course, I did not say the name of my friend Chingiz not to harm him. After 2 months Chingiz was killed, the reporter recalls with grief. Dana Mazalova told also about another recording of Chingiz Mustafayev. The bodies of the victims of Khojaly events were seen in a video recording done on February 28 in front of the military positions of the Popular Front of Azerbaijani troops. According to Muslim traditions, the bodies should have been buried within two days, but Chingiz Mustafayev could record them also on March 2, but this time the bodies were taken to another place and were vandalized. In the video recording of February 28 it could be seen that Azerbaijani soldiers were walking near the bodies. I feel very guilty for not taking and copying those recordings. I feel so sorry up till now. I think you understand that my interview with Mutalibov was the result of those video recordings and my conversations with Chingiz, Mazalova said. To the remark of the reporter of ARMENPRESS that incumbent president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev used the public platform of Munich Security Conference on February 15 to deny the words of Mutalibov, Mazalova emphasized, I will put this way. We know that Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide up till now. One month after the Khojaly tragedy Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov was interviewed by Czech reporter Dana Mazalova. What would you say about the Khojaly events, after which you resigned? At the time, bodies of people from Khojaly were discovered not far from Aghdam. Someone had shot them in the legs beforehand to prevent them from running away. Afterwards they were axed. On February 29th my colleagues filmed them. When we next filmed on March 2 these corpses had been scalped. What kind of strange game was that? As the rescued residents of Khojaly say, all that was organized to create grounds for my resignation. I dont think that the Armenians, who had manifested a clear and knowledgeable approach to such situations, would have allowed Azerbaijanis to obtain evidence that tied them to fascist acts. If I declare that it was the fault of the Azerbaijani opposition I could be blamed for slander. But the overall picture of the conclusions is as follows: the Armenians had, in any case, provided a corridor to let the civilians escape. Why then would they shoot? As soon as Khojaly was surrounded by tanks it was necessary to immediately lead the civilians out. Earlier I had given similar orders regarding Shushi to evacuate women and children and to leave only men in the city. Its one of the laws of war civilians must be rescued. My conduct was appropriate and unambiguous I gave such orders, but why they werent followed in Khojaly is not clear to me. Photo from Novoe Vremya Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan With reports of coronavirus cases being reported from many parts of India, people are rushing to medical stores to get their hands on either N95 or a simple surgical face mask, and sanitizers but they have been hamstrung by their massive shortage. Even e-commerce websites are running out of these two products. "I visited 2-3 chemist stores asking for a hand sanitizer but failed to find one at the chemist stores. In fact, one pharmacy offered me a handwash instead of a sanitizer," said a Mumbai-based professional. The demand for protective masks and sanitizers in India has gone up significantly and with rising demand, the price of masks has shot up multiple times. Track this blog for live updates on coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "In view of the current situation worldwide, we have witnessed 10 times & more of growth in demand for face masks, particulate respiratory masks, protective suits to curb the spread of Coronavirus," said Vivek Tiwari, Founder, and CEO, Medikabazaar, an online aggregator for medical devices. "In the last few weeks, we have received multiple queries from China, Japan, Singapore, and even India and other countries and we have increased our procurement of masks and other items many folds to meet the demand," he added. The N95 too, which are available, are being sold at inflated prices in chemist shops and on e-commerce platforms. On Amazon, a pack of 4 sanitizer bottles of 50 ml each is available for Rs 328 instead of Rs 246 while a N95 mask is being sold for Rs 1,000. Most people Moneycontrol spoke to claimed that a surgical mask, which was available for Rs 10 at chemist shops and on e-commerce marketplaces, is being sold for Rs 40 or higher, and a N95 mask, which was earlier available for Rs 150, is being sold for Rs 500-1,000. According to a report by CNBC-TV18, prices of face masks have shot up 300 percent. A box of face masks which earlier was available for Rs 1.50 is now getting sold at Rs 6. The prices of masks are higher as India does not manufacture these masks but only assembles it. Also, the 3 ply material is mainly imported from China. "The demand and prices for these two products (N95 masks and sanitizers) have shot up after the scare of Coronavirus outbreak within the country. There is a huge demand, especially for N95 masks, which are recommended by healthcare experts for preventing against viruses. In the last two to three days more than 300 people have come asking for N95 masks and sanitizer," owner of a well-known pharmacy chain said. According to experts, although disposable face masks block large particles from entering your mouth, a more tight-fitting N95 respirator mask is far more effective at protecting from airborne illnesses. N95 face mask filters at least 95 percent of airborne particles. Shortage is largely due to supply disruptions in China coupled with large amount of buying from Middle East and China. People in the country are furious and claim that the government must have a system wherein the prices and supply of essential products in a situation like the pandemic situation could be controlled. According to reports, there are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far. The Indian government has said it is monitoring the situation and has taken precautions, including an increase in screenings. Story so far Coronavirus is a deadly respiratory which has killed more than 3,110 and so far 90,893 cases are reported globally, according to the information on the World Health Organisation. Transmission of the virus takes place when someone who is infected comes in contact with another person. According to medical experts, coughing, sneezing or even shaking hands with an affected person can cause exposure. The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. In the past 24 hours, China reported 129 cases, the lowest number of cases since January 20. Outside China, 1848 cases were reported in 48 countries. 80 percent of those cases are from just three countries: the Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Italy. 12 new countries have reported their first cases, and there are now 21 countries with one case. The money spent by governments on high courts and subordinate courts in their respective states, except Delhi, was less than 1 percent of their total expenditure for the year 2018-19, a Supreme Court order revealed. Delhi spent Rs 1,045 crore for judiciary while the overall expenditure of the state in 2018-19 stood at Rs 50,200 crore. Thus, only 2.08 percent of total spending of Delhi in 2018-19 was on judiciary, though it was the highest among all states in terms of percentage. The highest amount spent on judiciary was by Uttar Pradesh, which bore an expenditure of Rs. 1,614 crore. However, it accounted for only 0.35 percent of the states total expenditure. In terms of percentage, Arunachal Pradesh was at the bottom of the table, incurring only Rs 5.27 crore, a measly percentage of 0.02 percent of its total expenditure in 2018-19. Assam was second from the bottom, spending only 0.09 percent of its total expenditure on judiciary. It spent a paltry sum of Rs 268 crore in comparison to its total expenditure which stood at Rs 2.91 lakh crore. Besides Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, only 6 states Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal spent more than Rs 1,000 crore for judiciary in 2018-19. These details were given by the Supreme Court in its order of February 28 asking states to implement the recommendations of Justice P Venkatarama Reddi Pay Commission with respect to pay, allowances and pension of judicial officers. The pay commission under Justice P Venkatarama Reddi was set up by the Supreme Court in May 2017 on a petition filed by the All India Judges Association, seeking a relook into the service conditions of judicial officers. The pay commission submitted its report to the court in January 2020. The court observed that the primary objections raised over the years when it came to the implementation of various directions concerning the service conditions of the subordinate judiciary had always been alleged paucity of financial resources. However, such objections, the court noted had been rejected by the court on earlier occasions too and should not be re-agitated. It then proceeded to note that the expenditure on judiciary was inadequate and negligible in comparison to overall spending by states. the expenditure on account of High Court and subordinate courts in the respective states continues to be inadequate and negligible in comparison to its overall expenditure for the year 2018- 2019, the court said in its order. The court directed all states to file their response to the pay commissions report within four weeks.If any of the states fail to file such a response, it will be presumed that they have no objections to the recommendations made by the commission, the court said. Senior counsel PS Narasimha was appointed amicus curiae to assist the court. The court also directed that the states should be represented in this case by their respective advocate generals. The Jharkhand Assembly was on Wednesday adjourned twice following ruckus by BJP MLAs over their demand for the announcement of the Leader of the Opposition. Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato adjourned the House till noon after BJP members went down to the Well and raised slogans in support of their demand. Noisy scenes continued after the sitting resumed, prompting him to adjourn the House again till 2 pm. Raising a point of order on the issue, BJP MLA Anant Kumar Ojha told the Chair that the party has elected Babulal Marandi as its legislative party leader. With the BJP being the largest opposition party, the announcement in this regard should be made at the earliest, he demanded. "The House is incomplete without a Leader of the Opposition. So we urge you to make the announcement," Ojha said. The speaker said Ojha's point has been acknowledged and announced the commencement of the Question Hour. However, the BJP members rushed to the Well, raising slogans in support of their demand, following which the speaker adjourned the House till noon. The BJP has been demanding the announcement of the Leader of the Opposition since the beginning of the Budget session on February 28. After the House reconvened, noisy scenes continued. The speaker said the Chair always went by the rules and the matter was under process. He urged the protesting members to go back to their seats and let the House function. However, after his repeated requests were ignored by the BJP members, the speaker adjourned the House till 2 pm. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service BENGALURU: On the 20th International Sex Workers Rights Day, sex workers in Karnataka on Tuesday demanded that their profession, which is illegal in India, be decriminalised and brought under the purview of Labour Department. Karnataka Sex Workers Union, Uttara Karnataka Mahila Okkuta (UKMO) and Sadhane (a sex workers community organisation based in Bengaluru), observed the day under the banner of New Network of Sex Workers (NNSW). The group which has 15,000 members, demanded workers rights for sex workers. Nisha Gulur of Karnataka Sex Workers Union said, With a struggle for over 20 years, NNSW demands inclusion of sex workers as the new unorganised sector. NNSW also condemns the anti-trafficking, abolitionist discourse which persistently seeks to deny adult sex workers the right to articulate their life choices. However sex workers are determined in their struggle. She said, Since 2017, the government has been intent on passing the Trafficking Bill without any consultation with sex workers groups or networks. The bill has many problems which hits migrants, labourers, and informal workers. Its intent to criminalise activities of people on the margins is a major concern. Sex workers from NNSW opposed the bill on many grounds, including the forced raid-rescue-and-rehabilitation model on adults. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: As part of his visit to Tovuz district, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of Azerbaijan State Museum of Ashug Art. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the museum. While familiarizing himself with the museums exhibits, President Ilham Aliyev made a remark in connection with place names on a map showing the spread of the ashuq art. Representative of the Ministry of Culture Azada Huseynova said: These are the places where the ashuq art is widespread in the occupied territories. President Ilham Aliyev: They are located in Armenia. These territories are historically ancient Azerbaijani lands. Therefore, you should make corrections here. Write them in Azerbaijani the way they are. For example, not Dilizhan, but Dilican. Dilican should be written. Sevan is Goycha Lake. You wrote Goycha Lake, but here it says Sevan. The real name of the Razdan River is Zangi. You should use only these words and these place names. After all, all these are our ancient lands. Ekhegnadzor is a recent name, but the place also has an ancient Azerbaijani name. Therefore, this must be corrected. Migrants wait to be served food near the city of Edirne, northwestern Turkey, as they wait to cross the Meritsa river by boat and enter neighbouring Greece on March 2, 2020. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images) EU Pledges Aid to Greece as Immigrants Mass on Border With Turkey KASTANIES/LESBOS, GreeceEuropean Union officials on March 3 promised more cash for Greece during a visit to its border with Turkey, which tens of thousands of immigrants and refugees have been trying for days to breach. The officials urged Turkey to abide by a 2016 deal that requires it to keep the immigrants on its soil in return for EU aid. After an upsurge in fighting in Syria last week, Ankara says it would no longer stop immigrants who want to reach Europe. Greek riot police have used tear gas against the immigrants at its Kastanies border post, while the coastguard has tried to stop boats transporting immigrants to Greeces Aegean islands. A Syrian boy died March 2 after his boat capsized in the area. The situation at our border is not only an issue for Greece to manage, it is the responsibility of Europe as a whole, the head of the EUs Executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told a news conference at Kastanies. We will hold the line and our unity will prevail, she said after touring the area with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the heads of the European Council and Parliament. Von der Leyen announced additional aid of 700 million euros to help Greece deal with the immigrant crisis. Brussels is desperate to avoid a repeat of the 2015-16 crisis, when more than a million immigrants entered the EU from Turkey via the Balkans, straining European security and welfare systems. Greek troops and riot police remained on high alert along the Turkish border on March 3, though there were no reports of significant new clashes with the immigrants. There were only a few attempts today (to cross the border). Lets hope they get the message, a machine gun-toting army officer told Reuters at the Kastanies border post. Army jeeps patrolled the area and roads leading to the Evros river, which marks the Greek-Turkish border, remained shut. Greece, Turkey at Loggerheads The crisis has badly strained the already-soured ties between Ankara and Athens. Mitsotakis accused Ankara of deliberately encouraging immigrants to head to the border in order to promote its geopolitical agenda and divert attention from the situation in Syria. He also said these immigrants were not fleeing the latest flareup of fighting in Syrias Idlib province but were people who have been living safely in Turkey for a long period of time. Many speak fluent Turkish, he added. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also accused Turkey on March 3 of using the refugees to blackmail Europe. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan infuriated Mitsotakis on March 2 by accusing Greek border guards of killing two immigrants and wounding a third, a claim denied by Athens. On March 2, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Greek forces were shooting immigrants in the back as they are running away, but he provided no evidence. Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million refugees from Syrias civil war and faces another possible big influx as the fighting drags on there, says it cannot take in any more. Human Rights Watch said it had received multiple reports that Greek border guards were pushing people back into Turkey, which could violate the right to claim asylum as well as a ban on returning people to where they would be unsafe, both of which are enshrined in international law. The mood toward immigrants on Greek islands such as Lesbosonce relatively welcominghas soured since the 20152016 crisis amid a sense that the Athens government and the EU are not providing sufficient support. It used to be the island of solidarity but it seems like the locals are exhausted, said Charlie Meyers, a U.S. aid worker on Lesbos. For Lesbos, Greeces third-biggest island and located barely four miles from the Turkish coast, it is a perfect storm. The island already hosts more than 20,000 asylum seekers, many of them living in filthy conditions in one overcrowded camp, Moria, which was originally intended to accommodate fewer than 3,000. Islanders say they are being forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of the migrant burden. Last month, they rioted over government plans to create new reception facilities on Lesbos to replace existing ones. [The migrants] were refugees of war [in 20152016]. Now they are economic migrants, said Costas Moutzouris, governor of the Northern Aegean, which includes a cluster of islands hosting thousands of migrants. Moutzouris said the past five years had changed people. They cant go back to their routine, they cant go to the hospital because its full of migrants, they cant get to an ATM (cash dispenser) because of the queues of migrants, they cant use a bus, he said. By Lefteris Papadimas & Alkis Konstantinidis This article is adapted from The Climate Beat, the weekly newsletter of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative committed to more and better climate coverage. AMERICAS THREE MAINSTREAM television networksABC, CBS, and NBCbroadcast tens of thousands of news stories each year. But in 2019, only 0.7 percent of those stories addressed climate change, according to a new report by the left-of-center media watchdog group Media Matters. In other words, less than 1 out of every 100 network news stories talked about the problem that experts say could end life as we know it on the planet. This, even as extreme weather events ramped up the world over; as California and Australia burned; as the UN failed to generate decisive action on the crisis; as a Green New Deal emerged as the preferred policy of most Democrats challenging a president who rejects climate science wholesale; and as pollsters found that climate change had surged to the fore among voters concerns. Now that Super Tuesday has come and gone, network television once again has an opportunity to show it can do justice to the climate story the rest of this 2020 election year. The three mainstream networks certainly have the journalistic resources to tell the climate story so people get it, as TV newsman Bill Moyers has put it. But actually doing so will require them to prioritize the climate story and leave behind some bad habits. For example, when the networks did cover climate-adjacent stories (and what story isnt anymore?) in 2019, they failed to make the climate connection. Drawn by riveting visuals and terrible human tragedy, news organizations swarmed the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, which ripped through the islands in August. (Its like seeing the destruction after an atomic bomb, AP photographer Ramon Espinosa told Time magazine.) Scientists have made clear for years that higher global temperatures lead to stronger, more destructive storms. Between August 28 and September 5, ABC, CBS, and NBC produced a combined 216 stories on the hurricane for their morning, evening and weekend newscasts. But only one story, on CBS, mentioned climate change. ICYMI: A pipeline runs through Southern news deserts The three networks actually did better in 2019 than the year before, Media Matters found. In 2018, ABC, CBS, and NBC combined spent only half as much time on climate change as they did in 2019. ABC devoted more air time to the birth of a British royal baby in a single week than it did to the climate story during the entire year. Sign up for CJR 's daily email PBS NewsHour has demonstrated that it doesnt have to be this way. The nightly broadcast aired 121 segments about climate change in 2019more than the 116 segments the three networks nightly news programs did altogether. A NewsHour report on Dorian called island nations cannon fodder in the relentless invasion spurred by climate change, the first casualties in a war they didnt start. (Indeed, it will often be small and poor countries that bear the first and worst impacts of a crisis spurred primarily by large industrial nations.) NewsHour also included climate change in its 2020 campaign reporting, airing 12 segments analyzing the Green New Deal and 23 discussing the role climate change might play in the election. There are signs of hope at the networks. Each of them broadcast a fair amount of climate coverage last September, amid massive, youth-led climate strikes around the world and the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. NBC established a designated climate unit to bring focus and consistency to the networks coverage. And CBS, an early partner of Covering Climate Now, has continued to increase its coverage in the opening months of 2020. Jeff Berardelli, a meteorologist and the networks climate specialist, has appeared more frequently on the CBS Morning News and the networks digital news site, CBSN. 60 Minutes has aired powerful climate stories, including one this week, six months after Dorian slammed the Bahamas, about the island nation shifting its electricity system away from fossil fuels to solar power and micro grids. Still, the Media Matters analysis shows, the nightly newscast continues to lag at CBS, as well as at NBC and ABC. The climate crisis cries out for sustained, in-depth, high-profile coverage by the big three networks, which remain among the most influential voices in the American news media. Climate is unquestionably one of the top stories of the 2020 election, and surely there is room for more coverage of it if producers would cut back on the incessant, quickly-outdated horserace stories. Journalists at the networks know that they should be covering the climate story, and they have said that they will. What matters is actually doing itstarting now, and with a scope and urgency that match the crisis at hand. HERES YOUR WEEKLY SAMPLING of the latest in climate news, from across the Covering Climate Now collaboration. When there are major developments in the climate story, we highlight them here. But our main goal is to provide inspiration to journalists everywhere, with smart examples of creative, outside-the-box climate coverage. As always, you can find climate coverage best practices on our website. Renowned environmentalist and author Bill McKibben will pen a weekly climate newsletter for The New Yorker , called The Climate Crisisbecause this is what a crisis looks like, McKibben writes in the newsletters first iteration . With the newsletter, McKibben says he aims to equip readers with the knowledge they need to engage the climate issue. He pledges to introduce key figures in climate activism, as well as the scientists whose work underlies that activism. I wouldnt bother doing any of this if I didnt think that we could still make a real difference in the outcome, McKibben writes. But I cant offer you any guarantee that well winthe short time that science gives us to make sweeping changes is daunting. As youth around the world continue to form the vanguard of climate activism, Reuters takes a look at the growing demand for school systems to keep pace . Some countries, including New Zealand, Italy, and Bangladesh, the latter at the ground zero of climate change, are leading the way in making climate and the environment central to school curricula. But students in many countries say their schools are failing to prepare them for the challenges sure to come in the decades ahead. This is something thats part of their future whether they like it or not, one climate educator tells Reuters. Its a responsibility to talk to them about it. Canadas government is in hot water with environmentalists and indigenous rights activists, as it threatens to ram oil and gas pipelines through the territories of indigenous peoples. The Nation offers a look at how the governments response to protestorsan extensive crackdown by police and paramilitary forces belie campaign promises by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make reconciliation with Canadas indigenous groups a priority. Its critical for journalists to remember that the information space around the climate crisis remains clogged by misperception and disinformationand that large segments of our audience benefit when we get back to the basics. For CBS, Berardelli takes up 10 common myths and misgivings of climate changefor example, that scientists disagree on the causes of climate change, that climate change is simply the result of natural weather fluctuations, that historical temperature records are somehow flawedand breaks down what the science really says. The topics have been studied thoroughly and debunked over and over again by climate scientists, Berardelli writes. Nevertheless these myths persist, often as a result of an organized disinformation campaign to raise doubts among the public and delay action on human-caused climate change. As the federal government threatens to leave East Coast cities in the lurch against climate impacts, Californias government has approved an ambitious coastal protection plan, with state agencies directed to prepare for 3.5 feet of sea-level rise by 2050. We are really at a crisis point globally, Jared Blumenfeld, Californias secretary for environmental protection, told the San Francisco Chronicle . We want to be a model for the rest of the world and give them hope about what we can do. FINALLY, A REMINDER to CCNow partners that from April 19 to 26 we will host a second week of coverage focused on Climate Solutions! If you plan to participate but havent gotten in touch, please let us know with an email to [email protected]! Not a partner? We hope youll consider joining our collaboration. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mark Hertsgaard is the co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment correspondent for The Nation. The United States Department of State is offering a juicy $7m (N2.52bn) for information that can lead to the arrest of Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram leader menacing Nigeria and the neighbouring countries. The offer, which is the biggest placed on all the terrorists declared wanted by the United States government, was made on the French version of the official Twitter account of the US State Department Rewards for Justice Program. The notice provides the contact details for anyone who is interested in collecting the bounty as #Whatsapp: +1 202 975 9195 and #Telegram: @RFJ_Francais_bot. It was not clear why the Department of State chose to declare Shekau wanted in the French version of its Twitter accounts. In the English version of the Twitter account, which was opened 27 February, the Reward for Justice Program also offered $5million reward for information on 3 ISIS leaders and another $6m on another terror group AQAP leaders. Up to $5 million for information on ISIS key leaders Hajji Abdallah, Hajji Hamid and Hajji Taysir. Justice never sleeps, and never stops looking for ISIS terrorists. If you have information ISIS, please submit a tip. 100% confidential. http://rewardsforjustice.net #RFJ, the tweet said. Abubakar Shekau is the leader of Jamaatu Ahl as-Sunnah il-Daawati wal-Jihad, more commonly known as Boko Haram. The group has existed in various forms since the late 1990s. There are reported communications, training, and weapons links between Boko Haram, al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al-Shabaab, and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which may strengthen Boko Harams capacity to conduct terrorist attacks. Shekau was previously the groups second-in-command. In July 2010, Shekau publicly claimed leadership of Boko Haram and threatened to attack Western interests in Nigeria. Later that month, Shekau issued a second statement expressing solidarity with al-Qaida and threatening the United States. Under Shekaus leadership, Boko Harams operational capabilities have grown. Boko Harams August 26, 2011 vehicle-bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria marked the groups first lethal operation against Western interests. At least 23 people were killed, and 80 more were injured, in the attack. A purported Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and promised future targeting of U.S. and Nigerian government interests. Under Shekaus leadership Boko Haram has continually targeted young children. On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped close to 300 girls from their school in northern Nigeria. In a video message released three weeks later, Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, calling the girls slaves and threatening to sell them in the market. A small brooch made when the Romans ruled Britain around 1,800 years ago has been discovered in a Lincolnshire field. The copper-alloy horse figurine was found near the village of Leasingham by amateur metal detectorist Jason Price. The 48-year-old found the item under eight inches of soil in a heavily ploughed field during a 'Detecting for Veterans' charity event in the summer of last year. Scroll down for video The copper-alloy horse figurine was found in a field near the village of Leasingham by amateur metal detectorist Jason Price, 48, and weighs 0.8oz (23.18g) The two-inch long brooch (5cm) was made between 200AD - 410AD and still has the pin attached. Mr Price, an armed forces veteran himself, attended the dig last year when he found the broach, weighing 0.8 of an ounce (23.18g). Mr Price said: 'It was the last field of the weekend and it was heavily ploughed so I didn't hold out much hope of finding anything. 'You can imagine my surprise when my detector started buzzing. About eight inches down I found something caked in mud. 'At first I thought it was a piece of litter, but as I cleaned it off, my jaw dropped open. There it was a horse brooch. I was shaking. 'I've found things like coins before, but never anything like this. Absolutely amazing!' The two-inch long brooch (5cm) still has the pin attached and will be on display later this year at the Collection Museum in Lincoln The 48-year-old veteran found the item under eight inches of soil in a heavily ploughed field during a 'Detecting for Veterans' charity event in summer last year The brooch found in Leasingham has been sent out on a permanent loan by Mr Price to reside at the Collection Museum in Lincoln.It is thought to be extremely rare, with only one similar item known to experts, which is found in the British Museum The brooch has been sent out on a permanent loan by Mr Price to reside at the Collection Museum in Lincoln. It is thought to be extremely rare, with only one similar item known to experts, which is found in the British Museum. Dr Lisa Brundle, the Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) at Lincolnshire County Council, said: 'This brooch is an exciting and rare discovery. 'It depicts a fairly realistic horse with an outstanding level of detail and is in remarkable condition it even has the pin still attached! 'The horse would have originally appeared gold-like and the recesses probably once contained bright red, blue or yellow enamel. 'It would have been a spectacular sight on someone's robe. This type of Roman horse brooch is incredibly rare in Britain and is the second only to have been found in the UK. 'The only other one is in the British Museum and is decorated differently - with spots of enamel only. 'The Leasingham horse, however, is in a league of its own with its pin situated below the legs and the realistic depiction of a saddle.' New Delhi, March 4 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday okayed a proposal to allow listing of Indian companies in overseas markets for which an enabling provision would be made under the Companies Act, 2013. Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas said the Act would have an enabling provision for listed as well as unlisted companies in India to list their shares abroad. "Now, just like you had a scheme for GDR/ADR, what will be the tax treatment and other issues? Most of it (will) get covered in subordinate legislation. It does not involve any amendment per se to the best of my understanding," Srinivas said at a briefing where Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also present. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced that a proposal for allowing listing of Indian companies abroad has been approved. In order to tap foreign investors, some 1Indian firms have taken the ADR/GDR routes. Official sources said apart from helping these companies raise additional funds, overseas listing of shares would also help in bringing more capital into the country, and raise their brand visibility. The main beneficiary of the enabling provisions of the foreign listing of firms will be the unlisted firms and start-ups. This will also help companies who want to list abroad first and then list in India. The details regarding market jurisdiction, class of companies and instruments of raising will be notified in the rules. The RBI, the SEBI, Department of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Corporate Affairs will work out the listings. New Delhi: Social media platform WhatsApp on Wednesday (March 4) launched dark mode feature to its iOS and Android users. The Facebook-owned messaging app, which has been working on the dark mode feature for a long time, said, "We are very excited to update WhatsApp with the most requested feature from our users everywhere - dark mode," on its blog. "Dark mode for WhatsApp offers a fresh look on a familiar experience. Its designed to reduce eye strain in low light environments. And we hope it helps prevent those awkward moments where your phone lights up the room," the blog said. Further informing, WhatsApp said When designing dark mode we spent time researching and experimenting with a focus on two particular areas: Readability: When choosing colors, we wanted to minimize eye fatigue and use colors that are closer to the system defaults on iPhone and Android respectively. Information Hierarchy: We wanted to help users easily focus their attention on each screen. We did this by using color and other design elements to make sure the most important information stands out. Notably, the feature will benefit about two billion users, as the blog said, "We are excited to share that, as of today, WhatsApp supports more than two billion users around the world." It also informed the users as to how they can start using the dark mode. They need to follow the instructions given on the blog: "Users on Android 10 and iOS 13 can use dark mode by enabling it in system settings. Users on Android 9 and below can go into WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Theme > select Dark," WhatsApp said, addding "We hope everyone enjoys dark mode, which is rolling out in the coming days on the latest version of WhatsApp." "Mothers and fathers can reach their loved ones no matter where they are. Brothers and sisters can share moments that matter. Coworkers can collaborate, and businesses can grow by easily connecting with their customers," WhatsApp added. MUSIC Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats Max Watts, Melbourne Tuesday, March 3, 2020 Rising out of the ashes of the Permanent Damage Band in Cambridge around 2009, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have had a few memorable trips to these shores in recent years, most notably perhaps an epic 2015 performance at the annual Meredith Music Festival in Victoria. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats at the close of their Melbourne show at Max Watts on March 3. Credit:Martin Boulton The cult of Uncle Acid has clearly expanded since then, having sold out this Tuesday might performance when you might think most folks would be saving their cash for the upcoming weekend's Golden Plains festival, also held in the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre. However, here we all were with Melbourne's Child warming up the joint in fine style for the UK four-piece, led by Kevin Starrs on vocals and lead guitar. Starrs' face, like the other band members, is shrouded most of the time by long hair. It's just one of many late `60s, early 1970s heavy metal tropes the band display, along with black clothing head-to-toe and vintage guitars and amps to help replicate the early Black Sabbath sound their own songs are largely built upon. Mind Crawler, from their 2013 album of the same name, hooked into the deep, heavy groove Uncle Acid have been mining since Starrs first assembled the band, which now has Vaughan Stokes sharing guitar duties, the stunningly hirsute Justin Smith on bass and Jon Rice pounding the hell out of his drums. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 03:21:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A boat full of refugees from Turkey approaches the port of Thermi, on the island of Lesvos, Greece, on March 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the border between Greece and Turkey, after Ankara said it could no longer prevent them from reaching Europe's borders. Greece will receive an additional 700 million euros of financial aid for the management of the crisis, announced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "It is the responsibility of Europe as a whole and we will manage it in an orderly way, with unity, solidarity and determination," the EU leader said. ATHENS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of European Union (EU) institutions expressed on Tuesday their support for Greece and determination for a common European response to the refugee, migrant challenge after a visit to the Greek-Turkish land border. European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President David Sassoli, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic attended the press conference held in the town of Kastanies in the Evros region with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after being briefed on the crisis unfolding on the Greek-Turkish land border since last Friday. Migrants and refugees are seen behind a wired fence at the borderline between Greece and Turkey near the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where thousands gathered near the Evros River in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the border, after Ankara said it could no longer prevent them from reaching Europe's borders. Greek police and armed forces have been strengthened on the border and until Monday evening they had prevented over 24,000 illegal crossings and detained 183 persons who crossed the border, according to Greek government sources. In the past few days, the Greek government has repeatedly stated that it faces a national security threat and therefore has stepped up patrols on land and sea borders and requested the immediate substantial aid from other EU member states. "The Greek borders are the European borders and what you are doing is important for Greece and crucial as well for the future of the EU. We are together, because we consider borders protection is essential," Charles Michel said on Tuesday. "We have come here today to send a very clear statement of European solidarity and support to Greece," von der Leyen stated. Greece will receive an additional 700 million euros (784 million U.S dollars) of financial aid for the management of the crisis, she announced, noting that European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is already getting ready to deploy a rapid border intervention unit to assist Greece in dealing with the situation. "It is the responsibility of Europe as a whole and we will manage it in an orderly way, with unity, solidarity and determination. Those who seek to test European unity will be disappointed," she added. Photo taken on March 2, 2020 shows a woman with a child just arriving at Skala Sikaminias, in the island of Lesvos, Greece.(Xinhua/Marios Lolos) "Turkey is not an enemy and people are not just means to reach a goal," she stressed, expressing her compassion for people who reached Europe's borders on false promises, as she noted. Sassoli, on his part, highlighted the need for a strong common European approach on the issue which is on the table for the past five years, since the first mass flows started to cross the Aegean Sea. Greek soldiers patrol near the fence at the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where refugees and migrants gathered on the borderline between Greece and Turkey from the Turkish side, near the Evros River, in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Over one million reached Greece since 2015, fleeing wars and extreme poverty and continued their journey to other European countries until the closure of borders along the Balkan route in the winter of 2016 and the signing of EU-Turkey agreement aimed to stem the influx. Under the deal, Turkey would be provided with financial assistance to accommodate the millions of refugees and migrants hosted in the country in return for increased efforts to deal with the human smuggling networks operating in the region. "We need -- we see it every day -- to strengthen our common policy framework to deal with migration on a European level. We are here today for one more reason, to tell Turkey that we do not want more talks, but that Turkey respects what has been agreed," Sassoli said on Tuesday. A boat with refugees and migrants arrives at Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Feb. 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) Stressing that nobody wishes to see a replay of the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, Plenkovic also voiced support for Greece, calling for determination to give a European response to the new challenge. "Greece is now the shield of the external borders of the EU... We will send a message to Turkey that good relations between Turkey and the EU depend on both of us. We will seek to find political and diplomatic solution to deescalate the situation we have today here," the Croatian prime minister told the press briefing. Migrants and refugees are seen behind a wired fence at the borderline between Greece and Turkey near the closed Kastanies border crossing in northeastern Greece, where thousands gathered near the Evros River in an attempt to cross into Greece, on March 2, 2020.(Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua) Greece has demonstrated solidarity to people in need for years and is currently hosting about 100,000 already, but cannot shoulder alone all the burden of safeguarding Europe's borders from more massive flows, said Greek prime minister. "Greece expects tangible solidarity from the EU and I can tell you that the presence of the entire leadership of the EU here at the outer border of Europe sends a clear signal to everyone. But let's be honest. Europe has not been up to the task of dealing with the migrant crisis. I hope this crisis will serve as a wakeup call for everyone to assume their responsibilities," Mitsotakis stated. "We stand ready to support Turkey in dealing with its refugee problem and find a solution to the Syria conundrum, but not under these circumstances... Migrants and refugees cannot be used as instruments, as pawns in a geopolitical game," the Greek leader concluded. (1 euro= 1.12 U.S. dollars) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Berlin, Germany. Wed, March 4, 2020 22:26 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206854518 2 World #Germany,#coronavirus,Global,pandemic Free The coronavirus outbreak has turned into "a global pandemic", German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday, warning that worse was to come. The situation in Germany and across Europe had changed drastically in recent days, he said, with Germany reporting a sharp uptick to 240 cases. "The coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic," Spahn told German lawmakers. "The situation is changing very quickly," he said. "What's clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak." The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far stopped short of declaring a pandemic -- defined as an epidemic that spreads throughout the world through local transmission. But it has urged countries to prepare for a potential pandemic. The number of novel coronavirus cases in the world has now risen to more than 93,000, including 3,201 deaths across 81 countries and territories. In Germany, Spahn said efforts remained focussed on containing the disease and slowing its spread, including through quarantining people ill with COVID-19 and cancelling large gatherings such as trade fairs. "When in doubt, the safety of the public comes first, including before economic interests," Spahn said. He added that the government was also updating its medical guidelines to make sure that overstretched health workers concentrate their efforts "on the most acute" cases if the outbreak worsens. That could also mean that non-urgent surgeries might be postponed, he said, stressing however that "we aren't there yet". Earlier on Wednesday, the German interior ministry announced a ban on exports of medical protective gear to avoid a shortage of masks, gloves and other supplies for medical workers. "The next days and weeks will be challenging. There will be restrictions on everyday life in affected areas and that can cause some stress," Spahn said. But he said the government was working closely with regional states and European partners to respond to the virus "in a cool-headed way" and take "appropriate measures". Man accused of threats against Moscow judge pleads not guilty in court RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov 15:05 04/03/2020 MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) A resident of town of Voronezh Mikhail Kvasov, who stands charged with murder threats to Moscow judge Stanislav Minin, confirmed his denial of guilt in the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on Wednesday, RAPSI reports from the courtroom. According to investigators, Kvasov has threatened to murder the judge of Moscows Tverskoy District Court Stanislav Minin. During the pre-trial investigation, the defendant also did not admit guilt saying he had published the incriminating statement in support of rallies and did not imply to threaten the judge. F rench "Spiderman" Alain Robert has scaled a 144-metre tall skyscraper in Barcelona in a reported coronavirus protest. On Wednesday, March 4 the urban climber reached the top of Agbar Tower in the Catalonian city. The climb was reportedly made to call for governments and individuals to be more responsible when it comes to the coronavirus outbreak. Photos from the scene show Mr Robert being lead away by police after returning to the ground. Mr Robert in Hong Kong / AP Last year Mr Robert climbed a 68-storey tower in Hong Kong in a stunt designed to call for peace in the region. Mr Robert has climbed other buildings in the UK, like Heron Tower / AFP/Getty Images He has also climbed the Heron Tower in the City of London using just his bare hands. Alain Robert has scaled the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (Marwan Naamani/AFP via Getty Images) / Marwan NaamaniAFP via Getty Images A 20-year-old mother shot in the head over the weekend on the South Side remained on life support Tuesday, her family fearing the worst as they gathered at her bedside. '"My baby's fighting for her life,'' Michelle Pearson's mother Rochetta Tyler said through tears this afternoon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where her daughter was in the intensive care unit. "They say she's not going to get any better,'' said her mother. "The doctors told me that she's a fighter. . .that she's really fighting.'' Pearson, the mother of a 4-year-old son, had been on her way home early Saturday when she saw two young men she knew from grade school, her family said. They flagged her down and asked her for a lift to their apartment. As they approached the 4600 block of South Ellis Avenue, they drove around looking for a parking spot, according to the family. After parking, Pearson got out of the car with her friends and began heading to a home when there was gunfire. "The boys hopped out of a car and started shooting,'' said Pearson's grandmother, Carol Tyler. Pearson's mother said she wasn't sure if the attackers drove up to them or if they were already there. "They just got to shooting and my baby got shot in the head,'' said Rochetta Tyler. Pearson was shot in the face, and a 21-year-old man with her was wounded in the chest and left leg. Pearson was taken in critical condition to Northwestern, while the man was listed in good condition there. Every morning since the shooting, her son has woken up in the morning asking for his mother. "He cries every day for his momma," Rochetta Tyler said. "He asks for her. He wakes up in the morning and asks, 'Where's momma?' Is she in the room?' " Pearson works at a White Castle restaurant. Her relatives describe her as a kind and trustworthy young woman who received high marks at Chicago Vocational High School, where she graduated in 2012. "She does everything she's supposed to,'' said her mother. "Whenever someone asks her to do something, she just does it.'' Rochetta Tyler said police told her no arrests have been made and Pearson was not the target. "But I already knew that,'' her mother said. "They're her friends, so she's not thinking that someone's going to kill her,'' said her mother, who said she remained strict with her daughter and only allowed her out at certain times. "She was an innocent. . .She probably didn't know what was going on," her grandmother added. Rochetta Tyler pleaded for her daughter's assailants, or anyone who knows anything about the attack, to come forward. "It'll be a miracle and a blessing if they turned themselves in,'' said Tyler. "If the streets don't turn them in, then they're just as guilty as them.'' Sujata Anandan By Days before last years elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Sharad Pawars NCP seemed to be on its last legs, as practically every stalwart or leader of consequence had been poached by the BJP. The Congress was only slightly better off with some committed leaders still hanging on to the sinking ship with their fingernails. In the division of the 288 seats between the two allies, Pawar demanded 125 and Sonia Gandhi handed him those seats without demur. A senior Congress leader protested at that complete lack of a fightback from the party. The interim Congress president then told him, Tell me, do we have anybody of the stature of Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra who will deliver to us a respectable number of seats? Find me someone like him. Until then he is our partys only hope in that state.Under the circumstances, Pawar delivered to Sonia Gandhi not only double the seats44the Congress had hoped to win (which was also two more than the 42 it had won in 2014 with an incumbent chief minister in office), but also, miraculously, a government in the state. But the episode only goes to prove that there is a recognition, at least within the top Congress leadership, of the dismal state of affairs within the party and the need for a strong regional leadership to overcome their problems. Pawar, after all, was driven out of the Congress not once but twice as his strong leadership was unacceptable to the powers that be. And, yet, the qualities that drove him out of the Congress were the very ones sought after by the party leadership in its frantic bid to rescue the party from complete ignominy during the elections.The Nehru-Gandhis are often accused of holding the party to ransom but the above anecdote proves that while they have the capacity to recognise the partys shortcomings, it is often the second-rung leadershiplike the one that had objected to the NCP president being given due importancewho are shackling the party and preventing it from getting up on its feet. Sandeep Dixit, the partys former MP, recently raised the issue of a comatose party incapable of finding a leader in the wake of Rahul Gandhis resignation as party president 10 months ago (does it or should it really take that long?) However, it is people like Dixit and some other prominent dynasts, who have recently been in Twitter spats with each other, who are as much part of the problem as the ancient leadership of the party that the Congress inherited from Sanjay Gandhi in the post-Emergency era. Their tug of war with each other at all levels is destroying the party.When Indira Gandhi first took over party and government, the old guard in the Congress had believed she would be a goongi gudiya (dumb doll) they could manipulate to their own ends. While she soon disabused them of that idea, the Sanjay Gandhi loyalists around Sonia had better luck. Sonia, handicapped by her origins, was sensitive to Indian sentiments and this new syndicate has more often than not got away by blackmailing her into doing things their way, because, seemingly, they understood the Indian way better than her. Rahuls handicap with these leaders was that they would overturn his decisions by appealing to Sonia on precisely these grounds, with the additional handle of the ruling party propaganda against her son of being immature and clueless. As one senior Congress leader told me, It is not Narendra Modi or the BJP that are responsible for the destruction of our party. It is we ourselves who have brought it to this sorry statethe entitled dynasts who disappear every five years after losing elections and yet expect the people to vote for them and the senior leadership who should have been long retired, but continue to cling to positions of power in party or government and perpetrate their own dynasties.In between these two extremes, this leader says, there is a whole army of committed party workers who, despite the partys dismal state of affairs, have not been swayed from their ideology or tempted to join those in power. The Congress ideology still thrives on the ground but the Congress party does not, he says in despair. So what must the Congress do for revival? In the first place, merit rather than any prior claims to privilege, whether by the younger dynasts or old guard, should be the sole ground on which a party leadership should be created. Secondly, the central leadership has to have the courage to allow a strong leadership to grow in every state and tackle it accordingly. The fear of a challenge from these regional satraps is what has destroyed the Congress centrally, but it stands to reason that strong regional leaders with high stakes in their own states will ensure that the sum of their parts help the party become a whole new body again that could mount a suitable challenge to whoever they wishand these include regional parties in various states with ideologies similar to that of the Congress, which have grown essentially because the grand old party failed to meet the aspirations of the local people. As Pawar once told me, The problem with the Congress is that they do not know how to reach out to the people. That is why they are so dependent on the Gandhis. Well, this time it was the Gandhis who outsourced their outreach to Pawar. This says quite a lot about the state of their party. Sujata Anandan Senior journalist and political commentator Email: sujata.anandan@gmail.com Electric citycar Microlino 2.0 and an electric tricycle named Microletta debuted in a virtual presentation on Wednesday Micro presents the second generation of the Microlino via live-stream to its more than 100,000 Social Media fans In addition to a new design selected by the more than 17,000 pre-orderers, the technical aspects of the Microlino have also been completely revised New synchronous motor with higher efficiency and performance, NMC battery pack and chassis out of pressed steel parts Micro also showed the three-wheeled motorcycle named Microletta, for which it has received more than 500 reservations within four days The latest generation of e-scooters has also been presented ZURICH, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Microlino 2.0 Starting with the new generation of the Microlino, Micro is showing how the company envisages efficient and weatherproof mobility with its largest micro mobility product. For the first time, the new design, which was selected together with over 17,000 reservation holders via an online survey, has been demonstrated live to the public. "It has always been important for us to be able to integrate the Microlino community as much as possible into the development process. With the Microlino 2.0, we want to do this much more consistently than ever before," says Oliver Ouboter, COO and Co-Founder. Reservation holders will continue to have a say in the future -- for example, when choosing wheel rims and seat covers. In January 2020, Micro decided to completely revise the Microlino's vehicle structure in order to meet its requirements in terms of quality, safety and handling. This will be done through a variety of technical changes: firstly, the chassis will be changed from a tubular structure to pressed steel and aluminum parts. The rear axle will be widened by 50%, in order to have independent suspension systems both in the front and in the rear. The asynchronous motor of the previous generation was exchanged with a synchronous, permanent-magnet motor that provides about 15% more efficiency and significantly more power. The batteries will be changed from LiFePO4-chemistry to the industry standard of NMC, which has a higher energy density. This way, the passenger compartment becomes more spacious. In addition, the narrower A-pillar improves all-round visibility compared to the current version. The interior has been completely redesigned and has more space now. This was achieved through the new battery pack, as well as an increase of the height of the vehicle. The steering column is now fixed and not connected to the door anymore, which decreases steering forces. The seat has been completely redesigned to be more comfortable and ergonomic. The new dashboard has a digital display in front of the driver that shows all relevant information. The aluminum bar is a homage to Micro's own roots - the kickscooter. It has the additional benefit of being customizable very easily, by clicking in a smartphone, portable Bluetooth speakers or other accessories. The basic technical data, such as the range of up to 200km and the price of 12,000 Euros, will not change. Production of the Microlino is scheduled to start in 2021, in collaboration with the Italian company CECOMP. Microletta Micro's second innovation concerns a new field for the company. With the Microletta, the concept of a three-wheeled electric motorcycle is presented, based on the design language of the Microlino, which combines modernity with retro charm. The two front wheels provide better grip when cornering and have an increased braking effect that offers more safety than two-wheeled motorcycles and mopeds. When stopping at traffic lights, the steering mechanism can be locked so that the scooter stands on its own and the feet do not need to be put on the ground for balance. The removable battery, with a range of over 100km, is easy to recharge at home in the living room. Since the vehicle is classified as a tricycle in Europe, it does not require a motorcycle driving license, despite the maximum speed of 80km/h; a car driving license is sufficient. For electric two-wheeled motorcycles with a speed of more than 45km/h, a driver's license is required, unlike for gasoline-powered ones that can go faster, which is why electric motorcycles have not yet caught on in Europe. "The Microletta is the little sister of the Microlino and is intended to close the gap in our range between the e-scooter and the Microlino. The three wheels make the vehicle easy and safe to drive, even for the inexperienced, and should encourage people to switch to electric and light vehicles," says Merlin Ouboter, CMO and Co-Founder. A non-binding reservation can be made on the company's website, and the price will be approximately 4,900 Euros. After showing the first renderings last week, more than 500 people have already made a reservation. At the moment, there are no details of a planned production start, as the company wants to concentrate on the production start of the Microlino first. "We are completely overwhelmed by the interest in the first few days and are definitely thinking about a realistic timeline for the production start," says Oliver Ouboter. E-Scooter Also, Micro presented the sixth generation of its e-scooters, starting with the Micro Commuter, currently the lightest and most compact e-scooter, which scores with a replaceable battery that can also be used as a power bank to charge a smartphone. The e-scooter can travel 10km per battery charge, but since the battery packs are only the size of a power bank, several can be carried comfortably, and the range can be multiplied. More powerful and more comfortable is the Micro Explorer, which will be launched in May 2020. The e-scooter scores with a very good climbing ability, even on gradients of over 15% and a range of up to 30km. The front and rear suspensions are ideal for absorbing shocks. The Micro Explorer will also come out in a special Mercedes version to complement their range of electric vehicles. It will cost around 1,000 Euros. All e-scooters are compatible with the Micro App, with which you can lock your e-scooter, navigate to your destination, select driving modes and display data on CO2 savings. Oliver Ouboter oliver.ouboter@micro.ms +41449131843 Related Images microlino-2-0-and-microletta.jpg Microlino 2.0 and Microletta Related Links All pictures This is an opinion column. You heard a lot in the last few weeks about all the things that must be destroying us. The swarms of illegal aliens, the opiate-addled masses, the gay guys who might want a cake and the many other reasons Alabamians should be deathly afraid of just about everything. Hell. We should just let immigrants listen to an afternoons worth of campaign ads by Alabamas GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate. Then nobody would want to come, and we wouldnt even need that wall. America. So much ranting and raving and fearmongering. Nothing to help Alabama, really. Just rhetoric that keeps us angry, all the time. Just words that keep Alabama from helping itself, that keep us from helping each other. That keep us, more to the point, perhaps, from wanting to help each other. Its just politics though, right? Mmm hmm. Pickens County in West Alabama is still reeling from news that its hospital -- Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton will close by the end of the week. The closure will devastate that community, eliminating 200 jobs in a county that only has 2,600. Sick people will stay home and get sicker, or drive to places like Columbus, Miss., or Tuscaloosa, where emergency room lines will grow longer and hospital administrators will fret that more patients will be unable to pay bills, making their hospital less healthy than it was before. So the epidemic will continue. Across Alabama, 13 hospitals seven of them in rural areas -- have shut their doors in the last eight years. Rural hospitals in Alabama and across the South particularly in states that embrace the politics of anger are closing so fast it is hard to keep up. Southern states, including Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, have seen the most closings of rural hospitals in the last decade, according to the Chartis Center for Rural Health, which studies such things. At least a dozen other rural hospitals in Alabama are considered most vulnerable by the group. While Alabama politicians push bill after bill to enflame the culture wars. While Senate candidates boast of who loves the president the most instead of talking of things that ought to matter to real peoples lives. Like closing hospitals. Because a big part of hospital vulnerability comes from existing in a state that has refused to expand Medicaid. Because failure to expand Medicaid doesnt just make life harder for poor people, it puts financial pressure on the hospitals. Our analysis shows that hospitals located in states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion have lower median operating margin and have a higher percentage of rural hospitals operating with a negative operating margin, a Chartis hospital vulnerability report says. Of the eight states with the highest levels of closures since 2010, none are Medicaid expansion states. It's pretty simple by now. We have seen it over and over again, the chagrin and the decimation of communities all over this region. So yesterday people across Alabama went to the polls to vote for candidates who have used the whole notion of Medicaid expansion as one of their cultural whipping boys. No doubt Republicans in Pickens county did the same. Perhaps today they will complain about losing their jobs, or their doctor, or their way of life. And they will be angry. With Obama, maybe. Or with immigrants. Or with me, or even the people who run their hospital. They wont blame those who could have done something about it. They could find them in the mirror. John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register, Birmingham Magazine and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com. The father and sister of condemned Alabama inmate Nathaniel Woods came to the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon to proclaim Woods innocent on the day before his scheduled execution. Pamela Woods spoke outside the Capitol with Nathaniel Woods Sr., alongside. Earlier this afternoon, Molly Cole, an advocate for Woods, delivered letters to Gov. Kay Iveys office asking the governor to halt his execution. In 2005, a Jefferson County jury convicted Woods of capital murder in the deaths of Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisholm III, and Charles R. Bennett and of attempted murder in the shooting of officer Michael Collins. Kerry Spencer was also convicted in the case and is on death row. Prosecutors said during the trial that Woods drew the officers into an ambush at an apartment in Ensley where they said Woods and Spencer sold crack cocaine. The prosecutors admitted that Spencer - not Woods - was the one who shot the officers. We really just want people to see that he really is innocent, that he didnt have anything to do with the murders of those officers, Pamela Woods said. We do feel really bad for what happened that day. We dont wish that on anyone, for their family to have to deal with that. It was very unfortunate that the shooter did what he did. But the main point is is that Nathaniel had no parts in those actions of another man, Kerry Spencer. Iveys office did not issue a response today to the request to halt the execution. Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement denouncing the effort to stop the execution. There is a last-minute movement afoot to save cop-killer Nathaniel Woods from his just punishment, Marshall said. The message of that movement is encapsulated by the headline of a press release sent out today, which declared: Surrendered and Innocent Man Set to Die. That headline contains two falsehoods and one truth. The falsehoods are the descriptors surrendered and innocent: neither apply whatsoever to Nathaniel Woods, whose actions directly caused the deaths of three policemen and injury to another. The truth is set to die: Nathaniel Woods was correctly found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers, and that sentence is set to be carried out tomorrow; that is, justice is set to be carried out tomorrow. The only injustice in the case of Nathaniel Woods is that which was inflicted on those four policemen that terrible day in 2004. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks denied Woods request for a stay of execution. Woods, 44, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility at 6 p.m. on Thursday. In a press release issued today, advocates for Woods said there was no evidence of a plan to lure the officers into a trap and that Spencer acted alone. They said Woods had incompetent legal representation during the trial. They said Woods turned down the prosecutors offer of a plea deal that would have resulted in a sentence of 20 to 25 years because he was not made aware that he could be sentenced to death even though he did not fire the shots. Pamela Woods repeated some of those points during her remarks at the Capitol. I stand here speaking on his behalf to say that what happened to those officers is not his fault, she said. "And thats not something hed wish on them. Its not something he planned. Its not something he schemed. He didnt lure anybody. Two of the eight men who have had convictions overturned after serving time on Alabamas death row also came to the Capitol today to urge the governor to halt the execution. Garry Drinkard and Randal Padgett said they did not know Woods but had read about his case. Im not here so much to get into Mr. Woods case, but Im here to protest the state-sanctioned killing of human life, Padgett said. "And I would like to quote Gov. Iveys own words back when she signed the abortion ban last year the human life protection act. As she was signing it, she said Alabamians have a deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God. Well, Im here to say that Mr. Woods life is precious. And I want her to stand up to her words and protect that life. With the trial messed up the way it was, with the ineffective assistance of counsel, he should get some type of hearing, he should get a commutation at the least, in my opinion, Drinkard said. The letter delivered to the governors office today says the deaths of the officers was an unimaginable, senseless tragedy. But Nathaniel did not do it. There are so many flaws and questions with his trial that we cannot move forward with executing him. Advertisement Coronavirus will kill more Britons and as the deadly infection spreads with increasing speed an epidemic on UK soil is now 'highly likely', England's Chief Medical Officer warned today. Professor Chris Whitty's chilling message for Britain's 66million residents came as the total number of UK cases rose to 53 today after two patients in Scotland one in Ayrshire and one in Grampian tested positive. Boris Johnson admitted yesterday people's lives may have to be put on hold for up to three months to fight the deadly virus and his 'battle plan' warned most households are likely to be affected by efforts to stop an epidemic. In the worst case scenario, schools could be shut, millions could be forced to work from home and people could be asked to stop eating out, going to the pub or shopping in a bid to keep them away from others. Official disaster projections suggest as many as half a million people could die if the disease isn't controlled, but evidence from China where fewer than 3,000 have died and the outbreak is now slowing down suggests the real figure would be only a fraction of this. Professor Whitty told Sky News this morning: 'I think it is... almost certain there will be more cases in the UK, probably a lot more cases as the Prime Minister laid out, and we would expect some deaths, yes.' The Prime Minister today announced statutory sick pay will be available to workers staying at home with possible coronavirus infections from the first day of illness instead of the fourth, amid fears employees may not get paid if they take time off. A lone commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge in the capital this morning The government's battle plan has been divided into four stages 'Contain', 'delay', 'research' and 'mitigate' In other developments today to the UK's escalating coronavirus crisis: Prince William made an off-colour joke about him and the Duchess of Cambridge 'spreading' coronavirus on their tour of Ireland this week; MailOnline readers shared their pictures of empty shelves across the country as shoppers continued to ignore Government advice not to panic buy; Potential coronavirus patients tested at drive-thru centres in London as part of a city-wide bid to stop the infection from spreading at hospitals; The Bank of England faced pressure to follow US central bank and slash interest rates as the FTSE 100 rose 1.4 per cent after it lost 251billion last week; Wizz Air unveiled plans to slash routes, cut costs and freeze recruitment as it became the latest airline to see bookings plunge amid coronavirus fears; Commuters resorted to wearing storage boxes, plastic bags and even babies' nappies over their heads to avoid contracting the deadly coronavirus; A child from the Wirral received 'horrendous abuse' at his school after it was closed when one of his relatives tested positive for coronavirus; Ministers launched an advertising blitz to urge the public to wash their hands whenever they arrive somewhere amid frantic efforts to halt the rise of coronavirus; The World Health Organization urged people not to talk about transmitting the coronavirus as it 'assigns blame' to those who may be carrying it; Chinese scientists said two strains of the coronavirus are spreading around the world and 70 per cent of patients have caught the more aggressive and contagious type; Facebook revealed more measures to help its users quickly access accurate information regarding the coronavirus outbreak and will provide the WHO with 'as many free ads as it needs'; Venice left deserted by the coronavirus outbreak with tourists abandoning the usually overcrowded streets and plazas over health fears'; Germany's health minister warned the outbreak has turned into a global pandemic after it recorded a 22 per cent spike in cases overnight; Spain confirmed its first death and Poland became the latest country to report a case of the virus, with almost 90 countries around the world having been struck down; A commuter wears a face mask as he crosses London Bridge in the capital this morning Photos taken today show brave nurses donning face masks and protective glasses while swabbing patients in their nose and mouth through an open car window in London A similar scheme will soon be rolled out in Northern Ireland, where nurses were seen practicing the procedure at Antrim Area Hospital in Co Antrim this morning PANIC BUY BRITAIN: CORONAVIRUS FEARS SPARK SHOPPING FRENZY LEAVING EMPTY SHELVES ACROSS UK Harrogate, North Yorkshire: This is the empty handsoap section in the historic town's Morrisons MailOnline readers have been sharing their pictures of empty shelves across the country as shoppers continued to ignore Government advice not to panic buy. Stockpiling of household goods means that many aisles in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda, Lidl and Aldi up and down the UK are looking increasingly desolate. Sections for hand soap and disinfectant, nappies and baby wipes as well as dried goods such as pasta and rice appear to be the most decimated. Britain's supermarkets have also been accused of setting up 'doomsday' displays in stores and online aimed at worried stockpiling 'survivalist' shoppers. All the best selling suggested items on Amazon's Fresh website in grocery and beauty all appear to similar items being bought in bulk across the UK. And one customer at the Sainsbury's store in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, photographed the display close to the checkout - containing toilet rolls, crisps, bottled water, and pasta as well as 'mega packs' of detergents, dishwasher tablets and disinfectant. James Woolnough told MailOnline: 'I've been watching the show Doomsday Preppers on Netflix and these are some of the essential items survivalists recommend'. Advertisement Professor Whitty told ITV's Good Morning Britain that people wearing masks in public including on the London Underground will have little effect on whether or not they catch coronavirus. The individual viruses which cause the disease are so small that they pass through many masks and people may be more likely to get it by touching a contaminated surface and then their face. And he told presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: 'It's much more likely than not that we're going to deal with a significant epidemic. 'If people have got an infection and are being moved around a hospital then wearing masks is a good thing to do but for people just walking the streets it's not going to have a significant effect.' Piers Morgan pointed out that those who are wearing the ineffective items might also leave fewer masks available for the NHS. It comes after it was revealed today that a hospital worker in Cumbria is one of two people in the county to have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The woman, who is in her thirties, is understood to have worked at Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary. The trust said she self-isolated immediately after returning home from a trip to Italy with flu-like symptoms. Colin Cox, director of public health at Cumbria County Council, said another Carlisle resident had also caught the virus. The News & Star newspaper says this is her partner. Mr Cox said the council was working with Public Health England (PHE) to get in touch with anyone who had been in contact with the two people affected. Neither have been named. Fears were today raised that two primary school pupils at a primary school in Winchester, Hampshire, may have caught the coronavirus while in a taxi. Both students have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days because they travelled in a car that an infected patient had been in. Health officials say their risk is 'very low'. Elsewhere, a primary school in South Ockendon, Essex has closed for a deep clean after a family of a pupil travelled to one of the quarantined areas of Italy. Last night it was revealed the family at the heart of the UK's outbreak are a husband and wife whose son attends a 5,000-a-term school in Surrey. The couple were confirmed as having the infection. Other parents who came into contact with the pair have been placed in self isolation. Potential coronavirus patients are tested at a drive-thru centre in London today as part of a city-wide bid to stop the infection from spreading at hospitals A test centre has opened at Parsons Green, west London, where people who believe they have contracted Covid-19 can be checked while still sat in their own cars It comes after a woman who works at Carlisles Cumberland Infirmary (pictured) tested positive for the coronavirus. The woman, thought to be in her 30s and live in Carlisle, caught the virus on holiday in Germany THREE QUARTERS OF BRITS WOULD SUPPORT QUARANTINING ENTIRE UK CITIES TO COMBAT THE SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS Britons overwhelmingly support quarantining entire cities if it would halt the spread of coronavirus, a new poll reveals today. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of people thought that shutting off hundreds of thousands of people in the way that Wuhan has been isolated in China, would be a 'correct' move by the Government. Only 26 per cent thought that the step would be an 'over-reaction' according to a new poll by IpsosMori today. The findings are in line with other nations including the United States, Russia, Australia and Canada. However Italy, which has seen multiple deaths from the outbreak, saw the lowest support for quarantining. It is looking less and less likely that the UK will replicate the isolation that has been seen in Wuhan. Because the disease is already in the country and would be hard to contain in one place at this stage, medics believe that the social and economic cost of quarantining thousands of people would far outstrip any benefit. Anna Quigley, research director at Ipsos Mori, said: 'These results clearly show that the UK public recognise the potential impact of the virus on the country, and support strong measures to deal with it. 'Perceptions of the governments response have worsened over the past two weeks and it will be interesting to see whether this shifts following the release of the Governments action plan. 'It is, however, encouraging that the public still believe health services are doing a good job.' Advertisement Their son, who attends St Edmund's in Hindhead, Surrey, has also been placed in self isolation but has not yet tested positive for the fast spreading virus. Elsewhere in the UK, potential coronavirus patients are being tested at drive-thru centres in London as part of a city-wide bid to stop the infection from spreading at hospitals. A test centre has opened at Parsons Green, west London, where people who believe they have contracted COVID-19 can be checked while still sat in their own cars. Photos taken today show brave nurses donning face masks and protective glasses while swabbing patients in their nose and mouth through an open car window. The Central London Community Healthcare NHS trust launched the scheme this week. If successful, it will be rolled out more widely across England. A similar scheme will soon be rolled out in Northern Ireland, where nurses were seen practicing the procedure at Antrim Area Hospital in Co Antrim this morning. Only patients referred by NHS 111 are currently being sent to the drive thru service, with potential patients thought to be seriously ill excluded. It comes as stock markets in Europe opened tentatively at the start of trading today as investors continued to consider the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of major blue-chip companies rose 94 points or 1.4 per cent this morning to 6,813 points compared with the close yesterday. It was the third straight day of rises for the index, after coronavirus panic wiped more than 251billion off the value of Britain's biggest companies last week. In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index retreated 0.2 per cent to 11,963 points, while the Paris CAC 40 also lost 0.2 per cent to 5,381. Interest rates in Britain could be cut in response to the coronavirus outbreak, with Bank of England governor Mark Carney indicating it might be on the cards. MailOnline readers have shared their pictures of empty shelves across the country as shoppers continued to ignore Government advice not to panic buy. Stockpiling of household goods means that many aisles in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda, Lidl and Aldi up and down the UK are looking increasingly desolate. Sections for hand soap and disinfectant, nappies and baby wipes as well as dried goods such as pasta and rice appear to be the most decimated. Britain's supermarkets have also been accused of setting up 'doomsday' displays in stores and online aimed at worried stockpiling 'survivalist' shoppers. All the best selling suggested items on Amazon's Fresh website in grocery and beauty all appear to similar items being bought in bulk across the UK. It comes as ministers launched a public information campaign urging the public to wash their hands whenever they arrive somewhere amid frantic efforts to halt the rise of coronavirus in the UK. The drive is designed to change people's attitude to hygiene, amid fears coronavirus could become a seasonal problem. Yesterday Boris Johnson unveiled the government's 'battle plan' for dealing with a major outbreak in this country, which experts believe is increasingly likely. Under the plans, troops could be deployed on the streets, infected patients not suffering from complications may be sent home from hospital, and non-urgent NHS operations could be cancelled to free up space in hospitals. The PM also revealed schools could be shut and children allowed to do coursework and sit exams from their home to stop the spread. But he maintained that this would only be worst-case scenario and said schools should not close unless instructed to by Public Health England. It comes after the news that a breath test that instantly spots patients with coronavirus has been developed by British scientists. They say the technology could be used to rapidly screen people in airports. And it could also be used in GP surgeries, pharmacies or ambulances, giving an instant result. The technology, developed by a team at Northumbria University in Newcastle, needs further testing but experts believe it could be quickly change the way the virus is spotted around the world. The Government is launching a renewed public information campaign urging people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Adverts will seek to drive home the message that regular hand-washing is the single most important action individuals can take in the fight against Covid-19. Govan, Glasgow: The fruit and veg section and the bakery section of this Scottish Asda store was bare last night Left, Osterley, west London: There is barely a bottle of handsoap in this branch of Tesco. Right, Pimlico, London: There was not a single bag of pasta available in this Sainsbury's store last night TODAY: The FTSE 100 index rose 94 points or 1.4 per cent this morning to 6,813 points THIS WEEK: The FTSE 100 has been rising this week - and is up today for the third day in a row A huge public information campaign is urging the public to wash their hands whenever they arrive somewhere REVEALED: THE TRUTH ABOUT FACE MASKS Although people have been pictured wearing them all over the world since the outbreak began, scientists say surgical face masks are not very good at protecting people from catching coronavirus. The masks are considered effective for healthcare workers treating virus patients worn along with protective gloves, goggles and gowns. But for the average person not wearing the full hazmat suits, the surgical masks will only slightly lower the chance of catching the illness. This is because the individual viruses are so small they can pass through the filters of the mask, which also do not fully seal off the nose and mouth. Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, said: Surgical masks also leave the wearers eyes exposed and theres a chance the virus can infect that way. 'They might help, but its not clear they give you total protection. Some wearers also report touching their face more frequently when wearing a mask, often to readjust it or pull it down when eating. This is a problem because the viruses survive on surfaces and are picked up by the next person who touches it, who then touches their face and transfers the virus into their mouth, nose or eyes. Current advice from Public Health England is to wear a mask at home if you are caring for a sick person and if you get sick, to stop you infecting others. The NHS may give you some if they tell you to self-quarantine. But dont buy large quantities of masks. There is a global shortage and the close-fitting respirator style ones, like N95 or FP2, which are similar to those worn by builders to protect them from toxic fumes, should be saved for the healthcare workers who will really need them. But they may reduce the risk of an infected person passing it on... Scientists do also say anyone who is already infected could reduce their risk of passing the virus on by wearing a mask. They may be able to block droplets carrying the virus from being coughed out into the air around them. The virus infects someone by taking hold in flesh inside their airways and lungs after it is breathed in. Because of this, mucous and saliva contain the viruses and are infectious. Advertisement Professor Whitty's comments come after the NHS yesterday announced it had hiked its threat level to the highest possible 'national incident' after 12 more British patients tested positive for the infection. Health chiefs have declared the epidemic a 'level four incident', which grants them emergency powers to take control of local hospitals. Coronavirus was ratcheted up to level four status in January, but the move was only confirmed yesterday as the government tried to calm public concern by unveiling a four-pronged strategy to tackle the growing crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a press conference yesterday with Professor Whitty and the government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, to launch the official action plan. Troops could be deployed on the streets, infected patients who are not suffering from complications could be sent home from hospital, and non-urgent NHS operations could be cancelled to free up space in overwhelmed hospitals. The PM also revealed schools could be shut and children allowed to do coursework and sit exams from their home to stop the spread. But he maintained that this would only be worst-case scenario and said schools should not close unless instructed to by Public Health England. Mr Johnson said the government would take all 'necessary and reasonable steps' to contain the coronavirus, but appealed for the public to keep 'going about our business as usual'. He said: 'I do think that this is a national challenge. The potential is there for this to be something that our country has to get through. 'But I have absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have the health service to get through it.' The 28-page 'action plan' was agreed at the first emergency Cobra meeting to be chaired by the PM on Monday. The report stresses the response is still in the 'containment' phase, and explained there are four stages contain, delay, research and mitigate. But experts fear they will have to shift to 'delay' tactics effectively damage limitation within days or weeks amid growing outbreaks across Europe. More than 2,500 people have now been diagnosed in Italy, which is in the grip of the second worst outbreak outside of China, and hundreds of patients have been discovered in Germany and France. Poland today declared its first case of the coronavirus, following Ukraine yesterday. The only European countries without infections are now Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Modlova, Turkey and Cyprus. A drive-through coronavirus testing facility has been set up in Parsons Green, west London, where people can go for a swab test after being referred by NHS 111 Dr Joanne Medhurst, an NHS medical director said: 'Weve set up the "drive through" service to make sure people in our community can get safe, convenient and quick checks for coronavirus, as part of NHS efforts to keep everyone safe' NHS sites across the UK are on high alert for the spread of coronavirus as the outbreak escalates. Pictured: Isolation pods at the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands One woman wore a plastic storage container over her head as she rode a bus, believed to be in London (left). Somewhere else in the UK a man tried to cover his head with a Tesco bag (right) Cleaners in protective suits were seen disinfecting an Apple Store in Belfast in an apparent 'deep clean'. There has been one case of coronavirus diagnosed in Belfast, in a woman who caught it in Italy SICK PAY TO BE GIVEN TO WORKERS STAYING AT HOME BECAUSE OF CORONAVIRUS FEARS FROM THE FIRST DAY Statutory sick pay will be available to workers staying at home with possible coronavirus infections from the first day of illness, Boris Johnson has announced. Under emergency legislation to halt the spread of COVID-19, the Prime Minister said payments will be moved forward from the fourth day of sickness under current rules. The Government had been under pressure to introduce measures to compensate employees who are following health advice in not turning up for work. Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said individuals who self-isolate are 'helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus'. 'If they stay at home and if we ask people to self isolate they may lose out financially,' he told the Commons. 'So I can today announce that the Health Secretary will bring forward, as part of our emergency coronavirus legislation, measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the very first day you are sick instead of four days under the current rules and I think that's the right way forward. 'Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing.' Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed the announcement but pressed the Prime Minister on whether it would apply to workers not entitled to statutory sick pay so they would not have to make the 'terrible choice between health and hardship'. Mr Johnson said he was "very much aware" of issues faced by the self-employed and those on zero-hours contracts, adding that 'some of them will be entitled to statutory sick pay, a great many'. Advertisement The Government's action plan states that the 'vast majority' of cases will have only mild-to-moderate effects on individuals, but points out that the virus is highly infectious. 'As it is a new virus, the lack of immunity in the population (and the absence as yet of an effective vaccine) means that Covid 19 has the potential to spread extensively,' the document says. 'The current data seems to show that we are all susceptible to catching this disease, and thus it seems more likely than not that the UK will be significantly affected.' 'The potential is there for this to be something that our country has to get through. But I have absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have the health service to get through it.' The plan said that in the event of mass infections the Government 'will aim to minimise the social and economic impact, subject to keeping people safe'. There would be 'population distancing strategies' such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, and reducing the number of large scale gatherings to slow the spread of the disease. Pensioners would be advised to stay away from events such as VE Day commemorations to avoid putting themselves at risk. However, experts say that an infected person is as likely to pass on the virus to 12 people in a pub as in a 70,000 seater stadium. Police 'would concentrate on responding to serious crimes and maintaining public order' if forces suffer 'a significant loss of officers and staff.' Meanwhile, the armed forces could be called upon to 'backfill' gaps in emergency services and provide other assistance if required. 'The Ministry of Defence has put in place plans to ensure the delivery of its operations in the UK and overseas. There are also well-practiced arrangements for Defence to support to civil authorities if requested,' the document says. The police could be asked to enforce road and building closures, and the Army could be drafted in to enforce lockdowns where necessary. An empty passageway in Venice which would often be heaving with tourist, but is now deserted because of the virus outbreak Some gondoliers who usually face high demand from the visitors' 30million annual visitors have been left with little to do A handful of tourists walk in St Mark's Square in Venice last week, some of them wearing face masks, with the historic city largely deserted because of the coronavirus outbreak The report also highlighted the threat to the NHS, which could come under extreme pressure from a wave of a cases. Under mitigation plans, non-coronavirus patients could be discharged early from hospital to recuperate at home, and routine operations postponed. Recently retired doctors, nurses and other staff could be brought back to help increase capacity. THE QUEEN, 93, DONS GLOVES AT AN INVESTITURE FOR FIRST TIME AMID VIRUS CRISIS The Queen appears to have worn gloves for the first time at a Buckingham Palace investiture since she started doing them in 1952 amid warnings about the spread of coronavirus and the deadly danger it poses to the over-80s. The 93-year-old's decision to cover her hands came as the Government warned the death rate for people infected is 'significantly ramped up' among the elderly. The Queen, who has carried out investitures since 1952, has worn gloves for the first time as she handed an MBE to D-Day veteran Harry Billinge yesterday Her Majesty is known for wearing gloves when she meets members of the public at public events or garden parties - but not at investitures where she hands out gongs and knighthoods to her subjects. It appeared that yesterday she wore them for the first time in her reign as around a mile away in Downing Street Boris Johnson unveiled the Government's 'battle plan' to tackle a major outbreak of the killer infection on British soil. However, Prince William and Kate didn't wear gloves as they started their three-day trio to Ireland and Prince Charles was also gloveless at a Royal College of Music event Advertisement A 'worst case scenario' would see 80 per cent of the UK population contract the virus, with up to a fifth of employees unable to work in 'peak weeks' predicted to be in three months' time. Scientists are still hoping that, if rapid spread can be staved off until the summer, warmer weather will help, but are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of avoiding a major outbreak in the UK. It comes as online travel agent Travel Republic today closed its office in London after one of its employees tested positive for coronavirus. The company said its premises on London Road in Norbiton, south London, would be shut to staff while they undergo a deep clean. It added that the patient was receiving medical attention and all staff have been told to ring NHS 111 if they are concerned or feel unwell. A spokeswoman for the company said: 'We can confirm that a member of staff based at our London Road offices in Norbiton received a positive test for the Covid-19 virus yesterday. 'They are now receiving medical attention. As a precaution, we have closed our offices today while a deep clean is undertaken and we receive further advice from the relevant authorities. 'All staff have been notified and encouraged to contact the NHS 111 if they are concerned or feel unwell. 'Our primary concern at this time is the health of our staff, and we're working with the authorities to ensure best practice guidelines are being followed.' Meanwhile, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama cancelled all of its scheduled events until 11 March due to a teacher having the virus. The unidentified man had come into contact with a 'limited number' of students last week, the school admitted in an email to staff and students. Guildhall School of Music and Drama didn't release any more information about the male teacher but he is thought to teach music. He was whisked off for treatment at London's Royal Free Hospital, a specialist NHS centre for infectious diseases. In an email sent to staff and students, the school ranked as one of the world's best performing arts institutes said he is 'recovering well'. According to The Guardian, the note added: 'He was present and teaching in one of the ancillary school buildings on one day last week. 'He came into contact with a limited number of students and we are working closely with those students to ensure that they receive urgent appropriate advice.' 'We're spreading coronavirus, sorry': Prince William jokes with Irish paramedics that he and Kate Middleton are unwittingly passing on virus and suggests some people are panicking about dying but have just got a cough Prince William has made an off-colour joke about him and Kate 'spreading' coronavirus on their tour of Ireland this week - and suggested that some people are panicking about 'dying' but have 'just got a cough'. The Duke of Cambridge made the comments to Irish emergency workers over a pint in Dublin last night during a reception laid on by Britain's ambassador to the country at the city's world famous Guinness factory. William had asked Joe Mooney, an advance paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, who he was coping with the crisis and asked: 'I bet everyone's like "I've got coronavirus, I'm dying", and you're like "no, you've just got a cough". 'Does it seem quite dramatic about coronavirus at the moment? Is it being a little bit hyped up do you think in the media?' Later he grimaced with mock horror as the royal joked: 'By the way, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spreading coronavirus, Sorry. We're keeping an eye on that, so do tell us if we need to stop.' Prince William joked with paramedic Joe Mooney that he and Kate might be spreading coronavirus The Duke asked Joe (wearing a white shirt with his back to camera): 'I bet everyone's like "I've got coronavirus, I'm dying", and you're like "no, you've just got a cough".' William and Kate both enjoyed a pint of the 'Black Stuff' with Ireland's politicians, emergency workers and some of its stars and the Duke made the coronavirus comments to paramedic Joe Mooney (right last night) The duke's comments came as it emerged the royal and his wife, who are on a three-day visit to Ireland, are taking advice on the coronavirus threat, but will continue meeting people as usual. Earlier yesterday, the Queen wore gloves to present honours during an investiture ceremony - the first time since she started doing them in William talked about the infection as he chatted to emergency workers at a reception hosted by Britain's Ambassador to Ireland Robin Barnett in the Gravity Bar at Dublin's Guinness Storehouse. William and Kate couple shook hands with dozens of people on the first day of their tour and are expected to continue to do so, based on advice they are being given. A royal source said last night the couple were following guidance from Public Health England and the Department of Health and that meant 'business as usual' for now. 'This is a discussion we have been having and everything we are doing should continue as usual,' said the source. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have arrived at the Guinness Storehouse for an evening reception. It is the royal couple's final engagement on their first day visiting Ireland William and Kate were in the world famous Guinness Storehouse in Dublin when they were handed a pint each. William appeared to sip his a little more enthusiastically than his wife, but Kate was still game enough to have a taste The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend a reception at the Guinness Storehouse's Gravity Bar, hosted by the British Ambassador to Ireland William and Kate enjoyed a pint of Guinness at the historic Dublin brewery of the Irish Stout, with the Duke toasting his hosts in Gaelic, raising his pint and saying 'Slainte' William and Kate enjoyed a pint of Guinness at the Storehouse a major visitor attraction which tells the story of the famous drink with the duke toasting his hosts in Gaelic, raising his pint and saying 'Slainte'. He also addressed the guests from the worlds of sport, film, television and the armed forces in Irish, calling them 'dhaoine uaisle' 'Ladies and Gentlemen'. 'Catherine and I are delighted to be here tonight and are both very grateful to Robin for his generous words,' said the duke. 'Ireland is a country that we have both heard so much about, so we are really excited to be here with you to see it first-hand for ourselves. 'In coming to the Guinness Storehouse, we are retracing the footsteps of my grandmother, who was shown how to pour the perfect pint here in 2011. 'Ladies and Gentlemen let me tell you it is not often that I find myself following the Queen to a pub. But I am looking forward to testing for myself the theory that Guinness tastes even better in Ireland than overseas.' During the reception William and Kate, in a dazzling emerald green dress by The Vampire's Wife, were introduced to groups of guests, from film and TV, sports, sustainability and environment, creative and cultural Ireland, education and research, the charity sector and uniformed services. They included Game Of Thrones star Liam Cunningham, who played Davos Seaworth in the HBO series and Misfits actor Robert Sheehan, comedian Deirdre O'Kane and actors Sarah Bolger and Orla Brady. Speaking afterwards, Cunningham said he had met the duke before at an after-party for the Warhorse premiere at Buckingham Palace. 'They are total sweethearts,' he said of the couple. 'They are gorgeous, they are beautiful people. They are incredibly charming. 'They are much too classy to say whether they watched Game of Thrones, but he came over and said, 'Liam, you need no introduction'. They are fantastic ambassadors for the UK.' Kate joined arms with Sabina Higgins during the walk around the grounds, showing the warmth between the respective couples Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina accompanied Kate and Will to the Peace Bell. The president explained to the couple that the bell was unveiled in 2008 by then president Mary McAleese to mark the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend a commemorative wreath laying ceremony in the Garden of Remembrance at Aras an Uachtarain on day one of their visit to Ireland The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet with Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach of Ireland, and his partner Matt Barrett at the Government Buildings, Dublin, during their three day visit to the Republic of Ireland In brilliant winter sunshine they walked down the aircraft's steps and were greeted by a small group of dignitaries led by Britain's Ambassador to Ireland Robin Barnett They royal couple also met inclusivity campaigner Sinead Burke, who was one of the Forces for Change chosen to appear on the cover of the September issue of Vogue by their sister-in-law the Duchess of Sussex. The duke and duchess's outing came after a day of formal engagements to launch their first official visit to Ireland, nine years after the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the country since its independence. After arriving at Dublin airport, they met Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina plus their dog Brod at the statesman's official residence Aras an Uachtarain. The Cambridges discussed the implications of Brexit with Ireland's president and about building on the foundations of the Good Friday Agreement which ushered in peace in Northern Ireland. In Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, the royals also honoured the memory of those who gave their lives for Irish Independence from Britain, echoing the Queen's symbolic visit there in 2011 when she bowed her head in tribute to the fallen. The couple then met the outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Ireland's Government Buildings. Their three-day tour will focus on the themes of reconciliation, youth, culture, sustainability and the environment, and will see the couple visit the counties of Meath, Kildare and Galway. She welcomed her first child 18 months ago with husband Spencer Matthews. And Vogue Williams admitted that she sometimes struggles with motherhood in refreshingly candid post on Monday. Taking to Instagram, the 34-year-old Irish beauty confessed that Theodore has been ill over the past week and she is feeling 'exhausted'. Honest: Vogue Williams, 34, admitted 'Parenting is such HARD work!' in a refreshingly candid Instagram post about raising her 17-month-old son on Monday Vogue, who shares Theodore with Made in Chelsea star Spencer, 31, admitted that she 'forgets what it feels like not to be tired', confessing: 'Parenting is such HARD work!' The TV presenter posted an adorable picture of her son who was born on 5 September, 2018 with the caption 'The sweetest smile in the world!' Loving mother Vogue went on to write about the pressures parents place on themselves to be perfect. She wrote: 'I have to say weve had a tough week or so with this puppy. A week where I think parenting is such HARD work!' Gorgeous: The TV presenter posted an adorable picture of her son who was born on 5 September, 2018 with the caption 'The sweetest smile in the world!' Upfront: Loving mother Vogue went on to write about the pressures parents place on themselves to be perfect Vogue continued: 'I absolutely love being a mom but T hasnt been sleeping the best, hasnt been feeling the best and is a lot whingier than usual resulting in us being exhausted. 'I think I forget what it feels like not to be tired. I always get asked how I do it all because it must seem that way on insta but honestly some weeks are like this. 'I dont think any of us ever do it all perfectly and thats fine too... roll on 7pm so I can go to bed'. Small screen: Spencer, 31, and his wife Vogue Williams, 34, star in their E4 reality series which has so far documented their wedding and their early days of becoming parents Vogue's post was welcomed by many of her 723,000 followers, receiving 21, 5000 likes in two days and many fellow parents echoing her admission of being exhausted. A number of followers thanked Vogue for being so open about the trials of balancing child rearing with work and other relationships. Vogue's husband Spencer Matthews has also spoken about the challenges of parenting, most recently when discussing the upcoming birth of Millie Mackintosh and Hugo Taylor's first baby. Spencer told MailOnline he knows the pair will be fantastic parents and doesn't think he's in a position to give them advice as he is 'no guru on parenting'. The Woodlands-based attorney Eric Yollick and former Montgomery County prosecutor Vince Santini are headed to the May 26 runoff for the Republican party bid in their race to fill the bench of the new 457th state District Court. With all precincts reporting, Yollick was out front with 21,662 (37.53 percent) votes over Vince Santini with 14,468 (25.07 percent). Close behind were Robert Kasprzak with 8,358 (14.48 percent) and Bruce Tough with 8,115 (14.06 percent) with Chris Buck 5,109 (8.85 percent). Candidate face runoffs when no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote. The field of five candidates brought a wide range of experience and qualifications to the race for the court that will focus solely on civil cases. Introduced in February by state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, Toth said he requested the new judicial district at the behest of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court and county judges in light of a caseload growth. Yollick, who brings 31 years of experience to the race, said he is focused on the Republican platform. I dont care about what you say about me personally, he said in a previous Courier article. As far as the Republican party principals, Ill argue with you. Thats the test. You need to judge me by judicial temperament. An experienced attorney, he said, is what is needed for the bench. For Santini, serving the public is what a judge does. Experience, he noted, is important for the position, pointing out he has managed court dockets for both the 435th and 359th state district courts. The 457th court, he noted, was created for docket management to help reduce caseloads. I have a plan to move this court effectively, he said. Santini began his career as a criminal prosecutor but moved to civil law in July 2018. The winner of the runoff will face Democrat Marc Meyer in November. Meyer currently serves of the Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman. Other county races Precinct 2 Constable Gene Deforest and Daniel Pena are also headed to a runoff. DeForest edged Pena with 2,845 (39.58 percent) votes to 1,808 (25.15 percent) votes. Challengers Clyde Vogel earned 1,782 (24.79 percent) votes, David Eason with 753 (10.48 percent). Robert Walker topped Billy Graff for the Republican nod for Precinct 1 county commissioner with 9,659 (58.49 percent) votes to Graffs 6,855 (41.51 percent) votes following early voting results. The winner of the GOP primary will face Mike Midler, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, in the November general election. Precinct 4 Constable Rowdy Hayden secured an easy outright win earning 6,424 (78.62) votes over challengers Bryan Skero with 1,329 (16.26 percent) votes and King Merritt with 418 (5.12 percent). In the Precinct 5 Constable race, Chris Jones topped Brian Clack with 8,194 (74.80 percent) votes over Clacks 2,761 (25.20 percent) to secure his first four-year term after being appointed to fill the unexpired term of former Constable David Hill in December 2017. In the race for Republican Party chairman to take over for longtime leader Dr. Wally Wilkerson, Bryan Christ secured the win 28,387 (52.87 percent) votes over Jon Bouche with 25,310 (47.13 percent) votes. In the only contested race on the Democratic ballot, Amy Hamrick secured her spot as party chair earning 10,735 (56.81 percent) votes over Chris Powell with 4,284 (22.67 percent) followed by Demetria Nelson-McNaulty with 3,876 (20.51 percent). cdominguez@hcnonline.com The Tihar Jail authorities will move Patiala House court for fixing fresh date of execution of the four Nirbhaya case convicts after rejection of mercy plea of Pawan Gupta by President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday, officials said. The president had already rejected the mercy petitions of the other three convicts in the case. A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya -- the fearless -- was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It seems that there will be no respite for Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel on the AGR (adjusted gross revenues) issue. On Wednesday, the junior telecom minister Sanjay Dhotre, in a reply to Lok Sabha, has made it clear that the telecom ministry intends to receive the entire Rs 1.46 lakh crore dues from the telecom firms. The telecom minister's reply has come as a rude shock for telecom companies who have assessed their liabilities much lower. Airtel, for instance, has paid Rs 18,004 crore in two tranches to DoT (department of telecom) last month. Airtel has said that its actual dues are just Rs 13,004 crore, and the telco is depositing additional Rs 5,000 crore to cover the difference in case there's discrepancy in its own assessment vis-a-vis DoT's calculations. "We wish to submit that the company has carried out self-assessment from FY2006-07 onwards up to December 31, 2019, and interest thereon up to February 29, 2020 in line with the AGR Judgment...accordingly, the company has paid an additional amount of Rs 3,004 crore towards the full and final amounts due over and above the ad-hoc amount of Rs 10,000 crore paid on February 17, 2020," Airtel said in a statement to stock exchanges on February 29. Airtel's payments pertain to dues on Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom and Telenor India. Now as per the data provided by the telecom minister, Airtel and Telenor India (which was acquired by Airtel) together owe Rs 37,740.36 crore, and the government expects Airtel to pay the remainder of the amount. Similarly, Vodafone Idea, which has reportedly self-assessed its AGR dues at Rs 23,000 crore, the telecom ministry's calculations show that it owes Rs 53,038.6 crore. Vodafone Idea has thus far paid Rs 3,500 crore to the DoT in two tranches of Rs 2,500 crore on February 17, and Rs 1,000 crore on February 20. The telecom ministry's data shows that Vodafone Idea owes Rs 49,538.6 crore after its recent payments. ALSO READ:Airtel does its own math on AGR, finds total dues to be much less Though the minister's reply says that the due amounts may be revised once AGR figures are finalised, assessments are done accordingly, and audits by CAG; it's believed that the final amount would not be much different (or substantially lower) from these numbers. "I don't think the government has sufficient room to reduce the due amounts. It will worry that doing so would set a precedent for the other sectors to seek relief," says Mahesh Uppal, director at consultancy firm ComFirst. Some reports suggest that DoT has asked telcos to submit their calculations along with the due amounts. These calculations would then be ratified by the telecom department in case they match with its own assessment. But with the wide difference between the assessed amounts of DoT and telcos, there is likely to be a tussle between both sides. ALSO READ:Spectrum dues: Vodafone Idea pays Rs 3,042 crore; Airtel gives Rs 1,950 crore to DoT Till last week, the sector was abuzz with reports of DoT considering relief for the sector in terms of giving soft loans, and easier payment terms. There were also reports of government mulling over bringing an ordinance to change the controversial definition of AGR in order to provide relief to the distressed sector. The AGR estimates submitted by the minister seem to indicate otherwise. Before DoT, the telcos were hoping for some relief from the Supreme Court but the apex court has been fairly strict with them. The next hearing on the modification pleas submitted by telcos is on March 17, which is also the deadline for telcos to submit their due amounts. In the last hearing, the court had sternly asked the telcos to deposit their entire dues or justify why the contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them. ALSO READ:AGR crisis: Vodafone Idea wants call rates, internet data prices hiked up to 8 times The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge Visit Ireland - Day Two Kate Middleton is taking sustainable style to the next level! The 38-year-old Duchess of Cambridge stepped out on Wednesday for the second day of her three-day trip in Ireland with her husband, Prince William. The couple first paid a visit to the charity Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, in the city of Dublin, where Kate wore a light-colored peacoat that longtime royal fans might recognise. Kate recycles coat in Ireland 13 years later9 Kate last publicly wore the Reiss coat in 2008 when she was still just dating the Duke of Cambridge. At the time, she sported the sleek look while supporting William at his RAF graduation. One of the first times she was spotted in the style was in 2007 when she and William attended the birthday party of a friend. Under her timeless coat on Wednesday, Kate sported a black-and-white polka dot blouse and matching slacks. As for William, he wore a casual green sweater, dark trousers and brown shoes. After stopping off at Jigsaw, Kate and William paid a visit to the Savannah House, a residential facility run by the social justice charity Extern. The establishment provides a safe space to support vulnerable young people and families going through tough times. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have one more day in Ireland before returning to London, where they are set to reunite with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Monday, March 9, for the Commonwealth Day service held at Westminster Abbey. - This article first appeared on ET Online University students life-changing European education experience set to be published This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Mar 4th, 2020 A life-changing experience meeting teachers from all over Europe inspired a University of Chester Primary Education student to share her story with others. Lily Smith, 20, from Wrexham, will see her experiences turned into print in a leading professional journal for education professionals, Primary Geographer. Lily, who is in the second year of a BA in Primary Education with QTS (Qualified Teacher Status), was accepted onto an Erasmus+ scholarship last year which saw her complete an intensive course in Budapest with 30 teachers and teachers in training from 10 different countries in Europe. Primary Geographer is the Geographical Associations journal for all Early Years and Primary teachers and is published three times a year. Lily said: My tutor, Arthur Kelly, thought it would be a great idea for me to write up my experience and get it published for other students to read. During the trip I took part in a series of thought provoking lectures, workshops and school visits which left me with an awakening of democratic practice and its relationship to education. We had to make a reflective sketchbook and write down notes and thoughts during the 10-day course; we could be as creative as we liked and were provided with resources to facilitate our creativity. The sketchbook was really helpful when it came to writing the article, and as it was with me for the majority of my trip, I was able to truly capture a lot of the memories and events that I had experienced. Its really exciting to know that the article is being published. Being able to connect with others and share a passion for the future of teaching was inspiring so I am very eager to share my amazing experience and for other students to see the incredible opportunities that the University and Erasmus+ provide. I think the fact that I went to Budapest with the University in my first year and Im off to Sweden in May in my second year just shows how the University creates amazing opportunities for its students. After I finish my degree, Im hoping to complete my NQT year, possibly in another country. Following this, I am eager to visit other countries to work with children and see the contrasting learning environments compared to our country. Arthur Kelly, who is Lilys Personal Academic Tutor and the PGCE CaBan Primary PGCE Programme Leader, said: Im so pleased that Lily has been able to share her positive experiences of studying abroad with other students and teachers. Its exciting to see how her visits overseas are inspiring her desire to learn about teaching environments HOLYOKE Super Tuesday voters went big for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary, giving him 39% of the vote in the city where, in 2018, rival U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced her possible run to thunderous applause. Former Vice President Joseph Biden took second in the Paper City, with 27% of the citys Democratic primary vote. Warren was a distant third, winning 18%. Former Holyoke City Councilor Jossie Valentin helmed Warrens Massachusetts campaign operations. And at a September 2018 town hall event at Holyoke City Hall, Warren offered one of her earliest public hints that she would run for president. It is time for women to go to Washington and fix our broken government and that includes a woman at the top, she told an audience of several hundred. After November 6th, I will take a hard look at running for President." Warrens third-place finish in Holyoke mirrored her statewide showing. Biden scored a decisive Super Tuesday victory in Massachusetts, taking 34% of the vote. Sanders earned second place with 27%, and Warren had 21% of the vote. Securing a home-state win is critical for any presidential candidate a nod to voters nationally on electability and The New York Times described Warrens Super Tuesday Performance as a worst case scenario. In Holyoke 15 Democratic candidates appeared on presidential primary ballot, many of them having already dropped out of the race. The most recent departures included South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Both threw their support to Biden, who took eight other Super Tuesday states in addition to Massachusetts. Associated Press results showed that nearly 6,100 city residents voted in the Democratic presidential primary. Another 700-plus voted in the Republican presidential primary, with over 80% casting ballots for President Donald J. Trump. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld took 11% of the Republican primary vote. According to data from the Massachusetts Secretary of State Elections Division, there are nearly 11,000 registered Democrats in Holyoke, and about 2,000 registered Republicans. Another 13,670 residents just over half the citys voters are unenrolled, and had the option of voting in any partys primary. Holyoke City Clerk Brenna McGee said 495 of Holyokes 26,000 registered voters cast early ballots last week. A March 11 registration deadline, meanwhile, looms for the March 31 special state election. In that contest, State Rep. John Velis, a Westfield Democrat, and Southwick Republican John Cain are running for the state Senates 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District seat. The seat went up for grabs when Donald F. Humason resigned from the Senate, having won election as mayor in Westfield. Velis and Caine both ran unopposed in the special state primary held on Super Tuesday. Velis drew 4,917 votes in Holyokes Democratic state primary. Caine won 613 votes in the citys Republican state primary. In a statement, Velis said, For the final weeks of this campaign, my team and I plan on doing exactly what we have done for the last several months, knock on thousands of doors and reach out and listen to thousands of people. Velis described himself as a bipartisan lawmaker who does what is right for his constituents and regardless of political party. Caine, who owns a heavy equipment and construction company, said he was delighted in securing the Republican nomination and looked forward to campaign events with Gov. Charlie Baker and elected officials in the remaining weeks of the race. My team and I have been working hard to get my message out, and as we go forward, my goal will be to highlight the differences between my opponent and me, said Caine, who added that it will become clear that I am the only Conservative voice in this election. The district has leaned Republican since 1994 with the election of Michael R. Knapik, who easily won his reelection fights. Humason, a Republican, defeated Holyoke City Councilor David K. Bartley to win the seat in 2013, and won reelection in 2014 against Holyoke police officer Patrick Leahy, who ran as a Democrat. In addition to Holyoke, the district includes Westfield, parts of Chicopee, Agawam, Southwick, Easthampton, Southampton, Granville, Montgomery, Russell and Tolland. District-wide results from the special state primary were not immediately available Wednesday. Another meeting of Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak with the G7 Ambassadors and the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine took place as part of a regular dialogue on March 3, the presidents press service has reported. Yermak informed the diplomats of the latest steps to achieve peace in Donbas. He thanked the heads of diplomatic missions of the G7 and EU countries for their strong support and practical assistance to Ukraine, in particular in the issues of further transformation of the country. In addition, the interlocutors discussed the possibilities of enhancing such support, first of all in the context of further implementation of structural reforms and strengthening of the institutional capacity of the government. They also paid attention to the cooperation of Ukraine with the International Monetary Fund. ish A day after the arrest of father-daughter duo, allegedly involved on February 14, 2019 Lethpora suicide attack, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested father-son duo during fresh raids in south Kashmirs Pulwama district. The NIA sleuths accompanied by local police and paramilitary CRPF raided Kasabayar village in Pulwama, 30 kms from here, and arrested Abdul Gani Bhat and his son Muntazir Bhat, sources told DH. The central probe agency sleuths also seized three mobile phones and some documents. The father-son duo is accused of being involved in February 14 Lethpora attack and terror funding cases, they revealed. The fresh raids were carried out a day after the NIA arrested Tariq Ahmad Shah and his daughter Insha Jan for their alleged involvement in Lethpora attack. 40 CRPF personnel, travelling in a convoy were killed on 14 February 2019 when Adil Ahmad Dar rammed a car loaded with explosives into the paramilitary bus at around 3.15 pm at Lethpora in Pulwama. The central probe agency said that Shah, a tipper driver and his daughter Insha, a college pass out hailing from Hakripora village of Pulwama provided shelter to the militants involved in planning and executing the deadly attack. A special court in Jammu had granted 10-days police remand of the duo to the NIA. During the initial interrogation, accused Shah has disclosed that his house was used by Adil Dar, the suicide bomber who blew himself up by ramming his explosive-laden car in the CRPF convoy, NIA spokesman said. The house was also used by Muhammad Umar Farooq, a slain Pakistani militant known for making IEDs, Kamran another slain Pakistani militant, Sameer Ahmed Dar, a JeM militant from Pulwama, and Muhammad Ismail, a Pakistani militant, he said and revealed that Shahs house was also used by these militants for recording the video of Adil Dar, released by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit soon after the attack. The NIA has accused Insha of facilitating the militants at their home and providing food and other logistics during their stay on more than 15 occasions for two to four days each time, in their house during 2018, 2019. Sources said the arrest of father-daughter and father-son-duo was made on the revelations made by 22-year-old Shakir Bashir Magrey, who was held by the anti-terror probe agency on February 28. Magrey, a resident of Hajibal, Kakapora in Pulwama, is an overground worker (OGW) of the JeM. The new domestic abuse bill, which was postponed at the end of 2019 when Boris Johnson prorogued parliament, will now include provisions against the "rough sex" defence. On Monday 6 July MPs voted in favour of the bill in the Commons - the bill now rules out "consent for sexual gratification" as a defence for causing serious harm to a person. This was the final stage of the bill, which covers England and Wales, but it now needs to be debated in the House of Lords, where it is widely expected to pass. But what is the rough sex defence, how is it used and what would a change in the law mean for perpetrators, victims and legislators? What is the rough sex defence? The so-called rough sex defence (otherwise known as the 50 shades of grey defence) was increasingly used in UK courts in cases of sexual violence that either end in murder or serious harm to explain why the violence occurred. It was highlighted in the high profile trial of the killer of British backpacker Grace Millane in New Zealand when his defence argued that Millane had died accidentally in a sex game gone wrong after she had pursued BDSM-style sex. Recommended Women fleeing domestic abuse to be offered free train travel Her killer was eventually sentenced to life in prison but Louise Perry, who co-runs We Cant Consent To This, a group that raises awareness of the rough sex defence, with founder Fiona McKenzie, says often it results in reduced sentencing. Perry tells The Independent that the rough sex defence is similar to the nagging and shagging defence when juries are persuaded that male perpetrators were justified in their violence because of their female partners behaviour, such as decreased frequency of sex or nagging. This is not officially a defence in law, but juries are sympathetic towards it, they can relate. It creates a sense of diminished responsibility, she explains. When people hear rough sex they think of BDSM: maybe some Ann Summers fluffy handcuffs and they feel they can relate, but this is not that at all. Were seeing examples of horrific internal injuries in these cases. But it helps the perpetrators to frame it like this. Another example of this type of defence is the big penis defence, which was successfully used by a Florida man in 2017 to get off a second-degree murder charge after his girlfriend died during oral sex. Is this a new problem? The earliest UK example of rough sex being used as a defence in a murder trial was in the 1972 trial of Carole Califanos killer. Califano had been trying to leave her abusive partner. Using the defence meant his sentence was downgraded from murder to manslaughter at trial. So although this isnt a new problem, Perry and McKenzie say usage is on the rise. McKenzie established We Cant Consent To This in 2018 after becoming increasingly distressed at its increased use, particularly in the Natalie Connolly case in December 2018. Connolly was killed by her partner at their home in Worcestershire in 2016. She died of vaginal arterial bleeding and suffered 40 separate injuries including serious internal trauma, a fractured eye socket, and facial wounds. Her partner claimed it was a result of sex games gone wrong, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. Killers are becoming increasingly aware of this defence lawyers arent meant to propose it but people are aware of it, and its potential success McKenzie was so angered by the verdict that she started keeping a catalogue of all the examples she could find where the rough sex defence was used. Today the list numbers over 60 women from the UK whose killers have made this defence. The vast majority have been killed in the UK, though a few (such as Grace Millane) died overseas. The total number worldwide is much larger, says Perry, and they are in the process of working with other women outside the UK to collect this data. In the last five years, 18 women and girls have been killed in claimed consensual violent sexual activity. The most recent being Anna Florence Reed in April 2019. Killers are becoming increasingly aware of this [defence] lawyers arent meant to propose it but people are aware of it, and its potential success, says Perry. Men have always murdered women, this is just a new way of getting rid of them. Why is this increasing now? Perry says there is no definitive reason behind the rise but that more liberal attitudes towards violence in the bedroom have to be taken into account. Women's March 2020: in photos Show all 19 1 /19 Women's March 2020: in photos Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos REUTERS Women's March 2020: in photos REUTERS Women's March 2020: in photos Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AP Women's March 2020: in photos Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos REUTERS Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos REUTERS Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos AFP via Getty Images Women's March 2020: in photos REUTERS Women's March 2020: in photos AP A BBC study in 2019 found more than a third of UK women under the age of 40 have experienced unwanted slapping, choking or gagging during consensual sex. Of the women who experienced these acts, 20 per cent said they had been left upset or frightened. We cant really ignore the porn factor, says Perry, Its there at a click of a button and can be accessed at such a young age. And the algorithms push you into a rabbit hole of more and more extreme stuff. She says its not just porn sites that are problematic either citing mainstream social media platforms where sexual images can be found. In four of the most recent killings recorded by We Cant Consent To This, the men viewed extreme porn featuring violence including strangulation and killing of women before or after the killing of the women. How will the government change the law? In theory, the rough sex defence shouldnt work for defendants in England and Wales; for almost 30 years case law since the 1993 R v. Brown test case, which dictated that you cannot consent in a meaningful sense to having serious violence or death inflicted upon you. Anything more than transient or trifling injuries were deemed not able to be consented to. This has been the case on paper for nearly 30 years, says Perry. But in practice giving a claim of sex games gone wrong gives too good a chance of lesser charge, a lighter sentence or death or assault not being investigated as a crime at all. The proposed changes will close the loophole that allows this defence to persist - mirroring suggestions made by MPs Harriet Harman and Mark Garnier. Both politicians proposed to move the case law of R v. Brown into statute and to introduce a Director of Public Prosecutions review when prosecutors are proposing to charge a lesser crime, like manslaughter, in a domestic homicide. There has also been a campaign to make "non-fatal strangulation" a punishable crime, as often it is only charged as common assault, despite being a known high-risk indicator in domestic abuse cases leading to homicide. These additions to the law will make it more likely that consent cases are successfully prosecuted in England and Wales. We Cant Consent To This also want strangulation to be recognised as a serious assault under the proposed changes. Five, a London, UK-based self-driving company, raised $41M in Series B equity funding round. Backers included new investors Trustbridge Partners, Direct Line Group and Sistema VC and existing investors Lakestar, Amadeus Capital Partners, Kindred Capital and Notion Capital. In conjunction with the funding, Gus Park, MD of Motor Insurance at Direct Line Group, joined Fives board. The company, which has raised $77M to date, intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and advance its development efforts. Five began developing its approach to self-driving technology in 2016, and a year later secured the lead role in StreetWise, a UK government-aided development program in which Direct Line Group also contributed. Over three years, the companys expert team developed a high functionality self-driving system for mixed-use urban public roads. In 2019, the technology was demonstrated over hundreds of rides driving autonomously over a 19km route in London. Fives work in building a self-driving system has led to understanding of how to develop and assure safety-critical software that encounters and interacts with complex and changing objects, behaviours and environments in the real world. In consequence, the team led by Stan Boland, CEO began building cloud-based platforms alongside its software to address the most complex challenges it encountered in the process of development and assurance. The capital will be used to productize offline cloud-based development platforms alongside high-value components of Fives online vehicle software. Together, these will provide global partners with the means to bring performance and engineering certainty to their self-driving programs and deliver the assurance evidence required for their safety cases, both of which will be essential for meaningful public road deployments and the widespread commercialisation of self-driving technology. Five currently has eight fully equipped self-driving vehicles, each provisioned with tens of sensors and processing power at supercomputer levels. Its largest facility is in Cambridge, UK. FinSMEs 04/03/2020 Michael Barrymore was slammed today as the father of pool death victim Stuart Lubbock accused him of 'playing the victim'. Terry Lubbock hit out after Mr Barrymore told Good Morning Britain that he'd endured '20 years of hell' and described the 'pain and agony' he'd suffered. But Stuart's dad Terry, 75, reacting to the interview said: 'He played the victim. He was nearly putting on crocodile tears. 'I couldn't believe it. I take my hat off to him for that performance. How can no one who was there know what happened to my son?' Mr Lubbock's body was found in the swimming pool at Mr Barrymore's then-home in Roydon, Essex, on March 31 2001. His grieving father's comments came after the Strike it Lucky star claimed Terry knows he is innocent and points the finger for publicity. He said nobody who was at his house on the night of Stuart Lubbock's death knows what happened and demanded another force take the case from Essex Police. It came after Mr Barrymore said he wants another investigation into the 31-year-old's death by a new police force. The 67-year-old told the show he is going through 'pain and agony' and called Channel 4's recent programme Barrymore: The Body In The Pool 'vile and vicious'. The entertainer said of the other people at his house on the night Mr Lubbock died: 'I've never seen them since that day ... I haven't got a number (for them), nothing. Stuart Lubbock, 31, (right) was found lifeless at Michael Barrymore's mansion (he is pictured outside court in May 2017) in Roydon, Essex, in 2001 Michael Barrymore (pictured) has insisted that another force take the case over from Essex Police 'I don't know any of them. The wall of silence is because they don't know (what happened). I do believe that.' Asked if he had anything fresh to offer the police, he said: 'I honestly wish I did', adding that he had been 'through 20 years of Hell'. I haven't got another another (story). I've only got the one story,' he said. Barrymore, who pulled out of Dancing On Ice after an injury, said: 'I've got nothing to hide. I've never had anything to hide. I've got every right to go out and be employed. Mr Barrymore (pictured with his solicitor on today's Good Morning Britain) says he hasn't seen any of the party guests since that fateful night 'I've got every right to go out and to be employed and work in the business I've worked in without ... being kicked in the teeth just because I'm back on the telly.' He said Mr Lubbock's father Terry's torment 'comes before me and everybody' but added: 'I can't live my life. I can't get on with my life.' Piers asked Barrymore whether he'd believe it was 'an accident or more to it' if he was Terry Lubbock. Barrymore replied: 'Based on what is there and the evidence I would have to go down the line of it's not what he thinks. 'Why don't we sit down together, instead of this constant "I know you have". Let's deal with it properly as grown ups. He knows I have nothing to do with it. He says, "How else will I get publicity?".' Susanna said Terry Lubbock was not there to defend himself, to which Barrymore said: 'If that's hearsay I take it back.' Barrymore said he has been a victim of 'innuendo' and added: 'Why would I hide or keep anything and put myself through this pain and agony every time that this comes up?' Breaking down, he said: 'The only reason I got through the last 19, 20 years is the massive support from fans and my close mates ... They know I'm not a wrong 'un.' He went on: 'How many times am I supposed to be kicked? How many times am I supposed to take it?' but added: 'I'm not looking for sympathy.' He accused Essex Police of being 'hell-bent on 'This is how it is...'' His solicitor told the show: 'Two years before the (Channel 4) documentary started, they approached Michael and said they want it to be 'a celebration of your life' and 'Can you come and meet us?'' and that he would receive a fee.' Barrymore said he did not want to be involved and then the documentary was made, the solicitor said. A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said: 'The documentary was balanced and explored Mr Barrymore and the Lubbock familys treatment by the press. In accordance with the Ofcom Broadcasting code, Mr Barrymore was given a fair opportunity to respond to significant allegations and his position was fairly reflected in the documentary. 'Channel 4 looked at an earlier proposal for a documentary with Mr Barrymores participation, however after further research the programme was not commissioned. In 2018, Channel 4 commissioned an independent documentary based on the Leveson court case and in conjunction with the Lubbock family to re-examine what happened the night of Stuarts death.' Two stunning entries from a Portlaoise school are through to the Junk Kouture 2020 grand final. The entries are from Scoil Chriost Ri girls school. Peace Unfolds is made from non-recyclable art folders, created by team Sarah Tuohy (model), Elise Finn and Grainne McCaul. Canine99 is by Abbie Cummins, Jade Laffan (model) and Alex Wright and highlights animal abuse, with the outfit partly made from real dog hair. Twelve entries from Laois schools made it to the regional final held on Tuesday night March 3 in The Helix in Dublin. See them all here. The final is in the 3Arena on Thursday April 30, with RTE now on board as Junk Kouture partner. RTE 2FMs podcast queens, Laura Fox and Emma Power, hosts of popular Unlocked with Laura and Emma, are presenting the Junk Kouture regional events and grand finale, while RTE 2FM DJ, Tara Stewart will provide the party atmosphere on the night, unleashing her musical prowess on the decks and on stage at 3Arena. The Portlaoise school has congratulated their students. Intelligence agencies and outside experts do so, and their reading of the report on Tuesday appeared clear: In the aftermath of Mr. Trumps withdrawal from the Obama-era agreement, Iran now has a pathway to a bomb, and it is slowly reconstituting its fuel inventory. Whether Iran decides to follow that path is unclear. Everything we are doing is reversible, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, said at the Munich Security Conference last month. We have always said we are not interested in building nuclear weapons. Some of the facilities the agency has demanded access to in Iran, mostly to conduct environmental tests that could reveal the presence of nuclear materials, came to the worlds attention in 2018 after Israeli agents stole a trove of historical materials about the Iranian nuclear program. Since then, Israel has doled out some of the findings to reporters, experts and the IAEA. David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation, said in an interview that if Iran did race for a bomb, it might need another three to four months to turn the newly revealed amount of uranium into the highly enriched material at the heart of a nuclear warhead. Its worrisome, he said. We didnt expect Iran to be at the 1,000-kilogram mark. I think people are a little surprised at the magnitude of the number. Im sure it sent a shiver through the international community. Both the Obama and Trump administrations saw the Iran deal as keeping Tehran a year or more away from getting enough highly enriched uranium to fashion a single warhead what international inspectors call a significant quantity. That amount is defined as 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, of uranium highly enriched in the elements rare 235 isotope the atoms of which can split apart in powerful bursts of nuclear energy. A sphere of 55 pounds is said to be about the size of a small melon. Two people have been arrested after gardai seized 47,500 of suspected drugs and 3,900 in cash in Bansha, Co. Tipperary. At around 10.30am yesterday, gardai executed a search warrant at a house in Basha. Donald Trump skewered his critics while toasting his own successes on Twitter as results rolled in from Super Tuesday ballots across the country. The President reserved most of his ire for 'Mini' Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, who both had poor showings in the polls. Hitting out at fellow New York billionaire Bloomberg, Trump branded him 'the biggest loser of the night, by far'. Donald Trump took aim at rivals Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg after poor showings on Super Tuesday, predicting that they will both soon be out of the race Bloomberg was said to be considering the future of his candidacy after dropping to fourth in the delegate stakes, while Warren failed to win her own home state of Massachusetts 'His political consultants took him for a ride,' Trump tweeted. '$700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike!' Trump also took aim at Warren after she failed to win her home state of Massachusetts, landing her a distant third in the delegate stakes. 'Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren, other than Mini Mike, was the loser of the night. She didnt even come close to winning her home state of Massachusetts,' he wrote. Trump tweeted late into the night Tuesday as results rolled in across the country Recalling a widely-mocked video she put out at the start of her campaign in which she drank a beer in her kitchen, Trump added: 'Now she can just sit back with her husband and have a nice cold beer!' Trump didn't directly address the night's biggest winners - Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders - but he did retweet a video in which Biden mistook his sister for his wife. The gaffe - one of a series of high-profile mix-ups on the campaign trail for Biden - saw the former Vice President grab his wife's hand and announce to the crowd in Los Angeles: 'By the way, this is my little sister, Valerie.' When he realized his mistake, Biden pointed to Valerie and said: 'Oh, no, this is her.' He then told the pair he thought they were on the other sides of him: 'You've switched on me.' Trump also retweeted a column by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano accusing high level Democrats of plotting to stop Bernie Sanders getting the nomination. While Trump made sure to put down his rivals, he donated most of his energy to cheering his own successes - albeit while facing token opposition. The President was also keen to tout his own successes, despite only running against token opposition and with one state cancelling its primary Trump, like most incumbent presidents, is expected to easily win his party's nomination for re-election The president had only token competition - former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld - in the Super Tuesday contests and one state, Virginia, canceled its GOP primary. 'THANK YOU MAINE! #KAG2020,' he tweeted, along with separate tweets thanking Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina and Vermont with the hash tag of his campaign theme: Keep America Great 2020. The tweets also had a photo of Trump giving the thumbs up sign. Trump, like most incumbent presidents, is expected to easily win his party's nomination for re-election. President Trump needs 1,276 delegates to be the nominee and is expected to have more than 800 by the time the night comes to a close. Weld only had one delegate going into Tuesdays contests. A fitness instructor allegedly brutally bashed a stranger who interrupted an alleyway hookup with his girlfriend. Harrison Hronopoulos is accused of a one-punch assault after an alleged incident in Sydney's CBD with his girlfriend Jade Conaty on January 25. The 20-year-old, from the Northern Beaches, was allegedly captured on CCTV footage 'getting intimate' in a pedestrian walkway near Town Hall Square with his partner when two men approached them. Police said the alleged victim, Jeyegganesh Eswaran, approached the couple because he was concerned for the woman's safety. Harrison Hronopoulos has been accused of a one-punch assault after an incident in Sydney on January 25 The couple had been refused entry into the Scary Canary nightclub as Ms Conaty was too drunk, police said. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Mr Hronopoulos told police he thought Mr Eswaran was trying to intimidate or make jokes about him and his partner before an alleged fight broke out. CCTV footage allegedly captured Ms Conaty pushing Mr Eswaran and his friend before Mr Hronopoulos allegedly slapped Mr Eswaran. Police allege Mr Esrawan then approached Mr Hronopoulos, who punched him in the jaw and knocked him out. The 22-year-old alleged victim suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. Mr Hronopoulos was charged with reckless grievous bodily harm. He was remanded in custody overnight before being granted bail the next day. Mr Hronopoulos was captured on CCTV footage 'getting intimate' in a pedestrian walkway near Town Hall Square with his partner before the alleged assault The alleged one-punch assault is the first since Sydney's controversial lock out laws were relaxed just eleven days earlier. Mr Hronopoulos claimed to have had four drinks before the alleged attack and will plead not guilty to his charge. 'Self-defence is the primary issue,' his solicitor Omar Juweinat said. Mr Eswaran was still in a 'serious but stable' condition in St Vincent's Hospital a month after the incident. A hearing date will be set when the matter returns to court on April 23. A positive case of H1N1 (swine flu) has been detected at the Bengaluru office of e-commerce giant Amazon. The employee did not show any signs of flu while at work and had stopped coming to office five days ago, said a source. As a precautionary measure, Amazon is sanitising the floor on which the employee worked. All the employees who came in contact with the patient prior to him going on leave have been informed, added the source. The company has advised these employees to work from home and take immediate medical help if they start showing any signs of flu. Amazon ... Former Vice President Joe Biden had a great night on Super Tuesday, but his security team evidently did not. When Biden took the stage in Los Angeles to address supporters following big wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Minnesota and leads in a number of other states, two protesters were somehow able to get onto the stage behind the former vice president and his wife Jill. There were 24 people killed early Tuesday as a tornado swept across Middle Tennessee, including touching down in East Nashville, where two died. They were identified as Michael Dolfini, 36, and his girlfriend, Albree Sexton, 33. They had just left Attaboy Lounge, where Mr. Dolfini worked, when they were struck by debris on McFerrin Avenue. There were 18 deaths and 75 injured in Putnam County east of Nashville. The tornado came through around 2 a.m. between Cookeville and Baxter. There were no injuries or significant damages at Tennessee Tech at Cookeville, but classes were called off Tuesday and Wednesday, when there will be a Day of Service. Three died in Wilson County and one in Benton County west of Nashville. There were numerous homes and buildings heavily damaged and many thousands without power. The Basement East nightclub in East Nashville was destroyed. Earlier, a benefit concert for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders had been held there. Nashville emergency responders initially said they were dealing with some 40 building collapses. Urban search teams were going through downed buildings looking for storm victims. Most of the heavy damage in Nashville was downtown and East Nashville and the Five Points neighborhood. Several schools in Davidson County and Wilson County had significant damage. Vanderbilt University reported that it suffered no damage. The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson, made it through the storm unscathed. It opened at noon. Nashville Mayor John Cooper said, "Nashville is hurting, and our community has been devastated. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones. Be sure to lend a helping hand to a neighbor in need, and let's come together as a community once more. Together, we will get through this and come out stronger." He said all non-essential city offices were closed for the day. State trial courts were also closed. Mayor Cooper urged residents to stay off the streets. The deadly storm came as Nashville residents were preparing to vote on Super Tuesday. One notice said the precinct at Hadley Park would be open for voting, but not as a storm shelter. However, a number of other precincts were affected. Nashville Police were also going into the impacted neighborhoods, including officers in cars, on bicycle and on foot. At daybreak, there were 47,800 Nashville customers without power. About half were in the Hermitage area. Sections of I-40 were closed initially, but later re-opened. Governor Bill Lee announced that only essential state personnel report to work for Tuesday, March 3rd. If able, employees should follow Alternative Workplace Solutions (AWS) procedures to assure the state continues to service its citizens. He said, "In the interest of safety we are asking all non-essential employees in the Nashville area to remain home today and use their best judgment. We have activated the State Emergency Operations Center and are engaged with emergency and local officials throughout the affected areas. Please join Maria and me in praying for the victims, their families, and all those tragically affected by this storm." Senator Lamar Alexander said, Our hearts go out to the Tennessee families who were hurt by the severe tornadoes last night in Middle Tennessee and Benton County. Senator Blackburn and I are going to do everything we can to work with Governor Lee, mayors and others to make sure that federal assistance is available. Senator Marsha Blackburn said, We've been in touch with mayors from Benton to Putnam County this morning. We are concerned about what is happening in those counties. We know the need for resources for cleanup are going to be paramount, and we really are prayerful for all of these families who have been so adversely impacted and for the loss of life. Just know that we're going to continue to be in touch with the congressional delegation, with the governor's office and with the leadership team there to be certain that needs are met. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Xinhua) Kathmandu, Nepal Wed, March 4, 2020 18:07 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068482cd 2 News Nepal,visa-on-arrival,travel,destination,COVID-19,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus Free The Nepali government has suspended the visa-on-arrival regime for nationals of five countries - China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran which were badly affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, a Nepali minister said. "A Cabinet meeting on Sunday decided to discontinue visa-on-arrival for nationals of these five countries to avoid the risk of the deadly diseases being spread in Nepal," Yogesh Bhattarai, minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation told, Xinhua on Monday. "The restriction will be applicable from next week." Ram Chandra Tiwari, information officer at Nepal's Department of Immigration, said on Monday that there has been discussion on whether to suspend the visas for the nationals of these countries for one month or until another notice is issued. Read also: Here's how to get a five-year Schengen visa "Nepali embassies abroad will decide whether to provide visas to the nationals of these countries after checking their health certificates," he said. Nepal has offered visa-on-arrival for tourists from all countries other than 12 countries and territories as well as refugees with travel documents. The nationals from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and the refugees with travel documents should currently acquire visa prior to their arrival to Nepal. Nepal received 169,543 Chinese mainland visitors in 2019 while the number of tourists from Japan stood at 30,534 and those from South Korea stood at 29,680, according to Nepal's Department of Immigration. Likewise, the Himalayan country received a total of 15,676 Italian tourists and 1,882 Iranian nationals last year, the department said. Meanwhile, a senior official of Nepal's Ministry of Health of Population said none of the Nepalis evacuated from China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, two weeks ago, have been infected with the virus. West Indies registered a 25-run victory in the first T20I against Sri Lanka here on Wednesday. With this victory, West Indies have taken a 1-0 lead in the two-match T20I series. Chasing a target of 197 runs, Sri Lanka did not witness a good start as Oshane Thomas took three wickets in the second over of the innings. Thomas did not allow Sri Lanka batsmen to settle down as he picked another two wickets to put the hosts under immense pressure. With Thomas clinching five wickets under six overs, Sri Lanka were reduced to 56/5. Wanindu Hasaranga and Kusal Perera then took the charge of the chase and provided their side with some momentum and the latter completed his half-century. Rovman Powell then broke the partnership as he got hold of Hasaranga (44) in the 16th over. In the next over, Andre Russell removed Perera (66). Sri Lanka kept losing their wickets and were all out on 171 runs. Earlier after opting to bat first, West Indies got off to a brilliant start as Brandon King and Lendl Simmons struck regular boundaries. Lakshan Sandakan handed Sri Lanka with their first breakthrough as he dismissed King (33). Nicholas Pooran then came out to bat but failed to leave a mark as he gave away his wicket after scoring 14 runs. Simmons, who completed his half-century, was then joined by Andre Russell on the field. The duo played a fast-paced innings and thrashed Sri Lanka bowlers. Russell played a knock of 35 runs off just 14 balls before Lasith Malinga sent him back to the pavilion. Simmons' unbeaten knock of 67 runs helped West Indies put up a massive total on the board. The second T20I will be played on March 6. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) March 04 : Bollywood and Tollywood actress Rakul Preet Singh who is also the brand ambassador for Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao program shared her views on the Womens Day celebration. The actress expressed that she doesnt believe in Womens Day, for her every single day is a Womens Day. Rakul Preet Singh was interacting with the media on Tuesday in Mumbai at the sidelines of the 8th Edition of Cheryl's Femina Ms. Stylista West 2020. Watch the video: Rakul Preet Singh at Cheryl's Femina Ms. Stylista West 2020 When asked any message she wants to convey on Womens Day coming on 8th March, on this Rakul said, I dont believe in Womens Day. According to me, when we dont celebrate Mens Day, so why should we celebrate Womens Day on just one day. We should celebrate women in our life every single day. Respecting women is the most important factor. And I think being a woman, this is the exact way of celebrating Womens Day every day. Sharing her memories about the festival Holi and also the plans, Rakul said, I am working on Holi. When I was a kid, I used to play Holi very mischievously. I think when I was in 9th or 10th std, I stopped playing Holi. Because I got aware that while playing this festival there is water wastage and even the environment gets damaged. So, our Holi used to be the dry one and then later we celebrated the festival having dinner with family and friends. I was even fond of eating gujiya (sweet dish). But now, neither we can play Holi or eat gujiya. So, I prefer working on a festival. Meanwhile, on the work front, Rakul Preet Singh will be seen in the. The movie is an action thriller film written-directed by Lakshya Raj Anand and produced by Dheeraj Wadhawan, Ajay Kapoor and John Abraham. It also features John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez in the lead roles. The story of the film is about the hostage crisis and is inspired by true events. The film is scheduled for theatrical release in India on 14 August 2020, 'We had three positive cases, but our success was the three not going up to 30 or 100.' 'Also, all the three survived the virus.' IMAGE: Medical staff in protective suits dispose waste as they exit a coronavirus isolated ward at the Kochi Medical College in Kerala. Photograph: A S Satheesh/ANI Photo It was in early February, soon after Wuhan was shut off from the rest of China, that the first three cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) were confirmed in India, and all the three were in Kerala. But the state health machinery acted immediately and all the three people recovered from the attack. The most important aspect is that they could contain the spread of the virus. When the Nipah virus attack occurred last year, Kerala's healthcare system responded admirably. And the person whose role is appreciated and complimented is that of the health minister in the Left Democratic Front ministry, K K Shailaja -- Shailaja 'teacher' to the people of Kerala. So much so, 'Teacher' has become her surname now. When Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com reached her office late in the evening, several people were waiting in the lobby to meet her. It was after attending to the last person that Shailaja 'teacher' and Shobha sat down to talk about how Kerala's health department successfully contained the corona virus. "I can confidently say that we have a system in place to fight any outbreaks," says Shailaja 'teacher', below. It is well known that hundreds of students from Kerala study medicine in Wuhan. So, when the coronavirus outbreak started there, were you concerned? Of course, we were very concerned. From the moment we read the news online about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, we became very vigilant. Because we had an experience with the Nipah virus, we knew that any virus could appear anywhere in the world. So, when we read about the spread of coronavirus in China, the first connection that came to my mind was, China, Wuhan, medical university and students from Kerala. I knew they would fly back immediately, and they might even come carrying the virus. When I called the health secretary, Dr Rajan Khobragade, he also said that we had to be very vigilant, for the same reason that came to my kind; that the students from Wuhan would come back any moment. So, the chances of a virus outbreak might appear in Kerala first. Even before anyone landed in Kerala, we decided to set up a rapid response team and the team met immediately. We then sent messages to all the district medical officers to be ready. We also contacted Preeti Sudan, the health secretary in Delhi. Was it because you had the experience of fighting the Nipah virus that you started taking precautions even before the coronavirus came to India? Yes, after the Nipah attack, we have been very vigilant, and we even conduct mock drills every year. I became the health minister in 2016. At that time itself, I realised that one of the major challenges in front of us was infectious diseases like dengue fever, H1N1, etc. And we have diseases like leprosy, filariasis also. So, one of our targets was to fight all the infectious diseases and reduce deaths as much as possible. Despite our continuous campaign, in 2017-2018, we had many outbreaks of infectious diseases like dengue fever. That was when we realised that what we were doing was not enough to contain these diseases. Our next campaign was to involve grassroot level workers to spread awareness every day, personally meeting people. The outbreaks were happening even though Kerala is quite advanced in the field of literacy and cleanliness... Yes. But the number of deaths was far less than compared to the other states. Still, every year, we have had an outbreak of infectious diseases. We could have stopped the outbreaks. For example, the dengue fever outbreak is due to mosquitoes. But however hard we try, people are a bit careless about stopping the breeding mosquitoes. In fact, I wrote to all the MLAs asking for their help. I also wrote to all the panchayat presidents asking them to start a volunteer group to make people understand the need to stop the breeding of mosquitoes. If this worked, I knew we could stop the outbreak of such infectious diseases completely. But then, you know how hard it is to achieve 100 per cent success in these matters. I was only hoping for a success rate of 50 per cent. To my satisfaction, I found that in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, the number of deaths due to infectious diseases came down drastically. Today, if the health department hears about a dengue case, our workers reach the area immediately and see to it that the disease would not spread. I can confidently say that we have a system in place to fight any outbreaks. What kind of precautions did you take when you heard about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan? We needed permission from the aviation department to have screening at the airport. Before we started the screening, a few students had come and they were taken home by their parents. Because we had instructed people to inform us about all those coming from Wuhan, we could track them down immediately. You must understand that this was much before the Indian government brought students from Wuhan by chartered flights. We had already set up isolation wards in two districts. The first girl we contacted already had sore throat and fever. So, there was not much resistance from the parents about the idea to keep her under quarantine. But they asked, why they had to be quarantined when only the girl had fever. But we insisted they also came with us. We kept the girl in an isolation ward at the Trissur Medical College and kept the parents under observation. We did this even before we got the test result from the virology department in Pune. Then we caught hold of one of her friends who came with her, in Alappuzha, and he was also kept under quarantine there. The third person had gone to Kasargod, and she was kept in isolation there. Were you worried about an outbreak because these three students came from Wuhan? Yes, we were extremely worried. In fact, 72 people came from Wuhan itself. We traced the addresses of all the people who were on the flight, and contacted them through the local medical officers. We isolated all those who came from Wuhan and had a slight fever. All of them were under our observation till they tested negative. We had sent the blood and sputum samples of all those who were isolated, to Pune. When the results came from Pune, the three students tested positive. In fact, even before telling us, the virology department announced in the afternoon that the samples that came from Kerala were positive. The moment we came to know the results, Rajan Khobargade and I went to meet the CM. When I told him that the situation was serious, he asked us about our plans. We said, like what we did in the case of Nipah, it would be isolation, quarantine, and opening a control room in Trivandrum and organising teams to take charge of each work. The health secretary wrote 18 guidelines to be followed, and we called for a meeting of all the head of departments in the medical colleges. Then we went to Trissur to oversee the work. By the time we reached Ernakulam, it was 12.30 at night. I called for a meeting with the doctors in the periphery and also the HoDs in the medical colleges then itself. By the time the meeting got over, it was 2.30 in the morning. I met the press after the meeting and told them that there was no need to panic, and everything was under control. Why did you say there was no reason to panic when all of China had started panicking by then? I said so because of the experience I had after the Nipah outbreak. When we announced the Nipah outbreak, there was panic in the entire state. People from the village where there was the first outbreak, started leaving the village. It was a panic reaction, and I didn't want such panic this time. If at all one of these people are carriers, they would be spreading the virus in another area. It was like a war zone moving to another area. That was why I said there was no need to panic. That was the only way we could contain the spread of the virus. We had three positive cases, but our success was the three not going up to 30 or 100. Also, all the three survived the virus. While you were planning all this, did you think of the magnitude of the situation in Wuhan? Yes, I did. We only had three positive cases. There were hundreds of positive cases at that time in Wuhan. What happened was they did not grasp the situation in the beginning. By the time they understood, the virus had spread like wildfire. In those days, I could not sleep at all. I could not even imagine something like that happening here. I cannot but applaud the support given by our entire team. If not for Rajan (Khobragade) and the team, we would not have been able to contain it so well. There were many days when Rajan did not even sleep at night. What about the students who were brought to India on special flights by the central government? That was a week or so after the first three people were tested positive. When I came to know that the government was going to bring people from Wuhan, I called (Union Health Minister) Harsh Vardhanji. I wanted to know whether they would send those people to their respective states soon after they landed. He said they would isolate them first in Delhi and would send them only if they tested negative. It was a good idea. Otherwise, we would be putting the entire country at risk. Even after the 14 days of quarantine in Delhi, we decided to ask them to be in isolation at home for another 14 days. We didn't want to take any chance. Now that covid-19 is spreading to more and more countries, are you still vigilant? Yes. We cannot relax now. I am still on mission mode. At night, I am still worried about the report that would be coming the next day. The dangerous aspect of the coronavirus is that after it comes out of a human being, it can remain alive for two hours. But the satisfying part is that we could take immediate action and save those three children. With the coronavirus threat still looming over global markets, benchmark indices too logged in losses as Sensex ended 214 points or 0.55 percent lower at 38,409.48 while Nifty ended at 11,251 down 52 points. Midcaps and smallcaps suffered more as their sectoral indices on BSE plunged 2.53 percent and 2.83 percent, respectively. "Fresh virus cases reported in India overshadowed monetary easing by the US Fed. Despite mixed global cues, the domestic market took a hit fuelled by weakness in metals, banks and auto stocks," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Servies. Nair added that the short-term tremors due to the virus could be felt across the globe including Indian indices but for the long-term, the impact looks limited. We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades: Note: The OI and volume data of stocks given in this story are the aggregates of the three-months data and not of the current month only. Key support and resistance level for Nifty According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 11,103.27, followed by 10,955.53. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 11,377.67 and 11,504.33. Nifty Bank Nifty Bank closed 1.79 percent down at 28,653.70. The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 28,094.7, followed by 27,535.7. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 29,243.2 and 29,832.7. Call options data Maximum call open interest (OI) of 17.25 lakh contracts was seen at the 11,800 strike price. It will act as a crucial resistance level in the March series. This is followed by 11,700 strike price, which holds 16.45 lakh contracts in open interest, and 11,500, which has accumulated 15.94 lakh contracts in open interest. Significant call writing was seen at the 11,600 strike price, which added 1.8 lakh contracts, followed by 11,300 strike price that added 1.42 lakh contracts. No significant call unwinding was witnessed on March 4. Put options data Maximum put open interest of 29.43 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price, which will act as crucial support in the March series. This is followed by 11,300 strike price, which holds 18.83 lakh contracts in open interest, and 11,700 strike price, which has accumulated 18.27 lakh contracts in open interest. Put writing was seen at the 11,000 strike price, which added 4.18 lakh contracts, followed by 11,100 strike, which added 78,750 contracts. Put unwinding was seen at 11,600 strike price, which shed 16,650 contracts, followed by 11,700 strike price which shed 12,150 contracts. Stocks with a high delivery percentage A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks. 42 stocks saw long build-up Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen. 6 stocks saw long unwinding 95 stocks saw short build-up An increase in open interest, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short build-up was seen. One stock witnessed short-covering A decrease in open interest, along with an increase in price, mostly indicates a short-covering. Bulk deals (For more bulk deals, click here) Board meetings RRIL: The board of the company will meet on March 5 to consider and approve the draft scheme of amalgamation of RRIL with Krkumar Industries. Grandeur Products: The board of the company will meet on March 5 to consider and approve an increase in the authorised share capital of the company from Rs 25 crore to Rs 27 crore. The respective boards of Mayukh Dealtrade and Nutraplus India will meet on March 5 for general purposes. The respective boards of Pidilite Industries, Godfrey Phillips India, BNK Capital Markets, Chembond Chemicals, Deepak Spinners, Insecticides India, Jamna Auto Industries, KPIT Technologies and Praj Industries will meet on March 5 to consider and approve interim dividends. Stocks in news HDFC: Reduced its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) on housing loans by 5 basis points. Allcargo Logistics: The company got SEBI approval to buy 3.17 crore shares in Gati via open offer. Bank of Baroda: Moody's cut Bank of Baroda's baseline credit assessment rating to Ba3 against Ba2. Maruti Suzuki: The company partnered with HDB Financial Services to facilitate car loans for the customer. HDFC Bank: The lender reconstituted the search panel to identify the successor to the MD. GMR Infrastructure: Promoter group acquired 38 lakh shares via open market on March 2. Ashok Leyland: The company has fixed record date as March 20 for the purpose of interim dividend. TIPS Industries: CARE Ratings has revised ratings on the company's long-term bank facility as 'CARE BBB' from 'CARE BBB-'. Deepak Nitrite: The company has a fixed record date as March 17 for the purpose of the payment of the interim dividend. Bhagyanagar India: CARE Ratings has revised ratings on the company's long-term bank facilities as 'CARE BBB' with a stable outlook. Allsec Technologies: ICRA has withdrawn ratings on the company's long-term and short-term instruments worth Rs 11 crore. FII and DII data Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 878.38 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares of worth Rs 764.13 crore in the Indian equity market on March 4, provisional data available on the NSE showed. Fund flow Stock under F&O ban on NSE Maharashtra Assembly Election Results 2019 LIVE updates, Haryana Assembly Polls: Check constituency-wise poll-results, candidates, winners, losers The Congress today accused the BJP of attempting to bring down its government in Madhya Pradesh using money and power, and said such conspiracies were a "blot on democracy". The opposition party also said it was hopeful that the Supreme Court will take cognizance of the issue and that the BJP will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh in bringing down its government. BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government, Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari said. Patwari's statement came hours after Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh claimed that a senior leader of the saffron party has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that "poaching" attempts were being made by the BJP on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said in a democracy it is the people who decide whose government is to be formed. "But you look at Gujarat, you look at Karnataka, Goa, Manipur or Meghalaya. Through demonetisation, BJP's coffers are filled with black money. They are using black money to bring down a government that has been chosen by the people," Gohil alleged. "This is being done on the orders of these two people (Modi-Shah). I have full confidence that they will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. He expressed hope that that the Supreme Court would pull up those indulging in such acts. "Constitutional Amendment was made that horse-trading does not take place, but Modi-Shah duo consider it their birthright to indulge in this," he said. "These conspiracies to bring down the government on the basis of money and misuse of power are a blot on democracy and they (BJP) will not succeed in Madhya Pradesh," Gohil said. According to media reports, Digvijaya and his minister son Jaivardhan Singh also reached the Haryana hotel to meet the MLAs. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath told PTI, "Things are under control. There is nothing like that. The MLAs will come back". According to the Congress sources, among the eight MLAs who have been taken to Haryana, four are from the Congress, one is independent while the rest of them are from the BSP and the SP. They said that woman BSP MLA Rambai was allegedly manhandled when Congress ministers reached the hotel to meet her. Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants will be in the listen only mode until the question and answer session of todays conference. Please press star 1 on your phone and record your name when prompted. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to your host Paul Fulton. You may begin. Hello and thank you all for joining us today for this briefing to update you on CDCs COVID-19 response. Were joined by Dr. Nancy Messonnier who will give opening remarks before taking your questions. At this time, I will turn the call over to the Dr. Messonnier. Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us. Over the weekend, multiple states announced new presumptive positive cases of COVID-19. As of Monday evening, there were 60 cases that includes presumptive positives or CDC-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 detected through the U.S. public health system. This does not include people repatriated on U.S. State Department flights. 22 of the 60 cases are travel associated. 11 are likely person to person and 27 are under investigation, which means that state and local public health officials are still investigating how these people were infected. Many states are now testing and reporting their own results. While these results will be confirmed at CDC, the state and local health departments are taking public health actions based on these presumptive positives. And CDC is counting these as cases. We would be updating our online case count on weekdays by noon. I just want to mention that we are no longer reporting the number of PUIs or patients under investigation nor those who have tested negative. With more and more testing done at states, these numbers would not be representative of the testing being done nationally. States are reporting results quickly and even states are reporting results quickly and in the event of a discrepancy between CDC and state case counts, the state case counts should always be considered more up to date. Developments since I last spoke to you have heightened our concern for certain communities in the U.S. We have seen more reports come in from what is likely an outbreak in a long-term care facility in Washington state. Sadly, now we have six deaths reported to CDC. We have seen the first reports from Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island and New Hampshire state. We expect to continue to find more cases. These will probably result from a mixture of instances of travel-related, contact-related and community-associated cases where we dont immediately know where people became exposed. Right now, we have 12 states that have reported cases of COVID-19. Many of these have occurred within the past 14 days. Meaning that we may still find contacts of cases in those states who test positive for COVID-19. The greatest risk of infection is among those who are in close contact with people who have COVID-19. This includes family members and health care workers who care for people who are infected. Right now, with still aggressive containment measures being taken to find and isolate cases in order to prevent spread, we want anyone with suspected exposure to someone with COVID-19 to reach out to their health care provider. You should do that by phone. There may come a day when were only looking for severe illness, but were trying to understand how the virus behaves and prevent additional spread. I talked about risk of infection. Now I would like to make a comment about the risk for serious outcomes. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggest serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. Older people and people with underlying health conditions, like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example, were about twice as likely to develop serious outcomes versus otherwise younger, healthier people. We are particularly concerned about these people given the growing number of cases in the United States as well as those with suspected community spread. What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad. We will continue to maintain for as long as practical an aggressive national posture of containment. That said, you might see some local communities taking specific actions to mitigate the disease. Its possible to contain the virus as well as work to mitigate future spread. We ask for peoples patience and understanding and most importantly their cooperation. If a health care provider or a public health worker tells you to stay home for 14 days unless you need medical care, please do that. Right now, especially individual actions, can have an important impact on how this situation plays out. You may need to take a break from your normal daily routine for two weeks. We have seen this especially in patients from the Diamond Princess cruise ship where a significant number of people have had very mild illness and dont feel particularly bad. So staying home when you are sick is really important. Dont let the illness spread beyond you. Stay away as much as you can from other people. We have guidance on our website about how to minimize the risk to others in your household. As more areas see community spread, local communities may start employing tools that encourage social distancing. The goal of social distancing is to limit exposure by reducing face-to-face contact and preventing spread among people in community settings. What these actions look like at the community level will vary depending on local conditions. What is appropriate for one community seeing local transmission wont necessarily be appropriate for a community where no local transmission has occurred. People, communities, local and state governments should begin thinking about what this might look like for them and local action that might work best in their community to blunt the impact of this virus. There are a spectrum of actions that can reduce spread and impact. These are science-based and come from our play book on mitigating disease impact. I want to stress the personal action that individuals can take. Each year we recommend people wash their hands, cover their cough and sneezes and stay away from people who are sick. This is the other side of not spreading the disease, which is not catching it. Think twice before you expose yourself to someone who is showing symptoms. This is especially important for people who are older and have underlying health conditions. For seniors, preparedness may also mean making sure you have adequate supplies of routine medications, like medication for blood pressure and diabetes. This is always part of what CDC recommends for preparedness. If youre 65 and older and particularly if you live in areas where theres on going community spread, you need to think about what actions you can take to reduce your exposure. CDCs role is to provide technical advice to states and counties. The decision of what steps to implement will be local. Its also very important that clinicians have the information they need to make the best decisions for their patients. In addition to information on CDCs website, we have open calls with clinicians. The last call had more than 10,000 listeners. Were holding another call on Thursday. You can find more information at emergency.CDC.gov. I want to assure you that on other fronts partners in the U.S. Government and across the pharmaceutical industry are working quickly to develop effective tools to treat and prevent this virus, including anti-viral drugs and vaccines. With the global increase in cases and the spread that is occurring here in the United States, there have been a lot of questions about what might happen to us. I wish I could give you that answer. Unfortunately, I cannot. But I can assure you that CDC staff are working incredibly hard to assist the state and local health departments as they investigate and follow the new cases they have identified as well as provide guidance to all audiences on how to prepare. I speak on behalf of all of our staff and staff all across the U.S. Government when I say, our hearts go out to the people who have been affected by this new virus both here and around the world. We need to continue to work together within the federal government, across the public health infrastructure and in local communities. All of us have a role to play in keeping ourselves, our families and our communities safe. I would be happy to take some questions now. We will now begin a question and answer question. To ask a question from the phone lines please press star 1, enter your phone as unmute and record your name at the prompt. Please keep your questions to one questions and one follow-up. Our first question comes from Carolyn Johnson with the Washington Post. Your line is open. Thanks for taking my question. Theres been a lot of criticism from epidemiologists about the narrow criteria for testing and how that might have been linked to the limited availability to test due to the problems with the test. Can you just speak to that issue? What was the cause of the limited criteria? Do you now regret not expanding it earlier since the minute they start testing theyre finding cases? Messonnier: CDCs criteria for patients under investigation has always started with the importance of astute clinicians who are making judgments about what their patients are likely to have. So weve always allowed those patients to be part of the testing criteria. But what we really need to focus on now is where we are today. There is spread across many countries across the world and spreading communities in the United States. We need to be focused on what were doing today to identify patients who are ill, make sure that theyre getting appropriately treated and tested and make sure that were protecting our communities by keeping by keeping yourselves and each other safe. Next question, please. Our next question comes from Craig Figner with CBS Los Angeles. Your line is open. Thank you. Dr. Messonnier, a couple of questions. Here in California, do we have new information on testing kits, exactly how many have been shipped, will be shipped, when they will arrive? And also, if you can give, are you able to speak freely? Is anybody in the White House telling you to tamp down anything that you otherwise would like to say? Messonnier: Yeah. So the answer to the first question about Californias test kits is i really have to refer you to the state of California. What i can say is over the weekend we shipped additional test kits to California. And i understand from the FDA commissioner that by the end of the week they expect many more test kits to be available through other pathways besides CDC, which i know is great news for the clinicians out there. In terms of my telebriefings, as many of you know, i have been doing these telebriefings regularly since the start of the outbreak. I think we at CDC have been very open and able to answer lots of different questions, including those posed on these conferences. Thank you. Next question, please. Our next question comes from Rebekah Lindstrom from 11 Alive. Your line is open. Thank you. So, im trying to understand exactly how this process is going to be changing now that manufacturers are allowed to produce these test kits independently. So, if I understand it correctly, the test kits were sent out to various states, to the public health department and then they were sending it back to the CDC for verification of the results. Talk to me a little bit about now how that process is going to be working. Messonnier: Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to really clarify CDCs role. CDCs role in this space is in getting a diagnostic quickly and correctly and then working with our public health laboratory partners and state and local health departments to make sure that the public health labs have early access to diagnostic capacity. As part of that process, CDC has sent test kits out to states and those test kits are being used right now by many state health departments because of the FDA regulations, those are still considered presumptive positive until those are confirmed test at CDC, but those are actionable results that is state and local health departments are using those to make public health decisions. That part is CDCs role. In order to get diagnostics to the front lines, that is, in the clinicians hand at the bedside in the hospital, thats really not the CDC public health test kit. Thats the availability of test kits from commercial test manufacturers which is something that is overseen by FDA. Again, based on the comments of the FDA commissioner over the weekend, I guess, last week, they are moving quickly to get those test kits out to commercial test manufacturers. That means it will be a tool in the toolbox of clinicians in clinics and in hospitals that they can use based on clinical suspicion to test their patients. Thats why its really important that clinicians look at the CDC guidance on our website, join our webinar so they can hear from us what information they need and also for clinicians to be in close touch with their own health departments so they can understand the local situation and how that might impact how they perceive and treat patients. Next question. Next question. To make sure Im understanding real quick, youre saying that those tests then that might be in the clinics or at the bedside, would still be presumptive positive and then tests would still go back to the CDC for confirmation? Messonier: Thanks for letting me clarify. No, those kits those test kits that are commercially manufactured are overseen by FDA, and they wont have that same public health confirmatory process I was just talking about. Our next question comes from Dennis Thompson with Health Day. Your line is open. Hi, Dr. Messonnier. Thank you for taking my question. Today in the MMWR there was report of patients with confirmed COVID-19 and in that it was noted that there was a second a symptomatic secondary attack rate of about .45% among all close contacts and 10.5% among household members. Should we read that as good news that this maybe isnt as as infectious to those around us as we would think? Or how should we read those numbers coming out of CDC? Messonnier: Yeah. So thanks for bringing that up. CDC did have an MMWR that came out today and I think it reflects the aggressive early stance of looking for contacts, aggressively around cases to see if we could find spread. And among those early cases in the United States, we actually didnt find a lot of spread in close contacts. And I do think thats good news. But it is a relatively small number of cases compared to, for example, the 80,000 cases that are around the world. So we take that as optimistic but we still need to be cautious with these early cases and do complete investigations which our state and local health departments are doing. We are looking at the information both from the U.S. cases but certainly also from the information thats coming in from other countries to try to understand the transmission dynamics and how it might impact the responses of state and local health departments. Next question, please. Our next question comes from Zara ? with Buzzfeed News. Your line is open. Hey, thanks so much for letting me ask a question. I wanted to clarify on the testing, so I know theres been numbers going around saying by the end of the week to be a million tests a day. Is that exclusively based on the tests that CDC is sending out or is that accounting for the other tests that FDA is approving. Similarly, can you clarify what the CDC will be posting now on in terms of case counts. Thanks. Messonnier: Yeah. So thanks. The number that youre quoting is the number that the FDA commissioner has quoted as the commercially available kits. So if there are questions about that i would definitely refer those to the FDA. The CDC number is test kits that are going to public health labs. And we expect that by the end of this week the public health labs will be able to test up to 75,000 people. As you say, that will be a small part of the overall testing that will be available. Thats why when I started my comments, I talked about the complications with expecting CDCs case count to be up to date. Its a good thing that these tests are going to be widely available, but it also means that CDC will not always be up to the minute in terms of the latest number of cases, especially out of state local health departments. So thats why we say we really do need you to look to the states to those updated numbers. CDCs numbers may be a little more delayed because there are so much testing kits going out. Next question, please. Our next question comes from Lisa Krieger with San Jose Mercury News. Your line is open. Yes, thank you. At the World Health Organization conference this morning there was concern of the global supply chain of PPEs and we heard from some hospitals Stanford and Harvard that theyre concerned about the stockpile. Can you address that, please. Messonnier: I can address part of it. CDCs role is working closely with our state and local health departments, including providing technical input to them. And CDCs part of this is in helping the state and local health departments with the variety of partners, including OSHA and NIOSH and health care association partners in thinking through how to make the best use of the supplies that we have. In other words, our priority is making sure that the highest risk health care exposure is health care workers have appropriate PPE and looking at other ways in which other folks might be protected. But the questions of our the U.S. supply of PPE, those questions really need to go to the ASPR they have responsibility for the Strategic National Stockpile in the United States. We have time for three more questions. Next question, please. Our next question comes from Sheila Kaplan. Your line is open. what the contaminant was that was found in the test kits, please. Sheila, we could not hear the first part of your question. Please repeat. Can you please tell us what the contaminant was that was found in the original CDC test kits? Messonnier: So i think youre talking about a report in AXIOS that attributed some issues with the CDC test kits to a contaminant. What I can say about that is contamination is one possible explanation but there are others. And I cant really comment on what is an ongoing investigation. Our focus is on moving forward. That is on making sure that the test kits we are sending out now are well done and making sure that our state and local health department partners have access to the full resources of CDC to diagnose cases. Next question, please. Our next question comes from John Bonnefield with CNN. Your line is open. Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Can you explain to us why CDC isnt somehow aggregating the testing thats being done by public health labs to provide a national figure for the number of tests that are being conducted and on the number of PUIs? Right now, what Im inferring is theres not going to be any kind of national figure and thats very different than what we have been seeing from places like South Korea where theyve been routinely updating on a national level? Are you not asking public health labs to communicate this information to you or is there really no way for us to expect a national figure at all? Messonnier: Im sorry and Im really glad you asked that question so I can correct that misunderstanding. Of course we will be aggregating data on a daily basis and will have daily case counts up on our website. What I meant to comment on is that sometimes our numbers come up on our website by noon but when theres a case thats reported from a state at 5:00, we dont go back and reupdate our numbers. It waits until the next day. We update your numbers everyday. We are certainly going to be aggregating national numbers. We are certainly going to be providing a national and state specific picture of whats going on, but sometimes you all in the media are covering individual cases that are being reported that arent on our counts yet because were, again, were updating them only once a day. Its just otherwise really difficult to continue to update the numbers when basically cases are getting confirmed and reported all night long. So, definitely going to be providing national data and state level data. But if you see, for example, a news report from the state thats coming out in half an hour, were not going to go back and reupdate the numbers that came up on CDCs website at noon. Does that help? Okay. Im hoping that helps. Okay. Last question, please. Our final question comes from Mike Stobbe with the Associated Press. Your line is open. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Many things I want to ask but Ill just ask two. In reference to your response to Sheila Kaplans question, I take it from your response that theres an investigation going on and that you havent established what the problem was with the reagent in the kits. Is that what youre saying? Or do you know what the problem was? And the second question, if I may, as you know over the weekend researchers at Fred Huchinson Cancer Center in the University of Washington said they had done a study that had suggested that the virus was circulating for weeks in Washington and perhaps that was related to the lack of availability of tests or the testing criteria it suggests that the spread of the virus may have been worse because of some of the policies or availability of test kits that were in place based on federal decisions. So, could you speak to that? Thank you. Messonnier: Sure. So, in reference to the first question, you know, clearly its a priority at CDC and every level of our organization to make sure that our state and local health department, public health labs have access to the best tools possible. And our focus right now is moving forward to make sure that the test kits that theyre getting from us meet the high quality standards that we and FDA hold ourselves to and we are very confident in the kits that are being sent out now. There will be time in the future, I think, to look back and think about what we what happened when, but our focus today is on is how were moving forward. The second question is, is a really intense question. Researchers in Seattle were looking at the genetic sequencing of the strains that have been in Seattle and having an interesting hypothesis of how transmission might have worked. What I would say is that its really interesting finding and interesting research. There are alternate hypothesis for the same finding, for example, the sequences of the most recent strains coming out of Seattle actually also I understand match strains that were identified from later in the outbreak from China. So I think this is another place where Im happy to see so much research going on, but I still think that its in the hypothesis phase and well need to wait for more data to come in to really fully understand how valid that hypothesis is and how to interpret it. Im really happy that researchers all around the country and all around the world are doing this kind of work because were clearly going to learn a lot from it. Thank you. And thank you all for joining us for todays briefing. Please check CDCs COVID-19 website for the latest updates on CDCs response efforts. If you have further questions, please call the media line at 404-639-3286 or email media @CDC.gov. Thank you. This concludes todays conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Kana Sakaguchi came to Lower Community College from Japan last month to improve her English and become more independent. I still live with my family, and I wanted to learn to be independent and how to take my own responsibility, said Sakaguchi, 19 Asuka Shibusawa, 20, also wanted to work on her English at LCC. I know my skills are not great, but I wanted to try, Shibusawa said. And Karin Tsukayama, 21, wanted to experience an American community and culture. The three young women are all in Longview for the sixth year of an exchange program between LCC and Atomi University that is part of LCCs wider effort to increase its number of international students. Atomi is a private womens college about 20 miles from downtown Tokyo in Wako, which is Longviews sister city in Japan. The exchange is popular with Atomi students, said Keiko Pedersen, the LCC International Programs coordinator who translated for the students interviewed for this story. In fact, Pedersen said two students who participated in the exchange in 2017 will return to LCC this summer as long-term students. LCC also recently signed an agreement with Wako International high school, which will add a direct path for graduating seniors to enroll at LCC as full-time international students. This year, 17 Atomi students arrived Feb. 16 and will leave Monday. So far, the students have experienced a Portland Trailblazers game, gone shopping and visited the Oregon Coast, although not all students are doing the same things. But they all took classes in English, geology and chemistry. Pedersen said Japanese college students dont typically take courses outside their majors, so exchange students enjoy taking different classes. Shibusawa said she liked learning about American perspectives. Its interesting and exciting to see the differences in how people think, she said. Playing games and talking and chatting together are Sakaguchis favorite memories, she said. Shibusawa and Tsukayama are staying with Longview residents Jennifer and Chris Wills, who are one of 11 host families this year. Chris Wills said his and his wifes families hosted exchange students, so they decided to sign up. Its an enjoyable experience to get to learn another culture, he said. And we dont have a ton of different cultures here in Cowlitz County or Longview, so its fun to bring that to the local community. He said they like to take the students to eat unfamiliar foods, such as Mexican cuisine, Nipps Burgers and Sweet Spot. Sakaguchi, Shibusawa and Tsukayama have adapted to other differences in culture. Tsukayama said the way people greet each other is different, as is their way of showing hospitality. Shibusawa said shes had to get used to taking a shower in the morning, because most Japanese take a hot bath at night. The most difficult adjustment for Sakaguchi is giving class presentations, because thats not common in Japanese schools, she said. Chris Wills said his favorite part of being a host is watching the students grow and overcome challenges. One of the things we notice is that day one, theyre a little jet lagged, a little quiet and not as confident in their English, he said. Then by the second week they begin to speak a lot more. By the end of (the trip), it feels like typically theyve embraced speaking a different language. Its fun to see that progression. Jennifer Wills said the pair have been hosting Atomi students for three years. They got started after she returned from a trip to Wako as part of Longviews sister city exchange. I was hosted by a family while I was over there, she said. I was well received and loved and cared for when I was there, and I thought we could do the same. The Wills agreed that the most challenging part of hosting is adjusting their schedules and getting used to having other people in the house. We dont have children, so this is having new people in our lives, adapting and learning to have other people in your space, Jennifer Wills said. And making sure everyone is cared for. She said she has to make bigger meals than usual and organize carpools, but its all worth it. Its just really fun, she said. I think as a citizen of Longview, its really eye opening for us how much they love it here. Its a good reminder for us that what we have is amazing. The students theyre hosting call their American experience precious. Shibusawa said making smores and seeing the stars have been the highlights of her trip. In Tokyo there are too many lights to see the night sky, she said. As for Tsukayama, My happiest moments are when my host family understands my English. Love 14 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Supreme Courts major 54 decisions usually come down at the end of the term in June, when the justices are desperate to wrap up work and retreat to an island fortress. Much of the courts docket is less ideologically charged, and typically the justices spend months handing down straightforward, unanimous rulings as they wrestle with the more complex cases. This term is different. The justices have now handed down three 54 rulings split along ideological lines, the highest rate of split decisions at this point in the term since 2010. And this bitter divide only stands to get worse over the next four months, as the court hears major disputes over abortion, presidential power, immigration, religious liberty, and the Electoral College. The current term is shaping up to be one of the most momentous and divisive in history. And we are already feeling the tremors of the coming earthquake. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Feb. 25, in McKinney v. Arizona, the court allowed a prisoners capital sentence to stand even though it was imposed unconstitutionally. A judge, not a jury, found McKinney eligible for death, and the Supreme Court deemed this judicial fact-finding unconstitutional, in Ring v. Arizona, nine years after he was sentenced. Yet Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, refused to let McKinney be resentenced by a jury. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissent joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. She argued that when a court independently reviews a capital sentence, its obligated to apply Ring. Kavanaughs insistence on preserving Arizonas unconstitutional sentences sealed the fate of 20 people on the states death row. Advertisement A few minutes after Kavanaugh announced McKinney, Justice Samuel Alito handed down Hernandez v. Mesa, which decreed that victims of cross-border shootings cant sue Border Patrol agents in federal court. Ginsburg once again dissented, pointing out that Alitos decision ensures that Border Patrol agents, already notorious for their lawless brutality, will be accountable to no one when they murder innocent people. Then, on Tuesday, the court released Kansas v. Garcia, another Alito decision. Joined by his fellow conservatives, Alito held that states can prosecute immigrants for fraud when they use false Social Security numbers to obtain employment. This time, Breyer dissented, joined by the other three liberals. Advertisement There can be a great deal of negotiation behind the scenes as the justices discuss cases at conference, then circulate drafts of opinions. Kagan has said that she seeks to take big divisive questions and make them smaller and less divisive, to reframe the question and maybe split off a smaller question. Her approach has succeeded from time to time because she is willing to give conservatives small wins to avoid a fiasco for the left. Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly partnered with Kagan on this project. Like Kagan, Roberts knows that every 54 decision hurts the courts institutional legitimacy, creating the impression that the justices are just Republicans and Democrats in robes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The speed with which McKinney, Hernandez, and Garcia came down suggests that each justice took a hard line from the start; there is no indication in the opinions that the conservative bloc tried to build bridges with the liberals. Before he retired, Justice Anthony Kennedy sometimes forced his conservative colleagues to compromise, watering down conservative victories or leading a larger coalition of justices to a narrow ruling. Now that Kennedy is gone, the conservative bloc has grown more aggressive in bending the law sharply to the right. Advertisement Advertisement According to Adam Feldman of Empirical SCOTUS, which analyzes Supreme Court statistics, the court has not handed down so many closely divided decisions so quickly for a decade. In the 200910 term, the court announced two 54 rulings and one 53 ruling in argued cases by early March, including Citizens United. This term will almost certainly bring more overall 54 decisions than that one did. The court has already heard arguments in cases involving LGBTQ discrimination, gun control, DACA, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. On Wednesday, it will hear a major abortion case that asks whether states can regulate abortion clinics out of existence. Advertisement Advertisement The courts Republican-appointed majority reached a maximally conservative outcome in McKinney, Hernandez, and Garcia. Their unyielding position does not bode well for progressives anticipating the blockbusters coming down the pike. For years, liberals counted on Kennedy to join them from time to time, or find a centrist position that could attract a lopsided majority. Those days are over, and Kavanaugh has shown no desire to fill Kennedys shoes. By the end of June, we will learn just how far this conservative revolution will go. But its already clear that the majority has lost interest in appeasing their more liberal colleagues with concessions and compromises. Irans health ministry announced 92 people had died from coronavirus, one of the highest death tolls outside China where the outbreak originated Dubai: Novel coronavirus has affected almost all of Irans provinces but the country will get through the outbreak with a minimum number of deaths, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. This disease is a widespread disease, he said during a cabinet meeting, according to the official presidency website. It has reached almost all our provinces and in one sense its a global disease. Irans health ministry on Tuesday announced 92 people had died from coronavirus, one of the highest death tolls outside China where the outbreak originated. It said 2,922 people had been infected with coronavirus. Among those infected is first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, the IranWire news site reported, citing an informed source. There was no immediate confirmation from officials. Several Iranian officials have been infected with the coronavirus and one senior official died from a coronavirus infection on Monday. Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran would get through the outbreak with minimum deaths and in the shortest period of time with the skills of its doctors and nurses. Rouhani also took a jab at an American offer to help with the coronavirus outbreak without mentioning the United States directly. Theyve appeared with a mask of sympathy that we also want to help the people of Iran, Rouhani said. If you are really telling the truth, then lift sanctions from medicine. Follow LIVE updates of Coronavirus crisis Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States had offered to help Iran with the outbreak. US president Donald Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018 and reimposed sanctions which have hammered Irans economy. US officials have said that the sanctions do not target medicine for Iran, a point that Iranian officials dispute. Video aired on state TV of Wednesdays cabinet meeting showed Rouhani and ministers in a larger room than the usual venue for the weekly meeting. IranWire reported that Jahangiri was quarantined last week after a government meeting on combating coronavirus which was attended by several ministers and senior officials. Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu has been sent into 14-days self-isolation immediately after his return from China. The NCDC boss had visited China on the request of the Chinese Government to understudy and conduct research on the behavioural pattern of Coronavirus. The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire made the disclosure when he briefed the leadership of the senate on the level of preparedness by the Ministry. He said the Director-General of NCDC will remain in isolation in one of the rooms in his house for 14 days. Ehanire said: Chikwe had gone to China and come back and has done the test. It is negative, but we have insisted that he must undergo the 14-day of quarantine which is why he is not here today. He is not allowed to come out until after 14 days, because if you make rules, you must also obey them, which is to set example for Nigerians that the head of NCDC is self-quarantined as we speak. Hes very well but he has to follow the rules. Reacting oh his Twitter page, the NCDC boss admitted he was part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) delegation that visited China recently. He, however, denied being quarantined for coronavirus. He said: I was not quarantined. I was part of the delegation of the DG of the WHO to China for research and I have since returned. I am not being quarantined. I am well and have continued my duties from home since my return from China as part of the WHO-China Mission on #COVID19 The rumour that I am sick or in quarantine is obviously false. I look forward to returning to the office after 14 days of self-isolation. ALSO READ: Nigerian Professor Claims He Has Discovered The Cure For Coronavirus And Lassa Fever A spoof advert from mattress brand Koala sent Married At First Sight fans into a frenzy when it aired during one of the show's commercial breaks on Tuesday. The 30-second commercial featured actors playing MAFS participants David Cannon, Hayley Vernon and Michael Goonan, while mocking their recent cheating scandal. A voice-over declared Hayley and Michael 'cheating piles of trash', prompting viewers to call it one of 'the best pieces of television advertising ever'. Surprise! A spoof advert from mattress brand Koala sent Married At First Sight fans into a frenzy when it aired during one of the show's commercial breaks on Tuesday The advert began with a shot of a sleeping man wearing a T-shirt almost identical to the infamous Riddler shirt David wore during last week's dinner party. A toothbrush is seen on the bedside table, referencing David's shocking act of revenge on Hayley when he cleaned a dirty toilet with hers. It then zooms out to reveal another man and a woman - presumably stand-ins for Hayley and Michael - kissing next to the sleeping man, who is blissfully unaware. 'Cheating piles of trash': The 30-second commercial featured actors playing MAFS participants David Cannon, Hayley Vernon and Michael Goonan, while mocking their recent cheating scandal Seeing double! The advert began with a shot of a sleeping man wearing a T-shirt almost identical to the infamous Riddler shirt David wore during last week's dinner party (pictured) A voice-over says: 'Say G'day to Koala! Australia's highest-rated mattress brand. 'It's got zero disturbance technology, which means you can get a perfect night's sleep without getting disturbed by your partner, no matter what they get up to. 'Even if they are an absolute cheating pile of trash.' The advert ends with the tagline: 'Koala. Comfy at first sight.' The scandal lives on! A toothbrush is seen on the bedside table (left), referencing David's shocking act of revenge on Hayley when he cleaned a dirty toilet with hers. Right: Hayley wielding the infamous toothbrush at last Wednesday's dinner party Fans took to Twitter to praise the commercial after it premiered on Tuesday. 'Haha! That Koala ad was hilarious!' tweeted one amused viewer. 'That Koala ad is the best piece of television advertising since a long time. Massive props to whoever came up with David-Hayley-Michael plot,' another wrote. 'Koala wins advertising for 2020,' a third person said. Married At First Sight continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine Six drug peddlers were taken into custody and 44 kgs cannabis seized from their possession here, police said on Wednesday. Four of them, including a woman, are from Andhra Pradesh and the other two from the city, they said "CCB arrests 6 drug peddlers.. seize 44 Kgs Cannabis drug.. sold mainly near schools & colleges.. further investigation on..", Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Bengaluru City Police Sandeep Patil tweeted. The value of the drug seized on Tuesday was estimated to be Rs 23 lakh. The peddlers had brought the consignment by bus from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to sell the drugs to their own customers in Indiranagar and Mico Layout police station limits, they added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) But it wasnt all about the 1 percent. On June 19, 1940, Metropolitan Opera tenor Richard Crooks came to Anderson House to sing at a fundraiser for antiaircraft defense equipment in France. For several years, the Society of the Cincinnati loaned the building for the annual Thrift Shop Board benefit. There was no admission charge, just a request that visitors bring a bundle of old clothes to be sold at the boards thrift shop. President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed Democrat Joe Biden's "incredible comeback" in the primaries race and signalled how he will attack the new frontrunner, saying he was surrounded by far leftists. "It was a great comeback for Joe Biden, an incredible comeback when you think about it," Trump told reporters at the White House the morning after the Democrats' Super Tuesday polls. Biden is running as a moderate, in contrast to his leftist rival Bernie Sanders, but Trump insisted that some of the former vice president's "handlers are further left than Bernie. That's pretty scary." In his first public comments on the dramatic events of Super Tuesday -- other than a series of mocking tweets -- Trump also said that Sanders could easily have won if liberal Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had dropped out earlier, thereby not splitting his vote. Trump noted that decisions by two centrists -- Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar -- to drop out and endorse Biden had electrified the previously struggling vice president's campaign. Had Warren done something similar to help Sanders, then the self-described democratic socialist, who is calling for a political revolution, "would have won a lot of states." "She was really a spoiler, because other people got out and those votes went to Joe. Those people really helped Joe, you know, by getting out early," Trump said. "Had she gotten out, it would have been a very different situation, I think. It would have been a very different night." Trump also had a typically bitter appraisal of billionaire Mike Bloomberg's flat performance, despite having spent a record hundreds of millions of his own dollars on creating a campaign. Bloomberg quit the race on Wednesday, throwing his support and likely bottomless funding behind Biden. Trump dismissed the importance of this, saying "he's going to try and save face by putting some money into Biden's campaign. We'll see what happens. I don't think that's going to have an impact." "He's doing that because he's spiteful, he's a spiteful guy, I know him well," Trump said. "He made a fool out of himself. The logo for AmerisourceBergen appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. Read more Steve Collis, CEO of a major drug distributor, was paid $11.3 million last year. Shareholders who have criticized the companys role in the opioid supply chain would like part of his future paychecks to be delayed. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a cosponsor of a bonus deferral shareholder proposal to be voted on at AmerisourceBergens annual meeting on Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia an event that members of the labor union protested in 2017 when it was held at the Sofitel Hotel. Since then, Chesterbrook-based AmerisourceBergen and other opioid distributors and manufacturers have come to face a mountain of lawsuits by cities, counties and state attorneys general, accusing the companies of fueling the national opioid epidemic. Most of the suits are consolidated in federal court in Cleveland. Meanwhile, a trial scheduled for later this month in New York is adding to pressure on the parties to reach a global settlement, potentially worth billions of dollars. Investors are exposed to those costs, the Teamsters say. And they argue that a bonus deferral program is a critical accountability measure that would give the companys board a longer horizon to decide whether a bonus award is warranted in a given year. The proposal has also picked up support from two major advisory firms that make voting recommendations to investors: Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis. The current incentive plans not only fail to hold management accountable for costly compliance failures but create potentially risky incentives to cut corners in the first place, the Teamsters wrote in a letter to fellow shareholders last month, co-signed by Rhode Islands state treasurer, and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. The Teamsters pension and benefit funds own shares in the company. All three groups are members of a broader coalition called Investors for Opioid and Pharmaceutical Accountability, which has advocated for increased board oversight at drug companies, distributors and pharmacies over the last two years. The coalition began pushing the bonus deferral concept in time for this years proxy season. Investors agreed either not to file, or to withdraw the proposal, at companies that agreed to participate in a working group on the issue. AmerisourceBergen opposes the measure, and says its existing executive compensation policies are focused on long-term performance In 2019, long-term equity incentive awards made up about 72% of Collis total direct compensation, a spokesperson said. Such awards made up about 60% of the total average of what other executive officers were paid. The simple fact is that the majority of senior management compensation is heavily impacted by the long-term performance of the company and only becomes available years after it is granted, spokesperson Lauren Esposito said in a statement. ISS, however, told its clients that although AmerisourceBergen requires executives to hold a certain amount of equity, the advisory firm does not consider such stock ownership guidelines to be robust. The firm also said it recommends in favor of the Teamsters proposal because it would still give the board broad discretion to decide how much compensation to defer, and for how long. Glass Lewis said it views the proposal as giving significant discretion to the board, as well. Ultimately, we believe that shareholders would benefit from policies and procedures that serve to both disincentivize excessive risk taking and to ensure executives do not receive unjust enrichment following incidents of misconduct, Glass Lewis said in its recommendation. AmerisourceBergen and other companies have denied wrongdoing in the opioid lawsuits. We are continuing the complex process of working toward the global resolution of opioid litigation and believe our efforts have been productive, Esposito said. We remain committed to a fair negotiated resolution, but are ready to defend ourselves in litigation and are actively preparing for upcoming trials. Queensland health authorities are urgently working to contact people who were on the same flight as a 26-year-old man who has become Queensland's 11th recorded case of the novel coronavirus. The man, from Logan south of Brisbane, flew into Brisbane International Airport on Wednesday, February 26. He then presented to Brisbanes Princess Alexandra Hospital on Monday, March 2, and was placed into quarantine in a stable condition. "He had been unwell prior to catching that flight from Iran, which means weve asked the national incident room for the manifest of the flight he was on, so we can contact-trace the people who were sitting two rows in front of him, two rows behind, and to either side," Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said. Analysis banner Business Insider Iran's President Hassan Rouhani gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Associated Press Iran appears to have stockpiled enough uranium for a nuclear weapon, which is a major sign President Donald Trump's maximum pressure campaign is failing. The UN's nuclear watchdog said Iran has tripled its stockpile of low-enriched uranium in the past three months. Trump has insisted that squeezing Tehran with economic sanctions would change its behavior, but it's only become more aggressive amid rising fears of war between the US and Iran. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Iran has reportedly stockpiled enough uranium for a nuclear weapon for the first time since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, in the latest sign that his maximum pressure strategy is failing. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, said Iran has tripled its stockpile of low-enriched uranium since November, according to a new report, per the New York Times. Iran has also for the first time refused to allow IAEA inspectors to gain access to sites where there's evidence of past nuclear activity. Under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran could only stockpile 300 kg or about 660 pounds of low-grade uranium. But Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal in May 2018 has seen Iran take gradual steps away from the Obama-era pact, including breaching the stockpile cap on low-grade uranium. Iran now has over 1,000 kilograms, or 2,200 pounds, of low-grade uranium. Tehran's uranium stockpile is enriched up to 4.5%. This violates the JCPOA's cap of 3.67% on uranium enrichment, but it's still far below weapons-grade levels needed for a nuclear bomb (90% enrichment). Iran is also still a long ways from possessing the technology necessary to develop a missile capable of carrying a warhead long distances (such as targets in the mainland US). But France, Germany, and the UK in December accused Iran of developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, potentially capable of reaching Israel and parts of Europe. Meanwhile, Iran has maintained it has no intention of developing a nuclear weapon. Story continues The latest moves from Iran appear to be more about ramping up pressure on European powers scrambling to save the JCPOA, rather than serious steps toward building a nuclear weapon. "I've seen nothing to suggest Iran is interested in building a nuclear weapon. But it is clear that the United States' strategy of threatening and pressuring Iran to abandon all of its nuclear activities has failed and failed miserably. President Trump has isolated America from its allies and weakened our leverage over Iran," Jon Wolfsthal, who served as the nuclear expert for the National Security Council under former President Barack Obama and is now a senior adviser at Global Zero, told Insider. "Tehran is now much closer to building a nuclear weapon than it was when Trump took office. That's a direct result of decisions Trump has made and it appears he has no fallback options," Wolfsthal added. "Once again his overconfidence in his own abilities and his determined approach to overturn everything done by his predecessor has made America less safe." Since Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, his administration has hit Tehran with a slew of economic sanctions as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign. Trump and his top advisers, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been adamant that this strategy will squeeze Iran into sitting down and negotiating a more stringent version of the 2015 deal orchestrated by the Obama administration. But since Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, tensions between Washington and Tehran have reached historic heights and raised fears of a new conflict in the Middle East. In this context, the president's decision to order a strike that killed Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani, pushed the US and Iran to the brink of war in January. The Soleimani strike also led Iran to announce it would no longer comply with any of the JCPOA's limitations, though Tehran did say it would continue to give access to IAEA inspectors. Read the original article on Business Insider When I was a kid in the 1950s, I attended a school summer camp where one of the fireside songs, sung to a Russian tune, was: No Lenin, no Trotsky, No Russian diplomatsky Will ever form a plotsky To overthrow the Czar. Hey! We all knew what had happened some 40 years earlier, but the ditty was fun to sing, and that was about my depth of understanding of the Bolshevik Revolution at that age. Today, another almost ancient phenomenon has magically appeared out of the radical mists of what was once considered a 20th-century failed movement. This marvel is called Bernie Sanders. With great wonderment, a majority of American folks look upon this old curmudgeon as a Marxist blast from the past. The fact that a huge segment of pampered youth, as well as a few die-hard socialists and anarchists about Bernie's age, are "feeling the Bern" has caught most of us off guard, and we don't know whether to take all this as a bad joke or as a truly serious challenge to our way of life. His drive to take the Democratic nomination in 2016 was seen by many as a fluke, but the powers that be in the Democratic National Committee made sure it stayed a fluke. Now Bernie is whispered as the unstoppable force, and "stop Bernie" is both the open (other candidates) and secret (national committee) aim of those who realize that such an extreme left-wing specter would pretty much guarantee another four years for Trump. One wide-eyed comment from the street that keeps cropping up about Bernie in contrast to the other presidential candidates is that he is "consistent" in his stands. We are used to politicians being, well, politicians; they tend to waver all over the place or, as recently in the Democratic Party, make a rush like a herd to the left. Bernie did not have to move left; he was already there 50 years ago, and hasn't moved an inch since. And most who haven't studied Marxist history will not realize how important unmoving orthodoxy is within the movement. There are different streams of Marxism, but once your boat is launched, you are required to stay in your lane with no deviation. Marxist orthodoxy makes hyper-Calvinism look like a weak sister. For understanding Bernie, it helps to contemplate an unusual Marxist stream that has a similar stubborn tendency to keep surfacing, and that is Trotskyism. Bernie Sanders does not self-identify with the Trotskyite version of the Marxist faith, but there are similarities between Bernie's stances and worldwide Trotskyism, a movement that will simply not go away. Leon Trotsky, an atheistic Jew like Bernie, was one of the main architects, along with Vladimir Lenin, of the Bolshevik takeover of Russia. He promulgated what he saw as a "purer" and more internationalist form of communism. After Lenin's death, Stalin viewed Trotsky as a mortal enemy within the Marxist fold. Thus, Trotsky, once at the apex of power in the early heady days of conquest, found himself exiled to Siberia and eventually Mexico, where he was assassinated in 1940 at the hands of an agent of Stalin. We lived briefly in Sri Lanka in the 1970s, and the strongest element in the left-wing coalition government at that time were the Trotskyites. That was one of my first introductions to this odd form of international communism. Thirty-five years in South America also taught us that Trotskyism is alive and well throughout the revolutionary elites of the Latin world. And it was once the main Marxist movement in countries like Vietnam and Bolivia. Other than Trotsky's view that Marxism was truly international, a movement without borders (he took exception to the reality that it took root in Russia at the time and could not extend itself throughout Europe), the main draw for worldwide ideological purists is that Trotsky's revolution has always been the version that was never fully applied, thus "true" socialism never had a chance to take. Trotsky never got his chance to kill his own millions, although he was the military architect of the brutal suppression of the Krondstadt upraising of communist sailors in 1921, one of the only blights on his "legacy." Bernie Sanders's version of Social Democracy can first be characterized as internationalist; he is probably the one candidate for president who has a sincere long-term ideological view that borders do not or should not exist. Most likely, he never contemplated that opening borders might help create a larger left-wing voting population, because for Bernie, borders are simply capitalistic illusions that protect bourgeoisie financial interests. Bernie's Social Democracy can truly be called "democratic" because he believes that the people themselves, especially the working class, should be moving society in the proper anti-capitalist direction. Trotsky also sincerely believed in a democratic form of Marxism, where all the faithful (at least the proletariat, mainly factory workers, if not the ignorant serfs in the countryside) should be truly involved in the revolutionary struggle against capitalism. Thus, Trotsky was highly critical of the repressive tendencies that appeared in the early Bolshevik period, and he could not countenance Stalin's move toward totalitarianism. When Bernie speaks against the dictatorial tendencies of Castro or Putin, I sense that he sincerely believes what he is saying. But he also has to defend Castro's literacy program because, after all, Fidel was a Marxist brother in arms. Somewhat like Trotsky, Bernie has never had the chance to fully apply his own revolution; it has been an "idea" for the past 50 or so years of his political activity. But very much unlike Trotsky, Bernie has not even had a brief period when he could test out his theories in the real world. So what would a Bernie Sanders presidency look like? He certainly would not be bringing in his revolution on the heels of a military takeover like in Russia in 1918, thus he would have to deal with the realities of a constitutional democracy with true divisions of power. I really doubt that even a minimum of his programs would get through Congress or past the courts, but certainly he would try. In the end, Bernie's program will most likely continue to be a dream, an ideal, and perhaps Bernie will end up like Trotsky: a symbol for that pure left-wing revolution that never got its chance. No Bernie, no Lizzie No Marxist shining city Will ever turn us tipsy To lower our great stars. Hey! Image: AFGE via Flickr. 04.03.2020 LISTEN Ghana attained independence from the British on 6th March 1957. Since then, Ghana like many other countries in the world has set aside 6th March every year to celebrate its independence. There has been wide range of views as to how resources are spent in such celebrant the detriment of the poor indigenous people. Others argue that, through its celebration, the people who fought to gain independence for Ghana are rather been recognized. For theres a saying that a nation that does not recognize its heroes is not worth dying for It is in light of the above and many others that , Rural Smile Foundation and the Anchor Foundation came together to organize Debate competition among Junior High School Students in the Ejura /Sekyedumase District. The essence is to allow these students to articulate their views, build the confidence of these young children as well as enhancing their public speaking skills. The Municipal Director of Education, Mr. Patrick Ofori praised the organizers for such an impactful program and admonished teachers , students and other stakeholders to be fully ready and take part in such beautiful events as this will help enhance the performance of the students. He also called on the organizers to make this an annual event . The representative of the Municipal Chief Executive,Mr . Opia Mensah also outline policies and programs of the Municipal Assembly to enhance education. Also in Attendance was the Municipal Commnader of Police , who was there , admonished the students to be discipline as that will make them good future leaders of the world . The Executive Director for Rural Smile Foundation, Mr. Abubakar Saddique also spoke about the importance of such events to academic performance. He called on organizations ,philanthropist to support such programs. Mr . Adams Hussein , the Executive Director for Anchor Foundation was optimistic that,this intervention and many others will help sustain the gains Made in the education sector. The judges are NanaYaw Amponsah Aduakye Romeo, Mr. Addo and Mr. Duut who are all English Language Teachers at Ejuraman Senior High School. First Contest: 1. Haramain Sharafain JHS - Speaking For the Motion 2. Ejura Model JHS - Speaking Against the Motion #TheIndependenceDebate2020 Second Contest: 1. Ejuraman Complex JHS - Speaking For the Motion 2. Ihya-au-deen JHS - Speaking Against the Motion #TheIndependenceDebate2020 At the end of the program, Here are the scores: The following are unanimous decision from the judges in the 2020 Independence debate competition for Junior High Schools in Ejura/Sekyedumase. 1. Ejuraman Complex- 326 2. Ejura Model JHS- 314 3. Ihya-au-deen JHS 249 4. Haramain Sharafain 225 Well done to our young great debaters and congratulations to Ejuraman Complex for winning the 2020 debate competition. #TheIndependenceDebate #RuralSmileFoundation #TheAnchorFoundation #BuildingConfidence #EnhancingPublicSpeaki Seoul: Makers of soju, South Korea's national drink and one of the world's best selling spirits, are jumping into the fight on the largest outbreak of coronavirus outside China by sharing their stockpiles of alcohol with makers of sanitisers. Disinfectants, such as hand sanitisers, are flying off the shelves, along with medical-grade masks, as infections in South Korea have surged past 5000 in just over a month since its first patient was diagnosed. South Korean soju makers have responded to soaring ethanol demand for sanitisers by donating the alcohol that goes into the drink, a distilled spirit with 17 per cent to 20 per cent alcohol by volume traditionally based on rice, but now often wheat or potatoes. "Ethanol demand for disinfection has grown while supply is limited...we have decided to provide it," an official of Daesun Distilling, based in the southeastern city of Busan. The number of coronavirus infections in Hyderabad rose to three on Wednesday with two persons testing positive in preliminary checks, Telanganas Public Health and Family Welfare department said in a statement. The samples of the two persons have been sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune for confirmation. Of the two, one has travel history to Italy. The other is a contact of the 24-year old techie who tested positive for the virus on Monday. Also Watch | Coronavirus: 28 positive cases in India; PM Modi to skip Holi Milan events The two had undergone preliminary tests at Hyderabads state-run Gandhi hospital. More than 40 people who had come in contact with the affected techie have been kept under observation. On Monday, 47 people including these people had undergone the tests. While 45 tested negative, two tested positive. The Telangana government has put in place 3,000 beds for isolation and close to 300 beds for patients requiring treatment. The health officials also began publicising the preventive measures being taken to ensure that the virus doesnt spread. The virus was first detected in India in Kerala in January when three people tested positive. All three later recovered. The infection has surged recently with 14 people including an Indian testing positive at the ITBPs quarantine facility at Chhawla near Delhi on Wednesday. They were among 21 Italians and three Indians at the quarantine facility. Two Italian tourists in Jaipur have also been confirmed positive for coronavirus. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has announced that passengers from all countries will be screened at airports as a precautionary measure to stop the virus from spreading. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman K Krishnasagar Rao said the scheduled public rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on in Hyderabad on March 15 has been postponed on account of fears of coronavirus. The decision was taken to reduce mass physical contact of people during the public rally in the current context of serious precautions being undertaken by the central government to arrest the spread of coronavirus, Rao said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Srinivasa Rao Apparasu Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience. ...view detail The top two governing officials of the San Antonio area on Monday blocked the release of quarantined cruise ship evacuees, declaring a public health emergency after a woman allowed to leave quarantine later tested positive for the new coronavirus. Declarations by Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff of a local state of disaster and public safety emergency effectively puts the more than 120 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in limbo, unaware of how long they will be held in seclusion at Lackland Air Force Base to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Nirenberg and Wolff, the countys top elected official, also said all passengers must test negative for the virus three times before they can be released. The woman who sparked the alarm tested positive for the illness last month after she was evacuated from Wuhan, China, but was released from quarantine Saturday following two negative tests, officials said. After the womans release, health officials learned that a third lab test came back weakly positive. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that she was asymptomatic at the time of her release and met all criteria for release, and that she was returned to quarantine after the new positive test was discovered. She was out of quarantine for about 12 hours, during which time she went to a hotel and a shopping mall, said Dr. Anita Kurian, assistant director of San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department. Kurian said officials consider the exposure risk for people at the mall and hotel to be low, noting that the woman spent much of her time sitting alone at the North Star Malls food court. Two people who encountered her at the hospital are at a medium risk, she said. The mall was closed Monday afternoon and was expected to remain closed until Tuesday afternoon. Nirenberg said Monday that it was totally unacceptable that the woman was released from quarantine. We simply cannot have a screw-up like this from our federal partners, he said. The CDC said Sunday night that it was dealing with an unfolding situation with many unknowns. CDC is making decisions on a case-by-case basis using the best available science at the time, the agency said in a statement. CDCs priority is to protect both patients and communities. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 He said the defendant, being the Director-General of the Broadcasting station, abused his office when he authorized travelling allowance of N7m in his name for journeys not embarked upon. MBABANE - Pan-African Asset Management South Africa (Pty) Ltd has levelled more accusations against the main shareholders in its Eswatini subsidiary company. The company is fresh from accusing Abel Sibandze of attempting to fraudulently withdraw the base capital of E1 million, which it deposited at FNB Swaziland (Eswatini) as part of the E2 million for the establishment of the Eswatini subsidiary, Pan-African Asset Management Swaziland (Pty) Ltd (PAAMSZL). Pan-African Asset Management South Africa (PAAM) has accused Aquarian Asset Manager (Pty) Ltd and Sibandze of fraudulently transferring 30 per cent of its shares in Pan-African Asset Management Swaziland to Aquarius Asset Manager (Pty) Ltd. Sibandze is a former Stanlib Swaziland chief executive officer and he is the chairman of PAAMSZL. He is a former Board member and CEO of PAAM. He resigned on August 12, 2019 and he allegedly caused to be effected the transfer of shares into PAAMSZL from PAAM. PAAM, an asset management company, is a 30 per cent shareholder in PAAMSZL. PSG Management Services (Pty) Limited South Africa is a 68 per cent majority shareholder in PAAM. It is also a substantial creditor to PAAMSZL. Aquarian Asset Manager is the main shareholder in PAAMSZL. There is a pending matter in which the High Court issued an interim order interdicting Sibandze and Aquarian Asset Manager (PTY) Limited from withdrawing the base capital of E1 million. PAAM has filed an urgent application for the transfer of its 30 per cent shares to Aquarian Asset Manager (PTY) Limited to be set aside. PAAM also wants Aquarian Asset Manager and Sibandze to forthwith reinstate it as a 30 per cent shareholder in PAAMSZL. Alternatively, PAAM applied that the registrar of the High Court of Eswatini be authorised and directed to sign and execute all documents that are necessary to facilitate the transfer of 30 per cent shares from the Aquarian Asset Manager to PAAM. Chairman of the interim Board of PAAM Tshaka Mdiya alerted the court of an email it received from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa. relinquished In that email, FSCA allegedly informed PAAM that they had received communication from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to the effect that PAAM had relinquished 30 per cent of its shareholding in PAAMSZL. The veracity of these allegations is still to be tested in court. PAAMSZL, Sibandze and the respondent are yet to file responding papers. Zweli Jele of Robinson Bertram is representing PAAM. Sibandze is represented by M. Mabuza and Associates. FSCA requested PAAM to confirm if they had relinquished 30 per cent of its shareholding of PAAMSZL to Sibandze and if PAAM had any objection to the intended capital withdrawal of E1 million. Mdiya said upon receipt of this email, they notified FSCA that they had never relinquished their shareholding in PAAMSZL and that they objected to the withdrawal of the capital base of E1 million. He submitted that they immediately travelled to Eswatini and met with officers of FSRA and it allegedly transpired that as far as the regulatory was concerned, proper notification of the change of PAAMSZLs shareholding had not been provided except for communication from Sibandze which triggered the FSCAs enquiry. Mdiya said they discovered that as at June 30, 2019 PAAMSZLs shares had been transferred to Aquarian Asset Manager (Pty) Ltd. He alleged that the Form C as at June 30, 2019 states that Aquarian Asset Manager holds 100 per cent shares in PAAMSZL and that 30 per cent shares from PAAM had been transferred to Aquarian Asset Manager. We have investigated this matter and have established that the transfer of the shares was fraudulent in its entirety. First, there has never been a resolution by either the Board of Directors or the shareholders of the first applicant (PAAM) to sell and/or to transfer the shares in the first respondent (PAAMSZL). That statement is false. Second, there has never been a sale of the first applicants 30 per cent shares in the first respondent to the second respondent. That statement is false, Mdiya submitted. Mdiya also informed the court that Sibandze had never been mandated by the shareholders of PAAM to transfer or alienate PAAMs shares in PAAMSZL. He mentioned that there was never an approved resolution by the shareholders to either disinvest from Eswatini or for PAAMs shares in PAAMSZL to be sold and transferred to Aquarian Asset Manager. It is apparent that the third respondent (Sibandze) fraudulently misrepresented to the registrar of companies on July 30, 2019 that the first applicant had agreed to sell and transfer the 30 per cent shares to the second respondent. It is crucial to note that the date of the transfer in fact precedes the meeting of the Board of Directors which had been tasked to consider this resolution. fraudulent According to Mdiya, PAAM is entitled to an order for the shares to be transferred back to it because the actions of Sibandze to allegedly transfer the shares to Aquarian Asset Manager were wholly fraudulent. The first applicant (PAAM) lawfully acquired the 30 per cent shares and has never consented or sold such shares to the second respondent (Aquarian Asset Manager). The second and third respondents (Sibandze)s actions amount to spoliation as there was never a legal instrument permitting them to transfer the shares. Mdiya informed the court that the matter was urgent because Aquarian Asset Manager and Sibandze were allegedly on course to alienate PAAMs shares. He submitted that they had already requested FSRA to transfer PAAMSZLs licence to an authorised third party. He also alleged that Aquarian Asset Manager and Sibandze attempted to withdraw the E1 million which is ring-fenced at FNB. The matter is pending before Judge Cyril Maphanga. The embattled boss of a charity hit by sex pest claims was last night accused of making an 'outrageous' attack on the official watchdog that investigated its failure to protect female staff. A leaked memo from Kevin Watkins, chief executive of Save The Children UK, puts the blame for it losing 16million of taxpayers' money on the Charity Commission for investigating the charity's cover-up of sexual harassment and bullying of female staff by two former bosses. The memo plays down the seriousness of the two-year inquiry, saying it is 'no indication' of the extent of wrongdoing. And it claims the Commission is struggling to cope with a series of big investigations because of a cash shortage. It goes on to admit that despite promising to root out mistreatment of staff at SCUK, 28 per cent said they 'had experienced some form of workplace incivility', with those from minorities worst affected. A leaked memo from Kevin Watkins (pictured) puts the blame for it losing 16million of taxpayers' money on the Charity Commission for investigating the charity's cover-up of sexual harassment and bullying of female staff by two former bosses The memo by Mr Watkins was disclosed on the eve of tomorrow's publication of a damning report into SCUK by the Charity Commission. The inquiry was ordered after former chief executive Justin Forsyth and his deputy Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, were exposed as sex pests. Mr Forsyth, 54, who worked for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in Downing Street, quit a senior Unicef post in 2018 after he was accused of sending 'unsuitable' text messages to female SCUK employees. Mr Cox, 44, who also advised Mr Brown, faced similar claims about his time at SCUK and was accused of sexually assaulting a government official in the United States. The Commission will accuse SCUK of 'comprehensive failures' by letting Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox resign quietly in 2015 despite their misconduct. It says the charity let down women employees badly. It is expected to lead to calls for Mr Watkins, a SCUK trustee when the scandal was covered up, to resign. He has always denied any wrongdoing and says major changes have been introduced to safeguard female staff. The inquiry was ordered after former chief executive Justin Forsyth (right) and his deputy Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, were exposed as sex pests The leaked memo, sent yesterday, tells SCUK staff 'how to talk about the report' to minimise its impact and win back the 16million annual grant withdrawn by the Department for International Development because of the scandal. It appears to blame the Commission for losing it the money rather than Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox's behaviour and its attempt to sweep it all under the carpet. It adds that the inquiry has 'taken longer than expected - but this shouldn't be taken as an indication of what the Commission is finding out. It has publicly stated that it is struggling with a series of big investigations at the same time as it has faced major budget cuts'. The memo bans SCUK staff from talking to the media and reveals new security checks have been ordered to stop journalists gaining access to its London HQ tomorrow. One source said: 'It is outrageous to point the finger of blame at the Charity Commission and demean the inquiry when SCUK only has itself to blame. Instead, they use heavy handed measures and spin to carry on covering things up. When will they learn?' Despite downplaying the inquiry, the memo admits it failed to deal properly with Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox. And it also reveals that, despite improvements, many staff are still unhappy with the way they are treated, particularly those from minorities. SCUK last night said the charity had co-operated fully with the probe. A spokesman added comments in the memo about the Commission were 'already in the public domain'. The biggest impacts on the sea life in Swansea Bay, Wales, come from waves and tides rather than human activity, a wide-ranging new study - encompassing over 170 species of fish and other sea life such as crabs, squid and starfish - has revealed. Combining data on species, human impacts, and wave and tide patterns, the study, by a Swansea University team, provides the most comprehensive picture to date of the factors that drive change in Swansea Bay. It will give planners a better understanding of the Bay and of the potential impacts of new developments on its ecosystem. With its two urban centres in Swansea and Port Talbot, Swansea Bay is home to around 290,000 people and is a centre for industry, including a large steelworks and two ports. It has the second highest tidal range in the world, as Atlantic tides are funnelled into the narrowing Bristol Channel and then spread across the shallow bay. For scientists studying what's happening to the environment, highly-urbanised coastal areas like Swansea Bay present a problem. There are so many different natural and human influences on the environment that it can be difficult to disentangle them, or to work out which are the most significant. Yet without this knowledge of the full picture, planners and environmental managers cannot make the best decisions about ecological impact. This is where the new research comes in. The Swansea team, which included a biologists and engineers, gathered data on species, human impacts and wave and tide patterns and fed it into a statistical model. This meant they could then assess the significance of different factors. They found that: The waves and tides had a bigger impact on the Bay than human activity Waves and tides accounted for over half of all the variation in species that was observed Different species were affected by different factors, and to varying degrees - for example, dredge spoil disposals had the biggest impact on fish, whereas marine life was not affected by wastewater discharge. The impetus for this study came from the tidal lagoon project, which revealed that there were gaps in our understanding of Swansea Bay, a highly-used, urbanised coastal ecosystem. So the Swansea University team, who had been working on separate studies, joined forces to produce this new research as part of SEACAMS, an EU-funded initiative focusing on marine renewable energy. Dr Ruth Callaway of the College of Science at Swansea University, who led the work, said: "It may be a surprise given that it is a highly-urbanised area, but the biggest impact on the ecology of Swansea Bay are the waves and tides. Our research shows that these natural factors shape the marine life more than human activity, such as wastewater discharge and discarding dredged material. However, Swansea Bay remains a complex ecosystem that has been changed dramatically over the past centuries, and we need as full a picture as possible of impacts on it. That's what our research findings will help to provide." Dr Callaway underlined how the scope of the research allowed them to build a comprehensive picture: "What is new about this research is that we used a combination of computer models and empirical field data: we examined the wave environment and tidal currents and measured various natural and human factors. We also studied a wide range of species. Often judgement about ecological quality and environmental impact is based on a sub-set of coastal fauna, for example the biodiversity of small animals living inside the seafloor sediments. In contrast, our investigation also included fauna living on top of the seafloor, revealing significant differences between the different groups." Dr Iain Fairley, of Swansea University College of Engineering, who modelled the wave environment of the Bay, said: "The high correlation between both hydrodynamic models of this study and each of the surveyed faunal communities confirmed that good quality three-dimensional environmental models can be useful tools in understanding the distribution of marine life. They are important tools to support ecosystem management, particularly in areas with complex, highly variable hydrodynamic patterns." Dr Jose Horrillo-Caraballo, also of the College of Engineering, added: "In the paper we discuss the balance between the hydrodynamic regime and anthropogenic factors in shaping the biota. We touch on the question of resistance of an ecosystem to change, but also differentiate between the current and historical situation." The research was published in "Science of the Total Environment". ### Notes to Editors Read the research paper: authors: Ruth Callaway, Iain Fairley, Jose Horrillo-Caraballo, Swansea University. Published in Science of the Total Environment About SEACAMS: Now in its second phase, SEACAMS2 is a 17 M project partnership between Bangor and Swansea universities, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The main objective of SEACAMS2 is to assist the development of opportunities in 'Low carbon, Energy and Environment' in Wales, focussing on marine renewable energy. The Colleges of Engineering and Science jointly approached questions about the Swansea Bay ecosystem. Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering a first class student experience and has one of the best employability rates of graduates in the UK. The University has the highest possible rating for teaching - the Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018 and was commended for its high proportions of students achieving consistently outstanding outcomes. Swansea climbed 14 places to 31st in the Guardian University Guide 2019, making us Wales' top ranked university, with one of the best success rates of graduates gaining employment in the UK and the same overall satisfaction level as the Number 1 ranked university. The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results saw Swansea make the 'biggest leap among research-intensive institutions' in the UK (Times Higher Education, December 2014) and achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK. The University is in the top 300 best universities in the world, ranked in the 251-300 group in The Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018. Swansea University now has 23 main partners, awarding joint degrees and post-graduate qualifications. The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020 and aims to continue to extend its global reach and realise its domestic and international potential. Swansea University is a registered charity. No.1138342. Visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk For more information: Kevin Sullivan,Swansea University Public Relations Office Tel: 01792 513245, k.g.sullivan@swansea.ac.uk Despite being told to stay isolated, the first New Hampshire resident to test positive for the coronavirus reportedly attended an invite-only party nearby in Vermont Friday. Management from The Engine Room, a public event space in White River Junction posted to Facebook Tuesday that they had been informed by the New Hampshire Department of Public Health that the individual had attended a party there. We have a professional cleaning company coming in to take care of this, the management said in the Facebook post. The post emphasized that both the New Hampshire Department of Public Health and the Vermont Department of Public Health had been in contact with the company. Both Health Departments stated that this is Low-Risk situation and recommended a thorough cleansing of The Engine Room to ensure the safety of all staff and guests, they said in the post. In a press conference Monday, New Hampshires state epidemiologist Benjamin Chan announced that the state has tested four people for coronavirus so far and one of those tests have come back positive for the disease caused by it, known as COVID-19. On Tuesday, they announced a second person was presumed to have it as well. According to NBC Boston, health officials say the second individual to contract the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus, was in close contact with the first patient. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., announce the second person to test positive for the virus was an employee of the hospital. As with the first patient identified on Monday, March 2, we have determined that this second patient has had no contact with patients, the hospital said in a statement. This patient was a close contact of the first identified patient and had gone into quarantine. Officials said they expect more coronavirus cases to be found. The single best thing for the public to do right now is to continue to follow typical flu prevention measures, including washing your hands often, avoiding touching your eyes, mouth or nose with unwashed hands and to avoid close contact with people who are sick," New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said at the press conference on Monday. According to management at The Engine Room, health officials said there was no reason to close the event space and that events would be going forward for the week and weekend. We just want to let the public know we are taking this seriously and following all the recommendations of the VT & NH Health Departments, they said in a post. Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has expressed that something is unclear about the Italian citizen who tested positive of Coronavirus. Fani-Kayode queried why the name and pictures of the coronavirus patient have not been revealed by the government. Also Read: Fani-Kayode Hails El-rufais Decision Not To Negotiate With Bandits The former minister also queried why the government found it hard to locate those that were on flight with him, and others that had contact with him after leaving Milan to Lagos. He is also wondering why the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, went to see the patient in the isolation centre without wearing protective gear. See his tweet below: Kevin Magnussen says he can imagine Haas team owner Gene Haas pulling out of Formula 1. Having entered the sport in 2016 to promote his company Haas Automation, Gene Haas made headlines recently by suggesting the team may not be on the 2021 grid. Magnussen, who drives for the small American team, told BT newspaper that his boss's warning makes sense. "Gene is definitely tired of being second to last like last year," he said. "I don't know how it affects his plans for the future, but there's no doubt he won't bother being in Formula 1 if he has to be last or ninth," Magnussen added. "I don't even have to ask him that, because I know it." However, the Danish driver said he's not worried about Haas pulling out of F1 and potentially ending his career. "It's not something I've prepared for, because I don't think we'll be ninth again," Magnussen said. "2019 was a one-off. "I believe that if we deliver like we should, Gene would like to continue." Magnussen said the new rules and budget cap for 2021 should help with those ambitions. "It doesn't mean we will have the same opportunities as the big teams, but I think Haas is a team that can benefit from the new rules," said the 27-year-old. (GMM) PIERRE | Gov. Kristi Noem once again personally made her case for SB157, the bill that would streamline county zoning decisions in South Dakota. As she did before the Senate State Affairs Committee earlier in the session, Wednesday morning Noem testified before the House State Affairs Committee declaring: The support for this legislation is strong. SB157 is designed to put some clarity into the process of applying for the conditional use permits that are often used in confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. The bill changes the number of county commissioners needed on a conditional use permit approval from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority of the members present. It also allows for court costs to be paid by the losing party in a court challenge. We must fix the issues that will hold us back, Noem said, offering the legislation as a boost for economic development. That development too often has been highjacked by a vocal few, she said. Noem policy adviser Jason Simmons went through the sections of the bill, noting that the time limit on an approved conditional use permit would start after the appeals are finished. In some cases, appeals drag on for so long that time runs out on the original permit. The clock starts ticking after the appeal, Simmons said. Gary Drewes, vice chair for the Pennington County Board of Commissioners, said the bill won't change how the board votes or the work they do as county officials. He didn't know if there would be any immediate impact for the county. "It still requires a majority vote to make a decision on it," said Drewes, noting he's been on board with the bill since it was announced at a local stock show. "If someone wants to bring some sort of industry in, it allows for more timeliness in order to get through the process. It doesn't take anybody's rights away." Volga farmer Scott VanderWal, representing the S.D. Farm Bureau, asked the committee to approve the bill because of the positive impact it will have on the next generation of farmers and ranchers. According to VanderWal, passage of SB157 would ensure that more families are able to bring their children back to their farm and ranch operations. Were exporting our most valuable resource, he said. This can be a way for a farmers heirs to come back to the farm. Brian Donahoe, representing the S.D. Pork Producers Council, said that South Dakota is unique in its requirement that conditional use permits must be approved by a two-thirds majority. A simple majority is not something you should be afraid of here, he said. The bill also had support from bankers, the S.D. Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wind energy developers, cooperatives, corn growers, livestock growers, the ethanol industry and chambers of commerce from Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Brookings. The bill was opposed by former legislator Shawn Tornow, a Republican from Sioux Falls, who said that Republican members of the committee should heed their conservative principles. Government should not be in the position of picking winners and losers, he said. Tornow criticized the need to having the loser in an appeal pay court costs. Youre targeting neighbors who may have reasonable concerns, he said. Were going to ding you with costs. Rebecca Terk of Dakota Rural Action said speeding the permit process would not allow county commissioners the time they need to consider all the ramifications of their decisions. CAFOs can cause heavy use of infrastructure, Terk said, noting that South Dakotas county roads need $257 million worth of repair and county bridges need repairs worth $250 million. We need those super-majority decisions, Terk said. Rep. Steven Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls, asked why the vote needed to be taken by the members present and not the full commission. He envisioned a scenario where two members of a five-member board were absent, two of the remaining members abstained and the decision on the conditional use permit would be left to just one commissioner. Donahoe said that situation would likely never happen. With a two-thirds requirement, a vocal minority can kill a conditional use permit by getting just one of five members to vote no, Donahoe said. Haugaard said he could imagine a commissioner staying away from the meeting because he didnt want to offend his neighbors. If youre going to be on that commission, you go vote. The bill was passed by the committee on a vote of 10-3. It now goes to the House floor. It has already been endorsed by the Senate. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHEYENNE In his decade in office, Wyoming Sen. Chris Rothfuss said he was only aware of two occasions when someone challenged a governors appointments to one of the states dozens of volunteer boards and commissions. On Tuesday afternoon, he and his colleagues dealt with three of them. Nominees to the state boards are often voted on all at once by the Senate through a process called the consent list, which this year included 79 separate names. The process is often little more than ceremonial. However on Tuesday, Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, asked to remove three of them for debate on the floor, including two private citizens seeking unpaid positions on the states Judicial Review and Ethics Commission Ryan McConnaughey and Keren Meister-Emerich and Dr. Rene Hinkle, a Cheyenne-based OB-GYN seeking a re-appointment as the lone representative for her field on the states Board of Medicine. Though all three nominees were eventually successful, this was a move long-tenured lawmakers like Rothfuss consider to be highly unusual. Past challenges are typically related to legitimate questions about the candidates qualifications to perform their duties. Steinmetzs challenges, however which were not elaborated on the floor appeared to be political in nature, mired in some of the nominees previous statements on abortion and on LGBTQ rights. We try to ensure an informal vetting process so that any concerns are raised beforehand to avoid contentious personal attacks on the floor, Rothfuss said Tuesday. These are not supposed to be politicized, and a persons qualifications are emphasized over their personal beliefs and political concerns. Steinmetz wrote a letter to Gov. Mark Gordon on Sunday objecting to the trio of nominees. She told Gordon that the three demonstrated the inability to remain impartial in the areas they would oversee, and asked for candidates more in step with Wyoming values. She declined to elaborate when questioned by a reporter. Gordon, for his part, maintained his support for the nominees. The Senates longest-tenured member, Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, said he recalled a number of challenges to gubernatorial appointments in his four decades in the Legislature. However, very few of those if any have been purely political in nature, Scott said. There has to be something really wrong for the Senate to overturn a candidate hand-picked by the governors office, he added. In an interview with the Star-Tribune, he recalled numerous scenarios in which that has occurred a nominee to the University of Wyomings board of trustees rejected for their interest in the perks of the job over a duty to the university, for example, or the potential spouse or relative of a sitting lawmaker rejected for a potential conflict of interest even one instance when the governor at the time failed to do the proper research into someones background, nominating a Republican for a position intended to go to a Democrat. But never like Tuesday, Scott said. There was some political motivation there, I think, he said. And a lot of us thought that was improper. That was probably why the effort went nowhere. Thats not to say Steinmetz was alone in her efforts. While no lawmaker spoke out against any of the nominees on the Senate floor, a bloc of conservative Republicans did vote against the nominations of Meister-Emerich and McConnaughey, lodging five and eight votes against them, respectively. Meanwhile Hinkle who Sen. Affie Ellis, R-Cheyenne, noted delivered two of her children received 13 no votes in an apparent vote against her positions on abortion, which are often based in fact rather than ideology. Ultimately, those who did vote for her did so for one reason: an ability to competently perform the job she was pursuing. I may not have agreed with her, but thats not what were looking for, Scott said on the floor in support of her. Were looking for a voice of common sense and reason on the Wyoming Board of Medicine. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. R emember The Diana Effect? For months after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, every badly run company in the land took the chance mendaciously to blame the tragedy for their woes. Coronavirus will surely be seized upon by the same duplicitous brand of bosses seeking to use external disaster to excuse their incompetence. So, fist bumps to Intu for not taking this well-trodden path. The fact is, its efforts to raise 1.5 billion were doomed long before the virus took hold, and it gives the bug nary a mention today. The fact is, investors were never going to chuck more good money at a bad business like this. Shopping malls have fallen in value by nearly a third since 2017 with no sign of a let-up. The Trafford Centre alone fell the thick end of half a billion quid in the past 12 months. So, what next for Intu, with 4.7 billion of debt, 109 million of equity and a customer base made up of retailers, that structurally screwed group who can now genuinely put coronavirus on their growing list of sorrows. Well, shareholders are an irrelevance, so the question is, what will the banks demand? Fire sales? Hopefully not. Prices are falling fast enough without sticking distressed sale on the front lawn. Besides, a flood of Intu centres coming up for sale will make the market even worse. No, this is time for calm. Trade the sites through the virus, perhaps splitting them into a good-mall-bad-mall structure, and break it up gradually. Academicians, researchers and cultural psychoanalysts gathered to examine contemporary ideas that define modern South Asia at Oxford University Press's (OUP) Open Quote today. Themed around 'Religion and Society in Contemporary South Asia', the conference took place at OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat with various panel discussions and lectures on forms and levels of engagement between religion and society that have developed in South Asia. Religious diversity and pluralism is increasing all over the world, and globalization is creating a widespread awareness of that. The growing influence of religions in public politics and culture around the world is contradicting conventional narratives of secularization, and South Asia, which has the most astounding cultural and religious diversity, is no exception to this fact. With an aim to address, introspect and redefine phrases like religion, secularism, and modernity and other socio-cultural matters, the conference reflected upon key issues including different cultural nuances and changing definition of religion in the modern-day context; economical dimensions of religion; issues of religion, law and legality; representation of religion in popular culture amongst others. "Religion has acted as a major binding force in society by imbibing certain moral values, especially in South Asia where religion is a predominant force across all nations. Over the decades, religion has blended with politics in society and religious influence which has led to changing meanings and definitions of the concept," said Sudhir Kakar, noted psychoanalyst with key focus on cultural psychology and the psychology of religion, while commenting on the theme and sessions. "I would like to congratulate Oxford University Press for bringing critical topics on the table and hope to get meaningful discussions out of it and look forward to associations in the future as well," added Kakar. The sessions saw notable speakers and panelists including Brahma Prakash - Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University; Ali Khan Mahmudabad - Assistant Professor, History and Political Science Ashoka University; Aijaz Ashraf Wani - Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science University of Kashmir; and Soumyabrata Choudhury - Associate Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University. "At OUP, we are committed to meet the growing and varying learning needs of students, teachers, scholars and general readers. We are delighted to announce Open Quote and see the conference evolve as a platform that opens doors to address key issues concerning South Asia," said Naveen Choudhary - Associate Director, Marketing, Oxford University Press (India). "Future of any country rests on the educated and informed youth. Hence it is important to provide them deeper understanding of fundamentals, socio-economic and cultural aspects that govern any country. Through this conference, we seek to introspect and stimulate informed dialogue between the participants, thereby making fresh ideas available to the larger public, especially the young generation," added Naveen, while highlighting the significance of the sessions. Oxford University Press plans to host similar conferences across leading universities in the country on subject matters relevant to the South Asian market. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Since December, Washington has been helping Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia hammer out an agreement acceptable to them all and that they would sign the final text at the end of February. In an unexpected move, Ethiopia refrained from attending the last round in a series of negotiations that started four months ago. President Trump made a priority to try and work with each of the three significantly impacted countries to try and get a good outcome for all of them, to effectively mediate. And so weve been working on this many of the elements of an agreement are now moving closer to finality, but theres still work that remains, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a joint press conference in Addis Ababa on 18 February, referring to the crisis over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He did not specify what work remains. He also said, I think theres a solution that will work, but our mission is not to impose a solution on this, but rather to get the three countries to come together around a solution that each of them acknowledges works for the concerns of all three nations. It appears that the US has been let down, by Ethiopia in particular. Ethiopia refrained from signing, claiming the need for more consultations. Egypt signed the agreement even though it did not meet all of its demands, especially concerning the amount of water it would receive during the first filling of the dam, which will be 37 billion m3 of water. Egypts current quota of Nile waters is 55 billion m3 per year. During the negotiating rounds in December, Egypt indicated a willingness to accept 40 billion m3 in order to give Ethiopia the chance to fill the reservoir sufficiently to begin electricity production within a reasonable period of time but without causing a major water crisis for Egypt. Pompeo may have suspected that Ethiopia would refrain from signing the agreement at the scheduled time. Perhaps this is what he meant by theres still work that remains. But refraining is not refusing which offers the US an opening to deal with the embarrassment. Washington may be convinced that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed really needs time to consult with others in Ethiopia where the federal system limits his powers to take major decisions and where opposition groups and other rivals may seize on any lapses or mistakes to score points in the domestic power game. On the other hand, Washington may take advantage of Ethiopias stance in order to assert pressure on Egypt on other issues of concern to US interests in the Arab region. Perhaps this is to be inferred from Pompeos remark that the US had no intention of pressuring any of the three parties to sign the agreement. Washington knows that Ethiopia is unlikely to sign unless Washington pressures it to do so. Egypt hopes for something more from an important ally such as Washington, especially when it comes to such a vital question as water resources. Certainly, Egypt has shown itself to be committed to the spirit of the US mediating efforts, even if all its demands have not been met. Washington will hopefully take Egypts cooperative and constructive attitude into account during its communications with Addis Ababa over the coming months. Ethiopia was present in every negotiating round. The agreement that stood ready for its signature was built on years of technical studies and featured rules and principles for filling and operating the dam conducive to the fulfilment of Ethiopias right to benefit from its ambitious project as soon as possible without causing significant harm to Egypt. Egypt, meanwhile, is clearly the party that made significant compromises in order to enable Ethiopia to achieve its developmental aspirations. Egypt also refrained from putting the US, as a mediator, in an awkward position, unlike Ethiopia. Fortunately, remarks by another US official have helped allay some of Egypts concerns over certain parts of Pompeos statement, especially the vague reference to work that still remains and the suggestion that the US mediating role is so neutral that it doesnt have the power to pressure a party that creates obstacles for no convincing reason. It was US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin who offered the much needed clarification and reassurance. In his statement on 28 February, Mnuchin said that the US looked forward to Ethiopia concluding its internal consultations to provide for the signing of the agreement at the earliest possible time and stressed that final testing and filling [of GERD] should not take place without an agreement. He added, We also note the concern of downstream populations in Sudan and Egypt due to unfinished work on the safe operation of the GERD, and the need to implement all necessary dam safety measures in accordance with international standards before filling begins. Mnuchins statement indicates that the US may be prepared to pressure Ethiopia. It tells Addis Ababa that Washington can understand the Ethiopian governments need for further consultations, but that it would not find it acceptable if that plea for time turned out to be a pretext for evading its commitments and for attempting to fill the dam and produce a fait accompli before an agreement is signed. Certainly, it is not in Washingtons interests to forego its responsibilities towards Egypt, an important ally that has shown its flexibility throughout the negotiations, in contrast to Ethiopias obstructiveness. If Ethiopia continues to procrastinate in order to impose de facto realities harmful to Egypt, Cairo will have no alternative other than to bring the matter to the UN Security Council. In this case, Ethiopia would be angered if this question is brought to the UN Security Council which could sanction Ethiopia without US opposition. *A version of this article appears in print in the 5 March, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi, March 4 : Working Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava, Special CP Satish Golcha on Wednesday briefed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the current situation in the capital. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was also present in the meeting that lasted for 15 minutes, according to sources. The meeting was held at Shah's chamber in Parlianent. Shrivastava was summoned by the Home Ministry. Shah wanted update regarding law and order situation in northeast Delhi which faced the deadly violence that left 47 people dead and over 200 injured. As the government on Wednesday announced in the Lok Sabha that it would hold a debate on March 11, after Holi, Shah needed a detailed update on the issue. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text [March 04, 2020] Destinations Career Academy of Colorado Now Enrolling Grades 6-12 for the 2020-2021 School Year Students interested in getting a head start on future career plans are invited to enroll at Destinations Career Academy of Colorado (CODCA) for the 2020-2021 school year. Students in grades 6-12 from across the state can pair a solid academic foundation with hands-on learning experiences in in-demand career fields such as agriculture, business and marketing, education and teacher training, health care, legal and law enforcement, information technology, and STEM. "Middle school and high school is a critical time, when students are just beginning to imagine what's possible for their future," said Emma Phipps, CODCA's Career and Technical Education Dean. "At CODCA, our students have a unique opportunity to discover future career opportunities that really motivate them. We're excited to extend that opportunity to middle school students as well." CODCA students have access to a rich curriculum taught by state-licensed teachers in virtual classrooms. In addition to career-focused coursework, students are offered the core subjects of English/language arts, math, science, history and world languages; Advanced Placement courses are also available. CODCA is the first online school in the state to receive program approvals in Career and Technical Education from the Colorado Community College System Board, for its business and marketing, health science, STEM and IT pathways. As a public school, CODCA is available tuition-free to students in grades 6-12 who reside anywhere in the state. Many families and students choose online and blended learning because it provides an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar education. CODCA offers a supportive online and blended learning community. Teachers regularly communicate with students and their families via email, phone and during one-on-one meetings online to ensure academic and personal success. Virtual student clubs and in-person activities such as work-based learning, field trips, community service opportunities and social gatherings enhance the student experience. CODCA is home to chapters of several national student organizations, including FBLA, HOSA, SkillsUSA and National Honors Society. More information on CODCA, including how to enroll can be found at codca.k12.com or by downloading the free K12 mobile app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices. About Destinations Career Academy of Colorado Destinations Career Academy of Colorado (CODCA) is an accredited, full-time public school program of the Julesburg School District that serves Colorado students in grades 6-12. As part of the Colorado public school system, CODCA is tuition-free, and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about CODCA, visit codca.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005046/en/ [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] Turkey's president warned a fresh migrant crisis could only be resolved if Europe supports its efforts in Syria, as violent clashes broke out between refugees and police on the Greek border. Thousands of migrants have massed at the Greek frontier since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that they would no longer be prevented from trying to enter Europe. A Turkish official claimed one migrant was killed and five injured by live fire from the Greek side. The claim was denied by Athens, but an AFP photographer earlier saw a migrant shot in the leg as a group of refugees tried to cut their way through the fencing near the official crossing at Pazarkule. The group then threw stones at the Greek police, who responded with tear gas, while multiple shots and cries were heard. Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan said Europe must support Turkey's "political and humanitarian solutions in Syria" if it wants to resolve the situation. Turkey already hosts some four million refugees, most of them Syrians, and has been fighting the Syrian regime in a bid to prevent another influx from Idlib, the last rebel stronghold, which has been under sustained attack by Damascus since December. Close to one million people in Idlib have been displaced by the regime assault, which is backed by Russian air power, though they are currently blocked from entering Turkey. Erdogan said he hopes a ceasefire would be "swiftly established" when he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. Despite being on opposing sides of the nine-year war, Turkey and Russia have kept lines of communication open. But the relationship has been heavily strained as more than 50 Turkish soldiers have died in Idlib in recent weeks. The defence ministry said Wednesday that three soldiers had been killed by regime fire in the past 24 hours. Turkey said it had "immediately" retaliated, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine regime troops were killed by Turkish drone strikes in the Saraqeb area. Ankara officially announced an offensive against Syrian forces over the weekend, demanding they pull back behind lines agreed under the 2018 Sochi deal with Russia. "We expect Russia to fulfil its promises as a guarantor country and stop the regimes attacks and to use its influence to ensure the regime adheres to the Sochi deal's borders," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, NTV broadcaster reported. But many say Russia is determined to see the Syrian government take back full control of its territory. "There might be a ceasefire announced after the talks between Putin and Erdogan but it'll be for show," a Western diplomat told AFP. "I believe Putin will tell Erdogan that's it for his actions in Syria." The EU has slammed Turkey for what it says is "blackmail" over the migrants issue. It has promised 700 million euros (USD 777 million) to deal with the crisis on the Greek frontier, and dispatched a rapid intervention team from its border agency Frontex. Turkey agreed in 2016 to stop the flow of refugees in exchange for billions of euros, but says the EU has failed to honour other parts of the deal, such as visa liberalisation and an improved customs agreement. Erdogan upped the ante on Wednesday, saying in a speech: "If European countries want to resolve the issue, they must support Turkey's efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria." He also told journalists he had asked US President Donald Trump for ammunition. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Council President Charles Michel were both in Ankara for talks on the issue. Erdogan criticised the Greek response, saying: "The Greeks -- who are resorting to any means to stop refugees coming into their country, even drowning them or killing them with live ammunition -- they shouldn't forget they might need this same mercy one day." A Syrian refugee named Mustafa told AFP the Greek authorities were shooting at them. "Whoever goes is immediately hit, they threw tear gas," he said, speaking near the border in Turkey's Edirne province. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A study that relied on citizen scientists to monitor the health of corals on Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean from 2012 to 2018 found that 35 key coral species remained resilient during a 2014-17 global coral-bleaching event that harmed coral reefs around the world. Even corals that experienced bleaching quickly recovered, the researchers found. Some corals appeared healthier in 2017 than they were in 2014. The researchers report their findings in the Springer Nature journal Applied Sciences. "Boulder-type corals on the Turks and Caicos Islands demonstrated no significant bleaching as a result of the peak thermal stress in late 2015," said Abby Knipp, who conducted the research while an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Knipp is the first author of a paper detailing the findings. "Plate-type corals did suffer bleaching, but they quickly rebounded. Their pigmentation levels were back to normal within months of the anomalously high thermal stress." Coral bleaching is a common response to extreme heat stress, and global coral-bleaching events are becoming more frequent as the oceans warm. The 2014-17 bleaching event occurred as record-breaking sea-surface temperatures pushed some corals past their physiological limits. Scientists call it "the most severe, widespread and longest-lasting" global coral-bleaching event on record. Pigmentation in corals comes from photosynthetic algae, on which the corals depend for nutrients, said U. of I. geology professor and study co-author J. Cory Pettijohn. "The algae colonize the corals and feed on the byproducts of their metabolism," he said. "When sea-surface temperatures are too high, corals will expel the algae. Corals that experience prolonged bleaching usually die, leaving only a white calcium-carbonate skeleton behind." In Turks and Caicos Islands, pigmentation of the boulder corals was darker in 2017 than in 2014, suggesting these corals were even healthier after rebounding from the heat stress, Knipp said. "We were surprised that apparent healing and darkening could happen so fast," she said. The scientists say more studies are needed to explain the unusual hardiness of the corals at Turks and Caicos Islands, but previous research offers clues to factors that promote coral health. For example, some algal types appear to confer added resilience to corals experiencing heat stress. Ocean salinity and acidity likely play a role. Turks and Caicos Islands tend to have lower water temperatures than other, more thermally stressed regions of the Caribbean. And the massive 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria cooled surface waters and likely contributed to the corals' recovery, the researchers said. An extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, should be held on Wednesday where a number of personnel issues will be considered. Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science Hanna Novosad is not willing to continue working in the new government after an upcoming reshuffle, and intends to resign. There are no candidates for her post yet. It is likely the ministry may for some time be headed by an acting minister, the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda reports, referring to a source. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of the Servant of the People faction on Tuesday proposed that Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk be dismissed and Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal be appointed to this post. Read alsoUkraine's PM Honcharuk submits resignation letter MP (Photo) According to the legislation, one year after the adoption of the government's program, i.e. until September 2020, the parliament has no right to dismiss the Cabinet of Ministers. But it can do this if the prime minister resigns himself. An extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, should be held on Wednesday where a number of personnel issues will be considered. The Ministry of Health will hold a high-level meeting on Wednesday to review the preparedness to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The meeting will be chaired by Minister of Health Dr Harsh Vardhan. Directors of AIIMS, Lady Harding Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia will be present at the meetings. Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Corporation and commissioner of three civic bodies including South Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation will also attend the meeting. In the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, where six suspected cases were detected on Tuesday, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh chaired a meeting with the top officials to review the state's preparedness. A 23-member response committee was formed to deal with the threat of coronavirus. Also read: Coronavirus impact: Delhi patient visited family in Agra; 6 members quarantined Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter to calm down the rising panic among Indians over coronavirus. "Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention," he said on the micro-blogging platform. "There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection," he mentioned on Twitter along with a ministry advisory on basic protective measures. There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection. pic.twitter.com/sRRPQlMdtr - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 3, 2020 Also read: Hyatt Regency in Delhi warns coronavirus patient dined at restaurant On Tuesday, two schools in Noida were shut down over fears of coronavirus. Both the schools underwent sanitisation processes. Hyatt Regency in Delhi also asked its staff to self-quarantine for 14 days after they discovered that the Delhi coronavirus patient had dined at their La Piazza restaurant. Moreover, the patient had met his family members in Agra, following which six of these family members with "high viral load" were quarantined in Safdarjung Hospital. Moreover, Air India has asked the crew of the flight the Delhi patient had taken to self-quarantine for 14 days. The airline had also informed the fellow passengers on the flight and asked them to follow the necessary protocols. Also read: Delhi coronavirus patient attended birthday party; many children present Also read: Coronavirus update: Noida school to remain shut till March 9 as panic spreads While Rioja and Ribera del Duero are two of Spains most famous red wine areas, the country is blessed with many other regions that produce high-quality affordable reds. Among them is Cigales, a denominacion de origen located east of Valladolid in Castilla y Leon. Much smaller and far less prominent than neighboring Ribera del Duero, Cigales is gaining a reputation for its interesting reds. Another example is Calatayud, located in Aragon southwest of Zaragoza, which is known for its bold reds made from garnacha. Spike Johnson/Bloomberg Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said hes open to discussing fracking with whoever wins the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Just hours after unveiling plans to double oil production in the Permian Basin over the next five years, Wirth said Tuesday that he and the rest of the energy industry have an obligation to explain the process involved in accessing crude trapped in dense shale formations. The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on March 4. Russia's hybrid military forces on March 3 mounted seven attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another five as wounded in action (WIA). "The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire seven times on March 3. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another five were wounded as a result of enemy shelling," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said in an update posted on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on March 4. Read alsoSweden's Foreign Minister on Russian aggression in Donbas: "Devastation and suffering" The enemy engaged Ukrainian troops with proscribed 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and automatic rifles. Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the villages of Shyrokyne, Lebedynske, Zaitseve, and Luhanske. The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on March 4. The grandson of late President George Bush Sr has failed in his bid to win a congressional seat in Texas - despite help on the campaign trail from sister Lauren. Pierce Bush, 34, looked set to finish third or fourth out of 15 Republican candidates in the running for Houston's 22nd congressional district on Tuesday. It marks the first time a member of the Bush family has lost an election in Texas in more than four decades. Bush was beaten by staunch Trump defenders Troy Nehls and Kathaleen Wall, who will now advance to a runoff, in a sign of shifting loyalties among GOP ranks. Pierce Bush (center) has lost his bid to become representative for Houston's 22nd Congressional district, despite getting help from sister Lauren (right) and mother Sharon (left) Pierce looked set to finish in third or fourth place behind two Trump loyalists despite coming from one of America's foremost political dynasties As well as being part of one of America's foremost political dynasties, Bush also had the backing of outgoing Republican incumbent Pete Olson and his campaign was among top fundraisers in the field. Bush stressed during the campaign that he would be an ally to Trump in office, supporting the President's agenda. 'When you look at the alternative first of all, how can you be anything but a supporter of the president's policies?' he said. 'I look forward to being a partner in Washington, and speaking of course with my own voice, but supporting the president's agenda.' But it appears a legacy of family spats with the President hurt his bid Trump and Jeb Bush clashed frequently on the campaign trail in 2016, and Bush Sr himself was a critic of Trump after he entered office. It's the first time a Bush has lost an election in Texas since George W. Bush failed in a bid for Congress a 1978. Since then, the family had won on the ballot in Texas in races for governor, president and, most recently, George P. Bush's victories for state land commissioner in 2014 and 2018. Lauren, 35, had backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race but turned out to support Pierce along with mother Sharon Bush during campaigning this month. Bush made it clear he would be a supporter of Trump on the campaign trail, but a history of family fights with the President appeared to put voters off Pierce (pictured with his grandfather and wife Sara Beth) is the first Bush to lose an election in Texas since W Bush lost a congressional bid in 1978 Pierce's campaign had focused on stopping Democrats advocating for socialist reform in the US, including universal healthcare. But he quickly came under attack from fellow Republicans in one of the nation's most-crowded congressional races, who accused him of parachuting in and trying to buy the seat. Pierce, whose father is Neil Bush, has spent the past three years as chief executive of the nonprofit Big Brothers Big Sisters in Texas. He made no mention of Trump in his announcement video and launched his campaign website with only a short biography and no positions on issues or policies. The only Bush currently in public office, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, broke with his family in 2016 and supported Trump even after he mocked his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, as 'low energy' during the 2016 presidential campaign. During a visit to Texas earlier this year, Trump introduced George P. Bush as 'the only Bush that likes me.' Olson is one of six House Republicans in Texas retiring next year, and he might have faced a tougher re-election battle than any of them. Once a seat of GOP power former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay held the office before Olson the district is rapidly shifting amid demographic changes and Democrats peeling off suburban women voters. Olson narrowly won his seat by fewer than five points in 2018. The district covers Fort Bend County, one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the nation. 'The future of America looks like this district,' Bush said. 'This is a district where a conservatism that empowers all Americans is something that's worth fighting for.' MUSKEGON, MI If dogs could talk, Max the mutt, rescued in the dark of night off an ice floe in the middle of Muskegon Lake, would have quite a tale to tell. Its a mystery how the dog missing from Muskegon for as many as 36 hours ended up in the predicament he was in. But his rescue is a heart-warming story of mans devotion to his best friend. Returning from a 20-hour trip to Milwaukee on Monday, March 2, the guys on board the tugboat Barbara Andrie couldnt believe their eyes when they saw the lone pup adrift in the middle of the lake. They had just entered through the channel from Lake Michigan when the dog stranded on a small ice floe suddenly appeared in their path, said the boats captain that night, Dave Wellington. It was around 8:30 p.m. and pitch dark when the dog suddenly appeared in the boats spotlight. Ive got to say, my heart almost sank, Wellington said. I almost thought I ran him over at first. But when he looked back, there was the dog, still on its precarious floating perch. The crew on board had been working since 6 that morning and looking forward to getting to dock at Andrie in Muskegon and calling it a night. But first, they had a rescue operation to conduct. Everybody was like, No question, were going to get him, Wellington said. We werent going to leave him out there. Theres no way. We were going to get him. He slowly backed the 125-foot tug up, careful not to disturb the delicate ice surrounding the stranded dog. He was way out there, way out in the middle of the lake, said deck hand Craig Benedetti. Im not sure he would have made it through the night. When they were close enough, crew members used a pole with a hook on the end to carefully snag the ice floe and pull it toward the tug. At one point, the dog slipped off the ice into the water, but was able to get back on his perch, Wellington said. You could tell he was cold and afraid and didnt know where to go and what to do, Wellington said. He was on his little piece of ice that he wasnt giving up, which, truthfully, was the best thing to do. It took about 20 minutes, but finally the crew was able to slip a rope over the pups neck and pull it to safety with a little lunch meat as enticement. It was a very nice dog, said Matt Babbitt, another captain on board the tug that night. It was very happy. It was glad to be on board with us. The crew, which also included Chief Engineer Danny Kuiper, Assistant Engineer Tyler Gagnon and deckhand Jeff Wever, brought the pup blankets and a little more lunch meat, Babbitt said. It would sit and shake and everything, he said. It was a good little dog. His name was Max, the crew discovered by looking at the dogs tag, which also had his owners phone number. I believe they were kind of surprised, Wellington said when Maxs owners learned of the rescue. A Facebook post from the owner indicated Max had gone missing the previous day, Sunday, March 1, between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. He last was seen near Muskegon Catholic Central schools, reported the owner, whom MLive was unable to reach. Benedetti said another boat captain had reported seeing the dog around 4 a.m. Monday out on the ice, which at that time was more solid than by the time the Barbara Andrie crew got to him. The crew posed for a few photos with Max before Wellington and Benedetti delivered him to his grateful owners. When we told them where we found Max, the daughter said, When we take him to the beach, Max doesnt even like the water, Wellington said. Read more on MLive: Take a video tour of Grand Havens historic power plant Lake Harbor bridge work in Norton Shores delayed Areas of flooding concern issued by city of Grand Haven A Delhi court Wednesday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and seven others of culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, of the Unnao rape victim's father who had died in judicial custody. District judge Dharmesh Sharma also said the facts and circumstances brought on the record prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused hatched another crucial part of the conspiracy to foist a false case upon the victim by planting a country made gun and four cartridges. The court said the accused had no intention of killing him. "However, they beat up the victim in a brutal manner that led to his death." The judge said it is of common knowledge that "when police hit, they hit in a brutal manner". He added that the "doctors at the district hospital were negligent and acted like butchers". The court said the accused -- Ashok Singh Bhadauria, K P Singh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Vineet Mishra, Birendra Singh, Shashi Pratap Singh, Suman Singh and Atul (Sengar's brother) -- are held guilty of committing offence under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy). The other sections read with it are 166 (public servant disobeying law to cause injury to a person), 167 (public servant framing incorrect document to cause injury), 193 (false evidence), 201 (disappearance of evidence), 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record to save person from punishment), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. The court also held the convicted the accused under a section of Arms Act. While convicting Makhi police station in-charge, Ashok Singh Bhadauria, and Sub Inspector, K P Singh, the court said that "being seasoned police officials, disobeyed the direction of law to protect the life and liberty of the victim when he as well as Kishore Kumar Mishra were being beaten up by the co-accused persons and allowed unlawful restraint being applied by co-accused persons upon victim Surendra Singh, having knowledge or reasons to believe that it might result in death of the victim and ultimately the victim died due to the injuries sustained in the incident... "They allowed the assailants their protective police cover affording them a free hand to do what they did". The court, however, acquitted other accused persons -- constable Amir Khan, Shailendra Singh, Ram Sharan Singh and Sharadveer Singh -- giving them benefit of doubt. The court said, "It is apparent that too many persons behind the curtains were supporting, assisting or abetting the gruesome act but then each one cannot be held culpable as per law on mere suspicion." It had on December 20 sent Sengar to jail for the "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping the woman in 2017, when she was a minor. The CBI had examined 55 witnesses in support of the case and the defence examined nine witnesses. The court had recorded the statements of the rape victim's uncle, mother, sister and one of her father's colleague who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident. According to the CBI, on April 3, 2018, there was an altercation between the rape victim's father and one Shashi Pratap Singh. The charge sheet filed on July 13, 2018, said the victim's father and his co-worker were returning to their village, Makhi, when they asked Singh for a lift. Singh denied them the lift, triggering an altercation among them. Singh called his associates, following which Kuldeep's brother Atul Singh Sengar reached the spot along with others and beat up the woman's father and his co-worker. The woman's father was subsequently taken to the police station by them where an FIR was lodged against him and he was arrested. The charge sheet said that all this while Kuldeep Sengar was in touch with the district police superintendent and Makhi police station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria. Later he also spoke to the doctor who examined the rape victim's father. Charges were framed against Kuldeep, Atul, Bhadauria, sub-inspector Kamta Prasad, constable Amir Khan and six others in the case. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1 last year. In July, 2019 a truck rammed into the car the rape victim was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer. Two of her aunts died in the incident. She was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow and to AIIMS in Delhi. The victim has been provided accommodation in Delhi and is under CRPF protection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Jethro Ibileke Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has hailed the ruling of an Abuja High Court which bars Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, from parading himself as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Governor stated this while addressing party members during the Edo South Senatorial rally of the APC in Benin City, the State capital. Obaseki, who has been at daggers drawn with Oshiomhole over the soul of the party in Edo State described the ruling as Gods plan and a right decision for the party which calls for a thanksgiving to celebrate the it. He said: When we planned this meeting last week to meet with all our executives, we did not know that God has plan for us today. No man is God. God is God. No man can play God. With what God has done today, what we should do now is to just thank him. The meaning of what happened today is that peace has now finally come to our party. The purpose of God for Nigeria in our party will now be fulfilled. My problem with Comrade Oshiomhole is that when people started saying that they were Edo Peoples Movement (EPM), I called him and urged him to denounce them. I told him to come out and say something. I told him Comrade, denounce them, you are the national chairman; disassociate yourself from these people that are destroying our party. Up till today, he did not. Obaseki, however, said that the decision of the court barring Oshiomhole from parading himself as national chairman of the APC did not make him a happy man. The court has taken the right decision today, but it does not make me a happy person because it would not have come to this. So, my message today is, when a child puts his hands in faeces, you do not cut off that hand, you take that hand and wash it. And for those our members who have been misled, we cannot practice our democracy the way it was in 1983, the Governor said. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the first major abortion case of the Trump era. The case centres on an arcane Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals that is, the right to refer patients there. Sounds innocuous except that, just as in Britain, anyone can call an ambulance and have someone taken to hospital if their life is in danger, meaning the privileges actually dont count for much. Opponents say the measure is medically unnecessary and will result in the closure of all but one clinic in the state. Louisiana claims it protects the health and safety of those seeking abortions. The court struck down a virtually identical Texas law in 2016, in the landmark Whole Womans Health v Hellerstedt decision. The only thing that has changed since then is the composition of the court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a longtime swing voter who often sided with liberal justices on abortion rights, retired in 2018. And Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, two conservatives appointed by President Donald Trump, have joined the bench. The Louisiana case, June Medical Services v Russo, comes amid an unprecedented wave of anti-abortion legislation pushed by state lawmakers seemingly emboldened by Trumps judicial picks and his inflammatory rhetoric. The justices will issue a ruling by the end of June, potentially making abortion a key issue in the upcoming presidential election. While it is unlikely the court will use this case to revisit Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognised a womans constitutional right to an abortion, the decision could still dramatically shape the future of abortion access in America. If the Supreme Court reverses on admitting privileges, it essentially becomes a green light for all [Republican] states to reintroduce restrictions that courts have ruled unconstitutional in the past, said Robin Marty, author of Handbook for a Post-Roe... Continue reading on HuffPost EU is 'pretending' to tackle climate crisis, Thunberg says Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses the environment committee at the European Parliament in Brussels By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Climate activist Greta Thunberg accused European Union governments and institutions on Wednesday of only "pretending" to urgently tackle the climate crisis. EU leaders say they are spearheading some of the most ambitious climate change policies in the world, and on Wednesday the bloc's executive unveiled a planned climate law to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. "When your house is on fire, you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet this is what the Commission is proposing today," Thunberg told the European Parliament's environment committee. The 17-year-old Swedish activist said that, by fixing its climate law around an emissions target three decades in the future, the EU was ignoring reality. "Here you are, trying to create laws and policies once again ignoring it. Pretending that your plan or policy disregarding the united science will somehow solve the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced," she said. "Pretending that a law that no one has to follow ... is a law. Pretending that you can be a climate leader and still go on building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure," Thunberg said, drawing applause from European lawmakers. The climate law would give the executive Commission powers to set tougher goals for governments every five years. But these powers would only kick in after 2030 - too late, according to environment groups. "We will not be satisfied with anything less than a science-based pathway which gives us the best possible chance to safeguard the future living conditions for humanity and life on earth as we know it," Thunberg said. The EU accounts for less than 10% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. But Thunberg said the bloc had a moral obligation to lead the way, because developed economies that have been polluting for longest should cut emissions first and fastest. Story continues The European Parliament has banned external visitors for the next three weeks as a precaution against the fast-spreading coronavirus, but waived its own rule for Thunberg's visit. Thunberg is in Brussels this week to meet EU leaders and lead a climate school strike on Friday. "For over one-and-a-half years we have been sacrificing our education to protest against your inaction," Thunberg said. She began missing school in 2018 to sit outside the Swedish parliament in a solitary protest. Since then, Thunberg has galvanized a global movement of young people, inspiring millions to take to the streets to demand that world leaders act urgently to tackle the climate crisis. (Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) RTHK: Biden seizes momentum with Super Tuesday surge A resurgent Joe Biden seized the momentum in the race to become the Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump with a string of Super Tuesday victories, including key prize Texas, against rival Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a 78-year-old leftist who wants to reshape America's economy, had been the clear leader and was looking for a knock-out blow on the most consequential voting day on the primary calendar. Instead, the results signalled a remarkable comeback for Biden, a former vice president under Barack Obama who was projected to win at least nine, and possibly 10, of the nomination contests held across 14 states. Just one week ago the 77-year-old senior statesman saw his campaign teeter on the edge of collapse. Now he is vying once again for frontrunner status. "It's a good night and it seems to be getting even better! They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing," Biden told cheering fans in Los Angeles. Sanders, self-described democratic socialist, was projected to win his home state of Vermont, Colorado, Utah with exit polls also pointing to a win in the biggest delegate-rich state of all, California. The centrist Biden was projected to win in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachusetts and even Minnesota a state where Sanders had been expected to win handily. Well after midnight the projection was made for Biden to win Texas, the second largest US state, and where Sanders had also been polling ahead. With 94 percent of the southern state's precincts reporting, Biden was ahead of Sanders by nearly four percentage points. "We expected a surge. We got a tsunami," tweeted analyst David Axelrod, chief strategist for Obama's two presidential campaigns. "New race. Completely." A defiant Sanders celebrated his own wins earlier in the night by tearing into Trump, calling him "the most dangerous president in the history of this country." Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, were the other big-name candidates. Despite spending record amounts of his own money on advertising, it was an embarrassing debut for billionaire media entrepreneur Bloomberg who failed to win any state -- though he did get a consolation victory in American Samoa, a tiny territory in the Pacific. Trump, who watched the results on television, tweeted his customary insults about the Democrats, deriding Warren for losing her state of Massachusetts. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-03-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. There are at least 25 positive cases of COVID-19 in India at present, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed on Wednesday during a press conference here. "There are at least 28 confirmed cases of the coronavirus that have been reported so far in India. Out of which three patients, who were earlier infected in Kerala, have been cured from the disease," said the minister. According to the Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, at present at least 9 Indian nationals and 16 foreign nationals are infected with the disease. "There is one patient in Delhi, one in Telangana and six in Agra who have tested positive for COVID-19. The driver of the group of Italian nationals, who were touring in Jaipur, has also tested positive. Apart from these, 16 Italian nationals have tested positive for the disease," said Harsh Vardhan during the presser. Talking about the potential of the spread of the disease, the minister said that One person in Delhi infected six of his his own family members in Agra. In Italian national's case the tourist infected his wife also and thus other group members. According to the health minister, the government of Italy has asked the Italian nationals to stay in India only for the time being therefore all of them have been currently quaranitined at ITBP isolation facility in Chhawla. "We had to trace at least 66 people's contact in view of one positive case. In Telangana, at least 88 contacts were traced," the minister told media here, adding "people should avoid public gathering during this time. Even the Prime Minister has cancelled his Holi Milan programmes in view of coronavirus. In a statement released earlier by the health ministry, it said: "24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (bus driver, conductor and tourist guide) have been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Depending on the result, future course of action will be taken." Five persons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding investors after promising them huge profits in the stock market in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city, police said. The accused were operating investment advisory firms that were not registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), an official said. The arrests were made based on a complaint filed by a BSF jawan from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, who alleged that he had been cheated of Rs 1.40 lakh by an advisory firm called, Trade Money Research, said superintendent of police (SP) of Special Task Force (STF), Padmavilochan Shukla. The gang was operating several unregistered investment advisory firms, he said. The accused allegedly asked investors to deposit money in the bank accounts of these firms and some other private accounts and later misappropriated the money, he said. The STF is probing if the accused had defrauded many investors from different parts of the country, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that no positive case of coronavirus has been reported in the state till date. "No positive case of coronavirus in Maharashtra till now. People are advised not to spread or believe in rumours," Tope told reporters here. Speaking about preparation for tackling the situation he added, "We are taking measures and are alert. As of now, no anti-viral drug is available, so precautions must be taken by the people. Isolation wards have been set up in every district and 10 extra beds are placed in every hospital." Six positive cases of deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry, the fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported from New Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan where an Italian has been found positive with the infection in Jaipur. Last month, three cases were recorded in Kerala -- who have now recovered and discharged from hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 19:50:12|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Three artworks of renowned traditional Chinese painter Zhang Daqian have recently been donated to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the museum said on Tuesday. The three artworks comprises a painting of Bamboo and two framed landscapes, namely "Thatched cottages at cloudy mountains" and "Traveling on remote mountains." The paintings, created by the artist during his sojourn in California in the 1970s, come from the family of Yao Ke, a long-time friend of Zhang and a well-known scholar and writer. One of the paintings, "Traveling on remote mountains," which features a depiction of Half Dome in California's Yosemite National Park, is currently on display at the museum. "Zhang was the first Chinese artist to creatively employ traditional ink in rendering the natural wonders of California," said Zhang Fan, curator of Chinese art at the museum. "The graceful integration of an American landmark into a Chinese-style composition showcases how inspired the artist was by the grand landscapes here," he said, adding that "this painting is a treasure with local resonance that will wow our visitors for generations." Zhang, also known as Chang Dai-chien, is one of the most well-known Chinese artists of the 20th century. The museum said it now has the largest collection of Zhang's works outside Asia. Most paintings of the collection are currently on display in an exhibition "Chang Dai-chien: Painting from Heart to Hand" at the museum, which will run until April 26. A furious BMW driver rams into a pick-up truck and pushes it along a Los Angeles street in shocking footage. The clip, captured at the area of Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards in North Hollywood, shows a white car with its doors wide open and slamming into the side of the truck in an act of road rage. The pickup truck is pushed across the intersection before the white vehicle chases it, blowing up clouds of smoke. A furious BMW driver rammed into a pick-up truck and pushed it along a Los Angeles street in shocking footage Making a bee-line for the truck again, the motorist crashes crashes into it a second time causing its bumper to hang off. Screeching to a halt, the driver of the BMW attempts to pin the truck against the curb but fails as it races away. Footage of the incident was posted on social media and attracted the attention of Los Angeles Police Department who responded asking for more information. Police later announced they had arrested a suspect on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the crash. LAPD tweeted: 'An arrest for Assault with a Deadly Weapon has been made in connection with this incident, which occurred Monday evening in the area of Victory Blvd & Laurel Canyon.' The clip, captured at the area of Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards in North Hollywood, shows a white car with its doors wide open and slamming into the side of the truck in an act of road rage Investigators complete probe into history professor charged with student murder RAPSI 10:59 04/03/2020 ST. PETERSBURG, March 4 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) Investigation into Oleg Sokolov, the St. Petersburg State Universitys history professor, who stands charged with the murder of his postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko, has been completed, his attorney Alexander Pochuyev has told RAPSI. In addition to the murder, the historian is accused of ammunition trafficking, the lawyer has added. According to investigators, rescuers pulled the 63-year reader out of a local river early on November 9 and hospitalized. Womans severed hands and a nonlethal pistol were found in his backpack. Other parts of her body were found in his flat. The man was arrested when left the hospital the next day. He voluntary surrendered. The victim was identified as the 24-year postgraduate student of the St. Petersburg State University and Sokolovs partner. The professor pleaded guilty. He said that he gunned the woman and broke up her body. Sokolov is a historian and ideologist of reconstruction of Napoleonic period battles. He has been conferred the Legion of Honor, the French national award instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte. KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. A simple grocery trip turned into a $250,000 cash windfall for a couple from Klamath Falls, according to the Oregon Lottery. Ruth Wallace sent her fiance Scott O'Neil to the store for groceries, but the outcome was not at all what she expected. Wallace told the Oregon Lottery that she purchases a few cheap Scratch-it tickets every once in a while. But when O'Neil came home that day, he picked up a few $20 tickets. RELATED: Oregon man wins $150,000 from 'accidental' powerball ticket purchase at Food 4 Less We usually buy the $5, $2 or $1 tickets, Wallace said. I was shocked he got some $20 tickets. I thought that was extravagant. When the couple scratched the tickets, each ticket that Wallace scratched turned out to be a winner. O'Neil had the opposite luck every one he scratched was a dud. Then I scratched my last ticket and thought it was a $250 winner. That made me pretty excited, O'Neil said. Then Ruth looked at it and realized it was actually $250,000! RELATED: Jacksonville lottery win prompts free ticket giveaway O'Neil purchased the $20 Cash Spectacular Scratch-it at the Madison Market on 6th Street in Klamath Falls. After taxes the couple took home $170,000. They say that they are moving into a new home soon, so the winnings will go toward new furniture and moving expenses. They also said that they may purchase new cars. The Oregon Lottery said that in 2019 more than $8.9 million in Oregon Lottery proceeds were directed to economic development, parks, education, Outdoor School, Veterans services and watershed enhancement in Klamath County, where Scott ONeil lives. Since 1985, Oregon Lottery players have won more than $38 billion in prizes. Kidal, Mali, March 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Mar, 2020 ) :Mali's Prime Minister Boubou Cisse arrived in the northern town of Kidal on Wednesday, AFP reporters said, making a highly symbolic visit three weeks after the army returned to the former rebel-held bastion. His arrival in the town, which has become emblematic of the government's failure to control large swathes of the country, is hoped to signal that the government is reasserting authority over its vast territory. Before their return last month, Malian soldiers had not set foot in Kidal since 2014 after suffering a bitter defeat at the hands of separatist Tuareg rebels. The city has since been under the control of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA), a mostly Tuareg alliance of armed rebel groups. The rebels signed a peace agreement with the government in 2015, although the accord was fragile and the issue of Kidal especially sensitive. Among other things, the pact provided for former rebels to join the army, which would eventually return north. However negotiating the specifics of returning to Kidal took years, and a deal on how it would work was only reached earlier this year. President Trump touted his string of Republican primary victories Tuesday night, tweeting his thanks after state after state was called in his favor. The president had only token competition - former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld - in the Super Tuesday contests and one state, Virginia, canceled its GOP primary. 'THANK YOU MAINE! #KAG2020,' he tweeted, along with separate tweets thanking Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina and Vermont with the hash tag of his campaign theme: Keep America Great 2020. The tweets also had a photo of Trump giving the thumbs' up sign. President Trump touted his string of Republican primary victories on Super Tuesday Supporters ofPresident Donald Trump demonstrate outside the Palm Beach County Convention Center ahead of Michael Bloomberg's Super Tuesday rally Trump, like most incumbent presidents, is expected to easily win his party's nomination for re-election. President Trump needs 1,276 delegates to be the nominee and is expected to have more than 800 by the time the night comes to a close. Weld only had one delegate going into Tuesdays contests. The president told reporters at the White House earlier Tuesday that it was going to be an 'interesting' night for his Democratic competition. 'It's going to be a very interesting evening of television. I think it's really going to be something,' Trump said. He also predicted it would be a late evening. Voting will take place across the country with polls in California closing late East Coast time. The president, meanwhile, said he would debate any of his Democratic competition - 'very gladly.' 'Well, I think there's no question the establishment - the Democrat establishment - is trying to take it away from Bernie Sanders. There's no question about that in my mind,' Trump said Tuesday outside the White House as voters from 14 states and American Samoa headed to the polls for Super Tuesday. Thomas Freeman and other supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside of Mike Bloomberg's rally location in Florida President Trump said Tuesday that he believes there's 'no question' the 'Democrat' establishment was trying to take the nomination away from Bernie Sanders President Trump also told reporters he would debate 'any of them,' referring to the Democratic hopefuls that remain in the 2020 presidential race. 'Very gladly,' he added Trump pointed out that a 'lot's going to be learned tonight' about the strength of the two frontrunners: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. 'I would have said two, three days ago Biden wasn't looking too good. Now he's looking better,' Trump continued. 'California's a little delayed but by 9, 10 tonight, we'll have some answers.' In fact, California's polls won't close until 11 p.m. EST - so it could be into Wednesday before the results of the Super Tuesday contests paint a clear picture of the strengths of the Democratic hopefuls. 'Whoever it is, I don't care, I really don't care,' Trump also offered. Theres nothing worse than sitting around waitingespecially when you're waiting for a seller to respond to your offer on the biggest financial decision of your life. Yeesh, it's excruciating. Unfortunately, waiting comes with the territory when you're buying a house. But how long you have to wait is the bigger question. While theres no official rule on how long a seller can take to get back to you, there is an industry standard that most real estate agents and sellers tend to follow. Whether you just made an offer on a property or plan to in the near future, heres everything you need to know about how long it might take to hear back from the seller. How long can a seller take to respond to a buyers offer? In theory, sellers can take as long as they want before responding. But in practice? Most sellers (or their agents) will usually get back to you within a few days. As a courtesy, the Realtor will notify the buyer's agent when the seller responds regarding an offer, says Benjamin Ross, a Realtor with Mission Real Estate Group. As the sellers agent, "we like to respond within 48 hours, but that also depends on when we get the sellers response. Some agents have even stricter expectations when it comes to response time. Common courtesy dictates that a seller should respond within 24 hours or less, says Karen Parnes, broker and owner of NextHome Your Way. This gives them the time to think about your offer, sleep on it, and respond. While 24 to 48 hours is the standard observed by many professionals in the industry, exceptions happen. Here are some of them. When might it take longer for a seller to respond? There are quite a few reasons why a seller might take longer than usual to respond to your offer. The first is if they received multiple offers. Typically, response time increases if there is more than one offer on the table, says Ross. Sellers may take their time to choose which offer is best for them. Another reason your offer might go unanswered is if its too low. If an offer is far from what a seller expected to receive, many times they wont respond at all, says Parnes. Other times you might not hear back for a completely unrelated reasonsuch as the seller is out of town or on vacation. Consider setting a time limit on your offer If youre concerned about how long a seller might take to respond to your offer, work with your agent to find out if you can set a contractual time limit on it. In some states these offer time limits are used by buyers and sellers to dictate how long the other party can take to respond. Offer time limits are defined in the contract in the state of Georgia, says Katina Asbell, associate broker at Real Living Capital City Realty. The time limit of offer is the period of time the offer is active and open for response, and once its expired, the contract is void and a new offer must be presented. Whether or not your local legislature allows buyers to set time limits, Asbell cautions buyers to be strategic when using them. The time limit can be a critical part of defining a buyer's success in negotiation, she says. If its too short, the seller may feel rushed or annoyed and give a harsh response. If its too long, then the buyer risks a multiple-offer scenario. Tips for a successful negotiation Ultimately, the process of getting an offer accepted is all about being a good negotiatorand for this youll want to work with an experienced real estate agent. The best success I have found in gauging appropriate and amiable timelines is a very open and honest conversation with the seller's agent, says Asbell. Buyers have one chance at a first impression and to set the stage for the remaining negotiation process, and timeline matters greatly in conveying this tone. The post How Long Can a Seller Take To Respond to Your Offer? Here's a Reality Check appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Civil society and artisanal fisheries organisations react to the new EU-Senegal fisheries protocol March 04,2020 | Source: CFFA The European Parliament discussed the new protocol to the EU-Senegal Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) last 19 February. Senegal National Assembly is also going to discuss the proposal. In this context, the African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Organisations (CAOPA) and the Association pour la promotion et la responsabilisation des acteurs de la peche artisanale maritime (APRAPAM) have expressed their demands and concerns. These focus on two issues: the lack of transparency and the access to resources. Both organisations welcome the fact that the EU-Senegal agreement is public but complain that even if transparency is a general provision in the protocol, there is not a specific mention concerning all access agreements such as in the case of the EU-Mauritania protocol. Such transparency regarding the access of foreign fleets, given the recent arrivals of foreign boats in Senegalese waters, would be a salutary measure to be implemented to ensure sustainable fishing and protect Senegal's artisanal fishing communities. APRAPAM and CAOPA also call for transparency on the use of sectoral funds and urge the funding of scientific research and data collection, especially the Senegalese research institute CRODT, which has not been funded since 2015. They insist that there is an imperative need to develop solid research on the alarming state of our small pelagic resources, shared with our neighbours. In this regard, these organisations regret the access to small pelagics to foreign fleets in Mauritania which is causing the overexploitation of these stocks in the region. This allocation is done in the absence of a joint research and management framework and in particular for processing into fish oil and fish meal. Both organisations see an opportunity in the framework of Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia SFPAs to improve and encourage joint research. On the other hand, artisanal fisheries are concerned with access to hake for European fleets, especially about the bycatch that is allowed, which is attractive to European trawlers engaged in this fishery, given their high commercial value. However, CAOPA and APRAPAM remind that these species are also fished by artisanal fishermen and ask that bycatch is limited as much as possible. Finally, CAOPA and APRAPAM encourage the Senegalese government to demand more tuna quotas at ICCAT and to look into the possibilities for developing a sustainable artisanal tuna fishery in the coming years. Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Nearly three months to the day after the completion of the ViacomCBS merger, the mass media company has indicated its intentions to possibly sell Simon & Schuster, one of the U.S.'s Big Five publishers. Word that ViacomCBS was looking to sell S&S came at a Morgan Stanley investor conference where ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish said the publishing house is not a core asset and that the company has received interest in the past from companies about buying S&S. Bakish said when the market stabilizes it will engage in the process of selling the company. To address the report, in a March 4 letter to staff, S&S president and CEO Carolyn Reidy broke the news about Bakish's remarks and added that further developments would be shared when they were available. "Whatever the outcome, this process does not change what we know to be true of Simon & Schuster," Reidy wrote. "We are a great publishing house and one of the worlds best known publishing brands, with an incredible legacy and bright future. We have a tremendous track record of producing best sellers in every category and format, and for readers of every age. We have a history of strong and long lasting relationships with our authors, and we will continue to bring important voices to readers around the world, both with our current publishing and our rich backlist of perennially favorite titles." Simon & Schuster's place in ViacomCBS's otherwise film and televisionfocused portfolio was unclear from the jump, and speculation over the sale has spread in certain circles in the industry since the ViacomCBS merger was approved, let alone completed. Should S&S be sold to another of the Big Five, it would mark the second major merger of the U.S. publishing landscape's biggest publishers in less than a decade, following the merger of Penguin and Random House in 2013. Some in the industry have guessed at potential buyers already. First among them is News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-owned mass media and publishing company, which owns HarperCollins, another of the Big Five. HC has a history of making big acquisitions, having bought both Thomas Nelson (2012) and Harlequin (2014). News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson has supported the expansion of HC and HC CEO Brian Murray has said in the past that the company would consider another acquisition if the right deal came along. Hachette Book Group parent company the Lagardere Group is another corporation that likes the book business. The company has supported a string of acquisitions by HBG, most recently the purchase of 1,200 children's book titles from Disney. Should S&S be bought and merged with one of the Big Five, the resulting Big Four would only be more proof of consolidation in an industry that had a Big Six only eight years ago. Amazon's rising size as a publisher in its own right complicates the landscape somewhat as well. Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Its portfolio includes 17 adult imprints, 11 children's imprints, two audio publishing imprints, four international branchesin Australia, Canada, India, and the U.K.and a growing distribution business whose clients include Andrews McMeel, Boom! Studios, Kaplan Publishing, Viz Media, and more. "This process will surely be an adventure for all of us, but we are a company that has always risen to the challenges we face," Reidy wrote. In the meantime, we will continue to do what we do best: connecting remarkable authors to audiences everywhere." The Congress attacked the government over the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights filing an application in the Supreme Court on the CAA, with senior leader Ahmed Patel saying though it is "unwarranted interference" the Modi dispensation is to be blamed for the "mess". The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has approached the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in the hearing on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, saying there was a need to take into account the "international human rights law, norms and standards" in the proceedings. "No doubt that UN's intervening application is a case of unwarranted interference in our matters," Patel said in a tweet. "But who is to blame for this mess? The Government of India for creating a window for such interference by enacting a law which breaches global standards on human rights," the Congress treasurer said. The plea, filed on behalf of Michelle Bachelet Jeria, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has sought to intervene as an amicus curiae (non-party offering assistance to court) in the matter by virtue of mandate to protect and promote human rights and to conduct necessary advocacy in that regard. India has sharply criticised the move, saying the CAA is an internal matter of the country. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, in response to the development, said "the larger question is being missed" in such a reaction by the government. "We are all proud, patriotic Indians and we all speak proudly in support of our nation everywhere in the world and on every inch of global soil. But the Home Minister and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) must answer why we are today being looked at with suspicion and finger-pointing by not one, but, 20, 30, 40 nations across the world?" he said. "Has he (External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar) answered that question, when you travel to Europe, when you travel to America, when you travel to South America, Africa? We stand up stoutly and fight for India. But does it mean that we should be like ostrich in the sand, ignoring those questions?" Singhvi asked. It is very rare for an organization to file a petition on its own, he said, adding that the UN body would have intervened possibly because refugee issues are its direct domain. "So, I humbly with folded hands request the government to start looking more at messages and less at picking up an AK-47 in shooting the messenger," Singhvi said. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said he has repeatedly urged the government to pass an asylum/refugee law that applies international standards to India's humanitarian practices and protects all who fear persecution for their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. "It's not too late," he said in a tweet. "This (OHCHR chief moving SC) is an unprecedented step and arguably an extreme one for a UN body to take. But then India was a respected upholder of human rights in the past so no UN agency would have needed to consider doing such a thing," he said. Earlier, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the UN move was a matter of embarrassment for the government. American Airlines Group Inc. AAL has suspended service between Dallas and Seoul-Incheon through Apr 24, 2020 due to a drop in demand. With the fast-evolving coronavirus outbreak earlier in the month, the Fort Worth, TX based carrier suspended all U.S. flights to Milan. Last month, Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL temporarily reduced the number of services to and from South Korea. The carrier has reduced flights connecting Seoul with Atlanta and that connecting Detroit with Seattle to five times weekly through Apr 30. Additionally, it suspended service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Seoul-Incheon through Apr 30. Amid decreasing air travel demand, American Airlines suspended change and cancellation fees to encourage customers to travel without hesitation, while simultaneously trying to get back its share of the fallen demand. The facility is available on all new ticket purchases through Mar 16. Customers can avail of this benefit up to 14 days prior to travel for scheduled journey through late January 2021. American Airlines Group Inc. Price American Airlines Group Inc. Price American Airlines Group Inc. price | American Airlines Group Inc. Quote The facility was first offered by JetBlue Airways last week. Later, several carriers including the likes of Alaska Airlines, the subsidiary of Alaska Air Group ALK and United Airlines UAL have joined in. Passengers booking on JetBlue can avail of the privileges through Mar 11 for travel to be completed by Jun 1, 2020. Alaska Airlines passengers can get the same benefit on tickets booked through Mar 12 on travel to be completed by Jun 1. Meanwhile, United Airlines customers can apply for a change-fee waiver on bookings through Mar 31. Additionally, customers can cancel tickets (in exchange for another ticket for travel within 12 months of the date of issuance of the ticket) without any change fees. Zacks Rank American Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 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Zacks Investment Research AP - United Airlines is cutting back on flights both internationally and within the United States as it grapples with lower travel demand because of the new virus outbreak. United is also asking employees to volunteer for unpaid time off. The news on Wednesday is the clearest yet of the damage that the coronavirus outbreak is having on the U.S. airline industry. RELATED: California officials announce 1st death in state The CEOs of several airlines went to the White House to discuss the impact of the outbreak on travel. The administration is seeking the airlines' help in tracing travelers who might have come in contact with people ill with COVID-19. Port Blair, March 4 : As more and more Indians cancel and several more plan to shun plans to go abroad in summer holidays owing to the growing Coronavirus concerns, leading online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip is bracing itself for a severe turbulence as its over-all revenues are set to be hit at least for the first half of this year. According to Deep Kalra, Founder and Executive Chairman MakeMyTrip, the word of travel has been ravaged due to global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. "People initially weren't travelling to China, Hong Kong and then, the list included Singapore, South Korea and now European countries. A lot of people are putting their plans on hold. It's a very difficult time and one can only hope this will stop soon," Kalra told IANS during a candid interaction. "It's clear that coronavirus will impact over-all revenues because of the cancellation of holiday plans. But we are taking all the major steps to minimise the impact," Kalra explained. There has been a slowdown in outbound travel bookings since the break of coronavirus. Travellers are being cautious in making their (outbound) travel plans, according to the company. "At MakeMyTrip, our outbound business stands at 20 per cent of the overall business and within this share -- are the contributions from the Southeast Asian countries that has got impacted," said the company. "We do expect a potential impact on the overall business if the outbreak spreads westwards. Data on our platform indicates that flight bookings for Southeast Asian countries have been significantly impacted, however, countries in the westward region including US and Europe are seeing dip in numbers," MakeMyTrip elaborated. Over the past two weeks, the company has noticed a sudden spike in the number of cancellations as the outbreak spreads to new markets. "With respect to domestic travel, we have not seen any noticeable dip in bookings. However, in light of the recent developments, we are closely monitoring the situation," the company noted. Several Indian travellers have called off their travel plans especially to South East Asian cities. Travel industry experts have said that business related travel on South East Asian routes has been impacted badly but leisure travel has been worse affected. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has estimated that air travel demand will not only decline in the current calendar year, but may lead to loss of revenues of as much as $29 billion for the airline sector. "There is no travel company that would not have been impacted due to this new virus," said Kalra. At least 28 cases of new coronavirus have been reported from India. The virus has affected more than 60 countries across the globe. According to market experts, hotel occupancies in India have declined 10-15 per cent and cancellations have risen around the same magnitude in the past few weeks. Sector players also said that the impact has been severe on the premium hotel segment while mid-range and affordable segments have so far not been affected. Kalra, however, said the company has done a few investments in early-stage travel technology startups and will continue to do this despite the rising concerns over Coronavirus. The company has already invested in more than 10 travel startups. "If we come across any thing good to invest, we will go ahead with the investment," Deep said. (Md Waquar Haider can be reached at waquar.h@ians.in) Councillors in Killarney have reacted furiously to the postponement of a much-needed 2.3m sewerage scheme for the village of Kilcummin. A month before the election, Irish Water met with the members and gave a detailed timeline for the publication of the tender for the sewerage scheme in August this year and commencement in early 2021. However, in a phonecall on Tuesday Irish Water told the councils director of water services it had reviewed the portfolio of projects and programmes in its investment plan. Kilcummin will not commence construction now until 2022. Land acquisition is to continue, Irish Water said, in its update circulated to members of Killarney Municipal District. The council is to press ahead now with the upgrade, worth 360,000, of the main regional road between Killarney and Kilcummin. In a dreadful state, the upgrade had been parked until the much-promised scheme was complete so as not to waste public money, the meeting heard. Irish Water will be given the bill for the repair of the upgraded road, the council has decided. I dont know where to start. We have been at this for years and years and every time it gets kicked down the road. How long is a piece of string? I will be calling a public meeting, Cllr Marie Maloney said. If Irish Water wont bloody well meet us, they should be made meet us, Cllr Moloney added. The councils Director of Services for water John Breen said management shared the disappointment and shock of the members and had conveyed this to Irish Water. Irish Water had told him they did not do Municipal District meetings, Mr Breen added amid calls for a meeting with them. A furious Cllr Niall O Callaghan (Ind) said Irish Water had misled them and contempt had been shown to the council. Mayor of Killarney, Cllr Michael Gleeson said in conscience could not spend 360,000 on a road that would have to be dug up for the sewerage. But in the light of Irish Water review, he now felt the road, which was in a dreadful state, must proceed. Mr Breen, said the road situation could not continue and the money is to be released for it. Any additional cost will have to be borne by Irish Water, Mr Breen said. The Inchicullane town section of the road is to proceed first. The Tano South Municipal Health Director in the Ahafo region, Mr Peter Asare has commended Hope Alive 360 Foundation, a Non-governmental organization and its partners the Ghana Center for Democratic Development as well as Save Our Environment Foundation for their support towards enhancing citizens participation in quality healthcare delivery through the I AM AWARE project. The commendation was made during the training of Community Health Management Committee members in Bechem the Municipal capital. Giving the purpose of the training, the Executive Director of Hope Alive 360 Foundation, Mr. Baffour-Mensah A. said the overall objective of the I AM AWARE project was to enhance public service delivery by ensuring that information on public service from the various Districts is made available to citizens so that they can demand accountability from service providers. He told participants that as citizens they have the duty to demand quality service from the health facilities that serve their communities. He said the training program was meant to build their capacities for them to know their responsibilities as representatives of the communities in healthcare delivery. He further stated that the training will also ensure that they are abreast with the accountability mechanisms within the healthcare delivery system so that they can use those avenues to demand accountability from duty bearers for improvement in service delivery. He revealed that the project will concentrate on working with citizens and duty bearers in the education and health sector to promote accountability and improvement in service delivery. In his welcome address, the Municipal Disease Control Officer, Mr Kingsly Arthur urged participants to take the training seriously since according to him it has come at the right time to enable participants to play their roles in enhancing the quality of healthcare delivery in the Municipality. The I AM AWARE project which is been implemented in twenty Districts in the country is an initiative of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-GHANA) with funding support from the Hewlett Foundation BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Eldar Janashvili Trend: The forecasts and strategic views of VTB Bank Azerbaijan fully coincide with the forecasts and strategic views of the Azerbaijani government in terms of diversification of the country's national economy, Chairman of board of VTB Bank Azerbaijan Yevgeniy Kirin said. Kirin made the remark in Baku at the press-conference on the results of the banks activity in 2019, Trend reports on March 4. In particular, the chairman stressed that along with Azerbaijan, the bank is also interested in diversifying the portfolio to protect itself from the high risks associated with dependence on investing a great share of the funds in the development of one particular sphere. Thus, while diversifying in accordance with the requirements and trends in the Azerbaijani domestic market, VTBs portfolio will in some sense be similar in structure to the country's GDP soon, Kirin said. We are also interested in the majority of the funds to be transferred for lending to legal entities, the chairman said. We managed to stabilize the loan portfolio in 2019, which is the banks main income tool. It increased by 40 percent, while 70 percent of the growth was ensured through corporate loans. Thus, we put the development of business lending at the forefront and the current situation in this sphere meets the country's requirements." Kirin also commented on the conditions for issuing business loans, stressing that long-term loans are issued for a period of up to five to seven years, depending on the type of activity and client category, which is quite justified because if the business is not repayable for five to seven years, it is necessary to raise the question of the appropriateness of its lending. Of course, a great part of corporate loans accounts for the trade sector, which is natural not only for VTB, but also for most banks and markets, the chairman said. The reason is that this sector is in great need of loans because of its high turnover. SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PricewaterhouseCoopers, AARP, AARP Foundation, and the law firm of Outten & Golden LLP are pleased to announce that the Plaintiffs and defendant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ("PwC") have reached a mutually consensual resolution of all claims in the class and collective action lawsuit Rabin v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, pending in the Northern District of California. Outten & Golden LLP AARP Foundation In the lawsuit, Plaintiffs alleged that PwC failed to hire them and the Class and Collective Action Members into Associate, Senior Associate, and Experienced Associate positions in the Tax and Assurance lines of service, because they were over 40 years old, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and of California and Michigan antidiscrimination laws. PwC denies having engaged in any unlawful discrimination. The parties have agreed to settle all claims in the lawsuit for $11.625 million. PwC has also agreed to enhance certain of its recruiting procedures geared toward further attracting qualified older applicants for entry-level jobs. PwC is proud of its excellent recruiting and hiring practices, including focusing on diversity, nondiscrimination, and inclusion. For example, PwC is taking steps to further enhance the ability of alumni to apply to positions available through on-campus recruiting programs, which promotes an age-diverse applicant pool. PwC's Chief Purpose & Inclusion Officer, Shannon Schuyler, stated, "PwC is proud to affirm its commitment to identify and hire older workers. The commitments in this settlement will help PwC remain one of the most sought-after employers in the country. Our workforce represents the diversity of perspective, life experiences and backgrounds, and welcomes talented workers across the age spectrum." The parties agree that the settlement is not an admission of liability by PwC. The Plaintiffs and proposed class and collective members are represented by: AARP Foundation Litigation AARP Media Relations Madison Daniels, [email protected] Outten & Golden LLP Jahan C. Sagafi, [email protected], 415-638-8808 The press contact for Defendant PricewaterhouseCoopers is: Andy Liuzzi, [email protected] AARP Foundation AARP Foundation works to end senior poverty by helping vulnerable older adults build economic opportunity and social connectedness. As AARP's charitable affiliate, we serve AARP members and nonmembers alike. Bolstered by vigorous legal advocacy, we spark bold, innovative solutions that foster resilience, strengthen communities and restore hope. About Outten & Golden Outten & Golden LLP focuses on advising and representing individuals in employment, partnership, and related workplace matters both domestically and internationally. The firm counsels individuals on employment and severance agreements; handles complex compensation and benefits issues (including bonuses, commissions, and stock/ option agreements); and advises professionals (including doctors and lawyers) on contractual issues. It also represents employees with a wide variety of claims, including discrimination and harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, disability, national origin, religion, and age, and retaliation, whistleblower, and contract claims. The firm handles class actions involving a wide range of employment issues, including economic exploitation, gender- and race-based discrimination, wage-and-hour violations, and other systemic workers' rights issues. Outten & Golden has nine practice groups: Executives & Professionals, Financial Services, Sex Discrimination & Sexual Harassment, Family Responsibilities & Disabilities Discrimination, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Workplace Rights, Discrimination & Retaliation, Whistleblower Retaliation, Class & Collective Actions, and WARN Act. Outten & Golden has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. SOURCE Outten & Golden and AARP Foundation The Borno State government and the Bank of Industry on Wednesday signed an agreement aimed at raising N1 billion to enhance small and medium enterprises in seven selected local government areas of the state. The deal was sealed at a meeting between the state governor, Babagana Zulum, and the management team of the BOI led by the banks Executive Director, in charge of SME, Shekarau Umar. Both parties will contribute N500 million after which the funds will be disbursed in form of loans to eligible entrepreneurs, a statement from the Borno State government house read. In the pilot scheme of the disbursement, business owners from Monday Market, Gamboru Market, Tashan Bama, Tashan Baga, Budum, firewood and vegetable sellers all in Maiduguri are pencilled to benefit, the statement signed by Isa Gusau, a special adviser, communications and strategy said, Mr Gusau said the second phase of the program will focus on entrepreneurs in Biu, Ngala, Monguno, Dikwa, Bama and Gowza. Governor Zulum had on December 5, 2019 visited the Banks headquarters in Abuja, where he made a special case for citizens of Borno State given the challenges of insurgency which has made thousands of people lose their means of livelihood, he said. Google has officially canceled Google I/O 2020 due to coronavirus concerns. As with cancellations of other events, it is a significant blow as it is the annual software showcase for the company that also usually features some hardware launches as well. Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here Google has called off its annual Google I/O developer conference for 2020 due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The cancellation is undoubtedly a blow for the search giant which uses the conference to launch the latest major Android release (Android 11 on this occasion) along with other software and machine learning breakthroughs. The company also uses the event to introduce new hardware with last years event featuring the launch of the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL. Googles I/0 2020 website has been updated with the following message: Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. All guests who have purchased tickets to I/O 2020 will receive a full refund by March 13, 2020. If you dont see the credit on your statement by then, please reach out to io(at)google.com. Guests who have registered for I/O 2020 will not need to enter next years drawing and will be automatically granted the option of purchasing an I/O 2021 ticket. Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community. There is the suggestion that Google will still hold an event, but it will be live streamed and may not feature an audience, which will significantly reduce the buzz and excitement around the event. It is also a missed opportunity for Android developers to meet with Google software engineers, at least in person. Workshops could still be live streamed as well, but may not feature the same level of audience participation and interaction. Still, given concerns about the new corona virus spreading, it is probably a wise option minimize potential exposure of Googles own employees to the contagion which would only cause more disruption and potentially delay software releases. OKALOOSA COUNTY, Florida A man is facing multiple charges after sheriffs deputies say he resisted arrest by using a baby as a shield. Zachary Taylor McKinney, 31, of Defuniak Springs, Florida, is charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and battery on a health care professional, according to a news release from the Okaloosa County Sheriffs Office. He also is charged with false imprisonment of a child under the age of 13, child abuse, and resisting arrest. Sheriffs officials say a deputy stopped McKinneys vehicle on Interstate 10 at about 10:15 p.m. Monday. The new release says McKinney was stopped because of concerns regarding a child custody issue. Deputies say McKinney, who appeared to be under the influence of drugs, would not obey basic commands. They also say he refused to give deputies the infant, instead using the child as a shield. A special tactics unit eventually arrived at the scene and was able to get the baby away from McKinney unharmed, the news release says. McKinney initially was taken to a hospital, but while being transferred to jail, he reportedly kicked and scratched deputies and attempted to bite them. He was taken back to the hospital because of medical concerns, and he attacked a medical worker, choking him and shoving his fingers into the workers mouth, deputies say. The medical worker suffered injuries to his face, neck, mouth and abdomen, according to the news release. McKinney is being held in the Okaloosa County Jail. He has yet to appear in court, according to records. Read more from cleveland.com: Cleveland cop accused of stealing money from people during two arrests Abused inmates, convicted jail officers round out potential witnesses in trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director charged during rash of inmate deaths Woman who killed Garfield Heights man during robbery after meeting him on Plenty of Fish dating app sentenced to life in prison Surveillance photos show robbers who stole prescription drugs from Cleveland pharmacy, police say Electronic voting machines in California have been hit by widespread technical difficulties on Super Tuesday, which have frustrated voters and may delay some results. Los Angeles county home to more than 5 million voters was among the worst-affected, as many took to social media to complain of problems with a new $300 million voting system. Some voters tweeted their complaints directly at election officials. Went to two voting centers this morning. Turned away from both locations. First one the brand new tablets were broken. Second place the equipment has not been delivered yet. Fearful of what I'll discover at third center, wrote Kevin Koons. Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Show all 29 1 /29 Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states An anti-dairy protester is led away after storming the stage at Joe Biden's Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles, California EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Joe Biden hold up an election pooster from Barack Obama's 2008 run at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Bernie Sander takes to the stage before supporters during his Super Tuesday event in Vermont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a Super Tuesday party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer as results are announced at a watch party in Texas AFP/Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Joe Biden gestures to suppporters at a Super Tuesday event for the Democratic contender AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Elizabeth Warren waves to supporters at a rally in Michigan as results come in following Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A spray painted mural of presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on the side of a building in Kirby, Vernont EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Bernie Sandes cheer at a Super Tuesday rally in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Supporters of Elizabeth Warren hold sings and cheer in Cambridge Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School in Cambridge, Massachusetts Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A poster for sale at a rally for Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday in Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Elliot Zaagman wears a protective mask as he poses for a photo after casting his ballot in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Daisy, a Golden Retriever, outside a polling in San Diego. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (greets fellow voters after casting his ballot in his state's primary election at the Robert Miller Community Center in Burlington, Vermont Getty Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A first time voter stands behind a voting booth in a polling location for the North Carolina primary Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg takes part in his Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm Beach, Florida Reuters Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Fourteen states are holding their primaries with more than one third of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic primaries to be awarded on Super Tuesday Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce Mann greet supporters as they walk to a polling site to vote on Super Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusett EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters cast their ballots at a polling location inside an elementary school on Super Tuesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democratic voter Le'ana Freeman poses for a photo after casting her ballot at a polling station in Bangkok EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling location inside Hunter House at Nottoway Park in Vienna EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Democrat Jamie Wilson gets a sticker after voting in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas AP Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A Polling Place sign in the border town of Hidalgo, Texas EPA Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A girl carries her mothers ballot to the table where she will fill in her choice at the Taylor Elementary School polling location in Arlington Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states A man wearing an 'I Voted' sticker and a 'Bernie Abroad' badge after voting in the American presidential primary in Oxford, England Getty Images Super Tuesday: Lively scenes as results flood in across 14 states Stickers for people who vote AFP via Getty Images But issues were reported across the state, which awards the most number of delegates in the primary race. State election officials in 15 counties reported issues with their computer systems, according to the Los Angeles Times. The result was that many people were only able to cast provisional ballots, and their eligibility would not be confirmed until after election day. Many voters reported an issue with internet connectivity at some polling stations, according to the report. There is no evidence of malicious activity, and all counties have restored connectivity at this time, Sam Mahood, a spokesman for Secretary of State Alex Padilla, told the LA Times. This should not prevent any voters from casting a ballot, as counties have contingency procedures in place to check in voters. Los Angeles introduced the new voting system ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday vote, in the biggest change to its polling procedure in decades. But some analysts had warned against rolling out the new system for the first time for such a large-scale and important vote. Jennifer Cohn, an election integrity advocate, compiled a list of more than 90 media reports and social media posts from voters reporting problems with the new machines. A TWO-THREE HOUR wait to vote in Los Angeles county is not OK. Apparently there were problems with both the new e-pollbooks and w/ the new voting machines. We need answers The plan is to inflict this system on other parts of the country after 2020, she wrote. Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan said Europe must support Turkey's "political and humanitarian solutions in Syria" if it wants to resolve the situation Turkey's president warned a fresh migrant crisis could only be resolved if Europe supports its efforts in Syria, as violent clashes broke out between refugees and police on the Greek border. Thousands of migrants have massed at the Greek frontier since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that they would no longer be prevented from trying to enter Europe. A Turkish official claimed one migrant was killed and five injured by live fire from the Greek side. The claim was denied by Athens, but an AFP photographer earlier saw a migrant shot in the leg as a group of refugees tried to cut their way through the fencing near the official crossing at Pazarkule. The group then threw stones at the Greek police, who responded with tear gas, while multiple shots and cries were heard. Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan said Europe must support Turkey's "political and humanitarian solutions in Syria" if it wants to resolve the situation. Turkey already hosts some four million refugees, most of them Syrians, and has been fighting the Syrian regime in a bid to prevent another influx from Idlib, the last rebel stronghold, which has been under sustained attack by Damascus since December. Close to one million people in Idlib have been displaced by the regime assault, which is backed by Russian air power, though they are currently blocked from entering Turkey. Erdogan said he hopes a ceasefire would be "swiftly established" when he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. - Ceasefire? - Despite being on opposing sides of the nine-year war, Turkey and Russia have kept lines of communication open. But the relationship has been heavily strained as more than 50 Turkish soldiers have died in Idlib in recent weeks. The defence ministry said Wednesday that three soldiers had been killed by regime fire in the past 24 hours. Turkey said it had "immediately" retaliated, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine regime troops were killed by Turkish drone strikes in the Saraqeb area. Ankara officially announced an offensive against Syrian forces over the weekend, demanding they pull back behind lines agreed under the 2018 Sochi deal with Russia. "We expect Russia to fulfil its promises as a guarantor country and stop the regimes attacks and to use its influence to ensure the regime adheres to the Sochi deal's borders," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, NTV broadcaster reported. But many say Russia is determined to see the Syrian government take back full control of its territory. "There might be a ceasefire announced after the talks between Putin and Erdogan but it'll be for show," a Western diplomat told AFP. "I believe Putin will tell Erdogan that's it for his actions in Syria." - Support Turkey - The EU has slammed Turkey for what it says is "blackmail" over the migrants issue. It has promised 700 million euros ($777 million) to deal with the crisis on the Greek frontier, and dispatched a rapid intervention team from its border agency Frontex. Turkey agreed in 2016 to stop the flow of refugees in exchange for billions of euros, but says the EU has failed to honour other parts of the deal, such as visa liberalisation and an improved customs agreement. Erdogan upped the ante on Wednesday, saying in a speech: "If European countries want to resolve the issue, they must support Turkey's efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria." He also told journalists he had asked US President Donald Trump for ammunition. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Council President Charles Michel were both in Ankara for talks on the issue. Erdogan criticised the Greek response, saying: "The Greeks -- who are resorting to any means to stop refugees coming into their country, even drowning them or killing them with live ammunition -- they shouldn't forget they might need this same mercy one day." A Syrian refugee named Mustafa told AFP the Greek authorities were shooting at them. "Whoever goes is immediately hit, they threw tear gas," he said, speaking near the border in Turkey's Edirne province. Search Keywords: Short link: The Shops at Rockvale hopes to overhaul the outlet shopping complex along Route 30 in Lancaster County into a mixed-use development. First, it is seeking approval from East Lampeter Township officials to make the appropriate zoning amendments, according to Lancaster Online. The news site reports Rockvale wants to replace vacant stores with market-rate apartments and housing for 55-plus active adults, making it the first shopping center in Lancaster to convert property into housing. In recent years, Rockvale has witnessed dwindling occupancy related to retailers moving to nearby Tanger Outlets and the growing popularity of online ordering. Recently, West Elm furniture store closed at the complex and is reopening this month at Tanger, while Pottery Barn is following suit with a planned summer relocation to Tanger. On Monday night, representatives of Rockvales owner, Wharton Reality Group in New Jersey, discussed its first zoning amendment during a township supervisors meeting, according to LancasterOnline. I think the concept is fantastic..., said John Blowers, vice chairman of the supervisors, in the story. That parcel needs to come alive. Nows the time. If not, it will really become a challenge. Wharton told the news site it hopes to submit a final version of the proposed amendment in a few months. The mall was purchased by Wharton Realty Group of Eatontown, N.J. in 2017 for $30 million, after Rockvales previous owners defaulted on their $92.4 million mortgage. Rockvale includes 565,000 square feet on about 65 acres along Lincoln Highway East. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Gazakh for a visit. The head of state visited a statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the city of Gazakh. President Ilham Aliyev laid flowers at the statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev. Head of Gazakh Executive Authority Rajab Babashov informed the head of state about the work carried out in the region. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of lime factory in Gazakh. The Azerlime lime factory belongs to the Matanat A company. Head of Matanat A company Elkhan Bashirov informed the head of state of the work done. President Ilham Aliyev was also informed of the ongoing and promising projects of the company. The head of state launched the Azerlime lime factory. President Ilham Aliyev viewed the products manufactured at the Azerlime lime factory. President Ilham Aliyev then met with a group of district's general public and the factory staff. The head of state made a speech at the meeting. Speech of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev - First of all, let me congratulate you on the opening of the factory. I am very glad that your company has been active in creating this new factory, thus making a very important contribution to the development of our country and people. Several plants are already in operation. I recommended that all investments be made in Azerbaijan. You had other plans. I regularly review your activities because all new industrial enterprises are very important, especially those that address domestic needs and also manufacture exportable products. Therefore, when I heard that you had plans to invest in foreign countries, I did not raise an objection because both private and state-owned companies of Azerbaijan are investing abroad these days. However, it is advisable to first create enterprises in Azerbaijan in order to create jobs, develop local production, reduce dependence on imports and export products that would bring currency to our country. The stands I have reviewed here today show that the companys activities are fairly large-scale and have led to the creation of hundreds of jobs, especially in the regions. There are plans to employ 150 and a further 250 people at the next stage at this new limestone factory alone. So there are good opportunities for providing citizens with work. As for your plans for the future, I am sure that with the support of the state they will be realized. The state has provided you with financial support for the effective operation of these plants and your effective activities. It has allocated low-interest loans. However, you took on the main burden, of course, and this is natural. The state will always stand by the entrepreneurs and continue to give a powerful impetus to the development of entrepreneurship. The investment climate in our country is very positive today. It is no coincidence that $13.5 billion was invested in the country's economy last year. This process continues this year, with a significant part of investments being local. This suggests that local companies can already stand firm on their feet and this work will be continued with the support of the state. Through the Entrepreneurship Development Fund alone, entrepreneurs have received preferential loans worth 2 billion manats, which has helped create tens of thousands of jobs. The World Bank also acknowledges the positive nature of our investment climate. In these ratings, we are among top 20 most reforming countries. Of course, a very judicious policy needs to be pursued to achieve this. I am sure that not only the World Bank, but also local entrepreneurs see and approve the ongoing reforms because the key thing for them is the application of rules. The state policy in this direction in all areas is unambiguous, including the financial and economic fields. It is necessary to ensure full transparency. Thanks to this transparency, tax and customs authorities transferred 1 billion manats into the budget in excess of the forecast last year alone. Although the budget for this year has reached a record high, there has never been such a large amount of budget expenditures in the history of Azerbaijan before. In preparing the budget, extensive analytical work was done to determine the forecasts. Compared to last year, forecasts have been increased. Despite this, in January-February the tax authorities transferred 180 million manats and customs authorities 70 million manats into the budget above the forecast. A total of 250 million manats in just two months. How? Due to transparency, accuracy, integrity and expansion of the tax base. Therefore, entrepreneurs fully supporting this work will expand their financial capabilities and have additional funds which should first of all be invested in Azerbaijan. At the same time, these positive trends are causing a severe blow to the shadow economy. The volume of the shadow economy is sharply narrowing. It should narrow even more, and the funds raised above the forecast are a clear example of this. There shouldnt be unofficial employment. I am sure that this is not the case at your enterprise. Employment agreements must be concluded with all employees. I am appealing to all employees again: if an entrepreneur tries to hire you illegally, dont agree because you will not receive a pension and will not be provided with compulsory health insurance. Starting this year, compulsory health insurance will gradually cover the entire country. Those working unofficially will be deprived of this. They will have to pay for medical services. Compulsory health insurance will also completely put an end to the practice of service charges. Unfortunately, we still have serious problems and violations in this area. Compulsory health insurance will stop this. At the same time, this will be a serious method of combating unofficial employment. The opening of this plant today indicates that our country is pursuing the right economic policy. We are seeing tangible results of measures being taken in the field of entrepreneurship, as our economy should develop at the expense of the private sector. The state simply has to create conditions and implement infrastructure projects so that entrepreneurs work with enthusiasm. There are no problems associated with electricity in Gazakh district. Electricity supply is at 100 percent. There are no problems with gas supply either. Gazakh district is provided with gas by 100 percent. Today, 85 percent of roads in Gazakh have been renovated. If there were problems in these areas, no entrepreneur would invest money here, including yourselves. You would have found another place, left for another country where there is infrastructure. Therefore, we have created this so that people live well and comfortably and so that entrepreneurs invest here. The head of the executive authority has informed me that in the village of Dash Salahli there are three major enterprises with 1,300 employees. The population of the village is 10,000 people, and 1,300 work here. This is the work we and the entrepreneurs are doing. Therefore, the central government and local executive authorities must always support entrepreneurs. Their problems must be resolved. I have been informed that we have built a new road, but trucks can destroy it. An alternative road needs to be paved for trucks. I am now instructing the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency, they hear me. It is necessary to build a new 2km road so that the rural road remains in good condition and does not deform. I congratulate you once again and wish you continued success. Do create such enterprises so that we could together participate in their opening. Executive director of the Azerlime lime factory Fuad Bashirov then made a speech. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Gazakh District Central Hospital. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the hospital. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has visited the Gazakh branch of Azerkhalcha Open Joint-Stock Company. Chairman of the Board of Azerkhalcha OJSC Vidadi Muradov informed President Ilham Aliyev of the conditions created at the enterprise. The Gazakh branch of Azerkhalcha OJSC which occupies an area of more than 1200 square metres will employ 150 weavers. The building features a textile workshop, artist`s room, warehouse, canteen, medical point, sales room and other sections. *** President of Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of Dash Salahli-Urkmazli-Damirchilar highway after renovation. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov informed the head of state of the technical and economic indicators of the road. The two-lane highway is 16km in length. President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the road. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, March 4, 2020 13:37 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2068348e1 1 National COVID-19,media,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,privacy,privacy-violation,Depok Free The neighbors of Indonesia's first two COVID-19 patients have urged broadcast media to stop the live coverage of their housing complex in Depok, West Java. Anis Hidayah, a resident and activist with Migrant Care, took to Facebook to voice her frustrations about local broadcasting station TV One's coverage of her neighbor. The Jakarta Post has obtained her permission to quote her Facebook post, in which she and her neighbors threatened to report media outlets to the Press Council. "Please stop the constant live coverage of our housing complex. Enough!" she wrote. Anis went on to defend the resident who had tested positive for COVID-19, whom she described as a respectable lecturer and a professional Javanese dancer with international achievements. "[She is] humble, friendly to her neighbors and cares about them, Anis wrote. "Stop judging the patients. Stop spreading pictures of the patients. President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced Indonesia's first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Case 1 is a 31-year-old woman who had been in contact with a Japanese citizen who tested positive in Malaysia on Feb. 27 after visiting Indonesia in early February. Case 2 is her 64-year-old mother. Their personal details were spread across social media and news platforms as soon as the news broke out, prompting criticism from activist groups and the patients themselves, one of whom had described the whole ordeal as "mentally draining". (ars) Gibraltar Tourist Board Road Show in Edinburgh The Gibraltar Tourist Board held a successful road show in Edinburgh, Scotland on 3rd March. The event was held specifically to promote the start of flights on 31st March from Edinburgh to Gibraltar, operated by easyJet. The event, held at the Balmoral Hotel, attracted forty one agents from the Edinburgh area. During the evening agents were able to meet with Gibraltars industry partners from the UK and The Rock in order to learn more about the destination. Working alongside the GTB were easyJet, Blands, the Rock Hotel, the Elliott Hotel, Sunborn Gibraltar, M H Bland, Edinburgh Airport, Fred Holidays and Osprey Holidays. Minister for Tourism, the Hon Vijay Daryanani MP, who was not able to travel to the event due to important Government business said, The start of flights from Edinburgh is excellent news for Gibraltar as it will deliver business to the hospitality, tourism and retail industry. This event follows on from three other successful shows in London, Manchester and Bristol a few weeks ago. I am particularly grateful to those industry partners from the UK and Gibraltar who make the effort to work alongside the great team at the GTB at these events. INDIO, Calif., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FirstBank, one of the nations largest privately held banks with a focus on banking for good, is observing the first anniversary of its Spanish Banking Center in California. To celebrate, FirstBank is providing free food and drinks to the public on Friday, March 6, 2020, from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at its branch located at 82-900 Avenue 42, Unit C in Indio. For the last year, the Indio Spanish Banking Center has served as a resource where our customers can receive banking services in their preferred language, said Ramiro Jimenez, California Vice President. We are excited to commemorate this anniversary and embrace the future of the center, as we celebrate the customers that comprise and enrich the communities we serve. Additionally, and as part of its multicultural initiative, FirstBank will continue hiring and retaining talent that speaks Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Ethiopian dialects, among many others. The bank is further engaging Spanish, Black/African American and Asian communities through educational offerings, events and sponsorships, which include supporting organizations such as the African Leadership Group, Mexican Cultural Center and Asian Chamber of Commerce, to name a few. The bank maintains an inclusive board of directors that reflects the diversity of both its employees and customers. Over half of the banks management roles from assistant manager through executive management are occupied by women. And nearly 40 percent of the banks employee population represent different races, ethnicities, military statuses and abilities. About FirstBank FirstBank began providing banking services in Colorado in 1963. Today, the bank maintains more than $19 billion in assets and operates more than 115 branch locations across Colorado, Arizona and California. FirstBank offers a variety of checking accounts, savings accounts, home equity loans, mortgages, and a full range of commercial banking services, including financing, treasury management and deposit accounts. Since 2000, FirstBank has been recognized as a leader in corporate philanthropy, contributing more than $65 million and thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations. The company is also unique in that a large portion of its stock is owned by management and employees, giving all employees a financial stake in the banks success through its Employee Stock Ownership Program. For more information, visit www.efirstbank.com. ### Member FDIC The National Weather Service is still assessing the tornado damage in Davidson, Wilson, and Smith counties in Tennessee Wednesday morning after the area was hit with severe weather. The highest winds discovered by NWS meteorologists with these tornadoes were in Donelson, which registered an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds of 160-165 mph. In Mt. Juliet, there was EF-3 twister with 155-160 mph speeds. Storms there killed at least 24 people and authorities said 38 people remain unaccounted for. PHOTO: There is a tornado watch from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle Wednesday morning. There is also severe thunderstorm watch in central Texas where winds could be greater than 60 mph. (ABC News) In East Nashville and Five Points, an EF-3 tornado tracked at 136-140 mph and in Germantown/North Nashville, there was an EF-2 with speeds of 125 mph. Wednesday morning, more severe weather is developing in the South with tornadoes possible from Texas to Florida. There is a tornado watch from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle Wednesday morning. There is also a severe thunderstorm watch in central Texas, where winds could be higher than 60 mph. PHOTO: Wednesday afternoon and evening, a new low-pressure system will move out of Texas and will move east along the Gulf Coast. (ABC News) Wednesday afternoon and evening, a new low-pressure system will move out of Texas and will shift east along the Gulf Coast and will bring more severe storms from Louisiana to Georgia and Florida's panhandle. A severe storm threat moves into Florida and southern Georgia Thursday, from Tallahassee, Florida, to Jacksonville and Savannah, Georgia. Tornadoes will be possible again with this storm. PHOTO: In addition to a tornado threat and damaging winds, there is flash flooding threat for the South from Louisiana to Georgia. (ABC News) In addition to tornado threats and damaging winds, there is a flash flooding threat for the South from Louisiana to Georgia, where some areas could see up to a half a foot of rain. This could lead to flash flooding on roads, streets and neighborhoods. Threat of tornadoes for the South continues Wednesday and Thursday originally appeared on abcnews.go.com If sources are to be believed, Brad Pitt had an important role to play in the highly awaited Friends Reunion. No, he is not going to star in the special episode but he can be the reason why the episode is happening in the first place. Why? Because he convinced Jennifer Aniston to agree to be a part of the Friends reunion episode. According to a source at Closer Magazine, Jen reached out to Brad to seek his advice as she was initially reluctant about the idea of a Friends reunion. "After reuniting with Brad on her birthday last year, she asked him for advice. Brad thought it would be a great idea to honor their success and that fans still hold the show in such high regard," added the source. Reportedly, it was Pitt who told Jen that it was the right time to agree to the idea. "He told her it feels like the right time to get back together and encouraged her change of heart. He advised her to say `yes` when everyone got together in October to celebrate the show`s 25th anniversary," said the source. Well, we have Brad Pitt to thank for because the reunion episode would only make sense if all the pals from the show would come together. And now that it's happening soon, we can't wait for it to be released! The internet does not have a physical home. It uses a collection of servers around the world to process huge amounts of data. These traffic centers are officially called internet exchanges. Sometimes they are also described as the cloud, a non-physical name for where digital information is stored. While these internet exchanges can be found in different places around the world, some of them are much bigger than others. And, one of the largest is in the American state of Virginia. The town of Ashburn is about 50 kilometers outside Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County. The area is home to more than 100 internet data centers. Operators of the internet exchange say about 70 percent of the worlds internet traffic passes through equipment in the area. Some of the equipment is kept in large buildings. Data also flows through a huge collection of underground cables. The cables are made of fiber-optic material. Buddy Rizer is the director of economic development for Loudoun County. He told VOA that fiber cables are running through the whole area. "Both sides of the road pretty much have fiber troughs in them, he said. And now we're putting some fiber in the middle of the roads as well. We want to continue to build on that fiber network." The area around Ashburn has been called the Silicon Valley of the east. It also has earned the name of cloud capital of the world. A lot of people, they think about the cloud and their eyes go up. Well, it's really not up," Rizer said. "The cloud is based somewhere and - by and large - the cloud has been based here in Loudoun County, Virginia, in the data centers that we have on the ground here." The history of the areas internet exchange dates back to the 1990s, when former internet provider America Online moved to Ashburn. The company brought fiber and power infrastructure with it. One of the world's first internet exchanges also moved to Loudoun in the late 1990s. Other companies followed. Each new addition helped build one of the largest fiber networks anywhere in the world. Today, major technology companies like Amazon and Google also have a presence in Loudoun. The areas appeal includes lower-priced land and electricity and access to water to help cool the equipment. Loudoun also offers skilled, educated workers. Back-up generators are in place so that power never runs out. The buildings have cooling abilities that permit the release of waste heat produced by the computer equipment. Security at the centers is very strict. The data centers are contained in buildings that look very similar to most other buildings in the area. Although the centers look normal, they are expected to bring in at least $320 million in local taxes for Loudoun County. Rizer says he expects the industry to keep growing there and in other parts of the country, as demand for internet data infrastructure keeps rising. Im Bryan Lynn. Dora Mekouar reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story digital adj. related to computer technology, especially the internet cable n. wire covered with plastic that carries electricity, internet or communications signals fiber optics n. glass or plastic fibers used to send light that contains information trough n. a low point between two high points infrastructure n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) needed for an area to operate access n. the right or ability to do or see something generator n. a machine that produces electricity The situation in Syria is in the spotlight of the Armenian MFA, said the FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan at the parliament on Wednesday. According to him, Armenia condemns the Turkish military invasion of northeast Syria, wich will lead to further deterioration of regional security, civilian casualties, a large flow of displaced people and a new humanitarian crisis. The situation over national and religious minorities is of the MFA particular concern, the FM said adding that this military invasion poses a danger of gross and massive violations of human rights based on its identity. Armenia called for effective international efforts to end this military invasion, prevent mass atrocities and protect the Syrian border population. Minister said Armenia supports the integrity and sovereignty of Syria and calls for renouncing military efforts in relation to the country and its people. Official Yerevan also noted it will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the fraternal Syrian people. The Syrian crisis can only be resolved if there is an internal wide domestic political dialogue in Syria itself, taking into account the interest of all interested parties, including the interests of national and religious minorities, he added. Egypt army has said that it has executed top Islamist militant Hisham el-Ashmawi on March 4, a day after country's court sentenced him along with 36 other defendants to death. The Cairo Criminal court had said that the Ashmawi's conviction was related to charges of belonging to a local affiliate of the Islamic State group spearheading an insurgency in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Among all who were sentenced to death, the Ashmawi was the former army officer and was captured in Libya in 2018 by forces loyal to Libyan General Khalifa Hifter, a close ally to Egypt. Read - Egypt Sentences 37 To Death Including Top Militant Leader Read - Egypt To Hold Full-honors Military Funeral For Mubarak Ashmawi was among 200 defendants Separately, according to reports, the top Islamist leader was sentenced to death by Egypt's court for his participation in numerous attacks on government targets. Egypt has been battling militants for several years in the restive northern Sinai area and the vast Western Desert. Ashmawi was among the 200 defendants who were accused of carrying out more than 50 militant attacks including the killing of top police officers and bombings that targetted Egyptian capital's police headquarters. Moreover, the charges of defendants also included the assassination attempt on Egyptian interior minister in 2013. Read - Ethiopia Skips Latest US Talks With Egypt Over Dam Dispute Read - Egypt Upholds Sentence Of Top Customs Official On Corruption V irgin Atlantic has waived flight change fees for new bookings made in March in response to the coronavirus crisis. The policy is available for customers who buy tickets between March 4 and March 31, 2020. It will extend to flights set to take off between March 4 and September 30, 2020 inclusive. The deal will cover flights from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast airports and tickets booked on Virgin Atlantic codeshare flights on Transatlantic routes with its expanded joint venture partners; Delta, Air France and KLM. Coronavirus - In pictures 1 /106 Coronavirus - In pictures A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images Customers wearing face masks shop at the pork counter of a supermarket following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province Reuters Westminster Bridge is deserted in London the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA Canadian passengers Chris & Anna Joiner ask for help onboard the MS Zaandam, Holland America Line cruise ship, during the coronavirus outbreak, off the shores of Panama City via Reuters A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City Reuters The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Commuters cope with Coronavirus Jeremy Selwyn Milan's Piazza del Duomo empty AFP via Getty Images People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran AP Martina Papponetti, 25, an ICU nurse at the Humanitas Gavazzeni Hospital in Bergamo, Italy poses for a portrait at the end of her shift AP Pope Francis celebrating a daily mass alone in the Santa Marta chapel at the Vatican, as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Imag Vysheyshaya Liga - FC Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino v FC Belshina Bobruisk - Torpedo Stadium, Zhodino, Belarus, March 27, 2020 Players in action during the match despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Hanks and Wilson both have coronavirus Tom Hanks General view of an emergency makeshift field hospital as it is set up at Pacaembu Stadium for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients with a capacity of 200 beds in Sao Paulo, Brazil Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres, work from home if possible and avoid all non-essential contacts and travel in order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic PA Naomi Campbell catches a flight in a hazmat suit with goggles, a surgical mask and rubber gloves @naomi Sophie and Emily Ward pose for a photograph with their hand-drawn picture of rainbows and a message on their window in St Helens, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Corona virus outbreak. PA Shoppers queue outside a branch of Costco, in Croydon, south London, on the weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close PA Charing Cross Tube Bakerloo Line very quiet at 8.15am Jeremy Selwyn A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A Racegoer attend Cheltenham Festival on Ladies Day wearing a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at the Public Health England National Infection Service in Colindale PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A couple kiss in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan on March 8, 2020 AFP via Getty Images A combination picture shows visitors wearing protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looking at blooming cherry blossom nd a pigeon walking at an closed cherry blossom viewing spot during the first weekend after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (not pictured) urged Tokyo residents to stay indoors, in a bid to keep the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from spreading Reuters This combination photo created on March 5, 2020 shows tourists visiting Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province on March 16, 2019 (top) and on March 5, 2020 AFP via Getty Images Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump looks at the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Vice President Mike Pence stand by during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House Reuters A satellite image shows an empty South Beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miami, via Reuters General view inside the empty stadium as the two teams line up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at Parc des Princes UEFA via Getty Images A Sainsbury's supermarket in Cambridge is among those to sell out of antibacterial hand sanitizer PA Tents and ambulances are set up next to the Princess Cruises Grand Princess cruise as it sits docked in the Port of Oakland on March 09, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Princess Cruises Grand Princess has been held from docking until today as at least 21 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19 also known as the Coronavirus Getty Images Medical staff produce traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea AP Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow via Reuters A woman who has recovered from the COVID-19 is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine AFP via Getty Images Passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen as the ship arrives at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were diagnosed with coronavirus Getty Images Dave Abel pictured in hospital in Japan Manchester United fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford PA Police officers wearing masks stand in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife AP Carnival revellers wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival Reuters A general view is pictured of Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire after the closure of the school as a pupil's parent has tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 AFP via Getty Images People wearing face masks walk past the Olympic rings in front of the new National Stadium, the main stadium for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Game Getty Images People leave Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes where Coronavirus evacuees are due to be released from quarantine today and allowed to go home PA Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridg Getty Images A general view of Worthing Hospital in West Sussex PA Passengers relax on board the Holland America-operated Westerdam cruise ship, which has been denied permission to dock in Thailand over coronavirus fears via Reuters A child waves as she sits in a vehicle carrying residents evacuated from a public housing building, following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, outside Hong Mei House, at Cheung Hong Estate in Hong Kong Reuters A woman wearing a Minnie Mouse face mask looks at her mobile phone in Beijing on February 11, 2020 AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia after a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus on board, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters A patient covered with a bed sheet at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital as it starts to accept patients displaying mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images A medical official takes the body temperature of a man at the departure hall of the airport in Changsha, Hunan Province, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, China Reuters The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center Getty Images A plane carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire A police vehicle enters the gates of the Royal Air Force station RAF Brize Norton in Carterton AFP via Getty Images Passengers wear face masks as the push their luggage after arriving from a flight at Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images French citizens arrive and settle aboard of an evacuation plane with destination southeastern France, before departure from Wuhan Airport (WUH), China AFP via Getty Images Police stand at a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge that crosses from Hubei province in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China Reuters A member of staff at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside prepares for a bus carrying British nationals from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China PA Doctor Paul McKay, who is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus, poses for a photograph with bacteria containing fragments of coronavirus DNA, at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in Londo AFP via Getty Images Workers produce masks at the Thai Hospital Product Company Ltd. factory in Bangkok AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters People hoard bottles of alcohol after the Philippine government confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Reuters Taking precautions: with fears growing that the coronavirus will spread from China, a health official checks a womans temperature on the underground in Beijing Getty Images An empty road is seen in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on January 27, 2020, amid a deadly virus outbreak which began in the city AFP via Getty Images Students wearing masks meditate prior to a lesson at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia AP Medical staff at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus AFP via Getty Images Staff move bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center, where some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan, China AP Workers driving excavators at the construction site of a field hospital In Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The builders will complete the 1,000-bed hospital by February 3 to cope with the surge of 2019-nCoV patients in the city Getty Images Buddhist monks wear masks as they walk near Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodi AP A woman and a child wearing protective masks walk toward check-in counters at Daxing international airport in Beijing AFP via Getty Images An employee sprays disinfectant on a train as a precaution against a new coronavirus at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A policeman wearing a mask walks past a quarantine notice about the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China at an arrival hall of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan Reuters Paramilitary police wear face masks as they stand guard at Tiananmen Gate adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing AP The resident wear masks to buy vegetables in the market in Wuhan Getty Images Staff sell masks at a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan AP Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV AP Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic, said: We understand that with evolving travel advice, some of our customers may wish to build in some flexibility to upcoming travel plans. Putting our customers first, this new policy enables them to continue with their Virgin Atlantic booking this month, with the peace of mind that there is the option to change their flight at a later date, without incurring a fee. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, Virgin Atlantic has suspended London Heathrow-Shanghai operations until April 19 and is operating an amended London Heathrow-Hong Kong schedule. SYRACUSE, NY -- Twelve Onondaga County residents are being quarantined at home after returning from China. Dr. Indu Gupta, the countys health commissioner, said the 12 people have no symptoms of coronavirus and cannot leave their homes for 14 days, a precaution required by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health department nurses call the individuals daily to see if they have developed any symptoms or fevers. No one in Onondaga County has tested positive for the virus yet, but Gupta expects to eventually see cases here. It will happen in our community, she said. Its just a matter of time. There have been more than 94,000 cases worldwide and more than 3,200 deaths. New York has seen 11 cases so far in Westchester County and Manhattan. Gupta and other county officials discussed coronavirus today at a press briefing on what Onondaga County is doing to prepare for a possible outbreak there. This is not a time to panic, said Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon. He said the county and city are working with hospitals, schools, emergency medical service providers and other community organizations to prepare for an outbreak. Gupta said the most important thing people can do to stop the spread of virus is wash their hands frequently, cover up when they cough or sneeze, and stay home when they are sick. James T. Mulder covers health news. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. An 81-year-old former vicar and his Romanian toyboy husband have revealed they are living together again in Bucharest after having an 'open relationship' for a year. Philip Clements, a retired Church of England vicar, and Florian Marin, 27, married three years ago in Kent after meeting on the online dating site Gaydar. But Mr Clements soon moved back to England, despite selling his home to live in the Romanian capital, because a rift developed over the younger man's late night clubbing. Now the ex-vicar says he is happy for Mr Marin to visit gay clubs on the weekends and understands he needs to spend time with people his age. Scroll down for video. Philip Clements and Florin Marin on their wedding day in Kent three years ago. After a rift the pair are living together in Bucharest and Mr Clements is living off his church pension 'I know when he's busy not to disturb him and to give him space. He goes to the gay club in Bucharest once a week and I'm fine with that.' Mr Clements told The Sun. 'He must have space to be with younger people, it's very important when there's this big age difference. We've both learnt a lot.' Mr Clements is using his church and teaching pension to help pay for their living expenses in their two-bedroom home in Bucharest. He said: 'We do have to watch the money but Romania is cheaper than in England so the money goes further. 'We have enough to live on and enough to go to the cinema and out for a meal occasionally.' He said they are looking forward to celebrating their third wedding anniversary with a home-cooked dinner. Mr Clements (right) sold his home in Kent for 214,750 before moving to Romania and buying a flat in Bucharest. He returned to England shortly after because the pair experienced turbulence in their relationship, but Mr Clements says they have now reached an understanding and are living together again Mr Clements has been able to come to an understanding that Mr Marin needs to spend time with younger men and allows him to go clubbing once a week (pictured together on a yacht) Mr Clements said this time around he had adjusted to the language much better and said Mr Marin had matured since they first met. The couple had previously experienced turbulence shortly after their marriage when Mr Clements first tried living in Bucharest. The former vicar moved back to England after just a few months in Romania because he was upset with Mr Marin's clubbing into the late hours. They were able to keep their romance alive with Whatsapp messaging, however, while Mr Marin moved to work in Spain. Describing their relationship, Mr Clements said at the time: 'I love him to bits. Sometimes we have a little row but underlying it all I have a deep affection for him. 'I love him to bits, if we were permanently separated, I would be the most unhappy person in the world.' Rev Clements spent 50 years in the Church of England as a vicar before his retirement The former clergyman spent six decades celibate but fell in love with a man after meeting him on a gay dating app Mr Marin has said previously he one day wants to be Mr Clements' carer and does not mind about the negative opinions people might have. The Church of England's rules state that clergy cannot enter same-sex marriages. Civil partnerships are allowed but must remain celibate. The former parish priest said he had repressed his sexuality throughout his career because of the church's stance on homosexuality but is now able to be his 'true-self.' All government departments will consult the before organising conferences and international meets in the country in the coming days, it was decided on Wednesday at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the principal secretary to the prime minister. A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said in the light of recommendations made by public health experts to avoid "big public gatherings", "it was decided that all government departments and ministries shall consult Ministry of Health before organising conferences and international meetings in the country at present". At the meeting, chaired by P K Mishra, the Home Ministry was tasked with working closely with state governments, including relevant district administration officials, to ensure compliance with screening protocols at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) on India's land borders. The Informatics Centre has been asked to provide the requisite support to the Bureau of Immigration and MHA in this regard, the statement said. Decisions were also taken to rapidly implement opening of proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country, down to the district level in partnership with state governments. A broad spectrum of issues were reviewed at the meeting. "Two important changes since yesterday to further enhance our level of preparedness, namely introduction of universal screening at all international airports and sea-ports through use of thermal imagery equipment, as well as mandatory filling of declaration forms of places visited by tourists and travellers returning from abroad, were noted by all concerned for operationalisation," the statement said. To disseminate information in a timely manner, including relevant advisories and "Do's and Don'ts", Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was tasked with working closely with the health and HRD ministries and the Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The briefed that the 24-hour medical helpline operational across the country since January 23 has so far received over 6000 phone calls, the statement said. It was highlighted that participation of the communities and local bodies is essential to combat the public health challenge posed by the virus. It was also decided to explore the greater involvement of private sector. Wednesday's meet was the latest in a series of stock-taking meetings at the PMO, with the first held on January 25. It was attended by the Cabinet Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, secretaries of ministries of Health, Civil Aviation, Information and Broadcasting, Shipping, Tourism, Chairman (Airport Authority of India), Secretary (Border Management), MHA and senior officials from defence forces, Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Niti Aayog and the PMO. "The pro-active measures taken so far which have contained spread of the virus in India, despite a big population and geographical proximity to the epicentre of the disease, were appreciated by all. At the same time, it was decided to further enhance the effectiveness of the steps taken by adopting a pan-government approach, in partnership with the states," the statement said. A separate statement from Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the government has already set up 15 new virology labs and 19 more will be set up within one week across the country. Travel advisories have also been issued. A big awareness campaign has been launched across the country, especially in schools, colleges and elsewhere and people are being taught about the "do's and don'ts" to prevent possible infection. Also a Group of Ministers constituted on the directions of the prime minister to check the country's preparedness held its meeting to take stock of the situation. Geneva [Switzerland], Mar 04 (ANI): A group of Baloch activists held a protest here asking the United Nations' Human Rights Council to intervene and stop the 'genocide' in Balochistan. The demonstration held during the ongoing 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council was organised by the Baloch Voice Association. The activists were seen holding banners with slogans--'Balochistan is bleeding', 'Free Balochistan' and 'Stop enforced disappearances'. Neela Quadri Baloch, President of the Baloch Women' Forum said, "It's almost 70 years United Nations is here, and it's almost 70 years that Pakistan has occupied Balochistan and they are responsible for our genocide." A large number of political activists, students and intellectuals have gone missing in Balochistan, allegedly abducted up by the security forces. Activists say many of those abducted were killed and their mutilated bodies were found in isolated places. "They are using rape as a tool of oppression. They are taking our women, they are torturing them. This is the time the UN should understand and feel a responsibility to come to Balochistan and intervene," Neela Quadri Baloch said. "UN should monitor what's going on in Balochistan. You can't walk in Balochistan ten meters without a check post. So, we are living in occupied land, we are living in a hell that is made by the state of Pakistan. There should be an intervention by the UN in Balochistan and there should be fact-finding missions because there are mass graves, more than 40,000 people are missing. Our whole nation is in Great Depression", said the woman activist. Munir Mengal, the president of the Baloch Voice Association said, "The people in Balochistan are being eliminated. We are receiving reports, we are receiving data which shows that the Pakistani state is eliminating Baloch people, approximately 8-10 people become victims of enforced disappearances every week. Some 3-4 people are being killed by Pakistani state forces, who were kidnapped". The Baloch have been fighting against the forceful occupation of their land by Pakistan. Mengal further said, "Since 1948, we have a political conflict with the state of Pakistan. We are against the annexation of our land by Pakistan on the basis of religion. So, the Baloch have stood for that and they are fighting over that". He laid stress on urgent intervention by the international human rights body to save the lives of Baloch people. The Baloch Voice Association also held a discussion on the prevailing situation in Balochistan in which Baloch activists and human rights activists from Europe participated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voter turnout in the Democratic presidential primary increased by 44 percent in Texass most populous county compared to four years ago, helping fuel former Vice President Joe Bidens surprising comeback on Super Tuesday. While U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was rolling up big victory margins in Austin, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley, Biden posted big wins in Harris County and Dallas County which both saw a huge increase in voter turnout. It makes Bidens Monday blitz through Texas look even smarter. Biden held big rallies to drive up turnout in Houston and in Dallas where he touted a slew of new endorsements, including from former U.S. Senate candidate Beto ORourke, with whom Biden later visited his first Whataburger. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox The result in Harris County was that Biden won 112,000 votes, beating Sanders by over 25,000 votes. Statewide, Biden defeated Sanders by about 69,000 votes according to unofficial election results through the Texas Division of Elections. Overall, turnout in the Democatic primary in Texas rose from 1.4 million votes in 2016 to 2 million, a 44-percent increase. Harris County Democratic Party Chair Lillie Schechter said the reason for the 44-percent increase in Democratic primary turnout in Harris County is clear to her: President Donald Trump. If you look at what hes done, everyone feels threatened by this administration, Schechter said. Spokesperson Samantha Cotten said Trumps re-election campaign is confident Texas voters will get behind the president for another four years in office. For subscribers: Five takeaways from Super Tuesday in Texas While President Trump cruised to victory, Texas Democrats have fully embraced socialism by throwing their support behind Joe Biden, Cotten said. Come November, Texans will make their voices heard loud and clear when they say yes to four more years and reelect President Trump. Trump had minor primary opposition, but had no trouble winning Texas, collecting 94 percent of the vote. Schechter said the turnout for Democrats in Harris was not accidental. Increased voter registrations, more active Democratic clubs and more voter outreach overall are central to what Democrats have been doing for years to be ready for 2020. In Dallas County, the states second-largest county, Biden won 93,000 votes to Sanders 63,000. Sanders was stronger in South Texas, along the Rio Grande and picked up a dominating 30,000-vote lead in Travis County. He also won Bexar County by about 8,000 votes. When early voting numbers were first reported on Tuesday, Biden looked like he was on a path to defeat. Sanders held the overall state lead and claimed about 29 percent of the estimated 115,000 early votes in Harris County five percentage points ahead of Biden. But on election day, Biden won almost 48 percent of the 165,000 votes cast in Harris County to cement his win in Houston. Exit polling shoes black voters statewide were a key to Bidens victory. About 60 percent of black voters said they backed Biden while Sanders only won 17 percent. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who aggressively tried to court Houstons black vote, had just 15 percent support. Harris County election results seemed to back those numbers. At Sunnyside Multi-Service Center where there were more than 4,000 voters and predominately black, Biden won 50 percent of the vote. At Texas Southern University, where Biden campaigned on Monday, he won 47 percent of the vote. Vietnamese enterprises are aiming to widen deep processing to diversify products to better serve their export markets. Lavifood has created new products to take food lifespan into account With a processing factory in the Mekong Delta province of Long An stuck with a large amount of dragon fruit due to the current worldwide health crisis, global fruit and vegetable producer Lavifood has come up with brand new products made from this kind of fruit. As a result, the company bought a huge amount of dragon fruit to both support farmers and start their new project. We have made 100 per cent dragon juice with a lifespan of nine months, soft dried dragon fruit for six months, and also frozen packaged products, Dinh Hung Dung, deputy general director of Lavifood said. According to Dung, with these new products, the company can use all of the fruit before their expiry dates. Part of these products will be shipped to China via sea, which is convenient for both China and Vietnam. From now on, we will only export by sea, not by road, Dung added. Along with Lavifoods move, many other enterprises have also found different ways to diversify their products while supporting farmers. Self-proclaimed king of bread Kao Sieu Luc, owner of ABC Bakery, also thought of using dragon fruit in his products. He replaced 60 per cent of water with pureed dragon fruit, which means that he uses 1.4kg of the fruit for every 5 kg of wheat. At the early stage we bought a tonne of dragon fruit, then pureed and froze them for future use. If the product is popular, we will need 200kg of dragon fruit per day, Luc said. After big success with the dragon bread and long lines of people waiting to purchase some, Luc has also introduced varieties with durian filling in the middle. We aim to export this kind of bread after serving the domestic market. In addition, we will introduce dragon moon cake this autumn. We have also thought of using typical Vietnamese products like taro, watermelon, and avocado to bake cakes, he added. Also wishing to support farmers, Huynh Kim Chis Vikybomi Corporation, a producer of prepared mix in Ho Chi Minh City, has finished products made from wheat, dragon fruit, and watermelon such as bread and fresh noodles. We are a material provider, so we will not sell the products directly to consumers but transfer the formulas of these products to manufacturers for free, helping consume more agricultural products, Chi said. According to Chi, her corporation may create more new items from agricultural products for export. Meanwhile, Le Duy Toan, director of Duy Anh Food Ltd., Co., said that his company had also successfully made watermelon vermicelli and dragon fruit rice crepes, which were immediately welcomed by Japanese and South Korean customers. In these two markets, people often use the rice crepes to roll barbecue or wrap sushi. We have just exported the first watermelon vermicelli patch to South Korea, while one customer from Japan has ordered 3.5 tonnes. We are in the process of signing an order of around three tonnes of watermelon noodles and dragon fruit rice paper for the Australian market, Toan said. According to Toan, the company will continue creating similar products, while continuing to promote these new ones. Noodles and rice paper made from dragon fruit and watermelon will be our major products. We are consuming 1-1.2 tonnes of watermelon and 300kg of dragon fruit a day. We hope to increase the amount to four tonnes of watermelon and one tonne of dragon fruit, he added. With experience in using sweet potatoes, beetroots, and spinach to produce vermicelli, pho, and rice paper, Toan said, Creativity in processing agricultural products to increase their value is essential because Vietnam has strong advantages in agriculture while consumers are very fond of new products. Lauding the initiatives of enterprises, Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that these were practical means to help the agricultural sector to sustainably develop in the future. Focusing on deep processing is necessary to help the agricultural sector reach the target of $43 billion in 2020. Processing enterprises must closely connect with material areas to reduce the volume of exported fresh products, Minister Cuong said. VIR Phuong Hao VN food processing industry offers excellent investment opportunity Vietnam will continue to solicit investment in food processing to add value to the industry, a conference heard in HCM City on November 14. An Amazon employee based in Seattle, Washington, has tested positive for the coronavirus. The global retail giant said in a memo to staff that the employee, who worked in its office in downtown Seattle, was sent home last Tuesday after feeling unwell. It said the employee had not returned to the office since then. Were supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine, Amazon told CNBC on Tuesday. In a memo to staff, it added: We notified the employees who we know were in close contact with this employee. The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low. Washington state has been the worst-affected place in the US, with 27 confirmed cases of the virus and nine deaths so far. Researchers believe the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks in the state, raising fears that there could be hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area indeed, the same could be true elsewhere in the US. T eachers and students of Chinese descent are being singled out for "abuse, prejudice, xenophobia and racism" due to the spread of the coronavirus in the UK, according to a teachers' union. The NASUWT wrote to education minister Gavin Williamson on Wednesday warning that it had received more "'jokes', banter, racist name-calling, intimidation" against people of Chinese origin and of other ethnic minorities since the first coronavirus cases in the country. Alleged incidents reportedly include "report of groups of pupils playing an 'unsavoury' game of tag named after the coronavirus", according to the PA news agency. Chris Keates, acting general secretary of the NASUWT, said: The NASUWT is extremely concerned at the extent of increased incidences of abuse, prejudice, xenophobia and racism as a result of the coronavirus (Covid-19)." A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station / AP The letter added: Misinformation and false reporting about the coronavirus, its causes and how it is spread have fuelled fear and panic and in some cases led to the ostracising of people of East Asian heritage and others perceived to be foreign or an immigrant within the UK. Unfortunately, schools and colleges are not exempt from the associated xenophobic and racialised stereotyping of Chinese and other East Asian people. The NASUWT has received reports of increased covert and overt racial attacks perpetrated against some minority ethnic pupils and NASUWT members linked to coronavirus concerns. The letter comes amid growing concern about incidents of coronavirus-related racism towards east Asian people in the UK. Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming said last month that he had received reports of racism related to the coronavirus in British universities and schools. But Jenny Wong, director of the Manchester Chinese Centre, told the Evening Standard that although she had received several reports of racism from children when news of the coronavirus first, now that people in the UK have had the virus, there have been many fewer incidents. "In January, I think people here believed it was just Chinese people who could get coronavirus", Ms Wong, said "But since it has come here, there has been much less racism." The Department for Education has been contacted for comment. A blue plaque is to be placed on the house in Bloomsbury in Londons West End to honour the work and memory of Indian-origin British spy during World War II, Noor Inayat Khan, who worked as an Allied wireless officer, but was caught and executed in 1944. English Heritage, the organisation that runs the blue plaques scheme, announced on Wednesday that Khan is among six women to be so honoured this year. Born in Moscow in 1914 to a Sufi teacher and an American mother, Khan was educated in London and Paris. She worked for the Special Operations Executive in Paris during 1943. She evaded capture by the Nazis and continued to send messages to London for far longer than expected, but was betrayed, arrested and interrogated, but refused to give up secrets. Khan was executed at Dachau in September 1944; she has been described as one of the silent heroes of the Second World War. Besides the George Cross and the French Croix de Guerre, she has been honoured with a bust in central London and a stamp. Founded in 1866, the blue plaques scheme celebrates links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. English Heritage said: Her blue plaque will mark the house in Bloomsbury that was her family home when she left for France in 1943 and where her family received the news that she was missing the following year. She ultimately lost her life at the hands of the Gestapo in 1944. Several Indians have been honoured through blue plaques on London houses and venues with which they were associated, including Rammohun Roy, Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Gotts Roadside, the fast-casual burger chain with multiple Bay Area locations, plans to open two projects in May near San Franciscos Chase Center. The first will be a spacious new restaurant on about 5,000 square feet of real estate at the bustling plaza outside of the arena. The second will be from an Airstream travel trailer parked permanently outside of the restaurant with grab-and-go options for Warriors fans and concertgoers. The new Gotts projects are part of the 11-acre plaza around Chase Center known as Thrive City, which is named after Oakland health care company Kaiser Permanentes Thrive health and wellness slogan. Kaiser provides the Warriors with official team doctors. The main Gotts restaurant will have the same menu and format as other Bay Area locations. The dining room and patio space will have long wooden tables, similar to picnic tables, and booths. Inside, the restaurant will have televisions hanging from the ceiling so customers can watch the Warriors games taking place just a few dozen steps away in Chase Center. The stand at the Airstream will function as a condensed version of Gotts, with six beers on tap, wine and grab-and-go burgers. For Gotts, this will be the companys first foray into a world of premade meals. Figuring out which menu items will best be suited for the trailer will take some trial and error, according to Gotts president Clay Walker. And the price point will be lower than than the $15 to $20 folks might pay for sandwiches and drinks inside Chase Center, he added. Were hoping to be perceived as part of the value solution out there. It can be expensive for a family with small kids when you include getting tickets and food. We can do this and still support our business model, Walker said. Everything we have is quasi-to-go anyway so this works for us. This is a typical roadside location, too. The only difference is we have the arena a stones throw away. Gotts Roadside Rendering Gotts wont be the only notable addition coming to the plaza. Harmonic Brewing, a popular San Francisco brewery based in Dogpatch, will open a taproom at the plaza this spring. Harmonic is owned and operated by business partners Ed Gobbo, Jon Verna and Eric Tisch. At the plaza, Harmonic will have 100 seats in the 3,000-square-foot taproom and 60 more on its patio. The drink menu will have the brewerys signature lagers and ales, including its El Mero Mero Mexican lager and Out on the Tiles IPA. On the food front, Harmonic will have an upscale bar with food like a poppy seed and curry pretzel made by Chris Yang of local pop-up El Chino Grande. Both Harmonic Brewing and Gotts are joining a plaza space that is also scheduled to have restaurant projects from celebrity chefs Michael Mina and Tyler Florence. A Dumpling Time outpost opened there earlier this year and has already proved to be popular. One of the major draws of the plaza space is a lawn area in front of the arena situated between the office buildings and restaurants, including Dumpling Time, Gotts and the Mina and Florence projects. Walker said the space reminds him of the Rockefeller Center in New York. Coming there was an opportunity that would have been hard to refuse, he said. Even without most of the restaurants open, you can already feel the place buzzing. It wont be long before it really comes alive. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Harmonic Brewing Gotts Roadside. Opens in May. 1 Warriors Way, at Thrive City (Chase Center), San Francisco. Harmonic Brewing. Opens this spring. 1 Warriors Way, at Thrive City (Chase Center), San Francisco. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips The crime branch of Delhi Police is running pillar to post in search of suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain. The Councillor is accused in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma during the Delhi violence last week. Hussain is absconding and following the murder charges, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has suspended him. He is also seeking an anticipatory bail in the case and the hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Amid this chaos, Addition Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) on Tuesday informed the media persons that it was the Delhi Police which saved Hussain from being killed during the violence. Now, he is a 'murderer'. But the life journey of this eighth class drop-out crorepati is quite interesting and one would rarely believe that he left home for Delhi in the search of livelihood. Interesting, in 20 years he has made a good wealth and during the civic election 2017 he had declared his total assets worth Rs 17 crore. 43-year-old Hussain was born to a poor family in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district. He faced all the adversaries, first poverty, then unsecured childhood and moreover, a stepmother. In this condition he had no option than living the home in search of a better life. During initial days, he had to do a lot of struggle but Hussain left no stone unturned to change his fate. He worked in a furniture repairing shop. After being perfect in work, he started own furniture factory and also helped marginalised, poor, uneducated and less-educated people by giving them an opportunity in his factory. Thereafter, the life took a swing and catapulted him to the helm of success. Being financial capable was not enough for Hussain, hence, he entered the politics. In 2017, he won the civic elections from Ward number 59, Nehru Vihar, which comes under Mustafabad Assembly constituency in east Delhi. Hopeful with his success, Hussain had sold his ancestral house sometimes back. But now, when he is wanted in the murder case of an IB staffer, the police is expecting that Hussain must be hidden in his old house. "Delhi Police have not contacted us in connection with Hussain. If the Delhi Police have approached to Pourara (Hussain's village), they would have contacted us. But it has not happened so far," the Adampur SHO told IANS over phone. Paurara village falls under the Adampur police station. It can not be ruled out that Hussain is hiding somewhere in Delhi and he himself has spread the rumours about his missing. Whatever is the truth, but Hussain, who was once saved by the Delhi Police from being killed during the Delhi riots, is now an accused in the police record itself. WASHINGTON Trying to hold together a U.S.-Taliban peace deal, President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had a "very good talk" with the leader of that militant Islamic group, despite renewed threats of violence in Afghanistan. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah," Trump told reporters Tuesday during a briefing on coronavirus at the National Institutes of Health. "We had a good, long conversation today, and you know, they want to cease the violence." The Taliban disclosed Trump's phone call with its political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader, before the White House did. A Taliban readout claimed Trump told the mullah that "it is a pleasure to talk to you. You are a tough people and have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland." Trump bemoaned the "trillions of dollars" the U.S. has spent in Afghanistan and said American troops are just serving as a "police force" there. The unusual conversation came three days after U.S. and Taliban negotiators signed a historic agreement that could end 19 years of war in Afghanistan and allow Trump to begin the promised withdrawal of American troops. More: Historic peace deal in Afghanistan reached with Taliban, allowing withdrawal of US troops The four-page pact spells out a timetable for the United States to withdraw its 13,000 troops from Afghanistan. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to sever its ties with al-Qaida, the terrorist group that launched the 9/11 attacks against the U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he leaves the White House on Tuesday, March 3. But some of Trump's staunchest Republican allies have criticized the agreement, saying the pact is flawed and could jeopardize U.S. national security. During a House hearing Tuesday, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the Trump administration had made dangerous concessions to the Taliban including a promise to secure the release of as many as 5,000 Taliban fighters and giving a timeline for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Story continues Cheney also suggested that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had mislead lawmakers and the public about the agreements secret annexes. Pompeo and other Trump administration officials have said the classified provisions of the pact spell out verification and implementation measures, so the U.S. can determine if the Taliban is keeping its promises to renounce al-Qaida and sever its ties with that terrorist organization. Super Tuesday latest: Coronavirus fears caused staffing issues at Super Tuesday polling sites in Texas (Pompeo) made assertions, including that there were complex, interlocking verification mechanisms, Cheney said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing with two top Pentagon officials. He asserted there would be a full and compete renunciation of al-Qaida by the Taliban." The documents that have been sent to the Hill do not include those things, she said.We have no verification agreement, and we have a number of secret documents that should be made public, she said. Cheney said Taliban leaders have seen the documents, so there's no reason they should remain classified. I believe the American people deserve to know what agreement has been entered into in our name with the terrorists who harbored those who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11, she said. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Trumps phone call with the Taliban official also came amid renewed fighting in Afghanistan, despite a U.S.-brokered pact aimed at ending such attacks. The Afghan government said the Taliban had carried out 33 terrorist attacks in the country, killing civilians and prompting a counter-attack from Afghan defense forces. In the past 24 hours, the Taliban have carried out 33 terrorist attacks on 16 civilians in the country's 16 provinces and the security and defense forces have unfortunately killed 6 civilians and wounded 14 others, Nasrat Rahimi, a government spokesman, wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday. The Taliban must stop killing civilians, otherwise the security forces will act and suppress them in order to defend themselves and the people. Critics fear the deal could unravel if the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government are unable to agree on a power-sharing deal and a permanent ceasefire. The two sides are already disputing the terms of a U.S.-endorsed prisoner exchange. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump said he talked with Taliban leader after Afghanistan peace deal Sourcegraph, a San Francisco, CA-based Universal Code Search company, secured $23m in Series B funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures with participation from earlier investors Redpoint Ventures, Goldcrest Capital and others. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach. Led by Quinn Slack, CEO and co-founder, Sourcegraph provides Sourcegraph Universal Code Search which enables developers to explore and understand all code, everywhere, improving developer productivity with code navigation and contextual code intelligence. Universal Code Search ties together information from many tools, repositories on your code hosts to dependency relationships among your projects and application runtime information. Universal Code Searchs core capabilities include: Code search: the task of all developers to quickly find, understand and change all of the code that they are responsible for including the activities of code discovery, code intelligence and code change management. Code navigation: guided travel to find specific code via ad-hoc query. Code exploration: find both known and unknown code, with code intelligence providing the contextual understanding. Code discovery: navigate, explore and understand the code you are looking for, even if you didnt know it existed. Code intelligence: display and share additional contextual information around code. Code change management: automate large-scale code changes with campaigns. FinSMEs 03/03/2020 New Delhi/Bhopal, March 4 : The crisis in the Madhya Pradesh Congress has deepened as the party struggles to keep its flock together while state Forest Minister Umang Singhar has added fuel to the fire ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in the state. Singhar tweeted: "Honourable Kamal Nath ji's government is safe, this is a fight for Rajya Sabha and rest you all are wise enough to understand." Even though Singhar has not named anyone in the tweet, it is being seen as a veiled attack on veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. The situation in the ruling party is already fraught as the Congress has accused the BJP of trying to poach its MLAs. There are three seats in Rajya Sabha going to polls in the state this month. BJP is favoured to win one seat and the Congress the second seat but the third seat is on edge and if the BJP decides to contest and field the fourth candidate then there will be a contest and the ruling party may find it tough with seven floating votes, as there are four independents, two BSP MLAs and one SP MLA. One BSP rebel is with the Congress but the situation can change anytime seeing the volatile politics of the state. The current strength of Madhya Pradesh Assembly is 228, where Congress has 114 and support of seven other MLAs the BJP has 107. But as per the Congress, four MLAs of the party are missing and one MLA each of SP, BSP and independents. The internal rift within the state Congress is also the reason behind the rebellion by Jyotiraditya Scindia who has been at loggerheads with Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Scindia claiming a seat in the Upper House has miffed some leaders which can upset equations in the state, said sources. Digvijaya Singh is also eyeing a seat, said sources. Scindia may find it tough to get nomination in the state as the Congress might want to play it safe and give a go ahead to the choice of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, said a top source in the party The party high command is already upset with the public spats and factionalism in the state and it has tasked state in-charge Deepak Babaria to resolve the issue. The Congress has also formed a manifesto implementation committee under the chairmanship of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. A 35-year-old New York City man was caught taking photographs of another man who was using the bathroom at a Wegmans supermarket in Hanover last week, authorities said. Allan Jones, of the Bronx, was arrested and charged with invasion of privacy on Feb. 26, Hanover police said Monday. The victim told police he entered a stall, sat on the toilet and then noticed a phone pointing down at him. A responding officer found Jones in the same bathroom and arrested him, authorities said. Jones was given a summons and released. In July, a 33-year-old man was arrested after police said he walked around the same Wegmans and took upskirt photos of women as they shopped. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters President Donald Trump departs to attend a briefing at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine Research Center from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on March 3, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) Trump Administration Asks Airlines for More Information on Travelers for Coronavirus Tracing The Trump administration is asking airlines to provide more information on airline passengers to the federal government for use by agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Health and Human Services (HHS). Officials want additional pieces of information so the agencies can track individuals as they come into the country and as they continue onto their final destination, acting Department of Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters at the White House ahead of a meeting with airline executives. And if we need to, from a health perspective, to continue to reach out, continue to track them, and to get into touch with them, were looking at a few more pieces of information and data from them, he added. Wolf said he expected the government and the executives to reach a resolution. One executive said that he thinks there are better ways of tracing people flying into the country. His company has contracted the development of a mobile application and website that would make everyone fill out information to submit to the CDC. Federal authorities last month started funneling people traveling overseas to 11 different airports for screening. Foreign nationals who were in mainland China in the previous 14 days were banned from entering the country and U.S. citizens were subject to a mandatory quarantine of two weeks if they showed symptoms of the new virus. Travelers wear protective masks as they walk through in terminal 5 at OHare International Airport in Chicago on March 1, 2020. (Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo) Contract medical staff at the 11 airports have screened over 53,000 people and kept some from coming into the country, Wolf told President Donald Trump, other administration officials, and the executives around the table. Similar measures were in place at the border with Mexico, he said. One executive told administration officials that they wanted to help however they can. If theres more that we can do to help, were here to tell you we want to that, Alaska Air CEO Brad Tilden said. Executives stressed that crews have recently intensified cleaning procedures in light of the spread of the virus. Weve stepped up our efforts to make sure the airplanes are clean and disinfected, said Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly. All of us have made a lot of changes to our cleaning procedures, changes to our onboard procedures, to gloves, sanitation, Tilden added. He said his company has three levels of cleaning. Ambassador Debbie Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said she was very reassured to hear executives talk about their cleaning procedures. I think that will be reassuring to the American public, she said. United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said his airline introduced a fist bump as an alternative to shaking hands, a fun way to highlight how people should be careful about the virus. Experts recommend avoiding close contactless than six feetwith sick people and some have said people should not shake hands because of the new virus. A flight crew from Cathay Pacific Airways, wearing protective masks, stands in the international terminal after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 28, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Other ways to avoid contracting the illness include frequently washing hands and not touching ones nose, eyes, or mouth with unwashed hands. Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the Coronavirus Task Force, told Trump that he believes airlines will play a key role in preventing the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus. The president told people in the room that the virus is affecting business for the airlines. A lot of people are staying in our country and theyre shopping and using our hotels in this country, so from that standpoint I think probably theres a positive impact, but theres also an impact on overseas travel which will be fairly substantial, he said. Large portions of the world are safe to fly to, he said, noting both the government and airlines have advised against or stopped flights to certain parts of the world, including portions of Italy and South Korea. Airline executives havent asked for financial assistance, he said. Overall, Trump said the United States has handled the disease well. If you take away the dozens of people who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess in Japan, the number of confirmed cases is very small. The Government's efforts to confront the growing homelessness crisis in Ireland are ham-fisted, ill conceived and too little, too late. Homelessness has always been a problem in Ireland but it has spiralled out of control and it is now at epidemic levels since the economic crash. Charities and experts have been warning the government of the growing crisis for years but it is only now that Fine Gael and Labour appear to be taking any notice of the humanitarian disaster that is, quite literally, unfolding on their doorsteps. While action is welcome, the pace and direction of the government's reaction leaves a lot to be desired. With the Dail in recess until late September, little concrete action will be taken until well into the autumn, leaving thousands of homeless people in limbo. Even then whatever action is taken will likely take weeks or months to implement, meaning many homeless people and families are facing into a long, cold and bleak winter on the streets. An unfortunate aspect of the government's reaction to the crisis is that it seems almost entirely focussed on Dublin. Once again rural Ireland appears to be a secondary consideration for the government and civil servants in the capital. A clear indication of this Dublin-centric attitude is in the government's suggestion last week that homeless people and families in Dublin may be resettled in rural areas. The suggestion is laudable but it entirely negates, if not outright ignores, the needs of the homeless in rural Ireland. Every county in Ireland already has massive housing lists with thousands of families waiting years for a suitable home and county councils struggling to meet the phenomenal demand. Many have been on these rural housing lists since well before the crash and even the boom and their numbers have swollen. To suggest that families and people from Dublin, no matter how needy and many they are, would be able to leapfrog the local lists is remarkably insensitive to rural Ireland. It also reinforces the strongly held opinion among many in rural counties that, for the government and the civil servants in Dublin, Ireland ends at the M50. The argument from Rural Resettlement Ireland that moving homeless families from urban areas to rural settings could help revitalise dying rural communities has some merit. However, the needs of these communities and the poor who already live in them should be addressed first. Ireland is and always has been a charitable nation and no one wants to see any families or children suffer the awful indignity of homelessness and poverty. The suggested rural resettlement programme, rather than being a cogent and well thought out plan, appears more like a proposal slapped together by a government, department and minister desperate to appear as if they are taking action. Homelessness is at crisis point. The families and children affected by it need more than empty rhetoric and the homeless outside Dublin need to be recognised not insulted. A war of words has broken out between Labour TD Joanna Tuffy and homeless agencies including Focus Ireland. Deputy Tuffy has criticised charities for not yet drawing down funding available to them to provide housing to those in need, yet the organisations have stressed the point that it isn't just plaing and simple funding, but loans, which must eventually be paid back. The TD shared the view that given the expertise that these agencies have in the area of preventing homelessness, they should be doing more. The problem is, however that they are dealing with the biggest homelessness crisis the country has ever seen and day after day more people are losing their accommodation and potentially being forced out onto the streets. The problem is getting worse and isn't helped by the blame game. Focus Ireland, in turn has shared the view that an increase in rent supplement levels would be a much more effective way to ease the burden and to quickly help more people. If policy in this area doesn't change then those seeking rental properties will never be able to secure a home as they will never be able to afford the rent. This isn't just a Dublin problem, or a city problem. Small towns across Ireland are also creaking under the weight of local authority housing lists where they number of applicants is likely to outnumber the amount of properties available for the next decade. How have we gotten to this stage? A country that was building houses as quickly as Lego? All we did was build and build, to the point where we were awash with unfinished ghost estates and now we are told that we don't enough properties to house people. It seems that the powers that be aren't actually addressing the reasons that people including families with young children and being left without a roof over their heads. We are talking about people that never would have dreamed that they would be facing this reality not knowing where to go. There is a certain amount of discretion within local authorities to increase the level of rent supplement yet the applicant has to go through a battle to get be approved and this is all dependent on whether a suitable private rental property is even available. The Australian economy will shrink by at least 0.5 per cent during the March quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak, with the figure likely to increase as the epidemic continues to spread. This latest estimation of the fallout from the virus measured the effects on tourism, education and exchange rates but did not take into account other impacted industries, Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy said during Senate estimates on Thursday morning. Treasury secretary Dr Steven Kennedy said the impacts of coronavirus on the economy would continue through the year. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "We are looking beyond the March quarter and there are a range of possible scenarios ... in our view it's just too early to tell just what those economic impacts might be," Dr Kennedy said. The Morrison government is finalising its fiscal response to the economic fallout of the epidemic, which will probably include incentives for businesses to invest and hold on to staff, and assistance for self-funded retirees affected by lower interest rates. He turned 52 on Monday. Yet the celebrations continued for Daniel Craig as he was treated to a birthday cake at a special Casino Royale screening at New York City's Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night. The actor looked dapper in a black suit at the event, which he paired with a blue-black button-down dress shirt worn open at the collar. Celebrations: He turned 52 on Monday. Yet the celebrations continued for Daniel Craig at New York City's Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night The famously blue-eyed thespian completed his look with a large black wristwatch, as well as matching black leather shoes. Craig also posed with MoMA's chief curator of film, Raj Roy. The series, entitled In Character, will kick things off with the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale. It will also show another highlight from Daniel's tenure as Agent 007 Sam Mendes's brilliant 2012 entry, Skyfall. Celebrations: The actor was treated to a special James Bond themed tuxedo cake as he attended a Casino Royale screening Blowing out the candles: The actor gleefully accepted the tasty treat on offer Young blue eyes: Daniel, whose most famous role thus far is as James Bond, was on hand for the debut of a retrospective screening series Handsome: The actor, who turned 52 years old just the day before, looked dapper in a black suit at the screening event, which he paired with a blue-black button-down dress shirt Strike a pose: Craig also posed with MoMA's chief curator of film, Raj Roy Good chat: He seemed to enjoy his time on stage for the Casino Royale screening Man of the hour: He chatted about his time as the iconic character Other films featured in the series will include Daniel's work outside of playing Bond, like his collaboration with Steven Spielberg for the 2005 film Munich, or Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake from the year before. A more recent entry will be screened on Friday, March 13 the hit whodunit Knives Out from last year, directed by Rian Johnson. A sequel to that film has already been announced, with Craig to reprise his role of Benoit Blanc. Moderated: He was interviewed by chief curator of film at MoMa Rajendra Roy Fitted: He seemed to be wearing a blue cardigan for the event Shaken, not stirred: The series, entitled In Character, will kick things off with the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale, and will also show other highlights from Daniel's tenure as Agent 007 As for the latest Bond movie No Time To Die, the release of the film has become a hotly contested issue in light of the developing threat of the Coronavirus, amid cancellations the world over of crowded public events like film premieres and press junkets. The upcoming film is currently scheduled to hit UK cinemas on April 2nd and US theaters on April 10th, but producers have reportedly discussed plans to move the release forward due to concerns over the virus. The James Bond fansite MI6-HQ posted an open letter to MGM and Universal on Monday, urging studios 'to put public health above marketing release schedules,' while the pandemic in China has already delayed the film's Hong Kong release to April 30th. But as of now, the world premiere for No Time To Die is still scheduled for London, England on March 31st. Bond has arrived: He looked dapper in his full suit as he headed into MoMa Selfies: Fans snapped selfies with him on his way in and he signed autographs Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP The Trump administration has chosen a special envoy for nuclear talks, with the principal task of negotiating a new arms control agreement with Russia and China, according to congressional sources and former officials. Related: US nuclear weapons: first low-yield warheads roll off the production line The proposed special negotiator, Marshall Billingslea, is currently the under-secretary for terrorist financing at the US Treasury. His nomination last year for a top human rights job at the state department was stalled by controversy over the extent of his involvement in the torture programme established by the George W Bush administration, in which he oversaw the conditions of detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Neither the state department nor the treasury responded to a request for comment, but congressional staffers and former officials said Billingslea had accepted the post. The Trump administration has been trying to recruit a high-level arms control negotiator for several months, but several former Republican officials with significant experience in the field turned down the offer. Billingslea, who has a long record as a hawk on nuclear weapons issues, faces a daunting task. Donald Trump wants to negotiate a new agreement to reduce the vast nuclear weapons arsenals of the major powers, to replace the New Start deal with Russia agreed by Barack Obama. Trump wants China to be included in a new agreement but Beijing has so far refused on the grounds that the Chinese arsenal is a small fraction (estimated at about a 20th) of its US and Russian counterparts. Trump has accepted an invitation from Vladimir Putin to take part in talks on nuclear arms control and other strategic issues at a summit meeting of the five permanent members of the UN security council, most likely at the time of the UN general assembly in September. One of Billingsleas tasks would be to prepare for the summit, but in the absence of a major shift by China, he would have to advise Trump on whether or not to extend the New Start deal the last nuclear arms control agreement to have survived the Trump era as an interim measure. That is something the president is highly reluctant to do, because the 2010 agreement is part of the Obama legacy Trump has been eager to expunge. Story continues Billingslea is a former aide to the late Republican senator Jesse Helms, who was a fervent opponent of arms control efforts during the cold war, for example blocking US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and campaigning for the US withdrawal from the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty. No special envoy, especially one like Marshall Billingslea who has a record of dismantling or blocking effective nuclear arms control, can hope to accomplish very much toward the goal of a wholly new multilateral nuclear arms control agreement through a one-day heads of state summit, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. But a decision by Trump and Putin to extend the New Start agreement would surely help prevent a new arms race and create more favorable conditions for more ambitious nuclear arms talks with Russia and China. Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said: Now that he has been selected, Mr Billingslea has no time to lose. In less than a year, we could lose the last major treaty constraining the worlds two largest nuclear arsenals. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday rejected the last mercy petition in the 2012 Nirbhaya murder cum rape case. Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the case, was the last to file a mercy plea and the petitions of other threeVinay Kumar, Akhshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh have already been dismissed by the President. READ| We had made all preparations to hang Nirbhaya's convicts: Tihar authorities With Wednesdays development, the four convicts have exhausted all legal remedies and the hanging is likely to take place within a fortnight. A fresh death warrant against the four will now be issued by a Delhi court. According to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in its Shatrughan Chauhan judgment of 2014, the convicts are to be given a time of 14 days to set their affairs straight and prepare for the execution. The four convicts were supposed to be hanged to death on Tuesday at 6 am. On Monday, hours before their execution, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana put on hold their execution when informed that Gupta has moved a mercy petition before the President. The four convicts and two others brutally gang-raped the 23-year-old para-medical student in a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. She died a few days later. An accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by the Juvenile Justice Board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 06:23:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ROME, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants in Italy, hit hard by fears of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, are seeing a silver lining in takeaway business. Under normal circumstances, Italians eat an average of 6.2 meals per week outside the home, according to the data collection firm Statistica, second only to Spain in the European Union. Italians also rank second among Europeans, behind France, in terms of time spent eating -- just over two hours per day, in this case. But those habits had to be changed since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country five weeks ago when public health officials began warning people to stay away from crowded public places. Though national statistics on restaurant visits are not collected, the Italian media is full of stories about restaurants temporarily closing, cutting back on staff, or reducing operating hours since the outbreak began. Tourist arrivals in Italy have also taken a dramatic dip, according to government officials -- another blow to restaurateurs. "I see people who used to be regular customers in the street, and I ask them why they don't come by for dinner, and they tell me they want to avoid crowds," Italo Caselli, a restaurant owner in the Roman neighborhood of Testaccio told Xinhua. "The crazy thing is, they won't run into a crowd if they come by for dinner. One night this week, we had ten tables all night. Usually, it's 50," Caselli said. One corner of the restaurant business that has seen an increase in business, however, has been the takeaway and delivery business. Caselli said his takeaway pizza business has increased. "We maybe make twice as many takeaway pizzas as we usually do," he said -- though not nearly enough to compensate for the drop off in eat-in business. Food delivery services are relatively new to Italy, but according to Nielsen eCommerce Tracking, a business data company, the number of food delivered meals in Italy in late February and early March increased by nearly 60 percent compared to the same period in 2019. Officials from the main food delivery companies in Italy declined to comment on the trend when contacted by Xinhua in order to avoid the perception of profiting from a viral outbreak. But individual delivery personnel who spoke with Xinhua confirmed that their workload has spiked in recent weeks. According to a report in the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, restaurant operators in the Italian financial hub of Milan -- the largest city in the region of Lombardy, which has been hit hardest by coronavirus -- have organized themselves to provide takeaway or delivery services. Several restaurants reportedly made changes to their menus to make sure the food would not see a drop-off in quality during the delivery process. According to restaurant critic Aldo Spagnolo, for those willing to eat out, the crisis could represent an opportunity to try some of the country's best eateries. "Maybe it's a good time to call the restaurant that used to have a waiting list of a month or more," Spagnolo said in an interview. "It could be that they'll have a table open for tonight." The Syrian army has shot down another Turkish drone flying over Idleb province, which have proved a dangers to Syrian troops reports Al-Masdar. For the third time in the last 12 hours, the Syrian army has shot down an armed Turkish drone over the northwestern region of Syria. According to the latest report from Idleb Governorate, the Syrian air defenses identified a Turkish drone approaching their positions, and downed the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Units of the Syrian Arab Army shot down on Tuesday two drones that belonged to the Turkish regime troops in the surroundings of Saraqeb city and east of Khan al-Sobol in Idlebs southeastern countryside. A SANA reporter said that a military unit observed a drone approaching from military points in Saraqeb and downed it in the surroundings of the city. Meanwhile, another army unit shot down a second drone from the Turkish occupation forces east of the Khan al-Sobol area in Idlebs southeastern countryside. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. A lawyer for Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who just won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear, says he's been summoned to serve a one-year prison sentence. Nasser Zarafshan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Rasoulof's sentence came from three films he made that authorities found to be "propaganda against the system." Zarafshan said they would appeal the order, especially given the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Iran. Authorities already sent 54,000 prisoners on temporary furlough over concerns about the virus spreading through the country's prison system. There was no immediate state media report about Rasoulof's summons. Rasoulof just won the Berlin Film Festival's top prize for his film "There Is No Evil." The film tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran and dealing with personal freedom under tyranny. Rasoulof wasn't there to accept the award Saturday due to a travel ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities. Organisers left an empty chair and name sign for Rasoulof at the conference for his entry. Germany's dpa agency reported that Rasoulof's daughter, Baran, accepted the Golden Bear award on his behalf. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Since it first broke out in China in December last year, coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the globe. The outbreak has now reached 60 countries and affected close to 90,000 people. More than 3,000 people have died after contracting Covid-19, the official name of the disease given by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Based on what is known about similar coronaviruses, disease experts say the new outbreak of the virus is mainly spread from person to person through coughing or sneezing. Contact with faecal matter from an infected person may also transmit the virus. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says it may be possible for a person to become infected by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose or eyes. An analysis of 22 earlier studies of similar coronaviruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) published online this month in the Journal of Hospital Infection, concluded that human coronaviruses can remain infectious on inanimate surfaces for up to nine days at room temperature. However, they can quickly be rendered inactive using common disinfectants, and may also dissipate at higher temperatures, the authors wrote. It is not yet clear, however, whether the new coronavirus behaves in a similar way. The agency said there is likely a very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures. Dr Timothy Brewer, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles explained that such viruses tend to survive the longest in low-temperature, low-humidity environments, that is why you see lots of respiratory viruses during the winter. Twenty eight confirmed cases of coronavirus are reported in India and the government said it will now be screening passengers from all countries as a precautionary measure. New Delhi had earlier put passengers from 12 countries under the scanner. For the third time in less than a year, Israelis headed to the polls in an attempt to elect a government. In the previous two elections, Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party had the most votes (though not in the most recent poll, in which they were narrowly beaten by Blue and White); in all three, they failed to amass a majority of the seats in parliament. While pundits in Israel debate the antics of representative democracy, the differences between Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz, and the costs of continued elections, Palestinians have watched silently from the sidelines. It is quite ironic that the Joint List alliance, filled with Palestinian Arab lawmakers, is helping to prevent a majority of seats for the Likud. In fact, its something that I relish. I cannot help but be impressed by MK Ayman Odeh and others of the Joint List, who remain a thorn in the side of Netanyahu and the Israeli right. This speaks less to Israels self-proclaimed democratic values that are boasted of whenever the existence of its Palestinian citizens and their participation in Israeli elections are brought up, and more to Palestinian resiliency in the face of horrid dehumanisation. Not all Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule and law voted. From their point of view, Israels elections are merely bickering between a multitude of jailers who are seeking to win over voters with promises of how they will further cage Palestinians. The average liberal Zionist would find what I say to be radical. Netanyahu is problematic, they would agree, but his centrist rivals would do a lot of good for Palestinians. They remind me of liberals in America, who see Donald Trump as the very end of the spectrum of racism and cant understand how a political rival on the other end of the spectrum could also be racist (cc Michael Bloomberg). Regardless of their differences on Palestinians and policy detail, all major Israeli politicians are much like Bibi the butcher of Gaza and the mastermind of the Nation State Law. Take Netanyahus main rival, Gantz, for example. Following the announcement by the Trump administration in January of the deal of the century, which was immediately condemned by Palestinians, Gantz matched Netanyahus elation in hailing the plan. We can go back even further, to Gantz campaigning in Israel by boasting of how, as a former general in the Israeli Defence Forces, he sent Gaza back to the stone ages. Avigdor Lieberman and Ayelet Shaked have been openly racist in the past, proclaiming that the enemy deserved to have their heads chopped off with axes, that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy, and that they birth snakes. Even Yair Lapid, who is seen as centre-left, has engaged in a horrifying denial of the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian exodus) on his Twitter account, and praised the Trump administrations cutting off of aid to the UNs Relief and Works Agency. To Palestinians, it is clear why elections in Israel wont make a difference. The entire political class is racist and hell-bent on keeping Palestinians imprisoned; they only differ in how willing they are to frame their disdain for our existence. On the issues of annexation, settlement building, Jerusalem, the status of Palestinian refugees, and the blockade in Gaza, the parties that are winning big in Israel are in utter agreement. The Israeli parties that are willing to challenge these positions and assert Palestinian humanity, such as Meretz, are smeared as traitors not only by the political class but by the Israeli public as well. It is important to note that despite this election being the third, and despite the threat of coronavirus, the turnout was actually much higher than the previous ones. Israelis came out to vote. To Palestinians, this shows another reality: that the Israeli public is very much in agreement with the positions of the Likud and the right, and that the Israeli public is looking for a solution that involves the least disruption to their lives and the least possible visibility of the question of Palestinians. What can be said when thousands of people go out and give Netanyahu and his party the most votes for a third time? Zionists constantly smear Palestinian society as hateful, but is it wrong to note that the majority of the Israeli public is willing to vote for and endorse the hate and racism of the Likud and its allies? Or will this too be blamed on Palestinians for not being peaceful and kind enough to change the hearts of millions of Israelis? For the past year, Palestinians in Gaza have been marching peacefully to the border in order to demand their right to live with freedom and dignity. While the Israeli government did its part to smear these protesters as terrorists, it cannot be discounted that average Israelis in the media, online and in their communities did so as well. They claimed that hundreds of everyday Gazans were human shields, that they were terrorists, that they were being paid, and that they were feigning for foreign cameras. Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israel heads to the polls: In pictures People walk past a Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) alliance electoral billboard depicting the faces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with text in Hebrew reading "taking care of himself" and of retired Israeli general Benny Gantz (L) with text reading "taking care of Israel", in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan on March 1, 2020, a day before the country's third election in a year. AFP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israeli centrist Blue and White party and ex-military chief Benny Gantz talks to the media next to his wife Revital at a polling station in the city of Rosh Hayin during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli man casts his vote during parliamentary election at a polling station in Jerusalem on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in the Israeli religious city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli man and a child cast a ballot at a polling station in Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu cast their ballots during the Israeli legislative elections at a polling station in Jerusalem, Monday, March 2, 2020. Israelis have begun voting in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year. AP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Arab Israeli woman votes in the country's parliamentary elections at a polling station in the Arab city of Tamra in northern Israel on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli settler casts a vote with his son during elections in the settlement of Alon Shvut, West Bank, Monday, March 2, 2020. AP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit sits inside a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health. EPA Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit talks to a voter at a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health. EPA Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Arab-Israeli girl casts her mother's ballot for the parliamentary election at a poling station in the Bedouin town of Rahat near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 2, 2020. - Israel held its third election in less than a year seeking to break a grinding political deadlock, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chasing re-election while facing criminal indictment. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israelis gather at a polling booth specially erected for the 5,600 voters under quarantine, many of whom visited countries where the coronavirus COVID-19 is prevalent, during parliamentary elections in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career . AFP via Getty Images The truth is that the culture of encouraged ignorance in Israel over Palestinians has led the Israeli public to so severely dehumanise them that any disruption of the bubble in which Israelis live is seen as an attack, any reminder that the Palestinians exist in the backyard is an affront, and any political platform that doesnt promise to quell the Palestinian people will not be viable. For Palestinians, this third round of elections only reinforced what we already knew: that the Israeli government is racist and cannot be negotiated with. For Israelis, I hope this third round of elections serves as a mirror to the society at large: how much of a blind eye do you turn to institutionalised hate, the continuation of the status quo, the acceleration of the occupation, the demonisation of Palestinians, and the nail in the coffin of any sort of political solution? For the rest of the world, this third round of elections proves my point: Palestinians have been right all along. Nooran Hamdan is a recent graduate from the University of New Hampshire, where she studied economics and political science, and minored in Middle Eastern studies A erial images of tornado-hit Tennessee have revealed the extent of the devastation caused by deadly twisters as the death toll stood at 24. At least two twisters struck the state in the early hours of Tuesday, badly damaging more than 140 buildings and burying people in piles of rubble. Rescuers are still searching for people unaccounted for. The tornadoes moved so quickly that many people in their path were still asleep and could not flee to safer areas. They have caused widespread damage throughout Nashville, the state's biggest city. State emergency officials, who initially reported at least 25 dead, have revised the toll to 24 fatalities after ruling one death counted earlier was not storm-related. Homes have been torn apart by the twisters / REUTERS Around 150 people have suffered injuries and a number of people are still unaccounted for. The scenes have been described to the BBC by locals as "like a war zone". Resident David Haskell and his wife described sprinting to a storm shelter when emergency alarms went off on their phones. Nashville Tornado - In pictures 1 /52 Nashville Tornado - In pictures Tornado damage in Nashville AP Damage to planes and property at the John C. Tune Airport after a tornado hit Nashville Reuters Police officers look at the damage along Woodland Street after a tornado hit eastern Nashville Reuters Damage to Amplify Apartments building is seen after a tornado hit eastern Nashville, Tennessee, Reuters AP The owners of Elite Bonding Company salvage what they can after a tornado hit eastern Nashville, Tennessee Reuters Demetrius Wide, Dominique Hammond and her daughter Analise Hammond are seen outside their home in North Nashville following devastating tornadoes Getty Images Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding at least 40 buildings and killing many people AP A man walks through storm debris following a deadly tornado AP Dwight Herald stands in the remains of his home looking at damage AP The destroyed exterior of The Basement East is seen in the East Nashville neighborhood Getty Images Tornado damage in Nashville AP Uprooted trees tree are seen that fell on a house AP Detail view of a family photograph and license plate in debris near an apartment complex Getty Images Tornado damage in Nashville AP A couple siffs through debris after their home was destroyed AP Cookeville residents clean up following the previous nights tornado damage Getty Images Buildings damaged by the storm are seen in the Germantown neighborhood following devastating tornadoes Getty Images Buildings damaged by the storm are seen in the Germantown neighborhood following devastating tornadoes Getty Images Linda Clemons surveys the damage to her home caused by high winds from one of several tornadoes that tore through the state Getty Images Dominique Hammond and her daughter Analise Hammond are seen outside their home in North Nashville following devastating tornadoes Getty Images Buildings damaged by the storm are seen in the Germantown neighborhood following devastating tornadoes Getty Images Deanna and Tony Speck, of Cookeville console one another on the front lawn of what's left of Deanna's parent's house AP Two men look at damage AP Bricks from a collapsed wall of the Geist restaurant litter the ground after a tornado touched down in downtown Nashville AP People stand outside the Basement East music venue in East Nashville after it was destroyed by a tornad AP A car crushed by a tree sits on a street after a tornado touched down AP Debris is scattered across the parking lot of a damaged apartment building after a tornado hit Nashville AP Emergency crews work near a damaged business Getty Images General view of a knocked down street sign near a damaged business Getty Images A person stands amid damages caused by a tornado Alex Marshall via Reuters People survey the damage to a building in East Nashville after a tornado hit the city AP General view of damages caused by a tornado in Nashville, Tennessee Alex Marshall via Reuters Residents watch as emergency crews attend to a tornado damaged apartment building Getty Images Cars stop at service lines downed by a tornado Getty Images A man walks by a storm damaged pickup truck Getty Images Emergency crews work near a damaged business Getty Images General view of a mural on heavily damaged The Basement East in the East Nashville neighborhood Getty Images People gather after a tornado in Nashville, Tennessee Alex Marshall via Reuters "Ten seconds later the house just exploded," Mr Haskell told a Tennessee newspaper. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said: "It hit so fast, a lot of folks didn't have time to take shelter. "Many of these folks were sleeping." The governor declared an emergency and sent the National Guard to the county to help with search-and-rescue efforts. Devastation: Planes were thrown around like toys and cars and buildings left damaged at John C Tune airport in Nashville / REUTERS President Donald Trump has said he plans to visit the state on Friday. Early findings by National Weather Service survey teams indicated that the damage in Nashville and Wilson County to the east was inflicted by a tornado of at least EF-3 intensity, the agency said. It is the third highest ranking for intensity, indicating severe damage to buildings and heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown around. One twister wrecked homes and businesses across a 10-mile stretch of Nashville that included parts of downtown. It smashed more than three dozen buildings, including destroying the tower and stained glass of a historic church. Another tornado damaged more than 100 structures along a two-mile path of destruction in Putnam County, wiping some homes from their foundations and depositing the wreckage far away. Police officers look at the damage along Woodland Street after a tornado hit eastern Nashville / REUTERS Nineteen deaths have been recorded in Putnam County alone. Daybreak revealed landscapes littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, making many city streets and rural roads impassable. Schools, courts, transit lines and an airport were closed. More than a dozen polling stations were also damaged, forcing Super Tuesday voters to wait in long lines at alternative sites. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 16:29:22|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close YANGON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar authorizes have seized narcotic drugs and drugs-related materials worth over 53 billion kyats (over 35.3 million U.S. dollars) in two consecutive days in Shan State, according to a release from the Commander-in-chief of Defense Services Office. The security forces confiscated 392 five-gallon containers of acid, 75 50-gallon plastic barrels of acid used in making drugs, over 2.4 million stimulants, 340 grams and five blocks of heroin, other narcotic drugs and drugs-related materials which were worth over 5 billion Kyats (over 3.3 million U.S. dollars) from two unoccupied buildings in Kaungkha Village of Kutkai Township on Monday, the office announced on late Tuesday. On Tuesday, the security troops also seized over 23.3 million stimulants and 5,280 grams of heroin and 38 five-gallon containers of acid worth over 48 billion kyats (over 32 million U.S. dollars) from the empty house near the same village, according to the release. Further investigation is underway to capture the suspects, the release said. According to a release issued by the President's Office on Tuesday, a total of 1,002 drug-related cases were registered across Myanmar while 1,544 suspects were charged in connection with the cases as of Feb. 29 this year, since the formation of the Drug Activity Special Complaint Department on June 26, 2018. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the progress on the COVID-19 vaccine and anti-body during his visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) Public health security is a common challenge faced by humanity, and all countries should join hands to cope with it, Xi said, calling on countries to share research data and jointly work out response strategies. BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- As China is fighting a tough war against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Chinese President Xi Jinping has underscored international cooperation in scientific research guided by the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity. Public health security is a common challenge faced by humanity, and all countries should join hands to cope with it, said Xi during an inspection in Beijing on Monday, calling on countries to share research data and jointly work out response strategies. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has actively cooperated and exchanged information with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries. According to a WHO-China Joint Mission on the COVID-19, full genome sequences of the new virus were shared with WHO and the international community immediately after the pathogen was identified on Jan. 7. "The epidemic is a devil. We will not let it hide," said Xi when meeting with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Beijing on Jan. 28. Chinese researchers have also been actively sharing their latest study results and participating in international cooperation on diagnosis and effective treatments. After receiving the genome sequence of the virus from China, researchers in the United States were able to map the first 3D atomic-scale structure of a key 2019 novel coronavirus protein, making a breakthrough toward developing vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and diagnostics, according to a study published online in the journal Science in February. "Early data sharing really helps save lives," said Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, chairs a symposium at the School of Medicine at Tsinghua University in Beijing, March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) Noting that the COVID-19 outbreaks have emerged in many countries, Xi on Monday said it is important to step up communication and exchange with the WHO and carry out scientific research cooperation on source tracing, drugs, vaccines, testing and other fields with other countries, especially those hit hard by the virus. The WHO-China joint mission, consisting of 25 experts from eight countries and the WHO, conducted a nine-day field study trip on COVID-19 last month in China's capital Beijing and several different provinces including Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak. The team made a range of findings on the transmissibility of the virus, the severity of the disease, and the impact of the measures taken. They offered 22 recommendations on COVID-19 control for affected and unaffected countries, the international community as well as the public. The Russian government also sent experts to China to work with their Chinese counterparts on epidemic response. Besides the government level, Chinese academics and the business community have also taken an active part in the international cooperation on COVID-19 scientific research. A team led by renowned Chinese respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan is working with foreign scientists on tracing of the virus source, its transmission routes as well as building of the animal model for experiments, among others. In late February, Jack Ma Foundation announced that it will provide 15 million yuan (around 2.1 million U.S. dollars) to support international cooperation on the development of antiviral drugs or antibodies to fight the epidemic. "To prevail over a disease that threatens all, unity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon," Xi wrote in a reply to a letter from Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jane Chung (Reuters) Seoul, South Korea Wed, March 4, 2020 17:30 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206843747 2 World soju,sanitizer,alcohol,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak,health Free Makers of soju, South Korea's national drink and one of the world's best selling spirits, are jumping into the fight on the largest outbreak of coronavirus outside China by sharing their stockpiles of alcohol with makers of sanitizers. Disinfectants, such as hand sanitizers, are flying off the shelves, along with medical-grade masks, as infections in South Korea have surged past 5,000 in just over a month since its first patient was diagnosed. South Korean soju makers have responded to soaring ethanol demand for sanitizers by donating the alcohol that goes into the drink, a distilled spirit with 17% to 20% alcohol by volume traditionally based on rice, but now often wheat or potatoes. "Ethanol demand for disinfection has grown while supply is limited...we have decided to provide it," an official of Daesun Distilling, based in the southeastern city of Busan, told Reuters. To banish the virus, the company has pledged to donate 32 tons of ethanol for use in disinfecting buildings and public places in Busan and southeastern Daegu, the city at the center of South Korea's outbreak. "We plan to keep donating until the coronavirus outbreak is stabilized and to donate 50 tons more," added the official, who sought anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. South Koreans drink an average of about 12 shots of soju each week, media say, citing industry figures. Ethanol for alcoholic drinks can be produced by fermentation or distillation, typically from grains and plants. South Koreans drink an average of about 12 shots of soju each week, media say, citing industry figures. (The Jakarta Post/Arief Suhardiman) The chemical can also be made from petrochemical feedstock. Whether used for liquor or disinfection, both have the same chemical structure and can break apart the virus particle, said Lee Duckhwan, a chemistry professor at Sogang University in Seoul, the capital. "If there's any difference, that is the liquor tax imposed on ethanol produced by liquor makers," Lee said. The virus fears boosted February sales of soaps and hand sanitizers, including those with an alcohol base, to four times the level a year ago, data from a major retailer Lotte Mart shows. Shares of ethanol producers also jumped. Following Daesun Distilling, Hallasan Soju, based on the resort island of Jeju, also provided 5 tons of ethanol to authorities on Tuesday, a company official said. Standing near a busy intersection in the center of Cambridge, Bonnie Jin and Egesu Kaymak chanting their support for the Vermont senator. Kaymak cant even vote but said that the leadership of the U.S. directly affects his own home country of Turkey. He's the best one but most importantly he is the only candidate that's not supported by the billionaire class in the 1% which creates all these problems in the world and in America, Kaymak said. Sen. Bernie Sanders has been outspoken about class inequalities along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. In a debate on Feb. 19, they both targeted billionaire and contender former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while at the same time framing an argument that the Democratic Party must not barter off its future to the highest bidder. Warren has been one of the banking industrys harshest critics and suggested in August that the account problem indicated that Wells Fargo had not lived up to its promises to fix its corporate culture. A series of scandals in recent years has sullied the banks reputation and cost it more than $1.5 billion in penalties. However, supporters of Sanders feel a deeper connection to his cause than just the man himself. Gabija Kertenyte is from the eastern European nation of Lithuania but is an American citizen living in New Jersey. She travelled up to Boston to help with the campaign and feels passionate about Sen. Bernie Sanders but more so about the movement he has awoken. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Gabija Kertenyte told MassLive that its about the freedoms that he promises and the economic promises he makes to citizens. People are now feeling that they count and arent just a vote to politicians, but a real person with real needs. I feel like this movement is challenging that. So, I'm really excited, said Kertenyte. So it's all about the movement for me. It's all about the people. In the lunch hour many office workers in Bostons city center darted out of their offices to cast their votes. Walking out wearing his I voted sticker, Anthony Langone who works near the State House said that he went for the candidate who seems to be getting less air-time in the recent weeks, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard was deployed to Iraq and currently serves as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard. She has leaned on her background as a service member in making foreign policy her chief concern. I just believe she wants to stay out of these foreign wars. I think a lot of our troops are bogged down overseas, said Langone A lot of money is going to these things. She wants to change the direction and have that money invested on the home front. Anthony Langone (left) and Tom Arsenault come out of the State House after voting. Langone went for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for her domestic views and Arsenause went Sen. Bernie Sanders for similar reasons. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) Langone mentions social programs like health care and education. Next to Langone, his friend and colleague Tom Arsenault stood agreeing with his cohort but admitting to voting for Sanders. Tulsi Gabbard is also another candidate that I very much support. I just feel that Bernies message is a bit more on point for what is needed, said Arsenault. I think that when we live in a country where 80% of people live paycheck to paycheck 40% of people cant afford a $400 emergency [medical bill]. Five hundred thousand people every single year go bankrupt [because of] medical bills. Forty-five thousand people die because of a lack of Health Care. I think thats very clear that the system is not working. A recent study found that the majority of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues. Despite gains in coverage and access to care from the Affordable Care Act, our findings suggest that it did not change the proportion of bankruptcies with medical causes, said the study published in the American Journal of Public Health states. Bonnie Jin and Egesu Kaymak stand on a corner near Harvard University gathering support for Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Douglas Hook / MassLive) The supporters of Sanders in Boston are confident that their choice will win in Massachusetts. They are also sure that he is the best chance to challenge the current president. 2020 is [the] moment weve been called to in history, and it is a moment not just to get rid of Donald Trump," the Massachusetts Democrat told supporters after she voted in Cambridge this morning. It is a moment to build the America of our best values. Warren trailing behind Sanders in the Bay State and is the leading candidate in his partys primary field. A poll released Friday found Sanders to be the chosen candidate of 25% of likely Democratic voters in the Bay State. Among voters surveyed in the WBUR poll, Warren was the top pick for 17% of likely voters. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg - who has since dropped out of the running - followed in third with 14% followed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 13%. Former Vice President Joe Biden saw single-digit support among likely voters ahead of his South Carolina win. The poll was of 426 likely voters and was conducted Feb. 23 - 26. Sanders did best among men - with 28% polled expressing support for the Vermont senator, compared to 9% for Warren. Both Sanders and Warren did well among women, with both neck-and-neck at 23% and 22% respectively. The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 29, including 16 Italians touring through Rajasthan, the government said on Wednesday, adding all international passengers will now be screened at airports, amid growing concern over the spread of the respiratory infection. A total of six coronavirus cases including one Italian was reported in the country as on Tuesday. With Holi less than a week away on March 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said they would not celebrate the festival of colours or hold any Holi Milan gathering. President Ram Nath Kovind's office also said Rashtrapati Bhavan will not hold any Holi gathering. Giving a break-up for 28 cases in the country at a conference, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said one patient is from Delhi, six more, his relatives, are from Agra, one is from Telangana and there are 16 Italians as well as their Indian driver in Rajasthan. The figure includes the first three cases in the country from Kerala last month. The three patients have since recovered. As the Centre, the Delhi government and several state governments held a flurry of meetings, e-commerce payment system Paytm said an employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the coronavirus. A Health Ministry official also confirmed this coronavirus case. In a statement in the night, the company said the infected employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-hit countries from coronavirus and advised its employees to work from home for the next couple of days. At his conference, Vardhan said all international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the contagious disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide. Seventeen Indians abroad have been infected, 16 from a cruise ship in Japan "being treated at onshore medical facilities" and one from the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of External Affairs said. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence this year, I have decided not to participate in any 'Holi milan' programme," the prime minister tweeted. The minister said the government has adopted a cluster approach, as part of which health authorities will check and sensitise every household within a three kilometre radius of the house of the infected person. The government also intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so Indians there can be tested for possible exposure to the virus before being brought back, he said. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran. An inter-ministerial meeting chaired by P K Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, also decided that all government departments will consult the health ministry before organising conferences and international meets in the country in the coming days. As Indians all over come to grips with the global epidemic, the health crisis was discussed at a meeting of the Union Cabinet. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said over six lakh people had been screened for coronavirus symptoms in 21 airports. Briefing reporters, the Information and Broadcasting minister said more than 10 lakh people entering India from the open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have also been screened. While only the national virology institute based in Pune is fit for conducting coronavirus tests, the government has now set up 15 more labs and is in the process of establishing 19 additional centres, he said. "The government is proactively engaged in dealing with coronavirus. The prime minister is monitoring the situation daily," Javadekar said. Several state governments, including in Rajasthan and Delhi, screened visitors and others for the disease in hotels and guesthouses. With 16 Italian tourists, who came to Rajasthan by road from Delhi, testing positive, the desert state swung into action to contain the infection. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said in the assembly that at least 215 people had come into contact with the group. These included 53 people in Jhunjhunu, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, 44 in Bikaner, six in Udaipur and 76 people in Jaipur. Swab samples of 93 people were taken with 51 suspected patients tested negative whereas reports of 41 others are still pending, he said. He said Italy has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world (more than 2,500) and the tourists should have been screened earlier. A 69-year-old man was the first one in the group to test positive for the disease. Subsequently, his wife, too, tested positive at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital, where the couple is now admitted. The other 14 members of the group and their Indian driver have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla. In Delhi, Kejriwal said efforts are on to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with the Delhi man who tested positive for coronavirus. Vardhan said the 45-year-old man from Mayur Vihar and six of his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited are being treated at the Safdarjung hospital in the national capital. Kejriwal said a taskforce headed by him has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection. "We are concerned about the situation but no need to panic," he said. A coronavirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, Kejriwal said. As the coronavirus came perilously close to home and dos and don'ts about the disease were circulated, some advocated that the Indian way of greeting, the Namaste, was the way to go. Many people went into panic mode and started stocking up on hand sanitisers and masks. Many shops, including in the national capital, said stocks of both had run out. However, Kejriwal said there is no shortage of masks. In Rajasthan, too, purchase orders have been given for 50,000 personal protective equipment kits and five lakh each of N95 and triple layer masks to deal with the problem, Rajasthan minister Sharma said. Many schools in the National Capital Region(NCR) said they were fumigating and sanitising their premises. Three schools in Delhi and its adjoining suburbs announced holidays for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the disease while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) U.S. airline CEOs and an industry trade group are scheduled to meet with Vice President Mike Pence in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, as the coronavirus roils the business. Airline stocks have tumbled to multiyear lows and have become a standout in the market rout. The virus, which has infected more than 90,000 people, has sapped demand as corporations pause lucrative business travel as the illness spreads. Carriers including Delta, American and United have suspended China routes and have made cuts on other international routes. United's CEO, Oscar Munoz, warned staff on Saturday that further cuts are likely, CNBC reported. Airlines have bristled at efforts by officials to get passenger data to track potential travelers who have been infected with the virus. Not all passenger reservations contain contact data for travelers, noted Airlines for America, a trade group that represents major U.S. carriers including United, American and Delta. About 74% have a phone number and 56% have an email, according to a letter the group sent to the Department of Health and Human Services last month, which was seen by CNBC. The agency should set up an online link for arriving international passengers to provide contact information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the letter said. "This online option would eliminate the need for the airlines to act as an intermediary, and it would create a government-mandated one-on-one, more immediate relationship between a passenger and the CDC," said the letter. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebooks supposedly independent fact-checking division has once again been called into question after a false label was added to an article that attempted to unpick the meaning of a rambling speech made by Donald Trump. It all centres around an ambiguous statement made by the US president at a campaign rally in South Carolina, where he referred to the Covid-19 coronavirus as the new hoax of the Democrat party. He told the crowd: Now the Democrats are politicising the coronavirus ... One of my people came up to me and said, Mr President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia, that didnt work out too well. They couldnt do it. They tried the impeachment hoax, that was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, theyve been doing it since you got in. Its all turning. They lost, its all turning, think of it, think of it, and this is their new hoax ... We have lost nobody to the coronavirus ... The press is in hysteria mode. At the time there had been no coronavirus-related deaths in the US. Within two days the country recorded its first coronavirus death and there have since been nine deaths among more than 100 confirmed cases in the country. Trumps comments prompted various publications and broadcasters to associate the word hoax with the coronavirus. One of the outlets was Politico, which reported on the rally with the headline: Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a hoax. Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Show all 15 1 /15 Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook is born On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users Wikimedia Commons Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Open for business The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site's already explosive growth PA Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Billion-dollar bid Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. 'I dont know what I could do with the money,' Zuckerberg reportedly said. 'Id just start another social networking site' Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network In the money In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time Getty Images/iStockphoto Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking the lead Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the worlds most popular social network Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Taking on the tech giants In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019 Getty Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Facebook goes public On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion the third largest in US history Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Gobbling up the competition Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world's leading social network Reuters Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network One billion users On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. 'If youre reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,' he wrote in a blog post Getty Images Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Expanding its empire In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Two billion users In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone REUTERS/Dado Ruvic Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Privacy scandal On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections Shutterstock Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Record profits Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users iStock/Independent Facebook birthday: 15 defining moments for the social network Unhappy users A study found that people are happier when they dont use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health Rex Features When the story was posted to Facebook, the fact-checking division of the controversial right-wing publisher The Daily Caller applied a false label to the story, meaning it appeared in peoples News Feeds with a False Information warning. The story was also demoted in the News Feeds of Facebook users, meaning it would be less likely to be read or shared. This prompted wide-spread criticism that the Daily Callers Check Your Fact division was able to use its power to suppress negative Trump coverage, with many people on Facebook and across social media claiming the takedown was politically motivated. Others, however, pointed out that the hoax that Trump referred to could be interpreted as the Democrats framing of how the Trump administration is handling the coronavirus outbreak, rather than the actual virus itself. Shortly after the first death was announced, Trump was asked at a White House press conference whether he regretted his comments. He said he used the word to describe the action [Democrats] tried to take to try to pin this on somebody because weve done such a good job. He added: The hoax is on them. Im not talking about whats happening here ... I dont like it when they are criticising [health officials], and thats the hoax. Facebook distanced itself from any responsibility over the label, saying in a statement: All fact-checkers on Facebook are certified by Poynters International Fact-Checking Network and work independently of Facebook. Theres an appeals process in place for publishers to dispute a rating by reaching out directly to any certified fact-checker. Digital media specialist Mathew Ingram, who writes for the Columbia Journalism Review, questioned the role of The Daily Caller in any fact-checking endeavour, though said that ultimately the questions surrounding the Politico article are legitimate. At the risk of diving into a dumpster fire, I appreciate the criticisms of The Daily Callers fact-checking unit being a Facebook partner, but their fact-check of Politicos story which implied Trump called the virus a hoax is accurate, he tweeted. In other words, they are right. The late Sir Roger Scruton poses next to his portrait painted by the artist Lantian D at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Photocall at the Mall Galleries in London, England, on May 4, 2016. (Ian Gavan/Getty Images) Gotcha!The High Cost of Hit-Piece Journalism Commentary Mainstream media, while partisan (The New York Times hasnt endorsed a Republican candidate for president in 50 years), used to take seriously its responsibility to inform its audience, to be professional, and to check its facts. Now, and increasingly, the aim of an interview or in-depth analysis isnt to inform or elucidate the views of a public figure, but to bring him down. The journalist structures the interview to trap the subject into saying something that will expose and discredit him or her. Its gotcha! journalism. In a television interview that became internationally famous, British journalist Cathy Newman appeared to show no interest in hearing or letting viewers hear what clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson had to say about anything. She set out to nail him on his position on the reasons for pay differences between men and women; she distorted his views and wouldnt let the subject go. As New York Times columnist David Brooks put it, Newman distorted, simplified, and restated Petersons views to make them appear offensive and cartoonish. Another journalist, working for the leftist magazine New Statesman, had more success in getting his man. He got the distinguished philosopher Sir Roger Scruton fired from his honorary position advising the government on architecture. The purpose of the bad-faith interview wasnt to elicit information about Scrutons views but, as the authors subsequent behavior made clear, to get him fired. After a recording of the interview came to light, it became obvious what had happened. Scruton was reinstated, and the New Statesman apologizedbut not before making the final year of the cancer-stricken philosophers life miserable. There are countless cases of this kind, where the point of an interview is for the interviewer to make news, to smear, and take down someone whose views he opposes. The single-minded negative bias, the lack of professional fairmindedness, and the bad faith extends beyond interviews to articles offered as serious analysis. A recent example of such hostile intent in the United States is the lengthy hit piece on Attorney General William Barr published in the once reputable New Yorker magazine. Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist found 27 problems in the New Yorker article, showing in detail how its riddled with factual errors and omissions, false claims, confusion, and bizarre characterization of Barrs published views. These were errors and misrepresentations that a competent, professional fact-checking system at the magazine would have caught. Noticing none of these issues, a New York Times writer (not Brooks) called it a smart, richly rendered and compelling profile. As Hemingway wryly observed, It is, alas, not even close to any of these things. Trump Derangement Syndrome and Corruption of Journalism This kind of gotcha! journalism and extreme bias masquerading as analysis are part of a larger problem, in which every aspect of life, every public health challenge, even the most basic matters concerning parents and children or sex and marriage, becomes almost instantly a matter of hyperpartisanship, of a cold civil war that goes far beyond the normal and inevitable partisanship in any era of politics and journalism. We see this most obviously in the obsessive preoccupation of the mainstream media with Trump-bashingthe so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). As I was driving the other day, NPR was running a report on President Donald Trumps triumphant welcome by a huge crowd of well-wishers in India. The rally was duly documented in an audio recording, followed, however, by the anti-Trump NPR interviewers questioning of an anti-Trump expert. The lead line of questioningas much as I could stand to listen tohad nothing to do with the size or importance of the mass welcome, the political significance of the visit for U.S.India relations, or the relations between the two leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump. Instead, the interview began with a question about the damage resulting from Trumps mispronunciation of Indian names. This isnt an exception for NPR. I dont recall any discussion on NPR of any of the presidents many achievements, economic, social, or in foreign policy, where the emphasis wasnt on belittling those achievements or denying them outright. Trumps Feb. 25 joint press conference in India provided another display of TDS. The shameful show of anti-Americanism by U.S. journalists stood in sharp contrast to the Indian journalists deference, respect, and concern to clarify important issues. The Americans interrupted the president, cut him off, even accused him of lying. Their questions were nearly all of the gotcha! kind. They ignored the issues of security and trade that were central to the visit and future relations between the countries. Debasing Discourse and Building Bad Habits of Mind Were all prone to looking for what confirms our stances and badmouthing those who hold opposing opinions. Most of us dont appreciate a news source that consistently trashes our views, day after day, and deplores those of us who hold them. We may listen to or read what is available without charge as long as it provides at least some information and is free, but are unlikely to donate to NPR or subscribe to the newspapers and magazines that treat us with contempt. But its a loss to all of us that once highly regarded sources of news and opinion have largely lost their own capacity for critical thinkingfor fairmindedness and charity in interpreting in the best, not worst light, statements of those they oppose, looking for evidence that undermines, as well as buttresses, conventional wisdom and the authors preconceptions. Its a loss of professionalism among those on whom others once relied for honest and impartial reporting and discussion. The habits of mind so evident on campuses and in the media, that become vehicles for propaganda and indoctrination rather than information and education, debase public discourse and private conversation alike. When those who should be professionally committed to truth and objectivity renounce such concerns in practice and often deny their possibility in theory, they reinforce the bad habits of the rest of us. We can exchange insults in a bar or stop reading articles and interviews altogetherI have friends who appear to have done soand rely instead on posting gotcha! memes on Facebook. These rely on no evidence or analysis; theyre meant to short-circuit or prevent serious discussion and conversation. Has this become the standard to which the mainstream media itself has now sunk? Paul Adams is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Hawaii and was a professor and associate dean of academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-author of Social Justice Isnt What You Think It Is and has written extensively on social welfare policy and professional and virtue ethics. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Wednesday Ushers Nancy Lackey Community Education Fund and national music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock announced a partnership to launch Little Kids Rocks "highly inclusive, culturally relevant, and innovative music education programs" in 20 new Hamilton County Schools. "More than 3,500 students will benefit from the unique curriculum and instrument donation, including guitars, drums, keyboards, drum sets and more," officials said. The group announced the awarding of the music programs at Brainerd High School. Schools and teachers selected to receive the instruments and training for the Little Kids Rock program include Dustin Dotzler, Wallace A. Smith Elementary; Callie Kilbourne, Wolftever Creek Elementary; Kaela Miller, Hunter Middle School; and Michael Howard, Ooltewah Middle School in the Harrison Bay Learning Community. Tammy Fisher, Spring Creek Elementary; Roxanna Edwards, Tyner Academy; and Pamela S. Watson, East Hamilton School in the Missionary Ridge Learning Community. James McClary, Allen Elementary; Jeff McKnight, Middle Valley Elementary; Stefan Logue, Soddy Daisy Middle; and Sara Daniels, Hixson Middle in the North River Learning Community. Sarah Tortora, Hardy Elementary; Brandon Middlebrooks, Calvin Donaldson Elementary; Jacob Burgess, Orchard Knob Elementary; Tracey Frazier, Brainerd High; and Jerome Souther, Woodmore Elementary in the Opportunity Zone Learning Community. Amy Smith, Alpine Crest Elementary; Kaylee Stowers, Red Bank High; and Erin McKee, Normal Park Upper were selected in the Rock Point Learning Community.Usher was not able to be with the group for the announcement, but sent a message to the selected schools. Im so very happy to be working with Hamilton County Public Schools in Chattanooga to launch Little Kids Rock music programs in 20 public schools and to place these musical instruments and instruction in the hands of thousands of additional kids in Tennessee, Usher said. As a child, music changed my life. It gave me a creative outlet, a new language to use to communicate and it continued to be a driving force in everything that I did, do and will do. Im very excited to pay it forward."Little Kids Rock transforms lives by restoring, expanding and innovating music education in schools. Using genres, including rock, pop, Latin and rap, the Little Kids Rock program empowers teachers to build music programs as diverse as the kids they serve," officials said. "Students see themselves reflected in their classes, which strengthens their connection to their school, their peers and their community. Little Kids Rock also donates necessary instruments and curriculum, meeting a key need of many school music programs. The world of music expands through innovation. Little Kids Rock ensures that music education does as well. More than 500,000 kids currently participate in Little Kids Rock programs nationwide."We have always admired Usher, his tremendous talent and his passion for bringing music and arts education to so many deserving kids here in Chattanooga and across the country, said David Wish, CEO of Little Kids Rock. Being able to partner with him to bring music education and instruments to so many deserving students in the Chattanooga area is truly a dream partnership.The school representatives were presented with a special Little Kids Rock shirt and examples of the instruments schools would receive were also available at the event for the teachers and school administrators to play around with after the announcement.When we teach in a way that kids want to learn, they want to learn more, said Jill Levine, chief of Innovation and Choice for Hamilton County Schools. If we want kids to show up for school, we want attendance to improve and we want achievement to improve, then it is necessary to meet kids where they are and involve their interests in the learning process.Thirty-seven teachers applied for the Little Kids Rock program across the district. The teachers not selected have been invited and agreed to participate in the training provided by Little Kids Rock. The teachers include Katie McNeese, Hillcrest Elementary; Emma Mullins, Lakeside Academy; Charlene Cook, East Ridge Elementary; Carol Davis, East Brainerd Elementary; Melinda Chaney, East Side Elementary; Sarah Logue, Soddy Elementary, Joshua Steinmann, Middle Valley Elementary, Jade Watts, Daisy Elementary, Michael Mitchell, Barger Academy of Fine Arts; Gerald Souther, Woodmore Elementary; Bonnie Stoloff, CSAS Lower; Rebecca Clark, Nolan Elementary; Lindsey Burgess, Nolan Elementary; Katie Huffine, Lookout Mountain Elementary; Heather Shaw, Normal Park Lower; Jeremiah Williams, Sale Creek Middle/High; and Jamie Critchfield, Tyner Academy. Netflix plans to adapt its pricing to better fit the African market. This is according to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who recently spoke at a roundtable discussion on the streaming giants Made in Africa, seen by the World strategy. Sarandos and Head of African Originals at Netflix Dorothy Ghettuba spoke to journalists about the streaming services plans for original African productions. Before changing pricing, however, Netflix wants to ensure that African markets are provided with significant value when it comes to the services local offering. Mobile-only plans Most South Africans access the Internet via their mobile phones, especially where fixed-broadband access is limited. This means that many might not be able to use streaming services like Netflix on computers or TVs, but primarily do so on smartphones. MyBroadband asked Sarandos whether Netflix would consider a mobile-only offering to take this challenge on in the South African market. He said that the company is aware of challenges around data in the region, and said the Latin American region was an example of how the company specifically worked its strategy around international originals to address these problems. We intentionally did that so we can cut our teeth on places that are difficult to operate in, he explained. Were getting better and better at it. Netflix launched a mobile plan in India at 199 rupees (R42). A similar package could be very attractive to a South African audience. Sarandos explained why the launch of Africas mobile-only plan could take time. In India recently we introduced a mobile-only programme. Prior to doing that, we spend a lot of time in India producing a lot of original content, building the subscriber base, building a relationship with consumers and all those things so that we do it well. So I would not be surprised to see some more things for Africa as we go, but were launching our very first original today, so you can see where were at in that cycle, Sarandos added. Optimised data use Another hurdle is the price of data, which is often considered to be expensive for average South Africans, especially when it comes to data-hungry applications like streaming. Sarandos said that Netflixs streaming technology accounts for situations where data availability may be limited. Remember that Netflix is pretty well-optimised for challenged markets, so it works very well at slower speeds. Offline downloading really was developed for this use. What we found was that in countries that are more developing, they adapt their behaviour so that when they have Wi-Fi they do a lot of things quickly, he said. So your ability to download offline quickly and watch on mobile is second to none. Pricing The price of Netflixs packages could be a stumbling block for some users in South Africa and Africa in general. To highlight this, The Pirate Bay currently shows that Queen Sono is being downloaded illegally less than a week after its release. Leading star Pearl Thusi even pleaded with a fan on Twitter to not download an illegal copy and emphasised that the success of the show may be measured by numbers on the platform itself. Sarandos said that although Netflix has applied a broad pricing structure across various territories, this will likely change. To date, our pricing is pretty much one-size-fits-all, but that clearly is not going to be our Africa strategy for long. Basically, recognising the local economies will be important to us. He said that what people are willing to pay is tied closely to the value offered, which is why they want to emphasise providing quality content before addressing pricing. In order to ensure it is properly prepared for the roll-out of region-specific pricing, Netflix wants to establish a bigger footprint in Africa when it comes to content. We have tried to focus on the local value first and then try to fine-tune the local pricing, Sarandos said. The account-sharing problem Sarandos further acknowledged that the practice of account sharing wherein one Netflix subscriber shares their login details with multiple people can be the result of unaffordable pricing. Sarandos said that a part of account sharing is a signal of desirability and that many were doing this not out of unwillingness to pay, but sometimes an inability to pay. Its up to us to meet the challenge with pricing packages that fit the market better, Sarandos stated. Original African content Netflixs African Originals form part of the companys broader focus on sourcing content from non-traditional international markets, such as Latin America and Asia. It started this program in Mexico in 2015 with the release of Club de Cuervos and plans to produce 130 seasons of local language original series in 2020. On 27 February, the company premiered Queen Sono a South African production which was shot in several countries on the African continent. It has an all-African cast, crew and writers, and was filmed in 37 locations across Africa, Ghetubba explained. Netflix plans to debut three new African shows in 2020. This includes South African teen drama Blood and Water, Zambian animated show Mama Ks Team 4, and the as-yet-untitled Nigerian Akin Omotoso Project. Now read: Netflix must now follow FPB ratings rules Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 00:46:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Tornadoes have killed at least 19 people in the U.S. state of Tennessee, an emergency management official said on Tuesday. The fatalities took place across four Tennessee counties, according to Tennessee Emergency Management Community Relations Officer Maggie Hannan, cited by local newspaper The Tennessean. Besides, the tornadoes reportedly shredded at least 40 buildings and cut power to thousands of homes and businesses. Counties with the greatest impacts include Davidson, Wilson, and Putnam. Nashville Mayor John Cooper told The Tennessean that damage across the state capital is "significant." A state of emergency has been declared in Tennessee. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that they "will continue to monitor the developments." Tansey was charged in a 2016 road rage incident in the suburbs. On Dec. 12, 2016, Tansey followed another driver to a residential area and got into a fight once they both exited their vehicles, according to Arlington Heights police. Tansey pulled out a handgun and tried to pistol-whip the man but missed, causing both to fall to the ground. The other driver disarmed Tansey, who was charged with misdemeanor battery and unlawful use of a weapon. Campus News UB continues preparations for COVID-19 By SUE WUETCHER We are actively planning to ensure academic continuity should there be a disruption to our planned academic calendar and will keep you informed in the days and weeks ahead. As concerns continue to mount over novel coronavirus now formallly known as COVID-19 UB is increasing its efforts to prepare for and respond in the event that cases of the infectious disease become more widespread and directly impact the university. President Satish K. Tripathi has established several committees and working groups, comprised of faculty, staff and students, to maintain continuity across UBs academic, research and business operations: The COVID-19 Advisory Committee provides perspective and advice regarding UBs readiness during this evolving situation. Comprised of faculty, staff and students from across the university, it is chaired by Beth Del Genio, chief of staff to the president, and Joseph Balthasar, professor of pharmaceutical sciences and associate dean for research in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The COVID-19 Task Force, active since January, monitors the COVID-19 situation and the health of the university community, collaborates with the Erie County Department of Health, and develops and implements a communication plan to facilitate the delivery of accurate, up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 to the UB community. It is chaired by Del Genio and John DellaContrada, vice president for university communications. The Academic Working Group, charged by Provost A. Scott Weber, coordinates issues related to academic continuity, enrollment management, international education and alternate forms of course instruction. The Research Working Group, chaired by Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development, works to ensure the continuity of UBs research program and identify issues and concerns to minimize any potential disruption. The Operations Continuity Working Group, chaired by Laura Hubbard, vice president for finance and administration, is responsible for maintaining continuity in UBs business services, internal audit, human resources and facilities. The Student Life Working Group, chaired by Christina Hernandez, interim vice president for student life, addresses student health and well-being. The Incident Management Group, also led by Hubbard, is charged with planning for any possible disruption to university operations due to COVID-19. More than 50 people including members of the committees and working groups, and colleagues in their respective units will attend a meeting on Friday to plan a university-wide response to possible future scenarios. Attendees will discuss the current situation and anticipated scenarios, assess the impact to university operations against the scenarios, discuss potential strategies to mitigate the impacts, and develop recommendations and guidance for maintaining continuity of operations. In a related development, UB has instructed its students who are studying abroad in countries impacted by COVID-19 to return to the U.S. Nine UB students currently are participating in UB study aboard programs in Italy (eight students) and South Korea (one student), which are among the countries identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as high risk for travelers. UB also has suspended all international experiential learning programs planned for the spring semester, including those planned over the upcoming spring break, and has cancelled all campus-sponsored travel for faculty and staff to impacted countries for the remainder of the semester. SUNY is arranging for chartered flights from South Korea, Italy and Japan to New York Stewart International Airport in Orange County, about 60 miles north of Manhattan, for SUNY students in the impacted countries who have yet to return to the U.S. This is an extraordinary gesture by the governor. The UB community appreciates the governors efforts to help the university keep our students safe, said President Satish K. Tripathi. Upon arrival at Stewart, and in accordance with New York State Department of Health guidelines, local and state health representatives will screen passengers and SUNY will arrange transportation to designated SUNY campus dormitories to begin 14-day quarantines. SUNY will then work closely with campuses, the state DOH and local health departments to provide medical monitoring, remote course study and other resources to help individuals during the quarantine period. The health and safety of our students is of paramount importance to the university, whether theyre pursuing their education at our home campus or anywhere in the world, Weber said. The university will take all steps necessary to ensure our students have the opportunity to complete their studies in accordance with the CDCs guidelines. In a memo to UB employees, Weber stressed that UB is taking all appropriate measures to protect the health and welfare of faculty, staff and students. He encouraged faculty and staff who are not feeling well to stay home and consult their family physician as needed, and also advised students who feel ill to consult with Student Health Services, or their family physician. Student Health Services is coordinating with local and state health authorities to implement multiple measures including screening students who report possible symptoms or recent travel to areas impacted by COVID-19. We are actively planning to ensure academic continuity should there be a disruption to our planned academic calendar and will keep you informed in the days and weeks ahead, Weber said. Since the beginning of the spring semester, UB has been monitoring developments related to COVID-19, and is following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Health and the Erie County Health Department. At this time, the Erie County Department of Health reports there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Erie County, where UBs campuses are located. To facilitate communication with the campus community, UB created a COVID-19 website that provides important information on the novel coronavirus, including basic tips on how faculty, staff and students can monitor their health. The university also has been sharing information via social media and other channels. The website, which is frequently updated, has registered more than 27,000 page views since its creation, with 10,000 of those views coming in the past few days. Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic primary in Vermont, the northeastern state where he spent most of his iconic political career. In a move that was widely expected but will nevertheless be welcomed by the senator and supporters, the 78-year-old was declared the winner within moments of polls closing at 7pm local time. The state of Vermont, where the the democratic socialist began his career in electoral politics after he became the mayor of Burlington in 1981, has just three electoral college votes and 16 delegates However, it was a satisfying way for the senator to start Super Tuesdays anxious game of watch and wait, as he and his campaign got ready to see how far his momentum helped by wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada can carry him across the country. That momentum was interrupted by the performance of Joe Biden, who won a landslide in South Carolina over the weekend, a victory that kicked new life into his campaign. It also saw the likes of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar end their campaigns, and endorse that of the former vice president. In his first projected victory of the night, US media predicted the 77-year-old Mr Biden was going to win Virginia, which has 99 delegates and 13 electoral college votes in the general election. Television cameras showed Mr Sanderss supporters in Vermont, cheering as the projection hit the TV screens. Statehood for the District of Columbia is a non-starter particularly for most Republicans, because, well, its a general mess politically, and it was never meant to be a state in the first place. D.C. statehood would also equal two new Democratic senators and a House member. In perpetuity. Until the end of time. Like, till the cows that will never come home come home. The same cannot be said of Puerto Rico, because therein lies a far more diverse mindset, its a strategic and economic positive, and has a history of Republican representation, undoubtedly due in no small part to socially conservative traditions weaved deeply into the culture. The Constitution specifically grants Congress, in Article I, Section 8, the power to exercise exclusive Legislation over the District and become the Seat of the Government of the United States. Puerto Rico is in a very different circumstance as essentially a colony of the United States with almost 3.5 million citizens who have expressed an interest in being the 51st state with no constitutional prohibition on statehood. Puerto Rico has a much stronger constitutional case to become a state. As many as 122 economic activities covering industrial, agricultural, and services sectors will be part of the UAE's positive list of economic sectors eligible for 100 percent foreign ownership, it has been announced. The list was approved at a cabinet meeting in Abu Dhabi chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said a Wam news agency report. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, also attended the meeting. Sheikh Mohammed said that the UAE holds 40 percent of the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region with $140 billion, noting that the objective is to promote the investment climate and partnerships to new levels. "The positive list will take everyone into consideration and our instructions are to create the best business environment for the local investors and foreign investments, which are the driver of investment in the country," he pointed out. Sheikh Mohammed said that the UAE has become a key destination that attracts investments and talents, as well as increase flow of investments in key sectors thanks to success opportunities it offers. "We have the flexibility to keep pace with all global changes including economic ones. We have the best investment environment and the best infrastructure in the world. Our country will continue its drive to develop its economic model," he said. "We want to be a gate for production and attracting advanced technology and expertise. We support all those who have ideas to develop industries, education, healthcare, artificial intelligence, food security as well as the quality of life in our society," he added. The cabinet also approved a comprehensive medical examination system for all newborns in the country to early monitor any diseases that might affect their health in the future. It also approved the establishment of a UAE embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a new consulate in Cape Town, South Africa as well as cooperation and investment agreements with Brazil, Indonesia and African countries. The Supreme Court of India, tasked with deciding whether or not BJP leaders should be booked for inciting Delhi riots, on Wednesday got sidetracked at the beginning of the hearing as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta alleged that Harsh Mander, one of the petitioners, also gave an inflammatory speech The Supreme Court of India, tasked with deciding whether or not BJP leaders should be booked for inciting Delhi riots, on Wednesday got sidetracked at the beginning of the hearing as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta alleged that Harsh Mander, one of the petitioners, also gave an inflammatory speech. The bench, visibly irked at the former IAS officer's comments declined to hear his plea until the matter about his comments is 'sorted'. The court will hear the matter of Mander's speech on Friday, 6 March. The Centre brought to the notice of a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant the alleged hate speeches made by Mander. Mehta adduced transcripts of Mandar's reported speech at the Jamia Millia Islamia university, wherein he reportedly said that there is no trust left in the courts and that ultimate justice has to be on the streets. Mehta cited a video clip of Mander and said that he is seen to have "called on the people of India" and is heard saying that "real justice will be done on the streets" The Supreme Court taking umbrage to the alleged speech, told Mander's lawyer Karuna Nundy, "If this is what he feels about the courts then it will have to be decided first whether he should be given a hearing at all," Utkarsh Anand reported. Mehta said that it was apparent that inflammatory speeches were made by both sides. "Lets not forget that these people are abusing these forums," he said referring to Mander. Nundy, meanwhile, denied these allegations and sought time to verify the alleged hate speech, but Mehta said, "It is strange that he wants time for verifying his own speech but wants FIRs against everyone immediately." The CJI refused to act upon Mander's petition and told his lawyer, Nundy, that she will first have to disprove claims of the hate speeches made by her client before her petition can be heard, Live Law reported. "The allegations against Mander are serious. The court will not hear Mander till the issue on allegations against him is sorted out," said the CJI. Mehta also interjected at this point stating that Gonsalves too had represented Mander in High Court but is now arguing on behalf of other petitioners without a full disclaimer. "They have now filed a new petition through other people because they have realised they have themselves made inflammatory speeches. These riot victims are only sponsored and instigated by Mander," he said. The bench, however, said that they should be careful with the usage of words. The Bench asked Mehta whether he meant to say that anyone who seems to represent Mander or is guided by him does not have the right to approach the courts. "We cannot refuse someone the right to argue because he represented or is guided by Harsh Mander," the bench said. The court asked Mehta to file a separate affidavit concerning Mander's speech. Mehta agreed and said he would file the affidavit in the post-lunch session with the apex court registry and serve the copy to the lawyer of Mander. Mehta was also asked to submit full transcript and video of the said speech. Nundy, however, denied that the activist made any such hate speeches as alleged by the Centre and urged the court to schedule the hearing against Mander on a later date, citing the fact that he was travelling. But the Supreme Court shot down the request and scheduled to hear the matter against Mander on Friday. Here's what Harsh Mander said Mehta alleged that Mander incited the crowd urging them to decide India's future on its streets. He also quoted an excerpt where Mander allegedly claimed that he does not believe in the Supreme Court. However, a complete video of the speech gives context to the quote and reveals that the former IAS officer, in fact, made an appeal against violence and had exhorted the crowd to shun attempts to polarise them. Here is a transcript of the relevant part of his speech. "This war cant be won in the Parliament because our political parties that call themselves secular no longer have that sort of righteousness and courage to fight this war. This war cant be won in the Supreme Court either, because we have seen the court in the past few cases like NRC, Kashmir, CAA, etc has failed to protect humanity and our Constitution. (We will try to get justice in the courts, definitely, because it is our court of law. But the decision wont happen in Parliament, nor in the courts.) You are the youth of this country and the decision of this countrys future will be taken on the streets as we had to take to the streets for this cause. But above that, this decision will be made in our hearts. Yours and my heart. If they want to instill hatred in our hearts, we cant answer with more hatred. We have to respond to darkness with light.... We have to shun this hatred and preach love. Always remember, anybody who instigates you for violence cannot be your ally. Biden is an easy choice for any Kansas City Democratic denizen over 45. The problem: NEXTGEN activists and some of the most outspoken, thoughtful and energetic progressives in Kansas City have been supporting Bernie for years. 2020 Slap Fight Column: It's Bernie vs. Biden. Let the slugfest begin Looks like President Trump was right to be scared of Joe Biden. I didn't think the former vice president could pull it off, especially after his weak showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. When I saw Biden in Iowa last month, he didn't inspire confidence. Right-Wing Win??? Biden's Big Night Won't Be Enough To Solve Democrats' Sanders Problem With a sweep of the south and key victories in Minnesota and Massachusetts, the media narrative today will be all about how Joe Biden is the comeback kid, back from the dead, risen like a Phoenix from the ashes. That sort of thing. It's the kind of story the media loves. Bernie Bros Against The Democratic Party Once Again Bernie Sanders is going to war with Democratic establishment On Monday, two things became clear: This is a quickie photo TKC took last Fall of a mural at near Gillham Rd & E 31st St. crowdfunded by hundreds of local Bernie Bros.As of this writing, there's no visible sign of dedication to the former Veep other than anNot that it really matters, in the 2020 Presidential election both Missouri & Kansas will likely go to Prez Trump.However, in terms of fundraising and overall campaign enthusiasm. Kansas City support for a presidential candidate remains important. And, again, we simply don't see the local love for the former Veep just yet.Check just a bit of further reading . . .Developing . . . The government is evaluating the option of airlifting automotive parts from China to tackle the shortage caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Mint reported. The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises has prepared a list of parts for petrol, diesel and electric vehicles to be airlifted from China, the report said. The list was prepared after consultations with automakers and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). The heavy industries ministry has made a list of components which can be airlifted for both set of vehicles. Otherwise, there will be shutdown of assembly lines, a source told the paper. Track LIVE updates on the Coronavirus and related news here Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers may have to pause production in April and May, since China is the only source for some of the components, a source told the paper. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story. The next few months will be a 'washout', the source added, since supplies from China come three-to-four months late, and factories have been closed since February. China has reported the highest number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus, or COVID-19. The outbreak has forced several factories to pause operations, hurting import of raw materials in some industries. The heavy industries ministry has sent a list to the aviation ministry for approval, a government official told the publication. The list might also include parts for mobile phones and drugs, the official added. The government has asked electronics and smartphone industry lobby groups to draw up a list of components made in China which then can be airlifted, officials told Reuters. China is Indias biggest trading partner, but Indias imports of Chinese goods contracted in February to their lowest levels in nearly four years, trade ministry data reviewed by Reuters showed. The coronavirus, first reported in China, has now spread to other countries, with over 92,000 confirmed cases of infection and more than 3,100 deaths. In India, there have been 29 confirmed cases so far. (With inputs from Reuters) Angry Bernie voters may protest furiously that it was the establishment that revived Biden to seize a prize that seemed theirs. But thats wrong. Bidens rescuers werent party elders but a marginalized constituency that is often taken for granted: Southern blacks. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Matthew Continetti writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Michelle Cottle examines two primary contests that will shake the parties well beyond the states in play. It was black voters who gave Biden a huge win in South Carolina on Saturday, reviving his fortunes and clarifying his role as the alternative to Sanders. It obviously helped that Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar exited the race and, along with Beto ORourke, endorsed Biden in time for Super Tuesday (and Klobuchar may end up Bidens running mate, while Buttigieg could end up in a Biden cabinet). But this wasnt a coronation; it was a groundswell among moderates fearful that a Sanders nomination would be a Republican dream. We in the pundit world are awful at predictions, and we should all be humbled by the conventional wisdom of 2016 that Trump was unelectable. Still, Sanders is the single most liberal member of the Senate, according to GovTrack, and old-timers remember what happened to Barry Goldwater on the right and George McGovern on the left. Democratic members of the House who presumably know something about their own districts say that it would be harder for them to win with Sanders at the top of the ticket. At a dinner with a dozen Democratic House members recently, I was struck by how worried some were that a Sanders nomination would cost them any chance of a Democratic Senate and might even hand the House itself back to Republicans. Im closer to some of Sanderss positions than to Bidens, and I particularly admire Sanderss leadership and authenticity on human rights issues like Yemen. But I dont think Sanders would be able to accomplish his aims as president any more than he has been able to as a senator (he was a primary sponsor of only seven bills that became law, and they are mostly insignificant items, such as naming post offices or designating Vermont Bicentennial Day). We are excited to have Lauren grow and enhance an already great Account Management team and help us continue to maintain the absolute best broker experience in the industry. Broker Online Exchange (BOX) is pleased to promote Lauren Johnson to the role of Director of Sales. Johnson has been an instrumental part of the BOX team since its inception in 2013. She has worked hard to build relationships with both energy brokers and suppliers, and has been an integral part of the creation of sales and fulfillment processes throughout the organization. Johnson takes on this new role at a vital point in the growth of BOX, as the company continues to expand its network and find new ways to provide industry-leading service to both energy consultants and business owners. CEO Arthur Gruen shares his vision for Laurens new role, As the business continues to grow, we are excited to have Lauren grow and enhance an already great Account Management team and help us continue to maintain the absolute best broker experience in the industry. Throughout the life of BOX, Johnson has held multiple roles in both business development and account management, becoming an experienced professional in working with customers and suppliers alike to provide the best energy services. Combined with over a decade of sales experience, Johnson brings a powerful understanding of the combination of sales strategy and service required to provide the most value to potential and existing customers. Vice President Benji Coomer praises her work, Lauren was one of our first hires and has been instrumental in the exceptional growth the business has experienced over the last few years. We are excited to see what the future holds with her leading the Account Management team. Johnson studied international business at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, complementing her education with a degree in Spanish Language and Literature at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Leioa, Spain. About Broker Online Exchange Established in 2013, Broker Online Exchange (BOX) has become the largest network of energy agents, energy brokers, and energy consulting firms in North America. As an independent, well-capitalized company, BOX provides world-class, personalized access and support to anyone with an energy need, be it a consumer, broker, referral partner, or supplier. BOX connects a variety of diverse partners so they can each benefit from streamlined, efficient, deregulated energy. Broker Online Exchange offers several unique advantages for commercial energy brokers and consultants. From instant access to all deregulated markets and energy suppliers to streamlined sales tools and a world-class support system, BOX gives brokers the edge they need to compete in todays commercial retail energy market. We are looking at the Christian and law, and to do this we are reading the fine book by David Opderbeck, Law and Theology. The church is not a temporal nation, and therefore the churchs mission is not to establish temporal political power. However, the church is called to embody the new politics of Christs kingdom as part of particular temporal political societies in history. This means that the churchs first interest concerning the positive law in any historical context is simply to support the structures and institutions of a functioning legal system in which there is at least some restraint on grave violence, some principle of consent of the governed, some commitment to the flourishing of creation, including created humanity, and some space for the churchs institutional life. While Christians in the United States become agitated over whether a transgender student can use one bathroom or another, poor people all over the world are dying in the streets from starvation, disease and official violence, without any functional rule of law at all from a global, historical perspective, our culture war problems are luxuries within an otherwise basically functional legal system. Not perfect But it is also true that in the United States, most of the time, it is possible to buy and sell property and commodifies, start a business, resolve a civil dispute, enter into a contract, obtain liability insurance, travel freely, write a book, go to church or not, pass on an estate, get married, get divorced, deposit funds in a bank, take out a loanand engage in the myriad other transactions of daily lifewithout violence against the backdrop of an established rule of law. In the second part of the book Opderbeck examines some major issues, but first he looks at law in ordinary time. Like filing for bankruptcy. A college student graduates in debt, buys a condo and some other electronic equipment to outfit his home for comfort and entertainmen, discovers the loan company was corrupt and collapses, he loses his job, he is now in debt big time, and his lawyer says file for bankruptcy and his pastor says work to pay off your debts and keep your promises. What to do? Opderbeck gives the history of bankruptcy law why it was created and what it was designed to accomplish and then says this: Bankruptcy law is a pragmatic response to problems that arise when banks and other lenders extend credit to businesses and consumers. Bankruptcy helps protect debtors from predatory lending practices and eliminates the injustice of debtors prison. It also induces creditors to undertake more careful underwriting before extending credit. Ever commercial transaction is undertaken against the backdrop of the bankruptcy laws. The credit a card-issuing bank makes available, and the interest rates and other contractual terms of the debt, all are prepared by sophisticated players and account for the reality that some percentage of borrowers will default and declare bankruptcy. This is one of the reasons the market interest rate for a consumer credit card will be something like 17-20 percent instead of 45 percent. What is the Christian to do? It is legal to file for bankruptcy, and it may be advantageous, but is it right? Then comes the issue of lending with interest is that right? Is that moral? In the history of the church it was not and then it was and then it was modified by no less than Calvin, while Luther himself did not believe in lending with interest. I offer this brief history of usury in Christianity because it shows that even a legal prohibition rooted in a specific biblical command might be modified for practical reasons. Perhaps we could still debate whether Calvin and other Christian leaders were right to change the rule, but there is simply no way the modern world could function without lending at interest. Nearly every element of Your life at this very moment -- your school, your town, your home or apartment, Your car, your local hospital, the job that supplies your income, the farms that produced the food you ate today, the factories that made the clothes youre wearing, the chair youre sitting in, the phone, computer, and/or tablet youre using, the book in your handsall of it depends on embedded webs of commercial finance. As a practical matter, we must allow lending at interest. The best we can do is regulate the conditions under which credit is extended and provide a safety net through bankruptcy law. File for bankruptcy or not? The Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of the O.P. Jindal Global University has been ranked the best in India by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Subject Rankings 2020 in Law, a reputed academic ranking agency. The 10-year-old law school has been placed in the 101-150 ranks bracket while the much more famous National Law School University of India of Bengaluru has been ranked in the 151-200 band. The Jindal Global University, based in Sonipat, Haryana, is the only private Indian university in the top 150 young universities in the world in the QS Young University Rankings 2020. Jindal Global University (JGU) Chancellor and benefactor Naveen Jindal said the recognition of JGLS as the number one law school in India and among the top 150 in the world is a historic achievement. He congratulated Founding Vice-Chancellor Prof Ravi Kumar, faculty members, students and staff of JGU for their efforts. Jindal said he was immensely satisfied that both the university and the law school have achieved so much in such a short time. Prof Ravi Kumar, the founding vice-chancellor of JGU, told the media at a press conference that only 2 Indian law schools, the JGLS and the NLSIU, entered the QS World University Subject Rankings 2020 released by QS in London. With JGLS finding place in a higher band, it has been ranked the best in India and has found a place in the top 10 in BRICS countries and top 20in Asia. QS subject rankings are available in 48 subjects covering 5 broad categories which include Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Ravi Kumar said the JGLS would endeavour to break into the top 100 law schools and the University will put in all efforts to crack the top 500 in the world, it is currently in the 750-800 bracket. QS Quacquarelli regional director Ashwin Fernandes said the QS Subject Ranking in Law measures global relevance of institutions specifically in research in law, academic reputation and employers. Only the 300 best law schools globally make it to the list, he said. With over 5,000 students and 550 faculty, JGU has 8 schools: Law, Business, International Affairs, Public Policy, Liberal Arts & Humanities, Journalism, Art & Architecture and Banking & Finance. JGU is an initiative of the Jindal Steel & Power Foundation. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Bernie Sanders is not like Jeremy Corbyn after all. Although their political views seem similar, there are important differences. One is that Sanders does not have the same problem with antisemitism. The Jewish Chronicle last week carried a leading article headlined, Bernie Sanders is no Jew hater, so dont compare him to Jeremy Corbyn. The other is that Sanders is a sharper, more aggressive campaigner. But the real difference is that Sanders is operating in a different political system. Where Corbyn inspired 300,000 people to join the Labour Party to elect and then re-elect him as leader, Sanders faces a much bigger task to be chosen as the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Sanders inspires a similar enthusiasm among a similar coalition of young idealists and older people who call themselves socialists. Socialist has a different meaning in the US, but its similar to the way Corbyn supporters use it here to distinguish it from the milk-and-water Labour politics of the Ed Miliband interregnum. But mobilising those supporters is harder in the US system. Sanders did well enough in Iowa, where the caucuses give the vote only to the highly motivated, who have to turn up for a party meeting. Pete Buttigieg, who is almost local to Iowa, also did well, but Joe Biden did badly. But primary elections are a different matter. In most states they are open to all voters, and, although an enthusiastic minority is important, especially in providing campaign workers, it cannot guarantee the votes. Sanders did well in New Hampshire, which is next door to Vermont, his home state, but elsewhere he has struggled against Biden, a candidate with a wider appeal among the general electorate. Recommended Biden has remarkable comeback in dramatic Super Tuesday After Biden did better than expected in South Carolina at the weekend, he has now repeated the trick on a larger scale in the Super Tuesday states. Sanders will still pick up a lot of delegates in California, but in most other states, including Texas, Biden is winning more. That means Biden is suddenly on course to win the nomination. The votes are still being counted, but my benchmark is Nate Silvers forecast model. Last night, before the Super Tuesday results started coming in, it suggested Sanders was heading to win just one third of the delegates to the Democratic convention. Given that Biden did better than expected, that figure will have fallen. It is not over yet: even when yesterdays votes are all counted, more than half of the delegates still have to be chosen, but Sanders now needs something dramatic to change the course of the race. Biden has shown that in elections open to all voters in Middle America states, he is bulldozing his way to victory. Only in liberal states such as California, Colorado and Utah is Sanders able to hold out. Of course, Jeremy Corbyn did well in a general election in Britain, cutting the Conservative lead in vote share to just two percentage points and depriving Theresa May of her majority in parliament in 2017. But we can now see how many special factors applied to that election. May was expected to win, but fought a poor campaign and the voters wanted to limit her power. And US opinion polls suggest that, if Sanders were to face Donald Trump in the general election in November, he would do well although on average Biden comes out slightly better. But in the US system, Sanders has to beat Biden first, and that seems to be the hurdle he cannot get over. However ill-defined the term socialism is, it seems that enough middle Americans dont like it. It seems that, after all, they prefer the mainstream, blue-collar Democratic party values embodied by Barack Obamas vice president. Many Nigerians have expressed outrage at the decision of Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to celebrate his mothers birthday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nigerians took to social media to express their outrage after the speakers aide confirmed the party with an activist saying such actions make citizens lose trust in their government. Lanre Lasisi, Mr Gbajabiamilas spokesperson, said in a statement Tuesday that the speakers mother, Lateefat Gbajabiamila, on Monday celebrated her 90th birthday in Dubai. Mr Lasisi said this in response to a report by Sahara Reporters which accused his principal of using public funds to take 300 guests on a jamboree to Dubai. While Mr Lasisi affirmed that the party truly held, he refuted the claim that the event fed on public funds. It was strictly for family members and a few childhood friends for which no public funds were appropriated or expended, Mr Lasisi wrote in his statement. Indeed not a single politician nor a legislator was present at the event. Mr Gbajabiamila is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress and has been a member of the green chamber since 2003. He represents Surulere I Federal Constituency of Lagos State and has held key principal offices in the House. He was the minority leader in the 7th assembly, the majority leader in 8th assembly and now speaker in the 9th assembly. Outrage The public outrage he has got since the report was out that he celebrated his mothers birthday on March 2 in Dubai has been premised on the privileges he has had as a representative for 17 years on. In 2018, he got similar public bashing, when he, apart from a one-day lavish party, gifted his wife, Salamatu Gbajabiamila, a Mercedes G-Wagon, reportedly priced at $300,000, with a number plate customised with the fond word ASSURANCE for her 50th birthday. Suspicion was rife then that the speaker could be living beyond his legal means. This is because in 2017, for instance, the only time the spending of the National Assembly has been made public since 2012, members of the lower house earned an annual pay of $42,000 (approximately 13 million). Olanrewaju Suraj, Chairman, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, said such an action makes the public lose their trust in the government, especially in a country sitting atop the poverty log in world. Also, being a House member since 2003 without any other clear stream of income, Mr Suraj believes the speakers Dubai expedition is another show of how lucrative public offices are, with Nigerians being at the receiving end. Call for probe Coming at a time when members of the House of Representatives are welcoming batches of exotic cars for themselves, the speakers show of opulence deserves to be probed, Mr Suraj told PREMIUM TIMES. The anti-corruption advocate called for an investigation into the House Speakers spending spree. He said as a top official, Nigerians deserve to know what Mr Gbajabiamila has acquired over the period he has had access to their resources. You have insurgents killing citizens everyday, you have IDPs, then you have this sort of display of opulence? The world would be laughing at us, Mr Suraj noted. Public outrage Some Nigerians chided the speaker in the comment section of the his rebuttal on Facebook, posted by his spokesperson, Mr Lasisi. They questioned why he as the number four citizen did not lead by example by pumping money into an already booming economy like Dubais at the expense of Nigerias. Our public office holders too should not be unnecessarily stirring the hornets nest, Isiaka Wakeel, a journalist commented. You confirmed here that the speaker took people to Dubai for his mothers birthday. That alone is enough to incur public anger. Advertisements Another Nigerian, Malachi Opeyemi, Monday, in an obvious response to Mr Lasisis denial of having a politician on board the trip, noted that someone from ward G an (executive) member was selected for the trip so its still a political matter. Similarly, Joe Igbokwe, APC Lagos spokesperson, was met with similar criticism,when he posted the speakers statement on his Facebook wall. Although some were indifferent about the event, majority of the commentators berated the speakers choice of Dubai above Nigeria for the birthday. Lets even assume it is (from) private fund, is there nowhere in Nigeria the party can hold? Ekezeh Ishioma Sabastine, a Facebook user, asked. How many political leaders from Dubai or other countries come to Nigeria for birthday bash. Nigeria leaders must lead by example and practice what they preach. Biodun Adeniran, another user, said Nigerias progress and development is tied to how public officials respect the trust placed in him. Nobody will query a private person for such frivolities, but its indecent of a public office holder who promised us a change. Other Nigerians took to their Twitter to pour out their minds. Below are some of their comments: Waww.. He had to celebrate it in Dubai?? It's not good for optics even if he sponsored the trip personally.. He is not longer a private person he is the number 4th person in the country. Erickson (@Ericodong3) March 3, 2020 This action cant be defended anywhere my broda. You guys have just created wrong perception for the Speaker with that action Morgan Omodu (@adungbe) March 3, 2020 Gbajabiamila, na person name be this ? If na our money him use, God Co punish am and him family mtcheew mayor of Raffia_city (@UkangaC) March 3, 2020 Sensible people knew it was a lie. This was a private affair and we politicians, no matter how close we are to the speaker stayed back at home. The one for the public was held in Lagos last week which we all attended. https://t.co/aDAOZOp9Ur Oloye Akin Alabi (@akinalabi) March 3, 2020 So he cant travel to Dubai and chill anymore , why are we so partisan in everything ehn . Theres no crime in traveling out and giving your mom a beautiful birthday celebration!! Demolaa (@de_mola100) March 3, 2020 If the story is not truekindly sue them. If notthen shut the hell up and own your misappropriation jejely. You people keep stealing money with reckless abandon and expect the whole country to take it hook line and sinker. Thank @SaharaReporters for thisevil leaders. Ceasar (@keljykz2) March 3, 2020 Truly, there's no crime in spoiling your loved ones and taking them on Vacations. But it becomes a crime when it's a new habit, especially when you just became the Speaker of the National Assembly and the vacation was sponsored with public funds. Its also a moral issue. Nwoke Alexander Jr. (@alex2j2) March 3, 2020 This story broke like 48hrs ago on @SaharaReporters and you are just responding with this terse and ridiculous press release? The allegations made by SR against @femigbaja are grave and bothers on corruption. If it is a false allegation, why are you guys not demanding retraction? Obansa P. S (@Piusobansa) March 3, 2020 A court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape victim's father. The rape victim's father had died in judicial custody on April 9, 2018. District judge Dharmesh Sharma said Sengar had no intention of killing the victim's father. "He was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death," the judge said. The court had on December 20 sent Sengar to jail for the "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping the woman in 2017, when she was a minor. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had examined 55 witnesses in support of the case and the defence examined nine witnesses. The court had recorded the statements of the rape survivor's uncle, mother, sister and one of her father's colleague who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident. According to the CBI, on April 3, 2018, there was an altercation between the rape victim's father and one Shashi Pratap Singh. The charge sheet filed on July 13, 2018, said the victim's father and his co-worker were returning to their village, Makhi, when they asked Singh for a lift. Singh denied them the lift, triggering an altercation among them. Singh called his associates, following which Kuldeep Sengar's brother Atul Singh Sengar reached the spot along with others and beat up the woman's father and his co-worker. The woman's father was subsequently taken to the police station by them where an FIR was lodged against him and he was arrested. The charge sheet said that all this while Kuldeep Sengar was in touch with the district police superintendent and Makhi police station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria. Later he also spoke to the doctor who examined the rape victim's father. Charges were framed against Sengar, his brother Atul, Bhadauria, sub-inspector Kamta Prasad, constable Amir Khan and six others in the case. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1 last year. In July, 2019 a truck rammed into the car the rape victim was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer. Two of her aunts died in the incident. She was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow and to AIIMS in Delhi. The victim has been provided accommodation in Delhi and is under CRPF protection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People wearing protective face masks in London. (Reuters/Henry Nicholls) The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK has jumped to 87, the Department for Health confirmed on Wednesday. The number increased by 36, the biggest rise in a single day since the coronavirus was first reported in Britain. It means the UK has become the fifth most affected country in Europe. As of 9am this morning, 32 further patients in England have tested positive for Covid-19, chief medical officer for England Chris Whitty said, using the official name for the virus. Two more patients have been confirmed in Scotland and two more have been confirmed in Northern Ireland. UPDATE on coronavirus (#COVID19) testing in the UK: As of 9am 4 March 2020, a total of 16,659 people have been tested: 16,574 negative. 85 positive. For latest information visit: https://t.co/CZh5JdyN2Q pic.twitter.com/Zlu9TSBUwH Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) March 4, 2020 Whitty said: Twenty-nine had recently travelled from recognised countries or from recognised clusters which were under investigation. Three additional patients contracted the virus in the UK and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun. Sick pay announcement Boris Johnson has announced that statutory sick pay will be available earlier to workers who have to stay at home with potential infections. The payment period will start from the first day of illness rather than the fourth, he said. Boris Johnson has announced sick pay legislation. (PA Images) Read more: World Health Organisation warns of coronavirus scam Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Johnson said individuals who self-isolate are helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus. Story continues If they stay at home and if we ask people to self-isolate they may lose out financially, he told the House of Commons. Universities hold off on graduation ceremonies Some universities have postponed graduation ceremonies because of coronavirus. Buckingham University and the University of London have both called off ceremonies this month to stop any potential spread of the virus. The University of London had expected up to 4,000 people from more than 100 countries to attend its March 3 ceremony at the Barbican Centre. People have begun taking precautions over the coronavirus. (PA Images) How is it spread and how can you protect yourself? The virus is believed to spread through cough and sneeze droplets, experts say. It can live on surfaces for several hours but it is not clear how long it survives. Government scientists say it can be spread by people who may show no symptoms. Read more: Government stops publishing daily updates of coronavirus locations Washing hands regularly with soap and hot water for 20-second periods is recommended to avoid catching the virus. The NHS says workers should wash their hands when they get home or arrive at their job, and hand sanitiser can be used if soap is not available. Sneezes and coughs should be caught in a tissue, which should then be binned and followed by a hand wash. Members of the public should avoid close contact with unwell people and avoid touching the eyes, nose or mouth. Read more: 'Stop kissing in public to prevent virus spreading' It is fine to be in public places and the government has not advised that mass events or public gatherings should be cancelled. People should only self-isolate if told to by the NHSs 111 service or a health professional. Bamako, Mali (PANA) - "The fight against poverty, the quest for daily well-being for our people and the economic prosperity of our States could not succeed without important milestones being set in crucial sectors such as energy," Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cisse said on Tuesday in Bamako, while opening a ministerial meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on trade in electricity Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders criticizes Democrats for lacking the courage to think big. But it takes no courage to promise impossible levels of new spending and programs that could not work as advertised. It takes courage to level with voters. Sanderss rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination have done far better at that. Fresh off a big win in the Nevada caucuses, he released on Monday his latest massive spending proposal, a plan to enable all Americans to get child care. It is similar to the universal child-care plans that Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Ind., mayor and candidate Pete Buttigieg previously rolled out, except it would cost more than twice as much. Each candidates plan would provide universal access to child care. Each would rely on a mix of organizations from small, home-based facilities to large day-care centers to public schools. And each would apply new standards to the child-care industry and raise the pay of child-care providers. But Warrens and Buttigiegs plans would cost $700 billion over a decade, and Sanderss $1.5 trillion. Whats the big difference? In large part, it is that Sanders would make government-sponsored child care free to all, even the wealthiest of families. Warren and Buttigieg would ask families that could afford to pay something to do so. The Warren plan, for example, would offer free services for those who make up to twice the poverty level or about $50,000 for a family of four. Everyone else would pay something, their contribution determined on a sliding scale based on their income, though no family would have to pay more than 7% of its income. Sanders says he can pay for his unnecessarily expensive approach with money he would raise from his proposed wealth tax. But economists calculate a gap of $1 trillion or more between what his wealth tax would raise and what he claims it would raise. Given the massive shifts in taxation that Sanders is already proposing, meeting the shortfall with additional taxes would be extremely hard. Even if Sanders led a political revolution that reshaped Congress, making his plans more politically viable, the country does not have an unlimited supply of money that can be diverted into the federal treasury without consequences for economic growth. True progressives recognize that federal money is scarce and must be spent carefully, with the poorest first in line, so that many needs can be met. Sanders presents himself as the only one who really cares about issues such as health care, climate change and pre-K. But other Democratic candidates, not Sanders, are treating these issues with the seriousness they deserve. The Washington Post What happened Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TEVA) shares were already working on a recovery headed into February, hinting at an end to what had become a nearly four-year rout. After a brief pause as January came to a close, that effort was renewed early last month. Even with the weak finish for February, firm bullishness early in the month following good news on the drug development front was enough to leave behind a 10.9% gain, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. So what Once a powerhouse within the pharmaceuticals arena -- and generic pharmaceuticals in particular -- Teva Pharmaceutical has struggled since 2016, unable to adapt to ongoing changes in the marketplace. All told, Teva shares lost more than 90% of their value from peak to last year's trough, primarily in response to the company's potential liability related to its role in the opioid addiction epidemic, as well as waning sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. The therapy lost patent protection in 2017, and while the company has attempted to replace the franchise with similarly marketable drugs, nothing has quite taken its place. Investors might see a light at the end of the tunnel, however. By the end of January, shares were up nearly 30% from August's low. Encouraging efficacy numbers for a trial of migraine treatment Ajovy (fremanezumab) reignited the rally after its brief pause early last month. The phase 2/3 trial conducted in Japan, where migraine headaches are not uncommon, met the company's endpoint goals. Not even another quarter of weakening Copaxone sales or the approval of a generic competitor to Teva's asthma treatment, ProAir HFA, was enough to unwind the gain. Now what Investors may be thinking the uncertainty that's been surrounded the stock for years is finally starting to lift, and CEO Kare Schultz is more than willing to help steer them to that conclusion. He commented after the company's solid fourth-quarter report: "This situation with declining revenues, declining product, that's over. Now we have a stable situation where we'll be slowly growing both the revenues and the operating profit." There's still much work to be done, but if Schultz can keep the rhetoric and headlines spinning in a positive direction, the overdue gains just might persist. A Houston-area family has filed a lawsuit against a Tomball Alzheimer's care home, claiming their elderly mother was mauled by the facility's dog. According to a lawsuit filed by the family of 92-year-old Norma Graves, she was attacked twice in February by a dog owned by The Village Green Alzheimer's Care Home located at 13233 Medical Complex Dr. in Tomball. The first time, Graves suffered wounds to her nose on February 12, 2020. The lawsuit claims that the dog bit or scratched Mrs. Graves, but the incident report was forged stating cause of wound on nose unknown. The family was not notified of the attack, according to a press release. The second attack allegedly occurred ten days later, with the dog reportedly mauling Mrs. Graves face requiring her to have multiple stitches for deep lacerations. The family filed a Temporary Restraining Order filed against Village Green due to the vicious mauling of one of its patients, according to attorneys for the family. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Data shows where fatal dog attacks occurred in the Houston area over the last 20 years We trusted Village Green. They breached that trust," shared Jim Graves, Norma's son. "Village Green knew that the dog caused this wound. They covered it up by writing an incident report saying they didnt know how my mothers nose got cut. They didnt tell us about the dog hurting my mother 10 days before she was mauled. If they had told us, we would have gotten her out of there ASAP." Houston-based attorney Mike Kerensky shared that they wrote a letter to Village Green asking them to preserve all the security footage during the time this dog was at the facility, but said the facility reportedly ignored the letter. "We went to the veterinarians office that had the dog quarantined to photograph the dog," said Kerensky. "The vet then told us that Village Green refused to give consent." Grave's son said that his mother, who suffers from Advanced Alzheimer's Disease, is horrified by how her face looks and terrified about how this happened. "Her memory is impaired so when she sees her face in a mirror on any reflective surface, she cant remember who did this to her and she becomes very upset and agitated," the statement read. "The family is very worried about how this will affect her ability to cope with her condition." VIOLATIONS ON NURSING HOMES: Houston health inspection violations nursing/assisted living, Feb. 4 - 25, 2020 According to the lawsuit, the dog was found on the side of a road, and was adopted by Village Green and allowed to roam the halls of the facility for about 2 months before the mauling of Norma Graves, and after these incidents. The dog also allegedly bit another resident on the nose before mauling Graves and was not removed from the facility at that time, her lawyers contend. The family was able to obtain video of the attack and a photo of Graves face which they gave to Kerensky to use in the case against Village Green. An court hearing of the lawsuit was scheduled for Tuesday, March 3rd at 10 a.m. before Judge Lauren Reeder in the 234th District Court. Chron.com reached out to Village Green for contact, but has not received a reply. STAY INFORMED: Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the Centres plea for more time and said all petitions related to the violence in Delhi last week, including those of the hate speech, should be heard by the Delhi High Court on Friday. Expressing concern over the long adjournment, the Supreme Court said: We aren't saying the HC doesn't have any reason but the period for which the hearing has been adjourned may not be good. We propose Delhi HC should hear this on Friday. The bench added, In riots, violence cannot be curbed by courts. But just because there is no violence, it does not mean that courts can give such long adjournments. The court also added that the high court may explore the possibility of amicable resolution of the dispute. A bunch of petitions were filed in the top court by the victims of the violence that left at least 46 dead in northeast Delhi, asking for action against the BJP leaders responsible for hate speech, which allegedly incited the riots. KAMPALA AZA, one of Africas biggest non-bank currency broker, on Thursday, February 20, rolled out its recently upgraded payment platform BFX to Uganda. BFX is a B2B payment platform that leverages AZAs hybrid infrastructure and empowers companies to use African currencies with less risk, cost and friction than ever before. The launch comes within three months of the Bank of Uganda approving a remittance license for AZA, which is registered locally as BT Payment Services Uganda. The expansion to Uganda reflects AZAs conviction that the economy is poised for growth. The country is one of the worlds most entrepreneurial, with 28% of adults owning or co-owning a business, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Progressive currency market liberalizations have helped Uganda to rank as the third best among 20 countries for access to foreign exchange in Africa in the ABSA Africa Financial Markets Index. The BFX platform will enable Ugandan small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to grow beyond their borders, opening up previously underserved trade markets through a number of pay-in and payout channels such as banks and mobile wallets. BFX is significantly easier and faster to use than incumbent systems, processing international transactions within one or two business days. With extensive infrastructure, faster processing and local settlement accounts, BFX ensures quick transactions with less friction and lower fees. Our commitment to Uganda, East Africa and the wider continent is evident from our investment in building the best and most reliable technology for this market, said Thomas Yieke, Head of Sales for East Africa at AZA. We have created a competitive facility based on world-class technology, reducing settlement time to less than a day and at the best possible rates. Through the BFX product, Ugandan businesses will be able to save millions in fees each year with cost-effective transfers and efficient treasury solutions. AZA is the only non-bank provider of both wholesale foreign exchange and distribution across the African region, and has expanded through increased bank accounts, mobile money and other payment options. With a team of over 100 people, AZA is led from regional HQ offices in Lagos, Nairobi and London, with growing satellite teams in Kampala, Dakar, Madrid, Accra and, very shortly, Johannesburg. The firms culture and fast-paced startup environment have helped spur its execution ability, operational efficiency and ability to retain top talent. We are hopeful that AZAs existence will increase the number of skilled forex practitioners and intermediaries on the ground in Uganda, said Yieke. We are here to be an integral part of how Africa in general, and Uganda specifically, accelerate its growth. About AZA AZA is an established provider of currency trading solutions that accelerate global access to frontier markets through an innovative infrastructure. By leveraging cutting edge technology in our flagship products, TransferZero and BFX, we are able to significantly lower the cost and increase the speed of business payments to and from frontier markets. TransferZero is our B2B2C product, which provides both wholesale currency purchase and retail settlement via our robust API. BFX is our B2B over-the-counter platform for businesses with wholesale currency needs, especially those paying partners and suppliers. Our partners utilize AZAs hybrid financial infrastructure and deep local knowledge to manage liquidity and send payments to dozens of bank networks and mobile money operators across Africa. We are licensed by the UKs FCA and the Bank of Spain. Related The government of Jammu and Kashmir received 44 expressions of interest between August 5, 2019, and December 31, 2019, for investments amounting to Rs 13,120 crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. "All proposals are currently under scrutiny by respective departments," Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Replying to a separate question, the minister said patent examination increased from 22,631 in 2014-15 to 85,426 by the end of 2018-19. "Time taken in examination of patents (reduced) from an average of 72 months in 2014-15 to around 36 months at present. Grant of patents has increased from 5,978 in 2014-15 to 15,283 in 2018-19," he said. He also said period of examination of new trademark applications was reduced from 13 months in 2015-16 to less than 30 days currently. "India now has among the fastest trademark examination globally," he said adding that trademark is registered in less than 7 months, if there are no office objections or opposition filed, as compared to 3-5 years required earlier. Further, he said that as many as 11.25 lakh trademark registrations have been done in four-and-a-half years (2015 to 2019), compared with 11 lakh registrations during the previous 75 years (1940-2015). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne to discuss an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran on January 8, the presidents press service has reported. The interlocutors discussed in detail the investigation into the UIA plane crash in Iran, in particular the issue of compensation to the family members of those killed in the plane crash, a full investigation into the tragedy, and the study of "black boxes". Ukraine is fully open in this issue. And, if necessary, it is ready to cooperate with international partners for the fullest possible retrieval of information from the "black boxes", the president noted. The parties also discussed the progress of reforms in Ukraine. Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne welcomed their high pace. The interlocutors paid special attention to the issue of investments. From an economic point of view, infrastructure is our priority. We need to "stitch" the country, so we invite Canadian investors. We will simplify the system of investment, communications, protect the rights in order to create high-quality infrastructure and jobs in Ukraine, Zelensky stressed. The president spoke in detail about concession projects, large-scale privatization, and also focused on reforming the legal system. In addition, Zelensky informed the Canadian delegation about the situation in Donbas. The head of state thanked Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally for the support official Ottawa provides to Ukraine. As reported, Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is on a working visit to Ukraine on March 4-6 and will hold a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko today. A Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, January 8. There were 176 people on board nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner. ish Finance Minister Mathais Cormann personally intervened to get the colour of a new fleet of government cars changed because 'white reflects Australia's colonial past'. Comcars, which are funded by the taxpayer, are used to ferry around federal MPs as well as governmental guests and are white in colour. But Mr Cormann confirmed that he had the colour changed during a Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee on Tuesday. 'My Comcar driver told me the other day that the colour of the cars was chosen by you personally. Is that a true rumour that's circulating?' Greens senator Janet Rice asked Cormann. Mr Cormann responded: 'I take responsibility for that, yes.' Finance Minister Mathias Cormann successfully managed to get the colour of a new fleet of cars changed It was announced in December the government's older fleet of Holden Caprice sedans (pictured) would be upgraded to newer models 'I think that... that the white colour - in my mind - reflects a bit of a colonial past that we've moved on from and I think the colour chosen for the Comcars is a better reflection of a modern, forward-looking Australia,' he continued. The minister even went on to say his driver complained the white-coloured cars are hard to keep looking clean. It was announced in December the government's older fleet of Holden Caprice sedans would be upgraded to newer models. Toyota Camry Hybrid sedans and BMW 6 series GT sedans will make up the new fleet of cars used for government ministers. At the time, Mr Cormann said the new cars would be more environmentally friendly, with the BMWs more fuel efficient, and the Toyota sedans running on a mix of electricity and E10 petrol. The Toyota and BMW vehicles retail for around $40,000-$50,000 and $80,000-$120,000. The cars were chosen out of eighteen other vehicles, and were considered to have the best vehicle safety, suitability and security. Australian politicians will now ride in luxury Toyota Camry Hybrids (pictured) as part of the government's Comcar fleet 'Great Awokening': CPAC panelist says 'woke' culture is seeking 'salvation from the mob' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland A panelist at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference warned Friday that being woke is like seeking salvation from the mob as liberal activists are promoting authoritarianism to push their political agenda. With the theme of CPAC 2020 being America vs. Socialism, several panel discussions throughout the four-day conference focused on the political lefts seeming embrace of socialist-like candidates, attitudes and policy ideals. One panel discussion that took place Friday morning was titled: Socialism & The Great Awokening. The discussion was moderated by the American Conservative Union's Communications Director Ian Walters. Among six participants in the discussion were BlazeTV host Jon Miller, a conservative African American, and Brandon Straka, the founder of the WalkAway Campaign. The campaign encourages liberals to walk away from the divisive tenets endorsed and mandated by the Democratic Party of today." Miller, who penned an op-ed last year arguing that being conservative is the new black, was asked what it means when people talk about being woke. That is a term that was I believe coined by Erykah Badu in 2008, Miller explained. Its a term that means that you are generally aware of how it is to be socially, politically correct. And, you are aware of how to talk to people, and you use the right gender pronouns, and you are accepting, and you are tolerant and you use all these crazy words like Ze and Zir to define people." Miller warned that the mantra of being woke is a way to oppress people who speak normally. It is a way to basically suppress people for living the way they want, Miller said. Conservatives who basically have a more traditional worldview are being oppressed by people who want to control their language, they want to control their ideas. The title of the panel, Miller said, is a play on the Great Awakening, a period of Christian spiritual revival that took place in the American colonies during the 1700s. That was a spiritual revival that gave people a sense of spirituality and gave them a sense of personal sin and the need to be redeemed and salvation from God, Miller explained. Now, its salvation from the mob to the sense that if you say that you love this country, you say that America is the greatest country in the world and say that America was not evil and indecent from its inception, you dont have a voice. If you say you dont believe there is 5 million genders, you dont have a voice. Miller stressed that the Great Awokening is happening with the same kind of fervor that was had during the Great Awakening. I think that in the same way the Great Awakening kind of sparked the revolution, the Great Awokening is going to actually destroy the country, Miller contended. Miller urged conservatives to fight back and reverse all the destruction that these people have done to the country. Straka, a gay former liberal, joined in the discussion. He said that he doesnt think it's an exaggeration to claim that the U.S. is at the crossroads of a possible calamity. This election I think is the most important election, certainly, of my lifetime and possibly in American history, Straka said. We have two candidates who exist on two polar opposites of the spectrum. One is fighting for the traditions of America that have made America a great capitalist, free-market society, Straka said. The other is fighting for a fringe leftist social [agenda]. I am just going to go ahead and assume it is going to be Bernie Sanders. Straka said he created the WalkAway Campaign to encourage people to post on social media their political voice and testimonials about why they are not supporting the Democrat Party. There is no longer any excuse for the liberal media defining the narrative of who you are and what it means to be a Trump supporter or a conservative Republican, Straka said. They can call you a racist. They can call you a bigot. They can call you whatever you want. But it is up to you to use your voice and take the narrative back of what it means to be a Trump supporter and a conservative. Walters explained that some people today will try to shut down a political debate by calling conservatives racist. You can call anyone a racist and then immediately, you dont have to argue with them, Miller said in disgust. You know it is nonsense when they are calling people like me racist. The amount of times I have been called racist, the amount of times I have been called white nationalist, it shows that they are full of it and their arguments are full of holes. They bring nothing to the table. Their war chests are empty, Miller continued. And we are able to at least provide people with the strength to know that we are the majority. We are going to fight to win and we will not be silenced by these thugs, by these communists, by these socialists, who are literally trying to introduce authoritarianism to introduce their vision. PALO ALTO (BCN) Two men suspected of robbing a Safeway store in the Midtown neighborhood of Palo Alto in January have been arrested and one remains at large, police said. The trio entered the store at 2811 Middlefield Road about 12:40 a.m. Jan. 11. One brandished a handgun and ordered a store employee to the ground near the pharmacy. A second suspect then broke the pharmacy's glass door and stole an unknown amount of prescription drugs, police said. The third suspect served as a lookout. The three then ran from the store and left in a pickup truck that was last seen headed east on the Oregon Expressway. The two suspects arrested were identified after police made surveillance images that resulted in a tip from the public. Police identified the suspect who pointed the gun as 22-year-old Erik Eulogio Perez, who does not have a permanent known address. Perez was arrested Feb. 16 while being held at the Kern County Jail after being arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle. Police identified 18-year-old Anthony Nicolas Alcantara-Medina of East Palo Alto as the suspected lookout in the robbery and he was arrested Feb. 24 by East Palo Alto police at a residence in the 1000 block of Ruth Court. Alcantara-Medina is in custody at the San Mateo County Main Jail both on the Palo Alto warrant and failure to appear warrant in a robbery and carjacking case in East Palo Alto. Investigation of the robbery continues, including efforts to determine the identity of the third suspect. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to (650) 383-8984. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Despite economists forecasting a decline, the Australian economy grew 0.5 per cent in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms in the December quarter 2019, according to figures released by the ABS. It takes the economic growth to 2.2 per cent through the year. The economy has continued to grow and picked up through the year, however the rate of growth remains below the long run average", ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said. Domestic demand remained subdued with 0.1 per cent growth in the December quarter. A pick up in household discretionary spending and continued increases in the provision of government services was dampened by falls in dwelling and private business investment. IFM economist Alex Joiner says the narrative is still unchanged. "Private sector demand is extremely soft it's public spending, inventories and net exports keeping growth afloat, monetary easing hasn't been effective on the real economy as yet", Joiner tweeted. Dwelling investment continued to fall, retracting a further 3.4 per cent, the sixth consecutive fall. It was consistent with the decline in the construction industry value added which fell 2.3 per cent. There was a large rise in ownership transfer costs due to the resurgence of the housing market. During the December quarter transfer costs were up 12.3 per cent to be 6.5 per cent up through the year. Tension prevailed between Dalits and upper caste Hindus over throwing cattle dung near a Ravidas temple in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district prompting police to tighten security in the area, police said. The incident happened in Alipu Khurd village under Titawi police station limits in the district on Tuesday, they said. Dalits were opposed to upper caste Hindus throwing dung and dirt near the temple premises that led to some tensions between the two communities, according to police. Security has been tightened in the village as precautionary measures, they added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SPRINGFIELD Adult-use cannabis sales in February were nearly $35 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Dispensaries across the state including Illinois Supply & Provisions in Collinsville sold 831,600 items over the 29-day period for statewide sales totaling $34,805,072.01. Illinois residents accounted for $25,615,371 of those sales, while sales to out-of-state residents totaled $9,189,701.01. The figures do not include taxes collected. A portion of every cannabis sale will be reinvested in communities harmed most by the failed war on drugs. These numbers show there continues to be a strong demand across the state as the most equity-centric cannabis program in the country moves forward in Illinois, said Toi Hutchinson, Senior Advisor for Cannabis Control to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. As the adult use cannabis industry continues to grow, so will the number of opportunities for consumers and entrepreneurs alike especially those from communities who suffered the most during the failed war on drugs, she said. Februarys figures follow $39,247,840.83 in adult-use cannabis sales reported in Illinois for January, the first month such sales were legal. The sales generated $7,332,058 in canabis taxes and $3,147,928.29 in sales taxes. Through March 16, the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) is accepting applications for cannabis infuser, craft grower and transporter licenses. Applications are available on the IDOAs website. Social equity applicants will receive additional points on their application and are eligible to receive technical assistance, grants, low-interest loans and fee reductions and waivers. IDOA will be partnering with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to provide information workshops in Marion, Peoria and the Chicago area to answer questions and assist interested applicants. Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan rises to 42 ROC Central News Agency 03/03/2020 05:19 PM Taipei, March 3 (CNA) A woman in her 50s is the nation's 42nd COVID-19 patient and is believed to have contracted the virus while taking care of her husband in a northern Taiwan hospital where a cluster infection occurred, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Tuesday. The latest patient, who has no recent overseas travel history, was taking care of her husband in the hospital from Feb. 17-24. She sought medical attention at a clinic on Feb. 23 after becoming fatigued and developing a cough, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (), who heads the CECC. The hospital is the location of Taiwan's first hospital cluster where authorities believe cases 34 to 38, and 41 contracted the coronavirus, Chen said. The woman's husband was on the same ward, though in a different room, as case 34. The husband, who has already been discharged from the hospital, has tested negative for the virus, according to the CECC. Health authorities on March 1 decided to have the woman tested after she developed respiratory symptoms and was deemed a potential patient due to her contact with one confirmed case, a nurse who took care of case 34 and became infected, CECC said. The woman has been hospitalized in an isolation room since March 1 and test results confirmed her as having the COVID-19 earlier Tuesday, according to CECC. The 42nd case is the seventh confirmed case in the hospital cluster. The other patients in the cluster are a female janitor at the hospital -- the 35th case -- three nurses, patients 36 to 38, and the daughter of case 34 (case 41), according to the CECC. The CECC said 295 people who came into contact with case 34 have been identified, six tested positive for the virus, 206 tested negative, and the others are awaiting their results. Chen said the health authorities are still trying to confirm the source of the hospital cluster. The hospital has disinfected and temporarily closed the ward where case 34 was treated from Feb. 14 to Feb. 28 before being confirmed as infected with COVID-19. Patients who stayed in the ward with case 34 have been moved to isolation rooms, he added. Meanwhile, the CECC said aside from one death, 12 of the total 42 confirmed COVID-19 cases have already fully recovered and left hospital. As of Tuesday, over 89,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,000 deaths had been reported worldwide. (By Chen Wei-ting and Joseph Yeh) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Charity worker Cara Morrison (pictured) A charity worker who suffered a brain injury after being struck by a cyclist at a pedestrian crossing had a brain tumour discovered as surgeons worked to save her life. Cara Morrison was crossing a street in Sydney on February 25 when a bicycle rider struck her, causing the 40-year-old to fall to the ground and smack her head. After being transported to a nearby hospital surgeons prepared an unconscious Cara for emergency surgery by taking a scan of her skull - which revealed a large brain tumour in her left frontal lobe. Astonished by the discovery doctors - who believed it was brain cancer at the time - now worked to relieve pressure on the brain from the road accident and remove the majority of the tumour. Whilst in surgery doctors contacted her fiance Alex (pictured) who left work immediately to be by her side, calling her parents in NZ to organise flights over to the east coast of Australia What are the symptoms of a brain tumour? * Headaches * Nausea/vomiting * Fatigue * Sleeping issues * Memory problems * Seizures Advertisement 'Cara was crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing on a green light metres from her front door when she was struck by the cyclist,' her fiance Alex Downham, 42, told FEMAIL. 'Thankfully an off duty nurse from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was there and able to perform first aid and CPR while they waited for the ambulance.' Cara, who is originally from New Zealand but made Australia her home 14 years ago, was showing no signs of life when she was wheeled into the emergency department. Cara (third from the left) participated in the Oxfam 100km walk in order to raise money for people living in poverty What makes a tumour benign? A benign tumour does not invade nearby tissue or spread to other parts of the body the way a malignant, or cancerous tumour, can. But it can be serious if they press on vital structures such as blood vessels or nerves. Source: WebMD Advertisement Whilst in surgery doctors contacted Alex who left work immediately to be by her side, calling her parents in New Zealand to organise flights over to the east coast of Australia because they 'feared the worst'. After looking at the tumour on the operating table surgeons found it was benign, later confirming this with tests, but still need to check its progress intermittently. 'Cara had been complaining of headaches for years but had not been treated, and had also suffered from bouts of vertigo although these were attributed at the time to migraines,' Alex said. While Cara (pictured) had not 'thought much' of her symptoms over the years these may have been a result of the tumour lodged in her brain What NSW police said about the nurse that saved Cara's life: Inspector John Williams said the nurse's help made a difference. 'Her actions should be highly commended and made an immense difference,' Insp. Williams said. 'Everyone worked closely to ensure the best outcome - these sorts of jobs were there are significant injuries, can be quite intense for paramedics, who do absolutely everything they can for anyone they treat.' Source: Nine News Advertisement While Cara had not 'thought much' of her symptoms over the years these may have been a result of the tumour lodged in her brain. After six days in the ICU the charity worker, who is now conscious, has been moved onto the regular ward for further treatments. 'She is very lucky to have escaped any major physical damage outside of a fractured skull and a brain injury,' Alex said. 'The speed of her recovery has been attributed to her fighting spirit and physical fitness.' Cara's best friend Mindy Macdonald, who has booked flights to Sydney to see her in two weeks, said she is eating and is able to talk. 'She is very lucky to have escaped any major physical damage outside of a fractured skull and a brain injury,' Alex said Alex said that while her early signs are good, the full extent of the damage isn't known yet (pictured with her parents and Alex) 'She has seen five immediate family members and recognised them all... although her progress has been miraculous I'm sure it won't be fast enough for her,' Mindy, 41, said. Alex said that while her early signs are good, the full extent of the damage isn't known yet. 'The road to recovery is expected to be an extended one. She will need both cognitive and physical therapy for an unspecified amount of time,' he said. To help with Cara's ongoing financial costs Mindy has set up a GoFundMe page and shared details about the accident. To help with Cara's ongoing financial costs Mindy has set up a GoFundMe page and shared details about the accident 'As many of you know, Cara spends her life fighting for others and works in charity to make sure those that need help get the help and support they need,' she said. 'The frustration of not being able to help her is almost unbearable. The best thing that I can do for her is to ask for your help as we don't know what lies ahead.' At the time of publication the fundraiser has raised more than $17,800. You can contribute by clicking through to the website here. Jamal Bryant calls out Christians who burn sage, says its witchcraft,' 'satanic aromatherapy Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Calling sage burning witchcraft and satanic aromatherapy, Pastor Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, warned his members on Monday to stay away from the practice. In a teaching session with the women of his church streamed on YouTube, Bryant explained that he had to dive into some research on the practice after two members of his church gifted him sage for his new home in Atlanta. I was amazed because two saints gave me sage for my new house. I didnt know what to do with it. I was unsure of it. And all the more, why theyd feel comfortable giving it to a pastor. Then I began to research and study it and found out that the sales of it have gone up by over 200% in the last four years and have to be constantly placed on restock in natural health stores. After researching the practice, however, Bryant has concluded that it is a demonic New Age practice that Christians shouldnt be involved with. Another word for burning sage is smudging. The thought of the Native Americans is that certain herbs carry spirits in them and when you burn certain herbs youre calling on those spirits to dispel evil or vexing spirits or energies from a space, from an object or person. And so it is their contention that when I am burning sage, I am then calling down a spirit or calling up a spirit to then wrestle with that energy thats in a room, thats in a car or in a person, Bryant argued. So are those who burn sage and then put it around themselves saying that they dont want any negative energy around them or negative energy approaching them? It is highly practiced now by the New Age movement, he said. The New Age movement, which currently attracts the largest amount of African Americans in our history, Bryant argued, does not bring glory to the God of the Bible but seeks to make humans like gods. They are spiritual. They just do not believe or submit to authority They believe through the doctrine of New Age faith or New Age theology, that mortals or humanity through the right wave of devotion and meditation can ascend themselves to become a deity. So they become their own gods, he noted. So church or religion becomes a problem because it demands accountability and submission to authority for a generation who does not want to submit and has a problem with authority figures. So these same people who ascribe to New Age theology or have praying hands tattooed unto their chest will have the word God tattooed on their neck but you cant assume its the same God or that the prayers are pointed in the same direction, the megachurch pastor said. Gotta be careful when people believe that they are their own god. Bryant further argued that Christians have a hard time identifying people who see themselves as their own god because they subscribe to a limited definition of demonic possession. The people who believe that they are their own god, we dont know how to approach them or even how to attack it because we have minimized demonic possession as those who are foaming around their mouth, eyes are roaming in the back of their head and they are squirming on the floor. Thats how weve recognized demons, he said. Demonic possession, he argued, can be reflected in a number of ways, including when someone cannot apologize or is unwilling to submit to the leadership and order of their church. A demonic possession can be someone quite frankly, who doesnt know how to apologize. Demonic possession can be, I can take no authority for my error. It was you that made me hit you. Thats a demon. I wouldnt have cursed you out had you not made me. Had you just given me what I asked for the first time then we wouldnt have gone through all of this. That is a demonic principality and a demonic order, Bryant said. The spirit of the anti-Christ is now slithering into our children and the next generation by putting a seed plot of rejection of authority and order. God is a God of order. God is a God of authority so you can see where demons show up in church, he said. Satan never wants to fall in line to authority and order so people who are out of order are operating out of the spirit of satanic principalities. He noted that people who burn sage in their home to ward off bad energy or evil spirits to usher in more positive vibes are practicing satanic intercession because they are not operating under Gods authority. Im practicing satanic intercession cause I am invoking these spirits that are not holy, that are not sanctified to reveal themselves. To reveal themselves and I am telling weeds and grass and herbs you have authority over the spirits in my house. And nowhere in there am I calling on the name of God. Nowhere in there am I calling on the name of Jesus, he said. Christians who depend on burning sage to complement their faith, he argued, are devaluing the power of Christs anointing in their life. This level of witchcraft is in-depth Ive so questioned the strength of my anointing that I believe who comes into my presence can contaminate my spirit. How weak am I that I cant be in the presence of somebody whose spirit is off. If I am anointed and somebody who is not like God comes into my presence I shouldnt be the one backing up. It should be them backing up 'cause they sense whats on me, he said. Satan is cunning because he is a deceiver. Isnt it amazing that weve got throngs of our friends who will burn it, who will practice it, who will utilize it but if you talk about casting out demons they call you spooky or youre too spiritual? They dont want you to cast out demons but want you to push away spirits. Im pushing them away, Im not killing them. The role of those of us who are in the body of Christ and traffic in the supernatural is not to give Satan and his imps a restraining order, were supposed to give him a death sentence. Winner: Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara are all smiles as the Israeli election results emerge. Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images Benjamin Netanyahu last night began trying to lure Israeli opposition MPs into joining his right-wing coalition after a surprisingly strong election result saw him fall just short of an overall majority in parliament. With 90pc of the vote counted, the prime minister's Likud party was on course to win 36 parliamentary seats compared with 32 for Blue & White, the centrist party led by Benny Gantz, a former army general. Mr Netanyahu and his right-wing allies looked likely to take a total of 59 seats - just two shy of the number needed for an overall majority. The outcome was a remarkable comeback for Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who had been trailing in the polls for much of the campaign, and whose trial on corruption charges is due to begin on March 17. "It is a victory against all the odds, because we had to face enormous forces," Mr Netanyahu told ecstatic Likud supporters at a victory rally in Tel Aviv. "This has been a very great victory for the right-wing camp, and particularly a great victory for us Likudniks." There were similar celebrations after the election in April 2019, when the right-wing bloc won 60 seats, but the prime minister was unable to form a government and the country had to hold two more elections in the 11 months that followed. Hours after polls closed, Mr Netanyahu was already at work drawing up strategies on how to get a coalition to 61 seats. There will likely be several weeks of negotiations before any final political deals are announced. Likud officials said one option was to try to win over right-wing members of Blue & White, an unwieldy centrist coalition. In an election night speech to dejected supporters, Mr Gantz pledged he would hold his party together and not allow Mr Netanyahu to poach his MPs. The party would stay "strong, united and loyal to our path". He added: "I realise and share your feelings of disappointment and pain, for this isn't the result that we wanted to happen." Another route for Mr Netanyahu could be to woo Avigdor Lieberman, a maverick secular-nationalist who served as his defence minister before turning against him. However, Mr Lieberman is bitterly opposed to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties allied with Mr Netanyahu. He said yesterday he would not join any coalition that included those parties. Mr Netanyahu may also target Gesher, a small party run by the daughter of a former Likud minister. But Yariv Levin, a Likud minister, cautioned against complacency. "Anyone who thinks that it will be easy to form a government is wrong," he said. In his victory address, Mr Netanyahu pledged to move ahead with implementing US President Donald Trump's Middle East plan which would see Israel annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank. He is likely to wait until his coalition is fully formed, but could theoretically push ahead with annexation even during a transitional phase. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said: "It is obvious that settlement, occupation and apartheid have won the Israeli elections. Netanyahu's campaign was about the continuation of the occupation and conflict." BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government, a Congress leader has alleged. Senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former ministers Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh and Rampal Singh among others have forcibly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy, Patwari was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Patwari alleged that the MLAs were forcibly confined by the BJP leaders. Watch | Madhya Pradesh Congress alleges BJP of confining 8 MLAs at Gurugram hotel The statement of Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Jitu Patwari came hours after Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday alleged that BJP national vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former minister Narottam Tomar offered Rs 25 crore to Congress and other MLAs for switching sides. The former chief minister also named a BSP MLA alleging she was taken to Delhi by BJP leader Bhupendra Singh in a chartered flight. BJP has started the process of taking Congress, BSP and Samajwadi Party MLAs to Delhi. Did BJPs former minister Bhupendra Singh not take BSP MLA Rambai to Delhi by a chartered flight? Will Shivrajji (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) like to say something? tweeted Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday. However, he added, We completely trust Ram Bai. She is an admirer of (chief minister) Kamal Nathji and will continue to support him. Shivraj Singh Chouhan termed Digvijaya Singhs allegations as his tactic to exert pressure on chief minister Kamal Nath. Talking to the media, chief minister Kamal Nath said, I completely agree with Digvijaya Singh on his revelation. The BJP is scared as it knows that the scams that took place during the BJPs 15-year regime will be exposed soon. The CM said, They are doing this (horse-trading) on the strength of money. May I know from where they have got this much money? MLAs themselves told me that they are getting an offer of this much amount. Maine to unse kaha hai ki focut ka paisa mil raha hai to le lo (I have told them that if they are getting easy money, they should take it). Amid rumours of MLAs shifting loyalties, the CM underlined that theres no threat to the stability of the government. The BSP MLA Ram Bai couldnt be contacted for the reaction. However, her husband Govind Singh told the media that she was in Delhi for treatment of their daughter who studies in Delhi. He said, If BJP leader Bhupendra Singh also travelled in the same plane by which Ram Bai went to Delhi it doesnt mean that he took her to Delhi. These are all rumours and one should not believe this. Despite efforts, the BJP leader Bhupendra Singh couldnt be reached for his comments. However, the state BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, Digvijaya Singh is making all-out efforts to get himself re-nominated for Rajya Sabha as his term is going to be over next month. But the problem he is facing is no one takes him seriously, not even Congress leaders. Besides, his Rajya Sabha goal he wants to project himself as a well-wisher of chief minister Kamal Nath so that he is able to continue to run his parallel government in Madhya Pradesh. In the 230-seat state assembly, Congress has 113 MLAs against the BJPs 107. There are two vacant seats at present. The Congress is running its government with the support of 4 independent, 2 BSP and lone SP MLAs. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is the latest high-profile restaurateur to close a business as the high-street dining crisis continues. The demise of River Cottage Kitchen in Clifton, Bristol, after seven years of trading, has been blamed on 'rising costs and challenging market conditions'. The River Cottage Kitchen closure comes as the owners of other restaurants, such as Chiquito, Pizza Express, Frankie and Benny's, and, most famously, Jamie's Italian have all been forced to close outlets or go into administration. The closure of River Cottage Kitchen, Bristol again proves that even famous names don't provide immunity against the high-street dining crisis. Jamie's Italian, founded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, went into administration last year owing 83million. The celebrity chef is best known for his River Cottage TV series and his successful cookbooks Hugh, 55, expressed his disappointment at the closure of the Bristol restaurant (pictured) but said the move will enable the business to concentrate on its sites in Axminster and Winchester More and more of Britain's most familiar of brands are disappearing from the high-streets for good. Restaurant chains and department stores that were once household names and taken for granted are now fighting for their survival. Hugh, 55, expressed his disappointment at the closure but said the move will enable the business to concentrate on its sites in Axminster and Winchester, and an expansion of 'River Cottage HQ' in Devon. In a statement on the River Cottage's website, he said: 'Following a full review of our business we have made the difficult decision to cease trading at our Bristol site. 'We've had a wonderful seven years in Bristol and I am deeply saddened that we cannot find a way to continue trading here. 'I have a strong personal connection to Bristol, having lived here just around the corner from the restaurant for most of the last 4 years. 'I very much hope that River Cottage will return to the city in the future. 'I would like to thank our amazing team who have worked tirelessly over the years making our restaurant a fantastic place to eat and drink.' He added: 'We will be open until 27 March and until then we very much look forward to welcoming guests as warmly as ever. Please come in and say goodbye. Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain was founded in 2008 and soon swelled the company's presence to 40 outlets nationwide - but it collapsed last year owing a staggering 83million River Cottage Holdings, the restaurants' parent company, is expected to report significant losses for the second year in a row. In addition to holding the the three River Cottage Kitchen restaurants, the company also holds the licenses to the celeb chef's cookbooks and cookery school. The company's accounts filed with Companies House say a major shareholder loaned the company 3.1million as a cash injection. But the the directors admit in the accounts that 'further action may be required' to stop losses. Rising staff costs and high business rates mean restaurateurs are finding it harder and harder to turn a living on Britain's ravaged high-streets. Hours after the collapse of Jamie's Italian, the celeb chef's flagship London restaurant was cleared out by bailiffs In 2019, Jamie Oliver closed all 22 outlets of Jamie's Italian. Baliffs were seen clearing out the the celeb chef's flagship London restaurant after liquidators announced it was unlikely creditors would get back up to 83million. Only three Jamie's Italian restaurants remain. Several other restaurant chains are rapidly closing their least successful outlets to stave off going into administration or move their accounts back into the black. Prezzo, Byron, Carluccio's, Gaucho and Gourmet Burger Kitchen have all made the decision to shut branches. MINONG, Wis., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jack Link's Protein Snacks, the global leader in meat snacks, announced today that food and beverage industry veteran, Kevin McAdams, has joined the family owned and operated company as President, North America. In this role, McAdams has responsibility for Jack Link's United States and Canadian businesses, in addition to oversight of the company's manufacturing and supply-chain operations in the United States, Brazil and New Zealand. McAdams will report directly to CEO Troy Link. "We are tremendously excited to have Kevin, a deeply experienced and values-based leader, join our company and help shape a strong future of growth for Jack Link's," said Link. "I am confident that he will play a pivotal role in upholding our core values and unique culture, strengthening our portfolio of brands, and competing and winning in our category and consumer segments." As a global leader in the increasingly dynamic protein snacks space, Jack Link's is strategically focused on being the category-growth driver for our customers by making the highest-quality foods, providing exceptional service at the shelf, and investing in branding, marketing and digital activations that excite consumers. "Kevin's role will entail leading these strategic initiatives across North America while also working to further develop and strengthen the company's total, global supply-chain," said Link. "The Link family and company team members have built a tremendous legacy and brand, and I am honored to join the Jack Link's team as we set our sights on accelerating the company's growth plans," said McAdams. "I look forward to building on Jack Link's rich heritage for our customers, consumers and team members. Not to mention, working, and running, with Sasquatch is pretty cool, too." Jack Link's will benefit from McAdams' 25 years of leadership experience, as well as his extensive background in the food and beverage industry, and significant experience driving strong growth and leading talented teams. Prior to Jack Link's, he has served as president at Mizkan America, Schwan's Consumer Brands and Pabst Brewing Company. He also held operating roles with Red Bull North America, The Coca-Cola Company, Frito-Lay North America and The Earthgrains Company. McAdams earned his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, in 1993. About Jack Link's Protein Snacks Jack Link's is a global leader in portable protein snacks and the No. 1 meat snack manufacturer worldwide. Headquartered in Minong, Wisconsin, Jack Link's is a family-owned and operated company that represents a heritage of unsurpassed quality and innovation since 1986. The company is made up of over 4,000 passionate team members, across 11 countries, who share an uncompromising commitment to deliver awesome products. Jack Link's offers more than more than 300 premium protein snacks in a variety of flavors, sizes and price points, appealing to nearly every consumer and occasion. The Jack Link's Protein Snacks portfolio of brands includes Jack Link's, Lorissa's Kitchen, MATADOR Jerky, BiFi and Peperami. Check out JackLinks.com to learn more about the brand. Stefanie Hopwood Jack Link's Protein Snacks [email protected] SOURCE Jack Link's Protein Snacks Related Links http://www.jacklinks.com Virden-areas Wolverine Supplies, one of the largest independent gun retailers in the country, has premiered its latest in-house design a semi-automatic rifle called the WS-MCR despite the Liberal governments promise to ban those types of gun. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Virden-areas Wolverine Supplies, one of the largest independent gun retailers in the country, has premiered its latest in-house design a semi-automatic rifle called the WS-MCR despite the Liberal governments promise to ban those types of gun. "The problem is, all were going on is rumour," Wolverines founder, John Hipwell said about the possibility the Liberals will ban the very gun that Wolverine is introducing. "Worst-case scenario, it could finish the business, best-case scenario: very little change." Hipwell designed the firearm during his recent semi-retirement from the company. It boasts a pistol grip, AR-15 type magazine and free-floating handguard. He said in an interview the firearm is useful to farmers and ranchers for keeping vermin and coyotes off their land. The guns features, however, make it a potential target for the Liberal governments campaign promise to ban and buy back "military-style" assault weapons. While that term has no legal definition in Canada, the Public Safety Department cites a U.S. definition of the weapons as "semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire." Firearms in Canada fall into three classes: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited, each with regulations governing their ownership. Most long guns, including the WS-MCR, fall into the non-restricted category, meaning there are no caveats or bans on their ownership. During the fall election campaign, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair estimated that 250,000 to-be-banned guns are legally owned in Canada, each with an approximate value of $1,500, though those numbers are subject to change as new firearms continue to come to market. Blair has yet to offer firm details on when the ban would take place, what guns the government plans to restrict, or how the buy back program would be carried out. So far, the looming and murky ban has only served to confuse customers, Hipwell noted. "Some of them, the glass is half empty, some its half full. Some of them are selling, some of them are buying, but most of them havent a clue what to do," he said. Blairs office declined a request for an interview Monday, but the offices spokeswoman, Mary-Liz Power, said in a statement that the government will announce the details of its plan for firearms "in the near futureas each step is ready to be implemented." Generally, the Canadian public supports tighter regulations on gun ownership in the country. A survey from Angus Reid found three-quarters of Canadians support a ban on assault weapons, while nearly two-thirds support a ban on handguns. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Still, Hipwell thinks the ban is chasing after the "easy target" of law-abiding gun owners in Canada, and maintains the legislation wont make a dent on gun crime on the streets. "If you ask me: do you support tougher gun control, I certainly support more effective gun control," said Hipwell. "Im a married man, Ive got four children, Ive got 13 grandchildren; their safety is more important to me than making a few bucks on a gun." In his view, more effective gun control will come through stronger measures to prevent guns from crossing the border, and tweaks to the judicial system that would see maximum sentences handed out for firearm-related crimes. julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca @jsrutgers The company has awarded five-year contracts worth 500 million to six national partners to manage the delivery and maintenance of its gigabit-capable network.Since the middle of 2019 Virgin has invested in and expanded its fibre-rich network to more parts of the UK through its Project Lightning programme and upgrades its entire footprint to gigabit speeds by the end of 2021. This is designed to see next-generation connectivity delivered to more than 15 million UK homes in less than 24 months at a time when the Government has called for nationwide gigabit connectivity by 2025.The changes in the build-out structure are designed to ensure that all partners are aligned with Virgin Medias focus on increased productivity, efficiency and quality of its network roll-out and comes as the cableco brings more than 700 customer-facing installation and engineers back in-house to further improve customer service and experience.The new structure will be implemented from April 2020 with the six national partners delivering a variety of civil engineering tasks across nine key regions in the UK over the next five years. The new transparent model is designed to provide more integrated relationships with partners and deliver a host of benefits for both parties. All visits to homes and businesses will now be carried out by a Virgin Media employed engineer. Previously some in-home visits were carried out by contracted partners.Virgin Media has already passed more than two million new premises through Project Lightning and these six partners will continue to build to homes and businesses, including new developments and apartment blocks, as well as exploring innovative ways to accelerate expansion such as narrow trenching and the use of ducts owned by BT Openreach which is the UKs official national broadband infrastructure provider. Partners will be responsible for network assurance as well as cabinet maintenance and emergency restoration services.Commenting on the changes, Rob Evans, MD network expansion at Virgin Media, said: These changes are great news for our customers, great news for partners and ultimately fantastic news for the UK as we really focus on building out our gigabit network to more locations. This new regional model gives our partners the certainty, scale and transparency they need and provides Virgin Media with the teams equipped to deliver high-quality build efficiently and effectively with the support of local authorities and communities. Shameless alum Emmy Rossum filmed a scene with two English gents - Martin Freeman and Charlie Rowe - while on the Los Angeles set of Peacock's limited four-part miniseries Angelyne on Tuesday. The 48-year-old Emmy winner (Black Panther, The Office) donned a dodgy brown wig and a grey suit to better embody the owner of a printing company, who partners with the Hollywood 'billboard queen.' The 23-year-old Rocketman star portrays the self-made blonde bombshell's photographer, and all three castmates admired the full-sized billboard erected for the biopic about the woman who paved the way for Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. Action! Shameless alum Emmy Rossum (M) filmed a scene with two English gents - Martin Freeman (L) and Charlie Rowe (R) - while on the LA set of Peacock's limited four-part miniseries Angelyne on Tuesday Smarmy: The 48-year-old Emmy winner (L) donned a dodgy brown wig and a grey suit to better embody the owner of a printing company, who partners with the Hollywood 'billboard queen' On Monday, the 33-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who plays Angelyne - shared a snap of the billboard being created for her captive, combined 5.6M social media following. As usual, Emmy (born Emmanuelle) donned a massive platinum wig on her head and wore a Barbie-pink plunging top, black disco pants, studded belt, and black cha-cha heels. Standing beside her pink Corvette, Rossum reshaped her nose with prosthetic make-up and she transformed her slim 5ft8in figure thanks to a convincing prosthetic breast plate like the type drag performers wear onstage. Angelyne is based on THR reporter Gary Baum's 2017 expose which uncovered the true identity of the Polish-born, West Hollywood-raised 69-year-old (born Ronia Goldberg), whose parents survived the Holocaust. Paved the way for Kim Kardashian! The 23-year-old Rocketman star portrays the self-made blonde bombshell's photographer, and all three castmates admired the full-sized billboard erected for the biopic Lost her head! On Monday, the 33-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who plays Angelyne - shared a snap of the billboard being created In costume: As usual, Emmy donned a massive platinum wig on her head and wore a Barbie-pink plunging top, black disco pants, studded belt, and black cha-cha heels The real-life pin-up was a true eighties icon thanks to her cameos in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), The Disaster Artist (2017), and music videos for Moby, Motley Crue, and Neil Young. Lucy Tcherniak is directing the series, which will stream on Peacock after it launches April 15 on Comcast/Xfinity and July 15 to the general public. The Universal Content Productions series also reportedly features Alex Karpovsky, Jefferson Hall, Charlie Rowe, Lukas Gage, Michael Angarano and Molly Ephraim. Her pink Corvette! Rossum reshaped her nose with prosthetic make-up and she transformed her slim 5ft8in figure thanks to a convincing prosthetic breast plate 'Boom boom boom!' Angelyne is based on THR reporter Gary Baum's 2017 expose which uncovered the true identity of the Polish-born, West Hollywood-raised 69-year-old (born Ronia Goldberg), whose parents survived the Holocaust (posted Sunday) Collaborative couple: Rossum is executive producing Angelyne with her second husband, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail (L, pictured September 17) Rossum is executive producing Angelyne with her second husband - Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail - whom she began dating in 2013 after he directed her in the alternate universe-hopping rom-com Comet. Last month, the brunette New Yorker announced that the real Angelyne - whom she called 'the embodiment of LA itself' and 'the queen of LA' - would also be executive producing the show. In response, the 2003 California gubernatorial candidate called Emmy her 'Hollywood fairy' and wrote 'good luck!' 'The embodiment of LA itself': Last month, the brunette New Yorker (L) announced that the real Angelyne (R) - whom she called 'the queen of LA' - would also be executive producing the show A meteor streaks across the sky. In a new study, researchers report finding a novel protein in the meteorite Acfer 086, which landed in Algeria in 1990. A research team claimed to have found the first known extraterrestrial protein, spotting it in a space rock that fell to Earth 30 years ago. The scientists, led by Malcolm McGeoch of the Plex Corp. in Fall River, Massachusetts, analyzed the meteorite Acfer 086, which landed in Algeria in 1990. High-precision mass spectrometry revealed the presence of a novel protein, McGeoch and his team wrote in a new paper that's available on the online preprint site arXiv.org. The protein, which the researchers proposed calling "hemolithin," consists of chains of the amino acids glycine and hydroxyglycine, as well as iron, oxygen and lithium atoms, the researchers reported. And the hemolithin is significantly enriched in deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen that features a neutron in its atomic nucleus along with a proton. (The nucleus of a "normal" hydrogen atom has a proton but no neutron.) Related: 6 most likely places for alien life in the solar system Such deuterium enrichment does not appear in amino acids that form here on Earth, and so it "indicates protosolar disc or molecular cloud origin," McGeoch and his colleagues wrote in the paper, which has been submitted to a journal and is currently undergoing peer review. (You can read the preprint for free here .) "This is the first report of a protein from any extraterrestrial source," the scientists added. To be clear, the researchers aren't claiming that the hemolithin is evidence of alien life . But the discovery, if it holds up, would still be of great interest to astrobiologists. That's because it would show that very complex chemistry of the sort employed by life as we know it on Earth occurs of its own accord in deep space. (Proteins are the workhorses of cells, performing a wide variety of tasks for organisms.) The implication would be that it doesn't take a miracle for bona fide biochemical systems to get up and running and that, therefore, life might be widespread throughout the cosmos. This notion is hardly outre anymore, because researchers are racking up more and more evidence of complex chemistry occurring beyond Earth. Big organic molecules swirl in the thick atmosphere of Saturn's huge moon Titan, for example, and amino acids the building blocks of proteins have been found in meteorites and on comets. But such talk of implications is preliminary; the new paper is still under peer review, after all. And not everyone is onboard with the results. "I am not impressed by this report," said Jeffrey Bada, distinguished professor of marine chemistry emeritus at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "The main problem is the occurrence of hydroxyglycine, which, to my knowledge, has never before been reported in meteorites or in prebiotic experiments. Nor is it found in any proteins," Bada, whose research interests include the geochemistry of amino acids, organic cosmogeochemistry and the search for alien life, told Space.com via email. "Thus, this amino acid is a strange one to find in a meteorite, and I am highly suspicious of the results." Space.com reached out to the corresponding author of the new study, Julie McGeoch of Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. She said she'd be happy to discuss the paper but only after it has passed peer review. So, stay tuned; we may be hearing more about possible extraterrestrial proteins in the not-too-distant future. Mike Wall is the author of " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate ), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook . Commuters have resorted to wearing storage boxes, plastic bags and even babies' nappies over their heads as they come up with novel ways to avoid contracting Coronavirus. Photos, circulated on social media, show people coming up with creative ways of covering their noses and mouths in a bid to avoid contamination, as medical experts warn throwaway surgical face masks are ineffective at keeping the virus at bay. One train passenger in a heavy duty gas mask was spotted on the platform at Milton Keynes station, while a Londoner adopted the same approach on a Tube. A woman travelled on the tube in London with a large plastic container over her head today. Do you know who she is? Email tips@dailymail.com Photos, circulated on social media, show people coming up with creative ways of covering their nose and mouths in a bid to avoid contamination. A commuter wearing a gas mask attracted bemused looks while waiting on the platform at Milton Keynes Central station Somewhere else in the UK a man tried to cover his head with a Tesco bag (right) This London commuter took to the Tube in a fully kitted out face mask in a colour to match his suave pinstripe suit. His fellow passenger seems to be less than impressed by the ensemble Extreme measures! One London passenger got creative by hiding under the rain cover for their baby's pushchair to shield them both Elsewhere there were decidedly more unusual approaches. A man with a Tesco shopping bag over his head was seen riding a bus elsewhere in the UK. One photograph shared on Twitter showed a worried office worker in a virus-conscious ensemble including gloves and a gas mask as he travelled on the tube in London. In China fear of the virus has led to people wearing bras, nappies and even carved out melon over their faces while they run necessary errands. The virus is believed to have originated from a fish market in Wuhan, the capital of Central Chinas Hubei province, before spreading around the country when workers left the city to return to their families for the Lunar New Year holiday. Another London tube commuter wore a gas mask and gloves in an effort to protect themselves from the virus - known as Covid-19. It comes after throwaway masks were deemed ineffective A medical expert previously told MailOnline that masks 'cannot' protect against the virus and that wearing them may even make it worse. Professor Brendan Wren from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: 'The masks won't protect against the virus because it's so tiny. It is thousands of times smaller than bacteria. 'I don't think they do any good. They are smaller than air particles for pollution that we worry about. It will simply be breathed in.' He added that masks may make the spread of the virus more likely if they become damp. In China this person put a baby's nappy over their mouth and nose while they went to a food market for supplies, pictured. The country has seen shortages of surgical face masks in stores This elderly man, thought to be in a Chinese restaurant, has fashioned a woman's bra into a face mask. While it does cover his nose and mouth, it is unlikely to be effective A man at a food kiosk, thought to be in China, left, tied an empty cardboard pot around his face as a barrier, left. Another man, in an unknown location, had a similar idea (right) 'They may make matters worse, [such as] if they become damp. If you have a cold or sneezing, sneezing into a mask can make matters worse.' He added: 'The main purpose is a psychological thing they make people more aware but physically they are not a prevention'. What is Public Health England's advice on wearing face masks? 'Face masks play a very important role in clinical settings, such as hospitals. 'However, there is very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of these clinical settings. 'Face masks must be worn correctly, changed frequently, removed properly, disposed of safely and used in combination with good universal hygiene behaviour in order for them to be effective. 'Research also shows that compliance with these recommended behaviours reduces over time when wearing face masks for prolonged periods. 'People concerned about the transmission of infectious diseases would do better to prioritise good personal, respiratory and hand hygiene.' Dr Jake Dunning, head of emerging infections and zoonoses at Public Health England Advertisement Dr Stephen Griffin, Associate Professor Section of Infection & Immunity, University of Leeds, said: 'Standard face masks provide relatively little protection from respiratory aerosols they can stop larger droplets and some studies have estimated an approx. 5-fold protection versus no barrier alone. 'Also, once they are worn for a time, they become moistened and protection diminishes further. 'Exhaled droplets also reduce in size quickly by evaporation, and of course virus particles are far smaller than the fibre mesh in these sorts of masks. 'However, wearing a mask can reduce the propensity for people to touch their faces, which happens many more times a day than we all realise and is a major source of infection without proper hand hygiene. 'They are also useful for people that are themselves symptomatic in stopping coughs and sneezes, primarily by encouraging good 'etiquette', i.e. catch it, bin it, kill it 'There are higher specification masks that contain filters and, when properly fitted and sealed, provide significantly better protection. 'However, these aren't as easy to come by and are obviously more expensive.' It is believed a surgical mask is best used when a person has been or is suspected of being infected by the virus - to stop them spreading it to others. A woman uses half a water container to try and stop the spread of bacteria reaching her Similarly, another woman had the same idea but also uses a plastic body, mouth and hands covering when on public transport in China Two unidentified men wear white masks in China as fears over the coronavirus continues to grow around the world If the virus does take hold symptoms include fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Pictured: People in China wear homemade masks A man in China appears to wear a nappy as a way to shield his face from any possible illnesses Public Health England official guidance reads: 'Face masks for the general public are not recommended to protect from infection, as there is no evidence of benefit from their use outside healthcare environments.' Instead anyone who has a cough or is sneezing should cover their mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve rather than using their hands, tissues should be put into a bin immediately and hands need to be washed regularly with soap and water or hand sanitiser gel if soap is not available. If anyone is unwell any close contact with them should be avoided and surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected regularly and touching the eyes, nose or mouth when hands are unclean could increase the risk of infection. If the virus does take hold symptoms include fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. More than half of the planet's fresh water is in Antarctica. While most of it is frozen in the ice sheets, underneath the ice pools and streams of water flow into one another and into the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent. Understanding the movement of this water, and what is dissolved in it as solutes, reveals how carbon and nutrients from the land may support life in the coastal ocean. Gathering data on the biogeochemistry of these systems is an undertaking of Antarctic proportions. Trista Vick-Majors, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University, is part of a team that gathered samples from the Whillans Subglacial Lake in West Antarctica and is lead author on a paper about the lake, recently published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. "Life is tough -- it can handle a lot," Vick-Majors said. "This paper is putting together what we know about the biology and how active it is under Antarctic ice with information about the composition of organic carbon in the lake." Life beneath the ice puts up with a lot -- there is no sunlight and pressure from the ice above in combination with heat radiating up from the Earth's core is what melts the water to form the lake, so the temperature hovers just below freezing. Organic carbon, an important food source for microorganisms, is present in relatively high concentrations in Whillans Subglacial Lake, even if it lacks the verdant mess of a Midwest pond in late August. Instead, as cameras dropped down the borehole of Mercer Subglacial Lake (a neighbor of Whillans) reveal, the subglacial lake is dark, cold, full of soft and fluffy sediment, and lined with bubble-filled ice. The lake bed looks more alien than earth, and studying extreme environments like this does provide insight into what extraterrestrial life could be like or how earthly life might survive in similar conditions. Not that humans, penguins or fish could handle it; life in the waters beneath Antarctica's ice is mostly microbial. They still show signs of life -- organic carbon and other chemical byproducts of living, eating, excreting and dying -- that Vick-Majors and her team can measure and budget. Using mass balance calculations, the team's research shows that a pool of dissolved organic carbon in the Whillans Subglacial Lake can be produced in 4.8 to 11.9 years. As the lake fills and drains, which takes about the same amount of time, all those nutrients slip and slide their way to the ice-covered coast of the Southern Ocean. Based on the team's calculations, the subglacial lakes in the region provide 5,400% more organic carbon than what microbial life in the ice-covered ocean downstream needs to survive. "There's no photosynthesis under the ice in the ocean downstream of this lake - this limits the available food and energy sources in a way that you wouldn't find in a surface lake or the open ocean," Vick-Majors said. "The idea is that these subglacial lakes that are upstream could provide important sources of energy and nutrients for things living in the ice-covered regions of the Southern Ocean." While the Whillans Subglacial Lake on its own indicates that upstream nutrients may be an important factor, it is only a single source of data in an ice-covered complex of underground lakes, streams and estuary-like mixing zones that undergo seasonal and sporadic fluxes. To expand their view, Vick-Majors and the rest of the team have been gathering data at other sites (Mercer Subglacial Lake was sampled by the SALSA team in early 2019), and doing so is no small feat. They make it happen with a hot water drill, a specially designed hose, a 10-liter water sampling bottle, some sediment coring devices, and a week of summery polar weather that can plunge to 20 below. The crew wears Tyvek suits and all equipment is thoroughly cleaned. They also filter the drilling water, run it past several banks of ultra-violet lights to knock down microbial contamination, and then heat it up to use the hot water to open an approximately 1000-meter borehole down to the lake. "Some of that melted ice water, which has now circulated through the drill, is removed from the hole so that when the lake is punctured, water from the lake moves up into the borehole," Vick-Majors said, explaining that the crew has to keep the hot water from the drill separate from the lake water to keep their samples and the lake clean. "It takes about 24 hours to drill the borehole and we keep it open for a few days; gathering a single sample or letting down the cameras can take two hours or more, depending on the equipment." And the hole keeps trying to refreeze. Plus, Vick-Majors is not a lone scientist; she is embedded in an interdisciplinary team and everyone needs access to the borehole for different experiments. But for all the tight logistics and cold toes, she says it's worth it. "There is water and there is life under the ice," Vick-Majors said. "These can teach us a lot about our planet because this is a great place to look at somewhat simplified ecosystems, without higher levels of organisms. So we can answer questions about life that can be really hard to answer in other places." The flip side is that physical-biological interactions can be still be complicated in these environments; the paper is step towards understanding them. The subglacial lakes of West Antarctica are almost otherworldly and simultaneously grant insight into the possibilities for exoplanet environments while revealing the deep, water-kept secrets of our own world. ### A 21-year-old woman found dead with stab wounds at a residential address in the city of Leicester in the East Midlands region of England this week has been identified as Bhavini Pravin by the local police. A 23-year-old Indian-origin man, Jigukumar Sorthi, arrested on suspicion of her murder was on Wednesday produced before Leicester Magistrates' Court charged with murder and possession of a bladed/sharply pointed weapon. "Our investigation into Bhavini's tragic death is ongoing and I continue to appeal to anyone who has any information about this incident to make contact with us, said Detective Inspector Kenny Henry from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) Major Crime team, who is leading the murder investigation. "Her family are understandably devastated by her death and we owe it to them, and Bhavini, to determine exactly what happened. Bhavini's relatives have asked to be left alone at this difficult time to grieve and try to make sense of what has happened to their daughter," he said. Officers were called to a property on Moores Road in Leicester by the East Midlands Ambulance Service on Monday following a report that a woman had been seriously injured inside the property. Pravin was pronounced dead at the scene and a murder investigation was launched. A post-mortem examination concluded the victim died as a result of stab wounds. Enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the death are continuing and officers have been in the area of the incident, carrying out house-to-house enquiries and collecting CCTV as they pieced together the moments leading up to the death. Pravin's family issued a statement in tribute of their beautiful, kind and sweet girl and said their world had been ripped apart by the killing. The statement read: As a family we could never have imagined that one day we would be issuing a tribute to Bhavini under such circumstances. Our world has been ripped apart by her death and we can't believe she has gone. A light has gone out in our lives. Bhavini was a devoted daughter and sister, loved by all who knew her. She was beautiful, kind and sweet. Our lives will never be the same without her. All we can hope for is Bhavini to be at peace and for our request for privacy to be respected. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mike Bloombergs decision to drop out of the Democratic race for president means he will not be appearing in Macomb County on Thursday. Bloomberg announced Wednesday morning that hes pulling out of the race. His campaign later confirmed that meant a planned campaign rally in Macomb has been cancelled. Bloomberg to campaign in Macomb County The former New York mayor and billionaire activist announced plans to meet with voters in Macomb County earlier this week, although additional details about the event has not been released. Bloomberg ended his bid after a disappointing showing in the Super Tuesday contests. He has endorsed Joe Biden. Biden won more than half of Super Tuesdays 14 contests, while Bloomberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning, won only American Samoa and came in fourth when it comes to picking up delegates. Michigan is holding its presidential primary on March 10. A San Antonio man accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl was arrested Wednesday, according to the San Antonio Police Department. Roberto Espinoza, 63, faces a second-degree felony charge of indecency with a child by contact. The Special Victims Unit was investigating another case involving Espinoza when it learned of a potential second victim. The now 15-year-old girl told detectives she was sexually abused by Espinoza in March of 2019, according to SAPD spokesperson Jennifer Rodriguez. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox We certainly commend the victim for ultimately outcrying and speaking with detectives and telling us about her alleged abuse, Rodriguez said. Espinoza was arrested without incident on the South Side. The girls are not related and also don't have a family relation with Espinoza. The first case is still under investigation. Police said they believe there may be other victims. Theyre asking anyone with information to call 210-207-2313. Rodriguez said victims, of Espinoza or otherwise, should not be afraid or ashamed to come forward. Mark Dunphy is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read him on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | mark.dunphy@express-news.net | @m_b_dunphy Turkish forces neutralize Assad regime elements in Idlib Assad regime attacks martyred two Turkish soldiers and wounded six others in Idlib, said a ministry statement. Turkish forces neutralized 3,136 regime elements in Syria since the start of Operation Spring Shield in the northwestern Idlib region, said the National Defense Ministry on Wednesday. TWO TURKISH SOLDIERS WERE MARTYRED The new offensive also destroyed 151 tanks, 47 howitzers, two vehicles, three airplanes, eight helicopters, three drones, eight air defense systems. Fifty-two multiple rocket launchers, 12 anti-tanks, 24 armored vehicles, 27 armored combat vehicles, 34 armored pick-ups and four mortars were also among the destroyed. "We wish Allah's mercy on our martyrs, and condolences to their families. We also share our condolences with the entire Turkish nation, and wish a quick recovery for our wounded personnel," it said. Turkey announced Sunday Operation Spring Shield in Idlib after at least 34 Turkish soldiers were martyred in a Syrian regime airstrike in Idlib late February. The soldiers were in Idlib under a deal between Turkey and Russia in late 2018, to protect civilians from attacks by the Assad regime and its allies. Idlib, just across Turkeys southern border, falls within a de-escalation zone laid out in the 2018 deal. But the Syrian regime and its allies have consistently broken the terms of the agreement, launching frequent attacks inside the territory, where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited. Psychological stress has been proposed as a risk factor for melanoma, but clinical evidence is limited. A recent British Journal of Dermatology study funded by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology looked for a potential link between the death of a partner, which is one of the most stressful life events, and melanoma. The research was carried out by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. In the study, which included information from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Danish nationwide registries, investigators found that partner bereavement was linked with a decreased risk of being diagnosed with melanoma, but with an increased risk of dying after being diagnosed. "The study findings are interesting and may relate to bereaved people no longer having someone to help with skin examinations, leading to delays in diagnosis, although we cannot rule out stress being important in melanoma progression," said senior author Sinead Langan, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ### finEDge is the latest addition to our line of programs that encourage growth beyond the classroom, said Kendall Hunt K-12 Vice President Charley Cook. We are proud to provide teachers with the necessary tools to support diverse student backgrounds while focusing on a topic as important as financi In a world of increasing financial complexity, where financial decisions can have lifelong consequences, financial literacy is more important than ever. High school students who will soon face some of lifes most difficult financial decisions deserve a playbook that equips them to navigate these decisions, and they havent really had one until now. Introducing finEDge a unique, comprehensive financial education program that shapes high school students long-term financial behaviors by encouraging questioning, discussion and applying concepts to ones own life and unique financial situation. Created by Magnetar Capital Foundation and the experts at the University of Chicago under their joint initiative The Magnetar Capital UChicago Financial Education Initiative, this one-semester course is now exclusively available at Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. finEDge is the latest addition to our line of programs that encourage growth beyond the classroom, said Kendall Hunt K-12 Vice President Charley Cook. We are proud to provide teachers with the necessary tools to support diverse student backgrounds while focusing on a topic as important as financial literacy. finEDges content and pedagogical approach are rooted in principles of learning science and behavioral change research. It is designed to teach in ways students learn best, fostering experiential learning and discussion. Its seven modules cover financial decision-making, saving and spending, borrowing, earning, investing, managing risk and financing education. A comprehensive, research-based program is essential for all high-school students to better understand and navigate the financial system, said Rebecca Maxcy, Director of the UChicago Financial Education Initiative. Kendall Hunt is well equipped to leverage its resources to bring finEDge to more teachers and students across the country. The goal of finEDge is for students to leave the program with an integrated, self-reinforcing foundation of productive financial decision-making skills, attitudes and knowledge that prepare them for long-term success as adults. You cannot escape finance it underpins everything in life. Yet students regularly leave our high school education systems without a tool-kit for navigating the potentially life-altering financial decisions theyll soon face, said Alec Litowitz, founder and CEO of Magnetar Capital. We firmly believe that financial education is a right, not a privilege, and are excited to partner with Kendall Hunt to give students and teachers nationwide access to this critical skill-set through the best-in-class finEDge curriculum. About Kendall Hunt Celebrating 75 years of providing innovative educational solutions, Kendall Hunt publishes hands-on science, mathematics, gifted and virtual reality curricula for grades K-12, in addition to the only free, certified Illustrative Mathematics middle school and high school curriculum for students in grades 6-12. In conjunction with offering a variety of stand-alone K-12 products, ConstructEd, a division of Kendall Hunt, allows schools and/or teachers, to create made-to-order textbooks or digital products using existing products or creating their own. For more information, visit https://k12.kendallhunt.com. About University of Chicago and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation As one of the world's premier research universities, the University of Chicago empowers students and scholars through its commitment to free and open inquiry. Across numerous departments and disciplines, as well as more than 140 institutes and centers, the UChicago community advances ideas and innovations that enrich human life. Learn more at: http://www.uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation brings the power of ideas in the laboratory, classroom and community to the world. Through education, resources, and programs, the Polsky Center commercializes discoveries, partners with companies, and attracts venture capital. The mission of the Polsky Center is to support students, faculty, alumni, and community members by bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, idea and action, and research and impact. Learn more at polsky.uchicago.edu. About Magnetar Capital Foundation Established in 2011, the Magnetar Capital Foundation is the charitable arm of Magnetar Capital, an alternative asset manager based in Evanston, Illinois. The Foundation works to democratize access to financial education across the U.S. believing that high-quality financial education is a right, not a privilege, and is key to empowering equality of opportunity and long-term success. Since its founding, the Foundation has committed over $10 million to financial education initiatives and has educated more than 21,000 students. The Foundation also hosts the Magnetar Team Challenge, an annual mock stock trading and financial literacy competition for students taking finEDge. A team of engineers has created a tabletop device that combines a robot, artificial intelligence and near-infrared and ultrasound imaging to draw blood or insert catheters to deliver fluids and drugs. Their most recent results of this research from Rutgers University -- published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence -- suggest that autonomous systems like the image-guided robotic device could outperform people on some complex medical tasks. Medical robots could reduce injuries and improve the efficiency and outcomes of procedures, as well as carry out tasks with minimal supervision when resources are limited. "Using volunteers, models and animals, our team showed that the device can accurately pinpoint blood vessels, improving success rates and procedure times compared with expert health care professionals, especially with difficult to access blood vessels," said senior author Martin L. Yarmush, Paul & Mary Monroe Chair & Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Getting access to veins, arteries and other blood vessels is a critical first step in many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The timeliness of procedures can be critical, but gaining access to blood vessels in many people can be quite challenging. Failures occur in an estimated 20 per cent of procedures, and difficulties increase in people with small, twisted, rolling or collapsed blood vessels, which are common in pediatric, elderly, chronically ill and trauma patients, the study says. In these groups, the first-stick accuracy rate is below 50 per cent and at least five attempts are often needed, leading to delays in treatment. Bleeding complications can arise when major adjacent arteries, nerves or internal organs are punctured, and the risk of complication rises significantly with multiple attempts. When nearby blood vessels are inaccessible, more invasive approaches such as central venous or arterial access are often required. The robotic device can accurately steer needles and catheters into tiny blood vessels with minimal supervision. It combines artificial intelligence with near-infrared and ultrasound imaging to perform complex visual tasks, including identifying the blood vessels from the surrounding tissue, classifying them and estimating their depth, followed by motion tracking. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 50 people in Majorca have donated their hair to the Mechones Solidarios Foundation, which is an organisation that makes wigs for cancer patients. At least 100 people attended a benefit for the organisation last Saturday, some had their hair cut for 5 euros and donated it to the foundation, others bought products or made a financial contribution. The Porto Pi shopping centre hosted in the event and four professional hairdressers from Francisco Peluqueros and Art Martin Peluqueros agreed to cut hair on behalf of the Mechones Solidarios Foundation, which is based in Malaga but works for cancer patients all over Spain. A spokesperson for Porto Pi Shopping Centre said a lot of people didnt have time to stay and have their hair cut, so the event may be repeated in the coming months. Allyson Massey didnt think twice when she decided she wanted to be the one to propose to her long-term partner, Stephen Krishna. After months of planning she popped the question, ring in hand, over a surprise picnic in Sydneys Royal Botanic Gardens in January, complete with a romantic slideshow shed compiled, pillows and champagne. Allyson Massey and Stephen Krishna after the proposal at the picnic. Credit:Unforgettable Proposals It was really, honestly, the best day ever, says Ms Massey. But while she says family and friends are excited and supportive of her decision to propose, she has been baffled by a simmering level of shock, with some people asking if she feels she has missed out. Press Release March 4, 2020 Villar: Farmers received over P100 billion worth of assistance during transition to rice tariffication On top of the P10 billion- Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), additional funds totaling more than P100 billion were released to aid farmers during the transition to rice tariffication. Sen. Cynthia Villar made this observation a year after the enactment of Republic Act 11203 or the rice tariffication law. "Last year, farmers started to receive the benefits of the law through seed distribution, credit and extension programs. Soon, farm machineries will be distributed to rice-producing towns under the law's mechanization program," Villar said. Villar said the distribution of farm machineries was delayed last year because of the change of leadership in the Department of Agriculture from Emmanuel Pinol to William Dar but SARO-BMB-E-20-001084 was already received for the amount of P5 billion. Aside from the P10 billion RCEF, Land bank and the DA Agricultural Credit Policy Council implemented the P4.8 billion Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program or SURE AID which provided a one-time loan assistance of P15,000 at 0% interest for eight years. This program helped rice farmers with farms measuring one hectare and below whose income were affected by the drop in the farm gate price of palay. Also for the benefit of small hold farmers, a P3 billion unconditional cash assistance was implemented. The program was funded by the Department of Finance and provided P5,000 each to 600,000 farmers owning one hectare and below. In order to ensure that the palay produce of local farmers will be bought at a reasonable price, P7 billion was allocated under the National Food Authority to procure palay from local farmers. The P31 billion budget for rice subsidy under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program was also used to procure rice from local farmers and distributed to beneficiary households. Farmers also received assistance under the P7 billion National Rice Program which included provision for hybrid seeds, fertilizer for inbred seeds, irrigation support and rehabilitation and improvement of small scale irrigation projects; agriculture, machineries, equipment and facilities support services; extension services; and research and development. Assistance to farmers was also funded in the National Irrigation Administration worth P36 billion; P1 billion allocation to the PhilMech/PhilRice; and Farm to Market Roads worth P9.9 billion. Villar said improvement of our country's credit rating was also attributed to the enactment of the law which allowed us to save about P35 billion in interest payments of our government's loans from other countries. "Improving farmer's competitiveness is not something that we can do overnight.These programs were rolled out to provide a ready market for local rice and deter unscrupulous traders from taking advantage of our farmers in the initial phase of its implementation," Villar said. Villar said once fully implemented, mechanization will bring down the cost of labor of palay production from P4.60/kg to P1.20/kg. The inbred seeds will increase the harvest from 4 MT/hectare to 6 MT/hectare thereby doubling the farmers' income. For year 2019 to 2024, RA 11203 provides for the allocation of P5 billion for the procurement of rice farm equipment to be given out to 947 rice producing towns in the Philippines at the rate of P5 million per town. This includes tractors, tillers, planters, seeders, harvesters, threshers, drying and milling to be implemented by PhilMech. P3 billion was alloted for the distribution and production of inbred seeds at the rate of 20 kgs/ hectare every planting season to be implemented by the Philippine Rice Institute. P1 billion will go to cheap credit with a 2% interest per year to be implemented by the Land Bank and the Development Bank of the Philippines. P 1 billion will be used to fund training programs to be implemented by the Agriculture Training Institute, Philmech, PhilRice at P100 million each per year, and the Technical Skills Development Authority at P700 million per year through the farm schools. Nearly 1,150 high school students and 27 teachers have been asked to self-quarantine after a student in the countrys central district was tested positive for coronavirus, international media reported. This comes as a total of three people were diagnosed with the infection on March 2 taking the national toll of infected cases to 15. Meanwhile, the virus has infected nearly 93,573 and killed over 3,204 people globally with a vast majority in mainland China, international media reported. Ninth grader tested positive According to reports, a ninth-grade student from Brenner Regional Council contracted the virus after coming in contact with an infected patient while working at a toy store in Or Yehuda. According to reports, his school has shut down classes for ninth-grade students. Another patient, a high school deputy principal from Kiryat Ono who came in contact with the ninth-grader was tested positive. While the third case has reportedly self quarantined after returning from a vacation in Italy on February 29. Read: Netanyahu's Likud Party Projected To Win Israel Election By All Exit Polls Read: Ayushmann Khurrana's Wife Tahira Kashyap Cautiously Visits Delhi Amidst Coronavirus Fears Israel asks travellers to quarantine Israel has taken careful steps to combat the deadly virus. Recently, the Jewish country advised its citizens to reconsider all foreign travel amid the global spread of the new coronavirus that was first reported in China. The Health Ministry also ordered people to avoid travel to Italy and said anyone returning from there would be required to enter home quarantine for 14 days. In a statement, the ministry said people should consider the necessity of travelling abroad in general, in addition to the requirement for people to go into isolation (quarantine) when returning from certain countries. It also urged people to avoid international conferences, international media reported. Israel has reportedly cancelled all flights to and from China and mandated 14 days of home quarantine for travellers from a number of Asian countries. Read: 'Rahul Gandhi Came From Italy, He Too Must Get Checked': BJP MP Bidhuri Amid Coronavirus Read: 'All Arrangements Made, People Shouldn't Worry': Karnataka CM Yediyurappa On Coronavirus 04.03.2020 LISTEN JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, March 4, 2020-/African Media Agency (AMA) /-More than half of companies (51%) around the world have no plans or protocols in place to combat a global emergency, such as coronavirus (COVID-19), a study by global consultancy firm Mercer has shown. Commenting on the survey, Didintle Kwape, Associate Consultant, Mercer stated: "As of today, there have been only a few cases of coronavirus reported in Africa. However, we have seen the negative impact on businesses that the coronavirus outbreak has caused in other parts of the world. It is important for organisations in Africa to also be prepared in case an outbreak like this occurs. Having a solid business continuity plan (BCP) in place that focusses equally on operations and employees will help organisations navigate effectively during these challenging times." Many employees rely on their employers to monitor and assess the situation and share key findings with them, meaning that organisations have the opportunity to support their colleagues which includes: Gathering information from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and government entities, while fact-checking the news and sharing information frequently Following government guidelines Reviewing business continuity plans (BCP) and ensuring they are up to date Listening to the concerns of their employees Treating employees equally and considering impacts to different populations. For example, while expatriates could be evacuated to their home-country, local employees may remain. Consider this impact Providing protection or prevention supplies Implementing a BCP enables ongoing operations while ensuring that the organisation is least affected when facing a disaster, whether it is a cyberattack, earthquake or a medical epidemic, such as coronavirus, that is impacting businesses globally. The survey revealed that 27.2% of companies do not have a BCP plan in place, while nearly 24% are currently in the midst of drafting one. The survey also found that working from home or working remotely will remain a crucial factor for companies, with nearly half (42%) currently encouraging employees to work remotely, particularly in highly affected areas. An overwhelming 92.2% of companies have said that working from home remains their option of choice during an office closure. Most companies are monitoring the situation with WHO and local government advisories, while remaining cautious of the possibility of evacuating employees and their families from areas affected by the virus. In the event of an evacuation, two-thirds of companies (63.4%) surveyed stated they will continue with employee allowances in varying durations and depending on the employees' role within the company. According to the survey, businesses have vastly reduced unnecessary travel and are weighing in on banning travels globally, particularly to areas highly affected by the virus. More than 80% of the companies that have required employees who recently travelled to highly affected areas apply an isolation period, where they work from home, are still paying their employees for the duration of the quarantine, reiterating companies focus on maintaining employee health and safety. Mercer's Business Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak Survey shares insights from over 300 companies from 37 countries. The spot survey was conducted between February 6 and February 19 2020. To download the report, please visit here. Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Mercer. About Mercer Mercer believes in building brighter futures by redefining the world of work, reshaping retirement and investment outcomes, and unlocking real health and well-being.Mercer's more than 25,000 employees are based in 44 countries and the firm operates in over 130 countries. Mercer is a business of Marsh & McLennan (NYSE: MMC), the world's leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people, with 76,000 colleagues and annual revenue of $17 billion. Through its market-leading businesses including Marsh, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman, Marsh & McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment. For more information, visit https://www.me.mercer.com/. Follow Mercer on Twitter @Mercer. Asserting that Pakistan is an 'occupier', activist Senge Sering has said that Islamabad is ruling in Gilgit Baltistan on an illegal basis and is misusing the resources in the region. Speaking on the sidelines of at an event titled 'Jammu and Kashmir: Sifting facts from fiction' held at Geneva Press Club on the sidelines of the ongoing 43rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), President of Gilgit Baltistan Studies, Senge Sering, "Pakistan is an occupier, Pakistan wants to prolong the occupation. It is in Gilgit Baltistan on the illegal basis and the only way it can prolong the occupation and abuse of resources is by spreading lies and myths about Jammu and Kashmir and confusing the international community and confusing the local people," Syed Tehmeena from The True Voice of Kashmir; Executive Director of South Asia Democratic Forum Paulo Casaca, a former member of the European Parliament Nathan Gill, an expert on South Asia from European Commission, Brian Toll, president of Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP) Sajjad Raja were also present during the event. Speaking to ANI, Sajjad Raja said, "Vast majority of people of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been against the accession to Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir is the part of India." Supporting the abrogation fo Article 370 A, Brian Toll said that the special status to people of Jammu and Kashmir, which was brought to bring normalcy in the region, did not lead to peace and development "Article 370 came as it was trying to give the state some sort of semblance of normality. It allows the state to take its own decision on everything except for Defence, foreign affairs," said Toll. "However, it did not lead to peace and development. Education has been disrupted by strikes and conflicts. So the people in the region was facing the problem of no education, no employment, no hope and that is never good for any state. Removing Article 370 means resemblance of some sort of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir," he added. Echoing similar sentiments, Syed Tehmeena, said that Kashmir would be the better place as there will be more investments. "Kashmir would be a better place in the future. It is too early to decide. It is only a few months [since the abrogation of Article 370]. It would be a better place of the investment and further rights given to the woman," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Trend During the investigation conducted by the Azerbaijani Prosecutor Generals Office, it was revealed that local Sozcu.az news website posted the articles on the wide spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Azerbaijan and about fatal cases in medical institutions as a result of this epidemic, Trend reports on March 4 referring to the General Prosecutors Office. The website provided readers with information that did not correspond to reality, by posting articles with provocative headlines and photographs, thereby creating artificial agiotage, the message said. In this regard, Founder of the website Elshan Mammadov was summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office, the message said. In accordance with the requirements of the Azerbaijani law "On the Prosecutor's Office", Mammadov was informed of the inadmissibility of disseminating false and biased information by the media, according to the Article 10 of the Azerbaijani law "On the Media". Mammadov was officially warned that in case of the continued dissemination of such biased information which is contrary to the requirements of the law, more stringent measures envisaged by law, including criminal prosecution, will be taken, the message said. The Administration of the Regional Medical Divisions (TABIB) and the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers will take strict measures towards media and users of social networks taking illegal actions, disseminating information not approved by the Ministry of Health, the message said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Montreal, March 4, 2020--HIV hides in reservoirs during antiretroviral therapy (ART). These viral sanctuaries are the reason why ART is not a cure. And research teams have striven for years to determine how the HIV reservoirs are established and maintained during ART. Thanks to an unprecedented access to blood, and biopsies of rectums and lymph nodes of people at the earliest stages of HIV infection, an international team of researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), the U.S. Military HIV Research Program and the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre has shown that the first established reservoirs are still "sensitive" during these early stages and could be downsized about 100 times upon immediate ART initiation. In this study published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers provide insight into the events unfolding during the crucial stages of early HIV infection. Through the U.S. Military HIV Research Program's acute infection cohort, RV254/SEARCH010, which started 10 years ago in collaboration with the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, they identified acutely infected individuals in the first two weeks of infection (Fiebig I-II stages) and placed them onto ART immediately. "The initiation of ART at this very early stage leads to a drastic decrease in the size of viral reservoirs by clearing large pools of infected cells harboured in gut-associated lymphoid tissues and lymph nodes, which are known to be preferential sites for HIV persistence during ART," said Dr. Nicolas Chomont, a CRCHUM researcher and a professor at Universite de Montreal. "Although the viral reservoirs from these early treated people are extremely small, the virus is still there and one might say there is no immediate clinical benefit for now. Nonetheless, since these early treated individuals have viral reservoirs 100 times smaller compared to our control group, we could reasonably think that it will be easier to eradicate these mini-reservoirs than the large reservoirs in people who started ART later." An outstanding cohort Louise Leyre, the study's first author and a master student in Chomont's lab at the time of the research, analyzed blood and tissues collected from individuals at the earliest stages of HIV infection to identify the locations in which HIV reservoirs are seeded and persist during ART. Previous studies in nonhuman primates had shown that the viral reservoirs can be found preferentially in lymphoid tissues. "It was the first time researchers had access to blood, rectal and lymph node biopsies from the same people at this very early stage of infection," said Dr. Chomont. "We owe these volunteers a lot." For this study, the researchers used samples from 170 acutely infected individuals in Thailand with a median age of 27, who initiated ART within a median time of 2 days after diagnosis. Ninety-six per cent (164) of the participants were male. The researchers showed that participants starting ART at the earliest infection stages, known as Fiebig I to III, demonstrated a drastic decrease in the frequency of infected cells to nearly undetectable levels throughout the body. The rare infected cells that persisted were mostly found in their lymphoid tissues. Initiation of ART in infected individuals at later stages, i.e. Fiebig IV-V or chronic infection, induced only a slight reduction in the frequency of infected cells. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 37.9 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2018. The majority of what is known about HIV comes from research done in high-income countries, where HIV subtype B predominates. However, subtype B only accounts for 12 per cent of global HIV infections. Nearly 50 per cent of all people living with HIV have subtype C. In this study, HIV subtype AE, prevalent in the Southeastern Asia region, was investigated. ### This research was supported by the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR Research Consortium on HIV Eradication); the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec-Sante. Further reading: "Abundant HIV-infected cells in blood and tissues are rapidly cleared upon ART initiation during acute HIV infection" by Louise Leyre et al. in Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aav3491 About the CRCHUM The University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) is one of North America's leading hospital research centres. It strives to improve adult health through a research continuum covering such disciplines as the fundamental sciences, clinical research and public health. Over 1,850 people work at the CRCHUM, including more than 550 researchers and more than 460 graduate students. chumontreal.qc.ca/crchum @CRCHUM About Universite de Montreal Deeply rooted in Montreal and dedicated to its international mission, Universite de Montreal is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. Founded in 1878, Universite de Montreal today has 13 faculties and schools, and together with its two affiliated schools, HEC Montreal and Polytechnique Montreal, constitutes the largest centre of higher education and research in Quebec and one of the major centres in North America. It brings together 2,400 professors and researchers and has more than 67,000 students. umontreal.ca Georgina Chapman announced plans to divorce Harvey Weinstein within days of The New York Times first reporting eight womens allegations of sexual abuse against him in October 2017. Now as the disgraced movie mogul, 67, faces legal action after being found guilty on rape and assault charges in New York City, to say that Harvey disgusts her is an understatement, a fashion industry source tells PEOPLE in this weeks issue. After a Manhattan court found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, news also broke that Chapman, 43, had moved on with actor Adrien Brody, her first relationship since her split from Weinstein. It diverts her attention from the pain and embarrassment of her situation and subsequent split, a film industry source says. The fashion insider concurs, She was shocked and livid when she learned about all of this and especially when it went public. It was humiliating. RELATED VIDEO: Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty on 2 Sex Assault Charges The Marchesa co-founder and the former producer settled the divorce in January 2018, with Weinstein having to pay Chapman between $15 and $20 million. Chapman got custody of their two kids, ages 6 and 9, and now she wonders what Weinsteins actions will do to their lives now and later, the first source says. She didnt know about this side of him, and of course it has devastated her. She worries about the children. Regardless of how her marriage with Weinstein turned out and the circumstances surrounding its end, Chapman feels grateful for the children it gave her. For more on Georgina Chapman, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on stands Friday Despite what she has been through, she has a high-profile career and two children that have greatly enriched her life, the insider says. She has always been busy with her own career, yet, still has made the kids a great and loving home. Global cases: At least 93,000, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization Global deaths: At least 3,100, according to the latest figures from the WHO The coverage on this live blog has ended but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team. All times below are in Beijing time. 9:07 pm: Italy closes all schools and universities as coronavirus death toll rivals Iran's Italy's government announced it will temporarily close the nation's schools and universities, according to local media, as the authorities struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The closure will come into effect from Thursday and will last until mid-March. Ellyatt 8:42 pm: Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus Researchers in China have found two different strains of the new coronavirus circulating in Asia. In a preliminary study published Tuesday, scientists at Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus had accounted for roughly 70% of analyzed strains, while 30% had been linked to a less aggressive type. The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year. But, the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January, the scientists said. Meredith 8:03 pm: Iran cancels Friday prayers in major cities as death toll rises Friday prayers in Iran have been canceled across all provincial capitals amid the country's growing coronavirus outbreak, state television said, according to an AP report. The suspension of religious services on Friday, Islam's main day of worship, comes amid a rise in the death toll from the coronavirus to 92 people, and concerns over the possible spread of the virus among government ministers. Ellyatt An Iranian woman wearing a mask walks past a mural displaying her national flag in Tehran on March 4, 2020. ATTA KENARE 7:32 pm: Iran has 92 coronavirus deaths, 2,922 infections, health ministry says Iran has published its latest coronavirus data, stating that 92 people have died in Iran from the new coronavirus and 2,922 have been infected, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur announced on state TV Wednesday, Reuters reported. 7:14 pm: Oil producing giant OPEC releases 'dos and don'ts' for meetings this week The 14-member oil-producing group OPEC has produced a guide of 'dos and don'ts' to prevent the spread of coronavirus at its high-profile meetings this week to discuss production policy. The guide advises against shaking hands, hugging or kissing, and to avoid close contact with anyone that has a cough. The guide is aimed at those attending meetings of OPEC and and its non-OPEC allies led by Russia, known collectively as OPEC+. The alliance is meeting in Vienna, Austria on March 5-6. Ellyatt 6:56 pm: Italy's coronavirus outbreak now looks worse than Iran's Italy is now the worst-affected country from the coronavirus outside Asia, overtaking Iran in terms of the number of deaths and infections from the virus. The death toll in Italy jumped to 79 on Tuesday, up from an official total of 52 on Monday. As of Wednesday morning, there are 2,502 cases of the virus in Italy, according to Italian media reports that are updated ahead of the daily official count, published by Italy's Civil Protection Agency every evening. Italy's coronavirus numbers have now surpassed Iran's official infection count. The Islamic Republic has 2,336 cases of the virus and has recorded 77 deaths, although there is speculation over the accuracy of Iran's tally of the epidemic. Ellyatt 6:26 pm: China's passenger car sales fall 80% in February as demand drops Passenger car retail sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, fell 80% in February because of the coronavirus epidemic, one of the country's industry associations said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said in a statement that China's overall passenger car sales dropped 80%, without giving a full sales figure for the month. "Dealers returned to work gradually in the first three weeks of February and their showroom traffic is very low," CPCA said, adding it expects February's sales drop will be the steepest of this year. Ellyatt A Chinese woman wears a protective mask and sunglasses as she waits for a bus on a nearly empty road during rush hour in the central business district on February 13, 2020, in Beijing. Kevin Frayer 5:51 pm: France to cap antibacterial gel price, finance minister says France will regulate the price of antibacterial gels after prices were reported to have increased heavily since the coronavirus outbreak began, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday. A decree regulating the price would be published during the day, Le Maire told French BFM Business radio, Reuters reported. Ellyatt 5:05 pm: German coronavirus cases continue to rise The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 240, from 196 cases on Tuesday according to the RKI health institute. North Rhine-Westphalia is the worst affected state with 111 cases; the capital Berlin has six cases. Ellyatt 4:20 pm: Toyota's car sales in China dive 70% Japanese automaker Toyota said its car sales in China fell by 70% in February due to the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters. China is the world's largest auto market. The China Passenger Car Association said overall passenger car sales in China declined by 89% in the first 23 days of February, according to Reuters. Lee 3:45 pm: Poland reports first case Poland has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease, according to the country's Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski. The man is in hospital in Zielona Gora, western Poland, and he's in a good condition, the minister said. Lee 3:25 pm: Etihad Airways denies asking cabin crew to take paid leave United Arab Emirates' Etihad Airways denied that it sent an email asking cabin crew to take paid leave between Apr. 6 and May 5. Reuters reported that the airline made such a request in an internal email that the news agency saw. The email didn't give a reason for the request, according to Reuters. Lee 3:05 pm: Plunge in China's services activity China's services sector had its worst month on record in February, according to a survey. The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers' index (PMI) plunged to 26.5 last month from January's 51.8. A level above 50 indicates expansion, while below represents contraction. The February reading was the first time the indicator had dropped below 50 since the survey began almost 15 years ago in late 2005. Lee 1:40 pm: Central banks have 'far less ammunition' to save the global economy Central banks around the world, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, have lowered interest rates to support their respective economies amid a rapidly spreading coronavirus and more are expected to follow suit. But investors and economists said there's not much monetary policy can do to save the global economy, especially when some major central banks such as the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan have already cut interest rates into the negative territory. "The fact is, we're coming into this crisis with far less ammunition globally. It's not just Europe or Japan, even in China they have much less ammunition than the last time they had to launch a stimulus package," Alex Wolf, J.P. Morgan Private Bank's head of investment strategy in Asia, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia." Lee 12:45 pm: China's giants from Alibaba to Tencent ramp up health tech efforts China's tech giants are accelerating their efforts in the field of health-care technology using cloud computing and artificial intelligence, as the country looks to contain the fast-spreading new coronavirus. Tech firms have expanded their surveillance capabilities to help the government track where people who have potentially been in contact with the virus are located. And now, the Chinese tech giants are also boosting their push into health care with a focus on providing tools to help the medical industry. Kharpal 12:08 pm: Facebook is giving free ads to the WHO and taking down 'conspiracy theories' Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that the social network will give the World Health Organization free advertising for its coronavirus response and take down false claims about the virus. Users who search for coronavirus on Facebook, will see a pop-up that directs them to the WHO or local health authority for the latest information on the outbreak. Those in a country where the WHO has reported person-to-person transmission, will see see that information in their News Feed. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said that the WHO will get free ads and the social network will give "millions more in ad credits" to other organizations too. The Facebook founder also said the company will remove "false claims and conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations." "We're also blocking people from running ads that try to exploit the situation for example, claiming that their product can cure the disease," he added. Kharpal 11:43 am: 2 out of China's 119 new cases traveled from Iran, Italy Out of the four new confirmed virus cases reported for Tuesday in mainland China outside of Hubei province, three came from Beijing city and one from Ningxia. One of the cases in Beijing was a traveler from Iran, and another from Italy, the government said. The case in Ningxia was a suspected case that became a confirmed case, authorities said. Cheng 10:43 am: NBC News Exit Poll finds US primary voters concerned about coronavirus support Biden Just over half of Democratic primary voters in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia said the coronavirus outbreak was an important factor in their vote, according to NBC News Exit Poll. Of those respondents, nearly half (47%) said they preferred former Vice President Joe Biden, followed by 29% who support Bernie Sanders. Wang 10:18 am: NBA postpones start of Basketball Africa League The National Basketball League has postponed the start of the Basketball Africa League's inaugural season due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Officials said the decision comes on the recommendation of the Senegalese government. BAL was scheduled to tipoff on March 13 in Dakar, Senegal. Young 9:54 am: Amazon employee based in Seattle tests positive Amazon said an employee who works in one of its Seattle, Washington offices tested positive for the coronavirus. We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine," the company told CNBC. "The employee is based out of Amazon's Brazil office building in Seattle, WA." It's not immediately clear if the person had been in the office in recent days or had traveled internationally recently. Haselton, Reed 9:45 am: China confirms 119 more cases and additional 38 deaths China's National Health Commission confirmed an additional 119 cases and 38 deaths as of the end of Tuesday. So far, a total of 80,270 people have been infected, with 49,856 people discharged and 2,981 dead in China, according to government figures. Wang 9:16 am: South Korea confirms 516 new cases, 4 additional deaths New cases in South Korea climbed by 516 as of Wednesday morning, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency also confirmed four additional deaths. Those latest figures bring South Korea's total confirmed cases to 5,328 as the death toll climbed to 32, according to KCDC data. So far, about three quarters of the country's cases are in South Korea's fourth-largest city Daegu. Many of those have been traced back to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Wang 9:02 am: Hong Kong business activity plunges to record low The coronavirus outbreak has had a "severe impact" on Hong Kong's private sector, IHS Markit said in its latest release of its Hong Kong Purchasing Manager's Index. The index hit a record low of 33.1 in February as "business conditions deteriorated at the steepest pace since the survey began in July 1998." "Measures taken in response to the Covid-19 situation and general fear of being infected saw business activity and new sales sinking at a record pace in an economy that has been beset earlier by political protests and US-China trade war tensions," Bernard Aw, principal economist at IHS Markit, said in a statement. Wang 8:29 am: New Zealand confirms second case New Zealand's health ministry confirmed a woman in her 30s who recently returned to Auckland from northern Italy has the coronavirus the country's second case. It said, however, the woman "doesn't require hospital level care." New Zealand said the woman is self-isolated at home with "appropriate clinical support," a protocol it said is an "appropriate response for people with mild to moderate symptoms." The ministry maintained that "with continued vigilance the chance of widespread community outbreak is expected to remain low." Wang A general view of passengers arriving at Auckland International Airport on February 5, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Michael Ng | Getty Images 8:17 am: Hong Kong cuts rate Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its base rate by 50 basis points to 1.5%. That move follows the U.S. Federal Reserve's surprise emergency rate cut. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the greenback. The U.S. central bank said in a statement, "The coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity." Wang All times below are in Eastern time. 6:32 pm: Berkeley, California reports first case, declares emergency A resident of Berkeley, California, tested positive for the virus the college town's first confirmed case, local health officials said. City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley proclaimed a local emergency, giving the city access to more resources to help contain any local cases. "While the risk of infection remains low, the expanded presence of the virus in our community is a reality we should all prepare for," City of Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez said in a statement. Kopecki 5:57 pm: Regeneron CEO hopes to have coronavirus vaccine ready for human testing possibly by this summer Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer told CNBC the pharmaceutical company hopes to have its coronavirus treatment produced and ready for human testing possibly by August. "How quickly that can deployed will depend on some of the early data that we have, some animal data, what we will see in patients," Schleifer said on "The Exchange." "I think that we can get a lot done very quickly." Stankiewicz 4:53 pm: World Bank approves $12 billion in emergency financing to help poor nations Amsterdam, 4 March 2020 - Heineken N.V. today announces the appointment of a new Chief Supply Chain Officer and the companys first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. Following a distinguished and highly successful career at HEINEKEN, spanning 25 years of which 15 years as Chief Supply Chain Officer and Executive Team member, Marc Gross will retire as Chief Supply Chain Officer in April 2020. He will per that date be succeeded in the Executive Team by Magne Setnes, currently General Manager of Brau Union AG, HEINEKENs business in Austria. Magne Setnes joined HEINEKEN in 2000 and has held a number of senior international leadership roles across Supply Chain, Commerce and General Management in The Netherlands, United States, and Austria. Ronald den Elzen will join the Executive Team as HEINEKENs first Chief Digital and Technology Officer. The world is changing fast, with tremendous opportunities for the beer industry and HEINEKEN. Consumers, customers and employees expect a seamless digital experience when they interact with all brands and the company. In 2019, Connect in a digital world was launched as the fifth business priority. The appointment of our first Chief Digital and Technology Officer underpins the ambition to become the worlds most connected brewer. Having joined HEINEKEN 25 years ago, Ronald den Elzen most recently served as Managing Director of HEINEKEN USA. Previous roles have included Finance Director in The Netherlands and HEINEKEN UK as well as Managing Director of Sociedade Central de Cervejas, the Companys Portuguese business. Ronalds appointment is effective immediately. Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO, commented: I would like to thank Marc Gross for his enormous contribution to HEINEKEN. Marc has been critical for managing the growth of this company. While during the last 15 years our volumes, number of breweries and number of brands grew significantly, he has made the complexity of our global supply chain feel easy. Today thanks to Marc and his global teams across our regions, we have a very high performing supply chain organisation. I am delighted by the appointments of Magne Setnes and Ronald den Elzen. They are two highly experienced and versatile HEINEKEN executives who have a lot to bring to our company. Our Executive Team very much looks forward to working with them. Story continues A successor for Magne Setnes in Austria will be announced in due course. -ENDS- Press enquiries Tim van der Zanden / Michael Fuchs E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-355 Investor and analyst enquiries Federico Castillo Martinez/ Janine Ackermann / Robin Achten E-mail: investors@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-590 About HEINEKEN HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. HEINEKEN is committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brewing a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets. It employs over 85,000 employees and operates breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on Reuters under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS. HEINEKEN has two sponsored level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes: Heineken N.V. (HEINY) and Heineken Holding N.V. (HKHHY). Most recent information is available on HEINEKEN's website: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com and follow us on Twitter via @HEINEKENCorp. Attachments (Natural News) As countries around the world prepare to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, some worrying news has come to light. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that medical supplies needed to help stop the spread of the virus are quickly being depleted. Talking to reporters at their Geneva headquarters, WHO officials called on manufacturers to urgently increase production of medical supplies needed to fights the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak spreading across the globe. According to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, manufacturers would have to increase their production of personal protective gear supplies by 40 percent to meet the medical communitys needs. Supplies are rapidly depleting, stated Tedros. WHO estimates that each month 89 million medical masks will be required for the COVID-19 response, 76 million examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles. These sentiments were echoed in Capitol Hill by Dr. Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who stated that the U.S. had about 35 million N95 respirator masks. This represents only 10 percent of the 3.5 billion that the country will need if COVID-19 becomes a full-blown pandemic. A surge in global demand for N95 face masks, which are effective in protecting health-care workers from infection, has affected their supply. In China, nurses and doctors face shortages as the high demand has depleted the countrys stockpile. Global cases on the rise The warnings come as global cases of the coronavirus are on the rise. On Friday, WHO officials raised the risk assessment of the virus to very high at the global level. They later revealed on Monday that the number of new cases outside China was almost nine times higher than that inside the country in the previous 24 hours. The WHO had declared the virus a global health emergency back in January, at the same time, they had urged the public against overreacting to the virus. 120 new cases were reported by China on Tuesday, compared with 1,848 new infections in 48 other countries. Tedros confirmed that most of these new cases have come from Italy, Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian medical doctors and nurses have concerns that they dont necessarily have enough equipment, supplies, ventilators, respirators, oxygen and all the things youve heard spoken about in many of the press conferences, warned Dr. Michael Ryan, who runs WHOs emergency program. Those needs are more acute for the Iranian health system than they are most any other health system. Similar to influenza, but not quite the same The WHO has not yet classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic and has maintained that its focus is on containing the spread, as of press time. Despite these efforts, the virus has moved beyond China and has now been found in almost 60 countries. Dr. Tedros shed more light on the virus Tuesday, stating that it was similar to influenza. Like the latter, the SARS-COV19 virus spreads via small droplets of fluid from the nose and mouth of a person whos sick. That said, he added that the virus actually doesnt transmit as easily as influenza, highlighting the fact it infected people who arent sick dont transmit it as easily compared to the flu. (Related: Coronavirus patient released by mistake, wanders through mall for two hours.) First COVID-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza from the data weve seen so far, stated Dr. Tedros. With influenza, people who are infected but not yet sick are major drivers of transmission, which doesnt appear to be the case with COVID-19. Dr. Ryan confirmed this as well saying that while scientists dont know exactly how the virus behaves, the fact that it wasnt like influenza gives them some hope that it can be suppressed and contained. However, he also warned that, while health officials believe countries are being transparent about infections within their borders, they could easily be caught unaware in an epidemic situation. Sources include: CNBC.com 1 SCMP.com CNBC.com 2 DataStax, a Santa Clara, CA-based data management company, acquired The Last Pickle, an Apache Cassandra consulting and services company, for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition, the two compnies strengthen their commitment to NoSQL, the open source Cassandra community, products, and innovation. Founded by CEO Aaron Morton in 2012, The Last Pickle has been instrumental in helping enterprises, such as Spotify and NewRelic, use Cassandra, one of the fastest growing NoSQL databases. Their products allow enterprises and users to run mission-critical Cassandra-based applications. Most recently, the company released open source tools, such as Cassandra Medusa and Cassandra Reaper. Led by Chet Kapoor, CEO, DataStax provides a cloud-native NoSQL data platform built on Apache Cassandra, which gives users and enterprises the chance to run data in any cloud at global scale with zero downtime and zero lock-in. More than 400 of the worlds leading enterprises including Capital One, Cisco, Comcast, Delta Airlines, eBay, Macys, McDonalds, Safeway, Sony, and Walmart use the companys solutions. FinSMEs 04/03/2020 President Donald Trump's lawyers urged a judge Wednesday to halt a lawsuit by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll where she's seeking his DNA to prove her claim that he raped her in the 1990s. Carroll is suing Trump for defamation after he called her a liar when she went public with her bombshell rape allegation in a book she published last year. Carroll claims Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s, after they bumped into each other and bantered about trying on a bodysuit. Trump responded to the allegation saying Carroll was 'totally lying' to sell her memoir, quipping in one interview that 'she's not my type.' Trump's lawyers argue her case - including the DNA request - needs to wait until a judge rules in a separate case against him. That ruling could take several months or longer. They also claimed that the president shouldn't go forward with the case while he's in office because he has immunity. President Donald Trump's lawyers urged a judge Wednesday to halt a lawsuit by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll where she's seeking his DNA to prove her claim that he raped her in the 1990s. Carroll pictured entering the court room on Wednesday Carroll claims Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s after they started to talk about clothes there Trump responded to the allegation saying Carroll was 'totally lying' to sell her memoir, quipping in one interview that 'she's not my type.' Trump's lawyers requested the halt arguing he has immunity as president and is dealing with a separate case against him in court Trump's lawyers have asked a court to put her case on hold until New York's highest court rules - in another woman's defamation case against him - whether an incumbent president can be sued in state courts over alleged conduct outside his official duties.' 'Courts are required to give the president deference because of his national responsibilities,' one of his lawyers, Christine Montenegro, said. 'If the court does not stay this action, the President will suffer irreparable harm,' she added. Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan offered Wednesday to postpone the DNA request and sworn pretrial questioning of Trump until after the state high court rules in the other case. But she asked the court to let other evidence-gathering continue. This is the jacket dress she was wearing when Trump allegedly assaulted her in the 1990s She argued that Trump shouldn't be allowed a delay because he has both continued to handle other cases as a defendant while serving as President and has filed lawsuits himself. 'That kind of cherry picking, your honor, is an intolerable abuse of the process,' Kaplan said. Judge Verna Saunders gave no indication Wednesday how or when she might rule on whether to pause Carroll's case. She said she would file a written decision but gave no time frame for it. Carroll appeared in New York court in a tan colored coat and watched the proceeding from the courtroom audience. After the hearing Carroll told reporters she's suing Trump 'not just for myself but for every woman in America who's been grabbed, groped, harassed, sexually assaulted, and has spoken out and still has been disgraced, shamed or fired.' After the hearing Carroll told reporters she's suing Trump 'not just for myself but for every woman in America who's been grabbed, groped, harassed, sexually assaulted, and has spoken out and still has been disgraced, shamed or fired' E. Jean Carroll pictured leaving the court house on Wednesday Judge Verna Saunders gave no indication Wednesday how or when she might rule on whether to pause Carroll's case. She said she would file a written decision but gave no time frame for it Carroll is requesting a DNA sample from Trump to see if it matches the male genetic material left on the dress she wore during the alleged assault Carroll wrote an advice column for Elle Magazine for years. She filed the lawsuit against Trump in November, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Trump claimed he'd never met Carroll, shrugging off a 1987 photo of them and their then-spouses at a social event as simply a snapshot of a moment when he was standing in a line. In January, Carroll's lawyer served an attorney for Trump with papers requesting a sample of his DNA to compare it with male genetic material found on the black Donna Karan dress she says she wore during the alleged attack. Carroll says she hasn't laundered the dress and donned it only once since, for a photo shoot last year. Trump's lawyers rebuffed the proposal. Carroll is seeking damages and a retraction of Trump's statements, which she says harmed her reputation and career. Elle magazine ended her contract in December, after 26 years. She said she was fired over her tangle with Trump; the magazines publisher told The New York Times the decision wasn't about politics. The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done. The Phnom Penh Post newspaper quoted Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhorn as saying that in the period under review, Cambodia shipped 136,499 tonnes of rice abroad, a year-on-year increase of 21.34 percent. Cambodian rice exports to international markets grew by more than 21 percent in the first two months of this year (Photo: www.phnompenhpost.com) China is the leading market for the grain from Cambodia, with a market share of 37.43 percent, followed by the European market at 30.31 percent, ASEAN countries at 18.48 percent and other destinations at 13.78 percent. Secretary-General of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) Lun Yeng said that rice exports are rising in all export destinations. He noted tariffs on exports to European markets decreased from 175 EUR (about 195 USD) per tonne in 2019 to 150 EUR per tonne in 2020, which likely led to the increase. He voiced his belief that the Cambodian rice is becoming more popular in China. However, transport via waterway has reduced significantly, which may impede delivery of goods. Chan Sokheang, CEO of Signature of Asia Co., a local rice exporter to several countries around the world, said Cambodias rice exports in early 2020 were positive and will continue to grow, adding that the COVID-19 outbreak will not impact rice exports from the country. According to a CRF report, in 2019, Cambodia exported 620,106 tonnes of rice, down 0.97 percent from 626,225 tonnes in 2018./. The United States has extended targeted sanctions imposed on some Zanu PF officials saying President Emmerson Mnangagwas government has arguably accelerated its persecution of critics and economic mismanagement in the past year, during which security forces have conducted extrajudicial killings, rapes, and alleged abductions of numerous dissidents. In statement posted on the White House website on Wednesday, the Donald Trump administration said the Zimbabwean government missed an opportunity to implement political and economic reforms and as a result, the United States has extended the targeted sanctions beyond March, 2020. In the wake of the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017, Zimbabwes national elections in July 2018, and President Mugabes subsequent death in September 2019, Zimbabwe has had ample opportunity to implement reforms that could set the country on a constructive path, stabilize the southern African region, and open the door to greater cooperation with the United States. Unfortunately, President Emmerson Mnangagwas administration has yet to signal credible political will to implement such reforms. Indeed, the Zimbabwean government has arguably accelerated its persecution of critics and economic mismanagement in the past year, during which security forces have conducted extrajudicial killings, rapes, and alleged abductions of numerous dissidents. The White House further said, These actions and policies by certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwes democratic processes or institutions continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 with respect to Zimbabwe. According to the Trump administration, Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the president publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003, with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwes democratic processes or institutions is to continue in effect beyond March 6, 2020. Reacting to the extension of the targeted sanctions, Zanu PF Central Committee member, Joseph Tshuma said, Well it is very regrettable and retrogressive for the United States government to actually do such a thing. We thought that the whole mantra was about reengaging with each other and reasoning with each other, and we also know definitely that this extension of sanctions does not emanate from all these allegations that they want to support like to say that the soldiers are killing people, or that human rights abuses. I totally know for a fact that this is all hogwash. What the United States is really doing is fighting in the corner of former colonizers who had taken all the land and because we have not reversed our land reform, they will definitely keep on punishing us. This I say also with an observation of what the (U.S.) Secretary of State actually said to South Africa to say the moment you touch land, you shall definitely see the wrath that is going to come upon you as a state, like as America to South Africa. And you ask yourself that we have seen even more atrocities in South Africa, we have seen Xenophobic attacks, we have seen the Marikana attack, we have seen a lot of other things that are even worse than what has happened here in Zimbabwe, and yet they are not under sanctions. So it will tell you definitely its not about all that. The renewal of the restrictive measures comes at a time when African leaders have been calling for the lifting of the targeted sanctions while Zimbabwe is also engaging Washington on the political front in an attempt to lobby for their removal. Zimbabwe signed a $1,5 million deal with some American-based organizations that were hired to lobby for the removal of the sanctions. Brian Ballard, a fundraiser for Trumps 2016 presidential election, is the head of one of the entities hired by the southern African nation last year. Zimbabwes State Security Minister, Owen Ncube, and former army general Anselem Sanyatwe were added to the sanctions list over what U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said was credible information of their involvement in gross violations of human rights. U.S. targeted sanctions apply to only 86 Zimbabwean individuals and 56 entities (mostly farms and legal entities owned by the 87 individuals) as of February 2020. The Zimbabwe sanctions program implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) began on March 7, 2003, when then President George Bush issued an executive order imposing restrictive measures against specifically identified individuals and entities in Zimbabwe, as a result of the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons undermining democratic institutions or processes in Zimbabwe. Following this executive order, former president Barack Obama and Trump issued other edicts extending the targeted sanctions. Canadas small businesses are growing increasingly concerned about the impacts of the spreading COVID-19 virus and have urged provincial governments to step in and provide some financial relief. (Getty Images) Canadas small businesses are increasingly concerned about the effect of the spreading COVID-19 virus and have urged provincial governments to step in and provide financial relief. In separate letters addressed to each of Canadas premiers, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) urged provincial governments to consider assisting small businesses that are experiencing economic fallout as a result of the rapid spread of COVID-19. Businesses are already feeling the impacts and might face further challenges brought on by potential community spread of the virus across Canada, the letter said. Some business owners are experiencing supply chain interruptions or delays in receiving shipments from China, leading to unfilled orders and dissatisfied customers... Some businesses are seeing a significant loss in foot traffic as the public becomes more fearful of contamination, resulting in stunted revenues. CFIB called on the provinces as well as other levels of government to consider implementing several initiatives, including providing relief for affected companies similar to what might occur in the event of other natural disasters. CFIB also recommended that the provinces provide relief from penalties and interest for late remittances of taxes and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board payouts, as well as temporarily stop routine audits, a process that is already stressful enough for small business owners. The group urged the government to establish a small business hotline to help those that may have to shut down operations temporarily or permanently and ensure they are transitioned quickly into the EI system. The EI system needs to be prepared for a period of heavier unemployment, the letter said. Plamen Petkov, vice president of Ontario and business resources with CFIB, said in an interview that a key concern among small business so far has been how to deal with employees who have travelled abroad or may have to miss work as a result of the virus. Story continues One of the key vulnerabilities for small businesses is actually losing their employees, Petkov said. If you have six employees and two cannot make it into work, thats a third of your workforce and it becomes very difficult to maintain normal business operations. Petkov said the most vulnerable businesses are those that interact directly with customers, including those in the retail, restaurant, tourism and hospitality sectors. While the economic impact of the virus outbreak on businesses has so far been minimal, Petkov said that companies need to plan for the worst. Brian Kropp, group vice president at research and advisory firm Gartner, said companies should have a contingency plan in place in case 25 per cent of staff are unavailable to work because of COVID-19 a worst-case scenario based on the response during the H1N1 and SARS outbreaks. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday morning that the government is open to the idea of helping firms suffering economic damage from a coronavirus outbreak, but did not provide additional details. There will be impacts on Canadian businesses, on entrepreneurs, and we will always look for ways to minimize that impact and perhaps give help where help is needed, he told a televised news conference in Halifax. Petkov said CFIB will be sending a similar letter to the federal government this week. Governments certainly have a role to play here in terms of instilling more stability and certainty in the economy and, where necessary, to provide help that some small businesses may need, Petkov said. With files from Reuters Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief. Popular controversial OAP, Daddy Freeze has been subjected to social media ridicule after he shared a photo of Nkwobi(an Igbo delicacy) on Twitter. Daddy Freeze had taken to Twitter to promote his partners business(taste bud owner) by sharing a photo of a plate of Nkwobi. But online users wont have any of it as most saw the advert as a show-off from the media mogul. Daddy Freeze placed the plate of Nkwobi on an expensive photo and his Rolex alongside it. Read Also: Daddy Freeze Slams Christians Who Travel For Church Services Juicy @tastebudzng Nkwobi the very best ever have you tried it yet? To order for next day delivery, send a WhatsApp message to: 09096448433 pic.twitter.com/kSGYUNN51H Daddy Freeze (@DaddyFRZ) March 3, 2020 This according to Twitter users suggested he was showing off, which promoted them to come upon him mercilessly. Take a look at what some people said You should have put your house and statement of account beside the plate too. Aunty Dearest (@eyecandyUby) March 4, 2020 https://twitter.com/EdoFirstLady/status/1235108899725832192?s=19 so like , we need to have two phones before we can eat nkwobi? #OneNigerianAtATime (@Stee_vane) March 4, 2020 https://twitter.com/Iyke4uuu/status/1235126501722542080?s=19 https://twitter.com/therealdaddymo1/status/1235091845178245121?s=19 Washington: Iran is dramatically ramping up production of enriched uranium in the wake of the Trump administration's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal, the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed in a report that also criticised Tehran for blocking access to suspected nuclear sites. According to the report, the country now appears to have enough enriched uranium to produce a single nuclear weapon, though it would take months or years to manufacture a warhead and deliver it over long distances. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani. The country continues to flaunt the 2015 nuclear deal which still stands even though the US has withdrawn. Credit:AP Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported a near-tripling of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium just since November, with total holdings more than three times the 300-kilogram limit set by the nuclear accord. Iran also substantially increased the number of machines it is using to enrich uranium, the agency said, allowing it to make more of the nuclear fuel faster. The report is the first since Iran announced it would no longer adhere to any of the nuclear pact's restrictions on uranium fuel production, in a protest of the Trump administration's decision to walk away from the deal. Iran has declined to formally pull out of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in which it agreed to sharply curtail its nuclear activities and submit to intrusive inspections in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. A man on an expedition with Shadowpalm Tours in the Maldives had a unique experience as he was able to snorkel alongside a group of nurse sharks while tour operator Rizkhan Mohamed filmed the scene from a drone above. While intimidating, nurse sharks are considered harmless to humans, according to National Geographic. Taken above the Indian Ocean in the Vaavu Atoll area in Maldives and posted to Instagram on August 21, 2019, the drone footage shows the man casually swimming up to the nurse sharks and observing them up close. Mohamed explained, We snorkel with sharks as a tour. That certain day there were a lot of sharks in the shallow ocean. Credit: shadowpalmmaldives via Storyful Farmers have cautiously welcomed a new government commitment to safeguarding UK food and farming standards in any US trade deal. The Department for International Trade published on Tuesday (3 March) the UKs approach to trade negotiations with the United States. The report says that any agreement between the two countries 'will ensure high standards and protections for consumers and workers'. It also says that a US-UK trade deal 'will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.' While industry groups have welcomed the new promise, the NFU said the farming industry still needs a legal commitment. It comes as Defra Secretary George Eustice recently refused to give a cast-iron guarantee that the UK will not import chlorinated chicken under any trade deal with the US. Speaking at the NFU Conference last week, NFU President Minette Batters said any drop in UK food and farming standards would be "insane". Responding to the government's new report, she said legislation must be in place to safeguard British farming from imports that have been produced using methods that would be illegal in the UK. There is no doubt that UK negotiators will come under pressure to find ways of allowing the US greater access to the UK market for food that does not meet our own standards," Mrs Batters said. If we are to ensure any country negotiating a trade deal with the UK is left in no doubt as to our governments position on food production standards, it needs to be enshrined in law that all food imports will be held to the same standards. Farmers need to know that their businesses wont be undercut by food imports that they would be unable to produce here legally." The NFU president also said the public needs assurance that the food they buy has been produced to those same high standards. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) echoed this, saying a negotiated FTA that allowed unbridled access to the UKs food market would do 'irreparable damage' to farmers. CLA President Mark Bridgeman said: "These negotiations need a balanced approach that recognise the importance both countries attach to the agri-food sector while, at the same time, offering equitable market access that protects the UKs high environmental and food safety standards. The governments commitment not to compromise on UK standards is to be welcomed, the RSPCA said, adding that the US has 'polar opposite' animal welfare rules to Britain. "The US trade deal is crucial," RSPCA Head of Public Affairs David Bowles explained, "It is the first we are negotiating since we regained our independent seat at the WTO after 47 years. "What is agreed over the next few months will mean the difference between a country which can hold its head up, confident that it has safeguarded the UK farming industry and maintained high animal welfare standards on products on our supermarket shelves - or a country that has caved in and pulled the trigger on a race to the bottom. Introducing Vesemir: Kim Bodnia will play the Continent's oldest and most experienced Witcher in Season 2 of #TheWitcher. pic.twitter.com/HAmYciZ5K4 NX (@NXOnNetflix) February 28, 2020 HUGE NEWS!! Were over the moon to announce that youll finally be able to experience the music from your most favorite series LIVE IN CONCERT! Get ready, Witcher fans, were bringing you the music from The Witcher live!.. pic.twitter.com/JX46HZuh0d Sonya Belousova (@SonyaBelousova) March 2, 2020 While it had been rumored that the producers were in talks with Mark Hamill, ultimately the role of Vesemir has gone to Danish actor Kim Bodnia (Killing Eve, The Bridge).Showrunner Lauren Hissrich had this to say about his casting, "I am so thrilled to welcome Kim Bodnia to the cast of The Witcher. I have admired his unique talents in shows like Killing Eve and The Bridge, and cannot wait for him to bring strength, tenacity, and warmth to the character of Vesemir, who is such an integral part of our upcoming season."According to the press release, the character of Vesemir is described as a charming relic of the witcher Golden Age. The oldest and most experienced witcher in the series, as well as a father figure to Geralt. As one of the survivors of The Massacre at Kaer Morhen, a haunting slaughter that nearly exterminated the Witchers, he is fiercely protective of the remaining few, who he sees as an endangered community who can find glory on the Path slaying monsters.------ Henry Cavill has started filming for S2 of the Netflix show, and he's been reunited with his faithful steed.Freya Allan (Cirilla) has also started filming.Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) had already been filming for the past week with other co-stars in the forests around the Surrey area.Production is expected to go until August, and the second season will air sometime in 2021.------ The composer for the series announced that they'll be doing a live concert of the music from the show on May 30 in Krakow, Poland as part of the Krakow Film Music Festival------ Joey Batey's (Jaskier) band The Amazing Devil released their newest album this past Friday on Bandcampsource: 1 BRIDGEPORT Jayvell Washington is facing a murder conviction but his defense may mean he has to admit to crimes that could put him away for 20 years. On Wednesday, the 39-year-old Washington faces a 12-member Superior Court jury on charges of murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm, illegal discharge and carrying a pistol without a permit for the Jan. 26, 2019, fatal shooting of 50-year-old Eugene Rogers. Surveillance video of that date released by police appears to show Rogers advancing toward Washington outside a North End gas station. As Rogers is about to fire at Washington, who is sitting in a car, the video appears to show Washington firing first. Washington is claiming he fired in self defense but to do so, he will have to admit to the jury that, as a convicted felon, he illegally had a gun charges which could get him sentenced to 20 years in prison. Washingtons lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Jared Milbrandt, and Senior Assistant States Attorney Michael DeJoseph declined comment. Security is expected to be tight during the trial before Judge Alex Hernandez. A previous meeting in court between the Rogers and Washington supporters ended up in a melee. The Rogers family is a well-known North End clan. Their connection with Washington goes back more than 20 years. Washington, who had served seven years in prison for a 1998 manslaughter conviction, joined the Rogers family sometime after he was released from prison and got into a relationship with one of Rogers daughters, according to court documents. Things went sour for him in 2017 when the young woman accused Washington of physically abusing her. She ended up getting a restraining order against Washington who demanded to see their child. On July 1, 2017, Chaz Rogers, a brother of Eugene Rogers, was shot to death on Stratford Avenue. His murder remains unsolved. Another brother, Hassan Boobie Rogers, was arrested for allegedly shooting at a friend of Washingtons whom he blamed for killing his brother. That case is pending. Then on July 23, 2017, Eugene Rogers was walking on Trumbull Avenue when, police said, he was shot twice in the abdomen by Washington. Washington was charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault, illegal use of a firearm and criminal use of a firearm. He was released after posting $500,000 bond. Those charges are still pending. Shortly after 9 a.m. on Jan. 26, 2019, police said officers were dispatched by the Bridgeport Police Departments Shot Spotter system to the Citgo gas station and Pitt Stop convenience store on Reservoir Avenue. When officers got there, they found Eugene Rogers lying on the ground, motionless, police said. He was bleeding from a bullet wound in his head, and police said he had a silver and black gun in his left hand. Police said the gas stations video surveillance showed Washington parked in a Mini Cooper at the gas station when he was approached by Rogers. Rogers began to pull a handgun from the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, police said, when Washington drew first and fired, then drove off. Police said they determined that Washington was wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet as a result of the conditions of his bond. They said detectives traced him to Fairview Avenue, where they arrested him in front of his girlfriends home. Police said that when asked if he knew why detectives were there, Washington replied, Yeah, and placed his hands behind his back. Published on 2020/03/04 | Source Medical staff arrive for their shift at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center in Daegu on Tuesday. /Yonhap Advertisement The government said Tuesday that the death rate in Korea from the coronavirus outbreak is lower than in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the global epidemic. Kwon Joon-wook, deputy head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters citing World Health Organization data that the fatality rate in parts of China other than Wuhan is around 0.7 percent. In Wuhan, the rate is 5.8 percent. "A rough calculation shows Korea's fatality rate due to the virus around 0.6 percent, which is similar to levels in other parts of China", Kwon said. According to the KCDC, 32 out of the 5,186 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection had died as of Tuesday morning. Analysis shows that most of the deaths were elderly residents of Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang Province who suffered from other ailments like hypertension and diabetes. They died on average three to four days after being infected by coronavirus. All 32 had other diseases, with 13 suffering from high blood pressure, eight from diabetes and seven from mental illnesses. The older the patient, the higher the fatality rate. Six out of 93 cases who were over 80 died from the disease, resulting in a fatality rate of 6.5 percent, followed by 4.9 percent for patients in their 70s, 1.2 percent in their 60s and 0.5 percent in their 50s. With the exception of one 35-year-old man from Mongolia who was in Korea for a kidney transplant, all were Koreans. Read this article in Korean US groups getting busy in the ASEAN The US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) has just announced that a 40-strong business delegation from the United States will launch an investment promotion programme in Vietnam on March 3-6, aiming to expand trade and investment co-operation in the Southeast Asian country. Meanwhile, 460 US corporations have been allowed to export meat to Vietnam, according to Vietnams Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh, who was at a roundtable with representatives of associations and US investors in Washington D.C. on February 24. Currently, there are 210 others registering to export seafood to Vietnam, he said. Over the years, the US has been Vietnams third-biggest trade partner while Vietnam is the 16th biggest for the US. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in January Vietnams total value of exports to the US reached $4.7 billion while the US exported to Vietnam $988 million in goods. In 2019, the numbers were $61.35 billion and $14.37 billion, an increase 29.1 and 12.7 per cent respectively compared to 2018. Meanwhile, according to the USABC, the ASEAN ranks fourth as a goods export market for the US, while the US is also the fourth-largest trading partner for the ASEAN. The US exported $75 billion in goods and $31 billion in services to the ASEAN last year, up 59 per cent over a decade. The total value of US-ASEAN bilateral trade has increased 28 per cent, from $177 billion to $227 billion in a decade. Along with trade, the number of US investors choosing the ASEAN for their long term operations has increased recently. Last week, GE Renewable Energy signed a contract with Angat Hydropower Corporation to rehabilitate the 218MW Angat plant located in the Philippines to limit power outage of the 53-year-old plant as much as possible. Once fully upgraded in 2023, the power output of the plant will increase by around 4 per cent, bringing it to 226.6MW, supplying more than 90 per cent of Metro Manilas potable water needs and supporting the irrigation of 25,000 hectares of farmland. Meanwhile in Singapore, by the end of last year GE had invested $60 million over 10 years in its current Global Repair Service Center to create a new high efficiency air-cooled (HA) global repair engineering and development centre to add approximately 160 highly skilled jobs and provide local support for HA power plant operators in Asia. It will become GEs largest gas turbine repair site, servicing its HA and aero-derivative gas turbines. Earlier, in a meeting with Vietnams Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang, Wouter Van Wersch, chairman cum CEO of GE ASEAN said that the group plans to expand investment into important fields which contribute to development of socio-economy in Vietnam such as energy, renewable energy, solar power, electrification and liquefied electrification. GE currently has a presence in all ASEAN member states, excepting Laos, becoming a partner for dynamic growth in the region. Google is another case planning to land in the Southeast Asia. According to Nikkei, so far the giant has been also moving aggressively to shift production of its Pixel smartphone from China to Vietnam where the corporation will build a low-cost supply chain in region that will serve as a springboard for its growing hardware ambitions. Accordingly, Google will raise production capacity to 8-10 million smartphones this year, double that of last year. Not only Google, the US car rental group Hertz with more than 10,000 branches in the world in last August announced its entry into the Vietnamese market through its domestic franchise partner, New City Rent A Car, to provide guests with a range of moving services and convenient car delivery system. Eoin MacNeill, vice president of Hertz Asia-Pacific, emphasised that Vietnam had been evaluated as a country with a high growth rate in terms of both economy and tourism so opportunities for groups like Hertz are vast. Along with this fast and vibrant development, the demand for car rental businesses is increasing, and the demand for professional service quality is also greater. Data from the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment shows that from the start of the year to February 20, the US has 18 new projects registered at $8.5 million. Total US newly-registered, newly added, and stake acquisition investment was $42.19 million. Meanwhile the United Nations Conference on Trade and Developments ASEAN Investment Report 2019 indicated that although the total capital poured into the region from the US declined compared to the previous year, the ASEAN was still the first selection for many US investors, with Singapore and Indonesia named the most attractive destinations. Joe Biden took most of the states voting yesterday for a Democratic candidate to challenge President Trump, including an unexpected win in Texas. Rival Bernie Sanders, however, overwhelmed Biden in California to grab the night's biggest haul of delegates. The results confirm the scale of Biden's comeback, which kicked off with a big win last week in South Carolina, and suggest a two-man slog for the job. For his $500m+ investment, billionaire Mike Bloomberg won a single race American Samoa and indicated that his vanity campaign might soon be over. Elizabeth Warren could only manage third place in Massachussets, trailing across the map. With many close races, Biden and Sanders nonetheless split the haul between them. According to the BBC, with several races yet to declare, Biden has 453 convention delegates, Sanders 382, Warren 50 and Bloomberg 44. Aggressive measures work. New cases have dropped to 200 a day from over 3,000 a day one month ago. After the initial chaos and cover-up in Wuhan, health authorities imposed a lockdown, strict quarantines, mandatory testing and isolation. That prevented what would have been hundreds of thousands of infections. There arent many asymptomatic cases. Testing of 320,000 samples suggests that the known cases are not just the tip of an iceberg. What were seeing is a pyramid: Most of it is above ground, Dr. Aylward said. Madam Sandra Akosaa Tawiah, Head of Legal and Prosecution, Tema Fishing Enforcement Unit (FEU), has called for the support of key stakeholders to punish perpetrators of fishing infractions. She said contrary to perceptions that marine police and naval officers of the Unit were reluctant in enforcing fisheries laws, officers had been relentless in their efforts to prosecute people who engaged in Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing on Ghanas waters. Madam Tawiah said the challenge had always been lack of strong evidence and witnesses. The Head of Legal and Prosecution said this in a presentation at an IUU multi-stakeholder platform meeting in Accra, to dialogue on issues of illegal fishing, the negative effects on the fishery industry, the challenges and successes thereof and charting ways to end the menace. She said the Unit remained committed to duty, following up on complaints of infractions from fisher folks, but just when the cases were taken up, the complainants backed off giving excuses such as name calling and personal attacks, noting, all these make continuation of the cases difficult, explaining that the success of prosecution depended on witnesses and solid evidence, which complainants failed to provide in most cases. Madam Tawiah gave instances of successful arrest of defaulters, court trial of cases mostly involving foreign trawlers and out of court settlements where offenders were prosecuted and fined and asked that people helping to prosecute cases should, confide in us if you feel threatened, for protection so that together, the fight against IUU fishing could be won. She warned IUU monitoring groups not to attempt stopping offenders on the waters but rather alert FEU officials to make the arrests to avoid dangers including death and possible charges of robbery and other offences citing a similar case pending before a court in Tema. Madam Tawiah also called for higher fines to serve as deterrence while urging politicians, opinion leaders and influential people in communities to stop pleading for offenders saying, that amounted to interference with the processes, which could embolden the wrongdoers to commit more infractions. Mr Alex Sabah, Control, Monitoring and Surveillance, Fisheries Commission gave the impact of IUU on fishing to include unfair competition, depletion of the fish stock, destruction of marine ecosystem and poverty and said though the Commission had made some gains at combating the menace, the many challenges it was fraught with kept hindering progress. Mr Scott Apawudza, Volta Region Director, Fisheries Commission commended the consortium CARE (the lead), Friends of the Nation (FoN) and Oxfam implementing the EU funded four-year fisheries governance project Far Ban Bo (protecting the fishing livelihoods) and called for the support of other stakeholders to address the challenges of unsustainable fishing practices. He said there was the need for self-compliance from fishers to stop IUU fishing because apart from the possible collapse of the industry, Ghana could be sanctioned, such that fishery resources from the country would not be allowed onto international markets. Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX, Paramount Chief, Lower Dixcove, advised the national leadership of fisher groups to employ the services of experts and in collaboration with the traditional authority, make their challenges known to the appropriate authorities for redress, underscoring the need for new ways to sustain the industry, before it collapses on your head because thats your profession. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts in the Delhi gangrape case. The Delhi government had earlier recommended rejecting Guptas mercy petition. He was the only one out of the four convicts to not have exhausted all the legal remedies. On Monday, a court in Delhi again deferred the execution of the four convicts in the case, which was slated for Tuesday, till further orders, after their lawyer AP Singh pointed out that Gupta has filed a mercy petition with the President. Also Watch | Delhi gangrape victims mother thanks President for rejecting convicts mercy plea The four convicts - Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar - were scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on March 3. Pawan Gupta had moved a fresh application before the Delhi court seeking a stay on the hanging, as his mercy plea is pending before the President after the court dismissed their application seeking stay on hanging earlier on Monday. He filed the mercy petition after his curative petition was rejected by Supreme Court on Monday morning. The case pertains to the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, christened Nirbhaya bythe media, in the Capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. Circa 1782: George Washington (1732-1799) with a wounded soldier at Valley Forge camp where he kept his troops during winter because it enabled him to protect Congress, at York in Pennsylvania, from British attack. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Presidents and Their Military Decisions Commentary When President Donald Trump authorized the strategic strike against Irans Gen. Qassem Soleimani there was an uproar of praise and worry stemming from the same people: Americans. Americans have always feverishly deliberated the outcomes of military decisions made by their presidents. President Trumps decision to kill Soleimani, his decision to withdraw troops fighting with the Kurds in northern Syria, and his recent peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan have been met with what Americans are free to do: second guess. Hindsight is 20/20, as the old adage goes, and we use our knowledge of history to determine whether decisions made today will be a success or a failure. The United States has always had enemies from without and from within. So lets take a look at the history of military decisions made from the eve of Americas inception all the way to modern times, and second-guess where applicable. The Continental Congress This March marks the 250th anniversary of an encounter with our first enemy: the British. Even before we did solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, we had been fighting the British for more than a year. Ron Chernow, in his incredible biography Washington: A Life, put the situation into earnest terms when he wrote that George Washington had been chosen to march at the head of a nonexistent army to fight an undeclared war. Despite the successful short-term and long-term outcome, only about a third of colonists wanted to fight for independence. George Washington America survived the war and defeated the British with the help of the French. Washington, when president, decided against paying back the debt owed to France, reasoning that the debt was owed to the former monarchical government of Louis XVI, and not the revolutionary government that had taken his head. John Adams The Washington decision, along with the signing of the Jay Treaty, culminated in what John Adams had to face: the Quasi War with France. France began seizing American ships. Adams decision to engage in this undeclared war resulted in very few casualties, but did result in an infamous bill called the Alien and Sedition Act, which violated the First Amendment. Comparatively, Adams decided to confront the French militarily, but not the Barbary Pirates. He chose rather to do as the French, British, and others did, which was to pay tribute to the Barbary Nations. Thomas Jefferson Agitated by Washingtons decision with the French and Adams decision with the pirates, Thomas Jefferson became president right after the Quasi War ended, but he still had to deal with the pirates. The Barbary Pirates were capturing American ships and taking the sailors to their homeland, where they were used as slave labor until ransomed. Jefferson felt the only way to truly deal with the leaders of these Islamic nations was a show of strength. But on the oceans, America had little strength to show. It was Jeffersons leadership that put the U.S. Navy on the nautical map. After triumphs and failures, a show of strength proved to work, bringing an end to the conflicts and gaining open access to the seas. James Madison James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was prepared to go to war with Britain just as soon as he stepped into the White House (which would soon be set on fire by the British). Britain had ignored our neutrality in their war against Napoleon, were stopping American ships at sea and forcing sailors to join them in their fight against France, and requiring American ships to port in their ports and pay a tax before trading with other European partners. Madison and Congress launched into the War of 1812. We suffered numerous defeats against Canada; Andrew Jackson established the Treaty of Fort Jackson, forcing the Creek Nation to cede approximately 23 million acres (now known as Alabama and parts of Georgia); and it put the naval commanders through the ultimate tests, which they passed. The Battle of Fort McHenry also inspired Francis Scott Key to write the National Anthem. Abraham Lincoln Term after term, presidents had ignored, avoided, and even encouraged slavery expansion. The election of Abraham Lincoln would end that and would spark rapid secession among the southern states. It would be a war of tragedy. Father against son. Brother against brother. It would place Lincoln in impossible straits, requiring him to overstep Congress and suspend habeas corpus, fire generals, and send hundreds of thousands of men to their death. But the outcome would be a leap toward fulfilling the ultimate promise of the Declaration of Independence by establishing the 13th Amendment and ending the scourge of slavery. The Union was to be preserved at all costs, as Lincoln chose to accept war rather than let [the Union] perish. Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson had promised to keep the United States out of World War I, and he kept that promise throughout his first term. Interestingly, had Theodore Roosevelt won the election of 1912, the United States would have at least been strongly urged to join the conflict in its early going. Germany placed a blockade against the United States around the British isles, and soon declared unrestricted warfare, even against neutral countries. In 1915, the William P. Frye, the Lusitania, and the SS Ancona were sunk. In February of 1917, the Housatonic was sunk. When the Germans sent the Zimmerman Note to Mexico, the United States had had enough and declared war, leading to an updated version of the Sedition Act. The war ultimately placed the United States on the grand stage as a leading world power, placing Wilson as one of the Big Three during the Paris Peace Conference. More than 116,000 soldiers died. Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt proved more like Wilson than his Uncle Teddy. He had resisted entering the war until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on an early December Sunday morning in 1941. From that point, the Commander-in-Chief became part of a new Big Three and guided the nation through the greatest war in world history. Roosevelt misread Stalin, only realizing in 1945, after the Yalta Conference and weeks before his death, that he was a man we cant do business with. Roosevelts Executive Order 9066 forced the relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps. More than 415,000 soldiers were killed. Harry S. Truman Taking in all the intelligence possible, Harry Truman decided on dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. It proved to be the necessary step in ending the war altogether. Truman made crucial mistakes during the Korean War by taking a backseat to Gen. Douglas MacArthur until they came to political blows, leading to MacArthurs unpopular firing. The Berlin Airlift under Truman was a feat of unimaginable ingenuity and bravery, which proved that the United States would not stand down against the USSR. Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower had been the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II and made the promise in his presidential campaign that he would go to Korea. He went less than a month after being elected. Eight months later the war came to its armistice. As militarily brilliant as he was, there were several gaffes under his presidency, including the U-2 disaster and the planning of the soon-to-fail Bay of Pigs operation. John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedys decision to green light the Bay of Pigs operation was riddled with indecision, which cost the operation more than it should have. A year and a half later, the Cuban Missile Crisis put the world on edge. The Soviet Union agreed to remove the ballistic missiles from Cuba and the United States agreed not to invade Cuba and to remove missiles from Turkey. The Crisis proved the leadership of Kennedy. Lyndon B. Johnson We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. Lyndon B. Johnson did not stay true to his words. There were approximately 20,000 military personnel in Vietnam at the time of Kennedys assassination in 1963. By 1968, there were nearly 550,000 on the mainland, with more than 30,000 already killed, and no end in sight. Ronald Reagan When Ronald Reagan took office, the Iran Hostage Crisis came to an abrupt end. His presidency was one of icy determination, especially against the communist threat. His relationships with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and even Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union, gave him the courage to call the USSR the evil empire and tell Gorbachev in a Berlin speech to tear down this wall. His fierce determination almost proved fatal to his presidency in the Iran-Contra saga. George H.W. Bush In what might be the most strategic plan and quickest outcome in modern warfare history, Americans came to the aid of Kuwaitis when Iraqi troops attacked. Operation Desert Storm was completed in 42 days. George W. Bush George W. Bushs presidency began with 9/11 and the declaration of the War on Terror. Authorized for war against Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has remained embroiled there for decades, as the War in Afghanistan now stands as Americas longest-lasting war. The recent publication of the Afghanistan Papers shows an aimless direction within leadership. Barack Obama Barack Obama utilized the technology of drones to kill ISIS fighters, authorizing 542 drone strikes that killed approximately 3,500 insurgents, as well as 324 civilians. He approved of the NATO strike that helped overthrow Libyas leader, Muammar Gaddafi. His lack of foresight into the aftermath of Gaddafis overthrow proved to be what he called the worst mistake of his presidency. His red line threat against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, however, proved to be empty. Presidents take on the role of Commander-in-Chief, which is a role that provides immense power and undergoes intense criticism. In the moment, every military decision is immediately favorable or unfavorable. But more often than not, its history that decides whether those decisions were the right ones to make. Dustin Bass is the co-founder of The Sons of History, a YouTube series and weekly podcast about all things history. He is a former-journalist-turned-entrepreneur. He is also an author. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. 3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Not more than a week ago, the question wasnt whether Bernie Sanders would do well on Super Tuesday, but how well he would do. But a week is a lifetime in politics and Joe Bidens landslide victories in Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama on Tuesday night could be a sign that hes about to have a huge Super Tuesday. According to Dave Wasserman of Cook Political Report, Bidens crushing victories in Virginia and North Carolina two huge states on the primary map could be a sign that the former VP is on his way to winning a majority of Super Tuesday delegates. Folks, Joe Biden could be on track to win a clear plurality (if not majority) of the 1,357 Super Tuesday delegates at state, Wasserman said after North Carolina was called for Biden. Folks, Joe Biden could be on track to win a clear plurality (if not majority) of the 1,357 Super Tuesday delegates at stake. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 4, 2020 Bidens big wins could offset a slim loss in California Bernie Sanders has been banking on a big win in California to offset any victories Biden has in other Super Tuesday states. But as Biden racked up big early wins in Virginia and North Carolina, it is the former vice president who may be able to offset a slim California loss by huge wins in other states. As Wasserman noted, Bidens margin in Virginia alone could make up the delegate difference of slight Sanders win in California, Super Tuesdays biggest prize. Biden at 57% in Henrico, 55% in Chesterfield, 50% in Arlington, he said. This is an absolute shellacking at this rate, VA alone could offset a slim Sanders margin in CA. Biden at 57% in Henrico, 55% in Chesterfield, 50% in Arlington. This is an absolute shellacking at this rate, VA alone could offset a slim Sanders margin in CA. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 4, 2020 Over the past 48 hours, it was clear that Joe Biden had the wind at his back. But his strong early performance in key states on Super Tuesday could make up for a handful of losses he has later on and he could end up walking away with a plurality (or even majority) of the nights delegates. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter Bubba Laws was given only weeks to live. Pancreatic stones caused a buildup of enzymes in the 69-year-old's liver, which destroyed the organ and left him needing a new one. Bubba's health began to deteriorate while he waited four months for a living liver donor. Making things bleaker, none of his family members were a match. I was on my way out and I knew it. I had already accepted death, the San Antonio resident said. I was already planning my funeral, and I was ready to go. Against her father's wishes, Bubba's eldest daughter, Kim Pendergraft, made a plea in November on Facebook for anyone willing to be a living donor. My dad is very proud and asked not to get anyone involved because he didnt want to burden anyone, but I just saw him getting sicker and sicker and I felt like I had to do something, Pendergraft said. I felt like if he died and I did nothing, I would always regret it. I thought if I tried and it didnt work, at least I know I did my best. Pendergraft's decision paid off. READ ALSO: Retired San Antonio firefighter publishes series of short stories of dramatic calls he responded to Kerrville firefighter Blair Casey and his wife, Michelle, who have been friends with Pendergraft and her husband for a decade, saw her post on Facebook and decided to get tested. The two had never met Bubba, but said it felt like the right thing to do. Being a firefighter, you get to help people all the time but, even if Im not there, there will always be another firefighter or paramedic in my place and this was a chance for me to help a person out when there may not be anybody else behind me to help them, Blair said. After nearly two days of testing, Blair and Michelle both ended up as matches. Doctors choose Blairs liver because it was larger and a closer match. He would be donating 65 percent of the organ. There was one more obstacle: Bubba's stubbornness. READ ALSO: Kyle barber goes 'above and beyond' for his first autistic client, says experience was 'humbling' Pendergraft and the Caseys keep the donation a secret because, the believed, the retired Houston police officer wouldn't go through with the transplant if he knew it came from his daughters friend. He would have refused it from the get-go, hes just a stubborn old man, Blair said laughing. The surgeries were scheduled for Jan. 7, under the guise that Bubba was receiving an anonymous donation. Blair would undergo a five-hour surgery followed by Bubba's seven-hour operation. Pendergraft said it was nerve-wracking to keep the secret from her father for so long, especially on the morning of the surgeries as both families had to pretend to not know each other in the waiting room of the University Transplant Center. While they waited, Bubba began speaking to the Caseys as he passed them on the way to the restroom. READ ALSO: Viral San Antonio Kid bull rider gets to experience real-life rodeo action (Bubba) looked at Blair and said, this young man doesnt look sick, why is he here?' and went and asked him, you ready for this? said Bubba's wife, Pam. And Blair is frantically texting Kim, worried that they had been found out, but Bubba didnt know so we told them to keep calm. Blair and Bubba would meet again in less than 24 hours after their successful surgeries. As soon as Casey walked into the hospital room, Bubba recognized him as the young man from the waiting room and quickly figured it out. I was flimflammed, Bubba said laughing. When I saw him, my mind went control, alt, delete. I couldnt even talk. And I said Kim, Im going to get you. After the initial shock wore off, Bubba said it was like he gained a son and daughter in the Caseys that day. If Blair and Michelle hadnt stepped up, I would have been a dead man, he added. Now I realize how dumb I was for not wanting anyone to help me Blair is my hero; he saved my life and I consider myself a lucky dog. Blair was released five days after the surgery but returned to visit Bubba, who remained in the hospital for two weeks to recover. He stepped up and he gave me a new lease on life and there is no way I can ever repay him for that, Bubba said. It will take Blair an entire year to fully regrow his liver and recover completely. He joked that the most difficult part about the recovery is not being able to drink alcohol for a year while his liver regains full functionality. Especially with these cold nights we have been having, a whiskey by the fire sounds pretty good, Casey said. Both families said Bubba's circumstance made them realize how important it is to raise awareness about becoming a living donor. Im ashamed to say that even as a paramedic being in the medical field, I didnt even know a lot about living donations until I saw that Facebook post, Casey said. To see how to become a living donor, visit match.org or contact University Hospital for more information. Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway Each year, approximately $25 billion is wasted paying for so-called renewable energy, overwhelmingly wind and solar. This is the excess cost of the renewable energy versus what it would cost to generate the same amount of electricity in existing fossil fuel plants. Because many states have accelerating legal quotas for renewable energy, called renewable portfolio laws, the money wasted each year will approximately double in the next 10 years to $50 billion each year. If the states fail to come to their senses and continue to pursue these laws, another doubling by 2040 to $100 billion per year is likely. In the state of Nevada, for example, the increasing cost of electricity will likely be equivalent to a 4% state income tax by 2030. The renewable energy industry has powerful sources of support for its program to make money by fooling the public. There are many effective lies, repeated over and over. Long-term contracts for wind or solar electricity at $25 or $30 per megawatt-hour are touted as proving that renewable electricity is replacing "more expensive" fossil fuel electricity. A close examination of the cost of renewable electricity, either wind or solar, shows that the real cost of this electricity is not $25 per megawatt-hour, but around $80 per megawatt-hour. The difference is the federal and state subsidies. A good chunk of those federal subsidies are set to go away by 2022. Then there is the matter of replacing fossil fuel electricity. Wind or solar electricity displaces some fossil fuel electricity, but neither ever replaces the plants used to generate fossil fuel electricity. The fossil fuel plants are throttled back when the wind or solar is generating electricity. But sometimes wind and solar are asleep. At those times, the fossil fuel plants have to power the grid without any help from the wind or solar plants. Nothing is replaced by building wind or solar plants. A dual system is created with dependable fossil fuel plants supplemented by erratically operating wind or solar plants. When fossil fuel plants are replaced, they are replaced by newer fossil fuel plants. Often natural gas replaces coal. The idea that introducing renewable electricity in the USA will reduce CO2 emissions and thus save the world from a global warming catastrophe makes no sense because most CO2 emissions, by a wide margin, are coming from other countries, especially China and India. Further, U.S. emissions are declining due to energy conservation and switching from coal to natural gas. Emissions in Asia are skyrocketing. If the U.S. fans of wind and solar really believed in the coming climate catastrophe, they would be worrying about what China and India are doing, not what the U.S. electric utility industry is doing. The real believers in the climate catastrophe, if they are also numerically literate, point out that nuclear electricity is the only serious road to reducing CO2 emissions. Some of these climate alarmists are James Hansen; Michael Shellenberger; Stewart Brand; and, before he ran for president, Michael Bloomberg. For a lengthy list of prominent persons supporting nuclear to prevent climate change, look here. The environmental organizations have a problem with nuclear in that it was their fundraising scare catastrophe back in the '70s and '80s. It's hard for them to reverse their position and face the reality that nuclear is the only way to really reduce emissions at reasonable cost. My own opinion, based on considerable study, is that global warming, now called climate change, is something between science fiction and a hoax. The side-effect of the alleged catastrophe is turning obscure academics, in obscure disciplines, into rock stars. Predicting a catastrophe is a really good method of getting attention. The temptation to cut scientific corners to get in on the bonanza is irresistible. On the other hand, if a scientist refuses to go along, he is seen as killing the goose that lays golden eggs, and he may well be purged. Openly global warmingskeptical scientists are vastly outnumbered by those who are closeted. The only economic benefit of wind or solar energy is a reduction in fuel consumption in the existing fossil fuel plants. The marginal cost of fuel in a natural gas generating plant is around $15 per megawatt-hour. Wind or solar electricity costs, without subsidies, about $80 per megawatt-hour. The $65 difference has to be made up by a subsidy from someone, in practice the taxpayers or the consumers of electricity. Because the renewable portfolio laws mandate increasing use of renewable electricity, if the federal subsidies go away, the price of electricity will increase. The saddest thing about the response to the renewable energy scandal, or the global warming hoax, is that the people and institutions that know better lack the courage to speak up. Or, in some cases, they even join perpetrators of the scandal for their own profit. The international oil companies have vast financial resources. They employ thousands of scientists. It is not in their stockholders' financial interest to be made into villains supposedly trying to destroy the Earth via global warming. At one time, before the eco-left gained huge political influence, the oil companies were open skeptics. In 1997, Exxon's CEO, Lee Raymond, himself a Ph.D., made a speech clearly pointing out the scientific weaknesses in the predictions of a global warming catastrophe. But now Exxon and other oil companies are careful not to criticize global warming, and they constantly publish propaganda concerning their attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. Of course, their product, oil, is one of the main sources of CO2 emissions. If they dared to be openly critical of global warming theory, or if they made donations to skeptical organizations, they could expect serious political attacks. These companies with vast wealth and knowledge have been intimidated into keeping quiet. They also give what is, in my opinion, protection money to various organizations that push global warming alarmism for example, the American Geophysical Union. It may be too much to expect that companies whose purpose is to make money will take a principled stand, even if only to protect their long-term interests. These companies also build solar and wind generating facilities. But due to government subsidies and policies, these projects may actually be profitable for the developer. It's the public that is screwed. Members of the academic and scientific communities who write about global warming, or renewable energy, cower in fear that they might say something that sounds skeptical. It is difficult to do good scientific work if you are afraid of countering the dominant conventional wisdom. The few public skeptics are ornery types with good pensions or fat bank accounts. They are usually depicted as being slightly daffy or as being in the pay of oil companies. The oil companies probably would be hesitant to issue a gas credit card to these skeptics, much less actually hire one for any reason. These public skeptics are the real scientists. The other are charlatans. There is reason for optimism. The danger of global warming ranks low in the public mind. If Trump is re-elected, there is a good chance that the fake science will be faced with greater skepticism. The federal subsidies for renewable energy could be entirely eliminated. But if Trump is defeated, all the prospective Democrat candidates are fully loony-tunes on the subject of global warming and renewable energy. Norman Rogers is the author of the book Dumb Energy: A Critique of Wind and Solar Energy. He is a member of the CO2 Coalition. Liam Hemsworth's new girlfriend Gabriella Brooks made the most of a visit to Byron Bay on Tuesday. The 23-year-old model seemed determined to soak up the last rays of summer with a solo trip to a local beach. Gabriella is currently visiting Byron Bay with Liam, 30, whose big brother Chris Hemsworth, 36, resides in the coastal New South Wales town with his family. Beach babe: Gabriella Brooks made the most of a visit to Byron Bay on Tuesday. The 23-year-old model girlfriend of Liam Hemsworth visited a local beach alone The stunner flaunted her beach body in a pair of red and yellow striped bikini bottoms, which she teamed with a yellow bikini top. Gabriella arrived at the beach wearing a pair of pale blue denim shorts and dark sunglasses. She held her phone in one hand and was seen listening to music as she walked along the sand. Sealed with a kiss: Gabriella has reportedly been dating Liam Hemsworth since December. Pictured together at the beach in Byron Bay in January Tide down: Gabriella is currently visiting Byron Bay with Liam, 30, whose big brother Chris Hemsworth, 36, resides in the coastal New South Wales town with his family Life's a beach: The stunning Australian model flaunted her beach body in a pair of red and yellow striped bikini bottoms, which she teamed with a yellow bikini top Seas the day: Gabriella arrived at the beach wearing a pair of pale blue denim shorts and dark sunglasses After removing her shorts, Gabriella sat on the sand for a while, contemplating the ocean, before finally braving the water. Sticking to the shoreline, she waded through the breaking waves, running her hands through her wet hair. A seemingly chilly Gabriella later made her way back along to the sand to where she'd left her belongings. Where there's a will, there's a wave: After removing her shorts, Gabriella sat on the sand for a while, contemplating the ocean, before finally braving the water Meet the parents: Liam and Gabriella were first spotted having lunch with his parents, Craig and Leonie, in Byron Bay in mid-December Beach bum: More than three months into their relationship, Liam and Gabriella continue to go from strength to strength, according to a report by Us Weekly on Monday As she walked along the beach, Gabriella took a moment to check that her top was still in place. She then flipped her head upside down and proceeded to tie her long dark blonde hair up in a topknot with a yellow scrunchie. Collecting her shorts in one hand, Gabriella then left the beach, looking deep in thought as she walked. Tropic like its hot: Sticking to the shoreline, she waded through the breaking waves, running her hands through her wet hair 'He feels more at home with Gabriella than he did with Miley [Cyrus] and feels like he can be his complete self without any drama,' a source told Us Weekly of Liam Heating up: According to a report by People back in January, Liam's relationship with Gabriella was 'serious' from early on Liam and Gabriella were first spotted having lunch with his parents, Craig and Leonie, in Byron Bay in mid-December. And more than three months into their relationship, they continue to go from strength to strength, according to a report by Us Weekly on Monday. 'He feels more at home with Gabriella than he did with Miley [Cyrus] and feels like he can be his complete self without any drama,' a source told the publication. 'They are very happy together and it's comfortable and easy,' a source told Us weekly of Liam and Gabriella's fledgling romance 'They have spent a lot of time in Australia together,' a source told People. 'Gabriella has met Liam's siblings and his parents' Getting her vitamin sea: A seemingly chilly Gabriella later made her way back along to the sand to where she'd left her belongings They added: 'Gabriella helped Liam boost his confidence and played an encouraging role in his life after his split with Miley. 'They are very happy together and it's comfortable and easy.' According to a report by People back in January, Liam's relationship with Gabriella was 'serious' from early on. Moving on: It's the second relationship for Liam since he split from his wife, Miley Cyrus, in August last year, after less than eight months of marriage Keeping abreast of the situation: As she walked along the beach, Gabriella took a moment to check that her top was still in place Happiness comes in waves: According to a recent by Us Weekly in December, the Isn't It Romantic star is 'happy to be moving on' following his turbulent split from Miley, 27 'They have spent a lot of time in Australia together,' said a source. 'Gabriella has met Liam's siblings and his parents.' The couple reportedly share many of the same interests, and Liam has apparently 'been in a great mood' since hooking up with the model at the end of last year. It's the second relationship for Liam since he split from his wife, Miley Cyrus, in August last year, after less than eight months of marriage. Flipping out: She then flipped her head upside down and proceeded to tie her long dark blonde hair up in a topknot with a yellow scrunchie Getting swept up: Standing on the beach, a soaking wet Gabriella scooped her long blonde hair into an updo Resting beach face: Collecting her shorts in one hand, Gabriella then left the beach, looking deep in thought as she walked In October, he stepped out with Australian actress Maddison Brown, 22, in New York, but their relationship proved to be short-lived. According to a recent by Us Weekly in December, the Isn't It Romantic star is 'happy to be moving on' following his turbulent split from Miley, 27. 'Liam feels comfortable with Gabriella. His family approves of her and really likes her, which is very important to him,' a source told the publication at the time. WASHINGTON - Joe Biden's no kid, but he knows how to stage a comeback. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, speaks next to his wife Jill during a primary election night rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) WASHINGTON - Joe Biden's no kid, but he knows how to stage a comeback. The former vice-president, whose bid for the Democratic presidential nomination was on life support two weeks ago, now finds himself on an ideological collision course with self-styled political revolutionary Bernie Sanders after a convincing South Carolina win catapulted him into a dominant primary performance on Super Tuesday. Many had given him up for dead last month in Nevada when Biden, 77, tried to conjure comparisons to Bill Clinton's out-of-nowhere nomination in 1992, the year the former Arkansas governor christened himself the "Comeback Kid" in New Hampshire, scored a pivotal win in Georgia and went on to dismantle his rivals. The night before the Georgia primary, a desperate Clinton turned to Gordon Giffin, a key adviser in the state and future U.S. ambassador to Canada, and asked for his prediction. "You're going to get 60 per cent of the vote," Giffin replied. "He said, 'Well, don't repeat that in public, because I don't need 60 per cent of the vote, I only need 51.' "And then, he looked at me and he said, 'And if I lose tomorrow, it's over.' We were that close to Bill Clinton not making it." Biden, who has staked his campaign on his experience as Barack Obama's right-hand man, is still a long way from clinching the Democratic nomination. But the barriers have been falling away with breathtaking speed. Pete Buttigieg, the one-time mayor of South Bend, Ind., whose unlikely campaign finally ran out of steam in South Carolina, called it quits on Sunday, followed the next day by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Both endorsed Biden. Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg his multimillion-dollar ad blitzes and dismal debate performances yielding nothing but the six delegates of American Samoa followed suit Wednesday after Biden laid claim to at least nine of the 14 states on offer, including delegate-laden Texas, Klobuchar stronghold Minnesota and a southern sweep that included Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama. "I am clear-eyed about our overriding objective, and that is victory in November not victory for me or our campaign, but victory for our country," Bloomberg told a rally in New York City. "I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it, and after yesterday's race, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden." Biden even won Massachusetts, where progressive challenger Elizabeth Warren posted a disappointing third in her home state. Warren was reportedly meeting with advisers Wednesday, fuelling speculation about how much longer she might stay in the race, and whether she'd support a rival if she gets out. That leaves just Sanders, who claimed Utah, Colorado and his home state of Vermont, and was enjoying a comfortable lead in still-counting California, a liberal bastion of young Bernie supporters where 415 pledged delegates are up for grabs. "My guess is that after California is thrown into the hopper, it's going to be pretty close ... I think we go forward basically neck and neck," Sanders said, framing Biden as a politics-as-usual establishment candidate as he predicted a dogfight over free trade when the race shifts to Michigan later this week. "I think some of the issues that the people of Michigan are concerned about are trade," Sanders said. "They were devastated by trade agreements like NAFTA and PNTR (Permanent Normal Trade Relations) with China trade agreements which I vigorously opposed, and which Joe Biden supported." Sanders, whose campaign strategy aims to mobilize young, disenfranchised voters, admitted that he's not been satisfied with the results of that effort so far. "We're making some progress, but historically, everybody knows that young people do not vote in the kinds of numbers that old people vote in. I think that will change in the general election, but to be honest with you, we have not done as well in bringing young people into the political process. It is not easy." Like Clinton in 1992, Biden's surge had a lot to do with his popularity with black voters, who lined up behind the former vice-president in South Carolina after he won the coveted endorsement of Rep. James Clyburn, one of the state's most powerful political figures. "He did not have the fundraising prowess that other candidates had," Clyburn said Wednesday on CNN. "A victory or two would cure that. So when he won the South Carolina primary and won it so decisively, overnight his money problems got cured." To be sure, a well-timed win in a single primary race can literally change everything. Just ask Bill Clinton. "By the way, we got 59.6 per cent of the vote the next day, which made me brilliant," Giffin joked. "I'm smart and I have a long background in Canada, but one of the reasons why I was the ambassador to Canada was the Georgia primary in 1992." This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle A court here on Tuesday acquitted terror suspect Syed Abdul Karim alias Tunda in the 1998 Hyderabad conspiracy case. The Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court acquitted Tunda of the charges due to lack of evidence. Defence Counsel K. Saifullah told reporters that the court acquitted his client of all charges. Tunda, a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative and bomb expert, is an accused in 1998 Saleem Junaid module case that was booked by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Hyderabad Central Crime Station. Tunda, 77, was arrested by central agencies in 2013 on the India-Nepal border. Currently lodged in Ghaziabad jail, he is facing terror charges in various places in the country. Tunda allegedly trained youngsters to commit terror activities in India. He along with Junaid, a Pakistani national, allegedly conspired to commit a terror strike during Ganesh festival in Hyderabad in 1998. The lawyer said Tunda was facing conspiracy charges. He was also charged under the Arms Act, Explosives Act and Passport Act. A YouTuber has been handed a 50-year jail sentence for plotting the kidnapping of a lawyer in Mexico two years ago, the state prosecutor's office announced on Monday. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, instructed a gang of five men to abduct Thania Denisse Medina Rodriguez, 33, on February 28, 2018. The men bundled her into a SUV in the northern state of Chihuahua as she was leaving work. Loera Acosta rented the house where the victim was held captive and demanded a ransom of $2 million in Bitcoins to secure the woman's freedom. German Abraham Loera Acosta was sentenced to 50 years in jail on Monday for directing his gang of five men in the kidnapping of a lawyer in northeastern Mexico in February 2018. Loera Acosta was known on YouTuber for sharing motivational messages German Abraham Loera Acosta (top left) and his henchmen were handed 50-year jail sentences for their roles in the February 28, 2018, abduction of Thania Denisse Medina Rodriguez, a lawyer in the Mexican state of Chihuahua The lawyer was freed in a March 2, 2018, operation after authorities were able to discover their location through a series of encrypted messages that were intercepted. A second raid at a nearby home resulted in the arrest of Loera Acosta and four of his henchmen. A sixth suspect was arrested days later. The prosecutor's office said that Jassiel Omar Molina Ceballos, Jesus Adrian Mendoza Perez, Edgar Rene Subias Rubalcaba, Jesus Arnulfo Ochoa Martinez y Juan Alfonso Puerta Holguin were each sentenced to 50 years behind bars. The judge who presided over the kidnapping case ordered each of the six suspects to pay a $25,600 fine to the victim. Loera Acosta was the owner of a InnLab, a marketing company that managed several accounts for local companies in Mexico. He also became widely known for motivational speeches that he shared on his Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as his YouTube channel 'GermanLoeraMX.' Aside from leading a gang of kidnappers in Mexico, German Abraham Loera Acosta made a name for himself as a motivational speaker and was an invited guest at the World Congress of Youth Leaders for Peace that was held in Mexico City in June 2017 Loera Acosta billed himself as a 'full-time entrepreneur' on the video-sharing platform, adding: 'I think the only limitation we have is our mind. I write, think and initiate.' The kidnapping ring leader was a guest speaker at the World Congress of Youth Leaders for Peace that was held in Mexico City in June 2017. Weeks before his appearance at the conference, Loera Acosta implored his young followers to 'get out of their comfort levels' by traveling the world. 'Traveling is extremely important for an entrepreneur,' Loera Acosta said on his YouTube channel. Traveling makes you leave the comfort zone and therefore grow; No matter how much you do it, just get out of your comfort zone and go for new opportunities.' WeChat, the messaging app has been censoring words related to coronavirus or COVID-19 since January 1, a study suggests. YY, a live streaming app in China, has also been doing the same. According to a study by Toronto-based Citizen Labs, the period of free information has ended. The number of blacklisted words for WeChat increased from 132 to almost around 500. This happened between within a span of a few weeks from January 1 and February 15 when the outbreak was at its peak. WeChat is owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Tencent has reportedly been helping people track misinformation and hoaxes about the virus. BuzzFeed News reports that WeChat is more complicated, as its servers censor everything. If a person tries to send a message that includes the banned keywords, that message will not show up at all. The researchers from Citizen Labs then took a sample of keywords and ran them through three regions. One was a registered number in China and two were registered numbers in Canada. According to study, YY banned 45 keywords in December last year. YY's blacklist is in the app itself whereas WeChat uses a remote server for censorship. The ban of these keywords possibly comes in light after eight doctors were arrested for spreading rumours. One of these doctors, Dr Li Wenliang contracted the virus after treating patients infected with the virus. Wenliang died on February 17. He came to be known as the whistleblower who tried to keep people informed about the virus. The blacklisted keyword combinations mainly revolved around discussions of Chinese leaders' responses to the endemic, government's policies on curbing the outbreak and references to Li Wenliang. The keywords are reportedly removed by comparing an image to see if they match with the blacklisted image. A method called optical character recognition (OCR) is used to filter out keywords if they are found in any of the images shared through the app. WeChat has a large user-base with over a billion people. There is no clarity as to why the two companies have banned the keywords. There are speculations, however, that WeChat and YY received orders from the Chinese government to blacklist the keywords. Lotus Ruan, a researcher who worked on the study told BuzzFeed that these bans are not just restricted to China but will be applicable even when they move abroad. HAMDEN Sydney Reynolds, a graduate student at Quinnipiac University, flew back to Connecticut from Rome Monday, spurred by the spread of the coronavirus. She said Wednesday, however, that she was not checked for the virus at John F. Kennedy airport or in Rome and shared her concerns that the American public is being misinformed or confused about the level of screening that is going on. It was kind of insane that there was no screening at all, but even more concerning that it was promised to people, said Reynolds. President Donald J. Trump tweeted Sunday that passengers certain designated high risk countries, or areas within those countries, would be screened at American airports. At a Saturday press conference, Vice President Mike Pence said Trump had told the State Department to work with Italy and South Korea to screen travelers heading to the United States, according to the New York Post. Officials with the New York City Port Authority, which includes JFK, directed a request for information and comment to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday. CDC officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The CDC announced Jan. 17 that passengers from Wuhan, China would be screened at three U.S. airports, including JFK, then expanded that process to 20 American airports by Jan. 30, according to press reports. https://www.ctinsider.com/ctpost/item/Coronavirus-Updates-95020.php with the text New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, during a press conference Feb. 26, urged the federal government to begin checking travelers from other countries, including Italy. Reynolds said a friend traveling to the U.S. Tuesday from Italy also reported not being screened. She said COVID-19 had not had a major impact on Trastevere, the Roman neighborhood where she had been living, while she was there. A few more people had started wearing masks, though, and it had become the main topic of conversation among the students studying in the city, she said. She said the media has hyped the dangers of the disease, prompting some undue level of concern, and noted that people had avoided coming into close contact with her after she returned to Connecticut. No cases of the virus had been reported in the state as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. Quinnipiac University advised its 29 students studying in Italy to return to Connecticut last week out of an abundance of caution, university officials said in a statement. John W. Morgan, Quinnipiac University, Associate Vice President for Public Relations, said he could not comment on the issue Reynolds raised. But Morgan said Quinnipiac students who were studying in Italy are required to return home (not to any of our campuses) and self-isolate there for a minimum of 14 days. This approach is consistent with CDC guidelines and in an abundance of caution for the well-being of others, Morgan said. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com - Health CS Kagwe said the North part of Italy was badly hit by coronavirus thus allowing visitors from the area could pose safety concers - Flights from Verona and Milan which fly most tourists to Kenyan coast, will be the most affected by the new directive - No case has been confirmed in Kenya even as the government stepped up its response mechanisms following public uproar The government and the Italian Embassy in Kenya have resolved to suspend a section of flights from Italy effective Tuesday, March 3. The newly appointed Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the North part of Italy was badly hit by coronavirus thus allowing visitors from the area could affect safety of Kenyans. READ ALSO: Parliament cancels MPs' trip to US over coronavirus, asks them to refund per diems CS Kagwe-led committee met Italian Embassy in Kenya and resolved to block all flights from North Italy. Photo: Ministry of Health. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Wafuasi zaidi wa Nabii Owuor wadai miujiza yake ni feki Travelers or those connecting flights from Verona and Milan which fly most tourists to Kenyan coast, will be the most affected by the new directive. Italy has recorded at least 2,036 cases out of which 52 died from the disease as at Tuesday, March 3. Following consultations with the Italian Embassy and stakeholders, the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus has concluded that flights from North of Italy, specifically Verona and Milan which usually has direct chartered flights to our coast be suspended effective March 3, 2020, he stated. President Uhuru recently merged two committees on coronavirus in favor of the national emergency team. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta. Source: Facebook Even though no case has been confirmed in Kenya, the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus chaired by Kagwe said it will continue to monitor the situation nonetheless. President Uhuru Kenyatta recently merged the Cabinet ad hoc committee on health and the inter-ministerial technical committee on government response to coronavirus in favor of the emergency team. No case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Kenya despite heavy passenger flows into the country. Photo: Getty Images. Source: Getty Images Part of the new team's roles include spearheading identification and preparation of isolation facilities in all level five and referral hospitals by Sunday, March 15. Other key functions of the response committee are enhancing surveillance at all ports and all entry points as well as supply of testing kits, masks and other protective gears. To step up its preparedness, the government directed completion of an isolation facility at Mbagathi Hospital in seven days' time. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Being a virgin in campus: University students tell us the benefits | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke President Akufo-Addos expected visit to the European Parliament has been postponed, Ghana Embassy in Brussels has communicated. In an official statement from the Embassy copied to the ECOWAS and UEMOA representation, it indicated the postponement has become necessary to allow the European Parliament put down precautionary measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). President Akufo-Addo was to participate in the ECR-Africa summit scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2020, at the EU Parliament. However, the Ghana Embassy in Brussels has indicated it will avail itself of this opportunity to renew to all African Missions, the ECOWAS and the EUMOA Representations the assurances of its highest considerations. It is now hoped that the summit, which brings together business figures and politicians from across Africa and Europe, can be reorganised for a date in early July. A spokesman said: The postponement is an unavoidable disappointment, and we apologise to our stakeholders for the change in plan. We have taken a measured and responsible approach on public health grounds. Our ambitions remain to create a closer relationship between Africa and Europe with a summit later this year when circumstances allow. ---Starrfm.com Different pokes for different folks, the writer Denis Hamill said on Twitter. City correction officials have repeatedly declined to discuss why Mr. Weinstein is being held at the hospital rather than in a cell at Rikers Island. Any suggestion that Mr. Weinstein is receiving special treatment is false, said Peter Thorne, a spokesman for the Department of Correction. He has access to the same services as anyone else at his location, no more, no less. Mr. Rothfeld agreed with the department. Everyone thinks he has a sweetheart deal, but he doesnt, he said of Mr. Weinstein. Hes in the hospital, but hes still in a prison cell a regular cell, with a toilet open for the world to see. Mr. Rothfeld said that quite a bit of work went into getting Mr. Weinstein sent to Bellevue. To persuade Justice Burke to recommend the hospital, he and Mr. Weinsteins lawyers submitted copies of his medical prescriptions and a notarized letter from a doctor certifying his physical disability. It helped Mr. Weinsteins argument, he said, that over the summer the celebrity investor Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in the Manhattan federal jail cell where he was awaiting prosecution on sex-trafficking charges. Because of Mr. Epsteins death, there were now major security issues surrounding high-profile people, Mr. Rothfeld said. It is likely that Mr. Epsteins suicide is being taken into account by jail officials in their decision to keep Mr. Weinstein at Bellevue rather than transferring him to Rikers, according to one former jail official and one city official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Department of Correction practices. The city official said that keeping Mr. Weinstein at Bellevue was extremely unusual. Rikers inmates are normally not housed at the hospital for an extended period unless they have serious medical problems. CHICO, Calif. -Several California State University, Chico students are going to have to return from overseas due to the cancellation of some university foreign exchange programs because of concerns about coronavirus. On Mar. 1, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) asked U.S. institutions of higher education to "consider postponing or canceling student foreign exchange programs." Chico State officials said Tuesday that they are continuing to communicate with students and staff on the ground as they evaluate sites and risk factors. Some Chico State students are part of the broader California State University International Programs. That CSU program has canceled its international programs of study in China and Korea. Students placed in those countries have left or are currently in the process of leaving. Even though CSUC officials said they do not have any students currently in the most highly impacted areas of Italy, they said the numbers in Italy indicate that the virus exists in all regions of Italy and is increasing. It is because of this that all of the Chico State students in Italy are coming home. Chico has three Italian study programs that have now been canceled. The University is assisting students with finding coursework in order to keep them on track. In addition, five students from Chico State are part of the California State University International Programs in Florence, Italy. On Tuesday CSU officials determined that they should suspend their program for the spring semester. Online courses will be offered to allow for the academic progress of those students, who will be returning home to the United States soon. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 11:03:45|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian experts at a three-day bushfire workshop have established recovery strategies for wildlife on Kangaroo Island. Almost a third of Kangaroo Island, in the state of South Australia, was burned by bushfire that raged between December and February, devastating wildlife and infrastructure and killing two people. In the wake of the fires, Australia's Threatened Species Commissioner Sally Box identified the Kangaroo Island dunnart, a small marsupial, as the species most in need of assistance. The workshop has produced strategies for the recovery of the dunnart, Kangaroo Island Glossy Black Cockatoo, Green Carpenter bee and Kangaroo Island echidna. "We have been working with local partners on Kangaroo Island for five years now, supporting them with the science and tools they need to effectively manage threatened species including the KI Dunnart," Brendan Wintle, Director of the National Environmental Science Program, said in a media release. "The scale and intensity of the fires on Kangaroo Island has, sadly, pushed back years of dedicated conservation efforts for species such as the KI Glossy Black Cockatoo, (which lost 80 percent of its feeding habitat in the fires). We are here to continue helping Kangaroo Island conservation managers with this massive new challenge they face," he said. Ecologists estimated that the KI dunnart population had fallen to fewer than 500 before the devastating fires. A 35 hectare fenced area has been established on the island to protect dunnarts from feral cats, their biggest predators. [March 04, 2020] Moore opens Richmond Print Group investing $31 million in industry-leading technology RICHMOND, Va., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Moore, a leading provider of performance-driven marketing solutions, announces the opening of Richmond Print Group, a Moore company. Moore is investing $31 million to create the new state-of-the-art printing and envelope production facility at the former Colortree location in Richmond. Company leaders joined Governor Ralph Northam and other state and local officials at the Henrico facility to commemorate the opening. Richmond Print Group will produce direct marketing materials, including envelopes, and will bring 239 new jobs to the area. "With the $31 million investment, we are making a commitment to our industry, employees and customers that Richmond Print Group will be the most advanced data driven facility in the industry," said Gretchen Littlefield, CEO of Moore. "We know our investment in technology and people will help our clients fund more of their life changing work." Moore provides services across all aspects of consumer engagement including strategy, production, digital, media, technology and fulfillment, to drive business results for nonprofit, association, commercial and government clients. To celebrate the opening of Richmond Print Group, the companyhonored their veterans service organization clients by hosting a community service project. Moore employees assembled more than 1,500 care packages that were donated to USO of Hampton Roads and Central Virginia. The care packages, which included snacks and personal items, will be distributed to traveling service members at the USO center located in Richmond International Airport. "As committed as we are to our clients, we are equally as committed to giving back to the vibrant communities where we live and work," Littlefield added. "We're proud to show our support for the brave men and women of the armed forces who transit this area by the thousands each month. We hope these items provide a touch of home and make their travel a little easier." As a result of the Moore investment in the most state-of-the-art technology employees that work at Richmond Print Group will be the next generation of printers and marketers. Anyone interested in the employment opportunities at the Richmond Print Group should email resumes to [email protected]. About Moore Moore is a global leader in performance-driven marketing solutions focused on all facets of the consumer experience. Comprised of 33 companies with more than 2,500 employees, Moore is dedicated to helping clients fulfill their missions. The organization provides services including strategic consulting, creative development, media planning and buying, research and analytics, production management and product fulfillment, database services and public relations to nonprofit, association, commercial and government clients, and is a key contributor to strengthening these sectors. Contact: Meredith Resnick Email: [email protected] Phone: 202-549-0807 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moore-opens-richmond-print-group-investing-31-million-in-industry-leading-technology-301016740.html SOURCE Moore [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By AFP TEHRAN: Coronavirus has claimed 77 lives in Iran, officials said on Tuesday, as the emergency services chief became the latest high-ranking official to be infected in the deadliest outbreak outside China. Iran has scrambled to halt the rapid spread of the virus, shutting schools and universities, suspending major cultural and sporting events, and cutting back on work hours. On Tuesday it announced another 11 deaths and 835 new infections -- the biggest increase in a single day since the COVID-19 outbreak began in the Islamic republic nearly two weeks ago. "According to the latest figures, 835 new patients have been added" to the overall number of infections, Iran's stand-in deputy health minister Alireza Raisi said. "Unfortunately, we have 11 new deaths, and with this amount we have reached 2,336 new confirmed cases and a total of 77 dead," he said in remarks aired live on state television. ALSO READ: Italy coronavirus death toll jumps to 52 as more than 2000 infected The national emergency services chief Pirhossein Kolivand was the latest high-profile official to contract the illness, a spokesman for the services told AFP. Confirmation of his infection came a day after Tasnim news agency reported that the virus claimed the life of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 72, a member of the Expediency Council which advises Iran's supreme leader. It also comes a week after the country's original deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, fell ill with COVID-19. Harirchi admitted he had tested positive a day after he had coughed and wiped sweat from his brow during a news conference that was beamed live around the country on February 25. ALSO READ: Number of people infected with COVID-19 outside China exceeds 10,000: WHO But the judiciary said a jailed British-Iranian woman, whose husband said she feared she had been infected behind bars in Tehran, was "in perfect health". Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016, is serving a five-year term for sedition at Evin prison. "Yesterday she talked to her family by phone. There has been news about her recently that was fake news," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. Iran announced on February 19 its first two deaths from the coronavirus in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims from abroad. The country now has the highest death toll for any country outside China, where the virus has killed more than 2,900 people since late December. 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They have been asked to inform the authorities if any foreigner visits their hotel. Sources in the Health Department said the quarantine period for four Chinese nationals and one Indian, who arrived here from China about a month ago, was completed a week ago. For the last few years, Chinese traders have been coming to Karimnagar to purchase granite blocks. They usually stay in the district for nearly five months in rented houses or hotel rooms. But ever since the outbreak of Coronavirus, the number of Chinese traders coming to Karimnagar has reduced drastically. This has resulted in granite production coming down in the district. Speaking on the measures taken to tackle COVID-19, DMHO G Sujaya told Express that three members of a family from Karimnagar, who had travelled to South Korea and returned to the city about three days ago, were put on quarantine at their house. In a fresh development, a man from Uzbekistan visited Hotel Swetha on Tuesday where he was not given a room to stay due to COVID-19 scare. He left the place after some time. The officials are now trying to track him to know the purpose of his visit. On Tuesday, in the morning, at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC attended a ceremony at which the Governor installed Dr Xiaoling Liu as Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology, and addressed guests. In the afternoon, at Government House, His Excellency hosted an afternoon reception to celebrate the installation of Dr Xiaoling Liu as Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology, and the Governor addressed guests. In the evening, at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, South Brisbane, His Excellency attended the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra performance of Vivaldis Venice. Ellenos, a Seattle, WA-based Greek yogurt brand, received a new investment from Daniel Lubetzky, founder and Executive Chairman of KIND Snacks. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Lubetzkys Equilibra Partners Management will become the companys second private equity partner. Monogram Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, joined Ellenos in 2018. The investment will enable the company to bolster growth and distribution channels. Founded in 2013 by husband and wife Bob and Yvonne Klein, and Australian father and son duo Con and Alex Apostolopoulos as a yogurt bar in Seattles iconic Pike Place Market, Ellenos began selling packaged yogurt in retail grocery stores. Tthey have grown their packaged product distribution from 9 states to 29 states over the past year. Packaged flavors include seasonal offerings like Orange Turmeric and Pumpkin Pie, as well as classics from their original scoop bar like Marionberry, Lemon Curd, and Passion Fruit. FinSMEs 04/03/2020 Im out at the neighborhood Target looking for hand sanitizer and nonperishable cans of chicken soup like every good American when several women strike up a conversation in a nearby aisle. Theyre concerned that the store is out of said hand sanitizer, and just how are they to survive the impending onslaught of the coronavirus without it? Even the bin usually filled with tiny travel-size bottles is empty. Thats especially troubling, because some of the women are buying in bulk not just for the home but for trips they are planning, brave souls that they are. After one woman walks away discouraged, the others scuttle in the opposite direction, huddling nearby to share what they have learned about her travel plans. She told me shes going to Paris, one woman reveals. The others gasp. Oh, my God, one responds, as if Paris were a stop on Dantes nine circles of hell. Theyve heard whats going on in Paris, they say. A tourists death there on Valentines Day was the first fatality attributed to the outbreak in Europe and outside Asia. More than 100 cases of coronavirus disease, or COVID-19 as it is more technically called, have since been confirmed and as a result the famous Louvre is closed to tourists. All indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people are canceled. And French folk are being advised to knock it off with la bise, their customary kissy-kissy cheek-to-cheek greeting. Mon dieu, the germs! Over at Smiths, hand sanitizer is still available but rationed like plywood before a hurricane. Due to high demand and to support all customers, we will be limiting the number of sanitization, cold and flu related products to 5 each per order, a message on its shopping website reads. One of my readers emails me to tell me that he is flying to Seattle and has just procured the last face mask and surgical gloves available at a Hudson News shop in the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has apparently not seen the innumerable reports in the media, both social and mainstream, indicating that for most people, especially healthy ones, masks are not recommended, necessary or impervious to COVID-19. They are not force fields. They are not magical. And so it goes. This is America hunkering down for the cataclysm du jour, many of us misinformed, paranoid, a little wacky. Still, COVID-19 is nothing to sneeze at. Its imperative that every household and every community prepare for whatever is to come. While there is plenty of credible medical information out there on how to do that, let me add some other handy common-sense suggestions that are especially pertinent if you are elderly or have underlying health conditions or have loved ones who are. Most of us will survive this latest iteration of the coronavirus just fine, but these are the folks whose lives might actually be at risk. Drink your water. A refillable bottle that measures how much water is being consumed is a good way to track water intake. Hand sanitizer is not the only item to stock up on and, please, just stop it with the face masks. Pick up extra basic items like acetaminophen, cold medications, stool softeners, antacids and hearing aid batteries for you and your loved ones. Extra cleaning products to keep surfaces sanitary should also be on your list. Check on neighbors to see how they are faring. Stay home if you are sick. Im not joking. Cough into your elbow rather than showering the world with your spittle. Above all else, wash your hands. Soap and water works just fine, so dont freak out about the dearth of hand sanitizer. The internet is suddenly inundated these days with videos on how to do that. I had assumed most people had mastered this skill in preschool, but apparently the majority of Americans are out of practice. Only 31% of men and 65% of women wash their hands after using the bathroom, even though 92% say they do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its societys dirty little secret. It was a wise New Mexican or maybe it was a meme on Facebook who imparted this sage advice: Wash your hands like you just peeled a sack of green chile and need to take out your contact lenses. Simple steps, really, and ones we ought to do even without a pandemic bearing down upon us. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Chinas most popular instant messaging app WeChat is apparently on a censorship overdrive by blocking out keywords related to the Coronavirus. This revelation comes from the research group Citizen Lab, which tested this using three WeChat accounts. WeChat is owned by Tencent and has over 1.5 billion active users globally. In China, WeChat is popular because the app offers a range of additional features, including digital payments, voice messaging, games, health data tracking and more. The researchers suggest that WeChat is censoring certain keywords server-side, which simply put, they are checking the content of messages being sent on a remote server and filtering messages that contain these keywords. WeChat is owned by Tencent and has over 1.5 billion active users globally. The research suggests that WeChat is censoring messages based on whether it contains a blacklisted keyword combination or not. The important bit here is the condition of a keyword combination, because it consists of one or more keywords. For instance, a keyword component appears in a message, even if it is a single component, then the message is filtered. The Citizen Lab researchers use the example of a message which reads , Xi Jinping goes to Wuhan) and say the message is filtered if it contains that component. For any keyword combination that contains more than one component, a message is censored of that combination appears anywhere in that message. ALSO READ | China Has Made Spreading Rumours on Social Media A Crime as it Battles The Coronavirus Outbreak The researchers tested this by using three WeChat accountsone registered to a mainland Chinese phone number and two registered to Canadian phone numbers. They state that these accounts and the group created to include these three accounts were only for interacting with each other and at no point did they use these for messaging anyone else on the platform. Between January 1 and February 15, 2020, we found 516 keyword combinations directly related to COVID-19 that were censored in our scripted WeChat group chat. The scope of keyword censorship on WeChat expanded in February 2020. Between January 1 and 31, 2020, 132 keyword combinations were found censored in WeChat. Three hundred and eight-four new keywords were identified in a two-week testing window between February 1 and 15, the researchers say. "Between January 1 and February 15, 2020, we found 516 keyword combinations directly related to COVID-19 that were censored in our scripted WeChat group chat. The scope of keyword censorship on WeChat expanded in February 2020" - Citizen Lab research The study indicates that the keyword combinations include text in simplified and traditional Chinese. For the latter, the researchers translated each keyword combination into English to understand the meaning and context. It turns out that the Coronavirus and COVID-19-related keyword combinations that are being censored cover a wide range of topics. These include discussions of central leaders responses to the outbreak, critical and neutral references to government policies on handling the epidemic, responses to the outbreak in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, speculative and factual information on the disease, references to Dr. Li Wenliang, and collective action. They also discovered that references to President Xi Jinping as well as other central government and Party leaders including Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, and the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China as a collective agency are high on censorship priority. When a message is sent from one WeChat user to another, it passes through a server managed by Tencent (WeChats parent company) that detects if the message includes blacklisted keywords before a message is sent to the recipient. Documenting censorship on a system with a server-side implementation requires devising a sample of keywords to test, running those keywords through the app, and recording the results, say the researchers. ALSO READ | New Coronavirus Diagnostic Tech Can be Used to Test Even Before Emergency Approvals At the time of writing this, there are more than 93,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus around the world, with as many as 124 cases already confirmed in the US. China continues to be the worst hit with 80,270 cases in Mainland China, 100 in Hong Kong and 10 reported from Macau, according to official figures. Regulations on the Ecological Governance of Network Information Content have gone Live in China, and spreading rumors and disturbing the economic and social order are now a crime Earlier this week, the new cyberspace regulations went Live in China as it continues to battle the Coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak. Among the long list of dos and donts released by the Cyberspace Administration of China in the Regulations on the Ecological Governance of Network Information Content, one guideline that truly stands out is the one that reads spreading rumors and disturbing the economic and social order under Article 6 which headlines Producers of online information content may not produce, copy or publish illegal information containing the following contents. The Citizen Lab is based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would consider listing after Holi break the plea relating to alleged fake encounters in Manipur in which CBI's Special Investigation Team (SIT) is conducting a probe. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was urged by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves that the PIL, seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur, has not been listed for hearing since 2018. "List after ensuing Holi vacation before appropriate Bench," said the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. The apex court had in November 2018 dismissed the pleas filed by some Manipur Police personnel seeking recusal of the then judges (Justice M B Lokur and Justice U U Lalit) of the bench hearing the case of alleged fake encounters in Manipur. Prior to that, in July 2017, it had constituted a SIT and ordered lodging of FIRs into alleged encounter killings in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In peacetime that is, when things are going well too many of us live like fools. When our bills are being paid on time and the children are relatively healthy, when work feels like its clipping along and all we can see in the future is a bright horizon, we should be thankful. But we should also beware. These are the moments when its easy to get sloppy. We begin to befriend the status quo. We take the path of least resistance. We take the low road simply because it requires less from us. And as much as we hate unimaginative cliches like the ones Ive just used, we look up one day to discover that weve actually been living one. Sadly, sometimes only a crisis can wake us up. As a pastor, I see this every day. I spend an inordinate amount of my life with people, in their highest highs and their deepest lows. I celebrate weddings and grieve the unexpected divorces; I officiate baptisms and preside over burials; and I dedicate young babies to God and pray with parents waiting for their twenty-something prodigal to come home. My work often situates me on the front-lines of the human condition. Greatest Threat That Comes Against Believers in Peacetime It would be twofold: boredom and distraction. We grow weary of doing the same old things we have done for, say, the last two decades. We feel like we have been there, done that with all this Jesus stuff, and wonder if this is all there is. Our boredom causes us to forsake the routines that were a part of our holy formation. We get distracted and turn away from the disciplines that got us where we are to see if theres something new and flashy out there. Like the believers in the church of Ephesus, many of us have left our first love and have fallen away from the things we did at first (Rev. 2:35 nasb). The fire of our love for Jesus that once burned bright and clean has turned into a pile of flickering embers. Church-Abandoning Phenomenon I have observed this church-abandoning phenomenon particularly among those who are in the middle of life, between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five. When we are younger, we are just humble enough to acknowledge that we need help. Life seems so complex. We are looking for decent work and a stable living situation, hoping to get our feet squarely under us. The need for support is especially acute for young couples raising small children. We watch the news and realize just how high the stakes are in this crazy world. We somehow instinctively know that the old it takes a village axiom is right, so were more willing to get the kids up, get them fed and dressed, and drive them to church all the while theyre (sometimes) fighting it. Indeed, the latest Pew Research poll bears out my theory. And according to Christianity Today, about 2 out of 3 American adults who regularly attend church or other religious services say they go for their kids (emphasis mine). When we grow older and the simplest tasks become more difficult, when we are faced with the reality that our bodies are failing and so many of our friends are dying, there is no denying that we need help. The church, when functioning properly, serves as the new family formed in Christ, and the elderly saints like Simeon and Anna in Lukes gospel are not alone. Illusion of Self-Sufficiency But somewhere in the middle of life, we fall prey to the illusion of our own self-sufficiency. Somewhere in the middle of life, the parents who used to take their kids to church no longer have kids living at home who need to be taken to church. What do many of them do when this moment arrives? More and more are staying home, going out to eat, or heading to the mountains to hike or ski. Church becomes just another one of many options, or worse, the thing that all those less fortunate people do who dont have the strength or financial resources to go it alone. The relational ties begin to loosen. Sure, they have some old friends with whom they raised their kids in the church, but theres no longer the active and dynamic interactions. We might arrogantly say things like, I love Jesus but not the church, which is nonsense if indeed the church is his bride. To ignore the bride is to insult the groom. One of the things that saddens me frankly, bewilders me is watching people live foolishly in peacetime, because those times wont last. At some point along the way, life will sneak up on all of us, and when it does, we will need the family of God to hold us up. But too many of us choose to live fragmented lives during the good years, separated from the life of the community, and then reach out for help only when the bottom falls out. Living that way is okay, and the church ought to do whatever it can to help in such a moment, but its not ideal. We forget how hard it is to make new friends in the foxhole. The Italian Cup semi-final clash between Juventus and AC Milan has been postponed as fears mount over the coronavirus epidemic in northern Italy, local authorities in Turin announced. The match was due to take place on Wednesday night at Juve's Allianz Stadium with fans from most of Italy able to attend but Claudio Palomba, the prefect of the Turin province, said that the government's restrictions on who could attend sporting events weren't enough to guarantee safety. The decision, said Palomba, was made on the basis of "assessments made by the Piedmont region's crisis unit" and regional health councillor Luigi Icardi, who insisted on "avoiding large public gatherings". No new date has yet been fixed for the second leg of the last four tie, which is level at 1-1 following the first match at the San Siro last month. agency Ansa reports that the Milan players were told of the while in their hotel in Turin ahead of the match. On Tuesday the number of deaths in Italy caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus jumped to 79 with more than 2,500 people infected -- the most of any country in Europe. Fifty-five of those deaths have been recorded in the northern Lombardy region, with Emilia-Romagna reporting 18 deaths and Veneto also hard hit. The match had been scheduled to take place behind closed doors, but then a government decree enabled fans who did not live in those three regions and two other provinces in Liguria and Le Marche to attend the match. The announcement by the prefect, who in Italy is the state's representative within a particular province, ended that loosening of restrictions. Italian media reports on Tuesday said that a scientific committee advising the government has suggested spectators should be banned from attending sporting events for a month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) But in Jericho, at least in the town meeting, people seemed relieved not to have to talk about national politics. This is Vermont, and its a wonderful way to be part of a small community independent of Bernie, said Deborah Waterman, 71, who moved here about six years ago from Washington, D.C. Emilie Alexander, 78, was helping run the bake sale outside the auditorium during the meeting, and reported that it raised several hundred dollars for the town library. The whole tone of the country is so discordant now that its difficult to get enthusiastic about what you need to do, she said. This makes you figure that theres a four-letter word out there that is still going to work. Its called hope. Sean McCann, the fire departments second assistant fire chief, attended most of the meeting and said it was even more democratic than similar events in his home state of Massachusetts. This is a very in-tune process that incorporates more freedom of speech, he said. It doesnt create animosity, but everyone walks away having had their opinion heard. Thats your democracy. Inside the meeting, Dave had gotten things in order. The citizens had heard presentations from their two state representatives, George Till and Trevor Squirrell. Anyone who wanted to speak was allowed to remain in his or her seat until the town administrator, Todd Odit, arrived with a microphone. A couple of women were knitting. There were a lot of plaid shirts, although one man, a retired financier who said he had some grievances with the way the town goes about making capital expenditures, wore a puffer vest. While he visited the state several times since announcing his presidential bid, former Vice President Joe Bidens decisive Super Tuesday victory in the Bay State came against a popular Massachusetts senator with many boots on the ground, back-to-back rallies held across the commonwealth by the presumed Democratic frontrunner and a billionaire with a sizable operation running a host of canvassing events the last several weekends. Our campaign is one for anyone who has been knocked down, counted out or left behind, Biden spokesperson Emma Riley told MassLive following the win Tuesday night. Massachusetts sent a message to the rest of the country: this is the campaign that will send Donald Trump packing. Biden had touted about 100 endorsements from Massachusetts lawmakers and labor groups, but just days before the primary, many pollsters were expecting a two-way race between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Multiple polls showed Sanders, coming off wins in Nevada and New Hampshire and a strong showing in Iowa, leading Warren in her home state, potentially delivering a damaging loss to the races other progressive candidate. Sanders held rallies in Springfield and Boston over the weekend, drawing thousands of supporters and underscoring his strength in the state. Meanwhile, CNN reported that Biden didnt hold major campaign events in several states that he won on Tuesday, including Massachusetts. 69 Election 2020: Super Tuesday in Massachusetts But Biden, who won big in South Carolina with strong support from African Americans and who received a boost when former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar exited the race and endorsed him, came out on top with a convincing win in the commonwealth. Biden earned nearly 34% support compared to Sanders 27% and Warrens 20%, with results in from 80% of precincts, Associated Press reported. Warren had hoped to bounce back into the frontrunners seat after strong debate performances, while relying on a staff in 30 states and more than 1,000 people on the ground to help get out the vote and produce delegates in Super Tuesday states. She was in Michigan on Tuesday night, a key battleground state where voters will head to the polls next week. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg finished in fourth place in Massachusetts with less than 12%. While he picked up delegates in several states, AP reported that he planned to reassess his campaign on Wednesday after failing to meet expectations. Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja on Wednesday said that three students who had returned from Wuhan, China, and tested positive for coronavirus are stable and at home. "The three students are free to move around as their isolation period is over," Shailaja told ANI. She also said, "On March 3 we again conducted a meeting with the Rapid Response Team (RRT) to discuss the further steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state. She also said that although the situation in Kerala has stabilised she appealed for people to come forward and inform about those who display symptoms of the infectious virus. "I appeal to the people to inform us about anyone who might be having coronavirus symptoms as it is not possible for the government officials to be everywhere and monitor each person," she said "During the meeting, as part of the second phase, it was decided to strengthen the surveillance in airports," she added. On March 3, the Health Minister said, "In the first phase, we took prompt action and controlled it well. We have to be very cautious as other places in India have now reported confirmed cases of coronavirus. Our surveillance has to be continued strictly," said Shailaja. The Health Minister said they have decided to strengthen the monitoring in airports. "If a person is coming from the affected region with any symptom he/she will be directly shifted to the isolation ward. If they don't have symptoms they will be referred for home quarantine," she added. "Now we have below 30 people in hospitals with mild symptoms," the health minister stated. Earlier today as many as 459 passengers of the Italian luxury cruise ship 'Costa Victoria', which was docked in Kochi, were screened for respiratory symptoms and fever. The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday confirmed 28 cases of coronavirus in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There was no evidence that the coronavirus fallout is hitting government tax revenues in recent weeks, the latest exchequer figures show, as Vat revenues rose and corporation tax income continued to pour into the government coffers. The exchequer took in over 3.3bn in tax revenues in February, up by over 21% from February 2019, and over 9% more than was anticipated for the month by the Department of Finance. Vat revenues in a non-payment month rose strongly to 355m, although revenues from excise duties of 369m came in below target. A spokesman for the Department of Finance said that there was no sign of the coronavirus outbreak affecting tax revenues. Corporation tax revenues which surged to 467m and brought in 314m more than was anticipated in February was due to one-off factors and an increase in the profitability of companies, the spokesman said. For the first two months of the year, corporation tax revenues brought in a total of 583m up almost 243% from the same period in 2019. Overall tax revenues since the start of the year of more than 9.2bn were up almost 14% over the same period. Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at broker Davy, said there was no sign in the figures that coronavirus had weighed on the exchequer revenues in February. Everything is up in the year, more or less, he said, adding that corporation tax revenues had risen strongly at a time of year when such revenues were not normally on the rise. However, Mr Mac Coille said that there was a note of caution to be sounded for government tax revenues later this year, after the OECD cut its forecasts for the world economy, which has implications for Ireland. The department and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe were watching new figures to detect any early signs for effects on the public finances from the coronavirus fallout, the spokesman said. Automatic stabilisers can provide the first line of defence: The minister has targeted budgetary surpluses so that he can allow a deterioration in the headline position in the event of an economic downturn. A global slowdown in growth is likely to have negative consequences for the Irish growth, the labour market, and public finances. However, at this stage is it simply too early to say what that may look like, he said. Meanwhile, Andrew Webb, chief economist at Grant Thornton Ireland, said that an unemployment rate of 4.8% in February, unchanged from January, showed a tentative start to the year for the labour market. The federal government may soon enact strict emergency biosecurity laws. They could see Australians forcibly detained and interrogated in healthcare facilities if they are suspected to have been exposed to the coronavirus. Travellers arrive at Melbourne Airport wearing face masks . Credit:Simon Schluter The Biosecurity Act passed by Parliament in 2015 gives health authorities the power to detain people in hospital much in the same way that a person might be detained at an airport or border crossing. Public gatherings such as sporting, musical or religious events could be banned. Government officials may order people to decontaminate after they have visited a site of potential infection. Biosecurity officers would also have the power to enter homes and use reasonable force if they suspected residents were infected with the virus. This week Attorney-General Christian Porter described the laws as the most effective and least invasive method to control a rapidly evolving set of circumstances. They will be in some instances strange and foreign to many Australians but they will become very important, I would suspect, over the next couple of months, Porter said. A man put on death row for killing a four-year-old girl could likely be innocent and his conviction based on flawed, hidden or corrupt evidence, prosecutors have said. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, a District Attorney has tried to overturn the conviction of 55-year-old Walter Ogrod, calling the case a gross miscarriage of justice. The court documents filed by District Attorney Larry Krasners office, allegedly state prosecutors believe Ogrods confession was coerced and that multiple inconsistencies and misconduct in the case evidence point to a wrongful conviction. Barbara Jean was murdered in 1988. Her remains were found inside a cardboard box not far from her family home. Ogrod has spent 23 years on death row since he was convicted of her murder in 1996. He is said to have lived on the girl's street at the time of the murder. According to Mr Krasners office, the conviction of Ogrod was based on a perfect storm of unreliable scientific evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, and false testimony. Brady violations occur when evidence that is favourable to the defendant is excluded from a trial. The report claims that inconsistencies such as Barbara having likely died from asphyxiation rather than being fatally beaten with a weight bar as the prosecution suggested, reveal Ogrods innocence. They also said that the detectives involved in the case, Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, engaged in coercive tactics in obtaining false confessions, in several cases prior to this one. They suggested that this misconduct was likely to have been carried through in Ogrods interrogation. Mr Krasners office said case files contained a plethora of information regarding how Devlin and Worrell had a history of using coercive techniques to obtain confessions and incriminating suspects. The retired detectives have not commented publicly on the allegations, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Statements provided by informants were alleged to be colluded, claiming that hed confessed to the crime while jailed with them. The report also alleges that photos taken of Ogrods home in a prior investigation, in which one of the detectives were involved, were vital in seeking the conviction. A weight bar seen in one of the photos was alleged as the weapon used to kill Barbara, and Ogrod allegedly admitted using it during a confession he gave to detectives, which the prosecution consider coerced. Prosecutors wrote in an appellate that after discounting unreliable evidence, there exists no credible evidence to prove Ogrod was the person who murdered Barbara Jean. According to a report in January by NBC Philadelphia, The prosecutor who worked on the Ogrod case vehemently denied any misconduct during the trial. I haven't seen anything to indicate he didn't do it, that he's innocent, Judith Rubino said. If there is, I haven't seen it. A spokesperson for Mr Krasner declined an invitation by The Philadelphia Inquirer to respond. Ogrods attorneys also did not respond to their requests. On 27 March a judge will decide whether to vacate the conviction and allow Ogrod to begin to seek release from prison, the paper said. KEENESBURG, Colo., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight Grizzly bears, including two named Miss America and Miss Montana, rescued late last year by The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado were recently released into their forested, 103-acre (41+ hectares) habitat. Offering pine forest, hills, bluffs, rock formations, water features and dens, the expansive new home continues to advance how captive wildlife are housed and cared for. Previously knowing enclosures constructed mostly of concrete and steel and measured in square feet, the bruins seemed to be in sensory overload as they eagerly began to take in all of the sights, sounds and smells of the wild and were able to rove farther than ever before in their lives. Rescued Grizzly, Miss Montana, exploring her new habitat at The Wild Animal Refuge in Colorado. Rescued Grizzly Bear, Bearita, roams her new habitat at The Wild Animal Refuge in Colorado. Sanctuary executive director, Pat Craig, who participated in the release, stated that even after rescuing large carnivores for over 40 years, seeing these powerful and beautiful animals moving about so freely in such a natural setting left him and other employees totally awestruck. So much so, that he now anticipates even more the release of more grizzlies into the habitat later in the spring and rescued Black Bears into their own neighboring 243-acre habitat. Another thrill staff members are looking forward to is seeing bears excavate their own dens and then hibernate in them next winter. Six of the bears were previously kept at the defunct Wildlife Waystation in California, including sisters Miss America and Miss Montana who were housed there for 24 years. The other bears from the Wildlife Waystation are Amos, Maverick, Mishka and Timber. Joining them are female grizzlies, Pooh and Bearita, rescued from a private owner situation in Seguin, Texas that was shut down. The bears are cared for by on-site Sanctuary staff members. About The Wild Animal Sanctuary: Located near Keenesburg, Colorado, The Wild Animal Sanctuary is the largest nonprofit carnivore sanctuary in the world, with over 500 rescued animals including lions, tigers, bears, wolves, leopards and other large carnivores living in large-acreage natural habitats. Established in 1980, the Sanctuary operates two locations with more than 10,000 acres for abused, abandoned and confiscated carnivores and specializes in rehabilitating captive wildlife so they can be released into natural habitats where they can roam freely and live with others of their own kind. More information is available at www.wildanimalsanctuary.org and www.wildanimalrefuge.org. SOURCE The Wild Animal Sanctuary Related Links https://www.wildanimalrefuge.org Nothing has roiled the healthcare technology markets since the beginning of the year as much as data access and data privacy. One of the significant issues debated today is whether patients should be given free and open access to their health records sitting today in EHR systems. A proposed ruling by the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), awaiting finalization, will hand over data access to patients who, in turn, can share it freely with anyone they choose. Further, the ruling warns of penalties for information-blocking and other restrictive practices. The proponents of granting access declare it to be a fundamental right for consumers. It enables, among other things, portability of medical information, long seen as a barrier to improved care, especially in life-threatening emergencies. Look deeper, and there are significant stakes involved in the battle for access to patient data. Firstly, the monetization of healthcare data is part of every health system and digital health startups business model today, as I discussed in an earlier blog here titled The New Innovation Model Monetizing Healthcare data. Big tech firms have been mainly supportive of the proposed HHS ruling, having struggled for years with interoperability and information blocking that have led to unnecessary costs and have acted as barriers to the acceleration of digital health innovation. Access to the data enables technology firms such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft as well as digital health startups to mine the data for insights using advanced AI and machine learning algorithms. In turn, the insights are expected to drive improvements in care quality and better healthcare outcomes. However, there are also dissenters from this point of view. For the past couple of months, the HHS has been in a stand-off with Epic, a dominant major electronic health record (EHR) systems provider over opening up access to patient data. Epic has threatened to sue to block the ruling, prompting regulators to denounce it as scare tactics. Can consumers be trusted with their data? Opponents of the idea that patients should have access to their data as a fundamental right contend that once patients have access to their data, they may harm themselves by having no control over where the data may end up. EHR provider Epic and their supporters among hospitals and health systems have argued for the HHS to delay the finalization of its proposed data-sharing rules on this basis. They argue that consumers, used to signing away data rights routinely when downloading apps on their smartphones, may find their data ending up in the wrong places. Besides, the data may be used in undesirable ways and may even be easily vulnerable to breach. Part of Epics reluctance to share data is purely commercial as long-time stewards of patient data, they do not want to see tech firms and startups profiting off the data through free and open access. However, there is also a valid concern about the data falling into the wrong hands, especially without proper vetting of the entity gaining access to the records. Consider the case of Clearview, an unknown startup that has stealthily accumulated billions of images of individuals by scraping them off the internet. The company, a tiny operation that has built sophisticated facial recognition algorithms that law-enforcers across the country have been piloting for solving cold cases, had its entire client list stolen recently in a data breach. How safe is patient medical information with tech firms? When it comes to healthcare data, its a wild west out there right now. After nearly two decades of harvesting consumers digital exhaust, big technology companies ( who have been referred to as surveillance capitalists) have earned themselves billions in profits and a growing trust deficit among consumers. Healthcare data privacy is held to a higher standard through HIPAA information privacy rules; however, in the absence of any standardized rules around the use of consumer data in the app economy, digital health companies are monetizing the data in ways consumers may not fully appreciate. It is indeed the only way for some digital health startups to turn a profit. Googles $2.1 Billion acquisition of Fitbit (still awaiting regulatory approvals) is in large part due to the fact that, in the words of Fitbit CEO James Park, ultimately Fitbit is going to be about the data. The scrutiny around data-sharing agreements signed by several leading health systems with Google points to the growing unease with health systems sharing patient medical records, even though such practices have existed for a long time in technology partnerships. A report by Stat News, which studied a 2016 data-sharing agreement between Google and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) obtained under a public information request, found adequate privacy protections to prevent unauthorized access, including restrictions on access to clinical notes and images. Indeed, in a manner evoking imagery from classic Greek literature, Google asked to be lashed to a mast and blindfolded lest they are tempted by the sight of protected health information (PHI), much as Ulysses wished to be protected from being tempted by the sirens in the Odyssey. Despite the contractual safeguards, the notion of complete anonymization is in doubt after Googles own research revealed that the encryption of data, especially unstructured data, cannot be assumed to be 100% effective. The nuances of encryption and anonymization can be all but lost when making the case to a skeptical public about the privacy protections on their health records. The challenges of regulating AI in healthcare The battle over access to patient data is as much about patient rights as it is about the untold riches that can accrue from analyzing the data for insights that can deliver competitive advantages to tech firms and health systems alike. UCSFs data-sharing agreement provides the data free of charge to Google, implying that by itself, the data has no value whatsoever. The value lies ultimately in the insights generated through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms that can detect patterns, predict healthcare events, and enable targeted interventions for health systems looking to manage the health of their populations. Tech firms with large consumer-oriented businesses can, for their part, enhance their understanding of consumers by cross-referencing their medical histories with other demographic data. The ability to cross-reference consumers further strengthens the algorithms for targeted advertising (though both health systems and tech firms alike have taken pains to point out that such use is explicitly prohibited in data sharing agreements). Health systems that have taken the lead on using AI in improving healthcare outcomes are seeing significant benefits in clinical as well as administrative functions. AI-led approaches are prevalent in patient engagement, population health risk management, and revenue cycle operations. However, for more advanced applications, there remain questions around AI algorithms: How they work, what insights they reveal, and how the insights can support health care decisions. AI algorithms are considered proprietary IP, and a source of competitive advantage by most firms. Hence, no two algorithms work the same way. There have been ongoing concerns about algorithmic bias from underlying datasets that are not representative of broader populations, prompting calls for more transparency in the use of AI tools. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been grappling with the issue of AI, especially in the context of medical devices where the risk of patient harm can be high. The ethics of AI, especially in facial recognition algorithms that have routinely delivered incorrect matches, in using them for employment or even healthcare decisions, has been yet another growing worry. Facebooks recent $ 550 M settlement against a class-action lawsuit, brought under the Illinois Biometric privacy law, is a sign of how sensitive the use of facial recognition technology can be. The battle over data access rights and transparency in the use of AI algorithms is intensifying against big tech firms. As always, the European Union has taken a lead in this regard and is set to announce strict rules requiring tech firms to explain their AI models, with provisions to make tech firms reboot the models and learn from scratch with new datasets before rolling them out. Nowhere is this more pertinent than in healthcare where lives are at stake. Healthcare apps that use AI algorithms on patient data must start getting more transparent about their terms of service, with provisions for notifying consumers and regulators whenever there are material changes to the terms as well as to AI algorithms. It is perhaps also time to implement model agreements for patient data use, which hold all parties accessing the data to the same standards of disclosure and compliance. Finally, it may be time to compensate consumers for their healthcare data. The market for selling personal data is nascent. However, some firms, such as IKEA, are looking at offering greater control to consumers over their data as a competitive differentiator. Regulators, tech firms, and healthcare providers must embrace the concept as passionately as they embrace the idea of granting unfettered access to patients to their data. Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it has collaborated with IIT Guwahati (IITG), Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan and Suzuki Motor Corporation for promotion of technical and training. The institutional collaboration will facilitate promotion of and training covering engineering courses and internship programmes in both India and Japan, the company said in a statement. It will also promote research for next generation technologies for benefit of both the countries, it added. An MoU was exchanged among the four parties at IIT Guwahati in the presence of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to India Satoshi Suzuki. Commenting on the collaboration, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said,"This institutional collaboration will help us prepare students wider technical roles. Internship exposures at global and local levels will make students ready for global and local roles." It is a fine example of academia, industry and students coming together to create new benchmarks in technical education, he added. "I see this collaboration taking technical to the next level," Ayukawa said. Under the collaboration, an engineering course, primarily related to automobiles, will be conducted by Suzuki Motor Corporation and MSI by providing training to students through lectures. As part of the curriculum Japanese language course will be conducted by AOTS. This course will be provided to students of IITG. AOTS, SMC and MSIL will arrange for faculty to conduct these at IITG, the statement said. Eligible students will be provided an opportunity of being placed for an internship at SMC's facility in Japan as well as at MSIL in India. This programme will help students gain both local and global exposure, it added. These initiatives are authorised by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as Japanese endowed course. Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Suzuki said, "I hope the synergy among these partners will help create future engineers to lead India's manufacturing sector and to build new bridges of friendship between India and Japan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amsterdam, 4 March 2020 - Arcadis (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the leading global Design & Consultancy organization for natural and built assets, today announced the resignation of Sarah Kuijlaars, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Member of the Executive Board, effective 4 March 2020. Sarah Kuijlaars, who joined Arcadis as CFO in April 2018, is leaving Arcadis for personal reasons and in mutual agreement. Consequently, the Supervisory Board will initiate the process to appoint a new CFO for the next stage of Arcadis' development. "We thank Sarah for her contribution to Arcadis in the past two years. Under her financial leadership we created a strong balance sheet and a solid financial foundation for future growth", said Peter Oosterveer, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board. Niek Hoek, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, adds that "We are grateful to Sarah Kuijlaars for her work and the improvement in financial results in the last two years and wish her all the best as she pursues other opportunities. The process to identify candidates will start immediately and we will consider both external and internal candidates". FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Arcadis Investor Relations Jurgen Pullens Mobile: +31 6 51599483 E-mail: jurgen.pullens@arcadis.com Arcadis Group Communications Joost Slooten Mobile: +31 6 27061880 E-mail: joost.slooten@arcadis.com About Arcadis Arcadis is a leading global Design & Consultancy organization for natural and built assets. Applying our deep market sector insights and collective design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services we work in partnership with our clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes throughout the lifecycle of their natural and built assets. We are 27,000 people, active in over 70 countries that generate 3.5 billion in revenues. We support UN-Habitat with knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. www.arcadis.com . REGULATED INFORMATION This press release contains information that qualifies or may qualify as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS Statements included in this press release that are not historical facts (including any statements concerning investment objectives, other plans and objectives of management for future operations or economic performance, or assumptions or forecasts related thereto) are forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and are not guarantees. Actual events or the results of our operations could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the use of terms such as may, will, should, expect, could, intend, plan, anticipate, estimate, believe, continue, predict, potential or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. The forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, plans, estimates, assumptions and beliefs that involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Assumptions relating to the foregoing involve judgments with respect to, among other things, future economic, competitive and market conditions and future business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond our control. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, our actual results and performance could differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Attachment Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Ridgestone Mining Inc. (TSXV: RMI) (OTCQB: RIGMF) ("Ridgestone Mining") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Steven I. Weiss, PhD, CPG, as Chief Independent Technical Advisor for its Rebeico Gold and Copper Project, located in Sonora, Mexico. Mr. Weiss has worked as an exploration geologist since 1979 in various roles from generative through to senior project management. Mr. Weiss began work in Mexico in 2003 when he joined Glamis Gold to lead their exploration team at the El Sauzal gold mine (total of 1.7M oz gold produced) and in the surrounding Sierra Madre Occidental. He continued working in Mexico for Goldcorp, following their acquisition of Glamis Gold in 2006, where he built and led the team at its Camino Rojo gold-silver deposit, which proved up an initial 1.6M oz gold in reserves and more than doubled its gold resource from 3.4M oz to 7.5M oz gold. Steve held the position of Mexico Exploration Manager when he departed Goldcorp in 2013. Since 2014, Mr. Weiss has been a Senior Associate Geologist with Mine Development Associates, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and has also provided independent exploration consulting for companies with projects located in the USA and Mexico. Mr. Weiss is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Geology from Colorado College and MSc. and PhD. degrees in Geological Sciences from the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno. Ridgestone CEO Jonathan George, CEO commented, "We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Steve's extensive background, experience and credentials to provide us with invaluable technical assistance at this stage of exploration on our promising Rebeico Gold and Copper Project. Final preparations are underway for the upcoming maiden drill program on the New Year zone, where widespread gold and copper has been outlined over a 2.2-hectare area with rock-chip samples up to 12.95 g/t gold and 0.65% copper." About Ridgestone Mining Inc. Ridgestone is a TSX Venture Exchange-listed junior mineral exploration company with offices in Taipei and Vancouver, B.C. The Company's focus is on precious metals and copper in Sonora, Mexico, and specifically the Rebeico Gold-Copper project. For further information, please contact: MarketSmart Communications Inc. Telephone: 877-261-4466 info@marketsmart.ca This news release contains forward-looking statements or information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. In this news release such statements include but are not limited to any ongoing drilling programs or exploration results, or any results from the MarketSmart program. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the Company's regulatory filings available on www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks, uncertainties and other factors is not exhaustive. Unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements. The impact of any one factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as such factors are dependent on other factors, and the Company's course of action would depend on its assessment of the future considering all information then available. All forward-looking statements in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53112 Woman dies in rock-climbing fall in Ao Nang PHUKET: Police are investigating the death of a woman who is believed to have fallen some 30 metres to the ground while rock climbing in Ao Nang, Krabi, across the bay from Phuket. accidentsdeathpolice By The Phuket News Wednesday 4 March 2020, 05:06PM Police inspect the base of the Khao Toh Luang cliff face, just north of Ao Nang, yesterday (Mar 3). Photo: Ao Nang Police Krabi Provincial Police Chief Col Somchai Suetortrakul reported that officers were called to the scene, the base of the 50-metre Khao Toh Luang cliff face, just north of Ao Nang, at 10am yesterday (Mar 3). At the scene, the officers found the body of Nantawan Freja, 55. A climbing rope was still tied around her waist. The rope was connected to a climbing pin some 30m up the cliff face, Col Somchai explained. Nearby were bags containing clothes, rock-climbing rope, cash in different currencies and Ms Frejas Swedish driving license, he added. Mr Frejas body was found by local residents, who called the police, Col Somchai explained. Officers believe Ms Freja had died at least 12 hours before her body was found. Ms Frejas body was taken to Krabi Provincial Hospital for further examination while police continue their investigation, Col Somchai said. Ao Nang Police Station Chief Aphichart Jinapen explained that Ms Freja, originally from Kanchanaburi, was married to a Swedish man. The couple had one son and lived in Sweden, but also had a three-story townhouse in Ao Nang. Ms Nantawans husband and son came to the police station to acknowledge her death at 3pm [yesterday], Capt Aphichart said. They did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances involved in her death, he said. At this stage, we believe that Ms Nantawan fell from the cliff face, but we have not concluded yet whether it was an accident or otherwise, Capt Apihichart noted. We are still questioning witnesses and waiting for the post-mortem report from the hospital, he added. Saudi Maritime Congress, a top maritime and logistics event, which was scheduled to be held from March 22 to 23 in Dammam, has been postponed to September 20 to 21, in the wake of certain international travel restrictions due to COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus). "Over the last few weeks, we have been in consultation with many of our clients and also our Founding Strategic Partners about the event, in light of certain international travel restrictions due to COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus). Following this consultation, and in order to support all our customers and ensure the best possible event, we have agreed to move Saudi Maritime Congress to 20 -21 September 2020 at Dharan Expo, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Informa Markets said in a statement. The safety of our exhibitors, visitors and speakers is our utmost priority and we will continue to closely monitor the advice of the Saudi Ministry of Health as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), it added. "We are proud of the role the Saudi Maritime Congress plays in generating business and supporting the growth of the local and global maritime sector, and we look forward to a successful event in September," Informa said. Saudi Maritime Congress 2020, to be held in partnership with Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) and Bahri, was set to welcome some of the leading international and local officials in the transport and logistics sector. Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was scheduled to deliver the keynote ministerial opening address on Day One (March 22) of the Congress, followed by the keynote address from Lawrence Barchue, assistant secretary-general and director, Department for Member State Audit and Implementation Support, International Maritime Organization (IMO), according to Seatrade Maritime, organisers of Saudi Maritime Congress 2020. Chris Hayman, chairman of Seatrade, said: Saudi Maritime Congress 2020 is intended to update the local and international maritime community with the leading developments and the hottest topics of concern within the Saudi maritime and logistics sector as the country continues to move ahead with the implementation of its goals under Saudi Vision 2030. We are proud to host high-profile local and international speakers who can shed light on the major questions facing the industry. TradeArabia News Service Moorestown Mayor Nicole Gillespie said Tuesday her township is withdrawing a resolution to declare the Moorestown Mall an area in need of redevelopment after being surprised by news reports last week that the mall owners were planning to sell the property and lease it back. Gillespie said the resolution was scheduled to be on the township council agenda on March 9 after being tabled on Feb. 24. She said officials now plan to delay consideration of the declaration until they understand what the owners are doing. We were all surprised by what they did, Gillespie said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. The redevelopment designation for the mall would trigger tax breaks and other incentives for PREIT, the owners, and new tenants. The measure was carried over to the March 9 meeting after some residents urged council to provide more time for public comment. Joseph Coradino, CEO of PREIT, told financial analysts about the buyback plan last week during a conference call, which was first reported by the Courier Post. PREIT owns three New Jersey malls and controls a total of 22 million square feet of retail space in the eastern part of the country. PREIT is fully committed to its vision for Moorestown Malls future growth and success, an email Monday from a company spokeswoman said. Through prospective endeavors, including long-term financing, we dont expect any change in management or operations of the property. PREIT is asking a state judge to delay certification of an affordable housing plan that includes parts of the mall until changes are made to zoning the township council approved last month. The township was under the gun by a court deadline imposed 18 months ago to finalize a housing plan including a rezoning of the area around the mall by February to satisfy a lawsuit. The plan includes changes in zoning on and around the 83-acre the mall property, a former Kmart strip mall property on the other side or Route 38 and some adjacent parcels as part of the townships inventory of available land for affordable housing. PREIT maintains the townships proposal would require the demolition of most of the existing mall to develop 1,065 residences, including 230 affordable units. The company is asking a state judge to delay certification of an affordable housing plan that includes parts of the mall until changes are made to the plan township council approved last month. We dont need to build 1,065 units there, Gillespie said. We dont have to do that to meet our requirement for affordable housing. It is an overlay zoning for unmet need. Our obligation was to create the potential for up to 1,065 units. It doesnt have to be today; it could be never. The mall is the townships largest taxpayer and is assessed at $104 million. We all have the same vision... to see the area revitalized and a vital part of the Moorestown community, Gillespie said. How yo get there is where we are now. In addition to the Moorestown Mall, PREIT also owns the Cherry Hill Mall and Cumberland malls in New Jersey, part of 22 million square feet of retail space in the eastern part of the country. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. [March 04, 2020] Generex Signs Contract with EpiVax to Develop Ii-Key Peptide Vaccines to Address the Coronavirus Pandemic MIRAMAR, Fla., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generex Biotechnology Corporation ( www.generex.com ) (OTCQB:GNBT) ( http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/GNBT/quote ) is pleased to announce that the company has signed a contract with EpiVax ( https://epivax.com/ ) to use their computational tools to predict epitopes that can be used to generate peptide vaccines against the nCOV-2019 corona virus using the patented NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology(NGIO - Formerly Antigen Express) Ii-Key technology. EpiVax is a leader in computational vaccinology with expertise in epitope prediction, immune modulation, and dehumanized vaccine development. EpiVax has identified a number of hotspots in the amino acid sequences of the nCOV-2019 coronavirus proteins. Using the epitopes predicted by EpiVax, Generex will manufacture a series of synthetic amino acid peptides that mimic the epitopes of the virus and send them to China for testing. In collaboration with a team of researchers in China, Generex will test the reactivity of these peptides in blood samples that have been collected from patients who have recovered from COVID-19. Because these patients recovered from the coronavirus infection, their blood most likely contains immune cells and antibodies that recognize the peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids that represent antigenic epitopes of the virus. When the synthetic peptides are mixed with the blood samples, we can confirm that the sequences predicted by the EpiVax algorithms will be good vaccine peptides. Through a matrix assay that tests a series of peptides against the blood from recovered COVID-19 patients the team can select the best Ii-Key hybrid peptides to create a commercially viable vaccine that can proceed to human testing. Dr. Eric von Hofe, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of NGIO commented on the collaboration, Both NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology and EpiVax have been on the forefront of peptide immunotherapy, and we have known Dr. De Groot and her excellent work on vaccines and the immune system for over 20 years. The combined efforts of our companies offer a world-class team of experts in the design of viral vaccines, and we are excited to deliver an effective vaccine solution that can limit the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Dr. Anne De Groot, CEO & CSO of EpiVax endorsed the prospect of bringing a safe, effective vaccine to the clinic in collaboration with Generex, and aded, "We've been preparing for this challenge for more than 20 years, and we are indeed ready to contribute our expertise to stop this global infectious disease as quickly as possible. An interview in which Dr. De Groot spoke about her work with the coronavirus can be heard at this link: https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/02/21/were-racing-time-biotechnology-companies-rush-to-complete-coronavirus-vaccine Carol Nacy, Founder and CEO of Sequella, and a NGIO Board member who initiated the EpiVax collaboration said, This collaboration demonstrates the extraordinary cooperation ongoing in the biopharma industry to quickly and effectively address the COVID-19 public health threat. The combination of EpiVaxs ability to rapidly identify critical peptides from the virus with NuGenerexs proven platform for combining immunogenic peptides with a powerful adjuvant creates an exciting opportunity to address the challenges we are now experiencing with this new coronavirus. About Generex Biotechnology Corp. Generex Biotechnology is an integrated healthcare holding company with end-to-end solutions for patient centric care from rapid diagnosis through delivery of personalized therapies. Generex is building a new kind of healthcare company that extends beyond traditional models providing support to physicians in an MSO network, and ongoing relationships with patients to improve the patient experience and access to optimal care. NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology (formerly Antigen Express), a subsidiary of Generex Biotechnology, is a clinical stage oncology company developing immunotherapeutic peptide vaccines based on the CD4 T-Cell activation platform, Ii-Key. NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology (NGIO) is being spun out of Generex as a separate, independent public company to advance the platform Ii-Key technology, particularly in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitors. NGIO is currently engaged in a Phase II clinical trial of its lead cancer immunotherapeutic vaccine AE37 in combination with pembrolizumab (Mercks Keytruda) for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer. About EpiVax EpiVax is a 21-year old privately held biotechnology company located in Providence, RI, with a broad portfolio of projects including vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. Scientists at EpiVax, led by co-founders Annie De Groot, MD and Bill Martin, lead the field in immunogenicity risk assessment. The ISPRI and iVAX toolkits for therapeutics and vaccines are used by a global roster of companies. Visit www.epivax.com for more information. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release and oral statements made from time to time by Generex representatives in respect of the same subject matter may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by introductory words such as "expects," "plan," "believes," "will," "achieve," "anticipate," "would," "should," "subject to" or words of similar meaning, and by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements frequently are used in discussing potential product applications, potential collaborations, product development activities, clinical studies, regulatory submissions and approvals, and similar operating matters. Many factors may cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements, including inaccurate assumptions and a broad variety of risks and uncertainties, some of which are known and others of which are not. Known risks and uncertainties include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by Generex with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should be considered together with any forward-looking statement. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results or events, and one should avoid placing undue reliance on such statements. Generex undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Generex claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Generex Contact: Generex Biotechnology Corporation Joseph Moscato 646-599-6222 Todd Falls 1-800-391-6755 Extension 222 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Ukrainian lawmakers on Wednesday approved the resignation of Prime Minister Oleksiy Goncharuk only six months into the job, caught out by a leaked recording of him criticising the president. He will be replaced by one of his deputies. Goncharuk had offered to resign on Tuesday, in a second attempt to quit after a leaked recording emerged in January of him questioning President Volodymyr Zelensky's grasp of economics. Zelensky denounced Goncharuk's government's performance on economic issues, saying that it made some achievements but not enough. "We need new brains, new hearts," Zelensky told parliament minutes before the vast majority of lawmakers voted to fire accept Goncharuk's resignation at an extraordinary meeting. It is expected that current Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmygal will be nominated as Goncharuk's replacement later Wednesday, with some key ministers also getting shuffled. Goncharuk became Ukraine's youngest-ever prime minister after Zelensky nominated him in August. He faced an economy that is stalled and a country still locked in a conflict with separatists in the east. His appointment, quickly approved as Zelensky's "Servant of the People" party holds a parliamentary majority, was in line with Zelensky's vow to bring in fresh faces and shake up Ukraine's stagnant Comedian-turned-politician Zelensky came to power last April promising to "break the system" that had ruled Ukraine since independence in 1991. Among his campaign promises were ending the conflict in the east, fighting corruption and launching economic reforms in one of Europe's poorest countries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Specialists sanitize an aircraft at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on February 4, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. A Japanese passenger who transited in HCMC before flying home on a Vietnam Airlines flight has tested positive for Covid-19. The passenger, whose identity has not been revealed, took the VN814 flight operated by Vietnam Airlines from Cambodias Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday before taking a connecting flight on the same airline to Japan. After landing at Japans Nagoya Airport, the passenger showed symptoms of high fever and was taken to local hospital. Tests showed that he was positive for the virus that causes Covid-19. At the Siem Reap airport, the patient had checked-in to Nagoya, and so did not have to stop at the transfer counter at the Tan Son Nhat Airport. The passenger entered the Class C business room at 10:30 p.m. to wait to board the connecting flight VN340. After dropping off passengers at Nagoya airport, the Vietnam Airlines plane returned to Tan Son Nhat Wednesday afternoon as flight VN341 with 73 passengers and 12 crew members on board. All crew members and 51 passengers entering Vietnam on the flight were quarantined. The remaining 22 passengers who were transiting en route to other destinations were isolated further pending procedures for their connecting flights. The plane was also disinfected. Two security staff of the airport and six service personnel in the C-class business room have also been quarantined because theyd come into close contact with the infected Japanese passenger. There were 67 passengers and six crew members on board the VN814 flight from Siem Reap. Six passengers, one Vietnamese, three French, one Australian and a Filipino, disembarked in HCMC while the 61 others continued onward to other countries by connecting flights. The Filipino returned home the next day, Wednesday, while authorities are looking for the other five to quarantine them. The travel itinerary of the infected passenger during his stay in Cambodia is being clarified by Vietnamese authorities in coordination with Japan. Japan had recorded 230 infection cases as of Wednesday with 12 deaths, including six on a cruise ship docked at a Japanese port. In Vietnam, all 16 infections recorded so far have been discharged from hospital. The global death toll has reached 3,202, mostly in mainland China, followed by Italy (79), Iran (77) and South Korea (32). The U.S. has reported nine deaths. Ikea is recalling 820,000 of its Kullen three-drawer chests due to the risk of the product tipping over and crushing children. The announcement made Wednesday, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, comes two months after the popular Swedish retailer agreed to pay $46 million (U.S.) to the parents of a two-year-old boy killed by an Ikea Malm dresser in California in 2017. The recall also comes amid a flurry of furniture products being pulled from the market because of the tip-over risk. The CPSC has announced seven recalls of chests and drawers since September because of the danger, along with a rare product safety alert for a four-drawer dresser made by Hodedah that the agency considered so dangerous that it decided against waiting for the manufacturer to agree to a recall. Most recalls are made voluntarily by a company after negotiating with regulators. The CPSC is also crafting mandatory safety regulations for furniture to prevent children from being crushed. Furniture tip-overs were blamed for 89 deaths, mostly children, from 2014 to 2018, according to the agency. The Ikea Kullen dresser is unstable if it is not anchored to the wall, posing the risk of injury or death to children, according to the CPSC recall announcement. Three-drawer versions of the Kullen chest imported after Aug. 12, 2019, also do not comply with the voluntary performance standards. Customers have the option of seeking refunds or a wall-anchoring kit for the furniture. About 17.3 million Ikea Malm chest and drawers were recalled in 2016 and 2017. But the parents of Jozef Dudek of Buena Park, California, said they never knew about the recall and the retailer never contacted them. The boy was killed in 2017 when he climbed on the short dresser and it fell on top of him, according to court records. A one-tonne haul of MDMA has been seized in what has been described as one of the largest busts in Australian history. The MDMA was seized by Australian Border Force officers on January 11 after they detected an irregularity within a shipping container from South Korea. Inside the container police found 648 plastic tubs labelled as tile adhesive. But of the 648 tubs, 176 of them contained bags of powder which tested positive for MDMA. Approximately six kilograms of MDMA was found in each tub. The total amount of MDMA seized came to 1,053kg, with a street value believed to be more than $200million. The shipping container was found to be transporting 648 plastic tubs (pictured) labelled as tile adhesive Australian Border Force officers discovered an irregularity with the shipment from South Korea A joint investigation with NSW Police saw three men arrested in Sydney on Tuesday, and another two arrested last Friday. The three men arrested on Tuesday will appear in Sydney Central Local Court on Wednesday faced with criminal charges. Following some enquiries, officers found that the container was due to be delivered to a storage facility in Camperdown, in Sydney's inner west. The shipping container was eventually delivered to the storage facility on January 29, where a Canadian national, 27, signed on its delivery and unpacked it. The man then met with another 27-year-old Canadian national and it will be alleged they travelled between the CBD and Camperdown to extract the MDMA out as they prepared to distribute it to Australians. It will also be alleged the pair met with a Hong Kong man who then distributed the illegal substance on the streets. Inside the shipment was a tonne of MDMA (pictured) which was delivered to a storage facility in Camperdown The shipping container came from South Korea and saw five men arrested following a joint investigation Following a search warrant, AFP investigators seized two firearms Officers then executed a search warrant and seized substances suspected to be MDMA, cocaine, three kilograms of methamphetmaine, $250,000 in case, two loaded firearms, false identification material and ammunition. Another search warrant saw the seizing of material alleged to be substituted MDMA removed from the original shipment, cocaine, electronic devices, and ammunition. A 22-year-old man and a 26-year-old man were then charged with drug offences and also charged with posession of firearms and ammunition following the search warrant. They appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Saturday, where they were remanded in custody. The two Canadian nationals were each charged with one count of importing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs, namely MDMA and one count of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs. They both face the maximum penalty for the offence which is life imprisonment. The 29-year-old Hong Kong man was charged with two counts of attempt trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, namely MDMA and one count of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs. He also faces life imprisonment. Of the 648 tubs, 176 of them contained bags of powder which tested positive for MDMA A man is arrested in relation to the large shipment of MDMA to Australia AFP acting Assistant Commissioner Eastern Command Justine Gough said the AFP is always working to protect Australia's border and the community. 'This seizure is one of the largest in Australian history and the MDMA powder, if pressed into tablets, could have produced more than three million tablets,' he said. 'It demonstrates the lengths that organised crime syndicates will go to in order to supply the Australia market, and seek to protect their criminal profits with high-powered illegal weapons. 'The AFP is working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Korean authorities and other offshore partners to identify the source of the MDMA and those responsible for directing this activity and shipping this destructive drug into Australia.' The plastic tubs were found to contain MDMA and were destined for Australian streets Another man was arrested in relation to the shipment container of MDMA Australian Border Force Acting Commander Investigations Garry Low commended the efforts of all involved and that officers involved are 'smarter than the criminals'. 'ABF officers have sophisticated technology and unique skills at their disposal, which gives them the ability to identify illegal substances no matter how they are concealed,' he said. 'This detection is the second biggest MDMA seizure in Sydney. Every day, ABF officers go to work determined to protect Australia from these harmful substances and cases like these show their hard work and dedication pays off.' Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it has collaborated with IIT Guwahati (IITG), Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan and Suzuki Motor Corporation for promotion of technical education and training. The institutional collaboration will facilitate promotion of education and training covering engineering courses and internship programmes in both India and Japan, the company said in a statement. It will also prommot research for next generation technologies for benefit of both the countries, it added. An MoU was exchanged among the four parties at IIT Guwahati in the presence of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to India Satoshi Suzuki. Commenting on the collaboration, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said,"This institutional collaboration will help us prepare students wider technical roles. Internship exposures at global and local levels will make students ready for global and local roles." It is a fine example of academia, industry and students coming together to create new benchmarks in technical education, he added. "I see this collaboration taking technical education to the next level," Ayukawa said. Under the collaboration, an engineering course, primarily related to automobiles, will be conducted by Suzuki Motor Corporation and MSI by providing training to students through lectures. As part of the curriculum Japanese language course will be conducted by AOTS. This course will be provided to students of IITG. AOTS, SMC and MSIL will arrange for faculty to conduct these at IITG, the statement said. Eligible students will be provided an opportunity of being placed for an internship at SMC's facility in Japan as well as at MSIL in India. This programme will help students gain both local and global exposure, it added. These initiatives are authorised by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as Japanese endowed course. Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Suzuki said, "I hope the synergy among these partners will help create future engineers to lead India's manufacturing sector and to build new bridges of friendship between India and Japan." Also Read: Govt approves 100% FDI by NRIs in Air India Also Read: Supreme Court quashes RBI's ban on cryptocurrency Volunteers who support domestic violence victims will no longer be able to work in Melbourne and Dandenong courts after funding cuts which the head of Victoria's royal commission into family violence says are a tragedy. Nearly 20 volunteers with the Court Network will no longer be able to support people during serious cases in the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court after $130,000 was cut from Victorian Legal Aid funding. The Court Network currently provides services five days a week in Melbourne and three days a week in Dandenong. Court Network president Marcia Neave, AO, who led Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence, said the move was a tragedy. "At a time when terrible cases of family violence are in the headlines almost every day it is a tragedy that this cost-effective and human service may not be available," Ms Neave told The Age. DAYTON, Ohio, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Winsupply Inc., one of the largest distributors in the nation, has closed on the purchase of assets of ASAP Industrial Supply, an industrial pipe, valves and fittings distributor in Southern California. Details of the purchase were not disclosed. ASAP Industrial Supply, which is changing its name to Inland Empire Windustrial and become part of the Winsupply Family of Companies, serves industrial contractors in the Inland Empire of California with pipe, valves and fittings. Jason Johnson becomes president of Inland Empire Windustrial and is purchasing equity in the company under Winsupply's shared ownership business model. Johnson is a former upper level executive in the restaurant industry who has been in Winsupply's training program for prospective local company owners over the past year. "ASAP Industrial Supply has a strong presence in the Inland Empire and this acquisition fills a market need for Winsupply in serving industrial customers from Riverside to Fontana to San Bernardino," said Monte Salsman, president of Winsupply Acquisitions Group. Johnson said, "I grew up in the plumbing world as my father owned a large plumbing company." He left his father's business to work for 16 years as a regional vice president for two major restaurant chains and then as chief executive officer of a medical device manufacturer before joining Winsupply. "I have always felt at home in the humbleness of the plumbing-construction trade, and wanted to get back to my roots. Service and employee gratification and happiness has always been a key attribute to success in my life. Winsupply inspired me when hearing of the long term, happy employees that run these companies." In the Winsupply business model, Winsupply is the majority owner of its companies, reflecting its shared-ownership business model in which local entrepreneurs have autonomy to decide how best to serve their customers, and to share in the financial risks and rewards of ownership. About Winsupply Inc. Winsupply Inc. ( www.winsupplyinc.com ) is a leading supplier of residential and commercial construction and industrial supplies and equipment headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. The privately-held company has more than 600 wholesaling locations in 45 states and offers entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to own a meaningful part of the local business. Collectively, Winsupply is known as "The Winsupply Family of Companies" and includes Win-branded locations, Noland Company, Carr Supply, Security Plumbing & Heating Supply, APCO, and other regional suppliers the company has acquired. In the family are companies conducting business-to-business wholesale distribution of supplies and equipment in plumbing and heating; hydronics; pipe, valves and fittings; HVAC and refrigeration; electrical; fastening hardware; waterworks and utility; pumps; turf irrigation and landscape; and fire system fabrication. Follow Winsupply on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Contact: Winsupply Maury Williams [email protected] 937-531-4554 SOURCE Winsupply Inc. Related Links http://www.winsupplyinc.com KALAMAZOO, MI Called a significant risk to society" by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney, a Grand Rapids man who lied to the FBI during an investigation into whether he was planning a mass shooting was sentenced to prison today in Kalamazoo Aaron William Fein, 25, was sentenced by Maloney Wednesday, March 4, in the U.S. District Court in downtown Kalamazoo. Fein was sentenced to 2 years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervision, during which he will only be allowed to leave home to go to work, perform community service or undergo mental health treatment. Fein pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI in July 2019 after admitting he had not initially told the truth to agents in the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force about renting an AR-15-style semiautomatic assault rifle and training with it at a Michigan shooting range. Fein was ordered in April 2019 by Kent County Probate Court to not possess any firearms. This order came eight months after Fein got on the FBIs radar when he attempted to cross into Canada without proper documentation, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. When Fein returned from Canada, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found documents and materials in his car relating to bomb making and jihadism. Fein admitted having bomb-making materials at his home, and told agents he was interested in mass shootings," a news release from the office stated. In the ensuing months, prior to the Kent County probate order, Fein was encouraged to seek counseling and on numerous occasions obtained and attempted to obtain firearms and ammunition, the U.S. Attorneys Office reported. After Fein was eventually taken into custody, agents learned Fein had bought metalworking tools and found at his home unassembled parts for multiple AR-15 rifles, as well as radio transmitters and electrical components for an improvised explosive device. He lied about having guns. He lied about shooting guns, A judge told him he cant have guns. And after a mental health evaluation he went out and got guns and was shooting them and trying to build a gun in his house, U.S. Assistant Attorney Nils Kessler said at Feins sentencing Wednesday. While arguing for the maximum sentencing under guidelines, Kessler told the court "we have all seen how these things wind up, under much worse circumstances. We saw the signs, the preparing, the training," he said. "He was tracked to gun ranges. It was learned he was trying to make a bomb at home. He was interested in mass violence and was preparing to do it. Feins attorney, James Fisher, argued for a sentence consisting of solely probation, time and again stressing his client should not be sentenced over supposed intent but only actual criminal conduct. Fisher argued the only reason Fein lied to the FBI was because he did not want to be forced to go back to a mental health institution. Kessler pointed out that, though Fein did not have any criminal history, neither did Nikolas Cruz, Timothy McVeigh or Stephen Paddock before they committed mass killings. The FBI had to follow (Fein) for months and were able intervene at key moments, thats why the public was never harmed, Kessler said. Every time he was refused to be sold a gun, he went somewhere else to buy one. "When he got stopped training, he went to Ohio to train elsewhere. When the government intervened and took his gun, he started building one at home and he started building a bomb at home. He admitted lying to the FBI. And he feels the only thing he did wrong was to lie to them. The FBI followed him for months and it still didnt stop him. The only real guarantee hes not going to hurt someone is if he is incarcerated and get some mental health treatment while in there. Prior to his sentence being handed down, Fein gave a tearful apology to the court. He stated he was sorry that he had lied to the FBI, he was sorry that he had not taken his medication and that he was sorry he ignored a probate court order that stipulated he could not possess a weapon. Fein did not admit to or apologize for possessing weapons, the act of purchasing the parts to create his own weapons or for going out of his way to obtain weapons after being denied the opportunity. Mental health treatment and counseling while incarcerated is the absolute biggest priority," Maloney stated while issuing Feins sentence. At this point, the court views Mr. Fein as a significant risk to society." Also on MLive: No release for Grand Rapids man caught with gun parts and potential bomb components Man with reported interest in mass shootings indicted for allegedly lying to FBI Man charged in killing of young father, shooting officers, competent to stand trial Race was a factor in two Peel police officers decision to restrain a six-year-old Black girl by handcuffing and shackling her at her Mississauga school, an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal adjudicator has found. While Peel Consts. Nick Eckley and Slav Kosaver were professional and polite while trying to control the girl nearly four years ago, their decision to place her on her stomach for 28 minutes with both her wrists and ankles handcuffed was a clear overreaction in the circumstances, adjudicator Brenda Bowlby wrote in her decision, dated February 24. While the officers had a legitimate duty to maintain the safety of the applicant, others and themselves in circumstances where the applicants behaviours were challenging and might have created a safety risk, this did not give them licence to treat the applicant in a way that they would not have treated a White six-year-old in the same circumstances, Bowlby wrote. In their complaint to the tribunal, the girl and her mother whose identities are protected under a publication ban argued the officers had brutalized the child at least in part because of her race when they were called to the school on Sept. 30, 2016. At hearings last year, a police board lawyer denied that claim, saying the officers had no alternative but to restrain the girl as best they could. In an emailed statement Tuesday, Peel Regional Police said the officers had been investigated and cleared by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, the civilian body that investigates complaints against police. These officers and all officers would benefit from further training, which is being implemented, the statement read. In her decision, Bowlby found that the officers implicit bias was indeed a factor in their actions, noting that research shows that Black children can be seen to be more of a threat than white children of the same age, acting the same way. The clear difference between the girl and a typical child, from the perspective of the two White police officers, was her race, Bowlby wrote. Their overreaction, she wrote, can only be explained by the inference that because of implicit stereotypical associations that arose because of the applicants race, they saw her, as a Black child, being more of a threat, being bigger, stronger and older than she was and, consequently being more in need of control than they would have seen a White child in the same circumstances. In her decision, Bowlby dismissed a second complaint, which alleged police discriminated against the child by calling the childrens aid society. Bowlby found police did not act maliciously or without reasonable grounds in asking the CAS to look into the situation. The adjudicator also found the officers had no training in how to deal with children in crisis. Responding on behalf of the officers, a Peel Regional Police spokesperson on Tuesday said they would not be commenting on the case. According to the decision, the officers denied placing the girl on her stomach with her wrists behind her back, although Bowlby found otherwise. In its statement, Peel police said a behavioural teaching assistant, who was trained in child-crisis prevention, had to physically restrain the girl for 20 minutes and was unable to de-escalate her behaviour, and that the officers as the adjudicator noted in her decision had tried to verbally de-escalate the girls behaviour. According to Bowlbys decision, police were called to Nahani Way Public School on Sept. 30, 2016, because the girl had been hitting another child, running away, throwing objects at her principal and behavioural teaching assistant and hitting him on the lip and hitting out at both adults. Police had been called over the same child several previous times that month, and the officers understood that they had been called in to control the child, Bowlby wrote. The girl, who weighed 48 pounds, was sitting calmly in the schools office when the officers, both around six-foot and weighing 190 to 200 pounds, arrived, but she soon left the office abruptly, Bowlby wrote. One officer soon caught the girl and held her by the arms, and she later began kicking, flailing, head-butting and trying to break free while being held by the officers, she wrote. This led the officers to handcuff the girl, which they said they did to prevent harm to themselves and others, Bowlby wrote. The Ontarios Human Rights Legal Support Centre, which provided the girl and her mother with free legal assistance, said the girls mother started the case to get justice for my daughter, to protect other children, and to shine light on the over-policing which plagues the Black community. Schools should be a safe place for Black children. The next phase of the tribunal hearing will look at remedies. Roger Love, the lawyer who is representing the girl, said the legal support centre will be looking into tracking interactions by race, and at police and school protocols. Love told the Star that this has been an issue in the black community and unfortunately, we find that its time and time again that Black youth and Black children tend to be subject to this type of differential treatment. So, hopefully, this case can spark positive change. I mean, its a mountain that we still have to climb, but hopefully this is one step on that mountain towards changing things. Last month, police body-camera video of a six-year-old girl handcuffed at an Orlando, Fla., school went viral after it was reported by local media. The officer in the case, who had arrested another young student that same day, was fired. BERLIN (Reuters) - Wolfgang Porsche and Hans-Michel Piech, members of the family which controls German carmaker Volkswagen , fully support the shift towards electric cars being driven by Chief Executive Herbert Diess, they told the Bild newspaper. Porsche and Piech both sit on the supervisory board of Volkswagen. "There is no alternative today to the path that he and the VW management have taken. If we do not tackle this transformation now, the group will have a huge problem in the future," Porsche told Bild. Volkswagen is shifting from being a manufacturer of traditional vehicles to making self-driving and connected cars, as well as electric vehicles, a step which requires cost cuts and efficiency gains, Diess said last month. Piech said of Diess: "He has our support. He faces a daunting task. He needs strength, but also support from everyone in the group." Porsche added that Germany should consider scrapping subsidies for diesel vehicles and he also questioned whether all the technology experts that Volkswagen is looking for necessarily have to work at its headquarters in Wolfsburg. (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Nick Macfie) The Andhra Pradesh government is going to make an appeal to the Centre to use the 2010 questionnaire for Population Register (NPR) exercise, state Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Venkatramaiah said here on Wednesday. He added that the state government has decided to keep the NPR exercise in abeyance for now as it is creating fears in a section of the population. "The Andhra Pradesh cabinet has decided to make an appeal to the central government to use the 2010 questionnaire only for NPR. As minorities are afraid of the new questionnaire, the central government should try to clear such fears. Until such assurance is given, the government should go with old questionnaire only," Venkataramaiah told reporters here. "The cabinet has also decided to keep the process of NPR in the state in abeyance until the central government allows NPR with the old questionnaire," he added. In a politically significant decision, the cabinet decided to cancel the allocation of two acres of land to Telugu Desam Party (TDP). That land will be returned to the government for departmental needs, the minister said. It also approved the decision of forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for investigation of insider trading and "other illegal activities" that took place in the Amaravati region under the previous government. In other decisions, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to approve the distribution of house site 'patta' (lease) to 26 lakh poor people on March 25 which happens to be the Ugadi festival (Telugu New Year) day. A total of 43,141 acres of land will be cut into plots and disbursed to the poor. Those sites will be developed as 'YSR Jagananna Colonies'. The beneficiaries will have all the rights on the site and will be able to even sell the plots after five years. The cabinet ratified the decision to minimize the range of Krishnapatnam port in order to develop Ramayapatnam port. It also decided to give permission to GMR Airport Ltd for the construction of Bhogapuram airport. However, the government decided to take back 500 acres out of the total land allocated for the Bhogapuram airport. The cabinet also gave its nod for giving a guarantee to AP Seeds Corporation to raise a loan of Rs 500 crore from banks for the procurement of seeds for the forthcoming agricultural season. It approved to give a guarantee to AP Genco to raise a loan of Rs 1,000 crore each for the development of thermal power stations in Vijayawada and Krishnapatnam. The minister said that the cabinet did not discuss the forthcoming local body elections, issue of Backward Classes reservations for local body elections and conducting the Budget session in the assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People wear surgical masks in fear of the coronavirus in Flushing, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens on Feb. 3, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) Coronavirus Patient Ignored Self-Isolation Order, Went to Business Event in Vermont A hospital employee who was confirmed as New Hampshires first COVID-19 coronavirus patient ignored a self-isolation order from the federal governmentgoing to a college business event instead, according to health officials. The worker was told to isolate themselves at home after they showed symptoms of the novel coronavirus after returning home from Italy, where an outbreak has led to thousands of infections and deaths. But the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said the first patient attended an invitation-only private event on Friday, Feb. 28. State officials are attempting to notify people who may have had close contact with the patient and have told them to undergo the recommended 14-day isolation. The agency made the announcement after a second person tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire. Both patients are considered presumptively positive while the health department awaits test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The second person was identified as a close colleague of the first patient at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where he worked, according to state officials. We expect additional cases may be identified that are related to this investigation, the agency said, adding that an investigation was also initiated. Dartmouth College emailed its staff and students confirming that the patient went to an event at its Tuck School of Business and noted there are no Dartmouth students who are considered to be close contacts of the first patients, although the college didnt mention whether any staff were at risk. It isnt clear how many others were attending the event. People wear face masks as they pass a traffic police man in Flushing area of Queens in New York City on March 2, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) A popular Vermont music venue, the Engine Room in White River Junction, hosted the business event, according to the organizer in a Facebook post. It said that a professional cleaning company [is] coming in to take care of this. The Health Dept. also said there was no reason to cancel the events going forward this week/weekend. We just want to let the public know we are taking this seriously and following all the recommendations, the post said. COVID-19 symptoms include a cough, fever, respiratory problems, and shortness of breath. People who may have attended the event at Dartmouth are encouraged to contact a local healthcare provider. And since the two patients work at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, hospital officials have identified staff who may have potentially been exposed. But the Department of Health is not aware of exposure to any patients in clinical areas, the agency said. The CDC has confirmed over 120 cases in the United States in about a dozen states. Nine deathsall of them in Washington statehave been confirmed. Members of the Shiite Mehdi army militia carry Lebanese Hezbollah flags as they rally in Baghdad's neighborhood of Sadr City in 2006. A Defense Department linguist has been charged with espionage after allegedly sharing classified information about active human intelligence assets with a person connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah, authorities said Wednesday. Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, was arrested last Thursday at a U.S. Special Operations Task Force facility in Erbil, Iraq, where she worked as a contract linguist, and held Top Secret security clearances, according to court records. Authorities said Thompson shared the true names of intelligence sources with a co-conspirator, a Lebanese national in whom she had a romantic interest." That person had a relative who worked for the Lebanese government, and also "has apparent connections to" Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group in Lebanon, which the State Department has designated a terrorist organization, according to the Justice Department. The linguist, court records say, confessed her actions after she was arrested, and claimed she provided information to her co-conspirator at the request of that person. "By compromising the identities of these human assets, Thompson placed the lives of the human assets and U.S. military personnel in grave danger," the Justice Department said in a statement. Thompson, who previously lived in Rochester, Minn., was due to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on a charge of delivering defense information to aid a foreign government. "While in a war zone, the defendant allegedly gave sensitive national defense information, including the names of individuals helping the United States, to a Lebanese national located overseas," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers. "If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished," Demers said. Authorities said that on or around Dec. 30, a day after American airstrikes against Iranian-backed forces in Iraq, and the same day that protesters stormed the U.S. embassy in Iraq over those strikes, there was "a notable shift in Thompson's network activity on United States Department of Defense classified systems." That activity included repeated access to classified information that she had no legitimate need to access, according to court records. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Smith (DS) plc (SMDS.L), in its trading update fot the period since 1 November 2019, said that trading continues to progress well despite macro-economic uncertainty. Group like-for-like corrugated box volume growth has increased during the second half of our financial year, with good performances in Iberia, Eastern Europe and the UK. The company noted that its domestic US business remains robust, although the negative impact of lower US paper export prices remains ongoing, due to reduced demand from China. However, increasing packaging capacity at the new site will progressively reduce its exposure to this market. The company expects to deliver a margin in the full year in line with that achieved in the first half. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Indias reputation took a hit due to Delhi violence, says Rahul. New Delhi: After missing in action for almost ten days, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, along with party MPs, visited the riot-hit areas of Northeast Delhi. Two separate delegations of Congress leaders visited different areas in Northeast Delhi. The delegation led by Mr Gandhi included K.C. Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K. Suresh, Mukul Wasnik, Kumari Selja, Gaurav Gogoi and Randeep Surjewala. The delegation visited a 32-year-old Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School, which suffered massive damage. The Congress delegation went around the gutted classrooms and surveyed the burnt busses. Speaking with reporters, Mr Gandhi said, This (school) is Indias future. Hate and violence have destroyed it. Nobody has benefited from this. Violence and hate are enemies of development. India is being divided, burnt. This will not benefit Bharat Mata. Before Congress leaders arrival, families of victims from Mustafabad area lined up at the school to share their ordeal. After Mr Gandhis visit, school owner Bhisham Singh said, He visited our classrooms and expressed concern over the condition. Mr Gandhi also said that burning an educational institute is highly condemnable as children from all communities study here. Mr Gandhi, along with other leaders, also visited a mosque near the school that was affected by the violence. Sources said the Delhi Police advised Mr Gandhi to avoid going beyond the Brijpuri Nallah. Mr Gandhi further said, Indias image takes a hit when there is violence in the country, in its capital. Brotherhood and love have been burnt here. This is the loss of Hindustan, Bharat Mata. Our reputation in the world has been burnt. The other delegation, comprising mostly MPs, left in a bus from the Kerala House and included Hibi Eden, Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Abdul Khaleque. Their first stop was Chand Bagh where they met shopkeepers and asked them about the losses they suffered. Mr Singh added, The rioters dont belong to any community. I suffered loses to the tune of `2.5 crore, as school buses and school premises were vandalised by the mob. Mohammad Faqrudeen, who met Mr Gandhi during his visit to the mosque set ablaze by the mob, said, Mr Gandhi patiently listened to us and consoled us. Earlier, a delegation of Waqf board, sent by Mr Gandhi, met us to take stock of the situation. He spent a good time at the mosque and even went to the madrasa. We feel glad that he came and interacted with us. Seven people were brutally killed while three other sustained serious injuries just outside the mosque and Madarsa. Additionally, the mob set ablaze the holy place of worship. Mr Faqrudeen further said, These people are enemy of humanity. Murmurs were doing rounds in the Congress about Mr Gandhis absence during the worst riots in recent times in the national capital. In the meantime, interim party chief Sonia Gandhi convened an emergency Congress Working Committee meeting and hit out at the central government over the riots. Addressing a press conference, she demanded the resignation of the Union home minister Amit Shah. A Congress delegation led by Mrs Gandhi also met the President of India. She had last week deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas of Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there. Frank King has gotten death threats. So many angry strangers have called his phone in recent weeks that he changed his number. And his neighbors have offered to bring food to his doorstep if he would just agree to stay inside his house. I have a whole new respect for the plight of pariahs, said Mr. King, who was among 650 Americans who returned to the United States last month after being stuck for more than a week on a cruise ship that no country initially allowed to dock because of fear of coronavirus. One person from that ship, the Westerdam, was said to have briefly tested positive on the way home, sparking an international panic. In the days that followed, 1,580 crew members and passengers tested negative, including Mr. King. Nonetheless, Mr. King has been the target of rage because of his decision to fly home before he received the test results. The scathing criticism he has received illustrates how swiftly societal pressure can bear down on people who are perceived to be endangering public health, even if they pose no actual threat. William (Billy) Beckert, 57, passed away at his home on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Billy was the only child of Rudolf W. Beckert and Marjorie A. Beckert of California, Maryland. Billy spent his early years in Camp Springs, Maryland where his father was a masonry contractor. The family moved to their Patuxent River home in St. Mary's County where Billy attended Great Mills High School. After graduation, Billy initially worked as a commercial crabber and then went to work in underwater construction with his lifelong friend, Terry Clarke, at Marine Technologies, Inc. For the last 15 years he was employed as an environmental supervisor at WACO, Inc.in Mechanicsville, Maryland. Billy enjoyed a lifelong relationship with the Patuxent River and Solomons Island. He enjoyed boating, crabbing and fishing with his many friends. He enjoyed target shooting and was an avid gun collector. Billy was probably most widely known as the colorful and upbeat personality that worked evenings and weekends in maintenance and security at the Tiki Bar. He was easy to spot with his mop of red hair, freckles and broad smile. Billy made friends easily and was especially known for his kindness and charity. He really was the guy who would give you the shirt off his back. Billy considered his friends his extended family and they considered him theirs. He will be missed by all of us. A gathering of friends and family will meet on Thursday, March 5, 2020 for visitation from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a Funeral Service by Reverend Joe Orlando at 6:00 p.m. at Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., 22955 Hollywood Road Leonardtown, MD 20650. Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pulp and Paper Chemicals market worldwide is projected to grow by US$8.8 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 3.2%. Bleaching Chemicals, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 4%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$15.5 Billion by the year 2025, Bleaching Chemicals will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05112914/?utm_source=PRN - Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 2.4% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$331.3 Million to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$254.2 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from Rest of Europe markets. In Japan, Bleaching Chemicals will reach a market size of US$709 Million by the close of the analysis period. As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 5% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$2.5 Billion in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders. Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio. Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies. - Competitors identified in this market include, among others, Akzo Nobel NV Archroma Ashland Inc. BASF SE Behn Meyer Chemicals ( Qingdao ) Co. Ltd. ) Co. Ltd. Buckman Laboratories International Inc. Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund ERCO Worldwide Evonik Industries AG FMC Corporation Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC Imerys SA Kemira Oyj Nalco Holding Company Omya AG Solenis LLC Solvay SA The Chemours Company Toho Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. Trinseo LLC Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05112914/?utm_source=PRN I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & REPORT SCOPE II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. MARKET OVERVIEW Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Enabling Enhanced Performance, Productivity, Stability, and Cost-Efficiency in Paper Making Major Chemicals Used In Pulp and Paper Manufacturing and Coating Recent Market Activity Market Fortunes Intrinsically Tied to the Paper and Pulp Industry Dynamics Despite Digitalization and the Global Exodus towards a Paperless World, Paper Production Continue to Grow Global Market Outlook Reviving Global Economy to Benefit Market Demand in the Near Term Asia-Pacific Spearheads Global Growth Growing Competition Boost Consumption of Chemical Additives in Developed Markets Bleaching Chemicals: The Dominant Segment Competitive Landscape Highly Competitive Nature of Paper Manufacturing Triggers Increasing M&A Activity Manufacturers Shifting to Emerging High Growth Markets to Meet Local Demand Hydrogen Peroxide Production: Highly Concentrated Global Competitor Market Shares Pulp and Paper Chemicals Competitor Market Share Scenario Worldwide (in %): 2020 & 2029 2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS Akzo Nobel NV Archroma Ashland, Inc. BASF SE Behn Meyer Chemicals (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. Buckman Laboratories International, Inc. Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund ERCO Worldwide Evonik Industries AG FMC Corporation Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC Hydrite Chemical Co. Imerys SA Kemira Oyj Nalco Holding Company Omya AG POWER Chemicals Ltd. Solenis LLC Solvay SA Synthomer PLC The Chemours Company Toho Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. Trinseo LLC 3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS Rising Demand for Specialty Papers Drive Healthy Growth for the Specialty Paper Chemicals Market Various Specialty Paper Types, Desired Properties and the Specialty Chemicals Used in Production The Versatility Attribute Drive Demand for Hydrogen Peroxide in Pulp Bleaching and Deinking of Recycled Paper Environmental Factors Catalyze Utilization of Hydrogen Peroxide Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) to Revolutionize Pulp Manufacturing at Low Temperatures Favorable Industrial Production Activity in Developing Countries Strengthens Market Prospects Efficient Water Management Spurs Demand for Process Chemicals Technology Innovations and Advancements: Spearheading Growth GreenBox++ Technology XELOREX?: The Next Big Thing in Productive and Efficient Papermaking Hybrid Retention Polymers Alkaline Papermaking High Performance Chemicals Optimization of Technologies: Addressing Ever-Changing Requirements of Paper Manufacturing Papermaking Technology Advancements in a Nutshell Rising Demand for Papers with High Print Quality and Performance Bode Well for Market Growth Myriad Benefits of Chemical Additives Drive Strong Demand in Paper Manufacturing Growing Use of Recycled, Recovered Fibers: A Key Growth Driver for Paper Chemicals Increase in Petrochemical Prices Triggers Hunt for Bio-based Alternatives Eco-Friendly Chemicals Witness Steady Growth Enzymes: An Economically Viable and Greener Alternative to Conventional Chemicals Increasing Cost Competitiveness of Calcium Carbonate Boosts Demand in Filler Applications Paper Industry Dominates PCC and GCC Consumption Key Challenges Hampering Long Term Prospects for the Paper and Pulp Chemicals Market Rapid Internet Proliferation WTO and Globalization of World Economy 'Source Reduction' in Packaging on Paper Chemicals Environmental Regulations that Significantly Impact Market Performance ECF versus TCF Pulp Bleaching Regulations on Air and Water Fiber Standards Ban on PFOA 4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE Table 1: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Global Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018-2025 Table 2: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Global Retrospective Market Scenario in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2009-2017 Table 3: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Shift across Key Geographies Worldwide: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 4: Bleaching Chemicals (Product Segment) World Market by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 5: Bleaching Chemicals (Product Segment) Historic Market Analysis by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 6: Bleaching Chemicals (Product Segment) Market Share Breakdown of Worldwide Sales by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 7: Paper Coating Chemicals (Product Segment) Potential Growth Markets Worldwide in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 8: Paper Coating Chemicals (Product Segment) Historic Market Perspective by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 9: Paper Coating Chemicals (Product Segment) Market Sales Breakdown by Region/Country in Percentage: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 10: Pulping & Deinking Chemicals (Product Segment) Geographic Market Spread Worldwide in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 11: Pulping & Deinking Chemicals (Product Segment) Region Wise Breakdown of Global Historic Demand in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 12: Pulping & Deinking Chemicals (Product Segment) Market Share Distribution in Percentage by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 13: Starches (Product Segment) World Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 14: Starches (Product Segment) Market Historic Review by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 15: Starches (Product Segment) Market Share Breakdown by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 16: Retention & Drainage Aids (Product Segment) World Market by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 17: Retention & Drainage Aids (Product Segment) Historic Market Analysis by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 18: Retention & Drainage Aids (Product Segment) Market Share Distribution in Percentage by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 19: Internal Sizing Agents (Product Segment) World Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018 to 2025 Table 20: Internal Sizing Agents (Product Segment) Market Worldwide Historic Review by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 21: Internal Sizing Agents (Product Segment) Market Percentage Share Distribution by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 22: Surface Sizing Agents (Product Segment) Market Opportunity Analysis Worldwide in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018 to 2025 Table 23: Surface Sizing Agents (Product Segment) Global Historic Demand in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2009 to 2017 Table 24: Surface Sizing Agents (Product Segment) Market Share Distribution in Percentage by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 25: Other Product Segments (Product Segment) World Market by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2018 to 2025 Table 26: Other Product Segments (Product Segment) Historic Market Analysis by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009 to 2017 Table 27: Other Product Segments (Product Segment) Market Share Breakdown of Worldwide Sales by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 III. MARKET ANALYSIS GEOGRAPHIC MARKET ANALYSIS UNITED STATES Market Facts & Figures US Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share (in %) by Company: 2020 & 2025 Market Analysts Table 28: United States Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 29: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in the United States by Product Segment: A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2009-2017 Table 30: United States Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 CANADA Table 31: Canadian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 32: Canadian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Review by Product Segment in US$ Thousand: 2009-2017 Table 33: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Canada: Percentage Share Breakdown of Sales by Product Segment for 2009, 2019, and 2025 JAPAN Table 34: Japanese Market for Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Annual Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 35: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2009-2017 Table 36: Japanese Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 CHINA Table 37: Chinese Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Growth Prospects in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 38: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in China in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 39: Chinese Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market by Product Segment: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2009, 2019, and 2025 EUROPE Market Facts & Figures European Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market: Competitor Market Share Scenario (in %) for 2020 & 2025 Market Analysts Table 40: European Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Demand Scenario in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018-2025 Table 41: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Europe: A Historic Market Perspective in US$ Thousand by Region/Country for the Period 2009-2017 Table 42: European Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Shift by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 43: European Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018-2025 Table 44: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Europe in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: A Historic Review for the Period 2009-2017 Table 45: European Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 FRANCE Table 46: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in France by Product Segment: Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2018-2025 Table 47: French Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Scenario in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 48: French Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 GERMANY Table 49: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 50: German Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 51: German Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 ITALY Table 52: Italian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Growth Prospects in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 53: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 54: Italian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market by Product Segment: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2009, 2019, and 2025 UNITED KINGDOM Table 55: United Kingdom Market for Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Annual Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 56: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in the United Kingdom: Historic Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2009-2017 Table 57: United Kingdom Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 SPAIN Table 58: Spanish Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 59: Spanish Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Review by Product Segment in US$ Thousand: 2009-2017 Table 60: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Spain: Percentage Share Breakdown of Sales by Product Segment for 2009, 2019, and 2025 RUSSIA Table 61: Russian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 62: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Russia by Product Segment: A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2009-2017 Table 63: Russian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 REST OF EUROPE Table 64: Rest of Europe Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018-2025 Table 65: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: A Historic Review for the Period 2009-2017 Table 66: Rest of Europe Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 ASIA-PACIFIC Table 67: Asia-Pacific Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018-2025 Table 68: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Asia-Pacific: Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Region/Country for the Period 2009-2017 Table 69: Asia-Pacific Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Region/Country: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 Table 70: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Asia-Pacific by Product Segment: Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2018-2025 Table 71: Asia-Pacific Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Scenario in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 72: Asia-Pacific Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 AUSTRALIA Table 73: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Australia: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 74: Australian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 75: Australian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 INDIA Table 76: Indian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 77: Indian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Review by Product Segment in US$ Thousand: 2009-2017 Table 78: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in India: Percentage Share Breakdown of Sales by Product Segment for 2009, 2019, and 2025 SOUTH KOREA Table 79: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in South Korea: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 80: South Korean Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 81: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Distribution in South Korea by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 REST OF ASIA-PACIFIC Table 82: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Annual Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 83: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2009-2017 Table 84: Rest of Asia-Pacific Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 LATIN AMERICA Table 85: Latin American Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Trends by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2018-2025 Table 86: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Latin America in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: A Historic Perspective for the Period 2009-2017 Table 87: Latin American Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Percentage Breakdown of Sales by Region/Country: 2009, 2019, and 2025 Table 88: Latin American Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Growth Prospects in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 89: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in Latin America in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 90: Latin American Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market by Product Segment: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2009, 2019, and 2025 ARGENTINA Table 91: Argentinean Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018-2025 Table 92: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Argentina in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: A Historic Review for the Period 2009-2017 Table 93: Argentinean Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 BRAZIL Table 94: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Brazil by Product Segment: Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2018-2025 Table 95: Brazilian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Scenario in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 96: Brazilian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 MEXICO Table 97: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 98: Mexican Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 99: Mexican Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 REST OF LATIN AMERICA Table 100: Rest of Latin America Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 101: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Rest of Latin America by Product Segment: A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2009-2017 Table 102: Rest of Latin America Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 MIDDLE EAST Table 103: The Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2018-2025 Table 104: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in the Middle East by Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2009-2017 Table 105: The Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Region/Country: 2009, 2019, and 2025 Table 106: The Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 107: The Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market by Product Segment in US$ Thousand: 2009-2017 Table 108: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in the Middle East: Percentage Share Breakdown of Sales by Product Segment for 2009, 2019, and 2025 IRAN Table 109: Iranian Market for Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Annual Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 110: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Iran: Historic Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2009-2017 Table 111: Iranian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Analysis by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 ISRAEL Table 112: Israeli Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018-2025 Table 113: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Israel in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: A Historic Review for the Period 2009-2017 Table 114: Israeli Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 SAUDI ARABIA Table 115: Saudi Arabian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Growth Prospects in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 116: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in Saudi Arabia in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 117: Saudi Arabian Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market by Product Segment: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2009, 2019, and 2025 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Table 118: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in the United Arab Emirates: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 119: United Arab Emirates Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 120: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Distribution in United Arab Emirates by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 REST OF MIDDLE EAST Table 121: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Rest of Middle East: Recent Past, Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment for the Period 2018-2025 Table 122: Rest of Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Historic Market Analysis in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2009-2017 Table 123: Rest of Middle East Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 AFRICA Table 124: African Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Product Segment: 2018 to 2025 Table 125: Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market in Africa by Product Segment: A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2009-2017 Table 126: African Pulp and Paper Chemicals Market Share Breakdown by Product Segment: 2009 VS 2019 VS 2025 IV. COMPETITION Total Companies Profiled: 176 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05112914/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links www.reportlinker.com Presentations will highlight patient outcomes of tolerability, safety and real-world efficacy of Camallergy's peanut oral immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergy Cambridge Allergy Ltd ("Camallergy" or "the Company"), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to providing innovative, patient-centric treatments for life-threatening food allergies, today announced Dr. Andrew Clark, Camallergy's Chief Medical Officer, will present new data from the Company's partner clinic, Cambridge Peanut Allergy Clinic (CPAC) detailing patient outcomes of tolerability, safety and real-world efficacy of the Company's proprietary oral immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergy utilizing patient friendly, single-micro-dose initiation and novel 200mg low-dose maintenance therapy. These data will be presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma Immunology (AAAAI) 2020 Annual Meeting, taking place March 13-16, in Philadelphia, USA. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005262/en/ Camallergy's Special Medicinal Product, CA001. (Photo: Business Wire) "As Camallergy prepares its planned pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials, we are excited to present CPAC data demonstrating the safety and tolerability of our patient centric treatment regimen. Our Company was formed on the basis of delivering patients the safest, most tolerable oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy by utilizing a thoughtful, patient-centric approach in the development of our treatment formulation and underlying regimen. We remain committed to creating the best treatment outcomes for patients with food allergy and, noting recent advancements in the industry, we believe our current therapy for peanut allergy achieves this goal," stated Dr. Andrew Clark, Camallergy's scientific co-founder and Chief Medical Officer. The presentations will take place on Sunday, March 15, from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. EDT, in the Poster Hall of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 200 Level Hall D. Cambridge Peanut Allergy Clinic: Clinical Data #436: Powell et al., Improvement in Quality of Life following peanut oral immunotherapy in a paediatric population at the Cambridge Peanut Allergy Clinic #446: Clark et al., Real world safety and efficacy outcomes during oral immunotherapy with characterised peanut protein About Camallergy Camallergy (Cambridge Allergy Ltd) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to providing innovative, patient-centric treatments to address the needs of the millions of patients suffering worldwide from food allergies. Camallergy's lead product, CA002, is a novel oral immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergies designed to offer "bite-proof" protection to patients within 3.5 months of therapy. The company's unique intellectual property and treatment algorithm are based on the clinical work initiated at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Cambridge, U.K., by Camallergy's scientific co-founders Dr. Andrew Clark and Dr. Pamela Ewan. Camallergy has its headquarters in Cambridge, U.K., with key functions and members of its leadership team located in the United States. For more information, visit www.camallergy.com. About Cambridge Peanut Allergy Clinic Cambridge Peanut Allergy Clinic is a private, pediatric clinic run by the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is directed by Drs. Pamela Ewan and Andrew Clark, who are world-renowned specialists in the fields of allergy and immunotherapy. For more information, visit www.peanut.cuh.org.uk. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005262/en/ Contacts: Barry Saint, Chief Financial Officer barry.saint@camallergy.com The Donald Trump administration will not provide fresh supplies of ammunition to Turkey for its ongoing offensive into Syrias contested Idlib province, where an airstrike that killed at least 34 Turkish troops last week has sparked a tit-for-tat between the NATO ally and the Bashar al-Assad regime. The State Department's special representative for Syria, James Jeffrey, told reporters today during a trip to Idlib province that the United States would provide fresh supplies of ammunition to Ankara. But officials later clarified to Al-Monitor that Jeffreys comments referred to ongoing US support to Turkey. On Ambassador Jeffreys comments in Turkey today regarding equipment and assistance for the Turkish government, there is nothing particularly new here as he was talking in the context of what we are already doing, a State Department official told Al-Monitor. Turkey is a NATO ally with a largely US-equipped and supplied military. In his comments he acknowledged that we are considering Turkish requests for assistance. US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft also joined the trip over the border into Syria the first time senior American officials have stepped foot in rebel-held territory taken from the Assad regime. During the short trip, the Trump administration announced more than $100 million in aid that aligns with the UNs response plan for the current humanitarian crisis, as more than 950,000 Syrians have been forced to leave their homes amid an uptick in fighting and freezing winter weather. Overall, the UN is asking for $500 million to ease the burden on overflowing refugee camps, but the world body did not ask the United States to contribute the full amount. The move would mark the first time the Trump administration has let American aid flow into Syria since the White House refused to allow assistance approved by Congress to be appropriated last year. But even after the suspected Russian airstrike last week, which prompted Turkish retaliation from the air that killed a large number of pro-Assad fighters, Jeffreys comments highlight a challenge for the Trump administration in salvaging its relationship with Turkey, though both allies oppose the Syrian regime. While the United States continues to work with Turkey on missions in Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iraq, the Pentagon still remains furious with Turkey over accepting delivery of the Russian S-400 air defense system in July, which it tested against American-made F-16 jets in December. Turkey's insistence on moving forward with the S-400 last year will have impacts on Turkish interoperability with the alliance, a defense official said. The Department of Defense will push hard to not provide support, especially if they still intend to go forward with the S-400, a former senior administration official told Al-Monitor. If Turkey turned off the Russian air defense system, which forced the Pentagon to kick Ankara out of the F-35 program, that would help in improving the relationship, the official added. Turkey needs to decide who their allies are, the former official added. They buy F-35s and the S-400. They ask the US to help them now as their forces are killed by Russia. It doesn't seem like a hard question. The current crisis has highlighted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans difficulties in weaning Ankara from Western military equipment. Turkey recently requested US-made Patriot batteries to defend its southern border amid the offensive, US officials have said. Though Jeffrey appeared to offer an olive branch today, former US officials doubted that the Trump administration could successfully convince Erdogan to abandon the S-400, which is set to be switched on in April. Erdogan is set to head to Russia on Thursday in an effort to cool tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who backs Assad with arms and air power. Erdogan will only do so if he wants to poke the Russians in the eye (maybe after lots of Turks are killed by Russians in Syria) and/or he gets some comprehensive Patriot/F35 deal with the US, said Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe. Turkey has also continued a monthslong incursion into areas of northern Syria once liberated from the Islamic State by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, creating another fissure in the relationship. Amid the current fighting in Idlib, Turkey has said it destroyed more than 100 Syrian tanks and killed more than 2,200 Assad regime forces since the deadly strike on Turkish troops last week. But US officials have questioned whether the figures are accurate. I also dont think Russia will let fail regardless of how much pounding the Turks try to deliver, a US official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. NASA scientists have joined others from around the world in a bid to push space agencies to launch a probe to Uranus and Neptune in the 2030s. At a meeting in the UK experts from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland joined a global pool of researchers to discuss the ice giants. The Royal Society meeting called for a mission to launch when Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter are in 'perfect alignment' for a mission from Earth in the 2030s. Very little is known about the make up of the two blue planets as the only spacecraft to visit them was Voyager 2, making a fly-by in the 1980s. Fabio Favata, head of strategy at the European Space Agency says the 2030s is too soon to arrange a mission of this type, it is 'the day after tomorrow' in space terms. Scroll down for video The alignment of Earth, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus in the 2030s will allow the mission to get to the target planets much faster than if it wasn't able to slingshot around Jupiter Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) are the two 'ice giants' of the solar system and are the furthest planets from the Sun There is increasing pressure from planetary scientists for space agencies to mount a mission to the outermost planets in the solar system. The meeting at the Royal Society was organised by Simon from Goddard with Leigh Fletcher from the University of Leicester in the UK. Fletcher told the meeting that a mission to either Neptune or Uranus should include going into orbit as well as probing the atmosphere. This 2006 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows bands and a new dark spot in Uranus' atmosphere which astronomers hope to study in more detail through a mission to the planet The urgency of leaving the Earth for the ice giants by 2031 comes down to the way they are aligned with Jupiter - astronomers want to use the massive gas giant to slingshot the spacecraft to Neptune and Uranus faster than they would get their otherwise He said it could also include a probe sent to one of the moons of the giant worlds in the same way CassiniHuygens did for Saturn. Launching the probes in the 2030s makes sense due to the fact they will receive a boost from Jupiter as it is 'perfectly aligned' with Neptune and Uranus. The rare celestial alignment would allow the spacecraft to slingshot around Jupiter to build up speed and reduce the time it takes to reach the outer worlds. At its closest point to Earth Jupiter is 365 million miles away, whereas Neptune, the furthest planet form the Sun in the solar system is 2.8 billion miles away. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT URANUS? Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781 and is named after the Greek god of the sky Ouranos. Uranus has a system of rings around it It is 1.84 billion miles from the Sun and orbits every 84 years. It's biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. It turns on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes. It has the coldest temperatures of any planet in the solar system with a minimum temperature of -371F. It has a set of dark very thin coloured rings surrounding it. Advertisement By slingshotting around Jupiter it would cut travel time and allow the spaceship to arrive well within the 15 year lifetime of its instruments and power supply. Simon says to make it work an agency would have to arrange to launch for Neptune by 2031 and Uranus by the mid-2030s at the latest. Mark Hofstadter from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said it was 'the right time to launch' at the meeting held in London and reported by Nature. It is a tight turnaround though as normally a 'flagship mission' of this type would take about a decade to prepare and cost billions of pounds to organise. While NASA is the most likely space agency to operate a mission of this scale, it could also be run in collaboration with ESA or even JAXA from Japan. Hofstadter said any green light from NASA would depend on the mission being given priority in the NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey - reporting in 2022. It would face stiff competition from proposals to return a sample of rock from Mars and to explore and map the surface of Venus. Going to the ice giants is the right choice if it has to be a decision of them or Mars and Venus as they've not been properly studied, according to Fletcher. 'Uranus and Neptune are genuinely out on their own, as we havent completed the very first phase of their exploration yet,' he said. Launching the probes in the 2030s makes sense due to the fact they will receive a boost from Jupiter as it is 'perfectly aligned' with Neptune and Uranus (pictured) A Voyager 2 view of Neptune taken in 1989 - the last spacecraft to visit the distant and mysterious ice giant WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT NEPTUNE? Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun and was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier and Johann Galle in 1846. Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun in the solar system It is 2.8 billion miles from the Sun and orbits every 165 years. The planet is 17 times the mass of the Earth and has a 16 hour day. It is smaller and warmer than Uranus despite having a greater mass and being further away from the Sun. It's atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium and methane. Neptune has a very thin collection of rings made up of ice particles. There are 14 moons orbiting the planet including Triton a frozen world spewing nitrogen ice into space. Advertisement The two planets at regarded as twins by astronomers due to their similar size and mass but they may actually be completely different - which is why the scientists at the Royal Academy meeting want to see a new mission to probe them. Ravit Helled, a planetary scientist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland told Nature that the internal structures of the planets can't be easily explained by modelling. They can't tell why Neptune seems to be warmer than Uranus despite being further away or what the planets are actually made of - is it water or ammonia ice? Of the two planets Neptune is the favourite choice of the scientists as it would also be possible to probe its moon Titan which may hold a subsurface ocean. Favata from ESA says the agency is already working on two major missions for the early 2030s so there is little chance it would be able to make a launch by then. They could work with NASA or send a smaller cheaper mission as a fly-by of the ice giants in future - but they wouldn't yield the same results as a full probe. Astronomer Heidi Hammel said one issue the scientists will face in sending a mission to Uranus is - jokes. 'Im sorry Im saying this. But I really do think thats a legitimate problem we would face,' she told the meeting. Telangana reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, tested positive for the virus. His condition was stated to be stable on Wednesday. Samples of two people in Telangana have been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune after local tests for coronavirus returned "borderline", health officials said on Wednesday, as the government stepped up precautionary measures in the backdrop of first positive case being reported in the state. One of the two people was working in a software company as the virus scare hit the IT corridor at Cyberabad with a complex being "closed" for sanitisation. The state reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, tested positive for the virus. His condition was stated to be stable on Wednesday. Officials said the samples sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune pertain to a person with foreign travel history to Italy and a person who had come in contact with the man who tested positive for the virus. The samples were sent as results of tests done here were on the "borderline", a senior health official said. State Health Minister E Rajender said in a release that there are no fresh cases of coronavirus in the state and that only one positive case has been confirmed. Later, speaking to reporters, he said: "Report of two people will come by tomorrow. (So far) one case of coronavirus (in Telangana). There are no fresh cases." The two are among the 47 people whose samples were tested at the state-run Gandhi hospital on Tuesday. According to the minister, 45 samples tested negative for the virus. Rajender also said four family members of the Dubai- returned software professional tested negative for the virus, which has affected 29 people in the country. He said the government has decided to set up a command control centre and different committees, including a panel for hospital management and another for surveillance, would be set up to deal with the situation arising out of COVID-19. Managements of over 20 medical college hospitals have agreed to arrange an isolation ward in their facilities with monitoring equipment, ventilators and others. Rajender stressed that no false information should be spread on the social media with regard to the virus. He found fault with the evacuation of employees in the IT corridor of the city. One building in a complex, housing software firms, was vacated for sanitisation for a day as a precautionary measure after an employee there was suspected to have contracted the virus and other employees asked to work from home. The evacuation triggered rumours, including on social media, about the spread of the virus, forcing the authorities to clarify that operations in the building would resume on Thursday. State Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan said the positive COVID-19 cases in the country are those with travel history to foreign countries. He said the IT firm's office in which the techie, who is suspected to have contracted the virus, worked is located on the ninth floor of the building. The firm employed 350 people and about 23 were part of the work group in which the techie worked. Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) M Mahendar Reddy requested people not to spread rumors in social media regarding coronavirus and warned of stern action against those indulging in such acts. In a related development, around five private schools in Secunderabad here were closed on Wednesday following requests from parents of some students. A District Education Official told PTI the managements of the school 'voluntarily' closed the institutions and they will again function as usual from Thursday. Meanwhile, apro-CAA meeting scheduled to be addressed byUnion Home MinisterAmitShah here on March 15 has been postponed to reduce mass physical contact of people in view of the current precautions being taken up in the country, Telangana BJP Chief Spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao said in a statement. The revised scheduled would be informed in due course, he added. Sanitisation drive was taken up in the Hyderabad Metro trains and by the state-run Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as a precautionary measure, as suggested by Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao. A former Chambersburg man convicted of sexually abusing two teen girls was returned to the area on Wednesday after being arrested in Canada last month, the U.S. Marshals Service announced. Juan Carlos Alcantara-Rivas, 36, was first charged in August 16, 2016 after one teen girl reported she had been assaulted by him, according to Chambersburg police. Additional charges were later filed involving a second teen. On June 19, 2018, Alcantara-Rivas was convicted of the sexual assaults but was on bail with electric monitoring while awaiting sentencing, the US Marshals Service reported. Alcantara-Rivas is accused of cutting off his electronic monitor the same day and fleeing from Chambersburg. After attempts to find Alcantara-Rivas in Chambersburg were exhausted, Chambersburg police requested the help of the U.S. Marshals Service. The Marshals said their task force pursued leads in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts and the Dominican Republic, but later learned that Alcantara-Rivas had gone to Montreal, Canada. In January, Alcantara-Rivas was arrested in Montreal and on Tuesday he was sent back to the United States, the Marshals said. He was arraigned as a fugitive from justice and detained in Clinton o, New York, pending extradition to Pennsylvania. Its important to bring those who are charged with serious sexual offenses to justice, said Martin J. Pane, U.S. Marshal for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in a statement. We owe this to the victims of such crimes. It is my sincere hope that this arrest brings some measure of comfort to the victim and their family. Alcantara-Rivas sentencing hearing was held without him, and he was ordered to spend 4.5 to 20 years in state prison on three charges. Read more on PennLive: Last weekend, the city of Houston issued a boil notice due to a city-owned pipe that broke and disrupted water services for thousands of Houston residents. Health officials warned the lack of pressure could increase the risk of bacteria and had many residents worried. But the communities of West University Place and Bellaire were unaffected because their water comes from alternative sources. According to both cities managers, they purchase water from the city of Houston and the moment an emergency happens that impacts their ability to pull surface water from Houston, Bellaire and West U can pull from groundwater sources to meet their needs. However, a lot of residents were unaware of their citys water sources and were still concerned. The city received some calls from West U residents about the Houston notice, West U City Manager Dave Beach said. West U city officials, sent out updates to residents via email and social media. This appeared to alleviate the concerns as the number of calls decreased. Residents did react positively to the way each city responded to Houstons main break and were relieved they could continue to live their daily lives without interruption to their water services. Everyone was concerned if Bellaires water was safe to drink and what we were going to do, said a resident of Bellaire at the latest City Council meeting. So many people were so grateful to live in Bellaire and not the city of Houston and I was inviting everyone to eat at Bellaire restaurants where the water is safe, and the ice is safe. It made me feel so grateful to live in the city. But both cities are prepared if their waterlines do break and will respond by isolating the area of the break to limit the number of customers impacted and has staff on-call day and night to respond to any situation that may arise. Until then, both cities take comfort knowing they can take care of themselves. From time to time we have citizens and different people come to us and talk to us about why dont you do this and why do you do that and why dont you coordinate and cooperate with the city of Houston, said Bellaire Mayor Pro Tem Gus Pappas at a City Council meeting. That was a perfect example of why its really good to have control of our own stuff. ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com CLEVELAND, Ohio If there were any questions about former Vice President Joe Bidens rebound in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, there shouldnt be after Super Tuesday. Biden way outperformed his expectations, dealing a pretty huge blow to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders chances of getting the nomination. Sanders looked like a powerhouse through the first three states, but couldnt come up with victories in quite a few key states. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg ended up being a nonfactor and ended his presidential bid Wednesday morning. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens time is probably coming to an end soon after finishing third in her home state. That said, the race is very far from being over and Ohio will absolutely play large part with its March 17 primary (though we might not have clear results the night of the election because Ive probably been trapped in Iowa for a month and not realized it). So what can Super Tuesday teach us about the Ohio primary? Heres a look. Biden is the favorite Last week, I wrote a piece on who the frontrunner was in Ohio at the time. My plan was to update it frequently as the race moved along, since there were enough candidates to rank. Thats not the case anymore, but the list still needs updating. Originally, I said Sanders was the clear frontrunner, but Sanders inability to consolidate support and Bidens rebound have made the race close. Biden showing strength makes him the candidate to beat in Ohio. The Sanders campaign realizes that: theyre going up with TV ads in Ohio attacking Biden for wanting to freeze federal spending, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There was a lot of interesting demographic information to come out of Super Tuesday last night, but I want to point out one in this section. Specifically from Virginia and North Carolina, the two states that very roughly line up the most with Ohio in terms of demographics. Exit polling from both states showed Biden winning convincingly among voters who thought it was more important to elect a candidate who can beat Republican President Donald Trump than one who agreed with them on most issues. The group who wanted a candidate who can beat Trump accounted for 58% of Democratic primary voters in Virginia and 63% in North Carolina. Exit polling is imperfect, but can tell us some things. Especially when it comes to this sentiment. Consider for a moment the state of Democrats in Ohio. There hasnt been a lot of winning lately outside of Sen. Sherrod Brown, and they got smoked in 2016 by Trump. They havent been able to claim any real significant victories since 2012. So whats more likely in the state: Democrats take a chance on a risky more liberal candidate (Sanders) or stick with what they consider the safe option and just try to remain competitive (Biden)? The Sanders fear is real Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., arrives to speak during a primary night election rally in Essex Junction, Vt., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP For weeks Ive been talking with Democrats around the state, just catching up and getting opinions. I admittedly havent spoken to everyone, but theres almost always a common theme of people dreading the prospect of Sanders getting the nomination. That was clear nationally as former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota dropped out before Super Tuesday and instantly endorsed Biden. I dont know what happened in the background, but it was pretty clearly a consolidation of the more moderate wing of the party. And its clearly working, based on the results from Tuesday night. Sanders had much softer support. He lost Minnesota and Massachusetts, two states where he was slightly favored over Biden. While he won California, it wasnt as strong a victory as hed probably hoped for. Key demographics Biden once again did exceptionally well with black voters. Black voters backed Biden to the tune of 62% in North Carolina where they accounted for 27% of the vote and 69% in Virginia where they accounted for 28% of the vote. The other demographic that Biden did very well with is voters in the 45-64 age range. Exit polling showed that age group backed Biden heavily in Alabama, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. He led Sanders within the margin of error in California. That bodes well for his chances in Ohio. Exit polling from the 2016 Democratic presidential primary showed black voters constituted 20% of the electorate. Voters aged 45-64 were 41% of the total. The Midwestern referendum The Super Tuesday results left a clear opening for the Midwest to be the deciding factor in the primary. First, theres Michigan on March 10, which will almost surely be used as a referendum by whichever candidate wins. Its hard to make the argument that you can carry the Midwest en route to the presidency if you cant even win the primary there. Ohio the following Tuesday will be another kind of referendum of sorts. The state leans Republican, but a win here by either candidate would give them the ability to say they can win where Trump won. Go ahead and vote For the past couple of weeks, Ive been saying that its probably prudent for Ohioans to hold their primary vote if they want to cast their ballot for a winner. But with the field basically cleared to two candidates (or three if Warren doesnt drop out), the race is essentially set. Youre probably not in danger of wasting your vote on someone who wont be in the race in two weeks. Realme Philippines, the fastest-growing smartphone brand in the country, bags its first Anvil Award at the 55th Anvil Awards, bringing home the Silver Anvil for its Facebook Community under the Digital PR Program for the Consumer Welfare category. The award recognizes the Realme Philippines Facebook Community as a platform to build ties and have a positive and nurturing smartphone experience for the Filipino youth. Realme Philippines Facebook Community recognized for excellence in digital PR for consumer welfare Launched in October 2018, the Realme Philippines Facebook Community was created to serve as an avenue where Realme executives, fans and users can share tips, feedback, insights and stories about their experience with Realme devices toward building a solid community of Realme supporters. The community now has 62,680 members, 14,687 posts, 353,264 comments and 699,964 reactions at a 95 percent engagement rate, and the community continues to grow. The Realme Philippines Facebook Community is the biggest and most active smartphone online group fostering an inclusive community for Realme users and aspiring owners. As our community grows, we at Realme Philippines will continue to reach out to our Filipino fans and supporters to keep the community much closer and solid. More than just offering the best smartphone technology in the market, we guarantee a much nurturing and complete Realme experience. This award signifies our relentless support to all Realme fans and our keenness to provide more products with real value for every Filipino, shares Realme Philippines Vice President for Marketing Austine Huang. The Anvil Awards is presented annually by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) and is considered the Oscars of the PR and communication industries in the Philippines. This prestigious award-giving body recognizes outstanding PR campaigns that leave an impact on its target audience and society. This years Gabi ng Parangal was held at the Manila Hotel last February 28. Realme Philippines fans and supporters are invited to join the launch of the triple-camera gaming monster Realme C3 through Facebook and YouTube livestreams on March 5. Realme Philippines will also be giving a sneak peek of its brand-new headquarters in the country. Many English teachers have gone on trips within Vietnam, simply to stave off boredom Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, last week reasserted the position that reopening all schools in the most populous city in the country would not be a smart move while other nations battle to contain the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak that originated in neighbouring China last December. At the city steering committee, Phong explained that the large number of employees from South Korea, Japan, and China was also a factor in the continuing concerns. We may not be able to ensure the safety of everyone if nearly two million pupils returned to school, studying and interacting in a confined environment, Phong said. Adding that number to the estimated 78,000 private school students and around 400,000 students at colleges and universities, those disrupted by educational shutdowns are forced to admit that its better to be safe than sorry. Taking that into account, the local authorities late last week considered allowing grades 9 and 12 to return to school first on March 2, on a half-day basis. Students in other grades in secondary or high schools, along with fifth graders, could return to school on March 16, along with foreign language centres and other educational facilities. By Friday evening, after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc suggested that March 2 was too early, citing a complicated evolution of the outbreak and the ongoing developments in neighbouring countries, 59 of the countrys 63 cities and provinces had decided to remain closed for at least another week. The shutdown will apply to kindergartens as well as primary and secondary schools, but not for high schools, colleges, and universities, which have the option to resume this week. Higher education institutions such as the University of Food Industry and the Banking University, both in Ho Chi Minh City, announced last week they would remain closed until March 8 at least. The former is concentrating on disinfecting the premises, while the latter plans to utilise a combination of in-class and online teaching for the rest of the academic year. Meanwhile in the capital of Hanoi, director of Hanoi Department of Education and Training Chu Xuan Dung last week outlined the measures that had already been taken in anticipation of trying to reopen schools as soon as possible. The department is working with localities to compile a list of teachers, students, and others who have travelled through epidemic regions since February 10, along with making use of e-thermometers and installing more taps for water, according to Dung. Previously, municipal departments of Health, Education and Training, and Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in the city sent letters to schools to provide guidance on outbreak prevention and control. Pointers focused on sterilising classrooms every day before they reopen, providing face masks for anyone with a cough and/or high temperature, having medical staff on duty at all times, and limiting collective activities. Short-term uncertainty Despite only confirming 16 cases of COVID-19, with all recovered and discharged from hospital, Vietnam is taking nothing for granted, especially in light of the alarming rise in cases in locations as far away as Iran and Italy. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked all schools to close their doors from this week to prevent further spread. Even in England, several schools decided to shut after fears of children being exposed to the virus during ski trips in Italy, and plans are being drawn up for two months of shutdown in case the whole system is required to take action. Many other Brits, of course, are based in Vietnam, a large number of them teaching English to local people of all ages. It was estimated that around 88,000 foreigners in total were working in Vietnam as of 2018, according to a Committee of Foreign Affairs report, and a great many have been affected by the school shutdown. For many, working to earn and save money is the number one reason for being in Vietnam, and current and future plans have been scuppered through the unexpected turn of events. Everything has been up in the air, said Jamie Campbell, a Scotsman who has been teaching in Hanoi for several years. Weve hardly done anything because we didnt know how long wed be off from work. The first two weeks was uncertain of course, then we didnt know there would be another two weeks off until the Saturday before. So theres been little time to prepare to actually do anything except for a short trip to Ba Vi. Campbell, who works for a small Vinschool branch, said plans to leave Hanoi in May have been scrapped as his work contract may have to be extended, but his school has not yet told him much. They have only asked me to write lesson plans. But Im pretty certain were not going back anytime soon so I havent done any of it, he said. David Swindon, originally from the UK, works for various Apax English centres in and around Hanoi, and has had to juggle his daily life and finances like many other teachers. Ive spent more money than usual here because Ive had time to travel instead of work, but as a result my plans to travel later in the year will have to change because of the situation, he said. Many of the language centres dotted around the big cities have had no work at all for expats. Denver Brent, a South African who teaches at a variety of such facilities said, The small centres I work for have only asked me to be patient and wait for them to reopen no work has been requested of me. Boredom hasnt kicked in yet but Im fairly certain that a few more weeks off will change that, he said. Flexible mindset But back at Apax English, Swindon has been able to pick up some work thanks to the groups push to arrange a different style of teaching for students. The company has been pretty productive, considering. Weve organised additional training, workshops, and clean-downs. Over the past week weve reasonably successfully transitioned over to an online platform and are currently working out some teething problems. Swindon added that this has opened up opportunities for work for all staff there. I do feel theres been a real effort to keep us busy, especially in comparison to other schools in the city, added Toni Grant, who is also with Apax English. American Breanna Davenport, like her boyfriend Campbell, also works at a Vinschool for the kindergarteners. Despite being closed, Vinschool has continued to pay teachers, something that cannot be said for all other similar educational establishments. I feel very lucky because Vinschool has paid us during the closure. However, the first two weeks we had off we will made up by working over 10 Saturdays after school reopens. I am trying to be understanding as this is a unique situation. Unfortunately, because I work with kindergarten-age children, a solution like online learning is not an option. For children of all ages as the weeks drag on, their parents are often struggling with what to do with them. Nguyen Tran Tam is a teacher at a popular elementary school in Hanois My Dinh district. The last few weeks have been a unique and unexpected challenge. Staying home with kids isnt easy, but waking up later than usual is something that makes me happy, she explained. On cold and rainy days we have just stayed home and we read, play, or watch cartoons. I have also tried to teach them how to bake simple cakes. Otherwise, we go out and have a run or go sightseeing. We are just trying to treat it like a holiday. Despite the time off, Tams school is doing its utmost to keep parents in the loop. My school has done lots of things to deal with COVID-19. We ask for parents opinions before making decisions, and keep them informed about preparing masks, thermometers, and other measures for each classroom, she explained. Teachers have had to prepare detailed schedules for the next semester, and create worksheets for their students to practice at home. Even though the situation is different for people depending on workplace, family status, and more, what everyone seems to have in common is the overwhelming feeling that the country is doing the right thing in order to prevent a future crisis. Grants impression on how Vietnam has handled the outbreak has shifted completely. I thought it was a hyperbolic reaction at first, almost mass panic, with everybody wearing masks and closing schools, among other things, she said. But with a population of this size and such connections with other areas of the world where the virus been rampant, I think Vietnam has handled it extremely well. Like the others, Brent also agreed with the sentiment. My feeling is that Vietnam is taking the situation very seriously and being overly cautious, which is of course a good thing when dealing with any sort of outbreak, he said. I thought it would go the other way, Campbell added. I figured companies would not want to lose money, and would give into pressure from parents or other customers. But being cautious is good. Dhinesh Kallungal By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala will keep a tab on the foreign tourists who arrive in the state in view of the emerging global scenario regarding COVID-19. Speaking to TNIE, a senior officer said the health department has already issued a standard protocol in this regard. However, the new developments are forcing the department to keep a tab on the foreign tourists arriving from different countries. The state cannot restrict the entry of foreign tourists as it is a matter related to the Central government, but the situation certainly demands to keep a tab on them, he said. At present, the tourists who arrive in the state have to submit a self-declaration and undergo thermal scanning at the airports. If there is anything amiss in the test, they will be quarantined. But the tourists who do not show any symptoms are free to roam around the state now. In reply to a question, Health Minister K K Shailaja said, Since we have all details regarding the foreign tourists visiting the state, it is possible to keep a tab on them. The Union government has suspended regular visas and e-visas granted to all foreign nationals who have travelled to China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan on or after February 1. Those requiring to travel to India under compelling circumstances may apply for a fresh visa at the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate. Further, passengers of all international flights entering India are told to furnish duly filled self-declaration form (including personal particulars -- i.e. phone number and address in India) -- and their travel history to health and immigration officials at all ports. And Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travelling to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy and avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19-affected countries. Roadshows cancelled Meanwhile, Kerala Tourism has cancelled the roadshows it has planned in cities like Madrid, Milan and Geneva. All these roadshows are scheduled to take place in March. Further, Kerala Tourism is planning to cancel the roadshow it has planned in Moscow in Russia by the beginning of next fiscal. Calls to control room The district coronavirus control room received nine calls on Tuesday. While some callers wanted to know if there are any restrictions on travelling to Qatar, Muscat and other GCC nations, others wanted to enquire whether there will be curbs on those arriving from the United States, Israel and Qatar. The control room assistance will be available at 0484 2368802. 25 on observation list in Ernakulam Kochi: A total of 25 persons were put on the observation list for coronavirus in Ernakulam district on Tuesday, the district administration said. Two persons were put up at the isolation ward of the Medical College, Kalamassery, an official communication from the district administration said. We have not taken anyone out of observation list on Tuesday, it said, adding that 103 persons are home quarantined in the district. Four samples have been sent to NIV, Alappuzha, for testing, it said. The district administration said awareness classes are being held for the volunteers to protect people from the virus. Patient jumps isolation ward Kochi: A minor alarm was triggered when a patient, under observation in the isolation ward of Ernakulam Medical College Hospital here, was found missing on Monday. The 25-year-old Muppathadam native had come from Thailand. He escaped from the ward and reached his residence on Monday. But by Monday evening he returned to the hospital after he came to know that the police were on the lookout for him. Other than cough, He hasnt shown any other symptoms, said Dr Kuttappan, district medical officer Photo: Xinhua Editor's Note: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced the US will impose a personnel cap on the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work in the US for five Chinese state-run media outlets, cutting the number of employees to 100 from 160. The US had earlier this year listed the five outlets as "foreign missions," imposing restrictions on their ability to report some stories. How will these moves affect China-US relations? How should China react? Global Times reporters discussed these questions with two Chinese experts. Da Wei, director of the Center for Strategic and International Security Studies of University of International Relations The US' move this time can be seen as a continuation of a series of events triggered by the Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) commentary with the controversial headline "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia." This time the US will cause even greater harm to China-US relations because it is cutting a large number of Chinese citizens who will be permitted to work for these five media outlets, while China revoked the press cards of only three journalists of the WSJ. On February 18, the US State Department listed five Chinese media outlets as so-called foreign missions. Such a definition itself is problematic. Almost all traditional Chinese media outlets are state-owned, not private, then are all Chinese media outlets "foreign missions?" China and the US have different systems in terms of media, and thus it is wrong for the US to designate these media as foreign missions. On this basis, the US has made a further step along the wrong path by imposing caps on the number of Chinese citizens employed by the five Chinese media outlets. No matter how the US chooses to designate them, these journalists help the two countries better understand each other. There have been challenges in China-US relations, and the two countries should try to increase mutual understanding rather than closing their doors to one another and creating further misjudgments. There have been many disputes between China and the US in terms of the media. The US government and many US think tanks have issued reports and discussions about Chinese media outlets exerting their influence in the US. The US' move this time can be seen as a step that further leads to China-US decoupling. Such incidents will accumulate and eventually lead to a complete decoupling. The US is accelerating this trend. Under these circumstances, I believe that China should remain rational and show a responsible attitude toward the development of China-US relations. Indeed, there must be diplomatic opposition and negotiations, but I do not recommend that we adopt tit-for-tat retaliatory measures, which might create a vicious circle. Currently, China should show a rational attitude which is different from that of the US. Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University The US government's move in cutting the workforce of five Chinese-state owned media outlets by 40 percent can be regarded as a follow-up to the US designating the outlets as "foreign missions," in an attempt to restrict normal exchanges between the two countries, including media coverage. Washington's strategy in cracking down on China involves diverse fields, including politics, economy, society, education and culture. Limiting the normal operation of the Chinese media outlets in the US is a part of that strategy. It can also be seen as US retaliation against China for revoking of the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporters based in Beijing. China's move stems from the WSJ's headline "China is the Real Sick Man of Asia" which sparked fury among Chinese people for its strong racist sentiment. How US media outlets operate in China and how Chinese media firms work in the US has remained unchanged for decades. The US' current attacks and restrictions on Chinese state-media are a pretext to further crack down on China. If the Chinese government imposes similar measures in response, judging from the way US President Donald Trump administration behaves, the US may escalate its retaliation, and a vicious circle will be established between the world's two largest economies. The confrontation and the pattern of tit-for-tat retaliation between the two countries could undermine the already deteriorating bilateral ties. Even if Beijing does not retaliate, the US is expected to take further actions in a bid to restrict Chinese media's engagement in the US. Before China had revoked the press credentials of three WSJ journalists, the US had already declared the US operation of five Chinese official media outlets as "foreign missions," which exposes Washington's intention to constrain the Chinese media. It has become a trend for the US to impede its normal exchanges with China, which can be witnessed by US' efforts in limiting the activities of the Confucius Institute, viewing some Chinese students and visiting scholars in the US as potential security threats, and sharply reducing or suspending cooperation in scientific research. The decline of normal social and academic exchange between the two countries will certainly have a profound negative impact on the sound development of China-US ties. As the world grapples with the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus, several preventive measures to safeguard oneself from COVID-19 virus have been suggested by international health bodies. One of them simply involves washing your hands. With no vaccine available yet, the World Health Organization (WHO) has asked citizens to "regularly and thoroughly clean hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water." While the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has suggested to "wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing." It further stated that if the soap water weren't readily available, a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol shall be used. Since then, people across the globe, including India have keenly taken to google to check the effectiveness of handwashing and hand sanitizers in combatting the deadly virus. Such is the demand of hand disinfectants across the world that stores are running out of hand sanitizers. so much for getting hand sanitizer at my neighborhood cvs pic.twitter.com/rmICppzEnZ George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 2, 2020 Yes, alcohol based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol can kill coronavirus as it has an envelope coating around it that alcohol can attack. https://t.co/7mUGx14IoD Dr. Amalina (@DrAmalinaBakri) March 3, 2020 The spike on Google is a testament. "Buy hand sanitizer", "what is hand sanitizer, "sanitizer above 60 alcohol" were some of the trending keywords on Google on Tuesday. But what if you weren't able to get your hands on one with the on-going demand? Just wash your hands, says the Internet and doctors on it - many of who have cited WHO's suggestions. But I will say this FACT: alcohol based hand sanitizer is absolutely effective in stopping the spread of disease when you don't have access to a sink. And washing your hands is the better option when it's available. Erin Biba says WASH YOUR HANDS (@erinbiba) March 3, 2020 Not only should you wash you hands but wash your phone, your remote control, your sink handles and all your doorknobs. Theyre all germy and just nasty if you dont. Use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and open public bathroom doors after hand washing too. Southern Artist and Democrat (@sherrilee7) March 3, 2020 Only thing that can save us from corona virus.. #CoronaAlert PS : wash your hand properly guys pic.twitter.com/Dmg8vI2DlJ Fenil Patel (@FenilFab) March 4, 2020 You do not need to buy expensive hand washes or gels. Hot water and soap work well and you should wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds. 20 seconds is enough time to sing the song 'Happy Birthday' twice. pic.twitter.com/WqxgVR984S Rob McDowall (@robmcd85) March 2, 2020 To all those worried that hand sanitiser is sold out, it's worth noting..."2019 study by the American Society for Microbiology, using running water and soap to wash your hands is more effective than a dab of gel" (via guardian) Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) March 2, 2020 In fact, people have shared videos to guide you on how to properly wash your hands - just in case you were doing it wrong. Still on Corona virus a lot is being said about hand washing but yet a lot of us still dont know the correct way to wash our hands. Heres a video demonstrating how to.NB: You should was your hands for about 20 seconds (sing happy birthday song twice)RT so others can see pic.twitter.com/C4lTR6s2cE Ibadan Tasha Cobbs (@T0_0LU) February 28, 2020 Iranian health professional uses paint to demonstrate spots we often miss when washing hands in the wake of #Coronavirus outbreak. At the end she shows how to safely remove disposable gloves without touching the polluted surface. #BREAKING #China #Corona #nCoV19 #COVID19 #Iran pic.twitter.com/9QiEda7SFs Muhammad Bilal Aamir (@bilalaamir35) February 24, 2020 Amidst the chaos and empty local pharmacy shelves around the globe, Twitterati raised an important question - why were stores running out of hand wash soaps and sanitizers, didn't people wash their hands before? The fact that hand soap is selling out at stores makes me wonder: didnt people wash their hands before?! Kimberly Atkins (@KimberlyEAtkins) March 2, 2020 Actually amazes me & also terrifies me that hand washing has all of a sudden become this new thing to battle bugs & protect us. What have people been doing before??? Wash your hands. Always. That's all! Professor Harris (@craigjohnharris) March 4, 2020 Im seeing that all hand sanitizers are sold out, when the soap aisle is practically full. YOU STILL NEED TO WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP. Hand sanitizer is for when you cant wash your hands at the moment. Washing your hands is more efficient!!! PLSSSS vxnxsxa (@nessaaaa_knows) March 3, 2020 Go, wash your hands. Welsh business The Village Bakery has marked the start of construction of a new factory following a devastating fire last year. Founder and chairman Alan Jones and his wife Wendy have cut the turf at the site in Ash Road on Wrexham Industrial Estate, less than half a mile from the bakery that was destroyed by fire last August. A one-storey production area that produced crumpets and Welsh cakes was severely damaged by the blaze on the morning of 19 August, which spread to the adjoining office block. None of the 450 staff at the family-owned business in Wrexham, Wales, were injured. The family described the fire as the darkest day in the companys history since Alan and his father Harry bought the business in 1964. Despite the loss of the factory, the business has not made anybody redundant. It has reorganised production in its three other bakeries, while an extension is being built at the companys gluten-free bakery for a segregated production area to make crumpets. As a result, the company says it will have restored all of its lost production in a few weeks time. The factory is being replaced with a 140,000 sq ft facility that will be four times the size of the original. Due to be up and running in just over 12 months, the company says it will give the business capacity to grow to the next level. The fire was a dreadful, devastating experience for all of us but at no point did we feel sorry for ourselves and we vowed to bounce back stronger than ever, said Jones. The fact that we are a tightknit, family operation meant we were able to make quick decisions and turn a disaster into an opportunity. The new bakery will be bigger, better and more modern and will lay the foundation for future growth and success. Village Bakery described the new site as the most modern in Europe. We are buying the very best equipment thats available, mainly from Holland, Italy, France and Germany, explained project director Christien Jones, Alan and Wendys son. Today has been a significant milestone, with Mum and Dad cutting the first sod at the site of the new bakery in Ash Road. Mum also comes from a family of bakers so its part of our DNA, he added. Alan Jones was honoured for his Outstanding Contribution to the Baking Industry in the 2018 Baking Industry Awards. The 2020 Baking Industry Awards are now open for entry. Mike Pence mocked for praying with coronavirus task force at White House Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Vice President Mike Pence received a new round of criticism this week from some on the political left after the White House released a picture of the vice president praying with the coronavirus task force in his West Wing office. The White House Flickr account posted a photo taken on Feb. 26 showing Pence praying with members of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce in his White House office. The photo shows Pence in a circle with others bowing their heads in prayer. The gathering occurred as Pence was assigned by President Trump to spearhead the U.S. federal governments response to the global outbreak of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. As of Wednesday, coronavirus has claimed the lives of at least nine Americans and there are at least 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Additionally, experts have warned that the coronavirus outbreak could potentially be described as a pandemic. After the taskforce prayer photo began circulating on social media, it didnt take long for some on the political left to mock the prayer or take offense to it. Hemant Mehta, who writes for Patheos.coms Friendly Atheist blog, wrote that its not a joke when people say these Republicans are trying to stop a virus with prayer. What else did anyone expect? Mehta asked. Science? Reason? Something sensible? Of course not. If this virus truly becomes a pandemic, were at the mercy of people delusional enough to think their pleas to God will fix the problem. The same God who presumably created the virus, at least in their minds, will somehow make sure it hurts only a handful of Americans and a ton of Chinese people. Dr. Angela Rassmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, also criticized the prayer. I have yet to attend a scientific meeting that begins in prayer, she wrote. Thomas Chatterton Williams, a contributing writer with the New York Times Magazine, shared the photo on Twitter and commented that we are so screwed. Theyre treating this disease with the seriousness and urgency they bring to gun violence, Williams wrote in a tweet. While some are taking solace in the thought that this administration which disbanded the CDC pandemic team in 2018 performatively prays for the camera, this is a chilling window into their actual epidemiological unpreparedness and incompetence. The Associated Press reported last week that claims the CDC was ill prepared is not accurate. "For starters, Trump hasnt succeeded in cutting the budget. The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arent suffering from budget cuts that never took effect." Williams response drew the ire of some Christians, including Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The wisdom they will tap into is far greater than anything man can comprehend, Gaines wrote in a tweet of his own. May God raise up more politicians who, like @Mike_Pence, will admit their limitations, humble themselves, and cry out to God in prayer for help. Cathy Young, a contributing writer for the libertarian magazine Reason, pushed back against liberals who objected to the prayer. Young suggested some critics might be holding a double standard. Yeah, I'm sure that if they held a Muslim prayer session you people would be totally cool with that, she wrote in response to Williams. Robert P. George, a Catholic conservative Princeton University law professor, argued on Twitter that Williams comment illustrates the profound division in our culture. It's obvious to some of us that one of the things you do in a crisis is pray, George wrote. It's obvious to others that praying is (worse than) foolish. Jonathan Merritt, a contributing writer for The Atlantic who writes about religion, criticized those attacking Pence for the prayer. Criticize Mike Pence all you want for being inept in his strategy to dealing with this. But mocking him for praying like 79 [percent] of Americans have done in the past 3 months is why so many regular Americans despise wine-and-cheese liberals, Merritt wrote. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham and the head of Samaritans Purse evangelical humanitarian charity, called the photo touching and powerful. Lets join them in asking God for His wisdom, direction, & help in the response to this virus, Graham tweeted. Being tasked with leading the U.S. coronavirus response is a heavy responsibility for the vice president, who has on many occasions been mocked by the left-leaning figures for his faith. If he does this well, he comes out of this as a very big national figure, former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Politico. If he does this badly, he comes out as a dramatically diminished figure. He knows that. His team knows that. Pence said during a press conference Monday that experts have assured that the risk to the American people of the coronavirus remains low. This president has said we're ready for anything. But this is an all-hands-on-deck effort, Pence said. The US conducted Wednesday its first airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan, a military spokesman said, days after signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group in the Mideastern state of Qatar. US military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the defensive strike was the first US attack against the militants in 11 days. He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province. Leggett added that Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand. According to a spokesman for the provinces governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one other wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand. Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the agreement signed on Feb. 29 between their leaders and US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. The Afghan Defense Ministry said in another statement on Thursday that a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in northern Kunduz province had killed seven of its soldiers. The statement said that ten Taliban fighters were killed in the shoot-out. Kandahar police spokesman Jamal Naser Barekzai told The Associated Press that a police officer was killed and one wounded in a string of Taliban attacks across the province. The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of these attacks so far or commented on the US airstrike Wednesday. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP Wednesday that a week of reduction in violence that started midnight on Feb. 21 had ended. Based on the US -Taliban deal, peace negotiations between the warring Afghan sides are supposed to begin on March 10. However, the Afghan government has already rejected releasing Taliban prisoners ahead of launching the talks, a precondition which the militants say was part of the US agreement. Leggett said that US forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies according to agreements between US and Afghan governments. S. Korea at 'War' With Coronavirus as Governments Try to Stop Spread By VOA News March 03, 2020 Finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading economies are holding talks Tuesday to discuss how to respond to a coronavirus outbreak that has brought cases to at least 70 countries. The G-7 talks come as South Korean President Moon Jae-in sought funding in his country to help with medical supplies and to aid small businesses that have been hit by a downturn as people stay home. South Korea has been one of the hardest-hit nations outside of China, reporting its latest figures Tuesday of nearly 5,000 total cases. "The entire country has entered a war against an infectious disease," Moon said. In Iran, another center from which the virus has spread to other countries as people traveled, World Health Organization experts arrived to help local health workers deal with the outbreak. Britain, France and Germany also pledged to send supplies to Iran. China has seen its number of cases slow, reporting 125 new ones Tuesday, one of its lowest figures in the past two months. The slowdown in China has come as cases elsewhere surged. The United States reported four more deaths from the coronavirus on Monday, raising its total to six with about 100 overall cases. Worldwide, the virus has infected 90,000 people and killed 3,100. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization's director-general, said the focus of all countries should be on efforts to contain the virus. "We are in uncharted territory," Tedros said. "We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission, but which can also be contained with the right measures." The spread of coronavirus has impacted people throughout the world. Millions of Japanese schoolchildren are being held out of class for four weeks; contaminated Israelis were forced to vote in Monday's national election at special polling places; and thousands of tourists were turned away from the shuttered Louvre in Paris, the world's most popular art museum. In Germany, it's common for people to greet each other with handshakes. But when German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed up for a meeting with migrant groups, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer rebuffed her outstretched hand. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris warned that the global economy could shrink for the first three months of the year for the first time since the 2008 recession. "Global economic prospects remain subdued and very uncertain,'' the agency said. OECD lowered its 2020 global growth forecast by half a percentage point to 2.4%, which would be the weakest advance since the height of the downturn in 2008. U.S. manufacturing slowed again in February, the Institute for Supply Management said, as the global supply chain was impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. In the United States, President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force met at the White House with executives of major drug companies about the possibility of advancing work on the development of a vaccine for coronavirus. The drug industry has said that such a cure is up to 18 months away. Trump claimed credit for limiting the effects of coronavirus in the U.S. "I was criticized by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommended," he said. "Saved many lives. Dems were working the Impeachment Hoax. They didn't have a clue! Now they are fear mongering. Be calm & vigilant!" On Wednesday, top U.S. officials are meeting with airline and cruise ship executives about their plight with the spread of coronavirus cutting discretionary travel. Monday brought the first two reported cases in Indonesia. Health officials there said they had links to an infected Japanese national. Italy has been the hardest-hit nation in Europe and saw its number of cases surge to about 1,700 on Sunday. Officials there said they expected that number to rise. WHO says the majority of the coronavirus patients are adults with symptoms that include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. The organization says 80% of victims experience mild illness; 14% experience severe disease; and 5% of those infected become critically ill. WHO says those who experience the most severe cases are people older than age 60 and who have other health problems. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hanoi [Vietnam], Mar 4 (VNA/ANI): The Indonesian government on Wednesday ordered the closure of Adi Soemarmo International Airport in central Java after Mount Merapi erupted ashes up to 6 kilometers into the air a day before, a local official said. The eruption lasted about eight minutes, according to Indonesia's Geology and Volcanology Research Agency. Authorities here also warned people to not venture within three-kilometers radius around the volcano. The 2.930-metre mountain, located near the cities of Yogyakarta and Solo, is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its eruptions in 2010 killed over 350 people. (VNA/ANI) The Indian rupee has depreciated to a 15-month low as foreign funds have continued their withdrawals from the emerging markets amid the spread of deadly coronavirus across the globe. The domestic currency, on Tuesday, crashed to sub-73 level for the first time since October 2018, on the back of three days of continuous and heavy depreciation viz a viz US dollar. The rupee tanked 52 paise on Tuesday to close at 73.20 against the greenback, on top of 107 paise depreciation in the previous two trading sessions. During the day, the rupee had even depreciated by as much as 64 paise but made a partial recovery in the last hour of trade. This is the lowest the Indian rupee has touched since November 1, 2018, when it had closed at 73.46 against the greenback. This also happens to the first time that the rupee has closed below the psychological 73-mark in the past 15 months. In the three trading sessions, the rupee has now lost 2.2% or 159 paise against the US dollar, as foreign funds continue to sell-off from the Indian markets. The depreciation is even more worrisome as the month of March is typically good for the Indian rupee as remittances, from both individuals and companies tend to buoy the exchange rate. According to IFA Global, a broker and advisor on forex, in the last 10 years, on seven occasions the rupee has seen appreciation against US Dollar. However, this time, as foreign funds are dumping riskier assets in the emerging markets due to the spread of coronavirus, the rupee has been showing a huge slide. "It could be due to foreign outflows and risk aversion for emerging market assets and currencies due to the uncertainty and concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus. The strength of the US dollar has also been a factor," said Kavita Chacko, Senior Economist at CARE Ratings. In the past three trading sessions, the FIIs have ended up being net sellers in the Indian markets with withdrawals of close to Rs 6,200 crore. In the current calendar year, the foreign investors have pulled out a net of about Rs 23,000 crore from Indian markets. The analysts, as a result, are also revising near term targets for the rupee towards lower levels. The five economists that DH spoke to, predicted the rupee to be near the 74-mark against the US dollar. The lowest that rupee has touched ever has been 74.28 (intraday), on October 5, 2018. "The extent to which the depreciation persists will be driven by incoming data on the spread of the outbreak. It is likely duration and impact on the Indian economy," said Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist at ICRA. This is likely to put pressure on India's import bill, despite the massive correction in crude oil prices. "The decline in crude oil prices could offset to an extent the depreciation in the currency," Chacko said. The prices of Brent futures in the International markets have fallen by a whopping 24% in the past two months. It will also lead to a hike in many consumer durables that are being imported, including smartphones. United Nations, March 4 : An International Women's Day programme organised by India at the UN has been cancelled as world organisations curtail meetings to protect against the COVID-19 threat. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Economist Gita Gopinath was scheduled to hold a dialogue on Monday in honour of Hansa Mehta, one of the framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in conjunction with the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that has been suspended. "Women's Economic Empowerment and Inclusive Global Economic Growth" was the theme of the dialogue that has been cancelled, according to a diplomat at India's UN Mission which organised it along with UN Academic Impact. Gopinath's IMF and the World Bank (WB) announced on Tuesday that they are going to hold virtual meetings as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus instead of requiring the physical presence of participants. The international economic organisations' heads, Kristalina Georgieva of the IMF and David Malpass of the WB, announced the switch for their high-level spring meetings that were to run from April 13 to 19 in Washington with finance ministers and central bankers attending. "Our goal is to serve our membership effectively while ensuring the health and safety of Spring Meetings participants and staff," they said in a joint statement. The WB had earlier said that 2,800 delegates from member countries, 350 observers, 550 civil society organisation representatives and 800 journalists usually attend the annual spring meetings. The spring meetings include several side events like seminars, civil society meetings and cultural events, all of which have been cancelled. The IMF said that for the virtual meetings format it "will leverage our IT and virtual connections capabilities to the fullest, complemented by our online platforms (such as the World Bank Group and IMF websites and social media accounts), online media briefing centres, and other means of digital communications." The CSW said it decided to cancel its 64th session at the suggestion of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who advised against travel to New York for the meeting that was to have run from March 9 to 20 with about 7,000 participants from governments and civil society groups. The session was to have been a landmark meeting as this year marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the women's Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Commission said that after a procedural meeting that will include opening statements, the adoption of a draft political declaration and consideration of draft resolutions, and other sessions and programmes will be suspended. Guterres's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that he made the recommendation after consulting the Senior Emergency Policy Team, UN Medical Services and the World Health Organisation. Mehta is credited with making the Declaration of Human rights gender-inclusive by insisting that the first article say that "all human beings are born free" instead of only "all mena as the draft said. UN Academic Impact, which co-organised the Mehta dialogue, works with higher education institutions to promote the UN's goals. (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Danny Baker has complained that the BBC 'threw me under the bus' after he jokingly compared Harry and Meghan's mixed- race son Archie to a chimp. The broadcaster was sacked from his Radio 5 Live Saturday morning show last May after he tweeted a picture of a smartly dressed chimpanzee captioned 'Royal baby leaves hospital'. Baker, 62, pictured, denied accusations of racism over the comment. He told Tracy Ann Oberman's Trolled podcast yesterday that he 'never had a great relationship' with BBC bosses because he is not 'club- bable' and claimed that one of the staff who rang his home over the matter was rude to his wife. Danny Baker is pictured speaking to journalists outside his home as a storm raged over his tweet about the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son Archie last year While he received support from hundreds of showbusiness friends, some said they could not openly back him as they had mortgages to pay. After he tweeted the chimpanzee picture, the broadcaster was accused of racism, with critics accusing him of likening Archie - the first modern mixed-race royal baby - to an ape. Within hours of his post he was sacked by the BBC for his 'serious error of judgment'. Baker admitted to podcast host and former EastEnders actress, Tracy Ann Oberman, that he got what he 'deserved'. Tracy-Ann Oberman attend the press night performance of 'Pretty Woman' at the Piccadilly Theatre on Sunday in London. Baker admitted to the podcast host and former EastEnders actress that he got what he 'deserved' over his royal baby tweet 'The BBC threw me under the bus,' he said. 'I had 200 or 300 direct messages from people in showbusiness. But a few said they wanted to support me publicly but had a mortgage. I did not feel sorry for myself, because I shouldn't.' Baker, who hosts his own podcast, Treehouse, said he doesn't want to be 'defined' by the 'revolting, terrible time' he suffered . But he admitted: 'Mine was the most catastrophic mistake. The most outrageous catastrophic mistake, born out of something so trivial and the consequences of it so disastrous. Everything I got I deserved.' President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts in the Delhi gangrape case. The Delhi government had earlier recommended rejecting Guptas mercy petition. He was the only one out of the four convicts to not have exhausted all the legal remedies. On Monday, a court in Delhi again deferred the execution of the four convicts in the case, which was slated for Tuesday, till further orders, after their lawyer AP Singh pointed out that Gupta has filed a mercy petition with the President. The four convicts - Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar - were scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on March 3. Pawan Gupta had moved a fresh application before the Delhi court seeking a stay on the hanging, as his mercy plea is pending before the President after the court dismissed their application seeking stay on hanging earlier on Monday. He filed the mercy petition after his curative petition was rejected by Supreme Court on Monday morning. The case pertains to the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, christened Nirbhaya bythe media, in the Capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. Some women in media who know or have worked with the now-former host of MSNBCs Hardball, Chris Matthews, have come to his defence since his abrupt retirement from the network over sexual harassment allegations. Mr Matthews resigned on air Monday night. He opened the show, announced his retirement, and when the show went to commercial and returned, Mr Matthews was no longer behind the desk. Im retiring. This is the last Hardball on MSNBC, and obviously this isnt for lack of interest in politics. As you can tell, Ive loved every minute of my 20 years as host of Hardball. Every morning, I read the papers and Im gung-ho to get to work. Not many have had this privilege, he said before signing off. On Morning Joe, host Mika Brzezinski shared her thoughts on her long-time colleagues exit from the network. Im sad. Chriss passion and joy was infectious, she said. As a woman, I loved working with Chris Matthews. I really enjoyed being his colleague. She said that while she still remains friends with Mr Matthews, she also understands the importance of cancel culture and noted that changes could be painful in the pursuit of a more just world. On The View, Meghan McCain made the argument that Mr Matthews deserved a better exit. To reduce his entire career to this segment is really sad, because I thought he deserved a better sendoff than that. I thought I might be raked over the coal for saying that today, she said. That doesnt mean his behaviour should be absolved, it doesnt mean that he should not apologise and his feet not be held to the fire, but a lot of people at MSNBC have done a lot of crap. Mr Matthews has been a perpetual source of criticism for MSNBC over recent weeks, mostly tied to his coverage of Senator Bernie Sanders campaign, at times suggesting that Mr Sanders might support people that would have executed him in Central Park and later using a historical analogy about Mr Sanders success in Nevada that compared it to the victory of the Nazis over France in World War II. Story continues It appears the last straw for MSNBC was an op-ed by journalist Laura Bassett published in GQ last Friday in which she says Mr Matthews said hed fall in love with her while they were in makeup before an episode of Hardball. Ms Bassett said that though she had once written about the experience, she chose not to reveal Mr Matthews name in the account. She said her decision to run a new piece naming Mr Matthews was inspired by his treatment of Senator Elizabeth Warren following the South Carolina debate. Following the debate, Mr Matthews pushed Ms Warren on her decision to believe the account of a woman who worked for former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg that the candidate told her to kill it when she alerted him to her pregnancy. Ms Bassett said the anchor's behavior towards Ms Warren prompted her to publish the article outlining his long history of sexist comments and behavior. On Twitter, Kathleen Parker, a Washington Post columnist, also came to Mr Matthews defence. Chris Matthews is a friend of mine. He and I have flirted unabashedly for 20 years. This is an atrocious end to a noble, happy-warrior career. I will continue to be his friend, she wrote in a tweet. Ms Parkers characterising of Mr Matthews statements towards women - which he reduced to compliments on a womans appearance - as flirting prompted backlash on social media, some of which came from other women in the cable news realm. The friends He never did it to ME vouch-for is meaningless, since the friend wasnt always there, AND it discredits alleged victims. This one also manages to dismiss harassment as mere flirting, an idea that, like Matthews, has rightly been retired, S.E. Cupp, host of S.E. Cupp Unfiltered on CNN, tweeted. Read more Chris Matthews abruptly quits Hardball over sexist comments A few months ago, protesters flooded the streets of Bolivia, helping to push former president Evo Morales from power. Now, they are up in arms again -- against those they once hoped would replace him. Demonstrators feel the country's center-right politicians have let them down by failing to rally around a single candidate to take on Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) party in May's election. "It's shameful that there are people and politicians hungry for power who only look out for their own personal interests," activist Pablo Alba told AFP. The leftist Morales -- who first took office in 2006 -- resigned in November following three weeks of protests against his controversial re-election in polls that were widely derided as rigged. Bolivia's constitution limits a president to two successive terms but in October's election, Morales stood for a fourth consecutive mandate, after an already questionable third term. The 60-year-old stood down under pressure from the country's military, and now lives in exile in Argentina. But in the latest opinion polls ahead of the May 3 election, his political heir apparent, Luis Arce, is in first place with 26 percent. Bolivia's center-right interim President Jeanine Anez is running in the May election to win the job, but she is currently polling in fourth place / AFP/File The center-right is fielding seven candidates for now -- which protesters say could deal a fatal blow to their hopes of keeping the MAS out of office. Once of Arce's closest competitors is former president Carlos Mesa, who ran against Morales in October and who many thought would have run a run-off has the leftist not claimed outright victory in the first round. Mesa and right-wing protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho are tied at 17 percent in the latest polls. Conservative interim President Jeanine Anez, whose candidacy is controversial after she previously claimed she wouldn't stand, was fourth on 12 percent. Evangelical pastor Chi Hyun Chung stood at six percent and ex-president Jorge Quiroga at three percent. That means the anti-MAS bloc could attract more than the 50 percent required for an outright victory in May -- were it to field one candidate. We're "disappointed, totally disappointed, disillusioned, defenseless," said the 29-year-old Alba, who is a lawyer. - 'We're polarized' - Bolivian ex-president Evo Morales now lives in exile in Argentina, but the candidate for his leftist party is still leading in opinion polls ahead of the May 3 presidential election / AFP/File Alba is part of a group of protesters camping outside the Mexican ambassador's residence, where some top MAS officials fled after Morales stepped down. The group is trying to prevent those ex-officials from escaping and leaving the country, believing they should be brought to justice for alleged offenses committed while in office. Those protesters also say the center-right needs to put their supporters before their own ambitions and focus on defeating the MAS in May, when 36 senators and 120 deputies will also be elected. "They're not thinking about the people's struggle, about the people's request," said Alba. Bolivia remains quite divided -- the MAS still commands huge popular support, particularly amongst indigenous communities. Morales was the country's first indigenous president. Many of those party faithful believe Morales's claim that he was the victim of a US-orchestrated coup d'etat. "We're polarized between those who promote and defend a Movement for Socialism government and those who believe in democracy," political scientist Carlos Cordero told AFP. An Aymara indigenous woman walks past graffiti reading "Evo - thief, fake indigenous person", referring to Bolivia's leftist former president Evo Morales -- he is still a polarizing figure / AFP Street graffiti reflects this polarization -- messages such as "Evo thief, fake indigenous person," share space with others such as "Evo president indigenous leader." Cordero however believes that come May, voters will be savvy, despite the division in the anti-MAS camp. There may be a "useful vote" that favors Mesa or Anez over other center and right-wing hopefuls in a bid to head off the MAS, he said. - 'Healthy' political unity - The presidential candidate for Bolivia's Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, Luis Arce, currently leads in opinion polls / AFP/File For many indigenous people, whose communities were largely marginalized before Morales came to power in 2006, a future without MAS in government is one that generates fear. Saul Paredes, 33, is from the Aymara community, like Morales, and lives in El Alto, a satellite town in the La Paz suburbs. Paredes proudly admits to taking part in protests and violent clashes with security forces that left dozens dead after Morales fled the country. He says indigenous rights have been rolled back under Anez's interim administration, and believes the political elites should band together for the nation. "They have to abandon their personal interests ... (to) unify the country in a healthy way," said Paredes. If there is no outright winner on May 3 -- with either more than 50 percent of the vote or more than 40 percent and a lead of at least 10 points -- a second round run-off will take place on June 14. T his was the scene at a coronavirus drive-in testing centre in London as a patient arrived to be checked. The service in Parsons Green is one of the ways testing is being carried out away from hospitals to minimise the danger of spreading the disease. It is provided by Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust and can only be accessed via a referral from the NHS 111 helpline. It means people worried about the virus can safely and quickly get checked close to home. The patient remains in the car while two community nurses carry out a swab test in the nose and mouth. People are asked to self-isolate while checks are completed over the next 72 hours. The testing process takes 20 to 25 minutes. Coronavirus: Parsons Green Drive through test centre 1 /9 Coronavirus: Parsons Green Drive through test centre Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Today a London secondary school said it was remaining open despite a pupil testing positive for coronavirus after returning from a trip abroad. The Kingston Academy said it was following advice from Public Health England. The pupil returned from a category two country which requires people to self-isolate if they develop symptoms. Calls to the school were not being answered this morning but a message on its website said it remained open. In a message to parents last night, headteacher Sophie Cavanagh said: I have spoken with Public Health England and they have advised that we remain open whilst a full risk assessment is conducted ... it is important that we maintain perspective and follow the advice of the experts in such situations. It came as the Holborn offices of accountancy firm Deloitte were being deep-cleaned after an employee tested positive for the virus. A spokesman said: One of the floors in our offices has recently been impacted, with a member of staff being confirmed with Covid-19 after returning from a personal trip to Asia. Today it emerged that three people from a family in Surrey had been diagnosed with coronavirus. The first diagnosis was confirmed last Friday when a constituent of former health secretary Jeremy Hunt was found to have the virus after visiting Italy. Mr Hunt, who represents South West Surrey, yesterday said there had been an outbreak in his constituency. An unknown number have been released from hospital after recovering. There have been more than 14,000 coronavirus tests carried out. Five Londoners have been diagnosed, including two infected in Iran and one in China. This is believed to be the woman who took an Uber to Lewisham hospital to be tested. She was discharged last week from St Thomas hospital. Hubei will always put peoples lives and health in the first place and ensure all-out efforts to guarantee the supply of daily necessities during the lockdown of its cities, said Ying Yong, secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at a recent meeting on the provinces epidemic prevention and control. The meeting, convened by the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC and the provincial epidemic control command center on Feb. 23, made plans to further ensure the basic supplies of the provinces cities during the epidemic. Unimpeded logistics leads to stable supply of materials and stable supply of materials makes people feel assured, which finally results in general stability, said Ying at the meeting. With strong assistance from across the country, Hubei has established a mechanism of joint supply with 8 other provinces and municipalities, and built 5 inter-provincial transfer stations for the transportation of materials. Cargos coming from across the country are distributed by Wuhans logistics enterprises after arriving in the city, and there is no human contact in the unloading process, so quarantine for the drivers and vehicles from outside the city for is uncalled-for, which ensures the smooth operation of the inter-provincial green channel. At present, around 3,500 large- and medium-sized chain markets are in operation in the province, and the large-scale commercial and trading enterprises in Wuhan have resorted to a new group-buying model under which commodities are delivered to communities after bulk orders are placed online by residents. Besides, e-commerce platforms and logistics companies such as Alibaba, JD Logistics, Meituan and SF Holding are also moving into high gear to guarantee the supply of daily necessities for the residents. My job today is to help residents buy medicines, and yesterday I was delivering vegetables, said Chen Hao, an official with the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Hubei province who come to Yuexiu residential community in Jangan district, Wuhan to serve the people from Feb. 24, as residents have been required to stay at home to contain further spread of the virus. Foodstuff is all-important to the people. I must guarantee the supply of their everyday items or else closed-off management will encounter problems. Im a cadre, and I must serve the people well, Chen said. After communities in Wuhan adopted closed-off management, most residents bought vegetables online, and the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC and Wuhan Municipal Committee of the CPC have taken multiple measures to tackle the problems encountered by the citizens, such as stale vegetables and insufficient varieties, Chen introduced. Wuhan Municipal Commerce Bureau launched a fourth edition of guidance for residents to purchase vegetables online on Feb. 24, adding another 10 platforms on its previous 23-supplier list, including Suning Xiaodian, the convenience store unit of Chinese retailer Suning.com, and the online food material supplier Liang Zhi Long. The bureau also provided detailed introductions to the purchasing process and delivery timetables of each of the platforms, as well as brief introductions to the features of them. For instance, some of the platforms boast fresh, cheap and disinfected products as well as non-contact delivery; some take pride in their cost-efficiency products that are transported directly from the production bases and manufacturers; and some adopt no minimum consumption policy and promise to delivery all orders regardless of the price. She has been enjoying a soaked trip to Greece. And Christine McGuinness shared more snaps from her lavish getaway as she took to Instagram on Wednesday. The Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 31, looked sensational in a glittering gold mini dress that clung to her toned frame. Golden girl: She has been enjoying a soaked trip to Greece. And Christine McGuinness shared more snaps from her lavish getaway as she took to Instagram on Wednesday The glittering dress cinched in at her tiny waist and featured a sexy cut out on the back. The thigh-skimming garment showcased her tanned and toned pins, whilst a pair of strappy heels boosted her model frame. Christine completed the look by styling her glossy golden locks in loose waves that cascaded down her shoulders. She captioned the snap: 'Leaving a little sparkle in Athens! 'I have laughed for 2 days with the girlies, exactly what I needed but its time for Mama to go home to my babies, my hubby, my bed [sic]'. Roses are red... Christine has been sharing a slew of snaps from her girls' getaway, and on Monday she was sure to get pulses racing with a sultry shot Christine has been sharing a slew of snaps from her girls' getaway, and on Monday she was sure to get pulses racing with a sultry shot. The mother-of-three slipped into a sheer black bustier and stockings to pose seductively on a windowsill holding a red stem rose. Christine highlighted her ample cleavage in the negligee which comprised of a floral lace bra with double strap detailing on the bust and sheer panelling across her tiny midriff. She amped up the glamour with Louboutin heels and wore her blonde locks in tumbling curls which cascaded over her shoulders. Christine seductively captioned the post: 'Treat me right, hold me tight, Ill keep you up all through the night'. Glamour: Another shot saw Christine cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in a green and white plaid crop top and matching flared trousers Another shot saw Christine cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in a green and white plaid crop top and matching flared trousers. The TV personality displayed her taut midriff while she added height to her frame with white, open-toed heels. The star appeared to be enjoying her trip away with a group of gal pals as she shared another photo of herself along two friends, captioning it: 'Girls trip'. Dazzling: The Real Housewives of Cheshire star cut a glamorous figure as she posed on a rooftop area in the green and white crop top and matching flared trousers Sensational: Christine shared a further look at her outfit with restroom snaps uploaded to her Instagram stories The trip comes after Christine emotionally revealed she has no one to talk to after she discovered that her youngest daughter, Felicity, three, has autism three years after her twins, six, were diagnosed. In a candid new interview, the star also spoke about her marriage to presenter Paddy McGuinness, 46, and how there's 'no time' for them as a couple. Christine admitted that her 'heart breaks for all her children' but that Felicity and twins - Penelope and Leo, inspire her every day. Party: The star appeared to be enjoying her trip away with a group of gal pals as she shared another photo of herself along two friends, captioning it: 'Girls trip' The model also revealed that Paddy found Felicity's autism hard after he previously admitted that he is 'never happy in himself' since their twins were diagnosed. Speaking to OK! Magazine, Christine said it was 'heartbreaking' but clarified that it didn't mean Paddy wasn't happy with her or the children. She explained: 'There's no time for us as a couple, no quality time, no date nights. Not even time to have a laugh together. 'We're full-time carers and the kids come before everything. But we have to stay strong as a unit for our kids.' Members of the 14th Parliament of Malaysia participate in the first session at Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur, July 17, 2018. Updated at 3:43 p.m. ET on 2020-03-04 Malaysias new government has ignored calls for an urgent sitting of parliament to show it has a majority support from lawmakers, amid criticism from opposition and civil society leaders who say that legitimacy of the ruling coalition is in doubt. The next session of parliament, which had been scheduled to open on Monday, will begin in mid-May, according to a schedule released by the speaker of parliament based on instructions from new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. I have received a notification letter signed by the prime minister as the head of council to inform that the government has decided the first meeting of the third session, which was scheduled to begin on March 9, has been postponed to Monday, May 18, said the statement signed by parliamentary speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof. Muhyiddin was sworn in March 1 after he and other lawmakers from the ruling coalition defected and joined ranks with the party of corruption-tainted ex-premier Najib Razak, whose government was ousted in the 2018 general election, and the Islamist PAS party, which has been campaigning for stricter Islamic laws in the multi-racial country. Both Muhyiddin and Malaysias king said that he had support from a majority of 222 members of parliament, without giving a tally. On Wednesday, opposition figures again called for more concrete evidence. The postponement has been interpreted as a sign of weakness that the prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, does not have the majority support of MPs to be a legitimate prime minister of Malaysia, said Lim Kit Siang, a senior leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). DAP was a main party in the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition that unraveled in late February, leading to the shock resignation of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Feb. 24. Following a week of political turmoil and shifting alliances, Mahathir announced that he had the support of 114 MPs to return to the post, but said that King Al-Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah would not meet with him to allow him to present the information. Power to delay parliament session Back in power as part of Muhyiddins new National Alliance coalition, officials from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) Najibs party said the two-month postponement was needed and not a delay tactic. Some say we are afraid to convene and that is why it is being postponed. You have to understand that this is not done in haste, UMNO Secretary General Annuar Musa told reporters at party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Annuar said Muhyiddins new government needed to issue a notice appointing a new parliament speaker and to appoint new members to cabinet posts. The new opposition will have to send questions to parliament and parliament has to pass those questions to the ministers. Right now where do we send questions when the prime minister has yet to appoint any ministers? Annuar asked. He said the Pakatan coalition, after assuming power in May 2018, spent nearly two months establishing a cabinet before parliament could reconvene. Constitutional analyst Shamrahayu A. Aziz, of the International Islamic University of Malaysia, said the prime minister had the power to delay a legislative session. [B]ecause the prime minister has just been sworn in, he probably wants to take some time before having the parliament in session, Shamrahayu told BenarNews. On the day Mahathir said he had 114 supporters, Pakatan Harapan later revised the number down to 112 amid warnings that it could be whittled down further through defections fueled by promises of government posts. Mahathir and activists, including from the grassroots Bersih movement, had also pressed for an urgent session of parliament. The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) calls for a special session of parliament to put beyond doubt the question of whether the newly sworn-in PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin commands the majority in parliament, the group said in a statement on Monday. If a special session is not called, then this vote of confidence should be moved as soon as when the next sitting of parliament convenes on March 9th, Bersih said. Court issues Muhyiddins alignment with UMNO, meanwhile, has created questions about the status of criminal charges against Najib and his former deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Najib is on trial in two separate courts on corruption charges linked to beleaguered state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and a subsidiary. A total of 42 charges have been filed and the former prime minister could face additional trials linked to what U.S. prosecutors described as the embezzlement of more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) from 1MDB. Speaking to Reuters news service, Najib said he expects his time in court to be different under the new government. I would expect that the atmosphere would be more conducive toward a fair trial, Najib told Reuters in an interview at his mansion in an affluent neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur. I dont want any undue manipulation or pressure put on the judge or judges for political reasons. And on the strength of the evidence, Im more than happy to go through the court process. His former deputy, Zahid, saw a Monday court hearing on 47 corruption and money laundering charges postponed for a day, after his lawyers claimed he had a scheduled meeting with Muhyiddin to discuss the new cabinet, according to local media. Muhyiddin challenged the claim of a meeting, leading Zahid to promise the court he would present a letter to prove he had been summoned by the new prime minister. On Tuesday, Zahid escaped a contempt of court ruling, according to local media. Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah accepted his explanation that there might have been miscommunication and that he had chosen the wrong words to seek the postponement. The two UMNO leaders were not the only people with political ties to face legal action this week. Mahathirs daughter, Marina, was one of 19 activists questioned by police on Wednesday about their roles in weekend protests over her father losing power. Malaysian law requires obtaining police permission before holding a protest rally, Agence France-Presse reported. This reminds us of more than two years ago, when so many of us had to undergo this, she told the news service. The new government has only been in two days and all this is happening. 04.03.2020 LISTEN As soon as it was reported that some of the anti-galamsey functions of Operation Vanguard were to be transferred to the Ghana Police, someone wrote to comment on the Internet: From the frying pan into the fire! That comment may sound a bit cynical. But it accurately reflects the reputation the Ghana Police Force has cultivated in the eyes of the public it has sworn to serve. A motor-accident happens. Instead of the Ghana police finding out whether the accident was caused by over-speeding; other instances of reckless driving; lack of maintenance of the vehicle(s) involved, especially as regards the brakes of the vehicle(s), the tyres of the vehicle(s), the suspension, the lights and the loading or overloading of of the vehicle(s); the Ghana police will more often than not, make the accident the source of unearned income for themselves, instead of making the offender(s) pay for their breaches of any of the traffic laws of the country so as,to deter others from similarly endangering public safety. Everyone talks about how corrupt the police are. But we do not hear of anything being done about it. So the public continues to believe that they are corrupt. And the Government wants to end corruption in the campaign to end the destruction of our rivers, streams and water-bodies by galamseyers and it hands over that campaign to the police? Indeed, arent Operation Vanguard personnel already supposed to be composed of BOTH policemen and soldiers? That being so, how could the soldiers in Operation Vanguard have (for instance) made money out of arresting galamseyers; seizing excavators; seizing arms and ammunition; seizing gold; motor vehicles; fuel containers etcetera etcetera, without the police knowing about it? How often have arrested people been allowed by the police to escape? How many excavators have been removed from under the noses of the police? How many enter forest reserves and riverbanks without being arrested by the local police? Anyway, if the police observed the soldiers making money out of anti-galamsey operations but did not report them, then were the police themselves fit for purpose? Were they not aware that by keeping quiet, they would arouse suspicion that the money made out of the anti-galamsey operations was SHARED with them? When Operation Vanguard was turned into GALAMSTOP, I wrote an article warning that it had become a hi-tech operation and that there were risks attached to that modus operandi. This is part of what I wrote at the time: (Ghanaweb 19 August 2018): QUOTE: The trouble with galamsey is that its like the multi-headed snake in Greek mythology, Hydra of Lerna. Hercules was obliged to slay this monster as one of his Twelve Tasks. But the trouble with the Hydra was that even if you were very good with the sword and managed to cut off one of its heads, it grew two in their place! . The new approach to the galamsey problem announced by the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Prof Frimpong-Boateng (Minister for the Environment) at a Meet The Press event on 16 August 2018, was so sophisticated that it created not one Hydra-headed conundrum but several.. Prof Frimpong-Boateng and his Committee have developed an ultra-modern and very sophisticated roadmap to try and contain galamsey. Whilst presenting it, the Prof again managed to come out with a profound truth which makes the problem a challenge to all Ghanaians, not only to the Government of the day. In answer to a question about the chances of success of the roadmap, he said: I can give you facts about the situation. But I cannot change your attitude to it. That change in attitude must come from each and every one of us, he suggested. It reminds me of another statement I once heard, uttered as a comment on our situation: We cannot rise above ourselves! UNQUOTE Yes, the simple truth is that We cannot rise above ourselves. For how can a man who has risen high enough in our society to merit an appointment to high government office, disgrace the President who appointed him, by accepting money to sabotage a programme the President has entrusted to him? How can an influential man in whom the President had reposed trust, send a convoy of official cars into a galamsey area to tell Operation Vanguard personnel that the people they had just arrested were his boys and should therefore be allowed to go free? How can a Ghanaian person in authority condone the actions of a Chinese woman, in setting guard dogs on Ghanaian uniformed immigration officers, who want to arrest her for carrying out unauthorised activities in relation to galamsey,? And employing other Chinese nationals to behave in the same way, to boot? Would any Ghanaian dare to show such disrespect to uniformed officials of the Chinese state? Would Chinese officials accept money and allow such insolence against their country to go unpunished? What has happened to us as a nation is that we have ignored President Kwame Nkrumahs noble objective and made our independence meaningless. When Nkrumah told us, on 6 March 1957, that our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the entire African continent, he wasnt suggesting that Africans should be liberated by riding in nice official cars, living in luxurious bungalows and having traffic stopped for them by police outriders. What he meant was a change of mentality; such a change as would make no African accept being insulted in his own country as a Kaffir (as was the case in apartheid South Africa). That no African should be denied services anywhere in the world, just because of the colour of his skin; and that when such discrimination occurred against any African in any country, then all other African countries should rise as one and accord similar treatment to the nationals of the racist country that did not respect Africans. It would never have occurred to President Nkrumah who spent many years negotiating fair terms for Ghana, in respect of the construction of Akosombo Dam that the people he had fought for would one day allow foreigners to come and destroy the very water they drank, in exchange for gifts of money. Yes, what we have truly lost is our SOUL, and unless we regain that, no amount of personnel changes in Operation Vanguard, or Operation-Let-The Police-Do-It, or even by Asafo groups, will save us from the effects of galamsey. In other words, it isnt the anti-galamsey mechanism thats gone wrong; it isnt the programme of training small-scale miners to adopt ethical gold-winning practices thats ineffectual. No! It Is the PEOPLE who operate the programmes; the PEOPLE who look around and when they think no-one can see them, stretch out their hands, take money, put it in their pockets, and allow the DESTROYERS to go on using excavators to churn up our riverbeds and destroy our forest reserves. Yes it is our people who should be conscientized into line, to prevent the destruction of our natural endowments. Otherwise, we shall devise ever-new anti-galamsey programmes all for nothing! By CAMERON DUODU VANCOUVER, Washington, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), (CytoDyn or the Company"), a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, announced today the treatment of the first patient in its Phase 2 clinical trial for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) under the modified trial protocol. The modified protocol now includes reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) patients and an open-label design under which all enrollees receive leronlimab. The modified protocol also provides for a 50% increase in the dose of leronlimab to more closely mimic preclinical dosing. The next review of data by the independent data monitoring committee (iDMC) will occur following enrollment of 10 patients under the amended protocol after each patient has been dosed for 30 days. Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of CytoDyn, added, GvHD is a life-threatening complication following bone marrow transplantation in patients with leukemia who have compromised immune systems due to treatment with aggressive cancer therapies. We selected GvHD as one of our immunology indications for leronlimab, as it targets and masks the CCR5 receptor on T cells. This receptor on T cells is an important mediator of inflammatory diseases including GvHD, especially in organ damage that is the most frequent cause of death in these patients. Dr. Pourhassan concluded that, Based upon the compelling results in our preclinical studies, we are optimistic about the opportunities for leronlimab to provide a therapy for transplant patients to mitigate GvHD. The Companys preclinical study by Denis R. Burger, Ph.D., CytoDyns former Chief Science Officer, and Daniel Lindner, M.D., Ph.D. of the Department of Translational Hematology and Oncology Research, The Cleveland Clinic, was published online in the peer-reviewed journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The Company previously reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug designation to leronlimab (PRO 140) for the prevention of GvHD. Orphan drug designation is granted to development-stage drugs that have shown promise in addressing serious medical needs for patients living with rare conditions. This designation provides CytoDyn with various incentives and benefits including seven years of U.S. market exclusivity for leronlimab (PRO 140) in GvHD, subject to FDA approval for use in this indication. About Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) Graft-versus-host disease is a risk when patients receive the transplant of bone marrow stem cells donated from another person. GvHD occurs when the donors immune cells attack the patients normal cells. GvHD can be acute or chronic. Its severity depends on the differences in tissue type between patient and donor. The older the patient, the more frequent and serious the reaction may be. Acute GvHD can occur soon after the transplanted cells begin to appear in the recipient and can range from mild, moderate or severe, and be life-threatening if its effects are not controlled. Certain approved drugs exist that can help prevent or lessen GvHD. However, GvHD does not always respond to these treatments, and it can still result in fatal outcomes. Furthermore, many deaths related to GvHD occur because of infections that develop in patients whose immune systems are suppressed by such drugs. About Leronlimab (PRO 140) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a Fast Track designation to CytoDyn for two potential indications of leronlimab for deadly diseases. The first as a combination therapy with HAART for HIV-infected patients and the second is for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Leronlimab is an investigational humanized IgG4 mAb that blocks CCR5, a cellular receptor that is important in HIV infection, tumor metastases, and other diseases including NASH. Leronlimab has successfully completed nine clinical trials in over 800 people, including meeting its primary endpoints in a pivotal Phase 3 trial (leronlimab in combination with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients). In the setting of HIV/AIDS, leronlimab is a viral-entry inhibitor; it masks CCR5, thus protecting healthy T cells from viral infection by blocking the predominant HIV (R5) subtype from entering those cells. Leronlimab has been the subject of nine clinical trials, each of which demonstrated that leronlimab can significantly reduce or control HIV viral load in humans. The leronlimab antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements compared with daily drug therapies currently in use. In the setting of cancer, research has shown that CCR5 plays an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. Increased CCR5 expression is an indicator of disease status in several cancers. Published studies have shown that blocking CCR5 can reduce tumor metastases in laboratory and animal models of aggressive breast and prostate cancer. Leronlimab reduced human breast cancer metastasis by more than 98% in a murine xenograft model. CytoDyn is therefore conducting a Phase 1b/2 human clinical trial in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and was granted Fast Track designation in May 2019. Additional research is being conducted with leronlimab in the setting of cancer and NASH with plans to conduct additional clinical studies when appropriate. The CCR5 receptor appears to play a central role in modulating immune cell trafficking to sites of inflammation and may be important in the development of acute GvHD and other inflammatory conditions. Clinical studies by others further support the concept that blocking CCR5 using a chemical inhibitor can reduce the clinical impact of acute GvHD without significantly affecting the engraftment of transplanted bone marrow stem cells. CytoDyn is currently conducting a Phase 2 clinical study with leronlimab to further support the concept that the CCR5 receptor on engrafted cells is critical for the development of acute GvHD and that blocking this receptor from recognizing certain immune signaling molecules is a viable approach to mitigating acute GvHD. The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to leronlimab for the prevention of GvHD. About CytoDyn CytoDyn is a biotechnology company developing innovative treatments for multiple therapeutic indications based on leronlimab, a novel humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the CCR5 receptor. CCR5 appears to play a key role in the ability of HIV to enter and infect healthy T-cells. The CCR5 receptor also appears to be implicated in tumor metastasis and in immune-mediated illnesses, such as GvHD and NASH. CytoDyn has successfully completed a Phase 3 pivotal trial with leronlimab in combination with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients. CytoDyn plans to seek FDA approval for leronlimab in combination therapy and plans to complete the filing of a Biologics License Application (BLA) in the first quarter of 2020 for that indication. CytoDyn is also conducting a Phase 3 investigative trial with leronlimab as a once-weekly monotherapy for HIV-infected patients and plans to initiate a registration-directed study of leronlimab monotherapy indication, which if successful, could support a label extension. Clinical results to date from multiple trials have shown that leronlimab can significantly reduce viral burden in people infected with HIV with no reported drug-related serious adverse events (SAEs). Moreover, results from a Phase 2b clinical trial demonstrated that leronlimab monotherapy can prevent viral escape in HIV-infected patients, with some patients on leronlimab monotherapy remaining virally suppressed for more than five years. CytoDyn is also conducting a Phase 2 trial to evaluate leronlimab for the prevention of GvHD and a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial with leronlimab in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. More information is at www.cytodyn.com . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Words and expressions reflecting optimism, satisfaction or disappointment with current prospects, as well as words such as believes, hopes, intends, estimates, expects, projects, plans, anticipates and variations thereof, or the use of future tense, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The Companys forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and actual results could vary materially from those contained in or expressed by such statements due to risks and uncertainties including: (i) the sufficiency of the Companys cash position, (ii) the Companys ability to raise additional capital to fund its operations, (iii) the Companys ability to meet its debt obligations, if any, (iv) the Companys ability to enter into partnership or licensing arrangements with third parties, (v) the Companys ability to identify patients to enroll in its clinical trials in a timely fashion, (vi) the Companys ability to achieve approval of a marketable product, (vii) the design, implementation and conduct of the Companys clinical trials, (viii) the results of the Companys clinical trials, including the possibility of unfavorable clinical trial results, (ix) the market for, and marketability of, any product that is approved, (x) the existence or development of vaccines, drugs, or other treatments that are viewed by medical professionals or patients as superior to the Companys products, (xi) regulatory initiatives, compliance with governmental regulations and the regulatory approval process, (xii) general economic and business conditions, (xiii) changes in foreign, political, and social conditions, and (xiv) various other matters, many of which are beyond the Companys control. The Company urges investors to consider specifically the various risk factors identified in its most recent Form 10-K, and any risk factors or cautionary statements included in any subsequent Form 10-Q or Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any responsibility to update any forward-looking statements to take into account events or circumstances that occur after the date of this press release. [March 04, 2020] Provenir Announces Its First Client in Colombia: Creci MIAMI, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Provenir, a leading risk analytics software company, today announced Creci as a new client. Creci is a Colombian-American FinTech specializing in providing credit to small businesses, both in Latin America and the United States, that generate social impact and are focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Objectives defined by the United Nations. Crecia new startup based in Hollywood, Florida, with offices in Medellinchose Provenir to meet all of its credit risk decisioning needs. With Provenir, Creci will approve loans instantly through its digital platform and operationalize risk models in real-time using the integrations offered by Provenir, thus ensuring future business agility and growth. Andres Idarraga, CEO and Co-Founder of Creci, explained, "In order to develop our own risk decision models and, at the same time, meet our goal of empowering small businesses that generate social impact, we needed to digitize our processes. So, we are happy to be working with Provenir, an industry-leading technology company that works on solutions for leading FinTech and global financial institutions." "We are very excited to have Creci as our first Colombian client using Provenir's innovative platform; it will help manage not only their real-time risk decision processes but also ensure an openness to technology and a speedy market entry. Creci is a unique institution in its market, as it is 100% dedicated to financing projects with social impact. And I am sure that the growth of innovative companies in Latin America, such as Creci, offers a huge opportunity for Provenir and our region," said Gaston Peralta, Director of Business Development for Latin America. About Provenir Provenir makes risk analytics faster and simpler for financial institutions. The Provenir risk analytics and decisioning platform is a powerful orchestration hub that can listen to any channel, integrate with any data service and operationalize any analytic model, helping clients process more applications with greater efficiency and increase sales conversions with instant, real-time risk decisioning. Provenir serves clients across a broad range of financial verticals including consumer, cards, payments, e-commerce and auto financing. Provenir is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with EMEA operations based in England, LATAM operations in Miami, and APAC operations in Singapore. For more information, please visit www.provenir.com. About Creci Creci is an early-stage social impact lending platform that provides credit facilities to entrepreneurs working to further the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Creci assesses a project's impact and assigns it a social impact score. It also provides entrepreneurs with online tools that help them report their impact on a continuous basis. Creci currently makes loans in Colombia and plans to expand throughout the Americas. For more information, visit www.creci.co Media Contact: Marianela Pasquadibisceglie, Senior Marketing Manager Latin America. +1-305-363-4397 [email protected] Related Images provenir-sme-lending.jpg Provenir SME Lending Provenir: a risk analytics and decisioning platform View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/provenir-announces-its-first-client-in-colombia-creci-301016415.html SOURCE Provenir [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A couple in medical masks walk through the financial district in Manhattan in New York City on March 3, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) North Carolina Confirms First Coronavirus Case One person tested presumptively positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wake County, North Carolina, according to a state health official who confirmed the states first case of the mysterious new virus that has left at least nine people dead in the United States. I know that people are worried about this virus, and I want to assure North Carolinians our state is prepared, said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement. Our task force and state agencies are working closely with local health departments, health care providers and others to quickly identify and respond to cases that might occur. The patient had traveled from Wake County to Washington state and was exposed to the virus at a longterm health care facility where there is an outbreak. Officials in King County, Washington, said that several COVID-19 patients and deaths have been linked to the Kirkland-based Life Care Center. A sign is seen at the entrance to Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington state on Feb. 29, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images) Now, health department officials in the state are attempting to identify anyone who may have had close contact with the patient. No other details about the patient, including the persons age, were released to the public. Todays announcement represents an isolated case, and COVID-19 is currently not widespread in North Carolina. Because COVID-19 is most commonly spread through respiratory droplets, North Carolinians should take the same measures that healthcare providers recommend annually to prevent the spread of the flu and other viruses, including washing your hands, avoiding touching your face and covering coughs and sneezes, according to the health agency. The infected person traveled back to North Carolina on a flight, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, in a news conference. Now, officials are contacting and identifying the people who were on the plane with the patient. Im in close communication with Vice President Pence and other federal leaders, and I will do everything I can to continue supporting our states medical institutions, universities, and health care systems, which are some of the best in the world and have a proven track record in treating infectious diseases, said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in a statement. So far, according to officials in Washington, nine people have died from the virus, and more than 20 people have been confirmed to have contracted the illness. About 50 patients and staff at Life Care are being tested for the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will have to confirm any presumptive COVID-19 cases in the state, said officials. A butt surgery went wrong for a woman and now she is almost on her deathbed. 52-year-old woman, Aleida Garcia Ortez, is fighting for her life after she got cooking oil injected into her buttocks during a 'botched' bum lift operation at home. Local media reports claim that she also underwent liposuction alongside the surgery at her house in the municipality of Fusagauga, Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. CEN According to Mirror UK, Aleida paid $4 million Colombian pesos (Approx Rs 85,000) for the procedure. However she became unwell just 72 hours after the operation. Currently she is in intensive care with a serious infection. Talking to the local media, Fabian Diaz, the woman's son, said, "Three days after the buttock surgery her body reacted strangely. Her bum cheeks became very red, she had bruises everywhere and her skin was very shiny." CEN The woman was transferred to the Hospital San Rafael where doctors determined she was suffering an infection caused by cooking oil being injected into her buttocks during the operation. She is currently in an intensive care at La Samaritana hospital in the Colombian capital of Bogota to receive specialist treatment. Talking to La Republica, Fabion said, "There is little hope that my mother will live, she has bacteria in her body and it has already affected some bones." Representative Image/Getty Images Meanwhile the woman who performed the surgery is missing and it has not been revealed whether she even had the medical qualifications required to carry out the complex surgery. The family has filed a criminal complaint about the incident, but life of the 52-year-old still hangs in balance. An Ohio man kept a five-year promise to his sister on her wedding day when he showed up with a llama as his plus-one, much to the dismay of the bride. Mendl Weinstock, a former camp counselor who lives in Cleveland, jokingly told his sister, Riva, that he wasnt coming to her future wedding during a 2015 road trip from their Ohio home to Indiana, just to tick her off as brothers do, he told BuzzFeed News. Riva, who was 17 at the time and had apparently been fantasizing about her special day as if was set to happen tomorrow even though she wasnt dating at the time, told Weinstock he was a bad brother for making such a threat, to which he responded that hed bring a llama as a guest if she made him attend the celebration. The two continued to argue until Riva finally agreed to her brothers bizarre terms, a pact he says he never forgot especially when his sister got engaged in October 2019. Weinstock quickly got to work in locating an Ohio llama farm that would rent him a llama for the big day. He even tapped a friend to help him craft a tuxedo and a yamarkule (or llamarkule, if you will) for his special date named Shocky. Needless to say, when the two showed up at the March 1 celebration, Riva was a bit displeased though shed been amply warned as evident by photos captured of her incomparable side-eye during her big day. My sister walked outside and had this humongous gaping looking on her face, Weinstock told BuzzFeed. Theres nothing that can really prepare you for walking outside and seeing a llama. Sparky was naturally a hit amongst wedding goers, remaining outside the venue for a few hours to greet guests as they entered. However, the dapper llamas true rise to fame happened on Reddit, where a photo of him racked up over 156,000 upvotes in just two days. Although Riva was initially a little mad about the joke, Weinstock said she eventually relented but she does, apparently, plan to exact her revenge one day, as any respectable sibling would. Story continues If Riva is even half the prankster her brother is, Weinstock and any of his potential future spouses better watch their backs. More from In The Know: This $8 hack prevents that annoying, post-ponytail hair crease Here are 7 of Amazons best deals happening today The Pioneer Woman Instant Pot costs $49 at Walmart The post Brother brings llama as guest to sisters wedding appeared first on In The Know. It was not business as usual during the federal executive meeting held at the presidential villa, Abuja as ministers were subjected to test as a preventive measure against the deadly coronavirus. This became necessary after Nigeria confirmed its first case of the dreaded disease through an Italian man who arrived in the country on the 26th of February. Read Also: Dangote Pledges N200m To fight Against Coronavirus At the entrance point inside the Presidential Villa, everybody that came to witness the meeting was first given hand sanitizer before being allowed into the State House Council Chambers, Abuja. More photos below: Kolkata: Amid reports of Border Security Force (BSF) indulged in Community Development Programmes (CDPs) at the bordering areas West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the state administration to ensure that BSF should not enter the village in the name of social service/community development events. While addressing an administrative meeting at Kaligunj in North Dinajpur, Mamata said, They (BSF) should not interfere in local issues. It is the job of the police to look into the local issues. Police should stay alert here because North Dinajpur shares border with Bangladesh. I have raised the matter before the Union Home Minister and have informed the ministry about their (BSF) activities. Those who are guarding the border should not enter villages in the name of community services. They should not interfere in local issues because law and order is a state subject. I would like to tell the police officers posted in these areas to look into the matter, she added. While expressing her dismay over delay in issuing of caste certificate, she said, I came to know that even after one member of a family is having a caste certificate the second generation is not getting the certificate on time. There is a delay. Why? I would like to say that there will be no enquiry if a second-generation member of a family is applying for a caste certificate. It should not take more than a month to issue the certificate. She also launched a new housing scheme named as Snehaloy, under the purview of which the underprivileged families will be given Rs 1.20 lakh each from the state government to build houses. This is not for the first time when Mamata has been at constant loggerheads with the NDA government over BSF. Earlier, in July, 2017, the state government had returned an additional 400 paramilitary BSF troops sent for deployment in the riot-hit areas of Bashirhat in North 24-Parganas district. Then, MHA issued a statement, claiming that the state government has its own security forces like the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) and it is not deploying them and instead blaming the central government for not sending the force. We have sent four BSF companies (comprising 100 personnel each) to Basirhat but these were returned by the state government, the ministry had said. In December 2016, Mamata hits out at centre by raising serious objection to the presence of Army soldiers at toll booths on national highways that run through Bengal. They should have sought state governments permission. Is this a military coup? Even for a mock drill, the army takes permission from the state, she had said. Following which, Mamata decided to spent the entire night in her office at the secretariat Nabanna and refused to go home till the Army left. Health experts, physicians, and researchers are now developing an epidemiological forecast for Ukraine. Chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko says he does not rule out the possibility of the spread of the coronavirus Covid-2019 across the country. "We must realize that, sooner or later, a coronavirus infection may spread across our country," Liashko said, according to Obozrevatel. "Today we have one case. Perhaps there will be a spread of the disease across the territory. We see examples of Italy and Germany," he said. Liashko added that, as of the evening of March 3, there were no symptoms of Covid-2019 development in persons who had contacted with a Chernivtsi resident infected with coronavirus. Read alsoUkraine bans imports of pets from China after dog in Hong Kong tests positive for coronavirus However, when asked how many more coronavirus carriers may remain undetected in Ukraine, the official replied: "It's hard to say." Health professionals, physicians, and researchers are now developing an epidemiological forecast for Ukraine, Liashko said. "Since coronavirus is a new and poorly studied infection, we brought in the Academy of Medical Sciences to help us develop an optimistic and negative scenario," said the official. New Delhi, March 4 : Over a decade after being the favourite for many for its European comfort food, Smoke House Deli has got a brand new avatar. Called Smoke House Deli 2.0, the revamped outpost opened for public on March 2 DLF Avenue, Saket. The evolved version of the place now has a fresh new healthy menu and pockets of freshness throughout the space with bright green plants and large windows. While you can continue to enjoy the restaurants all-time favourite dishes like the Baconator Burger or the Classic Mac 'n Cheese, the new menu is all set to serve indulgent goodness all day every day. IANSlife spoke to Jaydeep Mukherjee, Business Head, Smoke House Deli, to know more about the new version of SHD and the need to revamp the legacy brand of Impresario Handmade Restaurants. Excerpts: Q: Please tell us more about the version of Smoke House Deli, the new menu and why was the change required? Mukherjee: Smoke House Deli was a favourite among diners for its comfort European food. But not much had been changed, in terms of trendiness, health concerns or health requirements. When I came into the company (two years ago) my observation was that there was a lot more we can do. And that was the reason why Smoke House Delhi 2.0 began to take shape. Image Source: IANS News A lot of changes I have introduced in the new menu... which now has great healthy indulgence... We now source from better farms, better cooperatives and farmers. We have started using a lot of local ingredients as well. We wanted to make things different and different not for the sake of being different but different with an integrity. We started working with various people who were playing a good role in the organic and healthy food space. It includes more options that feature 100 per cent organic ingredients, coming straight from local farms. Sustainability is at the core of everything we do hereon. Image Source: IANS News Q: What kind of research was done? Mukherjee: Research was primarily on cooking techniques. Research was done around maintaining nutrition, local produce, seasons -- what was good in what season, who were the people doing it. Image Source: IANS News Q: What kind of challenges did you face? Mukherjee: The main challenge was of scale. A farmer who produces in Satara, when he is asked to supply in Mumbai, he says 'we can't do it. You come and take it'. So we faced those problems. We have now worked with larger players. Not many NGOs, but people who were doing it as a business but at the same time with the right intentions. So the challenge was around logistics and supply chain. Image Source: IANS News Q: 'Farm to fork' - seems to be the rising trend. How do you see it? Mukherjee: It is more about getting the produce - may be it the freshest radishes or even a beautiful watermelon, after being harvested, it reaches me quickly. A lot of food that come to us from the wholesale market were passing through several middlemen. When you begin to buy from source... it ensures that all of this come to you as quickly as possible. Farm to fork is a trending concept. For me, it means freshness, minimum manipulation and the integrity that I'm looking to deliver to my customers that is maintained. (Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in) -- Syndicated from IANS A bill that seeks to establish South West Development Commission (SWDC) has scaled second reading at the Senate. The bill is sponsored by Ogun senator, Ibikunle Amosun. It was introduced in the Senate in November, 2019. Leading the debate, Mr Amosun said the issues that necessitated the enactment of this Bill are prevalent in all the other geopolitical zones in the country. He said with increasing population in the Southwest region, social amenities, are increasingly stretched, just as living standards continue to plummet. Majority of roads are calling for urgent attention. Many state-owned hospitals have inadequate medical personnel and equipment that can properly manage the health needs of patients. Educational institutions are not what they used to be. Industrial estates have become desolate, while a few which are still functional are struggling to remain in business, he said. The massive growth and activity of the agricultural sector evidenced with endless rubber and cocoa plantations have since given way while growth of local industries has been stalled. Also, no effective bureaucracy exists, and with the least premium placed on capacity development human resources development has ceased being a culture, he explained. The push for the establishment, he said, is an attempt to address the dwindling fortunes of the South West region by implementing a regional development plan, taking into consideration the regions unique endowments, natural advantages and capabilities. This Commission it passed into law will enhance regional integration which is capable of delivering the benefits of large economies of scale. It is my firm belief that this Bill will act as a catalyst to develop the geo political zone by providing legislative backing to address some of these challenges in the South West, just as it has been done for other geo political zones in this hallowed chambers. The Bill seeks to resolve issues of underdevelopment by redirecting federal governments attention to the development challenges of the South West region which comprises Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States. Issues which include, but are not limited to, agriculture, transportation, health, infrastructural decay, education, environment, housing, industrialisation, water supply, electricity, commerce etc, which when addressed will have a multiplier effect of great proportions not only for the South West region but Nigeria as a whole. Controversial debate Prior to the passage of the bill, many lawmakers made their contributions with a few rejecting it. Adamu Bulkachuwa (Bauchi) said there was no reason to establish the SWDC, saying the South West region is the most developed in the country. There was first Amotekun. Now there is South West Development Commission Bill. All the other commission that were passed by this Senate, NDDC, North East, were actually created because of circumstances. North East was devastated by Boko Haram and all the wars and needed rehabilitation. The same things with NDDC. Because of the oil and exploitation activities, the livelihood of the people there was almost rendered useless. They could neither farm nor fish. They needed all these activities so the NDDC was created. I cannot see a reason why South West commission or South West Development Commission should be created because South West is the most developed region of the country, he said. He recalled that before the civil war, shipping activities were in Port Harcourt and Calabar but after the civil war, all shipping activities were diverted to Lagos. And up till now, shipping has not reverted to Calabar and Port Harcourt, he said. He said the bill is a dangerous one and does not reflect true federalism. We say we are creating true federalism. I dont think this is true federalism. I dont support it and I urge my senators to please not support it. In his response, the deputy senate leader, Ajayi Boroffice, said creation of commissions in the zones will only generate competition that will compel progress and growth and will unlock resources and potentials of the South West. The deputy minority leader, Emmanuel Bwacha, further warned that the bill is not a controversial one but straight forward. This bill is advocating for development. Nobody will move against a developmental legislation. When you oppose this bill, it is simply moving against the tide. We are here to ensure that we carry development to all parts of Nigeria. North Central and North West are bringing their own so why are we getting agitated for nothing? In fact, refusal to pass this bill will rather divide us the more. Let us apply wisdom. As parliamentarians, we should be seen to be agents of unity. In a bid to calm the situation, Adamu Aliero, who was neither for or against the bill, urged lawmakers of other regions to bring their own bills. Advertisements Every region has its peculiar developmental problems. What I would suggest in order not to divide this chamber, is for every geopolitical zone to come up with their own development agenda. If this is done, it will satisfy virtually everybody. There is no need to continue with this debate. Every zone should bring its bill for the senate to pass into law and the president to assent, he said. After the deliberations, the bill was read the second time after a voice vote. It was thereafter, referred to the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service matters. Already in existence is the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the North East Development Commission (NEDC), whose establishment bill received presidential assent in October, 2017. And introduced to the Senate are bills to establish South East, North Central and North West development commissions. The second reading of the bills is expected on another legislative day. Standardbred horseman Marc Aubin, 86, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday, February 28, 2020 in Hospice Care in Boynton Beach, Florida. Aubin was so passionate about horses and fought to the end to live, but was finally able to have the rest he deserved. Thanks to everyone who rooted for him and sent their love and support. Aubin was a member of the FSBOA, USTA and Standardbred Canada, and was also a past member of the FSBOA Board of Directors. He was inducted into the Florida chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2012. Aubin trained horses most of his life in Pompano Beach, Florida, but also raced in Canada and Illinois. A funeral service will take place on Monday, March 9, 2020 at 2 p.m. at the Emmanuel Catholic Church, which is located at 15700 S Military Trail in Delray Beach, Florida A full obituary will follow at a later date. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Marc Aubin. (USTA) Two Montana men died this week after separate vehicle collisions, one on Tuesday in Missoula and the other Sunday south of Pablo, according to law enforcement authorities. In Missoula, a 63-year-old man was killed in an apparent hit-and-run Tuesday morning on West Broadway, Missoula police said. The suspected driver left the scene in what a witness described as a white Pontiac Grand Am, police said. The vehicle and the 34-year-old man driving it were located in the 5800 block of Sandpiper Drive, Missoula police Sgt. Travis Welsh said in a news release. "MPD detectives are conducting an interview with the driver at the Missoula Police Department," Welsh said late Tuesday morning. No further updates were available. Welsh did not release the identity of the victim, saying only that he was a 63-year-old man. Police responded to a 6:40 a.m. call about the crash. The body was found in the roadway, Welsh said. At press time, no additional information was available about the status of the driver. Westbound traffic initially was closed from Latimer Street to Great Northern Avenue while law enforcement was on scene, Welsh said. The road was completely open by 11:30 a.m. The Police Department release asks that anyone who saw the incident or otherwise has information to contact Detective Katie Petersen at 406-552-6279. South of Pablo, Michael J. Gardipe, 26, died after being hit 4:30 a.m. March 1 on U.S. Highway 93, Lake County Sheriff-Coroner Donald Bell said Tuesday in a news release. "Gardipe was taken to a local hospital where he passed from his injuries," the news release said. "The Montana Highway Patrol is investigating the accident. The Lake County Sheriff's Office wish to share our condolences to the family." You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 4 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: Eight students of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) will study for one semester (February - June) at the Angel Kanchev University of Ruse (Bulgaria) and the University of West Attica (Greece) under the Erasmus + program. The BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov met with these students and their parents. The rector congratulated the students selected for the Erasmus + program and wished them success in the next semester. He recommended the students to effectively spend their time abroad, acquire new knowledge and skills, actively participate in events organized by European universities, establish contacts with foreign students, and adequately represent our country and the Higher School abroad. Elmar Gasimov said that fourth-year students of the Process Automation Engineering Department of Baku Higher Oil School Azer Aliyev, Fidan Abbaszade, Emil Nagizade, Tarlan Ahadli will go to study at the Angel Kanchev University of Ruse (Bulgaria) and that their classmates Khamid Aliyev, Kamran Alchanov, Togrul Nabili, Omar Mammadov will go to study at the University of West Attica (Greece). In total, 15 students of the Process Automation Engineering Department of Baku Higher Oil School will study in Europe during the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year under the Erasmus + program. 7 of them are already studying at the University of Alcala (Spain) since January 2020, the rector added. Costly Attacks To Pay or Not to Pay Legislative Action (TNS) When cybercriminals struck Lake City, Florida, last June, city officials had to make a tough choice: Pay the hackers or restore systems on their own.A ransomware attack had hijacked the governments computer network and held it hostage for several weeks. While the attack didnt affect the police, fire or financial departments, it wreaked havoc on phone lines, email, utility records and many other services.The hackers first demanded about $750,000 in bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, from the small, rural city to give it back control of its network.The city tried to recover the data on its own, City Manager Joseph Helfenberger recalled, but that failed. Its insurance company negotiated with the hackers and got the ransom down to about $470,000. It recommended paying, and officials figured that was the best option because the city would have to cover only the $10,000 deductible.This is not a rich community. They cant afford to spend money they dont have, Helfenberger said. You have to look at what is going to serve the community the best.There were at least 113 successful ransomware attacks on state and local governments last year, according to global cybersecurity company Emsisoft, and in each case, officials had to figure out how to respond.Some states have passed laws to target cybercriminals who deploy ransomware, but prosecutors have rarely used them. And local officials often are left vulnerable.In Baltimore last May, hackers crippled thousands of computers, then demanded a ransom of about $76,000 in bitcoin. Democratic Mayor Bernard C. Jack Young refused to pay. Workers were unable to access online accounts and payment systems for weeks.The attack ended up costing the city at least $18 million a combination of lost or delayed revenue and the expense of restoring systems. Young said in a statement last June that the FBI advised the city not to pay, and that it was just not the way we operate, adding, We wont reward criminal behavior. The mayors office did not respond to Stateline requests for comment.Baltimore and Lake City arent alone. The majority of publicized ransomware attacks in the United States last year targeted local governments, according to a recent report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.Yet no one knows how many local and state governments have been hit by a ransomware attack. There is no national clearinghouse that collects all that information. Nor is every attack publicly reported. The FBI, which tracks national crime data, couldnt be reached for comment before publication.Sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals zero in on local and state governments because their networks contain lots of valuable information, such as Social Security numbers, birth certificates, bank account details and credit card numbers.For cybercriminals, local governments can be easy prey, with fewer resources to protect themselves than state governments. They also provide essential services to residents, which means they must have access to their data to function effectively day-to-day.Ransomware attacks against state and local governments were the top cybersecurity industry story in 2019, and it will continue to get worse in 2020, with new forms of ransomware, said Dan Lohrmann, chief security officer for Security Mentor, a national security training firm that works with states.Threats also are evolving. Rather than just encrypting data and demanding ransom in exchange for providing a decryption key, experts say some cybercriminals will threaten to make public sensitive information if they dont get their money.Thats already happened in Pensacola, Florida. Hackers in December threatened to release files if the city didnt pay a $1 million ransom. When it didnt, they posted what they claimed was a 2 gigabyte archive of city files on a public website.City spokeswoman Kaycee Lagarde said there is still an active FBI investigation, but city officials dont think the hackers accessed any personal data, such as Social Security and drivers license numbers, from employees or residents.The city had backup for its major systems and was able to recover totally within two weeks without needing outside help, she said. But it ended up spending a total of about $372,000 to hire a company to do a cyber assessment and for another company to provide identity protection for 57,000 employees and residents, out of an abundance of caution.In the past, ransomware incidents were simply a very expensive inconvenience. Now they are becoming data breaches that can result in a lot of very sensitive information being posted online, said Brett Callow, a threat analyst for cybersecurity company Emsisoft. A government can find itself in a situation in which data has been stolen and it has no good options.Its hard to know how much state and local governments have spent dealing with ransomware attacks.Its embarrassing for them to have to admit that, said Tom Holt, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University who specializes in cybersecurity. They dont want to announce the breadth of cyber insurance coverage and what theyve had to pay.While state governments apparently havent paid ransom, a review of media reports shows that local governments shelled out at least $1.9 million in 2019, from the city of Washington, Pennsylvania, which paid $21,250 to hackers, to Riviera Beach, Florida, which authorized its insurer to pay $600,000.Washingtons mayor did not respond to calls requesting comment. Riviera Beach City Manager Jonathan Evans wrote in an email that the FBI had advised officials there not to comment because it is still an active investigation.And it cost local and state governments that refused to pay ransom at least $27.1 million to restore their systems and upgrade cybersecurity protection, media reports show. That includes lost revenue while services were put on hold.Some local governments pay ransom because they feel its the best option. They need their data back quickly and might not have the expertise or resources to do it themselves, or the money it would take to restore the system.Other local governments say No way to ransom demands, declaring that they refuse to be extorted.And some governments wind up in the middle.In New Bedford, Massachusetts, which was attacked in July, cybercriminals demanded more than $5 million in ransom. Mayor Jon Mitchell made a counteroffer of $400,000, using insurance proceeds. The hackers didnt agree, so the city opted to restore its system from backups.New Bedford spokesman Jonathan Carvalho said in an email that the city doesnt have an estimate of the cost because much of the restoration was done in-house and consultants were paid through an insurance policy.The reality is that municipalities, corporations, and even private individuals are in an arms race with cybercriminals who operate in far flung places across the globe, Mitchell said in a statement in September. Every advance in anti-viral technology is effective until the criminals figure out how to get around it.Lohrmann, of Security Mentor, said there isnt an easy answer for local governments to the question of whether to pay ransom.This is the $6 million question. Its nuanced. It depends on the circumstances, he said. If its pay $30,000 or its going to cost me $5 million to restore all my systems, I can see why they want to pay.The FBI cautioned in an October online alert that paying ransom only encourages more criminal behavior and emboldens cybercriminals, and it doesnt guarantee the victim will regain access to the data.But the agency noted that it understands that when businesses are faced with an inability to function, executives will evaluate all options to protect their shareholders, employees, and customers.CyberEdge, a cybersecurity research and consulting firm, found in 2019 that about 39% of public and private entities around the world that were hit with ransomware attacks over a 12-month period paid ransoms and lost their data anyway.In July, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution urging local governments not to pay ransom to hackers.Thats the right position, said Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides training and other support to local government information technology executives.The danger is you pay, and they decide to walk away and still dont unlock the files, Shark said. And your system may be so infected that if you pay, maybe theyll come back again.But for Lake City official Helfenberger, that was a risk that officials had to take.Its easier for more affluent communities to not pay ransom, he said. For communities that are poor like us and dont have resources its much more of a struggle.And it would have cost a whole lot more than what the insurance company paid the hackers to try to restore everything, the city manager added. There is no way we would have been able to recreate all the utility maps, the [meeting] minutes from the beginning of creation and all the other records. Its just not possible.All 50 states have computer crime laws, and most address unauthorized access or computer trespass, according to Pam Greenberg, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ransomware potentially could be prosecuted under those statutes or extortion laws, she said.But at least five states California, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas and Wyoming have made the use of ransomware or other forms of computer extortion a crime.This year, Greenberg said, at least seven states are considering measures related specifically to ransomware.Legislation proposed in Maryland, for example, would create criminal penalties for possessing ransomware with the intent to use it without authorization. Violators could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.The state attorneys want it. They want to be able to charge people if they can find them, said Maryland Democratic state Sen. Susan Lee, who sponsored the measure. At least there would be a law on the books. If its not there as a criminal offense, its not a deterrent.But some technology experts say ransomware could be covered under existing computer crime laws. And most ransomware attacks come from overseas countries such as Russia, Iran and China. That means finding and prosecuting perpetrators on the state level would be difficult, if not impossible, they say.I think it is a waste of time, said Shark of the Public Technology Institute. It sounds terrific, but most of these actors are in other countries. The money is going to bitcoin, and its untraceable.Legislators in Iowa and New York are considering another way to deal with ransomware: Theyve introduced bills that would prohibit local and state governments from paying ransom.We will only continue to see these attacks increase if we dont put this policy in place. We have to cut off the money supply, said New York Democratic state Sen. David Carlucci, the bills sponsor. For years, the U.S. has had policies of not negotiating with terrorists or kidnappers. A similar idea should prevail about paying ransom for cyberattacks.Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., agrees.I think its the right kind of strategy, he said. If you take away the option of them paying, the attackers are going to look for someone who can pay. Theyre a for-profit enterprise.But others argue that barring government officials from paying ransom wont eliminate the problem.I think its not going to work, said Security Mentors Lohrmann, although the intentions are good.Theres no way right now to stop cybercriminals from launching ransomware attacks on local and state government, he said, so the best approach is to be prepared.Is there a perfect solution, a silver bullet? No, Lohrmann said. But if youve got great backups and a really good restore system and staff training and other protections in place, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood that ransomware is going to have a major impact on you.Thats what Lake City ended up doing.After the attack, Helfenberger said, the city immediately started staff cybersecurity training, and it has spent about $300,000 doing multiple system upgrades and continues to do more.Youve got to consider that cybercriminals are gaining knowledge constantly, he said. If you stay the same, youre going to get behind and its not going to work. Chittenango, N.Y. Like many New York State Thruway users, Russ Chase says he thinks the service plazas along the states main east-west road could offer so much more. For now, he only stops at plazas with McDonalds. I prefer their fries, said Chase, of Victor, just after he bought some at the Warners service area. Dibakar Banerjees Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, starring Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra took more time than expected as it was in making for almost three years. It was scheduled to release in 2018 but is finally releasing on March 20, this year. The makers finally dropped the trailer for the movie today and turns out, its actually quite an interesting one. YRF It begins with Parineeti aka Sandeep Kaur seeking Arjun aka Pinkys help to get out of Delhi to save her life. Little did she know that she was getting into the mess of a lifetime. Together they escape the city and take shelter somewhere along the Indo-Nepal border, where they are helped by a couple played by Raghubir Yadav and Neena Gupta. You get the feeling that Parineetis character has committed some sort of a crime. Also making an appearance is Jaideep Ahlawat, who is probably the antagonist. Heres the trailer: This is the third pairing between Kapoor and Chopra after Ishaqzaade (2012) and Namastey England (2018). People werent all that happy with Namastey England and were not really keen on their upcoming movie. Both Arjun and Parineeti have, individually, not yet made a significant mark but it seems like the new trailer has left people on social media surprised, in a good way. In the trailer, there are some nail-biting twits and people are actually looking forward to the movie. They have also pointed out they liked the trailer but their only qualm is the release date, because you have movies like Angrezi Medium and Sooryavanshi releasing in March as well. Here are a few reactions: Ok, I was not expecting this! #SandeepAurPinkyFaraar actually looks good, and Parineeti is sooooo good in the trailer, makes me want to go watch it ASAP! Only minus point is the release date. https://t.co/2gT4C9gFjh Diljot (@ilahi_x) March 4, 2020 #SandeepAurPinkyFaraar Trailer out now!!! Dont miss this one guys!! It deserves so much!!!https://t.co/olviFBhSBv swa_thi_25 (@swathii_25) March 4, 2020 Absolutely brilliant trailer this is. Everyone seems to be in top form #SandeepAurPinkyFaraar. Trailer out now:; https://t.co/EFJ3YOz0ct Can hardly wait to the one. #DibakarBanerjee brings the most suspense thriller. Kudos to @arjunk26 baba @ParineetiChopra Chemistry SORRU SINGH (@ImsorruSingh) March 4, 2020 Both @arjunk26 & @ParineetiChopra have a hit under their belt with #DibakarBanerjees #SandeepAurPinkyFaraar. Also @yrf needs to go all guns blazing in promoting this film. Pratik Wadhwa (@thepratikwadhwa) March 4, 2020 In an interview, Arjun had revealed that there were multiple reasons for the delay. He said, "Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is a unique multiplex film and we need a window of opportunity to release it. Namaste England was ready in the time Dibakar sir was cutting the film. So, we pushed it for later as we needed a gap between the two films." In the film, Arjun Kapoor is playing a Haryanvi police officer, while Parineeti is portraying the character of a girl who works in the corporate world. A major part of the film was shot in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. Looking forward to watching this one? Let us know in the comments section below. The Philadelphia District Attorneys Office says a man on death row 23 years for allegedly molesting and murdering a 4-year-old girl is likely innocent, and was convicted based on flawed, hidden, or corrupt evidence including a confession prosecutors believe was coerced by two homicide detectives, and testimony from jailhouse informants whom prosecutors no longer find credible. In court documents filed last week, DA Larry Krasners office asked a judge to vacate the 1996 conviction of Walter Ogrod, 55, and free him from prison, calling Ogrods case prosecuted by Krasners predecessors a gross miscarriage of justice. Ogrod, according to Krasners office, found himself adrift in a perfect storm of unreliable scientific evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, and false testimony. Krasners office said that prior prosecutors violated the so-called Brady rule by illegally withholding evidence that could have helped Ogrods defense. Among other assertions, Krasners office saysthat the victim, Barbara Jean Horn, likely died of asphyxiation, but that police and prosecutors suppressed that fact while asserting that Ogrod had fatally beaten the girl with a weight bar during a fit of sexual rage. The accusations against the detectives and informants also suggest that Krasners office believes Ogrods case was one of several to be tainted by separate patterns of misconduct. The detectives, prosecutors said, engaged in coercive tactics in obtaining false confessions and/or statements in at least two homicide cases before they interrogated Ogrod in 1992. Krasners office helped overturn another conviction connected to the now-retired detectives, Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, in October, and has said it is investigating others tied to them. Prosecutors also said the informants, John Hall and Jay Wolchansky, were inmates together and colluded on a statement against Ogrod, claiming hed confessed to the crime while jailed with them. The DAs Office said it discovered hundreds of letters Hall a cooperating witness in 12 homicides between 1983 and 1997 had sent to his wife describing his so-called snitch scheme. And prosecutors said they interviewed Halls wife, who admitted compiling newspaper articles about Ogrod for her husband and writing to Ogrod pretending to be a stripper to help Hall get additional details about the case. Krasners office in the last two years has helped secure exonerations of 12 men convicted of murder, often saying that predecessors had failed to disclose evidence potentially helpful to defendants as required by law. Even so, the allegations of wrongdoing against Ogrod stand out, with prosecutors Patricia Cummings and Carrie Wood writing in an appellate document that after discounting the evidence they now find unreliable, there exists no credible evidence to prove Ogrod was the person who murdered Barbara Jean. Ogrod is due in court March 27, and a judge is expected to decide whether to vacate his conviction and clear the path for his release. His case has previously been chronicled in a book and on television shows, and Krasner on the campaign trail wrote about it while describing how hed change the culture of the DAs Office. Krasners spokesperson, Jane Roh, declined to comment Tuesday, and Ogrods attorneys did not respond to requests for additional comment. Barbara Jeans naked remains were found July 12, 1988, inside a cardboard television box on the 1400 block of St. Vincent Street, a short walk from her familys home in the Castor section of Northeast Philadelphia. At the time, court documents say, Ogrod lived across the street from the girls house. He was interviewed during a neighborhood canvas after the murder but not considered a suspect, and the case went cold. In early 1992, the documents say, the case was reassigned to Devlin and Worrell, and they began reviewing the file and seeking additional interviews. In addition, the documents say, one of their colleagues had an unusual connection to the case: In 1986, hed investigated a stabbing in the basement of Ogrods home. Ogrods brother survived the attack, but 16-year-old Maureen Dunne the daughter of a police detective was killed. Prosecutors now assert that photographs taken during that investigation which led to an arrest became key to prosecuting Ogrod over the death of Barbara Jean. In particular, they say a weight bar in one of the photos was later referenced as the weapon that Ogrod used to kill the girl, and that Ogrod allegedly admitted using it during a confession he gave to Devlin and Worrell. Prosecutors now say they dont believe Ogrods statement to the detectives, that hed been sleep-deprived and manipulated. He recanted almost immediately; Krasners office said case files contained a plethora of information regarding how Devlin and Worrell had a history of using coercive techniques to obtain confessions and incriminating suspects. In recent years, Devlin has been repeatedly accused of forcing men to confess to crimes they didnt commit. Since 2016, three convictions featuring confessions he helped secure have been overturned, and two men Anthony Wright and Shaurn Thomas have settled lawsuits claiming misconduct for millions of dollars each. Neither Devlin nor Worrell has commented publicly on the allegations of misconduct. Lynne Abraham, who was district attorney in the 1990s, said in an interview Tuesday that she was not aware at the time of the allegations against Devlin or Worrell, and did not recall many of the details about Ogrods prosecution. But she said: I never prosecuted a case where I knew there were coercive tactics. In Ogrods case, Krasners office said two doctors recently reviewed Barbara Jeans autopsy reports and concluded her injuries were not consistent with a beating death. One of the trial prosecutors, according to Krasners office, also took notes indicating that a medical expert had concluded that Barbara Jean died from asphyxia, but the notes were not disclosed to Ogrods lawyers. Ogrod was first tried in 1993, but a mistrial was declared after 11 jurors voted to acquit and one panelist did not agree. The jury foreperson at the time told the Daily News that most jurors did not find Ogrods supposed confession credible. Another juror told The Inquirer at the time: There were gaping holes in the prosecutions case. I didnt put much stock in the recanted confession. I wanted to see evidence. At the next trial, three years later, prosecutors returned with new evidence: Ogrods supposed jailhouse confession to Wolchansky. A jury convicted him on Oct. 8, 1996. But the DAs Office now says prosecutors never disclosed evidence of Wolchanskys severe" mental health problems. And they call the details of his statement, including the claim that Ogrod beat Barbara Jean with a weight bar, demonstrably false. The health of British children is falling behind other wealthy countries and is even going into reverse in the poorest areas, a major report has warned. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health fear the Government are in danger of 'failing a generation' if changes aren't made. Death rates for babies under the age of one, levels of obesity and vaccination rates are have either stalled in improvements or gotten worse. Children who live in deprived areas suffer health up to four times worse than those from advantaged backgrounds. They are more likely to be overweight and have tooth decay, and their mothers are more likely to smoke when pregnant and use formula milk instead of breastfeed. The report State of Child Health 2020 is the largest ever compilation of data on the health of babies, children and young people across all four UK nations. Data on 28 measures of health outcomes, ranging from conditions such as asthma, epilepsy, and mental health problems, to poverty and road accidents, were analysed. RCPCH president Professor Russell Viner added: 'On many vital measures we risk lagging behind other European countries... we're in danger of failing a generation if we don't turn this situation around. 'We've got a lot of work ahead of us if we're to get a grip on the state of child health in the UK. 'This report is the only one of its kind to zoom out and look at the full picture and it's not a pretty sight. 'On many vital measures we risk lagging behind other European countries.' The health of British children is falling behind other wealthy countries and is even going into reverse in the poorest areas, a major report has warned. Vaccination rates (file photo), obesity levels and infant deaths have either stalled in improvements or gotten worse Some of the main findings in the college's report are: Infant mortality or deaths of children under the age of one: Rates have stalled in England and the UK generally since 2014. Experts have also said that a very slight rise in infant mortality noticed between 2016/17 in England is 'extremely unusual and should be a cause for concern'. Vaccination rates: There are 'signs of decline' in vaccination rates between 2014 and 2018 for the six-in-one vaccination and MMR. Breastfeeding: In England, breastfeeding rates are at the lowest level since 2009. Less than half of mothers (42.7 per cent) are breastfeeding when their child is six weeks, while small increases have been noticed in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Obesity: The rate of children who start school overweight or obese has not improved significantly in any of the UK's four countries since 2006/7. Poverty: Experts raised concerns about the number of children living in poverty, with more than four million deemed to be living in 'relative poverty'. Smoking during pregnancy: Rates of smoking during pregnancy have improved over time in the UK but have currently stalled. Smoking during pregnancy is a leading factor in poor birth outcomes, including stillbirth and neonatal deaths. Dr Ronny Cheung, clinical lead for RCPCH and co-author of the report, said: 'The harsh reality is that, in terms of health and wellbeing, children born in the UK are often worse off than those born in other comparably wealthy countries. This is especially true if the child is from a less well-off background. 'Infant mortality is a globally-recognised sign of how well a country is looking after the health of its citizens. 'Yet UK infant mortality rates have stalled, and in England, they actually got worse between 2016 and 2017. For a high-income nation such as ours, that should be a major wake-up call.' In many areas, children from deprived areas fared worse. For example, they were more likely to die under the age of five from an injury such as a fall, in a road accident or by drowning. 'FUTURE OF EVERY CHILD IN THE WORLD UNDER THREAT' Every child in the world is under threat as decades of health improvements begin to stall, according to major World Health Organisation report published in February. Obesity, air pollution and climate change pose an 'immediate threat' to children in wealthy and poor countries alike. The report, written by 40 experts from around the world and published in the Lancet, said no country of the 180 analysed are protecting child's health adequately on all measures. They said big business is to blame by using 'exploitative marketing practices' to 'push heavily processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco at children'. The UK gives children good start in life - among the best ten countries in the world for 'flourishing' child health thanks to the strong NHS and education system. But it trails in 133rd place on providing a healthy environment - with Britain on track to emit 115 per cent more carbon dioxide by 2030 than its emissions target. Experts are also concerned about Britain's faltering vaccination uptake, with childhood immunisation now standing at 94 per cent - lower than most other European countries. Widespread childhood poverty in the UK is also putting children at risk. Advertisement Under-18 females are more likely to get pregnant while in school, and 15-year-olds in the most deprived areas of England are twice as likely to smoke than those in affluent areas. Growing inequality and cuts to public health are making things worse, the report claims. The report says, even where there have been notable improvements in children's health, the UK lags far behind other countries. For example, although there has been a fall in the number of emergency asthma admission rates across the UK, the country still has one of the highest mortality rates in Europe for children and young people with asthma. Professor Viner said: 'There some positive signs teenage pregnancies have fallen hugely, Scotland is leading the way on reducing youth violence, and we've made huge strides in the treatment of conditions like diabetes. 'These outcomes are invariably the result of good policy, political commitment, and proper funding. 'In many areas of healthcare, we've led the rest of the world.' The authors made a series of recommendations to help improve health of children across the UK's four nations. Experts described the situation as 'shameful'. Andrew Fellowes, public affairs manager at the NSPCC, said: 'It's scandalous that progress in children's health is not improving and shameful that the most disadvantaged are seeing the biggest retreat. 'Children's experiences in the early years have a huge impact on their development, but support for families is inconsistent. 'Regular visits by the same health professional are crucial to help parents open up about any worries and spot signs of mental health concerns.' The report was issued as the NHS in England published analysis which suggests that thousands of babies lives have been saved due to safer care since 2010. Improvements across local maternity services have led to a reduction of the stillbirth rate by more than a fifth (21 per cent) between 2010 and 2018 - meaning 2,900 fewer stillbirths, officials said. We now offer lithium prices and coverage free for reference. Click here to read all about it. Join our growing community of participants who want to learn more about electrification and how this market is developing. Super Tuesday is the biggest day on the primary calendar, and the results seem very likely to reshape the Democratic presidential race in ways few could have predicted a couple weeks ago. Here are some takeaways from the results. It is hard to overstate the speed and depth of the comeback of former Vice President Joe Biden. He was embarrassed in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and left many Democrats looking for an alternative. A decisive victory in South Carolina left him buoyant but also highly vulnerable heading into Super Tuesday, with 14 primaries spread from Maine to California. He had little money and only limited organization in place. Mike Bloomberg had placed a $500 million bet that Biden would falter. Sen. Bernie Sanders had built his own kind of firewall not in a small state like South Carolina, but in the biggest of them all, California. But Sanders' perceived strength and Bloomberg's weakness drove many Democrats into Biden's arms. In a remarkable 24 hours, he secured the endorsement of three former competitors who appeared at a show-of-force rally in Dallas and he harnessed the elusive power of momentum. Biden's night started with an emphatic, 30-point victory in Virginia, a state where the profile of the electorate includes many of the college-educated suburban voters who powered Democratic victories in the 2018 midterm elections. Bloomberg spent more than $12 million in television ads in Virginia and millions more on field organization. Biden spent less than $200,000. He built on that throughout the night, in North Carolina, Alabama and states across the map. His success fundamentally reset the race, with the contest almost certainly now between him and Sanders, who ran strong in the two largest states, Texas and California. They seem destined for a long, state-by-state fight defined by their starkly different visions of what Democrats need to defeat President Donald Trump. Sanders claimed the night's largest trophy, California, a state where he had committed substantial time and effort, while Biden had only a minimalist campaign. It was a measure of how strategic the Sanders campaign has been, and why he remains so formidable. It was also a place where he successfully assembled a coalition that included young voters and Latinos, something he was able to do in Texas, the second biggest delegate prize of the night, as well. Winning California was critical for Sanders, who had long held a strong lead in the polls there. But he lost in a number of states his campaign had been banking on, from Minnesota to Massachusetts. The Sanders campaign has gambled that, with a divided electorate, he could use his unshakable base to power him to plurality victories across the country. That theory showed flaws on Super Tuesday. And there were warning signs beyond his big losses in the south, a region where Sanders has always struggled. He lost Minnesota and Oklahoma, two mostly-white states that he won during his 2016 insurgent run against Hillary Clinton. That suggests Sanders is seeing erosion in his white support from his prior races. Even in his home state of Vermont, Sanders didn't perform as well as he did in 2016. Now Sanders finds himself in much the same place as four years ago, a defiant insurgent with passionate support facing off against the favorite of the party establishment. His national footprint, loyal following and strong fundraising mean he's still in a solid position despite the Super Tuesday bruising. But Sanders may need a different approach going forward other than railing against the leaders of the party whose voters will determine whether he's their nominee. Bloomberg has often described himself as a data-driven manager. By any measure, the numbers look very bad for the billionaire former mayor of New York. He is highly unlikely to win a state and is not on track to accumulate a serious number of delegates. According to AP VoteCast, a majority of Democrats in several states would be disappointed if Bloomberg were the nominee. Even in Virginia, where he helped fund gun control efforts and elect women to state legislative and congressional seats, he dramatically underperformed. He has no clear path ahead, and given that his reason for running was predicated on a Biden failure, the rationale for continuing is not readily apparent. He is competing with Biden for anti-Sanders votes, while the Biden campaign worries that Bloomberg's unorthodox strategy is depriving him of delegates he would need to overtake Sanders. In Florida on Tuesday Bloomberg insisted he's staying in, but it will get harder for him to make that argument if he starts approaching the status of John Connally, another big-spending party switcher who flopped in the 1980 GOP primary and only netted a single delegate. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Novel coronavirus may have spread in U.S. for six weeks: media People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 15:09, March 03, 2020 WASHINGTON, March 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers said the novel coronavirus may have been spreading in the Washington state for six weeks after they examined the genomes of two infections in the state, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Trevor Bedford, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, said those two people live in the same county but are not known to have had contact with one another. The genetic findings suggest that the virus has been spreading through other people in the community for nearly six weeks, according to Bedford. One of the two cases was reported on Jan. 20 while the other announced on Friday. The latter was more likely to be descended from that first case since in both cases the virus contained a genetic variation that appears to be rare. It was found in only two of the 59 samples whose sequences have been shared from China, according to Bedford. "It's extremely unlikely that two viruses coming from outside the U.S.A. independently would arrive in the same geographical area and be genetically related unless they were connected," said Andrew Rambaut, professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the analysis. Mike Famulare, a principal research scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling in Bellevue, Washington state, participated in the analysis. He said if the virus has been spreading undetected in Washington since mid-January, that could mean that anywhere from 150 to 1,500 people may have it, with about 300 to 500 people being the most likely range. The figure is a "best guess, with broad uncertainty," Famulare added. Those people "have either been infected and recovered, or currently are infected now," Famulare was quoted as saying. As of Sunday, a total of 43 cases have been detected and tested in the United States through U.S. public health surveillance systems, including 17 travel-related ones and 26 who did not travel and did not have known contact with other infected people. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address London: British government MPs planning to defy Boris Johnson over Huawei have been told their protest won't change the Prime Minister's decision to allow the Chinese firm to supply Britain's 5G infrastructure. Former Tory Leader William Hague, who backs Australia and the United States' ban of the Chinese vendor, sounded the warning ahead of a 90-minute parliamentary debate in Westminster on Wednesday. The debate will be led by Johnson's former cabinet colleagues who want the UK to adopt an Australia-style Huawei ban. Hague raised the thorny issue while addressing the Britain-Australia Society during a reception at Australia House in London and spoke exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age a short time after. The former foreign secretary predicted the rebellion would end in failure. "I wouldn't raise a hope that would change things. I don't want to tell them it's futile but I doubt that will end up changing things," he said. A father of four who set up a cannabis grow house so he could produce his own cannabis oil for pain relief from his medical condition has avoided a prison sentence. Peter Maguire, 41, was diagnosed with Barrett's disease, a condition of chronic heartburn and reflux which can make the person more susceptible to oesophageal cancer. Stephen Montgomery BL, defending, said Maguire, was a reformed heroin addict and soon found himself reliant on painkillers. He decided that he should instead treat the condition with cannabis oil, so as not to relapse into a drug addiction. Maguire of Donomore Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to cultivation of cannabis at his home on October 2, 2017. His 57 previous convictions include one for possession of drugs in 2002, while the majority of the remainder are for road traffic offences. Garda Robert Whitty agreed with counsel that Maguire made full admissions when interviewed by gardai eight days after the cannabis grow house was discovered in the attic of his home. He outlined how he had learned how to operate the grow house after looking it up online. Gda Whitty accepted that Maguire provided gardai with a great deal of information in relation to the process of extracting the oil from the matured plants. He said he was satisfied that this was the reason Maguire was growing the plants. Judge Melanie Greally said it was very fair evidence from Gda Whitty and noted the very positive steps Maguire had taken in the past to minimise his risk of re-offending. She said it was not in the interest of the community to return him to a custodial environment before she suspended a two year jail term on strict conditions. Gda Whitty told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that Maguire initially denied there were any drugs in the house when gardai raided it but 16 cannabis plants were later discovered in the attic. He confirmed that it had been set up as a grow house with all the necessary equipment. The plants were five weeks off maturity and valued at 12,000 in total. Maguire told gardai he had been growing the plants for the previous two months and said he had made a stupid mistake. Mr Montgomery said his client had four children under the age of 18. He said Maguire began abusing heroin at 15 years old and was soon involved in criminality. He has since turned his life around after getting help for his addiction in his local community. Mr Montgomery said his client found that the cannabis oil gave him pain relief for his condition. The ones who came more recently were clutching the green cards that gave them an escape hatch through which to return to green pastures: Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Subramanian and other perfectly honourable gentlemen like them, points out T N Ninan. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in his non-memoir, Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years, recounts how he and wife Isher decided to return to India from Washington 40 years ago, giving up attractive careers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Montek joined the government as an economic advisor in the finance ministry, and Isher joined a think-tank. They would have had modest salaries and below-par government housing, but they felt they were contributing to India's development process. Along the way, they became the capital's power couple, so life had its compensations. Other economists too came back around the same time, some earlier and some later: Manmohan Singh, Bimal Jalan, Vijay Kelkar, Shankar Acharya, Rakesh Mohan and so on. They returned after studying at the best universities and working in plum jobs at international organisations. They and others like them became the leading makers (or influencers) of economic policy for the next three or four decades, rising like Montek to high offices and enjoying good reputations, plus, of course, the bungalows of Lutyens' Delhi and social cachets that would not be available to them elsewhere. The question that was posed at the release of Montek's book was: Why aren't people like them coming back today, bag and baggage, to set down roots here in India? The ones who came more recently were clutching the green cards that gave them an escape hatch through which to return to green pastures: Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Subramanian and other perfectly honourable gentlemen like them. One answer is that India has always had economic refugees, and they went where they could find jobs (in West Asia and Singapore), or a better education that would underwrite good careers. Many have done brilliantly, heading global tech giants and winning Nobel prizes. But there is a darker side to the story. Although India is no longer the desperately poor country of the 1980s and 1990s (having risen a few years ago to lower-middle income status), it has ceased to be an economic prison like Cuba, and offers more career options with higher salaries, vastly superior cars and consumer goods, modern hospitals and new liberal arts colleges, and the simple freedom to travel without signing 'P' forms and getting eight dollars to take with you, it seems to have become a less attractive country in which to live and work. Businessmen, including some with recognisable names and faces, are becoming 'overseas citizens'. They are investing more in other markets where life is simpler. Wealthy professionals with internationally marketable skills and degrees are also taking their money with them (prompting the finance minister in her Budget to introduce a tax on such money transfers). They may be fleeing tax terrorism, prodded by more limited economic opportunities than they had imagined, or simply keeping one foot in India and another overseas because public discourse here has acquired a nasty edge and who knows what's coming next. Or perhaps it is just the air quality in our cities which is a deterrent. Whatever the reason, the economic refugees of old have been replaced by well-placed people leaving (or staying away from) India's unattractive political economy. Diplomats from under-populated countries like Australia and Canada report a sudden increase in the number of Indians seeking to emigrate. The other question is, should our economists look back with satisfaction, or in anger? To be sure, there were high points like the reforms of 1991, the years of rapid growth a decade ago, and transformation in sectors like telecom. But we should not have waited till 1991 to launch the reforms. As Montek writes, Rajiv Gandhi was warned by the IMF chief in early 1988 that a crisis was building up, but he did nothing. The telecom revolution here was not special to India; other countries too engineered dramatic improvements in teledensity. Nor were India's years of rapid growth unique; emerging markets as a whole grew at 7.9 per cent in 2004-2008. Forget China, today India is being bettered in trade by Bangladesh and Vietnam. And the Thai baht is worth Rs 2.25; it was half that in 1991. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (CSE:MOTA)(FSE:1WZ)(OTC:PEMTF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the launch of a "CEO Verified" Discussion Forum on AGORACOM. The forum will serve as the Company's primary social media platform to interact with both shareholders and the broader investment community in a fully moderated environment. The Company announces that it has engaged AGORA Internet Relations Corp. ("AGORACOM") for an initial twelve month term, to provide online advertising and marketing services to the Company. In consideration for the provision of services, AGORA is entitled to a fee of $60,000, to be paid in five equal tranches over the term. AGORA has agreed to accept the fee in common shares of the Company, to be determined based on the market price of the shares at the time of issuance. All common shares of the Company issued to AGORA will be subject to a four-month-and-one-day statutory hold period in accordance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The Mota Ventures HUB is live and can be found at https://agoracom.com/ir/motaventures. Mota will receive exposure through content brand insertions on the AGORACOM network and extensive search engine marketing over the next 12 months. In addition, exclusive sponsorships of invaluable digital properties such as the AGORACOM home page and the AGORACOM Twitter account will serve to significantly raise brand awareness of the Company among small cap investors. AGORACOM is the only small cap marketing firm to hold a Twitter Verified badge. AGORACOM is the pioneer of online marketing, broadcasting, conferences and investor relations services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 300 companies served. About Mota Ventures Corp. Mota Ventures Corp. is seeking to become a vertically integrated CBD company with operations in Europe and the Americas. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, First Class CBD, is a profitable online retailer of CBD and CBD-infused products in the United States and the Company is currently in the process of acquiring Sativida, a successful online retailer CBD and CBD products in Europe. Mota Ventures, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, holds a license to cultivate non-psychoactive cannabis and produce CBD in Colombia and is developing cultivation operations on its 2.5-hectare site in Guasca, Colombia. Mota Ventures believes that low cost CBD production at its property in Colombia coupled with its international, direct-to-customer sales channels will propel its continued success. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MOTA VENTURES CORP. Ryan Hoggan Chief Executive Officer For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to marketing plans with AGORACOM, its plans to become a vertically integrated global CBD brand, its plans to cultivate and extract cannabis to produce CBD and high-quality value added CBD products in Latin America for distribution domestically and internationally and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law. SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/579037/Mota-Ventures-Launches-AGORACOM-Online-Marketing Tehran has no obligation to grant the UN's nuclear watchdog access to sites in Iran when it deems the requests are based on "fabricated information", Iran's UN ambassador in Vienna said Wednesday. "Intelligence services' fabricated information... creates no obligation for Iran to consider such requests," said a statement from Iran's ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Kazem Gharib Abadi. It comes a day after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reprimanded Iran for refusing access to two sites which diplomats believe could be connected to the country's historic nuclear activity. Gharib Abadi also accused the US and Israel of trying to "exert pressure on the Agency... in order to distort the proactive and constructive cooperation" between the IAEA and Iran. Israel has claimed that a trove of information obtained by its intelligence services contains new information on a previous nuclear weapons programme in Iran. The two sites that the IAEA was denied access to were among three locations that the agency had been raising questions over since the middle of last year. The IAEA said in Tuesday's report that it had been sent a letter by Iran saying Tehran did "not recognize any allegation on past activities and does not consider itself obliged to respond to such allegations". The three sites the IAEA reported on are in addition to another location in Tehran where the agency found uranium particles late last year. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told AFP on Tuesday during a visit to Paris that he was "worried" by the possibility that there had been undeclared nuclear activity at that site and called on Iran to provide answers. While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources told AFP the agency asked Iran about a site in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, where Israel has alleged secret atomic activity in the past. The renewed focus on Iran's historic programme could add to the tension over its current nuclear activities. A second IAEA report on Tuesday outlined Iran's continued breaches of the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers but did not report any restrictions in access to nuclear facilities. The 2015 deal has been hanging by a thread since the US withdrew from it and re-imposed swingeing sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to progressively abandon the accord's restrictions on its nuclear activities. Search Keywords: Short link: Swedens foreign minister has called for Ukraine to act following the exposing of an alleged cryptocurrency fraud operation duping naive investors from the countrys capital. The so-called fraud factory, working from two floors of plush offices in Kyiv, was exposed after an investigation by Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) published Monday. Called Milton Group, the firm was revealed to have employed ranks of telemarketers cold-calling potential investors, often older people, and offering inviting returns on money put into stocks and cryptocurrencies. Related: Ukrainian Taxpayers Will Now Have to Report Crypto Holdings However, DN writes in the report: Their real operation is committing fraud on an industrial level and their victims are from all around the world. Responding to the claims on Tuesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said, It is really upsetting to see how they bluff Swedish retirees who have to leave their homes and live on a minimum subsistence level. And then they sit there, laughing. As quoted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Linde added that its important that authorities in Ukraine are informed about Milton Groups alleged activities and that the claims are looked into. DN alleges a number of individuals have lost their life savings through the scheme. In all, it says that the firm has left possibly 1,000 people from over 50 countries with losses. Its not clear how much money may have been taken by the scheme, but a team member is caught on video boating of persuading one individual to hand over $150,000. Related: ICEs New Intel Program Used in Every Homeland Security Crypto Investigation After persuading a victim to part with an initial investment of around $100, DN said, the salesperson then attempts to persuade the victim to install a program said to assist with financial advice. In fact, it provides Miltons staff with full control of the host computer. The claims include that big loans were taken out in victims names without their permission using banking data stolen via the app and ID information that victims were asked to provide. Story continues After initial investments, victims are shown figures suggesting high returns. Yet when they tried to withdraw the funds, the money disappeared, the investigation found. Some have also been left with sizable loans they hadnt agreed to. The investigation was carried out with the help of a whistle-blower within Milton Group who provided materials from the firms own database, as well as video recordings of the teams activities. Related Stories WASHINGTON One word: Joementum. The former vice president had a blowout night on Super Tuesday, reversing his slow start to the primary season and rebutting questions of his electability after fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively. Biden started the night winning Virginia and went on to sweep the states in the South, jumping out to a lead ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the national delegate hunt and essentially turning the primary into a two-person race. At 2 a.m. EST, it was announced Biden won Texas. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg made his debut on ballots across the country and won the American Samoa caucuses but failed to win any states. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard failed to seal any wins and trail by a substantial margin. As of 2 a.m. EST, Biden had won nine states, Sanders had won four states and Bloomberg had won one U.S. territory. Here are takeaways from Super Tuesday night: Biden roars back after South Carolina Biden looked like the comeback kid, despite facing weeks of questions over whether he could gain the momentum to take on Sanders, the front-runner in delegates before Super Tuesday. As of 2 a.m., Biden's delegate count sat at 450. Sanders stood at 376. There are 3,979 pledged delegates from all states and territories, and a candidate needs 1,991 of them to win in the first vote at the Democratic National Convention. After Biden's blowout win in South Carolina, his campaign saw a flood of support. Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out before Super Tuesday and endorsed the former vice president. Black voters, who pushed Biden to victory in South Carolina, were the key voting bloc behind his wins in North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama. According to exit polls, 63% of black voters in Virginia supported Biden compared with 18% who backed Sanders. North Carolina saw similar numbers: 63% of black voters backed Biden and only 16% supported Sanders. In Alabama, 72% of black voters supported Biden compared with 12% for Sanders. Story continues Black voters are one of the most important voting blocs for the Democratic Party. Biden's lead with black voters could spell trouble for Sanders. Biden's wins also were fueled by moderate and conservative voters, according to exit polls. Voters who made up their mind in the past couple of days overwhelmingly went to Biden. Before the South Carolina primary, Biden struggled to keep up in polls with Sanders and Bloomberg, who campaigned heavily in Super Tuesday states. Biden never even visited or opened any field offices in several of the states he won, such as Minnesota. He held only one rally in Virginia, where he won overwhelmingly. Bernie Sanders fires up a crowd at his Super Tuesday rally in Essex Junction, Vt., on March 3. Sanders' rise interrupted Sanders did seal one big win Tuesday night: California. According to exit polling, Sanders had huge margins of support from groups in California, except for black voters and voters 65 and over. He won with the largest voting bloc, white voters, and overwhelmingly was supported by Latino voters a group the campaign appealed to. Sanders had the largest share of Latino voter support in California and Texas. He was supported by 55% of Latino voters in California and 45% in Texas, according to exit polls. More: Many young voters sat out Super Tuesday, contributing to Bernie Sanders' losses Other than that, the Vermont senator's finishes in several states fell flat. He lost Minnesota, a state he won in 2016 and rallied in Monday night. He was endorsed by several Minnesota officials, including Rep. Ilhan Omar. Sanders drew a crowd of 13,000 in Boston on Saturday but failed to win Massachusetts, and he lost Oklahoma. Both were states he won in 2016, and both went to Biden this year. A Bloomberg bust Bloomberg picked up his first delegates on Super Tuesday, but after spending more than a quarter-billion dollars on advertising in Tuesdays primary states, his delegate haul was a disappointing blow. Bloomberg saw a win in the American Samoa caucus, the single U.S. territory to participate in Super Tuesday. He received five pledged delegates out of the six available, but he didnt win any other contests. Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent, saw her one delegate win come from American Samoa. It is the only delegate she has won in the primary. Bloomberg picked up delegates in eight other states. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg speaks at a primary election night campaign rally March 3 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The next day, he ended his campaign. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible," Bloomberg told supporters Tuesday evening. In just three months, weve gone from 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination. Bloombergs campaign spent 60 times what Biden did in states the former vice president won Tuesday night, NBC News reported. In Virginia, the Bloomberg campaign opened seven field offices and hired more than 80 staffers to canvass the state, which was bombarded with millions in dollars of advertising, mostly on radio and television. Bloomberg fell far behind, coming in fourth out of five candidates in the state Biden won. Bloomberg snagged just 9.7% support in Virginia. Warren continues to lag, loses home state Warrens campaign faced a disheartening finish in Super Tuesday states, picking up a couple of dozen delegates and coming in a distant third in her home state of Massachusetts. Warren fell behind Biden and Sanders in Massachusetts, where she serves as a U.S. senator, and she lost to them in the state where she was born and raised, Oklahoma. After almost 80% of precincts reported, Warren had 20.7% of the Massachusetts vote, Sanders had 27.3% and the former vice president was declared the winner with 33.6% support. "Predictions are a terrible business," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., says during a primary election night rally March 3 at Eastern Market in Detroit. Not only did Warren not win a state Tuesday, the senator did not place in the top two in any state. Warren, who along with Sanders represents the more liberal wing of the Democratic race, has steadily lost support from the left as Sanders surged. She indicated to supporters that she looks ahead to later primaries; at a campaign event in Detroit early Tuesday evening, she said race predictions are not reliable. "Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over," Warren said. "Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States" Contributing: Nicholas Wu, Joey Garrison This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Tuesday: Takeaways from the biggest night in Election 2020 The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the auction proceedings of some rare paintings seized by the Enforcement Directorate from the residence of fugitive diamond businessman Nirav Modi. The auction is scheduled for Friday. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice B P Dharmadhikari and Justice N R Borkar was hearing a petition filed by the businessman's son Rohin Modi, claiming that the paintings were owned by the Rohin Trust, of which he was a beneficiary and was not owned by Nirav Modi. Rohin Modi's counsel Amit Desai argued that the paintings cannot be construed as proceeds of crime and that his client was not an accused in the case. The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) counsels Anil Singh and Hiten Venegaonkar, however, opposed the plea and argued that Rohin Modi, Nirav Modi and his wife were beneficiaries of the trust. They further argued that the paintings were attached by ED in March 2019, and an advertisement for the auction was issued in January 2020. The bench, after hearing arguments, noted that the petitioner (Rohin Modi) had approached the court at the "eleventh hour". "The Rohin Trust has not approached this court...neither have the other beneficiaries of the trust, Nirav Modi and his wife, approached this court. There is no attempt to justify late approach," the bench said in its order. "In this situation, we are not inclined to pass interim orders. The ED shall file its affidavit in response to the plea by March 23," the court said. The bench, however, directed the ED to deposit the auction proceeds in a separate bank account and not use the same until further orders. Apart from the 15 paintings, several diamond watches, Hermes handbags and luxury cars such as Rolls Royce Ghost and Porsche Panamera S will be auctioned. The paintings and other items were seized by ED from Nirav Modi's houses after the agency registered a money laundering case against him and his uncle Mehul Choksi for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank of Rs 13,600 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday after spending record amounts from his own fortune on an ad-blitz strategy that failed to yield any wins on Super Tuesday beyond a single victory in the American Samoa caucuses. He immediately announced he would be endorsing Joe Biden, following in the footsteps of other moderate-leaning Democratic presidential candidates who have consolidated support behind the former vice president in his primary brawl against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Im a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterdays results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November," Bloomberg said in his statement. Bloomberg finished well behind on Super Tuesday, despite spending more than a half-billion of his own fortune on his 2020 bid -- centered on a strategy of skipping the early-primary stories in favor of Super Tuesday. To put his investment in perspective, he spent close to the GDP of American Samoa in order to win that contest -- and only that contest. Coronavirus cases in the UK have jumped to 87 in the single biggest one-day increase so far. At least three of the new patients contracted the disease in the UK and the source of their infection is unknown, raising fears that community transmission may now be taking hold. Thirty-two of the new cases are in England, with two more in Scotland. An additional two presumptive positives in Northern Ireland were announced later in the day one of whom had travelled from northern Italy while another had been in contact with an afflicted UK citizen in unrelated instances. Englands chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said: Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed who had recently travelled from recognised countries or from recognised clusters which were under investigation. Three additional patients contracted the virus in the UK and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun. Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty The increase means there have been 80 confirmed cases of coronavirus in England, three each in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and one in Wales. It comes as: Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the three new cases transmitted in the UK were further evidence that the infection is spreading in the community. He added: However, the latest case numbers do not suggest we are past the stage where the containment approach is no longer valuable. Even though the increase looks dramatic, it should not alter our strategy at the moment. A total of 16,659 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK, of which 16,574 were confirmed negative. The Department for Health said it would no longer be publishing information on the location of each new case and details would be released centrally in a consolidated format online, once a week. The next update will be on Friday. Prof Witty has warned an epidemic in the UK looks likely and extreme measures could be required to protect the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. But he told the BBC the lockdown of towns and cities, as seen in Chinas Wuhan, was very unlikely in the UK. A 27-page government document outlining the potential scale of disruption warned this week that a fifth of workers in the UK could be off sick at the same time during the peak of the virus. In the worst-case scenario, up to 80 per cent of the population could be infected. In the event of mass sickness, the document states, police forces would focus on responding only to serious crimes and maintaining public order, the NHS would be forced to discharge patients and cancel operations, and the army could also be called in to support authorities. Boris Johnson has announced that statutory sick pay will be available to workers staying at home with possible coronavirus from the first day of illness. Emergency legislation will be introduced to bring payments forward from the usual four. In Italy, the government is set to ban public events and order schools, universities, cinemas and threatres to close for weeks in a bid to stem the spread of the disease, which has claimed 107 lives in the country. Three people, including a man on parole, face felony drug charges after a Monday afternoon police chase from Amsterdam to Schenectady. The Montgomery County Sheriffs office said a deputy tried to pull over a driver on Church Street in Amsterdam around 1:13 p.m. Monday. But deputies said the driver, 28-year-old Stanley Lacy of Schenectady, drove off. City and State Police joined the chase but were unable to stop the vehicle, despite several attempts to deploy spike strips to take out the vehicles tires. Deputies said Lacy eventually lost control of his vehicle as he drove up an Interstate 890 on-ramp in Schenectady. When deputies searched the car, they found a large amount of narcotics. Deputies did not immediately say what kind of drugs were allegedly in the car or exactly how much. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Lacy and his two passengers, Destanee A. Gilchrist, 24, of Amsterdam and Janelle A. Vennett, 25, of Schenectady, were charged with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance. Lacy was also charged with several misdemeanors and traffic violations for refusing to stop for deputies. They were arraigned in Amsterdam city court. Gilchrist and Vennett were released on their own recognizance. Lacy was held in Amsterdam County jail without bail on a parole violation. Lacy was previously convicted for criminal possession of a weapon and attempting to promote prison contraband. He was released from state prison on parole in December. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday reviewed the Budget proposals to be introduced in the state legislature for fiscal 2020-21 during the Budget session, beginning on March six. Rao gave final touches to the Budget proposals in the meeting, attended by Finance Minister T Harish Rao and senior government officials, a release from his office said on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Rao called on Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and handed over the copy of the Governors address to the legislature as approved by the State Cabinet. During the Budget session, the stategovernment is expected to pass a resolutionagainst the CAA. Voicing his opposition to the CAA, the TRS government had earlier urged the Centre to abrogate the amended citizenship law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Antarctica is a cold, desolate place, inhospitable for human habitation. Yet humans have been intimately connected to the continent since long before they ever set foot there. A new book by Gillen D'Arcy Wood - a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign English professor with an interest in earth sciences and climate change - tells the tales of the first explorations of Antarctica, interwoven with the story of its geological history and framed by the current threat of climate change and the deglaciation of the continent. "Land of Wondrous Cold: The Race to Discover Antarctica and Unlock the Secrets of Its Ice" is published by Princeton University Press. The literature of Antarctic exploration is focused on the well-known early 20th-century expeditions by Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen and their race to the South Pole. Wood writes about the first explorations 70 years prior, in the late 1830s and early 1840s, by Charles Wilkes, Jules Dumont D'Urville and James Clark Ross. The 19th-century expeditions have been neglected in popular history, he said, but "these expeditions were both first and last - the first to penetrate the Antarctic continent and the last hurrah of the great age of exploration." The American expedition led by Wilkes was one the last of the great sailing ship expeditions to circumnavigate the globe, Wood said. The expeditions set in motion a century and a half of scientific research on the continent. Wood compares them to early space travel. "These voyages really were like the moonshot of the 19th century," he said. "They sent the most advanced ships with the best technology, and the best and most highly experienced naval men to explore the continent, knowing they were sending them effectively into another world in the hopes they would bring back discoveries that would advance humankind." Wood didn't want to write just an exploration narrative, though. He looked at the environmental history of Antarctica through the eyes of its first explorers. "I wanted Antarctica to be the main character. The explorers are the lens for a book that is principally about the continent itself," he said. "It's a human story of an encounter with a strange, magical, forbidding, alien land." Antarctica once was a warm, humid, forested continent, home to reptiles and mammals until ice took over 34 million years ago, he said. "The glaciation of Antarctica set the global thermostat for us and our evolution," Wood said. "It's crucial for the Earth we inhabit. We are, in an ecological sense, intimately tied to Antarctica." The continent currently is viewed as a threat, with melting glaciers producing a sea level rise and an existential challenge to civilization, he said. To research the book, Wood read hundreds of scientific papers and - because he was writing about seagoing voyages - took a five-week trip by boat to Antarctica from southern Chile, skirting the continent's ice pack and traveling along West Antarctica to the Ross Sea, then on to New Zealand. "It was interesting to experience Antarctica as my characters did, on board, in very inhospitable conditions with almost nowhere to land and with constant threats from wind and ice," he said. During the trip, Wood flew by helicopter over the Ross Ice Shelf, mountains and glaciers. It was only from the air that he grasped the enormity of the amount of ice on the continent. "The ice is rising from the ground to the peaks of a mountain range, and that is just one mountain range. There are all these peaks and valleys, and you can begin to extrapolate how much ice is locked up," he said, noting that 70% of the Earth's fresh water is held in glaciers. "It really brought out what that abstract number meant physically, to have an entire continent given over to mile-high ice. It's an extraordinary thing." Wood experienced the disorienting nature of the light and landscape when he visited Antarctica. The palette of blue and white with the light reflecting off the ice and the extremely dry, clear air produce optical illusions such as false horizons and mirages. "Objects appear to be dramatically closer than they are," he said. "This is something the first explorers found. Sailors swore they saw a coast, they started to chart it and then it would vanish." One of the most fascinating aspects of researching the book was learning about the deep ocean and its effect on climate, Wood said. "The Antarctic Ocean produces this enormous deep ocean stream of cold water, with enormous energy that propels itself northward and helps drive the major currents of the Earth's oceans," he said. "It's the channeling and funneling of cold and warm water that drives jet streams and creates climate conditions around the globe. Antarctica is the home for that." The region is also known for extremely rough seas and frequent storms. Wood devoted a section of the book to storms and the winds created by the continent's ice plateau. "These are the strongest, most violent winds on Earth," he said. "It's something the explorers faced. The American expedition skirted the coast with the fiercest winds on the continent. One of the stories I tell is their encounter with this storm and how they managed to survive." Wood is the associate director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and the director of its Environmental Writing Program, as well as the Langan Professorial Scholar of Environmental Humanities in the English department. One of his previous books, "Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World," published in 2014, dealt with the rapid climate deterioration set in motion by the massive 1815 eruption of an Indonesian volcano. ### Recognizes three honorable mentions DETROIT, MI / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / Richard Zbin, facilities director at the Kaiser Permanente Silver Spring Data Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, was named Mission Critical's 2019 Facility Manager of the Year. "I was not aware I was being nominated for this award," Zbin said. "It was a wonderful surprise, and I am honored to have won. I think it's a testament to how well we run our award-winning data centers across Kaiser Permanente." Zbin was nominated by Timothy Pool, executive vice president of Engineering Tec Inc. "I am personally very excited and pleased that Rick won this award," Pool said. "Facility managers should be actively engaged in project development, communicate with their engineering consultants, and use their experience and expertise to motivate those they work around to ensure project success. Rick has these qualities and is a great example of a successful facility director. I think he deserves the recognition and I am very happy for him." Zbin's innovative approaches to running a data center, his dedication to industry involvement, and his ability to connect with other employees earned him the designation of Facility Manager of the Year. "Rick's innovative approaches to both technology and people is what really made him stand out to us as we reviewed the nominations," said Amy Al-Katib editor-in-chief of Mission Critical. "But even though we chose him as the winner, we were amazed by so many of the stories that were shared with us, and that's why we simply couldn't close the contest without recognizing a few honorable mentions too." CRAIG LEE, FACILITY MANAGER, TRAVELCORP LIMITED Craig Lee was nominated for this award because of his eye for efficiency and his focus on maintainability. With sustainability and cost-savings in mind, he has initiated several projects that not only replace end-of-life equipment but introduce new, cutting-edge technologies that sometimes result in one piece of equipment that can do the job of two. After putting the servers in containment, Lee installed a Kyoto Cooling System that utilizes outside air to cool the data center and the mechanical room, which previously required its own a/c system. The waste heat that is removed from the data center is now being ducted into the warehouse during the cooler months instead of being released into the atmosphere. DENNIS COPLEY, CRITICAL FACILITY OPERATIONS MANAGER OF CENTRAL DIVISION & ENGINEERING SITES, COMCAST Dennis Copley headed a major HVAC renovation for Comcast. He redesigned and replaced existing cooling systems with an innovative combination of free cooling and liquid cooling technologies. The systems were deployed to over 100 critical sites in the Midwest, resulting in energy cost savings of over $1 million, less maintenance, and more reliability. DAVE SMALLWOOD, DATA CENTER FACILITY MANAGER, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY MEDICINE Dave Smallwood was nominated by his organization for consistently demonstrating outstanding leadership skills. He keeps accurate and up-to-date records for all activities within the data center, monitors and manages all the maintenance and preventive maintenance activities, and keeps his entire organization updated at all times. He was instrumental in upgrading the power distribution in the existing data center, adding in additional UPS distribution capacity and extending the redundancy level of the distribution to an additional level. The entire UPS power infrastructure is now a solid 2N+, with each and every distribution color coded and properly labeled/documented. His team views him as an asset and a leader in his field. WHO'S NEXT? Do you know of an exemplary data center facility manager who deserves to be recognized? Nominate him or her for Mission Critical's 2020 Facility Manager of the Year contest! The winner will be recognized in the November/December issue of the magazine, but we're accepting nominations now. About Mission Critical magazine Mission Critical has been connecting data center and critical facility buyers and sellers since 2007. The print and digital versions provide must-read editorial content that data center owners/managers/designers/engineers, IT managers, network systems integrators, cloud/IT specialists, and power and cooling professionals all require in this multibillion-dollar market. www.missioncriticalmagazine.com Facebook - @missionCritical, Twitter - @MCritical, LinkedIn - Mission Critical Magazine Contact: Amy Al-Katib 248-244-6495 Al-Katiba@bnpmedia.com SOURCE: Mission Critical View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/579002/Mission-Critical-Magazine-Names-Richard-Zbin-2019-Facility-Manager-of-the-Year In the flurry of debate around the Pickering nuclear plant, the one thing that almost no one has talked about is what to do when it finally closes. Pickering has been providing climate friendly electricity to Ontario particularly to the Greater Toronto Area for almost half a century but will retire by 2025. When it does, the default response will be to increase electricity generation from natural gas, which alone would more than double climate change emissions from electricity. Ontario is justifiably proud of its low-emission power, with 95 per cent coming from clean sources, a fact celebrated in the governments environment plan. It would be a shame to backslide now and increase emissions. Since Pickerings closure was decided, no plan has been developed to replace it with non-emitting solutions. Many municipalities in the GTA have ambitious emissions-reduction targets. The GTA needs to consider how it will keep its electricity system clean. According to Pollution Probes new report, Replacing Pickering: The Next Step in the GTAs Clean Energy Transition, funded by The Atmospheric Fund and released Wednesday, filling the post-Pickering gap by 2025 with clean electricity solutions is an ambitious but achievable goal. Pollution Probe brought together utilities, government, industry and civil society to discuss options for 2025. There is agreement that increasing energy efficiency and developing small scale clean electricity solutions could fill the gap. Reducing demand will be key. Ontario has improved energy efficiency over the years, helping reduce consumer bills and the need for new electricity, and this should continue. But we need to target energy efficiency where it can provide the greatest value, like specific areas of the grid where reducing demand could avoid the need for new utility infrastructure, or during times of high demand (e.g., midsummer) when the alternative would be to burn more natural gas. We cannot, of course, conserve our way out of needing more power. Renewable energy has had bad press in Ontario due to high costs, but the market has shifted. Renewables, developed in a way that provides value to the grid, are now often the lowest-cost option. These actions provide benefits beyond reducing emissions including building resiliency to extreme weather and local economic development. There is an opportunity to keep our electricity clean, while also saving consumers money. To get there, Ontarios energy policy, market and regulatory systems need to be updated. In the short-term, electric vehicle owners can benefit by shifting charging to low-demand hours. Utilities should properly consider the cost and benefits of conservation and small clean energy systems and compensate appropriately for all the value they can add. We have solutions to help Ontario retain its clean power supply, which is important for all Ontarians, not just those in the GTA. However, for an effective transition, political commitment to supporting these goals is needed. Srinagar, March 4 : After seven months, J&K residents can now access social media websites on 2G mobile internet, sources said. There is no mention of whitelisting of websites as per the new government order issued on Wednesday. The order is applicable till March 17. The J&K government has extended the ban on high speed internet across the Union Territory till March 17. An order in this regard was issued by the Principal Secretary J&K Home Shaleen Kabra. The order said the move is being taken in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state and for maintaining public order. "About mobile data services, the internet speed shall be restricted to 2G only. While the postpaid sim card holders shall continue to be provided access to the internet, these services shall not be made available on prepaid sim cards unless verified as per the norms applicable for post paid connections", the order said. About six line internet connectivity, it said internet connectivity shall continue to be made available with Mac-binding. It further directs that the access/communication facilities provided by the government viz e-terminals/internet kiosks apart from special arrangements for tourists, students, traders , ets shall continue. The IGP Kashmir/Jammu shall ensure communication of these directions to the service providers forthwith and also ensure implementation of the direction with immediate effect. The internet was suspended across J&K ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5. It was restored in a phased manner across J&K. The BCCI has decided to implement strict cost cutting measures with the notable decision being IPL champions' prize money will be halved as compared to 2019. In a circular sent to all IPL franchises, the BCCI has notified that instead of a whopping Rs 20 crore, the IPL champion team will now receive Rs 10 crore only. "The financial rewards have been reworked as a part of the cost cutting measures. The champions will get Rs 10 crore instead of Rs 20 crore. The runners-up will get Rs 6.25 crore from earlier Rs 12.5 crore," a BCCI notification, in possession of PTI, read. The two losing qualifiers will now get Rs 4.375 crore each. "The franchises are all in good health. They also have multiple ways like sponsorships to bolster their income. Hence the decision on prize money taken," a senior BCCI source said. However, a state association hosting IPL games will get Rs 1 crore each with franchises and BCCI contributing Rs 50 lakh each. It has also been learnt that mid-level BCCI employees won't be allowed to avail business class flights like earlier times for flying to the Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE) where the flying time is less than eight hours. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 21:19:32|Editor: zyl Video Player Close A newspaper headline about the coronavirus outbreak is seen at an Evening Standard newspaper stand, in London, Britain, on March 4, 2020. The London Book Fair, one of the biggest events in the literary calendar, was called off Wednesday on concerns of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua) LONDON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The London Book Fair, one of the biggest events in the literary calendar, was called off Wednesday on concerns of the novel coronavirus outbreak. "Reed Exhibitions has today announced that The London Book Fair 2020, scheduled to take place at Olympia, London, from 10 to 12 March will be cancelled following the escalation of COVID-19 in Europe," said a statement from organisers Reed Exhibitions. The announcement was made following cancellations Tuesday by publishers and agencies including Curtis Brown, one of the oldest literary agencies in Europe. Other publishers, including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette, had already pulled out, said the London-based newspaper The Guardian. "The effects, actual and projected, of coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the UK and across the world, with many of our participants facing travel restrictions...it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this year's event," read the statement, adding that the event will return in 2021. The London Book Fair is one of the global marketplaces for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Because of a wrinkle in how Ohios Democratic primary is conducted, the public wont know until the day after the March 17 election which presidential candidates won how many delegates, an all important factor in deciding the election. Ohio awards its 136 delegates in two buckets -- about one-third is awarded proportionately based on the statewide vote, while two-thirds are based on the results in each of Ohios 16 congressional districts. As cleveland.coms Rich Exner reports, the Ohio Secretary of States Office has no plans to provide congressional district-level data until March 18. Ironically, the Republican results will be available by congressional district, because of how the GOPs balloting system works, even though President Donald Trump is running for re-election uncontested in the primary. Cleveland.com reporter Andrew Tobias discussed Ohios elections reporting and other news with Spectrum News 1s Curtis Jackson in a new segment previewing cleveland.coms Wednesday edition of Capitol Letter, our weekday newsletter on Ohio government news and politics. Other Tuesday stories they discussed: - Ohio soon will begin performing its own coronavirus testing, rather than submitting samples to the Centers for Disease Control. - A panel of federal judges ruled that Ohio doesnt have to make extra efforts to help jail inmates request and return absentee ballots, overturning an earlier ruling from a single federal judge. - An Ohio lawmaker has introduced a bill that, if passed, would immediately outlaw abortion in Ohio if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. You can watch the segment above. And you can subscribe to Capitol Letter here. Photo: Tuan Nguyen/Unsplash Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in New York City. Coronavirus concerns shut down one school in Bronx, two in Westchester County after students father IDed as infected Principal Binyamin Krauss, principal of the Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy and its companion SAR High School, said in a letter to parents that the school was in touch with the New York City Health Department and adhering to their guidelines about handling the virus. Read the full story on New York Daily News. MTA bus driver accused of spitting on passenger in Brooklyn speaks out The MTA bus driver accused of spitting on a female passenger in Brooklyn Saturday says it was the passenger who kicked and spit on him first. Read the full story on ABC New York, WABC. Yeshiva University student with coronavirus symptoms isolated at home The man's wife and another child, who attends a private Jewish school in Riverdale, are also isolated in the house in New Rochelle, but haven't shown any symptoms, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Read the full story on New York Post. Man with BB gun on Brooklyn rooftop apparently YouTuber making movie: NYPD The man who was taken into custody for having a BB gun on a rooftop in Brooklyn is a 24-year-old YouTuber who was apparently making a movie, police say. Read the full story on ABC New York, WABC. ICE arrests illegal immigrant accused of raping Brooklyn teen after city cut him loose Guatemalan national Miguel Federico Ajqui-Ajtzalam, 20, was arraigned Friday on a 20-count criminal complaint for allegedly raping the 13-year-old girl five times in 2018. Read the full story on New York Post. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Voters in Sonoma and Marin counties rejected a 30-year extension of a quarter-cent sales tax for the operation of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit's SMART train system. Measure I needed two-thirds approval. In Marin County, Measure I received 53.5 percent approval with all 157 precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning. In Sonoma County, the measure got just 49.8 percent with all 526 precincts reporting. The existing tax expires in 2029. Final but unofficial election results for Measure J, a 35-year half-cent sales tax to raise money for local roads, buses, rail, ferries and other transportation improvement projects in Contra Costa County, fell far short of the two-thirds approval needed to pass, and in fact didn't even make 50 percent. Measure J would focus on improving major roadways that suffer from the worst traffic, including Interstate Highways 680, 580 and 80; state Highways 4 and 24; and arterials including Ygnacio Valley Road, Kirker Pass Road, Vasco Road, Bollinger Canyon Road, Central Avenue and Richmond Parkway. The need for more freeway expansion and improvement, better (cleaner and more crime-free) BART service, and a ferry boat service serving Contra Costa's north-shore cities, is almost universally acknowledged. But critics have challenged Measure J's lack of specifics, and contend that similar past tax measures to improve transportation in Contra Costa have had negligible effect on the county's increasing traffic volumes. Voting results from Tuesday's election showed Foster City residents voting overwhelmingly to recall City Councilman Herb Perez after his repeated insults of city residents and "bullying." Perez, who has served on the council since 2011, has been known to call residents "delusional morons" and "malfeasant malcontents." The verbal abuse and accusations of Perez voting in favor of development in the city spurred a group of residents to launch the recall effort last May. The recall effort has the support of 77.29 percent of voters while 22.71 percent of voters said he shouldn't be recalled. In the event of Perez's ouster from the City Council, voters in Tuesday's election also chose his successor from former police Capt. Jon Frooman and community activist Patrick Sullivan. Early voting showed Frooman with a clear lead of 59.6 percent compared to 40.4 percent for Sullivan. It appears that incumbent Supervisor Federal Glover, seeking his sixth and what he says would be his final term on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, couldn't quite avoid a runoff against Gus Kramer in November, leading the District 5 field of three with almost 49 percent of the vote. Had Glover achieved 50 percent plus one, he would have won a sixth term outright Tuesday. As it is, Kramer, Contra Costa County's assessor for the past 26 years, garnered 27.2 percent of the vote, and will face Glover in the November general election. Sean Trambley finished third, with 23.8 percent of the vote, with all 188 precincts reporting. The District 5 supervisors' race has been a contentious one at times, with Kramer criticizing Glover for past DUI arrests and for what he (and Trambley) called Glover's lack of presence in cities in the western part of District 5, which stretches along Contra Costa's northern edge from Pinole to Crockett and east through Martinez to the western part of Antioch. Dublin Mayor David Haubert finished narrowly ahead in a four-way race for the District 1 Board of Supervisors seat in Tuesday's election, but he will face a runoff later this year with Fremont City Councilman Vinnie Bacon. With all 185 precincts in the district reporting early Wednesday morning, Haubert led the race with 26.97 percent, edging ahead of Bacon, at 26.1 percent, by 233 votes. Dublin City Councilwoman Melissa Hernandez sat third at 24.67 percent while state Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, finished fourth with 22.26 percent. The seat is being vacated by veteran incumbent Scott Haggerty. District 1 includes Livermore, Dublin, and most of Fremont as well as unincorporated areas in eastern Alameda County. Sonoma County Supervisors Susan Gorin and Lynda Hopkins defeated their challengers to retain their seats on the board, but incumbent Shirlee Zane appears to have lost her bid for a fourth term on the board by losing to former Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey. According to unofficial results early Wednesday morning, Gorin has 13,151 votes or 58.8 percent and Sonoma City Councilman David Cook has 9,012 votes and 40.3 percent in the District 1 race. Hopkins has 14,847 votes and 79.8 percent in District 5 and challenger Mike Hilber has 3,599 votes and 19.3 percent. Zane has 6,904 votes and 45.7 percent and Coursey has 8,028 votes and 53.1 percent in District 3. Voting results from Tuesday's election showed tech entrepreneur Matt Mahan winning the election for the San Jose City Council District 10 seat outright with more than 50 percent of the vote. With 25 of the district's 27 precincts reporting as of early Wednesday, Mahan garnered 57.71 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff election. That total paced Mahan's competitors Helen Wang, a retired businesswoman, and Bay Area Women's March co-founder Jenny Higgins Bradanini. Wang held 22.79 percent of the vote while Bradanini held 19.49 percent. The three candidates were running to replace termed-out City Councilman Johnny Khamis, who ran for the state Senate's District 15 seat and failed to make the top-two run-off. An Alameda County ballot measure that would raise an estimated $150 million annually to expand access to early education and child care for all children in the county was ahead in the incomplete returns Tuesday but its ultimate fate may be decided in court. With 31 percent of countywide precincts reporting, Measure C is ahead by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters is saying for now that the measure only needs a simple majority to win approval. But one of the measure's supporters, Clarissa Doutherd of Parent Voices Action, said Tuesday night that the question of whether the measure needs a simple majority or a two-thirds vote to win approval is "ambiguous" and may have to be decided in court. San Francisco voters took to the polls Tuesday and appeared to approve all five measures on the ballot, according to the preliminary election results. Proposition A appeared to garner more than 70 percent of the vote, well above the 55 percent needed to pass. The measure asked voters whether to allow the City College of San Francisco District to sell $845 million in bonds to renovate the school's buildings, including seismic retrofitting and environmentally sustainable upgrades. Copyright 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan announced on Wednesday that all international travel for Cheshire High School students during April Break has been cancelled over concerns surrounding the COVID-19 (coronavirus) threat. Its something that we really wish we didnt have to do, but we need to keep everyones health in mind, not just the students who are going, but whoever they may come in contact with when they return, Solan told The Herald, shortly after he made the announcement. In a letter he sent out to parents, Solan stated that, after many meetings and discussions with the health professionals at Chesprocott Health District and the school nurses, he ultimately came to the decision to bar students from traveling internationally until the threat of the coronavirus has passed. This is unlike anything I have ever had to do, Solan remarked. Normally, when it comes to these international trips, I often spend a lot of time thinking about the students safety in these different countries. Now we have to consider the health threat as well. Solan also stated that, because there remains no treatment for the virus, students wouldve been required to be quarantined for a long period of time after they returned referred to as social distancing in order to ensure the safety of the rest of the community. Cheshire High School originally had three international trips scheduled with Education First (EF) Tours to Spain, England, and Ecuador for an immersive, week-long educational experience involving the country and its culture. In Solans letter, he mentions that families that have scheduled trips will be reimbursed by EF in the form of travel vouchers, which will be valid until Sept. 30, 2021. The vouchers can be redeemed for travel with EF Educational Tours, EF College Study Tours, EF College Break, EF Explore America, or Go Ahead Vacations. The main reason why I am making the announcement today is that we wanted to make sure we had all the available data from the CDC, and had made the appropriate concessions with the tour company to be able to provide vouchers for the families impacted, Solan added. The seniors graduating this year will be given the opportunity to sell the travel voucher to students who plan to go on the educational trips next year. For the students who are not graduating, it is currently unclear if the same trips will be offered next or, if similar trips are planned, would the students be granted preference. We know this comes as a big blow to a lot of students who saved their money to be able to go on one of these trips, Solan began. Which is why we are trying to figure out how next year will work. Right now we need to figure out what trips are available for next year, and what the interest level is. Hopefully we will be able to figure something out for these kids. For any questions regarding the cancelation of the trips, Solan advises they be directed to the individual trips coordinator, which is Margarita Velez for the trip to Spain, Dawn Demeo for the trip to England, and Sandra Vermeulen for the trip to Ecuador. Kim Kardashian has visited the White House to discuss criminal justice reform with President Donald Trump. The reality star, 39, met with Trump Wednesday and shared every moment in the lead-up on social media Wednesday. She was joined by three newly-freed prisoners as she promoted to 63.7million Twitter followers and 161 million more Instagram fans that she wanted to further promote Trump's granting of clemency to Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron. 'President Trump commuted the sentences of three really deserving women. I didn't hear much about it in the news so I wanted to share with you their stories!' Kardashian posted on Wednesday morning. 'I have the pleasure of spending the day with these women today along with @AliceMarieFree who helped to pick these women.' Scroll down for video Kim Kardashian visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss criminal justice reform and posed for photos with Ivanka Trump (far right) and Jared (center back) She was joined by three newly-freed prisoners as she promoted to 63.7million Twitter followers and 161 million more Instagram fans that she wanted to further promote Trump's granting of clemency Kardashian shared with millions of followers that Trump may not have received enough praise for freeing prisoners on her advice Gamble: Kim previously revealed that she had been warned that meeting Trump would 'ruin' her career, but she has continued to have several encounters with him Alice Johnson was one of the first people freed as a result of the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person (FIRST STEP) Act. Kardashian helped convince Trump to enact it on January 3, 2019. Last year Trump said his admin had worked closely with members of both parties to sign the First Step Act into law and that the legislation gives non-violent offenders the chance to re-enter society as productive, law-abiding citizens. Kardashian visited Washington DC with Cut 50, a bipartisan initiative to cut crime and incarceration nationwide. 'White House here we come!' she posted alongside a picture of herself with the group, including Cut 50 co-founder Jessica Jackson. They posed inside the Four Seasons hotel which also greeted her with a white chocolate sculpture of the White House with the Washington monument in the background. As the women traipsed to the meeting Wednesday, Kardashian managed to capture a a similar shot of the iconic location while she told followers she was visiting the West Wing. Alice Marie Johnson - who spent 21 years in prison - appeared in the clip. Kardashian wore a white suit designed by Dior's Kim Jones as she went to have criminal justice discussions The Four Seasons hotel welcomed Kardashian with a white chocolate sculpture of the White House with the Washington monument in the background 'White House here we come!': Kardashian and three newly-freed prisoners stepped out in monochrome ensembles during the trip to Washington. She was joined by non-profit organization 50 Cut co-founder Jessica Jackson (second from left). Left is ex-prisoner Crystal Munoz, third from left is Tynice Nichole Hall, third from right is Alice Johnson, second from left is Judith Negron The business woman documented the outing on social media. Alice Johnson - who Kardashian previously helped to free - is pictured right. The women are seen walking near the White House with the Washington monument in the background, left Kardashian previously revealed that she had been warned that meeting Trump would 'ruin' her career. But the Johnson clemency has helped Kardashian gain respect with some criminal justice reform backers. She visited the White House in July, thought to be about seeking justice for rapper A$AP Rocky, who was jailed in Sweden on July 3. The month before, Kardashian shared photos from her visit to Washington D.C. where she gave a speech about criminal justice reform issues. Former prison Tynice Hall, 36, served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs. A statement released by the White House stated the mother had 'accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has worked hard to rehabilitate herself.' Crystal Munoz, a 40-year-old Texas woman who spent 12 years in prison after being convicted on marijuana charges, has credited Alice Johnson with helping to secure her clemency from the president. Kardashian said on social media that Munoz's conspiracy to possess and distribute marijuana conviction meant she left behind a five month old baby. She was also pregnant at the time. 'Crystal was shackled by prison guards during the birth of her second daughter,' Kardashian explained. 'Her case was highlighted in the First Step Act.' Johnson said in a social media clip that the visit was to help free other women from prison Tynice, 36, served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs. She poses in the West Wing with First Daughter Ivanka Trump (right) Crystal, 38, served 12 years of a 19 year sentence for her role in a marijuana smuggling ring Judith Negron served eight years of her 35-year sentence for her role as a minority-owner of a healthcare company engaged in a scheme to defraud the Federal Government. The statement said she 'spent this time working to improve her life and the lives of her fellow inmates.' Judith Negron served eight years of her 35-year sentence for her role as a minority-owner of a healthcare company engaged in a scheme to defraud the Federal Government Florida woman Negron got clemency last month while serving prison time for a $205million Medicare fraud scam said her case was brought to Trump's attention by Kardashian West. The FBI called her case one of the longest sentences ever imposed in a Medicare Fraud Strike Force case when Trump commuted her sentence. 'I had some guardian angels as I call them, such as Alice Johnson, who had been advocating for me behind the scenes,' Negron told The Associated Press in an interview at her home shortly after her release. Johnson had been convicted in 1996 on eight criminal accounts related to a Memphis based cocaine trafficking operation. Johnson was featured in one of Trump's campaign ads during this year's Super Bowl. She told the AP that the president had been looking specifically for female candidates, and had asked her for a list of other women who deserved clemency. When she was released, Negron's family drove roughly four hours in the middle of the night to pick her up from prison, saying they were too overjoyed to sleep. Friends and family streamed into the home, carrying flowers and balloons. Negron said she'd been dreaming of hugging her boys without restrictions, taking a shower in her own home and 'tucking them into bed and I don't know how they'll welcome that being that they are all grown up, but at least one night.' Florida woman Negron got clemency last month while serving prison time for a $205million Medicare fraud scam said her case was brought to Trump's attention by Kardashian West The family repeatedly thanked Trump from their South Florida home in a swing state where the Latino vote will play a crucial role this election year. But the family said they didn't view this as a political move and had no plans to join Trump's re-election campaign. Negron said she plans to help others in the clemency process. 'I see this as a miracle that was bestowed upon me by President Trump and his administration and I feel a responsibility to pay this blessing forward because there's a lot of deserving people just like me that I want to ensure they're not forgotten,' said Negron, sitting on the couch in jeans and a T-shirt. With tears in his eyes, her husband Hector Negron described raising their two boys, who were 4 and 10-years-old when she was convicted, describing the sad, lonely home and holidays they spent travelling to Virginia to visit her. 'We want to say thank you to (Trump) personally,' her husband and high school sweetheart said. 'I don't see it politically because I'm nobody. We're not political people.' Speaking out: Kim has visited the White House in the past and made speeches about a subject she is passionate about, criminal justice reform. Pictured June 13, 2019 Negron, who is 50, was among the 11 federal inmates around the nation who received clemency actions thanks to the president. She was convicted as a first-time offender in 2011 in a case that made national headlines. Authorities said she and two co-defendants paid bribes and kickbacks to owners and operators of assisted living facilities and halfway houses, as well as patient brokers, in exchange for delivering ineligible patients to their mental health facility. Kim is currently studying to become a lawyer, and is gearing up to take the California bar exam. Though Kim is not attending law school, she is eligible to take the bar through an alternative path known as 'reading the law', apprenticing through a practicing lawyer or judge. Kim revealed to Vogue back in April she had been mentoring with practicing attorneys with the hopes of taking the infamously difficult test in 2022. At the time, Kim said the legal concepts had been coming easily to her. Pegler, a leading plumbing and heating manufacturing company, said its UAE unit has registered solid growth over the last decade with its turnover in the Middle East region growing sixfold to 30 million ($38.3 million). A member of the global Aalberts organisation, Pegler has had a major presence in the Middle East region with a full-fledged office in Dubai that offers a wide range of products to the local and global market. Some of the major products include renowned brands such as VSH Tectite, VSH PowerPress, VSH Shurjoint and VSH XPress. Pegler said it has earned a worldwide reputation for its quality brassware products, and its integrated piping systems which are setting new standards within the industry for connecting and controlling flow for heating and plumbing installations. The company attributed its steady growth in the region to the leadership of Paul Reasbeck, the export director, who has announced his retirement. Lauding his efforts, Phill Jackson, the business development and marketing director, said: "Reasbeck has been pivotal in the growth and diversity that we have seen from our Dubai office and we know that the team that will succeed him will continue to seek new opportunities and support existing customers in this prosperous and forward thinking region." He has been a well-known and well-respected member of our Middle Eastern team and we wish him every happiness as he leaves the company after almost 40 years service, he stated. One of those that will succeed Reasbeck will be his son Will, who has worked with his father for the last three years; gaining knowledge of the business, the wide range of products that the company manufacturers across all its brands and the export requirements across the globe, he stated. Jackson said in his new role, Will will be responsible for sales of Pegler Valve as well as looking after the South America and the Caribbean market. He has already gained experience in Europe and South America. Reasbeck said: "It seems like it was just yesterday that I began my career in the Export Department at our Yorkshire headquarters and I have enjoyed every minute of it." "I know that the team have the right strategy in place to ensure Pegler remains the brand of choice for plumbing and heating across the UAE and beyond and that Will, will play his own part continuing the Reasbeck name in the company," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 04:25:50|Editor: Wang Yamei Video Player Close Houston Region Director of American Jewish Committee (AJC) Randall Czarlinsky (2nd L) delivers a letter to Chinese Consul General in Houston Cai Wei (2nd R) in Houston, Texas, the United States, on March 4, 2020. Chinese Consul General in Houston Cai Wei expressed thanks on Wednesday to local Jewish community leaders for their solidarity with the Chinese people. The consul general made the remarks when he met Randall Czarlinsky, who, on behalf of AJC's Community of Conscience, delivered a letter signed by over a dozen leaders from different backgrounds in the Greater Houston region. (Xinhua/Liu Liwei) HOUSTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Consul General in Houston Cai Wei expressed thanks on Wednesday to local Jewish community leaders for their solidarity with the Chinese people. "This is a difficult time. This is a global challenge and the people around the world need to work together to deal with the challenge," he said. The consul general made the remarks when he met Houston Region Director of American Jewish Committee (AJC) Randall Czarlinsky, who, on behalf of AJC's Community of Conscience, delivered a letter signed by over a dozen leaders from different backgrounds in the Greater Houston region. He said there is some unnecessary panic in the local communities and some Chinese and Asian people feel they are discriminated. Czarlinsky said, "We are aware that many Chinese-owned businesses have been affected by misinformed concerns about COVID-19 virus. We encourage our own communities not to give in to such fears. There is no need to avoid Chinese people or businesses." According to Czarlinsky, the letter conveys the message to the Chinese people in Houston, in China, and globally that "we are concerned about rising xenophobia aimed at the Chinese in this country and abroad. Each of us knows that in such times, concern can quickly turn into hysteria. That hysteria can lead to scapegoating." The Community of Conscience is a national initiative, convened by AJC, a leading global Jewish advocacy organization. The Community of Conscience was created last November in the United States, aiming at bringing together leaders from different backgrounds to make a statement against the division in today's society, and discuss proactive ways to address it. Delhi, less than a month ago, voted the AAP back into government with a decisive majority. The victory was a clear message to the BJP, rejecting divisive and communal politics in the wake of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill. Now, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party is facing their toughest test as violent riots in parts of the national capital have taken the lives of more than 40 people. Himanshi Dahiya, in a column for The Quint, writes on Kejriwal and the Delhi violence Armed with his development pitch and welfare schemes, Arvind Kejriwal looks like a messiah, especially at time when the Indian democracy is witnessing a rudderless Opposition. However, in less than a month of results declaration, Kejriwal stands exposed. As Delhi witnessed one of the worst communal violence in decades, the chief minister and his partys cadre were missing. The chief ministers slumber has failed both, Hindus and Muslims in India's national capital. Even more concerning for Kejriwal, an AAP MLA has been accused of inciting violence in the north east parts of Delhi last week. Tahir Hussain, who has since been suspended from the party, is alleged to be involved in the violence and subsequent killing of an Intelligence Bureau officer. After registering a FIR against him, Hussain has maintained his innocence. Any person who is found guilty should be given stringent punishment. If any Aam Aadmi Party person is found guilty then that person should be given double the punishment, said Kejriwal at a press conference. A Sunday Guardian report stated that Tahir Hussain was a muscleman and known for notorious activities in the Chand Bagh area citing conversations with locals. The mass outpouring against the divisive Citizenship Bill boiled over. Some parts of Delhi were under curfew, more than a hundred arrests and the death toll climbing; the AAP hasnt been effective in responding fast enough to the situation. The role of the local government has to come under scrutiny for its handling of the law and order, particularly at a time when things are at a boiling point. Shivam Vij, Contributing Editor, The Print, in a column writes on Kejriwal walking a secular-communal tightrope - The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) comes across as not having done much in the last one week. The AAP even now is not doing enough in the riot-affected areas. It has been slow in setting up relief camps. The AAP is particular that it does not want to be seen as either secular or communal. We saw what happened around 2016 when Kejriwal went all out against Modi. They dont want to do dharna politics anymore. Prior to the election, it was noted that Kejriwal was silent when it came to speaking about the incidents at Shaheen Bagh. It didnt cost him electorally; however, now the situation has worsened. The Delhi police have also garnered harsh criticism for allowing violent protestors to have their way while standing idle. There were instances of men openly wielding a gun and pointing them at protestors while the police didnt act. In this regard, the AAP in a way has its hand tied. The Delhi police is controlled by the central government. Security in the national capital, which essentially has a dual government, can sometime be caught in-between. The AAP has come under criticism for focusing on optics. A delegation of citizens and womens rights activists met with Kejriwal urging the Delhi government to be more visible and proactive in order to maintain peace in the capital. Kejriwal has outright blamed the BJP for the riots and violence, accusing the centre of not giving clear orders to the Delhi police. Meghnad Desai, in an op-ed for The Indian Express writes on why the Delhi Chief Minister should be in charge of the Delhi police This fear could have been, should have been, removed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if he had used his powers of communication to explain the contents of the CAA as well as the context in which it was going to be used. All are in this together, the secular parties as well as the nationalists. One thing is clear. Delhi cannot go on having a dual government. Make it a state so the Chief Minister can take charge of security. The Central government is too remote. The Delhi election was a referendum on the politics of the BJP in light of some its controversial policies. The AAP focussed on a populist message of governance and promises on education and healthcare. He won in part thanks to Muslim voters who were alienated by the Modi-Shah alliance of the BJP and its divisiveness. However, in the midst of the riots and deaths, Kejriwal hasnt appeased those who helped him electorally. Despite meeting with Amit Shah to help deal with the situation, he hasnt been quiet about his criticism for the government. Zainab Sikander, in a column for The Print writes on why Kejriwal has let Muslim down Arvind Kejriwals inertia during the Delhi riots, which took place in the capital of India in broad daylight, has many doubting his secular credentials. It was Kejriwals antics against the BJP and the Congress as the aam aadmi who spoke truth to power that made him the nations sweetheart. Arvind Kejriwal is now in a predicament. And he has himself dug this hole. Only time can tell whether Kejriwal will be able to dodge this bullet. But one thing is for sure. He is repeating the mistakes of the Congress. And that can cost him dearly. Going forward, the AAP and Kejriwal have their work cut out for them. The protests against the BJPs policies with regard to the Citizenship Bill arent to stop or slow down. One doesnt want another round of riots or violence in any city or region; however, as things remain tense, its a test for leadership and for the party. The Indian Express editorial offers this assessment - Individual acts of empathy are simply not enough. The political class must recognise its responsibility. It can encourage and embolden the best in society, or the worst. Leaders can engage in oratory or demagoguery. And society at large must decide what behaviour it will reward in its politicians. More columns by Varun Sukumar Journalist Kanojia's arrest cannot become the status quo Collegium's decision, another blip to the judicial independence 'Howdy Modi' takes places amid a major economic crisis in India Accra, 4th March 2020 Newmont Ghanas Communications and External Relations team topped the list of winners at the 8th National PR and Communications Excellence Awards held over the weekend by the Institute of Public Relations in Accra. The team beat competition to win three-team awards and one individual award making it the biggest winners of the night. The awards included the Best PR Campaign, Best in Digital and Social Media, Best PR Organization (Extractive sector) as well as the PR Discovery of the year which was awarded to Samuel Osei, Acting Manager, Communications and External Relations at the companys Ahafo South operations. The annual awards programme is Ghanas premium occasion for honoring outstanding practitioners and organizations in the Public Relations profession. Commenting on the awards, Director of Communications and External Affairs, Newmont Ghana, Agbeko Azumah, expressed his appreciation to the Institute and team for rewarding excellence and demonstrating commitment to the business. At Newmont, we ensure that our work is aligned to our purpose of creating value and improving lives and we are grateful that the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana has recognized this and honored the team. We appreciate the value that the leadership of our organization places on communications and the opportunity to contribute towards the execution of our business strategy. "Newmont's inclusive environment has offered us the unique opportunity to develop and contribute towards its business strategy, he added. Newmont Ghana is a subsidiary of Newmont Corporation, the worlds leading gold mining business and operates the Ahafo South and Akyem mines in the Ahafo and Eastern Regions respectively. The company is Ghanas leading gold producer and has been recognized as a major contributor to the countrys socio-economic development. Courtesy of San Jose Fire Department San Jose firefighters were battling a fire at a San Jose auto body repair shop that spread to a nearby business on Tuesday afternoon, according to fire officials. Dozens of firefighters responded to a report of a fire on the 1700 block of S. 10th Street in San Jose, which is an industrial area of the city, said Erica Ray, the public information manager for the San Jose Fire Department. Opened up: The Vatican Apostolic Secret Archive where the documents were kept. Photo: AFP via Getty Images A row has erupted over whether Pope Pius XII failed to save Italian Jews from being deported to death camps by the Nazis during World War II. For decades, critics have accused Pius of being pro-German and of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust, while his defenders have argued that he did his best to secretly help save Jews under extremely difficult circumstances. In a bid to resolve the debate, the Vatican on Monday opened its archives relating to Pius's 1939-1958 papacy to scholars, although experts said that it would take years to scrutinise the two million documents. It came as a senior Vatican figure claimed the archive would demonstrate that Pius did everything in his power to save Jews from the Nazis. Johan Ickx, an archivist from the Holy See's Secretariat of State, said documents showed that Vatican officials provided Jews with false documents to help them evade Nazi persecution and that the Vatican hid around 4,000 Jews in its properties in Rome. But that elicited an angry rebuttal from some Jewish leaders, who accused the pope of saying nothing when 1,022 Jews were rounded up in Rome in October 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. Just 16 of them survived the war. "It can be clearly seen that there was no desire to stop the train of October 16 and that the help was targeted to protect people who'd been baptised," said Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome. He said the Vatican's eagerness to proclaim Pius as a saviour of Jews was "highly suspicious". Riccardo Pacifici, a former president of the Jewish community of Rome, added: "After telling us that it will take years of study, the Vatican seems to be suddenly presenting evidence on the first day of the archives being opened, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Hansa Research has curated a study based on Customer Experience in OTT media. The study was conducted among approximately 800 OTT subscribers in India administered to a consumer panel Hansa Cheetah. OTT subscribers were represented from across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad with approx. (75 M: 25F). Brand Exposure (Used) amongst these OTT subscribers in the last 3 months- included Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, JioTV, Voot, Zee5, SonyLIV, ALTBalaji amongst other brands. Focusing on customer experience now is more critical than ever, with the customer evolving, being more explorative in nature and more polygamous in their choice of brands. Today, customer experience is amongst the top ranked strategic priority amongst leading companies, especially in markets where there is intense competition said Praveen Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research Group. Nijhara continued, Customer experience includes the entire interaction between the customer and the brand across all touch points. It is the sum total of the entire experience including everything from purchase, on boarding, usage experience, advertising, content, communication, customer support channels etc. Solus loyalty is no longer an achievable target for brands in many of the markets/ sectors. This holds true, especially with service providers using a digital platform where onboarding and exiting requires a simple click. The report suggests that on an average, an OTT consumer had engaged with atleast 3 brands in the OTT space in the last 3 months, the survey also found that consumption from multiple brands in the OTT space is higher amongst younger adults, said Mr V. Sudarshan, VP Hansa Research referring to the OTT CX Study. Excerpts from the study Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. MPs from Left parties on Thursday held a protest inside the Parliament complex over the issue of violence in Delhi and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation. Demonstrating in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Parliament complex, the protesters were seen holding placards against the government. Leaders from several opposition parties have also given adjournment notices in the Rajya Sabha, demanding a debate on Delhi violence which has claimed at least 47 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 03:53:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ZAGREB, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros announced here on Tuesday stricter measures at the Croatian-Slovenian border for truck drivers arriving from Italy due to the COVID-19 epidemic. "The situation is under control in Croatia, but we are concerned about the situation in Italy and we are negotiating with neighboring countries about measures that needed to be taken urgently," the minister said in a media statement. Increased checks on truck drivers started after a truck driver who recently visited northern Italy tested positive and became the ninth COVID-19 infection in Croatia on Tuesday. The Association of Croatian Road Carriers opposed the reintroduction of measures that were abolished last week, which include a two-week quarantine for truck drivers from northern Italy. Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli told reporters on Tuesday that tourism industry had suffered a loss of 5 percent after the COVID-19 epidemic occurred, due to lower tourist arrivals. "However, I am optimistic and I believe that pre-season bookings in Croatia will continue in a few weeks," the minister said. Despite the epidemic in the Croatian neighborhood, especially in Italy, in the first two months of this year traffic increased at the Zagreb Airport by 6.2 percent in January and by 2 percent in February. Enditem Nexhmije Hoxha, who joined with her husband, Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator of Albania, in overseeing an oppressive regime that isolated the country after World War II, executed dissenters and drove the economy into the ground, died on Feb. 26 at her home near the capital, Tirana. She was 99. Her death was announced by her son Ilir Hoxha and confirmed by Agence France-Presse and other news outlets. In the decades after the war, Nexhmije Hoxha (pronounced nedge-MEE-yah HOH-jah) was a top Communist official in her own right in her small mountainous Balkan nation, Europes most secretive and poorest country. When her husband was incapacitated by ill health, she became more influential, controlling Albanias secret police and orchestrating purges, arrests and show trials. Of the many spouses of dictators, the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare said, she was the most evil, the most perverse. The Guardian called her Europes last unrepentant Stalinist. Her foes settled for Lady Macbeth. Thousands of Queen's University students have applied to for a hardship support fund in recent years, new figures show. Figures released to the student newspaper The Scoop show that more than 12,360 applied to the Student Hardship and Student Support funds, which typically award up to 700 in the form of a non-repayable loan for those in financial difficulty. It also shows 557 students who applied to the fund in the academic year 2018/19 were rejected. Alliance councillor for Lagan River and former QUB student Eoin Tennyson said the money could be a "critical lifeline" for some. "Finance can be a source of huge pressure and anxiety for students, with an increasing number of hidden costs and challenges facing those at university," he said. "Student support and hardship funds provide a critical lifeline in times of financial difficulty, and it is imperative that students are able to access these funds as and when required. "With increasing accommodation and transport costs, and growing challenges surrounding student poverty and mental health, these figures make for stark reading. "I would urge the Department of Economy and Queens University to review the process and ensure students get the necessary support." While the number of students applying to the fund rose by 14.1% over the past four years, the number approved increased by just 0.4%. The application for financial assistance asks for details of loans, expenses and exceptional costs, as well as a personal statement explaining why the applicant is in financial difficult and why their situation merits additional support. Priority is given to mature students whose return to university has caused them financial hardship, lone parents not in receipt of childcare grants or disabled students' allowance and those from low income families or those caring for a relative or who are homeless. The number of students rejected has risen by 11.5% since 2014/15. More than one in five applicants (20.6%) was rejected in the 2018/19 year. Speaking to The Scoop, Student's Union vice president welfare officer, Ciaran OBrien, said: "It's not surprising that more and more students are applying for the hardship fund. As the welfare officer I sit on the Hardship Fund Committee, and at my first meeting during almost mid-way through the first semester of this academic year it was remarked that those processing the applications were receiving on average almost 30 a day. "More money is clearly needed for the fund," he said. VP education officer Jason Bunting added: "This worrying rise in applications demonstrates the acute financial pressures student face, which have a major impact on poor mental health. "The fact that so many students are making applications also demonstrates that our university is still inaccessible to working class young people. It is time that QUB took urgent action and ensure university is accessible for everyone." NUS-USI President Robert Murtagh said: "Increasing numbers of students applying to the student hardship fund is, unfortunately, not surprising. "As rent, transport, food and the general cost of living have continued to rise, student maintenance loans and grants have remained static, meaning many students cannot afford to make ends meet." Queens University Belfast and the Department for the Economy have been asked for a comment. J oe Biden was today celebrating a sensational comeback after he won in a swathe of states on Super Tuesday to set up a two-horse race with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Former vice president Mr Biden, 77, secured at least nine of the 14 states up for grabs on the busiest voting day of the Democrat primaries. His sweep of the South included Texas, one of the biggest prizes. Bernie Sanders, 78, appeared set to win delegate-rich California, on top of victories in Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont. But the self-proclaimed democratic socialist failed to make the expected gains to cement his frontrunner status. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing, a jubilant Mr Biden told a rally in California. Those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign. I am here to report we are very much alive, and make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing. The biggest loser appeared to be former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78, whose solitary win came in the tiny territory of American Samoa. Elizabeth Warrens hopes of moving back into contention also faded with a string of losses, including a shock defeat to Mr Biden in her home state of Massachusetts. Loading.... A host of Hollywood celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Melissa McCarthy and Tyra Banks posted pictures of themselves on social media with Super Tuesday stickers after casting their votes. At stake yesterday were about one-third of the 3,979 pledged delegates available in the primaries. A tally of 1,991 is needed to win the partys White House nomination. At the latest count, Mr Biden was leading Mr Sanders by 453 delegates to 382. Loading.... Although Mr Sanders will be relieved at claiming California, the state he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016, the story of the night was the Biden campaigns dramatic revival. After poor results in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr Biden seized control of the nomination contest with victories some by double digits in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Texas, the state with the second most delegates on Super Tuesday (228). Maine remained too close to call. Mr Biden was boosted by support from black and older, more moderate voters as well as Democrats who feel he is the better bet to defeat Mr Trump. The victories followed endorsements this week from former nomination rivals. Former Democratic presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson described his comeback as a coup. In a fiery speech in Vermont, Mr Sanders took a veiled swipe at Mr Biden, saying: Were taking on the political establishment. You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics. If it comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, were going to win that election, he added. Sophie Turner may officially be a Jonas now, after marrying the Jonas Brothers singer Joe Jonas in May 2019. But, the 24-year-old admits that she hated the band prior to meeting her husband. My friends and I were not Jonas Brothers fans, Turner told Elle for both its UK and US April cover stories. There was this band in the UK called Busted, she explained in the US piece. They had a hit called Year 3000. It was amazing, and we were huge Busted fans. Read more: Brooklyn Beckham celebrates his 21st birthday Then the Jonas Brothers covered the song and made it massive. And Busted broke up. We thought it was all the Jonas Brothers fault. So we hated them. Sophie Turner says that she "hated" the Jonas Brothers before meeting her husband, Joe Jonas. (Photo: Getty Images) The song famously catapulted Joe, alongside his brothers Nick Jonas and Kevin Jonas, into the spotlight when they were just teenagers. Years later, Turner would find herself in a similar situation when she was cast in the HBO hit series Game of Thrones at just 15 years old. And although she imagined the brothers to be jaded pop stars, she ultimately found that she was more similar to them than she would have thought especially when it came to Joe. I went to a meeting and Joes agent was in the room. And he was like, You remind me of one of my clients. I bet you two would really hit it off, Turner recalled. When the Jonas Brothers were touring the UK later that year, Joe sent the actor a message, which led to the couples first date at a Camden bar. The best thing was that he didnt bring security. He brought a friend and they drank just as hard as the rest of us, she said. I remember us two spending only a couple of minutes on the dance floor, and then we found a space in the far corner and we just talked. We talked for hours, and hours, and hours. And I wasnt bored. It wasnt contrived, it wasnt small talk it was just so easy. Soon, we were inseparable. And then I went on tour with him. The couple was engaged by their first anniversary, and thus Turner was thrust into the entire Jonas clan. Now, that group famously consists of all three of the brotherss wives including Turner, Nicks wife Priyanka Chopra and Danielle Dani Deleasa Jonas, married to eldest brother Kevin. Story continues I need that, she told Elle US of the big family, because I like to feel like I belong to something thats, like, bigger than just me. In both pieces, she adds, Its also nice to have built-in girlfriends who are actually really cool, who I can hang out with and we can really talk to each other about, like, how crazy the boys lives are. We can relate on so many different levels. Its like, thank God, because you never know [about your in-laws]. Elle notes that reports of Turners pregnancy started hitting newsfeeds in early February, just as the two interviews went to print. Although Turner wasnt able to confirm the news with the publication, she still gushed over her hubby. With Joe, I always felt like I was the one who was punching, like, way above my league. And I still feel like that, she said. Hes so handsome, talented, funny, charismatic. Im really lucky to be with him and have someone like him want to be around me and spend time with me. File photo: U.S. Supreme Court Police guard the building during a protest against anti-abortion legislation at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., May 21, 2019. WASHINGTON Chief Justice John Roberts left open the possibility that he could side with the Supreme Court's liberal wing during intensive, fact-based arguments on Wednesday in a high-profile abortion case. A vote with the court's four liberal justices to strike down a Louisiana law regulating abortion providers would be a dramatic turnaround for the chief justice, who joined a dissenting opinion from the court's decision striking down a similar law in Texas just four years ago. Read more: Supreme Court abortion case tests Trump's campaign promise to overturn Roe v. Wade But on Wednesday, Roberts suggested he saw that decision as binding. That ruling found that the Texas law had no medical benefits and placed an unconstitutional burden on women seeking abortion. Roberts twice said the medical benefits for the Louisiana law would likely be the same. "I understand the idea that the impact might be different in different places, but as far as the benefits of the law, that's going to be the same in each state, isn't it?" Roberts asked of Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill at one point. Wednesday's case was the first substantial abortion dispute to come before the top court since the confirmation of President Donald Trump's two appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. It marks a significant test of how the court's new conservative majority will treat laws concerning abortion. How the court ultimately comes down could have an impact on the next presidential election, in a race in which Trump has boasted of his impact on the federal judiciary and sought to develop conservative credentials on abortion. The dispute concerned a Louisiana law that requires doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic, a requirement that could limit the state to just one provider. The court struck down the Texas law by a 5-3 vote in the 2016 case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Roberts was in the dissent in the Whole Woman's Health case. But he raised questions a year ago by siding with the court's liberal members Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to halt the Louisiana law from going into effect while its challengers pursued their appeal. There were not many clues presented during Wednesday's arguments as to how Trump's appointees will vote. Gorsuch, who was largely expected to uphold the Louisiana law going into arguments, was unusually silent, asking no questions. Kavanaugh, somewhat more of a mystery, quizzed Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Julie Rikelman about whether she believed that admitting privileges laws would be unconstitutional in every state, not just Louisiana and Texas. She said she believed they would be. Justice Samuel Alito was the court's most talkative conservative on Wednesday, pushing Rikelman on whether her clients, an abortion clinic and several abortion doctors, should be allowed to bring the case in the first place. Murrill and Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Wall, both in court defending the Louisiana law, argued that the clinic and doctors had a conflict of interest with the women whom they serve. It was not clear whether the other conservative justices would sign onto Alito's point, but Breyer and some of the other liberals pushed back strongly. Breyer, citing past abortion cases that had relied on so-called third-party standing, or the right of clinics to sue on behalf of their patients, said doing away with it would require overturning at least eight past Supreme Court rulings. Breyer told Wall that if the court was going to reexamine third-party standing, "let's go back and reexamine Marbury v. Madison," the landmark 1803 ruling. Sotomayor took issue with the idea that there were diverging interests between women seeking abortions and the clinics providing them. "What sane woman who's a plaintiff is going to have a conflict with a doctor who wants to protect her rights by doing what they can to comply with the law?" she asked. An overriding question during arguments not least because it seemed to be on the mind of Roberts, the likely swing vote was about the medical benefits that come from requiring abortion doctors in Louisiana to have admitting privileges within 30 miles of their clinic. Read more: The battle over abortion rights: Here's what's at stake in 2020 Kagan said the clinic, known as Hope Medical Group, had performed about 70,000 procedures over 23 years and had only four hospital transfers. "I don't know of a medical procedure where it's lower than that of any kind," she said. Ginsburg pressed each of the attorneys specifically on the 30-mile limit included in the law, telling Murrill that it had "no necessary relationship" to where the women receiving the procedure actually live. On the other hand, Murrill and Wall focused on the claimed burdens that the law would impose. They argued that in Louisiana, those burdens on abortion providers would be far more limited than in Texas. A federal district court found that the burdens imposed by the law were unconstitutionally high, but that decision was reversed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018, which found that abortion doctors did not try hard enough to obtain admitting privileges. Murrill leaned into the 5th Circuit opinion, claiming that it presented evidence that virtually all of the abortion providers "sabotaged their own applications." The case is June Medical Services v. Russo, No. 18-1323. The new coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, has spread to dozens of countries around the world. Below are news updates from March 4. Click here for March 5 updates. Chinese Media Spread Fake News, Negative Propaganda About US Coronavirus Outbreak In recent days, Chinese state-run media have begun focusing on the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States, painting it as more severe than the epidemic in China. Some Chinese media outlets also spread outright falsehoodsincluding a claim that the virus originated in the United States. The virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. Meanwhile, the Chinese regimes recent official figures have reported a decline in infections, though internal government documents obtained by The Epoch Times and eyewitness accounts show that authorities have been underreporting cases. This past week, the United States reported cases of community spread for the first timecases of unknown origin, whereby patients did not have recent travel history to virus-stricken countries or have close contact with infected people. On Feb. 24, Chinese state-run newspaper Securities Times published an article based on unverified claims made by Paul Cottrell, who according to his online bio, is a finance PhD based in New York. He posted a YouTube video claiming that sources told him more than 1,000 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the United States. As of press time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced 80 infections, excluding Americans who were repatriated from elsewhere and tested positive for the virus. Using Cottrells claims as its basis, the Chinese article claimed that the U.S. CDC was hiding the true scale of the U.S. outbreak. Chinese media also began spreading a claim that the virus originated in the United States. It started when Chinas top virology expert Zhong Nanshan said at a press conference on Feb. 27 that there was a possibility the novel coronavirus did not originate from China. That same day, a Taiwanese politician named Pan Hwai-tzong said during a television program that aired on the pro-Beijing cable channel EBC News: The coronavirus is from the United States. Pan is a councillor from Taipei city, and a professor at the Taiwan National Yang-Ming University. Chinese media republished this claim by Pan. Some professors in mainland China have since clarified in media interviews that Pans comments have no scientific basis. Taiwanese netizens and media also criticized Pan for pandering to Beijing. U.S.-based China commentator Tang Jingyuan said he believes the Chinese regime is purposefully using the U.S. outbreak to mislead Chinese citizens about the current outbreak within its borders. We clearly see that the coronavirus epidemic in China is very severe, which is totally different from what government authorities claim. Chinese people see for themselves what is happening around them, Tang said. Thus, the Chinese regime hopes to shift peoples focus to the United States as a distraction. It tries to fool people into thinking the virus is from the United States, and have Chinese people show hatred toward the U.S. Then, they wont think about what the Beijing regime is doing, Tang added. And by emphasizing severe outbreaks outside China, it can tell people that China has a better system, Tang said. Read more here Italy Shuts Down All Schools Over Coronavirus Outbreak Italys government announced it will close all schools and universities across the country to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus after thousands have cases have been reported in more than a week. All schools are slated to be closed starting Thursday, March 5, and will be shut down until Saturday, March 15, according to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Education Minister Lucia Azzolina. The move will affect about 8 million students in the country. I hope pupils can return to school as soon as possible my commitment is to ensure that the essential public service, albeit from a distance, is provided to all our students, Azzolina said in a news conference. Italy already suspended school in the northern part of the country, the site of a COVID-19 outbreak. Overall, more than 3,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed in the countrythe most in Europealong with 107 deaths, the countrys health agency said. Were focused on adopting all measures to contain or slow down the virus, because we have a health-care system that, however good and efficient it may be, risks being overloaded, Conte said, according to the Wall Street Journal. A number of towns and villages in the outbreak epicenter have been sealed off by police and army roadblocks, namely in an area near Milan. Children could amplify the epidemic, and carry the disease to their grandparents. Paradoxically, school closures help protect the elderly, said Giovanni Rezza, who heads the infectious-disease department at Italys National Health Institute, in a news conference. I hope pupils can return to school as soon as possible my commitment is to ensure that the essential public service, albeit from a distance, is provided to all our students, Azzolina said. The move, she added, that closing down universities and schools wasnt a simple decision after they heard the opinion from health officials. We decided to suspend teaching activities from tomorrow till 15 March. It is a decision of impact; I hope the pupils will return to school as soon as possible, she said, according to The Guardian. Health officials have already given guidance to people not to use the traditional Italian greeting of kissing on the cheek and hugging. They have also been encouraged to avoid public and crowded areas and keep a distance of two meters (about 6.5 feet) from each other. Meanwhile, individuals over the age of 65 have been encouraged to stay at home, as they are the group that is most at risk of succumbing to the virus, said officials. US Lawmakers Strike Deal for $8.3 Billion Lawmakers on Wednesday came to an agreement on more than $8 billion in emergency COVID-19 coronavirus funding. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) announced the move and funding in a press release, explaining that its not a political matterbut a public safety concern. This should not be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people from a potential pandemic, said Shelby in a statement. We worked together to craft an aggressive and comprehensive response that provides the resources the experts say they need to combat this crisis. I thank my colleagues for their cooperation and appreciate President Trumps eagerness to sign this legislation and get the funding out the door without delay. The emergency funding package was clinched as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have reported well over 100 cases of the new virus in the country. Nine deaths have been reported in Washington state, as officials there struggle to contain an outbreak mainly centered at a nursing home in King County. Another death was confirmed in the state Wednesday, as was one in California. Read more here. Coronavirus Has Spread to Nearly All Iran Provinces: President Coronavirus has spread to almost all of Irans provinces but the country will get through the outbreak with a minimum number of deaths, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. This disease is a widespread disease, he said during a Cabinet meeting, according to the official presidency website. It has reached almost all our provinces and in one sense its a global disease. The health ministry said on Tuesday that 92 people had died so far from coronavirus, one of the highest death tolls outside China where the epidemic originated late last year. It said 2,922 people had been infected with the disease. Among those infected is first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, the IranWire news site reported, citing an informed source. There was no immediate confirmation from officials. Several Iranian officials have come down with coronavirus and one senior official died from an infection on Monday. The Islamic Republic has canceled Friday prayers in all provincial capitals this week because of the coronavirus outbreak, state television reported on Wednesday. Rouhani said Iran would get through the outbreak with a minimum number of deaths and in the shortest period of time thanks to the skills of its doctors and nurses. NY Governor: Sick People Should Stay Home New Yorkers should stay home if they feel unwell, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Wednesday announcing four new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the state. The wife, son, daughter, and neighbor of a Westchester man who works in Manhattan tested positive for COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, Cuomo said. The new cases highlight the need for people who are feeling ill to stay home, the governor said. If you started to have some symptoms, rather than saying, Ah, you know, Im going to go to work anyway, dont go into work and stay home, Cuomo said in Albany. People who stay at home due to not feeling well are referred to as being in self-quarantine. If youre not feeling well, or if you have symptoms or if you had close contact with an individual who you know tested positive, err on the side of caution. Stay home, Cuomo told New Yorkers. New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot this week asked New Yorkers to come together as a city to limit the spread of COVID-19. If you have symptoms like cough, fever, or shortness of breath, call your health care provider, she said in a statement. Supply for Hand Sanitizers Keeping Up With Demand Amid concerns over the new coronavirus outbreak, many Americans are buying and stocking up on hand sanitizers, leaving some store shelves bare. Many temporarily out of stock notices appear on a quick search for hand sanitizers at Target and CVS websites. GOJO Industries, a manufacturing company known for its Purell hand sanitizers, is keeping up with the increased demand. Samantha Williams, GOJOs Corporate Communications Senior Director, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times: We have a surge preparedness team that runs in the background all the time, who have been fully activated and are coordinating our response to the increase in demand. Williams also wrote GOJO maintains flexible production capacity and extra inventory able to meet increases in demand. With the high demand for hand sanitizers and recent news headlines on the topic, it may seem like there is a shortage. But thats not the case according to Alex Brown, spokesperson for Walgreens. Were currently maintaining supplies of hand sanitizers, said Brown to The Epoch Times. [Well] continue to work with our supplier partners to best meet the needs of our customers. Brown also clarified that Walgreens has never stated that there was going to be a shortage of hand sanitizers, referring to a claim from a CNN article. Read more here. LA County Declares Emergency A local and public state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles County, which is home to more than 10 million people, after several cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus were discovered in the county. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Department of Health made the declaration on Wednesday morning. I have just signed a proclamation declaring the existence of a local emergency. I want to reiterate that this is not a response rooted in panic, Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said during a press conference in announcing the new measure. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said the emergency was declared to allow us to further draw down resources from both the federal and state level of government. But Solis also cautioned against the spreading of rumors and misinformation about COVID-19, which emerged late last year in mainland China and prompted what critics have described as harsh measures to curb the virus spread there. The last thing we want is more fear in our community, Solis said during the press conference. Fear will not drive our responses to save lives. Patient Ignored Isolation Order A hospital employee who was confirmed as New Hampshires first COVID-19 coronavirus patient ignored a self-isolation order from the federal governmentgoing to a college business event instead, according to health officials. The worker was told to isolate themselves at home after they showed symptoms of the novel coronavirus after returning home from Italy, where an outbreak has led to thousands of infections and deaths. But the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said the first patient attended an invitation-only private event on Friday, Feb. 28. State officials are attempting to notify people who may have had close contact with the patient and have told them to undergo the recommended 14-day isolation. The agency made the announcement after a second person tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire. Both patients are considered presumptively positive while the health department awaits test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Read more here. New Cases Confirmed in New York The wife, son, daughter, and neighbor of the New York man who was the states first case of coronavirus spread in the community have tested positive for the new virus, officials said on Wednesday. There are now six confirmed cases in New York. The new cases include a male student at Yeshiva University in New York City, prompting the closure of one of the colleges campuses. The mans daughter attends SAR Acadamy and High School in the Bronx borough of the city. That school was closed on Tuesday when the mans case was first announced. Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck and Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, two schools in Westchester, closed as precautions due to possible exposure to the confirmed cases. The family of the man, who is in serious condition at a Manhattan hospital, were isolated at home while testing was done. Read more here. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Italy Take Drastic Measures Saudi Arabia banned citizens from performing the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca, Italy weighed up closing schools nationwide, and Iran canceled Friday prayers for a second week as nations scrambled Wednesday to control the coronavirus outbreak. From religion to sports, countries were taking drastic and increasingly visible measures to curb the new coronavirus that first emerged in China and is spreading through Europe, the Mideast, and the Americas. In the United States, frustration mounted over U.S. officials delays and missteps in testing people for the virus. Deaths spiked in Iran and Italy, which along with South Korea account for 80 percent of the new virus cases outside China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In all, more than 94,000 people have contracted the virus worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths. People are afraid and uncertain. Fear is a natural human response to any threat, said WHOs leader, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. But as we get more data, we are understanding this virus and the disease it causes more and more. WHO said about 3.4 percent of people infected with the COVID-19 virus globally have died, making it more fatal than the common flu. The figure was a bit of a surprise, since a study last week in the New England Journal of Medicine assessing data from more than 30 Chinese provinces estimated the death rate was 1.4 percent. Death rates in outbreaks are likely to skew higher early on as health officials focus on finding severe and fatal cases, missing most milder cases. WHO says the majority of people with the new coronavirus experience only mild symptoms, but the risks rise with the age of the patient and for those with any underlying health conditions. In Daegu, the South Korean city at the center of that countrys outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited a hospital bed. Attending a meeting on quarantine strategies in Daegu, Prime Minister Chung Se-Kyun sought to assure his country, saying We can absolutely overcome this situation. We will win the war against COVID-19. South Korea reported 435 new infections Wednesday, far smaller than its high of 851 a day earlier. A total of 5,621 people in South Korea have contracted the virus and 32 have died. Iran reported 92 deaths among its 2,922 confirmed cases, the most of any country outside of China. Among the ill are members of the government, and the country cancelled Friday prayers for the second week in a row. The virus has no wings to fly, noted Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour. We are the ones who transfer it to each other. In Israel, religious practice also faced new disruption: The countrys chief rabbi urged observant Jews to refrain from kissing mezuzot, small items encasing a prayer scroll posted by Jews on doorposts. Observant Jews typically touch the item and then kiss their hands when walking through a doorway. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also urged people to adopt the Indian greeting of namaste, with hands together, rather than a handshake. The virus has spread beyond clusters throughout Germany and France, prompting officials to tell soccer players to simply dispersewithout shaking handsafter lining up. Referees and coaches will no longer shake hands either. Cases in South Korea Top 5,600 South Korea has reported hundreds of new cases of novel coronavirus on March 4, taking the total number of infected to 5,621. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 516 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 5,328. Health officials subsequently identified 293 additional cases as of 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Meanwhile, there have now been at least 33 deaths in connection to the virus, after a 67-year-old woman who had no underlying illness died on Wednesday. Among all the infection cases in South Korea, 41 people have fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital. Read more here. Germany Reports 44 New Cases The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased to 240 on Wednesday, up from 196 on Tuesday afternoon, the Robert Koch Institute said. Fifteen of Germanys 16 federal states have now reported cases of the novel coronavirus, with the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia being most affected, according to the Robert Koch Institute. Germany has not reported a fatal case of the virus, which emerged in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in December and is quickly spreading around the world. Chinese Teacher Loses License Over Inappropriate Remarks A Chinese primary school teacher spent 10 days in detention and had his teaching license revoked for spreading inappropriate remarks relating to the coronavirus outbreak. Song Junhong, 48, is a primary school teacher in Wudang, a district in the southern province of Guizhou. On Feb. 3, he wrote in a chat group on WeChat, one of the largest Chinese social media platforms, that he cant trust the coronavirus death numbers reported by Chinese authorities. Funeral homes in Wuhan, the outbreak epicenter, are running 24 hours non stop to cremate bodies, he wrote in one message, adding, I dont dare to imagine the death toll. Read more here. Lithuania Cancels Indoor Independence Events The Baltic nation of Lithuania has canceled most of the indoor events planned for the 30th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union because of the coronavirus. The speaker of the Lithuanian parliament said Wednesday authorities decided to call off the events since many of the people expected to attend the events are elderly and at higher risk of infection. Parliament speaker Viktoras Pranckietis says most foreign leaders also canceled scheduled trips to attend the anniversary events in Lithuania. He didnt name names, but invitations had been sent to lawmakers in Ukraine, Poland, and neighboring Baltic states Latvia and Estonia. There will be several events in downtown Vilnius, including a flag-raising on Independence Square on March 11 and an evening concert. Lithuania so far only has reported one virus case. Also on Wednesday, the Louvre Museum in France re-opened after closing for several days. Japan Coronavirus Cases Hit 1,000 Mark as Tokyo Insists Olympics on Track Japans confirmed coronavirus infections rose above 1,000 on Wednesday, most from a quarantined cruise liner, as Olympics organizers dismissed speculation that the Tokyo Summer Games could be canceled. Twenty-three new infections had been reported by Wednesday night, from Yamaguchi prefecture in the west to Hokkaido in the north, underlining the viruss spread across the country and raising questions about whether the Games, due to start in late July, can go ahead. The virus is spreading worldwide, with South Korea, Europe, and Iran hit hard, and several countries have reported their first confirmed cases, taking the total to some 80 nations hit with the flu-like illness that can lead to pneumonia. The new cases in Japan pushed the total over 1,000, according to Reuters calculations706 are from the Diamond Princess cruise liner, quarantined for weeks off Yokohama. Twelve people have died in Japan, with six from the cruise ship, the health ministry said. The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics said the option of canceling the Games was not on the table, responding to deepening speculation of a delay or cancelation. I am totally not considering this, Yoshiro Mori told reporters at a briefing when asked about a possible cancellation. Asked when the organizers could decide on changes to the Olympics, Mori, a former prime minister, said: Im not God, so I dont know. Seattle Immigration Office Shuts Down Over Coronavirus Concerns The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that they will close their office on Wednesday, Mar. 4. after it was discovered that an employee started exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli wrote on Twitter that the employee had visited nursing homes in Kirkland four days ago; the homes had been dealing with several COVID-19 cases. (1/x) Late yesterday, DHS learned that an employee at the @USCIS Seattle Field Office started exhibiting flu-like symptoms four days after visiting the nursing home in Kirkland, Washington that has seen numerous COVID-19 cases. Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) March 3, 2020 Cuccinelli said the employee was probably exposed to the coronavirus on Feb. 22 and became ill on Feb. 26 The office closure is effective immediately & employees are being directed to telework if they are able. There are also @ICEgov, @CBP & @FPS employees at the same facility, and all of them have received the same instructions. He added that the employee visited the nursing homes before knowing the patients there had contracted the virus. When the employee began feeling ill, the employee followed procedure and stayed at home. DHS takes the safety & health of our employees & applicants seriously. Were following CDCs guidelines & encourage all employees and applicants to stay home if they are feeling ill or exhibiting any flu-like symptoms. Amazon Employee in Seattle Tests Positive for COVID-19 An Amazon employee in Seattle has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to an internal email viewed by The Epoch Times. The infected employee, who is based in the companys Brazil office at Ninth Avenue and Republican Street in South Lake Union, went home feeling unwell on Feb. 25 and has not returned to the office building since, the email circulated to Amazon employees said. The March 3 message stated that Amazon had now received confirmation that the employee has tested positive for COVID-19. The Epoch Times reached out to an Amazon spokesperson who confirmed the news. Were supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine, they said. The company said in its internal email that it had notified all employees who had been working in close contactdefined as being closer than six feet over a prolonged period of timewith the infected employee. The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low, the email said. A source has told The Epoch Times that the employee is not involved with the companys delivery operations. Amazon advised its employees who are experiencing symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus to remain at home and seek medical attention. It added that it is continuing with enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization in the office. The news comes as two Amazon employees in Milan were quarantined after testing positive for the virus. Trumps Budget Director Disputes Claims of CDC Cuts, Says Funding Increased President Donald Trumps budget director is pushing back against Democratic presidential candidates who assert that the United States is ill-prepared for the COVID-19 outbreak and also have accused Trump of slashing the budget for tackling emerging infectious diseases. Russ Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, responded to those claims on Feb. 29. Its totally inaccurate, Vought told The Epoch Times in an interview for the American Thought Leaders program. And its based on not understanding different accounts within the CDC. During last weeks Democratic primary debate in South Carolina, several candidates, including Michael Bloomberg and Joe Biden, accused Trump of cutting funds for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), seriously impairing the countrys readiness to tackle the outbreak. Vought said the current funding level is larger than previous emergency response efforts to address the Ebola outbreak of 2014. In fiscal year 2015, the Obama administration designated $597 million under the CDC budget to support national public health institutes and global health security for five years. That meant roughly $119 million per year, Vought said. And in the past two years under the Trump administration, that funding became permanent and was increased to $125 million in fiscal year 2020, he said. And in this latest budget, we provide $175 million for it, he said, referring to the presidents budget proposal released in February. The amount implies an increase of $50 million compared to the 2020 enacted level. So its going in the other direction, Vought said. The allegations are based on some leaked reports of contingency planning by CDC as if [the funds] were going to expire. But the funding was provided. So its really basically an inaccurate story. Vought also noted that the presidents latest budget has provided overall $4.3 billion, an increase of 3 percent for CDCs fight against infectious disease and emergency preparedness. Read more here Rising Demand, Hoarding, Misuse: WHO Warns of Shortage in Protective Gear The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday warned of a global shortage in personal protective equipment (PPE) that leaves doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who work on the frontline vulnerable to infection. In a statement, the organization said that the reason for the shortage is a rise in demand, as well as hoarding and misuse of supplies. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers, it said. WHO reported that supplies take months to deliver and are sent to the highest bidder. Prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, N95 respirators have more than tripled, and gowns cost twice as much. Although nearly half a million units of PPE have been sent to 27 countries already, supplies are rapidly depleting. WHO estimates that each month, 89 million medical masks will be required for the COVID-19 response; 76 million examination gloves, and 1.6 million goggles, the statement read. WHO estimated that the production of PPE supplies need to increase by at least 40 percent to meet the increased demand. Once again, this is a question of solidarity. This cannot be solved by WHO alone, or one industry alone. It requires all of us working together to ensure all countries can protect the people who protect the rest of us, WHO said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday in an emergency move to try to prevent a global recession and the World Bank announced $12 billion to help countries fight the coronavirus, which has taken a heavy toll on air travel, tourism, and other industries, threatening global economic growth prospects. The virus continued to spread in South Korea, Japan, Europe, Iran, and the United States, and several countries reported their first confirmed cases, taking the total to some 80 nations hit with the flu-like illness that can lead to pneumonia. Despite the Feds attempt to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus, U.S. stock indexes closed down about 3 percent, safe-haven gold rose 3 percent, with some analysts and investors questioning whether the rate cut will be enough if the virus continues to spread. U.S. lawmakers are considering signing off on as much as $9 billion in government funding to support efforts to contain local spread of the virus. Iran Temporarily Releases Over 54,000 Inmates to Prevent Virus Spread An Iranian official made a statement on March 3 saying that more than 54,000 inmates have been temporarily freed from prison to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, Wall Street Journal reported. Only inmates that have tested negative have been released while those who have lengthy sentences and considered to be a public danger were not released. Other prisoners had to pay their bail to be released. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection sharply rose from 1,501 on March 2 to 2,336 on March 3. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman, convicted of espionage charges, was believed to have contracted the coronavirus while in prison, according to Free Nazanin, a Facebook page created by her husband. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, was at the airport in Iran on April 3, 2016, ready to return to the UK when she was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to her family. The 37-year-old maintains her innocence and was reportedly visiting her family in Iran to celebrate the new year, BBC reported. For updates from March 3, click here. The Epoch Times and Reuters contributed to this report. Four years after showing his support for Donald Trump, actor Antonio Sabato Jr. is claiming he has been 'blacklisted' from Hollywood. The 48-year-old actor, who has starred in movies like The Big Hit and High Voltage, claims he had to move from California to Florida after supporting Trump, with his support highlighted by a speech at the Republican National Convention. 'I had to sell everything,' Sabato Jr. said in a phone interview with Variety from his new home in Florida. Speaking out: Four years after showing his support for Donald Trump, actor Antonio Sabato Jr. is claiming he has been 'blacklisted' from Hollywood 'I had to pay all my debts. I was blacklisted. All my representatives left me, from agents to managers to commercial agents,' he added. 'I literally had to move, find a new job to survive and take care of my kids. Its been terrible. Its mind-blowing. Its a disgrace,' he added. 'Its tough, because if youre in that environment in Hollywood and you have something to say that they dont like, theyre going to let you know,' Sabato Jr. said. Blacklisted: 'I had to pay all my debts. I was blacklisted. All my representatives left me, from agents to managers to commercial agents,' he added After Trump was elected, Sabato claimed he couldn't land any new roles, even claiming he was cut from an unspecified reality competition series because of his political beliefs. Two years after the election, he tried his hand at politics himself, running for a Congressional seat in California as a Republican, but he was defeated by the Democrat incumbent Julia Brownley. Shortly after the election, Sabato Jr. relocated to Florida, where he spends his days working construction. No new roles: After Trump was elected, Sabato claimed he couldn't land any new roles, even claiming he was cut from an unspecified reality competition series because of his political beliefs 'I go on the job at two in the morning, and Im making sure that the job is controlled and supervised by me. Im in the car all day, driving, going through all the sites. Five days a week, nonstop,' he said of his new job. Sabato was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1985, admitting that he previously voted for Democrat Bill Clinton after becoming a naturalized citizen in 1996. But when he was one of the few celebrities to speak on behalf of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention - where he controversially claimed that President Barack Obama was a Muslim - it was a point of no return, but he doesn't regret it. No regrets: But when he was one of the few celebrities to speak on behalf of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention - where he controversially claimed that President Barack Obama was a Muslim - it was a point of no return, but he doesn't regret it 'I was the first celebrity to come out and talk about the president, and he had my vote from day one,' Sabato says. 'I was the first one to say he was going to win. My integrity is intact. What I believe in is still intact. What doesnt break you makes you strongerthats what they say. So Im stronger than ever, and I didnt have to lie about who I am,' he added. Sabato Jr. also claimed there are many others in Hollywood who are secret Trump supporters but they lie about who they voted for because they don't want to get fired. Chippendale: Antonio Sabato Jr. holds his trophy for his limited engagement as celebrity host of Chippendales in 2016 He added that a distribution company told him that they would never make a movie with him, 'because of your affiliation with the president.' The actor said he also recently reached out to his former reps to see if they would represent him again, and they all said no, adding, 'They wouldnt touch me because it would be too tough to get me a job.' Still, despite everything, Sabato Jr. says he'll still vote for Trump in 2020, making a bold prediction for the election. 'The country is doing fantastic. I think hell be elected by 100 million votes,' Sabato Jr. said. Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 04.03.20 The official visit of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan to Georgia is over, PM's spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan wrote on her Facebook. "The PM ministers of the two countries continued the discussions in an informal format, too" she added. The PMs have reached an agreement on simplifying the procedures for the mutual visits of citizens. They also touched upon the settlement of the problems related to cargo transportation. By the way, Georgian PM Giorgi Gakharia presented his Armenian counterpart with a dog - Bonbor, a pure Caucasian shepherd dog. It will be PMs fifth dog. Armenia continues to remain in the list of partly free countries, as per Freedom Houses Freedom in the World 2020 report. Armenia went up by two points as compared with last year and is now ranked 53rd. Nagorno-Karabakh which is included in the list of territories is also named partly free and is ranked 34th. As to Armenias neighbors, Georgia is also among partly free countries, while Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran are not free. The Yerevan tourist minibus drivers were protesting in front of the city hall building. They demand that they be allowed to continue to park their vehicles in the area adjacent to Republic Square. Earlier, they had been told that if their vehicles were not removed from Republic Square, they would be removed by tow trucks. And when a tow truck was brought in, the protesters drove their minibuses to the Yerevan Municipality building where their protest now continued. "We are ready to pay all taxes," these drivers said. "We [just] want to work." Second President Robert Kocharyan's lawyer Aram Orbelyan has sued the National Security Service (NSS) and the state-funded Public Television (H1) of Armenia. Orbelyan's representative Narine Beglaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the lawsuit relates to a report on Aram Orbelyan that was broadcast on January 30, on the main newscast on H1, and where the information provided is inaccurate. It has been said that from May to August 2018, Aram Orbelyan, periodically violating the order, had access to the CC [Constitutional Court] building. And the NSS is mentioned as the source [of this information], said Orbelyan's representative Narine Beglaryan. The attorneys representative added that Orbelyan had no regular access to the CC building during that period. The number of deaths from the new coronavirus has risen to 3,220 worldwide, the number of infected is 94,240, and the number of recovered is 51,188. The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 82 countries and territories around the world and 1 international conveyance, the Diamond Princess cruise ship harbored in Yokohama, Japan. Meanwhile, one passenger arriving on Milan-Yerevan flight has been hospitalized in Armenia. The decision to undergo the test will be made at the Yerevan infection hospital. Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, in turn, noted that tests on coronavirus are an ongoing task, 135 peoples have already been tested, and the coronavirus infection has been ruled out in others, with one exception. By the way, some airlines have decided to temporarily reduce the frequency of their flights, as well as to temporarily cancel their services toward some destinations, the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia said in a statement. Wipro today announced that it will not allow any employee to travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau due to coronavirus risk. "Wipro has suspended travel to and transit through mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. Employees have also been advised to avoid non-critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Italy," Wipro told IANS. The company has also advised Chinese employees and others who had travelled to the said destinations to be vigilant and to stay at home for 14 days before joining back office. Even though the company has enabled a lot of techies to work from home, it does not have any employees in the coronavirus epicentre, Wuhan. The company has asked its employees to put themselves in isolation in case they or their family members exhibit symptoms. The company has also issued an advisory containing information about hygiene and preventive measures and has also asked its employees worldwide to get themselves checked if they display any symptoms. Wipro joins a growing list of tech companies like Google and Twitter who are encouraging employees globally to avoid travelling and start working from home. Google had made its policies stricter after an employee in Zurich tested positive for coronavirus. It has restricted travel and cancelled a big Google Cloud event. Twitter has also banned any non-critical business event or travel. Other tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft are issuing advisories and taking preventive steps for its employees to restrict the spread of the virus. Also read: Coronavirus update: Govt rolls out universal screening for all flights, passengers Also read: Coronavirus in India: How do I check if I have been infected? VANCOUVERFour more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in British Columbia and each case is connected to travel to Iran. The new cases bring B.C.s total to 12. Ontario has confirmed 20 cases. There has also been a case in Quebec. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said three of the new B.C. cases involved people who had recently returned from travel to Iran. The fourth was a close family contact of B.C.s eighth case, another individual who had recently travelled to Iran. Its now aparent that theres quite a lot of transmission (in Iran), Henry said at an evening news conference Tuesday. Health Minister Adrian Dix called the spread of the virus an evolving situation. The first cases in B.C. were related to travel to China, Dix said. The last seven cases weve had are linked to travel to Iran. Its a significant situation. Henry said regular hand washing is key to help prevent the spread of viruses, as well as staying home if you are sick, and alerting public health officials if youre feeling unwell after recent travel to Iran. Dix said also said the province is closely watching the instances of the virus in nearby Washington State. The state has 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and six people have died. Read more about: Four unidentified men allegedly vandalised the Delhi office of Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and abused his staff in the evening on 3 March, police said. New Delhi: Four unidentified men allegedly vandalised the Delhi office of Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and abused his staff in the evening on 3 March, police said. According to a complaint lodged by Chowdhury's private secretary Pradipto Rajpandit, the four men entered the Congress leader's office around 5.30 pm enquiring about him. When the staff present there asked for their contact details, the men insisted on speaking with him over the phone, police said. After their request was declined, the four men allegedly abused the staff and vandalised the office, they added. Police said an investigation into the matter was underway. Alan Gross, the American held for five years in Cuba during the Obama administration, says Bernie Sanders defended the country that was holding him during a visit to the prison where he was being held. Gross says the comment was unwelcome and dispiriting during a time when he was being held captive and denied basic rights. Its disclosure came after Sanders defended the Castro regime for providing 'literacy' as soon as it seized power. Gross was held on claims of spying when he went to Cuba in 2009 as part of a USAID project to provide internet connectivity. He was sentenced to 15 years by the Communist regime's courts in 2011, and his family launched a campaign for his freedom. It was taken up by members of the Senate and in 2014 some of them visited his cell - including Sanders, Gross said. He says Sanders told him: 'I don't know what's so wrong with this country.' 'I just think, you know, it was a stupid thing for him to do,' he told NPR. Former Cuban prisoner Alan Gross says Bernie Sanders told him on a 2014 visit: 'I don't know what's so wrong with this country.' Gross lost five teeth during his five years in captivity. He was freed later that year - having Gross said he opposes Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, and that Sanders brought him a copy of the Atlantic magazine when he was imprisoned Freedom: Alan Gross was flown back to the U.S. on a government plane on December 17, 2014 'First, how could he not have seen the incredible deterioration of what was once the grandeur of the pre-Castro era. And two, how could be so insensitive to make that remark to a political hostage me!' Gross said that Sanders made the comment during a 2014 visit, where he was accompanied by then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana. Tester told NPR he didn't remember the conversation, but a source close to Heitkamp recalled that Sanders seemed to 'disregard' the meeting with Gross. At the time, Gross' captivity had become both a diplomatic concern and a public problem for Obama, who had been unable to obtain Gross' release following his arrest in 2009. His wife pushed for action in TV interviews. Gross ultimately got his freedom after a prisoner swap for three Cuban spies in December 2014, a few months after the senators' visit. The U.S. maintained throughout that Gross was not spying and Gross maintains his innocence. 'The first year of my captivity was akin to sensory deprivation because I saw about 20 minutes of sunlight during the first year,' he said. Gross said the senators brought him presents to try to buoy his spirits in captivity. Hietkamp and Tester brought a bag of M&Ms, a gesture he appreciated because he was undernourished. Sanders brought a copy of the Atlantic magazine, he said. Gross said he is against Sanders, and came forward after the presidential candidate made comments on '60 Minutes' defending the Cuban regime, even as he called it authoritarian. 'When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?' Sanders said. The claim by Gross comes as Sanders faces new obstacles is his bid to acquire delegates to capture the Democratic nomination, after dropped-out rivals including billionaire Mike Bloomberg swarmed to endorse Joe Biden. Biden has already attacked his promise of 'revolution,' and although he has now dropped out, Bloomberg hammered Biden for his praise for Castro during the last Democratic debate. Sanders came under fire for his praise for Cuba among Florida Democrats who need to make inroads in the Cuban-American community if they are to be able to flip the state in November. Gross' freedom in December 2014 was part of the Obama administration attempting to thaw relations with the Communist state. Gross himself urged Obama to have bilateral talks with Castro on a range of issues. That effort was reversed under the Trump administration. Sanders' record on Communism is a rich target for his opponents. He honeymooned with his wife Jane O'Meara in Moscow when he was mayor of Burlington, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The staff could see that the injury was serious. Zora, who weighed about 500 pounds, could not put weight on the leg. She was anesthetized and the leg was examined closely. It was found to be broken. Bison, like horses, are not able to bear weight on fractured legs, the zoo said. A ndy Willerton is a tough, proud man. Thats why its so shocking to see him weep. For more than 30 years, hes toiled for British Steel in Scunthorpe, part of a team that can hone 300 tonnes of molten metal into finished steel products in 50 minutes flat. The work is hard scorching in summer, cold in winter. With failing health at his 53 years of age, you cant blame him for wanting to retire early. But his dreams were dashed in 2016 by financial advisers who told him to pull his money out of British Steels generous defined pension scheme and into a private one. Andy now pays almost as much in fees every year for his private pension than hell be able to withdraw. Worse still, had he stayed in the company scheme for a few months longer, an upwards revaluation by the pension trustees would have nearly doubled his 248,000 transfer pot. He says: I thought I was doing the right thing for my wife, my kids, my grandchildren, to make our futures safe. But I let them down. Now I will have to work for another six years, maybe more, but I just cant do it. Andy is one of around 8000 British Steel workers advised to opt out of the pension when the scheme was closed in 2017. As many as 7500 are now worse off as a result. Within the company scheme, employees were guaranteed an income. Outside, they face big fees and likely exposure to far more risk. This week, British Steel was taken over by Chinas Jingye Group, throwing potential redundancy into the mix of their messed-up personal finances. Britains second-largest steel producer is on the brink of collapse, it has been reported / PA But while British Steel is the cause celebre of defined-benefit rip-offs, lawyers say they are only the tip of the iceberg. At a hearing with MPs and regulators in Westminster last week, Philippa Hann, whose law firm Clarke Willmott is representing 450 British Steel workers, estimated people have lost 40 billion from being wrongly transferred by IFAs out of companies defined-benefit schemes, from Jaguar Land Rover to Ford to Welsh Water. Billions have been taken out of some of the most deprived parts of the country, she says. And when those people begin to run out of money in their seventies and start needing care, what is going to happen to those communities then? Industrial plants, where large groups of workers are easier to target by unscrupulous advisers, appear to have been the worst affected, she says. But she has clients from white-collar pension schemes such as Sony and Trinity Mirror, too. Welsh Water employees are also on her books. Unless youre dying, she says, for the vast majority of people under the age of 50, opting out of a defined-benefit scheme is never the right option. She says the system is skewed so the advisers get paid more if they get you to opt out than stay put. The temptation seems to have just been too great. The Financial Conduct Authority reckons the amount of mis-sold defined-benefit transfers to be more like 20 billion rather than Hanns 40 billion estimate, but even so, putting it right is proving impossible. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme caps compensation at 50,000 or 85,000, barely scratching the surface on many claims. So victims end up suing the companies instead. But there they run into difficulties, too. First off, they cant claim six years after the mis-sell, and many wont realise they are worst off until it is too late. Then, they may face another problem. Lawyers are covered by insurance for their past advice. Victims can claim against it for compensation. But, says Hann, IFAs insurance can exclude previous years activities. Of the 42 she is pursuing for clients, only one has full professional indemnity cover. That firm is Quilter, the stock market-quoted company which got entangled in the British Steel mess when it bought IFA group Lighthouse last year. Lighthouse was invited in to British Steels Scunthorpe administrative offices by the workers union, Unite. Its advisers were even given office space in the works administrative building. There, according to Al Rush, an IFA now advising workers how to get their affairs back in order, they were just transferred en masse. Eight, nine, 10 people, in and out, one after the other. As the publicity over Lighthouses alleged role gathers pace, the British Steel scandal poses a reputational risk for its new owners. About 300 British Steel employees were advised to transfer out by Lighthouse. An employee has been suspended pending investigation. Quilter said: We are aware of the concerns surrounding British Steel pension transfer advice, including that provided to these members by Lighthouse prior to its acquisition by Quilter in 2019. We are in the process of reviewing each of these cases. Those advised through Quilter stand a chance of redress. Others less so. Several companies have merely declared themselves bankrupt, leaving victims hanging. In Scunthorpe, Andy, his son and his son-in-law all work at the British Steel plant. His son-in-law was laid off on Monday. The government wants to level up towns like this. It should start with a thorough pensions review to make people financially whole again. What is a defined benefit pension? Defined-benefit pension schemes are the Rolls-Royce of retirement savings. Companies usually contribute generously every month, alongside the employee, and guarantee an income on retirement based on the salary and length of service. Most have been closed, with employees like British Steels Andy Willerton offered the chance to transfer out. For the majority of people, it is better to keep the money with the old scheme, but over a three-year period, the FCA found IFAs recommended transfers in 69% of 234,951 cases. Deadline looming Those who have been missold a pension transfer have until six years to make a legal claim for redress against the company. It can take months of legal preamble to get to the stage of lodging a claim in court, so in reality, the deadline is more like five years from the time the bad advice was given. This is one reason why the British Steel issue is high profile now - the mis-selling appears to have been at its peak in 2016 and 2017. If an adviser voluntarily notifies clients that it may have given bad advice, the clock is accelerated to just three years to claim. The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. would give Ukraine $8 million in cybersecurity assistance funds as part of a "cyber dialogue" held in Kiev between officials from the two countries. The $8 million will go toward funding a new cybersecurity project sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the project setting a goal of eventually investing $38 million over the next four years in boosting Ukraines cybersecurity capabilities, such as through cyber workforce development and regulatory reforms, the Hill reported. The U.S. previously gave Ukraine $10 million in cybersecurity assistance funds in 2017 as part of the first U.S.-Ukraine cyber dialogue summit, with officials from the two countries meeting again in 2018 to review cybersecurity projects between the two countries. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Tovuz for a visit. The head of state laid flowers at a statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the city of Tovuz. Head of Tovuz Executive Authority Mammad Mammadov informed the head of state of the work done in the region. *** As part of his visit to Tovuz, President ofAzerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of Azerbaijan State Museum of Ashug Art. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the museum. While familiarizing himself with the museums exhibits, President Ilham Aliyev made a remark in connection with place names on a map showing the spread of the ashuq art. Representative of the Ministry of Culture Azada Huseynova said: These are the places where the ashuq art is widespread in the occupied territories. President Ilham Aliyev: They are located in Armenia. These territories are historically ancient Azerbaijani lands. Therefore, you should make corrections here. Write them in Azerbaijani the way they are. For example, not Dilizhan, but Dilican. Dilican should be written. Sevan is Goycha Lake. You wrote Goycha Lake, but here it says Sevan. The real name of the Razdan River is Zangi. You should use only these words and these place names. After all, all these are our ancient lands. Ekhegnadzor is a recent name, but the place also has an ancient Azerbaijani name. Therefore, this must be corrected. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Museum of History and Local Lore in Tovuz. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the museum. President Ilham Aliyev viewed the exhibits which are demonstrated in the museum. Commenting on the historical maps on display, President Ilham Aliyev said: - What century is this map? You have to indicate that. Each map should state what century it belongs to because states have changed, borders have changed. Where did you take this map? Head of the District Executive Authority Mammad Mammadov: From the Ministry of Culture. President Ilham Aliyev: The Ministry of Culture? Ancient names are written, for example, Sisian. There was no such name at that time, someone came up with it afterwards. There is not a single historical name on the current territory of Azerbaijan here except for Mingachevir, although Barda, Gabala, Nakhchivan all these were our ancient cities. This is why I asked what century this belongs to. Because it is impossible to understand anything from this map. The state of Caucasian Albania is not indicated here either. And look at the letters Urartu is written in. Therefore, this must be reviewed. Contact the Ministry of Culture, the maps must be accurate and show the dates. It is unclear what historical period this map belongs to. There is not a single name of any city on the current territory of Azerbaijan. Is there an answer to this? You put up a map and think that your job is finished. This map is our history. Children will come here, but what will they understand from this map? In general, it is not clear what it is. Allah alone knows where you got this from. You should not treat this like that. You fill a museum with exhibits and think that you have done the job. In fact, this is a children's room. What if a child comes and asks what this is where is my homeland? Where are my ancient cities? Instead, we see Urartu here. President Ilham Aliyev also viewed the exhibits in other sections of the museum. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the State Symbols Museum in Tovuz. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the inauguration of the museum. President Ilham Aliyev was informed about the exhibits, which are demonstrated in the museum. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has visited the Tovuz branch of Azerkhalcha Open Joint-Stock Company. Chairman of the Board of Azerkhalcha OJSC Vidadi Muradov informed the head of state of the conditions created at the enterprise. 150 weavers and 14 administrative staff members will be employed in the branch. The building features a textile workshop, artist`s room, warehouse, canteen, medical point and sales room. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of the newly renovated GovlarAyyubluAlakolIbrahimhajiliYanigliAghajgalaGochdaraChobansighnagYoghunbulagSaritala highway in Tovuz. Informing the head of state of the technical indicators of the road, Chairman of the Board of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov, said: - Mr. President, this road covering 16 settlements serves a population of 50,000 people. By building this road, you benefited not only the residents of Tovuz, but also for many other people. Here, in a place called Hachagaya, there is a sanctuary that is worshiped by people living in this area. There has never been a road here. You have built it and people from Balakan, other places of Azerbaijan, as well as Azerbaijanis from Georgia, are already coming here. President Ilham Aliyev: Is there a settlement there or only a sanctuary? Saleh Mammadov: Not in the vicinity, there is only a sanctuary. Mr. President, let me also note that for centuries 400 residents of the village of Aghajgala traveled to the center of Tovuz district through Gadabay and Shamkir. There was no road. After this road has been laid, those 400 people will be able to go to the district center of Tovuz directly. This is a very important road. President Ilham Aliyev: What is the distance from Govlar to Hachagaya? Saleh Mammadov: 24 kilometers. Thanks to the construction of this road, people can reach Hachagaya by car. We have built a 2-kilometer part of the road by blowing up the mountain. President Ilham Aliyev: These are picturesque places. It is necessary to develop tourism there. Saleh Mammadov: Yes, this is one of the most mountainous parts of Tovuz. There used to be a ground and gravel road here, but now this is an asphalt road. Mr. President, by your orders you have turned rural roads into city roads. President Ilham Aliyev: Rural roads look like highways now. Saleh Mammadov: Indeed, and the population sees and welcomes that. President Ilham Aliyev: Most of the roads here have been renovated. Saleh Mammadov: Mr. President, you have signed an Order in connection with the Ayyublu road for 2020. Thanks to you, excellent roads have been built in these territories. A 32-kilometer road built in accordance with your Order signed in 2018 has been fully commissioned. A total of 8,000 people live along this road. There is a village called Baggalli, and there are springs of healing water there. In addition, roads have been extended to our gold mines, and raw materials are now transported there along these roads. President Ilham Aliyev: Are gold mines operating now? Head of the Executive Authority Mammad Mammadov: Yes, they are. People working there receive a very good salary. President Ilham Aliyev: Do villagers work there? From which villages? Head of the Executive Authority Mammad Mammadov: Gosha village. People also come from neighboring villages and work there. This brings us a lot of income. Saleh Mammadov: Mr. President, before these roads were laid, people traveled along ground roads for 50-100 years. And today, thanks to you, there are such comfortable roads. President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the GovlarAyyubluAlakolIbrahimhajiliYanigliAghajgalaGochdaraChobansighnagYoghunbulagSaritala highway. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of ASAN Hyat complex in Tovuz. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the complex. Assistant to the President - Head of the Department for Work with Law Enforcement Bodies of the Presidential Administration Fuad Alasgarov and Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ulvi Mehdiyev informed President Ilham Aliyev of the complex. The head of state launched the complex. President Ilham Aliyev viewed the innovations at the complex. After reviewing the complex, the head of state met with ASAN xidmt employees and volunteers. Objecting to the fact that a special chair was put for him, President Ilham Aliyev said: - You have put such a special chair for me, but isnt there a simple one? Take it away. Such things are unacceptable. Categorically! The head of state addressed the meeting. Speech of President Ilham Aliyev - Dear young people, it is a pleasure to see you. It is the opening of the ASAN Hyat Center in Tovuz. Congratulations on this occasion! While reviewing the center, I feel very happy because it is a reflection of many signs of our policy. ASAN xidmt is our intellectual product. The 18th center is starting to operate, and I personally attended the opening of all of them. Each time I am informed about new plans, new programs, new projects, including today. ASAN xidmt is expanding its activities. Both the geographical coverage and the number of services are expanding. When we opened the first center, the number of services was fairly limited. Today, a total of 320 services are provided here in the ASAN Hyat Center in Tovuz, and the number of applications is gradually growing. In February, I participated in the opening of the ASAN Hyat Center in Kurdamir and at that time there were 36 million applications. It is the beginning of March now and the number of applications reached 37 million. In other words, the number of applications has increased by one million in less than a month. You are also well aware that the approval rating is 99.4 percent. I believe that this is the maximum possible result, and no other service can enjoy such approval. Why? I repeat because ASAN xidmt is a reflection of our policy. The instructions I once gave are being rigorously fulfilled. The vast majority of employees at ASAN xidmt are young people, representatives of a new generation. Here they provide services with a new outlook, new thinking, new culture. This is why ASAN xidmt is a very successful project, and this success is underpinned by both a sound policy and the effective work of those who organized this work. In a short time, we were able to create a revolution in the area of public services. Public services are always very problematic. There were many complaints related to this area back in the Soviet times. During the years of independence, too, bureaucracy, corruption and bribery in the field of public services were perceived as an everyday occurrence and, unfortunately, many people got used to that. Therefore, the launch of ASAN xidmt inspired great hopes. At the same time, it was somewhat surprising because this was really an innovation. Now that the 18th center is beginning to operate, I think everyone can see that this is not some kind of a private project. It is a new approach, a way of thinking, it is our policy. The transparency and culture of ASAN must be applied everywhere else. So ASAN xidmt has become an example for many areas. It is no coincidence that a similar project is being implemented in the field of social security DOST centers are beginning to operate, which, like ASAN xidmt, will cover our entire country. We have a fairly broad program related to ASAN xidmt centers. As I have already said, this is the 18th center, but their number will reach 27 in the near future. Centers will be built in Aghjabadi, Balakan, Nakhchivan, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Salyan, and two more in Baku. Of course, this process will be continued. Thus, people will be provided with better services. This center covers several districts with a population of 700,000 people. This is the second center in the western zone the first, as I said, was opened in Ganja. The third center will also be opened in Ganja because there is a need for that. One of the advantages of ASAN xidmt is that there are no lines here. However, the demand in Baku is so high that we decided to open two more centers. In Ganja and Sumgayit, too, there is a need for a second center. I should also note that other countries are studying our experience. ASAN xidmt has already been launched under the name ASAN in other countries. This was our condition because it is our brand, our intellectual product. Of course, we are ready to share our experience with any country and are doing that. Of course, we are glad that other countries are also using our experience. International organizations are giving a high assessment to ASAN. The UN has acknowledged and awarded ASAN. All this, of course, is the result of the work done. In this center, more than 200 jobs were created and a further 50 jobs for volunteers in ASAN xidmt alone. At the same time, 50 jobs were created at the ABAD factory at the first stage. By expanding its operations, ASAN also expands its functions. These centers are already functioning in the regions as community centers cafes, discos, outdoor stages, cinemas. For example, there was no cinema in Tovuz before, i.e. in our time. And today there are two cinemas. All opportunities are available for young people to spend their leisure effectively. Of course, the volunteer movement in Azerbaijan began with ASAN xidmt. Today, this movement covers other areas too. I have ordered to set up volunteer groups in state bodies. Volunteer groups have already been established in some ministries. Volunteers did a great job at the international events we hosted the European and Islamic Games. But it was established at ASAN. Thousands of volunteers have already passed this school and taken a worthy place in life. I am sure that the youth working at ASAN xidmt, including volunteers, will have a bright future, as they are already engaged in very benevolent deed. This is multifaceted work involving direct contact with people, provision of assistance and service. At the same time, the centers have very progressive experience in terms of innovation. Therefore, I believe that this experience is indispensable for our youth to be able to build their lives in the future. ASAN xidmt also has qualities inherent in our people. Our people have always been hospitable. And those applying here are guests. We have always treated our guests with great respect. The younger generation should also be brought up on these national values. The rules of cultured conduct, cultured treatment, cultured services all this has deep roots in Azerbaijan. All this is reflected in ASAN xidmt in an organized form today. This generally has a positive effect on public relations. I am absolutely convinced that everyone who comes to this center will leave it with a feeling of satisfaction because, first of all, the building is beautiful, secondly, the conditions available, the workers smiling, the level of services provided, the efficiency, time saving and zero tolerance to corruption and bribery in ASAN xidmt. This should be the case everywhere. ASAN xidmt plays a special role in the fight against bribery and corruption in Azerbaijan because the services provided in these centers do not leave room for corruption and bribery. Therefore, we must fight this evil with the help of many tools of course, administrative measures and penalties. The operational measures that have recently been brought to the attention of all citizens, the exposure of corrupt officials, their unsightly acts all this shows that measures to combat corruption and bribery are of systemic nature. If someone doesnt understand this, they should: the fight will be continued. Penalties must be applied in relation to criminals. At the same time, there should be systemic measures too. One of them, perhaps even the first, is the rules created in ASAN xidmt. There are no opportunities for that here. Young people are already being raised in this spirit. To be honest, friendly and always ready to help all these are very important factors for the formation of people. Therefore, when speaking of ASAN xidmt, we should not be limited to the provision of services to people. This is a very serious movement that has a deeper and broader meaning, a movement that reflects our policy. I have already said this but I want to say it again: when the first centers were opened, someone might have though that these were just public service centers. This is not true. Our intentions were completely different. It was an initiative that introduced novelty into our society, and it is already reflected in our lives. Azerbaijan is a leader in this area. The creation and exportation of intellectual products is already a reality today. Of course, I want to reiterate this: having gone through an excellent school here, young people will occupy a worthy place in life and will make every effort to further develop our country. In order to achieve this, you must first of all be educated, competent and patriotic. I believe that these three main factors will protect Azerbaijan from all the troubles in the future, just as they are protecting us today. The developments in the world are unfolding right before our eyes these days. New hotbeds of conflict, new hotbeds of war, new waves of migrants, standoffs, protests, police arbitrariness, violence against peaceful demonstrators, arrests of thousands of demonstrators, their killing all this is happening before our eyes in developed countries, not in some backward ones. There are reasons for this. This is caused by public discontent. This, too, has its own reasons. It is not only about material factors. Injustice, the gap between the government and the people, stratification, unresolved social problems there are many factors. I do not want to list all of them. But the fact is that all this is a reality today. Against the background of this picture, there is calm, stability and development in Azerbaijan. Of course, these are our greatest assets and we won them ourselves, no-one helped us. In the most difficult days, no-one extended us a helping hand. I want young people to know this. We achieved everything on our own, thanks to our own courage and talent. There was a time when we did not have money. Then, in the early 1990s, the population of Azerbaijan was 8 million, of which 1 million were refugees and IDPs. There was no money, the economy was crippled and the industry was paralyzed. Tent camps, IDPs living in railway wagons, underneath them. We survived all this. But have a look! Today, thanks to our sound policies and stability, Azerbaijan occupies one of the leading places on a global scale in terms of development. Stability, calm, positive attitude in society all these are Azerbaijani realities. There is regional development. Tovuz is far from Baku. But we see development in its example. Notice that gas supply rate today is 90 percent. The level of renovated roads is 90 percent. Drinking water has always been a major problem. For several years now, the problem of drinking water has been resolved in Tovuz. A modern hospital, modern dialysis and diagnostic centers, sports centers, parks, industrial enterprises. Today I attended the opening of the State Museum of Ashiq Art and the Carpet Factory. All this suggests that the regions of our country are developing. Young people must work hard in the future so that this development is sustainable and so that our independence is eternal. Therefore, I want to say once again: much as we repeat this, there is no harm knowledge, literacy, patriotism, attachment to the motherland and national values should be above everything else. Our values have protected us as a people, as a nation from assimilation for centuries. The native language, our literature, art and national consciousness. We must not lose that under any circumstances, no way! As long as I am president, I will strive to fully establish these values, and for young people too. Because young people of today are naturally different from the older generation. And their interests are different. They have other methods of obtaining information. Many young people do not watch television. They have telephones in their hands and they get all the information from there. Sometimes young people live in a virtual space and remain a little aloof from real life. All this is natural, a picture of the present times, so to speak. But despite all this, our youngsters must be raised in the national spirit. They should know that they must be patriotic so that we continue to live as an independent country. Every young person must hold the flag of our country high, must respect national attributes and not fall under anyones influence. For centuries, our people were part of other countries, empires, were denied independence, freedom, lived under the dictate of others. We have been living as an independent country for about 30 years and should live forever. We should never be a colony in the future. To do this, we must have economic strength, military prowess, moral power and values. This is and must be above everything else. Therefore, they are trying to do this today in different ways and under various disguises they used to call it globalization, but this word has also been removed from dictionaries. Perhaps 10 years ago there was a tendency towards globalization, there was a popular belief that globalization would overcome borders, remove frontiers between nations, everyone would speak the same language and all people would have one mindset. A detrimental policy was pursued towards destroying national characteristics. It is still being pursued today, but under different names. Today, sometimes under the pretext of democracy, they try to subordinate countries. And this is done by countries that flagrantly violate democracy and human rights themselves, arrest journalists, make unreasonable charges, suppress and kill demonstrators, set dogs against them, trample people with horses, fire rubber bullets, hollow out eyes, use tear gas, and all this is obvious. This is being done by those trying to teach us a lesson in democracy. Speaking under the banner of democracy, they are trying to subordinate peoples and states, including us. Therefore, we are faced with pressure, slander and dirty campaigns because we do not bow our heads to anyone and never will. Our national pride and dignity are above everything else. Therefore, they are trying everything to lead young people astray because they know that young people are not shaped up yet, they are more demanding and intolerant of violations. And this is natural. This should be the case, but only for the benefit of the people and state, not for those sitting in another capital. Therefore, young people should know and correctly analyze all this. You should know that our main task is to strengthen independence, increase the power of the Azerbaijani state and preserve national qualities. It is in this spirit that those working at ASAN xidmt centers, including volunteers, are brought up. This is why I go back to the activities of ASAN xidmt centers, which are so highly praised by the people. Once again, I congratulate you on the opening of the center and wish you success. Thank you! --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Two aides of gangster Harish Mandvikar were arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 10 lakh from a city-based businessman, police said on Wednesday. The Mumbai police's crime branch on Tuesday arrested Gopal Singh (41) and Pratik Shaha (33), an official said. Shaha was operating the gang, as Mandvikar is lodged in Arthur Road Jail for offences including extortion, assault and murder, he said. A businessman from suburban Kandivali lodged a complaint with the police last week alleging that he had received threats from the accused who demanded Rs 10 lakh from him, the official said. The police arrested Mandvikar, who was involved in the killing of 'Matka King' Suresh Bhagat, for extortion, he said. During interrogation, he confessed the involvement of Singh and Shaha, following which the duo was arrested. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nobody quite knows why Vodafone group chief executive Nick Read wants to meet Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad later this week. Read earlier the chief financial officer at the UK-headquartered telco is a numbers man with a degree in accounting and finance and hence his meeting with the minister at this critical juncture is expected to be about the maths of doing business in India. It could also be about the maths of leaving India. Vodafone Idea, the joint venture operation in India, has already made multiple representations to the government with a wish list so that its ... When Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden popped-in with Beto O'Rourke at a Dallas area Whataburger for a Super Tuesday Eve meal, many mocked him for pandering to the common Texan. Even one network anchor said Biden would have gotten a better meal at the Salt Lick BBQ outside of Austin. THE VOTES ARE IN: Super Tuesday's big winners and losers in Houston and Texas Theres still so much that we dont know about COVID-19, the diseased caused by the coronavirus that was first confirmed in Oregon last week. In comparison to previous public health outbreaks, like the measles cases in Clark and Multnomah counties in 2019, the public is not getting much information about the people involved or where they may have visited. Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: Email: According to one former Centers for Disease Control official and current public health professor, thats likely for a good reason. Dr. Carlos Crespo, a professor of community health and vice-provost at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, says health officials are cautious about spreading too much information in case that causes widespread panic. Crespo came on Beat Check with The Oregonian this week for a bonus episode to talk about what he thinks of the public health response in Oregon so far, whether the state is doing enough to respond to the virus, why hes changed some of his routines, why people shouldnt panic, and why he says science is under attack in this country. The Oregonian/OregonLives Noelle Crombie also appeared on this podcast. Heres the full episode: You can subscribe to Beat Check with The Oregonian on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. -- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Photo: Michael Ableman Jesus Cristobal-Esteban, who worked as a farmer at Sole Food Street Farms for nearly eight years, died Jan. 2 after being assaulted the previous day in Oppenheimer Park Vancouver police announced Wednesday an arrest in the murder of Jesus Cristobal-Esteban. The 62-year-old died following an altercation in Oppenheimer Park on New Years Day. Vancouver police media relations office Const. Tania Visintin said Cristobal-Esteban sustained a serious head injury and was taken to hospital where he died the next day. Vancouvers Glen Domenic Martin, 50, was arrested Thursday and stands charged with manslaughter. Homicide investigators have worked meticulously on this file to gather evidence and recommend charges, Visintin said. We hope this arrest brings some closure to the victims family and the community. Martin remains in police custody. Friends previously told the Courier that Cristobal-Esteban, who lived above the Evelyne Saller Centre on Alexander Street, was known to many in the Downtown Eastside for different reasons. That included his work in the community kitchen at Oppenheimer, his marimba playing, helping organize health fairs and Christmas parties for migrant workers, his membership with St. James Anglican Church on Cordova Street and supporting the Latino community through activism. In the days after his death, more than 100 people turned up the Watari Counselling and Support Services Society on East Hastings to pay tribute to Cristobal-Esteban, who volunteered at the agency. Cristobal-Esteban also worked for Sole Food Street Farms, which operates four farms on urban land in Vancouver, for nearly eight years. He was an important and integral part of our team and the loss is unbelievable. Im not talking about from a physical labour perspective, Im talking about the place he filled on our crew as a human and how it was oversized, said Michael Ableman, founder and director of Sole Food. Broadly speaking, the Space Race of the 1950s and 60s involved two major players, the United States and the Soviet Union. But there were also minor players: take, for instance, the Zambian Space Program, founded and administered by just one man. A Time magazine article published in November 1964 when the Republic of Zambia was one week old described Edward Mukuka Nkoloso as a grade-school science teacher and the director of Zambias National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy. Nkoloso had a plan to beat the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the moon. Already Nkoloso is training twelve Zambian astronauts, including a 16-year-old girl, by spinning them around a tree in an oil drum and teaching them to walk on their hands, the only way humans can walk on the moon.' Nkoloso and his Quixotic space program seem to have drawn as much attention as the subject of the article, Zambias first president Kenneth David Kaunda. Namwali Serpell tells Nkolosos story in a piece for The New Yorker: not just the conception and failure of his entry into the Space Race (the program suffered from a lack of funds, Serpell writes, for which Nkoloso blamed those imperialist neocolonialists who were, he insisted, scared of Zambias space knowledge'), but also his background as a freedom fighter in Kaundas United National Independence Party. Born in 1919 in then-Northern Rhodesia, Nkoloso received a missionary education, got drafted into World War II by the British, took an interest in science during his service, and came home to illegally found his own school. There followed periods as a salesman, a political agitator, and a messianic liberator figure, ending with his capture and imprisonment by colonial authorities. How on Earth could this all have convinced Nkoloso to aim for Mars? Some assume he experienced a psychological break due to torture endured at the hands of Northern Rhodesian police. Some see his ostensible interplanetary ambitions as a cover for the training he was giving his Afronauts for guerrilla-style direct political action. Some describe him as a kind of national court jester: Serpell quotes from the memoir of San Francisco Chronicle columnist Arthur Hoppe, author of a series of contemporary pieces on the Zambian Space Program, who believed it was the Africans who were satirizing our multi-billion-dollar space race against the Russians. As Serpell points out, Zambian irony is very subtle, and as a satirist Nkoloso had the ironic dedoublement the ability to split oneself that Charles Baudelaire saw in the man who trips in the street and is already laughing at himself as he falls. Whatever Nkolosos purposes, the Zambian Space Program has attracted new attention in the years since documentary footage of its facilities and training procedures found its way to Youtube. This fascinatingly eccentric chapter in the history of mans heavenward aspirations has become the subject of short documentaries like the one from SideNote at the top of the post, as well as the subject of artworks like the short film Afronauts above. Nkoloso died more than 30 years ago, but he now lives on as an icon of Afrofuturism, a movement (previously featured here on Open Culture) at what Serpell calls the nexus of black art and technoculture. No figure embodies Afrofuturism quite so thoroughly as Sun Ra, who transformed himself from the Alabama-born Herman Poole Blount into a peace-preaching alien from Saturn. Though Nkoloso never seems to have met his American contemporary, such an encounter would surely, as a subject for Afrofuturistic art, be truly out of this world. Related Content: Watch a 5-Part Animated Primer on Afrofuturism, the Black Sci-Fi Phenomenon Inspired by Sun Ra Sun Ras Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, The Black Man in the Cosmos Sun Ra Applies to NASAs Art Program: When the Inventor of Space Jazz Applied to Make Space Art Wonderfully Kitschy Propaganda Posters Champion the Chinese Space Program (1962-2003) Soviet Artists Envision a Communist Utopia in Outer Space Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. PORTLAND, OR / ACCESSWIRE / March 4, 2020 / PayRange Inc. , a network for everyday purchases, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against KioSoft, seeking damages estimated to be in excess of $50 million and a permanent injunction barring further infringing sales. Founded in 2013, PayRange developed the original mobile payment system for non-networked unattended retail machines such as vending, laundry, and amusement. Its innovative technology and intellectual property portfolio are protected by 18 patents and another 35+ pending patent applications. While PayRange is the market share leader with millions of users and hundreds of thousands of deployed machines, KioSoft unlawfully sells mobile payment solutions that infringe PayRange's patented technology. PayRange's patents cover, not only the foundational approach of authorizing payment to unconnected machines leveraging the user's smart phone, but other innovations including viewing machine status on smartphones, firmware updating of offline machines, and retrofitting existing machines with payment acceptance devices. "We've invested tens of millions of dollars in research and development to bring to market solutions that revolutionized the industry," stated Paresh Patel, founder and CEO. "We will vigorously defend our investment to prevent competitors from selling infringing products." Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (PayRange's counsel on this matter) filed allegations stating that KioSoft "blatantly disregarded PayRange's patent rights by attempting to poach PayRange's customers with a copycat product and solicit new business with a copycat product. PayRange seeks recovery of its damages, which could exceed $50 million based on lost profits, royalties - Moneylenders have appealed to the Central Bank to take a second look at the minimum capital requirement - They argued that some of them operate in remote areas and do not need to necessarily pay GHC2 million to do business - The fee increased from GHC60,000 to GHC100,000 and then to GH300,000 before being increased to GHC2 million Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The Ghana Micro Credit Association (GMCA) has appealed to the Bank of Ghana to review the current minimum capital requirement. The GMCA explained that the GHC2 million required by the Central Bank before a money lender could legally operate in the country has led to a number of challenges. It added that a refusal to review the fee would lead to a foldup of businesses of moneylenders, especially those in the remote areas., Business Insider.com reports. READ ALSO: MTN Ghana releases new data prices for Fibre Broadband and TurboNet GMCAs board chairman, Wilberforce Ofori, noted that Micro Credit institutions are helping a lot of people in one way or the other especially in the remote areas. That is why we are saying that for those in the remote areas they do not need a minimum capital requirement of Gh2 million. In August 2019, the Bank of Ghana revealed that microfinance institutions are required to provide a GHC2 million capital requirement by February 28, 2020, a refusal to do so which would result in sanctions. Ofori noted that the new requirement reflects an increment from the earlier announcement of GHC300,000 after it was revised from GHC60,000 to GHC100,000. In other news, details of the governments expenditure on consultancy services in the year 2018 have caused a stir online. A Ghanaian professor of law and accounting, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, better known as Kwaku Azar, released details of the expenses online. In a post on social media that has since gone viral, he indicated that Ghana paid $204,325,225 for technical and management services in the year 2018. This represents an over 400% increase as the country spent $39,946,317 on the same services the year before. "2018 was the Year of Consulting. Your beloved country spent $204,325,225 on the payment of technical and management services. By way of comparison, $39,946,317 was spent in 2017. The over 400% increase, we are told, is due to more consultancy services paid during 2018. Id like to see a listing of the consultants, the nature and benefit of the consultancy, and value for money audit of each of those services. 128/1820 is a bona fide scam and sham." READ ALSO: Egypt's Suez Canal generates over GHC2 billion in February 2020 alone Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! "I don't believe there is a president in Ghana" - Frustrated taxi driver speaks | #Yencomgh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: YEN.com.gh With a little wind in its sails from recent investments , a San Francisco startup called Symbium has built the city planning codes of eight California municipalities into an interactive map to help homeowners quickly answer questions about their building projects.The company launched its Build+ subscription service for city staff and private developers on March 1, a more versatile iteration of the companys Build platform for the general public. As with Build, Symbium designed Build+ with a focus on accessory dwelling units smaller, secondary units on the same parcel as a larger one but its capacity to analyze other kinds of structures and entertain hypothetical scenarios could have broader implications for the future.Prior to co-founding Symbium, CEO Leila Banijamali was an enterprise technology lawyer who had noticed how cumbersome and difficult it was for most people to interact with laws and regulations. Whenever they wanted to build something, residents and companies alike had to navigate a labyrinth of bureaucracy, paperwork and constantly changing municipal codes that took so much time and money that some found it prohibitive. She said its also typical that talking to different planners on different days will yield different responses to the same question.Banijamali set out to develop a new platform based on the concept of computational law, which essentially means translating laws and regulations into computer code so that software can analyze them like any other data. What her team created at Stanford University, called Complaw, became the underlying technology for Build and Build+, Symbiums products that visualize planning and zoning codes so that city staff, architects, builders and homeowners can work on their projects with less consultation of massive code books or the local planning office.What we learned, when we were shadowing the planners in all of our research prior to launch, is that the actual bottleneck is the rules navigating them, understanding them and figuring out how they apply to your particular project, she said. Were taking that away so that now, youre changing multiple months and iterations to just a few clicks, to instantly find out, what can I do? And you can do that from your home just by going to build.symbium.com . Now you can understand if an ADU is allowed, and if so, the detailed development standards and processes that apply.To date, Symbium has been building its Google Maps-like portals for six local governments in the Bay Area San Francisco, San Jose, Pacifica, Orinda, Redwood City and San Mateo County and two in Southern California Los Angeles and Fontana.Banijamali likened Build and Build+ to TurboTax, which has tax laws built into it so the user gets instant feedback as they type and use the program Build being the publicly available version, and Build+ being a subscription-based one. They both allow a user to type in an address to see property information like zoning, lot area, number of units and whats possible on that property. A user could then browse different possible designs for ADUs, supplied to Symbium by a handful of developer partners theyre working with so far, and add it to their parcel to see who the developer is, some materials and cost estimates, and a description of the process it would take to build in real life.When the user manipulates the image model in a way that that citys planning code would not allow, the model turns red and explains why. Build also generates a report showing what steps the user went through and what the next ones are, which the user could print out and take to the city planning department so an official can quickly verify the work.Banijamali said the system has even identified inconsistencies or contradictions in a planning code that city staff didnt know about. But she was adamant the software doesnt replace planners, as its not suited for design-discretionary rules that require expertise.The response weve gotten from planners at the counter is, they want this tool, because most of the questions theyre being asked at the counter are not things they want to be spending their time on: Can I build this? How much does it cost? What form do I fill? she said. Planners want to be doing what theyre trained to do, which is the discretionary design review stuff.An innovation with Build+, launched this week, is the programs ability to entertain hypothetical scenarios, like the potential impacts of a specific change in public policy or population. The company focused on ADUs to start with because of the possibility that those will play a valuable role in addressing Californias housing crisis, and Product Manager Phi Phan said Build+ was designed with this issue in mind.A lot of cities are worried about a lack of housing, and they might say, Hey, this area is next to transit and could really benefit from more housing. Lets see how our current policy builds up those areas, he said. Just this year, the ADU laws throughout California changed. If they were using a tool like Build+ in advance of that, they could have seen visually and through statistics how those changes and regulations would impact ADU capacity, and in what area.Phan said Build+ has also piqued the interest of developers who could use it to identify the neighborhoods in which their advertising would be most effective.We have some developers that have, say, a 15-foot by 40-foot ADU, and they want to do some heavy marketing. They want to know where to target their efforts, he said. They could just go into Build+, search by 15-foot by 40-foot ADU, put in some other factors like income and age, and target exactly who they want to target.Banijamali said the plan is to cover California this year and then expand beyond it, particularly with business zoning, but in the longer term, Complaw might be used for more than zoning codes. Interested in streamlining insurance, mortgages or any number of processes that can be inscrutable to the average person, she said her goal is to make sure more people have access to the law, understand what can be done and dont have to consult staff and experts as often.My vision for the future is that computational law will be embedded in every experience we have with the law. I want to fundamentally disrupt how people interact with laws, not just in planning, but in every vertical that is highly regulated, she said. I want the laws themselves to be brought closer to the point of human experience, so that you interact with them at the point that you actually need them. When youre driving your Tesla across the border, the car should tell you exactly what the speed limit is, and that you shouldnt be smoking your marijuana anymore because its not legal in this state. - Mahama has revealed that he started the Free SHS programme but with the intention of just enrolling day students - He said he started the Free SHS with day students in mind - Ghanaians have however shared their thoughts on his comments Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Former President John Dramani Mahama has revealed that he started the Free SHS programme but with the intention of just enrolling day students. Speaking at Sienchem in the Asutifi South Constituency, during his speakout tour, he said, Free SHS is good. If anyone stands anywhere and says that I, John Mahama, will cancel Free SHS tell the person he or she is a liar, adding, I havent said anywhere that when we come to power we are going to cancel the policy. We started it with day students and we were going to expand it when, unfortunately, we left office. In a Native post created by YEN.com.gh, Ghanaians have shared their views READ ALSO: Coronavirus scare: Ras Mubarak spotted in parliament wearing nose mask Social media users have as usual shared their thoughts on the comment made by the former president. Mohammed said only good people understand JM. Jayso quizzed why he didn't start it and waited for another government to come. Alhaji was surprised politicians always have something different to say. Abu asked if he wanted Ghanaians to believe him. Prinbelievedce sarcastically said Mahama laid the foundation for the crucifixion of Jesus. Enos said Mahama beleived Ghanaians had a short memory. Kwame asked why Mahama left the idea at the Jubilee house. READ ALSO: TV3's broadcast journalist Edward Kwabi reportedly dead In other news, TV3's broadcast journalist Edward Kwabi has died. According to a reliable news source, he passed away last night, March 2, 2020, after battling illness for some time. He has been unwell since September 2019. A product of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Kwabi joined TV3 in 2009 and rose through the ranks to become the stations Head of Political Desk. READ ALSO: Juliet Ibrahim shares beautiful bedroom photo on her birthday Ghana News Today: Accra Beautification Project causes Ako-Adjei Interchange to sparkle | #Yencomgh Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh If you had been looking at the Coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak without the sort of seriousness it deserves, you might want to change tack now. At the time of writing this, there are more than 93,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus around the world, with as many as 124 cases already confirmed in the US. China continues to be the worst hit with 80,270 cases in Mainland China, 100 in Hong Kong and 10 reported from Macau, according to official figures. There are now 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases in India as well, including in Delhi and Jaipur, with some people under watch in Bengaluru and Agra, who may have come in contact with the infected. While the Coronavirus outbreak is now bordering on officially becoming a global pandemic, there is a huge debate raging on about face masks. Whether you should wear them, and whether they protect you against the Coronavirus. Here is what we know so far. We usually link the use of face masks with air pollution and how to protect yourself against the bad air quality when outdoors. That is particularly true for Asia, and even more so for India which has some of the most polluted countries in the world. However, with the airborne COVID-19 floating around unseen, could a mask help? Let us first look at the type of masks that you can buy. Face masks, or pollution masks as they are commonly known as, are designed to catch large and small airborne contaminants, some seen and some unseen. You can buy what are referred to as surgical masks, the ones that are rated N95 and the ones that are rated N99. All three are commonly available at offline and online stores. You Didnt Know This About COVID-19, Did You? And here is what we know about the Coronavirus virions. The New England Journal of Medicine released a report which suggested that scientists were at a consensus that the diameter of the 2019-nCoV particles varied from about 60 to 140 nmthat means as small as 0.06 microns all the way to 0.14 microns. The virus particles had quite distinctive spikes, about 9 to 12 nm, and gave virions the appearance of a solar corona. The research was done on Coronavirus patients in China and funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Major Project for Control and Prevention of Infectious Disease in China. This makes it is clear, even the largest Coronavirus virions are smaller than the particles that most N95 and N99 face masks can filter outwhich is 0.3 microns. So, there you have it then, stop buying face masks and thats that? this is what they do. The 2019-nCoV particles varied from about 60 to 140 nmthat means as small as 0.06 microns all the way to 0.14 microns. Here is How Face Masks Work; You Probably Didnt Know This Either The typical N95 and N99 masks are designed to keep airborne particles, pollutants, viruses and allergens out, as you breathe in air. You may have also seen a lot of people wearing what look like surgical masks and walking along on the street or in public transport. The thing is, surgical masks are actually designed for the oppositeto keep any droplets or pathogens from a doctors respiratory system from escaping and touching any surface nearby or infecting a patient. You wear a surgical mask on the street, and it will make no difference, unless you are infectedand that way you could protect others. But would you know. These surgical masks should be worn by anyone who already has a cough, cold or sore throat, till they are tested either way for the COVID-19 infection. Surgical masks are actually designed for the oppositeto keep any droplets or pathogens from someone's respiratory system from escaping. You wearing a surgical mask will make no difference, unless you are infected. But hang on for a moment: All The Confused Messaging Has People Panicking The messaging from the medical community has been incredibly confusing thus far. Yes, they say we shouldnt buy masks because they dont do anything to protect against the Coronavirus, but at the same time, say that these are very essential for those who are taking care of Coronavirus patients. Let us take this tweet by the US surgeon general Jerome M. Adams, Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers cant get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk! This is the sort of confused messaging that is sending people around the world into even more panic. People dont know how masks wont work for them but will work for healthcare professionals. Then there is the other opinion. There's little harm in it, said Eric Toner, a scientist at John Hopkins Center for Health Security, while speaking with Business Insider. Look, here is what the medicine experts are trying to saya face mask filters out particles larger than 0.3 microns while even the largest Coronavirus diameter is 0.14 microns. Since, 0.14 microns is smaller than 0.3 microns, an airborne Coronavirus particle will shoot straight through the face mask and into the wearers respiratory system. And then it is party time. For the Coronavirus. This is the sort of confused messaging that is sending people around the world into even more panic. People dont know how masks wont work for them but will work for healthcare professionals. But if Only Things Were This Black And White. Wearing a face mask provides absolutely no guarantee that it will provide 100% protection against getting an infection. But you need to understand how the Coronavirus spreads. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines state, when someone coughs or sneezes, they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease. Additionally, Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene, you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19. That, and that Coronavirus can also spread when someone touches a surface where cough or sneeze drops may already reside, and then touches their eyes, nose or ears. People, stop touching your face. Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you wont get sick. But the thing is, these viruses can transmit through droplets or attach themselves to tiny particles which you may breathe inand it is deadly if you breathe in droplet or a particle sneezed or coughed out by an infected person. Remember, masks are very effective when it comes to capturing droplets, which is considered the primary transmission method of the Coronavirus. Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene, you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19 - WHO It takes as many as 14 days for the Coronavirus symptoms to show, sometimes even more. In that period, the carrier of the virus and the friends and family and colleagues of that carrier would not have a clueand the virus could spread via a simple cough or sneeze. Public transport, large gatherings, public places and even fleeting interactions can be the perfect ground for the Coronavirus to spread. This is why wearing a mask is still a very good idea. The Donald Trump administration in the US has contacted American multi-national manufacturing company 3M to supply as many as 30 million masks a month, as confirmed by Vice-President Mike Pence while speaking with the media. In China, companies that were otherwise not producing face masks, have shifted focus to making these instead. Foxconn, the manufacturing company well known for churning out tech products including the Apple iPhones has now dedicated some of its production lines to manufacturing masks, with the target of producing 2 million masks a day. The Donald Trump administration in the US has contacted American multi-national manufacturing company 3M to supply as many as 30 million masks a month Get a Mask, Dont Hoard a Lifes Worth of Supply: Be Sensible This is exactly the reason why the WHO, the CDC and others are insisting that masks are essential for health care workers and for anyone who is caring for someone who may be infected. Expand that into a wider situation as illustrated above and imagine a scenario where someone next to you on the metro ride home coughs and you unknowingly breathe in the droplets. Or a colleague, a friend or even a passerbythat is where a mask is very essential. It is hard to chalk off any situation in your daily life as risk-free, where there is no scope of catching the infection. The WHO also has a helpful guide on how best to wear masks for a tight seal fit, as do the CDC and many others. You might do well to follow that advice on making the mask work best for you, and also how to safely store it or dispose it, to reduce the risk of spreading infection. And while you are at it, wash your hands regularly with soap, use hand sanitizers and avoid touching your face. Clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose, says the NSW Ministry of Health, Australia. President Akufo-Addo will later today, Wednesday March 4 visit the Kotoka International Airport, the Ridge Hospital and the Tema General Hospital to inspect work done so far in preparation of an outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 in Ghana. It follows assurances from health officials that Ghana is prepared for any suspected or confirmed case of the virus. The Presidents tour will afford him the opportunity to interact with health officials and others assigned to fight the outbreak and spread of the virus in Ghana. Following the outbreak, the Ministry of Health designated the Ridge Hospital and the Tema General Hospital as centres to manage possible cases in the country. It said the move is part of Ghana's plans to prevent and control any case that may be detected in the country and ultimately protect the Ghanaian population. The Ministry has also enhanced the process by applying it to all international arrivals at Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). President Akufo-Addo has said he was unhappy with attempts by the Minority side in Parliament to introduce what he calls ill-judged politics into debates surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. We have a delicate situation on our hands, Mr. Speaker and it doesn't benefit anybody to try to score points by introducing ill-judged politics into this ongoing medical conundrum and humanitarian tragedy. And I entreat this honourable house to set up an example by helping to pour oil over troubled waters instead of instigating tension and spreading fear and panic among the young people, the President said while delivering his 2020 State of the Nation Address in Parliament. Health Minister to brief Parliament Meanwhile, Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu will also today brief Parliament for the second time within a month over the preparedness of the country to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak. Coronavirus has claimed several lives worldwide with confirmed cases in Senegal and Nigeria in the West African sub-region. Mr. Manu is expected to give an update on the systems and measures put in place to deal with cases if need be. Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu who announced the scheduled appearance of the Minister in Parliament said: Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday 4th March 2020, the Minister of Health will come to the House to update the country about the state of preparedness of the country as far as the development [coronavirus] is concerned. Admittedly, it cannot be said that the country has obtained 100 percent preparedness. But certainly, we are on high alert to track and trace any case that may occur in the country. citinewsroom SAN DIEGO, March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Camp Run-A-Mutt Entrepreneurial Resources is excited to announce the opening of the first Virginia location of Camp Run-A-Mutt cage-free doggie day care and boarding. Camp Run-A-Mutt Norfolk is located at 2633 Wyoming Ave, Norfolk, VA 23513. Lisa Torres is the owner of the newest Camp Run-A-Mutt location. For the last 34 years, Lisa has worked in the Information Technology (IT) field, with 11 of those years in the U.S. Army. However, Lisa's passion has always been working with dogs, and combined with the feeling she was ready for a change, Lisa decided this business was the right fit. She loved Camp Run-A-Mutt's cage-free boarding, live Muttcams, and the passion for dogs shown by Founders Dennis, Severn, and Mikel. Lisa has had dogs all her life and has been a proud pet parent to seven Boston Terriers, two German Shepherds, and seven mixed breeds. Lisa loves rescuing dogs with special needs, adding that while they require some additional care, she feels like they choose her. Lisa is having a VIP pre-opening party on Saturday, March 7th, and is officially open for business on Monday, March 9th, 2020. Her address is 2633 Wyoming Ave, Norfolk, VA 23513. Lisa is thrilled to provide a place in Norfolk where she can ensure dogs are happy, safe, and well cared for. When asked about her particular location, Lisa says, "In our area we will be the only location that is both cage-free and has live webcams. We are also the only daycare and boarding facility in this specific area of Norfolk [near the airport]." In addition to supporting the airport, Lisa also hopes to support the local military community. Camp Run-A-Mutt Norfolk will have over 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor play space, a splash pond, and the popular Muttcams, which will allow pet parents to watch their dog from anywhere with a cellular or internet connection. Their hours will be Monday - Friday from 6:30 am 7:00 pm, and on Saturday from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. Pricing starts at $19 for a day and $50 for an overnight. Visit them on the web at http://www.camprunamutt.com/norfolk. CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE Camp Run-A-Mutt Entrepreneurial Resources Related Links https://www.camprunamutt.com/norfolk KYODO NEWS - Feb 21, 2020 - 20:55 | World, All, Coronavirus A plane chartered by Taiwan's government on Friday evacuated 19 citizens who were previously aboard the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess docked near Tokyo. The plane departed in the evening from Tokyo's Haneda airport and was due to arrive in Taipei later in the evening. There were previously a total of 27 Taiwanese -- 25 passengers and two crew members -- aboard the cruise ship, which has been docked in Yokohama Port, south of Tokyo, since Feb. 3. Five of them have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and are receiving treatment in Japan, while two others are under quarantine due to close contact with coronavirus patients. Among the 20 who tested negative, one with Taiwan-U.S. dual citizenship did not board the evacuation plane. The ship was initially carrying around 3,700 passengers and crew from more than 50 countries and regions. It left Hong Kong on Jan. 25 and visited Vietnam, Taiwan and Okinawa. The quarantine at the port began Feb. 5 after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan. 25 was found to be infected with the new coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. More than 600 people aboard were infected with the deadly virus and two of them have died. Upon returning from Japan, the evacuees will be transported to hospitals for further tests for the virus before being moved to quarantine facilities for 14 more days. Nearly 250 Taiwanese earlier airlifted from Wuhan underwent the same procedure. At present, there are 26 confirmed cases in Taiwan, among whom four have been discharged from hospital after recovery. Health authorities in recent days confirmed the island's first coronavirus death, a male taxi driver in his 60s with no known history of travel to China. There are more than 75,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus globally and more than 2,200 deaths, most of them in mainland China. Related coverage: China records 2 straight days of fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases S. Korea sees surge in coronavirus cases, worries grow over sect members 2 passengers evacuated to Australia from Japan infected with coronavirus HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government is reserving the right under proposed legislation tabled Wednesday to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors to recover costs to its health system from the overdose crisis. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Randy Delorey attends a briefing at the legislature in Halifax on Tuesday, April 19, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government is reserving the right under proposed legislation tabled Wednesday to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors to recover costs to its health system from the overdose crisis. Health Minister Randy Delorey said the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act would give the province the option to launch its own lawsuit or eventually join a British Columbia-led class action. Delorey said while Nova Scotia has not seen the level of opioid-related deaths as some other provinces, it still registers about 60 deaths every year as a result of confirmed or probable opioid-related overdoses. "Opioid overdose needlessly takes lives, places stress on communities and can overwhelm our emergency first responders and emergency departments," he said. "It also puts a financial strain on our province in delivering those important health services." Delorey said the legislation would also allow the province to simplify the procedure for proving damages by allowing the use of aggregate health data instead of individual health records. He said B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Ontario have all passed similar legislation while Saskatchewan is expected to pass a bill this spring. Delorey said the government believes opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors need to be held accountable for the harmful impact of the drug, although a decision on a possible legal move is not imminent at this point. Current figures for the cost to the health system were not made available by the minister. "Any legal submission as part of any potential future claim would be built and the evidence presented at that time," Delorey said. However, he did point to a 2014 study by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction that estimated the overall cost of opioid addiction in Nova Scotia to be $1.2 billion a year a figure that included health care, justice and lost productivity. Direct costs to the health system alone were estimated to be $24 million annually. The province's Liberal government spent $5.68 million last year to treat opioid-use disorder, to provide naloxone for overdose reversal and to train health workers. According to the latest figures released by a national advisory committee studying the opioid crisis, close to 14,000 Canadians have been killed by the drugs over the last four years. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 18:58:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday slammed the lies by a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official accusing the mainland of obstructing the return of 1,148 Taiwan compatriots from coronavirus-hit Hubei Province. Su Tseng-chang, who said "the process got stuck at the mainland side," is completely ignoring the facts and calling white black, said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office. The mainland side has been taking care of the compatriots since the beginning of the outbreak and working hard to meet their actual demand and their hopes to go back home, said Zhu. The Taiwan authority, however, has kept looking for excuses for obstructing plans to send back Taiwan compatriots from Hubei, said Zhu. Su himself has said publicly that the stranded compatriots can not go back to Taiwan due to the island's insufficient capability in epidemic prevention and control, said Zhu. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) After being tagged in the controversial pastillas scheme, former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has claimed that former Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo was the one who consistently pushed for the issuance of the visa upon arrival policy for Chinese visitors. Aguirre said Teo sister of columnist Ramon Tulfo who first named him as the protector of the airport payoff scheme followed up no less than three times and pushed for the signing of the departments travel directive. 'Yang pastillas scheme, nangyari 'yan because of the visa upon arrival, Aguirre told CNN Philippines The Source on Wednesday. Walang ginawa 'yan si Wanda Teo kundi i-follow up 'yan during our Cabinet meeting.] [Translation: The pastillas scheme happened because of the visa upon arrival. All Wanda Teo did was to follow that up during our Cabinet meetings.] The move, according to Aguirre, was seen to provide a boost for the Tourism Department, which Teo chaired from 2016 to 2018. READ: Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo resigns 'out of delicadeza' Teo has denied the allegations, saying she only talked to Aguirre once for a review of the policy documents. Is asking for documents submitted to his office for his review and appropriate action means being linked to the Immigration scheme? Teo said in a message to CNN Philippines. Aguirre, however, admitted he found nothing wrong with the visa scheme, hinting that flaws were found only in the implementation. Per se, hindi masama 'yan. It was only in the implementation na sumama 'yan (per se, its not bad. It was only in the implementation that it was seen to be flawed), Aguirre added. The Justice Department in 2017 issued Circular No. 41, which would grant the entry document to Chinese nationals. The Immigrations VUA order, however, has been temporarily suspended amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease in the East Asian nation. Teo stepped down as Tourism chief in May 2018, saying the move was done "out of delicadeza" following issues of corruption. Her resignation came in the wake of a controversial 60 million advertising deal between the Tourism Department and a television program run by her other brothers, Ben and Erwin Tulfo. RELATED: Ex-Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, Usec took P2.5 million-worth of Duty Free goods - COA report Aguirre, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied involvement and knowledge of the pastillas scheme, which allows the easy entry of Chinese nationals in the country. The said payoff scheme supposedly lets the foreign nationals pay a 10,000 service fee or grease money to Immigration officers, with a special treatment expected in return. The operation was dubbed as "pastillas" as money was previously hidden in rolled bond paper, similar to that of a milk candy wrapper. As per the recent study conducted by Reports and Data, the Global Hematological Cancers Therapeutics Market was valued at USD 34.38 Billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 72.84 billion by 2027, delivering a CAGR of 9.8% through the forecast period from 2020 to 2027. Hematology Cancer Therapeutics Market is primarily driven by a surge in the incidences of blood cancer across the globe and increasing investment in research and development in blood cancer therapeutics. Among the regions studied in the report, Asia Pacific is projected to register a CAGR of 10.5%, followed by North America at 9.6%. Request free sample of this research report at: https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/1068 Additionally, the market for pharmaceuticals has become consolidated, urging the companies into launching novel drugs, in line with the imminent patent expiries of several drugs by 2027. To keep up with these changes, key market players are focusing on the launch of novel hematological cancers therapeutics in the market. In the global industry, North America is expected to dominate the hematological cancers therapeutics market during the forecast period with the surge in the number of leading pharmaceutical companies and the rise in the incidences of blood cancer in the region. Start-up traction: The San Francisco-based company Notable Health recently started the ANSWer trial that will test an AI platform in patients diagnosed with blood cancer. The hematology R&D wing of AstraZeneca, Acerta Pharma, declared a partnership with Veracyte, the company working on genomic testing, to further Acertas efforts in the development of oncology therapeutics. Deals analysis The US-based biotechnology company Gilead Sciences has recently announced that it is acquiring Forty Seven Inc. for $4.9 Billion. Forty Seven is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company that is engaged in creating novel drugs for cancer therapy, and its lead candidate is magrolimab, which earned a fast track designation by FDA last year. Immatics biotechnologies, which is working on hematological cancer therapy, recently received $50 million in funding from an adoptive cell therapy deal in solid tumor indications with GlaxoSmithKline plc. Further key findings from the report suggest The pharmacological therapies market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of nearly 10.5% through the forecast period. To develop new drugs ahead of the upcoming patent expiries of several drugs by 2027, leading market players in the Hematology Cancer Therapeutics market are aiming for successful clinical trials to launch novel drugs in the market The market for hospitals is anticipated to dominate the market with revenue of more than 47.8 billion by 2027. The growth of the blood cancer therapeutics market for this segment is facilitated by increasing investments from both government and private bodies. Asia Pacific is expected to undergo a significant rise at a CAGR of more than 10.5% from 2020 to 2027 due to increased investment in research and development in blood cancer therapeutics. Moreover, government hospital expenditure and infrastructure development rate across the globe increased by 7% from 2016 to 2018, wherein most of the new additions are contributed by the Asia Pacific region. Key participants include Roche, Celgene, Johnson & Johnson, Karyopharm Therapeutics, Siemens AG, Mindray Medical, Abbott Laboratories, Bio-Rad Laboratories, AbbVie, HemoCue AB, Sysmex, and Novartis. Order Your Copy Now: https://www.reportsanddata.com/checkout-form/1068 For this report, Reports and Data segments the Global Hematological Cancers Therapeutics Market on the basis of type, end-user, and region into: Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 2027) Pharmacological Therapies Stem Cell Transplantation Surgery and Radiation Therapy Anemia Treatment Thrombosis Treatment Neutropenia Treatment Others End-User Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 2027) Hospitals Clinical Laboratories Academic and Research Institutes Others To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/hematological-cancers-therapeutics-market Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 2027) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany France UK The Netherlands Spain Italy Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India Rest of Asia-Pacific Middle East Asia Latin America Brazil About Reports and Data Reports and Data is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. Our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help clients make a smarter business decision. We offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a multiple industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Power, and Energy. We consistently update our research offerings to ensure our clients are aware about the latest trends existent in the market. Reports and Data has a strong base of experienced analysts from varied areas of expertise. Contact Us: John Watson Head of Business Development Reports And Data | Web: www.reportsanddata.com Direct Line: +1-212-710-1370 E-mail: sales@reportsanddata.com More than 15,000 infants died during their treatment for various ailments at newborn care units across Gujarat during the last two years, the state government told the Assembly on Tuesday. These deaths were reported from Sick Newborn Care Units, set up in almost all districts of the state. Responding to a set of questions raised by Congress MLAs during the Question Hour, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who also handles the health portfolio, said out of the 1.06 lakh infants admitted to such units during 2018 and 2019 across Gujarat, 15,013 babies died during their treatment. In his written reply, Patel said of these 1.06 lakh children, 71,774 were those who were born in civil hospitals, but referred to Sick Newborn Care Units for further treatment. Another 34,727 infants were those who were born elsewhere and referred to these care units, the minister said. The highest number of infant deaths - 4,322 - were reported from Ahmedabad district followed by Vadodara (2,362) and Surat (1,986), among others, he said. In his reply, Patel also listed various steps taken by the government to improve facilities in the newborn care units. These measures included giving priority to appointment of pediatricians and medical officers, special training for doctors and nursing staff and maintaining adequate stock of equipment and other essential items at these units. Did you believe earth looked like this 3.2 billion years ago? Think again. A new study suggests that our planet was covered with oceans at the time, and there was absolutely no landmass. This finding could change the way science perceives the way life on earth began, and indeed how the planet has evolved. The paper Limited Archaean continental emergence reflected in an early Archaean 18O-enriched ocean comes after co-authors Boswell Wing of the University of Colorado, Boulder and Benjamin Johnson of the Iowa State University examined the approximately 3.24-billion-year-old hydrothermally altered oceanic crust from the Panorama district in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. They also suggest that the oceans may have been warmer at that time. This finding could change the way science perceives the way life on earth began, and indeed how the planet has evolved. We suggest that seawater 18O may have decreased through time, in contrast to the large increases seen in marine chemical sediments. To explain this possibility, we construct an oxygen isotope exchange model of the geologic water cycle, which suggests that the initiation of continental weathering in the late Archaean, between 3 and 2.5 billion years ago, would have drawn down an 18O-enriched early Archaean ocean to 18O values similar to those of modern seawater, say the co-authors in the paper. The co-authors believe that the Panorama has what was the hard, outer shell of the planet. There are no samples of really ancient ocean water lying around, but we do have rocks that interacted with that seawater and remembered that interaction, says Johnson. The process, he says, is like analyzing coffee grounds to gather information about the water that poured through it. To do that, the researchers analyzed data from more than 100 rock samples from across the dry terrain. There are no samples of really ancient ocean water lying around, but we do have rocks that interacted with that seawater and remembered that interaction, - Benjamin Johnson, Iowa State University They say the hunt was specifically for two different flavors, or isotopes, of oxygen trapped in these ancient rocks. These are the slightly heavier atom called Oxygen-18 and a lighter one called Oxygen-16. The researchers discovered that the ratio of those two isotopes of oxygen may have been a bit off in seawater 3.2 billion years agobasically, there was a bit more of the Oxygen-18 atom population than the balance that exists in oceans today. Though these mass differences seem small, they are super sensitive, Wing said. The change in balance now compared to then is because of the presence of landmass, or continents. The researchers explain that the land masses now are covered by clay-rich soils that disproportionately take up heavier oxygen isotopes from the water, such as mineral vacuums for Oxygen-18 isotopes. The researchers believe that the higher ratio of Oxygen-18 isotopes back then indicates there were no landmasses to speak of, and no clay-rich soils sucking up these isotopes. The higher ratio of Oxygen-18 isotopes back then indicates there were no landmasses to speak of, and no clay-rich soils sucking up these isotopes. This basically leads to the assumption that continents were formed at some stage because tectonic plates pushed up large chunks of rocks that eventually became the continents we know today. When exactly? The researchers arent sure just yet. But they plan to head to younger rock formation sites in Arizona and South Africa to gather hints about when the first landmasses emerged from under the oceans. They recently returned from a romantic getaway to Mauritius. And Love Island star Arabella Chi displayed her beautiful bronzed complexion as she joined her boyfriend Wes Nelson for a romantic dinner in Manchester on Wednesday. The reality beauty, 28, cut a chic figure in a black leather jacket and skinny jeans as she left the Firefly eatery with her beau, 21. Loved-up: Love Island star Arabella Chi, 28, displayed her beautiful bronzed complexion as she joined her boyfriend Wes Nelson, 21, for a romantic dinner in Manchester on Wednesday Arabella cut a stylish figure in a classic black leather jacket and skinny jeans with matching studded boots, as she headed out following her evening with Wes. The model kept her blonde tresses styled into loose waves, and kept a brown fur coat nestled in the crook of her arm. Wes opted for an equally low-key ensemble by teaming a green furry hooded top with black trousers as he took charge of the luggage following the date night with Arabella. Relaxed: Arabella cut a stylish figure in a classic black leather jacket and skinny jeans with matching studded boots, as she headed out following her evening with Wes Casual: Wes opted for an equally low-key ensemble by teaming a green furry hooded top with black trousers as he took charge of the luggage Stronger than ever: Late last year, Wes and Arabella moved into their first flat together after just three months of dating Late last year, Wes and Arabella moved into their first flat together after just three months of dating. In 2018, Wes reached the final of Love Island with former exotic dancer Megan Barton-Hanson, before ending their relationship in January 2019. Wes recently revealed that neither he nor Arabella ever get jealous of each other and don't worry when the other is on a night out with their pals. 'We don't have any rules, apart from ''don't cheat'',' Wes told OK! 'When Arabella is out, I want her to have a good time. I don't want her to be constantly texting me because it's her night to enjoy. I know she'd never do anything, and likewise with me.' Heartthrob: In 2018, Wes reached the final of Love Island with former exotic dancer Megan Barton-Hanson, before ending their relationship in January 2019 Laid-back: Wes recently revealed that neither he nor Arabella ever get jealous of each other and don't worry when the other is on a night out with their pals Trusting: 'When Arabella is out, I want her to have a good time. I don't want her to be constantly texting me because it's her night to enjoy,' he said Arabella previously told MailOnline that having a relationship in the public eye has not been tough for the pair, saying: 'It hasn't been difficult at all. From day one, we've made it the most normal relationship. 'We've never been like: 'Oh, we're having a relationship in the public eye. We just try to forget that. We're not like: ''You can't do this, you can't do that.'' 'We're just two normal people who like each other. We just do things like how you would in any relationship and that's what's made us really strong.' Amid panic-buying of toilet paper across Australia spurred by fears of a coronavirus pandemic, a semi-trailer carrying the now-precious commodity has burst into flames on a major Brisbane bridge. The truck was carrying a load of wood, toilet paper and paper towels when it caught fire on the Gateway Motorway bridge at Murrarie about 9.45pm on Wednesday. Northbound lanes of the bridge were closed as crews worked to clean up the mess. The driver escaped the truck without injury. Firefighters remained on the scene until about 1am, with two lanes closed for repairs to the road surface into the morning. All lanes were cleared by about 6.30am. Human trials of a vaccine against coronavirus are due to start in April, with dozens of laboratories around the world competing to be the first to develop a drug. Researchers have been working against the clock to produce a preventive jab or pill since China genetically sequenced the virus in January. Several labs have prototype vaccines that are being trialled in animals, and many are confident they will move to human testing next month. If proved safe and effective, larger "live situation" trials will be carried out to see if inoculation works in a natural scenario. If successful, a vaccine could be widely available early next year. Prof Robin Shattock and his team at the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London (ICL) developed a candidate vaccine within 14 days of getting the genetic sequence. They have been testing it on animals since February 10 and hope to move to clinical trials in the summer if they secure funding. Rather than creating a traditional antibody jab, the ICL drug works by effectively injecting new genetic code into a muscle, instructing it to make a protein found on the surface of coronavirus, which triggers a protective immune response. "We have the kind of technology to be able to generate a vaccine with a speed that's never been realised before," said Prof Shattock. "We may not be the first, but it only requires one group to get there. At some point we might say, 'Somebody else is ahead, we should stop working.' While we want to go the whole way, we're also prepared to stand down." Earlier this week, executives from drug giants Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Pfizer met with Donald Trump to assure the US president they were making rapid progress in vaccines. To date, a total of 35 companies and institutions are working on the problem worldwide, with the US furthest ahead. Dr Antony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted that a vaccine would be ready in 12 to 18 months. ( Daily Telegraph London) Insureon, a Chicago-based digital distributor small business insurance, has created a new leadership team comprised of experts across the insurance, insurtech, and technology industries. Dan Kazan, CEO and member of the board of directors: Kazan previously served in executive positions at Rewards Network and Tribune Media Services (now known as Gracenote, a Nielson company). Jeana Deninger, chief operating officer: Deninger joined Insureon from CoverHound; she has more than 20 years of experience growing companies. Steve Lorenc, chief product officer: Lorenc has more than 25 years of experience working with start-ups to build innovative technology products and operation strategies across the financial services, advertising, and e-commerce industries. Jeff Kroeger, executive vice president, Strategy & Development: Kroeger is an insurance industry veteran with more than 10 years of experience working with some of the largest carriers in the commercial insurance space, including The Hartford and CNA Insurance, advising agents and brokers on how to help small business owners. Jeanette Johnson, vice president of People: Johnson joins Insureon with more than 15 years leading HR programs at high growth technology companies. Insureon is licensed in all 50 states and specializes in numerous industries. Insureon also licenses its platform to help insurance companies serve their clients more effectively. Source: Insureon Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Leadership She has not made any decisions as of this point, Mr. Sanders said, and it is important, I think, for all of us certainly me, who has known Elizabeth Warren for many, many years to respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision. Appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Mr. Sanders praised Ms. Warren, saying she had run an excellent campaign bringing out a whole lot of ideas, which I think have expanded political consciousness in this country. He said it was too early to talk about asking her to run for vice president. But certainly, I have a lot of respect for Senator Warren, and would love to sit down and talk to her about what kind of role she can play in our administration, Mr. Sanders said. Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, which has endorsed Ms. Warren, said he was pleased the two senators are now speaking. Theyre both giants of the progressive movement, and we are hopeful that they can figure out how to work together to ensure a progressive nominee and a progressive agenda in Washington, Mr. Mitchell said. The results on Tuesday represented a crushing blow to Ms. Warrens hopes. Last month, Mr. Lau had predicted that she would finish in the top two in eight of the 14 Super Tuesday states, ensuring supporters that, if only they were patient, she still had a path to the nomination regardless of the results in Iowa and New Hampshire. Now Super Tuesday has come and gone, and Ms. Warren was the only one of the four leading candidates to not score an outright victory even in Massachusetts, where she fell behind Mr. Biden, who won, and Mr. Sanders. By AFP KABUL/KUNDUZ: The US launched an airstrike against Taliban fighters to defend Afghan forces Wednesday, an American military spokesman said, as violence spirals after a string of deadly attacks by the insurgents, throwing the country's nascent peace process into grave doubt. News of the airstrike in southern Helmand province -- the first in 11 days -- came hours after US President Donald Trump told reporters he had had a "very good" chat with the Taliban political chief, who on Saturday signed a historic deal with Washington to withdraw foreign forces. Since the signing in Doha however, the militants have ramped up violence against Afghan forces, ending a partial weeklong truce that provided a rare reprieve to war-weary residents. US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted that the airstrike took place against Taliban fighters who were "actively attacking" an Afghan forces checkpoint in Helmand province. "This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," he tweeted. "We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." He said insurgents had carried out 43 attacks on checkpoints in Helmand on Tuesday alone. ALSO READ: Taliban attack Afghan army bases, throwing peace talks into doubt The insurgents killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a series of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP Wednesday, casting a pall over peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, due to begin on March 10. "Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council. A defence ministry official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the army toll, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities. The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: "Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded." ALSO READ: Afghanistan stands to lose much after US deal with Taliban The news of the attacks came after Trump told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that he had a "very good" relationship with Taliban political chief Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents. "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also," he said. But on Wednesday, US military spokesman Leggett warned that the "#Afghans & US have complied w/ our agreements; however, Talibs appear intent on squandering this (opportunity) and ignoring the will of the people for #peace." The virus outbreak, which has seen cases being registered across the world including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan, has had a significant impact on supply chains and manufacturing New Delhi: Twitter has asked its employees to work from home while other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies instructed staff to avoid non-essential travel as IT firms put in place measures to safeguard workers against the deadly coronavirus. Twitter gave employees an option to work from home after the coronavirus outbreak claimed over 3,000 lives globally, and fresh cases being reported in India. "We are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they're able. Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us -- and the world around us," Twitter said in a blog. In a series of tweets, Jennifer Christie, who leads the people team at Twitter, said, "Today, we shared additional guidance, strongly encouraging all Twitter employees globally to work from home if they're able. Our goal is to minimise contact with others and contain any potential risk, protecting everyone's health and safety." The Indian information technology industry, which gets a significant chunk of its revenues from exports, is also focussing on ensuring the safety of employees. A TCS spokesperson said the company is working closely with all the relevant global, regional and local health institutions and are implementing the latest recommendations given to the company. "We are ensuring that our staff have all the information and support they require. In addition, we are also working closely with our clients to co-ordinate any measures in this situation," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that specifically in Italy, as a precautionary measure, the company has implemented work from home and restrictions on travel. "This had also been put in place across some countries in Asia-Pacific, and is being monitored and modified based on the situation in each location," the spokesperson said. HCL Technologies said it has invoked an epidemic contingency plan in the impacted geographies and is providing full support to employees, wherever possible. "'Remote Working/Work From Home' strategy has been activated to aid social distancing in the impacted regions. Travel advisory across the organisation has been issued with full precautionary measures," the company said. It has also formed a special global task force to actively monitor the situation and take necessary actions in consultation with external agencies (International SOS). "HCL is pro-actively invoking all required measures to ensure business continuity and will also be providing full support to clients and employees," the company said. The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the infection which has killed over 3,100 people worldwide. Last month, Mobile World Congress (MWC), the biggest annual showcase for the telecom and technology industry held in Barcelona, was cancelled in view of the coronavirus outbreak whose epicentre was in China. The virus outbreak, which has seen cases being registered across the world including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan, has had a significant impact on supply chains and manufacturing, given China is one of the biggest sources of components for products like electronics. Icelandic English Eimskipafelag Islands hf.'s Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 26 March 2020 at 16:00 at the company's headquarters, Korngarar 2, Reykjavik, Iceland. Enclosed is the convocation, proposed agenda and proposed resolutions for the Annual General Meeting. Attachments A group of Italian tourists tried to escape coronavirus confinement in Mauritania but were caught and sent back to their home country, the West African country said Wednesday. The 15 tourists arrived in the capital Nouakchott on Saturday planning to travel to the northern tourist hub of Atar, health ministry spokesman Abdelkader Ould Ahmed told AFP. But Mauritania has imposed a confinement period on travellers from countries considered to be a high coronavirus risk -- including Italy, which has Europe's most cases with more than 3,000 as well as 107 deaths. So the tourists spent Saturday night in a Nouakchott hotel while waiting to go into confinement, the spokesman said. "They made the mistake of attempting to evade the conditions imposed by the Mauritanian coronavirus health plan by secretly leaving their hotel for Atar," he said. "The 15 were caught 90 kilometres (56 miles) from Nouakchott and brought back to the airport, from where they were re-routed to their country on Sunday via Morocco." Italy's foreign ministry confirmed that the tourists had all returned home, "assisted by our diplomatic network". The Mauritanian spokesman said the confinement rules applied to "all travellers from risk areas, without distinction". He added that this "rigour has paid off" as the country has yet to register a case of coronavirus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The popularity of Chinese-owned video sharing service TikTok continues to grow among young people in the United States. In 2019, experts say the service more than doubled its American user base to 37 million. TikTok is especially popular with teens and young adults. The service lets users create and share short videos, many of which are under 15 seconds. The TikTok app offers a wide choice of sounds, brief parts of songs and special effects tools to help create a video. Some TikTok-based memes go viral. Videos often include popular songs from well-known artists and TikTok has even helped launch the careers of new music stars. TikTok is considered a competitor to video-sharing app Snapchat, as well as Facebooks Instagram service. Snapchat and Instagram also mainly interest young users with a wide mix of photos and videos centered largely on fashion, pop culture and humor. Last year, TikTok was the second-most downloaded app from Apple and Google stores. Only WhatsApp was downloaded more. Research company Sensor Tower estimates people have downloaded the TikTok app 1.65 billion times. TikTok has been used by many major companies to reach young people who use little or no traditional media. One of those companies is American-based e.l.f. Cosmetics. The makeup companys chief marketer, Kory Marchisotto, told The Associated Press that TikTok is where the Gen Z party is. Gen Z is a name used to describe the generation born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Thats where theyre all hanging out, Marchisotto said. Companies appearing on TikTok can make money through advertising. Often, the companies create user challenges as part of their ad campaigns. In challenges, users are invited to publish their own videos in which they perform similar dance moves. One campaign by e.l.f. Cosmetics, for example, asked people to wink and move their lips while following a song. TikTok users created 3 million videos that received more than 4 billion views. While TikTok has continued to grow since its U.S. launch in 2017, it has also received media attention for being the first Chinese-owned social-media service to rise to major success in the U.S. U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about TikToks collection of user data and the possibility that the company could be sharing information with the Chinese government. In addition, the lawmakers said the app presents national security risks and could be used to censor material for users in the U.S. TikTok has said it does not share information with the Chinese government and denies the app carries national security risks or is used to censor information. Still, the concerns led the U.S. government to launch a national security investigation into TikTok. Also, the U.S. Department of Defense warned last December of possible security risks linked to the use of TikTok. The agency urged employees not to use the app. The warning led several military services to ban the use of TikTok on government devices. In addition, some groups and parents have expressed concerns about videos appearing on TikTok that might be harmful for young users. Nonprofit privacy group Common Sense Media has issued guidance for parents. The group notes on its website that many videos appearing on TikTok include offensive language and sexual subjects. For these reasons, the group urges parents to supervise what their children watch on TikTok and suggests that the service is best for those over age 16. TikToks head of creator partnerships, Kudzi Chikumbu, told the AP the company is working hard to make sure the app is a safe and positive environment. Last year, the company agreed to pay the U.S. government a $5.7 million fine for collecting personal information from children under age 13. Since then, TikTok created a separate part of the app that restricts possibly offensive material. The app requires users to be 13 years old, although it does not confirm users ages. TikTok says it does remove what it calls wrongly created accounts if they are reported by other users. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press and Reuters, and information from Common Sense Media. Caty Weaver was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Quiz - China's TikTok Keeps Growing Among US Youth Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story meme n. usually, an image with a caption, which is spread from person to person on the internet fashion n. the most popular style of clothes, appearance or behavior at a particular time hang out v. to spend time in a particular place with a particular group of people challenge n. a difficult task that tests a persons abilities wink v. to shut one eye briefly as a signal or in teasing censor v. to examine books, movies, letters, etc., in order to remove things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc. positive adj. marked by or indicating acceptance, approval or affirmation Cayman International Insurance Supports ReFocus Conference Members of Cayman's international insurance industry are currently attending the annual ReFocus Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. ReFocus, a global conference for senior-level life insurance and reinsurance executives is jointly hosted by The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). With over 800 industry executives participating, representing almost 250 companies, the presence of a strong Cayman contingent further supports Cayman's footprint in the longevity reinsurance market. Representatives from Aon, Conyers and Marsh are joined by Cayman reinsurers, Aureum Re, Knighthead and Nassau Re. The Insurance Managers Association of Cayman (IMAC) Vice Chair, Adrian Lynch currently attending the conference, remarked: "With carriers, brokers, lawyers and insurance managers in attendance, and with an increased interest amongst US edants in Cayman's offering, I am confident ReFocus will become an ever more strategic event for Cayman." Derek Stenson, member of IMAC's marketing committee added, "It's clearly evident every year at this conference that there is growing recognition among industry leaders of the advantages of Cayman for certain longevity structures. The ever-increasing contingent representing the jurisdiction is excited to meet the various industry stakeholders and to use the opportunity to discuss and showcase the positive and growing momentum Cayman is experiencing in the space." Martin Cooke, Chair of IMAC's marketing committee commented, "Long term insurance and reinsurance is an increasingly important class of business in Cayman. The growth we're seeing in this area further highlights how Cayman has become a reliable option as an alternative jurisdiction for new structures in this space." For additional information, including regularly updated statistics on insurance licensing, visit the website of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority by going to: www.cima.ky View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005853/en/ Delta Air Lines abandoned plans for daily flights between Portland and Tokyo on Wednesday, citing diminished demand due to the coronavirus. United Airlines, meanwhile, said the outbreak has prompted it to reduce international flights by 20% next month, and cut domestic flights by 10%. For us at PDX, thats the first COVID (19) impact weve seen on our flight schedules, said Kama Simonds, spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, which runs Portland International Airport. The port doesnt have fresh data on passenger volumes, Simonds said, so its not yet clear whether the coronavirus outbreak is reducing the number of people flying in and out of Portland. But the airlines clearly anticipate a profound effect. Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: Email: Deltas daily flights between Portland and Tokyo will operate three times each week beginning March 7. The airline also reduced the frequency of flights to Japan at six other U.S. airports. Separately, United said it will reduce flights across its schedule beginning in April and freeze hiring to save costs amid reduced flight demand, according to CNBC. The airline didnt immediately specify the changes to its Portland flight schedule. We sincerely hope that these latest measures are enough, but the dynamic nature of this outbreak requires us to be nimble and flexible moving forward in how we respond, the airline said in a widely reported letter to employees. President Donald Trump said airlines have not asked for a federal bailout. At least nine airlines have said they will waive flight change fees because of the coronavirus. Alaska Airlines, the busiest carrier operating at PDX, said last week it is suspending change and cancellation fees for newly purchased flights between February 27 and June 30. Correction: This article has been corrected to accurately describe the history of Deltas flights between Portland and Tokyo. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Hungary rebuilding churches, Christian towns in Middle East to strengthen Christianity worldwide Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Amid the international communitys lack of response to the ongoing severe persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the small nation of Hungary is spending millions of dollars in the region to help rebuild churches and Christian communities. This central European country is home to less than 1% of the worlds population, but it has spent at least $40 million since 2017 helping persecuted Christians, according to Fox News, which spoke to Peter Szijjarto, Hungarys Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We give the money directly to the churches, to the church communities. We have rebuilt 33 torn-down Christian churches in Lebanon, for example, Szijjarto was quoted as saying. Hungary, which affirms its Christian foundations in its constitution that was ratified in 2011, has also rebuilt towns and schools for the Christian communities in the Middle East. Hungarian funds have been used to rebuild 1,000 homes on the Ninevah Plains in Iraq, according to Catholic News Service. Under current circumstances, when we are faced with tremendous historic challenges ahead of us, ahead of the European Union, someone has to speak openly, Szijjarto said. And this road is taken by us currently. Last month, Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Oban acknowledged in a speech that the Christian culture was under attack. A whole culture is under organized attack, our culture and our civilization. Not only in Africa, not only in the Middle East, but here, too, in Europe, the land of, so far, the most successful Christian culture. Orban, who is serving for a third consecutive term, has been criticized for being vocal about conservative issues. Szijjarto defended him in his interview with Fox News. If a nation is not proud of its national identity, or if it does not stick to historic cultural and religious heritage, then that country and that nation will not be strong for sure because it loses the anchor, he said. In global politics, the fact that Christians are being persecuted is being ignored, Szijjarto said last September, according to CNS. He said his government was fighting against the perception that Christianophobia would be the last acceptable form of discrimination. Szijjarto added that while Muslim leaders speak enthusiastically about the plight of their mistreated people, Christians shy away from highlighting the persecution of Christians. The international community is absolutely not sensitive to Christian persecution, and prefers to address issues of religious minorities, he said. In its 2020 World Watch List, leading Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors USA released its annual data report, saying this year highlights a drastic increase in attacks against Christian buildings and the imprisonment of Christians. At least 2,983 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons during the last reporting period (Nov. 1, 2018, to Oct. 31, 2019). That is an average of eight Christians killed per day. The data also showed that about 260 million Christians experience high levels of persecution in the top 50 countries on the list. The report stated that 9,488 churches or Christian buildings or an average of 25 per day were attacked during the 2019 reporting period. The number of Christians detained without trial, arrested and imprisoned increased from 2,625 in the 2019 report to 3,711 in the 2020 report. Last year, some media outlets, including ProPublica, criticized the U.S. Agency for International Development for giving a grant to help restore the Nineveh Plains and strengthen communities victimized by the Islamic State terrorist group, claiming that USAID could be in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution for favoring Iraqi Christian groups for grants in a predominantly Muslim country. However, some religious freedom advocates said they felt that criticism of USAID funding going to these groups was an attempt to turn Americas bipartisan desire to aid religious minority communities decimated by IS and on the verge of extinction into a partisan issue. It is irrational, immoral and inconsistent with international human rights theory and policy to argue that the United States should not be helping Christians or a religious group targeted with religious genocide by ISIS, international human rights lawyer Nina Shea, a senior fellow with the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, told The Christian Post at the time. Their conclusion is that the U.S. should not be helping religious genocide survivors because they are a religious group even though they were targeted for religious reasons. Before the Trump administration came to power in 2017, USAID funding for Iraq was funneled through the United Nations. But many advocates spoke out about how aid funding that was sent to the U.N. was not making its way to help thousands of displaced Christians. GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more It looks like Google might soon learn a hard lesson, courtesy of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: Dont mess with Texas. In early September, Texas announced it would head an antitrust initiative against Google, with Paxton at the helm. The probe is now comprised of 50 state attorneys general, all questioning whether Google has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The investigation plans to focus specifically on whether Google acted in a way that harms either its competitors or its consumers, particularly in the fields of internet search and advertising. Google has been criticized for unfairly controlling the exchanges where digital advertising is bought and sold, and targeting its opposition as a result. In fact, in 2019, an ad-tech company sued Google for blatant and rampant coercive and anti-competitive activities after Google maliciously and artificially (imposed) restrictions on how ads can be supported on its platform. That type of behavior potentially is a threat to consumers everywhere and Paxtons investigation seeks to uncover the tech giants practices. In response, Google has sought to obstruct the process, attempting to outlast the investigations will to continue. But Texas top law enforcement official isnt letting that happen. On Feb. 5, Paxton issued a stern warning to the tech giant: Its effort to delay the ongoing antitrust investigation wont be tolerated. In its most recent delay tactic, Google filed a motion seeking to prevent Texas from using the council of outside consultants. Google clearly wants to slow the investigation to a crawl a tactic the company has used to great effect in its countless battles over intellectual property. For years, the company has used the lengthy appellate system to wear down any resistance to its actions. Paxton knows this tactic has effectively become the companys standard operating procedure to advance its agenda. For example, in 2014, after getting walloped in the federal courts in a copyright battle over Oracles intellectual property, Google used its army of lawyers to extend the litigation process substantially. Rather than agree to the terms of Javas licensing agreement, which it initially asked for, Google merely copied the relevant portions of Java that it needed to create its own mobile operating system. Then Google attempted to claim its copying was both justified and legal. Google has sought to use its superior financial circumstances to buy itself more time and outlast its competition, engaging Oracle in extended litigation. Even after six years, the lawsuit continues to this day, with arguments to be heard in Google v. Oracle at the Supreme Court on March 24. Paxton recognizes that if Google is allowed to start delaying the attorneys generals investigative process for the antitrust probe, it wont stop and he doesnt seem keen to fall into that trap. We dont want to drag (the antitrust investigation) out. We want to get it going, Paxton explained. We dont want the technology to pass us by so that by the time we get to any resolution, it doesnt matter. Our attorney general is well aware of Googles history when it comes to litigation strategy. He well understands both the companys anti-competitive streak, as well as the tactics it utilizes to avoid responsibility. Google v. Oracle may have ultimately reached the Supreme Court after nearly two decades the last stop on the litigation train but Paxton is resolved not to let his investigation go that far. With a little help from our attorney general, Google may soon learn not to mess with Texas. Matt Mackowiak is president of Austin- and Washington, D.C.-based Potomac Strategy Group. A woman shows a test for the new coronavirus. Sebastian Gollnow | picture alliance | Getty Images China's tech giants are accelerating their efforts in the field of health-care technology using cloud computing and artificial intelligence, as the country looks to contain the fast-spreading new coronavirus. While U.S. technology firms from Apple to Microsoft have spoken publicly about their push into health tech, China's companies have been quietly working in the background. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus, Beijing has called on the country's tech giants to pitch in to fight the outbreak. Tech firms have expanded their surveillance capabilities to help the government track where people who have potentially been in contact with the virus are located. And now, the Chinese tech giants are also boosting their push into health care with a focus on providing tools to help the medical industry. So what are they up to? Alibaba Alibaba runs some of China's biggest e-commerce platforms, a booming cloud computing business, a logistics network, and one of the country's biggest mobile payment apps Alipay via its subsidiary Ant Financial. It has leaned into these to introduce some health-care features. In January, Alibaba launched an online clinic service on its Alipay and Taobao apps for users in Hubei province, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated and the region with the most number of cases. That service, which allowed people to get online consultations with doctors, was later extended to Beijing residents. In February, the company launched a drug delivery service for people requiring medicines to treat chronic diseases. It comes as hospitals are overburdened with coronavirus cases, and are sometimes left with little resources to help those with other chronic diseases who need urgent treatment. Alibaba's research arm also developed a new artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze computerized tomography (CT) scans. The company claims its AI can "identify the difference of images between the highly suspected coronavirus-infected pneumonia, slightly suspected, and non coronavirus-infected pneumonia within 20 seconds, with (an) accuracy rate up to 96%." The algorithm has been used in 26 hospitals across 16 provinces and municipalities, Alibaba said. And the technology will be made available "in the coming weeks" to more than 100 hospitals in China designated to treat coronavirus-affected patients. Alibaba's cloud unit made its platform free to global research institutions to help them accelerate their efforts in so-called gene sequencing related to the coronavirus. This could also help scientists come up with a vaccine faster. Baidu Baidu is China's largest search engine but has also developed AI capabilities too. It currently runs an online doctor consultation platform and the company has made that free for any online medical queries. Baidu said the platform has handled over 15 million inquiries from users and hosts over 100,000 doctors to answer questions. Baidu is also giving an algorithm it calls "LinerFold" for free to gene testing agencies, epidemic control centers and research institutions globally. The algorithm is able to help scientists understand the genetic make up of the coronavirus, and could help efforts to develop a vaccine. "The special situation of the epidemic has created huge demand for online medical services and information. The public has been using the internet to gain information about the latest development of the epidemic and professional health-care services," Yang Minglu, general manager of Baidu's health-care business unit told CNBC. "In the future, Baidu health care will continue to focus on technology research and development as well as intelligent health care system, building a one-stop health management service platform and actively participate in China's public health development." Tencent Tencent is one of the largest video gaming companies in the world but it also runs China's most popular messaging platform, WeChat. The company has launched free online health consultation services via five online health-care platforms through WeChat. There is also a so-called "chatbot" which allows users to ask questions and get basic diagnosis. A chatbot is an automated messaging service. Tencent has also opened up its supercomputing facility to help researchers find a cure to the virus, CNN reported. Supercomputers can run processes much faster than regular computers. Huawei Huawei is known for its telecommunications networking equipment and smartphones, but it also has a small but growing cloud business. Its cloud unit, along with a company called GrandOmics Biosciences, developed a tool to understand the genetic make-up of the coronavirus. Huawei technology is also being used by researchers to screen drugs in order to find one that might be suitable for the treatment of coronavirus. The company's cloud computing platform is also being used for the analysis of CT scans which could help identify patients with the virus. "Health technology has been increasingly important for the medical and health industry moving forward, Huawei is dedicated to helping the industry to accelerate the AI research and applications with our innovative technology and solutions," a spokesperson told CNBC. DiDi DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler's head of U.S. sales is leaving the company after a bumpy career that saw him file a whistleblower lawsuit over a scheme to pay dealers to report fake sales numbers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2014 file photo, Reid Bigland unveils the Dodge Challenger Shaker at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto. Fiat Chrysler's head of U.S. sales is leaving the automaker after more than two decades. Bigland had a bumpy career that saw huge growth but also a whistleblower lawsuit over a scheme to pay dealers to report fake sales numbers. The Italian-American company says Bigland will leave April 3, 2020. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young, File) DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler's head of U.S. sales is leaving the company after a bumpy career that saw him file a whistleblower lawsuit over a scheme to pay dealers to report fake sales numbers. The company says in a statement that Reid Bigland will leave Fiat Chrysler April 3 after 22 years with the company. He'll pursue other interests. Bigland also headed the Ram brand and Fiat Chrysler Canada. During his tenure the company saw big U.S. sales growth, mainly with the Jeep and Ram brands. But his career was marred by the sales scandal, which forced Fiat Chrysler to restate numbers and pay $40 million to settle a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Terms of Biglands departure werent announced, but the company said all legal matters with Bigland have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved. FCA CEO Mike Manley thanked Bigland for his service in a company statement. We all wish him every success in his future endeavours, Manley said. Bigland said in the same statement that that its been a privilege to work at FCA and with the companys dealers. Last June, Bigland sued Fiat Chrysler alleging that it withheld 90% of his pay package because he testified in the SEC inquiry of sales reporting practices. He alleged that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles violated Michigan's Whistleblower Protection Act, retaliating against him because he testified in the probe of whether the company inflated sales and deceived stockholders. The company withheld Bigland's 2018 long-term incentive stock payout, special dividends and an annual bonus in retaliation for his testimony and because he sold some stock, according to the lawsuit. Documents say the dividends alone are worth about $1.8 million. In September Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay $40 million to settle an SEC complaint alleging that the company misled investors by overstating its monthly sales numbers over a five-year period. The company inflated sales by paying dealers to report fake numbers from 2012 to 2016, the SEC alleged in a complaint. Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay the civil penalty and to stop violating anti-fraud, reporting and internal accounting control regulations, the SEC said. The automaker did not admit or deny the agency's allegations. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Fiat Chrysler said it has reviewed and refined its sales reporting procedures. The SEC said the automaker boasted about a streak of year-over-year sales increases into 2016, when the streak actually was broken in September of 2013. When the company disclosed the sales scheme in 2016, it said that it had a "reserve" stock of cars that had been shipped to big fleet buyers such as rental car companies but not recorded as sales. The SEC said employees called this database of actual but unreported sales the "cookie jar." The company dipped into those sales to stop the streak from ending, or when it would have missed other sales targets. Bigland alleged in his lawsuit said that he inherited the sales reporting system when he took over the top sales job in 2011. When a dealer sued the company over the reporting system in 2016, Fiat Chrysler reported problems to the SEC, according to the documents. The company named Jeff Kommor to replace Bigland as head of U.S. sales, while David Buckingham will lead FCA Canada. Mike Koval will be interim head of the Ram brand in North America. TRENTON, N.J., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Registration is open for BioNJ's Tenth Annual BioPartnering Conference, co-sponsored by J.P. Morgan and J&J Innovation. A unique opportunity to meet potential partners on the East Coast, life science companies can now submit their application to present their organization to over 500 public and private company investors, industry leaders and partnering professionals. The deadline for application submissions is March 27. Click here for details. Last year's conference convened attendees representing 17 states and 5 countries and multiple academic research institutions. The full-day program features 1-1 partnering meetings, company presentations, start-up pitches, exhibits and plenary sessions. "We're thrilled to once again present BioNJ's BioPartnering Conference, "Navigating Unprecedented Global Uncertainty," with J.P. Morgan and J&J Innovation. Both of these organizations are dedicated to strengthening the ecosystem and supporting the life sciences industry in bringing new therapies and medicines to Patients," said Debbie Hart, President and CEO, BioNJ. "The multi-faceted agenda is designed to foster productive partnerships, create fruitful opportunities, grow the ecosystem and bolster medical innovation." In particular, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss research collaborations with these world-renowned institutions: Columbia University Coriell Institute for Medical Research Hackensack Meridian Health Johns Hopkins University New Jersey Innovation Institute New York University Princeton University Rowan University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Stevens Institute of Technology The Wistar Institute University of Pennsylvania Early Bird registration for BioNJ Members is $295 and $345 for Future Members through March 27. Starting March 28, registration for BioNJ Members will be $345 and $425 for Future Members. There is no additional fee for companies to apply or present. Register now to be entered into the Partnering System, available April 8. Contact Samantha Bamberger at [email protected] or 609-890-3185 with questions. Contact Kim Minton at [email protected] or click here to learn about Sponsorship opportunities. About BioNJ BioNJ is the life sciences trade association in New Jersey with nearly 400 Member companies representing research-based life sciences organizations and stakeholders across the ecosystem from the largest biopharmaceutical companies to early stage start-ups. BioNJ is dedicated to ensuring a vibrant ecosystem where Science is Supported, Companies are Created, Drugs are Developed and Patients are Paramount. Because Patients Can't Wait, BioNJ supports its Members in the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies and cures that save and improve lives and lessen the burden of illness and disease to society by driving capital formation, fostering entrepreneurship, advocating for public policies that advance medical innovation, providing access to talent and education and offering a cost-saving array of critical commercial resources. For more information about BioNJ, please visit www.BioNJ.org. Contact Randi Bromberg Vice President, Communications and Marketing O) 609-890-3185 C) 609-955-1067 [email protected] SOURCE BioNJ Related Links www.bionj.org The US launched an airstrike today against Taliban fighters in retaliation for the killing of at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of attacks. It was the first strike by American forces since a troop withdrawal agreement was signed between the two sides on Saturday as part of a historic peace deal. Taliban militants killed Afghan soldiers and police officers on Tuesday night, just hours after US President Donald Trump said he had a 'very good' chat with their political chief. The militants have ramped up violence against Afghan security forces in recent days, ending a partial truce put in place during the run-up to a landmark US-Taliban withdrawal deal signed in Doha on Saturday. Insurgents launched attacks on at least three army posts in Kunduz and attacked police in central Uruzgan province on Tuesday night. In response the Pentagon launched a strike in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, a US forces spokesman said today. Afghan Taliban fighters and villagers attend a gathering in Alingar district of Laghman Province on the day the militants said they were resuming operations against Afghan government targets Afghan Taliban militants and villagers celebrating the peace deal and their victory in the Afghan conflict on US in Afghanistan, in Alingar district of Laghman Province on Monday Taliban militants killed Afghan soldiers and police officers on Tuesday night, just hours after US President Donald Trump said he had a 'very good' chat with their political chief US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted: 'The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack.' He added: "We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required." Leggett said insurgents had carried out 43 attacks on checkpoints in Helmand on Tuesday alone. Provincial police spokesman Mohammad Zaman Hamdard said: "In the past two days we have witnessed the most intense Taliban attacks in Helmand. They have attacked several districts and many military bases." News of the airstrike in southern Helmand province - the first in 11 days - came hours after Donald Trump told reporters he had had a 'very good' chat with the Taliban political chief. Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan. A defence ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the Afghan army death toll last in the recent attacks night, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities. Afghan security officials patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan, yesterday. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said his government had not pledged to free Taliban prisoners President Trump had sharp words for the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, suggesting they were doing well financially from the prolonged presence of American troops Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council, said: 'Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police.' The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province on Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi saying: 'Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded.' The violence has cast a pall on the nascent Afghan peace process, with the insurgents clashing with Kabul over a prisoner exchange ahead of talks that are due to begin on March 10. On Tuesday Trump told reporters in Washington that he had a 'very good' relationship with Taliban political chief Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents. 'The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also,' he said. Trump has touted the Doha deal as a way to end the bloody, 18-year US military presence in Afghanistan - right in time for his November re-election bid. Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul. Afghan Taliban militants and villagers in Alingar district of Laghman Province on Monday. The Taliban said they were resuming offensive operations against Afghan security forces, ending the partial truce that preceded the signing of a deal between the insurgents and Washington Afghan civil society activists holding banners in Dari that reads: 'We cannot forget the court-martials, Taliban crime in Afghanistan, Taliban group are the factor of destruction and genocide' as they chanted slogans against the US agreement with the Taliban The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives - something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start. Trump said the Taliban and Washington both 'have a very common interest' in ending the war. He had sharper words for Ghani's government, however, suggesting they might be 'reluctant' to pursue a deal. 'They've done very well with the United States for many years -- far beyond military if you look at all the money that we spent in Afghanistan,' he said. Since Saturday's deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming 'victory' over the US and on Monday they announced they would resume attacks on Afghan national forces. The halt to the limited truce, which began on February 22, ended what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have born the brunt of the deadly violence. Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open 'initial contacts' with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives. Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators. The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners, while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine 'the feasibility of releasing' captives. The government of Turkmenistan has expressed its firm support to the autonomy plan offered by Morocco for a lasting settlement of the Sahara conflict, saying this realistic plan, backed by the international community, is the only solution to this regional conflict. This stand was voiced by the foreign minister of this Central Asian country Rachid Meredov after the talks he held Wednesday in Rabat with Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita. During the meeting, Rachid Meredov handed his interlocutor a message from president of Turkmenistan, Gourbangouli Berdymoukhamedov, to King Mohammed VI. The top diplomat of Turkmenistan started on Tuesday a two-day working visit to the Kingdom, the first of its kind since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992. The visit highlighted by the signing of a MoU for the establishment of a joint commission and an agreement on the abolition of visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports. The two foreign departments also agreed on a cooperation roadmap for the period 2020-2021, covering politics and diplomacy, legal matters, trade and economy, as well as culture. A boy of 16 was beaten to death after visiting a friend in hospital who had been attacked at school a day earlier, his family say. Shanur Ahmeds body was found on Tuesday morning, hours after 30 youths armed with baseball bats were seen gathering near a train station. His grieving family yesterday blasted police after they warned officers on Monday evening when the student went missing that he may be in danger. They believe Shanur was inadvertently caught up in a dispute between two gangs. Yesterday relatives wept on finding the boys glasses and his tissues lying scattered at the scene near a pool of blood which had yet to be examined by forensics officers. Police later returned to collect the evidence. Shanur, an A-level student at Newham Sixth Form College in east London, vanished at 6pm after going to see a friend in hospital who had been attacked. Shanur Ahmed, 16, was found dead just before 9am yesterday. He had suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene near Gallions Reach Docklands Light Railway station His worried parents contacted his friends, who said they had seen a message circulating on social media suggesting something had happened to him near a railway station. His family, who live in Manor Park, east London, drove past Gallions Reach station three times where a witness had seen the youths with baseball bats. But tragically, they did not realise the teenager lay dying from head injuries yards away in the scrubland. His uncle Asad Ahmed, 40, said of the message circulating on social media: The information was passed to the police. It may have been couple of inexperienced officers dealing with it at the time. When we found out that he is in danger, he may have been stabbed or is in need of help, the protocol from the police, we understand, is they should have deployed a search party, along with a helicopter. Having come today to the scene where he was lying down, I think a police helicopter would have picked it up straight away. Today, rather than mourning a death of a child, we probably could have saved a life. He added: Were aware there was an altercation at his college, but not with him, there was another child, who was hospitalised. Shanur visited the friend at hospital but thereafter weve not had any contact with him, he said, adding: This was totally out of character for him to be out. Weve lost a child who was bright, he had a bright future. He had plans to go university. He was a child every mother would want, every parents dream child. Family speaking to police at the scene where 16-year-old Shanur Ahmed was found dead on Tuesday at Gallions Reach DLR station Another uncle, Zahed Ahmed, said: My thinking is, it was a gang murder. So you want justice, because my nephew was innocent, totally innocent. Scotland Yard said officers were looking at a possible link to the previous attack at school. It is believed that the murder may have been a revenge attack for the school incident. Two rival gangs armed with baseball bats are thought to have met near the station on Monday evening to settle the dispute. Detective Chief Inspector Larry Smith said: We need anyone with information to tell us what they know. In particular, we want to speak to anyone who was in the vicinity of Gallions Reach at around 8pm on Monday. Police say 16-year-old Shanur was found dead just before 8.40am. He had suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene near Gallions Reach Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station. Shocked commuter Lucy Farrell, 25, who lives in Docklands, east London, said: 'I was waiting for the train on my way to the doctor's when I noticed a DLR cleaner standing in the field with a long item. 'At first, I thought it might have been dumped rubbish, but when I looked closer I realised it was a body. Flowers at the scene where 16-year-old Shanur Ahmed was found dead on Tuesday at Gallions Reach DLR station 'I thought he was in a body bag, but then I saw his hand. 'It was a young man and he was laying flat, face down in the grass with his hands by his sides. 'There was a muddy trail as if he had been dragged there. 'The cleaner was on the phone for a while and she was shaking him, but nothing was happening. I think she must've called 999. 'She was trying to speak to him, but he wasn't responding. 'He was wearing all black and he still had his black rucksack on so he might have even been a schoolboy.' She added: 'Where he was, you can't walk through. What was he doing there? 'I only saw him as I was on the platform above, overlooking the area. A tissue the family recognised at the scene where 16 year old Shanur Ahmed was found dead 'It's just so sad to think of what might have happened to him. He could have been there all night before the cleaner found him in the grass. 'The police said he was deceased, but they didn't know what happened. It's just so sad.' Shanur's father wept under an umbrella in the rain as relatives laid flowers at the scene on Wednesday. Paying tribute to his nephew, Asad Ahmed described Shanur as 'every parent's dream child' who loved games and football, and was looking forward to passing his driving test. The 40-year-old said it was 'disgraceful' for the family to come to the murder scene to find the glasses his nephew was wearing still on the ground. Mr Ahmed said: 'He was a child every mother would want, every parent's dream child. 'We know they were his glasses because his dad buys everything for him and as soon as we got here, we saw them. 'Having to come here and see what we are seeing is disgraceful. Flowers left at the scene where 16-year-old Shanur Ahmed was found dead in London 'To actually come here and find Shanur's glasses that he was wearing with blood spatters on the ground is very distressing and disturbing for us as a family. 'There is also the tissue that he used at home which must have been in his pocket. It is the tissue all the family use and that we are using here today. 'I spoke with the police officer and he said they had not finished the search. I said it should be cordoned off. 'How much have the police and forensics actually done to lead to any conviction? 'From what we understand at the moment, there has been a lack of experience within the police and the protocols may not have been followed. 'It was reported to me officers might not have been as experienced due to the time it was reported to them.' Mr Ahmed said Shanur was reported missing on Monday night when his family gave information to the police, from appeals on Snapchat. Forensic investigators are pictured scouring the scene where 16-year-old Shanur Ahmed was found dead with head injuries in Beckton, east London on Tuesday morning He said Shanur might have still been alive had the police deployed a search party, but that he was not found until the following morning at around 8.30am. Mr Ahmed said: 'They were actually being given leads to say where this child might be. We were getting phone calls to say he might be by the station. 'Police should have deployed a search party and perhaps a helicopter on Monday night and perhaps at that point, he may still have been alive. 'At around 6pm or 7pm we understood that Shanur had gone missing but it was only at 10pm that we actually set out to search for him, as that was very out of character for him. 'We told police we believed he was in this area, after friends put out an appeal on Snapchat. 'My brother even passed by this train station three times, not knowing Shanur was there. 'We were passing information to police who said ''we have got enough information, we do not need any more.'' 'The superintendent of the case, the police liasion and the murder team say they were doing everything they can for us.' Officers (one pictured) were scrambled to the scene at 8.38am yesterday and were forced to close nearby DLR station Gallions Reach until 6pm Murder Squad detectives are trying to establish if reports of around 30 youths - some armed with potential weapons - spotted near the station on Monday night may be linked to Shanur's death But he added: 'They are not doing everything. 'Evidence has been left on site at the scene. It has just been treated as another knife crime, another young life that could have possibly been saved. 'The area was cordoned off yesterday and the station was shut down until the evening. 'For us to come here and pay our respects at a place where Shanur possibly passed away and find evidence left here is very, very distressing.' Shahed Ahmed, 44, another uncle, said: 'The forensics tent was right here, they have already taken it away. Why? 'Here there is fresh blood, a spanner which could be a murder weapon and my nephew's glasses.' Detectives called back to the murder scene by Shanur's relatives told the family the spanner was examined and deemed to be unconnected. Referring to the other items found, a member of the investigation team said: 'We cannot say why they were not taken.' The teen's glasses were placed into an evidence bag as Shanur's relatives watched on in the rain. Paramedics were first called to reports of an 'unresponsive male' found on an area of scrubland, at the rear of Gallions Reach station just before 8.40am yesterday. Shanur was the second teenager to be murdered in London this year. (Natural News) As the world scrambles to prepare and combat the growing coronavirus outbreak, England reportedly has only 15 available beds for adults to treat the most severe respiratory failures. The U.K. government and the countrys National Health Service (NHS) report that healthcare facilities will experience struggles to cope with an influx of patients should the number of coronavirus cases rise. The Guardian reported that these 15 available beds for adults spread among five health centers across England are specifically for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment. According to The Kings Fund, an independent charity organization, even NHS beds used for other health problems, like general diseases and mental illnesses, were halved over the past 30 years, going from 299,000 to about 142,000 beds. While the government claims that the number of beds could be increased during an emergency, similar to the 30 beds provided during the 2018-19 winter flu season, the NHS claims that their systems will find it difficult to cope if more than 28 patients need this specific treatment. This suggests that if there are no beds available to handle an influx of patients in the U.K., the country would have to source additional beds from institutions from other nations like the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. ECMO treatment is often only used in extreme cases of respiratory failure when other types of treatment wont work. It makes use of an artificial lung outside of the body to pump oxygen into the patients bloodstream and continuously pump the blood throughout their body. This particular treatment has been used in China ground-zero for the novel coronavirus with the government recently ordering more equipment from Germany. (Related: How can the USA be named most prepared for the coronavirus pandemic when virtually ZERO Americans were tested because there were no testing kits?) Since April 2013, NHS England has commissioned a total of 15 adult respiratory extracorporeal membrane oxygenation beds from five providers in England, with further provision in Scotland. In periods of high demand, capacity can be increased, said Jo Churchill, a health minister, in response to a question about coronavirus preparedness last week. The ministers also revealed that the U.K. gathered eight high consequence infectious disease beds and about 500 regular infectious disease beds since the beginning of February. However, Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, questioned the preparedness of the NHS to deal with a sudden influx of coronavirus cases. After years of Tory austerity, we know weve lost well over 15,000 beds since 2010, he said. We know that last week critical care bed occupancy was running at over 80%. There are serious questions about whether the NHS has the resources, the staff and the capacity to provide the care thats needed should this seriously escalate. An NHS spokesperson responded to Ashworths claims, saying that the ECMO treatment is only suitable for very small, specific cases for adults and that their organization is constantly monitoring demand for this particular type of care and could quickly expand their provisions of these ECMO-equipped beds. Preparations for coronavirus On Friday night, the 20th patient in the U.K. tested positive for coronavirus, which health experts claim as the first transmission within the country. This has prompted health chiefs to draw up a battle plan to contain a possible outbreak of the virus. The plan, due to be published this week, warns that all critical care services could be at risk of being overwhelmed by the pandemic. The Telegraph reports that officials express fears that about 70 percent of Britons could develop the virus and about 15 percent of them could be heading straight to the hospital. However, many of these people will likely contract a milder version of the disease, only experiencing cough, fever and muscle aches. Additionally, the plan states that the government will work double-time to bring forward emergency legislation that could help speed up body disposal and allow children to be taught in large classes, should a large number of teachers get sick. The government also called off its boycott on BBC Radio 4s Today radio program, claiming that the ministers need to update the public on the spread of coronavirus. However, health ministers are still restricted to discussion coronavirus until it is properly understood. As of writing, Natural News estimates more than 350,000 cases of COVID-19 virus infections worldwide, with about 35,000 dead from the disease. Learn more about the ongoing outbreak at Pandemic.news. Sources include: TheGuardian.com KingsFund.org England.NHS.uk ChinaDaily.com.cn Telegraph.co.uk 1 Telegraph.co.uk 2 New York: China's Huawei Technologies, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, has pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court to new charges in a 2018 case against the company. A corporate logo sits on a Huawei Technologies router at a 5G event in London, UK. Credit:Bloomberg The latest indictment accused Huawei of conspiring to steal trade secrets from six US technology companies for two decades, lying about its business in North Korea and helping Iran track protesters during the 2009 anti-government demonstrations in that country. Huawei had previously been charged by the US government with bank fraud and violating sanctions against Iran by using Skycom Tech, a suspected front company, to obtain US goods and move money via the international banking system. It pleaded not guilty to those charges last year. At an arraignment in US District Court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, US time, Thomas Green, a US lawyer for Huawei, entered the not guilty plea on behalf of the company and three subsidiaries, including Futurewei Technologies, its US-based research arm. The deadly coronavirus has spread rapidly across the globe and has infected more than 80,000 people in 60 countries. In India too, the total number of coronavirus positive cases has risen to 28. Its spread is alarming health experts and World Health Organisation (WHO) which has committed $12 billion to contain the outbreak. How dangerous is the virus? The coronavirus family of viruses includes the common cold and more serious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, cough and breathing difficulties. Statistics from China indicate that about two per cent of people infected with the new virus have died, suggesting it may be deadlier than seasonal flu but less deadly than SARS, which killed about 10 per cent of infected individuals. The MERS outbreak in 2012 had a fatality rate of about 35 per cent. Scientists have labelled the new virus 2019-nCoV. Do face masks help? We recommend the use of masks for people who have symptoms... because the virus transmits through droplets, says medical expert Sylvie Briand. But they do not guarantee protection against infection. For people who dont have symptoms, the mask in fact is not useful, Briand says. The American Centres for Disease Controls advice is that face masks are not required for the general public. Where did the virus come from? It is believed to have originated in a food market in Chinas Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. Health experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species. Here are the dos and donts or keeping the disease at bay: Dos: Good personal hygiene is a must if Covid-19 spread has to be contained Practice frequent hand washing with soap Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing Wear a mask if you have respiratory symptoms such as cough or running nose Donts: Avoid travelling if sick Dont travel to China if not essential: The government has also advised Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to countries affected by Covid-19. Close contact with people who are unwell or showing symptoms of illness should be avoided Dont consume raw/undercooked meat and avoid contact with live animals Sumi Sukanya dutta By Express News Service India saw a sharp spike in the number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday. With worries spreading, and theories too, The New Indian Express spoke to leading virologist Dr T Jacob John from the Christian Medical College, Vellore, to gain a better understanding. Excerpts from the interview: The number of coronavirus cases in India is now spreading fast. How worried should we be? There is no point in worrying because it wont help anyone and create unnecessary panic. The point is that this virus came, like many others, from animals to humans and seems a good fit for human transmission as the global trend shows. We will need to accept the fact that this is an uninvited but most likely a permanent guest. What governments can do and are doing is to fund preventive and curative options but obviously that will take time. There are some theories that the virus does not multiply very fast beyond 26-27 degrees Celsius and therefore India being a hot country, its impact wont be huge? That, at the best, is wishful thinking without much scientific evidence. A drowning man clutches even a straw. If that were true, the virus would not have survived in Kerala in the first detected cases in the country. Singapore is also a considerably warm country and the case burden has been significantly high there as well. So I do not believe much in this temperature theory. ALSO READ: Paytm employee in Gurgaon tests positive for coronavirus, staff asked to work from home How do you rate Indias preparedness and approach so far in tackling the outbreak? In that context, how have we dealt with such outbreaks previously? I think we did a fairly good job in tackling the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 initially and the same approach of screening high-risk groups and quarantining them has been adopted now. In the case of H1N1, the standard methods had definitely slowed down transmission. Lets see how it goes from here in case of the coronavirus. At the moment, we are testing samples from suspected people but remembersnakes are mostly found when one actively looks for them. Its possible that the virus could slip into the communities undetected. COVID 19 could be a lot more challenging because symptoms are mild or not present at all initially in many infected people. So at this juncture, proper contact tracing of all confirmed cases is important. ALSO READ | Can India and the world tackle the coronavirus blow with a rate cut? But as it looks likely, if the numbers of cases go significantly high, it will be difficult to manage them because of our poor health management system. The fact is that H1N1 mortality in India is still considerably higher in India than in most developed countries. Its because our system tolerates the communicable disease burden and simple measures like making a law to ask all doctors to diagnose with lab reports serious communicable diseases and registering reasons for all pneumonia deaths are not in place. Many people in the country die of communicable disease without proper diagnosis and thats an accepted norm. For us to be prepared to tackle the health crises like the present one, the health management system has to be made robust. That needs political will and funding. While 3 per cent of the GDP is required for preventive healthcare---at least 2 per cent of the GDP has to be towards curative healthcare. As of now, Indias health budget is less than 1.5 per cent of the GDP and almost all of that is only towards the treatment part. At the individual level, what can we do to prevent the possible infection? The standard measures like maintaining good hygiene, repeated hand washing and avoiding touching your face and visiting crowded places should help people. Mapping the coronavirus: A widow whose house in Belfast was targeted in an arson attack has won High Court permission to challenge a refusal to buy it from her through a special initiative A widow whose house in Belfast was targeted in an arson attack has won High Court permission to challenge a refusal to buy it from her through a special initiative. The woman, who cannot be identified, mounted a legal challenge after the Northern Ireland Housing Executive rejected her application under the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings. SPED allows the authorities to buy homes from those unable to continue living in them due to acts of violence, threats or intimidation. Referred to as JR103, the woman was turned down for failing to meet the criteria of the property being owner-occupied and her principal or only home. The court heard that, along with her late husband, she also owned a house in north Down. In July 2015 JR103 planned to move to the Belfast property, but stated that events at that time rendered it uninhabitable. The house was vacated within days following an arson attack. She made a fresh application for the SPED scheme in July 2019, but was rejected a month later. The decision was based on conclusions that the Belfast property was not her principal home at relevant dates. Ruling on her judicial review challenge, Mr Justice Humphreys held she had established an arguable case about an alleged misinterpretation of the scheme. He granted leave to seek a judicial review on further grounds, including alleged procedural unfairness. The case will now advance to a full hearing later in the year. Rahul Gandhi along with other Congress leaders on Wednesday visited a school gutted in communal clashes and interacted with affected people in northeast Delhi where police continued to maintain a tight vigil to restore confidence among residents. The police have been conducting flag march and holding meetings with the locals in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajanpura, Yamuna Vihar and Mustafabad where the violence, that started during the protests over the amended Citizenship Act, was the most intense. The police said they have registered 531 cases, and 1,647 people have either been detained or arrested. Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla in Parliament. "Everything is under control and we are on top of the situation," he told PTI after the hour-long meeting. Hundreds of traumatised people were still staying in relief camps and elsewhere after escaping the violence which erupted on February 23 and continued for the next three days. Khajuri resident Abdul Wahab, who has taken refuge in Chandu Nagar, said his house was destroyed by rioters and now he is left with no money now. His biggest worry, he said, is how to take care of children now. Shabnam, who also lost her house as well her employment, faces the same problem. "I lost my house in the riots. The scrap shop I worked in was also destroyed. Now I don't know how to sustain," she said. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) stepped in to help its former jawan Aish Mohammed with a cheque of Rs 11 lakh as his house was damaged in the clashes. While handing over the cheque, CRPF Director General A P Maheswari hugged an emotional Aish and said "this is your family". The house of Aish, who served the world's largest para-military force for 22 years before retiring as a head constable, was at Baghirathi Vihar in northeast Delhi. "The CRPF stands committed for the welfare of its personnel and their families. This act is a gesture to say that all serving and retired personnel of the force are our family," CRPF spokesperson DIG Moses Dhinakaran said. Meanwhile, over 97 per cent attendance was recorded in the class 10 board exam held in the violence-affected areas, according to officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The class 10 students appeared for Science exam. The Delhi government also organised a special Parents Teachers Meeting (PTM) in the riot-hit areas to counsel parents and students and instill confidence and faith in them. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia visited three affected schools in Jaffrabad, Gokalpuri and Yamuna Vihar, and interacted with parents. Rahul Gandhi, who led a delegation of his party leaders, said of division harms 'Bharat Mata' and India's reputation in the world has taken a hit due to the violence. He wanted to visit other riot-affected areas as well, but Delhi Police advised him not to go beyond the Brijpuri Nullah. When Gandhi got inside the vehicle to return, a woman among the crowd started shouting and blamed the Congress for the violence. The delegation led by Gandhi included K C Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K Suresh, Mukul Wasnik, Kumari Selja, Gaurav Gogoi and Randeep Surjewala. They visited a private school in the Brijpuri area that was vandalised and burnt during the riots. Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School, which is over 32 years old, suffered massive damage and the Congress delegation went around the gutted classrooms and surveyed the burnt buses. Speaking to reporters, Gandhi said, "This (school) is India's future. Hate and violence has burnt it down. Nobody has benefited from this. Violence and hate are enemies of development." "India is being divided, burnt. This will not benefit the people and Bharat Mata," he said. Opposition parties including the Congress have been demanding an immediate discussion on Delhi violence in Parliament. But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it can be taken up on March 11 in the Lower House and on March 12 in Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court advanced to March 6 the hearing in the High Court on a PIL seeking lodging of FIRs against some BJP leaders for alleged hate speeches, observing a long adjournment in such matters is "not justified". The Delhi High Court had on February 27 adjourned till April 13 hearing the PIL filed by activists Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi for FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma for their alleged hate speeches in connection with protests over the amended Citizenship law. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that he would not celebrate Holi in wake of communal violence in northeast Delhi. Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and BJP MLAs will also not attend Holi event to avoid any large gathering in view of coronavirus fears. Responding to a question at a press conference here, Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party national convener, said that he and his party MLAs would not celebrate Holi due to the riots. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that all schools in New York State would receive special cleaning protocols in wake of the coronavirus (also known as COVID-19), New York City education officials are working to acquire disinfectants that specifically kill the coronavirus, while paying special attention to certain school common areas during daily cleanings. According to the city Department of Education (DOE), school bathrooms are required to be fully stocked with soap and paper towels, and the agency has already ordered disinfectants approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that kill the coronavirus specifically. We are in close contact with the Citys Health Department regarding potential impact to school communities, and are communicating updated guidance to principals and families today, said Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the DOE. Custodial engineers have received guidance on daily cleaning with special attention to horizontal surfaces in school buildings common areas, classrooms and bathrooms, as well as frequently contacted items. The DOE said it will be surveying every custodian about their supplies inventory and will conduct Systems Quality Controls to ensure that new cleaning protocols are being implemented. In a letter sent home to families on Tuesday, the DOE said the health and safety of all of our students continues to be our first priority. As it monitors the situation, it is enhancing certain protocols and providing additional resources, including: Providing CDC-approved cleaning agents to every school. Ensuring all bathrooms are continuously stocked with soap and paper towels, and encouraging students and staff to wash hands frequently. Ensuring principals and school nurses have the resources and guidance needed to detect and report symptoms exhibited at school, and provide help for any affected individuals. The DOE is continuing to work in close partnership with the city Health Department, and will continue to update its protocols as the situation evolves -- communicating any possible impacts to parents and school communities. Coronavirus: Full coverage on SILive.com During a press conference Monday, Cuomo said the state will be instituting the new cleaning protocols in schools and public transportation, using a disinfectant. The MTA is stepping up its cleaning efforts in an attempt to curtail the spread of the potentially deadly virus. The agencys mass transit divisions -- New York City Transit, MTA Bus, Access-A-Ride, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North -- have significantly ramped up the frequency and intensity of their sanitizing efforts, using EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants. Many will use bleach, which is a good protocol in the flu season anyway, said Cuomo. So, if people smell it smells like bleach when you get on a bus or when a child goes to school, its not bad cologne or perfume. It is bleach. While New York City schools are taking precautions when it comes to the novel coronavirus, there are still no plans to close schools. There are no plans to close schools at this time, and any changes will be determined by public health experts, Filson said. STATUS OF SCHOOL STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS The DOE also said it sent out an updated International Travel Trip Policy for School on Tuesday evening, which cancels school-based travel to certain countries based on guidance from the CDC and in consultation with the city Health Department. The City University of New York (CUNY), which oversees the College of Staten Island (CSI) in Willowbrook, and St. Johns University, which has a campus on Grymes Hill, have already canceled some study abroad programs located in areas with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) level 3 travel health notices. According to Cuomo, the state is bringing home SUNY (State University of New York) and CUNY students studying abroad in China, Italy, Japan, Iran, and South Korea. They will be quarantined for 14 days out of an abundance of caution. As of Monday, Wagner College hasnt curtailed any study abroad, exchange programs or other college travel overseas, according to a spokesman. St. Johns University, which has a campus on Grymes Hill, announced Sunday it has discontinued academic programs on its Rome, Italy, campus until further notice. The Archdiocese of New York informed staff and students that anyone returning from international travel is required to submit written medical clearance before returning to the school or any administrative building -- in effect beginning Monday. CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK According to Cuomo, there are six confirmed coronavirus cases in New York State. Cuomo said the states second confirmed coronavirus case is a 50-year-old attorney who works in Manhattan and lives in New Rochelle, N.Y. The four new coronavirus cases are tied to the man, which include his wife, two of his children, and his neighbor who drove him to the hospital. UPDATE: There are four additional confirmed cases of #COVID19 in NYS, bringing the total to six. The new #coronavirus cases are tied to the 50-year-old patient from New Rochelle announced yesterday: his wife, two of his children, and his neighbor who drove him to the hospital. Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 4, 2020 The schools the mans two children attend, SAR Academy and High School in the Bronx and Yeshiva University in Manhattan, have both been shut down for Wednesday, according to Cuomo. The first confirmed case in the state was announced Sunday. A 39-year-old health care worker living in Manhattan who traveled to Iran was diagnosed with coronavirus, and officials said the woman has respiratory symptoms that are mild. Globally, there have been over 93,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization, and over 100 cases have been confirmed in the United States. The Washington State Department of Health announced on Tuesday that nine deaths have been confirmed in the state -- the only state currently with confirmed deaths. CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: 4 additional coronavirus cases confirmed in N.Y.; bringing state total to 6 Health Department tracking down possible contacts of second confirmed coronavirus case Coronavirus risk remains low in NYC; same-day testing now available, officials say Staten Island hospitals preparing for coronavirus; testing could be done on S.I. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CarGurus, Inc. (CARG), a leading global automotive marketplace, today announced that Tom Caputo, Chief Product Officer, is scheduled to present at the Raymond James 41st Annual Institutional Investors Conference at 9:15 AM ET on March 4, 2020 in Orlando, FL. A live webcast of the presentation will be accessible from the Investor Relations page of the company's website at https://investors.cargurus.com. About CarGurus Founded in 2006, CarGurus (CARG) is a global, online automotive marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of new and used cars. The Company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms and data analytics to bring trust and transparency to the automotive search experience and help users find great deals from top-rated dealers. CarGurus is the most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S. (source: Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, Automotive Information/Resources, Total Audience, Q4 2019, U.S. (Competitive set includes: CarGurus.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com)). In addition to the United States, CarGurus operates online marketplaces in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain. To learn more about CarGurus, visit www.cargurus.com. CarGurus is a registered trademark of CarGurus, Inc. 2020 CarGurus, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Investor Contact: Rodney Nelson Head of Investor Relations 888-508-1190 investors@cargurus.com . Students read books at a classroom while attending an emergency care service at an elementary school in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji Working parents are struggling to find places to take care of their young children as the education ministry has ordered all kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools across the country to further delay the start of the new school year by two more weeks, as part of governmental measures to protect students from the COVID-19 outbreak. All kindergartens and elementary, middle and high schools will begin their new school year March 23, three weeks later than initially planned. Child care has become a problem for working parents here due to the postponed start of the school year. Cho Yoon-jung, 41, an office worker and mother of a nine-year-old son, said she had no choice but to inform her company that she would work from home for two weeks from next week. "My husband and I took it in turns to take leave this week to take care of my son, but it is not an option for us to do it for three weeks. My boss and colleagues looked unhappy when I talked about working from home, but what else I can do?" Cho said. She said her fellow workers who have young children like Cho asked for help from their parents, but she cannot do so because her parents live far away, and the parents of Cho's husband are already taking care of his sister's children in another province. Jeon So-ra, 35, another working mother with a four-year-old daughter who attends daycare, said she took her daughter to her parents' house in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to stay there for three weeks until the reopening of the daycare. "The biggest difficulty for my family is that we have no idea when this will end," Jeon said. She said that she and her husband initially took turns to take leave for one week, however, when the government instructed all schools to again postpone the start of the spring semester, she decided to ask for help from her parents. "We honestly can't be sure if we can handle this situation if the virus spread does not subside soon," Jeon said. If the semester is delayed for over three weeks, affected schools will adjust the length of their summer and winter vacations to ensure there are an adequate number of school days. If necessary, the government also plans to reduce statutory school days for this year by 10 percent 18 days for kindergartens and 19 days for elementary, middle and high schools. The education ministry also said it would ask private educational institutes nationwide to suspend operations for the time being to reduce contact among young students. Kindergartens and elementary schools are running emergency child care services for working parents facing difficulties, but many parents are worried about having to send their children to the care service when other parents have kept their children at home for fear of possible transmission of the virus. In order to ease pressure on working parents the education ministry has said it will ensure the emergency child care service will run from 9am to 5pm, and will push to ensure the maximum yearly period of paid child care leave for salaried workers from the current 10 days to 15 days. It has also pledged to tighten disinfection work at the centers and institutions running the service to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 20:04:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The National Genomics Data Center (NGDC) has updated its novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) database, according to the Beijing Institute of Genomics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In the updated database, the quality assessment information of each genome sequence and each variation site are provided in the columns of Released Genome Sequences, Data Statistics and Variation Annotation. The database can also carry out sequence assembly evaluations on relevant reference genomes based on the original sequencing data, thus ensuring the reliability of virus genome reference sequences. The new column called Variation Frequency has been added to dynamically show the frequency change trend of variation sites across different times and regions through a heat map. After updating, the database has now integrated information on 249 virus genome sequences including the novel coronavirus and the virus suspected to be related to the novel coronavirus, 38,047 coronavirus sequences, 302 variations of human novel coronavirus genome, and 588 novel coronavirus-related papers. By using the database, researchers carried out a variation analysis of the genome of COVID-19, and obtained detailed information on variation degree, variation region and variation base between the COVID-19 strains, between the COVID-19 strains and SARS-CoV and between the COVID-19 strains and SARS-like coronavirus bat strains, said Bao Yiming, director of the NGDC. With over 300,000 sequence file downloads, the database has provided services for over 30,000 visitors from 106 countries and regions, said the CAS. An international business travel conference is expected to go ahead in Belfast at the weekend despite the risk of the spread of coronavirus, it has emerged. (stock photo) An international business travel conference is expected to go ahead in Belfast at the weekend despite the risk of the spread of coronavirus, it has emerged. Procurement company HelmsBriscoe is to hold meetings for its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) partners between Sunday, March 8 and Tuesday, March 10. The meeting, which is expected to attracted 120 people, is to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Belfast city centre. A spokeswoman for Hilton Hotel on Tuesday said the meeting had not been cancelled. Other international gatherings, such as international property expo MIPIM, due to take place in Cannes next week, have been postponed or cancelled. HelmsBriscoe, which specialises in organising meetings on behalf of business clients, did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, staff at a global equipment company with six sites and 1,500 staff in Northern Ireland have travelled to Las Vegas to take part in international conference Conexpo. A spokeswoman for Terex said it was taking "stringent precautions" to protect its 10,000 staff world-wide against Covid-19. "Thankfully, to date no Terex team member has been diagnosed with the virus," she added. While the company is taking part in Conexpo, the spokeswoman said the firm is not conducting business travel to or from China, Macao, Hong Kong, South Korea or Italy. The spokeswoman added: "Fortunately, as a forward thinking company embracing digital technology, we have invested in a suite of world-class communications tools. Several years ago, in a bid to reduce our carbon footprint we moved to a culture of more "virtual" meetings using video conferencing technology. "Thanks to this, the impact of temporary travel restrictions is minimal and it is very much business as usual." It said that the organisers of Conexpo - the world's biggest construction exhibition - had indicated the show would go ahead as planned between March 10 and 14. Terex has already set up its booth and hospitality area for the event. Joe Biden's surprise victories on Super Tuesday were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots - a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. The late deciders helped Biden win Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia, among several other states. In some states, they made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast surveys of voters in several state primaries. And the survey shows they lined up behind the former vice president. In Virginia, where nearly half of the voters waited to make up their minds, Biden won two-thirds of the late deciders. The surveys show the power of sudden swings in a race that has been defined by a crowd of candidates and often confused voters agonizing over the best challenger to President Donald Trump in November. Biden's big win in South Carolina on Saturday revived his struggling campaign and within 72 hours pushed three of his rivals toward the exit and swung the opinions of voters in distant states. Yet Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders showed the limits of momentum. By organizing early and banking early votes from his liberal, young and Latino coalition, Sanders won Colorado and California. About 80% of Sanders voters in California said they picked their candidate before the final stretch. Here's a snapshot of Democratic voters in Alabama, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia - who they are and how they voted - based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast surveys, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. What a night: Joe Biden's victory was thanks to voters deciding who to back late, with early voting going to other candidates BIDEN'S COMEBACK COALITION The former vice president's coalition came into focus Tuesday. He did well with moderates and conservatives, voters older than 45 and African Americans. In many states, he enjoyed an advantage among women and college graduates. He ran strong with voters who attend church at least once a month. And he successfully channeled sentimental attachments to former President Barack Obama. About half of North Carolina voters, for example, wanted a president who would restore politics to a pre-Trump era - and Biden won the majority of this group. There's little doubt Biden's ties to black voters were critical to his rebound. Biden cleaned up in Alabama on Tuesday night by winning close to 70% of African Americans, a majority of Democratic voters in that state. Perceptions about electability may also be key to Biden's support. In Minnesota, for example, where Biden benefited from home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar's exit from the race, 60% of voters said it would be harder for a nominee with strong liberal views to win in the general election. Voting day: Early voters went for Bernie Sanders; voters on Super Tuesday like these went for Biden Even in his California loss, there were signs of newfound energy for Biden. Of voters there who picked their candidate in the last three days, Biden had a slight advantage. Biden also flashed some crossover appeal in places that matter. In Virginia, a state likely to be a top battleground in November, Biden won more than half of voters who say they voted in the 2016 Republican primary. Bloomberg won close to 20%. STICKING TO SANDERS The Vermont senator is holding on to his coalition of liberal voters, Latinos and voters under 30. In states with sizable populations of each, he fared well. In Virginia and North Carolina, where majorities were older and more likely to identify as moderate, Sanders came up short. Sanders' strength with Latinos was clearest in California, where the group made up about 30% of the vote. Sanders won close to half of that group in California - more than double Biden's share. Sanders has benefited from a youth movement. In California and Colorado, he won about 60% of voters under 30. His voters are also somewhat more likely than Biden's to feel as though theyre falling behind financially. He won about 40% of Texas and Minnesota voters who said that recent economic gains had bypassed them. Aside from their youth, Sanders supporters stand out for their skepticism of most other candidates in the race. At least half of his voters in North Carolina said they would be unhappy with Biden or Bloomberg as the nominee. Majorities of them in California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Virginia felt the same. BLOOMBERG'S BUST More than $500 million in spending on ads could not buy Bloomberg much love. Bloomberg fared better among voters older than 65 compared with those younger, and similarly among those who think of themselves as moderate or conservative more so than liberals. But even among these groups, he was edged out by Biden. The former New York mayor was the Democrat voters were least enthusiastic about nominating. About 60% of voters in Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts - his birthplace - said they would be dissatisfied if Bloomberg was the Democratic candidate. Roughly half in California, North Carolina and Virginia would also be displeased. By comparison, majorities in each of those states said they would be satisfied if Sanders was the nominee. Only in Alabama and Texas would a majority be satisfied by Bloomberg. LOOKING TOWARD NOVEMBER The Democratic contests do appear to be drawing some potential swing voters. Close to 20% of voters or more said they are waiting to see who wins the nomination before deciding how they'll vote in November. That was true in seven of the eight states AP surveyed. The share was somewhat smaller - 16% - in Minnesota, a state Trump is trying to flip. Most of this group identified as moderates or conservatives, a sign that they might be open to Trump or consider not voting for any candidate in November. Another closely watched group is suburbanites - a constituency that could make up more than half the general election electorate. Sanders and Biden battled it out for those voters on Tuesday, neither jumping ahead with a clear advantage. T he boss of one of Europes largest insurers Legal & General played down the threat of coronavirus on Wednesday saying the issue was not a full-blown crisis for the economy. Nigel Wilson, chief executive of the 16 billion FTSE 100 company, suggested markets had overreacted to the global sweep of the virus and compared the panic to similar market blow-ups like the Millennium Bug in 1999 and Brexit in 2016. He said Chinese manufacturing looked to be coming back onstream after its coronavirus shutdown, which boded well for the future. I dont think its a major risk to the global economy, he said. The economy moves up and down and markets move up and down. Thats going to continue for 30 or 40 years like it has the past 30 or 40 years. Will GDP fall [because of coronavirus]? Yes. Will it come back in the second half of 2020 or 2021? Yes. They cause temporary dips but in the long term there are amazing opportunities in the economy and we have to seize those opportunities. Legal & General is heavily exposed to death rates because it sells life insurance policy. Wilson said coronavirus would have minimal or no impact as deaths from it were so small. Legals full-year operating profit rose 12% to 2.1 billion for the year ending December. In more corona news: the 10-year US Treasury yield, considered the safest asset on earth, slumped below 1% for first time in its 150-year records after the Federal Reserves emergency rate cut. Markets in Asia and Europe stabilised with US stock markets expected to rise as Joe Bidens surprise comeback on Super Tuesday blunted investors fears Bernie Sanders may win the Democratic nomination; Amid rising concerns over the spread of coronavirus, three people from Keesarapada village, Kanchili Mandal in Srikakulam district, have been admitted to RIMS hospital here as a precautionary measure after they complained of severe cold and cough. Of the three people admitted to the hospital, two men had returned from the Gulf three days ago. The third person is a woman from their family. All three have been suffering from flu-like symptoms seen in COVID-19 patients. They are admitted in a special ward which has been set up in the hospital in view of coronavirus outbreak. Their blood samples have been collected and sent to Visakhapatnam. "The patients have not been confirmed with coronavirus, yet they are taking precautionary measures. They have requested not to spread any rumours," said the doctors at RIMS Hospital. Earlier today, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that there are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country so far. Globally, deaths due to Covid-19 have crossed 3,000. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 90,000 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A paramedic tests a sample taken from a patient suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus, at a hospital in Tehran, Iran. Read more A Philadelphia person who was tested for the new coronavirus does not, in fact, have the infection, according to state laboratory results announced Wednesday. But another potential case is under investigation. Health officials have been directed to err on the side of caution in deciding whom to test, now that cases with no known source of infection suggest the virus is spreading from person to person in California, Oregon, Washington, and beyond. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises testing anyone with respiratory symptoms and a history of travel to an affected country not just China, the original source or anyone with severe respiratory illness that has no other explanation. READ MORE: The coronavirus seems to be mild in most children, but scientists are not sure why However, testing capacity remains limited. Pennsylvanias public health lab in Exton, where the suspected case sample was processed, can do only 25 tests per day, officials have said. The Exton lab is using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit issued by the CDC, which has been criticized for being unprepared for rapid, widespread testing. Pennsylvanias turnaround time for testing also may be lengthy, based on how long it took to release results of the suspected case. The negative result was announced Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., 20 hours after the city Department of Public Health alerted the media that a possible case was being investigated. That is hours longer than the turnaround time described on Tuesday by state Health Secretary Rachel Levine. City health department spokesperson James Garrow did not provide additional details about the new possible case. A handful of possible cases have been identified in the city since January, and so far all the patients have turned out to be sick with some other illness. As of Wednesday, 128 patients with coronavirus infections had been identified in more than a dozen states, including New York. Symptoms in most patients have been mild. So far, no patients have been identified in Pennsylvania, though on Wednesday evening, New Jersey officials announced a presumptive positive case in Bergen County. Honda fleet average fuel efficiency at 30.0 mpg, up 0.6 from MY2017 Fleet average CO 2 emissions fell to 296 g/mi, down 6 g/mi year-over-year Honda ranks as the most fuel-efficient full-line automaker in America in a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Monday. Honda has the highest fleet average fuel economy and lowest CO 2 emissions of any major full-line automaker for the 2018 model year (MY2018), the latest year for which full data is available, according to the report. The 2019 EPA Automotive Trends Report ranked Honda first among full-line automakers and second overall with a U.S. fleet average real world fuel economy of 30.0 miles per gallon (mpg), a five-year improvement of 2.8 mpg, and 4.9 mpg above the industry average for MY2018. Similarly, Hondas fleet average CO 2 emissions dropped to 296 grams/mile, an improvement of 31 grams/mile from 2013 results and 57 grams/mile better than (below) the industry average for the 2018 model year. In 2019, Honda set a new all-time record for sales of electrified vehicles in America, including the Clarity series, Accord Hybrid and the Insight. With the introduction of the all-new 2020 CR-V Hybrid, on sale March 1, Honda anticipates even more electrified vehicle sales moving forward. In an effort to reduce CO 2 emissions, globally, Honda intends for two-thirds of its automobile sales to be electrified by 2030 and is making substantial investments for the production of electrified vehicles in America1, including the current Insight, Accord Hybrid and all-new CR-V Hybrid, along with the Acura MDX Sport Hybrid and Acura NSX hybrid supercar. Hondas Commitment to the Environment Based on its vision of "Blue Skies for our Children," Honda is working to advance technologies that address society's environmental and energy concerns. The company intends for electrified vehicles to comprise two-thirds of its global automobile sales by 2030. In North America, the Honda Electrification Initiative will see Hondas electrified powertrain technologies applied to an expanding portfolio of cars and light trucks in the years ahead. Hondas electrified vehicle lineup today includes the Accord Hybrid, CR-V Hybrid and Honda Insight, and the Clarity series. Honda is working to reduce the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle, including reducing waste, emissions and further improving the energy efficiency of producing, distributing and selling Honda and Acura products in North America. This includes a 93 percent reduction in waste sent to landfills from Honda plants in North America. Through its green purchasing and green dealer initiatives, the company also is working to promote more environmentally responsible business practices with its more than 600 original equipment suppliers and 1,300 retail dealer partners. # # # 1. Using globally and domestically sourced parts. Mr. Biden, whose campaign had been on the verge of collapse a few days ago, ran up huge margins among older voters and those from suburbs and black communities. That support helped him win at least eight of the 14 states that were in play, including a stunning upset in Massachusetts. The Associated Press declared Senator Bernie Sanders who won Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont the winner in California, which has 415 of the nights 1,357 delegates. Mr. Sanders continued to show strength with liberals, young people and the Latino community. The latest: Were covering the results in real time and updating our live forecasts. Go deeper: The Sanders campaign was caught off guard by Mr. Bidens recent surge, but sees the moderate former vice president as the perfect foil for the promise of a political revolution. Voices: Many Super Tuesday voters expressed lingering doubts about the Democratic primary field including, in some cases, the candidates for which they cast ballots. Michael Bloomberg: The billionaire and former New York City mayor was on the ballot for the first time on Tuesday. His only victory was in American Samoa. A bill that seeks to establish an Electoral Offences Commission scaled second reading at the Senate on Wednesday. It was first read in November 2019. The bill, sponsored by Borno senator, Abubakar Kyari, proposes deterrence and sanctions for anti-democratic acts in the electoral environment. The second reading of the bill comes two days after the chairman of Nigerias electoral commission, Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission will propose 34 amendments to the Electoral Act 2010 Amendment Bill that will include punishments for electoral offenders. This, he said, will increase transparency and credibility of the electoral process, and the reduction of electoral banditry. The debate Leading the debate, Mr Kyari said electoral crimes lead to low quality, corrupt, and violent political leadership. Electoral crimes help electoral riggers and offenders take control of government against the democratic will of their electorate and gives birth to electoral apathy and national insecurity, he said. He explained that Sections 149 and 150 (2) of the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended respectively vests the INEC with the discretion and powers to prosecute electoral offenders. Section 149 states that the Commission shall consider any recommendation made to it by the tribunal with respect to the prosecution by it of any persons for an offence disclosed in any petition. While Section 150(2) says the prosecution under this Act shall be undertaken by legal officers of the commission or any legal practitioner appointed by it. By the provisions of the sections 149 of the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended, INEC is not clearly enabled to prosecute offenders unless otherwise determined by a tribunal. Mr Kyari explained that with less than 100 legal officers, and other operational deficiencies, INEC clearly does not have the capacity to prosecute electoral offences committed across Nigerias 119,973 polling units, 809 wards, 360 federal constituencies, 109 senatorial districts and 774 local government areas. By the foregoing statistics, it is unrealistic to expect INEC to conduct free, fair and credible elections and simultaneously prosecute offences arising from the same elections. INEC has itself admitted that it lacks the wherewithal to prosecute even 1% of 870,000 alleged electoral offences in the 2011 general elections. It is an affirmation of the necessity of a paradigm shift on how we deal with electoral offences. It is widely agreed that this duty is an undue burden on INEC. It distracts INEC from its core constitutional mandate of conducting elections and the answer is in the establishment of a commission charged with this important duty. The electoral offences commission should cooperate closely with security agencies to prosecute persons committing such offences. Many lawmakers took turns to support the passage of the bill. George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) said had the commission been established, people the wronged people will not be in power. I also pray that after it has gone through the third hearing, when we send out for assent, they should assent to it. If they dont assent to it, then 2023 elections will be worse than what we have seen before. Matthew Urhoghide said the integrity of elections has been compromised and elections in Nigeria is the worst conduct of mans inhumanity to man. This is even as he also supported the bill. On his part, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the bill is one of many that will amend the Electoral Act. Every constitutional amendments and alterations we made were to ensure that the electoral procedures are very well protected. That will stop people who abuse the process, whether they are in power or they have money. The penalties must be such punitive enough that people will not like to indulge in this, he said. Advertisements The bill was, thereafter, read for the second time after a voice vote and referred to the Senate Committee on INEC for further legislative. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping back as senior members of the royal family and moving to Canada, many questioned how the couple would pay for their security detail. After learning that the Canadian government wont cover costs much longer, concerned British taxpayers are signing an online petition making it clear they dont want to foot the bill. Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle visit Star Hub on January 18, 2018 in Cardiff, Wales | Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Harry and Meghan Markles security issue After stepping down from their official posts in the royal family, the Sussexes said they would spend their time between the U.K. and North America. Theyve made it clear that they want to work towards their own financial independence with no reliance on public funds from U.K. taxpayers. But whether they have their royal titles or not, the duke and duchess are still high-profile celebrities who need protection. And in a statement on their Sussex Royal website, the couple acknowledged the necessity. It is agreed that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son, they wrote. This is based on The Dukes public profile by virtue of being born into The Royal Family, his military service, the Duchess own independent profile, and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years. No further details can be shared as this is classified information for safety reasons. Whos paying for their security right now? According to Canadas Public Safety Minister, Bill Blair, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been charged with the Sussexes security since their arrival in Canada. The RCMP has been engaged with officials in the U.K. from the very beginning regarding security considerations, Blair told CBC News. As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis. But Blair also mentioned that Canada would cease to provide security in the coming weeks to keep in line with Harry and Meghans change in status. UK Taxpayers dont want to pay for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle anymore Without help from Canadian security forces, British taxpayers are worried that theyll have to foot the bill for the Harry and Meghans security costs. An online petition outlines their concerns, making it clear they dont intend on financially supporting the couples new lifestyle. The UK tax payers are expected to pay for Harry, Meghan and their sons security costs, even though they no longer live in the UK and they are now private citizens. This is undemocratic, the petition reads. They have made their choice to step back from Royal duties, and to live abroad and travel globally to achieve financial independence. It is, therefore, their own responsibility to provide their own security, not the responsibility of the UK tax payers. The petition which was signed by nearly 24,000 people at the time of this article also refuses to pay for Harry, Meghan, and their sons global security costs and wants to stop the UK Parliament -House of Commons and the House of Lords, from making any contribution towards them. This petition may or may not hinder the governments plans on paying for the Sussexes security. But in very clear terms, it does highlight how the couples decision continues to rub British citizens the wrong way. THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has suspended the Belmont depot manager in Bulawayo together with his four subordinates for allegedly diverting subsidised mealie-meal and other Silo Foods Industries products to the black market. Sources said the depot manager, Mr Stanley Chimakira, was allegedly working with his sidekicks in the sales department, Mr Buhle Dube and Mr Vincent Gwariro, in channelling the Government-subsided roller meal to the black market. Mr Chimakira was also allegedly working with two others employees, Mr Tashin Kamangira and Ms Samkeliso Nyathi, who are both counter sales clerks. The underhand dealings within the parastatal were recently unearthed following an internal audit, which was preceded by an investigation into operations at Silo Foods Industries in the city by a roller meal taskforce chaired by Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi, who confirmed the suspensions of the five GMB employees. The taskforce reported the matter to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc). The recently constituted roller meal task forces mandate is to ensure transparent and equitable distribution of the product throughout the entire supply chain. Sources told The Chronicle that Mr Chimakira and Mr Dube were the ring leaders of the syndicate, which also includes some unscrupulous illegal traders who sell the roller-meal in United States dollars. The depot manager and people in the sales department operated as a syndicate to feed the black market with the subsidised mealie-meal. In some cases, you would see a 30-ton truck transporting mealie-meal to these pseudo shops and starving registered traders and other big supermarkets, said the source. The Chronicle established that soon after the maize taskforce unearthed the underhand dealings, an internal audit revealed that about 90 percent of the business transactions were not above board. The manager and his four subordinates at GMB Belmont depot have since been suspended indefinitely without pay and benefits pending hearings. The main reason behind their suspensions is that they were fuelling the black market by providing subsidised mealie-meal to unregistered traders in return for kickbacks, said the source, who also revealed that a new team from Harare has been deployed to the Belmont depot. There is a guy from Harare who is now running the depot and he is being assisted by another one who came from the Gweru depot. Deputy Minister Modi said the suspensions follow investigations by his task force, which has since managed to identify syndicates causing artificial mealie-meal shortages. My taskforce team recently unearthed serious irregularities at the GMB depot in Belmont and the manager and his team were involved in diverting subsidised roller meal to the black market. As I speak, they have been suspended pending hearings, he said. In fact, from the Government position, we are quite disturbed by what we have discovered and some of the culprits responsible for creating supply and distribution anomalies have been identified. Deputy Minister Modi said there are cases of Silo roller-meal in Bulawayo being sold on the black-market right in front of the Silo Shop. It is partly through these illegal vendors that we are conducting investigations and tracing it back to the source of the crime, he said. Investigations by the maize taskforce following their surprise visit to the Silo Foods Industries factory at the Belmont industrial area indicated that GMB employees were allegedly diverting the subsidised roller meal meant for retailers to the black market. The taskforce also allegedly discovered an invoice book that was being used by the perpetrators of the scam. Deputy Minister Modi said the task force is making follow-ups with major suppliers and retailers of mealie-meal. This follows critical shortages of the commodity on the market after Government re-introduced a subsidy programme to ensure that roller meal in particular, is available at an affordable price to consumers. Zimbabwes annual maize consumption stands at 1,8 million tonnes. Contacted for comment yesterday, GMB general manager Mr Rockie Mutenha feigned ignorance over the suspensions. I am not aware of the suspensions that you are talking about. As far as I know, those people who are purported to have been suspended are actually at work as we speak and you can even go there and check for yourself, he said. Last month, our sister paper, The Sunday News reported that Zacc discovered that some employees were allegedly channelling as much as 10 000 bags of 20kg roller meal to the black market. Consumers have been battling to access roller meal, which is presently being subsidised by Government. The paper also reported that there was a cartel of retailers and vendors who were hoarding mealie-meal in Victoria Falls and selling it in hard currency to Zambian cross-border vendors on the black market. Zambian media reports indicate that mealie-meal brands from Zimbabwe have flooded the Livingstone market. The Zimbabwean products are sold at relatively lower prices when compared to the Zambian products due to the subsidy programme. Deputy Minster Modi said they have extended their investigations to the countrys borders where subsidised mealie meal is smuggled out of the country. Our routine involves checking what the suppliers get and from who, names of retailers that received the product and the customers that bought the mealie-meal, he said. Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube recently revealed through the Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN) that smuggling of mealie-meal had become rampant. Besides mealie-meal, a variety of other products such as sugar, rice and juices are smuggled out of the country using both legal and illegal exit points. According to investigations, some Government officials are said to be heavily involved in the scam. More than half of the early votes cast for Jasper County treasurer went to embattled incumbent Bobby Biscamp. On Tuesday evening, Biscamp had almost 63% of the votes, while challenger Cindy Stephenson had about 37% of the votes. Biscamp said he was pretty confident with the early turnout. It may be late tomorrow before we get a total count, he said, noting that this is the first time in his 16 years as tax assessor that hes had an opponent. So hes not sure how much the rest of the ballot boxes could change the totals. Im happy with where Im at right now, though, he said. He said the county had a machine malfunction that threw the count off about an hour or two. Stephenson did not return a call for comment Tuesday evening. This isnt the first time the two have clashed, as Stephenson was placed on administrative leave from Biscamps office for about two years. After that period, she was no longer employed by the office. Biscamp, 69, was indicted in November 2017 after an investigation by the Texas Rangers and Texas Attorney Generals Office stemming from actions that occurred while he was president of the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas in 2013 and 2014. Citing insufficient evidence, state prosecutors last month moved to drop the charges. Stephenson, if elected, was hoping to better inform taxpayers and tax office employees about how taxes work and improve customer service by cutting down on long lines. Biscamp also wanted to inform the taxpayers of changes to the taxing system and lawmakers why pieces of legislation may be harmful to tax payers. He said his experience in the tax office, 16 years as tax assessor-collector, speaks for itself. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain Incheon International Airport. Korea Times file A total of 91 countries and regions were planning or imposing entry bans or quarantine procedures on visitors from South Korea on Tuesday, up eight from a day earlier, despite Seoul's push to curb what it calls excessively restrictive measures. As of 8:00 p.m., 37 countries and regions plan to ban or were barring the entry of travelers who have visited Korea in the past two weeks, while 54 countries and regions, including China, prepared or were carrying out quarantine programs or recommendations for them, according to the foreign ministry. The number of COVID-19 infections in South Korea has risen to 5,186, with 31 deaths, as the country accelerates what it terms a "transparent and open" testing process in its all-out campaign to stem the virus. On Tuesday, the Pacific island country of Nauru banned the entry of foreigners who have visited South Korea, China, Italy and other virus-hit regions in the past three weeks. Nepal announced a plan to stop issuing arrival visas for foreigners from South Korea and other countries, starting Tuesday next week. On Tuesday, the Maldives started to ban the entry of people who have visited South Korea's southeastern city of Daegu and adjacent regions, the site of most of the country's infections. But it decided not to impose the entry ban on those from Seoul or the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Jesus is God. The Bible tells the story of Gods redemptive plan in Jesus from beginning to end. From Genesis to Revelation, we see the fingerprints of our Savior. All along, wrote Glen Scrivener for desiringGod.org , true faith was messianic faith, centered on Christ himself. Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus was born incarnate on the earth fully human and fully God. The Bible teaches that Jesus is not merely someone who is a lot like God, or someone who has a very close walk with God, wrote Matt Perman for desiringGod, Rather, Jesus is the Most High God himself. Whats more, Jesus promised never to leave us alone. Believers are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us at all times. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three separate persons that make up the one Triune God. The mystery of the trinity and the incarnation is a subject that theologians much brighter and more qualified than I study in depth. This article is a mere starting point but continue after reading and explore Gods Word further. Inquire after sound, bright minds for additional theological truths about Jesus. A good theologian sees Gods Word as the ultimate authority for our earthly understanding of God. The Christian faith is not one of explanations we pull out of thin air, but of historical fact, evidence and eyewitness. Is Jesus God - What Does the Bible Say? The Bible says Jesus is Gods Son, one person of the Trinity. He existed from the beginning with God because He is God, and He was born incarnate to the virgin Mary at Gods ordained time. He has two distinct natures in his person, one man fully human and fully divine. The Apostle Paul reminded the Colossians who Jesus is: The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 1:15-20) Many debated the specifics of who Jesus is, even in the first formative years of the Christian faith and establishment of the church. It was so hotly debated, The Chalcedonian Creed, or Definition of Chalcedon, was established by the convergent council of over five hundred bishops in the year 451, to decisively define the Incarnation, that Jesus Christ is God and man, yet one person, forever. The creed states: Jesus has two natures- He is God and man. Each nature is full and complete - He is fully God and fully man. Each nature remains distinct. Christ is only one Person. Things that are true of one nature are nonetheless true of the Person of Christ. Click here to read the creed in full. Jesus is one person in the Trinity. Our Triune God is also one of the great mysteries of Christianity. God has always worked in the Trinitarian pattern: from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, Glen Scrivener of desiringGod observed , He did not begin to be triune - the Father did not begin to need a mediator - at Christmas (John 1:1-14). John 1:1-5 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus, perfectly united in the Trinity at Creation, chose to come to earth and save us. He is the very Word of God. The Light of the Word. His sacrifice was always meant to save us. From the beginning of time, God knew who we would be, and how He would make a Way for us to find our way back to Him. We are His beloved Creation. The Moody Bible Commentary explains, Since the Word was God, everything that God was in essence, the Word was also. Why Was a Creed Necessary to Determine Jesus Is God? What Were People Getting Wrong about Jesus? Well-known theologian and professor, Sinclair Ferguson succinctly lays out four Christologies (Christology is the branch of theology that studies the nature and work of Christ) that deviated from Jesus identity according to Scripture and why these four historical errors were dangerous. Ferguson describes the divisions started by four men on desiringGod.org and they are summarized below. 1. Arianism, started by Arius, stated that Jesus Christ was not fully God. The problem: If Jesus is less than God how can He reconcile others to God. 2. Apollinarianism, started by Apollinaris, reported that Jesus did not have a human mind. The problem: If Jesus is not fully human then He is not like us and He cannot mediate for us. 3. Nestorianism, allegedly started by Nestorius, claimed that after the incarnation there were two persons of Jesus, divine and human. *Some question whether Nestorius actually held to this view. The problem: Two persons meant that only the human person of Jesus died on the cross (because a divine person cannot die), and just the human part of Jesus cannot atone for the sins of many. Ferguson further explains, It requires an infinite person to make adequate substitution for the salvation of a multitude that no one can number. 4. Eutychianism, started by Eutyches, purported that after the incarnation Jesus had one nature combined. The problem: Two natures mixed together mean that Jesus was not fully human and cannot be a substantiation for humans. Ferguson asks us to now notice the four major emphases in the Chalcedon Creed, or Definition of Chalcedon, which we read in the previous section: First, Christ is perfectly and truly God and perfectly and truly man, with a rational soul and a real body. Therefore, the Logos does not take the place of the soul. Second, he is of the same substance as God. Therefore, he is not less than God, but truly God. Third, he is the Son of God eternally begotten by his Father but also made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Therefore, he is one person, not two. Fourth, he is now one Person with two natures, divine and human. Therefore, these two natures are never confused with each other, changed into each other, or divisible or separable from each other. Old Testament Scripture References about Jesus Is God The Old Testament is full of fulfilled prophecies, including over 300 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection. The following are a small fraction of the mention of His deity and prophecy in the Old Testament. 10 Old Testament References about the Christ The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; Psalm 118:22 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Isaiah 60:16b I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. Job 19:25 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from amount you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. Deuteronomy 18:15 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will life you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Psalm 91:10-12 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a cold, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Isaiah 53:1 The LORD says to my lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Psalm 110:1 "Jesus Is God." Did Jesus Say He Is God? The New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus but is heavily focused on His ministry, last days on earth, death and resurrection. The miracle of the incarnation is that this one person became everything we are without ceasing to be everything he is, wrote D. Blair Smith for thegospelcoalition.org. The Bible also teaches us that Jesus is God by revealing shared attributes. Christs very presence changed people in an instant. A healing from Him rid people of life-long ailments and raised others from the dead, a power that only God has. Just a sheer touch of His robe brought forth healing for a woman who suffered her entire life with an incurable condition. Jesus came close to those around Him during His time on earth. He had friends. He grew in wisdom and favor with His Father. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the disciples, Who do you think that I am? (Matt. 16:13), wrote Ligon Duncan for TGC, And Peter answers on behalf of all of them, You are the Christ- you are the Messiah - the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). And Jesus says to Peter, Youre right. God has revealed this to you (Matt 16:17). Though He was sinless, this was Gods Son treading on our soil, living in our skin so as to take on the role of perfect sacrifice for us. He left Gods side to be born incarnate, he grew in wisdom through learning and experience just as humans do. When Jesus reveals to his fearful disciples that it is I (Matthew 14:27; Greek ego eimi), this isnt a call to recognize his human features that mark him out as Jesus as Nazareth, wrote D. Blair Smith for TGC, hes appropriating Yahwehs name revealed in Exodus 3:14 (I AM: ego eimi). Hes commanding his disciples to take heart and not be afraid because he, the one walking on the water, is Yahweh. Jesus will return! God will once again come to earth and be close to us! In the same way He ascended to heaven, He will again return, coming on the clouds. The following verses are a small representation of Jesus deity in the New Testament. (Click here to read more about the names of Jesus in the Bible.) 10 New Testament References to Jesus the Messiah while we wait for the blessed hope- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13 Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God! John 20:28 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 1:18 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Rev 1:8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Rev 22:13 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17 Very truly I tell you, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am! John 8:58 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we areyet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:14-15 What Is Jesus' Relationship to the Father and the Spirit? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 The Triune God consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three separate persons in one, sharing the same essence, distinct yet in unity with each other. Each person of the Trinity is fully God and worthy to be worshiped. Jesus is God, but Jesus is not the Father nor is He is the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, but He is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are three persons in one God, 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. God the Father - Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:2 God the Son - while we wait for the blessed hopethe appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Titus 2:13 God the Holy Spirit - Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didnt it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasnt the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God. Acts 5:3-4 Jesus is God the Son. Ephesians 1:22 says, And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, Jesus is the way to the Father in heaven. Hebrews 4:16 encourages, Let us then approach Gods throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Through the Holy Spirit, our prayers reach the ears of our Father, and Gods wisdom is brought close to and revealed to us as it applies to our daily lives. 1 John 2:1 says, My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. The Living God, lives in us because Jesus died and rose for us. And Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and advocates for His saved and adopted children every day. We are compelled by the very Holy Spirit of God to Go, as He instructs in Matthew 28:19. It is Christ, in us, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit by the authority of God, by which we accomplish His work for the Kingdom. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:18 God doesnt need us to accomplish His purposes, but out of His love for us He involves us, growing our hearts to be more like His as we follow Christs example. The only way we can come to God is through Jesus Christ. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5. John 14:6 says, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Why Did So Many People Struggle to Connect Jesus with God in the New Testament? Gods chosen people, the Jewish people, had studied the Scriptures intently their entire lives. For generations, their rich faith and immense history with God had been passed down and cherished. When Jesus was born on earth, He did not look the way they expected Him to. Many were expecting a powerful king and a military conqueror. But Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in a manger. Though over 300 prophecies were fulfilled, many failed to reconcile who Jesus was within the Scriptures. They were looking for the conquering Savior they wanted, rather than the One God had sent. Jesus, Himself said, I am! Jesus claimed to be God, Himself, when the people were looking for a separate Savior sent by God, but not God, Himself. Even though He was everything God said He would be, who Jesus was didnt line up with their theology. How Can I Explain to Others Who Jesus Is? For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 The best explanation of Jesus is the testimony of a life changed by His presence in it. John 8:32 says, Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We are placed perfectly by a purposeful God. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10) Our lives are meant to serve and honor God, bringing others to know Him through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. When people ask hard questions about Jesus, give them answers, or point them to someone who can answer them directly. Our lives are our testimony, and our faith is not whimsical nor fragile. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) We have a responsibility to share the testimony of what Jesus has done for our lives, and to KNOW the truth of Gods Word. John 10:11 says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. When we strive to seek and see Jesus throughout the entirety of Scripture, He is faithful to reveal Himself to us. He is there, ever so faithfull y ; as Glen Scrivener explains on desiringGod: Perhaps wed be helped by a simple framework for how Christ is at the heart of the Scriptures: he is patterned, promised, and present from Genesis onward. He continues by pointing out these passages in the New Testament that point to Jesus presence in salvation history: The I Am in whom Abraham rejoiced was Jesus (John 8:5658). The Lord who motivated Moses was Christ (Hebrews 11:26). The Redeemer who brought them out of Egypt was Jesus (Jude 5). The Rock in the wilderness was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). The King of Isaiahs temple vision was the Son (John 12:4041). Jesus stands at the center of salvation, He is the author of freedom: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36 Photo credit: GettyImages/nu1983 The appellate tribunal has directed the CCI to ask its probe arm Director General (DG) to investigate into the allegations. Earlier, the CCI had absolved e-commerce major Flipkart of unfair practices using its dominant position. New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday asked the fair trade regulator CCI to initiate again the probe against Flipkart for an alleged use of its dominant position. A three-member bench of the NCLAT headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has set aside the earlier order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in this regard. Earlier, the CCI had absolved e-commerce major Flipkart of unfair practices using its dominant position. The appellate tribunal has directed the CCI to ask its probe arm Director General (DG) to investigate into the allegations. "We set aside the order passed by CCI...," the bench said adding that the fair trade regulator "is directed to initiate probe against Flipkart." The NCLAT said that the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has successfully made its case here. Passing an order on November 6, 2018, the CCI had held that the business practices of Flipkart and Amazon are not in violation of competition norms and rejected allegations of abuse of market dominance made by AIOVA. The AIOVA had alleged abuse of market dominance against Flipkart India Pvt Ltd, which is into wholesale trading/distribution of books, mobiles, computers and related accessories, and e-commerce marketplace Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd. The CCI had ruled that looking at the present market construct and structure of online marketplace platforms in India, "it does not appear that any one player in the market is commanding any dominant position at this stage of evolution of market". A group of Congress, BSP and SP MLAs arrived here in a special plane along with Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot. However, their exact number was not immediately known, a senior Congress leader said. The ruling Congress has accused the BJP of attempting to poach its MLAs to destabilise the Kamal Nath government, a charge denied by the opposition party. The 230-member state Assembly has 114 Congress MLAs followed by the BJP (107). The simple majority mark is 116. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party (SP) are providing crucial support to the Congress government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Acting Interior Minister Marcel Vela convened a meeting of the National Emergency Management Committee for today at 14:00hrs, at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry (MAI). According to sources, the topics to be discussed include the current situation regarding the spread of coronavirus and the migrant crisis, as well as measures to be taken to deal with a possible wave of refugees, after Turkey has decided to leave migrants on its soil travel to Europe. NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett today announced the hiring of Sandy Cayo, DNP, FNP-BC, as NJHA's vice president of clinical performance and transformation. Cayo, a clinical assistant professor at NYU, is a family nurse practitioner who holds a doctorate in nursing practice from Fairfield University. She also is completing her PhD in nursing research at Duquesne University. "We found the right nursing leader, and we're thrilled to bring her to New Jersey," said NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett. "Sandy has a wealth of expertise spanning research, to social determinants, to global health. She is an excellent fit for NJHA's focus on improving health not just in our healthcare facilities, but across New Jersey's diverse communities." In her new role, Cayo will lead efforts within NJHA and its Health Research and Educational Trust related to clinical quality, patient safety, workforce, clinical education, research, licensure and regulatory issues related to the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Cayo's research focuses on social determinants of health, especially for African American patients who often face disparities in outcomes and access. She serves as an adviser and mentor for NYU student groups including Student Nurses for Advocacy & Policy, Black Student Nurses Association and Nursing Students for Global Health. She also serves as director of education for the Health Education Action League (HEAL) in Haiti and director of quality improvement and partnerships for Amazing Grace Children's Foundation in Ghana. She completes medical mission trips annually to both Haiti and Ghana. Cayo, of Mount Vernon, N.Y., has racked up a long list of honors, including Top 45 Under 40 by the National Black Nurses Association, O Magazine's Nurse Hero recognition, and the Star Award for Nurse Practitioner Excellence. Cayo joins NJHA as the Association redefines several key roles to focus on priorities including social determinants of health and forging new collaborations to promote wellness for all New Jerseyans. The following NJHA team members are filling new roles and responsibilities in support of improved health for the people of New Jersey: Theresa Edelstein , MPH, LNHA, is promoted to senior vice president of the Center for Partnerships Transforming Health (PaTH.) In her new role, she will oversee an initiative to connect services for patients and residents throughout the continuum of care, ensuring well-coordinated and seamless provision of both healthcare and social support services. , MPH, LNHA, is promoted to senior vice president of the Center for Partnerships Transforming Health (PaTH.) In her new role, she will oversee an initiative to connect services for patients and residents throughout the continuum of care, ensuring well-coordinated and seamless provision of both healthcare and social support services. Karen Ali, Esq. , formerly NJHA's general counsel, has been named senior vice president of community partnerships, using her many relationships with community-based and philanthropic organizations to advance NJHA's collaborations with stakeholder groups that share NJHA's commitment to health and well-being. , formerly NJHA's general counsel, has been named senior vice president of community partnerships, using her many relationships with community-based and philanthropic organizations to advance NJHA's collaborations with stakeholder groups that share NJHA's commitment to health and well-being. Mary Ditri , DHA, FHELA, FACHE, has been promoted to vice president of community health. This new role will advance NJHA's strategic efforts in the critical areas of behavioral health, substance use disorder and maternal/child health issues. Her work will include identifying and overseeing grants to bring new resources, investments and partnerships in support of these critical health topics. , DHA, FHELA, FACHE, has been promoted to vice president of community health. This new role will advance NJHA's strategic efforts in the critical areas of behavioral health, substance use disorder and maternal/child health issues. Her work will include identifying and overseeing grants to bring new resources, investments and partnerships in support of these critical health topics. Abate Mammo, PhD, has joined NJHA as chief of healthcare informatics in the Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation. He comes to NJHA from the N.J. Department of Health, where he most recently served as executive director of healthcare quality and informatics. Omna Syed, MPH, has joined NJHA as a policy analyst. Formerly a health policy scholar at Rutgers' Center for State Health Policy, she brings a strong background in population health. "We are extremely fortunate to have these talented and versatile team members who bring experience, intellect, insight and perhaps most importantly a future vision for healthcare and a healthier population in our state," said Bennett. NJHA, based in Princeton, is a not-for-profit trade association committed to helping its members across the healthcare continuum provide quality, affordable, accessible care to their patients, residents and communities. SOURCE New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) Related Links http://www.njha.com A duo believed to be the world's longest married couple with Down's syndrome are planning to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Maryanne, 48, and Tommy Pilling, 62, from Essex, are planning to celebrate their wedding anniversary in July with a 'huge party' at their home with friends and family. Tommy first popped the question after 18 months of dating, with a toy ring from a vending machine, after asking Maryanne's mum. Despite Tommy now facing a heartbreaking battle with dementia, the couple remain more in love than ever, with Maryanne explaining: 'Tommy and I never argue. I love my husband very much. He is my best friend.' Maryanne, 48, and Tommy Pilling, 62, from Essex, are believed to be the UK's longest living married couple with Down's syndrome and set to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in July Maryanne revealed she and her husband Tommy, who suffers from dementia, are more in love than ever and 'never argue' With worries that they would be torn apart, Maryanne, now helps care for her husband Tommy, alongside her sister, Lindi Newman, 32 and mother Linda, 69. Sister Lindi - who is a full time carer said: 'To the best of our knowledge, they're now the longest living married couple with Down's syndrome. 'The fact that they're still living independently and are doing great together, it's amazing. 'These last few years have been substantially harder and Maryanne does get upset - Maryanne had dreamt of a big white wedding since she was a little girl, and their relationship is one that has always been full of love. The couple are set to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with a 'huge party' at their home in July this year Maryanne's sister Lindi revealed she had always dreamed of her perfect wedding and was over-the-moon when she met now-husband Tommy (pictured together on their wedding day) The couple married 25 years ago, and are said to be looking forward to celebrating their silver anniversary (pictured on their wedding day) 'But Tommy doesn't sleep, and whilst his memory isn't that bad, he does get mood swings and it's clear, his health is declining rapidly. 'But their family is all round them - Tommy lost his family quite young and we took him in 30 years ago now. 'He's part of the family and their relationship - it's absolutely wonderful..' The couple are believed to be looking forward to celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with friends and family Lindi revealed her sister Maryanne 'can't remember a life without her husband Tommy' (pictured together) The couple even have their own Facebook page, gathering over 60k likes, detailing their relationship of over 30 years. Lindi added, 'Maryanne doesn't remember a life before Tommy. 'The day she met him, she had the biggest smile on her face and she couldn't stop talking about him.' The couple continue to live independently, with Maryanne helping her husband, who suffers from dementia Lindi explained: 'With their 25th wedding anniversary coming up, we're planning a big party in July.' 'Whilst Maryanne and Tommy might not have the concept of what an achievement it is, to them it's just their relationship, to us it's just absolutely brilliant.' Maryanne said, 'My wedding was the best day of my life. I was shocked when Tommy proposed but I didn't have to think twice about saying yes.' A Florence man could face decades in prison if convicted of hundreds of child pornography crimes. Michael Bramlett was arrested Monday on 444 charges of possession of obscene matter depicting children younger than 17, according to Florence police. The 33-year-old was released from the Lauderdale County jail on $400,000 bail. AL.coms efforts to reach Bramlett for comment werent successful. Its unclear whether he has an attorney. Michael Bramlett, 33, was released from the Lauderdale County jail on $400,000 bail. The investigation began with a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which learned about a suspected child pornography image being uploaded online, said Sgt. Robbie Howard, a Florence police department spokesman, in an email. The investigation led police to search Bramletts home in the Heathrow Subdivision, the authorities said. Police said they seized several electronic devices on which state investigators found obscene images of children. Howard said police are still investigating the case. Further information wasnt immediately available. If Bramlett is convicted, he could face up to a decade in prison for each of the charges. A student from Yeshiva University has become New York City's third confirmed case of coronavirus. The student's identity has not been released but the school announced on Wednesday that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Their condition is unknown. As a precaution, the school's Washington Heights campus will shut down on Wednesday. The diagnosis comes as a 50-year-old Manhattan lawyer remains in the hospital in a severe condition with the virus. It remains unconfirmed whether he has any relation to the student. He has a son who attends Yeshiva. Questions remain over how far he was able to travel and if he was able to come into contact with anyone before being quarantined. The father-of-four commutes from his home in New Rochelle to Manhattan on the Metro-North Railroad. His wife and one of their four kids also works at the law firm where he does. In addition to him and the student, a 39-year-old female health worker has also tested positive for the virus after returning recently from Iran. A student at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights (pictured) has tested positive for coronavirus The lawyer is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center (pictured) in Manhattan's Upper West Side In an announcement on Wednesday, Yeshiva said: 'We have unfortunately received news this morning that our student has tested positive for COVID-19. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected. 'We are taking every precaution by canceling all classes on Wilf Campus in Washington Heights for Wednesday March 4, 2020. 'This includes all in-person graduate courses on that campus as well as at the boys high school.' More information about the virus and its impact in New York City is expected at a press conference on Wednesday. The lawyer, who is said to have an underlying respiratory condition, was initially hospitalized on Friday at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville. He was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan's Upper West Side on Monday when his condition worsened. The doctors and nurses who treated him at Lawrence Hospital are also being tested after being placed in quarantine. Authorities began an intense search on Tuesday to find anyone else who he and his family may have been in contact with, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters. The information is expected to be compiled by Wednesday morning and all those thought to be at risk will be informed. 'City and State disease detectives are working closely to identify close contacts and the appropriate next steps,' de Blasio said. Gov Cuomo said this second confirmed case was no cause for alarm and that community spreading in New York City is inevitable. 'The real issue is how many people will get seriously ill,' Cuomo said. 'How many people, God forbid, could lose their lives.' One of his clients, New Jersey resident Jason Fries, told The Post he was 'worried' by the news of his lawyer's diagnosis, even though the pair have not had physical contact in the past two weeks, which is considered the exposure window for the virus. 'It's distressing when one finds out that there are people we know who have come down with it,' Fries said. 'It's not an abstract anymore.' Additional officers were called to One Grand Central around 1.30 pm on Tuesday amid claims a virus victim worked there WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE 11 US PATIENTS WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS So far, 11 people have died of coronavirus in the US, federal and local health officials say. Ten of the deaths have occurred in Washington state - nine in King County and one of Snohomish County. Most came from Life Care Center, a long-term care facility in Kirkland. One deaths has occurred in Placer County, California. Here's what we currently know: 1. A man in his 50s was brought from Life Care Center to Harborview Medical Center on February 24. He died two days later and is the first death in the US from coronavirus 2. A man in his 50s from King County who had underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized and died at EvergreenHealth on February 29 3. A man in his 40s from Snohomish County who died after being hospitalized at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland on March 1 4. A woman in her 70s, who lived at Life Care and was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had pre-existing conditions, and died on March 1 5. A man in his 70s, linked to Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on February 29 and pre-existing conditions 6. A man in his 70s, who was also a resident of Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on March 1 and also had underlying health conditions 7. A woman in her 70s, who was a Life Care resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth and died on March 2 8. A woman in her 80s, who was linked to Life Care and was previously reported to be in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died on March 1 9. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care and was never hospitalized, died at her family home on February 26 10. A tenth death was confirmed on March 4, but Public Health - Seattle & King County has not yet released information about the latest death 11. An 69-year-old man died on March 4 in Placer County, California after likely becoming infected on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21 Advertisement The lawyer is reportedly a regular worshiper at Young Israel synagogue in New Rochelle, which has since been ordered to halt all services immediately by Westchester County Health Commissioner Dr Sherlita Amler. He is believed to have attended services at the synagogue on February 22 and a funeral and bat mitzvah there on February 23. Young Israel congregants have been ordered to self-isolate until March 8 at the earliest if they visited the synagogue on either of those days. A second student at Yeshiva University has placed themselves into self-isolation as a precaution because of their contact with his law firm, school officials said. The university is not canceling any classes or events but is disinfecting all relevant common areas. Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) Academy on 254th Street in the Bronx, where his other son - who is not showing symptoms - attended, was closed on Tuesday. SAR High School a few blocks north was also shuttered as students may have been in contact with the son. Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck and the Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains also closed Tuesday as a precautionary measure. He and his wife have two other children who live in Israel. Officials said the man had not visited any areas linked to the coronavirus outbreak but had recently taken a trip to Miami. There are two confirmed cases in the state of Florida, but none in Miami. Florida Department of Health officials were angered after learning that he had visited the state via media reports. They are now looking into his travel history. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' spokeswoman Helen Ferre said New York officials were immediately contacted once the news of the man's travel reached them. 'New York state officials did not alert Florida officials,' Ferre said. 'DOH learned of this case when it was reported by the media.' It is not known if the man had displayed any symptoms when in Florida. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference about New York City's response to coronavirus on Monday New York's first case of the virus was a 39-year-old woman who checked herself in to Mount Sinai hospital on Sunday with her husband when they returned to New York City from Iran. Both healthcare workers, the couple self-isolated knowing the risk that they had contracted COVID-19 while traveling and the woman later tested positive. She remains quarantined in her Manhattan home and has not been hospitalized. Her symptoms are said to be 'mild'. Her husband's test is still pending but he is thought to be positive. The woman is not thought to have been contagious when in contact with the public but the car driver from their private car from the airport and the other passengers on their flight have been informed. In an unrelated case, Cuomo said that two families in Buffalo who recently traveled to Italy are being monitored for symptoms of coronavirus. De Blasio confirmed that ten people are been tested so far in New York, eight of whom tested negative. The coronavirus death toll climbed to nine on Tuesday, all in Washington state. There are 120 confirmed cases nationwide. On Monday, President Donald Trump announced that he has asked developers of a possible vaccine to speed up their process. Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump appointed to lead the response task force last week, said it was an 'all hands on deck effort'. Subway riders have been told they do not need to wear masks unless they already have the coronavirus but many continue to take the precaution as the second New York state case was confirmed on Tuesday in Westchester County Passengers are seen wearing surgical masks on an MTA bus in Flushing, Queens, on Monday The New York state legislature on Monday approved a $40million emergency aid package to help track and fight the disease. Subway cars, stations and trains within the New York City transit system will now be cleaned at least every 72 hours as part of a new policy established by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to combat the spread of the coronavirus. How to avoid germs on the subway Immediately use alcohol-based hand sanitizer once getting off the subway or bus Wash your hands as soon as you can for at least 20 seconds using soap Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth before you've washed your hands Avoid using your phone Move away from other passengers who are coughing when possible Cover your sneeze or cough with a tissue and through it in the trash when possible Cough into your arm, not your hand, if you don't have a tissue Stay at home when you are sick If you are experiencing symptoms, call your healthcare provider before presenting yourself for treatment Avoid crowds and travel off-peak when possible Don't use your hand to push throug the turnstile Watch your bags and clean if they come into contact with the floor Don't eat or drink on the subway Advertisement The clean will focus on areas that are touched by commuters the most often, including subway turnstiles and handrails. The MTA is said to be working with the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as it stockpiles its hygienic and cleaning supplies. 'While there has been only one confirmed case of coronavirus in New York and it did not involve the mass transit system, we are committed to doing everything we can to keep in front of the situation and protect our customers and employees,' said MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye. 'Starting tonight we have enacted additional cleaning protocols designed to disinfect our stations, trains, buses, and Access-A-Ride vehicles. Working in coordination with the governor and state and federal health authorities, we continue to aggressively monitor the situation and take all necessary actions to ensure our system remains safe.' As of Monday, bus and subway screens will also deploy a safety messages warning passengers of the potential spread of the coronavirus and advising the best ways to avoid germs. This guidance is offered in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Korean. 'The safety of our customers and employees is our first priority as we continue to monitor the coronavirus,' added Patrick Warren, MTA Chief Safety Officer. 'The MTA is enhancing its cleaning regimen across all our operating agencies to ensure the system is safe for everyone. The best defense against COVID-19, according to the National Centers for Disease Control, continues to be good hygiene frequent hand washing and self-care.' The MTA has urged passengers to follow the recommendations from the CDC to prevent the spread of the virus and to avoid germs on the subway. Subway cars, stations and trains within the New York City transit system will now be cleaned at least every 72 hours as a second case is confirmed in a man who works in Manhattan Areas such as turnstiles which are touched more often will be cleaned daily New York City can now complete its own testing for the virus after being forced to complete the first tests in a lab in Albany. The testing requires an oral and nasal swab and can now be analyzed at the Health Department's Public Health Lab on First Avenue in Manhattan. Gov Cuomo on Monday said that the aim it to test 1,000 people a day by next week in an attempt to identify any outbreaks and place them into isolation to combat the spread but admitted that other confirmed cases in New York are likely. Mayor de Blasio added that the ability to test in the city means that cases can now be identified in a few hours. 'Same day service. That is going to allow us to very quickly figure out who has this disease and need particular care and support and who doesn't. A lot of people who think they may have it turn out not to have it. So this is really important,' De Blasio said. Cuomo has since called on New York health insurers to waive the costs associated with the testing after patients and cleared cases were hit with large medical bills in other states. He confirmed that those on Medicaid would not have a copay. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday set up a state-level task force to take preventive measures against the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in national capital Delhi. Kejriwal said people coming from the four-affected countries were being screened and schools have been asked to conduct intensive awareness drives on the Dos and Donts for people to limit the spread of coronavirus. Hours after constituting the task force, Kejriwal, who is heading the panel, took its first meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The task-force has representatives from all agencies concerned including municipal corporations and the Delhi police. There is no need to panic. But the situation needs to be contained. In the meeting, I told every agency that this needs to be treated as a health emergency because this particular virus spreads very quickly and if it is not contained at the beginning then it will get extremely difficult to control it later, Kejriwal told a press conference after the meeting. The chief minister said the resident of Mayur Vihar who had tested positive to the infection is being treated at Safdarjung hospital. We have identified 88 persons who came in contact with this infected person after he arrived in Delhi after touring in Vienna, Budapest and Italy. We are reaching out to these 88 people and screening them, he said. On the steps being taken to contain the spread of coronavirus, Kejriwal said passengers arriving at the Delhi airport are being screened with thermal scanners. Any person showing slight symptoms is being referred to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, he said. So far, 1,16,589 passengers have been screened at the Delhi airport. In the last few days, 5,769 passengers, who are residents of Delhi, arrived in the national capital from the four affected countries. Out of these, 4,445 passengers did not show any symptoms when we checked. We have not been able to contact the remaining 1324 passengers yet, though our teams are continuously trying, Kejriwal said. Even those who did not show any symptoms during the screening at the airport are being tracked since in many cases it has been seen that the signs of the virus start showing in 14 days or more. So, those on the lists are under surveillance, he said. Also watch: Coronavirus: 28 positive cases in India; PM Modi to skip Holi Milan events All the three municipal corporations and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) are conducting checks in all hotels and guest houses in the city to reach out to tourists who came from the affected countries. Such tourists also are being thoroughly screened for any signs of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The chief minister said there were two laboratories - one in AIIMS and another in NCDC - to test for coronavirus and a third lab would be in place at Lady Hardinge hospital by the evening. Each of the two labs can test 250 samples every day. If needed another (fourth) laboratory will be opened at LNJP hospital, Kejriwal said. On Tuesday, the Delhi government had made RML and Safdarjung hospitals the nodal offices for the governments programme against the deadly virus. It has also readied isolation wards in 25 hospitals out of which 19 are government and six are private hospitals. The education department has been told to create awareness among children. Because exams are going on, we have not yet decided if schools need to be shut. But if needed, we will do so. The state-level task force will meet frequently and fix accountability of agencies apart from monitoring the situation in the city, the chief minister said. Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal also said he will not celebrate Holi on March 10, not just because of the virus but mostly because of the riots that hit north-east Delhi last week and claimed 47 lives. I think all the ministers in my Cabinet will also follow suit. I see nothing in celebrating Holi after what happened in our city last week, Kejriwal said. He also appealed to the public to avoid large gatherings and crowded areas. Keep washing hands. Do not touch your eyes, mouth and nose with unwashed hands, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON One of the biggest world cruise liners in the world, the Grand Princess, is pictured in a file photograph. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images) California Patient Dies From Coronavirus, First US Death Outside Washington State A patient in California died from the new coronavirus, health officials said on Wednesday, marking the first death from the virus in the United States outside the state of Washington. The patient was described as an elderly adult with underlying health conditions. The patient tested positive on Tuesday. Officials believe the patient was exposed to the virus while traveling from Feb. 11 to Feb. 21 on a Princess Cruise Lines ship that left from San Francisco to Mexico. Before dying, the patient was isolated at Kaiser Permanente Roseville in Placer County in Northern California. We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient. While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see, Placer County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said in a statement. While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions. The patient may have exposed 10 health care workers at Kaiser Permanente as well as five emergency responders, the county health department said. The 15 people are now being quarantined and monitored. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks during a press conference to declare a state of emergency over the new coronavirus in Los Angeles, California, on March 4, 2020. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) Three packs of filtration masks are displayed at Marin Ace Hardware in San Rafael, California, on March 2, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Other passengers on the cruise ship, the Grand Princess, may have been exposed and health officials are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to identify and contact them. According to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, only a small percentage of patients require hospitalization, with a percentage of those cases requiring intensive care. There were 80 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Wednesday morning, according to the CDC. Those cases dont include the 49 patients who were either evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan or Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the new virus. The death toll from the virus rose to 11 with the death of the California patient. Washington state announced its 10th death earlier Wednesday. A number of cases and deaths there have been linked to a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb just outside Seattle. An employee at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle, wears a mask as she walks near a UPS truck during a package delivery on March 2, 2020. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo) Reporters and photographers work at the site in South Seattle where King County will be placing several temporary housing units like the one shown here to house patients undergoing treatment and isolation in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus on March 3, 2020. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo) Princess Cruise Lines told passengers late March 3 that the CDC, a federal health agency, notified the company that they were probing a small cluster of cases of COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, connected to the previous Grand Princess voyage that sailed from San Francisco to Mexico before returning to the California city. For those guests who sailed with us on our previous voyage and may have been exposed, in an abundance of caution, the CDC requires you to remain in your stateroom until you have been contacted and cleared by our medical staff, said Dr. Grant Tarling, the chief medical officer on board, in a letter to passengers and crew members. A similar notification was emailed to people who sailed on the same voyage the patient who died was on. The CDC is actively collecting information on the situation and Princess Cruise Lines said it shared essential travel and health data with the agency to help with the process. The cruise company canceled a scheduled call to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, on March 5. The Grand Princess was sailing directly to San Francisco and was scheduled to dock on March 5. The CDC and the company were discussing what actions were needed upon arrival. Once a year, Chabad leaders serving communities around the world, meet at the Annual International Conference of Shluchot (Chabad women emissaries). At the last Kinus, Lubavitch.com caught up with several of the three thousand sisters-in-arms. Chana Soriano, Chabad of Concordia, Argentina Tell me a little about your place of shlichut. Concordia is a small village about an eight-hour drive from Buenos Aires, the closest big city. Some things are a little difficult, but we manage. We dont have anything locally, no mikvah (I have to drive to Buenos Aires every time), no kosher food, no other observant families, but slowly, people are joining us for activities for kids, teens, men, women, for everyone. How were your first interactions with the local people? At the beginning, the Jews we met didnt relate to us. They were nervous of strangers and thought we were coming to make changes to their village. Recently, they told us that they were afraid of us. We thought you were aliens. But weve become close friends. Some have told us, Youre like our Mom and Dad, which is touching. We have guys who were emphatically against Judaism and now they are in yeshiva, in Israel. I think its because they feel like we treat them as if they are our kids. Youre there four and half years. Thats a short time but youve made huge strides. Yes. Now we sell kosher food and there are many who purchase it. I make all of it. We bake cookies, cakes, and bread at home and milk and meat we bring from Buenos Aires. Its a long way to travel from Concordia. Why did you go to the trouble to come? Firstly, its so nice to feel that someone else is now taking care of me. They make sure we have all the amenities we dont have access to in our place of shlichutplenty of good kosher food, a kids camp for our children, and other resources that we dont have locally. Then, theres the warmth of being among friends. The conference gives me a boost, and allows me to return with renewed energy and inspiration and I share that with the people I encounter in Concordia. We arrive at the Kinus spent from being so far away and always being the giver and we leave charged and nourished both physically and spiritually. Ronya Fajnland, Hebrew Academy Chabad, Huntington Beach, CA What is your primary focus as a Chabad community leader? Besides the community, our main thrust is Hebrew Academy Chabad. Its a community school where we have children from local families and children of the shluchim around Orange County. The beautiful thing is that it is a warm, family-like school and thats what everyone loves about it. Its our forty-second year in Long Beach, and this year Im teaching second grade. Related to our school in Huntington Beach, is our community in Long Beach, which is where we live. What brings you to the Kinus and what do you feel you bring back to your community? I moderated a talk on infusing warmth into your community. Thats something very important to me. The warmth that people in our community feel is what keeps them coming back to our synagogue and to our school. So, this year, I came to share with my colleagues ideas of how to make sure were bringing the warmth of Judaism to the people we meet. Ive come to Kinus for many years and I think we all come to take strength from seeing fellow shluchos and discussing different aspects of our shlichus. We hear other peoples ideas and bring them back and implement them in our communities. Nechama Bendet, Chabad of Greater St. Paul, Mendota Heights, MN How long have you been on shlichut? Weve been there eight years. Our community is made up of young people, older people, and everyone in between. What are your major programs? This question used to give me a lot of anxiety. We have Torah classes and holiday parties, youth activities and programs for seniors, Shabbat services and adult education, but I didnt know how to answer, Whats your main project? Then it became clear, yes we have all these programs, but our biggest event is our Shabbat table. Every Friday night at dinner and for Shabbat lunch we have a full table of guests and we get to connect one-on-one with people. A while after we arrived, we had a big Purim party and around sixty people showed up. My husband and I looked around the room and asked each other, How did this happen? Then it dawned on us, each of these people had been at our Shabbat table. We invite different people every week. We get to know each person intimately, in a way that goes beyond a superficial level. They get to meet my family and each other and slowly, one person at a time, weve become a community. It took me a while to get comfortable with the idea that my main focus is my Shabbat table. Now I realize individual connections are key and that my entire community was built from scratch at my Shabbat table. What does coming to Kinus do for you? It makes me realize that were part of something bigger. We get so immersed in our own lives and our own community and then we come to Kinus and realize, whew, were part of something so much bigger than just ourselves. Its nice to have that humbling experience and be reminded that its not just about my community. What were doing in Mendota Heights is really building on all these thousands of communities in cities and towns all over the world. We are such a force. Kinus is also a week-long farbrengen with family and friends, and I love that. Glossary of terms Shlichut: mission Kinus: conference Shlucha: female emissary; Shluchos (plural) Shluchim: emissaries (plural) Farbrengen: Chasidic kumzits Vietnam should take advantage of being the second country in Southeast Asia to sign a free trade agreement with the EU to attract FDI from Europe. As of present, the majority of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign indirect investment (FII) inflows to Vietnam are from Asian countries. Vietnam, therefore, should look for other markets as the Covid-19 epidemic is wreaking havoc in the region, with EU being an attractive option, Kinh te & Do thi quoted an expert as saying. Data: GSO. Chart: Ngoc Thuy. In addition to a long break from the Lunar New Year Holiday, the Covid-19 epidemic is one of the main reasons leading to a decline of 23.6% year-on-year in FDI commitments to Vietnam in the January February period, which stood at US$6.47 billion, data from the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown. During the period, disbursements of FDI projects in the country totaled US$2.45 billion, representing a decline of 5% year-on-year. Nevertheless, inflows from Vietnams major FDI partners such as China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are still growing in the two-month period. Out of 73 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the period, Singapore took the lead with US$4.12 billion, China came second with US$720.4 million, while the third place belonged to South Korea with US$425.4 million, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. However, things could change dramatically in March as those economies are still struggling to contain the deadly coronavirus, said the expert. With the EU Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in place, Vietnam becomes an attractive destination for European investors, which is particularly significant as most countries in the Southeast Asian region do not have a similar deal with the EU. However, as Member of the European Parliament Iuliu Winkler openly said a trade deal with ASEAN is the blocs long-term ambition, and the EVFTA is the first step towards this target, the two sides are predicted to eventually set for such a trade deal. The deal would inevitably diminish Vietnams advantage as the EUs FTA partner. It is, therefore, vital for Vietnam to utilize the current golden period, when a potential EU ASEAN trade deal is still on papers, to penetrate EU market and attract FDI from European investors, the expert suggested. Meanwhile, experts from Hanoi-based lender BIDV said the impacts of Covid-19 on FDI inflows to Vietnam would only be temporary. While Vietnam is effectively containing the epidemic, the contrasting situation in other countries could push investors in China and its territories such as Hong Kong and Macau to move to Vietnam. Hanoitimes Hai Yen-Thao Nguyen EVFTA, EVIPA offer prospect of high quality FDI to Vietnam The recent ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) by the European Parliament is expected to create a change in the flow of FDI from the EU into Vietnam. Tihar jail authorities on Wednesday moved Delhis Patiala House Court seeking a fresh date of execution of death warrant for all four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case. The move comes after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected convict Pawan Kumars mercy petition earlier in the day. In view of the rejection of mercy petition of Pawan by the Honble President of India, we will be approaching the Patiala House Court today for fixing a fresh date of execution of death warrant in respect of all the four convicts, Tihar spokesperson said earlier today. Also Watch | Delhi gangrape victims mother thanks President for rejecting convicts mercy plea Advocate Seema Kushwaha, lawyer of the parents of the December 2012 gangrape and murder victim, on Wednesday said that they are moving an application seeking a fresh date for the execution of the four convicts, news agency ANI reported. We are moving a fresh application in Delhi court to fix a fresh date for the execution of the four convicts. All the convicts have exhausted their complete rights. The date which will be fixed now will be the final date, Kushwaha told ANI. A Delhi court had on Monday stayed for the third time the death sentence of four convicts in the case observing that they cannot be executed while a mercy petition is pending before the President. (With inputs from ANI) A former St. Michaels College School student accused of being part of a group who sexually assaulted two teens with a broomstick in a locker-room in the fall of 2018 may have an alibi for one of the incidents, court heard Wednesday. The teen pleaded not guilty to six charges including gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon at the start of his trial Wednesday morning. His is the only still-unresolved case that began with seven students from the all-boys private school facing charges after a police investigation was triggered by media notifying police about a cellphone video showing a student being sexually assaulted with a broom handle. Charges were withdrawn against two students last year, and four entered guilty pleas and were sentenced to two years probation. None of the teens, including the victims, can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The first set of charges laid against the teen gang sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and assault stemmed from the cellphone video which the Crown alleges was taken on Nov. 7, 2018 by a teen who has since pleading guilty to filming the incident. The 22-second video was shown in court for the first time Wednesday afternoon. The officer in charge of the case, Det.-Const. Daniel Sunghing, testified that a teen matching the accuseds facial features and descriptions of his clothing can be seen in the video. Defence lawyer Geary Tomlinson has not conceded the accused is the teen identified by the officer, and will be arguing at the end of the trial that the video should not be admissible as evidence. He suggested Wednesday that the video could have been altered. The video was not found on the phone of the teen who has admitted to filming it after the phone was seized by police, Sunghing said. The video was airdropped to a number of other students and then a student who was not among the initial group the video was shared with showed the video to then principal Greg Reeves, he said. Thats a lot of people who may have opened that file, Tomlinson said. There is no way for you tell whether its been altered? Sunghing said he didnt believe the video had been altered but said he did not know if it had been altered. Tomlinson asked if the victim in the video had been shown the video. Sunghing said no. The accused faces second set of charges of gang sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and assault over an October 2018 incident in which another student was sexually assaulted with a broomstick by a group of teenagers. A video of that incident was made and then deleted, according to the facts from the guilty plea of the teen who admitted to filming the sexual assault. During cross-examination, Tomlinson suggested his client could not have been present at the October 2018 sexual assault, which the victim told police took place on a Wednesday in October after about 5:30 p.m. The charge initially specified the sexual assault took place on Oct. 17, 2018, and Tomlinson sought to quash the charge, arguing that the teen could not have been present on that day. The Crown was permitted to expand the date range to Oct. 1, 2018 to Oct. 31, 2018, a judge ruled Wednesday. On the first two Wednesdays of the month, a Presto card which Tomlinson said was used by his client, shows that he would have been in transit by 5:30 p.m. If this was his card that would make it next to impossible for him to be in two places at once, Tomlinson said. Next to impossible, yes, Sunghing said. Sunghing testified that, upon receiving a report of a Presto cards use from the defence in January, he tried to find video to corroborate it. However, the videos would not have been kept longer than a month, he said. He agreed with Tomlinson that the video would not have been available even at the time the accused was charged with the October incident. That sexual assault was first reported in November and the accused teen was charged in December. Based on a school sports schedule, the sexual assault could not have occured on Oct. 24 and the victim would likely have remembered if it took place on Halloween, Tomlinson suggested. Sunghing agreed that was possible. Earlier in the day, the Crown played security video from outside the locker-room before, during and after the period of time the November 2018 incident occurred. Sunghing identified a number of students the trial is expected to hear from as well as the victim and the teen he believes to be the accused. The defence has not conceded that the teen identified in the video is the accused. Cross-examination of the officer was abruptly adjourned to the next court date in April in order to address whether the defence could ask questions about a lawsuit filed by one of the victims given a publication ban on the teens identity. The accused is not named in the lawsuit. The start of the trial was plagued with delays because the court equipment in the courtroom was unable to play the videos without repeatedly cutting out, sometimes after only a few seconds. Prosecutor Erin McNamara said the issue was an ongoing one for that courtroom and despite numerous complaints to the Ministry of the Attorney General, it has not been fixed. The courtroom was changed in the afternoon. The trial continues. The 17-day Budget session of the Mizoram Assembly was adjourned sine die on Wednesday. Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo announced the sine die adjournment after giving a brief report on the proceedings of the session that had begun on February 17. The Assembly passed the 2020-21 annual Budget of Rs 10,081 crore and Rs 3,391 crore supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20 fiscal, which were presented by Chief Minister Zoramthanga who also holds the Finance portfolio. It passed six bills, including The Mizoram (Registration of Tourist Trade) Bill, 2020, The Mizoram (Land Revenue) (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2020 and The Mizoram Goods and Services Tax (Third Amendment) Bill, 2020. Of the 71 private member resolutions that were admitted, the House unanimously adopted resolutions on religious freedom and settlement of Brus. It also adopted a resolution on Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill that was passed in the Parliament. At least 13 papers, including The Mizoram Education (Transfer and Posting of School Teachers) (Amendment) Rules, 2020 were laid in the House. "Of the 439 starred questions, 421 were admitted and 18 rejected. A total of 191 questions were placed in the list of business and 46 were answered while 145 were not," Sailo said. A total of 249 unstarred questions were received out of which 230 were admitted and 19 rejected, he said. The Assembly also mourned the deaths of former deputy speaker Lalthankunga and ex-member C Lalsangzuala. The speaker thanked the members for maintaining decorum in the House. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 04.03.2020 LISTEN Farming communities who are also beneficiaries of governments flagship programme dubbed, One Village, One Dam (1V, 1D) have called on government to increase budgetary allocation beyond the current figure of Ghc250, 000.00 to improve and expand the dams with irrigational facilities to effectively enhance dry season farming for increased agricultural productivity to eradicate poverty and hunger in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region. The communities are also demanding of the government to, in line with the bottom-up approach to development, effectively engage and consult them for their inputs and views for the purpose of ensuring that the improved and expanded dams meet their development priorities, needs and aspirations. To ensure improved quality of the dams for sustainable agricultural activities for improved livelihoods, beneficiary communities want government to engage the Irrigation Development Authority (IDA) which has high level of technical capacity to design standards for irrigation infrastructure. The communities made the call during a District level Stakeholders Engagement Forum on One Village, One Dam Programme organized by the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) in Bongo to demand accountability of duty bearers on the quality of dams constructed in the communities.. In a brief presentation, the Executive Director of NORPRA, Mr. Bismark Adongo Ayorogo pointed out that research in Ghana has shown that public investment in agriculture has the highest returns as every one marginal cedi invested in agriculture has GH16.8 returns which is more than GH8.8 for feeder roads and GH1.3 for health. He stated further that the five regions in Northern Ghana have 8 million hectares of agricultural land with suitable soils for wide range of crops left unused or underutilized and only 15.6% of arable land is cultivated. Stating factors that account for most agricultural lands left unused or underutilized, he said northern Ghana experiences a very long dry season with limited irrigational infrastructure which unfortunately operates 1/3 of its capacity and irrigates only 1% all arable land in northern Ghana. In the light of the above reasons coupled with the fact that Bongo in particular and northern Ghana as a whole respectively have 95.7% and 75% of their population engaged in agriculture, NORPRA said prioritizing the building of irrigational infrastructure in northern Ghana is key to accelerating agricultural-led transformation of northern Ghana for eradication of poverty and hunger to achieve the sustainable development goals in good time. To this end, NORPRA , while commending the government for the One Village, One Dam Policy, also urged government to demonstrate more responsiveness and accountability by considering the concerns and development priorities of beneficiary communities for improved quality of the One Village, One Dam Policy. The District Chief Executive of the Bongo District Assembly, Hon. Peter Ayimbisa who addressed the forum and also responded to the concerns raised by participants stated that Nana-Addo led administration is a listening government and would consider the concerns and views of participants to improve the quality of One Village, One Dam programme to improve the lives of the people through increased investment in agriculture. In a statement, the District Director of Agriculture in the Bongo district called on the youth of the district to embrace the One Village, One Dam programme to better their lives through livestock and vegetable farming which is in high demand in the dry season. The paramount chief of the Bongo traditional area, Naba Alemiyarum Baba Salifu, who chaired the forum advised owners of livestock in the district not to allow their animals destroy the crops of farmers engaged in dry season farming. He urged the District Assembly to pass a bye-law that criminalizes the deliberate act of allowing livestock on free-range to destroy other farmers crops. Bismark Adongo Ayorogo (Executive Director) Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg is meeting with campaign advisers Wednesday to discuss the future of his campaign after spending over $500 million in a strategy focused on Super Tuesday states resulted in just one win in American Samoa. Bloomberg tried to frame the results positively during a speech to supporters in Florida on Tuesday night. Heres what is clear, he said. No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible: In just three months, weve gone from 1 percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president. But multiple reports cited sources who said the former mayor would be reassessing his campaign after failing to win a single state. He had no public events scheduled for Wednesday. Super Tuesday numbers as of Wednesday morning showed Bloomberg fourth in the overall race with 44 delegates, for an average output of over $12 million per delegate. Bloomberg, who entered the race in November, went all in on Super Tuesday in an unorthodox strategy, and was the only candidate to air advertisements in all 14 states, and had staff on the ground in every state. Ad spending data showed that Bloomberg dropped over $180 million on television advertising Super Tuesday states as of this past weekend, with over $100 million going into Texas and California the two biggest prizes. Bloombergs campaign also hired hundreds of deputy digital organizers who were paid $2,500-per-month to text all of their personal contacts about Bloomberg at least once a week, and post positive messages about Bloomberg on their social media accounts. More from National Review Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP Garth Brooks sings about having friends in low places, but he's also got friends at the Library of Congress, which made him this year's recipient of the prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. At an all-star tribute in Washington, D.C., tonight, he becomes the second country star honored with the prize, following Willie Nelson. He's also the youngest recipient at 58. The show will be telecast on PBS at 8 p.m. March 29 (check local listings), and on pbs.org and the PBS Video App, and on a later date on the American Forces Network to Department of Defense locations around the world. Brooks will perform at the event, along with his wife, country star Trisha Yearwood, and Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Keb Mo and Jay Leno. Said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Brooks has set countless records, earned numerous awards and elevated country music into a national anthem of the American people. He brought rock n roll spectacle to country concerts, and a puckish, upbeat spirit to a sometimes doleful genre. His 14th studio album, due this year, is called Fun. He's also serious about helping humanity through charity work and songs about social issues. The Library of Congress commended his tune We Shall Be Free, which also won a GLADD Media Award in 1993 for addressing homophobia, homelessness and racism. He was the first recipient of the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award for Caring and Compassion. Supreme Court Allows States to Prosecute Illegal Aliens for Identity Theft The Supreme Court on March 3 upheld the power of states to pursue illegal aliens for identity theft, ruling against three men who used someone elses Social Security number to gain employment. In the decision, the justice ruled 54 that Kansas can rely on false information used by illegal aliens in their W-4 and K-4 tax-withholding forms to prosecute them for identity theft even if they used the same false information on their I-9 work authorization forms. The I-9 form is used by employers to attest that an employee is authorized to work. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) makes it a federal crime for an employee to provide false information on the I-9, but states that information on the form may not be used for purposes other than for enforcement of this act. In the case at hand, cited as Kansas v. Garcia, the three menRamiro Garcia, Donaldo Morales, and Guadalupe Ochoa-Larawho werent authorized to work in the United States, used misappropriated Social Security numbers (SSNs) to secure employment in Kansas. They used these misappropriated SSNs on their I-9 forms as well as their tax-withholding forms. The three men were tried and convicted under Kansas criminal law for fraudulently using another persons SSNs on their tax withholding forms upon obtaining employment. The Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed the lower courts decision upon appeal, but a divided Kansas Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling that the IRCA preempts the state from applying laws against fraud, forgeries, and identity theft because the information used in the prosecution was contained in the mens I-9 forms. The states top court also added that the fact that this information was included in the W-4 and K-4 did not alter the fact that it was also part of the I9. Kansas then appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, rejected the state Supreme Courts reasoning, saying that if the reasoning was taken at face value, it means that no information placed on an I-9 such as an employees name, residence address, date of birth, telephone number, and e-mail address could ever be used by any entity or person for any reason. This interpretation is flatly contrary to standard English usage. A tangible object can be contained in only one place at any point in time, but an item of information is different. It may be contained in many different places, and it is not customary to say that a person uses information that is contained in a particular source unless the person makes use of that source, Alito wrote in the majority opinion (pdf). The mere fact that an I-9 contains an item of information, such as a name or address, does not mean that information contained in the I-9 is used whenever that name or address is later employed. Alito also held that the state laws dont fall into a field that is implicitly reserved exclusively for federal regulation, including respondents claimed field of fraud on the federal verification system. He also added that the mere fact that state laws like the Kansas provisions at issue overlap to some degree with federal criminal provisions does not even begin to make a case for conflict preemption. In the present cases, there is certainly no suggestion that the Kansas prosecutions frustrated any federal interests, he wrote. He also noted that the Trump administration had expressed support for Kansass position in the court and that federal authorities play a role in all three cases. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the dissent, on behalf of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, that he agreed with Alito that the IRCA doesnt expressly preempt state laws from applying in the prosecutions. But he rejected the majoritys opinion that there was no implied preemption, saying that the federal law gave federal authorities the sole authority to prosecute fraud used to secure employment. The Act reserves to the Federal Governmentand thus takes from the Statesthe power to prosecute people for misrepresenting material information in an effort to convince their employer that they are authorized to work in this country, he wrote. Even though IRCA criminalizes that conduct, the Act makes clear that only the Federal Government may prosecute people for misrepresenting their federal work-authorization status. Police in Slovenia on Wednesday said they discovered 30 migrants hidden in freight train wagons carrying clay. The migrants included 12 children and a pregnant woman, police said. They said they were from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. The train with 20 wagons was traveling from Serbia to Slovenia when police discovered the migrants at the Dobova border crossing with Croatia on Tuesday. Slovenian police said the migrants were covered in clay as they tried to cross illegally into the European Union country. Police said their lives were endangered because of a lack of oxygen and the clay thickening. Thousands of migrants stuck in the Balkans have been desperate to cross into the EU. Thousands more are trying to enter following Turkey's decision to open its borders with EU members Greece and Bulgaria. Countries in the Balkans and neighboring EU nations have expressed concerns over a potential new migrant wave similar to the one in 2015-16 when hundreds of thousands passed through the region toward Western Europe. Slovenian police said three of the migrants discovered in the train have received medical care. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India-Bhutan MoU for cooperation in outer space approved: Highlights of Cabinet meet Uttarakhand: First cabinet meeting under Pushkar Singh Dhami resolves to rise to people's expectations PM Modi to chair meeting of Council of Ministers today Cabinet meeting: From coronavirus screening at 21 airports to PSU banks merger, here are highlights India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Mar 04: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a Cabinet meeting in which several proposals were made for the development of India. After the meeting, Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman briefed the media about the meeting. 17 Indians abroad infected with coronavirus, says MEA Here are the key highlights of the meeting: NRIs who are Indian nationals will get permission to invest 100% in Air India. It will pave the way for fresh investments Screening going on at 21 airports for coronavirus. In the last 10 months, more than 6 lakh passengers have been screened India is going to start 19 new coronavirus testing labs Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally monitoring the situation in the wake of coronavirus. 72 changes in 65 sections in the Companies Act which was passed in 2013 suggested Govt's priority is to decriminalise the Companies Act. The quantum of penalty will be reduced. Exemption to companies with obligation to spend 50 lakh or less under the CSR from the requirement of having a CSR committee After amalgamation, there will be 12 PSU banks only Bank mergers will not affect operations of the banks Cabinet has approved the Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bill removes criminality under the Act. "This Bill furthers ease of living for law-abiding corporates and de-clogs the criminal justice system in the country For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 17:04 [IST] The Flagstaff Police Department arrested three people for first-degree murder on noon Monday after a six-year-old child was found dead in his bedroom closet. Anthony Martinez, 23, Ann Marie Martinez, 50, and Elizabeth Archibeque, 26, were all arrested Monday and charged with first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse. Anthony Martinez was also charged with resisting arrest. Authorities said the child did not appear his age, suggesting he had been malnourished. The parents told police investigators their children had been kept in a small closet for about a month. Medical personnel arrived and were not able to resuscitate the child, who was pronounced deceased on scene, Charles Hernandez, spokesman of Flagstaff Police Department, said. The child was found at the 3108 North Monte Vista Drive on the east side of Flagstaff on Monday at 12:39 p.m. Flagstaff police said there were no obvious signs of trauma on the victim. However, the childrens parents, Anthony Martinez and Elizabeth Archibeque, admitted to locking the boy and his seven-year-old brother in the small bedroom closet and denying them food. Millennium Hotels & Resorts MEA, one of the fastest-growing regional hotel management companies in the Middle East & Africa, has named Samy Boukhaled as vice president of operations for the UAE. Boukhaled has been instrumental in implementing the expansion strategy of the company in Saudi Arabia while assuming the position of vice president of operations. Thus, his new appointment comes to leverage his experience in UAE. Renowned for his revenue-oriented approach, Boukhaled has more than 30 years of experience in the industry, having held several leadership roles with hotel companies such as Accor and Sofitel, across France, Bahrain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Reporting to Millennium Hotels and Resorts MEA CEO Kevork Deldelian, Boukhaled will oversee all operational aspects of the brand in the UAE where several properties are to open this year, adding to its already extensive portfolio across the region. Boukhaled holds an MBA in International Hotel Management from Vatel International Business School Hotel & Tourism Management in France and a Baccalaureate Degree from Morocco, among other awards and certifications. Deldelian said: We are confident that Samy Boukhaled will remarkably uplift the performance of our hotels in the UAE. He has achieved many of the company key objectives in Saudi Arabia, and we wish him the best of luck in his new assignment. - TradeArabia News Service But thats just us. The cow (identified in the end credits as Evie) may be the only bovine in the territory, but she is part of a nonhuman cast that includes at least one owl, an assortment of very good dogs, an apparently tame crow and a typically amoral cat whose mischief kicks the plot toward its climax. The people believe they have dominion over the animals, the land and its products, but their sovereignty is an illusion. We are, for the most part, big talkers with meager destinies, at the mercy of luck, global capitalism (which was a thing even then) and one another. Though it surveys a grim, Hobbesian struggle for survival, First Cow has more on its mind and in its viewfinder than the nasty, brutish war of each against all, or the systems of domination intended to keep that war in check. Even in the harshest circumstances, there is still room still a primal need for sweetness, for companionship, for art. Reichardt, who wrote the script with Jon Raymond, her frequent collaborator (his novel The Half-Life provides the source material), introduces the story with one of William Blakes Proverbs of Hell: The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. We build our homes out of fellow feeling, in other words. King-Lu and Cookie, roommates as well as business partners, illustrate this wisdom. They meet in the wilderness, while Cookie is miserably employed as the cook and chief forager in a gang of trappers on their way to Fort Tillicum. (His real name is Otis Figowitz). King-Lu is hiding out in the woods, running for his life after a murderous bit of trouble with some Russians. They strike up a conversation that carries an unspoken current of curiosity and budding affection. The possibility of violence hovers in the air around them like a damp chill. Cookies companions can barely exchange words without coming to blows, and the same ethos seems to govern Fort Tillicum. (The actual governor, owner of the titular cow, is a noble rotter known as the Chief Factor, played with suitably repellent panache by Toby Jones.) But what develops between Cookie and King-Lu is an exception to this rule of universal antagonism, an instant bond that 19th-century American writers might have described as natural sympathy. It can also be called love. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the compensation announced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for the victims of the Delhi violence without identifying the affected persons. It was "arbitrary" and "unreasonable", said the petition. A Division Bench of the High Court presided by Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice C. Harishankar while dismissing the petition said, "The aforesaid is a policy decision and we would be extremely slow in interfering with the same....we see no reason to entertain this petition." The plea filed by Nand Kishore Garg through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, sought court's direction to strike down the compensation order to all the riot victims. It also sought the court's directions for laying down of comprehensive guidelines in respect of width and length of space of the government advertisements to prevent the misuse of public money. It could be published like other government notifications, it said. The plea also requested the court to direct the government to re-notify the fresh announcement/notification by incorporating mandatory conditions of identification of the real riot victims before releasing the compensation. It sought for direction for regulation of ex-gratia compensation, which should be proportionate to the loss of life and social standing to the deceased. The petition also sought restoration, rehabilitation and re-construction of damaged educational institutions and religious places, irrespective of the communities in a time bound manner as not to hamper the forthcoming academic session. SEATTLE, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Allen Institute and Sage Bionetworks today revealed the winning teams of the Allen Institute Cell Lineage Reconstruction DREAM Challenge, an open science competition for computational approaches to building accurate cell lineages in developmental biology. "The field of cell lineage tracing needs innovative, specialized methods to analyze and understand these new types of experimental data," said Kathryn Richmond, Ph.D., Director of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute that supported the challenge. "We are thrilled that the computational biology community rallied around this challenge, and we can't wait to see the insights in developmental biology that will result from their efforts." The experiments used in cell lineage tracing rely on molecular barcodes to reveal a developing creature's cellular pedigree. These techniques are relatively new, and, to date, researchers have primarily used computational methods borrowed from the field of evolutionary biology to piece together the developmental lineages. In a broad sense, both fields reconstruct "family trees," but there are enough differences that the scientists who head up the Allen Discovery Center at UW Medicine, Jay Shendure, M.D., Ph.D., and Michael Elowitz, Ph.D., felt that dedicated algorithms for cell lineage tracing could improve research in the field. "I am happy to see that participants to the challenge adapted approaches from evolutionary biology to the specific problems posed by cell lineage tracing. Some participants also tried outside-the-box solutions," said Pablo Meyer, Ph.D., a computational biologist at IBM and a director of the DREAM Challenges. "One of the main outcomes of this challenge is showing that algorithms built using data from a smaller set of trees can be implemented to effectively reconstruct a much larger and different type of tree." The Allen Institute DREAM Challenge ran from October 15, 2019, to January 31, 2020. Eleven international teams competed in the open science competition, which included three subchallenges that asked participants to reconstruct cell lineages from datasets of different sizes and types. DREAM challenges are open science competitions to develop computational solutions to biomedical research problems, on topics ranging from preterm birth to Parkinson's disease to basic molecular biology. Sage Bionetworks provided the expertise and infrastructure to host this DREAM Challenge on their Synapse platform. Challenge winners Three teams tied for Subchallenge 1, which asked teams to reconstruct a small cell lineage tree of less than 100 cells based in part on video microscopy data: Jingyuan Hu and Zhandong Liu , Ph.D., both of Baylor College of Medicine . and , Ph.D., both of . Hanrui Zhang and Yuanfang Guan , Ph.D., both of the University of Michigan . , Ph.D., both of the . Matthew G. Jones of the University of California, Berkeley , and UC San Francisco and Alex Khodaverdian , Richard Zhang , Suhas Rao , Robert Wang and Nir Yosef , Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley . One team won both Subchallenges 2 and 3, which comprised computer-generated mutations for a thousand-cell lineage tree of the microscopic worm, C. elegans, and a computer-generated tree of 10,000 cells, respectively: Wuming Gong, Ph.D., of Lillehei Heart Institute, University of Minnesota , and Il-Youp Kwak, Ph.D., of Chung-Ang University. For more about the challenge, see our Q&A with Shendure, Elowitz and Meyer. About The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute, is dedicated to exploring the landscape of bioscience to identify and foster ideas that will change the world. The Frontiers Group directs funding through award mechanisms to accelerate our understanding of biology, including: Allen Discovery Centers at partner institutions for leadership-driven, compass-guided research, and Allen Distinguished Investigators for frontier explorations with exceptional creativity and potential impact. The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group was founded in 2016 by the late philanthropist and visionary Paul G. Allen. For more information, visit allenfrontiersgroup.org. About Sage Bionetworks Sage Bionetworks is a nonprofit biomedical research and technology development organization that was founded in Seattle in 2009. Our focus is to develop and apply open practices to data-driven research for the advancement of human health. Our interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers work together to provide researchers access to technology tools and scientific approaches to share data, benchmark methods, and explore collective insights, all backed by Sage's gold-standard governance protocols and commitment to user-centered design. Sage is a 501c3 and is supported through a portfolio of competitive research grants, commercial partnerships, and philanthropic contributions. Learn more at sagebionetworks.org. About DREAM Challenges DREAM (Dialogue on Reverse Engineering and Assessment Methods) Challenges emerged in 2006 to leverage the wisdom of the multidisciplinary scientific community to solve fundamental and difficult questions in biomedical research. DREAM's methodology is based on crowd-sourcing scientific Challenges, fostering open and collaborative research, and promoting data sharing. In 2013, DREAM partnered with Sage Bionetworks, which developed and administers the technology platform that underpins DREAM Challenges. Learn more at dreamchallenges.org. Media Contact: Rob Piercy, Director, Media Relations 206.548.8486 | [email protected] SOURCE Allen Institute Related Links http://www.alleninstitute.org TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian filmmaker who just won the Berlin Film Festivals Golden Bear has been summoned to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies, his lawyer said Wednesday. Mohammad Rasoulofs sentence came from three films he made that authorities found to be propaganda against the system, his lawyer Nasser Zarafshan told The Associated Press. Rasoulofs sentence also included an order than he stop his filmmaking for two years as well, the lawyer said. The filmmaker received the order via a text message from the judiciary, Zarafshan said. Rasoulof will not turn himself in to authorities and will appeal the order, especially given the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the lawyer said. Authorities already sent 54,000 prisoners on temporary furlough over concerns about the virus spreading through the countrys prison system. There was no immediate state media report about Rasoulofs summons, nor any comment from judiciary officials. Rasoulof just won the Berlin Film Festivals top prize for his film There Is No Evil. The film tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran and dealing with personal freedom under tyranny. Rasoulof wasnt there to accept the award Saturday due to a travel ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities. Organizers left an empty chair and name sign for Rasoulof at the news conference for his entry. Germanys dpa news agency reported that Rasoulofs daughter, Baran, accepted the Golden Bear award on his behalf. Rasoulf has faced problems before for his work in Iran. In 2011, Rasoulof and fellow director Jafar Panahi were arrested in Iran for filming without a permit. The pair received six years in prison and were banned from filmmaking for 20 years on charges that included making propaganda against the ruling system, but Rasoulofs sentence was later reduced to a year on appeal. His film Goodbye won a prize at Cannes in 2011, but the director wasnt allowed to travel to France to accept it. The UK's National Health Service (NHS) needs to do more to address the ingrained stigma and discrimination faced by people with obesity, says a leading health psychologist. Although it is a problem rooted in wider society, Dr Stuart Flint, Associate Professor in the Psychology of Obesity at the University of Leeds, says negative attitudes around weight gain are pervasive in the NHS and they can affect the way patients are treated. Writing a Comment article in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology to mark World Obesity Day (March 4th), Dr Flint argues: "A core value of the NHS is to provide a comprehensive service that is available to all. "Despite this core value, many processes prevent it from being achieved. "For instance, weight stigma and discrimination are common within healthcare settings and affects the quality of care that patients receive." The All Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity has reported that only one in four people with obesity said they were being treated with dignity and respect by health professionals when they sought advice or treatment for their weight. Ignorance about the scientific causes of weight gain is part of the problem. Dr Flint says many people hold stereotypes where they believe individuals are responsible for their own weight gain because they are either lazy or greedy. "Attributions of personal responsibility can lead to bias... with a person's health status perceived to be within an individual's control, which leads to fault and blame," he writes. However research shows that obesity is "...a complex, multifaceted health condition that can be caused by, for instance, by genetics, epigenetics, biological, environmental, and societal factors." Dr Flint also compared the narrative around obesity with that for cancer in the NHS long term plan, highlighting that the language and framing of obesity may also contribute to weight stigma. "The most striking difference is that the language used about cancer is positive, reflecting optimism and hope," he says. "When compared with obesity, the language is negative, reflecting pessimism, fear and unpleasantness." For example, people with cancer are discussed as survivors whereas obesity is seen as a burden. Earlier this week, Dr Flint launched a list of dos and don'ts to help MPs avoid loaded language when they discuss obesity. The list suggests: Use object descriptions such as "weight" or "excess weight" Put people first - do not use 'obese people' but 'people with obesity' Be accurate in the description of the complex causes of weight gain Do not to imply there is a group of people who do not wish to manage their weight. The guidelines were drawn up in partnership with the charity Obesity UK and MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity. Mary Glindon, Labour MP for North Tyneside and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, said: "Current efforts to reduce obesity simply aren't working. "Weight stigma acts as a barrier to people with obesity seeking help and getting treatment. "These guidelines will help MPs to lead the way in changing the way we speak about obesity, help to promote a wider understanding of the complexities of obesity, and help us move away from damaging stereotypes. "Reducing obesity is not necessarily all about eating less and moving more." ### *Dr Flint is also a signatory to a statement carried in the journal Nature Medicine published today calling for an end to stigmatisation of people with obesity. Note to Editors For more information, please contact David Lewis in the press office at the University of Leeds: 0113 343 2049 or d.lewis@leeds.ac.uk The paper is available top journalists once the embargo lifts: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30072-3/fulltext University of Leeds The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2020. Additionally, the University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. Over a third of our academics are involved in applied research or as consultants to industry, and over the last ten years, the University of Leeds has produced more than 100 'spin-out' companies. http://www.leeds.ac.uk OPEC+ found itself stuck in a familiar place after a first day of talks in Vienna, with its two most important members split over whether deeper production cuts are required to offset the huge demand hit from the coronavirus epidemic. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman was pushing for a supply reduction as big as 1.5 million barrels a day, delegates said. His Russian counterpart Alexander Novak favored maintaining output at current levels through to the end of the second-quarter. The divide looked set to continue into Thursday -- when OPEC holds its full ministerial conference -- after Novak left the meeting of the groups Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee in the Austrian capital without resolution, the delegates said. The panel, which oversees the production-cuts agreement, did make a recommendation, United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said after the meeting concluded. He wouldnt tell reporters what it was. Oil erased gains, with Brent crude falling 0.3% to $51.72 a barrel as of 5:48 p.m. in London. Far apart This isnt the first time that the two biggest producers in the OPEC+ coalition have appeared to be far apart just days before crucial decisions on oil production. Yet since the group was formed in late 2016, the two nations have usually found a way to resolve their differences and forge a common policy that supports crude prices. The Kremlin has gained a lot from its cooperation with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The country has been the biggest financial beneficiary of the cuts, largely because its borne a lesser share than Saudi Arabia. The alliance has also significantly enhanced President Vladimir Putins presence on the world stage and his political clout in the Middle East. We see more reasons for Russia to cooperate than not, at least for now, said Matthew Holland, an analyst at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd. However, the Russian contribution to additional cuts is likely to be nominal unless Riyadh can offer a large carrot. Moscow is likely to wait until the last moment to make any decision on whether to back deeper cuts, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters before Wednesdays talks. Unprecedented shock Still, pressure on the alliance is greater than ever and its two dominant nations arent necessarily aligned. Saudi Arabias push for a big cut reflects mounting concern that growth in fuel consumption could be wiped out this year as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the world economy. Oil just suffered its biggest weekly slump since the global financial crisis, falling far too low to balance the budgets of most OPEC members, but not Russia. This is a sudden, instant demand shock, said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit Ltd. The scale of the decline is unprecedented. Yet the coalition is already making deep cuts to offset the U.S. shale boom, agreeing on a fresh supply reduction of 2.1 million barrels a day as recently as December. OPECs output last month was the lowest since 2009, when the group implemented the sharpest production cuts in its history at the depths of the global financial crisis. Virus threat With flights canceled in Europe, schools closed in Japan, towns quarantined in Italy and a rising death toll from Iran to Washington state, the coronavirus crisis has gone global, and with it, its impact on energy demand. For only the fourth time in almost 40 years, oil consumption may not grow at all in 2020, according to a growing minority of traders, investors and analysts. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday became the first major Wall Street Bank to forecast a contraction in demand this year. As well as seeking to forge a deal, members of OPEC+ are also grappling with the risks of bringing together delegations from 23 nations as the disease continues to spread. In an effort to limit potential contagion as officials arrived in Vienna, OPEC said medical advisers would conduct screenings to detect staff or delegates who might have high temperatures. Some employees will be told to work from home. OPEC told national delegations to limit their size to the bare minimum, pressing ahead with the meeting even as conferences across the globe were canceled. Amid the difficult circumstances, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo and Russias Novak sought a moment of levity, posting on Twitter a video of themselves performing a handshake with their feet, in keeping with guidelines to avoid bodily contact that could spread the virus. OPEC has taken the unprecedented step of blocking journalists from entering its headquarters, and has also scrapped the final press conference in favor of a webinar. The cartels gatherings typically attract a contingent of hundreds of officials, reporters, TV crews, analysts and consultants from around the world. --With assistance from Will Kennedy, Golnar Motevalli, Fred Pals, Salma El Wardany, Javier Blas and Nayla Razzouk. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. India intends to set up a laboratory in Iran so that Indians there can be tested for a possible exposure to novel coronavirus before being brought back, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday. The Iranian government has not yet given permission for it. An estimated 1,200 Indians, mostly students and pilgrims, are in Iran currently. "If the Iranian government lends its support, a testing facility could be set up there as well, so that Indians there can be tested before they can be brought back," Vardhan said. One scientist from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has been sent to Iran while three more from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will leave at 4 pm on Wednesday to check the feasibility of setting up a laboratory there for conducting coronavirus test. As part of the country's preparedness in containing the spread of the disease, the minister said all foreign nationals henceforth will be screened for COVID-19 at the 21 designated airports and not just the 12 countries listed earlier. A total of 28 COVID-19 cases were detected in India so far. Among them, one person was from Delhi, six of his relatives in Agra, 16 Italians and their Indian driver, one in Telangana and the three earlier cases in Kerala, Vardhan said. On the other hand, Iran has so far reported over 2,000 coronavirus cases and 77 deaths. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) P rime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that statutory sick pay will be available from the first day of illness under emergency legislation to tackle the coronavirus. Mr Johnson announced the changes which will mean the sick pay rules in the UK are relaxed so Covid-19 sufferers are not left out of pocket. The PM said the Government will take every step to make sure nobody is penalised for doing the right thing and self-isolating. Current laws dictate workers are not entitled to minimum statutory sick pay of 94.25 a week until they have taken four or more days in a row off work. Emergency legislation to be introduced to deal with the outbreak will see employees paid "from the very first day" they are signed off. Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures 1 /61 Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures A man wearing a protective mask travels on the underground tube Reuters A woman wearing a protective face mask Jeremy Selwyn A man and woman wearing protective face masks on a bus PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A woman shopper wears a protective mask as she walks down an aisle in a supermarket in London AFP via Getty Images A man wearing a face mask waits to board an underground train on the Central Line at Bank station in London AP A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A woman wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street in London PA A woman wearing a mask walks by the Emirates Stadium Action Images via Reuters A man is seen wearing a protective face mask at Waterloo station Reuters A woman wears a surgical mask as she walks through Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport Reuters A fan in the stands wears a mask during the Premier League match at Stamford Bridg PA A man wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A person wears a mask in a display of street style outside the BFC Show Space show in London PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A commuter on the tube wearing a face mask Jeremy Selwyn A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridge Getty Images People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station AP The coronavirus outbreak will unlikely lead to a Tube ban PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A woman wearing a face mask on the London Underground. PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A man wears a mask as he takes a photograph in China Town AP A man in a hazmat suit and face mask cleans the Ritchie Street Health Centre, Islington PA A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man arrives at Euston Underground wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Staff in suits at St Thomas's Hospital today Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man wears a face mask as he stands near an electronic arrivals board at Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images A man wears a face mask as he walks along the Thames embankment AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen on London Bridg Reuters However, there are concerns the rules will leave out those without the disease who are forced to self-isolate. Tackling probing questions from opposition ministers and Labour's leader Jeremy Corbyn during Wednesday's PMQs, Mr Johnson said: "As yesterday's plan made clear, we are not at the point yet where we are asking large numbers of people to self-isolate." Adding: "We will take every step that we can to ensure that businesses are protected, that the economy remains strong and that no-one, whether employed or self-employed, whatever the status of their employment, is penalised for doing the right thing. What we are indeed doing is advancing the day, on a temporary basis, advancing the day by which you are eligible for statutory sick pay from the fourth day to the first day, and I think that is the right thing. Mr Corbyn asked Mr Johnson about adequate funding for the NHS and support for services such as the police who could come under severe strain if the outbreak widens. "We are not at that stage or anything like that stage yet. He (Mr Corbyn) knows our police forces are well able to cope with all types of eventualities and they have long-standing arrangements to prepare them for such pressures," said Mr Johnson. Mr Corbyn also spoke for the millions of Brits who work in low paid or gig economy job that are not eligible for statutory sick pay and asked the PM to make clear whether people in this position will also be helped. Mr Johnson replied: Well (Mr Corbyn) is raising a very important point and, of course, we are very much aware of the issues faced by the self-employed and those on zero-hours contracts. I should stress that some of them will be entitled to statutory sick pay, others will be entitled to help through the existing systems such as Universal Credit and we are urgently looking at the application process to reflect on the advice on self-isolation. A number of MPs have been vocal about the issues surrounding the Universal Credit system which has a minimum waiting time for payment of five to six weeks. The TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said the move did not go far enough. Commuters in London heading to work in masks can be reassured they would not be out of pocket should they need to self-isolate / Jeremy Selwyn She said: Two million workers still dont earn enough to qualify for statutory sick pay. They cant afford not to work. And statutory sick pay still isnt enough to live on. Earlier, Englands Chief medical Officer said community transmission of Covid-19 is undoubtedly already occurring throughout the UK. Professor Chris Whitty told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: At this point in time we think it is likely, not definite, that we will move into onward transmission and an epidemic here in the UK. He told BBC Breakfast there could be a need to do extreme things to protect the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. But for most people, this will be a mild or moderate disease, anything from a sniffle to having to go to bed for a few days, rather like with mild flu, he said. Coronavirus Drive-in Testing Centre Set Up In Parsons Green On the NHS, Prof Whitty said: The NHS will always cope because the NHS is an emergency service which is very good at adapting to what it finds itself with. But he said if the UK sees a very large epidemic, then it will put very high pressure on the NHS, and there could be several weeks which could be very difficult for the health service and wider society. Prof Whitty said retired doctors could be called back to work in the NHS, and existing doctors asked to switch jobs to relieve pressure. Prof Whitty suggested that shutting down cities in the UK would not be effective now. He said: Closing cities is really only appropriate if you have a significant epidemic in one particular place and almost nothing anywhere else. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty (left) spoke in a conference on coronavirus with the Prime Minister on Tuesday / PA It made sense for China to respond in the way it did but it would be very unlikely here This is now in multiple places in Europe and around the world. His comments came as the London Book Fair at Olympia from March 10 to 12 was cancelled after major publishers pulled out amid coronavirus fears. Elsewhere, two people in Carlisle have tested positive for Covid-19. Both had recently returned from a trip to northern Italy. One is a member of healthcare staff at the Cumberland Infirmary. Also on Wednesday, the Government launched a new campaign to encourage people to take simple steps to protect themselves. Loading.... A letter to NHS trusts has also been published telling them to ramp up their plans for tackling Covid-19, including seeing patients via video-link. In the letter, NHS strategic incident director Professor Keith Willett and incident director Stephen Groves say acute wards may be used and coronavirus patients should be separated out. It sets out that a level 4 NHS incident has been declared the highest level meaning extra steps were needed. At least 53 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK, with an update expected on Wednesday afternoon. The new Government publicity campaign seeks to drive home the message that regular hand-washing is the single most important action individuals can take in the fight against Covid-19. It comes the day after the Government launched its battle plan to combat the outbreak with a warning that up to a fifth of the UK workforce could be off sick when the virus hits its peak. The new adverts say hand-washing should be for 20 seconds, using soap and water or hand sanitiser. Government scientific experts predict the UKs coronavirus outbreak could last around four to six months. YEREVAN, MARCH 3, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received a premium breed puppy as a gift on Tuesday from Georgian leader Giorgi Gakharia while on an official visit to Tbilisi. In a video shared online, Prime Minister Gakharia is seen giving the puppy a purebred Kazbek shepherd dog to Pashinyan in the evening after the official meetings. This is an honor, Pashinyan told his Georgian counterpart after taking the puppy into his arms. This is going to be our fifth dog, Pashinyan said. We must think of a name. Or maybe he already has a name? the Armenian PM asked. He does have a name by his birth passport, but as Mr. Prime Minister you will like you will name it Gakharia responded. But the Armenian PM insisted the puppy to keep its birth name, which Gakharia said was Bonbor. PM Pashinyan then shared on Facebook a photo with the pup, and wrote My friend, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharias dearest gift, Bonbor a purebred Caucasian shepherd. He will be our fifth dog, after Kaylo, Arjuk [Bear], Ampik (Cloudy) and Molly. Thank you. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Ukrenergo National Power Company has signed a contract with JSC Dalekovod/General Electric Grid GmbH (Croatia/Germany) for the reconstruction of 750 kV Dniprovska substation in Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the press service of Ukrenergo. Dniprovska substation is the last of the four facilities for modernization as part of the Substation Reconstruction Project in eastern Ukraine, funded by the KfW Development Bank and the German government. The contract value is EUR 31.7 million. The term of implementation - three years," reads the statement. According to Oleg Pavlenko, Investment Director at Ukrenergo, the reconstruction of the substation will significantly increase the security and reliability of electricity transmission, especially in Dnipropetrovsk region, where electricity supply is complicated due to the reduction of generation at thermal power stations and damage of grids in eastern Ukraine. This project is also important because it is one of the elements of preparations for integration into ENTSO-E, he added. iy REDDING The Mark Twain Library and Redding League of Women Voters are celebrating the centennial of womens suffrage with several events this year beginning with a documentary viewing this week. There will also be an exhibit at the library throughout the month. The display cases will honor the suffragette movement and focus on Reddings Elsie Hill. Like libraries across the state, we have organized programs that make note of the historic anniversary, said Library Director Beth Dominianni said. And, we are highlighting Reddings connection to the movement, Elsie Hill, particularly because the library owns Hills womens history book collection. The 19th amendment was ratified in August 1920, though Connecticut didnt ratify it until Sept. 14, 1920. The PBS documentary One Woman, One Vote, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Thursday with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Elsie Hill will be the focus of the final two March events. Ridgefield storyteller and womens studies scholar Darla Shaw will lead a presentation from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on March 19. She will talk about Hills adult life and her involvement in the local and national suffrage movement. The last event will be tours of Hills Redding home from 2 to 4 p.m. on March 29 with a rain date on April 4. Our organization was started by women suffragists with the belief that voters play a critical role in democracy, said Kim ORielly, Redding League of Women Voters president. Given that this significant event is happening in an election year, we thought it presented a perfect opportunity to team up with the library to commemorate this important right. Register for any of these events online at: www.marktwainlibrary.org or call the Library at 203-938-2545 for information. Taiwanese tech minnow HTC has unveiled its latest effort in its mission to subvert the power of established technology giants and return control back to the user. The Exodus 5G Hub, which HTC claims is "the world's most private router", comes with in-built privacy features that means the power of data transfer rests with the user. It follows on from the firm's Exodus range of smartphones, which are built around the decentralised web and rely on peer-to-peer technology to cut out the need for data to pass through the servers of major tech companies. The idea is to offer an alternative to the exploitation and monetisation of people's private lives by the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google. HTC describes its new router as "the ultimate safeguard against the collection of data by big tech companies in your home" through smart devices like Amazon Alexa, Google Nest and Facebook Portal. "You are now verifying the cloud servers, rather than them verifying you," the company states. "It is a complete power shift from the status quo." Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Screenshot Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures What goes up... Bitcoin price crashes spectacularly, losing half of its value in a matter of days Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin plunges The cryptocurrency eventually bottoms out below $4,000 in 2019 before slowly rebuilding momentum to outperform more traditional assets Getty Images The router also comes with support for popular privacy apps, like ProtonMail email, the Brave Browser, and Incognito VPN and ad blocker. "Exodus was always about more than smartphones: Exodus is about ownership. Owning your keys, owning your data, owning your privacy," said Phil Chen, who led the development of the 5G Hub at HTC. Recommended Facebook rethinks Libra cryptocurrency plans "Exodus is the shield against the onslaught of big tech and its assault on the privacy of your home. By using the Exodus 5G Hub, you have more control and ownership of your data than ever before." The 5G router offers ultra high-speed internet connections to anyone with devices that support the next-generation wireless technology. The router also supports a full bitcoin node and a secure vault to store cryptocurrency, allows users to spend and receive digital currencies without needing to rely on third-party exchanges or wallet providers. It is set to go on sale later this year, though HTC is yet to announce an official release date or price. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday arraigned a couple, Oladeji and Omotola Henry, alongside their company, Built Global Concept, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on a seven-count charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing to the tune of N553,820,000.00 (Five Hundred and Fifty-three Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira). One of the counts reads: That you, Oladeji Henry, Omotola Henry and Built Global Concept, sometime in 2018 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly convert to the use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the total sum of N410,170,000.00 (Four Hundred and Ten Million, One Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira), property of Smart Investor Club; and thereby, committed an offence contrary to Sections 411 and 280 (2)(f) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. Another count reads: That you, Oladeji Henry, Omotola Henry and Built Global Concept, sometime in 2018 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to dishonestly convert to the use of Abiodun Semawon Henry the total sum of N70,000,000.00 (Seventy Million Naira) property of Julius Ekonorue and thereby committed an offence contrary to Sections 280 (1)(b) and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. The couple pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them. In view of their pleas, the prosecution counsel, Bilkisu Buhari, asked the court for a trial date and also prayed that the defendants be remanded in the Nigeria Correctional Service. Defence counsel, Richard Oma Ahonaruogho, informed the court of a pending bail application for his clients and also prayed for a short date to enable its hearing. Consequently, Justice Dada adjourned the matter until March 9, 2020 for hearing of the bail application and commencement of trial. The defendants were ordered to be remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Services, Kirikiri, Lagos. Srinagar, March 4 : An SPO and a civilian were killed in a militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town on Wednesday evening, sources said. Sources said militants opened fire on the unarmed Special Police Officer (SPO) when he had gone to a mobile phone shop in Warpora area, killing him and the shop keeper at the spot. The killed SPO was identified as Wajahat Ahamd and the shopkeeper as Umar. The police have cordoned off the area and an operation has launched to nab the attackers. A 25-year-old Wisconsin man allegedly stabbed his pregnant ex-girlfriend and killed her 3-year-old daughter last week in Appleton because the woman didnt want to be together with him anymore. The man appeared in Outagamie County Circuit Court on Monday, March 2, and was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, The Associated Press reported. He was beginning to feel that his girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, was beginning to distance herself from him. He began to concoct a plan to kill her and to kill her 3-year-old daughter, Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis said. A man, named Demetrius Williams, the suspect in the case, was set a bond of $2 million in cash. According to court records, he had assigned a public defender. The Appleton Police Department responded to a medical call on Feb. 26 at approximately 9:30 p.m. in the 500 block of N. Kensington Drive and found the woman and her 3-year-old girl, Zyana Corbin, with life-threatening injuries. The victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment, but the 3-year-old succumbed to her injuries and died. Williams was arrested and booked at the Outagamie County Jail, police wrote in an online statement. He had prior run-ins with the law and has been convicted previously for battery, and resisting arrest, WBAY reported. The 27-year-old mother had stab wounds to her chest and abdomen area, as well as her face and neck. Both she and her unborn child survived, police wrote on Facebook. The woman said she was able to flee the apartment when Williams began attacking her and when she returned, she found her daughter had been stabbed, according to prosecutors. A female neighbor living in the same apartment complex told WBAY she heard a woman screaming, help me, help me, help me, help my baby. The neighbor told another resident to call 911 while the injured mother brought her 3-year-old daughter over and asked the neighbor for a towel to try and help with the young girls injuries. It was very shocking, the neighbor told the news outlet. They looked like a normal, happy family. Police provided a link to the victims GoFundMe page, on the page. The woman is identified as Tiana, but on the complaint, her name is not identified. Tiana, 27, and Zyana, 3, were viciously attacked by Tianas boyfriend. The attack claimed the life of 3-year-old Zyana and left pregnant mother Tiana hospitalized in ICU due to life-threatening injuries. Zyana was taken from us too soon. Not expecting to lose young Zyana, we are asking for any help towards home-going services to assist the parents for Zyana (Tiana & Lyndon) to lay their child to rest, relatives of Tiana and Zyana wrote. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Xeneral Webster has been given life in prison. (Thames Valley Police) A prisoner has been jailed for life for a serious assault on a prison officer who may not regain sight in one of his eyes. Xeneral Webster, 21, of HMP Winchester, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm at Oxford Crown Court in October 2019. The incident took place at the youth offending unit in Aylesbury in December 2018. He was also found guilty by a jury of an acid attack that took place in London. Webster was already been serving 20 years for manslaughter for an acid attack that accidentally killed a bystander in High Wycombe in 2017. In August 2019, he also pleaded guilty to throwing urine in the face of a prison officer at HMP Bullingdon, in Oxfordshire, and slapping another officer in the face in 2018. Detective Constable Suzie Price of Thames Valley Polices Force CID said: Webster is a highly dangerous offender and I hope that this sentence goes some way to reassuring the public that police and courts will take robust actions when dealing with individuals like this. Oxford Crown Court, where Webster pleaded guilty to GBH. (PA Images) The victim went to work that morning as a prison officer and left in an ambulance with injuries that will affect him for the rest of his life. During the GBH incident at Aylesbury, Webster had been due to go outside for recreational time but attempted to go back to his cell. He climbed over safety netting and when apprehended by a prison officer, in his 50s, Webster attacked him and he fell to the floor. Webster then launched what police described as a sustained and violent attack on the officer, jumping on his head with both feet and kicking him in the upper body and head. The officer has undergone numerous surgeries, including facial reconstruction, after receiving serious head and facial injuries. He may not regain sight in an eye and he has not been able to return to work as a prison officer. HMYOI Aylesbury, where Webster launched his attack. DC Price said: The trial judge, Peter Ross, highlighted the life-changing impact of the injuries caused to the victim and concluded that Webster poses significant danger. Story continues The injuries caused to the victim have been utterly life-changing. This sort of violence in prisons has a corrosive effect on both prisoners and officers and such violence undermines the order that prison attempts to impose. Webster will only be released when a parole board deems him safe. He was already serving time for causing a womans death after she visited her daughters grave. Joanne Rand was 47 when she was injured by high-strength sulphuric acid in June 2017 during a fight between Webster and another individual in High Wycombe. The mother-of-three died of multi-organ failure. A mock-up at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department demonstrating how members of the public can be assessed for coronavirus. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye A total of 87 people in the UK, including three in Northern Ireland, have now been diagnosed with coronavirus, health authorities say. The figures represent a jump of 36 new cases - the biggest day-on-day increase so far - including two in Northern Ireland. England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said: "As of 9am this morning 32 further patients in England have tested positive for Covid-19. "Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed who had recently travelled from recognised countries or from recognised clusters which were under investigation. "Three additional patients contracted the virus in the UK and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun. "The total number of confirmed cases in England is now 80." With three confirmed cases in Northern Ireland, one in Wales and three in Scotland, the total number of UK cases is 87. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced people self-isolating because of the coronavirus outbreak will get sick pay from the first day they take off work. He said people should not be "penalised for doing the right thing" and emergency legislation would be introduced. It comes as health officials in Northern Ireland have said they expect the virus to spread. Although the risks remain low. Over 150 people have been tested in Northern Ireland. Across Europe the outbreak is rapidly developing. There have been 79 deaths in Italy which has announced the closure of all schools and colleges to contain the spread. The Republic of Ireland has had two confirmed cases. Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill are to attend emergency meetings on the outbreak and Finance Minister Conor Murphy is expected to ask the London Treasury for more cash in order to allow public services to cope with any additional pressures. Read More Northern Ireland chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said 95% of those that get the infection will have a mild to moderate illness with the remaining 5% needing hospital treatment. He said 99% will make a full recovery. He said those over 80 and with underlying medical conditions were more susceptible but they could not be certain of mortality rates as how the virus behaved in countries like our own with "excellent health care systems". He said - based on the existing data - there was evidence children were not susceptible to coronavirus but based on previous experience with outbreaks they were "effective spreaders" and it was vitally important all the public followed advice, particularly on good hygiene. "There are risks to the whole population," he said, "older people and with chronic conditions will be most vulnerable." Anyone taking medication for a condition which makes them more vulnerable to the disease was urged to follow their own doctor's advice. He stressed if people followed advice on hygiene, it would limit the spread of the disease and the strain on the health care system. The most important thing we can do to keep ourselves save is to practice good respiratory hygiene. Catch, kill it, bin it kill it Michael McBride Dr McBride said the public should not wear face masks as they were not an effective means of preventing the spread of germs. The medic explained that after a short space of time the masks got moist and were ineffective. He said medical professionals used specialised masks which could stop transmission. "More effective is handwashing," he told the BBC Stephen Nolan show during a special Radio Ulster programme on the outbreak. "People should not be wearing face masks. The most important thing we can do to keep ourselves save is to practice good respiratory hygiene. Catch, kill it, bin it kill it. "Wash your hands regularly, wash your hands before preparing food, before eating, before and after toileting and after sneezing." Read More Health authorities were expecting supplies of medical equipment such as masks and other protective equipment to be delivered this week and there is a team of people looking at how supply may be affected as the outbreak develops. They also have stockpiles of personal protective equipment should they be required. Should there be an influx of people to hospitals procedures could be cancelled and appointments rescheduled. However, it was emphasised if the public followed the advice the health and social care system could cope better. Let's not create panic and overconcern.. People in Northern Ireland are stoic, resilient, we have had challenges before Dr McBride said it was "inevitable" there would be more cases in Northern Ireland with "pockets or clusters" developing in communities over time. He said it was important people followed advice and guidance issued by the relevant authorities. He said he had advised his own elderly family members that they should go on their planned holidays. On school ski trips he said the guidance should be followed but they could not issue specific advice to any school. Health authorities in NI are working with their counterparts in the rest of the UK and in the Republic on handling the outbreak and are planning for every possible eventuality. "This is about being balanced and proportionate," continued Dr McBride. "Let's be aware there are some increased risks, let's not create panic and overconcern. People in Northern Ireland are stoic, resilient, we have had challenges before. Expand Close Am mock-up at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department demonstrating how members of the public can be assessed for Coronavirus by driving into the Ambulance Bay. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Am mock-up at Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department demonstrating how members of the public can be assessed for Coronavirus by driving into the Ambulance Bay. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye "The important thing is we get relevant information out to the public and those at greater risk.. so people can make informed intelligent decisions. "If we don't do anything we would see people infected rise quite sharply. "There are things we can do to reduce the peak that are in the action plan that is flattening the number of people affected. "It could push the spread of the virus into late spring, summer where don't have other pressures or to same extent. If we reduce the peak it will give more time for the health service and reduce impact on health service." The public should be reassured we will do the right thing in the right sequence to keep people safe Dr McBride said a balance had to be struck in terms of the extent of the measures taken to contain the virus such as closing schools and cancelling large events. "To do them too early there will be no benefit and huge social and economic cost and quite rightly unnecessary public concern. "If we do them too late and don't take those actions, then we miss the benefit." He said health care professionals were working 24 hours a day, seven days a week with officials in the republic and the rest of the UK in order to prepare and adapt for the spread of the virus. "We have been here before with previous outbreaks we have robust processes and plans," he said "The public should be reassured we will do the right thing in the right sequence to keep people safe and maintain services and people should go about daily lives but bear in mind and keep on board the important public health protection advice." Countries worldwide step up efforts against COVID-19 as cases grow People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 16:08, March 03, 2020 BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- As more confirmed cases of COVID-19 and fatalities from this contagious disease have been reported worldwide, many countries are stepping up efforts to contain a further spread of the disease. Among some of the worst-hit countries, South Korea, which has 4,812 confirmed cases with 29 deaths as of Tuesday, has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest level, and designated Daegu, the epicenter of the viral spread in the country, and its neighboring county to the south, Cheongdo, as "special care zones." The country has urged its citizens to stay indoors over the weekend and warned of a "critical moment" in the coronavirus battle. President Moon Jae-in vowed Sunday to overcome the outbreak through national unity at home and in cooperation with neighboring countries. As Japan reported more than 960 cases of infection by Monday, with 706 connected to the Diamond Princess cruise ship previously quarantined near Tokyo, many large public events have been canceled, as per the government's requirements, while popular theme parks like Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan have been temporarily shut. The Japanese government has also asked all elementary, junior-high and high schools to temporarily close for around a month, and will provide financial assistance to parents taking leave from work to look after their children. Hokkaido, one of Japan's worst-hit areas, declared a state of emergency on Friday. As for Iran which reported 1,501 cases with 66 deaths as of Monday, educational centers have been shut down in cities and provinces seriously hit by the virus. In the central Yazd city, the construction of a hospital for the exclusive use of treating COVID-19 patients kicked off on Sunday morning, and is expected to be finished within days. Meanwhile, people showing symptoms have been barred from leaving the city of Qom, where the country's first two cases were reported. Iran's parliament also said Friday it would stop working temporarily. Italy reported 1,835 confirmed cases with 52 deaths by Monday. Several towns in the country's most-infected Lombardy and Veneto regions have been locked down. Public gatherings are banned, and schools and universities are closed. The Italian cabinet on Friday passed the first package of measures to support households, companies, and economic sectors in the worst-affected areas, and announced the second one on Sunday to reduce the impact on the overall domestic economy. Apart from the worst-hit countries, many others around the world are also rolling out prevention and control measures. The United States reported on Monday 31 more cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number to 91 with six deaths. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned the public of an inevitable outbreak of coronavirus within the country. The country announced on Saturday additional travel restrictions on Iran and raised travel advisories for certain areas of Italy and South Korea over coronavirus concerns. U.S. President Donald Trump in a tweet on Sunday announced new screening procedures for people traveling from "high-risk countries." Several counties in the U.S. state of California declared local emergency over COVID-19 last week. Washington State on Saturday declared a state of emergency after the first death caused by the disease in the United States was reported in the state. Florida State also declared a public health emergency on Sunday. Within Europe, France had 191 confirmed cases with three deaths by Monday. The French government on Saturday banned all public gatherings with over 5,000 people in a confined space. In regions where over 10 cases of infections have been confirmed, schools remain closed until further notice and residents are recommended to limit their journeys. Germany, which reported 150 confirmed infections as of Monday morning, considered it not necessary to close German borders and stressed that cancellation of major events or closure of companies was generally not advisable. The risk level of the infection in Germany was set at "moderate." On Monday, as Britain reported a total of 40 cases, Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of the government's COBRA emergency committee, which finalized and signed off a battle plan containing a detailed set of countermeasures. Downing Street also announced a "war room" being set up and running in the Cabinet Office, nerve center of the government, to roll out a public information campaign and respond quickly to cross-cutting issues. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced the establishment of a COVID-19 response team that comprises five European commissioners. The European Center for Disease Prevention Control has leveled up the risk associated with COVID-19 infection for people in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area and Britain to "moderate to high," while the EU insisted not closing the borders between its member states. Australia, which has 33 confirmed cases, enacted its emergency response plan to tackle the outbreak last week, and is using a federal defence law to boost the production of gloves, masks and gowns. Kenya, though not infected, has set aside adequate funds to facilitate the acquisition of protective gear and life-saving drugs required to manage possible COVID-19 cases. By 1500 GMT on Monday, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that there were 89,527 confirmed cases in 67 countries, and death cases had increased to 3,056. The WHO on Friday raised the risk assessment of COVID-19 from "high" to "very high" at the global level. At Monday's daily briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "containment of COVID-19 is feasible and must remain the top priority for all countries," while emphasizing there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The WHO has suggested a combination of public health measures such as rapid identification, diagnosis and management of the cases, identification and follow up of the contacts, infection prevention and control in health care settings, implementation of health measures for travelers, awareness-raising in the population and risk communication. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wednesday, March 4th, 2020 (9:50 am) - Score 2,902 Vodafone has invested $25m (19.5m) into Texas-based AST & Science, which is building a new set of low latency Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites under their SpaceMobile project. The constellation would make it possible to connect to your Smartphone via 4G and 5G directly from LEOs in space (instantly covering poorly served areas). The ability to provide connectivity at 4G or 5G based mobile broadband speeds everywhere on the planet on land, at sea and in flight to existing devices (no special satellite modem/kit required) would be a significant achievement, although in order to deliver the best possible coverage you tend to need many hundreds or even thousands of LEO spacecraft and that can make deployment both very costly and complex. The technology at work here is said to be highly proprietary, and exactly how it works cannot be disclosed. The AST would only say that their engineers and space scientists have designed an entirely new form factor and deployment method that significantly reduce the time and costs associated with manufacturing, launching and operating satellites. Interestingly though we note that users will NOT require a clear line-of-sight to receive the signal because their technology enables access to SpaceMobile from any location even inside regardless of visibility to the satellites on orbit. We take that to mean that their LEOs will be beaming signals down to land using existing mobile bands (doing that consistently from an orbit of 500 miles away is no mean feat). Abel Avellan, AST & Science Chairman and CEO, said: SpaceMobile will be particularly transformative to the growing US$1 trillion annual global mobile market because it will eliminate the coverage gaps faced by todays five billion mobile subscribers moving in and out of connectivity every day. It will also help the worlds most under-served communities to access the latest mobile services much sooner than predicted, helping more people to access the digital economy. Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone Group, said: At Vodafone we want to ensure everyone benefits from a digital society that no-one is left behind. We believe SpaceMobile is uniquely placed to provide universal mobile coverage, further enhancing our leading network across Europe and Africa especially in rural areas and during a natural or humanitarian disaster for customers on their existing smartphones. Under the new strategic partnership Vodafone has also agreed to contribute technical, operational and regulatory expertise in support of the global deployment of SpaceMobile. Overall the project has now attracted a total capital investment of $128 million (Japans Rakuten Inc. is the other major investor), although it enters an increasingly crowded market with Amazon, Facebook, SpaceX and OneWeb among others all launching or preparing to launch significant LEO broadband networks. AST has already launched their first test satellite called BlueWalker 1 on a PSLC-C45 rocket from the Datish Dhawan Space Centre in India (1st April 2019), which sits at an altitude of about 500 miles. On the CubeSat classification table this satellite was designated as a 6U, which are normally about 102030cm or 122436cm in size. Assuming all goes well then a further two satellites (BW 2 and 3) are due to follow BlueWalker 1 this year. Eventually its hoped that SpaceMobile will become an extension of land cellular networks to fill coverage gaps and enable connectivity everywhere (airtime will be sold to mobile operators under a wholesale business model). Mind you theres still that growing concern about the rising level of space junk populating low earth orbit, particularly from astronomers who fear disruption to their science and the threat from possible collisions. The body of a regime pilot has been recovered by opposition fighters, who have proposed a trade with the regime for recently captured prisoners reports Jesr. Opposition factions have found the body of the pilot whose L39 aircraft was shot down by Turkish forces over Idleb. The rebel groups rushed to demand the release of four prisoners who had fallen into the hands of the regime in exchange for handing over the body of the pilot. The pilots identity has not yet been revealed, but it was reported that a lieutenant fell to his death near the town of Beneen, which is controlled by opposition factions. The prisoners are four young men, known to include Mahmoud Fayez al-Rahal, from Kafranbel. Their photos were published yesterday by the Russian ANNA News channel. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Following the coronavirus scare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that as a precaution he will not participate in any 'Holi Milan' programme. "Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme," Modi tweeted. Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 4, 2020 His remarks came a day after over 21 Italian tourists were brought from Jaipur to ITBP Hospital in Manesar and also six people from Agra were shifted to the national capital. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. It was a stunning collapse for the former New York City mayor, who had his 2020 hopes on the Super Tuesday states and pumped more than $500m of his own fortune into the campaign. Bloomberg announced his departure from the race after a disappointing finish on Super Tuesday in the slate of states that account for almost one-third of the total delegates available in the Democratic nominating contest. He won only the territory of American Samoa and picked up several dozen delegates elsewhere. Biden, meanwhile, won big in Southern states where Bloomberg had poured tens of millions of dollars and even cautiously hoped for a victory. Three months ago, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult, Bloomberg said. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. Two of his former Democratic rivals, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden as the moderate alternative to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just the day before Super Tuesday. Bloomberg ran an unprecedented campaign from the start. His late entry into the race in November prompted him to skip campaigning in the first four voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He hung his success on Super Tuesday, spending at least $180m on advertising in those states, but had planned to continue deep into the primary calendar, already spending millions on advertising in states like Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Before results poured in on Tuesday, he projected confidence while campaigning in Florida, only to have his aides say the campaign would reassess the next day. Voters ultimately rejected Bloombergs argument that he was the candidate best poised to take on Republican President Donald Trump. The president, for his part, had paid close attention to the Democratic nomination contest and had been especially fixated on Bloomberg. Trump regularly railed against his fellow New Yorker on Twitter, mocking his short stature by calling him Mini Mike and claiming Bloomberg was the candidate he wanted to run against. On Tuesday, he called the results a complete destruction of Bloombergs reputation. Bloomberg, 78, is one of the worlds richest men, worth an estimated $61bn. His fortune flows from the financial data and media company that bears his name, which he started in the 1980s. In addition to serving 12 years as New York mayor, he endeared himself to progressive groups by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting climate change and curbing gun violence. Bloomberg was dogged by accusations he was trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination. His vast fortune proved a perfect foil for Sanders, who has said billionaires should not exist at all. Indeed, Bloomberg had a vast circle of influence from his spending on key causes like gun control as well as his philanthropic efforts to boost American cities and provide leadership training for mayors. Dozens of prominent mayors rallied behind his candidacy. That, combined with Bidens resurgence in South Carolina and the rallying of the partys moderate wing behind him, doomed Bloombergs case that he was the best candidate to take on both Sanders and Trump. What is next for Bloomberg is unclear. He had pledged to keep campaign offices open in key general election battleground states to help the Democrats defeat Trump even if he lost the partys nomination. But Sanderss campaign has said they do not want the help. J oe Biden has swept into lead to be the Democrats' challenger to Donald Trump despite rival Bernie Sanders taking Super Tuesday's biggest prize of California. Mr Biden, who won Texas after a dramatic count, has scored a sensational comeback sweeping up in the South and taking Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Minnesota, Arkansas and Massachusetts. He is now on track to win ten of the 14 states taking, with American media reporting the election is now a two-man race. Although the contenders were neck and neck in Maine where Mr Biden has a one point lead with 34 per cent of the vote to Sanders' 33 per cent. The remaining Democratic candidates' battled for delegates in 14 states and one US territory with a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the nomination fight. Mr Sanders conclusive win in California signalled a huge reversal in a state he lost four years ago, but he scored just three other decisive victories: his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado. Claiming the top prize threatened to change the narrative of a night that was otherwise seen as a big resurgence for former Vice President Mr Biden, who claimed the battleground states of North Carolina and Virginia in a strong showing early on. Texas, the second biggest prize of the night, was initially a close race between Mr Sanders and Mr Biden however, projections have shown Mr Biden as the clear winner before people had finished voting. Mr Sanders had been favourite to win the race since his landslide victory in Nevada in February. Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont (REUTERS) / Reuters Super Tuesday is crucial to winning the Democratic party's nomination for November's presidential election as it has about a third of all the delegates up for grabs. As of 10am (GMT), Mr Biden had a total of 453 delegates to Bernie Sanders' 382, Elizabeth Warren had 50, Michael Bloomberg 44, Pete Buttigieg 26, Amy Klobucher seven and Tulsi Gabbard one. Mr Biden establishing a lead of 72 delegates over Mr Sanders, he is now projected to win ten out of 14 states. Loading.... Candidates need an overall total of 1991 to take the party's nomination uncontested however, no one has yet reached this figure. If no candidate manages to get a majority on the first ballot, this is called a 'contested convention' and party bigwigs - known as superdelegates - will be able to take part in another round of voting. The wins in heavily African American states complemented former Mr Bidens victory in last weekend's South Carolina primary. Virginia was especially key because it was heavily contested by Mr Sanders and billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg over the past week. Super Tuesday - In pictures 1 /18 Super Tuesday - In pictures Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden arrives onstage with his wife Jill and sister Valerie (right) at a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his relatives, including his wife Jane, as he addresses supporters at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally AP Supporters of Bernie Sanders cheer for early results at his Super Tuesday night rally in Vermont Reuters Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with supporters after addressing a Super Tuesday event in Los Angeles AFP via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to supporters during a rally Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg waves to his supporters at his Super Tuesday night event Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (L) arrives with wife Jill (C) and sister Valerie (R) at a Super Tuesday campaign event at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center o Getty Images Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., endorses Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, arrives at a primary night election rally AP Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, Californi Bloomberg via Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, and his wife Jill attend a primary election night rally AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets supporters during a primary night election rally i AP Democratic presidential hopeful former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg greets supporters after speaking during a rally at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Super Tuesday AFP via Getty Images Mike Bloomberg appeared on state ballots for the first time on Super Tuesday, having avoided earlier contests. Mr Bloomberg has poured $500 million of his personal fortune into his campaign and has faced increasing pressure to prove it was all worth it. As yet, he has failed to win any states, his only victory being that of American Samoa. The Billionaire's aides have revealed he is discussing whether to drop out despite thanking his supporters and tweeting to say "we're more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America". Mr Sanders took to the stage in Burlington, Vermont for a Super Tuesday rally, telling cheering supporters: "Everybody said it couldn't be done. Loading.... But tonight I tell you with absolute confidence: We're going to win the Democratic nomination, and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this nation." A once-jumbled primary arrived at the most pivotal night of voting as an increasingly well-defined battle between leftist Democrats who back the likes of Mr Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and centrists preferring Mr Biden. Two other moderates, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, both left the race in the run-up to Super Tuesday, then dramatically endorsed Mr Biden on Monday. This helped unify moderates behind the former vice president, whose campaign risked collapsing until his resounding win in South Carolina. The Democrat candidates in the Super Tuesday battle A turnaround would be all the more surprising because Super Tuesday was supposed to be about fundraising and strong political organisation. Mr Biden largely had neither and yet still looked poised for a strong night. Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, argued that the party's elders were scrambling to block him from a nomination it appeared just last week he could run away with. "The political establishment has made their choice: Anybody but Bernie Sanders," Mr Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir wrote in a fundraising message Tuesday. "You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics," Mr Sanders later declared. Super Tuesday - the winners and losers so far "The truth is, we've always known we were taking on the entire damn 1 percent of this country," Shakir added. "But we have something they do not have: people. Lots and lots of people." Virginia is a traditional swing state that has moved more reliably Democratic in recent years, especially as people living in densely populated communities outside Washington turned their back on President Donald Trump, as many suburban voters have around the country. Vermont first sent Mr Sanders to Congress in 1990, and that he'd win it was never in doubt. He was even holding a victory rally Tuesday in his hometown of Burlington, where he was once mayor. Mr Sanders' campaign is optimistic about Colorado, and the senator himself has predicted victory in California - which could make it a strong night for him, depending on what also happens in Texas. TODO: define component type apester Mr Biden has trumpeted his strong support among African American Democrats and has now done what he wanted and racked up wins across the South. "People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Mr Biden said in Los Angeles. Some polls in Tennessee were ordered to extend voting hours in the wake of a tornado hitting the state which has killed 25 people and injured many. While polling stations in California and Texas have been plagued with long delays with some reporting to have waited almost seven hours to vote. The Tennessee Democratic Party and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Sanders Bloomberg and Warren successfully sued Davidson County election officials and the secretary of state's office to extend voting for three hours beyond their scheduled 7pm local time close. Super Tuesday: Explained AP VoteCast, a survey of the electorate, showed Mr Biden with a significant lead among black voters in Alabama, with roughly 6 in 10 supporting the former vice president. Black voters made up more than half of the Democratic primary electorate in the state. In both Virginia and North Carolina, roughly half of black voters supported Mr Biden. Mr Sanders, who had already won New Hampshire and Nevada and secured a virtual first-place tie in Iowa, was the favourite in Maine however, it is now likely Mr Biden will win the state. Mr Biden has also run away with Ms Warren's home state of Massachusetts, as he also won Minnesota. Although his last-minute visit to Utah on Monday to scrounge for votes did not work and Ms Sanders is now projected to win that state. Loading.... Ms Warren's campaign hasn't predicted outright victory anywhere voting Tuesday, but is hoping to pick up delegates in Colorado and California. Her top advisers have predicted that no candidate may get to the convention with enough delegates to secure the nomination - potentially positioning Ms Warren for the role of kingmaker. A one-time front-runner, Ms Warren will increasingly face pressure to drop out of the race if she doesn't win her home state. But, during a rally in suburban Detroit, Warren vowed to soldier on. "I was not born a politician, but I was born a fighter," she told a cheering crowd. Texas and California account for 643 delegates - or about a third of the nearly 2,000 needed to clinch the nomination. In all, Super Tuesday offered 1,344 new delegates, or around 34 per cent of all the total up for grabs nationwide. A resident of the Germantown neighborhood is seen surveying the damage in Nashville, Tenn., on March 3, 2020. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images) Sleepless in Nashville Commentary NASHVILLE, Tenn.It was about 11:30 p.m., and I was making my way through Christopher Caldwells excellent book The Age of Entitlement. My wife was fast asleep beside me, having been up at 5 a.m. Suddenly, I heard several beeps. What was that? An Amber Alert? Nothing much I could do about that. The beeps repeated. I rooted about for my iPhone, lost as usual under the covers, finding it relatively quickly this time. It was an alert, but from an app called Storm Shield. There was a tornado warning for Nashville, Tennessee. I glanced up at the TV that was tuned to a rerun of Tucker Carlson. Or was it Shannon Bream? I cant remember, because I immediately grabbed the remote and switched to the local CBS affiliate, which I knew, if this was serious, would be covering the impending tornado. Sure enough, I was greeted by a screen filled with a map with dozens of colors and arrows I couldnt figure out, plus a myriad of city and town names I didnt recognize. I am a relative newbie to Nashville (20 months) and not yet as up to speed on Tennessee geography as I should be. Its a big place. But it turned out a tornado was bearing down on Nashville, due in a couple of hours. What to do? We had the requisite safe room, downstairs off our garage. Indeed, we had just loaded it up with supplies from Costco (lots of protein bars and trail mix) as a coronavirus precaution, but its a grim space the size of a walk-in closet with no windows. Should I wake up my wife and head down there? She needed the sleep, and besides, I had gone through one of these alerts about a year before and nothing came of it. So I headed up to the second floor, where the views were better for a look around. Walking from room to room, I couldnt see anything of significance outside. It was silent. The trees werent even swaying. I slumped on the bed in the guest room to consider the situation, checking another relatively inscrutable weather map on my iPhone. Soon enough, I was dozing off. Im not sure how much later forty-five minutes? an hour? I was awakened by a howling noise. I went to the window. This time, the trees were swaying. Was this it? Then, it stopped. I went back to the bed and lay there, my mind racing. Should we go to the safe room? How bad was the coronavirus? Who was going to win Super Tuesday? Would there be an Olympics in Tokyo? Could Sanders beat Trump? On and on and back again. Sometimes I slept, mostly I didnt. Sleepless in Seattle? I thought. No, sleepless in Nashville. And then, I fell asleep. I awoke with dim light filtering through the window, my hand still clutching the iPhone. I looked down at it. The screen was dominated by an image that looked like a battlefield in World War I. But it wasnt a war. It was Nashville. The tornado had hit. Panic set in. I jumped up and looked out the window. Nothing. Everything was the same. We had been spared. Minutes later, downstairs, my wife already awake, we stared at our bedroom television, looking at neighborhoods we knewGermantown, trendy East Nashvilleturned into those very war zones. People were wandering the streets with their pets, staring in disbelief at the carnage. But they were also bucking each other up. Many had died25 across the state. It was a tragedy. But luckily, some of the downtown monuments we knew, some of the places that made Nashville Nashvillethe Broadway Honky Tonks and the legendary Ryman Auditorium, bestrode by the likes of Hank Williams and Johnny Cashwere still intact and had been passed over, almost magically. Music City had met Mother Nature and survived, although it has a helluva lot of cleaning up and rebuilding to do. At that moment, I realized I had become a citizen of the city and was a Californian no more. I was glad to hear the president will be coming here on March 6 and that federal pockets will be opened up for the reconstruction. I also will be signing up at HON.org (HandsOnNashville) to volunteer to participate in the cleanup myself. Im not much with a chainsaw, but maybe I can wield a broom. Roger L Simon is The Epoch Times senior political columnist. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Foreign-owned enterprises (FOEs) and representative offices (ROs) are obligated to have their annual statements audited. Investors should be aware that FOEs and ROs have different audit and compliance requirements. The government aims to replace the Vietnamese Accounting Standards and adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards by 2025. The Vietnamese Law on Accounting governs the principles for accounting, audits, and organizational structure, for businesses to stay compliant in Vietnam. The tax year in Vietnam is determined according to the calendar year, and a Vietnamese-based auditing company must conduct the audit. The financial reports should then be submitted to the local tax authority, Ministry of Finance, and the statistics office 90 days before the end of the fiscal year. Investors should be aware that the audit and compliance requirements are different for foreign-owned enterprises (FOE) and representative offices (RO). Investors should also seek the advice of registered local advisors to ensure that all aspects of reporting are in compliance with prevailing local laws and regulations. Fiscal periods FOEs can choose from four fiscal periods with the 12-month period beginning on the first day of each quarter: January 1 December 31; April 1 March 31; July 1 June 30; or October 1 September 30. Accounting standards In addition to the Accounting Law, local and international companies are obligated to adhere to the Vietnamese Accounting Standards (VAS), which has been developed by the Ministry of Finance, when documenting financial transactions. The VAS provides guidelines for bookkeeping, financial reporting, and financial statement preparations. There are industry-specific accounting guidelines for businesses engaging in insurance, securities, as well as funds management. The government aims to replace VAS and adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by 2025. The IFRS is a set of global accounting standards that apply to all financial reporting, quality control, and auditing standards relating to all profit-oriented entities. Annual compliance for foreign-owned companies FOEs are obligated to provide an annual audit report and the finalization of corporate and personal income taxation. The statutory audit requirements are as follows: Statement of income; Statement of financial position (profit and loss); Statement of changes in equity, if any; and Balance sheets. Within 90 days after the end of the fiscal year, FOEs need to submit the audited reports to three government agencies: Provincial Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) or the Provincial Level Export Processing and Industrial Zone Department in the case of FOEs based in industrial zones (IZs) or export processing zones (EPZs); Provincial-level tax departments; and Provincial-level statistical offices. Annual compliance for representative offices Representative offices (ROs) are one of the simplest and fastest ways to establish a legal entity in Vietnam. Their reporting requirements are also more simplified compared to FOEs. ROs are forbidden from directly conducting profit-generating activities and are limited to market research, developing trade contacts, and gather information on regulations and laws. Annual reports The annual reports of ROs must include: Basic information contact information such as office address, telephone numbers, primary bank contacts. Investors should note that the address should match to that written in the RO license; Human resource report ROs must document their policies with regards to salaries, bonuses, insurance, and other benefits. The personal information and position of every employee should also be included; and Activities report ROs must document their activities for the preceding year which includes information such as market research activities, advertising activities, participation in trade fairs, and the promotion of service agreements, among others. Penalties for non-compliance Under the governments new Penal Code, which was issued in 2018, businesses that fail to adhere to the compliance laws can now be held criminally responsible. If the tax authorities find discrepancies in the financial reports, after an audit, a 20 percent tax will be imposed on the amount that is under-declared. There is also a 0.03 percent daily interest rate for the late payment of tax. New Delhi, March 5 : Calling the Bharatiya Janata Party "opportunistic and power-hungry", Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal here on Wednesday criticised the BJP for its alleged attempt to topple the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh through horse-trading, an allegation that has been denied by the BJP. "While the nation is reeling under an imminent danger of coronavirus, Delhi riots and economic slowdown, the BJP is busy with its usual tactic of horse-trading. The BJP is desperately trying to topple down the Congress government," Venugopal said. Using strong words against the Prime Minister, the Congress labelled the charge of "treachery" against Narendra Modi and the BJP. "In MP, this dissolute political treachery of the BJP is going to fall flat on its face," he claimed. The Congress government, led by Kamal Nath, would complete its full term, he added. DRAPER, Utah and INDIANAPOLIS, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dwelo, the provider of smart-home solutions purpose-built for apartments, and dormakaba, a provider of security and access control solutions, have announced an integration partnership. This partnership provides a reliable, modern, and secure access solution tailored to the specific needs of the multifamily industry. For information about this partnership, visit dwelo.com . dormakaba's smart lock solutions improve asset quality, efficiency, and security to multifamily properties by: Maximizing security and reliability with sealed, built-in contactless RFID reader Offering a modern, versatile, and aesthetically pleasing finish Enabling a truly keyless, no-tour design making these locks easy to manage Reducing operational costs with long battery life Granting card, fob, and mobile access credentials Mortise, deadbolt, interconnected, and latch lock options "A smart home is a great idea, but we believe that offering smart AND secure is better. At dormakaba, we are one of the top three trusted providers for both the hotel and multihousing building access; meanwhile, Dwelo is the leading innovator in automated apartment technologies. When pairing our expertise in access control with Dwelo's smart automation solution, we can provide our customers with property-wide connectivity that enhances the resident, property manager, and owner experience," said Tom Bowles, Global Multihousing Lead, dormakaba. "Dwelo is proud to add such a distinguished and experienced lock manufacturer as dormakaba as a partner. At Dwelo, we believe security and reliability are paramount in a smart apartment system, and dormakaba's products are top notch in both regards. At Dwelo we also believe in choice for our owners. dormakaba's access control solution offers a range of attractive, modern aesthetics at a variety of price points. And with dormakaba's mobile and fob credentials, Dwelo becomes the first smart apartment platform to offer every credential type from PINs to fobs to mobile. This partnership between Dwelo and dormakaba is bringing smart device technology in multifamily into a new, more modern, and more secure era," said Mike Rovito, CEO at Dwelo. Dwelo will launch its dormakaba integration in the coming weeks at two communities in Fort Worth, Texas; Tacara Village and Tallgrass Village. Owned by Hillwood, both these communities offer a connected Dwelo smart apartment experience as well as "the ultimate urban living wellness community." These communities lie within Hillwood's larger development, Alliance Texas, a 26,000-acre master-planned community that has been hailed as one of the best mixed-use developments in the world. "Upon Hillwood's decision to offer smart home technology at our new multifamily developments, I chose to use dormakaba locks with the Dwelo platform because I was already familiar with the quality of dormakaba's existing multifamily lock products. So when they decided to offer 'smart' locks compatible with Dwelo it made a lot of sense for Hillwood Multifamily. Hillwood seeks to provide top quality multifamily units with the latest technology to create the most convenient and safest possible living experience for our residents, and the combination of dormakaba and Dwelo has put us as the top of the industry in this respect," said Chris Price, Senior Development Manager at Hillwood. About Dwelo Smart Apartments Dwelo is a Smart Device Management (SDM) platform built to increase multifamily owners' Net Operating Income. With Dwelo's SDM platform, smart devices decrease operating costs and increase operating income in multifamily communities. Dwelo has earned the trust of over 80 ownership groups nationwide by solving their problems and delivering on our commitments. Visit dwelo.com for more information. About dormakaba dormakaba makes access in life smart and secure. As one of the top three companies in the industry, dormakaba is the trusted partner for products, solutions, and services for access to buildings and rooms from a single source. With strong brands such as Dorma, Kaba and Best in its portfolio, the company, and its numerous cooperation partners are represented in over 130 countries worldwide. For more information visit www.dormakaba.us About Hillwood Hillwood Multifamily, LP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hillwood Properties, the division of Hillwood Development Company that conducts all of Hillwood's real estate activities at AllianceTexas, a premier 26,000-acre master-planned development in North Fort Worth, Texas. Established in 1988 by Ross Perot, Jr., Hillwood is one of the largest private real estate developers and investors in the U.S. Hillwood is consistently ranked among the nation's top real estate developers and as one of the leading commercial and residential developers in North Texas. Visit hillwood.com for more information. Contact: Bradley Davis [email protected] SOURCE Dwelo Related Links https://www.dwelo.com As many as 373 people who have travelled abroad since January 15 have been kept under surveillance so far as possible carriers of in Gautam Buddh Nagar, officials said on Wednesday. The instructions to put such people who have travelled abroad had come from the Ministry of Health, Uttar Pradesh in mid January itself, the officials said. Noida, adjoining Delhi, was caught in panic after samples of six people, including three children, were sent for test on Tuesday, four days after they came in contact with a Delhi-based man who has tested positive for COVID 19. All six samples have tested negative, district administration and health officials said on Wednesday. "Till Tuesday evening, 373 people who have travelled abroad after January 15 have been put on surveillance. Of them, 55 people have been tested for the virus. 49 of them, including the six from yesterday, have tested negative. Results of remaining six are awaited," Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava told PTI. "Seventy-four people at present are under surveillance, while five were cross referred, meaning they were not from Gautam Buddh Nagar," the CMO added. The Gautam Buddh Nagar Health Department on Tuesday said specialised tests for COVID 19 were available for free of cost at two hospitals, one in Greater and another in The administration on Tuesday launched two helplines -- 8076623612 and 6396776904 -- for people with any queries on Bhargava said there were adequate medical facilities available with isolation wards at the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida and the Super-speciality Paediatric Hospital and Post Graduate Training Institute in Noida. The GIMS has a dedicated 10-bed facility while the super-speciality hospital has nine beds, he added. Less than a week after communal clashes left 47 people dead and scores injured in north-east Delhi ; the Union home ministry cracked the whip on social media platforms and have even threatened them with criminal action if they fail to act in time, senior government officials, who did not want to be named, said on Tuesday. The meeting with prominent social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, among others, was held at the ministry. Senior ministry officials, including the Delhi Police top brass, were also present in the meeting, an official said. The government has taken exception to social media platforms for being lax about posts that are likely to trigger violence and communal disharmony. Besides, the ministry is of the opinion that social media platforms take inordinately long to act on a post that could lead to disharmony and violence even after such posts are brought to their notice. Delhi Police has identified several such incendiary posts that it believes incited last weeks violence in Delhi. We have sensitised them [social media platforms]. We have also explained to them the legal position, said a second senior official, who did not want to be named. If posts on social media lead to violence, social media platforms are squarely responsible, as there are enough provisions in the law, he said. For instance, social media platforms can be prosecuted under Section 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among others, he added. Social media platforms have agreed to work more closely with Delhi Police, a third official, who did not want to be named, but was aware of the details said The ministry refused to comment on the meeting. Twitter officials, however, confirmed that enforcement agencies, social media platforms and the ministry officials did meet on Tuesday. Twitter remains committed to working with governments around the world, including in India, to encourage healthy behaviour on the service. We appreciate the importance of the work being undertaken by the ministry of home affairs and we thank them for inclusive engagement, a spokesperson for the microblogging service said. Other social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp did not respond to queries. Kazakh Foreign Office issued a statement regarding the information on Kazakhstani national allegedly infected with coronavirus in South Korea, Kazinform reports. According to the MFA, this information has not been confirmed. The Kazakh Embassy in Seoul has not received any official information from the Korean side. Our diplomats are verifying the information spread in Korean social media, the MFA informs via Telegram. The Toronto Catholic District School Board has cancelled all March Break and Easter school trips to Europe for high school students due to concerns about the novel coronavirus. Shazia Vlahos, director of communication for the TCDSB, said in an interview with CBC Toronto on Tuesday that the decision to cancel the trips affects 12 schools. The majority of the trips involved travel either to or through Italy, she added. "It's been on the minds of officials for quite some time," Vlahos said. "We have received a number of inquiries from parents asking us what we were going to do, suggesting that we should be considering cancelling, given some of the growing concerns with the cases being spread through Europe," she added. "We want to make sure, if our staff and students are travelling, that they are safe. We take, of course, anything that might pose a risk to health of students and staff seriously." The schools affected are: Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton; Brebeuf College; Cardinal Carter; Centro Scuola; Father John Redmond; Father Henry Carr; Loretto Abbey; Madonna; Monsignor Percy Johnson; Neil McNeil; St. Basil College; and St. Patrick. In an email to trustees on Tuesday, Rory McGuckin, TCDSB director of education, said he was told by principals of the schools that many parents were hoping that the board would cancel the trips. He added he made the decision to cancel the trips "out of an abundance of caution." "Our board does not allow travel to places that pose a risk to the health of our students, and we do not consider travel to these countries to be safe," McGuckin said. "There exist concerns that our students and staff could be exposed to to the virus in airports and other public spaces, while on tour, or potentially even endure lengthy quarantines. The senior team believes this is the right thing to do in these challenging times." McGuckin noted that cancellation insurance provisions only take effect once the board actually cancels the trips. He said schools are not permitted to cancel on their own without "suffering consequences" from insurance provisions. He's one of the most powerful, and most notorious, tycoons in Moldova's three decades of independence, a man linked to the "theft of the century" -- the disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks in 2014. A longtime behind-the-scenes power broker, Vladimir Plahotniuc fled Moldova in June 2019 after being pushed out of parliament as part of a government shakeup brokered by Russia, the United States, and other European partners. He has dropped out of the public view since then, reportedly traveling under one or more assumed names and alternate passports. In January, the United States hit the ousted oligarch and his family with visa restrictions "due to his involvement in significant corruption...that undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova." Moldovan officials and U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation, however, told RFE/RL that Plahotniuc had been in the United States on several occasions in recent months, including at least once since the State Department imposed the visa restrictions. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. The development has worried anti-corruption experts, activists in Moldova, and observers abroad who fear the U.S. administration is sending a bad signal to countries trying to root out corruption and improve governance. "If Vladimir Plahotniuc is really somewhere in the United States, this would be unsurprising but disappointing," said William Hill, a U.S. diplomat who headed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Moldova in the late 1990s and 2000s. "The U.S. lost a great deal of credibility and support in Moldovan civil society over the past few years due to Washington's continued, seemingly uncritical willingness to work with Plahotniuc almost up to the end of his days in power," he said. "Backing for Plahotniuc, tacit or explicit, caused many in Moldova increasingly to perceive American rhetoric in support of democracy and reform as largely self-interested anti-Russian geopolitics." Moldovan officials, including the current president, Igor Dodon, have complained publicly for months that the United States wasn't doing enough to help bring Plahotniuc to justice. "We see that the Americans are not in a hurry," Dodon said in an interview last month, when asked specifically about where Plahotniuc was. "I think that this will affect the image of the United States, if, on the one hand, they make such statements, on the other hand, they still grant political coverage," he told RFE/RL. Asked for further details about how Dodon knew Plahotniuc was in the United States, spokeswoman Carmena Sterpu told RFE/RL that it had been "personally confirmed...for President Dodon" by U.S. Ambassador Dereck Hogan. Contacted by phone and by e-mail, the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau declined to comment to RFE/RL. Plahotniuc could not be immediately reached for comment. 'Theft Of The Century' Wedged between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova is among Europe's poorest countries, racked by rampant corruption, political turmoil, and destabilized by Transdniester, a breakaway region that has been beyond Chisinau's control since a war broke out after pro-Russian separatists declared independence in 1990. Between 2012 and 2014, more than $1 billion -- totaling nearly one-eighth of the country's GDP disappeared from Moldova's biggest banks. A confidential report commissioned by the central bank and conducted by international investigative firm Kroll documented how companies and individuals tied to a 28-year-old businessman took control of three major banks in that period. The businessman, Ilan Shor, then allegedly issued massive loans to his companies during a three-day period in November 2014, according to the report, which was later leaked and published by an opposition lawmaker. Shor, who is currently believed to be in Israel, was charged in 2016 and later convicted of money laundering and embezzlement in connection with theft. Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was found guilty of corruption in 2016, accused of taking bribes related to the theft. He was released in early December after serving three years in prison. But the brazenness of the crime, and the perception that those behind it have not been held to account, has outraged and disillusioned many Moldovans. Plahotniuc, meanwhile, was the head of the Democratic Party of Moldova, and served as the first deputy speaker of parliament in the early 2010s. In June 2019, amid a political realignment that resulted in a coalition between pro-European and pro-Russian parties, including Dodon's Socialist Party, Plahotniuc fled Moldova. Days later, Russia filed criminal charges against him, alleging he was part of a drug-trafficking network. In December, Dodon publicly stated that Plahotniuc was traveling on a different passport, under the name Vladimir Novak. The National Anti-Corruption Center (CNA), meanwhile, sent two formal requests to the U.S. Embassy, requesting assistance in locating Plahotniuc. The first, dated December 4, requests the assistance of "competent U.S. authorities (Department of Justice, FBI, Police)" in locating an individual whose name is blacked out. It also states that the person "might have been" at two locations in the Miami area, including the Setai Miami Beach Hotel, and the Portofino Tower between July 5-7, 2019. The second, dated December 10, makes a similar request, and adds a second name, apparently an assumed name that Plahotniuc is known to travel under. Angela Starinschi, a spokeswoman for the CNA, said the blacked-out names in the letters were Plahotniuc. "The CNA is waiting for an official response from the U.S. authorities. On unofficial channels, however, we already have the information that the [individual] is on the territory of the United States," Starinschi told RFE/RL on March 3. On January 13, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the imposition of visa bans on Plahotniuc and his family. U.S. government agencies declined to answer RFE/RL's questions about whether Plahotniuc was in the United States. The State Department referred question to the Department of Homeland Security, which refused to answer, citing privacy concerns. The FBI also declined to answer questions from RFE/RL. However, one U.S. government official confirmed that Plahotniuc had been in the United States in recent weeks, though it was unclear whether he was there when the official spoke, on March 4. Another person reported seeing Plahotniuc attending a lavish dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Miami, Florida, in late January. Both individuals spoke on condition of anonymity. "As far as I know, Plahotniuc is in the United States," Andrian Candu, a former speaker of parliament and Plahotniuc's godson, told RFE/RL on March 4. "This should be no surprise to anyone." Kyle Parker, a top staffer for the Helsinki Commission, a U.S. government agency that monitors human rights, said the U.S. government had several policy tools to target criminals and corrupt officials around the world: the State Department visa designation; the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law aimed at targeting Russian officials deemed to be corrupt or human rights abusers; and a broader Global Magnitsky Act, which was passed in 2016 and targets such people worldwide. Allowing Plahotniuc to be in the United States is problematic, he said. "This story has wider implications," said Parker, a former congressional staffer who was involved in drafting the Magnitsky legislation. "Something like this is demoralizing to people in places like Moldova where there's a struggle against massive official corruption." "Preventing a situation like this is what we had in mind when passing the Magnitsky laws, we don't want to be a haven for kleptocrats," he told RFE/RL. The law that Plahotniuc was designated under, known by its shorthand, Section 7031, is designed to bar entry to the United States for individuals found to be complicit in "significant corruption" or "gross violation of human rights." It does not appear to affect foreigners already in the United States. Washington Influence? While Plahotniuc's name is familiar among corruption researchers and experts on former Soviet republics, it is not widely known in broader circles. Last month, however, his name gained wider currency, when U.S. news media revealed that Richard Grenell, the current acting director of national intelligence, had written a series of article published in U.S. newspapers defending Plahotniuc in 2016. ProPublica, a U.S. investigative news organization, reported that Grenell did not disclose that he was paid by Plahotniuc for the work, and did not register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). A representative for Grenell, who later became ambassador to Germany and special envoy for negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, did not disclose to ProPublica what Grenell's paid consulting work involved at the time, but he argued that Grenell did not need to register under FARA. Valeriu Pasa, who leads a Moldovan civil society group called WatchDog.MD, said Plahotniuc's presence in the United States could be part of an effort by U.S. agencies to glean insights into the larger money laundering that has been documented in Moldova for more than a decade. "He could be extremely useful and a really good source of information to the U.S.," Pasa said. "He could be a precious source of information, in the schemes of money laundering that he was directly involved in." The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in 2014 published evidence pointing to a massive, years-long scheme that involved criminal and corrupt politicians in Russia using banks in Moldova. Sergiu Tofilat, a Moldovan corruption whistle-blower who was elected to the Chisinau city council last year, said the bigger problem for Moldova is that its judicial system had been wholly compromised by corrupt business and government officials. "We don't know the exact reasons why he is in the United States," Tofilat told RFE/RL. It would be a good thing "to get Plahotniuc back in Moldova and hold him accountable for the criminal activities that he committed in Moldova over the past 15 years, while in power or very close to power." "But for that, we need a truly independent justice system," he said. "There is no truly independent justice system in Moldova, so there's no reason to extradite Plahotniuc because he could escape justice." On Sept. 23, 2016, senior Japanese and U.S. government officials joined Lockheed Martin to celebrate the roll out of the first Japan Air Self Defense Force F-35A Lightning II. WASHINGTON Work at the F-35 fighter-jet factory in Japan has paused for a week due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday. The F-35 fighter, the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, is manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Ft. Worth, Texas. International program partners assembly their versions of the aircraft at FACO, or final assembly and checkout facilities, in Italy and in Japan. "In Japan, I believe they shut down the FACO for a week," Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, told reporters on the sidelines of a defense conference in Washington. Still, deliveries were not impacted, Lord said. "In Japan, to comply with Japanese Coronavirus directives, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is temporarily closing the Japanese FACO for one week; of note, only Japanese aircraft are produced at this FACO," U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement. A Lockheed Martin representative said the company was "working with our customers and partners to mitigate any impacts to F-35 international FACO operations in Italy and Japan." Meanwhile, at the F-35 FACO plant in Cameri, Italy, "Lockheed has directed their employees to work from home," Lord said. Pratt and Whitney, which makes the engines for the jets, has told its team in Italy to telework, but "there have been no impacts to the production line," Andrews said in the statement. He added that Lockheed Martin was also restricting employee travel to Cameri citing State Department guidance. The flu-like virus which has already killed at least 3,250 people and infected roughly 95,00 people around the world is emanating from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the largest of all geographic combatant commands. Last month, the U.S. military said a soldier based in South Korea was the first service member to test positive for the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19. This week, the nation's top military officer downplayed concerns that the coronavirus poses a significant risk to U.S. service members and the Pentagon's global supply chain. "Right now the overall broad impact to the uniformed U.S. military is very, very minimal. It's not to say that it's zero, but it's very minimal, very few cases diagnosed, etc.," U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday during a Pentagon news briefing. "That's not surprising because we have a young demographic, healthy demographic, lots of immunizations, so on and so forth," he said, adding that the department has postponed joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula. Reuters contributed to this report. Barretto, a confirmed internationalist in arts presentation, upgraded the offerings at the theater, one of several venues in the downtown area competing for programming and donor dollars. Although she only came to the Harris in 2015, initially as vice-president of sales and marketing, before ascending to CEO in 2017, Barretto was responsible for bringing to Chicago (among many others) the English National Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre of Australia, Angelique Kidjo in collaboration with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique performing its Beethoven Festival. That event concluded Tuesday night in a performance that Gardiner dedicated to Barretto. The Congress levelling allegations against the BJP as it is unable to manage its own MLAs, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Wednesday. State minister Jitu Patwari on Wednesday alleged that BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the Kamal Nath government. Earlier, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh also claimed a senior leader of the BJP has taken a Bahujan Samaj Party legislator to Delhi in a chartered flight, alleging that "poaching" attempts were being made by the saffron party on Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. However, the BJP has dismissed the charges. "We have been saying this from the beginning that we are not involved in any such (poaching) activity, but if the Congress government falls on its own, then they are responsible for it," Chouhan told reporters here before leaving for Agar Malwa town where a bypoll is due soon. "The Congress MLAs are facing a lot of difficulties. It is a matter of their own house, but they are levelling allegations against us. The entire state is facing problems, especially farmers," he said. On Digvijaya Singh's charge that Chouhan was in Delhi for "poaching" MLAs, the senior BJP leader said, "I keep going to Delhi very often as I am the national vice president of the party. Whenever the party calls me, I go there. What Diggi (Digvijaya Singh) has to do with it? His main job is to level allegations only." There are many groups in the Congress and they have lot of "infighting", but they level allegations against the BJP, he said. "What does it mean?" he asked. In the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs, followed by the BJP- 107. The simple majority mark is 116. The Congress-led state government has the support of four Independent MLAs, two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators and one of the Samajwadi Party. Two seats are currently vacant following the demise of a Congress and a BJP legislator. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chennai, March 4 : A meeting of Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will be held here in connection with the linking of inter-state rivers Godavari and Cauvery, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami said on Wednesday. Speaking at a function in Salem, he said his Andhra counterpart Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has agreed for a meeting on the linking of the rivers. Palaniswami said that state Municipal Administration and Rural Development Minister S.P.Velumani and Fisheries Minister D.Jayakumar had met Jaganmohan Reddy and handed over his letter. Similarly a request has been made to Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao for a meeting and he has said that time will be allotted soon. "The Chief Ministers of three states would deliberate on realising the river linking project and then submit a report to the Central government," Palaniswami said. He said the water will be stored in Karur and from there it will be taken to various districts in south Tamil Nadu through canals at an outlay of about Rs 14,000 crore. Physicists have unraveled a mystery behind the strange behavior of electrons in a ferromagnet, a finding that could eventually help develop high temperature superconductivity.A Rutgers co-authored study of the unusual ferromagnetic material appears in the journal Nature The Rutgers Center for Materials Theory, a world leader in the field, studies quantum phase transitions. Phase transitions, such as when ice melts, usually require heat to jiggle atoms and melt ice crystals. Quantum phase transitions are driven by the jiggling of atoms and electrons that result from fluctuations that never cease even at low temperatures. A quantum phase transition can be achieved by tuning a material to enhance quantum fluctuations, either by applying a magnetic field or exposing it to intense pressure when the temperature is near absolute zero. In certain quantum phase transitions, the quantum fluctuations become infinitely intense, forming a quantum critical point. These unusual states of matter are of great interest because of their propensity to form superconductors. Think of it as like an electronic stem cell, a form of matter that can transform itself in many ways. Meanwhile, in the weird world of quantum mechanics, entanglement allows something to be in two different states or places at the same time. The Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodingers famous thought experiment, which features a cat that is simultaneously dead and alive, is an example of entanglement. Inside materials with electrons moving through them, entanglement often involves the spin of electrons, which can be simultaneously up and down. Typically, only electrons near each other are entangled in quantum materials, but at a quantum critical point, the entanglement patterns can change abruptly, spreading out across the material and transforming it. Electrons, even distant ones, become entangled. Ferromagnets are an unlikely setting for studying quantum entanglement because the electrons moving through them align in one direction instead of spinning up and down. But physicists found that the ferromagnetism in Cerge, (CeRh6Ge4) a ferromagnet, must have a large amount of entanglement with electrons that spin up and down and are connected with each other. That had never been seen in ferromagnets. We believe our work, connecting entanglement with the strange metal and ferromagnets, provides important clues for our efforts to understand superconductors that work at room temperature, said co-author Piers Coleman, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers UniversityNew Brunswick. As we learn to understand how nature controls entanglement in matter, we hope well develop the skills to control quantum entanglement inside quantum computers and to design and develop new kinds of quantum matter useful for technology. Rutgers scientists have used some of their findings to propose a new theory for a family of iron-based superconductors that were discovered about 10 years ago. If we are right, these systems, like ferromagnets, are driven by forces that like to align electrons, Coleman said. Yashar Komijani, a Rutgers post-doctoral associate, is one of three co-lead authors. Scientists at Zhejiang University in China, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Germany and Nanjing University in China contributed to the study. The Medical Care Centre for refugees, run by Global Doctors Malaysia in partnership with UNHCR UNHCR/Yante Ismail Kuala Lumpur, 3 March 2020: Global Doctors Malaysia (GDM), today, launched a Medical Care Centre to provide healthcare assistance, on gratis, for asylum-seekers and refugees in Malaysia. In partnership with UNHCR, the UN refugee Agency, GDM pledged its commitment towards assisting the healthcare needs of refugees in Malaysia, by providing consultancy services as well as diagnostic imaging services - excluding material costs through the Global Doctors Hospital (Mont Kiara). To formalise this, GDM and UNHCR signed two memorandums of understanding during the launch event this morning. GDMs recently developed Medical Care Centre, located at the Global Doctors International Medical Clinic in Mont Kiara, is a designated space created to assist the healthcare needs of refugees in Malaysia. The space is a fully functional Medical Care centre with a pharmaceutical service supported by the clinic with charges for pharmaceutical supplies. We aim to support the governments initiative on accessible healthcare for refugees in Malaysia. At GDM we believe in prevention and early diagnosis; which is the cornerstone of sustainable healthcare. GDM believes in the right to accessing universal healthcare, in line with the principle enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals of leaving no one behind. said Dr. Navindra Nageswaran, Managing and Medical Director of GDM. There are some 180,000 refugees registered with UNHCR today, with the majority coming from Myanmar. Refugees have access to public and private healthcare facilities in the country, but factors including cost, fear of movement, and language limitations prohibit access to healthcare services. Partners in refugee health: (L R) Dr Navindra Nageswaran, Managing and Medical Director of GDM, Mr Thomas Albrecht, UNHCR Representative, Dato' Dr. Sharifah Fauziah, Executive Chairman of Global Doctors Malaysia, Ms Stephanie Rinville, UNHCR Senior Programme Officer, and Dr Susheela Balasundaram, UNHCR Associate Public Health Officer. UNHCR/Yante Ismail Life for refugees in Malaysia is very difficult. Because they are considered as illegal immigrants by law, they are unable to work legally in the country and are often unable to afford basic healthcare services, said Thomas Albrecht, UNHCR Representative in Malaysia. Early treatment at primary healthcare facilities can prevent illnesses, which, if left untreated, would cost more to refugee families and to Malaysia. This programme creates affordable healthcare for an extremely vulnerable population, thus curbing any public health problems within this group. Albrecht added that partnerships with private healthcare providers like Global Doctors Malaysia are a good example of private sector involvement in reducing the burden of healthcare on the public healthcare system, while ensuring that marginalised communities get the healthcare they need. UNHCR warmly welcomes this collaboration with Global Doctors Malaysia to make primary care treatment more accessible for refugees in Malaysia, thereby improving the welfare of refugee families, said Albrecht. Through its services, GDM will provide free primary healthcare consultancy services for refugees. This includes the cost of consultations, diagnostic and imaging services (Radiological): X-Rays, CT Scans and Mammograms; but excludes pharmaceutical and laboratory services. INFORMATION ABOUT THE MEDICAL CARE CENTRE Official Opening: 09/03/2020 Location: Global Doctors International Medical Centre, Bayu Walk, Jalan Kiara 2, Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur Operational Hours: (On Appointment Basis) Monday Saturday: 16:00 19:00 Sunday and Public Holidays: Closed Contact Details: +60362033999 NASHVILLE Adia Victoria huddled with her cat under the covers in the North Nashville home she shares with her mother, her ears popping as a tornado roared across their neighborhood, among the oldest in this booming city. A few hours later, in the morning light, the damage was clear: Much of their neighborhood a traditional and important African-American community that has been rapidly gentrifying had been decimated. Now, Ms. Victoria, an African-American musician and songwriter, assumed that the gentrification pressure would only get worse, that working people would struggle to rebuild, flirt with the idea of selling to developers or simply move away. My mom and I woke up, and with this dark-humor laugh were like, Well, there goes the rest of the neighborhood, she said. As this city cleans up from nightmare storms that cut a swath across the central part of the state on Tuesday, killing at least two dozen people across four counties, some residents of North Nashville also worried that the tornados destruction would exacerbate the forces that have been diluting their neighborhoods character and culture. SEYMOUR Seymour Ambulance Capt. P.J. Bridge has a long road to recovery ahead of him after he had to undergo a craniotomy following a recent seizure. After 40 staples and about a week in the hospital, Bridge returned home last week. The community around him is helping cover the cost of his unexpected medical bills through a GoFundMe page created by Steven Michael and Bridges wife, Jacqueline Bridge. The fundraiser was created on Feb. 24. Unfortunately P.J. had an unexpected seizure and once at the hospital it was discovered he had some type of tumor present in the brain, the fundraiser description states. It said Bridge had to undergo a significant surgery to remove the tumor. And although he is still in the early stages of recovery and trying to remain in good spirits, the burden of unexpected medical bills loomed leading to the creation of the fundraiser, the description continues. Bridge is not just the captain of Seymour Ambulance; he also is an emergency medical technician and field training officer at American Medical Response in Bridgeport. The GoFundMe said Bridge has been an upstanding pillar in the community for years. As of Wednesday afternoon, $12,545 had been raised for Bridge. Jacqueline Bridge posted two updates on behalf of her husband on the fundraising page. The first update from Bridge came on Feb. 26. His wife said he wrote it the night prior. I am officially home, Bridge wrote in the update. Thank you to all of my amazing family and friends. The amazing outpouring of love and support is nothing short of incredible. Theres no way I could have dealt with what I have without all of you. While Bridge said there are still many unanswered questions and a long road ahead, he was grateful for the continued support from the community, his friends and family. In the second update from Bridge, which was posted on Sunday, he said he spent about a week at Yale New Haven Hospital. This has been incredibly hard for me, relying on others for the simplest tasks, and the pain..well sucks, Bridge said. The hardest part still is the not knowing of what's next. Bridge said the doctors removed 95 percent of the mass/tumor, but that they still dont know what it was which Im not ashamed to admit is terrifying, he said. He added that there is still 5 percent left in his temporal lobe that doctors couldnt safely remove without causing paralysis of Bridges right side or causing him to lose his ability to speak. Bridge said anyone who knows him or simply has been following the updates in his case know hes an open person. He said prior to the seizure and craniotomy, he was a very healthy person. The staples in Bridges head will remain there until March 18, he said. This is going to be a battle, Bridge said. But this is a battle I wont quit, and (I) know that I have an amazing support team of awesome friends and family that I couldnt have made it this far without. By PTI INDORE: An Army officer who was isolated in Madhya Pradesh for suspected coronavirus exposure following his visit to Iran has tested negative for the infection, a medical official said here on Wednesday. The 32-year-old officer of the major rank was not found to have contracted the coronavirus, Indore's Chief Health and Medical Officer (CMHO) Dr Praveen Jadia said. The test report came from Nagpur-based Indira Gandhi Medical College laboratory, he said. The officer, however, will remain under medical supervision for 14 more days but he might be discharged from the cantonment hospital at Mhow near here, Dr Jadia said. Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme's district in-charge Dr Santosh Sisodia had earlier said the Army officer had returned from Tehran on February 25, and was suffering from a bad throat. Many of Sadrs supporters have followed his instructions, withdrawing from the protests. But others have questioned him, in some cases for their first time. It was hard to understand why he would do this to us, said a young man in Tahrir Square, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his situation. He gave the order to leave, but some of us will stay. This is a fight for Iraq, not for politicians. Victoria's Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek has criticised his own partys push to dominate councils as a fundamental conflict of interest bad for grassroots democracy. The Victorian Labor Party is moving to claw back influence at council level by endorsing candidates at local government elections. Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek. Credit:Eddie Jim But Mr Somyurek has promised to use his influence within Labor to reverse the partys decision. My party has gone down the path of endorsing more in councils and I do not like it. I do not like it at all, he told State Parliament. I will try to take steps as much as I can whatever weight I have in the organisation to reverse that. Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) Youth in the Asokwa Constituency in the Ashanti region have called on the National and Regional Executives of the Party not to impose any parliamentary candidate on the people for Election 2020. They warned that it would cost the Party dearly if they did that. The youth alleged that the National Executive, as well as regional executives of the NPP, wants the Incumbent Mrs. Patricia Appiagyei, who is also the Deputy Minister of Science, Environment Technology and Innovation to go unopposed. Speaking to OTECNEWS in an interview on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, the Leader of the Concern youth of Asokwa, Yaw Gyamfi, aka Nana Addo, said the people of Asokwa would resist any imposition. They say some proclamations of some party leaders after the vetting is in bad taste and makes them very uncomfortable. While we were still trying to process bits and pieces of information gleaned from the vetting, we heard our partys General Secretary on the radio still talking about maintaining female MPs in their seat. For us, this is a no-no and against the democratic principles we believe in, one of the NPP youth stated. They went to the extent of suggesting that they will support people to contest as independent and vote against the NPP should they go ahead with their suspicious plot to maintain our non-performing MP. One of the agitated NPP youth who introduced himself as an executive of Asokwa Concerned Youth also announced that the youth of the party will stage a huge demonstration on Monday to let the party leadership know how serious they are. They say efforts have been made right from the get go to dislodge Dr. Francis Nana Yaw Boakye; the only person who has put himself out to contest the sitting MP. They cataloged the following reasons for their forthcoming demonstration: The young man was refused forms at the constituency and regional levels and eventually had to pick forms from the partys headquarters in Accra. Submission of his forms was also not without drama as the constituency chairman showed up late, sacked everyone that came with the Doctor and vented his spleen before accepting the form eventually. His, unlike his opponent was devoid of any form of fanfare. They suspect the plot to dislodge the young doctor is far from over as he was unnecessarily heckled during his vetting and told he is a young man and has a lot of time ahead. Some insisted they do not know him although he proved he is the regional Health coordinator whose certificates attesting to some of his activities had been signed by the regional chairman. They also suggested that several health screening exercises, the full renovation of a school brought to its knees by a rainstorm, treatment of party members on the behest of known party folks were all philanthropic gestures and not to be counted as activities done for the benefit of the party for the sole reason that he did not involve the constituency chairman of the party. There are other executives however that were informed who swear that the Doctor and his projects have been raised in meetings. The panel sought to remind him of a clause in the nomination form that forbids him from contesting as an independent candidate should he be disqualified and even went ahead to give him another undertaking of a similar fashion to sign. As if that were not enough, they asked of his age and began to remind him that he was young and had many years ahead of him. To crown it all, he was told he would know his fate by 25th March, 2020; a date that leaves no time for campaign should he be approved and leaves no time for appeal should he be disapproved. Many say the NPP which touts itself as the beacon of democracy is gradually deviating extremely; a situation that makes the young people uncomfortable to deliver selfless service to the party. Yaw Gyamfi, therefore, called on both the National and the Regional Executives to avoid any deliberate attempt to kick out Dr. Francis Nana Yaw Boakye from the forthcoming NPP Parliamentary Primaries at Asokwa Yaw Gyamfi, cautioned the NPP to learn from the mistakes of the NDC in the 2008 elections when it imposed some candidates on the people and finally lost power. He said the same would happen to the NPP, should they impose a candidate on the people of Asokwa without allowing Dr. Francis Nana Yaw Boakye to contest Mama Pat the primaries. Background Otecnews has discovered attempts made to kick out Dr. Francis Nana Yaw Boakye from the forthcoming NPP Parliamentary Primaries at Asokwa. He has consistently suffered unfair treatment from the partys constituency officials since he hinted his interest to contest the sitting MP of the Asokwa Constituency. The bias against him reached a crescendo when he was refused forms at the constituency level as well as the regional level and had to go to Accra to pick forms. Submission of his forms was also not without drama as the constituency chairman showed up late, sacked everyone that came with the Doctor and vented his spleen before accepting the form eventually. His, unlike his opponent was devoid of any form of fanfare. The Asokwa Chairman, who is also known to be a Pastor, submitted a report to the regional officials of the party saying he did not know the young Doctor although numerous people will bear witness that it is the chairman who even introduced him to them in the beginning after he condemned the non-performance of the incumbent and nosed around for a formidable person to unseat her. Reliable sources from yesterdays vetting of Parliamentary aspirants revealed that the plot to dislodge the young doctor seemed far from over as he was unnecessarily heckled. Whiles the process was a walk in the park for the incumbent, the young Doctor spent about two hours being flayed. He was not even allowed the space to answer the questions asked adequately our source disclosed. The panel sought to point out that the young Doctor who is the NPPs Health Coordinator for the region was not known to the party. They also suggested that several health screening exercises, the full renovation of a school brought to its knees by a rainstorm, treatment of party members on the behest of known party folks were all philanthropic gestures and not to be counted as activities done for the benefit of the party for the sole reason that he did not involve the constituency chairman of the party. There are other executives however that were informed who swear that the Doctor and his projects have been raised in meetings. The panel also sought to suggest that the young Doctor could not lay claim to some contributions made by his parents to the party. One would wonder what is so difficult to understand about the existence of closely knit families where everyone contributes to family projects and interests. People who know the Asokwa Constituency Chairman very well were not surprised when the Ashanti NPP Chairman was parroting his exact utterances against the young Doctor. The panel sought to remind him of a clause in the nomination form that forbids him from contesting as an independent candidate should he be disqualified and even went ahead to give him another undertaking of a similar fashion to sign. As if that were not enough, they asked of his age and began to remind him that he was young and had many years ahead of him (as though they were custodians of life). In all, people who were inside the room that we spoke to were of the view that irrespective of the outcome of the vetting, Dr. Francis Nana Yaw Boakye was unfairly treated. To crown it all, he was told he would know his fate by 25th March 2020; a date that leaves no time for the campaign should he be approved and leaves no time for appeal should he be disapproved. Many say the NPP which touts itself as the beacon of democracy is gradually deviating extremely; a situation that makes many young people uncomfortable to deliver selfless service to the party. ---OtecfmGhana.com Oxford Circus, London. William Perugini/Shutterstock Stats released by the UK's biggest police force show it used live facial recognition to scan the faces of 8,600 people in a busy shopping area in London last week. The system threw up eight alerts from the Metropolitan Police database, but only one of these was a correct identification. The Met Police announced early this year that it would start rolling out facial recognition in London despite pushback from advocacy groups. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. British police used facial recognition to scan more than 8,000 people's faces in one of London's busiest shopping districts, and it yielded far more false than correct positives. As spotted by British privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch, statistics released by London's Metropolitan Police show it deployed Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology on February 27 at Oxford Circus, a busy area in the center of London frequented by tourists and shoppers. The figures show the police scanned roughly 8,600 people, and the technology threw up eight matches from its database of faces. Seven of these were false positives however, resulting in five incorrect "engagements." A spokesperson for the Met told Business Insider that in the case of these five "engagements" officers spoke to the individuals flagged and ascertained that they were not individuals wanted by the police. One of the faces flagged by the system did result in an arrest of a 35-year old woman who was later charged with three counts of assault on police. Big Brother Watch wrote on Twitter that this meant 86% of the alerts the system threw up were false, and 71% of these misidentifications resulted in the police stopping and questioning someone. Big Brother Watch added: "This blows apart the Met's defence that facial recognition surveillance is in any way proportionate or that the staggering inaccuracy is mitigated by human checks. Story continues "This is a disaster for human rights, a breach of our most basic liberties and an embarrassment for our capital city." The Met spokesperson said the area the police were scanning was clearly marked. "LFR deployments are accompanied by clear signage alerting members of the public to the fact that LFR is in operation. We want the public to know that we are there and want to provide reassurance that we are working to make London safer," they said. The Met announced in January this year that it would start rolling out live facial recognition technology in London, and last month Commissioner Cressida Dick pushed back against criticisms by advocacy groups that the technology poses threats to privacy and civil liberties. Criticisms of police use of facial recognition center on its inaccuracy and invasion of privacy. In particular AI experts have pointed to racial and gender bias in facial recognition systems, which more frequently misidentify women and people of color and could contribute to overpolicing of those groups. The Met Police has said its system has been proven not to have any ethnic bias. Some US cities including San Francisco and Oakland in California and Portland, Oregon have passed laws banning police use of facial recognition. Read the original article on Business Insider As health authorities continue the battle against Coronavirus, Bay of Plenty residents are voicing their concerns for family overseas. The World Health Organisation is reporting that COVID-19 is spreading faster outside of China, than it is within the originating country. Almost nine times as many cases have been reported in the past 24 hours beyond China than inside, says WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding the risk of coronavirus spreading is now very high at a "global level". He says outbreaks in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan are the greatest concern, but that there is evidence surveillance methods are working in South Korea, the worst affected country outside China, and the epidemic could be contained there. "We are in uncharted territory - we have never seen before a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission but at the same time which can also be contained with the right measures," he told a news briefing in Geneva. BBC.com reports the WHO has issued the highest alert over the virus, prompting concerns from Tauranga residents who have family overseas. It is very scary to watch, says one woman, who did not want to be named. I have family in the United Kingdom and Ireland and while they are not affected, its unnerving seeing everything develop. Back in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has confirmed two cases of Coronavirus in New Zealand. The World Health Organisation said on its website that a second New Zealand case had been confirmed. And the Ministry of Health has called a press conference after enquiries from RNZ's Checkpoint about a positive Covid-19 case on Auckland's North Shore. Coronavirus travel restrictions reconfirmed Travel restrictions for Iran and China have been extended for a further seven days, and people arriving from northern Italy and South Korea will be required to self-isolate, the Prime Minister has revealed. Jacinda Ardern gave an update on the Covid-19 coronavirus on Monday after the Cabinet meeting. As well as extending the current travel restrictions, Jacinda says the New Zealand government has decided that those arriving from northern Italy and South Korea will be required to isolate themselves for 14 days and to register with Healthline. "This is a balanced and precautionary approach. Businesses affected by the virus will be helped, with an extra $4 million allocated to the programme after chambers of commerce across the country asked for help, she says. She says Ministry of Social Development teams are contacting employers on a daily basis. It is still too early "at this stage" to determine the extent of the impact of Covid-19, Jacinda says. -Additional information from RNZ. Containers at the Kim Thanh Border Gate No.2 in Lao Cai Province on February 16, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. As the coronavirus outbreak suspends trade, 1,070 containers remain idle at Vietnams northern border with China. 442 containers are awaiting the green light in Quang Ninh Province as of Tuesday, carrying frozen food, dried fruits and fabric, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Lang Son Province recorded 428 containers of agriculture produce and electronics parts. Lao Cai Province reported 200 containers carrying fruit. The situation has persisted since the end of January as China limited trade to contain the outbreak. Vietnam officials have urged traders to tap other distribution channels for their products. But border authorities are observing improvements in trade. Between Monday and Tuesday, Vietnam imported 863 containers of goods from China, and exported 479 to the country. China was Vietnams largest import market in the first two months with a value of $10 billion, down 0.4 percent year-on-year, according to General Statistics Office. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 41F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 41F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. The virus killed 2,264 people and infected nearly 1,200 more, making it the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history. The last patient treated for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been discharged, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, bringing the 19-month-old outbreak closer than ever to an end. The patients release from a hospital in the eastern city of Beni on Tuesday feted by hospital staff who sang, danced and drummed on rubbish bins marked the first time there have been no active cases since the outbreak was declared in August 2018. In that period, the virus killed 2,264 people and infected nearly 1,200 more, making it the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history. Only the 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa was deadlier, killing more than 11,000. The DRC has now gone 14 days without any new confirmed cases. The outbreak can be declared over once 42 days have passed without a new case equivalent to two cycles of 21 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus. After receiving her survivors certificate, the patient discharged, Semida Masika, said she was delighted to be headed home. As I am the last survivor, I say thank you very much and praise be to God, she said. The last patient being treated for Ebola in the DR Congo has been discharged Could this be the end of Ebola? pic.twitter.com/SGicfLNG63 Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 4, 2020 WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the developments as very good news, not just for me, but for the whole world at a briefing. The UN-appointed coordinator for response efforts said he was stepping down to return to his job with the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC. However, a WHO spokesman cautioned the outbreak was not yet over, citing difficulties tracking cases in the eastern DRC, where militia violence is widespread. Because of the complex security environment, Ebola transmission outside of groups currently under monitoring cannot be ruled out, said the spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic. A single case could reignite the epidemic. Even as caseloads declined last month and Ebola was overshadowed by the rapid spread of coronavirus around the world, the WHO said it continued to believe the outbreak constituted an international health emergency. The current outbreak the DRCs 10th since 1976 came immediately after another, smaller one was ended in another part of the country in 2018. The countrys dense tropical forests are considered a natural reservoir for the disease. Ethertronics Unveils Active Antenna RF Switch Solutions With Industrys Highest Linearity for LTE Smartphones and Devices BARCELONA, SPAIN (Marketwired) 02/23/16 , the leader in ultra-high performance smart antenna system solutions, today announced it has expanded its portfolio of with the industrys highest linearity for LTE smartphones, devices and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In addition to the best linearity and small footprint, these fully integrated switch solutions support high data rates and broad frequency ranges. Available today, the EC686 and EC646 are designed to meet the market demand for smart Active Steering antenna systems which dramatically improve performance by increasing data throughput, reducing dropped calls and minimizing the antenna footprint needed for todays multiband LTE and LTE Advanced smartphones. With the proliferation of worldwide mobile spectrum, smartphone manufacturers are seeking new smart antenna solutions that can efficiently handle more than 20 cellular frequency bands, in addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Ethertronics new RF antenna switches provide antenna tuning and band switching which are both key elements to solving these challenges. Ethertronics new active antenna RF switches, with industry leading linearity, offer unprecedented performance levels for 4G and future 5G wireless applications, said Vahid Manian, Chief Operating Officer with Ethertronics. Either of these new RF antenna switches, combined with our advanced active antenna architecture and algorithms, provides a complete smart antenna system unmatched in the market today. Our solutions continue to enable some of the fastest growing smartphones, devices and Internet of Things applications as the world becomes more connected. Ethertronics new active antenna RF switches can be used in various ways. These devices, along with Ethertronics antenna technology and algorithms, enable Ethertronics Active Steering technology providing revolutionary link margin improvements in cellular RF links. The EC646 and EC686 can also be used to actively band switch cellular antennas to cover additional frequency bands. By combining Ethertronics extensive antenna systems expertise, RFICs and proprietary algorithms, the devices can seamlessly adjust the characteristics of a wireless antenna including covering all 2G/3G/4G cellular, Bluetooth, GSM, ISM, RFID, Wi-Fi bands, correcting the impedance mismatch and reducing the antennas physical volume by up to 50 percent without performance tradeoffs. Designed for industry leading antenna system performance with best in class RON for increased efficiency and performance. EC686 offers a flexible control interface, compliant with the Qualcomm MIPI protocol, SPI and GPIO. It supports a broad frequency range (100 MHz to 3000+ GHz), has excellent linearity performance (IIP3 > +80 dBm) and an ultra-low loss shuntless SP4T architecture for antenna tuning applications. The device is packaged in a compact, leadless, QFN 16-pin 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.5 mm package. Designed with ultra-small packaging for extremely space constrained products. It supports a broad frequency range (100 MHz to 3000+ GHz) and has an ultra-low loss shuntless SP4T architecture for antenna tuning applications with exceptional linearity performance (IIP3 +80 dBM). The device is packaged in a compact, leadless, 1.10 x 1.50 x 0.45 mm package. Ethertronics will be showcasing its Active Steering antenna system solutions in Hall 1, Stand 1E20 at Mobile World Congress being held February 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain. The EC686 and EC646 are currently available for sampling and production. For additional product information, please contact . Ethertronics is a global leader and innovator in ultra-high performance smart antenna system solutions for wireless communications. Ethertronics Active Steering platform establishes benchmarks for speed, range, efficiency and reliability across a range of applications, from mobile phones to Wi-Fi and the Internet of Things. Ethertronics has shipped over 1.4 billion antenna systems that are being used by leading wireless handset and device manufacturers worldwide. For more information, visit . Follow us on , and . Jeremy Hyatt Green Flash Media 949-357-0141 Each week well include a column from an Alabama woman, in collaboration with See Jane Write. Click here to sign up for the Reckon Women Facebook page. By Jenny Allon Being a Jew in the South is an interesting experience because in the Bible Belt, the most popular question I get asked is, Where do you go to church? This question, although innocuous to some, is a difficult question to answer for those of us in a minority religion. I dont go to church. I dont attend Bible study. I dont understand certain central tenants of Christianity. I dont speak fluent evangelism. While living in Vestavia in my elementary school years, my mom sought to instill in us our Jewish faith by keeping kosher and attending services for all major holidays. At that time, the school administration would not allow us excused absences for our holidays. They told us that in order to be Jewish in Birmingham, we had to move to Mountain Brook. Our family experienced some anti-Semitism. We were called Jesus Killers and told that we didnt belong in the city we were living in. Ultimately, we moved to Mountain Brook so we could keep our traditions and get excused absences for our religious holidays. My journey towards acceptance of my minority faith in a majority Christian nation and a very religious Alabama took place at college. At Auburn University, I sought to learn as much as I could about my religion mostly so that when traveling religious door-knockers would come to my home, Id be able to explain my religion and effectively deter them from their attempt to convert me. My next-door neighbor at Auburn, eager to convert me to Christianity, asked me to watch The Passion of the Christ. As we sat there listening to Jim Caviezel speak Aramaic, a lost language now, I still felt completely adrift in trying to forge a unique religious path that allowed me to understand my religion and share it with others. Judaisms goal is not to convert anyone but in my time at Auburn, most Christians sought to understand my religion and how Judaism shaped some of the tenants of Christianity. There were some situations that are truly unique for a Jew. A friend of mine asked to go out to Panera Bread in Auburn. She was newly devout (or as they call it in evangelicalism, born again.) She asked me one of the strangest questions. She inquired, How do I get Jews to convert to Christianity? What should I say to them? In a bizarre twist, I sat bemused and confused at my friends inability to look seriously at Judaisms purpose. Judaisms end goal is not to convert others, but to give tzedakah (charity), gmilut hasadim (acts of loving kindness), and tikkun olam (repair the world). I told her that Jews were hard to convert because of our sense of purpose, our religions important ties to the history and ancestry of our families, and the greater Diaspora of Jews across the world. In that moment, she realized that I was unconvertable. At 20, I was elected president of Auburns Jewish Student Organization or Hillel. At that time, I began to promote Jewish students on campus and provide speakers on the Holocaust and the Middle East. It was in this time period I grew to understand the most important and special part of my faith bringing the Jewish community together for religious and secular events and connecting our campus to the Auburn Jewish community. We were able to share our joys, celebrate our significant holidays, and bridge generations to connect students to families in Auburn. The Auburn Jewish community holds a special place in my heart for their accepting nature and endless support of our efforts to continue to promote Jewish life at Auburn. Being Jewish in Alabama means that I am often an ambassador for my religion, educating others in my community about what Judaism is and what Jews believe. I want the people of Alabama to understand that Jewish life exists in Alabama in pockets all over the state. Whether in big cities like Birmingham or small cities like Auburn, there is Jewish life in Alabama. I want people to know that although the preconception is that Judaism is an insular religion within these communities, Jews in Alabama want to develop relationships with those of other faiths and bolster the diversity of the state. I urge individuals with a cursory knowledge of Judaism to reach out to us, bridge those gaps, and make Alabama better by bringing diverse communities together. I will never forget how my time practicing a minority religion on Auburns campus changed me, and I hope, I helped educate others on my faith and its importance in the fabric of our state. Jenny Allon is a former social worker turned communications professional. She is a currently an active freelancer in digital marketing, writing and website development. These days, a large number of consumers are still struggling to make ends meet every month as the effects of the recession continue to fade from view. But few Americans are likely struggling as much as military families. While the federal government allows for military members serving in active combat overseas additional pay, housing allowances and tax exemptions, many of their families are still struggling financially for a number of reasons, according to a report from CBS News. For one thing, those families who are being moved around with regularity may have trouble finding employment for the other spouse, and they may incur some moving costs not covered by federal allowances. The unemployment rate among military spouses is roughly 26%. The stress factors with the families is just unbelievable, Roger Mealey, a Vietnam veteran who runs a website to aid struggling military families, told the news service, adding, It just frustrates me. If were asking them to serve their country and put their life on the line, I dont think their families should be put in the position where theyre sleeping on the floor or dont have enough food to feed their kids. A recent survey found that 27% of service members had more than $10,000 in credit card debt, which can be difficult to deal with, the report said. Thats compared with just 16% of civilians. In addition, more than one-third of military families responded that they struggle to pay the bills every month, and 20% also had to borrow money from entities other than banks. Problematically, there is help available to service members, but they may not always use it, the report said. For example, the military provides financial counseling services, but many troops may not seek it out because they dont want their peers or commanders to know theyre having money trouble. Further, there are a number of nonprofit organizations like Mealeys that exist specifically to help military members make ends meet. Military members who are having financial difficulties should seek out help wherever they can find it. Even if they dont want to go through official channels, conducting a simple search online might help them to find some form of assistance that they may not have known about. Get the Latest Financial Tips Whether you're trying to balance your budget, build up your credit, select a good life insurance program or are gearing up for a home purchase, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com and get the latest military benefit updates and tips delivered straight to your inbox. Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), center, speaks while U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, listen during a briefing at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. WASHINGTON Congress is looking for answers on how to respond to the coronavirus. The administration is short on them. And it all adds up to a massive federal government working to solve a problem it doesn't quite understand. This notion was clear as U.S. health officials leading the coronavirus response were grilled Tuesday in a hearing on the illness held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Questions ranged from how quickly the U.S. will be able to deploy a vaccine (answer: that will take a while), what percentage of people traveling from Canada are being screened for the virus (unclear) and how far germs from the virus spread on a plane (a few rows). Most of the testimony was caveated, and some of it was met with skepticism. "Do you really believe that one million tests will be available by the end of this week?" Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn. Hahn had said in prepared remarks at the onset of the hearing that the administration would be able to achieve that objective. Murray, whose state has seen nine people die from the illness, is one of many lawmakers who blamed limited testing supplies on allowing the illness to proliferate. In response to Murray, Hahn later clarified he expects "up to a million tests." He walked the panel through what would need to happen to achieve that goal. "The company we are working with this have the capacity to develop enough test kits to send out ... and this is a dynamic process every day I'm hearing from different manufacturers that they can do this 2,500 test kits by the end of the week. That should give us the capacity in hands of laboratories once they validate to perform up to a million tests," he said. Lawmakers pressed the officials about the potential of drug shortages, given the large portion of the country's supply chain coming from overseas. Hahn said he did not know whether India's decision earlier in the day to limit 10% of its export capacity affected the U.S. supply chain, including essential drugs. (Natural News) An office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the state of Washington has been closed for two weeks after an employee fell ill with COVID-19. The employee had apparently contracted the virus after visiting a relative at a nursing facility which is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf made the announcement at the beginning of his congressional testimony on Tuesday. Wolf revealed that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in Tukwila in King County, Washington will be closed for 14 days after an employee had contracted the virus. The employee had previously visited the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington where a number of cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported. Out of an abundance of caution, following [the] recommended procedure, I ordered a DHS facility in King County, Washington State, to close, beginning today; directed those employees to telework, if possible, in order to reduce the threat of community spread of the coronavirus, stated Wolf. At this time, the affected offices will remain closed 14 days, and all employees have been directed to self-quarantine for 14 days. Employee visited Life Care before the outbreak DHS officials confirmed that the employee had visited Life Care in Kirkland before it was known that there was a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility. Acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli stated that the employee began exhibiting flu-like symptoms four days after visiting the nursing home. According to Cuccinelli, the employee started feeling ill on February 26 after leaving work. Once the news that patients had been diagnosed with the coronavirus at the nursing home, the employee and their family self-quarantined and reported their exposure to their employers and other officials. DHS takes the safety & health of our employees & applicants seriously, stated deputy secretary Cuccinelli. Were following CDCs guidelines and encourage all employees and applicants to stay home if they are feeling ill or exhibiting any flu-like symptoms. Meanwhile, Wolf praised the employee for their response to their infection saying Im pleased to report this employee embodied what it means to lead by example. COVID-19 arrived in Washington state earlier than believed Counting the DHS employee, Washington state now counts 27 cases of the COVID-19 with 9 reported deaths. The majority of the cases come from King County where both the Life Care facility and USCIS office are located which has 21 cases and eight deaths. A study on the genetic structure of samples of the virus from two of the cases suggest that it may have been spreading across the state for quite some time. Both patients live in the same county but are not known to have had contact with the each other. Additionally, the second case occurred well after the first would have no longer been contagious. Dr. Trevor Bedford, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, states that this means that the virus could have been spreading through the community for close to six weeks. (Related: Coronavirus patient released by mistake, wanders through mall for two hours.) According to Dr. Bedford, it was possible that the two cases had been introduced separately into the United States. However, he said that it was unlikely as in both cases the virus contained a rare genetic variation that has been found in only two of the 59 genetic samples that had been shared from China. Other scientists not involved with the study have agreed with this conclusion. One such scientist, Andrew Rambaut, a professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh, stated that it was extremely unlikely that two genetically related viruses could arrive in the same geographic region of the U.S. unless they were connected. Sources include: CNSNews.com Patch.com NYTimes.com Volvo Cars is among a handful of vehicle makers now selling cars online in China to combat coronavirus fears that have shut down that country's showrooms, leading to a plunge in February sales. Volvo on Wednesday said its China sales fell 81.5 percent in February to just 1,205 vehicles. The Swedish automaker, owned by China's Geely Holding Group, blamed the virus COVID-19 on the slump that led to an overall 8 percent sales decline globally. Geely said last week it will join BMW and Mercedes-Benz in letting Chinese customers order and customize cars on their websites. Geely will also deliver cars to customers' homes in what it calls a "contactless" purchasing service in China, the world's largest automotive market. Germany's BMW, which makes X-model SUVs at its Spartanburg County plant, said it expects to take a substantial hit to sales in China but hopes to recover the lost sales as the year progresses. Specific sales figures for the company were not available Wednesday. Sarwant Singh, managing partner at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, told BBC News "the coronavirus will provide impetus to digital retailing for cars," which to this point has been minimal. The United States continued to be a bright spot for Volvo, which builds its S60 sedans at a $1.1 billion campus off Interstate 26 near Ridgeville. Volvo sales in the U.S. were up 18.2 percent in February, the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year growth. Sport-utility vehicles like the mid-sized XC40 continued to lure customers into showrooms. "The strength of the SUV market in the U.S. is undeniable," Anders Gustafsson, president and CEO of Volvo Car USA, said in a statement. "With three award-winning vehicles in the segment, we are well positioned to continue offering customers safe and desirable SUVs that fit their individual lifestyles." The coronavirus and related supply chain disruptions so far haven't affected sales within the U.S. car market, but analysts warn they could slip in the months to come. "The risks to the North American market are particularly elevated as U.S. auto inventories have come under serious pressure over the last year and currently sit near an eight-year low," said Thomas Feltmate, senior economist with TD Bank. Feltmate said U.S. automakers are reliant on overseas-sources parts and "any small disruption can very quickly hit North American production." The coronavirus and factory shutdowns in China led to an overall 80 percent drop in sales in February, according to the China Passenger Car Association. The group said sales so far this year are down 41 percent, the largest decline in 20 years. Maharashtra is taking all measures on a war footing to prepare for an outbreak even as no one has yet tested positive for coronavirus in the state, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Rajesh Tope said Wednesday. He informed the Legislative Council that the government has so far carried out thermal screening of 401 passengers deboarding flights in the state, and 676 passengers deboarding from 30 ships in the state for coronavirus. The total number of people infected with coronavirus in the country rose to 28 on Wednesday. Tope said that after thermal screening, 152 passengers suspected to be infected with coronavirus were immediately quarantined. However, 149 of these people tested negative for the virus, and 143 of them have been discharged. Test results for the remaining three persons with suspected symptoms of coronavirus are awaited from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, Tope said. Tope urged citizens to remain calm and not to panic. The first and foremost message I want to give to all citizens is, please do not panic. There are simple preventive care measures that can safeguard individuals from catching the disease, or transmitting it, which will be enlisted shortly. The state is taking all measures on a war footing to prepare for an outbreak, if at all it happens in Maharashtra. Presently, six people from Maharashtra remain quarantined, four of whom are in Kasturba and Hinduja hospital in Mumbai, and two of them are admitted to the Naidu and Mangeshkar Hospitals in Pune. On measures undertaken by the state, Tope said, All district hospitals have already set up quarantine wards holdings with ten beds each, in preparation for an emergency. Doctors in all districts are being trained in ventilator management facility, and other dos and donts while handling suspected coronavirus cases. Private hospitals have also been roped in. Maharashtra government has also purchased masks that are excess in number beyond the guidelines given by the central government. Tope announced that the state will ensure sufficient funds are available for an emergency situation, and if needed, the states contingency fund will be used as well. To curb the spread of misinformation about the spread of coronavirus, Tope held a meeting with top police officials of Maharashtras cyber crime unit on Tuesday evening. He told the council, I have instructed the cyber crime unit to crack down on any persons spreading misinformation and creating panic. Meanwhile, cinema halls and prime television time for popular government and private channels has been reserved for informative advertisements regarding awareness on coronavirus. The health department is making banners, posters, and jingles to be put up in schools, colleges and public places. A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted seven persons, including expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger, and acquitted four others in connection with the custodial death of the father of Unnao rape victim. District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Rana slated the arguments on quantum of sentence for March 12. The rape survivor's father died on April 9, 2018, in police custody. The court observed that the death of the victim is directly attributable to the assault adding that the deceased was taken to the police station and framed in a false case. It also said that gross negligence on part of the doctors who carried out the post mortem given that no x-ray of the body was conducted. Among those convicted by the court are Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Ashok Singh Bhadoria, Kamta Prasad Singh, Jaideep Singh, Vineet Mishra, Birendra Singh, and Shashi Pratap Singh. On the other hand, constable Amir Khan, Ram Sharan Singh, Sharadvir Singh, and Shailendra Singh were acquitted in the matter. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on July 13, 2018, filed a chargesheet in the matter, according to which, an altercation took place between the rape survivor's father and one Shashi Pratap Singh on April 3, 2018, after which the latter called his associates and attacked the woman's father. Later, survivor's father was taken to the police station, where he was arrested after an FIR was lodged against him. CBI, in its chargesheet, said that Sengar was in touch with the district police superintendent and police station's in-charge. On August 1 last year, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi. In December 2019, Sengar was convicted and jailed for life by a Delhi court for raping the girl, who was a minor at the time of the incident, at his residence in Unnao in June 2017, where she had gone seeking a job. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Staff at two Waitrose branches have been told their stores will close becoming the first casualties in swingeing cuts proposed by the John Lewis Partnership's new chairman. Dame Sharon White, 52, who joined last month from regulator Ofcom, said she would have to make 'difficult decisions about stores and jobs'. Staff at branches in Waterlooville, Hampshire, and Helensburgh, in Scotland, were told this week their stores would close, putting hundreds of full and part-time jobs at risk. Staff at least two Waitrose branches in Waterlooville, Hampshire, and Helensburgh, Argyll, were told this week that their stores would be shutting (file picture) It will form part of today's announcement to go with annual results expected to show profits 'significantly lower' than in 2018. There may also be charges worth hundreds of millions due to a massive writedown on the value of its properties. Underlying pre-tax profits for the group are predicted to drop 40 per cent to 95million, compared with 2018, says retail analyst Nick Bubb. The results mean staff face losing their bonus for the first time since 1953. John Lewis Partnership employs more than 80,000 people at 50 John Lewis shops and 338 Waitrose supermarkets and convenience stores. It closed 12 unprofitable supermarkets in 2019, axing 1,100 jobs. In September it said underlying pre-tax losses were 25.9million, compared to profits of 800,000 for the same period in 2018 the first half-year loss in its history. Over Christmas Waitrose like-for-like sales went up by just 0.4 per cent while sales at John Lewis dropped by 2 per cent. Waitrose declined to comment. Boeing reveals its U.S. Army Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft design Agile, purpose-built and designed for the Army's evolving missions MESA, Ariz., March 3, 2020 Boeing [NYSE: BA] is offering the U.S. Army an agile, fully integrated, purpose-built system for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) prototype competition. Boeing FARA is designed to meet the Army's current mission needs while evolving as technologies and missions change. The thrust compounded single-main rotor helicopter boasts a six-bladed rotor system, a single engine, tandem seating and a modular, state-of-the-art cockpit with a reconfigurable large area display and autonomous capabilities. "We're offering more than a helicopter we're offering an affordable and fully integrated system for the Army, the mission and the future. We've blended innovation, ingenuity and proven rotorcraft experience with extensive testing and advanced analysis to offer a very compelling solution," said Mark Cherry, vice president and general manager of Boeing's Phantom Works. The fly-by-wire design leverages more than 65 years of rotorcraft experience, proven advanced and additive manufacturing technology, and product commonality driving down risk and costs. The system will provide seamless capability within the Army ecosystem to include Long-Range Precision Fires and air-launched effects. "We listened to the Army, assessed all alternatives, and optimized our design to provide the right aircraft to meet the requirements," said Shane Openshaw, Boeing FARA program manager. "We are offering a very reliable, sustainable and flexible aircraft with a focus on safety and the future fight." FARA will fill a critical gap in Army aviation for an advanced light attack and reconnaissance capability, previously held by the now-retired Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. For more information about Boeing FARA and its features, visit www.boeing.com/FARA. For more information on Boeing Defense, Space & Security, visit www.boeing.com. Follow us on Twitter: @BoeingDefense and @BoeingSpace. # # # Contact: Alicia Francis Defense, Space & Security Office: 314-232-2712 Mobile: 314-308-1244 alicia.francis@boeing.com NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address After receiving an influx of questions about writing and publishing a book, I decided in 2014 to put my advice into an article and publish it on LinkedIn. The regular stream of inquiries continued, and I would simply share the link and answer other questions to the best of my ability. Interestingly, no one has inquired about Part II of my LinkedIn article. Regardless, what follows is Part II of How to Publish a Book. In Part I, I acknowledged the arduous task of taking a book from conception to print, and then recommended resources on the publishing process. I also gave advice on setting goals with realistic expectations. Neither article explains the writing process, which requires years of instruction and practice, despite the fact that throngs of books are released in conversational vernacular complete with grammar and punctuation errors that make those of us with English degrees cringe. I digress, but may I posit one additional note about writing a book? Do not write a book to make money. It simply is not suitable motivation and will lead to an inauthentic product. With certitude I can tell you making money is a delusional excuse for writing a book. When people approach me to ghostwrite their books, the first question I ask is Whats the purpose of your book? The answer usually reveals the authors true motive. Write a book because you are passionate about the subject, are eager to share knowledge, or have an intrinsic desire to record information for the ages. One of my clients had me chronicle the events that would become his legacy. To the best of my knowledge, he never published the book. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a variety of ways you can market your book beyond Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Marketing, I maintain, is the more difficult side of the book publishing equation. While there are endless ways to promote a book, there is no single best way. Because marketing methods and communication tactics are always evolving, it is important to be creative and fresh. Since youve already defined your target audience before writing the book (you did, right?), the key is figuring out how to best reach that audience through their preferred channel of communication. When my book Gravy Wars: South Philly Foods, Feuds & Attitudes was released in 2009, food was a hot genre but no guarantee of sales. I had to work hard to promote it, which is not uncommon for a first-time author. My publisher did not have a big budget. Even if Simon & Schuster had published my book, I would have been responsible for publicity. Publishers put marketing resources behind low hanging fruitknown entities. Fortunately, I was in the publicity business and able to promote Gravy Wars myself, as awkward as that was and continues to be. Im still promoting it and will continue to do so as long as it is in print. A side note: Gravy Wars did so well in its first year, selling more than 10,000 copies, that a slightly larger publisher made a passing inquiry about taking over the title. I did not see the point; I was doing all the promotional work anyway. Within the first 12 months of the books release, we went into a second printing. Not too shabby for a first-time author. It would be a few years before I agreed to release my baby as an e-book. I will candidly reveal that even with two-thirds of the 33,000 printed copies of Gravy Wars distributed, the venture was not a reliable source of income. I never quantified the sweat equity associated with that project but if I had, I guarantee Id still be in the red. That stated, I would not change a thing. I knew from the outset what to expect. For most, a published book is a loss leader. Having a book on a subject about which you are either passionate or an expert lends to your credibility and leads to more business, or in my case speaking engagements. Once the manuscript has been completed, send it off to a professional copy editor (emphasis on professional) and begin outlining a marketing plan. Simultaneously, enlist the services of a professional artist who specializes in book covers (again, emphasis on professional). The chosen graphic will drive the design of your marketing collateral. If you have secured a publishing house, work closely with them during this process, contributing nuances reflective of your intention, but avoid the temptation to art direct. After the cover design has been chosen, execute your marketing plan. There are countless ways to market a book. Any method should take into consideration the genre, audience, and the authors goal. As with any promotion, be as creative as possible and as elaborate as your budget allows. The list below is in no way exhaustive, and I welcome your suggestions in the comment section. Praise/Love/Testimonials Get experts in your field to offer a line or two about your book. This will require giving them either a draft of the manuscript or a few finished chapters. Include their comments on the back cover or first few pages of the book, as well as on marketing material. The names and titles of advocates add credibility to your work, while helping promote their respective brands. Partners A self-made millionaire told me years ago that the secret to his success was his ability to partner and repeat sales. One way to transfer this concept to book publishing is to partner with entities that will benefit from your book, whether it is a retail outlet or an industry that might like to purchase your title in bulk to use as a premium giveaway. The gist of Gravy Wars easily lent itself to incorporating the stories of sponsors, adding value to the reader through a richer cultural experience. The many partnerships I formed guaranteed instant sales prior to release and provided multiple avenues of distribution. Taking the concept in a different direction, consider partnering with another author who has published on the same or a similar topic. Two minds are always better than one. As a tag-team, you bring different perspectives to a topic. Perhaps you can promote each other as SMEs. Working in tandem helps both authors. It is always easier to sing the praises of another. Sure, competition is real but why waste energy fighting it when you can partner and create more opportunity? The pie is huge and there is more than enough to go around. We live in an abundant universe. I continue to look for partners to help promote my book of public speaking tips, Impact: Deliver Effective, Meaningful, and Memorable Presentations. Given the number of texts written on this topic and its niche audience, promoting this book is a bit more challenging. Knowing this at the outset, I sought to differentiate my contribution to the subject by creating a pocket guide, a terse resource for busy professionals and supplement to the classroom text. (Thank you for withstanding the not-so-subtle and shameless plug.) Website Although not necessary, devoting a website to your book complete with SEO will make it easy to find online. If your book has a unique title, purchase the URL. Even if you never build a site, you can forward traffic from your URL to a site where your book can be purchased. Social Media Of course! In 2020, do we need to break this down? Use the platforms on which your target audience is most likely to spend time. Just like traditional PR, be sure your comments and posts provide value. Dont be like the perfume lady at the Estee Lauder counter ready to spray every passerby or the telemarketer that screams, Dont hang up! Instead, build a relationship by first listening to (reading) your audience, and then responding accordingly. Let the sale come naturally even if it takes a bit longer than you had hoped. If you are not accustomed to using social platforms, hire an outfit that is expert at it. There are plenty of good ones. Content marketing is a craft. Podcast If you are a dynamite storyteller, consider starting a podcast. Once it is up and running, youll have more fodder for social media posts. If hosting a podcast isnt your thing, get yourself guest appearances on as many podcasts as you can. A lot of podcasters enjoy interviewing good guests. Its a two-way promotion. Traditional Media The few newspapers still in print have been significantly reduced in size, allowing for fewer human-interest articles. That said, local weeklies and hometown ad papers are still great places to get some press, as are print and on-line trade magazines. This will require submitting a pitch or press release. If this is not your forte, hire a pro. If you are the subject matter expert on a unique topic, you might consider pitching yourself to a local broadcast affiliate. Restrictions similar to those of the print world are very real, with local radio and TV programming waning, it is very difficult to get noticed by nationally syndicated programs. If your budget allows, you could pay-to-play (infomercial); i.e., pay for a block of airtime and have at it. Events Participate or create events that will help promote and sell your book. From festivals, fares, and trade shows to networking, seminars, and corporate black ties, whether you are the keynote speaker, offer a breakout session, or purchase vendor space, use these events to your advantage. As a result of Gravy Wars, I was the 2013 Grand Marshall of the Italian-American Parade in North Wildwood, NJ. It may not be a LinkedIn headline but it sure was fun. Bookstores are not on my list of seven ways to promote and sell your book because they are a given. Make sure your publisher lists your title with distribution channels that will place your book in any surviving brick and mortar as well as online. Your job is driving traffic to those places. If you are selling the book yourself, place your title with the most prominent retail venues. Be encouraged. Publish your book. Magnify your brand. Advertisement The coronavirus crisis has brought about bleak times for travellers, with flights to many popular destinations restricted or cancelled. But the good news is that with airlines struggling to fill cabins, flight prices are plummeting. And package holiday prices are falling, too. TravelSupermarket has been analysing customer searches and package holiday prices and reports significant drops. BA is currently offering a whole host of amazing business class deals. Pictured is its new A350 Club Suite With airlines struggling to fill cabins, flight prices are plummeting. And package holiday prices are falling, too Flights to Italy are much emptier than usual It says that based on data associated with live prices available between Friday February 28 and Monday March 2 this year it has seen significant price drops across areas of Greece (up to 33 per cent cheaper), Thailand (up to 25 per cent cheaper), St Lucia (up to 24 per cent cheaper), Turkey (up to 21 per cent cheaper) and Spain (up to 13 per cent cheaper) when looking at year-on-year costs. British Airways, meanwhile, is offering some astonishing deals. Economy flight bargains include Milan and three nights in a four-star hotel for 147.50 per person and Sorrento for a week in a four-star hotel for around 300. Eye-opening business class deals include Malaga, with seven nights in a hotel, from 469, to Mallorca for 529 and the same week-long luxury deal for Rome for 364. Holidaymakers can also pick up flights to Berlin in business class and three nights in a hotel from 279, Prague from 269 and the same package to Venice for just 259. The coronavirus crisis has left Venice relatively deserted. BA is offering business class flights there with a hotel thrown in from 259 A deserted outdoor table and chairs by the side of Venice's lagoon last Sunday BA'S AMAZING ECONOMY FARES FOR EUROPE Head for Points says BA has been 'quietly reducing fares on short-haul routes'. The bargains include: PALMA - 20 each-way BERLIN - 37 each-way BORDEAUX - 25 each-way BARCELONA - 28 each-way GIBRALTAR - 27 each-way GRAN CANARIA - 39 each-way IBIZA - 34 each-way ROME - 34 each-way TENERIFE - 39 each-way Click here for more. Advertisement Gilbert Ott, who runs the flight tips site God Save The Points, told MailOnline Travel that these prices are roughly half the price of regular flight-only tickets. The flight-only deals are also spectacular. Rob Burgess, Editor of www.headforpoints.com, says: 'There are some excellent short-haul European flights currently on offer. If you have never flown short-haul business class, you may never see it cheaper. 'The current British Airways sale has, for example, return British Airways business class flights to Amsterdam, Cologne, Venice, Vienna and other cities for just under 150. 'Even in a sale you would expect to pay around 250 for this. Regular prices are around 300. 'For a very minimal price you are getting airport lounge access, fast-track security, priority boarding, an empty middle seat and a free meal and champagne on board. You will also earn a large number of Avios points back. 'Months where the 150 fares can be found are shown on the BA Low Fare Finder here (search for "Europe, Business").' Travel expert and frequent flier Gilbert Ott, who runs the flight tips site God Save The Points. He has been highlighting some 'insane' business class deals THE LUXURY DEALS IN DETAIL All business-class flights between London and any American city are typically 2,000 to 3,000, depending on when you book and when you're flying. But as Gilbert Ott says, the coronavirus crisis has brought prices crashing down. Here's how to snare a cut-price lie-flat deal and some of the routes on offer. BRITISH AIRWAYS FROM LONDON London to Boston, New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia in November 2020 - around 1,100. London to Nashville in November 2020 - around 1,190. London to Miami in November 2020 - around 1,300. London to Seattle in September 2020 - around 1,500. London to Los Angeles and San Francisco in November 2020 - around 1,500. To take advantage of the BA deals, customers must book by March 17. BA says the advertised flight sale prices are discounted from the lowest price available in the 21 days before February 27, 2020. BRITISH AIRWAYS CODESHARE OFFERS FROM PARIS Paris to New York JFK via Madrid flying on Iberia and returning via Dublin on Aer Lingus in early June - 864. Paris to Los Angeles via Dublin flying Aer Lingus and returning via Miami on American Airlines in early June - 1,210. VIRGIN ATLANTIC DEALS Virgin's deals, says Gilbert, 'pop up on a Friday and rarely make it to the weekend'. They're called 'flash deals' and currently include JFK and Boston in business for around 1,000 'for Monday departures from London in April and May and are cheapest for stays of eight nights or more', says Gilbert. They can be booked directly through Virgin or through Skyscanner. Get in quick and you could fly business for less than flying premium economy. Source: God Save The Points. Advertisement Gilbert added: 'Business travel is one of the hardest-hit sectors, so one could argue that the luxury deals are even more prevalent. Many companies have imposed travel bans for all non-essential travel, which means up to 50 to 60 seats on every flight that would usually be filled are currently going empty. 'Deals that would typically last 12 hours are lasting days, which never happens. Obviously, there's a risk, and everyone must conduct their own risk assessment, but I personally am taking advantage.' On his site he reveals that BA is offering deals for around 1,200 per person for round-trip business class flights from London to America and three or four nights in a hotel. He writes: 'On any given day, paying 1,200 for business class from London to the USA is a great offer, but when it comes with four nights of hotel included, that's baller.' Virgin Atlantic, meanwhile, is offering 'deals [to the U.S] that give you round trips in flatbeds for lower than premium economy prices', he says. He pointed out that 3,000 for flights alone, for any airline flying from the UK to America, would be 'pretty standard pricing' and that in-between sales, 'business class is constantly above 2,000 as a minimum'. The travel expert also points out that if you're willing to start your British Airways USA trip from Paris there are even better deals to be had. Gilbert describes the prices as 'insane'. For example, BA is offering Paris to the East Coast via London in business class for around 850-900 all in. He writes: 'Oneworld is having a crazy sale out of Paris that makes flying business class in just about any month in 2020 cheaper than it can be in economy.' Head for Points has also been highlighting some of BA's incredible long-haul 'luxury' offers. Rob says: 'Latin America and the Caribbean have some attractive fares. Kingston, Mexico City, Grand Cayman and Nassau are all priced lower than they were for previous 2019 sales - Kingston 1,314, Mexico City 1,397, Grand Cayman 1,591, Nassau 1,591, St Lucia 1,509 and Rio 1,780.' He pointed out that 'Latin America business class fares normally range from 1,700 to 2,200 off-peak, 200 more during max peak times', and that 'fares to the Caribbean are around 1,300 to 1,800 off-peak, but can peak significantly, often at least 500 more - even 1,000 more for some destinations and certain times of the year'. He also points out that BA has dropped its first-class USA prices quite heavily. BA has dropped prices in first class on a number of routes, including North America and Canada Rob Burgess (pictured), Editor of www.headforpoints.com, has been helping fliers pinpoint some incredible flight bargains He says: 'There's a good selection of first-class routes to North America for under 2,000, which isn't something you see too often - Chicago 1,993, Las Vegas 1,989, San Diego 1,984, San Francisco 1,984, San Jose 1,984, Seattle 1,984, Phoenix 1,984, Portland 1,989, Toronto 1,974, Vancouver 1,965.' TravelSupermarket's travel commentator, Emma Grimster, added: 'Despite coronavirus dominating the news, people are still searching for holidays and trying to get the best deal they can. In terms of demand, we've seen a rise in the number of people looking to visit some areas of the USA, year on year. 'New York, Las Vegas and Orlando are all in the top five destinations searched for last weekend, with searches for Las Vegas found to be up +60 per cent vs the same period last year.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 01:57:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close British Prime Minster Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street for Prime Minister's Questions, in London, Britain, Feb. 26, 2020.(Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua) "I congratulate the Chinese authorities on the speed with which they posted the news of the outbreak that has serious international implications," says Boris Johnson. LONDON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday congratulated the Chinese authorities on the speedy sharing of the novel coronavirus outbreak information. "I congratulate the Chinese authorities on the speed with which they posted the news of the outbreak that has serious international implications," Johnson told a press conference at Downing Street. Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty (L) and UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance arrive at Downing Street to attend a press conference on the government's coronavirus action plan in London, Britain, March 3, 2020. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) The prime minister said Britain continues to have a global coordination on fighting against the virus. Johnson hosted the press conference to launch the action plan to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, alongside Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and Government Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance. Whitty, for his part, said the Chinese authorities have "very helpfully" laid out valuable information such as mortality rate related to the virus. The new action plan sets out how government ministers will take every reasonable step to confront the virus, guided by scientific evidence, and ensuring the government is able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. Photo taken on March 2, 2020 shows a sign directing patients to a National Health Service (NHS) 111 Coronavirus Pod positioned at the University College Hospital in London, Britain. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) Britain has 51 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Original photographs taken of Marilyn Monroe while filming her first top-billed role that made her a household Hollywood name have come to light nearly 70 years on. The extraordinary archive features 198 pictures of the Hollywood icon as she recorded the 1952 film Niagara. The images show the then 26-year-old during filming as well as some candid behind-the-scenes shots of her. They were taken by the late Canadian photographer Jock Carroll and have remained in his family ever since. Now in the possession of his son, Angus, they have been made available for sale at auction. A huge collection of original photographs of Marilyn Monroe have emerged for sale with copyright for more than $51, 000 (40,000). Pictured, posing for pictures at Niagara Falls in 1952 The extraordinary archive features 198 pictures of the Hollywood icon, taken as she filmed the 1952 movie Niagara. Pictured, posing for pictures at Niagara Falls in 1952 The negative images show the then 26-year-old during filming as well as featuring a number of candid behind-the-scenes shots of her. Pictured, on the set of Niagara in 1952 Importantly, the 17 color positive transparency prints of Monroe and the 171 negatives are being sold with copyright. Among the stand out images is one of the 'blonde bombshell' taking a break between scenes by sitting on the grass against a brick wall. Still in costume as her character 'Rose', she is wearing a red 'off-the-shoulder' top and is seen laughing and smiling for the camera. Other shots show her deep in conversation with her co-stars as well as the movie's crew. She is also snapped relaxing on her bed with a book, filming scenes in a car park and adjusting her make up in a handheld mirror. While taking the pictures, Jock Carroll was working for the Canada publication Weekend Magazine who initially held the copyright for the images. Pictured, Monroe on the set of Niagara in 1952 The photographs have remained in Jock's family ever since. Pictured, Monroe poses for pictures at Niagara Falls in 1952 The photos were taken of Marilyn Monroe while filming her first top-billed role that made her a household Hollywood name. Pictured, posing for pictures at Niagara Falls in 1952 The auctioneers say they are expecting a huge amount of interest in the sale and are expecting offers of over $51, 000 (40,000). Pictured, posing for photographs at Niagara Falls in 1952 While taking the pictures, Carroll was working for the Canada publication Weekend Magazine who initially held the copyright for the images. When he left the publication several years later they agreed to sign the copyright over to him. He later granted the copyright to his son. They are now being offered with copyright for the first time ever, making them a must-have for any keen movie collectors. This would give the buyer the right to print and sell copies, although commercial use would require permission from the estate of Marilyn Monroe. Overall there are 17 55mm medium format color positive transparencies of Monroe. There are also 28 55mm medium format black-and-white negatives and 153 35mm black-and-white negatives. Among the stand out images is one of the 'blonde bombshell' taking a break between scenes by sitting on the grass against a brick wall. Pictured, posing for snaps at Niagara Falls in 1952 Monroe doing publicity shots in her bedroom for the movie Niagara in 1952. Pictured, sitting on the bed with a glass in hand There are also 28 55mm medium format black-and-white negatives and 153 35mm black-and-white negatives up for auction. Pictured, Monroe with her make-up artist on the set of Niagara in 1952 Amongst the photographs includes this one of Monroe filming scenes in a car park. Pictured, on the set of Niagara in 1952 In another photograph, Monroe can be seen adjusting her make up in a handheld mirror. Pictured, doing publicity shots in her bedroom for the movie Niagara in 1952 The auctioneers say they are expecting a huge amount of interest in the sale and are expecting offers of over $51, 000 (40,000). Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction of Boston, US, said: 'Jock Carroll's wonderful pictures of Marilyn aptly capture her youthful beauty during this early stage of her career. 'Niagara was her very first top-billed role, and made her a household Hollywood name. 'In these images, blonde starlet undulates between sexy and wholesome, playful and serious, coy and daring. 'In private, she lies in her hotel bed, bare-shouldered, script propped in her hands. She does her hair and makeup. Laughs, drinks, talks on the phone. 'On set, she takes direction from director Henry Hathaway and sits alongside co-star Joseph Cotten. 'She smiles for the camera - hair coiffed, hips swiveled - and overlooks mighty Niagara Falls, standing on the precipice of stardom.' The sale ends tomorrow. Overall there are 17 55mm medium format color positive transparencies of Monroe. Pictured, doing publicity shots in her bedroom for the movie Niagara in 1952. When photographer Carroll left the publication they agreed to sign the copyright over to him. He later granted the copyright to his son. Pictured, Monroe doing publicity shots in her bedroom for the movie Niagara in 1952 Marilyn Monroe is also snapped relaxing on her bed with a book. Pictured, doing publicity shots in her bedroom for the movie Niagara in 1952 The auctioneers say they are expecting a huge amount of interest in the sale and are expecting offers of over $51, 000. Pictured, Monroe on the set of Niagara in 1952 An Australian court on Tuesday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay three women a total of A$2.6 million ($1.7 million) plus legal costs as compensation for misleading patients and surgeons about the risks of its pelvic mesh implants. The Federal Court of Australia awarded the three lead applicants in the class action lawsuit between A$555,555 and A$1.28 million, the company said. Issues common to the group in the class action, which numbers more than 1,350 women, will be determined in the coming days, paving the way for damages for the other applicants to be determined. Today is a significant step forward, but there is still a way to go until all Australian women affected by these products receive compensation, Jan Saddler, head of class actions for Shine Lawyers, which represented the women, said in a statement. In November, the court found J&J subsidiary Ethicon had sold the mesh implants, used to treat urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, without warning women about the gravity of the risks and was negligent in rushing the products to market before proper testing. Patients said they have suffered chronic pain, bleeding and severe discomfort during sexual intercourse after having the mesh surgically implanted. J&J has faced similar lawsuits in the United States, Canada and Europe. In October, it agreed to pay nearly $117 million to resolve claims in 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Ethicon empathizes with those women who have experienced complications following pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence surgical procedures, J&J said in a statement after the compensation judgment was handed down. However, it reiterated that Ethicon believes that the company acted ethically and responsibly in the research, development and supply of these products. A J&J spokeswoman said after the judge sets out the issues that will be used to determine who qualifies for compensation, the company has 28 days to decide whether to appeal the November verdict. ($1 = 1.5288 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran keeps growing amid criticism of what is seen as a belated state response and concerns about the real scale of the outbreak in the country, which has left dozens dead, including a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Health Ministry said on March 4 that the death toll had jumped to 92 from 77-- the highest outside of China where the virus emerged in December 2019 -- while the number of those infected reached 2,822 people, up from 2,336 cases confirmed a day earlier. Echoing fears among the general population, Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Masud Pezeshkian, a former health minister and a heart surgeon, voiced concern that the real number of infections in the country, which has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the Middle East, are far greater than current official figures. The numbers are not real because a number of these patients dont have any symptoms to be tested, Pezeshkian told the news site Ensafnews.ir. The Health Ministry is telling the truth about its numbers but they dont include all of those who have been infected.... We [have not identified] many [of those infected] and we havent tested them, but they are ill, he added. Pezeshkian also blasted officials for not having quarantined the holy Shiite city of Qom, where the first cases of coronavirus were confirmed on February 19. Health Ministry officials have said that they dont believe quarantining the city with its estimated 1.2 million residents would have been effective in fighting the outbreak. They have called on citizens to avoid gatherings and stay home while closing schools, universities, cultural centers, and canceling Friday Prayers in major provincial capitals. But religious shrines, including the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom which attracts tens of thousands of believers annually, have remained open while being sanitized. What would have happened if they had shut the country for 15 days like for Norouz [the Persian New Year] when the country closes for 20 days? Unfortunately, they didnt do it and this problem spread to most provinces, Pezeshkian said. Full Hospitals The former health minister called for forceful measures in fighting the outbreak of coronavirus while warning against the consequences of the outbreak for the country, which is already facing crippling U.S. economic sanctions that have contributed to a devaluation of the national currency. Hospitals are full and things will get worse day by day. The economy and everything else will be ruined, in my opinion, unless the issue is dealt with seriously and militarily, he said. Pezeshkian also suggested that several of his colleagues who have contracted the virus are suffering from serious symptoms. Five or six of them are really struggling, he said. Lawmaker Abdolreza Mesri was quoted on March 3 as saying that 23 members of parliament had tested positive for the coronavirus. Vice President Masumeh Ebtekar and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who appeared at a press conference, are among state officials who have contracted the virus. WATCH: Iranian Health-Care Workers Risk Their Lives, Lift Spirits Health officials have said in past days that 300,000 teams will become involved in the fight against the coronavirus. Public places, including streets, sidewalks, and parks, as well as public buses and subway trains are being sprayed with disinfectants on a daily basis. Irans judiciary has said that 54,000 prisoners will be released temporarily in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the countrys prisons. Its not clear if jailed Iranian-Americans, including businessman Siamak Namazi, will be among those released. Media have also reported that travel throughout the country could be restricted ahead of the Iranian New Year on March 21. Speaking on March 4, President Hassan Rohani said the outbreak has reached almost all of the countrys 31 provinces. He also promised that Iran will get through the crisis with the help of its doctors and nurses with the minimum fatalities in the shortest possible time while saying that the government was telling Iranians, many of whom have publicly expressed distrust over the government handling of the crisis, the truth about the number of those who have died and been infected in the country. The president also blasted the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran while saying that if U.S. officials were honest about their offer to help Iranians during the outbreak of coronavirus, they would ease restrictions imposed on the country. The U.S. maintains that medicine and other humanitarian goods are not sanctioned. But according to Human Rights Watch, U.S. trade sanctions have limited Tehrans ability to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines. If you are honest, at least remove sanctions on medicine; this is a first step, Rohani was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Mehr news agency. Meanwhile, on March 4, Hungary reported its first confirmed cases of the virus -- two Iranians studying in the Central European country. Two swastikas and an anti-Semitic phrase were found Monday carved into a chair at Montclair High School, marking the third time this academic year that such symbols have been found on the schools grounds. Montclair High School Principal Anthony Grosso informed parents about the latest incident in an email Monday. It was not known when the symbol was carved into the seat, he said. This display has no place within our four walls and community, Grosso wrote. This will not be tolerated. The teacher assigned to the classroom where the symbols were found immediately reported it to the administration. The Montclair Police Department was also notified and is working with the district to investigate, Grosso added. Montclair police did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning. This was the third act of hate" that involved swastikas at the high school this year, the principal said. In November, a school employee found swastikas written in pencil on a cafeteria table, NorthJersey.com reported. Two swastikas on desks in the high school were found on Dec. 10, the same day two shooters targeted a kosher deli in Jersey City and killed multiple people. Montclair Public Schools Interim Superintendent Nathan Parker told NJ Advance Media options are being explored to address the string of anti-Semitic symbols found in the schools. Those nine possibilities include a partnership with a Jewish educational outreach program known as JCC MetroWest for a viewing and discussion of the documentary Rabbi Prinz. A poster awareness campaign and session on white supremacy are being considered as well. The school has been involved in monthly conversations with the Interfaith Montclair Clergy Association to discuss the concerns surrounding these issues, the interim superintendent wrote in an email to NJ Advance Media. "The school has also reached out to the Anti-Defamation League for guidance to work with students and staff. " The principal added that he has been working with local clergy, the Montclair High School Jewish Student Union and the schools Holocaust Partnership to bring awareness to the negative impacts of the anti-Semitic symbols. We are Montclair and the fabric of our community is built upon diversity and our strength to recognize and build from it, the letter said. Please speak to your children and continue to stress the importance of these vital qualities that we hold true in Montclair. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico. New Jersey will receive another 500 kits from the federal government Thursday to test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending the kits to the New Jersey Public Health Environmental Laboratories in West Trenton, where testing for COVID-19 is conducted in the state. The announcement of the kits made by the New Jersey Department of Health on Twitter comes after Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said all restrictions on test kits would be lifted and anyone in the U.S. could be tested with a doctors order. The CDC set strict testing guidelines for COVID-19, which has caused concern among some health experts who fear the protocols could have forced some cases to be missed and the virus to spread. New Jersey still has no confirmed cases of COVID-19. There are more than 93,000 cases worldwide and more than 3,100 deaths from COVID-19, mostly in China. The virus has infected more than 150 people in the U.S. and killed 11. Gov. Murphys office on Wednesday evening also announced that New Jersey is set to receive $1.75 million from the CDC to go toward the states response to COVID-19. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, enter your email address below. Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 19:39:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Armenia has temporarily closed its trade and passenger borders with Iran over the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. The exchange of goods between Iran and Armenia as well as travels to Yerevan, Armenia's capital, has stopped from March 3 and will last three weeks, IRNA said. However, Armenian nationals can return to their own country from Iran. Earlier, Iranian neighbors closed their borders with Iran or adopted stricter measures with regards to travels or trade exchanges after cases of COVID-19 were announced in the country on Feb. 19. [March 04, 2020] Enterprise Network Equipment Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2019 to 2027 NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Enterprise Network Equipment Market Scope of the Report The following report provides forecast and analysis of the global enterprise network equipment market along with the historical data of 2013, estimated data 2019 and forecast data up to 2027 in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) according to a study. The research propounds critical trends that are currently influencing growth within the global enterprise network equipment market along with several macro-economic indicators. This newly published and insightful report on the enterprise network equipment market sheds light on key dynamics, and their impact on the overall value chain from suppliers to end-users, which are expected to transform the future of the global enterprise network equipment market. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05861843/?utm_source=PRN The report also comprises the study of current issues with end users and opportunities for enterprise network equipment market. It also contains value chain analysis, including the key market participants. To provide users of this report with a comprehensive view of the market, we have included a detailed competitive analysis about the key players involved in the market and strategic overviews. The dashboard included in the report provides a detailed comparison of enterprise network equipment market manufacturers on parameters such as total revenue, product offerings, and key strategies. A list of key competitors operating in the enterprise network equipment market provided in the report adds to the credibility of this exhaustive research study. Country-specific assessment on demand for enterprise network equipment has been provided for each regional market, along with the market size valuation and impact analysis of key regional and country-wise dynamics, which were obtaind through quotes from numerous enterprise network equipment experts. Y-o-Y growth projections have also been offered on all regional markets incorporated in the report. Moreover, future trends, growth prospects, and other possibilities related to the market have also been answered in the report. The report provides company-level market share analysis, which has been derived on the basis of the company's annual sales and segmental revenue in all the target end-use industries. The market has been forecasted based on constant currency rates. The report provides detailed competitive and company profiles of key participants operating in the global market. Some of the major competitors operating in the enterprise network equipment market are Cisco Systems, Aruba Networks, Dell EMC, A10 Networks and Juniper Systems. Global Enterprise Network Equipment Market: Research Methodology A number of primary and secondary sources were consulted during the course of the study. Secondary sources include Factiva, Morningstar and Hoovers, and company annual reports and publications. Comprehensive interviews have been conducted by our analysts, and the intelligence and insights obtained have been used for validating the information gained through secondary research. The report also includes a description of assumptions and acronyms utilized for research purposes. Data gathered has been validated using the triangulation method to offer useful quantitative and qualitative insights into the enterprise network equipment market. For ascertaining the market size on the basis of volume and value, revenues generated by leading players, coupled with their production capacities are taken into consideration which is backed by a proven & tested research approach, the report has offered necessary information on the enterprise network equipment market. Qualitative aspects gained from industry experts and opinion leaders have also been adhered to by the analysts while developing this insightful report on the global enterprise network equipment market. Secondary research is leveraged for ascertaining the overall size of the enterprise network equipment market. A short market viewpoint offered in the report elucidates the macro-economic aspects that influence the growth of the enterprise network equipment market, which includes global GDP growth rate, various allied industries growth rate, such as IT & Telecommunications and Banking. This report serves as an authentic resource of intelligence on the enterprise network equipment market, enabling the readers to take fact-based decisions on the future direction of their businesses. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05861843/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enterprise-network-equipment-market-forecast-trend-analysis--competition-tracking---global-market-insights-2019-to-2027-301016188.html SOURCE Reportlinker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Dr John Cuddihy, Dr Tony Holohan and Dr Ronan Glynn during a media update on the confirmed case of Covid-19. Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins FOUR new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland. Two male and two female patients from the west of Ireland have tested positive for COVID-19, the National Public Health Emergency Team said this evening. It is believed they may be part of the same family. The patients are all associated with travel from the same affected area in northern Italy. It brings to six the number of confirmed cases of the virus in the Republic. Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer with the Department of Health, said: Tonight we can confirm there are now six cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. Contact tracing is underway for these four new cases. Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; There is still no evidence of widespread or sustained community transmission in Ireland, as seen in some other EU countries. While we now have six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland, we continue our containment efforts, central to which is that the public know what to do in the event they have symptoms. Read More One school has closed so far in Ireland, following the confirmation of the first case of coronavirus in the Republic - a male student who recently returned from an at-risk region in northern Italy. Following a risk assessment, all pupils and teachers are being treated as close contacts of the confirmed case and the post-primary school in the east of the country has been shut for 14 days. Ireland's second case of coronavirus was confirmed yesterday in a woman in the east of the country. Expand Close An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. Photo: Michael Cooper/PA Wire It is understood she returned from northern Italy in recent days but is not believed to have been in contact with a Dublin student who is currently being treated in hospital. Up to Tuesday some 397 people were tested for the Covid-19 in the Republic but just one tested positive. COVID-19 is spread through close contact with an infected persons body fluids (for example, droplets from coughing or sneezing). It is also spread by touching surfaces that an infected person has coughed or sneezed on, which is one of the reasons why it is so important that people wash their hands regularly, practice respiratory etiquette, and try to avoid touching their face. The general public is advised to follow advice from the HSE and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre to protect their health. Any person concerned that they may have symptoms of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) should immediately isolate themselves from others and contact their GP by phone. In Northern Ireland, a Queen's University student is one of two new cases of the virus. Both patients are adults and the two cases are not connected. One individual recently travelled from northern Italy. The other had recent contact with a person elsewhere in the UK who has subsequently tested positive for the virus. The two new cases were confirmed by the Northern Ireland Department of Health on Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, a Queen's University spokesperson said they are working with the Public Health Agency to identify anyone who has been in contact with the student infected. They said they are taking all appropriate steps to contain any further spread of the virus and protect the welfare of all those within the university community and the wider public. "The university remains open and is operating as normal. The university will continue to monitor the situation," the spokesperson added. Read More "The university has provided online guidance for staff and students and encourages all members of the Queen's community to follow the latest official guidance from the Public Health Agency and other relevant authorities. "The university's Major Incident Team has been convened and is putting in place the appropriate contingency measures which will be communicated to staff and students when appropriate." Public Health Agency personnel are "working rapidly to identify contacts they may have had, with the aim of preventing further spread". The test outcomes have been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification. Northern Ireland's Department of Health's Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said the new cases had "no implications" for the Republic of Ireland and that the second case had not resulted from "person to person contact within Northern Ireland". "What we are now doing is following up very detailed contact tracing, how that person travelled from northern Italy into Northern Ireland and taking appropriate steps so those who need a follow up will be contacted by our colleagues in the Public Health Agency," he said. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health, said they are keen to inform the public about coronavirus in a bid to tackle harmful stereotypes. "We now understand there are three confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, five in total on the island of Ireland. Given that COVID-19 is a new disease it is understandable that its emergence may give rise to anxiety and fear among the general public. These factors can also give rise to harmful stereotypes. "This virus knows no borders, or race. Restricting travel into Ireland does not form a component of our current response. We must continue to focus on ensuring that everyone is informed, and knows what to do in the event they develop symptoms "It is essential that any decisions regarding responses to COVID-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate," Dr Holohan said. Northern Ireland health authorities are planning to send Covid-19 patients to England if they require further clinical treatment. Dr Seamus OReilly, medical director for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said: If the test comes back positive there is a very well-rehearsed process that we do in conjunction with our colleagues in England. That involves assessing whether the patient requires care in a hospital then planning the logistics of the move. Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland We identify an infectious diseases bed in England, if possible, to transfer the patient to. If we cannot transfer the patient across for whatever reason, the infectious diseases beds in the Royal (The Royal Victoria in west Belfast) will be used for that purpose, that is ward 7A. Tests are analysed in Belfasts virology lab and the number which can be conducted has been increased. Results will be ready within four hours, Dr OReilly added. A demonstration on testing for the virus was held in Northern Ireland at Antrim Area Hospital on Wednesday. Members of the media were given a walk through of the process of how suspected coronavirus patients would be tested. Patients suspected of having the disease will be referred by their GP to the hybrid testing facility at Antrim Area Hospital. People can be tested in their car or in a special coronavirus assessment pod by medical staff wearing protective masks and clothing. Testing is currently taking place daily between 9 and 10am, with swabs taken from the patients nose and mouth and sent for testing, with results taking around five hours. 11 rhino horns seized at Can Tho Airport in Can Tho City, southern Vietnam, March 2, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Customs Newspaper. 11 rhino horns weighing 29 kilograms have been seized from a passenger arriving at Can Tho Airport from South Korea, the Customs Department said. The horns were found in two bags belonging to Do Thanh Son, 38, who flew in on Monday. His flight was supposed to land in Saigon, but authorities have decided to divert all Korea flights from Saigon to Can Tho to prevent Covid-19 quarantine overload. Upon questioning by customs authorities, Son refused to open his luggage, saying they contained koi fish and opening it without an oxygenation system would cause the fish to die. But ignoring his protests, they opened his bags and found 11 horns weighing around 28.7 kg inside one of them. They were seized and are being tested to determine their sources, customs authorities said. Son has been quarantined since he arrived from South Korea, a hotspot of the novel coronavirus. The sale and purchase of rhino horns are strictly prohibited in Vietnam, but the country remains one of the biggest consumers, with people believing it has near-miraculous powers to cure diseases like cancer. A German book named App Store Confidential is so revealing that Apple is considering legal action over the release of the book and trying to stop its circulation. It was written by a former Apple employee who used to manage the App Store. We had reported a few days ago that Apple is seeking to ban the sales of Tom Sadowskis book App Store Confidential. The iPhone maker had issued a cease-and-desist letter to the author and the publisher of the book, Murmann Verlag. The Cupertino-based firm alleged that Sadowski breached his employment contract and revealed several business-critical secrets in the book. However, the author denied all the claims made by Apple. After the publishers legal counsel talked to Apples lawyers, the company denied revealing the specific sections in the book that it thinks are classified. Apparently, the company thinks that the secrets mentioned in the book are so confidential that they could damage the company. Apple did reveal one part of the book, which talks about how the Cupertino-based firm acquired Blinkist, a book-summarizing subscription service based out of Germany. However, the publishers lawyer, Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef, pointed out that Tim Cook meeting the Blinkist team was widely reported in the news, and the Apple CEO had himself tweeted about meeting the startups team in September 2019. Apple had requested the author and publisher of App Store Confidential to stop the circulation of the book. It also asked them to take the book off the shelves (physical and digital), burn all the manuscripts, and recall all the copies that have been sold. The company claims that the information revealed in the book is of considerable economic value. The publisher of the allegedly revealing book said that it is going to continue publishing the book. Graef has said that Apple is yet to make an official application or issue an official writ for a preliminary injunction, which is necessary to file a complaint. The book is still on sale in its ebook and paperback formats through Amazon.de. Due to the controversy, it has become the best-selling book after its launch. Our Take We think that Apple knows that none of the information revealed in Tom Sadowskis book is particularly confidential so as to damage the company in any way. However, the iPhone maker could be pressing for the ban of the book so that an example is set for other authors to write and publish something on similar lines in the future. [Via CultOfMac By Express News Service TIRUPATI: The 35-year-old man from Taiwan, who was kept under observation in the isolation ward of SVR Ruia Government General Hospital in Tirupati after he complained of cough and sore throat on Saturday last, was tested negative for coronavirus, hospital officials said. The Taiwan national, Chen Shih Shun, was staying at Palamaner in Chittoor district for the past 10 days. He had come to repair machines at a private company in Palamaner. Shun visited the hospital on Saturday evening complaining of cough and sore throat. After observing the symptoms, the doctors kept him under observation at the special isolation ward in Ruia hospital. Samples were collected from him and have been sent for tests to determine whether he has been infected with the coronavirus. We have received the reports from Gandhi hospital in neighbouring Telangana. The reports were negative and the Taiwanese would be discharged from the hospital today, Ruia hospital superintendent Dr NV Ramanaiah said. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old from Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district who returned from South Korea on Friday last and was admitted to the isolation ward in Chest Hospital on suspicion of contracting coronavirus too was discharged from the hospital on Monday after he was tested negative for the virus. An order to shut schools to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Middle Easts premier business and travel hub has reignited a debate about an existing ban on free voice calls over the internet that complicates remote learning and working from home. All public and private schools and higher education institutions will close in the United Arab Emirates from March 8 for a month as officials attempt to curb infections, which currently stand at 27 in the country. A pilot program for distance education will be implemented during the period of closure, the Education Ministry said, without giving full details. Nurseries have been closed since March 1, leaving working parents grappling to find child care at short notice. The Gulf state, where 85 per cent of the population are foreigners, blocks calls using applications such as Microsoft Corp.s Skype, Facebook Inc.s WhatsApp and Apples FaceTime. The banned video services are encrypted, making them difficult for security services to track. But the curbs have long been a grievance for expatriates who want to keep in touch with family and friends back home and work more flexibly. I highly recommend that the UAE now revisits its ban on VOIP video calls in light of the spread of coronavirus. If we want people not to meet in person let them conduct their business online, Emirati columnist Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi wrote on Twitter to his 490,000 followers on Wednesday. Global companies such as Twitter and JPMorgan are encouraging staff to log on from home. One third of Gulf companies are planning work from home to combat the virus threat, online recruitment portal GulfTalent said in a survey of 1,600 executives in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council released on Wednesday. And in a further sign of the outbreaks impact on regional business, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad said it had asked cabin crew to bring forward leave amid passenger cancellations. The UAEs Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, which governs and oversees the sector, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Using the banned video-calling services part of virtual business life elsewhere in the world is possible in the UAE through a virtual private network. But this is a cybercrime which can lead to a fine of between 500,000 dirhams ($182,625) and 2 million dirhams, jail time, or both, a 2019 report by the U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House said. The encrypted services provide competition to the two main domestic telecommunications providers. Government-sanctioned applications are available for a subscription of around 50 dirhams a month. A free application, ToTok, was available in the UAE but removed from Google Play and Apples App stores after allegations it was a secret spying tool for the UAE It reappeared in January and the company has said users should ignore a warning message on Google Play and install it anyway. Its not the first time the UAE ban has come under fire. Billionaire UAE businessman Khalaf Al Habtoor, founder of the Al Habtoor Group conglomerate, reiterated a call last year for the restrictions to be lifted in a video he posted on Twitter. In a 2019 report, Oxford Business Group wrote that residents and businesses in Dubai would likely continue to press for change. It cited the example of Microsoft which has held talks with authorities over unblocking Skype, and pointed out that neighbour Saudi Arabia scrapped its ban on internet calling applications in September 2017. Early signs are emerging that investors are starting to take a fresh look at Australias large iron ore exporters - and through a rosier lens. The three big producers, BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue have spent most of the past month looking decidedly unloved - their stock prices have fallen 18 per cent, 16.7 per cent and 25 per cent respectively since their January peaks. Compared to the 4 per cent fall in the price of iron ore and it's easy to see why analysts are starting to reassess the China impact. Have the big iron ore miners been oversold? Credit:In Pictures/Corbis The miners were hit early and hard in the first wave of negative sentiment despite the fact that when they reported first-half profits in February there had been no evidence of slowing demand out of China. HOUSTON The frustrations began early for Ahmed King as he wandered Houston trying to cast his ballot in Texas Democratic primary. The 46-year-old radiology technician found four of the usual polling places in his predominantly African American neighborhood closed or clogged with people waiting in line Tuesday. He eventually drove 15 miles (24 kilometers) to vote in a white and Hispanic neighborhood under a new system that allows Harris County voters to cast their ballot at any polling location in the county. I first tried to vote at 1 p.m. Central time and finally got done at 6:05, he said. I have never had an experience like this. King had plenty of company. Long lines snaked out of Houston polling places, with many waiting more than an hour and some for several hours in mostly minority, Democratic neighborhoods. Lines in mostly white, Republican neighborhoods were shorter. Democratic county elections officials and local Republican leaders cast recriminations Wednesday over who was to blame for the fact that some people in Texas largest and the nations fourth-largest city only voted after the states biggest Super Tuesday races had been called. There were lines in other parts of the state, including long ones in heavily Democratic Travis County, home of the state capital of Austin. But those in Houston stood out to James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. What I make of them is another chapter in a long history of uneven election administration in Texas, Henson said. Pretty clearly something went wrong, but partisan predispositions are kicking in immediately in explaining what went wrong. Harris County elections officials blamed the long lines on the local Republican Partys refusal to hold a joint primary with the Democrats. But the GOP said election administrators allocation of an even number of voting machines to each primary disregarded warnings that an even split would cause problems in places where the hotly contested Democratic race was likely to draw more voters. The countys elections director, Michael Winn, told The Associated Press Tuesday night that Republicans would have cried all the way to Washington, D.C., to complain about disenfranchisement had the county given Democrats more machines. Officials eventually sent reserve machines to some polling places with long lines Tuesday. In August 2019, Harris County Republican Party Chair Paul Simpson declined to hold a joint primary, telling County Clerk Diane Trautman, a Democrat, in a letter that both parties voting together would increase delays, confusion, conflict and cost. He said Wednesday that the GOP had supported putting a different number of machines for each party at different polling places and blasted election officials for trying to shift the blame from their own incompetence and failure. Hervis Rogers spent more than six hours in line to finally cast the last ballot at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday at Texas Southern University, a historically black school in Houston. Rogers said he was late for his overnight job and he thought about leaving, but I was telling myself, Dont do that.' The way it was set up, it was like it was set up for me to walk away, Rogers told reporters after leaving the polling station. When asked why he didnt leave, Rogers replied: Every vote counts. Part of the issue is that Texas leaves much of the administration of elections to local governments, creating different systems across the states 254 counties. The state sets laws and the secretary of state provides guidance, but many election decisions are left to county officials and the parties. Texas is one of the more dispersed election systems, said Wendy Underhill, who analyzes election policy at the National Conference of State Legislatures. By contrast, in some states such as neighboring Oklahoma, state officials make most of the decisions and local officials carry them out. Underhill said that nationwide, parties generally do not have a ton of say in how primaries work. But they run primaries and caucuses in a handful of states with smaller populations: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming. Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said the long lines in Houston were caused by Tuesdays races having the highest turnout Harris County has seen since its adoption last year of a system that allows people to vote at any county polling place. I think most of it is hiccups of a new system, Jones said. This years primary saw 321,000 Democrats cast ballots in the county, a 44% jump from the 2016 presidential primary. Jones said its difficult for election officials to predict who will vote where and that the lines in African American communities could be explained by black voters tending to favor the party that saw higher turnout. Democratic state Rep. Celia Israel, a member of the Texas House Elections Committee, is banking on record turnout in the fall election to flip the Texas House. She said the long lines are both encouraging and alarming. County election administrators are doing the best they can with the resources that they have, she said. We all need to sound the alarm so we dont have a disaster this November. ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas and Spencer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report. BRF prepares for volatile year after reporting first profit in four years The Brazilian food processor expects volatility in 2020 due to uncertainty in forex, increasing prices for grain and COVID-19, reported Reuters. BRF earned 690 million BRL (~US$154 million; 1 BRL = US$0.22) in its last quarter. This is a 121% annual increase based on boosted domestic and export sales, especially to China. This is the company's first annual profit in four years. Altogether, the result means BRF's 2019 profit is 1.213 billion BRL (~US$268 million). Executives from BRF said performance for 2020 could be impacted by a volatile forex, increasing prices for grain and the effects of COVID-19, Lorival Luz, BRF CEO said there might be an impact on trade flows, even after measures from China and other governments to stem the spread of COVID-19. He added that exports in January and February were not affected by the virus. BRF shares dropped to 27.28 BRL, a 3.3% fall. The company projects exports to China will remain high as the country continues to supplement dwindling domestic meat stocks caused by African swine fever (ASF). On the topic of corn inventories, BRF said it has enough supplies for the first half but did not explain further. In the company's effort to mitigate higher grain costs compared to the year prior, BRF will make better commodities procurement and use feed alternatives. BRF increased sales in its international business to 4 billion BRL or just above 17% thanks to increased exports to China. The company's latest quarter volumes sold to Asia surpassed 200,000 tonnes of meat product, as ASF has driven prices of goods upwards. BRF's middle east halal business is not as positive due to shipping restrictions imposed by Iraq to Turkey, affecting its subsidiary company Banvit. An additional concern is its processing plant in Abu Dhabi, which has stopped operations. Saudi Arabia had recently suspended two Brazil-based exporting plants and BRF is working to rectify the situation. - Reuters Additional counters, doctors, medical equipment and modified forms in pre-immigration area of airports will be arranged as part of coronavirus screening, an official said on Wednesday. After the Centre's announcement that all international passengers arriving in India would henceforth be screened, Aviation Secretary P S Kharola held a four-hour long meeting with officials from various departments and airports. He directed them to have additional counters, doctors, medical equipment and modified forms in pre-immigration area, the official said. The modified forms will be filled with a duplicate copy -- one copy will remain with airport health authorities and other with the immigration department. Kharola said sufficient manpower must be arranged with the help of respective state governments, immigration departments and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Through the 21 international airports in the country, a total of 25.15 lakh people arrived in India in March last year, according to the data by aviation regulator DGCA. This means, around 83,000 passengers came to India daily on international flights. While the number of international passengers landing in India has decreased significantly since the coronavirus outbreak, there are still thousands of passengers coming to India everyday from abroad. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier in the day said that there have been a total of 28 positive cases - which includes 16 Italian tourists -- of novel coronavirus in India yet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines launched a fare sale this week between California and Hawaii with roundtrip fares plunging to just $198 roundtrip. United and Hawaiian Airlines have also joined in this fare war. Less than $200 roundtrip to Hawaii is an incredible bargain, but you have to jump through some hoops to get it. UPDATE: Originally, you had to book your trip by March 5- but checking on March 10, the $198 fares availability has expanded: they are now available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through mid June To get the deal, you have to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday in a short, month-long window, April 21-May 20. To snag the lowest $198 fare, you'll have to fly in basic economy Alaska, United or Hawaiian; regular economy fares are $259 roundtrip, still a very good deal. Even if you can't snag the $198 fare due to its restrictions, fares in general during April and May are remarkably cheap less than $300 roundtrip in many cases, so shop around. Don't miss out on a shred of important travel news and deals like this! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly travel alert emails. The deals are good on all three Bay Area airports, as well as Sacramento and other California cities. Southwest only flies to Hawaii from Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego. Find the sale fares here: Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines. Or you can check out all airline Hawaii fares on Skyccanner or Google Flights. And remember, due to all the recent fare sales to Hawaii, the islands are very full of visitors and demand and prices are steep for hotels, Airbnbs, rental cars, meals and activities. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates! SFGATE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. By Online Desk The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 29. Twenty-three of these cases were confirmed on Wednesday making it the biggest single-day spike since the outbreak was first reported. Of the 29 cases, 17 have been reported in Jaipur - 16 Italian tourists and their Indian driver. They have been shifted to the quarantine facility of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chhawla in Delhi, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters. Three patients from Kerala have already recovered. Another six fresh cases have been confirmed in Agra after a Delhi man, who had contracted the virus, visited them shortly after his Vienna trip, Vardhan said, adding that all of them have now been put under quarantine at Delhi's Safdurjung Hospital. Later in the day, a Paytm employee in Gurgaon tested positive for novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement. It said the employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-hit countries from coronavirus. Paytm has advised all its employees to work from home for the next couple of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised, according to the statement. "From now on, all flights and passengers will be part of universal screening, not just those to the 12 countries which we had listed earlier," Vardhan said. According to the Health Ministry, about 5,89,000 people were screened at airports, over 15,000 people at minor and major seaports and over 10 lakh at the border with Nepal, till Tuesday. Meanwhile, the junior minister of external affairs V Muraleedharan informed the Lok Sabha that 17 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad. Responding to a question in the House, the minister said while 16 cases were reported from Japan on the cruise ship, one case is from the UAE. The government evacuated a total of 766 persons -- 723 Indian nationals and 43 foreigners -- from China, he added. ALSO READ | Coronavirus likely a permanent guest, summer may not contain spread, says top virologist In Hyderabad, an MNC at an IT park in Hitec City was abruptly shut and its employees were asked to work from home and self-quarantine amidst fears that one of its staffers is being tested for Covid 19. This came after employees of the Dutch-based company DSM received an alert from the company that a female employee had recently travelled to Italy and developed symptoms of the coronavirus and hence precautions have to be taken by the others. The development in Telangana comes even as state health officials revealed on Wednesday that out of the 47 samples tested for the coronavirus at Gandhi Hospital, 45 were found to be negative. The 45 people have been discharged and kept under surveillance. However, two samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune for further reconfirmation. The results are expected by Thursday. Currently, Telangana has one confirmed case of the coronavirus. The 24-year-old patient is a software engineer from Hyderabad, working with Intel in Bangalore, who had returned from Dubai. He is in Gandhi Hospital's isolation ward. Intel said one of its employees in Bengaluru had "potentially been exposed" to the virus as he shared a flat with the Hyderabad techie. He is currently under quarantine. The government in Delhi, where a man tested positive for the coronavirus, has been making efforts to check and screen 88 people who came in contact with him. A task force headed by CM Arvind Kejriwal has been formed to tackle the situation emerging from the coronavirus infection. "There is no need to panic," Kejriwal said at a press conference. A coronavirus testing lab will be set up at the Lady Hardinge Hospital and also at the LNJP Hospital if necessary, Kejriwal said, adding there is no shortage of masks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda are among leaders who have said they will not celebrate Holi or hold any Holi Milan function in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Technology certifications can help you achieve career goals. They show employers youre committed to learning, you take professional development seriously, and you have special skills and knowledge. At least, thats the traditional thinking. But when asked about the return on investment (ROI) of IT-related certifications, respondents to IDGs 2020 IT Salary Survey were positive but not overwhelmingly so. [ Tech careers: IT certifications and training center ] The following is a look at how IT professionals regard the value of certifications, along with the certifications that have helped them the most and least and which certifications theyre planning to pursue in the next 24 months. The findings are from the 2020 IDG Insider Pro and Computerworld IT Salary Survey of 2,269 IT professionals, the majority of which (1,889) were full- and part-time employees. The online survey was conducted Sept. 24 through Dec. 2, 2019. Of the employees who responded, the majority 44 percent hold a bachelor percents degree while 27 percent have a masters degree, 17 percent hold a technical or community college degree, 8% have a high school or equivalent degree and 2 percent have a Ph.D. IT professionals are divided on the value of certifications Among the employees responding to the survey, 59 percent said they have at least one IT-related certification and 41 percent said they dont. Of those with certifications, nearly half, 48 percent, agreed that certifications helped them land a job, promotion or pay raise while 39 percent said certifications had not made a difference. In other words, based on the survey results, IT-related certifications may, or may not, offer any meaningful reward. IDG A look at how many IT pros have certifications and whether they have helped advance their careers. Taking a longer view, 40 percent of respondents in IDGs 2017 IT Salary Survey said that certifications had helped them get a job, pay raise or promotion, compared to the 48 percent in this years survey. At the same time, 46 percent in 2017 said certifications hadnt benefited them, which dropped to 39 percent this year. The differences suggest that IT professionals may now be experiencing slightly more ROI from certifications than they did three years ago. In both surveys, 13 percent said they didnt know if certifications had given them a leg up. The results reflect the conflicting opinions about whether IT certifications are worth it. If you have two job candidates with identical skills and backgrounds, the person with certifications might have a slight edge, said J.M. Auron, an IT professional and executive resume writer. But ultimately, its more important to demonstrate the business value you can give an employer. That is what really sets you apart. [ Related: Tech Resume Library: 13 downloadable templates for IT pros ] Auron concedes that in some situations, such as when someone is looking for advancement in cybersecurity, certifications might make a difference. But in general, certifications show you have a technical skill, he said, but they dont demonstrate that you know how to use that skill to solve difficult problems and create business value. Given the conflicting advice about IT certifications, its been very difficult for me to determine which, if any, certifications will make a difference for me, said Nathan Meador, a Florida help desk technician in his 30s. But I feel that certifications will ultimately help validate me to employers and provide me with better opportunities, he added. Meador said hes considering going for CompTIA certifications to increase my fundamental IT knowledge, verify my skills and knowledge, and add to my credentials, as well as Microsoft Technical Certifications, because many businesses run on Microsoft software. Because he wants to be more involved in IT projects, Meador also hopes to earn the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification. I feel like these certifications will add to my basic knowledge and credentials and show that Im willing to continue to learn and validate myself. Certifications can help you earn more money, too which may be reason enough to add strategic ones to your resume. Christopher Mandragos, a BI developer and systems engineer for application development and consulting firm Innova Systems International, said that a database fundamentals certification helped him earn a 2.5 percent pay increase. He also expects that earning two IBM certifications IBM Certified Designer - IBM Cognos Analytics Author V11 and IBM Certified Administrator - IBM Cognos Analytics Administrator V11 will increase his pay by 13 percent each once he completes them. IT certifications may be more helpful to younger professionals looking to move up. Among respondents who have IT certifications, the largest age group who said theyd benefited from them were aged 18 to 34, at 56 percent. Professionals in that age demographic are often just starting their careers or are trying to kick them into high gear, and certifications may help them gain traction. On the other hand, 46 percent of those aged 55 and up said certifications had not helped them. That could be because theyre likely to have more experience and knowledge than younger colleagues, and therefore they have less incentive to earn certifications unless theyre planning to switch their area of focus. The IT certifications that have helped the most and least Some certifications may be more valuable to an IT professionals career than others. Consider the field of cybersecurity, for instance. Among those who said they have IT-related certifications, the largest percentage who believed those certifications had helped them land a job, promotion or pay raise 69 percent were in security jobs. At the same time, the smallest percentage of respondents who said certifications hadnt helped them 22 percent also held security jobs. After cybersecurity, the next largest percentage of respondents who said certifications had helped them were in networking jobs, 59 percent, followed by those with roles in cloud computing (53 percent), help desks (51 percent) and business intelligence (BI)/analytics and enterprise app integration, which were tied at 43 percent. Conversely, IT professionals in the field of database analysis and development were most likely (at 58 percent) to say that certifications had not helped them land a job, a promotion, or a pay raise, followed by those with jobs in data center management (46 percent), application development (44 percent), BI/analytics (43 percent) and general IT (41 percent). The certifications IT professionals are most likely to pursue and eschew Respondents were evenly split on their plans to earn IT certifications in the next 24 months. Half said they were going for new certifications; the other half said they werent. Thats not much different from what respondents said in the 2017 survey, in which 47 percent said they planned to pursue IT-related certifications and 52% said they werent interested. Of those planning to pursue IT certifications in 2020, the largest percentage, 28 percent, said they were going for security certifications first. With 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs expected globally by 2021, many IT professionals are likely looking to bolster their security credentials or switch to cybersecurity from other fields. For example, of those planning to pursue security certifications first, 75 percent by far the largest percentage are already in security roles. The next largest percentage, 30 percent, of those pursuing security certifications are currently in general IT roles, followed by 24 percent in data center management, 23 percent in help desk jobs, and 18 percent in enterprise app integration roles. Of note: Security is tied with project/process management (both at 23 percent) as the type of certifications women are most likely to pursue first. In 2017, women slightly preferred security (27 percent) over project/process management (23 percent), which were their top two choices by far. IDG Younger, male IT professionals are more likely to pursue certifications -- and security is drawing the most interest. After security, the most desired certifications in 2020 among all respondents were cloud computing (with 15 percent planning to pursue cloud-focused certifications); networking and project/process management, both at 11 percent; and systems administration (9 percent). Cloud computing wasnt listed as an option in the 2017 survey. Otherwise, the top five certifications respondents planned to pursue were similar to those in the current survey. On the flip side, the least desired certifications in the 2020 survey in terms of the percentage of respondents who planned to pursue them first were programming languages (1.8 percent), web development (1.0 percent), marketing technology (0.9 percent), communications (0.5 percent) and mobile app development (0.2 percent). These were the bottom five certifications in the 2017 survey as well, though their percentages differed slightly. Data science certifications arent a priority at least for now Data science is another hotly competitive market in which employers are competing for available talent. PwC estimates data science jobs can take twice as long to fill compared to the national average of 45 days for jobs requiring a bachelors or higher degree. Even so, only 4.1 percent of respondents said they planned to pursue data science certifications, up slightly from 2.4 percent in 2017. One possible explanation is that, at a time when employers have such strong competition for talent, they may not care if candidates have earned certifications. Its also possible that, in the years to come, we may see a steady rise in IT professionals going for data science certifications. As IT professionals move into more senior roles, they need to understand the businesses they serve, said Donna Svei, an executive resume writer who works with IT professionals at the director level and above. The classic route for career progression has been earning an MBA to better understand the contributions each functional area of a company makes in executing strategy, she said. Increasingly, strategy means digital, Svei added. Thus, understanding how to govern, secure, collect, manipulate, analyze, and monetize data has become very valuable. For these reasons, I often see my clients enrolling in university data science certificate programs to advance their skills. Dave Ferreira, CTO for BroadPoint Group, which provides clients with custom app development, managed services and other offerings, said he is planning to go for data science certifications. Since BroadPoint Group is primarily an Azure-focused Microsoft partner, Ferreiras plan is to go for the Azure Data Scientist Associate certification, followed by the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Data Management and Analytics certification. A lot of our customers either have or are starting to accumulate a lot of data, so understanding what they have and how to leverage it for a competitive advantage is becoming a higher priority by the day, Ferreira said. 28 cases of Coronavirus have been found positive in India, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was quoted as saying. These include six cases from New Delhi. A group of 15 Italians who came to India for a holiday and an Indian who was their bus driver have contracted the virus, it is said. People across the country are panicking, and the best one can do at the moment is take precautions -- wash your hands with soap or use alcohol-based sanitiser and wear a mask. AFP Bollywood celebrities are taking the precautions too. Recently, Baahubali star Prabhas was spotted wearing a mask at Hyderabad aiport to protect himself. Ayushmann Khurrana's wife Tahira Kashyap, who is in Delhi, also shared a mask-clad selfie. "Trip to delhi... as I entered the airport I saw everyone wearing masks. The sight in itself started giving me anxiety. How are we living? Whats happening to my earth? Not seeing faces, not seeing people smile or talk, one sneeze or sniff and people become wary, the sight is really disturbing. This on one side and riots on the other...collective prayers can work is all I know, is all I can hope for, she wrote in the caption. I literally had to call up a friend and get comforted as the anxiety was becoming a sort of panic attack", she added. newsheads.in Meanwhile, Deepika Padukone has also cancelled trip to Paris for the ongoing Paris Fashion Week. Deepika Padukone was scheduled to travel to France to attend Louis Vuitton's FW2020 show at the ongoing Paris Fashion Week but had to cancel her trip with news coming in that the coronavirus epidemic has now entered a new stage in France," a source had told IANS. Reports also suggest Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal, who were reportedly planning to get married in Thailand, are also considering to change their wedding destination. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights was dreamed up on a cocktail napkin at a bar. At least, thats what Trish ODell, of the Community Environmental Defense Fund, told The Counter, in an August 2019 article. After she and a colleague gave a presentation on rights of nature laws in 2016, Toledo activists approached them about their situation. They headed to a nearby pub to discuss. The resulting bill, which passed in a referendum in February 2019, was heralded internationally as a bold step in establishing a legal framework for environmental protections. But it had all of the legal fortitude of a cocktail napkin, literal or figurative, according to a federal judges Feb. 27 ruling. Not valid In a decision issued in a lawsuit brought against the city of Toledo, by Mark Drewes, a northwestern Ohio farmer, federal Judge Jack Zouhary ruled the bill invalid. Zouhary could not have been any clearer: the creators of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, or LEBOR, did not do their due diligence. Lake Erie is not a pond in Toledo, Zouhary wrote. It is one of the five Great Lakes and one of the largest lakes on Earth, bordering dozens of cities, four states, and two countries. That means the Lakes health falls well outside the Citys constitutional right to local self-government. Farmers and farm groups are hailing this as a victory. And it is. As it stood, LEBOR was perilously broad in its scope. Farmers in the northwestern corner of the state, and other businesses, feared that scope could infringe on any number of activities. Its unclear whether that was the intent. If it was genuinely a lack of understanding of how to draft legislation that would withstand federal scrutiny, however, the creators have some work to do. So, LEBOR is dead in the water, pardon the analogy. Not so fast But dont get complacent. The concept of rights of nature is not going away. It emerged in the 1970s, lay dormant for a while and re-emerged recently. It has a growing traction nationally and internationally. That group, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, has a number of test cases worldwide. Global warming is accelerating and ecosystems are pushed to collapse, the organizations website states. In such a world, we are finding that the human right to a healthy environment cannot be achieved without securing the environments own rights first. This means recognizing in law the right of nature to be healthy and thrive. As much as we might celebrate the demise of LEBOR, for now, this is not a joke. More than 10 years ago, the organization worked with Ecuador on drafting rights of nature language for its constitution. It reads: Nature, or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature. Elsewhere, India has applied the concept to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. New Zealand has done something similar for the Whanganui river. Bangladesh also recently gave legal rights to all of its rivers. Closer to home, Environmental Health News published an article in February, with this headline: Could the Ohio River have rights? There have been similar laws set up in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in Pennsylvania. Ordinances of this type, however, are largely symbolic until courts either uphold or strike them down, Erin West wrote. Its not without cost, when they do pursue legal action. Even some environmentalists question if the fight to push an untested area of law is worth the potential financial costs from litigation and loss in community morale if a law is defeated, West added. The article examines a 2018 ordinance, drawn up in a township in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The community bill of rights banned two types of industrial agriculture. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is based in Pennsylvania, helped draft it. The Pennsylvania Attorney General opposed the ordinance, on the grounds that it violated state law, and urged repealing it, to avoid the expense of court. Township trustees repealed the ordinance in March 2019. What next? The legal defense fund is not the only one involved. But it is an example of why I believe this concept will not go away: there is a zeal to continue this fight. Time will tell if there will be an appeal of the LEBOR decision or if the organizers will regroup. Its not impossible. Zouhary even pointed out Madison, Wisconsin, and its phosphorous regulations within city limits. A review of the citys phosphorous plan shows clear steps to manage it. Having lived in places where you cant drink the water, ever, and where pollution is rampant, I understand the principle behind the fervor. We should all be good stewards and advocates of our resources. As farmers, we know this more than most. This is a discussion that will continue. Farmers, lets not stop looking for ways to collaborate with others. It can be exhausting and frustrating, sure, but it is necessary. Lets not stop looking for ways to improve what we do for the health of our families, future generations, our land and our livestock. That is the one thing I think we can all agree on: our resources are precious. That display is reportedly 4-feet-by-70-feet. There was also a disagreement about in how many buildings the signs would be placed. The bill simply says all state buildings, which Democrats said number in the several thousands. Rep. Jay Steagall, R-Mustang, who is carrying the bill for McCall, said the law would only apply to 342 office buildings. Steagall, who had dismissed the concept of church-state separation when presenting the bill in committee, responded to queries in that vein Tuesday by saying the bill is about signage, or referring the interrogators to McCall, who was not in the chamber. Although HB 3817 refers only to the national motto and not the phrase itself, Steagall strongly objected to including the words National Motto of the United States of America in the required displays. HB 3967 would bar the state from doing business with any company participating in the boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel. McBride said Israel is an important ally and trading partner of the United States, but agreed his bill is also motivated by religious considerations. The decision of Nigerias Supreme Court on the Imo governorship election is wrong and will continue to haunt our (Nigerias) electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come, one of the judges of the apex court said on Tuesday. Centus Nweze, who disagreed with the majority ruling of his six colleagues, said this in his minority judgment. Mr Nweze, on Tuesday, gave a dissenting judgment in the application filed by Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Ihedioha had asked the apex court to set aside its judgment on Imo governorship that declared Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governor of Imo State. The former governor was earlier declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He and the PDP approached the court after the apex court on January 14 nullified his victory and declared Mr Uzodinma as the winner of the election. His grounds for appealing the Supreme Courts decision included the claim that Mr Uzodinma deceived the Supreme Court with his self-tabulated results from 388 polling units, and that based on the results accepted by the Supreme Court, the number of voters in the Imo governorship election outnumber the accredited voters for the election, a situation that would ordinarily invalidate an election. On Tuesday, the apex court dismissed Mr Ihediohas application asking it to reverse its earlier decision. The court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, held that it lacked powers to sit on appeal in its own judgment delivered on merit and in accordance with dictates of the law and justice. In dismissing the application, the justices with the majority judgment include the CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Amina Augie and Uwani Abba-Aji. But in his dissenting judgment, Justice Nweze held that a judgment or order can be set aside on merit. He said the apex court has the power to overrule itself and has done so in the past. Mr Nweze was not part of the original seven-member panel that nullified Mr Ihediohas election on January 14. He was added to the panel in place of Amiru Sanusi, who retired from the apex court in January. In giving his dissenting judgment on Tuesday, Mr Nweze nullified the declaration of Mr Uzodinma as governor on account of the wrong declaration. He held that Mr Uzodinma mischievously misled the court into unjust conclusion with the unverified votes credited to himself in the disputed 388 polling units. In my intimate reading of the January 14 judgment, the meat and substance of Ihediohas matter were lost to time frame. This court once set aside its own earlier judgment and therefore cannot use the time frame to extinguish the right of any person. This court has powers to overrule itself and can revisit any decision not in accordance with justice, he said. According to Mr Nweze, The decision of the Supreme Court in the instant matter will continue to haunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come. He added that without evidence of meeting other constitutional provisions, the court misled itself into declaring Mr Uzodinma as governor. The judge said that Mr Uzodinma and his party misled the court to accept the allegedly excluded results in 388 polling units without indicating the votes polled by other political parties. He also faulted the results from the said polling units without indicating the number of accredited voters in the polling units. Mr Nweze recalled how Mr Uzodinma, during the election tribunal, admitted that he hijacked the result sheets from the electoral umpire officials and completed the result sheets by himself. He said such results could not be valid without indicating the number of accredited voters. Advertisements This court has a duty of redeeming its image, it is against this background that the finality of the court cannot extinguish the right of any person. I am of the view that this application should succeed. I hereby make an order repealing the decision of this court made on January 14 and that the certificate of return issued to the appellant returned to INEC. I also make an order restoring the respondents as the winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election, Mr Nweze said in his minority ruling which was, however, overruled by the majority decision. When Fotis Dulos was booked in January on charges of killing his estranged wife, Jennifer, there was a coded message in the courtroom. He was escorted by two female state police officers. The blouse worn by one was purple, the color of domestic violence awareness. It was not a sea of purple inside the courtroom, but the accents were in intriguing places: A ribbon over the nameplate of a state police officer. Neckties and ribbons worn by officers and detectives. Since there was a domestic violence aspect to the case, the detectives wore ties from the CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence, police acknowledged. It was, nevertheless, a subtle protest. The public discourse over domestic violence demands bolder action. Fotis Dulos is now dead of an apparent suicide, charges against him were dropped Tuesday, and Jennifer remains missing. She never coded her claims that he verbally abused and threatened her. Everything was clear in documents she filed during their turbulent two-year divorce case. But domestic violence has a losing record in divorce court. Studies suggest the courts are dubious of such accusations in custody cases. Part of the problem is that domestic violence is still thought of only as physical, with less regard for coercive actions. Reform has already taken place in other parts of the world. England and Wales became the first nations to criminalize controlling behavior, making it punishable with up to five years in jail. Back in Connecticut, state Sen. Alex Kasser, whose district includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan, is aiming high. Her legislation, named Jennifers Law after her missing constituent, would redefine the phrase domestic violence in family court cases. Currently, the priority is the evergreen phrase in the best interests of the child. Nothing is more important for a child than safety. Kasser (who recently changed her name from Bergstein pending her divorce) is attempting to require judges to make domestic violence dangers the priority in custody cases, rather than an afterthought. In the Dulos case, Jennifer repeatedly testified about threats, but the judge denied her requests for emergency custody of their five children citing a lack of evidence. Kasser is blaming the law, not the judge who followed it. Evidence of coercive behavior may be more commonly available because of texts, emails and social media than it was a generation ago, but a judge follows an outdated definition of domestic abuse. Among the many welcome changes in this legislation is a wise one to require that training for judges be conducted by experts with a background of working with domestic violence victims. For months, Kasser has been doing her homework by consulting victims and experts. In a short session, her colleagues will have limited time to focus on this bill, but they need to hear the call for sweeping changes, and how they might enhance rather than dismiss it. They need to seize this opportunity to crack the code. A 38-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the 2017 fatal shooting of a victim who crashed and died in while he was trying to drive himself to the hospital. Kevin Lewayne Speakman was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Wednesday morning to await transfer to the Alabama Department of Corrections. As a habitual offender, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the Sept. 20, 2017 shooting death of 39-year-old Toney Felix Myers. The shooting happened that Wednesday afternoon in the 100 block of 14th Avenue N.W. Investigators said Myers had been at the home searching for his girlfriend. While there, he engaged in an argument and physical fight with Speakman, authorities said. During the fight, Speakman reportedly pulled a handgun and shot Myers. After being shot, Myers got into his car and attempted to drive to the hospital. Speakman fled the scene before deputies arrived. As he was trying to drive himself to the hospital, he crashed into a guardrail on Parkway East at Huffman Road. Birmingham police and firefighters responding to the wreck scene found Myers shot and rushed him to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:04 p.m. Speakman was later taken into custody the following evening at an Irondale hotel. Sheriff's detectives worked with the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force to find and arrest the suspect. Speakman was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Sept. 21. During his arrest, lawmen said they found marijuana, LSD, GHB and 85 grams of methamphetamine. The street value of the drugs is estimated to be more than $8,500. He was later charged with trafficking methamphetamine, which was dismissed as part of his plea. At a preliminary hearing held in November 2017, a sheriffs sergeant testified that the victims girlfriend, Speakman, and Speakmans girlfriend were at the Center Point home where Speakman lived. Myers was angry at his girlfriend because she had not contacted him all day, Sharit said, so Myers and his friend went to the home looking for her. Myers' friend had problems with Speakman, the sergeant said. Speakman's girlfriend told police the friend was constantly contacting her wanting to take her on a date and "get together." Once the two men arrived, Speakman came outside into the front yard and spoke with Myers. Then, Speakman and Myers' friend got into a physical altercation. Myers' friend who was fighting with Speakman was in a wheelchair. Myers jumped in between the two men to break up the fight and ended up on the ground fighting Speakman. Authorities said stories differed about when Myers was shot-- Myers' friend said Myers was walking away from the fight when he was shot in the leg, but Speakman's girlfriend said Myers was coming towards her when Speakman fired. Speakman's girlfriend described Myers as violent. Speakman, who had previous felony convictions for robbery and drug possession, was initially charged with murder. He pleaded to manslaughter on Feb. 21 before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May, who meted out the 20-year sentence. Purdue President Mitch Daniels conducts a fireside chat with Jim Hackett, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., during the 2019 Purdue Road School. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. A leader in John Deere innovation will give the keynote address during the 106th annual Purdue Road School. This years road school designed for federal, state and local agency, industry, consulting, and academic colleagues begins Monday (March 9) afternoon and will continue until Wednesday afternoon (March 11) with meetings and sessions at Purdue University Memorial Union and Stewart Center. John H. Stone, senior vice president of John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, is the keynote speaker scheduled for Wednesdays luncheon. Stone leads the precision technology group, which equips farmers with the tools and technology they need to be more sustainable and profitable. Darcy Bullock, a civil engineering professor and director of the universitys Joint Transportation Research Program, said Stones group develops and delivers smart technology in John Deere equipment, which helps farmers do more with less. Many early applications by Deere in the smart agricultural space are providing insights we can apply for preparing our highways for connected and autonomous vehicles, Bullock said. Four speakers are scheduled for Tuesdays opening session. West Lafayette Mayor John R. Dennis will talk, and a panel discussion will involve Donna W. Cook, vice president of properties and facilities for FedEx Express; Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the Indianapolis Airport Authority; and Joe McGuinness, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation. Bullock said the panel will share perspectives on their organizations investment in Indiana transportation infrastructure and the impact those investments are having on economic development. The Purdue Road School continues to grow in both attendance and offerings. John Haddock, a civil engineering professor and director of the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, said Monday afternoon activities are a new addition to the agenda because the event has outgrown a strictly Tuesday/Wednesday schedule. Haddock said Purdue Road School is collaborating with The Work Truck Show, held at the Indianapolis Convention Center on Thursday (March 5) for the second straight year. That show will feature Purdue Road School sessions. This years Purdue Road School includes almost 200 presentations involving more than 350 speakers and moderators. In addition, more than 50 exhibitors will be set up in the North and South ballrooms of the Purdue Memorial Union on the first full day of the event. Purdue Road School traces its origin to 1913, when W.K. Hatt, head of Purdues School of Civil Engineering, initiated a conference to help county surveyors and city engineers develop and maintain Indianas roads and streets. At the 1914 conference, a resolution was passed calling for a yearly school for county road superintendents. In 1915 the conference officially became known as Purdue Road School. Attendance for the annual Road School event has continued to exceed 3,000 people in recent years. Writer: Brian Huchel, 765-494-2084, bhuchel@purdue.edu Sources: Darcy Bullock, 765-494-2226, darcy@purdue.edu John Haddock, 765-496-3996, jhaddock@purdue.edu TRUMBULL A convicted sex offender working as a plumber for a local company has been charged with sexually assaulting a local woman in her home. Roberto Rodriguez, 55, of Benson Terrace, Bridgeport, was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, disorderly conduct and second-degree unlawful restraint. He was released after posting $30,000 bond. Police said officers were sent to a home on a complaint of a sexual assault. The female resident was crying and said she had been sexually assaulted by her plumber. Police said the woman told them she had called a local plumbing company to fix a leak in her bathtub and they had sent a man later identified as Rodriguez to her home. After he fixed the leak, police said Rodriguez got up and complained to the woman that he had injured his back, police said. When she went to assist him, police said Rodriguez grabbed the woman with both hands, police said. She tried to fend him off, but Rodriguez grabbed her in a hug and refused to let her go, police said. Rodriguez then began kissing the woman on the neck, police said. Police said the woman finally broke free and fled the house. Rodriguez drove away. Police said Rodriguez later admitted being at the womans home but denied sexually assaulting her. According to court records, in 1995, Rodriguez was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in Holyoke, Mass., while he was working there as a janitor. He was a registered sex offender in Massachusetts until 2017 when he moved to New Jersey. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday told the state assembly that the government will recommend a CBI probe into increasing number of missing cases involving children in Panipat. Vij told the assembly that he was chairing a meeting of district public relations and grievances committees in Panipat a few months ago when the matter was reported to him. The minister's response came to a question asked by ruling BJP MLA from Panipat, Pramod Vij. "We will recommend a CBI probe into the matter. May be there is some big inter-state gang behind this and that will need a deeper probe," he said. The minister in his reply told the House that the number of missing children in Panipat had risen from 229 in 2015 to 430 in 2018. In 2019, 379 children had gone missing, he said. Vij informed that in 2015, 98.5 per cent of the missing children were reunited with their parents while in 2019, only 74.14 per cent of missing children were traced. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the span of 7.5 miles on Limantour Road, the goal is to find a destination that will change your life. Many of the spots there can do just that. The drive alone is gorgeous, where you crest Inverness Ridge and a view to the west is revealed, across the coastal hills to Drakes Bay and the expanse of the ocean. Ahead are five launch points for get-outs: Sky Trail, Bayview Trail, Coast Trail, Muddy Hollow and Limantour Beach. Take your pick, you cant miss. Limantour Road is one of the rare places where even chronic fast drivers can find themselves forcing themselves to slow down to take in the scenery and the views, and to be sure to not miss anything. Limantour Road is one of the best in the Bay Area for access to views, trailheads and adventures. Others in the same league include Bolinas-Fairfax Road in Marin, Skyline on the South Peninsula, and Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Redwood Road in the East Bay hills. When you start: Before you leave home, check out the latest image from the webcam that is posted at the Point Reyes Lighthouse. On the parks website, images are refreshed every 15 minutes. If its clear at the Lighthouse, one of the foggiest places on the coast, the rest of the 71,000-acre Point Reyes National Seashore is guaranteed to be stellar. This past week had many crystal days on the coast, with crisp mornings and wind out of the northwest. If your trip is a go, the best bet for most is to drive first to the Bear Valley Visitor Center and get the free map and brochure. This is the best visitor center in the Bay Area, and you can get any question answered about conditions, rules and suggestions for your day. Tom Stienstra/Susan Vance Sky Trail: This is one of my favorite walks anywhere each spring for big-time ocean views, and if you hit it right, a diverse array of wildflowers. From lookout points on the ridge near Sky Camp, you get a perch that towers over Drakes Bay and out to sea, where the rocky crag of the North Farallones pokes up from the sea surface. The trip starts on a service road. Its a steady climb, with pretty ferns along the route much of the way, up to the ridge at Sky Camp (big views), 1.3 miles. You then can continue for 1.8 miles into old-growth forest, awesome much of the way. Turn right on Woodward Valley Trail and sail downhill 2.8 miles to Coast Camp, with amazing ocean views straight ahead, for a trail lunch. Return on the Fire Lane Trail, a steep climb. 9.6-mile loop. Bayview Trail: The Inverness Ridge Trailhead for the Bayview Trail is your launch point for a 4.9-mile loop. Your reward is a series of lookout points across Drakes Bay and the ocean, some of the prettiest views anywhere. From the trailhead, hike 1.3 miles on Bayview Trail to Drakes View Trail. Turn left and descend 2 miles, the kind of trail where you can spread out your arms and feel like the whole world is in your reach. You intersect with the lower Bayview Trail, where you turn left and hike back up 1.6 miles to the parking area. National Park Service Coast Trail: Parking for the Coast Trail (and Laguna Trail) is adjacent to the Point Reyes Hostel. The preferred route is to take the Coast Trail 2.8 miles to Coast Camp, have a trail lunch, then return on Laguna (1.8 miles), for a round trip of 4.6 miles. On the trip out, the trail is a service road, but much of the route is amid a woodland canopy and runs along a pretty creek and riparian zone. In about an hours hiking time, it emerges on a bluff above Santa Maria Beach. Muddy Hollow: Outside of Pierce Ranch, this area provides the best habitat in the park to see wildlife. An elk herd is getting established in this area, and Ive also seen deer, bobcat, fox and more. There are two trailheads; most prefer the lower one, where you can parlay the hike with a visit to Limantour Beach. The Muddy Hollow Trail enters a valley and then climbs 1.5 miles (plus 0.3-mile link) to Muddy Hollow Road. Bring your binoculars, stay quiet and slow, and stay alert for wildlife, best early and late in the day. You can turn this into a counter-clockwise loop, all good for wildlife (and listening to the calls of songbirds) by linking the Muddy Hollow Road (left) to Glenbrook (left) and Estero Trail (left), 7-mile loop. More Information If you want to go Where: Point Reyes National Seashore Cost: Access, parking free. Map/brochure: Available at visitor center Dogs: No dogs on trails. Leashed dogs permitted at Limantour Beach, from parking lot on south. Trail camps: Sky Camp and Coast Camp are hike-in camps available from trailheads off Limantour Road. Reservations up to six months to the day in advance, $20 per site for up to six people; reserve at www.recreation.gov. Senior discounts available with federal passes. Contact: Bear Valley Visitors Center, Point Reyes National Seashore, 415-464-5100, www.nps.gov/pore. How to get there GPS: Use 1 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes Station From San Francisco to visitor center: Take U.S. 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge and continue north for 7.5 miles to Exit 450B for San Anselmo and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. Take that exit, merge onto Sir Francis Drake drive 20 miles west to Olema and Highway 1. Turn right and drive a short distance to Bear Valley Road. Turn left and drive 0.5 of a mile to sign for Seashore Information and road on left. Turn left and drive 0.2 of a mile to the parking lot for the Bear Valley Visitors Center. Get map/brochure, any question answered. Limantour Road destinations To Limantour Road: From Bear Valley Visitors Center, return to Bear Valley Road. Turn left and drive 1.3 miles to Limantour Road (on left, signed "Hostel and Limantour Beach"). Turn left. To Sky Trail: From left turn onto Limantour Road, drive 3.4 miles to turnoff on left for parking and trailhead. Inverness Ridge Trailhead/Bayview Trail: From left turn onto Limantour Road, drive 4.4 miles for trailhead on right. Coast Trail: From left turn onto Limantour Road, drive 5.9 miles to Limantour Spit Road (signed for hostel). Turn left and drive 0.3 of a mile to parking (look for hostel), trailhead for Coast Trail on west side of parking. Muddy Hollow: From left turn onto Limantour Road, drive 7.5 miles (signed left for Limantour Beach for reference) and continue short distance ahead to trailhead on right. Limantour Beach: From left turn onto Limantour Road, drive 7.5 miles to parking. See More Collapse Limantour Beach: No matter what adventure you have in mind, most end up at Limantour Beach, one of the prettiest spots on the Bay Area coast. If you get lucky, from mid-March to early April, rafts of blooming Douglas iris ignite in the flats along the parking lot. The best walk is the easy 1-mile stroll on the Limantour Spit. As you head out, the trail extends along a sliver of land with Drakes Bay to your left, the Estero to your right. For some, this is their favorite spot on Earth. Yet the Limantour Beach also spans for miles to the south, where you can take a seat anywhere, have a picnic and watch the sea lap at the shore for as long as you want, as if clocks, cell phones and Should Lists did not exit. Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom Sidharth Malhotra, who is last seen in Marjaavaan, is back with an exciting project. Today, the handsome hunk took to his social media page to announce his new film- an action-thriller, where he will be playing double role. The actor took to his Instagram page to announce this news and wrote, ''Delighted to announce my next, an action thriller, in collaboration with @bhushankumar starring @sidmalhotra! The film will go on floors in May and is set to release on 20th November 2020. @v__________k @tseriesfilms @cine1studios @tseries.official''. Sidharth shared a picture of himself with Murad Khetani and Bhushan Khan on his social media handle. According to the latest reports, the Hasee Toh Phasee star, in a double role, will be essaying a suave businessman and a rowdy guy, who will be a small-time thief. The film is slated to go on floors in May 2020. A Mumbai Mirror report quoted a source as saying, "After several rounds of discussions and recce, they zeroed in on Delhi. The team will shoot at real locations in the Capital city. The chase sequences will be canned on busy streets." Another report stated that Sidharth Malhotra's action-thriller is a remake of 2019 Tamil romantic thriller, Thadam, which starred Arun Vijay in a double role. However, there is no official confirmation on these rumours yet. Apart from this new film, Sidharth will also be seen in Captain Vikram Batra biopic titled Shershaah. The film, which also stars Kiara Advani, is slated to hit the theatrical screens on July 3, 2020. INTERVIEW! Sidharth Malhotra On His Linkup Rumours: I Think It's A Compliment Sidharth Malhotra On Recent Failures: Many Aspects Make A Film Successful, Not Just My Performance The authorities scrambled on Tuesday to identify people who came in contact with a 45-year-old Delhi man diagnosed with the novel coronavirus infection, with at least 46 people being kept under surveillance in the national capital to prevent a spread of the disease that has claimed more than 3,000 lives across the world. After visiting Italy and taking an Air India flight out of Vienna to return to Delhi, the man interacted with several people before being diagnosed and isolated at a hospital on Monday. A dinner at a hotel with family and friends and a visit to a clinic in Mayur Vihar were among the identified points of contact with dozens of people as officials traced his steps across Delhi to contain a possible outbreak. Also Watch | Coronavirus: Delhi designates 25 hospitals for treatment amid fresh cases Forty-six persons are under surveillance at different levels, and all of them have been tested. Once the test results returned positive, then a detailed list of people was compiled to know the people he had come in touch with since his return. All those listed were informed about the situation and asked to stay under home quarantine for at least 14 days. High-risk ones with symptoms have been moved to hospitals and their samples taken. The private doctor he went to was counselled, and asked to not examine patients and stay home in quarantine for two weeks at least, a senior health ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The process of identifying people who may have been affected by those carrying infections is called contact tracing, the mainstay of controlling any serious outbreak within a community. After returning to Delhi on Air India flight AI154 on February 25, the infected man remained in close contact with his family members mother, wife and two children at his Mayur Vihar residence. He also worked with his accountant before being diagnosed. His family members and the accountant have been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital and being screened for the virus. Three days later, on February 28, the man threw a birthday party for his son at a restaurant, La Piazza, at Hyatt Regency, inviting his sons classmates and their parents to join the celebrations. On Monday, his son and the classmates, unaware of the infection of the 45-year-old, attended classes at The Shriram Millennium School in Noida. Five students of the school have been tested for the infection so far, with the school announcing it will remain shut for the rest of the week to ward off possible cases. The man self-reported at Delhis Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after visiting the Mayur Vihar doctor. He was later admitted to the Safdarjung Hosipital, where his condition is said to be stable. Six people from his family were also traced to Agra, some of whom travelled with him to Italy. While 13 people were tested for possible symptoms in the city, six were said to show symptoms of the disease. Six of them were tested as they had shown symptoms. Not just the people he dined with at a restaurant but we also traced the hotel staff on duty that evening. They have been asked to stay vigilant, the official added. As per the standard strategy, the list of contacts of these positive cases was compiled quickly, and examined for symptoms. Those with symptoms or at high risk are being tested, the official said. Apart from Delhi, a fresh coronavirus case has been detected in Hyderabad. For that patient, 88 contacts have been traced. Forty-five of them are being tested for the disease in Hyderabad hospitals. The tracking of high-risk cases begins inside aircraft when they are flying in from severely affected countries, with in-flight announcements being made. Passengers entering India from the affected countries are required to furnish duly filled self-declaration forms (including personal particulars i.e. phone no. and address in India) and travel history to health and immigration officials at 21 airports and 12 major and 65 minor ports. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) running under the Union health ministry has units functioning in all states that closely monitor and pick up signs of the disease. The contact list is shared with officers even at the district level as they remain in regular touch with the contact under surveillance. Our officers even visit the homes individually, taking necessary precautions, to check listed people for symptoms. For asymptomatic people, home quarantine for a stipulated period of time is good enough, but those who develop symptoms are moved to a hospital as per protocol, said the above mentioned official. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rhythma Kaul Rhythma Kaul works as an assistant editor at Hindustan Times. She covers health and related topics, including ministry of health and family welfare, government of India. ...view detail We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Madhya Pradesh minister and independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal on Wednesday said he is with Chief Minister Kamal Nath as long as the latter is in power, but all his options will be open in case the 14-month-old Congress government falls. Jaiswal's comments came amid political turmoil in the state triggered by alleged poaching efforts to topple the Nath -led Congress government which assumed office in December 2018. The independent MLA from Waraseoni in Balaghat district, a former Congressman, holds the mining portfolio in the Kamal Nath cabinet. The Congress has alleged the BJP is making attempts to poach its MLAs in a bid to topple of the Congress government, a charge denied by the opposition party. Pradeep Jaiswal is with him (Nath) as long as Kamal Nath ji is there (in power). If the government falls in future, my options will be open for development of my area and I will act according to desire of the people of my constituency, Jaiswal told reporters on Wednesday. The minister was asked about his options in case of change of government in the state. Asked if he would join a BJP government, Jaiswal said, Whichever government is there, my options would be open for development of my constituency and district." Talking to PTI later, Jaiswal said he was replying to an imaginary question (related to options after fall of government). I have been associated with Kamal Nath ji since the last two decades. So, despite the BJPs offers just after winning the elections, I decided to go with him (Nath). "I only said I will work as per the wishes of my electorate in case of any change, Jaiswal said and maintained he is not going to support any other party. A four-time MLA, Jaiswal contested as a rebel Congress candidate after his party denied him a ticket for the November 2018 assembly polls. The Congress government appears to have survived a poaching bid, with senior party leaders on Wednesday blaming the BJP for the alleged move and Nath asserting that there was no threat to his regime. In a late-night political drama in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress claimed the BJP took eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana as part of a conspiracy to topple the state government. The BJP denied the charge that it was trying to destabilise the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. "The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP is making no such effort," BJP state chief V D Sharma told reporters here, when asked about Congress' allegation of attempts to destabilise the state government. The 230-member state Assembly has 114 Congress MLAs followed by the BJP (107). The simple majority mark is 116. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the BSP and one of the Samajwadi Party (SP) are providing crucial support to the Congress government. Two seats are currently vacant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 81 patients have been tested positive for in including 20 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel, said Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Rajkumar. "Till now, 81 patients have tested positive for in including 20 jawans. 11 jawans have been discharged from the hospital while other 9 jawans will be discharged after 5 days. Till now, 387 people have been tested for swine flu," the Meerut CMO told ANI. Eight people have died in Meerut after falling prey to The state administration has formed a team to examine the deaths.On February 29, a team from Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Health Services visited Meerut in the wake of swine flu cases.An official from the team, Dr HK Agarwal had stated, "Swine flu cases were reported here, so we came here to conduct a survey.""There is no lack of medicines here. We will conduct a survey of other hospitals here as well," he had said. Robert Gauthier / TNS The race for the Democratic nomination could not have changed more dramatically in less than a week. Gone is the fear or presumption depending on ones view that Sen. Bernie Sanders was on course to a November matchup against President Trump. Gone are the candidacies of Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Reeling are the candidacies of Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg that had seemed until days ago to have the resources and resolve to last until the July convention in Milwaukee. Out of the ashes rose Joe Biden, the onetime front-runner whose shaky debate performances and tepid fundraising efforts had pushed him to the brink of irrelevancy. His Super Tuesday performance, coming off a robust victory in South Carolina on Saturday, brought him back to the fore in what appears to be a one-on-one battle with Sanders. The New South Wales Police are investigating reports of a knife being pulled on a shopper in the toilet paper aisle of a Sydney shopping centre as people were 'panic buying'. While speaking to an international media outlet, the NSW Police spokeswoman said that the cops were called to a 'disturbance' at the Westfield Parramatta store on March 4. The staff member reportedly said that a man and a woman had a fight over toilet tissue and one of them was carrying a knife. According to international media reports, at least six police officers were at the scene and no one was injured. After the incident, the supermarkets are now enforcing strict restrictions on toilet paper purchases as shoppers, driven by fears of the global coronavirus outbreak, cleared the supermarket shelves across Australia. The supermarket store reportedly also banned shoppers from buying more than four packs per person. READ: Odisha Govt Advisory To Keep Coronavirus At Bay Amid coronavirus outbreak, the supermarket shelves across Australia are being left empty as people are worried that they may contract the deadly disease. Several Australians are stocking up on the essentials like toilet paper, hand sanitiser, bottled water, pasta and rice in case they become infected. High level of concern Coles, the Australian supermarket store, also released a statement that promised that the emptied aisles would be restocked as quickly as possible. The supermarket store has reportedly even increased the number of deliveries to store this week the improve the availability of popular products, including long-life pantry staples and health care items. According to international media reports, the statement further read that the store is also continuing to work with its suppliers to maintain availability for customers. READ: China: Malls Offer Free Snacks, Drinks For Workers Amid Coronavirus Dread As per reports, Australia has reported nearly 42 confirmed coronavirus cases. The first Australian has also been confirmed dead from the virus after they were on board the Diamond Princess. The Australian health officials have reportedly warned against buying in bulk at supermarkets. Australia has reportedly warned its citizens not to travel to Iran amid surging cases of the coronavirus in its territory, most cases linked to Iran. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced on February 29, that foreign nationals travelling from Iran need to quarantine in another country before entering Australia, as per reports. READ: US Announces Emergency Interest Rate Cut Amid Coronavirus Dread READ: Coronavirus Outbreak: Death Toll In US Reaches 9, Total 120 Cases Almost every news organization in the country, from major television networks to small-town newspapers, has published its very own instructional guide explaining How to Wash Your Hands within the past week. In the age of coronavirus, theywe!have done this for the noblest of purposes: public health and sweet, sweet clicks. The need is clear. We know that many people do not wash their hands often enough or thoroughly enough to prevent the spread of germs, at least in normal, nonpandemic times. A 2018 observational study on food safety initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, found that no more than 2 percent of participants included all steps necessary to be considered an adequate hand-washing eventand that was when they washed their hands at all. Its also clear that now, given the coronavirus, news consumers are eager for instruction on the topic. The phrase wash your hands was significantly more popular as a search term in the United States last week than any other week since Google started keeping track in 2004. In other words, hand-washing how-tos are the content that Americans in March 2020 both require and crave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, however, washing your hands is boring, and so are almost all of these guides. There are only so many ingredients one can include in the recipe after all: The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions five steps, the tip to sing Happy Birthday twice while you scrub, the reminder to dry thoroughly afterward. Wet your hands with clean running water and then lather them with soap, commanded the New York Times. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap, instructed ABC News. Rinse your hands thoroughly under clean, running water, advised NBC News. After a while, these starts to feel like step-by-step instructions for eating. Open your mouth and place the food inside. Close your lips and move your jaw up and down. Advertisement Some news outlets have attempted to inject some drama into the proceedings. Local TV news stations are pros at this: Chances are, you probably arent washing your hands the right way, warned a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas. Meanwhile on NPRs All Things Considered, host Mary Louise Kelly, an esteemed national security reporter, was reduced to exclaiming that proper hand-washing is super complicated. She then slowly washed her hands on air under the expert guidance of a science podcast host. Somehow, she managed to do it correctly. Advertisement The video and GIF guides in particular can take on an almost hypnotic quality over time, like a public health version of ASMR. Youve lifted the germs from your hands, reported CNN in the present tense, soothingly. The World Health Organization has a hand hygiene video from 2015, and frankly, I understand why it hasnt bothered to release an updated version. Its already a master class of the genre. Wet hands with water, the instructor drones. Rub right palm over the back of left palm with interlaced fingers, and vice versa. Close your eyes and just picture all those hands, scrubbing back and forth, forever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Against the repetitive blur of hands, soap, and faucets, minute variations can start to look like creativity. The Oregonian set its video to an instrumental piano rendition of Happy Birthday. Neat! At a Seattle news station, a local doctor pantomimed the action of washing his hands at the news desk, no water at all. CBS News filmed its chief medical correspondent, Jonathan LaPook, scrubbing his hands in a bathroom crooning the birthday song to Irving and explaining, You can put in whatever name you want. (This clip is so odd .. and oddly satisfying, a YouTube commenter wrote. Gonna have to watch it again sober and compare notes.) Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps part of the point of hand-washing content is to calm those among us who are so worried about coronavirus that they are willing to watch a video teaching them how to properly wash their hands. But it doesnt have to be this way. Hand-washing instructions do not, it turns out, need to be as boring as hand-washing itself. To change course, we must look abroad, to the robust and surprising international genre of hand-washingthemed amateur dance videos. Advertisement Advertisement Hand-washing dance videos seem to be a phenomenon largely because of Global Handwashing Day, an annual event founded in 2008 to design, test, and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times. Over the years, those creative ways have included local dance competitions, and videos end up on YouTube. There are charming submissions from hospitals, schools, and other institutions. The videos all feature groups of people pantomiming the motions of thorough hand-washing as part of a dance routine, usually filmed like a set piece in an amateur pop music video. But beyond that, the variety is endless. At a school in Indonesia, hand washers wave their hands to Uptown Funk. At a hospital in Abu Dhabi, workers wash to Despacito. In England, theres Handwashing Gangnam Style. And in France, dozens of hospital workers in white scrubs gather in a FlashMob sur lhygiene des mains set to Chris Browns Dont Wake Me Up. Professional productions include this disturbingly intense Swiss routine, and UNICEFs mesmerizing Global Handwashing Dance, which features Japanese dancer Kaiji Moriyama soaping up in a cheerful blue costume and a huge dollop of white foam on his head. Advertisement Advertisement Perusing this smorgasbord of silliness makes returning to the deeply bland offerings of American news organizations all the more disappointing. Yes, its important to communicate the facts: Hand-washing is essential, and it should be done thoroughly. But if hand-washing itself isnt supposed to be dry, why do the instructions need to be? Bhopal, March 4 : Both Congress and the BJP appear to be sweating it out to keep their flock in Madhya Pradesh together before the next test of strength during the Rajya Sabha polls due this month. After former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh's allegations about BJP leaders offering Rs 25 to 35 crore to Congress MLAs and Rs 5 crore in advance and the remaining amounts in part, both parties have intensified efforts to keep the numbers intact. Digvijaya Singh had on Monday put on record what was already in public domain since the past few months. The BJP leaders have also said it in so many words that all they need is a signal from the top leaders to topple the Kamal Nath government that is still short of a majority in the Assembly. His specific charge on Monday was against former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his senior colleague Narottam Mishra. For the seriousness of the charges, the BJP leaders' response was curiously casual. Mishra only said: "I would not like to take Digvijaya's charges seriously. He is known to be in the news through such tactics." Chouhan, in a tweet, said: "Telling lies to cause sensation is an old habit of Digvijaya Singh. He must have done it this time to pressure the government for some unfulfilled wish." BJP's new state President, V.D. Sharma, who is camping here since Monday, is contacting each party MLA. The war of words intensified after BJP MLAs Sharad Kol and Narayan Tripathi skipped a party meeting organised here during the day. The two legislators had earlier voted in favour of Kamal Nath's government, though the BJP did not take any action against them at the time. Both are former Congressmen who had switched to the BJP. Resentment is indeed brewing in the Congress. Many senior party MLAs have been openly demanding ministerial berths. The Jyotiraditya Scindia faction, which has at least nine MLAs, has been complaining about the overbearing attitude of the bureaucracy. In an embarrassing situation during the previous cabinet meeting, the government had to back out on expanding the liquor vend network in the city after several ministers shot it down. On Tuesday, Digvijaya Singh accused the former Home Minister Bhupendra Singh if he had taken BSP MLA Rambai Singh to New Delhi in a chartered plane. Singh said the party was confident of BSP MLA's loyalty. Chief Minister Kamal Nath said he has asked legislators of the ruling camp to take the money allegedly being offered by the BJP leadership in the state, if being given freely. "Our MLAs told me about money being offered, I am telling them 'phokat me mil raha hai, toh le lena'," Nath said. He also insisted that his government is secure. Congress MLA Baijnath Kushwaha said senior saffron camp functionaries, including Chouhan, have approached him with offers. Kushwaha is said to have told Minister Govind Singh about how Pramod Sharma from Bhind had met him on "behalf of some BJP leaders" a month ago and offered him Rs 25 crore or a ministerial post and Rs 5 crore. "It is not a big deal for me. I will turn down bigger offers and this is my decision. I had nothing, but I was made an MLA. What more do I need? I am with the Congress and I can't be bought at any cost," Kushwaha said. Govind Singh said Digvijaya Singh's charges of horse-trading are true and urged the BJP to stop daydreaming about forming a government in the state anytime soon. Congress General Secretary in-charge of MP Deepak Babaria held a meeting with the MP ministers on Tuesday. After the party meeting, former minister Rajendra Shukla said the Congress is in touch with BJP MLAs in the Vidhya region. Thanks for sharing the tribute to the late NASA human computer Katherine Johnson in the Sunday March 1 Forum section (Johnson hidden at NASA, but not at the end of her life). It was accompanied by a charming photograph of President Barack Obama bestowing upon Johnson our nations Medal of Freedom. Contrast that to President Donald Trump besmirching the honor of that award by giving it to fellow carnival barker and conspiracy theorist Rush Limbaugh the night of the State of the Union address. Brent Larkins Sunday Forum piece on U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan suggests that Jordan may be Trumps next choice for the award (Jordan is great for Trump but a danger to the nation, March 1). Is there any procedure by which a different president or a different Congress can undo this disgrace? If there is, it will take a groundswell of decency among voters in Novembers election. It could happen. Philip Gardner, Sandusky Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Congress held a joint protest outside the Assembly on Wednesday demanding a CBI investigation into the alleged Bihar police examination paper leak. Speaking to ANI, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra said: "Under the Nitish Kumar government, examination papers for government jobs get leaked repeatedly. We are demanding CBI investigation into the Bihar police exam paper leak." "I think the government is involved in this. The government is ensuring that only their people secure these jobs. We will raise this issue in the House to pressurise the government for ordering a CBI investigation," he added. Examinations for recruitment to Bihar Police were conducted last year in December and the results were announced on Jan 28, 2020. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jacqueline Bigar, 72, an astrologist whose syndicated column, Bigars Stars, has been published for decades in The Inquirer and other newspapers across the nation, died Sunday, March 1, at her home in Glendale, Ariz. Determination of the cause and manner of her death are pending, the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office said. Ms. Bigars former husband, Thomas E. Livingston, said sheriffs deputies were called to her home and found her unresponsive. First published in the Daily News in 1977, Ms. Bigars column over the years drew a national and then an international audience. In it, the then-Philadelphia-based writer offered readers a view of the future based on their birth dates and the position of the stars. Readers flocked to it, recalled Gene Castellano, a former assistant features editor for the Daily News. Castellano worked on Sundays, and said the column would arrive that day for editing even though it wouldnt be published until later in the week. It was so compelling that fellow journalists would call from home, Castellano said, asking him to look ahead and let them know what was in the stars for their love life. Ms. Bigars column began appearing in The Inquirer in 1988. King Features Syndicate acquired the rights to the column in 1991, and it was published in newspapers including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Denver Post, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Daily News, and San Francisco Examiner. In 1995, Ms. Bigar helped to develop and moderate, with her former husband, an online astrology forum for Prodigy.com. She also wrote daily astrology tips and conducted chat sessions online. She will be missed, said C.J. Kettler, King Features president. She has been part of the King Features family for a long time. We are shocked. She was beloved. The last of her columns, written in advance, will appear in The Inquirer on Saturday, March 14. Ms. Bigar, an Aquarius, began formal astrology training in 1975 under the guidance of Jeanette Oswald, a professional astrologer and radio and television personality. Except for that tutelage, Ms. Bigar was largely self-taught. Her son, Geoffrey Livingston, posted the news of his mothers passing on Facebook. Once we get control of her Facebook page, we will turn it into a memorial site for her readers across the globe, he wrote Monday. He said the family was seeking privacy as it mourned and sought to make burial arrangements. We will post something as soon as we can. However, we may not be responsive in the interim, he wrote. "May the stars be with you. Born in Washington, she graduated in 1965 from the Orme School in Mayer, Ariz. Four years later, she graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., with a bachelors degree in literature. In 1966, she met Livingston, a student at the nearby Claremont McKenna College, through the student newspaper, the Collegian. She was always interested in astrology when I met her in college, he said. It was hard to tell if this was her hobby. They married in 1970 in Pasadena, Calif., and moved in 1975 to Philadelphia, when Livingston took a job at the Daily News. In predicting the 23-day duration of a Philadelphia newspaper strike in 1977, she so amazed Daily News editor F. Gilman Spencer that he hired her on the spot to write a weekly horoscope column. In 1982, she began writing her daily column, Bigars Stars. Gil was impressed, Livingston said. He was a whimsical guy, and he made Jackie the astrology columnist, to my horror. I didnt think she could do it. Ms. Bigar studied astrology books and honed her skill, Livingston said. While preparing an astrological profile for the reputed mobster Philip Chicken Man" Testa, she predicted that there would be a big blowup in the family in March 1981. A few days later, Livingston said, Testa "was blown up by a bomb. The Love and the Stars column, published in The Inquirers Do This section, typically offered readers at times cryptic guidance on romance and interactions, usually just in a few lines. On Friday, for instance, Ms. Bigar predicted a five-star night for those born under the Libra sign. One on one relating could take you down an unusual path, she wrote. At first you might not feel comfortable with what is happening. The unexpected occurs when dealing with an important person. Tonight: Walk away from a power play. But each column also offered an extended dash of advice for those born on that date. For readers born on Feb. 28, she wrote: This year, your intuition greets your stability. The combination proves to be powerful when applied together. If single, you might reveal these traits as you reveal different personalities and different segments of your life. Livingston described Ms. Bigar as quirky and fun, a lover of music and good times. The couple divorced in 1986. Ms. Bigar moved to Arizona in 2011. In addition to her son and former husband, she is survived by a daughter, Joanne Marder; two grandchildren; and a brother. Plans for a memorial service were pending. Donations may be made to the Humane Society of the United States via www.humanesociety.org. People stand in front of a drug store in Daegu, South Korea, March 3, 2020. REUTERS With more than 90,000 confirmed cases and about 3,000 deaths, the Coronavirus has already spread to more than 70 countries. Though the situation in China is somewhat stabilising, the new cases are being reported from Italy, Iran and other places. The new cases reported in India have their links to Italy and Dubai. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has informed that passengers are being screened at airports and seaports. He advised Indians to avoid non-essential travel to China, Iran, Korea, Singapore, and Italy. These restrictions could be extended to other countries. By the end of January, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already declared the outbreak of COVID-19 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Now the WHO has increased the risk assessment to very high across the world. As per the WHO, the spread can go in any direction. Apart from precautions, broadly no major travel or trade restrictions have been recommended so far. Still, many governments have shut down schools and cancelled large public events. Airlines and hotels are witnessing significant cancellations. Tourism and civil aviation sectors are already beginning to feel the pain. Since people make their travel plans much in advance, this summer may be a difficult period for the travel and tourism industry. Overall business confidence is shaky due to closure of cities, quarantines, travel restrictions and supply chain disruptions. Fearing recession and disruptions in global supply chains, world stock markets have already witnessed a bloodbath last week. Since the outbreak is recent and the direction is less clear, most multilateral institutions are cautious in explaining its medium- to long-term trade and economic impacts. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Even without factoring the outbreak of the COVID-19, the WTO had already warned that world merchandise trade growth is likely to remain weak in early 2020. With the virus impact, the situation in the second half will become more complicated. The WTO head now says that impact of the Coronavirus is going to be substantial. It will start to show up in the trade data soon. The OECD now feels that Coronavirus presents the global economy with its greatest danger since the financial crisis. The global growth can be down as low as 1.5 percent this year, if there is a broader contagion across the wider Asia-Pacific region and advanced economies in Europe and the United States. Even if there is a limited outbreak outside China, a sharp slowdown in global growth is expected. The OECD now predicts that both China and India are expected to grow around 5 percent in 2020. Hardly any growth is now expected in Italy and Japan. Already reeling under trade and political tensions, the Coronavirus has given another blow to the global economy. The travel industry in affected countries is the first to be impacted. Chinas travel market is the largest in Asia and one of the fast-growing markets in the world. As per the World Tourism Organization, outbound China tourism expenditure in 2018 was $277 billion. In 2019, China received 145 million tourists and about 170 million Chinese made outbound trips. The Chinese travel situation in 2020 will be drastically different. The impact of curtailing only Chinese movement was going to be drastic. Now it is going to be even bigger. Europe, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world, is also under the COVID-19 scare. In 2018, Europe received more than 700 million visitors who spent $570 billion. With events and business travel cancellations, the impact on tourism and aviation is underway. Demand for many products will fall as people are less likely to visit markets, restaurants and public places in affected countries. With estimated 320 million jobs and $5.7 trillion in revenue, the travel industry is one of the largest industries in the world. If the impact continues to affect beyond March, it will start affecting many other sectors. The major worry is that the outbreak of the virus was not in some small peripheral developing economies, but it was in countries such as China, South Korea, Japan and some important European countries. These nations are at the centre of global production and trade networks. China is at the centre of the global value chain in manufacturing. It is a major exporter of parts used in automobiles, computers, electronics and electrical equipment. A shut down of many Chinese cities will start impinging many of its trading partners soon. Indian industry will face problems related to imports to consumer electronics, synthetic yarn and fabric, automotive components and pharma raw material. Cotton yarn exports could also be affected. Some further disruptions are also expected from South Korea and Europe. The virus continues to spread worldwide and the situation is changing by the day. It will definitely dominate most parts of trade in 2020. The negative spill over may not be limited to travel and global supply chains. The policy measures by countries in terms of restrictions and local production will negatively affect the process of globalisation further. As the world enters the third decade of the 21st century, it is waking up to a new reality, facing threats to international solidarity and human security that are not necessarily economic in nature. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/3/2020 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion As the world enters the third decade of the 21st century, it is waking up to a new reality, facing threats to international solidarity and human security that are not necessarily economic in nature. Climate change, inequality, populist movements, ethnic nationalism and global epidemics are posing major challenges to international development and human security. Disenchantment with the neoliberal economic system and unregulated capitalism is growing. And on the political front, the global balance of power is shifting as we move away from a unipolar world, dominated largely by the United States, to a bipolar world where China is emerging as the major counterpart to the U.S. These turbulent times pose challenges and call for collective action since many threats to human security can no longer be contained within the geographical boundaries of nation states. Although Canada has reduced its foreign aid commitments recently, it has great potential to make up for it by using its soft power to address issues of international development and security. Soft power is defined as a persuasive approach to international relations and diplomacy that doesnt involve coercion and trades on a countrys cultural and economic influence. Since the world and the nature of threats to human security and solidarity have changed, our approach to international solidarity and development must also change. In many ways, Canada is well-prepared to lead that change. No longer all about income The notion of international development, as historically understood in light of an income-centred approach, is now being increasingly contested. For too long, we have measured progress and well-being in terms of expansion in GDP alone and framed issues of international development predominantly in terms of lack of income. There are growing calls to question this approach. Economic growth is of little use if it doesnt promote broad-based human well-being, leads to climate change and threatens the very survival of the human race. What the world needs today, more than ever, is a model of international development that is decolonized, humane and centred on human rights and freedoms. The United Nations under the intellectual guidance of scholars like Amartya Sen and development practitioners like Mahbub ul Haq has made significant headway in popularizing a more humane model of international development through the publication of its Annual Human Development Reports and the Human Development Index. It has also influenced global security discourse by popularizing a concept of human security that transcends the traditional focus on territorial security and encompasses health, food and environmental safety. That concept recognizes the geographic and spatial connectivity of threats. Its based on the realization that the battle for human survival in the future will be fought not by defending national borders but by understanding the interconnectedness of the fate of human race and by evoking the compassion that unites us as fellow human beings. The intellectual foundations of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also rest on the concept of human security. Canada has been at the forefront of promoting this concept. Through the formation of the Human Security Network with like-minded countries, Canada was successful, to an extent, in influencing global institutions to promote a human security agenda. New threats Canada needs to continue its efforts in this direction, especially in light of new or heightened threats to human security that the world faces today in the form of climate change, polarization, ethnic nationalism, intolerance and the global spread of disease. Canadas efforts in promoting a human rights-based approach to international solidarity are commendable. Whether its an issue of freedom of speech violations in repressive regimes or assisting international refugees, Canada has adopted a humane approach and has set high moral standards. Given the current shift in the global balance of power from U.S. dominance to the one that includes China and other emerging economies, middle-power countries like Canada, France and Germany will be in a better position to use their soft power to influence global institutions on human rights-based development and to promote much-needed human rights around the world. Although Canadas recent reduction in foreign aid has been harshly criticized, it can be seen in a positive light as it signals a move away from problem-solving approach that is based on short-term humanitarian assistance. Whats really needed for long-term sustainable development is to address the root causes of underdevelopment, which include unaccountable governments, corruption, concentration of political power in the hands of the few without proper checks and balances or rule of law, weak property rights and contract enforcement, and lack of opportunities for the vast majority of citizens. Genuine global leadership needed But whether Canadas decision to reduce foreign aid signals the need to address the root causes of underdevelopment isnt clear. Too often, the Global North has supported repressive, dictatorial regimes in the Global South to promote its own economic and geopolitical interests. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Its time to realize that sustainable and people-centred development is not possible as long as unequal structures of power and repressive political regimes remain intact in developing countries. The world is ready for a new vision that defines human progress in a profound way and recognizes the interconnectedness of the fate of humanity. But to achieve this, we need a genuine and credible global leadership. Given Canadas global image and its historical record in promoting ethical norms and freedoms around the world, it commands greater legitimacy. However, to bring about genuine change, middle-power countries like Canada must adopt a leadership role in pursuing an ethical agenda to ensure the security and survival of humanity. Is Canada ready to lead? Sadia Mariam Malik is an assistant professor in the department of economics at York University. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will impose duties on imports of Chinese steel road wheels for the next five years after concluding that they are sold at unfairly low prices. The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for the 27 EU members, said on Wednesday it had set duties of 50.3% for some Chinese producers, including Xingmin Intelligent Transportation Systems <002355.SZ>, and 66.4% for others. The measures on wheels for cars, tractors, trailers, buses and fire engines come into effect on Thursday and will last for five years. The duties match those already set on a provisional basis in October. "They will restore the level playing field for the European steel road wheels industry that has suffered from the dumped imports from China," the Commission said in a statement. Its investigation followed a complaint brought by the Association of European Wheel Manufacturers, whose website lists 26 producers across Europe, as well as in Turkey and Russia. The investigation found Chinese companies exported 2 million steel wheels to the European Union in 2018 at dumped prices, doubling their share of the EU market from 2015 and putting at threat 3,000 EU jobs. Brussels has accused Beijing of engaging in massive industrial subsidies and forced technology transfer. The European Union has moved to limit Chinese imports via tariffs on products from bicycles to solar panels, in some cases prompting Beijing to retaliate with its own anti-dumping duties. The EU has to the date put in place 52 trade defence measures on steel products, 28 of which concern products imported from China. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) Our mission is to get as much information as possible out, and were trying to do that in a way that reassures the American people about the information theyre getting, and were also trying to use all channels of communication, said Marc Short, Pences chief of staff. We want a presentation that is reassuring, that says this is the daily press briefing after the task force meeting, which tells you what all the actions are that were decided today and where we are. PHILADELPHIA--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug liraglutide has been shown to help obese patients lose weight by suppressing their appetite. However, where and how the drug acts in the brain was not fully understood, until now. A new preclinical study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published in Science Translational Medicine today, shows how liraglutide crosses the brain's blood barrier to engage with a region of the brainstem known as the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), which is responsible for balancing food intake and energy expenditure. Filling this gap meets a need that has become a priority for researchers looking for new treatments to help fight the increasing rates of obesity. Liraglutide interacts with targets called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors (GLP-1R) in various parts of the brain to suppress hunger. This is the first study to show how a distinct group of neurons that express GLP-1Rs within the NTS of the brainstem play a key role in mediating these effects. "This discovery opens up the door for future obesity drug treatments that could be used in conjunction with this FDA-approved therapy to treat obesity," said senior author Matthew R. Hayes, PhD, an associate professor of Psychiatry at Penn. "The more we understand how drugs act, the more we can understand what other brain systems can be manipulated in combination with them to help patients lose more weight." Liraglutide was first approved by the FDA in 2010 to improve blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. In late 2014, the FDA approved the drug to treat obesity after several clinical trials showed that patients on the drug lost an average of 8 percent of their body weight compared to those not on the drug. Today, five FDA-approved obesity drugs are available, but researchers are working to develop more, as the United States continues to battle rising rates of obesity. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are considered overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Liraglutide mimics a hormone known as GLP-1, which controls the amount of glucose in the body and helps regulate feeding behavior. The drug works by resisting enzymatic degradation and by activating the necessary GLP-1 receptors within the brain to help reduce a person's appetite, subsequently producing weight loss. Hayes' lab focuses on ways to further exploit this hormone system. Here, the researchers used a "knockdown" adeno-associated virus technique to explore the NTS's role in the food intake and body weight-reducing effects of liraglutide. With this approach, the team significantly reduced the expression of GLP-1Rs within the NTS of adult rats and compared them to a control group to better understand the receptor's contribution to the effects of the drug. The researchers found that reducing NTS GLP-1Rs weakened the effects of daily-administered liraglutide over three weeks in the rats. Liraglutide significantly reduced feeding in normal rats over the course of drug treatment. By contrast, the effects of liraglutide on food intake in rats with GLP-1R "knocked down" were less pronounced. In this group, liraglutide reduced food intake only during the first, but not second or third, week of drug treatment. The researchers also administered fluorescently labeled liraglutide to rats in order to identify the drug's location in the brain, and visually confirmed it travels across the blood-brain barrier and shows presence in the NTS. To further investigate the cells in this region, researchers analyzed NTS tissue using an advanced technique known as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for expression of glutamate decarboxylase (Gad1) mRNA, a commonly used marker for a group of inhibitory neurons known as GABA neurons--which prevent cells in the brain from taking action. The team confirmed the presence of GLP-1R on GABA neurons in the NTS and extended those findings by showing that more than 37 percent of the GLP-1R expressing neurons in the NTS are GABA neurons. The team also showed that selective blockade of these NTS GABA neurons was sufficient to block the food intake and body weight suppression produced by liraglutide, demonstrating the requirement of NTS GABA neurons in mediating the anti-obesity effects of this drug. "We've narrowed in on the NTS to more fully understand how this site in the brain is critically important for body weight regulation," said first author Samantha M. Fortin, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in Hayes' lab. "Our finding that GABA neurons in the NTS are important for the anorectic effects of liraglutide may prove to be meaningful in the future. Other compounds or genetic manipulations that would target this distinct population of cells in the brain could be useful in treating obesity." Hayes and his team are also investigating other GLP-1 drugs on the market and in combination with other pipeline anti-obesity drugs to see if their interaction continues to be mediated by the same GABA neurons in this region of the brainstem. "The goal is to produce even more weight loss treatments," Hayes said. "And this work takes us closer to fully realizing a better treatment strategy for obesity." ### Co-authors on the study include Rachele K. Lipsky, Rinzin Lhamo, Jack Chen, Eun Kim, Tito Borner, and Heath D. Schmidt. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH-DK120211, NIH-DK115762, NIH- R01 DA037897) and an investigator-initiated sponsored agreement from Novo Nordisk, the maker of Saxenda (liraglutide). Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $425 million awarded in the 2018 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center--which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report--Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; and Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Home Care and Hospice Services, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others. Penn Medicine is powered by a talented and dedicated workforce of more than 40,000 people. The organization also has alliances with top community health systems across both Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, creating more options for patients no matter where they live. Leo Varadkar has said that Brexit must not define Ireland or the European Union. Mr Varadkar told an Europe and the Future event at Trinity College Dublin that Brexit will define the UK for the next few decades. He also described the EU as a steal when you look at what Ireland puts in and what it gets out of the European Union. He added: Its really cheap if you think about what we get back from European Union, for the amount that we contribute and its a pity, I think in some ways, that it was never seen by the UK, not least in the last 30 years. The Taoiseach also said he wants to secure a 1bn Peace Plus programme for Northern Ireland and the border counties. We are very much on our way to do that, he added. I think the world should not divided between dreamers and realists. It is driven forward by dreamers and realists who believe in creating a better future." KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Racial discrimination complaints are piling up against the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. More than 20 employees, both past and present, are claiming what they describe as years of discrimination, hostile work environments and retaliation at the site. "I don't think it's anything that's new. ORANGE A vehicle driven by a 16-year-old struck two telephone poles, severing one, in Orange Wednesday morning. Assistant Chief Max Martins said the crash occurred on Dogburn Road near its intersection with Indian Hill Road at approximately 7:19 a.m. He said the 16-year-old, driving a black 2019 Nissan Sentra, lost control of his vehicle and hit the poles, cutting one into pieces. Speed appears to be a favor in the crash, he said. Martins said one individual suffered a minor injury to their hand in the crash. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com The arrestee has to be totally subdued before the handcuffs are applied, Angone said. Trying to place cuffs on a person who is flailing and still capable of using arms and fists is counterproductive. This arrestee was not in any way under control. He was able to get up and run away. If you have TWO cops on top of you that would have been impossible. So far, we have seen only one side of the story. But thats kind of my take. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-04 17:52:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MOGADISHU, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Somalia's petroleum ministry said it has agreed on an initial roadmap with Shell and ExxonMobil joint venture for exploration and development of offshore Somalia. Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, said the roadmap was focused on converting concessions struck many years ago into new production-sharing agreements in accordance with the recently signed Petroleum Law. "We have a long relationship with the Shell/Exxon joint venture and look forward to this continuing as we seek to provide the building blocks we need to grow our economy," Ahmed said in a statement issued on Tuesday evening. He said the co-created roadmap builds on the agreement signed in Amsterdam on June 21, 2019, which led to the receipt of 1.7 million U.S. dollars from the joint venture from historical surface rentals and other incurred obligations on Offshore Blocks. "In adherence to the revenue sharing agreement, this payment was re-distributed among Somalia's Member States for independent allocation. The processing and distribution of this sum among the member states demonstrate the strength of Somalia's Revenue Sharing Agreement and provides a model for future treatment of funds arising from petroleum exploration and production," said Ahmed. He said the ministry is committed to creating an attractive fiscal and regulatory environment for independent and international oil companies to enter offshore Somalia. "The revenues from any potential resource will be shared and invested for the benefit of all Somali people," Ahmed said. The latest move came after a petroleum legislation was signed into law to help transform the Somalia economy. An army private has pleaded guilty to public order offences and warning a garda after his arrest that he knew people in the IRA and would fix him. Emmet Monaher, of Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick, pleaded guilty at Clonakilty District Court to two charges and said he was extremely apologetic. The court heard that he had become drunk marking the first anniversary of one of his friends. Sgt Paul Kelly told Judge John King that at 12.40am on October 28 last on Pearse St in Clonakilty, Co Cork, Garda Joseph Grimes was on duty and came upon two males having a verbal disagreement. The garda attempted to defuse the situation and spoke to both men and asked them to leave the area. Sgt Kelly said that while one of the males did so, the other, Mr Monaher, aged 28, started to shout abuse at the garda. The court heard that Monaher then tried to follow the other male and that he was very intoxicated and stumbling on the street. As gardai interacted with him he told them to fuck off and he was arrested. The court heard that while en route to the garda station in a patrol car, Monaher told gardai that he had connections with the IRA and he was going to fix you. Monahers solicitor, Louise Healy, said her client had been out that night and that it was the year anniversary of the death of a close friend. She said Monaher had had too much to drink and was extremely apologetic and had apologised to gardai the morning after his arrest. She described her clients actions as a grave error of judgement and that afterwards he sought and has undergone bereavement counselling with Pieta House. One of the privates army superiors was in court and Ms Healy said her client had been in the army for four-and-a-half years and was a very diligent member of the Defence Forces who had never been in trouble of this nature previously. He was grieving for his friend, she said. He took the wrong steps. As for what he said to gardai in the car, Ms Healy said it was a complete mistake he didnt mean to say any of that kind of stuff. She asked for the matter to be dealt with leniently and Judge King ordered a probation report on Monaher to be produced in court on May 5 next, when the matter will be concluded. In the meantime, Monaher was released on continuing bail. New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday rejected the mercy plea of 2012 Delhi gang-rape convict Pawan Gupta. The Delhi government had earlier recommended rejecting his mercy petition. Gupta, 25, one of the four convicts in the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi, had filed a mercy plea on Monday before the President after the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition, Gupta, along with the other four, was scheduled to hang at Delhi's Tihar jail on March 3 but the hanging had not taken place after he filed the curative petition urging the court that his death sentence be changed to life imprisonment. He was the last death row convict in the case to move the top court with his curative plea, the final legal remedy available to a person. His lawyer had filed his petition seeking mercy from the President on Monday soon after the SC order. The trial court had on February 17 issued March 3 as the fresh date for execution of Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31), convicted in the gang rape and murder of a physiotherapy intern. She raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012 and died a fortnight later. The Leinster Leader is among the firms newspaper titles Pre-tax profits at newspaper publisher Formpress Publishing last year rose by 29pc to 1.13m. Formpress is a subsidiary of Iconic Newspapers, and the company operates 20 local news titles here, including 'The Limerick Leader', 'The Dundalk Democrat' and 'The Leinster Leader'. Accounts show revenues at Formpress Publishing Ltd increased marginally to 12.23m from 12.21m in the 12 months to the end of March last. The group has been in acquisition mode since the end of last March. Last April, it purchased the River Media group of titles - the 'Kildare Post', 'Donegal Post', 'Inish Times', 'Derry News' and 'County Derry Post'. More recently, the group has purchased the 'Midland Tribune' and 'Tullamore Tribune'. The directors stated that they were satisfied the results for the year were consistent with expected levels. They added that for many businesses of this size, the industry continued to be challenging. They said the company had developed an established place for itself within the market and would continue developments in this area. Numbers employed by Formpress last year fell to 149 from 153, and staff costs decreased to 6.26m from 6.53m. Key management personnel were paid 1.258m. Other Formpress titles include the 'Kilkenny People', 'Longford Leader', 'Leinster Express', 'Tipperary Star', 'Leitrim Observer', and 'The Nationalist' based in Clonmel. 'The Limerick Leader' is the group's flagship title and in the year under review, the title received a boost following Limerick's All-Ireland senior hurling win in September 2018. The issue after the win was a sell-out which resulted in a reprint of the souvenir supplement. Formpress is 100pc owned by Iconic Newspapers, which paid Johnston Press 8.7m for the Irish titles in April 2014. Iconic is controlled by British advertising executive Malcolm Denmark. The profit takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs of 585,524 for the year. The company's shareholder funds at the end of last March totalled 12.4m. Its cash pile increased sharply to 2.12m from 1.82m. Accumulated profits totalled 4.1m. The amount paid by Mr Denmark for the titles is a fraction of Johnston Press's outlay for local newspapers during the boom. Last December, the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority cleared the purchase by Formpress of the River Media group. The authority formed the view that it would not substantially lessen competition in any market. Group editorial director at Iconic Newspapers, Alan English, is to shortly take up his appointment as the new editor of the 'Sunday Independent'. If the new coronavirus takes a foothold in Oregon, children are almost certainly not the ones you need to worry about. Its elderly adults. Or people with conditions such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, heart disease or lung disease. The virus that causes COVID-19 so far appears to have had little impact on the vast majority of children -- no child age 9 or younger is believed to have died from the disease. Children might show few symptoms, such as a cough, if any at all, and go about their daily lives as usual, scientists believe at this point. Other coronaviruses -- the more deadly SARS and MERS -- exhibited similar behavior, largely overlooking the young and preying on the old. Across the globe, as of Tuesday, COVID-19 had killed more than 3,100 and infected about 93,000 in 78 countries. In China, one study found that people over age 60 accounted for four out of five deaths. One big question is whether children can be frequent carriers of the disease and whether they can efficiently infect older generations. Oregon now has three identified cases of the coronavirus, all in adults, with the first case announced Friday in an employee of Forest Hills Elementary School in Lake Oswego and who lives in Washington County. The case prompted a deep cleaning of the school, and districts around the Portland area tried to address parents concerns by announcing stepped-up efforts to disinfect school buses and frequently touched fixtures such as doorknobs. Oregons top medical officer, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, estimated Monday that 300 to 500 people in Oregon might currently have or already have had the virus without being diagnosed. Oregon so far has done little testing, so the diseases reach isnt known. China, which has been dealing with COVID-19 since its believed to have crossed from an animal population to humans in December, has swiftly tried to gather data on the disease and its effects. A massive study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed nearly 45,000 cases in the country as of Feb. 11. It found that the mortality rate was zero for children in their first decade of life, and 0.1% for people 19 and younger. That compares to the overall death rate of 2.3% in China. (Scientists now think the worldwide death rate might turn out to be closer to 1 percent). By far, it was youngsters grandparents or great grandparents who were the ones who were dying because of the virus: about 15% of people 80 years and older who were infected ultimately died. The death rate was 8% for people in their 70s, 3.6% in their 60s, 1.3% in their 50s and 0.4% or lower for people 49 and younger. Children and teens also were diagnosed at much lower rates -- comprising just about 2% of all confirmed cases in the country, even though they make up about 22% of the population. Last month, the medical journal The Lancet published a study exploring the intriguing effect the coronavirus had on the generations of one family that visited Wuhan, at the epicenter of the Chinese epidemic, for six days in late December and early January. The family was comprised of two parents in their 30s, a 10-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and two of their grandparents in their 60s. After the family flew home to Shenzhen more than 650 miles away, all four of the adults fell ill with the virus, and they soon infected a third grandparent who is in her 60s and came in contact with them all when they returned. The adults had fevers, dry coughs, weakness, sore throat, congestion or diarrhea and sought treatment at a local hospital. The grandparents were the sickest. But the 10-year-old boy? He felt perfectly fine. Only on the insistence of his nervous parents did the hospital do a CT scan of the boys lungs and find signs of viral pneumonia but with no symptoms, according to the study. He also was diagnosed with the new coronavirus. His 7-year-old sister was healthy and tested negative. The World Health Organization released a study last Friday that noted the strikingly different effects the virus has on the young, middle-aged and old. But it stopped short of concluding why. The WHOs scientists werent able to determine if children truly are becoming infected at a lower rate or if its simply that young people have such minor symptoms that theyre never diagnosed. Its not possible to determine the extent of infection among children, what role children play in transmission, whether children are less susceptible of if they present differently clinically, the WHO report reads. Another of the many puzzling characteristics of the disease is that even though it tends to strike people over 60 the hardest, it hasnt spared some relatively young, high profile adults. On Feb. 7, social media in China lit up in anger over the coronavirus-caused death of Li Wenliang, the 33-year-old Wuhan doctor who was among the first to sound the alarm about the new and highly concerning virus, only to be browbeaten by the government into retracting his statements. Another Wuhan doctor, Peng Yinhua, who postponed his wedding to help treat patients, died on Feb. 21. He was 29. Two days later, another 29-year-old doctor, Xia Sisi, died after she became infected by patients and spent more than a month hospitalized. -- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee Subscribe to our Oregon coronavirus newsletter: It worked. Joe Biden used his resounding South Carolina primary victory on Saturday night to quickly knock outand earn the endorsements oftwo rivals, coalescing the other center-left candidates around his candidacy just in time for Super Tuesday. Center-left voters wary of a Sanders nomination followed the cues with a militarylike precision. Were it not for the millions of early ballots castwhich look nothing like the ballots cast on Election DayBiden might have taken Super Tuesday with ease. Advertisement We do not know who will ultimately win the Democratic presidential nomination, and we wont even know the final delegate tally of Super Tuesday, given the uncertainty of California, for some time. Sixty percent of pledged delegates are still outstanding. But what we saw on Super Tuesday, at least, was the Democratic Party falling in line. It was the stuff that party leaders dream of. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Biden surge following South Carolinaafter hed finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, and a distant second in Nevadais unprecedented. Virginia, where there was relatively little early voting, is a good test case. Just a couple of weeks ago, the scant Virginia polling showed Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Michael Bloomberg together in a close race. On Election Day, Biden won 53 percent of the vote, 30 percentage points better than Sanders and 43 ahead of Bloomberg. The margins held up strongly across the state, and turnout increased about 600,000 votes from 2016. North Carolina is a similar state, with a similar three-way contest, that did have a good number of early voters. The early vote was close, but as the Election Day returns came in, Bidens percentage crept comfortably into the low 40s for another big win. Advertisement Advertisement Those wins, if not those margins, werent terrible surprises going into the day. Nor were wins, if not the margins, in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arkansas. Two other wins, though, were complete shocks. Biden won Minnesota, considered a toss-up between Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders all the way back on Monday morning. He also won Massachusetts, a state home to one senator in the race and bordering the home state of anothers. That race, as of Tuesday night, was considered a toss-up between those other local senators, Elizabeth Warren and Sanders. Biden, as of this writing, is holding onto a narrow lead in Maine. He didnt campaign, or advertise, or organize, in any meaningful way or in no way at all, in many of these states. Super Tuesday was as bad a night for campaigning as it was a good night for the value of earned media. Advertisement Advertisement Sanders clung onto victories in Colorado, Utah, and Vermont, states that offered about the same number of delegates combined as North Carolina alone. He won his safest state of the evening, Vermont, with 51 percent of the vote, less than Joe Biden won in Virginia. And while only Biden and Sanders earned enough support statewide to win delegates in Virginia and North Carolina, four candidatesBiden, Sanders, Bloomberg, and Warrenare expected to get statewide delegates out of Colorado. As of this writing, Biden had narrowly taken a lead in Texas, with many more day-of votes remaining to count. Advertisement Advertisement If what transpired between Saturday night and Tuesday night sounds familiar, you may be remembering it from four years ago, when it was the Republican establishments unfulfilled fantasy. Advertisement Advertisement After Donald Trump went on an early-state run with victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, establishment Republicans hoped to consolidate the anti-Trump vote into a single candidate who would then waltz to head-to-head victories against the guy threatening to hijack their party. The vote didnt consolidate by Super Tuesday, though, with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio each taking significant shares of the vote. Rubio wouldnt drop out for another two weeks, until hed lost his home state of Florida. After that, Cruz split votes with a stubborn John Kasichbut by that point, it didnt matter. Trump had kept expanding his base of support, winning pluralities and clean majorities in the biggest states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anti-Sanders Democrats had begun to worry about this exact scenario after Sanders Nevada win, and for the past few weeks their fear had been that Sanders would build an insurmountable delegate lead against a split field by Super Tuesday. So they did something about it. Black voters in South Carolina sent Biden the dominating win he needed to breathe life into his campaign. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar rushed to get out of his way. Endorsements came in. Suburban voters, many of whom have voted Republican in the past, and may have distinct memories of an outsider taking over their party, took the new information and voted tactically. This strategy amounted to half-baked pundit mumblingand it worked! Advertisement If the sunny trends continue for Biden, it will officially be time to retire a phrase that ably described presidential politics for a while: Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. Republican voters gave their nomination to the next guy in line for a half-century until 2016, when they went against all the screaming from the top of their party and gave it to the last guy in line. Democrats, meanwhile, have been known in the past to follow their hearts to a McGovern, a Carter, a Dukakis, or an Obama. But on Super Tuesday, just when they looked like they might follow their hearts enough to give Sanders a dominating lead, they pulled off one of the most agile operations youll ever see to fall in line behind a mainstream alternative. Play the long game In her review of Country Music, reviewer Kylie Northover laments that its a shame Burns doesnt give more time to exploring how integral Afro-American roots were to country music. Im reliably informed that we are actually viewing the heavily edited 9 x 50 minute BBC episodes instead of the original 8 x 2 hour US episodes. Disappointing indeed. Kim Lyons, Melbourne Morse code for missing in action Nice to be just behind the British launch but you were too quick with the new series of Endeavour (ABC, Friday). What happened to Deguello, number 4 in series 6? Richard Andrews, Wodonga (Editor: See review on page 11) TV has gone to the dogs Working some nights at a community residential facility, I get to see reality programs I would never watch at home, for example MKR, The Bachelor and Married at First Sight. After sampling the debut of Pooch Perfect (Channel Seven) I walked away totally convinced that US cult band Devo were culturally astute in their view that we are sliding into the abyss at a rapid rate. Its challenging to imagine anything worse than this very low watermark unless the social engineers at the networks have a canine matchmaking show somewhere in the developmental stages. Bruce Watson, Belgrave Errors tarnish series lustre It was great to see our part of the world being explored by SBS railways series but the episode about Puffing Billy was out-of-date and misleading. Hanging your legs out of the window has been banned since a tourist bus collided with the train. The little train line was built after the area was settled at the request of farmers, loggers and a nurseryman 21 years after the school was opened. Beryl Bartacek, Emerald Giggling not OK I am so disappointed as a woman that both Ellen Fanning and Julia Baird, who I have some respect for as journalists, so often collapse into giggling and interrupting when serious commentary is being provided on The Drum. Tonights example is Julia and Mark Kenny. My recommendation is that, if you arent prepared to give the show to Adam Spencer, then at least give Ellen and Julia some remedial educational assistance. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today arrived in Shamkir for a visit. The head of state first laid flowers at a statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the city of Shamkir. Head of Shamkir Executive Authority Alimpasha Mammadov informed President Ilham Aliyev of the works carried out in the city. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of the newly renovated Shamkir-Abbasli-Narimanli highway. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov informed the head of state of the work done. President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the highway. *** President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening ceremony of the Shamkirchay Water Treatment Complex. Head of Shamkir District Executive Authority Alimpasha Mammadov informed the head of state of the works carried out in the facility. Chairman of Azersu Open Joint Stock Company Gorkhmaz Huseynov informed President Ilham Aliyev about the technical and economic indicators of the complex. The head of state launched the Water Treatment Complex. President Ilham Aliyev then met with the facility staff and addressed the meeting. Speech of President Ilham Aliyev - An exceptional role in the establishment of the Shamkirchay Water Treatment Complex has been played by the Shamkirchay Reservoir. If we hadnt invested a lot of money in the implementation of this giant project, there would be major problems with water supply and high-level organization of irrigation work in the region because there was a severe drought last year. Unfortunately, the forecast for this year is not very reassuring either. Therefore, the implementation of these major projects has saved us from big problems. Along with Shamkirchay, the Takhtakorpu reservoir was built. If the Takhtakorpu water reservoir had not been built several years ago, there would have been a shortage of water in Baku last summer. The Takhtakerpu reservoir feeds our main source of drinking water the Jeyranbatan reservoir. Water is collected and simultaneously treated naturally there and then discharged into Jeyranbatan. Therefore, these major infrastructure projects are of great importance and bring huge benefits. Today we are expanding sown areas and providing people with drinking water. The water coming from the Shamkirchay reservoir and treated here will provide a significant part of the cities of Ganja, Samukh and Shamkir. Today, water is mainly supplied to Ganja from Lake Goygol. But at the end of a major water supply project of Ganja in 2022, the city will have a round-the-clock supply of clean drinking water meeting the standards of the World Health Organization, namely from the Shamkirchay reservoir. These projects show again that all our actions are designed to achieve a result. All steps are taken in a timely manner. Both large reservoirs in Azerbaijan are historic projects because they are labor and financially intensive. These projects are very technically complex. I initiated both projects. During their implementation, I repeatedly enquired about the work being done, gave relevant instructions and took part in the opening of both large projects. Today we are providing people with drinking water and will continue to do that. In most cities of our country, including Shamkir, the problem of drinking water has been solved. I am told that the issue of sewage will be resolved in the city by the end of this year. The problem of water in Samukh will be resolved this year. So about three to five cities are not yet provided with clean drinking water, but they will be provided with drinking water in two years at the latest. At the same time, relevant agencies are dealing with the water supply of villages using the treatment facilities both of Azersu and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. The problem of water in the city of Baku is being resolved. I am told that 80 percent of the Baku population has a continuous supply of clean drinking water. This process will be continued. Therefore, these projects are of great historic importance. Water is about life, cleanliness, health and development. At the same time, it plays a major role in the development of agriculture. The second phase of the Shamkir water canal is nearing completion, and from now on water will be supplied to 40,000 hectares of land that has not been irrigated so far in Goranboy district alone. This in itself will contribute to the creation of jobs, people will begin to live better, agriculture will develop, productivity will increase and our export opportunities will expand. All these are projects envisaged in the state programs on the socioeconomic development of the regions. Each of them is being successfully implemented. Appropriate steps are being taken to develop Shamkir district. I have given a whole series of instructions and signed orders. Infrastructure projects in Shamkir district are being successfully implemented and gas supply level is at 98 percent. The problem of drinking water has been resolved. The construction of roads continues. After the implementation of the new projects I was informed about today, the percentage of good-quality roads will reach about 80. Today, this figure is at 40 percent. Therefore, there are many more projects to be implemented. The Central District Hospital was opened recently. It is a very nice new building. It is fitted with all the necessary equipment and is an excellent medical institution for 190 patients. Other social facilities are being built, 37 schools have been built and refurbished. So we have a comprehensive approach to this. This also includes steps being taken to create jobs. Large agricultural estates have been set up. These agricultural estates cover thousands of hectares of land and significantly strengthen the agriculture and export potential of Shamkir district. It is no coincidence that exports from Shamkir district to foreign countries amount to tens of millions of dollars and will continue to grow. The potential is great, the land is fertile, there is water, people are hardworking, the infrastructure is available. In a year and a half, a four-lane road will be built to the border with Georgia. After that, both the district and our entire country will go only along the path of development. Such financially intensive social projects require very large funds. Of course, with low water tariffs we will never be able to recover these funds to the state. And there is no such goal either. The goal is to provide people with clean water so that they are healthy, and support agriculture with land reclamation measures. We are achieving this goal. I am sure that the district and our entire country will continue to develop successfully. I express my gratitude to Azersu employees for the work done and wish them continued success. *** President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order regarding measures to construct ShamkirZayamDuyarli (18km)Zayam JirdakhanTatarli highway in Shamkir. Under the presidential Order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 7.5 million manats for the construction of the road connecting four residential areas with a total population of 22,000 people Coast Guard and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials on Wednesday recovered gold bars worth Rs 6.3 crore from the sea bed in the Gulf of Mannar off the Tamil Nadu coast. The joint operation took place after two people were nabbed and their fishing boat seized at Mandapam near Rameswaram on March 3, a defence release said. Officials in CG Hovercraft H-197 and interceptor craft IC-114 undertook diving operations in the Gulf of Mannar and recovered the contraband. Officials recovered a cloth package and retrieved gold bars weighing 15 kg concealed in it, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) According to a blog article by firstcircle.ph, the internet population in the Philippines to be the fastest growing in the world. It is determined to have enjoyed a growth rate of 530 percent over the last 5 years. The E-Commerce industry is also set to grow at an annual growth rate of 101.4 percent between 2016 and 2020 and because the Philippines is home to a sizeable youth population it is well placed to see continued online retail activity in the coming years. And this trend is not something that is localized. All across Asia Pacific region, eCommerce sales is growing exponentially and has even surpassed figures in the US and Europe. However, for an online business to be successful, getting the products to the customer is key. Every canceled sale is lost business so the role the courier company an online reseller partners with can spell the difference between success and failure. So, what should online resellers look for in a courier partner? J&T Express, the number one e-commerce delivery company in Southeast Asia, shares some helpful tips to consider when shopping for a courier company for online resellers to partner with. Proven track record of reliability Hands down, this is perhaps the most important criteria online resellers should look for when choosing a courier company to partner with. It is important that the company has a high success rate of getting the items to their destinations since canceled orders is not good for business. Also, it is worth the time to check the feedback from other resellers regarding a particular courier company. Chances are, the more incidences of canceled orders, the more unreliable the courier company may be. Extensive branch network It does not make sense to go into business if your reach will be too limited. Not everybody in your area will want what you are selling. In fact, successful online resellers take pride in being able to ship their products far and wide. So, a courier company that has a nationwide reach is the logical choice to partner with. Shipment tracking system Having a gazillion branches does not mean much if the courier company cannot properly track the shipment. Thats why the courier company that has innovative tracking capabilities will always have an edge over those that dont. A good tracking system will also minimize unwanted customer complaints because they are always updated as to the status of the shipment. Excellent customer service Finally, since there will always be delays in shipment, never overlook the importance of an excellent customer service team. It is important that the courier company you partner with has a customer service team that can properly and patiently handle customer issues since a customer lost is most likely not coming back. J&T Express is an e-commerce delivery company that is dedicated to assisting the growth of the local e-commerce sector by providing top-notch express delivery services. The company applies advanced technologies as well as efficient customer services to enable online businesses to take better advantage of todays online business environment. To date, J&T Express has 400 branches across the Philippines. Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-05 05:28:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ABUJA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen were killed by some unknown gunmen in Nigeria's Delta region, local police said on Wednesday. The two security agents were gunned down earlier in the day, while on special duty in the city of Warri in the Delta State. Some gunmen had hit their duty post, engaging the police in a gunfight. The two policemen were gunned down during the gunfight, said Hafiz Inuwa, the state's police chief. Inuwa said the security agency was working assiduously to apprehend the suspected killers. Enditem Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Cairo is seeking Arab countries' support in the balanced draft resolution submitted on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which includes a number of important elements that would make it clear to Ethiopia that Arab countries stand in support of Egypt and Sudan. The Egyptian foreign minister made the statement in his speech before the Arab League's 153th ministerial meeting held in Cairo on Wednesday. In his speech, Shoukry accused Ethiopia of evading its commitment to the declaration of principles agreement signed in 2015, which stipulates that the GERDs filling and operation process is not to begin until a comprehensive agreement is reached with Egypt and Sudan. Shoukry affirmed that the declaration of principles also stipulates that environmental, economic and social impact studies must be conducted, and that Ethiopia has obstructed these studies in order to obscure any scientific evidence of the negative impact of the dam on the downstream countries. "This constitutes a clear violation of the rules of international law and the principle of not causing any significant harm to the interests of riparian states," Shoukry said. "In 2014, Egypt started a painstaking negotiation process that brought together the brotherly countries of Sudan and Ethiopia. The Egyptian negotiating stance was based on good intentions with the aim of reaching a fair and comprehensive agreement that secures the common interests of the three countries [Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan] and fulfils the developmental aspiration of Ethiopia as a brotherly African country, while preserving the water interests of both Egypt and Sudan and preventing serious harm to their interests, the Egyptian FM said. The Egyptian FM affirmed that the disruption of direct negotiations between the three countries over a period of five years, during which dozens of negotiation rounds took place at the technical and ministerial levels, led to Egypt's call for international parties to participate as mediators. "The United States responded to this call and participated in the extensive negotiations held since last November and attended by the World Bank, which ended up with a balanced and fair agreement on the basis of negotiations that took place between the three countries, including detailed rules for filling and operating the GERD and specific procedures for coping with droughts, extended droughts, and scarce flow," Shoukry said. In a sign of good intentions and sincere political will, Egypt signed the agreement prepared by the international mediators, while Ethiopia did not accept this agreement and was absent from the last ministerial meeting called for by the American administration on 27 and 28 February," the Egyptian FM added. A 27-year old Australian woman was on Wednesday sentenced to seven years in jail for killing an Indian student cum delivery truck driver while she was speeding on a stolen car under the influence of drugs last year. Sophie Louise Brine was speeding through Salisbury South on January 4 last year when the stolen car she was driving under the influence of drugs hit and killed the 25-year-old Jatinder Brar, who was an accounting student but also worked as a supermarket delivery truck driver for chain Woolworths. Earlier, Brine pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court to an aggravated charge of death by dangerous driving and leaving an accident scene. On Wednesday, District Court Judge Joanne Tracey sentenced Brine to seven years' jail with a non-parole period of five years and seven months. Tracey banned Brine from driving indefinitely once released from prison, until a court order allowed her to do so and described Brine's decision to leave the scene of the accident as "reprehensible". "Your offending is a very serious example of this type of offending - you were on drugs, evading police, in a stolen car and you were disqualified," Tracey said. "The CCTV vision of your driving on that day would undoubtedly strike fear in any other road user. The footage demonstrates that it was inevitable that there was going to be a collision with another car or pedestrian sooner or later," the judge said. The court had previously heard that the vehicle involved in the crash was stolen from north-west of Adelaide few days before the accident. The court also heard that the local police spotted the stolen car on Port Wakefield Road about ten minutes before the crash but Brine, who was disqualified from driving at that time, sped off in a dangerous manner. The police prosecutor told the court that a member of the public noticed the car clocking about 180 kilometres per hour shortly before hitting the truck, which hit a tree before rolling on Kings Road. The court heard Brine did not stop her vehicle and was tracked by the police helicopter and arrested. A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted the victim Brar's friend Aman Dhillon saying that Brar's death had been "very tough" on his family, particularly his mother Kulwinder Kaur, who had come from India to witness the sentencing. "She says she can't forgive her because she ruined her world and this world is nothing for her now," Dhillon said, adding "His mother is alone in the world now". "She is crying every day now because he was calling her every day telling her how his day had been and what he had been doing and now she is not going to get any calls from him," he said. Dhillon said the family had expected the maximum life penalty for the accounting student's death. "Still, we respect the justice system - they did their best and hopefully Brine will turn around her life and be a better person for the society when she comes back," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PHILIPSBURG:---The St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry (COCI) Board recently had a very fruitful meeting with the Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Hon. Pamela Gordon Carty regarding Ministry VSAs change in the labor policy to reduce unemployment on St. Maarten. The Chamber recently sent a letter to the Minister where it says it has taken note of various articles in the media in particular business associations that have expressed their discontent with the aforementioned policy. In addition, we noted that members of Parliament have also noted their concerns with the matter at hand. As you and your Labour Department are aware, COCI being the initial registry for business activity and mandated by country St. Maarten in its role to render solicited and unsolicited advice to government with regards to matters of socio-economic, commerce and business development of the country that can have an impact to our (business) market, we hereby seek an audience with your ministry with respect to the aforementioned policy change. President of the COCI Board Benjamin Ortega said on Tuesday that the meeting was opened by the Minister who provided background information about the policy change. On behalf of the board, I thanked the Minister for meeting with us and then provided some insight into the goal of the meeting, which was to further establish the working relationship to assist within our role as Chamber giving advice to government and stakeholders. The meeting ended with both parties agreeing to send each other more detailed information and to follow up with a committee meeting to better execute the various actions in working together. The main goal of this engagement was to give the needed assistance to the Labour Department and ensure that matters that can improve doing business on the island as well employing those that are contributing to our economy a better opportunity. Once the various policies, actions, and improvements have been identified, Ministry VSA, as well as COCI, will provide an update to the community. The Chamber recognizes the fact that there are various entities and businesses that might well take advantage of the work permit policy versus the much-needed employment of the local workforce seeking employment which desperately needs assistance from the private and public sectors. We understand that there is no one-stop solution, yet the introduction of measures that actively address various (other) matters of concern; and that further also contribute to the growing unemployment on the island needs to be carefully studied with respect to their perceived negative impact on a very fragile economy. The Chamber supports measures that would positively improve business and commerce activities and customer relations between entities and communicating these to companies registered with the Chamber and the community-at-large. We look forward to a follow-up meeting based on our most recent discussions with the Minister and representatives from Ministry VSA, President of the COCI Board Benjamin Ortega said on Tuesday. V4 summit to discuss response to the spread of the coronavirus, in Prague By Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday a new wave of migrants trying to cross the border from Turkey into the European Union must be stopped as far south as possible and his government was ready to help frontline Greece. "It won't be enough just to defend the Greek-Turkish border," said Orban, a staunch anti-immigrant populist. "As a last resort, as in 2015, there are the Hungarians," he said. "Even if Greece's attempt is successful, the EU border must be defended...which Hungary will do," he told a news conference with Central European leaders. Turkey, alarmed by the prospect of another wave of refugees fleeing war in northwest Syria, said last week it will no longer uphold a 2016 deal with the EU to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants on its soil in return for EU aid. Since then, more than 10,000 migrants - mostly from Syria, other Middle Eastern states and Afghanistan - have massed on the Greek border hoping to get to western Europe. Greek security forces have used tear gas to stop them crossing. "We will give all the help we can for Greece to stop this...Orban said. "We must do something about (them)." Orban has campaigned for years to draw up strong EU defenses and deal with migrants in Africa and Asia, before they ever reach European soil. He said on Wednesday that about 130,000 migrants were already in the Balkans from previous influxes. Europe should follow the policies Hungary adopted years ago, he said. In 2015, at the height of the migrant crisis, Orban had a razor wire fence built along Hungary's southern border, complete with sensors, floodlights and frequent patrols by border forces. The fence has been criticized for years as has Orban's policy to turn back virtually all migrants at the border, sometimes by depriving them of food in holding zones at border crossings. Migrants have trickled through the Balkans for years. Their numbers have picked up behind the fence in recent months and an increasing number of them have been trying to breach it, police figures show. (Reporting by Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Last week another barrage of rockets rained down on the Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip. It happens so frequently here that it seems the world hardly notices, anymore. Another warning. Another rocket. Another day. The terrorists in the Gaza Strip aim them directly into the communities of the elderly, targeting also parents and their children in towns like Sderot. Then last week, they hit a playground a playground not far from a park where we will soon install six new, mobile bomb shelters provided by Christian friends of the Jewish people. As a mother of four, its terrifying to see pictures of that playground destroyed by Gazan terrorists with their rockets. I can't imagine the number of young lives that would have been lost if Israel had not worked as hard as it has to provide an early warning system to its citizens, while also destroying many rockets in the air, and had organization like ours take it as our personal responsibility to do our part in protecting the Jewish people. Because the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews engages in extensive humanitarian work throughout this part of Israel, our staff is connected via a messaging service, so that anytime another incident happens, we are immediately notified. In these moments of crisis, we have volunteers and staff calling and visiting the elderly living alone to check on them and ensure their safety. It seems as if our phones never stop lighting up, and neither does the sky above us. Day or night, theres always an alert warning us that another Israeli community is in the line of fire. This latest attack, on a playground, occurred just hours after a much-publicized rift between AIPAC and Senator Bernie Sanders. AIPACs annual meeting is being boycotted by Sanders, which has caused particular alarm among Jews around the world. The senator told the American people in a tweet, I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference. There was an immediate avalanche of criticism from virtually every one of the major, American Jewish organizations left, right and center. Traditionally, gatherings like AIPAC are bipartisan and have existed to find common ground among all of Americas politicians in order to bring peace and security to Israel. The criticism of Sanders was justified. For as long as the rockets keep falling on Israel from terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and whatever the machinations of American politics bring us in 2020, there is no room for any waffling by any American politician as it relates to the United States unwavering support for the State of Israel. We must all stand against this renewed and unjustified politicization of Israel in American politics. While American politicians argue about policy and consider optics, in Israel, our mothers and fathers, along with their children, will have just have to keep running towards their bomb shelters the next time they hear a siren. Their ultimate hope will rest in the God of Israel, and the strength of the State of Israel. But, hopefully, their hope will also remain fixed upon the confidence drawn from our American allies, in both political parties. For the sake of Israels children, American people who cherish freedom must not allow the further politicization of the State of Israel where some things are clearly, morally right and morally wrong. There is no room for hedging when rockets fall in playgrounds. The total number of Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases reported in India has risen to 28 on Wednesday after 15 people who were part of an Italian tourist group tested positive for the viral infection. 24 people including three Indians who were part of the group was taken to the quarantine facility of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chhawla near Delhi, where they were tested positive for Covid-19. Read more 36 People Who Hyderabad Man Was In Touch With, Show Signs Of COVID-2019, Suspected Cases In Agra Health authorities in Telangana are racing against time to identify everyone whom the 25-year-old techie who was tested positive for Coronavirus (Covid-1) had come into contact with after 36 of the 88 people showed some symptoms of the deadly infection. AFP Though none of them have tested positive for Covid-19 so far the authorities are waiting for the test results. Those who showed symptoms include his co-passengers on the bus from Bengaluru to Hyderabad. Read more All Nirbhaya Convicts Have Exhausted Their Options, Will We Get The Final Execution Date Now The prosecution has moved the court seeking issuance of fresh death warrant of execution against convicts of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case. Hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four convicts, the Tihar Jail authorities had said that they will move Patiala House court for fixing the fresh date of execution of the four men. Read more Unnao Rape Convict & Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar Found Guilty In Death Of The Victim's Father Ousted BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh Kuldeep Singh Sengar and brother have been convicted in the death of the father of the Unnao rape complainant. BCCL The Tis Hazari Court in Delhi held Senger and six others guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the custodial death two years ago. Read more 18-Year-Old Boy Takes His Life In Gwalior. He Had Failed Thrice In Class X Exams An 18-year-old boy is alleged to have killed himself in Gwalior. The police said they are investigating the matter. His name was Sumit and he was a Class X student. He had failed three times in his school exams. Read more 50 White-Throated Laughingthrush Found Dead, Could've Died After Eating Pesticide-Laden Food Around 50 white-throated laughingthrush birds have been found dead in mysterious circumstances in the forests of Berinag sub-division of Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand. Berinag forest range officer Manoj Sanwal confirmed the mass death, saying they were being sent for a postmortem to ascertain the cause of their death. Read more The state government has vowed not to punish home owners living on blocks contaminated by a toxic waste dump on the former Sunshine Landfills site, even though its own legislation says landowners will become legally and financially liable for contamination from July 1. After another day of confusion surrounding the contaminated land in St Albans and Albion, an Andrews government spokesperson, after being questioned by The Age, pledged that "residents who live on the former Sunshine Landfills site will not receive fines or be criminally punished in any way under the new legislation". Alexandra Soto and her son, who live in Denton Avenue in St Albans and have just learnt that their home is on top of toxic waste. Credit:Justin McManus Sweeping changes to the Environment Protection Act, introduced by the Andrews government and aimed at cowboy polluters, are about to put the onus on landowners to clean up contaminated land. Not doing so could be a criminal offence, with fines ranging from $99,000 to $3.3 million. In special circumstances, a criminal conviction could be handed down with a potential prison sentence. Alexandra Soto, who has lived with her son and husband for 18 years at one of the affected properties, said she had never been told by the local council that they might be held responsible for the contamination. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. chairman and CEO Roger Crandall received a 15% hike in his compensation last year, as the insurer gave him a special award meant in part to keep him from leaving the company. Crandall earned $18.1 million in total compensation in 2019, according to a disclosure statement recently posted to MassMutuals website. That includes $10 million in long-term incentive awards, similar to stock options at a publicly traded company. Those wont be paid out for years. But last year, Crandall received an additional $2 million as a special award that's similar in nature to the long-term incentives, the filing said. While the filing did not identify the reason for that award, a MassMutual spokeswoman said in an email it was granted to drive retention and incentivize behavior to increase earnings and policyowner value over the long term. Crandalls annual bonus came in at $4.3 million, up from $4 million in 2018. The bonus has steadily increased: Five years ago, his bonus was just $1.54 million. Earlier this week, MassMutual reported what it described as excellent financial results for 2019, saying that total sales through its U.S. insurance and retirement operations increased by 15% year-over-year. After accounting for items such as policyowner dividends, MassMutuals net income was also up significantly, it said. Overall revenue was essentially flat year-over-year, at $31.9 billion. Springfield-based MassMutual is bulking up its presence in Boston, with a plan to open a new, 300,000-square-foot building in the Seaport District next year. Crandall was not the only executive to receive a special award. MassMutual Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Chicares and Chief Investment Officer Timothy Corbett were given awards of $1.45 million and $1.28 million, respectively. This article originally appeared on the Boston Business Journals website. A wasted decade of inactivity and slow political progress mean nations must now do four times as much work to meet climate change targets, a new study claims. Nations must quadruple their efforts, or do the same in one-third of the time, to comply with the climate pact they made as part of the Paris Agreement in 2015. The accord commits countries to keeping the increase in the global average temperature well below 3.6F (2C) and attempting to limit it to 2.7F (1.5C). However, the report claims countries current proposals will lead to a slight increase in emissions by 2030, rather than halving them, as agreed. Governments are to blame for a large gap between climate pledges and reality, and they and the private sector now need to switch into 'crisis mode', the report says. Greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed by more than seven per cent a year for the next decade to avoid 'climate disaster'. Steam and smoke from waste coal and stone rises after being dumped next to an unauthorised steel factory on November 3, 2016 in Inner Mongolia The conclusions are based on a combination of 10 editions of the Emissions Gap Report, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme. Clearly, the promises must be overhauled and then, crucially, kept if the yawning gap between "talk and walk" is going to close by 2030, the study, published in Nature, warns. Had serious climate action begun in 2010, the cuts required to meet the emissions levels for 2C would have been around two per cent per year, on average, up to 2030. 'Instead, emissions increased, and therefore the required cuts from 2020 are now more than seven per cent per year on average for 1.5C close to three per cent for 2C.' Cracks are seen in the dried up municipal dam in drought-stricken Graaff-Reinet, South Africa Staying within the 2.7F (1.5C) limit on global temperature increases is necessary to avoid disastrous consequences, scientists say, such as habitable land going underwater. It would also lead to the near-total extinction of coral reefs and extreme weather around the world. The new report also warns that the time window for halving emissions has narrowed from 30 years in 2010 to ten years for 2.7F and 25 years for 3.6F. WHAT IS THE UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME? The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coordinates the UN's environmental activities. It publishes Emissions Gap Reports, science-based assessments, every year. Each year for the past ten years, the UNEP report has examined the gap between what countries have pledged to do individually to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and what they need to do collectively to meet agreed temperature goals. The tenth anniversary of the report coincides with the 2020 milestone to which countries agreed in Paris. The findings of the new study in Nature are based on pooling data from all 10 editions of the Emissions Gap Report produced by UNEP. Advertisement The gap is so huge governments, the private sector and communities need to switch into crisis mode, make their climate pledges more ambitious and focus on early and aggressive action, the report says. Otherwise, the Paris Agreement's long-term goals are out of reach. We do not have another ten years. The research paper, which includes contributions from authors in the UK, say the situation is far worse than first feared owing to a decade of insufficient political action on climate change. The past decade of political failure on climate change has cost us all dear, it says. It has shrunk the time left for action by two-thirds. In 2010, the world thought it had 30 years to halve global emissions of greenhouse gases. Today, we know this must happen in ten years to minimise the effects of climate change. Incremental shifts that might once have been sufficient are no longer enough. The study found global annual greenhouse gas emissions increased by 14 per cent between 2008 and 2018 meaning they now have to decline faster than was previously estimated. A man demonstrates as Greenpeace stages a climate protest at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in Schiphol, Netherlands back in December 2019 The international community also agrees it must ensure a lower global temperature rise than it decided on ten years ago because climate risks are better understood. The only time in recent history when emissions have fallen by around seven per cent the new annual target in any country came during the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the financial crisis and recession emissions in the US and Japan fell briefly by about six per cent but soon rebounded. However, it's hoped increasingly cheap technologies such as renewable energy and electric vehicles could enable deep cuts in without jeopardising economic growth. In the UK, another study revealed this week that UK carbon dioxide emissions have fallen to levels not seen since the 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria, due to a huge reduction on the reliance of coal to generate power. Out: Donald Trump's administration formally started the process of leaving the Paris Climate accord signed by Obama in 2015 The United Kingdom together with 75 other parties and California have at least set ambitious goals to become carbon neutral, which might send signals to industry even before supporting policies are implemented, the report adds. Meanwhile, 26 banks have stopped directly financing new coal-fired power plants, it says. Latest estimates suggest the current pledges made by countries under the Paris Agreement would cause temperature rises of an alarming 5.76F (3.2C) this century. The US controversially began the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in November last year and will leave in November 2020. Explaining the decision back in 2017, US President Donald Trump said the accord disadvantages the United States and is to the exclusive benefit of other countries. HARTFORD - State Sen. Kevin Kelly (R-21) and state Sen. Paul Formica (R-20) urged lawmakers at a public hearing at the state Capitol Feb. 27 to support a proposed bill to remove barriers to public assistance programs for Connecticut veterans. Kelly, ranking member of the Aging Committee, and Formica, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, testified together before the General Assemblys Committee on Veterans Affairs in support of Senate Bill 220 An Act Expanding Certain Veterans Eligibility for Public Assistance Programs. The proposed bill would exclude all veterans pension benefits from income when determining eligibility for public assistance programs. The senators are advocating for the bill to specifically address an issue regarding Aid and Attendance benefits in which the process to qualify for assistance has led to people becoming ineligible for the very program they sought help from in the first place, they said. Aid and Attendance benefits help veterans pay for the assistance they may need in everyday functioning such as eating, bathing, dressing, and medication management, according to the senators. Our veterans and their loved ones have sacrificed so much to serve our country, defend our freedoms and protect our way of life, said Kelly. What they earned in benefits from their time in service should not be counted against them or prevent them from obtaining assistance when they are in need. It is not right that the process required for a veteran to attain this beneficial assistance ends up resulting in them becoming ineligible for the very care they sought in the first place, added Kelly. Kelly and Formica testified that Aid and Attendance benefits have been exempted from consideration for public assistance benefits in recent years. However, in order to qualify for these benefits, a veteran must first apply for veterans pension benefits. In some cases, Kelly said the veterans pension, which is currently counted as income, then makes the applicant ineligible for public assistance benefits despite the fact that the Aid and Attendance benefits are not considered a counted resource. They found that everyone had pretty much the same emotional response to the music. For example, The Star-Spangled Banner made people feel pride, while Ed Sheerans Shape of You made them feel joyful. But even though people in China and the United States felt angry from listening to a particular song, says Cowen, They differed in whether they thought that experience was good or bad. NEW YORK, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Tupperware Brands Corporation ("Tupperware" or the "Company") (NYSE: TUP). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Tupperware and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On February 24, 2020, post-market, Tupperware issued a press release announcing that the Company will be unable to timely file its annual report for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2019. Tupperware also announced that it expects 2019 net earnings per share ("EPS") "in the range of breakeven to $0.34 versus $3.11 in the prior year[,]" and adjusted EPS of $1.35 to $1.70. Tupperware stated that its financial results were affected by "financial reporting issues" concerning the Company's Fuller Mexico beauty brand and that the Company is "conducting an investigation primarily into the accounting for accounts payable and accrued liabilities" at Fuller Mexico. Additionally, Tupperware announced that it "is forecasting a need for relief concerning its existing leverage ratio covenant in its $650 million Credit Agreement dated March 29, 2019 [], to avoid a potential acceleration of the debt, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company." On this news, Tupperware's stock price fell sharply during intraday trading on February 25, 2020. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links http://www.pomerantzlaw.com The US House of Representatives has passed the $8.3bn bipartisan bill for emergency funding to fight the coronavirus with overwhelming support from both parties. The 415-2 vote was passed by the House just hours after members of both chambers struck a deal agreeing the emergency funding. The bill must now pass the Senate before President Donald Trump can sign it. Senate leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that their goal was to get legislation done this week. It could come up for a vote as early as Thursday. This should not be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people from a potential pandemic, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby in a press release announcing that lawmakers had come to an agreement. The Trump administration had initially only asked for $2.5bn, whereas the agreed package provides $7.8bn for government agencies directly confronting the virus, and authorises approximately $500m over a 10-year period to be used towards a remote healthcare programme, NBC News reports. Health officials have been calling for quick action to counter the spread of the virus, which has now killed 11 Americans. The rapid pace of negotiations recognised the urgency of the situation. Shortly after the announcement of the deal it was revealed that California had seen its first death from the deadly virus, the first American fatality outside Washington state. The victim was elderly and had an underlying health condition, Pacer County health officials said. Recommended California suffers first coronavirus death bringing US toll to 11 We worked together to craft an aggressive and comprehensive response that provides the resources the experts say they need to combat this crisis. I thank my colleagues for their cooperation and appreciate President Trumps eagerness to sign this legislation and get the funding out the door without delay, Mr Shelby added. The president has said that he would spend whatever is appropriate to combat the spread of the virus. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the agreement for allowing Congress to deliver the "coordinated, whole-of-government response needed to keep Americans safe". A House Democratic aide told CNBC that the proposal includes more than $3bn dedicated to the research and development of vaccines, as well as therapeutics and diagnostics. A further $2.2bn in public health funding will aid in prevention, preparedness, and response efforts, including $950m to support state and local agencies. Nearly $1bn is intended to go towards medical supplies, health care preparedness, community health centres and medical surge capacity. The bill also earmarks $1.25bn to address the coronavirus overseas through US AID, and increases the cap on evacuations from $10m to $100m. There is a further plan to use the Small Business Administration to provide low interest loans to suffering businesses. Finally, $300m will help ensure that, when a vaccine is developed, Americans can receive it regardless of their ability to pay, the aide said. This is understood to have been a point of contention between Republican and Democrat lawmakers, the former arguing that the latter was trying to impose price controls. When questioned on vaccine affordability last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar angered Democrats by suggesting that a coronavirus vaccine might not be affordable for all Americans and that a price cap would harm private sector investment in research. Senator McConnell argues that procedures already exist so the government can buy and distribute new medicines in scenarios like this to ensure accessibility. To date there have been 138 cases recorded in the US, a number which is predicted to rise dramatically in the coming days. Though the Covid-19 epidemic has spread to Japan and South Korea, some local exporters to the two markets are still experiencing good results. Vo Quan Huy, director of An Huy Limited Company in Long An Province exports about 240 tonnes of bananas to Japan and Korea each month. Photo laodong.vn Le Thi Thanh Lam, deputy general director of Sai Gon Food Joint Stock Company told local media: The export of frozen processed foods to Japan has not been affected at all. Instead, it is better than before. Before, Saigon Food exported an average of 1,000 tonnes of products each month. This has increased by 20 per cent. Lam said: "The orders have doubled, but we cant meet demand. We can only provide another 20 per cent to keep the quality of the products. Lam said raw materials for the export products were imported from Japan and some European countries. They would be then processed and re-exported to the Japanese market. Her firm saw a doubling in the domestic market for hotpots, instant food, vermicelli, noodles and fresh porridge for children. Exporting bananas to Japan, Korea, Malaysia and China, Vo Quan Huy, director of An Huy Limited Company in Long An Province said: The export volume to Japan and South Korea was still good and smooth. Every month, Huy sent 15 containers with 16 tonnes of bananas each to the two markets. Huy said though Chinese partners wanted to buy his bananas, he did not have enough fruit to meet their demand. A representative of Acecook Vietnam, which exports noodles to Japan, said: The exports are stable, adding that exports to other markets were still good. The representative even estimated: "Acecook Vietnam's export sales plan for 2020 is expected to grow by 10 per cent compared to 2019." VNS Samsung exports spur Vietnams foreign trade Despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Vietnams foreign trade in the first two months of the year picked up by 2.4% year-on-year to reach US$74 billion as Samsung boosted the exports of its new products. She's already filmed her final scenes as Corporal Georgie Lane. And Our Girl fans have been given a glimpse of Michelle Keegan's final bow in an epic trailer for the fourth series. The actress, 32, appears in the emotional preview as Georgie continues to struggle following the death of her fiance Captain Elvis Harte, and it seems that she'll be facing her demons she prepares to bring down the warlord Omar once and for all. Scroll down for video Dramatic: Our Girl fans have been given a glimpse of Michelle Keegan's final scenes in a first look trailer for the fourth series In the trailer, it seems that Georgie will be forced to face Omar once again, as she is told they're heading back to Afghan. The army medic is also tasked with training up some new recruits, as she says they're 'going to need bedding in.' As the trailer reveals the team heading into the dangerous territory, Georgia learns that a hospital has been targeted by the local warlord. Hard: The actress appears in the emotional preview as Georgie continues to struggle following the death of her fiance Elvis (pictured) Tense: The trailer with packed with dramatic scenes, including a tense mission as 2 Section are sent back to Afghan to track down the warlord Omar Even though it's now been several series since Elvis (played by Luke Pasqualino) was tragically killed, Georgie still seems to be struggling with her fiance's passing, as she tries to reason with a local woman who has been targeted by Omar. She tells her: 'My fiance was killed on a mission to get Omar, the same warlord who killed your husband and is now targeting you.' As the trailer features snapshots if an explosion followed by some form of pursuit, it seems that Georgie continues to be haunted by flashbacks of Elvis. She emotionally says: 'I just keep being reminded of Elvis, I don't think I can do this anymore.' Teaming up: The team are deployed to track down Omar once and for all, with Georgie also tasked with training up some new recruits Tense: The trailer features snapshots of the mission, with lives clearly at stake in the heart-stopping fourth series What will happen? It remains to be seen whether Georgie will survive her latest mission, after actress Michelle confirmed that this would be her final series of Our Girl It remains to be seen whether Georgie will survive her latest mission, after actress Michelle confirmed that this would be her final series of Our Girl. The former Coronation Street star announced in January that she was quitting her role as the corporal after four years filming on the show. The demanding filming schedule of the show has seen the Stockport born star travel to South Africa, Nepal and Malaysia for several months of filming a year. Michelle's husband Mark Wright, 33, recently moved back to the UK from Los Angeles where he was working on US TV. When speaking with The Sun about her decision the ex-Coronation street star said: 'Ive had the most incredible four years on the show and I want to thank the BBC for giving me such an amazing opportunity. 'Playing Georgie has been a life changing role for me. Ive loved every second of the adventure so it was a very hard decision to make not to return. 'I feel it is the right time to explore other exciting opportunities but Im so happy to be part of the new series coming soon so its not the end just yet.' Uncertainty remains the dominant mood as Formula 1 teams prepare for the opening races of 2020. Amid the coronavirus crisis, which has already claimed the Chinese GP, the Melbourne season opener appears safe for now but strong doubts about Bahrain and Vietnam persist. F1's Italian-based contingent is most affected, as staff for Ferrari, Alpha Tauri, Pirelli and to a lesser degree Haas and Alfa Romeo face the prospect of long quarantine periods. "It would be a huge disadvantage," Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost is quoted by RMC Sport. F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn has said that if teams like Ferrari and Alpha Tauri cannot race, the grands prix will not go ahead without them. "We also need to understand the Pirelli problem," said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, referring to the fact that staff working for F1's official tyre supplier come from the deeply coronavirus-affected Italian north. Ferrari and Pirelli have now called off Thursday's scheduled test of the 2021-spec 18-inch tyres at Fiorano. "As a global sport, we are in an incredibly serious situation," said Claire Williams. "We have a lot of responsibility to react appropriately to the latest events with lightening speed. "Everyone in Formula 1 wants to do what they are passionate about, which is race, but the bottom line is that people must be kept safe." Until now, F1 CEO Chase Carey has put a brave face on the crisis, but even he admits he isn't sure what is going to happen next. "The situation is constantly changing," he said. "It is really difficult to look too far into the future. It's changing so quickly. "We are continuing to prepare so that we can proceed with the races we have planned, but we have to take decisions that are right for everyone - the spectators and the competitors." (GMM) New Delhi, March 4 : Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, after visiting a school in the riot-hit northeast Delhi here on Wednesday, said, "Violence benefits none. It only harms people and Bharat Mata." Terming schools the future of the country, he said hatred and violence had razed one. Rahul Gandhi who led a delegation of party MPs to the riot-hit Brijpuri, didn't cross the Brijpuri Bridge on the advice of top security officials. The Congress delegation left in two batches, one from Kerala House and other from the residence of Rahul Gandhi as the police permission was delayed. The violence that started on February 23 claimed 47 lives, including security personnel. Meanwhile, the Congress continued to protest in Parliament on Wednesday demanding discussion on the riots. Calling it "state sponsored", the Congress said it had decided not to let Parliament function until the government agreed to a debate and to fixe the accountability for the riots. "We have been demanding debate on Delhi violence for the last three days. We want to know who is behind the violence and the reason that led to killing of around 50 people," said Naseer Hussain at the Parliament premises. The government was not ready to fix the accountability of Delhi riots, neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Minister was ready to answer questions on the riots, he added. Charging the government with being non-serious, he said it said in the House the debate could take place only after the return of normalcy and at the other hand spoke outside Parliament that the situation had become normal. "What's the truth?. Both can't be true at the same time time," Hussain. All other approaches outside of this will move the European Union, which is already wallowing in the mire of xenophobia and racism, a little further from its own values, he said. The US Department of Defence announced Tuesday approval to sell new KC-46 Pegasus aerial refuelling aircraft to its staunch Middle East ally Israel. Israel would buy up to eight of the Boeing-built aircraft and related equipment for an estimated USD 2.4 billion, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said after the State Department approved the proposed deal, of which Congress has been notified. The multi-role aircraft makes mid-air refueling possible for fighter jets and other aircraft, but can also be used for military transport. "The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. It said that Israel's having its own KC-46s would help back up the US military's own, "potentially freeing US assets for use elsewhere during times of war." The proposed sale comes despite delays in the Pegasus program The main question is about the design of its refueling function. The US Air Force has found significant problems with the KC-46's remote vision system, essential in trying to line up and attach the refueling boom to the aircraft seeking to fill up its tanks. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said they were pressing Boeing to address the problem. "Right now we are in final negotiations with the company on the fix," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. The first KC-46 was delivered to the US Air Force a year ago and the service has ordered 179 of the planes. Israel is the second country to be approved for the KC-46. Boeing is building two of the aircraft for Japan. Based on the airframe of the Boeing 767, the KC-46 is to replace the Air Force's aging line of KC-10 and KC-135 tankers, many of which were manufactured during the Cold War. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook began putting warning tags on news stories fact-checkers judged to be false. But there's a catch: Tagging some stories as false makes readers more willing to believe other stories and share them with friends, even if those additional, untagged stories also turn out to be false. That is the main finding of a new study co-authored by an MIT professor, based on multiple experiments with news consumers. The researchers call this unintended consequence -- in which the selective labeling of false news makes other news stories seem more legitimate -- the "implied-truth effect" in news consumption. "Putting a warning on some content is going to make you think, to some extent, that all of the other content without the warning might have been checked and verified," says David Rand, the Erwin H. Schell Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a newly published paper detailing the study. "There's no way the fact-checkers can keep up with the stream of misinformation, so even if the warnings do really reduce belief in the tagged stories, you still have a problem, because of the implied truth effect," Rand adds. Moreover, Rand observes, the implied truth effect "is actually perfectly rational" on the part of readers, since there is ambiguity about whether untagged stories were verified or just not yet checked. "That makes these warnings potentially problematic," he says. "Because people will reasonably make this inference." Even so, the findings also suggest a solution: Placing "Verified" tags on stories found to be true eliminates the problem. advertisement The paper, "The Implied Truth Effect," has just appeared in online form in the journal Management Science. In addition to Rand, the authors are Gordon Pennycook, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Regina; Adam Bear, a postdoc in the Cushman Lab at Harvard University; and Evan T. Collins, an undergraduate researcher on the project from Yale University. BREAKING: More labels are better To conduct the study, the researchers conducted a pair of online experiments with a total of 6,739 U.S. residents, recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. Participants were given a variety of true and false news headlines in a Facebook-style format. The false stories were chosen from the website Snopes.com and included headlines such as "BREAKING NEWS: Hillary Clinton Filed for Divorce in New York Courts" and "Republican Senator Unveils Plan To Send All Of America's Teachers Through A Marine Bootcamp." The participants viewed an equal mix of true stories and false stories, and were asked whether they would consider sharing each story on social media. Some participants were assigned to a control group in which no stories were labeled; others saw a set of stories where some of the false ones displayed a "FALSE" label; and some participants saw a set of stories with warning labels on some false stories and "TRUE" verification labels for some true stories. In the first place, stamping warnings on false stories does make people less likely to consider sharing them. For instance, with no labels being used at all, participants considered sharing 29.8 percent of false stories in the sample. That figure dropped to 16.1 percent of false stories that had a warning label attached. advertisement However, the researchers also saw the implied truth effect take effect. Readers were willing to share 36.2 percent of the remaining false stories that did not have warning labels, up from 29.8 percent. "We robustly observe this implied-truth effect, where if false content doesn't have a warning, people believe it more and say they would be more likely to share it," Rand notes. But when the warning labels on some false stories were complemented with verification labels on some of the true stories, participants were less likely to consider sharing false stories, across the board. In those circumstances, they shared only 13.7 percent of the headlines labeled as false, and just 26.9 percent of the nonlabeled false stories. "If, in addition to putting warnings on things fact-checkers find to be false, you also put verification panels on things fact-checkers find to be true, then that solves the problem, because there's no longer any ambiguity," Rand says. "If you see a story without a label, you know it simply hasn't been checked." Policy implications The findings come with one additional twist that Rand emphasizes, namely, that participants in the survey did not seem to reject warnings on the basis of ideology. They were still likely to change their perceptions of stories with warning or verifications labels, even if discredited news items were "concordant" with their stated political views. "These results are not consistent with the idea that our reasoning powers are hijacked by our partisanship," Rand says. Rand notes that, while continued research on the subject is important, the current study suggests a straightforward way that social media platforms can take action to further improve their systems of labeling online news content. "I think this has clear policy implications when platforms are thinking about attaching warnings," he says. "They should be very careful to check not just the effect of the warnings on the content with the tag, but also check the effects on all the other content." DHARAMSHALA: The eight branches of Tibetan Childrens Village (TCV) School being run by the Tibetan government-in-exile in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Karnataka have declared a holiday for students up to Class 8 amid the coronavirus scare. TVC school president Thupten Dorjee said the schools were to reopen after a two-month winter break on Tuesday but the holiday has been extended for children up to Class 8. This is strictly a precautionary measure and not intended to create panic, Dorjee was quoted as saying by the Tibetan media. TCV schools are residential schools with more than 8,000 students. At the moment, safety of the students is more important than resuming classes, he said, adding that the decision on junior classes will be made later. Tibetan government-in-exile education minister Pema Yangchen said that students of Classes 9 to 12 are attending school and taking the board exams as usual. Older students are easier to handle and more responsible, she said. The first suspected case of coronavirus in the state was reported from Bilaspur district on Tuesday. The suspected patient had recently visited South Korea and has been quarantined at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla. The recent severe flooding episodes which inundated large parts of the country were a case of deja vu for those affected, mindful of similar disasters in December 2015 and early 2016 and going back further, 2009. Granted we are all aware that flooding is a natural process that can happen at any time in a wide variety of locations. Flooding from the sea and from rivers is probably best known; however prolonged, intense and localised rainfall causes sewer and drain flooding, overland flow and groundwater flooding, with significant impacts on human activities - housing, transport and public service infrastructure, and commercial, industrial and agricultural enterprises. The health, social, economic and environmental impacts of flooding can be significant and have a wide community impact, and which was evident from the recent flooding scenarios notably in the Shannon catchment area, which by comparison with the rest of the country, had terrible consequences in terms of loss of property and personal deprivation. Had any lessons been learned let alone implemented from the previous flooding of 2009, when we were assured by the then Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, that flood mitigation measures would be implemented against similar flood disasters in the near future some, but not enough. Granted many CFRAM (catchment flood risk assessment management) plans were drawn up, but very few implemented in flood prone areas. The main problem in Ireland in relation to flood control in river basins has, for decades, been interference with natural hydraulic patterns, such as drainage of wetlands most notably within the Shannon catchment, which has five wetlands of international importance. Development can also exacerbate the problems of flooding by accelerating and increasing surface water run-off, altering watercourses and removing floodplain storage. Wetlands, or the lack thereof, were a significant factor in the severe flooding in the Upper Mississippi and Missouri River Basins in the summer of 1993. Damages associated with the flooding were undoubtedly worse than they would have been if flood-plain wetlands had still been in place. Human modification of the original wetlands had destroyed the ability of the wetlands to modify flooding. Flood control, however, is only one of the values that wetlands have for society. In order to protect wetlands, the public first must recognize the value of wetlands. People need to understand what is lost when a wetland is changed into an agricultural field, a parking lot, or a housing development. Understanding the functions of wetlands will make it easier to evaluate wetlands when other uses are considered. In the case of the Shannon catchment, over decades successive Irish governments have shown a lack of concern for the negative impact of large scale drainage schemes. Such schemes were aided and abetted by Brussels and Dublin by way of subsidies, and have resulted in large scale farming development on reclaimed wetlands, exacerbating the risk of flooding. As a consequence of the severity of the 2009 floods, the situation with regard to wetland development changed, but farmers then reacted angrily to proposed new environmental regulations which could mean farmers having to get planning permission to reclaim swampy scrubland or wetlands. At the time the European Court of Justice ruled Irelands Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening for certain agricultural developments was in breach of EU directives. The regulations also included provisions for removal of field boundaries, semi-natural areas and drainage and irrigation projects. The president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, at the time described the new regulations as an outrageous assault on property rights and the concept of freedom to farm. That statement would now ring hollow in the ears of many farmers in the Shannon catchment who found themselves totally waterlogged as a result of their interference with wetlands. The Dutch despite having most of their country below sea level, are well capable of managing flood episodes, unlike Ireland where the vast majority of the country is above sea level. What the Dutch have undertaken is de-poldering - lowering/removing the dikes in some areas of farmland and designating the land as a flood zone. The inundation of these former agricultural areas during flood events will protect towns elsewhere. In other areas retreat is being managed by protecting farm houses and acknowledging the farm land itself will flood. This is being done by demolishing the existing farm houses, constructing giant man-made mounds (~20 acres each) and rebuilding farm houses on top of them (hopefully) higher than the flood waters will reach (~7-8m high). One example is Overdiepse Polder, where 16 farms have been designated as flood zones to protect 140,000 residents of Den Bosch. The most important advice we can take from the Dutch experience of flood risk management is that you need to be adaptable, open minded to changing historic land use patterns and prepared to take radical solutions as the Dutch have done. There is no point in putting mitigation measures in place in one riverine locality to the detriment of another. What is needed is an integrated approach that comprises fit for purpose programme of mitigation measures. Ireland has transposed into law the EU Water Famework Directive 2006 and the EU Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks 2007, but is falling far short of implementing the key requirements of those directives which relate to flood management in river basins. It is little comfort to those affected by flooding to have some ministerial type assuring them that everything will be done to prevent such future catastrophic floods. But happen they will as we are in a cycle of much more frequent extreme weather events. There are simple basic practices to be followed to mitigate flooding in river basin catchments such as non-interference with wetlands, and not felling trees on catchment high ground to promote sheep farming. As pointed out by Dr Tom McDermott of the School of Economics and the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork, We appear as a society to be overly-exposed to flood risk there are various reasons why developers and house builders do not take full account of flood risk when deciding where to build. This stands to reason given that we are a small island nation replete with a network of lotic and lentic systems (lakes and rivers). Despite the severe flooding, there are still Irish local authorities and developers who are either wilfully or blissfully ignorant so to allow developments on flood plains, and will continue to do so unless flood plain regulations are enforced and complied with. So when you interfere with natural flood plains by way of drainage, tree / hedge clearing, or building on flood plains you unfortunately have to suffer the consequences. Lightweight, Capable Terminals Support Market-leading Data Communications on the Move Solutions Powered by O3b MEO REHOVOT, Israel, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Get SAT, a leading manufacturer of efficient portable satcom terminals offering high data-rate communications for ground, air and maritime applications, announced its Micro SAT and Milli SAT are compatible with SES's O3b MEO-based solutions and provide versatile data communications of up to 10 Mbps for mobile applications. O3b is the only commercially successful non-geostationary satellite communications system operating in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), providing high-throughput low-latency fibre-like capabilities for a variety of applications, including communications on the move. Only 20-60 cm. in size, Get SAT's product line of micronized terminals is designed to deliver high data rate low latency service of broadband communications. Get SAT terminals provide highly versatile solutions for applications requiring smaller terminals. As the leading provider of new generation small terminals, we set new standards for lightweight, small-sized and low power consumption communication devices. Our fast-tracking technologies, using a miniaturized interlaced flat panel antenna that combines receive and transmit elements and is capable of moving at speeds of 200 degrees per second, enable quick and seamless handover between O3b satellites. According to Jack Deasy, Head of Government Segment Market Management at SES Networks, "The Get SAT terminal family delivers multi-Mbps to a moving vehicle in a single antenna format. This is a tremendously positive step forward for small platforms, enabling high-data rate and latency-sensitive applications requiring communications mobility." "Our terminals achieve much more in less size and weight. By moving to a single terminal, O3b MEO customers lower costs, ease installation challenges and optimize location placement on mobile platforms," commented Get SAT CEO, Kfir Benjamin. "We are proud to be at the forefront of easy to implement 'on-the-move' broadband communications programs." Get SAT's terminals are based on a patented InterFLAT flat panel antenna technologies which miniaturizes components without sacrificing quality. Get SAT leads the industry in creating next generation terminals and solutions specifically engineered to provide fast, reliable communications for on-the-move applications. Come see Get SAT at booth #1907, Satellite 2020 Show in Washington, D.C. About Get SAT A privately held company located in Rehovot, Israel, Get SAT Communications provides portable and extremely efficient antenna and terminals that offer high-data-rate communications for ground, air, and maritime applications. Get SAT provides services for government and military use, enterprises, first responders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian groups. For more information, visit www.getsat.com. Press Contacts Get SAT Josh Shuman, S&A Communications +972-54-498-5833 joshs@shumanpr.com Ayala Pinhasi +972-76-5300-700 #122 +1-571-501-5150 info@getsat.com Actor Hrithik Roshan has been in a holiday mood for a while now. On Tuesday, he posted a fresh picture with his team members from Dubai. The actor has since returned to Mumbai. Taking to Instagram, Hrithik wrote: Men at sea. @iam_sentinel @swapneelhazare .#dowhatmovesyou #keepexploring. The picture shows Hrithik along with his bodyguard Mayur Shettigar and his personal trainer Swapneel Hazare. They point to the camera and look to be in a rather cheerful mood as they click the selfie. In the last couple of days, Hrithik has been teasing fans with gorgeous pictures of himself from Dubai. One of his pictures in which he appeared in a red T-shirt and towel wrapped around him aroused a fair bit of curiosity. He ascribed the style sensibilities to actor Ranveer Singh, known for his quirky fashion sense. The 83 actor returned the compliment by dubbing Hrithik Sax God. Hrithik delivered a monster hit last year, war, the highlight of which were his action sequences and, of course, his star worth. Hrithik is now back in India and is currently in Chennai. The actor posted video clips from a visit to a mall in the city. Looking at the packed crowds, one can gauge how popular the actor is. Girls, in particular, can be screaming and calling out to him. In some of the clips, Hrithik takes to the mike, but what he says isnt clear. He appears to be thanking all for coming to see him. Hrithik Roshan in Chennai. Also read | Chris Hemsworth on injuring Randeep Hooda during Extraction: Felt very embarrassed. He wasnt angry at me 2019 saw Hrithik deliver two massive hits -- War, an out-an-out action thriller and Super 30, where he plays a math wizard, who trains 30 underprivileged children for the elite IITs. The latter is based on a real-life hero from Bihar called Anand Kumar. War, which also starred Tiger Shroff, featured Hrithik as a commando who turns rogue. Follow @htshowbiz for more EU-funded Green Agriculture Initiative (EU-GAIA) project has launched in Armenia today. Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, who heads the EU delegation to the country, representatives of the Ministry of Economy, and experts participated in the official launch of this project. EU-GAIA aims to assist in sustainable development of agribusiness in the northern provinces of Armenia within 3 years. The project budget is 11.7 million. The pilot project will be implemented in Tavush, Lori, and Shirak Provinces. EU-GAIA is co-funded and implemented by the Austrian Development Agency, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-Armenia. SAN DIEGO, March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NEOVOLTA INC. (OTCQB: NEOV) Bloomberg is predicting big things for residential solar storage this year. The media companys research service, BloombergNEF, forecasts that at least 50,000 California homes will install storage systems in 2020 . That would quadruple the number of battery systems sold in California in 2019. Statewide, only about 19,000 homes had battery storage at the end of November 2019. BloombergNEF attributes the expected demand to Californias widespread and prolonged blackouts in 2019 , which have caused many solar customers to add storage batteries as a source of backup power. The article also cites the time of use pricing adopted by the states utility companies, in which energy is most expensive during evening hourswhen solar panels arent generating. Solar customers who install battery storage can save their self-generated power for nighttime use and score significant savings on their monthly utility bills. As the BloombergNEF article pointed out, more than a million California homes already have solar panels installed. That number will grow dramatically starting this year: As of January 1, 2020, the State requires all new home construction to be equipped with solar power . This will translate to about 100,000 new solar installations each year. One manufacturer, San Diegobased NeoVolta, is ready to meet the projected demand for storage in California. Its NV14 storage system was recently named one of Solar Power Worlds 2019 Top Solar Storage Products for its safer, longer-lasting lithium iron phosphate battery and high capacity of 14.4 kilowatt-hours. This capacity is expandable to 24 kilowatt-hours with the new NV24 battery add-on (no additional inverter needed). This combination is one of the highest-capacity home solar storage systems on the market. The battery can also charge or discharge 7.7 kilowatts of instantaneous power, more than most competitors in its class. NeoVoltas high-performance, competitively priced systems can connect with any residential solar installationnew or existing, AC or DC. NeoVolta has established a dealer network in Southern California, where the NV14/NV24 is approved for connection with the San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison power grids. Installation will become available in Northern California in mid-2020. In June 2019, the company moved to a 21,150-square-foot manufacturing facility that expanded its production capacity by 300%. The facility is now capable of rolling out more than 8,000 NV14 and 4,000 NV24 units each year. Solar storage offers a host of advantages for homeowners, and experts agree that its on the verge of a breakthrough year, said NeoVolta CEO Brent Willson. With NeoVoltas NV14 advanced storage system and the optional NV24 add-on battery, California solar customers can slash their monthly utility bills and have the security and peace of mind that come with energy resilience. About NeoVolta - NeoVolta designs, develops and manufactures utility-bill reducing residential energy storage batteries capable of powering your home even when the grid goes down. With a focus on safer Lithium-Iron Phosphate chemistry, the NV14 is equipped with a solar rechargeable 14.4 kWh battery, a 7,680-Watt inverter and a web-based energy management system with 24/7 monitoring. By storing energy instead of sending it back to the grid, consumers can protect themselves against blackouts, avoid expensive peak demand electricity rates charged by utility companies when solar panels arent producing, and get one step closer to grid independence. Forward-Looking Statements: Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, the continued increase in utility rates. Although NeoVolta believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. NeoVolta has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,'' ''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those discussed under the "Risk Factors" section of NeoVoltas Form 1-A filing filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and updated from time to time in its other public filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of its date. NeoVolta undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. PHILADELPHIA, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Berger Montague is pleased to announce that the Third Circuit has overturned a previous ruling and will allow a qui tam case brought by Managing Shareholder Sherrie R. Savett, Shareholder Russell D. Paul, and co-counsel against Care Alternatives to continue. The case is United States of America and State of New Jersey ex rel. Victoria Drudging, et al. v. Care Alternatives. Berger Montague and co-counsel Begelman & Orlow represent four former employees of Care Alternatives, a hospice care provider. The whistleblowers allege that patients were inappropriately certified for and given hospice care when there was no clinical information or documentation in the patients' charts supporting a prognosis of terminal illness. Previously, the District Court had granted Care Alternatives' motion for summary judgment, applying a standard adopted by the 11th Circuit in a separate qui tam case (Aseracare) regarding the False Claims Act's falsity element. The 11th Circuit had ruled that a difference of medical expert opinion was not enough to show falsity and that additional evidence was required. On March 4, 2020, the Third Circuit overturned the District Court's decision, rejecting its reasoning. The Third Circuit found that a subjective medical opinion may be false, and an expert's testimony challenging a physician's medical opinion is enough to create a genuine dispute of material fact for the jury to consider whether that medical opinion is false. "This is a tremendous victory for the entire qui tam bar that preserves the viability of medical necessity cases under the False Claims Act," said Mr. Paul, who argued the case before the Third Circuit. "If the District Court opinion was not overturned, a battle of the experts would nearly always result in summary judgment for defendant." Berger Montague's Whistleblower, Qui Tam & False Claims Act Practice Group has represented whistleblowers in matters involving healthcare fraud, defense contracting fraud, IRS fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud, helping to return more than $3 billion to federal and state governments. In return, whistleblower clients retaining Berger Montague to represent them in state and federal courts have received more than $500 million in rewards. Please Contact: Russell D. Paul Shareholder Berger Montague 215-875-4601 [email protected] https://bergermontague.com SOURCE Berger Montague Related Links https://bergermontague.com A Singapore Minister has warned of spikes in the novel coronavirus cases in the country as the health ministry reported two new cases of the fast spreading disease. National Development Minister Lawrence Wong asked people and authorities to be prepared for "new spikes" in COVID-19 cases in Singapore. "We will be exposed to new waves of infection and increasingly it will not be possible to stop the virus at our borders. We also cannot isolate Singapore and shut ourselves from the world," the Health Ministry said. "So, despite our best efforts, we have to be prepared for new spikes in COVID-19 cases in Singapore, as has happened elsewhere," it said. Singapore is blocking the entry and transit for new visitors who travelled to Iran, northern Italy or South Korea within the last 14 days, Wong said on Tuesday. The measure, which takes effect on Wednesday, is among the additional precautions Singapore is taking to help reduce the risk of imported coronavirus cases in Singapore. "We have been monitoring the virus situation very closely and, as all of you know, it is spreading very quickly to countries everywhere. And Singapore, as a small, open city connected to the world, we face a higher risk of imported cases," Wong told reporters at the National Press Centre. "That's why the taskforce has decided to take additional precautions for travel in and out of Singapore," added Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry taskforce for COVID-19. However, Wong pointed out that "despite our very best efforts, we have to be mentally prepared for the number of infected cases in Singapore to go up", Channel Asia quoted the minister as saying. "... the number of cases rising by just a handful every day. But this may not be the norm and it can change very easily. You see this in other countries too, where you have very few cases for a few days and then suddenly, one incident occurs and there is a sharp spike in cases and sustained transmission. "This has happened elsewhere; it can happen in Singapore too," the Channel quoted Wong as warning. In the meantime, 'Contact tracing' is underway for the other coronavirus cases to establish any links to previous cases or travel history to affected countries or regions, said the ministry. Singapore has recorded 110 cases till Tuesday, 14 of which were from the Wizlearn Technologies in the Science Park hub on the West Coast of the city state. No patients were discharged on Tuesday. To date, a total of 78 people have been discharged from hospital. Of the 32 patients who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. Seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, the ministry added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Many of us are in constant pursuit of finding happiness and for some, attaining happiness in todays time and age only seems to be a distant dream. People, at large, believe in a flawed concept of happiness per se, where they often run behind the next achievement to seek happiness and forever get stuck in the loop of destination addiction. More often than not we think If we crack the entrance exam, if we get into that college, or if we start dating that girl or if we get into that job or maybe if we had that car, wed become happy. BCCL However, as we grow older happiness slowly and suddenly starts sounding like an alien concept, to an extent that some of us even begin to think that happiness is a myth. In a bid to change this perspective and impart the knowledge of the real concept of happiness to students, Lucknow University has come up with Education for Happiness course. In the current times, students across the places have many unconventional choices in terms of picking subjects during college that werent available earlier. From Happiness Classes in Delhi government schools, Mumbai Universitys introduction to Hip-Hop Studies to Banaras Hindu Universitys Bhoot Vidya course, students now have multiple options to choose from. The introduction of these courses is extremely relevant in todays highly stressful environment that we live in and the cut-throat competition that the students face. These unconventional courses aim at the holistic development of a student along with imparting practical skills rather than merely enhancing academic knowledge. BCCL According to ANI, Lucknow University will introduce the Education for Happiness course in the M.Ed curriculum from the next academic year onwards. Besides, Hindustan Times quoted Professor Amita Bajpai saying, Course will be optional and offered in M.Ed. It will be inter-disciplinary, so all PG students can opt for it. It will be introduced from next year after the Academic Councils approval. She added, Children are looking for happiness in the wrong places, their concept of happiness is false. Happiness comes from within but they look for it in the material world. We want to tell them the real concept of happiness and familiarise them with its Indian concept. Lucknow University to start 'Education for Happiness' course from next academic yr. Prof Amita Bajpai says, "Course will be optional&offered in M.Ed. It'll be inter-disciplinary so all PG students can opt for it. It'll be introduced from next yr after Academic Council's approval" pic.twitter.com/sAZW2DdMc4 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 2, 2020 Heres what the people on social media think about the Education for Happiness course: Agreed. Good to see the change. @msisodia Mohd Imran (@im_imran07) March 3, 2020 it had needed Yasir Khan (@YasirK7651) March 3, 2020 Lol. Makes sense! Give admission to hate speechers first... Vamanan (@vamananko) March 3, 2020 BCCL Professor Bajpai also said, The real purpose of education is accomplished only through this course. We believe that an educated persons life should be better than an uneducated mans but the reality is something else. The more educated a person is, the more he is focused on competition and is anxious. Truly, we think we need this happiness class now more than ever! A sailor who had been away from his family for four months made their reunion extra special by photobombing his parents while they were at a restaurant. U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Kurt Maness and his best friend, whose graduation from the Coast Guard was being celebrated at the dinner, worked together to plan the surprise. Heart-warming video shows the sailor, from California, walking up and standing behind his mother and father as they pose for a picture with his pal. His parents, Yvette and Louie, smile as they have their picture taken and the women snapping it chats to them about getting a few more frames. When the phone is handed back to Mrs Maness it takes her only a few seconds to see something unexpected in the snap - Kurt standing in the background. She quickly jumps up from her seat and into her serviceman son's arms as other diners start clapping and cheering for the heartwarming reunion. Sailor Maness hadn't seen his family for four months when the sweet clip was filmed and told Military Kind being away for so long had been tough. U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Kurt Maness, from California, (pictured right with his arms crossed) came up with a special way of reuniting with his parents by photobombing a picture The sailor (pictured with his mom Yvette, sister Kaila and father Louie) had been away from home for four months before surprising his parents He said: 'It's hard... all of a sudden you're on the other side of the country and not able to contact them as often and being able to give them a hug every morning or be able to say I love you.' While he was waiting for his parents to see the picture Kurt said there were 'so many emotions going through his head' and he 'couldn't wait' for them to turn around. After embracing his surprised mom, Kurt's dad picked him up and the family could not contain their smiles. He then spent the next two weeks at home, spending quality time with his family and friends and even giving his sister Kaila a sailor bear to remember him by. Mrs Maness first shared the touching video on Facebook in November. During their reunion sailor Maness patiently waits for his mom and father Louie to check the picture on her phone and realize he is standing in the restaurant According to the Freedom in the World 2020 Report of Freedom House International Human Rights Organization, Ukraine remains "partly free" country in the global freedom rating. "Ukraine has enacted a number of positive reforms since the protest-driven ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. However, corruption remains endemic, and initiatives to combat it are only partially implemented. Attacks against journalists, civil society activists, and members of minority groups are frequent, and police responses are often inadequate," reads a Freedom House's report posted on its website. The organization reminded that Russia occupies the autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea and its military "support armed separatists in the eastern Donbas area." According to the report, international observers deemed the president's vote "competitive and credible", although polling could not take place in Crimea and separatist-held parts of Donbas. Parliamentary elections were deemed "generally competitive and credible, despite some problems". Voting was again impossible in Crimea and separatist-held parts of Donbas. Consequently, the elections filled only 424 of the 450 seats. Additionally, approximately 1 million Ukrainian citizens are unable to vote because they do not have a registered address. As for media freedom, Freedom House experts stressed that "business magnates own and influence many outlets, using them as tools to advance their agendas." "President Zelensky has received significant support from media outlets controlled by banking magnate Ihor Kolomoisky. Other parties also receive favorable coverage from 'friendly' media," reads the report. Zelensky at times has also refused to take reporters' questions, and his staff has occasionally refused access to spaces journalists are legally permitted to enter. Moreover, Ukraine has long suffered from corrupt and politicized courts, and "recent reform initiatives aimed at addressing the issue have stalled or fallen short of expectations." "Although due process guarantees exist, in practice individuals with financial resources and political influence can escape prosecution for wrongdoing," said Freedom House. Besides, the government has made little progress in meeting domestic and international demands to investigate and prosecute crimes committed during the last months of the Yanukovych administration in late 2013 and early 2014, which included the shooting of protesters. As reported, Ukraine was also recognized as "partly free" state in the 2019 report. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Wildsky Resources Inc. (TSXV: WSK) (the "Company") announces that, effective March 4, 2020, listing of the Company's common shares will be transferred to NEX, and the Company's Tier classification will change from Tier 2 to NEX. The Company's trading symbol shall also change from WSK to WSK.H. Further to its news release dated December 5, 2019, the Company continues to pursue the acquisition of three Niobium-Tantalum exploration licenses and seven gold and lead-zinc exploration licenses located in Nigeria. The Company is currently preparing a National Instrument 43-101 report concerning the three Niobium-Tantalum licenses. Due to concerns regarding the spread of Covid-19 virus, the Company anticipates that completion of this technical report may be delayed due to the Company postponing visiting the site. The Company will continue to update the general public regarding the status of this technical report and the acquisition of the licenses. About Wildsky Resources Inc. Wildsky Resources Inc. is a Canadian based exploration and development company with an office located in Vancouver, B.C. The Company's goal is to create value for its shareholders through continuously looking for new properties to acquire globally through its international connections and talent resources. For more information on Wildsky Resources, please contact the Company at (778) 889-4966, or visit the Company's website at www.wildskyresources.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "signed by Wenhong Jin" Wenhong Jin President and CEO Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in Wildsky Resources' periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "appear", "should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Although Wildsky Resources has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Wildsky Resources disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53143 Kabul, March 4 : At least 12 Afghan soldiers and seven policemen were feared killed in Taliban insurgents' overnight attacks in two provinces, authorities said on Wednesday. In one attack in Kunduz province, 12 Afghan army soldiers were killed and four others wounded after Taliban stormed an army base in Bagh-e-Sherkat, a locality in the outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city, Fawzia Jawad from the provincial council told Xinhua news agency. Jawad said several Taliban militants were also killed and wounded during the fierce midnight clashes. In a separate Taliban attack, four Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel and three militants were killed after militants attacked security checkpoints in Tapa-e-Muarch area in the east of the city, according to ALP official Mohammad Yaseen. The attacks in Kunduz were reportedly launched by Taliban's so-called Sara Keta or Red Unit. In the neighbouring Balkh province, three ALP police personnel were killed after clashes erupted in Samarqandyan village. The violence had drastically decreased during a week-long reduction of violence period, ending on February 29 when a US-Taliban peace deal was signed in Qatari capital of Doha. However, Taliban militants resumed fighting and clashes with Afghan security forces shortly after the deal, which framed American troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan, was signed. Laboratory technicians work on testing samples from people to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus at a laboratory in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning Province on Feb. 12, 2020. (AFP via Getty Images) Chinese Researchers Identify Two Coronavirus Types SHANGHAIScientists in China studying the coronavirus outbreak said they had found two main types of the disease could be causing infections. The researchers, from Peking Universitys School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned that their analysis examined a limited range of data, and said follow-up studies of larger data sets are needed to better understand the viruss evolution. The preliminary study found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus associated with the disease outbreak in Wuhan accounted for about 70 percent of analyzed strains, while 30 percent was linked to a less aggressive type. The prevalence of the more aggressive virus decreased after early January 2020, they said. These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), they wrote. Their findings were published on Mar. 3 in the National Science Review, the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Experts not directly involved in the study said its findings were interesting, but cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from such preliminary research. Its difficult to confirm studies like this without a direct side-by-side comparison of pathogenicity and spread in, ideally, an animal model, or at least a greatly extended epidemiological study, said Stephen Griffin, a professor and expert in infection and immunity at Britains Leeds University. Also on Wednesday, one of Chinas top medical associations confirmed that the median incubation period of the coronavirus is five to seven days and the maximum 14 days. The remarks by Du Bin, chairman of the critical care medical branch of the Chinese Medical Association, mark the most conclusive assessment of the virus incubation period by a government-affiliated medical organization to date. Reports of domestic violence related assaults increased by almost 50 per cent in parts of Sydney in the past year, with areas such as Sutherland, the eastern suburbs, the Hills Shire and Ryde recording some of the biggest spikes. The figures revealed by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) paint a bleak picture of domestic violence across NSW, which recorded a 5 per cent jump in such violence across the board. Women's Safety NSW chief executive Hayley Foster holds up a sign at a rally in Sydney against domestic violence. Credit:Kate Geraghty Women's safety advocates say the figures are a damning indictment of governments and reveal how they are "absolutely failing women". In Greater Sydney, one of the biggest increases was recorded in Sutherland, where reports of domestic violence related assaults were up 49 per cent. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Member of Parliament for Suame, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, has asked for an investigation to be conducted into the procurement of some 20 ambulances that were procured during the administration of former President John Dramani Mahama. According to him, the 200 procured ambulances which cost the state a whopping $15.9 million were not even fit for purpose. Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia program he clarified that he is not asking for the former President to be investigated but since it occurred during his tenure as President, the minister who was responsible for the procurement of those ambulances can be made to answer some questions. He has therefore asked the auditor general to take the matter up and conduct a forensic audit into the procurement of those ambulances that were not delivered. Though some ambulances were procured by the erstwhile administration, the majority of these non-fit ambulances did not even arrive in the country. Some have described it as causing financial loss to the state. Some 30 out of 200 ambulances procured by the Mahama government for emergency services have been left at the mercy of the weather at the military naval base. The ambulances cannot be used for the purposes for which they were shipped into the country last year because they are not fit for purpose. The 30 ambulances, which formed part of 200 ambulances that were to be procured by the Ministry of Health to boost the healthcare delivery under a contract, cost 2.4 million Euros and were rejected because they did not meet specifications. Each of the ambulances cost 79,000 euros. The 30 were the first of 200 ambulances procured by the government of Ghana through Big Sea Trading LLC in a contract signed on 19 December 2012. Per the details of the contract, there shall be no advance payment for the contract. The Purchaser shall pay the sale price of the goods which is a total of 15,800,000 to the supplier by raising irrevocable and transferable Letter of Credit from its bankers for the benefit of the supplier. The unit ambulance price is 79,000. The contract also said, Letters of Credit shall be established upon signing of the contract for every 50 ambulances. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The law passed shortly after midnight after two no-confidence votes by the opposition failed against Macrons majority. The lower house of the French Parliament has approved a hotly debated overhaul of the countrys pensions system, clearing a major hurdle for one of President Emmanuel Macrons signature reforms. The law passed on Wednesday, shortly after the midnight, after two no-confidence votes introduced by the opposition failed against Macrons centrist majority. The attempt to topple the government came after it employed a rare constitutional measure to cut short a debate that had become bogged down in a morass of opposition amendments, effectively forcing through the bill. Centrist President Macrons plan to replace Frances professional pension schemes with a single national scheme has sparked weeks of strikes and protests. Trade unions and opposition parties slammed the move as anti-democratic but their calls for fresh protests against a bill that triggered the longest French transport strike in decades fell largely on deaf ears. Critics say the introduction of a single, points-based system will force people to work well beyond the official retirement age of 62, or face lower pensions [Alain JOCARD/AFP] Critics say the introduction of a single, points-based system will force people to work well beyond the official retirement age of 62, or face lower pensions. The government argues that abolishing the countrys 42 separate pension regimes, which offer early retirement and other benefits mainly to public sector workers, will be fairer and end years of deficits. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe hailed the text as a victory for social justice, saying that those who defend the status quo too often are just talking nonsense. The text now goes to the Senate, where it is also expected to face opposition, before returning to the National Assembly, the lower house, for final approval. Questions remain If passed, the reform will be phased in gradually over the coming years for people born since 1975, but will not affect the pensions of those already nearing retirement age. 200221083416368 Macrons overhaul is the most extensive in a series of pension reforms enacted by governments on the left and the right in recent years, aiming to end chronic budget shortfalls as people live longer. A government commission estimated last year that the deficit could reach as much as 17 billion euros ($19bn) by 2025 if no changes are made. Yet many details of the reform, including how much a point will be worth when people retire, have yet to be determined. Many people remain sceptical of the new system, with 56 percent of voters in an Ifop poll published on February 13 saying they opposed a points-based system. The government has promised to negotiate with unions on how to finance the new system, but it has already warned that if no deal is reached, people will have to work beyond 62 one of the lowest retirement ages in the European Union. 3K Shares Share We watched as the new viral outbreak happened in a remote place in China, wondering if this would be a quick flameout or if Mother Nature would again exert her majesty on us mortals. My associate, Madilyn, and I watched with more interest, knowing that her sister was in South Korea teaching English. She was due to return in late February, and we watched with growing anxiety as the virus migrated to South Korea. Even more worrisome was that her sister was teaching in Daegu, home to the Shincheonji church and epicenter of the outbreak there. I became quite well versed in transmission rates, R-values, and other epidemiological and pathophysiological aspects of this novel coronavirus and others. On Friday, Feb. 21, when the number of cases in South Korea jumped from 20 to 346, I advised Madilyns sister to leave Daegu, find a small hotel close to the Seoul airport, and self-isolate. The advice was timely as the city went on voluntary shutdown 6 hours after she left. She bought food from a small grocery across from her hotel and anxiously awaited her departure date on Feb. 25. We were sure that she would be screened at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), her arrival airport, and were worried that quarantine may happen in the Dallas area, 280 miles from her home here. We made contingency plans based on the many potential outcomes of screening, including where to isolate her in her hometown, as she lives with an elderly and ill mother. By the time she landed on Feb. 26, Korea had over 2,000 confirmed cases, and the CDC had issued a Level 3 travel alert, warning Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to the country. Madilyn and I waited for communication from her sister and were shocked that she landed in DFW, on a plane with 348 passengers with masks, and no one asked any questions about exposure or symptoms there was no screening at all. She quickly realized her mask at DFW looked conspicuous, so she removed it and awaited her connecting flight home. Frantic, I made calls to the CDC hotline, and was dismayed to learn that once a passenger has landed, the state health departments were in charge of handling the management of possible index cases. Over the past weekend, we found out a woman in her 50s who recently returned from South Korea tested positive for the virus in Washington state. That could have been my associates sister, or any of the 348 people on her flight. I later realized that the international travel warnings that had been imposed, with the exception of China, did not contain airport screening measures. But why not? Why did a Level 3 warning on travel to a country not result in the same level of concern as arrivals from that country? Was it an issue of manpower, or were federal agencies trying to quell a sense of national fear that results from such screening? Surely the epidemiologists at CDC were doing their due diligence with risk prediction, but providers were isolated from critical decisions that had implications for our patients lives. On the phone with the CDC hotline, I asked why passengers from South Korea werent receiving the same rigor of screening as those traveling from China, but the woman had no answer. When I asked if I could speak to a supervisor, I was told that a response was unlikely and may take more than a day. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was in charge of enforcing screening at targeted airports, the CDC agent said. The screening policy was developed by the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services, but CBP were the boots on the ground arm of containment. She reiterated that state health departments were in charge once a passenger has landed. I phoned our Texas Department of State Health Services and was shocked to find out they were only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please leave a message. There was no emergency hotline, no recorded message or special extension to reach, no increase in shifts to handle any influx of inquiries. I was referred to our local health department by its website. Because an infectious disease doctor I know had a connection there, I was finally able to speak to a human being, the assistant director of epidemiology there. What she told me was chilling: Testing was only being done on persons under investigation (PUIs) with symptoms, as the number of available kits was limited, and turnaround times were too long. She did not have access to test kits, and all of them had to be sent to the CDC in Atlanta. Very strict criteria had been established for testing, and I was not at liberty to have any patient referred for testing. When I asked why not, the reply was also chilling. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 was said to be weak, with a high viral load being necessary for positive detection, and false negatives would be problematic. With limited kits available, the decision was made to test only symptomatic patients. I still cannot find a test for my associates sister, nearly a week since she returned home. I wanted to call my U.S. senator and alert him! But it dawned on me as events unfolded as hundreds and perhaps thousands of passengers from affected areas had deplaned that day without screening that high-level decisions had been made: Containment was not possible. The evening news cycle brought home what my research had shown. I was appalled. The next step after containment is mitigation, so why werent passengers screened with questions about exposure? Why wasnt there public information about this decision disseminated through the media? State and local agencies, indeed airports, could have taken alternate screening measures. I called a CEO and chief scientist of the microbial genetics lab I consult for. He confirmed that the test was weak, and said the CDC was not helpful in allowing the live virus out to develop tests and vaccines. (CDC and WHO have made the genetic sequence for the COVID-19 coronavirus available for commercial labs to develop their own tests.) The CDC has since been criticized for imposing testing criteria that is too stringent and narrow, and the federal government has responded by expanding its testing capacity. But invaluable time has been lost. One week in an epidemic is an eternity. This obviously came from the top. Its time that physicians stand up for our patients and our nation and put an end to the abuse of science transmogrified into policy and politics. The American people deserve to hear that their government and quasi-governmental agencies made a decision that impacts their families well-being. Screening and confinement would have been a simple solution, and the first step in mitigation. Moreover, South Korea has been conducting over 15,000 tests per day. How is that small nation able to meet the demands of screening and early detection, and we are still confined to testing at the CDC? Bureaucratic delays due to absurd policy restrictions that serve only the plodding pace of most diseases must be instantly modified in an epidemic. Remember the triage drills on your emergency department rotations? You did what needed to be done. That is the response we need from our government. My associates sister is resting quietly, recovering from jet lag, alone and isolated in a home someone graciously loaned her to stay in, until she either develops symptoms or I find a way to test her. That this doctor, unable to do the right thing for my patient, had to find his own solution shows the failure of policy and practice. Timothy Hlavinka is a urologist. This article originally appeared in MedPage Today. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The United States will halt humanitarian assistance to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, where a majority of the countrys population lives, if the rebels refuse to remove obstacles to aid distribution. The announcement, made Feb. 25 by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), came amid new evidence that humanitarian assistance is not reaching its intended targets and growing security concerns by the agency and its partners. This decision is a last resort that follows more than a year of advocacy and diplomatic engagement calling on the Houthis in Yemen to respect humanitarian principles and allow the provision of needs-based humanitarian assistance without interference, a USAID spokesperson told Al-Monitor. If the Houthi rebels refuse to cooperate, the aid suspension will go into effect in late March. USAID provides supplies to the people of Yemen along with other support through partners on the ground and international non-governmental organizations. The agency informed its partners in February about its decision to potentially halt assistance. The rebels have granted aid workers access to areas under their control, but they have also made excessive demands, including a 2% slice of the UN aid budget designated for Yemeni assistance, a condition the United Nations and its donors have rejected. The USAID spokesperson remarked, If we are forced to reduce aid, we would maintain the most critical life-saving activities that directly mitigate famine such as treatment of acute malnutrition and cholera. In 2014, Yemen erupted into civil war after an unsuccessful political transition following the Arab Spring that led to the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi rebels, many loyal to Saleh, seized Sanaa, the countrys capital and largest city, and demanded the formation of a new government. A coalition of states from the Middle East and Africa led by Saudi Arabia and supported by US intelligence sharing, aerial refueling and search-and-rescue operations launched a military campaign against the insurgents. Yemen was then hit with economic warfare, including a blockade of its air and seaports by the Saudi coalition, with the US Navy halting and searching vessels suspected of carrying arms to the Houthis. Later, the United States deployed warships in the region to monitor Iranian cargo en route to Yemen. Yemen relies on imports of up to 90% to meet the populations daily food needs, according to UN figures from 2017. As the blockade intensified in 2017, the United Nations warned that the catastrophic blockade could endanger the lives of millions dependent on aid for survival as well as others unless Saudi Arabia stopped blocking the flow of aid into the country. The United States enacted a year-long freeze on development projects in Yemen in 2015, shortly after the conflict erupted, and as recently as June of last year, the World Food Programme (WFP) halted aid to Houthi-held areas for two months when the agency was denied introducing a new registration process that would ensure food assurance was reaching the intended people. WFP resumed deliveries in August after the Houthis provided a written guarantee that the WFP could begin this registration process. A WFP source said the registration process is only due to start now because of continued interference. Systematic interference in the WFPs delivery of emergency food assistance began in northern Yemen in 2019, when hundreds of WFP trucks were detained in rebel-held areas. Some trucks, a UN source in Yemen said, were held for six months. The interference has led to more than 5,500 metric tons of food spoiling since the beginning of last year, the UN source told Al-Monitor. We continue to face fierce resistance to simply just do our job to keep people alive, said David Beasley, WFP executive director, briefing the UN Security Council last year. Beasley said his agency had uncovered serious evidence that some supplies were going to the wrong groups. The United Nations and its partners have also faced growing security concerns. Rebels have begun to detain trucks at checkpoints, block access to warehouses, and threaten staff and deny them permission to travel in the country, said a UN source. On February 23, the Saudi coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said in a statement that Saudi forces had stopped a rebel attack and discovered a number of mines in the southern Red Sea, a major commercial shipping channel. A USAID spokesperson told Al-Monitor via email that the rebels continue to make extreme demands, such as imposing a tax on humanitarian aid from the United Nations, and to cause delays, blocking critical needs assessments and harassing aid workers. The rebels also demanded the right to more closely monitor UN aid funding, including roughly $370 million a year to pay aid workers salaries and other administrative costs, according to documents leaked to the AP and a subsequent report by the LA Times. Nearly 20 million people in Yemen lack access to basic health care, and more than five million are a step away from famine, USAID said in a statement in 2019. The United Nations has sent $8.35 billion on humanitarian assistance to Yemen since 2015. The United States is one of the largest aid donors to Yemen. Last year, Washington provided it assistance totally more than $700 million. The amount included a $36 million award in October to Gateway to Education, a five-year program for children. USAIDs development portfolio in Houthi-controlled territories is less than $30 million, according to an agency source. Projects like Gateway for Education would be suspended only in Houthi-held areas if USAID follows through on its threat. USAID will continue to provide aid in areas of Yemen where we are confident that our partners can implement programs without interference, the USAID spokesperson told Al-Monitor. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior has announced new measures to curb the entry of visitors into the kingdom as part of its moves against the spread of the new Coronavirus (COVID - 19). GCC citizens and residents who have visited any of the country affected by the virus must spend 14 consecutive days in their country (or country of residence) after returning before visiting the kingdom. The visitor also has to declare the country to which he has travelled to and assure that he has not any symptoms of the virus, said a Saudi Press Agency statement. On Saudi nationals or residents returning, Saudi authorities should be notified at the crossing point, according to the mechanism agreed upon by both sides, it said. Saudi security agencies will coordinate with their counterparts in GCC member states in regard to these arrangements, it said. Parliament has approved a request for tax and duties waiver of $23.98 million to Platinum Properties Limited, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned and controlled by Inter-Afrique Holding Limited and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF). The approval will allow the entity enjoy tax rebate on import duties, import VAT, import National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), import GETFund levy, domestic VAT, domestic NHIL and domestic GETFund levy on materials, plant and machinery and equipment to be procured by the company. The materials are to be used by the Platinum Properties Limited for the Pullman Accra City Hotel and Serviced Apartment, a dual hospitality project that will become Ghanas largest and most distinguished hotel facility. Motion Graphic Online's Nana Konadu Agyeman who was in Parliament Tuesday [March 3, 2020] reported that the motion for request for the tax and duties waiver was moved by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, and seconded by the Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Mr Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah on February 18, 2020. Expected benefits Tabling the report of the Finance Committee on the tax and duties waiver for Platinum Properties in the House, the Chairman of the committee on February 18, 2020, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, said The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), in consultation with other relevant governmental agencies, had reviewed the Pullman Accra City Project and approved same as a strategic investment. He said the completion of the $126 million multi-purpose facility would be Ghanas first international branded and managed serviced apartment units which would make the Airport City development enclave Accras most preferred hotel destination. This will augment the aviation industry and help attract more high profile business meetings and social visitors into the Ghanaian capital, he said. Job creation He explained that the committee observed that the implementation of the phase one of the project was expected to generate substantial amount of taxes for the government over the initial period of operation. It is estimated that annual revenues for Pullman Accra Airport City will be in excess of $550 million over the first 10 years of operation. The government will make an estimated VAT of $90 million and $26 million in corporate taxes over this period. Again, there will be direct employment of about 250 direct hotel staff by Pullman, implying that the GRA will increase government revenue through employee PAYE and social security contributions estimated to aggregate about $10 million, he said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video New Delhi, March 4 : After the midnight drama involving Madhya Pradesh MLAs at a resort in Haryana's Gurugram, the Congress on Wednesday hit out at the BJP for allegedly indulging in horse trading, saying the saffron party believes in poaching MLAs of other parties and has no respect for the Supreme Court's observations on horse trading. The Congress' reaction came after one of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Ramabai was "rescued" with her baggage from the Gurugram hotel by Madhya Pradesh ministers Jitu Patwari and Jaivardhan Singh. The Congress has alleged that the BJP has offered huge sums of money to the tune of Rs 24 to 30 crore to the MLAs to change sides. Reportedly seven MLAs including four from the Congress are at the ITC Hotel in Manesar under high security. Speaking to the media in Parliament, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said, "In a democracy the people decide which government is to be formed and there are principles in politics which need to be followed. Look at the example of Goa, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya. They (BJP) possess huge amounts of black money. The treasury of BJP is full due to demonetisation, and what is not considered good in democracy, the people of the BJP are trying to do on the indications of two people," he said in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "But they are not going to succeed," Gohil said, adding that the BJP has disregarded the Supreme Court's observations which it cited when similar attempts were made by the party in Karnataka and the northeast. Gohil said that if the BJP had respected the top court's observations then it would not have indulged in such activities. "And I hope that the Supreme Court will teach them a lesson as there is a Constitutional amendment against horse trading and such activities should not be done on money power," he said. Laredo animal lovers looking for a furry friend to bring home with them are in luck, as the City of Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS) has begun a weekly campaign of free adoptions. READ MORE: Children win big in L.I.F.E. livestock competitions Deemed 'Take Me Home Tuesdays', the event runs every Tuesday at the shelter at 5202 Maher Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. While the shelter usually charges $137 for a pet adoption during regular business hours, during Tuesdays, the fee -- which usually covers all vaccinations, sterilization and a microchip implant -- will be waived. The program is a continuation of the 'Waggin' Wednesdays' program which was created in May of last year. According to LACS program coordinator Amanda Arambula, an average of 50 to 60 animals are adopted every month through the program. "When you adopt, you'll receive the greatest form of gratitude," Arambula said. "You'll be adopting the most loyal and grateful animal you will find anywhere." Not only does the program match Laredoans with a new pet, but the adoption also frees up space at the shelter for other animals. "You have to realize you're saving two lives," Arambula said. "The animal you adopt creates a kennel space open for a new animal for us to house." Typically, the shelter is near or at capacity, forcing the LACS to euthanize animals that go unadopted for long periods of time. Potential adopters have to be 18 years or older or have a parent/guardians permission to adopt, with proper identification. If renting an apartment or house, adopters must also provide documentation showing that they can own a pet in their rental. The potential owners must also attend a small interview with a LACS representative to make sure the pet and the new owner will be a good match. Currently, the shelter hopes to continue the program indefinitely, but is dependent on public assistance to continue providing the offer. Arambula said that even if prospective adopters are unable to adopt right away, they also welcome volunteers to assist the shelter in a variety of ways. Volunteers are needed to foster animals, walk animals, as well as do general maintenance and upkeep around the building. Locals can even assist just by sharing the organization's posts on social media. Arambula said that they welcome all Lareodans to take a stroll through their shelter at any time. READ MORE: See the best photos from the 2020 Washington's Birthday Celebration "After all, you never know what you might fall in love with" she said. RICHMOND, Va., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine, a premier outpatient addiction treatment center, announced today that it has appointed Dr. Andreas Bienert as its clinical program director. Bienert will join Anna McKean, who was recently appointed as the chief medical officer, in leading the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine through a new growth phase in 2020. "Dr. Bienert's unwavering dedication and commitment to an evidenced-based, system-wide response to the disease of addiction has earned him a place on our growing team," said Dr. James Thompson, co-founder of the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine. "Together, we will continue to improve the care of Virginia's citizens who suffer from this chronic, progressive, and potentially fatalbut absolutely treatabledisease." Dr. Bienert, a licensed professional counselor and certified substance abuse counselor in the state of Virginia and a nationally certified counselor, has served as a leader in the mental health field since 2005. He is widely recognized for his high-caliber work with individuals struggling to recover from addiction and trauma within inpatient and outpatient levels of care. In addition, Dr. Bienert has helped children, adolescents, and adults, in addition to couples and families. This experience has also led him to pursue training and expertise in a variety of areas, including neurofeedback and EMDR. He holds memberships in the Association for Counselor Education & Supervision, American Counseling Association, Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Virginia Counseling Association, Virginia Association of Addiction Professionals, and the European Association for Counseling. "My goal at the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine is to continue the organization's strong emphasis on an individualized approach to each patient's care and to help patients regain control of their lives. I also look forward to growing the intensive outpatient programing at the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine," said Dr. Bienert. A native of Austria, Dr. Bienert grew up in a country that has a long history in psychological theory. His bicultural background and focus in clinical mental health have led Dr. Bienert to an impressive list of accomplishments, teaching roles, published articles, leadership positions, and volunteer opportunities. He has served as a steering committee member of the International Registry of Counselor Education Programs (IRCEP), where he contributes to quality assurance efforts within International Counselor Education programs. "Every person deserves to be heard and that requires providers to listen unconditionally and to create strong relationships built on trust and empowerment," said Dr. Bienert, about his commitment to ensuring that everyone who suffers from the disease of addiction knows that they are heard and valued. As part of his new role as clinical program director, Dr. Bienert will help implement a new growth plan for the physician-led addiction treatment programs offered by the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine. The year ahead will mark the largest expansion of the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine since it was introduced in 2016. For more about the Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine, visit www.addictionva.com. SOURCE Virginia Center for Addiction Medicine Related Links http://www.addictionva.com It's been more than a week since a New Westminster mother went missing in the middle of the night, and police have now released surveillance footage of the missing woman that night. Nirla Sharma, 44, went missing in the early hours of Feb. 24, after she had gone to bed earlier that night in her home on the 300 block of Lawrence Street. Tuesday, News Westminster police released footage of Sharma walking by herself just before 3:30 a.m. in the Queensborough Landing business area, about a 15 minute walk from her home. As the days go by, we become more and more concerned for her well-being, said Sergeant Jeff Scott of the New Westminster Police Department. We are asking that anyone with dash-cam footage who was driving over the Queensborough bridge on Feb. 24th between 3:30 am and 5:00 a.m. to please come forward. Scott says earlier this week, footage was shared online of a person believed to be Sharma, but police have confirmed the video was not of the missing woman. Sharma typically arrives at her work in Burnaby at 6:30 a.m., but she never showed up for work that morning. Police have described Sharma as a 138-pound, 5-foot-3 South Asian woman with a slim build, medium complexion and short black hair with brown eyes. She was last seen wearing pyjamas, but she may be wearing a black jacket and orange Nike shoes, as seen in the surveillance video. By PTI NEW DELHI: Twenty-one Italian tourists and their three Indian tour operators have been shifted out from an ITBP quarantine centre here on Wednesday as they were exposed to novel coronavirus, officials said. They said the foreigners have been sent to a private hospital in Gurgaon and a centre in the national capital while the Indians have been transferred to the Safdarjung Hospital. ALSO READ: Paytm employee in Gurgaon tests positive for coronavirus, staff asked to work from home Fourteen Italians and an Indian (driver), who were in the same group as the affected Italian couple, tested positive for the virus as per information provided by the Health Ministry. These people will be further quarantined while the rest in this group will be kept in preventive isolation, they said. The Italian tourists and three Indians were admitted to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force centre in Chhawla on Tuesday. ALSO READ: Coronavirus likely a permanent guest, summer may not contain spread, says top virologist The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane from China's Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus. The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week. The delayed release of funds to the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) has negatively affected the implementation of development projects in mining communities. Apart from the late release of funds from the Ministry of Finance to the MDF, a chunk of the required budget is in arrears, making the judicious use of the fund difficult. The Coordinator of the Mining Community Development Scheme (MCDS), Alhaji Abdul-Manan Adam, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra. The disbursement of funds from the Ministry of Finance to the MDF has not been encouraging. If we expect 100 per cent of the mandatory funds, we end up getting between 15 and 30 per cent. Currently, we are in 2020 but we have arrears from September 2019. We expected GH31 million disbursement, but we received GH9 million, he said. MDF The fund was set up through the MDF Act, 2016 (Act 912) to provide development projects in mining communities that have been negatively impacted by mining activities. It derives funds from 20 per cent of minerals royalties received from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), holders of mining leases, money approved by Parliament, grants, donations, gifts, as well as investments made by the MDF Board. Per the disbursement formula, the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL), the MCDS and the Minerals Commission are to receive 50, 20 and 13 per cent, respectively, of the MDF. The Geological Survey Department and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources are also entitled to eight and four per cent, respectively, while four per cent has also been set aside for research. Impact Alhaji Adam said although the MDF had made a significant impact in mining communities with the releases made to it so far, it was worrying that the required funds had not been made available, as expected. For instance, he said, in 2019, the approved budget for the MDF was GH130.8 million, but that was revised to GH99.8 million during the Mid-Year Budget Review. However, as of September 2019, total releases stood at GH52.14 million, he added. He said the MCDS had put its share of MDF allocations to prudent use in mining communities, saying that its major achievement was the investment of over GH30 million in an alternative livelihood programme, through which over three million oil palm seedlings had been distributed to farmers in mining communities. Since 2017, we have signed a contract with Richie Plantation, a private entity, to provide one million seedlings at a cost of GH10 million every year and the company has delivered the seedlings for the past three years, he said. The oil palm seedlings initiative, he said, had made an impact on the lives of residents of mining communities, leading to some of them abandoning illegal mining. Alhaji Adam added that the MCDS nursed and distributed 300 cashew seedlings in some parts of the Bono and the Ahafo regions in 2019, with a plan to scale up to cover more people. According to him, one of the major activities the MCDS was engaged in was the establishment of Local Community Management Committees (LCMCs) at 17 mining zones for the implementation of projects. He said eight of those LCMCs had so far been set up. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The national chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has reacted to the Supreme Court dismissal of the application of Emeka Ihedioha, former governor of Imo state, seeking a review of the judgement which sacked him by describing the judgement as refreshing. Oshiomhole made this known while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday. I think is refreshing and quite predictable in the sense that from the attitude of the supreme court last week on Bayelsa that nothing was wrong with the candidate, the lower court did not disqualify the candidate, the issue of the candidate was not before the supreme court and yet the supreme court made a decision. We know that Ihedioha did not have the required number and that is a fact that nobody has ever disputed. How anybody thought he can impose someone who did not meet the spread is only known to PDP. Because they specialise in rigging and they see rigging as their birthright. So I think what the supreme court has done today is just to reaffirm that they are supreme and whatever they did the last time was on the basis of what was before them. They did not make mistakes, there are no gaps, no ambiguity and therefore there was no basis to re-approach them to seat on the appeal in their own judgement. We are happy and we thank God that the whole litigation process has come to an end. The Chattanooga Tree Commission, numerous neighborhood associations and Chattanooga residents will celebrate Arbor Day with the ceremonial planting of several shade trees at the Southside Community Park, 3501 Central Ave., on Saturday at 11 a.m. Assisting in the planting and celebration will be officials from the City of Chattanooga. These are the first of 30 trees that are being installed to enhance the livability of the Southside Community Park located in Chattanoogas southside. A representative from the Tennessee Division of Forestry will certify Chattanooga as a Tree City community for the 30th consecutive year. The public is invited to attend this free event. Tree planting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Anyone can participate in the Saturday planting event. All necessary tools and trees will be provided. Free food (for the first 150 attendees), activities for all ages and music will also be provided. The event will take place rain or shine. Ryan Bourne holds the R Evan Scharf Chair in Public Understanding of Economics at the Cato Institute. You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Only a crisisactual or perceivedproduces real change. Rahm Emmanuel, Barack Obamas Chief of Staff, and Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist, had different political ambitions. But they both understood how crises can facilitate radical economic and political change. The coronavirus, or Covid-19, now risks becoming one such crisis. Ascendant political ideas do not bode well for its consequences. Much has been written on the near-term economics. Disruption to global supply chains, including lost production in China and consequent knock-on effects on shipping, could restrict the availability of certain goods, acting as an adverse supply-side shock. That will put upward on prices, which central banks would be wise to ignore. Purer panic risks sapping the demand-side of economies too, thus constraining output further. Restrictions on, or fears about, socialising, could induce short-term consumption contractions, most of which will bounce back later, but which will put near-term pressure on many businesses and liquidity-constrained households. Tanking markets reflect both such effects but, as Tyler Cowen notes, the market reaction is bigger than these imply, suggesting investors are passing judgment on political reactions too. The overall GDP impact depends on infection and death rates, the length and severity of containment, and consumers spending responses. Even with a death rate of one per cent, widespread infection could significantly affect output. School closures for a month, as seen in Japan, might multiply any economic drag by a factor of three. In the worst case, flights might be grounded, sporting events cancelled, and more. As Paul Goodman outlined last week, the Health Secretary must tread carefully between accusations of complacency or needless panic. Ministers are reportedly considering the trade-off between allowing an acute outbreak, from which the economy would rebound more quickly, or trying to save more lives by imposing restrictions Recognising trade-offs is welcome, but given the international nature of the problem and awful worst-case scenarios (widespread infection of health professionals, causing knock-on consequences for those sick without the virus), health concerns must dominate here, particularly to protect the elderly. Nevertheless, one understands why the economics spooks politicians. A 2009 paper by Simon Wren-Lewis, and Oxford University economist, modelled an influenza pandemic. Assuming a three month flu similar to that seen in 1957 and 1968/69, with 35 per cent to 50 per cent of people affected, and those infected taking five to seven days off work, it assessed various lengths of school closures, the possibility of people proactively taking time off, and adjusting types of consumption. In the best-case UK GDP was projected to fall by 1.2 per cent in the quarter, with the year fall in GDP just 0.2 per cent as most consumption then rebounded. A more extreme scenario, with one per cent of the working population dying, school closures for 13 weeks, and four weeks pre-emptive absenteeism, would have seen GDP contract by 4.5 per cent over the year. If consumers really change their spending habits, that rises to circa six per cent a similar near-term recession to the financial crisis. Now, thats a severe scenario. But its worth bearing in mind given how much the financial crisis changed politics. Even a more muted impact could have profound consequences, once political opportunism kicks in. The most obvious could be how a U.S. downturn affects their Presidential race, particularly with Bernie Sanders still in the hunt for the Democratic nomination to face Donald Trump. Goldman Sachs estimates the coronavirus could shave a percentage point off GDP growth this year. No post-war incumbent has won a Presidential election with growth that weak. Though yesterdays Democratic primary results were positive for Joe Biden, an escalating epidemic could rapidly change that race again. And with stories of U.S. citizens avoiding seeking medical treatment through fear of out-of-pocket costs, a crisis will allow Sanders to denounce a healthcare system that Biden helped create, pushing Sanders proposed socialisation of healthcare (so-called Medicare-for-all) to the forefront of the campaign, ahead of a Trump showdown. Sanders supporters certainly still smell blood. If America ends up with major supply chain disruptions like China has had, a related stock market decline (already underway), and other adverse economic impacts, how voters, as taxpayers, weigh the costs versus benefits of Medicare for all proposals could easily change, said Steve Early, a co-founder of Labor for Bernie. Remember that Sanders economic platform is more radical than Corbyns Labour combining protectionism, a massive expansion of the welfare state, and a guaranteed well-paid public sector job for all who want one. If he wins, the Land of the Free turns in a radically different economic direction, institutional constraints notwithstanding. This would not be unusual. History shows crises invariably grow government, with emergency measures, new spending, and trade and social restrictions never quite normalising. Even if the U.S. avoids a socialist president, the coronavirus is already emboldening protectionists, particularly with regard interdependence with China. Donald Trumps son (Don Jr) retweeted approvingly, for example: For people worried about the economic impact of #coronavirus and #StockMarketCrash2020 just imagine if we *didnt* have a president in the White House who spent the past three years encouraging American companies to reduce their dependence on China. Trump will use a potential pandemic to push reshoring, tighter borders, and immigration restrictions. Environmentalists concerned about carbon emissions will use it too to advocate for less international travel. Historians have pointed out that pandemics tend to occur after long periods of trade growth and integration, because of this sort of reaction. Its not escaped my notice that three well-plugged-in UK journalists Jeremy Warner, Iain Martin, and Andrew Neil have all downplayed supply chains longevity, as part of the governments hubristic desire to reshape the economy. We will see further anti-market sentiment when prices of certain goods rise through trade disruption too. Theres nothing like a shortage of hand sanitiser or certain foods to cause people to give up on supply and demand and denounce greedy profiteering. An anti-market, anti-free trade turn would be a disaster, though, and economically short-sighted. Yes, global interconnectivity and travel raises risks associated with pandemics, requiring contingencies. But free trade and interconnectedness also raises prosperity, providing more resources to deal with crises when they arise. A home-focused industrial policy hardly saved China from this epidemic. And its precisely trade openness and markets that ensure diversity of supply particularly in medicine and food. If you think the UK or the US are vulnerable to lost production from Covid-19 now, imagine if everything was produced domestically and a pandemic hit here hardest. When crises hit though, as Emanuel and Friedman knew, the chaos provides opportunities for ascendant ideas currently waiting in the wings. Neo-socialism and protectionism are todays fashionable novel opinions. Covid-19 could have a legacy much greater than any initial economic drag. Michael Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign following a disappointing performance at the polls on Super Tuesday. He announced he will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden. The business-information tycoon spent at least $500 millionthe bulk of which was dedicated to advertisingon his self-funded presidential campaign. He spent about $300 on each vote he got, and won only the American Samoa caucuses. (In his most recent political campaign before this one, to win a third term as New York mayor in 2009, he spent $174 per vote for a startlingly narrow victory.) Advertisement In a statement emailed to supporters Wednesday morning, Bloomberg wrote he got into the race to beat President Donald Trump, and thats the same reason hes exiting because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterdays results, the delegate math has become virtually impossibleand a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November, he wrote. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life. Ive always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it, Bloomberg added. After yesterdays vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden. Bloomberg, whose polling numbers nosedived after an awkward and defensive performance in his first televised debate, wrote that hes immensely proud of his campaign and the plans it put forth. In January, Bloomberg said he would pay his campaign workers to work through November in support of whoever wins the nomination. - Two stunning black ladies identified as Shanta Owens and Shera Grant serve simultaneously as judges in the same county - Judge Shanta herself swore her twin sister Shera into office in a historic turn of events - The 2 ladies narrated in an interview that they were glad to be walking in their life purpose together Two stunning black twin sisters are said to be the first identical twins to serve simultaneously as district court judges at Jefferson County in the United States. Judge Shanta Owens and Judge Shera Grant both graduated from ASU College of Business Administration and law school at Louisiana State University (LSU). READ ALSO: Kenyan graduate who made 200 job applications without success now earns KSh 1m monthly Judge Shanta Owens and Judge Shera Grant both graduated from ASU College of Business Administration. Photo: Alabama.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Bungoma county government to reward mothers who deliver in hospitals After graduation, the twins separated for the first time: Grant went to Atlanta, and Owens returned to their hometown in Birmingham and both served as prosecutors. "It's pretty amazing to live out our career dreams together," Owens, who is older than her sister by four minutes, said. It is reported that Judge Shanta swore her twin sister Judge Shera into office herself. READ ALSO: Mahakama yaamrisha kuachiliwa huru kwa Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa KPA Daniel Manduku The two ladies who appear to be staunch believers spoke about their feat in an interview declaring that they were glad to be walking in their purpose. While its an honour to be sitting on the bench at the same time, I never really thought about us making history but more so walking in the purpose God has for us," said Owen. "It feels like I am living the life God has for me and I am doing what I am supposed to be doingjust allowing God to have His way in my life," said Grant. READ ALSO: Coronavirus conundrum: Scientists puzzled by few cases of deadly disease in Africa Lawyers and their clients get the women confused, too with most of them stoping them along the hallway or elevators to discuss cases. Photo: Alabama.com Source: UGC Both women have 8-year-old daughters and 5-year-old sons with both the girls and the boys being four months apart. Their husbands were childhood best friends since kindergarten and their weddings were two months apart. While they love sitting on the bench together, the twins said they do not think the situation has brought them closer. READ ALSO: Blessed with brains: Meet family of 5 sisters who are all doctors The twins' husbands were childhood best friends since kindergarten and their weddings were two months apart. Photo: Alabama.com Source: UGC They were naturally close growing up and said the twin effect only added another layer of bonding. The twins also live within walking distance of each other and often have family dinners together and pick up the other's kids from school if someone has to work late. "Every time we get together, the kids call it a party. It makes family vacations so much fun. So chaotic, but so much fun," Owen said. READ ALSO: Gire Ali: Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr wants suspended KQ employee promoted for brave act Although they look identical, the twins have distinctly different personalities. Photo: Alabama.com Source: UGC Many weekends, one couple will take all four kids and give the other couple a chance for a date night. In the past, the girls would spend the night at one house and the boys at another but now, they all want to be together. "They really do treat each other like brothers and sisters," Owen said. READ ALSO: Marsabit elders say locust invasion not new, sign of good fortune Many weekends, one couple will take all four kids and give the other couple a chance for a date night. Photo: Alabama.com Source: UGC Although they look identical, the twins have distinctly different personalities, while Grant is the more stern, punctual twin, Owens is the more laid-back, self-described '10 minutes late' one. Lawyers and their clients get the women confused, too. They will come up to the judges in the hallway or on the elevator and start talking about their cases, and the twins will have to stop them. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly Source: TUKO.co.ke Post about Honcharuk's statement published on court's website to be removed as soon as technically possible court head A message on the website of the Kyiv District Administrative Court about the receipt of a statement from Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk will be deleted as soon as the website is reactivated. At the moment, the website could not stand the load due to the large number of visitors, the court's chief judge Pavlo Vovk said on Facebook. "In connection with the appearance on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of the message that Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk did not submit such a statement, the news article will be removed from the court's website as soon as it becomes technically possible, before being clarified, in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Code," Vovk said. The court earlier said it had received a statement on securing the claim, specifying the applicant as Oleksiy Honcharuk, the defendant - Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov, and third party Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In it, the plaintiff asked the court to ban Razumkov from submitting to the parliament at a meeting on March 4, 2020 the question of Honcharuk's resignation or the dismissal of any member of the government. The government's press service said this information is false. The Verkhovna Rada will convene for an extraordinary plenary meeting at 16.00 on March 4 at Zelensky's request. According to the published agenda, the meeting will evaluate the activities of law enforcement agencies, as well as consider personnel shifts in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Coronavirus has so eaten other news that even Richard Norths EU Referendum websites two most recent pieces are about the Governments too-obvious lack of preparedness, although North does get some Brexit digs in. Nevertheless, its been too long since this site and its estimable Brexit mavens have had a look, despite the trade talks having formally started on Monday. But again, most elements are so over-familiar that its easy to wonder if one is missing a critically important detail. The Financial Times gave a helpful overview of the events planned for this week and the scope of the talks, including that many issues were being hashed out in parallel. As before, as ever, the UK side is heavily engaged in posturing for domestic consumption. Some commentators also tear their hair over the UKs continued cakeism, which has only seemed to have changed flavors. The Government is, as when Theresa May was at the helm, insisting on arrangements that the EU has repeatedly said na ga happen. The UK is now demanding the EU must must let the UK have its way because voting for Brexit means they get that. Im not making that up; this was a key theme of an EU-eyepoking speech by Brexit negotiator David Frost. The UK side acts as if it really cannot wrap its mind around the fact that selling goods to the EU means abiding by their rules. A short and tidied up version from RTE: Mandates published last week highlighted the EUs aim of securing a level-playing field to prevent Britain undercutting European standards on labour, tax, environment and state subsidies. Meanwhile, the UK is insisting on setting its own rules in the name of economic and political independence. Politicos longer-form overview: The start of negotiations on future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union has turned into an unsporting mismatch. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson no longer seems to care about objectives his government signed up to just a few months ago, leaving Brussels struggling to hold London to common standards once the Withdrawal Agreement transition period the two sides negotiated expires at the end of this year. Johnson has turned his back on the commitment to a regulatory level playing field set out in the declaration on future relations, which he signed in October along with the withdrawal treaty and which his Conservative Party endorsed in parliament in January after it won a thumping majority. The government has also dropped all talk of seeking a deep and special relationship, or of frictionless trade, and seems to have written off hope of a long-term deal ensuring access for the U.K.s giant financial services industry. Ministers have made clear that they put the sovereign right to diverge from EU rules above any economic benefit, and they have instructed business and farmers to prepare for friction at the borders. It could all be a grand bluff. But barring another last-minute Johnson pivot in mid-year as the steep cost of a chaotic no-deal rupture comes into sharper focus, the U.K. appears to be steering toward a far more disruptive break on a much shorter timescale than EU policymakers had contemplated. Mind you, the UK and EU staked out these positions over a month ago. The EU predictably rejected the UK demands and neither side has budged. The UK insists all it wants is a Canada style deal. In fact, CETA, the Canada-EU trade pact, does require a lot of harmonization, plus the UK agreed to what amounts to level playing field provisions with the US in its draft framework. But in a sign of the EU not being willing to say more than it needs to, Irelands then Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, said the UK couldnt expect to get Canada provisions because smuggling because the UK was too close to and too enmeshed with the EU. Michel Barnier made more or less the same point, with an uncharacteristic lack of finesse. One might take that to me the EU is tiring of the ritual of explaining its red lines. As an aside, Richard Norths son Pete North pointed out that Canada doesnt even mean what the UK seems to think it means. Specifically, the two sides left some parts fuzzy. This is a manifestation of a point Sir Ivan Rogers has made repeatedly: all past trade deal presuppose the two parties want to get closer. Among other things, that helps increase the likelihood of good faith dealing. The fact that the UK was an obstreperous member of the EU and is taking an even more high-handed posture means the EU isnt going to be keen about going fudgy on anything important (Irish border matters being a potential exception because no one had a good idea about what to do). From North the younger: Were we to secure a CETA style deal, it is likely to be only the scaffolding without much of the brickwork. (CETA) is a living agreement. In more specific terms, as the Ecologic report has it; CETA is a living agreement. This means that CETA is designed as a dynamic agreement that allows the Parties to respond to changing circumstances and needs. To fulfil these objectives, CETA establishes a new and comprehensive institutional framework for cooperation between Canada and the EU and sets primarily procedural obligations. In many cases, CETA does not set detailed and hard obligations that predetermine a specific outcome. This also applies to regulatory cooperation, where CETA introduces various procedural obligations (e.g. obligation to exchange information and to consult) but no hard obligations on substance. CETA also establishes a new institutional framework for regulatory cooperation which consists of the Joint Committee (JC) and the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF). Personally I dont think a direct copy out of the institutional framework, done in a hurry, is a particularly good idea, and in all likelihood, not doable in time. But to make it more than a mixture of trade facilitation instruments and vague aspirations, there would need to be a far longer transition with more detailed talks. Back to the state of play. Johnson maintains that if they two sides arent well along to an agreement by the June EU summit, the UK will go its own way and prepare to deal on a WTO basis. This is the functional equivalent of a crash out. Admittedly, the last time it looked like that was a real possibility, the EU identified a series of key areas in which it would allow the UK a limited continuation of EU privileges (they were time limited as well as in some case being substantively less permissive than current arrangements). In other words, the EU would set up some waivers to cushion the impact for its benefit. Those would presumably help the UK but thats an unintended consequence. Boris Johnson also poked a stick in the EUs eye by maintaining that there would be no checks on British good going to Northern Ireland. While the level playing field language was in the Political Declaration and hence not legally binding, these Irish provisions were in the Withdrawal Agreement, which is a treaty. Barnier forcefully rejected the UK retrading the deal. The EU is also taking a hard line on fishing but Peter Foster, now European Editor of the Telegraph, set to move to the Financial Times, says this border issue is more important: An industry insider tells me a supermarket has calculated the cost of putting a single 'mixed' container (meat, fish, dairy) goods from GB to NI at 6,000 or "half total value of consignment". This is a serious #Brexit issue. 1/Threadhttps://t.co/UGQEtQiOcS Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) March 3, 2020 Because if you think about it the Northern Irish "frontstop" is the FIRST moment where the #Brexit rubber actually hits the road until now it's all been transition and obfuscation. This the first attempt at actually doing real stuff. And the UK govt is balking. /3 Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) March 3, 2020 Understandably, major supermarkets are getting VERY jumpy. One major chain has 300 trucks a WEEK going to NI from Scotland it needs to know what is going to happen. And it needs to know fast. But this week HMG cancelled a planned meeting at Defra to discuss /7 Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) March 3, 2020 For those chains that don't have RoI outletsSainsbury's, Asda for example, from what I can see.it is not clear what good options you have. /10 Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) March 3, 2020 But at the end of the day, they revert to a version of: "The UK signed the deal. It knew what it was signing. It was made very clear. To Frost also." Even at the time some doubted the wisdom of the deal whether it was really implementable. /14 Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) March 3, 2020 Foster says in the this tweetstorm that the EU anticipates that there will enough progress on fish by the summer for both sides to gin up good headlines, but UK failure to budge here would lead to a breakdown. Rafael Behr at the Guardian has a similar take, stated caustically: The negotiations that began in Brussels this week will codify legal obligations across multiple issues, and Johnsons inflated verbiage is not a meaningful currency in that commerce. It can be an impediment to progress when it undermines trust. Continental leaders take note when the prime minister tells manufacturers that they will encounter no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind for the transit of goods between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain. Ministers blithely dismiss the prospect of a customs border in the Irish Sea. A border in the Irish Sea is not a matter of conjecture. It is described in a treaty that Johnson signed and waved in triumph. But his enthusiasm was for the idea of a deal, not the real thing. He likes deals for their instant retail value in domestic politics, believing that problems in the small print can be blustered away. That is not how the trade negotiations work in Brussels, where the deal is the small print If the prime minister believes this stuff if he prefers pristine sovereignty in a hypothetical economy to defence of the real one he has little incentive to compromise. Behr notes that another school of thought hold that Boris with his 80 seat majority can afford to compromise as long as he can keep Brexit out of the spotlight and put a happy face on his retreats. But he also points out tha the Government is overestimating its ability to wrest concessions from the EU. In the meantime, other analysts are deflating the Governments claim that it doesnt really need the EU and that great, glorious new trade deals with the US and other countries will leave them even better off, a notion we debunked from the get-go. For instance: The economic benefit from a trade deal with the US may be 450 times smaller than the potential loss from a no-deal Brexit according to the government's own figures. Put that on a bus.https://t.co/HV7yHSTbaC James Melville (@JamesMelville) March 3, 2020 And from the Financial Times yesterday: the government continues to emit an overpowering fog of promises about non-European trade deals. If it were possible to monetise these promises, we would all be rich by now Essentially, the United Kingdoms departure [from the EU] is nothing positive for the Japanese companies doing business there, so the focus going forward is how much the negative impact is alleviated, Akio Mimura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said last month Professor Rana Mitter, a leading authority on modern China, said few countries had a comprehensive trade accord with Beijing. Those that do Australia is an example usually have products, such as minerals or advanced machinery, that make a deal attractive to the Chinese. The UK doesnt have one obvious sector that China sees as of compelling benefit to its own interests, so a deal is unlikely to be agreed quickly, said Prof Mitter. And the UK and US are sparring over Huawei and the UKs proposed digital services tax, as the US intends to muscle the UK into the US regulatory framework (yes, chlorinated chicken will be in your future!). But on top of that, House Leader Pelosi has cleared her throat and pointed out that Congress will not approve any deal if the UK has damaged the Good Friday Agreement. Oh, and the UK is undermining its coronavirus response because it doesnt want to spend trading chips with the EU. From RTE: The Telegraph reported that Downing Street and the Department of Health and Social Care are involved in a stand-off over whether Britain should retain membership of an EU pandemic warning system used to stem the SARS and bird flu outbreak.. According to the newspaper, No 10 fears continued membership of the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) could hamper trade negotiations. As a result, Downing Street is said to have prevented Health Secretary Matt Hancock from travelling to meet counterparts to coordinate a Europe-wide response to the coronavirus outbreak. The Liberal Democrats have called for the trade talks to be postponed and the deadline to be extended to allow ministers to focus on stopping coronavirus. Acting leader Ed Davey said: Then the NHS and local communities can get the funds and the focus they deserve, and the UK can talk to our European neighbours about how we can cooperate against the coronavirus which does not recognise national borders. Most commentators look at the lack of overlap in the EU and UK bargaining positions. They recognize that the EU has little room to move since preserving the integrity of the Single Market is paramount, and see Johnson as painted into a corner by his aggressive messaging and the rigidity of the hard Brexit faction. Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times takes the contrary position, that Johnson will wind up making concessions: It sounds like a big problem. Fortunately, the argument may be more about theory than reality. That is because the Thatcherite purists within Mr Johnsons Conservative party are losing the ideological battle. They argued for 30 years that Brussels regulation was strangling the British economy and that the UK should break free to opt for a low-tax, small-state model. But the pro-Brexit voters in the north of England, who delivered the last election for Mr Johnson, have been promised higher public spending and more social protection. The idea of Britain as Singapore-on-Thames, always a misleading analogy, is sliding off the agenda. What remains of the original Brexit agenda is the Johnson governments determination to restore British sovereignty, removing the EUs right to legislate directly or indirectly for the UK. This distinction between theory and practice opens the way for an eventual deal. The British will insist on their right to diverge from EU law but will assure the Europeans that, in practice, they will retain social and environmental standards that are at least as stringent as those of the EU. This is rather like a child insisting that it will determine its own bedtime but indicating that, in practice, it will go to bed at 8pm as normal. The EU.will grant Britain tariff and quota-free access to the European single market. But it will also set up a formal process through which the EU reviews British legislation. If the European Commission or parliament (or some combination) finds that the UK has un-levelled the playing field, the EU will retain the right to impose tariffs on Britain The UK will also have to accept that the EU will decide on breaches unilaterally. Having insisted on British sovereignty, they can hardly complain if the EU side also makes sovereign decisions. This is all very cheery and also would amount to a very soft Brexit. While Johnson, who stands for nothing but Johnson, would theoretically be capable of making a major shift, hes harped so often on the need for the UK to set its own rules that I dont see how he can turn his messaging supertanker far enough, fast enough. In any event, well have to live with posturing till at the earliest late April/early May. Even if the UK blinks, it wont do so until late in the game. Illinois still is waiting on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the test result. They have said the couple is in good condition. The state health department also had tested 102 people in Illinois for the virus as of Monday, and it has said that its monitoring about 250 people for symptoms. The National Vice-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), North East, Salihu Mustapha, has accused the partys National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, of trying to announce a new National Secretary for the party after his suspension on Wednesday by a Federal High Court. Mr Mustapha said by virtue of the courts order, any decision taken by Mr Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the ruling party is illegal. The court in Abuja suspended Mr Oshiomhole after granting an interlocutory injunction in an application filed on January 16 by a member of the APC, Oluwale Afolabi. Mr Afolabi based his application for the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole on the suspension of the national chairman last year by a faction of the party in his home Edo State. Ruling on the application, Justice Danlami Senchi ordered the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole pending the determination of the substantive suit. The court also ordered that the embattled national chairman should not be allowed into the partys national secretariat. But in a phone interview with journalists at the party secretariat immediately after the court verdict, Mr Mustapha said Mr Oshiomhole has defied the courts order by directing the partys spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu, to announce Waziri Bulama as the partys National Secretary. Mr Mustapha is one of the members of the partys National Working Committee (NWC) opposed to Mr Oshiomholes leadership of the APC. This reporter once at the partys secretariat last month witnessed the duo in a shouting match during an NWC meeting, which led to Mr Mustapha storming out of the meeting. Immediately the court injunction was given, the national chairman has called the partys National Publicity Secretary (Lanre Issa-Onilu) to issue a statement that Bulama is the National Secretary of the party. I believe you guys are aware of the meeting held about a month ago on that matter, which ended without a decision. Since then there has not been a decision as to the replacement of the secretary, he said. He said if such an order by the suspended chairman (Mr Oshiomhole) will create more chaos within the party if carried out. The public should know that any decision that Oshiomhole makes henceforth is an illegal decision and will not hold. We will keep our fingers crossed until the court decides. I am saying this so that there can be no two national secretaries and there can be no affirmation from a national chairman that has been suspended, Mr Mustapha further said. The vacant position in question was formerly occupied by the now Yobe Governor, Mai Mala Buni. Meanwhile, some workers at the partys national secretariat expressed delight at the court decision. One of the staff described Mr Oshiomholes leadership style as rigid and authoritative. The party spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu, did not pick his calls or respond to this reporters message on Mr Mustaphas allegation. Two men have been indicted in the separate killings of two women in 2018 and 2019. A Jefferson County grand jury on Feb. 7 issued the murder indictments against Derrick Peterson and Jeffery Smith, according to court records made public Wednesday. Peterson is charged in the July 15, 2019 shooting death of Shaneia Causwell. Smith is charged in the March 17, 2018 strangulation death of 57-year-old Minnie Brown. Causwell was killed, and two others injured, in the shooting that happened shortly after 9 p.m. that Monday in the 1700 block of Sixth Way N.W. That location is in the Sun Valley neighborhood off Carson Road. Authorities said a disagreement took place outside the residence there and then turned into a physical fight, which spilled over into the street. Guns were brandished, and shots were fired. Police responded to the neighborhood on a report of multiple people shot. When they arrived, they found all three victims had been transported by private vehicle to area hospitals. Shaneia Causwell Causwell was taken to St. Vincents East, where extra police were summoned for crowd control. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:21 p.m. Two other victims both males - were taken to UAB Hospitals Trauma Center. Investigators learned that an altercation began after unwanted guests arrived at the victims home and were asked to leave. All shooting victims were related. Peterson was initially arrested July 18, 2019 and released from jail the same day on $60,000 bond. Brown, 57, was found unresponsive that Saturday in a room at Americas Best on Messer-Airport Highway. The room was not being rented by anyone at the time. Birmingham Fire and Rescue also responded to the scene, but life-saving measures were not successful. Brown was pronounced dead on the scene. Smith was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Aug. 19, 2019 and released in January 2020 on $40,000 bond. Trial dates have not yet been set for either man. Rep. Henry Cuellar declared victory around 3 a.m. Wednesday in a tough primary race that few Laredoans anticipated would end with a margin so close. READ MORE: Final voting results released for Webb County March Primary Election Cuellar won Texas 28th Congressional District by 2,756 votes over 26-year-old challenger Jessica Cisneros, an immigration attorney and former intern of his. Cuellar won 51.85% of the district with 38,720 votes. He won Webb County, the heavy center point of his district, with 55.14%, 15,853 votes. Cuellar did not attend his victory party Tuesday night and flew out to Washington D.C. early Wednesday. He was not available to comment on his win, but issued a statement that afternoon thanking his volunteers, voters and supporters. These results show that even in heavily Democratic districts, a majority of voters still want us to be a big tent party, where moderates are welcome, Cuellar said. As Democrats, we must continue protecting the majority in the House, taking back the Senate, as well as taking back the White House. I am proud to have overcome this challenge, and to my opponent I wish you the best. Im already in Washington, D.C., back to work and continuing to fight for the constituents in my district. Jerry Thompson, professor of history at Texas A&M International University who has written extensively about the history of Laredo, the southwest and the border, said he expected Cisneros to garner closer to a third or 40% of the vote. There is no doubt that shes a shining star in the Democratic Party, certainly on the progressive wing. And I think we will hear from her in the future, Thompson said. However he did not go as far as to say that Cisneros relative success necessarily indicates any kind of ideological sea change in South Texas. She was just an intelligent, attractive candidate with integrity, and people liked her, Thompson said. He also thought Cuellars image suffered by him taking money from the Koch brothers and the National Rifle Association. Its one thing to be a centrist, but that, even in the eyes of moderates, is going overboard, Thompson said. READ MORE: See how Laredo voted for the Democratic nominee for President Cuellars stronghold this election was along the border, in Webb, Zapata and Starr counties, where he won overwhelmingly. Cisneros performed best in Bexar County, where she garnered over two-thirds of the vote. And Cisneros campaign director Danny Diaz noted that she won district-wide on Election Day by 10 points. In an address to the media Wednesday morning at her campaign headquarters, Cisneros said her campaign exceeded all expectations for a primary challenger to an incumbent. The fact that we were able to get within three, four points just shows that theres so many people that share the same ideas and beliefs as we do, that we do deserve better, she said. She called Cuellar and left him a voicemail congratulating him Wednesday morning, Cisneros said. And while she didnt rule out running again in the future, Cisneros said shes ready to work with whomever has the best interests of the community in mind, and said she will fight to turn Texas blue in November. Cisneros is not sure what lies next for her professionally. She mentioned continuing her advocacy in the courtroom or bringing a public defense model to South Texas, something akin to Brooklyn Defender Services, where she took a fellowship after graduating from law school. Obviously I love Laredo this is where my family has been living for 30 years, this is where I see myself and this is where my future is, Cisneros said. Whatever it is Im going to be doing, its going to be for the betterment of this community that I love so much. READ MORE: See how District 28 counties voted in the Cuellar/Cisneros race ... I think this isnt just the beginning for our movement here in South Texas, but as a 26-year-old political newcomer, I think this is also a beginning for myself too. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com / -- Sonata Software today announced signing of definitive agreements to acquire GAPbusters Limited (GBW), the Melbourne headquartered company that has been amongst pioneers in the CX domain, serving renowned brands globally for nearly thirty years. As companies are increasingly focusing on measuring and managing customer experience to stoke their growth, CX solutions are playing a significant part in most organizations' digital transformation initiatives. As per Fortune Business insights, "The demand for customer experience management systems is rising across various industries and its market is expected to gain significant traction owing to the recent technological advancements. According to a new study by Fortune Business Insights, the global customer experience management market is anticipated to be worth USD 23.9 Billion by 2026, as against USD 6.2 Billion in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 18.5%" GBW has for long been known for its Mystery shopping, Brand /Compliance Audits & Competitor benchmarking programs. Over the last few years, the company has taken a platform-based approach for its new solution offerings in employee survey, feedback management, voice of customer programs to widen its CX bouquet leveraging advanced AI & ML capabilities to deliver insightful & actionable recommendations for its clients with more evolved CX requirements. Commenting on the acquisition Mr. Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software, said, "This acquisition is exciting for Sonata as it is a reaffirmation of our Platformation led approach to digital transformation adding a major platform led customer experience offering to our current solutions, creating substantial value to our existing & prospective clients by providing a more comprehensive digital transformation offering covering 360 degrees of the customer journey, possibly making Sonata very unique in its ability to offer such a unified experience across the customer life cycle." Further elaborating Mr. Srikar Reddy said, "In fact, in the Retail, CPG, Service & Travel Verticals which has been one of our focus areas, given our own IP's, we will now be able to offer a one-stop-shop with the CX solution offering to go with the IP's & all our Clients and prospects who are constantly looking to monitor, measure, garner insights and improve their services need not go looking for proven, trustworthy & best in class CX solutions with deep industry insights as a big plus." The GBW acquisition, coming as it does on the back of a previous acquisition last year of Scalable Data Systems, a Brisbane-headquartered company, amongst the other acquisitions & investments that Sonata has made over the last 24 months, not just strengthens Sonata's footprint in Australia but also opens up new geographies in South East Asia & Europe where GBW has large clients in the QSR, retail, automotive and oil & gas space. Mr. Grant Salmon, CEO of GBW, commented, "We are excited being part of Sonata. We see an opportunity to differentiate ourselves through adopting the Platformation approach and to further enrich and enhance our offerings leveraging Sonata's world class capabilities in AI & other cutting edge technologies. Our existing clients too will be delighted as they will continue to get the high service quality they are used to, besides gaining access to a wider set of capabilities through the financial strength, stability and global footprint that Sonata brings. We would now, not only be able to invest quickly to scale our business in terms of reach, capability and service, but also leverage Sonata's global presence to access and service new markets. Our people will have opportunities for a more diverse choice of solutions and to develop their careers, while opening up the scope to extend these virtues to newer markets and geographies." The legal, regulatory & commercial aspects of the acquisition will be completed in due course. About GBW About Sonata Software Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1099278/Sonata_Software_Logo. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asymptomatic cases prompt NE border city to recheck people arriving since January Global Times By Wan Lin Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/3 14:42:14 Last Updated: 2020/3/3 19:32:14 A city in Northeast China has started a new round of screening of people who have arrived since January 18, after two asymptomatic infections with an incubation period of more than one month were confirmed. The government of Dandong in Liaoning Province issued an emergency notice on Monday of a new round of checks, classification and registration of people who returned to the city about six weeks ago. Dandong is only one river away from North Korea's Sinuiju. The notice came after the city reported two new cases of asymptomatic infection with an incubation period of more than one month. One of the latest confirmed patients was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Saturday in the city's Kuandian Manchu Autonomous County, two weeks after the onset of symptoms, according to a press conference held by the city government on Monday. Sun Ziyun, Party secretary and director of the health bureau of Kuandian, was dismissed for his inadequate prevention and control work after the province raised the level of emergency response from Level I to Level III on February 22, reported Dandong News on Sunday. The city vowed to ensure full coverage of door-to-door screening, adding that no one would be missed. A 57-year-old employee at a local bank, surnamed Wan, who returned to Dandong from Beijing on February 7, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the bank rechecked with him on his travel and contact history, health status and self-quarantine period Tuesday afternoon. He finished his isolation 10 days ago. Among 11 cases reported in Dandong, seven have already been discharged from hospital, reports said. A member of the city's epidemic prevention and control working group told the Global Times on Tuesday that the city's prevention work is strengthening as the number of confirmed cases rose. "The government is very cautious about imported cases from neighboring countries as well," he said, noting that all people who fly from South Korea and Japan will be sent to the isolation centers or required to be self-quarantined at home after arriving. The official picked up about 40 people from a flight from South Korea at the airport in Dalian, Liaoning Province, last Friday. "They were all being tracked by the government after their landing." he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ALTON A man and his dog were out for a walk along the Alton riverfront Monday evening, but ended up taking a short swim in the Mississippi River. Alton Fire Chief Jesse Jemison said a couple was walking their leashed dog in Riverfront Park at about 5:50 p.m. Monday when the dog broke away and went to the waters edge. When the couple approached the dog, it became startled and fell into the water. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday informed that 14 police personnel, who nabbed terrorist Ajmal Kasab in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, have been awarded an out-of-turn promotion by the state government. "14 police personnel, who nabbed terrorist Ajmal Kasab in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, have been awarded an out-of-turn promotion by the state government," said Deshmukh. Terrorist Ajmal Kasab, alongside fellow recruit Ismail Khan, killed 72 people in 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was the only attacker captured alive by Mumbai Police. In 2012, he was hanged on 21 November and buried at Yerwada Jail in Pune. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brandy Brown, the owner of a family-owned children's store called Rock-a-Bye Baby in Virginia Beach, Va., noticed the effects of coronavirus on her business starting in January. Shipments that usually arrived by then were coming in later than usual. Recently, it has gotten worse. Representatives from brands she sells in the store have explained that the coronavirus outbreak, also known as COVID-19, in China have halted production of clothing. Factories were shut down without an opening date, and travel restrictions prevented brands from visiting the factories. Workers who traveled during Lunar New Year have been unable to return to work. "It's a lot of groundwork that we're figuring out and a lot of things we're learning," said Brown. Brown has been stuck dealing with the tedious process of filling up missing inventory at Rock-a-Bye Baby. She has resorted to finding brands online with inventory ready to ship and must confirm the brands do not rely on suppliers directly from China. "It's harder than we imagined," said Brown. Large companies and retailers like Apple and Nike have made headlines during the coronavirus outbreak, as investors anxiously await news on whether the virus will impact the companies' abilities to make sales. But because of the many impacts of the virus, small business owners are struggling, too. Although official reports showing the impact on small businesses have yet to be released, news reports across the country illustrate the struggles. Even those who are not being affected by Chinese suppliers still feel the impact: a fear of crowded spaces and a distrust of products and people of Asian descent are taking a toll on Chinatowns across the United States. Bo Ky, a pho restaurant located in New York City's Chinatown, used to welcome an average of 120 customers daily, but since the coronavirus outbreak, the number of visitors dwindled down to 30 to 40. Chivy Ngo, general manager of Bo Ky, claims the restaurant has lost about 60% of revenue and cannot produce all the items on the menu due to a lack of staff on site. Now that New York has confirmed cases of coronavirus, "of course it makes people more concerned about going out," said Ngo. Wellington Chen, executive director of Chinatown Partnership, a nonprofit that works to preserve and promote Chinatown, said the effect the coronavirus has had on business is far greater than any damage caused by SARS. "The idea of social distancing is really taking hold," said Chen. He claims some shops have lost about 40% of revenue, while others have lost up to 70%. The situation for business owners is Chinatown is so dire that some are unable to pay rent this month, according to a property manager that spoke with Chen. In response to the desperate situation, New York Congresswomen Grace Meng and Nydia Velazquez, and Rep. Judy Chu from California introduced a bill this week to help small business owners across the country suffering economic damage due to the coronavirus. The bill, called "Small Business Relief from Communicable Disease Induced Economic Hardship Act," would allow owners to access Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million to cover business expenses. "Many of our Asian-owned businesses in New York have already experienced a decline in sales due to misinformation, fear and stigma associated with the virus," said Velazquez, whose congressional district in New York City includes Chinatown, in a press release. But for Chen, the real cure for business owners relies on the public. "We really need the public support," said Chen, "and we need the public to step up and resume life." No official guidelines have been released for small businesses on how to protect themselves from the virus, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has come forward to explain that "being Chinese or Asian-American does not increase the chance of getting or spreading COVID-19." The CDC has also recommended encouraging sick employees to stay home, and for all employees to practice good hygiene including washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years This article originally ran in early March, when First Cow first debuted in limited release, shortly before movie theaters across the country shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. We are re-running it for the film's VOD release on July 10th. In First Cow, director Kelly Reichardts latest film, a reserved loner cook named Cookie (John Magaro) and an enterprising Chinese immigrant named King Lu (Orion Lee) develop a friendship in the barely-settled Oregon Territory of the 1820s. Its a tender and moving portrait of an unlikely bond between two outsiders, the intimacy of their relationship contrasted against the austere and unforgiving frontier setting. It also stars an excellent cow. The cow character, the first of her species to arrive in the area, belongs to a wealthy landowner, but Cookie and King Lu make a habit of surreptitiously stealing her milk to make biscuits. The actress behind this measured and nuanced performance as cow? Eve, nicknamed Evie, a handsome Jersey who was two years old at the time of filming. She was scouted by trainer Lauren Henry, who told GQ that Reichardt had outlined specifications based on breeds that were prevalent in the films time period but are no longer around today. Henry first encountered Eve at a hobby farm in Washington State, and though the young cow didnt have any previous acting experience, she immediately seemed destined for the role. When we went to visit Eve to see what her personality was like, she was pacing and seemed a little agitated. And the lady who was her owner said, Oh, she's a little antsy right now. We didn't milk her until you got here. She's used to being the first cow [who gets milked], Henry recalled. When she heard the phrase first cow used coincidentally in relation to Eve, Henry got chills. She added: And then we found out her name is Eve, so, first woman too. And we were like, Oh my gosh, this is all the stars aligning. This is the cow for the job. Story continues "She is a very fine cow," Reichardt told GQ in an email. Courtesy of A24 Behind the scenes, Eve was known for being sociable and popular. Henry tends to avoid too much contact between people and animal talent on set, so as to not overwhelm the non-human actors, but Eve couldnt get enough of it. She loves people more than just about anything else, other than apples. If you're not paying attention to her, she's running around and bucking and waving her head, trying to get your attention so that you'll come in and play with her, Henry shared. She thrived on people coming and petting her and brushing her and giving her treats and telling her how beautiful she was. And while Eve was never a diva, she definitely had some demands. If we separated her, she would moo and look out the window and try and get people to come see her, Henry said. Cows may be intelligent animals with complex inner emotional lives, but how does one go about technically training them for the silver screen? For the initial stages, a miniature mock set was built near Eves paddock so as to acclimate her to lights and fog machines and the like. The rest mostly involved a lot of time and a lot of food. Courtesy of A24 Eves onscreen debut is a shot of her floating up river on a raft, which required weeks of hanging out on a mock raft on dry land. We sat up there with her for a very, very long time, just adding a little bit of time each day, until she was absolutely comfortable with getting up on the raft, Henry explained. She absolutely loved floating down the river. She had her little sleepy cow eyes and chewed her cud and just hung out in the sun with the waves lulling her to sleep. While Eves appearances in First Cow largely involve standing still and staring with a penetrating and soulful gaze (Reichardt has said that she selected Eve out of all the cow headshots because she had the biggest eyes), the most overt action occurs in a scene in which she nuzzles Cookie. To get her to do that, actor John Magaro hid a cookie, usually an apple and oat concoction, in his jacket pocket. Nobody else would give her a cookie except for Cookie, Henry said. She could find that particular actor in a lineup and say, You are the one! The breakout bovine star has since been adopted by Henry, and even gave birth to a calf who was named Cookie in May of last year (a birth announcement provided by Henry can be seen below). He is super sweet, Henry said of the calf, who has since been moved to a nearby local farm. He followed his mom around most of the time, but he also seemed quite partial to our two Alpaca and spent lots of time hanging around with them. As for Eves acting future? She's here and demanding her next role, Henry said. And she certainly has the Kelly Reichardt and A24 cred most young actors would dream of. FirstCowBirthAnnouncement.jpg We're so unlucky and stuff / Woodrow Wilson never had it so tough The Story Behind the Greatest Bob Dylan Parody of All Time Talking to Dan Bern, the songwriter responsible for the flawless fake Dylan song in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Originally Appeared on GQ Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: Arms and ammunition from Punjab is being illegally sold in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. The security hazard is, however, not one sided. Illegal arms are also being sold to criminals in Punjab from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The Punjab Police has now taken up the matter with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Sources said the Organised Crime Control Unit of the Punjab Police arrested Amar Setia, a proprietor of Setia Gun House, last month. He is involved in the fake arms licence case being investigated by the CBI and has been sentenced to three years in jail. Amar revealed that around two months ago he had sold 5,000 cartridges to a Delhi resident and in the last year he has allegedly sold around 20,000 cartridges illegally. He also revealed that other gun houses dealers were also selling ammunition illegally.Ammunition costs between Rs 60 and Rs250 a piece depending upon the calibre. We are investigating the person Amar Setia sold the ammunition to. We have indentified the person and are now on his trail. It is suspected that ammunition might have landed in the wrong hands, said a police officer. The officer said the ammunition is legally purchased from ordnance factories by the gun houses and at times they sell these by flouting norms and without issuing invoices. This is due to the lack of strict monitoring by districts authorities. According to norms, when ammunition is sold the invoice should contain details of the buyer such as name, address, arms licence number and the number and calibre of cartridges sold. The dealer is also supposed to entered details in his or her arms licence with date. The same details also have to be entered into a register which the gun houses have to maintain. When ammunition leaves the ordnance factory, details including the amount and calibre are shared with the district authorities. In the last three years, 1,349 illegal weapons have been recovered by the Punjab Police which had been sold to gangsters. These weapons are manufactured in Shamli in Meerut and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Munger in Bihar and in the jungles of Malwa-Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh, said sources.Sources said Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta has taken up the matter with the MHA and suggested that a special cell be created in CBI or NIA to monitor the racket. An officer on the condition of anonymity said, From desi kata (single barrel single shot gun), pistols, .30 bore and 9MM pistols are manufactured and sold from Rs5,000 to Rs1.50 lakh per piece. In November last year, gangster Sukhpreet Singh was deported from Armenia. Using his leads the police, and the UP ATS arrested Ashish from Meerut on January 30. Ashish was supplying illegal weapons to criminals in the state. During questioning, Ashish reportedly confessed that he has sold 172 weapons to gangsters in Punjab in last three years. By Trend The volume of Kazakhstan wheat exports to Georgia has increased, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Agriculture told Trend. As the ministry noted, traditionally, the grain market of Georgia is adjacent, both for Russian and Kazakhstan wheat. "In previous years, Russia had the opportunity to supply wheat to Georgia at a competitive price. In 2018, lower quality and higher export prices for Russian wheat limited the exports to Georgia," the ministry said. Accordingly, the volume of Kazakhstan wheat exports to Georgia has increased. The ministry also said that transportation of Kazakhstan grain to the Georgian is possible by rail through the territory of the Russian Federation and through the Caspian Sea, which either way is through Azerbaijan. "Due to favorable forecasts for the wheat crop of 2019 worldwide, and in the Black Sea region in particular, prices for Russian wheat in 2019-2020 are not expected to be high," the ministry said. As the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan said, in January-August 2019, 48,800 tons of Kazakhstan wheat and 2,000 tons of flour were exported to Georgia. According to representatives of the ministry, delivery time will depend on market conditions and agreements between entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, on Sept. 28, Levan Silagava, Head of the Association of Wheat Groups of Georgia told Trend that according to negotiations with Kazakhstan, the country''s government will subsidize the transportation of wheat to the Georgian market and reduce tariffs, which will allow to get Kazakh wheat at relatively affordable prices. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz WESTBROOK The Valentine H. Zahn Community Gallery will hold a reception March 12 for its Local Vision V exhibit, Take a Breath. The curated group exhibition will feature artists from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The reception runs from 6-8 p.m. The gallery is located at Middlesex Health Shoreline Medical Center, 250 Flat Rock Place. 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The trucker was held in the Port of Tanger Med, a cargo port located about 25 miles east of the Moroccan city of Tangier, according to local reports. The unnamed driver was planning to take the face masks back to the UK so he could sell them for 30 euros, or 26, each following shortages and price hikes caused by coronavirus fears, local media reports. A British lorry driver has been arrested in Morocco after trying to smuggle 100,000 face masks worth 2.6 million out of the country, reports suggest. The trucker was held in a cargo port located about 25 miles east of the Moroccan city of Tangier (pictured) He was yesterday arrested by customs officers, website le360.ma stated, and is currently believed to be in police custody, although there has been no official comment from the authorities, On Monday, a Moroccan man living in Italy who is currently at a hospital in Casablanca became the first case of coronavirus in the country. Investigations are underway at several hospitals across Spain following the theft of thousands of face masks after price hikes and shortages caused by the deadly outbreak. Regional health chiefs are probing the theft of 5,000 face masks from Valladolid University Clinic Hospital in the latest incidents to emerge. He was yesterday arrested by customs officers, website le360.ma stated, and is currently believed to be in police custody, although there has been no official comment from the authorities. Pictured: He was first held in the Port of Tanger Med Around 250 boxes containing 20 face masks each are said to have vanished from different operating theatres and hospital floors, prompting speculation the thefts are an 'inside job' perpetrated by staff. The latest incident comes on the back of news a doctor at a Costa del Sol hospital faces disciplinary proceedings after allegedly being caught trying to take 300 face masks from a storeroom. A spokesman for the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Malaga confirmed an internal probe had been launched. The unnamed medic, described as a trauma doctor, reportedly claimed when he was intercepted that he wanted to take the face masks to the village where he lived and hand them round to worried friends and neighbours. TEHRAN, Iran The coronavirus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia on Wednesday banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca, while Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities. The decisions in Riyadh and Tehran affected both Sunni and Shiite Muslims alike. The Saudi move expands a ban last week on foreigners visiting Mecca and Medina, home to the holiest sites in Islam. That decision alone disrupted travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affects plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage. Even after that announcement on Feb. 27, people already in Saudi Arabia could still travel to Meccas Grand Mosque, where pilgrims circle the black, cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world pray toward five times a day. The crowds were far smaller crowds than usual before Wednesdays statement from an unidentified Interior Ministry official that was carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Millions attend the annual hajj, which this year is set for late July into early August, and many more visit the kingdoms holy sites year round. Those other pilgrimages are referred to as the umrah, which drew 7.5 million foreigners in 2019 alone. It remains unclear how the ban will be enforced. The government described the suspension as temporary, but gave no hint at when it will be lifted. The ban also appeared to encompass the Prophet Muhammads Mosque in nearby Medina. The decision seeks to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and prevent its access to the Two Holy Mosques, which are witnessing a permanent and intense flow of human crowds, which makes the issue of securing these crowds of utmost importance, the Saudi government said. In Iran, authorities halted Friday prayers in all provincial capitals amid the countrys growing coronavirus outbreak, which has killed at least 92 people amid 2,922 confirmed cases. This disease is a widespread one, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his Cabinet, according to a transcript. It encompasses almost all of our provinces and is, in a sense, a global disease that many countries in the world have become infected with, and we must work together to tackle this problem as quickly as possible. The announcement came a week after a similar order affected Tehran and several other major cities. While observant Muslims can pray at home, the devout prefer to attend Friday prayers as a community. Irans Shiite theocracy also use the services to share ideological messages by clergymen selected by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There are now over 3,140 cases of the virus across the Mideast. Of those outside Iran in the region, most link back to the Islamic Republic. Top leaders in Irans civilian government and Shiite theocracy have become infected with the virus. The country stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicenter of the outbreak. Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 90,000 people and caused over 3,100 deaths. Experts worry that Iran may be underreporting its cases. The virus has no wings to fly, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said. We are the ones who transfer it to each other. Eshaq Jahangiri, Irans senior vice president, banned all overseas trips for officials to attend international events, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported. That did not affect Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, who traveled with an entourage to Vienna for an OPEC meeting. Rouhani, in his Cabinet meeting, acknowledged the toll the outbreak was taking on the public. He called on state television to offer happier programs to entertain those stuck at home. I urge all artists, scientists, psychologists and all who can bring smiles to peoples faces, come into the social media, he said. Today, words that make people tired are no longer advantageous. His request came as Irans judiciary ordered Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who just won the Berlin Film Festivals Golden Bear, to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies. In Israel, Chief Rabbi David Lau urged observant Jews to refrain from kissing the mezuzot, a small item encasing a prayer scroll that is attached to doorposts. Observant Jews typically touch the item and then kiss their hands when walking through a doorway. ___ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed. Army chief General MM Naravane has said that Indias strike at terror launchpad across the border in Balakot showed that if one is skilful, escalation does not always lead to war. General Naravane was speaking at a seminar on land warfare on Tuesday. He also said that rise of non-state actors like terrorists demands that victory in war is formulated in a nuanced manner. The Indian Air Force Mirage-2000s struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp in Balakot on February 26, 2019, in response to the Pulwama suicide bombing attack in Kashmir in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men were killed 12 days earlier. Also Watch | 1700 women to be inducted in Corps of Military Police: Army Chief Gen Naravane Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria had recently said that the IAF struck its targets in Pakistans Balakot with precision and the decision to use air power in a sub-conventional scenario was a paradigm shift. He said the air force could have struck Balakot with twice the number of warplanes and launched four times the weapons but it didnt do so to ensure there was no collateral damage and India could take the moral high ground. The day after the Balakot air strikes, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft breached Indian air space over Jammu and Kashmir, prompting the IAF to scramble its own warplanes to repulse the raiders. In that operation, Wing Commander who was flying a MiG-21 Bison shot down a Pakistani F-16 aircraft before his own place was hit and forced him to bail out. The IAF pilot who was captured by Pakistan troops was released on March 2. Wing Commander Abhinandan, who was conferred the Vir Chakra, resumed flying in August last year. Eight people who arrived from different foreign countries in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday were placed under observation for possible novel coronavirus infection as the government asked officials to take concerted preventive efforts while asserting no positive case has been reported in the state. Special Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) K S Jawahar Reddy said five of the passengers landed in Visakhapatnam (three from Singapore and two from Bahrain) and had been admitted to the local Chest Hospital for observation. One passenger each in Kakinada, Vijayawada and Eluru, who returned from South Korea, Germany and Muscat respectively, were admitted to the local government hospitals, he said in a statement. We have sent their blood samples for examination but nothing turned positive so far, Jawahar Reddy said. Meanwhile, state Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting in the Secretariat and asked all departments to launch a concerted effort, including a massive campaign on coronavirus and the precautionary measures to be taken, officials said. No positive case of coronavirus has been reported in Andhra Pradesh, so people need not panic, Sawhney said. She asked the district Collectors to shift to isolation wards in hospitals persons suspected of coronavirus infection. Ensure that quarantine facilities are available at one or two places in every district and be prepared to tackle any situation, the Chief Secretary told the Collectors. The measures came on a day when the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 28. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fitch Solutions predicted power consumption in Vietnam to grow by an annual average of 6.5% between 2020 and 2029, which still remains one of the fastest growth rates in Asia. Despite the near-term downward revisions, Vietnams power sector as a whole is still poised for robust growth over the coming decade, Fitch Solutions has said in its latest report. According to Fitch Solutions, positive economic growth fundamentals in Vietnam will stimulate an ongoing surge in power demand and consumption over the coming decade. While manufacturing is weighed by the outbreak in the near-term, it is expected that growth will rebound relatively quickly, in line with fiscal and monetary support from the government, and possible backlog of orders upon normalization. Selected markets' exports to China (% of GDP). Liberal trade policies, including the upcoming ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, positive demographics, upscaling of its labor force and rapid urbanization will also support the countrys strong economic growth and further drive power consumption growth rates. Fitch Solutions predicted power consumption in Vietnam to grow by an annual average of 6.5% between 2020 and 2029, which still remains one of the fastest growth rates in Asia. Meanwhile, Vietnams power consumption growth for 2020 has been revised down to 6.2%, in light of growth pressures stemming from the Covid-19 epidemic. Vietnams large manufacturing sector, accounting for 16% of the GDP, is set to come under heavy pressure in the first half of 2020, from supply chain disruptions as a result of the outbreak in China. Fitch noted that Chinas aggressive measures to prevent the spread of the virus have inevitably weighed on domestic manufacturing and production, as well as logistical mobility, which will lead to spillover effects into Vietnam, particularly as China is a key source of raw materials and a major export market for Vietnam. Vietnam's natural gas power generation. Additionally, gas-fired generation is forecast to pick up after 2023, given an increasingly favorable investment environment towards liquified natural gas (LNG), with further upside risk. The anticipated commissioning of PV Gas Thi Vai LNG terminal in the Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in end-2022 will allow Vietnam to begin importing LNG for the first time, which could offer some relief for gas-fired generation thereafter. The government has recently highlighted the use of LNG as a source for power generation, and will look to create more favorable conditions for foreign investors to develop such projects, said Fitch. Vietnam's total power generation and consumption. This has already translated into strong investor interests in LNG projects over the past six months, and a robust LNG-to-power project pipeline. Fitch Solutions said that there are now approximately 26GW worth of gas-fired power projects in the pre-final investment decision (FID) phase in Vietnam, which are slated to come online between 2022 and 2029. As such, there should be a rebound in gas generation to occur only after 2023, assuming that some of these projects will come online as planned. That said, the lack of FIDs to date means that some of these projects are inherently exposed to a certain level of risk, including delays at the bureaucratic level, and Fitch, thus, did not incorporate all of this capacity into its forecasts. Hanoitimes Ngoc Mai VN Industry Ministry no longer keen on bidding mechanism for solar power price The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has had a change of heart on the bidding mechanism for solar power tariffs in Vietnam. Kylie (left) and Kendall (right) Jenner, pictured at the Met Gala in May 2019, are currently on holiday together. (Getty Images) Kylie and Kendall Jenner posed up a storm during a recent trip to the Bahamas. Kylie shared a series of Instagram posts featuring her and her sister on their break and it wasnt easy to tell which one was the model. Her first post shows the sisters laying on the beach in contrasting bikinis. Kendall has opted for a lime green double strapped bikini while Kylie went for a floral print low-back one piece. The caption read: Rise and f***ing shine, a reference that video which did the rounds on social media late last year. The video - which was later turned into a meme - showed the 22-year-old singing rise and shine to her daughter, Stormi. Read more: Kylie Jenner poses at Marie Antoinette The post - which attracted 7.5 million likes - was shortly followed by another series of photographs. In the series, Kylie and Kendall, 24, are wearing matching tropical-inspired swimwear. The post features three different shots. In the first, Kylie is seen in the forefront while Kendall has her back to the camera. The second shows them both in a sisterly embrace and the third is a zoomed out version of the second. In all three theyre posing on the steps of what looks like a mansion. The beauty mogul captioned the photo DAY 1 with a green heart emoji. Read more: Kendall Jenner criticised for using animal as accessory A stampede of celebrity adoration came flooding in as soon as the photos were posted, including some comments from their ever-doting sisters. OMG beautiful sisters, Kim Kardashian commented. Shook shook, their other sister, Khloe Kardashian, added. Demi Lovato led the reams of people appreciating Kylies humour with the rise and shine caption. This caption, she wrote with a raised hands emoji. Story continues Read more: Twitter divided over Kendall Jenners latex outfit The pair have now returned from their holiday but it hasnt stopped the sisters drip-feeding us the images since her return. Kendall shared a photo of herself on a sun lounger wearing a teeny tiny bikini $69 by Sommer Swim. Younger sister Kylie has also shared numerous poolside pics, including images of herself in a brown Gucci bikini and an asymmetric one-piece by French fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier. She also used her Instagram Stories to address the size of her toe in the last image she posted of her and Kendall. In the photo, Kylies middle toe is noticeable shorter than the rest of her toes. It prompted fans to ask her what was going on. She explained that she broke her middle toe in school and it has never healed in quite the right way. Be right back, were searching for flights to the Bahamas. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Style UK: Updated Research Report of Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Market 2020-2026: Summary: Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers and Analysis of Top Key Players to 2026 To Its Research Database. Overview Computer Assisted Surgical (CAS) Systems market worldwide is projected to grow by US$3.5 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 8.9%. Surgical Robots, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 8.2%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$5.7 Billion by the year 2026, Surgical Robots will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth. Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 7.6% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$119.5 Million to the regions size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$105.3 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from Rest of Europe markets. In Japan, Surgical Robots will reach a market size of US$297.5 Million by the close of the analysis period. As the worlds second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 13.2% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$994.9 Million in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders. Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio. Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies. Get Free Sample Report of Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Market@ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/5035386-global-computer-assisted-surgical-systems-market-research-report-2020 The following manufacturers are covered: Stryker Accuray Medtronic 3D Systems B. Braun Melsungen MAKO Surgical Brainlab AG Mazor Robotics CONMED Renishaw Curexo Technology Titan Medical Blue Belt Technologies Think Surgical Hocoma Hansen Medical Intuitive Surgical Smith & Nephew Hitachi Medical Systems Enquiry About Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/5035386-global-computer-assisted-surgical-systems-market-research-report-2020 Segment by Regions North America Europe China Japan Segment by Type Surgical Navigation Systems Surgical Robots Surgical Planners & Stimulators Other Segment by Application Neuro Surgery ENT Surgery Cardiac Surgery Colorectal Surgery Spine Surgery Craniofacial Surgery Other Table of Contents 1 Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Market Overview 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 3 Production Capacity by Region 4 Global Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Consumption by Regions 5 Production, Revenue, Price Trend by Type 6 Global Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Market Analysis by Application 7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Business 8 Computer-assisted Surgical Systems Manufacturing Cost Analysis 9 Marketing Channel, Distributors and Customers 10 Market Dynamics 11 Production and Supply Forecast 12 Consumption and Demand Forecast 15 Methodology and Data Source Continued Contact US: NORAH TRENT Partner Relations & Marketing Manager sales@wiseguyreports.com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) ABOUT US: Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been travelling across the globe and infecting more and more people with each passing hour. As of Wednesday afternoon, a total of 28 persons have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India. These include one each in Delhi and Telangana, six in Agra, 16 Italian tourists and an Indian driver, and three in Kerala who were discharged after undergoing treatment. Health desk to screen travellers for signs of the coronavirus at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport in Agartala. (Photo: Reuters) The Indian government has imposed heavy restrictions on travelling to other countries, especially the ones affected by the coronavirus. For instance, the latest advisory issued by the government says, Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China. People travelling to China henceforth will be quarantined on return. Indian citizens are further advised to refrain from non-essential travel to Singapore, Republic of Korea, Islamic Republic of Iran and Italy. Passengers (foreign and Indian) other than those restricted, arriving directly or indirectly from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan must undergo medical screening at the port of entry." Heavy restrictions have also been imposed on the tourists intending to visit India from countries like China, South Korea, Iran and Italy. For instance, all existing visas (including e-visas that have already been issued) are no longer valid for any foreign national travelling from China. If you are a foreign national coming to India from China on an essential trip, you will need to apply afresh for an Indian visa. You can contact the Indian Embassy in Beijing 24x7 at +8618610952903, +8618612083629, helpdesk.beijing@mea.gov.in and visa.beijing@mea.gov.in. The helpline will also serve Indian nationals in China. Or you can reach out to the Consulates in Shanghai (ccons.shanghai@mea.gov.in) and Guangzhou (visa.guangzhou@mea.gov.in) for the same. If you are travelling to India from South Korea, Iran and Italy, or have a recent history of travel to these countries, you will be quarantined for 14 days on arrival to India. Do come prepared accordingly. If you are sick on the flight, inform the airline crew and get them to give you a mask. (Photo: ANI) So this was for those who can try and avoid travelling to and from India. But what about those who are stuck in the essential travel bracket and have compelling reasons to travel to China, South Korea, Iran or Italy? Or to other countries with sustained community transmission of Covid-19, where the local population has been infected with the virus and the spread is ongoing? In that case, the health authorities advise you follow some simple health measures at all times (that you should be doing even otherwise coronavirus risk or not!) You need to observe good personal hygiene and practise frequent handwashing with soap. Follow respiratory etiquettes cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing. Avoid close contact with people who are unwell or showing symptoms of illness, such as a cough, runny nose etc. Since the virus is zoonotic (meaning that the initial infection originated from animals and then spread to humans), it is advisable to avoid contact with live animals and consumption of raw or undercooked meats. Further, avoid travel to farms, live animal markets or where animals are slaughtered. At the earliest sign of an infection including a cough or a runny nose, health authorities advise you wear a mask to contain the spread. If you feel sick on a flight while travelling, you need to: 1. Inform the airline crew about illness and get them to give you a mask and the self-reporting format. 2. Avoid close contact with family members or fellow travellers. 3. Follow the directions of airline crew while getting off the flight to avoid the spread of infection. 4. As soon as you disembark, immediately report to the Airport Health Office/Immigration Office in Delhi and also on the helpline number 011-23978046. 5. Follow the directions of the airport health officer or as issued by the helpline. So, all is well and you are back home and heave a sigh of relief. But what if you did that too soon? The governments advisory as per WHO guidelines say that you are not out of risk for 28 days after you return from Covid-19 affected areas. If you feel sick within the 28 days after return, do yourself and others a favour and maintain effective self-isolation at home and with others. Consider having a sick room at home that has access to a separate bathroom, if possible. Next, immediately call the helpline number (011-23978046) and follow the directions issued. If you have already approached a doctor or healthcare facility, inform them of your travel as well. Bottom line: Avoid travelling to infected parts of the world. If you must, remember to stay safe and also ensure others safety. Most importantly, do not panic or spread panic. And keep the basic hygiene in mind. Also read: What is coronavirus? Should Wuhan flu worry you? Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jason Lange (Reuters) Washington, United States Wed, March 4, 2020 22:33 677 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206855386 2 World #USA,#Elections,michael-bloomberg,drop-out,presidential-candidate Free Billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign on Wednesday and said he was backing Joe Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in the November election. "A viable path to the nomination no longer exists," Bloomberg said in a statement, having failed to deliver convincing wins in his electoral debut onSuper Tuesday despite lavish spending on campaign ads across the United States. Endorsing Biden, Bloomberg said: "I will work to make him the next president of the United States." His exit ended a novel electoral strategy, a vast experiment in political advertising, as Bloomberg, 78, skipped the four early-voting states and instead focused on the 14-state Super Tuesday contest. His only victory on Tuesday came in the US territory of American Samoa. Biden, 77, the former vice president, accomplished his Super Tuesday goal of muscling Bloomberg aside and consolidating support of moderates to turn the race into a one-on-one contest against the democratic socialist, US Senator Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg was winning more than 15% of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in Tennessee, Texas, Colorado, Utah, California and Arkansas. Since entering the race on Nov. 24, Bloomberg spent more than $500 million of the fortune he built on his eponymous media company on an ad campaign that vaulted him into the top tier of the Democratic field. After blanketing the airwaves with promises that he could defeat the Republican Trump in the Nov. 3 election, his support among Democrats and independents in public opinion polls rose to around 15% from about 5% when he entered. He hired thousands of staff and mounted a vigorous national tour focused on the 14 states that voted on March 3. But Bloomberg was dogged along the way by criticism over his past support of policies seen as racially discriminatory, including stop-and-frisk policing, which ensnared a disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos, as well as past sexist remarks. WARREN STILL IN RACE His Democratic rivals attacked him in his first presidential debate on Feb. 19 in Nevada. US Senator Elizabeth Warren lambasted him for making crude jokes about women and Sanders accused him of trying to buy the election. Outside his rallies - which were often smaller than those of his rivals - protesters regularly waved signs echoing Sanders' claim. Inside them, Bloomberg detractors and enthusiasts alike ate from tables stocked with free food. Bloomberg was assailed for his spending despite his pledge to use his personal fortune to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever it was. Bloomberg apologized for stop-and-frisk a few days before he announced his candidacy. When Bloomberg got into the race many months after other leading candidates, he said he was worried none of the other candidates could beat Trump. "Trump would eat 'em up," he told CBS's "This Morning" on Dec. 6. He increasingly pitched himself as the centrist alternative to Sanders. In the Feb. 19 debate, he described Sanders' policies as "communism." Bloomberg's political fortunes initially rose after Biden, who led in public opinion polls during much of 2019, performed poorly in the first three nomination contests: Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Bloomberg did not compete in those races, nor in the fourth contest in South Carolina, saying his late entry made it impossible to assemble a competitive election staff in those states. Bloomberg heavily criticized Trump, and the two New York billionaires traded insults, with Trump mocking Bloomberg's short stature on Twitter, nicknaming him "mini-Mike." Bloomberg earned his estimated $60 billion fortune by founding Bloomberg News, a leading purveyor of financial information for Wall Street firms. After spending much of his life as a Democrat, he switched to the Republican party in 2001 to run for mayor of New York. He became an independent in 2007, and switched back to the Democratic Party in 2018. His past as a Republican also dogged him during his presidential run. Warren attacked Bloomberg at the Democrats' Feb. 25 debate for giving money in 2012 to support the election campaign of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican and a key ally of Trump. If Sanders is not nominated, his seething core supporters, for whom indignation is as delicious as bacon (or the vegan equivalent), will not use their indoor voices or play nicely with a nominee who won fewer delegates than Sanders won before the convention. Sanders, who is nonjudgmental about Cubas different value system, has said stay tuned it is a high moral imperative that the convention jettison the rule that the nominee must have a majority, not a plurality, of delegates. A second convention ballot would create a second convention by infusing 771 superdelegates elected officials and other party leaders into the process. Excluding them from this years first ballot advanced the century-old progressive goal of reducing conventions to ratifying rather than deliberative bodies. Panaji, March 4 : To prevent tourists driving in Goa from being harassed by traffic cops, incoming vehicles will be provided with a special sticker at the state's borders, which will indicate that all vehicle documents are in order, Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said on Wednesday. "Tourists are being harassed by traffic policemen, who randomly stop them and impose fines. Tourists should not be harassed. Those who are wearing helmets on two-wheelers should not be stopped," Ajgaonkar told reporters in Panaji. "If someone is drunk, or has violated rules, the police can act against them. But tourists cannot just be randomly stopped and harassed. From now on, documents of cars not registered in Goa will be checked at border entry points and given a sticker to be stuck on the screen," the Tourism Minister said. The sticker, Ajgaonkar said, will be an indication to the traffic police, that all documents of the vehicle are in order and the tourists need not be stopped by local traffic police for document verification. The issue of harassment of tourists has been discussed on several occasions by ruling and opposition MLAs in the state assembly in the recent years. In 2019, Goa attracted more than seven million tourists. Wyomings leading utility filed an application with the states Public Service Commission on Monday to adjust its energy prices starting next year. If the commission approves Rocky Mountain Powers proposal, the utility will decrease electric rates for industrial customers by 0.8 percent but increase rates for the average residential customer by about $3.69 per month. The publicly regulated utility has not requested a rate increase in Wyoming in five years. Rocky Mountain Power provides power to 146,000 residents in Wyoming at rates about 34 percent below the national average, according to the company. Wyoming enjoys some of the most reliable and affordable power anywhere, making the state a very attractive destination for companies looking for a competitive advantage, said Gary Hoogeveen, Rocky Mountain Power president and CEO. Our future plans will continue to provide Wyoming with a competitive edge and the right plan and strategy to achieve the best outcomes for our Wyoming customers. Why a rate increase? The overall 1.1 percent rate hike proposed by the company would generate $7.1 million to support new wind energy projects and transmission lines, among other investments in Wyoming as part of its Energy Vision 2020 a renewable energy initiative launched in 2017. As part of the Energy Plan 2020, the utilitys TB Flats, Ekola Flats and Cedar Springs wind energy projects will come into service by the end of 2020. These additions will equip the state with an additional 1,150 megawatts in wind generation capacity by the end of this year. The company anticipates projects built as part of the Energy Vision 2020 initiative will also produce about $11 million in property tax annually starting as soon as next year, according to the company. On top of that, Rocky Mountain Power will be responsible for paying approximately $3 to $4 million in wind taxes each year. Goodbye, coal? Utility companies saddled with the mandate to keep electricity reliable and prices low for consumers have been attracted to the increasing cost effectiveness of renewable energy. In October, PacifiCorp, Rocky Mountain Powers parent company, submitted a new integrated resource plan to the state. The plan outlines the companys energy plan several years into the future, based on months of extensive analysis and modeling. This biennial plan slated two-thirds of the companys thermal coal units spread across multiple states for retirement by 2030. The company emphasized the need to transition away from coal-fired power plants for the interest of saving ratepayers substantial costs down the road. As a result, PacifiCorp proposed shuttering numerous coal units in the Equality State, starting with Jim Bridgers unit 1, near Rock Springs, in 2023. Wyomings plethora of coal plants have provided electricity to the western grid for decades, but low natural gas prices and competitive renewable energy sources have outpaced coal in their cost effectiveness. According to PacifiCorps 2019 plan, the utility aims to install over 3,500 megawatts of wind generation capacity over the next three years, much of that destined for Wyoming. But the new plan has not sat well with a majority of Wyoming lawmakers who have seen it as an attack on the states robust coal industry. The Public Service Commission launched an investigation into the companys integrated resource plan on Nov. 13, an action backed by Gov. Mark Gordon. The investigation is ongoing. As part of Mondays rate filing, Rocky Mountain Power also updated the commission on its transition of unit 3 of the Naughton coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant. In addition it will retire unit 4 of its Cholla Power Plant in Arizona. The cost of decommissioning the unit at the Cholla facility adds up to $47.3 million, with about $6.9 million of that amount apportioned to Wyoming. If the public commissioners endorse the recent rate filing, customers could expect price changes to take effect on Jan. 1. Follow the latest on Wyomings energy industry at @camillereports Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Five years ago, as the U.S. was hammering out the final details of the Iran nuclear deal, negotiators relented on a key demand: Iran would not have to account for the possible military dimensions of its past nuclear activities. This bargain was enshrined in a December 2015 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, which closed the longstanding investigation into Irans nuclear program. Now it appears that investigation is reopened. Bloomberg News is reporting that the agency has rebuked Iran for stonewalling inspectors with new questions about Irans past nuclear-weapon work. The agency says that Iran now possesses 1,021 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, up from 372 kilograms last fall. This news is disturbing but not unexpected. The Iranian regime had announced that it was turning on its cascades of centrifuges last year during heightened tensions with the U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, and six months later began ratcheting up the secondary sanctions on Irans oil sector that the 2015 bargain had lifted. The bigger news is about Irans past nuclear program. A report from the agency to member states says that Iran has not provided access to the agency to two locations, according to Reuters, nor has it engaged in substantive discussions to clarify agency questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities. All of this reads like a replay of the standoffs between Iran and the international community in the 2000s, when weapons inspectors tried to gain access to military installations and other sites. A key difference is that, this time around, the IAEA has a roadmap of Irans past nuclear weapons work. In 2018, Israel publicized the findings of a daring raid into a warehouse outside of Tehran that included blueprints, videos and other documents that detailed Irans past nuclear weapons program. The Israelis have shared the intelligence with the U.S. as well as the IAEA. Story continues Everything the Israelis found in the nuclear archives prior to 2004 shows Iran had a full- fledged nuclear weapons program, says Andrea Stricker, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The regime was making progress and sought to hide and disguise parts of the program from the world. These are uncomfortable facts for proponents of the 2015 nuclear deal. President Barack Obamas former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, for example, is focusing instead on Irans tripled uranium stockpile, blaming Trumps decision to exit the deal for Irans recent breakout. Thats an easy story to tell. But the IAEAs renewed questions about Irans past work on building a nuclear weapons muddy the narrative. Why did the Obama administration give Iran a pass for its history of deception and defiance of the IAEA? If Iran truly had given up its ambitions to build a weapon, why would it take such pains to preserve its plans and blueprints in a warehouse? These are important questions both for Trump, who has said he hopes to renegotiate a better nuclear deal, and for Democratic presidential candidates, who have pledged to re-enter the old one. Whoever wins the election in November, he should make sure the next nuclear deal with Iran requires the regime to fully account for its secret nuclear history. To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Opinion banner Business Insider Turkish-backed Syrian fighters fire a howitzer near the village of Neirab, in Idlib province, Syria, February 24, 2020. Associated Press Fighting in Syria is heating up again between Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, and NATO member Turkey and the fighters it backs. The US needs to tread carefully, lest an alliance with Turkey drags it into a wider conflict it have absolutely no interest in, argues Defense Priorities fellow Willis Krumholz. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria's Idlib province by an airstrike conducted by Syrian government forces, who are backed by Russia. Another 35 were injured in the attack. In response, Turkey launched strikes of its own against Syrian forces. Amid this new wave of violence in Syria, the US maintains its military presence in Syria and is even considering supplying Turkey with Patriot missiles to bolster Turkey's military campaign. However, it would show much wisdom to withdraw US troops from harm's way and refuse to underwrite Ankara's reckless incursion into Syria. Late last year, Turkey plunged its forces into Syria, attempting to gain a buffer from Kurdish forces who wish to carve off a piece of Turkish territory. With that goal accomplished, Turkey is now attempting to increase its power in the region. In what appears to be an effort to re-ignite the Syrian civil war, Turkey is working with jihadist rebels, whom Ankara has long supported in the fight against the Assad regime. Because of this, and the general belief in territorial sovereignty, Syrian forces will always attack Turkish forces working with jihadist groups in Syrialook no further than last week's strike. Internally displaced children in a pick-up truck with their belongings in Afrin, Syria, February 18, 2020. Reuters Complicating this already sticky situation is Turkey's privileged status as a NATO ally. As it goes after the Assad regime, it will continue to square off against Russia. A belligerent Turkey, ruled by a corrupt autocrat, could be angling to pull America into conflict with nuclear-armed Russia. Turkey has called an emergency NATO meeting after the Syrian strike, and a Turkish government statement promised to "revenge our martyred heroic soldiers." Story continues A US spokesperson for the State Department has said, "We stand by our NATO Ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg promised "strong political support and... practical support" for Turkey. What's more, Turkish belligerence in Syria is revealing the cracks within the NATO alliance. America's European NATO allies are also relying on Turkey to control the flow of migrants from Syria into Europeand Turkey's willingness to use this as a bargaining chip has given Turkey leverage over its European neighbors. Going forward America needs to tread carefully, lest an alliance with Turkey drags the US into a wider conflict we have absolutely no interest in. First off, the US State Department's unequivocal support for Turkey's actions is likely to embolden Ankara, as it stumbles into disaster in Syria. An emboldened Turkey increases the risk that Turkey and Russia stumble toward open conflict. Again, because Turkey is a NATO member, America has an Article 5 commitment to come to Turkey's defense if it is attacked. By the way, Turkey already carries much responsibility forfrom the get-gofunding the jihadist elements who fought in the bloody civil war. The Assad regime is brutal and has committed a host of human rights violations, but so have many of the jihadists Turkey has funded and armed. Civilians flee Idlib to the north to find safety inside Syria near the border with Turkey, February 15, 2020. Associated Press Because of this, from an anti-terror perspective, Turkey is not the good guy in this fight. Areas outside the control of the Assad regime in Damascus are more hospitable to anti-US terroristsincluding both ISIS and al-Qaeda. The fact that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was hiding out in one of these ungoverned spaces near Idlib is a stark reminder of this fact. Turkey is neither a good friend nor an enemy, but right now America is committed to voice support for Turkey. That's a mistake. The truth is that NATO membership shouldn't be a one-way street, and collective-defense alliances with belligerent countries like Turkey are extremely far from cost-free. Cheerleading Turkey's footprint in Syria is the last thing the US State Department should be doing, as such a situation is directly opposed to US interests in the region. Finally, an emboldened Turkey, less restrained in its attempt to depose Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, will also exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. Right now, Turkey is prolonging the civil war in Syria. This undermines both American humanitarian and counterterrorism aims, because the longer the war goes on the more violence and suffering ensues. Instead of applauding Turkey's actions in Syria, because Turkey seeks to take out Assad, the US foreign policy establishment should be calling Turkey out for destabilizing the region further. Willis L Krumholz is a fellow at Defense Priorities. He holds a JD and MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. Read the original article on Business Insider Gandhinagar, March 4 : A family of five from Vadodara has been missing from the Dabhoi region of Vadodara after visiting the Statue of Unity on Sunday. They were last captured in the CCTV footage at the Dabhoi Junction. A missing complaint has been filed by the police and investigations are on. Kalpesh Parmar, his wife Tirupati, mother Usha, daughter Niyati (9) and son Atharva (7) visited the Statue of Unity on Sunday. The family was travelling in their their personal vehicle to the statue site. According to the police, the family's relatives filed a complaint that the family has gone missing since Sunday and that their cell phones have been switched off. "The family had left Kevadia at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and reached Dabhoi in the night. After that their whereabouts are not known. A missing complaint has been filed at the Dabhoi police station. The family was last captured in the CCTV footage placed at the JayVeer hotel in Dabhoi. The vehicle seems to be heading towards Vadodara. The police investigations are on," A.M. Parmar, the Police Inspector, told IANS. Massachusetts Port Authority CEO Lisa Wieland said shes confident that stepped-up measures taken at Bostons Logan Airport concerning the spread of coronavirus will be sufficient to protect Massachusetts residents from the infection. I think we are planning and preparing, as we have been, and Im confident in those efforts, Wieland told reporters on Wednesday. Wieland said Massport officials have already ramped up efforts to increase awareness of the virus and regularly clean terminals, adding hand sanitizer stations, posting informational materials around the airport and broadcasting public service announcements over the airports loud speakers. Weve been actively working with our state, local and federal partners for a while now on this issue, she said. Boston Logan International Airport is among a number of U.S. airports screening passengers for the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Following CDC guidelines, Baker administration officials are now strongly urging local schools and colleges to cancel all planned international trips in an effort to stop COVID-19, as known as the coronavirus, from spreading in Massachusetts. Were urging colleges to cancel upcoming international trips at this time, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday. MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said transportation officials will also be instituting a disinfection protocol to clean subway and commuter rail stations. That plan includes installing hand sanitizers in the MBTAs facilities and a regular cleaning of hand rails, guard rails, fare machines and other contact areas. Personnel will be disinfecting that equipment every four hours, and all MBTA vehicles every day, Poftak said. There are still two cases of coronavirus in Mass. A UMass Boston student was the first person diagnosed with the respiratory infection in Massachusetts, and still the only confirmed case. A second potential case of the virus was diagnosed in a Norfolk County woman in her 20s, who recently returned from a trip to Italy with a school group. The CDC will be confirming whether the woman constitutes a second confirmed case likely over the next few days, according to Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel. In Massachusetts, 719 people have self-quarantined in an effort to monitor for potential symptoms of the virus. Officials say 470 people have already completed the two-week self-monitoring protocol, with 259 still under quarantine. Related Content: Hasbrouck, the privacy advocate, says United Airlines has recently started requiring passengers using its smartphone app to upload photos of their passports to their phones before obtaining boarding passes for international flights. The airline prompted him to do so on his last flight, he says, but he couldnt get the app to work. But this is only if you want a boarding pass on your phone, he says, which I dont recommend since it can cause problems if your phone battery runs out at the wrong moment. The U.S. carried out an airstrike in Afghanistan on Wednesday in response to a surge in Taliban violence just days after the two sides struck a deal Saturday on American troop withdrawal. After a period of calm leading up to the deal, the Afghan government said the Taliban subsequently launched 76 attacks across 24 provinces (of 34) prompting the U.S. to bomb Taliban fighters in Helmand, the first American airstrike in 11 days. Taliban leadership promised the (international) community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks, Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a tweet. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. Advertisement The deadliest Taliban attack since the deal came Wednesday when fighters attacked Afghan Army outposts in Kunduz killing at least 15 Afghan soldiers. The attack was carried out by the Talibans elite Red Unit just hours after President Donald Trump and Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar spoke on the phone. Weve agreed theres no violence, Trump said after the call. We dont want violence. But since the signing, the Taliban decided on Monday to resume normal operations against Afghan forces, though sources have said they would continue to hold back on attacks on foreign forces, Reuters reports. The Taliban has so far declined to confirm or deny responsibility for any of the attacks and did not immediately respond to request for comment on the airstrike. Thats not exactly a promising start to the new arrangement that would see U.S. and coalition troops leave the country over the next 14 months provided the Taliban lives up to prescribed security guarantees. As a confidence-building measure, the United States conditioned the finalizing of the deal on a week of reduced violence in the days leading up to the signing [and] [t]he violence levels dropped to the lowest in years, the New York Times reports. American officials gave the impression that such a reduction would continue after the signing. Beyond what the rate cut says about the Feds view of the severity of the economic threat posed by the coronavirus, the markets reactions were also a belated recognition that rate cuts wont halt the spread of the coronavirus or fill empty shelves. The Feds chairman, Jerome Powell, summed up the powerless of central banks to do anything other than ensure credit is available and, at the margin, help provide a fillip for households and businesses. For the first time since October 2008, the Fed announced a rate cut between its scheduled meetings. Credit:AP "We do recognise a rate cut will not reduce the rate of infection. It wont fix a broken supply chain. We get that. We dont think we have all the answers, he said. That puts into context the impotency of central banks to respond to a global health crisis and undermined the previous investor conviction that the Fed could always bail them out. Even though Trump immediately called for more rate cuts and the market is pricing in further Fed moves - perhaps as soon as the meeting scheduled for March 17 and 18 - it is containment and ultimately an effective vaccine that will eventually end the health crisis and calm the markets. The Fed, and our Reserve Bank, are doing the only thing they can do while knowing how inadequate their tools are to limit the economic fallout from the virus. Similarly, those governments with the scope to stimulate their economies and it is clear that there will be a "targeted and measured package from the Morrison government also realise that, at best, they will blunt the impacts. What the actions of the Fed and RBA, and the other central banks, might do is avert the threat of a seizing up of credit pipelines. Last week the US corporate credit markets briefly closed to new issues an there were record outflows from mutual and exchange-traded funds exposed to higher-risk loans. Wall Street gained initially on the Fed announcement, before plummeting to finish deep in the red. Credit:AP Ensuring credit is available, and a little cheaper, for the more highly-leveraged companies and/or those more directly impacted by the coronavirus might help prevent avoidable corporate failures that could, in the current fearful environment, generate wider and quite damaging credit crunches. The G-7 finance ministers also met on Tuesday to consider their response to the crisis. The best they could come up with was a pledge to closely monitor the spread of the virus and "use all appropriate policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable growth and safeguard against downside risks. The absence of actual action provided another layer of disappointment for investors and analysts although even strong measures like those Italy is deploying a $6 billion package that includes tax credits for businesses whose revenues fall more than 25 per cent and broader tax cuts - are a response rather than a solution. It is notable that the heavily-indebted and economically anaemic Italy one of the worst-hit countries outside of China has produced a package that represents stimulus of only about 0.2 per cent of GDP. Italy has announced a $6 billion stimulus package in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Credit:AP That underscores the concerns that, if the virus continues to spread and the economic and financial shocks continue to swell and threaten to decimate global growth, neither the central banks nor their governments have much capacity to respond. The Fed has only four 25 basis point rate cuts before the fed funds rate is zero and the RBA only two. BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: In January 2020, Turkey-Tajikistan trade turnover made up $21.9 million, which is a decrease by $3.9 million compared to same month last year, Trend reports referring to the Turkish Ministry of Trade March 4. "In January 2019, Turkey's exports to Tajikistan amounted to $10.5 million, and imports to $11.3 million," the ministry said. Turkeys foreign trade turnover in January 2020 amounted to $33.9 billion. During the reported period Turkish exports and imports have made up $14.7 billion and $19.2 billion, which are increase by 6.4 percent and 18.8 percent compared to January 2019, respectively. Turnover between Turkey and Tajikistan in January-December 2019 amounted to $ 274.5 million. In January-December 2019, Turkey's exports to Tajikistan made up $143.1 million, and imports - $131.4 million. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Before he switched political parties and defrauded his supporters in January, Jeff Van Drews career was fueled by South Jersey Democrats, funded by South Jersey Democrats, and hoisted into Congress by South Jersey Democrats during the blue wave of 2018. Now he has pledged his undying loyalty to Donald Trump and his creeping authoritarianism, which means he is prepared to help Trump gut the Affordable Care Act, poison the planet, slash entitlements, weaken gun laws, and screw New Jersey taxpayers. So it is no coincidence that Democrats seeking to challenge Van Drew in the 2nd District this November have lined up from Salem to Galloway, many of them highly appealing and eminently electable. But it is no surprise that Brigid Callahan Harrison stands out in this group. The political scientist from Longport, a highly-credentialed author and academic at Montclair State, was the first to denounce Van Drews political cowardice when the Congressman voted against impeachment hearings in October, and called him out for being complicit in Trumps perversion of democracy. Then, after a week of sleepless nights, Harrison set out to work lining up support from party chairs inside her district, writing op-eds that explicated Van Drews political impotence, winning endorsements from labor and Senate President Steve Sweeney, and setting herself up as a formidable primary challenger to an incumbent. That was enough to literally drive Van Drew into the arms of Trump. This is the kind of tenacity and leadership that merits support. I literally wrote the book on American democracy and I can tell you one thing: impeachment isnt about politics, its about people and Jeff Van Drew doesnt get that. That is why it is time to https://t.co/QHl0m5AtEa#TurnNJ02BlueAgain #NJ02RejectsVanDrew #NJ02 pic.twitter.com/HvCF8meYRa Brigid Callahan Harrison for Congress (@BrigidforSJ) December 18, 2019 Harrison has pulled out to a considerable lead for the nomination, with six of the eight county chairs already committed to her. But a big hurdle still remains: Atlantic County, which holds a sizable volume of district votes, doesnt hold its convention until Sunday; and county chair Michael Suleiman has not declared his preference, which creates some unwelcome mystery at a time when the party should coalesce behind a candidate to prepare to take on Van Drew and the Trump war chest. Obviously, Brigid knows our district well, Suleiman conceded last week, but given the field, it only seems right for me to stay neutral. That is understandable, if impractical. Harrisons chief competition is Amy Kennedy, a former teacher from Brigantine who is married to former Congressman Patrick Kennedy (son of Ted). She has dedicated her career to addiction and mental health, but her stance on marijuana (she favors decriminalization) is problematic for a party that largely embraces legalization. The field also includes Will Cunningham, whose inspirational journey began with childhood homelessness and poverty in Vineland; today, he is a chief investigator for the powerful House Oversight Committee. And there are others, including Ashley Bennett, the charismatic Atlantic County freeholder. But Harrison, as most county committees have concluded, clearly stands out. She is a seminal thinker and a superb communicator, is equally fluid on state and federal issues, and is exasperated by the unmet economic and transit needs of her massive district: South Jersey has been the neglected stepchild for as long as I can remember, she said last week. Weve been in a downward spiral since the first wave of casino development. And contributing to this is a lack of representation on the federal level. So Harrison, a centrist, will focus on infrastructure, jobs, and investment. But for someone whose late husbands medical bills reached $80,000 in the final year of his life, health care will always anchor her policy agenda. This is a top-tier race, and with the balance of Congressional power at stake, this is not the time to test out a political neophyte with a famous last name. The 2nd District needs a representative in Washington, not someone who feeds Trumps psychosis of polarization, not someone who bailed out on his constitutional obligation by thumbing his nose at checks and balances and the rule of law. Van Drew has to go, and Harrison is the best candidate to replace him. Atlantic County needs to jump on this wave. Congressman Jeff Van Drew is very popular in our great and very united Republican Party. It was a tribute to him that he was able to win his heavily Republican district as a Democrat. People like that are not easily replaceable! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2019 Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. The Delhi High Court directed the AAP government and the Delhi Police on Wednesday to ensure there is no breach of security at board exam centres till all the examinations are over in northeast Delhi New Delhi: The Delhi High Court directed the AAP government and the police on Wednesday to ensure there is no breach of security at board exam centres till all the examinations are over in northeast Delhi where violence over the amended citizenship law has left at least 42 people dead and over 250 injured. Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked the police to continue providing security till the board examinations of class 10th and 12th are over. The court passed the direction while disposing of a plea by a private school here that the centre allotted to them by the CBSE was 16 km away from their school and situated in Chandu Nagar-Karawal Nagar road, one of the violence-hit areas and it was difficult for the students to reach there and write the exams in such a situation. The court had earlier also directed the Delhi government and the police to ensure that there is no breach of security at board exam centres in northeast Delhi. Advocate Kamal Gupta, appearing for private school Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir at Surya Niketan in east Delhi, told the court that with the presence of police officials outside the centres, the exams were held peacefully. The CBSE had on February 28 told the court that it had postponed the board exams for Class 10 and 12 which were to be held on 28 and 29 February at 86 centres in northeast Delhi. The board had told the court that it had no plan to shift the centres to some other location in the National Capital. The court had earlier taken note of the "worsening situation" in the area and had directed the CBSE to come up with a plan to re-schedule them or change the affected centres. The petitioners, including some students of class 10 and 12, have said it would be hard for them to reach the Centre due to violent clashes and riots in the area. They had urged the court to direct the CBSE to change the examination centre from New Sandhya Public School to a centre located in east Delhi district with proper infrastructure and security. A MEMBER of a crime gang who posed as a Revenue official and who stole almost 50,000 in savings from a Limerick pensioner and his nephew has been sentenced to three years imprisonment. Patrick ODonnell, 21, of Assumpta Park, Newcastle West has pleaded guilty to ten counts of theft relating to offences which occurred on various dates between December 6, 2017 and January 19, 2018. During a sentencing hearing, Cork Circuit Court was told Mr ODonnell admitted the theft of various sums of cash, ranging from 2,000 to 7,000. All of the offences occurred at the grounds of the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Charleville, North Cork. Giving evidence, Detective Sergeant Michael Reidy of Newcastle West garda station described how, in January 2017, the victims of the fraud were visited at their home by persons purporting to be from the Revenue Commissioners. The callers informed the men aged 81 and 55 that they had an outstanding tax liability that needed to be paid. The injured parties were subsequently contacted by phone and told to bring large sums of cash to hand over to an individual, who they were told was from the Revenue Commissioners. The injured parties would receive a telephone call and instructions to have monies available at a particular time or date. For instance, they were told in a call on a Friday to have 5,000 by Monday, said Det Sgt Reidy. Judge Sean O Donnabhain was told this happened several times and that the pensioner ultimately withdrew all of his savings from a post office account and cashed in a life assurance policy. He also put a 14 acre farm up for sale in an effort to raise money. Both men were relieved of their life savings the older mans entire life savings were dwindled or reduced to nothing over the course of these encounters between June and November 2017, said Det Sgt Reidy. He added that both men believed they had cleared their tax liability when another phone call was received in November 2017, again from the same person purporting to be from the Revenue Commissioners and demanding more money. The individual threatened if they didnt fully meet their liability, they would end up in the big court in Dublin and their names would be splashed all over the newspapers as being tax defaulters. The people they (the victims) met were very convincing men. They always had the right answers for them and they were all the time of the belief that they were Revenue Commissioners, said the detective sergeant. Gardai, he told the court, became aware of the scam in late 2017 when a neighbour of the pensioner contacted them. They immediately began an investigation and mounted a surveillance operation at the church grounds in Charleville. Gardai were in place there on January 26, 2018 when the injured party turned up to hand over 5,000 in cash as he had been instructed to do with a promise that he would get a 25,000 rebate once the debt was fully discharged. Gardai observed a white Transit van pull up by the church grounds and the accused man was observed getting out of the passenger side. As he approached the injured party gardai moved in to apprehend the gang. The court was told that Patrick ODonnell and two other individuals, not before the courts, were arrested and questioned. During interview, Mr ODonnell informed gardai that his role in the operation was to collect the money and to hand it over to the other people. Tom Creed SC said his client, who worked collecting scrap metal, had no previous convictions for anything like the offence before the court and that he only has a number of minor traffic convictions. Det Sgt Reidy accepted this and stated that ODonnells job was to approach the injured parties and to collect the money from them. He said he presented himself as a David Lyons from Revenue and that his involvement in the crime began in November 2017. He wasnt the brains behind this operation but he was an important cog, said Det Sgt Reidy who said the two victims were in such fear that the younger man used to get physically sick whenever the gang rang looking for cash from them. Judge ODonnabhain was told that ODonnell, who pleaded guilty last November, has paid back 30,000 to the injured parties and that there is a balance of around 19,000 outstanding. While noting this, the judge told Mr Creed it was far too serious an offence for anyone to think that the end result would be a suspended sentence. Thats not going to happen, he said. He said it was a particularly serious offence where a gang threatened and terrified their targets by saying they were from the Revenue Commissioners and then continuing with the scam to extract their life savings from them. This is an extremely serious offence. A pattern was set up whereby men were identified first and then preyed upon. To put people through this in their homes is really horrendous, He commented. The money was extracted from them by what is still regarded in some areas as the greatest threat of all the Revenue Commissioners. These two men were in living hell. One of them used to get sick when he got the phone calls, he added. While acknowledging that Patrick ODonnell was not the main offender he said he was actively taking money in this scam from two innocent men outside a church in Charleville. He was an active participant in an extremely vicious, wicked scheme, he said. Judge O Donnabhain acknowledged that ODonnell had repaid 30,000 of the stolen money but said he didnt see any realistic prospect of him repaying the balance. He also acknowleged his admissions and guilty plea. However, he said he believed the appropriate headline sentence was five years imprisonment. However, given that ODonnell has no previous convictions for anything similar, he said he would suspend the final two years. If you live in one of the 14 states voting on Super Tuesday, you've probably seen a lot of commercials for Michael Bloomberg lately. That's because the former New York mayor's presidential campaign has poured more than $234 million into TV, radio and digital advertising in the first Super Tuesday states -- more than 10 times that of any of his Democratic rivals. Visit CNN's Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race With so many states holding primaries on Tuesday, spanning the country from Maine to California, where does a less well-funded campaign put their money into media advertising? Do you try to show TV commercials in California and Texas, two of the most expensive media markets in the country? Or make up for lost ground with less expensive digital ads, or states with cheaper ad rates? Is it better to spend a large amount on a few states, or a little in every state? For example, Pete Buttigieg, before ending his campaign on Sunday, decided to distribute at least $100,000 in ads to as many states as possible (11), even if the ad buys were smaller than his competitors. Amy Klobuchar, on the other hand, spread most of her $4.7 million over eight states. More than half of that money, $2.51 million, went toward ads in North Carolina and Virginia, while states favoring the more liberal Bernie Sanders in the polls only received a few thousand dollars in digital ads. Klobuchar ended her campaign on Monday, a day before Super Tuesday. As seen in the chart below, the spending numbers collected by Kantar Media/CMAG -- current as of Tuesday morning -- help illuminate the strategy of the five Democratic candidates left in the race. Michael Bloomberg not only paid for TV ads in every state -- he leads in spending for every state by wide margins. Bernie Sanders spent more than $18 million on ads, including $8.3 million in California. What state only received $14,000? His home state of Vermont. Only one candidate still in the race paid for TV and radio ads in Vermont: Bloomberg. Elizabeth Warren has only spent about $2.4 million on ads, most of it going to Texas, Colorado and Utah. However, with an $11.7 million assist from her super PAC -- Persist PAC -- she was able to cover 13 states with over $100,000 in advertising. Joe Biden, coming off his win in South Carolina, has only paid for about $2.2 million in ads that mostly focused on six states. All of those states aside from California are in the South, where he enjoys a polling advantage. Tulsi Gabbard has spent the majority of her $201,821 in just three states, but two of them are big markets: California and Texas. One question that remains is how much ad spending carries over to the ballot box. Businessman Tom Steyer, who ended his campaign over the weekend, spent a total of $22.5 million on media ads in South Carolina. Not only did Steyer place third there, but he failed to garner enough votes to qualify for delegates. Dublin is set for a Dundalk take over this month, with the news that Jinx Lennon is to join TPM as support for their headline gig in the Button Factory on March 20. The Dundalk MCs have had a very busy few months, with their Heaven is a Harp-Pint tour performing dates across the country, as well as opening for King Kong company in the Button Factory. This event is being dubbed as the group's biggest headline show to date. Punk poet and anti-hero of the North East, Jinx Lennon, has also had a very busy schedule this past few months and 2020 looks to be as busy, with a new album on the way in April. The new album is called "BORDER SCHIZO SONGS FOR THE FUC**D" and according to Jinx, "it's a psychedelic journey around the north east border lands, a concept album of sorts set up like a radio show, taking you on an off the wall voyage through the suburbs and ''the sticks'' of north Louth." Jinx will be touring the new album, which will be released on double vinyl. Find out more on his website here. Tickets at 13.66, for what is shaping up to be a cracking night, are available on eventbrite. This month, rainbow pride is vibrant as ever with many events across the united States celebrating the LGBTQ+ community such as the Miami Beach Gay Pride 2020, Palm Beach Pride, and the Elevation Mammoth Gay Ski Week 2020. For members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community celebrating rainbow pride is acknowledging how far the LGBTQIA+ community has come thanks to the tireless work of those who fought for their rights and at the same time, reflect on how far the community has to go. As you celebrate with your queer friends, here are some rainbow pride accessories you can wear to make a statement: These temporary pride tattoos will bring out your fun side without the worries of the pain and healing process involved unlike real tattoos. These temporary tattoos last for several days, so you could just easily replace one with another once it fades. There are many designs to choose from to fit your unique personality. To use, tear off the front transparent tape, stick the front on the skin, and wipe the sticker with a damp cloth until it is thoroughly wet. Next, pull the edge lightly and check. Finally, tear off the paper. To remove, just use a makeup remover, body lotion, baby oil, olive oil or alcohol. Get fashionable while making a statement in this fun crop top featuring an allover sheer mesh, a high neckline, and a rainbow design. It's also easy to wear with the back-zipper closure. Rainbow Pride Sweatband and Workout Gear Set Who says you can't work out and be proud of who you are at the same time? Style meets comfort with this rainbow-colored gay pride workout set that includes one-size-fits-all headband and sweatbands to keep sweat off your brow and out of your eyes, a gay pride flag drawstring backpack to store your gear, and a flexible silicone bracelet to represent you 24/7. Sweat out, stay stylish and comfortable while still showing off a bit of your personal flair! Show off your rainbow colors with St. Patrick's Gold Fanny Pack, a fun, unique pairing that will help you stand out in a crowd! The rainbow suspenders don't just accentuate your outfit: it also has a detachable drink holder to keep you hydrated for the rest of the party. Partying in the beaches of Miami is sure going to blow your hair to every direction. Tame your crowning glory with these elastics do a great job at keeping your hair out of your face without damaging or breaking your hair, like some elastics do. You can also use them as a wrist band as a cute accessory! These elastics also make the perfect gift for your LGBTQ friend. Apple has recently released a smartwatch with a rainbow LGBT band. This bright LGBT nylon apple watch band makes you standout with any pride gathering and other occasions such as parade, sporting, business meeting, or party. Made from high quality woven nylon material, this rainbow apple watch replacement band 38mm is durable, doesn't fade through time, and is safe for your skin. What's also interesting is the new and improved iWatch adapter clasp. The brand has solved the problem of old models where screws are loose and tends to fall down, making this apple watch tighter and more stable. Receive notifications, set the alarm, monitor your heart rate and sleeping patter, all while making a statement. For more rainbow pride accessories, visit Amazon now! (CNN) As new cases of novel coronavirus are growing, the travel industry is feeling the impact with vacationers and business people debating whether or not to cancel or postpone trips, and some countries, including the US, implementing travel restrictions. But airplanes are still flying, and travelers still traveling, albeit with extra bottles of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes in carry-ons. Still, as you board the aircraft and sit in your seat, you might find yourself reconsidering inflight hygiene and wondering just how thoroughly the aircraft's actually been cleaned before you boarded. CNN Travel spoke to airlines, airplane companies and medical experts to find out what's been done to ensure you're flying in as hygienic an environment as possible, and what passengers can do for extra reassurance. Normal cleaning procedure Christian Rooney is the manager of JetWash Aero, a specialist aviation cleaning company based in the UK that's tasked with turning around aircraft between flights. Rooney tells CNN Travel that the cleaning process varies depending on the schedule of the aircraft in question. When aircraft downtime is very limited, some of what Rooney calls the "very straightforward cleaning," such as removing old newspapers and passenger trash, will be done by the cabin crew at the end of the previous flight. "A basic but more thorough cabin clean is usually carried out at night -- or when there is more downtime -- and it includes the cleaning of toilets, wiping down and disinfecting of trays, cleaning galleys, [overhead bins], seats etc. This may take up to an hour or longer," explains Rooney. "An airline will also always schedule a 'deep interior clean' every month or six weeks. This clean takes several hours and is extremely thorough." Cleaning products and disinfectants are approved by aircraft manufacturers, says Rooney. "Some of the disinfectants we use are effective against a wide range of pathogens and are known to inactivate complex viruses with similar properties to SARS, E. coli, avian flu, MRSA etc," he adds. These offer antimicrobial protection for up to 10 days, he says. Stephanie Biron, a recently retired flight attendant who used to work for American Airlines, tells CNN Travel that, in her experience, standards of aircraft cleaning would vary. "A lot of times you come on and it's not terribly satisfactory, but you have to rely on the individuals doing their jobs, because that's what they've been paid to do," she says. "Sometimes you come on and you have to go out and tell the agent, 'look, the plane looks terrible. We need somebody to come on and redo it.' It just varies all the time. Sometimes you come on in the morning and they deep cleaned the whole thing, or at least they told you they have." Passenger personal hygiene Some airlines have requested additional measures due to the current climate, says Rooney. "We have seen an uptick in the requirements and levels of disinfection, spraying and fumigation of the cabin, as the airlines look to address concerns over the coronavirus," he explains. But Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in Vanderbilt University's division of infectious diseases, says that he doesn't think there's much more carriers can do to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Because transmission most often occurs person to person, the inanimate environment of the airplane isn't really the problem, says Schaffner. It's still wise, he says, to wipe down surfaces -- but ultimately it's handwashing that is the most important preventative step. "Even if there is virus in the inanimate environment, it's not going to jump off the seat and bite you in the ankle. You've got to touch it, and then touch your nose or your mouth," Schaffner explains. "So it's those hands we have that are the important intermediary -- and that's where I would put the emphasis. Use those wipes on your hands. That's the important thing." Dr Paulo Alves, who is currently attending IATA's Aviation Resilience Health workshop in Singapore -- which is working to address the overall impact of COVID-19 -- agrees with Schaffner. "The most effective, simple measure vacationers should implement is to wash hands frequently with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, hand sanitizer should be used," says Alves. "It seems reasonable to wipe the tray table surface, where it is more likely for droplets to land after someone coughs or sneezes. Travelers should maintain good personal hygiene on board flights, before flights and after flights and avoid touching their face." Travel medicine specialist Richard Dawood agrees, and says this advice stretches to navigating airports too. "Remain aware of where your hands have been," he says. Former flight attendant Biron also expresses concern not just for passengers -- but for air crew. They're just as likely to get sick, she points out, or feel pressured to still fly while unwell. Airlines for America, the aviation group that represents North American carriers, says airlines are working closely with federal authorities -- and tells CNN Travel that the safety and security of passengers and crew "is -- and always will be -- the top priority of US carriers." "I really don't think [airlines] can do very much. They might make the wipes more available to individuals," says Schaffner. So what are airlines doing differently right now? Brian Parrish, spokesman for Southwest Airlines, tells CNN Travel that Southwest aircraft undergo "regular cleanings between flights and a comprehensive cleaning when aircraft are parked overnight." "Our cleaning program includes the disinfecting of all hard surfaces within the cabin, as well as seat and carpet cleaning," he says. "Southwest will continue to monitor and follow all guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization regarding the coronavirus and make any adjustments to our procedures, as necessary." Curtis Blessing, an American Airlines spokesperson, echos Parrish. "Our aircraft, including lavatories, are cleaned on a regular basis, and the depth of the cleaning varies depending on turn times and type of flying," he says. "Lavatories are cleaned, floors are spot cleaned and visible trash is removed from seat pockets on all flights." Transcontinental, Hawaii and international flights see a deeper level of cleaning, Blessing adds. Meanwhile, a Qantas spokesperson tells CNN Travel that the airline adopts "the highest standard in cleaning and disinfecting our cabins, seats, galleys and washrooms." The spokesperson also highlights the HEPA filters which are part of the air conditioning system. "These filters are used in hospital operating theaters, with air in the cabin replaced every three to five minutes. This provides much cleaner air than other public spaces like trains, restaurants, shopping centers and offices." This echoes the official advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that, due to the way air circulates and is filtered on airplanes, "most viruses and other germs do not spread easily," but that travelers are still advised to "avoid contact with sick passengers and wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer that contains 60%-95% alcohol." Delta says on its website that it's been deploying a "fogging technique" since February, using "a highly effective, EPA-registered disinfectant." Fogging is being used on all trans-Pacific Delta flights arriving into the US, with plans to expand those procedures to more inbound international flights, focusing on flights coming from places with reported coronavirus cases. Fogging has been taking place on all inbound Delta flights from Italy to New York-JFK and Atlanta since February 29. Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific tells CNN Travel that aircraft cabin cleaning is always carried out to "high standards" -- but some extra precautions are currently in place. "Out of an abundance of caution, aircraft will be taken out of service to perform extensive additional deep cleaning and supplementary disinfection when a confirmed case of coronavirus has been identified," says a Cathay Pacific spokesperson. "This includes the replacement of all seat covers, disinfection of all surfaces and galley equipment, detailed cleaning of the lavatories, disinfection of carpets, sterilization of the water system and replacement of air filters in addition to standard cleaning procedures." Cathay Pacific has also temporarily suspended hot towels, pillows, blankets, magazines and in-flight duty-free on flights to and from destinations in mainland China. Still, Schaffner says panicked passengers shouldn't feel they need to avoid using in-flight blankets or pillows if they are provided on their flight. There's "no good data" to support the idea they're responsible for transmission, he says. "It's a consideration that comes logically to the mind, but it's difficult to convince people that they're really low risk. I always come back to the intermediate vehicle [which is] your hands. Do a lot of good hand-sanitizing." Alves agrees, pointing out that viruses will be eliminated when blankets and pillows are washed. However, he does clarify that there are "knowledge gaps" about the COVID-19 virus and research is ongoing, so recommendations may change. Staying vigilant So if you're boarding a flight soon, stocking up on hand sanitizer is the best move. Is there anything else to be done? Schaffner notes that, from the passengers' point of view, the ultimate way to avoid infections on aircraft is to stay home. "And there will come a time perhaps and some of that is happening already where we are being urged to social distance ourselves," he says. "People are reconsidering whether they wish to fly at the moment." Richard Dawood stresses the important of airlines following the CDC's guidance, but he stresses that travelers should still make up their own mind on whether they should fly: "Perhaps the most important point to keep in mind is that not a single case of COVID-19 has yet been attributed to on-board transmission," he says. This story was first published on CNN.com "What airlines are doing to sanitize planes" BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 Trend: The operational headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers has disseminated another statement in connection with coronavirus, Trend reports on March 4 referring to the Cabinet of Ministers. Azerbaijan is ensuring the return of its citizens who are in Iran, the statement said. In this regard, the appeals of Azerbaijani citizens received through the hotlines of the embassy in Tehran and the consulate general in Tabriz are registered. The citizens return through a special corridor at border checkpoints at the predetermined time, the message said. For this purpose, citizens who have arrived from Iran at the Astara border checkpoint are temporarily accommodated and are provided with all necessary conditions. In accordance with the established schedule, 276 people returned to Azerbaijan and were transported to the quarantine zones by the special vehicles, the statement said. Azerbaijani citizens arriving from Iran are on a quarantine for a period from 14 to 29 days. All citizens are required to comply with the quarantine regime. For additional information, it is recommended to appeal via the hotlines created at the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran and the consulate general in Tabriz, the statement read. After registration of appeals, Azerbaijani citizens are planned to be transported by planes and across the land border through a special customs corridor. France's high court has granted an Uber driver's request to reclassify his contractual relationship with the ride-hailing operator as an employment contract, it said on March 4. "When connecting to the Uber digital platform, a relationship of subordination is established between the driver and the company," France's Cour de Cassation said in a statement. "Hence, the driver does not provide services as a self-employed person, but as an employee." New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference in New York City on March 2, 2020. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) New York Governor: People Should Stay Home if Feeling Sick Amid Coronavirus Outbreak New Yorkers should stay home if they feel unwell, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Wednesday announcing four new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the state. The wife, son, daughter, and neighbor of a Westchester man who works in Manhattan tested positive for COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, Cuomo said. The new cases highlight the need for people who are feeling ill to stay home, the governor said. If you started to have some symptoms, rather than saying, Ah, you know, Im going to go to work anyway, dont go into work and stay home, Cuomo said in Albany. People who stay at home due to not feeling well are referred to as being in self-quarantine. People wear face masks as they pass a traffic police man in Flushing area of Queens in New York City on March 2, 2020. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) If youre not feeling well, or if you have symptoms or if you had close contact with an individual who you know tested positive, err on the side of caution. Stay home, Cuomo told New Yorkers. New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot this week asked New Yorkers to come together as a city to limit the spread of COVID-19. If you have symptoms like cough, fever, or shortness of breath, call your health care provider, she said in a statement. The other confirmed case in the state, outside the Westchester cluster, was a health care worker who traveled to Iran before returning to New York. Her husband tested negative for the virus, Cuomo said. The worker herself is improving and is isolated at home. Two families who live in Buffalo who recently traveled to Italy and were isolated at their houses also tested negative. A pharmacy worker sells N95 face masks in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York on Feb. 27, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) Officials also claimed that people are fearful of whats happening. We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus. We have a pandemic caused by fear, Cuomo said. People are suspicious of what theyre hearing, he alleged, because of the current political environment. I think its very important here in New York that I provide the factual information to people so they know these are just the facts. Once you accept the facts, there is no reason to be frightened by these facts, he added. There will be additional confirmed cases in the state as more people are tested, he said. Officials are worrying most about nursing homes and other places where seniors live and are cared for. Cuomo said he was recalling 300 State University of New York and City University of New York students and staff members from China, Italy, Japan, Iran, and South Korea. The group would be flown on a chartered airplane to Stewart Airport before being quarantined for 14 days. Whether youre trying to fend off primary-related disappointment about your chosen presidential candidate, batten down the hatches for coronavirus, squash the vicious beginnings of seasonal allergies or a stem a gray tide of late-winter doldrums, never fear. Catherine OHara is here. The Twitter account for Schitts Creek, the hit series co-starring the veteran actress, has anointed Wednesday Catherine OHara Day in honor of the comic actor and master thespians March 4 birthday. Consider this a Catherine OHara appreciation post, because we do not have nearly enough of them on Catherine OHara and Beyonces internet. By the power vested in me by twitter dot com, I proclaim this Wednesday, March 4th, 2020, to be #CatherineOHaraDay! pic.twitter.com/YGCTSGtW71 Schitt's Creek (@SchittsCreek) March 4, 2020 If Catherine Anne OHara ever decides to run for president, the race will be uncontested. Sure, shes Canadian, but did that ever stop Alex Trebek from winning your heart? In case you need proof of concept, we will list some reasons for OHaras greatness, just a few among the many waiting to be plucked from the firmament that is the Catherine OHara canon. Shes been doing this a long time From the delightfully dramatic artist Delia Deetz in the iconic 1988 film Beetlejuice to the chic, even more dramatic actress Moira Rose on the current TV series Schitts Creek," OHara, 66, knows whats shes doing and she does it oh so well. OHara started her career doing improv and sketch comedy at the Second City in Toronto. If this pic from the set of Beetlejuice is any indication, Catherine OHara has had Moira Rose inside of her for quite some time. #SchittsCreek pic.twitter.com/WLM56DATUC Toby Herman (@tobyherman27) March 16, 2019 She soon took her talents to the beloved SCTV aka Second City Television alongside frequent co-star Eugene Levy as well as John Candy and Rick Moranis. There, she won her first Emmy, for writing. Just check out that Katharine Hepburn impression. Delia Deetz In Tim Burtons Beetlejuice, OHara played one of the foils to Winona Ryders despairing Lydia Deetz. Sure, Lydias other major foil was Michael Keatons Beetlejuice himself, but Delia was a special brand of deranged, hellbent on applying her twisted aesthetic to her new Connecticut home, ghosts or not. Just watch her shriek her orders below and try to tell us shes somehow less scary than those striped sandworms. But OHara was also truly great in the movie as a possessed Delia, swaying and dancing to Harry Belafontes recording of Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)." Home Alone In 1990, the actress delivered a supremely memorable performance as Kate McCallister, fretful mother of the young, abandoned Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) in Home Alone. Culkins aftershave-induced scream went viral before things went viral, but OHaras own anguished Kevin!! when Kate realizes shes left her son at home is priceless. Mockumentaries for days And who could forget OHara in Christopher Guests mockumentaries, including Best in Show" (2000) A Mighty Wind" (2003), Waiting for Guffman (1997) and For Your Consideration (2006)? Here she is as Cookie Fleck, opposite Eugene Levy as Gerry Fleck, singing of the greatness of terriers in the dog show satire Best in Show. Moira Rose OHara, of course, reunited with Levy and his son, Dan Levy, for Pop TVs Schitts Creek," a comedy series that premiered on Canadian TV in 2015. For six seasons, shes been pitch-perfect as Moira Rose, a matriarch who is constantly referencing stories from her privileged life and acting career, wearing a new look-changing wig each day and pronouncing her ornate vocabulary with a special verve that can hardly be replicated. She arrives in small-town Schitts Creek with her husband Johnny (Eugene Levy), son David (Dan Levy) and daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy) as a last-ditch effort for a new start after her wealthy family loses all of its money. Moira brings such style and value to the community that ultimately, she is lovingly embraced, just as we have happily embraced Catherine OHara. In the show, Moira makes her big acting comeback in the horror film The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening" for the streaming service Interflix. If she can take on a sizable swarm of crows, why not legions of disgruntled Americans? Alas, Moira and the Rose family are departing TV after the current season is over. But you can still catch OHara on the Schitts Creek Farewell Tour, which is coming to Atlantic City in July. And Catherine OHara, by the way, is forever. Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. A former Council Bluffs Police officer pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident in connection with the May 2019 death of a bicyclist. Robert G. Christensen, 56, pleaded guilty as charged in district court Monday at the Pottawattamie County Courthouse in Council Bluffs. District Court Judge Richard Davidson sentenced Christensen to a deferred judgement, placing him on supervised probation for two years. Christensen, who was retired from the Council Bluffs Police Department at the time of the incident, was originally charged in connection with a crash involving a bicyclist that occurred shortly after 2 a.m. on May 11, 2019, on Old Lincoln Highway near Northline Drive. Pottawattamie County Sheriffs deputies who responded to the scene found William Shepard, 55, in the east ditch near his mountain bike with its front and rear light illuminated. Shepard was transported to a Council Bluffs hospital where he was pronounced dead. Shortly after 7:30 a.m., Christensen contacted Pottawattamie County emergency communications and said that he may have been the driver who struck Shepard, according to the affidavit filed with Pottawattamie County District Court. The affidavit stated Christensen told 911 that he had been in the area at the time of the collision and thought he had struck a deer until he saw on the news that a bicyclist had been struck. Deputies went to Christensens home and observed damage to his 2014 Ford pickup that they determined was consistent with striking a pedestrian. Investigating officers located a video that showed a clear view of Christensens driveway. The video shows a vehicle arrive at 2:11 a.m. At 2:59 a.m., a different truck left Christensens residence, returning 9 minutes later. Cruiser video from the accident scene shows a truck similar to the one that left Christensens residence at 2:59 a.m. driving through the accident scene at 3:03 a.m. According to the affidavit, Based on this investigation, it has been determined that Christensen was operating his 2014 Ford F-150 northbound on Old Lincoln Highway near Northline Drive on May 11, 2019, at approximately 0209 hours. Shepard was traveling northbound near the northbound fog lane on Old Lincoln Highway on a bike equipped with both front and rear illuminated lights, the affidavit stated. Christensens F-150 did strike Shepard in a rear end manner or collision causing Shepard to be thrown backwards on top of the hood of the truck. Both Shepard and his bicycle came to rest in the east ditch near the point of impact. Evidence exists that shows Christensen did not stop at the time of the collision and continued to his residence. Based on this investigation it is clear that Christensen did cause the death of a person while operating a motor vehicle and failed to immediately stop or return. Joe Hrvol, Christensens attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russias communications regulator finds irregularities in BBC World News broadcasts Flickr/ Redvers 13:08 04/03/2020 MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) The Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies, Communications and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has found irregularities in the broadcasts of BBC World News TV channel, the watchdog says in a statement. During a random inspection it was found out that the channel had violated certain requirements set by the law aimed to protect children from receiving information harmful for their health and development; a document registering the violation was made, the statement reads. Such a violation is punishable by fines ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 rubles (about $300 to $3,000) to be imposed on officers of organizations violating the law, whereas the infringement matter is to be confiscated. Another violation found out during the inspection is the failure on the part of BBC World News to timely present legal deposit copies of documents in breach of a respective law and the Code of Administrative Offences. Fines imposed on officers of organizations committing such a violation range from 1,000 to 2,000 rubles ($15 to $30), whereas those imposed on corporation range from 10,000 to 20,000 rubles ($150 to $300); the infringement matter is to be confiscated. The protocols registering the violations have been filed with a court, the hearings are to begin on March 12, the statement reads. By Laman Ismayilova The third World Harmony International Competition of Young Performers was successfully held in Baku on February 17-24. The large-scale event brought together young talents from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Ukraine. The winners of World Harmony Contest will perform at the State Philharmonic Hall on March 12. The musicians will be accompanied by the State Chamber Orchestra, conducted by People's Artist Fakhraddin Karimov. Founded in 2017, the contest aims to discover young talents and promote classical music and folklore. The competition was held for the second time in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2018. Next February, the 4th World Harmony competition will be held once again in Vilnius. The event was co-organized by the Georgian Union of Folklore and Classical Music "Harmony" and "Gnclr dstk" (Youth Support) project with the support of the Culture Ministry as well as Baku Music Academy and the National Conservatory. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Nairobi, March 4, 2020The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in Uganda to drop all charges and to immediately release freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Moses Bwayo, to return his equipment undamaged, and to allow him to continue his work without intimidation. Bwayo was initially arrested in the capital Kampala on February 24 while filming a documentary commissioned by a U.K.-based company, Southern Films, about the opposition politician and popular musician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, and was released on February 26 on police bond, according to multiple statements by the Foreign Correspondents Association of Uganda and a statement from the local press rights group the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda posted on social media. Police also confiscated his equipment, according to those same sources. Today he appeared in court, charged with illegal assembly alongside eight other people, and was placed in custody in Luzira Prison after both the state prosecutor and the magistrate said they needed more time to respond to his bail application, his lawyer Caleb Alaka told CPJ via messaging app. He is due back in court on Friday. Freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Moses Bwayo should never have been arrested in the first place, and the fact that he is now spending more time behind bars on dubious charges exposes how far Ugandan authorities are willing to go to prevent coverage of the opposition, particularly of Bobi Wine, said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo. Ugandan authorities should immediately drop all charges against Bwayo and allow him to complete the documentary without further interference. Over the past two years, CPJ has documented numerous incidents in which security personnel and government officials have harassed, intimidated , and arrested journalists covering the opposition, and Bobi Wine in particular. Amid reports that the had resumed violence in just days after the US and signed a historic agreement in Qatar, President on Tuesday (local time) confirmed that he had spoken with the leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar over the phone. "I did. I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a good conversation. We've agreed there's no violence. We don't want violence. We'll see what happens. They're dealing with Afghanistan, but we'll see what happens," Trump said as he departed the White House. According to USA Today, the Taliban disclosed Trump's phone call with its leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's chief negotiator and one of its founding members, before the White House did. This comes three days after the United States and Taliban signed a historic agreement with an aim to bring peace to by the withdrawal of US forces. Rob is a well-known voice in the industry on the benefits and need for innovation in construction. Stated Lisa Duncan, co-founder and CRO of Innovative Construction Technology, He will be invaluable to our customers and ICT; as we help to expand the use of ICT Tracker to our industry. Innovative Construction Technology (ICT), a Saas company delivering innovative and empowering solutions for construction, announced that Robert (Rob) McKinney has joined ICT to assist in their business development efforts. Many of you may recognize Rob's name or had the pleasure of hearing him speak. His knowledge of the construction industry and the challenges of effectively adopting technology makes him a perfect resource for our customers. A self-taught construction technologist, Rob first developed a love for technology with his first Atari game machine. Rob was a pioneer in developing mobile device programs centered around applications used on tablets and smartphones. Rob is a co-founding member of the ConTech Crew podcast and ConTech Roadshow. As the ConAppGuru, Rob has delivered technology presentations at national and regional construction conferences since 2013. Rob will be focused on business development efforts to educate and connect the construction industry around the benefits of using technology to improve their production tracking efforts. Meet Rob at New York Build Expo where ICT will be on hand to present its flagship product, ICT Tracker. Be sure to stop by booth #658 to meet Rob and see a demonstration of ICT Tracker during the show. For more information on the New York Build Expo, visit http://www.newlyorkbuildexpo.com. To learn more about ICT Tracker, visit http://www.icttracker.com. About Innovative Construction Technology Innovative Construction Technology (ICT) is a Saas company that delivers innovative and empowering products to easily solve problems and transform the use of technology in the construction industry. ICT is built on knowledge through experience and the desire to foster authentic and genuine relationships by sharing the outcome in partnership with our customers. http://www.icttracker.com/about. (Alliance News) - Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's Budweiser division has ended its Irish beer distribution deal with Diageo PLC and has instead awarded the contract to C&C Group PLC, according to Dublin-based drinks distributor C&C. C&C said Wednesday that Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I, a trading name of AB InBev UK Ltd, has expanded its existing multi-year partnership with C&C to include exclusive distribution rights of Budweiser and Bud Light for the island of Ireland, meaning the Republic plus Northern Ireland. "With the addition of Budweiser and Bud Light, from 01 July 2020, C&C will have responsibility for the sale and distribution of Budweiser Brewing Group's complete beer brand portfolio across Ireland," the Bulmer's cider maker said. C&C and Budweiser Brewing will collaborate on the marketing of the beer portfolio which also includes Stella Artois, Beck's, Corona, Leffe and Hoegaarden. FTSE 250-listed C&C has been working with Budweiser Brewing since 2009 and has been responsible for brewing and distributing a selection of the brewer's brands in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The expanded partnership will see the kegging of Budweiser in Clonmel, a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. Tom McCusker, managing director of C&C Group Ireland, said: "This agreement marks an exciting new phase in our partnership with Budweiser Brewing Group. With a portfolio of some of the world's most iconic beer brands, we look forward to optimising the portfolio and distribution strengths of our two businesses for the benefit of our mutual customers across Ireland". Budweiser Brewing President Paula Lindenberg said: "This deal, part of our wider expansion strategy, will utilise C&C's expertise across Ireland to bring our loved brands, now under one unified portfolio, to even more customers and consumers." The Diageo press office could not be immediately contacted for comment. Shares in C&C were up 2.7% at 339.00 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon, while Diageo was up 1.9% at 2,873.00p each. AB InBev shares in Brussels were up 2.1% at EUR52.35 each. By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. The Louvre museum in Paris reopened to the public Wednesday after management took steps to allay staff fears over the coronavirus spread which had sparked a two-day work stoppage. In a statement, the world's most visited museum said that faced with the "legitimate concerns" of staff over COVID-19, it had agreed to take "extra measures" to ensure the safety of employees and visitors alike. Staff had refused to work on Sunday and Monday, citing a threat to health. The museum is closed to the public on Tuesdays. The health ministry had argued there was no evidence of the "grave and imminent threat" to life or health that French employees can cite as a valid reason to refuse to work. Visitors applauded as the doors opened Wednesday, an AFP reporter at the former royal palace reported. The closure of the Louvre, which received 9.6 million visitors last year, had caused bitter disappointment among the thousands of tourists who flock each day to the home of the Mona Lisa. The protest reflected growing jitters over the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed over 3,200 people worldwide, including four in France. The government at the weekend cancelled all indoor events for more than 5,000 people as a precautionary measure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) FILE PHOTO: A screen displays the company logo for Uber Technologies Inc on the day of its IPO at the NYSE in New York By Mathieu Rosemain and Dominique Vidalon PARIS (Reuters) - France's top court has recognized the right of an Uber driver to be considered an employee, a ruling that could upend the U.S. firm's business model and potentially require it to pay more taxes and benefits such as paid holidays. The decision by the Cour de Cassation could also have ramifications for France's wider "gig economy", as other taxi and food delivery apps from Deliveroo and Just Eat-Takeaway to UberEats rely heavily on self-employed riders to conduct their business without having to meet a range of employee costs and benefits. The Cour de Cassation upheld a previous decision by a court of appeal, saying the Uber driver could not qualify as a self-employed contractor because he could not build his own clientele or set his own prices, making him a subordinate of the company. "When connecting to the Uber digital platform, a relationship of subordination is established between the driver and the company," the court said in a statement. "Hence, the driver does not provide services as a self-employed person, but as an employee." The decision could pave the way for other drivers to ask for a reclassification of their work relationship with Uber, which, under the current framework, does not pay a wide range of taxes that fund France's welfare system. "It's an entirely different business model (for Uber)," said Cedric Jacquelet, a partner at Proskauer law firm in Paris. "It requires much more legal and human resources, at a much higher price," he added, saying that Uber might now review the conditions under which its drivers perform their service so that they can no longer claim to be employees. The decision also follows a series of legal challenges to Uber and similar companies from Brazil to Colombia and the United States itself. California, where Uber is based, recently passed a law aimed making it harder for apps to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees.. Story continues "The ruling does not reflect the reasons why drivers choose to use Uber: the independence and freedom to work if, when and where they want," Uber said in a written statement. "Over the last two years weve made many changes to give drivers even more control over how they use Uber, alongside stronger social protections," it added, noting the court's decision would not lead to an automatic reclassification of drivers. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Mark Potter and Nick Macfie) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 4 By Eldar Janashvili Trend: Azerbaijan and Russias Rostov region reached an agreement on cooperation in different spheres, Governor of Rostov region Vasily Golubev told reporters in Baku. The history of the development of our relations shows that in general and as of 2019, which ensured 30 percent growth, we have very good dynamics in the development of relations in various spheres, especially when the presidents of both countries say that our partnership is strategic in nature, Golubev added, Trend reports on March 4. The entrepreneurs from Rostov region already cooperate with Azerbaijani entrepreneurs and have the opportunities to develop cooperation," the governor added. The main spheres of our cooperation are the development of the industrial sector, within which an agreement was signed today between Waterfall company and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR on the supply of raw materials for the production of dioxide film, Golubev said. "The negotiations on the delivery of components for agricultural machinery which is manufactured in the Rostov region, which will be assembled in Baku, are under completion," the governor said. More than 5,000 combines produced at Russias Rostselmash plant are used in Azerbaijan. The Rostov region is an export-oriented region and export is one of the spheres of our cooperation, Golubev added. The business forum entitled "Days of the Rostov region in Azerbaijan" was held in Baku on March 4. Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov and other officials attended the forum. International Women's Day is coming up on Sunday and no doubt caretaker Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will be celebrating the auspicious occasion somewhere. Mr Varadkar is a big fan of women. He made his feminist credentials a core plank of his election campaign when he promised that if he were re-elected he would work to eradicate the gender pay gap. "Jobs traditionally held by women are paid less than jobs generally held by men even today," he said, adding that it was more difficult for women "to get a fair crack at the whip when it comes to promotion in particular". The Fine Gael leader even suggested that if there had been more women in leadership roles during the financial crisis, the crash would not have been as disastrous as it was. Clearly, if Mr Varadkar had a bra, he would burn it. Or at least, that's what his firebrand comments suggested. But, what did he do within three weeks of the election, when he had a chance to ensure more women become involved in Irish political life? He shafted them. Despite Leinster House already being stuffed with males, Fine Gael opted to nominate as many men named John as women to contest the Seanad election. Just three women made the grade out of Fine Gael's 13 nominations. It gets worse. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Mr Varadkar appointed former chief whip Sean Kyne, who lost his seat in Galway West, to fill a Seanad vacancy when Frankie Feighan was elected to the Dail. So, thats 11 men in total given the nod compared to just three women. With allies like this, women don't need enemies. Former Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell has learned that to her cost. At the weekend, the 'Sunday Independent' reported Ms O'Connell had been prepared to step away from national politics after her election defeat. Until, that is, she came under significant pressure from party bigwigs to put her name forward for inclusion in its list of nominees for the upper house. "She got calls from everyone - Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney, Frances Fitzgerald and general secretary Tom Curran - who encouraged her to seek a nomination," according to Philip Ryan. Ultimately, instead of a nomination, she received the cold shoulder. The party couldn't find a way to whittle down the number of male candidates to make room for a woman with a proven track record - but who sometimes made life for Mr Varadkar and his "choirboy" chums a bit uncomfortable. Like her or loathe her, there's no denying that Ms O'Connell is an articulate and capable politician, who exudes more charisma than half the Fine Gael parliamentary party combined. But she was denied an opportunity to continue her political career by party insiders. So, can Mr Varadkar spare us the platitudes about his commitment to gender equality and the continuing guff about fighting to promote women in male-dominated professions? Because women are not buying it. The figures do not lie. In contrast, Fianna Fail managed to select four women in their complement of nine Seanad nominees - a 45:55 split. If Fianna Fail can try to attain gender parity among its candidates, why can't Fine Gael? We know it's not because qualified women did not put their names forward. They did. So, what's the reason? Are men simply better or more worthy? Or, is it, as Mr Varadkar himself stated, just harder for women to get a fair crack of the whip - especially when that whip is being wielded by Fine Gael? This isn't a case of parties gifting women a Seanad seat. The nominations are merely a way to give women, who are woefully under-represented in Leinster House, a shot at contesting a seat. This isn't an isolated incident either. Mr Varadkar has form when it comes to snubbing women. When the Taoiseach's list of 11 nominees to the Seanad was announced in 2016, it contained just four women - two of whom had been selected by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who nominated just three of the 11 senators. On that occasion, Mr Varadkar had an opportunity to directly appoint more women to the Seanad, and inject more female voices into the upper echelons of Irish public life, but declined to do so. Similarly, when he became Taoiseach in 2017, and reshuffled his cabinet, there were just three female faces among the entire complement of 19 junior ministers - a truly pathetic 15pc. Mr Varadkar failed to promote more women, despite increasing the number of junior ministers from 18 to 19. His record in politics, when he has been in power, is jobs for the boys. This is important as Mr Varadkar sees himself as socially liberal and enjoys making worthy statements about eliminating the gender pay gap and increasing the participation of women in politics. Regrettably, despite sounding woke, Mr Varadkar has all the trappings of a faux male feminist. He may have a 'Repeal' jumper in the bottom of his wardrobe somewhere, and he makes all the right noises about gender equality, but when he's given the chance to promote women around him, he continually fails to do so. Perhaps he believes gender quotas are enough. That Fine Gael doesn't have to do any more than the bare minimum and ensure at least 30pc of its candidates in national elections are women - a figure the party barely scraped in last month's election with 30.5pc. But, imposing gender quotas is not enough. Political parties need to work to first fill, and then exceed, them. Women have to be encouraged to consider a career in politics, mentored by those with experience and given an equal opportunity to compete when they express a desire to contest elections. Women face enough obstacles in trying to balance their work and private lives. A survey this week found half of working mothers have considered leaving their jobs due to the cost of childcare while 90pc feel overwhelmed at times. These pressures are only amplified with a career in politics, which, as an institution, is designed to accommodate men. If Mr Varadkar is preparing a speech to mark International Women's Day, he should know women's tolerance for bluster is quite low. If he really wants to be a female ally, he needs to ditch the platitudes and start taking action. At a fund-raising reception in New York City for Senate candidates last month, Mr. Schumer revealed that he was traveling to Montana and projected confidence that Mr. Bullock would agree to run, according to an attendee. More quietly, a handful of union officials have reached out to Mr. Bullock to assure him he would have all the resources he needs in a state that still retains a strong labor tradition, according to one of the party officials, who was familiar with the conversations. Im hopeful, said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the powerful educators union, about the prospect of the governor entering the race. What may have proved most decisive for Mr. Bullock, however, is that his family is supportive of his candidacy, according to the officials familiar with the discussions. He has long been reluctant to commute to Washington because of the toll he feared it would take on his family. While his party has been avidly pursuing him, Mr. Bullock is not the only Democrat interested in the race. A handful of candidates are already running, including Mayor Wilmot Collins of Helena. But after Mr. Bullocks announcement on Monday, Cora Neumann, an economic development executive who had already raised over $650,000 for her bid, said she would withdraw from the race and threw her support behind the governor. I know that what matters most is that we come together in the effort to beat Senator Steve Daines, she said in a statement, adding that Mr. Bullock offers us the best chance to defeat Daines and flip the Senate. [March 04, 2020] Wells Fargo to Raise Minimum Hourly Pay Levels in a Majority of Its U.S. Markets Wells Fargo (News - Alert) & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced plans to raise minimum hourly pay levels in a majority of its U.S. markets. Minimum pay will be tiered based on various factors, including the cost of living in different markets, with the minimum hourly pay ranging from $15 to $20 based on employee location. The pay increases will take effect by the end of 2020. "Companies have an obligation to help communities and employees reach their potential. An important part of this is ensuring we are doing our part to pay employees at a rate which recognizes the difference in cost of living across the country," said CEO Charlie Scharf. "Our employees are our most valuable resource, and these pay increases are just one way we are investing in our people and ensuring that Wells Fargo continues to be a great place to work." The change will increase pay for more than 20,000 U.S.-based employees. The amount of the hourly increase takes into account the cost of living in each Wells Fargo market. For example, employees working in the cities of New York or San Francisco will receive a minimum hourly pay rate of $20, while employees in Charlotte or Des Moines will receive a minimum of $16 per hour. Wells Fargo will also evaluate the hourly pay for employees whose pay is at or near the new minimum hourly wages announced today. In recent years, Wells Fargo has increased its minimum hourly base pay in the U.S. by 2%, most recently to $15 in March 2018. Today's announcement is in addition to other investments Wells Fargo has made to enrich compensation programs and enhance benefits offerings for employees, especially those U.S.-based employees who are at the lower part of the pay range. For example, this year, the company made changes to make healthcare more affordable for all U.S-based employees at the lower part of the pay range, lowering or keeping premiums flat for about 70% of employees. Wells Fargo pays on average 84% of total annual healthcare premiums for its U.S.-based employees who earn less than $40,000 annually, which equates to approximately $5,700 and $16,600 for individuals and families, respectively. Earlier this year, Restricted Share Rights vested for employees across the globe who received awards in 2018. The company had awarded these Restricted Share Rights to 250,000 employees, recognizing their contributions and commitment to Wells Fargo and its customers and clients. This investment amounts to approximately $2,400 pre-tax per full-time employee at the time of vesting. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,400 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 32 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 260,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on Fortune's 2019 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter (News - Alert): @WellsFargo. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005766/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Indian share market has recovered some lost ground after plunging deep into the red. Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that there has been 28 confirmed cases in India of the novel coronavirus. Sensex is down 132.86 points or 0.34 percent at 38490.84, and the Nifty shed 28.30 points at 11275. Investors/traders concerned more about growth now as India has already been facing economic slowdown issue for more than one-and-half-year. Experts were expecting the growth to start pick up from first quarter of FY21, but now there is question on it. All sectoral indices barring pharma are trading in the red with auto, banks and metal stocks taking the maximum beating. Bank Nifty fell almost 3 percent dragged by YES Bank and IndusInd Bank which fell 4-6 percent followed by HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. After the rate cut by global central banks to fight coronavirus worries that may hit economies worldwide, the market eagerly awaits more action from the Reserve Bank of India to support the economy and financial markets. However, the pharma index added over a percent led by Sun Pharma, Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy's Labs. "We expect that volatility will likely to grip the markets as sentiments would be driven by updates on the spread of coronavirus cases. From technical front both the indices are still trading in a bearish territory as prices are holding below their 200-day exponential moving average on daily interval. Therefore, we advise traders to remain on cautious note as far index is concerned and keep stock specific action on to the radar," Shitij Gandhi, Senior Technical Analyst at SMC Global Securities told Moneycontrol. India VIX was up 2.04 percent and was trading at 25.04 level. The top gainers included Sun Pharma, Cipla, Dr Reddy's Labs, Tech Mahindra and Asian Paints while the top losers included YES Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance and Eicher Motors. The most active stocks included State Bank of India, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors. 426 stocks hit fresh 52-week low on the BSE including YES Bank, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Mphasis, LIC Housing, United Breweries, Tata Chemicals, SpiceJet, PNB Housing Finance, Central Bank of India, Karur Vysya Bank, Exide Industries, Bank of India and CESC among others. About 443 shares have advanced, 1783 shares declined, and 108 shares are unchanged. The stocks which moved the most with respect to volumes included YES Bank which fell 6 percent. The stock was trading with volumes of 9,049,079 shares, compared to its five day average of 8,223,750 shares, an increase of 10.04 percent. Tata Motors share price shed over 3 percent and was It was trading with volumes of 3,011,098 shares, compared to its five day average of 3,106,006 shares, a decrease of -3.06 percent. Share price of Vodafone Idea shed close to 4 percent and was trading with volumes of 33,633,967 shares, compared to its five day average of 51,091,595 shares, a decrease of -34.17 percent. Compucom Software tanked 20 percent. It was trading with volumes of 265,507 shares, compared to its five day average of 3,430 shares, an increase of 7,640.28 percent. Share price of Oriental Bank of Commerce jumped surged almost 16 percent and was trading with volumes of 428,048 shares, compared to its five day average of 79,167 shares, an increase of 440.69 percent. : Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed a privilege motion against Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu for making objectionable comments against Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. During Zero Hour in the ongoing budget session here, Tinu protested against time not being given to his party members by Speaker Rana K P Singh. He then stormed the Well of the House. Carrying a placard, Tinu was shouting slogans and pointing fingers towards the Speaker's chair. As he reached near Badal's bench, he made some comments that prompted the Finance Minister to react angrily. Several Congress legislators including Kulbir Singh Zira and Barindermeet Singh Pahra rose from their seats and strongly protested Tinu's action. Heated exchanges took place between Zira and Tinu. Akali MLAs including Sukhwinder Kumar and Gurpartap Singh Wadala intervened and tried to pacify the Congress legislators. Amid commotion, the Speaker adjourned the House for a brief period. After the proceedings of the House resumed, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra described Tinu's behavior as "condemnable and intolerable." Mohindra accused Tinu of making personal comments against the Finance Minister. Then, Mohindra moved a privilege motion against Tinu which was passed by the House. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For the outgoing prime minister, this was "biggest win of my life". As head of government, he is in a stronger position ahead of his corruption trial. With ballots still being counter, Likud and allies have 59 seats, two short of a majority in the Knesset. For Palestinians, annexation and settlements have won. Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed victory in Israel's third general election in less than a year, calling yesterdays outcome the biggest win of my life". In his victory speech, he said we plowed the country from north to south," noting that Israeli citizens trust us because they know that we have brought the best decade in Israeli history." For Netanyahu, this victory is much more. In a few days, 17 March, he is due to go on trial for corruption, and the win could mean his political survival. If this happens, Netanyahu would become Israels longest-serving prime minister with more than ten years as head of the government. Trailing behind the centrist Blue White alliance led by Benny Gantz in the weeks leading up to the vote, the Likud leader made a comeback that surprised analysts and experts. With 70 per cent of ballots counted, the Central Elections Committee gives the Likud 28.7 per cent of the vote, which translates into 37 Knesset seats out of 120: 61 are needed for a majority. The Blue White alliance comes in second with 23.3 per cent for 32-33 seats. Avigdor Liebermans party appears to have won seven seats. With his hard-line right-wing allies, Netanyahu could reach 59 seats, two short of a majority. For the centre-left bloc, the most optimistic estimate is 53 seats, including the Arab parties. Now, everyone is waiting for the official tally, expected by tomorrow morning. As the outgoing prime minister, Netanyahu can benefit from having the largest bloc in Parliament, which gives him the right to form a new government, one that is even more tilted to the right. If this fails, the country can expect another deadlock, the third in the past few months, with more political uncertainty on the horizon. Netanyahu can attribute his electoral victory, if that is the case, to his foreign policy successes, starting with the so-called Agreement of the century, i.e. Donald Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, praised by the Israelis and bluntly rejected by Palestinians and pro-human rights groups. Palestinians are particularly concerned about the Israeli election. The exit polls show that that settlement, occupation and apartheid have won the Israeli elections, tweeted Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), For Erekat, who is an advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the future includes more occupation and conflict with annexation as the next step. Industrial activity recovers in Mexico due to the coronavirus. Mexican fashion and textile manufacturers report a slight increase in orders and quotes from US companies because of the increasing closure of factories in China, the main sourcing country for international fashion companies. US retailers seek to quickly stock up in the face of the health crisis that threatens the spring-summer collections and puts the fall-winter season at risk, the biggest season of the year. Mexico, the main hub in the vicinity for the industry in the United States, begins to gain prominence on the sourcing map of international fashion. So far, the country has confirmed five cases of the virus. China currently exports $157.8 billion in clothing each year. However, Mexico remains the third-largest fashion supplier in the United States behind China and Canada. According to information published by the National Chamber of the Mexican Textile Industry (Canaintex), in 2019, 60% of the countrys total textile exports went to the United States, where 91.8% accounted for clothing. Mexico is the third-largest fashion provider in the United States, only behind China and Canada According to Jorge Plata, CEO of Argentum Textil, a company specialized in textile spinning and manufacturing and former president of the Mexican National Textile Industry Chamber, the interest of international companies is can already be noticed. The executive says that they have received emails and calls from several customers who would like to resubmit their production in Mexico, specifically from distribution companies of denim, and sportswear, a sector that is going through a boom in the United States, says Plata. In contrast, Kaltex, a Mexican company specializing in the production of yarn, cloth, synthetic fibers, states that only 10% of its sales come from the United States. The company, which mainly sells T-shirts to the North American country, affirms that in the last months the number of orders from the North country has remained constant and that few North American companies have called for information about the productive capacity. Grupo Miro, a company specialized in the distribution of knitted fabrics, says that although the volume of orders from the North American country has remained stable, there is an increase in calls for quotes and search for suppliers by potential North American customers. The main productive poles of Mexico are the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Puebla, Jalisco and Yucatan According to Elisa Vega, head of product development of the group, the increase in orders could be increasing in the short term, as many of its customers buy in Asia and especially in China, says the executive. In fact, a few weeks ago the company was contacted by an American company that centralizes all the manufacturing of its pajamas in China, in search of quotes for its production. But are Mexican manufacturers ready to respond to a demand previously met by China? According to Plata, the installed capacity in Mexico is enough, and there is a constant increase in investment in technology and production capacity. If the demand takes a significant boost, local manufacturing and supply companies will have more freedom to choose which projects they choose, which would improve production effectiveness, says the executive. Specifically, the denim sector is very well structured in Mexico, with a high level of automation and significant growth in recent years. The main productive poles of the country are the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Puebla, Jalisco and Yucatan. In the south, Merida is gaining strength in the clothing sector. Because of its proximity to the United States, Mexico can have a truck at the border in 48 hours However, the region is still at a disadvantage compared to countries such as Bangladesh or India in terms of production cost, supplies, operating costs, and labor force, among others. The increase in demand for Mexican production could cause obstacles when companies expect to obtain the same costs they pay in Chinese factories. As Silver explains, in that case the Mexican industry would have to focus on its efficiency and closeness advantages. Precisely, one of Mexicos main competitive advantages with Asian countries is the rapid response to the United States. Depending on the location of the factory you are working with, the border is eight or ten hours away. Mexico can have a truck at the border in 48 hours. The Mexican textile industry is one of the main suppliers of internationals such as Levis, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, and others In the case of jeans, when the fabric is produced in Mexico, jeans are one of the products most benefited by the new North American free trade agreement, since they comply with the rules of origin stipulated in the agreement, which It means that the final product can avoid paying tariffs with its neighbors Canada and the United States. Since the USMCA was signed in 1994, Mexico multiplied its exchanges with the United States by five, benefiting around 14 million workers. In the fashion sector, the USMCA emphasizes that each of its members should progressively eliminate tariffs on textile and clothing. The Mexican textile industry is one of the main suppliers of international brands such as Levis, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap and others. Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill watch as a dairy protester is apprehended. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) Ex-Obama Press Secretary Calls for Secret Service Protection for Sanders, Biden A press secretary of former President Barack Obama said that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden need U.S. secret service protection after protesters entered the stage during a Biden rally on Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden need secret service protection, former press secretary Robert Gibbs said. What happened tonight was nothing short of genuinely scary. They should have secret service protection in the next 24 to 48 hours, Gibbs said on MSNBC. On Tuesday night, Bidens speech rally was interrupted by anti-dairy industry protesters and got within a few feet of the former vice president. The organization Direct Action Everywhere, which opposes the dairy industry, also protested and disrupted a Sanders rally in Nevada as some of the protesters went topless. During the Biden rally incident, according to video footage, his wife Jill physically inserted herself between the candidate and the protesters. His campaign adviser, Symone Sanders, also rushed at the second protester and grabbed the woman before taking her off the stage. Were OK, said Jill Biden after the protesters were removed. Were OK. I broke a nail. #SuperTuesday Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) March 4, 2020 The protest came as Biden was celebrating taking home a significant number of delegates during the Super Tuesday contests. Its a good night. Its a good night, Joe Biden said. It seems to be getting better. They dont call it Super Tuesday for nothing. Sanders posted on Twitter after the incident: I broke a nail. Biden won Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Biden is also projected to have won Texas and Tennessee. Sanders, meanwhile, won in California, which has the most delegates, as well as Vermont, Utah, and Colorado. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Nairobi, March 4, 2020The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in Uganda to drop all charges and to immediately release freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Moses Bwayo, to return his equipment undamaged, and to allow him to continue his work without intimidation. Bwayo was initially arrested in the capital Kampala on February 24 while filming a documentary commissioned by a U.K.-based company, Southern Films, about the opposition politician and popular musician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, and was released on February 26 on police bond, according to multiple statements by the Foreign Correspondents Association of Uganda and a statement from the local press rights group the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda posted on social media. Police also confiscated his equipment, according to those same sources. Today he appeared in court, charged with illegal assembly alongside eight other people, and was placed in custody in Luzira Prison after both the state prosecutor and the magistrate said they needed more time to respond to his bail application, his lawyer Caleb Alaka told CPJ via messaging app. He is due back in court on Friday. Freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Moses Bwayo should never have been arrested in the first place, and the fact that he is now spending more time behind bars on dubious charges exposes how far Ugandan authorities are willing to go to prevent coverage of the opposition, particularly of Bobi Wine, said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo. Ugandan authorities should immediately drop all charges against Bwayo and allow him to complete the documentary without further interference. Over the past two years, CPJ has documented numerous incidents in which security personnel and government officials have harassed, intimidated, and arrested journalists covering the opposition, and Bobi Wine in particular. The Osun House of Assembly on Tuesday read the Osun Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps Establishment Bill 2020 for the third time and subsequently passed the bill into law. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Amotekun bill was presented to the Osun Assembly on Feb. 27 where it passed the first reading. Subsequently, a public hearing was held by the Osun Assembly on Feb. 24 to inject stakeholders contributions and suggestions into the bill. On Tuesday after the bill was read for the third time after the inputs of suggestions from lawmakers, was passed into law. The speaker of the house thanked his colleagues for giving the bill an accelerated passage. Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication. From the hollers of Appalachia to the halls of Yale and Harvard Law, the course of Cassie Chambers life is a classic American story in the Horatio Alger mode. But her new memoir Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains rejects the American myth that pluck and gumption can pull you out of poverty. Instead, Hill Women is a gritty, warm love letter to Appalachian communities and the resourceful women who lead them: aunts who cut off their skin cancer with a pocketknife, mothers in pain who refuse to go on disability in defiance of stereotypes of lazy hillbillies. Hill Women feels especially urgent now, in our post-2016, post-Hillbilly Elegy America. In a sense, Chambers is responding to the bootstraps narrative of J.D. Vances controversial memoir, which has been criticized for blaming Appalachians for their own circumstances. Hill Women shows an Appalachia that Hillbilly Elegy obscured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I spoke with Chambers, who is now a family lawyer working with low-income women in Kentucky and the vice chairwoman of the states Democratic Party. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed the differences between her book and Hillbilly Elegy, myths about Appalachia, and the relationship between personal narrative and political change. Chloe Hadavas: The parallels between your book and J.D. Vances 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy are unmistakable. How is Hill Women in conversation with Vances book? Cassie Chambers: I really see this book as the anti-bootstraps narrative. The plot points in my story are very similar to that of J.D. Vances. I was born into poverty. I had these opportunities to go to elite educational institutions, and that looks like the same arc as his story. But for me its not that I did anything to make that happen. Its about telling how it took really three generations of womeneach one trying to do a little bit more for the next generationfor that change to happen. So its about the fact that my community gave me boots to put on so that I could even try to hoist myself up. And I think the lack of that kind of discussion is what a lot of people rightfully took issue with about J.D. Vances book. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you then see your book as a kind of corrective to the picture that Vance painted? I wanted to write something that people from the region felt proud of. I really do think that J.D. Vances book painted this image of what poverty in Appalachia looks like. For a lot of people who dont have experience with Appalachia, that became all they know about those communities. Vance said Appalachia has problems of morality and problems of people, instead of problems of systems. I really think his book gave people an excuse to write off Appalachia. Advertisement Advertisement Along with your personal descriptions of life in Appalachia, you interweave the history of the coal and tobacco industries as well as the opioid crisis. You pay particular attention to the corporate interests, policies, and lack of government protection that have negatively affected the lives of Appalachians. Why did you choose to highlight this? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Appalachia is a part of the country that has really helped the nation as a whole. We built this country on the things that coal and coal miners did. Yet because we set up these systems that were very extractive, a lot of the resources and the wealth have been removed from those communities, and now were blaming those communities for the fact that that happened instead of trying to figure out ways to actually help them. The entire country should be part of the conversation about what we do to fix the systemic poverty that exists there. Advertisement Advertisement Was it difficult to try to use your individual experience to discuss these broader systemic issues? Yeah, Im very aware that my perspective is limited to just my perspective, and Im only talking about a handful of people. I do think there are lessons that can be drawn from that, because even in response to the book, so many people have come forward and said, Thats the story of my family too. Thats the story of my granny. Thats the story of my mom. Thats the story of me. So I dont think that my story is unique or isolated. Advertisement Advertisement Im aware that J.D. Vance also told his personal story. In many ways its a tragic story, and I understand why he felt the need to tell it. But the way that he used his personal story to paint an entire region and an entire people is really problematic, because I dont think it was representative of the culture or the people. Appalachia is often characterized as a patriarchal societyI wonder even if people tend to see the figure of the hillbilly as traditionally male. How do you think the perspective of writing as a woman and explicitly focusing on women sheds a different light on the region? Advertisement I think youre right that people think of Appalachia as a bunch of white men wearing Make America Great Again hats. I wanted to talk about the fact that there are women in Appalachia who exercise agency. Sometimes historically thats been done in private ways, and ever increasingly its done in public ways. And there are people of color, artists, Democrats, and LGBTQ peopleand not everyone is outraged by the fact that there are LGBTQ people! Certainly Appalachia is majority white, and its not as diverse as it should be. I just wanted to show that its more complicated and diverse than people think. Advertisement Advertisement In the book, you talk about wanting something better for yourself and others, which seems to continue throughout your life, even when you move back to Kentuckyfor instance, you recently encouraged a young Appalachian boy when he expressed interest in Harvard. How do you reconcile that sense of wanting to leave Appalachia with respecting and admiring the culture you were raised in? I think youve hit on the main tension of the book. The answer has to be something along the lines of: People should be able to have opportunities to leave and explore the world if they want. Everyone should want to be curious about things bigger than themselves, and bigger than their holler in the hills. But I also think that people can have an understanding of the wider worldcan maybe even leave for new opportunitiesand then make a legitimate choice to stay there. I dont think that everyone that chooses to stay in the mountains is making a bad choice. We just have to make it so that everyone who wants to leave to pursue other opportunities can leave, while also providing support for communities so that people who want to stay can stay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are a lot of smart kids who leave the mountains, and I think a lot of those kids would want to stay if we could offer opportunities for them. There is value in mountain communities as they exist. For some people, that sense of closeness, of community and connection to the landthats a really important thing. Something that you pointed out about that type of community in the book is that it is very politically active. A lot of people, particularly after the election of Donald Trump, think that people in Appalachian communities are politically ignorant and somehow got swindled into voting for Trump. And the exact opposite is true in my experience. They are some of the most politically engaged communities you will ever encounter. Folks pay attention to elections from the top of the ticket all the way down to the local magistrate or the local jailer race. Turnout numbers and primary voting are usually much lower in cities than in places like Owsley County. People see the way government affects their communities in a much stronger way in some of these places, because government is one of the few forces that you can use to create opportunities. Thats also where I differ from J.D. Vance. I do think government plays a role in helping to raise these communities up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But I think this idea that people in Appalachia dont make sophisticated political decisionsits all just part of that myth that Appalachians dont know whats good for them and dont vote in their own interests. Thats a really condescending narrative. How do you feel about the way Appalachia has been represented in the national news, especially in the so-called Cletus safaris that proliferated after the election, where media outlets parachuted surprised coastal elites to interview people in Trump country? Advertisement I feel like thats very closely related to the idea of poverty porn. Ive heard stories of reporters coming into schools, asking to take pictures of some kids, and literally taking them outside and having them roll around in the dirt so they look more like poor kids, or our idea of what poor kids are supposed to look like. I really believe that if you want to know whats going on in a community, you have to actually listen to the people living in that community. All too often people come in with this set idea of what the story is supposed to be, and then they look for ways to confirm it. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar ended her presidential campaign Monday and was expected to endorse former vice president Joe Biden. Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg is also endorsing Biden after dropping out of the race yesterday (Sunday). Soldiers and Airmen from the Tennessee National Guard have been activated in response to the EF3 tornado that struck Davidson, Wilson, and Putnam counties early Tuesday morning. Currently, personnel from the Tennessee Air Guards 118th Mission Support Group, based at Berry Field, have moved 2-100KW generators to support a water treatment facility in Jackson County. These generators restore power to critical infrastructure, while permanent power is unavailable. More than 60 Soldiers with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiments 2nd Squadron from the National Guard armory in Cookeville are supporting state and local police with traffic control. Additionally, a military police company has been activated to assist within the next 24 hours. During emergency situations, the Tennessee National Guard responds to requests from local and state emergency management agencies to assist in a variety of functions. Tennessee National Guard members actively prepare for a variety of emergency situations during training, including responding to devastating tornadoes. Plain and simple, we have 12,000 Soldiers and Airmen that are citizens of this state serving in the National Guard. We will make every last one of those available to our communities on an as needed basis, said Major General Jeff Holmes, Tennessees Adjutant General. Were available, we are actively engaged, and this is why our Soldiers and Airmen wear the uniform. [March 04, 2020] Supporting green transportation in Quebec and Canada SAINT-JEROME, QC, March 4, 2020 /CNW/ - Transportation is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. To build a better future, we need to make green transportation more affordable for everyone in Quebec and across the country. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today visited Saint-Jerome to meet with workers at The Lion Electric Co., a zero-emission bus and urban truck manufacturer. During his visit, he highlighted how the Government of Canada is working to advance green transportation and fight climate change. The Government of Canada is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. That is why we implemented measures to make zero-emission vehicles more affordable. Residents of Quebec accounted for 53 per cent of all requests accepted through the Incentive for Zero-Emission Vehicles Program, as of January 31, 2020. This shows the significant impact that combined zero-emission vehicle supports, from different orders of government, have had in Quebec. Earlier this week, the Prime Minister also announced that the Government of Canada intends to propose an extension to the existing zero-emission vehicle incentive for on-road vehicles, which was announced in Budget 2019. The incentive, which allows businesses to claim 100 per cent of the cost of the purchase of on-road passenger vehicles, would be expanded to include off-road vehicles and automotive equipment. The Government of Canada is also working with partners, including other orders of government, businesses, and all Canadians, to reduce emissions and support public transit. This includes joint investments with the Government of Quebec to extend Montreal Metro's Blue line, and to establish a structuring public transit network in Quebc City. The Government of Canada is also looking to work in partnership with the provinces and territories to increase the number of zero-emission buses. All of these investments will help us protect the environment in a way that encourages innovation, grows the economy, and creates good jobs for the middle class, and all those working hard to join it. Quote "Canadians know that economic growth and environmental protection go hand in hand. That is why we are taking strong steps to achieve ambitious emission reduction targets, create good, well-paying jobs, and accelerate our progress toward a cleaner future." The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada Quick Facts In 2018, the Government of Canada invested $50,000 in The Lion Electric Co. to support research, development, adaptation and adoption of products, services or processes that demonstrate innovation or are driven by new technologies. invested in The Lion Electric Co. to support research, development, adaptation and adoption of products, services or processes that demonstrate innovation or are driven by new technologies. Budget 2019 provided $300 million over three years, starting in 2019-20, to introduce a new incentive program to encourage more Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles. over three years, starting in 2019-20, to introduce a new incentive program to encourage more Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles. As of January 31, 2020 , over 36,000 Canadians and Canadian businesses have benefitted from this point-of-sale incentive. , over 36,000 Canadians and Canadian businesses have benefitted from this point-of-sale incentive. To support the transition to a low-carbon transportation system, the Government of Canada has set targets for sales of zero-emission vehicles in Canada , which are as follows: 10 per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2040. has set targets for sales of zero-emission vehicles in , which are as follows: 10 per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2040. Zero-emission vehicles made up 3 per cent of all new light-duty vehicle sales in Canada in 2019, a significant increase from 2 per cent in 2018. Associated Links Making zero-emissions vehicles more affordable Greenhouse gas emissions projections Zero-emission vehicles Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca/ SOURCE Prime Minister's Office [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Lenovo is gearing up to release its first dedicated gaming phone under the Legion brand. The device is already confirmed to sport the Snapdragon 865 chipset and was recently teased to score over 600,000 points on AnTuTu. The latest bit of info comes from Lenovo China Mobile GM Chen Jin who teased the Legion gaming phone will come with a new disruptive cooling technology. There are no details on what this entails but Jin claims that this experience will be much better than competing gaming phones. Lenovo has solid experience in the gaming PC realm and it will be interesting to see if it can successfully carry it over to the smartphone market. Source (in Chinese) | Via OELWEIN -- An Oelwein man has been sentenced to prison for shooting at two men during an argument over a crash. Ross Ian River Cashen, 39, had been arrested for attempted murder, but he pleaded to lesser charges of assault during a felony, felon in possession of a firearm as a habitual offender and going armed. On Feb. 3, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and he will have to serve three years before he is eligible for parole. Court records allege Chris Boorman has approached to Cashen on Aug. 1 to talk about an earlier crash that damaged Boormans vehicle. Cashen allegedly fired at Boorman and David Gyorko, emptying his .40-caliber Springfield handgun, records state. The two then threw Cashen to the ground, and when he regained his footing, he ran into an apartment and retrieved a knife and threatened to stab them. Police later found Cashen and arrested him. Authorities said Cashen is prohibited from handling firearms because of previous convictions for lascivious acts with a child, eluding and assault on a peace officer. Photos: Guns in Northeast Iowa crime cases Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, has called for Priti Patel to leave the cabinet while allegations of bullying are investigated. That is what the opposition might be expected to call for, but how likely is it that the home secretary will lose her job? It would seem to be the intention of her former top civil servant, Sir Philip Rutnam, to make sure he takes her out with him. In his resignation statement last week he said he had rejected the financial settlement offered by the government the implication being that he refused to go quietly and intended to take the matter to court. Labour has latched on to the inquiry announced by Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, on Monday as a reason to call for Patel to step down with Abbott adding that the latest allegation should also be taken into account. This was a reference to the report by the BBC that an aide to Patel when she was an employment minister received a 25,000 payout in 2015 after allegedly being bullied. A delegation of Congress MPs will visit the riot-affected areas of Delhi on Wednesday and assess the situation on the ground, sources said. Some leaders said Rahul Gandhi could lead the delegation, but there was no confirmation of his participation either from his office or from the party. The Congress has been demanding that the issue of communal riots in Delhi be debated in Parliament and both proceedings of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been disrupted over the issue. Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week had deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas of Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there. The communal violence in northeast Delhi, which was sparked by protests over the amended Citizenship Act, and has left 42 dead and over 200 injured. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (TNS) When cybercriminals struck Lake City, Fla., last June, city officials had to make a tough choice: Pay the hackers or restore systems on their own.A ransomware attack had hijacked the governments computer network and held it hostage for several weeks. While the attack didnt affect the police, fire or financial departments, it wreaked havoc on phone lines, email, utility records and many other services.The hackers first demanded about $750,000 in bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, from the small, rural city to give it back control of its network.The city tried to recover the data on its own, City Manager Joseph Helfenberger recalled, but that failed. Its insurance company negotiated with the hackers and got the ransom down to about $470,000. It recommended paying, and officials figured that was the best option because the city would have to cover only the $10,000 deductible.This is not a rich community. They cant afford to spend money they dont have, Helfenberger said. You have to look at what is going to serve the community the best.There were at least 113 successful ransomware attacks on state and local governments last year, according to global cybersecurity company Emsisoft, and in each case, officials had to figure out how to respond.Some states have passed laws to target cybercriminals who deploy ransomware, but prosecutors have rarely used them. And local officials often are left vulnerable.In Baltimore last May, hackers crippled thousands of computers, then demanded a ransom of about $76,000 in bitcoin. Democratic Mayor Bernard C. Jack Young refused to pay. Workers were unable to access online accounts and payment systems for weeks.The attack ended up costing the city at least $18 million a combination of lost or delayed revenue and the expense of restoring systems. Young said in a statement last June that the FBI advised the city not to pay, and that it was just not the way we operate, adding, We wont reward criminal behavior. The mayors office did not respond torequests for comment.Baltimore and Lake City arent alone. The majority of publicized ransomware attacks in the United States last year targeted local governments, according to a recent report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.Yet no one knows how many local and state governments have been hit by a ransomware attack. There is no national clearinghouse that collects all that information. Nor is every attack publicly reported. The FBI, which tracks national crime data, couldnt be reached for comment before publication.Sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals zero in on local and state governments because their networks contain lots of valuable information, such as Social Security numbers, birth certificates, bank account details and credit card numbers.For cybercriminals, local governments can be easy prey, with fewer resources to protect themselves than state governments. They also provide essential services to residents, which means they must have access to their data to function effectively day-to-day.Ransomware attacks against state and local governments were the top cybersecurity industry story in 2019, and it will continue to get worse in 2020, with new forms of ransomware, said Dan Lohrmann, chief security officer for Security Mentor, a national security training firm that works with states.Threats also are evolving. Rather than just encrypting data and demanding ransom in exchange for providing a decryption key, experts say some cybercriminals will threaten to make public sensitive information if they dont get their money.Thats already happened in Pensacola, Fla. Hackers in December threatened to release files if the city didnt pay a $1 million ransom. When it didnt, they posted what they claimed was a 2 gigabyte archive of city files on a public website.City spokeswoman Kaycee Lagarde said there is still an active FBI investigation, but city officials dont think the hackers accessed any personal data, such as Social Security and drivers license numbers, from employees or residents.The city had backup for its major systems and was able to recover totally within two weeks without needing outside help, she said. But it ended up spending a total of about $372,000 to hire a company to do a cyber assessment and for another company to provide identity protection for 57,000 employees and residents, out of an abundance of caution.In the past, ransomware incidents were simply a very expensive inconvenience. Now they are becoming data breaches that can result in a lot of very sensitive information being posted online, said Brett Callow, a threat analyst for Emsisoft. A government can find itself in a situation in which data has been stolen and it has no good options.Its hard to know how much state and local governments have spent dealing with ransomware attacks.Its embarrassing for them to have to admit that, said Tom Holt, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University who specializes in cybersecurity. They dont want to announce the breadth of cyber insurance coverage and what theyve had to pay.While state governments apparently havent paid ransom, a review of media reports shows that local governments shelled out at least $1.9 million in 2019, from the city of Washington, Pa., which paid $21,250 to hackers, to Riviera Beach, Fla., which authorized its insurer to pay $600,000.Washingtons mayor did not respond to calls requesting comment. Riviera Beach City Manager Jonathan Evans wrote in an email that the FBI had advised officials there not to comment because it is still an active investigation.And it cost local and state governments that refused to pay ransom at least $27.1 million to restore their systems and upgrade cybersecurity protection, media reports show. That includes lost revenue while services were put on hold.Some local governments pay ransom because they feel its the best option. They need their data back quickly and might not have the expertise or resources to do it themselves, or the money it would take to restore the system.Other local governments say No way to ransom demands, declaring that they refuse to be extorted.And some governments wind up in the middle.In New Bedford, Mass., which was attacked in July, cybercriminals demanded more than $5 million in ransom. Mayor Jon Mitchell made a counteroffer of $400,000, using insurance proceeds. The hackers didnt agree, so the city opted to restore its system from backups.New Bedford spokesman Jonathan Carvalho said in an email that the city doesnt have an estimate of the cost because much of the restoration was done in-house and consultants were paid through an insurance policy.The reality is that municipalities, corporations, and even private individuals are in an arms race with cybercriminals who operate in far flung places across the globe, Mitchell said in a statement in September. Every advance in anti-viral technology is effective until the criminals figure out how to get around it.Lohrmann, of Security Mentor, said there isnt an easy answer for local governments to the question of whether to pay ransom.This is the $6 million question. Its nuanced. It depends on the circumstances, he said. If its pay $30,000 or its going to cost me $5 million to restore all my systems, I can see why they want to pay.The FBI cautioned in an October online alert that paying ransom only encourages more criminal behavior and emboldens cybercriminals, and it doesnt guarantee the victim will regain access to the data.But the agency noted that it understands that when businesses are faced with an inability to function, executives will evaluate all options to protect their shareholders, employees, and customers.CyberEdge, a cybersecurity research and consulting firm, found in 2019 that about 39% of public and private entities around the world that were hit with ransomware attacks over a 12-month period paid ransoms and lost their data anyway.In July, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution urging local governments not to pay ransom to hackers.Thats the right position, said Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides training and other support to local government information technology executives.The danger is you pay, and they decide to walk away and still dont unlock the files, Shark said. And your system may be so infected that if you pay, maybe theyll come back again.But for Lake City official Helfenberger, that was a risk that officials had to take.Its easier for more affluent communities to not pay ransom, he said. For communities that are poor like us and dont have resources its much more of a struggle.And it would have cost a whole lot more than what the insurance company paid the hackers to try to restore everything, the city manager added. There is no way we would have been able to recreate all the utility maps, the (meeting) minutes from the beginning of creation and all the other records. Its just not possible.All 50 states have computer crime laws, and most address unauthorized access or computer trespass, according to Pam Greenberg, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ransomware potentially could be prosecuted under those statutes or extortion laws, she said.But at least five states California, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas and Wyoming have made the use of ransomware or other forms of computer extortion a crime.This year, Greenberg said, at least seven states are considering measures related specifically to ransomware.Legislation proposed in Maryland, for example, would create criminal penalties for possessing ransomware with the intent to use it without authorization. Violators could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.The state attorneys want it. They want to be able to charge people if they can find them, said Maryland Democratic state Sen. Susan Lee, who sponsored the measure. At least there would be a law on the books. If its not there as a criminal offense, its not a deterrent.But some technology experts say ransomware could be covered under existing computer crime laws. And most ransomware attacks come from overseas countries such as Russia, Iran and China. That means finding and prosecuting perpetrators on the state level would be difficult, if not impossible, they say.I think it is a waste of time, said Shark of the Public Technology Institute. It sounds terrific, but most of these actors are in other countries. The money is going to bitcoin, and its untraceable.Legislators in Iowa and New York are considering another way to deal with ransomware: Theyve introduced bills that would prohibit local and state governments from paying ransom.We will only continue to see these attacks increase if we dont put this policy in place. We have to cut off the money supply, said New York Democratic state Sen. David Carlucci, the bills sponsor. For years, the U.S. has had policies of not negotiating with terrorists or kidnappers. A similar idea should prevail about paying ransom for cyberattacks.Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., agrees.I think its the right kind of strategy, he said. If you take away the option of them paying, the attackers are going to look for someone who can pay. Theyre a for-profit enterprise.But others argue that barring government officials from paying ransom wont eliminate the problem.I think its not going to work, said Security Mentors Lohrmann, although the intentions are good.Theres no way right now to stop cybercriminals from launching ransomware attacks on local and state government, he said, so the best approach is to be prepared.Is there a perfect solution, a silver bullet? No, Lohrmann said. But if youve got great backups and a really good restore system and staff training and other protections in place, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood that ransomware is going to have a major impact on you.Thats what Lake City ended up doing.After the attack, Helfenberger said, the city immediately started staff cybersecurity training, and it has spent about $300,000 doing multiple system upgrades and continues to do more.Youve got to consider that cybercriminals are gaining knowledge constantly, he said. If you stay the same, youre going to get behind and its not going to work. On Tuesday, five South-west houses of assembly passed bills for the establishment of Amotekun, a security outfit conceived to address the security challenges in the region. The states are Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun. Before now, the Ekiti assembly had in February passed the bill ahead of its counterparts. The Oyo State House of Assembly passed the bill on Tuesday after presentation of the report of the house committee on security at the plenary. The speaker, Debo Ogundoyin, disclosed that the assembly passed the bill to fulfill the fundamental responsibility government which is the protection of lives and properties. Also, the bill was passed in Lagos assembly as a special unit of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LSNSC). It sailed through the third reading of the amendment to the LSNSC Agency Law 2019. In Ondo, the bill for a law to establish the State Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps Bill was passed. Bamidele Oleyelogun, while addressing the press, said that it was a remarkable day for the people of the state. The Osun State House of Assembly also passed the bill after third reading. The bill was unanimously passed by the lawmakers and the speaker, Timothy Owoeye thanked his colleagues for giving the bill an accelerated passage. In Ogun, Amotekun Corps bill was passed barely 19 days after receiving it as part of its resolve to stem the tide of crimes, banditry and other violent acts. How it started Following the incessant killings and kidnappings in Nigeria, all South-west governors met to form the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) on January 9. The establishment came six months after all the governors held a regional security summit in Ibadan, Oyo State in June 2019 through Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission (DAWN). Five state governors, Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Babajide Sanwo-olu (Lagos) donated 20 vehicles each while Seyi Makinde (Oyo) contributed 33 vehicles, in order to assist the operatives in carrying out their duties. The governors also procured 100 units of motorcycles for each state as members of the Amotekun were drawn from the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Agbekoya, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and vigilante groups. Controversy On January 13, the Nigerian police threatened to arrest any Amotekun operative of the outfit that carries illegal arms. The following day, January 14, the federal government, via the Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, declared Operation Amotekun as illegal stating that it is not backed by the Nigerian constitution. The governments reaction generated uproar and protest at in the six South-west states. On its part, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, described the position of the federal government as a joke taken too far. It called on the South-west governors to ignore the Attorney-General, challenging the federal government to go to court. On January 3, the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, met with the six state governors and they all agreed to work together towards the actualisation of Operation Amotekun but follow legal processes With the passage of the bills in all states, it is expected that the governors will quickly assent. Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Hyderabad, which was scheduled to be held on March 15, has been postponed amid coronavirus scare. "The scheduled public rally of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 15 in Hyderabad has been postponed to a future date," K Krishna Saagar Rao, Chief Spokesperson, Telangana BJP said in a statement. "This decision has been taken to reduce mass physical contact of people during the public rally in the current context of serious precautions being undertaken by the central government to arrest the spread of coronavirus. The future schedule of Amit Shah's visit and public rally will be informed by the party in due course," the statement read. Earlier today, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that there have been 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country. Globally, deaths due to COVID-19 have crossed 3,000. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 90,000 people. Earlier, Amit Shah announced that he will also not be participating in any 'Holi Milan' celebration this year in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. "Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus,I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year. I also appeal everyone to avoid public gatherings and take good care of yourself and your family," Shah tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bar King, the new restaurant and bar coming to the former Trifecta Tavern and Bakery space, will serve its first smoked onion rings, seaweed-cured scallops and fantastically marbled cuts of Japanese beef on Monday, March 9, co-owners Shaun and Jamie King say. A connected bakery and cafe is expected to follow by the end of the month. The restaurant, which began life as a pop-up within a pop-up at Danish brewer Mikkellers temporary Portland beer bar last year, will highlight the wagyu beef Shaun King studied during a certification course in Japan late last year. The new restaurant sounds nearly as ambitious as its predecessor, with a smoker, a wood-fired grill, food-friendly cocktails, the upcoming cafe-bakery and -- eventually -- a separate back-room chefs counter. Before arriving in Portland, Shaun King ran the high-profile Las Vegas outpost of celebrity chef David Changs Momofuku empire. His plans for Bar Kings menu include lots of Japanese ingredients and techniques, plus several time-intensive, large-format dishes, including whole fish, ducks, pork shoulders and gochujang-black-sugar-rubbed wagyu short ribs that he smokes for six to eight hours before grilling over compressed charcoal. The bar is where youll find Jamie King, nee Neering, and her ingredient-forward approach to cocktails. The Michigan native, who worked at Las Vegas Velveteen Rabbit and set up the sister bar programs at Mabels BBQ and Sarahs, has been known to use blackened onion petals as a garnish or koji-bacon-ponzu sauce to fat wash rum. A watermelon thrown in the smoldering coals could become a charred watermelon juice the next day. Black pepper wings and other popular snacks from the Mikkeller pop-up will appear on a bar menu alongside a new burger. And when it debuts later this month, the bakery will be home to espresso and drip coffee from Good Coffee as well as cookies, cakes and brioche sticky buns from former Los Angeles baker Katherine Benvenuti (Superba Food + Bread, Rossoblu). Coming on the heels of the new Icelandic hostel and restaurant KEX, this is one of the most ambitious restaurant projects in years for ChefStable, the restaurant group that is backing Bar King. But the Kings, outdoors enthusiasts who arrived in Oregon with plans to open a restaurant and start a family, quickly made an impression on ChefStable owner Kurt Huffman. And the couple found their ideal location in the former Trifecta space: close-in, surrounded by night life and already equipped with a great-looking bar. Bar King plans to open seven days a week -- and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays -- starting March 9 at 726 S.E. Sixth Ave. -- Michael Russell Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. The Maharashtra assembly on Wednesday held a discussion on the threat of and preparedness for tackling Covid-19 in the state. "We believe that precaution is better than cure. There is no positive coronavirus case in Maharashtra yet, but taking the threat seriously, we are on alert mode," Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said. "We have formed a cyber crime team to see if any rumours are being spread on social media about coronavirus. If any such cases found we will be taking serious action against it, he further said. "Strict action will also be taken against those who are selling N-95 mask on price more than the MRP," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Quaden Bayles has delivered a powerful message to the bullies who made him want to take his own life. The nine-year-old with dwarfism became a global sensation after his mum shared a distressing video of the small boy crying and saying he wanted to kill himself as a result of being the target of nasty playground taunts. The video sparked an outpouring of support and changed Quaden's perspective. The brave young boy is now spreading a message of kindness and understanding. In an emotional interview with National Indigenous Television, Quaden admits he still does not like school 'because of the bullies'. Quaden Bayles (pictured with his mum Yarraka Bayles) has delivered a heartwarming response to the bullies who made him want to take his own life 'Because they've never seen different people before,' he said. He went on to encourage others stop bullying. 'It's not nice when you say these rude things to other people. If you see someone different just don't be rude, just smile and say hi. 'It would be good if they knew about other people who have diseases and things, and just be kind.' The interview, which will air in full on Wednesday night, is the first sit-down interview Quaden and his mother Yarraka Bayles have agreed to since he took the world by storm last month. The pair have turned down 'several paid interviews in the US and UK', a spokesman for the family confirmed. They even rejected an interview with comedian Ellen DeGeneres, opting instead to do an unpaid interview with NITV to support the local media network. 'Thats how much they value their own culture,' a source told TV Blackbox. Quaden Bayles, from Brisbane, made international headlines when his mother Yarraka filmed him saying he wanted to die after being bullied at school (pictured) 'The information is all correct - he was not paid for the interview. The family have a long and trusted association with NITV, having first shared Quaden's story with Living Black in 2015 when Quaden was only four-years-old,' the spokesman said. Shortly after the footage of Quaden talking about suicide went viral, an online fundraiser, 'Let's send a wonderful kid to Disneyland', was set up by US comedian Brad Williams, who also has dwarfism. More than 20,000 donors from across the world flocked to give $723,000 (US $474,000) to give Quaden's family the special treat. But on Thursday afternoon, his family stunned fans by turning down the trip - saying they would rather the money be given to charity to help combat bullying and suicide. 'I'm setting up this GoFundMe to let Quaden know that bullying will not be tolerated, and that he is a wonderful human being who deserves joy,' Williams wrote on the GoFundMe page Former rugby league player Johnathan Thurston poses with Quaden Bayles from Brisbane 'What kid wouldn't want to go to Disneyland, especially if you have lived Quaden's life,' his aunt Mundanara told NITV News. 'But my sister said 'you know what, let's get back to the real issue'. This little fella has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying. 'We want the money to go to community organisations that really need it. They know what the money should be spent on. 'So as much as we want to go to Disneyland, I think our community would far off benefit from that.' Six charities will each receive approximately $66,000 USD. The charities receiving the money include, Born This Way Foundation, STOMP Out Bullying, Dollys Dream, Dwarfism Awareness Australia, Gallang Place and the Balunu Foundation. Quaden leads the Indigenous All Stars on to the field with captain Joel Thompson on Saturday Quaden Bayles, a nine-year-old boy with dwarfism, has has misinformation spread about his age and message since a video of him saying he wanted to kill himself in response to bullying went viral last week The remaining funds will go to Quaden to cover 'direct medical help, education, accommodation costs, food to feed the family' and donations to charities of his choice. In the heartbreaking footage shared last week, Quaden - who has the most common type of dwarfism called achondroplasia - is seen sobbing into the camera and saying he is suicidal from being relentlessly bullied. He told his mother: 'Give me a rope, I want to kill myself.' 'I just want to stab myself in the heart... I want someone to kill me.' Quaden also scratched at his neck and said: 'I want to die... I want to scratch myself'. Ms Bayles shared the video publicly on Facebook in a bid to raise awareness about the impact of bullying. The nine-year-old was invited to walk the Indigenous All-Stars NRL team onto the pitch at Cbus Super Stadium, on the Gold Coast, as they took on the Maori All-Stars on Saturday. Ms Bayles said Quaden had gone 'from the worst day of his life to the best day of his life' after being asked to lead out the NRL team. The full interview with the Bayles family will feature on The Point on NITV at 9.30pm on Wednesday. A patient in Philadelphia is being investigated as a possible case of COVID-19 coronavirus, according to media reports. WTXF cites the Philadelphia Department of Public Health as reporting that there is an investigation into one possible case within the city. The department told the station that the risk of infection from COVID-10 to the average Philadelphian is very low,' WTXF reported. The Department of Public Health previously advised that experts from the World Health Organizations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed that it was just a matter of time before they started to see cases. The city has been holding regular meetings with local health officials, healthcare organizations and hospitals and other relevant agencies to prepare. The City has been reviewing pandemic and emergency plans and keeping up with CDC recommendations, according to a statement on the Department website. City agencies plan to continue critical functions even if many employees are out sick or cant get into work. Pennsylvania just started doing its own testing for coronavirus this week, with the ability to test about six people per day, according to state health officials. During a Tuesday press conference, officials did confirm that some people in the state are being monitored for symptoms. Up to this point, no cases have been confirmed in the state. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health offers the following suggestions for how people can help keep themselves safe: Practice good health habits Wash your hands often with soap and water, or hand sanitizer if none is available. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow to keep from spreading germs. Try to not touch your face; thats how the germs get into your body. Dont share drinks or utensils like forks or spoons. Stay home when youre sick and avoid sick people If youre sick, you can keep from spreading it to other people by staying away from them. If you see someone who is sick, stay at least six feet away from them to avoid catching it. Ask if your healthcare provider has a telehealth option. If not, be sure to call the office before going in. Additional precautions Avoid shaking hands and hugging. Clean commonly touched things, like handrails and doorknobs often. Avoid touching things that lots of other people touch, like handrails and doorknobs. Try to avoid crowds and busy places. Read more on the coronavirus on PennLive Bernie Sanders has won California, giving the candidate a piece of the largest share of Super Tuesday delegates to help him secure the Democratic presidential nomination, according to early projections. His reported victory comes amid reports of long lines outside polls and high voter turnout as his campaign urges the state to keep polls open. The state has the largest delegate count, a whopping 415, among nearly a third of all delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday, though as in other states it's unclear how those delegates will be divided up among the candidates. Those delegates will vote to determine the party's nominee to face Donald Trump in the general election in November. Mr Sanders spent roughly $7m on advertising in the state, and the campaign invested significantly on the ground as his grassroots support showed no signs of slowing. Volunteers knocked on a reported 1 million doors in California, and the campaign added 100 staff members and opened 23 offices. His win in California follows two massive rallies in front of thousands of Californians on Sunday, including a Los Angeles rally in front of an estimated 24,000 people. He told supporters on Sunday: "With your help on Tuesday, we're going to win the Democratic primary here in California. With your help, we're going to win the Democratic nomination, and with your help, we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in modern history." Though he has amassed significant grassroots organising efforts in the state, his institutional Democratic support in California is more rare. The state's current and former governors have not endorsed a candidate, and neither has Kamala Harris, the state's star senator who dropped out of the presidential race late last year. Senator Dianne Feinstein endorsed Joe Biden, but Congressman Ro Khanna, who appeared with Mr Sanders at his San Jose rally on Sunday, is a co-chair of the senator's 2020 campaign. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the vote count is likely to carry on well into the night, as the state allows same-day voter registration and mail-in ballots. Mr Sanders is likely carrying the state for the same reasons he saw success in neighbouring western states like Colorado and Utah, where significant numbers of young and Latino voters turned out to support the candidate, who has touted a multi-racial, working class-centered coalition supporting the campaign. Earlier tonight: Mr Sanders told supporters in Vermont: "What we need a is a new politics that brings working class people into our political movement, that brings young people into our political movement, and in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history." JAKARTA, March 4 (Reuters) - * PT Bukit Asam, Indonesia's state-owned coal miner, said on Wednesday its output in 2019 rose 10.2% to 29.1 million tonnes. * Coal sales in 2019 were at 27.8 million tonnes, up 13% from the previous year, as sales to Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan and Philippines grew and as it expanded to new markets such as Australia, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, the company said in a statement. * For 2020, Bukit Asam is targeting to increase its coal output by 4.1% to 30.3 million tonnes and sales by 7.6% to 29.9 million tonnes. * The company plans to sell 21.6 million tonnes in the domestic market and 8.3 million tonnes for exports. * The higher sales target will be supported by a plan to export 2.3 million tonnes of medium- to high-calorie coal to premium markets. * "Our strategy to face price pressure is to produce more high-rank coal and efficiency," CEO Arviyan Arifin said. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe, writing by Fathin Ungku in Singapore; editing by Uttaresh.V) SAN FRANCISCO - A cruise ship that was expected to dock in San Francisco on Thursday will be kept offshore until its thousands of passengers can be tested for the coronavirus, after a previous passenger died from the illness. Several passengers aboard the Grand Princess had symptoms that could be coronavirus, flu or the common cold, health officials said. The state planned to fly COVID-19 testing kits out to the ship, which wont be allowed to dock until the test results are completed, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers, he said. The tests will be conducted at a San Francisco Bay Area laboratory and results could be available in as little as four hours, the governor said. The announcement came as California became the third U.S. state to declare a state of emergency over the virus, after Washington and Florida. Hawaii joined them Wednesday, with no cases there yet and the governor saying an emergency declaration would help them prepare for a possible outbreak. Newsom said California is particularly focused on senior centres, nursing homes and other care facilities where people live together in light of the outbreak in Washington state that has already killed 10 there. Six new California cases were confirmed, including a medical screener at Los Angeles International Airport who was said to have mild symptoms and was under quarantine at home. It was unclear if the screener contracted the virus through their work at the airport or from so-called community transmission, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. No travellers screened at the Los Angeles airport have tested positive for the virus. California has had 53 confirmed cases of coronavirus. While most people have mild symptoms, such as fever and a cough, health officials on Wednesday confirmed that California had the first fatal case in the U.S. A 71-year-old man with underlying health conditions died at a hospital in Roseville in Placer County, near Sacramento. He may have contracted the infection while on round-trip Grand Princess trip from San Francisco that visited Mexico last month, authorities said. Another passenger who contracted the COVID-19 virus was in stable condition at a hospital in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. The cruise ship currently has about 2,500 passengers, and Newsom said about half are Californians. The passenger contingent includes 62 guests who were on the cruise to Mexico but stayed aboard the Grand Princess for a current cruise to Hawaii. Those passengers were told to stay in their staterooms until cleared by medical staff, according to a message to guests Wednesday from Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Princess Cruises. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is working with California authorities to contact other passengers from the previous trip, CDC Director Robert Redfield said Wednesday at a White House briefing. Were at the very beginning of that, looking at the manifest to make sure that we understand who has gotten off the cruise and where they got off the cruise, Redfield said. The cruise company also operates the Diamond Princess, which docked in Japan in January. Dozens of passengers contracted the virus. Hundreds of passengers were flown to U.S. military bases to be quarantined until tests cleared them. In all, more than 94,000 people have contracted the virus worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, with more than 3,200 deaths. WHO reports that the COVID-19 virus is more fatal than the common flu. __ Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Incoming Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. (OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) The incoming Bank of England Governor has said Threadneedle Street will likely introduce extraordinary measures to tackle the economic impact of coronavirus, including emergency support for small businesses. Andrew Bailey told MPs on Wednesday he would use the full range of tools to address the economic fallout of COVID-19. I think its quite reasonable to expect that we are going to have to provide some form of supply chain finance, in the not very distant future now, he said. Bailey said emergency financing would likely be required to ensure that the effects of the shock from this virus are not damaging to many forms of activity, and probably particularly to small and medium sized firms. The Bank of England is already working on how to target support to ensure small businesses can continue to stay afloat if business dries up, Bailey said. Were going to have to move very quickly to do that, he told MPs. The comments came as major High Street banks including RBS and Barclays began offering emergency loans to UK businesses disrupted by coronavirus, the Guardian reported. Regional airline Flybe is also reportedly facing a cash crunch after a slump in bookings Read more: Bank of England's Carney promises 'powerful and timely' coronavirus response Bailey, who takes charge of the central bank on 16 March, said the economic fallout from COVID-19 is going to be the first most pressing issue that we face. Its evolving very quickly and its evolving, in many ways, in unprecedented and unexpected fashion, Bailey said. We have to be very nimble. Baileys comments came during a grilling by MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, ahead of his appointment at the Bank of England later this month. Asked if he would consider cutting interest rates, Bailey said there was not yet enough data to support a cut. However, he didnt rule out an emergency cut in future. Bailey said he had met with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to discuss a joined up response from both the Bank of England and the Treasury to coronavirus. Story continues We must act in a coordinated fashion, Bailey said. We cant let our notions of independence get in the way of that. The Chancellor is set to deliver his first budget next Tuesday and could announce measures to combat a COVID-19 driven slowdown. G7 Finance Ministers said Tuesday they were coordinating an international response. The global outbreak of novel coronavirus and efforts to contain it have caused huge economic disruption, including factory shutdowns across China and tanking global demand for tourism and air travel. Read more: Coronavirus 'biggest threat to global economy since financial crisis' Pantheon Macroeconomics on Tuesday cut its growth forecasts for the UK in the first half of the year due to coronavirus-linked slowdown. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon, said the downgrade was driven by an expected decline in manufacturing and slump in consumer spending. We are taking the post-9/11 experience as our benchmark, given that this was a pure confidence shock, which did not result in widespread job losses in Britain, Tombs wrote in a note sent to clients. The OECD warned this week that COVID-19 is the biggest threat to global growth since the 2008 financial crisis and could slow GDP growth to 1.5% this year in a worst-case scenario. African leaders have been urged to appreciate, revisit and build on their indigenous knowledge to push forward the socio-economic development of the continent. This is the surest way to liberate the continent from economic and mental slavery, says Professor David Millar, the President of the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies located at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. He was speaking at the opening session of the fourth African Learning Training (ALI) on revitalizing African cultural heritage and bio-cultural resources for food sovereignty underway in Techiman Municipality of the Bono East Region. Prof Millar, a development philosopher indicated countries such as Bolivia, China and the Arab world were making huge development impact on the globe because they had built on their indigenous knowledge. He observed Africa could do much better than those countries because the continent was blessed with diversities in unique and rich cultural values and heritages that portrayed and made people on the continent special from others. Participants attending the one-week intensive training workshop comprised Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), actors and advocates drawn from Ghana, Benin, Cote DIvoire and Guinea. It is being organised by the COMPAS Africa Network for Endogenous Development, an international network for the enhancement of endogenous development, and co-hosted by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), an NGO, and the College for Community and Organisational Development (CCOD), an affiliate to the University of Development Studies. Prof. Millar said though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) had strong economic support form, governments on the continent must not over-relied on WB and the IMF. Instead, he said African leaders should invest hugely in the development of their indigenous knowledge to empower them to tap into and harness their numerous natural resources to push the socio-economic development of the continent. Dr. Gabriel Gbiel Benarkuu, the President of CCOD, which is a franchise holder of the Institute of Organisation Development in the United States, said despite various cultural diversities, African governments must come together, identify, tackle and find lasting solutions to challenges confronting the development of the continent. He commended the ALI, saying, it remained a key platform to bring Africa together, and hoped the Institute would be strengthened for more African countries to be brought on board to help liberate the continent from poverty and ignorance. Mr. Benard Guri, the Executive Director of CIKOD, explained the concept of the training was to build the skills and competencies of the participants to be able to apply endogenous development and organisational development tools. We hope to achieve this by creating awareness on the root causes of the development crisis in Africa in general and food crisis in particular, he said. Mr. Guri added, the ultimate goal is to build strong linkages and networking among CSOs in Ghana and Africa in efforts to mobilize traditional ecological knowledge and resources to upscale agroecology and strengthen biocultural resource conservation in the communities as a contribution to the visible effects of climate on the continent. Other speakers and facilitators for the training workshop include Nana Kobina Nketsia, the Paramount Chief of Essikado and Dr. Benjamin Kunbour, a former Minister of State. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video If every country has a topic of conversation that never gets old, for Turkey that must be talk of a coup. In early January, amid news of domestic economic troubles and the Syrian and Libyan wars, talk of a new coup emerged from the Ankara rumor mill. The chatter grew with tweets and op-eds from supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), so much so that on Feb. 15, journalists asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the possibility of a coup against him. Erdogan focused on how the public would react if a coup was initiated. Referring to the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, he said, Our nation gave them the proper answer on July 15. People gained significant experience about this. So, this time around they would not think twice whether to go out or not. I am confident that my people would take to the streets with whatever they have in their hands. Erdogans words sustained the coup rhetoric into the last week of February. It was finally curbed with the military crisis in Idlib, Syria. However, "coup talk" in Turkey will not go away anytime soon. Here are four reasons why: First, coup chatter resonates among many in Turkey. Military coups have molded modern Turkish history, and most of these coups are seen as foreign interventions in Turkish democratic efforts. Turkish public opinion is divided on numerous issues, but being anti-coup is something the public can unite around. It's probably why Erdogans administration keeps rehashing coup rhetoric. For example, in early June 2017, pro-AKP columnist Abdulkadir Selvi spoke of an impending coup that month by members of the Gulen movement. The coup talk of 2017 has similarities with such talk in 2020. Yet again, the AKP's opposition asked for a probe into the Gulenist network, and pro-government media tried to divert attention from the AKP's inaction against the Gulenists, specifically by magnifying two instances that might have gone unnoticed. The first was an interview that former chief of general staff, Ilker Basbug, gave on an obscure channel, Haber Global. Basbug suggested that the past decisions of the AKP had enabled the Gulen movements presence in the army and that they should be held accountable. Erdogan accused Basbug of offending parliament and urged lawmakers to seek legal action against him. Four AKP deputies followed Erdogans call and filed a criminal complaint against the general and other officials. The second incident was the Rand Corporations recent report on Turkey. The pro-AKP media cherry-picked one sentence from the 276-page report to argue that a CIA-backed coup was in the making. The report, which became the centerpiece of hourslong political debates on television, read, Midlevel officers are reported to be extremely frustrated with the military leadership and concerned about being removed in the continuing post-coup purges. This discontent could even lead to another coup attempt at some point, and Erdogan appears to take the threat seriously. Bahadir Ozgur, a columnist for the online news outlet Duvar, told Al-Monitor, The report is open-source and easily accessible. It is not a secret document. From a rather long document, they deliberately picked one observation with no proper verification. Most of the discussions of the report were ad hominem attacks on the researchers rather than criticism of the contents of the report. A senior bureaucrat told Al-Monitor, I do not blame the researchers of the report for writing inaccurate or time-lapsed arguments. In the United States, a retired officer now acting as a civilian expert might still have good connections and follow proper protocol for sharing information and views with the public. Sadly, in Turkey, that is not the case. But the contents of the report or the details of Basbugs claims were not the focus of pro-AKP media. Rather the two handpicked statements were sufficient to muddle the waters and have a full-blown imminent coup talk. Second, the AKP government tries to bundle all opposition under the putschist label. A vivid example can be seen in the prosecution of philanthropist Osman Kavala. Last month, Kavala was acquitted in the Gezi trial for lack of evidence, yet he was immediately rearrested on charges related to the 2016 coup attempt. This sends a message to the AKP base that the Gezi Park protests and the coup attempt were one and the same. Timur Kuran, an economics and political science professor at Duke University, provided a different angle: Pro-AKP media are seizing on every expression of anti-AKP sentiment to make it seem that a coup is being plotted. These expressions consist mostly of anti-AKP chatter and public protests. In a healthy democracy, they would not be illegal or be perceived as coup-plotting. AKPs cheerleaders are effectively encouraging a coup attempt to justify a new crackdown. In sum, coup rhetoric, as mind-boggling as it is, helps clear the government of any accusations that it is associated with the Gulen network. In a system where political might makes judicial right, this works fine. Kemal Can, a columnist for Duvar daily, added that the coup talk helps the government to design and control the least dangerous topics for themselves to be in the spotlight. The frequent rekindling of the coup talk, then, is a signal of the AKPs diminishing ability to control the public discourse. Third, the domestic challenges Erdogan is facing arise mostly from his own base. Kuran said, AKP's only hope for retaining power lies in an event that would rally the country behind the flag. Another coup attempt would serve this goal. Creating a sense of a clear and present danger, it would reverse the decline in Erdogan's popularity, if temporarily, as opposition leaders coalesce around him for fear of appearing unpatriotic. In line with Kuran, Can recalled that ex-premier Ahmet Davutoglu has already formed a new party, and another party is on the way from the AKPs former economy supremo, Ali Babacan. Both have split from the AKP to challenge Erdogans administration. Coup rhetoric also labels them, along with other opposition figures, as potential traitors. Kuran added, AKP would welcome a replay of July 2016, which provided a pretext for the biggest witch hunt in Turkish history and the removal of remaining checks on the president's power. Indeed, Erdogan has called the 2016 coup attempt Gods great blessing, as he has used the putsch to silence dissent. Fourth, another explanation can be found in the oft-repeated comments that the Turkish armed forces are stretched thin after years of purges in top cadres, changes in their structure, and military deployments in Libya and Syria. Is that really an accurate appraisal, given the latest posture of the armed forces in Syria? Do we have accurate means to measure and claim discontent in the ranks? Intriguingly, the coup rhetoric encouraged by government elites does not address the militarys morale and capabilities. Ozgur explained, Because this administration is in a tight spot, the coup talk was a tool for consolidation. However, it didnt provide the desired effect, hence Erdogan ended the chatter. The Idlib war has an impact on this. Ozgurs analysis helps us understand how the coup rhetoric has been shelved, at least for the time being. Insurance Office of America (IOA) has hired Louis Bridges to its property and casualty practice as a senior risk consultant. Bridges joins IOAs growing team in Georgia and will be responsible for new business development as well as the expansion of IOAs agribusiness division. Prior to joining IOA, Bridges was a senior vice president at J. Smith Lanier & Co., which was acquired by Marsh & McLennan in 2018, serving with the organization for over 20 years. With a strong background and specialization in agribusiness, he brings 30 years of industry experience to IOA. Joining Bridges is senior account executive Cindy Johnson, who brings more than 30 years of insurance industry expertise. Prior to IOA, Johnson worked for Doherty, Duggan, Hart, & Tiernan Insurors. She holds the accredited adviser in insurance (AAI), accredited customer service representative (ACSR), associate in general insurance (AINS), certified professional insurance agent (CPIA), and certified insurance counselor (CIC) designations. IOA Regional President Bruce Eades said Bridges and Johnson have deep knowledge of the industry and the agribusiness niche, in particular. Insurance Office of America (IOA) is a full-service insurance agency founded in 1988 by John Ritenour and Valli Ritenour. IOA is ranked 13th on Insurance Journals 2019 Top 100 Independent Property/Casualty Agencies report. Headquartered in Longwood, Florida, part of the greater Orlando community, IOA has more than 1,000 associates located in over 60 offices in the U.S. and London. Topics Agribusiness Georgia Despite the reduction of acreage, the yield of rice exports has been increased According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in February, Vietnam's rice exports reached 890,000 tonnes in February, up 27 per cent against 2019. This resulted in an export revenue of $410 million, up 32.6 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. This is positive, despite the export revenue of other agricultural produce such as fish, cashew, pepper, and other vegetables experienced a marked drop. The export price of rice ranks second-highest among rice exporting countries, only behind that in Thailand. For example, the price of 5 per cent broken rice of Vietnam is around $380 per tonne, a 10 per cent increase compared to the $345 at the end of January. This is a peak price since 2019. Generally, the export price of rice ascended steeply by $40 per tonne and accounted for 10 per cent of total exports in 2019. It is believed that the surge in the export price of rice in February is due to major imports from the Philippines. This country has bought rice from Vietnam to meet the consumption demand because of reduction of agricultural land and growing population. Up to now, the two largest export markets for Vietnamese rice were the Philippines and Malaysia. In 2019, the top five rice export markets for Vietnam were the Philippines, Cote d'Ivoire, China, Malaysia, and Ghana. According to Do Ha Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Food Association, domestic rice exports were not affected much by the COVID-19 because Vietnam has discovered new markets to ensure stability. Despite the rise in export revenue, Vietnamese rice farmers have had to deal with natural catastrophes like prolonged rains, hail, and sleet in the north, as well as droughts and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta region. During the early harvest, according to statistics from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, rice was cultivated on a total area of 2.67 million hectares, accounting for 98.3 per cent of last year. Precisely, that numbers in the north and the south were over 760,000 and more than 1.9 million ha, respectively, accounting for 103.6 and 96.3 per cent of the figures from last year. In particular, the Mekong Delta contributes about 1.54 million ha, which is 3.3 per cent less than last year. In the north, especially in the Mekong Delta, the cultivation area declined by 53,400ha compared to the same time last year. Generally, the Mekong Delta, the Central Highlands, and the southern provinces have ended the early rice harvest season with bumper crops. The harvest in the north was also better than last year. CINCINNATI, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB) ("Cincinnati Bell") today announced that it has amended its definitive merger agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners (collectively referred to as "Brookfield") to increase the consideration payable to holders of outstanding shares of Cincinnati Bell common stock to $13.50 per share in cash from $12.50 per share in cash, which values the transaction at approximately $2.797 billion, including debt. The revised transaction price represents a 75% premium to the closing per share price of $7.72 on December 20, 2019, the last trading day prior to the date when the merger agreement was entered into. Cincinnati Bell and Brookfield negotiated the amendment following the receipt by Cincinnati Bell on March 2, 2020 of a binding proposal, which was modified on March 3, 2020 (the "Proposal") to acquire all outstanding shares of Cincinnati Bell common stock for $13.50 from Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Inc. Cincinnati Bell's Board, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, carefully reviewed the terms of the Proposal and the amended Brookfield transaction and determined that entering into the amendment to the Brookfield merger agreement was in the best interests of Cincinnati Bell and its shareholders. Cincinnati Bell's Board of Directors approved the amended merger agreement and recommends that Cincinnati Bell's shareholders vote in favor of adopting the amended Brookfield merger agreement. Cincinnati Bell will file a current report on Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission containing a summary of the terms and conditions of the amendment to the definitive merger agreement. In the amendment, in consideration for the increased purchase price, the break-up fee payable by Cincinnati Bell in certain circumstances has increased from $21.39 million to $23.1 million. All other terms of the Brookfield merger agreement remain the same. The Transaction is subject to certain customary closing conditions, including the approval by Cincinnati Bell's shareholders, expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and certain regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the end of 2020. Advisors Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Moelis & Company LLC are acting as financial advisors to Cincinnati Bell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and BosseLaw PLLC are acting as legal advisors. About Cincinnati Bell Inc. With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE: CBB) delivers integrated communications solutions to residential and business customers over its fiber-optic and copper networks including high-speed internet, video, voice and data. Cincinnati Bell provides service in areas of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Hawaii. In addition, enterprise customers across the United States and Canada rely on CBTS and OnX, wholly owned subsidiaries, for efficient, scalable office communications systems and end-to-end IT solutions. For more information, please visit www.cincinnatibell.com. The information on the Company's website is not incorporated by reference in this press release. For more information, please contact: Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed acquisition of Cincinnati Bell by Brookfield. In connection with the proposed acquisition, Cincinnati Bell filed a preliminary proxy statement and intends to furnish or file other relevant materials with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in connection with the proposed transaction. The definitive proxy statement will be sent or given to the shareholders of Cincinnati Bell and will contain important information about the proposed acquisition and related matters. Shareholders of Cincinnati Bell are urged to read all relevant documents filed with the SEC, including Cincinnati Bell's proxy statement, because they will contain important information about the proposed transaction and the parties to the proposed transaction. Investors and shareholders are able to obtain the documents (once available) free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov , or free of charge from Cincinnati Bell at investor.cincinnatibell.com or by directing a request to Cincinnati Bell's Investor Relations Department at 1-800-345-6301 or [email protected], and Brookfield's annual reports on Form 20-F, reports on Form 6-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through Brookfield's website at https://bip.brookfield.com/, in each case, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Participants in the Solicitation Cincinnati Bell and its directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees, under SEC rules, may be deemed to be "participants" in the solicitation of proxies from shareholders of Cincinnati Bell in favor of the proposed transaction with Brookfield. Information regarding the interests of these participants which may, in some cases, be different than those of Cincinnati Bell's shareholders generally, is included in the preliminary proxy statement that has been filed with the SEC and will be included in the definitive proxy statement to be filed with the SEC. Additional information about Cincinnati Bell's directors and executive officers is set forth in Cincinnati Bell's Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A for its 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 19, 2019, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on February 24, 2020. These documents may be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the statements in this communication contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and results that are subject to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. 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Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) the risk that the proposed merger with Brookfield may not be completed in a timely manner or at all; (ii) the failure to receive, on a timely basis or otherwise, the required approval of the proposed merger with Brookfield by Cincinnati Bell's shareholders; (iii) the possibility that competing offers or acquisition proposals for Cincinnati Bell will be made; (iv) the possibility that any or all of the various conditions to the consummation of the merger may not be satisfied or waived, including the failure to receive any required regulatory approvals from any applicable governmental entities (or any conditions, limitations or restrictions placed on such approvals); (v) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the transaction, including in circumstances which would require Cincinnati Bell to pay a termination fee or other expenses; (vi) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on Cincinnati Bell's ability to retain and hire key personnel, its ability to maintain relationships with its customers, suppliers and others with whom it does business, or its operating results and business generally; (vii) risks related to diverting management's attention from Cincinnati Bell's ongoing business operations; (viii) the risk that shareholder litigation in connection with the transaction may result in significant costs of defense, indemnification and liability and (ix) for Cincinnati Bell, (A) those discussed in Cincinnati Bell's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and, in particular, the risks discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in Item 1A, and those discussed in Brookfield's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on February 28, 2020 and, in particular, the risks discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations", and (B) those discussed in other documents Cincinnati Bell filed with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Neither Cincinnati Bell nor Brookfield undertake any, and expressly disclaim any, obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by applicable law. SOURCE Cincinnati Bell Inc. Related Links http://www.cincinnatibell.com China's Yutu 2 moon rover looks back on its own tracks. (Image credit: CNSA/CLEP) China's Chang'e 4 mission has completed its 15th lunar day of work on the far side of the moon. The lander and Yutu 2 rover, which have now driven a total of 1,312 feet (just under 400 meters) on the lunar surface, powered down on March 1, hours ahead of sunset over their position in Von Karman crater. All of the science instruments on both spacecraft are in good condition, according to the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP). One of the instruments, Yutu 2's ground-penetrating radar, last week provided a first look below the surface of the moon's far side. Related: Chang'e 4 in pictures: China's mission to the moon's far side The two solar-powered spacecraft had started their activities for lunar day 15 on Feb. 17. Yutu 2 covered 106 feet (32.54 m) during the lunar day (which lasts about two weeks), following a preset plan to move northwest and then southwest. This is the farthest the rover has covered in a lunar day since the 108 feet (33.13 m) it traveled during lunar day 8, in July and August 2019. This suggests the rover is still performing well, despite the harsh conditions on the lunar surface. Image of a crater in Von Karman Crater from Yutu 2, released in March 2020. (Image credit: CNSA/CLEP) Li Chunlai, deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), told the state-run news outlet CCTV+ that the team is looking at reaching new areas to advance understanding of the history and geology of the region if the rover can hold out for another year. "If [Yutu 2] can enter a basalt zone, maybe we can better understand distribution and structure of ejecta from meteorite impacts. The distance may be 1.8 kilometers. I think it may take another one year for the rover to walk out of the ejecta-covered area," Li said. Chang'e 4 marked the first anniversary of its historic landing in Von Karman Crater, within the gigantic South Pole-Aitken basin, in January. China then released a huge batch of amazing high-resolution images covering the first year of the mission. Yutu 2 casts a shadow over its tracks in July 2019. (Image credit: CNSA/CLEP) Communication between teams in China and the spacecraft on the far side of the moon, which never faces the Earth, is facilitated by the Queqiao relay satellite, which operates in a halo orbit around a special point beyond the moon. Queqiao will switch its focus to low-frequency astronomy testing and observations while the Chang'e 4 lander and Yutu 2 wait out the two-week-long lunar night. The three radio antennas of the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer will be listening for signals from a mysterious period early in the universe's history. The Chang'e 4 lander and Yutu 2 are expected to awaken for a 16th lunar day around March 17, following sunrise over Von Karman crater. Follow Andrew Jones at @AJ_FI. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 4, 2020) - Ridgestone Mining Inc. (TSXV: RMI) (OTCQB: RIGMF) ("Ridgestone Mining") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Steven I. Weiss, PhD, CPG, as Chief Independent Technical Advisor for its Rebeico Gold and Copper Project, located in Sonora, Mexico. Mr. Weiss has worked as an exploration geologist since 1979 in various roles from generative through to senior project management. Mr. Weiss began work in Mexico in 2003 when he joined Glamis Gold to lead their exploration team at the El Sauzal gold mine (total of 1.7M oz gold produced) and in the surrounding Sierra Madre Occidental. He continued working in Mexico for Goldcorp, following their acquisition of Glamis Gold in 2006, where he built and led the team at its Camino Rojo gold-silver deposit, which proved up an initial 1.6M oz gold in reserves and more than doubled its gold resource from 3.4M oz to 7.5M oz gold. Steve held the position of Mexico Exploration Manager when he departed Goldcorp in 2013. Since 2014, Mr. Weiss has been a Senior Associate Geologist with Mine Development Associates, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and has also provided independent exploration consulting for companies with projects located in the USA and Mexico. Mr. Weiss is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Geology from Colorado College and MSc. and PhD. degrees in Geological Sciences from the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno. Ridgestone CEO Jonathan George, CEO commented, "We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Steve's extensive background, experience and credentials to provide us with invaluable technical assistance at this stage of exploration on our promising Rebeico Gold and Copper Project. Final preparations are underway for the upcoming maiden drill program on the New Year zone, where widespread gold and copper has been outlined over a 2.2-hectare area with rock-chip samples up to 12.95 g/t gold and 0.65% copper." Story continues About Ridgestone Mining Inc. Ridgestone is a TSX Venture Exchange-listed junior mineral exploration company with offices in Taipei and Vancouver, B.C. The Company's focus is on precious metals and copper in Sonora, Mexico, and specifically the Rebeico Gold-Copper project. For further information, please contact: MarketSmart Communications Inc. Telephone: 877-261-4466 info@marketsmart.ca This news release contains forward-looking statements or information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. In this news release such statements include but are not limited to any ongoing drilling programs or exploration results, or any results from the MarketSmart program. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the Company's regulatory filings available on www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks, uncertainties and other factors is not exhaustive. Unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements. The impact of any one factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as such factors are dependent on other factors, and the Company's course of action would depend on its assessment of the future considering all information then available. All forward-looking statements in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53112 New Delhi: Bhojpuri bombshell Aamrapali Dubey's latest Instagram post has got her fans dancing with joy as she released another song on the occasion of Holi. For the song titled 'Holi Mein Daleda Please', she has collaborated with actor-producer Pravesh Lal. A sneak peek of the track was shared by the duo on their respective Instagram handles and it is proof that their fans will have a rocking time after listening to it. 'Holi Mein Daleda Please' has been picturised in an open space and will give you the feels of the festival. Aamrapali and Pravesh's chemistry is on point and they perfectly match their steps to the beats. The song has been sung by Pravesh Lal and Priyanka Singh. Ashish Verma has given the music while the lyrics courtesy goes to Alam Dilsad. Watch 'Holi Mein Daleda Please' here: This is just not it. Aamrapali Dubey and her frequent co-star Dinesh Lal Yadav, who are the most-adored on-screen couples in the Bhojpuri film industry, have also released their Holi-special song on the occasion. 'Rang Dalba T Dehab Hajar Gaari' is unmissable. Another song of Aamrapali, titled 'Saali Se Rangwa Laiha Ho' is highly-awaited. As Holi is just a few days away, the Bhojpuri industry is buzzing with songs dedicated to celebrate the festival and tracks by popular stars are now ruling the chartbusters. CALIFORNIA A wildfire that firefighters are calling the Baker Fire, is burning through heavy brush in the Tahoe National Forest, its burned 30-acres North of Bullards Bar Reservoir, near Camptonville. So far, the fire is 5% contained, and the fire has moderated within the last hour around 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Forest Service. RELATED: Action News Now's Fire Watch Responding firefighters are managing the Baker Fire using suppression tactics and are constructing a containment line utilizing personnel and heavy equipment, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause of the Baker Fire is still under investigation. Click here to read the full article. Francois Truffaut was a revered member of the French New Wave, but few people know about the filmmakers longtime friend and colleague, Helen Scott. Serge Toubiana, the president of Unifrance and the former director of the Cinematheque Francaise, aims to change that with his new book. The American Friend, which will be published by Albertine Books in March 2020, tracks the life of Scott in New York and Paris as the writer and translator played a key role in Truffauts career. At one point, that included her insistence that Truffaut direct Bonnie and Clyde at the height of his popularity. While Arthur Penn eventually directed the seminal 1967 film, the history of Truffauts involvement in the project is retold in this exclusive excerpt entitled The Bonnie and Clyde Hypothesis from Toubianas book, translated into English for IndieWire. More from IndieWire Helen Scott was given the film treatment for Bonnie and Clyde by Eleanor Wright-Jones, at 33 a talented young woman who had been working as an assistant to Lewis Allen for three years. She read scripts and encouraged authors to write them. She also helped choose actors for the films her boss produced. Helen was captivated by the real-life tale of a couple of young criminals, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, famous for their numerous exploits in the 1930s. The screenplay is clearly perfect for you!, she wrote in a letter to Truffaut. She drafted a three-page memo setting out the adventures of this legendary pair, sometimes in crude detail. Clyde approaches Bonnie, whos a pretty girl, and sweet talks her, boasts that hes just out of prison, invites her to go for a ride in his car. On the journey he commits a small burglary with such ease that not only is the girl able to play a part but she is aroused. They find a quiet spot in the countryside and make love. The girl, supremely passionate, is the aggressor. A few minutes later we see them in the car and he seems miserable and humiliated while she is irritable and obviously disappointed. Nonetheless, hes a smooth talker and we understand that his years in prison have left a trace of homosexuality. Having decided to seduce this woman, he succeeds by making her realize that anyone can sleep with her but only he can give her an exciting life and make her a star. Story continues Helen described Bonnie and Clyde to Truffaut as though it were a twin film to Breathless or something close to it. She anticipated Truffauts response: My first reaction was that its too American to be made by you but the many nuances which lend themselves so well to your talent have changed my mind. She recommended that Madeleine read the screenplay and then have it translated into French. David Newman and Robert Benton were working as editors for Esquire magazine. Eleanor Wright-Jones had encouraged them to write the screenplay for Bonnie and Clyde, and she had held the rights for two years. It was therefore in her interests to move the project forward as quickly as possible and she didnt exactly find the idea of entrusting direction of the film to Francois Truffaut displeasing. Quite the contrary as long as he had full artistic control of the film and she appeared in the credits as associate producer and received a percentage of the films takings. Helen, who was acting as an intermediary between Eleanor Wright-Jones and Truffaut, wanted her role as agent to be taken into account. In particular, if the film had to be handled by a company like United Artists or MGM, I would like to receive payment for my work. Having originally planned to shoot the film on location in Texas to remain true to the exploits of the legendary couple, it was even envisaged that the film be made in France to satisfy Truffaut. It was suggested that Jean-Paul Belmondo play Clyde Barrow. Robert Benton, one of Bonnie and Clydes two scriptwriters who subsequently went on to direct, amongst other things, the well- known Kramer vs. Kramer film, is best placed today to describe this episode which had a significant impact on him professionally-speaking. He got to know Helen when she was working at the French Film Office: My co-scriptwriter and I became friends with her because she let us know in advance about the release of really interesting French films in New York. We were influenced by Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer and Chabrol. When we started writing Bonnie and Clyde with David [Newman], we didnt have the slightest idea how to write a screenplay. We wrote a sort of presentation, a sort of virtual screenplay, without any dialogue. Helen was at a reception and we talked to her about our project. She was sufficiently impressed with what we showed her that she sent it to Truffaut, telling him she loved it. Thanks to her, Truffaut took our project very seriously. As soon as he received the script, Truffaut gave it to Claudine Bouche, his film editor who was completely bilingual. He was busy editing The Soft Skin at the time and Bonnie and Clyde was the least of his concerns. Helen kept pushing, convinced that the screenplay of Bonnie and Clyde, associated with the name of Francois Truffaut, would easily find funding in America. She spoke highly of the kindness of Eleanor Wright-Jones and the two scriptwriters: Working with them will be no problem. They admire you like mad. Truffaut waited to read the French version of the screenplay, which was being translated. He then promised to send a detailed note to the scriptwriters so that they did not develop it in a different direction to the one he wanted, unless Im disappointed when I read it and abandon the project. He had two or three people he trusted read the screenplay: General enthusiasm and encouragement to make the film, he wrote in a letter to Helen. But he wanted to know more about the writers and how they knew Helen. At the same time, another idea had grown in his mind: giving the Bonnie and Clyde project to his friend Godard. Busy editing The Soft Skin, behind with the finishing touches to his book of conversations with Hitchcock, still hoping to start work on Fahrenheit 451 and bogged down with the vagaries of a production out of his control, Truffaut could not make Bonnie and Clyde a priority. In the spring of 1964, he traveled to New York to meet Lewis Allen and try to clarify the situation with regard to Fahrenheit. He also met the two scriptwriters of Bonnie and Clyde. His English was better than my French, remembers Robert Benton, but it was still complicated. With Helen acting as interpreter, he spent two days discussing the script with us, dividing it into units as he put it. We actually kept one of his suggestions in the script. It happened at the Regency Hotel, if I remember correctly. And then he went back to France where he was trying to set up Fahrenheit 451 at the time and there were problems. Then he wrote to tell us that Fahrenheit was going to be made and he didnt want to work on more than one film at once. He had arranged a screening of a wonderful American film, Gun Crazy, because he thought it had the same spirit Bonnie and Clyde should have. Jean-Luc Godard was sitting just in front of us at the screening with a very pretty young lady. Truffaut took a long time to give an answer, something that distressed Helen, especially as a new project was taking shape: an adaptation of The Bride Wore Black, a piece of noir fiction by William Irish. Pushed by her friend to find out Irishs address, Helen investigated: My dear Francisco, I know the name of William Irish very well. I know that he also writes under several other names and didnt expect any problems. In fact, he is rather mystifying. A dozen phone calls to my regular sources have indicated that he does not have an agent, walks about unshaven wearing espadrilles, often changes his address, used to live with his elderly mother until she died, is extremely eccentric and something of an alcoholic. One thing led to another, you know how patient I am, and I eventually found him, in person, using the following name and address: William Irish, Sheraton-Russell Hotel, 37th Street & Park Avenue, New York City. Helen Scott could tell a tale in an admirably succinct fashion. In the face of her friends endless postponements, Helen continued to campaign energetically for Bonnie and Clyde because, she wrote, I have not read The Bride Wore Black but I would rather you tackle a profitable film after The Soft Skin rather than Fahrenheit, which represents a risk. Thats why I approve of The Bride, especially with Jeanne, or Bonnie and Clyde, or any other project which promises to be a popular success. I think this timing issue is very important for your career: whether its Allen or another, Id prefer Fahrenheit be put off until later. It was rare for Helen to interfere in this way with Truffauts choices or priorities, but she was playing her role of adviser to the full, conscious of her friends international career. She resisted the Godard option for Bonnie and Clyde: They are very fond of you. They also know that I like this screenplay a lot but I have always cautioned them, giving them the arguments which would work against this project. She also feared that Band of Outsiders and A Woman Is a Woman, screened simultaneously at the New York Film Festival, are not going to inspire American backers to put up money on the basis of his name. And she immediately asked to Truffaut to write to Eleanor Wright-Jones to tell her of his refusal to commit to directing Bonnie and Clyde. You owe them such honesty, Francois. Truffaut complied and wrote to Eleanor Wright-Jones. Although he found the changes made by Newman and Benton excellent and he continued to think that it was a very good script, unfortunately he had to reply in the negative, reasoning that he wanted Fahrenheit to be the first film I make in America. I took the liberty of having my friend Jean-Luc Godard read it and he too liked the screenplay a lot. He makes many more films than I do because he is very quick at all stages: preparation, filming, finishing touches. I dont know whether you would like him to direct this film. I am convinced that he would be the perfect man for the job. He speaks fluent English and he could make you a sort of American Breathless.His final sentence speaks for itself: I must admit that, of all the screenplays I have refused over the past five years, Bonnie and Clyde is by far the best. Robert Benton remembers meeting Godard with the two producers slated for Bonnie and Clyde: Godard was used to working with European producers and Truffaut thought that our producers worked the European way, i.e. they had found the money and we could go for it. These two young American producers, who were really nice but inexperienced, said to themselves: OK, youve got a script and a director. When youve got both you take a star, you strike a deal with a studio and you move forward. They didnt want to look like they didnt know what they were doing. One of them said to Godard: You do know the film has to be made this summer?; Godard, who actually wanted to make the film in the winter, got up and said: Im talking about cinema and youre telling me about the weather. And he left. That was the end of Truffauts idea of Godard making Bonnie and Clyde. The film, which would go on to be directed by Arthur Penn and star Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was hugely successful when it was released in 1967. Benton and Newman wrote other successful screenplays: There Was a Crooked Man, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz in 1970, Whats Up, Doc, directed by Peter Bogdanovich in 1972, and Superman, directed by Richard Donner in 1978, among others. As for Robert Benton, he directed his first film in 1979, Kramer vs. Kramer, which won no fewer than five Oscars. On Monday 2 December 2019, at just after 11 oclock in the morning, I was walking through Paris on my way to a meeting. On the telephone, Jean Narboni was recalling an amusing incident dating back to January 1968, so 50-odd years ago. It was when Bonnie and Clyde had been released in France. Cahiers du Cinema, for which he was then one of the editors, had published an interview with Arthur Penn by Jean-Louis Comolli, and Andrew S. Labarthe in its December 1967 issue. Arthur Penn had casually stated as follows: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway didnt get on at all. They were very angry with one another. He and I got on very well but I was quite protective, even paternalistic, towards my actress. I told her: Look at Clyde over in the direction where Warren was supposed to be. But at the last minute, I moved Warren out of the way and took his place. It worked so well that she had a very tender expression on her face, very sweet. And I kept that expression even though she moved slightly in surprise, which broke the shot. I kept it because I wanted it and Id been looking for it. These words, like the rest of the interview, were actually translated from English into French by Helen Scott. Shortly afterwards, Beatty was in Paris to promote the film, which he had also produced. He was absolutely furious when he read the interview in Cahiers du Cinema. One morning, at about 9 a.m., Jean Narboni was alone at the magazines offices, then located at the premises of the Filipacchi Group. He was very surprised to see Beatty arrive accompanied by Scott. She didnt say a word, but let the actor talk with great passion. He was angry to have read such things in an magazine that was supposed to love cinema but which, in his words, was printing gossip worthy of a the worst kind of tabloid. He did not believe Penn could ever have said anything so far from the truth. As luck would have it, Jean Narboni found the tape of this interview with Penn on a shelf. But, although he looked everywhere, he could not find a tape recorder to listen to it again in front of his two visitors. The trio left the office and went to find an electronics shop. Beatty, who did not look happy, was immediately spotted in the street and accosted by several young women. They finally found a shop where the sales assistant, recognizing the American actor, welcomed them very warmly and lent them a tape recorder. The tape was played and then came the moment when Penn spoke about the bad blood between the two actors. Beatty was very sad to recognize the voice of his director. He took Narboni in his arms, babbled his apologies and embraced him. He was sorry to have denigrated Cahiers du Cinema. Then he took his wallet out of his pocket and removed a wad of notes, which he held out to Helen Scott. She explained to Narboni with a crooked smile that she had just won a bet with the actor. She knew perfectly well that Cahiers du Cinema was a respectable kind of magazine and would have never permitted itself to put words into the mouth of a director. Beatty had thought the opposite. Hed gambled and lost. Toubiana will be participating in a discussion of his book as part of the Rendezvous With French Cinema series in New York on Sunday, March 8. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. New Delhi, March 4 : A court here on Wednesday convicted seven persons, including expelled BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in a case pertaining to murder of Unnao rape survivor's father.A District Judge Dharmesh Sharma held them guilty under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for offences such as conspiracy, culpable homicide, disappearance of evidence, framing incorrect record and wrongfully restraining a person, and the Arms Act. The court, however, acquitted four persons by according them a "benefit of doubt". "It is apparent that too many persons behind the curtains were supporting, assisting or abetting the gruesome act but then each one cannot be held culpable as per law on mere suspicion," the judge said in the judgement. The case pertains the death of rape survivor's father in custody on April 9, 2018. The woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. The court had, on December 20 last year, sent him to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life" for raping her. In the case pertaining to death of her father, the court on Wednesday observed that Sengar, along with four others, entered into "criminal conspiracy to teach a lesson to victim who dared to raise his head against him". "The sequence of events establish beyond reasonable doubt that under the patronage of kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother, along with foot soldiers assaulted the victim with leg and fist blows and by intermittently hitting him in a piercing manner with the barrel of rifle," the court stated. The judge, while pronouncing the order, observed that Sengar had no intention to kill the rape victim's father. "He (victim) was beaten in a brutal manner that led to his death." The court stated that Police Station in-charge Ashok Singh Bhadauria and another police officer named K.P Singh, who are also convicted in the case, did not intervene or save the victim from the clutches of the assailants. "Police officers should have intervened and tried to save the person," the Judge noted. The accused persons also hatched conspiracy to foist a false case upon victim by planting a country made him and four cartridges, he stated. The court further said that later there was a gross medical negligence and doctors acted like butchers, leading to his death. According to the charge sheet in July 2018, the survivor's father and his co-worker were returning to their village when they asked for lift from Shashi Pratap Singh. He denied it which then lead to an altercation. Singh then called his associates, including Sengar's brother Atul and others, who beat up the survivor's father. He was taken to jail instead of the hospital even though he was grievously injured and died two days later in police custody. Kuldeep Sengar was in touch the whole time with the district police chief and Makhi police station incharge Bhadauria. He later also talked to the doctor who examined the father. The matter came to light after a video clip showing Atul Sengar beating the father went viral on the social media. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court's directions in August last year. Kuldeep Singh Sengar was recently disqualified from the membership of the UP assembly, following his conviction in the rape case. Britain`s 19th-century parliamentary palace and its hundreds of grand offices and wood-panelled meeting rooms are ill-equipped to deal with the global outbreak of coronavirus, according to some worried lawmakers working inside the building. The government is hoping to contain the spread of the virus, but expects the number of infections to rise from 85 currently. On Tuesday it published an action plan setting out how to cope if it becomes widespread in the country. Prime Minister Boris Johnson`s current advice to citizens is to wash their hands more often. However, several lawmakers expressed concern that the risks inside parliament were greater and that its ageing facilities made following even this basic advice more difficult. "Parliament seems hopelessly ill prepared," lawmaker Chris Bryant told Reuters. "There are toilets where the towels ran out days ago, toilets with no soap or sanitiser, one mens toilet where one of the two sinks has not worked for a decade." The grandeur of parliament`s ornate debating chamber, lined with lush green leather benches, masks a wider estate struggling to cope with the demands of the thousands of employees who work there every day - from lawmakers and researchers to journalists, cooks and cleaners. While the estate awaits a multi-billion pound renovation, toilets are frequently out of order, heating in offices can be temperamental and many doors in the oldest part of the building can only be opened by pressing a button or twisting a metal door knob. Reuters saw a member of staff wearing rubber gloves cleaning door handles on Wednesday. CONTAINMENT PHASE Johnson, was asked by a lawmaker in parliament on Wednesday whether parliament was considering introducing conference calls and electronic voting if the situation worsened. "We are still at the containment stage ... when we come to the `delay` phase she will be hearing a lot more detail about what we propose to do with large gatherings and places such as parliament," he replied. A parliament spokeswoman said they would continue to follow guidance from Public Health England and were monitoring the situation closely. While some hand-sanitiser points have been installed, lawmaker Geraint Davies said he was concerned that there were insufficient places where the gel could be obtained. "There`s lots of people walking through the corridors all the time, touching the same doors and shaking hands - there should be hand-sanitisers all along those corridors," he said. "The nature of parliamentarians is that we arrive every week, converging from every corner of the country, we all mix together with lots of other people and then we disperse back to our constituencies and meet lots of other people. "There`s a particular responsibility for parliamentarians to take some leadership." Virginia Tech entomologist Muni Muniappan has warned of Tuta absoluta's likely arrival into the United States since he began monitoring the pest's spread throughout Africa in 2012. Thanks to a joint grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Muniappan's team and collaborators will be able to model the pest's entry into the United States -- protecting the country's billion-dollar tomato industry -- before irreparable damage is caused. Tuta absoluta is a tomato pest native to South America. If left unmitigated, it has the potential to destroy 100 percent of tomato crops. In 2016, the pest caused a "tomato emergency" in such countries as Nigeria, where tomatoes are a lifeline for many smallholder farmers. With the U.S. as one of the world's leaders in tomato production, the pest's impact would be severe if nothing is done to stop it. The USDA's Food and Agriculture Cyberinformatics Tools Initiative awarded the University of Virginia's Biocomplexity Institute and Virginia Tech the four-year, $500,000 grant to project the pest's movement and rate of spread into the U.S. The model, to be developed by the Biocomplexity Institute, will map the spread of invasive species over time, accounting for factors such as climate, biology, and demographic information. Virginia Tech's Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management laid the groundwork for the grant, having modeled the pest's spread in South Asia and determined that tomato fruit and seedling shipments are how it spreads. "The Tuta monitoring and modeling work we've done in the developing world has cultivated major value back to the United States," said Muniappan, director of the IPM Innovation Lab. "Projecting the spread helps us determine targeted management options, which will contribute to reduced economic loss." There is no comprehensive eradication method for Tuta, so early detection is key to getting ahead of its scourge. With globalization on the rise, the spread of invasive species, and the subsequent loss of native species, is rampant. Muniappan and the IPM Innovation Lab sounded the first alerts of Tuta reaching Senegal in 2012, which led the team to conduct numerous awareness and management workshops throughout both Africa and Asia. The program warns against reliance on pesticides to keep Tuta at bay, as the pest has developed resistance to many chemicals. Before the pest reaches the U.S., the teams will have modeled where it is headed and how fast it will move. By that time, the collaborative teams will already have traps and additional ecological solutions in place to curb the spread and protect the vital tomato industry. "Our model forecasted that if left unmitigated, Tuta will invade all major vegetable growing areas of mainland Southeast Asia within five to seven years," said Abhijin Adiga, research assistant professor at the Biocomplexity Institute. "By predicting where in the U.S. the pest will reach first, we can similarly assess the capabilities of the area to combat the pest and intervene accordingly." ### The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management is housed at the Center for International Research, Education, and Development, part of Outreach and International Affairs. Crete police said they had, during the course of the investigation into the break-ins, recovered evidence linking Stokes to the burglaries and that they had been working with the Chicago Police Departments gang enforcement unit. Bradley Cooper and his ex-girlfriend Irina Shayk appear to be on amicable terms as they navigate co-parenting their daughter. The 45-year-old actor was spotted out with his two-year-old on Wednesday in New York as he went for a workout. A day prior, the Philadelphia native reportedly lunched with his ex and Lea at Pier59 Studios, according to Page Six. Out and about: Bradley Cooper was spotted out with his two-year-old daughter Lea on Wendesday and a day prior Cooper reportedly had a family lunch the toddler and her mom, his ex Irina Shayk Cooper strolled through the West Village with Lea happily perched on his broad shoulders as he headed to the gym. The A Star is Born director carried a reusable thermos and Lea's lunch box in one hand while keeping hold of the pig-tailed toddlers legs in the other. He was heading to the gym in a pair of sneakers, workout pants and a blue jacket. After his sweat session, Cooper was seen strolling home sans his daughter, looking casual with tousled hair and sunglasses. Dad on the town: Cooper strolled through the West Village with Lea happily perched on his broad shoulders as he headed to the gym holding a reusable thermos and Lea's lunch box Co-parenting: On Tuesday, he and his model ex were spotted dining together with their little girl, according to Page Six Later on, Cooper changed into a sweater and slacks and was spotted out again with Lea. This time the toddler was traveling on her sweet little pink scooter, a favorite, alongside her attentive dad. Lea smiled as she rode with her helmet on and wearing a cute dress under her puffer coat. At some point, the Hollywood director ditched the scooter and was seen holding his daughter's hand as they safely crossed a busy intersection. Hot wheels! Later on, Cooper was spotted again with Lea who traveled on her sweet little pink scooter alongside her attentive dad Costume change: Cooper ditched his gym clothes and =changed into a sweater and slacks with a pair of trainers Father knows best: At some point, the Hollywood director ditched the scooter and was seen holding his daughter's hand as they safely crossed a busy intersection On Tuesday, he and his model ex were spotted dining together with their little girl, just a few months after they split up. 'It looked like they were joining [lingerie model Shayk] at work because there was a Victoria's Secret shoot,' a source told Page Six. 'They seemed very happy.' The insider added: '[Irina] was cooing what sounded like her native tongue.' The 34-year-old catwalker was born in Yemanzhelinsk, Russia. Cooper and Shayk dated for four years prior to their split last year which came after months of speculation that he was having a tryst with his A Star is Born co-star Lady Gaga. 'It looked like they were joining [lingerie model Shayk] at work because there was a Victoria's Secret shoot,' a source told Page Six. 'They seemed very happy.' (Pictured before they split in 2018) However, both Cooper and Gaga long denied that there was anything romantic between them off screen. A source told Page Six that, at this point, Bradley and Irina have moved to a 'friends' stage post-breakup. 'They're co-parenting and very much there for each other and their child.' the source said. In January, the Victoria's Secret model gave an uncharacteristically candid interview with British Vogue about her life in the wake of her relationship ending. Rumor has it: Cooper and Shayk dated for four years prior to their split last year which came after months of speculation that he was having a tryst with his A Star is Born co-star Lady Gaga - both stars denied that they were romantic off-screen 'I think in all good relationships you bring your best and your worst its just the nature of a human being. Two great people dont have to make a good couple,' she said. 'I think weve been very lucky to experience what we had with each other. Life without B is new ground.' On her newfound single parenthood she added: 'Its hard to find a balance between being a single mom and being a working woman and provider. Trust me, there are days I wake up and Im like, "Oh my god, I dont know what to do, Im falling apart."' UN website Wellington/Xinhua/UNI: New Zealand on Wednesday confirmed the second case of COVID-19, which involved a woman who returned from Italy after the country's first case was confirmed last week. After returning to Auckland from northern Italy last week, a woman in her 30s has tested positive for the new virus. She is currently quarantined at home, along with her family. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand is well prepared to deal with the epidemic and has a plan in place. The second confirmed case showed that some people with the virus have only displayed mild to moderate symptoms so the patient has not been hospitalized as yet, Ardern said. Medical workers are tracing those who have had close contact with the second person, including passengers on board Air New Zealand flight NZ0283, from Singapore to Auckland on February 25, and two domestic flights which traveled between Auckland and Palmerston North on March 2. The Department of Health and Human Services clarified Wednesday that the United States has about 1%, not 10%, of the required respirator masks that would be needed for medical professionals if the COVID-19 outbreak were to erupt into a pandemic here. The agency said its pandemic planning assumptions estimate the U.S. health-care system will need up to 3.5 billion N95 respirator masks over a year. The Strategic National Stockpile, the nation's emergency stockpile of drugs and medical supplies, currently holds approximately 12 million medical-grade N95 respirator masks and 30 million surgical face masks, according to an HHS spokesperson. That's a small fraction of the number of masks needed in a pandemic scenario. So-called N95 masks are preferred by medical professionals because they filter out about 95% of all liquid or airborne particles. Health and Human Services official Dr. Robert Kadlec apparently misspoke while testifying Tuesday before the Senate health committee, repeating Republican Sen. Mitt Romney's incorrect math when he asked Kadlec: "What percent of what would be needed by medical professionals if we were to have a full-blown pandemic?" "If it were to be a severe event, we would need 3.5 billion N95 respirator masks. We have about 35 million," Kadlec said. Romney said, "So, about 10%?" "Ten percent, and we're actively working on that," Kadlec said. An HHS spokesperson, when contacted by CNBC after the hearing, confirmed that the U.S. has 42 million N95 and surgical masks in its stockpile and will need roughly 3.5 billion if a pandemic erupts here which comes to about 1.2%. The comment came minutes after World Health Organization officials called on medical supply manufacturers to "urgently increase production" to meet the global demand that is needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak rapidly spreading across the world. "Supplies are rapidly depleting. WHO estimates that, each month, 89 million medical masks will be required for the COVID-19 response, 76 million examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said separately at a news conference at the organization's Geneva headquarters. He said manufacturers need to increase personal protective gear supplies by 40%. House and Senate leaders reached a bipartisan deal Wednesday providing roughly $8.3 billion in emergency funding to help fight the outbreak in the U.S. It sets aside just $1 billion for medical supplies and health-care preparedness, according to a House Democratic aide. The rest of the money is parsed out for research and development, state and local health agencies, foreign aid and small business loans, the aide said, asking not to be identified because the details aren't yet public. "This should not be about politics; this is about doing our job to protect the American people from a potential pandemic," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said in a statement. HHS plans to use some of the money to purchase up to 500 million N95 respirators and face masks over the next 18 months, the spokesperson said. The organization has yet to classify the virus as a pandemic and has maintained that its attention is on containing the spread, although the virus has substantially moved beyond China and has now been found in dozens of countries. The CDC said Wednesday there are at least 129 cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths in the United States. More than 93,400 people across the world have contracted the virus, which has killed at least 3,190 as of Wednesday. Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, told Congress on Tuesday that the outbreak already meets two of the three main criteria under the technical designation. "It is a new virus, and it is capable of person-to-person spread," she said. "If sustained person-to-person spread in the community takes hold outside China, this will increase the likelihood that the WHO will deem it a global pandemic." CNBC's Kevin Breuninger contributed to this article. A stoush over a controversial 300-berth marina development in Mandurah's Estuary has intensified with research into the ownership structure behind the project's proponent revealing ties to China's government. ASX-listed property developer Tian An Australia, which was called Port Bouvard Developments before it was acquired by Hong Kong-listed company Tian An China Investments Company Limited in 2015, has faced staunch community opposition over its plans to dredge a navigation channel as part of the Point Grey development. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie is opposing the development of a 300-berth marina in Mandurah's Estuary. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But the project was stalled when the Shire of Murray refused to issue building approvals, a decision upheld last year by the State Appeals Tribunal after the company appealed. Research by international corporate analysis firm Bureau van Dijk revealed the People's Republic of China controlled a significant stake in Tian An China through a complex network of intermediaries and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in part through the multi-billion dollar, state-owned multinational Everbright Group. The leader of the Shincheonji religious group at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea has been recognized as a man of national merit for his participation in the 1950-53 Korean War, the veterans affairs ministry said Wednesday. Lee Man-hee, founder and leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, has come under intensive public fire after a number of his followers have been confirmed to have the COVID-19 virus, with critics blaming the mass infections on unique worship practices and the secretiveness of the religion. Nearly half of South Korea's total coronavirus patients are related to Shincheonji. As rumors have spread that Lee is a state-recognized war veteran, calls have grown for depriving him of his status as a man of merit. "Lee participated in the war between May 1952 and April 1953 and was registered in 2015 as a Person of National Merit for his service," the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said in a message to reporters. The ministry had refused to confirm the fact, saying that it is personal information. "But Lee agreed today to provide the information to the public," the ministry added. Veterans are entitled to enjoy special treatment such as receiving a pension and being buried at a national cemetery. As of Wednesday, South Korea has reported a total of 5,328 confirmed cases. Of 4,006 cases that occurred in the southeastern city of Daegu, 64.5 percent are linked to Shincheonji, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Lee also underwent a test this week and tested negative for the virus, according to the authorities. (Yonhap) People who experience the loss of a partner face an increased risk of dying from skin cancer, and are less likely to be diagnosed with the malignant disease, according to a study which may lead to new interventions to detect melanoma early. The researchers, including those from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK, assessed whether bereaved individuals had a higher risk of being diagnosed with, or dying from, melanoma than the non-bereaved. In the study, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, they used data from two large population-based studies between 1997 and 2017 in the UK and Denmark. They found that melanoma patients who experienced bereavement had a 17 per cent higher risk of dying from the disease compared with those who were not bereaved. Those who had lost a partner were 12 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with melanoma compared with non-bereaved persons, according to the study. The scientists noted that 620 and 1667 bereaved were diagnosed in the UK and Denmark respectively over the 20 year period, compared with 6430 and 16,166 non-bereaved. While earlier research has suggested a link between various types of stress and progression of melanoma, the scientists said an alternative explanation could be that bereaved people no longer have a close person to help notice skin changes. They said this might delay the detection of a possible abnormal growth on the skin, and therefore diagnosis, until the cancer has progressed to later stages, when it is generally more aggressive and harder to treat. The study noted that the survival rate of melanoma patients is relatively high, depending on what stage the cancer is at detection. Early detection and treatment are crucial for improving survival, the scientists said. "Many factors can influence melanoma survival. Our work suggests that melanoma may take longer to detect in bereaved people, potentially because partners play an important role in spotting early signs of skin cancer," said Angel Wong, lead author of the study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. "Support for recently bereaved people, including showing how to properly check their skin, could be vital for early detection of skin cancer, and thus improved survival," Wong said. The scientists however noted that the study had a few limitations, including the lack of information on some risk factors of melanoma, such as sun exposure, or family history. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A female in the east of the country, who travelled here from northern Italy, has been confirmed as the second case of coronavirus in Ireland. The Department of Health said it was notified yesterday evening of the new case and the process of tracing contacts and notifying those contacts has begun. It did not give any more details. Up to yesterday, 397 people in Ireland had been tested and the results have been negative. The exceptions are the two confirmed cases. The first confirmed case was on Saturday when a male teenager from a school in the east of the country was diagnosed. He had just returned from northern Italy. At a Department of Health press briefing this evening, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said he saw no reason why, as things stood, that the St Patrick's Day festival should not go ahead. He also said the Government was changing advice on non-essential travel to northern Italy. It was now advising against travel to the four affected provinces, previously it was to nine named towns. Anyone travelling to Italy in the next few days is advised to consult the Department of Foreign Affairs' website. Dr Holohan said the expert group was looking at stepping up preparations in acute hospitals and protections for healthcare workers. He said arrangements were now being made for the testing of people in the community to take pressure off the hospitals. He said there will be a senior officials' group meeting of a new Cabinet sub-committee tomorrow. Around 80% of cases of Covid-19 will be a mild to moderate illness, close to 14% have severe disease and around 6% are critical. Generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person, within 1-2 metres, to be considered at-risk or a close contact. I will find you and kill you that was the text message sent after midnight by a 42-year-old man to his ex-partner and yesterday he was remanded in custody for a week for the threatening charge. Garda Chris Daly arrested the accused and brought him before Cork District Court for breaching a safety order by threatening to kill the young woman and putting her in fear. Garda Daly said there was an objection to bail being granted. The accused said he was vexed because he believed his ex-partner was in another relationship. The first text of a threatening nature state, Fuck him for me, c***. The next one said, Night, c***face, I will sort you out for good. By half past midnight the last text arrived, stating, I will find you and kill you. Sergeant Gearoid Davis asked the complainant how she felt after receiving the texts and she replied at an in-camera hearing of Cork District Court where the parties cannot be identified, I was afraid he would find me. Asked to specify how she felt after receiving the third text, she said: I was afraid he would find me and I dont know what he would do. The defendant was called by his solicitor Brian Long to give evidence in his own bail application. How can you convince the court you will not have any further contact with her? He replied, I wont anymore I just want to move on with my life. I can give 100% assurance I wont text, I wont follow her, I wont frighten her in any way anymore. Mr Long asked if he would agree to arrange child access only through third parties and he said he would be happy to do that. Sergeant Gearoid Davis said the texts on the night/early hours of February 26/27 appeared to start in relation to child access but get continually worse. The defendant replied, I got vexed. Sgt Davis asked, What reasonable person could not take that as a threat? The accused replied, I understand totally. I was just vexed. I was annoyed really. What it is, is she is meeting another fella. That is hard to get over. It is not my fault. It is not her fault but it is hard to get over. The sergeant asked, Did you mean it to be a threat? He replied, At the time, yes. But I am not that type of person. I am not. Judge Olann Kelleher said one of the grounds for objecting to bail in the case was concern that he would interfere with a witness. There is a threat to kill. The court has to take it seriously. I will remand him in custody for one week. The charge of breaching the safety order was brought under the Domestic Violence Act. BERKELEY (BCN) A resident of Berkeley who recently returned from travel abroad has tested posted for COVID-19, the city's health officer said Tuesday. The resident, who is the East Bay city's first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, returned to Berkeley on Feb. 23 from one of a growing number of countries with a COVID-19 outbreak, city officials said. Concerned about being exposed through travel, the resident has "largely stayed at home in a voluntary self-imposed quarantine," said Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez. The Berkeley health office is investigating whether the infected person had contact with others. Those who have been "potentially exposed" will be identified, notified and evaluated, officials said. Berkeley City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley on Tuesday proclaimed a local emergency, which allows the city to marshal resources to prepare for additional cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California Department of Public Health are providing guidance on risk exposure and management for the new case, city officials said. "While the risk of infection remains low, the expanded presence of the virus in our community is a reality we should all prepare for," said Hernandez said. Like other jurisdictions, the city is recommending residents wash their hands often with soap and water; stay home when sick; don't touch faces with unwashed hands; and cover coughs with a tissue or your elbow. The city's web page on COVID-19 is at cityofberkeley.info/coronavirus/ . A one-hour Twitter town hall with Dr. Hernandez will be held on Friday at noon. Questions can be tweeted to @CityofBerkeley using the hashtag #BerkCOVID19, or use an online form to submit anonymously. 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